Bit a' smut in this chapter. Real smut comes next chapter and chapter after that, and I only expect to have five, maybe six chapters in this story. Whereas during my last fanfics I've put up 5-6 pages in MSWord per chapter, this one is turning out to be more like 13 pages per chapter. Which is a helluva lot for me; that's almost a novella. oO

I guess I'm just not a PWP kinda person.

Oh, and here's my disclaimer for this particular chapter: Snowboarding and Skiing are both verrrry fun sports, kids, but don't ever copy Duo and Heero and move at breakneck speeds without helmets. They're cool Gundam pilots and Olympic atheletesand not real people so they can pull it off, but don't ever try it at home! Wear wrist-guards, too, if you're a beginner. Breaking your wrist boarding is not fun. I speak from experience. I'm also not sure if downhill is in the winter Olympics; I don't think it is. But this is AU.

Anyways. So we go.

I remembered where I was in the morning when Duo's hand slipped from my waist to my hip and his hand curled against the flesh between my boxers and shirt, probably in his dreams.

Sunlight streamed in through the window. I looked at the clock on the bedside: Seven nineteen AM. Plenty of time before the race.

Was I nervous? No. Apathetic? Yes. Somehow this had become not about me and more about Odin, J, and Hilde. Somewhere in the process I had stopped caring whether I won or lost, or how many people were watching. The fame and the fortune all molded into a kind of background noise in the back of my mind as I tried to hold my own to impress the people who needed to be impressed.

Speaking of holding.

I looked down at the hand. Long, tapered fingers, and unflawed skin. He had hair on his arms, but it was so blonde it was transparent and I could only see it up close. Perfect. I didn't know why, but I wanted to apologize for what happened the night before.

I had kissed him.

I … KISSED…him.

I wondered if I was awake, or if maybe I had dreamed it all. But no, he wouldn't be here with me if I had. And true to his word he hadn't done anything in the night, just slept, holding onto me as if I were a dear friend instead of someone he'd met two days prior.

As I shifted his arm away from me and got out of bed, he rolled onto his stomach and turned his head towards me. "Mornin'," he said with that cocky smile. Must've been a Californian thing, because nobody I knew smiled like that and made it look damn good. He'd discarded with his shirt in the middle of the night and just the sight of his lean chest was sending all kinds of carnal signals to my brain.

I, however, said nothing, merely inclined my head.

"As your doctor an' roomie…" he started sleepily, "How're yeh feelin'?"

"Reasonable," I said, which was a concise and exact answer to my current state of health. He nodded as if this made all the sense in the world. "M'glad. What time's it?"

"Seven twentyish."

"Ummkay. First snowboard heat for you's not until… what, three?"

"Yes. By tonight… I will be a champion or I won't," I said.

"Eh, they're all a bunch of stuck-up shits anyways. Do it for you," he said.

I looked at him, one eyebrow raised. "Was that supposed to be… deep?"

"Yeah. Can't you tell? I'm just full of sagely wisdom." He braced his head on his elbow as he propped himself up on the pillows. "Thanks again for last night, by the way."

"It was nothing," I rumbled. I didn't want to think about those men, the sheer horror on their faces before I'd driven them to near-death. When the club owners found them I might get in trouble. I should have carried them somewhere safe…

"They won't tell on you. They were just pimps. Johns. Nobodies, you know. Not enough cash or saved dignity to sue you even if they had a clue who you were. It was dark and loud in there. It'll be fine."

There was a knock on the door.

I gave Duo a panicked look, somewhere along the lines of should I open it when both of us are wearing nothing but our boxers and you don't have your shirt on?

"S'probably cleaning service. Go ahead," he said, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed so he was perched on the side. I nodded sharply and swung the door open to reveal…

…Hilde.

"Morning, Heero! Brought coffee, there's this little café on the corner. I went there yesterday and they messed up the order twice so I figured you probably wouldn't want what they gave me, but here you g—is someone else in there?"

"No," I said automatically. I took the coffee.

