Author: Chiya
Rating: NC-17
Pairings: 1x2x1, 3+4 and R+1 implied
Warnings: Hmm. Sap, fluff, series spoilers, yaoi, lemon.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything very much, really.
Notes: This is the first of two fics that inhabit the same timeline, but which will be vastly different. This one is the conventional version. There's a poem that goes with it, but I'm not going to post it because my poetry is, as always, crappy.

Paper Hearts

Heero tried not to wince at the familiar sound of someone shifting on the sofa behind him. That incessant scratching noise was getting on his nerves, and he tried to blank it out, gazing at the familiar screen of his laptop and the lines of green code running across it. He wasn't actually doing anything particularly vital, only tweaking some old worm programs, but there was no way that he was going to admit it. He hated being watched; it reminded him far too forcibly of his training, making him twitchy. Heero clenched his jaw for a moment, then made himself relax despite the intermittent scribbling from behind him, and concentrate on the screen.

"Heero?" The voice grated inexplicably on his ears, and he ignored it ­ after all, he was at least pretending to be busy.

"Heero? Heero, are you listening to me?" Heero sighed, closed his eyes, and turned in his chair.

"Relena?"

"Heero." She smiled at him, tipping her head to one side in what he thought might be an unconscious gesture. That smile made him a little uncomfortable, and he wasn't quite sure why. It seemed too happy, blindly so, as though there wasn't a war in progress and people dying at that very moment. It felt... inappropriate, he decided.

"There is a gala performance at the opera house tomorrow night," the girl continued, still beaming. "I would like very much if you ­ and Quatre ­ could attend with the rest of the students."

"Hn." Heero took refuge in meaningless monosyllables, but she still took it as acceptance, and that smile became even wider as she rose from the sofa, closing whatever book she had been writing in and tucking it under her arm expectantly, cocking her head at him.

"I think I'll retire for the night now..."

Heero suppressed a sigh, closing the screen of his laptop and getting up to walk beside her. He knew from experience that if he didn't acquiesce to her in this, he would be treated to sad, sorrowful stares for the next few days, and that was worse than the sighs and smiles. It was a small thing, after all, to walk with Relena and listen to her chattering on about whatever she was planning for the Sanc Kingdom now. He was rarely even required to respond; she seemed to take his grunts as whatever she chose them to mean with perfect equanimity.

They reached a branch in the corridor; one side led off towards the guest rooms where the students were quartered, the other towards the old palace and family wing. Relena paused a moment, smiling at him again. "Good night, Heero..."

He knew that some response was required. "Good night, Relena." Still, he almost dropped his computer in shock when she moved suddenly closer to him, putting her arms around him and pressing her body against his for a long moment. Then she was gone, while he was still trying to conquer the impulse to shove her away, to reach for a weapon. Heero stared after her rapidly retreating back for several moments, then shook himself reproachfully and continued on his way. It was definitely time to get out of this place.

+

This was very confusing, Heero decided, staring at the overly ornate ceiling above his bed. Relena ­ well, she was Relena. And she had hugged him. Heero had suspected for a long time that the girl was fond of him in some way, but this was the first time she had ever touched him in a way that was too intimate for mere acquaintances. At least, Heero thought it was. All the people he had seen hugging before had seemed to be close friends, or possibly lovers. Some had kissed, too.

Relena hadn't kissed him. Heero thought he was glad of that, a little, because then he would probably have been even more confused. Being unexpectedly hugged was bad enough; he wondered what he was supposed to do now, how he was supposed to behave. Should he simply go on as before, or was that socially incorrect somehow? And what had Relena meant by the gesture? Was she just being friendly, or was she trying to make romantic overtures? Heero didn't know.

He shifted on the bed, remembering the feel of her pressed against him. She had been soft, almost unexpectedly so; it had felt strange. She had been only the second person ever to have hugged him, and the feeling of Duo's body against his had been very different. The other boy had been hard rather than soft; Heero remembered surprise that there could be so much muscle on that thin frame. He had been warmer, too, although that might just have been the chill of the nightmare-world that had settled into Heero's flesh.

The main difference, though, seemed to be the way Heero himself had reacted to the embraces. Relena... she had been pliant and delicate-seeming and Heero had felt worried that he might accidentally hurt her somehow. She was stronger than him, but not physically, and she had clung to him in a way that made him strangely uncomfortable. Duo, in contrast, had been strong against him. Duo didn't need Heero to protect him, he could take care of himself, and he had always treated Heero as an equal. He had felt comfortable with Duo's arms around him; more than that, he had felt comforted.

