Disclaimer: I don't own Duo and I know Gilly is thankful that I don't her. The story idea though, is mine, and that's about it.

Duo's Gift

The moon's soft glow illuminated the surrounding hills. The grass waved gently in the hushed breeze. Crickets sang their nocturnal song of enchantment. Atop the tallest hill sat two figures. One, a boy, sat observing the night sky. The other, a girl, sat patiently with her eyes closed.

"How much longer?" she asked impatiently. A disappointed smile crept onto her face when he didn't answer right away. Her light brown hair moved slightly in the breeze. She had waited all week for his surprise, and now she couldn't wait to see it. The boy looked over at her, breaking his concentration on the stars above. He leaned over and kissed her lips. "It won't be much longer, I promise." Again he changed his focus to the sky.

"Duo?"

He looked at her with pleased cobalt eyes. He was proud of himself he had managed to keep this a secret for almost a week. "Hmm?" He was half lost in self-praise.

"Can I open my eyes now?"

He sighed. "I guess on one condition."

She tilted her head. "What's that?"

A boyish grin spread over his face. "You can only look at me. I know it will be hard. I mean looking at a handsome guy like me can take a lot out of a person. So if I were you I would just keep my eyes closed."

Gilly laughed and opened her eyes. It took her a few moments for her eyes to adjust to the darkness of night. When she could finally see she saw that Duo was stretched out next to her. He was wearing a navy blue jacket over his typical black outfit. His hair was in a braided pile under his elevated head. The way the celestial light reflected off of his face made him look angelic. Gilly's heart skipped a beat. Duo caught the slight reaction. "I told you it would be hard, but you didn't believe me."

Gilly started to laugh, but stopped when their eyes met. His deep cobalt eyes were staring right into hers. She thought that he had never looked so handsome. She shivered, not from the chilly night air, but at the thoughts that poured through her head. As slight of a shiver as it had been, Duo had caught it. He rarely missed anything. Which was surprising since he always seemed to be goofing off, but not now. He sat up and unzipped his jacket. "Here." He placed it over Gilly's shoulders. She smiled thankfully at him and wrapped it around herself. She opened her mouth to thank him but he placed a finger over her lips to silence her.

"Have I ever told you how beautiful you are?" Gilly nodded. She didn't want to spoil this moment with the imperfection of her voice. "In my life I have only seen one thing that could even to hope to compete with your beauty. So for your birthday I thought that I would give it to you. Because beauty deserves beauty."

He leaned forward and kissed her lips. She was grateful that it was dark. She hoped that he wouldn't see her blushing. "Happy birthday." He whispered. He lifted her chin so she was forced to look up at the full moon above them. As Gilly watched, the moon started to change colors, from its golden glow that the moon has when it's a harvest moon to a deep red. She had read about this. How could it be that she was seeing this? It wasn't supposed to happen for another couple decades. She gave up caring and watched in awed silence.

After a few stunned moments she peeled her eyes away from it and looked over at Duo. He was already looking at her. Tears formed at her eyelids and she through her arms around his neck. "Thank you. This is great." She whispered into his ear.

He pulled her away, "I hope you don't think that's all." He giggled with boyish delight. "You're so silly."

He laughed again and reached into his pocket and pulled out a gift. He looked at it and handed it to Gilly. She took it and carefully unwrapped the gold and red metallic wrapping paper. She opened the box and pulled out her gift. Duo turned on a small flashlight that he had taken out of his pocket. Gilly's mouth fell open when she had taken in the whole of her gift. It was a hand sized snow globe. Inside, under falling gold and red glitter, was a small hill with two people staring up at a red moon that was attached to the top of the globe. She looked closer and saw that the people looked a lot like herself and Duo. On the base of the globe was inscription, 'Beauty should behold beauty'.

Gilly felt tears run down her cheek. She looked over at Duo. He smiled back at her. "Thank you, it's beautiful."

Duo smiled his boyish grin. "You're welcome."

She couldn't find the words to tell him how she felt. But she knew, all she had to do was look at this priceless gift to relive those feelings again.