[pert em hru] Title: Pert Em Hru
Author: Link Worshiper
Pairings: 1=2 (duh!), 5=R, and some hinted 3=4 on the side, perhaps =D
Stuff: AU, Halloweeny fluffy fun, though probably with a touch of angst because this is me and all that jazz XD
Disclaimer: I dream of the day I can say: "ALL YOUR GUNDAMS ARE BELONG TO US!!" Alas, that day has not yet arrived. *sad face*

This is for all you people who stick by me through thick and thin. You know who you are. Happy Halloween!



The day Relena announced that Wufei's status had changed from 'boyfriend' to 'fiancˇ', Heero was hardly pleased. It had taken him a long time to even accept the fact that his little cousin had become interested in things he felt were hardly appropriate for someone he still imagined in diapers, so it was probably unsurprising that the idea wouldn't be one that Heero would immediately take to. He'd been looking out for Relena since his aunt and uncle had been killed in a hideous train wreck and had come to live with him and his parents at an early age. Maybe Heero's problem with the situation, then again, had more to do with him feeling downtrodden that he was no longer the one Relena looked up to and idolized anymore than any real distaste for her choice in husband.

Nevertheless, Heero had gone out of his way to make sure that Wufei knew he wasn't going to let his little cousin marry just anyone, but Wufei had been equally sure to make it clear he wasn't going to be chased away so easily. But despite his greatest efforts, Heero had been unable to derail the growing relationship between the pair, and it was only with the most reluctant of airs that he finally gave them his approval at long last. Heero hated to admit it, but he supposed he had to respect a man who could stand up to even him. At least he could be confident that Wufei would take care of Relena, he supposed. And as the years wore on, Heero found his opinion of Wufei starting to shift towards something more positive, even; he would venture to say that he might go so far as to call Wufei a part of the family.

Which, he reminded himself, not for the first time, was the only reason he would be taking such an extreme trip on their behalf. Heero's usual routine centered around his job as a top programmer for various government agencies, but he'd taken two weeks out of his schedule to travel to England for Relena and Wufei's tenth anniversary celebration. There was a secluded resort on the British coast that the couple enjoyed taking holidays at, which was the place they had designated for the gathering. At present, Heero was driving along a long stretch of narrow country lane in the dark, trying hard to both navigate and keep his wits about driving on the other side of the road as a thick blanket of storm clouds started to roll in overhead.

"Oh, just great," Heero moaned as the first rumbles of thunder started to quiver in the heavens. A brief flash of lightning glimmered across the empty countryside, bathing everything in a ghostly electric white. Bad weather was the last thing he needed; he was already tired from a long flight and hours of driving all on top of each other, and the last thing he needed was an impending storm to make matters even worse. After being delayed so long at the airport where he'd had his layover, he was in absolutely no mood to catch it from Relena for being later than he already was.

But the weather was ignorant of Heero's wants, and without much preamble or warning, the sky soon opened up and belched out great torrents of rain that threatened to drown Heero's tiny, blue SmartCar. Floods of water started to build up on the asphalt beneath the vehicles tires, forcing Heero to decelerate for fear of hydroplaning and swerving out of control. A low growl vibrated in his throat just as menacingly as the thunder in the sky.

From behind the mad swish of his windshield wipers, Heero peered over the steering wheel, trying hard to see beyond the reach of his misty headlights, but the effort proved in vain. According to the directions he'd gotten from Relena, he would soon be turning onto another road, but with so many factors conspiring against him, he was starting to wonder if he'd missed it and contemplated turning around. He thought maybe he should start keeping a lookout for a roadside stop or something like that so he could ask a local familiar with the area; he didn't want to risk becoming even more lost - if he was even lost at all.

If it hadn't been for the jolts of lightning in the air, he might have never noticed - might have just driven onwards and things would have turned out differently. Unless, of course, there had been some kind of supernatural force at work when the lightning flashed and he saw that lone figure trudging along the side of the road as if he was completely ignorant of the rain. Heero peered into the darkness, slowing down even further and trying to get a good look, even after the lightning had disappeared. At first he thought it might have been a hitchhiker, and then on second thought, figured that the person was perhaps someone who lived nearby - someone who could help him figure out if he was still going in the right direction.

The sound of the SmartCar's motor didn't seem to instill any reactions from the stranger, who continued at his lethargic pace as if he were still completely alone. As Heero's approaching headlights started to contour around the form of the roadside pedestrian, he was soon slowly able to make out the backside of a blonde head of hair and a very definitively male figure. He didn't carry an umbrella, and in place of a rain slicker, he wore a simple white tee shirt and ragged jeans that were soaked against his fit body. He walked with his hands shoved deep into his front pockets and his head bowed in such a way that his wet, yellow bangs hid his eyes behind a black mask of shadow.

Heero decelerated to the walking man's pace and rolled down the passenger side window, leaning over as he called out a tentative greeting, but the man seemed either unable hear Heero over the chatter of the rain against the pavement or simply had chosen to ignore him. That did not bode well with Heero's temper at all, and he called out to the man again, this time sounding a bit sharper and more commanding, though he was still met with the same reaction - or lack thereof.

Heero felt the combination of desperation and impatience starting to surmount his sense of civility, and soon threw away his reservations when he tried to address the blonde a third time. "Hey, you - listen to me!" he shouted coarsely.

Finally, the blonde lifted his chin, at first staring straight ahead before angling his head slightly in Heero's direction and pinning Heero with a pair of eyes that were so startlingly marine blue, they seemed to gleam with the same energy that lit the sky with each thunderclap. He was disparagingly silent for a few halting seconds before a strangely haunting smirk pushed one corner of his lips upwards. "Why should I?" he asked as he flashed a mouth full of perfect white teeth at Heero.

Heero was taken aback. "Why would you insult me like that? I didn't mean any offense," he said, his tone menacing despite his words.

The blonde was outright grinning now, the beginnings of a dark laugh starting to rock his lithe form. "Why should I when there's no point?" he asked, somehow bending his bright features into an unnerving expression. "Why should I when you're just going to die!"

As he said that and his laughter started to mount to new heights of sadistic glee, Heero felt a chill inside like a spectre had reached through his ribs to clench his suddenly pounding heart. The blonde turned his head more towards the road, focusing his spine tingling stare directly on Heero, sending a jolt down the length of his body. Then, with as little warning as the next calamitous duet of thunder and lightning, that electric blue stare suddenly flickered to a devilish hue of bright crimson, bloody and frightful. The very sight of it sent a surge of inexplicable fear through Heero - such that he had never known before! - and his foot twitched on the accelerator, throttling the SmartCar forward with almost uncontrollable speed.

Heero didn't realize how unnerved he was until he finally managed to regain control of his speed and had glanced into his rearview mirror, embarrassingly relieved to find the side of the road empty once more. He allowed himself a single, deep, calming breath before sharply ordering himself to snap out of it. "You're just jumpy because you haven't slept in days," he reminded himself as he reached down for the radio console in hopes of finding something to help keep him alert. "In a few hours, you'll be at the resort, and you can eat and shower properly before settling down for some decent rest."

The radio frequency crackled as he twisted the knob, hoping to find a station that could hold up against the severe weather, but the outcome was looking grim. He was so focused on this task, he nearly jumped out of his skin when a loud thwump resounded against the hull of his car. A quick glance back showed a low branch reaching out over the lane, but the extended damage on his nerves was done, and he wondered if it would be best to stop and wait the storm out, and it was only thoughts of the blonde with the flickering eyes that kept him from committing to that decision. It was almost pathetic how much time he spent glancing into the rearview as if he were afraid the blonde would suddenly appear again.

However, this time, the distraction would prove far more detrimental, if solely because it kept Heero from steeling himself against any other sorts of unexpected things. His constant vigilance to what was happening behind him blinded to what was happening in front, and it wasn't until he heard the oncoming echo of what seemed to be something approaching him from the opposite direction at top speed that he even redirected his attention where it should have been the entire time - and even then, it was far too late.

Out of the darkness ahead came the onslaught of a form that Heero realized, much to his horror, was that of the very blonde he had thought to escape. He was flying at his car with a speed that seemed almost inhuman, running at Heero's car like he meant to throw himself at it with suicidal intent. Heero panicked, slamming the heel of his hand against the horn and his foot against the brake. But the sight of those disarming red eyes bore straight to Heero's soul as the blonde drew nearer, leaping up and landing on the hood of the car with another loud thwump. He lingered there for a moment, cackling at Heero through the sheets of rain cascading down his windshield just long enough to scare Heero into swerving the steering wheel to the right before he vanished into the night like a vision out of a nightmare. The car rumbled through the metal barricade lining the side of the road and speeding across the thick grass beyond it.

Somewhere along the way, Heero had been wrenched forward, landing a disorienting blow on his forehead when it banged against the steering wheel. When the car's frenzied rampage was stopped by the thick trunk of an old, gnarled tree standing alone in the field, Heero was thrown again against the wheel, banging his head into a confused daze. With clumsy movements, he unbuckled his seatbelt and grasped for the door handle, hardly aware of where he was or what had happened as he stumbled out of the car and staggered forward a few paces. Blood was gushing into his eyes from an open wound beneath his shaggy bangs, stinging them painfully red and making his head swim. Then he felt an alarming faintness overtake him as he collapsed into an unconscious heap in the thick grass, where he lay disarmingly close to his death.

++++

The oddity and clarity of his dreams kept Heero from being able to tell how long he had lain there - or whether or not he even still was. The red eyes haunted his thoughts, as did the echo of thunder, making it impossible for him to tell if the rain had subsided or not. He heard the rustle of the wind in the thick grass that rose up around where he'd fallen and the distant barking of dogs. He thought he felt the warmth of another body around him, and perhaps what might have been the bristle of fur against his skin, but he was too disoriented to know for sure. For all he knew, the barking might have been voices, and the fur might have just been a nearby clump of thistles.

However, it was the warm nuzzle against his cheek that finally brought him around. Through bleary eyes, he found himself still lying in the wet field under the cover of dark night. The rain had since stopped storm clouds had vanished, leaving a bright moon half in the sky to illuminate the damp earth in her pale blue light. It was in that hazy glow that Heero realized what had been instilling those strange sensations in his dreams when he found himself pinned beneath the weight of a large, black dog that was stretched across his torso in an almost protective manner. The dog was a strange kind Heero had never encountered before, with wolfish features and oddly piercing blue eyes that were vigilantly darting this way and that, as if searching for something - or someone.

Heero moaned as his senses returned to him, causing the dog to glance back at his charge. Heero was very aware of a throbbing ache that radiated from the gash in his head. Blearily, he reached up to touch it and was amazed to find it still a bit sticky but relatively clean. He then noticed that, despite the scarlet stains in his clothes and the blood dried in his hair, most of the gore no longer stuck to his skin. The reason for this was a complete mystery to Heero until the dog leaned forward and nudged Heero's hand away from the head wound so he could lick at it. The gesture comforted Heero despite himself, and he found himself reaching up to scratch behind one of the dog's soft ears.

A rustle in the grass nearby made the dog suddenly bristle, though he kept his guardian-like position across Heero's body. Heero tried to prop himself up so he could see what had roused the dog's attention, but the grass was too tall for him to know for sure. Yet despite not knowing what lurking danger there might be, Heero didn't experience any of the fear he had earlier, feeling unnaturally safe under the dog's protection.

Nevertheless, when two foxes suddenly leapt out of the grass, snarling and growling at Heero and the black dog, Heero couldn't suppress the unexpected jerk that rattled his body to its very bones. They seemed eager to get at Heero, like hungry children anxiously awaiting dinner, and probably would have leapt at him if it weren't for the presence of the black dog.

The black dog barked sharply at the new pair and didn't allow them to come any nearer. It seemed to Heero like the black dog knew the other two and was no stranger to ordering them around; Heero thought that if he could understand what the dog was communicating to them, it would be to tell them to back off - that Heero was his to do with as he pleased because he'd found him first. Heero was secretly very relieved for that, somehow feeling as if the other two ravenous animals would have had no interest in looking after Heero's wellbeing when there were appetites to whet instead.

Another commanding growl from the black dog sent the foxes scattering back off into the grass thickets, barking at them as if he were sending them on some kind of errand. He remained alert until he was satisfied they were gone and then laid his head down on Heero's chest, looking up at him with the adoring eyes of a pup with his master. Though Heero had never owned a dog in his life, he supposed that particular expression deserved another scratch behind the ear. There was something nice about the rumble of the dog's pleased growls against his chest, and Heero soon drifted back to sleep with a very satisfied warmth nestled inside.

++++

When Heero woke up again, he was immediately aware of two things: one, he was no longer lying in the grass, and two, the black dog was nowhere to be seen. He stared up at the unfamiliar ceiling above the strange bed he was now occupying, letting his eyes fall in and out of focus as he traced the patterns of ribbed sunlight that stretched across it. The room was in was sparsely decorated but rife with clutter: a writing desk to the left of the bed supported an old typewriter and was framed with endless stacks of books, papers and pulps; hiding behind the wall of empty bottles on the bedside dresser, he could just make out the time on the alarm clock sitting there. He rubbed his forehead, surprised to notice it was now wound with a bandage strip, wondering how long he'd been passed out - and how he'd gotten there.

Almost as if on cue, the answer came bustling through the door with a serving tray piled high with bread, jam and teacups to go with the pot that steamed in the middle of it all. The young man carrying the tray seemed to be about Heero's age, with thick, sienna hair, wide eyes and an upbeat smile. He was wearing dark red pajama pants and a Led Zeppelin tee shirt that had the sleeves shorn off. When he noticed Heero blinking at him from the bed, his smile broadened as he bustled over to the bed, stopping to shove the tray next to the typewriter at the expense of a few magazine stacks.

"Good to see you're feeling better," he said with a merry baritone as he approached the bed, chewing on a biscuit from the tray. "Was starting to wonder if you'd be out for another day, man."

His accent wasn't British at all, but rather more Californian, which was probably the first thing that struck Heero about the stranger, however, he didn't think he had a place asking what an American was doing in the middle of the English countryside, so he didn't mention it. Instead, he cut right to the chase as he propped himself up on his elbows and asked, "I'm sorry, but who are you?"

The man slapped his forehead and rolled his eyes at himself. "Oh, Christ, where are my goddamn manners?" he exclaimed with a laugh. He stuck out his hand to Heero and said, "Name's Duo Maxwell - good to meet'cha."

"Heero Yuy," Heero said warily, still a little dazed as he reached out to grab Duo's outstretched hand. It lingered in Duo's firm grip for a few moments until Heero finally managed to blurt out, "How did I come here again?"

"Oh," Duo's smile wavered for a brief moment before answering. "My dog found you," he said. "Looked like you had a pretty nasty accident out there, but don't worry: we'll get you rolling as soon as possible." He seemed pretty proud of himself as he released Heero's hand so he could indicate himself with a jab of his thumb: "I'm a pretty hot mechanic, if I do say so myself. I can help you with your car."