Perhaps, Heero thought, it was simply that Duo was male, and Relena female. Duo was his friend, he had told him so, and Heero was beginning to suspect that Relena wanted something more from him. Although he had studied the biological and sociological aspects of human sexual interaction, it couldn't make up for a childhood surrounded by machines and scientists and assassins. Reference materials and 'net articles couldn't tell him what intimacies denoted certain levels of friendship, or how to tell when someone was trying to make overtures towards him. Hitting on him, Duo had called it; Heero remembered the other boy leaning towards him in the cafeteria after he had glared another overly-familiar schoolgirl away, laughing and whispering to him: "She was so totally hitting on you, man!"

It didn't matter, anyway. Soon, Heero would be gone from here, back to the war, and the walking dead didn't need emotions. He turned over, pulling his gun from the small of his back and slipping it under the pillow after checking the safety was on. He couldn't allow Relena to so easily affect him, he decided ­ and since she was needed for peace, he would just have to improve his self-control around her. Heero closed his eyes, concentrated on his breathing, and slowly initiated his sleep pattern, shutting out the confusing emotions along with thought and sensation.

+

That night, he dreamed. Memory intertwined with fantasy; he felt warm skin against his own, strong arms tight around him. Heero blinked, but the darkness was absolute. Hot breath made his skin tingle, fingers brushed the back of his neck and he shivered, caught up in sensation. A low laugh, soft and amused in his ear, and he knew that he should have felt threatened but somehow it was all so natural. The arms around him shifted, a strong lithe body pressing closer to him and sparking all sorts of new and intense feelings; Heero couldn't keep from lifting his own arms, sliding his hands around a slender muscled back and pulling the other even closer. Breathing hitched, skin slid across skin, and Heero could feel the soft weight of a head resting against his shoulder, the wet heat of lips suddenly pressing into his neck, seeking higher...

When he woke, Heero had no memory of his dream beyond a faint, lingering sensation of warmth. Comfort. Three days later, he left for Luxembourg.

+

The shuttle was tiny and cramped, and the necessity of giving Sally private space tended to force Heero into company with Wu Fei more often than not. The other boy was quiet and introspective, at least around Heero, but it was the mere fact of another presence that bothered him. So when the inevitable happened, and Sally finally managed to tease Wu Fei into a shouting rage, Heero decided to take himself off to Zero's cockpit and get out of the way for a while.

Things were coming to a head, he could feel it. The war, his life maybe. Heero had always thought himself perfectly resigned to not living out the conflict, had thought that he might perhaps even be glad to let it all end. Lately, though, his emotions had been whispering other things to him, other possibilities. The idea of living out the war, seeing his mission completed and peace reinstated... it was beginning to intrigue him. Ever since he had crash-landed in the Pacific, Heero had been experiencing the first stirrings of new and strange emotions, feelings he had found confusing and inexplicable, completely incompatible with his training. These new feelings ­ some of them were unpleasant, yes, painful and nervous and confusing, but they were his. No one had told him to feel this way, this wasn't a mission or an order. The idea that there could be a part of himself that was outside what his training had made of him...

It was exciting. Heero thought he liked it, had come to like the thought that he might yet survive this war. He didn't know what use there would be for a pilot and soldier in a time of pacifism ­ but he wasn't the only one who would be facing such a future. There were thousands of OZ soldiers and White Fang rebels, and uses would have to be found for them. Then there were the other Gundam pilots. Quatre had a life and a family to return to if he survived the conflict, and Trowa had the circus, but Heero knew that Wu Fei had nothing and no one, and Duo... He wondered if Duo would return to the Sweepers, find work in the salvage that seemed so familiar to him? There would certainly be enough debris floating around in space to keep hundreds of people employed for decades...

Perhaps Heero himself could do something of the sort. He might be only a weapon, but he had skills other than killing. He could program and crack, pilot anything that could fly ­ he could protect people. It was possible ­ likely, really ­ that important people like Relena would need protection even in a peaceful world. Anyway, first he actually had to survive this mess that Romefeller and the colonies had created, and the odds on that were low at best.

Lowering himself carefully into the cockpit of his Gundam, Heero could feel the almost subliminal hum that meant that the Zero system was online ­ not active, but awaiting only his command to begin the primary interface and power up the suit's systems. It was comforting in a strange way, something familiar, something that he could deal with. Perhaps it was ironic that the dangerous, mind-altering system felt so comfortable to him, when he could barely even deal with what others seemed to regard as 'normal' emotions. Duo would probably have laughed, in that darkly humourless way of his.

