The young Wing Zero pilot lay on his back on the bed of the small apartment.  The sheets were crumpled now, even though he had promised Duo that he would leave the new sheets for him to mess up.  The sheets hadn’t exactly been clean in the first place but they had been fresh, then again what had he expected?  They weren’t exactly about to be given first-class now were they, for the price they paid?  

Heero watched the shadows on the ceiling as the cars outside the window went past, the shadows that the blinds cast danced and flickered as the headlights changed their shades and moved them along the white-washed ceiling and walls.

When would Duo get back?  He didn’t have to stay up and wait for him, of course, but every time Duo went out on a mission without him, he became worried.  It wasn’t even as if he should be, after all, Duo could handle himself in a fight, he had proven that on more than one occasion, and even though Heero did annoy him constantly by saying that he would foul up missions for them both, he knew that Duo would never do anything but his best.  Come to think of it, what was taking him so long?  It was just a routine mission, shoot down an enemy carrier, nothing that should have taken him – how long now – six hours.

Why did he care anyway, just because they were sharing the same apartment for moneys sake didn’t mean that he suddenly became Duo’s guardian?  Come to think of it, it didn’t really have anything to do with the actual mission either, even though Heero had told himself that he was waiting up to make sure Duo had completed the mission, that wasn’t really true either.  So why was he waiting up for the long-haired pilot of Death Scythe Hell?  Could he possibly be missing him?  The guy who never shut up, even though he was a stealth specialist; the guy who, apparently, bugged Heero twenty-four-seven even if he had nothing of any interest to say what-so-ever.  Perhaps, just a little, after all, it was fairly quiet around without Duo’s constant background noise.

Heero started to wonder what Quatre and Trowa would be doing at this time of the night, but came to the conclusion that they would probably be curled up in bed asleep, that’s what any normal person would be doing anyway.  Should he just go to bed himself?  Probably, but somehow he just couldn’t seem to make himself.  Besides, he wasn’t exactly tired, just worried.  Worried, was he actually worried about Duo?  Okay, so this was getting a bit out-of-hand now, he didn’t need this, there was a certain amount of danger in all their lives whether they were on the battlefield or not, and he didn’t need to worry about anyone but himself, he didn’t move though, did he?

Suddenly, he heard footsteps outside the door, a shuffling bang as a booted foot hit its base, and the key slide gratingly into the lock.  A second later the door swung open and a tired looking Duo wandered in.

He didn’t really give Heero an upward glance until he had removed his shoes and socks, taken the band from the bottom of his hair – which stayed plaited anyway through years of experience and familiarity – and pulled his shirt over his head.  Heero had watched him the entire time, his eyes occasionally flicking to the trickle of blood which had inched its way half-way down his cheek from a cut in his forehead and dried like that. 

Duo then looked up, spotted Heero on the bed, and gave a weak smile.  He plopped down next to him, fell backwards and gave an exhausted sigh.

“Are you alright?” Heero asked, making the question sound as if he was asking out of obligation than interest.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Duo sounded rather offended, “you thought I would muck this mission up too, Jesu Heero, when have I ever let you down?  I don’t understand why you can’t trust me!”

Heero pointed to his forehead, “I meant that.  Duo I didn’t mean anything by it, I do trust you to do the missions by yourself”

“You do?” Duo looked very pleased with himself, “Oh, this?  I’d forgotten about that, just bumped my head nothing much.”

He then proceeded to spring off of the bed and race to the bathroom with the parting words that if he didn’t get a shower soon he would stink the whole place out and then they would have to sleep outside for the night which wouldn’t be good. 

Heero smiled to himself, now that Duo was back he felt much happier.  Why was it that he always felt more at home when Duo was around than when he wasn’t?  He wasn’t about to say anything to Duo, but sometimes the offer of sharing a bed even appealed to him.  When they had first rented the apartment there had only been one bed, which there still was, Heero had opted to sleep on the sofa, which he still did, and Duo had said they should share the bed.  The offer had been made several times since but Heero had always turned him down.  It didn’t matter to him where he slept, he had had worse, but the thought of curling up around Duo suddenly held great interest for him.

