Zechs relaxed a little, as he stepped through the door to Purgatory. Dorothy looked up from Epyon, grinning crookedly at him.
"How's Relena?"
"Fine. On her way to L6."
"And Lowell?"
"I suspect it's going to be a long trip for him," Zechs sighed. "I don't think he gets along well with either Winner or Chang."
"Well...no. That's probably my fault." She sighed. "But he's also very diplomatic. He won't let his personal feelings toward them get in the way of protecting your sister."
"I know. I trusted him with Duo's life- I can trust him with Relena's."
"I thought you trusted me with my own life," Duo muttered as he stepped out of the back room and headed for the coffeemaker. "I can't believe we're all up this early on Christmas morning."
"And that is unusual how?"
"Mmm. True." Taking his cup of coffee, Duo flopped onto the couch in his usual sprawl. "Uh... speaking of which, we may need to get a new air-mattress soon."
"Oh?" Zechs frowned. "Is it leaking?"
"Not-exactly." Duo sighed, then flushed a little. "But at the rate we're all having nightmares, I'm gonna have to start sleeping on the couch soon."
"I'm sorry, Duo." Dorothy threw him a stricken look.
"Not like you asked for them. But those are some seriously fucked up dreams." He shook his head. "Just thought I'd mention it, so that you guys didn't think...well... that I don't want to sleep with you or anything."
"We understand, Duo." Zechs moved around the table to one of the file cabinets. "We'll figure something out. But in the meantime, it's Christmas. And Purgatory is taking the morning off."
"Cool." Duo closed his eyes, only to open them again when something dropped onto his lap. "What's this?"
"A Christmas present."
"Oh." Duo regarded the plain silver package for a moment, then winced. "I--hadn't had a chance to get you guys anything."
"I didn't expect you to have," Zechs shrugged. "You came back alive from that last case. That's present enough right there."
"Yeah...well, thank Lowell for that one." Duo looked embarrassed.
"I already did." Zechs grinned at him, then slid a present across the table to Dorothy. When he looked up again, it was to see Solo sprawled out in his usual place in the center of the conference table. The miniature tree was embedded in one knee, and the ghost was poking at the tiny lights with a transparent finger. To his relief, Treize was sitting on one of the chairs at the table, while Sister Helen stood behind Dorothy's chair. "It's about time you guys showed up."
"Huh? Oh. Right. Everyone's here?" Duo glanced around curiously.
"Yes." Zechs smiled, and pulled a bag out of the drawer where he'd stashed Duo and Dorothy's presents.
"You got them presents?" Dorothy asked, raising one eyebrow curiously as he poured the contents of the bag into an untidy pile on the table. "Shit. I didn't even think of that. I don't even have a present for you guys."
'You got us gifts?' Treize asked at almost the same moment. 'Um... that's nice, but I don't think we'll be able to unwrap them, much less use them.'
"They aren't exactly for you- they're more for us." Zechs sighed. "And I'll unwrap them for you."
'Oh, so we were merely excuses so you could buy more gifts for yourself.' Treize rolled his eyes.
"Not exactly," Zechs sighed. "And they aren't all for you guys." He separated out four flat packages from the pile. Tossing one to Dorothy, he dropped a second onto Duo's lap and placed the tiny tree on the third. The fourth he kept for himself. "These are for the living members of Purgatory. Though Lowell will have to get his when he gets back."
"He's transferring in permanently?" Dorothy asked curiously, picking up the last present and squeezing it thoughtfully.
"I still have to talk to Une, but he signed the transfer request this morning."
"Huh," Duo muttered. "That should be... interesting. Hope he doesn't mind sleeping on the couch though."
"I think he'll probably be content with just using the office." Zechs sighed. "Assuming he wants to move down here. Une will probably want his desk space though, and it would be easier not to have to run up and down the stairs all the time."
"He's going to have to be content with just the office," Dorothy muttered. "He's a nice guy, and all, but I'm sticking with you two."
"That's good to know." Duo grinned at her, then ducked the pen she threw at him. "Hope he doesn't freak out when he realizes we don't leave the office at night though."
"He... may have already figured that one out." Dorothy rolled her eyes at Duo. "Considering most of our think tank sessions were at night."
"Right. You can open those, if you want." Zechs ignored their antics as he sorted out the remaining four gifts in the pile. "I'll open these for the...non-living members of Purgatory."
To his surprise, Duo and Dorothy both stopped tearing at the paper on the gifts to look at him expectantly. Suddenly self-conscious, he hesitated.
"No- I really want to see what you consider a gift for a ghost." Duo leaned forward. "That way I know what to get next year." He shrugged. "We never even knew about Christmas when we were on the streets. This will be Solo's first present ever."
That fact hadn't even occurred to Zechs, and he turned worried eyes towards Solo. The ghost had curled up in the center of the table, though he was watching Zechs warily from beneath a tangle of hair and limbs.
"In that case, I'll open Solo's first." Zechs smiled at the ghost gently. "It's actually- sort of a present for both of you."
"Oh?" Duo blinked, and Solo looked a little disappointed, though he hid it by looking bored with the whole proceeding. "Um...okay."
