New Beginnings  Part Five

By SilverLady

Quatre lay in his bed, staring at the ceiling and contemplating the patterns in it. He'd asked Duo about it once, but Duo hadn't been able to really tell him much about it. It seemed that the original owner of the house had been considered more than a little…. weird by the people in town. Quatre had learned that there were a lot of things in the house that were odd.

He blinked slightly as he studied one of the 'pictures' on the ceiling. He could feel his face turning red as he realized just what it looked like to him. I really hope I'm seeing things. Either that or I hope Ken doesn't pay attention to them for a very long time. That's really, really twisted.

A few minutes passed before Quatre huffed a little and turned his head to look at his sleeping partner. He'd hoped that if he just laid here for a while he would be able to go back to sleep, but that apparently wasn't going to happen. It seemed like something was determined to keep him awake.

At first he'd thought that maybe the baby had woken him, but after a few minutes he realized that it was another part of his abdomen that had been complaining. A loud gurgling growl punctuated that thought.

He was hungry, damn it. And he had a sudden strong craving for a thick slice of the bread that Duo had made the day before, slathered with butter and maybe some honey. Honey sounded real good. Nice and thick and sweet. Just what he needed. He hoped that there was some left.

Of course, it was in the kitchen and he was here, in his nice warm bed. Upstairs. But he really wanted that bread now.

Frowning slightly he eased himself out of the bed. He'd hoped that Trowa would have realized that he was up and wake up himself. It would have been so much nicer to get Trowa to go get his bread and honey. But he didn't want to wake him up just for that. Trowa had been very late getting to bed the night before, though Quatre didn't know why, and Quatre didn't want to wake him up just because he'd had a snack attack. Or as Duo would call it, a stark raving craving.

It wasn't as if he wasn't capable of going and getting his own bread. In fact, he'd been moping around just a few days before because it seemed no one wanted him to do anything. So it seemed silly to expect Trowa to get up and go down to that cold dark kitchen when he was especially tired just because he wanted some bread. With honey. And maybe a cup of tea. Or fruit juice. Or something.

He was going to be really glad when these mood swings of his quit. He really didn't like being so wishy washy.

Grabbing his robe from the end of the bed he headed for the door, trying to ignore his grumbling belly.

"Just hang on a few minutes," he whispered to himself.

He didn't notice that one green eye opened to watch him as he left the room. Trowa sighed when he realized he'd managed to duck out of whatever it was Quatre wanted this time. With a heart-felt sigh he closed his eye and nuzzled deeper into the blankets. He really was very tired.

****

Quatre paused when he realized he heard noises coming from the kitchen. Now who else could be up at this time of the night? He glanced out the window, noticing that the sky was tinted a faint shade of pink. Make that really early morning.

Moving carefully he walked into the kitchen, stopping just inside the doorway to let his eyes adjust. He could tell that there was someone moving around in the room, but couldn't see who it was. "Duo?" he asked softly, figuring that he would be the only one in the kitchen with no light.

Duo jerked around in surprise at the voice. He hadn't even realized that anyone had entered the room. "Quatre. Hang on a second and I'll get you a light."

Quatre blinked when the large lantern that hung in the center of the room flared to life. "Thank you, I.." He looked around the room, amazed at the number of jars that took up every flat space in the large room. "I'm not disturbing you am I?"

Duo smiled as he pulled out a chair for Quatre. "No. Not at all. What brings you out so early in the morning?"

Before Quatre could answer, his stomach grumbled loudly. "Ummm."

Duo laughed. "Hungry. What would you like?"

Quatre sat down at the table, trying not to knock over any of the jars. "I don't want to be a bother."

Duo deftly picked up several of the jars that were in front of Quatre. "Believe me, I will tell you when you become a bother. Now, what did you want?"

"Bread."

"With?"

"Butter."

Duo smiled slightly. It was easier to get things out of Ken. "And?"

Quatre looked down. "Honey," he mumbled.

Duo laughed softly as he moved across the kitchen. "Bit of a sweet tooth this morning?"

Quatre blushed, glad that Duo couldn't see him. He decided to change the subject. "Duo, you weren't blind when you moved in here, were you?"

Duo placed the loaf of bread on the table and turned around to get the honey and butter. "No. I'd been here a couple of years before that happened. Why?"

"Did you ever really look at the pictures on your ceilings?"

Duo placed the honey in front of Quatre, who dipped his finger in it without thinking. "Which ceiling?"

"The one in my room."

Duo grinned. "Some really…. interesting ones in there."

Quatre blushed harder. "They're….."

"Perverted?"

"That's one word for them. I hope that Ken doesn't look up."

"I'm not worried."

"Duo! One of those pictures looked like….."

"A guy having sex with a mule?"

"Duo!"

"Like I said, I'm not worried. That's the only room decorated with dirty pictures. The ceilings in the other room don't have anything like that."

Quatre gaped at Duo. "You…"

Duo blinked innocently. "Me?"

"You knew what the pictures on the ceiling were."

