Work Text:
14 Feb AC 213 Monday around 11.15
Duo walked into Heero’s office noting the selection of classical music being played and the fact that his partner is sitting with his head down on his desk.
“Really? Why’re you so goddamned depressed today Ro. It’s Valentine's Day. A day where you get lucky”, the braided former pilot says while walking to Heero’s desk and closes the office door. Hearing no response, he lightly touches Heero’s shoulder and asks, “Yo, you awake? You ok?”
Heero responds with his voice muffled by his arms and desk, “No. I’m lucky if I got 3 hours of sleep. Mio-chan woke me at 3 crying from a bad dream saying a monster was under her bed. I really wish she would just stop listening to Odin. That or he just needs to stop being such a little shit to his sister.” Duo sort of chuckles while sitting on the corner of the desk, “But you have a date tonight.”
Looking up, Heero just stares at him while putting his glasses back on, “So? She only agreed because of that damn posting of yours.” Sitting up, he starts typing in the web address for the dating site Duo had set up the account on. He clears his throat and begins to read, “‘Please help my poor single friend. Ladies! Here are some perks to dating this great example of a man! 1: Look! He’s great with children!’” Heero stops and looks up at Duo, “No shit Sherlock, they’re my kids! Their mother is fucking useless. But I do like the picture you picked out.” Heero points to his monitor to a picture of Heero and the 3 kids, the 4 of them laying on the couch, a small girl with Heero’s hair colour using a marker on his arm, the two boys by his feet laying there. Scrolling down, Heero continues, “‘2: He’s a dad without a dad-bod!’ Duo. What the fuck is this dad-bod you’re talking about?”
Duo starts laughing and pokes at Heero’s thin but toned chest, “Not you!” But within a couple seconds, he stops laughing when he notices his partner in everything glaring up at him. Trying to save himself Duo started stammering, “Oh… You have no idea. Ok so, it’s usually a man who is a bit on the squishy side. Actually babe, just Google it”
Immediately Heero starts quickly typing on the keyboard finding a search result that made sense to him. “Ok, so according to the Google machine, the dad-bod says ‘I go to the gym occasionally, but I also drink heavily on the weekends and enjoy eating eight slices of pizza at a time.’” He looks up at Duo, “You’re right. Not me.” Looks back at the computer monitor to keep reading the posting, “‘3: He’s a Preventers Agent’. Duo… I sit at a damn computer most of the day, read code, answer e-mails, monitor the servers, and answer phone calls from people who probably shouldn’t be using a damn computer OR call me because I’m not their direct fucking supervisor. I haven’t been on a field mission in years when it almost went wrong on my end.”
Right at that moment while they stared at each other, the phone on Heero’s desk rang. Reaching over he picks it up sighing with an audible “uhhhhgh” when he sees the number on the caller ID. Duo takes note of the annoyed tone when Heero answers the phone, “Hello, IT. Have you tried turning it off and on again?” Hearing him say that, Duo bursts out laughing. Heero reaches over while he’s listening to the caller with his right hand and jabs him hard in the thigh, causing Duo to call out, “HEY?!” while Heero just continues with his call.
Heero progressively becomes more annoyed while taking the call, “Seriously? What the hell did you do? Oh… Spilled coffee on it? Why did you… Oh… Just give it to your direct superior. Stop wasting my time. Your supervisor should be the one calling me, not you. Oh… He told you to call me? Why? Really? Because he was too busy to basically do his own job. Ok, great. No, don’t tell him this. No you’re fine, I’m actually above his supervisor, I’ll be speaking to him later on. No you’re not going to get suspended over something this stupid. You’re doing the right thing. Ok, this is what you’ll do so we can at least do it the right way. Do you know the name of his supervisor? Ok good. Go to them, tell them I told you to speak to him and they’ll take it from there. Yes, they’ll make sure to reassign you a new laptop. That’s not my job, they’ll get ahold of someone in the actual IT department.”
Duo just stands there watching him. Heero sets the phone receiver down. Duo starts laughing again, “Really?! You’re quoting IT Crowd?!” [1]
Heero looks up at him, “What?! It fits! Look, basically that poor kid was being told to call me, the guy in charge of network security, to fix his damn computer. This idiot who is this kid’s supervisor doesn’t want to do his damn job and is known to make his agents call me. So, I told the kid to go to his boss’s boss and we’ll go from there… What?”
Attempting to change the subject Duo smiles at him, “Oh! So who is this lucky lady. Is she the blonde, brunette, redhead?” Heero shrugs off and replies, “Jessica. But, I don’t know. She seems a bit eh. We’ve been on three dates and I don’t know.”
