Chapter 21- Be My Valentine
Heero awoke in his own bed in the inn. He and Audrey had successfully completed their first week as Preventers, and were both looking forward to a relaxing weekend. Or at least Heero had been until he suddenly decided that they needed to move out of the inn. He looked around the room and stretched out lazily before sitting up. Upon seeing the small room yet another morning, he had realized that he was quite tired of it. It was small, and there was no fridge or kitchen, and it just wasn't…his.
It was high time for him to get his own place…or their own place.
It had only recently dawned on him that, if all went as planned, he would be living in—or at least near—Sanction for a very long time. Longer than he had lived anywhere. It was almost incomprehensible to him to have a home—one that would always be there. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that that was what he wanted. A home. Not just somewhere he lived for a while, but a place that he could put his own mark on, and which would be all his own in return.
He crisscrossed his legs and laid his arms across his knees. It was a reasonable idea as well. They were just throwing their money away by staying in an inn—not that he didn't have a good bit stashed away, and not that he couldn't just swipe some from someone's account if they were ever broke. The apartments in Sanction, from what he'd heard, were outrageously priced. Eventually, they would need a permanent residence, and what better time to get one than the present.
A house would be better. One with a yard…and a refrigerator. His stomach growled at the thought. He looked over to lump that he assumed to be Audrey. She was, of course, still sleeping. She always slept to outlandish times when he let her. It was almost 8 o'clock for Pete's sake.
It would be good to have some of her cooking again. It wasn't the best in the world, but it was undoubtedly good.
With that thought in mind, he hopped off the bed and went to get dressed.
He would do a little research and then wake Audrey up.
An hour later, Heero had a half-sleeping Audrey in the passenger seat of the jeep.
"Where are we going?" Audrey yawned as she slumped against the window.
"I told you already." Heero glanced over. "We're going to look at a house."
"You're not kidding?" Audrey's eyes drooped.
"Of course not."
"What's so special about it that you had to wake me up so early?" She slouched down further in her seat and propped her knees against the dashboard. "Is it haunted?"
It just then dawned on Heero that he hadn't explained why they were going to see the house. "I want to buy it."
Audrey was awake in an instant. "Huh? Wait wha…? You want to buy a house?"
He nodded and grinned over at her.
She just stared back. "Heero, houses are expensive."
"Not this one...at least not the sale price."
She blinked. "Then something's wrong with it."
He just shrugged. "So it's a fixer-upper. Just wait 'till you see it."
She stared at him with a calculating look before slouching back into her seat.
He glanced over at her. He didn't really know what the house looked like either, but it was the only on in the area that that was in a good location and that they could afford.
He wasn't committing to it yet. He just wanted to see.
The house was just outside of Shady Grove on the way to Sanction. It was secluded and had a rather large estate from what he could tell. He knew that it was probably too good to be true, but he didn't want to count it out yet.
A little sleuthing through the internet had led him to the house. Apparently, it had belonged to a farming family almost two decades before Sanction was even founded. Shady Grove, the small farming town that it is—and had been at the time—was the largest town for miles. The family that had owned the house had been the wealthiest in the town and had owned quite a lot of land.
A long drought caused their crops to fail. Instead of waiting out the drought, the family sold their farm to the town, took their money, and moved into the city. The other townsfolk had not had that option. They stuck with their farms until the drought ceased. A lot of the land had been used over the years for farming, but the majority of it remained untouched. No one had even gone into the old house since they moved out—except probably some children who liked to believe that it was haunted. No one ever moved into Shady Grove anymore. They only moved out.
Heero turned off of the blacktop road and onto a smaller gravel one. The directions that he had found led him to this place. He had also found the phone number to the town council—probably his best bet for buying the house.
After almost a minute of riding through trees, the forest opened up into a large field. The entire estate was set apart by a rather broken down fence. That was made of only poles shoved in the ground and then two parallel boards running horizontally to connect them. They had entered the house's estate. Heero could see the house in the distance. As he drew nearer, his heart sank.
"Wow." Audrey said. "Talk about a fixer-upper." She looked over to Heero to see that he looked almost devastated by the looks of the house. The look on his face almost broke her heart. She hadn't known how much he had had his heart set on this, but now she realized that he wanted it badly. She looked over the house again. It was pretty broken down, but it could always be fixed.
The house was wooden, but many of the boards had been broken. A few were missing altogether. The porch appeared to be barely sturdy. The house had once been painted white—or perhaps grey. Either way, the paint had faded to a grayish brown and was chipped and falling off all over the place. Even though all the windows and doors had been partially boarded over, there wasn't a window in the house that was in one piece. Most of the shutters had either fallen or were hanging on by one hinge.
She didn't know much about houses, but she judged that the overall frame was probably still good. At least the roof was in one piece.
She decided that she would at least give it a shot…if only for Heero.
As they pulled to a stop, Audrey quickly hopped out of the jeep. She climbed over the short fence and headed over to the house. Heero followed a little glumly behind her. He had expected the house to be old and a little torn up, but not this bad.
Audrey tiptoed onto the porch testing her weight before setting her foot down. To her surprise, the wood held her. She went over to the nearest window and looked in through a hole that appeared to have been caused by a rock. What she saw inside was almost an amazing contrast to what was outside. The walls, although faded and with wallpaper hanging from them, were in one piece. The floors were covered in dust, but they looked solid. The room that she could see was probably the living room. There was a wall to the left of the doorway that blocked her vision into the next room. The things that really caught her attention though, were the huge fireplace set against the back wall of the living room, and the curved stairway with the intricate carving on the banister.
