"Blushing a cue for her falsities
Advantage is my only masterpiece
Penny is poison but I don't mind
Penny is poison but I don't mind

Gardening malice for murderers
Flushes to me are the weeds to her

We know who we are

Starving the love of the marvelous
I was the penny to previous"

"Penny is Poison", Vervepipe

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

The next morning Duo and Heero made their way to Solo's apartment to collect him as usual. The day was a nice one, less sweltering than usual, lending it a fresh feeling. As Duo pushed through the tarp-door, he heard someone rushing to meet him. Expecting his blond companion, he was surprised when instead Trish came barreling into the room.

As she saw them, she sighed heavily and turned around, obviously disappointed.

"Hey Trish, where's Solo at?" Duo said pleasantly as he walked up to the suddenly distraught girl.

"He's not here. I been waitin all da damn day for em."

Duo felt a shiver go up his spine. The night before had been a strange one as it was, let alone the way Solo had been acting towards the end of it.

"Do you know where he went?" Heero said smoothly, as if he was asking what time it was.

Trish was silent for a minute, biting at her lower lip. She licked her lips, her tongue ring flashing out, before answering.

"Yah. I do. But I can't tell ya, or else he'd kill me. If he isn't here in an hour, I'll go and check on him."

"That's not good enough Trish, now where is he?"

Duo was getting angry quickly. Obviously Solo was somewhere he shouldn't be, and Trish was worried for him. This did little to calm his nerves.

"Look cher, it's a deal we have with each other. I don tell nobody where he is, and if he doesn't come home by a certain time, I go and get him."

This answer definitely did not please Duo, and the boy gave her a very serious expression. He was not leaving this apartment without Solo. Or directions to find him.

"Trish, tell me where to go to find Solo, NOW."

Trish stepped back at the sudden shout, but nodded. She seemed shaken by Duo's sudden change in attitude. She had never seen him go into shinegami mode before, so it was easy to see why she would worry.

"Fine. But only you can go Duo," she gave a sharp glance between the two boys. After a tense second or so, Heero nodded unhappily his agreement to the deal. "Fine then. He's in a motel, three blocks down and one up. Fourth floor, fifth door on the right."

"Thanks."

With that Duo was through the tarp like a bat out of hell.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

As he walked down the fourth floor hallway of the Twilight Motel, the sinking feeling in Duo's stomach became worse. The motel wasn't as bad as he expected it to be, but he wasn't sure what to expect when he came to the fifth door.

With a deep breath he tried the knob, half expecting it to be locked. It swung open easily. Stepping into the dark motel room, he tried to find a light switch. The room had the blinds drawn across the windows, and was pitch black, expect for the square of light let in by the open doorway.

"Don't turn on the light!"

Duo recognized the scratchy, hoarse voice that called to him from the dark.

"Solo?" Ignoring the request, Duo closed the door to the hallway and began feeling along the dark wall, looking for a switch.

"Duo, get the fuck out of here!" The voice snarled at him. In all honesty, Duo paused for a minute in his search. He'd rarely heard Solo sound so angry. But he had come all this way, he wasn't leaving without him.

Finally finding the switch, Duo sighed in relief. He prepared to turn on the light, when he heard the same voice as before from across the room. But had he not known that voice so well, he would have thought it was a different person.

"Please Duo. Just leave."

Torn between the painful begging of the voice, and concern for his best friend, Duo stood with his fingers placed on the switch. Eventually he flicked it on and the fluorescent lights hummed and crackled as they turned on, filling the room with the dim yellowy light that had grown so over time.

The room was a modest motel room, a large king size bed right in the middle. Across from the foot of the bed was a dresser/TV stand with a small TV on it. Next to the head of the bed was a table. There was a small bronze key resting on the table, which was about four feet from the bed. On the far side of the room, to the left of the window was a bathroom and counter complete with coffee maker.

Solo was lying on the bed, each wrist hand cuffed to a bed post. The key on the nightstand suddenly made sense.

As Duo looked at Solo, he felt like he was going to scream, or vomit, or both. His friend was only wearing his pair of black leather pants from the night before, which now had tears along the length of them. But the rips went deeper than the leather, right into Solo's legs. Blood had caked along his thighs and calves, and crisscrossed cuts covered his ankle.

Before he could see anything else Duo looked into his best friend's face. His eyes were hard and guarded. There was also a furious anger just below the surface that Duo was very worried about.

"Fine. You've seen me. Congratu-fuckin-lations. Now get out!" Straining against the handcuffs Solo brought part of his body up off the bed.

Stepping forward despite the danger in Solo's eyes, Duo got a better view of the rest of him. There were long thin cuts running across his chest. Some were deeper than others, and those were still oozing slightly. The rest were more like paper cuts, shallow and painful, but not dangerous.

