---------------------
 One Weekend in April
~ A Moment of Haven ~
---------------------
	"Now how many times have I told the staff not to leave bored 
Maxwells around in the halls?"

	Duo didn't need to look up from his magazine to know who it was 
that had so casually insulted him.  "Hey, Wufei, it's not like I'm in 
the middle of the hallway where someone could trip over me or 
something."

	Wufei himself took a seat next to him in the cheap plastic 
chairs of an institutional waiting room, thus removing himself from the 
sparse flow of traffic in the hallway.  "Yuy is still with the doctors, 
I presume?" he asked, inclining his head towards the doorway of the base 
infirmary.

	Disliking the feel of the inside of the infirmary, Duo had 
elected to wait outside for his partner.  "Yup.  I swear, every time it 
seems like it takes more time than less to finish up the tests.  We're 
supposed to be getting better, after all.  You'd think there'd be less 
to worry over in that case."

	"As I understand it, Yuy undergoes the most tests of us all."

	"Yeah, I understand that.  I'm just complaining for the heck of 
it.  Staying in shape, you know.  But I'm glad they do all the tests and 
stuff, I guess, but they take the brain scans on one schedule, do the 
bone density exams on another, etc... Today several of them just happen 
to coincide, that's all."

	"I did not expect Yuy to submit to all the testing so easily," 
Wufei admitted.

	Duo shugged.  "What could he do?  They mostly benefit him, too, 
after all.  The brain scans helped to track the course of his Zero 
headaches.  The bone and soft tissue and whatever the hell else tests 
they do go towards him staying in a healthy body and hopefully not 
having the body of an eighty-year-old by the time he's twenty-five.  
Side effects of a high impact youth, ya know.  Well, that and engaging 
in numerous mobile suit battles fought under ludicrous g-forces.  I 
think the test he probably finds the most frivolous is the psych eval."

	"Yes, well some of us need it more than others," Wufei said 
wryly, arching a significant look at the boy with the braid sitting next 
to him.

	"Hey, Laurie wrote me off as clean last time, thank you very 
much."

	"Laurie?  You're on a first name basis with the base 
psychologist?"

	"Why not?  She's a nice lady.  I stopped by and said hi to her 
earlier today.  We had a short chat, and she gave me a cookie.  A really 
good cookie, too."

	"When did you two get in?" Wufei asked, choosing not to argue 
the merits of cookie-toting psychologists.

	"Little after lunch.  We stopped in the city to get Heero's hair 
cut first, and then we came here.  Heero filed a brief preliminary 
report with Une on his research, and then he reported here.  And I 
dropped by the training center to impart some of my wisdom to the 
trainees there."

	"A haircut?  You flew all the way to Brussels to get a haircut?"

	"And see our doctor.  Bet not too many people can say that."  It 
wasn't necessarily something to be proud of, but saying it like it was 
made it all better.  What truly amused him was that the Preventers paid 
their passage, too.  There was a slot for them in the annual budget, 
what Duo lovingly termed the Gundam Pilot Mollification Fund, out of 
which their business-related travel expenses and fees were paid.  
Basically, they felt the ex-pilots to be less of a threat if they were 
both accounted for and guaranteed enough money to keep them away from a 
life of crime.  "You know Heero," he finished off with a shrug.

	"Yes, I do.  And while I understand the part about the doctor, I 
fail to see the meaning behind the haircut."

	Duo might not have told someone else, but he could tell one of 
their fellow pilots.  They might even understand.  "Heero's got this 
thing about letting people near him, and especially his vital parts, 
while they're holding potentially lethal objects, like scissors or 
razors.  He can tolerate it if he has to, just like he could probably 
tolerate every bloody thing under the sun and then some, but he'd prefer 
not to, of course."

	"Perfectly understandable," Wufei conceded.

	"So one day we're in the area and I decide he needs a haircut.  
He yields to my superior judgment, but impresses upon me his own list of 
requirements.  Eventually, he finds this hair guy in the city that does 
contract work with the Preventers sometimes.  You know, for undercover 
missions and stuff?  So, since this guy is approved of by the 
establishment, and knows how to cut according to precise specifications, 
Heero prefers to get his hair cut in Brussels."

	"I suppose you are also present to keep a close eye on the 
barber, just in case he turns out to be a double agent?" Wufei asked 
dryly.

	"Stylist," he corrected with a smirk.  "He prefers to be called 
a stylist.  And he's great because Heero doesn't really care what we do 
to his hair, so long as it's reasonable and functional and stuff, so we 
get to do as we please, pretty much.  It's pretty fun.  And we get to 
talk about him like he's not even there."

	"You are easily amused," Wufei observed blandly.

	"Yup," Duo agreed with a cheerful nod.  "Better than having a 
bored Maxwell lounging around the halls, isn't it?"

	The full-time Preventer snorted, thankfully saved from further 
comment by sounds coming from the inside of the room before them.  From 
Duo's position, he had a clear view of the room, and he tossed his 
magazine aside and bounced to his feet when he saw Heero emerge from the 
bowels of the infirmary, where lay a good deal of medical equipment 
beyond what would normally be stocked in a simple infirmary.

	"Hey, buddy," Duo said, touching the back of his hand jokingly 
to Heero's forehead.  "Everything good to go?"

	Heero tilted his head away from the contact, and the hand fell 
away to land briefly on his shoulder on its brushing way down the front 
of his chest before returning to its master's side.  The action passed 
unremarked upon by any.  "Wufei," he murmured by way of greeting before 
turning back to his partner.  "They've finally decided that my levels of 
neurological activity have truly stabilized, so this was my last set of 
scans.  They did a full battery, though, to have a complete record of my 
baseline levels in case anything happens later on."

	"Yeah?  One down, then.  How about the joints?"

