Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing or any of the characters. sigh Anyone know where I can find a Duo plushy?
A/N: Cocowinterdeathangel said she thought it was cute that Quatre liked Jericho, so I decided to play with that idea. Also, we were just hit with a huge snowstorm over the weekend, which inspired me to get into the "snowy spirit" and I wondered how Duo would react to seeing snow for the first time (Yeah, yeah, so it was snowy during that battle in Endless Waltz. Gimme a break here people!)
Chapter Twenty: Snow day!
The science fair project was coming along great. After weeks of searching for materials, Jericho and I had finally gotten everything we needed to build a model of the Earth and everything that was in orbit around it and a motor to turn it. By the time December first rolled around, we had everything ready for construction to begin.
We worked mainly in Jericho's atrium, since it was a large area, it was heated, and it had all the tools we would need for the project. Jericho put away most of her other projects to make space for us to build the model, but she kept the area of the room where she did her sewing as it was. However, she put up several large Japanese-style screens around it so that I couldn't tell what she was working on.
When I asked her what she was sewing, she just grinned at me and said "Christmas presents."
"Oh," I replied.
I woke up on the first Friday of December to the sound of the phone ringing. I glanced at the clock. It was 6:00 AM. I still had fifteen minutes before I had to get up.
Diana walked into my room, holding the cordless phone. "It's for you Duo. It's Jericho."
Groaning, I reached up and took the phone from my foster mother. "You couldn't have waited another fifteen minutes to call?" I grumbled into the phone. "I don't have to get up for school for another fifteen minutes."
"Actually," Jericho replied, sounding very awake. "You don't have to get up for school at all today."
"What?" I asked, thinking I had heard her wrong. "What are you talking about?"
"There's no school today."
"What?" I repeated, sitting up. "Why not?"
"It's a SNOW DAY!" Jericho squealed into the phone. She sounded like a little kid who had been set loose in a candy store.
"A what day?" I asked.
"A snow day," Jericho said, sounding exasperated.
"What's a snow day?"
"Oh my gosh, Duo, you are so hopeless sometimes! There's so much snow on the ground that the busses can't get through. School is closed for the day."
"…Snow? There's snow on the ground?" I asked, getting excited. I had never seen real snow before.
"Yeah," Jericho replied. "Haven't you looked out the window yet?"
"No, sorry, Miss Sunshine, but some of us prefer to stay in bed until we have to get up."
"Well, get up and look out the window. I bet you'll like what you see."
Rolling my eyes, I stood up and walked to my window. Looking outside, I didn't see the backyard. I saw a blanket of white snow all over everything: covering the ground, the tree branches, everything. It was amazing.
"WOW!" I cried. "Jericho, I'll call you back in a few minutes. I'm gonna go jump in the snow!"
"Wait, Duo, before you do, you need to know that--" I hung up the phone before Jericho could finish her sentence.
I raced down the stairs in my boxers and t-shirt. Jon and Diana heard me flying from my room and they came out of the kitchen in time to see me disappear out the door.
"Duo! Wait!" Diana cried as the door slammed shut behind me.
The snow was about a foot deep. I leaped off the porch, ready to dive in and have fun all morning in the magical stuff called snow.
Unfortunately, no one ever told me that the magical stuff called snow was also magically freezing cold! As soon as my bare feet entered the snow, I knew I had made a huge mistake. Thefreezing temperatureof the snow hit me with a shock. "Yeah, okay Duo, bad idea," I said to myself through chattering teeth. "Boxers and snow do not mix."
It didn't help the fact any that the little girl who delivered the morning paper was standing in our driveway, staring at me like I was some sort of freak. I smiled sheepishly at her, and then turned and ran back inside.
"Jeez, it's freezing out there!" I cried as I closed the door behind me.
Diana and Jon were still standing in the kitchen doorway, staring at me incredulously. Then, at the same time, they burst into laughter.
