Disclaimer: This is a work of amateur non-profit fiction and are not intended to infringe on the rights of Sunrise, Sotsu Agency, Asahi TV, and Bandai Visuals.
Warning: Shounen-ai
Characters: Duo Maxwell, Trowa Barton
Rating: PG
Status: Complete
Amid the Cold and Silence
Stephanie
December 24th, 2000
"I'm freezing Trowa! Can we pleeeeeease turn on the truck now! We'll freeze to death on Christmas! What could be more tragic and lame then that? Huh? I'm just asking..." Duo wrapped the blanket tighter around himself as he rocked his body to emphasize how cold he was. "And where were you anyway? At least if there were two of us there would be more body heat!"
"We needed supplies." Trowa simply stated. He set his knapsack down and settled next to Duo in the cab of the truck.
"Oh, well. . . that's fine, but can we turn the truck on now?" Duo pleaded as he pressed against Trowa and batted his eyes.
"No, Duo. We can't waste the gas. The blankets are heavy and the cab is small, we'll generate enough heat to keep alive. I've done it before." Trowa said in his sometimes irritatingly calm voice.
"Figures you would find this normal." Duo crossed his arms and slumped back defeated. "And you didn't have to take the keys with you, you know! I could have hot wired this truck if I really wanted to. I'm hurt you didn't trust me!"
"Sorry, Duo." Trowa pulled another blanket around them and huddled closer to Duo.
Oh there has to be a better way! Duo thought as he hugged his body and rocked faster in a vain attempt to keep himself warm. "Can't we at least drive though the night? We won't be wasting the gas then."
"It's too risky." Trowa placed a smaller blanket over their laps, creating a little blanket-nest for the two of them. "A truck this size traveling on Christmas Eve is too conspicuous."
"You have an answer for everything, don't you?" Duo retorted with a snap.
"Duo--"
"Don't answer that." Duo put his elbows on his blanket-covered knees and held his head up with his hands. "This is so unfair! It's Christmas! We should be inside some warm house sitting by a fire, roasting marshmallows, decorating the tree, singing carols and swilling eggnog! Not sitting in some truck cab freezing to death!"
"Chestnuts." Trowa said.
"Huh?"
"You roast chestnuts at Christmas, not marshmallows." Trowa clarified for Duo.
"Look, you roast what you want in your dreams, and I'll roast what I want. And I want a nice charred on the outside, gooey on the inside marshmallow!" Duo exclaimed.
"I have cheese." Trowa announced as he grabbed his knapsack and unzipped it.
"Cheese?" Duo peered into the bag. "Well, it's not exactly Beef Wellington, but I guess it will do..."
Trowa took a block of cheese and a small box of crackers out of the bag and set them before Duo. He then reached into bag and pushed a few objects out of the way looking for something which had shifted to the bottom.
"There's more?" Duo asked. "Oh please tell me there is a salami in there somewhere!"
Trowa pulled out a small box of chocolates and handed it to Duo. "Sorry, I couldn't get meat."
"Oh this is MUCH better!" Duo grabbed the box and read the lid. "French mints! You've out done yourself, Trowa! Where did you steal it from?"
Trowa arched his eyebrow and looked at Duo for a moment. "I didn't steal it, I bought it." He paused for a moment to take his knife out of his pocket. "I had a little money left over from working with the circus."
"You bought it? You mean you used your reserve cash and bought it!?" Duo shook his head in disbelief. "You didn't do that just for me, did you?"
"No." Trowa replied.
"Oh." Duo blinked. "Well, that's fine. . . You are going to share though, aren't you?"
Trowa began to cut the cheese. "Yes, Duo."
Duo smiled. "You're a real pal, Trowa! You know, I have some old grape juice in my bag that might have fermented by now. You care for any wine?"
Trowa stopped cutting and stared at Duo for a moment. "Let me see it."
"Sure!" Duo reached behind him and pulled out the bag he was using as a pillow. He retrieved the grape juice bottle and handed it to Trowa.
Trowa opened the lid and sniffed the juice. It was beginning to slush from the cold, even though Duo had been laying on it. "I guess this is still okay."
"Well, it hasn't killed me, I'm sure it's fine!" Duo smiled.
Trowa took a small sip of the juice. "Thank you."
"No problem!" Duo opened the box of crackers and laid them out neatly on the blanket in front of them. He placed a piece of cheese on each cracker, then leaned back a little to appraise his masterpiece. "There! Bon appetite!" He picked up a cracker and ate it. "Hey, this is good cheese, you didn't skimp!"
"I'm glad you approve." Trowa said as he passed the juice back to Duo.
"I do." Duo took the juice and drank a little. "And I forgive you for leaving me out here to freeze to death. This makes up for it. Now if we only had a little more heat, it would be perfect!"
Trowa picked up a cracker for himself and took a small nibble from it. "I'm not turning on the truck, Duo."
"Aw, come on man! Just for a few minutes! I even cooked dinner for you!" Duo stammered in frustration.
"I bought it." Trowa countered.
"Yeah, well. . . it will be too hard to eat once it freezes." Duo stuck another whole cracker in his mouth as though trying to eat it before it succumbed to it's frozen fate.
"It won't freeze, Duo." Trowa continued to nibble at his first cracker.
"Hey, you can't do that hibernation thing like Wufei, can you?" Duo asked, abruptly switching topics. "I mean, you're not just going to slow down your breathing and slip through the night like that? Because I can't do that and I might be dead by the time you wake up."
"Hn." Trowa looked thoughtfully at Duo.
"'Hn'? What do you mean 'Hn'?" Duo folded his arms. "I didn't like the way you said that."
"Nothing." Trowa said as he finished off his cracker. "No, I can't do that. I don't think it would help if I could. We're not suffocating, Duo, we're cold."