	Heero shrugged.  "As well as can be expected, considering."  He 
was rather accustomed to the various aches and pains he got on occasion, 
although they didn't bode well for the future.  For that reason, he 
tolerated treatment for it.  He thought it only fair that he be allowed 
as many years to enjoy peace as he had lived with war.  It would be 
exceedingly silly for him to get arthritis in a few years because he 
hadn't taken proper care of himself.  The doctors sometimes seemed to 
look at him with a certain gleam in their eye, however.  He had the 
sneaking suspicion that they enjoyed having him in to be studied for the 
effects and treatment of extreme mobile suit piloting, especially where 
the Zero system was involved.  Perhaps Une hadn't been the only one 
pushing to have Zero analyzed.

	He turned to Wufei, ending the discussion of his health.  "When 
can we leave for Relena's?"

	Wufei noticed the ex-Wing pilot's hair was much the same as 
before, with its unstyled tousled look, only less... fluffy.  Duo and 
the stylist apparently liked Heero's hair as it was.  "If you're done 
here, almost immediately."

                              ************

	Not everyone could get a few days off for a birthday party, even 
if that birthday was her very own, so Relena was unavailable to greet 
them when they got in, but she had all the arrangements made in advance 
for their arrival.  Pargan met them at the door and directed another 
servant to show them to their rooms.  He wasn't so keen on climbing the 
stairs any more.

	Heero was stowing his bag away when a knock sounded on his door, 
only it wasn't the door leading to the hallway.  "Come in," he called 
towards the other door in his room.

	The door opened, and Duo stuck his head in through the doorway.  
"Am I the only one that finds it suspicious that Relena stuck us in 
adjoining rooms?"

	Heero's lips quirked in a very mild way as he gestured with a 
tilt of his head that Duo ought to come in.  "I wouldn't call it 
suspicious at all.  I'd call it very reasonable from her point of view."

	Duo eyed him cautiously as he slipped inside and shut the door 
behind him.  "You're calling it something we should get used to, aren't 
you?"

	His partner nodded, noting with some contentment that he found 
the slightly sour, slightly pouty expression on Duo's face to be sort of 
endearing.

	Duo sighed dramatically, throwing his head back with a hand 
pressed to his forehead in a swoon, the other hand clutching at his 
heart as he staggered a few more steps into the room.  "She's already 
played matchmaker and succeeded.  Just why is she continuing her ploys 
to get us together?"

	"I think she thinks she's helping.  Or maybe it just amuses 
her."  Hmmm, why did he feel somehow... just generally 'better' or 
'lighter' when Duo took a few steps closer to him?  He took the laptop 
he had set down temporarily on top of his bed and moved it to the small 
dresser on the other side of the bed, observing that the feeling 
decreased a little as he did.  Was that in truth, or merely his 
imagination?  The mind could play all sorts of tricks on a person when 
he wasn't looking.  Maybe it only felt that way because he had thought 
that it might feel that way.  He treated his mind to a tiny glare for 
its inconsistency.  It stuck its tongue out in return, replying with a 
self-righteous smugness that the truth wasn't important, so much as the 
perception.  He hn'ed at it and decided he might try finding out for 
himself.

	"This amuses her?" Duo repeated flatly, although there was a 
faint whiff of his own amusement in there, too.  "She's amused by us?  
Isn't that delightful.  This only confirms the fact that we need to be 
as amused by her as she is by us."

	Heero shook his head internally as he took a few steps back 
around the bed towards Duo.  Duo was rather retribution-driven 
sometimes, but it was just something that made him Duo.  "Not this 
weekend.  We have very little to work with right now."

	"Ah, that's what you think," Duo tsked with a shake of his head, 
drifting a slow meter or so closer to the bed and Heero.  It didn't make 
sense to him that they be speaking over such distance.  "You're not 
using your imagination."

	Well, he certainly hoped not.  "I'll leave the imagining in your 
capable hands."  He closed in a few more steps, and took stock of the 
situation.  Hmm, there seemed to be something... a faint tightening of 
his chest, cut through with a hint of a lighthearted comfort.  
Promising, but still suspect.  There was still the possibility of it 
being his imagination.  It could also have been caused by, say, the 
thrill of conducting his private little experiment.  Darn.  This 
warranted further investigation.

	"Excellent decision.  I'm thinking, oh, maybe something like 
when they trapped me in that mall.  Or should I say, when you ruthlessly 
abandoned me to their mercy?"

	"You volunteered."

	"Ugh, don't remind me.  So now the odds are two against one 
again, but in our favor, this time.  ...You know, there was a time when 
fifty against one was considered standard and totally overcomeable, so 
when you think about it, I guess it was a little pathetic for me to be 
cowed by only two women, but dammit, women can be much more intimidating 
than Tauruses!  Especially ones that have 'your own best interest' at 
heart.  Of course, if I'd had Deathscythe with me, I could have taken 
them easily.... Uh, Heero, what are you doing?"

	He'd thought that Heero was moving around the bed to get back to 
his bag, maybe, or check out his room, which mirrored this one, but he 
hadn't expected him to glide silently across the floor to end up right 
in front of him.  Heero slowed, but he didn't stop as he approached, 
just kept on going until Duo was unconsciously backing away from him.  
He put a halt to that with an arm reaching out to hook Duo around the 
waist, and proceeded to press himself against him.

	"...Um, something I can help you with, Heero?" Duo said, 
suppressing a note of anxiety even as he automatically moved an arm up 
to grasp at Heero's shoulder from behind.  A hug wasn't a bad thing, but 
this was weird.

	"Just investigating the relationship between the distance 
between us and my comfort level."

	"Oh.  Uh, well, I hope you're finding an inverse proportion?"

	"Aa.  So far, it seems that the less distance between us, the 
more comfortable I am."

