She walked out of the door with out a backward glace, smiling at her work. It had taken way to long though and her father wasn't going to be very happy about t hat.

"Your right, I'm not. But you always seem to make the best out of that kind of situation, and somehow manage to finish it on a perfect day."

She stopped walking and turned to her right, where the voice was. "Thank you Father. I suppose you want to know why it took so long. I mean you always do."

The man, her father, nodded and she sighed. "Well as you know, I came here six months ago…"

:FLASHBACK:

The café where he worked would be a perfect place to start. Grinning she threw her long white hair over her shoulder and sauntered into the little shop. She sat down and waited to be served. She smiled happily as the Young man she was looking for walked over to get her order.

"Hi, my names Duo, and I'll be serving you today." He grinned broadly at her.

"Hi Duo, my names…" she hesitated, "Eia, and it's a pleasure to meet you. Now I have to know, do you have chocolate chip muffins?" Eia's eyes glinted hopefully.

Duo laughed. "Yes we do. Can I get you anything else?"

"Yes, actually a double Cuban espresso."

He glanced at her with a thoughtful expression. "That just so happens to be my specialty. I'll have that for you in just a few minutes."

Eia smiled, "Thank you so much Duo."

When he came back with the muffin and the coffee, Eia noticed that he had a second set of the muffin and the coffee. "Are you planning on joining me Duo?" Eia smiled as she answered by sitting across from her and grinned.

"Yep. It's my break." He shrugged. "Do you mind?"

She laughed. "Of course not."

They sat and talked for several hours, during which time she found out that it was not only his break, but the end of his shift. Hence explaining why his boss hadn't yelled at him. When he looked at his watch his face went white.

"Oh. My. God. Shit. He's gonna kill me." Duo hastily stood up and knocking over the chair he had been sitting in. Eia stood up with a worried look on her face.

"Who's gonna kill you? And why?"

"My room mate. Because I was supposed to have been home hours ago."

Eia shivered as she heard the voice behind her.

"Yes, you were."

The hairs on the back of her neck stood up. She mentally swore at herself. She had been warned about him, and had naturally forgotten all about him until just now.

"Now Heero, please don't get upset."

"Yes please. It's entirely my fault. I engaged him in con… ver… sa… tion…" Eia's voice started to trail off as she turned to look at the other man. 'Shit.' Those eyes of Heero's were deadly. She was, however, used to death glares, but wanted to seem like she was more normal. So she added the uncertainty to her eyes and backed away softly.

"Duo. We are going home." Heero grabbed Duo's long chestnut braid and pulled him towards the door.

"Eia! Come back to morrow ok? We'll go to lunch!" Duo said as he was trying fruitlessly to remove his braid from Heero's death grip. "Heero you're hurting my hair."

"Baka, hair is dead, it can't get hurt."

At that they exited the shop as Heero started lecturing Duo on the merits of punctuality. Eia waited until she was sure that they were around the corner before she started to laugh.

It went on like that for two months before she finally got Duo on the conversation that she wanted to have: who he liked.

"OH no. I don't mean to say that I don't believe in love or anything, because I do, but the person I'm in love with isn't in love with me." When he realized what he said, he clamped a hand over his mouth and his eyes widened.

Eia giggled. "So your in love! That's awesome! Who is it!" She poked and prodded him for information, but all she got out of him was that it was a guy. This was what she had been looking for.

The next day she pestered him more on the subject, making it obvious that she wasn't going to give in, because she wanted to know more about this mystery man.

"So Duo, this guy, is he cute?" She winked at him and watched his face glow red.

"Yeah, he really is. He's got an incredible body."

"Ooohhh. So have I ever met this guy?"

Duo mumbled something into his coffee mug.

Eia held back a giggle, her eyes sparkling, before saying, "What was that love? I couldn't quite make that one out."

Duo blushed accordingly and looked at his watch. "Oh look at the time. I've got to head home. A few of our friends are coming over… Hey! Why don't you come! Wufei's bringing his wife, Merian, and she always feels slightly left out. Plus. I think you'll really like her." His eyes gleamed happily.

