Duo shrugged as I passed my plate to him. "It's not really that exciting -- just a lot of work," he said, passing my plate and his along to Trowa as well. "Building myself a machine to help ease some of it has paid off more than I could have ever hoped, but I don't ever seem to be any less busy."

"Well, at least you found a way to help out without actually joining the force," Quatre piped up as he reemerged from the kitchen with a fresh bottle of wine. "I know both you and Heero were very adamant about never being involved in any sort of armed conflict again. Directly, anyway." Returning to his seat at the table, Quatre flashed a grin in our direction as if to cement his approval on the matter. "I don't know how you do it, really," he said to Wufei, who was sitting opposite him. "I'm happy to have a boring life again."

"Idle hands are the devil's workshop," Wufei answered with a careless toss of his shoulders.

"So they say," Duo commented ambiguously, reaching for the wine bottle and the corkscrew. He flashed me a smile of his own -- one completely different in feeling than the one Quatre had offered us -- and then popped the cork of the bottle, proclaiming, "Here's one more time to Heero's birthday!"

"Happy birthday!" the other three chorused as they lifted their glasses enthusiastically. Nobody knew how old I was really supposed to be and nobody really cared, least of all me. Duo seemed to have decided that I needed some kind of annual landmark to count my life by, and for whatever reason, he ended up picking this day. I didn't mind it so long as it made Duo happy, really. Besides, once our friends had retired for the night and we were alone again, Duo was always ready to deliver me some extra special treatment in the midnight hours.

Trowa started to pass the plates, each now loaded with a slice of cake, back around the table while Duo started topping off glasses with wine from the new bottle. As Trowa handed me my piece, he shook his head and said, "Wow, Heero, it's amazing that you still hardly look a day over eighteen all these years later."

This was a somewhat recurring joke that had cropped up around the time Trowa started sporting sideburns and Quatre had begun to show the signs of some chin stubble. Sometimes I wondered if I decided to change, I might start to grow too, but that wasn't something I was really keen to do anytime soon. Not that it really would have made much difference in the end, anyway.

The rest of the meal seemed to dance by in a somewhat drunken blur as the wine continued to pour and the cake continued to go around the table until it was gone. Before long, Wufei announced he had to leave so he could get up for work the next morning, and he was followed soon after by Trowa and Quatre, who also had to go for similar reasons. The front door of the apartment closed with a soft click behind Trowa as he pulled it closed on his way out, and then we were alone at last. I stood and started to clear the table, but a pair of familiar arms around my waist held me from getting very far with that chore. "We have all morning to do that," Duo whispered, his voice husky against my cheek, his body tight against mine.

With a growl, he swept one arm across the tabletop and carelessly brushed all the nearby plates and glasses to the side, hardly noticing as leftover wine splotched the linen tablecloth or as cake crumbs tumbled over the edges of the overturned dishes. Then he pushed me forward, pressing my face against the table's surface as he ground his hips against my backside in the most painfully teasing manner. "Do you want your birthday gift now?" he bent down to hiss into my ear. "Or would you rather me just tease you with it?"

I could feel his hard, eager cock pressing against me even through the fabric of our jeans, and I knew that any teasing would just end up being as torturous for him as it would be for me. So with a needy moan, I begged for him to give it to me right there, as hard and fast as he dared. I felt dirty and slutty and absolutely loved it, knowing that it pleased Duo to see me like that.

The jingle of Duo's belt buckle and the zip of his fly signaled that he was already getting ready to follow through on just that. He pulled impatiently on my own jeans, nearly ripping the fabric as he yanked them over my painfully heavy cock and down my legs. Caressing the bare skin of my ass, he bent over me once more, breathing heavily across the back of my neck as he straddled me, his saliva-slicked fingers of one hand already seeking to bury themselves deep within me. I grabbed a handful of the tablecloth in each hand and grit my teeth as he forced them inside without much preamble. He was almost playful with his fingering, and the knowledge that he would get rougher the moment he started dicking me only made the anticipation more intense. I groaned and screamed and demanded his cock immediately, unable to handle it much longer, but I think he rather enjoyed the buildup.