	"I see."  Well, it was still weird, and it was apparently a 
scientific experiment of some sort, but it was also still a hug, so he 
allowed himself to relax into it a bit.  He hardly wanted to mess with 
Heero's findings, right?  "Hey, so since there's no space between us, 
does this mean you're infinitely comfortable right now?"

	"Not quite.  I had to compensate with a translation in the 
negative x direction, otherwise I'd be at a negative comfort level if I 
were inside you."

	Duo barely managed not to stiffen in surprise, but his eyes did 
bug out a little as all of his thoughts fell out of his mind to land on 
his toes.  "Oh," was about all he could meep out.

	Apparently he held himself unnaturally still and silent because 
Heero noticed and pulled away, took a single look at his reddening 
expression, and allowed the tiniest of crinkles to form at the corner of 
his eyes.  "We should go hunt down Wufei."

	Duo stared at him as he turned to walk towards the door, then 
blinked several times before coming back to himself.  "Dammit, Yuy!  You 
did that on purpose, didn't you?"

	Heero continued along his way, Duo's half-hearted glare bouncing 
ineffectually off his back.

                              ************

	When the doorbell rang, Duo was the first to get there.  He took 
an automatic look through the peephole, noting with an absent irritation 
that he had to stand a bit on his toes to peer through it, before 
undoing the lock and flinging the door open.

	"Quatre's here!" he hollered for the benefit of anyone who might 
be listening, even though they were right behind him.

	"Duo," the blonde businessman greeted sunnily.  "It's good to 
see you again."

	"Come in, come in!"  Duo ushered him inside as comfortably as if 
this were his own house.  When Pargan showed up, Duo apologized for 
usurping his job.  The elderly butler told him to think nothing of it, 
of course, and when Duo asked where Quatre's rooms were so he could walk 
his friend up, the old man informed him and watched them with an eye 
filled with nostalgia for the days when he had as much energy.

	"Oh, hey guys!," Quatre managed to say to the others as Duo 
started pushing him along.  "What's the rush, Duo?"

	"Come on, we gotta dump your bag so you can chat with your hands 
free!"

	Halfway up the stairs, Trowa materialized in the front doorway, 
but Duo took a look at him and declared that the other two could take 
care of him.  He waved and continued to haul Quatre towards his room.

	By the time they got to the top of the stairs, Quatre made Duo 
slow down a bit.  "Duo," he started in mild tones.  "Is it just me... 
or, well..."

	"Well what?" Duo said, the bouncy, overexaggerated cheerfulness 
over for now.  It was fun to pull out once in a while, just to make 
everyone look at you funny, but if you kept it on too long, then people 
reeeeeaaally started to look at you funny.  Or else they just started 
looking everywhere but at you.  He had only been trying to regain some 
ground after his confrontation with Heero, anyway.

	"Well..."  Quatre glanced over his shoulder.  "It just seems to 
me that... that you've never really gotten along all that well with 
Trowa, that's all."

	Phew, and for a moment there, he thought that Quatre had somehow 
been able to detect his new relationship with his housemate.  He didn't 
think he'd mind if Quatre figured it out, but it would have been 
downright unnerving if he had it figured out within half a minute of 
just looking at him.  "What, just because I left him with Heero and 
Wufei?  He's a big boy.  I'm sure he'll fit right in with the other 
guys, anyway."  Besides, he just liked Quatre better.  They'd spent some 
memorable times together.  That didn't have to mean he didn't like 
Trowa.

	Quatre knew very well that Duo was deliberately misunderstanding 
his point.  "That's not what I mean, and you know it, Duo."

	Duo tossed him a gauging look, then dropped the act, although 
not necessarily all the misdirection.  "We get along fine, don't we?"

	"Well, you certainly aren't at each other's throats or 
anything... but you just don't seem... very close, I suppose."

	He took a breath, thought about questioning the necessity that 
he be close with everyone, discarded that idea, decided to just go ahead 
and admit it, and then exhaled his breath with a small sigh.  "I 
suppose."

	"Why is that?  Did he do something wrong?"

	"No, not really."  Duo didn't really know why Quatre had to go 
and open this can of worms, but he supposed that that was just Quatre's 
way.  It wasn't a big deal.  Like he said, they weren't at each other's 
throats or anything.  He respected Trowa, really, he did.  There was 
just... some history.  "Look, on a lot of levels, I can bond with the 
guy.  He's great, got an interesting sense of humor, etc., and of course 
I'd trust him with my life.  But you gotta understand, Quatre...."  He 
didn't want to say it aloud, but now that Quatre had gotten a hold of 
the subject, he knew he'd have to 'fess up sooner or later, one way or 
another.  Best if he do it in a controlled environment.  Hopefully it 
wouldn't sound too petty when it came out.

	"I haven't spent much time with him.  The experiences we shared 
during the war are bound to form a foundation for any relationship 
between us.  And you know what experiences he and I shared?  Let's see.  
He blew up Deathscythe, for starters."

	"He was undercover!" Quatre protested on his friend's behalf.  
It had always seemed sort of odd to him that Duo hadn't warmed up to 
Trowa very much as time went by, but he never thought to mention it 
until now.

	"I know he was, Quatre.  But that doesn't change the fact that 
he blew up Deathscythe.  That was traumatic, okay?"  He blinked a couple 
of times and shook his head, forcing the image of the destruction of his 
beloved partner out of his mind's eye.  It hadn't been a good thing, 
seeing it broadcast on a huge screen in the middle of a plaza crowded 
with gawkers.

