Daddy Duo

Chapter 14

Solo, the Dragonslayer

Wufei was sitting at his desk with his head in his hands when Duo came into his small office. It was pretty much like Duo's, except that it didn't have pictures of Hilde and Solo plastered all over it with stick pins, and a full size poster of Wolverine from "X-Man" on one wall.

Wufei's office had a crystal vase of tiger lilies on the filing cabinet, Chinese calligraphy framed on the wall and a nice picture of Sally smiling on the desk.

"Got a headache, Wu-chan?" asked Duo, coming in, his braid swishing behind him, humming something under his breath as he slapped a file in front of Wufei.

"What's this?" asked Wufei, opening one eye and looking between his fingers.

"It's the file you asked me for this morning about that little street riot on L-2", said Duo.

"Oh, right," said Wufei, sitting up in his chair and turning around. "Just leave it there."

"You all right?" asked Duo. Wufei had dark circles under his eyes and his angular face looked a bit pinched.

"Just tired," he confessed, closing his eyes.

"I don't sleep so good myself sometimes," said Duo. "At least the kid sleeps most nights now."

"Anything I can help with?" asked Duo.

"I don't know," muttered Wufei.

"Well, I guess we won't know unless we try," said Duo with simple logic.

"Actually, you might be the right person to help me with this," said Wufei, suddenly.

"Me?" asked Duo.

"Yes," said Wufei. "You see, Sally and I were discussing starting a family and then we got into, well, a disagreement about a few things. That's why I didn't get any sleep last night."

"You want to have a kid?" asked Duo. "And Oh, I get it, I'm the only person you know who has one, right?"

Wufei nodded. "I've been trying to reassure Sally that she can have a baby and still do her job."

"You?" asked Duo, looking surprised. "You're the one pushing this?"

"At first, it was Sally, and then she did a turnaround and got cold feet about the whole thing," sighed Wufei.

"So, we got into a rather heated discussion about it and now I'm sleeping in the guest room." Wufei said all this quietly with his head ducked down and not looking at Duo.

"Wu-chan in the old dog house, huh?" said Duo, trying to keep from grinning.

"In the what?" asked Wufei.

"It means you've been kicked out of the marital chamber," said Duo, finally unable to keep from cracking up.

"Oh," said Wufei, putting his head in his hands again. "I suppose."

"So, what's the big deal with Sally?" said Duo, plopping down on the small leather sofa that Wufei had in his office.

"She's worried she'll have to quit her job at the hospital, and a few other things."

"Like what?" Duo persisted, pulling a piece of bubble gum out of his pocket, unwrapping it and sticking it into his mouth. He began to chew it noisily and Wufei flashed him a look of annoyance.

"She's worried that I'll do that old traditional male thing and make her take on most of the child care," he finally said.

"Oh," said Duo. "Well, is that the truth?"

"NO!" said Wufei. "I'm not a blasted cave man, for hells sake! That's what I told her, but she doesn't believe me."

Duo blew a large pink bubble and popped it loudly with his tongue.

Wufei scowled at him. "Can't you find a quieter way to indulge your sugar addiction?" he asked, rubbing his temples.

"Sorry," Duo said. "Chewing gum helps me think."

"Then by all means, have a whole pack," Wufei muttered sarcastically.

Duo began to crack the gum with his tongue as he put his feet up on Wufei's sofa.

"Hey, I got an idea," he said after a few minutes.

"Hallelujah," said Wufei, unenthusiastically. "Does this mean the gum goes? Because the next bubble you blow is going to be with your ass."

Duo pulled a long pink string out of his mouth and then popped it back in a few times, and then tossed it at the wastebasket across the room.

He missed.

Wufei groaned. He reached over with a piece of tissue and delicately picked up the chewed gum and threw it away with a small shudder.

"You're disgusting, Maxwell," he said.

Duo grinned confidently at him. "You haven't heard my idea yet."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Absolutely NOT!" declared Hilde, holding Solo to her protectively.

"Wufei is NOT going to watch Solo this afternoon!" she gave Duo a baleful glare.