Suddenly, I was shoved further across the table, my legs spread even more apart, and I knew that my wait was over. I bowed my head and somehow ended up with a mouthful of the tablecloth to chomp down on, muffling the orgasmic moaning that was welling up in my throat as he started to press his wet erection into my ass. He grunted hungrily as he thrust forward, practically catapulting me off the table with the sheer force of his passion. I was glad that he was never one to beat around the bush when it came to fucking, since I was usually just as eager and greedy for it as he was. The deeper he went, the higher I flew.

I came with a scream that everyone who lived in our building was sure to have heard. Duo wasn't long after, emptying himself into me with a long, enraptured groan that was almost more pleasurable to me than the act of lovemaking. He collapsed against me, his firm chest contoured against my back as we both gathered our lost breath. "And that was just... the first part... of your gift," Duo panted into my ear, grinding gently against me as if to suggest what was yet to come.

We didn't even make it to the bedroom.

One never appreciates routine until a wrench gets stuck in the spokes and overturns the whole thing. My life with Duo was one that pleased me, even if it wasn't all that glamourous, but considering our extraordinary histories, I suppose it shouldn't have been any surprise that all of that could be thrown for a loop with one accidental encounter.

It happened on a day that began as ordinarily as any other day might have. Maintaining Duo's computer development business from the comfort of our own apartment left us the grace of being able to roll out of bed at our leisure so long as we made up for the late start. The day in question was just one of those, where we'd laid in for some unhurried lovemaking the morning after my birthday, and enjoyable as it had been, it left the rest of the day a bit crunched for time. Neither of us were really complaining, but there were still things that had to be done before the end of the day, especially considering that Duo was starting to become seriously overwhelmed by his developmental assignment for Preventers. I helped him out where I could, but there were other projects we were managing that needed my attention first.

The nature of Duo's work was particularly revolutionary, and even I felt kind of proud to be a part of it. He had managed to develop a state-of-the-art AI engine that far outshone anything that had been in use before then, and it was no surprise that Preventers wanted him to create a model that would suit their particular needs. But considering what we'd been through, it was no surprise that Duo was taking extra precautions to make sure that there was some kind of failsafe on the program in case Preventers ever started abusing their power. The last thing Duo wanted to do was hand a superweapon over to the only militaristic power left in the ESUN.

But I digress. All of that wasn't too out of the ordinary. In fact, the anomaly didn't even happen until I'd gone out to run some errands around town at lunchtime. I had stopped at our favourite Indian place to grab us some takeout and was surprised when a look of recognition crossed the face of the young lady working the register. My initial guess that she perhaps remembered me from a prior visit to the restaurant was quickly dashed when she didn't even let me give my order and instead launched into, "Oh no, sir! I sure hope there was nothing wrong with your food?"

"Wrong with my food?" I repeated slowly, thoroughly confused. "But I haven't even ordered yet."

She stared at me like I was trying to insult her intelligence with a lowbrow prank, and I stared back with an expression that must have somehow communicated my absolute mystification, because she soon shook herself free of that condescending look. "I'm sorry, you looked a lot like a customer I literally just served," she explained with no shortness in embarrassment when she realized her mistake. "But he was dressed differently now that I'm taking a better look."

"Oh," I hummed with understanding, though I was actually paying more attention to the menu board overhead. "Well, they say everyone has a twin somewhere."

She laughed: "They do say that, don't they?"

I chuckled cordially with her and then gave my order. Before long, I was picking the food up near the back of the restaurant and walking back out to the street with a plastic bag that was teasing my nostrils with the scent of some frustratingly aromatic curry. I desperately wanted to make a straight beeline back to the apartment to tuck in with Duo, but a display in the window of the local bookstore caught my eye and I couldn't help but dally.

It was there that I saw him for the first time.

