The wind howled outside my blackened window, blowing snow so fiercely it might as well have been sandpaper. The window rattled and an icy breeze managed to squeeze its way through the windowsill. I realized, with a shiver, that my room was freezing. I hadn't meant to shiver, and I feared that whoever was in my room noticed it.

But there was no light. Everything was black, and the rattling window had covered the sound of me upsetting the rough blanket. I waited for my eyes to adjust to the dark, and I listened for movement. I waited, and listened. I waited, and listened. I waited, and...there!

Someone was rummaging through my dresser.

I used their noise to cover the sound of my hand slipping under the starched pillowcase. Grabbing my gun, which wasn't loaded, I held the freezing metal and waited, gathering my courage. I waited for the right moment. I waited for my breathing to settle. I waited for the window to stop rattling. I waited for...

They moved, shuffling something, and I didn't know if it was out of fear but I turned over in my bed and lunged at them. Something hit me in the stomach and the gun went sailing out of my hand and crashed to the floor somewhere in the crushing darkness.

I blindly fell. It was like the bed had been removed from under me, and my stomach had risen to my throat while I landed on something soft that yelped out a muffled cry of surprise and pain.

It was Heero! And I was on something that, under any other circumstance, I would not be permitted to touch.

All the cold left me as a blush started in my cheeks and spread across my now heated body until I was sure I had set him on fire. I burned and tingled with the heat of a breaking fever, and was speechless.

"D-Duo...you're on...me...my, um --"

"Oh!" And as if I was surprised by this revelation, I managed to wiggle my way off him. I felt him get to his feet next to me as I sat on the cold hardwood floor, my back pressed against the icy metal frame of my rusty bed. I had a small thought, wondering what time it was, and as I looked to my alarm clock I was greeted with pressing blackness. "What time is it?"

"I don't know," Heero's gruff voice answered from somewhere above me. "Snow storm. The power's out."

"That would explain the lack of heat." I shivered and wrapped my arms around my bare knees suddenly aware that I was clad only in my boxers. Heero, I knew from landing on him, was at least still in his spandex shorts.

"I'm looking for candles."

I could feel Heero move and I shivered from the cold air he disturbed. My teeth started chattering, and I decided that sitting on the floor was stupid. Standing up, I climbed back into the creaking bed and under the rough pilled blankets, and I shivered.

"I don't think there's any --"

The bright beam of light blinded me as it illuminated everything close to me in a bluish hue. As Heero held the flashlight imposing shadows were cast about the room, growing to massive sizes with every jerk of the bluish beam.

"We have light," Heero smirked as he brandished the flashlight, examining the room around us as if he had never seen it before. Maybe, I thought, maybe Heero was poetic enough to appreciate seeing the room from this perspective, naked floors and walls hiding away from a harsh spotlight.

"Duo, were you going to shoot me?" Heero turned on me, the blue beam resting on my gun next to the base trim of the yellow wall.

I blushed. "I didn't know it was you...I mean, well, you surprised me coming into my room, that's all."

"You were going to shoot me."

"It wouldn't be the first time," I mumbled under my breath with a smirk on my face. Yes, that's right. Admitting I shot Heero was my guilty pleasure. I felt horrible about it, that I hurt someone I cared so much about as a friend, and a fellow pilot, but in the same breath it just went to prove that Duo Maxwell was the best. I shot Mr. Invincible-Yuy...twice.

"I heard that." In the dim light I could swear I saw Heero smirking. "I'm going to turn the breaker off. If the power comes back on it could blow a fuse."

"Yeah, yeah," I waved him away and tried to snuggle further into the blankets. It had taken me so long to warm up in the first place. These safe houses were cold during the warmer days of the year. Smack dab in the middle of a vengeful winter, these things were as frigid as Hell was hot...and I knew all about Hell.

He returned a few minutes later. "We're completely snowed in. There's four feet and three quarters inches of snow out there. I'm going to email the others. We'll need to be dug out."

"What the...fuck, seriously? Did you measure how much is out there or something? What is wrong with you? Four feet and three quarter inches, eh?" I shook my head.

"It's only a rough estimate. Depending on snow drift and the speed of the wind...and considering visibility is shit, it's possible I just saw a snow bank through the window I looked out of."

I shook my head. Seriously, sometimes I really wondered about this boy. He disappeared again for a moment, and returned with his laptop. I sat huddled under my blanket with my back pressed against the thin pillows. He opened his laptop and sat on the edge of my bed.

I watched in silence as he typed out a message and sent it. I assumed he sent it to the other pilots, probably Trowa. I knew they were close. They had spent quite a bit of time together at the beginning of the war, and I reckoned that they had come to trust and rely on each other the same way we had. I just hoped that...what was it that I hoped?

