Disclaimer: I do not, and will never claim ownership over Gundam Wing or any of its characters. They belong to people that aren't me. I'm just satisfying my lust for fiction.

Notes: Just to make this perfectly clear, I don't know where I'm taking this story. I'm just going with the flow so it will no doubt, become a long one with many-a-chapter. Hope it's enjoyed by all who read it.

Warning: SLASH!-Yaoi. Whatever you people call it. Male/male relationships! Mild-angst. AU! I'll add more if I think it's necessary.

Three: Meet and Greet.

"We'll be back in ten minutes James! I'm taking Duo to meet Kei and the twins." Mrs C called out as she closed the front door behind them both. "I think Kei will like you, I know Hilde will absolutely love you if not for the fact that she can pout her way into getting a chance to play with your hair." She laughed at the scowl working its way onto Duo's face. "Come on Duo! You've got hair most girls would die for and most hairdressers would give their right leg to work on. You have to feel good about that on some level." She chuckled at the light blush working its way across his cheeks.

x-x-x-x-x

The pair reached the gate of Mrs C's next door neighbours and walked through. They then proceeded to stride up the path towards the front door where once there, Mrs C rapped lazily three times, waited a second before knocking once more. Duo eyed her curiously and received a look that clearly said 'what?' He shook his head and smiled.

"Heero! Let Alice in will you?" A woman's voice called from inside the house. No answer was given to the woman's question though rhetorical anyway. The door opened not 5 seconds after the woman had called out and both Duo and Mrs C were greeted with the site of a teenage boy Duo assumed was Heero who had clearly just removed himself from the shower. His dark brown hair stuck to his forehead and shoulders were water dripped freely down dark skin.

The teen facing him was obviously Asian in origin because as hard as Duo might have tried, there was no way on this earth he'd be able to get a tan like that. The boy had piercing cobalt eyes that seemed fixed on Duo. He had around his neck a simple black band that held a wooden fang of some sorts hanging at the hollow where his neck and chest meet. As Duo let his eyes roam over the other freely, he noted the muscles that seemed to be packed into the lean package before him.

Duo wasn't overly muscled himself, but he prided himself on keeping in shape and worked out twice a week as well as running at least 5 miles each morning before school or if it was a Saturday, work. Sunday's were his own days.

He finally noticed he'd be staring almost hungrily at the other teen and cleared his throat, quickly averting his gaze from the guy's body to his face.

"Heero, did we interrupt you?" Mrs C asked, seemingly oblivious to the way her possible-adoptive son was looking at her neighbour's son.

"Iie." Heero answered her after a moment. "I had just finished in the shower. Mom is just through there in the kitchen." He stood aside to allow his neighbour and the stranger into his house and closed the door once they were fully inside. "You can go through if you like, I'm sure she could use a break from the writing." He nodded once to Mrs C and then once again to the stranger before almost sprinting upstairs.

"Alice Alice! Come through, please! I hear you have a new arrival." The voice of Kei Yuy rang out once again and the pair made their way through to the kitchen Heero had gestured towards before.

When they entered the room they quickly found the owner of the voice from before seated at the dining table in front of a pad of A4 paper as well as an open laptop not unlike the one Duo had back in his room at the Charlatan's. The woman smiled brightly and rose from her seat. She was, in essence, beautiful. Duo suspected that Heero got some of his features from her such as his high cheekbones and dark eyes. Kei Yuy's hair was un bound and she seemed to have left the soft black curls flowing about her shoulders.

"Alice!" She exclaimed gleefully and the two women hugged before Heero's mother turned on him. "And you must be… Duo?" She took a step towards him and he had to force himself not to take a step back. Instead, he smiled warmly at her, accepting her fleeting embrace. It seemed she could sense his distress and made the contact as brief as she possibly could.

"Aye, that I am." He said easily, slipping behind one of his mask's once again.

