He had when they'd first seen that tiny black and white photo in the newspaper, and despite Duo trying to tell him to stay calm and be a smart shopper, when they'd arrived at the small country house for the first time with that neatly dressed saleswoman standing under it's doorway and smiling, he'd clamored out of the car and all but lost himself. The flower garden made his eyes huge with plans and appreciation. All of it's perfect little clusters of flowers growing together, and that small white fence that stated so easily 'domestic'. Then that matching gazebo in the back, and the little swinging chairs. He'd wanted it, badly, and didn't want to change a thing. Quatre loved the baby-blue shuttered windows, and adored the sunny lemon yellow kitchen with its left behind checkered curtains. He liked the tiny just-because stone fireplace with it's unexplained chip on the mantel, and had already decided his reading chair would be somewhere before it. The pantry reminded him of a secret playroom, behind that well hidden cabinet look-alike door, with it's single hanging light and trap doors both on the floor and above. They hadn't been in the small root cellar yet, or in the attic which the woman said was little more than a small storage space, but that didn't matter.
There was a stable just a mile down the road, and Quatre wanted to get them horses there to ride when they wanted. And if someone stood up on one of the rocks in the garden out back, they would just barely see the edges of the lily pond with it's mysterious frog and dragonfly residents that would also be theirs. The woman had said that they ought to come back at night and see the fireflies scoot along it's surface, that it was like magic, not to mention the sun setting over the softly rolling grass-covered hills. Quatre thought he'd see it for himself soon enough.
He saw it, and fell in love, and Duo got caught up quickly enough. They left that day knowing it belonged to them.
It took them little more than a week to pack all of their things. Trowa left halfway through that. He'd finished his own fast enough, but when Quatre requested shyly that he stay and please help them pack as well, he'd been helpless to deny him. Of course the whole situation, that so soon Quatre had found a new house and was starting out more or less on his own made Trowa feel a little worse about it. He -had- been a rock in the lovely blonde's road. He made up for it now as he could. Keeping a light attitude wasn't too hard, not with Quatre's constant smiling and gushing about his plans. Staying miserable around a happy Quatre was like trying to deny the sun it's rising. So he helped, and joked around about Quatre disappearing and becoming a hermit out there because he was so in love with the house. Duo laughed with him, and things were okay again between them. He said he was a little worried Quatre would leave him for the house now too, if such a decision came about.
Quatre reassured them both with a bright smile, then plowed ahead with his plans and designs. Duo had been right about that, how quickly he'd want to make the house 'theirs'.
They'd finished the packing of the house that had belong to all five of them at one point, it's walls silent witness to fights, blossoming love, and loss, and had left it behind. Though Quatre had offered to help Trowa settle into his new apartment, the Latin pilot had refused much to Duo's unspoken relief. He wanted time to get used to being on his own, he said, and Quatre had been forced to grudgingly respect that. Though he had made plans to have Trowa over to his own house for a nice lunch just as soon as he was ready.
Now, they were moved into that little house… Mostly. Tonight they'd be staying at a hotel nearby just because of how late it was and how little they'd actually gotten done, but come tomorrow...
Duo stood in the door and watched with a lazy grin as Quatre padded across the box-spotted floor and into the kitchen with his bag. Shortly, the rustling sound and clanging of cans and boxes put away began, and he forced himself to move again after the perky young man.
"Ya think we got enough, Quatre? I mean, only these bags and the -ten- in the car? Are you sure we won't need to go back and buy the grocery store in case an army battalion should drop on by and request dinner?"
The light laugh he got in return from the blonde balancing on the counter on his knees and tucking things away was like music. "Don't tease, Duo! You never know who is going to drop by, or if something will come up. The car might break down sometime, and then where would we be until we got it fixed? Or a storm could hit and-" He paused, pointing down at the bag still in Duo's arms, "-Which reminds me, take those candles and put them on the top right shelf in the pantry? We need to know exactly where they are should the lights go out."
"Yes, master." Chuckling, he pushed his own burden onto the surface besides Quatre and plucked the pair of six-count packages out of it's top before heading to the cabinet-hidden pantry with them. He had to admit Quatre had a point. Ordering a pizza if that happened wouldn't be an option. First off the blonde had a weird sort of attitude towards the greasy circular food in general often making the cutest 'yuk' faces he'd ever seen, and secondly, Duo thought it'd be impossible to find a place that delivered this far out.