They ran along his whole body, even one ran directly up his neck, ending at his chin. His face seemed fine, except for a bruise that was on his right temple. The worst thing was his wrists though. It was obvious that the cuffs had been made too tight, and they were old and had sharp nicks along them. His wrists were rubbed raw, the skin torn off by his obvious attempts to escape.

"God…Solo…" Duo couldn't seem to breathe. The sight of all the blood covering his best friend, it seemed to bring up old memories. Before he could say anything else, Duo rushed to the nightstand and grabbed the key, heading towards the bed. When he was within reach, Solo flung his leg out and connected solidly with Duo's stomach, sending him back a few feet.

"Don't come near me. Get the fuck out already. I don't need your damn sympathy."

Duo looked up from being doubled over to see the fury in the eyes of his best friend. But that wasn't enough to convince him to leave.

He tried again, and like a caged animal, again Solo lashed out at him with his feet. Duo took a moment to grab a hold of his legs, his hands slipping over the leather, still slick with blood.

"Don't touch me. Get away," Solo panted out as he tried to writhe out of Duo's grasp, which definitely wasn't easy for him considering his arms were still spread painfully wide by the handcuffs.

Duo pushed Solo's legs down and swung himself onto the bed, straddling Solo at the waist and effectively pinning him down.

"Stop it Solo. I'm not leaving without you."

This didn't seem to calm the bucking blond at all, but with his limited mobility and the weight of Duo on top of him, he wasn't getting any closer to escaping. He finally stilled long enough for Duo to lean over him and unlock the handcuff on his left wrist. He expected Solo to retaliate, but instead his gold eyes met Duo, as if questioning what he was waiting for.

After he finished with the other wrist, Solo held them to his chest, tenderly looking at the torn flesh. Duo just sat on him, suddenly feeling slightly awkward. Here he was, with his best friend who looked like he lost a fight with a blender, and he was having dirty thoughts about him.

'Oh yeah. I'm so going to hell. No questions about it.'

"Duo?" Duo snapped out of his thoughts at the sound of his name. Solo was looking up at him, an unreadable expression on his face. His hands were resting on Duo's knees, and were now slowly rubbing up his thigh. Duo was about to say something, or even worse, do something, when Solo spoke again.

"Would you might getting your fat ass off of me?" With this Solo's hands reached Duo's hips and hurled him off of the bed. There was a satisfying thud as the boy hit the floor, and Solo rolled over to face him. "Oh, and hand me my vest would ya?"

Duo snarled some curse angrily up at the blond before throwing his leather vest into his face.

"Thanks."

Solo reached his arms painfully through the vest and let it hang on him unzipped. The too-small vest would probably have been extremely painful to have against so many fresh wounds anyway.

"Solo," Duo sat up on his knees, looking at Solo who still sat on the edge of his bed, his legs dangling off. "What happened to you?"

"Nothing. We should go," As Solo stood up, so did Duo. He grabbed the other by the shoulders and forced him to sit back on the bed. Duo knelt back down next to the bed, looking up to Solo's face.

"No Solo. You look like you were attacked, and I wanna know why you were in this shitty motel handcuffed to a bed."

Solo face split into a fierce grimace. "Isn't it obvious? Hell, you know what I do for a living."

"It would make sense Solo, except that your pants are still on," Duo crossed his arms and was pleased at the slightly pink tinge that raced across Solo's cheeks. But the blush was short lived and soon Solo sat, his shoulders tense, staring down at his feet. Duo waited patiently.

"Look Duo. It makes good money. A hell of a lot more than I could get turning tricks for a whole year. I…" Solo clenched his fists then ran his hands through his hair. Duo was silently breaking inside for his friend. He had known that life on L2 was rough, but he never knew how bad it could be. Or maybe it was just easier to forget about the pitfalls and bury the dark memories.

"It doesn't matter Solo. No amount of money is worth….this…." Duo was finding it hard to talk to Solo, as he sat on the bed splattered with his own blood. He finally raised his eyes to face Duo, and they were as shielded and cold as they were before.

"Don't preach to me Duo, alright," His voice was icy and threatening, and he calmly got up and went to the nightstand, sliding open a drawer. In it was a large envelope which he folded and put in his back pocket.

"Who did this to you Solo?" Duo sat stock still and when Solo looked at him, the fear in his eyes struck a chord in the street rat. He thought Duo was just being nosy and preachy. He didn't realize that the look in his amethyst eyes wasn't condescending, it was frightened.

With a sigh, Solo came over and sat on the floor, his back to the bed. Duo was kneeling at his side, his braid hanging over one shoulder. Following an odd inclination, Solo reached forward and pushed the braid onto Duo's back, brushing against his neck as he did it.

