---------------------
         Heat
~ A Moment of Haven ~
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	In a small household of two very observant people, finely 
attuned to each other's moods and quirks, it was nearly impossible to 
hide something.  That was probably at least part of the reason they 
weren't excited by the notion of Christmas shopping for each other, 
which was probably a good part of the reason why they agreed every year 
to do away with participation in the annual consumer frenzy.  If a gift 
truly needed to be given, then any time would do.  Preferrably with far 
less fanfare, and far more significance.

	That did not, however, mean that there could not be surprises in 
this house.  They simply required the cooperation of both parties.

	Heero was well aware of the fact that Duo was up to some Duo 
sort of thing downstairs.  He had been yesterday, as well, though Heero 
was uncertain of the details.  There had been a few suspect looks, 
smiles, and brush-offs, but nothing seemed outrageously out of the 
ordinary.  As long as it didn't involve blowing up the house or 
something, Heero was inclined to ignore it, or at least pay it no heed 
until Duo made some conspicuous all-clear sign.

	The thought of a 'Christmas' present did not come to mind.  That 
wasn't their MO.  A present could be a present without that extraneous 
label, and in fact, a present could be just a pleasant surprise crafted 
for the mere enjoyment of it, and he would do nothing to ruin Duo's 
enjoyment.

	"Hey, Heero."  The voice came a moment before the head poked in 
through the doorway.

	"Hmm?" he answered, barely glacing up from the thick packet of 
guidelines for Preventers seminars.  He made a note to himself to make 
sure that Duo conformed to the regulations and didn't schedule any 
inexcusable violations into his syllabus.  His partner was extremely 
capable of reading and following procedure on his own, but sometimes his 
rebellious nature got away from him.

	"You didn't really want to be doing that, right?"  Duo waited 
for the dry sound that served as a response before continuing.  "You'd 
really rather be downstairs with me, right?"

	Heero directed a small smile toward the papers in his hands, 
satisfied that there was no need for any elaborate contrivances between 
them.  Then he looked up and let Duo observe the tail end of that 
expression.  "You state the obvious rather well, Duo."

	Duo smirked.  "You've obviously been rubbing off on me, then."  
He held his hand out, and Heero dutifully set his packet down, got out 
of his seat on their bed, and joined hands with him.

	He was led to the top of the stairs, where they stopped so Duo 
could move behind him and put his hands over Heero's eyes.  "Is this 
safe?" Heero asked mildly.

	"Aw, come on," Duo murmured into his ear.  "You can take these 
stairs in the dark, can't you?"

	"I'll keep my eyes closed," he promised, lifting his hands to 
rest lightly on Duo's wrists.  "I won't peek, so you don't have to 
shadow me all the way down the stairs, okay?"

	Sometimes, it really was remarkable that the two of them got 
along.  "Okay, fine, whatever."  Duo dropped his hands, but kept one arm 
hovering around Heero's waist to guide him.  The moment Heero's feet hit 
the ground floor, Duo was back behind him and shielding his unopened 
eyes.

	Heero took the steps toward the living room slowly, head cocked 
at an attentive angle as he listened.  "Duo, is that--?"

	"Humor me."

	He sniffed the air carefully as well.  "And is--?"

	"Humor me," Duo repeated firmly, kissing him just beneath his 
ear, and from that puff of an exhalation he heard, he considered himself 
humored.  He maneuvered Heero into the proper position near their coffee 
table, flipping the lights off as they passed the switch, then removed 
his hands.

	"That means I can look now, right?"

	"Yup."

	He looked.  From the clues, he had sort of guessed what was 
coming, but it still packed a good wallop.  "Fire," he observed, a 
slight tingle running up his spine from the warmth chasing the cold air 
away.  Now he knew where that smudge on Duo's cheek must have come from 
four days ago, while he'd been out to the market.  Duo had been making 
sure the chimney was clear.  They hadn't used their fireplace for ages, 
and that seemed like a different fireplace altogether.  Now he knew why 
Duo had had that sparkle in his eye as he pushed forward with their 
plans to re-moulding and repaint the living room.  And maybe he even 
knew why Duo had come to such a conclusive decision when choosing the 
color.  The 'frosted lemon' was light and airy in the pale morning, a 
quiet presence in the brighter afternoon hours, and now a warm embrace 
by the light of the fire.