She edged toward the door and tried the handle. To her delight, it swung open. She took a step back and looked at the boards covering the door. There was a hole at the bottom where some kids had probably pulled a board loose. It was a small hole, but it looked big enough for her to slide under. She crouched down and stuck her head through the hole.
"What are you doing?"
She jumped, hitting her head on the board above her. She pulled her head back out and turned to look at Heero. "Looking inside."
He stood over her, staring down. "Why?"
"Because it's pretty. Take a look." With that, she laid down on her stomach and wiggled into the house.
Heero watched her go. "You really like it?" He had figured that she would never like it. A little spark of hope rekindled itself.
"Yeah." She called back. "Just look at these stairs."
He peeked through the holes in the boarding on the door. Audrey was standing at the base of a large, curved, wooden staircase. She was hardly anything more than a shadow in the dark room. She turned and looked back at him. "Come on!"
Heero crouched down to the hole she had crawled through. He would never fit. "Wait!" He called to her, but she had already disappeared up the stairs.
Heero turned and looked around before turning back to the doorway. He squatted down again and grabbed the lowest board. With one quick yank it came out. He lost his balance and went crashing onto his back. Luckily, no one was around to see.
He got back up and crawled through the doorway. He looked around the living room. It was completely bare. Not a bit of furniture anywhere. Everything was covered in dust, and the ceiling was somewhat unnerving. A lot of it was sagging and he could see a big spot of mold on the ceiling where years of water had leaked through the upper floorboards. Luckily, none appeared to have reached through to the bottom floor.
He glanced up at the stairs once before deciding that he wanted to check the rest of the downstairs first. To the right of the stairway was a short hall that opened to a small open area. He headed there first.
Down the hall and to the right were two doorways. Heero opened them both to see that they opened to two midsized rooms—probably bedrooms. On his left were a door, an arced opening, and another door. The two doorways led to a bathroom and a smaller room. He didn't know what the small room could have been, but it was too small to be a bedroom. The opening led to an open room. He walked through the room and ended up on the other side of the stairs. There was another doorway dead ahead which lead to the kitchen. He was about to take a step inside before he heard a scream and a thump upstairs.
Heero took the stairs three at a time and looked around. A small squeal from the room to his left sent slamming through the door.
He immediately spotted Audrey standing shoeless on a bed, and staring terrified at something on the floor. Heero followed her gaze to see a rather large spider crawling across one of her shoes. The other shoe, obviously used as a weapon, had skidded past the spider and hit the wall. She had terrible aim.
Heero rolled his eyes and grabbed the shoe with the spider. He shook the spider onto the floor and quickly smashed it.
"Eww." Audrey whined, not moving from her spot on the bed. "I have to wear that. But while you're at it, get that one too." She pointed back to the door he had just come to. Another large spider had made a web on the top of the doorframe.
Heero threw the shoe like a javelin and effectively killed the second spider.
Only then did Audrey step off the bed.
While she was putting her shoes back on, Heero took a moment to look around the room. It was probably the master bedroom. It was large, with a king sized bed set against the left wall. It had its own bathroom and a pretty big closet on the opposite wall with a grand fireplace between the two doorways. On the opposite wall was a large floor to ceiling window.
"It's nice isn't it?" Audrey asked. She was standing beside him surveying the room. "I like it."
"Really?"
"Yeah. I was kinda worried when I saw the outside, but the inside has a lot of potential. Well except for those rooms right there. They're pretty nasty. It would probably be better if we just tore them out."
"What rooms?"
Audrey led him out onto the platform from the stairs. There were five doorways besides the one they had just come from. Two were on the wall adjacent to the stairs, two were on the wall across from them, and one was on the wall to their left. Audrey pointed to the two doors adjacent to the stairs. "Those two rooms. The roof above them apparently leaks, and the floor and parts of the walls are pretty much rotted. It would be easier to just tear them out. We don't really need five bedrooms anyway."
Heero nodded. Those were the rooms above the living room. He'd known there was water damage already. Offhandedly, he mumbled. "Seven."
"Huh?"
"There are two bedrooms downstairs."
"Then these are really useless." She gestured to the ones in front of them.
"So…you really like it?"
She nodded.
Heero nodded and pulled a slip of paper out of his pocket. "Good. Give me your phone."
Buying the house had been another hassle full of paperwork, phone calls, and confusion. It had been difficult to explain to the town council—a traditional sort of folk—that they wanted both of their names on the title, even though they weren't married. Many people thought they were crazy for wanting such a dilapidated house, but they were eager to get rid of it and to get their money. It had also been a tad troublesome to get the water turned on. They tried to get the electricity turned on, but they would have to wait until they had inspected all of the power lines, and circuits in the house.
They had decided to move in that night. Audrey hadn't been too sure about the idea—especially since the house didn't have an unbroken window in it. Heero was sick of staying in the inn though, and he would have preferred to be able to wake up early the next morning and get to work fixing up his new house. Lucy and Anna were sad to see them go, but they had promised to visit sometime.
By 5 in the afternoon, they finally moved in. They put all of their belongings in the upstairs bedroom and headed into Sanction to do some shopping. They picked up everything they figured they would need to at least start cleaning up the old house, some food, and also a few necessities including some bug and rat poison, and a few candles and flashlights. They wouldn't get electricity until at least tomorrow, but their water was turned on by the time they got back.
They dropped all of their bags by the front door and just looked around.
