Warnings: language, lime/lemonish, yaoi
Rating: R/NC-17
Pairing: 1x2
6188 words
Notes: written for Sharon for the Moments of Rapture contest 2005/2006. (Congratulations, Sharon, you got me to write for GW again!)

A Heart Worth Breaking
by Lily

"If we do all this work and it turns out to be a hospital or something..." Duo said darkly. Heero continued crawling along behind his partner. Duo stopped abruptly and rolled onto his back, gazing up at the ceiling of the air duct. There wasn't room for him to sit up; in fact, it was because they were two of the smallest pilots that they'd been chosen for this mission, and Duo was not happy about it.

"I should've said I'm claustrophobic," Duo grumped. "This stupid thing is so small I can't even move freely -- what if we get attacked? How are we supposed to fight?"

"Duo," Heero said finally. The longhaired pilot stopped ranting and rolled onto his stomach and wriggled around to face Heero. Heero was still on his stomach, supported by his elbows, glaring at Duo. Heero rustled around for a moment -- how he did it so gracefully Duo didn't know -- and produced his gun. "I think I can fire even in an enclosed space."

"Just don't hit me in the head," Duo replied. He stared thoughtfully at the gun. "Wish I had a grenade. Or Deathscythe."

"A grenade would likely cause instability in the duct, if you threw one."

"Stop being such a spoilsport, Heero," Duo said. He huffed out a sigh.

"Could you please continue on?" Heero said; if Duo wasn't mistaken, he sounded a little -- testy. Duo grinned. After some serious shuffling he managed to get himself turned back around, and resumed creeping along the tunnel.

"I still don't see the point. We could've just busted in here and blew the place up; why do we have to sneak in?"

"I thought stealth was your specialty," Heero said, once again replying uncharacteristically to Duo's complaints. Duo grinned again, glad Heero couldn't see it. He knew he was grating on Heero's nerves when he started responding to Duo when he was being -- and he well knew it -- a pain in the ass. Not only, Duo knew perfectly well why they were sneaking in -- it was his area of expertise -- and it irked Heero to have his own preferred methods of doing business mocked. Which meant that Heero knew Duo was mocking him. Still, he wished he could get out of the fucking tunnel and someplace a little bigger.

"Yeah, I know, but usually I just pick the lock on the back door and go in that way. This is excessive."

"Unless it is a hospital or something," Heero reminded. "You read the same report I did."

"Fucking OZ, using an old hospital building as a base --! Can't even blow the place up properly." Duo resisted the urge to announce their presence by banging his fist on the 'floor.' Heero said nothing. Damn, he was going to spend the rest of the mission in a silent funk -- Duo hated that. Missions were so boring with Heero -- he would rather have gone ahead with Quatre, or even Wufei. Listening to Wufei rant about the small space would have been entertaining -- Heero was just too fucking quiet.

They continued crawling along in silence, until suddenly Duo felt a hand on his ankle. He was about to whip out his gun and shoot whoever had him by the ankle, when he remembered that Heero was behind him -- and wouldn't appreciate being shot at, even if it was Duo's first instinct. Usually another pilot would know better than to startle a fellow pilot. It could be deadly.

"Be quiet," Heero whispered. What the hell, wasn't he already? But then Heero tugged on his ankle again. "And don't move."

Duo obediently froze in place, listening hard. After a moment, he heard voices from somewhere below them. He couldn't quite make out what they were saying, but maybe Heero could, so he kept his observation to himself. It became apparent after a couple of minutes that they were on an especially thin piece of metal, if they had just kept moving the people below them might have heard them -- and if it was OZ, they'd probably just open fire at the ceiling. That would not be good, Duo decided. After a moment, Heero, apparently satisfied, let go of his ankle. Duo resisted the urge to sigh in relief. He didn't want Heero to know how warm that touch had been. Duo wasn't used to much physical contact with people; he spent most of his fighting time in his Gundam, and whenever he was with at least one of the other pilots, he was assiduously careful about coming in contact with them. He didn't like to be touched.

