Smells Like Teen Spirit
by Shannon the Twisted Link Worshiper

(x) X (x)

Game 35
With A Little Help From My Friends

(x) X (x)

“Jeez, Heero! Hold friggin’ still!” Duo exclaimed as he tried to straighten the black jacket hanging off the slim Japanese’s torso. “Who’d of thought you of all people was so damn fidgety?”

Heero stood in the middle of Duo’s messy room as the longhaired boy flitted around him almost obsessively, trying to determine whether the tux he’d borrowed from Quatre for Heero fit him well enough. “It’s a little tight in the shoulders and a bit loose in the waist,” he said, pulling at one of the thin lapels nervously as he examined himself in the tall, wrought-iron mirror opposite him.

“What about the pants?”

“Too big,” he answered, immediately launching into: “Don’t you think this is a bit too much trouble for just one night?” he went on, flexing his shoulders. “I don’t see why I just can’t wear a dinner jacket and slacks to prom.”

“Look, ‘Ro, if I gotta go the whole nine yards, then so do you!” Duo said, popping up behind Heero to pull his shoulders back. “It’s not my fault that you don’t own any tails... though I can’t imagine why a guy like you wouldn’t....”

“Not necessary. I don’t like being frivolous,” Heero responded with a shrug, which was answered with another backwards jerk of his shoulders.

But Duo wasn’t listening, instead focused more on pinching in the extra material around the shallow dip of Heero’s slim waist. “Hmm, I think I could get Hilde to take this in a bit,” he mused to himself. Letting go of the jacket, he flounced over to his newly-fixed bedside table and fished out a couple safety pins. “She’s way girlier than she’ll ever have you believe,” Duo called across the haphazard room. “Don’t ever take any of that crap that she’s a tomboy for truth.” He laughed heartily at that and the mere sound brought one of those rare smiles to Heero’s face.

After a bit of rooting through his disorganized beside area, Duo managed to procure a few safety pins. Though Duo’s room was still a long-shot from the classy, cyber-punk room it had once been before White Fang had trashed it, Duo and Heero and the others had slowly been restoring it as best they could. So far, the motley crew of friends had repainted the walls and fixed up most of the ruined furniture. Quatre had pitched in by taking Duo on a shopping spree for new sheets, a comforter and a lamp, among other such things.

Duo’s hands were on Heero’s hips again, taking in the jacket and pinning it so that it was more formfitting than before. In the mirror, Heero found himself admiring the image of Duo standing behind him with his hands on him in such a way. No, there was no denying that the romance of the high school prom bug was in the air, and it had even managed to bite him, the one who’d practically redefined the word ‘aloof’. The sound of Dorothy, Noin and the rest practicing for their prom performance didn’t help the fluttering, squirmy feeling in his stomach. For some reason, he felt very jaded.

“Slow down, you’re doing fine.
You can’t be everything you wanna be before your time,
Although it’s so romantic on the borderline tonight.
Tonight.”

“Whoever’s playing drums is off-tempo. Too fast,” Heero commented idly, snapping awake from the daze that Noin’s crooning voice had brought over him. “But Quatre is good on the piano,” he added, trying to make it sound like he hadn’t fallen into a momentary lapse of his usual attentiveness.

“Oh, go ruin it, why don’t you!?” Duo laughed, burying his nose into Heero’s shoulder, hands tightening on the Japanese teen’s sides. “I was enjoying it fine until you had to go and pick that out,” he complained good-naturedly, still leaning against Heero’s back. “Now I can’t not notice the drums!”

Heero made a small noise of acknowledgment, too busy noticing the way that Duo’s body was pressed up against his, hard torso very defined beneath the plaid flannel that hung loosely off his shoulders. Duo’s hands started working at Heero’s waist to twirl him completely around so they were facing each other. Duo made a show of examining Heero’s back in the mirror, adjusting the waistcoat Heero was wearing so it molded to his body better.

“Too bad, but it’s the life you lead;
You’re so ahead of yourself that you forgot what you need.
Though you can see when you’re wrong,
You know you can’t always see when you’re right.
You’re right.”

“Well, you’re uncharacteristically quiet today,” Duo said sarcastically as he finally finished obsessing over the tux and stepped back to admire his handiwork. Indeed, the tux, albeit the tightness in the shoulders, looked like a million bucks, and would probably wear that way once Hilde was finished with it. “What’s on your mind, dude?” Duo asked, crossing his arms and looking at Heero with mock sternness.

