Author's Note: I do not own Gundam Wing. Also, this is my first story in a while, so please read and give me comments. I don't bite, I promise. If any of you hate the title, it wasn't my most creative.
A THANKSGIVING CAPER
Yellow rays of sunlight thrust against the window, the dirty glass muting the sun's intensity to a soft flicker of pale lemon light. The window's white blind was up, allowing the light to crawl across the floor and shimmy down the back of a wooden, brown chair. Opposite the chair was another wooden chair of the same make occupied by a short girl with tree trunk brown hair tinged with flecks of pale, wine red. Her oval face stretched tightly across its small frame, not an ounce of fat visible across its flat contours. Two jet black eyes scanned her dorm room briefly, taking in the large piles of books and homework scattered across her desk and the window ledge behind her. She stood up and began walking, all five feet one inch of her needle thin body swaying in time to her hips' casual side to side hula. It was an odd trademark of hers to walk like her hips were dancing an unstructured hula, her hands jutting back and forth like soldiers displeased with the crudeness of her hips' hula.
Another one of her weird habits was to stare nervously at all clocks around her, hoping that the clock's faces would display the same time. It was this behavior that she was now engaged in, her eyes flitting across the squat, black clock on her desk. It blinked twelve midnight on and off, reminding her that there had been a power outage the night before. Ignoring her clock, she looked at her roommate's gray time piece, frowning as it too flashed twelve midnight. Utterly displeased with the clocks' uninformative consensus, she pulled on a soft, brown sweater, zipping it shut against what she knew would be the extremely cold winter weather outside.
She was about to slip on the pair of brown champion flats she always wore to class when her phone buzzed, sharply and with annoying insistence. Since almost no one called her in the morning, she did a double take and ran to catch the phone before it fell off her desk. She flicked open the old, gray cell phone, quickly turning up the volume to hear the faint voice crawling forth.
"Duo?" Instead of saying hello, she always asked her speaker to identify themselves, only afterward gracing them with a customary greeting.
"Who else do you think would call you at this hour? What's up, kiddo?"
"Hi, Duo! I haven't heard from you in a long time!"
"Do you always evade people's questions, Ray?"
"Oh, well, I thought it would be better if I said hello before I answered your question." Ray fidgeted slightly, embarrassed at what she deemed Duo's unnecessary display of stubborn intent.
Duo heard the embarrassment emanating from Ray's voice and laughed, his high tenor voice rising and falling with each chuckle. "I was only joking! Sheesh, you can't even take a joke these days?!"
"I was never very good at understanding jokes, or responding to them for that matter." Ray laughed, too used to people teasing her for misunderstanding their jokes to be offended by Duo's remark.
Duo's question completely forgotten, Ray continued the conversation, walking back and forth across her room's brown carpet. "So, Duo, why are you calling? You do realize that at some point very soon, I have to start my Thursday schedule, which always begins with my Middle Eastern History class at eleven in the morning."
Ray heard a long pause cross the line, followed by a nervous intake of air. "Well, you see…" Ray frowned, sensing Duo's inability to phrase his words correctly. Another pause followed his speech, this one longer than the first. "You know how it is almost Thanksgiving?"
Ray shook her head no, responding in the negative to Duo as well. "Ha, I knew I could count on your old, forgetful self to make life more interesting!"
Ray chuckled once more, a smile flitting across her face. "Well, I didn't know! You can't blame me for not being interested in this particular holiday."
"Yeah, well, it is about Thanksgiving. You see, both Quatre and Trowa asked me to spend Thanksgiving with them at their respective homes."
"Well, what's wrong with that?"
"Well, you see, with Quatre 'I'm so prim and proper' Winner, I know I'll have to be on my best behavior, or at least keep the pranks down to a minimum so I don't wear him out, or break his sensitive heart if he notices something wrong. As to Trowa, well, I've never been that close to him."
"Wait, Duo, why are you telling me all this? You never open up to people, even when you've known them for the two years you've known me."
"Well, I want you to come with me and make sure nothing happens. And I know you won't come with me unless I tell you every reason why I want you to help me. You never do anything for people that don't tell you every reason behind their desire. And you know me, I never lie."
"True Duo, true. But more to the point, why do I have to come? You know I always spend Thanksgiving with my family and one or two of my parents' odd, homophobic friends. It is a tradition that my mother values above all else. And if there is anything you've learned from how stubborn I can be, well, you've seen nothing until you've met my mother. If it involves her children, she'll fight to the ends of the earth to make sure it happens. And this is only the second year since I went to college that I haven't been home since early September. My mother won't be happy if I go away. She'll let me leave, of course, but I can always tell when she's sad over the phone."