“Damn, but she’s hot. You have like some fucking high standards or some shit.”
Heero looks at Duo with this expression of ‘the fuck is wrong with you’, “Just ask your wife what it’s like dating as a single parent.” He starts laughing slightly, “If I have such high standards, explain you in my life.” He then gives Duo this playful grin.
Duo just looks at him, “I married into your family, that’s how.” [2]
Heero stands up and looks right at Duo, placing a hand on his thigh and laughs, “Oh yeah, that’s how. Your poor poor wife has to put up with your shit.” He backs up a little bit and Duo grabs a hold of Heero’s hand to pull him close. Heero looks over at him smiling playfully, “That attention. Focus it on Ayame. Don’t give me that look Duo.” Duo at this point is giving looking at Heero like he wants something. Heero rolls his eyes while saying to Duo in what Duo calls a ‘dad voice’ being used in the manner of being protective of this girl he protected like she was his sister, “You better be taking her somewhere nice and treating her like the Princess she is.”
Duo stood up and gave Heero a quick kiss on the forehead, “You know it! Your aunt seemed to be happy with the idea of having all 5 of the kids tonight. Oh! What the hell am I getting from you?”
“Not flowers, that’s for sure.”
The phone on the desk rings again, Heero not so thrilled to pick it up makes another audible “ugh what now?” comment. He grabs the receiver and answers it, “Yes, Yuy speaking.”
Duo sat in the chair in front of Heero’s desk while Heero took the call and watched as his expression started to look a bit worried/sad. He reaches out and sets one of his hands on Heero’s thinking, Something has to be up with the Little Lady. Heero sets the phone down after finishing with the girl from the daycare centre a bit over a block away from the building. Duo looks up, “Everything ok Ro?”
Shaking his head and standing to go start packing his laptop into his bookbag, “No, Mio-chan got sick during right before they sat them down for their reading session before lunch. So, I’m going to get her and the boys and go home.”
“Wasn’t she just sick with Pneumonia?”
Pulling his coat on and checking to see if he had everything he needed and that his pistol was secure, Heero looked at Duo, “Yeah, we both were. Doctor Lynch said that she was ok to go back to daycare on Friday when I took her. I wonder if this has to do with her not sleeping last night.”
“Maybe? But, I thought I heard Alicia mention she was coughing, which is why I am wondering if this had anything to do with the Pneumonia?”
Heero turned to look at his partner and responded, “Duo, yes she still is coughing from it. I mean I do sometimes because of that shit mucus from it. Which is why you haven’t seen me smoke when we go outside for breaks. But, when she woke up this morning, the congestion sounded normal and she didn’t have a fever. She also didn’t complain other than she was tired. Remember, poor thing woke me at 3, we didn’t get back to sleep till 4.”
Duo sighed and apologetically, “Ok, I’m sorry. I guess that explains why you look so damn tired.”
Heero shrugged when they got to the elevator to wait for it to come so they could go from the 10th floor to the 1st, “Well, that and I just haven’t been sleeping well myself. With her, my coursework, and everything else.”
Duo reached over grabbing Heero’s hand and squeezing it, “Nightmares again?”
“Still. It’s a mixture of that, and everything from last October.” [3] Heero quietly says as they walk onto the elevator.
1st Floor, Preventer’s Office Building Downtown Time: Around 12noon
The two get off the elevator and out the entrance after flashing their badges to the security officer at the desk to go outside in the very frigid mid-February air of downtown Rochester, New York.
Duo looks up at his partner who is checking his phone and looking like he’s sending a text message. While lighting a cigarette, “What’re your plans now ‘Ro?”
They stop at a crosswalk and wait to be able to go across to the building ESUN has set aside for their presence for Upstate New York, and the building next to it which houses the daycare centre the employees, including Preventer sends their kids. Heero shrugged while waiting for the walk light, “Well, obviously I texted her saying that I may have to postpone because Serena is sick. Not sure what else we’ll have to do.”
The two walk to the building and stand by the entrance Heero asks Duo while he’s snuffing out the cigarette, “Wait? Why’re you following me?”
“It’s lunchtime, I wanted to see my little man on my lunch break. Oh wait, you haven’t been in the office for a bit.” Duo holds up his lunch bag in front of Heero’s face.
They walked in, both showed their ID badges to the security at the front desk and once given the all-clear, walked in the direction of the child care centre. The two former pilots walked towards the desk where a girl with black hair pulled back into a bit of a messy bun looked up at both of the men as they walked in. “Oh! Agent Maxwell, DJ has been waiting for you. And Agent Yuy, she finally got to sleep. Did you want me to get Odin and Ernest ready since I’m guessing you’ll just take them home too?”