As I stood in front of the display window, I became aware of someone standing on the other side of it, staring back at me. When the presence continued to linger, I slowly lifted my eyes from the books to meet the eyes of the person watching me from inside the shop, and when I did, I nearly short-circuited. For his face was so very like mine that I thought I might be in front of a mirror, except for his actions didn't mimic mine, nor did his clothing match what I wore that day. He seemed almost intrigued by my presence, and I couldn't understand why he wasn't absolutely horrified, like I was. It made my insides sizzle, and I knew more than anything that I wanted to be far away from that place.

So I ran.

I ran all the way back to our apartment, careless of how our lunch was faring in the plastic bag I carried or whether or not anybody was alarmed by my sudden burst of speed. The sound I made bursting back into the apartment must have alerted Duo that something was wrong, because he was quick to meet me in the front hall when I came banging back through the door. I immediately dropped the bag of food and strode towards him, grabbing the fabric of his shirt and searching his eyes for some sense of comfort.

"What's wrong?" he was quick to ask, easily able to tell that there was something out of joint. His hands were cupping my face like he was preparing to kiss all my unease away once I told him what was on my mind, but truthfully, I wasn't sure if I could even begin to explain it to him.

"While I was out today, I saw... I thought I saw...." I started, feeling stupid just saying the words.

"Saw what?" Duo urged.

"I thought I saw me," I finally managed to choke out, my voice weak and small. "Me, but not me -- outside of myself."

It was brief, but there was a flicker of recognition in Duo's eyes, though it was quick to fade as he pressed me to explain myself further, which I could only make a feeble attempt at since I wasn't quite sure how to describe what had happened to myself, either. "I don't know," I tried again. "He was another me. He seemed so like me, and yet, so very different, even though his features were the same as mine."

The glimmer of recognition resurfaced in Duo's eyes, and it should have been then that I realized that perhaps there was more than coincidence afoot. His hands fell away from my face, and he moved to sit on a nearby chair, sliding his fingers anxiously through his hair. For a moment, I wondered if he thought I was lying or that I had made the story up, but after a few more moments of observation, it became clear that he was contemplating a situation he obviously knew more about than me. That fact alone struck me with even more unease. "Never thought this would happen to save my life," he was muttering under his breath.

"That what would happen?" I asked as I tried to reach for him despite the sudden rift that seemed to have pulled us apart in the last few minutes. "Duo, is there something you should tell me?"

Duo looked up at me, shaking his head. "Forget about it, Heero," he said. "It's not really important right now." He closed the distance between us, pulling me close and burying his nose into my abdomen. His arms circled around my hips, and his hands slid beneath the waistband of my khakis, down the curve of my buttocks, quickly becoming an indicator as to what kind of mood he wanted to rechristen this moment with. I was tense at first, nervous that he was trying to use sex as some kind of distraction, but the tenderness he was showing was enough to prove to me that he needed me as much as I needed him.

My khakis were soon somewhere on the other side of the front hall and I was straddling his thighs, my hands working desperately to free his cock from the confines of his jeans. The friction of the cloth beneath my frantic, fumbling hands was more than enough to excite Duo to a point where he was ready to receive me the moment I'd gotten his pants around his ankles. It probably didn't help that all the while, he had been teasing me with his fingers, a mere taste of what was in store. It never failed to amaze me how prepared he was to please me in the most unexpected of places as proven by the lube he had stashed in one of his pockets.

"You'll never leave me," he grunted against my chest, possessively gripping my torso as he pushed me down onto his hardened cock. "You'll never make me lonely."

I wanted to verbally agree with him, but the erotic shock that was resonating up from the base of my spine was just a bit too overwhelming to be at all eloquent. I rode him fervently, my anxiety vanishing a bit more every time I rammed myself down onto him, my disquieted temperament easing with every moan that erupted from my throat. My fingers tightened against his scalp, pulling at his hair as our tempo increased. I was so ungodly close....

Then he stopped.

Just as I was about to reach completion, he held my pistoning hips in place, keeping me from taking him inside that one last time before I climaxed. I looked down at him curiously, certain he hadn't gotten off either and confused as to why he wouldn't want to finish up, but the answer wasn't anywhere to be found in his suddenly empty expression. He stared straight ahead of me, through my body and at the empty space in the wall behind me, like he was seeing something that was a million miles away. "Duo?" I prodded worriedly, concerned that something had happened to him.

