Hello again, I guess it's been a while. I don't know I'm kind of loosing interest in the story, I think we all are. I'm going to coninue for now just cuz I like to finish what I start, but updates may be slower. I'd like to work on other things and maybe get the fanfiction section on my site up. I haven't played around with my website in forever, I probably left it in shambles. Anyway here's the next chapter. Oh and a quick warning, there is very brief nudity in this chapter, seriously it's nothing to get excited about, or angry if you don't like that stuff but then why would you be reading this. Sorry babbling, right, on with the chapter!
Devil's Paradise
Chapter 8
It was a beautiful the morning, the kind of morning that makes someone actually want to get up early just to watch as it fades away into afternoon. In a quiet hotel room two boys slept curled up against each other in a thick white cotton comforter. One boy had beautiful long chestnut hair that had fallen out of its usual braid and was draped over the entire bed including the boy next to him. His body, like his hair, was sprawled out with one arm and leg wrapped partially around his companion. The other man lay perfectly still on his side facing the boy next to him, sleeping better than he remembered ever in his life. His long lashes brushed his cheekbones and his soft dark locks made a beautiful contrast against the white pillowcase. The glowing green numbers of the alarm clock on the bed stand that had been flashing 6:29, suddenly changed and with that the room was filled with music from the clock radio. The sleeping inhabitants were pulled out of dreamland with a song by Ingram Hill. Which wasn't too bad, it didn't snap them awake more like gently roused them to the waking world.
"I woke up from my sleep to the sound of that voice, from the words that I heard I had no choice." Heero instantly stirred to life, though it was a rather bewildered state of half-sleeping during which he blindly groped at his left side for the offending device, but failed miserably. 'Had no choice but wake up thanks to this damn song.' Heero thought in his grogged state of mind. Duo on the other hand was so caught up in his blissful sleep that it took until the third lyric of the song for him to blink awake and even then he was still asleep he just had his eyes open. He looked around the room without really seeing, and turned to Heero.
"Oh man, shut it off." The longhaired boy said then groaned sleepily and fell back asleep. Five, four, three, two, one . . . Duo's eyes shot open, he sat up as quickly as he could grabbing at all the hair the he saw fly forward and attempting to pull it back and hold it like some kind of pony tail. Heero was definitely awake now. Duo realised he still had a leg draped over the other boy and quickly drew it back with a flush staining his already lighlty tinged cheeks.Heero pulled himself up to a sitting position against the headboard and stared at the longhaired boy wholooked back at him wide eyed.
"What the hell are you doing in my bed?" Duo's look of fear turned quickly to suspicion and anger. He pulled tightly at his hair and tried separating it into pieces to braid it again. Heero looked puzzled back at Duo, his brain still not fully up to speed from the sudden wake up. He did however realize that Duo's hair was down and if there was a more breath taking sight in this world he had never seen it. It flowed around the boy and caught the sunlight of the early morning softening the edges around his face in a beautiful glow. He shook his head, he was supposed to be answering Duo's question.
"I'm not, you're in my bed." Heero responded after his mental lapse of a few minutes then mentally smacked himself at the way that sounded. Duo looked shocked by this new information, he turned away from Heero still holding his hair close to him trying to assemble something that looked like his braid.
"What do you mean, what the hell happened last night." Duo finished off braiding his hair, much to Heero's disappointment. He remained facing away from the boy, his voice sounding much more frightened than angered like it had a moment ago. Heero watched Duo's back with a heavy sense of regret even though he wasn't sure exactly what it was that he regretted.
"Nothing happened Duo, you were drunk and I took you back to the hotel." Heero tried to fix whatever had gone wrong. He knew allowing himself to stay in bed with Duo was a bad idea, but he hadn't wanted to disturb the boy's peaceful sleep. Duo turned slowly and hesitantly back to the boy, the anger gone from his eyes and replaced by sadness and still some suspicion. Heero hadn't realized before how hard it was for Duo to trust him, maybe it was hard for the boy to trust anyone at all. He wondered what had happened in this beautiful boy's past that could do that.
