(no subject)
title: the greatest little adventure, pairing: heero, duo (budding friendship), warnings: AU, chibi, sappy
notes: written more because of a comment sunny made than much of anything else. :) not to be taken seriously (obviously), so please enjoy!
Heero stood at his mother’s side, her hand held his a little too tight. It was in a noisy quiet, where there were lots of lights and people hurrying from one end of the station to the other. Still early in the morning, the sun wasn’t even up when his mother called for the taxi, and Heero’s tummy was hungry.
“Next,” a voice called from just above the counter. Heero couldn’t see who had spoken, but he imagined the man was like his Gamfa. His mother stepped up to the counter and released his hand. Heero looked up at her, but she was busy searching through her purse, talking with the man who sounded like his Gamfa. He heard her say words like “husband” and “San Francisco” and “job”. But she had been saying words like those for a long time now.
The man spoke again, and Heero had to know. He carefully set his bag down between his feet (as his mother had shown him) and reached up for the counter’s ledge. Up on his tippy-toes, he rose to where his eyes could peer over the counter’s edge. It wasn’t his Gamfa!
“Get down, Heero,” his mother scolded in that gentle voice of hers. Her hand went to that spot just below his neck. His nose bumped the edge as he dropped his heels back to the floor.
“Here’s a sucker for such a good boy.” The man who sounded like his Gamfa but wasn’t, was leaning over the counter, his hand extended with a red lolly.
Heero stared up at the man and turned to look at his mother. He didn’t know the man, even if the man did sound an awful lot like his Gamfa. His mother was talking to the man. But she’d told him not talk to strangers. Unless it was a policeman, or a fireman. She nodded and smiled at him and Heero stood on his tippy-toes again.
“Thank you,” he said, his head bowing in the respectful nod his mother taught him.
“What a polite young man, you are.” The man who wasn’t his Gramfa told him. The man was smiling, and Heero wondered if the man had a Grand Boy, like his Gramfa. He hoped the man did. But Heero liked his Gramfa best. The man handed his mother a colored envelope and thanked her, wished them a good trip.
“Pick up your bag, Heero,” his mother said, pushing the envelope into her purse and picking up the suitcase on her other side. She reached for his hand and gave him a short smile. “Let’s go now, Heero. We’re on an adventure.”
As they walked closer and closer to the noisy stairway, Heero wasn’t sure it would be an adventure. But his mother had said so, and she never told him fibs. They took the stairs one step at a time, though he wanted to show his mother he could go down them one after another. But there were many steps and he wasn’t so sure he could walk all of them one after another.
His mother didn’t head for the platform immediately, but went to a concession stand instead. Heero watched as she chose icing heavy rolls; his tummy growled reminding him, he hadn’t had his cream-of-wheat yet. His eyes got large when his mother added hot chocolate to the order. She handed the vendor money, and thanked him for the meal.
She didn’t hold his hand afterward, but told him to walk to the rows of benches near the train platform. Heero held his bag in one hand and the iced rolls his mother bought for him in the other. His bag he sat on the floor next to his mother’s suitcase, and the rolls on the bench seat. He had to climb up on the seat and turn around to sit, his legs dangling off the bench edge. But the rolls smelled good and the chocolate even better.
“Let it cool some more,” his mother cautioned, setting it down on the flat space between them.
Heero nodded and watched the steam rise from the cup that looked like one that grown-ups used to drink coffee. His cup at home was blue and had white stars on it. He always drank his hot chocolate in that cup, and sometimes when it was cold outside, his mother would put marshmallows in it. She would let him scoop them out with a spoon and eat them all up before drinking his hot chocolate.
“Sit here.” A woman’s voice said and Heero turned in time to see a boy being led around with a hand on his shoulder.
The boy was scowling, and he dragged his shoe tips over the tile, but he climbed up on the seat next to Heero anyway. Heero moved his rolls away from the boy. Heero held his rolls on his lap and looked up at his mother. She was looking at that letter again; his hot chocolate was still steaming.
He turned his head just enough to be able to see the boy. The boy was still scowling, but he was swinging his legs and he was crossing his arms over his chest. The boy’s mother wasn’t there any more. Heero looked down at his rolls, his tummy grumbled. He glanced up at his mother, but she was holding a tissue up to her eyes and smiling, reading that letter.
