A Stitch In Time

by ShenLong1

Equine Intervention Arc Side Fic: Heero has been asked to participate at a fund raising event for Trowa's shelter. Problem is, Shini needs to be plaited and Heero doesn't know how so he enlists the help of Duo.

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing, it belongs to Bandai, Sotsu and associated parties. I just borrow the guys from time to time and return them a whole lot happier. I do own the plot and any other characters, especially the equines, that you will find in this fic. Please do not take them without permission. Written for pleasure not profit.

Pairing: 2x1x2, 3x4, 13x6, H+C

Warnings: Yaoi, humor, AU

Rating: R

Archive: gundam-wing-diaries. Anyone else please ask.

Betaed by Karina *snugs*

Summary: Heero has been asked to participate at a fund raising event for Trowa's shelter. Problem is, Shini needs to be plaited and Heero doesn't know how so he enlists the help of Duo. Side fic in the Equine Intervention Arc.

AN: You can blame this side fic on Karina who, while watching some eventing on tv, wanted to know why Heero never plaited his horses for competition. This is Fred's response...

---

"A Stitch In Time"

March 2013 ShenLong

"Thank you Heero, I really appreciate this."

"That's fine, Trowa, I'm more than happy to help out, especially given the cause."

"Once people know that you're going to be there they will come in droves and hopefully part with some of their cash."

"I don't know about that," Heero replied, the doubt in his voice.

"Trust me, they will; you're something of a local legend you know," Trowa insisted.

Deciding he'd heard enough of the compliments that he felt really were not true, Heero closed the call. "I'll see you on Sunday then, nine o'clock?"

"Yes. Oh, one last thing. Would you mind having Shinigami and yourself all decked out as if you were competing? You know, you in all your gear, Shini in his saddle, bridle, Australian saddle blanket and all plaited up? Thanks, Heero. See you Sunday."

Trowa hung up and Heero found himself standing, looking at a receiver with the disconnected signal sounding and wondering just what the hell he'd gotten himself into. Placing the receiver back into the cradle, Heero wandered back into the kitchen where his lover was sitting at the table reading through the latest veterinary newsletter.

Duo glanced up as his partner entered the kitchen, an absent look on his face. His eyes tracked Heero as the man moved towards the coffee machine and proceeded to pour two cups. Sugar and milk found their way into the mugs, Heero stirring and then bringing the mugs across to the table. Duo continued to watch in amusement as Heero sat himself down and picked up a mug to sip at the contents. He knew his lover was distracted by something; aside from the faraway look in Heero's eyes, he noted that Heero had picked up the mug that was destined for him as it had two sugars in it. Heero didn't take sugar.

"What the?" Heero choked out and grimaced, putting the mug back down on the table and glaring at it.

"I think you picked up my coffee by mistake," Duo informed with a chuckle.

"Aa, that's why it's so sweet." Heero quickly picked up the other mug and took a mouthful. "Shit! That's hot."

Duo couldn't help the snicker. Heero turned his glare to Duo who promptly held up his hands in defense. "Hey, don't blame me if you're distracted." Taking pity on his partner, Duo softened his tone. "What's up?"

Heero sighed and looked down at the table top. "That was Trowa on the phone. He's got his big fund raising fete thing on this Sunday."

"Yeah, I know, he's put posters up all over the walls in the surgery and every available spot in Salsbury and the surrounding areas," Duo chuckled. "He holds this fete just about every year to raise funds to keep the shelter going."

"I know. He asked me if I would come along with Shinigami and sign autographs and let people have their photo taken with me and Shini for a small fee. All funds would go to the shelter of course."

"I take it you said yes?"

Heero nodded.

"Why the long face then?"

"He wants me to get all dressed up and have Shini all turned out like he would be competing."

"I don't see that doing that should be difficult. It doesn't take much to get Shini ready for a show," Duo stated. He really couldn't see what the problem was.

"He wants him plaited."

"Plaited?"

"Hai."

"Oh. Then I suppose you will need to add an extra hour to the time needed to get him ready."

"There's one thing wrong here."

"And what is that?"

"I have no clue how to plait a horse's mane."

# # #

"No."

