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"Serendipity"Written By: Clara Barton Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing. The following
is an intellectual exercise with no intention of profit. That said,
these characterizations, words, and situations are mine. Please ask
before reprinting. Rating: NC 17 A/N: Because sometimes I have too much time at work and when people come in with requests for things it gets me thinking "how can I make this a Gundam Wing fic?" So that's what I did. A/N: Thanks to Amberly, Maeve, ChronicWhimsy and Tumbledrylemur on Tumblr for encouraging this. A/N: I have NOTHING against Millstone, NJ but I needed to set this somewhere. I'm sure it's full of lovely people. A/N: As always, thank you to Ro for your amazing support and being my long-suffering beta. Pairings: 2x5, 1x3, 1x2x3x5 (and other derivatives), HxM, Rx4
"Serendipity" It was, Wufei decided when the phone rang for the twelfth time, clearly going to be one those days. This was usually the slow time of year, with only ten days left until Christmas, and it was a time he usually used for repairs and rebuilding some of the older pieces that The Costume Closet had in stock. Usually. Because, usually, by this point, all of the costumes for The Nutcracker and A Christmas Carol that local theatres, schools and churches performed were already rented and sent out. Usually, by this point, only a few straggling Santa Clauses needed to buy or rent their costumes. All of which Duo usually dealt with while Wufei retreated to the sewing room and buried himself in repairs. Except, for some reason, this year, this week, the shop had seen more costumes than Wufei remembered The Costume Closet ever dealing with in December. Between last-minute rentals for toy soldiers and rat kings, they had had requests for nativity scene costumes, themed Christmas parties and holiday parades. Wufei knew he should be grateful - ever since he and Duo had inherited The Costume Closet from Howard, the former owner who had died two years ago, they had worked tirelessly to grow the store's reputation and expand their clientele - and he was grateful, but he hated December. And a busy December did nothing to diminish his hatred for the month that brought foul weather, depressing memories and a guilt-ridden Duo down upon Wufei. It just meant that, in addition to all of his usual problems, Wufei now had to be polite to people scrambling for things at the last minute. He waited until the phone rang a third time before finally leaving the sewing room and going to answer it. As he walked out, onto the 'sales floor' as Duo insisted on calling the section of the Closet that was open to customers, Wufei saw that Duo was behind the makeup counter. Where he had been for the last three hours. The parade of twenty angels - teenaged girls from a local Baptist church - who had come in that morning to have Duo do their makeup for the Christmas play at the church that night, had dwindled down to only three. Wufei answered the phone just as it rang again, and Duo shot him a pained, pleading look from across the store. "This is The Costume Closet." "Oh, yes, is Howard there?" The caller sounded female and ancient, her voice shaking just enough to make it difficult to understand her. It was a question that Wufei and Duo heard almost weekly. "No, this is Wufei, I'm one of the new owners." "New owners? Howard sold the store?" "No, he died two years ago." "No! He didn't!" Wufei closed his eyes and sighed. "Yes, I'm sorry, he did." "Oh. Bless him. How awful for his family." Wufei sighed again, having gone through this very same conversation just three days ago. Howard had been single ever since the love of his life died in Vietnam, and as far as Wufei knew, he and Duo were the closest thing Howard had had to a family. "Yes," he agreed. "Were you calling about a costume?" He tried to get her away from further discussion of Howard. "Oh, oh yes, I was. This is Irma Meline. And I need a costume." Wufei rolled his eyes. One of those days indeed. "Yes?" "Well, I've been getting costumes from Howard for the last twenty years. Except last year, I had pneumonia and I spent the winter down in St. Pete with my sister. But this year I'm free, so I need a costume." Wufei sincerely wished that he was being tortured by teenaged girls insisting on more glitter instead of Duo. Duo was good at handling calls like this, good at being patient and good-humored. Wufei was decidedly not good at it. Then again, neither was he any good at makeup. There was a reason he worked in the back while Duo manned the front. "What kind of costume?" He tried to force himself to be patient. She was old. She was a customer. She was- "What do you mean what kind of costume? It's for the ball." The ball. Obviously. As if there was only one ball in the foreseeable future in all of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. "What ball, ma'am?" he prompted through gritted teeth. She made a frustrated sound. "The New Year's Eve Ball at the Allamack Mansion," she snapped. "Yes, yes of course." Wufei did, at least, know about that ball. It had been held every year for at least the last hundred years, and all guests dressed in 'Revolutionary' era clothing. "Well, do you have the dress I always wear?" Wufei closed his eyes and wondered what, precisely, he had done to deserve this call. "I'm not sure, ma'am. Do you remember the dress?" "It's the pink one." Wufei was fairly certain they had at least seven pink dresses that fit