DISCLAIMER: Again, I don't own Gundam Wing. xP
' ' = thoughts
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Duo looked through the crowd walking past him, hoping to find Heero among them. He was leaning against the wall outside of the arcade, sinking lower into his hoody in an attempt to escape the cold air.
'Where the hell is he? I'm freezing my ass off over here! It's already 6:14 P.M.! Hmph, and he tells me not to be late? He shouldn't be the one talking,' he thought.
He looked through the glass window beside him and into the arcade, watching the kids and teenagers playing various games.
'What the hell am I doing here?' he wondered.
On the way over to the arcarde Duo had pondered on this thought some more. 'You're finally gonna confess to Heero, that's what!' he told himself over and over. He looked down at the bag held in his frozen hand that contained Duo's present.
'Just what hell am I thinking?'
Duo went over the facts again in his head. One, the Japanese boy probably didn't know much about this damn holiday, much less his inheritance. He was, afterall, trained to be the perfect soldier. Rather than learning about his roots's history he learned all about operating and disabling various machinery from mobile suits to guns, and rather than enjoying the innocence of being a kid he practiced different combat techinques. And God himself only knew what Heero would do with said skills and which one he'd use on Duo first before sending him to Shinigami.
Two, was what the Wing Zero pilot thought about him. Heero never voiced his personal thoughts on the subject, but it was pretty evident in his eyes that he was seen nothing more than the loud mouthed, happy-go-lucky, annoying Duo to him. The braid-haired boy had proved him otherwise by showing just how useful he was during battles, but now that the war was over he was nothing to the perfect soldier other than his annoying roommate.
He recalled one particular time when Quatre had suggested that they all go to the amusement park to take a break from all the missions they had been recieving. Lots of begging and tons of death threats later, Quatre and Duo had convinced Wufei and Heero to tag along. Duo soon had plans for the event. He told the others that he had some unfinished business he had to take care of at the autoshop and that he'd meet up with them at the park. He felt daring; daring enough to ask for Hilde's help to dress him up as a girl and to pretend to be Heero's girlfriend for the day. What drove him to this is beyond even Duo himself, but it was worth seeing the look on the other pilots' faces. Plus, it gave him an excuse to cling to Heero without being shoved off and killed.. well, in public that is. Was it worth being hospitalized for two weeks after they got back to the house? Yes, yes, it was.
Duo was too absorbed in his thoughts to notice the boy standing right next to him.
Last, but not least, was the biggest mystery of all: Heero's sexual preference. It was determined that said boy was as straight as an arrow seeing as how he'd jump at the opportunity to save Relena and date her for two months. Duo still shivered at the thought of the pair together. He had nothing against the Peacecraft princess, but having her rub it in his face that she'd won drove him to find a nightly comfort in alcohol. Oddly enough, it was through his nightly habit that he got the first hint that the Japanese boy could be bisexual. At first Duo thought it was just the alcohol's influence, but even after Heero broke up with Relena and Duo stopped drinking there were still some moments that screamed "he likes boys too!" One such moment was when Trowa and Quatre had gotten so caught up in their own little world that they started going at it in the middle of dinner. Duo caught the unusual redness on Heero's cheeks when he tried to snap the pair back to reality. Then again, had it been another guy whose two male friends started doing such an act in front of him he'd probably react in quite the same way Heero had.
Heero watched the cobalt eyed boy in front of him in amusement. He studied the look on Duo's boyish face for a few moments. It wasn't lit up in the way it usual was; he finally got a look behind the mask.
"Hey," he called.
Duo didn't react. Odd.
"Hey, baka," he said louder this time.
Duo snapped out of his thoughts. "Hnn?" He looked up at and saw his long-awaited companion standing in front of him. A grim played on his lips and he put his hands on his waist.
"Well, well, so the guy finally decides to show. What took ya, Hee-buddy? I've been freezing my ass off waiting for you! You're usually never late."
Heero blinked at this being said. Was Duo really that out of it to not even pick up his presence for the past five minutes? "Er, sorry about that," Heero replied coolly, "Are you hungry?"
"Nah, I'm cool. I grabbed something before I left the safehouse," he replied and shivered when a breeze passed him, "Why?"
Heero nodded to the take-out bag held in Duo's hand.
Duo blushed. "Oh, erm, it's a birthday present for Hilde."
A raised eyebrow. "From a Chinese restraunt? I don't think the food will last that long. Her party isn't until next week, you know."
"It's not food!" The braid-haired pilot said in irritation.
"Then what is it?"
Duo hesitated. Then he closed his eyes and crossed his arms. "You'll just have to see at her party!"
"Hnn."
Seeing that he had that settled, Duo decided to change the topic to why he was meeting Heero here. "So what's the deal about meeting here? Another mission?"
A mere shrug and, what Duo imagined, a thoughful look, "I guess you can put it that way."