"But, he needs to show Sally that he can do this so that she'll go ahead and have a baby!" argued Duo.

"Besides, Wufei is the most responsible person I know," said Duo, "and he loves Solo."

"He doesn't know anything about babies," said Hilde stubbornly.

"I gave him a bunch of those books we have laying around here," said Duo. "You know, 'Babies for Dummies' that kind of stuff. He's been doing his homework, I promise!"

"I still don't know," said Hilde.

Duo sensed his opening. "Don't you want to see our friends happy?" he wheedled. "And we'll have a whole afternoon to ourselves, how often does that happen? We'll only be minutes away if something happens, anyway. Pleeze?" Large puppy dog eyes accompanied the last word.

"Okay," said Hilde finally. "But I'll never forgive either of you if one hair on this precious child's head is harmed."

"Cross my heart and hope to die, pinky swear nothing will happen," promised Duo.

Later that afternoon, Wufei knocked on their door.

"I'm here," he said unnecessarily as Duo looked out.

"Come in, Mr. Babysitter," said Duo, pulling him inside.

"I hope you appreciate this, because I about had to subdue Hilde with a tranquilizer gun," he whispered.

"Guess who's here, Hilde?" he sang out. "Wufei's here to watch Solo for us."

"Hello Wufei," said Hilde, pulling on her jacket to get ready to go out.

"I'm honored that you have entrusted me with your only child," said Wufei, bowing slightly. "I promise you, nothing will happen while he's in my care.'

"Goodness," said Hilde, impressed in spite of herself.

"Well, I have to go finished getting ready. Duo, show him where everything is, please?"

"You can quit sucking up now, Wu-chan," said Duo, elbowing him.

"I meant every word of that," said Wufei indignantly.

"Oh, I know, but I have to admit, that inscrutable Asian thing worked the trick with Hilde. Nice touch."

Wufei scowled at him. "Just shut up, gwai-loh, and show me what I need," he said.

Duo laughed. "Come on, I'll give you the grand tour of babyland."

Fifteen minutes later, Duo and Hilde had left, and Wufei was alone with Solo, who was beginning to look more and more like the miniature of Duo that everyone suspected he would be at ten months old.

A shock of curly chestnut hair almost hung in his round blue violet eyes and curled around his neck, and he had Duo's wide cheekbones, too. There was a hint of Hilde around his chin and jaw, but otherwise, he was Duo duplicated.

Solo looked solemnly at Wufei from his baby swing and held up his chubby arms.

"Had enough of that already?" asked Wufei, picking him up. He felt stupid talking to an infant, but the books said you were supposed to talk to babies.

He supposed it was like talking to plants: no immediately discernible feedback, but it was good for them anyway.

"So, what do you want to do?' asked Wufei, looking at Solo.

"How about I put you in this stroller and we get some fresh air?" said Wufei.

He would die of boredom if he had to sit here staring at Solo for the next two hours.

He looked at the list that Hilde had left him. "Hm, it says that there's a small diaper bag on your dresser all ready if I want to take you for your walk," he read. "And a bottle in the refrigerator in case you get hungry, just warm it up a little."

"I guess we have to take all that with you when we go somewhere?" he asked Solo, who babbled something unintelligible back at him and stuck his finger in his mouth to chew on.

"And you need your red jacket and boots on when we go out," read Wufei. He rolled his eyes. He'd gone on weeklong missions with less gear than this nine-month old infant had.

A few minutes later, all necessary supplies secured, Wufei ventured outdoors with Solo.

They went up the street to the neighborhood park. It was a sunny fall day and Wufei was enjoying being outside and apparently Solo was too. He babbled and waved his arms at the passersby and kicked his booted feet against the footguard of the stroller.

"You are entirely too trusting of strangers," said Wufei to Solo, sitting down on a bench and parking the stroller next to him.

"Oh, look at the sweet baby!" he heard suddenly An elderly woman came up to them. "He's not yours, is he?" asked the woman.

"No, I'm um, babysitting," said Wufei. "For friends of mine."

