New Haven

Chapter Fifty-Four: Dinner out and Meeting Old Friends.
The five men followed the stiff backed maitre’de through the elegant interior of the famous ‘Coliers’ restaurant. It was said to have one of the most famous chefs in the world. An other happened to be one of said about Duo. The floral and fauna set strategically around the room set an air of semi privacy for the occupants.
“Tell me again how they convinced us to go out to dinner?” Trowa asked softly as they were seated at one of the most expensive restaurants in the city.
“Blackmail.” Heero muttered as he was seated.
Duo chuckled as he looked over the menu. Wufei was seated beside him. “Excuse me.” He murmured to the maitre’de. “Is Caleb cooking tonight?”
“Yes. Chef Montelo is cooking tonight.” The maitre’de answered stiffly.
“Could you tell him an old friend is here and would like to speak with him.” Duo told the man. He ignored the sneer. “Give him my description and he’ll come running.”
“I doubt it.” They heard the maitre’de mutter as he moved away from the table.
Duo looked after the man and shrugged. “I’ll ask the waiter.”
Wufei rolled his eyes at his lover. “Who is Caleb?” He murmured as he looked over the menu.
“I went to Julliard with him. He was second in the class. He got over the fact that I was the best and we became good friends.” Duo told the table of men.
“Then he has to be an excellent chef.” Quatre murmured as he looked over the menu. “Though I doubt he can outdo anything you have cooked for us so far. We are getting spoiled.” Quatre looked up from the menu to view a chef holding one of the swinging doors open to view the occupants of the restaurant. “I think we might have some attention soon.” He whispered is an aside to Duo as he sat at the head of the table his lovers occupying the side across from Duo and Wufei.
Duo turned slightly and winked at the chef. It wasn’t Caleb but he knew that Caleb would get a message from the man. He turned back and leaned into Wufei slightly. “I recommend the eggplant parmesan. Caleb does a superb job on it. Or if you really want something almost as good as mine I can convince him to do duck a l’orange for you.”
Wufei slowly raised his eyes to peer at his fiancé. “Ohhh, you have enough influence to convince him to do so?” Wufei questioned with a sultry look.
Duo blinked and gave a soft smile in return. “I think I can convince him. He likes a challenge.”
“Hello gentlemen.” A deep rumbling voice intruded on the men perusing the menus. “I’m not usually the server but I do make exceptions occasionally. My name is Caleb Montelo.”
Five men looked up at the bear of a man standing behind Duo. He was almost seven feet in height and he made Trowa look short. His sheer presence dominated the room.
Duo grinned up at the man towering over him. “Do you still cater by chance Caleb?”
Duo asked as he tossed his menu to the center of the table.
Caleb crouched down to be more at level with the five men. “It depends, why?”
“Let me introduce these fine gentlemen and then I’ll explain.” Duo told his former classmate and friend. “Caleb, the blond is Dr. Quatre Raberba Winner. He works ER at NYG and is a reserve agent for Preventers. The steely eyed gentleman is Agent Heero Yuy. He’s Lady Une’s right hand man for Preventers. The tall man who almost rivals you for height is Lieutenant Trowa Barton of NYFD. He is also a reserve agent for Preventers And last but certainly not least is Chang Wufei. He is the top prosecuting lawyer in the Earth Sphere as well as a reserve agent.”
Caleb nodded to the four men before focusing questioning silver eyes on Duo.
“Mr. Chang is my fiancé.” Duo said hesitantly. He had told Caleb he was gay a long time ago. Caleb had never said what he thought of this.
Caleb turned eyes of steely determination on the chinese man. “You hurt him I kill you.” He told the startled lawyer. “That’s all I have to say on the matter. Duo is a sweet gentle guy who would never hurt a fly unless he had too.”
Quatre burst into laughter at the description of Shinigami. “I am sorry.” He managed to gasp out as a waitress filled their water glasses. “You don’t…” A giggle escaped. “Know Duo very well…” Another giggle. “Do you?”
Caleb turned to regard Quatre. “He may have been the deadliest man on the face of the planet but he isn’t anymore. Anyone hurts him and I find out about it they disappear. End of story.”
Duo groaned and buried his face in his arms leaning over the table to do so.
“Duo is my life. Anyone who hurts him will find themselves wishing they never existed.” Wufei informed the burly man. “I finally found him and I am not letting go. I would never let him be hurt let alone hurt a single hair on his head.”
