For Badmomma because she really is wonderful, and Julia whose review sparked me into writing another chapter.

Suede 3

"You always felt like suede
There are days I am your twin
Peek a boo, hiding
underneath your skin"

Heero switched off the phone and then looked at Duo, where he had come from the kitchen. He was yet to regain his appetite but Heero was making sure that he ate in a firm but noncommittal way. He was holding a protein bar. "That was Une," he said, and then smiled. "We're going away, I was just clearing it."

Duo blinked. "I don't understand."

"We are going on holiday." Heero said firmly, there was no argument in his tone. "I think it would be good for both of us. I contemplated merely behaving like tourists in Brussels but then decided that there was nothing here that I wanted to show you, that you would not have seen yourself, so I spoke to Une. We have two weeks in which to travel, with an option to extend it at my discretion."

"I don't get it." Duo stammered.

"It's really very simple." Heero said, "I want to go on holiday and I'm taking you with me. In the year between the wars I travelled extensively and there are things I would like to see again, and some things I would like to see with new eyes." He looked almost smug. "And this time I have a camera."

"How did you get holiday time out of Une?" Duo asked, trying to find some kind of handle on what he was seeing.

"I told her you needed it." Heero said.

"You lied to Une?" At that Duo was aghast.

"No," Heero said, "I think you do need it, the fact that I want it was just an added incentive to me."

Duo shook off the shock, like an animal that has been struck by a car trying to shake away the pain, it was an instinctive reaction for him. Everything that hurt him he either repressed or ignored, things that baffled him he had no time for. "So, Hee-chan?" To regain control he used the nickname that he knew that Heero hated, "Where are we going?"

Heero's face was impassive as he looked at Duo. "Where do you want to go?"

"Dunno," Duo answered. "Where do you want to go?"

"Where you want to go." Heero said, turning his own words back on him, "so where do you want to go?"

"I want to go where you're going," Duo could play this game as well as Heero, if not better, he had practised for years to annoy the perfect soldier with word games. "So where are we going."

"Where you want to go." Heero answered, "you just need to tell me where you want to go."

Duo smiled to himself, then took another bite of the protein bar, it was compressed cereal with a layer of some kind of milk substitute that was full of calcium and other minerals in milk. He had eaten them all the way through the wars and they still tasted like cardboard and gloy glue. "And I can go anywhere?" He asked.

"Anywhere you want." Heero answered, "we can take the train there, then maybe hire a car." He stopped for a moment. "Hey, Duo," he opened up the conversation. "Have you ever seen an ossuary?"

Duo ran the word through his head, as if by chewing on it with the protein bar he would recognise it. "You mean one of those planet thingies where they turn around and map the solar system." He circled his finger around the spiral he was making with his protein bar.

"That's an Orrery." Heero said. "I think you need to see an Ossuary, but I'm sure you'll understand. I'll book us tickets to Prague, we can spend a couple of days looking around the city before we move out to the Ossuary."

Prague had, at one point, been capital of Europe, but centuries had passed since that time and it had become a city luckily skirted by war with a rich trade in glass and precious stones. Heero could tell as soon as Duo stepped out of the taxi from the airport to look at their hotel that he loved it. It was an old city, much like Cinq, but without the polished gleam. This was old and beloved. Trams barrelled along the streets like they had done for hundreds of years, the bells of many churches choralled through the alleys, and through it, dividing the secular from the religious was the Vlatva river, toiling through the city like a laggard snake.

Duo wore a long black coat and was bundled up against the winter chill, the cold snap of Brussels was two inches of snow in Prague, even still the streets were crowded with tourists and there was a busy hustle in the several Christmas markets. He looked around the square where their hotel was situated in the Mala Strana and gave a low whistle. "You've been holding out on me, Yuy." He said. "Why couldn't you tell me it looked like this? You said it was just some run down old city."

"Like Cinq?" Heero asked with a perfect poker face.

Duo punched him on the arm. "Think we can grab something to eat."

Duo was like a child in a candy store in the souvenir shops, he lifted a hand-painted glass matreushka doll. "Ohmigod," he stammered, "Tro would flip for this, how much is it?" he asked the woman, "is that all, wow, I'll take it, and make sure you wrap it up good and tight, I don't want it to get broken." Heero looked at him with a sense of wonder, the doll was a series of dolls, each slightly smaller than the last that nestled inside each other, and each had been painted with translucent paint to look like a painting by Alphonse Mucha. He had said the same thing when he had seen the figurines between the wars. He hadn't bought them then though. Duo took the carefully wrapped box and slipped it into his backpack. "How did you keep secret about this place?" Duo asked, "I love it."

"I knew you would." Heero said, "I remember thinking that the first time I came through here, I thought I must take Duo to see the Stare Mesto and St Nicholas and the Hrad and." He stopped. "Then I never got chance to. I knew you'd love the city."

"Well." Duo said putting his hands on his hips and looking impish, there was a sense of joy about him that Heero hadn't seen in a very long time. "I've seen the Stare Mesto with it's wonky clock, and I've seen the Hrad and it's gallery." He crossed his arms over his chest, making his black wool scarf puff up. He wore a woollen muffin cap over his hair but his braid still hung down his back, "there's only one thing left on this list of yours, Heero Yuy, I want to see St Nicholas', I take it this is this amazing Ossuary you keep going on about but won't tell me what it is."

