Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Wise Blood ❯ Family History Part 1 ( Chapter 17 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: duo_loves_hiiro 
Duo invites Hilde's family and Heero and Astarte over for Thanksgiving.
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): / Supernatural / Romance / Occult / Comedy | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 06.17.2006 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.2K | Visits: 398 | Status: Work In Progress
Duo invites Hilde's family and Heero and Astarte over for Thanksgiving.
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): / Supernatural / Romance / Occult / Comedy | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 06.17.2006 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.2K | Visits: 398 | Status: Work In Progress
Title: Wise Blood Chapter 17 (Family History)
Disclaimer: See first chapter
The next few weeks passed pretty quickly, and it wasn't because things had somehow magically worked themselves out. I'm a firm believer in the fact that time is not at all constant, and I swear that those 3 weeks following Halloween were the shortest weeks I'd ever experienced. The hours seemed to last only a few minutes, and the minutes seemed like seconds.
It probably had something to do with how completely out of it I was.
I was in the middle of panicking over everything that had rained down over my head in the previous months, ranging from the appearance of Mariemaia to the picture of the woman and Heero's aversion to Milliardo Peacecraft. It took me a week just to get an explanation from him, and I can't say I was particularly pleased with the answer (something about a date, a rodent, and a pack of gum).
So after panicking over all that, I decided to limit my obsessing to one thing at a time, and decided that the picture was the best train of thought to hop on. There was almost no doubt in my mind that the lady in the picture was the ghost woman we'd seen before, even if I hadn't been able to make out any details when she'd hopped off of the balcony. I wasn't really sure what exactly it was that made me think that, but hey, I'm not one to ignore some sort of improvement; and as far as I was concerned, getting a connection between spook number one and the last person to see Mariemaia alive was definitely an improvement, even if it wasn't really apparent HOW it was an improvement.
It just was.
------
There was a lot of fuss on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Most of it was from me, but that's beside the point. Heero, Astarte, Q, and Doro were going to some big shindig at the Peacecraft house with their parents, and Hilde, Trowa and I were left to fend for ourselves, considering none of us so much as owned a tux or evening gown or anything even remotely appropriate for one of those parties and the fact that we didn't have enough status to be invited, anyway.
I hadn't realized how loaded a majority of the Posse members were until then. I knew Relena and Q were rich as hell, and I knew that Doro wasn't far behind in the wealth race. I mean, Q's dad owned half the city, Dorothy's folks were old money, and Relena's dad was the freaking Governor, so I knew they had cash. But I never really noticed that Heero always ignored costs whenever we went out and that Astarte had an endless closet full of shit she rarely wore, anyway, until I heard about that party.
Heero was pretty insistent that I just go with him. I knew he felt bad for just ditching me, but it wasn't a big deal. I mean, Thanksgiving is when you're supposed to spend time with your folks, right? Well, he had parents to spend it with, so why would he feel bad?
I planned to do what I did every Thanksgiving: cook. I know, it sounds stupid. But I really loved to cook. Like, a lot. More than a lot. And I was good at it, too, which definitely made everything easier. It wasn't something that many people knew, mostly because it was kinda embarrassing, but I really, genuinely love to make meals for people. So every Thanksgiving, I cook. It was kind of weird because it was the first time I wasn't cooking for my parents.
I was mixing the batter for a cake when Hilde popped her head into the kitchen, catching me in the act.
I was a total wreck, mind you. Flour in my hair and all over my clothes, an awkward white splotch on my pants from the butter and a bit of an egg trying to devour my arm. The kitchen was almost as bad.
I waved a big wooden spoon at her, "Hey, Hilde."
She walked into the kitchen, eyeing everything pretty dubiously. I would have laughed at her expression, but I was too preoccupied with getting rid of all the damn clumps of flour in the batter.
"Are you seriously baking?" She paused, coming up beside me and staring at the cake-to-be, "Wow. You're baking... Why are you baking?"
I grinned, poking at her with the spoon, "I'm baking because tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and I always cook on Thanksgiving."