At the question, more thoughts that Heero could even hope to count came whizzing through Heero’s mind at warp speed. He thought about all the years he’d spent admiring Duo from afar, and how hard he’d battled to get the longhaired mechanic to look at him with even a remote hint of friendship. He thought of Duo’s eyes and Duo’s mouth, his fingers and his calves, and ever aspect of his lean body, which led to mental pictures that made him flush. He thought of how lately, ever since he had begun to grow closer to the ethereal teen, he had learned things about Duo he had never dreamed he would. Duo’s excellent sense of self-depreciating humour and his cynicism, his charm and wit came to Heero in a flurry of remembered times together, both good and bad. He thought about how this was all a crazy dream and that this festering happiness inside would vanish the moment he woke up.

A slim pair of fingers snapped in front of his face, startling him out of his confusing mental wandering. “Want to tell me about it?” Duo’s voice said, though it sounded far away to Heero’s hazy mind.

“You got your passion,
You got your pride,
But don’t you know that only fools are satisfied.
Dream on, but don’t imagine they’ll all come true.
Oooh....”

Heero was quiet for a few seconds as he tried to make light of all those internal musings and observations about Duo, Noin’s voice echoing around him far louder than it should have according to natural physics. He summed it up as best he could: “Thank you.”

“What?” Duo blinked at Heero, unsure what had brought that on. He started sliding the fine, black jacket off Heero’s shoulders, saying, “Maybe this is a bit too small for you. You okay? Feeling hot or something?”

Turning to accommodate Duo as he helped him off with the admittedly stifling coat, he said, “I’m feeling fine. I just... well, thank you for... being you.”

“Okay, now I know it for sure,” Duo said, looking at Heero through slit eyes. “You’re crazy, plain and simple. That’s all there is to it!”

“I think everyone’s a little crazy,” Heero said with a toss of his shoulders.

“Yeah, but especially you,” Duo said, jabbing a finger into Heero’s chest hard enough to send the Japanese boy faltering back a couple steps. “But it’s okay,” he went on, poking Heero again, pushing Heero back a few more steps, “because if we weren’t all crazy, we’d all go insane.” A classic Maxwell grin flourished on Duo’s lips. “I mean, I’ve got to be crazy if I made a habit of this,” he told Heero as he leaned forward to kiss him. The little push sent the pair of them faltering backwards, saved only by the large, balled-up comforter on the floor.

“‘When will you realize
Vienna waits for you?”

Downstairs, as Noin and the other launched into final chords of the song, Heero and Duo were drowning in Duo’s thick, purple comforter, inevitably still kissing. It had practically become a new hobby for them overnight. Whether it had to do with pent up emotions and lust or simply because each liked the way the other tasted, it wasn’t exactly clear. The only thing either one was absolutely certain of was that they had come a damn long way and they were going to enjoy every moment they now had together considering.

A shout from the garage echoed up the spiral staircase into Duo’s room. “Duo! Are you and Heero finished up there?” Hilde’s less-than-delicate voice boomed. “Because we’re finished with all of Noin’s songs, so get your butt down here to sing yours!”

With a small growl, he lifted his head up to shout. “Still busy, Hilde!” he called back before Heero’s strong hands pulled him back down to continue their unfinished business.

The sound of feet stomping across the concrete floor below was lost on Heero and Duo. Even the offer for Noin to help finish fitting Heero’s tux fell upon deaf ears, and it wasn’t until the third, metal step of the spiral staircase whined loudly in protest that either one realized that they were about to be caught in a compromising position, something they really didn’t need passed along the gossip chain.

“This is why I hate having my house as the hub of all this town’s culture,” Duo complained sarcastically as he rolled off of Heero and fell into another thick fold of the downy comforter, lying beside Heero. With a reluctant sigh, he sat up and got up on wobbly feet and stumbled over to the top of the staircase. “Who goes there?” he shouted down the stairs.

“Just me,” Noin answered, not yelling nearly as loud as Hilde had. (Noin was a bit more reserved than the electro-kinetic mutant and only raised her voice when she was in a foul mood. As a general rule of thumb, Hilde usually always shouted, period.)

“If you want to come up, you have to state the password and your business,” Duo called back drolly, bending over the metal safety rail that ran around the opening in the floor, which the stairs entered his room through. “Then thou might enter the great realm of Maxwell.”

“The password is ‘You had better get yourself down here before the rest of the band riots,’” Noin answered almost automatically. All of Duo ‘s friends had pretty good wits and their own particular breeds of humour. But then again, what else could be expected of people that Duo chose to spend his time with? And even if they hadn’t begun that way, spending way too much time with the longhaired mechanic tended to bring out the cynic in everyone.

“Looks like the peasants mean business this time,” Duo said over his shoulder to Heero, who was still tangled in the fluffy comforter and still looking rather sated from their brief kissing escapade moments before. Duo couldn’t help but think that Heero looked ridiculously adorable with that lost, unsure expression dripping off his features. It brought out Heero’s more human characteristics and made him seem less of the callous bastard he often pretended to be around those he was not completely at ease with. “Shall we grace our loyal subjects with our presence?” he asked with a wry grin.