Heero settled himself into the pilot seat, his body adjusting automatically to the smooth contours. He was reaching for the harness before he really thought about it, easy with the familiar movements, but after a moment he let his hands fall loosely to the armrests. He would be joining the other Gundam pilots soon, on Peacemillion ­ would return Trowa's Heavyarms to him and pay off that debt, would meet Quatre again, and Duo. They would be working together, all five of them. Or trying to, anyway ­ Heero knew that he could work with any of them, separately, but he was a little afraid that they were all just too independent to pull together cohesively. He would probably have to figure out a way around that; he had the suspicion that they would need to co-ordinate their efforts soon enough.

The others were easy enough to work with; though Wu Fei could be a little temperamental, and Quatre impulsive, they were excellent soldiers even if they didn't have his or Trowa's training. Duo ­ well, Duo was complicated, but Heero was accustomed to the boy's quirks; they had worked together the longest of any of them, discounting Heero's month of comatose inactivity in Trowa's caravan. Duo had laid into him for that, when they had met up again. Well, he had been too busy dealing with his own pain to get really worked up, but he had been angry. Had accused Heero of not caring enough about his friends to let them know he was still alive, let alone think twice about self-destructing.

Heero had been a little surprised. His friends? Duo was his friend, he accepted that, but Duo was a Gundam pilot too and would surely have done the same ­ and at that point Heero hadn't known any of the other pilots. Had Duo meant Relena? Heero wasn't sure she really counted as a friend ­ she was someone he protected, someone the world needed. She was important to him, yes, but more in terms of what she represented than as an actual person. The idea that a person could have worth because of who they were, not just what they were was a new one for Heero. The thought that others might value him in such a way... it skewed his whole view of the world. He liked it.

+

"Heero! Wu Fei!"

Heero turned at Quatre's excited shout, seconds before a black-clad blur slammed into him with near bruising force, knocking him off balance. Fortunately, he had excellent reflexes and managed to grab a swift hold on the safety rail with one hand even Duo's arms clamped about him, threatening to cut off his circulation. Heero yanked them both back upright instinctually, before the magnets in his boot-soles could disengage under the stress, his other arm awkwardly returning the enthusiastic hug Duo was giving him.

After a moment that was both too long and too short, the other boy pulled away, grinning hugely at him. "You made it without getting shot to pieces, huh?" For a moment, Heero flashed back to their first meeting, the blank burning pain of shot wounds in his arm and thigh... He dropped his hands back to his sides, feeling peculiarly uncomfortable again. It was almost the same kind of feeling as when Relena had hugged him, weeks ago ­ a little embarrassment, a little awkwardness, a strange kind of pleasure in such simple human contact. Almost; Relena's embrace had made him freeze, uncertain, but Duo's arms around him (again, Heero's mind noted clinically) had produced a squirmy, entirely unfamiliar feeling of happiness that only left him feeling more awkward and embarrassed. Knowing Duo, that might have been why he had done it.

Heero followed quietly as Quatre began leading the others on a tour of the ship. Although he knew the original Peacemillion specs from his time in J's laboratory, he could already see that whoever had finished the construction had made substantial modifications to the design. Quite impressive modifications, in places; the suit maintenance equipment was top-of-the-range, and Heero was left with an impression of familiarity. As they made their way out of the hangar bay, Duo dropped back a little to walk beside him. Neither of them spoke for a while, too busy listening to Quatre's explanations, but it was a comfortable silence.

"Um, Heero ­" Duo threw a brief glance at him, then returned his attention to the corridor ahead. "Space is kinda tight at the moment ­ you want to room with me like before? Otherwise you probably won't get much more than a cubbyhole wherever they can find space..."

Heero blinked. "All right." Was it his imagination, or was Duo sounding uncharacteristically... nervous? "How long have you been here?" If Duo had enough room in his cabin for two people, but space was at a premium now, that must mean something.

Duo tucked his hands behind his head, staring up at the ceiling as he strolled along the corridor. Heero noticed that they were dropping a little behind the others, but he wasn't bothered. "Ah, just a couple of weeks this time, but Howard knew I'd be back, so he kept my old room free for me."

"So this ship belongs to the Sweepers?" That explained the familiarity of the design, Heero thought, and also the recognition on the faces of some of the technicians they had seen.

