Title: Shirts vs. No Shirts Author: Rhiannon Rating: PG -PG13 (does kissing disturb you?) Warning: SLASH why do I even need to put this up here. I think people should be all happy and open. Whatever. Disclaimer: No, Duo is not mine, neither is Heero, and I did not invent soccer. So pretty much, don't sue me I have no money and if I did I would be out buying more manga so I wouldn't have it for long!

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*Who ever said sports were fun?* Heero Yuy glared out over the soccer field. No, this was not his first way to spend the afternoon; especially not after a rainstorm. He could have been back at the base, or the very least school, with his beloved laptop, but no it was a "sports" afternoon. Sports equaled insane ideas about how to train Gundam pilots, this being one of the utterly absurd ones. Soccer or whatever the dang game was called this was not his death of choice. *No, especially not with the mud*. He muttered something in Japanese under his breath, but none of his five companions noticed, this was probably because his gloom was so like his normal behavior they couldn't tell that he was slightly more annoyed then usual.
"Look at it this way," that particular cheery voice cut across his thoughts, "we won't get to hot because of all the mud, and anyhow the sun is coming out." The last bit was true, but mud being anything but a hindrance was beyond Heero's capacity for thought right now.

*Does anything ever get him down?* Heero turned to look at the boy beside him, busily scooping mud into his hand to make a mud pie. *Ugh, sometimes he makes me sick* Heero glanced at the other of his five companions. One was sitting on the bleachers, reading poetry. Well that was better then when she shrieked and threw tantrums about her shoes getting dirty. *You know next to her, anything looks like a heavenly angel.* Heero turned his gaze away from the shocking (literally, it left afterimages) pink dress to see two of his companions and friends leaning down to help the other boy with his mud pie that was now quickly becoming a castle complete with a mote and bridge and other ingenuity that the short blond and his partner came up with. The last of their group was off a bit by himself practicing martial arts. Wufei was always doing something, either it was yelling, being angry, fighting anyone/everyone or fighting non-existing anyone/everyone. No, they were an odd insane and motley crew that was for sure. Now for soccer, He glared back out at the field. Where was that instructor?

Mr. Gugenhip was only ten minutes late when he finally did arrive. It was probably for the better because the sun had really come out and it was getting kind of hot. Heero wondered if the braided boy really had had something to go on when he said they'd be thankful for mud. Along with Mr. Gugenhip came the rest of the P.E. class he had been holding up. One of the advantages of carpool was not the time lag.
"Ok!" Mr. G belted out to the ring of listening students "Time to learn the game. Everyone we are going to first go over the positions so you will know what you play requires. Heero shook his head, third time that day. Maybe the rest of the world needed to know three freaking times but he didn't. Judging by the elaborate look of the mud castle and it's rapidly growing village and surrounding architectural area the braided boy and the two others knew the shpeill by heart as well. Heero thought he could see the coliseum. And that might be the Ifel tower in there as well.

"Alright boys! You know you're positions now we will pick teams, Shirts v. No Shirts!" Heero woke from his semi doze. That was defiantly the coliseum and they had added on to it so it was a full structure. The heat of the sun which had decided to make up for the fact that it had rained on a day in August was now shining with twice its normal scorching power. Maybe No Shirts wouldn't be such a bad idea. Sadistic teacher though, that was just kinda against principal, half naked in public. He looked around. They were counting off, one-two style. Relena had put down her book and was avidly watching him. He knew the look all too well. *Ok, strike that, I'm a Shirt and a patriotic one at that*. He looked back to the coliseum, only it wasn't there anymore, instead it had been turned back into a mud ball. That mud ball was currently flying through the air having just left the braided boy's hand. It struck the blond boys shirt, he whirled around, "DUO!" The blond boy hefted his own mud ball, Duo dodged but the blond boy's aim was true. "Serves you right, hitting me in the back like that!" THWACK a mud ball coming from the opposite direction struck the blond boy again. A gentle laugh followed, one twinkling eye taking in its lover's annoyance. That eye was soon slightly browner then a few moments ago. In fact in a few moments all three boys were wetter, dirtier, and a heck of a lot more muddy then their previous state had permitted. After about five minutes of this Mr. G realized what he was missing and broke up the mud fight. Heero tried not to smile, (that would so totally be a break of character someone might have a heart attack) at the sight of a drenched Trowa, Quatre, and Duo being reprimanded by Mr. G.
"Well you can't play like that, you'll all have to be No Shirts, that means you, Heero, Wufei, and Tom will have to be Shirts. *He had been in the No Shirts? Well thank god for mud fights*

The sun was beating down and making his hair stick to his face. Defense, what a boring position, one was always supposed to be on the offensive, always on the edge pushing the envelope. Well that was obviously not the goal of soccer. He wondered if he could build as good a coliseum as Trowa, nope that was not a talent of his. Well, he could get out a gun. He had one with him. That would stop this nonsense, no better not. It wouldn't do to well on his record not to mention report card. When was he going to get the ball? All he could see was a blur of color and flesh at the other end of the field and the lowering sun seemed to live to blind him.