"But, Duo..."

"No."

"Technically speaking you are Shini's groom..."

"I know I am, but that's at shows, not a fete or fund raiser."

"The groom is responsible for getting the horse ready."

"For a jumping round."

"Please?"

"No."

"I'll clean the bathroom for a month." Heero wrapped his arms around his lover's waist and began to feather kisses along the vet's neck. "Please? Pretty please with a sugar coated me on top?"

Duo snorted and turned around in his lover's arms. "Why me?"

Heero caressed his lover's braid before bringing the thick rope of hair around between them. "Because you know how to plait?"

# # #

Duo stood on top of an upturned milk crate and eyed the mane in front of him. "Exactly how am I supposed to plait this?"

"I don't know, you just plait it."

"Heero," Duo began in his 'patient' voice. "Plaiting one's braid is slightly different to plaiting a horse's mane. In case you hadn't noticed, theirs runs the full length of their neck, mine only covers my scalp."

Heero thought long and hard, desperately trying to recall what he'd ever seen or heard in relation to plaiting a horse's mane – and came up blank. "Umm, all I know is there are lots of small, round plait things that run the full length of the neck," he said, hoping that would be enough and Duo could figure it out from there.

"Even I know that much, Heero. I have seen horses plaited at a lot of the shows we've been too, only I have no clue how to get them into those round ball thingys or how to make them stay there."

"Maybe we should try plaiting some of it and figure it out from there?"

Duo gave a long suffering sigh. Shini began to fidget. "I think you might want to give him something to keep him occupied while I try this."

"Aa, okay." Heero disappeared into the feed shed and returned moments later with the small feed bin they used sometimes at shows for the horses. He hung it on the stable door under Shini's nose, the gray immediately sticking his nose into it and chewing away happily.

With the stallion now standing quietly, Duo began to run the comb through the mane, removing all the tangles. With the mane now lying flat and neat against Shini's neck, Duo began the task of dividing it up into segments. Given each segment would then need to be divided again into three for him to plait, he thought he'd better start with a reasonable amount in each division. Carefully he separated what would hopefully become the first plait. "Umm, Heero?"

"Hai?"

"I'm going to need something to wrap around this hair to keep it separated from the rest."

"Aa, I see. What would you suggest?"

"I think a few elastic bands wouldn't go astray."

"Right. Errr, do we have any?" The look he got from Duo was enough to answer his question. "Okay, I'll take a quick trip to the local store and get some, shall I?"

"That might be an idea. "

#

"Shit, Heero, these aren't going to be any good, they're way too big," Duo said as he looked through the bag of elastic bands Heero had grabbed off the shelf at the local general store. All were large, not a small one in sight, plus they were a light brown in color. "Aside from the size, they're the wrong color."

"Eh? What's the color got to do with it?"

"I would assume you'd need gray ones to blend in with his mane."

"I didn't know horses made a fashion statement," Heero muttered.

"Heero, this fete isn't until tomorrow, I suggest we take a trip into Salsbury to the saddlery shop and speak with someone there. They should be able to tell us what things we will need and hopefully how to actually plait this mane."

"Good idea."

#

Two hours later the pair returned from the saddlery story, a couple of bags stuffed with the things they would need and a lot more knowledge on plaiting than they'd thought possible. With Shini once again caught and standing tied up in the stables with a feed bin under his nose, it was time to try again.

Once more Duo was standing on top of the upturned milk crate, Heero beside him with his pockets and hands full of the items they were told they would need, and a piece of paper in one hand. The sales clerk at the saddlers had kindly drawn some diagrams to assist the guys with their task.

"Okay, first thing is to divide the mane into segments to be plaited," Heero said, reading off the paper.

"Right." Duo ran the comb through Shini's mane, removing any and all knots and tangles once more. Using the end of the comb, he slipped through the hair and divided a section off. "Is that enough or too much?"

Heero studied the segment. "Looks fine to me."

"Okay. Band, please." Heero duly passed over a gray, elastic band which Duo proceeded to wrap around the section. With the first piece sectioned off, He slipped the comb through the next part and grasped that section tightly. "Band." Another band was handed over.

