"Has anyone seen Heero or Duo this morning?" asked Quatre as he sauntered into the living room of the safe house, chewing on a piece of toast. "It's not like Duo to miss breakfast and it's not like Heero to lie in."

Wufei was reading the newspaper on the sofa. "I'm sure they'll both be down in a moment…together."

Quatre exchanged a confused glance with Trowa, who was sitting at the desk with the laptop. "Why did you say it like that, Wufei?"

Wufei threw him a meaningful glance over the top of his newspaper. "You mean you didn't hear them last night?"

Quatre almost choked on his piece of toast. "By Allah!" he cried, once he'd got his lungs clear of toast. "They did it? They finally got it together?!"

Wufei just raised an eyebrow and went back to his paper.

Quatre was virtually skipping with joy. "I'm so happy for them," he chirped. "They are just so right for each other! And both of them have been through so much. Finally they can both have some support and security…" he paused in mid-skip. "But…what if they regret it this morning? They're both so…oh, I don't know…complicated. Especially Heero. He's never done anything like this before. What if they get scared and try to forget all about it?"

"Oh, c'mon, Quatre!" Wufei said with exasperation, lowering his paper. "These two have had the ultimate restrained love for each other for, like, years! That sort of thing does not get sated by a quick roll in the hay." He calmed. "Don't worry, I think they'll be together for a long time."

"Aren't you two forgetting something?" Trowa said. His face was grim.

Before anyone could respond, Duo burst into the room like a braided whirlwind, dragging Heero behind him by the hand. "Good morning everyone!" he chirped. "And welcome to Duo's Breakfast News! Headlines today: Oz are crap, Relena Peacecraft is a loser and The Gundam Boys kick ass! But first! The weather forecast!"

He bounded over to the window, finally letting go of Heero. He peered out onto the clear morning. "Today's weather will be sun, sun and more sun! God's in his heaven and all's right with the world!"

There was a cloudburst and suddenly the land outside was drenched with icy sheets of gray rain.

Duo turned around to the others and giggled bashfully. "Well, you get the picture. Hey, Q! Is that toast!"

"Hey, that's mine!" protested Quatre as his toast was snatched from his hand.

"Well, you can have it back if you want, but I don't think it'll be very appitising now," said Duo as he swallowed it whole.

Quatre grumbled to himself and went to make more toast. Duo stretched and calmed down. Heero was now sitting on the sofa watching Duo with a soft, pleasant statement on his face that wasn't a smile, but wasn't his normal scowl. Duo bounced over to him and dropped himself into his lap, wrapping his arms around his neck.

"Morning, Hee-chan!" he gave him a kiss on the cheek.

Heero had his arms wrapped possessively around the slim waist. Duo, with a giggle buried his face in Heero's neck.

"Duo," Wufei cried in frustration, crumpling up his paper. "Shut up! It's bad enough you kept me up all night. I already have a bad enough headache without you shouting the house down."

"Oh, shut up, Wu-man," Duo said. "You're just miffed cos you're the only one not getting any."

Wufei's paper gave a violent jerk.

"Anyway, we can't have kept you up all night," Duo reasoned. "If you ask me, Quatre and Trowa are lookin' pretty baggy-eyed this morning. They don't look like they got much sleep. Too busy doing other things."

Duo winked at Quatre who had just returned with more toast and immediately turned bright red.

Heero bit down a laugh and Wufei looked like his nose was about to explode with a catastrophic nosebleed any second.

"On a more important note," Trowa interrupted, his voice steely as ever. "The scientists have communicated."

"What did they say?" asked Heero, peering over Duo's head as he snuggled it into Heero's shoulder.

"They think it would be best for us to lay low for a while," Trowa explained as he scrolled down on the laptop. "Oz seemed to have quieted down now with these new peace talks and they feel that any interference from us, of any kind, could jeopardise the talks."

"How long?" asked Wufei.

Trowa looked up, something like a smile dancing in his emerald eyes. "A whole month."

"Nani?" Quatre startled. He walked over behind his lover to peer at the screen. "That's brilliant! A whole month with no missions? Yes! A holiday!"

"Except for this," Trowa said. "We've just gotta wipe all the files that were linked to that base we destroyed the other day. They're might be a few on the major Oz mainframe."

"How are we supposed to do that?" asked Duo.

"Well," Trowa said, looking up. "It should be easy enough. The files were for the base's research only, so no one will notice when they've gone because the only people who used them are dead. The only problem is, we have to be connected to Oz's mainframe to wipe them. We can't get onto the network from this laptop."

"So what do we do?" asked Wufei, also getting up and walking over to look at the laptop. "Do they say how we're supposed to do it?"

"Yes," Trowa said, pointing at something on the screen. "Not too far from here there is an Oz facility, disguised as a school. It's only a quiet little science facility really, nothing we need to worry about destroying, but they'll have computers there that'll be connected to the mainframe. Standard drill. We all arrange an appointment, pretending to be students interested in joining the school for next term. At some stage Heero and I sneak off from the group to find the computer room and do all the necessary nasty work while Wufei and Quatre keep the head teacher occupied. We get back before he notices we've been gone, say we'll get back to him about joining, then disappear and don't come back."

"What about me?" asked Duo, raising his head from Heero's shoulder. "What do they say I should do?"