"Ah! Delighted to finally meet you. I'm Kei Yuy. Call me Kei, everyone else does. The rather dashing young man you just met out there was Heero. His twin, Hilde is out at the moment but she should be back any time now. Please, sit down." She gestured both Mrs C and Duo to take seats at the table while she pottered around the kitchen grabbing this and that from here and there, making three cups of tea (after asking Duo how he took his – milk no sugar). When the hot drinks were made she carried them effortlessly over to the table and handed each to its owner.

"So Duo, tell me a bit about yourself." Kei smiled easily at him. "Nothing too personal mind, just enough to break the surface." He unconsciously nodded a thank you to her for not prying too deeply into his life and began to speak.

"Well, my name's Duo Maxwell, I'm sixteen years young, got long hair, large eyes and a smile to die for." To prove his point, he beamed at the women who in turn, giggled behind their hands. He just laughed off the statement. "I enjoy keeping in shape, I run every morning though this morning I didn't get a chance to so I'll have to go in a bit. I've got a Motorbike in the garden, my taste in music varies with my mood, naturally and I absolutely adore strawberries." He grinned at the women laughed.

"A man after my own heart." Kei clutched her heart dramatically before taking another sip of her tea. "Any romantic interest about? I mean, you're a handsome young man I'm sure you have girls cueing up to ask you out." Duo actually blushed at the comment and pulled his braid over his shoulders to fiddle with the tip of it; a nervous habit he'd picked up years before.

"No interests yet but I'm not really interested in girls." He said quietly.

"So you're gay?" Kei blurted out causing Alice to shoot her a look to which the other woman replied with an unconcerned shrug.

"Aye, I am." He said. His tone was laid back but inside his heart was beating erratically.

"So no interests there either?" The woman said almost to herself. Duo looked over at her and raised an eyebrow. Kei only grinned. He knew that grin. He dreaded that grin.

"Oh no! I can find my own interests." He laughed as she pouted. Alice had to laugh as well.

"It looks as though you've finally met your match Kei." Kei then, very childishly, stuck out her tongue at the woman. Duo rolled his eyes as he drained his tea.

He rose from his seat and looked around the room.

"What are you looking for dear?" Kei asked him when she'd calmed herself down.

"I just wanted to put this in the sink." He held up the empty mug.

"Oh, it's over there underneath the window. Just leave it on the board by it; I'll put it in the dishwasher later on." The woman instructed and Duo did just that. "Do you not want another?" She enquired and he shook his head.

"Thank you, but I think I better go get my run out of the way before I feel too lazy to do it." He grinned at the pair. "It's been wonderful meeting you Kei." They shook hands as soon as Duo had returned to the table.

"You too Duo. Don't be a stranger either. I expect to have regular conversations with you young man." He gave a mock salute and earned himself a swat on the arm. He then turned to Mrs C. "I'll see you at the house in a little while Mrs C." The woman nodded with a smile and the seated pair bade him goodbye, but not before Kei caught sight of her son behind Duo. "Heero be a dear and show Duo out please. He's going for the run he missed this morning." The other youth nodded once and waited for Duo to stop pointing a mock warning finger at his mother.

Duo waved the woman goodbye and started down the hallway towards the front door. He noticed with a slight pang of disappointment that Heero had clothed himself. Though the pang was quelled by the fact that Heero had slipped himself into form-hugging black jeans, a black tank top and a white unbuttoned shirt.

"Do you run, Heero?" Duo questioned when the front door was open.

"Every morning." Came the answer and Duo grinned.

"Fancy letting me join you tomorrow? I need to map out a decent route. I mean I could do five miles around the block but that wouldn't accomplish anything to my mental stability. I need scenery, no matter how reformed. So how about it?" He leaned back against the frame of the door and folded his arms over his chest.

"Fine. Tomorrow, 6:30. Be out there or I'm leaving you behind." With a nod and a bright smile, Duo bounded down the path and over the fence, landing effortlessly on the pavement beyond said fence. He turned around and saw that Heero was still stood at the door. The braided youth grinned and winked at his new neighbour causing the other to scowl and close the door. Duo just laughed and set back to the Charlatan's house.

