Title: A Walk In The Irish Rain
Author: Shi-chan
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing does not belong to me. However the original characters within this work of fiction, as well as the plot and premise, do.
Warnings: dialect driven characters, virile parturiency
Summary: After the Wars ended, Heero Yuy set out on his own to acclimate himself to civilian life. What he forgot about acclimation is to include his friends in the process. Now he has returned to them, wanting to take up those friendships once more. However, life goes on... and sometimes the direction it takes is not what one would have imagined.
"Forever more I've stepped ashore
My sailing days are over, oh
Through time and tide and by your side
Together we'll grow old."
-- A Walk in the Irish Rain (folk song)
A Walk in the Irish Rain
by Shi-chan
Rathfarnham,
County of South Dublin,
Republic of Ireland,
ESUN
A.C. 203
Late September
There was a child in the garden, Heero thought bemusedly, squatting down to meet bright blue eyes brimming with intelligence and cunning. "Well hello there..."
"His name's Pádraic," a soft, familiar voice said.
Heero stood up from his crouch, smiling in greeting at the petite woman making her way down the garden path. "Hello, Hilde."
"Heero," she nodded, returning the smile. "Pádraic, this is Mr. Heero. Mr. Heero's a good friend of Daddy's," she told the child, lifting him up to rest on her hip. "Finally visiting?" the dark haired former pilot questioned as she tried to settle the squirming toddler.
Heero nodded as the young boy smiled brightly at him, large blue eyes sparkling as he reached grubby little hands out that Heero might take him. "May I?"
"Go ahead, you've obviously made an impression," she replied, grinning a bit more broadly as she shifted to allow Heero the boy.
"Hello, Pádraic, and how old are you?" Heero asked, receiving three tiny fingers in response.
"He doesn't really speak yet. Sharp as a tack, he is, but well..." Hilde shrugged, not concerned. "He'll be four in the spring. Maybe by then he'll decide to stop giving us all the silent treatment, 'ey kiddo?" She grinned as she ruffled the boy's already mussed hair.
Heero nodded, a bit surprised that Duo's son wasn't an all out motor-mouth at such an age, but it wasn't unheard of. "You have a lovely child, Hil."
"Oh, he's not mine," the dark-haired girl replied, her grin returning a bit as Heero's eyes widened. "Wish that he were, but no, I just get to be auntie-god-mother and babysit the brat. Speaking of, it's nap time, kiddo."
Pádraic went back to her without complaint, tugging at her sleeve and point a slim little finger at the asian man. "I'm sure Mr. Heero will be around when you wake uo from your nap, rascal." She told the boy, ruffling his red-gold mop of hair as the boy pouted.
"I actually came here to visit Duo," Heero told her, indicating his carrybag sitting by the fence. "So, unless you or he kick me out, I don't mind sticking around and playing with him when his nap's over," he offered genially.
"Really?"
"I have the time, nothing else on my agenda," the man nodded, smiling at his friend's son. "Take your nap, Pádraic, and I'll play with you when you get up, okay?"
Vehemently nodding in response, the little boy pulled on Hilde's shirt as if saying 'nap now, play sooner'. Heero smirked to himself. Definitely Duo's child.
"Come on in then, and go ahead to the kitchen, yeah?" she offered, shoving the door aside with her hip. "I'll just put him down and be right back out to make us up a spot of tea."
---
"Thanks," he said, gratefully sipping the tea she place before him. They'd settled at the small kitchen table, papers and such pushed aside to make room for their cups and the plate of biscuits she'd brought out.
"It's good to see you again, Heero," Hilde sighed, settling into her own chair. "We've missed you. Duo's missed you."
Heero nodded, gazing into his tea as the cream swirled. "I wanted to get myself more collected, more adjusted before coming back into everyone's lives."
"He wouldn't have cared. Not one iota," she told him, pinning him with her dark eyes. She really had grown into a lovely woman; and it astounded him that, as close as he knew her and Duo to be, that they weren't married, that Pádraic wasn't their child.
"I would have cared..." he began quietly.
"Why are you here, Heero?"
"I came here to see Duo." Straight forward, to the point, honest.
"Why now? Why not-- Damn it, Heero," she sighed in frustration, long fingers running through her short dark hair.
"I'm sorry," the former Wing pilot offered. "I didn't mean to..." Mean to what? Write the others out of his life? To abandon them? "I didn't mean to neglect any of you. I tried to keep in touch." Meager, yes, an excuse, but no less true.
"Emails, rare calls, the even rarer postcard. You call that keeping in touch?" another sigh. She was doing that a lot. "Yet even when your travels brought you close, you never stopped by. And don't give me that you were 'trying to collect yourself' line. It's not good enough. He's your best friend, or at least I thought he was."