	"Pillows," he noted further, seeing them scattered on the rug, a 
safe distance from the hearth.  A couple of pillows from their sofa, one 
from the couch in their 'sitting' room, and two from the bed still known 
as Heero's, even if he never slept in it any more.  There was 'Heero's 
bed', and 'our bed'.

	Heero turned to face the mastermind behind this plot, and found 
that he had to append one last item to the list, only this time, it was 
far more soft and far less matter-of-fact.  "And you."  Goodness, he had 
been so very right in believing that warm light was far superior to 
white light.  His eyes could wait; his mouth called dibs on indulgence, 
kissing Duo solemnly at first, and then finishing on a thorough note.

	Duo bumped their foreheads together gently.  "You're such a 
pyro."

	"It's not the fire that does it to me."  Not this fire, anyway.  
He claimed one more kiss before retreating enough for his eyes to have 
their treat, but Duo wasn't quite done with him yet.  Amidst the string 
of kisses, he was encouraged to lower himself to ground level.  He 
complied, but the connection of their mouths threw their combined 
balance off, and the last bit of the distance was covered with something 
better described as a controlled tumble than a smooth descent.  Luckily, 
the pillows were there to absorb some of the impact, and their 
uninterrupted kisses absorbed the sound of their chuckles.

	At length, it was a pillow that distracted them from their mood.  
Sure, it had cushioned Duo's short fall a bit, but now it was making him 
arch his back most uncomfortably, and he had to take a moment to tug it 
from underneath him.  Quite ready to fling the offending thing away and 
get back to the good stuff, he was restrained by Heero, who maintained 
the presence of mind to keep him from accidentally hitting the grate and 
creating a fiery mess.  Putting it impatiently down beside them, Duo 
cheerfully wrapped his arms around Heero and began the kissing anew, but 
the tone was different now, shifting from eager to playful to 
thoughtful.

	Heero transferred the bulk of his weight to the floor to Duo's 
side.  "Mmm, the color doesn't seem quite so 'frosted' anymore, does 
it?"

	Duo sighed lazily in question, distracted by the walk of his 
fingers down Heero's shoulder.  "Hmm?  Oh.  That's right.  Yeah, well, 
what's the meaning behind any of those names, anyway?  Must be a pretty 
fun job, coming up with those things.  And who's really going to fight 
you on just how much yellow has to fit into a whisper?  Though I guess 
you could run out of descriptors eventually, and then maybe it'd get 
pretty stressful, trying to squeeze another one out."

	Heero's hand lingered on Duo's waist, underneath the zipped up 
hoodie, waiting for enough warmth to slide up and over skin without 
producing a chilled wince.  "You could probably start mixing and 
matching old names.  They'd run out of colors before you ran out of 
names."

	"If you ask me, they already have run out of colors.  Just slap 
a new name on it, and who can tell?  I can barely tell the difference 
between some of those shades we looked at."

	"But this was a good one."  His teeth scraped softly over an 
earlobe, chased by a flick of the tongue.

	Duo turned his head to the side, giving him a prime view of the 
fire while inviting a scattering of nips across the exposed skin.  Merry 
Early Christmas to me, he thought, his lips curving smugly.

	Heero reached the end of the line and returned to the beginning, 
nuzzling briefly before settling down.  He found he had become mere 
background noise to Duo's attention on the flames, and just who was the 
real pyro here?  He shifted and nudged Duo until they were both on their 
sides and he could spoon up comfortably behind his partner.  While 
normally he didn't mind a view of the back of Duo's head, now he gained 
some extra elevation with an arm under his head so he, too, could reap 
the benefits of the fire in the hearth.