"Er... why?"
"Because it's something to do?"
"Uh-huh. Or is it because Heero's ditching you to go to a fancy cocktail party?" Hilde did that eyebrow thing.
I snorted, going back to mixing, "That's not it at all! He said he wouldn't go if I asked him not to, and I'm not asking him. He can't spend ALL his time with me."
Of course, I pretty much wished he would.
That was the problem with him being rich. His family expected him to be... I dunno, their ideal son or something, and Heero just wanted to be himself. I don't think his parents even knew he was gay, let alone that he was dating a ragamuffin (I absolutely adore this word, just so ya know) like me. I guess he liked letting them have their little delusions about him. Less to explain that why, I think.
They were lucky though. At least their daughter wasn't gay. I mean, that would have seriously sucked for the family, and would've meant that all that money they'd gotten their hands on would've gone to the trash. Or at least, that's prolly how they saw it. Or something. I don't make a habit of understanding the minds of the chronically rich and middle-aged.
Hilde smirked, "Relena'll invite you if you wanna go. She invited me, you know, but I have to help out with the Midgets since my mom'll be on kitchen duty all day. She really hates cooking on Thanksgiving, but I'm useless in the kitchen and Tom's 'not gay enough' to pick up a frying pan. His words, not mine."
I hadn't realized Hilde had such a huge family until after Halloween, too. I guess if she'd had both parents around things would have been less hectic, but as it was it was just her and her mom, plus her fifteen year old brother Tom and the - get this - five little ones that she affectionately called "the Midgets". It was kinda interesting listening to her talk about them, since it reminded me of what my parents were like. I still hadn't really gotten over their deaths, but hearing about Hilde's family made me really happy.
The batter was getting to the right thickness. "Why don't you guys all come over here? I don't think Leif'll mind, and hell, if your mom hates cooking... why make her, you know?"
Hilde gave me this funny-as-hell deer in the headlights look, "You sure? I don't wanna intrude."
I rolled my eyes, "As if I have anything better to do. You’re my buddy, Hil," I brandished the spoon at her, "and no friend of mine is gonna have to baby-sit on Thanksgiving!"
"Cool!" A grin crossed her face, "Hey, you should invite Heero and Astarte, too."
"Hilde... They won't be able to come."
"Trust me, this'll be the perfect excuse for them to ditch the boring party. You KNOW Heero would do absolutely anything for you! Especially ditch boring parties he didn't want to go to anyway!"
"But his parents..."
"Won't care either way! C'mon, D! Just invite them over! You know you want to." She pouted. I hate it when people pout (unless it's me. Then it's okay.), because I have a tendency to not be able to resist pouty-ness. It was another one of those times, and I found myself shoving the cake-thing into the oven and trudging to the phone. She watched me dial the number like a good little nosy brat, and I scowled at her.
"Yuy residence." An unfamiliar voice answered, and I thought that it might have been his mom.
"Uh, is Heero around?"
There was a slight pause before she replied, "May I ask who is calling?"
"Duo, ma'am." I glanced at Hilde (she was examining the cloth flowers that graced the table).
"Ah, yes. Heero speaks endlessly of you. Hold on a moment."
I blinked and stared at the phone. Heero spoke endlessly about ME? Well, I'll be damned.
There was a bit of static on the phone, and then a slight yawn, "Duo?"
"Hey, Heero. Where you sleeping?"
He grunted, "Just dozing, really. What's going on?"
I shrugged, momentarily forgetting I was on the phone, "Well, a little birdie told me you probably don't want to go to that party, so I thought I'd invite you and Astarte over for dinner tomorrow night. D'ya wanna come?"
He was quiet for a moment, and I started to think that maybe Hilde was being a bitch again and that she was just lying. Before I really got around to deciding that Hilde was evil, Heero finally spoke up, "Sorry, my mom was hovering. I'd love to. I'm sure it'll be much better than that so-called party."
"Really? You'll come?"
"Of course. All you had to do was ask, remember?"
