--------------------- Three Mushy Things ~ A Moment of Haven ~ --------------------- It was not without reason that Duo had gained the reputation he had. With a deft, practiced hand, he twisted the knob and nudged the door open silently, peering inside with a keen eye for his target. All was as he expected. A corner of his mouth quirked up in a sly, mischievous smirk as he slipped into the room like a shadow, like death itself, to the side of the bed hidden against the wall, not quite tucked away from sniper sight of the windows whose blinds were shut faithfully every night. That privilege of daytime safety was reserved for the desk, where a complex network of computers waited with a soft purr for its master to command it. Duo settled himself carefully on the edge of the bed and took the time to enjoy the scenery, raking his eyes over the sleeping figure before leaning in close and parking his face right next to Heero's. In a fit of whimsy, he chose a number as a personal guess and started counting down the seconds. That sixth sense that stayed on alert even when the body was sleeping kicked in after five seconds. Heero's nose wrinkled. The hand lying on top of the sheets on his tummy shifted. And after his unconscious had confirmed that the disturbance was nothing hostile, it allowed him to continue his journey into wakefulness with leisure. He blinked his eyes open and focused on a startingly close face. Duo grinned, his guess not bad at all. "Good morning, my dear," he sang cheerfully, rubbing noses with his partner. When Heero pulled back in bleary surprise, Duo was undeterred, chasing after him with not nose, but lips. They met Heero's as they were parting to say something, and suddenly Heero wasn't backing away anymore. Duo shifted farther onto the bed as they kissed, running a lazy hand up Heero's chest. Heero pulled back a little again. "Duo..." His voice was raspy from sleep, but quite awake. "I haven't even brushed my teeth yet." "I have." He hadn't come in here unprepared. One person's morning breath was better than two, and though he had chosen to wake Heero with a kiss or ten, he had no intentions of waking anything *else* up. There were no plans at all to scour the inside of Heero's mouth with his tongue. As with all their kisses, they practiced good hygiene. He breathed a puff of minty fresh breath in Heero's direction, and then blithely continued his kissing spree. Heero gave in to Duo's superior logic with compliant lips, an idle scratch of the belly with one hand, and an arm wrapping around Duo to urge him to a more stable support on the bed. It was inevitable that his own logic step in eventually. With a satisfied sigh, he let the kisses taper off. "Either something really good just happened, or something really bad just happened." The pout and innocent blinking were given a break as Duo decided to simply get to the heart of things. "It's a good day today." "Oh?" "Mmm-hm. Guess what day it is." "Ummm. A good day?" Duo punched him in the shoulder. "It's your birthday, idiot." It was early in the morning. He was allowed a bit of idiocy, especially when regarding a bit of Duo-inspired randomness. "Oh. Hn." "'Hn,' he says. 'Hn'! This is a cause for celebration! You were brought into this world on this day." "...No, I wasn't." Duo punched him again. "Shut up and pretend you were. It's more fun that way." Heero gave him a dry look. "Fun for whom, exactly?" Duo's expression slid into something warm and inviting. His hand slid around suggestively. "I can make sure it's fun for you, too." "Oh, blessed be the day I was brought into this world." "That's better." Heero took up that wandering hand and twined their fingers together. "Tell me you don't have a party planned or something." "I don't have a party planned or anything. Heh, could you imagine how much fun Suzuhara-san would have at the mention of a birthday party? And you'd scowl, and then Ami would get all excited about it, and then you wouldn't be able to scowl anymore, and it'd be absolutely adorable." He squeezed the captive fingers. "Don't you dare breathe a word about a party to them." "I won't," Duo promised solemnly. "Unless it happens to come up. But I know you like things low-key. That's why I didn't do any party-type things, but I thought I'd like to make today special anyway." "Any day with--" Duo immediately cut him off with a glare and a free hand applied liberally to Heero's mouth. "Don't say it." Heero shook the hand off. "But it's my birthday." If Duo had been standing, the look he got would have made him weak in the knees. It was the perfect blend of mischief and puppies and do-as-I-say-or-you'll-regret-it. He sighed with a huff of breath. "Fine. Three things, Yuy. You get three mushy things to say today, and that's it. Use them wisely." Heero kissed him in apologetic appreciation, but it hardly did much to dispel the disgruntled look on