Heero frowned as he started to recall the things that had happened, wondering out loud, "You mean there's no one to call out here to tow it or anything?"

"Call?" Duo cocked his head for a moment like he was trying to understand what Heero was saying. He suddenly snapped his fingers and exclaimed, "Oh, like with the phone. Nah, not way out here." He shrugged and thoughtfully touched his chin as he turned his eyes upwards; "I don't even have a phone, now that you mention it," he mused.

Heero looked less than amused, especially as thoughts of a concerned Wufei and Relena popped into his head; he didn't like the idea of worrying his little cousin like this - not one, single bit. "No phone," he repeated with an air of disbelief, meanwhile cursing the fact that his cell was useless abroad. "How do you manage that?"

Duo shrugged and indicated the typewriter over his shoulder; "I write for a monthly pulp," he explained. "The postal service seems to suffice for that well enough."

The headache seemed to be creeping back into Heero's skull, and he suddenly was overcome with the urge to lie down again. "And you don't communicate with anybody else any other way?" he asked tiredly, feeling like lead the second his head resettled amongst the pillows. They smelled sharply fresh, like the rain soaked grass outside.

Duo scratched the back of his head in confusion. "Well, sometimes I cross the meadow to hang out with Trowa and Quatre," he said slowly. "They live in the farmhouse the next acre over."

Heero turned his head towards Duo, but hardly saw more than a blur of flesh and sienna brown as his eyelids started to droop again. "You're... different," he assessed with a yawn.

Duo might have grinned in response, but Heero could hardly register more than the pressure of fingers rifling through his hair. "You too," he said, his voice becoming strangely husky, and warm like a heavy breath on his ear. "Sometimes it just takes a dog to tell."

Then, because the sun was still in the sky, Duo wished Heero goodnight with a note of irony twanging his voice and ruffled his hair again before getting up and heading towards the bedroom door. As Heero started to drift back to the land of the unconscious, he thought he saw something like a long tail flick out behind Duo as he moved, but was content to simply let his voracious dreams take over in place of any more questions. Then he closed his eyes at last and slept longer and deeper than he could remember for a long while.

++++

It was the rotary clack-clack-clack of the typewriter that woke Heero up the next time, and after a few groggy moments of trying to remember where he was, he turned to find Duo sitting at the desk, hammering away on the machine's keyboard and pausing only to push the paper roll back every time it dinged. It seemed like Duo was too absorbed in whatever he was doing to notice that Heero was awake again. The sun shone through the slatted blinds just as bright and tiring as it had been when Heero had last fallen asleep, and to him, it seemed like no time had passed at all.

Bleary-eyed, Heero sat up on the bed and stared at Duo's hunched form. It looked like the writer had been sitting there for a very long time, if the nearly empty tea tray was any sort of indicator. At length, he made himself known and said, "I really hope I'm not imposing on you or anything."

The clatter of the keyboard quieted as Duo straightened and looked over his shoulder, his cheeks plumped around a smile. "Not at all," he said with a shrug. "You're very unobtrusive."

"But I'm taking advantage of your hospitality," Heero protested, his guilt getting the better of him. He didn't enjoy feeling like a bother, and being completely cut off and stranded didn't make things much better.

"I don't really mind," Duo shrugged again, his eyes narrowing into some sort of unreadable, lingering expression. "Having some company is nice for a change."

"All I've been doing is keeping you out of your own bed; that hardly constitutes 'company'," Heero retorted, unconvinced and completely oblivious to the connotations that Duo was drawing out of what he'd said.

"That's what you think," Duo answered glibly. "Don't worry about it; I never sleep, anyway."

Heero's expression didn't fluctuate save for the disbelieving arch of his stern eyebrows. His thoughts were lost in curiosity as to why this stranger was going so far out of his way for him, though didn't want to sound ungrateful by pressing the issue. It all likelihood, he probably would have been left to die if it hadn't been for Duo's compassion, oddball as it was, so he left it alone and decided not to think about it anymore.

By then, Duo had twisted around in his chair, resting one forearm against the back of it. "No, really, it's true," he insisted, though his bright-eyed demeanor seemed to sharply contradict what he was trying to say. "I'm an insomniac - the worst kind there is. I'll stay up for weeks and maybe only catch a few Z's once in a blue moon. You know, like when my body is about to give out and all." He grinned at Heero's unimpressed face, nonchalantly waving off the suspicion he saw there. "If it was a problem, trust me, you'd know," he went on. "So don't worry about me, seriously. I got lots of hobbies and other stuff to keep me distracted, I promise." To prove his point, he reached back to pat the typewriter affectionately.

"I thought that was your job, not a hobby," Heero said, clearing his throat. He shifted to sit on the edge of the bed, angling himself to face Duo and planting his feet into the thick, red carpet spread across the hardwood floor. Vaguely, he wondered where his shoes and socks had gone.

"A hobby they pay me for. Whatever, man - same deal," Duo replied with another noncommittal shrug. "Shouldn't that be how it is for everyone?"

Heero snorted, thinking of his own job back home. Granted, he certainly had always been a bit of a tech geek, but his current source of income was far from what he considered fun. The hours were long and the work was tedious and base, not to mention pitilessly grueling, considering he was one of the few people qualified enough in his field to constitute working for such high level branches of the government. Heero took his turn to shrug as he answered, "Maybe it was kind of fun and challenging when I started, but now it's just something to pay the bills. It's exhausting. I just come home and sleep."

"Well, that's a yawn and a half. You waste so much time when you sleep," Duo said, standing up with a frown. He then turned around sharply to bus the empty tea tray, and it was then that Heero noticed for the first time that Duo's hair was much longer than anyone he'd ever seen. Duo must have caught him staring out of the corner of his eye, because his eyes suddenly widened, setting down the tray and twisting around like he was trying to check his back for anything out of the ordinary. The resulting effect was somewhat comical, and Heero couldn't help but chuckle a little bit as he watched Duo turn in a small circle like he was trying to catch the tail of his braid.

"You must enjoy living like this very much," Heero said quietly as his amusement subsided.

Satisfied that there was nothing out of joint, Duo turned to pick up the tray again and said, "Yeah, it's nice. Sure beats the way I used to roll." He paused to let a small shudder run down the length of his body before continuing. "Didn't really start figuring anything out about myself until I came out here for the first time." He glanced back at Heero again, adding, "This your first time out here, too, stranger?"

"I've been to London once or twice, but never the countryside, really," Heero answered.

"I see," Duo said, satisfied enough with that answer to keep plowing on with his idle talk. "Never been there, myself, but I can't say I really have an interest anymore. Grew up in LA, see, but the minute I got a breath of this fresh, English air - I don't know - something changed in me, and I fell in love with it and I knew this was the place where I could really be me - like really me. So here I am." His grin got wider, and, with joy so permeating, Heero almost wondered if it was a permanent fixture on his face.

"It's been good, though," Duo went on, still balancing the tray despite not making any move to carry it back to the kitchen anytime soon. "Tro and Q came up out of Europe somewhere and ended up staying for the same reason, so we get along real well. You'll like them. If they're not busy, you'll probably meet them when we go do a real damage survey on your little car; you wiped out closer to their place, see."

Heero nodded dumbly, trying hard to keep up with the things Duo was saying. He had a feeling that, despite what Duo was trying to convince him of, the longhaired writer was actually a bit lonely in such an unpopulated place, and for a few, vague moments, he wondered why Duo would submit himself to such isolation willingly if that was the case. Maybe it was just a quirk of his creative spirit, Heero decided.

"Anyway, you hungry, Heero? Think you're up for a little adventure to the kitchen?" Duo finally asked at the end of his pontification. He nodded towards the door as he started to walk towards it, indicating Heero ought to follow if he was, and it didn't take long for Heero to take him up on the offer.

++++

It took a few missteps for Heero to get accustomed to walking again, but he was pleased that he didn't seem to have lost any capacity for movement in the accident. He followed Duo out of the bedroom and down a short flight of creaking, wooden steps to the first floor of the tiny cottage. They walked through a small lounge area and into a little dining room that fed into the kitchen, which accommodated for most of the floor space in the house. Heero waited on a bench by the rear door while Duo went pottering through the kitchen, responding to the occasional query about food preferences.

About a half hour later, they were sitting at the little table for four in the dining room, sharing a big crock of stew that Duo had whipped together. It was thick and had a nice, homemade quality to it that Heero hadn't tasted in a long time. Duo asked Heero trivial questions about why he'd come to England to keep the conversation running, but it didn't take long for him to start inquiring about the accident.

"I think I was just overtired," Heero explained, a little hesitant to be specific about what he'd seen that night in the rain. Or, rather, what he thought he'd seen, in any case.

With a nod, Duo seemed to accept this easily and went back to asking the same inane questions he'd been amusing himself with before: what was Heero's favourite this and that; what was his cousin and her husband like; where did he grow up, and what kinds of pets did he have?

"No pets," Heero said, breathing heavily as if keeping up with Duo's rapid-fire questions was as exhausting as running a marathon. Though the question did remind him of something else: "I thought you had a dog, Duo?" he wondered, tentatively glancing around for any signs of the beast. "You said that was how you found me."

Duo took a long slurp from his bowl before answering. "Oh, you mean Anubis," he said, setting the vessel down on the table again. He was quiet for a few moments as he distracted himself with ladling himself another portion, and then said, "Big, dumb fuzzball likes to run around outside a lot. He usually only comes back at night if he can't find anything to munch on out there, or if it's kind of cold or something like that."

The conversation didn't expand much beyond that until the crock was nearly empty and both men had eaten their fill of stew. Heero then helped Duo clean up the remnants of the meal, at which time Duo took the opportunity to help Heero get acquainted with where everything went. "Feel free to make yourself at home," he told Heero as he showed his guest where all the dishes and cutlery were located. "No need to ask me for permission to do anything; what's mine is yours, alright?"

Heero kept his thoughts to himself and accepted the kind gesture with a simple nod of his head. It still didn't make any sense to him why Duo seemed to have taken such a liking to him: no one had ever acted that way around him before at any rate, Relena's girlhood idol worship of him notwithstanding. He thought again of how lonely Duo had to be and found he sympathized with the poor guy a little bit. Despite working in a busy environment, Heero couldn't say that his life was any less isolated than Duo's seemed to be.

His mental track was thrown when Duo spoke up again, suggesting they take a trip out to the car wreck before it got too late. "I want to be back here before sunset, especially if we go visit Tro and Q," he explained as he started to usher Heero towards the door. "It's a kind of long walk, and it gets so fucking dark out there and it's nearly impossible to see where the hell you're going, even if you've got a lantern."

Outside Duo's cottage, the grassy meadows seemed to expand out endlessly in every direction, and it suddenly became clear to Heero how easily one could get lost in that great expanse if he somehow lost his way. The only landmarks Heero could see from where he stood were a few rundown fences and a little cluster of trees; not even the road was visible from where he stood. But, he noted to himself as he started following Duo out into the fields, the fresh air certainly was cleansing, just as Duo had been gushing earlier. He found it was a major relief to his aching head.

Side by side, they walked in relative silence through the tall grass with only the sounds of wildlife and the occasional barking of a far off dog to break it up. Heero couldn't help but notice the way Duo would occasionally give him these subtle, appraising glances every once in a while, and he couldn't help but wonder if Duo was checking him out. But then again, he supposed he wasn't doing much better if he'd been watching Duo carefully enough to notice in the first place, and it became a sort of game to try and catch as many looks at Duo as he could without being noticed. After all, with that long, roughish hair and that strong smirk, there was no denying that Duo was a highly attractive young man, and there was no harm in taking stock of the observation. Or so Heero told himself.

Just short of an hour later, they were hopping a fence Duo explained separated Trowa and Quatre's place from the properties that surrounded it. An expanse of the same tall grass was all that remained between the two visitors and the quaint farmhouse in the distance.

"What's with those?" Heero asked, pointing out a trio of rather morbid looking scarecrows as they continued on their trek. They were each wearing pointy, witch-like caps and were dolled up to look like they'd been impaled on the stakes that lifted them high above the grass. A carved, wooden cross swung around the neck of the one in the middle, while the other two were pinned with sprigs of garlic and wolfsbane.

Duo laughed when he realized what Heero was gesturing at, saying: "Oh, just some old, British superstitions at work. Quatre's really into all that, see." He stopped to laugh again before adding, "The jerk told me they're there to keep me out, but there's no holding the Devil down if there's someplace he wants to be, I say. Or so I told him when I accidentally walked in on him and Trowa making out." He laughed a third time, this time much more uproariously than before.

Heero couldn't help but grin a little bit as well, though he thought it best not to call any attention to this casual reference to the relationship Duo's friends had. If anything, the comment had probably been a little bit of bait, but Heero wasn't sure if biting was such a good idea, tempting as the idea may or may not have been.

Before long, they were walking up the little path that led to the farmhouse's front door, along which Heero kept noticing other little superstitious wards here and there. He pretended like they were of no interest to him as Duo banged gracelessly on the door, shouting, "Hey, you two! Put your pants on and open up!"

There was a scuffling sound from within, and in the moment before the door swung open, Heero thought maybe that's exactly what they were doing in there. Those thoughts were tossed aside almost immediately, however, when he caught a glimpse of the man who had answered their call, for standing there in the doorway was none other than the blonde whose bright blue eyes could change to a bloody, glowing red.

++++

Duo was too busy greeting his friend to notice the way Heero had suddenly gone pale as a ghost. However, it was too late for Heero to try and make an escape, and besides, he didn't know the way back to Duo's cottage. His only choice was to follow Duo when the blonde invited them inside.

"Heero, this is Quatre," Duo said, making a sweeping gesture from Heero to the blonde with one slightly cupped hand. Reversing the motion, he then said, "Quatre, this is Heero - the guy the mutt found out by the road."

"Oh, pleasure to meet you," said Quatre, sticking his hand out in the most disarmingly friendly gesture Heero could possibly imagine. It took Heero a few, wary moments before he finally got up the nerve to accept the handshake, secretly hoping that nobody noticed how vibrantly uneasy the blonde made him feel. Just looking at him filled his brain with pulsating flashes of the thunderstorm and the frightening way he'd nearly steered himself to his death.

"Heero," came Duo's voice. "You can let go of his hand, you know."

Jumping, Heero suddenly realized that he was still gripping Quatre's hand with abnormal ferocity, and he quickly released it like it was a hot coal to shove his hand deep into one pocket. "Sorry," he muttered, shooting his gaze elsewhere. "I think I'm still a little muddled from the accident."

"That's okay; you're still in your grace period," Duo hummed amiably. Then he turned to Quatre and asked, "Hey, is Trowa in? I need him to fire up that old rust bucket of his so we can get Heero's wheels back to my place."

