Author: Sorceress Fantasia
Warnings: Heero POV, fluff, some sap, AU (Our world and time)
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: 1+2, mentioned 5+H
Disclaimer: I tried to lure Duo over to my place with a trail of food, but Heero lured him away with some strawberries and whipped cream. Currently, I'm trying to lose the weight I got from eating all the food Duo didn't eat, so I don't have the time to come up with another plot to get the GW boys. Therefore, I do not own the GW boys or the anime. I own this little ficcy though.
Thanks to Dark Tenchi for beta-ing!
Seventh Heaven Series Part 17
The Photos We Took
"Hello, Heero. What do you want today? Black coffee with milk and a little sugar, and two slices of toasted bread?" Sally asks, not even me offering the menu anymore. She knows me too well.
"Well, I..."
"Oh, I know! You want a serving of Duo with some cream and cherries, don't you? A couple of strawberries too, maybe?" she teases.
"Sally!" I must have turned a very interesting shade of red, because she just laughs harder.
"Well, I'll see what I can do about it," she singsongs, and leaves for the kitchen.
"Sally!"
"Relax, Heero. She says that to everyone Duo has met here."
I look up at the voice. "Wufei?"
He nods, and slides into the seat opposite of mine. 'That's Duo's seat', I want to tell him. But then again, I arrived early again. So Duo shouldn't be anywhere near here for at least another fifteen minutes.
"I think Duo tried to hook Sally up with someone, so now Sally embarrasses him by saying that to everyone Duo has met here."
"Oh."
"Hey, I was just about to leave when you came here. Don't think I'm stalking you or anything." Wufei crosses his arms, looking indignant. It seems that he's embarrassed, even. But for what? "Anyway... I apologize for ruining your date with Duo the other day."
"What?" Oh clever, Heero Yuy. Just clever. After that bad experience and the insane urge to throttle Wufei, is that the best you can come up with?
"I said I'm sorry for ruining your date with Duo that day! I just... didn't notice that you were on a date with Duo. And I hadn't seen him for quite a while until that day. So I just got a little carried away. Sorry."
"If you don't mind me asking, how did you erm, know that Duo and I were... on a date?"
"Hilde. She got mad at me and generally made a big fuss out of it."
"She did, huh?" I ask, feeling pretty mortified. It seems that, somehow, everyone knows that I'm wooing Duo. And everyone, almost, is eager to see me succeed.
"Yes. Well... Actually, you don't look like the type Duo would date. I always thought his boy or girlfriend would be a lot more of the outgoing, sporty and loud kind. But..."
"Wufei, do you know if Duo has had any significant others before?" Please say no... Actually, it doesn't matter. I just hope that I'll be Duo's last significant other. I'll chase the others away from him.
Wufei scrunches his brows in concentration. After a while, he mutters, "None that I know of, actually. I don't recall hearing him talk to me about his significant other. But I don't know Duo that well, really. And hey, if you really want to know, you should ask him."
I'm about to mouth off at him and ask him how am I supposed to ask Duo that type of question when someone interrupts our conversation.
"Ask me what?"
"Hi, Duo." Wufei gives him a little wave of his hand, and stands up. "I was suggesting to Heero that he ask you what you did to Sally."
"Oh my god. Don't tell me Sally asked him that!" Duo slaps his forehead.
"Sorry, but she did," Wufei replies deadpanned, only a little tug at his lips betraying the fact that he's amused. "Anyway, I have to go. Enjoy your time together," he says, sparing me with a little knowing smirk as he leaves.
Duo takes the seat Wufei has just vacated, and looks at me straight in the eye. "Did Sally really ask you...? Never mind, I don't think I want to know."
He's blushing a little, the redness creeping up his cheeks slowly, accentuating his looks. The blush would make any other guy look feminine, but on Duo, it just adds a dash of loveliness. But however beautiful he may look, I know no one likes to be embarrassed. So I reach into my backpack, pull out a small photo album and push it over to Duo, trying to change the subject.
"These are the photos we took the other day. They aren't that well taken, but you look wonderful... in them." I'm completely honest when I say that. Duo looks great in or out of a photo. And I'm sure that's not just my heart saying that.
"Hey, I look a little strange here," Duo chuckles, finger pointing at a particular picture. "Heero, it's difficult to talk to you about the photos like this. Come sit beside me." He pulls a chair beside him, and pats it invitingly.
