Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ A Gundam Wing Thanksgiving ❯ Let's Eat! ( Chapter 1 )

Introduction:Thanksgiving is an American holiday, but since it's mainly an excuse to eat, drink and watch sports on TV, we think everybody should celebrate with us. Ok, supposedly, Thanksgiving has something to do with being thankful for all the good things that one has enjoyed for the past year, but since this past year has really sucked for most people, let's stick with the eating, drinking and sports.

Disclaimer: This is an original work of fiction, but the characters of Heero Yuy, Duo Maxwell, Wu-Fei Chang, Trowa Barton, Quatre Reberba Winner, Zechs Merquise and Treize Kushranada are borrowed from Gundam Wing AC by Hajime Yatate and Yoshiyuki Tomino and produced by Sunrise. Roku, on the other hand, is totally my creation and so is Alexa. Other Gundam Wing characters, like Sally Po and Lucretzia Noin, who might appear or be mentioned are also borrowed from Gundam Wing by Yatate-sama and Tomino-sama.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

“Hey guys!” Duo shouted. “Do you know what next month is?”

“November,” Wu-Fei said without looking up from his book.

“Well, yeah, but it's Thanksgiving!”

“What's that, Papa Duo?”

“Thanksgiving is an old Earth holiday where people celebrated having a good year by eating lots of food, getting drunk and engaging in dangerous group sports. We should celebrate it!”

“I'm not engaging in any dangerous group sports with you,” Wu-Fei said immediately. “It probably involves group sex.”

“That sounds like fun,” Duo said, “but I think it was more like team sports using a ball of some kind. They'd kick it or throw it or something like that.”

“You don't even know what kind of sports?!”

“It's not important, especially if you get drunk first. Nobody would remember the rules anyway.”

“That sounds really pointless.”

“But fun!”

“What kind of food, Papa Duo?” Roku asked. He licked his whiskers.

“Well, let's see.” Duo plopped down in front of the terminal in their living room and did a search. “They'd eat roast turkey, roast goose, sometimes roast duck, ham, sometimes a beef roast. They'd stuff the turkey. That recipe sounds good. Oh, so does this one! And look, you can make mashed potatoes and gravy and yams and green beans and rolls and something called cranberry sauce!”

“What's cranberry?”

“I have no idea but it looks like some kind of reddish-pink berry.” Duo scrolled down farther. “Oh, now we're talking! Dessert!”

“Dessert?” Roku stuck his head in front of the monitor. “What kind?”

“Well, I'd read it if I could see anything other than your giant orange head.”

“Ooh, look! Pie!”

“Move, dang it!” Duo shoved Roku out of the way. “Yum! Pumpkin pie and apple pie and mincemeat pie…”

“Meat pie?!” Roku shoved his head in front of Duo again. “What kind of meat? What's mince?”

“Oh, please!” Wu-Fei exclaimed. “The pie is made from meat and fruit minced into small pieces and simmered.”

“Oh. So what kind of meat?”

Wu-Fei shrugged. “I think it's usually beef.”

“I want that,” Roku said.

“I figured you would,” Wu-Fei muttered.

“And we can have ice cream, too,” Duo said. “I think we need to do this. But we may have to order off-planet.”

“Like you guys need another excuse to overeat.”

“We never overeat!” Duo exclaimed. “We eat exactly the right amount to assuage our hunger.”

“Yeah!”

Wu-Fei just rolled his eyes.

“Well, I'm going to order all this stuff,” Duo said. “I better do it now or it won't get here in time.”

“I think we should have a family discussion before you start spending half our money on a bunch of food we don't need,” Wu-Fei said.

“Oh, fine! We can talk about it at dinner tonight. We'll invite everybody over.”

Later that evening, Treize, Zechs, Alexa, Sally and Noin came over for dinner at Duo's invitation.

“Why is it,” Quatre grumbled to Trowa, “that whenever Duo invites everybody over I always end up making dinner?”

“You're the best at organizing a large meal on short notice,” Trowa said.