My hands were just short of resting on his shoulders when he suddenly looked up and announced what had been on his mind the entire time, "Heero, that man you saw today -- he is you!"

I startled and clumsily leapt from his lap, stumbling backwards with the very obvious surprise that his statement had garnered in me. "What?" I wondered aloud, unsure of what to make of it. If anything, I was just even more confused than I had been before.

"Or rather," Duo continued, suddenly toying with his long hair again, "you're him."

"I don't understand," I said, shaking my head as I stared back at him from the other side of the hall, where I'd pressed myself against the wall. I felt all that bad energy fall back down on me like a cloudy veil for which to look through. "How can two people be the same?"

"Because you're not even a person," Duo snapped with unexpected irritability. He moodily reached down and yanked up his pants, making a large production out of rebuttoning and rebuckling himself back together. "You're just a stupid doll, one of those AI computers I make -- replacement for somebody I could never have."

It was as if he'd belted me across the face as harshly as he could. I couldn't help but somehow feel somewhat betrayed and abandoned at such words, like he had pushed some kind of unspoken taboo. All I could think to say was, "How could you say something like that, Duo? You don't... you don't really mean it, do you?"

He turned away, glaring off to the side and crossing his arms, and though he was no longer looking at me, it was in that moment that I felt ashamed to still be half naked in front of him. I shakily stooped to pick up my khakis, which turned out to be more of a trial to put on than they should have been. I wanted so desperately to believe that this was all leading up to some elaborate prank, that all I had yet to hear was Duo's punch line and we'd both laugh about it, but no such moment seemed to be coming any time soon. I felt the life begin to seep out of me at the realization.

Presently, Duo stood and strode towards me, still frowning. He looked me up and down like he was assessing me analytically. An odd sort of smirk, rank with a condescending smugness, tugged at his lips as he pushed me against the wall with the tips of his fingers, which were tracing joint seems on my body I'd never noticed until right then. "I could just throw you away if I wanted -- get a new one," he said with a certain dark tone I thought he'd long since abandoned. He gave me another push, more final this time, as he scoffed, "Disposable boy." Then he walked off, back in the direction of the workroom, leaving me to fall apart and somehow start again in the middle of the hallway, alone. That always seemed to be the theme of things, and it never seemed to change, did it.

That night, Duo didn't invite me to sleep with him and instead just went to bed wordlessly, leaving me on the sofa to brood. Unable to settle down enough to sleep myself, I decided to dedicate the night to making sense of the things that Duo had said that day, but in a more rational, logical way than moping around about it. As soon as I was sure that I was by myself for the night, I immediately sat myself down in front of one of our numerous computer terminals and got to work.

I began with the most basic of searches, but that didn't yield much more than information on the original Heero Yuy from way before the war years. However, when I refined my search a little bit, I found a few photos that seemed to be from some preparatory boarding school; they were dated AC195, but there he was, surreptitiously trying to blend into the background of the photo as best he could. It was enough to make me wonder: I seemed to have memory of fighting in the war, but I didn't remember this. Unless I hadn't been there to remember it in the first place -- because Duo hadn't been there.

I decided to get a little bit more serious, certain I had latched onto something with this discovery, but there was nothing on any of the public servers that proved useful. Heero Yuy, whoever he was -- him or me or somebody else -- was very clever about covering his tracks, even so many years later. So I rolled up my proverbial sleeves and set to hacking into the most comprehensive and useful database in the entire ESUN: Preventers.

Because of his contracting work with Preventers, Duo had a lot of linkups to a good portion of their resources stashed on the computer. One way or another, I possessed the skills to navigate my way around any security measures that stood between me and what I sought. It didn't take me long to unearth the rather extensive file pertaining to the man who shared my name and face, and though a lot of it turned out to be things I thought I knew, there was lot of information in there that filled in gaps I'd had in my memory for years. However, it wasn't until I reached the most recent section of the file that I found proof of what I'd feared -- proof that Duo hadn't been lying and that all this time, I'd meant nothing to him.

