[tangled] Title: Tangled
Author: Link Worshiper
Pairing: hinted 1=2
Stuff: the usual thing, not beta read (not that anything I've been doing lately has been, but still.)
Disclaimer: If anything, Bandai should at least pay me a stipend for all the converts I get for them and their model kits <__<

Just something for mom's day, for all fandom mommies in da house. Raise the roof and shake yo' pants. I really wonder where I'd be without the lot of you. Probably dead.

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Twelve minutes and eleven seconds after Duo had hung up the phone with Heero, the sound of his heavy-handed knocks were resonating through his flat. Duo knew nothing less than clockwork was just Heero's way, but he hated to think that he'd made him drop a hot pan in the middle of his kitchen floor when he called on him like this. He only took consolation in the knowledge that he didn't ask Heero for this particular favour any more than two or three times a year.

"I sure hope I'm not imposing," Duo said when he opened the door for him. Heero was standing there in a plain button-up and jeans, a small, zippered pouch clutched in one hand.

"I'd actually been wondering when you'd call about it," Heero said with a shrug as he came inside, closing the door and toeing off his shoes in one graceful motion. "It's been a couple months since the last time you asked."

"Yeah, well, I can't say it's exactly something I'm clawing to do," Duo replied by way of explanation as he started to walk to the bathroom, Heero not very far behind.

Heero was used to this - used to this odd sort of ritual they'd come to share over the years. Duo thought Heero was sometimes puzzled as to why he was the only person he'd ask to do it, especially when finding someone who was far more qualified for the job wasn't exactly like high-profile Preventer work or anything. But the thing was that it wasn't really an issue of qualification, but more a trust sort of deal. Not that it really mattered, as Duo wasn't sure it was something he could have explained to him anyway.

Duo flicked on the light in the small bathroom and strode over to the bathtub, settling down on the fuzzy red matt on the floor to undo his braid while Heero unzipped his black pouch. He knelt beside his longhaired friend, laying out the things inside for his eventual use. Out came a gleaming pair of barber's shears, a black comb and at least a dozen hair clips. He arranged them carefully on the lip of the tub, next to the bottles of hair care products Duo kept there. "Ready?" he asked, reaching for the portable French showerhead and turning on the water before Duo even answered.

"Do what you gotta do, soldier," Duo said, leaning his head back as best he could, piling his lumpy mass of hair into the tub.

Heero didn't say anything, and instead set to his task. Duo felt the initial weight of the water on his hair as Heero brought the showerhead over and started to work through the endless tangles of hair. The warm spray splashed all over, flecking across Duo's forehead and splotching on both their clothes. Duo closed his eyes and just tried to enjoy the special treatment - the way he could feel Heero's hard chest through their wet shirts as he leaned over him to try and work his hands through Duo's hair as best he could. Despite the notably fresh scent of the shampoo as he started to lather it against Duo's scalp, Duo still thought the musky scent clinging to Heero's skin was more savory - and more pleasantly overpowering.

It was strange how at ease Duo felt with Heero, but there it was. Since he had first met him, there'd been something that set him apart from everyone else, and even to this day, Duo yet to exactly put his finger on it. He just knew he could leave such an important thing to him and be okay with it, even if Heero had taken to it with a pair of kitchen scissors and a ruler that first time. But despite Heero's subsequent protests, Duo supposed the point had been made when he'd gone out and bought Heero that hair care set to prove a point when he'd casually suggested Duo try and find a real stylist to trim his split ends. There wasn't another soul he'd let near him in such an intimate way. There isn't another soul he'd want near him like that - like that, and oh-so-much-closer. But a guy will take what he's dealt, right? Beggars can't be choosers, he guessed.

After the elongated process of washing Duo's hair, Heero had him sit up so he could towel dry it as best he could, but it was almost a moot effort. Their clothes were already soaked anyway. Moving to sit behind Duo on the edge of the tub with the hairbrush he kept under the sink and his comb, Heero clipped a good portion of Duo's hair around his ears, ready to take on the next battle. He was amazingly gentle as he worked his way through the knots; Duo spent the time wondering how gentle he'd be if Heero had him between his legs for other reasons.

"Tell me if I pull too hard, Duo," he said, jarring Duo out of his thoughts suddenly. "I don't like hurting you."

Without even blinking, he responded automatically: "You never hurt me."

He chuckled wryly at that, though Duo had no idea what he found so amusing about it. For once, Duo hadn't been trying to be a funny guy.

"What? You think I'm bullshitting?" Duo protested, trying hard to keep his head steady, despite his urge to turn around and stare up at Heero. He settled for letting his reaction bounce off the bathroom mirror back at Heero instead.

Duo could see that sexy little smirk of Heero's still tweaking his lips as he shook his head hopelessly. "I just don't know what you're going to do if I'm not around to do this for you at the drop of a hat," he said, reaching for the scissors.

Duo tensed a little at that, though hopefully not enough for Heero to be too wary of how much the comment had stung. "You got better places to be, bub?" Duo asked, wrapping a rather sincere fear in the guise of a joke.

"Not really," Heero said, taking a momentary pause to shrug. "Just wondering." He sounded thoughtful, and for a second, Duo thought he was leading up to some grand admission about something that was on his mind.

"Well, I think you know the answer anyway," Duo said resolutely over the soft whisper of the scissor blades pivoting past one another. "You'd just have twice as much dead hair to chop off. You're the only one who does it like old Sister Helen used to and I ain't trading that for shit."

Another soft, becoming laugh filled Heero's mouth as he ran his fingers through the segment of hair he'd just finished with before unclipping the next. "So you're saying I cut your hair like a mother?" he drawled with a joking lilt. "I'm not so sure how I feel about that, Duo." He started carefully brushing through the newly freed chunk of hair with the brush in an effort to tame it.

Duo snorted and rolled his eyes, feeling like Heero was just having fun at his expense. "You know that's not what I meant, you big dork," Duo jibed right back.

"Oh yeah?" Heero's hands stilled in the hair, and when Duo glanced up at the mirror, he found Heero staring rather intently at the picture their reflections made. "Then just what do you mean?"

Duo supposed there was no sense in trying to pussyfoot around the truth of it. Maybe it would make things more understandable to Heero if he just got over himself and came clean. "I mean, Sister Helen was one thing, and I loved her a lot, but it's different with you," he stammered, sounding a bit sheepish and unsure of how to phrase himself.

He was still brushing through Duo's hair with his usual efficiency. If Duo hadn't known better, they could have been discussing baseball or something else just as nonsensical. Heero asked, "What makes me so different, then?"

"You're the only person I've loved more," Duo blurted before he had a chance to censor himself.

Duo expected him to not care - to say something to trivialize the admission or make it seem like it didn't affect him. But then again, after knowing Heero for so long, Duo supposed he should have learned by now not to expect the expected out of Heero.

Heero's hands stilled for a few moments as he let the words sink in, and then they slowly slipped into the depths of Duo's hair, sliding up through the thick tresses to find his head, which he carefully pulled back against one of his thighs as he bent over to bury his nose against Duo's scalp. Duo knew in that moment, he couldn't have asked for anything more out of Heero; his answer was clear enough.

Duo wanted to absorb Heero by simply breathing his scent, knowing that this would always be how he liked him the best. If someone was ever to tell him there was a better way to live, he'd just tell them they could go on their own way, because this was heaven to him.

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End

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That's what I get for starting this way too late. Hurrah for impulsive projects.