"All right," Shinigami said, getting serious, "so what's the plan?"
"Never mind that," The Wing Zero pilot said, looking into the arcade, "You want to play?" (A/N: Not like that, hentais! XP)
Duo blinked at this, "Huh? I thought we were going on a mission?"
'This is definately not Heero's style by put off a mission.'
"There's always time," Heero walked over to the entrance, "You coming?"
Duo was still confused, but he shrugged and followed the other boy towards the entrance, "I can't really argue with you, now can I? Well, live to tell about it anyways."
Heero snorted at this.
"Heh, I was kidding, Hee-man. Anyways, it'll be a lot warmer inside," he said as noticed how cold his apendages had gotten.
The pair walked around the arcade, observing the games available before they chose what they were going to spend their money on. Well, more like Heero's money since Duo hadn't brought anything other than the so-called "birthday present for Hilde" thinking that they were going on a mission.
After circling around the place once, they decided to play Resident Evil 2 first.
Both boys inserted 2 tokens each, picked up the plastic guns, and started the game. They breezed through the first 3 levels and gained a large crowd by the time they hit level 13 (A/N: I really don't know how many levels there are on RE2 so sorry if I'm going a little overboard. --;).
"Damnit!" Duo cursed when he lost his last life. He searched through his pockets and remembered that he hadn't brought any of his own money, and that he was mooching off of Heero.
Seeing that the perfect soldier had gone into I-wouldn't-stop-till-I-complete-this-mission mode, he thought it best not to disturb him. Duo placed the plastic gun into its holester and stood next to the kill-happy boy, watching as he successfully killed off a long line of walking corpses.
'Heh, this is nothing compared to the Wing ZERO system,' he thought.
When Heero finally beat the game half an hour later and earned a large amount of high fives and praise, him and Duo went to conquer another game.
"So, what next?" Duo asked and noticed his friend was looking in one direction. He followed the stare and confirmed that he was staring at a pair of boys playing Intial D.
"Oi, you wanna race then?"
Heero walked towards the machine once the two previous players moved away.
Duo sweatdropped. "Sheesh, a simple 'yes' would have been nice. Is it really that hard?" he muttered and followed his friend's lead.
Both boys sat in the machine's seats and selected their cars.
"I gotta warn ya, Heero, I'm not going to go easy on you."
"That a challenge?"
"You bet. If I win you'll have to start giving me a more than one word answer all the time."
"And if I win?"
"Hmm, I don't know," he chuckled, "I guess I could stop being really noisy?"
"No, I got a better idea," Heero said as he selected the course, "If I win you have to tell me what was on your mind earlier."
Panic and surprise took a hold of Duo, "Said what?"
"The race is about to start," Heero replied without looking at Duo.
Duo looked at the screen in front of him and got ready to race. 'He was watching me earlier?'
Duo lead the way the whole race, but he knew Heero wasn't planning on striking until the very last moment so he tried his best to leave no openings for the perfect soldier to pass.
'It's useless,' Duo thought, 'I'm going to have to tell him sooner or later anyways.'
He started to slow down a bit and Heero took note of this. "Hey, what do you think you're doing?"
"Huh? Oh, well I figure that there's no way that you're gonna be able to beat now so I'm waiting for you to catch up."
Heero knew that he was lying. "If you don't want me to know then just say so."
The other boy sighed. "No, you're gonna have to know sooner or later.. it's useless really."
Heero felt a pang of guilt hit him. He flew past Duo and won the race. He looked over at his defeated opponent and saw the look on his face. It was the same expression he had studied earlier that night.
The Wing Zero pilot wasn't stupid, he wasn't a Gundam pilot for nothing afterall. He knew about the little crush the Deathscythe pilot had on him. He saw past the jokes, past all the fake sleeping, the staring, and past all the "accidents" of brushing up against him, but not that he minded. In fact, he rather enjoy it, but the question was if the other knew about his feelings for him. Judging by the lost look on his face at the moment, he probably didn't know at all. He cursed himself for being so rough with him all the time. (A/N: Get your heads out of the gutter!) No wonder Duo was so scared of telling him.
"Heero, look, I ---"
"Come on, let's find another game," the Japanese pilot said as he got up, "I've got enough tokens for us to play something else."
"What? But Heero, the bet --"
"Forget it. You said I'd find out sooner or later, so I can wait. Now come on."
They wandered around in silence for a few minutes before Duo caught sight of his favorite workout game.
A grin formed on his lips and he grabbed a hold of Heero's arm to catch his attention.
"Hey, Heero, I was wondering, can you dance?"
Said boy raised a questionable eyebrow at him. "What?"
"I said can you dance?" Duo asked as his grin spread even wider.
Realization dawned on Heero.
"..."
Duo confirmed his thoughts when he pointed at a particular machine in middle of the arcade.
