Disclaimers: See prologue.

Can be posted anywhere, just ask first.

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Christmas Wishes Part One

By Puu

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A.C. 197...Christmas Eve

When Duo got the invitation from Quatre and Trowa inviting him to a

small party for Christmas, he entirely forgot that "small" for both

Quatre and Trowa had a different meaning for them than for him.

For one thing, the "family room" was bigger than his house on the C3054

colony of the L2 cluster. For another, all of Quatre's Maganacs and

Trowa's circus troupe was there. When he got a good look at the full

room, he grabbed a glass of wine and looked for an empty place to

settle in.

Duo found himself a small corner close to the balcony doors and looked

out, staring at the snow falling softly to the ground. For most of his

life, he lived in the colonies and the weather was always tightly

controlled. There was never a "rainy" day to keep people inside,

unless, of course, the colonies needed it. So the snow fascinated him.

It was the first time he had actually seen snow in his life.

Of course, Duo mused as he turned his attention back to the center of

the room, what was going on inside the house was equally interesting.

This Christmas was the first Christmas in almost thirty years without

a war looming heavily over their heads.

It brought out the most amazing changes in people.

For example...Heero Yuy was smiling.

It wasn't an arrogant little smirk and it was definitely not that

insane grin.

Duo turned away, hiding the smile forming on his lips. Mr. Heero "The

Insanely Perfect Soldier" Yuy, for the first time since he met him,

smiled genuinely as he talked with Relena. He seemed happy and at

ease. Duo shook his head. Totally unbelieveable. He returned to

watching them and he wondered just how long Heero intended to keep

disappearing without notice.

As Heero presented Relena with another teddy bear, Duo figured that it

probably wasn't going to be much longer. Duo looked around the rest of

the room.

Unlike Duo, who sat far away from the center so that he wouldn't

attract any attention, Quatre and Trowa sat together next to the

fireplace looking at music, discussing what to play and how to play it.

It seemed to Duo that those two were surrounded by some halo, they

looked so relaxed, so...happy. *They should be*, he thought,

*considering everything they've gone through.* From the looks of it,

they had made their commitment permanent, the rings on their fingers

denoting their connection to each other.

Quatre and Trowa seemed to reach some sort of agreement on the sheet

music. Duo watched as they moved toward the grand piano next to the

Christmas tree. Quatre arranged the music on top of the piano and

Trowa brought out his flute. After warming up, they began to play a

song. The crowd hushed and Duo heard the soft music they played. He

smiled to himself.

It had been years since he heard "Silent Night."

Duo sighed and saw Mariemaia climb on the sofa and prop her elbows on

the back. She rested her chin on her hands and watched Quatre and

Trowa play their duet. Une sat down next to Mariemaia and everything

seemed to stand still. When Quatre and Trowa finished, the whole room

exploded into applause.

As the clock ticked closer to midnight, Duo went by the table and was

looking over what kind of food was laid out. He brightened up when he

spied the plate of Santa and Christmas tree cookies, with red and green

sprinkles and he grabbed a couple. He bit off the head off of a Santa

and munched with a very satisfied expression on his face. Someone

giggled and he turned around. Mariemaia was covering her mouth, trying

to smother her laughter, but she wasn't succeeding. Duo grinned,

winked, and took another bite. They compared cookies, tasting them all

and tried to figure out which kind was the best to leave out for Santa.

"You're more of a kid than Mariemaia."

Duo rolled his eyes to Mariemaia, who snorted, and gave Heero an

innocent look. "It's Christmas," he declared. He shoved the rest of

the cookie in his mouth. Heero just stared at him. Duo sighed

dramatically and whispered to Mariemaia. "See? He's a non-believer."

He stuck up his nose and sniffed in Heero's direction. "But we all

know who's not gonna get anything from Santa *this* year."

Heero shook his head as Duo and Mariemaia finished their discussion on

cookies. "After you've chosen the best cookies, all you have to do is

leave it next to the fireplace with a glass of milk." Mariemaia

nodded and started scrutinizing each cookie. After she went down the

table a little away from them, Heero spoke up again.

"Aren't you a little old for Santa?"

Duo groaned. "Heero..." He glared at Heero until saw the hint of a

smile on his face. Duo's jaw dropped and he started laughing. "I

don't believe it. Heero, were you just joking?"

Heero calmly took a sip of wine. "No." But he had a glint in his eye.

