Archivist's note: These sentences were written from prompts in the 1sentence fics Live Journal community. The titles are the prompts suggested for the challenge.

The slow burn slid beneath his skin, sank into his chest and flared bright behind his eyelids -- Heero let the heavy waves drag him deeper, Wing an obscure glint of refracted light beneath him; a muted glow, like the smoldering emotion that would surge and spill and splinter in the broken lines of Duo's face... Heero's fists clenched and he thrust upward, limbs heavy and awkward from the lack of oxygen, breaking through the water's surface with a silent cry and a raggedly drawn breath of air.

#02 -- Apples

"What do you mean 'no'? This is a genuine earth-grown apple! Eat it," Duo said, thrusting the small red fruit into the span of air between Heero's face and the monitor, waving it around distractedly until Heero scowled, snatched the apple and took a swift bite before tossing it aside and rewarding Duo with an unimpressed look; Duo threw up his arms and whirled away, somehow transmitting his exasperation into the sharp flick of his braid.

#03 -- Beginning

A year after the Mariemeia incident, Duo realizes that he has been waiting in vain -- for a sign, a gossamer thread, a trail of breadcrumbs... for a beginning that has already happened; so when he finally moves, he is met halfway by Heero, who might have known this all along and been waiting as well, for Duo to reach out and complete their story.

#04 -- Bugs

From Wing's cockpit, it had occurred to Heero once that the soldiers spread throughout the storage compound looked like ants, scurrying to obey their dictatorial queen; it was an odd thought so Heero immediately disregarded it and aimed his buster rifle.

#05 -- Coffee

At Duo's offer, Heero sipped from his mug and replied, "You may require more sustenance to function adequately, but coffee is sufficient for me," which earned him a roll of Duo's eyes and a muttered promise to never ask him out to lunch again.

#06 -- Dark

The doll lay discarded against a damp alley wall, a dark stain cutting across the cream linen of her dress; Heero refrained from flinching at the warm hand at his back, the gentle contact that drew him away from the encroaching memory and the imagined splash of red that seemed to blossom across his hands.

#07 -- Despair

Heero had resolved to stop feeling such emotions long ago, but sitting vigilance at Duo's bedside and watching the feeble rise and fall of the man's chest... it felt remarkably similar.

#08 -- Doors

Duo left the door ajar and grinned when Heero turned to him with a barely hitched brow; they were undercover and they needed information -- it was purely tactical to relax their objectives' mental reservations by leaving them with a physical escape route, and anyway, there was a zero in ten chance they would even make it to the door once Duo drew his gun.

#09 -- Drink

Heero, Duo decided, was a boring drunk -- the man was still as rigid as he was when sober except now he was peering -- far too sharply for a man who'd imbibed three bottles of sake -- down into his cup as if searching for signs of life; Duo was fairly certain trying anything untoward at this point would cost him a liver, two ribs, and maybe a leg if Heero was feeling tolerant, so he told his libido to shut up and threw back another cup of sake.

#10 -- Duty

Heero would give his life and the lives of his comrades for the sake of the mission -- but Duo is not Heero, so he brings the butt of his gun down against the back of Heero's unsuspecting head, hefts the man's limp, bleeding body over his shoulder and dodges the bullets whizzing past him.

#11 -- Earth

The first time Duo saw the Earth -- the real deal, not those images they showed on the broadcast back in L2 -- he'd thought, 'well, hell, if this was the view from L2 instead of that barren rock, I bet those assholes from production would stop putting moonrocks in my -- nah, they'd still be assholes' and then Deathscythe had locked in on the coordinates G had sent and there was no more time for thinking about nature and beauty.

#12 -- End

Shinigami he might be, but underneath, Duo is only human -- and despite his better judgment, he grasps at things which he knows will end but has been told are eternal: things like faith... and companionship... things like love -- but maybe Heero's dogged perseverance to fulfill a mission will ensure that this, too, will succeed.

#13 -- Fall

Heero had taken more than a few dives in his lifetime, but as he stared, rapt, at the glow of joy in Duo's eyes, he thought this was one fall he didn't need to be saved from.

#14 -- Fire

Duo's fingers burned patterns down his chest, dry lips seared his neck and he turned his face into the thick curtain of hair, breath escaping in thin pants as he clutched the body against him, holding close the flame that had melted through his skin, licked at his ribs and consumed his heart.

#15 -- Flexible

Compromise, as Quatre had so blithely informed him, was the key to a successful relationship; Duo wondered if only nearly killing him twice in the past six months indicated Heero was finally beginning to take their well-meaning friend's advice.

#16 -- Flying

Descending through Earth's atmosphere had come close, but couldn't quite match the exhilaration and the wild fluttering in his chest when Heero rose above him, the lines of his body a breath-taking horizon and his wide, clear eyes more vividly blue than the brightest stretch of sky.