"Well, sorta." Duo shrugged a bit, dropping his arms and kicking at the decking. "Howard built her, but then he gave her to that Zechs guy, except then he took off ­ it's pretty complicated. Here, this way." Duo turned off down a side corridor, kicking off from the floor and propelling himself forward in the low gravity. Heero disengaged his magnetics and followed, careful to stay out of the way of the other pilot's feet. Duo floated to a halt outside a door, tucking and anchoring himself back to the deck, and Heero performed the manoeuvre himself without much thought; every child in the colonies learned to operate effectively in zero-G, and he had been far from an ordinary kid. He noticed, as Duo pressed his palm to the doorplate, that where a name and number-designation would normally be on a bay or cabin door, there was a painted white patch with 'Kid' scrawled on it in what looked like magic marker. Obviously Duo had been associated with the Sweeper Group for a while, Heero thought, and it amused him.

Duo seemed to see that in Heero's expression; he made a disgusted face and muttered something about Howard being worse than an overprotective parent. Heero wondered for a sad moment what it might have been like for him if Odin had lived ­ would their contract have lasted into his teenage years, or would he have been handed over to J's clinical detachment regardless?

"Here you go." Duo bounded into the room, his braid arcing through the air behind him, and Heero caught himself almost putting out a hand to touch it, utterly fascinated by the movement. Whereas Relena always seemed to call up images of Heero's past, memories of a tiny, excitable puppy and the unexpected gift of a flower, Duo reminded him more of a cat ­ all lithe grace and swaying tail. Heero blinked in astonishment at the pictures that thought spawned, and blushed furiously, admonishing himself to pay more attention to reality. This was a war, after all.

The room really was surprisingly large, for a cabin in a space vessel, although Relena and other Earth dwellers would no doubt have found it tiny. There was a narrow desk along one wall, crowded with mechanical parts, some of which looked broken beyond repair, and data disks, with a computer terminal set into the wall. There were print-outs of mobile suit diagrams all over the available wall space, all of Deathscythe Hell, and an impressively high-quality blue-and-black flight suit laid out across the width of the bottom bunk. There was a second bunk jutting from the wall above it, narrower but looking much neater. Ladder rungs were set into the wall, and there was a door in one corner leading to a tiny private head; Heero could see a sonic shower unit and cleanser alongside the usual facilities.

"Hey, Heero, you mind taking the top bunk? I know it's smaller, but it's all made up, and there's an alcove for storage that you could probably use for your computer..." Duo grinned at him, tentatively, and Heero realised that he really was nervous, but he looked attractive despite that. What would Duo have to be nervous about? This was still far more space than he had been expecting, and they had roomed together before.

"No. I don't mind." Heero looked at the flight suit. It was one of the new type, a pressure suit that must fit like a second skin. He wondered what Duo looked like in it. "That's a very good suit."

"Yeah, I know, Quatre had them made specially. Yours will be in Wing by now..." Duo trailed off, flushing a little and not meeting his gaze, and Heero wondered why. "Um, Heero, I'm glad you're not dead, you know?"

Heero was quiet for a moment, absorbing that, then he offered a tentative smile that seemed to surprise Duo a little. "I'm glad you're alive too. Duo." He was; he felt it, like a strange uncomfortable clenching in his chest. The soldier part of him, the part Dr J had trained, was trying to tell him that this feeling was dangerous, a liability, but Heero ignored it. He would hope that Duo would stay alive, and maybe that would be enough. There would be an end to this soon, he could feel it.

Duo smiled at him, that wide happy smile that Heero remembered from before, the one he had thought inappropriate. That had been then, though. Now, the happiness on Duo's face and the sparkle in his eyes ­ shining indigo eyes, a colour that belonged to no one else but Duo ­ struck something in Heero, and before he quite realised it he had stepped forward and put his arms around Duo.

Duo seemed startled, but when Heero didn't do anything but stand there hugging him awkwardly (and beginning to feel foolish), he relaxed, bringing his arms up to hold Heero back. It was... comfortable, and after a while Heero felt the tension draining out of his limbs. He didn't want to move at all, he just wanted to stay here forever with Duo holding him and neither of them saying anything. Heero thought that that probably meant something, but he wasn't quite sure what, and in the meantime he probably should pull back now, because it didn't seem like Duo was going to.

Duo's eyes were dark, soft, and so was his expression, somehow. They just stood and looked at each other for a while, Heero not knowing what to say and wondering where all Duo's words had vanished to.

Duo cleared his throat, sounding uncertain again. "Um, I guess we should get back to the others, huh? We probably all have stuff to talk about..."