“Yeah if you can.” Heero responds not looking up as he’s signing the kids out and writing the time he came to get them. “She's?”
“Down the hall, Alicia has her in the nurse’s station.” the girl responds.
Heero turns to Duo, hugs him and says to him in a ‘you better be good to your wife tone, “I better not get a text message from her saying you took her to some stupid pizza place.”
“Really Ro, you think I’m going to take her to fucking Tony’s Birdland or some shit? You know me. I treat her like I treat you.”
Heero pulls away and looks at Duo like Duo admitted he killed a small puppy, “Now that, I did not need a mental image of you doing what you do to me, to my sister.”
“Ro, just go save your daughter. You know your sister is in good hands.” Duo walks off to go find his son, as Heero is walking down the hall the small office that acts as the nurse’s station he hears a boy yelling, “Daddy!” that he recognised as the sound of his nephew as he’s running to Duo.
He gets to the office and walks in. Alicia, a girl around Heero’s age with her blonde hair pulled in a ponytail looked up from her computer when she notices that he’s standing by the doorway. “Oh, I keep forgetting that you’re across the street. But she’s in the back room sleeping. Took a little to get her to sleep.”
“Did she get any medicine?”
Alicia nodded, “Yeah, we gave her some of the cough syrup. She fought it, of course, like any 4 year old. But we got her to take it.” She followed Heero into the back room where a small girl with dark brown hair with a headband on to attempt to keep hair out of her face was sleeping on a bed clutching a stuffed black cat. He knelt down and started to gently move some of the hair from her face.
“Something must have set it off, not sure. But just out of nowhere she started a fit and got sick.”
Heero looked at Alicia, “Sorry, if I knew this would have happened, we would have stayed home again today. She didn’t seem sick today, no fever, just normal congestion. Now she’s feeling warm. Dammit, we just got over this damn Pneumonia.”
“You know as well as I do, kids have crap immune systems. So, it’s fine. Is Julia getting Odin and Ernest ready?”
Heero stood up, felt a tug at his pant leg, and heard a small noise. He looks down and sees her sitting on the bed with her arms up to be picked up. “You know, normally I’d be saying, ‘use your words’. But you get a free pass I guess.” He picked her up and looked over at Alicia, “Yeah. Feel bad about it, but they’re easier to deal with than her right now. As you can tell, she’s quite clingy.”
Alicia chuckled a little, “Yeah, she kept crying for you.”
He looked at Alicia, “Trust me, she fights me over medicine as much as she fights me when I brush her hair. There’s a reason I get it cut short.”
Heero’s home. Time around: 13.30
Heero walks back into the living room after getting the boys down, changing into black pyjama pants and a green tank top, with a cup of coffee and a peanut butter and chocolate chip granola bar in hand. He goes to sit on the couch and sees Serena curled up on the couch with the small calico kitten next to her. He smiles to himself thinking, Just like Midnight, had to be right next to her if I wasn’t around.
He sits down and grabs his phone from the coffee table to finally go through his messages while he eats part of the granola bar.
From Jessica (12.45): Oh, ok… I guess that’s fine. But can’t someone watch her?
From Maxwell, Duo (12.47): Hey, you get home yet? How’s the little lady? Bet she’s clinging to you.
From Maxwell, Duo (13.00): Guessing you may not have your phone or she’s taking your time. Give her a hug from her fave uncle.
From Jessica (13.07): Oh, so no response… I see how it is.
Heero almost spits out some coffee at that message. Hits reply and starts texting quickly.
(13.44): Look, sorry but I kind of needed to get the kids. And as far as someone watching her. IF we did anything, my aunt has both my boys, my nephew who is also 4, and my 8-year-old niece. So her hands will be full. Can’t expect her to watch Serena too. Especially since she’s sick and when she’s sick, she only responds to me.
Jessica (13.45): Oh well, I’m not sure if it’s even worth postponing. Considering how it looks
(13.46): Really? You realise if you even try to make me choose between you and any of my kids, you lose.
Jessica (13.46): Didn’t think that was a thing. And I’m not making you choose. It’s not something to get defensive over.
Heero looks at his phone and says under his breath, “Oh… You wanna play this game?” and starts texting a response back to her.
(13.51): Actually, it does seem like that. And yes, I’m sticking by this. You knew in the beginning that I take my role as a dad seriously.
Jessica (13.53): I don’t think this’ll work out.
(13.55): Really? Takes you 4 dates to realise this?
Jessica (13.58): Well, I’ve been going “maybe this will work out” But I don’t think I have the patience anymore.
