April 30 AC 201
He knew she was home when the front door slammed shut with an earsplitting crash that rattled the dishes on the kitchen table.
"That inconsiderate, self-centered son of a...Gods Duo, I could strangle him with my bare hands!"
Laying aside the manual he'd been perusing for nearly an hour, Duo Maxwell greeted is irate wife with an understanding smile.
"I dunno about that, Hilde. After all, he's so fat you might not be able to get a good grip on his throat."
Fairly throwing her knapsack and several bags of groceries down in one corner of the living room, Hilde snatched a pillow from a nearby sofa and hurled it forcefully in his direction.
He caught it and threw it back, smirking as it hit her square in the chest.
"Jerk."
"Hey, it's not my fault you insist on continuing to take his course."
"I have to take his course. In case you don't remember the other ten thousand times I've told you this, it's required!" She put her hands on her hips and glared at him, her cheeks flushed.
He always thought she was beautiful when she was mad. And it was fun to spar with her.
"Well, you could wait and see if he maybe gets killed off in some sort of freak accident, and then the course would be taught by someone else," he suggested.
She threw another cushion.
He caught it. Then, feeling a little remorseful, he rose and advanced toward her. Wrapping an arm about her waist, Duo could feel the tautness in her muscles.
"Don't worry babe," he said, squeezing her lightly. "It's only a few more weeks. What'd he do this time?"
She leaned into him, her ire abating somewhat. "He just told me that my work--my proposal for the final project was too ambitious. What an idiot."
"Well, he doesn't know you've got a mechanics expert here to help you. Engineering's not that easy for most people, you know."
"I know," she sighed, resting her head on his shoulder. But I learn more from working with you on things than I do from six weeks of sitting in his stupid lectures."
"So he told you you'd have to come up with another idea?"
"pretty much, yeah."
"That sucks."
"I know."
Suddenly her expression brightened. "Hey! I was in such a bad mood on the way home that I sort of blew my grocery budget."
Amused, Duo grinned down at her. "And why, my dear, is this a reason for excitement?"
"'Cuz, I bought the stuff for strawberry shortcake. I needed a sugar fix to improve my mood."
Duo laughed, in spite of himself. It was hard to believe but he was actually the more financially conscious of the two of them. With Hilde in school and his business still in it's early years, they were often more than a little strapped for cash. On many occasions Duo had dutifully restrained himself from buying some new tool or gadget, only to discover upon coming home that she'd exceeded at least one, often more, of the budget limits they'd painstakingly worked out at the beginning of the month.
But it was all right.
He helped her prepare dinner, and as they ate the young couple chatted aimlessly about the events of the day. As dusk approached they stacked the dishes in the sink, laughed at themselves for procrastinating and not washing them immediately, then migrated into the living room. Hilde had an exam the following Tuesday, so she was soon sprawled out on the beige carpet pouring over several large textbooks. Duo flipped on the TV, since they both preferred background noise while they worked, and recommenced the perusal of his manual.
That evening, for whatever reason, he couldn't concentrate. His eyes kept focusing on Hilde, busily studying, and on the melodramatic plights of the television characters. And on the stars, visible through the open curtains of the front window.
He got restless sometimes. It wasn't that he particularly loved space, or the Earth, the way some of the others had. He just wasn't accustomed to living in one place for such a long time.
Duo suspected that he would have liked to be one of the pioneers that had settled the western half of North America. They had always been moving, always striving.
"I think I'm gonna go for a walk."
Hilde looked up, the end of her pencil pressed against her cheek. "You ok?"
She always seemed concerned when he went out for walks after dark. He knew she knew.
"Yeah."
The sky was clear, almost believably earthlike through the colony's protective dome. He passed any number of people, mostly older men and women, as he strode rapidly along the winding sidewalks in there neighborhood of L2D37's central commercial district. Most of the younger ones, the men and women of his own age, were either dead or had gone off to school on Earth.
The apartment he shared with Hilde was little more than a loft on the floor above his shop. The sturdy, mostly concrete building had been erected some half a century before, when L2D37 had finally been completed. It was wedged between two taller buildings, one an apartment complex, the other containing several stories of office space.
The colonies were thriving again. And they had helped to make that possible. Hilde still bore multiple scars from her bold attempt to infiltrate Libra. Sometimes, late at night, he wished he could have gotten there faster-that he could have spared her that pain. When he mentioned it, she laughed at him.
