Title: Circle of Truth
Author: Joyjemy
Rating: PG for minimal bad language
Pair: 1+2
Warnings: Alcohol, TWT, OOC (does it count if they're drunk?) Heero, Tiny Tiny bit of language, Sap
Notes: I was looking at the fireplace in my house and thought of this. I am weird.
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"There is truth in wine" -- Spanish proverb
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It was a cold, cold day outside. Duo didn't exactly know whichpart of the world they were in, but he did know that the temperature was quite literally freezing him to death.
The mission had been to stake out an old oil refinery factory that had had a suspicious amount of activity around it recently, raising a few alarms around the Doctors.
Trowa, Quatre and Wufei were on the other side of the world on an unrelated mission, and pilots 01 and 02 had been selected, partly due to skill and partly to availability, to do reconnaissance on the old factory and if deemed the facility suspicious to 'erase the problem.'
"More like 'blow that shit sky high and get the fuck outta there'," Duo stated loudly as he re-read the mission assignment print-off before leaving the sheets of paper on top of the fireplace that was on the side of the room. "Heero, do you think the Docs knew about how frickin' cold it is here? There's like… a blizzard outside," Duo said, walking towards the window and trying to peer through the icy white mass outside.
"Hn." Was Heero's response, his current fixation on his laptop taking away much of his concentration from his braided companion's babbling.
"Man this weather isn't going to clear. You and I both know we can't do shit in this," Duo pointed out, jerking a thumb at the swirling white on the other side of the glass before leaving the window to walk over and sit in a chair near his partner. He reached over and plucked an old magazine off the table that sat near the centre of the room, flipping through the pages idly, bored eyes barely absorbing what was on the glossy pages.
"Yes. The intensity of the weather is highly unexpected and inconvenient," Heero said in his patented monotone. "We will not be able to investigate the situation in such conditions."
And they both knew that they could still blow the place sky high in any weather, but the mission had outlined to do so only if they deemed the facility a direct threat.
"So how long are we gonna be stuck here doing nothing? I've got better things to do than sit around wasting time in a blizzard. Why couldn't this place be in Hawaii or something?" Duo blew an aggravated puff of air up at the light brown fringe that fell in his eyes.
"The weather forecast indicates the storm should begin to settle in a few days."
"DAYS?" Duo balked, sitting up in the chair. "Ah well… at least I got us enough supplies." He relaxed back into the chair, the old, torn piece of furniture offering up a surprising amount of comfort. Heero glanced at him briefly, the short look enough to convey his disapproval of the 'supplies' Duo had selected.
Duo had bought all the regular and required supplies… but had also bought 8 large bottles of alcohol. Duo's claim had been that since the safe-house had come with a full spice-rack, he had enough to cook whatever was asked of him. With regards to the alcohol, he had just shrugged at Heero's questioning glance, saying that 'nothing kills time like a few shots of vodka.'
"So what are you gonna do, Heero?" Duo queried, dropping the magazine he hadn't been reading back onto the table and staring at his quiet companion with interest. The Perfect Soldier had as little to do as he did in this weather. No other missions to write statements for, no other missions to complete, and the weather was too darn cold to do any extensive Gundam repairs. Duo was interested as to what the Perfect Soldier did to 'kill time.'
"I must inventory our supplies," he said emotionlessly, and Duo was sure he probably meant their weapons and explosives, rather than the bottles of assorted alcohol that filled the fridge. He closed the lid to his laptop, placed it on the table and left the room without another word.
Duo smirked at his fellow pilot's retreating back. Heero knew back to front exactly how much of everything they had, he just couldn't stand the fact he had nothing constructive to do.
"He's gonna sit out there and clean every gun until he can see his face in it," Duo chuckled under his breath. "But what am I gonna do?" he thought out loud. And then his eyes fell to Heero's laptop. Interesting.
The braided boy hopped off his chair and moved over to where Heero had been seated a few moments before. He booted the thing up and was met with the entry screen that demanded a password. Duo new that Heero was too clever to do things normally, and had a hunch that the wrong password would probably just completely lock the thing.
"It's a good thing you underestimate me, buddy boy," Duo whispered amusedly under his breath as his hand delved into his right pocket, finding a single disk inside. "Or you wouldn't be so careless around me."
The disk held a code-cracking program that Duo had written himself. His real strength was in his stealth abilities, true, but he was almost as proficient with computers as Heero. Duo didn't know why G had ordered him to keep his skills in that area relatively unknown, but knew that the Doctor's ulterior motive must serve some sort of crazy, crazy purpose somewhere down the track. Duo knew it was better to not question the mad scientists' motives and goals, because they would rarely give a straight answer, and when they did, it often raised more questions than it answered.