his face. "As I was saying, today should be special -- in some way that distinguishes this day from all the rest, okay? So I don't care how special this day normally would be. It doesn't have to be specialer; it's just gotta be different. Okay?" "Okay," Heero answered meekly, though the complacence was belied by the twinkle in his eye. "Let's tile the bathroom today." "That... wasn't exactly what I had in mind." "It's different," he said with an eager smile. Duo sighed softly. Heero's look hadn't anything of threat or mischief in it this time. This time, it was all puppies. "Well. I guess I couldn't expect anything else from guys like us." ************ There really hadn't been much reason to wait. They'd already removed the fixtures, which had necessitated a quick run upstairs any time they had need of the bathroom while downstairs. The old linoleum had already been torn out, and the tiles to replace it chosen. Nothing too fancy, since this was their first go at it, but nothing too simple, since they were looking for practical experience before moving on to a more frequented part of their home. Obviously, they'd had a plan. Heero was far too anal to not have a plan, even though it was a tiny bathroom and didn't need much of one. If forced to admit it, Duo might also have confessed to reading all sorts of do-it-yourself sites online. He couldn't let Heero outshine him, after all. The afternoon was not even close to over before they were finished scrubbing the last of the grout from the tile surfaces. They stood in the doorway of the small bathroom beneath the stairs and admired their handywork. They'd had quite a time of it. With the area so limited, it had involved some interesting and perhaps even enjoyable contortions to allow the both of them to work at once, though they'd had to be careful of the mortar drying before they were ready for it. Duo was already clutched to Heero's side as they surveyed their tiling job, but then Heero turned to him suddenly and kissed the breath from him. He was left to recover while staring at Heero's boyish grin. "Well," he gasped. Heero's grin widened another notch. "'Well', indeed." "You're, uh... giddy." Heero swept in for another kiss. "Step one: complete." He chuckled at Duo's confused look. "One step at a time, Duo. One step at a time, and we remake this house into a home." Duo continued to blink silently at him. Heero was even more excited about this whole thing than he was. Then again, he had to admit that the excitement had somehow slipped away from him somewhere along the way. No, not that he wasn't excited about building a home -- and with Heero, no less -- simply that he had forgotten that they were doing anything other than mere maintenance or construction. Had he become so accustomed to not having a home that he no longer became cautiously cheerful about the prospect? Or was there still just too much caution in him? He had no further time to contemplate it as Heero pulled him into a tight embrace. "What better birthday present could I ask for?" Heero whispered into his ear. Duo forced a small laugh. "Okay, that's mushy statement number one." Heero smiled against his neck. "And well worth it." He chuckled nervously again. "It makes my present seem kinda pale in comparison." Heero released him enough to pull back and cast a wary look at him. "You got me something?" "Of course." "You didn't have to." Duo rolled his eyes. Had Heero already forgotten the mention of presents he had just made? Or that he himself had given Duo a cactus? Perhaps he simply didn't think much of material gifts. "I know. That's what makes you such a difficult person to shop for. You don't want anything. Well, I guess you want world peace or something, but I think we're gonna hafta rely on Lena for that one. Other than that, knowing you, you'd probably say that you just want to make me happy, or some other mushy sort of thing." Heero laughed at the sour face he made. When Duo made another sour face at him, he laughed again. "Hey, you said it, not me. Saves me the trouble." "Lazy bastard," Duo said, kicking at his shins lightly. "You've limited me to three for the day. Why should I waste one of those when I can get you to say it for me?" "Cheap, lazy bastard." "Thrifty." Duo punched his shoulder half-heartedly, sighing when the motion involuntarily became a firm caress. "When are you going to stop being so sappy?" Heero simply smiled and changed the subject. "So, a present?" "Greedy, cheap, lazy bastard," Duo grumbled before letting up. "Yeah, I got you something. Probably won't measure up to what you've given me befo--" Heero smothered that line of thought with a kiss. He blinked unrepentantly at Duo afterwards. "I'm sorry, you were saying?" If he'd thought to drive the rest of the thought from Duo's mind, he failed. Duo knew exactly what he had been saying, and also knew exactly where it would get him