into the general colonial/Rococo category. And there were two peach ones, and the one lavender dress that Duo insisted was mauve. "I think we do," Wufei said hesitantly, almost confident. In the last six months of Howard's life, when he had been dying and calling Duo and Wufei almost weekly to ask them to move back from LA and take over the store, he had sold off several costumes in order to make ends meet. There was always a chance that Irma's pink dress had been among them. "Well, on Tuesday I go and get my hair done by Valerie at ten thirty. I'll come by after that." They were, usually, open by appointment only in December. But Wufei had a feeling that if he asked Irma to give him a specific time, he might be on the phone for another half an hour. "Yes, wonderful. We'll see you then." He started to hang up. "Now, hang on. Maybe I should wait until the week after Christmas. My grandson will be in town, and I've got my bridge club meeting on the twenty-seventh." Wufei wasn't sure if she was asking for his opinion, and wasn't entirely sure what he could say that was allowable in any event, so he kept quiet. "No, no. I'll come on Tuesday." "That sounds good," Wufei said. "We-" She hung up, and Wufei stared at the phone in his hand, listening to the dial tone. With a sigh, he returned it to the charging cradle. He looked across the store again, and saw that Duo had moved on to another angel. Two left. Duo had promised they would close the shop after he was finished with the angels - had even gone so far as committing to turning off the fifteen strands of twinkle lights that decorated the porch and the two heavily-decorated, practically radioactively glowing Christmas trees in the store window. He had promised, and Wufei was desperate to turn the phone onto the messaging service and seam rip to his heart's content. The door to the shop opened, and Wufei glared at the bell above the door as it merrily jangled to signal the arrival of another customer. Two customers. Wufei transferred his glare to the two men who stepped into the store, snow on their broad shoulders and their cheeks flushed from the cold. And then he found himself staring, a little taken aback by how handsome they both were. The taller of the two had auburn hair that fell over half his face, but even so, Wufei could see his strong, sharp features and wide, full lips. The shorter man looked vaguely Asian, even with his piercing blue eyes. It was impossible to tell anything about their bodies - both were bundled in sweaters and jackets to ward off the cold - but even so, their faces were very nearly mesmerizing. Wufei realized, too late, that he had been caught staring. The taller man was looking back at him, one corner of his mouth tilted upwards, and Wufei flushed. He didn't usually stare at the locals - no matter how attractive they were. Not after growing up in this small-minded town and learning the hard way what happened when he was caught staring at another boy. But these two… they really were mesmerizing. Duo, who had looked up to greet them with an absent- minded "Welcome to the Costume Closet," trailed off in the middle of 'Closet' as he too stared at them. He caught himself, cleared his throat, and finished the sentence. The shorter man nodded. "Ray sent us to get the costumes for the-" "Shit. Fuck, sorry kids," Duo immediately apologized to the scandalized girls in front of him. "I forgot that was today. Wufei, can you…?" He gestured to the two men. Wufei arched an eyebrow. "They're with the Fire Department. They're here to get the costumes." "I thought that was happening on Friday." Wufei couldn't help but scowl as his dreams of escape started to vanish. Duo gave him a sheepish look. "Sorry, Ray called while you were in the back earlier and-" "Is this a bad time?" the tall man asked. Wufei sighed as Duo continued to look sheepish. "No," he assured the man, "not at all. Just follow me back to the fitting rooms." The two men fell into step behind him as Wufei walked towards the back of the 'sales floor' and the area that held the two racks of Christmas costumes - Santas, elves, angels and snowmen. Wufei picked up the rental reservation book and flipped through it until he came across the account for the Volunteer Fire Department in town. "Is Ray coming?" he asked as he looked at the sheet. The shorter man snorted a laugh, and the taller man gave a rueful smirk. "No." Wufei arched an eyebrow. Ray Donner, the burly Fire Chief, had been dressing up as Santa Claus for the town's annual Winter Fair since before Wufei had moved to the town fifteen years ago. The tall man sighed. "Ray said that since we were rookies, we had the honor of representing the department and sitting on the sleigh all night freezing our asses off." Wufei felt his lips twitch in sympathetic amusement. The Fair, which consisted of all of the shops on Main Street hosting booths - selling food, cider or Christmas gifts - also featured the Fire Department's volunteer Santa, complete with sled, sitting for hours to pose with children and hear their gift wishes. Wufei had only been a few times as a teenager, and even though The Costume Closet was technically on Main Street, Duo agreed that they didn't need to do a booth or anything for 'the damn bigots', in his words. "You're both going to be Santa Claus?" Wufei asked. The taller man shook his head. "No, just me. Heero is, ah, my little helper." The man's lips twitched again, but the shorter man, Heero, just glared at him. "Laugh it up, Trowa - you're the