Heero stood leaning against the doorway to Duo's living room. He'd known Duo had wanted to have a 'discussion' but the last thing he'd expected was this conversation. To tell the truth he was less than amused by the direction it was heading. Heero remained silent, annoyance an obvious statement on his face as Duo began speaking again.

"We've stuck it out through everything," Duo said with an effort to keep his voice calm. "Through the war, after the war while drifting not knowing what to do with ourselves and then when we slowly began rebuilding our lives into something productive, once again...through all this we had each other."

Duo paused, looking at Heero intently, trying to read his expression. Beyond the surface of basic impatience, Duo could come up with nothing more. He sighed, leaning against the back of a chair he stood near.

"I love you Heero, you know that. And I know you must feel something for me. You don't stay with someone this long and go through this much if you don't feel something. So what's the problem?" Duo asked pushing himself away from the chair and lifting his hands in a gesture of confusion.

"Living together is the next logical step," Duo began when Heero made no attempts to speak. "We might as well live together, with as much time as we spend with each other. It would just be a technicality at this point!" Duo said, throwing his hands up once again, in exasperation. "Or is that the problem...the technicality of it? Are you afraid that at some point you won't feel this way about me anymore? Is that it? You don't want to get stuck in a situation that wouldn't be simple to get out of?"

Duo dropped his gaze to the floor in silent contemplation for a few moments, afraid to see the expression on Heero's face at this point. He was feeling drained. It seemed nearly impossible for him to understand Heero sometimes, and at the moment it didn't seem any easier to make Heero understand him. Duo sighed out loud, before looking Heero in the eyes once again.

"Open up your heart, Heero," Duo said with a small smile. "It's not so hard...to love is not such a hard thing."

Heero stood staring at him for a long time, unable to believe the words he'd just heard Duo say. Responses tumbled around in his head, with him unable to control any of his thoughts. He saw Duo shift slightly, unsure what to make of his silence.

Shaking his head slowly, Heero tried to clear the trace of confusion and utter amazement of Duo's clueless-ness from his face.

"I can't believe you could say something so completely naïve, Duo." Heero paused again momentarily as Duo's eyes widened slightly with surprise. "Loving you has been the hardest thing I've ever done in my life! There is nothing at all easy about love. Yes it comes of it's own accord and in that way it is simple because you have no control over it. But I am talking about really and truly loving someone...maintaining that emotion. It is hell! Do you realize that because of you my life will never be the same?!? You have changed everything."

Duo opened his mouth to protest, but Heero lifted his hand in a gesture for him to wait. Taking a deep breath, Heero ran his already half raised hand through his hair before continuing.

"I need you to hear me out on this one Duo, because I can't allow you to misunderstand what I'm saying here."

Duo's nod was almost imperceptible as he walked around to the front of the chair and slowly sank down into it. Heero finally looked away from Duo as he walked the length of the couch and back twice, before turning to face the silent boy again.

"Before I met you," Heero began, sitting on the arm of the couch, "my life was very simple. As crazy as that sounds, it's true. For all the training and fighting, and yes, even killing; it was so much easier than what I go through on a daily basis loving you. Cause see, all those things were without thought...they were things that had to be done. Life was very much in black and white with no depth or shadowing. And then you came along and threw every color of the rainbow at me and a complexity to my emotions that I couldn't even begin to comprehend."

Heero stood again to resume his pacing, shoving his hands deep into his pockets.

"I became aware of all that stuff in life that so many people never know about. I was living my life just like they were...bland and one-dimensional. Life with basic pleasantries, but never the passion that opens your eyes to a whole other world. And let me tell you Duo, passion is a way of life...a way of living life; that once you've had a taste of it, you'll never be satisfied with anything less. You can never go back to living that simple life you had for so long, because now you know. You know what you'd be missing if you settled for anything less, and quite honestly, you'd rather have nothing at all than to have that! Because what is that kind of life anyway?"

Heero paused in his pacing long enough to turn and look at Duo. Seeing the boy with a look of complete and utter disbelief mixed with understanding, Heero pulled his hands from his pockets to cross his arm across his chest before he continued with his thought.

"I guess for all intents and purposes you can say that people who go through life barely skimming the surface of real passion, lead happy lives simply because they don't know any better. But you and I know we'd be fooling ourselves if we tried to say we'd be happy like that. I do love you, Duo, and I wouldn't have it any other way, but it is not easy. It is not simple. I feel a want for you that spans everything. Every gamut of emotion there is. I want you in every sense, definition and aspect of the word 'want'. Now do you think that's easy?"

Heero asked the question without expecting the other boy to answer. He let his arms fall to his sides and took a few steps closer to Duo, staring intently into the beautiful eyes that had become misted over with unshed tears. Heero began speaking again, his voice softer.

"I feel like you could completely fill every want or desire I could ever have. Don't you realize the fear that puts into me? That you are everything I can imagine ever needing or wanting, and what if something happened to you? Or what if it's you that just stops loving me one of these days? And what would I do then? Because I will always feel this way about you. I won't spout off those silly, childish notions of never finding love again, but it wouldn't ever be this."

Heero fell silent, his eyes never leaving Duo's. They remained motionless, staring at each other for a few moments, before Duo slowly rose from his chair and crossed the small space to stand in front of Heero. A single tear slid down his cheek as he lifted his arms to wrap tightly around Heero 's shoulders, his mouth pressed against the other boy's skin.

"I love you," Duo said finally; his lips brushing against Heero's shoulder.

"I love you too, Duo," Heero whispered back, wrapping one arm around the boy's waist. He brought his other arm up, burying his fingers in the soft hair at the back of Duo's head and placed a light kiss at his temple. "Don't ever forget it," Heero said, tightening their embrace.

"Keep saying things like that and I won't," Duo whispered with a trace of awe in his voice. "But you never did answer me. Would you at least be willing to give us living together a shot?"

"Anything is possible."