Author: Sunhawk
Pairings: None
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Duo POV, attempted humor, probably some language, and suggestive situation.
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing is not mine.
Yeah... I over did it again, but at least I remembered to change the numbering so there would not be a thirteenth day of Christmas. Not that over-doing it promises high-quality fic or anything, this will be the usual mixed bag.
But yeah... welcome to the season. And once again it came on me way too fast, and appeared way too suddenly and I'm just sort of blinking at it. Maybe I should just start on next year NOW and be done with it. All those grand intentions are just kind of lying around being very... intent.
Funny how structured this tradition has become, so you all know what's coming...
Our darling t_shirt1x2's launch day art, that she squeezed in to the middle of finals for me 'cause I'm just special like that. :D Thank you, M'dear!
But then, just to shake things up a bit... there is a tiny bit of last minute fic to go with the pic. This fits into the 'Prickles' universe where I cram all the characters into an orphanage and (hopefully) milk their chibi cuteness for some yuks.
So Merry Christmas and all that jazz!
Gundam Scrooge
When Sister had said they were doing a dress rehearsal, Heero hadn't really understood that there would be a dress . Well... maybe for Lena and Lulu and Dorothy, but not him.
But he wasn't quite sure what else to call the thing that he was wearing. It was too long to be a shirt and he didn't have any pants! There was a funny little hat, but it really didn't help, and Heero just felt kind of silly.
Ok... Heero felt a lot silly, and he really didn't like it. Sister had said that Heero was going to be 'The Lead' because he was such a sponsible little boy. Usually, Heero liked it when Sister called him sponsible, but he was starting to get nervous about just what being 'The Lead' meant and he still didn't understand why he had to wear a dress.
None of the other boys seemed to be wearing dresses... well, except maybe Quatre, but that wasn't really a dress dress since it was mostly one of the Sunday choir robes with extra stuff added. Quatre said he was an Angel, though Trey said he was not... that he was the Ghost of Christmas Past (and he even used his big boy voice so it sounded all important). Heero didn't believe him though, because if Quatre was a ghost it would be Halloween and not Christmas. And Trey was Milly's best friend, so Heero figured he had to be pretty dumb anyway.
When Trowa walked out on to the stage, the next to have his costume on, Heero just tried to keep his legs covered with the bed sheet and hoped maybe he wouldn't notice that Heero was in a dress.
Trowa's costume was kind of a Santa Claus elf suit... he even had a gift bag, but there was nothing in it when they looked. Just some wadded up paper.
'Bummer,' Trowa said. (Trowa knew all kinds of cool words from school).
'Yeah,' Heero said, trying it out and hoping it wasn't a word that Sister wouldn't like. 'Bummer.'
Heero had never had his mouth washed out with soap, but Trowa had lots of times, so Heero was pretty careful not to use too many of Trowa's cool words.
Trowa didn't hang around with Heero long, once they'd looked through the Santa bag together, but went to look at Quatre's costume. At least Trowa hadn't made fun of Heero's funny hat, because Trowa's hat was about the same, only with fuzzy trim. Maybe Heero's hat wouldn't look so weird if it had fuzzy trim too?
Quatre was busy being an Angel, standing around and holding his hands together, even though Trowa agreed with Trey and said that Quatre had to be a ghost because Trowa was the ghost of Christmas presents.
Quatre stopped being an Angel long enough to look in the bag then, but he didn't like the wadded up paper either. He didn't say 'bummer', he said... 'Sister forgot to put the presents in! We should fix it! How can you be the ghost of Christmas presents with no presents?' and the two of them ran down the aisle of the church and disappeared through the big doors.
Just when Heero was starting to feel kind of lonely, and wondering if maybe he had time to run and get a pair of pants... Duo ran out from behind the curtain.
He was wearing his biggest grin, and was all in black robes (kind of like a dress? Maybe?) and carrying a big stick. He ran around the stage once, stopped in front of Heero, thumped his big stick on the ground and said, 'I'm the God of Death!'
Heero just blinked at him for a minute. The big stick did have a kind of blade on it, a little bit like some of the tools that Father used in the garden, though this one looked like it might be made out of aluminum foil. But what did the God of Death have to do with Christmas?