Or so he had thought; but then the feel of Heero's hand on his ankle had made something unexpected tingle in his chest. He wondered, for a split second, what it would feel like to let himself be hugged, like when Quatre was in the mood. The blond pilot was the one most open about physical contact -- probably 'cause he had a family. The closest thing Duo had ever had was Sister Helen, and she was lucky if he sat on her lap long enough to braid his hair when he was little. Street rats learned fast that getting too attached was dangerous.

Duo resisted the urge to shake his head as if he could shake the memories right out of his brain. Heero had warned him to be quiet, and his hair was so long that it might make a noise if he shook his head. He was getting extremely cramped, and his foot had fallen asleep. He hoped they could move on soon; that or go back, regroup and try another approach. He idly wished there was carpeting on the 'floor' of the duct. The thought made him smile. He realised, quite suddenly, that all was quiet and then Heero tapped the bottom of his boot three times.

"They're gone," Heero said, and Duo blew out a breath.

"Well, let's go," Duo said, and started to move. As an afterthought, he said, "what were they saying?"

"It's definitely OZ," Heero said. Duo waited for him to elaborate, but when he didn't, he forced himself not to kick the laconic pilot in the teeth. It simply wouldn't do to injure one's partner in a situation where it was important that someone had your back covered at all times.

"Heero," Duo said with forced patience, "I figured that out for myself. What did they say."

"Actually," Heero said, and now there was a touch of smugness in his voice, "they're looking for us."

Duo stopped so abruptly that Heero actually crawled into his shoe. He heard a very, very quiet epithet. "What do you mean, us," Duo asked.

"They are expecting attack, they just don't know how or when."

Duo resumed his snail-like movement through the duct. His elbows were bloody sore. "Well, good, let's surprise the fuck out of 'em then." With a wicked grin he reached into the waistband of his pants and produced his gun. Heero tapped his shoe again.

"Not yet," he said. Duo groaned quietly and tucked the gun away again. He longed to get out of the damn air duct and get some action. Plus, he was sick of Heero acting like he was the rational one of the two. He'd tried to self-destruct enough times, it didn't seem fair for Heero to act like this. Duo was so absorbed in his thoughts that he didn't at first see the vent directly in front of him; not until Heero grabbed his ankle again and pulled him backwards. It was good thing Duo was used to Heero touching his ankle at that point, or, once again, he might have shot him.

"What," he said. Heero let go.

"That's where you get out," Heero said. Duo wanted to kick in his own teeth. He was supposed to be paying attention -- that's why they sent him first -- and he was so busy thinking about Heero, of all people, that he kept fucking up. It was not a feeling he enjoyed. Cautiously, he crept forward and peered down from the vent. He didn't see anyone, but he hadn't expected to; this was supposed to be an unused lab room. If the blue prints were accurate, there was an old closet within the room -- one that, with luck, still had some lab coats in it. This was the part of the mission Duo liked -- getting out of the goddamn air duct and raising some hell. This lab room was directly across from the control room, likely to be guarded, which was why Heero would be retreating about five feet and drawing their attention long enough for Duo to kill them. This part was actually the hardest; Duo had to wait, in lab coat and clipboard -- God help him if there weren't any -- for five minutes. Too little time and the guards would see him first. Too long and Heero might get killed playing decoy.

Actually, he didn't think it was a good idea for him to be impersonating a scientist, they might recognise his hair. Heero had wanted him to chop it off -- numerous times in fact -- because it made him so immediately recognisable, but Duo refused. His hair was his tribute, and he wasn't going to let anyone take that from him. He reached inside his clothes and pulled out his lock-picks, then set to work unscrewing the vent. This was a tricky part; he had to be careful he didn't drop the vent cover and give away their position.

"Remember," Heero said softly. "Five minutes." Duo raised his wrist and tapped his watch in acknowledgement. It took only a moment longer to unscrew the vent, and push it down so that it hung still attached on one side. He handed the tiny screwdriver to Heero, and then dropped silently into the room. So far, so good -- no one in sight. In his one concession to Heero, he tucked the long braid into the back of his shirt, so that it wouldn't be immediately noticeable. His eyes, though, with their distinctive colour -- well, he couldn't do anything about those. He watched as Heero crawled out of sight, then found the expected closet. He breathed a sigh of relief when after a minute of frantic searching, found a discarded, slightly dingy lab robe on the floor scrunched in the back. He whipped it on, picked up an abandoned book so he would look like he belonged, and glanced at his watch. Four minutes.