Heero looks at his phone saying to himself, “Patience? Try raising 3 tiny versions of yourself”
(14.01): Patience? Again, you knew this would be the case. I told you day 1 to expect last minute cancellations because I’m a single father and the mom isn’t in the picture.
Jessica (14.03): Oh I knew, but I thought more of an effort would have been made to try.
(14.05): Really? I’m sorry that I’m not like most of the guys you usually date who would dump their responsibilities for the chance to get fucked.
Heero sets his phone down to grab his coffee again and notices it vibrating again and sees a message pop up from Maxwell, Duo.
Maxwell, Duo (14.07): Hey babe, you get home yet?
(14.09): Yeah, miochan is sleeping. And I have no plans tonight. Guess Aunt Maria just gets the two from your house.
Maxwell, Duo (14.10): You let her know yet?
(14.11): No. Been playing damage control and saying ‘It’s not going to work’ to a selfish girl.
Maxwell, Duo (14.12): Oh no… She’s pulling the ‘But pay attention to me or I deny your access to my goods’ trick?
(14.19): Pretty much. So consider yourself lucky. You are at this moment the only one who has access to what’s in my pants.
Maxwell, Duo (14.20): Welp, i’m one lucky bastard then. Her loss.
Another message pops up from Jessica while he’s reading the last message from Duo, “Oh jeeze, what now.”
Jessica (14.21): sooo, I don’t think we’re gonna work.
(14.22): Ok. That’s fine.
Jessica (14.24): Really? That’s it? Of course. No effort.
(14.27): Hey, you made me choose between my daughter who is sick, or you. If you were a parent yourself, you’d know the mistake you made there and the fact that you’d lose instantly. Actually, you wouldn’t have made the stupid choice to even make me choose. You would have respected it and said ‘ok, that’s fine’, ‘or hope she’s fine’. But nope you took the immature way out. Sorry, but the little one needs me. Plus I was going to text you not to bother.
Jessica (14.30): Well, you didn't have to be such a douche about it. But don’t bother, I made plans anyway. Too bad. Your loss.
He puts the phone down and laughs quietly saying to himself while his calico cat Callie decides to walk over to climb on his lap, “Ha, my loss? More like her’s. Oh well. I think I got the better end of the deal. She was annoying and I’d rather deal with the sick one.”
Time 15.20
Heero wakes up hearing the door open and the sound of his very energetic nephew running in before his dad. “Hey! Lil man gotta be quiet. Serena’s sick and I’m sure Uncle Heero would like her to keep sleeping, he’s really tired himself.” Duo says to his son.
“Oh! Ok Daddy, I’ll be quieter!” yells his son. Duo just stands there shaking his head, “Really boy.” Duo walked into the living room seeing Heero sitting on the couch half awake with Serena laying on him sleeping.
“Hey Ro! Look who I found!”
Heero looks at him half asleep and says in a tired sounding voice, “Who?”
An older woman with dark blonde hair pulled back in a bun walks over to the couch facing Heero. “Aunt Maria? Why’re you here? I texted you saying that I cancelled my plans tonight because of Serena.”
The older woman looked at him, “Doesn’t mean I can’t take the boys. Your uncle and I were looking forward to at least having the boys around. We love the energy the kids bring to the house. That and this way you can have a quiet night at home with your little one since she’s not feeling too good. I’m sure you’d at least want some quiet.”
“Umm.. up to you I guess”, Heero stood up still keeping hold of the small sleeping child.
Maria looked up at her nephew smiling, “I told you, your uncle and I quite enjoy the energy your boys and Duo’s son bring to the house. It gets kind of dull when it’s just Kari when she’s home from college.”
Heero shifted Serena a bit in his hold till she was not choking him and looked at the cable box on the table the tv was on seeing it was showing 15:30 for the time. “Well, the boys should be waking up. Actually they need to, has been 2 hours. I did pack their overnight bag last night when I was getting them ready for bed.”
He feels the child he’s holding move a little bit and hears her quietly say, “But daddy, I don’t want to go. I don’t feel good.” Heero, while walking upstairs following his aunt says to her, “You are staying home with me. Your brothers are the ones leaving.”
Duo while following behind reassures her, “Yeah little lady! You’re staying home tonight with your dad all to yourself!”
Only response Duo ends up getting from his niece is her looking right at him with the same eyes he gets glared at on an almost daily basis, then she just goes and rests her head back on her father’s shoulder.
Duo from behind, “Hey Ro… You realise every fucking day your mini-me becomes more like you.”
