Disclaimer: I don't own the GW characters – am just borrowing to torment for my amusement
Warnings: Swearing, yaoi, implied sex, sap, a few cliches
Pairings: 1x2
Beta: Ellewrites
A/N: This is what happens when you write long angsty multi-parts… a cute morning after the night before get together fic. A cliché but a bit of sap is needed sometimes… Inspired by Taking Back Sunday's Call Me in the Morning…
Call Me in the Morning
The L1 colony rain cycle happened between the hours of two and four a.m. so as not to inconvenience the residents but to provide the much needed rain to sustain the vast amounts of plant life. L1, as the nearest colony cluster to earth, was the most populated and the most "earth-like" in both its appearance and weather conditions. The rain cycle only became an inconvenience to those who were returning home after drinking or partaking in the great art of sneaking out of someone else's apartment.
One ex-Gundam Pilot, former thief, top infiltration and stealth operative for the Preventers had perfected the art of the sneak-out years ago. Duo Maxwell would admit he'd had his wild years – those years where he didn't quite know how to behave or react in a world that did not require him to kill or be killed every waking second. Admittedly he needed some time to get things out of his system before he settled into a peace-time life, but even now that he had he still found himself sneaking out of someone else's apartment that he really shouldn't have been in. Really shouldn't have.
The other man in the bed was not visible in the covers apart from the shock of dark brown hair in the false light that came from the open curtains. Thankfully, they hadn't bothered with closing them as the make out session on the couch had moved to the bedroom three paces down the hall and that meant Duo could at least work out where his clothing had ended up. Not that he really wanted to wear said clothing.
The walk of shame was bad enough without the added benefit of the clothing that he had been wearing being ripped and bloody – nothing to do with the sex but everything to do with the mission that he'd returned from what, only six hours before. He was meant to be sleeping on the couch as he'd done the stupid thing of renting a place in the bohemian heart of the colony rather than, as Captain Sensible had done, renting somewhere that was within a ten minute walk from the L1 Preventer Field Office.
"You can stay with me," he'd been told and, exhausted, his body damn hurting and his head throbbing, he'd agreed.
It was better than commuting on the bus – it was better than walking the half an hour to where he lived and he was in no fit condition to ride the motorcycle parked in the Preventer parking bay, as much as that thought pained him.
But now he was going to have to get home. Going to have to walk home in a bloody Preventer uniform in the middle of the fucking rain cycle as he really didn't want to have the conversation or even look at Heero Yuy in the morning.
Oh yeah, everybody had mentioned the unresolved sexual tension as some kind of joke for years. Accused Duo of being the wife – to which people usually got the finger if he was feeling polite or the most articulate display of cuss words that he could muster – but still, they hadn't actually done it. They'd tip toed around it. A few misjudged kisses, a small amount of groping and a few embarrassed "sorry's" and Duo had been fine with that. They both didn't want to ruin the friendship as Heero really only had him and the other Gundam pilots who could remotely tolerate him and Duo, well, he liked having Heero as a friend. If they became a couple, an item, lovers, boyfriends or whatever the hell it would be, all Duo could see was it going up in flames spectacularly. They argued enough in their working relationship and yeah, their arguments, for want of a better word, were heated and that would probably work as passion in a romantic relationship, but it would probably get to a point where they'd punch each other's lights out. And that would not be good, so Duo was quite happy to settle for friendship and maybe a few fumbles over the years.
Not this. He crawled carefully from the bed, locating his boxer shorts that at least were relatively near to the bed and pulling them up before he looked back suspiciously towards the crumpled bedding and the outline of the body.
Heero didn't stir. This was unexpected and Duo couldn't help raising one eyebrow as he looked back at the sleeping form and the peeking brown hair. Wartime Heero Yuy would have had a gun in his face by now and he'd be holding up his hands in surrender. Which would be funny since he stood in his underwear but maybe not so funny because of the reason he was in nothing but his underwear in Heero's bedroom.
He shook his head slightly as he located the black jeans that he just barely got away with as part of his regulation uniform as the regulation said "black pants" – nowhere did it actually specify that jeans were not allowed. He'd argued his point to Une. Unfortunately, he never got anywhere with the tie. Damn Psycho Bitch from Hell.