“We’d better, before they revolt,” Heero said with a shrug as he got to his feet, almost tripping himself up in the comforter as he moved to stand beside Duo. Patting Duo briefly on the shoulder before he started to climb down the stairs, he added, “You wouldn’t want to relinquish your title as King of Fools, would you?”

Duo stared with a slack jaw after Heero as he disappeared down the spiraling staircase, his eyes wide. Snapping back to attention, he got ahold of himself again. “Hey! I do think that was meant to be an insult!” he cried as he scuttled down the steps after Heero, though the laughter in his voice betrayed his false discontent.

He jumped down the last three steps to find Heero already sprawled on the worn sofa by the jukebox. Between the couch and Deathscythe, the coffee table usually kept there had been moved aside to make room for the small, ragtag band that Duo and his friends kept up as a hobby. Hilde had brought over her drum kit in her blue pickup and had set it up on the threadbare rug lying on the drab floor and was absently beating away at her bass drum’s pedal while she waited for Duo. An old piano they’d saved from the junk heaps for Quatre now took permanent residence in the garage and was usually kept behind the sofa with Duo’s bass, but had been pushed onto the carpet for unity’s sake. Dorothy perched on the edge of the sofa, beside Heero, a shining, gold saxophone lying in her lap. (Dorothy had always been the sort to pick up strange hobbies as they struck her fancy, and playing the saxophone, among a few other interesting instruments, had been one that had never quite faded away.) Noin had gone back to her spot, carefully balanced on a rickety stool with her electric guitar, which she was in the process of tuning for Duo’s more lively numbers.

“Hey, looking good, Heero,” Dorothy commented as she idly cast a glance in Heero’s direction. He was still wearing the tux, though it was now rumpled from kissing, despite the pains Duo had taken to get it just right, and made him look like he’d just collapsed after a long party. “See, Q! I told you this would fit him!” she called over to Quatre, who was sitting backwards on the piano bench so he could see everyone.

“Who’d of thought?” Quatre said with a meek smile. “It was too big for me.”

“Hilde still has to alter it,” Duo commented as he fished for his amp cable, his bass clutched by the neck in one hand.

With a brilliant smile, Quatre said, “Well, in that case, Heero, you might as well keep it.”

Heero blinked, his lips shifting slightly as he tensed and looked straight at Quatre with confusion. “I can’t keep this,” he said, fingering the breast pocket of the finely made jacket. “I wouldn’t feel right about it.”

“Think nothing of it,” Quatre said in a tone that sounded like he meant business. “I already have one, and you don’t. Hilde’s going to fix it so it’s fit perfectly for you, not me, and,” he paused for a moment, as if to gather emphasis for his last point, “you should always have something to remember your senior prom.”

“I don’t need a tux to remem--”

Quatre made a zipping motion with one hand to signify that he was through discussing it. “Heero, don’t try arguing with me about it, because you’ll lose,” he said, closing his eyes and shaking his head as he fingered the bridge of his nose. “You’re keeping the tux whether you like it or not, end of story. Think of it as a gift from a friend.”

“A friend?” Heero sounded downright shocked that Quatre would think of him as such. He knew Quatre through association, and had never really given the idea much thought, but now that the blonde mentioned it, he supposed it was true. In fact, on second thought, he supposed that he could consider everyone in the garage a friend. It was something that was going to have to take some getting used to, Heero realized. He had very few childhood friends, none of whom would even remember him, and since then, the only people he’d become even remotely close to were Trowa, Wufei and Meilan. To say the least, it was a very nice feeling to think that there were more people out there for him.

“Yes, Heero, a friend. Get used to it,” Duo said with a sigh as he came out from behind the sofa, the just-found cable trailing between his base and amplifier. “Now let’s get this bitch on the road,” he said as he settled himself on the arm of the sofa, right above Heero.

Without much further ado, the band took his cue and struck up their music, Duo’s baritone rasping the lyrics along with the tune with Quatre’s sweeter one singing backup. Heero found himself enjoying their music very much, the jazzy sound making him feel like he was lounging in some inner-city bar in the middle of a huge metropolis far away from this nameless little beach town. It was one of the best feelings he’d ever had, and closing his eyes, he found it surprisingly easy to pretend it was true, even though he’d always considered himself to be rather short on imagination.

In his mind’s eye, he was reclining in some little hole-in-the-wall bar, the kind that had green and white paint peeling off walls covered with framed, black-and-white photographs of the Yankees. In this small, imaginary place he’d created, there was only dim light except around the piano, where a similar band to the one in Duo’s garage was playing. He could recognize every single one, from the short-haired, female drummer to the bass-player with long, brown, braided hair, who was watching him with a certain sultry look Heero somehow knew was reserved solely for him.

