[deep kick] Title: Deep Kick
Author: Link Worshiper
Pairing: 1=2
Stuff: language, braid torture, post EW, but series at the same time (O__o), lemony, experimental POV stuff
Disclaimer: When GW and the RHCP belong to me, I'll let you know. Heero's song is Luna, by the Pumpkins. Everyone better know the song at the end of this one.

This one's for Sunhawk, because she's unfathomably wonderful to me. I blame the story on her, too, since she suggested I use my painful family vacation as fiction fodder. I know she probably meant for me to draw inspiration from the actual vacation and not a song I've listened to a thousand times on my iPod, but beggars can't be choosers, right?

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There was heavy metal coming from Duo's truck, which was parked near a ditch on the other side of the heather. The ripping guitar and pounding drums probably should have disrupted the quiet scene more than they did; I think that was more to do with the fact I was listening much more intently to the sound of Duo's breathing beside me. Above, the sky curved gently with the concave of the colony satellite's shape. It reminded me of another time I'd been lying in a field, feeling content - feeling happy. But that was ages ago, and I wasn't lost anymore.

L1 was my home, and I belonged there, but not because it was where I did most of my growing up. Rather, it was because I considered home wherever Duo was. My apartment was my apartment because he lived there, and my bed was my bed because he slept there.

I turned my head to look at him. Like me, he lay on his back with his Preventers jacket balled up beneath his head like a pillow. They'd grudgingly reissued Duo a new one when we rejoined the L1 division, but he'd accepted it like he was a green recruit receiving his first promotion into the Preventer ranks. That, too, was a while ago, though; the jacket had since become threadbare and stained, in some places, held together by mere stitches, and he'd been wearing it long enough to work his scent so deeply into the material, not even a thousand washing machine cycles could get rid of it.

His hair was just about as long as it used to be again, snaking across the grassy patch between us and over my chest. I played with the end of his hair, using it to brush the stray dandelion seeds that would waft by on the breeze and settle on my stomach every now and then. My own hair also no longer bore the wild blond hue I'd once dyed it. That had actually grown out relatively fast, which was a good thing, since Director Une didn't take to well to my piercings. We had a rather heated discussion over them when I came back to enlist, I recall, and after some negotiation, she agreed to reinstate my former position if I compromised to do away with at least the eyebrow rings I'd sported at the time. At least there was nothing she could really do about my tattoo, and that was the most important thing.

"Hey, Heero," he spoke up at length, still watching the thin scraping of generated clouds drifting overhead. "You remember ten years ago? In Hollywood?"

"Yeah?" I said, turning my eyes heavenwards again. The weather simulation was starting to fade into its nighttime phase, rubbing oranges and reds into the world around us, but it didn't matter. We no longer needed to rush anywhere.

"We did some good - and we did some real bad stuff, didn't we," he went on thoughtfully. The grass rustled with the zippers of his jacket and the clink of his dog tags as he shifted his position.

"I suppose we did," I agreed, my eyes darting back over in his direction again. He had rolled onto his side, cushioning the side of his cheek in the crook of his arm as he gazed at me with that certain smile he saved only for me on his lips. "But it's like that song - you know, the one that says something like, 'It's better to regret something you did than something you didn't do', right?"

His smile transformed into a kind of smirk. "You would say that, wouldn't you," he scoffed good-naturedly. His voice took on that meditative quality again. "But do you think we did it right? That whole thing - was it the best way to go about it?"

"What else would we have done?" I asked, fanning the tail of his braid out and teasing my fingertips with the course ends of it. I rolled my tongue around the bar I still wore through it, thinking for a few moments how miserable I'd have been if we'd never taken that leap together. I'd have never known how to get to this point if we'd stayed the way we were. I wasn't even sure I could explain that to him, either, so instead, I hummed, "I think life is a little bit more than who we are, Duo."

"Heh, yeah, I guess so. No point in trying to pin the bitch down under your thumb," he said with another wry laugh. His braid jerked in my hand as he rolled about to stretch his limbs upward and splay them out all around him like a fallen star that had bedded down beneath the heather. "But then again," he mused, calming his energy again, "you shouldn't let it pin you down, either."