	"And then when we were all at the Lunar base," he continued, "he 
punched me in the gut.  Yeah, yeah, I know.  He was undercover.  And he 
was giving me the specs for our new rides.  Doesn't change the fact that 
he punched me.  Oh, and he saved Heero.  Major brownie points, yeah, but 
then he didn't bother to tell the rest of us."  Having arrived at the 
proper hall, he counted the doors and marked Quatre's room before 
heading over.  "But you know, that's all water under the bridge.  I 
understand why he did what he did.  But I never really got to know 
anything else about him besides that for a while, so that was all I had 
to go on.  And then when I find him at the circus and finally make some 
friendly overtures, what happens but his crazy sister comes out, about 
ready to bite my head off!"

	"Well, Catherine's always like that," Quatre offered, as if that 
made it any better.  "She was even worse with me, I think.  And I think 
Heero said that she threatened him, too, when he took off with Trowa 
after his recovery.  I think the only one of us she hasn't scared off is 
Wufei."

	Duo chuckled, reaching the right door and opening it up.  He let 
Quatre precede him into the room, then went in and shut the door behind 
him.  The room was about the same as his own, but no door leading to an 
adjoining chamber.  "Lucky him.  Next time I need to send Trowa a 
message or something, I'll forward it through Wufei.  But enough about 
that.  How have you been doing?"  He hadn't completely explained the 
situation in excruciating detail to Quatre, but hopefully he would 
either drop it, or figure the rest out on his own.

	"Not bad," Quatre answered, dropping his bag on the bed.  He 
unzipped it and started pulling a few things out that he didn't want to 
get too wrinkled or smooshed.  "The company keeps me busy, of course."

	"Oh yeah, about that.  You know, Quatre, I never really got to 
thank you for... well, for Heero's gift, I suppose."

	Quatre smiled warmly.  "Think nothing of it.  Heero gave me a 
call afterwards.  He said you really appreciated it.  That's all the 
thanks I need."

	He blinked.  "He did?  Wow, that was... oddly considerate of 
him.  I ought to have called myself earlier.  It just... you know.  Went 
poof.  Anyway, yeah, I really did.  It means a lot to me.  Did he... did 
he tell you what it was for?"  He wasn't quite sure what he wanted the 
answer to that question to be.

	Quatre shook his head.  "Enough for me to get it cast, that's 
about all.  All I needed to know was that it was important to you, and 
that's all he told me."

	"Do you... want to know?"  He didn't particularly relish the 
idea of having to tell the tale, but he figured it was the least he 
could do if Quatre wanted to hear it.  He was quite relieved when Quatre 
shook his head again, and he hoped it didn't show, but this was Quatre 
after all.

	"No, Duo, that's alright.  You don't have to tell me if you 
don't want to.  I'm just glad I could help.  There are more than enough 
buildings and trusts and things with the Winner name attached to them as 
it is.  I'm happy that one of them could be put to use as something 
meaningful."

	"It was very, very meaningful," Duo promised him earnestly.  "To 
me, anyway.  I'll probably still be the only person that cares for the 
rest of eternity, but no matter what, I can't thank you enough."

	Quatre laid a gentle hand on his shoulder.  "You're not the only 
person, Duo.  It means a lot to Heero and me, too, I think, if in a 
slightly different way."  He laughed a little, removing his hand.  "I 
was a bit surprised when Heero called me last year.  I thought it was a 
wonderful idea, of course, but, how did you put it?  Oddly considerate 
of him."

	"Ahem."  Duo ran a hand through his bangs and avoided eye 
contact for a moment.  "Yeah, Heero tends to do that once in a while.  
You'd think I'd be used to it by now, but no, he still has the power to 
surprise me."

	"Oh?"

	"Yeah.  For instance, I'm currently in the middle of discovering 
that Heero can have a very dry, twisted, wicked sense of humor, and it 
comes out in the strangest ways sometimes.  I've been seeing a whole new 
side to him lately."  He could almost feel the heat threatening to rise 
to his face in memory of what Heero had last said to him in his room, 
and he changed the subject in a flash.  "We should probably get out of 
here and get back to the others."

                              ************

	The three of them watched the other two disappear up the stairs, 
Wufei with his brow raised at their hasty departure.

	Heero took note of the expression and defended his partner's 
behavior.  "I think he just wanted to have a word with Quatre."

	"Ah."  This time his brow knit in mild consternation.  "He's not 
planning anything, is he?"

	"I don't think so."

	"Heero's the one planning something, isn't he?" Trowa added.

	"Yes, I sort of wish it was more diabolical, though," Wufei said 
with a small smile.

	"Next time, perhaps.  Although you're free to plan something if 
you like."

	Wufei declined the invitation with a shake of his head, and 
together they drifted up the stairs in the wake of the others towards 
Trowa's room.

                              ************

	Relena didn't have anything delightfully special planned for the 
occasion.  She had instead looked forward to simply spending some 
downtime with some people close to her that she didn't get to see very 
often.  It was also somewhat fulfilling to help give these five people 
an excuse to meet with each other.  It wasn't often that all of them 
were together at once.  There was a quiet dinner, followed by a low-key 
adjournment to a sitting room.

	Which was all very well and good, but it was Relena's little 
get-together, and she wanted to have some fun.  "Heero," she said 
brightly, tugging playfully on his hand.  "Dance with me."

	He blinked at her, obviously noting the lack of music in the 
room, or motivation in general for such a request.

	She plied a winsome smile on him and tugged again, this time 
succeeding in pulling him away from the end table he had been leaning 
against.  "I can dance all of the dances I need for the sorts of parties 
that I attend, but I want to learn something different."

	"I'm not the one to teach you," he pointed out, even as he 
followed her to an open space in the room.  It was her birthday, after 
all, and he'd already ruined one of those for her, as she had been quick 
to bring up earlier in an attempt to guilt him into protecting her when 
Duo came a-calling.

	"Of course you are.  I want to learn something scandalous."

	"Duo," he called out automatically for assistance.  Duo was much 
better at scandalous.

	Duo blinked innocently at him from his place by Quatre's side, 
as if to say, 'who, me?' before quite deliberately turning away to talk 
to his companion.

