The air conditioner had been Duo's idea. Heero would have been content with a window fan, but Duo had reasoned that since they no longer had to live in harsh conditions, and since his three day free membership to a newly opened gym showed him that you could work out just as well when the temperature was comfortable, there was no need to sweat buckets and prove they were hard core.

Heero hadn't disagreed; loss of fluid through perspiration meant a greater risk of dehydration, after all. Duo had assumed otherwise, though, and he'd kept going, insisting he'd take care of everything himself so Heero didn't have to be bothered. That it was no bother to Heero wasn't the point; Duo had committed himself to it mentally and Heero knew from experience there was no arguing with him. He'd made the mistake of offering to help carry the unit upstairs. Duo had glared at him and reminded him that he could handle something this small on his own. Heero had held up his hands placatingly, which, judging from the way Duo had stomped up the stairs, had only incensed Duo more.

It should have been discouraging to Heero, who was clumsily trying to figure out the unwritten rules of their relationship, but it was more fascinating to Heero than anything. That wasn't to say that he viewed Duo as a mission, because he didn't. It should have felt strange to be left to his own devices and to follow his emotions when it came to his personal life, because he'd never really considered the possibility before.

Granted, there were times when it was frustrating. He thought they were friends, even after they'd gotten drunk one night and fallen into bed together, in a tangle of limbs and lips and eventually lube. He'd acted the same way the next morning, and he'd not even thought twice about referring to Duo as his friend.

He'd not meant it as an insult. Friends could fuck, Duo was his friend, and it wasn't like Heero fucked, or even wanted to fuck, any of his other friends.

That didn't mean he and Duo didn't continue to fuck afterwards. It just meant they had to get drunk first, although sometimes Heero just pretended he'd had too much to drink. He hadn't been surprised that he enjoyed the sex. J had given him a rather explicit the-birds-and-the-bees talk during the war. The gist of it was that Heero shouldn't be surprised if he felt any urges "down there"; that there was a time and place to act on them and that time was not during Operation Meteor; and that someday, when the time was right to give in to said urges, there was no shame in enjoying himself fully. That's why he preferred being sober, and he never considered it lying. Not when Duo sometimes gave him those heated looks when he thought Heero didn't notice. And if Duo did it often enough to get caught, then there had to be plenty of times Heero didn't know about.

In a way, figuring out his relationship with Duo was a little like playing a game of strategy. As frustrating as it could be at times, there was always some reward -- a new piece of knowledge gained. There was more to it than that, something Heero couldn't put his finger on, but he was surprisingly unconcerned with his inability to describe it. All that mattered was the way he felt, and for the first time in his life, he felt content.

Heero set the e-reader on the coffee table and took off his glasses, placing them upside down on top of the e-book, and headed for the stairs.

"Mother fuck bucket," Duo muttered as he tipped the dustpan over the wastebasket and dumped out the shards of broken glass. He felt like punching something, but the last thing he needed was another expense.

Sister Helen had told him that life was never fair, but that he could control his reaction to the things he viewed as unfair. It was good advice, but easier said than done. He never swore in front of her, at least not after that time she'd washed his mouth out with soap, but boy, did it feel good to let loose with a good "piss balls cock fuck shit" once in a while. It didn't hurt anyone, and there was something about those taboo words that helped release tension at a time like this.

He stared at the empty window frame, where a pane of glass used to be, and his shoulders slumped. "Fuck," he said again, but there was only so much that a good cussing could help.

Speaking of help, where the fuck was Heero?

It figured that his quasi-pseudo-lover picked today to take him literally when he said he didn't need any help.

Duo sat down on the floor, his back against the wall, and drew his knees to his chest. He felt like banging his head against his knees, but he settled for simply resting it there. He already had the beginnings of a headache; he didn't need to bring it front and center. Not until he got himself over to the hardware store or wherever they sold replacement window glass -- and fuck yeah, he would do it all by himself, even if it killed him.

He wasn't even sure why it was so important for him to do it on his own. He was used to doing stuff by himself before, but he'd lived in either abandoned homes or someone else's, where he didn't have to worry about anything more than changing a light bulb. It wasn't like he had to prove anything to Heero, but he felt like he did.

It wasn't even Heero's fault, at least no more than simply being Heero. The guy could bend steel bars with his bare fucking hands. He could survive not only a self detonation of the most powerful mobile suit known to mankind, he could beat the odds again in an almost certain suicide mission in an effort to save the earth. The man was fucking perfect; he didn't even need glasses to read. Heero only wore them because he felt the amber lenses protected his eyesight from the nonexistent glare of his e-book.

Of course the stupid ass had to look as sexy as fuck wearing them, too.

Duo swallowed. That was another thing, the whole thinking Heero Yuy was sexy. He wasn't sure where that had come from. He'd thought plenty of girls were cute, and he'd never given a thought to any guy that way. That was just one more way that Heero Yuy was perfect.

It had always been hard to compete with a guy like that, but Duo thought he handled himself pretty well. Know your own limitations, that kind of stuff.

Then they'd gone to Jim and Steve's cookout next door. Duo hadn't realized their neighbors were gay, although he supposed there was no reason he should have. He figured it out pretty damn quick when he went in to use their bathroom and saw Jim standing in front of the refrigerator, holding the door open. It wasn't so much the part where Steve was standing behind him, one hand slipped party beneath Jim's shirt, but the part where Steve's tongue was buried somewhere in Jim's mouth. Duo had backed out of the house quickly, then slid the patio door open a little bit more, with a lot more noise.

