Kindergarten Heero Part 8
"Come on in," Duo invited, holding the front door open. "Helen can give you the nickel tour of the place while I rustle something up for lunch. Burgers and fries okay with you?"
"That will be fine," Heero nodded, gazing around the entryway with wide eyes. The place was just as gorgeous inside as out. Gleaming woodwork and sparkling glass everywhere he looked.
The beautiful surroundings obviously didn't impress Helen; she tossed her jacket in a heap on top of a chair and grabbed Heero's hand. "Come on, let me show you my room," she urged, dragging him towards the grand staircase. Upstairs, most of the doors were closed. Helen waved towards them and said, "We don't go in there; those rooms are for the people who own the house. Our rooms are down here." She tugged Heero down the hall behind her and he found himself in the room of a slightly tomboyish little girl.
The room was decorated in cool greens rather than little-girl pink and racing car bedsheets peeked out from beneath a bedspread covered in pegasi and unicorns. The posters on the wall were an equally varied mix of sports and fantasy. The entire room was completely out of tune with the rest of the house; clearly it had been decorated exactly as its occupant wished.
On the nightstand, Heero spotted a photo of Duo and Helen together with a young woman with a pale face and darkly shadowed eyes. A scarf covered her head. He picked the picture up and looked at it carefully. Considering how poor the quality of their photos of Leia was and how much the woman in the photo might have been changed by her illness, it was impossible to tell whether she was the one he was looking for or not.
"That's my mom," Helen said matter-of-factly, moving to stand beside Heero. "She was sick for a long time. She died a couple of months ago." Her voice went so soft that Heero could barely hear her as she added, "I miss her lots and Uncle Duo does too." Abruptly, she jerked the picture frame out of Heero's hands and put it face-down on the bed before grabbing Heero's hand and pulling him out of her room and across the hall. Her voice was almost too bright as she told him, "This is Uncle Duo's room!" Heero glanced down at her and saw the sheen of tears in her eyes before she swiped one arm across them impatiently. Her voice was more natural as she told him conspiratorially, "He must've cleaned it this morning 'cause it's usually messier than mine."
"I heard that, you little brat," Duo exclaimed, bounding up the stairs and down the hall. "Tattletale!" He scooped Helen off her feet and held her tucked under one arm while he tickled her face and neck with the tuft at the end of his braid. She squealed and giggled. Duo swung her up on his shoulders as he said, "Lunch will be ready in just a couple of minutes. Bathroom's down the stairs and to the right at the end of the hall if you want to wash up. Kitchen's right next to it; I thought we'd just eat in there. I'll just supervise the munchkin here in her ablutions then be back downstairs to serve."
"Okay," Heero agreed. Before leaving, he cast a quick glance around the room, noting how the dark wood furniture contrasted with the bright jewel-tone blues and greens of the carpet and furnishings. There was only minimal furniture in the room, leaving it open and uncluttered. He liked it and it suited the vivacious man that it belonged to. Halfway down the stairs, he froze as the thought crossed his mind that he wouldn't mind sharing that room. With an effort, he forced himself to continue down to wash up.
He couldn't be thinking in those terms already; he hadn't even kissed Duo yet! And he had a home - okay, "home" wasn't a good description, "crummy apartment" was considerably more accurate - back in L.A. and a job that he would have to go back to as well! When had he stopped thinking in terms of convincing Duo that there were plenty of teaching opportunities in L.A. and started thinking in terms of joining Duo here?!
'When the hell did I go and fall in love with a man who could very well turn out to be mixed up in the case that I'm here undercover on?' Heero thought with dismay.
***
"It was nice meeting you, Mr. Yuy," the young woman said graciously. "Our daughter has had some very - interesting - stories to tell us about her day since you became her teacher."
Heero winced at the thought of just what kind of stories they'd probably heard. "Hopefully they will be a bit less - interesting - in future," he said ruefully before following Duo out to the car.
"Thanks Meiran!" Duo called over his shoulder before climbing into the car. Helen looked forward to her Saturday afternoons at the Changs. She loved her karate lessons with Wufei just as much as she loved spending the rest of the afternoon playing with Wufei and Meiran's kids. The routine had been established back when he used to have to take Leia for her treatments on Saturday afternoons and they'd continued it now despite the fact that he no longer needed his Saturday afternoon free for that reason. He'd tried to change as little of Helen's day-to-day routine as possible after Leia's death; he figured that she needed the stability. She had too many changes to adjust to as it was.
Inside the car, Duo gave Heero a smile and asked, "So, how about we start your tour of Astoria with a trip to the beach? The water here's way too cold for swimming and the current is dangerous but the beach itself is pretty nice."
"Sure," Heero agreed readily. He didn't really care what they did; he was just interested in getting to know Duo better. For now, he was pushing all thought of Khushrenada and his missing family out of his mind and just concentrating on his own interest in Duo. He'd turn checking out Duo's story over to Hilde; he was too personally involved now to handle that part of things. By rights, he should be asking to be pulled off the case entirely. He just hated to pull out now; he'd been after Khushrenada for so damn long...
***
"Meiran? What's wrong? You've been very quiet ever since Duo introduced his companion..."
