---------------------
      Nine Lives
~ A Moment of Haven ~
---------------------
	"Well, let's get you settled in," Duo announced as he led the 
way up the stairs.

	"You go take a shower," Heero offered.  There were three people 
here, and only one bathtub.  Might as well get the queue going as 
quickly as possible.  "I'll take care of it."

	"You sure?"

	He shrugged.  "It's my room, after all."

	Wufei had followed them up the stairs, but had expected to be on 
his way back down shortly.  "That won't be necessary.  I wouldn't want 
to displace you...."  He trailed off as he felt something wrong about 
that statement.

	Heero smiled wryly.  "Don't worry.  I can sleep in Duo's room.  
I'm sure he won't mind."

	Duo slapped his butt on the way by to the bathroom, pajamas in 
hand.  "Don't be so cocky, man.  You never know."

	"Oh.  Maybe I should sleep on the sofa, then."

	"Don't even think about it."

	"Then maybe I'll sleep in my bed and Wufei can sleep in yours."

	"Ugh."  He paused mid-step and turned around apologetically to 
meet two upraised eyebrows.  "Um.  No offense or anything.  Just... 
well.  You're you, and.... Well.  I'd rather sleep with you than Trowa?"

	Heero shook his head.  "Go take a shower, Duo.  I think you need 
to go wash off all that dirt from the hole you're digging yourself."

	"Uh.  Yeah.  Good idea.  Bye."  The door shut firmly behind him.

	Heero turned back to Wufei, who was sporting a bemused 
expression.  "He didn't mean anything by it, of course."

	Wufei snorted.  "Don't worry.  No offense, but I'll gladly leave 
sleeping with him to you.  I appreciate the use of your room, then."  
The beds at HQ weren't terrible, but after a long string of them, a man 
could desire a change in scenery.

	"Let me just change out the sheets for you," Heero answered, 
moving to the closet.  "It's been a while, even if no one's slept there 
for months."

	"Is it still 'your room', then?"

	"We call it 'my room'.  For lack of a better name, I guess.  I 
still have stuff in there, and I do work in there sometimes.  It's not 
quite a spare room or a guest room."  He pulled a clean set of sheets 
out and headed toward Wufei's nest for the night.  "I don't think it's 
too messy in here.  It should be okay."

	Wufei surveyed the neat arrangement of computers and 
miscellaneous hardware.  "You don't strike me as the messy kind, Yuy."

	He made an amused sound as he folded the blanket down to get to 
the sheets.  "Despite all of Duo's efforts to the contrary, no, I 
suppose I am not the messy kind."

	Wufei quickly moved to the other side of the bed to assist.  
"Does he have a workspace of his own?"

	"I leave the garage mostly to him.  It's not too messy down 
there, either.  He likes being able to find what he's looking for.  He 
just happens to be able to do so when something is at the bottom of a 
box that's behind two other boxes and underneath a spare garden hose."

	"You have accumulated... 'stuff'," he observed with a bit of 
wonder.

	Heero paused for only a moment in contemplation.  "Some stuff.  
Not nearly as much as some of our neighbors, judging from the fact that 
some people can't even park their cars in their garages.  But yes.  
Stuff."

	"I haven't gotten to that point yet."

	"We accumulated a few things at first, simply because we could.  
Then we got over it.  Now it's the stuff of daily life.  And stuff worth 
accumulating."

	Wufei left Heero to tucking in his corners of the sheet and 
turned to the fresh pillow case.  "If it all went up in flames 
tomorrow... would you regret it?"

	"No."

	"What would you run back inside to save?"

	"Duo."  There was a moment of silence in the wake of that 
pronouncement before Heero chuckled.  "And possibly the C4.  It might be 
bad if the fire reached it."

	That startled a laugh out of Wufei.  "Do I want to know?"

	Heero shook his head.

	"Good fortune has blessed you, Yuy.  With this home, and someone 
to share it with."

	"While I don't disagree that fortune has been kind to me...  
Sometimes you can't depend on good fortune to bless you.  Sometimes have 
to find a place and make it your own, make it your home."

	"And the someone?"

	"Sometimes... that, too."

	Wufei studied him carefully as he fluffed out his pillow for the 
night.  "You two are well-suited for each other."

	"For friendship?  It took a bit of work, but it happened.  For 
more than that...?  Well, Duo does like to claim he can set anything on 
fire, if he puts his mind to it."

	It was obvious to whom the C4 belonged.  "Something must have 
made him decide to put his mind to it."

	"Occasionally, we grudgingly have to give some scrap of credit 
to a few of our friends for pointing us in this direction."

	"Your infamous neighbor?  I'll have to meet her some time."

	"Only if you want her to find you a wife.  Or a companion, 
perhaps.  Duo and I... I see us as companions.  Long-term companions.  
Long-term, monogamous companions."