	"Pay attention," Relena reprimanded, taking his hands and 
positioning them.  "Show me how to tango."

	Heero sighed, a soft exhalation that could have passed for a 
regular breath.  "How does this always happen to me?"

	"It's your own fault," Relena answered matter-of-factly.  "You 
just looked so good at it, last time."

	It took Heero half a moment to figure out when 'last time' was.  
"Ah.  When you first... started forming your opinions."

	"That's it.  It was such a memorable occasion.  Now what do we 
do?"

	He turned them in a direction where they wouldn't run into 
anything and adjusted their hand positions without thought.  "Now we 
walk."  He stepped forward with his left foot, giving Relena some time 
to respond without kicking her in the shin, then repeated with the 
right.  "Why the sudden interest?  Finally find someone you'd like as a 
partner?"

	She rolled her eyes good-naturedly at him.  "Is this the payback 
Duo referred to last month?"

	"No, this is only normal.  Well, that and I think we need to 
divert your attention.  We're going to side-step now."

	"You wouldn't deprive me of the only joy in my life, now would 
you, Heero?  I thought you said side-step."

	"One forward step, then the side-step, then close.  That's a 
basic five-step pattern.  We need to find you some other sources of 
joy."

	"Yes," she answered with the honeyed tones of a politician, "but 
until you do, you'll just have to put up with me.  You know, these steps 
are remarkably mundane."

	He angled them away from the floor lamp and repeated the 
pattern.  "Fine."  He didn't really mind too much.  He bore it all with 
the calm acceptance of an older brother indulging a little sister.  Duo, 
on the other hand... he'd have to work on convincing him to be just as 
amused as they were by all of it.  "Just don't get too carried away.  
You wouldn't want to alienate anyone, now would you?"

	"Aha!  I saw that."  He cocked an inquisitive eyebrow at her.  
"You broke eye contact," she explained triumphantly, casting her eyes 
pointedly in Duo's direction, where Heero had glanced when he had 
thought of him.  She looked back at Heero with a glint in her eye before 
dropping out of position and backing off a step.  "We're missing 
something," she declared, using a voice less quiet and private than the 
one she had employed while speaking to her teacher.  "I think I need to 
study the overall effect of the tango first before I can really 
appreciate the individual steps.  Duo?"

	"Huh?"  Duo's head popped up from where he had been sniggering 
over something Wufei had said.

	Relena left Heero where he was standing and flounced her way 
over to the boy with the braid.  Taking him by the arm, she gave him a 
firm push towards her erstwhile partner.  "Duo, dance for me."

	"Huh?" he said again, turning around as he stumbled his way 
towards Heero.

	She blinked clear blue eyes at him.  "Well, Heero showed me some 
basic steps, but that hardly measures up to what the two of you are 
capable of.  I'd like to see how it looks with two people that know what 
they're doing.  You danced it with such fire, last time."

	"Maybe that's because they have the ability to stare each other 
in the eye like two starving wolves competing for the same carcass of 
deer," Wufei proposed, watching as Duo tripped himself into Heero's 
arms, still supposedly reeling from Relena's shove.  Duo had the 
propensity to play up his bumbling image sometimes.  "It's all about the 
attitude, after all."

	Heero 'helped' Duo get himself sorted out, after which the two 
of them stood sufficiently close to each other, but did not move their 
arms into position.  "Hey there, short, dark, and handsome," Duo 
smirked.  "Didn't expect to meet you here again like this."

	"Hn."  Since Duo was smirking for the both of them, the extent 
of Heero's amusement was seen almost exclusively in the sparkle of his 
eye.  "Indeed.  What a coincidence."

	"Coincidence.  Of course."  They stared at each other like rabid 
wolves some more before Duo broke it off and spun away cheerfully.  "I 
think it's time for Relena's presents!"  And then he bounced off quite 
deliberately to go fetch their gift, forcing the others to follow suit.

                              ************

	The next morning, Heero and Duo were waiting in the sitting room 
for everyone else to trickle their ways downstairs.  Soon enough, Relena 
joined them.  "Good morning."

	"Morning," Duo answered for the two of them.  They had been 
sitting on the couch talking to each other before she came in the room.  
They were accustomed to waking early in the morning for some exercise.

	"I trust you two slept well?"

	Duo eyed her suspiciously.  With her sweet face and polite 
tones, it sounded like she was simply inquiring after the accommodations 
of her guests.  From anyone else, it might have sounded like a sly 
insinuation.  Knowing what he knew, he couldn't quite decide which he 
thought it was, so he just nodded pleasantly and neutrally in response.

	She smiled.  "Oh, since you're both here, I can show you the 
reports on the agenda planning that we were talking about earlier."  She 
shuffled a few papers on the top of one of the tables in the room and 
pulled out a few sheets before returning to their side.  "Move over," 
she demanded in a friendly tone of voice, dropping herself into the 
small space left over at the left end of the two-seater couch.  Ever a 
gentleman, Duo automatically scooted himself over to make some room for 
her, which resulted in him being pressed comfortably close to Heero's 
side, a fact he didn't realize until after it was done.  It was then 
that he decided that Relena must have definitely been trying to 
insinuate something with her previous remark.

	"This is only the summary of the progress reports.  If you want 
to know more about something, I can refer you to the rest of the fifty 
page report.  Hmm, here's something on L2.  It's a summary of last 
year's agenda and what was done about it."  She handed the page to Duo.

	Duo took it and immediately handed it off to Heero at his right.  
"Bureaucrats," he said disdainfully, rolling his eyes.  "Come on, give 
me the dirt on this year."

	She flipped through the pages again and pulled another one out.  
"This starts in on the economic situation..."  She handed the paper to 
Duo, watching critically as he took it in his right hand, then she took 
a chance and selected the next sheet.  "That one leads into this one, on 
raising the standard of living."

