Notes: Okay, so I said I wasn't going to write one, but after someone left a sad face in my anti-valentine's-day post, I felt guilty. >_> This goes between 'long and winding road' and 'school supplies'.

Moments of Haven Part 103
Valentine's Day AC199

"Oh, crap."

"What?" They were only grocery shopping, and Heero couldn't see anything that would warrant such an expression of concern in the breakfast aisle.

Duo obviously differed. "Today's Valentine's Day, isn't it?"

"Hm. Yes, I think so."

"Dammit." He prided himself on being observant. And he wouldn't say that he hadn't noticed the incessant pinks and reds everywhere, per se. He just hadn't paid them any attention.

"So?" It took a few seconds, but Heero finally came to the same conclusions that Duo did. "Oh. Are we supposed to be doing something for Valentine's Day?"

"Oh good. So I'm not the only one who totally spaced on it."

Heero glanced around with a new appreciation for his surroundings. None of the decorations had invaded the home of the oatmeal, but at the end of the aisle, he could see a display of cards, and there were some metallic red balloons floating above the rows. Perhaps the ubiquity of the decorations had made them all fade into the background. He turned back to his partner with a small smile of rueful apology. "I'm sorry, I just ignored it like always."

"Yeah, me, too." Duo exhaled with relief. While he was certain that Heero hadn't secretly been plotting some Valentine's surprise, it still took a load off his mind to hear it. It would have been a surprise in an entirely unintended, uncomfortable kind of way. "But, well, what with the new 'us' and all... I mean, this is a pretty lame way to spend our first Valentine's Day, don't you think?"

"Can't we just use the old 'every day should be treated like Valentine's Day' excuse?"

"But we use that excuse for everything!"

Heero could only enumerate Christmas under the heading of 'everything', but thought he would gain little from pointing that out. Instead, he shrugged and got the oatmeal settled in their basket before setting off at a leisurely pace toward the spice aisle. "Nothing wrong with consistency."

"Aw, come on, can we not be lame just this once?" Duo said to the back of his head before moving to catch up.

"You've never thought it was lame before." If Duo kept pushing it, Heero decided he might get a little defensive. But not until then.

"Yeah, but this... this is different."

"Really." His dry tone saved him the trouble of casting a wry, sidelong glance at Duo as they came up even with each other.

"Okay, maybe not really really, but we can at least make a token effort, yeah? Pretend to be like everyone else every once in a while? I mean, yeah, we aren't ever going to be like everyone else, but that doesn't mean we should just let everything go to rot. All that other traditional weirdness is kind of whatever, but this at least has some relevance to us."

"True." Thinking on it further, he resolved to go home and look up the origins of the holiday. Given that Valentine had a 'Saint' prepended to his name, he wouldn't surprised if this were just another day devoted to a martyr of a religion he didn't subscribe to, and if that were the case, he'd have to do a little more rationalizing in his mind to separate it from the traditional Christmas holiday they had discarded. Valentine's Day still seemed a largely commercialized celebration to him, but at least he could get behind the love and romance part of it. That didn't make him nearly as uncomfortable as a day celebrating martyrdom itself.

"Doesn't have to be much," Duo continued, unaware of Heero's thoughts. "We can, um, do what we normally do, dammit." Suggesting that they cook each other a nice dinner was pointless when that was exactly what they were already shopping for. "Well, at least afterward we can light up a fire or-- goddammit! Now that I've suggested it, now it's all contrived and I hate that."

"You really like painting yourself into corners, don't you?"

"Oh, shut up." He petulantly looked over the spices arranged neatly in their racks. They already had the ones they were planning on using to meet the next few stages of their spice challenge, but they checked back in regularly so they didn't miss a good sale on something they would need down the line.

Heero hung back and gave him the space to pout. "No wonder you believe in improv so much."

"Not my fault people always make so many plans for Valentine's Day."