Making a decision, he slid one of the rolls off onto its own napkin and set it on the bench seat between the boy and himself. With a finger, it pushed it closer to the boy. “Here,” he said, watching the icing drip down over the side of the roll and land on the napkin.
The boy’s legs stopped swinging. Heero glanced up at him and looked away. The boy was unfolding his arms and a hand reached out for the roll. Heero lifted his roll by its napkin and licked at the icing flowing over its side. It was sweet and his stomach gurgled again. Cream-of-wheat was nothing like this! He bit into the doughy part of the roll and it was good.
Heero was smiling, chewing on the bite he’d taken. He turned to look at the boy next to him, and saw the boy had bit a large chunk from his roll. Icing had smeared on the boy’s chin, and the boy kept trying to reach it with his tongue. Heero laughed and bit into his roll again. The boy grinned at him.
“Tanks!” the boy was saying around a mouthful of half-chewed roll.
Heero watched him eat and wondered if the boy was going on an adventure too. He had another mouthful of roll. The boy’s jacket wasn’t very nice. It was made of cloth and had some buttons missing. Heero chewed; the boy’s hair was longer than Heero’s, and Heero lifted a hand to his head and touched his hair. His mother’s hair was longer than the boy’s was, when she brushed it in the morning before she twisted it up into a bun.
“Wat’s yer name?” The boy asked, his legs started to swing again. The boy wasn’t watching Heero but instead, he was licking his fingers clean of icing.
“Heero.” His roll was gone now, and Heero wanted to lick his fingers like the boy. But he didn’t and wiped the sticky sweet from his hands with a clean paper napkin. Just like his mother had shown him. “What’s your name?”
The boy grinned at him. “Duo.” He let the napkin fall from his fingers and rubbed his hands on his coat. Heero wondered if Duo’s mother was going to get mad at him for making his coat sticky.
When he looked at his mother again, she was watching him and the boy. She smiled and touched his hand, took the wadded up paper napkins from him and nodded to his cup of hot chocolate. Heero lifted the white funny cup with both of his own. It was warm but the steam didn’t rise from it like it had before.
Carefully, he twisted on the bench and held out the cup to Duo. “You may drink first.” Heero bowed his head in a nod to Duo.
“Why?”
Heero looked up to see Duo staring at him. He hadn’t taken the cup, but Heero could see he wanted the hot chocolate. Heero didn’t know what to say, so he pushed the drink closer. The boy’s mother must not have shown him the proper way of acceptance.
Duo took the cup from his hands, though he was scowling again. He sniffed at it and shot Heero a look. And then he drank. Heero watched and opened his mouth to say something. But closed it again. He could feel his heart thumping and wondered if the boy could hear it too. His chin quivered just the tiniest bit and he made it stop. The boy was his guest, sort of, and if the boy wanted all of his hot chocolate, Heero would allow him to drink it all.
And Duo lowered the cup. He was grinning at Heero again, his upper lip thick with chocolate milk. “This is good!” he declared and handed the cup back to Heero.
Heero held the cup and looked down inside. Almost half the hot chocolate was gone. The boy was a polite guest after all. Heero’s smile was small and hidden behind the rim of the cup. He sipped at the chocolate slowly, twice, before setting the cup down and pushing it toward Duo once again.
Duo was chewing on his lip, but instead of reaching for the hot chocolate, like Heero thought he would, Duo dug into his coat pocket and pulled out a purple lolly. He thrust it out to Heero with a quick, “here” and picked up the cup. Heero stared at the sucker and wondered if Duo had seen the man who sounded like Gramfa.
His hand was reaching inside his own coat pocket when Duo set the cup down between them; hot chocolate still swirled at the bottom. Heero pulled his red lolly out and extended it to Duo. This time he didn’t hide his smile. Duo held the sucker in his fist, just as Heero held Duo’s.
“Are you going on an adventure too?” Heero asked. He picked up the cup and drank the last of the hot chocolate slowly.
Duo was scowling again and turned away from Heero. “No,” was Duo’s only answer.
