At first, it was hard. It seemed that everything I saw reminded me of you somehow. It hurt and I found myself crying many nights. Slowly though, as I reminded myself daily what had happened, I got over you. We had fought you and I, pilots one and two, and had went our separate ways. So, now at the young age of seventeen, I had known love, and I had known heartbreak. But I'm still the same old Duo. Then one day, I was on the phone with Quatre when you showed up. You just walked up, knocked one time, and waited for me to come. Of course I immediately told Quatre I'd have to talk to him later. You know I'm not sure how long I stood there staring before I let you in. You walked past me into the living room looking over everything as you went. I bounded in after you not sure if I should be glad or mad…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Heero stood in the living room, looking at all Duo's pictures and noted with an inward sadness that there was none of himself. Duo bounced in after him flashing a huge smile.
"So…. Heero, how's everything been going?" Duo said forcing himself to be happy and noticing all the while that Heero was still as cute as ever.
Heero looked at Duo's forced smile, and decided to try to say more than ten words their entire conversation. After all, Duo was his former boyfriend.
"Ok, how 'bout you Duo?" Heero asked.
"Pretty good."
Both boys stood silently staring at each other making the situation even tenser. A few minutes later Duo spoke up again, still smiling and trying to keep the conversation light.
"How did ya find me?"
"Wasn't hard…."
"Gotta job 'round here, a house?"
"Neither."
"Oh…what happened?"
"Well… After… our," Heero swallowed and paused for a second, "fight, I went to live with Doctor J. Ever since, I've lived there, but the guy just up and moved one day why I wasn't home and I haven't been able to track him."
"Oh… I see, where ya gonna stay now?" Duo asked.
"I'll find a place…"
"Do you wanna stay for dinner at my place?" Asked Duo feeling bad for his former partner.
"Um…. Sure."
"You can watch television, I guess, I gotta take a shower."
Heero sat down on a comfortable looking sofa while Duo walked off towards his bathroom. He flipped through the channels idly and found nothing that interested him so he sat quietly waiting for Duo. Duo's phone rang and Heero checked the Caller ID. Winner, Quatre 343-7723. He picked it up.
"Hello?"
"Hey Duo-man, where'd ya go earlier, I would of asked but you got off so fast."
"Ummmmm.."
"Duo?"
"He's in the shower." Heero's deep voice shot over the phone to Quatre's who also hadn't heard from him in a year.
"Heero?"
"Speaking."
"What are you doing at Duo's place?"
"Hn."
"Oh K, So, um, Heero?"
"When Duo gets out will you tell him to call me?"
"Yes."
"Bye."
Click. Heero leaned back in the sofa quietly.
The shower cut off and a few minutes later Duo walked out in a dark green towel, hair already put back in its braid again. When Heero saw him he almost blushed. He held it down and let Duo walk to his room.
Dinner came round and both boys sat down to a hearty meal of Mac-n-Cheese.
"So," started Heero, uncharacteristically, not wanting to be the one to ask, but knowing he had to. "Are we still…"
Duo looked up questioningly, "Are we still what?"
"Are we still friends?"
Heero sounded so sincere that Duo had to answer with an "OF COURSE!" //But I'll never love you again, I'll never let you hurt me again, Heero. I'll never open myself to you again…//
"Oh and by the way Quatre called." Heero commented. Taking one last bite, Heero stood to leave.
~~~~
Duo flopped down on his bed, stomach first. //I can't believe Heero is back. After all this time of trying to forget him he's back.// He picked up a small, white phone that was sitting beside his bed and began to dial.
"Ring… Ring… Hello?"
"Trowa! How's it going?"
"Good."
"Right is Quat-man there?"
"Um, yeah… he's right here." Quatre took the phone from Trowa.
"Hey Quat!"
"Hello Duo."
"You called?"
"Yeah I was just gonna ask ya why you hung up so fast earlier but then Heero picked up."
"Uh huh."
"What was he doing at your house?"
"He just sort of showed up."
"What happened?"
"We talked and had dinner."
"And?"
"That's all."
"You sure?"
"I'm not getting together with him again, Quat." Quatre had been the one person Duo had talked to about his feelings after the fight.
"Oh come on, Duo, don't you like him even a little?"
