Hello All! Just something I whipped up as a Christmas treat for all my Appleseeds readers. I tried to make it a stand-alone snippet that could be read without Appleseeds but knowledge of Appleseeds will make the story more meaningful. Anyways, it's just a quick look into the future of the Appleseeds-verse with Heero and Duo's first Christmas. Enjoy!
(I'd hoped to have this up days ago but cookie-hell descended upon me and I've been stuck baking copious amounts of cookies for the past five days since exams ended (T-T) )
Episode X: Christmas (December 25, 280 AE)
Heero stirred from a dreamless sleep; something was burrowing against his side. Before he could come fully awake, he was deftly flipped from the bed. He landed on his back with a startled grunt and glared up at the bed. A grinning face soon peeked over the side of the bed, violet eyes crinkling in their mirth.
"Get up! Get up! It's Christmas!" Duo crowed at him before jumping off the bed and over Heero's prone form to dash out the bedroom, his braid trailing behind him.
Heero groggily pushed himself off the floor to look at the clock. '6am,' he noted to himself with an inward smile and went to find an over-excited Duo.
He found Duo in the kitchen, vigorously shaking a carton full of liquid.
"What's that?" he asked drily.
"Eggnog!" Duo grinned. "Blondie hooked me up with some 'traditional' Christmas stuff. Says we're supposed to add brandy, he sent us that too!" Duo informed him as he pulled a bottle out of a courier box sitting on the kitchen counter.
Heero didn't even want to guess how many credits the bottle of brandy had cost. Knowing Quatre, it was most likely worth more than one month's rent. Instead, he turned his mind to happier things, namely his bright-eyed companion currently pouring copious amounts of brandy into the two half-filled glasses of eggnog. He accepted the glass Duo thrust at him with a nod and a small smile.
"Cheers!" Duo clinked his glass against Heero's before taking a big gulp and sputtering. "Woah! That's some potent brew!" he exclaimed, his attention now fastened on the bottle of brandy. "Shit! It's pre-colony stuff!"
Heero mentally cross off a valuation of one-month's rent and replaced it with one year's worth, quite possibly more. He took a small sip of his eggnog and noted that it was indeed quite strong.
In the meantime Duo had switched his attention to the carton of eggnog and was studiously reading the ingredients label. "Ewwww… raw eggs? No wonder ya gotta dose it with some strong shit."
"Hmmm," Heero took another sip of his drink. The liquid burned down his throat – Duo had probably added too much brandy – but it left a soft spicy flavor on his tongue.
"Breakfast?" Duo asked although he didn't wait for an answer. Heero contented himself with sitting down at the kitchen table and watching Duo patter around the kitchen. He seemed completely at ease as he dipped a few slices of bread into a pre-made batter he had retrieved from the fridge. Soon the slices of bread were sizzling in a pan on the stove and Duo had deposited a multitude of bottles in front of Heero.
"Honey, maple syrup, raspberry jam, grape jelly, chocolate sauce and whipped cream. Oh, and apple sauce for you. All courtesy of Blondie of course," Duo listed in answer to Heero's raised brow.
Heero calculated caloric intake versus nutritional value with growing alarm but wisely kept it to himself. He also wisely chose to abandon any attempts to estimate how much these luxuries had cost.
"French Toast!" Duo announced as he placed a plate stacked high with battered slices of bread in front of Heero. "Dig in!" he ordered before happily slathering his first slice with chocolate syrup and whipped cream.
Heero spooned some apple sauce onto his first slice and took a careful bite. "It's good," he commented, silencing his inner voice that was protesting that he was ingesting too much sugar.
"Yeah?" Duo grinned around the last mouthful of his current slice as he debated between the bottle of maple syrup and the jar of honey. Heero cringed when he chose both.
Heero was still on his second slice when Duo had finished inhaling his plate and was watching him like a hawk, shifting impatiently from side to side in his seat. Heero calmly finished his second slice before pushing his plate away.
"I'll finish these later."
Duo nodded and all but jumped from his seat. "Presents!" he exclaimed, dragging Heero by the wrist towards the living room.
"Oh!" Duo exclaimed when they entered the living room to find shredded paper covering the floor. "Looks like Scraps found his Christmas present early…" he chuckled sheepishly.
"Where is he? I didn't see him when I came in last night."
"Hmm…" Duo glanced around the room before snorting in laughter. "Looks like he found his stocking too!" he laughed as he pointed to a corner of the room where a small furry tail was poking out of a red stocking. "Must be in a food coma, the stocking was full of some dried fruit and nuts."
Heero shook his head in amusement, glad that he had been asleep for their pet's crazy antics. He took a seat on the couch and took a good look at the room around him. "You've been busy," he commented, gesturing at all the Christmas decorations adorning the mid-sized room. Even their small apple sapling was draped with red and green ribbons.
"Yep, well you were gone for a week!" Duo chided but his tone wasn't accusing. "Had to keep myself busy!"
