The Mailman

Disclaimer: I don't own this anime/manga. Actually… I don't own anything except for my stories and various other non-valuable things. Also characters might be a little OOC, so… uh, yah enjoy.

A/ N: Hi, I'm back again after about what? 4 months? Well anyway, I'm pretty sure you've heard all the excuses that all of us writers make so this time I won't write them. I hope you enjoy this one-shot after I had that 4 month writer's block. I couldn't find any inspiration for my stories as well as making and drawing OC characters. My friend got bugged because I kept drawing the Star Ocean wallpaper she had in her binder. HAHA. Well, enough with the ranting and on with the show- … er… story!

Four months had passed since the post office had finally found a man who was willing to take the job, four months of mailmen, one after the other trading off. Not knowing which one would come one week after the other. The war had taken most of the men from this area and shipped them off to the battlefields. There was also a huge snow storm that kept coming and going. Thus the men would trade off week after week going to the selected houses one day and the next, another selection of houses. He felt lonely, cooped up in this house staring out into the pure white snow waiting for someone to pass by and give him a smile, a hello, and his mail.

He sighed a bit and rested his face on hands and continued staring out. He doubted that the man would actually come. He had heard rumors about this man and that he was not to be trusted, being the perfect soldier and all. He had heard that the man finally broke down and disobeyed orders from the superior and killed a fellow soldier. Besides, the storm began to pick up again and it wasn't safe to walk through. He began sipping his cocoa and playing with his hair.

'Maybe I'll get that new Gundam I ordered today –Oh… fuzzy.' He began grinning as he thought of the little action figure with all the movable parts and a scythe that actually cuts! Suddenly little bubbles began floating around him.

A boy with unruly brown hair ran up to Duo and waved his wand in the air as a gesture. "Nii-san! Will Santa's helper come today?" the boy asked excitedly. Duo looked at him sadly and ruffled the boy's hair as he batted the hand away. "I don't know."

He had told the boy that all the mailmen where Santa's elves because technically they did collect the Santa letters from people's mailboxes. Finally he saw a figure outside struggling in the incoming storm. Hurriedly, he ran to the door and opened it gradually. He pulled the shivering man in and closed the doors. He turned around and looked at him.

A few seconds had passed and still there was awkward silence. "So. Are you going to hand me the mail?" If he felt stupid for asking the question, he felt more idiotic when the man didn't respond. He started to blush from the embarrassment. Wordlessly, the man pulled out a stack of mail from his bag and whispered to him, "Yuy."

Duo blinked confused. "Huh?"

Heero began glaring at him and said in an unhappy tone, "I'm your new mailman." He hated the fact that one, he was the mailman to an orphanage, which meant reading way too many Santa letters; two, he was talking to a complete total moron who didn't understand that Yuy was his name; and three, he was stuck here for an unknown amount of time because of the storm! Gods! He felt like bashing his head into a stone pillar for getting himself discharged from the war. Never again will he do a favor for Wufei. He's on his own from now on. Love is for war, hate is for little screaming spoiled children.

A gentle tug came from his side as a sweet voice reached his ears, "Um, Mr. Mailman sir, are you ok?" Angrily he snapped his head in the direction of the voice only to see a girl and an unconscious Duo on the floor. Apparently he hadn't realized that he did in fact bash his head into the closest thing next to him which just happened to be Duo. Oh yah, he could see it now.

Half way around the world, the paperboy went, "Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Perfect Soldier does it again! New victim down! I repeat! New victim down!"

Duo, who began to gain conscious again, stood up and brushed himself off. He glared at Heero who glared back at him. It began a glaring contest between the two. "Thanks a lot. I needed that."

"Hn."

(Present time. FF to 2 weeks later. 15 days till Christmas)

He stared at Duo and then looked at the piece of chipped paint in his hand. "Hn… (Translation: I have a problem and I want you to fix it.)" Heero looked like he was drilling holes into the paint and then turned his head expectantly in the direction of Duo who was standing under doorway. Finally Duo began fuming as Heero put his hand into his pocket and proceeded to dig out more paint and stare blankly in his direction. Duo couldn't take it anymore and finally blew up in his face. "If you hate having to stay over every time you come here then I suggest you stop having lousy timing!"