For the first time in his entire life, Heero felt accepted, felt wanted. It was a hard thing to grasp when one considered that he was the best lacrosse player for miles. Eyelids hanging limply over his dark blue eyes, he found himself watching Duo as he bent over his base, thumb beating out the song’s low undertones as he sang. Shaggy bangs fell over Duo’s face and tickled the tip of his nose, the heavy tail of his braid plunked down on the itchy sofa cushion beside Heero’s thigh. Absently fingering the feathered wisps of chestnut hair, Heero was not very astounded in the least that those feelings of comfort stemmed from Duo, whether either of them would admit it aloud or not. Duo had come quite a way to accept him, but what mattered to Heero most was that he accepted him, not anything that anyone may have pretended him to be. Still, what Duo’s long road had taught him about Heero was more than what the Japanese athlete expected most people to learn about him in a lifetime. Despite the perfect asshole persona he seemed to have, Heero often bared himself more than anyone had the eyes to see. The only advantage Duo had that the rest of the world didn’t was that Heero had actually wanted Duo to see.

“What’sa matter with the crowd I’m seein’?” Duo sang loudly, hunched over his base, eyes half-closed as he casually tracked his fingers’ movements across the fret board.

“Don’t’cha know that they’re outa touch?” Quatre chimed in right after Duo, his fingers flying over the piano’s ivory keys with amazing skill.

The song’s lyrics bounced back to Duo; “Should I try to be a straight-A student?”

“If you are, then you think too much!” Quatre sang cheerfully, obviously enjoying himself. “Don’t’cha know about the new fashion, honey? All you need are looks and a whole lotta money.”

“It’s the next phase, new wave, dance craze, anyways,” Duo’s entrancing baritone answered. “It’s still rock ‘n’ roll to me.”

Together, as Quatre and Duo sang the last lines of the song (“Everybody’s talkin’ ‘bout the new sound; funny, but it’s still rock ‘n’ roll to me!”), the phone decided to ring. Though no one else in the room seemed to pay it any mind, Heero’s eyes snapped up and glared at the device for daring to interrupt the music, even though it was only tagging on with the finishing rhythms and chords. Even as the band melded right into another song, the phone continued to be an irritating disruption to Heero, so distracting that Heero almost couldn’t take it. At last he got up and stalked over to the phone, snatching it off the hook and barking a fierce ‘hello’, almost ripping the twisted cord out of the wall with the force he used on the poor thing.

The voice crackling in the junky earpiece was a sickeningly familiar one. “Oh, it’s the bitch.” A snort followed that. “Typical.”

Heero’s death grip on the phone tightened, close to almost snapping it in half with his bare hand. “Solo,” he growled. The base line under the music became silent as Heero spoke the name, and in the glassy reflection of the nearby window, Heero could see Duo staring intently at his back. Trying hard to ignore the painfully angry look boiling in Duo’s eyes, Heero spoke again, his voice chopped and unkind. “What the hell do you want?”

A low chuckle resonated in Heero’s ear. “If’n I told you I wanted you, what would ya say?” The obnoxiously evil laughter continued even after Solo had finished speaking.

“Watch what you say. I might kill you for it,” Heero snapped as the coffee tin sitting on the windowsill toppled over. A quick hand was the only thing that saved the blue can from clattering loudly on the floor.

“Ooh, threatening, aren’t we?” Solo hissed as Heero replaced the haphazard tin back in its place. “Don’t be makin’ promises ya can’t keep, bitch.”

By this point, everyone in the room had stopped playing and was watching Heero intently. No one even dared to breathe, and the room was so still and quiet, a pin dropping would have sounded like a sonic boom. Heero’s breathing was becoming steadily louder and harsher, his shoulders heaving up and down as his ire rose. Beneath Duo’s dangling feet, the coffee table splintered loudly, drawing everyone’s attention. (“It wasn’t me, I swear!” Duo hissed to the rest of them sharply.)

When the table broke, Quatre whipped around to see what had happened. Quickly sizing up the damage, he looked up with wide, bewildered eyes at Heero as he snarled something vehement to Solo. He caught Noin’s gaze, the both of them silently remembering what Milliardo had told the two of them about Heero. “Do you think...?” Quatre mouthed to Noin, hoping she could read his lips. The last thing Quatre wanted to do was for Duo to hear, especially at that particular moment. Not only was Duo extremely on edge, but the last thing that Quatre wanted was for Heero to lose his unique status with the stubborn lacrosse manager, something that might happen if Heero was blurred into the usual crowd Duo was comfortable with.

