"So, how've you been holding up?"

Reluctantly looking up from the noodles he had only been picking at anyway, Wufei had to pause and take in the unexpected sight. Duo, fresh out of the shower, had apparently decided to forgo a shirt. Before he could help himself, Wufei found himself eyeing that lean, muscular body with a sort of approval. His old friend had definitely been taking care of himself. Duo's wet hair hung loose in dark tendrils that reached past his waist.

"You weren't in the shower that long," was all Wufei could find to respond with.

"I meant in general, but we can go with that. How've the last twenty minutes been treating you?"

"Fine."

"Oh good." Duo pulled up a chair, not seeming to notice the sound of it scraping across bare tiles. "Can we expand on that? How about this last week?"

"Fine." Wufei gave up stabbing at his food and set it aside. "There's nothing to tell. We've had this conversation, remember."

"Okay, okay. So work is classified or whatever, though I don't see why that extends to me. You know there's life outside your job, right? How's that going?"

"Boring."

"Well that sucks."

"It's the good kind of boring."

"No such thing."

Wufei didn't respond, just watched Duo calmly finger-combing his damp hair. He didn't know why he always took the chance to meet up like this, just because he was in town. It wasn't that Duo's hospitality left something to be desired (he would count the insistence on getting takeout because, 'It's Friday and I like you too much to subject you to my cooking' as hospitality, anyway). It was actually a situation he felt far too comfortable with at times.

Duo's fingers caught in his hair and he started trying to pick apart a small tangle. Wufei's focus caught helplessly on those fingers in turn.

"Let me help you with that."

The smile he found leveled at him said Duo understood exactly what was on his mind, perhaps more than he might have liked.

"Sure. Let me get a brush."

Duo stood up from the table and Wufei simply followed him into the bedroom to retrieve that brush. He ended up sitting sideways on the bed behind Duo, smoothing that long hair with his bare hands before he selected a place to start.

"Aren't you going to ask me how things have been here?"

Wufei was focused only on delicately brushing at the very ends of Duo's hair before moving up. It didn't matter that there were few tangles for him to eradicate and Duo had told him several times in the past that he didn't have to be that careful. He would like to think it was just a matter of pride at this point.

"I assumed you would tell me if there was something interesting," Wufei answered.

"I guess so. Well, did I tell you about. . ."

It always seemed to go like this. Duo always wanted to find something to say, to satisfy some ritual of catching up with each other. Wufei wasn't really interested in talking or even listening most of the time.

All he was really thinking about was the weight of Duo's hair in his hand and the resistance as he pulled the brush through the thick mass of it. Nothing could feel more luxurious than running his fingers through that hair. It felt like cool, damp silk under his touch.

"Not that I mind," Duo started, and Wufei was paying attention now mostly because Duo had turned his head and disrupted him. "But if you like my hair so much, couldn't you just grow out your own?"

Wufei paused, looking guiltily at his own fingers tangled in the thick hair at the base of Duo's head. This had been their little ritual for so long, and it hardly ever came up in words. He always hoped Duo wouldn't talk about it.

"It's not the same."

There were too many brittle little memories he kept gathered around himself like shields, and this was one of very few ways he wanted to reach through those barriers and touch. . . if Duo made him reflect too closely on the fact it could spoil even this little ritual.

"It'd get in the way at your job, right?" Duo suggested, offering him an explanation that he was all too glad to take.

"That's right," Wufei agreed.

Before he could tell Duo to hold still he was startled by having his longtime friend turn suddenly and reach behind his head to jerk the tie out of his hair. Before the newly loosened strands could even fall into his face Duo was running his hands through them, grinning cheekily at his shock.

"It might suit you, though. You know?"

Wufei tensed his spine and refused to respond to the feeling of fingers combing delicately through his hair. He refused to close his eyes against the grin Duo was leveling at him and met it with a sour look of disapproval.

"Do you want me to finish or not?"

"Sure, if you want to."

To his relief Duo let go of him, backing off and allowing him to return to his self-imposed job. Duo didn't say anything else to tease him, even when he lingered over the task long after completion. For a time Wufei focused only on calming himself by stroking his fingers over and over through curtains of cold silk.