"I can't believe we bought a house." Audrey said after they had stood for a few minutes in silence. She didn't know if her decision to buy the house with him had been very wise. If they ever fell out, he would probably be the one to keep the house. She could always go back to live with her parents, but she would be sad to never see the fruit of all her hard work.
Heero glanced over at her but remained silent. It still seemed odd that they had their own house. They had lived in houses before, but they had always been rented or, in one case, squatted.
Audrey crouched down beside one of the bags and started digging around for candles. "By the way," She said without looking up. "How are we going to pay for this. I don't know about you, but I was leaning on broke before this." She finally turned, holding two candles in her hand and gestured around.
"It wasn't all that expensive as far as houses go." Heero said as he watched her light the candles. "I already paid in full."
Audrey paused in her candle-lighting and gaped up at him. "You did what?! Where did you get all the—OW!!" She shook the match out and stuck her burnt fingers in her mouth. Whining a bit, she looked up at him for an explanation.
"Unlike you, I don't spend all my money." He said with mock snootiness.
She pulled her fingers out of her mouth and pouted. "I spent mine all on you."
He frowned. "It doesn't matter." He crouched down beside her. "The point is, we have a house. We are pretty much broke now though, so don't do anything stupid that will land one of us in the hospital."
"Why do you assume that I would put one of us in a hospital?"
"Why indeed?" He mumbled ironically. He rummaged in one of the bags and pulled out a tape measure, a pencil, and a notebook. "I'm going measure the windows for glass. You go see if any of the beds are sleepable."
Audrey grabbed a flashlight and headed off to check through the bedrooms.
Heero grabbed his own flashlight and headed off to the first window. A few minutes later, he heard Audrey holler from upstairs. "HEERO, IT'S COLD IN HERE!" He just rolled his eyes and wrote down the measurement for the window he was currently working with. A second later, Audrey ran down the stairs. She looked around the room apparently searching for something. When she didn't find it, she strode out of the house.
Heero watched her curiously for a second before going back to what he was doing.
Nearly ten minutes later, Audrey breezed back in. She again looked around the room as if to make sure that whatever she was looking for wasn't right in front of her. Again she didn't find it. "We're tearing out those rooms upstairs right?"
Heero blinked at her, wondering why she was suddenly asking such and odd question. "Yes…?"
Audrey nodded, dug something that he couldn't see out of a bag and headed upstairs. Heero turned back to his window only to jump up a second later when a loud bang echoed from upstairs and some dust—or something—rained down from the ceiling. Then there was another bang…then another.
Heero ran up the stairs and burst through the door. "What are you doing?!" Audrey was posed with a hammer above her head in front of a large hole in the wall.
She looked at him as if her actions should be self-explanatory. "We need firewood."
Heero stared for a second before rolling his eyes. "Are the beds okay?"
She nodded. "They're dusty, but otherwise fine. But umm…" She looked sheepish. "It's sooo cold!"
He just rolled his eyes and went back to his work. They would probably end up in the same bed. It was fine with him. He wasn't terribly cold, but he did agree that it was chilly. Plus, with a house that anyone could easily break into, it would probably be safer if they were in the same room.
Heero finally finished the measurements for every room in the house except for the master bedroom. He pushed the door open and was almost shocked by the sight before him. The floor was no longer covered in dust, but had been mopped. The bed frame was no longer dusty, and the bed was covered with their blankets. Even the walls looked cleaner. The fireplace was lit, and Heero could see a pot hanging inside it. He walked closer to see that it was only water. Curious, he looked around the room. Audrey wasn't there, but the bathroom door was open a crack. Heero went and poked his head inside.
He was met with the sight of Audrey's backside. She was bent over the tub apparently scrubbing it. The floor, sink, and countertops had all been cleaned. He cleared his throat to make his presence known.
Audrey looked over at him and then sat on her heels to appear more dignified. "You need something?"
"No." Heero said drawing his eyes away from her and examining the room again. "I was just looking around."
"Oh. Well I was just cleaning this so we can take baths." She looked grossed out for a second. "There was mold or something growing in it."
Heero cocked an eyebrow at her before looking over his shoulder back into the room. "It looks nice." He said. "But…why is there a pot of water in the fireplace?"
Audrey smiled at him. "I'm going to make hot cocoa."
"Oh." Heero stared for a second, and then just walked back into the bedroom. "Random."
Heero finished measuring the windows. He taped over the holes in the glass so that the room could warm up better. Audrey finished cleaning the bathtub and took a bath. Once they had both bathed, they sat on bed wrapped up in blankets, drinking hot cocoa. They had bought marshmallows and hot dogs too.
After a few minutes, Audrey broke the silence. She was bundled up so much in her blanket that Heero could only see half of her face. "When is your birthday?"
"Huh?" He looked over at her. "I don't have one…why?"
Audrey looked flabbergasted. "What do you mean you don't have a birthday?!"
Heero rolled his eyes. "I have one in the sense that I was born, but I don't know when it is."
"Then make one up."
"You can't just make up a birthday."
"Sure you can. I did."
"No you…what? What do you mean?"
She took a slow sip of her hot cocoa. "No one knew when my birthday was, so we always just celebrated the day I was adopted."
"Wait! Adopted? Gregory and Lillian aren't your real parents?"
"Heero! I can't believe this! How can have we been living together for so long and not know anything about each other?" She sighed, and, a second later, gave Heero an apologetic look. "Sorry. I didn't mean to attack you."
He just nodded, although he still looked curious.
"But yes. They adopted me when I was five. Are there any potentially life changing secrets that you have been keeping from me?" She eyes him with mock suspicion.