Well, that's an invitation no sane man would turn down, least of all me. I suppress that goofy grin that's threatening to surface, and glide over to his side. The biggest problem I have, though, is my arm. If I put it on the table, there isn't really enough space for both of us. If I put it on my laps, it doesn't feel comfortable. And although I want to wrap my arm around Duo's shoulder, I think that will scare him. Either that or going by cosmic rules plus a pinch of Murphy's Law, Duo's brother will come strolling by and see that. Before I am sure I can actually outrun him, I don't really want to push my luck. So carefully, I put my arm the back of Duo's chair. If he just leans back, I'll be able to touch him.
"See this one?" he asks, pointing to a picture. "Man, I just look strange."
I smile as I look at the photo. When we were taking this one, Duo had been all ready for the camera, smiling nicely. Then suddenly, this small squirrel lost his footing on the branch he was perched on, and fell onto Duo's head. The camera went off at that exact moment, and I got a picture of Duo trying to sweep the thing off of him and the squirrel hanging on for his dear life. I was laughing loudly as I tried to extract the little creature from the mass of chestnut hair, all while I was under Duo's mock glare. As soon as his feet touched the ground, the squirrel immediately scampered back up the tree, leaving Duo and me to laugh like we've never before. I almost shudder in delight when I recall Duo's body in my arms. He had laughed so hard he couldn't stand straight, and stumbled right into me. It was a moment before he could stop laughing, and I think I have never felt so warm before.
"No, Duo. I think you just look strangely cute."
"I do?" He sniggers, and turns the page. "Oh, I remember this one."
I remember it too. We had been walking around the park, looking for a nice spot for another photo when we stumbled upon this pond with a little signboard, stating that there was some Japanese koi swimming inside. I thought the place looked wonderful, so I told Duo, 'Sit next to the pond, koi!' He just /looked/ at me, and burst out laughing. That's when I noticed that I had said something wrong, and I tried again, 'I mean, sit next to the koi pond!' He nodded, still biting his lips in an attempt to stifle his chuckles, and sat down. When he looked up at me again, for the photo, I just froze. His eyes... looked like they had been sprinkled with stardust.
Something came to me then. Your eyes are like a net. I can struggle, and struggle, but you'll always catch me. I filed that away mentally to be added to my confession list for Duo, and I suddenly got a mental image: Heero the guppy scooped up by some kid with a small fishnet. Or Heero the Japanese koi. Sounds stupid, but I did.
"You look lov... wonderful in this picture, Duo."
"You don't look half bad, Heero," he teases, pointing at the photo we took together.
I remember how awkward I had felt then, completely unsure of how I should beside Duo. In the end, we settled for just standing close.
Sally comes over to us again, plopping two black coffees and some toasted bread onto our table. "Sorry Heero. I ran out of cherries and cream. Well, maybe you'll enjoy it plain?"
"Sally!" Both Duo and I yell, but she just laughs it off and saunters back to the counter to get the bill for another customer.
"Duo... what did you do to Sally?"
A look of discomfort overcomes him, and he laughs nervously. "Nothing really. I just... I just tried introducing someone to her. Apparently, Sally took it as an insult. So..."
"Are you sure that's all?"
"Fine... The guy I introduced was already in a long term relation!" he utters, stringing his words together in embarrassment. "But I honestly didn't know! But you know what the really bad thing about it is? I brought the guy over here last year, on the 1st of April."
"So Sally took it to be an April fool's joke?" I ask, finding it very amusing. But really, if I were Sally, I'd feel indignant too.
Duo nods, sipping at his coffee. "Argh! It's bitter!"
"Oh my... I must have forgotten about it," Sally comments nonchalantly when she swings by. She's feigning innocence; I just know it. "There isn't enough sugar to go around too. Oh well, I guess you'll just have to share Heero's coffee." Sally leers at me, picks up Duo's coffee and sashays away.
For a moment, Duo and I just stare at each other. Finally, I push the cup towards him. "You can have it."
"No! It's yours; you should have it."
"I'm okay. I'm not all that thirsty, actually."
"Okay, okay. Why don't we do this? We can drink half a cup each. You go first."
"No... you can have it first. I'll just eat the toast in the meantime."
Duo looks at me, and smiles. "Okay! Deal," he says, and picks up the cup for a sip. "Hey, it's pretty sweet. Just the way I like it. Sally must have done this one purpose. Making us share one cup of coffee... che! I wonder why..."
