MERRY LATE CHRISTMAS I HOPE YOU ALL LIKE THIS PRESENT!

Summary: Heero's protective instinct gets the better of him when he shares a bedroom with Duo.

Sleepless

By MangoBango

Heero POV

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After the wars I attempted to disappear. I was content to be on my own and give myself time to contemplate everything I'd done in the past. People I'd killed, buildings I'd destroyed, and hopes I'd smashed. All these ideas were ready to burst out of my chest and I didn't want the pain to my ego accompanying my misery by releasing these feelings in front of anyone.

I was a solider without a mission. I'd been trained my whole life for the purpose of destruction, never with the intention of dealing with it later. So when woke up in the hospital after being in a coma for two months, I left the side of a sleeping Relena and checked myself out via the window.

At that point I had every intention of disappearing. The only problem was I had no where to disappear to. It seemed in my mind that there was no place safe I could run. Where ever I would run it felt as though there would always be a deranged blonde tracking me dow, using billions of dollars in her pursuit of stalking instead of restoring order to the colonies and earth.

For the longest time I walked down the street aimlessly with no where to go. It was still dark, I assumed the time probably about 3 or 4 am, and the street lamps provided enough glow for me to find an information booth. At that point I'm still not sure I really knew what I was doing or where I was going, but I do remember thanking God that Duo had settled on earth and hadn't gone back to L2.

It took probably around two hours to find Duo's apartment. The sun was just starting to come up and cars began emerging on the street as I walked up the small set of stairs to buzz the buzzer.

It was still hard to believe that Duo had an apartment. Out of all of us, I had figured he would have been the one to disappear.

'Ugh... who ever this is you've rang the wrong apartment.' Came the muffle voice over the intercom.

I froze. For the first time in my life I knew exactly where I wanted to be and who I wanted to be with. "...Duo..."

I heard slamming, and a lot of things falling. I could only assume Duo had knocked stuff over running back to the intercom. "HEERO?! Oh my god! Stay there! Don't move okay?! Just don't move!" That was probably the only time in my life when I had listened to anyone. I did as I was told. I stayed put.

It was strange how in the 30 seconds I was alone on the stoop I realized how cold I really was. Looking down at my bare feet that were tinged blue, I wondered why I hadn't stolen some shoes as the cold began to sink into my bones. Then it was amazing how a second later I was once again filled with complete warmth as the front door flung open and I was engulfed in the warmth given by the spastic American.

"Oh god Heero, I can't believe you're awake. I just saw you a day ago and they were still telling us you were never going to wake up!" I couldn't say anything. I just stood there and let him run his fingers over my face and chest while asking if I was okay. I knew from that second on that I would always be with him.

"I want to stay here." Duo stopped running his hands over my face and just started laughing.

"No! You can't stay here!" He replied jokingly before hugging me so tight I thought my ribs would break. The next thing I knew I was being drug up 3 flights of stairs, through an apartment door, and then pushed into a twin sized bed with a huge goose down comforter being wrapped around me. Everything just seemed to happen in a blur.

I don't remember leaving that bed for at least a week. From the moment I was shoved through the door that was my favorite place to be and I never wanted to leave it.

The first few days I was there Duo stayed home with me and talked non - stop as Iaid staring at him. Sometime in those days it hit me that I never wanted things to change. I wanted to stay in bed all day and listen to Duo talk.

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"Heero let GO! I have to go to work!" Duo had been toying with that argument for several days but it had yet to phase me.

"No, you want to go to work." I replied as I tightened my grip around his wrist. Duo pulled back against me as hard as he could, and I was pretty sure his shoulder had popped out of his socket a little.

"No, I have to go! See if you want to continue sleeping all day in my nice bed then I have to go work to make money to pay for this lovely apartment which holds said bed!" He growled out in frustration. He'd never liked that I was stronger than him, even now after the war was over.

"Duo." I muttered, sitting up and loosening my grip on his arm. "I've been through a very rough, traumatic experience. If I don't have human contact I'm afraid I might become comatose again."

"Oh PLEASE!" He yelled and ripped his arm from my hand. "You can't use that everyday Heero! I might have bought it the first three days but I'm not stupid."

I glared at him as he began to put his coat on. It truly was disgusting behavior on his part. Not only had he forced me to put on pajama pants and shower every two days, now he was insulting the only means I had to keep him by my side. I don't have any shame in saying that I was pouting. I don't talk. I don't like to, I never have, and I never will. Thus, by not staying with me after I specifically asked him to, Duo was insulting me.