They were awkward to get on due to the congealed blood on the surface. His wounds had not been vast – a head wound that had been determined to bleed, potential concussion, the slightest graze from a bullet on his arm… all a piece of cake. But there had been blood. Plenty of it. And stitches. He carefully touched his forearm where six butterfly stitches had sewn up the flesh and he felt the slight dampness of blood. Probably popped out in last night's activities…
Ugh. It was bad enough that he'd left other bodily fluids in Heero's bed but his blood as well… looked like they'd been into some scary kinky shit. He really hoped Heero didn't have a cleaner and did his own laundry.
Duo awkwardly got into the tight jeans and despite nearly falling over, managed it and still Heero hadn't stirred. Amazed at this and slightly emboldened, he approached the bed to where the tank he wore under his regulation shirt was located and picked it up. Closer to the bed, he could see the top of Heero's face rather than just that hair. He seemed fast asleep. Maybe the mission had wiped out even the Perfect Soldier. It had been tough but then they always were. They weren't assigned to bullshit garden-variety crimes – only the sneakiest, nastiest and generally suckiest cases the Preventers could find. And they always ended up in shootouts or running after the bad guys. Or always seemed to.
He found himself smiling despite the fact he was going to do the duck and run tactic. He pulled the tank over his head, pulling out his rumpled braid and deciding he wouldn't bother with the blood stained shirt as he really couldn't tell where that had ended up. Socks would be another thing he passed on – he wasn't sure where they'd gone and he was damned if he was going to crawl around on the floor looking for socks. His biker boots were going to be uncomfortable on the walk home but he'd deal – he'd dealt with much worse injuries in his past so a few blisters on a rain soaked walk of shame were something he could deal with.
With one look back, Duo exited Heero Yuy's bedroom and after picking up his jacket, putting on his boots and finding out how to get through his electronic locking system, was exiting the apartment and going quickly down the stairs.
He left the apartment block and immediately felt the fresh coldness of the rain cycle – the water dropping and soaking him instantly. The rain on colony was timed, regulated and generally heavy unlike the light showers that were experienced on earth and in an instant Duo was both wet and cold. He knew he could've manned up – could have stayed until morning, tried the awkward dance of "what the hell did we do last night," tried the embarrassment of borrowing Heero's clothes and tried to be a mature adult and deal with the fact that he'd been fucked by his best friend. Multiple times. Different positions. Different surfaces. Hell.
Pulling his bloody and damaged Preventer jacket tight around his body, Duo put his head down and began to walk down the street as swiftly as he could. He didn't get far until he heard his name shouted and spun around to see Heero standing only in his boxers and a loose white t-shirt. It seemed a ridiculous image and the sound of being shouted at, at three thirty a.m., seemed to reverberate around the street. Duo looked up instinctively to check for twitching curtains as he saw Heero underneath the streetlight looking utterly and completely dishevelled after approximately twenty seconds outside. He'd made it to the end of the block so he had a choice – keep going and leave the drowned rat in the middle of the street in his undies or be a better man than he intended on being and approach.
'Stop being a dick, Maxwell.'
His internal voice tended to be a little harsh but it was probably true – leaving Heero hanging in front of his apartment building like that was not the kindest action. At least he had jeans and a jacket.
The steps towards Heero seemed to take forever, the rain pelting down on every surface and every part of him – his braid was saturated, his boots full of puddles, his bangs heavy across his face and he brushed them aside as he stopped in front of Heero.
"Just didn't want to deal with the morning after."
The statement was quiet on his lips, almost muted by the sound of water cascading off roofs but at least it was truly honest.
Heero didn't say anything and that was unsettling. His blue eyes were searching the lack of his full Preventer clothing and how stupid he must look.
"It's just, you know, after what we did, it just, you know, changes shit and I just need some time, and fuck, a moment of space and like, damn clarity before I figure out what it all meant."
"We had sex," Heero said, a clear matter of fact-ness in his tone.
"Yeah, I remember that part – I was there, you know?"
He got a soft amused grunt for that.
"It's just… sex changes shit… like, Heero, blowjobs and fucking do not constitute a normal friendship thing."
"I know."
"Yeah, but you don't want this go any further… you know. We're like totally bad together just on missions and shit… add fucking to that and it's like, explosions and fireworks and, and… I think I need to, like, forget it happened and just walk away, here, buddy."
He realised his speech had been longer than he intended and had been punctuated by moments of inarticulateness and shrugging. Heero had only blinked a few times during it – his face remaining impassive and unreadable. Duo decided, as he'd got nothing from him, he should just walk away, take a step back and be the mature one here. This wouldn't work – would never work. Too different – the taciturn agent and the loudmouth joker, the calm, controlled team leader and the self-acknowledged loose cannon, the strong, steady Heero Yuy and the erratic, manic Duo Maxwell. It would never work. Not beyond a few good night's fucking around. With those thoughts, Duo started to step away.
