Winding Down the Day
Stephanie
November 12, 2001
Part 3
The café ran smoothly ever since its opening day, thanks both to Relena's and Duo's help. But while they had managed to bring the customers in, it was the kind service and good food that Trowa and Catherine provided that kept the people coming back for more.
In truth, I would have liked to have stayed in New Orleans with Trowa and Catherine and help run the café, but my duties to my family and the Winner corporation kept me glued to my desk most of the year. But every few months, despite whatever work load I had, I'd take a small break and leave the colony to see my friends. It was a pleasant surprise to find that Duo, Wufei and Heero had also made it a habit to visit Trowa, often times together. And so we fell into a routine of coordinating trips to talk over old times, new goals and occasionally bicker with each other.
A little over a year after the café first opened, I made quite a discovery on one such trip. I went in the back pantry to retrieve some of the special stock tea Catherine kept for me when I saw them together. Heero and Trowa. Kissing. And rather passionately. I closed the door quickly and went to the kitchen to make my tea. I was so embarrassed for intruding on them... and for not noticing they were together before then.
I guess I should have realized it earlier, but I didn't. Trowa's initial coldness toward Heero had seemingly melted away without explanation. It never occurred to me that there could be something more, really. They were just Heero and Trowa to me, and that was that. But the two ex-soldiers, it turned out, were capable of love, and in fact, were in love with each other. They weren't really over the top about it, but I suppose everyone but me caught on to them. I guess Heero's frequent trips to New Orleans tipped the others off, as he had no other real reason to be there. That and the fact that he always stayed in Trowa's little house above the café.
Trowa followed me back to the kitchen alone. I didn't know where Heero went, but I was grateful that it was just Trowa. I was always more comfortable around him. Heero would never laugh at me, but I think he might have been as uncomfortable as I was, and that would have just made it worse for both of us. Trowa always had an uncanny knack for knowing what each situation called for.
"Quatre," he said to me. "Sit down. We need to talk."
"Oh?" I busied myself with the tea chest, trying to look like I was searching for a special flavor. I fingered through each one twice and shook my head. "You know, I think we're out of Darjeeling."
"I'll order more," he said. "Quatre, I think you should kn--"
"I mean the Earl Grey and English Breakfast are fine for the masses, but if you neglect the customers that have a bit of a finer taste, well..." I shook my head in disapproval, "we might as well just serve orange pekoe to the Queen." I don't think I had the faintest idea of what I was talking about, I just rambled on and on about the tea. I was lucky Trowa had nearly unlimited patience. Nearly.
"Relena drinks coffee, Quatre," Trowa reminded me. "And she's not a queen anymore."
"Well, no. But it's the principle of the matter--"
"Quatre, shut up." He stared at me with those intense green eyes of his until they all but forced me on to the nearby stool. "Heero and I are lovers, Quatre. We've been together for nearly a year now. Are you okay with that?"
"Well... well, yes, of course, if that's what you want." I laughed and waved my hand in the air. "but the tea, Trowa... we need to--"
"Quatre." He moved in closer to me and held my head with both hands. "Try to follow what I'm saying. Heero and I are lovers. We've been together for nearly a year now. Are. You. Okay. With. That?"
"Well no!" I slammed my teacup down on the counter and winced as it began to rattle around the table. I hadn't meant to be that forceful. I laid my hand over the cup to stop it and continued to look down at is as I spoke. "I mean... I think it's great that you and Heero are together. I'm really happy if both of you are. It's just... Well, why didn't you tell me this before? I would have liked to know before... well, before I walked in on you guys!"
Trowa stepped back and nodded. "Fair enough," he said, "but we weren't hiding it, Quatre. I thought everyone had figured it out by now." He shrugged and put his arm around me. "You know, until I saw the look on your face just now, I thought you knew."
"Well, how would I know if you didn't tell me?" I demanded from him.
"The fact that Heero is always here visiting, that we disappear for long times together, that he still bakes those raspberry tarts on a regular basis... " Trowa listed the clues off for me. I was mortified at my own blindness. "I thought maybe two months ago when Duo asked if we were planning on having children, might have been a pretty good clue."
"Oh... oh dear... I remember him saying that." I gasped in embarrassed horror, covering my mouth. Trowa looked amused. "I thought he was just joking! I am a naive, clueless little man, aren't I?"
Trowa laughed. "Well... "
"It's not funny, Trowa! I've been living with my head stuck in the sand... What else have I missed?'
Trowa just smiled and handed me a small tin box he took for one of the cabinets. "Try this tea. It's some new blend Catherine swears by for relaxing her."
"I feel so stupid." I hung my head and slouched down on a stool by the counter.