Caleb turned back to stare deeply into Wufei’s eyes. He grunted at the determination he found there. He held out a huge paw of a hand to Wufei. “Deal.”
Wufei accepted the hand and squeezed with the same amount of pressure the man gave. “Good we understand each other.”
Caleb looked in amazement as the pressure was returned. Any normal man would have winced and whimpered at the amount of pressure he had applied. Wufei had returned him pressure for pressure with out batting a single lash. He grinned. “You picked good kid.” he told Duo as he friendly slapped Duo on the back.
Duo groaned and lifted his head to glare at his friend men. “You had to act like a neanderthal, didn’t you?” He grouched at the chef.
“Yup.” Caleb said with a grin. “You’ve never brought anyone with you before. You want the usual?”
Duo rolled his eyes. “Please. Wufei would like duck a l’orange.” He looked at his friends curiously.
“I’ll have the eggplant parmesan with a side chef salad.” Quatre said primly as he placed his menu on Duo’s.
“I’ll have the vegetarian lasagna with a caesar salad.” Heero murmured after watching the exchange between the three men avidly.
“I’ll have what Heero is having but with a chef salad.” Trowa murmured. It wasn’t often that he met someone that made him feel dwarfed. It was usually the other way around.
Caleb nodded at the order. “Coming right up gentleman. Now before I leave what else can I do for you? You mentioned catering.”
“What are you doing August 18th?” Duo asked as he pleated his napkin.
“Catering for your wedding.” Caleb answered promptly.
Duo grinned and hugged his friend. They didn’t often see each other but they were still the best of friends. Caleb got in touch about once every two months and insisted on seeing him.
“It’s a double wedding.” He told the man slowly. “Quatre, Trowa, and Heero are marrying each other as well.” He waited for a response.
“It’s a good thing they passed that new law. I can marry Bev and Andy.” Caleb answered solemnly.
Duo’s eyes slowly widened. “You mean your best friends?”
“Actually…” Caleb rubbed his forehead. “They’re my lovers. They have been for a long time. I didn’t know how you would react.”
Duo slowly grinned. “You Dog!!! I would’ve been proud. I still am. Bev must love having the two of you at her beck and call.”
Caleb blushed under his ruddy complexion. “Yeah well…We plan on getting hitched in December. I’ll need your new addie to send an invite.”
Duo grinned. “I’ll be there. Would you like me to cater for you?”
The look of a stunned ox came over the man’s face at Duo’s offer.
Wufei chuckled. He knew that Duo would offer. “You won’t be over doing it Duo.” He told/ordered his love softly.
“I’ll borrow this kitchen, and helpers for it.” Duo told Wufei quietly. “I’ve helped out here occasionally.”
Wufei nodded noticing a woman making her way towards their table. She was a stunningly statuesque woman with shortish, shoulder length, dirty blonde hair. She looked concerned.
“Cale are you alright?” She asked as she came closer.
Duo stood up to meet the woman. “Hey beautiful. Congrats!!!” He embraced her quickly. “You certainly keep this place going great.”
A slight blush tinted her cheek bones. “Thank you Duo. But what’s wrong with Cale?”
“Ohhh, nothing.” Duo grinned at the women. “I just told him that I would cater for your wedding is all.”
“You will?” Dark brown eyes flitted away from the chef to the grinning Duo. “Thank you!!! He was so worried about how you would react.”
Wufei, Quatre, Trowa and Heero watched as the woman ecstatically chirp her delight babbling almost as bad as Sakura was prone to do. They were startled when another man in chefs clothes joined them.
He was as slender as a rapier and at least a head shorter than the woman let alone Caleb. “There is cooking to be done.” He informed Caleb with a frown as he looked at the tables occupants. His rich french tenor accent fell musically on the people at the table.
“We are catering for Duo’s wedding August 18th Andy.” Caleb finally found his tongue. “For free.” He added causing the tables occupants to choke.
“For FREE?” The man who turned out to be Andy nearly shrieked.
“Yes for free.” The woman growled. “He’s going to cater our wedding. The least we can do is cater to his wedding for free.”
The man turned wide eyes to Duo. “You would cater to our wedding?” He asked slowly. Duo nodded shyly moving towards Wufei as he did so. A huge smile slowly flitted across the debonair man’s face. “I thank you greatly. Caleb would have been devastated if you did not understand.”
“I would always understand, Andy. I kinda knew but didn’t say anything because you guys didn’t say anything.” Duo told him.
Wufei encircled Duo’s waist and pulled him close as he watched the three people. He assumed the woman was Bev. He looked them over carefully. These three people seemed important to his love and he wanted to see why.