With a winning smile, Quatre nodded and beckoned Heero and Duo to follow him further into the house, much to Heero's chagrin and discomfort. And yet, despite the feeling that he was walking further and further into a place he knew for sure was cursed, he couldn't help but wonder about Quatre's cheerful disposition and how strangely opposite it was to the slightly unhinged fellow he'd seen in the rain. He even entertained the thought that maybe Quatre had an evil twin, but discarded it almost immediately when reason caught up with him. Then he found himself thinking about how odd this place was, and how it seemed to hover in a place that wasn't quite real - almost the same way twilight lingered between night and day.

Quatre led them to a sitting room near the back of the house, where they found a tall man with reddish brown hair Heero could only assume was Trowa. He was lounging on the sofa with a thick book on one knee and a longhaired, black and white cat on the other. Trowa seemed too absorbed in whatever he was reading to notice that he suddenly had company, but the cat he was idly stroking made up for his ignorance with a malevolent hiss. Duo sneered back at the animal with just as much animosity and then took a moment to mutter a private aside regarding his supreme distaste for the thing.

Meanwhile, Quatre was busy making a quick round of introductions, after which Heero felt more at ease: the lackadaisical way Trowa looked up from the book he was reading to give Heero a nod of welcome helped Heero feel there wasn't such a need to be so guarded around Quatre. He let out a quiet breath of relief as he let the tension ease out of his system.

He tuned back into his surroundings in time to hear Duo repeat the question he'd just asked Quatre, to which Trowa replied: "You know, Duo, if you're going to keep up this auto mechanic hobby of yours, maybe it's time you started thinking of investing in a truck of your own."

"Why should I when I can exploit yours?" Duo asked with a shrug, though there was something in his tone that was very no-nonsense. "Besides," he went on before Heero had much time to think about it, "you live way closer to the main road than I do; all's having a truck would do for me is to become yet another thing to hammer on once driving across the field too many times goes busting up the undercarriage."

"Good," Trowa retorted, his lips quirked into a slight grin; "Maybe then you'd be too busy to come banging over here all the time, and Quatre and I could have some peace and quiet for once."

Duo actually seemed to droop a little at the comment, though it was doubtful he thought anyone had noticed. He said, "Aw, come on guys. You jokers are my best friends! Who'll play with me if you won't?"

"Isn't that what you've got Heero for now?" Trowa retorted drolly as he thumbed a page over in his book.

"Actually...." Heero tried to interject, but found he was being wholly ignored by everyone but the cat, which, at some point, had leapt off Trowa's lap and coiled herself around Heero's ankles.

Duo was already in the middle of a retort: "Aw, come on; it's not like we all stopped hanging out when Quatre came around to stay."

"Excuse me, but...." Heero cleared his throat a little more assertively at this, feeling very left out of a conversation he thought he should be having a little bit more say in, considering the topic. He was still only garnering the cat's attention, for the most part; the creature was being almost abnormally affectionate considering how she'd treated Duo.

"I still don't see why that means I'm obligated to help you at the drop of a hat," Trowa stated simply as he turned another page. He glanced up and focused on Duo through his long bangs: "What have you done for me lately, hmm?"

"Trowa, the time," Duo wailed, ignoring the question and pointing frantically to his wristwatch as if his purposes far overshadowed anything Trowa had to say.

"I guess someone's still scared of the dark," Trowa commented with a roll of his eyes as he closed his book and put it aside.

"Hey, shut up - it's not like that!" Duo said with a pout, crossing his arms and turning his head very pointedly away from Trowa - which was when he noticed the cat rubbing herself against Heero's legs. "Oh, fuck no, Nemesis," he spat down at the black creature, trying to nudge it away from Heero with his foot. "You have your own, dammit."

Trowa strode over just in time to see Duo kicking his cat, which earned him a hard cuff to the back of the head. "Quit taking out your aggressions on things that are smaller than you," he chided, stooping down to pick up the cat. "She can tell you don't like her, you know." He stroked the cat's back affectionately, though the gesture didn't seem to be enough to deter Nemesis's interest in Heero.

"That cat don't like anybody but you," Duo groused.

"And your friend, it would seem," Trowa said with a smile. For the first time, he addressed Heero, saying, "You wouldn't happen to be squirreling, say, a can of tuna fish or something in your pockets, would you?"

Confused for a moment, Heero shook his head, all the while staring down at the cat. It was true animals always seemed to take a liking to him, but this was just ridiculous; he'd never seen an animal actually strain towards him like it absolutely needed to cling to him.

"In any case," Duo interrupted, clenching his fists impatiently, clearly in no mood to stay around the cat longer than he had to, "can we get moving please? I want to get this over real quick-like."

"You're just jealous," Trowa said smartly, stooping so the cat could jump out of his arms. She started to make for Heero, but Duo reached out and gave Heero's hand a determined yank as he started to stalk out of the room, dragging the very befuddled Heero behind him. Knowing that Duo could lead the way to the truck, Trowa and Quatre followed them with an overeager Nemesis bringing up the rear. Heero thought Duo took a little too much pleasure in being the one to cut Nemesis out of the party when he slammed the back door in the cat's face once all the humans had gone through.

In the driveway was a beat-up pickup truck so caked in mud, it was almost impossible to make out its green colour beneath the thick layer of grime. Quatre headed off to the garage to grab a towline while Trowa clambered into the truck's cab to fire it up; Duo leapt up onto the flatbed and beckoned Heero to climb up with him. "It smashed into the spooky tree," Duo called around to Trowa through the open rearview window.

Quatre came back shortly after, and the engine sputtered to life as Trowa twisted the key in the ignition. The ride was bumpy and relatively quiet: Heero spent most of it staring absently at the scenery as it rolled by, all the while wondering how he was going to get in touch with Relena and Wufei in such a cut-off place, and vaguely wondered if there was a way Trowa could shuttle him out to the nearest town for that very purpose.

It was getting to be late afternoon by the time they reached the crash site. Duo hopped off the truck as they rolled up with the other three not far behind. "Man, you managed to bang up a resilient little thing like this? Talk about a beating!" he whistled as he finally took a good look at the wreck. He glanced at Heero and asked, "What did you say happened again?"

Heero swallowed, nervous that the topic had been broached again, and this time, with Quatre in their presence to boot. He swallowed self-consciously and said in a reserved manner, "I was tired and it was storming. I just... thought I saw something in the rain and swerved."

"Oh, probably road kill or something. Some of the animals out here are so stupid," Quatre speculated in a way that was so oblivious, it had Heero seriously considering the evil twin theory again.

"Well, whatever," Duo said, taking charge of the situation again. "Somebody go get that towline so we can drag this sucker back to my place."

"Can you really fix it quickly?" Heero asked Duo as Trowa went about doing just that. It was the most hopeful prospect he'd heard since he'd gotten his bearings back.

"Sure I can! Besides some cosmetic stuff, this ain't too horrible from the looks of it," Duo said with an air of confidence. He shot Heero a reassuring smile and reached out to pat him on the back, and much to Heero's personal surprise, he found it did make him feel a little better about the whole thing.

Trowa came back about then, and the group then set their focus on rigging the SmartCar to the back of Trowa's pickup. As they worked, Heero decided it was better to trust Duo's judgment than to be skeptical; such a pessimistic thought would only do to make things worse, he figured, and he thought he'd dug himself deep enough for the time being.

The trip back to Duo's cottage didn't seem so far by truck, though Heero had to admit that being simply a passenger left him zoning out for most of the time. His thoughts started wandering back to the oddity of this whole situation, but he quickly gave up when he attempting trying to make sense of it all.

Duo seemed to have noticed his unrest and called attention to it from his side of the truck bed. "You doin' okay, Heero?" he asked, concerned that maybe he'd pushed Heero a bit far by dragging him out of bed so quickly. "You seem really distracted over there."

Heero startled, completely unaware that he'd allowed himself to garner so much attention and red in the cheeks that Duo had caught him so off guard. "It's nothing," he mumbled. "I'm just trying to figure out what comes next."

"What comes next?" Duo threw his head back as he laughed. Then he snapped back, leaning forward with a hint of intensity in his smirk: "Isn't that the point, though? Not to know?"

Heero drew in a deep breath, his eyes darting quickly towards Quatre, who was fumbling with the air conditioner. "I suppose," he finally conceded, letting the air out of his lungs. "But this is almost surreal."

"Surreal?" Duo laughed again. The sound of it was a merriment that was rooted deep in his stomach, full and hearty in a way that comforted Heero somewhat. When he could speak again, he crossed his arms and said thoughtfully, "I guess I forgot how it is in a big city, always keeping your guard up around humans and ghouls alike!"

Heero could only stare blankly back at Duo. With talk like that, he sounded like Relena when she got excited about investigating famously haunted places. A fantastical amusement, he thought.

"What, you think I'm shittin' you?" Duo asked incredulously with a knowing tilt of his head. "I guess I feel ya, man. When I first came out here, it took me a long time to accept the reality of it, too. But like I said, maybe it's just something in the air. Even the dead seem to be alive here." He shrugged inconsequentially.

"But ghouls?" Heero emphasized, still a little disbelieving.

"Oh, sure," Duo said with a sincere nod. He gestured towards the horizon, which was starting to glow with the light of the rapidly setting sun: "You think we're racing the sky for kicks, man?" Leaning towards Heero conspiratorially, he said in a harsh whisper, "When the moonlight comes through the trees, you can sometimes see the ghosts. They're wispy and cold and lonely, but relatively harmless, for the most part. It's the like of vampires and some of the shape-shifters you gotta worry about, really. They're the ones with the truly tormented souls - the ones that are bred on instinct."

Heero could only arch a cursory eyebrow.

"But don't you worry about it, okay? You just worry about getting better," Duo said with an unexpected clap of his hands. "I mean, it's not all creepy stuff, really," he went on thoughtfully. "Sometimes I think the spirits are what gives this place its soul. Makes me feel more unleashed, anyway."

By then, the sun was about eye-level, glaring sleepily into their eyes as they went. Heero felt a tiredness overcoming him again, and he soon found himself wishing that he could lie down in Duo's bed again for a much-wanted catnap. He wrote it off, though, supposing that the day had been a bit eventful, despite feeling much better than he had been before. In the meantime, he let his eyelids droop a little and listened.

Trowa and Quatre were having a hardly audible conversation in the cab, their voices muted by the roar of the engine and the cassette playing in the tape deck. Duo was slouched in his corner of the truck bed, singing along with the music: "Oooh, oooh, witchy woman: she got the moon in her eyes!" The song was hardly a lullaby, but it had the same effect on Heero, anyway.

A lurch in the truck's movement signaled that it had stopped in front of Duo's house, startling Heero back to his usual alert wakefulness. He refocused his vision in time to see Trowa and Quatre coming around to the back of the truck to unhitch the car, while Duo was lifting the door of a small garage separate from the cottage, which Heero hadn't noticed before. He wanted to ask if there was anything he could do to help, but the other three seemed to be working too efficiently to really need a fourth pair of meddling hands, so he stayed quiet and just watched. The sun was getting lower all the time, and the other three were getting more impatient; it seemed that Trowa was just as anxious to be safe from the darkened countryside as Duo had been, despite his earlier jests.

"You know, Heero," Duo called, taking note of Heero's lethargy as he returned to the truck, "if you're tired, you can go crash on my bed again. I don't mind... I know you're still probably not feeling shipshape."

The fact that Duo was calling attention to his sluggishness signaled to Heero that he probably was more tired than he'd realized if other people could pick up on it. If he'd been more with it, he might have noticed the way Trowa and Quatre were sniggering between themselves, though he probably wouldn't have read as deeply into Duo's suggestion if he had. The thought of lying down was more than enough for him, despite still feeling as if he was encroaching on Duo's hermit-like lifestyle. With what he hoped was an appreciative smile, he thanked Duo with a nod and clambered off the truck.

"Remember, you can help yourself to anything you need!" Duo called after Heero as he started to head towards the cottage, which stood a little ways off from the garage. Heero turned to acknowledge the kindness of Duo's offer with another nod, to which Duo said: "And don't worry about inconveniencing me or anything. No sleep, remember?" Duo jerked his head towards the SmartCar as if to indicate that he was well taken care of for the night and then let Heero carry on his way.

Everything in the house seemed to be bathed in that dark, golden sunlight when Heero went inside. There was an eerie silence that seemed to fill the place, too - something he became acutely aware of as he passed the cuckoo clock hanging by the stairs, which loudly ticked off the seconds with agonizing slowness. He couldn't help but keep his ears trained on the sound even as he made his way passed it and onwards to Duo's bedroom. He collapsed onto the mattress on his stomach and counted forty-three ticks before he fell asleep.

++++

Once again, it was a strange sound that startled Heero awake. This time, his eyes snapped open to find the purple shadows of night rolling all around him, and he had to spend a few moments allowing them to adjust to the darkness before he could take a real look around. Nothing really seemed out of the ordinary, he thought as he sat up, annoyed that he was now very wide-awake, but some unnamed instinct still urged him to take a look around to be sure.

Stepping outside the bedroom alerted him to a scuffling noise coming from the first floor. He thought for a moment that maybe Duo had come back inside for the night, but a glance out the window found the lights inside the garage still ablaze. He sucked in a nervous breath, suddenly recalling the things Duo had told him about the bewitched countryside, but was quick to berate himself for daring to jump to such a conclusion. "You're just letting these superstitious people get to you," he told himself adamantly as he descended the stairs. "It's probably just the wind or something."

The floor plan of Duo's cottage wasn't terribly complex, but the clutter made it a little more difficult to navigate. The main hall at the bottom of the stairs was so clogged with stacks of various things, Heero had to practically leap over them to get through it. As he narrowly dodged kicking over a particularly impressive stack of books, he wondered how Duo had managed to accumulate so much random stuff and where it all had come from. His only conclusion was that Duo had been keeping up this lifestyle for quite some time for things to get to a state like this.

A loud crash emanated from a room behind Heero, causing him to jump in that direction when he heard it echo throughout the empty house. It had come from the kitchen, it seemed, so he started to pick his way over in that direction. Getting there was at least a hundred times more difficult at night, and he thanked his lucky stars that he'd always had a keen sense for moving about in the darkness.

Arriving in the little kitchen, Heero stood by the back door and peered into the moonlit room in search of whatever intruder was making such a ruckus. Upon seeing nothing at first, his concern about Duo's ghosts and ghouls started to creep back, and with a swallow, he realized the notion of something like Quatre and his red eyes was causing him to shake a little. He desperately hoped there was nothing like that to be found when he heard the sound yet again, its proximity distinctly close enough to be coming from behind the counters. Steeling himself, he decided to face the banshee or whatever it was without fear.

"I'm not afraid of you!" he declared as he came around the counter with clenched fists only to stumble to a halt when he realized what he was addressing.