"What the hell, Ray? Since when did you start turning bleeding hearts away?"
Ray squirmed internally, caught in a dilemma. "Damn you and your manipulating ways! Are all you Gundam pilots this calculating?"
"Ray, it only took me five minutes to get you to partially agree with me. That wasn't the least bit calculating."
"Shut up! I was making a point!" Blushing, Ray pulled at her hair, twirling it around one finger on her left hand. Ray's right hand continued to grasp the phone, her fingers occasionally shifting along the phone's scratched surface.
"So, Ray, what do you say? Are you going to help me, or are you going to leave me hanging, cold and alone with two guys, on Thanksgiving?"
"Duo, you won't be alone with Quatre and Trowa there. You were a Gundam pilot, for Christ's sake! A simple problem like this should not be that hard!"
Ray heard Duo swallow uncomfortably, causing her to instantly regret what she said. An uncomfortable pause ensued which Ray was unwilling to break because she was afraid she had hurt Duo's feelings. Her thoughts were confirmed when Duo finally began talking, his voice distant and broken.
"Ray, I'm not so good at this emotional stuff."
"Duo, you don't have to tell me this if it bothers you."
"There wasn't a lot of time for that during the war."
Ray nodded, suddenly unable to speak.
"But now there is plenty of time for everything I missed as a soldier. However, I missed learning the finer points as a child. And I am afraid something will go down that I won't be able to comprehend."
"So," quipped Ray, attempting to crack a joke when she was able to speak, "a great hero of history is asking me to teach him about emotions?"
Duo's ensuing laughter ensured Ray that her joke had succeeded, bringing a smile to her face as well. "Well, what can I say? I'm just your average, every day guy. I'm Duo Maxwell. I may run and hide, but I never lie."
"Okay, so let me get this straight." Ray picked up the gray and black Swiss army computer bag that served as her backpack, pulling one strap over her left shoulder. It was almost time to leave for class. "You want me to come to Quatre or Trowa's house with you because you think something emotional will happen between you guys?"
"Yes. Not only that, but you are a master of emotions."
"Shut up! My thoughts aren't that easy to read, are they?"
"Only about ninety percent of the time. But that isn't the point. Will you help me or not?"
"Only if you can convince Trowa and Quatre to come to my house for Thanksgiving."
A sharp gasp issued forth from the phone, forcing Ray to hold her phone away from her ear. "Why on Earth would I do that?! Are you out of your mind?!" Duo spluttered. "Part of your family is homophobic! This would never work!"
"Well, the offer stands. I need to be home with my mother. In fact, I want to help you guys as well, and my mother is always telling me that I can bring my college friends home."
"Did you tell her that you have quite a few friends who are guys?"
"Not really. She could tell from your names. She's a teacher, Duo, not an idiot."
"Oh great! It'll be hard to hide anything from her!" Ray could tell that Duo was growing more exasperated with each sentence.
"Don't worry, you'll be fine. My sister and I will make sure that nothing happens." Ray shifted the phone to her left hand, pulling her backpack up on her right shoulder. Slipping on her brown champion flats, Ray grabbed her keys, fumbling around in her sweater's pockets for her one card and her phone. Finding them in her left pocket, Ray closed the door, locking it against the college's escalating crime rate.
"Are you sure? I want you to help me, not add to my problems."
"Duo, let me reiterate. You are a Gundam pilot. You'll be fine."
"That is what everyone tells me miss 'I lack common sense' Macelvernock!"
"Calm down. Just get Trowa and Quatre to come to my house. I'm sure my mother will agree to having them over, especially if I tell her that Quatre is coming over. Mother finds Quatre rather charming."
"I'm sure." Duo drawled dryly, obviously displeased. "But if that is all you can do, that is all you can do."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I was hoping no one else had to get involved."
"Yeah right, Duo. This is me you are talking to. My family makes sure they know everything that is going on in their relatives' lives. Or at least my mother does."
Ray finally heard the sigh she was listening for and grinned, triumphant in her victory. "Well, does that mean you'll talk it over with them?"
"I guess. I'll call you back afterward, okay?"
"Sure thing. Right now I have to go to class. See you." Ray snapped her phone shut and began walking toward the library.