He tapped a fingernail against the spine of the book, tap-tap tap, tap-tap tap, and checked his watch again. Four minutes twenty-five seconds. He hated waiting. He hoped Heero didn't go into the hallway too early; he didn't want anything to go wrong. Admit it, he thought suddenly, you don't want anything bad to happen to him. No, Duo replied to himself, I don't want anything bad to happen to me. He looked at his watch. One minute. He crossed the room, grabbing his gun and pointing it in front of him. They would have to be quick; and relatively quiet. Duo checked the silencer, to make sure it hadn't become dislodged. Then he slowly pushed open the door, glanced quickly down the hallway, and saw Heero engaging one of the guards in conversation.

"Who are you?" the man was asking, but he got a hole in his head before he got an answer. The other guard got the same treatment, and Heero managed to catch one of them before he fell and lowered him to the ground. Duo did the same, and then they nodded to each other, and advanced on the control room. It was a good thing the two guards had been wearing OZ uniforms -- Duo shuddered to think what would have happened if they had been civilians. Duo produced another set of lock-picking tools, replacing his gun in his belt. He set to work on the door, Heero covering him, gun still drawn.

"Should we just kill them all?" whispered Duo as he worked. He didn't mind killing them, but if they could avoid it by rendering them unconscious, that was probably better. It was going to cause enough trouble if any of the other soldiers noticed the two dead men in front of the room that was supposed to contain all of their secrets. It was Duo's and Heero's job to download pertinent information about strategies and attack plans to disc, then escape. It wasn't part of the agenda to kill everyone they saw; but the guards had been necessary. If either had woken up while Duo and Heero were inside, they could easily raise an alarm.

"Better," Heero said, sweeping his gun back and forth across the hallway. "Don't want them making trouble." The lock snicked and Duo secreted the tools once more, again pulling his gun. He unlatched the door and pushed it in with his foot, following it slowly with the gun, then his body. There were only four men in the room, and six computers. That was bad; if they didn't hurry, more men would probably arrive to use the unoccupied computers. Duo aimed, squinted, fired. One of the men dropped out of his chair. Behind him he heard the sound of the trigger being pulled, and another man tumbled out of his chair. He fired a second time; at that point, just before Heero pulled the trigger again, one of the men jumped out of chair.

"What the fu--" he got out, before he collapsed to the floor with a bullet in his brain.

"Which computer?" Duo asked, gesturing with his gun. "It could be any of them."

"That one," Heero said confidently, and crossed over to what might have been the mainframe. He inserted the disc and began copying files; Duo didn't ask how Heero knew so fast which files were the ones they wanted. That was the other reason he had been partnered with Heero for this mission. He stood, guarding the door, gun angled into the hallway. He still wore the lab coat, but he doubted that the scientists themselves were allowed in the control room. Duo forced himself to be still, and not to tap his foot and let his gun waver; any second someone could come along and find them. And it was imperative that they copy all the necessary files before they retreated; and what was more, OZ expected the Gundam pilots to make an appearance, which meant that someone knew that the pilots had figured out where OZ was currently hiding.

"Done," Heero said, and tossed a disc to Duo. He caught it in his free hand and thrust it into the pocket of his jeans. Heero was doing the same with a second disc, and then they were out of the room, pushing the guards inside, crossing the hall, entering the unused lab room, and Duo yanked off the mangy coat and tossed it aside. Heero had already pulled himself up into the duct; Duo followed, assisted with a hand from his partner. This time, he was going to be in the rear position, it seemed. He looked forward to grabbing Heero's ankle at least once. Although he knew Heero probably would shoot him, if he did that. He tugged the vent back into place, securing it with the little screwdriver that Heero passed back to him. They didn't want anyone to know how they had gotten in; that way, when the murdered men were discovered, the Ozzies wouldn't know where to look first. They'd probably rush outside first, looking for Gundams. But they hadn't brought any, this time, Duo thought. Just a car that technically neither he nor Heero was old enough to drive. That didn't stop Heero, though; sometimes it seemed as if the other pilot could do anything.

