Author's notes : Originally posted in August 2003. This was my first and only GW story so feedback would be really appreciated. Beta by Calic0cat, any remaining mistakes are my own!
Disclaimer : Gundam Wing does not belong to me, just borrowing. The story about the geese does! It is a true story, witnessed by my sister, her boyfriend and me last time I visited her in London!
High Drama
"Quatre? Quatre? Where are you?"
Duo was practically vibrating with excitement as we walked in the door and I had to smile. Maybe Duo was the only one who would recognize it as such but it was a smile. Facial expressions are something he is helping me work on, and I think we are making progress. As Quatre appeared from the study, he nodded to me with a smile before turning to Duo. Maybe it was a good enough smile for him to notice as well?
"What is it Duo? Did something happen?" he asked as he approached, the smile firmly in place. He is so good to and for Duo. I don't know what we would have done without him and his offer to let us stay at this house with him. We needed a different kind of safehouse now that the wars were over. We were not really hiding, just getting some much needed R&R, and this small house in a nice London neighborhood was a true gift.
Duo practically pounced on him, grabbing his arm and dragging him to the sofa. I was so relieved to see such happiness in him; he had been subdued and almost depressed at the end of the mess with the Kushrenada girl. He had been dealing with my injury, the loss for the second time of his beloved Deathscythe, and a feeling of uncertainty that he had not been able to shake off until our silly encounter today.
"Geese, Quat! We saw geese on the canal! They were so cool, right Heero?" He turned his gaze toward me so that I could back him up.
"Very cool." I confirmed, trying the smile again as I took a seat opposite them to watch Duo tell his adventure story. Both of them smiled back at me, Duo for backing him up, Quatre in recognition of the expression, I think. I was definitely getting the hang of this smiling thing. Maybe soon people I didn't know will recognize them as smiles as well. It was something to work toward I reminded myself. It would make Duo happy. That was the only motivation I needed.
Duo turned back to Quatre to continue his story. "You know where the walking path goes along the canal, right?" He barely gave Quatre the time to nod before continuing his story, "Where the lock is?" Another confirmation from Quatre, he was the one to show it to us and explain how it worked after all. There are no barge canals on space colonies. Duo and I understood the physics behind it, but actually seeing one work had been a revelation of sorts.
"Geese! There were geese! I've never seen wild geese before! They were so cool." Poor Duo was so excited he was repeating himself and having trouble starting to tell of the high drama on the canal we had witnessed.
"A whole family, with babies! Three of them!"
"Goslings." Quatre cut in quietly.
"Yeah, and they were ... what?" Duo looked at Quatre in confusion.
"Baby geese are called goslings, just like baby cats are kittens, or baby dogs are puppies," was the patient explanation.
"Really? I didn't know that. Neat," short pause to get his breath, "They were learning how to swim all together as a family! One of the adults was leading and the other was in the back and the...goslings? " Nod of approval from Quatre. "The goslings were following the first one in a line, you know? And the one in back was keeping them together, you could imagine it was saying things like 'stay together now', and 'straight line, don't fall behind, left, right, left, right, left, right,' " Duo ended with his drill sergeant impersonation. It got another smile from me, and a laugh from Quatre.
"Then there this wall, like two inches high? The first adult just kind of swam-walked over it, no problem, but then the babies, well goslings, but is it ok if I call them babies?" He didn't wait for the nod of approval before continuing. "The babies ran right into it and it was like this insurmountable barrier and it was only about 2 inches out of the water! They tried so hard to get over this tiny seeming obstacle to the adults, but to them it was nearly impossible. They kept running into it, and swimming away to get up some momentum, and go at it really fast but they couldn't do it. They tried flapping their tiny wings, but even that didn't help. Finally the other adult went over as well, and the three babies were stuck unless they could get over the wall. Finally, one of them did it. He kind of used the edge of the wall to hitch himself over using one of his wings."
All of this was explained with hand motions, elbows and demonstrations using various items on the coffee table to illustrate how the birds were advancing, and struggling. We had both been fascinated by the way the young birds had tried so valiantly to succeed, and how the parents seemed to encourage them. Duo continued, unerring in his need to tell this story. In a way, I think it was very therapeutic for him. For the first time in a long time a younger, dynamic Duo was emerging. In all the years I had known him, he had always been outgoing and talkative, but never this excited. He had always been a soldier first, and never lost focus on the goal of winning the war. It was almost as if he had suddenly reverted to the exuberant child he must have been before Dr. G got his hands on him.
"But the other two, they kept trying and couldn't do it. You could tell the parents were getting frustrated, and the babies kept at it, never giving up. Finally they tried what the first one had done, using the edge of the wall to get over, and after a bunch of tries, they finally made it, practically at the same time. We figured the excitement was over, you know? So we started to move on, cause we promised you we would get ice cream... Heero! Where's the ice cream!?" Now he was frantic, he was afraid he had failed somehow to bring the promised treat for Quatre.