It was Dance Dance Revolution.
' ' = thoughts
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Duo looked through the crowd walking past him, hoping to find Heero among them. He was leaning against the wall outside of the arcade, sinking lower into his hoody in an attempt to escape the cold air.
'Where the hell is he? I'm freezing my ass off over here! It's already 6:14 P.M.! Hmph, and he tells me not to be late? He shouldn't be the one talking,' he thought.
He looked through the glass window beside him and into the arcade, watching the kids and teenagers playing various games.
'What the hell am I doing here?' he wondered.
On the way over to the arcarde Duo had pondered on this thought some more. 'You're finally gonna confess to Heero, that's what!' he told himself over and over. He looked down at the bag held in his frozen hand that contained Duo's present.
'Just what hell am I thinking?'
Duo went over the facts again in his head. One, the Japanese boy probably didn't know much about this damn holiday, much less his inheritance. He was, afterall, trained to be the perfect soldier. Rather than learning about his roots's history he learned all about operating and disabling various machinery from mobile suits to guns, and rather than enjoying the innocence of being a kid he practiced different combat techinques. And God himself only knew what Heero would do with said skills and which one he'd use on Duo first before sending him to Shinigami.
Two, was what the Wing Zero pilot thought about him. Heero never voiced his personal thoughts on the subject, but it was pretty evident in his eyes that he was seen nothing more than the loud mouthed, happy-go-lucky, annoying Duo to him. The braid-haired boy had proved him otherwise by showing just how useful he was during battles, but now that the war was over he was nothing to the perfect soldier other than his annoying roommate.
He recalled one particular time when Quatre had suggested that they all go to the amusement park to take a break from all the missions they had been recieving. Lots of begging and tons of death threats later, Quatre and Duo had convinced Wufei and Heero to tag along. Duo soon had plans for the event. He told the others that he had some unfinished business he had to take care of at the autoshop and that he'd meet up with them at the park. He felt daring; daring enough to ask for Hilde's help to dress him up as a girl and to pretend to be Heero's girlfriend for the day. What drove him to this is beyond even Duo himself, but it was worth seeing the look on the other pilots' faces. Plus, it gave him an excuse to cling to Heero without being shoved off and killed.. well, in public that is. Was it worth being hospitalized for two weeks after they got back to the house? Yes, yes, it was.
Duo was too absorbed in his thoughts to notice the boy standing right next to him.
Last, but not least, was the biggest mystery of all: Heero's sexual preference. It was determined that said boy was as straight as an arrow seeing as how he'd jump at the opportunity to save Relena and date her for two months. Duo still shivered at the thought of the pair together. He had nothing against the Peacecraft princess, but having her rub it in his face that she'd won drove him to find a nightly comfort in alcohol. Oddly enough, it was through his nightly habit that he got the first hint that the Japanese boy could be bisexual. At first Duo thought it was just the alcohol's influence, but even after Heero broke up with Relena and Duo stopped drinking there were still some moments that screamed "he likes boys too!" One such moment was when Trowa and Quatre had gotten so caught up in their own little world that they started going at it in the middle of dinner. Duo caught the unusual redness on Heero's cheeks when he tried to snap the pair back to reality. Then again, had it been another guy whose two male friends started doing such an act in front of him he'd probably react in quite the same way Heero had.
Heero watched the cobalt eyed boy in front of him in amusement. He studied the look on Duo's boyish face for a few moments. It wasn't lit up in the way it usual was; he finally got a look behind the mask.
"Hey," he called.
Duo didn't react. Odd.
"Hey, baka," he said louder this time.
Duo snapped out of his thoughts. "Hnn?" He looked up at and saw his long-awaited companion standing in front of him. A grim played on his lips and he put his hands on his waist.
"Well, well, so the guy finally decides to show. What took ya, Hee-buddy? I've been freezing my ass off waiting for you! You're usually never late."
Heero blinked at this being said. Was Duo really that out of it to not even pick up his presence for the past five minutes? "Er, sorry about that," Heero replied coolly, "Are you hungry?"
"Nah, I'm cool. I grabbed something before I left the safehouse," he replied and shivered when a breeze passed him, "Why?"
Heero nodded to the take-out bag held in Duo's hand.
Duo blushed. "Oh, erm, it's a birthday present for Hilde."
A raised eyebrow. "From a Chinese restraunt? I don't think the food will last that long. Her party isn't until next week, you know."
"It's not food!" The braid-haired pilot said in irritation.
"Then what is it?"
Duo hesitated. Then he closed his eyes and crossed his arms. "You'll just have to see at her party!"
"Hnn."
Seeing that he had that settled, Duo decided to change the topic to why he was meeting Heero here. "So what's the deal about meeting here? Another mission?"
A mere shrug and, what Duo imagined, a thoughful look, "I guess you can put it that way."
