New Haven

Chapter Fourteen: Moving time.

Duo unlocked the door to his apartment and motioned his companions into his place of rest. As he reached down for the boxes he had placed there to get his hands free to open the door. They filed past him and made there way to the places they would start to pack from.

“Duo, I tried to get a hold of your apartment owner but I kept getting told that the phone was off line.” Quatre commented as he pulled things from the closet to be placed in the box at his feet.

Duo looked up sheepishly and pulled the cellular phone from its place on the table by the door. He rubbed the back of his head and looked wryly at the other man. “Yeah well…you see…” Duo tried to come up with the proper way to tell the other man that he owned the building. “I manage the building for Howie.” He finally blurted out. “He needed someone and the rent would be cheap. I guess I better call him and tell him I’m moving across the street and that I’ll be putting this place up for rent.” He looked at Quatre hopefully. “Do you think I can still manage the place from over there?”

Quatre blinked and stared at the man of many surprises and laughed. “Yes I am sure that you could easily manage it from over there.” He went back to his work and grinned again. “You could probably get a good price on it if you include furnishings. I don’t think Wufei could fit all of the furniture you have in with the stuff we have.” Quatre paused at the groan from the other man. Trowa looked up from where he was placing odds and ends into one of his boxes and looked at the blond in question. Quatre waved him to continue.

“Well…” Duo looked over at him again sheepishly. “The only furniture that is mine is the stuff in the bedroom and I could probably leave it here accept for the wardrobe. I really want to keep that and the munitions cabinet in the spare room.”

“Well that certainly helps.” A voice murmured dryly. Wufei came into view and grinned softly at the two still in the entranceway. “I think the wardrobe may actually go with my bedroom set. The munitions cabinet can go with the other ones that already sit in state in the ‘War Room’ as we call it. What about the dishes? I know the knick knacks are yours.”

Duo thought about if for a second. The dishes were his but the mugs were the only things he really wanted to keep. He had seen that the others had used ones that seemed to apply to them. “Only the mugs and food from the kitchen.” He told them hesitantly. “And the huge amount of baking supplies and goods.” He added quickly. He had noticed that Wufei’s place had nothing to compare to them.

Heero who was standing in the door to the kitchen nodded. “I already started on the food. I’ll make sure to get the other things. Does that include the pots and pans.”

Duo’s reply was prompt to answer. “Of course. I’m not leaving a Paderno cooking set that cost nearly two thousand dollars for just anyone to use.” He growled as he walked past Quatre. He blinked when he heard the chocked off replies. “What? I only cook with the best!” He muttered to the looks of horror on the faces looking at him.

“Duo,” A hand came to rest on his shoulder. “My sisters wouldn’t even pay that for a set of pots and pans. Only a registered cook would even think to pay that for a pots and pans set.”

Duo looked at him wryly. A look of dawning horror settled on his face. He whipped around and dashed for the kitchen. “Heero don’t forget to pack the knife sets as well. They’re stainless laser edged gundanium.”

Heero slowly turned from the shelves he was emptying his face devoid of color. “Duo,” He began slowly. “Those…those…those…” He stuttered to a halt not knowing how to continue.

Wufei stood behind Duo in awe. “Duo,” He told the younger man hesitantly. “Those type of knives are only given to the top ranking chefs who go through the Julliard cooking course.”

“Yeah I know.” Duo answered without turning around. He stared down at the tips of his shoes ignoring the questioning looks the men were giving him. “They worked around my paramedics courses and let me take the cooking course because I cooked something for the heads that blew their minds. I have a degree in culinary arts from Julliard and a degree in paramedics and nursing from UNY.”

Sounds of choking came at Duo from every direction. He kept his eyes on his shoes and tried not to think of the expressions on the other men’s faces. He didn’t know how they would react to the fact that he had so many degrees. He had earned them through hard work and graduated at the top of his classes.

“You did this through internship and classes?” A voice asked dryly.

Duo flinched thinking it was in condemnation. He nodded hesitantly and waited for the response.

Strong arms wrapped around him from behind and face was buried into his hair peppering kisses as it slowly made its way down the right side of his head. “Do you know how amazing you are?”

Duo jerked and turned to look into onyx eyes in surprise and wonder. “But you’re a lawyer. Quat is a doctor. Heero probably had to take police sciences up his ying yang and Trowa had to take some pretty stiff courses to get into the fire division.” He protested.

“Duo.”

Duo turned at the sound of his name.

“I took one test to get into Preventers. My past experience let me slide through without any science courses.” Heero commented dryly.

“I had to take a basic course but my experience also let me basically slide right through.” Trowa murmured wryly. “Only Wufei and Quatre went back to school and they just went straight into medical and law school. They already had first hand knowledge that passed them through their masters.”

“Even then I had a lot of field experience and flew through the course easily.” Quatre added from his corner.