Behind his back, Heero smiled faintly. "Why should we do anything for it, then? Sounds like it should be your least favorite holiday. Maybe you'd prefer, say, St. Patrick's Day? Boxing Day? Summer Solstice? Hm, or is it that, now that I've brought them up, now I've ruined them for you?"

Duo glared over his shoulder. "Geez, remind me never to bring up Valentine's Day to you again. You're mean on Valentine's Day."

"There's nothing wrong with making plans, Duo. There's a large difference between plans and... and..."

Something so barely different that he couldn't even find a different word to describe it? "Ha, see? Not so large, then."

"No, large. I just don't have a few nice words to encompass what we're talking about here. Plans and..." When a woman entered their aisle, he nudged them in the direction of the dairy section. The time it took to gain some distance from others gave him some additional time to think. "And setting up a time-table for the progress of our relationship. If I were going to seduce you tonight, I would want to do it because I felt like doing it, and I felt like you would be a willing participant, but not because I felt like I had to do it, and I wouldn't want you to feel like you had to go along with it."

Loitering near an end display of pasta sauce to wait for another shopper to vacate their destination, Duo made a face. "Man, what do we call that? Simple? That doesn't sound simple at all. At least, when you get all wordy about it."

Heero shrugged. "I told you I didn't have a few good words to describe it."

"Yeah, well, technically speaking, you didn't have to describe it at all. It's not like we're not on the same page about this."

"Then we should be on the same page about the difference between this and making plans."

"We are," he protested, chewing on his lip for a moment. The coast cleared, so he strolled over to the milk and started looking for the carton with the latest expiration date. When that was done, he led the way toward the eggs and shared his thoughts while checking his selection for cracks. "You know, I think I figured out another lesson I need to teach in my class. All this time, I don't think I've ever reminded them that field improv is not a license for stupidity. Improvisation doesn't mean acting without a plan. Means coming up with a plan on the spot, vetting it, and executing it. Can't just go doing things without stopping for a sanity check, no matter how rushed you are."

The idea floated in the air between them for a few seconds before Heero smiled tentatively. "Glad to hear it."

Duo looked up just in time to see the tail end of that expression. "What?" he asked, just a little defensively.

Heero shook his head. "Just... glad to hear that I might be able to do this improv thing after all. I've always found your idea of spontaneity a little..." He paused, hoping Duo would fill a word in for him, but was forced to continue when Duo looked at him expectantly. "...intimidating."

After a few blinks, Duo punched his arm lightly. "Hey, you know I've always said you've got nothing to fear. Besides, even if you have totally comprehensive plans behind something, there's probably going to be a few leaps of Heero logic in there that I'll never understand, so if nothing else, you'll always be a man of mystery. That's kinda spicy, too." He winked. "So. Let's start improvising some plans, Yuy."

"Improv's your field," he deferred, despite his fresh revelation. He protested the need to plan anything, anyway.

"Oh, as if you've never done anything on the fly." Duo rolled his eyes, and strode off to find them an unoccupied aisle to lead them to the registers up front. "If you were that kind of a mindless foot soldier, you'd be dead by now, and I know I've got death issues, but I tell ya, I am not into that whole necrophilia thing."

Heero was certain Duo would always be a man of mystery as well. "I'm not really sure how we got from Valentine's Day to necrophilia."

Duo stopped to turn and smirk at him. "Try to keep up, Yuy. Maybe you need to take my class."

They'd bantered on the topic several times before. This time, Heero found a new twist. "How about some private lessons?"

The smirk widened. "Ooh, now we're talking. Maybe you could give me some private lessons, too, hmm? Maybe a little hand-to-hand in the bedroom?"

"The bedroom, hm? Getting ambitious, aren't we?" They'd never actually made it upstairs, let alone to their bedroom.

"Hey, gotta aim high, or we'll never make it up there."

"We'll get there one day."

"One day." Duo stopped and savored the thought. "See, I'm totally not psyching myself out by thinking it has to be tonight."

"Good for you."

"Will you reward me for my good behavior?"

"How about we go home... and cook a nice dinner together?"