if he tried to pursue it, so he let it drop and moved on, tugging Heero out of the doorway and towards the stairs. "But it's kinda weird, you'll have to admit that..." "Can't admit anything until I find out what it is," Heero answered, squeezing his hand. "Now stop being so insecure, or you'll get me to spend all my mushiness in one place." "Ooh." He slowed for a quick, teasing embrace. "That sounds like a great wicked plan." At the base of the stairs, Heero turned them around and pushed him to the wall. "I could make it *my* plan, and shovel so much mush on you you'd drown in it. And I wouldn't stop until it was leaking out your ears and oozing out your pores, until you had no choice but to believe me just to get me to stop." Duo snorted dryly. "Gee, when you put it that way...." "Can't have you taking another of my mushy points away from me." He affected a look of deep consideration. "Hmmm. Well, you tread perilously close to the line of mush with all those lovely threats... but no. You lucked out. No deduction for you. This time." He pushed Heero back and continued to pull him up the stairs, trying with only partial success to ignore the anxiety tightening his chest. When they got to Heero's room, Duo planted him on the bed and ordered him quite firmly to stay there while he fetched the present from his own room. Couldn't let Heero know where the good hiding places were, after all. Heero was still sitting obediently on the bed when Duo returned, clutching a fairly flat, slightly floppy package wrapped in Christmas paper. When Heero raised his brow upon catching sight of the off-season wrap, Duo protected it defensively. "What? It's all we had." Heero shrugged in concession. He thought wrapping paper was an extraordinary waste of resources in general since it was all going to get shredded in the end anyway. Its purpose was to conceal the gift. The designs and patterns usually went under-appreciated, so it could have been newspaper for all he cared. Duo looked a little too nervous for his taste, so he held out his hand in clear invitation. Duo took a breath before crossing the distance and seating himself next to his partner. "It's weird," he warned once more. "The cactus was weird, too." Yes, yes it was, wasn't it? He thought about Fido and finally smiled tentatively as he tossed the present into Heero's lap. "You won't have as much trouble bringing this on an airplane." Heero made a disdainful sound as he meticulously undid the tape. He wasn't saving the paper for any particular reason. It was just in his nature to do so. "With the way they were acting, you'd have thought we were trying to hijack the ship with it." "Well, I guess a cactus could be a weapon. Okay, maybe not Fido. He's more the fluffy kind of cactus. Hey, you ever think about what that all means? Like, the symbolism and stuff?" "It's a cactus, Duo. What..." He trailed off as he finally unwrapped the package. He lifted the item out of the paper and blinked at it for a few seconds. "Am I missing the symbolism behind flannel pajamas?" Duo forced a strained laugh as he scratched nervously at his neck. It had seemed like a good idea at the time. "Yeah, I know it's August. Obviously I don't expect you to wear them now. It's just, well, you always wear that blasted tank top to sleep, even in the dead of winter, even though you've got that set that Suzuhara-san gave you a couple of years ago, and I tell ya, it's always made me cold just looking at you, but you know, I was like, whatever. It's your goosebumps. Not my place to tell you what to wear. But now... uh, heh, now I think I kinda do get that privilege since we're... uh... oh, crap. This was stupid, wasn't it?" Although he knew it was highly inappropriate, Heero laughed. In his defense, he did try to make it sound friendly. "You... You got me the gift of nagging?" Duo looked away. He hadn't thought of it that way, but that was what it was. Maybe he could have called it 'fussing', which really wasn't all that much better. "Told ya it was stupid." Heero hugged the pajamas first, then included Duo in that embrace, his mind automatically reminding him to push them both down to the mattress and out of sight of the windows. Heero heeded the advice gladly, and even kissed Duo while they were there. "Thank you. It's wonderful." "You're not just saying that?" "Duo. You know I would never lie to you simply to spare your ego." He sighed. Sure, he knew that. But that didn't mean anything when faced with the reality of it. He made use of some leverage and rolled onto his side, pushing Heero's back to the bed. "It's just... I mean, you're always doing and saying stuff that's... you know. More..." "Don't compare us, Duo," Heero admonished with a stroke of his hand down Duo's braid. "We're two different people. It's only natural that we go about things in two different ways." Duo poked him in the chest, mostly just