She often thought he was overprotective. But so was she, in her own way. They were both looking forward to the day when they could trade their cramped loft for a proper house. Not a big one. Just one that was comfortable. That was what she wanted.
It was what he'd dreamed of, but had never really imagined would ever be within his grasp.
She wanted kids one day. She'd never said as much, but he knew Not now, of course-there was no room in either their apartment or their budget--but one day. He saw the wistful way she looked at kids and families as they passed in the street.
He didn't. Children were a nuisance. A person couldn't be free with kids to look after. But he'd wait until the time came to tell Hilde.
She was happy.
And so was he.
Mostly.
He loved Hilde. There was no question in either of their minds that he would go to hell and back for her if the need arose. In a sense it already had, during the war.
He'd given the people back there smiles. There was an old man with a little girl clinging to his hand. They were walking along the other side of the street, and the man was pointing at some brightly colored flowers in a windowbox jutting out from one of the low brick buildings that lined the sidewalk.
Five years earlier they would have been glancing furtively about, looking for possible dangers lurking in the shadows.
He turned around, drawing in a deep breath of the purified air that circulated ad nausium through the colony's ventilation system. He didn't know how much time had passed. Judging from the stars, maybe an hour.
He still kept in touch with Quatre. The Arabian was personable yet unassuming. Duo liked him.
Heero had disappeared-no big surprise there. The others had slowly drifted into the mists of the past. Wu Fei was working for the Preventers. Trowa was probably back at the circus.
And he was married.
It was so strange.
When he entered the apartment, Hilde once again looked up from her books.
"You were gone a long time."
"I know. Sorry." He lay down beside her on the floor, draping an arm across her midsection.
"I'm not gonna be able to study if you do that," she protested, but she shoved the book aside and drew closer to him.
"Take a break. It's nearly ten. I wanna catch the news-see which paper pusher's gonna get his two bits in tonight."
"Duo!" She poked him with her elbow. "You think even Foreign Minister Darlian is a paper pusher."
"She is. I don't like her."
"But she's..." Hilde sighed. They'd had this discussion before.
"I don't trust her. One minute she's all for total pacifism, the next minute she's applauding us for defeating Dekim Barton. I'd rather she stuck to one set of ideals."
Hilde was silent.
As it turned out, that night there were no governmental bigwigs on the news. Instead, the lead story was about a large protest that had been staged in the ESUN capital, Brussels.
"Some eight thousand members of the former Romafeller foundation and several hundred colony citizens joined forces today in expressing their growing resentment against the Earth Sphere Unified Nation."
"You've gotta be kidding me," Duo groaned. "Don't they realize..."
"Shhhh!"
"...one spokesman for the group proclaimed that the heavy-handedness of the new unified government is robbing him and his family of their rightful property and political influence."
Duo gritted his teeth. What did they expect. It was there petty squabbling and power plays that had started the wars in the first place. The old ones had been made honorary members of the Earth Sphere's congressional body, and their offspring would inherit any family property. Only those lands which had been obtained by conquest during the past ten years had been handed back to their previous owners.
"...when one of the colony residents taking part in the protest was asked his views, the man replied only that he'd been told that ESUN would give him and his family a better life, and that thus far the new government has not lived up to it's promises."
Hilde switched the TV off, making a disgusted sound in the back of her throat as she did so.
"What are they talking about? Isn't being able to live and work and well...go wherever you please an improvement over the fear and oppression we were subjected to during the war?"
"You gotta remember, a lot of colony citizens benefited monetarily under Romafeller. They didn't have second thoughts about selling the rest of us out. White Fang only represented the views of a portion of the colonists. Some people will never be satisfied." He rose, stretching his arms above his head until his spine cracked.
"Ugh! Don't do that. It sounds so gross!"
"I'm off to bed. How long you gonna be up?"
"Probably only another hour. Don't hog all the blankets or I'll have to wake you up to get my share."
A smile touched the corners of Duo's mouth, but it was only for her. He didn't feel like smiling.
He'd lived for the colony citizens. He'd been prepared to die to keep them free from the tyranny of OZ and Romafeller.
One of the few Bible verses he still remembered out of the hundreds Sister Hellen had made him memorize floated briefly to the forefront of his mind.
"As a dog returns to it's vomit, so a fool repeats his folly."
He turned on the light in their bedroom, taking in the sight of the slightly worn bedspread and the piles of clean laundry strewn about as though in well-ordered disarray.
`
Maybe he was wrong. Maybe he always had been.
Maybe they didn't want their smiles back.