“But why does that mean I end up cooking? It's not fair.”

“But you do such a good job.”

“Next time I'm poisoning everybody.”

“Be good.”

Quatre grumbled something unprintable under his breath.

When everyone was seated at the table (it's a big table, with two extra leafs), Duo stood up. “I'd like to make an announcement,” he said dramatically. “Next month is Thanksgiving and I think we should celebrate it.”

“Thanksgiving!” Treize's eyes lit up. “That's an old tradition. Hardly anyone celebrates it anymore, since the country it started in doesn't really exist anymore. Why do you want to celebrate it?”

“Because we get to eat, drink and play!”

“Sounds good to me,” Hadeya said. “It sounds like a typical night in Valhalla.”

“But without the sex,” Quatre said.

“Who said there wouldn't be sex?” Duo blinked.

“I knew it!” Wu-Fei exclaimed.

“Anyway,” Duo continued. “I think we should do it. We just need to order a few items from off-planet and then we're good to go.”

“What items?” Zechs asked.

“I made a list.” Duo pulled a rolled up piece of paper from his pocket and unrolled it. “There are just a few items.” He started to read from the list. Around him, everyone's eyes got rounder and rounder.

“That's enough food for an army!” Noin finally exploded. “How many people were you planning to invite?”

“Just us.”

“What?!”

“Five turkeys really aren't that many. That's why I thought we'd need four hams, two beef roasts, three gooses (would that be geese?) and a couple of ducks.”

“What?!”

“And the rest is just the trimmings.”

“T… T… trimmings?!” Noin stammered.

“Yeah. Just the essentials for a proper Thanksgiving feast, according to the website on traditional feasts that I was looking at. Some of the stuff looked a little silly, though, so that's why I left off the mini-marshmallows for the yams. I kind of liked this other recipe that soaks them in brandy better.”

“You would,” Wu-Fei muttered.

“What the fuck is a mini-marshmallow?!” Noin screamed.

“It's a little puffy, sugary, white thing,” Duo said. “I can order some if you really want to know.”

“I don't!”

“So anyway, what do you all think? It's a great idea, right? Let's do it!”

“Oh, why not,” Zechs said. “It might be pleasant.”

“As long as I'm not doing all the cooking,” Quatre said.

“Great!” Duo resumed his seat. “I'll order the food after dinner.”

“This is not a good idea,” Noin muttered to Sally.

“But it ought to be entertaining,” Sally replied with a grin.

So, about a month later, on Tuesday, Noin waited at the docks watching a shuttle dock. When the pilot came in, he grinned broadly and rushed right up to her.

“Noin! I didn't expect to find you waiting! I thought this shipment was for Count Merquise.”

Noin managed a sickly smile. “Yes, well, he's taking the next few days off, so he asked me to come collect the shipment for him.”

“That's lucky for me!” The pilot leered at her. “It's going to take an hour or so to unload all the shipments. Why don't we go have a drink?”

“Uh, well, um…”

“Oh, come on!” The pilot grabbed her arm. “Just a quickie!”

Noin groaned. “If you insist, Trent.”

When Noin turned up at the Gundam pilots' house later, a large crate floating along behind her, she glowered angrily at Duo. “You totally owe me, you little maggot! You have no idea what I had to do to get this shipment for you. That creep pilot totally felt me up!”

Duo blinked innocently. “And you didn't put out?”

Noin turned bright red. “I didn't want to get felt up, you jackass!”

“Really?” Duo scratched his head. “But why not? Were his hands too cold or something?”

“He's a fucking creep, you jerk!”

“But I thought you were dating him.”

Noin's fingers tangled in her short hair. “That's only because I have to keep covering for you people!” she choked out.

“Oh. Well, thanks for bringing our stuff.”

Noin's crooked fingers started to reach for his neck.

Duo took a step back. “Let me get some help to unpack that crate.” He slipped back into the house.

Once they had all the food inside and spread out all over the counters and the table, Quatre studied it with a speculative air. “This is going to be tricky,” he mused thoughtfully. “We need to have all these items arrive hot and yummy on the table at the same time.” He looked around the kitchen. “We have two ovens.”