The answering chuckle seemed to indicate a negative response. "We had a nice dinner planned before we figured out what day it is. That totally doesn't count. I bet you just can't think of anything special to do."

"Every night is special, Duo," he intoned piously.

Duo snorted. "If everyone's special, then nobody's special, babe. You wouldn't want us to have no special nights ever, would you?"

A long silence came from Heero's side of the conversation. It was decidedly nonplussed. "How about I make this night special by letting you win this one, hmm?"

"Ooh, total cop-out, Yuy!"

"But you're hardly going to turn me down, are you?"

Admittedly, it took a moment of consideration to come up with an answer. "Yeah, actually, I am." He laughed at the look on Heero's face. "Don't be so cocky, Yuy. I don't have to win every battle to win the war. Or, you know... be 'cocky', but in a whole other way." He grinned widely, leaving no doubt as to how he meant his words to be taken.

Heero didn't mind losing this battle, either. There was something oddly transfixing about that twinkle in Duo's eye. He passed a few seconds reassuring himself that he could look away if he wanted to. Really. "You're dangerous when you hit your stride."

"But you like me that way." Duo flashed a quick victory sign.

"Now who's being cocky."

"But you like me that way," he repeated, this time with a different emphasis on his words and a smile that leaned toward salacious.

See, Heero could too tear his eyes away from that twinkle, if only to sweep a casual glance over the rest of Duo's body, which somehow had a particular twinkle all its own. "I won't deny it."

"Glad to hear it."

They let the conversation lapse as they stood in line and completed their grocery transaction. Duo was content with looking around to find inspiration wherever it might strike, while Heero was content with watching Duo work his magic. It wasn't until they got outside that Duo found a little something to work with.

"Hey, come on, over here," he said, gesturing with his head toward a farther exit of the market. He made his way over to the middle school students camped out in front of the automatic doors, attempting to extort money under the guise of 'fundraising' from passing customers. "Hmm, lessee what we've got."

A less-than-perky boy greeted him. Duo pretended to listen to the spiel about the eighth grade's class trip and instead perused the choices in front of him. "Ooh, got it. Hang on to this, would ya?" he asked, passing his share of the grocery bags to Heero. Another of the students immediately appeared in front of him on the other side of the table and tried to make suggestions for what last-minute candied treat would best please his valentine, but he had already made up his mind. He plucked an almond chocolate bar from one box and a box of hard candy from another and showed off his finds to Heero. "There. Nuts for my nut, and sweet hearts for your sweetheart."

Heero suppressed a smile as Duo paid for the candy. "I always did think I was the better off of the two of us."

Duo let the humility pass with a note to himself to correct it later. Instead, he shrugged saucily. "Won't deny it." He thanked the kids cheerfully, reclaimed his bags from Heero, and they headed back to the jeep. Feeling quite proud of himself for accomplishing at least something for the holiday, he claimed the driver's seat and pulled out of their parking spot. "Hey, pop open the heart candy, will you?"

"Can't wait, can you?"

"Hey, it's Valentine's Day, not Christmas Eve. I'm just curious. Heard about those things, but never had them before. I'm kinda hoping they don't taste nasty, otherwise we're turning this car around and you're getting me a better present."

Heero shook his head, but did as he was told. "I assure you, I can get you a better present if you head on home instead of turning the car around."

"Yeah, well I totally just bought you a present to give to me, which is kind of tacky, so you need to make it up to me anyway."

"I didn't ask you to buy it."

"Hey, you told me to come up with a plan. I came up with a plan."

"Which I could execute on my own."

"But you wouldn't have come up with the 'sweet hearts for your sweetheart' thing. That kind of thinking on your toes just isn't your style." At a red light, he took the candied hearts offered to him and glanced at them. Reading the message written there, he chuckled softly. "Now this is more your style."

"But you like me that way... right?"

He leaned over and delivered a quick peck to Heero's cheek. "You betcha, flyboy."

OWARI

 

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