"Don't mock me either. And as I was saying, it would be nice to have some easy supplies if that does happen. You know the saleswoman mentioned how sometimes random storms come and stick around in this area, because of the mountain range. They drift in, then stay for days just circling until they dissipate. Besides…" He looked back over his shoulder with a playful smile as Duo returned, "I still haven't learned how to predict your odd cravings, and I'm not into running to the nearest gas station in the middle of the night when you want skittles or some other piece of junk food."
"Hey! I never asked you to do my munchies runs yet, have I? And slims jims are not junk food, they're… Yeah, okay, so they are. So what?"
"It doesn't mean you won't though." The blonde pointed out. "I'm not saying just for that reason either, but if you took off suddenly, I'd be up all night worrying you know, and that's quite a drive away so you'd be giving me plenty of time to do just that."
The worrying comment made Duo slacken the teasing. Though Quatre was still smiling, he understood the pain that was under that casual statement. Up all night, waiting, like he had been for the brunette that was fading into the past finally as a memory. The Arabian was getting better and so much more secure than he had been, but some things still got him worked up. Duo remembered staring in shock that night a few months ago when Trowa came in late and Quatre had launched himself at the taller male, then simultaneously launched right into a near screaming rant. Trowa had just wanted to take a walk in the evening rain, but when Quatre had made his somewhat motherly rounds after he assumed everyone had turned in and found that bed empty, Duo had been shaken awake by a pale faced, wild eyed boy he hadn't encountered since right after Heero's death. Unable to calm him, he'd eventually settled on the living room couch with him, listening to Quatre list every possible morbid thing that he was sure had happened to Trowa. Then the door had opened and there was no stopping Quatre's relief or anger, and Trowa had just stared open mouthed as words and weak fists landed.
A snack run, though innocent enough, had the potential to place him in the spot to have Quatre flying at him. Normally, he wouldn't mind that, but that particular circumstance would include with hands curled, eyes teary, and emotions running on a nuclear level. When he thought of it like that, these extreme shopping binges would be a welcome compromise. Whatever they hadn't gotten that he craved would simply have to wait until the next town trip.
"All right, all right. I get it, Kitten."
Quatre stared at him for a second more, perhaps testing the honesty in Duo's eyes and making sure he simply wasn't getting blown off, then nodded to himself and turned back to the food. "Come on up here and help me, Duo. The sun's starting to set, and I'd really like to be off this road and onto the highway before it's totally dark. Until I get used to it or they get streetlights, I don't think I'll try cruising around on it just yet."
"Hun, you piloted a gundam during one of the biggest wars the world has known," He grunted and boosted himself up to join his boyfriend on the counter, offering him the cans he nonetheless quickly pulled out. "I think you can handle driving at night."
"Ha ha, Duo." He rolled his eyes, and with both of them still chuckling they finished with their provision preparations for their move in the next day.
XxXxX
At first, the young blonde had been upset by the fact that Duo wasn't here to finish setting up with him in their new home, but gradually he'd accepted that the other male was right. Early this morning as they were on their way down the road and to the cottage, both prattling on excitedly about which room to start in, Duo's cell phone had rung. He'd gotten a call back for an interview at one of the many jobs he'd put in applications for. The call was from one of the ones Duo had been really hoping for, and one of the few that Quatre admittedly didn't mind since Duo'd still be making it back to the house each and every night. It was a managerial spot in a mechanics shop only a little ways into town. Of course, though, they'd wanted Duo to come in for that interview this afternoon around three, and that was where Quatre couldn't help but start to complain a bit.
It was through much reassurance that if they rushed they could have most of it done by the time that rolled around, (and more than a few guilty nudges that they needed this job if they wanted to stay self sufficient and stay out of the lowering funds Quatre had left from his inheritance) that he finally crumpled and told Duo to go ahead and go, and to come back with good news or he'd be scalped.
Miraculously, they had gotten most of it done. They'd cleared the living room in no time at all, less than an hour actually, aside from small things like organizing the movies on the shelves. The TV stand and electronics were quickly placed, the couches moved and then re-moved as they mutually agreed they wanted the windows open to stand before. Lights were put on end tables then turned on to make sure they still worked, and rugs were thrown over the nice hardwood floor to protect bare toes from the morning chills. They left that room with just three boxes left unopened on the loveseat, and they'd get into that when they were all done and finally ready to curl up and just relax in front of a favorite flick.