Sprawled across the terracotta floor was none other than Duo's big, black dog, Anubis. He was wrestling with what looked like a large bone, gnawing and pawing at it in such a way that it rattled across the tiles with the same noisy fanfare that had woken Heero up in the first place. When he noticed Heero standing there, however, he was quick to abandon his toy in favour of sucking up to Heero for the sake of a pat or two. He rubbed up against Heero's legs and sniffed him in intimate ways that were only excusable for a dog, while Heero could only stand there, dumbfounded that he'd gotten himself so worked up over something so harmless.

"I never did thank you for finding me, did I?" Heero said, succumbing to the urge to scratch the dog's ears. "Who knows what might have happened if it hadn't been for you."

Anubis woofed affectionately and ran a happy circle around Heero's feet.

"Well, and your master, too," Heero added as an afterthought as the dog trounced merrily off towards the next room, pausing only to look back in hopes that Heero was following. Expectantly, Heero arched his eyebrows at the dog as he tailed him into the dining area.

Anubis was digging through a pile of boxes in search of something, careless of the things he was knocking over as he did so. Heero crouched next to the dog to right the fallen objects, mildly curious to take a closer look at what sorts of things Duo had lying around: some old board games; a bundle of outdated holiday cards; a flashlight with a burnt out light bulb, and - what was that? Heero stopped stacking to stare at the box in his hands, ignorant of the wet nuzzling from Anubis, who had found a toy he was determined to share with Heero.

Heero was only dimly aware of the yarn ball being shoved into his lap, which he blindly picked up and rolled across the room for the dog's entertainment as he stared at his discovery. Though it was a little outdated, what he'd found was a cell phone still packed away in the box it was purchased in if the weight and the plastic wrapping was any indication; stuck to the top of it was a post-it note with a message written in faded ink: 'Try calling me sometimes ~ Hilde'.

"Clearly, he didn't," Heero commented drolly, though even Anubis wasn't around to hear him. He stared down at the box, wondering if he could somehow get it to work long enough for him to call into the resort where Relena and Wufei were staying. It was a constant thorn in the back of his mind that his dear little cousin was panicking over the fact that he'd yet to show up.

Unwrapping the box, Heero realized he was truly in luck, as the phone turned out to be the sort where you pay as you go. Anubis trotted back to Heero's side with the ball of yarn Heero had thrown for him in his mouth, settling down to watch Heero set up the device while he waited for another toss.

Six games of fetch later, Heero was ready to try dialing. Sad that his fun would have to be put on hold, Anubis moodily curled up next to Heero, who was digging through his back pocket in search of the scrap of paper he'd written the resort's information on. He punched in the number and held the phone to his ear, his stomach quivering with anticipation. Oh, how he hoped Relena wasn't too worried!

The phone rang twice before someone answered it: "Bonsoir?"

"Hello?" Heero said, momentarily confused. He paused for a heartbeat and then asked, "Is this the Hawkeye Regent Hotel?"

But the person on the other end of the line didn't seem to understand and replied back in French. Heero tried asking again, this time referring to Wufei and Relena's reservation, but got the same result. In frustration, he hung up on the French speaker and sighed. He pried the yarn ball from Anubis's mouth and rolled it for the dog once more and then studied the piece of paper he'd written the hotel number on, sure he hadn't misdialed. He elected to try again.

This time, when someone answered the line, he was at least greeted by a British accent, but was dismayed to find that he had not reached the hotel. He grimaced, hung up and then hit redial, too confused to be offended when the line was received this time with a string of Italian curses from a very different speaker. He tossed the phone aside and threaded his hands through his thick hair, unable to decide how he felt. It made no sense to him that the same number would direct him to three different people each time he rang it up. For the first time, Duo's claim about the area being haunted didn't seem like such a ridiculous notion.

"Come on, boy," Heero said when Anubis came back with the ball of yarn. "Let's go outside to play." The distraction seemed like the best remedy for the situation, at any rate.

Anubis definitely seemed to like the idea and barked his enthusiasm as he snapped the ball back up into his jaws and trotted back towards the kitchen, where he darted outside through a doggie flap fixed into the back door. Heero followed him out into the yard and picked up the slobbery ball from the patch of dewy grass where Anubis had deposited it. He reeled his arm back and, channeling all his unrest and aggravation into the throw, let the ball fly long and hard across the field. His eyes followed the trail of string flapping after the yarn ball as it arced across the nearly full moon. He only wished he could empathize more with Anubis's excited yips as the dog darted after it through the tall grass.

Tail wagging, Anubis came back momentarily and returned the ball to Heero, proud to be rewarded with a series of pats and scratches for bringing it back. "You don't think it's weird out here, do you?" Heero asked Anubis as he prepared to throw the ball again. "I mean, you seem happy enough."

Anubis simply barked, obviously too impatient to go ball hunting to really care about Heero's internal monologue.

"I suppose it would stand to reason that you are if Duo is," Heero concluded as he flung the ball again, this time even further than before. Anubis took off after it with unbridled excitement. "They say animals are really in tuned to that kind of thing," Heero went on as he picked his way through the grass in the same direction he'd thrown the ball; "Maybe Duo's just the sort to pay more attention to what his dog thinks." When Anubis returned with the ball and a lick or two for Heero's hand, Heero mused thoughtfully, "Maybe more people ought to do that."

Looking up, it was then that Heero realized how far they'd wandered from the house. He wasn't sure how far Duo's property extended, and there wasn't really anything dotting the vast countryside to indicate it, either. For a moment, standing there beneath more stars than he had ever seen in his life, Heero forgot the strangeness of the situation and let the calm peacefulness of the place overwhelm him. Closing his eyes, his lungs felt full of more than just air when he breathed in, and the wind on his cheeks seemed to carry more than just a refreshing coolness. In that instance, Heero almost thought he could belong in a place like this, far away from everybody and everything.

Anubis's impatient barking was what brought him back to reality, but it was the dog's subsequent silence that made him alert. He was acutely aware that there was no longer a breeze, and the lack of any natural sound was like an overbearing groan in his ears. He glanced down at the dog, trying hard to understand what he was saying and wishing he possessed the gift for it that Duo did. All he could discern, though, was which direction the threat was coming from, and he slowly lifted his eyes back out towards the rolling hillsides in search of the danger.

There was a rustling in the grass that startled Heero, and he braced himself for the most unimaginable thing his mind could conceive, until the cause of the disturbance made itself known. "I've never been so jumpy in my life," Heero sighed, shaking his head in disbelief at Trowa's cat, which had just leapt out of the grass and onto the remains of a nearby fence. "It must be just another effect of this...." He trailed off as his eye caught a flash of something in the moonlight.

Then his throat closed up in fear.

Standing just a little distance off was the silhouette of a figure Heero quickly identified as Quatre, who was staring up at the night sky with the glowing, red eyes Heero still was restless over. Fortunately, it didn't seem like Quatre had noticed him, so Heero took the opportunity to slowly back towards the house. "Anubis, come," he hissed under his breath, careless as to whether or not Quatre posed the same threat to the dog.

But Anubis wouldn't pay him any heed, far too involved with trying to scare Nemesis as far away from Duo's house as possible. It didn't take long for the dog's growling to waft across the field to Quatre's ears, either, because it wasn't long before the blonde was turning his demonic stare in their direction. Heero found himself too overcome with fright to even think of running, immobilized upon the patch of dirt where he stood.

No sooner had Quatre taken a few steps towards them, however, did a strange thing happen: the blonde let out a wild, animalistic roar and suddenly fell forward, his very shape contorting as he did. Heero could swear he saw the moonlight glint across a sharp fang and catch the swish of a fox-like tail before he disappeared behind the tall grass.

There was a scuttle in the place where Quatre had disappeared, but Heero didn't stick around long enough to investigate. Deciding Anubis was clearly able to fend for himself, he turned on his heel and fled back to Duo's cottage as quickly as his feet could carry him. He banged the back door open and slammed it closed behind him, sure to deadbolt and lock it in as many ways possible before he collapsed to the floor in a nervous heap. He gathered his knees against his chest and rocked himself back and forth in an effort to comfort himself. Despite Duo's kindness, he wasn't sure how much longer he could put up with this. He closed his eyes in hopes he'd quickly fall asleep, but wasn't able to until Anubis came back through the doggie door about fifteen minutes later and curled up beside him to keep his watchful eyes on the night. Feeling safer with the dog nearby, Heero allowed himself to succumb to his tiredness, closed his eyes and didn't open them again until the sun had replaced the moon in the sky.

++++

An unnaturally jarring shift in Heero's position was what woke him up the next day. The first thing he registered when he opened his eyes was how bright Duo's big, blue eyes were, followed closely by the width of his longbow shaped lips and the perfect way the little dimple above them curved up into his pert nose. Then he jumped as the realization that Duo was close enough for him to even take in all those details finally hit home. "What are you doing?!?" he yelped, trying to scramble into a more respectable position against the wall - a movement he found hindered by Duo's arms, which were coiled beneath him.

"Ah, sorry! Relax, man!" Duo apologized, quickly withdrawing his hands and holding them up on either side of his head. "I was just gonna carry you up to the bedroom. Sleeping down there on the floor like that doesn't seem all that comfortable is all."

It took Heero a few moments to understand what Duo meant, and then quickly regretted thinking about the night before and what he'd seen. In an effort to dispel any questions, though, he quickly popped up to his feet and dusted his pants self-consciously as he mumbled some nonsense about his hygienic state and how he ought to take a fast shower.

Duo was quick to stand up as well, however, and before Heero knew it, he'd been backed against the wall with Duo barring him in on either side with his arms. Duo's grin was diabolical as he leaned in close enough to impress Heero with the finer details of his handsome face; "Are you always this panicky, buddy?"

Insulted, Heero narrowed his eyes.

Duo, however, was unphased. "Or does the little pussycat just have a hard time taking it easy in the doghouse?" he intoned with a leer, even as Heero chastised him with a warning jab in the chest.

"I'm not little or a pussycat," Heero huffed stiffly. He was only an inch or two shorter than Duo, anyway - hardly enough to call attention towards.

Duo just laughed. "Alright, a tiger cub, then," he amended with that same suavity. He leaned in and added, "Still waiting to earn your stripes, tiger?"

Not in the mood for such teasing, Heero tried to protest and push him away, but found Duo surprisingly resilient to his aggression. Duo started to lean in a bit more, and Heero squinted his eyes, blind to what Duo was playing at until he felt a moist warmth on his forehead. He reopened his eyes to find Duo pulling away.

"You're cute," Duo said, flicking Heero's nose before finally stepping off and moving away. "Even if you are a stripe-less tiger." He laughed again, letting the sound reverberate throughout the small house as he started to wander off. From the next room, he called back to Heero in the kitchen, saying, "Oh, and the car's looking good. Just need to order in some parts, and we'll be on the road with it." More laughter filled the air.

Heero took a few moments to steady himself and gather his wits. He wasn't sure if the odd feeling in his stomach had more to do with the supernatural things he'd been witnessing lately, or with the kiss he'd just felt Duo plant on his forehead. Not that he really had a problem with it if Duo decided he wanted to kiss him, he mused to himself as he made his way over to the sink. He turned on the tap and cupped some water into his hands to splash onto his face. There was a definite instinctual feeling he had that made him certain that he liked Duo very much. The only thing was that he just wasn't sure how much he could trust him quite yet.

"What am I going to do now?" he wondered, looking out the window over the sink as the water continued to pour over his hands. It framed a dilapidated fence a few yards away from the house, perched upon which was the familiar black and white form of Trowa's cat, Nemesis, and a brown feline friend that both seemed to be watching him. Heero smirked to himself, wondering how well Duo would take it if he knew his archrival had stolen onto his property, and then laughed at the thought of Duo trying to ward the animal off with some kind of nonsensical, superstitious charm.

But the pair of cats was still staring - staring directly at him for sure this time - and the unnerving sight quickly chased Heero's amusement away. Considering what he'd seen already, maybe 'nonsensical' really wasn't a word he should continue to use. He quickly shut off the tap and turned around so he wouldn't have to keep looking. Then he decided that shower seemed like an even better idea than it had been before.

++++

After his shower, Heero redressed in some of Duo's clean clothes: a pair of loose, ragged jeans a tee shirt that had that had a certain, Duo-twanged scent worked into its very fabric. Part of him felt guilty and awkward for borrowing Duo's things so freely, despite the way his host continually insisted that he had an open invitation to, and yet, he couldn't help but be comforted by such kindness. Not for the first time, though, he found himself vaguely wondering why Duo was so compelled to help him.

Ironically enough, just as he was pulling the shirt over his head, Duo poked his head into the bedroom and said with a cheerful little salute, "Hey, when you're done here, meet me by the door. Wanna show you how the car's going."

Heero nodded and wasn't long after Duo disappeared down the stairs. He came into the foyer to find Duo pacing restlessly in circles by the door, and the obvious excitement that tensed his muscles gave Heero hope that maybe Duo was proud of the progress he'd made on the repairs - which meant there was a chance he'd be back on the road far sooner than he'd anticipated.

"Did you really make a lot of progress last night?" Heero asked as they stepped outside. As he waited for Duo to lock the door, he noticed Nemesis had gathered a few more cat companions and was lurking with them near the hedgerow, almost like a little gang of stalkers. He decided it would probably be best not to point their presence out to Duo if he hadn't noticed them already.

"Hm, kind of," said Duo, ambling towards the garage without even glancing at the hedgerow. Heero brusquely caught up to him and fell in step. "I managed to at least take real stock of the damage, if that means anything. I thought I'd show you exactly what we're looking at, you know?"

A little disappointed he wasn't going to see the progress he'd hoped to, Heero supposed it was at least a beginning, and he nodded. He supposed there really wasn't anything he could do about it, and at least Duo was being extremely accommodating. He stole a fast glance at Duo's face as they walked, thinking it was one of the most kindly ones he'd ever seen and suddenly feeling overpowered with the sense that he'd miss it after he'd moved on. It was strange, though; up until then, he'd never felt compelled to miss anybody in his entire life.

"What'cha thinking so hard about, man?" Duo suddenly asked as they neared the garage. "You look really pensive, you know."

Caught off his guard and in the middle of some rather incriminating thoughts, Heero startled and vigorously shook his head in the negative. "Nothing important," he insisted, adding in an almost incomprehensible mumble: "Just wondering what'll happen after I leave this place."

Duo quirked an inquisitive eyebrow at him. "What do you mean?" he wondered aloud. "You'll get to see your family, and I..." He trailed off a little, idly folding his arms behind his back and staring up at the clouds with an expression Heero could only label as nostalgic: "And it'll go back to being quiet around here... the way it usually is." He let out a definitively melancholy sigh, which Heero couldn't help but note for its uncharacteristic nature.

Normally, Heero would have smiled at the thought of his cousin and her husband, but his lips remained weighted in a heavy frown as he looked at Duo's clearly disparaged face. He wanted to say something comforting, but he knew he'd never be able to find the right words. He wished he did, though.

