Notes: I really didn't care to think all that much about Duo's kids, so they sort of ended up with names A, B, and C. Forgive me this small laziness. I couldn't be bothered to look up whom I had named and what kind of personalities they had. Actually, I don't think I developed them as much as I did Heero's class.
Bonus notes: I am amused by the fact that apparently my idea of an earthquake preparedness kit involves fresh-baked homemade cookies.
Continuation of Watering Hole part 2. There shall be a part 4. -_-
Moments of Haven Part 118
Watering Hole Part 3
Agent Carlisle caught their attention. "Hey, guys, bring your girl drinks on over here and chill."
Next to him, the bottom of Johnson's beer bottle hit the table with a thump. "Something wrong with girls?" she asked pointedly.
"Uh. No." Johnson's obvious enthusiasm for kicking her male colleagues in the nuts was well remembered among the men of the CQC class. "Hey, guys, bring your fruity drinks on over here?"
Duo pulled up to the table. "Something wrong with fruity people?"
"Um. Bring your pink drinks on over?"
Heero wasn't far behind. "Something wrong with people who like pink?"
Also at the table, Rock snorted and thumped Carlisle on the back. "You totally lose this one, man."
"Shutting up now."
Some token chit-chat was made before one of the improv students waved and caught Duo's attention. He excused himself and wandered on over, dutifully high-fiving the hand raised to him. "Yo."
A little more small talk was made before the agent gestured to the pool table next to them. "Hey, Teach, you play?"
Duo eyed the table with a more critical eye. "Haven't yet. But the rules seem simple enough, yeah?"
"Yeah, sure. Here, I'll let you break. Whatever goes down first, stripes or solids, you aim on getting those guys into the holes. You nail one, you go again. Leave the eight ball for last. No problem, right?"
"No problem," Duo answered, a bit bemused. He took the proferred cue stick, familiarized himself with the balance of it in his hands, then leaned over the table to sight down the felt. Hovering in position for a few extra seconds to soak in the spatial situation, he tapped the cue ball smartly with the tip of his stick. The sharp sound of the balls striking each other brought a small, satisfied smile to his lips, more so than the ball he landed in the corner pocket.
His former student whistled lowly. "That's solids for you."
"Solids, eh? Doesn't matter which hole it goes into?"
"Nope." Two more solids in the holes later, the man whistled again. "Never played before, you said?
Duo shrugged before bending to take down his next target. "Well, I mean I've seen people play before. Just never tried it myself."
Someone nearby laughed and shook his beer bottle teasingly. "Ha, kind of the same case for this stuff, right?"
His target never had a chance. "Ha, very funny," Duo responded to the man, but he didn't take his eyes off the remaining balls doing their slow ricochets around the table.
"I'm sure we can slip you one under the table."
"Well, I'm sure you can, otherwise these last weeks have been a total waste of everyone's time. But let's not make trouble for Jerry if we don't have to. 'Sides, that dude looks crusty enough to have eyes in every corner of this place."
His companions had opportunity to make a joke about his caution and consideration, but their potential comments missed their moment, occupied as they were by the way Duo's next shot sent the cue ball into an artful rebound off the side of the table, slipping its way cleanly between two stripes to knock a solid into a side pocket. "Whoa," Ben said. "You're getting hustled."
Duo stopped in the process of lining up his next shot to shoot a raised eyebrow in their direction. "Did you just call me a liar?" he asked mildly.
"Well, maybe it's true you've never played this exact game before..."
Charlie laughed. "Ah, come on, man. Don't tell me you're surprised. Maxwell here's been nothing but full of surprises. See, he just sank another one. That was no surprise, right?"
"It's kinda funny," Duo mused, contemplating the layout of the remaining balls. "Like, backwards from most games, 'cuz this one just gets easier as the game progresses."
"Easy, huh? Yeah, that's right, this one's been pretty easy for you, hasn't it, Aaron? You haven't missed a single shot all game, either!"
Aaron chuckled ruefully. "So from that point of view, we're tied, right?"
"Yeah, sure, your reputation's safe."
"Nah," Duo demurred, sparing a corner of his concentration to listen in on their conversation. "He was just being soft by letting me go first."
"At least he's not claiming beginner's luck," Ben said to Charlie. "That would break Aaron's spirit."
"Not half so much as implying that Aaron would be doing just as well if he'd gone first. Not sure if that was an insult or compliment or what."
"Eight ball was last, you said?" Duo asked.
Aaron looked around and confirmed that Duo had knocked in his seventh ball while they'd been chatting. Since he was never going to hear the end of this, he figured he might as well accept his defeat with honor and grace. He shook his head in resignation and put his unused stick back on the rack. "Yup. Go for it."
It wasn't too terrible a shot. Duo knocked it off center with his cue ball, sending the eight off at an angle toward the far corner pocket. Before it reached its destination, it was intercepted by a striped ball, which knocked the eight off course and stole into the corner pocket in its stead.
