12-21-2005

Title: Loyalty
Author: Aureus
Pairings: 1x2
Rating: NC-17 for lemon
Warnings: yaoi, language, and lemon
Feedback: Please, praise and constructive criticism and favorite/unfavorite parts. Help a new author out!
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or its characters

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Duo awoke the next morning to the luxurious smells of coffee, toast, eggs, and breakfast already being made downstairs. He blinked lazily a few times and threw his sheets off, rolling off of the squishy mattress. Hastily braiding his hair and throwing on a few clothes out of his suitcase, a thought flashed through Duo's mind.

"How did Heero sneak downstairs without waking me up? We've all been trained to wake at the sound of a pin dropping!" He looked quickly around his room and moved to the doorway. "His room is right across the hall, there's no way he could out-sneak me. Especially in such an old house, the doors are bound to creak a little."

Curiosity fresh on his mind, Duo snuck barefoot across the hall to examine Heero's room. Strangely, the door was locked but the doorknob itself was slippery.

"Huh, how odd," thought Duo, wiping his hand on his pants as he examined the hinges. They, too, were slippery with the same sort of greasy liquid. "Did Heero do all this just to sneak past me?" violet eyes scanned up and down the hall, "What's with all this secrecy?"

And then another thought flashed through Duo's mind, and he began to slowly descend the stairs, a smile creeping across his lips.

Heero stood in the kitchen, quietly whisking eggs in a large metal bowl for the French toast he was making, purposefully turning his back towards the entrance. He was perfectly aware Duo was sneaking up on him. He had heard Duo's bedroom door open and assumed he had encountered the mysteriously greasy door by now. He knew the braided pilot was confused and was going to pounce on him to get the information out. A mischievous grin found its way to Heero's mouth as he counted down Duo's distance. Five steps…four…three…two…

"Ah HAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Duo yelled and Heero stepped gracefully to the side, allowing him to smash headfirst into the cabinets. However, the Japanese pilot was surprised when Duo merely approached him casually, as if he had just said good morning and not unleashed a raucous battle cry.

"Morning, Heero. What's cookin'?" said the braided pilot with a coy smile.

"Um…what was that?" asked Heero tentatively.

"Oh, nothing…just tryin' to scare you a little, that's all." There was something else hidden in Duo's words, but Heero couldn't quite place it. Duo jumped up onto the counter, letting his legs swing and hitting the cabinets underneath with an irritating rattle.

"Hn." The familiar grunt had amazing resonance against the backdrop of hissing bacon and boiling water.

"You know, Heero, I wondered how you got down here so early without waking me up. I am sleeping right across the hall from you, after all." Duo saw Heero's back turn slightly more rigid, as if for a brief moment caught off guard, and then the shoulders relaxed again.

"You were never good at detecting infiltrators," came the harsh reply.

"Infiltrating? What are you infiltrating! You're making breakfast!" Duo shouted. A brief moment of awkward tension passed before Duo stopped swinging his feet and tried to lighten the mood. "What was that stuff anyway, Heero? Axle grease?"

There was only a second when the back of Heero's neck glowed slightly red and then the stoic pilot turned around and quickly changed the subject, "So, about these eggs of yours…"

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After breakfast, Trowa, Quatre and Heero sat around the table, conjecturing why Wufei hadn't arrived yet.

"It isn't unlike Wufei to have periods of self-induced isolation," Trowa began, sliding his empty coffee cup away from him. "There are times where he just needs to do things his own way."

"I understand, but it still wouldn't be that much trouble to call," Quatre insisted, concern lining his words.

"Hey, Duo! We have another cup for you!" Heero bellowed as he picked up Trowa's mug and held out towards the kitchen.

"I'm having a few issues in here, do you mind bringing it in?" came the somewhat frenzied response, accompanied by the sound of several pans crashing to the ground. Heero sighed, reluctantly left his chair, and wandered slowly into the kitchen where he took a moment to lean on the door jamb and drink the sight in.

Duo had his sleeves rolled up to his elbows and was fighting a sink full of soapy water, another sink full of dirty brown sludge, and several precarious towers of dishes, cups, utensils, spatulas, and frying pans. A few pots lay strewn on the floor and Duo was making attempts to pick them up but they kept flying out of his hands. Heero strolled across the chaos, set the mug down near a particularly dangerous-looking stack of plates, and began to exit when he was caught by one of Duo's swinging arms.

