18-Dec-2004
Title: All My Design
Author: Mookie
Pairing: Heero/Duo
Rating: PG13
Word count: 1,093
Warnings: Implied shonen ai. Light humor. You've been warned.
Notes: Christmas gift for terra harpel, using the line "Do you want to try?"
Entered into GW Jeopardy category for Innuendo: a loaf of bread, a bottle of wine, and thou.
Duo perused the selection in the Asian food aisle, chuckling to himself as he read the back of one of the packages for instructions on how to properly prepare manju.
He bypassed the curry and prepared sweet bean paste selections and decided to risk getting the canned meat to use as a filling instead. Just in case his attempt at cooking something exotic was a complete bust, he made a stop by first the bakery, and then the frozen foods aisles, before heading for the checkout.
It wasn't often that he had the house to himself, and he had much he wanted to prepare before Heero arrived for dinner.
While Duo was occupied at the supermarket, Heero found himself puzzling over various subspecies of the vitis vinifera and how flavors and aromas such as sauerkraut, chalk, and wet wool were supposed to be considered at all enticing.
In the end he abandoned all pretenses of making a well-educated selection and picked one entirely at random. He had, after all, had fairly good success going by gut instinct. For just a moment, though, he couldn't help lamenting the lack of ZERO to help him, even though he knew how ridiculous the thought was.
Once he'd made his purchase and walked outside, he turned up the collar of his coat against the biting cold, clutched the brown paper bag to his chest, and hoped for the best.
Duo frowned first at the charred rolls of pasta he'd removed from the oven, and then at the way the steamed buns were sticking to the cookware. He didn't know why he'd attempted such a grandiose dinner. Who in their right mind, after all, would try to serve manicotti, bratwurst, and spring rolls in the same meal? At least the loaf of French bread was safe for human consumption.
The manju seemed salvageable, but the rest, Duo wasn't so sure of. The sound of the smoke alarm going off had his shoulders hunching in defeat before he grabbed a broom from the closet to hit the reset button. He opened the window and let the kitchen air out, then set about removing a box from the freezer. He'd only half expected to need to resort to Plan B, and throwing in the towel now left the bitter taste of failure on his tongue.
He snorted. Better that, he supposed, than attempting to taste what was supposed to be a culinary tour of the old European countries.
By the time Heero knocked on the door, the microwave had just beeped, announcing that their less impressive meals were done. Duo answered the door with a weary smile and watched Heero walk in, then ran back to the kitchen to set the table with paper plates and cans of soda.
Heero stomped the snow off his boots and removed them by the door, then hung his coat up in the closet before joining Duo in the kitchen. He raised an eyebrow at the beverages and lifted the brown paper bag he was carrying. Duo winced internally, rubbing a hand at the back of his neck.
"Ah, yeah, sure," he said, taking it and fighting with the corkscrew for a bit before he managed to get the wine to breathe or whatever it was that one was supposed to do before pouring it. He felt a bit better when Heero reached into his cabinets and pulled out a couple of beer steins. Seemed like they were really going to have a mish mash of cultural influences at this meal, as contrary as that seemed.
Duo kept his eyes on Heero as the other man took a sip of the wine, and he snickered as he saw Heero's eyes widen before he placed the stein back on the table.
Heero's voice was a bit raspy as he reached for the unopened soda can, and Duo smiled at his apology. He waved a hand in the direction of the stove. "I'm with you on the best laid plans."
He'd not counted on Heero actually getting up from the table and doing a visual inventory of Duo's failed meal attempts. Before Heero got to the manju, Duo leapt from his chair and inserted himself between Heero and the stove.
Heero's brows furrowed. "Duo," he said patiently, although Duo knew that Heero was about as far from patient as he could get. "It's not the first time either of us has destroyed something."
Duo couldn't exactly explain his sudden embarrassment, not while Heero's body was pressed up against his as he peered over Duo's shoulder to see what the big secret was.
"Is that... manju?"
Duo pasted a grin on his face and reached behind him to fumble for the fork he'd left on the counter. He managed to scrape a bit of the steamed Japanese buns off the nonstick surface, and held it aloft between them.
He cleared his throat. "Do you want to try?"
Heero's hand closed over Duo's, causing some of the pork filling to fall from the fork and onto his shirt.
"The wine," Heero began, then paused. Duo noted a faint flush on Heero's cheeks that hadn't been there even when he'd come in from the outside, despite the falling temperatures. "I wanted something with a rich intensity, a full body, and a rim variation that wasn't watery. They all sounded..." he trailed off, his eyes shifting from Duo's to a spot on the wall.
Duo realized that their bodies were still intimately nestled together. The warmth from the stove behind him was nothing compared to the heat being generated where Heero's thigh was pressing between his legs.
Heero's eyes finally flicked back to Duo, and he brought the fork still held in both their hands to his mouth.
"Yes," he said. "I'd very much like to try." He closed his lips over the little bit that hadn't fallen from the fork and ate it without wincing. He chewed slowly, far too slowly for the amount of food he had in his mouth, and licked his lips, then stepped back. His fingers slowly released Duo's and he went around the other side of the table to take his seat again.
That's when Duo remembered his Plan B.
Heero lifted the microwaved junk food from his plate, his eyes alight with humor. "Yes, Duo," he repeated, bringing it to his mouth. "I most certainly would like to try."
The groan that escaped Duo when Heero took half the corn dog into his mouth assured him that Duo was just as willing.
The End
A Book of Verses underneath the bough,
A jug of wine, a loaf of bread--and thou
Beside me singing in the wilderness--
O, Wilderness were Paradise enow!
---translated by Edward Fitzgerald
(:./mookie/design)