one stuck wearing a fat suit." The taller man, Trowa, shrugged. "Sure, but I bet it's warm." Heero's face turned a little sour as he no doubt imagined sitting in the cold for hours. "I recommend long johns under the elf tights," Wufei suggested. "Tights?" Heero echoed. Trowa's lips split into a wide grin, and Heero glared at him. Wufei nodded, and then arched an eyebrow. "Is that a problem?" He still very distinctly remembered the man who had come in for Halloween last year wanting to be 'classic Superman' and the way he had balked at the red tights Duo handed him to try on, had called both Duo and Wufei queer fairy fags and insisted that men didn't wear tights. It had been frustrating, humiliating and, at least to Duo, darkly funny. There had also been plenty of times that men had turned their noses up at the elf tights and insisted they would just wear 'real pants.' "No," Heero sighed. "I'll wear long johns under them. And tights are hardly the worse thing I've ever had to wear." Trowa turned to him with an arched eyebrow. "Really? What else have you worn?" Hhe asked, and folded his arms as he waited for Heero to answer. Heero, however, simply rolled his eyes and turned back to Wufei. "Ray said that the department already had all of the payment information on file. Do you need anything from us or do we just… pick up the costumes?" "No, that's all taken care of. But I do need you to try them on, to make sure everything fits." Trowa looked delighted at the prospect. "I just need to know what size clothes you normally wear?" Wufei prompted them. Usually, he just guessed - years working as a costume designer in LA had taught him how to judge a person's general measurements just by looking at them. But with their jackets and sweaters on, it was impossible for Wufei to guess with these two. "Medium?" Heero said with a shrug. Trowa's lips twitched in amusement again, and Wufei found himself actually sharing it. "I wear a 40 long - sometimes a 42. My inseam is a 35 - and I try to find 31- inch waist trousers, but I never can so I usually go with 32s." Heero stared at Trowa as he listed off the measurements. "What? Not all of us live our lives in spandex and sweats," Trowa said to him. Heero shook his head and rolled his eyes. "I wear jeans sometimes," he said defensively. "Do you even know what size they are?" Trowa asked. Heero scowled and shrugged, his cheeks pinking up slightly. "Most men seem to have no clue what size they wear," Wufei offered up, half as an admonishment and half as a reassurement. Trowa arched an eyebrow again. "How do they buy clothes?" Wufei shrugged. "I have no idea. Maybe their mothers and girlfriends and wives just buy everything?" Trowa gave Heero a look. "No," Heero growled, "my mother does not still buy my clothes." "What about when you were in the Navy? Surely your uniform had a size in it?" Heero nodded in agreement. "Yeah. It was whatever size the quartermaster said I wore." Trowa rolled his eyes and turned back to Wufei. "Sorry about him." Wufei shrugged. "It's fine. Medium is enough information for me - for the elf costume." The standard elf costume - a green tunic with triangle cut-outs on them hem and red and white striped tights - was sized extra-small to extra-large. Wufei looked back at Trowa. "The belly pad for our Santas is designed to be worn over the pants. I'm probably going to have to do some alterations to the pants. We don't get too many Santas with such small waists." Trowa nodded and shrugged one shoulder. "Sorry. I have no ass to speak of." Heero snorted a laugh, and the two men exchanged a look that Wufei optimistically interpreted as affectionate. There was something between these two, that much he could pick up on. He didn't know if they were gay - and in this town, Wufei had found it safe to always assume men were straight until they had a hand on his dick and even then to be cautious. But even if they weren't gay, it was clear that they were at least mildly attracted to one another. Straight bros who like to blow each other, Duo would have muttered if he were standing beside Wufei. They had both encountered enough of those kinds of 'straight' men in this town, and even in LA. "It's fine," Wufei assured him, and then found his cheeks turning red when Trowa arched an eyebrow again and one corner of his lips tilted upwards. Heero looked amused, and Wufei felt his belly give a curious lurch. Off limits, he scolded himself. Lusting after customers was never a good idea. "I'll get some things for you to two to try on," Wufei muttered, and made a hasty escape to the racks of Christmas costumes and started to pull out pieces for them. The last time Wufei had been enough of an idiot to find a customer attractive and decide to flirt with him, he had been in high school, working at The Costume Closet part-time, and he had earned himself a split-lip for his awkwardly stammered 'you look amazing - you'd look amazing in anything.' And of course Duo, who had also been working, had thrown himself into the fray - totally unconcerned by the fact that the angry customer outweighed him by at least a hundred pounds - and had come out of it with a black eye, and they had both been lectured by Howard while they cradled ice-packs to their faces to be careful, to be safe, to get the hell out of Millstone when they graduated and find somewhere to live where they could be themselves. And yet, Wufei couldn't help but think bitterly as he grabbed a wig and beard for Trowa, here we are, back in Millstone. ~ * ~ |