Once again, Duo found himself thinking an awful lot about his partner. That was strange, he didn't even want to be on this mission, much less with laconic-boy. "Hey, Heero," he said. He poked Heero in the bottom of his sneaker. He rolled his eyes when the Japanese pilot retaliated by pointing a gun into Duo's face, so close his eyes crossed. "Yo, it's just me," Duo said, pushing the gun out of his eyes. "Fuck."

"You ought to be more careful," Heero said, but his hand was shaking a little as he put away his gun.

"I just wanted to know, how did you get those files so fast?"

"Interface," Heero said, as he turned around again. Once more, Duo waited for him to expound. He waited several minutes, still crawling on their elbows, for Heero to speak. He didn't.

"Dude, you think one word explains something. Fuck, Heero."

"They had a main interface. I just copied everything."

"But that should've taken some time," Duo said. "You did it in like thirty seconds."

"I used a shortcut," Heero said, and then, "stop asking so many questions." He sounded annoyed again. Good, thought Duo darkly, so'm I. Bloody guy never said anything more than he thought he needed to. It was mighty frustrating; Duo liked to talk, and he liked to converse with people. It was part of his nature. Yet, with Heero, there was no such thing as conversation.

"Duo," he said, still moving like a ghost through the duct.

"Eh?" Duo said, surprised that Heero was saying something without being tricked into it.

"You did a good job, despite all the complaining," Heero said, in a very soft voice. Duo had to remind himself to keep crawling, he was so astonished. He could see the back of Heero's neck, despite the dim lighting, and it was flushed pink. With a shock Duo realised that Heero was embarrassed. And then, in what amounted to a flash of lightning, he remembered the warm caress of Heero's hand on his ankle. Holy fuck, was Heero flirting with him? Was that why he was always so reserved in Duo's presence? They'd been partners for a few months now, meaning that every mission that came in to Duo or Heero requiring two people went to them together, as often as not. Not always, of course. And Duo couldn't deny he liked working with Quatre. Or Wufei. Trowa, like Heero, was often too quiet for his taste. But Heero had never before complimented him on his mission protocol.

"Gee, thanks, Heero," Duo said, and wanted to smack himself in the forehead. He hadn't meant to sound so sarcastic.

"Well, you still complain too much."

"Sorry," Duo said, and kept crawling.

Later that night, Heero finished cataloguing the disc on his laptop and snuck a glance over at Duo. The longhaired pilot appeared to be asleep, one hand thrown over his forehead, the other dangling off the bed. The book he had been reading was toppled on the floor. Heero bit his lip. He wondered if Duo knew how much he affected him. Every time they were near, Heero's heart started beating so fast he didn't know if he could shoot straight; it made him wonder if telling Duo about his feelings would make it easier to exorcise them. True, Duo could be annoying, but Heero was pretty sure that he did it on purpose to get on Heero's nerves. Which, of course, it worked. Heero wasn't stupid; he knew that he had a crush on the American pilot, knew that the reason Duo succeeded so often in getting on his nerves was because all the time Duo was talking, Heero just wanted him to shut up. He didn't much care about listening to Duo talk -- if he was honest with himself -- he could think of better exercises for those lips than all that excessive chatter. Then again, he didn't think much of small talk. Admit it, you just want to kiss him. That's why you don't ask to be partnered with someone else.

"All right, it's true," Heero whispered into the dark room, lit only by the glow of his laptop. He gazed at Duo again. He thought he should cut his hair, it was too long, too easy to give them away. But he also wanted to pull his fingers through it, find out if it felt as soft as it looked. He pulled his tank top over his head, trading it for a simple white t-shirt to sleep in. He turned off the computer, then crawled into his bed, kneeling and opening the blinds. This was a house that Heero had bought, using stolen credits and a false name, but it provided a nice place for them to stay when they were in the area. Moonlight came flowing like water into the room, illuminating Duo's slightly parted lips, the bruise on his cheekbone. That was from their last mission, the one before today; that one hadn't gone as well. He lay down on his back, turning his head and staring at Duo. He did this every night; the other pilot inevitably fell asleep reading something while Heero finished up their report, then he would watch Duo until, at last, he drifted off.

