Author: Sunhawk
Pairings: None
Rating: PG
Warnings: Heero POV, Thanksgiving
Disclaimer: I don't own anything in this series.
Ficletishness of the holiday variety. It's actually a sequel to last years, though I doubt it matters if you have read it or not.
So, happy turkey day to all you US people, and happy Thursday to everybody else! Here comes that ol' holiday season kinda like a freight train....
Thanksgiving 2013
Duo reached up to tug at his collar for probably the twentieth time that evening, and I leaned over so my voice wouldn't carry to the other tables. 'I did not tie that tie that tight... quit it.'
He grinned rather unrepentantly and used his middle finger to pull rather theatrically at the offending piece of clothing. 'You tied it. Period. Isn't that enough?'
'You'd have just gotten all self-conscious about not fitting in with the rest of this crowd if I hadn't.'
He glanced around at the room full of dignitaries and generally 'high class' personages. About fifty percent of which belonged to the Winner clan. 'Remind me why we're here again?'
'Because Quatre is insanely proud of his niece and invited us all,' I smirked at him and were we not where we were, he'd have probably blown a raspberry or something equally and deliberately juvenile. I grinned to let him know I knew it too.
'Still can't believe it,' he chuckled, shaking his head and forgetting the urge for immature gestures.
'Can't believe what?' Wufei wanted to know, returning to his seat from a trip to offer congratulations in the appropriate places.
'The whole thing,' Duo said, waving his hand around at the banners and the afore-mentioned dignitaries and elite. 'Who would have thought?'
'Well,' I said, just to play the devil's advocate. 'Lizzy has been working toward this for a long time.'
Duo snorted, having to set his wine aside to deliver the sound without danger of embarrassing himself. 'Yeah, I'm talking about when they were all kids. Tell me you haven't forgotten?'
Wufei chuckled perhaps a little louder than was considered polite for the company, but I could hardly blame him. 'How could we forget?' he said.
No, not likely anybody in the room that was an ex-Gundam pilot or had the last name of Winner at any point in their life, was ever going to forget the year Duo Maxwell had decided to turn Thanksgiving on its collective head. A good dozen of the Winner children – all but the babies and toddlers – volunteering to serve Thanksgiving dinner to the homeless.
And I use the term 'volunteering' in the loosest sense of that term.
It had taken Duo a matter of minutes to sell Trowa and Wufei on the idea, though Quatre, perhaps knowing his sisters better than the rest of us, had held out for almost a month. But once Duo had the four of us on-board, he'd gone to work on the more soft-hearted siblings and then... well, it had taken the entire year, but Thanksgiving day had seen van loads of unhappy Winner off-spring headed for... as Duo had referred to it at the time... the adventure of their lives.
The adventure part had mostly been for those of us along to ride-herd on the little... darlings.
'Do you remember the first words out of Lizzy's mouth?' Duo snickered.
Again... how could any of us forget? Unhappy and subdued to start with, we'd gotten the kids organized and Lizzy, being one of the older ones, we'd put in charge of dishing up the dressing. The very first spoonful had been delivered with a wide-eyed exclamation to the man on the other side of the tray; 'Don't you even know what a shower is?'
Wufei was snickering softly, trying his hardest to keep it contained. 'I couldn't decide if you or Quatre were going to spontaneously combust first.'
'Who is combusting?' Trowa wanted to know, pulling out a chair and sitting down to join us.
'Just reminiscing about... holiday traditions of the past,' I informed him, with a pointed look up at the humanitarian award of the year banners with Lizzy... excuse me; Elizabeth Winner Sutton's name on them, just to give him the context.
'But Uncle Trowa,' Wufei mimicked in a darn impressive imitation of a whiny thirteen year old, 'He... stinks!'
We laughed, but the lot of us had been mortified at the time. Quatre had wanted to drag the young lady into the kitchen and put her to work peeling potatoes, but Duo had over-ruled him.
Trowa shook his head and I saw his gaze find his lover who was making the rounds, and he smiled affectionately. 'Oh yeah... I thought Quatre was going to die. Wanted to haul her out of there on the spot.'
'And what would that have taught them?' Duo said, giving his wine glass another try.
'That being rude gets you out of work,' Wufei muttered and picked his own glass up to camouflage the smirk.