He knew she was home when the front door slammed shut with an earsplitting crash that rattled the dishes on the kitchen table.
"That inconsiderate, self-centered son of a...Gods Duo, I could strangle him with my bare hands!"
Laying aside the manual he'd been perusing for nearly an hour, Duo Maxwell greeted is irate wife with an understanding smile.
"I dunno about that, Hilde. After all, he's so fat you might not be able to get a good grip on his throat."
Fairly throwing her knapsack and several bags of groceries down in one corner of the living room, Hilde snatched a pillow from a nearby sofa and hurled it forcefully in his direction.
He caught it and threw it back, smirking as it hit her square in the chest.
"Jerk."
"Hey, it's not my fault you insist on continuing to take his course."
"I have to take his course. In case you don't remember the other ten thousand times I've told you this, it's required!" She put her hands on her hips and glared at him, her cheeks flushed.
He always thought she was beautiful when she was mad. And it was fun to spar with her.
"Well, you could wait and see if he maybe gets killed off in some sort of freak accident, and then the course would be taught by someone else," he suggested.
She threw another cushion.
He caught it. Then, feeling a little remorseful, he rose and advanced toward her. Wrapping an arm about her waist, Duo could feel the tautness in her muscles.
"Don't worry babe," he said, squeezing her lightly. "It's only a few more weeks. What'd he do this time?"
She leaned into him, her ire abating somewhat. "He just told me that my work--my proposal for the final project was too ambitious. What an idiot."
"Well, he doesn't know you've got a mechanics expert here to help you. Engineering's not that easy for most people, you know."
"I know," she sighed, resting her head on his shoulder. But I learn more from working with you on things than I do from six weeks of sitting in his stupid lectures."
"So he told you you'd have to come up with another idea?"
"pretty much, yeah."
"That sucks."
"I know."
Suddenly her expression brightened. "Hey! I was in such a bad mood on the way home that I sort of blew my grocery budget."
Amused, Duo grinned down at her. "And why, my dear, is this a reason for excitement?"
"'Cuz, I bought the stuff for strawberry shortcake. I needed a sugar fix to improve my mood."
Duo laughed, in spite of himself. It was hard to believe but he was actually the more financially conscious of the two of them. With Hilde in school and his business still in it's early years, they were often more than a little strapped for cash. On many occasions Duo had dutifully restrained himself from buying some new tool or gadget, only to discover upon coming home that she'd exceeded at least one, often more, of the budget limits they'd painstakingly worked out at the beginning of the month.
But it was all right.
He helped her prepare dinner, and as they ate the young couple chatted aimlessly about the events of the day. As dusk approached they stacked the dishes in the sink, laughed at themselves for procrastinating and not washing them immediately, then migrated into the living room. Hilde had an exam the following Tuesday, so she was soon sprawled out on the beige carpet pouring over several large textbooks. Duo flipped on the TV, since they both preferred background noise while they worked, and recommenced the perusal of his manual.
That evening, for whatever reason, he couldn't concentrate. His eyes kept focusing on Hilde, busily studying, and on the melodramatic plights of the television characters. And on the stars, visible through the open curtains of the front window.
He got restless sometimes. It wasn't that he particularly loved space, or the Earth, the way some of the others had. He just wasn't accustomed to living in one place for such a long time.
Duo suspected that he would have liked to be one of the pioneers that had settled the western half of North America. They had always been moving, always striving.
"I think I'm gonna go for a walk."
Hilde looked up, the end of her pencil pressed against her cheek. "You ok?"
She always seemed concerned when he went out for walks after dark. He knew she knew.
"Yeah."
The sky was clear, almost believably earthlike through the colony's protective dome. He passed any number of people, mostly older men and women, as he strode rapidly along the winding sidewalks in there neighborhood of L2D37's central commercial district. Most of the younger ones, the men and women of his own age, were either dead or had gone off to school on Earth.
The apartment he shared with Hilde was little more than a loft on the floor above his shop. The sturdy, mostly concrete building had been erected some half a century before, when L2D37 had finally been completed. It was wedged between two taller buildings, one an apartment complex, the other containing several stories of office space.
The colonies were thriving again. And they had helped to make that possible. Hilde still bore multiple scars from her bold attempt to infiltrate Libra. Sometimes, late at night, he wished he could have gotten there faster-that he could have spared her that pain. When he mentioned it, she laughed at him.
