I hope you had fun with Cathy. And I'm glad to hear you're doing so well. *hugs*

Bet you didn't think I'd need you again so soon? Take your time, I'm in no hurry for this back.

Title: A Helping Hand 21

Author: Tayjena

Rating: NC-17

Pairings: Solo+2, 2+1x2, 3x4, 5+2, R+1

Warnings: Spoilers, TWT, sap, possession, ghost, angst, implied NCS, language, lime

Archived: Please feel free.

Beta: Chibimina

Summary: Heero's hearing a voice. Whose is it? Who is it asking him to protect and why?

Disclaimer: Don't nag, don't own a thing.

Duo blinked as Heero stared at him, wide-eyed and mouth hanging open as though he were about to say something.

It was the night before they – Quatre, Duo, and Heero – were planning to leave Earth for space.

Heero had agreed that for tonight, they'd pretend that tomorrow was just another day. That they'd be spending it together, just as they had nearly every day up to now.

Duo and Heero had just come upstairs to their room; Quatre was asleep in a chair down in the living room. Duo had locked the door insuring that their last moments together wouldn't be interrupted. Then he'd let down his hair. He wasn't sure when he'd did it why he was doing it. But when he found Heero staring at him that way, he knew that was the reason.

To have Heero staring at him at a complete lost.

/He thinks you're beautiful. / the soft, calm voice of his deceased best friend echoed in his mind.

/Oh yeah? / Duo grinned to himself. There's been a time when he'd doubted Heero would have thought anything was beautiful, let alone him.

/He's afraid to say it to you though. Thinks you might get offended. /

/Nah, I wouldn't… But how do you know that anyway? / Duo asked the voice.

Solo, Duo's invisible but ever constant companion, was silent. Duo had no clue that Solo had been communicating with Heero the past months or that he played any role in their blossoming relationship.

/Well, you've been watching that taciturn guy since you met him, it means I have too. And I've just been able to pick up on things like that. / Solo commented nonchalantly.

Duo smiled a bit to himself again. Maybe being dead gave Solo a different perspective of things. /I guess. /

This conversation in his head, took only a few brief moments and then Duo was crossing the room to the still dazed Japanese pilot.

He caught the still agape lips with his own.

The shock of the kiss broke Heero's daze and his arms folded around the body against his, as simultaneously the arms of the other boy closed around him.

Neither one would ever know which one of them moved first, but soon they were lowering each other down onto the nearest bed.

And then…

Then they were lying on it, lips still connected, as searching fingers quested over clothed forms. They drifted up arms, over shoulders, onto chests, slowly moving lower as they explored each other.

The soft touches gradually grew in urgency; desperate to find flesh.

Soon that need was met, as piece after piece of hindering fabric was removed, until no barriers remained between the two boys. They pressed closer to each other, flesh meeting flesh, sending electricity through the both of them.

Caressing hands, traced the body each held to memory, before the need for more caused them to grip tighter. Lips had trailed to necks and shoulders, leaving teeth marks as they bit, forming bruises as they sucked.

Moments later, heavy panting filled the room. The bed squeaked with their movements, headboard rocking against the wall. Fingers laced through each other in painfully tight holds. The others name tumbling from their lips.

Then bliss washed over the two of them and they were crumpling together on the bed. The sheets tangled around them, but neither noticed nor cared. They laid together, limbs so entangled together, they couldn't tell where one ended and the other began.

They didn't speak for fear of breaking the sense of eternity they both felt. Gentle fingers resumed their previous touches.

Slowly, sleep overtook the lovers.

Morning dawned as it did every day, and when Duo opened his eyes, the feeling from last night, that that moment would last forever, faded. His eyes found Heero, packing the last of his things in preparation.

"You weren't going to leave without saying good-bye were you?" He asked softly.

"Of course not, koibito." Heero answered just as softly. He sat down on the side of the bed, and Duo was able to take in his full appearance.

His skin shone as though it was still wet, and bits of hair still clung damply to the sides of his face. He was fresh out of the shower.

And it seemed, briefly, that he wanted to say something.

Then the silence stretching out between them became too much for Duo. "Just don't…"

Heero interrupted him, "I won't."

"Be careful."

"You too…" There was that look again. Like Heero wanted to say something more, his mouth even moved to open, before snapping shut again.

"I love you."

"I know Duo." Heero leaned across the bed and kissed him, a light bittersweet kiss of goodbye. "Me too…" He whispered against his lips. Then he was off the bed, bag over his shoulder and out the door.

/Me too? / Duo's mind repeated over and over. At first he couldn't make sense of the two words but as the bedroom door shut, comprehension hit him.

"Shit!" He scrambled up from the bed and chased Heero down the stairs, completely forgetting that he was naked, but he was too late.

By the time he'd gotten to the front door, Heero was gone.

Duo had stared out that door, naked, for a long while, wondering how Heero had vanished so quickly.

He wouldn't see his lover again until his capture on Barge, when Heero had a gun pointed in his face. Duo had known his capture would be a liability, especially to Heero and was actually glad he'd come to 'silence' him. At least he'd been able to see him once more.

Then Heero acted like he was seriously going to pull the trigger!

Duo's eyes flew open then.