He shrugged and shook his head.
"Good." She brightened a bit. "Now on to your birthday dilemma."
"What brought that on?" Heero asked. "Why is it suddenly so important that I have a birthday?"
"Well Valentine's Day is in less than a week, and I was thinking of things to get you. But there are certain things that fall into Christmas gift, Valentine's Day gift, and birthday gift categories, and it suddenly dawned on me that I don't know when your birthday is. As for why it's important, why not celebrate the fact that you're alive?"
Heero just blinked. He'd never thought of it that way. Birthdays had always just been another one of those things that the normal people with families had, but which were useless to him.
Audrey finished her hot cocoa and put the mug on floor. She turned back to Heero and squirmed a bit to get comfortable. "So when do you want your birthday to be?"
He shrugged.
"What's on your ID?"
"They're all different."
"What did you put on your Preventer paperwork?"
"That I didn't know."
Audrey sighed. "Come on. There has to be one day that's important to you or that's defined who you are, somehow."
"There were some, but I don't remember the dates."
"So you don't remember any important dates?"
"Uhh…" The only two dates that stuck out were the date of operation Meteor and the date of his final battle of the war—the official peace agreement hadn't come until a few days later, but his part in the whole affair had been over. His birthday could hardly be on Christmas Eve though, so he just thought harder. Then he had it. There was one other day that meant something (good) to him. Although he had felt completely causeless and abandoned at the time, now he realized that that particular day was the first day that he was allowed to act on his own—to do what he felt was right. He had been cut off from Dr. J's orders and had been able to decide on his own path. So as soon as he had been able to move again, he set off to redeem himself. The day that he cherished so much, was the day he woke up after self destructing. By all accounts, he should have been dead. It was then that he realized that he didn't really want to die all that much—especially since it would be so painful—and that he could follow his heart to do what he wanted. "Uhh…July 7?" He attempted.
Audrey smiled.
The two had spent the remainder of their weekend fixing up their new-ish house. Heero got some glass panes cut and got to work putting them in. Audrey continued to clean the rest of the house, and then continued to knock down the walls upstairs. They had even met their new neighbors—a kind elderly couple who lived at the beginning of the gravel road. Heero and Audrey had been busy when they had come over, but they had promised to visit them when they had time.
Monday morning was quite unwelcome. The Preventers were doing some house cleaning it would seem.
Wufei and Sally were scheduled to leave that morning to head up an investigation on the house that Mariemaia had held siege in. Heero wasn't sure whether he was happy or not for the other gundam pilot's departure.
They had never really been good friends, and the recent occurrences had certainly put a strain on what little amity they had between them. Nonetheless, both of them were willing—or more likely eager—to put all that behind them.
They had started anew so to speak, and had realized that they were actually quite similar. For the rest of that one week, they had seen each other quite often. Wufei didn't have much to do at the base, but he was stuck there until Sally cleared things up a bit. If he hadn't disappeared into the mountainous forest surrounding the Preventers' base, he could usually be found in the gym. Heero spent quite a bit of time there too, training the recruits.
They had eaten lunch together, although it was not really either of their ideas. Sally had taken it upon herself to make sure that Heero and Audrey were comfortable with the Preventers and so tried her hardest to be around when either of them—especially Heero—had breaks. She had even set up a chess match between the Heero and Wufei once.
Heero had been creamed in short order. He was an okay player for what little experience he had with the game, but Uncle Freddie's few lesson's could not match up with Wufei's lifetime of experience and strategy.
Friday they had sparred again—not for a crowd, but just as a sort of "farewell, no hard feelings" thing. Heero had wanted to wait until his leg was a little better to spar again—although he had been itching for some good exercise. His leg was still not completely healed, but he could maneuver enough to put up a good offense.
Noin and Milliardo were also leaving that afternoon. They were scheduled for a conference in less than a week. Heero didn't care one way or the other if they were around. Noin was always nice to him, but he and Milliardo weren't always on the greatest of terms.
Heero politely bid them farewell. He wasn't very broken hearted about it. He couldn't say the same for Audrey, but she had always been terrible with goodbyes.
He didn't dwell on the sudden loss of "friends"—besides, his mind was preoccupied with other things. Heero had been a little troubled since his and Audrey's talk Friday night. There was one small thing that had stuck in his head and wouldn't leave him alone. He hadn't wanted to ask her about it then, so he had waited to ask his newest source of information on the workings of the world.
"What's Valentine's Day?" Hale stared over at Heero with a disturbed scowl as Heero maneuvered the jeep around the compound.
He had waited until they were away from the troops to ask, and now, with them jogging ten feet behind them, he figured it was the best time.
"Have you been living in a hole, son?"
Heero just shrugged. "Apparently."
Hale sighed. "Well I guess I'll have to tell you. We don't need your girlfriend to up and shoot you again." He crossed his arms and leaned back. "Valentine's Day is the most ridiculous, girly holiday that anyone ever bothered to invent. It's the one day of the year when every man is forced to buy flowers, and chocolate, and jewelry, and expensive dinners for their women."
Heero scowled in confusion. "There's a whole holiday for that?"
Hale nodded. "They'll get you something too. They're just more into than we are—more emotional about it. The chocolate thing is a real problem. She loves it." Heero wasn't sure if Hale was talking about all girls or just his wife. Either way, he figured that he'd better listen. Girls couldn't be too different, could they? "She'll sit there and eat the whole box. Won't even give me a piece. And she'll be happy…for two seconds. Then she'll start complaining about how the chocolate will make her fat." He looked over at Heero ironically. "One year I thought I was smart. I got her fat free chocolate so she couldn't complain. She didn't talk to me for three days."