I could see Lizzy sitting with her proud parents and husband at the main table and couldn't help trying to see the petulant, unhappy teen-ager we were all remembering. It was hard to connect her with the highly indignant youngster who had been made to apologize. I'd thought she would choke on her own tongue.
'Not that Lizzy was alone,' Trowa chuckled, looking around and picking out a good number of the other... volunteers on that first trip. 'Remember when Steven called the one lady 'greedy' when she asked for a second slice of turkey instead of a helping of dressing?'
He'd been nine, his mother had swatted his butt. And from the reaction, it had been a first.
As much as Quatre's sisters had fussed over Duo's ideas... they'd certainly had their eyes opened that day about just what kind of children they were raising.
The second year, there hadn't been any protest at all. At least... not from the parents.
I picked up my own wine glass and raised it in Duo's general direction. 'Here's to holiday traditions,' I grinned and the others chuckled and joined me.
Quatre slipped into the seat on the other side of Duo, grinning from ear to ear. 'Quiet down you lot,' he said. 'They're about to start the speeches.'
'Oh boy,' Duo mumbled, but Quatre didn't hear him. I nudged Duo's foot under the table but he just grinned at me.
Some old guy, the winner of the previous year's award, did the introductory speech and I was kind of amazed that there weren't people falling asleep before he was done. Guess he was having trouble letting go of the 'crown' to the new inductee.
Duo leaned over and whispered, 'Does Quatre know how to show a guy a good time, or what?'
I'd have glared at him, but it was probably no worse than Wufei, who was checking his email on his phone below the edge of the table.
Then, finally, Lizzy was taking the podium, and we all joined in the polite applause. I nudged Duo again, just to make sure there weren't any whistles or yells of 'Go Lizzy!' or some damn thing. His enthusiasm gets away from him sometimes, and the poor girl was already blushing brightly, just being up there.
She started out with a squeak that caused her to have to clear her throat, and there was an embarrassed little giggle. I could suddenly very easily see that thirteen year old.
She was clutching the award, kind of working it in her hands to the point I was afraid she was going to throttle the engraved crystal part right off the base. She ran through the usual thank yous to her peers, parents, husband and teachers, but then she deviated from the usual parts and looked right at our table.
I couldn't help the smile and turned to watch Duo, who still seemed oblivious, just sitting and listening, his wine glass in his hand.
'... but now I need to thank someone very special,' she was saying, her blush seeming to fade a little bit, as some part of her started talking to just us... like she'd forgotten the rest of the room. 'The person who taught my cousins and me what being a humanitarian is. The person who took a group of the biggest brats in the city, and showed us... what life is really all about. Showed us how to truly be thankful for all the privileges we hadn't even realized we had. The person who showed us patience when we deserved... well, when we probably deserved to have our heads smacked together.'
There was a burst of laughter that was more than just polite, and when she paused for it, Duo turned to look at Quatre, only to find Quatre watching him. He kind of noticed then that all four of us were watching him and comprehension dawned with a blush to rival Lizzy's.
'This award,' Lizzy was saying, picking back up when the laughter had died. 'Really belongs to that person, because I... we... none of us, would be the people we are today without him... our 'Uncle' Duo. Duo Maxwell.'
Duo was smiling, but it was rather forced. 'I'm gonna kill her,' he told me through gritted teeth, but Lizzy was waving him to the front of the room and the rest of us joined in the applause. He really didn't have much choice but to go join her.
As soon as his chair was empty, Quatre slid over to be closer to the rest of us. 'What say we don't admit we knew this was coming?' he suggested in hushed tones.
'No duh?' Trowa said, as we all continued to clap.
Duo had reached Lizzy's side and was getting hugged and it was pretty obvious she was expecting him to say a few words and Duo was about as red as I've ever seen him, so off-balance that he forgot himself and tugged at his collar.
'That is a secret I intend to take to my grave,' I informed them, and Wufei seconded.
The applause finally stopped, and Duo began to stammer while Lizzy beamed at him.
Oh no... if I had anything to say about it at all, there was no way in hell Duo would ever have a clue that I'd known exactly how this evening was going to go. I value all my body parts and prefer them attached to my person, thank you very much.
I just hoped it never dawned on him why I'd been so insistent about the tie...
OWARI
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