"We call him High Roller. No one knows his real name or where he comes from. The most anyone knows is that he's a CEO of some company on Earth, and comes up here on "business trips"," Solo made quotation marks with his fingers in the air. Duo just nodded his head. He had heard of rich men traveling out of their country, or even off Earth, to satisfy their illegal needs.

"So he pays you…for what?"

Solo just motioned to the cuts across his body.

"This. He's a sadist. He needs to hurt people to…" Solo fell silent and seemed to curl up on himself, and Duo was afraid that he had pushed him too far, "To feel something. His life is too perfect, everything he has. It's like some sort of weird backlash of having a good life. He has to feel…dirty…" Solo shrugged, unable to find the word he was looking for.

"How many times….how long has this happened?" Duo looked over the horrific cuts and occasional gashes and wondered if the scars he used to caress lovingly as battle wounds had different origins than he had thought.

"Only about five or six times. He doesn't come up to the colony more than once or twice a year, and he usually lets the word get to me early. Obviously, this trip was spontaneous for some reason."

"Why you?" Duo made no effort to cover the bitterness in his voice.

Solo just looked at him, his disdain for his friend's naiveté plainly in his eyes.

"Oh come on Duo. I get five grand for just one night with this man. And you know I can take it, you know I heal quickly. Hell, you saw me recover a punctured lung and buised ribs in only three days."

Duo couldn't argue with him, it was obvious that Solo did have pretty miraculous healing abilities. But that didn't mean he should allow people to bleed him half to death just to pay the bills.

"He heard about Wolf because of my reputation as a whore, and approached me about doing this kind of work. When he told me how much he was willing to pay, I accepted."

There was a short silence as Duo got up off the floor and Solo looked around the room, trying to find both of his shoes. When his back was turned to Duo, he heard a soft, careful whisper from behind him.

"Do you enjoy it?"

Solo froze, his boot in hand, hunched over. Duo waited, but it didn't seem like the blond was making any sort of effort to answer him. He went back to carefully putting on his shoes and stood up, back straight and shoulders set.

"I won't be much help to you today. Come to the apartment sometime tomorrow and I should be healthy enough by then."

Duo had to run after Solo as the boy suddenly darted from the room and made his way down the hallway. But Duo wasn't going to be outrun that easily.

"Come back Solo!"

Catching up to him at a turn on the stairs, Duo grabbed him by the shoulder. Solo's body twitched at the feeling of Duo's rough palm on the fresh cut. But it was enough to make the older boy stop running and that was all Duo needed.

"Look, come back to my apartment. We have a full first aid kit. I'll help you with those cuts."

"I've done it on my own plenty of times Duo. I don't need you to baby me."

Despite the words, Solo's voice was flat and tired. Slowly they proceeded out of the motel, and Solo turned to the back roads and alleys that would lead to Duo's apartment. He held his vest close together while trying to keep it from sticking to his wounds.

They received a lot of strange looks on the way, and Duo met each with a glare Heero would have been proud of. Luckily the motel Solo had been at was about halfway between the gang's hideout and Duo's current lodging.

As Duo unlocked the door and opened it for Solo, he suggested that they get him cleaned up in the bathroom, where the first aid kit was.

Solo nodded in agreement, walked into the bathroom, and shut the door in Duo's face.

"What the hell? Solo open the door."

"I told you to stop treating me like I'm some fucking baby. I can take care of myself."

Duo was taken back by the vicious response. In all honesty, there'd never been a time when Solo had ever wanted to be away from Duo. It may have been some flippant move by Solo, but Duo was taking it to heart. He sat quietly on his bed, listening to the water falling in the shower and trying to sort out his emotions.

'First I obsess over Heero and now that I have him…all I can think about is Solo.'

The door opened and Solo came out, half-wet blond hair hanging over his face. He was fully clothed and most of his injuries bandaged, especially the ones on his wrists and ankles.

"Thanks for the shower," he muttered as he passed Duo on his way to the door.

"Wait!" Duo jumped up and grabbed Solo's arm, accidentally squeezing one of his wounds. He heard the blond hiss and he snatched his arm back in pain.

"Why should I? I thanked you for the shower. And thanks for the first aid too. Now fuck off."

Duo stood with his jaw open for a second as Solo tried to get away again. But this time Duo used his speed to his advantage and darted in front of him, backing up against the locked door.

"I don't get this Solo. You're not acting like yourself at all. Why are you just storming out? I want to know what's going on with you lately."

Solo just stared Duo down. He wanted out of this room and Duo was in between him and the only exit. He practically growled as he tried to push Duo out of the way. But the boy wouldn't be budged and clung tighter to the door behind.

"Why won't you tell me what's going on Solo? Two years ago you'd have been all over me. You're acting like a zombie or something. You're not the same, Solo."