He could hear Duo in the bathroom pottering around.  He listened to the sound of the young boy as he went about the ritual of taking a shower and trying, in vain, to dry his hair with a towel.  There were a few uttered curses and then Duo emerged wearing nothing but boxers with a towel rapped around the end of his still-dripping hair.

“This was a bad idea,” he exclaimed, looking around in dismay, “taking a shower I mean.”

“Why is that?” Heero was a little distracted by the site of Duo’s smooth chest and the way the water droplets ran glistening paths down towards his stomach.

“Cause now I have to dry my hair, and do you realise how long that will take?” Duo seemed blissfully unaware of Heero’s scrutiny of his chest and proceeded to hunt down the hairdryer.

“I could give you a hand,” Heero suggested, knowing full well that Duo didn’t let anybody touch his hair, it was the one thing that he was protective over and he made no exception to the rule.

Duo looked at him uncertainly, his head cocked slightly to one side as he considered the option.  Heero noted how cute this made him look and made a note to ask hard questions more often, then realised what he was thinking and checked himself before he got out of hand.

“Would you?” Duo asked, his voice had a little tremor to it, as if he wasn’t quite sure that this was what he wanted but knowing that it would the easiest option.

“You’ll let me?” Heero asked confused, “I didn’t think you would.”

“Yeah, what are ya gonna do?” Duo looked up at him with wide cobalt-blue eyes, “it’s late and it will be easier for you to do it than if I had to, after all I can’t really see now can I?”

Heero took the brush that Duo was offering to him and walked round the other side of the bed to stand behind him.  It had only just occurred to him exactly how long Duo’s hair really was.  He started to pull the brush through Duo’s hair gently, he didn’t want to pull it once, he was afraid that Duo would pull away if he did. Once he had finished untangling the mass of curls he picked up the hairdryer and set about the daunting task of drying it.

Twenty minutes later, Duo’s hair still damp, Heero was beginning to see why he had thought it a bad idea that he had washed his hair at this time of the night.  The silky strands still felt damp to the touch and the hairdryer didn’t sound as if it would last that much longer.  Heero ran his hands through Duo’s hair, trying his hardest to untangle a knot without pulling half of the strands out with it.  Duo tipped his head back slightly, making the pressure between Heero’s fingers and his scalp increase.  Heero, succeeding in his mission, turned back to the hairdryer, which now refused stubbornly to turn back on.  He glared at it, and wondered how exactly he was supposed to dry the longest hair in the world - for surely it was - without a damned hairdryer.

He hadn’t noticed that his fingers had carried on playing with Duo’s hair, traitorous to his own intentions, until Duo expelled a pent-up breath with a gasp.  His hands flew away from where they had been as he muttered a stinted apology, only to have Duo mumble something incoherent and place his hands back on his head.

Heero wondered at why exactly Duo didn’t let anyone touch his hair if he liked it being stroked so much.  His fingers sliding through the silky chestnut tresses as if they were water and made to flow.  His hands, traitorous again, slipped down to Duo’s neck, where they started to gently stroke the hot skin and massage the top of his spine.  Duo gasped, and Heero wondered briefly if he didn’t like it, but when he tried to move away his hands he made a small protesting whine, which stayed Heero’s hands in confusion.

“Don’t stop Hee-chan,” Duo implored, “I don’t want you to.”

Heero’s hands went obediently back to their position on Duo’s neck and began to tease once again.  Heero could see Duo’s eyes in the reflection in the window opposite the bed, they were huge round pools of cobalt-blue, much the same colour as his own, only Duo’s held the innocence of a child and at the same time the intelligence of someone who was worldly-wise.  His chestnut hair shone like satin fire as Heero’s hands made it move with each short stroke.