"Right. Then uh, be over by 4, okay?" I had a warm fuzzy feeling, kind of like a peach.
"I'll be there," Heero's voice seemed to smile in place of his face as he spoke, "I love you, Duo."
I was extremely proud of myself at this point for not missing a beat, "I love you too, Heero. I'll see you tomorrow."
And we hung up. Hilde, of course, was staring at me. "So they're coming?"
I nodded, going back into the kitchen to glance in at the cake. "So, was there a specific reason why you decided to drop by?"
A shrug, "Just bored. I figured you'd know how to keep me amused."
"Go play Halo. I think Trowa has the Xbox set up somewhere."
And that was all it took to get Hilde to leave my precious kitchen area.
-----
It was 4:30. It was 4:30 and Heero still wasn't there. It was 4:30 and I was done cooking, and everyone (being Hilde's family and Leif and his wife and the rest of the kids) was pretty damn hungry, and Heero still hadn't shown up. I didn't want to start without him, but it looked like I had no choice. To say I was irritable would be a SERIOUS understatement. I was beyond irritated, I was bordering on betrayed and furious. Mostly just annoyed, though. I was having a major "no one would pick me over a fancy party, anyway" attack, but I think I hid it pretty well considering that no one really noticed the slight drag to my step and the extra tension in my shoulders.
So we started without them.
Just as I was sitting down, the doorbell rang. I ran to the door (kinda stupid, since I think I may have knocked a few things over), composed myself enough to not look flustered, and pulled the door open, only to be faced with...
The entire Yuy family?
----
A/N: This chapter is dedicated to everyone who reviewed (and even those who didn't). I gotta tell you all I love ya, considering the lot of you keep me going. Just so you know: All of my stories WILL be finished. I just go through stages where I write a lot, and where I write nothing. At the moment, I'm in a spastic writing phase - for a different fandom. But don't worry. This fic nor any of my others will NOT be abandoned (that includes the fics currently on an unofficial hiatus). Thank you! (Sorry, btw, for cutting it off where I did. I got bored and figured that this was a decent spot to stop, especially since the next chapter will deal with awkwardness, ghosties, hair-pulling, and, of course, Hilde getting hit in the face with an unspecified object. And any spelling errors are to be blamed on WordPad, since I refuse to use Works and my computer ate Word. No spell-check for me!)
Disclaimer: See first chapter
The next few weeks passed pretty quickly, and it wasn't because things had somehow magically worked themselves out. I'm a firm believer in the fact that time is not at all constant, and I swear that those 3 weeks following Halloween were the shortest weeks I'd ever experienced. The hours seemed to last only a few minutes, and the minutes seemed like seconds.
It probably had something to do with how completely out of it I was.
I was in the middle of panicking over everything that had rained down over my head in the previous months, ranging from the appearance of Mariemaia to the picture of the woman and Heero's aversion to Milliardo Peacecraft. It took me a week just to get an explanation from him, and I can't say I was particularly pleased with the answer (something about a date, a rodent, and a pack of gum).
So after panicking over all that, I decided to limit my obsessing to one thing at a time, and decided that the picture was the best train of thought to hop on. There was almost no doubt in my mind that the lady in the picture was the ghost woman we'd seen before, even if I hadn't been able to make out any details when she'd hopped off of the balcony. I wasn't really sure what exactly it was that made me think that, but hey, I'm not one to ignore some sort of improvement; and as far as I was concerned, getting a connection between spook number one and the last person to see Mariemaia alive was definitely an improvement, even if it wasn't really apparent HOW it was an improvement.
It just was.
------
There was a lot of fuss on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Most of it was from me, but that's beside the point. Heero, Astarte, Q, and Doro were going to some big shindig at the Peacecraft house with their parents, and Hilde, Trowa and I were left to fend for ourselves, considering none of us so much as owned a tux or evening gown or anything even remotely appropriate for one of those parties and the fact that we didn't have enough status to be invited, anyway.