According to Preventers, almost immediately after the Eve Wars, Heero Yuy had been recruited for top-secret spy work in areas that were still rather high-tension even after the disbandment of borders. He was to be reported as missing to anyone who asked after him and was as good as dead to anybody who wasn't in the loop. The report went on to cover the details of his work, but I didn't read much further than that; the fact that I was in my place and not anywhere else was all the confirmation I needed to know that I wasn't the only one of me. I sat and stared at the blue-lit screen until the words started to blur, wondering if I'd crossed a line I shouldn't have crossed.

I let out a heavy sigh and forced myself away from the computer, determined not to think about all these things that were suddenly weighing down my mind. I started pacing around the apartment as quietly as I could, but I kept treading softly for fear that Duo would wake up and say something else I didn't want to hear. So I dug out Duo's bomber jacket and somehow ended up walking down the street. I'm not really sure where I thought I should go, so I just let my feet carry me wherever they would. I wished it was too dark to see or too loud to hear, but more than ever, I felt like I was a part of a world I'd never seen before.

I ended up just looping the block, predictably unable to really stray as far from Duo as I maybe should have. Hardly a yard or two away from the gate that fenced the courtyard in front of our building, I stopped and merely stared at it, almost as if it required strength I didn't have to pass back through. I wasn't sure how I'd be able to go forward if I didn't even know which way to turn anymore.

Suddenly, I heard a familiar voice shouting my name. I piqued at this, almost certain that I'd heard an air of franticness in the way he was calling after me. My feet suddenly grew lighter as another shout of my name came wafting over the night air. I quickly rounded the corner, almost giddy with relief, when I found myself slowing back to a stop when I saw what happened next.

I guess Duo had actually come out looking for me at first, but what neither of us had expected to find was that other Heero sitting on the lip of the fountain that gurgled in the middle of the courtyard. He seemed to have been waiting or thinking or maybe just biding some time, but when he heard Duo's yells, he looked up, and something in his eyes must have struck something within Duo, for I'd never seen him ever become so still in all my years knowing him. I quickly drew back and made myself scarce, though I couldn't help but keep an eye on the unfolding scene from the safety of the sidewalk.

Duo approached the fountain hesitantly, perhaps unsure which of us was sitting there until he realized that Heero was wearing a Preventers jacket and looked noticeably older than I did. When he was near enough, he said nothing, and simply slid his arms around that Heero's neck, cradling his head against his stomach as he ran his fingers through the short hairs curling at his nape. I self-consciously reached behind me and fingered the same place on my neck, wondering what made me any less good than what that Heero had.

The other Heero seemed to revel in the gesture, reaching up to wrap his own arms around Duo's waist and pulling him closer. They stood there like that for quite some time, almost as if time had stood still for them alone, even as the fountain continued to belch up its waterspout and the nighttime cicadas continued to sing.

All the while, I hung back, feeling as if I were standing on the outside of something I would never get to experience for myself. I had never seen Duo so serene and quiet, and it made me wonder what exactly the relationship between that other Heero and Duo had been. It seemed like it was almost something unspoken between them at present, and the poignancy of it only served to make my heart break more.

At length, Duo spoke, though he made no move to let Heero out of his embrace. "I thought you were dead," he said barely loud enough for me to hear as well. "When you told me you were enrolling with the Preventers and then they stopped telling me where you were... I thought.... I thought...." Duo's fingers scrunched against the back of Heero's neck.

I couldn't hear what the other Heero said, his voice muffled against Duo's shirt, but I could see the tension in his muscles, like he would never let go of Duo ever again. I was torn between jealousy and empathy, fully knowing what it was like to have eyes for only one person. And yet, I knew I would never be warm unless I could be in that other Heero's place, there in Duo's arms.

