Duo scrunched up his tissue and tucked it under the cuff of his sleeve as he looked again at the arrivals board. Once more it informed him that his mother's plane had landed and disembarked, but she hadn't shown up at the gate yet and he was starting to get worried. Not that he thought anything bad had happened to her, but it was her first time travelling alone and her first time internationally and he hoped she'd fared alright and wasn't off somewhere, throwing up into a bag.

He sniffed and ignored the tissue in favour of rubbing his nose with the back of his hand. Bad manners yes but he was sick of looking like Rudolph the red nosed reindeer and the tissues weren't helping. Of course, that was the time she chose to show up, she couldn't have walked up a second or two later when he wasn't quite so obvious in his sniffle wiping.

He hugged her tight and sighed as she fussed over him and his red nose, putting up with the wrapping of her scarf around his neck in good humour. Hell, it was pink anyway, he might even keep it. Linking his arm with hers, he smiled. "Come on, lets go get your bags?"

---

Logan Airport wasn't too far out of the way and after they'd loaded her bags into the back of ToD Duo decided to take a small detour on the way home. Turning into the drive, he pulled up next to the house and left the engine idling. Heero still hadn't sold his motorbike, he noticed, although the 'For Sale' sign was still stuck on it, looking a little worse for wear.

"This is the place," he said, watching her out of the corner of his eye as she appraised the house. It wasn't the same as liking Heero but there was still a part of him that wanted her to approve of the home, to approve of America, to approve his choices to pursue staying here.

"All this land belongs to it?" she asked.

"Yep, not much in the way of neighbours." He grinned, relieved. "Not like back home at all, is it?"

His Ma looked at the house, modest by American standards but far bigger than her own, and the snow covering the land around them. She smiled. "Not at all. Now come on," she nudged him with her elbow. "Get me back to this flat of yours so I can say hello to your better half."

"Oy!" He chuckled, but complied.

---

It took them a while longer to get back to the apartment and Duo was pleased to see his Mam looking out of the window as they drove with a bright-eyed expression. As bright-eyed as a ten hour flight could make her at least. It was a country that was both similar to England and completely different and he wondered if she was noticing the things that had stood out at the very start to him, things that he now took for granted, like the power lines on the side of the road, or the sheer fact that the cars were on the opposite side. He still, even now, went to the passenger side sometimes thinking that the steering wheel would be there. His Ma though, seemed to be taking it all in stride, although he'd been amused to see her grab the handle of the car door in a white knuckled grip when he'd first turned the 'wrong' way on a dual carriageway.

One of the benefits of Baldrick Apartments was the garage for the car owners and usually Duo would pull in to it straight away. But that was when he was alone or at least didn't have things to unload from the car boot. He pulled up today just outside the building and turned off the engine. "You ready?" he asked her. A long plane flight was bad enough, but with the drive on top of it he could imagine her just wanting to get to bed right now. It was probably fortunate that she wouldn't know just what they'd done with her air bed the night before. A small challenge on who could blow better had got a bit out of hand.

Come to think of it, hopefully they wouldn't bump into any of the neighbours either. He almost wished he'd pulled up at the back entrance, which was less trafficked than the front due to the lack of the mail boxes.

She reached over to him and tucked a strand of hair behind his ear. That had been one of the other things she'd been excited to see when they'd hugged at the airport. She hadn't understood fully his reasons for growing it, perhaps he'd never really understood them himself, but it pleased her no end to see that he'd finally grown up enough to leave it behind. "Lead on MacDuff," she said with a smile that only grew when he clambered out of the car to rush to get her door for her. For all his years he was still a boy at heart, both in his and in hers, and she'd forever treat him like a snot nosed little sprog.

He fumbled with his keys, obviously excited to be showing her his first little home, with his first boyfriend already inside. It hadn't been something she'd been entirely surprised by - a mother's intuition is stronger than woman's alone - and in her past meetings with Heero she'd found him to be a considerate kind young man. He made Duo happy and she had seen that Duo did the same in return. She'd had her fair share of bad relationships in the past, perhaps it had led to her being more tolerant than others in her age bracket but she'd always felt that as long as Duo was happy, she didn't care.

He decided on leaving the bags for now in order to get his mother inside and comfortable. Fortunately there were no neighbours in the hallway and he inserted the key in the lock, turned it and opened the door with a flourish, "I could say something else but I'll stay with Ladies First"

"Not age before beauty? Good boy, looks like I brought you up right after all." His Ma walked on in with a smile and a shake of her head and immediately began casting her eye around the place curiously. Duo was pleased he'd spent the extra hour last night doing a brief clean of the place, even if it had been necessary only because of the whole airbed fiasco. It was very important that his Ma approved. He knew she did of Heero, but his lifestyle too was critical. He needed to show her he'd grown up, become an adult, found his place in-

-filtrated by pink.

It was an explosion in a candy floss factory and Heero was the guy caught pink handed.... and sleeved, and legged, and there was his mother giving Heero a kiss on the cheek to match the colour of his hat. The tree in the corner was pink, with pink lights and a pink flamingo in a santa hat was giving him an odd look from a branch near the top. The scarf around Duo's neck suddenly seemed bland and he reached out to bop the pom pom at the end of Heero's hat, the only thing right now that he could focus on that wasn't pink.