	Her bet paid off when Duo switched the second page to his left 
hand and once again took the new one with his right.  She left him 
studying the notes intently and took her next gamble.  "This sheet 
summarizes the financial impact, positive and negative, of the proposed 
plans."  She negligently held up the sheet rather than handing it to one 
of them.  Heero looked up from where he was glancing over the material 
that Duo was perusing and reached behind Duo's head to pluck the fourth 
sheet up.  It was obvious that Duo was too absorbed in his study of his 
own sheets to pay any attention to the additional one, and Heero didn't 
want to reach in front of him to get the paper and thus block his view.

	'Okay, now leave it there, leave it there, leave it there... 
yes!' Relena cheered in her head when Heero peered at the information on 
the page over Duo's head rather than trying to bring it back in front of 
him.  This was ever so much fun.  "Now, Duo, I think there are some 
annotations on the pages you're looking at that refer back to notes and 
subsections of the financial page that Heero has...."

	"Hm?" he said absently, only tearing his eyes away from the 
papers he was holding after a few seconds.  He looked to his left, where 
he sensed the fourth page hovering, and Heero obligingly lowered it to 
where he could look at it easily.

	'Score!'  Relena was having a hard time keeping the amused grin 
off of her face and waited patiently to see how long it would take the 
boys to notice.

	After a little while, Duo took a breath to ask her a question, 
and when he turned to her and noticed the rather conspicuous signs of an 
unsuccessfully suppressed smirk, he blinked and evaluated the situation 
immediately to see what was up.  A few blinks later, he figured it out, 
and made a sound of exasperation, coupled with a slight appreciation.  
"Oh, you're smooth, Lena.  You're smooth."

	"I try my best."

	"Hm?" Heero said, looking up to see what the fuss was about.  
Since no one seemed to be looking at the financial sheet at the moment, 
he let the hand holding it drop a bit, and looked only more puzzled when 
Relena stifled a giggle.  "Am I missing something here?"

	"Yes, Heero," Duo answered, a reluctant amusement creeping into 
his tone.  "Yes, you are."  With a shake of his head, he went back to 
his reading, until Heero moved his leg a bit to knock their knees 
together, as if to demand, 'well?'  Duo looked him in the eye and said, 
"Don't you get the feeling that we've been set up here?"

	It took him more than a few blinks to figure out what they were 
referring to, and this time Relena had to laugh aloud.  She was 
absolutely tickled pink that Heero seemed to find nothing at all 
unnatural or noteworthy about him having an arm slung over Duo's 
shoulders, pulling him close to his side as they looked through the 
papers they were both holding.

                              ************

	One dinner later, and everyone was heading over to the 
ever-popular sitting room for some more entertainment, when Relena 
pulled Duo aside and let the others go on ahead of them.

	Duo gave her an inquisitive look, and was rather proud of 
himself that he didn't immediately suspect her of having some sort of 
scheme up her sleeve.  She had been having entirely too much fun playing 
with him and Heero, and she didn't even have the decency to do anything 
overt enough for him to get mad over.

	"Now, Duo," she said in her unassuming voice.  "I just wanted to 
say that I hope I haven't done anything to offend you this weekend.  
It's not my plan to make you uncomfortable.  I would never do anything 
to violate your privacy or betray your trust.  If I ever do anything of 
the sort, I hope you'll tell me immediately, and I'll stop.  Just say 
the word.  Has there been anything?"

	Funny, he had just been thinking about that.  Of course, he had 
a sneaking suspicion that she had been thinking about that all too much, 
too.  "No, not at all," he answered quickly, then paused, and appended a 
thought.  "Nothing offensive, no, not at all."

	She arched a look at him.  "Nothing offensive?  Then what about, 
oh, annoying?  Rude?  Uncomfortable?  Anything?"

	He scratched at the back of his head in consideration.  "Well, 
something, I guess.  I mean, I guess I just don't get why you're getting 
such a kick out of this."

	Good question.  There was just something about the two of them 
together that made her feel all warm and fuzzy inside.  Maybe it was the 
fact that she could claim to have had a part in getting them together.  
Maybe it was just knowing now for a fact that there could really be two 
people out there that fit together so well, that such a love was 
possible.  Maybe it was because they were such dear friends to her that 
it made her happy to see them happy.  She laughed a little, a quiet, 
warm sort of laugh.  "Did you know that Heero warned me last night not 
to get too carried away with you two?  He didn't want me to do anything 
that would hurt you, or our friendship.  He can be so cute when he's 
being sweet and protective."

	"He said that?"  Duo was torn between feeling offended that 
Heero thought he needed to be protected, warmed that Heero had done 
something so sweet, and embarrassed that Relena had been on the 
receiving end of the gesture and was now in a position to coo and aww 
even more.

	"He did.  It was very mildly done, of course, but it was done 
nevertheless."  She shrugged with a smile.  "I don't know.  Maybe I just 
like seeing how very right I was."

	"We have got to find you a man, Lena," he muttered.

	"All talk and no action, you two.  I have yet to see you produce 
a man for me.  I'm waiting, you know."  Before he could respond, she 
went on.  "I wish I could give you the Talk.  You know, the one where I 
warn you against ever intentionally hurting Heero.  But you won't, will 
you?"

	"Of course not."

	"You two take all the fun out of things sometimes," she sighed.

	He snorted softly.  "From what I've seen, you've been getting 
your fun in other ways.  But seriously, Relena..."  He stopped, chewing 
on his lip for a moment in thought, in stalling the inevitable, in a 
show of hesitance.  "You're... I mean, you're okay with this... right?  
I know you played your part in this whole thing and all, but, well... 
Aw, hell.  You don't have a thing for him or anything, do you?  For 
Heero, I mean."

