The colours never ceased to amaze Duo. How all that green could suddenly become
a riot of yellows and reds, oranges and almost purples and furtive blacks
that bled and burned in the late fall sun. He would collect mounds of leaves
on his way home from work and spread them out on the porch, inspecting each
one with almost childish wonder. Every year he would take a few and preserve
them, pasting them in a large journal and adding the date and a few thoughts.
Years later, when Heero joined him in the house, after they finally realized that they could not be without one another, he, too, added his found treasures and collected thoughts to the book. With the years, they added more and more pages, until the journal was thicker than a dictionary. When they adopted their first child, a daughter, they started a second one and added shells and insects and other things they found on their outings together.
When their daughter had her first child, they gave her the book. Their grandchild was raised with the scent of the sea and the colours of autumn and when he grew up to become a successful painter, they knew that it had been their book that had given him his first inspiration.