Work Text:
The morning's alright. Not great by any means, but tolerable. I mean, it's hardly a surprise when Duo drops the coffee pot instead of using it to pour himself a generous mug-full -- Hilde's always saying he shouldn't be allowed to function before he's been awake for more than twenty minutes, and he's already running late because he screwed up his alarm the night before. Stubbing his toe moments later is just cause-and-effect, and he's glad to escape the experience without more than that bruise and a scraped up palm from when he cleans up the glass.
So, not out-of-the-ordinary, but still not the best start. He makes it into work without much more going wrong, not that the five minute walk leaves a lot of room for calamity, and settles in for another regular day of salvage-work. It even looks like he'll manage it, initially -- they're low on intake at the moment, so he's mostly focused on paperwork. It's hardly his favorite thing, but Hilde refused point-blank to take on any of it, and Howard started monkeying with Duo's take-home pay when he tried pushing too much of it onto the other Sweepers, so it's an evil he's learned to cope with. He's even got a pretty good rhythm going and manages to finish off a huge ream of tax and import/export forms (honestly, just because they're living on an international space colony doesn't mean they should have to deal with everyone's tax codes, and would it kill anyone to allow digital copies? One of these days he's going to cash in his favors from Relena and get some kind of exemptions added). Then the phone goes off.
He can see it happening in slow motion, a drawn out moment as he's reaching for the handset and his arm knocks into the (possibly over-sized) cup of soda he'd gotten from the shop down the road. It wobbles, allowing him a brief moment of hope, before toppling over and drenching the forms he'd helpfully spread across the table instead of pulled into a neat stack. He stands, phone in his hand, and stares open-mouthed at the destruction.
"Duo? Is the phone not working again? Hello, Duo?" Hilde repeats, and he brings the phone up to his ear, but still doesn't respond. "I can hear you breathing. You're lucky no one actually calls the office line."
"Hilde," he manages, trying to come up with something other than 'I'm going to go jump off a cliff before anything else goes wrong with my day.'
"Yeeeep," she says, clearly amused. "Listen, Howard's on his way in with another load. Make sure you sign off on it before you head out for the day." She waits a few seconds for a response before continuing. "Thanks so much for the heads up, Hilde, it means I won't get chewed out for locking Howard out of the yard again. I just don't know what I'd do without you." Another pause. "Bye, Duo."
He gently places the handset back in his cradle and uses one of the still-dry sheets to try and stop some of the soda from dripping off of the desk. All in all, a lost cause. He grabs a shirt he'd left in the office a few weeks back, for whatever reason, and drops it in the middle of the puddle. Either Hilde'll deal with it in the morning, or he'll find it again when he makes his way back to his desk. He really can't find the energy to deal with it at the moment.
He un-keys the locks so Howard can come in whenever, grabs the handset, and heads for the couch, dialing as he goes. He's just flopped down, setting the pillow on top of his face, when the call connects.
"Yuy."
"Hey, man," he says, letting his free arm drop to hang toward the ground. "Tell me you've had an amazing day."
"It's a Wednesday," Heero says, sounding simultaneously amused, concerned, and his usual level of neutral.
"Nope, I'm not buying it." Duo shakes his head, catching (and then dropping) the pillow before it falls. "Today's some weird extra day crafted special to screw me over."
"You're alright," it's not quite a question, but the scales have definitely tilted over to 'concern.'
"Yeah, yeah, nothing's hurt but my hand and productivity for the day." Duo waves a hand, sitting up. "Well, and the coffee pot took a header in the kitchen."
"You broke the coffee pot?" Still concerned, but with a very different target.
"Yeah, uh, may want to pick another one up on your way back tonight? Unless you're okay with no caffeine first thing." Or not coming back tonight, he refuses to add. It's Wednesday, Heero's been gone for two weeks already, he's coming home tonight, dammit. Heero doesn't immediately respond, though, which isn't exactly reassuring. "Did something happen? Wufei promised he'd let you go today, I knew I should have made the bastard put it in writing. I swear he does this just to--"
"Duo."
"--piss me off, it's not like I've even been--"
"Duo, I'm coming home," Heero interrupts more firmly.
"You are?"
"I should be back in about fifteen minutes." A pause. "So I'm too close to pick up anything."
"Right." Duo blows out a heavy exhale. "Right, that's fine. Great, even. I'm glad to hear it."
"Do you need me to meet you at work?" It's teasing, but it's also heartfelt -- if Duo said he needed Heero there, he'd be there in a heartbeat, and he knows it.
"Nah. I'll see you in an hour or so. Love you."
"Love you, too. Be careful."