The step back was short and stopped. His eyes snapped shut as lips met his own, wet from rainwater, and a hand encircled his own wrist tight, but not too tight. He felt himself slacken, the tension from his muscles evaporating as he opened his mouth to allow Heero's tongue entrance, replaying the first moments of last night's sexcapades in full, high definition quality in the rain. Outside. At three thirty a.m. or something.
It took a second for a hand to find its way to wet hair and over the now tight white t-shirt that clung perfectly to the muscles of Heero's back. Romantic kisses in the rain or something. This was worse than the sex. He could accept that - that had been a moment of unused adrenalin after being shot at and running for however many blocks. Could accept that it was a moment of weakness and figure that it wouldn't happen again but this…
Duo pushed back. "Heero. Stop."
"I thought –"
"I kinda get what you thought." He stopped him effectively with a wave of his hand and averting his eyes. Duo looked up at the wavering street light and the grey colony sky.
"Just call me in the morning. Let me go home."
A short nod answered that and he turned, lips tingling from cold rain and warm chapped lips. He didn't look back to see whether Heero watched him go but somehow he knew those intense blue eyes were watching every step.
The low incessant beeping alerted Duo to an incoming call and the fact it was morning. He groaned and looked at the red numbers on the clock beside the bed and turned as far away from the phone as he could, wrapping his head firmly in the covers and ignoring said phone line. He'd arrived home at about four a.m – showered to warm up his shivering body and thrown his bloody and damaged Preventer uniform to the floor without looking at where it ended up. He'd collapsed – hair pulled back into a loose ponytail – in his own bed and looked seriously at the ceiling. Damn.
He hadn't expected the events of the night before to happen. He couldn't deny that there wasn't a part of him that wanted it – that had enjoyed the years of teasing and harmless flirting and those occasional hot make-out sessions – being pushed against a wall by the considerable strength of Heero Yuy was definitely a turn on and those few occasions had provided him with considerable fantasies but actually fucking? That had been a line and a line that they were not going to cross. And that line was now obliterated – not just gone over, it hadn't been stepped over, it had been destroyed and the ground that the line had been on was now in a million tiny little pieces. He groaned thinking about it.
The phone was still ringing.
"Go away, goddamn it."
God, as always, if he did actually believe in the big guy, ignored him as he peeked out of the mass of covers and inspected the time. He'd hardly slept and now someone was calling him at six thirty a.m.
Duo had spent the first hour upon arriving home trying not to think too hard about what had happened. Trying not to remember how good it had been – he hadn't expected the hands that could bend steel to be, well, gentle and how much a little growl and a show of superior strength could turn him on so much. Finally, after analysing and thinking about every moment, he started to drift to sleep only to be as he was now – hiding in his covers after being rudely awoken by the phone.
"Someone better be dying."
Extracting himself from the covers, he grabbed the phone and thought for a second about putting it down but refrained.
"Hey."
It was as articulate as anyone was going to get at this time in the morning. He assumed whoever wanted to speak to him knew it was him as so few people had his number.
"Duo."
He scrambled to a sitting position at the sound of the other voice on the line.
"Heero. It's half six. I left you, like, three hours ago."
"You said to call in the morning."
"Yeah but did you have to take it so literally, 'Ro? Like give me until a civilised hour or something."
"I need to talk to you."
"And I need more sleep."
"I have breakfast."
Duo blinked. "Breakfast?"
"I'm outside your building."
He got out of the comfort of his bed to peer out of the window to see Heero Yuy standing on his phone outside the store front that his place was situated above. He could see the bag in his hand was from the patisserie down the block where he usually purchased the sweet treats he brought into the Preventer office. He was being thoughtful. Endearingly so. He scratched the back of his head underneath the ponytail and tried not to scowl.
"I'll buzz you up."
He disconnected the call before leaving his war zone of a bedroom and going through the main room of his apartment to press the buzzer that allowed entry to the building. He thought for a second about his lack of clothing but then figured that last night Heero had seen everything – in close up detail – so the fact he was shirtless, his loose plaid pyjamas bottoms low on his hips, was not really a concern. It took only a few moments for the knock on his door and for Heero to be standing there, looking considerably less wet than their last meeting.
Duo leaned on the doorframe. "Hey."