Duo continued along the length of Shini's neck, dividing the mane into sections and wrapping them with the bands to keep them separated. "Hey, Heero?"

Heero looked up from where he was sorting out more elastic bands from the packet. "Yes?"

"How many do you want?"

Heero blinked. "I suppose we keep going for the full length of the neck."

"Okay. Oh, do you need to have an odd number or even?"

"Pardon?"

"I asked if you needed to have an odd number of plaits or an even number." Duo paused in thought for a moment. "I guess that could all depend on if you counted the forelock in the plaits as well, that's providing you plait the forelock too."

Heero looked totally lost. "I really don't know and frankly, I don't care either. It's bad enough that Trowa wants him plaited. He can have him and the plaits however they come."

"Fine with me then."

Silence fell over the stables for a little while as Duo finished dividing Shini's mane and then began to plait each of the segments, twining the elastic band over the end as he finished each one. By the time he was done, dusk had fallen and his fingers were almost numb.

"Looks good," Heero commented.

Duo stepped down from the milk crate and rolled his shoulders, trying to loosen up the muscles. "Now what?"

"According to these instructions, we now need to sew the plaits in."

"Sew them in?" Duo frowned. "How?" Duo didn't recall that part of the conversation with the woman at the saddlers, that must have taken place when he was either looking at something else or had tuned the woman out.

Heero studied the piece of paper in his hand, turned it sideways and looked again. Turning it upside down he still couldn't quite figure it out. Duo watched his partner with an amused smile on his face – seemed Heero wasn't as clued up as he'd thought he was. Feeling his partner's eyes on him and catching the amused smirk when he glanced across from under his bangs, Heero felt the blush of embarrassment rising. "Here, you see if you can figure it out," he muttered and thrust the paper at Duo.

A soft snicker escaped Duo's mouth as he took the paper. The snicker soon changed into a whistle of air as he got a look at the diagrams. "Shit, you need a physics degree to work this out," he mumbled and repeated Heero's earlier actions of turning the paper around in his hand, attempting to decipher the diagrams.

"I thought you would have needed physics for your vet degree," Heero couldn't help but dig.

"Sort of, but I didn't cover ancient Egyptology and come to think of it, learning hieroglyphics wasn't in the course either."

"Surely it can't be that hard to figure out." Heero took a look at the paper over his lover's shoulder. "From what I can tell, this looks like a needle and that's the plait. I'd say you push the needle through the bottom of the plait to secure the cotton, then you fold the end under and halfway up the remaining part of the plait, push the needle through again and continue to repeat the process until the plait is secured in a small lump at the roots of the mane."

"Easy for you to say," Duo muttered.

"Come on, let's give it a shot." Heero put the paper down and picked up the piece of cardboard that had the gray thread wrapped around it. He pulled off a length and cut it. Picking up one of the needles they'd purchased, Heero handed it to Duo along with the thread.

Duo raised an eyebrow but took the offered items. He looked from the thread to the eye of the needle and back again. Lips pursed together as he tried to thread the needle.

~ Five minutes later ~

"Fucking useless piece of shit," Duo growled.

"What's up?" Heero asked as he reentered the stables leading Zero. Heero had left Duo to continue with the plaiting whilst he went and fetched the rest of the horses in and started to feed up.

"I can't get this damn needle threaded," Duo snapped.

Heero gave his partner a look of disbelief.

"What?" Duo growled.

"You're a vet, you regularly stitch up animals so I thought you should be able to thread a needle easy enough."

"Heero, I might be a vet and I might stitch up animals for a living, but that's why I have Catherine."

"Eh?"

"To thread the damn needles for me! Here, you try." Duo thrust the needle and thread at Heero.

"Yuk, it's all soggy," Heero said as he looked at the end of the thread.

"Of course it is, what do you expect when I've been trying to get the damn thing to go through that tiny bloody hole!"

Heero thought it might be best if he shut up now. Still glowering at Heero and the needle and thread, Duo took the lull to sit on the milk crate and give his eyes a rest. They were aching from all the squinting he'd been doing to the point where he'd started to go cross-eyed and begun to see double.

Another five minutes passed before Heero gave a soft sigh. "Done," he said and walked over to his lover to pass over the needle.