Then his chance came. The ball squirted down the field straight towards the goal he was supposed to be protecting. The player bearing down like some shirtless avenging angel, long gold-blond braid flapping like a flag out behind him. What was one supposed to do? Keep the eyes on the ball not the player. The ball will tell the truth, people can really fake you out. This one in particular for some strange reason Heero didn't really want to look at right now. He figured trajectories, the calculations adding up in his mind. Then he realized that this...was soccer. Not a battle field and no one really cared about exact measurements. He took of running at such and angle that he was sure to intercept the ball and. POW! The ball went up and away and he went down and out.

Haze played over Heero's eyes. The avenging angel had now gone guardian and was hovering over him.
"Hnuh.." he mumbled. A hand reached down, he stared at it, at his own, back at it and realized he was still lying on the ground. He grabbed the hand and used the leverage to hoist himself up. The world was not quite done spinning but he could see straight and wouldn't fall down.
"Good play, you knocked me right of my feet as well. Ball's clear across the street in the lake. Saved a goal there."
"Hn." Heero blinked, and blinked again. "What? Oh. Did I?" He found that his eyes seemed to be straying a bit. Nope that was not on the priority list now. *Straighten your self out Soldier* he reprimanded his gaze, but Duo was a very well defined and toned. Heero wondered how many years it took to get that physique.. *Yuy, mind back on track. Game. Soccer!* He scowled.
"Thanks. I don't like defense much."
"Well, you're good." The braid twitched as Duo turned his head. "Ah, Mr. G has a new ball. It's throw in." The braid bounced away, flipping this way and that as it left. Heero tried not to follow it with his eyes. Braids. He was very glad when Mr. G subbed him out.

"Oh Heero, are you alright. That mean, nasty Duo really knocked you down didn't he." crooned a voice from just behind him almost making him choke on his water bottle. Ok maybe he wasn't glad to be subbed out. Pink bows and two mocking atrocities of braids sprung across his vision. No there were other braids much preferable to those two like..Right ok back on subject.
"I'm fine." He said in his best get-out-of-here-or-I'll-shoot voice.
"Oh I'm so sorry. Can I tend to your battle wounds?" *Relena* He tried to resist the urge to run like a mad man as far as his feet would take him. *Honestly did she have no sense*
"No battle wounds. I just got the wind knocked out of me. I'm perfectly fine." *Pray to god she doesn't take that as an opening. I can think of several things I would not want from her, and one of them is wind.* She didn't seem to think anything of it. Heero was quite glad the horrific thought. but she wasn't all that bright. Maybe he would try the line on some other person..

Back in the game again. The sun was now setting, casting a red-orange- purple-aqua-florescent glow over the field and its players. Heero knew about as much as he ever wanted to know about soccer. He now got to play forward. He was not thankful for mud puddles. When you were the defense and it stopped the other person's ball that was good. When you were trying to score and you needed to get the ball into the net past the goalie and the mud puddle got you rather...er, frustrated. If he could just manage to figure out how to get the dang ball off the ground. Quatre seemed to have managed to master this tactic but he was to.busy.to do much at the moment. Mr. G was trying to referee and when you had to correct a group of people who had never played a game before every 30 seconds (what was this no hands thing, you mean you couldn't grab the ball out of the air? Could you shoot it?) it got a little hard to keep track of all, much less two of your players.

It was about 2 minutes to the end of the game. It was a tie. Now Heero thought he began to understand the intrigue or soccer. He had to score. No one could beat him, except maybe Duo, and on a day when he had only gotten 2 hours of sleep and no food Wufei. Well, Duo was on the other team but so were a lot of idiots in this P.E. class. He got a pass from Wufei. 30 seconds or so to go... Dribble the ball the last few inches, fake out the defense. Take aim and.WHAM! *not again* this time there happened to be mud. *Duo I hate you*

