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" It Must Have Been the Mistletoe "Written By: CalicOcat
Genre: Romance, Angst Pairing: Eventual 1x2x1, 3x4x3, 5+6+5, DxR, surprise
pairing at end (het) Rated: R Warnings: AU(?), OOC, Swearing Archives: At Mediaminer.org under Calic0cat. Anyone
with archive permission for my other fics can help themselves; anyone
else, please ask. Disclaimer: Duo and Heero and the rest of the GW gang aren't mine. This story is. Nuff said. Notes: Set in December A.C. 202. Written for Sita Seraph's xmas fic challenge to write a fic inspired by the song "It Must Have Been the Mistletoe". 'Thinking' "Speaking" ************ Time passing or scene change Author's Notes: (Author stomps in, glares at muses,
and drops fic with a hefty *thud*. Darned angst muse, turns a perfectly
good 5-page humour fic into a 30+ page monster... Even had to waste
a perfectly good title...) I had no intention of writing a *third*
holiday fic this year, but Sita Seraph's challenge wouldn't leave
me alone. This was supposed to be romance/humour again, but my so-far-nameless
angst muse decided to make a contribution along with my romance/humour
muse Quin (who may have got a little carried away in the sheer number
of It Must Have Been the Mistletoe Part 2
"Sleeping," Abdul replied calmly. "In the *library*? *All* of them? At 11:30?" Relena placed one hand on her brother's arm and smiled
up at him. "It's quite the sight to see," she said. "The
first time that they kept me at a safehouse for protection, it surprised
me to walk into the living room in the morning and find Gundam pilots
draped all over each other and the furniture, sleeping quite peacefully.
Rather sweet, really, though I'm sure they'd all object to *that*
description. Unfortunately, that particular time they had a rather
rude awakening as I ah - expressed my dismay somewhat vocally at finding
Duo sprawled across Heero's chest in what I thought was a much too
intimate fashion." Reading the odd look that Zechs shot at her
correctly, she corrected his assumption, "No, it's nothing like
that. No group orgies, brother dear. Sometimes the nightmares about
all the death and the killing get really bad and they just all find
some relief from them in being near another person. Some of them need
"Gee, thanks, Duo, that's exactly what I wanted to hear first thing in the morning," the blond in question retorted sleepily from the rug. "Quatre, could you move your head a little? I think I've lost all feeling in that arm," Trowa spoke up. As Quatre sat up, Wufei started to stir in the chair. Incoherent muttering in Mandarin accompanied every move he made. "Not exactly 15 any more, are we?" Duo observed as Heero finally woke up enough to release his braid and allow him to get up. "Ouch," Heero observed, rubbing his back ruefully and glaring at the couch accusingly, "no, we're not." Rubbing at his own stiff limbs, Quatre declared, "Not
that this was ever *completely* comfortable even then... All in favour
of turning a spare room into a dorm for us all so we don't have to
go through this An immediate chorus of "Aye"s rang out.
"Decorate the house for the holidays," Quatre answered. "We've spent most of the week so far catching up on sleep, but I think we've about used that excuse up. I don't know about anyone else, but *I* don't want Iria, Une, or Sally showing up to take a more direct hand in things because we're not following their 'schedule'." "Good plan," muttered Zechs, digging through the boxes of decorations littering the floor. "My god, there's enough mistletoe here to carpet the place in it," he exclaimed in disbelief. "All the boxes marked 'holly' are full of mistletoe instead! And the couple of boxes marked 'mistletoe' have holly in them..." "Great! I call dibs on the mistletoe," Relena said cheerfully. "Dorothy, want to help?" "Why my dear Miss Relena, I thought you'd never ask," Dorothy responded with a sly smirk. Looking back and forth between the two young women, Zechs closed his eyes and shook his head slightly. "Not going to ask, don't want to know, please don't tell me." Laughing, Relena held a cluster of mistletoe over her
brother's head and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "Don't
worry about it, bro. I'm a big girl now and my sex life was never
*your* problem to begin Turning red, Zechs hid his face in his hands, "Too much information, sis! Go on, get out of here you two!" Snickering, Dorothy repeated Relena's mistletoe trick before picking up a stack of boxes and pulling Relena out of the room with her. "Anybody want a little sister, cheap?" Zechs muttered. "No thank you," Quatre said fervently, "I have more than enough females in my life as it is." "Better not let Iria hear you say that," laughed
Duo, picking up a couple of boxes of ornamental candles. "And
I don't need one either - keeping Hilde out of trouble till she got
married was bad enough and
"Zechs, he wouldn't 'get on your case' nearly as much if you'd stop getting on his!" Relena declared in a decidedly frustrated tone. "Okay, so I'll admit the crack about blowing up half the mountain if you get in a 'pissy mood' was out of line, but then again, *you* started it with that crack about working for the 'diapered dictator' if he got bored! And if Maia finds out you called her that, Chang Wufei will be the *least* of your worries!" "Behave yourself, Zechs," Dorothy scolded.