	"Mmmmmm, warm and toasty," Duo sighed happily.  They lay there 
quietly for a minute, listening to the crackling of the fire.  "Hm.  
Maybe a little too toasty."  He brought a hand up to his face.  "Think a 
person could get a tan, hanging out by a fire?"

	Taking advantage of the excuse, Heero raised a hand now quite 
nicely warmed and brushed some stray hairs out of the way, clearing the 
path down Duo's cheek.  It stayed there for a bit, judging the feel of 
the skin before trailing down to comb through the loose tail of hair Duo 
had pulled over his shoulder.  "Can you imagine how the tanning salons 
would look?"

	Duo snickered.  "Like hell?  Aw, man, you'd probably like it 
down there, wouldn't you?  What with all that fire."

	"Depends on the company."

	He sighed with some degree of affection, trying to ignore the 
glinting highlights dancing through Heero's fingers in the corner of his 
eye.  "It'd probably be pretty lively down there."

	Heero's fingers paused.  "I promised to spend an eternity with 
you down there, didn't I?  Provided it exists."

	"Did you?"  He turned partially to look over his shoulder, 
incidentally pulling his hair away from Heero.  "That sounds sort of 
familiar..."

	"Well, if I didn't... I'd do it all over again.  I'd promise you 
an eternity in our afterlife."  There was a flaw in there somewhere, 
Heero thought.  "Hm.  Oh.  But that's the afterlife, and if we have our 
way, that won't be for a long time.  I love you right now, too.  For the 
record."

	Duo snorted.  "As if you don't make that abundantly clear on a 
regular basis."

	"As you yourself have noted, I seem to make it a habit of 
pointing out the obvious."

	"God, I hope that's not *too* obvious."

	"Obvious only to you, I hope.  And definitely obvious to you.  I 
have, after all, just declared my intent to love you for all our 
afterlives.  Add to that a promise for the here and now, and I'll have 
just about defined a love to last forever.  How much more obvious can I 
get?"

	Somewhere in there, Duo's expression had darkened.  "There's 
only one thing I believe in that lasts forever, Heero, and love sure 
ain't it."  He shrugged apologetically and turned back toward the fire.

	And yet he somehow accepted a love to last through an eternity 
of death.  Hm, no, companionship was all that was stipulated.  Fine, Duo 
had him on that one, but it was a mere technicality.  Regardless, Heero 
did not want any association between the two, so he applied some more 
thought to the matter, dredging through his mental lexicon to find the 
appropriate thing to say.  "Very well, then.  I shall love you until the 
cows come home."

	There was a silence that stretched long enough to make him begin 
to think he had gotten that wrong, when finally Duo turned over his 
shoulder again and fixed him with a faintly incredulous look.  "Did you 
just say... 'until the cows come home'?"

	Heero's brow furrowed.  Was there some hidden nuance here of 
which he was unaware?  "That is correct, right?  It defines some very 
lengthy period of time whose end is not readily in sight, does it not?"

	"Um, yeah, but..."

	"I admit, it may not sound as poetic as 'forty days and forty 
nights', but I think it sounds longer."

	"Um, yeah, but..."  He laughed when Heero frowned, and decided 
to squirm around until they were facing each other.  "No, that's right.  
It's just... it's just something I never thought I'd hear you say.  It's 
very... earthy."

	"And very unlikely to happen any time soon."  Which was the 
important part.

	"Very unlikely... and yet having a finite chance of actually 
happening."  He granted Heero a peck on the lips in reward.  "I like it.  
Hm.  So what are you going to do if the cows do manage to come home one 
day?"

	Now he was just being difficult.  Heero threw him a miffed look, 
but at such close distance, it wasn't intimidating in the slightest.  
"Hmpf.  Then I shall love you until pigs fly."

	Duo chuckled and snuggled closer.  "Well, in this day and age, 
what with genetic science advancing in leaps and bounds..."

	"Then I shall love you until hell freezes over."

