Author's note: I am sooooo sorry that I haven't published anything in such a long time! Writer's block coupled with trying to wrangle original fiction has really got me all discombobulated! Still love Gundam Wing, haven't left the fandom! And if you can help a fellow author out, please check my website on my profile. Got a great paranormal novel out where the ghosts are the main characters! Sorry again that this took so long, hopefully Dark Moon will be up and going soon! 3

I can't believe that I've popped not one but two boners in Heero's face, all within the span of hours. And oh, by the way, thanks for showing up and having my back, hole. Yeah, that first time I really could have used your services!

On the plus side, my knee doesn't hurt.

On the very plus side, I had some great dreams last night, about Heero and I, doing the dirty. All twisted and tangled and humping and thrusting… dang you, boner… go away! Shoo! I'm doing laundry!

At the end of the dream, it had changed. Heero kissed me and it was so tender and sweet. It felt so real. Our lips fit like two puzzle pieces and all I can think about today is that kiss. I mean, the dream sex was great, but that kiss… wow.

"DOING LAUNDRY!" I bellowed when I heard the front door snap closed.

"Do you still want to go looking at places today?" Heero asked. I heard the fridge open and then close before he appeared in the small laundry room doorway.

"I don't know, weather's kinda crappy."

"How's your knee?"

Since I was only clad in boxers again, he took the opportunity to gaze at it.

"Bruised, swollen, gashed, but it doesn't hurt. Major plus, huh?"

"Yeah," he agreed as he opened the sprite he had fetched.

"Sorry about… you know," I said as I put in a detergent pod and closed the lid. The knob made a quick ratchety sound as I turned it, and then the water began to pour when I hit the button.

"About the what?" he asked after taking a drink.

"You know…"

An arched brow lifted as he gave me a quizzical look.

"You know…"

The other brow rose, just as questioning.

"You knoo~oow…" This time, I gestured down to my crotch with both hands. "Almost put your eye out? Twice?"

"Oh," he said.

"Oh?" Am I getting offended at that?

"Oh," he answered.

My shoulders rose high. "Did you just offend ten inches of pure Maxwell fury?"

Heero lifted a shoulder and gave it a light shrug. "Fury? Seemed pretty tame to me. I mean," he said as he turned and began to walk back to the kitchen. "I wasn't afraid of being bitten."

He didn't react when I bounced a pair of his balled up socks (fresh out of the dryer mind you) off the back of his head.


The weather, indeed, was crappy. Overcast, gloomy, dreary, rain was trying to fall. This was seriously harshing my buzz, man. I slumped down into the passenger seat of Heero's jeep while he navigated us through traffic. We'd go eat, maybe catch a movie; anything to get us both out of the house. The more I think about it, the tinier that apartment gets. I turned my head to address Heero.

"How big of a plot of land do you want?"

"It doesn't matter to me," he said as he put on his blinker. The guy in front of us was doing maybe five under, and it was starting to get to him.

"Well, we could get something roomy, but we don't have to build in the middle. In case something happens, one of us moves out, and all. Sell the side piece of land…" He cut his eyes to me, his expression sharp. "What?" I asked.

"No one is moving out. And you will have more value if you center the house in the middle. People like symmetry."

"Good point. What do you know about landscaping?"

"You'd be surprised," he answered as he passed Mr. Slow-Poke. "If you'll take my advice, let's get twenty five to thirty acres, put the house in the back in the middle, long drive, nice fences, tree lined. IF we choose to sell, we'd have to beat people away with a stick. And I know we'd both do the upkeep, so it will be presentable."

"Sounds good," I said and realized that I was starting to get excited. "Sounds real good." I could see it now, manicured fields, a big house with elbow room, the garden off to the side in the back, and my horses. I love horses. They give me an excuse to wear a Cowboy hat and man I look good in those.

"I don't mind if it needs work," Heero spoke up. "As long as it's not completely covered in first or second timber growth. Clearing that out would eat up too much of our time."

"Yeah," I agreed, my tone taking on a bit of a dreamy inflection. "Something that needs a lot of love."

"A diamond in the rough," Heero agreed. He got us off the interstate as we headed into town. "I'd like a garage; somewhere I can go and just… work."

"Yeah," I said. "You can have your garage, I'll have my garden."

"We have to think about house plans."

"What do you think of a log cabin? We can purchase the kit and build it ourselves."

Heero was quiet for a very long time as he thought the entire process through. "We could," he finally agreed. "Weather and work permitting, though. And depending on where we buy the land. Do we want to live closer to work? Is there anything available that's close to work and town, and has what we want?"

I rubbed the back of my neck slowly in thought, and then gripped the base of my braid. I wound my fingers between the interwoven locks as I began to think. "Let's just take it one step at a time, no sense in getting ahead of ourselves," I pointed out.

"True," Heero agreed.