The bathroom was handled by Duo in a matter of minutes while Quatre finished his peculiar preferences in the kitchen, which were bound to take longer. When he'd finished in that small sunny room, eyeing the clean bath basin and wondering if he'd be able to fit them both in there some future night, the braided pilot didn't risk the wrath of the other boy whom he could hear muttering to himself as he banged pots, but rather slipped outside to deal with the few things that belonged in the shed and garden.
With that done, he'd moved over to one of the swinging seats, tipped his head back, and had watched the sun creep along the afternoon sky with a catlike smile of satisfaction crawling over his lips. It would have taken a lot for the day to have become better for one Duo Maxwell, that was for sure.
It was nearing on two o'clock when his little lover appeared at the half-door that marked the kitchen's exit. He looked hot, but content. Duo scooted over as the young man approached and sat beside him, pushing a can of soda into one of Duo's hands as he nursed delicately at his own. "Bathroom?"
"Done, beautiful. Kitchen?" He raised an eyebrow at the storm cloud that washed over Quatre's face.
"Done… Mostly. I need to rearrange some of the little stuff, but it ought to work. Most of it's in the same places as the other house, so you shouldn't have trouble finding it."
Duo nodded, keeping quiet. Together they watched a fluffy cloud drift overhead and simply enjoyed the natural sounds and smells around them, and one another's company. Quatre tipped his head to rest it on Duo's shoulder, and in return, the American nuzzled at the cherish strands of strawberry smelling silk-formed heaven.
He knew what time it was without asking when Quatre looked down at his slightly dusty watch and fetched a long suffering sigh. "Yeah, I know, blondie. Time for me to scoot."
"Promise you'll hurry back?"
"Of course," He winked, brushing his lips against the graceful swell of Quatre's babyish cheeks, "And if you're real good, I might even bring you something back, if you know what I mean."
"Oh you!" He was pushed off the swing seat, but he was laughing. The flushed face of the other male always made him smile.
"Yeah, yeah, 'oh me' indeed. I was talking take-out, my suspicious little would-be angel." He brushed himself off and started wandering back towards the house. "Call me if anything happens. You've only got the bedroom left, so if you've got that done when I get back, maybe we can eat whatever I bring back out here? Sound good?"
"Mm hm. Bring back Italian if you can find it?"
"Does pizza count?" Smirking at the image of his boyfriend swinging his legs and scowling up at him from beneath feathered bangs like a sulky teen, Duo guessed that was a no, and with a teasing 'we'll see, honey bee' he slipped into the shade of the house and then through it to the car in their new driveway.
As he backed out and turned the car into the road, he lifted one hand in a wave to the blonde who had -- of course -- gotten over his temper to at least come see him off. Quatre leaning on one side of the door and smiling his direction as the sun kissed off his fair skin and hair and made him glow was the image that hung beautifully in Duo's mind as he went off to secure their little piece of paradise.
XxXxX
He bent over the wooden surface again, checking it for scratches carefully before he finally pushed the long dresser flat up against the wall. Huffing at the heavy thing, Quatre turned and rested his lower back against it as he unwound the bandana that had lain his forehead and swabbed his cheeks impatiently. He felt hot and sticky, and tired, but on a good note the bedroom looked wonderful.
Nudging the hems of the area rug with his socking covered feet, he took a second to regain his breath as he peered around. The rug had been first, since things would obviously be resting on it, then he'd had to dive right into the big stuff. They each had their own dresser, horribly huge matching pieces that now made Quatre regret his decision. A pair of end tables still laid near the door. The bed, Duo's, since the American's was the larger out of theirs, lay resting upended against the wall still, and then a neat little line of lamps waiting to be placed and plugged in. Finally came the boxes that crowded the far end of the room. Their clothing, their knickknacks, extra bedding, Duo's random collections, his own radio and it's box of cds… Just looking at the boxes made his head hurt.
But first, the bed. With the dressers out of the way, that could come down. And then the end tables, and then those evilly taunting boxes.
Quatre walked across the room, tossing his bandana over onto the surface he'd been so closely checking a moment before, and stretched up on his tiptoes to reach the edge of the bed frame. With the mattress already balanced on it, he tugged the whole thing down.
He'd intended to just give it a little pull, then hop out of the way and guide it gently down, but the weight along with his own tiredness caught him off guard, and Quatre barely had the time to make a clumsy dive out of the path of the rapidly falling furniture, nearly banging his head against a wall as it crashed down. It slammed against the floor with a creaking metal wail, bouncing in the frame, and then something under it slapped down on the wood a second later.