"True." Duo considered this for a moment then ate another cracker. "Well, I'm sure Wufei or Heero would do something like regulate their internal body temperature to keep from freezing. Can you do that?" he asked hopefully.
"No." Trowa replied.
"Oh." Duo's eyes drooped in disappointment. "But if we work together," they brightened again as he look back up to Trowa. "we could always generate our own--"
"No." Trowa replied again before Duo could finish.
"Well, it was just a thought, man!" Duo brushed the crumbs from the crackers off his portion of the blanket. "I'm not talking marriage or commitment or anything, I just want to keep warm, you know?"
"No." Trowa stated a third time.
"Okay, okay, I'm not forcing ya or anything. . . just a suggestion. Sheesh!" he mumbled under his breath. "Can't take a little holiday cheer. . ."
Trowa, ignoring the comment, picked up the box of chocolates and opened the wrapping with his knife. He offered the box to Duo.
"Now you're talking! Maybe the endorfins will keep us warm." Duo took a piece and popped it into his mouth. His eyes rolled to the back of his head and he moaned loudly in ecstatic bliss. "Oh yes! You spared no expense, Trowa. Good stuff!"
"The sales woman said it was good. It's not too hard from the cold, is it?" Trowa asked.
"No. . . it's perfect!" Duo closed his eyes and laid back, resting his hand on his stomach. "That was great, Trowa. Thanks. It's not quite as good as sex, but it's close!"
"You can have more if you want, there's four for each of us." Trowa pushed the box closer to Duo.
Duo's eyes snapped open. "Really? You don't have to give me half, Trowa. That stuff is not easy for us to come by, you should save it!"
"For what?" Trowa asked.
"Well you know. . . for you." Duo looked at him and shook his head. "You should save it for later so that you can have some after a shitty day. You know, to make the bad days a little better and all that."
"I might not be alive tomorrow." Trowa said as he took a piece of chocolate. "We're both alive tonight, so eat it now."
Duo stared at Trowa for a moment and shook his head again. "I don't know how you can live day after day like this. Me, I need a little hope to get me to the next day."
Trowa leaned over and picked up his bag. "Hope is for those that live their lives in anticipation."
Duo cocked his head to the side and looked at him. "No it's not." he said a little sadly. "It's not about living for an impossible dream, Trowa. Hope is about living in the belief that what we're doing will change things. Why else would we be doing it?"
Trowa merely shrugged and pulled out a tin whistle. He blew into the mouth trying seeming to try to gage the tone of the instrument.
"You play an instrument, Trowa? I didn't know that!" Duo said and smiled at him."That's really great, I thought Quatre was the only musically inclined of us."
Trowa took the whistle out of his mouth and turned it around as if studying it. "I play a little." he said. He pressed the whistle to his mouth again and began to play the old Christmas hymn of Silent Night, improvising with variations as he went along.
Duo sat back and listened in silence as Trowa continued to play. A part of him wanted to sing the carol while Trowa performed, but it did not seem appropriate somehow. The clear and pure form of the music was perfect in itself, and as the crystalline sound filtered through the night, it brought a sense of peace to Duo. Though at the same time it made him sad. He wished he could share this night with Heero. . . With all of them, actually. But he was alone with Trowa. . . Trowa who seemed to be going above and beyond to make this night bearable for him. Perhaps I should shut up about the heat. he thought.
Trowa ceased playing and set the whistle down. "I'm afraid I don't know many Christmas songs. Noite de paz is one of the few I can remember."
"Silent Night?" Duo smiled. "What language is that?"
"Portuguese." Trowa said.
"Oh, you're from Portugal! We were all wondering!" Duo exclaimed. "I guess we all lost the bet, I thought you were French, myself. Heero was WAY off, he thought you were Bulgarian or some eastern European type."
"I'm not Portugeuse." Trowa informed him and picked up another cracker.
Duo blinked. "No? Okay pal, it's Christmas, a night of truth, you're going to have to 'fess up and tell us where the hell you're from, because the accent and the features just ain't doing the trick. You're not really Bulgarian, are you? I can't see it, you've got to be French or Spanish or something like that."
"No." Trowa shook his head. "I'm not from Europe."
"Really?" Duo studied him closely. "Are you sure?"
"No, actually." Trowa said. "But I know I wasn't raised there. I've lived many places, but the earliest memory I have is living in Brazil. Portuguese and Spanish are the oldest languages I know, so I assume I'm from South America somewhere. That's as much as I can tell you."
Duo frowned and looked down as the cheese and crackers. "So, I guess you kinda lived like me... on the streets, huh?"
Trowa finished off his second cracker and picked the tin whistle back up. "The past is of little consequence." He positioned his fingers on the whistle and looked up at Duo. "I hope you won't mind if not all of these are Christmas songs." he said.
Duo shook his head. "No, I don't mind."
And then Trowa did something that amazed Duo. He gave him a gift that was better than chocolates or even heat. Trowa smiled at him. It was only for a moment and then Trowa, his face once again serious and in concentration, began to play. But for a single moment, Trowa smiled. Duo was sure of it.
Trowa played for almost an hour, when he decided that it had been enough and they should now sleep. Duo, cold and tired, nodded in silence as Trowa carefully stored the whistle back in the napsack and prepared the cab for sleep by rearranging the blankets. As he nestled in the corner of the cab, he pulled Duo close to him, offering his chest as a pillow for the night. Duo wrapped his arms around him and cuddled close for warmth.
"Merry Christmas, Duo" Trowa said, returning the embrace and holding him tightly.
"Thank you," Duo said quietly. "for making this a special Christmas." And then Duo drifting off to sleep.
~end~