[Author's Note: It's not what I intended to write, but here it is anyway. This is a real songfic this time -- or should I say "CD story fic" -- with Surprise! no pairing. It's based on the encompassing tale that "Christmas Eve and Other Stories" tells. The story the man relates contains the sequential lyrics of the song; I figured it would look a little funny in black text. I have removed two verses because their impact was already used in a previous fic.]

"And if this kindness
We feel is just pretending
If we pretend long enough
Never giving up
It just might be who we are."
-Trans-Siberian Orchestra, "Promises to Keep"

Duo shivered as a snowflake drifted past his face. He pulled his jacket tighter around him. He didn't know why he was out wandering in the cold, or why at this time of night, but it just seemed like the thing to do. He walked down the street of an empty town that was lit by hazy streetlights and the faint glow from closed shops, accompanied by the annoying buzz of a neon sign. No one else was around, except maybe the drunkards in the bar across the street -- which sat under that damned sign.

In an old city bar
That's never too far
From the places that gather
The dreams that have been

He figured he would continue walking, as there was nothing more to see here. The wind suddenly tore at his jacket as if to stop him from walking ahead, forcing him back the way he had come. He swore quietly, then, refusing to be defeated, struck out to cross the street. He would wait out the wind for a while then finish his walk. Until then his only recourse was the bar.

In the safety of night
With its old neon light
It beckons to strangers
And they always come in

Duo pushed the door open as silently as the hinges would allow, not wanting to draw attention to himself. He blinked through the haze of smoke and dim light then shuffled toward the bar, coughing delicately as he inhaled a bit too much second-hand air.

And the snow it was falling
The neon was calling
The music was low
And the night
Christmas Eve

He slid onto one of the empty stools closest to the door. "I'll have water," he muttered when the bartender looked over from where he was cleaning a glass.
"You sure will, kid," the man groused as he set down the glass and leaned to get the gallon water bottle from below the counter.
Duo's temper reared up, causing him to slam his fist on the bar. "Hey, pal, I'm seventeen. I fought in the war. I think I've earned a right to drink if I wanted to."
The bartender didn't seem impressed but he kept quiet about it. He pushed the glass of water toward the young man then went back to cleaning cups.
Duo took one sip then decided to just gaze into the depths of the water, letting his mind wander into oblivion on its own. Hell, who needed alcohol to escape? He found it easier to blank out a bit, with his soldierly senses alert for anything. Those senses soon told him to keep an eye out as someone shuffled toward him. A man in his late thirties came up and took over the stool beside Duo. He didn't say anything at first, yet the young man had a feeling the stranger had plenty to say.

And here was the danger
That even with strangers
Inside of this night
It's easier to believe

Duo was considering another sip of water when the man elbowed him. "You look like you need something stronger." He slipped a bottle from his coat and passed it to Duo. The young man hesitated for a moment before taking a quick nip then handed the bottle back. The man tucked it away and spoke quietly, "A lot of us were in that war. Most of us lost a lot of stuff from our lives. I suppose I can understand how you feel."
Duo scowled and looked at the recesses of his glass, muttering coldly, "I lost even more than that."
The man regarded him with only half-bleary eyes. "Be that as it may." After several long minutes he said, "Mind if I tell you a story, kid?" Duo's nostrils flared at being called 'kid' again, but he nodded, allowing the man to continue. Couldn't hurt, after all. He could always shut out the pest's babbling if it became too annoying. "It was a night the same as this, with snow, and music, and plenty to drink. A bar, much the same as this. The regulars were in their usual state.
"Then the door opened wide and a child came inside that no one in the bar had seen there before. And he asked did we know that outside in the snow that someone was lost, standing outside our door.
"Then the bartender gazed through the smoke and the haze, through the window and ice to that corner streetlight where standing alone, by a broken payphone, was a girl the child said could no longer get home.
"The bartender turned and said, 'Not that I care, but how do you know this?'
"The child said, 'I've noticed if one could be home, they'd be already there.'
"Then the bartender came out from behind the bar and in all of his life was never that far. And he did something else that he thought no one saw when he took all the cash from the register draw. Then he followed the child to the girl across the street and we watched from the bar as they started to speak. Then he called for a cab and he said, 'JFK', put the girl in the cab and the cab drove away.
"And we saw in his hand that the cash was all gone, from the light that she had wished upon.
"Then he looked for the child, but the child wasn't there -- just the wind and the snow, waltzing dreams through the air. Then he walked back inside, somehow different, I think. For the rest of the night no one paid for a drink."
The man seemed to have finished, taking out the bottle again for a long swig. Duo cleared his throat, commenting quietly, "So that's what it takes to get a free drink." The man nearly choked, looking at him incredulously. Duo chuckled. "Don't worry, pops. I get your message. But I gotta get going now." He placed some bills on the counter then hopped off the stool and tried not to look like he was in a hurry to leave.

And the cynics will say
That some neighborhood kid
Wandered in on some bums
In the world where they hid

Duo loped along the street, trying too hard to put distance between himself and the bar. He was going back the way he had come instead of ahead. Only now he was on the opposite side of the street. He paused when he saw something move in the doorway of a shop.

But they weren't there
So they couldn't see
By an old neon star
On that night Christmas Eve
When the snow it was falling
The neon was calling

He stopped, stared, then poked the thing with his foot. It shifted and two bright brown eyes stared back at him uneasily. "Hey, kid, what're you doing out here? It's cold! You should get inside."
The little boy only shook his head.
Duo sighed. "Let me guess. You haven't got anyplace to go 'cause you're an orphan."
The boy nodded.
Duo sighed again and reached down, hauling the kid to his feet. He dusted him off a bit, throwing aside the tattered blanket he'd been using to supplement his threadbare clothes. Duo dug around his jeans' pocket and withdrew some bills, which he stuffed into the boy's hand. "Here. Take this and go to the bar one block down."
The boy nodded, wide-eyed. As he started to walk away, Duo turned and called out, "Wait!" He shrugged off his jacket. "Take this, too." He helped the kid into the over-sized coat, then patted his shoulder and pointed down the street. The boy nodded again and skittered away. Without even a smile Duo turned, shoving his hands into his pockets, and headed home.

And in case you should wonder
In case you should care
Why we on our own
Never went home
On that night of all nights
We were already there

If Duo had happened to hit the bar again on New Year's, when the atmosphere was slightly clearer since many more people were celebrating away from home, he would have seen that the boy he had found was there, learning to tend the bar, with the establishment's owner standing nearby looking somewhat proud of his new assistant.

"So tell me, Christmas Are we kind More this day than any other day? Or is it only in our mind And must it leave when you have gone away..." -Trans-Siberian Orchestra, "Christmas Eve and Other Stories"

(c) 2000-2004 Autumn Loweck. This work may not be copied, distributed, or reprinted without the author's permission. Character of Duo Maxwell belong to the creators of the GundamWing series, Sotsu Agency, Sunrise, Bandai, and whoever else in Japan involved in this most cool anime.