He slipped the disk in with a grin and waited for his auto-load to kick in and for the program to run. It was three minutes before the program deciphered Heero's password. It was a seemingly random series of numbers, letters and symbols, but tagged on the end was…
"What?" Duo wondered as he looked at the code his program had presented to him.
3zd7/cn28dha0--duo
Duo was puzzled; wondering why in the hell he would make an appearance in Heero's password. It was unexpected, like any good password should be, but… Duo wondered at the significance there.
At that moment, Duo heard movement from the room Heero was in and decided not to pursue his curiosity any further that night, ejecting the disk and closing the laptop down. Heero appeared in the doorway as soon as Duo had seated himself in the chair he had been in earlier.
"I have completed inventory. Everything is satisfactory," he announced. Duo waited for something else to be done or said, and was rewarded with nothing further.
"O…k…" he said slowly, standing up, trying to work out the somewhat expectant look on Heero's face. "Do you think I should cook dinner or something?" Duo asked with a wry smirk. Heero rarely asked for things. Just either expected them to happen, or did it himself.
"Hn," he said, giving a small approving nod. Duo made his way to the kitchen and Heero, after deciding there was nothing on his laptop to be accomplished, followed Duo and sat at the dinner table to wait.
"How's pasta for tonight sound, buddy?" Duo asked, getting out pans from the cupboards.
"Hn," was his reply.
"Alright cool. Now where did I put that pasta…?" Duo continued to talk, most of his questions and statements rarely needing an answer, and those that did usually found Heero's 'hn' to be satisfactory. He had gotten quite adept at having 'conversations' with Heero. He could talk about just about anything and Heero would just seem to sit and listen, occasionally grunting or making some other sound of acknowledgement.
On missions when the two of them where paired together, 'conversations' over the dinner table had become almost a tradition. Duo would make dinner, and if Heero had finished whatever he got up to on his laptop, he would sit at the table to wait and would let Duo talk.
If Duo talked about the mission he generally got more out of Heero than, say, when he talked about TV, but generally there was a sort of comfort that fell on the situation that often disappeared after the food from there plates was gone and they both went of to complete their own tasks.
Duo finished up the pasta and placed two steaming plates of it on the table.
"You want a drink, Heero?" Duo asked.
"Hn." A positive answer.
"Alrighty." Duo knew Heero probably just meant water, but when did a little bit of bourbon ever hurt anyone?
He put a glass of dark liquid in front of Heero, keeping the other in his hand, taking a swig when he sat down.
"What is this?" asked Heero, some form of curiosity in his voice.
"Bourbon and cola. You'll hate it," Duo said. He knew that Heero wouldn't 'hate it' but wouldn't drink it unless he was in some way challenged to do it. He had Heero more figured out that the Perfect Soldier knew.
He threw a glance at Duo, who took another gulp, and decidedly grabbed the glass, lifting it to his lips. His face held a certain determination as he drank, and the familiar surprise that a person has when the unexpected burn of alcohol in a drink hits your throat.
"Judgement?" Duo queried, another drink from his glass punctuating his question. Heero peered at the glass a little while before answering.
"Not…" he began, Duo waiting eagerly for the response, "…bad." He finished. Duo smiled, and took another drink.
"Cheers to alcohol!" Duo exclaimed raising his glass. Heero just looked at him flatly, but kept drinking nonetheless. Duo knew this was probably Heero's first experience with alcohol, but didn't doubt that he knew all about it's affects on the body. Knew that any mission-impairing damage would be gone by the time the weather cleared enough for them to actually complete it.
A bottle of bourbon later, Duo stood up and went over to the fridge to open another bottle.
"Hey man go on into the living room and I'll get us some more drinks," Duo said, only a slight slowing of his normally rapid-fire words showing any sign of his alcoholic endeavours.
He grabbed a bottle of vodka and some sort of sparkling water (possibly flavoured, possibly not. Not that it mattered to Duo at that point in time) and some bags of chips. He moved slowly to the living room and found Heero sitting on the rug in the middle of the room, looking out the window. Duo plopped down next to him and looked around.
"Why don't they have a fucking TV here, man?" He asked with a slight slur. Heero gave a sort-of shrug and finished his drink. "Hey you know what we could watch?" Duo said, standing up with a little more difficulty than he would have usually.
"What?" Heero prompted eventually, tracking Duo's movement as he moved about the room.