	"Ooh, I hope that doesn't happen.  An eternity in a frozen 
wasteland is gonna suck, even if I do have you with me to keep me warm."  
He ran his hand teasingly across Heero's side.  "And what are you going 
to do if that happens?"

	"Bring a blanket."

	His hand's motion changed from a caress to a slap.  "If hell 
freezes over, I mean."

	That had been what Heero meant, too.  "I think we'll have bigger 
things to worry about if hell freezes over."

	Duo gasped dramatically.  "And what is bigger than your love for 
me?"

	Heero blinked mutely at him.  Damn.

	"Aha!  Gotcha that time!"  He rejoiced triumphantly, but was not 
so miserly in his victory that he did not share his grin lip-to-lip with 
his foe.  Once finished giving all he was interested in giving at the 
moment, he reverted to his sly smile.  "So what if hell freezes over?  
What are you gonna do then?"

	"Then..."  Heero needed to come up with something good to 
counteract his recent defeat, something that would never ever happen in 
a hundred billion years.  "Then I will love you... until the day J turns 
me on."

	"But what if... okay, never mind."  He made a grossed-out face.  
"You got me on that one."

	Heero kissed him in apology for making him even think such a 
thing.  "I certainly hope so."

	Duo fervently sealed that hope with another kiss, and then took 
a few mental steps back to look over the ground they had just covered.  
"Okay... so you're going to love me for a really, really, reeeeeally 
long time that is in no way 'forever'... and in case that doesn't work, 
you have three backup plans."

	"Mm-hm."  He did so enjoy the security of backup plans.  It made 
his toes curl just thinking about it.

	"I continue to be amused by you, Yuy.  Same as I continue to 
be... to..."  The words piled up in his throat and couldn't find their 
way out.  They seemed so suddenly inadequate for expressing anything.  
"Here's to the cows," he whispered finally, letting their foreheads 
touch.  "May they never come home."

	That seemed a little cruel to Heero.  "May they never come home 
to our home.  I wouldn't mind so much if they found a nice home 
somewhere else.  So long as it wasn't anywhere near our home."

	A laugh broke through Duo's solemnity.  "Softie," he accused, 
not minding it one bit.  He slipped a hand down Heero's side again, down 
to his hip, then back up under the hem of Heero's thick shirt.  Skin 
touched skin, but then reversed course to smooth down the side seam of 
Heero's pants.  "Hey, how have I never noticed this before?"

	"Mm?"  Heero had been otherwise occupied counting the breaths 
they shared.

	"Your pants.  They're fuzzy."

	"They're corduroy."

	"They're fuzzy."  His hand traced a path down a leg, across the 
back of a thigh, over the curve of a buttock.  It spent time visiting a 
hipbone, dropped by for a quick visit to the groin.  "You need to buy 
more cords."

	It was difficult to determine if the answering hum was one of 
agreement or pleasure.  "Well, yes.  At the rate you're going, you'll 
wear them down in no time at all."

	Duo pushed him over to lie on his back, giving him the room for 
both hands to get in on the action.  Naturally, his mouth got bored and 
sought out its regular playmate and a good time was had by all.

	Heero's hands were cupping Duo's face when they stopped for a 
breather.  "Are you hot and horny, or just hot?"

	"Mmmm?"  He nudged one of those hands out of the way to feel his 
temperature for himself, though he was fairly certain that the answer 
was, maybe a little of both.  There was maybe a ten percent chance that 
it was a lot of both.  He sat up and stretched lazily, blithely 
unconcerned that he had somehow ended up straddling Heero's lap.  "It 
-is- hot in here.  I said that before, didn't I?  Excuse me for a 
moment," he said, taking a hold of his hoodie's zipper.  In the early 
stages of pulling it down, he paused, shifted this way and that, then 
shook his head ruefully.  "How the hell does a person strip 
seductively?"

	Heero laughed.  "You're asking the wrong person, Duo."