"Our furniture will have to match," Heero grunted as we walked out of the theater. They said this action slash adventure sequel was a flop, but I really liked the characters and wanted to give it a chance. Yeah, it was a flop. When the dingbat directors, who were new to this particular project, swooped in and made the main character out as a supporting one in favor of social justice warrior types, well, you've lost my loyalty.

"What? You have a problem with my eclectic style?" I asked and then took a long sip out of my massive cup. Refills were free, so I just had to top off before we left.

"Yes," Heero said. We paused under the last bit of awning; it had gotten dark while we were out. Thunder rumbled in the distance and a sweet breeze blown off the ocean stirred our bangs in a playful manner.

"You just have no taste," I said as I stepped out into the drizzle to cross the access road to the parking lot.

"Chrome does not go with wicker," Heero answered as he followed after me.

"It does if you try hard enough!" I bantered back.

"Then stop trying," Heero retorted.

Laughing, I got into the Jeep before the rain decided to get serious on us and buckled up, Heero joining me a few moments later. "Man," I said. "All it's going to do is rain this year, isn't it?"

"It goes in cycles," Heero said. We didn't speak as he got us on the road. I was too lost in my thoughts. Matching furniture… what did that mean? Did it mean anything, or was that just him being OCD?

Time's passing. It feels as if we were in the 80's last week, but now, the days are getting shorter and the air is taking on a crispness that can only mean misery if you aren't keen on cold weather.

Thirty minutes from the apartment and we can actually go to the beach and mildly freeze ourselves half to death with the breeze blowing off the water. That's east of us. Go south and you get freezing rain. West and north, bitter cold with snow. Here? Bitter cold with snow. We don't live in an area that sees a ton of snow at one falling, but it does snow consistently. Couple that with the sea air and it's just magical. I love Earth. Heh, I used to want to go back to L2, to me, nothing was better, but back then… I used to enjoy living in a box. Maybe being in a Gundam gave you the freedom to feel like the entire universe was yours.

I guess in a way, it did.


Christmas is almost here, and Heero and I haven't really talked much on the land purchase or house building or move. Not really. When we got off vacation, we put ourselves back into our work.

"Duo? Are you okay?" It was Quatre's voice that pulled me out of my reverie. Out of habit, I put on a smile before I even let it click to whom I was acknowledging, and then sighed. "Oh, hey Quatre, yeah, I'm fine. Just zoned out a little bit."

"You look like you have a lot on your mind," my blond friend said as he leaned his hip against my desk.

"Ever notice how sometimes time can just fly by?" I asked as I leaned back into my chair. It let out a comforting familiar creak.

"Yes," he said simply. "Especially when you have something to look forward to. Or dread." His brow furrowed. "You're not dreading anything, are you?"

"Maybe," I said honestly. "Heero and I are thinking of buying a piece of land and getting a house, but, I just hate moving. All that running around and badgering and black mailing people to do it for you really wears a guy down."

Quatre chuckled at me, but there was a certain twinkle in his eye that I couldn't read.

"I'm happy to hear about your plans. Any set time?"

"We talk about it off and on," I said as I leaned forward to get back to work. "I think he's worried about my taste in colors. He claims I'm colorblind, so I just remind him that he has no sense of adventure."

"Well…" Quatre said softly, letting the word draw out just enough that caused me to shoot him a glare. "Black doesn't have to go with everything…"

"Hey, black is a power color," I said. "It's… technically not a color, but we're not here to get technical." I tilted my head up and put my nose in the air with a slight humpf. The humpf grew louder as my friend gently ruffled my bangs and I swatted his hand away.

"Let's go to lunch," Quatre said. "Come."

"Ah man, I'd like to, but I was planning on finishing this up. We're almost done with this case; we just got the ballistics in and found out that it wasn't the girlfriend's pistol that killed the guy. I need to go back down and do some re-fires before trying to match those bullets on that gun they found in the river."

"It can wait until after lunch," Quatre said his tone firm as he took my arm and pulled gently. "Let's go."

I whined as he drug me up and pulled me towards the break room.

"Tell me what's going on, Duo," Quatre said as he fixed us both a cup of coffee while our meals heated up in the microwaves. I have to say, the Preventer headquarters has amazing break rooms. And coffee. Kona. They know what keeps me happy.

"What do you mean?"

Quatre sighed as he brought the coffee over and then rested his palms onto the table as he gave me an even yet amused look. His lips were pulled into a tight line, but I could tell by the expression in his eyes that he was fighting hard not to smile. Or gush. The hell?

"What?" I asked again and for some reason, I felt the urge to get up and bolt merrily from the room. Something about being confronted by something you really don't want to talk about, or think about, or admit, or realize, damnit he's just staring at me and now he's smiling. What does he know? Oh yeah… Quatre's an empath, I forgot all about that! This could be a good thing! Maybe… depending on how much he perceived from me, I wonder if there was anything he possibly… maybe, perhaps… perceived from Heero?

"Duo?" he asked in concern. I had spent a lot of time in mental duress, my eyes scanning the room quickly, though seeing only what was in my mind's eye. I focused them and came back.

"Quatre?"

