December 28th
Wufei was slightly distressed by noon on the 'fourth day of Christmas.' The surface of his desk was taken over by the clock Duo had so 'graciously' brought by earlier that morning. The sounds from within the wooden casing were annoying him. It was a medium-sized, antique clock with birds delicately carved into the wood. It was a beautiful piece of work Wufei would have appreciated more had Duo not left it to tick away each second loudly on Wufei's desk.
There was no escape, since Duo had left on a mission and locked his office door securely -- to prevent Wufei from returning the gift, he was sure. Instead, Wufei headed out into the office proper and took his time to make sure his reports were filed properly, all copies he needed made and given to the right people for review.
It didn't work to calm his nerves, however, because the most common carol he heard, the one which seemed to have taken over every Preventor agent on his floor, was nothing less than "The Twelve Days of Christmas." It was unnerving, the timing of the gifts and the caroling in the office, but Wufei failed to see how it could have been orchestrated so precisely, as for him to turn a corner and hear yet another person beginning or ending the carol.
Between the singing and the ticking clock in his office, Wufei knew it was going to be a long day, indeed. Christmas was over with, but there were still eight more days to suffer through, if Duo's admirer were so truly stubborn as to hold to the twelve days about which the carol sung.
December 29th
Duo was grateful there were no birds involved in the fifth day of Christmas. He was a little confused by the gift he received, though. He had expected five plain gold rings. What he got instead were signet rings not meant for him to wear. There was a flat area on each seven millimeter band had been etched a two digits: "O1;" "02;" "03;" "04;" or "05; and above the numbers, a single small stone was set into the gundanium.
Above the number on the ring marked '02' was a black opal. The color and number of Duo's long-destroyed gundam. The '05,' he noticed, was below an emerald. Shenlong. It only took him a few seconds to work the puzzle out fully, and when he did, he grinned. The most important symbolism for the number five in his entire life, and his anonymous giver had managed to find out exactly what would touch him most.
For the number five, the one thing which stuck out in his mind was the five of them during the war. Even though those days were behind them, they were never truly far from his mind. It was difficult to escape their past, since they worked together at Preventor HQ. Trowa lived a few halls away, Heero a few floors down. Only Quatre had avoided the barracks, and that was only because his work with the Preventors was sporadic. He was too busy elsewhere, overseeing his father's legacy and the various tasks delegated to the heir of the Winner family.
Duo knew what to do with the rings. During the holidays, things were best when shared. He'd have to have them checked out for tracking devices, but after that, it would be safe to pass the gift along to his friends. They were handsome rings, with the band being wide enough to avoid looking feminine, but still not too wide as to be obstructive to any work they had to do with their hands.
Curious, Duo slipped the one with the black opal on his finger. It only made it to his second knuckle before becoming too tight, and he frowned. Disappointed, he pulled the ring back off and sat it down inside the box the others had come in. With a roll of his eyes to mock his own insatiable curiosity, he picked up the ring with the emerald, the one he would give to Wufei, and put it on. To his surprise, it fit his finger perfectly. He started to slip it off, but a burst of intuition stopped him.
The person sending him gifts knew him well enough to know Wufei and the other pilots. If that person spent any time around him at all, and it seemed likely, if he was getting gifts, then the person -must- have known his hands were bigger than Wufei's, his fingers thicker. As inspiration struck, he grabbed the rings with numbers '02' and '05' and headed out the door. The hall was a little chilly after the warmth of his apartment and he made quick strides to the door three down from his apartment. He knocked quickly, a ring in either hand. The door opened relatively quickly and Wufei looked at Duo expectantly.
"I should probably be worried by my own apparent curiosity," Wufei said softly, stepping aside to let Duo in. Duo took the invitation, brain catching on to Wufei's words only after the chinese teen had finished what he was saying. "However, I am rather looking forward to seeing what gift you were given today."