Bev looked over at Wufei as he pulled Duo close. “Soooo…you got past Duo’s barriers. Good for you. But you ever hurt him I’ll skin you alive and feed you your own genitalia.” She told him sweetly.
Duo whimpered and leaned down to hide his face in Wufei’s shoulder.
Wufei rolled his eyes. “You have to get in a long line up. Which I will be at the head of because I would rather kill myself than hurt my love.” He looked over to see if Andy had heard him so he wouldn’t have to repeat himself. He had a feeling that Andy would react in the same way. He pulled out a Gym/Dojo business card and handed it to the woman. He had a feeling that she handled the business end of things.

~Wind, Water, Fire, Earth, Spirit Gym/Dojo~
Chang Wufei
436 New Haven East Road Business 836-428-9780
New Haven, New York, New York Home 846-428-9788
PS235861RJ98 Fax 826-428-9789

“Now about the catering Duo will be doing for your wedding. I would appreciate the extra help of cook assistants and the use of your kitchen here. Duo will be over five, closer to six months pregnant and I would appreciate that he not be over worked. It wouldn’t be good for him or the child.” Wufei continued.
Caleb who had been about to stand did another impression of a stunned ox. Andy stopped his flourishes and suggestions. Bev squealed in delight.
“Of course! He can use as many people as he wants. The servers have already been hired and Caleb was getting up the nerve to contact Duo about it.” Bev gushed as she glomped Duo. “When do you want us to come over about the menu?”
Caleb grumbled and slowly stood up. “We’ll let Bev get details. We’ll get to work on your dinner.” He informed them as he was shooed toward the kitchen by the energetic Frenchman.
“Beverly,” Andy called as he moved along behind the giant of a man. “Make sure to get a time to get together to discuss current events. Duo cannot eat in the kitchen when he has brought guests with him. Mr. Chang I am glad that you understand about how many people care about Duo. He doesn’t know it but he has more friends than he knows. We will give you a list of these people who will be expecting an invitation.” He disappeared into the kitchen behind the taller man calling out orders to the people within the kitchen.
Bev laughed at the orders. “Hello gentlemen my name is Beverly Colier. I am one of the owners of this establishment and a few others. Caleb is another such owner and Andres (Andy) Porier is the main owner of them. He is older than Caleb and I by at least eight years. And you are?” She raised an eyebrow. “Since Duo has gone into his shy guy routine.”
Trowa gave the woman a slight smile. “Trowa Barton. One of the other men getting married at this double wedding.” He murmured as he shook the woman’s hand.
“Heero Yuy. I am marrying Trowa and the blond.” Heero nodded to Quatre who was glaring at him.
“Dr. Quatre Raberba Winner.” The blond informed the woman dryly.
“Why aren’t you using your own caterer groups?” Bev asked with sudden interest. She had heard of the Winners and knew that they owned several restaurants and catering establishments.
“Because Howard informed us that Duo deserved the best and everyone agreed that Coliers is the best. Duo did not tell us that he had connections.” Quatre told the woman as he sipped his gingerale. “If we had known that we would have had him contact you as soon as we decided.”
“No one told me that they wanted Coliers to cater. I just found out today.” Duo mumbled as he seated himself in his own seat. “Besides I already knew that they would cater and insist on it.”
Wufei smiled softly and curled his fingers around the ones laying on the table. “We decided that if the law about group marriages went through that it would be a double marriage. If it didn’t than Duo and I would still be getting married.”
Bev looked down at the business card she held. “You live in New Haven? The NEW HAVEN? The one that is under renovations that will make centers to help people and teenagers?”
“Yes. Why?” Trowa asked as he leaned back and draped an arm over the back of Heero’s chair.
“Andy, Caleb, and I want to put a restaurant in the area. A kind of teaching one where people come in for cheap meals and we teach teenagers that want to learn to cook how too.” Bev told them in delight. “Do you know who we have to talk too about setting that up?”
Quatre leaned down to the briefcase he had brought with him and pulled out the map that he had of the four block radius. He had already had offers from other buildings around the radius that wanted to be apart of what was going on but he assumed that the three would want to be where all the action was.
Heero took the map and laid it out on the table. “Now we have…” Heero paused to look over the map. “Thirteen…”
“Twelve.” Duo interrupted. “Howard is putting in a parts and Garage shop in my building.”