Heero began to run his hands tentatively down Duo’s spine, finding the skin under his fingers as smooth as silk.  He could feel each vertebrae of Duo’s slim spine as his fingers explored and stroked.  He caressed the strong column of Duo’s creamy neck as the chestnut haired pilot moaned softly.

Heero looked at Duo’s reflection in the window again.  He had his eyes closed now; his head tilted slightly back, his lips parted just a little.  Heero’s hands flicked and then stopped, “Duo I… what should I… I don’t know what to do,” Heero admitted reluctantly.

Duo’s eyes opened fractionally, a hint of colour showing between the lids, “You haven’t…” he made an elaborate hand gesture to make his point, “before?”

Heero shook his head and raised blue eyes towards the back of Duo’s head; even though the pilot of Death Scythe Hell couldn’t see what he was doing he certainly could feel it.  He flushed as Heero’s eyes made the back of his neck itch.  He swivelled on the bed and gazed at Heero with large dark eyes.

Duo stood and turned to face Heero completely.  He took hold of his shoulders and pushed lightly until Heero collapsed back against the bed, “I could teach you?” Duo suggested thoughtfully, “If you would like.”

“You know?” Heero couldn’t quite believe that Duo was anything but innocent, which he knew was extremely stupid because Duo was a fifteen-year-old assassin who often went by the name of Shinagami. 

“How innocent do you think I am?” Duo asked wide-eyed, “how do you think I don’t get so pent-up like you all the time, I do need some way of releasing tension.”

That admission stung Heero more than he would let on and he went to rise from the bed but Duo caught him by the shoulders and held him there.  His hands dropped to Heero’s waistband, toying with the tight belt and the denim band.  He seemed, then, to think better of the action he had been about to do and just settled for untucking Heero’s shirt from his pants. 

Sliding his hands up the length of Heero’s stomach he stroked his ribs and the smooth skin that shivered at the touch.  Heero closed his eyes and tipped his head back against the sheets, his lips slightly parted.  He looked so inviting that Duo was almost tempted to stop and just sit there and watch him.  His fingers played around Heero’s navel until he gasped slightly and then he grabbed the bottom of Heero’s green tank-top and lifted it up and over his head. 

Heero looked up at him, his eyes half-lidded and cloudy, his breath coming a little shorter than was natural to him.  Duo’s eyes took in every detail of Heero that he could see in the semi-darkness.  He could make out a long, smooth scar that ran along Heero’s stomach and lower than his waistband.  Duo ran his hand down the pale strip questioningly.  Heero muttered something about it not mattering and tipped back into the sheets.

Duo then decided to abandon caution and his hands went straight to the button on Heero’s jeans.  Skilled and quick as his fingers were, it wasn’t long before Heero’s pants joined his top on the floor..  Heero gasped and half shimmied, half crawled up onto the bed until he was sprawled out on his back looking down at Duo from where he still squatted on the floor.  He looked like an evil imp, sat there like that, and Heero flexed his fingers in the duvet and blinked at him imploringly.

Duo came to the bed, squatted between Heero’s legs on the floor and looked up at him.  He wasn’t sure exactly how long he had wanted to do this, but it was a very long time now, probably since he had first seen the stern, dark haired boy, and now he had his way he didn’t want to make a botch of it.

Starting at Heero’s shins, Duo began to kiss his way up the other boy’s left leg.  Heero’s eyes closed, his fists clenching against the blankets as each kiss evoked small flames to light on his skin and shoot in sparks around the place of contact.  He could feel himself harden at Duo’s ministrations and wondered briefly what exactly he thought he was doing.  This wasn’t him; this wasn’t what he was meant to be doing, but then, who said?

Duo was dangerously close to his cotton-clad erection now, teasing him with kisses of velvet fire and hidden promise that he would never have guessed Duo had.  He moaned aloud as Duo brushed lips to cotton ever so lightly and then moved away to clamber between his legs and look him in the eyes.

“Duo?” Heero didn’t know what he wanted to say.

“Mmmm?” placid cobalt-blue eyes looked down on Heero, misted with lust but still able to think straight enough to know exactly what he was doing as he slipped his hand between them, not giving Heero time to voice his thoughts.