Heero looks back at Duo once he gets to his sons’ room, “Yeah… don’t remind me please.”
At that moment, two boys walk out of the bedroom with Maria following them with their overnight bag. Both don’t look too amused while they’re rubbing the sleep out of their eyes. “Daddy, why are we going but not her?” asks the blond child with the blue-green eyes.
Heero looks down at Ernest and starts to try to get Serena off of him so he can kneel closer to his son’s height. Of course, Serena is clutching onto Heero’s tanktop in an attempt to not let go. Looking at Ernest he sighs and says, “Your sister is sick, and Aunt Maria offered to take you guys so you can still have fun with your cousin. That and this way your sister can feel better faster.”
Still feeling the girl tugging at his shirt he looks over to her on his right, “Hey, why don’t you go to Uncle Duo. I just need to get your brothers all set to go ok? Then we can do something.” He looks behind him to Duo standing there not paying attention until Heero reaches over and jabs him in the knee.
Duo looks over, “What?!” Heero just motions his head over to the girl. Duo catches what he’s doing and looks at his niece, “Come on little lady. Let’s give daddy some space to get your brothers ready to go. Then you get him all to yourself and you don’t have to share him. Lucky you.” The response he gets from her is just her standing there with her arms up expecting him to pick her up.
15.55
Duo sat at the living room table on the floor with a few colouring books around colouring with his niece. He looks up when he hears Heero walk into the living room saying, “About time they left.”
“So, what’s the plan since your plans fell through Ro?”
Heero looked over at him and shrugged, “Eh, maybe soup. I think I should thaw some out. That’s really as far as I got with that idea.”
Duo stood up and walked over to him, “That’s it? Leftover veg soup and cartoons?”
“I don’t know. Maybe a blanket fort and cocoa if she’s up for it”
Duo laughed, “Ok, the blanket fort idea is a great idea. But no really. It’s Valentine’s day. Chocolate! All the chocolate!”
“Yeah, but I’m home with my sick daughter.”
“Ro… What do you normally do for her when she’s sick?” Duo asked his partner with a hand on his shoulder.
Heero’s expression went from confused to realising what Duo meant, “OH! I think I know what you’re getting at. Can you do me a favour and stay here with Serena while I stop off at Wegmans?” [4]
Heero starts walking towards the door by the garage and starts putting his coat on. Duo following him, “Um sure, but why? It’s like the end of the world out there right now.”
After zipping up his jacket, he sits down and starts tying his black boots, “Please, just watch her. I’ll be home before Ayame gets home. Oh! Can you also do me a favour? Can you put a container of the soup I made a couple of weeks ago into a pot with water in it to thaw?”
Duo looks down at Heero and gives him a playful smirk, “Ok, in the container or out?”
Heero stands up after finishing with his boots and gives Duo the ‘Neutral face of displeasure’ look, “You’re kidding? No wait, yes I want you to fucking water down the damn soup I slaved an entire Sunday to make.”
“No need to be sassy Ro. Remember, that little lady in the living room is practically attached to you. We don’t need her picking up your sass.”
Heero playfully pulling Duo to him just smiles, “I will deal with that if it happens. Right now, I’m having fun with her and her brothers being small.”
“IF?! The girl is your fucking mini-me!” Duo says with the expression of ‘dear god help me.'
At that moment, both of them look in the direction of the living room when they both her Serena call out, “Daddy! I’m thirsty”. Resulting in Heero, quickly running out of the house with a quick, “Gottverdammt!” coming out of his mouth before he has to start the process of prying a very clingy and sick child off of him so he can just leave for a few seconds.
Duo just stands at the door and looks out the front window seeing him backing out of the driveway speeding down the street. “One day, that man is gonna hit a dammed tree trying to get out of here fast enough.” He feels a tug at his pant leg and looks down to see his niece standing there in her Hello Kitty pyjamas looking at him. “No worries little lady, he’ll be back. He needed to get something from the store.” Bending over he picks up the toddler and then has a moment’s thought of,“ The fuck did Ro want me to do again?” He feels his phone go off in his pants pocket and takes it out.
From Ro (16.00): Hey, take the soup out of the freezer. Keep the soup in the container and put it in a pot with coldish water to thaw.
(16.01): Yes Master.
Ro (16.01): 😒
(16.03): No worries, you can trust me.