I blush. Maybe Sally knows that I'm wooing Duo too. Geez. It seems that the whole wide world knows about it. But Duo... does he know? Or maybe he's already guessed it? Doesn't matter, really. If he does know, he hasn't avoided me or anything, so that's good. If he doesn't know, then I'll just have to persevere. Like I said, it doesn't matter. But damn... what would I give to know what he thinks about it.
I reach for a piece of toast and munch on it as I continue to muse, but Duo catches my attention again with his comments on our photos. For a while, we just talk about it as we eat and drink. I like it: the way Duo looks at the photos with a sense of humour and giving witty comments every once in a while. And the way warmth fills my heart. I peer at him from time to time, my heart pounding a little harder every minute. Duo's definitely photogenic, but something as still as a photo can't capture his entire radiance. Ahh... I'm getting sappy again. I seem to be doing that a lot lately.
"Hey, Heero. I've finished my share of the coffee. You can have it."
Duo's words break me out of my reverie, and I reach out for the cup. Only when the black liquid is trickling down my throat do I realize what I'm actually doing. Duo had drunk from this cup; now, I'm drinking from this cup. In a way, isn't that like... indirect kissing? I almost choke upon that realization. My inner self does a victory dance as I try to compose myself and finish the drink. Duo's right: the coffee's pretty sweet. But I suspect that part of the sweetness does not come from the sugar in the coffee.
When I finish it, I place the cup back on the table. When I lean back into my chair, I peer over at Duo again. And I immediately blush, because my arm, which I had settled on the back of Duo's seat previously, is wrapped around Duo's shoulders. Quickly, I look at Duo's features. He doesn't seem to have notice my arm on him, just like I didn't. Biting my bottom lip, I decide to risk it and leave my arm there. Still, I have to resist the urge to pull Duo close.
*****
We leave Sally's an hour later, having finished with our food and the photos.
"I love these photos. Can you give me a copy soon?" Duo asks, still holding the photo album in his hands.
"Well, you can have those. I've already duplicated them." I more than duplicated them. In fact, I have one of Duo's pictures inside my wallet. Not the 'brown spot' one, as christened by Catherine. This time, it's a real photo where I can clearly see Duo's face. My own face too, actually. The one in my wallet is the picture we took together, the one where we're standing really close. I almost wanted to digitally add my arm around Duo's waist, but then I decided that when I have a picture like that, I want a real one.
Duo nods, and slots the photo album into his backpack. "So, where're you going now? Home?"
"No. I'm going to a supermarket; my kitchen ran out of sugar."
"Hmm... so your kitchen just did a Sally on you, huh?" He laughs. Gee, with Duo saying that, I think I will never look at 'running out of sugar' in the same way ever. "C'mon, I'll go with you. I'm free anyway."
I nod furiously. "Ok!" Sorry if I sound desperate, but hey, I really /want/ to spend more time with Duo.
So we stroll slowly to the nearest supermarket, talking about nearly everything. Somewhere along the conversation, the question that had been plaguing me came up. I just blurt, asking him if he had a significant other before. Fine, so I was lying when I said it didn't bother me. Anyway, Duo pouts in a boyish sort of way (I think he and Quatre are the only ones who can pull that off) and tell me no, because his dates were all scared away by his brother. His brother... sometimes I really wonder if Solo is his brother. I mean, they look a little alike, and their names... But then again, it could be sheer coincidence. They don't look all that alike anyway.
Pretty soon, we reach the supermarket, with us holding hands. Hey, I'm not pressing for progress here, but it just happened that we came across a road on our way here. So I casually asked him to lead me across, like he had almost a week ago, and he took my hand laughingly. Sigh, I just love Duo's vacation job.
We get a huge packet of sugar, and I plop it into the basket Duo had insisted we take. "Okay, so I've gotten my sugar. Erm, do you need anything else?"
"Of course! You don't come to a supermarket and not visit the tidbits section!" Duo says, and drags me over to the shelves loaded with potato chips, chocolate and a whole lot of other junk food.
As we walk down the aisle, Duo fills our basket with a couple of chocolate bars and some bags of snacks. He doesn't even need to think; he sees what he wants, pulls it off the shelf, and plunks it into our basket. I think he does this quite often.
"Duo... are you sure you want so much of these... snacks? It's unhealthy."
