Melody was putting mugs of hot cocoa on the table on that cold morning when she realized that she had forgotten to get some warm things for Heero for winter. He hadn’t complained when it started to get colder outside; cold didn’t seem to bother him. It didn’t usually snow this early in the year, anyway. She had gotten snow suits on sale the previous spring and had hung them in the chibis’ closets until they were needed, so buying one for Heero had completely slipped her mind. So when Heero came into the kitchen she apologized for overlooking this important thing and promised to take him shopping that afternoon.

“That’s not ness’ary,” Heero informed her in his monotone voice; he looked disgusted. “I already seen Relena’s an’ I’m not gonna wear nothin’ like that.”

“Relena has a girls’ snow suit. I’ll get a boys’ one for you,” Melody explained, smothering a smile as her mind conjured up an image of how funny Heero would look in a pink snow suit like Relena’s.

“I still don’t need one,” Heero said stubbornly. “An’ I’m NOT goin’ shoppin’, neither.”

Since he had been so uncooperative, Melody decided to pick out a snow suit for Heero without his input as to which one he liked best. He hadn’t lived with them for very long, but she already knew that when he said he wasn’t going to do something that there was usually no arguing with him. Because of his contrariness she had learned to choose her battles.

Relena’s second-favorite hobby, after Adoring Heero, was Shopping, so she begged and pleaded to accompany Melody and help her pick out a suit for Heero. She was sure that Melody wouldn’t get just the right one if she wasn’t there to help her, but she didn’t say that when she was trying to persuade Melody to let her go.

“Oh, please, please, PLEASE can I go with?” she persisted, bouncing up and down on her toes the whole while. “I know jus’ what color he’ll look good in.”

“Okay, I guess you can come with me,” Melody caved; she knew that going with Relena would take at the very least twice as long as if she went alone, but it was a nice Girls Only time to spend with the enthusiastic little shopper so she agreed. “But just remember that he’s a boy and will not wear a pink snow suit.”

“I know THAT,” Relena answered. “But there’s all kinds of colors of blue that he could wear. Blue would be good ‘cause it would make his big blue eyes EVEN BLUER.” She sighed happily at the thought.

“You're right,” said Melody, and she took the little self-proclaimed family fashion expert to the Mall of America, which was where Relena wanted to go “’Cause they gots more stores there than ANYWHERES ELSE IN THE WORLD!” Which was true. Which was also why Melody didn’t like to go there. It seemed to her that the Mega-Mall, as it is known locally, got bigger every time she went there, but it was most likely the fact that Melody was just not ‘born to shop’ that created that illusion.

So after a long afternoon of shopping, ice cream, gooey hot cinnamon rolls and shopping, the two bargain hunters came home.

Heero was playing cars on the Nursery floor with the other boys when Relena came running into the room and nearly knocked him over because she was so excited. “Guess what we got for you, pumkin?” she exclaimed, not waiting for his answer. “It’ll make your blue eyes look EVEN DREAMIER!”

Heero had forgotten where Melody and Relena had gone and he didn’t care about whatever it was that this annoying girl was gabbling about. He kept right on playing and ignored her completely. When she didn’t get a reaction, Relena realized that Melody would have to bring the bag upstairs and show it to him.

Melody dragged herself up to the Nursery; she felt as though they had shopped in every store in the Mall. She was amazed that Relena could still have so much energy left after all of that walking, but she’d forgotten how little sugar it took to “fuel” her active little girl. She sat on Trowa’s bed, but before she could do it herself, Relena yanked the unwanted one-piece garment out of the huge bag.

“Heero! Look! Look!” she shouted louder than necessary. “Here’s your new snow suit an’ it’s baby blue—“ She heard Melody cough and remembered that she had been told not to say that. “--Ah, I mean it’s Powder Blue an’ it’ll make your eyes look abs’lutely gor-gee-us!” She unzipped the long zipper and held it out so he could try it on for size.

“I’m not wearin’ that,” Heero stated firmly.

This was one of those times in which Melody would have to choose to battle with her stubborn new chibi. “Heero, you will wear this when you go outside as long as there is snow.”

“I jus’ won’t leave the house,” Heero countered.

“Any time that you will not leave the house like you are supposed to to go wherever we need to go to you will be punished for not cooperating,” Melody threatened. “And then you’ll have to wear it and go anyway.”

”What kinda punishmint?” Heero shrewdly asked.

“You’ll have to find that out for yourself, now, won’t you?” Melody answered mysteriously. “I am not going to talk about this anymore—this is non-negotiable. You will wear your snow suit. If you don’t like it that’s too bad because you should have come shopping with us so that you could have chosen one you liked.” Melody put the bag which held Heero's other unwanted winter necessities on his bed before she went downstairs.

The next morning Heero stood by the back porch door, hastily pulling his hood over his shaggy dark brown hair and slipping his feet into the boots that Melody had bought for him along with ‘that thing’ that she unreasonably insisted he must wear. Just the thought of having to wear it embarrassed him at first, but he had gotten used to the idea rather quickly. He put his navy blue mittens into his pocket, zipped it shut and left the long matching, useless-looking scarf on the bench. He ran outside, a baby blue blur streaking past the kitchen window, in hopes that Melody would not see him. Well, see him she did and she wondered why he looked so strange; even at top speed she could tell something was different about him. She headed him off at the front door and called him to her before he could get far.

“Heero Yuy, just what have you done to your snow suit?” Melody demanded incredulously. She could see that he had drawn all over it in black marker; when he got near enough she could smell that he had used a permanent marker, so any hopes of washing the ink out were instantly dashed.

Heero looked at her with his defiant, large blue eyes, which appeared even bluer under the blue hood. “I ‘mproved it, that’s all,” he stated as if that would explain everything. “It’s baby blue, even if you wanna call it powder blue, but it’s still baby blue. So ‘cause I gotta wear it I jus’ made it more manly-lookin’.”

Melody took a good look at his artistry and turned him around. What she saw she should not have been surprised to see, being that this was Heero and this was his idea of ‘manly’. All over the baby blue suit, covering it from top to bottom on both sides were Heero’s drawings of guns, knives, beam sabers, hand grenades, cannon, flame-throwers and on the back was a quite good drawing for his age of a mobile suit, all in black permanent marker.

“If I gotta wear it it’s gonna look like this,” he boldly informed his astonished and rather amused webmommie.

Melody did not laugh, but she wanted to. “Ya gotta love him,” she thought as she sent him on his way.