"Oh… Oh crap. Duo's going to kill me if I broke that stupid thing!" Hardly aware that he was muttering out loud, the blonde pulled himself up and wincing at his sore knee which had caught the majority of his unexpected flight, wandered back over to the crooked bed.
From the side, he thought it looked fine (not that he knew much about beds) aside from being about a foot away from where he'd intended it to be, but that second sound had worried him. It sounded like one of the boards below fell free. So he knelt beside it already trying to think of where to get the fixtures for it, clenching his teeth in frustrated anger and intermingling pain, and dropped his head to the floor to peer beneath it.
"Thank goodness." No boards. No popped springs either, though he wasn't sure the bed had them anyway or if it was one of the new sponge-type ones. The floor rug was a little wrinkled under one of the bed legs and would need to be fixed before it drove him buts, but that was…
As his eyes fixed on that strange little shape where he knew there hadn't been on a minute before, the blonde blinked in surprise, then muttered a choice word that would have had Duo laughing himself silly. He flattened out and wiggled beneath the temperamental bed to retrieve what he thought was part of a board, only to haul it out and find himself instead looking down at a tiny black book.
Sitting up, he turned the age mangled tome over in his hands, gazing between it and the bed uncertainly. It wasn't hard for him to figure out that it had somehow been lodged underneath there, and thus, it belonged to Duo. Probably a diary, or photo album or something.
He wasn't a snoop though, and so he bent to try to put it back wherever it had fallen from -- to let Duo keep his secrets because he certainly had enough of his own, and didn't everyone? -- but that was when one of the few loose scraps of paper peeking out from between battered pages came loose, and drifted like a snowflake down to the ground beside his other hand.
Even then, he'd have pushed it back in those pages and never have peeked… If not for the fact that that folded piece of plain lined paper looked strangely familiar to him. Indecisively, the blonde froze, looking between the ebony book in one hand and down at that worn out bit on the floor. It was folded childishly into something like a high school note, and did he know this note? Quatre thought he might. He'd never been really good at all the neat origami ones the other students seemed to know, and so his own had always just been perfectly creased first one way, then the other, and then addressed with a name in the center in his usual looping script.
He couldn't see a name where he was looking now, it would be on the other side.
Did Duo keep a note I wrote him during the war? Which one? If it was from him, it really wouldn't be a crime to find that much out at least. Maybe even to find out if his sweet boyfriend had been that interested in him even back then, a cute crush he'd been so obvious to.
Smiling and resolved, Quatre reached out and scooped the note up, turning it over in his hand as he absently set the book up on top edge of the bed.
Heero.
His eyes scanned over that name once, without making the connection. Then it slammed home, and his heart instantly filled with that same old ache he'd been blessedly feeling diminish day by day for his first love. Like Heero was there and actually whispering his own name into the shell of the blonde's ear, that scrawled name made him turn cold and brought tears prickling into his aqua eyes.
He didn't even consider what it was doing here, his trembling fingers just pulled apart the once carefully made folds and opened the note again to him.
The lines were his. He remember smiling as he teased the stoic brunette that he'd somehow made his through the words written here, daring him to scold him for caring. For touching his precious things. His eyes, though blurred now with tears he didn't feel pooling and streaking down his cheeks, moved over each one and it made him sniffle in remembering his innocent declarations of devotion. Something bordering on obsession, with the way Heero had always been the first thing in his mind when he woke up and the last when he went to bed, and had often haunted his dreams as well. Thinking now, how he'd felt the urge to write such a thing, before his lover had even left the house.
How he'd signed it 'your Quatre' and had never felt more honest about anything.
Oh, it hurt still, like the wound was reopening and bleeding fresh onto his new life. It hurt enough that the sounds outside didn't make sense to him, the distant thud of a car door.
Heero hadn't been mad though, he'd been oddly touched. He'd thank him for it with soft kisses when he'd come home, across his face and closed eyes and cheeks, making made him feel delirious. His normally distant boyfriend liked it enough to take it with him everywhere, keeping it tucked deep in his wallet, and when he'd-
Quatre stopped, body shivering in the warm air of the bedroom as though winter was rushing upon him hungrily. I cried for this note once, because like most of Heero's things in his wallet, it was gone. Like the tickets to the movie we saw on our first date, such an oddly sweet thing for him to have kept. It was always with him, so it was gone and… And now it's here? How did Duo get this note? Heero never would have dropped it, or given it up, he-
"Oh kitten." Quatre jumped and let out a timid shriek as that dull emotionless voice spoke up behind him. "You've been naughty."