"Hey you!" a female voice called out from behind him. And he paused mid-stride. He heard a giggling total of three voices but he swore he could hear four pairs of foot steps. "Hello!" The voice called out again – which would be why he could hear 4 pairs. The more vocal of the group was obviously the fourth.

Slowly, Duo turned around and came face to face with a group of, wait for it, four teenage girls. He groaned audibly at his luck. He noticed though that the one the others seem to be following bore a striking resemblance to Heero. He glanced at her, then at the house he'd just left, then at her again.

"Hilde?" He queried and grinned when she nodded. "Ah! I've just had a delightful conversation with your mother, and your brother. Though he wasn't as forthcoming with bits of information as your mom was." Hilde eyed him strangely before something clicked and her eyes widened.

"You're Duo!" She exclaimed. "You're the one Alice has been talking about." Duo made a sweeping gesture with his hands.

"That's me. But right now, I have to go. Later." He waved and continued to walk to the house his things were in. Once inside the house he stuck his head inside the door to the living room and told Mr Charlatan, or Mr C as Duo was now required to call him, that his wife was still at Kei's. Duo then went to his room. He quickly changed into a loose tank top, some skin-tight shorts that offered his legs more room when he was running and he slipped into some socks and his trainers.

His clothes complete, all he needed now was his water bottle full. He picked up the empty one he'd left on the bed earlier and left his room for the kitchen. After filling his bottle with cold water he headed for the front door.

"Hey Mr C, I'm going out for a run. I missed mine earlier." He said as he again stuck his head inside the door of the living room. The man smiled and nodded at him and after that, Duo was out the front door.

It was when he was doing his usual stretches and warm up exercises on the path outside the Charlatans garden that he realised two things. The first was that despite his earlier thoughts when on his bike, he didn't know nearly enough about the area to attempt his regular five miles. That meant he'd have to speak to Heero again very soon.

The second thing he realised was the group of four teenage girls were still stood outside the Yuy's garden. Duo could feel each pair of eyes on his back and possibly other places as he stretched. Great, he thought. Nothing like misleading the neighbour on your first day.

When his stretches were complete he turned to face his audience. He was shocked, though not enough to let it show on his face, to find Heero stood at the gate of his garden with his blue eyes firmly locked on the place where Duo knew he backside was. Damn, why do I always get the complicated issues? He mentally pouted and approached the group.

"Hey Heero, a little help if you would be so terribly generous." Heero recovered from his staring quickly and raised an eyebrow at Duo. "My usual running spots are down in Hartford territory. And unless I missed something, this aint Hartford. So can you help a new neighbour out and give me a decent five mile route?" One of the girls gasped.

"Hartford?" she near squealed. "Isn't that the rough neighbourhood? I heard from Joe that no one dares go down that way. They said there's this kid at the Josephs Orphanage; he's supposed to be a real freak." It was almost bordering on amusing. It would have been, if it hadn't halted at insulting.

"Who is this Joe?" Duo asked, genuinely curious.

"He's the toughest guy at school." The girl said, making Duo, Heero 'and' Hilde snort, though only Duo's was heard by the girls.

"Yeh, and I'm the Queen of fucking England." He muttered then grinned at the girl. "You want to know something cool about the freak at the Orphanage?" Dumbly, the girl nodded and so too did her friends. Hilde thought it best to keep her mouth shut and her head still as she leaned back against the fence by her brother. Duo sauntered closer to the girl, only stopping when he was a mere 8-9 inch away. "It's me." He said and watched with amusement as she and her two friends paled. They girls stepped away from Duo slowly. "What? Gone off me now? Shame really. Though if you really think I'm a freak then I guess you're not worth my time anyway." With that, he turned abruptly to Heero and Hilde, completely ignoring the girls. "So, route?"

Written by Diluted Industry.