Duo Maxwell - AC 203 December 25th

When Duo finally managed to disentangle himself from those arms that meant 'safe' in so many ways; it was to notice Trowa had already been through half the food the table was holding.

Heero chuckled by his side.

_ You might want to start digging before he eats everything.

Duo eyed the still large array of food, dubious.

_ Trust me, that would be no feat. It's like a black hole opens in Trowa's stomach after sex.

Duo blushed, self-conscious. Trowa simply grunted, something about Heero exaggerating or else.

_ Usually people don't talk about their ex's sex life with the new guy, yanno." He muttered halfheartedly while grabbing a chair and starting to pile a bit of everything onto his plate.

It took him a few seconds to notice the absence of cutlery noise following his comment. Now, Trowa was looking embarrassed. Heero seemed more curious, head cocked like Duo was the weird one there.

_ Would you feel more comfortable if I didn't?

Duo felt like a jerk. It had been so long, he had forgotten how little his friend had ever grasped of most social consensus. He just tended to say what he was thinking and to hell if it made people uncomfortable. That he cared to ask if Duo was uncomfortable now…

He caught himself scratching lightly at his cheek, a nervous gesture he had never grown out of, and snatched his hand back to try for a reassuring smile.

_ Nah, it's OK, don't mind me. As long as you don't go graphic…

Heero shrugged at his failed attempt at humor.

_ I won't need to. Not gonna spoil the fun." With a sly teasing smile on his features Duo had never seen before. It kept his mouth hanging a little. Until Trowa's hand came to close his mouth with a frown.

_ Manners.

Duo swallowed pointedly with a mild glare and kept on digging, stealing glances at his two companions. Mostly to Heero, it was so odd it took him a while to realize why he hadn't recognized him during their little afternoon chat.

_ You haven't changed one bit." He blurted inelegantly.

And it was freakishly true, Heero looked exactly the same as when Duo had last seen him. Short, scrawny build, and tussled hair. Maybe the hair was shorter, more well-kept. He knew Asian type tended to age differently than Caucasians; still, Heero, twenty-four, looked like a High-school Junior. No wonder he hadn't imagined one minute the cap-wearing boy was Heero, you just don't expect someone you've known as a teenager not to have matured seven years later. It was a bit eerie.

As much as the look exchanged between the two men.

_ Guys?..." He asked tentatively.

Trowa looked down his plate, Heero back to the far wall. Duo should really learn to keep his damn mouth shut. He toyed with his food, hunger mostly gone until Heero started to talk.

_ Out of the five of us, I was the only one supposed to be a Gundam pilot. You and Trowa stole yours; Quatre and Wufei bullied the professors into letting them go on Earth with theirs. I was… Too small, too thin: in all too fragile for the needs.

Duo nodded, he had also been impaired sometimes by his own body's weakness when piloting Deathscythe, sharp turn for example tended to have a huge toll on the body. Gravity was a bitch.

_ So J had me undertake several medical... modifications.

Hear there 'enhancement'. This made him vaguely remember the quick look he had on the charts on display when he had retrieved Heero from that Hospital. He was no medic expert, but usually, red markings meant something was really wrong. And Heero's charts had been really red.

_ One of them had been accelerating the densification process of my bones. I stopped growing a few months before Operation Meteor.

Duo looked from Heero's back to his lover when Trowa snorted, a profound scowl scrunching his brows, just shy of downright glare directed at his ex. Heero seemed to shrink at the noise and Duo wondered what were the other modifications J had made his supposedly protégé undertake. Those Trowa knew about at least.

_ You didn't stop growing, you stopped aging." Trowa growled, making Heero's shoulder sag a bit more.

_ I'm still probably going to wrinkle and get white hair someday...

Trowa glowered.

Looking from one to the other, Duo decided he was starting to get what Heero had meant when saying they had trouble relating without hurting each other. Even if he was pretty sure Trowa was less angry at Heero than at J who made him agree to whatever had been done to him. He wasn't so sure Heero understood that.

Duo sighted internally. He had started it all, guess he should as well go to the bottom of it and ask why.

It got him an askance glance from both guys.

_ I just told you.

Duo shook his head, his fork waving for emphasis.

_ You told me why J wanted to do whatever he did. Not why you let him.

Duo almost regretted when his question prompted Heero to raise both his knees and hug them.

_ It didn't seem to matter at the time.

_ Because you didn't expect to live long enough…" Duo muttered with sudden insight. He has said so to Trowa mere hours ago, he had always known the teen as deeply suicidal, reckless to the point of self-harm. "When you let J do... what he did; you didn't want to.

Duo wasn't sure why it made Trowa start, whether he had never come to that conclusion or because of the bluntness of saying it aloud.

_ It was before Operation Meteor." Trowa slowly pointed out; before the war, before Noventa left unsaid.