Duo turned and grinned and held out his left hand. "Do me a favor and try this on, hm?" It was the ring with the emerald. Wufei took it careful, one eyebrow raised to indicate the question he didn't voice. He looked at it for a moment, recognizing the metal and the number. His eyes met Duo's as he slipped the ring onto his right hand. It looked to Duo like it might fit, but then Wufei frowned. "It's too big, isn't it?" Duo asked, unable to contain his excitement.
Wufei's confusion grew as he took the ring off and offered it back to Duo. "Yes. By about a size." Which meant it would fit Duo just fine.
"Great!" Duo took the ring back and started to head out the door Wufei hadn't shut yet, but the other young man stopped him, a hand on his arm.
"Duo?" There was a wealth of emotion in his voice and Duo looked over his shoulder into dark eyes. "Thank you for trying to share," Wufei finally said, after silence had held them frozen for several moments.
Duo's grin softened. "The season's not over, Wu. There's lots more to share with you."
When Duo knocked on the door to Quatre's penthouse apartment, his current home for lack of a Winner mansion or a finer place to reside, Quatre himself answered. "Just the man I wanted to see," Duo said, shoving the gilded cage of the doves against Quatre's chest.
"Hello, Duo," Quatre returned pleasantly, ever the gracious host. He took the cage gingerly and waved Duo inside. "Please come in and have a seat."
Duo entered, but made it no more than a meter inside before turning to point an accusing finger at Quatre. The move brought the blond, who had been walking behind Duo, to stop short with a frown. "I know what game you're playing, Q. What gives?"
Quatre gently pushed Duo's hand down, until his finger was pointing at the ground. He didn't try to deny it, though. "It's Christmas, Duo."
"Christmas was four days ago," Duo said, sounding slightly exasperated. He let his arm drop. "Why are you sending me all those gifts?"
The blond sighed and moved past Duo. "I was rather hoping you wouldn't discover my duplicity. I am sorry, Duo."
"For what?" Duo hadn't quite been expecting an admission of guilt, not so easily. He had expected Quatre to somehow avoid the question or to even deny it altogether.
"I had not wanted you to find out I was behind the gifts. I was hoping you would simply do as you have done, share the gifts with Wufei. By the end of the twelve days, if you hadn't figured out what you were supposed to do, I would let you know of my involvement and my reasons for it." The explanation, as it was, made sense to Duo, but it raised more questions.
"What I was 'supposed to do?'" he repeated questioningly. Then the answer partially supplied itself with the rest of what Quatre had said. "You wanted me to share it all with Wufei?"
Quatre turned and smiled. "Of course. He's your 'true love,' yes? It seemed likely to me you would share the gifts with Wufei, as he lives so close to you. They would just be an excuse to see him, yes?"
Duo gaped for a moment before laughing. "You are a genius, Quatre." He walked forward and braced his friend suddenly, arms closing tight around the smaller teen. Even given the growth spurts of the last few years, Quatre was small in build. A deeper tone of voice was his only gift of age, it seemed. "Thank you."
"You're welcome." Quatre returned the hug without even a moment's hesitation. He pushed up to the balls of his feet, bringing his heels off the floor, and rested his chin on Duo's shoulder. "You deserve to be happy with him, Duo."
Duo's arms tightened. "You deserve to be happy, too, you know."
"One thing at a time," Quatre turned as he finally pulled back, pushing away from Duo until they stood an arm's length apart. "First, I would like you to take the rest of the gifts." He shook his head as Duo opened his mouth to voice disagreement. "You have a true love to woo, Duo. Take the gifts I'm going to give you now and do what you have been doing. The next two days are already set up and you can't get out of them anyway."
"Yes, Quatre," Duo conceded. He grinned. "You're kind of cute when you're bossy, you know that?"
Quatre sighed and shook his head in mock exasperation. "You're kind of cute when you're a smart-ass, you know that?"