"Yes."

"And you deliberately put me in a room with dirty pictures on the ceiling."

"Well…"

Quatre clamped a hand to his forehead. "Me. In my delicate condition. You put me in a room full of perverted pictures. I shall be traumatized for life. What affect do you think that it will have on my poor unborn child?  Exposed to…"

"Quatre."

Quatre glanced at Duo. "Yes?"

"Can it."

Quatre huffed. "You're no fun."

Duo reached slowly for the honey, but Quatre spotted him and snatched it away. "You are not taking my honey away."

"I think you've had too much already."

"I haven't had any yet."

Duo snorted. "I don't believe that. I know how you are. You've probably already had your fingers in it."

Quatre glanced down at his sticky fingers. "Ummm."

"And don't try and deny it. Think you can fool the blind guy. Well you've got another thing coming. Just because…."

"Duo."

"What?"

"Can it."

Duo pouted for a moment before bursting into laughter. "I think we both have a problem this morning."

Quatre glanced around the kitchen again. "What is all of this for?"

"This what for?"

Quatre waved his hand. "The jars."

"Jam."

"You're in a jam?"

"No, silly. Jam. Strawberry. The berries are starting to ripen and I want to be ready. I make a lot of jam and preserves and I need a lot of jars. So I've been cleaning them and getting them ready."

"Couldn't sleep?"

Duo shook his head. "Nah. I just find this a good time of the day to get these kinds of chores out of the way. I don't have to worry about Ken trying to help. I don't want him breaking anything and it's just safer if I do it myself."

"So when are you going to start picking?"

"I figured I'd go out this morning and find out how things are going?"

"And how are you going to do that?"

"I take Ken with me. He knows what to look for." Duo turned around and picked up several more jars. He just knew what was going to be the next thing out of Quatre's mouth.

"Can I go with you?"

He knew it. "Quatre.."

"Please. I'll be careful. I won't touch anything. I just want to go along."

Duo smiled. "You sound like Ken."

"Well? Can I? Please."

"Why don't you find out if the others feel like going and we'll make a day of it. I can even pack a lunch."

"That sounds great. I'll go ask." Quatre went to stand up.

"Quatre?"

"Yes?"

"Why don't you wait until they're awake before you ask?"

Quatre glanced out the window and realized it was still very early. Slowly he sat back down. "That probably would be a good idea."

"Thank you."

Quatre watched Duo move around the kitchen for a few minutes. "Duo?"

"Yes."

"How can you tell what time it is?"

Duo smiled slightly. Quatre was still full of questions about how he dealt with being blind. He had a feeling that Quatre had a hard time believing that it really wasn't as awful as it seemed to be. Though he had to admit, to himself, that it had been really hard and awful when it had first happened. It had been his need to take care of Ken that had gotten him through those tough early days.

"Different sounds. There are certain noises that only seem to happen at certain times of the day. Like you'll only hear some birds early in the morning. Things like that."

"Oh. You just…"

Duo moved over to sit down next to Quatre. "I just what?"

"You make it seem so simple. So easy. You never have any trouble doing things, like working in the kitchen or taking care of the garden or the animals or Ken. I feel so clumsy and useless next to you."

Duo reached over and put his hand over Quatre's. "It's never been simple or easy. I've just had lots of practice. I've been dealing with my blindness for three years now. Believe me, when I first lost my sight I really didn't know how I was going to cope. But I also knew that I was going to have to. That Ken needed me to keep going. Some days that was the only thing that got me out of bed in the morning. Knowing that Ken was counting on me to take care of him. You just have to be patient. You're in an unfamiliar situation and it's going to take time for you to adjust. But I really think if you just relax and not try and do more than you can, you'll be fine."

"I'm hopeless in the kitchen."

"Because you try to hard and get ahead of yourself. Slow down. Don't expect to be great at it the first time you try." Duo smiled. "It was a good thing Ken was still nursing when I moved in here. I would have probably poisoned him if he'd had to eat some of the things I made at first. I'm surprised I didn't poison myself."

"Was it really that bad?"

"Your mistaking salt for sugar was nothing compared to some of the things I did. Plus, I damn near burned the kitchen down more than once. The ladies that came to help me out sure had some patience. I really don't know how they kept from putting me out of my misery."

Quatre giggled slightly. "Thanks. I needed to hear that. You don't think I'll be a complete disaster in the kitchen?"

"Not a complete one."

Quatre laughed even harder at that. "Thanks. You just boosted my confidence by so much." He looked down at his now empty plate. "I think that was good but I'm not really sure." He carefully stood up. "I'm going to go see if Trowa's up yet and find out if he's interested in going."

Duo nodded. "Let me know. I don't want to be too late leaving."

"I will."

Duo sat quietly as he listened to Quatre make his way up the stairs. I hope he's better at picking berries than he is at picking weeds. He sighed as he stood up and headed for the pantry to get the things he would need to make a picnic lunch. He had a feeling it was going to be an interesting day.