“Are you going to the West?” Heero’s mother leaned over him to ask. Duo turned to look at her, his eyes widened and Heero was surprised when Duo glared at him.
“Yeah.” Duo’s arms crossed over his chest once more, Heero’s lolly still in his fist.
Heero turned to his mother, and she smiled at him before giving the scowling boy a gentle look. She touched the back of her hand to Heero’s cheek. “He is going on an adventure of his own,” she told him. “He’s going to find a family to take care of him in the West.” Heero nodded and clutched his lolly tighter.
His mother took the hot chocolate cup from his hand and stood up. “I’ll be right over there,” she said, indicating the way to the trash can. As she passed, she lowered herself to pick up Duo’s napkin. Heero watched as his mother touched the boy’s knee and when he looked at her without scowling, she smiled at him.
Heero watched his mother stand and walk to the trash bin.
“Yer mam’s predy,” Duo said in a hushed voice. Heero nodded. “’N she smells gud too.”
Heero turned his head, and Duo was grinning at him again. Duo was digging into his coat pocket again. He pulled out a small wooden car and held it aloft for Heero to see. Heero nodded at it. Duo rolled its wheels over the bench, back and forth and back again. He shot it forward, letting it go to race toward Heero. Heero’s hand flashed out and caught the car before it touched his leg.
He sat up on his knees facing Duo and rolled the car back to its owner. Duo laughed and scrambled up on his knees as well. The car made several passes between them before Heero’s mother returned. Heero heard her shoes on the tile and turned to watch her walk towards the bench. He wondered where the small carpetbag had come from and Duo’s car hit his knee. Duo was laughing and it was his turn to send the toy back.
Heero’s mother kneeled down in front of them both at the bench. She smiled at Duo and touched Heero’s hand still clutching the car. “Duo will be going on an adventure with us,” she told them.
Duo was scowling again, but Heero’s mother touched the back of her fingers to his face and the boy began smiling instead. Heero sat back on his heels, Duo’s car on the bench between them. As Heero’s mother moved to return to her seat on Heero’s other side, Duo snatched his car and ran its wheels over the bench.
Heero watched Duo and thought that maybe they would have a good adventure after all.
notes: written more because of a comment sunny made than much of anything else. :) not to be taken seriously (obviously), so please enjoy!
Heero stood at his mother’s side, her hand held his a little too tight. It was in a noisy quiet, where there were lots of lights and people hurrying from one end of the station to the other. Still early in the morning, the sun wasn’t even up when his mother called for the taxi, and Heero’s tummy was hungry.
“Next,” a voice called from just above the counter. Heero couldn’t see who had spoken, but he imagined the man was like his Gamfa. His mother stepped up to the counter and released his hand. Heero looked up at her, but she was busy searching through her purse, talking with the man who sounded like his Gamfa. He heard her say words like “husband” and “San Francisco” and “job”. But she had been saying words like those for a long time now.
The man spoke again, and Heero had to know. He carefully set his bag down between his feet (as his mother had shown him) and reached up for the counter’s ledge. Up on his tippy-toes, he rose to where his eyes could peer over the counter’s edge. It wasn’t his Gamfa!
“Get down, Heero,” his mother scolded in that gentle voice of hers. Her hand went to that spot just below his neck. His nose bumped the edge as he dropped his heels back to the floor.
“Here’s a sucker for such a good boy.” The man who sounded like his Gamfa but wasn’t, was leaning over the counter, his hand extended with a red lolly.
Heero stared up at the man and turned to look at his mother. He didn’t know the man, even if the man did sound an awful lot like his Gamfa. His mother was talking to the man. But she’d told him not talk to strangers. Unless it was a policeman, or a fireman. She nodded and smiled at him and Heero stood on his tippy-toes again.
“Thank you,” he said, his head bowing in the respectful nod his mother taught him.
“What a polite young man, you are.” The man who wasn’t his Gramfa told him. The man was smiling, and Heero wondered if the man had a Grand Boy, like his Gramfa. He hoped the man did. But Heero liked his Gramfa best. The man handed his mother a colored envelope and thanked her, wished them a good trip.