“This presents a logistical problem,” Trowa acknowledged.

“Well, actually,” Quatre said, “it's both a time and a space problem. We can cook some things at other people's houses, but it still wouldn't be enough ovens. But,” and he held up a finger with a gleam in his eye, “we can use our ovens over and over.”

“But won't that still take too long?” Jett asked.

“Time-travel,” Quatre said with a grin. “We'll just cook some of these birds in the past and then bring them back to now for eating.”

“That's actually rather clever,” Zechs murmured.

“But,” Quatre said, “some things we should just cook in this time. Let's divide up the menu. Who wants to make dessert? We only need ten or twelve pies.”

Zechs raised his hand. “We'll do that. I like baking.”

Treize raised an eyebrow at him. “Since when? You never bake.”

“You never ask,” Zechs said archly. “You're too busy trying to get into my pants.”

“I like to fondle your ass. It's a nice ass.”

“Of course it is.”

“Ok,” Quatre interrupted. “So Zechs and Treize will make the pies. Noin, why don't you and Sally make the rolls? Several dozen should be enough.”

“What?!” Noin exclaimed. “Why do you just assume that all women know how to bake?”

“Don't you?”

“No!”

“Why not? You should learn.”

Noin made a strangling sound.

“How about we do the mashed potatoes instead?” Sally offered. “I think Noin would be good at mashing something.”

“Urk…” Noin choked.

“And we'll make the green beans,” Sally added.

“I guess that will work,” Quatre said. “Try to finish up with about ten liters of mashed potatoes and maybe four kilos of green beans.”

“Are you sure ten liters is enough?” Duo asked anxiously.

Quatre frowned thoughtfully. “Hm. Maybe not. Let's go with twelve liters of potatoes and five kilos of green beans.”

“Quatre, if you want to time travel to cook the roasts, we need to pick times when we won't be home so we don't run into ourselves,” Trowa pointed out.

“That's true,” Quatre agreed. “I know! We'll use the days when we were on vacation. But we'll figure out who's going when later. Right now we need to start cutting up onions and celery. We need to make five liters of stuffing.”

“I got chestnuts to make chestnut stuffing for the geese,” Duo said.

“Right,” Quatre nodded. “You start chopping up the nuts.”

“Ok.”

Sally and Noin conscripted Hadeya to help carry the tubs of potatoes and green beans back to their house.

As they left, Noin grumbled, “I am NOT peeling all these potatoes. I'll make that stupid mechanic who broke the heater in the main dome do it.” She stamped away, muttering the names of other hapless individuals who had recently offended her.

Treize and Zechs collected up the ingredients for the various pies and stared at the pile.

“That's a lot of stuff,” Treize remarked.

Zechs looked hopefully at Roku. “Hey, Roku, would you mind moving all of this to our kitchen?”

“Sure.” Roku looked at the pile and it disappeared.

Zechs blinked. “What did you just do?”

“I moved it.”

“How?”

Roku shrugged. “You wanted it in your kitchen. It's there now.”

“Since when have you known how to teleport?”

“I don't know. Always, I guess. I just don't need to do it, usually.”

Zechs glanced at Quatre and sighed. “I'm glad he didn't hear that. Let's go.” He, Treize and Alexa went back to their house to start cooking.

After cutting about twenty onions, Heero put down the knife with a scowl. “My eyes are killing me. I can barely see. I'm taking a break.”

“Wimp,” Wu-Fei muttered.

“Shut up! You're just cutting celery!”

“I can cut onions without crying like a little girl.”

Heero's scowl deepened. “Then you can finish. I'm going outside.” He stamped out the door.

Jett followed him. “The onions make me cry, too, Papa.”

“But she is a little girl,” Duo's voice drifted out the door.

Heero clenched his fists. “Let's go see how Treize and Zechs are doing.”

“Ok.”

They went over to Treize and Zech's cottage and entered without knocking.