"Why didn't you take me to my room?" He asked, and though it didn't really sound like an accusation, Heero got a little tense anyway. He looked back at Duo defensively, and he could tell that Duo already regretted his question. His anger dissipated and he answered the boy calmly.
"I didn't see any pockets on you, I had no idea how to get into your room. I thought that maybe you figured you and Quatre would be going home together and that he would have his key on him." Heero heaved a heavy sigh, which halfway through turned into a yawn. Duo yawned in response, the damn things are contagious.
"Oh yeah, I keep my keys in a hidden pocket in the lining of my jacket. You wouldn't be able to find them." Duo wasn't sure what had happened last night, but it seemed that it was nothing bad and Heero seemed to have good intentions. He shook his head faintly at how paranoid he was being, unfortunately that caused a wave of pain to ripple across his forehead. Now that he was fully awake, his hangover hit him full force. He groaned in pain and gripped his head in his hands.
"Yeah I figured it would catch up to you at some point. I put the aspirin on the bed stand last night for when you woke up." Heero reached over and grabbed the little white bottle handing it to Duo before he got out of bed. "I'll get you some water." He said as he made his way over to the mini-bar refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of water. He walked back to the bedroom and tossed it on the end of the bed close to Duo. The braided driver picked it up and popped two pills in his mouth before downing half the bottle. Heero smirked and shook his head, he had never really seen the point of getting drunk, especially considering the consequences, and it was funny to him how someone didn't even intend to really drink could end up with the biggest hangover of them all.
"Aarg, are you laughing at me?" He asked as he lay back down in Heero's bed prodding violently at his temples. Heero had to swallow hard, for some reason seeing Duo in his bed with his hair messy and groaning had caused his mouth to go very dry.
"Do you want to try and sleep it off a little?" He was trying to sound sympathetic, but to him it just seemed to come out as desperate to keep the boy in his bed. He hoped Duo didn't hear the same thing in his voice. Duo cracked open an eye but continued to rub his temples. He felt a gnawing need to stay curled up in Heero's bed, and for that reason he knew he had to leave. He knew he was already way to attached to the kid for his own good, it was getting to the point where it might be dangerous to get know Heero anymore. He didn't want to hurt Heero, and well he really wished he could stay this time, just this once. He liked Heero, a lot, liked him enough to walk away.
"No, I should go to my room and get ready for the day." Heero, who had been standing at the edge of the bed now moved to toward the couch to start cleaning up his makeshift bed that he didn't use. He didn't want Duo to se his face when he told him the piece of information he had just realized a few moments ago. Duo watched him, puzzled by his actions and the fact that Heero had made a bed but had slept in the hotel bed with Duo.
"I don't think you want to go to your room just yet." He said as he kept his face down and folded his blanket, he was sure that some of his defenses were lacking, hell he might even be blushing. Duo frowned, not sure what Heero was saying to him and not liking being the uncomfortable feeling that was radiating off Heero.
"What do you mean Heero?" Duo asked and turned in the bed to face the boy. Heero had heard the rustling of sheets though, and had already turned his back on the boy pretending to fold the sheet he now had in his hands.
"Well, Trowa and I share this room and he never came back last night. So I'm assuming that there's only on place he could be, and that's probably wherever Quatre is." Heero felt weird talking about his engineer like this. The boy had never showed much interest in relationships. Heero had never even heard him mention the blonde before and in a day he had smiled, talked freely and gone missing for an entire night. Yesterday had probably been the most interesting day of his life and it was all because he met Duo.
"Oh." Duo didn't know what to say, he really didn't want that image of Quatre in his mind. He focused on something else, getting out of bed. He didn't really want to think about beds either right now. "Ouch." He moaned as he tried to pull his leather-clad legs out of the sheets that clung to him, there was a lot of noise and struggle but he finally did it. "Never sleep in leather pants."