The other Heero pulled back so he could look up into Duo's eyes. When he spoke, it was uncanny that I could hear my voice issuing from the mouth of someone else. "I'm so sorry, Duo," he said. "I just got too involved with what I was doing to be able to break out easily, but then I heard you had a boyfriend living with you and I just couldn't bear the thought of it not being me."

"Heero, I...." Duo grit his teeth and hugged the other Heero close again, and in watching the scene, I could only hang my head sadly. Standing there any longer was only serving to give more life to this horrible nightmare, so I elected to slink back inside, taking the long way around the courtyard to one of the side entrances to the building to avoid being noticed. Not that Duo would have noticed me anymore anyway.

Returning to the apartment was strange, and I remembered why I'd left to walk outside the second I came back in. Now I really didn't feel like I belonged there, and I was sure Duo wouldn't have noticed or cared if I never came back again, but there was nowhere else I think I would have rather been. Wearily, I trudged through the strangely alien place I'd called home for so long, somehow finding my way into the bedroom. The glow of the bedside lamp revealed hastily thrown aside sheets, as if Duo had leapt hurriedly out of bed, but even the thought that I had been the cause for it didn't do much to console me when I remembered what had transpired instead.

Like a masochist, I curled up on the bed, wrapping my arms around the pillow Duo usually used and reveled in the scent of it. Then I pulled the comforter up over my head and tried to burrow as deeply into the mattress as I could, allowing myself to be surrounded by Duo's lingering presence. I was real, right? If I could feel, that made me alive, didn't it?

I don't know how long I lay there, or even if I maybe fell asleep at some point, before I heard the sound of the front door open and slam closed again. Footsteps creaked across the uneven floorboards of the apartment, steadily rising in volume as they neared my hidden sanctuary. It didn't take me long to discern that there was more than one pair of feet at the source of all the racket, and when I was unsurprised when heard the sound of the other Heero's voice asking, "Are you sure this is alright, Duo?"

"Shut up and let me kiss you more, you asshole," came Duo's gruff reply, his tone the husky one he saved for the bedroom.

"But it's not like it was back then. Don't you have someone else you're -- mmff!!"

I jolted with surprise when the mattress suddenly bounced with the impact of their two bodies falling against it. I could hear every little sigh and whisper they made, but I didn't dare even peek beyond the safety of the comforter until I absolutely couldn't stand it any longer. In one moment of epiphany, I realized that I was being pathetic just moping around and feeling sorry for myself: if I wanted to prove how much Duo meant to me, then it was high time that I did something about it. Assertively, I threw the covers aside, though neither of them noticed me until I had crawled up behind Duo's lounging body. Their kissing was jerked to an abrupt halt as I possessively wrapped my arms around Duo's torso and pulled him back against my chest, frowning over his shoulder at the other Heero, who was staring back at me with widened eyes. "So I didn't imagine that uncanny face I saw this morning," he whispered, actually sounding rather awed.

"He's mine," I growled in response. "I don't care what either of you have to say about it, either."

A look of understanding dawned on the other Heero's face, and a little smirk appeared on his lips. "Is this the boyfriend I heard about?" he deduced, actually daring to lift a hand to touch my face. I let him, though, as I refused to budge an inch.

"...Yeah," Duo nodded with a surprising amount of sheepishness. "He's not really... I mean... when you vanished, I built him so that I wouldn't have to... you know... deal with it."

"Is that so?" Heero asked, actually sounding quite intrigued. His fingers were still exploring my face curiously.

"None of the other guys or even Relena had figured out you left," Duo went on with a twinge of pride, which made my insides flutter as I clung to him even more tightly. "Though they might start to get suspicious if I don't modify him to look a bit older anytime soon."

There was a tenderness in the other Heero's eyes as he looked at me, his smirk melting into a more gentle smile. "He's magnificent, Duo. He's exactly the way I was back then," he murmured as his fingers slid around the curve of my jaw and down my throat. I was suddenly aware that he was leaning much closer to me, his mouth hovering beside my ear as he added softly, "You took care of my man and my friends in my stead: I'm truly indebted to you, little one."