Her eyes widened and she leaned over towards the crack in the door. I shut it slightly so she couldn't see in. "Did you bring back a girl last night?" she hissed at me in a sharp voice. "Heero, this is press coverage we're talking about! Someone's going to be selling the 'I slept with Heero Yuy' story all over the magazines! You could have at least called and asked!"

"I haven't brought a girl into my room," I told her.

She paused. "Eh? Then who's that?"

I stared at her.

She suddenly got the message. "Oh!... oh. You… oh, Heero, I didn't know, I'm sorry. I totally didn't know…"

I felt a weight behind me and Duo opened the door all the way.

"Hilde?" he asked, his mouth hanging ajar.

She did a double-take. "…Oh, fuck, no…," she said.

"Ditto. What are you do—"

"Heero, please tell me you did not sleep with this… this…" she sputtered, pointing at him. Duo made a face and pointed at her accusingly from behind me.

"Don't you start, Hilde, don't you even start. I swear to God if you go off on me I'll wring your neck. I have a no-girl-hitting policy, but I'll break it, just for you, if you so much as—"

"How dare you even talk to me? You! You grew your hair out and… ugh, and got it re-dyed, and… augh, I don't even believe it!" she was shrieking. "I hate you! I hate you! I can't believe you'd come here of all places, and with him of all people, Duo, you knew I was here, didn't you, and you did this just to piss me off?"

I turned, very calmly, to Duo. "I thought you had been dying your hair since you were sixteen," I said in a cool, even voice.

"I stopped for a few years. Went red-headed," he said with a smirk. "Also cut my hair a bit… to about here." He motioned to his waist. "Used to let it free, too, and never braided it before—whatever, I'll talk about that later, but Heero, do you know this woman?"

"Yes. She's my press secretary," I said.

"Well. Isn't –that- nice? I always figured you for a lie-through-your-teeth, pick-up-other-people's-messes kind of woman, Hilde."

"Fuck you," she spat.

"Love, you already have. I thought we were over this," he said sweetly.

In the few years I'd known Hilde, I'd never known her to be like this. Ever. She was always sunny and cheerful and occasionally a bit sad but never for long. She was never this crazy, insanely furious woman that I saw before me. I put my hand on her shoulder. "And Hilde?" I asked before she could say anything else.

"My no-good ex," she snarled at Duo.

"Remember the one I told you about at our first meeting in the club, Heero?" Duo asked me, and I nodded. I did remember, every word. "She started sleeping around after she found out I preferred… well, both kinds of people." He gave her a feline grin and took my arm. "And you know, she was just never the same. Where have you been all these years, Hilde? You never did tell me where you'd gone after you left without telling me."

"You were cheating on me before I ever cheated on you!" she shrieked.

"I never so much as looked at anyone else, love. I'm strictly monogamous." He nodded as if he were a saint. "Simply because I discovered a new sexual preference does not mean I acted on it. See, that's the thing about you. You jump to conclusions. Nice girl, but she's a pain in the ass to sleep with." He looked up at me. "Unlike you, of course." He gave Hilde a wink and threaded one hand through my hair as he leaned in close.

"I thought you didn't like to be touched," she told me. Now she looked hurt.

"This is different," I growled. As if she had any fucking clue what I'd had to push through just to get here. She hadn't been there. She hadn't seen how Duo treated me, how much I needed this on so many levels… she couldn't get inside my brain, and so I would not try and explain myself to her. She wouldn't understand.

"Hilde, we'll talk later," I told her, and leaned against the door. "This afternoon." I still had the coffee in my hand, and I was sort of hoping she wouldn't ask for it back. She did, after all, know exactly how I liked it. So I didn't want to be mean or cruel about this. After all, she'd been… well, the closest thing I had to a friend for a very long time.

Since Relena, at least.

Finally she nodded. "This afternoon. Don't be late. You have two qualification runs, an eighth, quarter, semi and final if you make it all the way, so eat well, okay?" She said this like a concerned older sister, then turned and gave Duo the most scathing look possible before turning on her heel and departing.