“How's the baking coming?” Heero asked.

“Just fine,” Zechs said. “I've got pumpkin pies in both ovens. I found a recipe for mincemeat, but I'm going to need Quatre's help. It's supposed to be steeped for several weeks and I've only just started it.”

“We can ask him when you're done.”

“Yup.”

Jett and Heero watched Zechs make mincemeat, but after a while, Zechs pointed at the ovens. “Heero, go stick a knife in those pies to see if they're done.” He paused. “But not all the way through, if you don't mind.”

“Yeah, just give them a flesh wound,” Treize chuckled.

“A normal person's flesh wound,” Zechs added.

“Why not just say `inflict a non-fatal wound'?” Alexa asked.

“I know how to check a pie for doneness!” Heero growled.

“Really?” Zechs said, astonished. “Who taught you that? And why?”

“It was a class!” Heero stalked over to the ovens and poked a knife into the center of one pie. “This one's done.” He poked the other. “This one, too.”

“Good,” said Zechs. “Take them out. Once Treize finishes those apple pies, they can go in next.”

Alexa snagged a couple of apple slices out of Treize's bowl and handed one to Jett before stuffing the other into her mouth. “That's good!”

“Thank you, now quit sticking your fingers in my cooking.”

“Sorry, Daddy.”

 

“Why don't we go back to our house and see if Quatre needs us for anything?” Heero suggested to Jett and Alexa.

“Ok.”

The three of them went back to the Gundam pilots' house. As soon as they walked in, Quatre spotted them.

“Oh, good!” Quatre exclaimed. “You're back. I need the girls to start tearing up those loaves of bread for the stuffing. It needs time to dry out.” He pointed at eight loaves of bread sitting next to four large bowls. “And don't eat it!”

Jett stuck her tongue out at him.

“It still reeks of onions in here,” Heero grumbled.

Roku waved a paw. “Is that better, Papa?” The smell of onion disappeared.

“Yes, thanks.”

Hadeya came in. “Noin's drafted several people to peel potatoes. Is that entirely fair? She's not planning to invite them for dinner.”

“It's punishment duty,” Heero said promptly. “Serves them right.”

“Anyway,” Hadeya continued, “Sally wants to know if you ordered extra milk and butter for the potatoes.”

“Yeah, over there in the refrigerated chests,” Duo pointed. “And that canister of salt is for them, too. Oh, and take that container of pepper. It's white!” he exclaimed. “You have no idea how hard it was to find that.”

“What does it need to be white for?” Wu-Fei said.

“So the potatoes don't have little black spots, of course,” Quatre said absently. He packed the last of the chopped onions into an airtight container. “There. The onions, celery and garlic are all ready for Thursday. It's getting late. We should stop and make dinner. Tomorrow, we'll make the yams and stuffing, and I'll start sending you back to start cooking the main courses.”

“You want to do that tomorrow?” Duo asked.

“Yeah. That way no one has to travel on Thanksgiving Day. I'll just send the food forward to Thursday afternoon from whenever it's being cooked.”

“Makes sense.”

“I wonder how people used to prepare the food back when this tradition started,” Hadeya speculated. “We managed in Valhalla because we had a huge kitchen, but I can't imagine a typical household would have a kitchen any bigger than this one.”

“I doubt they had to feed kids like ours,” Wu-Fei said.

“That's a good point,” Hadeya responded.

“We don't eat that much!” Alexa exclaimed.

Wu-Fei and Hadeya just looked at her.

“Well, we're still growing kids!” Alexa said defensively. “We need lots of protein and fruits and vegetables and grains and dairy to grow up properly and stay healthy.”

“You do eat a well-balanced diet,” Wu-Fei acknowledged. “Lots and lots of a well-balanced diet.”

“Hey!”

“I'm hungry,” Jett announced.

“There's a surprise.”

“We'll stop for dinner in a bit,” Quatre said, “and resume tomorrow. I'll have the cooking plan laid out by then.”

On Wednesday, the group met up at the Gundam pilots' house to coordinate.

