Uhmm... I'm not actually dead... School happened, and all sorts of stuff happened. I plan on doing quite a bit of work on this story now. As for the issues about flames/not flames/what the hell ever... Here's my final thing on it. You can yell all you want, I'm still writin' the story how it feels right to me. Don't like that, don't read it. Whatever. Since it's been so long... I won't be replying to reviews this time, but thank you soooo much. Those of you who supported me (the vast majority), I thank you so, so much. It meant so much to me. Thank you.
Chapter 20: A Week Later
:Entry #986: I'm starting my new job tomorrow at the orphanage. We're celebrating tonight, everyone except me is making two things for dinner that I like. He is making the pizza and the strawberry shortcake. My two favourites on the list. Trowa is making a spinach salad and homemade sourdough bread, and Quatre is making fruit Jell-O and mac n' cheese from the box. Wufei is making twice-baked potatoes and corn chowder. I can't believe they're doing this, but they're all in His tiny kitchen. Trowa keeps helping Quatre because Quatre can barely cook because his servants always cooked for him. They won't let me cook though, they say they want to spoil me tonight. It's strange. I almost believe them… but… (end journal entry)
Heero walked outside carrying a bowl filled with pizza dough, a pizza pan and a large cutting board and set it down on the table in front of Duo. Quietly, Heero started kneading the pizza dough until he had a stretchy pale mass. Heero kneaded the dough a bit more and winked at Duo. Duo stared at Heero, but his jaw dropped slightly when Heero started tossing the pizza dough into a disk like he had seen chefs in pizzerias do.
"That's so cool!" Duo exclaimed, grinning. "I wish I could do that."
"Hn." Heero frowned for a moment. "It's not hard." Heero frowned again, thinking. "Stand up…"
Duo stood. "Uhm, why?"
"You're going to throw the pizza dough."
"I—what!" Duo stared at Heero.
"Just toss it up so it spins a bit and catch it." Heero informed Duo, kneading the dough again so Duo could try.
Duo gave Heero a small smile—a real smile—as Heero handed him a fat disk of dough. He spun it and caught it. Duo smiled more, and tried again. Slowly, Duo watched the disk form. "This is so cool!"
"Alright, that looks good. Just need to put it in the pan now." Heero nodded approvingly.
Duo's smile widened and he carefully set the dough in the pan; Heero made a few more changes to it once Duo was done. Duo pouted up at Heero. "Can I please help?"
Heero hesitated. "Why not… Let me get the rest of the stuff…"
Heero sprinted into the kitchen and returned moments later with tomato sauce, a block of mozzarella cheese and a cheese grater, an onion, pepperoni, mushrooms, peppers, and two knives. "Okay, let's start by chopping everything up."
"Can I do the cheese!" Duo picked up the cheese.
Heero nodded and began cutting the onion into long slivers as Duo made a formidable pile of shredded cheese on the cutting board. Once Duo was done, he hesitantly picked up one of the knives and began cutting the pepperoni into thin slices. Heero watched Duo carefully as he himself deftly cut up the mushrooms and started on the peppers. Heero smiled as Duo put the knife away; the American hadn't so much as nicked himself.
Next, Heero spread out a thin layer of tomato sauce over the dough. Immediately after Heero finished, Duo spread a very thick layer of cheese over the sauce and broke up the whiteness with slices of pepperoni he tossed onto the pizza at random. Soon, the pizza was a masterpiece waiting to be cooked; however, it would cook quickly so it wouldn't go into the oven for another hour.
"That looks really good." Duo eyed the pizza.
"Mmm." Heero murmured, staring at the creation for a long time before he began cleaning up the mess. "I still have to make the strawberry shortcake though."
"I'll clean it up. That way you can start on the strawberries." Duo told Heero thoughtfully, smacking away his hands.
Heero shook his head. "Don't worry about it." He had already begun cleaning the mess; finishing with wiping the area down. Then he brought out the ingredients for the strawberry shortcake. Quietly, the two created the strawberry shortcake and set the shortcake into the oven.
Once dinner began, Heero started a toast to Duo about his new job. Duo blushed, but everyone else smiled. Then the pizza was passed around—Heero had made it big enough that each of the boys were able to have three slices. Duo, however, made a klutz of himself and dropped two of his slices on the floor and declared them inedible. Heero sighed silently, but was glad that Duo wasn't stuffing himself until he was sick again. Heero also noticed that while Duo tried everything, he took extremely small portions, claiming he had stuffed himself with junk food before dinner.
"I hope you enjoy your new job, Duo." Quatre said, smiling. "I bet you'll be great at it. You've always been great with children."
Trowa nodded his agreement to Quatre's words, smiling slightly at the slight Arabian.
"Thanks! I'm just glad I'll be able to help those kids a bit!" Duo hadn't told anyone except Heero about the orphanage he had grown up in.
"Don't scare them too much." Wufei told Duo, his own way of wishing Duo luck.
"I'd only scare them if I brought you there." Duo yawned and dodged Wufei's sharp kick.
"Hey!" Quatre gasped in surprise when Wufei's foot met his shin.
"Blame it on the braided baka!" Wufei glared.
As Quatre, Wufei, and Trowa focused their playful glare on Duo, Duo ran and locked himself in Heero's room, claiming with a shout that "I'm not going to let them kill me!"
The three shook their heads and started to clean up the kitchen. Heero carefully hid Duo's food filled napkin amongst the other napkins and slipped the mass into the trash can. Once the kitchen was cleaned to Heero's spotless standards, the Japanese man knocked on his door.
"If it's Quatre, Wufei, or Trowa, go away. I don't wanna die!" Duo exclaimed warily.
"And if it's Heero?"
Heero heard faint movements in his room and then the lock turning. Heero opened the door to reveal a shirtless Duo. Heero forced his gaze away from the thin boy who nonetheless was beautiful. "So you still want to learn how to hack computers again?"
Duo nodded slightly and sat on the edge of Heero's bed. The other man quietly started up his laptop and brought it over to the bed and by Duo, cross-legged. Eventually, Duo remembered about the food in the napkin, but Heero's reassurance steadied him and they continued going over various steps and procedures dealing with hacking. Heero left for a shower once Duo, aided greatly by Heero, was able to put a few hundred dollars into his bank account.
Heero had said Duo could check his e-mail and what not while he was in the shower. Duo found a particularly funny e-mail he thought Heero might like, but he didn't know Heero's e-mail. Instead, he decided he'd set up a word document with message on it. However, once Duo started up the program, another document popped up. He was about to close out of it, not wanting to be invasive and pry into Heero's private things, but the title caught his attention. The Forgotten, by Dune Y. Macoy. Duo stared and started reading—he didn't know Macoy's new book was out or that any of the books were even available online.
By the time Heero had come back from his shower, Duo had closed out of the story and had fallen asleep, leaving the original message.