"Yeah ok. Why not? Can I bring anything?" Eia smiled, she was finally getting somewhere.

"Only if you want to." He quickly wrote down his address, gave it to her and said, "Be here at six ok? And, don't mind Heero! He's really harmless, once you get to know him." He ran out the door of the café and left Eia to her thoughts.

Three hours later Eia knocked at Duo's door. She heard some shuffling and muted shouting that was obliviously Duo. She waited patiently but when the door opened she stared straight at Heero. He glared at her and shut the door in her face. Eia was shocked. She stood there with her mouth opened.

She gaped at the door and heard Duo move forward, hearing the muffled "HEERO!"

He opened the door and gave her an apologetic look. "I am so sorry."

Eia shrugged and sighed. "It's ok." She held up the bottle of wine. "Here, for you guys in thanks for inviting me."

Duo's eyes widened as he looked at the label. "Wow. This is really nice of you Eia." He glared at Heero as he led Eia into the main room. "Eia this is the gang. Wufei Chang and his wife Merian," He gestured to the Chinese man and woman on the small love seat, "and this is Quatre Winner," he motioned to the petite blonde, "and his partner Trowa Barton." Waving at the man next to Quatre, with the long brunette bangs.

Eia smiled. "Thank you all for letting me join you tonight. And Merian, I must say, I wish I could find a blouse that works for me as well as that one does for you. You look absolutely stunning." From there, she and Merian spent most of the night talking about the boys. They of course, when ever they said boys, said it as loud as possible, which earned them several glares, none of which had any affect on them so they burst in to hapless giggles.

Eventually they got on the subject of Duo and Heero.

"Oh lord, those two are in denial. Or rather Heero is. Poor Duo. I mean its so obvious that he's in love with Heero, but Heero's just oblivious to anything other than his laptop and working out."

"But do you think that Heero feels that way towards Duo?"

"Of course! Can't you feel the sexual tension there? It's incredible. You could cut it with the knife. It was the same way between me and Wufei, before he got over his aversion to 'onnas' and proposed."

Eia looked over at Duo and Heero and laughed. "It is rather difficult to ignore isn't it?"

The two women laughed loudly at that. After they calmed down when they noticed that the five men were looking at them with annoyed and yet amused looks.

At the end of the night, Eia and Merian had promised to go shopping next weekend and they were going to plot on how to get Heero to notice Duo while Eia worked out how to get Duo to admit that he was in love with Heero.

The week after the shopping trip with Merian, Eia walked into the café and said, "Oi, Duo! Tomorrow's your day off right?" He nodded giving her an odd look. "We need to chat ok! We'll go out. I'll come by tomorrow at say 10?" Eia raised her right eyebrow and smiled. "I can't stay today, I've got a deadline that I have to work on. So can I get the espresso to go sweetie?"

"Of course you can." Duo was slightly scared, but didn't say anything. "So ten tomorrow? I'll be up and ready." He turned around and gave her, her coffee and she paid and kissed his cheek and went out.

"Remember babe! Tomorrow at 10!" She held up a hand as she left and went out the door.

Duo put his fingers to where she had kissed him and wondered about what would happen the next day, until his boss smacked him upside the head for ignoring a customer.

The next day saw Duo hurrying around his room at 9:50 screaming at Heero as to why he let him sleep in and didn't wake him up. Heero ignored his ranting with practiced ease, rolling his eyes while he worked on his computer. At 9:59 and 46 seconds Eia rang the door bell. Duo ran out of his room, jumped over a couch and opened the door. "Eia!" He gave her a huge hug before ushering her into the house. "Come and eat something before we go ok? I've not had anything yet."

"No I'm good thanks, but I figured you'd wake up a little late so I stopped by the café and picked you up a muffin and a coffee." Eia held up a bag and smiled widely at the man.

Duo took the bag and coffee cup and laughed slightly. "That's really sweet of you Eia! Thank you." He gave one last look around, trying to remember if he had everything before he looked at her again. "Well I'm all ready. Where are we going?" He gave her a questioning look as she dragged him out the door. "Bye Heero! I'll be back later. I've got my phone if you need me." His voice trailed off as the door was shut and their laughter began again.