"Are you okay?" he asked gently as one of our microwaves beeped. He put his hand on my shoulder and leaned close.

I studied his face for a long time before letting out a soft, deflated sigh. "No," I whispered.

"Tell me what's wrong," he pressed softly as his hand continued to grip my shoulder.

"I'm in love," I breathed. There, it was out. I'm in love. DUO MAXWELL IS IN LOVE! You hear that, world!? My stomach flipped over and a brief urge to vomit surfaced before I forced it down. I gripped my coffee cup with both hands and stared into it as I swallowed hard. My hands were trembling. I opened my mouth, closed it, opened it again and before I knew it, everything came pouring out.

"I'm in love with Heero," I said simply. "Every waking moment, he's there, every night, he's there, in my dreams, in my thoughts. I-I-I sometimes catch myself staring at him, and touching him by "accident"," I lifted my hands to do the quotey-fingers and then began to speak rapidly. "I've got his routine timed down to the second, so he's never late for a meal, his laundry's always done, all his needs are met. I look forward to going home because he always drives and that makes me feel good, that he's taking care of me, you know? Even though I'm the better driver…" I gripped the cup again in my hands and noticed that they were shaking hard enough to cause my coffee to ripple.

"He's my everything, sometimes I wish I could just open him up and climb into him and just be a part of him. He knows how to calm me down when my PTSD gears up and I go to do something stupid. He knows how to talk me down… I honestly think he's kept me out of the madhouse and I know some people would look at this as a dependency thing. That I need him to keep me sane, and they're right. I need him, but not to keep me sane, but to keep me… whole." I lifted my eyes to meet Quatre's, and he was still smiling his understanding, gentle smile.

"I love him," I whispered. "And I have no idea of how he feels, if he feels… I know I'm his best friend, but I hope he's not just hanging around because he feels a sense of duty or obligation to keep me out of mischief."

"He doesn't," Quatre assured me before going to the microwaves and getting our food out. Trowa had cooked dinner for them last night, and it looked pretty good, but nowhere near as good as my lasagna did. Heero cooked last night.

"Heero cooked last night, I love lasagna," I said as I poked at the cheese on top with my fork. "He knows exactly how I like it, my favorite restaurants, movies, music, clothes, we always do what I want to do, and I think he makes it out to sound like his idea, but… we always end up doing what I want to do. I guess Heero can be passive, I know he was trained to be a blank slate, more or less, but…"

"He does the things you like because he cares about you," Quatre said. "And honestly, Duo, you're a fun person, a lot of people look to you to see what's fun."

"Really?" I blinked.

"Of course," Quatre said. "Believe it or not; you've got great taste in fun, and Heero trusts you to deliver."

"Oh great," I said dryly. "Now I have "fun" performance anxiety…"

Quatre chuckled softly.

"Can I tell you something funny?" I asked.

"Sure," he said, speaking behind a napkin while he continued to chew. He's so well trained. I smirked.

"Well, let me tell you about nearly putting his eye out. Twice."


Aaah, just knowing what kind of mental image I had put in Quatre's mind made my day. It was good to have a new in joke, even though Quatre isn't as dirty minded as I am. All I had to do for the rest of the day was look at him and give him a very large shark grin and it was enough to throw a blush on his face before he would huff in a good natured way and avert his eyes. Once the pretense was over, he'd look back over to me, smirk and then toss his head before getting back to work.

"I'll break you one day, blondie," I said as I grabbed my jacket from the back of my chair.

"Wishful thinking, Maxwell," he fired back as he shut down his computers. "Wishful thinking. Bigger," he cast his eyes to me with a mean little glint and I got the meaning with a surprised gasp as his eyes went down to my crotch. "Men have tried. Goodnight, Duo."

"Did you just shoot back at me?"

"I wounded you," Quatre grinned.

I huffed and stuck my nose up into the hair. "You grazed me, that's all."

"You better put some pressure on that wound before you bleed to death," Quatre said as he shut off the lights to his little office. "Try not to bleed all over the floor, okay?"

I could only open and close my mouth, any retort lost. Quatre… sweet little Quatre… have I already corrupted him?

"Have I already corrupted you?"

"Yes. Come on, let's go." His expression turned serious and he gripped my arm. "One last thing, Duo. I can't tell you how Heero feels, my gift doesn't work like that with people like him," he said gently. "But the two of you are used to a routine, right?"

"Yeah," I said.

Quatre leaned closer, his eyes lost in thought as he whispered. "Break it. Just for tonight. See how it goes."

"Oh…" Hope blossomed in my chest and I let out a sigh. "Why didn't I think of that?"

"That's what you need best friends for," Quatre said. "Break a routine; not a big one, either. Study him, see what he does."

An idea already began to form in my mind. "That's a very good idea, Quatre. A very good idea." All this time, Heero has been driving me absolutely crazy. Half-naked knuckle pushups in the living room, having the nerve to sweat around me and me unable to pounce him. All that grunting and straining and flexing… and hello, boner.