I hadn't realized how loaded a majority of the Posse members were until then. I knew Relena and Q were rich as hell, and I knew that Doro wasn't far behind in the wealth race. I mean, Q's dad owned half the city, Dorothy's folks were old money, and Relena's dad was the freaking Governor, so I knew they had cash. But I never really noticed that Heero always ignored costs whenever we went out and that Astarte had an endless closet full of shit she rarely wore, anyway, until I heard about that party.
Heero was pretty insistent that I just go with him. I knew he felt bad for just ditching me, but it wasn't a big deal. I mean, Thanksgiving is when you're supposed to spend time with your folks, right? Well, he had parents to spend it with, so why would he feel bad?
I planned to do what I did every Thanksgiving: cook. I know, it sounds stupid. But I really loved to cook. Like, a lot. More than a lot. And I was good at it, too, which definitely made everything easier. It wasn't something that many people knew, mostly because it was kinda embarrassing, but I really, genuinely love to make meals for people. So every Thanksgiving, I cook. It was kind of weird because it was the first time I wasn't cooking for my parents.
I was mixing the batter for a cake when Hilde popped her head into the kitchen, catching me in the act.
I was a total wreck, mind you. Flour in my hair and all over my clothes, an awkward white splotch on my pants from the butter and a bit of an egg trying to devour my arm. The kitchen was almost as bad.
I waved a big wooden spoon at her, "Hey, Hilde."
She walked into the kitchen, eyeing everything pretty dubiously. I would have laughed at her expression, but I was too preoccupied with getting rid of all the damn clumps of flour in the batter.
"Are you seriously baking?" She paused, coming up beside me and staring at the cake-to-be, "Wow. You're baking... Why are you baking?"
I grinned, poking at her with the spoon, "I'm baking because tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and I always cook on Thanksgiving."
"Er... why?"
"Because it's something to do?"
"Uh-huh. Or is it because Heero's ditching you to go to a fancy cocktail party?" Hilde did that eyebrow thing.
I snorted, going back to mixing, "That's not it at all! He said he wouldn't go if I asked him not to, and I'm not asking him. He can't spend ALL his time with me."
Of course, I pretty much wished he would.
That was the problem with him being rich. His family expected him to be... I dunno, their ideal son or something, and Heero just wanted to be himself. I don't think his parents even knew he was gay, let alone that he was dating a ragamuffin (I absolutely adore this word, just so ya know) like me. I guess he liked letting them have their little delusions about him. Less to explain that why, I think.
They were lucky though. At least their daughter wasn't gay. I mean, that would have seriously sucked for the family, and would've meant that all that money they'd gotten their hands on would've gone to the trash. Or at least, that's prolly how they saw it. Or something. I don't make a habit of understanding the minds of the chronically rich and middle-aged.
Hilde smirked, "Relena'll invite you if you wanna go. She invited me, you know, but I have to help out with the Midgets since my mom'll be on kitchen duty all day. She really hates cooking on Thanksgiving, but I'm useless in the kitchen and Tom's 'not gay enough' to pick up a frying pan. His words, not mine."
I hadn't realized Hilde had such a huge family until after Halloween, too. I guess if she'd had both parents around things would have been less hectic, but as it was it was just her and her mom, plus her fifteen year old brother Tom and the - get this - five little ones that she affectionately called "the Midgets". It was kinda interesting listening to her talk about them, since it reminded me of what my parents were like. I still hadn't really gotten over their deaths, but hearing about Hilde's family made me really happy.
The batter was getting to the right thickness. "Why don't you guys all come over here? I don't think Leif'll mind, and hell, if your mom hates cooking... why make her, you know?"
Hilde gave me this funny-as-hell deer in the headlights look, "You sure? I don't wanna intrude."
I rolled my eyes, "As if I have anything better to do. You’re my buddy, Hil," I brandished the spoon at her, "and no friend of mine is gonna have to baby-sit on Thanksgiving!"
"Cool!" A grin crossed her face, "Hey, you should invite Heero and Astarte, too."
"Hilde... They won't be able to come."