Right. As if I hadn't well memorized the schedule for the games already.

"Amazing woman," Duo said sarcastically.

I cracked a smile. He looked up at me, then suddenly removed his arm from my waist and hand from my hair. "Sorry for hanging on you, man. I just wanted to tease her a little bit. I used to love getting her riled up… haven't seen her in… forever."

"It's… all-right," I told him. I wasn't used to being the one making pardons.

"So what do you want to do today? My heat's not until Thursday so I've got nothing to do but hang around this town. You know. The usual celebrity treatment…Fuck, where'd I put my pants?" He rummaged around the bedside, picking apart the comforter and various pillows which had fallen off. "Somewhere round here.. anyways, why don't we go around town or something?"

"Too many fans," I said. He nodded: "Oh, right. The fans. I forgot, we aren't 'normal' people anymore. Well, we can always go up the mountain, can't we?"

Boarding? With Duo? I scratched my head. "I thought you were a skier."

"I am. I've got spares at the footlockers by the lifts. It'll be fun. Nobody'll be up there this time of day, anyways, they're all down at the stadium watching the speed skaters. Come on, man, let me show you how to have a little fun, yeah?" he gave me a cheshire smile.

"…Okay," I relented. "But only a warm-up. I have to conserve energy for today."

"It's cool, I understand. I'll go slow."

I snorted in disbelief. "You! Go slow on me? Now that's funny."

"Well, I'm a downhiller. You trying to tell me you can beat me in a race?"

"I can."

"We'll see, Yuy. We'll see." He threw on his shirt and I finished buttoning the top button on my snow pants, fishing a sleeveless shirt and my green fur-hooded jacket from the closet. "Got any spares?" he asked.

I tossed him an extra black snow jacket and a white beanie, and he threw them on over what he already had. I put on my snowboarding boots, grabbed my board, and we headed for the slopes.

"Come on, come on," I snarled as I raced over mogul after mogul. After each dip in the snow my board made a little chakka chak noise; the snow was choppy today and it was too warm out to wear heavy clothes. If the sun stayed out they'd be needing to make snow for the actual race, and that would suck. There was nothing like fresh powder to make for a good run. But hey, nature will do what nature will do.

Duo was right in front of me. He hardly leaned into his turns, moving at a breakneck speed I thought was impossible. His braid flew out behind him as he bent over his poles in concentration. But I was coming closer. Inching further… further…

I twisted my knees, the board moved a little closer but not enough. I was moving faster than I had ever moved before; Duo's sport required speed and mine required finesse. His strong point was turning, though. I'd never cared to learn much about skiing, but his poles were bent oddly - this only made him go faster. He went over the bumps in the run like they didn't exist.

I hugged the ground, tilted my board to the left, and sailed off a mogul and down the double black a good ten feet. "No fair!" Duo called from behind me, and I pulled my goggles down tighter as I slammed into the curve on the mountain. As I went around I glanced a look behind me: Duo had disappeared!

I kept going. He was a big boy now, he could take care of himself.

And—he shot out of the trees in front of me.

Well, shit.

I put more weight into the front of my board, narrowly avoided catching an edge. We were coming to a pair of snowcat tracks that hadn't been covered over properly, and as soon as we rounded on them I saw Duo catch an edge and falter. I pulled ahead. Yes! I was in the lead now, though not by much. He was a quick little thing, and the only person I'd ever met who could keep up with me.

The wind was what did it. I came off the final hill like a bullet and practically sailed into the end of the run. The Widowmaker, I think it was called. I felt like I could have just kept going into the air and away, and never had to hit the ground at all. It was the greatest feeling in the world. Adrenaline surged through me like fire and I welcomed it, turning behind to see Duo speeding down just as I pulled my board to a stop.

He pulled up a split second behind me. "Damnit, if I hadn't caught those tracks.."

"Yeah, well." The corners of my mouth twitched up.

He stopped in the middle of taking his goggles off. "So, you won."

"J calls me the Perfect Boarder for a reason, you know."