Duo snorted. "Right. Whatever." It looked like Heero changed more

than he thought.

Sally came in then and she had Wufei in tow. Wufei looked a little

exasperated, but Sally had a big smile on her face. Quatre came up and

took Sally's coat. "Where did you find him?"

Sally chuckled. "Can you believe he was working in the office? I

looked everywhere and it came to me. He was particularly obssessed--"

"I was not," Wufei cut in.

"--with a case that came to Preventer attention a couple of weeks ago.

He refuses to work on anything else," Sally finished.

Duo started laughing and smothered the sound into his cup when Wufei

glared at him. Heero kept his face neutral, but a slight twitch on his

cheek told Duo he was trying not to grin.

Wufei started to sputter protests about "The case was important" and

how "It needs to be cracked open NOW."

Sally murmured, "That's nice." Then she left to talk to Lady Une,

before Wufei could object further. Heero cleared his throat to get

Wufei's attention and gave him some wine. Wufei stared hard at Sally's

back and gave up with a grumble.

Duo couldn't keep from laughing any longer so he forced out some

excuses and left before he could burst out in front of Wufei and they

started fighting. He felt a little claustrophobic and he walked out

onto the balcony. Then he started laughing.

Now, that was a sight. On par with Heero smiling. With all his talk

of justice and a really annoying habit of saying, "Woman!", Duo thought

that the last person who would have dragged Wufei to the party was

Sally, never mind the fact she was his partner. Not that they didn't

work together well. It just looked like Wufei had just found a woman

who could match his strength and teach him a few lessons, too.

Now that Duo thought about it, where was Hirde? He squinted through

the frost-tinged windows and he saw her Hirde talking animatedly to

Dorothy and Relena. Duo thought she really was beautiful, when she

smiled. She was always there for him, someone who recognized his need

for someone to talk to when times had gotten bad. He never told her

how much she had meant to him, and, even now, he still could not tell

her. He wondered if he could ever tell her.

He watched as the girls began to strike up a conversation with Heero

and Wufei. Catherine walked up and began to talk and the guys decided

to excuse themselves. They made their way to Quatre and Trowa and

waited as they played through another duet. Duo turned away from the

windows into the room and looked out over the perfect quiet of the

snow-covered forest.

In the distance, Duo could see the lights of the city glowing brightly.

He just stared at the glittering lights, the snow glistening around him

as he became lost in his thoughts for the moment. He broke out of his

revery and returned to watching the party going on inside. He smiled

wistfully as he watched the scene in front of him unfold.

Catherine had pulled Trowa aside, whispered in his ear, and handed him

a present. She stood back as he frowned and slowly unwrapped the gift

and opened the box. Duo couldn't see what he had gotten, but it must

have been something judging from the expression on Trowa's normally

expressionless face. Quatre came up to Trowa and peered into the box.

Oh yeah, it was probably really good, since Quatre blushed and looked

at Catherine with wide eyes. Catherine just laughed, kissed Trowa on

the cheek and hugged the two little lovebirds. Duo's smile grew sadder

as he witnessed this little scene.



It reminded him of another Christmas, so long ago...

***

A.C. 187...A week before Christmas

"Sister Helen..." a girl's voice piped up.

"Father Maxwell..." a boy's voice echoed after the girl's.

Father Maxwell and Sister Helen looked up at the pair of twins perched

on the ledge outside of the church. Their appearance was nearly

identical, down to the long braid going down their backs. The only

differences were the girl's softer features and soft smile that graced

her lips. The boy next to her grinned broadly. Both were sporting

terrific black eyes.

"Duo! Ducina! What in the world happened to you two?!" Helen

exclaimed as she saw that they not only had black eyes, they also had

other bruises that they obviously just obtained. "Were both of you

fighting again?! Get down from there now, both of you!" Helen sighed

as Duo and Ducina slowly climbed down the ledge and stood in front of

her, eyes downcast. She bent down, put her hands under their chins and

tilted their heads up to look into their eyes. After a while, she

straightened. "What was it this time?" she asked.

They both looked back to the ground. After a long silence, they looked

up. Ducina spoke up first.

"Some of the kids tried to beat up us, because we wouldn't do what they

said. They made fun of us, too, saying that we're dirty and poor and

we deserve everything that happened to us." Ducina fell silent and Duo

continued. Sister Helen pushed them toward the church and Father

Maxwell fell in step behind them.