"OK." Heero nodded, and tried out an uncertain smile of his own.

+

Heero was dreaming again. It was dark, and close, and arms were winding around him, hands caressing his skin. A familiar voice was whispering in his ear, soft amused words that made his body shiver with anticipation. The hands, the voice, the soft breath against his neck made him want things, things he didn't understand. He reached out, hands contacting skin in the darkness, sliding around strong shoulders, tangling in a soft fall of hair, and he tugged those teasing lips up to his...

...and woke up, gasping.

+

It was very confusing. Heero had decided he needed to think about this. Quatre had come by earlier, looking for Trowa, and Duo had gone off with him, ostensibly to help find the quiet, solitary pilot but more likely to talk to Quatre. Heero knew that sometimes his own lack of social ability frustrated Duo. It was something he wished he could change, if only because of that.

Lately, Heero had begun to suspect that there was something between Quatre and Trowa, something more than the camaraderie of suit pilots who had worked together and who understood each other. Maybe something more than even a very close friendship. He remembered that Trowa had spoken of Quatre, when they had hidden out together. Only once, but considering how rare it was for Trowa to speak much at all, Heero thought it must mean something. And Quatre smiled more than ever when Trowa was there.

It was something he was having difficulty deciphering. If they had a relationship ­ they were only fifteen, sixteen years old. Heero wondered if that was old enough for two people to have a serious kind of relationship. If it was ­ he knew that he was abnormal, but was it then acceptable that he should be feeling these strange things?

It had started that time in Sanc, when Relena had hugged him goodnight. Heero had felt a little uncomfortable; he could not escape the feeling that she was looking for more than friendship, and he didn't quite understand why. She was a friend, he supposed ­ she reminded him of that other girl, and so Heero found it difficult to treat her with indifference. Did she see that as an invitation to... romantic activities? He didn't even have to think about that; the idea felt vaguely distasteful.

It was different with Duo. It always had been, as though the braided pilot was simply in a category all of his own. Best friend, maybe, but Trowa was a friend, and Quatre, and Heero didn't think of them this way. Or dream of them, awakening with their names on his lips and phantom touches ghosting along his skin. Duo was a smiling, laughing bundle of energy in public, but Heero had seen underneath that mask a few times, and he knew just how sensitive the other boy really was. He didn't want to harm Relena, but the idea of hurting Duo was simply abhorrent. The boy was strong, though, he could look after himself, Heero tried to reassure his confused mind. Duo didn't need his protection, so why was he taken with the strange urge to throw himself between the other pilot and danger? That was a liability if anything was.

Duo was special. That was all that Heero could think. Special in his own right, and special to Heero. Heero wondered if this was what romantic feelings were supposed to be like. He had seen other couples in the past, he remembered watching with surreptitious guilt as boys and girls in movies and vid-shows walked together in parks, held hands, kissed each other. He had been confused by the emotions they showed then, but now he thought he might understand, a little. Heero thought he might like to hold Duo's hand, although the idea of walking in a park with him ­ it was very nearly incomprehensible, outside his range of experience. And kissing ­ Heero could not remember being kissed by anyone. Ever. He wondered if it could possibly feel as good as all those books and films seemed to indicate. He wondered if Duo would want to touch Heero that way.

...or other ways, his body reminded him inevitably; those dreams had felt both comfortable and delicious, and Duo really was very attractive, with his wide indigo eyes and that long braid swishing against his back. Heero wanted to know what all that utterly impractical hair would look like loose, floating about the boy's face...

Heero was a boy. This was an inescapable fact, and it was entirely possible that Duo might not be interested in doing romantic things with another boy. There was that girl he had talked about, Hilde something, and even if he did hug Heero in a way he couldn't help but classify as nice, he wore a cross and the clothing of a Catholic priest. Heero didn't know, and he had no idea how one was supposed to find out such things or talk about them. He had tried accessing materials on the 'net, but most of what he found seemed to deal with more... sexual matters, and while it had been undeniably interesting, and he had filed the information away for future reference, he didn't think that was really what he needed right now.

Heero looked up as the door swished open, and smiled at Duo, feeling himself blush ridiculously. It wasn't even as though he had been doing anything, just thinking, and he felt somewhat betrayed by his previously obedient body. J would have had a fit, if he could have seen the way his so-called 'perfect weapon' was behaving. Strangely, Heero thought he liked that idea.

"Hey, Heero." Duo grinned up at him, tossing some new piece of metal onto the already cluttered desk. It looked like part of an old gyroscope system that had been left to rust too long. "What are you up to?"

