Third Time Is the Charm


by KatiKat



When the door bell rang Duo was ready. He took a deep breath before he opened the door of his apartment. He wouldn´t admit it but he was a little bit nervous about today´s date. After what happened the last two times... But on the other hand - it couldn´t get worse, could it?

"Heero!" he beamed, happy that his date truly came.

Heero smiled - Duo´s breath caught in his throat. He smiled! "Ready?"

"Yeah," the longhaired man nodded and threw his everpresent backpack over his right shoulder before stepping out of the door and locking it. He then turned to Heero only to find him walking down the corridor to the right already. "Uh, Heero... The lifts are in the other direction," he called after him.

"We are taking the stairs," the Japanese man answered without looking back.

Duo blinked a couple of times before mumbling "okay" under his breath and taking off after his date. It only took them two minutes to walk down the eight floors and Duo found himself covertly watching his companion. Heero - dressed in faded jeans and simplet-shirt which was quite a difference from his usual designer slacks and silk shirt that he started to wear after he joined Preventers and actually started to earn money - seemed... relaxed, maybe even happy. Not that Duo wasn´t happy that Heero was happy to be with him, but... he had a weird feeling about this whole thing. Heero wouldn´t sink low enough to invite him to a date only to make fun of him, right? Right?

When they finally reached the ground floor Duo couldn´t hold back any longer and just had to ask: "Why are you so damn happy, Heero? After the last two times I would expect you to come in a bullet proof vest and double your insurance policy!"

Heero just smiled - Duo had the feeling that his heart would burst from his chest - and held the entrance door open for Duo. "I´m just happy to be with you. That´s all."

´*That´s all* my ass,´ Duo thought to himself. ´If that´s all I will shave my head.´

He went out through the door Heero held open for him only to freeze in mid-step. "Heero? What´s THAT?" he asked pointing a finger at the old, patched together sedan waiting for them in the parking lot. It had to be Heero´s since there was no other car in sight. "You still don´t have your car back from the cops?"

"No, I have it at home. I bought this one specially for today´s date," the blue eyed boy answered as if it was the most normal thing in the world. "Do you like it?"

Duo gulped. Was Heero serious? "Well, it... it has... style." Duo scratched his head. He was just curious what was keeping the...vehicle from falling apart. Was this a part of some sort of twisted revenge on Heero´s part?

Heero smiled that charming smile again and started to walk down the stairs to the parking lot. "I knew you would like the idea."

´Idea? There is some idea behind it?´ Duo thought to himself in confusion. ´Well, if there was he apparently missed it.´ Hoisting his backpack higher on his shoulder, he rushed after Heero who was already checking the tires.

"They are okay," he said with amazement.

Duo grinned. No flat tires. That had to be a sign.

Heero got into the car and unlocked the passenger door. Duo opened it, every hair on his body raising at the screeching sound the door made. He got in and shut the door quickly with a bang. Laying the backpack on his knees - and mentally crossing his fingers - he waited for Heero to start the engine. With some hiccups it finally started up and Duo grinned again. Everything was still going okay.

"Seatbelt, Duo!" Heero reminded him as he checked the road four times before backing out of the parking place.

Obediently Duo put the belt on and the next twenty minutes before they reached the restaurant he occupied himself with Heero-watching. He had to smile seeing him double check if they were free to go on each and every intersection they passed through on their way. Duo had never seen Heero being this careful. Not even during the wars when they were on missions.

When they safely reached their destination and even found a parking place just opposite the restaurant they couldn´t even believe their luck held this long. They smiled at each other. So far so good. They got out of the car and after double checking the street again they quickly crossed it and walked into the dimly lit restaurant. It was already dark outside and the candles on the tables kept the atmosphere pretty intimate there.

The host greeted them. "Would you like a table on the terrace?" he asked politely.

"NO!" they both shouted at the same time before smiling at each other in embarassement.

The host just raised his eyebrows and kept his comments to himself. He then led them to a table for two near a big window from where they could overlook the bay. Giorgio´s was one of the best seafood restaurants in town.

They sat down and after they ordered plain water the host left them alone. They opened their menus and smiled at each other over the tops. On neither date did they come so far without something disastrous happening to them. Maybe they finally broke through their bad luck?

As soon as the thought popped up in their minds, a young waitress who was bringing them their water tripped on the carpet and spilled everything all over Heero.


Duo cringed. Oh God... Now he would get an ear full. But what happened next shocked him totally.

Heero smiled at the waitress that was apologizing to him over and over again and trying to dry his wet shirt with a paper napkin."It´s okay, no harm done. It was just water."

Duo knew he had to look pretty dumb sitting there with his mouth hanging open like a dead fish but he couldn´t help himself. Who was this stranger and what did he do to his Heero?!

When Heero was finally able to calm the waitress down they ordered some seafood salad without dressing, no soup and *bottled*water.