But tonight he wasn't relaxed at all. Duo hadn't sounded pleased about being complimented; actually he had seemed vexed. Heero pillowed his head on his elbow and continued to watch the American sleep. It was a few moments before it registered that Duo had moved in his sleep, rucking up his shirt to reveal a muscled, yet somewhat scarred, sliver of his abdomen. Heero's heart thumped in his chest, and he felt the first vague stirrings of desire in his lower body. He fisted one hand under his head, the other in the sheets. Some nights, when Duo looked particularly tempting, he had to exercise all of his iron self-control not to reach down and touch himself. But it would be wrong, to relieve himself while watching the other pilot in his sleep, and Heero might be a terrorist, but he still had some honour.

Tonight, though, he couldn't keep his fingers from trembling, and he wanted to touch himself so badly his teeth ached. He relaxed his jaw and tried to close his eyes, but they wouldn't obey, and as he watched, Duo stirred, pushing his shirt further up and resting his long-fingered hand on his belly. Heero groaned silently. Every time Duo exposed more skin, he felt an answering throb in his groin.

It was a moment of lunacy that caused him to get up, pad across the room, and kneel in front of Duo's bed. He put two hands on the side of the bed, then reached out and -- barely managed to keep from touching that bare skin mere centimeters away from his fingers. Duo sighed in his sleep, and Heero registered that one knee was currently being inconvenienced by a book. This caused some discomfort, which helped to assuage some of the ache in his nether regions. He eased the book out from under his knee, smoothed the slightly crumpled pages, and then set it aside. He put his elbows on the bed and his head in his hands, and just watched Duo for awhile. The American slept so quietly, it was a wonder. He was noisy when awake, but so peaceful when slumbering that Heero fell in love every time he had this opportunity.

It didn't seem like much of an imposition, then, to sit up on his heels and lower his head down. The kiss was nothing spectacular -- kissing a sleeping person never is -- but Heero was surprised when Duo didn't instantly awake and punch him in the face. Had he been listening more closely to Duo than to his own heart, he would have heard the sudden hitch in his breathing.

Duo was immediately aware that someone had warm, rough lips pressed to his; he thought at first it was the extension to a dream he hadn't realised he'd been having until he awoke and found it real. It took some major effort not to go for his knife and kill whoever it was -- Heero, his mind supplied -- and he was glad he didn't, when he realised who it must be. He was pretty shocked that Heero was kissing him, though; it didn't feel strange or repulsive, oddly enough. Actually, it felt nice -- warm, a little damp from Heero's breath brushing against his lips -- but comforting, like when someone strokes your hair when you're afraid or tearful. Duo remembered Sister Helen combing his hair with her fingers, when he was little and had nightmares. But he wasn't having nightmares, now, and this was an alien experience. He didn't know quite why he did it, but he let his mouth drift a little bit open, and then decided he wanted to taste the inside of Heero's mouth -- would it be like his own? -- so he slipped his tongue inside. Heero jerked back.

"You're awake," he said. He raised his head up, and Duo could see the glazed look of desire that he recognised from the street. He forced down the panic at that reminder. This was Heero, not some man or woman looking for a good time from someone who had been little more than a child. And not a whore.

"I'm not a whore," he said aloud absently. Heero blinked and some of the arousal cleared.

"That's not why I --" he stopped. He roughly jerked a hand through his tumbled bangs. "not why I kissed you," he finished lamely. Duo shook his head against the pillow.

"Sorry, habit," he said. "Used to say that when -- people -- came sniffing around."

"Sorry," Heero said. He leaned back on his heels. Duo rolled onto his side and looked, really looked, at the Japanese pilot. How long had Heero felt this way about him?

"How -- how long have you felt like this?" Duo asked, before tentatively reaching out and tangling some of that hair in his fingers. It was softer than he could have imagined; suddenly touching didn't seem like such an imposition.

"A while," said Heero vaguely. He reached up and wrapped his hand around Duo's wrist, forcing it to be still. "I've been --" he broke off, and Duo wondered what he had been about to say.

"You can, uh, kiss me again, if you want," Duo said, shocked that he'd actually invited contact.

