Only in the Darkness

Disclaimer: I don't own anyone… especially not the Gundam Characters.

Duo stepped out of the shower. He rung out his long, brown hair. Half the water that had fallen on him now dripped out of his hair that usually hung in a braid. "Damn the Curse of the Shinigami." He muttered. The Curse was basically him getting a head ache from the extra weight of his hair after a shower.

He wrapped a towel around his waist and then walked out of the bathroom and into Heero. "Oops! Sorry Heero, buddy. I didn't know you wanted the bathroom." "Hn." Heero brushed passed him and into the bathroom.

Duo got dressed and went into the kitchen. Unfortunately for him, he didn't even know how to make things that came in a box, let alone anything else. And to make things worse, there was nothing that he could just pop in his mouth like… potato chips or an apple… "An apple? Yeah right! Me eating health food? Forget it!" He laughed to himself. "Guess I'll just have to wait for Mr. Hn." He laughed at his own joke and went into the other room to watch TV.

"Damn food commercials!!" He yelled and shut the TV off. He laid his head down on the pillow and fell asleep.

Heero came out around seven. He'd been in the shower for an hour! He couldn't believe it. "Stupid baka." He said to himself as he looked at Duo on the couch. "He needs to learn how to cook." Heero's face softened as he looked at the American boy. He shook his head to clear it. "Stupid baka." He repeated, as if to reinstate the fact that Duo was stupid and was a baka.

Duo woke up to the smell of food cooking. "Hooray!! Heero man! I love you!!!" He tried to steal a piece of French toast from the pan, but Heero slapped his hand away. He whimpered like a wounded puppy and looked at Heero with sad eyes, begging for the food. "Go sit." Heero ordered.

Duo did as he was told and sat down at the table. Heero looked over at him. Duo smiled coyly. "Not done yet, baka." Duo stuck out his bottom lip. "Food… Tummy hungry… Need food…" Heero almost laughed at the pathetic sight Duo made. "Stupid baka." He said to himself, shaking his head.

Heero finally set a plate in front of Duo, who shouted for joy. Heero sat down across from him, without any food. "Why you no eat, O Man of No Words?" "Hn." "Well, that's your business, Mr. Hn, not mine…" Duo was studying his food and then smiled up at Heero. Heero was tempted to smile back but decided against it.

Duo set his mouth in a straight line. "I swear to the God of Death… wait… never mind… that's me… let me rephrase that. I swear to the Holy God of French toast, Heero Yuy, that one day, I will make you laugh! So there! There's nothing you can do about it! Ha, Ha!!" Heero looked a little taken back by this, but then regained his composure. "Shut up, Maxwell. I don't need you here." "Then why am I here?" Duo inquired.

It was a known fact for Heero, that Duo wasn't needed on this mission. 'So why is he here then?' Heero asked himself. He blocked the question and returned to looking at the Great God of Death.

'Oh My God!!' Heero's mind came into shocked realization. 'I love him!' His mind screamed. 'No… no… it's not true… I've never felt for anyone. And especially not Duo.' But as he looked over now, he felt his insides turn as he smiled at him. He'd felt it before but tried to ignore it… but now…

Duo smile continued until he realized that Heero had turned away from him. 'He hates me…' Duo thought, sadly. 'How could he ever love me? The Perfect Soldier and the Shinigami would be perfect together. We both love death so much and yet we hate it with a passion…' *Duo is very intelligent! So there!!* He turned his smile down to his French toast. He didn't eat anymore. "Heero? I'm going to bed, okay?" "Whatever." Heero replied.

Duo walked dejectedly towards his room. He began to get under dressed for bed and sighed. 'I don't get it…' He yawned as he climbed in his bed. 'We're so perfect…' With that thought, he fell asleep.

Heero walked by Duo's room. He felt a tightness in his chest. It hurt. Duo's door was open slightly. He peeked in and looked at the American pilot. "Stupid baka…" He whispered to himself. "Heero… Heero… perfect…" Duo muttered in his sleep. Heero was about to saying something with the phrase, stupid baka, in it when he realized what Duo was saying. But he walked away.

He lay there, awake, in his own bed for hours. And then the sun came up. It teased him and taunted him. Laughing at him for being in love with another man… He got up though and went to the kitchen. Duo was there, flour on his nose and in his hair. Pancake batter stuck to his fingers and his cheeks. The whole kitchen was sprinkled with a light dust of flour and then pancake mix. Heero couldn't believe he could make such a mess.

"Two eggs… Okay…" He didn't bother to crack the eggs. Just placed them in the bowl with everything/ anything else. God knows what he put in there! He poured the mix onto the stove, expecting it to cook like it did when Heero made it.

Heero winced. "BAKA!!" He yelled. Duo turned to him and smiled. "What do you think you are doing?!!" Duo's smile disappeared. The one person in the world that he cared about was yelling at him. "I… I was making… breakfast…" He looked at the floor. Heero immediately knew he'd hurt Duo's feelings. He didn't say anything to make up for his mistake. "Next time… be more careful." Heero shooed him out of the kitchen so he could clean up.

They didn't have enough stuff to make another pancake mix and it was almost lunch time any way so Heero started on lunch.

They sat down at the table. Duo wouldn't look up at Heero and picked at his food. Heero occasionally glanced up at him. He felt awful. He had pretended not to see tears in Duo's eyes as he walked away. But he had. He quickly looked at the clock. It was five after one.

"Damn…" He whispered. Duo looked up instantly. "What's wrong?!" He looked down again after he said that. "I have to go." Heero pushed his chair back and went towards the door. He expected Duo to say something, but he just sat there. Playing with his food, not looking at Heero.

Heero looked away and then left. A few seconds later Duo jumped up and ran after him, but the Perfect Soldier was already gone.

"Shit!" Heero cursed as he took another hard blow to his left side. "I think this is our last self-destruct Zero. It'll get rid of more of them that way." 'How could I blotch up such an easy mission…' He thought, as if speaking out loud was directly talking to Zero and it was too embarrassing for anyone to know that he failed except for himself. "I love you… Duo…"

Duo woke up with sweat dripping from his body. Heero still hadn't come home yet and it was three in the morning. "He's coming home…" Duo reassured himself. "He is…" But the sickening feeling of dread was filling his body and he felt the need to throw up. "He is coming home… it was an easy mission… that's why he went alone…" Duo couldn't sleep for the rest of the night. So he stayed up and waited for Heero to come home.

He never did.

Duo almost starved to death waiting. He waited there for there days before he realized that the Perfect Soldier was never coming home.

Duo looked over his shoulder at Heero's grave. It was fifteen years after he'd died. The grave stone read simply: 'Perfect Soldier, rest in peace and when you wake… I'll be there.'

Duo had had that engraved. "Now truly…" He whispered. "I can only love you in the darkness… For the darkness is the only place that I can dream…"