because he could. "I know. But it still doesn't seem fair. I want to... I wanna be able to reduce you to a weak-kneed mushy puddle of goo!" Heero chuckled softly. "Turnabout's fair play?" "Hell's yeah!" Duo said emphatically, having regained a bit of ground beneath his feet. "You get to have all the fun, ya know? I should return the favor more than I do." "You do it plenty, Duo." He tickled Duo's cheek with the end of his own braid. "I just don't get as pissy about it as you do." "I'm not-- I'm not 'pissy', I'm just..." Heero spared him the trouble of saying 'embarrassed' or any other variation on the word. "It's okay, Duo. I don't mind." Duo studied him while chewing lightly on his bottom lip. "You sure?" "Yeah, I'm sure." He actually found it rather cute and amusing, but saying that to Duo would no doubt earn him a punch or three. "Besides, don't you think it would be a little embarrassing if the both of us indulged in my bad habit? Can you just imagine Suzuhara-san and Relena and how they'd be?" Duo shuddered dramatically before recovering with a good humor. "Oh, so I'm really all that's standing between us and certain swooning on the part of the ladies, eh?" "Mm-hmm." He continued to play with the end of Duo's braid. "Saving the world from sappy Yuys everywhere. Heh, never thought I'd be the sensible one in the relationship." "No one said you were being sensible." "Hmpf." Duo poked him in the chest again, then started drawing lazy, shy patterns. "So... you get what I was trying to say?" "I got it so much that, if I were standing, I'd have gone all weak-kneed and gooey-puddled." One of his hands rose to tangle with the hand frolicking across his chest. "And only you, Duo. Only you make me use words like 'gooey-puddled'." Duo smirked, glad for the levity. "Mushy thing number two. Ya got one left." "I better make it good, then." ************ "How many times do I have to tell you to get out of the kitchen, Heero? It's your birthday, which means you get to be lazy while someone else serves you dinner." Heero wrapped his arms around Duo's waist from behind as Duo stirred something on the stovetop. "If it's my birthday, then I don't see why you get to deprive me of the things I enjoy doing." Duo tried not to lean too much against him. Heero's logic could be oddly persuasive. "'Cuz you're not supposed to work." "It's not working," Heero answered, setting his chin down upon Duo's shoulder. "It's spending time with you." "Okay, that was mushy." "Was not." "Was, too." Duo's definition of 'mushy' was a little broader than he would have liked. "All I said was that I like spending time with you. How bad is that?" "That counts." "...Can it count for half?" If he was going to make use of that last bit of mushiness allotted to him today, he was going to spend it on something good. Duo sighed. "Fine." He didn't have to say anything to be mushy, anyway, Heero thought as he nuzzled Duo's neck. ************ Heero looked thoughtfully through the window of Duo's room, leaning partially on the wall beside it. "Your room is good," he announced to the other young man. "Yeah, I'm pretty fond of it," Duo agreed, looking up from where he was straightening things on his desk. "Why?" "Your windows don't need to be shuttered." The one window in Duo's room that he left open looked out over the backyard. The next house over was decently far across the small valley beyond their property. "Yeah. Pretty nifty, I thought. Safe from snipers and all that." He puzzled over the neutral grunt in response as Heero straightened out one of the slats in the raised blinds that had gotten misaligned. When he was done, Heero looked at the window, then at the bed, remeasuring the geometry of it all, and a lightbulb went on over Duo's head. A very hot one that inspired a shadow of a blush. "Good god. You're not thinking about snipers for once." Heero froze guiltily before shrugging in admission. Duo's hand started playing with the end of his braid. "Why are you thinking about that stuff so much these days, Heero? Other than the obvious reasons?" "What do you consider 'obvious'?" "Like the fact that we're eighteen year old guys." Even if it didn't quite seem like that most times. He'd be kind of disappointed in his hormones if it turned out that Heero was beating him to the chase. Heero considered the matter as he wandered over to the bed and sat down on the side facing Duo. "Maybe because Ami's been asking so many questions lately about things I barely know the answers to." "So, what? Now you're trying to find the answers to everything you could possibly answer?" And hopefully they were good answers, and not the type to make a person reconsider. "The general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought," Heero quoted. "The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand. Thus do many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat." He