"Fire!" he exclaimed, almost laughing as he threw some magazines into the fireplace, along with some of the wood that was stacked beside it. He opened the bottle of vodka, took a quick sip, then poured a tiny bit onto the fire. "Matches, Heero?" he asked, looking expectantly at his chocolate-haired friend. Heero had foregone his usual spandex-tanktop combo in favour of more fitting clothing due to the frostiness of the weather, and produced a box of matches from within one of the pockets of his pants. "Thanks man," Duo said, taking the box, lighting a match, and dropping it into the small pool of liquid on the pages of magazines that lay inside the fireplace. The magazines caught fire immediately, and due to the dryness of the wood piled on top, the fire was burning steadily in no time at all.
Heero had since re-arranged himself so that he was looking at the fire and not the window, and Duo scooted back on the floor so that he was sitting next to his blue-eyed friend again.
"Hmm what next?" Duo said, looking at the 'supplies' he had brought with him from the kitchen. "Ok, chips, vodka…" he looked at the other bottles on the ground. "Raspberry soda and tonic water. I guess it could be worse."
Heero just looked on and waited.
"Well you'd be more of a vodka-tonic kinda guy, I think," Duo said, "Vodka-raspberry is more of a 'me' drink." He chuckled and poured some vodka in each of their glasses.
"I'll try it," Heero said, peering curiously (for Heero) at the bottle of raspberry, his cobalt eyes a bit glazed after his drinks. Duo looked over at him; a bit surprised he talked without needing to, but filled his glass with raspberry anyway.
"What are we going to toast this round to?" Duo asked, a smile forming on his face, "World peace?"
Heero snorted at the joke.
"To the Gundams," Heero said with a nod of his head. Duo was about to point out that Heero had blown up the thing he was toasting to more than once, but let it slide in the face of Heero being more human under the influence of alcohol.
"To the Gundams," Duo echoed, raising his glass and drinking from it.
After they had been through half the bottle of vodka, both staring silently into the fire and the night outside deepened, Duo eventually spoke up.
"Circle of truth," he said after a sip of his drink.
"What?" Heero said, tearing his gaze away for the endless movement of the flames to look at his partner.
"Circle of truth," Duo said again. "This, here, right now. It's a game you play when you've spent a night drinking with someone or friends or whatever," Duo said, his words tangling as he failed to fully co-ordinate the movements of his voice box to the rest of his mouth.
"Hnn," Heero grunted, indicating for Duo to continue.
"You can say, ask or do anything as long as it's the truth, and it never leaves the circle." Duo explained, gesturing his hands meaninglessly in the air.
"What circle?" Heero said, annoyance slipping into his slightly drunken, slightly nasal voice.
"This circle. The people you're drinking with are the circle. So you and me are the Circle of Truth," Duo explained further, swaying slightly as he looked into the fire.
"Hn. OK." Heero took another drink and surprised Duo but asking the first question. "Why are you always smiling?"
Duo looked up from the fire to find Heero's blue eyes fixed on his, the world around him tilting just a little bit, making his head hurt. Circle of truth. He had never played it with people who asked serious questions right of the bat before. Truth, huh?
"Because…," Duo began, turning back to stare at the orange curls of flame that moved and swirled in front of him. "Because it's better to be smiling than crying, man. I've had a shit life but I won't let it bring me down. I can't," Duo said sombrely, traces of a smirk still lingering on the corners of his lips even with those words.
"So why are you a robot all the time?" Duo turned and asked, since querying personalities seemed to be the go. "It can't be just the missions." Heero drowned the rest of his cup and turned to look at Duo.
"Because I've had a shit life and I won't let it bring me down. I can't," Heero quote Duo as his answer. A genuine smile graced Duo's features, a soft curve of his lips and softening of his brow in understanding.
They sat a while, their eyes returning to the fire as they contemplated what their companion had said, wondering what the other's pain was. If it hurt as deep as their own.
Duo filled up their glasses again, the liquid that was allowing them to bare their souls swirling around the glasses.
"What do you want to do after the war, Heero?" Duo asked softly.
"I don't think I'll live that long."
"I don't think I will either. But say we did."
"I… don't know," Heero got out, eventually. "I was made for this war."
"We all were Heero," Duo said, not sure if the words were meant to be angry or comforting. "But I like to keep so sort of hope locked away. You know, for after the war."
Heero looked at Duo as if he had said something strange.
"What hope?" He asked, obviously not having any post-war dreams of his own.
"To start my own business as a mechanic, maybe move to L2 and fix some shit up over there, find someone to spend my life with…" Duo was looking into the flames, yet somehow looking past them, deep in thought as he spoke words to Heero words he had never voiced before. "Just to be fucking ordinary."
Silence settled over them again.