"Trust me, this'll be the perfect excuse for them to ditch the boring party. You KNOW Heero would do absolutely anything for you! Especially ditch boring parties he didn't want to go to anyway!"
"But his parents..."
"Won't care either way! C'mon, D! Just invite them over! You know you want to." She pouted. I hate it when people pout (unless it's me. Then it's okay.), because I have a tendency to not be able to resist pouty-ness. It was another one of those times, and I found myself shoving the cake-thing into the oven and trudging to the phone. She watched me dial the number like a good little nosy brat, and I scowled at her.
"Yuy residence." An unfamiliar voice answered, and I thought that it might have been his mom.
"Uh, is Heero around?"
There was a slight pause before she replied, "May I ask who is calling?"
"Duo, ma'am." I glanced at Hilde (she was examining the cloth flowers that graced the table).
"Ah, yes. Heero speaks endlessly of you. Hold on a moment."
I blinked and stared at the phone. Heero spoke endlessly about ME? Well, I'll be damned.
There was a bit of static on the phone, and then a slight yawn, "Duo?"
"Hey, Heero. Where you sleeping?"
He grunted, "Just dozing, really. What's going on?"
I shrugged, momentarily forgetting I was on the phone, "Well, a little birdie told me you probably don't want to go to that party, so I thought I'd invite you and Astarte over for dinner tomorrow night. D'ya wanna come?"
He was quiet for a moment, and I started to think that maybe Hilde was being a bitch again and that she was just lying. Before I really got around to deciding that Hilde was evil, Heero finally spoke up, "Sorry, my mom was hovering. I'd love to. I'm sure it'll be much better than that so-called party."
"Really? You'll come?"
"Of course. All you had to do was ask, remember?"
"Right. Then uh, be over by 4, okay?" I had a warm fuzzy feeling, kind of like a peach.
"I'll be there," Heero's voice seemed to smile in place of his face as he spoke, "I love you, Duo."
I was extremely proud of myself at this point for not missing a beat, "I love you too, Heero. I'll see you tomorrow."
And we hung up. Hilde, of course, was staring at me. "So they're coming?"
I nodded, going back into the kitchen to glance in at the cake. "So, was there a specific reason why you decided to drop by?"
A shrug, "Just bored. I figured you'd know how to keep me amused."
"Go play Halo. I think Trowa has the Xbox set up somewhere."
And that was all it took to get Hilde to leave my precious kitchen area.
-----
It was 4:30. It was 4:30 and Heero still wasn't there. It was 4:30 and I was done cooking, and everyone (being Hilde's family and Leif and his wife and the rest of the kids) was pretty damn hungry, and Heero still hadn't shown up. I didn't want to start without him, but it looked like I had no choice. To say I was irritable would be a SERIOUS understatement. I was beyond irritated, I was bordering on betrayed and furious. Mostly just annoyed, though. I was having a major "no one would pick me over a fancy party, anyway" attack, but I think I hid it pretty well considering that no one really noticed the slight drag to my step and the extra tension in my shoulders.
So we started without them.
Just as I was sitting down, the doorbell rang. I ran to the door (kinda stupid, since I think I may have knocked a few things over), composed myself enough to not look flustered, and pulled the door open, only to be faced with...
The entire Yuy family?
----
A/N: This chapter is dedicated to everyone who reviewed (and even those who didn't). I gotta tell you all I love ya, considering the lot of you keep me going. Just so you know: All of my stories WILL be finished. I just go through stages where I write a lot, and where I write nothing. At the moment, I'm in a spastic writing phase - for a different fandom. But don't worry. This fic nor any of my others will NOT be abandoned (that includes the fics currently on an unofficial hiatus). Thank you! (Sorry, btw, for cutting it off where I did. I got bored and figured that this was a decent spot to stop, especially since the next chapter will deal with awkwardness, ghosties, hair-pulling, and, of course, Hilde getting hit in the face with an unspecified object. And any spelling errors are to be blamed on WordPad, since I refuse to use Works and my computer ate Word. No spell-check for me!)