	He tried again, tried just getting into the mindset, but 
couldn't do it without feeling silly.  "Never mind," he concluded, 
shaking his head again.  With a simple tug and a shrug, the jacket was 
off and piled on top of the pillow that had already been set aside.

	"That was seductive enough for me."

	"Wow, you're easy to please."  He leaned down and folded his 
arms over Heero's chest.

	Perhaps.  But it was mostly because he'd been pleased long ago.  
Heero took Duo by the shoulders and pulled him down further to 
demonstrate just how pleased he was.  Despite Duo's occasional 
insecurities about failing to match Heero's penchant for thoughtfulness, 
Heero routinely found himself tickled to the core.  It was in the little 
things, so many unique little things that added up to one huge 
something, and he felt quite certain that only Duo could make that 
equation balance out.

	He realized that Duo had managed to work his way underneath his 
shirt without his being aware of the invasion itself.  The occupation 
was thorough, no corner left unransacked, and when the shirt became an 
obstacle to further pillaging, Duo took steps to be rid of it.  He 
pushed it up, out of the way, the undressing quite as seductive in its 
own way as the stripping of the hoodie, being only enhanced by its lack 
of foresight.  Heero arched his back to free space for the shirt's rise, 
and once the need for that had passed, he raised his arms to facilitate 
the rest of its removal.  Duo dutifully started the process, but left it 
pulled only up to Heero's elbows when he got distracted by the newly 
revealed playing field.

	Trying to finish the job so he could get back to the business of 
kissing, Heero bent his arms to getting it off, but the collar stuck 
beneath his chin.  Another stubborn try or two proved this to be an 
irreconcilable condition, and he suddenly understood their misstep.  
"Buttons, Duo," he gasped, an amused announcement and an impatient plea.

	"Figure 'em out yourself," Duo muttered against his skin, 
shortly before applying his teeth to a nipple.

	That was a little beyond his skills at the moment.  With Duo 
holding sway over the territory of his chest, he could scarcely push the 
blasted polo shirt back down to undo the collar buttons properly.  He 
attempted to pull it up a couple more times, hoping in vain that the 
buttons would simply cooperate and undo themselves, but alas, they did 
not comprehend the urgency.  He reached down into the depths of the 
inside-out shirt to catch a hold of the troublesome little plastic 
discs, but the action became nothing more than hopeless fumbling as Duo 
worked more of his distracting magic.

	"Duo...," he managed to choke out past Duo lapping at his 
collarbone.  "I can't--!"  He had to pull his head to one side with a 
splutter, moving out of the range of Duo's oh so helpful hand blindly 
reaching up to try shoving the shirt up and catching him in the face 
instead.

	It normally wouldn't faze him, this licking of his clavicles, or 
the stroking of his side, or oh lord the indulgent rubbing of his 
corduroys, but it was probably the pure absurdity of it all, of the 
steady pulses of sensation tingling across his skin and the sweet sounds 
of two bodies moving against each other to the accompaniment of only 
flickering pinpoints of light seen through a dark blue cotton filter.  
His breath was trapped inside his prison, and he drew in the heat with 
each inhalation.  Now was not the time for his arms to be caught up in 
some ridiculously clumsy trap.

	His fingers had never been so uncoordinated when unbound and 
exploring Duo's body, but that mystery was irrelevant when compared to 
the facts.  He needed to get free, and Duo was getting in the way of 
that.  Unable to rely on his heavy arms, he tried to make use of a leg, 
hooking it around one of Duo's in a half-hearted attempt to pull him off 
and get the space required to finish his task, but there was perhaps a 
miscommunication at some point: between him and Duo, or between his 
brain and his leg, it was difficult to say.  Either way, he was levering 
Duo up his body, not down, and Duo repeated the motion, and in no way 
did it help the situation.

	Oh, forget this, he thought after another pathetic shot at the 
buttons.  He didn't really need to free himself, did he?  If Duo wanted 
to do all the work, then Heero would let him.  Yeah, he'd just lie here 
and try not to pant too hard.  Well, alright, he'd let his leg keep 
doing what it was doing, and maybe he just couldn't stop most of the 
rest of his body from moving the way it was, but his arms had just about 
collapsed and refused to budge anymore.