Heero was starting to think that Sister and Father were really confused about which holiday it was, because Duo's costume just had to be for Halloween.
'This,' Duo said happily, 'is cool!'
Heero didn't think it was cool. Well, Duo's costume was pretty cool. For a Halloween costume, anyway, but Heero didn't think his costume was all that cool. In fact, everybody else's costume was way cooler than his.
Maybe he could get Duo to sneak back into the closet Sister used for a dressing room and get his pants? Duo was very good at sneaking. Heero once heard Father tell Sister that they needed to 'watch that boy didn't turn into a cat burglar', but Heero had kept a careful eye on Duo and he wasn't growing whispers, so he guessed it was ok.
But just as Heero started to ask, Mr. Mike who was normally the janitor, but on play nights was The Director came out on stage and clapped his hands the way he liked to do to get their attention. 'Places everyone...', he began, and then looked around with... Heero thought... a pretty silly surprised look. 'Where is the rest of my cast?'
Heero guessed he meant Trowa and Quatre and being the sponsible one (Duo was busy swinging his stick around and muttering 'Death is coming for you' which Heero thought was pretty creepy and it was probably a good idea that Mr. Mike wasn't paying much attention to him anyway), said, 'Sister forgot to fill Trowa's present bag and Trowa can't be the Ghost of Christmas presents without...'
But Quatre and Trowa came running back in right then, and Mr. Mike wasn't really listening to Heero anyway, so he just sighed and shut up. Mr. Mike clapped his hands again, just like he hadn't already done it once, and said 'Places everyone!' just like he hadn't already done that to. Heero would have told him he was already in his place and wasn't going to be moving anytime soon because the bed sheets were the only thing keeping everybody from seeing he was wearing a dress, but didn't figure Mr. Mike would hear him anyway.
Mr. Mike liked to talk a lot, but he didn't seem to much like to listen.
Father came out from the back and grinned around happily at all his little 'ducklings', 'Don't you all just look wonderful!'
'No.' muttered Heero, but nobody heard him and he sighed again wishing that he wasn't quite so sponsible, so that he could maybe 'pitch a fit' like Hilde did when she wanted something. He didn't really want to act like Hilde did sometimes, because he could tell Sister was angry even when she didn't use angry words, but... Hilde usually got what she wanted anyway.
And really.... All Heero wanted was his stupid pants.
He forgot about fits and pants for a minute though, when he noticed that Mr. Mike and Father were... having words, as Sister would say.
'... no, no, no... they must be in the rafters!' Mr. Mike was saying, waving his hands up toward the ceiling. 'Then each of them will be lowered down on cue to play their part!'
'That's much too high, Michael,' Father said in that tone of voice he had like when he explained to Quatre that stacking the beds in the children's room was not how you made bunk beds.
'This is not my vision at all! You can't have all the Spirits on the stage at the same time!' Mr. Mike said in a kind of wailing voice and Heero wondered if maybe he'd been paying attention to Hilde.
'And I can't be dropping children from the ceiling,' Father said, and though he kind of lowered his voice when he said it, Heero heard him anyway. Mr. Mike wanted to drop all his friends from all the way up there?
'But the play...' began Mr. Mike, but Father used his Sunday voice and even Mr. Mike heard that.
'Safety comes first, Michael,' he said firmly. 'We can make do with the spot lights.'
There was some huffing and grumbling and Mr. Mike said something about 'artistic vision' and Heero wondered if it was a superpower like X-ray vision, but it didn't sound like it was a very good power and Father just sort of ignored it anyway.
Heero watched while Father and Mr. Mike fastened the ropes in place around the three 'ghosts' and he was happy that they really weren't that high off the ground. It was a little scary at first, until Father put a chair out for Trowa to stand on while they got his rope in place. A chair wasn't so high... they'd all jumped off chairs before. Well... when Sister wasn't looking anyway. It was just funny how it seemed so much higher when Father took the chair away.
Heero was feeling a little lonely again, sitting on the big fake bed while all his friends were over across the stage getting 'into place'. He wondered what was taking Sister so long with Wufei's costume.
Maybe Wufei was getting a dress too and he would argue about that! No way would Wufei wear a dress. And maybe if he argued and won, then Heero could get his pants back too?
