A/N:Thank you so much for the reviews on the last chapter - it really made my day to see people still looking forward to reading my work and just… thank you all.

A/N #2: Super huge thanks to Amberly in Violet for reading over this and giving me some great perspective on Duo being Jewish. Seriously - thank you!

Reviews of all kinds help tremendously so please… if you are still hanging on to this or my other stuff, let me know. I really, really appreciate it.

Warnings: Language, angst, sex

Pairings: 1x2x3, 1x3, Hx4

Unexpected Development

Chapter Four

This, Duo realized far too late, had been a mistake.

He was trying to maneuver his way into the front door of this apartment building while holding an extra large pizza in front of him and fighting off the gravitational pull of the three travel bags strapped to his back. It felt like gravity was kicking his ass, figuratively and literally.

"All I want is to eat my damn pizza," Duo said between clenched teeth, as though explaining his wants to the too narrow doorway would help him here.

He tried to turn, tried to angle the pizza box but of course - of course hot grease slid out of the box onto his hands and Duo cursed and dropped the damn thing.

Duo stared at the box, at the pizza slices now decorating the sidewalk and he sighed.

His hands free, he at least managed to open the door to the building and he hurled all three of his bags inside, gentle only with his camera bag, before turning to the mess he had made.

"Everything okay?"

Duo looked up from where he was trying to shovel pizza toppings back into the pizza box to see Trowa standing behind him, arms full of grocery bags and an expression somewhere between amusement and concern on his face.

"Yep. Everything is great. Just… you know… adding some special Brooklyn seasoning to my pizza."

Trowa nodded slowly.

"Right."

Duo gave up on scraping up the extra cheese from the front stoop and grabbed the box of mangled pizza, jumped down the stairs and walked the few feet over to the nearest trash can. He shoved the box in with the full force of his annoyance and then sighed again.

Nothing to be done about the food now. Or about the fact that he looked like an idiot.

When he turned around he saw Trowa still standing on the front stoop, still looking at him with that same expression.

"Let me get the door for you," Duo gamely offered, wishing someone had been around a few minutes early to offer him that courtesy.

"Thanks," Trowa said.

"Yeah, yeah, no problem just watch your step - I threw all my crap in the door before I started to clean up the pizza."

Once he and Trowa were both inside, Duo hefted his many bags again and started to mentally catalogue the places that delivered.

"Where are you coming from this time?" Trowa asked Duo as they climbed the stairs.

"San Francisco." And a whole week of takeout, he didn't add because he knew it would come out as a whine.

"Was that - I'm guessing you need to revise your dinner plans."

Duo snorted.

"Yeah, I guess I do. I just - I don't want more takeout. I lived off of Chinese last week and that's fine but I really just wanted to sit down and eat a decent meal tonight."

"You consider pizza a decent meal?"

"I mean… when you put it like that, no."

Trowa smirked and paused at the landing for his floor.

"Why don't you come over for dinner?"

Duo stared at him.

"What?"

Trowa hefted the grocery bags in his arms.

"I'm making Coq Au Vin and there is more than enough for all three of us."

"Yeah I don't want to intrude or -"

"You wouldn't be intruding. Seriously. We would love to have you over."

Duo still hesitated. He didn't like how much he wanted to say yes, and he didn't trust himself not to do or say something he would regret.

"I…"

"Just dinner, Duo. I promise this isn't some convoluted plan to get you back in our bed."

Duo forced himself to laugh.

"Yeah, um, sure then. I'd love to."

He was pretty sure he didn't sound as devastated as he felt.

Trowa nodded and smiled slightly.

"Good. Why don't you come down in an hour? Dinner won't be quite ready yet but Heero should be home by then and that would give you some time to relax."

"Yeah, okay. See you in an hour."

Trowa walked down the hall and Duo continued his upward trudge to his own apartment.

Once inside he dropped his bags by the living room couch and flopped backwards onto it.

He wished he wasn't so incompetent that he couldn't even manage to carry a pizza. He wished Hilde wasn't away from the next three weeks helping her sister take care of her new baby. He wished he wasn't such a damn coward that he wanted to cancel on the dinner. He wished he wasn't so pathetically in love with Heero and Trowa.

After allowing himself a few minutes to wallow in self-loathing and self-pity, Duo dragged himself off the couch and decided to shower, shave and put on clean clothes.

Not because he wanted to look good, he assured himself as he rejected three shirts before finally settling on a black cowl neck sweater, but because he…

Who the hell am I kidding? he thought as he stepped into the shower. Of course I want to look good. Of course I want this to be some convoluted plan to get me back in their bed.