"No," Heero shook his head, "We'll go out to that tomorrow."

"Hey," Duo said as they started to climb the hill that led back to the Mala Strana and it's glorious monastery. "You think that Une would let us move here, I mean they've got to have Preventers here too, don'cha think?"

Heero laughed and then took Duo's gloved hand, "do you want to see St Nicholas'?" he asked in a breathy whisper. "It's not far from here."

"Hell, yeah, Yuy," Duo answered, "you keep telling me just how gorgeous it is and that it's like the best church in the world, and though I'm biased that it can't be, I wanna see Santa's church." Heero frowned for a moment, he obviously didn't understand. "Santa Claus, Santa Nicklaus, Saint Nicholas." Duo said, "sometimes, Heero, you worry me, you know that."

St Nicholas' church had been built by some of the richest emperors that the world had ever known, in the Stare Mesto was it's twin, but it was generally accepted that even it lacked the majesty. Up the hill was the fabulous St Vita's cathedral where the emperor's had been buried, where they had been crowned, but when they came to pray they had descended the hill to St Nicholas' and it showed.

Heero paid the few credits necessary to gain entry whilst Duo muttered under his breath about paying to getting into churches in a disgusted manner. "It's for the upkeep." Heero hissed back. "It's no different from paying to get into a museum, and it's not expensive."

"You shouldn't have to pay to go into a church." Duo repeated. "Three credits just to pray, it's like church taxes all over."

"You don't have to pay to pray sir," the young woman who was manning the desk told him, "just come before ten am and it's free, but so many people want to see the church we have to do something to allow people the peace to pray. Are you Catholic?" She asked, "Catholics always get most offended that they have to pay."

Heero swallowed his laugh. "Come on," Heero said taking him by the hand again revealing the white fabric round his wrist to the cold. Duo jerked his hand back and then pulled his sleeve down.

"It's a mortal sin," Duo said sadly as Heero pushed the door open. "I don't know if I'd be welcome in God's house anymore."

"Duo Maxwell," Heero said pulling him into the church, "you've just complained about paying to get in, come on."

Duo stepped into the church and for the first time in the face of god he was speechless. He felt very small and very insignificant, but also a wonder he hadn't felt since the Maxwell church all those years before. He found himself wanting to know what were the wonders that went through Heero's head as he looked around the church.

It was large with several smaller chapels along its length at both sides, and four large silvery marble pillars were adorned with gilt statues, a warrior, a bishop- a shah, each with a halo comprised of wire and stars. Just beyond them was the pulpit and it was carved with an image of the virgin and Christ child. The ceilings of the nave and dome were painted with bright colour frescoes. Everything was covered in gilt, the place was rich and dripping with wealth, but there was also a sense of peace here that Duo had not felt anywhere but the Maxwell church. "You knew." He said to Heero biting back tears. "You fucking knew."

"No," Heero said, "I just thought."

"Just…" Duo began, and with a quick genuflection to the life size golden crucifix that dominated the church he sat down on one of the pews. "Just…" there were no words.

"I'm sorry." He said, "I thought you'd like it."

Duo lowered his head for a moment. "It's a mortal sin, Heero, it's the one thing you can never be forgiven for, and this," he spread his hands to indicate the church, "this is more god's house than any place I have ever been since…" He went quiet. "Just leave me alone, I can find my way back to the hotel on my own."

"I," Heero began.

"I want to light a votive." Duo said, "and to spend some time here, I want to understand, I just need some time." He looked at the white peeking out between his black gloves and his wool coat. "I'll meet you back at the hotel."

Heero nodded. "Do you want me to take your back pack?" He asked. "And to get some liquor in." After he had seen St Nicholas' he had needed a drink. It had had that effect on him, that he had felt desolate and lonely in the face of someone else's amazing love, in the face of one man's amazing faith in building this place. He knew that Duo would love this place as much as he did, but he had to come to terms with it.

"Thank you." Duo said and handed him the backpack.

Heero slung it on his shoulder, then handed Duo a hundred credit note. "Light a votive for me too."

"Heero, they're about two credits each." Duo said sadly.

"Then light fifty." He answered, then with a quick nod to the crucifix which could not be called a genuflection Heero left him in the church.

"So," Duo said to the golden figure that hung suspended on the church, "it's just you and me, maybe it's time to talk."

Author's Note:

Ossuary and Orrery caused me all manner of headaches because I kept getting them confused and then I couldn't remember the word Orrery and you try looking it up on the web when you can't remember the word other than it's very like ossuary, but you know what it means.

Also I fell in love with Prague in a way that I had never really expected before, it hit me hard like a punch in the gut and thinking back I knew that of all the characters that I play with Duo would most appreciate St Nicholas and Duo would most appreciate the Ossuary at Kutna Hora. People who read my work a lot will notice I keep sending the characters to Prague (I did it in White Geisha too) but I really did fall for it and I think everyone should go and if one of you looks up the ossuary and decides to go when then I've done my bit for the Czech tourist industry. It's about 70p to get into St Nicholas' and it's about £6 to get into St Vita's. I don't begrudge the 70p but I'd kinda like my £6 back.