He was vaguely surprised. No one ever talked to him spontaneously very much. He decided it must be Solo's presence putting the woman at ease.

"So, you don't have any children of your own?" asked the woman.

"No, not yet," said Wufei. "My wife and I are discussing it, though."

"Why on earth did I just say that to a complete stranger?" he asked himself then shrugged.

"Well, you sure look like you'd be good at it," said the woman. "Is the nice man taking good care of you?" she asked Solo in a high silly voice.

He chortled at her and tried to grab her finger and stick it in his mouth.

"Be careful, ma'am," said Wufei, "He bites."

"Probably teething," she said with an air of experience. "Chamomile tea is good for that."

"I'll make sure his parents are informed," said Wufei.

She smiled at him. "Well, I have to be going. Good-bye." She waggled her fingers at Solo.

Solo babbled something that sounded suspiciously close to "bye" and waved one chubby hand at her.

Wufei looked at him, "So, you know that already, do you? You will quickly outstrip your father's mental abilities." He smirked at his own little joke.

"I wonder what else you can say?" he said thoughtfully.

He lifted Solo onto his lap, after carefully loosening the restraints on the stroller and said "Say 'Wufei'," to Solo very slowly.

Solo looked at him curiously and moved his mouth, but nothing that sounded like 'Wufei' came out.

Wufei shrugged and sat Solo down on his lap, facing outward so he could look around. A squirrel ran up a tree nearby and he pointed and squealed.

"Kitty!" said Solo.

"No, that's a squirrel," said Wufei. "A squirrel," he said more slowly.

Solo gave him a puzzled look and repeated "Kitty!"

"Squirrel," said Wufei slowly again.

"Kitty!" said Solo, loudly, frowning at Wufei.

"Okay, it's a kitty," said Wufei, giving up.

He put Solo back in the stroller and secured him again. "Let's go see the ducks" he said, "and call them something else.

They went over to the pond and watched an elderly couple feed the ducks.

"Quack!" said Solo, pointing.

"Well, that's closer," said Wufei.

"Quack!" said Solo again, looking at him expectantly.

"What?" asked Wufei, looking around.

Solo pointed at the elderly couple, "Quack!"

"Oh, you want US to feed the ducks too," divined Wufei.

He pushed Solo over to the vending machine that sold bags of food to feed the ducks and geese and got a bag of food.

"Here, you want to do it, or should I?" asked Wufei. "I'd better do it," he decided. "You might try to eat it."

Solo looked at him curiously and then back at the ducks and geese in the pond.

Wufei threw food to the birds, and Solo clapped his hands together and squealed as they fought over and chased the pellets of food.

"You're the most easily entertained date I've ever had," mused Wufei, smiling.

By the time that was done, Solo had begun to look heavy lidded, so Wufei took out the warmed bottle and gave it to Solo, who began to suck on it sleepily. By the time they arrived, he was soundly asleep, his head lolling slightly to one side in the stroller, the bottle in his lap.

Wufei pushed him inside the garage, leaving the stroller behind and picking Solo up carefully so as not to wake him. He sighed and shifted into the hollow of Wufei's neck, giving him a suddenly unexpected feeling of protectiveness.

He checked the clock inside. Duo and Hilde would be back shortly. He almost couldn't believe that close to two hours had passed.

He put Solo gently into his crib, removing his jacket and boots slowly, and covered him with a blanket.

Duo and Hilde came in the door 20 minutes later and Wufei was sitting quietly on the sofa, his glasses on, reading a book.

"Any problems?" asked Duo, looking around.

"He's asleep," said Wufei. "We went to the park for a walk and came home," he added.

"He likes the park," said Hilde, smiling. "Did you have a good time?"

"Surprisingly, yes," said Wufei, removing his glasses and closing the book.

"Really?" asked Duo.

"Yes," Wufei repeated. "Did you know that he talks?"

Hilde laughed. "He's beginning to say a few words," she said.

"You need to inform him that squirrels are not 'kitties' though," said Wufei.

"We're working on it," said Duo laughing.