She often thought he was overprotective. But so was she, in her own way. They were both looking forward to the day when they could trade their cramped loft for a proper house. Not a big one. Just one that was comfortable. That was what she wanted.
It was what he'd dreamed of, but had never really imagined would ever be within his grasp.
She wanted kids one day. She'd never said as much, but he knew Not now, of course-there was no room in either their apartment or their budget--but one day. He saw the wistful way she looked at kids and families as they passed in the street.
He didn't. Children were a nuisance. A person couldn't be free with kids to look after. But he'd wait until the time came to tell Hilde.
She was happy.
And so was he.
Mostly.
He loved Hilde. There was no question in either of their minds that he would go to hell and back for her if the need arose. In a sense it already had, during the war.
He'd given the people back there smiles. There was an old man with a little girl clinging to his hand. They were walking along the other side of the street, and the man was pointing at some brightly colored flowers in a windowbox jutting out from one of the low brick buildings that lined the sidewalk.
Five years earlier they would have been glancing furtively about, looking for possible dangers lurking in the shadows.
He turned around, drawing in a deep breath of the purified air that circulated ad nausium through the colony's ventilation system. He didn't know how much time had passed. Judging from the stars, maybe an hour.
He still kept in touch with Quatre. The Arabian was personable yet unassuming. Duo liked him.
Heero had disappeared-no big surprise there. The others had slowly drifted into the mists of the past. Wu Fei was working for the Preventers. Trowa was probably back at the circus.
And he was married.
It was so strange.
When he entered the apartment, Hilde once again looked up from her books.
"You were gone a long time."
"I know. Sorry." He lay down beside her on the floor, draping an arm across her midsection.
"I'm not gonna be able to study if you do that," she protested, but she shoved the book aside and drew closer to him.
"Take a break. It's nearly ten. I wanna catch the news-see which paper pusher's gonna get his two bits in tonight."
"Duo!" She poked him with her elbow. "You think even Foreign Minister Darlian is a paper pusher."
"She is. I don't like her."
"But she's..." Hilde sighed. They'd had this discussion before.
"I don't trust her. One minute she's all for total pacifism, the next minute she's applauding us for defeating Dekim Barton. I'd rather she stuck to one set of ideals."
Hilde was silent.
As it turned out, that night there were no governmental bigwigs on the news. Instead, the lead story was about a large protest that had been staged in the ESUN capital, Brussels.
"Some eight thousand members of the former Romafeller foundation and several hundred colony citizens joined forces today in expressing their growing resentment against the Earth Sphere Unified Nation."
"You've gotta be kidding me," Duo groaned. "Don't they realize..."
"Shhhh!"
"...one spokesman for the group proclaimed that the heavy-handedness of the new unified government is robbing him and his family of their rightful property and political influence."
Duo gritted his teeth. What did they expect. It was there petty squabbling and power plays that had started the wars in the first place. The old ones had been made honorary members of the Earth Sphere's congressional body, and their offspring would inherit any family property. Only those lands which had been obtained by conquest during the past ten years had been handed back to their previous owners.
"...when one of the colony residents taking part in the protest was asked his views, the man replied only that he'd been told that ESUN would give him and his family a better life, and that thus far the new government has not lived up to it's promises."
Hilde switched the TV off, making a disgusted sound in the back of her throat as she did so.
"What are they talking about? Isn't being able to live and work and well...go wherever you please an improvement over the fear and oppression we were subjected to during the war?"
"You gotta remember, a lot of colony citizens benefited monetarily under Romafeller. They didn't have second thoughts about selling the rest of us out. White Fang only represented the views of a portion of the colonists. Some people will never be satisfied." He rose, stretching his arms above his head until his spine cracked.
"Ugh! Don't do that. It sounds so gross!"
"I'm off to bed. How long you gonna be up?"
"Probably only another hour. Don't hog all the blankets or I'll have to wake you up to get my share."
A smile touched the corners of Duo's mouth, but it was only for her. He didn't feel like smiling.
He'd lived for the colony citizens. He'd been prepared to die to keep them free from the tyranny of OZ and Romafeller.
One of the few Bible verses he still remembered out of the hundreds Sister Hellen had made him memorize floated briefly to the forefront of his mind.
"As a dog returns to it's vomit, so a fool repeats his folly."
He turned on the light in their bedroom, taking in the sight of the slightly worn bedspread and the piles of clean laundry strewn about as though in well-ordered disarray.
`
Maybe he was wrong. Maybe he always had been.
Maybe they didn't want their smiles back.