“Rumour has it that you’ve got a couple talents of yer own, bitch,” Solo said with an air of disgust in his tone. “If’n it weren’t fer the fact that a friend of mine is particularly worried about yer well-being, I’d be out for your fuckin’ blood too.”

“Where the hell did you hear something like that?” Heero hissed venomously, his lips starting to twitch angrily.

“Another certain person I’m acquainted with ‘appens to know ya rather well,” Solo said ominously. As the colour drained from Heero’s face, Solo went on, “But that’s not the point, bitch.”

“What is, then?” Heero ground out, hoping his voice wasn’t wavering as badly as it felt it was in his chest.

“I just wanted to make sure that you an’ your mutant, slut friend are well aware that things are nowhere near finished between us,” he said, the toying element to his tone replaced with a dark, dangerous one. “I ain’t gonna let you bastards get off for what ya did to Alex last time, and I’m gonna make sure I mess up both yer faces twice as bad as ya did to him!”

In the silence that had fallen over the room, everyone had been able to hear every word of the conversation, and it was needless to say that not a single one liked it. On the sofa, Duo had set his bass aside and was coiled on the edge of the sofa like a wary panther. (Had Duo actually been a cat, his ears would probably have been pressed flat against his head and his tail would have been thrashing madly about behind him.) He couldn’t help but feel like he had done a terrible thing by dragging Heero into his less-than-illustrious life and that now Heero was going to get trampled by it.

“Tell him to shut the fuck up!” Duo shouted to Heero, suddenly in motion. He had flipped from still to stalking over towards the phone in less than a second. The rest of the frozen band watched with held breaths, their eyes the only things daring to move as they tracked Duo’s movements.

Heero’s closed stance whipped around to face Duo as he swept towards him. Blue eyes slightly wide with surprise at Duo’s erratic pacing, Heero pressed himself into the corner formed by the wall and the refrigerator, afraid that Duo was going to display some of his more vengeful tendencies. Before Heero could do much more, however, Duo was standing a bare two inches away from him, one of his flat hands reaching for the phone pressed against Heero’s ear. “Let me have it,” he hissed. “I want to give that mother fucker a piece of my mind.”

There was a moment of hesitation as Heero contemplated whether or not he was going to comply to Duo’s demand or not. At first, Heero had been a little scared by Duo’s gruff tone, recognizing it as the abrasive one Duo used to use on him. But then, Heero slowly realized that not only was Duo’s discontent not directed at him, but also that this was not the closed, defensive attitude Duo had danced around him with. Rather, this was Duo in all his raw, purely pissed-off glory, and he wanted to make sure Solo was on the receiving end of it. Besides, Duo had more to do with Solo than Heero did anyway, so he gave up the phone with a small nod of his head. “Don’t say anything you might regret,” Heero said softly as he handed it over.

“I never do,” Duo said with a short, upward quirk of his lips as he accepted the phone. Pressing it to his ear, Duo turned towards the wall slightly, shoulder-to-shoulder with Heero and his back facing the rest of his friends. Frowning again, he barked into the receiver, “Solo, I thought you said you were going to fucking leave me alone if I won that last race.”

“That was ‘afore I knew you were gonna set your attack dog on one of me boys,” Solo snapped back over the phone. “There’s no way I’m gonna let you get away with a stunt like that, slut. You’re gonna pay for breaking Alex’s jaw an’ everything.”

“You should be thanking me,” Duo retorted, his entire body quivering, “because now you won’t have to hear that asshole going on and on about jack shit all the time. I swear to fucking God, Solo, if you don’t stay the hell away from me and Heero, I’ll rip your heart out.”

Whatever Solo had to say was cut short as Duo slammed the phone onto the hook. He stood there, breathing hard and glaring at the plastic device with daggers in his eyes as he tried to calm himself down. Heero watched the distraught Duo out of the corners of his eyes for a few seconds, debating what he should do. He was keenly aware of the group behind them, each one of them watching and calculating their every movement, and Heero was afraid to do something that would embarrass both him and Duo. But another glance at Duo quickly drowned out any fear of what they thought, because Duo was clearly upset and the most important thing quickly became making sure that Duo was alright. A tentative hand slowly crept up and settled on Duo’s far shoulder, pulling the shaking boy close to his chest. Much to everyone’s bewilderment, Duo crumpled quickly into Heero’s embrace, muttering a not-so-surprising comment about how he wanted to rip Solo’s head off.

With Duo still crushed protectively against him, Heero slowly turned around and faced Hilde, Noin, Quatre and Dorothy. “Maybe you guys should go home,” he told them in a slow voice. When they did nothing more than blink at him, he cleared his throat and repeated himself. “Go home,” he declared sharply as he guided Duo towards the sofa.