"Here!" Duo had seemingly retrieved a rectangular package out of thin air and shoved it into Heero's hands.
Heero carefully extracted the metal box from inside its fabric casings and laid it across his knees. Duo stood in front of him, his braid twitching as he fidgeted. With great reverence, he undid the metal claps and eased open the hinged lid. He stilled when his eyes fell on the gleaming knife resting on black velvet.
"This is…" his words almost caught in his throat as he fingered the blade, its polished surface glinting blue in the early morning light.
"Yep, cobalt alloy." Duo rocked back on his heels, his face neutral as he studied Heero's reaction.
"You made it?"
"Of course! Don't cut yourself, the blade's sharp!" Duo's face finally eased into his trademark grin.
Heero chuckled lowly. "I know… from experience. Thank you, I will take good care of it."
"Oh…" Duo added almost as an afterthought. "I have something else for you," he stated and threw a small box in Heero's direction.
Heero deftly caught the box in puzzlement. Duo was stubbornly refusing to meet his gaze; instead he was busy dusting the shelves of non-existent dust and re-organizing their small collection of knick-knacks and pictures. Figuring that Duo was just embarrassed, he opened the small box to find a watch inside. He stared at it for a moment in confusion before blinking in shock.
"It's programmed to your bio-sig," Duo informed him as he straightened a picture.
"It has a stealth program," Heero stated bluntly.
"Does it?" Duo stonewalled, glancing at Heero out of the corner of his eye. "Don't lose it. I spent a long time tinkering with that thing. I'd hate for it to fall into the wrong hands." He returned to his pre-occupation with non-existent dust, unable to stay still for longer than a second.
Heero considered pressing the issue but decided against it. "Stay here," he instructed before returning to the bedroom. He retrieved two small packages from his bag and returned to the living room.
"Sit," he commanded as he urged Duo towards the couch and took the seat next to him. He handed him the smaller of the two packages first.
Duo quietly loosened the ties on the small fabric bag and dumped its contents into the palm of his hand. "Seeds?" he asked with a furrowed brow as he examined the pale, wrinkled spheres in his hands. "What kind of seeds are they?"
"Here," Heero placed the second package on Duo's lap.
Duo gave him another quizzical look but returned the seeds to their pouch before turning to the slightly larger package. He carefully unwrapped the package, setting aside the recycled wrapping paper for future use. He gasped quietly when the smooth wooden box fell into his hands.
"You wanna try and grow an orange tree next?" he mused as he traced his fingers over the word carved into the box's lid. "You do know that 'orange seeds' is two words right?"
Heero smirked. "I ran out of room again."
Duo threw his head back and laughed. "Yeah right! You did it on purpose!"
Heero smiled indulgently. "Open it," he urged.
Duo lifted the hinged lid and peeked inside. He gave Heero a blank look as he drew out the magnetic card he found inside. "What's this?"
"It's the key to our new greenhouse on the Seventh Quadrant," Heero replied plainly.
Duo's eyes grew large. "You mean the new ones being built as part of the Restoration Project in the old UNDIS sectors?"
Heero nodded. "We can have our very own garden now."
"I… I…" Duo turned his face away as he began to tear up. "Oh, I've been fiddlin' with the oven while you were gone. It's a lot more effective now!" Duo exclaimed as he all but leapt from the couch and scurried into the kitchen, rubbing furiously at his eyes.
Heero warily followed his companion into the kitchen to find him busily slicing a roll of cookie dough onto a baking sheet.
"Are you going to bake those now? We just had breakfast…"
"Come on Heero, it's Christmas!" Duo mock-whined, his eyes still watery. "Besides, I wanna show ya what this baby can do!" He grinned as he placed the tray in the oven and turned it on. "She'll have the cookies baked in five minutes flat!"
Heero leaned back against the kitchen table to watch the cookies bake through the oven's glass door.
Four minutes in, the cookies caught on fire.
"Woah!" Duo exclaimed as he grabbed the cookies from the oven and urgently fanned out the flames. "I guess the oven still needs a lil' work."
"They're a little burnt," Heero commented dryly has he picked up a blackened cookie and took a bite.
"Hey! Don't eat that! You'll make yourself sick!" Duo protested as he grabbed the charcoaled cookie from his hand.
Heero grabbed his hand and leaned forward to press a soft kiss against his companion's lips.
"What?" Duo stared back at him wide-eyed.
Heero didn't reply but merely pointed up.
"Hey! How did that get up there?" he exclaimed as he caught sight of the mistletoe above his head. "It wasn't there during breakfast, when did you-"
He was cut off when Heero leaned in for another kiss, deeper and more languid than the last.
Duo pulled back after a few moments, breathless. "You taste like charcoal!"
Heero chuckled and pulled the other man close, Duo wrapping his arms around him in return.
"Merry Christmas Duo."
Hope everyone has/had a very wonderful Christmas!