Zechs unwrapped a yellow plate, hand painted with the image of a young man playing the flute to a rapt crowd of rats. "It's the Pied Piper." Seeing equally blank looks on both Duo's and Solo's face, he continued the explanation. "He played music to lead all the rats out of a town. When the villagers refused to pay him, he came back. And that time he took all the children."
"Huh," Duo muttered, leaning forward to look at the plate more closely before Zechs pushed it across the table towards Solo. "Why's it for both of us though?"
"Because if I put the plate out, then you know Solo's in the room-and more or less where he is. I figured it would make it easier if you wanted to talk directly to him."
"Oh." Duo sat silently for a moment, then smiled slowly. "Cool. Wait...he's sitting on the table?"
Zechs nodded, and then looked back at Solo. The kid was trying to look tough, but after a moment he uncurled enough to run a finger over the painted design on the plate. 'Merry Christmas, Solo.'
Grey eyes darted up to meet his, before the younger man ducked his head again and went back to studying the gift. Out of the corner of his eye, Zechs saw Treize relax and sit back with a sigh. Sister Helen moved around to speak softly to Solo, who shyly moved a little so that she could see the plate.
"The next is for Sister Helen," Zechs said quietly, pushing a blue and white plate with a stylized image of Notre Dame Cathedral across the table until it rested next to Solo's.
'It's lovely.' She looked almost embarrassed, but pleased at the same time. 'Thank you.'
"Treize." That plate held an image of a single rose. "And Epyon." He pushed the fourth plate towards Dorothy. Epyon's plate was plain black, with only a burst of color in the center that matched the paua shell on Dorothy's bracelet. "Not that we can't normally tell where Epyon is, but it didn't feel right to leave him out."
"Thank you," Dorothy whispered, staring down at the plate a little blankly.
"So open your presents..." Zechs finally prompted. Duo looked down at the gift in his lap, and finally pulled off the paper to reveal a black T-shirt bearing the word Purgatory in gray letters on the front. Turning it over revealed the familiar words: Abandon Hope all Ye who Enter.
"Cute." Duo grinned at him, then looked over to see Dorothy holding up a matching shirt. "One for each of us."
"It seemed appropriate." Zechs grinned back at him. "So open the first one, already." He watched quietly as Duo picked up the first present he'd given him and tore the paper off. A pair of leather, fingerless biker gloves dropped into Duo's lap.
"Oh." Duo picked them up in surprise. "You think that will work?"
"It should. You'll still be able to touch things when you need to, but it will also give you a shielded way to grab onto something if necessary. They're lined with silk, which is supposed to- provide psychic insulation, as it were."
"Huh. Who'd you ask for that information?" Duo threw him a quick glance as he pulled the gloves on.
"Lowell, of all people. Seeing as he grew up around someone with the Sight, as he called it, I figured he was a good source for information. Or at least knew who to ask."
"He must not have thought you were too crazy then, since he still signed the papers to transfer into Purgatory." Duo glanced up mischievously. "Or did you ask him after he signed?"
"Before." Zechs shook his head, then turned to Dorothy. She was holding a second T-shirt in her hands. When she caught him looking, she made a face at him.
"Very funny."
"What's it say?" Duo moved off the couch to lean on the table near Zechs.
"Don't Make Me Call Out My Flying Monkeys." She turned the shirt around to show them the blood red letters. "Thanks Zechs. I take it this is a subtle hint to stop borrowing clothes from you guys?"
"You needed more T-shirts," Zechs grinned. "At least for when we're staying here." He watched in fascination as both Duo and Dorothy looked at him; it was obvious exactly when the true meaning behind his words hit them, since both of them blushed in unison.
"You know, I think this is going to be a lot of fun."
"Pervert," Duo grumbled. Dorothy settled for throwing a ball of wrapping paper at his head.
"Merry Christmas, guys." They sat in silence for a few moments, savoring what all of them knew was only the last of the calm before the storm hit.
Cryswell scowled as the emergency lights flickered for the eighth time, threatening to leave them with nothing but the flashlights strapped to their suits.
"Damn but it's creepy as hell down here," Frost echoed his thoughts as the team moved farther down the debris-strewn corridors. "How the hell can anyone live on this tin can?"
"They can't afford to leave," Cryswell snapped. "Look sharp, men. Captain Barton was right to insist on us wearing suits down here. Don't hole them."
"Yeah..." Ivanovich ran his wristlight over the ice crystals coating the wall. "Hull security is probably okay, but you'd freeze to death."
"Thanks for the comfort and encouragement," Frost growled. "I feel so much happier about drawing this shit duty."
"Frost!"
"Yeah, yeah. Sorry Sarge." The man waved a hand at the mess around them. "But seriously, there are entire sections of this colony that decompressed during the war, and no one ever fixed them. That's just- nasty."
"That's why we're wearing suits," Cryswell answered. "We can't be sure that there's still an environment in the control room."
"How much farther?"
"Aw... does Ivan got to pee?"
"No, I'm just tired of listening to you whine." Ivanovich flipped off his teammate. "Sarge?"
"Shouldn't be much farther," Cryswell sighed. "We'd be there already if Frost could read a map."
"Hey- sue me. The map didn't show a fucking three way split in the hallway, now did it?"
"Just shut up and keep walking, Frost," Cryswell snapped. "That's an order."
tbc