Heero chuckled, he had regained his composure from the interesting talk about Trowa's nightlife. Although if you had looked at him you would have never known that inside he had been flustered. "Would you like to borrow something to wear until you can get back into your room? Or you can get ready here and we can go do something."
"Yeah that sounds good, but I need to rest a little while this massive hangover subsides." Duo groaned again and started to fall back into bed but stopped when he felt leather sticking to his skin. "Do you think I could borrow something a little more comfortable?" He asked as he pulled at his pants trying to unglue them from his flesh. Heero cleared his dry throat and watched Duo play with his tight leather pants, it wasn't really the leather that was getting to him, though that was helping make him a little hot under the collar. His mouth was dry and his breath was shallower because of the thought of Duo, after having just woken up from spending the night with him, with his hair falling out and now he would be wearing Heero's own pajamas.
"Yeah sure you can." He croaked a little at the end and covered it up with a cough. He wandered over to his wardrobe and pulled out a dark tank top and a pair of sweats. He handed them to Duo with steady hands even though his insides were fluttering. "You can use the bathroom to take a shower too, if you like." Duo smiled at Heero and took the clothes offered to him. Heero went back to cleaning up his couch-bed.
"Thanks. I think I'll take you up on that. I warn you though with all this hair it takes me a while." Heero watched out of the corner of his eye as Duo stretched, his leather pants tightening around his waist and his mesh top rising up above his bellybutton. The boy started tugging at his braid while he walked into the bathroom and closed the door behind him. The second that door was shut, Heero collapsed onto the couch with his breath a little ragged and his jeans from last night feeling a little too tight. He sat there for a while listening to the sounds coming from the bathroom, which really didn't help his situation. His breath hitched when he could hear Duo unzipping and slowly yanking down those leather pants, he tried to tune out the images that were clouding his brain. He heard the shower water running and that created a whole new set of interesting pictures in Heero's head, but he forced them back and went to change into something comfortable while Duo took his shower.
Duo turned the water up so that it was damn near scalding and began the process of trying to rip his tangled hair with all its snarls, out of the quick braid he had tied it into. He stepped into the hot water waiting for a second for his cold feet to stop burning at the touch of it. Then he immediately dunked his whole head under the stream watching as smeared eyeliner washed away and down the drain. He grabbed Heero's shampoo, in a bit of a hurry to get out of there and not be a rude guest. He popped open the bottle and was surrounded by that fresh intoxicating smell of Heero. He didn't know Old Spice made a shampoo. Inhaling the scent like he was addicted, the longhaired boy stood for several moments lost in a relaxed world with no thought. He finally woke back up to reality when the thought hit him that he was in Heero's shower, in which Heero's naked body had been at some point. These were definitely not the type of thoughts to be having when you were separated from the object of said thoughts by only a thin wall and a closed door. He also realized that he would have to go out and face the guy when his shower was over. That's when it dawned on him, right before he squeezed out a dollop of the shampoo into his palm, it hit him that he hadn't grabbed a towel to fry off with. There was a moment of debate since it would be awkward to open the door now that he was wet and naked, to ask for a towel. On the other hand he didn't really have anything in there with him that he could use as a makeshift towel so he really didn't have many options.
In his top drawer Heero found himself a new pair of boxers and a clean white T-shirt. From the next drawer he got a pair of clean faded light blue jeans. He pealed off his black tank top and threw it into the far corner. He tossed his clean clothes onto the edge of the bed and undid his pants, pulling both them off and his boxers at the same time. He got his new boxers on and leaned forward to get his clean form fitting jeans when he heard the bathroom door open behind him. He froze in half bend then shot straight up and turned around. Duo had cracked the door open and was leaning his head out. Was that a blush on his cheeks or was his face red from the hot water. He had definitely gotten into the shower, Heero could see droplets of water running down the side of his face. Duo's eyes quickly looked down at the carpet like he was embarrassed, Heero smirked.