"Your sister is supposed to be taking a break from peace-making,
not spending her entire vacation carrying out peace negotiations between
two houseguests! "Now go find somebody else to bother!" Relena ordered her brother. "And if you run into Wufei again, kiss and make up rather than picking another fight!" Stalking down the hall, Zechs muttered under his breath, "Kiss and make up, she says! As if *that* would make things any better! No, I'd be more likely to get run through with that damn katana of his..." "Talking to yourself now, Merquise? What's wrong, no one else interested in what you have to say?" came an insolent sneer from the doorway to the games room. That did it. With just one thought in his mind, wiping that insolent look off of Wufei's haughty face, Zechs pointed above Wufei's head, said succinctly, "Mistletoe," grabbed the Chinese man by the shoulders, and kissed him forcefully on the lips. By the time Wufei recovered enough to stop sputtering and start uttering threats, Zechs had beaten a prudent retreat, borrowing a car to go to town for the rest of the morning.
Watching the young man in question stomp out of the room, Trowa answered, "Don't you mean 'who'?" "Oh dear," Quatre sighed. "What did Zechs do this time?" "That's the interesting part - he wouldn't say. Though if I didn't know better, I would almost swear he *blushed* when I asked him that question." "Chang Wufei *blushing*? Now I'm even *more* curious," the blond said, moving towards the door to see where Wufei was disappearing off to. Looking above Quatre's head, a small smile crept across
Trowa's face. "Mmm, guess I'll have to keep you too busy to be
curious," he said, advancing on the Arabian in a purposeful fashion.
"Mistletoe," he As they drew apart again, Quatre offered softly, "I
don't know, but what I *do* know is that I have no intention of letting
it happen again." The puzzle of Wufei's odd behaviour forgotten
for the moment,
Even though a number of years had passed since the war,
Heero realized that he had not gotten any better at understanding
the subtleties of social interaction. Working 16 hour days seven days
a week didn't exactly leave a lot of time for socializing, and Duo
had always been his guide in those matters in the first place. Now,
however, that had resulted in a distinctly unfamiliar situation. While
Duo would eagerly take him up on any offered time together, it was
entirely up to Heero to make that all-important first move. Duo had
been Over the past week, Heero's efforts had been directed
at simply re-establishing his friendship with Duo. They had spent
so little time together outside of work in the past five years that
he had expected to find changes. The degree of change in Duo, however,
was disturbing. From happy, laughing, and full of energy, Duo had
become very solemn, quiet, and subdued. Heero knew that *he* hadn't
been around very often to spend time with Duo, but was shocked to
discover that months had frequently passed without Duo seeing *any*
of his closest friends. The other pilots had all been working ridiculous
hours as well and Hilde had gotten married and caught up in her own
life. That left Une and Sally - both too busy to spend more than a 'No wonder he said he was tired of being alone... For all intents and purposes, he's been alone since I suggested putting our relationship "temporarily" on hold five years ago... And while I've spent the time alone too, I've never craved social interaction the way that Duo always has... My request five years ago was made with the best of intentions, but I guess that old saying about the road to hell being paved with them is right...' After returning to the house, Heero decided that since
Duo was far too serious lately, he was going to have to do something
about that. And since Duo also seemed to be waiting for him to make
the first move "Why, you..." Duo's eyes snapped open and danced with surprised laughter as Heero took off for another room. Cheat him out of a proper kiss then make a run for it, huh? Well, two could definitely play at *that* game. Tearing down the hall in chase of his elusive partner, Duo collided with Relena. "Oops, sorry, 'Lena," heapologized. "What on earth are you up to, Duo?" she inquired. "Mistletoe tag," he explained with a grin. "Mistletoe *what*?" "Mistletoe tag. Speaking of which..." he pointed up above their heads, then gave Relena a quick peck on the cheek, "Tag, you're it!" On that note, he took off for another room. Laughing, Relena headed off in search of someone else to pull into the game. When Zechs walked into the house half an hour later, he wondered what on earth all the shrieks and laughter were about. The sound of running feet echoed through the mansion. Shaking his head and deciding that he'd probably find out soon enough, he took off his coat and bent over to remove his boots. Having been quite literally dragged into the game of
mistletoe tag, Wufei was currently stalking Duo in an attempt at retaliation.
