Disclaimer: Gundam Wing belongs to them, not to me (which is probably a good thing).
Title: It's all in the Eyes
Author: aomurasakiai
Pairing: Heero/Duo (friendship)
Rating: PG
Warnings: AU, some WAFF
gw500 challenge: #26 - "identity"
Word Count: 802

When the bright sunrays peeked through his window, Heero opened his cobalt blue eyes to a strange room. Confused, he looked around the small room containing several large, unopened boxes, before he remembered that his family had moved once again due to his father's job; this time to America. He buried his hands into his unruly, chocolate brown hair as he let out a quiet yawn. At least this time they'd moved during summer, when school was out so he didn't have to deal with any new people.

Going into the bathroom to wash up, he opened the cabinet under the sink and sure enough a small container with his contacts inside was there. In reality he didn't need them at all since he had perfect vision but his Japanese parents had never liked his eyes[1]. They were "abnormal" they had told him and people would think he was strange. The contacts he was holding were dark brown in color so when he put them on, his cobalt blue eyes were effectively hidden.

Finished washing up and changing, Heero went downstairs to prepare breakfast for himself in the large empty house. Both of his parents were most likely gone already, but he was used to that. Opening the refrigerator, the Japanese teen saw that they were low on groceries so he might as well do some shopping first since he wasn't that hungry. He went into his room to grab the house keys and money his parents had left for him on his dresser before heading out.

Heero looked around the busy city and realized that he had no idea where the closest grocery store was. He cursed silently before spotting a young teen with a long braid, whistling to the music emitting from his earphones and carrying several grocery bags. He was in luck.

"Excuse me!" he called out.

-----

"Thanks, Duo. Sorry for taking up so much of your time," Heero told his neighbor as they both neared his house. Duo lived just down the block from him and the braided teen had offered to accompany him to the store. During their time together, they'd immediately become friends, which surprised Heero since he didn't usually make friends so quickly.

"No problem at all!" the exuberant boy said, slapping the other's shoulder good-naturedly and causing the normally stoic teen to smile.

"Want to come in for a bit?"

"Sure. I'll help you with your groceries," Duo answered, grinning. The temporary brown-eyed teen led the other teen into the kitchen. As they slowly put away the foodstuffs, Heero couldn't help but wonder about Duo's eyes. They were a strong shade of violet, a shade that he had never seen before. It made him think about his own eye color. Duo didn't have to hide his rare, "abnormal" eyes but he had to hide his own. He couldn't understand why his parents hated them so much.

He turned around with a bag of carrots just as Duo was about to stand up with a bag of celery. They collided and Heero felt one of his contacts fall from his eyes.

"Sorry Heero! Are you okay?" Heero lifted his hand to cover his eyes from Duo's view.

"I lost one of my contacts," he told him.

"Crap! Don't move. I'll try and find it." Luckily, the pristine, white tiled floor gave a sharp contrast to the dark brown contact and Duo found it immediately, gingerly picking it up.

"Here it is," Duo said, showing it on the end of his finger.

"Arigato." But when Heero moved to take it, Duo let out a gasp and pointed to the eye that the contact had fallen from.

"Heero, your eye is blue!" The Japanese teen looked up at his friend, one cobalt blue eye and one brown eye locking with violet ones.

"Aa…" he admitted, taking the dark brown contact and intending to put it back on.

"Aw, Heero. Why pick that color for your contacts if they cover your blue eyes? You know how many people would kill to have that color?"

"Because… it's not my choice to," Heero explained vaguely and Duo frowned. He grabbed onto the unruly haired teen's wrists, stopping the other from putting in the contact.

"Take the other one out. Let me see." One wrist was released as Heero complied and he gazed into Duo's eyes, finding it hard to keep the rather intense eye contact. It seemed like forever before Duo grinned and released his hold on Heero's other wrist.

"They're beautiful. Ne, don't hide them anymore, okay?" Heero smiled and nodded.

-----

Ever since then, Heero continued to be a stoic, brown-eyed teen for his parents. But for Duo, he was a smiling, cobalt blue eyed boy and for the first time, he felt content with his life.

Owari

[1] Does anyone know why? I only heard of/read about it a few times but I'm not sure of the entire reason.