	Wufei leveled a dry look at him.

	He shrugged.  "I have every intention of living as long as I 
can, and I found a pleasant companion to pass that time with.  And I am 
fortunate that he has found me a pleasant companion as well, and as he 
says, we have become willing partners in each other's horniness."  He 
rolled his eyes slightly.  "I'm not sure what more I can aspire to."

	"And you call this love?"

	He shrugged again.  "Why not?  Love is, according to most common 
sources, the pinnacle of all things.  I think we all have our own 
definitions of it.  And sometimes those definitions can surprise us."

	Wufei's attention turned inward for a few seconds.  "Yes.  Yes, 
they can."  He nodded to himself.  "Yes, sometimes we can find love in 
the most unexpected of people."

	"If it's right for you, you hold on to it."

	"...And if it's too late?"

	Heero met his gaze and held it.  At length, he shrugged yet 
again.  "We pilots are good at defying the odds.  No matter how special 
that person may have been, there's probably someone else out there that 
can be just as special, if you're open to it.  Probably in a different 
way, but isn't that a good thing?"

	"Hm.  Yes.  It probably is."

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

	After everyone had their shot at the bathroom, Duo waved over 
his shoulder as he dragged Heero off to their room.  "Good night, Wufei.  
Oh, and if you hear any moaning and groaning from our room tonight, 
don't worry.  It's just gonna be 'cuz we beat each other up yesterday."

	Once they were safely ensconced in their own room, Heero 
stretched lazily, then refrained from elbowing Duo in the side of the 
head when arms wrapped unexpectedly around his midsection from behind.  
"Hm?  Oh, so you mean I can look forward to some more backrubs tonight?"

	Duo nuzzled his neck before backing off just enough to knead his 
shoulders lightly.  "Ha, backrubs, maybe, but, uh, let's hold off on the 
frontrub this time around, yeah?  Um, company and all."  He thought back 
to the previous night, and despite still feeling like he needed just a 
pinch more of time to wrap his head around it, he found himself quite 
suddenly weak at the knees from the thought of Heero sucking him off.  
He shivered involuntarily.  "Um.  Quick.  Distract me."

	Heero glanced over his shoulder to see what the problem was, but 
finding nothing, he nevertheless did as instructed.  One hand slid up 
the back of Duo's neck, and the other groped toward the wall to flip the 
lights off while his feet stumbled them back toward the bed and his 
mouth got quite busy with the business of distraction.

	Some minutes later, after Heero took to nibbling around his ear 
and jaw, and Duo noticed his happy sighs were getting close to 
almost-moans and soon he was going to be guilty of lying to Wufei, he 
chuckled softly.  "You're good at that, Heero."

	"You're not bad yourself."  The words were murmured in his ear 
with a low tone, short of a purr but oh so intimate.

	He laughed again.  "At distraction.  I meant you're good at 
distraction."  The heat in his belly was banked down to a warmth as 
Heero's mouth made certain he understood it was at his neck and not 
anywhere farther south.

	Heero disengaged and tried looking him in the eye in the dim 
moonlight coming in through the window.  A hand on his face solidified 
the connection.  "I get a lot of practice.  You have a lot of things you 
need to be distracted from sometimes."

	"Yeah."  He smiled ruefully.  "Maybe.  Sometimes."

	Heero rolled off him to turn on the bedside lamp, then shooed 
him over so he could turn down the covers properly.  He stretched again 
before digging through the nightstand's drawer for his bottle of skin 
lotion.

	Duo smirked when his hand went first for the bottle of lubricant 
instead.  "Ha, maybe we should move them so they're not right next to 
each other.  It'd kind of suck to pick up the wrong one by accident.  
Hm.  Actually, would that work?"

	"No."

	"Oh.  Yeah, you're right."  He stole a dollop of moisturizer 
from the puddle in the palm of Heero's hand and took care of his 
cuticles before they cracked.  Then he could settle back and watch Heero 
without feeling guilty about not tending to his own maintenance.  He 
used to make fun of Heero, but hey, it wasn't his fault there was 
something about the Earth's atmosphere that managed to suck the moisture 
out of his skin, and besides, these days he got quite the kick out of 
thinking about Heero and well-oiled machines.  "Can't wait 'til it gets 
warmer.  We should hit the beach.  Or more likely, maybe do some work on 
the backyard."

	"Hm, yeah.  We've been talking about that for a while, too, 
haven't we?"  Heero wiggled his toes in satisfaction.  Scuffling around 
on the practice mats all afternoon on his bare feet was really doing a 
number on them.

	"Well, yeah... But I was more thinking about the little fantasy 
I just conjured up about rubbing sunscreen all over you.  All.  Over.  
You."

	Heero raised an eyebrow at him.  "I don't think I'd be working 
in the backyard in the nude."

