When I opened my eyes I was weightless, floating through clear air with nothing but a belt anchoring me to the wall. At least I was guessing it was the wall -- could have been the floor for all I knew. Things can be a bit disorienting without gravity telling you which way is down.

I checked my watch. 'Two hours,' something told me. Two hours until what was the question.

After reeling myself in to the wall, I unhooked and pushed off toward the door, which parted for me as I passed through with a whispering whoosh of air. I didn't know where I was going, just along for the ride, it seemed, as I bounced from one wall to the next down the hallway.

Another door opened for me, letting me sail through into some kind of hospital room. Heero was there, strapped down to a bed. White gauze was wrapped in a tilted halo around his head, covering his right eye and ear. A pale blue sheet was pulled up around his chest, covering him from the shoulders down. He looked like he was sleeping peacefully, his lips parted slightly as he breathed the same bitter, recycled air as me.

I checked his blood pressure and pulse, feeling encouraged by the numbers even though I wasn't completely sure what they meant.

"Don't worry, Heero. We'll be home soon." My fingers cupped his warm cheek as I spoke to him. "Be strong, okay? For me?" I leaned down to kiss him, feeling no response to my lips, just stillness and warm breath.

I woke up with Heero's face beside me, eyes closed, lips slightly open as he slept on. It seemed that I had rolled over in the night, my arm now slung across his chest, fingers curled around his shoulder. I picked my head up carefully and looked around, finding myself back in Heero's apartment -- in his bed to be precise.

Sunlight was soft in illuminating the room through the western window, making colors bland and uninteresting. My eyes were drawn back to the man next to me, his warm copper skin and the tender pink edges of his lips subdued by the lighting but still contrast enough to captivate. I felt the yearn to kiss him, my lips still tingling with the memories of my vivid dream. Perhaps he would lay there again unaffected. Perhaps he would kiss me back.

I sat up carefully with a sigh, sliding out of bed as quietly as I could and pulling a clean set of underwear from my overnight bag. I'd been dreaming about him every night since we met. The pair of jeans that didn't get ripped up the night before came on next. It wouldn't have been so bad if he wasn’t the only thing I could dream about. I grabbed my watch off the dresser, fastening the wristband as I headed to the kitchen for breakfast. A few night stays at Heero's place had taught me where he kept the coffee, and two cups later he was meandering out to join me.

"Morning, sunshine," I greeted him, not looking up from the newspaper as he passed by.

A grunt was his response. Poor guy. I'd probably kept him up past his bedtime, though I doubted he was about to complain. He wasn't the one with bruises on his ass.

"So what was it you had planned for me this afternoon?"

Heero had a seat next to me, pulling out the business section and scanning over the front page. "There's someone I want you to meet," he said between blowing the steam off his coffee.

"Yeah? Not your wife I hope."

His dry look met my smug grin, the two contradicting perfectly, neither seeming capable of defeating the other.

"Actually, she's my grandmother."

My grin faded and he smirked with satisfaction. He so cheated though.

"I'm not good enough to meet the parents, is that it?" I teased.

His shoulders rolled into a bare shrug. "My parents died when I was a kid. So that's not much of a possibility."

He said it so plainly it took me a moment to respond, and even then the first thing I could manage was an "Oh." I went back to reading the paper, letting my eyes run over the lines of text without really absorbing any of it. My mind was too busy with other thoughts. "So... do you take all the guys you're sleeping with to meet your grandmother?"

He shrugged again, keeping his eyes on the stocks page as he finished off his first cup of coffee. "Just the ones she asks to meet."

"You grew up here, Heero?"

"Yeah. You sound surprised."

I scratched the back of my neck, looking around once we were inside. "Well, it's just not the kind of place I'd expect a well-educated, successful type of guy like you to call home."

"This isn't my home," he corrected me, pressing the call button for the elevator. "It's just where I grew up."

We got off on the ninth floor, passing a sun-filled window by the stairs as we moved down the hallway. The door was open when we arrived, a hand-painted 'J' marked in black just above the peep hole. Heero stopped at the entrance, knocking twice on the open door.

"I'll be there in just a minute, Little Odin. Have a seat with your friend." The voice came from the other side of the living room, though an open doorway that led further into the apartment.

Heero stepped in, taking my hand to tug me to a round table near the window.

"Wait. Did she just call you 'Little Odin'?" I asked, a bit hesitant as I thought we might be in the wrong person's apartment.

"Yeah. That's what she calls me." Heero pulled a chair out for me, letting go of my hand to pull one out for himself.

"Pretty odd nickname."

"It was my birth name," he said, grinning at the way my eyes widened when he said it. "I changed it on --" He stopped in the middle of his thought, looking up as an old woman slowly made her way into the room.

Her skin was a dark olive, creased with lines that looked layered on top of one another. Her hair was short and silver, clearly thinning in places to show dark spots on her scalp. She didn't stand up straight, leaning over always on her cane, soggy-looking skin wrinkled on the bones of her fingers as she clutched the curved handle. She smiled to us, hobbling a path to Heero's side.

"My dear Little Odin," she said, giving Heero's cheek a kiss. "This is the boy you were telling me about?"

"This is Duo Maxwell, Obaasan."

I smiled politely. "It's nice to meet you, ma'am."

She nodded, dark eyes looking me over for a moment before turning back to Heero. "I put some water on the stove for tea. Go check on it, dear, and bring it in when it's ready." She walked around the table and sat across from me. "That will give Duo and I a chance to chat."

Heero just nodded and stood up, leaving the two of us alone.