"Duo, go take a warm shower and then go back to bed," Diana said through her laughing. "We'll get you up in a couple of hours."
I nodded and went upstairs, feeling slightly stupid.
"I don't believe you actually ran out into the snow in your boxers!" Jericho said, giggling. It was later that day, and we were in her atrium. I was working on building the motor while she drew up some blue prints for the colony models.
"I was wearing a t-shirt, too," I said, pouting.
"Oh, well, excuse me. That changes everything," she replied, snickering.
"It's not my fault. I've never seen snow up close before. How was I supposed to know it was so cold?"
"Doesn't it snow in the colonies? I mean, I thought you have climate controls up there."
I shrugged. "In some of the more wealthy colonies, I guess it does," I replied. "But in my colony, we didn't have money to spend on weather besides sunny and rainy."
"You didn't even have snow for Christmas?" Jericho asked.
I shook my head. "Nah. I guess some people wanted it, but it never bothered me that we didn't have snow then. I mean, heck, what does Christmas mean to a street urchin? Nothing, except a reminder that you don't have anyone to celebrate with. For kids with no family, Christmas is just another day you have to survive. What does it matter if there's snow or not? Heck, half the time I didn't even know it was Christmas until after it happened."
Jericho frowned. "You never celebrated Christmas as a little kid? Not even at the church?"
"I've never celebrated it, period." I looked up and caught sight of Jericho's face. It held a strange mixture of wonder, pity, sadness, and confusion. I had seen that expression before, and it made me uncomfortable. "Don't worry about it Jericho. I mean, look at it this way. When I was little, I had no money to celebrate with. After the Maxwell Church was destroyed, I didn't really have any friends to celebrate with. Then, the last two years, I've spent Christmas eve fighting and Christmas sleeping it off."
"And this year?" Jericho asked. "Will you celebrate this year?"
I shrugged. "I dunno. I haven't really thought about it. I mean, it's weird, to go all my life without the possibility of Christmas, and then having it be just an expected part of my life. What am I supposed to do? I mean, do I sing Happy Birthday to Jesus, and go participate in a pageant about a God I've been trying to avoid since I was eight?"
Jericho put down her pencil, stood up, and walked over to the table where I was working. "You don't have to do that if you don't want to," she replied. "I mean, Christmas can be a time to celebrate with friends and family."
I smiled and tightened a screw on the motor. "Celebrate what?" I asked.
She shrugged and gently took the screwdriver from me. "I dunno. You can celebrate friendship, or family ties. Celebrate the joys in your life, the loves." She smiled. "There must be something you can celebrate."
"Well, between you and the guys, I guess I have reason enough to celebrate friendship," I said, leaning against the table. I watched her play with the screwdriver. I needed it back to continue my work on the motor, but for the moment I was happy to just watch Jericho twirl it in her hands while we talked.
"Yeah, that's right. You can celebrate the fact that you have friends," she said with a little laugh. "And, see, it isn't religious at all. I think God actually likes it when we take a religious holiday and change it around if we need to. I think it makes Him happy when we are happy."
"So you believe in God?" I asked her. We had had this conversation before, and I knew her answer, but I just wanted to keep listening to her talk.
"Yeah, I believe in God," she said. "And snow days just make my faith in Him deeper."
"Why?" I asked. "Because they give you a break from homework?"
Jericho shook her head. "No. Because they give me a break from James and his friends."
I nodded in silent agreement. It was actually a relief to have a day away from them. It was really annoying having to watch my back wherever I went. However, I was getting better at avoided them, and I was starting to fight back. I had managed to trip some of them in the hall a few times, winning me some respect from the other "undesirable" students who were treated almost as badly as Jericho and I were.
"Can I have the screw driver back?" I asked.
"Sure," she handed me the tool and grinned at me. She went back and sat down at her drawing table and a comfortable silence fell over us.
"Hey, Duo, what do you want for Christmas?" Jericho asked after a while.