-o-

When he knocked on their apartment door and hour later, bottle of wine in hand, Heero opened the door and smiled at him.

Smiled the kind of wide, genuine smile that he had a few times that night, the kind of smile that made Duo momentarily forget to breathe, the kind of smile that had his lips arching upwards in response.

"I'm glad you're joining us," Heero said and ushered Duo inside.

Duo scratched at the back of his neck.

"Yeah, well, I appreciate the offer."

"You brought over some wine," Heero said.

"Yeah, uh… here." Duo handed over the bottle and Heero nodded.

"Thank you." Trowa gestured towards the kitchen. "Trowa is working on the rice and green beans but dinner should be ready soon."

Duo followed him towards the kitchen and sat down at the bar when prompted.

Heero put a glass of wine in front of him and Duo took too large of a sip and coughed.

Trowa looked away from the stovetop towards him in concern.

"Sorry," Duo coughed again and waved off their concern even as he felt his face flush. He was such a disaster.

"The reviews for your show were wonderful," Heero said as he sat down beside Duo at the bar, their knees bumping together before Duo shifted away.

"Yeah, they were kind," Duo agreed.

Trowa snorted derisively.

"They were honest. Your work was amazing." He looked beyond Duo's shoulder and nodded.

Duo turned to see what Trowa was looking at and saw one of his photographs hanging on the wall above their fireplace. It was one of his favorites, a photograph of a handful of kids making flower crowns that he had taken in Peru. He found himself smiling as he remembered on the girls putting a crown on his head and insisting he was now a princess.

"I - you didn't have to buy it. I would have just given you one of -"

"No. We wanted to," Heero stopped him. "We wanted to contribute to your success."

Duo found himself blushing. What was it with him and blushing around these two?

"I'm just sorry I wasn't able to be at the opening," Trowa said.

"Oh, yeah, how did those revisions go?"

Trowa rolled his eyes before turning back to the stove.

"They were fine - and of course I didn't hear back until four days later when they thanked me for doing them early. It turns out the publisher's assistant got the dates wrong and - it doesn't matter now."

Duo found himself admiring the sight of Trowa wearing a gray chefs apron and had the wistful thought that he could get used to this.

"Any Christmas plans?" Heero asked him.

"Just watching crappy Lifetime Christmas movies and eating leftovers from whatever I have on Christmas Eve."

Heero arched an eyebrow.

Duo shrugged.

"I mean, there isn't really a plethora of crappy Chanukah movies and besides it'll be over by then."

"You're Jewish." Heero sounded surprised.

Duo felt his lips twitch.

"A guy can't just want there to be more crappy Chanukah movies?"

Trowa chuckled and Heero smiled.

"Yeah, I'm Jewish."

"When is -"

"It started yesterday actually. I'm not the most observant Jew though so… I'll pretend like I lit the menorah last night in my hotel room and let's just not tell my rabbi."

"Shit."

They looked over at Trowa, who was staring at the casserole he had just removed from the oven mournfully.

"I'm sure it's going to be great," Duo said, assuming something had gone wrong.

"There's bacon in it," Trowa groused, tossing aside the oven mitts he had used to remove the casserole and giving Duo an apologetic look. "I didn't know -"

Duo held up a hand.

"It's okay. I don't exactly keep a kosher diet. Really," he said when Trowa still looked anxious. "I've eaten pork before. I've eaten bacon before."

"You didn't serve ham at Thanksgiving. I should have -"

"Trowa, seriously. I love bacon. Half the guys I went to Hebrew school get pepperoni on their pizza. It's not a big deal."

Trowa still looked unhappy but he sighed and nodded.

"I'll just set the table," Heero said, getting up from the bar and shooting Duo a look that spoke of how amused he was by Trowa's anxiety. Duo had to smirk back at him, feeling a little weird to be laughing at Trowa and even more weird to share the joke with Heero.

"Are there any crappy Chanukah movies?" Trowa asked as they sat down at the diner table.

The question startled Duo into a laugh.

"Well, there's the Rugrats Chanukah special," Duo said, "which I still maintain is the best Chanukah thing ever made. But no there aren't any 'stuck at the airport while trying to make it home for Chanukah and introducing your boyfriend to your wacky family' type Chanukah movies."

Heero chuckled.

"That's too bad."

"I agree," Duo smirked. "Maybe you should use that in your next novel."

Heero snorted.

"Yeah, only to have the movie rights bought and the whole thing turned into a heterosexual Christmas movie."

Duo winced.

"So Out at Home still not going well?"