"Uhm, I was just…could I get a towel?" Heero snapped out of his reverie and quickly grabbed his pants. He yanked them on without bothering to zip them up.
"Yeah, sorry I forgot." He ran over to the linen closet and grabbed one of the white fluffy hotel towels out of it. He walked back over to the bathroom door and slowly approached it, the thought just crossing his mind that on the other side of this door was a soaking wet naked Duo with his hair down. He was suddenly really glad that he had chosen a little looser pant to wear. He handed the towel over to Duo through the crack in the door, and Duo reached out a bare arm, that had steam rolling off, to take it. A little bit of Duo's wet hair fell down over his shoulder, and Heero stopped breathing when he felt Duo wet fingers slide in between his to grab the towel. The jolt of electricity was instant and the feeling of Duo's wet skin against his was almost too much to bear.
"Thanks. I'll try not to use all the hot water." Duo smiled again and looked away from Heero who stepped away from the door. It slid closed with a soft click and Heero went back to getting dressed. He threw on his T-shirt and realized that it was only about eight o' clock in the morning, they still had the whole day ahead of them. He walked over to the phone deciding that if he ordered breakfast now, then it would probably arrive about the time Duo got out of the shower. He placed a large order, getting almost everything on the menu since he didn't know what Duo liked. He figured he would just cover whatever the races wouldn't.
Heero sat on the couch and listened tranquilly to the sound of the water hitting the floor of the tub. It felt like he sat there for hours, just listening, when he finally heard the shower shut off. He turned the T.V. on so it didn't look like he had just been sitting there doing nothing, he flipped through until he found a channel that had music videos on it. The current one was by some teen punk band that thought their lyrics were really deep when all they actually managed to do was sound like whiny little kids who didn't understand what real problems were.
He instead chose to listen to the sounds of rustling clothes drifting from the bathroom. He took a deep calming breath when he heard the door creak open and soft footsteps padded along the carpeted floor. When they stopped he looked up to find Duo, his skin still pink from the hot shower, he was standing next to the couch and toweling off the wet tip of his braid. Heero followed Duo's eyes to the stack of bed linens on the short coffee table, the one's from the bed he had made himself on the couch. He still hadn't put them away, he had gotten so lost in the sounds of Duo's shower.
"Hey Heero if you had a bed made up, why didn't you sleep in it?" The thought had been plaguing Duo's mind ever since he watched the other boy pick up the blanket off the couch. Heero froze, he wasn't quite sure how he was going to explain this one. He could tell Duo the truth or make up a story, but what kind of story could explain it. He stood up to meet Duo eye to eye. Maybe there was a way to explain it and tell the truth but not make this any more uncomfortable than it already was.
"Well, I was going to but when I laid you down my arm got trapped under you and I couldn't move it without waking you up. So I figured we're two adults, it's no big deal right." Damn sounding casual when you're nervous as hell can be hard. Heero tried to stand in what he thought was a natural position but it didn't feel very natural now that he had to think about it. 'No big deal, then why are you so nervous?' He also became suddenly aware of Duo walking up next to him. His back went stiff, it was an old habit of his whenever somebody got into his personal space to go attack mode. He kept himself in control despite his nerves going crazy at Duo's sudden close proximity. He felt a hand on his shoulder and couldn't help but look up to face the boy, he hadn't realized he had been staring at the floor while he talked.
"Heero, I…" Duo looked down at his feet and in blink he had flung himself at the boy. It took the poor guy a few moments before he realized Duo was hugging him. He could feel the other boy's solid form pressed against him. It was even more intoxicating in the early morning than it had been in the club. He feel could it when the boy took a breath, it pushed them closer together and the air when he exhaled would tease the hairs at the base of his neck. He felt his body relaxing into the touch, his mind slipping away at the comfort he felt, even his eyes were begging to drift closed. He could have stayed like that forever. Heero finally managed to clear his mind enough to respond and he placed his hands gently on Duo's shoulders to pull his face far away enough to see it. He could smell his own shampoo on Duo's hair and could feel those wet tendrils tickling his arms. Occasionally a drop of cold water would hit and slide down his hand.