"Hey."
For a second, he didn't allow entry and just stared. Heero looked good – tired, a little less straight-backed and a little less certain than usual but probably better than he looked.
"Are you going to let me in?"
"Yeah… sure."
He moved, allowing entry into the apartment. Heero had been here before, told him he was stupid for picking a place so far from the L1 Field Office, commented about the graffiti and the cafes that sometimes seemed to sell brownies of a more adult nature but this time he didn't say anything as he walked to the kitchenette and put down the bag.
"You brought doughnuts?" Duo asked, following.
"And danishes. I wasn't sure what to get."
"Working on the cliché that the way to a guy's heart is through his stomach?"
The words had left his mouth before Duo had a moment to figure out the new ramifications of the question. Before last night that would have been an acceptable comment, a joke, a slight hint of flirting that would have been fine. This morning…
"Shit, Heero, I didn't mean it –"
"We need to talk."
"Yeah, guess so."
"Last night was…" Heero started and then stalled, looking down at his hands on the kitchen counter rather than at Duo.
"It was good, Heero. Really good. I wasn't running from what happened, I don't regret it, you know."
"I don't regret it either."
"Cool."
They both stopped and Duo folded his arms against the toned expense of his chest. It felt slightly cold in the apartment but he didn't want to go and get a shirt or anything. It would suggest he was uncomfortable or something and he didn't want this to be anymore awkward than it was.
"Where do we go from here?"
Duo looked up, surprised to hear the question from the usually so certain and sure Heero Yuy. He ran point on missions – usually acting as team leader or mission commander and Duo never protested. Those natural leadership skills and tactical mind were superior to his own and plus Heero knew how to play to his strengths. Knew what jobs to give to Duo – the perfect partner in his own way. And he was always so sure. Always so strong, steady and calm. This was a different Heero and Duo was finding it hard to meet his blue eyes. He wanted answers, he wanted answers from him and he wasn't sure that he had them.
He shrugged his shoulders a little. "I don't know, 'Ro."
There were options here. They forget it and chalk it down to adrenalin fuelled post mission horniness and nothing more or they could… not. They could not forget. They could give this a go. Try staying over at each other's place and spend time together just doing stuff.
"You want to forget it happened?"
Duo shook his head. "Hell no. Really don't think I can, you know… it was kinda… intense."
Heero smirked a little and moved a little closer so that Duo could almost feel the heat from the other man's body. He shivered a little and it was nothing to do with the temperature in his apartment.
"I don't want to."
"Good," Duo said with a nod, his heart rate seeming to increase with the close proximity of Heero's body.
He smelt different this morning. Not of sweat, of blood or gunshot residue and sex but something cleaner and he felt himself take an unconscious step closer until they were less than an inch apart in the small space of his kitchenette. Heero was the one to initiate contact, the certainty returning to his demeanour as he pushed aside a stray bit of long hair that had fallen out of the loose ponytail.
"What happens now?" Heero asked.
"Morning after the night before sex."
Duo didn't give Heero time to react, instead latched his fingers to the collar of his navy blue t-shirt pulling him that brief distance towards him and forcing lips to meet lips. The hard planes of Heero's body moulded to his own and he felt a callused hand rest at the small of his back and trace a pattern up his spine. He took an awkward step backwards, trying to figure out the location of furniture in his apartment as his eyes closed and lips locked. It would be sensible to separate and walk to the bedroom but, damn it, Duo wasn't the sensible one in whatever this relationship was and he sure as hell wasn't going to start now.
Lips parted briefly, allowing the movement of denim jacket and t-shirt to be removed and a few larger and more sure steps towards the bedroom.
"What about breakfast?" Heero managed to say against lips, finally shirtless and now being pulled insistently by the waistband of his jeans, a quick clash of teeth and bump of noses showing a lack of coordination.
"Too early for breakfast…"
A gasp was elicited as fingers deftly working on belt, button and fly, Duo's hand slipping past denim to soft cotton boxer shorts.
"Not for this?" Heero asked, breathless as teasing fingers stroked.
"Fuck no."
They made the final few steps towards the bed and slid off the remaining articles of clothing, falling backwards together, impatient and without any of the inhibitions of last night.
"Thanks for calling this morning…" Duo said, a little smirk on his face.
"No problem."
There were no more words as lips were claimed and only grunts, the movement of a bed and moans were heard from the bedroom for some time. And damn, it may have taken them so long to get to this but it was worth it.
Definitely worth it.