"It doesn't matter."
"Please tell me, "I'm your best friend, right?"
"He hurt me Quat."
"You're gonna hold a grudge?"
"Maaaaybe."
"Oh, come on, just tell me if you like 'im?"
"Qua-at."
"PLEASE."
"Fine then, no I don't."
"Just a little bit?"
"No."
"Just a teeny eeny little bit?"
"No."
"Just a little molecule bit?"
"Maybe."
"I KNEW IT!"
"Ouch! Don't shout in my ear, plus I never said yes."
"Oh Duo what about you never telling a lie?"
"Oh, Shut up." Duo teased, knowing Quatre had figured him out. The phone call only lasted a few more uneventful moments longer before Duo got off to embrace his dreamless sleep.
~~~~~~~
Heero sat on a bench in a park waiting for his laptop to boot up. It was getting dark and a streetlight flickered on nearby. Heero pulled up everybody who lived in Duo's city. He scanned the names till he saw a familiar one. Chang, Wufei 327 Pine Road. Heero stuck his laptop in his backpack and jumped on his bike.
Five minutes later he was there, he knocked three times loudly. A very tired looking Wufei came to the door.
"Yuy?"
"Hn."
"What are you doing here?"
"I'm gonna crash here a couple a nights, you mind?" Heero didn't wait for an answer as he walked in and set his bag on the couch.
"You do know Maxwell is near here, right?"
"Hn."
"I guess you can stay here a few nights, but then you have to leave, I'm going on vacation."
"K." Heero did feel grateful but couldn't find it in himself to say the words.
"K, well 'night Yuy." Heero didn't respond.
Wufei wondered off to bed thinking how strange everything was and Heero dozed off fitfully on the small couch. The next morning Heero left early for Duo's apartment.
Duo woke up and lazily stared at the dark blue ceiling thoughtfully. He heard one knock and knew who it was. All the same he flung open the door and acted surprised, "HEERO!"
Heero tried to smile but it only came out halfway. He walked in with a quiet "Duo."
"Ya need something?" Duo asked with a smile.
"Not, not really." Heero always tried to talk more around Duo, trying to be nice to the one person he had ever liked.
"Aw, did ya come over just to see me?" Duo asked happily.
"… I guess."
"Well if were going to do anything, I really need to change." Duo stated painfully aware of his pajamas.
"K." Duo walked quickly into his room. Heero stood waiting patiently.
Duo came out dressed in his usual outfit. "Ok, I'm ready to go. Where are we going?"
"I'm not sure, gotta place you want to go?"
"Hmmm. We could go to Trowa and Quatre's house, but then we would just have to invite Wufei! Hey, It'd be just like a reunion!"
"Ok, we can do that, but, out of curiosity, did you say Quatre and…"
"Trowa? Yup! Oh yeah! You weren't here when they got together. It was so sweet almost like when you and I got…" Duo trailed off in mid-sentence realizing his mistake. "Um yeah I'll stop by Wu-man's house, K."
"I'll just follow you."
~~~~~~
All five boys sat in one of Quatre's large rooms eating lunch.
"I am so glad to see you again, Heero." The blonde said kindly.
"Hn."
"So what are you up to Yuy?" Trowa asked.
"Getting a job."
"So you can STOP sleeping at my house?"
"You slept over WUFEI'S house last night?!?!" Duo fell off the seat laughing so hard until Heero sent him a death glare in which he continued to laugh hysterically silently and got back into his seat.
Wufei didn't even seem to notice and continued talking, "Yes, Maxwell, he did and I even told him you lived nearby."
Duo stopped laughing and nervously rubbed the back of his head, "oh… yeah." Then he searched his memory thoroughly trying to remember if he ever told Wufei they had broken up. A silence came over the room as everyone but Wufei knew about Heero and Duo.
"So guys," the innocent blond pilot started, "Do you want to go to the park for the day?"
Only one braided baka responded but everybody was used to that and they went anyways. During the day all the boys bonded with Heero again, well as much as you can bond with Heero. Wufei told everyone's of his plans to go on vacation with Sally soon, and Duo went on a sugar high from too much chocolate and coke.
That evening both Heero and Duo ended up eating dinner at Duo's apartment again before Heero headed off to Wufei's house.