Duo only laughed. He held out his hand, palm up, and revealed the ring he'd brought with him. The digits "04" were etched below a citrine. "Yours, I presume?"
The blond took the ring and slipped it onto his right hand. It fit perfectly on his ring finger, the gold stone winking in the light of the overhead light. "Thank you."
"Do they all fit?"
Quatre smiled and looked at him through his lashes. "They all fit the person who is meant to wear them."
That earned another laugh from Duo. "So, tell me what else you've got planned for me to woo Wu with."
December 30th
The sixth day of Christmas happened to coincide with Relena's "small, post-Christmas celebration." As in years past Christmas had a tendency to turn out bad, the Vice Foreign Minister had wanted to wait to celebrate, in case of any eventualities that might prevent them from having a party on Christmas or Christmas Eve. Why she chose to have it after Christmas and not sometime in the week before was beyond Duo.
Une had made a deal with Relena that woud ensure the attendance of all invited partiese. If any of the former pilots had wanted to miss -- Heero, for example -- they would not be able to, whether out of respect to Relena or because Une assigned them a duty which required their presence there. Duo and Quatre went to pay their respects to their hostess. Trowa went as Dorothy's date, an occurrence that surprised no one who had witnessed them becoming friends in the previous year and a half. Wufei came out of his own sense duty, because it would have been rude to refuse the invite. Heero showed up, but was on 'active duty' after having been assigned security detail by Une.
There were more people than just them, however. There were several diplomats from the colonies, and from the Earth Sphere United Nations, as well. Added to that the significant others of all the attendees, whether husbands and wives, or simply 'dates,' and the total guest list numbered some four hundred people. That was her 'small' party of the season. The following night, Relena would be the hostess of a large New Year's Eve gala event where the diplomats and their families, spouses and children included, were invited to attend.
Duo had actually intended to spend the day of the party investigating into who could possibly be leaving him gifts, but his discovery of Quatre being behind it all left him free to prepare for the party. His hair had been washed and braided carefully before being tied with a black tie. His tuxedo was all black, except for the white dress shirt and the silver cufflinks Quatre had given to him that year for Christmas. His shoes had been polished until they shone and his bowtie was actually real, not a simple clip on.
He owed a good deal of his appearance to Wufei, who had helped him pick the outfit out several months before. Duo had used the excuse of their 'mending friendship' to drag Wufei through different shops to prepare for a party that wouldn't happen for several months, to find the right outfit no one would probably notice. It had actually been a perfect day.
Their efforts had paid off, too. For not only did Duo look quite handsome in his tux, he knew Wufei looked stunning in the outfit they had finally settled on for him. It was going to be a lovely party indeed. With a secretive smirk, he straightened his bowtie, Duo left the room he'd been given for the night.
Wufei had spent the first part of the thirtieth finishing paperwork. The rest of it was spent either in transit getting to Relena's party, or in one of the spare rooms she'd set aside for long distance guests to get ready. Now he was dressed and something less than eager to join the other party-goers.
Someone knocked on the door of the room and he spun as the knob turned and the door began to open. He relaxed when he saw who it was. "Good evening, Duo," he said in greeting.
"Hey, Wufei," Duo said, shutting the door and coming further into the room. "You ready for this shindig?"
"As ready as I could possibly be," Wufei answered. In truth, he didn't feel ready at all to face hundreds of people and to stand amidst the chatter and noise for hour after hour.
"Your bowtie's crooked," Duo said, stepping closer. He reached his hands up to straighten the material, and then he smoothed out the collar on either side. "Looking good, Wufei." They were standing close together, close enough that when Duo raised his eyes from the area of Wufei's neck, they were only a few inches apart.
"You look handsome as well," Wufei returned the compliment as he held Duo's gaze. He refused to betray his sudden nervousness at their closeness by retreating a step, even though he really wished to put more distance between them. He was saved by Duo stepping back.
