Chapter 3

Heero opened his arms, encircling Duo and pulling him against his chest.  He put his cheek against Duo’s temple and stroked his back softly with the fingers of his right hand.  Duo couldn’t believe it, Heero was hugging him.  He rested his forehead against Heero’s shoulder and breathed deeply, inhaling the scent he had become so familiar with over the last couple of hours.  Heero’s hand had found the back of his head and he was stroking Duo’s hair gently, trying not to dislodge any of the strands and make the braid fall out.  Duo reached up to return the favour, finding Heero’s hair silky and soft, not at all like he had expected it to be.

A gentle ripple of pleasure passed down his neck and spine from where Heero was touching and he suddenly felt a stirring feeling between his legs.  ‘So this is why I was never interested in girls,’ he mused, but at the same time coming to the realisation of what that feeling actually was.  That couldn’t happen, not now, Heero would be appalled.  A part of him didn’t care, just wanted to stay like this until the moment passed, after all, it would probably never come again, but the saner part of him knew he had to move before Heero became aware of how deep his feelings for him were. 

He lifted his head a little, looking towards the edge of the roof and pulled away gently, stanching the moan of loss that threatened to burst from his throat and be heard.  Heero let him go, albeit reluctantly, and took a small step back to look down on him.  He was a little taller than Duo now, as was everyone else, and he would have looked a little daunting if that same loss that Duo was feeling hadn’t shown in his eyes.  Heero had always been hard to decipher in anything, but his feelings were always kept locked away, right in his core where no one could ever see them.  Duo had learnt to read these long ago through Heero’s eyes and expressions.  To anyone else he kept his composure constantly, his eyes cold, his expression hard and blank, but now and again he let something slip just a little, and Duo had become an expert on picking these things up.  This time however, perhaps it was wishful thinking, he was good at reading Heero, but it was dark for Christ’s sake, it would have been hard to tell Quatre’s expressions, never mind Heero’s.  He shook the thought from his head and put his mind back to more useful things.

“We’d better get going, like you said, before we’re missed,” he turned on his heel and made a move towards the edge of the roof, “you coming?”

“Du,” Duo spun with the use of a pet name he hadn’t heard since Solo had died, “did I upset you?”

“No,” Duo looked up at him puzzled, “why would you have?  It’s just that if we stay too long Quatre and Trowa will be back before we will, and then they’ll want to know where we’ve been and I just think it would ruin the night if we had to explain to those two.  I had a lovely time… thank you.”

“We didn’t do anything,” Heero walked over to stand beside him, “all I did was kept you warm while you slept.”

“It’s more than most people would have done,” he said this too low for Heero to hear, but the brunette didn’t ask him to repeat it, merely took hold of the telephone wire and started to shimmy down the outside of the building.

“I think it’s a little late for that anyway,” he called up once he was at the bottom, “everyone’s far gone, they’ll be home in ten minutes.”

“Don’t worry,” Duo called, “I know a shortcut, we can be there in five.”

He climbed down the side of the building the same way Heero had and stood at the bottom looking at the other boy, who raised one eyebrow in scepticism.

“Five minutes, I don’t think so Duo,” he looked up the street the way Quatre and Trowa had walked, “unless you plan on running all the way there?”

“I don’t plan on running anywhere, trust me, I was a street kid when I was little remember?” he grinned at Heero knowing he was going to be proved wrong and revelling in it, “I can find a shortcut to anywhere given enough time, we don’t have to go the long way round.”

Heero still looked sceptical, but he followed Duo anyway as the red head trotted down the side of a building and down an alley that Heero knew for a fact was a dead end.  He kept quiet however, sensing that the boy did indeed know what he was doing. 

Duo came to the boards at the end of the alley, a wall standing at least ten foot high and smooth as a stream-worn pebble.  The boards had vandal grease along the top and sharp pieces of glass sticking from this.  It was made so nobody could go over.  Duo could see Heero looking up at this and wondering how exactly he was going to get them over it.  He grinned; no one could get over certainly, but under was a different story.  He pulled aside a heavy dumpster left by the side of the boards and took one in his hands, it swung sideways at the lightest touch, as he knew it would, and allowed them to pass with ease between itself and the wall.  Once through, Duo pulled the dumpster back across the hole and let the board slide.

“How did you ever find that?” Heero was looking at him baffled.

“I didn’t find it, I made it,” he chuckled, “street smarts, you gotta have them when you live rough.”

They walked across the private property that wall was supposed to keep trespassers out of, and came to the wall at the far side unhindered.  This wall was brick and Heero could see where someone had scored light indents in the brick, which Duo now used to haul himself up onto the wall.  From this vantage point he offered his hand to Heero to help him up.

“I suppose you ground these out yourself?” Heero said, ignoring the proffered hand and using the holes to climb up.

“Naa,” Duo waved this away with one hand as he jumped down, “those were someone else’s work.”

He turned and walked up the road that they had come out on.  Heero followed, noticing as they turned the corner that they were now on the road that the front of their house was situated on.  Duo had been as good as his word; they were back before the other two.

Heero let himself in, wandering into the living room to start a fire going and warm the whole place before the others got back.  They would have felt the cold just as much as Duo and himself only they wouldn’t have been out in it long enough to get used to it and would be craving warmth as soon as they returned.