"Thank you," Duo replied and took the offered item. "What about the rest of them?"

Heero looked back to where the cardboard with the thread on it sat, alongside it was another small piece of cardboard with four needles threaded through it. "Crap."

#

Once again Duo found himself standing on the milk crate by Shini's neck, needle and thread in hand. "How the fuck to do this," he muttered to himself.

"I thought stitching would be second nature for you, after all, you do it pretty much everyday and always make a neat job of it," Heero said, watching his partner contemplating the task at hand. He thought it wouldn't hurt to throw in a little compliment there as well.

"That might be, Heero, but I stitch up wounds, you know, bits of flesh to bits of flesh? Not hair." Duo's tone was sarcastic to say the least.

Heero declined to comment in case he put his foot any further into his mouth.

"Let's see... Hmmm... I need to push it through this bit here, then secure it there, fold that bit under there and push this through here. Now to fold that again and shove this through – Ow! Fuck!" Duo jumped, as did Shini, and shoved his finger into his mouth, sucking on the digit.

"Duo? What happened?" asked Heero who had just avoided being stepped on by Shini as the gray moved.

"Stuck myself with the fucking needle, that's what," Duo mumbled from around the finger he still had in his mouth. "Shit, that hurt." He removed the finger and took a look at the damage.

"Shall I get you a band-aid?" Heero offered helpfully.

"I think I'd prefer you got someone else to do this," Duo growled.

#

"That's a bit better. Now, pull this through here and pull tight, poke it back through this bit – Shiiiit!" Duo was suddenly knocked flying from off the milk crate when Shini jumped and moved sharply to the side.

"Crap. Duo, are you okay?" Heero cried and shot across to where his partner lay prone on the floor. Offering a hand he hauled his lover to his feet.

"I'm fine," Duo replied and dusted himself off.

"I don't know why he would have done that," Heero began, "he's not a vicious horse."

Duo scratched the back of his neck. "Ummm, it wasn't his fault, I kinda stuck him with the needle I think."

"What?!" Heero spun around and deserting his lover, flew towards his horse to check the damage. "Shini, are you okay? Did Duo get you with the needle..."

Duo rolled his eyes and approached the milk crate once more.

#

"Three down and lord knows how many more to go," Duo muttered to himself. "Okay, needle?" Heero took the one needle from Duo and handed the vet another, newly threaded one. "Thanks." Duo proceeded to push the needle and thread through the bottom of the plait, folding the braid under about half way and sewing again. He folded the plait a second time and pushed the needle through. Grasping the end, he pulled, the thread stopped.

Duo pulled again; the thread refused to budge. "What the fuck is up with you now?" Eyes narrowed as Duo traced the thread, only to find it caught up around one of the plaits he'd already sewn in. "That would be right," he complained and started to untangle the thread.

Pulling again on the needle, the thread started to come through once more; and then stopped again. Duo frowned, tugged and frowned again. Once more he followed the thread. It wasn't tangled in any of the other plaits, finished or unfinished, so what was stopping it?

"You have to be kidding me."

There was a large knot in the thread.

#

Duo pulled tightly on the thread, his other fingers hanging onto the plait he'd just finished sewing. It was tight against Shini's neck.

"Scissors."

Heero passed over the requested item.

"Thanks." Duo slipped the scissors underneath the plait and went to cut the thread he'd just tied off. There was a little resistance so Duo pushed harder.

*Snip*

Oh Shit. Duo looked at where he'd just cut the thread to find he'd actually snipped the base of the plait and said plait was now sitting neatly in his fingers.

"Everything okay?" Heero asked, waiting to take the scissors back.

"Uh, Umm, yeah, fine." Duo discreetly put the amputated plait into his pocket and handed the scissors back to Heero.

#

"There, how's that look?" Duo stepped down from the milk crate and wearily moved back a touch to take a look at his handiwork.

"Errr... Not bad." Heero knew he had to be very careful with his words.