Quatre, armed with a notepad and a stylus, addressed the group. “Ok, let's see where we are. Sally and Noin, are the potatoes ready to go?”

“Yup,” Sally said. She chuckled. “Our conscripts did a bang-up job. We can start boiling and mashing any time.”

“Good, start that as soon as we're finished here. Once you're done mashing, you can start steaming the green beans. We have extra steamers for you over there.”

“Great.”

“Treize and Zechs, how are you doing with the pies?”

“We have four pumpkin pies done and two apple pies. The mincemeat will be done cooking this morning, and then it needs to steep for about four weeks.”

“All right,” Quatre said. “I'll come over after this and send it back a month. Is there a corner of your fridge you won't have checked for the past month?”

“Yes,” Zechs said sourly. “There's a good spot in back where Treize has one of the shelves completely cluttered up.”

“It's not cluttered,” Treize insisted. “I know what everything is in that corner.”

“Apparently not,” Zechs said, “since that's where my mincemeat is going to be found later.”

“It's long-term storage,” Treize said with a shrug.

“All right, then.” Quatre clapped his hands. “We'll get started on the stuffing. Wu-Fei, did you dry out the bread?”

“Yup. I breathed heated air on it a couple of times last night. The bread crumbles are completely dry.”

“Perfect!”

Everyone headed off to attend to their assigned tasks. Pan after pan of onions, celery and garlic were sautéed to perfection and mixed with the bread. Appropriate spices were added and people began stuffing turkeys. Duo diligently made the chestnut stuffing and stuffed the geese.

“What are you going to put in the ducks?” Jett asked curiously.

“Duck is too oily to stuff, unless you use a sausage stuffing,” Trowa said.

“Dammit!” Duo slapped his forehead, getting bits of chestnut stuffing stuck to his face. “I didn't think of that!”

“We don't need sausage stuffing, too,” Trowa said. “We can do that another time.”

When all the birds were stuffed and the hams and beef roasts prepared, Quatre lined them up.

“Ok, Trowa and Hadeya, take four of the turkeys. I'm sending you back to a day when you can use the ovens here and at Zechs' house. Make sure you stay out of sight.”

“Right.”

Quatre pulled out his spell book, murmured instructions under his breath and opened it. Then he nodded at Trowa and Hadeya and read the spell. They vanished, along with four turkeys.

“All right,” said Quatre, “what's next? Duo and Wu-Fei, take that last turkey and the geese. I'm sending you to a different day of the same vacation. And no sex! Someone will hear you.” After messing with his spell book for a second, he sent the two of them off.

“Heero and Roku, you get the ducks and the beef roasts. We'll do the hams tomorrow, because I can do two of them here and take the other two over to Noin's house.”

“Sounds good,” Heero said.

Quatre repeated his spell and the two of them disappeared.

“Now, then,” Quatre said. “How am I going to pick up all that food and drop it off here tomorrow without meeting myself?” He thought for a moment. “Oh, I'll just send the food by itself. I better plan where I want everything to go.” Since he could go get the others at any time, it didn't matter if he puttered around doing other things first. So he took some time figuring out the layout of the dinner table and the sideboard. Jett leaned on her elbows and watched with her chin in her hands while Quatre made a little diagram showing where everything would end up. He grinned at her when he finished. “There! That should do it. But now we'd better get the bread started.”

“Ok!”

So, Quatre and Jett made bread dough and set it aside to rise. When they were done, he picked up his spell book. “You won't be alone for long, Jett. I'll start dropping them off right after I leave.” Then he muttered his spell and disappeared.

Trowa was just taking his turkeys out of the oven when Quatre arrived. “Good timing.”

“Of course!” Quatre patted a spot on the counter. “Just put them right here.” Trowa did so and Quatre muttered a spell. The turkeys vanished. “I'll see you shortly.” He muttered another spell and Trowa vanished. Then he peeked outside. No one was in sight, so he dashed over to Zechs and Treize's house. Hadeya was sitting at the kitchen table, his two turkeys steaming deliciously. “Excellent!” Quatre said. He sent Hadeya's turkeys ahead to Thanksgiving Day and then sent Hadeya back to the day before. “Now for the next two.”

