Heero opened the door slowly and quietly, and then shut it behind him quickly so that the light from the other room wouldn't disturb the sleeper on the bed. He approached the slumbering form with quiet steps, his eyes adjusting quickly to the lack of light. He could make out the shape of Duo's body, but even with his night-vision, he would have been hard-pressed to identify any of Duo's features. Even if he hadn't already memorized them.

Everything was dark. Duo felt the sensation of walking, but he couldn't pinpoint exactly where he was. It could have been outside, but there was no noise, either of traffic or of wilderness. He could have been in his apartment, but he couldn't detect the presence of another person…

Wait! There –was- someone else in the darkness. He stepped forward, hands in front of him to stop his body from running into anything. After a short moment of moving forward, he stopped, feeling the presence move around behind him, almost as if it were circling him. "Who's there?" he asked the darkness.

A light flashed and his eyes closed instinctively. When he opened them again, he was standing in the middle of a deserted road, just on the edge of a ring of light given off by a nearby lamppost. He looked up at the light and followed the line of the pole to the figure standing at the base. Prussian blue eyes stared back at him, their depths as unreadable as the face they were set in.

"Heero?"

"You shouldn't be involved with this. You're not safe."

He hesitated beside the bed for a moment, and then sat down on it gently. Duo mumbled in his sleep and shifted towards Heero, but didn't wake up. It took a moment for Heero to realize that he was holding his breath expectantly.

"I can't back out of this, Heero. You know that." Duo said softly, taking a single step forward. "There is more involved in all of this than you think."

"I can't protect you, Duo. I don't know how," Heero admitted softly, his eyes brimming with a vulnerability that Duo hadn't know he possessed.

Heero put a hand out, gently smoothing Dou's bangs back from his face. His fingers hesitated, and then trailed a course tenderly down the side of his face, resting at his jaw as he closed his eyes, picturing Duo's face in his mind. In the darkness, he whispered softly.

"I don't know how to protect you, Duo. I don't know how."

Duo's head jerked up, and he looked around wildly. Something was wrong. He tilted his head, listening; he caught the barely discernible sound of a car approaching. When he looked back at Heero, the blue eyes were still regarding him steadily. "Heero."

"Yes, Duo?" Heero returned, a small smile tilting up the corners of his mouth. Duo stared at him for a moment, missing the two beams of light that shot out of the darkness suddenly. He turned his head as the noise of an engine grew louder. He blinked in the bright glare given off from the headlights, and then had to blink again when the light disappeared. The sound didn't, however. He could feel it approaching, and his mind recoiled. He could recall vividly the accident that had killed him.

He crumpled to the ground as it drew closer. He was crying, his body aching with remembered pain. "Heero!" he called, whether with his mind or with his heart, he didn't know.

Suddenly, two steely hands reached out and pulled him out of the way as he felt the car whiz by him in the dark. He looked up, tears falling down his face, into Heero's impassive face. Their was a coldness in his eyes that Duo hadn't seen, even with Heero's reserve, except that day in the police station, when Heero had been lead in forcibly. Without his conscious effort, his hand reached up and traced one side of Heero's jaw with his fingertips. "You've already saved me twice."

"It wasn't enough," Heero's voice was soft, his face moving closer to Duo's as his expression softened. Their lips were fractions apart, and Duo could already taste Heero's breath against his lips, could feel the press of their lips together…

Duo jerked into a sitting position, his heart beating hard in his chest, his eyes wide in the dark. He reached a hand out blindly, and met with air for several seconds before he found the switch for the light beside his bed. He turned it on and light revealed the room to his eyes. He was alone. The door was shut, the windows still keeping out the light of day. He drew in a shuddery breath, closing his eyes as he remember the anticipation of his dream.

"It's never enough," he muttered to the empty air, filling the silence with his ragged breathing. He looked down at his lap and grimaced. He had more problems to deal with than odd dreams; the after effects of said dream being one of them.

Go to Chapter 17 to resume reading the story, or return to 11 and choose another couple.