"All right," Shinigami said, getting serious, "so what's the plan?"
"Never mind that," The Wing Zero pilot said, looking into the arcade, "You want to play?" (A/N: Not like that, hentais! XP)
Duo blinked at this, "Huh? I thought we were going on a mission?"
'This is definately not Heero's style by put off a mission.'
"There's always time," Heero walked over to the entrance, "You coming?"
Duo was still confused, but he shrugged and followed the other boy towards the entrance, "I can't really argue with you, now can I? Well, live to tell about it anyways."
Heero snorted at this.
"Heh, I was kidding, Hee-man. Anyways, it'll be a lot warmer inside," he said as noticed how cold his apendages had gotten.
The pair walked around the arcade, observing the games available before they chose what they were going to spend their money on. Well, more like Heero's money since Duo hadn't brought anything other than the so-called "birthday present for Hilde" thinking that they were going on a mission.
After circling around the place once, they decided to play Resident Evil 2 first.
Both boys inserted 2 tokens each, picked up the plastic guns, and started the game. They breezed through the first 3 levels and gained a large crowd by the time they hit level 13 (A/N: I really don't know how many levels there are on RE2 so sorry if I'm going a little overboard. --;).
"Damnit!" Duo cursed when he lost his last life. He searched through his pockets and remembered that he hadn't brought any of his own money, and that he was mooching off of Heero.
Seeing that the perfect soldier had gone into I-wouldn't-stop-till-I-complete-this-mission mode, he thought it best not to disturb him. Duo placed the plastic gun into its holester and stood next to the kill-happy boy, watching as he successfully killed off a long line of walking corpses.
'Heh, this is nothing compared to the Wing ZERO system,' he thought.
When Heero finally beat the game half an hour later and earned a large amount of high fives and praise, him and Duo went to conquer another game.
"So, what next?" Duo asked and noticed his friend was looking in one direction. He followed the stare and confirmed that he was staring at a pair of boys playing Intial D.
"Oi, you wanna race then?"
Heero walked towards the machine once the two previous players moved away.
Duo sweatdropped. "Sheesh, a simple 'yes' would have been nice. Is it really that hard?" he muttered and followed his friend's lead.
Both boys sat in the machine's seats and selected their cars.
"I gotta warn ya, Heero, I'm not going to go easy on you."
"That a challenge?"
"You bet. If I win you'll have to start giving me a more than one word answer all the time."
"And if I win?"
"Hmm, I don't know," he chuckled, "I guess I could stop being really noisy?"
"No, I got a better idea," Heero said as he selected the course, "If I win you have to tell me what was on your mind earlier."
Panic and surprise took a hold of Duo, "Said what?"
"The race is about to start," Heero replied without looking at Duo.
Duo looked at the screen in front of him and got ready to race. 'He was watching me earlier?'
Duo lead the way the whole race, but he knew Heero wasn't planning on striking until the very last moment so he tried his best to leave no openings for the perfect soldier to pass.
'It's useless,' Duo thought, 'I'm going to have to tell him sooner or later anyways.'
He started to slow down a bit and Heero took note of this. "Hey, what do you think you're doing?"
"Huh? Oh, well I figure that there's no way that you're gonna be able to beat now so I'm waiting for you to catch up."
Heero knew that he was lying. "If you don't want me to know then just say so."
The other boy sighed. "No, you're gonna have to know sooner or later.. it's useless really."
Heero felt a pang of guilt hit him. He flew past Duo and won the race. He looked over at his defeated opponent and saw the look on his face. It was the same expression he had studied earlier that night.
The Wing Zero pilot wasn't stupid, he wasn't a Gundam pilot for nothing afterall. He knew about the little crush the Deathscythe pilot had on him. He saw past the jokes, past all the fake sleeping, the staring, and past all the "accidents" of brushing up against him, but not that he minded. In fact, he rather enjoy it, but the question was if the other knew about his feelings for him. Judging by the lost look on his face at the moment, he probably didn't know at all. He cursed himself for being so rough with him all the time. (A/N: Get your heads out of the gutter!) No wonder Duo was so scared of telling him.
"Heero, look, I ---"
"Come on, let's find another game," the Japanese pilot said as he got up, "I've got enough tokens for us to play something else."
"What? But Heero, the bet --"
"Forget it. You said I'd find out sooner or later, so I can wait. Now come on."
They wandered around in silence for a few minutes before Duo caught sight of his favorite workout game.
A grin formed on his lips and he grabbed a hold of Heero's arm to catch his attention.
"Hey, Heero, I was wondering, can you dance?"
Said boy raised a questionable eyebrow at him. "What?"
"I said can you dance?" Duo asked as his grin spread even wider.
Realization dawned on Heero.
"..."
Duo confirmed his thoughts when he pointed at a particular machine in middle of the arcade.
It was Dance Dance Revolution.