Title: Catching Colds - sequel to Catching Duo
Author: Mistress Tsunami Archive: caveofbats. Anyone else, please ask first. I won't turn ya down, promise.
Rating: R
Pairings: 1+2, 3x4, 1x5, 5xMeiran, 1x5xOCxOCxMeiran (many combinations thereof I dun feel like writin' 'em all out)
Warnings: AU, OOC, school-fic, angst, drug-use, Duo-torture (no NCS or BDSM, though), yaoi, shonen-ai, het, get-together fic (is that a warning?), and anything else I forgot, since I just copy/pasted from the first fic.
Many thanks to my beta: TabiWolf (if you're reading this...email me! Let me know you haven't died yet!)

Somebody is hoping you aren't in trouble.
Fortune Cookie

Heero carried his braided charge all the way home, worried about his -almost- boyfriend's sudden and absolute silence, although he could not honestly say that it was not uncalled-for. Duo hadn't been able to look Heero in the eye even after the pair had already left the school, and he hadn't wanted to let his new 'protector' help him feel any better about the, to put it lightly, insulting situation, either. Duo had never been this elusive for as long as Heero had known him, choosing instead to face challenges on his own terms, loudly and clearly, no matter what anyone else thought. Heero hadn't been able to know him long enough to know him as he felt a boyfriend should, but he was still confident that he knew Duo well enough to label the situation 'hazardous,' at the very least.

Heero continued to worry about the braided student as his silence wore on, biting his lower lip as he walked the remaining distance to their apartment. He had tried, rather unsuccessfully, to start up any conversation - even small talk was fine with him so long as they were talking - and hadn't even received a one-worded answer. Duo simply refused to say another word to him, reversing the roles of listener and talker. Heero was not pleased. It wasn't until they were back in the apartment that the gang shared - and Duo was safely wrapped up in Heero's arms, laying chastely on the bed that they had just begun to feel comfortable in - that Duo finally felt safe enough to speak up.

"Heero?"

"Yes, Duo?" Heero asked, relieved to hear the other's voice once again.

"Do-" Duo suddenly cut himself off, unwilling or unable to complete the thought. He tried again, this time using another, obviously different, question to start the conversation. "Why do you want to be with me?"

Heero smiled, though he knew Duo didn't see it. He knew the answer to that question right away. He felt the need to be completely honest, however, somehow sensing that there was more to the question than simply what was asked. What more there was, he did not know. Well, that would be true of anyone in this situation or one similar, not that he would wish it on even the most unjust and deserving. So he started at the beginning, and did his best to explain that which he did not fully understand himself.

"Well," he began, slowly and soothingly, "at first I wanted you because you were -and still are- very beautiful. That was what caught my eye. Not because you look like a girl," Heero fended off, already seeing the mistrust in his classmate's eyes, "because you are beautiful. You looked like the perfect prize for the year. Someone to show off, not to fuck with, before you ask.

"After that you became a challenge rather quickly; I've never had someone fight with me quite the way you have, but we seem to have gotten over some of that awkwardness, now, haven't we?

"Which led to the discoveries that you are also smart, fun, and you keep to your beliefs no matter what anyone else thinks, and no matter how confused you are. You ignored those who didn't like you, and yet they seemed to have some respect for you. You do what you like." Heero smiled again, soothingly, remembering, "you know, you won that art contest that they kicked 'Lexia out of, and then you didn't even want to do what they offered as a prize. I admire that. You didn't want to, and you didn't. And I found all of this out within the short time since school has started. You are one very compact and complex person, Duo Maxwell."

Duo snuggled into Heero's chest, his worries not quite put to rest, some new worries arising - were they moving too fast- but he was content enough at the moment to let it rest, if only for the time being. It was enough for him to know that he could rest where he was and be welcome when he woke up.

"Duo? Love, please, listen to me," Heero pleaded, hoping to ease the pain that others had willfully and hatefully caused. "Those people at school, they don't understand. Because of that, they're scared, and they insult and put down anything that they're scared of to make themselves feel better. They're hiding from what they don't understand.

"Meiran's wiccan, you know. They hate her. She gets hate mail in her locker, and students love to pull pranks on her. She deals with it all the time. They hate her because they don't understand her. They think that it's all sex and death and that she'll curse them if she knows who they are.

"She knows every single person who has given her hate mail or pulled a stupid prank or joke at her expense. One of them was her best friend since kindergarten; another, her first boyfriend. Most of them are people that she once knew, and once trusted.

"But no one here thinks that she is evil, knows that she has never killed a fly, has more respect for life than anyone in that school has ever had, and sleeps only with those she knows and trusts and LOVES. Except maybe you, you have still to learn what she's like, but I hope you don't think she's evil. Wicca is simply prayer to someone different, a Goddess and a God, and many others. There is no one God for her."

Heero took a deep breath, and continued on, just as much for himself as for Duo. He didn't really want to bring this down on the hurt boy now, but opening up that particular subject had made him feel uneasy about not finishing, and he knew that he couldn't not talk about it without feeling awkward. He had to make the offer, the same offer he had given Meiran to protect her from the hate. "You don't have to put up with all of it if you don't want to, you know. You can go back, and tell everyone that you're not gay, and I'll take the blame for giving everyone the wrong impression, for trying to seduce a beautiful creature that didn't want to be seduced."

Duo immediately shook his head in the negative, appalled at the very idea. "I don't lie, Heero," he reminded his chocolate-haired friend, and maybe more. "Even if I'm not gay, then I'm bi. And a lie of omission is still a lie."

Heero smiled once more - a rare occurrence to those who knew him, and even more to those who didn't - playing with Duo's long, silky hair and hugging the boy close, tightly and securely, as if he could protect him and reassure him with a single embrace. Heero buried his face in the chestnut locks of his shifting boyfriend. Arms wrapped loosely around Heero's waist, Duo's face hiding within the folds of the other's loose shirt. "I understand," Heero whispered into the mass of hair, and he kissed the top of Duo's head in what he hoped was a comforting manner. "Sleep now, it'll be better in the morning," Heero advised, and Duo did.