Disclaimer - Gundam Wing is not mine. It's Heero's. *Bashes self for the bad pun* Anyway, it's not mine and I'm making no money. There you go.

Only You

Chapter 6

Discovery

Quatre led the damn entourage into his townhouse and hell if his complaints made any damn difference. He waited impatiently for Duo to unlock the door and then they were all dumping themselves into the room. Quatre was the one to attempt to flick on the lights. When they didn't come on is most likely when it hit home just what kind of situation Duo was in. Without a word Quatre left the group and hunted through the hall, checking every room, scouring the area. And thus Duo was left with the other three. He wanted to run.

The silence was absolutely creepy. If it had teeth, it would have bitten hard on every available surface of his body.

Duo shifted a bit, nervous, but that brought on a glare so monstrous from Heero that he just decided to stand at attention like a damn soldier. Trowa seemed to want to break the sharp-toothed silence but had no idea of how to go about doing such a thing. Wufei, of course, seemed perfectly content to stay in said silence and Heero... well, Heero would probably decide to shoot him – or anyone – who dared open their mouth. Maybe that was why Trowa kept quiet.

Quatre's return wasn't the good thing Duo'd hoped it would be. Those damn baby blue eyes were upset, and if he looked closely he thought he might be seeing a tear streak that had been quickly wiped clean. It made him grimace.

The blond got into Duo's face again, not even hesitating, completely ignoring the others. "If you ever..." And then the anger just died away and he was crushed into a hug. Duo slowly encircled his arms around the blond and hugged him back on a sigh. Qat's crushing hold said pretty much everything that needed to be said. Still, the little blond spoke again. "Why didn't you tell me? This... if I had known..."

Heero turned impatiently and began his own search of the house without a word. Duo watched him, a sense of trepidation stealing over him. Of all the people he'd known might get involved if Quatre did, Heero was the one he was most worried about. Would Heero become disgusted with him once he saw just how bad off he was financially? It was one thing to read about it, another to see. Or would the man see something of Duo's that he really didn't want him to see? He couldn't think of anything off the top of his head, but that didn't mean anything. Duo had to stop himself from biting his lip as Quatre finally let go of him.

What would Heero think of Duo after he saw just how pathetic he'd become?

Shit. He realized with a start that he was scared to death.

"Duo," Quatre said, forcing Duo's eyes back down to him, "you have no water. Or food," he added. Duo caught Wufei looking at him with such intensity he thought he was going to scream.

"Yeah, well," he responded lamely, shrugging his good shoulder and turning away from Wufei's gaze. "You can't exactly buy food and have water without money, so..." But the stricken look on Quatre's face pierced through his little monologue and he decided, once again, to just shut the hell up.

Trowa was watching Quatre, Duo noticed, and the look on the man's face was strange. Duo watched him with interest. Were he and Quatre... and item? Together? He wasn't quite sure; he'd never asked Quatre about it. But it seemed like they were close, if Trowa's gaze was any guess. Were they 'friend' close, like himself and Quatre, or were they... more?

He grinned wickedly. It was something to think about. And hold over Trowa's or Quatre's heads if they got on his case too much.

Quatre looked over Duo's shoulder and took a quick step back; Duo just barely caught something about bills and papers before the blond turned around and walked rather quickly to the door. He could only blink at his friend's suddenly retreating back. He turned to Trowa for some input, knowing there should have another lecture and some coddling involved before solitude should have been returned to him, but he was busy pulling a very reluctant Wufei out the door. He stared at his door. Maybe the others had been cloned, after all.

And then there was a very familiar heat on the back of his skull and he groaned deep in his throat.

He turned pretty slowly, as if he were giving some sort of theater performance. Heero's eyes were burning a hole in his head, and if he were to compare he'd say that it reminded him of Cyclops' little laser-beam eyes. He had a bad feeling that told him he and Heero were about to have it out. No wonder Quatre's made a beeline for the exit. Lucky bastard.

Heero stepped forward menacingly, and Duo rather predictably took a hasty step back. Heero was moving forward then, practically a blur, and before Duo could properly react the man had grabbed Duo's left arm roughly. Then came the short struggle to free himself, and he might have had a chance in hell if he hadn't started fighting against the hold like a little kid. Something in Heero's eyes had changed and Duo found that he didn't really want to escape anymore.

Heero's iron grip loosened, but he stepped forward, effectively entering Duo's space. There was... something odd about the Perfect Soldier now, something that Duo had never seen before.

"Hee... Heero?"

His hesitant voice seemed to snap the man out of his trance, and he dragged Duo into his own little kitchenette or whatever one called a closet with an oven and glared at him in pure fury. "Where do you see food?" he hissed, and Duo winced at the tone.

Duo looked away from that face and pretended to take a look around before shrugging negligently with his good shoulder. "There're a couple pieces of bread in the-"

"That couldn't feed a fucking rat," he snarled, and the glare was turned up a notch, if that was even possible. Duo's eyes widened; he couldn't really recall all that many times Heero had cursed, and it was kind've scary to have it said to him.

"Actually," Duo started, because hell if he was going to let Heero's attitude ever slow him down in the slightest, "it might just sustain the-"

But he was cut off again. "What in the hell were you thinking when you left Quatre out of this?!"

"I already said this, Heero." His voice turned a bit clipped. Damn but that little comment had hurt a bit more than he'd been ready for. He'd left Quatre out of it. Not them. Not him. Quatre. "I didn't want everyone to be fawning over poor, pathetic little Maxwell."

Heero looked about ready to inflict physical pain before something strange flickered through those eyes again, something Duo couldn't quite decipher, and suddenly Heero let go of his arm and reached in as if to grab his shoulders, most likely to shake him. Or maybe strangle him.

"Arm!" Duo shouted on reflex. He managed to back away a little as Heero froze. He glared at the cast, then at Duo again. It made him flash on a dumb grin. "Shake me later, Heero." His voice was light, easy; he started to maneuver himself to the side, a little further away from Heero.

Was it even surprising that Heero blocked him? "What... what the hell do you plan to eat?"

He was stuck blinking up at Heero. He'd seriously thought that since the tirade was over, the man's communication would naturally shrink back down to the absolute minimum. "Uhm, actually," he said, and his surprise and wariness were practically painted on his voice, "call me silly, but I was thinking about eating the bread. You know, because it's the only food in the house?"

Hell if he hadn't managed to turn that glare back on. "Duo," Heero growled, but then he cleared his throat until his voice was almost civil, "I can... we can go out."

Duo gaped. "To eat?"

Heero's rather droll look informed him on just how intelligent Heero though that question was. "Yes. To eat."

Duo just stared. Go out? With Heero? The Heero? Mr. Perfect Soldier, live for the mission, get-away-from-my-laptop Yuy? The Heero who had once said that going out wasn't safe, the one should stick to the mission and think about nothing more? The one who was so damn anti-social the idea of talking to his classmates was somewhat abhorrent to him?

Like hell he was letting this one go to waste.

He quirked up a real grin for the man and slung a tired arm around his neck, just like old times. "Sure!"