"They said we were stupid and all we're good for is serving them. And

they tried to make us steal stuff, and we wouldn't, not for them, so

they tried to make us lick their shoes and we wouldn't do that either,

so we beat them up."

The group stopped in front of the door. Duo and Ducina both stood

there silently, waiting for either of them to say anything. Finally,

Father Maxwell said, "Well, I suppose I'll be called in very soon to

apologize." He looked at the twins in front of him and smiled.

"Don't worry about it. It doesn't matter how many times I have to say

sorry to the school board."

"Father Maxwell!"

Maxwell held up his hand to stop Sister Helen's protest. "I don't

expect you to follow their orders. I just expect you two to do your

best." The phone rang inside. Maxwell stood up and gave the pair a

wry smile. "I wonder who that could be..." He went inside the church,

leaving the nun and the twins out on the steps.

Duo and Ducina sighed in relief.

"You're not off the hook yet."

They turned back and looked up fearfully into Helen's stern face.

Sister Helen folded her arms and scrutinized the two in front of her.

After a while, they began to fidget and squirm under her steady gaze.

"Did you two put them in the hospital?" They began to fidget even

more. Sister Helen sighed. "Duo... Ducina..."

Duo burst out. "It was their fault!"

"They're in the hospital, Duo. How can you say it's their fault?"

"But..."

Ducina looked up at Sister Helen. "Would it have been better that we

did what they wanted us to? I don't think so. 'Sides... it's either

us or them, and you know what?"

Sister Helen raised her eyebrows. "What?" she queried suspiciously.

"We've decided it's us!" Duo and Ducina put their arms around each

other and winked.

Sister Helen sweatdropped. *Why me?*

***

Later that day...

"Whatcha doing, Sister Helen?" Ducina sat down and watched as Helen

pull out the few Christmas ornaments they had. Duo and Father Maxwell

went to pull out the old fake tree that was stashed away in the attic.

"Why, getting ready for Christmas." When met with a questioning stare,

Helen blinked and asked, "Do you know what Christmas is?"

"Sure. It's when those soldiers go around getting drunk and smashing

things up. Then they go home and their kids open presents that they're

just gonna break. Then they have dinner, half of which they don't even

finish, so when they dump it, we go get the leftovers." Ducina went

quiet and looked at the floor, missing the nun's horrified expression

completely. "You know...that was the best time ever 'cuz we were

actually full once a year." She looked up at Helen and beamed. "Am

I right?" Ducina's eyes widened as she saw the expression on the poor

Sister Helen's face. "Are you okay? Sister Helen?"

Helen's mouth moved wordlessly, unable to form words. Was that all

she knows of Christmas, Helen thought, just the example shown to her by

a bunch of idiotic soldiers? Ducina came up to her and waved her hand

in front of her eyes. Sister Helen blinked and asked, "Is that what

you know?" She grew sad as she thought of Ducina's words, 'best time

ever...'

"Well, yeah. Is it something different?" Ducina frowned as she

thought long and hard. "I didn't miss anything, did I?" She began to

count off on her fingers, mumbling, "...partying, presents, food..."

Father Maxwell walked in with Duo, also counting his fingers.

As Father Maxwell put down the tree, he whispered to Sister Helen. "I

take it you also had the same conversation?" When Helen nodded

dumbly, Maxwell sighed. He had no idea their perception was so

warped.

"Oh, yeah!" Father Maxwell and Sister Helen looked up at the joyful

exclamation, hoping that maybe they did know something after all. Duo

and Ducina gave them V-signs. "We forgot that they put up the most

ugly decorations of a fat guy and red-nosed reindeer! Those

decorations were the worst...huh?" They heard a groan and rushed over

to Maxwell and Helen. They had the most stupified/horrified

expressions on their faces and they could barely breath. Two voices

alled them back from their horror. "Father Maxwell? Sister Helen?"

They looked down to the twins' eyes. "Were we wrong?"

Helen knelt to meet their eyes, tears forming in her's. "No, of course

not. Those are a part of Christmas, too." She hugged them both

tightly. They were amazed at her reaction and looked up at Father

Maxwell.

"There's more?" Ducina asked.

"Much more," the father replied, tears also forming.

"What else can there be?" Duo asked, the confusion on his face mirrored

by his sister's.

"C'mon. We'll tell you both a story..." Father Maxwell and Sister

Helen pulled them up on their laps and began to teach them what

Christmas really was...

...to be continued