Moments of Haven Part 137
In the Market
"You met with Une today?"
"Yeah." Being summoned into her presence was the last bit of duty they were required to attend to before leaving the capital. "I let Heero do all the talking. Got it over with a lot quicker than if I'd been snarking, and the less time spent in her presence, the better, far's I'm concerned."
Wufei shut off the water and lightly washed the tomatoes in the tub he'd just filled. "She's not so bad."
"I'm sure she isn't," Duo answered affably, leaning back in his seat at the dinner table. "After you get past the fact that she tried to kill me, in a totally personal kind of way."
"She did save us from Tsuberov."
"And, I'd have to get over the fact that she was on Tsuberov's side in the first place."
"If you think about it, she wasn't really."
"This isn't a conversation you want to waste your breath on." He wasn't scared of Une. He wasn't scared of people who had tried to have him killed. He wasn't resentful of people on the other side of the war. But damn if there wasn't something about the lady that put him on edge.
"Noted. Did she have you commit to anything?"
Heero snorted. "I'm sure she'd love to have him committed."
Duo stretched a leg over to kick him in the calf, an amused twist to his lips. "Nah. She just wanted to make sure we enjoyed our seminar experience, or something like that."
"There's an idea." Heero shifted a bag on the table top, just enough to rest his elbow there. "Maybe we should take one of the seminars next time, instead of teaching one."
"That sounds oddly close to just going through basic and getting all official-like."
"I don't mind being official. I mind having my time wasted. I don't mind learning things."
Wufei drifted over to the table and collected a bag of greens before returning to the kitchen counter. The others had offered their assistance in preparing dinner, of course, but his kitchen was only so large. "Did Une try to recruit you?"
"She said it would 'simplify the paperwork'." Duo made the extra verbal effort to indicate the air-quotes, but didn't bother with the hand gestures since Wufei's back was to him at the moment. "As if that's a good excuse."
Heero shook his head. "Did you want her to tell us that she just wants us under her thumb?"
"Hm. Well. I guess 'simplifying the paperwork' is a more creative reason than I would have given her credit for. What kind of seminars do they even have, anyway? I mean, obviously we wouldn't need to take CQC or field improv. And, man, what was Shevtsova's class again? Tactical something? Interesting topic, I guess, but if I wanted to learn more tactical, I'd just go hang out with Quatre for a while."
Wufei handed him a chopping board plus knife, a bowl, and a colander full of tomatoes. "The rotation of seminars has been somewhat random so far, but they range in topics. There are also investigative courses, for instance."
"Hm." Heero's thoughtful frown indicated interest.
"Really?" Duo's thoughtful frown indicated trying to talk himself into it while he automatically tested the blade. Its edge was more than satisfactory, of course. "Maybe. If you want. Oh, wow. You smell that?"
Judging by the way Duo picked up a tomato wedge and inhaled deeply, Heero surmised the tomato was the topic of discussion. He whiffed deeply. "What?"
Duo thrust the wedge in his direction. "The tomato! It smells... like a tomato! Like, a really strong tomato. And I didn't even have to stick my nose in it. I could smell it just where I was standing. That's... crazy."
Heero sniffed and conceded that he didn't have to sniff very hard to scent it. "The benefit of a farmer's market?"
"Yeah, I guess. Hey, Wufei, smell this!"
"Get that out of my face, Maxwell."
"You think our tomatoes will smell like this?"
"One can hope." They had better smell like that, Heero thought, or else he would give them a very stern talking to. They wouldn't be the ones that had to soothe away Duo's disappointment.
"Woot. I can hardly wait." He settled back into his place at the chopping board with a certain glee. "For dinner, too. If it tastes as good as it smells... Sucks that we don't have a farmer's market in our city."
"You're not unreasonably far from farmland, are you?" Wufei asked.
Heero surveyed the modest bounty on the table top. They'd chosen to form an entire dinner from the goods on offer at that afternoon's farmer's market. It'd be simple, but satisfying. He decided he'd slice the bread once Duo was done with the tomatoes. "I think I heard that there used to be a weekly farmer's market, but they moved during the war. It wouldn't be on our way in or out of the city."
"Sucks," Duo repeated with a pout.
Heero smiled at him. "We'll just have to make do with our own little backyard farm."
The pout evaporated. "True. Very true."
A companionable lapse in the conversation followed, during which Duo filled his bowl with halved tomato wedges. Once he was done, he busied himself with blissfully sampling its fragrance, and Heero took that opportunity to appropriate Duo's tools and bring them to the sink for a wash. "We wouldn't have to take the same seminar, you know," he mentioned before leaving the table. "You wouldn't even have to take a seminar at all."
That distracted Duo from his tomatoes. He still clutched the bowl somewhat possessively, but at least his higher brain functions were kicked back into working order. "Huh. Geez, you're right, aren't you?"
"I thought... it was somewhat nice when we were teaching our separate classes."
"Spend too freaking many hours of the day with me as it is?" It was a pleasant joke, but Duo had to suppress the faint grimace at his automatic assumption that if Heero wanted to do something, the two of them would do it together. He certainly enjoyed spending time with Heero, but he also enjoyed being an independent, autonomous unit. Wasn't his fault their interests aligned so often.