Spotting Zechs bending over to take off his boots, a distinctly evil
smirk crossed Wufei's face. Here was the chance to get back at him
for that kiss earlier. Ignoring the part of his mind that was demanding
to know just how kissing Zechs qualified as "getting back at
him", Wufei waited till Zechs started to straighten up, then
pounced. He pressed his lips to Zechs's in a kiss just as forceful
as the one Taking pity on the stupefied form of her brother, Relena reminded him, "You're 'it', brother dear. Now you have to catch somebody *else* under the mistletoe and give them a kiss to tag them!" before taking off again herself.
"Mistletoe tag," he repeated patiently, grinning at the memory. "Obviously the type of kiss varies depending who you catch, but apparently they were all enjoying themselves considerably judging by the noise level. You wanted them all to act like the teenagers they never got to be for a while - well, I would say that they were following orders this afternoon." "Mistletoe tag," she murmured thoughtfully, "I don't think there *is* such a game..." "There is now," Rashid advised her. "The
rules are very simple. You can't 'tag' the same person who tagged
you, the person has to be underneath a stationary bit of mistletoe
- no carrying mistletoe around with you, in other words - and you
have to give someone a kiss in order to 'tag' them. Oh, and the staff
are *not* part of the game, or we'd never have got anything done this
afternoon." Sobering, he told Iria, "They *are* all doing
much better already. Maria and Antoine have been keeping them well-fed
and sleeping in one room has "We'll deal with that when the time comes," Iria said, sincerely hoping that things would work out so that it would not be an issue for at least her baby brother and his best friend by then. If all went well, Trowa would be staying with Quatre when this was all over with. Rashid's daily reports seemed to indicate that Heero and Duo might finally be working things out too. Chang Wufei, however... Well, five colonies, five Gundams, five pilots - there was only so much she could do given the odd numbers she had to work with. With Dorothy and Relena already paired up, that left only Zechs, and he and Wufei simply did *not* get along.
Remembering the Mistletoe Tag was enough to bring a
faint trace of a smile to Duo's mouth. He'd never expected Heero to
tease him like that, and when *he'd* impulsively 'tagged' Relena after
running into her, he'd never expected to turn the afternoon into one
full of laughter, mischievous ambushes, increasingly silly kisses
from friends (Trowa had handed him a chocolate kiss at one point and
Zechs had gallantly kissed his hand with a bow and a flourish like
a characterin a historical movie at another), and increasingly teasing
and Finally locating Heero watching a movie in the lounge, Duo said, "Hey, 'Ro. Whatcha watchin'?" Somewhat cautiously, he waited for an indication of welcome before moving any further into the room. Heero didn't waste any time giving him one, rising and striding across the room to pull him into a deep kiss. "Mmm, nice..." Duo sighed as they drew apart again. "What's with all the kisses lately?" he asked as Heero tugged him towards the couch. "Blame it on the mistletoe," Heero suggested, snickering. "There's certainly enough of it to take the blame..." Glancing back at where he had been standing, Duo pointed out, "But there wasn't any over there..." "That's why we moved over *here*," Heero told him, pointing at the large ball of the stuff hanging directly over the couch. "I think my boring movie just got a lot more interesting," he whispered in Duo's ear, the tickle of his breath sending shivers of anticipation through Duo. "Good," Duo whispered back, "'cause I'd hate to see you gettin' bored on your vacation." As he willingly responded to Heero's next kiss, Duo let a little bit more hope creep in. Maybe it wasn't too late. Maybe they hadn't missed their chance at happiness.