Duo tilted his head to the side and stared at the gray's neck. The plaits were finally done, making a line of 'bumps' along Shini's crest. Some were fatter than others, some were very tight, a couple looked like they would fall out at any given moment. Here and there were blood spatters on the gray hair from the many 'sticks' Duo had suffered at the pointy end of the needle – even though the needle had a blunted end. And then there was a sort of gap about halfway down the neck – but Duo decided not to mention that.

"I know they aren't professional or anything like that, actually they're damn terrible, but they will have to do," Duo muttered.

"No offense, Duo, and I really appreciate you having a go at this for me, but I think you should stick to surgical stitching."

"No offense taken, Heero. I did warn you I would be hopeless at this. Look, if it really means that much to you to have him turned out with proper plaits and all, I'll have another shot."

Heero took a look at his watch. "No, you won't. Duo, it's almost midnight. Come on, I'll put Shini in his stable for the night, it's high time we went to bed otherwise we won't be up in time to get going. The plaits are fine, they will have to do and if Trowa doesn't like them he can bloody well do them himself in future."

"Amen to that."

# # #

Heero cracked open an eye, it was still dark. A glance at the alarm clock told him it was only four-thirty in the morning - hence the reason why it was still dark. Closing his eye, he started to drift back off to sleep, wondering what had woken him. The sound of someone moving around had both eyes opening a second later. "Duo?"

"Shhh, go back to sleep, Heero."

"What's up?"

"I've got a call out." Duo moved to sit on the edge of the bed. "It's a foaling so I'm going to be a while."

"But, the fete..."

"Don't worry. You go on ahead to the fete, once I'm finished with the foaling I'll come back here, shower and change and head on down as soon as I can."

"Okay."

Duo pressed a kiss to Heero's forehead. "I'll see you later."

# # #

Rolling the door back on the stables two hours later, Heero was hit by the smell of horse and hay. He inhaled deeply. "Morn-" Heero froze. Several heads all hung over the stable doors, one in particular wasn't looking too happy. "What the hell?" Heero covered the distance to Shini's stable in a couple of strides, his eyes widening the closer he got.

Shinigami snorted and shook his head.

"Oh, fuck. Duo is going to be so pissed. What the hell did you do, Shini? More to the point, what the fuck am I gonna do?"

All Duo's hard work at plaiting Shini's mane now lay in tangled tatters along the gray neck. Shini snorted. He couldn't help it if what the nice human and his master had done to his mane had been itchy and annoying. So he'd done what any sensible equine in his situation would have done. He'd rubbed them out.

"Shit, shit, shit." Heero gazed at the mess that was once his horse's mane. There was no way he would be able to fix the damage in time for the fete. Duo would kill him – or Shini – or both.

Then Heero had an idea.

# # #

The foaling had taken a little longer than Duo had hoped and now he was on his way to Trowa's shelter for the fete. He'd thought he would have been able to get there around nine to help Heero with unloading Shini, but the fates had decided it was not to be. It was pushing closer to ten-thirty when the animal shelter grounds came into view.

Parking the car, Duo got out, locked the car and made his way from behind the house towards the back paddocks where the fete was set up. That was one perk of being a friend to Trowa, it meant Duo could park at the back of the man's house.

The fete was in full swing, people milling around all over the place. Several booths were set up, some selling home made products from food to handicrafts, others offering various products for animals. To one side a small ring was set up for the pet show that Trowa had organized and just behind that, Duo could make out the larger marquee that was for Heero and Shinigami.

Strolling through the crowds, several people stopped him to say hello. Quatre appeared from somewhere with a wide grin on his face. "Hey, Duo. I have to congratulate you on the excellent job you did plaiting Shinigami's mane."

"Uh... Thanks, I think." Duo wasn't too sure as he didn't think he'd done a good job at all.

"I can't understand why you don't plait him like that all the time for shows. Anyway, I gotta move it, I'm supposed to be fetching some more water for the tea urn in the refreshments tent." With that Quatre was gone, leaving a puzzled Duo behind him.

Still musing over the blonde's words, Duo continued on his way.

"Hey Duo! Great job on turning Shini out."

Duo turned to see who had spoken to him and spotted Treize with Zechs moving off towards the refreshments. He waved to them and shook his head, not quite sure if they were talking about the same horse.

"Duo? How come you never let us know before how good you are at plaiting and turning a horse out?"