I turned away from him when he began to put his shoes on, that was just too much. Facing the wall now I was shocked when I felt a weight join me in the small bed. "Please don't be angry. But I've called in sick for a week, Une already hates me and the other's will get worried if I just don't show up." He spoke softly into my ear, laying next to me and rubbing his palm along my bare arm.

I let out a long sigh and shrugged his arm off me. "..." I could feel Duo's eyes burning into the back of my head and feel his warm breath on my neck.

"I'll try to get home early." And with a kiss to my cheek, the weight quickly left my side and I could hear the sound of the door slam.

I felt my whole face grow hot and my eyes bugging out of my head. That small kiss sparked my first true physical attraction to Duo. When I first arrived at his apartment I knew that there was some sort of attraction, I just never thought it was the kind you had to take a cold shower with.

I laid in his bed contemplating things for probably five hours before I realized something. Men who smell are not attractive.

I rolled over and glanced at the clock on the side table. 2 p.m. I had a good five hours before Duo would be returning home and I decided to take a shower to hopefully draw some sort of smile out of him when he came home to find me showered, shaved, and possibly out of bed.

Things unfortunately did not turn out that way. As I stepped into the shower I was first scalded with the boiling water pouring out of the shower head. Then I was graced with shampoo which I had accidentally rubbed into my eyes. 10 minutes later left me standing red, naked, and trying to see with soapy eyes as I made my way to the kitchen. That's when I heard it.

"Duo I can't believe you didn't tell us he was here! The hospital has been looking for him for days and you had him here all along!"

"Quatre it's not like I sprung him from the hospital, he just showed up on my doorstep and didn't seem like he wanted to see anybody so I..." It was the most awkward situation I'd ever been in. There I was, standing with blotchy red skin facing Duo and Quatre in all my glory.

It was horrible, they both stood at me with wide eyes, their lips curled into these sick half smiles. "Heero." I turned to face Duo. "You got out of bed!" He came towards me with open arms and gave me a soft hug.

"..." I stared at Quatre, waving at me from the door over Duo's shoulder with a bright smile on his face. "Duo..." I whispered.

"Huh?"

"...pants." Letting out a laugh Duo let me go and walked over to the couch to grab a blanket which was then thrown at me. Putting it around myself, I decided to cut my losses and go back to bed.

"It was nice seeing you again Quatre." I said walking back to Duo's beloved bedroom.

"Yeah, you too Heero." Quatre said, still giving a slight giggle.

I shut the door behind me, dropped the blanket and crawled back into the beloved safe haven. "I'm never getting out of this bed again."

The door opened and I was slightly afraid of who I'd run into next. "I see that coma didn't put a damper on that body huh?"

"... you got home early." I felt that weight next to me again and opened my eyes to see those amethyst eyes.

"I told you I was going to try didn't I?" Scuffing I turned over to face away from Duo.

"You also told me that I didn't smell that bad."

Duo laughed, "Well, I didn't want to dampen your spirits." Duo wrapped his leg over my stomach and hugged my chest. "Come on Heero, you were so close to getting out of bed."

"Relena sat next to me while I was unconscious for two months, who knows what she did to me. You don't think that's means for me to be depressed?" It was a low blow but I had to think of something disgusting before my physical attraction to Duo made itself painfully obvious.

"Well, I guess I'll just have to stay with you then." He replied and hugged me tighter against his body. It was an awkward feeling, Duo was smaller than me and I was being clung to like a life jacket. Turning within his arms I gazed into his smiling face and felt unbelievably calm. There were no more feelings of guilt, or pain. There was only Duo.

Duo looked up at me with confusion as I freed myself from his grip and pulled him against my chest. That was how we've slept ever since.

A.N.

Only one more part to this which is already started and I'll finish it within three days if I get some people who are interested in finishing this.

After that things got a lot better. I went to work with Duo at the Preventers and we quickly became the best partners in the whole

precinct. Then every night we'd come home, eat dinner, watch a movie or some obscene television show Duo wanted to see, and then go to bed. Together.

Now if there's one thing I've learned about myself in the past 6 years it's this. I hate waking up facing the wall.

Duo's bedroom isn't exactly the biggest in the world, which is fine because it suits our purposes. But it is impossible to have the bed in a strategic location. The ideal area to keep the bed is away from the door and windows. While the windows were no problem, Duo's bed faced directly across from the door.

Every night we'd get into bed with my back facing the door and Duo against the wall facing me. Every morning we'd wake up and I'd be facing the wall.

It drove me insane. I could never figure out how he did it. I stayed awake for hours trying to figure it out only to drift off a few minutes later.