Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Duo: Reflection on the Thing They Call Life ❯ The Great Job Hunt ( Chapter 6 )

Disclaimer: Still not mine.
Warnings: shounen ai, language, Duo POV, small political joke
Pairing(s): 1x2x1
Archive: http://www.templeofthegoddess.com/gundamwing/Solanum.html
http://www.me diaminer.org/user_info.php/97853
Beta: Raven Layne
A/N: Thanks to everyone who has commented and encouraged the writing of this little fic. I'm enjoying writing it and will continue for as long as I can come up with ideas. Anyone who has an idea or a topic or whatever can feel free to email me with it: she_who_writes@yahoo.com
Thanks!


Duo: Reflections on the Thing They Call Life
By Solanum Dulcamara


Chapter 6: The Great Job Hunt (or Kindergarten Cop)

Nobody mentions the post-war economic recession, do they? What, you're surprised? Well, when arms manufacturing, and all military are shut down and disbanded, you get a hell of a lot of people out of work. I've heard a few of the older people comparing it to some archaic reccession, called "the Bush years" or something. I wouldn't know much about it, and I sure as hell didn't predict it, but it didn't really bother me... if you'll remember correctly, my entire childhood was more or less a big fat economic recession.

So, anyway, a lot of people don't have jobs, and there really isn't anywhere for them to work. My job is not glamorous. I am a mechanic. I work a very dirty, blue-collar, nine to five job. It does, however, get the bills paid, and to be honest, I like what I do.

Anyway, I was our sole supporter for awhile. Yes, you can take a minute to smile, here, at the image of Heero "the perfect soldier" Yuy as the proverbial "housewife."

Needless to say, he got a bit antsy after many months of riveting shower cleaning, the oh-so-intellectually stimulating conversations with our cactus, and the thrilling reorganization of music and vid discs. He wanted a job. He said some utter bullshit about earning his keep...he knows better than that.

But anyway, I could understand the whole being bored out of his mind part of the deal. So, I agreed that he should look for work.

In a time when jobs are scarce, my fabulous lover is, for all intents and purposes, rather "over qualified" for just about any job that you can scrounge up. It is so shitty that a person with his wide and varied talents spent night after night scouring the internet and classified ads, just to come up empty handed in the end.

I tell you this now, there is nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, as completely heartbreaking as a discouraged lover. As nights turned into weeks with no success, my poor love developed this total "I'm worthless, and the postwar world has no need of me" complex. I had to repeatedly remind him that I sure as hell needed him.

Dammit! I felt so helpless, sitting there and watching him stew in his melancholy. So, I did what any worried lover would do... I called in extra help.

Winner Enterprises was doing all right, despite the general 'state of the nation.' I got on the phone with Q, and had him do a few call-arounds. He got back to us in a couple of days with a computer security opening at one of their subsidiaries. I was fucking ecstatic when Heero found out. I was just happy to see him smiling for the first time in forever.

So, Heero checks into this new gig, and does a little overview of their system. He finds them using security from, like, before the colony years. Obviously he recommends a complete overhaul on the system; aka: lots of corporate dollars. The CEO and CFO decided he could work with what he had. Heero tried to inform them that no decent security was possible with their current computer systems... things deteriorated rapidly, and needless to say, the job didn't work out.

So, I was back to fretting over my lover, whose complex had evolved to unforeseen proportions. Insecurity, thy name is Heero Yuy. I was resorting to every pathetic means of cheering up that I could imagine. Then one day, rather out of the blue, I'd say a miracle happened, but that requires a belief in God and well, the jury's still out on that one, folks.

So, we were walking home from the metro, and passing the little park outside of the apartment complex we call home, when a big red elementary school type kickball rolls in front of our feet and into the road, followed closely by a kid. Before I could open my over-talkative mouth, Heero had stopped him and crouched down to his level to explain in a shockingly gentle but firm voice why it was dangerous for him to chase his ball into the road. Heero then turned, fetched the ball, and returned it to the kid with a pat on the head, and a "have fun." I think I turned to goo right then. Who knew Heero was good with kids?

I was struck by inspiration. Heero good with kids... Heero master of security... it was all so obvious. I immediately starting making phone calls. After a week, I received a call back from PS 122.

I faxed them Heero's resume, and set up a little surprise interview for him... in hindsight, I probably should have consulted him on the setting up of the interview... I thought everyone liked surprises.

To make a long story short, Heero got the job. He's the head security guard for a public elementary school. If you ask him about it, he'll say, "It's work," but I know that he loves it. I drop by sometimes, and watch him with the kids on the playground; helping the little ones onto swings, judging games, bandaging skinned knees, and he always has the same gentle firmness, and he always has a little smile. Watching him with the kids like that almost makes me wish I had a uterus... almost. I'm quite attached to my man bits, thank you very much, and Heero likes me just the way I am (which is the best part about it).