Heero shook his head.

"No. I've… given up. They own the rights now. It was my fault for trusting my agent in the first place when he said they would be faithful to my intentions."

"I still think you should fire him," Trowa murmured.

Heero sighed.

"He's been my agent for six years now and -"

"You know my agent represents a few authors," Duo said, feeling a bit like a kid interrupting two adults deep in conversation.

Heero frowned.

"I met her at your show. She was… very forceful."

Duo laughed.

"Yeah, yeah that's one way to describe Dorothy. But she's always looked out for me, always made sure I was getting what I deserved - hell, she's the one who practically forced that show on me. She's good. If you want, I can give you her contact information?"

Heero frowned again but then nodded.

"It wouldn't hurt to have a conversation with her," Heero said.

Trowa smirked at Duo and nodded slightly, as though thanking him.

-o-

"This was amazing," Duo told Trowa as he helped Heero clear the table. "Thank you for inviting me over."

"Again, we wanted you here," Trowa assured him, getting up from the table and heading towards the kitchen.

"No, sit," Heero stopped him and nodded towards the couch. "I'll clean up while you keep Duo company."

"I don't mind helping," Duo argued. "Not that I don't want to hang out with you," he hastened to add when Trowa arched an eyebrow. "I just feel like I should do something."

"I'll wash while you dry?" Heero offered.

"Deal."

"And I'll work on emptying this bottle of wine," Trowa said, picking up the bottle and his wine glass before walking over to the couch and sitting down.

Duo smirked as he watched Trowa stretch out before filling up his glass and taking a rather healthy sip.

He found it adorable that Trowa was still wearing the apron - he wondered if he had forgotten it was even on.

"He has no idea he's still wearing the apron," Heero said, following Duo's gaze and seemingly reading his mind.

"It's not a bad look for him," Duo said. And then instantly felt like an idiot. He looked over and saw Heero nodding, a fond look on his face as he continued to look at Trowa.

"No it definitely is not."

He gestured towards the sink and Duo followed him over.

They worked together in silence to clean the dishes and put them away and by the time they had finished Duo realized he was in danger of feeling at home in their apartment.

There was something soothing about washing dishes with Heero, something downright romantic about walking over to join Trowa on the couch for another glass of wine when they finished.

It wasn't until Heero urged Trowa to scoot over on the couch and then lean against his side, until he reached over and took the wine glass from Trowa's hand and sipped it himself that Duo was jarred back into the reality that this wasn't his home, wasn't his romance.

He shifted uneasily on his end of the couch. He should go.

He stood up and both Trowa and Heero looked at him.

"I ah, I should probably go," he said, his eyes drawn to Heero's hand as it curved around Trowa's waist and held him closer. He swallowed hard and looked away.

"You could stay," Heero said.

Duo rolled his eyes.

"I thought this wasn't some convoluted plan to get me back in bed with you two."

"That wasn't - I just meant you could… you don't have to go. We could talk or watch a movie or - or track down the Rugrats Chanukah special," Heero offered with a slight grin.

Duo ran a hand through his hair.

"I can't. I can't just - it's great that you two can so easily just forget about that night we spent together but I can't. Every time I look at you two I just - I mean this is actual torture for me. To be this close to you two and know that I mean nothing to you. Do you really not get that or -"

"You don't mean nothing to us," Trowa said, shifting away from Heero.

"And we haven't forgotten anything about that night, Duo. We haven't forgotten and - and every time either of us spends time with you it -" Heero stopped himself and shook his head.

"If we thought a convoluted plan to get you back in our bed would work more than once, I promise you we'd be coming up with convoluted plans every day," Trowa said quietly.

Duo stared at him.

"But you - you two are -"

Trowa sighed and Heero nodded, a scowl on his face.

"I know. We know. Before you everything was great. But now -"

"Now what?" Duo had to ask.

"Now we want you," Trowa said.

"But want me for what? I just -" Duo ran a hand through his hair and gestured towards the dining table and the kitchen. "I just spend this incredible meal with you two and it feels like - I want too much." He shook his head. "You want me in your bed but I want to be there on the couch with you two. I want to smirk at Heero when I see you wearing an apron hours after you've finished cooking and I - I don't want to go home to my empty apartment and hope I'll be able to figure out some excuse to run into one of you or both of you again just so I can be near you."

As soon as he had mentioned the apron, Trowa looked down in horror, almost sidetracking Duo's confession, but then Trowa and Heero both looked at him with serious expressions.

"I didn't realize you were interested in more than sex," Heero said after an almost unbearably long silence.

Duo let out a shaky laugh.