#17 -- Food

Duo didn't realize he was staring at the way Heero's lips wrapped around his spoon until Wufei coughed uncomfortably and slammed a steel-toed shoe into his shin beneath the table.

#18 -- Foot

As Duo stared in incredulity at the bleeding hole in his foot, Heero shrugged off the itch that might have been guilt and said, "It was in the way," and then "It'll heal" when Duo responded with an outraged gasp.

#19 -- Grave

Before Operation Meteor, Duo had sectioned himself a plot in the small cemetery just behind the ruins of the old Maxwell Church, visiting it on occasion where he would spread his small frame out across the thin span of dirt and become familiar with the shift of earth beneath his back; Shinigami was not afraid of death -- he was well familiar with it.

#20 -- Green

"Are you sure that's your only tank top?"

#21 -- Head

Duo rubbed the back of his head, which felt odd in the absence of his braid, but cutting it off had been the quickest way to free himself; and anyway, it was worth the double take Heero had done when he'd sat down at breakfast that morning.

#22 -- Hollow

Duo had fancied a time or two that, beneath the skin, the perfect soldier really had been fashioned out of nuts and bolts and maybe a few crossed wires; and that, were he to tap on the man's chest, he'd receive nothing but a hollow echo -- it was absurd, of course, but even so, he felt ridiculously sentimental every time he pressed his cheek to Heero's chest -- warmth, human warmth -- and listened to the steady solid beat.

#23 -- Honor

When Duo witnesses an L2 official shove a young orphan into a puddle, he pickpockets the man, uses the money to buy a tube of superglue, slips into the officer's quarters in the middle of the night and secures all of the man's belongings to their relevant surfaces -- including the man himself to his bed sheets.

#24 -- Hope

In order to know hope, one first had to know despair -- it was the last lesson Solo had taught him but that didn't make him hate it any less.

#25 -- Light

By the time the war ended, the laser-bright glow of Deathscythe's weapon had grown dim, indistinct lines blurred in gray, heavy even against gundanium palms and Duo had avoided looking too closely at the shadows carved into the hollows of its armor.

#26 -- Lost

Duo tugged at the slats of wood until the single pew had been righted, then he dropped his weight down onto the brittle seat, head bowed and hands folded in prayer, and waited... and waited... and waited...

#27 -- Metal

His fingers clenched against the armor of Wing's leg, blunt nails digging into the unyielding gundanium as Duo pressed into his back, hips snapping forward in an increasing rhythm; Heero rested his cheek against the cool metal, broken pants leaving a warm mist against the metallic sheen.

#28 -- New

In new situations, Heero liked to calculate the level of threat and then devise at least half a dozen ways to counteract it before engaging... but Duo had somehow stolen from him the ability to even string together a coherent thought by the mere means of an inane -- correction, previously considered to be inane, reassessment required -- kiss and three simple words.

#29 -- Old

And some odd years later, Duo would roll over, kiss the graying hair at his lover's temple and whisper, "Still love you, old man."

#30 -- Peace

Heero inevitably drifted back to the Preventers -- a soldier became obsolete in times of peace, but there was little else Heero knew how to be; he regretted his decision immediately upon finding a familiar figure leaning against Sally's office door, fingers toying with the end of his stupid braid and a welcome grin splitting his face.

#31 -- Poison

Heero watched the fine translucent lines of infection steadily fade from Duo's arm as the antibiotics neutralized the poison in his system; he frowned, becoming aware of a gradual tightening in his chest... his throat felt cloyingly thick and his breath grew short -- for a moment, he was convinced he'd somehow compromised himself, that he'd been infected while Duo was in transfer, that even now the drug was ravaging his system... until the first drop of moisture splashed against the back of his hand.

#32 -- Pretty

Duo's hair had somehow unraveled in their mad dash from the basketball courts, the downpour dragging its weight down around his face and shoulders to cling in thick cords to the slope of his back and the slender curve of his waist -- he turned to Heero, eyes twinkling in the muted colors of early evening and lips parted in laughter, rainwater running in rivulets down his face, and Heero finally understood why so many of their peers were drawn to Duo's side.

#33 -- Rain

Duo's eyes widened, gaze darting down to spot for a gun in Heero's empty hands, when Heero stepped forward, grasped two fistfuls of soaking wet hair and pulled him stumbling forward -- he immediately reached for his hidden knife but stiffened when a cool tongue swiped across the seam of his mouth, sucking gently at the water that continued to gather at the corners of his lips; Duo made a strangled sound before lunging forward, toppling them both into the slick grass in a tangle of wet limbs and drenched hair.