Ro (16.05): Thanks. And can you give miochan something to drink. The Pedialyte should be in the fridge. And grab one of the cups with a lid on it. Don’t want to have to clean anything. And thanks. I’ll make it up to you soon 😉
16.23 Wegmans Ridge Road West. [5]
Heero pulls into the parking lot and to himself at this time, he just thinks that this is just like any normal Monday afternoon crowd for about 4.30 in the afternoon. He mumbles to himself, “Eh, this may not be too bad.” as he locks the door to his black 211 Ford Focus, and walks towards the grocery store entrance. As soon as he walks in he gets crowded by all of these men who are on their way home from work buying last-minute Valentine’s day gifts for their wives. He gets pushed by a bunch of men about 10 years his senior as they rush past him to the floral department by the entrance. “Mita vittua!” [6] he exclaimed right as he almost gets knocked into another guy around his age.
As this happens he hears his name being called by a familiar voice. He looks up and sees a man slightly taller than him, messy-ish dark blond hair with greenish eyes, wearing black jeans and an Amon Amarth shirt. With him, he has a girl around his kids’ age with similar blonde hair. Heero recognised him and went right to him. Sounding a bit confused he looks over at his friend, “Chad? The hell are you doing here?”
Chad looks over at him, “I would be asking you the same damn thing. Aren’t you supposed to be at work right now?”
Heero shook his head, “I left the office early today. Mio-chan got sick at the daycare right before lunch so I grabbed her and her brothers.”
“Oh, was going to ask why you’re here in the floral department on Valentine’s day. I thought you had a date or something.”
Heero points behind him at the growing crowd of procrastinating men, “These asshats pushed me in the direction of the floral department. I’m just here to grab a stuffed animal for the child. Well… Chocolate and maybe more Pedialyte.” He looks over at the girl in the cart who is now smiling at Heero, “Let me guess, your father is here because someone forgot to get stuff for your mom for today.”
“HEY! In my defence Heero, I work overnights!”
Heero looked over at his friend with a smirk, “You finish at 5.30a. You what leave work at what? Between 6-8 am? Plenty of time to stop here and not have to grab Kel, then rush here with the crowds.”
Chad jabbed his friend in the arm, “Hey I make mistakes. And yes, I’m getting Mar some things. Though I did have flowers sent to her office this morning so she’s all set there. Just forgot to grab chocolate. Wait? So you’re grabbing stuff for Serena? Why?”
“What? Don’t you do anything for Kelsie when she’s sick or even for Valentine’s day?”
Chad looked at Heero dumbfounded, “Well, that’s what Marlee does. I just do the whole, ‘get my wife shit in hopes of actually getting some action tonight’ thing.”
Heero’s house, same time
Duo stood at the freezer in the kitchen looking for the containers Heero mentioned he had with leftover soup. Finally finds one that reads in what Duo considers, very messy and quickly written out, ‘Veg soup w/ veg broth 31 Jan ‘13’ written in sharpie. Duo grabs one of the pots from under the stove and puts it in the sink to fill with water and puts the closed container into the pot while it fills with water.
“Uncle Duo, where did daddy go? And I’m still thirsty.”
Duo looked down at the small child he usually jokingly calls Heero’s mini-me, “Wegmans. Probably fighting with men who waited till they got out of work to get stuff for the important women in their lives. All so he can get some stuff he needed for you and here.”
She climbs up onto a chair at the kitchen table looking up at her uncle, “But, daddy isn’t going out with anyone. He’s staying home.”
Turning the faucet off, he looks over at his niece who is now staring at him for an answer. He just shrugs replying, “Yeah, and?”
“Uncle Duo, he doesn’t have someone he would get stuff and spend this day with.”
Duo walks over to the fridge and grabs one of the bottles of Pedialyte kept in the fridge and starts pouring it in one of the cups for her. “Yes he does little lady.”
Serena takes the cup Duo hands her when he comes over with it for her and shakes her head, “No he doesn’t Uncle Duo. He had to stay home with me and can’t go do stuff with the lady like he said he would.”
Duo walks back and puts the bottle back in the fridge, “No little lady. I’m talking about you. You are the important woman in his life. Well... girl. But still, same point.”
“What do you mean by that Uncle Duo?” asks the very inquisitive girl.
Duo sat down at the table across from her, “Ok… How do I explain this in a way you’d understand? Look, you’ll understand it more when you get older. But your dad is very protective over you, and… well.” He pauses for a couple of breaths. “Ok. Ugh! Why is this so hard to freaking explain!?”
Serena just stares at him confused, then she looks up when a woman with hair dyed shades of purple walked in. Duo looks over and sees his wife, “Ok! Babe, can you do me a huuuuge favour! You know your brother well. How can you explain to a 4-year-old why she’s the most important lady in her dad’s life?”
Ayame looked at him like he just asked her to cut his braid off, “Umm… You think you would be the one who could explain that best. You know him better than I do. I mean you guys are partners in basically every part of your lives. I’m just the girl his parents raised and I only met him like 10 years ago.”