"He still is--"
"Best friends don't just disappear for 5 years, Heero! That's not how it works. Yes yes, I know, you kept in touch... barely." He could almost feel the frustration and irritation seeping off of her... She wasn't saying something she desperately wanted to. There was more to it than Heero's disappearing... Something was making her tense.
"Hilde, is something wrong?" Heero asked, brow furrowing.
"Not... wrong, per se," she offered.
Heero gave her a strong look.
"It's something Duo should tell you himself. I... It's not my place," she said somberly. "It's nothing bad, it's just..." Hilde spread her hands in helplessness before changing the subject. "Kieran, my husband, will be home soon. I should start dinner. You're more than welcome to stay..."
"Hilde, where's Duo?"
"Taking a nap, he'll be up in time for dinner," she said, clearing away the table. "Wufei and Sally are coming over tonight. They'll be glad to see you."
"Taking a nap?"
"Yes," the woman replied, a bit tersely. "Please Heero, don't try to get anything out of me. Talk to Duo when he wakes up. It's not my place. I will warn you though, say anything to upset him and I will rip your balls off and feed them to you with vinegar."
---
Heero was worried. Hilde had left him in the sitting room, suggesting he watch television while she made dinner, probably to have time to calm herself.
Pádraic had joined him not long after his 'banishment' from the kitchen and was playing quietly with letter blocks on the woven rag-rug in front of the television.
Where was the boy's mother? Hilde had mentioned her husband returning from work and Duo, yet had made no mention of the child's maternal figure. Could that be part of why Hilde insisted he speak to Duo?
What was it about Duo that Hilde was not willing to share? Was he sick? No, she said there was nothing wrong 'per se'. How could something be not quite wrong? Did she mean that 'wrong' was not the right word, yet another choice of phrase would be too revealing for her to utter?
There was nothing for him to do but wait and speak with the former Deathscythe pilot after his 'nap'.
Heero frowned. That was another odd thing: Duo napping in the afternoon; and Hilde acting like it was quite the normal occurrence. It didn't add up.
---
The sound of rustling, bare feet padding along carpet and hardwood. Duo, it seemed, was awake.
Heero looked at the clock to find the hour going on five.
"Heero?" Duo's familiar voice buzzed with sleepy disbelief.
"Duo," the other replied, standing and offering his friend a small smile. "How've you been?"
The brunet shook his head a little, as if to clear the cobwebs or dispel any chance of illusion before stepping closer and smiling. "Good. I've been good. How 'bout yourself?"
Heero continued to smile, noting that the other young man had apparently begun to pick up the accent of his chosen home. "Very well, thank you."
Duo was slightly shorter in stature than Heero himself had grown to be, though that in and of itself was far from tall. He wore loose jeans and a baggy faded t-shirt with some almost illegible slogan across its front. His hair had grown longer, still tied back in an -- albeit at the moment mussed -- braid.
"God, I've missed you, Heero," the other said vehemently. "I see you've met Pádraic."
"Yes," Heero nodded, giving the boy a soft smile. "He's a lovely child, Duo."
Duo practically glowed at the praise. "Thanks, he's my treasure."
Heero was about to begin asking questions when Hilde returned from her cooking spree.
"Oh good, you're awake. Wufei and Sally are on their way, and Kieran stopped in town to pick up some drinks and dessert," she told the braided man, looking him over. "Where are your socks? Haven't I told you, you'll get sick walking around barefoot! If you catch a chill--" Her mouth slammed shut on what she was about to say as she remembered their company. "Duo, go put socks on. Pádraic, come help auntie-Hilde set the table. Heero, could you make sure Duo doesn't come back out of his room until his feet are socked in non-skid slippers?"
"Mother-hen," Duo mouthed as he turned back toward the way he came. "Yes, ma'am."
"Don't you 'ma'am' me, Duo Maxwell," she huffed, swinging her 'nephew' up onto her hip. "Socks, the ones with the tread. Now!"
"She's such a worrywart," Duo chuckled as Heero followed him into his room. "Sometimes I think she might freak if I caught the hiccups during tea."
"Hm," Heero murmured, not quite sure how to respond. "Has she always been like that?"
"Hilde? Mostly... She's a born mom. She and Kieran should just have a kid and get it over with," he chuckled, sitting on the bed to pull on the treaded footies. "She spoils Pádraic terribly. Me too."
Heero's attempt to question the other man was once again interrupted as the door chime rang. "That'll be Wufei and Sally," Duo said with a grin before pointing down at his feet. "Socked and ready, am I free to go?"
"Certainly," the dark haired man replied, stepping aside to allow Duo to make for the door. "After you."
"Why thank you, good sir," Duo chuckled, padding off to let their friends in.