After a brief exchange, he was tossed a gun and they were making their escape.

Later, at Heero's insistence, he'd attended school at on a colony. That had been a miserable experience. Everyone stared at him. He knew they thought he looked familiar but couldn't seem to place where they'd seen him. Not only that, but Heero had registered at the school using HIS name, and they all stared because he wasn't the Duo they'd first met.

And then everything had gone to hell.

He'd been walking through the streets one night and then on the big screen over the street was Deathscythe.

He couldn't stop himself. He walked into the street, staring up at it, talking to himself, to Deathscythe.

Then he was screaming.

People around him stared, wondering why there was someone screaming in agony over the destruction of one of the Gundams.

It was some time later he'd learned of OZ manufacturing mobile suits on Lunar Base. He had to do something about that. It had taken awhile to figure out how he was going to get on the base, but then a girl named Hilde Schbeiker offered some information he couldn't pass up.

Of course, she ultimately screwed up his plan by exposing him, and he'd had to do everything on the fly instead.

In the end, none of it mattered. He'd made it to the base with that girl's help and then stumbled onto the reconstruction of his and Wufei's Gundams and to make sure they, and the scientists working on them, weren't discovered, Duo had allowed himself to be beaten by one of the Gundam creators - Wufei's he guessed – and handed over to OZ officers.

Even that hadn't turned out so bad.

He was thrown into a cell with Wufei and Heero…

Heero who acted like the last words he'd said to Duo didn't mean what Duo had come to think they had. But he could understand that, showing affection to him in that place probably wouldn't be the best of ideas. So he didn't think about, and tried to conceal the heartache it caused, by revealing his excitement to them about the new Gundams being developed for him and Wufei.

Then everything went black for him.

Wufei had barely regarded Duo since he'd been shoved into their cell, only looking at him when he mentioned that his Gundam was being rebuilt. But as the time from when Duo had last spoken stretched on further and further away, his nails dug into the flesh of his crossed arms.

He couldn't fathom how Heero could just sit there, acting like he didn't care.

Didn't it pain Heero, like it did him to see Duo just laying there? Didn't he also want to go over and pick him up from the floor?

Wufei, of course, knew better than to try it.

Mostly because of Heero; because, he knew, - somewhere inside him he knew - Heero *did* care and it hurt him just as much.

And because he could understand why Heero hadn't; he didn't want them to know Duo was his weakness. They'd use that against him, if they ever found out.

Heero fought within himself for a long time. Two voices in his head telling him what to do; voices so loud they drowned out the voice of Solo begging him once again to take care of Duo. One told him not to move, not to go to Duo. The other pleaded that Duo needed him.

Wufei had also been careful to avoid looking at Heero. Not just now that Duo was there, but the whole time they'd been in the cell together.

But a movement from the other boy made him look at him. The hand shot forward jerkily, as though something were trying to hold it back.

Then something seemed to snap in Heero's eyes and he was moving toward the figure still unconscious on the floor.

/Or maybe his heart just won over…/ Wufei told himself, still cautiously watching.

Heero sat beside Duo, not touching him, trying to decide how to quiet both parts of him. He couldn't let them find out how much Duo meant to him. But he couldn't do nothing anymore.

Carefully he moved Duo just enough to lay his head on his thigh. He stared down at him as the warring in his mind quieted and finally silenced. A couple fingers stretched out and touched the rope of hair, and idly twisted it between them.

"Wufei…" Heero spoke lowly, his eyes searching for Wufei in the dim lighting. "I need to ask you something…"

Wufei didn't answer, but stared at Heero, letting him know he was listening.

Nothing came for awhile as Heero resumed gazing down at Duo. He wondered if he'd changed his mind.

Then:

"If… something happens to me, will you take care of him?"

Heero said the words slowly and with hesitation. Briefly he wondered if this was how Solo had felt when he'd made his promise to Duo to find him a lover. It nearly broke him in half to think about it; to think about someone else being there for Duo, of someone else holding him, of someone else loving him.

Quietly, Wufei pondered what Heero was asking him. He let silence fall over them once more as he thought of an answer.

It was a long time, before he said. "Only if you do something for me?"

Heero glared up at him, wondering what Wufei was going to ask him to do.

When he had Heero's full attention, Wufei smirked a little. "I'll do it. But you better not do anything reckless that makes me have to."

Heero's glare faded when he heard this. Of course he knew exactly what Wufei meant by 'reckless.' Something, that was completely of his, own doing, like self-destructing had been. Wufei would understand and forgive him for the natural course wars could take, but if he did something 'stupid' again, he wouldn't be forgiven.

"Alright." Heero breathed. He stroked Duo's face lightly.

He felt slightly better. Now, at least, he knew if something happened to him, Duo would still be taken care of. Someone would still be with him. Someone would be there to help him through.

Heero also made another promise, to himself and Duo and Wufei, that if something should happen to him, he would be there to help Wufei help Duo deal with the loss. And maybe they would never become what Duo and he were, but at least they would also have a helping hand.

TBC

Who'd have thought after it took me so long to write the last chapter that this one would be out so quick? It just seemed to flow out of me and I couldn't stop and finished in a couple hours. Guess I'd been thinking about how it would go for awhile.