I clutched his braid tighter, like it was a vital lifeline connecting me to shore. "The people who get the most out of life are the ones who ride it like a wave," I surmised, giving his braid a gentle tug. I wanted him closer to me, to reassure me he wasn't going anywhere. "Sometimes the water's crushing and you go under - you feel like you might drown - but that thrill of standing up on it, of finally conquering it... that's what you live for, isn't it?"

He was still chuckling to himself, even as he rolled nearer and planted a hand on either side of my body so he could hold himself above me. "Yeah, I suppose you're right - as usual," he said with a smirk. "Shoulda known you'd have it all figured out already, Yuy."

My eyes darted away from his briefly, momentarily finding the patch of grass next to my head very interesting. "I had... a lot of time to think," I managed to say. "And it was many years before I was given the chance to do anything about it."

I flicked my gaze back at him, relieved to find his eyes wet with understanding. "Why were you waiting for me, Heero?" he finally begged to know, his elbows buckling a little under his weight. "Why would you hang around for a big dope like me?"

Reaching up to encircle his neck with my arms, I pulled him back down to the ground and rolled him into the patch of grass beside me. I stroked his hair out of his eyes and kissed his lips, hoping my actions could express what I only had feeble words for. "It's a calm day at sea without you, Duo," I mumbled between kisses, not caring if he understood what I said. "But the last thing I ever wanted to do was upset your boat."

I think Duo had a lot of things he potentially wanted to respond with, judging by the little moans he was making in the back of his throat, I also think he'd decided that kissing was a better way to tell them, too. I didn't mind. There was no use in analyzing what ifs when all that mattered was what we'd found now, in this moment - on the crest of this wave.

We lay in a loose shape in the dirt, listening to the breeze rustling the heather. Darkness had almost completely veiled us by then, the chirruping of the nighttime insects already starting to fill the air beneath the music still radiating from Duo's pickup. I could see his lips moving in the dark, their wetness catching a fleck of light every now and then. "You really are unforgettable, Heero Yuy," he said, lifting his head so he could lay it upon a corner of my jacket. "In every way."

My reaction was immediate and instinctive, the words coming out of my mouth before I could help it. "Unforgettable," I sang back softly, my voice a little raspy from the kissing. "And forever more, that's how you'll stay."

It took him a few moments to comprehend the song, but I could tell it pleased him by the way his teeth glinted between his grinning lips. It was a stark contrast to the music already in the background, but I don't think either of us really noticed it anymore. Shakily, he tried to return the next line. I could tell he was nervous, so I coaxed him along, wanting to just share it with him.

"That's why, darling,
It's incredible,
That someone so unforgettable
Thinks that I am
Unforgettable, too."

We couldn't get much further than that. He started to laugh, and that made me laugh, too. We rolled onto our backs, the tops of our heads touching as we both stared upwards, panting heavily as the revelry subsided. Finally, the full deepness of night had settled in, the flickering pinpoints of fireflies dotting the murky blue overhead. "They're like hundreds of stars," I observed as more of them started to gather. "Like a tiny galaxy."

"Nah," Duo waved my comment off. "They're just blinking bugs - not nearly as impressive as space." He rolled back onto his side and looked down at me, his eyes glittering brighter than the fireflies in the darkness. "I would know. I was the one who went looking for answers from the great beyond," he declared, bringing his nose down so it was just touching the tip of mine. "I've come to find that I can see them best like this."

I squirmed, but not because I was trying to get away from him. "The answers or the stars?" I asked, swallowing a little. His breath was hot on my face, warming my body despite the cool breeze.

"Both," he clarified softly, leaning down to press a gentle kiss on my mouth, much to my surprise and pleasure. I opened my mouth to him, never able to drink my fill of him. He touched my face with gentle fingertips, continuing to caress it even after we'd parted. "Don't need to close our eyes just to dream we have wings on our feet anymore."

I hummed in agreement, as he settled down in the grassy patch again, reaching for my hand as the night stumbled onwards. Even if we'd been slow to finish and quick to start, after spending so much time writing and rewriting, we'd finally found the perfect ending for our own story. We were going to say what we wanted to say and do whatever we were going to do.

We'd start today.

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End

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