And so it went. Quatre sent Duo and Wu-Fei's birds to Thanksgiving Day and the other two back to the day before, followed by Heero and Roku's roasts and ducks, with Heero and Roku going back to join everyone else. Quatre transported himself at the same time as Roku. When they got back, everyone was waiting in the living room, along with Zechs, Treize and Alexa.

“That's no fun doing all that cooking and then not getting to eat it,” Duo complained.

“You'll get to eat it tomorrow,” Quatre said. “It's already waiting for you.”

“You know, that's really weird that something I cooked in the past is waiting for me to eat it tomorrow.”

“And it will be hot and yummy. Now, who wants to help me bake rolls?”

The rest of the day was spent baking rolls and having a deep discussion about what everyone wanted to eat first, which just made them all really hungry, especially with the smell of fresh-baked bread wafting everywhere, so they decided to order in pizza.

Duo got on the phone.

“Vito's New York Style Pizza.”

“Hey, it's me Duo.”

There was a faint strangling sound from the other end of the connection. “Good evening, Mr. Maxwell. What can we do for you?”

“I need a couple of pizzas.”

“A couple?”

“Well, ok, more like twenty. Just make it the usual order.”

“That's going to take a little while.”

“That's all right. We'll pick it up. Half-an-hour?”

“Yeah, ok. See you in half-an-hour.”

“They won't be done in half-an-hour,” Zechs said. “They never are.”

“That's ok,” Duo said. “They always give me free beer while I wait. Come with me, Heero. We can canoodle in the corner while we're waiting.”

Heero's face turned red. “I am not doing… whatever you just said in the corner of a restaurant!”

“Ok, Hadeya can go with me.”

“You're not doing whatever filthy thing you just suggested with Hadeya!” Heero growled.

“Then come with me!” Duo grabbed his hand. “I'll buy you a beer.”

“You just said they give you free beer!”

“Did I?” Duo blinked innocently. “Anyway, you better come, too, Hadeya. An extra pair of hands won't hurt with twenty pizzas.”

“This does not bode well,” Zechs murmured.

When the three of them returned, Hadeya's face was red and Heero and Duo were arguing.

“I was not making out with Hadeya while you were in the bathroom,” Duo exclaimed. “He wanted to know what canoodling was, so I showed him.”

“It's making out!” Heero shouted.

“I thought you didn't know what it was,” Duo said innocently.

“I looked it up!”

“In the bathroom? Didn't you need your hands for something else?”

“I only need one hand for that!”

“Really?” Duo glanced speculatively at the front of Heero's spandex shorts. “I always need two hands when I'm handling that bad boy.”

“What?!” Heero spluttered.

“I don't think that's entirely factual, Duo,” Wu-Fei interrupted. “I've seen you grope Heero one-handed many times.”

“Well, sure,” Duo agreed. “One hand is good enough for a casual feel-up, but when you really want to work it, you need two hands.”

“STOP TALKING ABOUT FONDLING MY DICK!”

Duo and Wu-Fei blinked at him.

“Can we eat now, Momma?” Jett interrupted. “I'm hungry.”

“Of course, dear.” Duo handed her a pizza box.

The next morning, on Thanksgiving Day, Noin and Sally started carting over bowl after giant bowl of mashed potatoes, followed by two huge pots full of green beans.

“This better be enough,” Noin complained. “I've never seen this many mashed potatoes in my laugh. My hand aches all the way to my shoulder!”

“It was a lot of work,” Sally acknowledged.

“But it will all be worth it,” Duo said brightly. “Quatre, when will the food start turning up?”

“At midday.”

“That long?!”

“Deal. Take those hams over to Noin's house and start cooking them. And no sampling!”

“But…”

“Go, and I mean no sampling!”

“Dang it!” Duo slumped out of the house with the hams in their pans.

