A Gundam Wing Christmas

Chapter 3

By Starling

            The Christmas tree in the cavernous living room reached almost to the ceiling. Arys watched the looks on Hana and Li’s faces and was delighted by their reactions to the elaborately decorated tree. Every branch was laden with an ornament of every color of the rainbow. Tinsel hanging from the branches flickered in the candlelit room. She sniffed the air appreciatively. The scent of pine, the scent of Christmas, permeated the room. Arys hated to admit it, but she felt warm and fuzzy inside.

            Everyone had brought their gifts and placed them under the tree as soon as they had arrived. Hana and Li immediately wandered over to the gifts, touching the bright wrapping paper and looking expectantly at their parents.

            Quatre smiled as he handed each child their own gift and then motioned for them to sit with their parents. He wanted them to enjoy the show.

            Duo and Hilde, of course, ended up sitting near Heero and Arys. And of course, Duo had to lean over and whisper loudly, “Hey, Heero! What’d you get me?” Hilde slapped him on the arm, but that didn’t stop him from waiting for the answer.

            Heero rolled his eyes, while Arys chuckled under her breath. “Duo, I didn’t have you. I had someone else.”

            Duo actually looked disappointed. “Really?”

            Quatre made his way back to the tree and smiled again. “Well, everyone, let’s get the presents handed out! We’ll hand them out one at a time so that we can all watch while it’s opened.”

            Arys groaned. She hated the feeling of everyone’s eyes on her. Heero patted her on the shoulder. She knew he felt the same way.

            Quatre picked up one gift and perused the gift tag. He handed the oblong box to Triniti, who looked surprised to be first. Trowa put an arm around her shoulders while she opened it.

            Arys and Heero looked at each other, hoping that Triniti would like the gift Heero had bought for her.  

            When Triniti pulled out a box of sketching pencils, a wide grin bloomed on her face. “Oh, look, Trowa! New sketching pencils!” She showed them to her husband excitedly and then looked at Heero. “How did you know, Heero?”

            Heero shrugged. “Your husband likes to talk about you.”

            At that, Trowa actually blushed. “Um,” he stuttered. Triniti kissed Trowa on the cheek then turned her eyes back on Heero. “They’re wonderful, Heero, thank you.”

            Heero only nodded in reply, but Arys could tell that he was pleased.

            Quatre shook the next gift gently and then handed it to Duo. “Wow, that’s a heavy one! That’s from Trowa.” Duo’s eyes lit up as he took the gift and promptly ripped off the paper. When he saw what was inside, he leaped to his feet and did a little dance right in front of the sofa. “Wrenches! Tools! Every man’s dream gift!” He pulled out one shiny wrench and eagerly showed it to Hilde. “Now I can get rid of those rusty tools that you’re always nagging me about.”

            “Duo! I do not nag you!”

            Duo just stuck his tongue out at his wife. “Hey, Quatre, anything around here need fixing? I guarantee that I can make it good as new.” Duo went over to Trowa and gave him an enthusiastic hug. “Hey, thanks, Trowa! This is great!” Then he danced off again,

            Trowa shook his head, wondering if he really should have bought the perfect gift for Duo. Triniti smiled at him. “Trowa, look how happy he is!”

            “Oh, you don’t understand, Triniti. Quatre’s house just may be in a shambles by the time we leave.”

            “You’re just being pessimistic, Trowa.”

            Trowa just blinked at her.

            And on the gift exchange went. Triniti had gotten Heero a coffee table edition of The Art of War by Sun Tzu complete with pictures, illustrations, maps, and a dust cover.

            Triniti blushed slightly as she explained the gift. “Trowa said you had already read it, but I thought it might be nice for you to have around for visitors to look at.”

            Strangely enough, Arys was the most excited about it. “It even has diagrams of the weapons they used at the time!” She said as she flipped through it while Heero held it in his hands.

            “Thank you, Triniti,” Heero said softly. “I think we’ll be able to put it to good use around our house.” Then, he winked, and that surprised Triniti most of all.

            Wufei received an antique Chinese longsword from Hilde. As he held the ancient hilt in his hand, he wondered how they had ever gotten it through security.

            Hilde smiled at him. “We had it delivered here. We’ve already paid for it to be shipped back to your home, so you don’t have to worry about explaining it at the spaceport.”

            “That is a beautiful gift,” Mei said. “It will look great on our wall.” She glanced at her husband and saw the glint in his eyes. “Right, Wufei? On our wall?” She nudged him hard, and he shook his head as if coming out of a daydream.

            “Yeah, on our wall.” But everyone knew that the martial artist would take it down occasionally for a swing. He nodded to Hilde to acknowledge the gift.

