09-Oct-2003
Title: Dialing With Your Toes (part 5 of the "Telephone" series)
Author: Kimmie (JaenKaeGW@hotmail.com)
Archive: GW Addiction
Category: sap, romance
Pairings: R+2/2+R
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, I mean no harm, I have no money... Stuff like that. Yeah.
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Some language.
Spoilers: None.
Notes: This is part five of the "Telephone" Series. There will be a total of eleven parts to it. At least, that's what I have planned. I even have the titles planned. >_< Sorry this has taken so long. I get too involved in real life sometimes to be able to have fun with fiction. But, I'm going to try to have at least three more of these stories finished by the end of the year. So, um, go read over the other parts again, and then enjoy?
When in a new relationship, it is often a good idea to take a serious look at the situation.
"Ah, Duo!" Relena Peacecraft shrieked and raced around the small dormitory kitchen, trying to avoid getting even more soaked by the spray of the rinse hose on the sink.
Duo grinned widely. "You can't run away! You have to dry the dishes!"
Relena turned toward him. "How am I supposed to dry them now that you've thoroughly soaked our last towel?"
His eyes widening, Duo opened the drawer where the towels were supposed to be. "Well. Hmm." Then, he began to spray Relena again. "Might as well keep up with this, then!" He sprayed for a moment, then stopped again. "Oh, come here."
Relena smiled balefully and stepped lightly toward Duo. "Yes?"
Duo grinned and opened the drawer beneath the empty one. He pulled out a small pink bath towel and draped it over Relena's hair. "Use that to dry your head and then grab another to finish drying the dishes, and then we'll go for dinner. Does that sound okay?"
Relena took a step over to the sink, her hands working the towel over her scalp in practiced movements. "I suppose that's all right. But, I want pizza!" Then, suddenly, Duo had a rinse hose aimed at him. It only took a moment for him to realize the implications. By that point, he was already dripping.
Shaking his head to dispel some of the water from his face, Duo laughed. "Vinnie's it is, then." Relena cheered and put the rinse hose down.
After changing clothes, the pair went to dinner. Vinnie's was not a paricularly upscale pizza place. In fact, it was very much so *not* upscale. It was classy in a "draw on the tables" kind of way. But, the food was good, the cost was low, and the atmosphere was perfect. Since his first time stumbling into Vinnie's, Duo had become one of Vinnie's favorites. During Christmas break, Duo was known to help Vinnie out with waiting tables and kneading dough, and rumor had it that Vinnie was considering teaching Duo his sauce recipe. Such a thing was not unheard of: to pass a recipe to someone who wasn't part of the family, but in recent years, it just hadn't been done.
This evening, they were seated in the back corner booth. It was always the cleanest, and tended to be kept open for food critics and special customers. Duo qualified as such, and they were seated. Duo slid in next to Relena for a moment. "Hey, let me just run and say hi to Vinnie, okay?"
Relena nodded and Duo ran off. Then, she quietly asked the hostess, "Can we get some crayons and placemats? We're really only this many." She held up seven fingers and smiled.
Only a few moments later, Duo was back and sitting acoss from her. "I'd sit next to you, but then I'd hit your elbows. *This* way, I can at least get a better view as you dribble sauce all over your shirt."
Sticking out her tongue, Relena kicked Duo lightly under the table. "I'm thirsty." A moment later, a waitress appeared with two glasses of Coca-cola. She promptly smiled, put down two straws, and left. Relena cocked her head and looked after her. "Psychic waitresses?"
Duo grinned widely. "Already ordered. Hope you don't mind."
Blowing her straw wrapper at Duo such that it stuck rather concretely in his hair, Relena shrugged. "So long as there's no anchovies, mushrooms, or peppers... Well, you know me. I trust you."
"Do you?" Duo's expression was suddenly somber. "I know you do, but... Well, it'll be hard for me to be the second choice until I realize that you really regret the first decision."
Relena nodded. "I know. I'm still sort of confused. But, he's out of my life now, and I think I'm going to like that." She noted Duo's hands resting on the table and stretched across it to grab one and wrap it with her own. "But, I'm with you. It *is* the choice I should have made at first. But, I was too blinded by... by a pasty white ass! I love you." Her voice was desperate, and her eyes were watering, and she chewed at her bottom lip, but when Duo smiled, it was suddenly okay again. The hostess approached with their crayons, placemats, and plates and utensils, then left as soon as everything was on the table.
Duo and Relena sat in companionable silence for a few minutes while simply being comfortable in each other's company. Their waitress arrived with their pizza. She set it down and whispered, "Careful! It's really hot," then left.
Relena grabbed a piece that looked good (which, to her, meant that it had a lot of black olive slices). "Ooo! It is hot!" She took a moment to find her grip, then gingerly took a bite. Her lip caught on something more solid than pizza should have on it. She pulled away. "Duo?"
He looked up from where he was already halfway through a slice. "Yeah?"
"There's something on my pizza."
Duo's gaze was blank. "And?"
Relena poked at it, then grabbed her fork. She held it up in what she thought was a menacing manner for a moment before gently poking the offending object, oblivious to the fact that Duo was laughing at her. Suddenly, she lifted something up. "It's... it's a ring." Her eyes went wide. "I almost ate a ring! Duo!" She looked up and saw that he was holding up his placemat. He'd taken the pink crayon and scrawled, "Will you marry me?" in large letters.
Beginning to laugh, Relena put the ring in her mouth. She sucked off the pizza sauce, then slid it onto her finger. "Yes. I already told you once."
Duo nodded. "Yeah. But, that was on the phone. And, for as nice as the conversations are there, there's nothing else quite like hearing you when you're here with me. I wanted you to say 'Yes,' while sitting in front of me."
Relena felt tears building up at the corners of her eyes. "Do you want to hear it again?"
Duo nodded.
"Yes." Relena grinned widely. "Ask anytime, and that's how I'll answer. Yes, until beyond the end of time, even as that goes beyond as we know it. Okay?"
Duo reached across the table and grabbed the hand that Relena had slid the ring on. With the other hand, he slipped the placemat (which he'd folded harhazardly) into his pocket. Then, he lifted up his glass of Coca-cola. "So, to happiness?"
Relena lifted her glass in response and tapped it lightly against Duo's. "To happiness."
Owari. ^__~
(:./jennykim/phone5)
