Silent Night

by KatiKat

I laugh as Heero helps me push the big round thing in front of us. He has an intent expression on his face, and I'm sure that he's taking measurements and solving equations in his mind only to discover our ball isn't actually a ball but a conical something.

He touches my arm and I turn to him, a grin on my face. He points in the direction where the two balls we already made are waiting for us. I nod and we change the direction, showing the round thing in front of us.

I admit that it must look pretty crazy to be building a snowman at 10 pm on Christmas Eve. I laugh again when I remember the comment Wufei made on it.

"Maxwell, you're crazy. A, it's dark outside. B, it's cold outside. And C, did I mention that it's dark outside?"

I laughed and decided not to tell him that it was actually Heero's idea. Wufei wouldn't have believed me anyway.

We reach the base of the big oak tree standing in the middle of the yard, where our snowman'll stand tonight. And it WILL stand here and we WILL build it tonight, otherwise my name isn't Duo Maxwell.

Heero helps me to find a steady ground for the main ball, making sure it sits well. On one-two-three mouthed in my direction we lift the middle ball and set it on the base of the snowman-to-be. He then allows me to lift the third ball. It's the smallest one, but it's still heavy enough that he has to steady me as I settle down the snowman's head. When it's sitting tight, I pat the snowman on the head. It's now as tall as I am, then I turn in Heero's arms to lock our lips together. We're a great team.

I press myself against him, but when I feel the hard thing in his pants, I pull away a little and raise my eyebrows in question, little flames of mischief dancing in my eyes. He grins, then pulls a large carrot out of his pocket. I throw my head backwards and laugh merrily.

When I'm finally able to get myself under control, I let him turn me around and together, hands over hands, we place the carrot in the middle of the snowman's face. Heero lets then two pieces of coal appear magically, that we use as the snowman's eyes.

Then we step back to look at our work of art. Low light coming from the kitchen window illuminates the backyard, I can see that the snowman we built is leaning a little to the left and that its head is almost bigger than his torso. One of its eyes is sitting higher than the other and its nose will probably soon fall off. But it's still perfect.

I lay my head on Heero's shoulder and we hug tightly, watching the snowman stand there motionless, watching us in return. I know that Heero is saying something, for I can feel his chest vibrate. I raise my head and look at his mouth.

'I love you,' he mouths, letting me go briefly and making the sign for love.

'I love you too,' I sign in return and watch his face light up like a Christmas tree.

He lays his hands on my hips and brings us closer together. I close my arms around his neck and lift up my face, offering him my mouth. He lowers his head and kisses me gently. I close my eyes at the sweet taste of his mouth... then yelp - probably really loud - as something cold smashes down on my face.

We pull away from each other, blinking in surprise. We look at each other, then up. The snow is still falling around us from the overstuffed tree branches. Our eyes meet again, we blink, and then start to laugh so hard that our stomachs hurt. We lay our arms around each other's waist to keep the other up and steady. Talk about cold shower.

And as we laugh, then giggle, then smile together, I realize that even though the night is completely silent around us, the world can still be a happy place to live as long as you have love and joy in your life.

The End