Disclaimers: None of these characters belong to me, yadda, yadda,
yadda.
This is a story to remind all of us that there are less
fortunate people out there in this world who need food, clothing,
and some unconditional love. All are C&C welcomed. (Please be
gentle. This is only my second fic. ~whimper~)
A Miracle Christmas
By Alan Kim
[Sister Mary, Sister Racheal, Sister Judith. The three nuns of an
orphanage.] (December 15 AC199, Bronx, New York City,
New York. The orphanage is a dark old church with the white
paint is pealing off. The inhabitants of this church are
frozen from the lack if heat, warm clothes, and emaciated
from the lack of food. The three nuns that run this church
are sorrowed from their situation.)
Sister Judith, the eldest of the three nuns began their
nightly prayers in their room. "Please, dear Lord. Have mercy
upon these unfortunate souls in this orphanage. The children has
enough sorrow of the lost of their parents from the war. Please
have mercy upon the unfortunate souls in this orphanage."
"Amen," they chorused.
[Duo] (December 20)
I walked aimlessly in the city. *Maybe I should be going
back to our temporary residence and start on my homework,*I
thought. Nahh. Not in the mood. Depressed, me? Naw, just a bit
upset with Heero. He just doesn't care for me, or any of the
others. And Christmas is coming. Is he getting any gifts ready
for us? No. I don't think that he even cares for any of us.
I'm his lover and he hardly gives me anything, save for those
special moments in our bedroom. ~sigh~ *What am I ever gonna do
with him?* I looked at my unfamiliar surroundings. *Where am I
anyway?*
I looked to the right. It was an orphanage, a very run-down
church, to be exact. In some ways, it was like dejavu again. But
the kids I saw inside were alot worse off than I ever was. At
least I wasn't half starved to death. It harrowed my heart just
to seeing those kids with their emaciated limbs and their lips
blue form the cold. Their clothing were nothing but rags that
hung on their frail, thin bodies. Somehow this place pulled at
me, grabbed all of my attention. An idea sprung up in my head.
I'm gonna do some charity work. I have enough time. I
still have five days left before Christmas. *But where am I gonna
get the money? I'd already spent my allowance on gifts for the
guys.* I thrust my hands into my pockets and walked a little more
out of the cold. *Hmmm.* I snapped my fingers. *Quatre, that's
it. He's rich enough to lend a few thousand dollars to a
desperate friend.* I rubbed my hands together. *Quatre, my
personal bank.* I ran home immediately.
[Quatre]
"Fifty thousand dollars? Of course I can lend you the
money. But Duo, why do you need so much money?" I watched Duo
closely. Not that I didn't trust him, it's just that he seemed to
be hiding something and a bit hesitant to share his secret with me.
"Uh, it's a bit of a surprise gift for somebody. Don't
worry. I'll pay you back." He looked up at me sheepishly, "but it
might take a while."
I smiled at him and handed him a check. *He looks so
happy.* Actually, he was prancing about in my room and had just
tried to squeeze the life out of me. It must be a gift for Heero.
Yuy is one lucky guy to have such a wonderful lover.
[Trowa] (December 21, four more days till Christmas)
He's taking too long. *What's Duo doing in there?* I did
the next best thing to breaking down the door; I banged on it.
"Duo, what are you doing in the bathroom? Did you crawl in and
die in there?"
There was a muffled reply through the door. "Geez, Trowa.
What do you think I'm doing in here? I'm doing some, uh, business
in here."
"You've been doing business for almost two hours! The
others have to go, too. Especially me!!" *Was there something
wrong with him? Yesterday he claims that he was doing business
in the bathroom, too. For almost three whole hours! And Quartre
told me about Duo's $50,000 loan. Something fishy is going on. I
wonder...* "Duo, hurry up. I have to GO!!"
[Heero] (December 22, three days before Christmas)
"Where's Duo?" I looked up from my papers. Trowa's looking
to me for an answer.