Heero was just sitting in the living room and was staring almost slack jawed at what had happened. Had Duo told him he was going out today? He didn't remember. A feeling sat in the pit of his stomach. Were they going on a date? What was going on? He reflected on his actions toward the woman who had just suddenly come into their life. It wasn't that he disliked the woman, he didn't, nor did he have anything against her but he just felt like something was happening. He couldn't understand what was going on with him that made him behave so irrationally when ever the woman was around.

Did he feel that his relationship with Duo was being threatened?

Laughing all the way to their 'hidden' destination, that Duo guessed about five minutes into the trip Eia and Duo sat comfortably in the small car, chatting about nothing and everything. Duo knew that Eia wanted to ask him something in particular but wasn't going to until they reached their target area.

Thirty minutes after they left Duo's house they reached it.

Duo got out of the car and smiled. He breathed in the air and grinned at Eia. "Eia, how did you know I loved coming here?"

Eia waved off the question. "That is a secret Duo. And if I told you, you'd never believe me." She grinned as she watched him take off his shoes. "Don't forget we've got to talk."

He looked over his shoulder at her and gave her a quirky grin. "Of course. I'm just gonna run around and play with the birds for a second." He rolled his eyes. "You know what on second thought why don't you just tell me what it is you want to talk about." He sat down on the edge of the grass sinking his feet into the sand, looking out at the lake.

"Alright. We need to talk about Heero." She joined him on the lakes beach, gazing at the sail boats with their white sails billowing in the wind.

"He-Heero? Why? Has he done something wrong?"

"Yes. Actually. Duo why do you let him treat you like that?"

Duo bit his lip. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh please. Duo it's so obvious that you're in love with him. I don't like seeing you hurt. And that's what he's doing with your emotions. He's hurting them by ignoring them and being an insensitive prick."

Duo stared at Eia shocked. In a lot of ways this wasn't the same woman he'd been with in the car. She still looked the same but, there was something else going on. He turned to look at the other side refusing to meet her eyes. "It doesn't change anything you know. I've always loved him."

"I know Duo. I know." Eia let out a huge breath. "Trust me I know. But you haven't exactly been doing anything to make him notice your feelings."

"Yah well its hard trying to crack that shell. I've tried. I gave up a few weeks before I met you. You know. I decided that it's better to be his friend than nothing at all. I'm lucky that he's let me into his life this much. He may not confide in me much, but I'm the only one he comes to when he does confide in someone." A single tear ran down his face.

Eia rubbed his back. "You should never give up on something you love Duo. Never. Nothing good ever comes of it. I think you should try again. I'll help you this time ok?"

Duo just nodded. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew that with her help he might actually break into Heero and make him see.

The two of them spent the rest of the day planning a coup in which to trap Heero and get him to see, get him to admit that he loved Duo.

When Eia dropped Duo back at his house she was grinning manically and Duo was practically bouncing in his seat. "Eia why don't you come in for dinner?"

"Why Duo! I'd love to! Thank you for the invitation." Eia giggled and turned off the car and got out.

Duo put his arm around her waist and she put laid her head on his shoulder smiling happily and they walked into the house to see Heero rather grumpily and harshly typing in his computer on the closest chair. He looked up to see the two of them in such a romantic position and was shocked. He hadn't expected that. Ever. 'Duo is mine! Why is that woman hanging all over him like they were…' "together…." He said the together out loud in a whisper hardly audible. His eyes wandered over their intimate, flirty embrace. Before he realized what he had thought. 'Since when was Duo yours baka? You have no claim to him.'

Fluttering his eye lashes Duo looked over at Heero, "Did'ja say something bud?" He cocked his head to the right and looked at Heero.

"No."

"Oh good, anyway Eia's staying for dinner."

Heero glared at the woman. She was taking Duo away from him. He mentally smacked himself. He was doing it again. Duo wasn't with him. Duo had the right to be with who he wanted.