Heero did not lose consciousness. Instead he took a deep breath of air and tried to stand up. Mr. G blew the whistle. He sat back down again. Tie. Ok, he didn't lose. Duo was trying to sit up in front of him.
"Awk. You're sitting on my leg." Heero looked at Duo. He looked down. Indeed he was sitting on Duo's leg, probably bending it backwards too.
"Sorry." Heero mumbled. He was not used to actually talking to people other then the words 'LET'S FIGHT' and 'where's the food' and 'hn', oh wait no he also knew 'hello' and 'goodbye' and 'goodnight' and 'good morning' and pretty much any word with good in front of it even if he thought most days were bad. But this is to say 'sorry' was not a very heavily used word in his vocabulary. Heero did feel he should say something else and 'Let's fight' and 'good morning' just didn't seem very suiting. Good, he used that word a lot he knew what it meant. It couldn't have too many separate meanings.
"Good play. This time you stopped my goal." He offered
"So were even." Duo smiled his enigmatic smile. Little rays of sunshine... Heero had been in the dark way too long. Little rays of sunshine can really blind you.
"Hn." Heero said. He registered that people were over by the bleachers packing up stuff and getting back into carpool groups. It was getting kinda dark. Well maybe that's why Duo was making him so blind.
"I thought I was going to get a conversation out of you."
"Hn.oh.sorry." There it was; that word again. What was he sorry for, he hadn't done anything wrong and here he was, Perfect Solider apologizing all over the place. If Duo noticed he didn't show it. Well, he smiled wider but that could have just been Duo being Duo.
"I wonder.." Heero looked back to Duo wondering what that odd quality in the other pilot's voice was "what your answer to.." Heero had barely any time to register what was going on before a warm hand cupped his cheek and he felt soft lips press up against his own. Well he knew that 'hn' was defiantly not the answer to this. The closest thing he could come up with was 'love' but that was supposed to surface later on in the game. It was one of those words you weren't supposed to fling around lightly. Not that this.intensity.was in any way light. Heero felt himself give in; he parted his lips slightly allowing the other boy to explore the moist cavern of his mouth. He felt himself melting into Duo's arms. This was.amazing, beyond anything he had ever thought of. After only a moment, which could have been hours, Duo drew back. Heero felt his gaze being sucked into the blue-violet depths of the braided boy's. *So beautiful* Heero felt his breath catching and chest seizing up. Duo reached out one gentle, tender hand and caressed Heero's lips. It was Heero's turn this time. He caught the hand. His eyes still on Duo's he leaned over and brushed lips with the other boy, not the strong passionate kiss that Duo had bestowed upon him, that was purely something Duo could give. But this, lighter then a feather, more meaning then anything, light and sensual like a breath of wind, was something of the same level with the kiss, maybe even more so in its restraint and utter tenderness. Heero marveled at his own bravery and fervor that he hadn't really meant to give.
"Duo, I.." Heero started.
"Hush." That finger again. Heero licked it ever so slightly. He saw Duo start and (though not for the first time in his life but this is a great achievement) smiled.

Suddenly they were both standing, thought arm in arm in a very close way.
"Come on Hee-chan, we have to go pick up the carpool, I don't think Trowa and Quatre minded the extra time but the other two will wonder." Duo said squeezing Heero to him. *Hee-chan, what a beautiful name* Heero smiled (again!) at Duo who looked lovingly back. *I could get used to this really quickly*. The lights of the field finally kicked on. Heero wasn't sure he was totally happy about this but hey it wasn't like they had all the time in the world. He was pretty sure Duo would want to spend time latter and soccer fields, while they were good for some things, are not so good for others.

They didn't have to wait long for Trowa and Q-man. Both turned up in various states of dishevelment. No one commented. It was rather entertaining to watch the process of Quatre picking leaves out of Trowa's forelock. Duo and Heero sat huddled together, (though it wasn't that cold, well Duo had no shirt and his was dirty so..) and Wufei kick boxed and Relena read her poetry and babbled (as usual).

They all piled in the car. Wufei driving (no one to fight here and if he did have to he could just run someone over) Relena babbling (I think it might have been about the joys of baseball, she obviously missed the soccer bit) Trowa and Quatre in the very back lip locked and not much of anything else and Duo and Heero trading glances and smiling.

About halfway though the ride Heero felt something nudge his hand. Duo's fingers interlaced with his own. He looked up. Why was it that he was always drowning in the braided boy's eyes? He wondered if Duo felt the same way. The hand holding his tightened in a squeeze. Heero gave a questioning look. Duo leaned over and softly, ever so softly whispered
"I love you Heero, my Hee-chan." Heero felt his heart fill with the words. He felt like he was going to burst. His gut reaction was to reach over kiss the other boy, but here and now was not the time or place so he simply leaned over and whispered.
"I love you, so the feelings mutual." Duo turned his head slightly, cocking it to one side. His eyes were just as alight as Heero's. If they had all died right then neither of them could have been any happier. Heero leaned in to kiss Duo, but a warm finger stopped him.
"Later" the word cascade over him like warm water, sending a shiver down his spine. He kissed the finger. Later was quite good.........