"You always felt like suede

There are days I am your twin

Peek a boo, hiding

underneath your skin"

Duo awoke with a start in an unfamiliar room with no idea of the dream that woke him. The room was dark and unfamiliar, but despite that it felt safe. Duo hadn't felt safe in a long time. Wrestling himself up into a sitting position a familiar figure caught Duo unawares, sitting asleep in a cushioned chair, his legs curled up against his chest and his head resting against his arm was Heero. Duo watched him for a few moments before he realised the reason he felt safe was Heero. It came as a quiet shock to realise he hadn't felt safe since the war, since he had last been with Heero.

"What woke you?" Heero asked, without even opening his eyes.

"Dunno," Duo answered. "I don't sleep well." Heero uncoiled himself from the chair. "Why did you sleep in the chair?"

"I wanted to make sure you slept." Heero answered quietly. "I've never had a guest before."

"Normally, you ask them in the morning." Duo said swinging his legs out of the bed and standing up. "Do you want anything to drink? I want a drink?"

"I only have tea and water." Heero said quietly.

Duo gave him a weary smile, "I was kinda hoping for soda, but water will be fine, I think something crawled into my mouth and made it it's home before dying after a long and fruitful life." He ran his tongue over his lips, "d'ya want some?"

"Yes, thank you." Heero said, standing up. "I don't think that either of us is going to sleep anymore this evening, do you?"

Duo shook his head, "maybe there's a film on the box," he said, "or failing that I'm sure we can manage a conversation." He sounded doubtful, "of course we never have before." Duo stopped in the doorway and looked back at Heero, "Why you?" He asked, "why not Quatre, or Hilde, or even Sally? Why did Une ask you?"

Heero shrugged because he genuinely did not know, "perhaps because they would coddle you believing that you were incapable of doing anything for yourself whereas I respect you as a soldier and believe if you want to do something you will do it regardless, and none of my protestations to the contrary will stop you, also perhaps it is that you will be more comfortable with me simply because I will not consistently ask you for your reasons, maybe she realises that I will know that your reasons are your own."

Duo frowned. "Thank you," he said, "I think." He scratched his head, "I'm still on suicide watch, aren't I?" Heero nodded. "I thought so."

"I assume that Une supposed that if one of the others was babying you that you might be driven to suicide." Heero said in a complete deadpan.

Duo blinked for a moment before he realised that Heero had made a joke and he laughed. Heero always spoke so carefully, he never used slang, when he spoke it was always the same way that he wrote his reports, never from him were the "hey doc" or "watcha doin'?" It came as a surprise that those perfectly formed sentences could reveal a personality as complex as Heero's. He always knew that Heero was complicated, but just never expected it to show through his speech patterns, and for him to crack such a tasteless joke was mind-bending. "D'ya know what," Duo said, "I missed you."

The kitchen revealed a pair of French doors that led unto a small balcony that showed the house's garden and the spread of the night sky, it caught Duo by surprise, the rest of the apartment was little given over to frivolity, like Heero, it was efficient but there were no curtains over the glass doors, if anything it just seemed to frame the tableau in front of him. The sky was the colour of amethysts. The night sky on Earth was a wonder, it was never the same colour twice, from the ruddy orange of snow clouds to the rich dark black blue of frost with the white shimmer that surrounded the moon. There were many reasons that Duo had made Earth his home after the wars, but the main reasons were the colours, the colours of the sky and the earth and water, the colours of the animals, of the birds. Colours they couldn't copy on the colonies, no matter how hard they tried.

"It is the reason I chose this apartment." Heero said from behind him, "it is worth the extra I pay in rent for a view of the memorial park just for that view of the night sky."

"It's beautiful." Duo said quietly, "the sky is such a beautiful colour,"

"It will be dawn soon." Heero said, "I shall fetch some blankets and then we can sit and watch it, if you do not mind."

"No," Duo said with a smile, "I don't mind at all." He tried to remember if he had ever sat with Heero before and watched the dawn spill over the horizon, if he had it was waiting for the go for a mission. Normally he watched the dawn because he was alone, that whatever partner he had taken home had gone and he couldn't sleep alone, no one had ever asked to watch the sunrise with him. He swallowed back the lump in his throat and opened the fridge to pull out the jug of filtered water and poured two glasses, watching the light spiral around the water as it fell into the glass.

"Here," Heero said holding out a military style blanket, "it is too cold to just sit and watch, do you wish to help me pull in one of the couches?"

Duo looked at Heero, so desperate to please the one guest he had ever had in his home, "no, 'Ro, it's fine, we're soldiers," he had a sparkle in his eyes as he said it, "we're used to deprivation and hardship. We can sit on the floor." As if to prove his point Duo squatted down on the floor with one of the tumblers of water in his hand and his blanket in the other, then wrapping the blanket about him with a flourish, like the snap of a cape, he offered his hand to Heero, to pull him down. With a barely repressed smile Heero did join him, and Duo leant against him, using the weight of their bodies to stop them falling, to give them support. "Do you sit here and just watch the dawn?" He asked.

"All the time." Heero answered. "Sometimes it is the only thing that gets me through the night."

"Yeah," Duo replied with a sigh, "nights are a bitch."

"Relena told me that cities, like cats, will reveal themselves at night." Heero said, unsure how to proceed but felt like this was an opening. "She used it to sign off her emails, I can't remember where the quote was from."

Duo smiled, "I know," he said, "one of those teachers at those endless boarding schools drilled it into me, it was a poet, she said it was the quote he should be remembered for, not the quote he was."

"It is a good quote." Heero said.

"It is." Duo answered. "Do you think that Brussels reveals itself at night?"

"Probably." Heero answered, "in moments like these where the sky is made of amethysts."

Duo looked at Heero for a long moment before he smiled, "that was almost beautiful. Never thought you had it in ya, Ro."

Heero ignored the slight jibe, "You can see Orion from here. I think he's the constellation most like us, he is the soldier."

Duo laid his head on Heero's shoulder, safe in the knowledge that Heero would say nothing about it. "Do you ever wish you were something else? That maybe you were, ya'no, ordinary?"

"Sometimes," Heero answered, "and then I remember if I was ordinary that I would not have met you and the other pilots." He said quietly, then took a sip of his water, "and I remember that it is better to be extraordinary in the company of friends than ordinary alone."

"But we are alone, Ro," Duo answered sadly, "we're always alone because we've done those terrible things, and I'd do them again, but…"

Duo stopped looking at the expression in Heero's eyes, "you do not have to tell me." Heero said quietly, "I understand."

"Thank you." Duo said quietly, "for everything."

"It is of no matter." Heero answered, "You are my guest, although with Lady Une's approval perhaps the more appropriate word would be hostage."

Duo smiled at the joke, "does she still scare you? Or is it just me?"

"Truth be told," Heero said with a bit of a grin, "she terrifies me."

"I never thought I'd hear the day when the perfect soldier referred to being terrified." Duo said with a playful punch to the arm.

"It is Lady Une that we speak of." Heero answered, "and I remember the nightmares that you had of her."

"She was going to execute me." Duo protested, "what did she do to you?"

"A full cavity search for weapons." Heero answered, and there was a moment's silence before Duo burst out laughing, and to the east the dawn spilled over the houses and parks of Brussels.

Author's note

"Cities, like cats, will reveal themselves at night", is a quote from Rupert Brooke's letters from America, it was how he described New York.