Suddenly taking a few strides towards the garage, Duo paused for a moment and gave the moment the words Heero couldn't find: "You're the best breath of fresh air that's ever blown through here, Heero," he said before jogging the rest of the way to the garage with nary a backwards glance.

Despite the shock that slammed into Heero full-force when Duo said those things, he was quick to hurry after Duo, reaching out to grab the other man's wrist once he was near enough. With a quick jerk, he spun Duo around to face him, a strange, indescribable flutter in his chest when he saw evidence of Duo's loneliness etched across his features. It was an expression Heero knew all too well: one he saw every time he looked into the mirror. And before he knew it, he couldn't stop himself from asking, "Is that why you've been so kind to me?"

Duo seemed flustered and slightly taken aback. "It's not that, exactly," he said, hanging his head so he wouldn't have to look directly at Heero. "It's just... it's been a long time since I've had anybody around and you...." He smiled weakly, flush with what might have been embarrassment, "And, well, I like you...."

Heero felt himself stiffen, unsure of how he ought to react. No one had ever said anything like that to him before, either; most of the time, he felt like people simply tolerated his presence because he was there, not because they had any particular attachment to him. "It's okay; I understand that desperation for company," Heero mumbled, also staring away absently. Not so far off, he noticed Nemisis and her feline posse had crept along with them. He fixated on the way the black and white ringleader was tossing her fluffy tail back and forth as she watched them.

He hardly had time to get the words out before he felt himself being jerked back by Duo. His longhaired host was very deadest in his expression and tone as he said, "I am not desperate for company. I'll cater to whoever I want to." He grabbed Heero by the shoulders and leaned in close so their noses were just short of touching, their mouths gasping for the same breaths of air: "The second I saw you, I knew I couldn't leave you just lying there in the grass to die. I knew you were different - that you were like me."

Heero chewed his lower lip, unsure of what to say, especially under the watch of Duo's sincere eyes. He felt vaguely guilty for speaking so brashly for Duo and wished he had more confidence in situations like these. Despite what Duo had said, he still thought Duo was guarding a delicate heart, and he didn't want to be responsible for mishandling it, even by accident.

That wide smile tweaked itself across Duo's face as he pulled out of Heero's personal space: "I bet you're wondering how I would," he said, his usual swagger quickly returning. "I mean, it's easy, really - instinct, that is," he went on, sweeping an arm around Heero and casually shepherding him towards the garage door. When they got there, Duo put one hand on the door handle and shoved another deep into his pocket, searching for the key, though his eyes never once left Heero's as he continued to speak. "Sometimes there are things you just can't ever hope to intellectualize. You think too hard about them, and all too quickly, you realize how trite they all are." He paused for a moment to pull the key out of his pocket and insert it into the door's lock. "Nah, the important stuff - that's the stuff you feel deep, down in your gut. You don't have to ever think about it because you already know."

Heero crossed his arms and arched his eyebrows quixotically. "Is that the truth?" he wondered genially. "What is it, then," he went on with a bemused, little smirk, "that you seem to know about me so well?" His tone was somewhere between curious and testing.

The lock clicked loudly as Duo turned the key, but he was quick to abandon the door in favour of pinning Heero against the brick wall of the garage when he heard Heero's vaguely taunting question. The action might have been described as feral if it hadn't been for the sincerity with which Duo spoke: "You say it like it has to make sense," he said hoarsely as he leaned in close again.

Heero grunted softly, "Nothing makes sense - or at least, nothing lately has...." His eyes rolled to the side, away from Duo, where he quickly caught sight of Nemesis and her posse, which seemed to be gathering members every time he looked. Distractedly eyeing them, Heero continued: "Between you and your ghosts and the way your blond friend is so...." He startled back to reality, quickly clamming up when he realized what he was about to say.

But the damage had been done, and if anything, Duo almost seemed amused. "Quatre is so what?" he pressed with a dark smile. It was like he already knew what he wanted Heero to admit.

Despite Duo's open belief that there was something supernatural about the area, Heero didn't want to risk sounding stupid or vulnerable by admitting what he thought he'd seen Quatre do, so instead, settled on something more ambiguous. "He just intimidates me a little, okay?" he snapped a bit defensively. Noticing the gathering cats out of the corner of his eye again, he continued: "Everything around here just makes me feel like I fell down the goddamn rabbit hole, is all!"

However, Duo just seemed amused by Heero's frenetic behaviour. "Maybe you should have chosen the blue pill, then," he said with a careless shrug. There was a pause before he leaned in even closer - close enough to bury his nose into Heero's hair. "But then again it probably would have only been a matter of time before you ended up swallowing the red one anyway - God, I love your smell."

Heero sucked in a breath, but he found himself very adverse to trying to differentiate his situation. "You're clearly more concerned with the visceral than making sense," he commented as Duo's hands settled on his shoulders.

There was a breathy chuckle in Heero's ear: "I thought we already decided we were beyond the importance of what does or doesn't make sense," he murmured.

Duo's lips were tantalizingly close to Heero's cheek, and he found himself consumed by both nervousness and excitement. His mind was tripping over his behaviour in the past week, wondering how he'd given himself away to Duo. He was usually so careful when it came to how apparent his preferences were, especially around new people, and particularly around men he found attractive - men like Duo, he amended as his eyelids fluttered closed. Maybe Duo had noticed him staring, he thought; he'd always had a habit of eyeing things that interested him.

With Duo's mouth now just a breath away from his own, Heero wet his lips, the air thick with Duo's presence. He could practically feel Duo all around him, and it caused a fire to rise through his being - a fire that seemed both alien and familiar all the same. He was drowning so deeply in Duo, Heero completely forgot they weren't entirely alone until the furry softness of Nemesis's body wrapped itself around his ankles and startled him out of the intoxicating place he'd fallen into.

He jumped, bumping awkwardly into Duo while trying to also avoid stepping on the cat. Duo's hands were still clamped tightly around his shoulders like he still intended to kiss Heero, though their disjointed movements were making that intention seem like more of a whimsy now. The fact that Nemesis had ruined the moment hardly boded well with Duo, who was following the cat with a deadly glare in his eyes.

But Duo hardly had a chance to exact his revenge upon Nemesis, because just when it seemed like he was going to get down on the ground to skin her alive with his teeth, the cat let out a menacing hiss, and before Duo knew it, he was being swarmed by all the other cats that had been following them. There had to be at least a dozen of them in every shape and colour a cat could be, all launching themselves at Duo with bared fangs and claws like they meant to drive him off.

"Jealous little shit, aren't you," Duo growled at Nemesis as he wrested himself away from the feline onslaught. The black and white cat was still wrapped luxuriously around Heero's ankles, an almost smug look refracting in her greenish-yellow eyes. Duo frowned at her, ignoring the claws digging into his legs as he added: "Trowa's got you so spoiled, you can't even do your own dirty work, can you?"

Nemesis hissed and Heero pleaded with exasperation, "She's just a cat, Duo!"

Duo was hardly convinced, though. "No, that cat is -" He broke off and whirled on the other felines and barked angrily: "GET LOST!" The sudden volume in Duo's voice was more than enough to frighten a good number of them off, leaving Duo enough time to steel himself against any further onslaught. Returning his attention to Nemesis, he narrowed his eyes and said darkly: "No, that cat is goddamn evil." He bared his teeth at her to emphasize his distaste as he strode boldly forward to grab Heero's wrist.

Nemesis knew a competition when she was presented with one and didn't appreciate the challenge at all. She tried desperately to cling to Heero and claw Duo at the same time, but her attempts were futile as Duo pulled Heero into the garage and locked her out with a violent slam of the door. She hissed and scratched against the wood in hopes Heero would at least take pity on her, but it was of no avail. Desperately, she flitted past the nearby bushes and leapt up to the windowsill above.

Meanwhile, Duo had taken notice of Nemesis's new perch and was blatantly making faces at her from inside the garage. Heero rolled his eyes at the display, despite its amusing quality, and said, "Duo, really, forget her. Tell me about my car."

Duo shot one final sneer at the cat before turning his back on her and clearing his throat. And with a triumphant, braggart's air, he slung an arm around Heero's waist in plain sight of the window and eased Heero in the direction of the totaled vehicle as he started to survey the damage for him.

Meanwhile, Heero found he was having a difficult time absorbing everything Duo was saying. It wasn't for lack of understanding, but rather because of the electric shock that was tingling across his back beneath the length of Duo's arm. His tongue danced behind his lips as he thought back to that moment they'd just had outside - that broken moment that had lingered for a few tantalizing seconds of unhindered eagerness. He wondered if Duo realized what his touch was doing or if that teasing almost-kiss had been in jest or not. Then he wondered if he was thinking about it too hard.

"Heero," came Duo's voice, though it sounded vaguely distant at first. It took him a few moments to realize that Duo was trying to get his attention: "Heero, does that sound okay to you?" Duo called again.

"Does what sound okay?" Heero asked, jolting quickly back to reality, embarrassed to note that the first thing he sought to notice was whether or not Duo's arm was still around his waist - which it was.

"That schedule I just outlined," Duo repeated with a smirk. "For getting your car done."

"Oh, yeah, fine," Heero murmured absently. In truth, he hadn't heard a word of it.

Slyly, Duo glanced over at Heero, who was staring pointedly at the SmartCar in what was obviously an effort to not be caught staring back at him. He smiled, finding Heero's effort nothing less than endearing, and then tightened his arm around Heero's hips. "Then you'll stay with me for the year it'll take me to do it?" he asked, leaning in closer to Heero to murmur the question into his ear.

The sudden proximity of Duo's breath on the side of his face again caused Heero to jump, and he turned to find Duo much nearer than he was before. "A... a year? Really?" he stammered.

The corner of Duo's mouth quirked upwards, and Heero found his eyes drawn dangerously to it, especially when Duo's lips started to form around a reply: "No, not really. More like a week or two at the most," he said smugly. "I just wanted to see if you were really paying attention to me, that's all." He became a little more forward, much as they had been outside; "Guess I have my answer, then," he whispered breathlessly.

Then, before Heero had a chance to react, he found Duo's fingers slipping beneath his chin, guiding their mouths together and meeting him with a gentle kiss. Suddenly, there was no ground below their feet and above them, only sky. It was a pleasing sensation - one that Heero felt was intrinsically right, even though he'd never shared such a deep kiss with anyone before. He liked the strong way Duo tasted and the sturdy way they embraced.

When they parted, the car was the last thing on either of their minds as they smiled almost idiotically back and forth. Their arms were still looped around each other, though they were no longer clinging so desperately together. "This is okay?" Duo pressed carefully, desperate to know his affection was wanted.

Heero was quick to offer him just such validation with his simple reply: "You're the best accident that's ever happened to me," he said sincerely.

Duo shook his head as he turned, giving Heero an indicative push towards the garage door. "You should know that nothing ever happens by accident, Heero," Duo said in a way that made it hard to tell if he was joking or not. His quick segue into the question of lunch left Heero wondering about that for a long time. Yes, Duo was certainly a strange one, he knew, but then again, Heero was beginning to realize that seemed to be exactly what he liked about Duo most.

++++

"You're gonna love this place, promise," Duo assured Heero as they trekked through the countryside's tall grass, each clutching the handle of the large cooler filled with sandwiches and beer that swung betwixt them. It was late afternoon, and the pair was going off to meet Trowa and Quatre in a secluded spot Duo said had come to be their hangout. "It's not far," Duo had kept insisting for the past twenty minutes of walking, but Heero didn't really mind either way. He was actually kind of content to extend his alone time with Duo as much as possible, especially since Quatre still made him a little uneasy.

Duo seemed to notice Heero's distracted air, though, and he came to an abrupt stop to ask about it. "Something on your mind?" he prodded, hoping he wasn't being too forward. To emphasize his seriousness on making sure Heero was okay, Duo dropped his side of the cooler, which rattled with the sound of the ice and beer inside when it hit the ground. "Are you... unhappy, Heero?" he wondered fearfully.

The latter part of Duo's questioning caused Heero to drop his end of the cooler in alarm. "No!" he cried, almost insulted that Duo would think that. He crossed his arms and glared down at his shoes thoughtfully, trying to figure out how to explain the fact that the prospect of seeing Quatre again had been creeping him out for the entirety of their walk without insulting either Duo or his friend.

But Duo wasn't about to drop the subject, as he'd noticed that Heero had been prone to spacing out a lot, and it concerned him. He knew he'd somehow become abnormally attached to his wayfaring guest, but there was something about Heero that he couldn't help but adore. He swore he'd look out for Heero if it was the last thing he did - even if Heero wasn't the sort who even seemed to need it. Adamantly, he plopped down on top of the cooler and refused to budge until he heard what he wanted to from Heero. "Seriously, Heero, if there's something on your mind, you ought to just let it out," he said with a firm nod of his head. "Is it your cousin again? Are you worried about her?" he ventured tentatively in hopes of coaxing the problem out of the other man.

Still staring down at the ground, Heero shook his head slowly, surprised, himself, that Relena was hardly a factor in it at all, but the truth of it was that he'd hardly thought about her in a while.

"Is it... me?" Duo pressed, carefully scrutinizing Heero for any hints in his posture.

Heero shook his head again, this time much more fiercely. He opened his mouth to expound on it, but found the words stopping short of his lips, so instead he said simply, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

Duo arched his eyebrows. "Oh yeah? Try me," he challenged jovially. There was something akin to amusement in his tone.

Heero took a few moments to consider, remembering how superstitious Duo and his friends seemed to be and figuring that maybe Duo wouldn't find his story about Quatre so farfetched after all. Looking up, he nervously scratched the back of his neck and averted his eyes to the patch of grass behind Duo's head as he started to explain everything, starting with the night he'd had his car accident. Had he been paying attention, he might have noticed the way Duo's lips were slowly curling upwards into a grin of supreme interest and amusement. Heero abruptly stopped in the middle of a sentence when it seemed like Duo was going to hurt himself with the effort of keeping his laughter contained.

"It's not you, I swear," Duo promised, waving a hand back and forth. His mouth was contorted oddly as he spoke around the stifled amusement welling in his throat. "It's just the disbelief on your face - you're a pretty logical guy, aren't you, Heero? I mean, it's just so obvious you can't believe half the things you're saying!" He scratched himself behind one ear, still grinning. "But the best part is that maybe the truth isn't as ridiculous as you think it is."

That caused Heero to pause and wonder what exactly Duo meant by that, his eyes quickly darting to fix on Duo's smug face. Words suddenly failed him.

"I told you this place is like a Mecca for spirits, and Quatre can just short of physically feel them," Duo said, casually digging his fingernails into his side to scratch. "Usually he's not all bad - just when that damn cat of Trowa's is around, really. Usually it's just whatever presence happens to be in the air that'll affect him."

"And that's what makes him... change?" Heero said with a dubious swallow. If Heero hadn't had as good a nose for smelling a liar as he did, he might have said that Duo was trying to play him for a fool.

