Chapter 1

The coloured beams of light in the room were made to look like solid objects, the effect created by the smoke the hung in the air from all the cigarettes in the room.  It gave the effect of coloured fog, and would have been quite charming, had it not nearly choked everyone in the place.  The din was almost like a welcome hum now; it just became background noise after you were in there for a while and the music barely registered.  The heat was one thing that he did continually notice, but not because it bothered him, more because it was pleasant to be too warm after the chill of the air outside.

Duo reached out to snatch at one of the columns of light and then rested his elbow on the table and his chin in his palm.  He chinked the ice in his glass against the side and took a sip of the cold liquid.  Whisky and lemonade, he’d come to love the stuff, and it made him smile now as he sipped.  He fanned his fingers in welcome to a passing girl, Caitlin he thought her name was, but he was a regular here and there were so many different names to remember.  His eyes were currently fixed on Quatre and Trowa, who were smiling and laughing over by the bar whilst waiting to order more drinks.  Trowa had practically draped himself across Quatre’s shoulders and was leaning in to talk into his ear.  At full height now, Quatre wasn’t all that much smaller than Trowa, who hadn’t seemed to grow much over the years.  Now it was Duo who was the smallest, a fact which everybody seemed to like to remind him.

After the war they had gone their separate ways for about a year, not even bothering to keep in contact.  Over time each of them had gone back to visit Quatre, who seemed to be a drawing force for them all as it turned out.  He lived on the L4 colony now, with a large mansion of his own, but he had lived there alone.  He had coaxed them there one after the other and, somehow, convinced each one of them to stay.  He said it was lonely on his own and he missed them too much after everything they had been through together, which Duo could believe, Quatre had never been the loner.  But what had shocked him the most was the fact that Quatre’s persuasions had even managed to affect Heero and Wufei enough to make them stay.  Wufei had moved out to live with Sally after six months, but the other four still lived together.

This hangout was Duo’s little haunt, a bar at the edge of the colony that he often chose to disappear to at nights.  Quatre had somehow managed to persuade him to take them all, as he was curious as to where Duo disappeared to all the time, and here they were.

Quatre and Trowa were happy just to be in each other’s company as always, and Heero, who sat across from him at the table, looked so lost in thought he wasn’t sure he could have woken him if he’d tried.  He was just happy to sit and glance around, talking to the occasional person that he knew if they deemed it wise to talk with him.  He was notorious in this place, they all called him Haunt because he was there so often and no one really knew who he was or where he had come from, and he wasn’t about to tell them.  He liked this place, Comet’s Tail everyone called it, although what the place was actually called nobody remembered or cared.  The sign had been ripped down during the war, some four years previous and no one had bothered to replace it.

Caitlin was beckoning him, her blond ponytail waving with the vigour of her gesture, and he thought he might be able to learn a few titbits of information from her if he went over.  Not that he was up to anything, just that if things were going to go down they were usually arranged at this bar, and it was amazing, but he learned much more information from the female patrons most of the time than the male.

He stood and began to walk over to her, the leather jeans that hugged his hips accentuating the swing of them more than usual.  This gained him a few appreciative whistles from girls at other tables, which he ignored.  He couldn’t have claimed to be interested, never had been, and now, at the age of nineteen, he began to wonder if he ever would.  He could flirt when the mood took him, get women to agree to almost anything, but it was always more for amusement than actual interest.

Caitlin had another girl with her, one he couldn’t recall ever seeing before.  He knew most of the girls here by looks if not by name, especially the regulars, but this girl he couldn’t recall at all.  His suspicions proved to be true for, as he drew closer to the two girls Caitlin gestured to her friend.

“This is Copper,” she informed him, “you haven’t met her before, but she really wanted to meet you and as you were in tonight I thought now was as good a time as any.”

Copper obviously wasn’t the girl’s real name, but then, most of them didn’t go by their real names here, or if they did it was because their names were so peculiar that no one would believe them anyway, like himself.  The name made sense however, given that her hair was a rusty brown colour, not unlike his own but not as rich or glossy.  She tucked a strand behind her ear now and looked Duo up and down as if he was a car she was contemplating buying.  He decided to ignore this and just see were the conversation went after that.

“How did you manage to get your hair so long?” Copper asked him, “I’ve tried and tried and mine just doesn’t seem to grow,” she held up a strand now as if to prove her claim and then let it fall again.

“I never cut it,” he took hold of the end of his braid and pulled it over his shoulder, “it’s not easy to keep it healthy when it’s this long, it takes a lot of dedication, but it’s worth it.”

Copper reached out to take the braid from him but he snatched it away.  Caitlin tutted at her, “He doesn’t let anyone touch his hair, I did tell you,” she looked as if she had just won some sort of victory.

Copper made a purring noise and wrapped her arms round Duo’s waist, “Not even a little touch?” she asked hopefully.  He shook his head and she pouted but dropped the subject. 

Taking his wrist she led him across the room to a darker corner where no one sat and stood in front of the table.  He walked round her and perched on the edge of the table, it was a fairly clean one considering the usually state of the tables in this bar.  Copper seemed to take this as an invitation and placed her hands on his shoulders, rubbing her thumbs against the fabric of his shirt and bending to kiss his neck.  He allowed this tolerantly, he always seemed to turn heads and was used to this sort of thing happening.

She pushed him backwards onto the table, following him down and standing between his legs as she did so.  Caitlin came to stand side on to him and bent down to kiss the other side of his neck, running her hand up and inside his shirt.  He relaxed and lay back against the table, just because he wasn’t interested didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy what fate handed him.

Having not been stopped Caitlin took this as an invitation and undid each button on his shirt one by one, transferring her mouth from his neck to his chest.  She trailed kisses down his chest to his stomach and played along the waistline of his pants with her fingers.  He was, for once, glad that they were so tight as this meant she couldn’t get her fingers inside.  This didn’t seem to deter her however and she fumbled until she found the button to his pants and started to undo it.  This he wasn’t happy about.  Sitting up, he dislodged the two girls and began to button up his shirt again.

“Sorry girls, that’s more than you’re licensed for,” he smiled at them with a warmth he didn’t feel and stood up.  He wasn’t going to get any gossip out of these two, they were looking for something else tonight and they would have to find it somewhere else.

That little scene had made his head spin, and for some reason made him want to be alone.  He knew the perfect place to go but couldn’t just slip out, he had brought the others with him and he couldn’t just leave them now. 

He glanced around, looking for any of the others.  Heero was where he had left him, still busy thinking about what ever it was that Heero always thought about, Quatre and Trowa were still at the bar apparently they had forgotten about the reason they had gone there in the first place and had picked up a conversation with a guy who Duo knew as Brook.  They were too happy to disturb and Heero wouldn’t care if he were going to the moon so long as it didn’t affect him.  There was no harm in leaving them after all, they could take care of themselves, even Quatre when it came down to it, and he wouldn’t be missed.