It was my turn to be left breathless when I suddenly became very aware of the fact that the other Heero was kissing my cheek with no reservation in decadence. I could feel his tongue against my skin, and then he turned my chin with his thumb to taste my lips. Though his kissing was pleasant, I was startled and a little uncomfortable, mostly because I wasn't sure what his angle was, but I was unable to resist the familiarity of it anyway. He parted his lips further and took more dominant possession of my mouth, I could only bend to his will, especially when I noticed the way Duo was ardently watching from the corners of his half-lidded eyes.

The older Heero seemed to have noticed as well, because as he continued to kiss me, his nearest hand to Duo had worked its way between his thighs, languidly kneading him through his jeans. Duo was groaning sensuously, arching against me as Heero's touching became a bit more aggressive, his fingers delving beneath Duo's waistband, ripping the buttons of his fly apart with practiced ease.

Just when it looked like he was going to make short work of Duo's boxers, the other Heero stopped and pulled his hand away with much protest from Duo. Breaking our kiss, he smirked at Duo with that dark sexiness and wordlessly took my hands in his, disentangling me from Duo and pulling me into his own lap. Casting another glance at Duo, he curled an index finger beneath my chin and took to kissing me once more, this time not hesitating to run his hands across my body and discarding whatever garments that hindered him until I was completely naked. He licked the length of my long neck, nipped my clavicle and sucked at my Adam's apple when I threw my head backwards in pleasure. I was intensely moved by how welcoming the other Heero was of me, but then again, I supposed it was because we were like two halves of the same man.

"My, my, Heero, if you keep that up, I might suspect you of being a narcissist," Duo grunted between laboured breaths. Both of us glanced back at Duo, who had since cast away his pants and boxers and lay across the bed, desperately trying to finish the job Heero had started with the most fevered stroke of his hand, all the while watching us with those love-sated bedroom eyes of his. The sight of it only served to excite me and beg the other Heero to give me more if watching it was something that made Duo hard. It should have been no surprise that the other Heero was of the same opinion. One of his hands slid down the length of my back, his fingers teasing at the cleft of my ass, and I gasped.

It didn't take long before I was suddenly aware of Duo's presence behind me, his hard cock pressed against the base of my spine and his lips adhered to the crook of my neck until the other Heero stole them for himself. Duo ground against me as he leaned into the other Heero's kiss, and I found myself rocking wantonly between them, eager for Duo to serve me the fuck I was longing for. "Please," I begged aloud, unable to take their tormenting much longer.

At once, I felt Duo press a pair of fingers deep into me, cold with the lube he'd snagged from the bedside table. The sensation caused me to let out another sharp gasp, and I flung my arms around the other Heero's neck, burying my nose into his shoulder as Duo ardently worked his fingers in and out. I panted and thrust back on them, impatient and hungry for more. The other Heero held me tenderly, stroking my back and watching with that voyeuristic air that had possessed Duo earlier.

Duo's firm grip on my hips tightened, and he soon replaced his fingers with his wet erection, giving it to me with almost agonizing slowness. My nails dug into the other Heero's back as Duo started to work up a rhythm that seemed to revolve around a steady crescendo of thrusting that would quickly surmount in a dizzying climax. As he pushed harder and deeper, my cries grew louder and more desperate, egged on by the other Heero's heavy breathing in my ear. "Oh God, Duo!" I screamed, certain I was riding the edge of euphoria right then. It pleased me to no end that he wasn't far behind me, either.

With an animalistic grunt, he came hard and fast, lingering deep inside of me for a few moments before he had the energy to pull out again. I clung limply to the other Heero for a little bit as well, trying to catch my breath, but eager to make sure that Duo was completely satisfied. At long last, I disentangled myself from the other Heero and turned around, bending my head into Duo's lap and greedily licking up the evidence of our coupling from between his thighs.

"He's so eager to please you," Heero said as he followed suit, moving to sit beside Duo and wrapping one hand around Duo's shoulder and curling the fingers of his other beneath Duo's chin as so he could guide their mouths together once more. Pausing in their kissing, he added huskily, "All these years, I could only think of every way I ever wanted to please you, too."