"I should have just told you. Don't feel bad." He then studied me for a moment and narrowed his eyes. "It doesn't bother you at all that Heero and I are both--"
"Homosexual?" I finished for him. "Oh, no... no. Not at all. I knew that years ago."
"Hn?" Trowa's eyes narrowed on me. He was truly surprised that I had known about his sexual orientation for some time. "How did you know?" he asked.
"Well, for Heero, it was the way he never showed much of an interest in Relena or any of the girls at that school of hers, yet he still knew how to waltz. That was a big sign." Trowa blinked and just stared at me. I started laughing. I think I earned it. "No, I'm just joking."
"Quatre... " he turned from me and put a kettle of water on to boil for the tea.
"I don't know... it was just a feeling that he might be. I've never seen him show an interest in anyone, really. Except for you, maybe. Back when you were missing he made a big deal out of me trying to find you. He didn't carry on about it, or anything, but he made it a point to tell me I had to stay alive until you were found. I guess he was thinking about you even then."
"And now here I am making you tea." Trowa smirked at me. "You can rest easy in your grave." He always had a twisted sense of humor. It's amazing how time tempers so many things. I had nearly killed Trowa during the war. It was my fault he was missing to begin with, and yet years later we were able to talk about it so casually in conversation, when before I would break down in tears at the barest mention of what I had done. Trowa, with his odd sense of humor and timing, had finally managed to make me see that it was an event best left to the past. I think Trowa would have appreciated the irony of me out living him by so many decades.
"How did you know about me?" he asked. "I never thought of it, myself." He took the kettle from the stove and poured the boiling water into a mug from the pile of clean dishes. "After the war, I was just learning how to interact with people in ways that didn't involve either killing or protecting them." He handed me the mug and pushed the sugar and cream over to me. "There was no one that really interested me before." He shrugged. "And then there was Heero." He smiled shyly, blushed almost it seemed.
He looked at me and tilted his head. "So how did you know?"
"I don't know."I shrugged and placed my hand over my heart. "Just that whole empathy thing, I guess. There was nothing overt." I sipped at the tea and added more sugar. It was awful, to tell you the truth. Some fruity peach tea. Catherine always liked the fruity herbal type teas. Tea should always come from a leaf, in my opinion. Not a fruit.
"After the war when I used to sit back and wonder what each of you were doing," I continued. "I just couldn't imagine you happily married with some woman and raising kids. I couldn't see you running around with lots of women like Duo, either. And I couldn't see you alone, you're too wonderful a person to be alone. It just seemed to fit that you'd share your life with another man. And it's perfect that it would be with Heero, because he deserves someone nice like you."
He stood behind me with his hands on my shoulders and kissed the back of my head. "I've always loved you, Quatre Raberba Winner," he whispered in my ear. "Drink your tea and then get yourself ready. Heero and I are taking you all out for dinner."
"Trowa... does... everyone know?" I asked him sheepishly. Being the last to figure it all out doesn't help the ego much.
"Yes, Quatre. Sorry."
"Even, Wufei? He figured it out too?"
"Yes, he did, Quatre." Trowa then smiled at me and pulled me up from the chair. "He was the one that told Duo, actually. Go get ready."
I walked a few paces toward the stairwell and then turned back to him. "Wufei told Duo? Duo didn't know first?"
"No." He stood there watching me with his arms folded. "It was about seven months ago. You were on an extended business trip to L1 and couldn't make it here."
"Oh, yes. I remember that," I nodded.
"Duo was flirting with Heero most of the night," Trowa continued. "Wufei finally pulled him over and told Duo he had no dignity for flirting with his friend's partner."
"What did Duo do then?" I asked. Dumbly, I might add.
"He started flirting with me instead. Go." He picked up the tea I had left on the counter and handed it to me as he pushed me toward the stairwell.
"Well, I guess I feel better then," I said as I began walking up the steps. "I mean, if Duo had to be told, then maybe I'm not so bad... " I turned around to look at Trowa again. He was still sporting an amused look and I suddenly wanted to laugh. It was so good to see him like that. I guess I didn't mind so much if he laughed at my expense. During the wars, I don't think I ever saw him smile once. In those days, he rarely showed any emotion at all, yet there was always a heaviness that proceeded his presence. But since the day he first stepped into my office to talk about the café, he was somehow different. Of the five of us, he remained the quietest, but it was as though the air was lighter when he was around. It was as though his whole soul had been lifted up and freed from whatever it had been that kept him pinned to the ground for most of his life. Whatever that burden was, it no longer seemed to weigh on him, and I guess that is all that mattered.
"No," he said to me, "you're not so bad." And then he smiled.
