Several of the chibis “helped” Duo carry his duffle to the front door by holding onto the straps and making moving forward generally more difficult for Duo but he didn’t mind. He was sorry to have to leave the chibis so soon because he enjoyed them; it was sort of like living the childhood that he had lost whenever he had a chance to see them but he kept that to himself.

“Well, guys, I gotta go now,” Duo told the little ones as he crouched down and held out his arms to give the chibis a big group hug.

Heero whispered loudly in his ear, ”Did ya find it?”

Duo smiled and slyly winked at Melody in such a way that the chibis wouldn’t see him do it. “Nope,” he conspiratorially whispered back, with a serious expression on his face. “Didn’t get enough time.”

Heero looked disappointed. “Maybe next time, huh?” he asked hopefully.

“Maybe.”

Duo had never seen little Heero look so happy—he had almost smiled!

Melody knew exactly what Heero was looking for and also that Duo was never really going to look very hard for it.

Chibi Duo stood directly in front of his older self. “An’ then nex’ time we’ll—“

“Yep, we sure will, little buddy. And then we can all go to—“

“Really?! We’ve never been there ‘fore but we always—“

“I think she’ll think you’re old enough now. That is if you guys don’t ever do—“

“I know,” Chibi Duo answered sheepishly. “We really got in trouble for that one. But we promised—“

“And you always gotta keep your promises, right?” Duo reminded him.

“Right!” Chibi Duo answered. “’Even to girls’—but ‘SPECIALLY for our webmommie.”

“You’re gonna come back soon, right?” Chibi Relena asked with a wobbling chin and sad crystal blue eyes.

“Sure will,” Duo said brightly, which made her smile. “Just as soon as I finish with Du’s radio.” He looked over at Du, who smiled in spite of herself; he then turned to Melody. “Thanks for puttin’ up with me,” he said sincerely with such a look of innocence in his eyes that made Melody almost, but not quite forget the chaotic events of the past 24 hours.

Melody melted, as she always did when she saw sincere big blue eyes; her greatest weakness. She reached out and gave him a hug to let him know there were no hard feelings. "Next time, though, call us in advance. Please?" She returned his look of innocence with a wide-eyed stare that only moms can pull off, and he grinned a little sheepishly at her.

"Sure, yeah. No problem!" With that said he shouldered his bag and sauntered out after Du and Quatre, waving good-bye.

The chibis gathered around Melody on the step to wave good-bye as they drove off. When the car was out of sight, she felt a tug on her hand, and knelt down to look into Chibi Duo’s sincere big blue eyes.

"Nex' time, can we invite him to stay a whole week? So you can take a 'nother v'cation?"

The End