When they were alone again, Duo propped his head on his hand and looked searchingly at Heero. "You're not mad at all," he stated after a moment, his voice full of surprise.

Heero smiled again - God, Duo had never seen Heero smile that much in the whole time they´d known each other. "No, I´m not."

Duo frowned. "Why?"

Before Heero could answer their waitress returned laying their salads in front of them. She smiled nervously and turned to leave when Heero stopped her.

"The water?" he asked pointing at his empty glass.

The girl jumped, getting the ´deer in the headlights´ look for a moment before she rushed off.

"I think you scared her, Heero." Duo stated as he dug into his salad. He was so hungry already.

Heero opened his mouth to speak, his fork raised to dug into the fresh green leaf of salad that was nicely covering his seafood mix when he stopped and turned the leaf over, his eyebrows raised. Duo followed his gaze to see what... and gulped.

"The water," the breathless waitress said to them as she put the two bottles down on their table.

"Thank you," Heero answered - Duo still in too much of a shock to even make a sound. "Uhm," the Japanese man stopped the waitress from leaving again. "I know I ordered a seafood salad but shouldn´t all the animals in it be at least dead?" he asked pointing at the small slug that was happily munching on his leaf of salad.

From that moment their date went to hell.

The waitress started to cry, almost on the verge of hysterics. A gust of wind knocked the candle on their table over. Their tablecloth caught fire and before they could extinguish it, the overhead sprinklers turned on, bathing them in a shower of cold water. The people started to scream and yell running out of the restaurant as if the devil was after them. And then - if that wasn´t enough - there was a big crash outside, accompanied by the sound of metal bending and creaking.

Duo gulped.

"I bet that that was our car," Heero said, sounding completely stoic even though he just found a slug in his dinner, the tablecloth caught fire, water was dripping from every part of his body and he probably just lost his car.

The overhead sprinklers finally stopped, leaving them sitting alone in puddles of water, the dripping the only sound in the otherwise completely silent room.

Duo sat in his seat, wet to the bone but not even noticing it. He was nervously shredding a piece of wet paper napkin. He wasn´t brave enough to meet Heero´s eyes. Patient or not - that was just too much even for this new, changed Heero.

"I think I will just ask them to pack us some tuna sandwiches," Heero stated, breaking the silence.

"Uh... Heero... are you... are you mad?" Duo asked in a small voice. Logically he knew that this wasn´t his fault but...

"Duo, look at me," Heero requested gently. Reaching over the table he put the fingers of his left hand under Duo´s chin and lifted it up. Duo blinked at him and sniffled. "I´m not mad," he smiled.

Duo blinked again - in shock this time. "What...?"

"Why do you think we took the stairs at your apartment house? Why do you think we came in that wreck of a car? Why do you think I´m dressed in jeans that you know I don´t like?" he asked.

Duo blinked again. He didn´t understand anything.

Heero smiled. "I suspected something like this might happen. Who wouldn´t after the last two times?" That brought a small smile to Duo´s lips. "And you know what? I still came because I wanted to be with you. I finally understood it yesterday. None of this matters because I love you, my Walking Catastrophe." He caressed Duo´s cheek with his thumb.

Duo sniffled, tears of happiness filling his eyes. "You do?"

"Yeah."

"That´s... that´s good, because you see... I love you too and..."

Heero got up and leaned over the table, catching Duo´s lips with his own, efficiently silencing the upcoming rant. And Duo was sweet and warm and smelled like rain which made Heero smile. Only Duo could smell like rain sitting inside of a building, with no clouds in the sky.

When they finally parted, Duo licked his lips. "Wow. That was like... Wow."

Heero laughed. Miracles still happened. Duo was speechless. "We should go now, huh?"

Duo nodded happily and started to get up from his seat. But then he stopped. "But if that crash was our car... how will we get home?"

Heero moved around the table and helped Duo get up from his seat, wrapping one hand around his waist as they walked slowly to the entrance. "Don´t worry about that. Before coming for you I asked Trowa to pick us up. I somehow had the feeling that we wouldn´t get around to actually eat our dinner." He looked at his - thankfully waterproof - watch. "He should be here any minute."

Duo laughed. "You really thought of everything."

They went out into the warm summer night. People were standing around arguing and yelling at each other and the restaurant manager. They looked at them oddly when they walked past them, dripping water but smiling like idiots. They must have thought they were nuts.

"Yep, our car," commented Duo when they stopped at the twisted piece of metal lying under the torn up telephone pole. Seeing the long piece of metal and wood that almost cut their car in two, they looked at it, then at each other and shrugged. Nothing would surprise them anymore.

That was when a car stopped behind them and honked. They turned around to find Trowa and Quatre getting out looking in shock first at the crowd, then at them and finally at the thing that once had been a car.

"Uhm... did you enjoy yourself tonight?" asked Quatre finally with his eyebrows raised.

Heero and Duo grinned at each other.

"The evening couldn´t have been better," Duo answered before leaning into Heero and kissing him soundly.


The End