Hey there! I actually started this at school, but I left it there over the week-end and it is stuck there for two-weeks becasue Im on vacation -_-;; Well to make up for it, Im hoping to finish this story by the middle of vacation, and hopefully get a good part of Captive done as well. Though hopefully Im starting a job at the library soon and may have only the nights to write. Either way, this fic will be finished before vacation is up ^_^

Thanks to reviewers CSMars, Violet tears, Otaku12 (*nods*, that was trowa but unfortunately Im not focusing on 3x4 in this fic ^_^;; gomen. but be on the lookout for Captive, the second part is a complete 3X4 ;) ), Leaf Zelindor

Please review! Thanx!

Same warnings and disclaimers as always.
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Duo bounded down the stairs, causing Quatre to look up from his paper which he was reading at the large kitchen table. "Morning Cat!"

Quatre was a bit confused at the sudden return of Duo's happy-go-lucky demeanor, but glad. He had been starting to worry that the old Duo would never return. Still, he was curious at the sudden change...

"Um...Duo?"

Duo turned to face him, a bagel stuck in his mouth and his arms clumsily trying to force themselves into his long jacket sleves. He stared at him for a minute before removing the food item. "Yeah Cat?"

The blond didn't quite know how to approach the subject so he decided subtlety was called for. "Where are you heading? I thought the mecahnics didn't work today..."

Duo smiled as he grabbed a glass of orange juice as well. "They don't" he assured, "Im going out to that new amusement park with Heero!"

Quatres eyes lit up. "So you finally told him??!" he asked eagerly putting the paper down and standing.

Duo smiled but couldn't conceal his slight embarassment. "Yeah, i did. When we were out at lunch yesterday."

Quatre nodded, he had seen the two walk out of the office together the other day, and Duo HAD seemed a lot happier when they returned. "So...I take it he returns the feelings?"

After he said it he immediately wanted to take it back. Duos grin faded and he looked a bit uncomfortable.
"Well, he never really did say what HE thought on the whole situation. And I never really asked. You know...I was to busy getting over the shock that he hadn't killed me for admitting it..."

Quatre hesitated for only a moment before walking over and putting his hand on his comrades shoulder. "Hey, just give it time. He just got out of a relationship that confused him, he probably just needs time to think about things."

Duo didn't say anything for minute, and Quatre got a bit worried but felt relief when a genuine smile graced his friends features once more.

"Yeah, you're right Cat, I just need to give it some time. Thanks a lot! I'll see you tonight!" With that, the braided boy made a dash for the front door and with a slam, disappered.

Quatre picked up his newpaper once more pensively, before a sudden thought struck him. 'Wait, did he just say, the new amusment park? Heeros taking Duo to the new amusement park?!' he suddenly put his paper back down a picked up the phone dialing quickly. 'This I cant miss...'

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"Hey Heero! Come check this out!" Duo called from his position in front of one of the cages. After meeting Heero at the Preventers office where the ex-pilot of wing still had some paper-work to finish, the two had walked the four blocks to the park, which to Duo's delight, had arrived together with the circus.

Duo happily pointed out the two small lion cubs tumbling and sparring with eachother in the cage as Heero made his way the the highly-energized boy's side. Smiling at the Duos enthusiasm, Heero read the small plaque that was nailed to the cage. "Gary and Girde" he read aloud. "they were born in captivity and are going to be raised as performers by the circus..."

"That's so cool! I wonder if they like it here..." Duo mused aloud.

"Im sure they like it just fine Duo," Heero assured with a small smile. "After all, it's what they know, it be dangerous to let them go into the wild when they are not trained to take care of themselves."

Duo smiled up at him. "Yeah, you're probably right!"

Inside, Heero cheered. It seemed now that they had cleared things up at Panera, Duo wasn't so dissapointed with him all the time. Duo seemed to be enjoying himself, and he was for once assured that his actions had been the right ones. Lost in his musings, he almost didn't notice as Duo grabbed his arm and started pulling him towards the rides.

"Uh...Duo?"

"mm?" came the distracted answer, as Duo attempted to chose which ride to try first.

"Where are we going?"

Duo looked at him as if the answer was obvious. (a/n which in fact it was, but we wont tell our little perfect soldier that now will we? ;) )

"We're going to try some of these awesome rides!" He pointed in the direction of the steel rollar coaster that had been flown in piece by piece from some american park in florida. "Check out that coaster!"