This turn of play seemed to take Duo by surprise, but I doubt he was too abject to being the center of attention of two Heeros. He held my head in place between his legs, and I took it upon myself to give his cock a little kiss, which soon melted into a rather languid taste. I loved the feel of his dick far down my throat -- loved the taste of it and the knowing it made his toes curl. I would have sucked him forever if the fucking wasn't better. With any luck, he'd be in the mood to do me again before the night was up.

But the other Heero seemed to have some plans of his own as well. As he and Duo kissed, he was slowly helping himself out of his clothes, revealing heavily scarred, battle-worn flesh that seemed to excite Duo vastly. When Duo suddenly bucked up onto his knees, forcing me to follow his cock with my lips, I was quick to realize that the other Heero had started fingering him just as he had done me moments before. With one arm wrapped around Duo's upper chest, possessively pressing him back against his body, the other Heero seemed to be working some kind of magic over Duo with each intrusion. Duo's head was cast backwards as he screamed and swore at the ceiling like it was going out of fashion. He bucked his hips and thrust his cock further into my mouth, and I took it all with pleasure.

"Do you like that?" the other Heero asked breathlessly, though he earned only a whimper in response. "Do you want more? Do you want me to fuck you good, Duo Maxwell?"

Between the other Heero's teasing and my cock sucking, I'm not sure Duo was really capable of a coherent answer, but Heero seemed to enjoy taunting Duo with a need to hear him beg for it. "God, yeah," Duo whimpered almost pitifully. "I want it -- I want -- oh God, please, Heero!"

I knew his cries were directed at the other Heero, but hearing it brought a pleased smirk to my face anyway. I felt Duo's hands tighten in my hair, and when he started to penetrate my mouth with the ferocity he usually saved for fucking, I knew that the other Heero had finally given way to Duo's wishes. He seemed to be a dutiful and powerful lover, controlling our pace with the strength of his own thrusting, and I liked that -- especially what it did for Duo, who seemed to be reaching a level of euphoria that was akin to Nirvana.

And then, all at once, the pinnacle of our coupling came crashing down upon the three of us: Duo came violently into my mouth, and I reached up to grab his hips so I could be sure not to lose a drop of it, while the other Heero let out an animalistic roar so pleasure-ridden, it seemed almost inhuman. Duo seemed to have wilted between the pair of us, but that didn't stop either of us from wanting to touch and kiss him. I also rose up onto my knees so I could have a taste of his mouth, while the other Heero took to nibbling at the curve of his neck, and before long, Duo was engaging with us once more, powered by a rather impressive second wind.

We fell against the mattress, landing like a pile of writhing puppies as we clung to each other. The beauty of what we'd done had completely dispelled the agony of the past afternoon, and I no longer felt any twinge of jealousy or unrest about allowing this other Heero to be the one to hold Duo. I closed my eyes, cuddling against Duo's side, half dozing in my current state of post-coital bliss.

"It really is uncanny how much like me he is -- especially from back then," I heard the other Heero comment from his spot against Duo's other side. "It's almost touching to watch him, really; he's the part of me I never knew how to show many people...."

I could feel the rumble of Duo's voice in his chest as he replied, "He's what I missed about you, and some of what I wished you could have been if you weren't gone."

"Well, no more of that," said the other Heero. I could hear the sounds of him leaning in to kiss Duo. "I'm back and I don't intend to leave again. I'm quitting the Preventers whether they still need me or not."

"I'd love it if you stayed," said Duo, a baritone laugh rolling from his throat as the other Heero kissed him all over. I felt a brief shift in Duo's positioning, and I instinctually curled up closer to him, at which I felt one of his arms encircle me. "I'll have to do something about this one. Maybe I'll build him an AI doll that looks like me so he can have his own."

"Who's the narcissist now?" joked the other Heero with a pleasant laugh so very much like my own. I smiled privately, though: a Duo of my own wouldn't be such a bad thing at all.

No, not at all.