#34 -- Regret

Duo presses a kiss to the puckered scar located at about mid-thigh, gently tracing the old hurt with the tip of his tongue, before shifting and trailing his lips back to the exit wound, approximately three inches below the curve of Heero's right buttock.

#35 -- Roses

Duo didn't mind the bouquet Heero sent Relena for her birthday -- Duo had even picked out the vase -- because Heero had given him something far more enduring and resilient than a crystal cylinder filled with clipped flora.

#36 -- Secret

Duo listened with half an ear to his coworker's blather ("Damn it, Maxwell, who's the girlfriend? Does she work here? Do I know her? Is she hot?") as his gaze followed the path of a dark head across the room before blue eyes and a brief smirk flashed in his direction then disappeared into the hallway.

#37 -- Snakes

The python behind the glass met Heero's gaze and held it... before it shrank away, retreating behind its artificial logs and fronds -- and why the hell was Duo laughing like that?

#38 -- Snow

It took 0.18 seconds for Heero to ascertain that, yes, the cold clumps of wetness sliding down the back of his head was in fact snow and a snickering Duo had thrown it -- 15 seconds later, a very grump, very wet Duo was trudging behind him, muttering something vulgar under his breath and oblivious to the smirk twisting Heero's mouth.

#39 -- Solid

Duo had made it a yearly ritual to kneel before the crumbled stairs that had once led to the altar, gather the dust in his hands, old splinters carving homes in his hands, and carefully fall apart... before dragging himself back home where Heero would attend to his hands, wash the ash from his skin and gently, lovingly, piece him back together.

#40 -- Spring

The first few times, they'd sprang apart, blushing furiously and stuttering half-baked excuses -- but by the sixth time Wufei walked in on them making out in the storage warehouse, they barely spared his indignant sputtering a glance before shooing him from the premises.

#41 -- Stable

Stability was an illusion -- Duo had had a brief glimpse of it, of something good and real and so easily shattered.

#42 -- Strange

When Duo and Heero pass through the lounge, hands linked, Wufei falls off his chair, Quatre swallows his grape whole, and Trowa silently questions the order of the universe.

#43 -- Summer

Their first year as a couple, they have a spectacular fight about nothing at all and Duo spends the rest of the summer months on L4 with Quatre -- but the heat of summer wanes and when the decay of Autumn descends, Duo finds his way back home where Heero tugs him roughly into his arms and promises never to let him go again.

#44 -- Taboo

Heero will not tolerate ignorance and so when a couple of kids shout derogatory names at them, Heero pins one to the wall while Duo handles the other and calmly states that he wishes he'd brought his gun.

#45 -- Ugly

Peace is an ideal Heero has no right to partake of -- he has killed too many people to believe himself worthy of such a thing; but when the rough pads of Duo's fingers dust his cheeks and his lips form words that lodge somewhere in his chest, this... thing... they have -- it's enough to sometimes make him forget.

#46 -- War

Duo was a good shot but that meant little in the grand scheme of warfare -- Heero forgave him his inability to decipher between friend or foe, seeing as they technically could have been either at the time -- so, precision aside, Heero's first impression of him had been distinctly less than impressive... that is, until he saw Deathscythe in battle and acknowledged that the title Shinigami wasn't just for vanity.

#47 -- Water

Duo brushed at the sand nestled in the folds of his shirt, but they clung stubbornly to his sweaty palms; he sighed and glanced over at Heero, who was staring off into the distance, as if mentally gauging the distance they had yet to travel before reaching the Maganac Corps -- Duo licked his parched lips and glared out over the stretch of desert that swayed and glinted in the heat like the ripples of a pond.

#48 -- Welcome

When Duo extends his hand, Heero hesitates -- because he has always had a purpose, a mission with rigid guidelines and a defined goal, an objective, a cause, a will not his own... so he doesn't accept Duo's offered hand, but he nods all the same, because he's never had any desires, ambitions, dreams that were his alone but he thinks it's something he will welcome.

#49 -- Winter

Winter in L2 was no more than an operated reproduction of the actual season and it was said they sometimes tried a bit too hard to replicate conditions back on Earth -- Duo had never been to Earth but, as he and the other children huddled around their small fire, tiny shivering bodies pressed together to retain the heat, at least here he had the option of breaking into the climate control center and ripping a few wires loose.

#50 -- Wood

Heero knew, technically speaking, that the building standing before him was merely a structure of wood, cement, plaster, and other various construction materials, and recently furnished with their meager belongings so that it would be an adequate living space... and yet when he threw Duo into the equation, the logic blurred, lines of definition reforming into something he was far less comfortable with, something he might have defined as 'home' had he any points of reference -- but as Duo jogged past him and darted into the new house with a backwards shout of "You're cooking, babe!" Heero thought perhaps these new parameters would be a challenge worth undertaking.