"Hey, Perfect Boarder? You're hot when you smile."

"What?" My eyes widened. He thrust out a hand and pushed my chest and I went over backwards flailing awkwardly, collapsing into a snowpile flat on my back. Oof.

He beamed. I glared. "So I was off guard," I said grudgingly.

He offered me a hand. "C'mon, we'll go to the lodge. They've got great cocoa."

You can't be a professional boarder and not also be a connoisseur of hot chocolate. It's a must. Usually they make it with water and mix, and pour it all into a giant dispenser, charging fifty cents a cup thank-you-very-much just because it's hot. The stuff tastes horrible, especially when they put those chemical marshmallows in there.

But this, I had to admit, was good. Made with actual milk and melted chocolate, with whipped cream all over the top of the cup and chocolate sauce drizzled over that. It was thick and creamy and smelled like heaven. I stared at my mug as Duo handed it to me, keeping one for himself with a knowing look. "This stuff is like an orgasm in a cup. I swear," he said, and we looked around. It was eleven, and though the slopes were empty this lodge was at ground level and it was packed.

"We won't find a seat, though," I said.

"So we'll make one. Come on."

He led me up the stairs to the second floor: Nope, no seating. He pulled me over to the hallway right by the maintenance office and then down that, until the murmur and din of the dining area could no longer be heard. It was deserted in here, though. He sat against the wall with a grin and wrapped his arms around his knees, one hand clutching his mug.

I sat down cross-legged next to him. For a few minutes neither of us talked, just drank our cocoa and stared at the opposite wall in a dazelike state. For him, I think, it was more a mental peace, but for me it was a struggle for control: We were alone. Here. In a hallway, together. And even though my mind screamed no, you just met him my body was telling me something very different. Thank God for loose snow pants.

"Are you scared?" he asked me.

"No. I'll win," I said tightly.

"You're so sure about that, huh? Do you really want to win, or is it just because you think you have to?"

At this I blinked. Twice. "How do you know things like this about me?" I couldn't help asking, because what he said was true. I didn't want to win. I wanted to go home and live like a normal person. I wanted to get up at ten on Saturdays and eat cornflakes and watch music television and not have to worry about a damn thing in the world except being myself. I didn't want this, with the whole world watching. I felt like I was cooped up in a ball.

"I read people, Heero. That's what I'm good at. That's just what I see in you. Maybe I'm crazy, but… lots of times, the only thing people need is to be wanted."

"Yeah? And what if you're wrong?" I shot back. But my face was hot. So were other parts of my body.

"I don't think I am," he said quietly. "But you know, I lost the race. So I'm thinking now. And I think I owe you something."

"Hmm." I watched him warily from the corners of my eyes. His head was turned towards me, and I was taking great pains to stare at the opposite wall with complete conviction. Mustn't give in… mustn't give in… mustn't throw Duo down on the floor and fuck the living daylights out of him…

"Remember how I said when I meet someone I can tell if I like 'em or not?" he said then. I nodded, barely perceptible, my eyes sliding over to meet his in curiosity. He stared back at me, setting down his cocoa cup. "I like you, Heero," he said in a whisper against my ear.

This time he was the one who started the kiss, at first just the barest brush of lips, our noses practically touching at the very tips. And then when I didn't push him away (how could I? How could I have ever pushed him away when he was driving me literally insane?) he came back again, deepening it to a maddening intensity. I uncrossed my legs since they were cramping, and a second later felt a rustle of fabric as he maneuvered himself into my lap. His mouth pressed against mine, insistent, surprisingly soft. Relena's lips had always been cold and thin, but his were… different. This was nice.

I felt the hand on the top of my pants, fingers brushing over the first button.

"God, Duo, what is this?" I said, pulling away and leaning my head back against the wall.

"You won the race," he said slyly, "Consider it a gift." And then he kissed me again, distracting me from the steady progress of his hands over the fly. And then he was working the fabric down over my hips, to my thighs and down. Oh, God, I had an enormous hard-on, like some kind of blazing neon sign just underneath the thin fabric of my boxers. How embarrassing.