startled a laugh out of Duo. "I... You... Bleh." He walked over to Heero and leaned down to cup Heero's face with both hands and give him a few gentle shakes. "You amuse me, Yuy." "Happy to oblige." He leaned down further to kiss his amusing partner, then somehow ended up straddling his lap, and then pushing Heero down to the bed with the weight of his kisses. At some point, he thought about what Heero had said, and pulled back with a laugh, craning his head around at an awkward angle to stare at his open window. He saw nothing but sky. "Heh, you're right. We -are- pretty safe here." He turned back to Heero, who was currently sporting a somewhat 'well, of course I was right' look. "You make a lot of weird calculations." "Not weird," Heero immediately defended himself, wondering if his position was in any way compromised by being deliciously pinned to the mattress by his grinning sparring partner. "I'm thorough. And I like to know I don't have to worry about anyone getting an eyeful of something they shouldn't." Duo leaned cheerfully on his elbows. "Never gonna be an exhibitionist, are ya?" Heero's eyebrow rose a fraction of an inch. "Did you want me to be?" "Nah. It'd be kinda weird if you were. You're so... I dunno. Closed off or whatever. Not in a bad way. Can't imagine you'd wanna go inviting random strangers in to see this you." "And you?" Heero asked with the barest hint of hesitance. One of his hands touched Duo's hip in a similar gesture. "Me? Nah. Some things... some things are meant to be private." He could barely show such things to himself, let alone other people. "I... I'm glad we agree. See? Isn't it good to know these things ahead of time? Better to find out now than in a bathroom stall or something." Duo was going to have to borrow Heero's laptop some day when he was taking a shower or something and check his caches and history. "Heh. If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle." He paused at the raising of Heero's brow. "What, thought you were the only one that read Sun Tzu?" Heero stretched upwards to peck him on the lips, letting that stand in stead of the mushiness that had sprung to mind. He had one line left, and he decided to save it for something better. For now, he would apologize. "I'm sorry if spontaneity may be beyond me." "You've got spontaneity in you, man," Duo retorted, thinking, uh, 'fondly' back on times during the war when Heero had definitely rushed off to do something unplanned and unexpected. Seemingly unplanned, anyway. Heero had probably formulated plans, just very very quickly, and according to a logic that made little to no sense to anyone else. "Don't you doubt it. Spontaneity's just following through on a sudden impulse. If you've got good reasons not to follow through on it, fine by me. I can't be the only one here keeping us from doing stupid things. You gotta take responsibility for some of this stuff, too." "And if I don't have a good reason not to, then I maybe I should go ahead and follow through, eh?" "Heh, I seem to remember saying something along those lines before, a couple of birthdays ago..." "You glad you asked? For that as your present, I mean." He smiled as he lowered himself a few centimeters closer to Heero. "Yeah. I come up with some great ideas sometimes." "Sometimes," Heero snorted, though not without an answering smile as his hand rose to push aside some of Duo's bangs. "So... you think this is a great idea, do you?" Duo was silent as he shifted off Heero to the side a little. Half his body was still draped all over him, and his hand wandered in idle motions over Heero's abdominal muscles. "Yeah," he responded at length. "You?" Heero kissed him. "Have for a long time now. Thinking things through, for me... I'm not evaluating it. It's just my way of making sure everything goes smoothly. I want things to go smoothly, Duo. I want this to be the best it can possibly be. I want to do everything in my power to make sure of that. I want--" His words were intercepted by Duo's fingers on his lips. "Enough, already," Duo cut him off softly. "That was your last mushy thing of the night, Yuy." He turned his head to free himself. "I wasn't being mushy, Duo. I was just--" "You're always 'just'..." Duo trailed off helplessly, leaving them both in a silence to contemplate the possible completions of that sentence. Heero eventually interrupted the silence. "Duo... I'm glad I have you to give me flannel pajamas." Duo shifted with discomfort at first, but then he couldn't deny the immediate response that sprang to mind upon hearing those words. "...I'm glad I have you to give flannel pajamas to." _________________________________________ 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 at myrealbox.com. This has been an entirely automated message. http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~jchew/misc/gw.html last modified : 2/18/2008 03:42:37 PST