"I suppose I am the same," Heero said, skulling the contents of his glass and accidentally smashing it when he put it on the ground. Neither of them seemed to notice the loud clang and the long fracture that now ran the length of the glass.
"You gonna settle down with that Relena chick?" Duo asked, finishing the contents of his glass and putting it down. It balanced on it's corner for a moment before tipping over, dribbles of alcohol falling into the carpet.
Heero snorted in disgust at that remark.
"No. I would want someone the exact opposite of her," Heero said, his voice soft and slurred.
Duo laughed riotously at the remark. "Man, the opposite of Relena would be like… me." He continued laughing, but after catching a glance at Heero quickly tried to calm himself.
Heero looked like an emotionless, robot dear caught in headlights – an odd combination to say the least, but it was the closest Duo could do to describe how his Japanese friend was looking at him. In his alcohol fogged state, his mind didn't quite catch on to what had just occurred, and it's significance.
"What?" Duo chirped nervously.
Heero just stared back at the American. Didn't he understand that…? That he…?
"Duo, I…" Heero began, his normally near-mute mouth apparently opting to stay quiet in the one time he needed to voice his thoughts. He almost got up and left but some part of him stayed.
The part that was in the Circle of Truth.
"Duo… I… You're so different to everyone else…" Heero began, self-expression a hefty task, even when he was filled with vodka.
"Heero…" Duo whispered quietly. Was Heero saying that…?
Heero struggled with words again, but stopped as a look of determination crossed his face. He gathered himself up on his knees and moved over to Duo, staring briefly into his amethyst eyes before cupping his face and quickly, fiercely (somewhat drunkenly) kissing him on the lips. He pulled back before Duo had any chance of responding, optng instead to disengage from the situation before Duo had a chance to push him away.
Heero turned back to the fire, wishing he had another glass of blinding, burning liquid to drink right at that moment.
Duo was shocked. Heero had always just been a friend. A fellow pilot. A fellow warrior. Duo had never considered him to be anything else… until now. He had no idea that Heero felt for him that way… or had he? Quatre had mentioned something, once, about how comfortable they had gotten with each other, how Heero would barely complain about Duo's ranting anymore. How they both wouldn't be at each other's throats. How they both… enjoyed each other's company.
Quatre had a point. Of all the people Duo knew in the Earth Sphere, (and though there were few) Heero would be the one out of all of them he cared for the most. He also respected Heero above all else, his dedication, his skill, his focus. He strived to be like Heero. He was fascinated by him.
Duo looked at Heero with new eyes, noticing the sharp line of his jaw, the messy deep chocolate hair, and the blue, blue eyes that were painted with the reflected image of the flames he was looking into.
And while he looked, the same feeling of fascination was there, the same need to be like him, to be near him. The respect and admiration.
"I've been the blindest, stupidest, idiot…" Duo said, in wonder as he pieced himself together. Re-organised mentally what he thought of as 'a really comfortable friendship' into what it really was. What it had always been, he supposed, and never realised.
Heero turned his head towards Duo, almost apprehensively, but mostly with the same kind of fearlessness with which he flung himself into overwhelming battles. Duo slowly reached out, his finger tips softly touching Heero's cheek and jaw, almost reverently.
He smiled at Heero, the gesture seeming to calm some of the wariness in his friend's Prussian blue eyes.
"It might take me a little while," Duo said slowly, "But I think I want the same things you do… I think I always have."
Heero still seemed disbelieving, sitting stock-still next to his companion. Duo understood his need for clarification, and leaned over to place a soft kiss on his lips. The ease at which he completed the gesture surprising him, but, at the same time, putting a smile on his face. It was and odd thing, but it was the right thing.
Heero's frozen features melted into what was as close to a smile as Heero Yuy was ever going to get (a feat Duo was sure he would never see again without alcohol) and he reached out, gathering Duo in his strong arms and hugging him fiercely, as if he had wanted to for so long yet had held back every single time.
As Duo sat there, encircled in Heero's arms, he wondered if this… whatever it had become… would continue after the Circle of Truth. If Heero would still want to reach out to him when the sun came up, still wanted to hug him when the alcohol wore off and the hangover kicked in. If Heero still wanted to kiss him when the next mission came up.
He needn't have worried though, because the last thoughts that ran through Heero Yuy's mind -before he passed out on Duo's shoulder- were of happiness.
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"I live for the nights I'll never remember with the friends I'll never forget." --Anon
-----------The End.
Mwahaha I wrote this while procrastinating when I should have been studying for my exams. Feedback is appreciated, and I hope you enjoyed!
-->Feel free to review, my lovely munchkins!