"What did you do? All of the things you used to make breakfast are really slick! I can't even hold onto them long enough to wash them off!"

Heero looked at Duo's stormy expression, little bits of soap foam clinging to his bangs. He pointed to the cabinet just underneath the sink and said simply, "Wear some gloves," before he excused himself from the kitchen and walked back upstairs, casting a few quick glances around as he ascended the first step.

Duo had never had so much trouble cleaning up after a simple meal in his entire life. But after donning the yellow latex gloves, he found the job went much faster and was soon standing in the middle of a spotless kitchen.

"Duo Maxwell, master of clean," he announced as he looked around, congratulating himself. He peeked his head out of the doorway and looked into the dining room, Trowa and Quatre were nowhere to be found, so he figured he would clean himself up next and headed upstairs for the bathroom.

When he got to the top of the stairs, he was surprised to see Heero locking the door to his room and walking down the hall away from the stairs and towards the bathroom. Duo quickly ran to Heero's door and examined it. The doorknob glistened under the sunlight coming in through the window at the end of the hall, covered with the same glop he had experienced earlier. The sound of the shower at the end of the hall broke Duo from his examination and he ran to the bathroom and pounded on the door.

"Heero! It's me, Duo! Could I just brush my teeth real quick before you take your shower?"

"No, you may not!" Heero's voice sounded angrily through the door.

"Heero!" Duo yelled back, "Come on! It'll only take a minute!"

"I'm already in the shower! But you can come in to grab your brush, just wait one second!"

Duo began to blush wildly. Despite the constant teasing in his friendly relationship with Heero, the prospect of being in the same room as a naked, showering Heero Yuy made Duo's pulse quicken. He was glad Heero would be behind the shower curtain and wouldn't be able to see his bright red face. He heard the sound of the door click and waited another few seconds for the sound of the curtain being pulled back into place before he opened the door.

The bathroom was smallish and quaint, with cream yellow wallpaper and a tiled mosaic floor. Duo reached for his toothbrush, deliberately taking as much time as he could, attempting to look at the crack in the shower curtain reflected in the medicine cabinet mirror.

"You know, Heero, you sure have been acting funny lately," Duo said as he prolonged the act of reaching out for his toothbrush.

"Duo, I said you could come in, grab your brush, and leave. I said nothing about conversation."

"But I'm just concerned, Heero! You're being so secretive and suspicious all of a sudden. I'd like to know what's going on!" Duo argued.

"Right now, it's none of your business!" Barked the voice behind the shower curtain.

"What do you mean, 'right now'? What's that supposed to mean?" Duo said as steam began to cloud the edges of the mirror.

"You'll find out soon enough." The words were strangely unlike Heero. They were ambiguous, vague, with a hint of something else Duo had never expected, a coyness he had never before heard from the dark-haired pilot. Was Heero flirting with him? Should he respond? Was it just a figment of his imagination?

"Should I be worried?" Duo tried his best to act as neutral as possible to avoid a misunderstanding if he was reading Heero wrong.

"No, you're definitely going to like it," Heero's voice almost sang from behind the curtain. Duo was almost positive Heero was flirting with him, and combined with the effects of the steam, he was starting to feel very light-headed. "Now will you get out and let me shower?" Heero's demeanor changed back to his regular irritated self. Duo left the room and walked back into the hallway, feeling the cooler air hit him in the face, lifting the dream state he was in. What just happened? Did he actually walk in on Heero showering? Had Heero made some sort of innuendo? Did he really mean it?

The American pilot's brain was awash with questions as he stumbled back down the hall, toothbrush in hand, and fell backwards onto his bed, letting his hands fall outstretched on either side. He lay there, staring up at the ceiling, wondering whether to feel excited, scared, worried, or confused.

"Heero Yuy," he thought quietly, "what a contradiction." His eyes started to close, wondering what Heero had meant by his ominous prediction. "He said I'll like it," the thoughts ran sluggishly, "What is that idiot up to?" And the violet eyes disappeared behind a mask of sleep.

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