Meiran looked around to make sure that none of the children were close enough to overhear. Softly, she said, "I've seen him somewhere before, I'm sure of it. And Wufei - whatever it was that I saw him in connection with, it was at work. I'm positive."
Wufei swore quietly but viciously in Mandarin. Hadn't Duo been through enough already? He was still grieving over his sister's death. He'd carried the burden of his terminally ill sister and her child for years now and at times he seemed so lonely... And now that he seemed to have found someone that he was interested in, Meiran had seen the man's picture at the police station she was an officer at? "I have just one more class this afternoon. Once I'm finished with that, I'll watch the children and you can go in and check it out, okay?" he offered. He'd intended to spend the remainder of the afternoon working on research for his doctoral thesis but this was more important.
Giving Wufei a quick thankful kiss, Meiran said simply, "Okay." Whatever that man was involved in, they'd get to the bottom of it. Duo was a good friend and nobody messed with their friends and got away with it. Nobody.
***
"The Changs seemed like an interesting couple," Heero remarked casually as he and Duo strolled along the beach. He'd almost had the impression that the woman, Meiran, didn't like him. He wondered exactly what kind of stories her daughter had been telling about him.
Duo laughed. "Quite the odd combination I must admit. The top officer on Astoria's police force married to the studious scholar doing research for his doctoral thesis in Asian History - specifically focussing on the martial arts - and running a small martial arts dojo on the side. It's highly likely that Meiran will end up being Astoria's first female police chief in a few years."
Heero's heart raced. Meiran was on the police force? 'K'so. She might know why I'm really here; I know that at least the chief of police was informed and given photos of Hilde and myself so that we wouldn't have any problems with the local law enforcement. And if she tells Duo...' Everything could unravel. Not just his search for Khushrenada's wife and daughter but his tentative fledgeling relationship with Duo as well. 'If someone other than me tells him... He'll be hurt and angry and I might never get him to give me another chance...'
But Heero couldn't tell him. Not while he and Hilde still hadn't completed their assignment. 'But I can ask to be removed from the case. Chief Jaye will order me back to L.A. probably and I'll have to go for now. But once they find Khushrenada's family or cancel the search, I'll just take some of my unused vacation time and come back. Then I'll be able to tell him why I was originally here and hope he understands and forgives me for not telling him sooner.' It wasn't perfect and it meant giving up on being the one to finally put Khushrenada behind bars for good but it was the only option he could see that gave him even a faint chance of salvaging a relationship with Duo when this was all over with.
***
Duo leaned back against the trolley's seat, pleasantly conscious of the arm resting across the seat's top, just touching his back. "So, are you enjoying your tour of Astoria?" he asked Heero hopefully. "It's a pretty nice town, you know." He really wanted Heero to see all of the town's good points. To convince him to stay here even after Cathy came back to resume her teaching job.
"I don't know about the town, but the company has certainly been thoroughly enjoyable," Heero said honestly. He smiled at the flush his remark brought to Duo's cheeks. Really, he hadn't paid a whole lot of attention to the various historical sites and other attractions that Duo had taken him to. He'd been too busy watching Duo's expressive face.
"We're almost back to where we left the car," Duo said regretfully. He prepared to stand and signal for the trolley to stop.
Heero shifted his arm, raising his hand to curl over Duo's shoulder and hold him in place. "What's the rush?" he asked. "We can ride as long as we want, right? Why not just stay on till you need to go pick up Helen?"
"Uh - yeah, we could do that," Duo said, settling back into the seat again. He'd figured on taking Heero up to climb the Astoria Column and see the view but riding the trolley with Heero's arm behind him was fine by him. He turned his head to meet Heero's eyes and smiled. 'The view from the top of the Column is spectacular but the view here is pretty damn nice too...' His heart pounded as Heero leaned closer to him.
Hoping that he wasn't moving too fast, Heero leaned towards Duo, giving him plenty of time to turn his head or move away. Their lips were just about to touch when the trolley bell clanged loudly, making them both jump. Heero glared out the window at the kids that had just darted across the trolley's path, making the motorman ring the bell in warning. So much for the moment.
Duo smothered the urge to laugh at Heero's disgruntled expression. He was disappointed too. But maybe it was just as well that the kiss had been averted. They were both teachers and they had reputations to protect, especially in a small town like Astoria. That would be an issue even if they weren't the same sex; the fact that they were just made it even more important. He needed to be very, very sure that Heero planned on sticking around before he let himself be too obviously involved with him.
Not that his heart was paying much attention to his head. His head might know that he needed to be sure Heero was interested in sticking around, in being in a long-term, committed relationship, before he let Heero get too close. But his heart had already made its own decision. He'd fallen and fallen hard. 'I'm in love with him,' he admitted silently. 'I, Duo Maxwell, am in love with Heero Yuy...' Now he just had to figure out whether Heero felt the same way about him. And if he did...
'I'll have to decide how much to tell him about Leia and her daughter and Khushrenada...' He'd never told anyone the whole story and Leia had never told anyone other than him. But he didn't think he could very well commit to a relationship with a person that he couldn't trust enough to tell the whole story to. The question was - did he trust Heero that much?
TBC...
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