Heero swallowed nervously. "So…what should I do."
"Hell if I know, but if you figure it out, tell me."
Valentine's Day was in two days, and Audrey still had no idea what to get Heero. She had never really celebrated Valentine's Day before, and she'd almost completely forgotten about it.
Now she was sitting in her nice new office getting travel reservations for Noin and Milliardo, and trying to brainstorm for possible gifts for Heero.
She idly ran a search for hotels on the L3 colony—the colony Noin and Milliardo were scheduled to arrive at Tuesday night. She found a rather ritzy one and started looking at the available rooms and rates. Suddenly one popped out at her. She checked the price. It was perfect! And Valentine's Day was Wednesday after all.
Quickly, she minimized the screen and hurried off down the hall. A tad nervously, she walked into Une's outer office and approached the desk. She figured that if she would execute her plan, she would need Une's permission—especially since there was a chance that Noin and Milliardo wouldn't like her joke very much.
"You can go on in." The secretary, Rosa, said before Audrey could even ask.
Audrey knocked and slowly pushed the door open. She poked her head in shyly.
"Come on in." Une said. She was bent over some papers, but had apparently been informed of Audrey's arrival. She glanced up at her. "Did you need something?"
"Um…" Audrey stepped in and shut the door. She hadn't intended to move away from it, though, until Une beckoned her closer. She walked to the desk although she was far from confident. Taking a deep breath. "I wanted your permission to play a Valentine's Day joke on Noin and Milliardo."
Une was obviously surprised by the statement. She looked unsure, but a little curious. "What kind of joke?"
"Well…they need hotel reservations for the night of Valentine's Day, and there's a honeymoon suite at one of the hotels in the area. It's so amazing and love-y that it's funny."
Une blinked, before she smirked. "How funny?"
"The entire room is red with pink hearts on the walls. The bed has red silk sheets and fur on top. And…there's a heart shaped Jacuzzi in the bedroom."
Over the course of the description, Une's eyes had taken on a devilish look. She looked at Audrey as if seeing her in a new light and chuckled a bit. "Get it. I don't even care how expensive it is. You've got my support."
Audrey smiled, the tension leaving her. "Thank you." She said and turned to leave the room. As she reached the door, she thought she heard Une chuckle something about a heart shaped Jacuzzi. She looked back, but Une was again leaning busily over her work.
Audrey just shrugged and headed off to make the reservations. She had found a gift for Noin and Milliardo—a gag gift perhaps—but she still hadn't found one for Heero. This was driving her crazy. She doubted he would ever like flowers, and although he liked candy, he wasn't crazy about it. She was starting to lean toward a nice dinner at a fancy restaurant, but she really didn't have much money. They had to spend all their money on the house. Suddenly an idea struck her. It was simple, a little expensive probably, but it was something that they desperately needed.
Although Audrey had her solution in hand, Heero was no closer to solving his dilemma. He had no idea what to get Audrey. Until a few days ago, he hadn't known that Valentine's Day existed.
He didn't know what kind of flowers Audrey liked, and he was now afraid to get her chocolate. He didn't really have the money to treat her to a fancy dinner—not that he knew of any fancy restaurants anyway.
There had to be something that he could do. Then it hit him…he'd call Duo.
Duo would know.
Therefore, when Hale was demonstrating the finer points of deactivating bombs and/or setting them off—a lesson that Heero usually just stood around for—he slipped out of the room to call Duo.
The phone rang five times before Duo finally answered. "Hello?" He sounded half asleep.
"Duo?" Heero greeted, wondering if anything he said would actually register. "It's Heero."
Duo seemed to wake up instantly. "Hey Heero, what's up?"
"I need help."
Duo went quiet. He wasn't quite sure what to make of the statement. Heero was asking for his help? Was the world ending?
"Duo?"
Duo snapped to again and put on a cheerful facade. "And what requires the God of Death's assistance?"
"I need to think of a good Valentine's Day gift."
Another few seconds of silence and then roars of laughter erupted from the other end of the line.
"I'M SERIOUS!" Heero shouted looking around to see if anyone was nearby. "Duo shut up! I don't have much time."
"I know man, Valentine's Day is Wednesday." Duo said through chuckles. "You're in quite a pickle."
"Come on…what are you getting Hilde."
"Who said I'm getting Hilde anything?" Duo said snidely.
"Duo…" Heero's voice was something between a whine and a threat.
"I'm taking her for a ride in my spaceship." He could almost hear Duo grin.
"Was that…an innuendo?"
"No. I'm serious. She really likes space. I'm going to fly her to the moon and let her walk around a bit on it. It's really more like a Valentine's Week thing since you can't get to the moon all that quick."
Heero blinked. "You can do stuff like that for Valentine's Day?"
"Of course." Duo said matter-of-factly.
Suddenly, there was an explosion in the room behind Heero. Heero didn't even flinch. It was just one of the recruits who had failed to deactivate a bomb in time.
Duo had heard it too, though, and was not as unfazed. "Dude, what was that?"
"Just a bomb." Heero said nonchalantly.
"A bomb?!"
"A little one. It's just one of the recruits."
"Heero what are you talking about?"
"Hm?" Then he remembered that Duo didn't know about his new job. "I'm a recruit trainer for the Preventers.
Duo was silent for a second, but then, "You're a Preventer?" he almost laughed. "Have you seen the Changinator?" He put on an accent that Heero couldn't place. "Go away if you want to live!" He chuckled. "You two must look smashing in those uniforms."