"You don't like it," Heero said without thinking. Duo sat straight up in bed and slipped out of Heero's grip -- even though Heero could have kept him there without even trying, if he'd wanted to. He couldn't believe what he was hearing; Heero had been paying enough attention to notice that Duo shied away from human contact?

"How do you know that?" he said incredulously. Heero fisted his hands in the bedsheets.

"I'm not blind," he said defensively. "It's part of my job to notice things." Then, before Duo could say anything, he had leaned in so close that once again his breath washed over Duo's lips. "You talk too much," he said, and kissed him again.

This time, it took a little fumbling with hands and fingers and tongues, before they figured out how to tilt their heads and not bite each other. Duo, especially, had to work not to bite Heero when he first put his tongue in his mouth. They kissed for a few minutes, then broke apart with a damp sound, and as Duo drew his head back and opened his eyes, he discovered that he was rock-hard in his pajama pants. He hadn't really expected to be turned on by the experience; and from the look in Heero's eyes, he wasn't prepared either.

Heero was surprised that he could be any more aroused, but kissing Duo had made the front of his shorts wet. Despite the inexperience hovering over the kisses, tasting Duo's lips was a thousand times better in reality than in his imagination.

"Say you forgive me, Duo," Heero said, and he didn't even mind the edge of desperation in his voice.

"Why?" Duo asked, and then Heero found himself reaching around the slender pilot and tugging the thong out of his braid. "Hey," Duo struggled a little. "Leave my hair alone."

"I want to touch it," Heero said, and captured Duo's wrists in his hand. He tossed the thong onto the bed and began the labourious process of unweaving the braid, being very careful not to hurt Duo as he did so.

"You'll --" Duo stopped moving, as he felt Heero's fingers moving through the waterfall of hair. It felt like heaven, and for a moment, he closed his eyes in bliss and just enjoyed the sensation. He hadn't imagined that, when it was a touch he had been craving -- and it seemed like he had wanted Heero subconsciously, or else he wouldn't have allowed the kiss -- he wouldn't mind it. He leaned into Heero's chest, discovering that the contact wasn't as frightening as he'd thought it would be.

"Say you forgive me," Heero repeated, and then feathered little kisses over Duo's face. Under the onslaught, Duo wondered if Heero had done this before, or if he just had a very active imagination. He couldn't make his mouth work for several seconds, then,

"I don't know why, but I forgive you," he said, and closed his eyes. Heero smiled against his cheekbone -- that had to be a record for the stoic Japanese pilot -- and his lips found Duo's again.

Duo's hair was a stream of softness over his fingers and arm; long, luxurious and beautiful, and he was perversely glad that Duo had never acquiesced to cutting it.

"Say you don't mind this," Heero said, breaking the kiss. "Tell me you'll try."

And Duo opened eyes hazy with desire. "I'll try," he said, and cupped Heero's face in his hands.

"Duo..." Heero said, but he didn't really know what he wanted to say, so he snapped his mouth shut and stared helplessly at the other pilot. Finally, he unfolded on the floor till he was sitting cross-legged by the bed. "I know you don't like to be touched, but I just couldn't -- I couldn't not touch you." There. It was out, all the words he could have spoken, all the damning things he could say. What would Duo do when he realised that Heero kept quiet around him because all the things he wanted to say, were about feelings he hadn't even known how to express? Duo looked at him curiously, then lay back against the pillow.

"How come you can't sleep, Heero?" he said.

"Because." You're sexy and distracting. But Duo didn't want to hear that. Did he?

"Because why, Heero," Duo said impatiently. "Honestly, you gotta work on these one-word sentences."

"I don't like to talk too much." Like you do. But did he really mind that? Earlier in the day, when they were crawling through an air duct -- he recalled the feel of that wiry ankle under his palm -- he'd thought Duo's chatter was annoying. But listening to him now, he reconsidered. Yes, the excessive chatter was just that. But the sound of Duo's voice -- well, he enjoyed that. And he didn't talk much, himself, because he really didn't have a lot to say.

"I see. That still doesn't answer my question of why you can't sleep." Duo blew his bangs off his face.

"Duo," Heero said, still disregarding a question he didn't want to answer. "Have you ever been in love?"

"God," Duo said, and sighed again. "No, I don't think so." He refused to look at Heero now, and so Heero found the burden of conversation on him. It was not something he enjoyed.