“Aren't you going to send someone to watch him?” Wu-Fei said.

“I'll go,” Sally said. She trotted out the door after Duo.

“Let's set the table,” Quatre said. “I found a nice tablecloth we can use.”

Shortly before noon, when the hams were finished and filling the house with their wonderful scent, Quatre got out the rolls and set them on the counter, very carefully positioning the basket in a specific spot on the counter. “Wu-Fei, would you warm these up, please?”

“Sure.”

Wu-Fei had just finished warming the rolls, mashed potatoes and green beans, which Quatre had also positioned very carefully on the counter and table, when a turkey appeared in the middle of the table.

“Everyone stand back,” Quatre ordered. “That was my warning shot.”

Everyone stepped away from the table and held their collective breath. A moment later roast after roast popped into existence, some on the table, some on the sideboard and some on the counter. A round of applause broke out.

“Well done, Quatre!” Trowa said. “You planned that beautifully.”

“Thank you!” Quatre bowed. “And now it's time for dinner. But since this is Thanksgiving, I think we should say a prayer.” He held out his hands, so everyone crowded closer together and clasped hands. “Dear friends and family,” Quatre began, “let us give thanks for being blessed with each other, and for the many wonderful adventures that have brought us to this moment in time. May we share this joy for many years to come. Amen.”

“Amen!”

“Let's eat!”

“Yeah!”

Everyone took their seats and in a dismayingly short time, the seemingly endless amount of food was reduced to scraps and a handful of leftovers.

“I can't believe we ate all that!” Noin said. “I'm stuffed!”

“You did put away your fair share,” Sally chuckled.

“I think it's nap time.”

“Nap time?” Duo exclaimed. “Hardly! Now it's time for dangerous team sports!”

“How about we just play basketball instead?” Heero suggested.

“Nah, the court's too far away. Anyway, I looked up a game in the archives. In keeping with the Thanksgiving tradition, I think we should play something called American Football. The rules aren't too complex. It mostly involves two teams trying to move a ball in opposite directions, with lots of running and tackling. It should be fun.”

“It sounds dangerous,” Wu-Fei said.

“Exactly!”

“I think we're going to regret this.”

In the end, when nearly everyone was sporting some bruises and Wu-Fei was sure he had a concussion, they all trooped over to Zechs and Treize's house to eat pie.

“I have to admit,” Wu-Fei said, carefully balancing an ice bag on his head, “this is a pleasant tradition, despite my aching head.”

“Does that mean we can do it again next year?” Duo promptly asked.

“Sure, why not?”

“And that we can have sex later?”

Wu-Fei stared. “What does that have to do with it?!”

“I'm sure finishing the evening with a lot of sex was part of the tradition.”

“Where did you read that?!”

“I'm sure it was in there somewhere.”

“You're making that up!”

“I think it sounds like a reasonable way to end the evening to me,” Treize said.

“You would,” Zechs muttered.

“I like it, too,” Trowa said. He smiled at Quatre.

Quatre smiled back.

“I have a concussion,” Wu-Fei pointed out.

Roku touched his head. “Bene corpus.”

Wu-Fei glared at him. “Thanks a lot!”

“You're welcome.”

“I tell you what,” Duo said. “You can keep Hadeya company and I'll spend the night with Heero.”

“What?!” Wu-Fei and Hadeya exclaimed together.

“It's not like you haven't done it before.”

“But…” Wu-Fei started.

Noin emitted a soft snore.

Sally smiled. “On that note,” she said, “I think it's time for bed. Could someone please help me carry Noin home? And given the conversation, perhaps the children should all come over for a sleepover.”

“Yay!” Jett cried and a couple of glasses cracked. “A sleepover with Sally!”

“Thanks, Sally,” Quatre said.

“My pleasure.” Sally grinned. “But I'm surprised you're just agreeing to this. Usually, you're the voice of restraint.”

Quatre shrugged. “Ah, well. Sometimes one just has to admit that the best way to give thanks for a loved one is to fuck them senseless.”

“Amen to that!” Duo cried.