Heero looked skeptical. The coaster was large, that was for sure, however, they had bee Gundam pilots, how entertaining could a roller coaster be? But Duo's pleading eyes won him over and he reluctantly got in line behind his companion.

As they made they're way through elaborately themed decor, which included a large stone castle to walk through, they began an easy conversation. They started off talking about the ride and the park, but somehow it lead to stories about what had happened to them in the time after the war. However they were both surprisingly relaxed as the stood in the slow moving line and chatted.

"...Jeez! You would not believe the people she invited! As the best man I was absolutely swamped with work [1]. Wanting to leave the two lovebirds to their own devices, everyone decided that they should contact ME instead. Therefore I was the one who got stuck with seating arrangements and whatnot. It was a near disaster!"

Heero chuckled a bit at the image of Duo trying to arrange a full engagement party on his own.

Duo smiled at him, it was good to see heero having a good time for once. Then he asked, "So what about you? I've told you the fiasco that was my life after the war...What happened to you?"

Heero was quiet before answering. "After I moved in with Relena, basically my life just became an endless line of banquets, parties and social gatherings, there was really not much exciting about it..."

Duo's eyes widened, "You mean to tell me NOTHING out of the ordinary ever happened to you at those parties?"

Suddenly Heero's eyes took on a foreign glint as he spoke again.

"Well...there was that one time...somewhere near a year ago. I saw a man, namely a brother of the hostess seeming not to enjoy himself...so i decided that his wine was much to mild..."

Duo grinned mischieviously, though inwardly he was shocked. Who would've known that Heery Yuy had a mischievious side?

"So I made sure that everything he got that night was exceptionally strong." he smirked triumphantly. "Lets just say that the night ended with him being forcibly put to bed by yours truly, by order of Ms. Peacecraft-darlian.

Duo couldn't help it. He cracked. He cluched his sides as he laughed. Who would have thought Heero would do such a thing!? And of all people to do it to! "Did either of them find out?!" he managed through laughs.

Heero shook his head, still smirking.

Duo, if possible, laughed even harder imagining Zechs trying to figure out how he ended up dead drunk. "Wow, those parties must have been extremely boring for you to revert to practical jokes heero." he smiled.

Heero smiled as well. He loved to see his friend so happy. And it was even better to know that it was he who had brought it about. He made a promise that he would never purposely make the boy in front of him frown again. He was too beautiful when smiling for Heero to unnecisserily cause him unhappiness...

Wait a mintue.

Beautiful?

Where'd that come from?

Heero stared at the figure in front of him in confusion before his still laughing comrade spoke up again.

"Well, it's proof that you've changed Heero," he smiled, "the perfect soldier of before would never have wasted time on something as trivial as a practical joke..." Duo was still grinning, but noticed that heero's face had once again gone neutral at the mention of the perfect soldier personna.

'Shit I just HAD to bring it up didn't I?'

Heero stared at the face that was less than an inch lower than his own for a full minute before reaching out his hand to caress the pale cheek. He saw violet eyes widen as he did so and he slowly moved his thumb along the now slack jawline, smiling a bit and whispering "Maybe it's just YOU rubbing off on me...ne?"

Duo didn't say anything, just continued to stare as heero caressed his cheek gently. The action was so careful, so uncertain...just as he opened his mouth to answer, they reached a junction in the path they had been following. He turned his head and Heero released his face reluctantly to walk over and read the sign.

"The sign labels the path the right fire, and the one to the left ice." he read, as Duo aproached him from behind.

"What does that mean?" Duo asked, still trying to ignore the tingling of his face.

Heero shrugged. "I think were supposed to pick one..."

Duo looked pensive for a moment and finally shrugged, grinning at Heero, and headed to the right. Heero following close behind after giving the sign one last glance.

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

"That...was...AWESOME!!" exclaimed Duo, as the harnesses lifted and allowed them to dismount the ride.

After walking another path of the castle, they had finnaly come to the docking bay, where Duo had insisted that they wait an extra ten minutes for the front seats. Heero hadn't minded, and secretly, he was glad that they had as well. From the back, he had guessed that the ride would have been like any other roller coaster, but from the front...

"Lets go again!" Duo grabbed Heeros wrist but Heero didn't move. Duo's face flashed with a bit of hurt but Heero quickly made ammends.

"Why dont we grab a pass [2] from the entrance and come back after some lunch. That way we wont have to wait in line again, and we can get something to eat."

Duo grinned and agreed. So grabbing passes from the machines in front of the large castle, they headed over to a little cafe. They found a table quickly and sat down.