But he didn't seem to think so. On the contrary, he almost looked like he might chuckle when his hand came up to cup my crotch, fingers stimulating the nerves there into sudden reaction. He trailed two fingers down the frontside of my boxers and my breath hitched into a half-gasp. That, apparently, was all the motivation he needed.

He tugged my boxers down and I was aware that I was blushing like some kind of damn virgin, how stupid of me. But it had been so long. I couldn't remember the last time I'd done this with someone.

Duo didn't mind at all. He wrapped his fingers around me, sliding his hand down slowly and steadily with the kind of practice that came with… well, experience.

Have I mentioned that it felt like I'd been hit in the head with a bat marked pleasure? It was instantaneous and overwhelming. I was pressed against the wall, both legs stretched out. I didn't think I'd be able to keep in a sitting position if I wasn't. The loose fist tightened and moved expertly.

As the head of my cock started leaking he palmed it, used the precum to lubricate the steadily accelerating motion of his hand. I moaned and pressed my head against the wall futilely, but he wouldn't release my mouth. Good thing, too, because otherwise I would've been screaming. Damn, this was good. Fantastic. His other hand slid behind me to cup my rear, fingers exploring and setting alight new sensations as he moved to the rhythm of an invisible drummer.

My knees bent involuntarily as I got closer to release; he flicked his thumb over the most sensitive part of my slit and it sent shivers up my thighs. My muscles turned to jelly under his stroking. I'm not sure, but I think I had my eyes closed.

With a loud cry I came into his hands, ecstasy wrenching throughout my body and pulsing in time with my heartbeat. For a moment I could only hear myself breathing and nothing else.

"Duo…" I said, my voice faltering.

"Hmm?" he looked down at me as he was, straddling my lap with both knees on the floor and his hands still resting where they had been.

"That… good. You're good… at that." I tried to focus my thoughts; speak English, Yuy. Come on, you can do it. Form a cohesive sentence! But Duo laughed. "Yeah, well. I've learned my share of tricks. And now I'm sharing them with you."

I offered no explanation for what I did next, which was crush him against me in an embrace, even though the fronts of both our shirts were covered. "If we weren't in front of the maintenance office, I don't know what I'd do," I growled to him. And this was true. Honestly, I couldn't keep my cool anymore around him. It was like trying to slosh uphill against a river. I became this… thing. This needy thing.

I was half disgusted with myself. Was I such an idiot that I could be ruled by my body? By my impulses and desires? Odin would have disapproved, but then he always had; he'd been a military assassin long before I was born and even until I was in junior high, and he'd never shown a sliver of emotion. Everything for him was about control.

Odin, I thought, if only you could see me now.

Too bad he was dead.

I shivered.

Duo's body was warmer than I thought it would be, and he lifted his brows at me, his mouth opening: "Hey, it's okay. It was good, yeah?"

"Yeah. But I just can't think—"

"—So don't. You don't need to be thinking all the time, Heero. Just go and do what you want to do, do what makes you happy. Does it bother you to have me around?"

"No!" I protested.

"Then you," he said, leaning down to suck on my neck just below my jaw, "Are mine for now."

I wouldn't notice until later that I had a hickey in that spot. We spent the next twenty minutes or so like that, making out, and I actually liked it for once, not having to pretend anything or hide anything. But we had to pull apart eventually. "Mrrf, I need to get ready," I said, pushing myself to my feet. And suddenly I was all business again. "And cleaned up," I added, looking down at my shirt. The very base still had a bit of dried cum on it and my boxers were going to need serious cleaning. And one of us, probably me, had kicked over one of the cups of hot chocolate resting on the floor, and it had tipped its contents all over the ugly brown linoleum. Nobody would find the spill over here anyways, but if they did, it would be accompanied by some… interesting… fluids on the floor.

"Right-o, then," said Duo. "I guess this is where we part, eh?"

"No," I said, my eyes burning into him. "It's not."