"You heard it here first," Duo affirmed with a nod of sincerity as he stood up and moved to pick up his end of the ice chest again.

Heero helped him lift it, and soon they were walking on their way once more. Duo continued to promise him they were nearly there and Heero spent his time quietly contemplating the things Duo had told him. Every instinct in his body wanted to deny it, and yet, with the things Duo had just confirmed for him, he now had even less of a reason to. A thought came to him: "Duo," he asked, glancing across the breadth of the cooler to see his companion. "If Trowa's cat is such a menace, then why does he keep it around?"

Duo's face darkened a little, but he hid it well with a small shrug. "Fuck if I know," he answered. "Maybe the little demonspawn just knows Trowa's a sucker for cute things." He sniggered a little and added, "I mean, after all, he likes Quatre."

Heero supposed that made sense, but it didn't take long for another question to come to him: "Then why does she like me?" he wanted to know, a little worried that the supposedly evil cat would somehow rub off on him, too.

"I dunno," Duo said with a shrug. "Maybe she can just tell you're a cat person."

"And you're not?" Heero replied automatically.

At that, a trace smile snuck through Duo's lips as he answered, "I could be."

Heero thought that was a strange thing to say for someone who seemed to be so fond of dogs, but he didn't brood on it very long, instead merely chalking it up to Duo's rather quirky personality.

Finally, after about ten more minutes of walking, the pair reached the promised destination, where they found Trowa and Quatre already waiting for them. The other two men had brought a cooler of their own, a sure sign that there would be no shortage of alcohol for the remainder of the day. It didn't take long for them to break into the stash.

While sitting on a large rock and nursing his first bottle, Heero took the time to examine their surroundings. The place was a high knoll surrounded by an old, rusty fence, where the grass was kept from growing nearly as high as it did elsewhere by the stone-littered hilltop. At the base of the hill were a few scraggly, crooked trees that served as a prelude to the woods that rose up nearby. In the other direction was the wide countryside they'd crossed to get there; Heero could just vaguely make out both Trowa and Quatre's house and Duo's cottage in the distance. He found himself wondering aloud what had drawn them to such a removed location in the first place.

"It's polite," Quatre replied instinctively from his perch next to Trowa, beer in hand. They were sharing a rectangular boulder that looked like it had been chiseled by human hands to be that way. It reminded him of something that might have once been a sarcophagus.

"All the way out here?" Heero wondered dubiously. He glanced down at the top of his hand, which was supporting his weight against his own boulder -- one, he quickly realized, was just as made-made seeming as the rectangular one. Though most of the other large stones in the area were far more dilapidated than the ones that were currently being used as seats, his heart started to thump with more urgency as inklings of what this place was used for started to creep in on him. His eyes widened slightly as he rasped, "You think it's polite to drink on top of a -"

"Trowa's sister is buried here," Duo interjected before Heero had time to finish the thought, though his comment more or less confirmed what Heero had been about to ask. "She likes the company."

Heero mastered his uneasiness about their lack of concern for hanging out in a graveyard and took a long draught from his beer bottle. He'd drink until he was just as lackadaisical about the whole thing as they were, dammit. He raised the bottle to his lips again, casually glancing around at the boulders he now realized were tombstones and wondered which one was Trowa's sister's, but most of the ones he could see looked far too old to belong to her. He supposed they had just been exposed to harsher elements out in the wilderness than the carefully maintained graveyards he was used to.

It had been a long time since Heero had gone out to get wasted, so it was no surprise his tolerance wasn't as high as it used to be. After about four or five bottles, the hill was spinning and the edges of things looked a bit fuzzy. Trowa was sitting on his end of the sarcophagus, juggling a trio of bottles with amazing ease for a person who'd just finished chugging their contents. Quatre was also still next to him, though he was turned away from Trowa and seemed to be talking to himself; Heero wasn't sure if it was too much alcohol on his part or Quatre's that the blonde seemed to be carrying on a conversation with a pale, almost translucent figure that was lingering beside the sarcophagus. Maybe it was just the gradually setting sun starting to play shadow tricks on them, he reasoned blearily.

He was so distracted by Trowa and Quatre that Duo's sudden appearance by his side nearly scared the life out of him. "Make room, Yuy," he slurred a little, nudging Heero over with his hip as he fought to sit next to Heero on the same tombstone. Happily, he wrapped his arms around Heero and pulled him close, a laugh rolling across his tongue. Heero could smell the combination of beer and the cold-cut sandwich Duo had eaten with his drinks lingering heavily in the air between them. "Gonna stay up and be my playmate tonight?" he asked with a swagger that bordered on suggestive. "We could wrestle in the grass...."

Then Duo leaned over and gave Heero a slobbery lick down the side of his cheek before moving in to kiss him more properly. All Heero's inebriated mind could recall, however, was the way Duo had kissed him earlier that day and how it would be nice to try again. He didn't even think about Relena or his situation or any of that, instead content to relish the way his soul suddenly felt so alive.

Just as Duo was starting to become more adventurous, the sounds of Trowa and Quatre letting out a series of encouraging whoops put a halt to Duo's advancing hands, for which Duo shot them a very malcontented glare. Heero couldn't say he was particularly pleased either, but he made sure to avert his eyes so that Quatre and Trowa would never be able to call him on it, oblivious to how much more obvious it made him look.

Down the hill and across the rolling grass, Heero stared at the broad sky, which rose up like an aqua canopy that was dripping with pastel clouds. Peering out from behind one was the round outline of what would soon become a full moon, still a white pencil etching in the early evening. With the intuition that seems to be bred only from intoxication, the sight of it set a trigger off in Heero's mind. He turned back to the group to address them: "The moon," he said; "Aren't you three concerned about nightfall like you usually are?"

They took the time to exchange a private, amused look that Heero didn't quite catch, though perhaps he could be excused for trying to discern whether or not Quatre's ghostly friend was a hallucination or not. The pale apparition was still lingering at the blonde's side, and sometimes, when the light was right, Heero was sure he could see a lady's face framed by pretty curls. Sometimes he thought she was looking at him and it made him a little nervous.

"Don't worry about it," Duo assured Heero, jarring him from his staring contest with what could only be described as a ghost. Duo's arm was suddenly around Heero's shoulders and was gesticulating towards the sky with the other; "We'll be okay here, tonight," he said in a way that Heero couldn't help but take to heart. "Maybe you'll find it's not so scary."

"I was never the one scared in the first place," Heero murmured under his breath with a note of irony as he stood up and stumbled over towards the cooler for another beer.

With a laugh, Duo let his eyes trail down the length of Heero's back with no shame in his appraisal. "I think it's more a matter of fitting in than being scared," Duo commented, wetting his lips a little and ignoring the way Trowa was sniggering at him.

Heero quirked an eyebrow at Trowa, who was still stifling his amusement as he handed Heero the bottle opener. A chill passed along Heero's forearm as he reached for it, momentarily horrified when he realized that he'd impaled the ghost lady with his hand when he'd done so. She didn't seem to care either way, too busy smiling at Trowa in an overly-familiar fashion, but Heero was unnerved to realize that he was very aware of her presence, now. Quickly, he retracted his hand and started to shuffle back towards his spot as he fumbled with getting the bottle open. When he finally got the cap pried off, he was quick to put the bottle to his lips and chug regardless of how reasonable a reaction doing such a thing may or may not have been.

He immediately regretted his decision the second he reached the bottom of the bottle, though. Just in front of him, Duo looked like a warbled mess: an abstract vision of colours that didn't make any sense and yet fit him altogether quite well. Heero tottered to a halt, unsure if his mind could process that and walking at the same time, and was proven correct when he ended up collapsing to the ground in a drunken mess when he tried. Maybe he'd had more than he'd originally thought.

He rolled over onto his back, staring up at the rapidly darkening sky. The moon was brighter now, the stars starting to peek out of hiding as the aqua bled to a more purple tone. Heero wondered how he'd never noticed how beautiful the flow of nature could be, lost in the whisper of foliage rustling and dogs barking filled his ears, backed by the hum of a million cicadas. The moment was shattered by a queasy tingle that had settled in the pit of his stomach, spreading throughout his body and making it feel as if he was being consumed by that pins and needles sensation. He heaved himself up onto his elbows in an effort to drag himself back in the general direction of the tombstone he'd been sharing with Duo, but found himself hindered by the need to spew a mouthful of bile across the dirt. "Disgusting," he groused as his hand landed right in the thick of it.

A little fruitlessly, he tried to stand up again, but only made it a few steps before falling to his knees as the queasiness overtook him again. He'd lost sight of Duo and most everything around him, except for the convenient headstone he was currently using to support his weight. He dragged himself to lean against it, desperate for its support even as it rose crookedly from the ground. 'Catherine Bloom, Beautiful Daughter, Beloved Sister: 1903 - 1934,' he tried to read, but he was having trouble making out the words just right and soon gave up in favour of slumping to the ground again.

Head lolling back against the headstone, he moon seemed even more luminous still. Where was Duo, he wondered, squinting his eyes in the face of such light. The cicadas chorused again, punctuated by the sharp howling of a dog - or was it a moonsong? He grasped for the word - what were they called? Oh yes...

Lullabies.

++++

The first thing Heero was aware of when he woke up again was a very acute sense of vertigo. There was a roughness pressed up against his back, and his head was pounding viciously. His balance felt a bit off as he tried to shake the sleep out of his system and orient himself, reaching hazily to find a blanket or something of that nature to pull over his cold feet. Except for when he shifted his position that drastically, he was suddenly swallowed by a whoosh of air and then found himself flat on his back, his barely focused eyes staring back up at his former perch in the tree branches overhead. He touched a palm to his forehead and tried desperately to remember what he'd done the night before.

Rubbing his eyes, he looked around blearily and found he was lying at the edge of the woods near the graveyard. The sky was still dark, but the thin glow of morning was awash on the horizon. His clothes were disheveled and done up wrong, but he could hardly be bothered with straightening them up, far too concerned about where the others had gone and how he was going to get back with the hangover from hell on his own.

As if on cue, there was a crack in the underbrush, like someone stepping on a loose twig. Heero tried to lift his head so he could look in that direction, but found himself still a bit too disoriented to really do much good. He decided that the noise was probably something inconsequential and closed his mind to it until he heard another scuffle coupled with the familiar sound of Duo's voice. Refocusing his eyes, he nearly jumped when he realized that Duo was suddenly leaning over him, his wide eyes like blue mirrors in the early dawn. Most of his face was cast in shadow by the hood of his jacket, which he'd pulled up over his head, leaving only one round cheek to be highlighted by the pearled, yellow light. "Hey," he said, his teeth glinting in the pale light.

"Hello," Heero mumbled back, still a little disoriented. He pushed himself up on his elbows, glad that Duo had the sense to help him sit up. "What happened?" he wondered, hoping Duo remembered the evening better than he did.

"You know you can judge the awesomeness of an evening by how bad you feel the next day," Duo joked as he gave Heero a hand with standing up.

"That doesn't reassure me at all," Heero answered with a slight groan.

"What, you worried you got too loose?" Duo asked, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively and looping an arm around Heero's shoulders amicably. "Don't worry, man; didn't do a thing you can't explain away, I promise."

Heero wasn't sure that made him feel much better, but he supposed there were worse things he could have landed himself into, so he decided to consider himself lucky. Hopefully, he'd manage to gather what had gone on during the night before he was confronted by a situation that left him painted into a corner.

By this point, Duo had already scampered ahead, his hooded form threatening to melt into the morning shadows if Heero didn't keep up a good pace behind him. He jogged to catch up, falling into step with the other man near the foot of the graveyard, where Duo was unhinging the rusty gate. He lingered briefly before following Duo to glance up the knoll, where the crown of tombstones at the top cast long shadows down the hillside and ribbed Heero's vision, their presence doing only to tease him about the night before.

"Just gotta grab the cooler," Duo called over his shoulder when he glanced back to make sure Heero was following.

Heero nodded, doing his best to stow his unease as they neared the graves at the crest of the hill. He'd been hoping that the spirit he thought he'd seen last night had been merely an illusion, but it was hard to keep his mind focused on that when every tiny whisper in the chill air caused him to tense. Though on the other hand, another part of him was secretly thinking about how relieved he was that Duo didn't seem to have abandoned him in the night if the things they'd left amid the tombstones were still there.

Duo was crouched on the ground, busying himself with picking up all the empty bottles and bits of trash that had gotten strewn around in whatever frenzy they'd gotten themselves into. Heero stood in the middle of the graveyard, hesitant to disturb anything. His eyes kept darting nervously this way and that in case something tried to take him by surprise and found comfort only in the knowledge that Duo was still there, trusting that Duo wouldn't purposely endanger him.

There was another rustle like something was moving through the grass that caused Heero's heart to bead with ice. His eyes, still watching Duo, found the hooded man crouching in a barren patch of dirt and left Heero wondering what was hovering in his ear. The chill lingering there reminded him of the coldness he'd felt when his hand had passed through the ghost form that had joined their drinking party the night before, and with the most unnerving feeling he'd ever known still hammering inside his chest, he slowly checked over his shoulder.

He felt another cold rush, and he squinted his eyes shut, knowing his sight would do nothing to dispel the presence he felt in the air around him. He thought he could hear words on the breeze - a lady's haunted voice from somewhere far away - but he could hardly make out what she was trying to tell him. "To appear to disappear," she whispered, her face a series of white crescents beneath Heero's closed eyelids. "The night has come to hold us young." The woodland canopy flashed through the darkness, dotted with memories of the rolling clouds across the moon, Anubis and his black fur, of Duo's grin and his bright eyes, and Heero shivered in the morning air.

Heero's eyes suddenly snapped open and he found himself on his knees, clutching his chest and panting for breath. The familiarity of Duo's arms around his shoulders helped steady his galloping heart as his eyes slowly came back into focus. He was immediately greeted by the carved letters of Catherine Bloom's grave again, dimly noting to himself that her 1930's death hadn't been a blurred trick of the alcohol he'd had. The prospect caused his brain to constrict almost painfully as he tried to unravel the thought coherently.

"Has it been long since Trowa's sister... passed away?" Heero asked slowly, hoping that he wasn't being insensitive.

Duo slowly withdrew his arms from around Heero so he could give a simple shrug; "Eh, probably has been longer than it seems," he replied inconsequentially. "It wasn't long after they first came here."

Still staring at the tombstone directly in front of them, Heero reiterated: "How long?"

"Too long to remember," Duo answered a bit shortly, standing up and walking back to the cooler as if he'd suddenly lost interest in the conversation.

Heero stared after him intently, but found he was unsure of what exactly he was looking to see. He got up and went over to help Duo gather the cooler, though the relative silence with which they executed the task was strange and a little unnerving, even to Heero. Despite what Duo had assured him, Heero had the distinct feeling something had happened the night before, and he desperately hoped it wasn't something that would ruin their relationship. What if he'd drunkenly misread some kind of cue from Duo and had done something embarrassing, he worried, surreptitiously giving his sleeve a whiff as if any traces of Duo's scent would confirm that fear. Just smelled like dog, though.