"Duo what's wrong?" Heero asked and cursed himself because all he could think about was how Duo was close enough to kiss. All he would have to do is lean forward a little and he would be able to taste the longhaired boy.
"Nothing, I just wanted to say thanks for taking care of my drunk sorry ass." Duo smiled, but it was a sad smile. "And I'm sorry for being all weird and suspicious earlier this morning." Heero really didn't know what to say, Duo's body pressed against his was still slowing all his thought processes. They just stood there, holding and staring at each other. Duo couldn't back away, why was it so hard to let go of Heero's warmth. There was so much comfort and this warm safe feeling he had when Heero was close to him, he had never felt anything like it and he was scared of it but still couldn't let go.
There was a knock at the door and the moment was broken, Duo stepped away and Heero went to answer the door. A man in a hotel uniform stepped in pushing a cart with a ton of plates on it they all held dishes that smelled so good it made Duo's stomach grumble. Heero stood there for a while sorting out the bill with the hotel worker, Duo sat back down on the couch and watched the T.V. while he waited for Heero to tell him what all the good smells were and what they were for. The video for Green Day's song "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" was on, it was the weirdest video Duo had seen. He loved the song even if it struck a chord with him that he couldn't handle sometimes, but the video he just couldn't understand.
"My shadow's the only one who walks beside me. My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating. Sometimes I wish someone up there would find me, until then I walk alone." 'Oh shut up' Duo thought, guess today was one of those when he didn't want to think about it all. But still he couldn't help the stray thought passing through that maybe Heero was someone who could find him, and he wouldn't have to be alone anymore. He was shook out of his reverie by Heero pushing that huge cart over to the coffee table and opening every plate on it to reveal all the scrumptious breakfast foods underneath. There was a bowl of fruit and eggs and ham and cereals and oatmeal and honey and sausage a mountain of toast. There was orange juice and apple juice, apple pie and pancakes, waffles and jam and biscuits. 'Oh dear Lord I think I love him.' The stray thought crossed his mind and he pushed it out as quickly as it entered.
"My dear boy, before I kiss you tell me what we are celebrating with all this wonderful food." Heero had a shy smile on his face and Duo ate it up, the kid was adorable when he smiled.
"I didn't know what kind of food you liked so I got a little bit of everything." Heero shrugged and Duo laughed, jumping up giddily and running over to the cart that he could no longer resist.
"This is all for me?" Duo picked up a piece of watermelon from the fruit bowl and popped it into his mouth. He usually ate sugary crap in the morning that set him on a high until he could eat again, and with his crazy schedule he never knew when that would be.
"Well I was hoping we could share." Heero said and Duo chuckled.
"What should we try first?" Duo eyed the plates greedily. He picked up a pancake, folded it in half and shoved the whole thing in his mouth. Heero quirked an eyebrow at him then picked up a bowl of plain oatmeal, dribbled a little honey on it and began to eat. It took an hour but Duo ate his way through over half of the plates on the cart. Heero had finished off the oatmeal and picked at a few things but that was really all. He had a hard time concentrating on food when all he could think about was how Duo managed to stay as thinly muscular as he was and still pack away as much food as he did. When Duo finally decided that he'd had enough and Heero managed to stop gawking at the boy they sat down to figure out what the rest of the day held for them. It was about 9:30 now and Heero needed to take a five-minute shower, but after that they were free to do whatever. Duo knew he should just walk away, that he was already in this way deeper than he should be. It was damn obvious that he was in too far if he couldn't just get up and walk away, but well he couldn't.
"Go take your shower, then we'll go down to the track or something." Heero smiled and ruffled his dirty hair.
