Work Text:
Beneath: All Those Sounds 1/1
by duointherain
disclaimer: I don’t own Gundam Wing
Notes: The boys are 35. They are married and they live in Seattle. Heero is a physician and a research scientist. Duo is a stay at home dad and a best selling novelist. They have twins who are spending the holiday with their grandmother Maureen and their godmothers, Rey and Precious.
It didn’t take much. Neither of them said anything. The fireworks exploded outside their house, somewhere down by the water, far enough away that it was just a soft little press against the windows, against their souls.
Duo had ten years of sobriety, but there was still a bottle of whiskey tucked behind the books, just in case, mostly for this holiday. It was on his mind. He stirred the spaghetti sauce that they’d been making all day, made from old fashioned canned tomatoes that Wufei and his wife had sent.
Honestly, that Wufei had taken to cottagecore made perfect sense twenty years on, but it was one of those things that would have seemed absurd when they were fifteen. The tomatoes were really good though. Wufei had aged faster than they had, Duo thought. He was only 35 too, but he walked with a cane all the time, complained about his bones, while at the same time not wanting modern medical rejuvenation.
Time was one of those things that bent oddly for some people. Heero hadn’t aged much, but was a little chonkier, more content. Duo blamed his lack of aging on that night he’d found himself in Underhill and tried not to think about it too much.
Another round of fireworks went off, closer, louder. Duo dropped the spoon he’d been stirring sauce. When he picked it up, he turned and threw it at the sink. Time was no friend to him. He was small, five or six, huddled among broken stones and bodies. Percussion shook him deep in his bones.
“Duo?”
In the bent time, he hunkered down more.
Then Heero started singing. It was just some song off their stream, made by a kid who was less than half their age, who loved the world they’d made, but didn’t love the broken hear his boyfriend had given him.
Blinking, Duo’s eyes came into focus on Heero, on Heero’s dark blue eyes. “Hey, ‘Ro.”
“Hello,” Heero teased, making it sound a little like what Duo had just said. “Can we go take a nap?”
“Yeah,” Duo said, quickly grabbing the sauce and turning off the noodle water. “That sounds good.”
Heero stayed close as Duo moved around their small kitchen. The house was big enough, with five bedrooms and three bathrooms. There were two living rooms. It was a nice house. It was insulated and the windows were double-paned to keep the sound out. Some sounds wanted to bypass the ears and get right into the nerves though.
Neither of them asked the other what messages time was sending in a bottle. They both already knew. Somethings just had a way of repeating and being raw at the same time.
Clothes still on, shoes still on, they curled up in their bed, snuggling against each other like they were freezing, even though it was the beginning of July. Duo’s head rested on Heero’s chest, Heero’s arm under his neck, around his back as Duo took hold of the waistband on Heero’s jeans. Love has many forms that shift like glittering light over a day, a year. This love, in this moment had been there, done that, seen a thing or two. “Tell me a story,” Heero said, voice deep, lips brushing over Duo’s soft brown hair.
“Do you want to hear about Gael or Corvis?”
“Gael, something adventurous, where he gets in trouble.”
“Okay!” Duo said, hooking a leg around Heero’s, “So there was this one time when he was smuggling rum.”
The story went on for a couple of hours, until they both fell asleep.
“Pancakes!” Julia shouted as she jumped on Duo’s side of the bed. “Daddy!”
“No! Spaghetti!” Harry half-whispered, sitting down on Heero’s side and grabbing hold of Heero’s hand.
“Good morning you too,” Rey said, snarkily, as she flipped the light on and off a couple times. “I hope you don’t have a hangover.”
Duo flipped her off under the blankets before rolling over and grabbing their daughter, tickling her until she laughed in delight. “Good morning you little ball of lightening!”
“Daddy! Did you see the fireworks? They were so pretty! Auntie Rey took so many pictures!”
“Did you have fun,” Heero asked, squeezing their son’s hand.
“Yeah,” he said. “Auntie Precious and I did some make a game.”
“That’s good,” Heero said, sitting up and pulling Harry into his lap. “I’m glad you’re home. I’m glad you had a good time.”