Dorothy was the first one to get the hint, and with a motion towards Quatre, began to wordlessly pack up her instrument. While she was busy doing that, Quatre stood by the piano, watching Duo with large, worried eyes. Duo was visibly shaken up by the phone call and the other strange happenings, and being the good-natured person he was, Quatre was reluctant to just walk out of the door with his friend so wrecked up. The blonde probably would have still been lingering there if Dorothy hadn’t grabbed his hand and dragged him off on her way out the door. A strangled “It’s okay, Duo!” was just barely heard before the door clicked shut behind them.

Noin was brooding as she went about cleaning up, laying her guitar in its case and replacing everything in its usual spot. Hilde, though she was helping the purple-haired girl out, was a little more focused on Duo. Pausing in front of her longhaired friend and momentarily ignoring Heero, who was perched on the arm of the sofa like a guarding hawk, she asked, “Duo, what’re you going to do?”

He looked up at the small, electric-wielding mutant with a tired expression in his eyes she had never seen before. Hilde had to do a double-take to make sure she hadn’t imagined that worn look in Duo’s usually shining eyes, but by the time her gaze had resettled on Duo, the alien gaze had been swiftly replaced with his usual bright-eyed one. “Eh, we’ll figure it out when it happens, you know?” he said with a strangled-looking smile. His voice sounded parched and a little forced.

Hilde was about to open her mouth and say something else, when Noin happened by and swept Hilde away like a cleansing tide. Noin was a little more tactful than the well-meaning Hilde, and was able to see that this probably wasn’t the best time to try and wheedle information out of Duo. Besides, Heero seemed to have taken the position of main comfort upon himself and would be damned before he let anyone else do it for him.

As soon as the piano had been pushed back into its usual spot and Noin and Hilde had gathered their things and left, Heero dropped off the arm of the sofa and onto the cushion beside Duo. Not wasting any time, he cut right to the chase. “Are you afraid?” he asked.

Duo stared off into space, not responding until he felt Heero gently shake his shoulder and say his name. At last, Duo gave a slow, affirmative nod, eyes still trained straight ahead.

“It’s okay,” Heero assured Duo, his fingers trailing across Duo’s shoulder and towards the upward slope of his neck. They ghosted upwards and twiddled with the loose wisps of long hair that hung over Duo’s ears. “I’m scared too, but it’ll end up okay.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Heero,” Duo said, his eyes falling down to rest on Heero’s hand as it toyed with his hair and swooped around his ear.

Heero’s hand paused and then slowly made its way across the back of Duo’s neck, slipping underneath his long, thick braid and resting on his opposite shoulder. “I don’t,” Heero murmured as he pulled Duo down to rest on his own shoulder.

Some more time passed in strangely comfortable silence, Duo simply leaning on Heero and practically nodding off to sleep. At long last, Duo thought to share whatever he’d been finagling his mind. “Maybe I should just get the hell out of here,” he said with a low sigh. “I’ve been bumming around this old town for way, way too long.” Duo was pretty sure he could feel Heero’s body tense, despite the lacrosse player’s slouched position on the sofa.

“Where would you go? What would that solve?” Heero asked rationally, though there was a hint of fear in his questions. Finding someone who he could relate to like he did to Duo was so hard, and Heero would have rather died than give that up.

“Maybe Solo’d follow me and leave everyone who I give a fuck about alone,” Duo grumbled into Heero’s rumpled, white dress shirt. “It’s not fair. Every time something good happens to me, something even worse comes along to screw it up,” Duo started a low grouse of complaints. “Like, I find out you’re the sweetest thing since chocolate candy, and then Solo starts up more trouble. You save my ass... again... and now this!”

“You think I’m sweet? No one’s ever said that before,” Heero said with a hint of trepidation. “Rough, yes; sour, yes; cold, certainly. But sweet?”

Though Duo still seemed a little shaken, the new thread of conversation seemed to be just the thing he needed to cheer himself up. Sitting up, hands pressed on Heero’s abdomen, he spoke readily into Heero’s eyes, his tone laced with a new sort of excitement that Heero had never heard before. “Well, I know it sounds a little farfetched, but it’s true,” he said with a small, nervous grin that spread wider the more he talked. “You’re like that dark chocolate with the bitter, powdery stuff on the outside, but when you bite it, the inside’s that goopy, tangy fluff that practically melts on your tongue. You know, that real expensive stuff that comes in a golden box and you don’t think you can ever taste because you don’t have the dough.”

“You’re comparing me to expensive chocolate?” Heero quirked an amused eyebrow up at Duo. Somehow, he figured he shouldn’t have been so surprised by Duo’s food analogy. “Why is it that everything you like is edible?”