"Is it expected to -- like one's partner?"

"Heero, be a normal teenager for once and just ask me out. It's not like, after kissing you, I'm gonna say no."

"'Ask you out?'" Heero asked.

"Like on a date."

"We can't have a date, we have a mission in the morning."

"Fuck! We should be asleep!" Duo rolled over onto his side, propping his head up with his hand. He kissed his fingers and stroked them along Heero's jawline, and Heero shivered. Apparently Duo was fast getting over his paranoia about touching other people.

"Yes," he said, and leaned into the feathery caress on his face. "That's nice."

"Lord, Heero, you really are a piece of work. Look, I'll do it. How about, as soon as we have a day free, we take a walk down along the beach?"

"I hate the beach. It's sandy." Heero frowned. That didn't sound right -- it sounded like he was rejecting Duo. Which he didn't want to do.

"It's meant to be sandy," Duo said in exasperation. "I hope dating you is not going to be like this all the time."

"We're dating now?"

"Isn't that what you want?"

"I don't know." Heero captured Duo's hands and put two of his fingers in his mouth, mostly because it seemed like a good idea at the time.

"Fuck. I think we should go to sleep." Duo made a little noise in his throat. "That feels so hot and wrong," he said, and tried to extricate his fingers. Heero merely swept his tongue up along the knuckle, then down into the webbing between digits. He was fast discovering that he liked how breathless Duo sounded as he got more aroused. Which, if he wasn't mistaken, was happening quicker now. "Let go, Heero," he said. He arched into the feel of the velvety wetness on his fingers, though, belying his words. With his other hand he cupped himself through his pajama pants, and the sight was so erotic that Heero felt his own shorts becoming damp and too tight again. He let Duo's hand fall from his mouth.

"All right," he said, and stood up, cracking his knees as he stretched. "Let's go to sleep."

"No way," Duo said in that breathy tone. "I am so jacking myself off first, if you don't mind. Or if you do, I'll go do it in the bathroom."

"All right," Heero said again. "I'll go for a walk with you."

"My cock, Heero," Duo said urgently. "Answer that one first."

"All right," Heero said for a third time, the traces of a smile clinging to his lips. "Let's both." He walked back over to his bed and lay down, staring at the ceiling first, then turning to look at Duo.

"Fuck yeah," Duo said, and then without preamble stuck his hand down the front of his pajamas. He groaned and thrust up into his palm, and then he was working his pajama pants down his hips, and Heero was so intently watching him that he forgot to touch himself.

It was over too quickly, it seemed, when he spurted all over his hand and t-shirt and abdomen, as he watched Duo come into his own palm.

"Sexy," was all Heero could think of to say.

"It's come," Duo replied, sounding langorous and relaxed. "It's not sexy. I could fall asleep right now."

"I'll go for a walk with you," Heero repeated. "And I couldn't sleep because I was watching you sleep."

"That's kinda creepy, Heero," Duo said, but there was a smile to be heard in his voice. "But sweet. Heh. I didn't know you had that sappy side."

"I do not," Heero said, but he couldn't stop his eyes from falling closed. "Night, Duo," he said, and then everything was warm and dark and comfortable.

Duo surprised himself by wiping his hand on the blanket and then going over to Heero's bed, climbing in, and pressing his lips to the side of Heero's neck. He wrapped an arm around the slender, young pilot, and tried not to think of the men they'd killed that day. Maybe it wasn't very romantic, Duo thought, but when they went for their walk he was going to ask Heero if he ever regretted it. Or if he felt guilty. He closed his eyes, and the image on the back of his lids was not of Heero jerking himself off, but a pair of deep blue eyes staring into his own when he'd awoken after being kissed for the first real time in his life. People had tried to kiss him when he had been a child on the streets of L2, but they'd never gotten farther than his closed mouth before he had either kneed them in the groin or pulled a knife on the women.

As he fell asleep, he felt guilty; yet the feel of Heero's lips lingered like a precious weight on his own, and the guilt melted away. What was this -- this feeling of being utterly connected to another human being, and finding that his kiss could make you forget your past, and the terrible things you'd done?

Strange, but not unpleasant, Duo thought as sleep overcame him.