_ I was eight when J enrolled me.

_ It was awfully young. How did he find you?" Well… Duo had been younger when he stole that MS from the Alliance.

_ Not sure. It might have been pure coincidence he found me not long after I had to clear away from the only person I ever knew and trusted. I don't think so." He shrugged with one shoulder. "I had nothing to look forward to besides months, years waiting to get another chance to finish…" Heero wavered and cut himself before finishing more firmly. "I said yes without hesitation.

There was an awful lot of holes it that retelling, hints at many things left in deep shadows. Duo refrained to ask this time, Heero's full backstory wasn't the day's topic.

_ Then?" He still prompted, feeling Trowa settle against his other side, thigh against thigh. Duo wondered whether the taller man already knew of it. Had he been told the full story or patched it up from occasional slips?

_ He completed my knowledge of weaponry and explosives, started me on piloting. When he found I was ready, he sent me back to Earth.

Back? It made Duo frown at that, he knew Trowa was a terran, but if there was someone he would have never imagined not being purely colon it was Heero. Has his namesake influenced Duo's mind?

_ I was supposed to blow up a MS factory, it was mostly R&D at that point. J hadn't yet given Zero up. It felt so good to be back though…" Heero's wistful sight drew upward, as if seeing the open sky through the roof. It reminded Duo how often Heero has skipped classes to wander into open space. Often coupled with recon, not always. Duo had a bit more struggle to get used to the unlimited horizon.

_ I can't tell why they thought it was a good idea to plant a factory in town. It wasn't." The last one was dark and thick. Duo swallowed, he was torn between reaching out to Heero and dig further into Trowa. Offering or seeking comfort. "I had to wait for the night to infiltrate the place anyway. There was a park nearby, I decided to simply enjoy it. I wasn't really in a hurry to go back up there.

Duo felt like Heero was stalling, not wanting to go to the point; like he had been stalling his return to the Colonies and J years ago. The way Heero shook his head, loose hands clutching to almost fists, kind of proved him right.

_ There was a girl, maybe six to eight, she had a straw hat and was walking her puppy. She thought I was lost, probably because she knew I didn't belong here. Had never seen me before when she was a regular. She gave me the flower she was holding, for no reason. She had picked it up for someone; she gave it to me. Because she just wanted to, because she was nice." Heero's voice had that soft, lulling quality people tended to have when lost in their own memories.

Duo wanted to close his eyes, badly, because he was starting to see where this was coming. And he was pretty certain he didn't want to get to the end of the story. But he had been the one to ask, he owed Heero to listen to the end.

_ I went in, put the bombs where they were supposed to go, I went out. Nothing easier, no one saw me. What I didn't see was the MS standing, unattended, near the fence. Forgotten? Put there on display? A lazy soldier had decided it could be stored back later? I don't know, I didn't account for it, that's all what matter.

"When I detonated the bombs...

Heero didn't need to say, the blast must have propelled the giant armor suit outside the fence, outside the military perimeter.

_ It fell on the corner of an apartment building." At night, when everyone was home, sleeping. "I found her hat, and her puppy's body. I never found her, just… too much blood.

It was a terrible story, and it was obvious the scar it had left on Heero's heart was still itching. There was sadness on his face, not hurt, Heero had come to term with that part of his history. Duo wanted to reach out to him, this time is was Trowa who held him back, a hand pressing on his knee.

Duo looked at the painting, searching for the little yellow flower he had been shown earlier. It was there, near Relena left elbow. Along with a tarnished crown, an eternity symbol, a goldish cross, an Asclepios staff, a teddy bear and a few other items, each in their fragile, shimmering, soap bubble. The bubbles seemed to be escaping from the thick cluster of what looked like metal and concrete debris littering the bottom part of the piece. Raising to the soft pastels of the upper part.

It took time and a few adjustments for Duo to realize; the wings weren't on Relena's back but behind her, around Zero's body hidden in the spaces between the canvases. She had a fierce look, like she was daring anyone to hurt Earth, while the Gundam hidden in the shadows was extending its wings as far as it could to envelope her, Earth and the colonies.

So typical Heero.

There were also five trails each coming from a colony cluster and toward Earth, glittering softly in the ambient glow.

Duo understood two things there, the first was incidental: Lady Fox had complained about the quality of natural lightning in the room, but that piece of art wasn't meant to be displayed in natural light. The other...

_ That's what she was to you then. Relena." He didn't dare speak any louder than Heero had. "She reminded you of that girl. And you took her as a second chance to save that child.

Duo remembered clearly their first encounter, Heero menacing the female teen with a gun. Duo interfering, thinking he was saving the day to be turned into the villain of the show when she stood between him and her attacker.

_ You wouldn't have killed her. Even if I hadn't shown.