Spinning around, Duo was confronted by Hilde and Catherine. "Errr, It's the first time I've ever done it and I didn't think it was all that good."

"First time, hey? You would never have known it. Fantastic job," Hilde congratulated. "We'll see you later," she finished and wandered off into the crowd leaving an even more perplexed Duo behind.

"Oh, Duo."

A beaming Trowa stood before him. "Hey, Tro, how is it all going?"

"Wonderful, Duo, just wonderful. I'm sure we are going to make a lot of money for the shelter from today. Heero is responsible for a lot of that though. Everyone wants to have their picture taken with him and Shini. Duo, you outdid yourself in turning him out. I couldn't have asked for anything better. Thank you so much."

"But I didn't do much..."

"Don't be so modest. He's just perfect. Oh, gotta run, someone's calling for me." Trowa clapped Duo on the back and melted into the crowd.

Determined to get to the bottom of things, Duo hastened his pace towards the marquee. Finally he managed to get there and paused at the long queue that stretched out from the tent. Looked like Heero and his horse were very popular. Moving to the side, Duo managed to worm his way into the tent. He could see Heero standing up ahead beside Shini, another person standing with them and having their photo taken. The flash went off, Duo blinking with the light. Once he could see clearly again his eyes widened.

Shinigami turned a little and Duo was treated to a perfect view of the gray's neck. A row of neat, round, identical plaits ran the length of the horse's neck. Duo blinked and blinked again. He had to be seeing things. No way were they the same plaits he'd done his best to sew in last night – if they were then he would seriously need to have a talk to the optometrist about his eyesight!

Given the large number of people that were lined up to have their photo taken with their local hero, Duo wasn't able to get anywhere near the rider and his horse for some time. Eventually the crowd started to thin a bit and Heero took the opportunity to take a break. Taking Shini outside the marquee and around the back to where he'd parked the car and float, he led the horse to the side of the float and exchanged the bridle for Shini's halter. Just as he was about to fetch the haynet, Duo appeared at his elbow.

"Hey," Duo said softly.

Heero spun around, his eyes lighting up at the sight of his partner. "Hey, yourself. I didn't think you were here."

"I made it a while ago but I couldn't get anywhere near you." Duo moved to Shini's side and ran his hand along the gray neck, eyes taking in the closer view of the neat plaits. "Heero?"

Uh oh, Heero thought. Here it comes.

"Either the plaiting fairies came during the night or I seriously need to get my eyesight checked, but there's no way that those plaits are the ones I put in last night."

"Umm..."

"Did you re-plait him this morning, because if you did I'm going to be seriously pissed off at you for letting me struggle through all that torture last night and not telling me you could plait like that." Duo's voice held a dangerous edge to it.

"Ah, no, I didn't re-plait him, I can't plait to save my life."

"Then what happened?"

"Ah, well, you see it was like this..." Heero went on to explain how he'd gone to feed the horses and discovered that Shini had rubbed all the plaits out overnight. "It was a mess, so bad that I couldn't untangle it at all. I had no choice but to hog his mane."

"You hogged his mane?" Duo whispered.

Heero nodded.

"Hogged his mane as in clipped his entire mane off?"

Heero nodded again.

"Well, shit." Duo scratched the back of his neck. "Then how the fuck do you explain these?" he asked waving at the neat plaits.

"Aa. I made a dash to the saddlery store while the horses were eating their breakfasts, I remembered seeing something in there yesterday. Did you know that they make fake plaits?" Duo shook his head in the negative. "Neither did I until yesterday. I managed to buy enough to cover his neck." Heero looked rather pleased with himself.

Duo's eyes narrowed and he moved closer to inspect the fake plaits. Sure enough, each one was a perfect, round rosette, neatly sewn together and sitting comfortably on Shini's neck. Duo could also see the stubble of what was left of Shini's real mane. Turning back to Heero, Duo asked, "How did you attach them to his neck?"

Heero began to turn a touch red. "Ah, I glued them on, that's what the sales girl said to do."

"I see."

"Um, Duo?"

"Yes?"

"Do you by chance have something back at the surgery that will dissolve super glue?"

~ Owari ~