Duo Cleans House
By: Patty
It was just your average Saturday morning in the Maxwell household. Duo was up bright and early cooking his wife some breakfast. After whipping up some eggs and bacon, Duo placed the plate of food on a tray and walked up the stairs to their bedroom whistling happily. "Knock knock," he said as he opened the door slowly. Hilde opened her eyes and looked up at her sweet husband. He sat on the edge of the bed and placed the tray on her lap. Hilde tried to sit up but fell back down. "Hey Hilde? Are you ok?"
"Just dizzy that's all," she said weakly.
Duo placed his hand on her forehead and said, "You're burning up. There's no way you're getting out of bed today."
"But..."
"No buts. You lie in bed and rest. I will take care of you," he said sternly.
"But Duo, do you think you can handle all of the chores?"
"No sweat babe. I've got everything taken care of. Just leave it up to me," he said as he took the tray and walked out of the room.
"That's what I'm afraid of," Hilde muttered as she laid there helplessly in bed.
Duo went to the kitchen to put Hilde's breakfast away, in his stomach of course. He took the plate over to the sink. Then he saw the huge pile of dishes that were stacked up in the sink, mostly by him. "Washing dishes, how hard can that be?," he said as he plugged up the drain in the sink. He pulled out the detergent out from under the sink and read the instructions: To clean dishes, use a capful of soap. "A capful? That's all? That can't be enough. I will put in a little more for good measure." Duo dumped in a couple more capfuls into the sink. He then turned on the hot water. "Ah damn, I've got to go bathroom!" Duo ran off towards the bathroom, leaving the sink running.
He came running back into the kitchen and slipped and slid across the floor into the cabinets. The sink had overflowed and there were water and suds everywhere. "Shit!" he said as he ran over to the sink to shut off the water. Upstairs, Hilde heard the noise and the cursing and she just knew disaster had struck. Duo looked at the mess and shrugged his shoulders. "Well, the floor needed to be cleaned anyway." Duo whipped out the mop and swabbed the floor.
Finally back to the dishes. He rolled up his sleeves and grabbed a dish and plunged it in the water, of course, it was still quite hot. "Ouch damn, that's smarts," he said as he quickly took his hand out of the water. He braved the scolding water again to grab the dish and wash it, unfortunately, the dish was just a tad slippery and mister butter fingers, drops it and sends it crashing to the floor. The dish shattered into millions of pieces. Hilde grimaced in bed and muttered, "God, I'm not going to have a house to come back to am I?"
"Oops, oh well, one less dish to clean," Duo said as he cleaned up the broken pieces. Duo finally got smart and found some rubber gloves to wear while washing the dishes so they would at least have some dishes left. Miraculously, Duo managed to clean the rest of the dishes without breaking another one. "Dang, didn't think washing dishes could be so difficult," he sighed as he walked into the living room. "Hmm, I think I will vacuum." Then a huge grin swept across his face as he walked back into the kitchen and put Hilde's apron on. He found the vacuum in the hall closest and drug it out. "Dust bunnies beware! Shinigami is here!" he yelled as he turned on the vacuum. Duo vacuumed the living room shouting every once in awhile, "You can't hide from me little bunnies!"
Hilde was upstairs not even wanting to know what was going on down there. Then she heard the vacuum turn off, she breathed a sigh of relief. "Them dust bunnies didn't stand a chance against shinigami," Duo said proudly as he stuffed the vacuum back in the closest. Duo then whipped out the feather duster and started playing with it using sword like motions. Sweeping it across the table, the shelves, just as if he was dueling with someone. "Didn't know dusting could be so much fun!" Hilde heard all of the noises and shut her eyes, "It's just my imagination, it's just my imagination." Then she heard loud footsteps running up the stairs and the bathroom door swing open.
"No way in hell am I going to clean that thing," he said in disgust as he looked at the toilet. "The bathroom isn't that dirty anyways. I know, I can go to the store, get something for dinner." He popped his head in the bedroom door and said cheerfully, "Be back in a jiff hun." He then ran down the stairs and out the door. Silence, complete and utter silence. "Finally, peace and quiet," Hilde sighed and nodded off to sleep.
Duo walked down the street to the corner store. He walked down the aisle and got the stuff he wanted. Duo quickly bought the stuff and ran home. He quietly opened the door so not to wake his beloved. He went right to work in the kitchen. He put on the apron and fixed up some homemade chicken soup, the perfect cure for the flu. "A little bit of this, a little bit of that, ah, perfect. Hilde is going to love this!" He put a bowl of soup on the tray and walked upstairs. "Knock knock," he said as he slowly opened the door. "Hilde babe, how are you feeling?"
Hilde slowly opened her eyes and looked at him sleepily. "A little better. What do you have there?"
"Chicken soup, made it for ya," he said proudly.
"Ah how sweet, thank you Duo," she said as he placed it before her. "Go on, try it."
Hilde knew Duo wasn't much of a cook and was afraid of what it might taste like. She looked over at Duo, who looked adorable in his little apron. He was so thoughtful. Hilde took a spoonful and sipped it carefully. To her surprise, the soup tasted really good. "Thank you sweety, this tastes great. You didn't have to do this ya know."
He smiled and said, "I would only do it for the one I love."
He placed a tender kiss on her forehead and left the room. "Let's see, what else can I do?" he said looking down at the living room below. "I can't think of anything else that needs to be done. I will just take a little break."
Duo walked down stairs and plopped down on the couch and turned on the tube. Within minutes, he was out cold from pure exhaustion. Meanwhile, Hilde had finished her soup and mustered up enough strength to get out of bed. She wrapped her robe around herself and left the room, dreading what she would see. She slowly opened the door and peered out. She walked out and looked over the stair rail at the living room. To her surprise, the house was spotless. She then heard loud snoring coming from the couch. Slowly she walked down the stairs to see Duo, conked out on the couch. She smiled and kissed him on the cheek. She then laid down next to him and curled up and rested her head on his lap. "Oh Duo," she sighed as she drifted off to sleep.