	She blinked, surprised.  "Of course not!  I wouldn't have been 
pushing him at you otherwise."  He threw her a look that asked, 'are you 
sure?,' and it somehow seemed to demand an answer, causing her thoughts 
to stumble a little.  "Well, of course I'm fond of him.  You, too.  
But..."  She faltered when his look seemed to intensify a notch.  "Well, 
I can't say that I've never thought about it... I hardly need to tell 
you how great he is.  But I gave it some thought, and decided that it... 
well, it just never felt right."  She could suggest that she just didn't 
feel that way about Heero, but Duo could very well point out the same 
thing -- he hadn't felt that way about Heero, either, but now he did.

	She was almost entirely sure of herself, and she stood her 
ground without fidgeting as Duo leveled one last measuring stare at her.  
She hoped he wasn't having doubts about their relationship already.  It 
had barely even begun!  She would have to be very careful indeed about 
what she did.  But, on second thought, he didn't seem to be unsure about 
how he felt for Heero, or even how Heero felt for him.  Just how Relena 
somehow fit into the big picture?  Maybe that was a good sign?

	He nodded once and let the seriousness bleed from his expression 
as he moved towards the sitting room with a light step, and she perforce 
had to follow.  She let him lead and open the door to the room first, 
and he was greeted with the sight of the others arrayed around a table, 
on which sat some wrapped boxes and a small cake.  No one shouted 
'surprise!', mostly because one really ought not to do that when faced 
with a former front-lines soldier, but Quatre did blow into one of those 
paper noisemaker things after it was clear he had seen them, and then 
there was a small chorus of 'happy birthday's.

	"Oops, sorry," he said, scooting over to the side to let Relena 
in.  "Didn't mean to steal your party from you.  Hey, wait, didn't we 
already give you a party?"

	"It's not for me, silly," she said, pushing him inside.  "It's 
for you."

	"Me?"  He glanced back at his waiting friends.  "But... it's not 
my birthday."

	She took his arm and forcibly walked him to the table.  "But 
it's soon.  And Heero thought that since we were all gathered here 
anyway, we might as well celebrate your birthday, too.  He arranged this 
for you."

	Duo didn't need to look at her to know that she was throwing him 
a very arch, very smug look.  Instead, he caught Heero by the eyes and 
cocked his head at him as if asking for confirmation.  Heero merely 
shrugged a little, and smiled that Mona Lisa smile of his.

                              ************

	"So you arranged this for me," Duo mused as they walked back up 
to their rooms carrying the gifts he had received.  It was late now, and 
everyone was turning in.  "Hmm, the guys must think you're insane."

	"Me?"  Another appropriate answer would have been, what else is 
new?

	"Yes, you, Heero."  He juggled his boxes around for a bit and 
managed to open up his door.  Heero followed him in and nudged it shut 
behind him.  "First of all, your gift wasn't wrapped."

	"Just how was I supposed to wrap it?"

	"Granted.  But then there's the gift itself."  He set his burden 
down on his desktop, and Heero followed suit.  Duo studied his new 
potted cactus critically, turning it this way and that.  It was short, 
round, and really more fuzzy than spiky.  "What do you think I should 
name him?"

	"I already have a name for him."

	"Oh?  Do tell."

	"I think you should name him Fido," he said completely 
straight-faced.

	Duo smothered a laugh, and it came out as something like a 
choked snort.  "Yeah, I suppose Spike would be too passé?  Why not Rex, 
or Spot, or Rover?  Hell, even Fifi?"

	"Fido comes from 'faithful'."

	Such a simple declaration, and it still had the power to make 
something inside of him all mushy.  He wondered if that was healthy or 
not, but soon set aside the question and just let a smile spread over 
his face to communicate to Heero that he liked it.  Oh, did he like it.  
Two statements of commitment, all rolled into one fuzzy package, and 
they were barely even into the kissing phase of their relationship.  
Somehow, that didn't strike him as off or odd at all.  They had always 
been committed to each other.

	And speaking of kisses... "And then you mention a second gift, 
and everyone looks at you expectantly, and you just stand there and pull 
a tube of lip balm out and use it like it's the most natural thing in 
the world!"  He slid up to his partner with playfulness in his eyes and 
hooked his fingers in the belt loops of Heero's pants.  "So where's my 
kiss?"

	Heero gave him his kiss, and while it was special because it was 
Heero and because Heero cared, and while it was thrilling because it was 
Heero and it was his birthday present and things had conspired to make 
him feel just a little bit giddy and heck, they were even in Relena's 
house and she wasn't around to witness this (god, he hoped there weren't 
any hidden cameras installed!), it was still little more than a simple, 
lingering joining of lips.

	Duo sighed softly, nevertheless content.  Their first kiss had 
only been days ago, and he had been quite pleased to find that he had 
felt only good things about it, and nothing at all that counseled 
against trying it again.  The smattering of kisses scattered between 
that time and now had been similarly chaste things designed to get the 
two of them accustomed to their change in routine.  He felt it within 
his right to poke a little fun at themselves for their amateurish 
quality.

	"Mmmm, needs more work," he judged, his head cocked to the side 
with a contemplative look on his face.  He made sure the sparkle in his 
eyes and the tone of his voice made it clear that he was only joking 
around.  It wasn't as if he were an expert himself, after all.

	"Well, I didn't have any way to practice beforehand.  Unless you 
had someone in mind?"

	"Me."  He leaned in for another kiss, as simple and satisfying 
as the first.  "Just me.  Of course, that would have been like asking me 
to make my own present, so I guess you're excused."

	"Glad to hear it," Heero answered, a tiny smile turning up the 
corner of his mouth.  "Happy birthday, Duo."  He brushed one last kiss 
to Duo's cheek and tried to turn away, but Duo didn't let go of his belt 
loops.