Heero shrugged carelessly as he wiped down the chopping board and brought it back to the table. He set it down and went back for a bread knife. "It was nice... being able to meet up afterward and tell each other how our day went."
"Oh. Yeah. I guess it was. Even if you did withhold information from me."
"Nothing of any importance." He sat down, flipped the chopping board dry-side-up and went to work on the bread.
"Hmpf." While the relative importance of that information was up for debate, Duo did admit that it was amusing listening to the water-cooler's version of events. "I'm still sort of morally opposed to going through basic, though."
"We could pass it in our sleep."
"We'd have to want to, first. Hey, you never went through basic, did you?" he asked Wufei.
"No. I didn't. Many of the earlier agents didn't." Wufei began transferring the washed salad greens to the colander. "I suppose it's too late now."
"What, you mean you actually want to?" Duo tried not to sound too judgmental, but the incredulity was still there.
"I could pass it in my sleep as well. But... as you've noted, it does lend a certain legitimacy to one's badge."
Duo nodded sagely. "Noobs still looking at you funny?"
"I suppose."
"Maybe you should grow a beard or something. ... Okay, maybe between the three of us, we could scrounge up a manly stubble in a couple of years or something." He drew the end of his braid over his shoulder and held it on his upper lip. "What do you think, Heero?"
Heero let him know with an unimpressed snort.
"Okay, I guess that's a no-go." He released his hair with a little pat to let it know it was nothing personal. "How are you liking your nine-to-five?"
"It's been a bit slow, the last couple of days." Wufei tossed the greens a bit to help get the water out. "But I find I don't mind the change of pace."
"I don't remember your last gig being all that adventuresome."
"It wasn't. By your standards, anyway. But I meant in a larger sense. The way they have me filling in in a wide variety of roles. I had thought the succession of temporary appointments would grate after a while, and perhaps it will in the future, but it's been interesting so far to see so many of the different roles within the organization."
"Yeah? But you kinda end up where the wind takes you, don't you?"
"Sometimes, yes. But I think you might prefer something a little more... settled."
"Yeah...." Duo trailed off contemplatively. Ironic, if he thought about it. The nine-to-five held little appeal to him, but Heero alone couldn't seem to sate his hunger for stability. Heero went a long ways toward it, but he formed only the most solidest foundation on which to build. Duo looked over to his pet rock and smiled. "Oh well, we'll figure it out, right?"
Heero nodded absently as he arranged his slices of bread in an accessible fashion.
Done with his duties for a moment, Wufei joined them at the table. "I thought about buying a flat."
Duo paused in the process of popping a stray fluff of bread into his mouth. "What, really? All of a sudden?"
"It seemed like a decent investment. And then I realized that no bank will extend a mortgage loan to someone who's still technically a teenager."
"D'oh."
Heero swatted Duo's fingers away in the process of creating a stray fluff of bread. "Quatre could probably arrange something."
From the look on Heero's face, Wufei surmised that Duo had kicked him under the table. "I can wait. It was just a thought. I found a flat for rent I liked instead."
Duo blinked at him. "Whoa, sheesh, Heero. We leave him alone for a couple of days.... Was it one of the ones we looked at?"
"No. There are no vacancies there at this time. I put my name on a waiting list."
"No vacancies? What made you look at the place, then? Which, by the way, was totally cheating since we naturally bypassed those places."
"Cheating? I wasn't aware you were expecting a headhunter's fee or the like."
"Nothing so crass as cash, my friend. Just bragging rights."
"So sorry to have deprived you. But I just happened to be passing through the area the other day. The place caught my eye."
"How long is the waiting list?" Heero asked.
"She expects there to be an opening in a few months."
Duo pursed his lips in thought for a moment before responding. "Oh, well, that's good, I guess. Since we're leaving tomorrow morning. It'd kinda suck to miss out on the moving festivities."
"We probably won't be here when a vacancy opens up," Heero warned.
"Yeah, but then at least we won't have missed it by just a few days. If he was moving this weekend or something, I'd think about postponing our flight."
Wufei looked at him measuringly. "What is it about moving you find so enjoyable?"
"Ah, well..." Duo trailed off with a hint of embarrassment. "I guess it's not moving, like the physical transport of stuff from one location to another. That's the kind of thing that'd probably make a guy miss low-grav. It's just... yanno...?"
"A common experience that we haven't had for ourselves," Heero finished for him.
"Yeah. That. Ah, well. Keep us posted, anyway. Maybe when you score your own place in a few years, we can help you move in then."
"I'll keep that in mind when timing my purchase."
"For or against us being around?" Heero asked wryly.
Wufei smiled. "You'll just have to find out."
Duo mock-pouted. "Who in their right mind turns down an offer of free manual labor?"
"I'd like to point out," Heero inserted, "that the one doing all the volunteering of free manual labor so far has been Duo. I haven't volunteered anything."
"Cruel! You'd leave me all to my lonesome?"
"Someone has to stay home and water the plants while you're out gallivanting around the world."
"What if I got hurt?"
"You know better than to get hurt."
"Yeah, because I know I'll get no sympathy from you." He stuck his tongue out in Heero's direction.
"Sympathy is not one of my strengths."
"Good. You've got too damn many of them as it is."
Heero simply leveled an amused look at him for a few seconds before turning to Wufei. "I think it's about time to eat, yes?"
OWARI
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