"Yeah, well… I am."

Heero and Trowa exchanged a look and Duo wondered just how much they were able to communicate like that.

"Tonight was… even better than I hoped it would be," Trowa said eventually, turning back to Duo. Heero nodded in agreement. "But we didn't think you wanted - it's not something we thought about."

Duo nodded.

"Yeah, I'm getting that."

"We're not saying no," Trowa added quickly when Duo started to back away from the couch.

Duo arched an eyebrow at him.

"I just don't know how this is supposed to work - we don't know," Trowa corrected himself.

"I'm not really an expert on threesomes," Duo muttered, feeling only mildly encouraged by Trowa's assurance that they weren't saying no to Duo wanting more than another chance to fuck them.

"I - we could do research," Heero suggested.

Both Trowa and Duo looked at him and Heero shrugged defensively.

"None of us know anything about this," he said. "Before now we didn't even realize Duo would want more than sex - we didn't think we would even be able to talk him into that. I think we should all… think about this."

Trowa nodded in agreement and turned back to Duo.

"Is that okay with you?"

"I'm not sure what I'm agreeing to, to be honest," Duo admitted.

"Taking things slow?" Heero suggested. "Seeing if this could work."

"I…" Duo had a bad feeling about this. A feeling like he was standing on the edge of a cliff and if he took even one step further he was going to fall. He looked between them, at their expressions of hope and he realized he had already taken that step.

"I - yeah, yeah," he nodded, trying to convince himself this wasn't all going to be a complete disaster. "I could do that."

Both men smirked.

"But I think I should go home now. This," he gestured between the three of them, "this is a lot to process."

Heero nodded in agreement and both men got up from the couch.

"We should try a date," Duo said, surprising all of them. "Go out somewhere and -" he realized immediately how weird and awkward that might be. Where would they go? What would they do?

"We could finally take you to that brewery and restaurant we told you about at Halloween," Heero suggested.

"Yeah. I'm in town for the next few weeks so -"

"How about tomorrow night?" Trowa suggested.

Duo chuckled.

"Well it will ruin my plans for a second attempt at navigating the building while holding a pizza but yeah, tomorrow night would be good."

"We'll come by your apartment around seven?" Heero asked.

Duo nodded and he felt a flutter of excitement. He was going out on a date with these two.

"So… thanks again for dinner," Duo said after a moment. "And, uh, good night I guess?"

"If we're dating now I think it's only fair to kiss you goodnight," Trowa said.

Duo looked over at him.

Trowa was smirky, looking cocky and so much like he had on Halloween, even without the Joker makeup that Duo had to swallow hard and remind himself to breathe.

"Uh… okay."

Trowa's smirk grew even wider and he stepped closer to Duo before leaning forward and brushing his lips over Duo's, the touch so light Duo barely felt it. He pressed forward, wanting more, and he could feel Trowa's smirk as the other man deeped the kiss, caressing Duo's mouth and sucking on Duo's lower lip for a moment before stepping back.

Duo stared at him, all thoughts of leaving, of taking things slow, of anything other than kissing Trowa again wiped from his brain.

Trowa slowly eased away, leaving Duo leaning towards him even as he stepped back.

"May I?" Heero asked.

Duo nodded and even though he was the one that stepped over to Heero, it was Heero who wrapped his arms around Duo and held him close while he kissed him, mouth open and his tongue tracing over Duo's lips until he opened his mouth and tasted the wine on Heero's lips and tongue, until his mind was flooded with memories of that night and he could actually feel himself growing hard at the reminder of just how incredible Heero's mouth felt.

Almost without conscious thought, Duo shifted his hands to Heero's waist, pushing his sweater up so that he could feel his bare skin and he would have done more, was desperate for more - but Trowa cleared his throat and Heero and Duo broke apart guiltily.

"I think any longer and we're all going to convince ourselves that taking it slow means slowly undressing each other," Trowa said drily.

Duo chuckled and Heero smirked.

"We'll see you tomorrow night?" Trowa asked.

Duo nodded and stepped away from Heero.

"Yes. I'm - I'm looking forward to it."

"So are we," Heero assured him, eyes dark with lust and it was an effort for Duo to walk away and let himself out of their apartment.

It wasn't until he was upstairs in his own apartment, undressing and crawling into bed alone that the full impact of what had just happened hit him.

He'd gone from unforgettable one night stand to… potential boyfriend?

It was hard to imagine how this would turn out well, but it wasn't at all difficult to imagine how good it would feel to be with them again, and it was that thought that Duo contented himself with as he settled down to sleep.