Heero rolled his eyes. "Yeah. He was here for a while. He left today though. But can we get back to my problem now?"
"Okay okay." Duo thought for a second. "Hmm…what would Lena like?"
"Who?" Heero asked without thinking, and then, a second later, decided that he'd better clarify the situation. "It's not for Relena."
"WHAT?!" Heero pulled the phone away and rubbed his ear. When he put the phone back to his ear Duo was ranting. "…and you never told me?! I thought we were close! How long, man! How long have you been keeping this from me? Where is the trust?!"
"Duo. Calm down."
"No! I want the truth!" Duo yelled a bit over dramatically. Heero thought that he sounded like a character from a movie. "Who is she?" His voice turned playful. "Is she pretty?"
"Wha…?" Heero wondered at the sudden change in tone, but without hesitation answered. "Yeah. Now help me!"
Duo wasn't going to drop the subject quite so easily though. "Mhmm. And how long have you known each other?"
"Duo. I'm in the middle of work. I don't have time for all these questions."
"Love is patient…"
"Duo…" Heero's voice carried an unspoken threat.
"Love is kind…"
"Duo shut up."
"Slow to anger…"
"MAXWELL!"
"Okay okay." Duo sighed. "I'll help you out. And to answer your earlier question, 'all these questions' are important in determining a gift."
"How?" He was irritated, but still somewhat curious.
"Well depending on what stage of your relationship you are in, you get her something different. So, how long have you known each other?"
"Uhh…a little over a year I guess."
"A ye-…Heero! You were dating the last time we saw each other and you never said anything. I even asked!!"
"No! We weren't 'dating' then. We were just living together."
Duo choked. "Living together! You live together?! Heero what part of 'tell your best friend these things' got past you?" He paused and took a calming breath. "Have you slept with her?"
"…yeah…?" Heero said wondering why the question was in any way relevant.
Duo was again silent for a second. But only a second. "He-man!" He sounded shocked, but then got back on subject. "So you two know each other pretty well then."
Heero shrugged before realizing that Duo couldn't see it. "Yeah. I guess."
"So what kind of stuff does she like?"
"Uhh…"
"You know, like candy, nice dinners, long walks on the beach?"
"Probably yes to the first and second, and I don't know about the last one."
"So why not just take her to dinner?"
He shifted his weight. "I don't know of any restaurants, and—"
"Well find one."
"—and," He caught Duo's attention, irritated at the interruption. "I'm near broke."
"Hmm…that is a problem." Duo thought for a second. "So here's what you do. Steal a space ship and take her to the moon."
"Duo I need something feasible."
"Why not just get her chocolate."
"I…" Heero blushed and stuttered. "I…just can't do that…"
"Umm…okay?" Duo sounded a little weirded out, but didn't question him. "Well, all I can tell you is to be creative. Does she like dancing? Take her to a club."
"I don't know of any."
"Well…Does she like plays or ballets?"
"Yeah, but I don't know where to find one."
"Well look for it. Sometimes colleges will have plays for different holidays, and there are dance clubs everywhere."
"Hn."
"Is that all you needed?" Duo asked.
"Pretty much."
"Hmm. Soooo….this girl…on a scale of one to ten, how—"
"I have to go." Heero said, effectively cutting him off.
"Wait wha…?"
"Bye." Heero hung up and then turned the phone off so that Duo couldn't call back. Slipping the phone back into his pocket, he walked back into the detonation chamber. He had an idea, but he would have to check on it.
The rest of the day and the day after passed far too quickly for Heero's taste. He finally had his Valentine's Day present for Audrey squared away, but he'd cut it close, and he'd gone a little over his budget. They had continued to fix up the house in the meantime. They still didn't have much furniture—only the old beds. They didn't have appliances either. What they did have, though, were new windows, clean floors and water utilities, and one less wall upstairs. They also had gotten the electricity turned on. Although the house was now quite warm, they still slept in the same bed—for reasons neither of them really felt like explaining.
Working to put their house together, Heero was reminded of the first few months he had spent with Audrey—back when they didn't really know each other and could hardly tolerate each other. He was almost awed by how far they'd come.
Back then, he felt awkward and usually irritated to be in the same room as her. Now, he was buying her Valentine's Day presents.
And speaking of which…
Finally the anticipated/dreaded day arrived. Heero awoke at 6:59 AM. He turned off the alarm clock before it could go off and then rolled over to wake Audrey up. To his surprise, and slight alarm, she wasn't there. He sat up and looked around the room. She was nowhere to be found. Hurriedly, he threw his feet over the edge of the bed and walked out of the room.
When he was halfway down the stairs, he noticed the smell. He sniffed the air again, picking up his pace. He made it to the kitchen at almost a run. There, he found Audrey, fully dressed, staring at him. She smiled. "Happy Valentine's Day." She held up a plate stacked high with pancakes. On top was a heart made of whipped cream and strawberries. There was another plate on the counter with a smiley face made of bacon and eggs.
Despite his confusion as to how she had made all that food, he felt himself grin. It wasn't until she moved to put the pancakes on the counter that he looked around the room. There were a brand new oven and refrigerator sitting there in the kitchen.
"What are those?" Heero pointed to the new appliances. Catching himself, he shook his head. "I mean, where did you get them?"
"I bought them." She said. "A pretty nice deal if I do say so myself. I don't have to pay for a month. I was going to just get the oven, but the smooth-talking salesman gave me a deal on the pair."