	"Hey," Duo breathed, hands traveling restlessly over Heero's 
abdominal muscles.  It wasn't like Heero to give up.  He put an ear over 
Heero's heart, not that he could hear much over his own exhalations.  
The puffs produced damp little clouds of featherlight touches over 
Heero's breastbone.  "You okay in there?  You haven't, like, suffocated 
or something, have you?"

	His shoulders shook with tired emotion.  "Can't... get it off."

	Duo's answering laugh started low in his belly, but it wasn't 
long before his whole body was vibrating, and taking Heero's along for 
the ride.  Eventually, he backed off and tugged the shirt back down 
again, uncovering Heero's face.  "Hey," he greeted with a goofy smile.

	Adjusting to the sudden light, he blinked a few times in wonder 
before dredging up the appropriate response.  "Hey."

	"More cords," Duo proclaimed firmly, straightening out the 
fabric that was still bunched up to gain access to Heero's bonds.  It'd 
be best to pull the shirt down past the armpits and do things in an 
orderly fashion, but he was reluctant to bid all that skin farewell.  
"Fewer polos."

	"Fewer buttons," Heero decided instead, banging his head lightly 
against the floor.  He wondered if this sort of thing happened to very 
many people.  Now that he'd had a moment to catch his breath, he tried 
the whole button thing again, lifting his hands to work things out, only 
to collide with Duo's.  They mingled for a moment, getting in each 
other's way with a few chuckles before he realized how he had missed 
Duo.  He let Duo bat his hands to the side, but they were back in a 
second, grasping Duo around the wrists, pulling them apart so he could 
reel his partner in for a reunion.  Even better, he reclaimed an active 
role and took advantage of his new-found maneuverability to seize the 
high ground.

	Duo didn't let him have it for long.  They switched positions 
twice more before Heero found himself back in his former position, only 
with a good deal more options available to him, and he made good on 
those opportunities.  One part of his mind managed to coordinate the 
transport of a nearby pillow under his head for maximum comfort, but the 
rest of his brain was merrily engaged in overload.

	Whatever was going on here, he didn't want to bother thinking 
about it.  There were so many other interesting things to be using those 
brain cells for that he held back only enough for feeling it, and even 
that was getting a little scrambled.  He could swear his toes could feel 
the kisses.  No words came to mind for the almost shivery feeling that 
ran through him, an energy that pushed him into action.  It alternated 
between bursts of frantic need and the slow motion of a gradual burn, 
and he concentrated on that feeling, puzzling its particulars out as it 
built up to something, something strange and heart-stopping and--

	Oh.  Now he remembered what that feeling was.

	Duo dragged his mouth down the line of Heero's jaw, rocking 
once, twice more before he paused, rocked again experimentally, and then 
drew back to fix Heero with a breathless, unbelieving look.  "Heero... 
did you... just...?"

	Heero met his look with an equal disbelief, but no, the 
lingering tremors were still making their leisurely way out of his 
system.  Well.  That wasn't what he had been expecting at all.  It had 
been, well, nice, but admittedly... unexpected.  But no matter.  It was 
his first in a long, long long time, and he wasn't a person that 
believed in perfection.  He believed in plenty of practice and a 
never-ending quest towards a pinnacle of performance, so he wasn't 
particularly disturbed to start out at 'unexpected'.  He would progress 
to 'quite deliberate' with a little more experience.

	Nevertheless, that did not in any way stop him from choosing to 
wipe away the near-smirk that was beginning to grow on Duo's face.  
Without giving the matter another thought, he flipped them over and got 
started on the other side of that 'quite deliberate'.  He was a fast 
learner.  Duo made an effort at resistance, but his gasp when it 
happened proved that it had been just as unexpected as Heero's.