"They come by often?" Heero asked, following.
"Yeah, every Thursday night. Don't live too far from here, just a bit aways in the city," Duo confirmed. "They both took on jobs at the Dublin branch of Preventers. Worked out well since it's the UK head office." They reached the door, Duo unbolting the top lock before opening it wide.
Heero waited as the door swung open, waited for the wide eyes and shocked looks. He was not disappointed.
"Yuy! What in all that's Holy are you doing here?!" Wufei burst out, recovering from his shock first.
"Visiting?" Heero ventured with a shrug.
Onyx eyes narrowed. "Next to no word for almost five years and here, suddenly, you just appear! You selfish son of a--"
"Wufei!" Sally chided as Duo opened his mouth to remind the Chinese man that there was a child present.
"Inside the lot of you, it's only fourteen degrees outside!" Hilde hollered from the kitchen. "You're letting in a draft!" came as almost an after thought.
"How about we continue this not on my doorstep where the world can hear?" Duo offered, gesturing them inside. "Please, the lounge awaits."
"Watch your mouth. -This-," Sally continued, gesturing vaguely as they stepped inside, "is why we do not have children. By my ancestors, they would know every curse word in every language before they could say 'mama'!"
---
"So, tell us Heero, what have you been up to?" Sally asked as they sat about the lounge, awaiting Kieran's arrival to sit down to dinner. "It's been a while since your last postcard, we were starting to wonder if you'd dropped off the face of the planet and colonies."
"Mostly traveling," the former pilot of Wing revealed, taking a sip of his tea. "I did a study-abroad program that allowed me to travel to a different country every few months while working toward a degree in art history with a minor in metalworking. I finished out my masters shortly there after; and about a year ago, I started renting a house along St. Helena Sound in a little coastal town on America's Eastern Seaboard and got a job in a tiny coffee shop on the beach."
"Da--"
"Wufei."
"--rn, Yuy," the former Shenlong pilot shot a glare at his wife before continuing. "You've been in one place for that long and didn't bother to give any of us an address or any way of contacting you aside from email?"
"I didn't occur to me..."
"Didn't occur to you? You've got to be kidding me, of all the self-absorbed--"
"No one asked for it."
"If we had known you'd gotten a permanent address--"
"It wasn't permanent."
"Permanent enough."
The dark haired man shook his head. "It was a nice place and a learning experience in socializing, but not a place where I'd like to live for a long time. The people there... They didn't know anything of the war aside from what the censored media fed them. Their lives revolved around their small town and the outside world was just a story they heard about occasionally... As much as I was searching to be normal, to be a civilian... when you can't feel like you share a common bond..."
"You missed us?" Sally offered, smiling brightly.
"Yes, Sally, I missed you. All of you," Heero told them, eyes sweeping the group. "Your turn, Sally, what brought you and Wufei to Ireland?"
The blond woman paused, weighing her words. Heero wondered briefly if she knew what was going on with Duo, but put it down to paranoia. She was a Preventer, information was often classified and she was probably deciding what she was allowed to say... "We helped set up the Dublin branch of the Preventers and when we found out Duo was living here as well, we decided to stay on," she gave, and if she was lying he couldn't find it.
"It is a lovely country," Hilde said with a smile as she returned from the kitchen.
Duo chuckled, giving her a grin. "You only say that 'cause this is where you met Kieran. Lovely country indeed. Great tracts of land..."
Scowling, the petite woman swatted at him with the dish towel. "Hush you. Horrible creature. Why ever I put up with you, I'll never know!"
"'Cause the house is in my name?"
"Aye, but Kieran pays the mortgage..."
Heero frowned mildly. Why wasn't Duo paying his own mortgage? Was he ill? He seemed fine, aside from napping during the day, Heero thought. More than fine, really... The braided young man seemed to glow with happiness, the epitome of health...
"Got me there," Duo gave in. "Why -do- you put up with me?"
"'Cause yer good fer a few laughs," Kieran intoned in his richly accented voice, appearing in the kitchen doorway. "What with that face 'o yers, 'n all."
Duo gave Heero a conspiratorial grin, mouthing 'great tracts of land' behind a hand... only to get swatted again as Hilde went to greet her husband with a quick peck.
"Kieran, this is Heero Yuy. Heero, I'd like you to meet my husband, Kieran O'Donovan," Hilde smiled brightly.
Heero took noted of the man's appearance, noting most his kind eyes as they looked upon his friends. "Nice to meet ya, 'eero," a firm handshake.
"Kieran," the Japanese man nodded.
"Now that everyone's home," Hilde chimed. "Let's eat!"
TBC
Enunciation table:
Pàdraic (PAW-drik/Pah-drik)
Kieran (KEE-ran)