He walked over to the fridge to see that it was mostly empty besides milk, eggs, and left over bacon.
"I didn't do much shopping." She explained, hopping up to sit on the counter. "I didn't want to go all the way to Sanction, so I just went to the little shop down the road."
Heero pulled the milk out of the fridge and turned to Audrey. He looked her up and down. "How did you get them in here?"
"What do you mean 'how did I get them in here?'" She flexed dramatically, but if she did have any muscle, Heero couldn't see it.
He just cocked and eyebrow.
She dropped her arms with a pout. "Not that I couldn't have done it by myself, but the delivery men came this morning and installed it."
Heero was taken aback. Delivery men had been in the house and he hadn't heard them? He was slipping.
Then, deciding that there was nothing he could do about it now, he poured himself a glass of milk and headed over to his breakfast.
He took a few bites of pancake, and almost inhaled the bacon. It had been so long since he had had some of her cooking. He looked over at Audrey, who was fixing her own plate. Suddenly, he remembered that he hadn't given her present to her. He swallowed. "I got something for you too."
Audrey looked over her shoulder with an excited smile. "Really?"
He nodded, a little nervously. He was pretty sure that she would like it, but he was still worried to give it to her. "I can give it to you now if you like, but you can't use it until tonight."
Audrey cocked her head, wondering what it was.
"Wait a second." He turned and headed back up the stairs as Audrey looked on curiously. A second later he came back.
He hesitated for a second and then handed her a rather fancy looking envelope. Curious, she opened it and pulled out two tickets. Reading them, she bit her lip and chuckled.
Heero turned awkwardly back to his breakfast, shooting glances out of the corner of his eye at her. He wasn't entirely sure what he had just done.
"You're taking me to a ballet?"
"Mmhm." He looked away, embarrassed, and he felt his face heat up a little.
A second later, Audrey's arms were around his neck. "You're so cute when you're nervous." She said, and pecked his cheek. "But thank you."
Heero's face just heated up more.
They had two hours to get ready. Two. Whole. Hours. It should have been more than enough. Heero had gotten ready in fifteen minutes. Now, an hour and a half later, Audrey was still no closer to being ready than she had been when they'd gotten back from work.
Well, she had made supper, but that hadn't taken her all that long. Then she had had to take a bath which always took more than a half hour.
Audrey was fretting over what she would wear. Heero just sat on the bed, dressed in a suit and tie, and watched her dig though all her clothes. Every so often, she would pick up a dress and run into the bathroom to look at it in the mirror. She was thankful now that her mother had helped her pack and that she had made her bring a few formal dresses from home. Audrey had never thought that she would actually wear them at the time, but now she was relieved that she had them. She even made a mental note to call her mother and thank her later.
She finally seemed to settle on one, and slammed the bathroom door shut to change into it.
Heero lied back on the bed wondering what he had gotten himself into. When he had told Hale about the ballet, the man had seemed almost afraid for him.
"You're supposed to try to spare yourself torture, son." He'd said.
Heero hadn't thought much of it at the time, but now, he was starting to understand what Hale had meant. If Audrey wasn't ready in fifteen minutes, he would have to speed to get to the ballet on time.
A few minutes later, Audrey ran out of the bathroom. She hopped over to her bag and started digging around for shoes. A second later, she grabbed some and slipped them on.
She straightened with a huff and looked at Heero. "I'm ready." She said. Heero just stared for a second taking in the sight before him. She had on a dark blue floor length dress. It had an open back and a V'd neckline that showed off her ample chest. The dress was tight to reveal her small waste and curves and had a slit up to her mid thigh. A shawl was wrapped around her shoulders to provide what little warmth it would. Her hair was down in her natural curls—a style that Heero realized he liked—and draped down over her shoulders and to her mid back.
She was wearing makeup, he realized after a second. It wasn't a lot—just a little to accentuate her features. It was probably the first time he had ever saw her with it.
Heero blinked. This night might not be so bad after all.
He stood, being sure to grab his keys and the tickets, and headed for the door.
"Do you have the tickets?" Audrey asked, hurrying after him as fast as she could without falling down the stairs.
Heero waved them at her as he headed out the door.
They hopped into the jeep, which was not quite fancy enough for their outfits, and sped off.
The ballet was not in Sanction, but in another city almost forty miles away. They made it there in a little less than an hour. Heero pulled into a parking space which, even though it was the nearest one he could find, was a block away. He walked around the jeep and, opened Audrey's door for her.
"Why thank you sir." She said playfully, and took his arm.
They quickly headed off to the theater. It was a large, gothic style, stone building. It was beautifully crafted, with statues, columns, and giant staircases. There were a few people still milling about, also dressed in formal attire.
They headed straight up to their seats. Heero had gotten balcony seats. Although they were more expensive, he hadn't really wanted to sit with the main crowd. Plus when he'd dropped his name, the ticket salesman had offered him a discount.
They were the only two on their balcony. Audrey was bubbling with excitement. As she squirmed around in her seat and looked down over the rail to see the rest of the crowd below them, Heero leaned back and started flipping through the program.
A few minutes later, the lights dimmed. Audrey finally made her self comfortable and looked down at the stage.
Heero was still not entirely sure what a ballet was. He thought that it had something to do with dancing, but he had never been to one.
A man walked out welcoming the crowd for coming that night, and dedicating it to the sweethearts for Valentine's day. He explained that the ballet was a romance of some sort. Heero listened for the first few minutes, but afterwards, tuned the man out. He glanced over at Audrey to see that she was staring attentively at the man on stage.