He gives me a melodramatic sigh, and pats me on my shoulder. "Heero, you have to enjoy life by eating things you like! Regardless of whether said food is healthy or not! It's just a matter of moderation. Don't eat too much, and it'll be fine. Oh, so does that mean that you seldom eat junk food?
"Yeah, I guess so."
"When is the last time you ate a chocolate bar?"
"...A year ago?"
He stares at me wide-eyed.
"God! Are you kidding me? C'mon! Let's go pay up for all these stuff, and I'll teach you to enjoy chocolate!"
So we go over to queue up at the counters, and within minutes, reach the front of the line. I insist on paying, although I'm only buying one packet of sugar. Duo lets me, only because he lost our rock-paper-scissors game. But he promises to pay me back some other time by giving me a treat.
When we're out of the supermarket, Duo quickly tears off the wrapping of a chocolate bar.
"C'mon Heero! Open your mouth! Aaaa...."
I'm embarrassed as hell to let him do this in public, but well... Duo's just plain cute. Nothing less. So I open my mouth wide, and bite off a chuck of the chocolate.
"How does it taste like? Good?"
I nod. Then, my eyes fall on the chocolate wrapper. The big, red letters spelling 'Mars' stares back at me. I almost choke.
"C'mon, again!" Duo barks out the order in a motherly fashion, his lips curling up in a grin. "Take another bite!"
I concede, and bite off another chuck. Somehow, the fact that I'm eating a Mars bar sounds strange to my own ears. Maybe it's because I've long equated Mars and Duo. So... in a strange, perverse even way, I'm eating Duo? ...Bad Heero! Bad! Bad! Bad!
"Like it? Mars chocolate is a little sweet, even for me, so I'm sure if you'd like it all that much..."
Sweet? Oh definitely, Duo. You're so sweet.
"And the filling's a little tangy..."
Filling? Tangy? Heero, don't even let your mind wander off /that/ way. Stop this train of thought! Stop it! ...Damn, I think it just overshot the station. Oops.
*****
I flip open my photo album gleefully, and smile when I see pictures of Duo staring back at me. It's true that these still-life photos can't capture Duo's true sparkle, but these are all I have for the next few days. I won't be seeing him until next weekend, since we're both caught up in our work. I have that big project Mrs. Smith wants us to work on too. I'm disappointed, and I think he is too. At least, that's what I conclude from his body language before parting ways this afternoon.
Anyway, back to the photos. I bought a photo album especially for this. The type where you can arrange the photos any way you like, and just press the plastic cover over to make sure it stays in place. I like it a lot, because it allows me to put all sorts of things inside, apart from the photos. Call me a sap or a romantic, whatever you like, but I slid in some pretty nice things. Like this leaf. I got it from the park where Duo and I took the photos. It's from the tree where the squirrel fell off from, so I pressed the leaf next to that photo. And next to the koi pond picture is a strip of clean paper where I wrote the confession line I had came up with when we were taking that photo. I still have the ticket stud for the movie we caught together too, and it's somewhere with the photos.
The photo album is still pretty empty, but I'm sure I'll be able to fill it up sometime soon. I'll just have to ask Duo for some more photo-taking sessions.
"Hey Heero!" My door opens, and Hilde pokes her head in. "Can I borrow your calculator? I left mine with my friend."
"Sure. It's on my table."
Hilde smiles, and creeps into my room. Somehow, recently, she's been having the idea that it's cool to creep around. She must have gotten it from some detective movie or king of thieves' television program. Maybe I should monitor what she watches on television; she's getting addicted.
"Wow... Heero, where did you get so many photos of... Hey, who is it?" she asks, pointing at all the photo frames adorning my desktop. "Wow... you've even got photos of this guy on your wall. Hell, your room is practically a shrine for him..."
"It's Duo," I reply without thinking.
"Should have known," -she smirks- "You're really smitten with him. Putting so many of his photos... When are you gonna bring him home to see me?"
"I've put up his photos all around. Of course I'm smitten with him. You put up Wufei's photos in your room too, don't you?"
"Yeah, but I've only got like, three photo frames? On my table? You've got at least a dozen, on your table /and/ on your walls," Hilde notes, still a little surprised, I think. "Don't you feel it's weird?"
"What's weird?"
"It feels like he's looking at you all the time. Even when you're changing your clothes."
...Oh no. That didn't occur to me when I put them all up.
OWARI
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