A/N: Quatre POV. Just a little idea that bit me and would not let go. So here we go.
Wu Fei is up with the sun. I'm a little later, but still pretty early. I like to watch the sun rise. I'll get up and get dressed in the dark, and walk out through the apartment to the balcony. Wu Fei sits in the one old chair--a plastic affair--folded up in the lotus position. He sits there, perfectly still, and takes no notice of me. I always tell him good morning, but he never says anything out on the balcony. I lean on the rails and watch the sun rise.
After, I'll go into the kitchen and start breakfast. I can cook fairly well. Wu Fei cooks better than I do, but it's hard to make him stoop to cooking for all of us. We all take turns, except for Duo. He burns everything. Even instant ramen. However, I'm usually up first, so I start breakfast.
Wu Fei and I are the only really early risers. Trowa will get up late in the morning, left to his own devices. So will Heero--that is, only if he's remembered to go to bed in the first place. Half the time I'll get up at five in the morning and find him still hunched over at the table, typing away on his laptop. He'll often spare me a wry look and a sheepish little shrug when I catch him like that. Duo, no matter how early he has gone to bed, will get up around lunch.
I rummage through the fridge, gather my ingredients, and start frying up the bacon. While I'm doing this, Wu Fei comes in. He nods to my second morning greeting. "Zao an," he tells me, calmly. He gets in next to me by the stove and starts on his omelettes. He makes spectacular omelettes. He'll make one for me, since I'm up early with him. Trowa will have to make due with scrambled eggs.
We finish cooking breakfast. Wu Fei takes his out onto the balcony. He likes to eat out there. It makes sense, since only four of us can sit at the table now. We used to all be able to sit around the table, but ever since all the furniture got pushed up against the walls, four at the table is a tight fit. I take my usual seat, second away from the wall, where I can look across the room and see out the balcony. I check the clock. It's eight already.
Trowa shuffles out of the hall, yawning widely and still only half awake. He goes straight for the kitchen and breakfast. I chuckle a little when he yelps. He always burns his fingers on the bacon. Trowa starts up the coffee-maker as well. Wu Fei will come in later and have a cup. I prefer orange juice with my breakfast. Still yawning, dressed only in his pajama pants, Trowa sidles in to sit beside me, tucked up against the wall. He says little other than a slurred greeting. He's never really awake until he has had his coffee.
I'm already washing up my dishes by the time Heero appears. It's ten-oh-five. He brushes past me sleepily, and gets himself a cup of coffee. The torn end of his sleeping shirt gets hooked on a drawer knob, and he nearly spills his coffee. He wriggles it loose with a disgruntled sigh and tosses a grumbled, "Ohayo," in return to my cheerful greeting. He goes and sits across from Trowa, who is doing yesterday's Sudoku over his second cup of coffee.
Today is Heero's day to fix lunch. I suspect an odd combination of foods--Heero is one of those peculiar people who can eat anything, and does not care how strange it tastes. Wu Fei is feeling generous today, however, and orders out for pizza instead. We're settling down across the floor with our food by the time Duo comes staggering out of the room he shares with me and Trowa. I look at the clock. It's half-past twelve.
"Good afternoon, Duo."
"Morning," he yawns, and makes his unsteady way to the coffee-pot. Though only a little remains from this morning, he emerges with the dregs in a cup, heavily doctored with milk and sugar. He sits down next to me, crosses his bare legs, and reaches for a slice of pepperoni. He hasn't yet redone his braid--it's all fuzzy and his bangs are standing out like a porcupine's quills. He must have slept on his face all night. He has a crease pattern from his pillow imprinted on his cheek.
"You snored all night," Trowa complains, suddenly, stealing a slice of cheese right out from under Duo's fingers.
"Wha--? Did not." Duo scowls.
"Did too," I agree. "You slept on your stomach. Your face is creased."
Duo pats his cheek, frowning.
"I heard him," Heero pipes in.
"If Heero heard me, I must've been pretty bad," Duo admits, with his mouth full. "Why didn't you roll me over?"
"I did," Trowa answers. "Twice."
"You even sat up and said something to him," I tell Duo. "I think you told him to leave you alone."
"I did? I don't remember."
"You never do," Wu Fei sighs.
Duo is our heaviest sleeper. I have seen him nap right through Heero starting up Wing Zero, which is the equivalent of starting up a jet engine. It was incredible. Heero and Trowa, on the other hand, are light sleepers. Heero can't sleep if there is any noise in the room. Wu Fei and I are moderate, though Heero and I share the same instantly-awake reaction. If we're awake, we are awake and usually can't go back to sleep. Trowa can sleep anywhere, even if it may not be for long, and though any noise will wake him up, if we want him up for good we have to do it several times. Wu Fei is the same way. If we wake him up once, it may not be good enough. Saying something to us is not a good indication of complete consciousness.
Duo is the only one of us who snores, though. And only when he sleeps on his stomach--which, unfortunately, is his favorite sleeping position. He is not the loudest snore-er I've ever heard, but he can crank up the volume allright. Trowa is thinking of trading rooms with Wu Fei, but I don't think Wu Fei will agree to that. He's just stubborn like that.
Heero cleans up the lunch mess. Trowa goes out to run some errands. He tries to take Duo with him, but Duo adamantly refuses. I settle down with a book in one of the armchairs, near the table. Duo, brush in hand, still wearing his boxers and the ridiculously over-sized T-shirt he sleeps in, sits cross-legged on the couch and starts on his braid. Wu Fei settles into the center of the room and starts his martial arts routine.
This is one of the reasons all our furniture is lining the walls. One day Wu Fei pushed the apartment's furniture out of the way so he could practise his martial arts. He did not put it back when he was done, and Heero tripped over the end-table on a midnight run to the fridge. He had a very bruised shin and a black eye, and stiffly told Wu Fei to put the stupid furniture back when he was done with it. A few days later, Trowa moved the furniture again and practised his acrobatics. He put the furniture back. Heero ran into the couch this time, bruised his other shin and blacked his other eye, not mention scaring Duo half out of his wits. It was declared by Heero that the "stupid furniture" was to be put in one spot or the other and for it to "stay that way or I'll get rid of all of it!" Thus, our furniture became permanently stationed against the walls. While I can't say I dislike it, I would like for all of us to be able to sit around the table again. Like a family.
But maybe we don't really have to.
Maybe we're a tiny family all the same.
A/N: This is the first part of a series of five little doodles. After Quatre got one, the rest of them got jealous and wanted their own pieces. More to follow when I can update. Oh, and the attempt at multiple languages is translated below.
Zao an -- Good Morning (Chinese)
Ohayo -- Morning (Japanese)