            Nari’s gift to Mei was a set of ornately decorate Chinese chopsticks. Nari looked almost embarrassed as Mei opened the box. “Quatre and I were in London one weekend and there was a gift shop off in one dark corner that was run by an elderly Chinese gentleman. We had to go in, and I fell in love with that set.” Nari smiled at Mei. “I hope you’ll fall in love with them too.”

            Mei grinned at Nari. “They’re gorgeous, Nari.” She took up two of the chopsticks and instantly swept up her hair into a knot with them. Wufei, still gazing at his longsword, was unaware as Mei took up another set and started heading for his head.

            Wufei, at the last minute, looked up and saw his wife’s hands hovering around his hair, and he swatted them away. “Hey!” He glared at Mei. “No chopsticks!”

            Mei broke out laughing. “Sorry, sorry!” She glanced at Nari. “There are other things you can do with chopsticks besides eating with them.”

            Nari laughed along with Mei, as Wufei commented, “Yeah, like use them to torture your husband.”

            Trowa’s gift from Duo was next - a huge collar and an equally huge leash. Trowa’s reaction was not unexpected. He blinked down at the two items, his gaze puzzled. 

            Duo was having a hard time not having a heart attack. “For... your... lion... when... you... take... it... out... for... walks,” he managed to get out between loud guffaws.

            Triniti patted Trowa on the shoulder. “That looks like it would fit Mortimer.”

            Trowa gazed at his wife and had to laugh at the teasing he saw in her eyes. “You think this is funny, don’t you?”

            Triniti’s expression was innocent. “I’m not the one who had Duo give a gift to you.”

            As she looked away, Trowa wasn’t so sure.

            A lapis-pearl necklace from Wufei to Hilde was up next. Hilde was ecstatic and couldn’t stop complimenting the color, the style, the obvious price spent on it. Duo sulked beside her.

            Wufei didn’t understand Duo’s mood so he finally asked. “What’s wrong, Duo?”

            Duo fingered the necklace and glanced at Wufei enviously. “It’s pretty sad when one of my best friends gets my wife a gift better than what I got her for Christmas.” He cringed, as if waiting for Hilde to hit him on the arm.

            “Oh, Duo...” Hilde kissed him on the cheek. “You let us come here for Christmas. That was a wonderful present.”

            Duo looked hopeful. “Really?”

            Hilde nodded. “Really.”

            “I love you, babe,” Duo said, his sentiment obviously heartfelt.

            “And I love you too. Now, what was it that you got me for Christmas?” Hilde looked curious, but Duo blanched at her question.

            “Um, we’ll talk about that later, darling.”

            Hilde laughed at the look on her husband’s face.

            A CD of Chinese lullabies from Mei to Nari was up next.

            “It’s a good thing I know Chinese,” Nari teased gently, smiling at Mei.

            Mei laughed. “I thought you would, and I knew you loved lullabies.”

            “It’s the perfect gift, Mei. Thank you.” Nari frowned. “I’d put it on right now, but I’m afraid everyone would probably fall asleep.”

            “And we can’t have that,” Quatre said. “We still have two gifts left. And they just so happen to be my gift to Arys and Arys’ gift to me.” Quatre reached for his gift to Arys and handed it to her. “I hope you like it.”

            Arys could feel the blush creeping into her cheeks while she slowly ripped off the wrapping paper. Heero took the paper from her as she opened the box. She was greeted by the sight of a leather jacket, one that she had been wanting for months and had been saving up to buy.

            She took it out of the box and held it up. “How did you know?”

            Quatre shrugged, almost mirroring Heero’s shrug earlier. “Your husband likes to talk about you.”

            Heero laughed.

            “But what about the money we’ve been saving up?”

            Heero looked thoughtful. “We can use it on the kids.”

            Arys gave him a surprised glance. “Kids?”

            “Yeah, you know, kids.” Heero pointed at Hana and Li, who had both fallen asleep. “Like them. Except they’ll be ours.”

            Arys stared at him. “Oh.”

            Quatre picked up the last gift. “I feel bad having the last gift be mine. I didn’t know it would end like this.”

            Arys smiled. “It’ll be the perfect ending.”

            Quatre, his interest piqued by Arys’ statement, opened up the gift to find a picture frame full of pictures of every single person in the room. Mei and Wufei and their children were in one picture, Quatre, Nari, Trowa and Triniti in another, Heero and Arys, and Duo and Hilde, and then one more with all of them together, taken during a get-together before Li had been born. Quatre stared at it in shock. It was the perfect gift for him, for Nari.

            “Thank you, Arys. It’s...” Quatre shook his head, at a loss for words.

            “Perfect.”

            Duo laughed. “I was thinking it was priceless. After all, it has my picture in it.”

            “DUO!” Everyone yelled.

            And Duo found himself pelted by sofa pillows.

            Hilde laughed at him from under the mountain. “Duo, you’ll never learn, will you?”

            Duo, genuinely puzzled, said, “What’d I say?”