	He grinned.  Now there was an interesting image.  It got even 
more amusing when he made Heero's ass paler than the rest of him.  
"Well, okay.  We can skip the backyard part and the sunscreen part and I 
can just rub you all over in the privacy of our own room."

	Heero leaned in close to him.  "You can do that right now.  
Well, maybe 'right now' as in tomorrow."

	"Mmm."  He stole a quick kiss.  "We'll see."  He ticked off 
items on his mental checklist until he was satisfied that there were no 
more pre-bedtime things to take care of, and then he got settled beneath 
the covers.  He waited until Heero was more or less comfortable before 
sneaking in a good snog and cuddle.  "Hey.  So, you'd choose me over a 
mission?  Like, you wouldn't leave me behind if I got injured?"

	"What kind of injury are we talking about?  If it's just a minor 
flesh wound, you're on your own, Maxwell."

	That was, curiously, exactly what he wanted to hear.  "Okay.  
But me versus a town of civilians?"

	"...What kind of civilians?" he hedged.  "Because if they 
brought ruin down upon themselves, they can forget about it."

	"Let's say innocent ones."

	"Oh.  Well.  I guess I'd just have to hope you could hold out 
long enough for me to circle back to help you."  He looked almost 
contrite.

	Duo kissed him, long and hard.  He ended it with a smile that 
turned quickly into a sigh.  "I don't know that I'd be able to do the 
same.  From right here, I'd say yeah, of course I'd be reasonable about 
the whole thing, but it's just like anything else we were talking about 
tonight.  You can't really be sure about what you're going to do out 
there in the field until you're actually out there and forced to make 
the decisions.  I may not be that strong."

	Heero stroked his face with his thumb.  "And I may be all talk.  
Maybe when I'm out there in the field, I'll choke and stop thinking with 
my head.  Maybe I'm not that strong, either."

	"Not that I don't have faith in your nine lives, but... well, I 
dunno, what are you on now?  Seven?  Something like that?"  He shuddered 
lightly.  "Anyway.  You know me.  I don't always think with my head."

	"You'll do the right thing, Duo.  You do your best work under 
pressure."

	"You know me... and I know you, Heero."  His expression firmed 
into something with determination.  "So tell me.  Just what is it about 
you that I don't know?"

	Heero blinked.  "About what?"

	"You.  You keep saying you wouldn't qualify for field agent 
status.  You always say it's medical reasons.  And I used to think you 
were just saying that to get people off your back.  But I know you.  And 
I know you wouldn't keep saying that, not to me and 'Fei, not if there 
wasn't something to it.  So come on.  Tell me what's up."

	He took a few moments to process the request before shruggjng.  
"Nothing out of the ordinary."

	"That's bullshit, Heero.  You're not really answering my 
question, which means there's something terrible you're keeping from 
me."

	"I wouldn't keep something terrible from you."

	"Yeah, that's probably just because you don't consider these 
things terrible.  So whether or not you think I'm overreacting, just 
tell me already and save me the stress, okay?"

	Fair enough.  Heero could admit that his sense of scale was a 
bit skewed at times, by common accounting.  "You know my history.  
You've been there for some of it."

	"Yeah, unconscious for a month."  Duo waved his hand 
dismissively.  "I get it.  I think it's stupid beyond belief that they'd 
care about that, but whatever."

	"And Zero."

	"Yeah, I think that's beyond stupid, too.  So you were 
chemically imbalanced for a while.  Big effin' deal.  It's over and--"  
He froze mid-sentence almost comically.  "...It is over, isn't it?"

	"Yes, it's over.  Well, as best as we can estimate, anyway."

	"No permanent damage?"

	"Not that we're aware of."

	"You're not a very reassuring person sometimes, Heero."

	"I get the feeling you want me to be completely honest with you 
right now."

	"Yeah, dammit, I do."  He took a deep breath and girded his 
loins for another round.  "So what else is there?  Level with me."

	"Like I said... just the normal stuff."

	"And like I said, Heero.  Bull.  Don't I-- Don't I..."  He shook 
his head in frustration, trying to find the right words to convey what 
he needed to convey.  "Haven't I earned the right -- no, the privilege 
-- of knowing what's going on with you?"

	"Of course, Duo.  I'm not trying to keep anything from you."

	"But you're not telling me anything.  I swear to effin' god, 
Heero, if you harbor any delusions about not worrying me, I *will* make 
up shit that's ten times worse than anything you could ever tell me, and 
I'm sure neither of us wants that."

	Heero laughed quietly.  "I love your methods of negotiation."

	Duo glared at him.  "Cough it out already, Yuy."

	"I wasn't being dishonest.  I meant it.  Wear and tear.  You 
know I've put this body through a lot.  I've accumulated a lot of wear 
and tear."