It had given Jim and Steve enough time to break apart, because Jim was holding a beer instead of the handle of the refrigerator door and Steve's tongue was nowhere to be seen -- not that Duo was really looking for it around Steve's bottle of beer.

He'd grabbed a couple of beers out of the cooler on the deck on the way back and after handing one to Heero, Duo asked him if he knew about Jim and Steve.

"What about them?" Heero had asked, unscrewing the bottle cap with his bare hand.

"That they're, you know."

Heero raised his eyebrows at that. "No, I don't know. That's why I asked."

"You know," Duo repeated in a hushed whisper, with a furtive glance toward the patio door.

Heero looked at him as if he'd lost his mind and took a long swig of beer, then he saw Steve walk out carrying a big plastic bowl of chips.

"Ah," Heero said. "Yes, I know."

"You do?" Duo squinted his eyes at Heero. "Are we talking about the same thing?"

"We are if you're talking about Jim fucking Steve up the ass. Or is it the other way around?" Heero said thoughtfully as Duo nearly choked on his sip of beer. "What?" he asked, as Duo set the beer down and thumped himself on the chest. "I assume that's why you're being so secretive about it."

"Right," Duo pointed out. "which is why I can't believe you just...you..." he waved his hands in the air in frustration.

Heero tipped the bottle up again, finishing the beer this time. Duo had lost count of how many it had been, but he knew Heero was finishing them off a lot quicker than he had the first one or two.

"I don't know why you're making such a big deal of it," Heero said with a shrug. "I'll bet it feels fantastic."

Which is why Duo firmly blamed Heero for what happened when they got home, and they both tried to pass each other, one going into the bathroom and one coming out, until Heero went right and Duo went left and they bumped noses. It was only natural at that point for Duo to grab the back of Heero's head and stick his own tongue down Heero's throat.

The rest was kind of a blur, and Duo had woken up feeling rather sore, but he'd been in a helluva fucking good mood up until Heero went about the next day as if nothing had happened. It wasn't that he was expecting more from Heero, but he expected at least a "hey, you're a great lay, we should do it again sometime."

Duo couldn't complain about the fact that they did, in fact, do it again, but he wished he knew what was going on behind that thick skull of Heero's at times.

Speak of the devil, there were Heero's footsteps now, and here Duo was going to be caught just hanging out as if he had all the time in the world and there wasn't a colony of flies (or at least three of them) buzzing around the room.

Two of them, he mentally corrected himself, as Heero smashed the side of his fist against the wall, squishing one that had been stupid enough to land there.

"Hey," Duo said. "What took ya so long?"

Heero wiped his hand on his shorts and used both hands to pick up a large square of glass. "Had to go downstairs to get this."

At first Duo was amazed that Heero had come with a solution, then he got mad all over again. "What the fuck, Heero? You just assumed I'd break the fucking window because I'm a moron? Did you get this the same day I went out to pick up the air conditioner, or just when I started talking about it? Thanks a lot, you dick."

Heero tipped his head to the side, a little quirk he only did when he was truly confused. "I got this from the cellar. There's a bunch of old windows and doors down there, probably from when they put in the new ones. Relatively speaking." He gestured toward the window frame which had to be at least twenty-five years old, if not fifty.

"I, oh. I see. Yeah. Didn't know they were down there." Duo pushed his hands against the wall and got to his feet. "I'm uh, I'm sorry 'bout that, Heero. I'm just having a bad day."

Heero nodded. "It's OK. I know." He gestured to the window again.

"Yeah. Well." Duo rubbed the back of his neck. "So...I can, uh, do it..." He stood up straighter and shook his head. "Fuck. I give up. I can help you if you know what you're doing, but I need your help."

Heero gestured for Duo to help him lift the glass and they held it up to the frame to eyeball it. "I know," Heero repeated. "You don't have to ask. I'm your friend. I'll always be there for you."

There was that word again.

They set the glass back down on the floor, propped against the wall to cover the opening where the window used to be, and Duo leaned against the wall right next to it, watching Heero do the math in his head. He knew Heero was doing math in his head because of the way Heero's eyes would go from side to side as if he was reading something in the air. It was something he'd not noticed before they started living together.

He started to laugh.

Heero paused, his head tipped only very slightly this time, and Duo doubled over, laughing even harder.

"Friends," he said, wiping the tears from his eyes. "We really are friends, Heero."

Deciding that there was no point trying to figure out why that was funny, Heero went back to calculating how he might be able to fit the glass into the window frame and secure it.

Heero was his friend. At this point, he was the best damn friend he had in the world. A friend with benefits. Someone who, to paraphrase Heero himself, would always have his back, and that sounded like a pretty good fucking deal to Duo.

Maybe Heero would like to have a cookout here later in the week. They were all out of beer right now, but they could always get more after payday. They'd invite the neighbors, of course, and if they were lucky, either Jim or Steve might catch Duo with Heero's hand up his shirt and his tongue in his mouth. Only it wouldn't be in the kitchen, hidden away inside the house, it would be right there, in their tiny scrap of a backyard. If Heero didn't see any reason to think their sexual orientation was a big secret, then Duo would stop acting like it was something to be ashamed of. Fuck yeah. It was the least he could do for a friend.

Heero had his back, all right, and tonight Duo was going to make sure Heero had his front, too.