April 21, 2001
Revised: August 9, 2001
Pairings: 6x2, 13x1, 4x3, 5xMeiran, D+R
Archive: GW Addiction, I guess. *gulps* This is my first solo story in
almost 6 months.
It was, after all, only chocolate.
"Stir that kettle once more, Trowa Barton, and I swear, blood kin or no blood kin, I'll have your hide!" shouted Dorothy as she waved a disturbingly large wooden spoon at him. "The bubbles are part of the recipe; after sixteen years, you'd think you'd know that. I won't have you ruining another batch. Go make goo-goo eyes at Quatre somewhere else."
"It's all right, Miss Dorothy," called Quatre from the counter, his voice muffled amidst the sounds of a register opening and closing, buttons clicking and children pressing their dirty faces to the glass display windows. "Heero! I need more cherry cordials."
In the kitchen, Heero, holding a large tube of melted white chocolate, looked at a tray of plain dark chocolate squares and heaved a sigh. "I'm almost done here; can't it wait?"
Quatre gulped as he looked into the eyes of hungry summer people, all clutching twenties. "Well, no, not really. It'll only take a second," he said, giving the customers his best lamb smile, "and there's a tray of them in the second cabinet."
"Get Duo to do it," said Heero.
"Hells no." Duo didn't even look up from his magazine as he flipped Heero off. He eeped as a Dorothy-shaped shadow fell over him. "Hey D," he tried, flashing her a grin, "what's cookin'?"
"You, in five seconds," she growled, her forked eyebrows twitching of their own volition. "You want to work in my shoppe? You *work*, Duo Maxwell. Wufei's not coming in today. He's sick," she said, ignoring Duo's snort of laughter.
"Hungover is more like it," said Duo, groaning as Dorothy shoved his feet off the kitchen counter. "What gives?"
"Everyone's working double shifts."
From all corners of Dorothy's Delights chocolate and cookie store came loud gasps.
"Not double shifts!" Duo turned pleading eyes on his tyrannical employer. "My aunt died," he said automatically.
"There's bonfire on the beach. Don't think that I don't know that you want to go. That's the third time this week your aunt's passed away. Double shifts. You're closing."
"Damn!" Duo stomped off to bring some cordials to the front of the store. He jerked the tray out angrily, his arms shaking as the weight of one hundred cherry cordials caught up to him. "What does she put in these things, stones?" he said, rolling her eyes as Dorothy wagged a finger at him from the open kitchen.
"Wouldn't you give your braid to know," she said smugly. "Maybe if you're good, I'll tell you the recipe."
"Not even when hell freezes over," said Duo. "I ain't working the rest of my life in some candy store. Maybe that's for you kids," he said, nodding at Heero and Trowa, "but, *hells no*, not me." With that, he kicked the door open and smiled blandly at the horde of people surrounding the display cases. "Anyone want cherry cordials?"
"Duo!" Quatre glared at him, his eyes like hot coals. "Hurry up and put them in the case." Duo nodded, taking in the fact that he had the undivided attention of almost forty people, and bent over slowly, giving the cute guy in the front of the line a great view of his ass.
"What can I get you?"
He had long blonde hair that would have looked great in a breeze rolling off the water. "I don't know," he said, his voice lower than Duo would have imagined, "what's good?"
"Duo--"
"Shut up, Quatre," said Duo, swiftly kicking him in the shins. "Try this one," he said, pulling out a scalloped praliné. The boy opened his mouth and Duo dropped the chocolate in. His lips closed around Duo's fingers, suckling slowly. "Homemade; native cocoa beans,[1]" he said, watching him through his bangs.
"It's good," he said, almost smiling. "I'll take a dozen."
Inside the kitchen, Heero and Trowa watched Duo in amazement. "He's such a flirt," said Heero, rolling his eyes as he added a cup of confectionary sugar to the new batch of milk chocolate Dorothy had them cooking. "Hand me the tablespoon?"
"Well, he's Duo," said Trowa, "and he's sixteen and bored. What do you expect?"
"I don't even know," said Heero, dipping his finger in to test the consistency. He turned the stove on, and said again, "I don't even know. What's going on with you and Quatre?"
