"I'll be right there!" Duo yelled, glancing around his room in case he forgot something. But he didn't really need anything in the first place, and even he had to admit to himself he was stalling for time. Running down the stairs, he saw Heero waiting in the doorway, looking uncomfortable. Well, about as uncomfortable as he could ever look.

"That was nearly ten minutes. What were you doing up there?" his mother asked him as he met them at the foot of the stairs and motioned to Heero.

"Sorry," Duo said, giving Heero an apologetic shrug. The corners of Heero's mouth quirked into a small smile. Duo blushed.

From behind him, his mother spoke up. "Where are you two going to go?"

Duo rolled his eyes for Heero's benefit and answered, "we're going to the carnival. Y'know, at the fairgrounds."

"All right," his mother replied, "have fun."

"Yeah, Mom."

"And be safe."

Duo rolled his eyes again. "Yeah, Mom."

"And come home before curfew."

"Yeah, Mom," Duo replied, already walking out the door.

"It was nice meeting you," Heero said to Duo's mother as he was leaving.

"Nice meeting you too, Heero."

Once they were outside, Duo chuckled. "Man, you have some rock-solid manners, don't ya?"

Heero shrugged. "I guess."

Duo was too nervous to say anything more and an uncomfortable silence followed the two into the car. Duo's jitters from earlier returned with a vengeance. What if he's having second thoughts about the whole thing? Duo turned to Heero apprehensively.

As he turned, Heero suddenly leaned in until he was close enough to press his lips to Duo's. The two enjoyed the still-new feel of each other's kiss for a few seconds until Heero shyly pulled away.

"That was my hello," said a blushing Heero.

"So this is what a first date is like," Duo laughed with goosebumps on his arms.

"You've never been on one?"

"What, and you have?"

Heero smirked. "No."

Duo smiled as they pulled out of his driveway. "Asshole."

By the time they arrived, Duo's head was buzzing with a million different questions that he was too afraid to ask.

Are we going to hold hands? What if we run into someone we know? What do we do then? Do we act like we're just friends? Wouldn't boyfriends hold hands?

Heero seemed so calm and unworried. Duo wondered if he'd even thought about any of this. But he didn't dare ask.

They bought their tickets and didn't hold hands as they entered the carnival.

Once inside, Heero turned to Duo. "What do you want to do first?"

Duo looked around the crowded fairground. The rides were the same from year to year but there were always the few that he never missed.

"There! Let's go on the gravitron!" Duo said, pointing the large, circular enclosure. Heero wrinkled his nose.

"Duo..."

"Come on! You went on it last year!" Duo was already dragging his friend over. That was the way it always was between them. Duo liked to try new things; Heero liked to know what he was getting into first. He rarely took chances, so it was always up to Duo to leap first.

Which was why Duo couldn't believe it when Heero had made the first move. He'd had hardly any hope for his best friend to return his own confusing feelings, and then suddenly Heero was confessing to him that he'd always hoped for something more. Duo would never have believed it would turn out that way, or that Heero would be giving him his first kiss and now his first date.

Inside the gravitron, the boys took their places against the wall, Heero looking decidedly unhappy.

"C'mon, man, don't look so sick!" Duo said.

"I remember swearing last year," Heero replied, "that I would never get on this ride again. There had to be a good reason for me to say that."

The ride began to rotate. "Well, it's too late now, in any case." Duo looked at his friend. "Come on, this ride rocks!"

"Right."

"Yeah, check this out!" Duo began to creep sideways up the wall as the ride picked up speed, until he was stretched out perpendicular to Heero, stuck against the wall by centripetal force. "Heero, watch! I'm going for a complete 180!"

"I can't turn my head, Duo," Heero replied in a choked voice.

"Yeah, you can. It's not gonna rip off." Duo laughed. "You know, I could tickle you right now and you'd be powerless to stop me."

Heero, despite his haggard appearance, managed a snort. "You can't move your arms."

"Shit, you're right. Oh well."

Heero swallowed audibly. "Duo... I think I remember why I swore never to go on this ride..."

"Hey, Heero, d'ya think if you puke it'll fly back?"

"Duo!" Heero groaned. "Don't start!"

Duo laughed, rotating himself back to his original position as the ride began to slow down. He was still laughing as Heero staggered off the ride and collapsed against the first building he could find outside.

"I'm glad you find it so funny," said his friend dryly. "I feel like all my insides have been rearranged."

"Aw, come on, Heero, it wasn't that bad."

Heero just glared.

"I am never going on that ride again," he said with deadly seriousness.

Duo rolled his eyes. "Fine, fine, you pick the next ride."

Heero picked the haunted house.

"I know it's going to be lame," he said when Duo gave him a look. "It'll be funny."