“Forgot about that.” Heero muttered and pulled a pen out of nowhere to fill in the building spot. “So these spaces are available.” He showed Bev the spots and waited for her reaction.
“You are in charge of New Haven?” She asked as she leaned over the map.
“Well kind of.” Quatre murmured. “We just make things happen according to the plan made for us.” He looked sideways at Duo. “The project manger is actually Duo.”
Bev’s dark brown eyes swung to regard Duo as he sunk down in his chair. “You. Did. It…” She said each word separately and slowly. “You did IT?” She shouted as she leaped from her chair to dance around the table. “You made New Haven happen!! I should have known by the name.”
Duo glared at Quatre who looked back unrepentantly. “You could have waited for a less public place.” He muttered. “Now she’s going to want to go out and celebrate.”
“We can’t.” Wufei murmured loud enough for the crazy onna to hear him. “We have to be home in time to put Sakura to bed.”
Duo perked up. “Yah. We promised her a bed time story, didn’t we?”
“We certainly did.” Wufei answered calmly. “I also promised someone else a bed time story as well.” He leaned in to whisper to the disconsolate paramedic. “And I wouldn’t want to break my promise.”
Duo looked into eyes that promised mayhem and chaos to his nerves later and grinned in anticipation. He was startled when a plate of food was put in front of him. He hadn’t thought that that much time had gone by.
Wufei blinked and turned to the meal placed in front of him. He immediately dug into the food as he listened to Beverly tell Andy who had delivered the food what she had found out.
“Make this into one building on the ground floor and we will take it.” Andy murmured to Heero and Trowa as he leaned over their shoulder. He pointed to the building kitty corner to the Parlor Café. “I am glad that Duo’s idea has worked out. We wanted to help out but didn’t have enough pressure to build up interest in the project.”
“He should have just gone straight to Lady Une. She would have made it go through whether someone was interested or not. As it is he accidentally showed it to Quatre and Quatre bulldozed it through. He is quite good at getting what he wants. All of us are. But Quatre more so than others, considering.”
“Yes I know he is the Winner heir. But how did Duo meet him? I worked during the war with Howard and met Duo who introduced me to Bev. Then introduced me to Caleb while he was taking his course. I think that he knew we were together but didn’t say anything because we didn’t. The boy doesn’t have a prejudice bone in his body and no one can blame anything on him. Caleb learnt about some of the lesser things he did during the war through us and probably guessed at other things. We never talk about it with Duo because I think that it hurts him to think about his past.” Andy murmured as he looked over the planned buildings.
“Yes none of us really like to talk about it. But he opened up a little with US. We think he opened up even more with Wufei. Sometimes at night we can hear them talking quietly in the living room long after we have gone to bed.” Trowa murmured. “We met because of this. Duo had inadvertently grumbled about it beside Quatre and Quatre told him pitch. So he pitched and the long and short of it is what is happening. Heero nearly destroyed a whole building with one blow of a hammer. I am glad that we started this I can imagine what would’ve happened if a car had hit the building.” Trowa shook his head as he cut into his lasagna.
“We’ll be coming later in the week with a list of people for the wedding we think you should invite as well as menus for the reception.” Andy assured as he pulled away from the table. “Then we can hear about everything that you have done since you met our wonderful friend.” He nodded and leaned over his lover who he had managed to get seated again to whisper something.
Duo sighed as he dug into his food once more. He hadn’t thought about how little time had passed since he had meet the guys. Really met the guys not admired them from across the room.
“It isn’t as good as yours but it will do.” Wufei suddenly leaned over to murmur in Duo’s ear.
Duo blinked and looked over at the love of his life. A slow grin spread across his face and he squeezed the hand in his lap. “That’s okay. I’ve spoiled you guys. It’s kind of hard not to be critical when you have the number one chef as your personal chef.”
Quatre grinned as he mouthed a thank you between bites of food. He was hard pressed not to say anything about what he thought about the lack in the food. It was true. After eating the food Duo made he was spoiled on regular restaurant food. A glance at the other two men showed the same opinion.
They consumed their meal with only the occasional murmur of conversation. Bev had soon left them after their food had arrived leaving them to eat in peace.
When they finished they beckoned their waiter to ask for their receipt to be informed that it was on the house and that desert would be bagged for them. Since it was getting late and Duo and Wufei needed to get home to read a bedtime story. Heero, Trowa, and Quatre wanted to go to the hospital to read one to Alex as well.
They received their bags with a promise that someone would call them about meeting up later in the week. They went their separate ways to the children they love and bedtime story promises to fulfill.