Title: Humanizing Heero

Author: ChimeraDragon

Pairings: 121 343 5OC5

Warnings: Slight AU

Chapter One: The Knock-out Blow

It started off as most days do; the sun was up and shinning early. Duo, Quatre and Heero ate breakfast together in their currently shared safe house.

"I'm bored!" Duo complained at Heero.

"Fine. Go do something about it then," Heero replied curtly.

"I have and I've run out of ideas! There's nothing left to do. Inside the house or out!" Duo complained. At Heero's raised eyebrow he continued, "I've fixed everything that needed fixing in my Gundam. Did a system's upgrade and a major overhaul finished my mission report and sent it in. Repainted Deathscythe, cleaned up our room, fixed the roof, cleaned and repaired the garbage disposal, repainted the house, fixed all the plumbing and cleaned the bathrooms. Fixed the fridge, weeded the garden, pruned the trees, repaired the porch and mowed the lawn. I'm BORED!"

"You did all of that in the last week? Neither Quatre nor I heard anything. When?" Heero asked incredulously.

"While the two of you were repairing your Gundams. I was lucky in that I only sustained minor damage in the last battle."

"I did notice that the refrigerator was working better recently," Quatre offered sheepishly.

"See? I've done everything you could do to this place short of messing it up. Now will you please go outside with me?"

"Fine," came the short reply from Heero. "We'll go for a walk. I scouted a park not too far from here. I'm sure you'll enjoy yourself there," Heero said with a decisive nod of his head. He tapped a few keys on his lap top and shut it. "Let's go."

"Right now?" Duo asked incredulously. "You just want to up and go right now?"

"Why not?"

"Um, no reason," Duo shrugged and followed Heero out the door of the safe house. They quickly made their way to the park Heero had mentioned earlier and found nobody there. "Wow, it's really nice here, Heero."

"I know that, I have spent a good deal of time here myself."

"Really? That's cool."

"I do my mission reports here," Heero moved away from Duo and sat down under an enormous tree. Next to the bench was next to a fountain of an angel with his arms stretched out in an offer of acceptance and love. Duo admired the view for a moment.

"Hey, Heero! Look what I found! A baseball and bat!" Duo crowed happily, picking up the said objects. "Wonder how far I can hit it. What do you think, Heero?"

"I don't know enough about your physical limitations and therefore I can not make a logical assumption."

"It's not about logic! It's about fun!" Duo looked at Heero sadly. "I promise to teach you all about fun when this bloody war is over."

Heero merely raised an eyebrow in question.

"Forget about it for now. You wanna throw and I'll hit it?" Duo asked hopefully.

"No," Heero paused, "I'd like to enjoy the peaceful atmosphere," he admitted as he leaned back on the bench.

"Fine! I'll amuse myself," Duo huffed, throwing the ball high into the air and hitting it in a random direction. He then ran off after the ball and repeated the process. Over and over again he hit the ball and then chased it down.

After nearly an hour of this Duo seemed to have totally forgotten about being angry with Heero, after all, he couldn't stay mad at Heero anyway.

Heero watched as Duo finally began to wear down and figured on letting the other boy crash and then carrying him home. He turned and watched the ever changing clouds and sky.

Duo picked up the ball again for the hundredth time, threw it in the air and tried to hit it, failing miserably at it. He laughed at himself as he spun in a circle. He tried again, and again. "Geeze, this is pathetic! My hand-eye coordination can't be that bad! I'm a Gundam Pilot for Pete's sake!"

He tried again and failed.

"That's it ball! You DIE!" Duo shouted, throwing the ball high in the air and hitting it as hard as he could. He connected with the ball perfectly and watched as it went sailing though the air. "It's good! And it's heading straight for . . . HEERO!" He cried as he noticed the ball's trajectory.

Heero looked up just in time as the ball connected soundly with the middle of his temple.

"Oh God! Heero!" Duo cried out, dropping the bat and running towards Heero who sat looking as though nothing had happened. "I am SO sorry! Hey man, are you okay?"

Heero turned to look at him, blinked slowly, and fell over like a sack of potatoes.

"Oh God of Death I've killed him!" Duo cried in dismay as he ran over to his fallen comrade's side. "Please don't be dead," Duo begged as he rapidly checked for a pulse. He found one and breathed a sigh of relief at the strong beat he found there.

He carefully gathered Heero into his arms and then carefully carried him back to the safe house.

TBC . . .