Heero shrugged. "Nothing. Thinking."

"Oh, OK." Duo flung himself down onto his own bunk, and for a while there was a kind of comfortable quiet as they both stared up at the ceiling.

"So," Duo said after a while, in that quiet tone of voice that seemed uncharacteristic until you knew him better. "You like that girl, huh?"

Heero frowned. What was Duo talking about? "What girl? Do you mean Relena?"

Duo laughed, quietly and without much mirth, it seemed. "Yeah, that's the one. You keep rescuing her, you must like her, hmm Heero?"

Heero peered over the edge of the bunk, curious now. Their conversations had not taken this turn before. "I like her, I suppose. She has the strength to remain a pacifist even in these times; I hope she'll be able to teach that to the Earth, and the Colonies. I also wish she would show some more intelligence, and stop needlessly throwing herself into danger. She follows me around."

Duo laughed, looking up at him with his hands behind his head and his ankles crossed. "Yeah, I have to say I noticed that. Like a puppy." Heero winced a little at that, the sudden image of the tiny broken body too immediate to ignore, and Duo frowned up at him. "Hey, Heero, you OK?"

"Yes." Heero swallowed. "I've thought that too, that Relena is like a small dog of some kind. I doubt she'd appreciate the comparison." He had made Duo laugh, and it sent a warm glow through him. Perhaps normal socialisation wasn't so far outside his grasp after all. "You're not like her," he observed quietly. "You're more like a cat, I think..."

Duo blinked up at him in startlement, something indefinable in his face, and Heero felt a weird lurch in his chest. "You think I'm a cat?" His voice was low, almost a purr; it made Heero shiver a little. A good kind of shiver.

"Mm. A black cat." Duo's smile was suddenly blinding, and Heero couldn't seem to stop the words that poured from his mouth. "I think Relena likes me. She watches me, and she has already hugged me. I'm afraid she'll try to kiss me next, but I don't want that. I don't want to kiss anyone but you."

The silence seemed to stretch through a series of dizzyingly long moments, as Heero watched the expression on Duo's face change from amusement to frowning to startlement to sheer disbelief. "Heero?" he all but whispered, one fist clutching his braid so hard that Heero thought his nails must be embedding themselves in his palm, but the other reaching out, up. "Did you just...?"

"I like you. I want..." Heero let his arm drop over the side of the bunk, fingers dangling down to brush against Duo's. It felt good, like the contact sent a tingling rush of sparks through him, and he couldn't help but imagine what a kiss might feel like, if this was so good. Duo smiled up at him, all of a sudden looking deliciously wanton. Beautiful. Heero almost said so, but the words tripped themselves up before they reached his tongue.

"Come here." Duo stroked his fingers gently over the skin of Heero's wrist, grasping his arm and tugging lightly. Heero allowed himself to relax, rolling over the edge of the bunk and drifting downwards through air that felt thick. Duo was smiling, a smile that was just for him. It was wonderful. Heero experienced a dizzying rush of happiness, and managed to squash the little soldier's voice that was nattering in the back of his skull, telling him that this was a bad idea, a risk... That didn't have to be part of him right now.

Duo caught at his shoulders, pulling him down to sit on the bunk, sitting up beside him. Suddenly their faces were so close, and Heero swallowed a little, reaching out to capture one hand as Duo drew them back. The other boy's fingers were warm in his, soft, although he could feel the calluses from tools and control sticks. Like his own. Duo was like him. It felt... right.

Heero looked into indigo eyes and felt the bottom fall out of his world as Duo leaned forward and brought their lips together. It was a small kiss, really, just a short brush of lips that sent a shiver through him, but as Duo pulled away Heero found that his eyelids had fluttered closed.

"Like it?" There was a definite purr in Duo's voice now, and his fingers were stroking Heero's palm ever so gently.

"Mmm..." Heero sighed, opening his eyes. It crossed his mind to wonder where all his control had gone, but it didn't seem to matter. It didn't matter at all. "More?"

Duo laughed and moved in again, speaking directly against his lips. "God, Heero, do you have any idea how badly I just want to push you down right now and do all sorts of wicked things to you?" His tongue flicked out against Heero's bottom lip, and they both gasped, Heero unable to keep from parting his lips, inviting Duo back for more.

It was at that exact point that the peace of their moment was shattered by the blaring of the alarm sirens, and Howard's voice issuing from the speaker overhead.

"Libra is sending out Mobile Doll troops!"

+

[cont]