Duo seemed to be in a better mood now than he had been before and seemed content to just lie down in front of the fire, once it was started, and relax there.  Heero watched the light glint off his hair and make it look as if it was on fire itself.  Duo’s braid was curled over his shoulders and lay pooled by the side of his head, one bang falling across his eyes, which were now closed.  He sat beside Duo, who didn’t even twitch as he did so and seemed to have fallen asleep.  Heero wondered at how he could fall asleep so fast and wondered if the reason for Duo’s dark mood had been that he was tired.

He watched the light from the fire lick at Duo’s cheeks and hair and reached out to push back the bang that lay over his eyes.  As he moved the strand of hair Duo stirred, opening his eyes and smiling languidly up at Heero.

“I thought you were asleep,” Heero said, almost in apology.

“Not quite,” Duo sighed.  He rolled over, placing his head on Heero’s knee and closed his eyes again.  Heero lay his hand on Duo’s shoulder, telling himself it was for lack of anywhere else to put it, and settled to watch the other boy sleep.

They were disturb two minutes later by the other two boys coming in. They ventured into the living room rubbing the backs of their arms to ward off the chill.  Duo went from relaxed to active in the two seconds it took him to realise what was going on.  He jumped to his feet and trotted towards them, then stopped half way across the room to smile widely at them.

Trowa’s gaze was, by now, shifting from Duo to Heero and back again contemplatively, although he didn’t voice whatever suspicion he was harbouring.  He was pulled away from his ponder as Quatre hung himself around his neck, demanding attention and, as always, receiving it.  Quatre wasn’t so much drunk, as happy, but it made him a little more outgoing and Trowa obviously deemed it a good idea to take him upstairs before he embarrassed himself as, with a nod of understanding to Heero, he turned and left the room.

Duo chuckled and went to sit back where he had been, “You would think they were a couple, the way they’re always together,” he chuckled off-hand.

Heero looked over at him, open surprise written on his face, “You mean you didn’t know?” Heero was confounded.

“You mean they are?” Duo didn’t look surprised as much as comprehending.

“Since the war,” Heero couldn’t believe Duo had never picked up on that and yet he seemed to be able to read him like an open book.

Duo nodded and smiled again, “They’re good together.”

Heero didn’t voice an opinion on this, just went to sit by Duo.  He stretched his legs out in front of him and splayed his fingers, placing his hands on his knees.  Duo had, by now, laid his head back on his arms and closed his eyes again, he seemed to be able to switch moods at the slightest inclination, and Heero wondered if this was a trait learnt through experience on the street or just another of Duo’s unusual talents.

“Mmm,” Duo had opened one eye to look up at Heero.

“Mmm?  Mmm what?” Heero knew it had been an answer but not what was being answered.

“Mmm, I learnt it to deal with life on the street more easily, it was what you were wondering wasn’t it?”

“Yes, I was, but how did you…?”

“Oh, I just pick up on these things, anyway, if Quatre and Trowa are a couple then why do they still have separate rooms?”

“Yeh, but only with me I seem to have found.  Anyway, Quatre’s too shy to openly share a room with Trowa, but Trowa hasn’t actually slept in his own bed for nearly a year now, anything else weighing on your mind whilst we’re on the subject?”

The question hadn’t really been meant for answering anyway, but it seemed as if Duo had fallen asleep.  Heero settled back with his back to the rim of the fireplace and contented himself by watching the fire reflect in Duo’s hair.  It made it look an even lighter shade of red than the usual chestnut and made it seem as if it was actually alive.  He made a mental note to stanch the fire before going to bed as he doubted Duo would have the place of mind to do it, and then settled to watching Duo’s hair shine.  He suddenly had the urge to remove the tie at the bottom of Duo’s braid but resisted, knowing how Duo was very particular over who touched his hair. 

Duo looked up suddenly, propping his head on his hand but leaving his eyes half-lidded.  Heero’s breath left him in a sigh at the sight and he only managed to tear his eyes away through sheer willpower.

“Watching me?” Duo asked, half knowing what the answer was.

“The fire reflecting on your hair,” Heero didn’t see the point to lying when Duo could see right through him anyway, he would pick up on a lie immediately.

“Pretty isn’t it?” he’d often done the same thing himself when he was in a relaxed mood.  He suddenly had an idea, if Heero liked the look of his hair bound he would love it loose and Duo, for some reason wanted him to see it like that, as only he himself had before.

He slipped the tie from the bottom, placing it in his pocket, and let his hair unravel itself, as it did through sheer weight alone.  The sudden movement made the firelight shine off it and he heard Heero gasp at the sight.  He was pleased that Heero liked it so much but he wasn’t sure why and pretended he hadn’t heard.

He saw Heero’s fingers twitch from the corner of his vision and smiled slightly.  He hated people touching his hair, hated it being stroked and mauled, but for some reason Heero was different, he didn’t mind if Heero touched it or not, in fact, he wanted him to.  He wondered if this had something to do with the feeling he had had on the roof when Heero had hugged him, surely that had just been because he was cold and tired, or something, right?  Didn’t matter, he took Heero’s hand and placed it in his hair, feeling Heero hesitate he chuckled.

“I won’t bite, besides you were stroking my hair before, on the roof, remember?” Heero seemed to be about to deny this but stopped and looked back at Duo.

“You don’t mind?” the fire was making the other boys eyes shine at this angle and he almost couldn’t keep his composure, good thing he had a lot of practise.

“I don’t mind, I usually don’t let people touch it I know, but I trust you, besides you like it,” he saw Heero look away sharply and then back towards him and away again, he seemed to have been thrown by this statement and he didn’t know how to regain equilibrium.