Duo laughed conspiratorially as he collapsed onto Heero’s stomach, causing the Japanese boy to let out a small noise of discomfort at the impact. “You should be edible. It’s no fun to have chocolate you can’t eat,” Duo said, his voice a tone lower and his eyes a shade darker. “Especially when you look the way you do and since I like you as much as I do.”

“If that’s true, then how come it took you so long to get over the fact I’m not your usual brand?” Heero wondered, unable to keep the thought at bay.

Duo shrugged and brushed the comment off easily. “You’re an acquired taste.”

“Am I really?” Heero said, amused by the way this conversation was heading. “And just what kind of taste is that, may I ask?”

“A good one,” Duo whispered with a devious grin as he started to paw his way up Heero’s lean body, lips already questing for those of his blue-eyed friend. Now lounging against Heero’s side, Duo placed a small kiss on the corner of Heero’s mouth as the other teen started to turn his head towards Duo for a better one. “You might not think it, but I’m a pretty picky eater,” he whispered against Heero’s cheek, “but once I find something I like, I never get sick of it.”

“Is that so?” Heero whispered back as he leaned in for another kiss, this one, though just as short, even more fiery than the last.

“Ask anyone who knows me and they’ll tell you so,” Duo replied as one of his long arms found its way around Heero’s neck and started loosening the stiff collar of his dress shirt. His hand wandered around to the top of the shirt’s buttons and started to fumble with the slim, elegant, black bow tie knotted between the collar’s two triangular pieces.

“I’ll have to do that,” said Heero, his eyes half-closed as he leaned up to steal another kiss from Duo.

Bored with the necktie, Duo’s fingers moved on to cup Heero’s cheek as their kiss became a little less lazy and a bit more hungry, his body all the while shifting to rest more on top of Heero instead of beside him. When they broke apart, Duo held himself up above Heero and said with a devilish, impulsive grin, “Say, do you ever want to finish that painting you started of me?”

“Of course,” Heero responded, looking up at Duo as if the answer was obvious.

Leaning down to nuzzle Heero’s face, Duo purred, “What d’ya say we go over to Nataku’s and you do some more work on that....”

“Alright.”

“...And then we can go to your place for dinner later tonight, when it gets dark outside,” Duo went on, still cuddling with Heero as if the mere contact was the most comforting thing in the entire world. “Then, after we eat, we can bring Tro, and maybe Q, if he’s there, out to the beach to light a fire and toast marshmallows, just because we can. Wu could come too, if he and Meilan want to. We can all chase each other in circles around the fire until we fall down in the sand and we can all just lay there, trying to count the stars until we fall asleep listening to the ocean swell.” By the time he’d finished, he had settled against Heero’s chest again, his voice somehow both nostalgic and enraptured at the same time. Violet eyes flicking up to meet Heero’s, Duo asked, “Could we do that, Heero?”

Heero hardly spent two seconds thinking about it, no matter how childish and silly Duo’s request seemed. “Of course we can,” he said with a nod. “Right down to the marshmallows and the stars.”

The way Duo’s entire face seemed to light up like the very moon at the simple acquiescence was enough to make Heero want to give Duo anything, as long as it meant that his face would always glow like that. How dancing around on the beach and watching the sky could bring so much joy, Heero wasn’t really entirely sure himself, but if it was something Duo wanted to do, he was all for it. Though there was very much that Duo had learned from Heero, Heero didn’t doubt for a second that there was just as much that Duo had to teach him in return.

“You really, really mean that!? You don’t think it’s stupid?” Duo asked, suddenly too excited to sit sedately on the sofa. He bounced happily on the cushions on his knees before launching himself at Heero like a torpedo. “Jeez, you’re the most amazing boyfriend ever!”

Absently petting the top of Duo’s head, his eyes wide with surprise, Heero stared blankly forward. “Boyfriend?” he asked in his usual, slightly nasal monotone as he abruptly sat up.

Duo’s squirming body froze in Heero’s lap when he realized what he’d said. Feeling very embarrassed and self-conscious, Duo quietly slid off of Heero and stood up, turning away from the Japanese lacrosse champion. He was ashamed that he’d let himself slip like that. Of course he doesn’t consider me... that way, Duo thought angrily as he fought the blush on his face. Hell, I’m not even sure if I think of him that way! We’re just friends who... who kiss sometimes.... Just thinking that should have been enough to dispel any uncertain notions Duo was having, but then again, Duo was known for being slightly paranoid.

It wasn’t until Heero started speaking again that Duo was drawn away from his traitorous inner musing. “You think of me that way?” Heero said, his tone fluctuating in a way that made it seem like he didn’t even believe his own words, that they were too good to be true. “You think of me as your boyfriend?”