He laughed. "Jeez! You're intense. I'm talking about getting ready for later on. I'm not gonna just leave you. I'm not looking for a one-night stand, okay? C'mere." He pulled me close, reached a hand around to my rear, and… pulled out my cell phone from my back pocket. "Here we go," he said proudly, making it beep a few times before handing it back to me. "S'my number. Tonight we're going out to celebrate whether you won or not. All of us. Now…"

I reached for the phone, and he held it out of arm's length, retrieving his own from the jacket he'd left on the floor. "I'm getting yours, hold on a second," he said when I made a face. He pinged mine into his phone and then handed it back to me. "Here. Tonight, okay?"

"I.. yeah," I said, surprised that anyone would want to be with me. I was cold. I had no sense of humor. I was just… me. Boring, frigid, Heero Yuy. Not for the first time I wondered what Duo could possibly see in me. "…Why?"

"Because we're on the same side, Heero. I don't want to help you or save you or any kind of shit like that. I just… like you."

"But why? I am not… fully functioning." The Robot Voice had returned.

"Can you explain how the engine in your car works? You can't, but you love it anyways because it's you. It jives to you. You're my engine. I guess that's the best explanation I can offer."

"This… makes some sense," I admitted. And suddenly, I don't know why, but I remembered my promise from earlier that morning: "And… I told Hilde I would meet her."

"Oh, right." He wrinkled his small nose in distaste. And somehow made it look sexy. "Her. Bitch-woman. Okay, have fun with that. What're the odds of her getting hired by you?"

"She tells me that her industry is a small one," I said, getting to my feet and starting the walk to the men's bathroom, a couple of doors over from the maintenance office and down a different hallway. "There are not many people who need a press manager."

"Yeah, well, she seems pretty buddy-buddy with you. I hardly ever see mine. He's kind of an odd guy, a pretty boy—his name's Zechs. Like, who names their kid Zechs?"

"Who names their kid Duo?" I shot back.

"Yeah, and Heero. That's high up on the list."

"So maybe she's the normal one. 'Hilde' is a pretty common German name I hear."

"Normal names do not make normal people," he said with a straight face. "Are you really just going to march into the bathroom looking like that?" We were standing outside the door.

"I think I will scare people," I said reasonably, "But… not as many as if I were to walk out into the main dining area like this."

"I love your reasoning," he snickered, and took one of my arms, snuggling into my shoulder. We went in. The current occupants stared, but didn't ask questions. For all they knew I had gotten covered in snow and it had melted through my shirt. I think they were more enthralled by the fact that we were both Olympic atheletes and walking amongst these 'mortals' as if we were, ourselves, human.

That's the thing about being famous. People think you're not human. They imagine you to be some kind of superhuman creature thing, and they treat you as such. People moved out of the way as I made my way to the sink, grabbed a couple of paper towels and began cleaning the mess off the bottom of my shirt. Duo did likewise, the both of us grinning at each other like idiots.

"You've got melted snow in your hair," he said, coming closer and brushing it off, and leaning against me to do so. I blinked, but did not flinch as I would have with anyone else. With anyone else I would have pulled away and snarled at them not to touch me, damnit, but with Duo I wanted to do the exact opposite. He could touch me anytime he liked.

When he kissed me in the middle of the bathroom I tossed my ball of paper towels over his shoulder and into the wastebasket, making the shot blindly as I pulled him in for a quiet moment of heaven. The men currently in the bathroom either stared openly or blushed and turned away.

Suddenly I knew. It was like I was back in highschool, when I'd met some girl at a party and just known, 'okay, tonight I'm going to lose my virginity'. I knew that tonight I would do the unthinkable. I hadn't been with Relena in six, almost seven months now, and during the last three months of our relationship we hadn't had sex at all, which made it almost an entire year. This thought scared me. But Duo had shown no desire to leave me. If this was going to be something long-term, then I was going to do this perfectly. I had to. Anything else would be unacceptable.

The shell which had been futilely trying to hold itself together, and which had been keeping me in, broke suddenly and violently apart with one kiss in the men's bathroom.

And it felt good.