“You see,” Wufei added catching violet eyes to show what he meant. “You are amazing. You not only had to start from scratch because you were under age and they probably didn’t believe your credentials but you had to do so with a lot of people watching to make sure that you weren’t going to flub it.”

Duo opened his mouth to protest.

“We know what it was like when the war ended. They were hard on all the youths that had come through the war.” Heero added softly. “There were a lot of orphans and young soldiers. They wanted to make sure they weren’t going to revert to some sort of terrorist gangs or anything like that.”

“Howie adopted me and helped me get into the course.” Duo muttered. “He thought I was going to go through meltdown with all that work load. But it was so much fun. I wanted to learn it all.” He looked down and focused on the collar of Wufei’s shirt. “Howie already knew that I wanted to be a paramedic so he made sure that that was the most important thing.” He grinned wryly. Wufei was the only one to see it. “I knew how to take someone apart it was easy to back track and put it together instead of taking them apart. Cooking was soothing and nursing was a plus to the paramedic job. I am a registered ER nurse so I can help people with more license on the job.”

Quatre burst into laughter. “Well I think that is enough info. for now. Let’s get this done. I think we can get this done tonight and not have to worry about it tomorrow as well.”

Nods met his suggestion and Duo’s embarrassment was put on the back burner as they went about systematically packing Duo’s things. They worked companionably in silence.

When they were almost done Duo slapped his forehead in disgust. He pulled out his cellular phone and pushed Howie’s speed dial number. He fidgeted while he waited for someone to answer.

Howie had actually become a sweeper after the war. He cleaned up the residue from the war like destroyed warships and other flotsam that made the water and space ways hard to navigate.

“This better be good.” A gruff voice answered in annoyance.

“Hey Howie.” Duo answered with a grin. He hadn’t expected to get the man himself right away.

“How many times do I have to tell you kid?” The voice asked irritatedly. “My name is Howard. NOT Howie.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Duo answered to the grouching. Gently ribbing the older much older man. “Look Howie. I’m moving…”

The gruff voice quickly broke into the conversation. “Do you have to leave in a hurry? Do you need any help? Is somebody after you?”

Duo tried to interrupt the avalanche of questions but the phone was swept from his hands.

“Howard.” Quatre Raberba Winner interrupted impatiently. “This is Sandrock.” Complete silence met the statement. “Duo is moving in with the Elite. We finally found our lost member and we’re not going to let anything keep us from helping him heal.”

Duo stared in wide eyed amazement at the blond. The businessman and Elite soldier was showing through.

“Yes,” Quatre answered the other man. “We’ll take very good care of him. We don’t want your team to come storming into our home if you think we mistreated him.” Quatre turned and rolled his eyes at Duo. “Yes he’s still here.” Quatre gave Duo a dry look and handed the phone back to Duo. He raised it automatically to his ear.

“You there kid?”

“Yeah.” Duo responded on autopilot.

“Then you listen to me.” The gruff voice ordered. “If they so much as make you think of even scratching those wrists you come straight home to us. I don’t want to hear about them finding you in some gully dead because of suicide.” Duo pulled the phone away from his ear and glared at it angrily. “Don’t glare at me boy. I know you are. Now where are you going to live and can you still take care of the Apartments?”

“I’m moving across the street to the apartment above the Wind, Water, Fire, Earth, Spirit Dojo and Gym. So I can take care of the apartment and the people here. I’m going to put my pad up for rent.” Duo paused and hesitantly asked the other man, “Do you still plan on having a parts store in the store down below?”

“I sure do kid.” The Sweeper answered promptly. “In fact…You clean that place up and I’ll take it over and the running of the place while I set up and get the place running.”

Duo blinked and mouthed the word ‘Here’ to the other men in horror. “Sure Howie. Are you sure?”

“You bet your britches I am.” Howard growled. “That way I can keep an eye on that pack of mongrels that think they can take care of my boy.” Duo rolled his eyes at the others. “Don’t roll your eyes at me young man.”

“Sorry Howie.” Duo groaned as softly as he could. “I’ll have the place all spiffy for you by the time you get here.” He told the grumpy man on the other end of the line. “We’re almost done packing. Gotta go.”

“Wait Duo…” The voice managed to get out before the paramedic hung up.

Duo glared at the phone in his hand and let a grin come through. “Gotta love the old guy.” He said to no one in particular as he swept his eyes through the room to see if he was forgetting anything. He found nothing left to be packed and joined in ferrying the boxes across the street with the others who had already started. Wufei who had listened to whole conversation, after shooing Quatre out, after he had had his turn in the conversation followed behind him and added his helpful arms.

They made five more trips and collapsed happily onto the couch in the apartment above the Dojo/Gym after locking up Duo’s former apartment. Quatre looked listlessly at the kitchen and reached for the phone. “Who wants pizza?” He asked as he began to dial the local pizza parlor. Four confirmations met his question.

They calmly ate it when it was delivered in relaxed comfort.