Duo began ranting about how Heero complained about everything every time he had to stay over because the storm always became worse when he came. He complained about the coldness of the orphanage down to the little itty bitty rice grain in the carpet that no one had ever been able to get out. That was how bad it was. Everytime he came, it's like he found a new thing to complain about. It was like a never ending list. In fact Duo kept track of everything he ever complained about during his stays.

"If the paint in your room is chipping why don't you go paint it yourself? You seem to have all the time in the world to have a new complaint every day! In fact go fix everything that you find wrong yourself!" And with that he slammed the door in Heero's surprised face and began messaging his temples as he felt another headache coming and proceeded to throw himself into his one-seat couch. He sighed content that he had finally said what was bugging him.

Being surprised wasn't one of the many emotions that Heero normally had. So when Duo slammed the door in his face he was certainly surprised. What surprised him even more was that he felt a twinge of pain in his heart and he found that he couldn't put up the poker face that he had perfected during the 17 years that he had lived, 2 of them his childhood years. Heero began to feel like he overstayed his stay for far to long and began to pack his items. He scribbled a quick note to tell Duo that he was leaving, but he stopped halfway through the note and scratched out a few words before he stopped writing altogether.

He began thinking, 'Wait, why am I even telling him where I'm going? I'm not his girlfriend.' And with that thought, he crumpled the paper up and threw it into the trash bin next to him. He nodded in the direction of the nun at the front desk and exited out the front doors.

A few moments later, Duo's door opened and Duo who finally felt calm enough to talk to Heero set out to search for him. He walked into Heero's temporary room and knocked on the door. "Heero? Heero! HEERO! HEY! ARE YOU IN THERE?" He began shouting by now and began to get frustrated when no one opened the door. He was about to kick the door down when it opened by itself. Duo blinked.

"Heero?" He began whispering as he went into the room only to find all of his clothes gone. He began searching for any notes Heero left him only to find that there were none. Panicking, he ran through corridors. Heero never forgot to leave him a note. It was an unofficial rule understood by both of them. If one was to leave they were to leave a note for each other. So since he didn't leave one he must have been kidnapped. And the next thing he knew, he found himself crying in a corner in panic.

A nun kneeled down next to him and laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Son, are you ok?" He looked up teary-eyed and sniffled. He found himself using Heero's nickname. "No. I can't find Hee-chan."

She whispered, "Aw, hunny, he left a while ago. Didn't he leave you a note?"

He rubbed his nose and sniffled. "No."

He didn't see Heero again after that incident. They would still get their mail from him but Duo only saw a glimpse of Heero when he came by. It seemed that as soon as Heero saw Duo he would walk away as fast as he could and could never stay even when he was snowed in. He would drop the mail off at the front desk and collect the mail in the outgoing box, nothing more, nothing less. The glimpses became rarer as the holiday neared and Duo began to become depressed. He found that he missed having Heero around to talk to even though all he did was grunt and make one-word sentences with the occasional complete sentences.

And two days before Christmas, he found himself writing a letter to Santa like all the other children in the orphanage. Something he hadn't done in 10 years since a bully in grade school told him Santa wasn't real.

Dear Santa,

I know I haven't been faithful in writing letters to you. But I have two wishes and they're not big ones. All I want for Christmas is my Gundam Deathscythe Action Figure that I'm pretty sure I ordered a month ago and it is NOT a doll! They said it would come in 2 weeks but it's been a month now and I'm wondering if it got lost somewhere. And also if you can, I want to be with Heero when Christmas Day comes.

Thanks,

Duo Maxwell

The next day, Heero found himself sorting through the mail the orphanage had for him. "Bill… bill… Santa letter… letter… Santa… bill… junk… letter… Santa letter from Relena" He found himself grimacing when he held up the last letter he picked up and put it through the shredder. He already knew what it was going to say. "Give me Heero for Christmas or die!" It was actually kind of sad and pathetic.

It was a tradition for all mailmen in this city to go through the Santa letters and buy one present from the wish list a person sent. This meant he had to buy and deliver a whole lot of presents.

Finally he reached the last letter and was about to toss it into the Santa letters to read tomorrow pile when he noticed who it was from. Didn't Duo say he didn't do Santa letters anymore? He recalled a certain conversation he had with Duo about his childhood and how a bully who always picked on him because of his hair ruined his Christmas by saying Santa didn't exist. Well, technically, it wasn't really a conversation, but that's not the point, so back to the story. He went to ask the teacher and she just looked the other way and that was why he stopped writing letters to Santa.