When they finally reached Duo's cottage again, Heero offered to take care of the remaining food items in the cooler, and Duo mentioned banging around with the SmartCar as soon as he'd had a shower, already half on his way as he said so. Heero's eyes lingered on Duo's slumped, hooded form as he shuffled away with a sense of undue urgency, his mind still reeling at the thought that he'd done something to offend Duo.

The sound of water filling the cottage's weathered pipes roared through the old walls as Heero stood in front of the fridge, absently replacing the leftover sandwiches and beer from the cooler. He tried not to think of Duo in the bathroom, absently shrugging off his smelly clothes and climbing into the shower, naked. The image left Heero lingering dumbly in front of the fridge, almost completely incapable of turning his mind elsewhere.

"Dammit!" Heero swore when he finally managed to regain control of himself, slamming the fridge door closed with embarrassed frustration. "Keep it based in reality," he coached himself as he started to pace; "You're running away with your fantasies way too easily."

He pulled at his long, shaggy bangs in frustration as he wandered out of the kitchen and into the dining room, soon finding distraction amid the piles and piles of junk Duo still had yet to do anything about. Sitting at the table and tearing at the frayed ends of an old gift ribbon, his eyes soon fell upon the cell phone he'd attempted to call Relena on a few days earlier and sighed. What if he never got to see her again, he feared, already standing up to go and retrieve it. His worry that she would be angry with him for vanishing as he had was starting to transform into paranoia that he'd lost his only relative.

Shakily, he started to dial the hotel number and then put the phone up to his ear. There was a ring tone and then a bout of sharp static that had Heero yanking the device as far from his head as possible with a sharp hiss. Frowning, he tried once more, this time impatiently drumming on the tabletop with his free hand as he dialed.

"You've reached the historical Hawkeye Regent Hotel," a pleasant female voice greeted him after two steady rings. "This is Sylvia; how may I help you?"

Heero felt his heart thunder with excitement, his hand trembling. "My name is Heero Yuy," he said; "I'm calling in hopes of getting in touch with one of your guests."

Sylvia brightly asked him the name and room number of the party he wished to contact, and Heero gave her the corresponding information. There was a brief pause and then a most unexpected reaction from the cheery receptionist: "Excuse me?" she said, her tone suddenly stiff, perhaps even flabbergasted.

Furrowing his brow in confusion, Heero repeated himself, this time more firmly. "Ms. Chang is my cousin," he said. "She's been expecting my arrival for almost a week and a half, now."

Overtaken by speechlessness, the sound of Sylvia opening and closing her mouth was muffled in Heero's ear. She cleared her throat in an attempt to regain her composure and then said in a much more professional tone, "I'm sure you've made some kind of mistake Mr...."

"Yuy," Heero supplied, growing more and more perplexed with each second. "And there's no mistake, I'm sure of it. My cousin and her husband frequent your establishment regularly."

"That they do," replied Sylvia with a trace of sarcasm, which struck Heero with annoyance.

"If you know whom I'm talking about, then please put me through to them!" Heero said, unable to mask his frustration. After all the things he'd been through as of late, the last thing he needed was to be at the mercy of someone's ill-placed humour.

"No, you don't understand," rushed Sylvia. She paused for a moment and then lowered her voice into a low whisper, as if she didn't want the people around her to hear what she was about to say: "It's just that... well, no one ever stays in that room, you see: it's haunted, they say - haunted by the ghosts of a couple by that very name!" She let out a slightly awkward laugh, as if she were trying to lighten the mood. "So that's why there has to be a mistake of some kind, sir - or you have a very poor idea of a joke. We don't book guests in that room because anyone who stays there is quick to realize they're not alone."

"That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Now stop playing around and please connect me to my cousin or I'll be in touch with your supervisor," Heero said, his thoughts all the while stuck on the memory of Catherine Barton's ghost.

A grunt of annoyance fell from Sylvia's lips. "Sir, when you wake up in the middle of the night and find yourself face-to-face with a poor, blond thing that can only half smile at you because most of her face burned away to a bloody pulp, you tell me that it's a laughing matter! Good day!"

There was an abrupt click and then the unwavering hum of the dial tone murmuring in Heero's hardly cognizant ears. Heero slowly lowered the phone and cradled it in his palm, staring at it as if he wasn't quite sure what it was. The roar of Duo's shower rushing through the walls was enormous, filling Heero's head and drowning his sense of clarity. His beloved little cousin was dead? He refused to believe it, even as he felt his world slowly crumbling around him in the pale light of the early morning.

The chair he was sitting in screeched loudly across the wooden floor as he leapt up, practically skidding across the table as he fought to get around it. Feet pounding across the creaking floorboards, he dashed through the foyer and was soon upon the stairs, his path twisting at obscure angles as he struggled to keep himself straight up. He had to find Duo - had to ask him what he ought to do, how he ought to feel; Duo would make him feel better, he knew it.

His body collided with the bathroom door as he groped frantically for the brass handle. Pushing it open and burst inside frantically, the rushing water thundered like a waterfall as he reached out and grabbed a handful of the psychedelic shower curtain and jerked it back, mindless of Duo and his state of nakedness until he was met with the sight of it. Then his breath fell away.

There was the screech and hiss of the water being hurriedly shut off, but it was too late to change the state of things, so Duo didn't even bother to try and instead stood motionless, allowing Heero to take in what he saw. Meanwhile, Heero was pressed up against the sink, breathing heavily as he stared back at the naked Duo. Water dribbled down the contours of Duo's muscular frame and pearled in glistening dots against his thick hair and the pair of furry, black wolf ears crowning his head. A thick, similarly furred tail whipped around behind his lean legs. Between startled breaths, Heero whispered, "Anubis...."

Duo smiled sheepishly and shrugged a little. "Figured me out, huh?" he said meekly as he tentatively reached out for Heero, who recoiled a little bit. "Don't be scared of me - please."

Realizing that he was acting very tense, Heero forced himself to relax and let out a shaky breath. "Why would I be afraid of you?" he wondered aloud as the initial shock of discovering Duo's secret started to subside.

Duo inclined his head, indicating the fogged mirror behind Heero's head. Confused, Heero turned around and swiped his hand across the cloudy glass and then sucked in another startled gasp when he saw his reflection: there, nestled in the familiar mop of brown hair was a pair of orange feline ears; his normally dark blue eyes were rimmed in bright yellow. The soft tickle of a matching tail swished across the backs of his thighs, and he found himself wondering how he'd gone the whole morning without noticing. Still confused and even a little frightened, he turned to face Duo again, his eyes swelling with the tumultuous emotions he felt inside.

"We only come out at night," Duo said by way of explanation as he stepped over the porcelain lip of the bathtub and came to stand behind Heero so both their faces were reflected in the steamy mirror. "By the time the sun is up completely, it'll be our secret."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Heero wondered as he carefully reached up to feel one of his soft ears.

Duo shrugged again: "Wasn't sure how you'd take it," he said. "Knew a girl named Hilde once; she freaked out when she realized what I was and then I never heard from her again." Boldly, he moved to stand closer to Heero and, wrapping his arms around Heero's waist, pressed his cheek against his. "And even though I knew what you were - could smell it on you the moment I found you - I still wasn't sure if you'd be able to accept it."

"Well, obviously, I'll have to!" said Heero, still pawing at his new ears a little frantically. There was so much happening so quickly, it was hard to process it all. "I just..." he started off, his voice wavering a little, "I'm just trying to figure out how I never realized any of this before now."

A lazy smile crept across Duo's face as his arms tightened around Heero. "I told you," he murmured, pressing Heero closer to his naked chest, "there's something in the air here that draws creatures like us - brings out the essence of what we are."

"What are you trying to say...?" Heero trailed off, deciding that the comment was moot anyway. He shook his head, still confused and unsure how he felt about all of it even as he stared at his face next to Duo's in the mirror. "It's... a part of me? How can that be if I don't even realize it's there?"

Duo was sympathetic to Heero's uncertainty and was gentle in his explanations in hopes that it would make embracing his true nature easier for Heero. "It takes a full moon around here to bring it out, but you're still discovering it," Duo said, rocking Heero in his arms. "Think of it as learning about heritage you never knew you had."

Heero chewed his lip contemplatively, immediately struck with the realization that everything he'd grown up believing was no longer familiar and safe. Without even thinking beyond the initial twist in his gut, he said, "I'm alone."

Though he understood Heero's distress, Duo felt a little downtrodden at Heero's initial reaction. "What is it you'd want to be different?" Duo whispered, trying to assert his support for Heero. There were so many more things about Heero he'd known the second he'd first seen him, and though he was still afraid to be forward about all of them, he hoped that Heero had at least figured out that he wanted to be there for him, and there were no words to describe his elation when he heard Heero murmur, "Please don't go."

"Of course I won't," Duo assured him, his black tail wagging affectionately behind him.

Heero didn't seem so sure and broke out of their strange embrace so he could look directly into Duo's eyes. He found the expression he was met with to be one he'd never seen cast in his direction before, but it warmed him immensely and he felt a bit more comforted. "You'll let me stay?" he pressed.

"Even if it's just to think about when you want to leave, I'll be here," Duo said with a nod of sincerity. He reached out for Heero and tentatively gathered his hands into his own and pressed them against his beating heart: "Always loyal to you, you remember that, okay?" he said as his expression took on a far more intense quality.

The corners of Heero's mouth lifted for the briefest of moments, but it was enough to change the demeanor written across his face. "I'd like that - to think, I mean - but not about that!" he stammered, unable to accurately express how he felt. "I just... just to think, you know?" he added meekly, his cat ears drooping sadly as he spoke, though it was something he wasn't aware of.

Duo twisted his hands behind his back, a sharp canine tooth sinking into his bottom lip as he watched Heero slowly wander down the hall towards the bedroom, orange tail flicking thoughtfully back and forth as he moved. He hoped Heero would decide that he liked that tail as much as he did, not sure how he'd be able to go on if Heero decided he wasn't able to cope.

Meanwhile, Heero was too drawn into himself to realize that Duo was still watching him as he wandered absently towards the bedroom. For some reason, even the most familiar of actions suddenly seemed so alien to him. Still, as he entered the bedroom and looked around at a place that was no different than it had been the first day he'd arrived - and probably no different than it had ever been in times prior - Heero found himself questioning if anything was really even all that different. Just because he'd learned something new about Duo didn't change the person he had already come to know, Heero mused as he stood by the desk, idly fingering the typewriter. There was a page stuck in the roller, half covered with a story identified by the title, 'The Cat Who Came to Stay', which adorned the top margin. There was something wholly endearing about the setup there, and it brought a smile to Heero's face to think of Duo sitting there, his deft fingers chattering across the round keys as he created.

A shudder ran through Heero's body as he tried to shake off the sentimental feeling, determined to think about this turn of events in a more objective manner. He backed up against the bed and sat down on the edge of the mattress, his arms crossed over his chest and his tail flicking contemplatively across the comforter. "Maybe we were born to love each other," Heero mused, thinking back to how Duo had claimed that he'd known how he felt about Heero immediately. "But then again, what if it's not meant to be - if we're meant to kiss another...."

"Or maybe we were born to come together," Duo's voice interrupted; "Or whatever," he added with a tiny smile and a shrug as he entered the room. He was wrapped in a towel, but his hair was still damp. Heero's first thought was to imagine Duo shaking all the water off of his body like a wet puppy.

"How can you be so sure?" Heero asked as Duo made himself comfortable on the edge of the bed. A swallow fell down his throat as Duo's state of undress finally struck him and left him wondering how he'd failed to notice it before. "I mean, I'm just a stranger passing through. How could you ever want...?"

Suddenly, both of Duo's hands were on either side of Heero's lap and they were lingering nose to nose. "Sometimes things that happen by chance only seem that way," he said, his eyelids shading his darkened irises as he angled his head in a way such that they could be closer still. "But when I saw you, I knew that I was you and what I saw was me, and you were the only one who would be able to help me understand the best I can."

Heero wasn't sure he quite understood what Duo was trying to say, though he was admittedly more distracted by the weight of Duo's scent, which was thick in the air around them like a heavy mist. It was a heady sensation, and he couldn't help but close his eyes in an effort to truly savour it.

"Can't you hear the echoes from the life we used to lead?" Duo whispered, his lips now hovering somewhere near Heero's feline ear, his cheek pressed warmly against Heero's thick hair. "You passed on and I called to you across the sky and now you've finally come home after so long...."

Heero had stopped listening to Duo at that point, rather more entranced by the simple vibration of his voice against the shape of his ear. It was a new and different way to experience sound, but he liked the way these feline ears seemed more sensitive to that sort of thing. It sprouted a curiosity about what other differences this new aspect of his being would bring out.

Duo's arms were slowly creeping up Heero's sides, twining themselves around his body. His words hung motionless in the air, drawing Heero nearer still. "I can't sleep without your lullabies."

The bed groaned as Duo leaned against Heero and pressed him down against the mattress with a flutter of pillows and blankets as the weight of their bodies fell against it. They lay there, Heero pinned beneath Duo's chest, simply breathing and nothing more. There was a beauty in that mere simplicity that made both their hearts drum faster still.

"Do you know how much I love you?" Duo asked, his voice a soft whisper quivering against Heero's scalp. His fingertips gently grazed Heero's other cheek.

"No."

"Well, neither do I," said Duo, suddenly propping himself up over Heero's body, tail still wagging affectionately as he stared down at him. "I'm not sure there's even a word for it, but I do - I love you, Heero," he pressed emphatically as he leaned down to kiss Heero's forehead. "I've loved you like I've never loved anyone else in this life or any other."

Heero was at a loss for what to say. No one had told things like that to him before - or at least, not in a way that had ever lodged within his heart like this. Instead, he found himself wrapping his arms around Duo's broad shoulders as the werewolf laid his head against his chest, his lips rounded into a contented smile. It was only then that Heero realized he was making a rumbling purring sound that seemed to make his entire body tremble with delight, a sentiment that was heightened by the notion that Duo enjoyed it just as much. He let his eyes droop closed as the feeling shivered down his spine, hardly daring to move lest he shatter the moment.

But Duo's joy was hardly sedentary, and there was no fighting the squirm that drove him to lean up and flick his tongue languidly against the hollow beneath Heero's neck. The musk of Heero's sweat, a thin sheen across his goosefleshy skin, filled Duo's nostrils and called forth a hunger in him that was only further heightened by his growing awareness of his appealing smell. He buried his face against the crook of Heero's neck, desperate for a taste of the lingering scent that was starting to drive him truly wild.