They ate without much incident. Chatting easily as they had when waiting in line. By the end of lunch, but boys were smiling an enjoying themselves immensly.

As they walked out of the cafe, they noticed that they're passes were for 2:30. It was only about 1:00.

"So what do you want to do?" Heero asked. Duo checked his park guide.

"Hey! Theres a performance at the circus tent in about ten minutes that we could watch."

Heero nodded. Since the circus would leave soon, and the park was now a permanent establishment, it would make sense to visit the former now, and wait till next time to make sure the park was thouroughly enjoyed.

Next time.

He liked the sound of that.

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Duo was having the time of his life. he had never really been able to just enjoy being out with Heero, and he could see that Heero was trying to make it a pleasant experience.

'And hes succeded beyond even his wildest dreams he told himself happily remembering the incident in the roller coaster line, his cheek still replaying the moment with a lingering phantom touch.

He really did want to see the circus. He knew that Heero loved the animals and he himself had never really watched a performance.

Upon reaching the tent entrance, they were both surpirsed to be greeted by a familiar brunette.

"Catherine???!" questioned Heero in surprise. This was unexpected. He hadn't know that it was Trowa's circus band that was here. Then that meant..."Will Trowa be performing today?"

Catherine smiled "Heero! Duo! It's good to see you. Yes Trowa's perfoming. He just got off of vacation."

Duo grinned. he didn't know Catherine that well but she was nice enough. "Yeah, he told us he had been on vacation. I didn't know you guys were here though."

Catherine answered laughing a bit. "We just arrived a few days ago. Yesterday was our first performance here. We figured with Universal opening this new amusement park here, it would be the best place to attract customers."

Duo nodded in understanding. "Good strategy. So...you gonna sell us some tickets?"

Catherines grin grew even wider. "Of Course! But you'd better hurry, the shows just about to start" She handed them their tickets and they payed her, entering the tent just as the lights were turned off. They managed to find a seat and made themselves comfortable to watch the show.

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

The show started off with all of the performers parading around the middle of the large tent. Duo was captivated by the bright costumes and animals put on display, and his face showed it.

"I can't believe they actually brought elephants...and look! There are those two cubs we saw earilier!" The two mentioned lion cubs came tumbling into the arena, chasing eachothers tails and generally showing off for the crowd.

Heero however, was not watching the show quite as closely as he was his companions features. He found himself staring at the way the boys eyes lit up as each new animal and performer entered the ten at the far end. How his head darted from one of the figures to the other, trying to take in everything at once. He hadn't noticed he'd been staring until Duo turned to tell him something and caught him.

"umm...Heero?"

Heero mentally shook his head. "Hn?"

Duo looked a bit uneasy, and Heero repremanded himself in his mind for staring as he did. The braided boy pointed to one of the clowns that had just appeared and managed a grin. Heero followed his hand and saw what had caught the boys attention. It was Trowa, dressed up as clown with half of a smiling mask. Heero grinned. "Trowa..."

Duo smiled and stood up "TROWA!!" he yelled, waving his hands frantically. He saw the yell reach the well-trained ears of the fellow ex-pilot and he looked up and nodded once, a small smile appearing on the uncovered part of his face.

Sitting back down, Duo flagged down a man selling popcorn and bought a box, stuffing the well buttered bits into his mouth as he continued to watch the show. But a question kept bothering him: Had Heero been watching him? Sure he was happy that his companion was finally paying attention to him, but he had never really thought about what would happen after he told the boy how he felt. How would Heero see him now?

He looked over at the tousled haired boy sitting next to him. He was watching the show, A small smile playing at his features as Trowa faced down Catherine who was hurling knives at the silently mocking clown. Duo couldn't help the large grin that took over his face at that point. Whether the boy next to him was attracted to him or not. He was obviously enjoying himself. He was happy, and for Duo, that was enough for now...

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*reads that over again* Damn that wasn't how I was supposed to end it. The next chapter will be out tomorrow. I swear! Actually, now that Im going over this, there are several things that I'd like to change...but they'll have to wait for now ;) See ya soon!
btw, can enyone figure out what ride they were on? My only hint is that its in Universal Orlando ;)

[1] hehe, this happened to one of my friends fathers when he uncle got married :P and it WAS a near disaster...
[2] i firmly believe that in the future, all amusment parks should have the passes that they use at the parks in florida (nods) makes the day much more enjoyable ;)