Heero met Duo's raised eyebrow with a bland expression. After a few seconds, he rounded the table to Duo's side and bent for his second shot. He heard the hoots and banter around them only so far as to acknowledge them, and perhaps use them for cover. In the moment before he took his next turn, he directed Duo's attention to the two bottles on the side of the table. "Ginger ale."
Duo glanced over, noted one open and one not, and tilted one corner of his mouth. "Well, it sounds alcoholic, at least," he said wryly, going over to drink his share. In the time it took him to respond to the jokes of his fellow agents, Heero sank another two balls.
Aaron groaned. "Aw, come on, at least tell me you've played before, Yuy."
"Can't say that I have."
"Jeezus, what is up with you two?"
Charlie shrugged. "Meh, what else can you expect from a couple of spacers?"
From his place on the sidelines, Duo leveled a neutral look at him. "What makes you say we're spacers?"
"Coupla peaches like you? Please," he snorted.
Duo chuckled and rubbed his chin a little self-consciously. "Now there's a term I haven't heard in a while."
Heero's response was the sound of another ball finding its home in a leather pocket.
"Spacers good at pool?" Ben asked Charlie.
"You ever do low grav, kid?"
"Um, no."
"Spacers tend to have a good grasp on this kind of physics and stuff. Helps 'em not not bang into things, or go flying off, as the case may be."
Something of a generalization, Duo thought, but not entirely inaccurate. When a person lived in a tin can floating in the vastness of space, he tended to pay attention in class when it came to not getting himself killed. "You're not a spacer yourself."
"Me? Nah. Just worked with a few in my time. Don't get all that many of you planetside."
Duo shrugged to the implied question. "Yeah, well, it's good to get a change in scenery once in a while."
Close by, another of his former students jumped into the fray. "You know, that makes a lot of sense, really."
"Why is that?"
"You always say that no one ever looks up. But I guess in space, there's not so much of an up, so that's probably why you're better at looking up, huh?"
Duo shook his head and rolled his eyes in rebuke. "Don't you people ever watch any movies? If you're looking around and you can't find the scary monster but you know he's there somewhere, it's because he's clinging to the ceiling and he's about to drip slobber all over you. Pretty much always. Got nothing to do with space. Man, what are they teaching kids these days?"
"Really?" Ben asked, more of an aside to Aaron. "Do spacers really never get past peach fuzz?"
Duo snickered and took care of the question. "Nothing's a fast and hard rule, buddy, you know that. But it's not like we don't compensate in other ways." His grin was somewhat suggestive.
Instead of a snort, Heero offered the sound of yet another ball landing in its hole.
"He hasn't missed a shot yet, has he?" Aaron muttered to no one in particular.
Duo again took it upon himself to answer. "Who, Yuy?" He glanced over the table and made a disdainful sound. "Come on, I totally cleaned the table up for you and made it easy."
Several answers crowded on the tip of Heero's tongue, most of them responding to the challenge Duo had just thrown out there. A few, or perhaps more than a few, moments of analysis, wherein he considered his multiple proposals on how to make the game more interesting, were required before he was able to sense the scope of what was precipitating. "...Can we not start this?"
It wasn't as if Duo himself hadn't been considering a number of interesting game changers, but Heero's carefully measured words gave him pause. "...Good idea."
Heero knocked in the last stripe, and then deliberately put the cue away without ending it with the eight ball.
Aaron hid a sigh with a sarcastic comment. "Gee, competitive much?"
"Hey, we just walked away from this one," Duo said, not quite defensive. He'd actually been a little bit proud of the fact that they hadn't escalated things just now.
"Do all your competitions end in a tie?"
"No." He smirked at Yuy, secure in the knowledge of who had won the betting today. Maybe it had been a little series of small escalations all day, but that was no reason for them to go starting another game.
Ben butted in. "That was a pretty awesome fight you guys put on for us that time!"
"Nope, not competitive at all," he announced again, his tone bordering on sing-song.
"That wasn't competitive," Charlie drawled. "That was cutthroat."
He shrugged. Heero offered an inscrutable look.
"So, what are you guys? Like, rivals or something?"
Duo blinked, then grinned. "Heh. I don't think you've ever been formally introduced." He slung his arm around Heero's shoulders and gave him a friendly shake. "This here's my partner, Heero Yuy."
"Partner?"
Heero looked down at the hand hanging over his shoulder and brushed it off. "Partner."
Someone new joined the conversation from a nearby table. "What do you two even need partners for? Not like you're field agents or something."
"Geez, Caulfield, give it a rest already."
Heero almost felt bad. The agent kept bringing up legitimate points. Heero had one of his own. "It's probably more like 'keeper' than 'partner'."
Duo elbowed him playfully in the ribs. "Hey, you trying to imply I get into a lot of trouble or something?"
"If nothing else, I have to at least keep your ego in check." He gestured at the pool table.
"Heh, well, if there's anyone up to that mighty task, it's you, I guess."
"I appreciate your vote of confidence."
"I've gotta give you something to do to keep you out of trouble."
"It all works out," Heero concluded blandly, noticing the curious stares of the others.
TBC...
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