He stroked and teased Heero’s still cotton bound member and then played with the waistband of his boxers.  He felt Heero’s knees come up and clamp at his waist, felt his hips closed in a vice-like grip.  Heero was much stronger than he looked, those thin legs held his hips completely still and he wondered what Heero had in mind.

Suddenly those legs tightened more, swung one way, and then tipped Duo off the bed.  He landed in an unceremonious heap of pale limbs and wavy chestnut hair on the floor, the threadbare carpet scuffing the top of one of his legs as he landed.

“Shinagami I -”

Duo didn’t give him time to finish, “I understand,” he tilted his head so his hair covered his face, and also his disappointment, “you called me Shinagami, how can a god of death also make love, right?” his dejected sigh melted Heero’s heart, and he went to join him on the floor, putting his arms round the small, fragile-looking boy in a comforting gesture, “it’s alright, I’ve always been alone, I didn’t really expect that to change, but I can dream can’t I?  It doesn’t matter if I’m alone so long as I can still dream, it’s once I can’t that nothing will be worth it anymore.”

“No, nothing like that,” he stroked Duo’s hair soothingly and pulled him closer, “it’s just that… well, I’m a boy and you’re a…”

“Boy…” Duo finished for him, “Oh…” the realisation of what Heero was trying to put into words hit him, “and that bothers you?”

“I… I don’t know, that’s what I had to figure out,” Heero wound his fingers round a strand of chestnut hair and pulled on it gently, making Duo take in his breath sharply.

“It shouldn’t,” Duo said leaning closer, “it doesn’t bother Quatre and Trowa, why should it bother us?”

“Quatre and Trowa?” Heero’s eyebrows lifted slightly, “I did have my suspicions but…”

Duo made a light scoffing sound and proceeded to bury his head in Heero’s shoulder.  Heero didn’t object as Duo began to kiss his neck tentatively, and then pushed him backwards onto the carpet until he lay atop him.  Their lips met, fleetingly at first, until Heero clutched at Duo’s hair, forcing their lips together.  He opened his mouth to give Duo’s tongue access, where he proceeded to explore the soft, delicate skin.  Duo’s tongue massaged his own, skimming across his teeth as he explored, and tickling the roof of his mouth.  Heero moaned, grasping Duo’s shoulders and holding him there with slightly more force than was needed.

Duo chuckled and disentangled himself from Heero’s arms, “Let me play, Hee-chan,” he entreated mischievously.

Heero groaned in agreement and settled back to give the long-haired boy total control.  Duo’s fingers ran down his chest leaving burning trails where they explored.  Duo discarded his boxers; making short work of Heero’s also and settled back down to his task.

He grabbed Heero’s hips, ducking his head between his legs and taking him into his mouth.  Heero all but screamed as he felt Duo’s mouth close softly around his erection and his tongue start to swirl and lick at it. His mind started to fade to a state where he couldn’t actually think coherently.  Colours flashed behind his closed lids as the ecstasy grew from where Duo’s mouth was to every limb in his body.  Duo’s tongue was the epiphany of pleasure and Heero couldn’t tell if he had moved or was still there until he felt like he was ready to burst.

If Duo hadn’t lifted himself at that moment he would have released himself right then and there, but Duo knew what he was doing too well and lifted himself to look directly into Heero’s cobalt eyes.

“I need you,” Duo whispered directly into Heero’s ear.

“You have me,” Heero informed him, gasping as Duo toyed with the end of his shaft.

Duo raised Heero’s legs at the knees, pushing them up to gain access to where he wanted to be.  Heero gasped again as Duo lay between his legs and looked down at him.

“Do you mind?” Duo’s eyes shone with unshed tears, and Heero wondered if he had been crying before when he had pushed him of the bed.

“Do I mind what? Doesn’t matter, I trust you, just do it.”