Heero shook his head, slowly. His hair was shorter than it used to, Duo noticed idly.

_ I hesitated, I knew I would regret it, but I would have. I'm glad I met you that day.

Duo bumped his shoulder with the shorter man, didn't reach as well as he used to. Duo had grown up a few centimeters since last time. Heero hadn't.

_ You just say that because I brought your Gundam back.

_ Idiot…" But Heero was smiling. Duo's eyes drifted back to the painting. Now he knew why the flower.

_ The other items, they are other things significant for you, or is it about other people?

_ The cross is mine." Trowa piped in softly from Duo's side, their fingers entwined. Sounded like there was a story behind this too.

So, each item was significant for one of them. Them being the people who had a huge part in the war, or at least, one Heero knew well about. If Duo had to guess which was his, he would have said the cross, as an orphan raised for a few years in a church, fancying wearing a priest collar. But it was already taken.

The crown, easy: Milliardo, and the eternity symbol linked to is most likely Noin. The throwing knife could have been his, but not with those colored ribbons, it was Catherine. Asclepios' scepter was Sally, as a medic, so, for whatever reason, the red scarf must be Wufei.

After eliminating a few, he was left with a teddy bear he was pretty sure wasn't him, a military symbol he hoped wasn't him and a…

_ A basket ball? Seriously? Why?

_ You loved it." Heero answered simply, his arms loosely wound around his raised knees. And Duo knew it wasn't about the item itself, or the game. Heero spoke of being a normal kid for a while. Or pretend he had no worse things on his mind than how well he did on his last math test. A life he might have had, were he born anywhere else than in the lowest quarters of one of the poorest colony of the five clusters.

He was right, Duo had loved the time they spend pretending they were normal people. Partly because he hasn't been alone in it; for the first time since the Church's destruction, he had a mate his age.

After a moment of silent companionship between the three of them, Heero stood up to retrieve a couple packages from under the huge Christmas tree, one for each.

_ Merry Christmas.

One arm still wound around Duo's back, Trowa accepted his own gift with a one armed, warm, hug. Duo had no qualm giving his own squid hug to the wiry brunet. Then stared as he opened the small package.

Biscuits.

After seven years of complete silence, Heero had brought him biscuits as Christmas gift.

Leaf shaped biscuits.

The exact same biscuits he had sneaked to Pagan for years, just to learn they were already his.

He stared, gaping, at the biscuits, then at Heero who smiled to him, a bit sheepish.

_ I heard you like them.

Duo had never eaten those biscuits outside of his story times with the old butler; never in front of anyone else. Meaning, Pagan told Heero. Meaning Heero had kept in touch with Relena's butler, all the fucking time. And asked about him…

_ You're the fucking wizard!" He blurted suddenly, getting both boys to look up to him in surprise. Until Heero puffed, then outright laughed happily.

_ Good to see you haven't changed. Still don't make any sense.

Duo huffed and puffed his cheeks in annoyance, this time it was Trowa who snorted in amusement.

_ You. Are. The. Freaking. Wizard. Who meddled with my Doll!

_ You made that doll?

Duo crossed his arms as Heero's laughing face turned into gaping surprise. Seriously, he might not be a computing genius, but he still knew his way around!

_ Don't get all pissy, I'm impressed. If you don't mind, I'd love to meet more of them.

_ Yeah, sure. You know where I live." It wasn't really a question, Duo never got the chance to tell Heero, but there was no way their hacker-genius didn't know.

Heero nodded then reported his attention to the painting again. Duo opted to sneak a peek at what Trowa got from his ex-boyfriend. It was rectangular, a little longer than his hand and still wrapped.

_ Not opening it?

_ Later.

Duo couldn't help but wonder if 'later' meant 'when you won't be there to see'. It still was the most awkward situation he ever fell into. Not even when he sometimes crossed path with one of Hilde's conquest to the bathroom. He knew the other guy was just passing into her life. He was the one who would stay. Now, he was the other guy.

He should have never agreed to it, let Trowa drag him into yet another love triangle. One where he had the lower hand. A yawn made him turn to Heero who was stretching, revealing how toned his body still was through the fabric, then hoped from the table.

_ Time to go, before anyone gets up. And you might want to catch some sleep, big day to come.

His eyes and smile were softer than he had ever seen. A hand on his cheek, a chaste kiss on the corner of his lips. A warm but brief hug with Trowa and Heero was already halfway to the main door.

_ Take care of him, he's precious.

Since he was looking at none of them, Duo had no idea to whom he was talking. Still, he blushed.

Then Trowa took his hand and led him back to the trailer for another round of hot sex. Heero's gift proved to be a tube of massage oil doubling with lube.

Guess it meant Heero had known about Trowa's infatuation with him and agreed to it?

