Happy Birthday, Duo
By Nix Winter
Disclaimers: I do not own Gundam Wing.
Notes: This is from the Duo's Rat series. It's set after the series. Heero and Duo are living together. Duo is mute, Heero recovering from programming.
It was the fourth day of February and this was the day that Heero had chosen to make Duo's birthday. He'd picked the day primarily because a game he knew Duo wanted was had arrived at the shop the day before. Which is why he was waiting outside Virtual Heaven, in the rain, at eight-thirty in the morning. He still hated the rain, so he stood there, fingers under his arms, watching the rain fall, as if it didn't have any rules to follow.
He was better now than he had been though. He was better because of Duo and thinking about those violet eyes, the warm and unconditional acceptance, Heero decided he didn't mind the rain. Maybe rain was a little like Duo's eyes, beautiful and wild.
Heero didn't do missions anymore and he refused to think of this as a mission. All he had to get was a game, a cake, a card, and he had to get home before Duo got home from class. Once he'd taken out whole armies on his own, but now, the programming was gone, leaving his mind a little shattered, sparkling like broken crystal, with parts here and parts there. If he hadn't had to take care of Duo at the beginning, he doubted he'd have found a peaceful way to pick up the pieces.
The guy who owned VR waved when he saw Heero standing by the door. Heero's gut tighter and he almost ducked. Duo told him not to worry, to feel what he felt, not to judge himself, and just always come home in one piece. Heero had the note that Duo had written telling him just that folded and in his shirt pocket.
Div opened the door, motioned for Heero go on inside with a smile. "'Morning Heero-san! How's Duo-san? What brings you out so early?"
"I want the new Nocturne game."
"That's not out till tomorrow," Div said, flicking the power switch on the electric teapot. "You buying it for Duo-san?"
The man's odd mix of English idiom and Japanese politeness had always unsettled Heero, though Duo seemed to just sparkle when talking to this man. Heero also had a note in his pocket telling him not to think about strangling people, just because he could if he wanted to. "I know you have the game. The box was delivered yesterday at forty minutes after three. I need one."
"Oh Dude! You freak me out sometimes, you know that?" Div reached below the counter and pulled out one copy, laid it on the counter, a skinny geek boy hand on it as if that would have stopped Heero if here hadn't been Duo notes in his pocket. "Is it a special occasion?"
"Birthday," Heero said, knowing it wasn't really Duo's birthday, but it wasn't as if they really knew when that was, but it had to be one day out of the year and Heero decided it was today.
Div stated a price that was nearly double the list price for the game. Heero promised himself he'd just hack the game next time instead of just the delivery schedule. He paid though and remembered how much he hated rain. Duo had almost died that day, in the rain. Standing just a step out of the rain, under the cover of the store's awning, Heero remembered just that other piece of his shattered mind. It had been raining the last day he heard Duo's voice.
An hour later he'd tucked that bit of his past away to sort over later, gotten the cake, the card, sparkly blue gift wrap for the card. The card sat in the middle of their table, with the game before it, two plates, two silly hats, and all of Heero's wishes.
The year before Duo had done the same, given him a cake, but now that Heero was waiting, pacing the apartment, he hoped he hadn't done something wrong. Once upon a time, he hadn't ever seconded guessed himself. That was before the rain. Sometimes he wondered what had happened in that rain. Most of the time he did as Duo asked and tried not to think about it, but sometimes when it rained, imagines came back.
Blood in long brown hair, the thick red soaking the strands. In his mind it looked like red paint, that's all it was.
The door opened, and he looked up, startled. Duo stepped inside, a blue tee-shirt on, new jeans, his braid on his shoulder, a smile that drove the rain far away. He was so much older than the Duo in Heero's memory, more muscular, a man, not a boy, and Heero found himself smiling.