"It could cost you your political career," Dorothy warned, reluctant to discourage something she wanted too but too loyal to Relena's best interests to let her ignore the facts. "I don't care. The most important laws have already been pushed through and it would take years and years of challenges to get them repealed. Same with the existence of the Preventers - they can't be dissolved without a majority vote from *each* colony's government and *each* regional Earth government *plus* the United Earth Sphere government. I've done nothing but work for peace since before I was sixteen. I think I'm entitled to have my own life while I'm still young enough to enjoy it." "What about your mother?" Dorothy asked softly, hesitant to bring up a sore subject but well aware that it had to be faced. Straightening away from Dorothy, Relena stared into
the fire, hands clenching into fists and face hardening grimly. "She
requested that I call her *Mrs Darlian*, remember? She made her feelings
on the subject of you and I perfectly clear when she caught us together
the last time she visited." Forcing her hands flat again, Relena
said more calmly, "She's made her choice. Her own petty prejudices
have condemned her to a lonely life. If she ever changes her mind
and apologizes to both of us, I'll welcome her back with open arms. Shifting so that she was the one leaning against Relena this time, Dorothy observed casually, "You know, the media would be far more tolerant of a legally-recognized relationship than an unofficial one." "If that's supposed to be a proposal, my dear Miss Catalonia, it's the most *un*romantic one I think I've ever heard," Relena commented drily. "But a very small, very private Christmas Eve wedding, complete with horse-drawn sleigh, *would* be rather nice." "Christmas Eve?" Dorothy quickly counted off the days on her fingers to make sure there was enough time to handle the legalities. "I'll have to see what can be arranged." "You do that," Relena answered, lifting her companion's face to brush a kiss across her lips. "You just go right ahead and do that."
"No, I'm just killing some time," Heero answered, extending one hand in silent invitation. Duo promptly joined him on the couch, curling against
Heero's side in what was becoming an increasingly familiar manner.
"There's still no snow in the forecast, but it's s'posed to stay
well below freezing right through Christmas, so I was wonderin' if
we could try something I read about one time. Iria's got us all scheduled
to go ice skating in a few days, but I'm not lookin' forward to tryin'
that for the first time in public. There was a book I read that talked
about buildin' a frame out of wood, linin' it with plastic, then coverin' Intrigued by the idea - as well as grateful to have
Duo showing enough confidence in him to ask *him* to take part in
an activity together for once instead of the other way around - Heero
asked, "Have you "Then you'll help?" Duo asked, amethyst eyes sparkling with delight. Firmly quashing the desire to cheer at finally seeing something approaching Duo's old joy in life displayed on that expressive face, Heero said, "Of course! It sounds interesting to try even if it doesn't work perfectly. And I'm not too thrilled about learning to skate in public either." Stopping in the midst of tugging Heero to his feet, Duo exclaimed, "Oh shit! I wonder if *any* of us know how to skate?! And I guess we'll kinda have to *have* skates, won't we?" "Bet Iria never even thought of that," Heero smirked. "Guess we have a *number* of things to pick up in town..."
"How much longer till they admit what's going on?" Quatre asked Duo, shaking his head in disbelief as Wufei 'tripped' and fell into Zechs's arms yet again. "Don't ask me, I find the whole idea of those two together so incredibly *bizarre* that I don't even wanna *think* about it." "How are things going for you and Heero?" Quatre asked, checking first to be sure that Heero was still concentrating on the quick lesson in stopping safely that Relena was giving him. Duo hesitated, almost afraid to put his hopes into words for fear of jinxing them. "Okay, I guess," he admitted, "but I'm tryin' not to get my hopes up too high. We're about back to the point we were at five years ago." His very real fear that, having reached that point, Heero would back off again was left unspoken. Quatre had enough worries about his own slowly deepening relationship with Trowa without taking on Duo's as well. "How 'bout you, Q? Tro comin' along nicely?" Quatre gave Duo a beautiful smile, "Oh yes. Which
reminds me, I think that pretty soon we're going to have to work out
some sort of schedule for the shared sleeping quarters so we don't
all desert Wufei at "Uh - yeah, I guess so," Duo responded. He wasn't too sure that would be necessary too quickly. Heero hadn't really even hinted at taking things that far yet and he was too afraid of ruining what they had now to bring the subject up himself. This was beginning to remind him ominously of the days leading up to Heero's "request" five years ago. 'If he decides to back off again, I don't know *what* I'll do. If I give him an ultimatum, I might lose him for good. But if he doesn't follow through this time, I don't know if I can stand to go back to bein' alone again for *another* five years...'
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