Click.

The second of silence that passed after that sound was similar to the second that passes just after someone has dropped your birthday cake.

And the dog is eating it.

Yes. It was most definitely had that sort of feeling.

Or, maybe it was something more akin to seeing your life flash before your eyes.

Whichever.

Duo –gaping, unable to breath, very close to having a post-war panic attack— shifted his gaze from the presumably empty gun, and looked at Heero. ". . ."

The Japanese pilot met the stunned expression of the American with a customary, harsh glare… before he burst out laughing-- that scary, psycho, I'm-About-To-Blow-Your-Ass-Up kind of laughter.

Again, Duo saw his life flash before his eyes. That made it twice in once day. Twice in the past 5 minutes, for that matter.

However, he was quite certain that this time, it would be his last.

Either noticing that Duo wasn't laughing with him, or that Duo looked close to fainting (the latter seems like the more realistic of the two), Heero quieted, lowering his gun. "It was a joke."

Only Heero Yuy could say that with the sort of tone a doctor might use when saying 'You have cancer.'

"A.. A joke?" Duo echoed dumbly.

Heero tucked the gun into the waistband of his jeans, and nodded with a small grunt.

"What kind of a joke is that!" the braided one asked shrilly. Since when did Heero have a sense of humor?

Maybe he really had died…

"Hn." Heero appeared pensive for a moment. "Chang assured me that this particular ruse was an adequate form of amicable deception between comrades," he explained, his voice no different than the one he'd used to discuss attack strategies in the past.

Okay. So he was alive. And Heero had just attempted a joke.

Wait.

Backtrack.

Wufei was actually encouraging this type of behavior…?

Fine. He wasn't dead.

But Hell had frozen over.

Duo blinked a few times, realizing that Heero was still standing out there on the doorstep, and that it was still raining quite badly.

"Right.. Uh.. Come in…" he mumbled quickly, keeping a wary eye on the sodden soldier as he backed out of the way.

Closing and locking the door once the 01 Pilot was inside, Duo turned around and found that…

They were practically nose to nose.

"Wha--?"

Heero stiffly leaned in closer, and gave Duo a brief, if not somewhat rigid, hug.

That confirmed it.

Satan had just started a snowball fight.

Duo was sure he would have toppled over if Heero wasn't still holding onto his arms.. And was giving him an odd look…

Oh.

Oh shit.

The makeup.. er.. lipstick.. lipgloss, rather, was shining with all the glory the advertisement had promised it would.

Running his tongue over the length of his top and bottom lip, hoping to lick-away some (yet knowing that there was no helping the matter, really), Duo tried to tug himself out of Heero's vice-like grip. "You weirdo. What was that all about? All that huggin' and stuff, anyway? And—"

"Why do you have on--?" Heero started to ask, ignoring Duo's attempt to divert his attention with some quick-talking.

"It's not.. I mean…" Duo paused; he couldn't outright lie. "It's raining, okay?" he huffed, as if that fact should explain everything.

Heero nodded once more, accepting the answer (or deciding that he didn't want to delve any deeper), and reached down, each hand grabbing hold of one of the handles of two suitcases…

Wiping his mouth clean on the hem of his shirt, Duo frowned. "What are you doin' with those?"

Stepping out of his boots, Heero walked past him and into the living room.

"Hey, did ya hear me?" Duo followed after him, in the back of his mind trying to assure himself that a big, pink splotch on his black shirt was better than wearing the stuff in front of Heero.

Setting both suitcases flat on the coffee table, the 01 pilot opened the one on the left, removing a dry tanktop and pair of pants. "I am in need of secure residency for approximately thirty days."

Duo blinked. Heero was sure full of surprises today! "What? You want to stay here, with me?"

"…Yes," he replied, sliding out of his wet top and pulling on the dry one.

"Wow.. You actually came all the way to L2…" Duo mused aloud, awestruck. How many times had he emailed Heero, inviting him to drop by?

He'd known that, deep down, Heero wanted to come for a short vacation, even if the Japanese pilot had always responded to his emails with 'No, stop sending me messages.'

So, maybe that joke was a tad on the sadistic side of the fence, and maybe that hug was more than a little strange. So what if they hadn't seen one another face to face for almost a year?

When he thought about it, maybe it just meant that Heero really did care! The bond that they'd formed during the war was strong! Yeah! It was the kind of bond that was between two people who understood one another, respected one another to the point—

The 02 Pilot's thoughts were cut off as he was hit in the chest with a balled up, water-logged shirt and jeans.

Snapping back to reality, Duo happily carried the bundle to the kitchen, where he opened the cellar door, tossing the wet clothes down the stairs to join the large pile of laundry at the bottom. "Well, it's great that you finally decided to check out my place! This is gonna be a blast, having you stay for a month," he called back to Heero. "Man, if anyone ever needed a grand tour of ol' L2, I'm the guy they should see. I know the best places around, not to brag or anything."

Duo chuckled, pulling off his sullied shirt to toss down the stairs as well. "There's this incredible bar that I wanna take you to. Now, I know you don't really like that kinda stuff, but just trust me on this one. You're gonna…"

Reentering the living room, he sighed, stopping mid-sentence. There was no reason to keep talking, seeing that Heero was sitting on the couch, arms crossed and head bowed—asleep.

Heero had always had a tendency to decide it was nap time whenever Duo wanted to chat.

Rather than take offense, Duo knew that this only meant that his buddy was comfortable enough around him to sleep. It didn't mean that Heero was being rude. Pssh. Please.

Grinning, the American merely shrugged to himself, reassured that nothing had changed between them. This was a very good sign, in his books.

Heading back to his bedroom, Duo grabbed a clean shirt before busying himself with cleaning up the bathroom. Though it was too bad he hadn't gotten to finish the job he'd started –he fondly looked at a small tube of glitter— it was alright.

Hell, it was more than alright. His buddy, Heero, was coming to live with him! That more than made up for it.

Indulged in thoughts of the fun they were going to have, Duo didn't hear the front door to the house open, and was surprised when Hilde's voice suddenly sounded.

"Duo, I'm back! Where— What are you doing here?"

Duo cringed as he put the black makeup bag back into Hilde's drawer.

It would seem she'd discovered their new house guest.

x

Sorry for the delay between chapters! I've had the worst case of writers block for quite some time now. Anyway, hope you liked this chapter.

Any OOCness shall be explained in future chapters. For now, just accept things as they come.

Please review if you enjoyed!

Zangai