Startled and slightly embarrassed, Heero arched off the mattress only to have Duo grind him back down with a roll of his hips, much to Heero's furthered surprise. He let out a little gasp as Duo became a bit more aggressive in his kissing, chewing on Heero's skin and grinding against him gently. "I know you want me," Duo growled against Heero's neck, his voice low and gravelly; "I can smell it on you."

Heero could only cling to Duo, his fingers digging sharply into the flesh of his back as their lips sought each other, crushing together with a sort of starved desperation. Duo's hands pulled at the fabric of Heero's clothes and Heero's roved down the length of Duo's spine, grabbing curiously at Duo's fiercely wagging tail and the towel slung so haphazardly around his waist. He wasn't sure what drove him to such forwardness, as he had never been one for diving into sexual encounters on the fly, but here he felt as if there was nothing he wanted more.

Suddenly, Duo withdrew and sat up, clamping Heero's hips beneath him with a leg bent on either side of his body. Heero was breathing heavily as he stared up at Duo, who was blinking back at him with a measure of care. The towel, now crumpled up around one of Duo's feet, forgotten, left Duo gloriously naked in the dim morning light. With nothing to distract him this time, Heero found himself completely enamored by the subtle curves of Duo's hard, masculine frame. He particularly liked the emphatic turns of Duo's tensed thighs and the power he could feel coiled within them. He moved to prop himself up, wanting to be nearer to that strength, but Duo kept him down with a hand to the shoulder.

"I don't want you to feel like I'm luring you," Duo said, bending at the hip so he could let his sincerity drip from the depths of his eyes. "This time, I want to belong to you." His hand slid up from Heero's shoulder, grazing the shape of Heero's throat and rounding his chin. "You're the one I want to give all my love and loyalty to... my everything to...." He leaned in closer, cocking his head slightly so he could whisper against Heero's mouth, gently cradling his cheek in his palm: "I've been thinking about you like this since the day I met you so long ago. Before that, even - forever, maybe."

Somewhere in the back of Heero's mind, he remembered everything Duo had alluded to like it had merely been buried in fog all this time. Before he might have asked Duo what his story was, where he came from and why he was there, but in that moment, Heero realized he already knew. Or perhaps that it didn't matter. "I'm only glad you managed to find me," Heero murmured back, attempting the wriggle out of his shirt and kiss Duo at the same time.

Duo only groaned in response, satisfied that they were on the same page. There would be a time to talk about it some more, but that would be later. Right now, his only concern was proving to Heero just how much he meant what he'd said, the fingers of his other hand already fumbling with the buttons of Heero's jeans. The rustle of fabric filled the air as they struggled to free Heero from the confines of his clothing, the sheets flailing around their restless limbs. Duo pulled impatiently and Heero strained up against the other man, desperate for the feel of Duo's body.

Before long, they were both naked and Duo was curled between Heero's legs, soft, black ears crushed soothingly against Heero's abdomen as his tongue lapped at the were-kitten's hardening cock. His arms were wrapped possessively around Heero's spread thighs as he took claim of Heero's arousal with an assertive swallow. Heero's body trembled uncontrollably as Duo became more aggressive in his ministrations, and try as he might, he couldn't stifle the unbidden purrs that rose in his throat - sounds that quickly deteriorated into shameless plights for more and left Duo unable to keep his own hand from firmly bridling his own love-starved erection.

Moments later, his tail thumping excitedly against the mattress, Duo withdrew his mouth for a greedy gulp of air as Heero reached his climax. One corner of his mouth quirked up into a sly grin as he continued to slide his fingers down the length of his own penis, though he quickly abandoned that in favour of straddling Heero's hips again to grind their cocks furiously against one another instead. Heero roared again as tears of agonized pleasure started to cling to his thick eyelashes.

"I finished my next manuscript," said Duo as he moved to shower Heero's face with a light rain of kisses, "so we can lay in bed all day, if that's what you want." He found one of Heero's hands with his and laced their fingers together as they moved against one another. Breathing softly into Heero's feline ear, his long hair falling all around them, he whispered, "We can do whatever you like. I'm yours, Heero."

"I don't care how - I just want you," Heero murmured back, stretching as if elongating himself would allow him to feel more of Duo's body at once. He caught Duo's gaze from beneath his heavy eyelids, a lazy smile spreading across his features as he added softly, "You make me real."

Wordlessly, Duo smiled back and slid back so he was sitting up over Heero's hips again. He could feel Heero's cock teasing him, hard and needy beneath him, and he found himself overwhelmed by the need to have it buried deep inside him. His eyes still watching Heero with the hazed glow of devotion, he hoisted himself up onto his knees and reached for Heero's erection, cradling it lovingly in his palm as he hastily prepped himself with his other. His furry tail was tense as he did so, his lips parted in a breathy gasp as the pleasure started to mount within his breast. He could hardly keep Heero's name from tumbling over his tongue as he grew nearer and nearer to filling himself with his partner's essence. With a void inside that had been aching for so long, Duo's excitement was one that went far beyond even the physical.

Breath quivering over his mouth, Heero could hardly bottle his anticipation as he watched Duo captured in what he thought might be the most beautiful moment of his entire existence. His orange tail was flicking across the mattress impatiently, his hands clenching the sheets tensely. His tongue flicked across his parched lips every now and then to remedy the dryness in his mouth, wanting desperately to reach out and touch Duo, but hesitant to wreck what was most surely a dream.

And then, after what seemed like an eternity, he watched Duo anxiously push himself down onto his aching cock, throwing his head back in ecstasy as he forced the pleasure deep inside. Heero bit his lip nervously as Duo started to slowly gyrate his hips on top of him. Unbidden, Heero jolted forward into an upright position, hardly able to keep himself away from Duo any longer as he flung his arms around Duo's powerful frame, nuzzling his smooth chest. Duo's feet bent beneath him as he leaned forward to brace his thrusting body against the headboard, gasping delightedly as Heero rose to meet him. Heero's heavy panting of Duo's name tickled Duo's chest almost as much as the fur of Heero's soft, orange ears and the fall of his thick, brown hair.

It wasn't long before Duo let out a long howl, an animalistic herald to how close he was to finding the height of his pleasure there in Heero's lap. He jerked his hips as roughly as he could, causing Heero to hiss in pleasure, but it still wasn't enough, and it was driving him mad just how close he was. Pausing momentarily, he took in a ragged breath and eased Heero down onto his back again. He held himself over his lover, his grin fluctuating wider as Heero continued to gently push up into him with the tiniest of hip rolls. "I'm so lucky to have a master like you," he whispered heavily, leaning down close so he could rub noses with Heero before gracing him with an affectionate lick down one cheek. His canine ears twitched mischievously for a moment, and then, without warning, he suddenly rolled himself beneath Heero. His fingers clamped down almost viciously into the skin of Heero's muscular back as he growled up at him, "Dogs like to play rough, kitty cat. Can you keep up?" His grin was absolutely feral.

Heero stared down at Duo, his lips parted to let his uncertain breath peter out between them, even as his tail curled excitedly around one of his tensed thighs. He could still feel himself so fully within Duo, their bodies like one twisted shape in the morning light. He knew what Duo wanted of him, and heaven knew he wanted nothing more than to deliver it, and yet, he found his body only able to tremble with anxiety.

His nervous thoughts were banished with the reassuring touch of Duo's hand across the side of his face, and he leaned into the cup of Duo's palm as if he were seeking comfort there. Through his heavily eyelids, he focused down on Duo once more as Duo smiled achingly and murmured, "When I fall in love, Heero, it's forever." The werewolf arched his back, colliding with Heero suggestively. "It had to be you," he said with a needy groan: "Please...."

There was something concealed in the way Duo said that final word that stirred something in Heero - something that drove his animal instincts wild with the need to give Duo all the pleasure in the world. Duo wanted so little of him, asking only to be near him and to love him, and it was then that Heero realized that it was all he'd ever wanted. He bent down to press his cheek against Duo's, his lips grazing the firm line of his lover's jaw as he started to work up to a rough and tumble rhythm. With a pleased groan, Duo reached around to weave his fingers into Heero's thick hair, encouraging him with sweet nothings and sighs.

It was a closeness Heero wasn't sure he'd ever known before, and he was so fearful of letting it slip away, he was hesitant to push too hard, despite Duo's begging gasps until, completely by accident, he drove himself into Duo with such power, Duo could only contain his pleasure by sinking his teeth sharply into Heero's shoulder. Heero hissed, not in pain, but rather because he was overcome with the sensuality of the moment, and he tried again, this time thrusting even more aggressively than he had before: he was rewarded with an even sharper bite on the shoulder and a muffled snarl from Duo. Again and again, he fucked Duo harder and harder, his breath hitching with the exhilaration of it, soon unable to control himself as their passion mounted higher and higher. Soon, Duo had his legs clamped fiercely around Heero's waist, his head thrown back into the pillows as he howled unabashedly at the ceiling in pleasure.

When they were through, Heero collapsed onto the mattress next to Duo, exhausted. The sweat that had glued his bangs to his forehead and glossed his skin left him chilly in the morning air, but it was a refreshing feeling. If there was such a thing as true contentment, he thought, this had to be it, or at least pretty damn close.

He turned his head when he felt Duo shifting beside him, and he rearranged himself to allow Duo to cuddle up against him. A sleepy yawn puffed across Heero's stomach as Duo laid his head against Heero's chest, and he was quick to note the oddity. "Duo," he said, glancing down at Duo curiously, "I thought you didn't sleep...?"

"Yeah," Duo said around an even more emphatic yawn as he lifted his head. "But today, I think I just might... close my eyes for a little." He settled back against Heero's torso, flinging an arm comfortably around Heero's waist like he was drawing himself close to a giant teddy bear. "Just a little," he murmured as his eyelids drooped heavily.

Settling back into the pillows, Heero said nothing and merely laid a hand atop Duo's head. He supposed he was a little drowsy himself, but with all the things on his mind, he felt more inclined to stay awake and keep watch over his slumbering lover as the beaming herald of morning came streaming in through the window in the wall to light up their room.

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When Duo woke up hours later and found himself alone in the bed, he wasn't surprised. Still, he couldn't help the little sigh that escaped his lips as he stared up at the ceiling, or the wetness that rimmed his eyes at the thought of having to spend another few centuries alone. He lay still, wondering what he'd done wrong, how he'd scared Heero away and how he'd do it differently the next time they met - that is, until he heard the sound of soft humming from somewhere down the hall.

His hope renewed, Duo sat up and rubbed his eyes, noting in passing how relaxed he felt after such a deep sleep as he slowly rolled out of bed and stretched. He definitely hadn't been able to relax like that in ages. Snatching the first pair of pants he stumbled across on the floor, he pulled them on and wandered out of the room in the direction of Heero's wafting voice.

It didn't take him long to find where Heero had gone off to. At the end of the hall was an open window that looked out over the roof of the kitchen, and perched on the apex of it was none other than his quarry. The sun was high in the sky, masking any of Heero's physical feline traits, but Duo still loved how kittenish Heero always seemed anyway. Carefully, he swung himself out onto the roof and crawled out to the place where Heero sat.

Heero startled, nearly losing his balance when Duo's unexpected hand landed on his shoulder. He glanced over his shoulder and then swung himself around to face Duo with ease, smirking when he noticed that Duo was wearing his jeans. (Heero was wearing only his boxers and undershirt himself.)

A strangely comfortable silence befell them, even as they both grasped for the right words to say. Even if the shock of learning that he was a creature of the night had finally started to settle for Heero, he still was uncertain about what had befallen Relena and Wufei and had no idea how to explain it to Duo. The breeze toyed with their hair; somewhere in the distance, a stray dog was barking.

"She's okay, you know," Duo piped up after a few more quiet moments, trying to sound encouraging. "I'm sure she's still waiting for you."

Heero glanced up to meet Duo's sincere gaze with a bewildered stare of his own: it was as if Duo had read his mind. "How... how do you know?" he wondered, unable to keep the uncertainty out of his voice.

"I know a lot of things, Heero," answered Duo, leaning in close so that his lips were just grazing the shell of Heero's ear.

A sharp gulp dropped down Heero's throat. "H-How?" he stammered, a little tongue-tied as he tried to understand what Duo was insinuating. He could feel the grin twisting Duo's lips against the side of his face.

"The Stones got a song about my name, you know - my real one, that is," Duo murmured softly, wrapping a pair of reassuring arms around Heero's waist to pull him closer. "And no matter where you are, I can still hear you when you dream. But that's not why I know she'll still be there - forever if she has to be."

"What are you trying to say?" Heero asked, arching an eyebrow at Duo.

Duo merely smiled and laid a kiss on Heero's forehead. "She'll want to say goodbye, just like the rest of them do," he said comfortingly. "And she'll wait because she cares too much about you to leave this place until she does."

Heero hung his head as the reality of it all started to truly weigh down upon him. "So they really were always dead, weren't they," he said glumly, no longer able to meet Duo's eyes.

A curled finger slipped beneath Heero's chin to push it back up. "Nothing is ever dead, Heero. You can never leave without leaving a piece of you," Duo assured him with an earnestness that was hard to deny. "And when we do go, we just return to the light that bore us, where we can be everywhere and anyone all at once - where your soul can be alive!"

The emotion that quaked through Heero had started to make him tremble a little, but somehow, he knew that what Duo said was nothing less than the truth. Once, however long ago, it had meant the world to hold onto a bruising faith, but now he had begun to realize it was just a matter of grace instead. "I just hope..." he started, his voice soft and contemplative. "I just hope she'll be able to forgive me for... for taking so long to realize...."

"Heero," Duo cut him off, grabbing his shoulders and holding him stiff, his eyes boring straight to Heero's core. "Of course she will."

It was as if something that had been twisted and lodged in Heero's chest was slowly melting away with each word Duo said. "Duo," he said slowly, his own arms creeping around Duo's waist. "Duo, when you fix my car...."

"I won't stop you from doing what you're going to do," Duo said, a trace of sadness in his voice as he stared off across the vast meadow. Silently, he cursed the fact that time meant nothing to him.

"Duo...."

The deep rumble of Heero's voice interrupted Duo's train of thought and he brought his attentions quickly back to the man in his arms.

Closing his eyes, Heero buried himself against Duo's neck as he went on: "Duo, when I go, I'd love it if you came with me."

Surprised at the request, Duo stiffened. He hadn't had a change of scenery in nearly an eternity, and yet, he couldn't calm his soaring heart that Heero didn't want to leave him. "I would follow you anywhere, Heero. If you wanted to never come back here and just keep driving on forever, I'd go," Duo promised. He breathed softly, "You make me strong as I feel."

Gratefully, Heero pulled back enough so he could see Duo's face again, and the sight warmed him even more than the sun overhead. "There's nothing else I want more," he finally managed to admit aloud, and the admission was akin to feeling light on his face for the first time.

And across the breezy meadow, the road that had carried Heero there sang silent poetry to the sky about the places it had been, where it was going and of how it had borne one young man home into the night.

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End

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Sorry if the end was kind of rushed XDD