Duo gave his wife a surprised expression, “Well, I thought you would know because you’re a daughter and have a father!”
Ayame snorted and laughed, “Oh my God! Suvi is Daddy’s little girl like Serena is to Heero. I’m like Heero, a fucking disappointment to his father.”
“Oh,” Duo said feeling kind of more confused in how he’d explain to his niece her position in his partner’s life. He then looked up with one of those ‘EUREKA’ moments, “OK! I think I got it. Little lady, you made your dad cry.”
“Really Duo?! That’s the best you can come up with?!” his wife exclaimed to him.
“What?!” He looks over at his niece who is now even more confused. “Ok, so your dad is one of those guys who had a hard life growing up and always seemed sad all the time. Like nothing went the way he wanted. You make him happy. Well.. so do your brothers. DAMMIT.”
Ayame walks back to the kitchen table with a cup of water and sits down, “Ok, so I’m going to quote Heero on this one because apparently his own partner doesn’t even know what to say considering he’s known your dad for a lot longer than I have.” She looks over at her niece, “Ok, so like what your uncle said, he didn’t have a very easy life growing up, and was really told to keep his emotions inside. You let him be himself.”
Duo, under his breath, “Yeah cause he’s not 100% some emotionless prick.” Ayame reaches over and playfully pokes at Duo’s arm, “CHILD!” She looks back over at Serena, “Better explanation, he’s more open with you. Yes, he loves your brothers, but he has a different relationship with them.”
The small girl jumped off her chair and with her cup, just walked off and started to go up the stairs. While muttering to herself something along the lines of, “ok, going to go do something else.” Ayame looked over at her husband a bit confused. Duo shrugged with a reply of, “She is her father’s daughter. Just gets up when he’s done listening to us.”
“You think she understood anything we said?” Ayame asks as she got up to walk towards the hallway to go upstairs.
“Probably not. She is only 4, I think she gets it that she’s important to him, but just not exactly how. She’ll get it when she’s older and if he gets to the point of explaining a bit more.”
Ayame stopped walking and turned to face her husband, “You think he’ll ever tell her that?”
Duo looked at his wife, then sighed, “You know, he may. You did say he’s more open with her, so maybe he might. Be useful in knowing that he protects her as much as he does because of that little girl and her dog.”
At that Ayame turned to go upstairs. Duo looks over at her asking, “What’re you planning on doing? You seem like you have an idea.”
Ayame looked over, “I may have an idea.”
17.15
Sitting on the couch in the living room, Duo watched as his niece now wearing this dark green dress with a green hair bow in her hair run around the living room trying to pet Callie.
“Wait, so that was your idea? Dress our niece in one of her dresses?” Duo asked his wife as she sat down on the couch.
“Yeah, I thought it’d be cute. I mean, look at her. The green of her dress goes with her hair.”
“He’s wearing fuckin black running pants and a tank top. He changed out of his work pants hours ago. It’s at home Heero time. Normal pants are optional… Though honestly before the kids, clothes were fucking optional.” Duo got up to stop Serena from sliding into the kitchen because of the hardwood floors being slippery at that moment.
“Please don’t remind me of this! I’d come over and almost trip over a pile of both of your clothes at the door because the second you two walked in that damn flat, your clothes were off.” pleaded Ayame.
Duo walked back in with Serena following him, “Honestly, your brother was undoing his damn belt the second we would get to the damn door.” Duo nearly falls over as Serena runs past him almost knocking him down when she hears the garage door open. Wanting to see what the interruption was, Duo walked in the hall as she ran down the hall right to Heero as he walked in, set the bags down, got down on his knees once he had noticed she was running towards him so he would be able to hug her easier. Heero looks up at Duo and back at Serena, “Why’re you in a dress and not your pyjamas?”
Ayame walked in as he stood up with the child in is arms, “I thought it’d be cute for her to be dressed in something pretty. Till Duo reminded me of how you normally dress when you don’t have to be in public.”
“Eh, that’s fine. I’ll probably leave her in this till after dinner.” Heero said as he grabbed one of the reusable shopping bags full of things from the store and walked into the kitchen. Duo followed with the rest. “Dude! Where’s the chocolate?!”
Heero looked over at him after setting Serena on the counter so she could sit and watch her father put groceries away. “I’m not buying full price chocolate. The two of us will go to the stores tomorrow morning.”
Duo stood there holding the carton of unsweetened almond milk giving Heero a weird look of confusion before putting it in the fridge, “But, you like chocolate. So I’m surprised you didn’t get any tonight.”