Duo’s heart melted as he heard those words, they were the words he had been wanting to hear since he had met Heero, even if he had told him that he didn’t expect him to trust him – and he never had – he had still hoped for it.

He slipped into Heero sheathing himself in his new lover, putting his hands into Heero’s hair as he gasped out loud and winced in discomfort.  Duo lay in him, letting him adjust to the strange invasion before he did anything farther.

“Are you alright?” Duo looked up concerned.

“Yeah,” Heero could hardly talk; it wasn’t worth the effort anyway.

Duo started to move in a slow rhythm, each thrust deliberate but gentle.  Heero’s discomfort was apparent at first, but after a while he took Duo by the hips and started to urge him into a faster pace, both boys moaning and sighing in time with Duo’s thrusts.

Duo’s hands stroked down Heero’s ribs, smooth skin against smooth skin.  Heero gasped, the fire Duo’s touch evoked was more than pleasant and he couldn’t catch his breath; little wisps of air snatched here and there would have to suffice.  His fingers stroked and clasped at Duo’s hips, not wanting to hurt him, but not being able to stop himself from grabbing at Duo as his pleasure increased and threatened to stop his breathing altogether.

Heero heard Duo whimper, the sound somehow making him push himself down onto Duo harder still, until he gasped and squeezed his eyes shut against the pleasure.  This was about all he could take, and he whispered Duo’s name as a plea, of what he wasn’t even sure.

He could see his own name on Duo’s lips, the other boys eyes tightly closed, his hands now scratching at Heero’s sides with each sure stroke.  He was good at this, Heero had to admit, it was obvious that the god of death could also make love.

Duo’s feet scrabbled at the bed, trying to gain some purchase upon which he could place them to help with his balance.  The rocking of his body as he did so, however, was too much for Heero.  He yelled Duo’s name and grabbed at the smooth skin against his sides, now hot and wet from his exertions.

Heero’s world burst into a series of colours and clashes as he spilt his seed against his lover’s chest, a minute later joined by Duo who screamed before emptying himself inside of his lover.  If there was anything better than this sensation he would die if he ever found it.  Colours swirled in front of his eyes and he wasn’t quite sure if he had died and gone to Heaven or if he was still alive.  As his world started to clear again, all he could think of was the young boy lying atop him.

“Duo,” Heero sighed as he lay back against the carpet feeling sated, neither of them minding the threadbare carpet was scratchy and uncomfortable, “Duo, how did you get that cut anyway?” he didn’t know exactly what had made him think of that, just that that was where he was looking and he realised suddenly that he hadn’t got a proper answer before.

“In the fight during the mission, where else?” Duo didn’t sound like he wanted to talk for a change but Heero felt strangely conversational.

“How?” it was an innocent enough question, yet the way he asked it made it sound like one of the most personal things on Earth.

“I banged my head on the cockpit when I got smashed into, does it really matter?” Duo looked up at him innocently.

“No, yes, it does, I don’t want you to get hurt, I worry,” what was this, confession time?  He hadn’t meant to say that at all.

“Heero?” Duo collapsed against him drowsily and was wrapped in protective arms.  He felt safe there and settled down where he was, closing his eyes, “safe,” he whispered, as if it had only been a thought and never a reality before that moment.

“You always will be now,” Heero promised him, his eyes also drifting closed as tiredness caught up to him.

“You can’t promise me that,” Duo reminded him, “we are in a war, and I’m a soldier, we both are, not to mention the fact that I’m an assassin.  You can’t protect me any more than I can protect you, even though I would like to.”

“I can try,” Heero intoned, “I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to you, I never could have, but especially now.  Besides you deserve what I can give you, you never did have a very good time of things, did you?”

“No, I didn’t, but I don’t think you had any better deal,” he looked up at Heero, all the pent up emotions from the past years showing in his eyes as he did so.

“We look after each other then,” Heero agreed, “that way; neither of us will ever be alone again.”

“Yeah,” Duo answered as he drifted off into the most blissful and contented sleep he had ever had, “never alone again.”

Owari xxx