“Pick up your bag, Heero,” his mother said, pushing the envelope into her purse and picking up the suitcase on her other side. She reached for his hand and gave him a short smile. “Let’s go now, Heero. We’re on an adventure.”
As they walked closer and closer to the noisy stairway, Heero wasn’t sure it would be an adventure. But his mother had said so, and she never told him fibs. They took the stairs one step at a time, though he wanted to show his mother he could go down them one after another. But there were many steps and he wasn’t so sure he could walk all of them one after another.
His mother didn’t head for the platform immediately, but went to a concession stand instead. Heero watched as she chose icing heavy rolls; his tummy growled reminding him, he hadn’t had his cream-of-wheat yet. His eyes got large when his mother added hot chocolate to the order. She handed the vendor money, and thanked him for the meal.
She didn’t hold his hand afterward, but told him to walk to the rows of benches near the train platform. Heero held his bag in one hand and the iced rolls his mother bought for him in the other. His bag he sat on the floor next to his mother’s suitcase, and the rolls on the bench seat. He had to climb up on the seat and turn around to sit, his legs dangling off the bench edge. But the rolls smelled good and the chocolate even better.
“Let it cool some more,” his mother cautioned, setting it down on the flat space between them.
Heero nodded and watched the steam rise from the cup that looked like one that grown-ups used to drink coffee. His cup at home was blue and had white stars on it. He always drank his hot chocolate in that cup, and sometimes when it was cold outside, his mother would put marshmallows in it. She would let him scoop them out with a spoon and eat them all up before drinking his hot chocolate.
“Sit here.” A woman’s voice said and Heero turned in time to see a boy being led around with a hand on his shoulder.
The boy was scowling, and he dragged his shoe tips over the tile, but he climbed up on the seat next to Heero anyway. Heero moved his rolls away from the boy. Heero held his rolls on his lap and looked up at his mother. She was looking at that letter again; his hot chocolate was still steaming.
He turned his head just enough to be able to see the boy. The boy was still scowling, but he was swinging his legs and he was crossing his arms over his chest. The boy’s mother wasn’t there any more. Heero looked down at his rolls, his tummy grumbled. He glanced up at his mother, but she was holding a tissue up to her eyes and smiling, reading that letter.
Making a decision, he slid one of the rolls off onto its own napkin and set it on the bench seat between the boy and himself. With a finger, it pushed it closer to the boy. “Here,” he said, watching the icing drip down over the side of the roll and land on the napkin.
The boy’s legs stopped swinging. Heero glanced up at him and looked away. The boy was unfolding his arms and a hand reached out for the roll. Heero lifted his roll by its napkin and licked at the icing flowing over its side. It was sweet and his stomach gurgled again. Cream-of-wheat was nothing like this! He bit into the doughy part of the roll and it was good.
Heero was smiling, chewing on the bite he’d taken. He turned to look at the boy next to him, and saw the boy had bit a large chunk from his roll. Icing had smeared on the boy’s chin, and the boy kept trying to reach it with his tongue. Heero laughed and bit into his roll again. The boy grinned at him.
“Tanks!” the boy was saying around a mouthful of half-chewed roll.
Heero watched him eat and wondered if the boy was going on an adventure too. He had another mouthful of roll. The boy’s jacket wasn’t very nice. It was made of cloth and had some buttons missing. Heero chewed; the boy’s hair was longer than Heero’s, and Heero lifted a hand to his head and touched his hair. His mother’s hair was longer than the boy’s was, when she brushed it in the morning before she twisted it up into a bun.
“Wat’s yer name?” The boy asked, his legs started to swing again. The boy wasn’t watching Heero but instead, he was licking his fingers clean of icing.
“Heero.” His roll was gone now, and Heero wanted to lick his fingers like the boy. But he didn’t and wiped the sticky sweet from his hands with a clean paper napkin. Just like his mother had shown him. “What’s your name?”
The boy grinned at him. “Duo.” He let the napkin fall from his fingers and rubbed his hands on his coat. Heero wondered if Duo’s mother was going to get mad at him for making his coat sticky.
When he looked at his mother again, she was watching him and the boy. She smiled and touched his hand, took the wadded up paper napkins from him and nodded to his cup of hot chocolate. Heero lifted the white funny cup with both of his own. It was warm but the steam didn’t rise from it like it had before.