Still a bit flushed, Duo dared to peek over his shoulder with a meek grin and nodded. Apparently his uncertain answer had been the right one, because Heero’s face brightened considerably. The tenseness in Heero’s shoulders relaxed and the death grip he had on the edge of the sofa’s cushions loosened. Turning completely around, Duo uncrossed his arms and dropped them to his sides, smiling. “Hey, would I be outfitting you in something like that if I didn’t?” Duo pointed to the tuxedo pants and vest Heero was still wearing. Ambling over towards Heero and standing right in front of him with his hands on his hips, Duo went on, “Would I think of you the way I do if I didn’t?”

“Duo, you used to hate me,” Heero said, lifting his arms to wrap them around Duo’s waist as he looked up into the longhaired boy’s eyes. He pulled Duo closer and rested his upturned chin against him. “I never thought you’d open up to me as much as you have recently.”

Duo scoffed, tossing his head to the side with a roll of his eyes. Then, growing more serious, he dropped down to his knees so he and Heero would be on a more even level. “Even then, I don’t think there’s been a single person who’s been able to make me feel so many different things at one time,” Duo said, resting his hands on Heero’s thighs. “I definitely feel more for you than I’ve ever felt for anyone.” Duo was tracing circles with his finger on Heero’s leg, more than a little embarrassed to be having this conversation with Heero.

“You’re the most stubborn thing I’ve ever met,” Heero said with a small chuckle, reaching out to hook his fingers underneath Duo’s chin and turn Duo’s face towards his.

“I bet it’s really annoying,” Duo said with a small frown, eyes darting to the side. “I know I can be a real pain in the ass, especially when I get going on something. It’s just hard to break habits, I guess. I mean, acting the way I do has worked so well so long and I--”

A finger was suddenly pressed against Duo’s lips, silencing him. “It really wasn’t that hard to figure out, Duo. I know who you are; I am just the same way.”

Grinning, Duo laughed, “Naw, you’re just a damn sick masochist. You’d have to be if you kept dogging me the way you did.”

“Well, you’re like my favourite damn disease,” Heero said with a slight roll of his shoulders.

With a wry grin, Duo said, “Definitely a good word choice there.”

“I didn’t mean it like that!” Heero said suddenly, worried that he had made it sound like he found Duo to be a bad thing, which was hardly the case. “No matter what you may or may not be, you’ve somehow managed to get under my skin.”

“I tend to have a knack for that,” said Duo, folding his arms across Heero’s thighs and resting his chin atop them. “People usually want to dig me out like a cancer and get as far away from me as they can.”

“Stop degrading yourself,” Heero said sharply, his eyes narrowing. “Do you really think that you’re some kind of plague?”

“Of course I do!” Duo said with an ease that was almost a bit frightening. “Everyone I even remotely care about ends up getting hurt or dead. Last time I checked, that’s what a plague was.” The laugh that Duo tacked onto the end of his explanation did nothing to help Heero’s distaste for such dark cynicism.

“Then why am I still here?” Heero asked Duo flatly, his even, blue gaze not wavering from Duo’s eyes as he spoke.

Like some trick of the universe, that question actually managed to leave Duo flabbergasted and unable to come up with something to say right away. Stammering, he finally managed to string a few words together, the heavy feeling they’d just managed to dispel beginning to creep back. “Just you wait.... Something’ll happen.... It’ll be... just my luck....”

“If you think that Solo is going to be enough to get rid of me, you’ve seriously underestimated me,” Heero said flatly, somehow managing to make his tone different from his already usually serious tone. “I’m not letting you get away that easily, Duo. You’re not escaping if I have anything to do with it.”

“Stuck with you, am I?” Duo said, brightening again. Somehow, Heero’s subtle sarcasm managed to have that effect on him, despite his rather somber demeanor. It was strange, but Duo had never thought that having such an anchor in life would make him feel so free and lighthearted.

“That’s for damn sure,” Heero said. “You may have your faults, but you’re not the only one. There’s still so much you haven’t taught me about life, Duo.”

“Like marshmallows and stargazing?” Duo offered with a meek grin.

Duo’s smile was outshone only by the dazzling one that suddenly found itself spread across Heero’s face. “Yeah,” he nodded with a warm twinkle in his blue eyes. “Exactly like marshmallows and stargazing.”

(x) X (x)

a/n: I made it back from my hike through the Alps without falling off a cliff! Yay! Um, sorry about the delay, but as I was in the mountains for the past two weeks, it was somewhat impossible for me to post, ya know? Oh, and Otakon was wonderful, for what time I was there. I’ll post pictures as soon as I get them developed and scanned.

The insert songs are both Billy Joel songs (Vienna being one of my absolute favourites by him), and the chapter title is a song by the Beatles. Thank you to everyone who’s been reading and enjoying so far! Your support means more to me than you could ever dare to imagine.