"Time to get going, right? People to meet, food to eat, a hostess to bother..." he smiled as he said it, a crook of his lips that spoke of amusement. It was small, however. His usual energy had been toned down, contained somehow. Wufei could only imagine he had tuned it into something else. Even when Duo tried to radiate calm, he tended to vibrate with repressed energy, but there was a true sense of stillness about him at that moment.
Wufei murmured his agreement that they should get going, and they moved out the door together, Wufei's eyes trained on Duo's back as he followed his friend a few paces behind. There was something different about Duo, something which could only have been changed in twenty-four hours. He wondered if it had anything to do with the sixth gift.
He found out soon enough as they entered the foyer and were directed into the large dining hall with the rest of the guests. The room was very large and set up with long rows of rectangular tables. At one side of the room, set up for the purpose of presentation only, or so Wufei figured, were six cooked geese, the traditional holiday dinner in Sanq. Wufei stared for a moment at the six birds. "Six geese a'laying," he murmured softly. On the trays around the geese, eggs which had been hard boiled and dyed either red or green made rings. Garnish and bird were the sixth day. "How?" Wufei asked, looking at Duo as if the brunet would know.
Duo shrugged. "Where there's a will there's a way, right? We're not at home to go about it the normal way, I guess. Can't say either one of us was looking forward to six geese taking up space in the living room." He grinned as he said the last part, laughter threading through his voice.
Wufei nodded, conceding that point. He finally managed to pull his eyes away from the set-up as they reached their table and sat down next to each other. Across from them, Quatre and Trowa were already seated. Quatre was across from Duo and on Trowa's right, with Trowa seated across from Wufei. On Trowa's left side sat Dorothy, his 'date' for the evening. Despite arriving together, the two hardly spoke as servers came and placed the first course in front of them. Most often, if Duo wasn't including all five of them in a conversation, the only conversation was Quatre speaking to Trowa, though occasionally Wufei would join in on a topic. Dorothy spent most of the meal speaking with the man to her right, a politician from L3.
After the eight course meal, which took a couple of hours, the guests were finally allowed to get up and move into the ballroom, where dancing and more talking awaited. Duo was quick to grab Quatre as they left the dining hall, and so Wufei entered the ballroom with Trowa. Dorothy had gone on ahead with the politician she'd been chatting with before.
"Did she ask you to escort her?" Wufei asked, in line with the comment Trowa had just made about Dorothy joining them later. Trowa nodded as they moved to the side of the room to watch. They could see Heero by the punch table, eyeing the crowd and looking generally detached from the entire scene. Occasionally his lips would move as he spoke into the mic placed conspicuously in his lapel. He had made no real effort to fit into the crowd other than his tuxedo.
"We agreed neither of us felt like coming alone," Trowa replied softly. His eyes scanned the crowd until they eventually came to rest on where Duo and Quatre were talking in a corner. Duo was waving his hands excitedly over something while Quatre smiled at him. Wufei's gaze followed Trowa's and he smiled at the sight. After a moment, Duo embraced Quatre quickly in a hug, then released him and started in Heero's direction, leaving a bemused Quatre behind.
Wufei wanted to ask Trowa's opinion about the current situation and Duo's secret admirer. As much as Wufei hated the clichéd words, they were the best he could come up with for Duo's anonymous giver. At least, the best he could come up with that weren't entirely insulting. The entire situation made him angry. He had tried to deny the jealousy rising in him, but Duo's cheer the day before, and his apparent delight over the geese tonight, going so far as to point them out to Quatre happily at dinner, made the ache worse.
He was jealous of the person and envious of the happiness a stranger could bring to Duo. Neither were emotions he cared to have to deal with, but there was little he could do. Even should they discover the person behind the gifts, it would be up to Duo as to how to react. Wufei had no jurisdiction in Duo's love life.
Trowa would be able to offer an objective view of the situation, but Wufei bit back the question with the realization that gossiping about Duo's love life was also not his place.