	"Enough to keep you out of field duty?  That's gonna be a hell 
of a lot of wear and tear, considering the rest of us haven't exactly 
been lounging around on the rear lines ourselves, you know.  How much 
are we talking here?"

	"Well, there's the fractures, and the dislocations.  And the 
strains, and overextensions.  Nothing catastrophic, but it all adds up.  
I'll be happy to live long enough to really feel the effects of it all."

	Didn't take much to please the man.  "How much does it add up 
to?  Like... should you not even be teaching your class?"

	Heero let out a derisive snort.  "Don't be ridiculous."

	"So I don't have to go easy on you, next time we spar?"

	"As if you could."

	"But it's enough to keep you from field duty?  Which isn't 
exactly special ops twenty-four seven.  Why is that too much for you?"

	"I'm not saying it is."  He aimed for a soothing tone of voice, 
but it wasn't really working.  "I'm sure Sally would clear me for field 
duty, if she wanted to.  Another doctor might not."

	"So Sal says it's okay for you to do your superhero thing?"  
There was more than a faint tinge of skepticism in that question.

	"Sally has asked that I... take it easy.  That's all.  And she 
knows what my standards of 'taking it easy' are, and she didn't seem to 
have a problem with it.  She didn't tell me to retire or anything.  She 
just asks that I try to minimize the number of crazy things I do."

	"You do crazy things every day, Heero.  Like keeping things like 
this from me."

	"I wasn't keeping anything from you.  And she meant physical 
things.  Like taking uncontrolled dives through the atmosphere.  I don't 
think that'll be happening again any time soon, so I really don't think 
there's anything to be worried about."

	"Heero!"  He grabbed a hold of Heero's shirt and shook him a 
little.  "You worry about things like falling down in the shower during 
sex, and you don't worry about sound medical advice from your doctor?"

	"She's just told me to be aware of what I do.  She trusts me not 
to push it."

	"Are you kidding me?  It's probably more like, she trusts you to 
ignore whatever she just told you, if you feel it's necessary."

	"...I can't disagree with that."

	"Argh."  He released Heero's shirt and flopped back on his side 
of the bed.  After staring at the ceiling for a second, he regrouped and 
tried again.  "Okay.  Free-falling through the atmosphere.  What's up 
with that?"

	"It was just an example."

	"You don't mention things casually too often, Heero.  
Free-falling through the atmosphere poses a special risk.  Why?"

	"Because it's not good for a person, Duo.  Especially for 
someone who has... used his body as well as I have."

	Duo rolled his eyes.  That was one way to put it.  "Yeah, well I 
haven't read up on the latest medical studies, so you'll have to 
enlighten me.  A lot of g's, I get it.  What kind of damage does that do 
to a person?  'Cuz I'm pretty sure 'normal wear and tear' doesn't even 
begin to cover this case."

	Heero mulled it over for a few seconds.  "Of the things Sally 
asks me to be aware of... the most important of them may be my heart."

	"Your--!  What do you mean, your heart!" he hissed, his eyes 
wide.

	"They haven't found anything.  They just want me to keep it in 
mind."

	"Keep WHAT in mind?!"  He kept his voice down, but there was 
still a lot of vehemence behind his words.

	Heero felt the proper thing to do ought to be to reach over and 
pat his hand reassuringly or something, only he had a suspicion that 
doing so would only stress Duo even more.  "That one or more of the 
valves in my heart might have sustained some damage from all that 
force."

	"That's... that's absurd!  You have the strongest heart out of 
anyone I know!"

	"I told you.  It's nothing definite.  It's just not unheard of 
for a valve to have strained itself trying to keep the blood flowing in 
the right direction, counter to g-forces.  And if so, then it's not 
unheard of for a tiny tear to have formed some scar tissue that may just 
possibly get carried away over time and impair function down the line.  
It's just a possibility.  A remote possibility.  I should just pay 
attention to my heart beat.  I'm not too concerned about it."

	Duo shifted over to lay a hand gingerly upon Heero's chest.

	Heero settled his own hand over it.  "Trust me.  I know what I'm 
doing.  I know my body.  I know my limits, Duo."

	"Yeah, you know them."  He raised his eyes to stare Heero in the 
eyes sourly.  "You say hello to them on a regular basis!  Sometimes, you 
even wave at them as you stroll right on by!"

	"...Well, there are 'limits', and then there are 'limits'."

	Duo grit his teeth around another sound of pure exasperation.

	"Even if something did happen, they would be able to correct it 
with surgery."

	He made a face.  "I guess that's reassuring."

	"Sorry."

	"Don't be stupid.  Just... just shut up and let me listen."  He 
set his ear to Heero's heart and closed his eyes.

	Heero reached over to turn off the bedside lamp.



_________________________________________
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last modified : 5/25/2008 03:34:17 PST