I don't think uncomfortable would be too strong of a word for how I was feeling right then. This guy I'd been sleeping with for a week brought me to meet his grandmother; add to that his name, the one I'd been screaming for the last week, wasn't even his real name; and top it all off with him leaving me alone with this crazy-looking bat who was sizing me up like a piece of meat.

Yeah. I think uncomfortable is a pretty good word.

"So you've taken a liking to my Little Odin, have you?"

I nodded dumbly, trying not to look those sharp black eyes of hers head on.

"He says you two hit it off rather quickly, almost as though you knew each other."

I grinned a bit, glancing up just to catch the scrutinizing look she was giving me. "No. I mean, well, we did hit things off well. But we didn't know each other until a week ago."

She rested an elbow on the tablecloth, leaning her temple against her knuckles. "You don't have any other memories of him then? Nothing that's come to you since you met?"

My head shook. "No. Should I?" I'd grown up in Southtown as well, just not in this neighborhood. Maybe he and I had met a long time ago and I just didn't remember.

"What about dreams? Have you had any odd dreams about him?"

That clicked in my head. The dreams I'd been having, what could she know about them? "Yeah. Pretty often," I said.

Her eyes narrowed on me. "Tell me about them."

I looked at the doorway Heero had gone through, wishing he'd get back faster. "Well, they're weird dreams. Like something out of science fiction. Mostly they're about outer space and giant robots."

She listened, apparently taking it seriously even though I thought it all sounded nuts. "And you and Odin are a couple in these dreams?"

I nodded, still not really comfortable with her calling Heero by that name. It just didn't seem like it should be his name. Heero fit him so much better. "Yeah."

China chattered against itself as Heero carried the tea tray in from the kitchen and set it on the table between us.

"Thank you, dear Little Odin," she said. "I think I might have an answer for you now."

Heero sat beside me again. "What's that?"

She took a cup for herself, blowing the steam off the surface so that it curled around her face. "A past life." She stated it plainly, too plainly for my comfort. "I'm almost certain of it now. It's one of the few things that could be causing the symptoms you two have."

Something wasn't making sense here. Actually, most of what the old woman was talking about didn't make sense. "I'm sorry," I said, jumping into the conversation. "But what are you talking about? What symptoms?"

The old woman smiled, taking just a sip of her tea before answering. "I'm talking about a life when the two of you were lovers like you are now. Little Odin has been having memories of you; and you, Duo, have been remembering him in your dreams."

Heero and I looked at one another, his interest and my confusion contradicting.

"But I told you all my dreams are about the future. You can't remember something that hasn't happened yet." I shook my head, wondering if the lady had skipped a prescription somewhere.

She just chuckled, setting her cup down. "My dear, there are explanations for that as well." She got up from her chair, wobbling a bit as she made it to her feet. "Little Odin can tell you everything you need to know. Now, I'm sorry that I didn't get to enjoy the tea with you boys, but someone else will be stopping by shortly and I'd hate to keep him waiting." The old woman turned around, making her way back toward the kitchen.

Heero grabbed my arm before I could say anything and led me out. We left the building and walked back around the block to where he had parked before he said anything to me.

"So what did you think?"

I laughed a bit. "I think your grandma's gone batty, pal. Seriously, have you thought about moving her into a home somewhere?"

He dug into his jacket's inner pocket, pulling out a lighter and a cigarette pack. "She's not crazy," he mumbled, lighting a stick at the same time. "She's just... not your conventional grandmother."

I stared at him with disbelief.

He noticed and offered me the pack. "Want one?"

I laughed again and shook my head. "No. Just wondering what else I don't know about you. I mean, I woke up this morning thinking you were a great guy with a wealthy family in the suburbs and a trust fund, and in less than --" I checked my watch "-- five hours, I find out that you're an orphan that grew up in the same shit part of town I did, that I didn't even know your real name for the last week, and on top of all that you smoke, which isn't good because I just quit and having you do it right in front of me is really a bad influence."

He blinked, taking a moment to process all that. "Sorry, I didn't know." He dropped his cigarette on the ground and smashed it with his heel, slipping the pack and lighter back into his jacket. "Better?"

"No, because now I really want one, thank you very much." I folded my arms over my chest, starting to pace back and forth as I tried to take my mind off the craving. "And your grandmother is crazy."

"No, she isn't."

"She is. All that stuff about past lives... you can't tell me you believe all that."

"Do you have any other way to explain what's happening? Duo, ever since we met I've been remembering things about you that never happened. Every day it's like I’m walking through a minefield and I never know what's going to set something off in my head."

I chuckled dryly. "Minefields, yeah. I've been dreaming about a few of those. I guess that means we're destined to be with one another forever, right?"

"It's not like I can make you dream about me, you know." He was agitated, huffing a heavy breath as he sat on the roof of his car and watched me continue my pacing. "And however insane it may sound, I am seeing things, hearing things, that I just can't explain. And it's all about you. I have memories of us together that I can't explain any other way."

I shook my head, not really wanting to believe him even if I could. "Look, I don't need this kind of strangeness in my life, okay pal? We've had some fun, but let's just part ways here and hope that whatever's going on stops on its own." I turned from him, stuffing my hands in my pockets and heading down the block.

"How are you going to get home?" he asked.

"I'll find a way," I said over my shoulder.

Heero didn't say anything for a moment and I thought he would just let me go at that.

"Does the word Gundam mean anything to you?" he shouted.

I froze. I remembered that word from my dreams. In fact, I'd never heard anyone say it before I dreamt about it.

When I turned around, Heero nodded and opened the passenger door, motioning for me to get in. "Come on. I'll drive you home. If you don't want anything to do with me after that, I'll understand." He walked around to the driver's side and climbed in.

I stood there a second longer, then went against my better judgment and walked back to the car. Riding the train with a sore butt would've been hell anyway.