I didn't answer at first. Instead, I sat and thought about the question. What did I want for Christmas? I wanted a lot of stuff. "Hilde," I said finally. "I want Hilde back. And Father Maxwell and Sister Helen. And Solo. Hell, I'd settle for Professor G." I sighed and turned to Jericho. "I don't know what I want for Christmas that you can give me, Jericho. It's just…I dunno. I'm not the easiest person to shop for."
"No one is if you really care about them," she replied. After a pause, she added. "You really miss the colonies, don't you?"
"Yeah, I do. I miss my colony a lot. But it's not the colony itself that I miss so much as my friends in the colonies. Heero and Trowa and Quatre and WuFei. I miss them all a lot. Even if half the time they were telling me to leave them alone or to be quiet or to stop being annoying."
"Jeez, I wonder why they told you that," Jericho said, teasing me.
I stuck my tongue out at her. "I'll get you for that," I told her.
And I did. Later that day when she was walking me home, I managed to put a snowball down her back. Jericho cried out in fury and chased me the rest of the way to my house. I dashed inside and locked the door behind me. I then stood, leaning against the door, and listened as Jericho pounded on the door, demanding that I come out and face her like a man. She sounded mad, but I knew she was smiling. Personally, I was cracking up.
Diana came down the stairs to investigate the loud shouts and banging. "Duo, what's going on?" Diana asked as she peered out of the window beside the door. "Why is Jericho outside screaming at you?"
I grinned at Diana. "I put a snowball down her back. She wants revenge."
Diana raised an eyebrow at me. "Duo, I don't think she wants revenge. I think…"she trailed off and shook her head. "Never mind."
"What?" I asked her. "What were you going to say?"
She smiled. "Duo, you might not know this, but usually, when a boy does something like put snow down a girl's neck or pokes her, it means he likes her. Really likes her. As in as more than a friend."
I stared blankly at Diana. "What? You think I…that Jericho…WHAT?"
Diana shrugged. "Maybe I'm just reading into it," she said as she turned and headed back up the stairs. "But if I am, then the rest of the neighborhood is, too."
The pounding on the door stopped. "Okay Duo, I've got to get home," Jericho called from the other side of the door. "So I'll get you back next time I see you. Bye!"
"Bye!" I called, waving at her through the window. Her cheeks were a rosy color from running in the cold and then pounding on the door. I gulped. God, it seemed like every time I looked at her she was prettier than the time before. She waved at me and headed home.
I pulled off my coat and boots and went into the kitchen, thinking about what Diana had said. Everyone in the neighborhood thought I liked Jericho? Where on Earth did they get that crazy idea?
But the thing was, it wasn't such a crazy idea. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I knew it was true. I really liked spending time with Jericho, and I thought she was really pretty. And there had been a time or two where I had been tempted to just grab her and kiss her, but I hadn't.
Why hadn't I? What had stopped me from kissing her? What had stopped me from taking our friendship to the next level? I couldn't say that we didn't know each other very well. After spending the better part of three months almost exclusively with each other, we practically knew everything there was to know about each other.
Maybe I was scared that Jericho would reject me. Maybe she would tell me she just wanted to be friends. Or that I had been misreading some of the looks she had given me.
I pulled a frozen pizza out of the freezer. I still hadn't reached the desirable weight the doctor had told me to aim for. I just was having a hard time maintaining my former appetite. I hadn't really been able to eat like a pig since Hilde had died.
Hilde…That was another reason why I hadn't tried anything with Jericho. I still missed Hilde. I felt as though I was betraying her by liking another girl. It was bad enough that I was the reason she had died; I didn't want to ruin her memory anymore by moving on to someone else.
I slid the pizza into oven as the phone rang. I picked the phone up.
"Hello?" I said.
"Hi, is this the Christopher residence?" a familiar voice asked at the other.
Grinning, I replied, "Yes, Quatre it is. This is Duo. What's up?"