Duo was surprised when he felt tears behind his eyes. He blinked and they were gone just as fast as they had shown up. What he had said seemed to strike a chord in Solo, as the older boy just stood and stared back at him. At Duo's intense eyes, Solo was forced to look at the floor. He knew he should tell Duo the truth, it would make life so much easier right now, but he couldn't bring himself to.

"I can't stand being here, all right?" Solo said in a raspy voice.

"Why?" Duo let the anger out of his voice and replaced it with pure concern and compassion. He also let Solo take his time with the response. Another minute ticked by on the red clock readout and Duo's eyes flicked towards the motion before returning to Solo's downcast head.

"Because….because I can't stand being this…this close to you and not being able," Solo's voice seemed to crack, and he took a breath to steady it, "not being able to have you. You already belong to someone else. I'm tired of trying to fight for something I know I can never have."

Duo watched as Solo stayed exactly where he was, frozen in place by hesitance or frustration. On the inside though, neither boy was as calm or still as they tried to be toward each other. Feelings fought in them, and reason and instinct warred.

Solo felt a hand brush against his long bangs, causing his eyes to flick up to the light that came through his heavy hair. Duo's hand brushed against his forehead, trailing around it until his thumb gently stroked his temple. He leaned into the gentle touch, feeling goose bumps rising on his neck. The other hand joined the first and pushed Solo's long blond hair behind his ears. Still he refused to look up and let his eyes remain only half-open.

Solo finally let his eyes slide closed as Duo's lips pressed softly against his. The rest of him stayed in the exact same place. The irrational fear that moving would cause this moment to end kept him stuck in the same position. Duo's fingers brushed along his head before meeting at the back of his neck as he pressed the kiss harder onto the older boy.

Duo pulled Solo's more than willing body down to the floor, till they were both sitting on their knees. He still leaned forward though, uncomfortably maintaining the kiss with the blond. As he kissed him Duo felt the cut on his lips as a bump of dried blood. He was careful to try and not reopen it as he gently licked at the other's mouth. Solo began to respond more and now let his hands come to rest on Duo's folded knees, leaning forward and making them both more comfortable as their slow kiss spoke for both of them.

Duo ended the kiss, giving one last gentle press to Solo's lower lip before pulling away. Both were flushed and the sound of each other's hard breathing just made them redden more.

"Lay back," Duo said softly. He fulfilled his own order by pushing Solo's shoulders gently until he was leaning back on his elbows, his legs spread to either side of Duo's knees.

Duo leaned down and began to gently bite and lick at Solo's earlobe. This caused him to throw his head back and open his mouth in a silent groan. Taking this as an invitation, Duo moved down and began to kiss his neck, carefully keeping to one side and avoiding the un-bandaged cut that ran straight down from his chin.

Solo felt Duo's hands resting on his chest as he continued to suck at the side of his neck. The hands were keeping Duo's balance, but soon he readjusted himself and began to run his hands down Solo's battered leather vest. At the feeling of warm hands running across his cuts and bruises made Solo feel suddenly vulnerable in Duo's hands and he let his head hang farther back, beginning to pant and squirm underneath Duo.

Duo's lips left Solo's neck just long enough to go to the other side and lick him there as well. This time Solo's groaning was no longer silent. His hands found the zipper to Solo's vest and slowly dragged it down.

"Unngh…." Solo couldn't keep himself quiet as he felt Duo open his vest and push it back so it rested on his elbows, which were still propping his body up. His mouth was working along his collarbone and his fingers ghosted across his chest. Slowly they brushed against his ribs and Solo twitched at the ticklish feeling before Duo's hands continued to wrap around his back.

So quick that there was almost an audible snap Solo's head was up and he pushed Duo off of him. The boy looked indignant to say the least as Solo put his vest back on and quickly re-zipped it.

"We're not doing this Duo."

"We were until you stopped," the boy shouted up at him, looking more than a little miffed.

"Fine then. I'm not doing this."

Solo walked over and began unlocking the bolts on the door, not listening to the many protests being screamed at his back. When he opened the door and it was slammed shut again by Duo's hand next to his, Solo turned on him in a flash.

"Look Duo. I'm going. You can do this if you want. But play this stupid shit with someone else. You have someone to go home to when you're done fucking me over. I don't. And I'm tired of it."

As he spoke his voice escalated till he was screaming back at Duo. The boy's bright purple eyes were wide in shock. In the next second the blond was gone and Duo was left in a very annoying predicament. Annoyed, shocked, horny, and heart broken.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

Ashley: Hello there! My singular reviewer. Hope you're enjoying where the fic is going. I was kinda taking a chance with this chapter, but I stand by it. Its kinda one of those the ends justifies the means things. The fic is going to get really really good in the next couple of chapters. We're reaching the climax people:crickets chirp from the audience: Yar…stupid silent readers….