I felt uncomfortable as I watched him turn off his laptop. He turned to me, the flashlight resting next to him and its bluish beam capturing all the dancing dust in the air swirling around like a majestic ballet. Heero sighed and shivered. I saw his muscles quiver in the dim light and I could hear the faint chattering of teeth.

"Go get your blankets," I sighed as I pointed to the door of my room. "And your pillows. Mine are shit."

"Why would I --"

"Oh, don't be stubborn Mr. Four-Feet-Three-Quarter-Inches. We don't have any heat. Go get your shit."

Heero stood wordlessly and walked out of my room. I wondered for a minute if he was going to come back. He took almost as long as when he turned the breaker off, but he returned with his blankets and pillows. He set his laptop on my dresser.

"It didn't charge fully when the power went out. We have about twenty minutes of battery life, considering the temperature in the room."

"Yeah, yeah." I grabbed his blankets and threw them on top of mine, shivering as my blankets fell to my hips. The cold air on my bare skin was enough to make me convulse. Heero fixed the corner of his blanket so that it wasn't folded and handed me his pillows. I set them up behind me so that the both of us would have sufficient pillow space.

I wondered if he did this with Trowa. I hoped he hadn't...that's what I hoped, and I wasn't sure why.

My heart was pounding in my chest as he climbed under the blankets with me. My pulse was thumping in my ear, and I was breathing in sharp and quick breathes. His leg brushed against mine as he slithered in next to me, and my nerves snapped. A burning prickling sensation covered my entire body and my skin was on fire. I was jumpy and if I spoke, I would probably stutter and sound stupid. I was incapable of coherent thought and speech.

I moved, trying to give him as much room as possible without me falling off the bed.

"Um..." There was silence and I didn't know what to say. "'Night." I stayed at the edge of the bed, precariously tilting over the shitty mattress.

"How do you expect to stay warm that way?"

"What?"

Heero reached out for my arm and pulled me away from the edge of the bed. "This was your idea. Come here." He pulled me toward him, my cold back pressing against his cold chest. How was this supposed to keep us warm again? But, within seconds I could start to feel a heat spreading across me. This was either working, or I was just burning up because Heero had intertwined his legs with mine.

This...I could get used to it. This feeling of belonging, of knowing that throughout the universe of cold and unforgiving vengeful space there was one spot in all of the worlds amongst all of the stars and heavens that made me feel safe. I once had a place like this, but it had been ripped viciously away from me. It was heartwarming to know that I had found it again. Here. Next to Heero. In his arms. I was safe.

"Heero, oh, Heero! Duo, you're safe, too! I was so worried. I don't know what I would have done with myself if something had happened to you."

I had a suspicion that the last statement was directed solely to Heero. I wasn't blind. I saw the way she looked at him, especially when they spoke and they were eye to eye. I shook my head as a jealous pang grabbed hold of me.

"Ah, don't sweat it, Relena. I wouldn't let anything happen to your precious Heero." I smiled in my joking manner. The thing was I wasn't joking this time. I wouldn't have let anything happen to Heero, ever.

"I'm just so relieved. Being snowed in with no heat? I can't imagine how you two survived it."

"Eh! We're Gundam Pilots, Relena! Give us more credit than that. Besides, I've been stuck in worse situations."

"Nevertheless, I've issued a crew to secure your Gundams. I've also arranged transportation back to the Sanq Kingdom. I request that you join me there where my medical staff will look you over. I'd hate if either of you had caught pneumonia being without heat."

"Aw, Relena, that's so kind of you but --"

"We'll go with you. Thank you Relena."

Damn. Why couldn't Heero have just let me politely decline her offer? As grateful as I was that she had come to our aid, I wasn't the happiest camper when I realized it was her he had emailed last night and not one of our fellow pilots. I would have rather had Trowa come rescue us. As least I can trust Trowa.

"Oh, wonderful."

I sighed.

Heero turned to look at me. We were going to go back to the Sanq Kingdom. We were going to go back to being pilots. We were going to go back to destruction and risking our lives without ever being honest with each other, and that made me want to cry.

"It's alright with you, right?"

I nodded. "Yeah. No problems."

He discreetly reached for my hand hanging at my side. I didn't know what to do so I just stared at him. I felt cold and hot at the same time. He gently thumbed the back of my hand.

"Heero?" Relena turned to him when he began to walk toward the car, still holding onto my hand.

"Yes, Relena." His fingers laced with mine as he turned to her. "Is there something wrong?"

"What are you doing?" Her eyes were locked dangerously on our intertwined fingers, on Heero's thumb that was now caressing the side of my hand.

Heero smiled at her and squeezed my hand. "Relena, am I doing something offensive?"

"I...well..."

"I'm just going to the Sanq Kingdom."

I hadn't seen much of Heero's facial expressions over the small amount of time we had gotten to know each other. But there on his face, small enough to just barely notice it, was a smug little smirk. And I laughed all the way to the car.