"Duo! Hi! I almost didn't recognize your voice."
I laughed. "Heero would be disappointed in you, Quatre."
Quatre laughed at that. "I know. I just don't have the same steal trap for my memory that he does."
"So what's going on Quatre?" I asked him as I hopped up to sit on the counter. Diana would yell at me if she saw me, but I didn't worry about it, because I had seen her sit up on the counter too.
"Well, actually, Duo, I'm on Earth at the moment. I'm in New York City."
"New York City!" I cried. "Quatre, that's like, two hours away! You totally have to come up and visit!"
"That's what I'm calling you about. I'd love to see you and…" he paused.
"And…?" I prompted.
"Well, do you remember that e-mail I sent you a few months ago?" he asked. "The one asking if it would be alright for me to take Jericho out on a date?"
"Yeah…wait, you wanna take Jericho out on a date when you come up here and visit?" I asked.
"Yes, I would like to…that is, if you and she aren't, you know, together," Quatre said, sounding like he was almost expecting me to tell him Jericho and I were a couple.
"What? Me and Jericho? Together?" I laughed, even though my heart was practically breaking. "Nah. We're just friends. Go ahead and take her out. Be my guest," I said, forcing myself to sound happy, all the while my brain was screaming, No, you can't take her out. She's mine. I saw her first!
"Oh, wow, great!" Quatre said. He sounded genuinely happy that I had okayed the date. "Do you know what she's doing tomorrow night?"
"Nothing," I replied. "If you weren't coming, she and I would probably just hang out and work on our science fair project."
"Oh, okay. Well, what are you doing tomorrow?"
We made plans. Quatre would arrive around noon at my house. We would then go around town in a limousine, and I would show Quatre "the sights" (I had no idea what "the sights" were, but I figured the mall and my favorite coffee shop could qualify if I was desperate.) At four, Quatre and I would go pick up Jericho, and then I would be dropped off at home and they would go on the date. Quatre had asked me to set the date up with Jericho, and not tell her who was going to be taking her out.
"But suggest that she dress very nicely," Quatre said. "I've heard of a restaurant in your area that is supposed to be very good, and I would like to try it."
"Sure thing, Quatre," I said, resisting the temptation to hang up on him. I knew Quatre wasn't doing this to hurt my feelings, so I didn't have any reason to be mad at him.
When I got off the phone with Quatre, I called Jericho.
"Hello?" Jericho answered.
"Hey Jericho, it's Duo. Listen, tomorrow at four, a limousine will arrive at your house. The guy inside will want to take you out to dinner at some nice restaurant. He's a really nice guy and I…I think you should accept his invitation." Why the hell am I telling her to accept the invitation?
"Duo? Are you okay? What are you talking about? Who's the guy?" Jericho questioned.
"He's a friend. A really close friend," I replied. "Tomorrow afternoon. Four o'clock. Will you be ready?"
"Uh, yeah, sure," Jericho said, still sounding kind of confused. "What should I wear?"
"I dunno," I said tersely. "How about a skirt and blouse if you have one?"
Jericho laughed. "I have skirts and blouses. Okay, yeah, I'll go. Tomorrow at four, right? I'll be ready. See you then."
My jaw dropped. She thought the guy was me! "No, Jericho, wait!" But she hung up the phone before I could correct her mistake.
I sighed and hung up the phone. That was another reason why I hadn't tried to kiss Jericho. She deserved someone better than me, someone like Quatre. He had money and a family name. I didn't have anything except flashbacks and old battle scars.
The smoke alarm suddenly started going off, startling me out of my dejected thoughts. I rushed to the oven and pulled out the black, charred remains of the frozen pizza.
"Wonderful," I groaned as I dumped the pizza into the garbage can.
I went upstairs and flopped down on my bed. I thought snow days were supposed to be fun. No one ever mentioned one of your best friends asking the girl you like out.
For the first time since I had met him, I was dreading a visit from Quatre.