Trowa dropped the tablespoon.
"Thought so." Heero made a face. "All my babies are leaving the nest." Trowa laughed suddenly, the sound echoing in the warmth of the clay walls. "What?"
"You say that like you're never going to have a boyfriend." Heero rolled his eyes. "Well, that's what it sounds like! If I had my way, you'd go out every night."
"Look who's talking," said Heero. "Mr. Anti-Social." Solemnly, Trowa flicked the last bit of the chocolate melts onto the Japanese boy's nose, smiling a bit as Heero wiped the sticky stuff onto his sleeve.
"Sometimes, you are a very pessimistic person," he said. "You should have more confidence in yourself."
"I have confidence."
"When you're hunched over a computer," said Trowa. "Otherwise, you're a mouse, and you know it." Heero snorted. "Quatre is having a party and you're coming, whether you like it or not."
"You're going to make me go to a party?"
"If he won't, I will." Duo suddenly popped into the kitchen, looking very satisfied with himself. "You need to get out, man. I worry about you, bro." He lowered his voice, grinning as Heero and Trowa leaned in. "If I come back here in five years, and you're still working at double D's, wearin' that crappy spandex, and you've still got no boy--" He shook his head. "Hells no!"
"Leave me alone," said Heero, lifting the kettle off the stove and bringing it quickly to the molds laid out by the sink. "Both of you." He began pouring quickly, trying to put an end to the conversation. Trowa and Duo exchanged glances, Duo wearing an evil grin, and Trowa with what passed for an evil grin on his face.
"How did the thing with blondie go?" asked Heero after a moment.
"Did you see me?" said Duo, grabbing a ladle. "He wanted my hot little ass," he said, hip-bumping the blue-eyed boy standing beside him. "I might let him have it, too."
"Did you get his number?" Duo visibly deflated at Trowa's question.
"Nah," he said, "didn't even get his name. But I told him to come back later, and I think he probably will. I'm irresistible."
"You're egotistical," corrected Heero.
"Jealous," said Duo, sticking his tongue out at Heero's back.
"You boys better be working!" called Dorothy from the front of the shoppe.
"We are!" they chorused.
It was mid-morning before Quatre got Trowa alone. He was standing at the counter, carefully tapping the side of a large Dutch oven with a wooden spoon, his punishment for bothering Heero about his love life. Dorothy had gone to have her nails done, and left Heero in charge of the store. He always gave Trowa the worst jobs.
"Psst." He felt a tugging on his jeans, and looked down. Quatre had tucked himself under the counter, eyes sparkling mischievously. "Take a break. Heero's busy yelling at Duo for smoking in the shoppe; he won't notice that you're not here."
"If you're sure..."
"Get down here," whispered Quatre, sliding his arms around Trowa's waist as the green-eyed boy folded his pencil legs under him. "I can't wait until our shifts are over," he said, urging Trowa to lie back on the cold floor. His hands slid up Trowa's shirt, warming themselves against his hot skin. Quatre worked up front because of his chronically cold appendages; the chocolates were less likely to melt in his hands.
"Me neither," he said, his breath hitching as Quatre's cold fingers picked at his nipples until they hardened. "Why don't we--"
They both gasped as a loud bang reverberated through the kitchen. Then, thick chocolate sauce began to drip down from the counter in a slow motion waterfall.
"Oh shit." Quatre pulled away from his boyfriend and tried to scramble out. He hissed as boiling chocolate burned his neck. "We're trapped!"
Trowa winced as he saw a pair of spandex-clad legs stop in front of the waterfall. A moment later, Heero's unsmiling face appeared. "What happened?" asked Trowa, not really wanting to know.
"Well," said Heero, "do you want to start with the Dutch oven cover that's embedded in the ceiling, the chocolate all over the floor, or the fact that Dorothy just pulled into the driveway with half a head of hair?"
"We are so screwed," said Quatre.
End Part One
[1] Cocoa beans on a beach?
^_^ You like?
Heero: No.
Duo: *purr*
Bianca
Please send comments to: weirdsisters@hotmail.com