They were standing in front of a flimsy-looking shack coated in chipping red paint and badly drawn pictures of monsters. A group of girls from their school were piling into one of the decidedly shabby carts that took them through the ride. One let out a loud, nervous giggle before the cart lurched into motion and stumbled through a door that shut squeakily behind it.

Duo shrugged. "Sure. Why not?"

The two walked over and took their own car, handing the man two tickets to ride. The cart lurched and began to move along the track, leading them through a rickety, creaking door. As soon as they entered the haunted house, they were assaulted with an extremely fake scream from a speaker near the floor.

"Whoo hoo," said Duo with no small amount of sarcasm.

"Bite me," Heero replied.

"Sure," said Duo. "If I can find ya in the dark."

From Heero's left, a door opened and a model of Frankenstein appeared. The speakers provided grumbling sounds to accompany him.

"That has to be possibly the world's worst excuse for Frankenstein."

"You were the one who wanted to go on this ride."

"Shut it."

Ahead of them, they could hear giggly screams from the girls. "Jesus, that's really sad," Duo remarked, reaching out to poke Frankenstein as they passed. "He's made out of rubber or something."

The cart lurched along into the next room, where plastic knives hung on the wall covered in red paint. "Ohh, that's real convincing," Duo said. "How long is this stupid thing?"

"It shouldn't be much longer," Heero replied, watching a large, menacing butcher pop up from behind a table. "It's not that bad." "I can think of better things to do, myself."

"Like what?"

Thought you'd never ask, Duo thought, seeking out Heero's lips in the dark.

"Wha-- Duo --" was all Heero said before he was kissing Duo back. Something made growling sounds on their right, but neither of them cared.

I could get used to this...

The ride was ending as they pulled apart. "Now what do you want to do?" Duo asked, as they jumped out of the cart. "Anything but another ride like that..."

"It wasn't that bad!" Heero said. Duo made fake vomiting noises, much to Heero's obvious chagrin.

The boys passed by several of the rides, each of which were vetoed by a "no way" from Heero or a "lame!" from Duo. Eventually they wound up in the section of the carnival where all the game stands were set up. Without really meaning to, they ended up in front of one.

"Get the ball into the basket and win a prize!" said the man behind the counter.

"Sure, why not?" Duo said, handing over a couple of tickets to the man. He was given three balls; taking one, he tossed it into the basket, but it rolled out. "Shit. I know how to do this." He looked at Heero. "Do you want one?"

Heero shrugged. "All right." He picked one up and underhanded it. It also bounced out.

"Okay, last one. The trick to this is to catch it under the bump in the basket. Kind of like this..." He tossed the last ball gently so that it barely went over the basket's rim. It rolled in, and stayed there.

"Yes!" Duo shouted.

"Congratulations," said the man as he handed Duo a little red dragon. The two boys walked away, Duo still ecstatic over his victory over the basket. Heero reached into his pockets and came up empty.

"I think we've run out of tickets," he said.

"No way!" Duo reached into his pockets. He too, had nothing in them. "How much money did we give the guy when we went in?"

"Ten dollars."

"And that only got us five tickets?"

"Yeah."

"And we used two tickets for that game back there..."

"... And two for the haunted house --"

"-- That shit wasn't worth two tickets! --"

"-- And one for the gravitron..." Heero continued, glaring.

"And that leaves us," Duo finished, "with nada."

"Yeah." Heero looked at his friend. "Do you want to buy some more?"

"Nah," Duo replied, "I guess not. I'd rather just go somewhere before I have to be back home."

"Like where?"

"Somewhere," said Duo with a smirk, "where they won't easily find us."

This is really, really nice, Duo remarked to himself as Heero ran hands through his hair, kissing him softly. They were sitting on the hood of Heero's car in the parking lot of the only park in town. The place was completely deserted even though it was hardly late, but Duo was not complaining.

"Nn," Duo whined as Heero pulled away from his mouth. "Why'd you stop?"

"Wanted to ask a question," replied Heero.

"Ask away."

"How was that for a first date, Duo?"

Heero looked almost nervous. Duo smiled and kissed him softly. "It wasn't bad."

"'Not bad?'"

Duo's smile widened. "It was awesome, Heero. It couldn't have been anything else."

"It wasn't that great."

"Yeah, it was," Duo said, leaning closer to Heero, "because it means we're really dating now."

Heero smiled. "We are."

Duo thought back on what he'd thought earlier that day, all the things he'd worried about.

Fuck it. It didn't matter if they held hands or not. It didn't matter if they told no one that they liked each other, and were moving quickly into something deeper. It didn't matter what everyone else thought.

He was Heero's boyfriend... and that alone was worth it.

"I got a while before I need to be back home," said Duo.

"What do you want to do?"

Duo grinned as he moved closer to his boyfriend. "I can think of a few things to start..."