Trowa Barton - AC195

_ You sounded like you were in pain." Heero explained, completely unbothered by their various states of nakedness. "You usually do, but it seems to be getting worse.

He was gaping, and knew he must be blushing, he thought he was been more discreet than that. Maybe he should reevaluate his fellow pilot's hearing's range.

_ It's ok, I'm fine. I mean... you know how it... gets...

He might have never stammer in his life until now.

_ Actually, I don't. I can't." Heero softly divulged, alternately looking between his softening shaft and a cross between tiles, off to the left.

He thought back to his previous observation about the other boy's lack of pilosity. He leaned his back onto the warming tiles. It was a weird place for talking, it was an even weirder subject to talk about but he had a feeling it might get long. At least by their standards. He twisted the tap off.

_ It will. Some people are late bloomer.

He tried not to stare at Heero, he could still see the brunet head shake slowly through the mirror. Still, the other boy did not volunteer any more explanation, asked a question instead.

_ Why do you do that? That often? Even if it does 'not really' hurt?" Heero's candid bluntness was helping finding the whole situation a bit less awkward.

_ I can't help getting hard sometimes, biological urge. And it tends to be distracting. Getting off regularly reduces the chances I would get hard at inconvenient times.

He was still wet and it was getting a bit chilly, despite them being in Sicily and summer closing in.

_ Like I said, unlike you, I was the intended pilot of my Gundam." Heero kept on softly. "J... didn't want me to get distracted from the mission.

He was glad Heero still hadn't made his mind between looking at his fast shriveling crotch and that particular cross between tiles, because he couldn't have hidden his shock and horror to save his life.

_ And you let him?" He blurted before he could school his reaction.

Heero shrugged: "I didn't see much point no to. He did wait until the last minute. I think it was to let my voice deepen a notch or two. Doesn't mean I can't feel.

This time he looked up directly to his face, caught his gaze.

_ I feel... when you touch me.

He swallowed, hard, at the admission. Heero's clear, straightforward, gaze hadn't wavered; almost like daring him to denies he did too. The soft sound of naked feet on wet tiles distracted him from the mesmerizing gaze. Until he realized that gaze was suddenly way closer. Until Heero's hands came to rest on his chest, testing the skin; callused hand sliding up and down his pecs and abs. It felt nice, but not as much as he expected, not as much as the women's moans in those videos let expect.

Heero let his hands fall at his sides, disappointment creeping up his face, slumping his shoulder.

_ You don't feel it." And it was only because he had spend the past few weeks with the smaller teen, trying to decipher him, he was able to hear the hint of disappointment in his voice.

Heero made to step back, when he recovered enough sense to move forward and reach out. Enveloping the lithe body with both arms and drag him against his own. That, he felt, the relieved sigh Heero made against his still damp skin, the way the tense body relaxed and molded against his, the flutter of eyelashes, the soft smell of cheap shampoo mixed with motor oil and the ointment they were still using for Heero's tender wounds.

It got even better when he started to let his hands wander the marred skin offered to his touch. Heero was as sensitive as he wasn't, and soon, at his urge, stopped trying to stifle his reactions. Heero's crotch might not even try to make an attempt at showing interest, but like he said, it didn't prevent him to feel. And the moans he managed to draw out of him when adding his mouth and teeth into action went straight down to rekindle his own interest.

Maybe those videos might prove at least a bit useful after all.

He wasn't sure who or when it happened, he found himself kneeling in front of a naked Heero, flushed against the white and blue tiles, tasting every centimeter of the body trembling under his hands. Heero's nails scraping his scalp, his moans filling the small bathroom, he was no longer cold.

Then a sharp intake and the light scratches became almost painful. The trembling increased worryingly. He stopped to look up to Heero's flushed face and slightly panicking eyes.

_ Don't stop." Was breathed haltingly before Heero grabbed him fully and kissed, hungry, full of teeth and wet tongues. Their bodies sliding seemed to make the trick, whatever trick it actually did, in a low whine Heero shook one last time and calmed down, slumped against him. He waited for a few labored breath, holding the other tight before asking.

_ Are you ok?

The only answer he got was a vaguely modulate hum from the crook of his shoulder and hands that strayed to play with his curls, lightly teasing his still unfinished business.

_Let's bring this to bed.

_ You sure?

That was the day he learned never to question Heero's certainty about whatever he was offering. Much later, after having learnt new ways to use the ointment Catherine had provided for Heero's wounds, the very thorough control said Heero had over every muscle of his body, that a bundle of nerves didn't need hormones to send sparks and make Heero whimper when hit, and how completion felt different when sheathed in smooth heat than with his hand, he fell into the deepest sleep he ever experienced.

He also discovered how it felt to fall asleep and wake up in someone else arms.

He decided he quite liked it.

Yay! three followers.

Arigato gozaimasu.