	"So you arranged all this for me...," Duo repeated softly, 
pulling him back close.  "That means you had to have contacted everyone 
before we all came here, and probably not just *right* before, since 
everyone had time to get me something nice."  He looked up expectantly 
at Heero through slightly downcast eyes, but Heero's silence was 
confirmation enough.  "That was awful nice of you."

	"Of course."

	Duo burst out laughing, giving him a little shove without 
thought before tugging him back again.  Heero's hands took advantage of 
the momentum to swing forward and come to a rest on Duo's hips.  "I 
can't believe you just said that."

	He said it because he could not conceive of being not nice to 
Duo.  "I would do all sorts of nice things for you."

	A meaningful pause, and then Duo was pulling him even closer to 
rest his chin on Heero's shoulder.  "That's sort of unfair.  I mean, it 
seems like you're always doing these nice things for me, but I hardly 
ever get to do anything nice for you.  Why should you get a monopoly on 
this stuff?"

	Heero murmured something in Japanese into his ear, but Duo 
hadn't been prepared for it, and the smooth, liquid syllables passed him 
by without being properly processed at first.  When his mind managed to 
switch gears, he caught the tail end of the sentiment, something about 
something being enough.  He pulled back and threw a silently inquisitive 
look at his partner.

	Heero opened his mouth to reiterate, but Duo took one look at 
his face and stopped him before he could say anything.  "Oh god, you're 
going to say something unbelievably sappy to me, aren't you?"

	Heero let that look on his face speak for him.

	"You are."  Duo put on another one of his sour pouts, and 
somehow managed to combine it with a small groan.  "Do me a favor and 
don't say it.  I don't think I could handle it right now."  He buried 
his face in the crook of Heero's neck, safely away where Heero couldn't 
see him.

	"Well, since you already seem to know what I'm going to say, I 
suppose I can let it go this time."  He was already quite amused by the 
way he could make Duo's face turn pink with just the hint of something 
sweet and sappy.  He couldn't see Duo's flushed face, but he could feel 
it against his skin.  "But I meant what I didn't say."

	"I know," was the muffled reply.  He laid a kiss on the pulse in 
Heero's neck.  It was the least he could do, especially since he was 
right there and all.  "I know.  You always mean it, you bastard."

	"Hm, four.  I think we've tied our record."

	"Let's break our record."  The words were out before Duo could 
stop them, but having been uttered, he could hardly take them back.  
Besides, he found that he meant them, impetuous though they were.  
Despite the fact that he was currently hiding his face in shame, he was 
still basking in the light this easy intimacy of their new relationship 
was casting on him.  He came out of hiding to steal one more kiss from 
his boyfriend, and found himself in the mood for something different, 
something new, something that wasn't another peck in a long line of 
pecks.  Ideas flittered speedily through his mind, fueled by his 
boldness, ideas planted by mass media, popular culture, and a friendly 
bunch of prostitutes.  After all, he wasn't clueless, simply 
inexperienced.  His lips parted to capture Heero's lower lip, and he 
pulled away slowly, thrilled by the feel of flesh sliding moistly 
against flesh.

	"Five," Duo said smugly after he had drawn away, although inside 
his head he was really thinking, 'ha!  take that, yuy.'  Heero had 
finally let loose a single blink that indicated faint surprise.  Duo 
released his hold on his pants and gave him a little push towards his 
own room.  "Good night, Heero."

	Blinking one last time, Heero got his balance back in short 
order.  "Good night, Duo."  He walked backwards for a bit, a somewhat 
charmed expression on his face as he held eye contact, before turning 
around to go back to his room as ordered.  If one squinted, one might 
have been able to see a bit of a bounce to his stride.

	When his hand was on the knob, Duo halted him one last time.  
"You're not off the hook, you know."

	He looked over his shoulder.  Duo was still standing where he 
had left him, wearing a devilish grin.  "Hmm?"

	"We still don't know when my birthday really is, even if we 
celebrated it today, so I'm gonna have to hold you to your word from 
before."

	Heero smiled faintly.  "Understood."

------
word from before: cf. end of zero tolerance and daily birthday kisses.  
and cacti are forever.

yeah, yeah, i don't normally like it when people spout japanese in fics, 
but i've established here that heero spoke it and duo learnt it, so that 
sort of makes it okay?  what i had in mind for heero to be murmuring was 
'warawasete kure.  soredakede ii-zo.', which i like because 1) it rolls 
off the tongue nicely, 2) 'make me laugh' just sounds funny in english 
to me, probably because of its mocking counterpart 'don't make me 
laugh', although i guess it could sound sorta funny in japanese, too, so 
let's translate it as 'make me smile' or even 'let me smile/laugh', 3) if 
you say it softly and in a foreign tongue, then it's almost like not 
really saying it aloud at all, thus making it a little less sappy and 
easier to say, and 4) i happen to like the '-te kure' aspect of it.  it 
has a nice 'do this for me, please?' side to it that you just can't get 
in english quite as succinctly.

which reminds me... heero telling duo to shut up in the ficdom... to my 
recollection, that only happens once in the 4th episode, when he's 
working on his gundam, and heero says 'sukoshi damattete kure', which, 
all things considered, is really a rather nice way of saying it, if you 
ask me.  'shut up' would be more like a 'damare', which is what he 
shouts at epyon.

anyway, i feel kinda bad that the other guys were kinda there as 
background, but hey, this fic series isn't about them.

_________________________________________
This piece of fiction is the intellectual 
property of the little turnip that could.  
The basis for this fic, i.e. Gundam Wing, 
Kyuuketsuki Miyu, et al., is the property 
of someone else.  The author can be con-
tacted at jchew@myrealbox.com.  This has 
been an entirely automated message.
http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~jchew/misc/gw.html

last modified : 3/2/2003 12:52:24 PST