There was a hesitation just long enough to be called suspicious.

"You're not mentioned," Trowa said. "I suppose you're to stay here and guard the safe house."

"Oh," Duo said, sounding disappointed. "Ok then."

"When are we supposed to do that?" asked Heero.

"They say it would be best to go next Friday," Trowa explained. "That way, if we do accidentally leave any traces of our hacking, they will obliterate themselves over the weekend and no one will find out we were ever there. All traces will be gone by Monday when the school opens up again for the week."

"Sounds good to me," said Wufei.

"So we've got a whole week," Duo said, slightly more cheerfully. "And then the rest of this month with nothing to do! We're gonna have to think of ways to entertain ourselves."

Quatre and Trowa exchanged a sly glance as did Heero and Duo. Wufei looked from one pair of lovers to the other and back again. He threw his paper away, clutched his hair and ran out of the room, screaming, "I'm surrounded by nymphomaniacs!"

The four lovers exchanged a glance and all, even Heero and Trowa, burst into laughter.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The next couple of days passed without incident. Heero always remembered them as if through a golden haze. The war had eased off temporarily which meant no stressful missions, not killing, no conflict. Normally this would have left him detached, feeling he had no purpose, but with Duo everything fit into place and he was truly happy. Much to their satisfaction, they had plenty of time to spend together, whether they were talking, making love or just sitting quietly in each other's arms and listening to the sounds of the world around them. Heero realised that life didn't have to be all agony and tears.

All of them played a number of drinking games each night to celebrate their short holiday, which they all regretted the following mornings, but none of them remembered having as much fun since before Duo had died. But even the catastrophic event that was Duo's death had dulled in everyone's minds. Hopes even raised amongst them that perhaps, just perhaps, the war would end as a result of these talks and at last they would all be free to follow their dreams…

And so it was on the third night. Quatre had drawn the short straw to go with a grumpy Wufei to the store to fetch supplies. Even though it was quiet enough at the moment, they did not relax enough to let any of them go anywhere alone. And Wufei was pretty miserable company whilst his leg was healing.

The three remaining pilots were sitting, enjoying the simple pleasure of watching the telly, a pastime that Trowa and Heero had never really learned to enjoy in the past. Trowa was on the sofa, spread out along its length, Heero was in an armchair and Duo was in his lap.

The two lovers were now virtually inseparable. It was like they were joined at the hip. Heero never really displayed much emotion in front of anyone, but he always made sure that Duo was sitting in his lap or at his side or somewhere where he could hold him some way. Even the vague and distant Trowa thought it was touching. As he glanced at them, both pleasant faces sleepy in the eerie glow of the television set, together and, finally, happy, he felt a longing for Quatre. A single thought of clones did not even enter Trowa's logical mind.

Duo was watching the news broadcast wistfully. There were updates on the peace talks, but they were also showing footage from battle scenes from earlier in the war.

"Hey Heero," Duo asked softly, not lifting his head from his koi's shoulder. "When do I get my new gundam and start fighting again?"

Oh no…Trowa thought. He slid his glance away from the TV to watch Heero's reaction. His face was slightly stonier now than it had been.

"I don't know, Duo," he said simply.

Duo frowned slightly. "Well, the scientists are sure taking their sweet time about it," he said. "I would have thought I'd be inundated with missions once they heard I was back."

Trowa and Heero were silent.

"They do know I'm back, right?" Duo raised his head off Heero's shoulder too look in his face.

"Of course," Heero replied, not meeting Duo's eyes. "The scientists aren't known for their predictability, Duo. And with these new talks there is no need for too many missions." Trowa found it a very interesting experience to see the way Heero looked at Duo then. "Don't worry, Duo. Everything's fine."

Duo smiled and rested his head down again. Heero held him closer and rested his chin on the top of Duo's head. He looked at Trowa with an unreadable look in his eyes. Worry? Fear?

Trowa turned his attention back to the television. There was a report on a ceremony being held for all those that had fallen in a battle a week before. It was very depressing. The camera panned across a graveyard full of new gravestones arranged at painfully regular intervals.

"We still don't know the final casualty toll," the reporter was saying. "But we do know that it outnumbers any war in the history of the world. This is Miranda Richardson reporting from – "

Duo clicked off the telly. "Man, I've seen enough of that for two lifetimes."

Heero's face looked shocked for some reason. Trowa frowned. "Heero? Are you ok?"

Duo raised his head again. "Heero?"

"I've gotta go," he said. "I can't believe I didn't…"

Duo got up off Heero to let him stand. "Heero, where have you gotta go? Tell me what's wrong, you're scaring me…"

Those graves…the Sanq Kingdom, Trowa realised. He's forgotten to go the last few nights…

Heero looked at his lover. "I won't be long," he said. He placed a kiss on his cheek then left.

Duo looked at Trowa. "What was all that about?"

Trowa shrugged calmly. "I guess sometimes he just needs to be alone."

"But he should never need to be alone," Duo mumbled sadly, gazing the way Heero had left. "Not now." Duo looked up and met Trowa's gaze for a moment. He turned and ran upstairs. Trowa didn't see him again for the rest of the evening.

Why won't they tell me? Duo thought as he lay on his bed, hugging the pillow close to him. What happened while I was away?

It was hours before Heero returned to kiss away his pain.

TBC