"I don't know. He got up and left early this morning."
Wait a minute. That's not right. *Duo* getting up and leaving
early! That's the second day in a row he did that. It's so
unlike him.
"Maybe he went to get gifts," suggested Quatre. "He did
borrow $50,000 from me." He looked at me with a sparkle in his
eyes. "You're one lucky guy, Heero. I think that the gifts are
for you. He did seem a bit embarrassed when I asked what the
money was for."
"That's impossible," I responded. "I already found the
presents he got for us under the bed." The whole room became
quiet at my response. Something was wrong, I'm sure of it.
Trowa sipped his coffee and, as calm as ever, said "maybe he
found another lover. He has been pretty evident that he was upset
with you. I would guess it's a woman, since he needed such a large
amount of money."
Wufei jumped out of his seat. "That double crossing cur.
How could he do such a thing to Heero? And if he is going to keep
a woman, he should make his own money! Why give him a woman
without work? We should demand justice!"...and Wufei is off,
yelling about justice and protecting the weak. It was getting
annoying. I was getting annoyed. *Duo had another lover? He
wouldn't, would he? I was becoming so confused. Why would Wufei
care? It must be the caffine from the fifteen cups of tea. *My
God, will someone shut Wufei up?* Trowa seemed to have read my
mind. He reached into his pocket an pulled out a picture of a
woman...in the nude.
As prudish as Wufei is, he fainted immediately with a nose
bleed. I nodded my thanks to Trowa and began to plan my next move.
*Duo, you've got a lot of explaining to do.*
[Duo] (December 23, two days before Christmas)
For the past two days I sat outside of one of the church
windows. No, I'm not planning a burglery, just watching and
surveying the kids, counting them up, estimating their age, and
size. No, I'm not planning on kidnapping the kids, just trying to
get suitable gifts for each one. *Hmm. There's seventeen kids an
three nuns.*
Good, I'm almost ready. The guys are getting suspicious.
I'll start my second part of my plan tomorrow and get this over
with.
[Sister Mary]
There goes that black shadow again. I keep seeing that
shadow for the past two days. I never said anything, thinking
that it was only an image of my imagination. *The hunger must be
getting to me,* I thought.
[Wufei] (December 24, Christmas Eve)
Heero came up with a great idea to catch that wretched
double crossing cur red-handed. He had hidden a very minute
tracking device among Duo's shoelaces.
*After we catch him in the act, I, Wufei, shall punish him.*
I watched him steal a van. So, now he had resorted to
thievery, stealing from the innocent. *He doesn't even have a
driver's licence. Hn, well, no matter what, in the name of the
law, I shall punish him!*
[Duo] (Inside the van that he had stolen.)
My, what a day. Shopping, shopping, and more shopping.
The back of the van was full of gifts for the church.
The first thing I did was buy $500 worth of candy. The guy
at the store was so happy to get such a big order. The next stop
was the toy store. It was so hard, especially getting the toys at
Christmas Eve, but I found enough. Some of them were pretty nice
and just right for the kids' ages.
I bought another $500 of board games, dolls, toy cars, and
some sportgoods. Then I raided the department stores for sweaters,
jackets, scarves, mittens and hats. For the girls, there were
extra ribbons, combs, and stockings. I also bought shoes of all
sizes. That cost me another $2,000, but it was worth it. I got
about three sets of clothing and extra comforters for each of the
kids and nuns. The last stop I made was to the bookstore, where
I bought books on science, math, and history. I also bought comics
and story books for entertainment. After a full day, it was
finally night. I looked at my watch.
*Hmm. Eleven o'clock already. I think they're all asleep by now.
It's time to play Santa Claus!*
[Heero]
I watched Duo enter the church with some of the things he
had bought today. *What was he planning?* We waited for him to
come out for a second load.
[Duo]
I carefully picked the lock, which wasn't that hard, and
went in. I found a stick, a very poor excuse for a Christmas tree
and began to place the presents underneath, when I heard a scream.