"Yeah, I'll be out in a minute." He headed towards the bathroom in sort of a dazed state. It was still trying to sink into his head that this morning he had woken up with Duo in his bed, that the boy was wearing his clothes and that they were now going to go hang out together. How was it possible that they had only known each other for a day? "Oh and if you don't want to go to your room yet, you can borrow anything of mine to wear. I think we're close to the same size."
Duo looked down at himself, he had forgotten that he had put on sleepwear, he had forgotten he had planned on taking a nap. When he had seen Heero sitting there, like they did this every morning, there was such a sense of longing in him that he had to hold the other boy. He had to do it, it seemed like such a natural thing to do after waking up with someone that for once he indulged and allowed himself to feel like a normal person. For some reason after that he didn't think about his hangover anymore, he felt perfectly fine.
He heard the water shut off and realized that when Heero said he was going to take a five-minute shower, he meant it. In a few minutes Heero stepped out of the bathroom looking fresh and handsome. He had on the clothes he had put on earlier since they weren't dirty yet. He was rubbing furiously at the mop on top of his head and didn't look like he had any intention of combing it. Duo wondered if that's why his hair always looked like that hopeless bed-head. Heero plopped down on the couch next to Duo and of course said nothing, the boy always waited for Duo to start the conversation. Duo smiled to himself, the guy was endearing.
"So what shall we do today Heero, it's early still. I was thinking about heading down to the track and checking out the competition." It was a strange feeling to be so comfortable with someone you barely knew, but Duo was at perfect ease with Heero by his side, and it seemed that Heero too had let down a lot of defenses from the moment they had met.
"I'm all the competition you've got to worry about." He stated with a smug voice. Duo snorted, it was of course true but still funny to hear Heero say. He kept forgetting that they were sworn enemies in the racing world. "There's a beach just a couple of hours from here. I could teach you to surf."
"You mean I could teach you." Duo shot back before he realized that he had agreed to go with Heero to the place where in his dreams they had almost… Well it was a bad idea to say the least and here he was jumping right in without thinking.
"Like you taught me how to race yesterday?" Heero said sarcastically.
"Hey I'm gonna spank you on the rematch." Duo tossed back, he was still mad at himself for agreeing to the beach.
"Spank me, huh? I guess you like it rough." That shook Duo a little bit, it seemed that even Heero was a little surprised that he had said it. "Anyway, I have a suit you can borrow, but we'll have to rent boards I didn't drag that big ass thing all the way down here."
So, once again despite Duo's better judgment, he was off with Heero on an adventure that involved the possibility of being close to the boy in ways that Duo wasn't ready for. Half naked and wet really wasn't a temptation he was wanted to deal with. Not to mention how good that dream in the shower had been, was it only yesterday that had happened it felt like eternity. Heero grabbed a pair of black and blue shorts the looked like they were made out of the scuba material and he tossed Duo a pair of normal black swim trunks. Duo grabbed a couple of water bottles from the mini-bar then followed Heero out the door.
Down the hall in the same hotel a young cinnamon haired boy awoke, his deep green eyes resting on the sight of his new blonde lover slumbering as he held him in his arms.
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Thanks to everyone who has stuck through this story with me, I love you all. I fixed the Quatre thing, yeah I know how to spell the name I just had it wrong in my dictionary and I hate those red squiggly lines. Anyway I was waiting for someone to call me on it so I would get off my lazy butt and fix it.
Thank you so much Silver Cateyes, I am so lad that someone out there is still reading, and even better you're enjoying it. You're reviews are wonderful, probably the only reason I'm still writing this thing is because your reviews make me want to make this story great.
And Zeno the Stoic, all that goes for you too. I hope I can become a better writer a long the way and really make this worth reading.
There are some plot turns and naturally Relena doesn't give up that easy. I wont give away anymore, but well...I hope you enjoyed and keep reviewing so I know if I should continue.