Heero pointed to the bag on the counter by Serena, “The ice cream is chocolate in there.”
“Not enough. And also, the fuck took you so damn long? You said you’d be home before Ayame got home!”
“Oh! I’m sorry I got pushed around by men older than me trying to rush past me to get flowers for their wives because they didn’t think to either 1, order them to be delivered to their offices, or 2 not wait till 430 in the afternoon. Not my damn fault they’re in the process of trying to appease their wives and not come home looking like a loser because they simply ‘forgot it’s Valentine’s Day.’ This whole fucking holiday is a sham” Heero responded without looking up as he grabbed the pint of chocolate peanut butter ice cream made with almond milk from Duo and put it in the freezer. He looks over at the small child on the counter, “Do not repeat what I said.”
She looked up at him confused, “Why not daddy?”
Duo starts laughing, “Because those are words cute little girls like you shouldn’t be saying.”
Heero looked at Duo, “Don’t you have a date with my sister in the next 50 minutes? So, if I were you, I’d stop worrying about the amount of sweets in my grocery bags and would go home and start getting ready to spend the evening with my wife.”
“I’m all ready, I told her I’ll be home in time.”
Heero shrugged as he dug through one of the bags and shoved it aside making sure Serena didn’t see it, then looked up at Duo, “Not my problem if my sister gets pissed at you for being late because you decided to waste your time.”
“Fine, be that way. Just don’t do anything stupid while I’m not home.” Duo walked past Heero to go towards the door to leave. Heero set Serena down off of the counter and motioned for her to go to the living room, then followed Duo to the doorway.
“What do you mean ‘don’t do anything stupid’? What the hell can I do that’s stupid while I’m stuck home, with a sick child, watching cartoons in a blanket fort, after eating leftover soup?!”
Duo looked back after putting his coat and shoes on, “Seriously? You’re Heero Yuy. There’s an explosion in the distance and I’m sure you’re responsible for it.”
Heero starts pushing Duo closer to the front door while opening it to suggest he leaves. Duo looked at him, “The hell, you in some hurry? Not like you have a hot date or anything.”
While opening the front door he shoves Duo outside, “No I don’t, you do. I though, have a child in the living room who is still a little sick and we’re getting close to dinner time and she’s going to start bitching at me and becoming a hangry little monster. And that sir, I would like to avoid.” Right before Duo even has a chance to respond, Heero makes a final push to get Duo out into the cold February air, closes, and locks the front door.
Duo stares at the door, “Well, have a good night to you as well Ro.”
Heero turns from the front door walking back into the living room, stopping off in the kitchen to grab the bag he had set aside, a cup with coffee for himself, and her cup that she had left in the kitchen.
“So! What do you want first? Dinner? Ice cream, blanket fort?”
Serena jumped off the couch and ran to Heero throwing her arms around his leg, “Ice cream!”
He bent over and picked her up kissing her head, “Ok, but no ice cream yet you need dinner first” She looked at him sadly with a look of a daughter thinking she can get her way with her daddy. “Yeah, no. Not winning, I need you to eat an actual meal, so you get some soup I made a couple of weeks ago. Buuut, you can get this first." Smiling a bit to her, he reaches down still holding her to grab a stuffed calico cat from the reusable shopping bag showing it to a now very excited child, who then grabbed it hugging it and him very closely.
22.10
Heero woke up under some pile of blankets realising he had fallen asleep while the two of them had been watching "The Little Mermaid" [7], he looks down at the small child sleeping soundly on his chest nuzzling her head on his shoulder dressed in another pair of Hello Kitty pyjamas. As smoothly and quietly as he can, he gets up, sets Serena down on the couch, turns everything off and puts all of the dishes into the dishwasher allowing himself to be comfortable with the idea of, “this crap can wait till tomorrow.” Once he is sure the house is secure enough, walking back to the living room, he smiles being thankful she stayed asleep during all of that, picks her up and carries her up to her room and into her own bed for the night.
After laying her down and tucking her into her bed, he looks down at the peacefully sleeping child and it hits him like it usually does realising that he actually had the ability to create something so precious as the sleeping girl in the bed snuggling with a couple of stuffed cats. Walking out of the room to go into his room which is next to her's, he remembers he has to start working on some papers he has due later in the week. Despite realising it's going to be a long night of schoolwork, he can't help but smile at the fact that even though all of his plans fell through, that if he doesn't give a crap about celebrating Valentine's day with a girlfriend that isn't worth it, he'd rather spend it with the small girl in the room next to his. That to him is what would be a perfect Valentine's Day.