Carefully, he twisted on the bench and held out the cup to Duo. “You may drink first.” Heero bowed his head in a nod to Duo.
“Why?”
Heero looked up to see Duo staring at him. He hadn’t taken the cup, but Heero could see he wanted the hot chocolate. Heero didn’t know what to say, so he pushed the drink closer. The boy’s mother must not have shown him the proper way of acceptance.
Duo took the cup from his hands, though he was scowling again. He sniffed at it and shot Heero a look. And then he drank. Heero watched and opened his mouth to say something. But closed it again. He could feel his heart thumping and wondered if the boy could hear it too. His chin quivered just the tiniest bit and he made it stop. The boy was his guest, sort of, and if the boy wanted all of his hot chocolate, Heero would allow him to drink it all.
And Duo lowered the cup. He was grinning at Heero again, his upper lip thick with chocolate milk. “This is good!” he declared and handed the cup back to Heero.
Heero held the cup and looked down inside. Almost half the hot chocolate was gone. The boy was a polite guest after all. Heero’s smile was small and hidden behind the rim of the cup. He sipped at the chocolate slowly, twice, before setting the cup down and pushing it toward Duo once again.
Duo was chewing on his lip, but instead of reaching for the hot chocolate, like Heero thought he would, Duo dug into his coat pocket and pulled out a purple lolly. He thrust it out to Heero with a quick, “here” and picked up the cup. Heero stared at the sucker and wondered if Duo had seen the man who sounded like Gramfa.
His hand was reaching inside his own coat pocket when Duo set the cup down between them; hot chocolate still swirled at the bottom. Heero pulled his red lolly out and extended it to Duo. This time he didn’t hide his smile. Duo held the sucker in his fist, just as Heero held Duo’s.
“Are you going on an adventure too?” Heero asked. He picked up the cup and drank the last of the hot chocolate slowly.
Duo was scowling again and turned away from Heero. “No,” was Duo’s only answer.
“Are you going to the West?” Heero’s mother leaned over him to ask. Duo turned to look at her, his eyes widened and Heero was surprised when Duo glared at him.
“Yeah.” Duo’s arms crossed over his chest once more, Heero’s lolly still in his fist.
Heero turned to his mother, and she smiled at him before giving the scowling boy a gentle look. She touched the back of her hand to Heero’s cheek. “He is going on an adventure of his own,” she told him. “He’s going to find a family to take care of him in the West.” Heero nodded and clutched his lolly tighter.
His mother took the hot chocolate cup from his hand and stood up. “I’ll be right over there,” she said, indicating the way to the trash can. As she passed, she lowered herself to pick up Duo’s napkin. Heero watched as his mother touched the boy’s knee and when he looked at her without scowling, she smiled at him.
Heero watched his mother stand and walk to the trash bin.
“Yer mam’s predy,” Duo said in a hushed voice. Heero nodded. “’N she smells gud too.”
Heero turned his head, and Duo was grinning at him again. Duo was digging into his coat pocket again. He pulled out a small wooden car and held it aloft for Heero to see. Heero nodded at it. Duo rolled its wheels over the bench, back and forth and back again. He shot it forward, letting it go to race toward Heero. Heero’s hand flashed out and caught the car before it touched his leg.
He sat up on his knees facing Duo and rolled the car back to its owner. Duo laughed and scrambled up on his knees as well. The car made several passes between them before Heero’s mother returned. Heero heard her shoes on the tile and turned to watch her walk towards the bench. He wondered where the small carpetbag had come from and Duo’s car hit his knee. Duo was laughing and it was his turn to send the toy back.
Heero’s mother kneeled down in front of them both at the bench. She smiled at Duo and touched Heero’s hand still clutching the car. “Duo will be going on an adventure with us,” she told them.
Duo was scowling again, but Heero’s mother touched the back of her fingers to his face and the boy began smiling instead. Heero sat back on his heels, Duo’s car on the bench between them. As Heero’s mother moved to return to her seat on Heero’s other side, Duo snatched his car and ran its wheels over the bench.
Heero watched Duo and thought that maybe they would have a good adventure after all.