A few seconds later, the man finished his speech to a roar of applause, and left the stage.
The curtains rose. A woman in a brown, tattered dress was sitting oddly in the middle of the stage bathed in a spotlight. The orchestra, which was positioned just in front of the stage, began to play a slow tune.
And so the ballet began.
After a few minutes of watching people dance around the stage, Heero leaned over to Audrey.
"Are they ever going to say anything?" He whispered. He didn't know why he was whispering. There was no one around.
"No." She whispered back. "You interpret the story from the dance, and the feeling from the movement. No speech is required if the dancers are good enough."
He turned back to watch the ballet. From what he cold see, there were just people dancing around the stage. A few minutes later, he leaned over again. "What's going on?"
"Hm?" Audrey continued to watch, but leaned a little closer to explain it. "That girl is in love with a man of a higher class. It's set hundreds of years ago, when people could only marry in their class. She wants to catch his eye, but the only way to do it is to go to a ball. People of her social class can't go to balls unless they dance there as entertainment—kind of like a halftime show I guess. The problem is, she doesn't know how to dance. Therefore, she goes to a witch to get a dancing charm. There's the witch there. Right now, she's making a deal with her. The witch gives her magic shoes, but in return for her vision."
Heero watched as the lead girl danced around blindly, and the witch, did a somewhat maniacal dance one step behind the blinded girl.
He could have never figured that out on his own. He looked back over at Audrey who was again staring down at the dancers. As long as she enjoyed it…
He started idly leafing through the program again. He thought that there might me a summary of the plot somewhere in it, but it was too dark to see. With a silent sigh, he just leaned back and continued to watch.
After a while, his eyelids started to droop. He was just about to doze off when the lights came on. He snapped awake and looked around. "Is it over?"
"It's the intermission." Audrey explained standing up. "I'm going to the ladies' room."
Heero stood and stretched tiredly before plopping back into his seat. Ballets were definitely not his thing. After a few minutes of waiting, he pulled out the cell phone to check the time. To his surprise, there was a missed call. He didn't recognize the number. He looked around suspiciously before hitting redial.
The phone rang twice before someone answered. "I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU DID THIS!!!" Heero pulled the phone away from his ear, but he could still hear someone yelling on the other end. "Audrey Harper this is not funny!"
Heero put the phone back to his ear. "Who is this?"
The person stopped yelling instantly upon hearing his voice. "Heero?" They asked sheepishly.
Heero quickly placed the voice now that they weren't yelling. "Noin?...what's the matter?"
"Your girlfriend played a cruel joke on me and…" There was the sound of shuffling, and suddenly Milliardo's voice was on the other end.
"Yuy?"
"Yeah…?"
"I'm going to kill you! This was your idea wasn't it?!"
"I don't know what you're talking about." Heero said genuinely.
It wasn't quite genuine enough for Milliardo. "Don't play dumb with me. I know you had a hand in this."
It was then that Audrey walked back into the balcony. Heero turned to her, looking like he was under attack. "What did you do?"
"Me?" She looked clueless, and then she noticed the phone. "Who are you talking to?"
"Noin and Zechs." He said. Audrey mumbled an 'oh' immediately comprehending what was going on. She grinned a bit and sat down reaching out her hand for the phone.
Heero was all too willing to hand it over.
"Hello?" Audrey said sweetly.
"YOU!" Milliardo sounded angry. "How could you…PINK?!"
Heero heard the shout all the way from his chair. Cocking an eyebrow, he mouthed "Pink? Pink what?" He was suddenly more curious to know what she had done.
"It's Valentine's Day." Audrey said as if that explained all her actions.
Heero heard Milliardo say something else, but he couldn't make it out. He leaned closer and put his ear next to the phone so that he could hear better.
"You should have told her that it was your idea." Audrey said. "I even got you champagne…oh you're not complaining about that now are you?"
"The champagne wasn't pink." He grumbled.
Heero was finding it hard to stand his curiosity. "What did you do?"
Audrey glanced over at him. "They needed a hotel room, so I got them the honeymoon suite." Heero stared for a second before he burst out laughing.
Milliardo had been quiet up until then but now he was yelling again. "Yuy! It's not funny!"
Noin snatched the phone back. "Audrey?"
"Yeah?"
"I cannot believe that you rented this room for us."
"Don't you like it?"
Noin's voice dropped to a whisper. "There's only one bed."
"Of course." Audrey said. "My Valentine's gift to you."
"Spare me your gifts." She said. "You're lucky I'm not going to tell Lady Une about this."
"I already told her." Audrey said. "She thought it was hilarious. I think she was quite keen on the heart-shaped Jacuzzi."
Heero had nearly sobered up, but at the mention of the Jacuzzi, he fell over with laughter again.
Suddenly, the lights dimmed. "Oh. I gotta go. Intermission's over."
"Intermission? Where are you?"
"At a ballet."
"You got Heero to a ballet?"
"He took me."
"Awww." Noin said. "How sweet."
"Anyway, I'll talk to you later. Enjoy your stay." With that she hung up and, after checking that the phone was on silent, handed it back to Heero.
He was still chuckling every now and then at the idea of Zechs Merquise, the famous Lightning Count, spending the night in a pink room with a heart-shaped Jacuzzi.
Audrey tapped him lightly as the music came back on. "I'll show you the picture later." She promised.
Heero nodded and turned back to watch the rest of ballet. The night wasn't turning out to be so bad after all.
Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter and those who have stuck with me the entire time. I really appreciate it!
Reviews are always welcome!