He wanted to ask 'What the fuck' but his mother would clip him around the ears. So close to being a grown up, he thought, so close.

Yet somehow he wouldn't trade it for the world, although the pink was a little overwhelming right now. He mumbled something about bags and cars and made a quick dash for the door.

Standing outside by ToD he ran his hand over the 53 decal and snorted. It was a bit hypocritical of him to be acting shocked really when he'd gone out and had something like this done to his own vehicle. At least in their own home only the three of them would be seeing the more than slightly gay santa grotto, and Heero had looked good in that suit. Very good. He hefted the bags out of the car and slammed the boot down. Time to see if his mother was coping well with the colour overload.

She wasn't even around when he walked back in but he didn't have time to be surprised because Heero was grabbing him by the scarf and shoving his tongue into Duo's mouth. He would have loved to wrap his arms around Heero and let the kiss carry on to other things but the obvious thought was that his Ma was in the bathroom and they didn't have much time. He heard a murmured "Happy belated Christmas." and when Heero stepped back he let his thumb trace the lower lip before he smiled. If Heero thought he was the only one who'd been wanting to do that then he was sadly mistaken. Or happily, depending on the outcome.

"You look like blancmange," he murmured, taking in the pinkness in all its santa suit glory. Heero was pink and fluffy and looked damn tasty. Heero's reply and the look in his eyes made Duo want to grab him and say to hell with his Ma, she'd just get a taster of what the poor neighbours had had to deal with. But he'd never dare, the fear of his mother actually seeing him was too strong. Didn't mean he couldn't pretend though and he schooled his face into a look of innocence and greeted his ma.

Heero's quick whirl round to check proved that Heero was just as worried about it as Duo was and it was a suitably evil feeling that overtook him which allowed him to slide his hand under Heero's costume and slide his tongue down the side of Heero's neck. As much as he loved his mother and was excited that she was here, he'd have liked it if right now she'd decided to go and sleep off her jet lag in a sound proof room and let them be for just a few hours. Duo grinned - still with a touch of evil - and flopped back into the love seat seconds before the flushing of the toilet indicated that his mother would soon be back out. The relief on Heero's face clashed with the flush - pink of course - as he entered the bathroom, and Duo found himself grinning even more.

Ma looked back at Heero and turned to Duo with an eyebrow raised in question. Duo shrugged, "One too many strawberry milkshakes I think," he said with a laugh.

"Aah." His mother was a canny soul and he knew that hadn't fooled her for a second but she was good enough to keep her thoughts to herself on that one, which was something she was sadly not going to do about the decor. He could tell from the amused little crook of her lips - the same crook that he'd inherited - that she was going to say at least a little something on it.

"Is this compensation for when I didn't let you have that pink bicycle for Christmas?"

"Which one was that?"

"You remember... the Barbie one, with the pink stabilizers and the streamers coming out of the handlebars."

Oh God. His flush probably matched Heero's, he thought. "It wasn't because it was pink." It was probably futile but he found some small desire to at least pretend to retaliate. "It had no crossbar and I could climb off it easy." The BMX that he'd ended up receiving had been good, although he'd never seen a need to use the bike for tricks and the seat had been just a shade too uncomfortable to make him want to ride much anyway. He figured it was probably designed by the wife of the guy who created stilletos.

"Sure, sure." She waved off his reply, taking a sip from her drink... from her sippy cup... her pink sippy cup. Despite himself he felt his own little crooked smile clicking into place.

"Bet it's been a while since you drank from one of those."

"Not really. You used one until you were ten I seem to remember and you never, ever finished off your milk. Now go and do something useful. Move that Herbie of yours off the road and let me spend a bit of time with my favourite son in law without you hovering around like a blue arsed fly."

"Yes Mam." He saluted, bowed stiffly from the waist and walked out of the apartment.

---

It was a good thing she wanted to be alone with Heero. Even though she'd already met him on a number of occasions it was nice that she was spending the time to learn even more. In the end though he was just grateful that she accepted his lifestyle choice with such ease. He wanted Heero and his mother to get along more than he'd wanted anything in a long time; barring Heero of course. Even Heero in a pink santa suit surrounded by a grotto that would make Mrs. Claus highly concerned ignited that flame inside him. That pink flame.

Who would have ever thought that a cheap dollar store umbrella would have sparked this.

He drove ToD into his garage and locked the car down, barely stopping to pull down the garage door before heading back to the apartment. Ma's memory had sparked with the pink bike and he was, quite frankly, scared about what else she might see fit to talk about while he was away. When he walked back into the apartment he noticed straight away that she wasn't there. Heero was alone, sitting in the love seat and he glanced over with a silent question.

"Sleeping."

Duo nodded, understandable. She'd probably be out for a while. When he did the trip it was bad enough but she was older and less used to travel. Heero seemed slightly cocky now, sitting there, lounging back and Duo smirked, knowing exactly how he'd have liked to fill in their time alone.

Well, they'd have to be quiet, but there was no reason they had to sit there completely chastely. They had a good five hours at least. Plenty of time.

The glint in his eye was matched by Heero's as he murmured a soft, "have you been a good boy, Thanta?"

Heero's reply was soundless but it told him all he needed to know.

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