"I gave it to Raschid as we walked up the path, remember?" I chided quietly. "I'm sure he took care of it."
"Have no fear Master Duo, it is safely in the freezer," came the deep voice from the door to the kitchen. As I turned to look in that direction I saw Raschid leaning casually on the door frame. He had obviously been enjoying the story.
"Hey Raschid!" Duo smiled brightly. "We saw geese!"
"So I gathered. Were they Canada geese?"
"Gee, I don't know, Raschid, I didn't ask for their passports" was said with a grin. "They were big, like swans you know? With long black necks and the body was kind of tan and white. But the babies were fluffy yellow."
"Canada geese then. Very common here, in parks and such."
"Why Canada geese if they are common in London?" I asked. My pre- colony history was pretty weak, but I thought Canada was settled by English speakers after things like animals already had names.
"Oh, they are not native to Europe; they were brought here from North America many centuries ago and they have adapted very well. They thrive in an urban environment as well as in the wilds of Canada," was Raschid's reply. I filed that away in my mind for future research. I had a feeling Canada geese were going to be Duo's new favorite animal.
"Duo, was there more to the story?" I could have hugged Quatre if I were the type to do that sort of thing. Did I mention he is good for Duo? He is extremely perceptive and could tell that Duo was dying to say something else but was afraid to keep going. He had a moment of hesitation, not wanting to continue if Raschid and I weren't finished, and nodded shyly. We all gave him encouraging looks.
"Yeah, there was," he continued, but more subdued. He had lost some of the momentum of his story but the best was yet to come. I had faith he would get it back.
"So, anyway, Heero and I started to walk on, cause of the ice cream, right?" Three nods. "As we started forward, Heero suddenly noticed that two of the babies had vanished! We had only gone a little way, to where the lock is?" Quatre acknowledged he knew the place. "They had been swimming in that direction as well, when Heero stopped, and I looked as well, and the parents were there, and one of the babies, but the other two had disappeared! At first, we couldn't figure out where they could have gone, because the babies couldn't fly, and the bank was way too high for them to climb up." Momentum was building, I thought smugly.
"Then we realized that the water on the other side didn't go all the way to the bank! There was a gap, where water spills over? Two of the babies had fallen over the edge into the spill way! Heero and I went past the lock, and crossed on the lock gate because it was closed, so we got about halfway across the canal but we couldn't see the babies anywhere. The two parents were getting frantic, looking down into the spillway. I don't know if they could see them or not but we realized that they had to either be stuck or that they would come out at the end of the spill way at the far end of the lock. Heero and I went to look at where the spillway came out but no sign of the missing babies. Finally, we started to think maybe they had gotten stuck."
That had been a delicate moment; I had been afraid Duo would be crushed if it turned out the goslings had drowned. I had gathered him in my arms for a very public hug; he NEEDED it. I had not needed to see his expression, his cry of joy had been my clue to let go. The babies had finally washed out through the spillway. As Duo explained about bobbing babies, I watched the most important person in the world to me enchant his audience of two.
"But now they were at the bottom of a really big drop, and their parents were at the top, looking over the wrong edge. We were like trying to tell them 'Over here, they're over this way!' Finally, they must have cried loud enough for their parents to hear because they came to the edge of the big waterfall wall thing and saw them. One of the parents flew down to be with them, and they were like velcro babies! I think they must have been really scared, cause they weren't going to let that parent get away. Now, the family was separated though. Two of the babies were at the bottom of a really big drop and there was no way they could get back up and the third was at the top and afraid to go down cause it was a really a drop of maybe 15 feet, and he was too little to fly. Finally, the other parent flew down, and the little gosling made this huge leap of faith, and jumped! He flapped his little wings and fell like a ton of bricks! Luckily geese float, and he just reached the bottom, bobbed a few times and finally, the whole family was together again, and it was smooth sailing from there."
Duo suddenly ran out of story before he ran out of steam, and didn't seem to know what to say; so I helped out, "So we went and got you ice cream."
"Well, I had intended to share," Quatre replied with a laugh. "That was a truly wonderful story Duo. I am pleased you wanted to share it with us, now would you like to share my ice cream? If I remember correctly, you don't mind caramel crunch?"
"It's my favorite!" was the indignant reply.
As Quatre and Duo headed to the kitchen, I sat and thought about the positive effect this had had on Duo and what I could do to make sure it lasted. He was the center of my universe now and I wanted this good mood to last.
Quatre beat me to the punch though. The next night, we found a present sitting on our pillow. It was a stuffed animal family. A Canada goose with three babies which could be stuck to it with velcro strips. I suspect that this family will take a prominent place in whatever bedroom becomes ours when we have a home of our own.
The End!