It must have been important otherwise he wouldn't have sent one. He felt kind of guilty for avoiding him. He shrugged as twirled the letter opener in his hands before he swiftly sliced the envelope open. He was laughing silently. Something that he started doing since he's met Duo. He skimmed through until he saw the last line. He got to the last line before he dropped the paper, his hands trembling. He wants to be with me! For Christmas! Heero was shocked and suddenly it was like he never felt so happy in his whole life. This was probably the best thing that happened to him next to getting his first laptop of course. But it was damn close.

Then it was like a dam opened. The loneliness that he had managed to lock away by keeping himself busy with his work and laptop had come back. He found himself missing how loud and obnoxious the boy had been. He loved teasing him although he had gone to far with the paint. In the last visit that he had, he didn't know what to complain about. In fact, he had gone so far into peeling the fresh paint off the walls to present to Duo just so he could find something to talk to him. Kind of like a conversation starter.

He didn't know why he did half the things he did around him. He stayed every time he went just because he wanted to see him even though he knew he's been through worse storms with ragged clothes. There was something about Duo that made him want to be around him all the time and it gave him a bubbly feeling when he was around him. He found himself leaving little notes for him when he left even though it wasn't necessary for him to know exactly where he was going after he leaves, like the convenience store down the street.

He didn't know why but somehow, he began acting as if they were a couple. He had a reason for avoiding him because he thought Duo was still mad at him, but now he didn't have a reason. They both wanted to be with each other. A grin broke out on his face.

(Operation Santa is a go. Christmas Day)

"OH! DO ME! DO ME! I WANNA GO FIRST!" each child screamed in happiness when they saw the stack of presents underneath the tree.

"Now children, don't you think you should thank Santa first?" The nun said as she gestured to the man in red. She turned towards Duo with a twinkle in her eye. "Duo?"

He stared at the man and slowly walked up to him. "Heero?" he whispered quietly, as he began laughing under his breath. The man put his index finger to his mouth and whispered, "Shh…" He glared at Duo as he began laughing some more. 'Laugh at me and die a painful death.'

Duo laughed some more and began teasing him. "You're not a very happy Santa. Do you have a present for me?"

He gave him another glare and said, "Ho, ho, ho, only for the good ones, not the naughty ones." Duo pouted and held out his hands only to be turned down once again. There were no presents left under the tree and Duo's eyes began to water because he didn't get a gift.

Heero rested his head on Duo's shoulder and murmured happily, "Your present is on your bed." He shivered from having him so close to his neck before he began to comprehend what he said.

After a moment or two of digesting what had happened, Duo's eyes widened happily and he ran upstairs. He began a path to destruction wherever he went and ripped the wrapping paper into shreds. "My Deathscythe! It came!" He shouted happily. He rubbed his cheek on the outside box before he realized how stupid he must look. But he saw Heero smiling. He gasped and smiled happily.

"Heero! You're smiling!"

"No I'm not."

"Yes you are!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"NO!"

"YES!"

"NO!" Duo tackled him to the floor and pinned him down.

"I'm not letting you go until you say that you're smiling!"

"Never!"

"Yes!"

"Mistletoe."

"Huh?"

"Mistletoe." Duo looked up and found the sister holding a piece of mistletoe atop of their heads smirking before Heero swiftly kissed him. Then he groaned as Heero broke the kiss, "Mistletoe."

(New Year's)

"10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1… 0!!!"

All of the lights were turned off and Heero captured Duo's lips. "Best year ever." He mumbled against Duo's sweet lips. "I concur."

Comments you can ignore because I am ranting:

My first fic for Gundam Wing, but it's not totally my first idea for this anime. I never got around to writing my other idea. I stayed up for 3 hours working on this but it turned out totally different than I had planned. I was brain dead by the end. It isn't as exciting as all my other one-shots so I'm a bit disappointed. It'd be nice to get some reviews, HAHA. And this was the first time I had no idea which anime I should put it under, which never happened to me before. I started writing it out and went hmm, it fits the whole Duo and Heero thing. So there you have it, my first fic of DuoHeero. The relationship of Duo and Heero kind of went to fast huh? Haha, well, it's all good. There should be another revision if I have the time. I hope you have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all those who read this freaking long not-even-allowed-to-be-called-a-paragraph. xD