Eia smiled happily, she could see the internal turmoil that was racking Heero, he was realizing his suppressed feelings for Duo but still stubbornly did nothing about it and suppressed them again. She let out a giggle, causing Duo to give her an inquiring look thus causing Heero to glare at her once again. She waved her hand. "Oh its nothing, I'll cook if you want! I'm a fantastic cook if I do say so myself." She disengaged herself from Duos embrace and walked purposefully into the kitchen.

Heero gave Duo a startled glance and Duo just smiled and shrugged. "Hey as long as I don't have to clean up."

"Yah right! I'm leaving all the clean up for you Duo. Heero doesn't have to because he didn't say anything!" Eia laughed as the pots and pans clanked in the kitchen, telling the two men outside the kitchen that she was probably going to use every single pan in the kitchen and make a huge mess. "Oh and guys…" She stuck her head out of the kitchen, "if you even try to come in here before I'm done you get none of it." She gave them a smile before disappearing back into the kitchen.

The dinner she cooked was fantastic, and Duo had hardly anything to clean up. Eia left the house and smiled. She was getting somewhere with Heero, however she could tell that this internal war that he was having would take him a while to get over and conquer.

Eia became a permanent fixture in the Yuy-Maxwell house; she and Duo went out a lot. They went to movies and plays almost every weekend. Heero was invited every time, but he refused 95 of the time. The only time that he did go with them was when the entire group went along and Eia spent most of her time gossiping with Merian. Eia came over to their house once a week to cook dinner and they had a grand old time. They, being Duo and Eia. Heero generally just sat there and looked sullen.

Four months later during one of their dinners Heero was picking up his fork to take a bite when he stopped and a look of wonder came over his face. Eia was watching him as she always did out of the corner of her eye and was positively ecstatic. He had finally realized it. She excused herself to go to the bathroom and left Heero and Duo alone together.

"Duo…"

"Yes Heero?"

"Are you happy with her?"

Duo looked startled. "What do you mean?"

"I mean are you happy? You've been going out for what now… four months?"

"We were never going out."

It was Heero's turn to look startled. "Really?"

"Really."

"Oh."

"Why?"

"Um because, I've realized something."

"What?"

Heero looked up into those gorgeous violet eyes that crept in to his heart. His heart was beating eratically, but he didn't care. Duo wasn't going out with Eia, he was free. He had always known that Duo swung both ways so he was sure Duo wouldn't be offended. Heero started to say something but it got stuck in his throat.

"Heero are you ok? Is something wrong?" Duo moved closer to Heero putting his hand on Heero's, which was something he hardly ever did and was shocked when Heero curled his fingers around Duo's.

"Duo, I think… I mean I know, I guess I've always known but was afraid to say anything, although what I was afraid of I don't really know."

"Heero you're babbling."

"I know I'm sorry. What I'm trying to say is. Duo I… couldn't bear it if you left me for someone else."

Duo's heart leapt. Was Heero trying to tell him what he hoped he was? "Heero you are my best friend. I would never leave you know that."

"Duo I'm not so sure I can be your best friend anymore."

"Heero what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that I like you as more than a friend. I've finally realized it after so long. It was the idea that you might leave me to be with Eia that really brought it home."

Duo squealed. "Oh Heero!" He jumped out of his seat and put his hands around Heero's face and kissed him long and hard. Heero's hands went up and tangled themselves in Duos hair, moaning at the touch of the silky strands, something he had been craving since the beginning.

That was how Eia found them. Duo in Heero's lap making out like there was no tomorrow. She smiled and wrote a quick note for them, telling them that she didn't want to interrupt and that she had been planning on telling them tonight that she had to move, her job was transferring her to another city for different research opportunities. She grinned and walked out.

: END FLASHBACK:

"And that dear father is how I finally managed to complete this mission for you." She smiled happily.

"My dear, dear Agappe (1), you have done another fantastic job." Cupid smiled down at his daughter and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "Shall we go home then?"

Agappe smiled and rolled her eyes at her illustrious father. "Of course Daddy dearest.

The car that she had been driving suddenly disappeared with a wave of Cupids arm and then with a sudden pop there was no evidence that Agappe and her father Cupid had ever been there except in the hearts of those that lives had been changed.

Authors Notes:

1. Agappe means love and affection in Greek