Notes: Heero POV. Please note that updates on this, and my other fics, may slow down a bit as my inspiration is turning towards my new obsession called Gravitation. If you want to ask me a question or prod me for an update, visit my LJ and leave a comment, there's a link to it in my profile. Enjoy and review!

I was silent for a few minutes, digesting what he had said and trying to figure out just what I was supposed to say, if I was supposed to say anything at all. I couldn't get over how deeply he'd described the feeling, how eloquent he'd been. I didn't understand half of what he said, couldn't understand how it actually felt, but… I could tell that he hadn't lied about anything. Everything he'd said had been the complete truth. Cutting wasn't just a problem for him, it was… a part of him, like he said.

The repetitive beep of my laptop jerked me out of my thoughts, and I turned to look at it. Tension flooded the air, both mine and Duo's, and I hesitated for a moment before finally picking it up off the floor and typing in my passwords.

01,

How dare you disobey my orders! I had thought your training was better than that, but obviously I was wrong. If you have the willpower, and the audacity, to go chasing after some fool of a boy who should never have been given a Gundam, then I have obviously failed in my work. You are to report to me at once for retraining, and if you do not obey me, you will surely regret it. Do not cross me, boy, you know well that I do not care for insubordination.

I scowled at the message, and deleted it without replying. Duo had read it over my shoulder, and stood up quickly, moving to look out the window. He had his arms folded across his chest, and I could see the tenseness in his shoulders and back. I sighed and silently cursed J for causing this.

"So I guess you're going," he muttered shakily, hunching his shoulders.

"No, Duo, I'm not. I told you I wasn't going to leave your side and I meant it. I just… have to figure out what to do."

"If J's anything like G, then he's not the type of person to take no for an answer."

"Not usually," I agreed, staring at my hands. "But… well, he doesn't want to actually kill me or maim me permanently, and that gives me an advantage if I could just figure out how to use it."

"Maybe you should just go," Duo murmured, still staring out the window. "Maybe you should just forget about me."

My heart lurched at the notion, my stomach twisting itself into a painful knot. I growled and stood up, standing behind him and turning him around so that I could look at him. There were tears sparkling in his eyes, but he refused to let them fall. He was trying to look calm and determined, but I could see underneath the mask, could see the desperation and fear that lurked beneath.

My expression softened at the sight of him, and I pulled him into my embrace. I was a few inches taller than he was, so he was able to rest his head on my shoulder, his arms almost painfully tight around my body, not that I was complaining.

"I will never leave you, and I will never forget you," I promised quietly. "I promise on pain of death and torture, on my laptop and Gundam and spandex shorts that I will never, ever leave you."

A muffled sob escaped his lips, and he clung to me tighter. I sighed and closed my eyes, holding him as he slowly got a grip on himself. His shoulders slowly stopped shaking, and his breathing became steadier, but he didn't let go of me, so I didn't let go of him either.

After a long time, he sighed and drew away, wiping at his eyes with the back of his hand, looking at me with a very odd look on his face.

"I have something I wanna ask you, but I'm not too sure how you'll react," he said uncertainly, eyes searching my face. I frowned, and then gestured for him to continue. He nodded and then looked down at his shoes, shifting his weight uneasily.

"Well, see, there's this thing at school, a dance-type thing, and I was thinkin'… maybe you and I, we could, ya know, go together. I mean, I think it'd be nice, ya know, let us take a break from the war and my stupid problems and, well, you don't have to say yes, but I wanted to ask…"

I blinked, and then thought about what he's said. He wanted us to go to a dance together. Together, as a couple. On a… date? I raised an eyebrow at the thought, but couldn't help but feel a thrill run through my body at the idea of us going on an actual date together. It seemed like such an ordinary thing to do, and yet seemed so very alien at the same time. I was a soldier, a Gundam pilot, a killer to my core; I didn't go on dates. Then again, I wasn't supposed to fall in love either.

A part of me, the soldier part, protested at the idea-even in this modern age, the sight of two males on a date was a bit uncomfortable for some people, especially other men. I did not want to draw attention, especially not during such a tense time. The soldier voice also told me that I really should be thinking about how to handle this new situation with J instead of wasting time on something so frivolous and useless as a date.

But a different voice in my head, the one that always represented the human part of me that J had never been able to kill, told me that going on a date was neither frivolous or useless. It would be nice, the voice said, to go out and have fun with my… boyfriend?

Was that what Duo was? I loved him, and we both knew it, and we had gotten into a rather… steamy situation a couple of nights ago, but were we really going out? Was he really my boyfriend? It seemed like such a cheap word, a pale shadow of what he meant to me, a meaningless description that completely failed to convey just how incredibly important he was.

Duo sighed, and I looked up to see his shoulders slump. "I'm sorry," he murmured. "I didn't mean to… presume anything. Forget I asked."

"No, Duo, it's not that, I just…. Are you my boyfriend?"

His eyebrows shot up and he stared at me with the most comical look of incredulity on his face. Then he started to laugh, that rich, happy laughed that I'd missed so much. "God, I cannot believe that Heero Yuy, Mr. Don't-need-a-parachute-I-can-set-my-own-bones, just asked me if I was his boyfriend."

I wasn't sure I appreciated the humour as much as he did, and I repeated my question. "Are you my boyfriend?"

He sobered, and thought for a moment before slowly nodding. "Yeah," he said quietly, "I guess I am. I don't think we have what anyone would class a normal relationship, but… yeah."

I smiled. I don't know why, but hearing him say it, hearing him admit that I was more than a friend, that I was important, made me very happy. Not the kind of happiness I got after a successful mission, or even after installing the latest upgrades in Wing, but a contented, peaceful kind of happiness that was entirely different.

Duo smiled, somewhat nervously, and said, "So… you never answered my question."

I belatedly realised that I hadn't and smiled as I reached out to brush my fingers against his cheek. "Yes, Duo, I'd love to go to the dance with you."