I turned around to face an ashen-faced nun, Sister Mary. I
quickly ran to her and clasped my hand over her mouth to quiet
her before he woke the others. Sister Mary was a young and
beautiful nun, but right now she was terrified. I tried to calm
her down. "Please, Sister Mary, I'll explain everything. I'll
let you go now, just promise me not to scream, okay?" She nodded.
"Okay, I'll take off my hand, but remember that you promised not
to scream. And you're not supposed to break your promises." I
took my hand off her mouth.
She's still a bit shaken but she managed to say, "who are
you and what are you doing here? Please don't rob us. We're poor
enough already and have seventeen orphans to take care of. Please
have mercy on us." Good God! She thought I was here to rob them.
I smiled at her. "I can run, and I can hide, but I never lie. My
name is Duo Maxwell. Don't worry, Sister. I'm here to help.
Right now, I've got a whole van full of gifts. Would you like to
help me?"
She beamed up at me. "Oh, thank you, you kind sir. Our
prayers have been answered." She followed me outside.
[Quatre]
*Whoah!* After waiting for about twenty minutes, Duo came out
with a short, young nun. I watched them bring the things inside.
That's when it finally dawned upon me what he was doing. And he
kept this a secret from us? No matter. I felt a huge smile
spread on my face. *Duo, you're an angel.*
[Wufei]
A nun? He took a young, pretty nun for a lover? How dare
taint the saint of God? In the name of God, he should be punished!
[Trowa]
So he was doing charity and didn't tell us? Why not?
We decided to find out why. We all walked up to the couple with
their load of gifts. Duo was startled. After he had gathered his
composure, he gave us a huge smile. "Hi guys. Fancy seeing you
here," he said.
I couldn't believe it. Did he take us all for idiots?
"Duo," I asked, "Why didn't you tell us?"
"I'm sorry. I just didn't want to bother you and Quatre
with this. I can't have a happy Christmas with Heero, so I didn't
want to disturb you two from having a happy holiday yourselves.
You know that I grew up in a orphanage and you all know what this
means to me. And I can't tell Heero because he wouldn't care for
it. And I couldn't tell Mr. Macho here because he wouldn't care
for it."
I watched Heero walk up to Duo. "You could have asked. I
would have helped."
"Really? Oh, Heero, thank you." He walked up to Heero and
kissed him on the cheek. If looks could kill, the glare that
Heero gave Duo would have killed him within a second. The rest
of us were either studying our shoelaces or the stars, pretending
none of that happened.
"Do you all want to help me?" We nodded. "Great, let's get
started."
[Wufei]
Damn. I guess I was wrong about Duo. In all my life, this
was the most meaningful thing I had ever done. We put the presents
under the the stick, or maybe it was a tree. Then we put the
comforters on each of the children. The other nuns woke up as we
put the comforters on them. They looked so happy as Duo gave them
the leftover money. By the time we were done, it was already one
in the morning.
[Heero] (December 25)
It was already Christmas morning, and we exchanged presents.
Duo gave me a cover for my laptop, to protect it. I hadn't gotten
present for any of the others, but I did have a surprise gift for
Duo. *Heh. Idiot didn't guess I got him a present for Christmas.*
I waited until we retired into our rooms before I handed him his
present. He opened it carefully, as if it contained a bomb.
[Duo]
A present! I had never expected one from him. It was a
small box but it was from him none the less. I opened it
carefully, afraid to break it. It was a small jewery case with a
golden ring inside. Heero took the ring out of the box and
slipped it on my left ring finger. He looked up at me with all
the emotion he could with his eyes. "Merry Christmas," he said,
and gave me a fervent kiss.
[Narrator]
With the stars, above the warring colonies and planets,
beyond the range of the mobile suits guns, God looked down on a
Christmas despite the sadness, and touched Earth with a little magic.