Title: A Single Strand of Hair
Theme + Number: #24/ Hair

Genre: Drama/Romance/General
Warnings: Spoilers for the "Episode Zero" manga with all the flashbacks to the G-boys' childhoods.
Character/Pairing: Duo/Heero
Word Count: 568
Rating: PG
Summary: It's amazing how much importance a person's hair can have.

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There was something unique about each one of them.

Duo's was worn in a long braid, flowing down his back like a rope and flopping about behind him as he ran. It was a symbol of his memories, of the friends and family he'd lost years ago.

Wufei's was jet-black. Worn now tightly pulled back, as if abiding by a tradition of a monk. But there were days in his past when his hair and heart were free. Days he dedicates to his beloved Nataku.

Quatre's blonde locks identified him immediately as part of the Winner family. His hair was like his mother's, a mother he'd never met because she died giving birth to him.

Trowa's hair hung like a vertical mask over his face. Hiding it from the past he never knew. Yet, without realizing it, his hair had the identical shade of brown that a girl who worked at the local Circus had.

Heero's hair was in all ways- normal. A messy mop of dark brown that never seemed to fall the same direction twice. It had no connection to his past. And it didn't explain anything about lost family or lost loves. It was one thing he had no sentimentality attached to. Unlike the others, his hair was just that- hair- and nothing more.

But that changed with time. The words of his mentor always present in his mind, helped lead him down the paths that would shape his future.

"Do as your heart tells you to," Odin Lowe's words echo in his mind even to this day.

And those words took him down a path that no one could have ever imagined. Perhaps it was fate, perhaps it was his heart's desire- but whatever it was, those words drove boy who would one day take the name Heero Yuy onward.

First, he became a Gundam pilot. A chance meeting with a scientist and the right feeling in his heart and Heero was on his way.

It was during his missions as a pilot that he encountered the four other boys. Each of them had strands of hair that told a story; and with them- he'd soon find a reason to call his own appearance something extraordinary.

Together, the five boys fought a war. Each bringing with them, their stories of their pasts and their hopes for the future. Along with a brave young woman named Relena, they were able to usher in an era of peace.

But Heero still found nothing particularly notable about his looks. That is, until he found out that someone else found them noteworthy.

Duo had somehow wormed his way into part of Heero's everyday life. Even if the braided young man wasn't there physically, Heero found himself thinking about him instead. It was only a matter of time before the two found what they'd always been looking for in each other.

And finally, Heero found that his looks had meaning. Duo found them attractive and that was all the reason Heero ever needed. Whatever it was about the unruly dark brown strands that Duo found appealing, Heero wasn't quite sure. But Duo loved him, loved everything about him- and that made all the difference.

Now each morning, Heero found himself spending just a little more time than usual trying to get the hairs to fall into place; even if Duo would only come along and mess it up later.

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