He sure hoped so, because he was pretty sure he'd have to get out of the bed sooner or later and then everybody would laugh. That made his tummy feel funny.
Father must have been thinking the same thing, because he said 'Sister Helen? Where's our Jacob Marley?'
'Almost ready!' they heard Sister's voice from the dressing room closet and Mr. Mike was suddenly bustling around and arranging his 'cast' just so, and Father was chuckling and rubbing his hands together and they all seemed pretty excited.
Heero wasn't pretty excited. Or even a little bit excited. He just kind of didn't feel so good.
Father went down off the stage and took a seat out on the floor, and Mr. Mike left the stage to take his place out of sight, but where he could call out directions. Which... now that Heero thought about it, was that maybe why he was called The Director? So... if The Director gave directions, what was Heero supposed to do if he was 'The Lead'? He didn't want to lead anybody! He just wanted to go find his stupid pants!
Father stood up for a minute while they were waiting on Wufei and said in his big voice so they could all hear him, 'Now children... we want you to have fun with this, but it's an important event for the Church. I know you've all be practicing hard, and tonight is the last rehearsal. We'll be doing the real play in front of an audience tomorrow night. I want everybody to do their best and have a good time.'
Then Father sat back down and Mr. Mike called, 'Cue Marley!'
Audience? People? There were going to be people watching them??
Everything went kind of still and they heard a rattle of metal from back stage.
Quatre had his eyes shut and was acting like an Angel again and Heero kind of thought he wasn't too happy with being so high up in the air even if it really wasn't so high up in the air really.
Trowa was holding his bag of presents and his eyes got big as the bag slowly started to tip him over and he was suddenly hanging upside down.
Duo was kicking his legs and trying to make himself spin around. Then he noticed Trowa and took his stick and tried to poke him. Heero thought maybe he was trying to turn Trowa back upright, but he might have just been trying to poke Trowa in the butt since... well... it was sort of stuck up there.
And then Wufei finally shuffled out onto the stage. He was dragging chains, and his face was all pale, and his eyes looked all dark and shadowed. His hands were stretched out in front of him, and he was headed right at Heero and it was the creepiest thing Heero had ever seen and then Wufei said....
'Braaaaaains!'
Duo laughed in a really kind of scary 'over excited' way, wacked Trowa with his stick, and shouted, 'I'm the God of Death!'
Quatre, with his eyes still squeezed shut, began to cry and wailed, 'I want down!'
Trowa was still upside down, and the wack he'd gotten from Duo had made him start to spin and he suddenly said in a tiny voice that Heero wasn't sure anybody heard.... 'I don't feel so good...'
Wufei was still shuffling across the stage and was almost in front of Heero and the closer he got, the scarier he looked and then he said, 'I'm a zoooooombie,' in a voice like Heero had never heard Wufei use.
Heero pulled the blanket up over his head and shouted, 'I don't want to be the lead! I don't want to be sponsible! I want my pants back!'
There was an icky, icky sound then out on the stage, that Heero was pretty sure came from Trowa and he was pretty glad he couldn't see anything with the blanket over his head, because Quatre, Duo and Wufei all said 'Ewwwwwww!' at the same time.
'I want down!' Quatre yelled. 'I want down right now!'
'I don't feel so good now either....' Duo said, and Heero stuck his fingers in his ears because he was pretty sure what was coming next.
It didn't block out the 'Ewwwwww!' From zombie Wufei, since he was standing right next to Heero.
And it didn't block out Mr. Mike shouting, 'I quit!'
'But you're the janitor!' hollered Father.
'I quit that too!' Mr. Mike hollered back and Heero was pretty sure this was more than just having words.
Heero slowly pulled the blanket from over his head, careful not to look at anything icky. Father and Mr. Mike were working really fast to get his friends untied and Heero decided that now would be the right time to slip out of the fake bed and go get his pants.
And then maybe he'd just go on down to the children's room and color. Or play with Mr. Silver. Because Heero had had just about all the plays he ever wanted to have anything to do with ever in his whole life ever.
Behind him, as he slipped behind the curtain, he heard Quatre say, 'God bless us, every....' And then that icky noise again.
This time it was Father and Mr. Mike who said, 'Ewwwwww!' and Heero didn't even slow down.
OWARI
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