	Duo continued to stare wide-eyed at the ceiling, delight and 
pleasure shaded with a bit of embarrassment bubbling up in his chest as 
Heero kept things up for a bit, riding things out as the kissing turned 
to nuzzling and finally a boneless slump against his side.  "Well."

	"Well," Heero echoed, laughing quietly into his shoulder.

	"You really do get off on the fire."

	He managed to stroke Duo's cheek.  "Depends on the company."  
With a sigh, he rolled to the side, undoing those cursed buttons just 
because he finally could, and squirmed a little.  "Remind me to take off 
my pants first, next time we do this."

	There was that giddy little laugh again, the one Duo was 
powerless to stop.  "Oh, man.  We should get cleaned up."

	He didn't want to get up right now.  "This dries, does it?"

	"Not without getting crusty and icky, it doesn't."

	"Damn."  Crusty and icky was not high on his list of likes.  He 
sighed again, only this time, without the contentment, and heaved 
himself upright.  "Fine.  But we come back down here right after."  Duo 
just snorted and lay there as Heero made his way shakily to his feet, 
looking awkward in the way he was trying to inconspicuously keep the 
crotch of his pants away from his body.  Once he was up, he looked down 
at Duo's satisfied expression and tilted an eyebrow at him.  "Coming?"

	Duo held a hand up, requesting unnecessary assistance.  Heero 
complied, and once his feet were back under him, he let out his smirk, 
unable to resist the temptation.  "I just did, baby."

	Heero punched him in the arm, and he rolled with it, using the 
momentum and their still-joined hands to pull Heero close for another 
surge of lusty amusement.  The arrangement brought their spent groins 
together again, which just reminded Heero of the sticky ickiness and he 
pulled away.  "Clean up," he repeated softly.  "But right back down here 
after."

	"Fine."  Duo used one last nip as a chaser for his lazy grin.  
"Race ya."

	A heated glance was exchanged, and then they bolted for the 
stairs.  Duo hit the bathroom first, and Heero paused outside for just a 
breath before deciding to run ahead to their room, grab his pajama 
pants, and go back downstairs to use the small half-bathroom on the 
first floor.

	When Duo made it back to the fire, he was alone, and assuming 
that Heero was just being his usual meticulous self, he passed the time 
tending to the flames.  A little poking and it was back up to standards 
by the time Heero padded thoughtfully back into its circle of warmth.  
The pillows were put back into order with care, and then they laid down 
next to each other, contemplating the way the shadows danced across the 
ceiling, and maybe a few other things besides.

	"We should get wetnaps," Heero declared.

	Duo rolled his eyes.  "Neat freak."

	"I resent having to get up after all that."  He turned and 
snuggled closely into Duo's side.  Yeah, okay, that made it a little 
better.  "We should move the trash can closer to the bed, too."

	"Lazy."  Duo had no real complaint, though.  He hadn't much 
liked getting up either.  "So I suppose that, if I don't let you be your 
neat freak self, you'd probably make me drag my ass out of bed, or we'd 
just have to deal.  And then knowing you, you'd probably feel perfectly 
justified in making me sleep in the wet spot, too."

	"Wet spot?"  It hadn't occurred to Heero, but he could see where 
such a thing would come from.  "Hn.  Sloppy."

	Duo laughed, not sure why he still had it in him.  "It happens, 
Heero.  Probably means you're doing things right."

	Heero made a disdainful sound.  "Means you lacked forethought."

	They continued to lie there, quietly enjoying each other's 
company when Heero broke the silence with an observation.  "Hey... 
remember that time at the mattress store, and how they had all those 
different varieties of mattress pads?  And there was that one waterproof 
one for a queen-sized mattress, and you joked about how a person with a 
queen-sized mattress shouldn't still be wetting the bed?  And I said 
that maybe it was for waterbeds, or maybe people should stop drinking 
things while they were in bed."

	Duo smiled.  "Sounds like you remember it better than me.  Why?"

	"I'm beginning to see what other uses it might have..."



_________________________________________
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 : 3/1/2006 00:08:32 PST