A/N: Wow! Thanks for all the comments and reviews! It makes me so happy to see people are enjoying my story. Review more! It makes me write faster. SRSLY. 8D

"If I don't say this now I will surely break
As I'm leaving the one I want to take
Forgive the urgency but hurry up and wait
My heart has started to separate"

The Fray "Look After You"

CHAPTER TWO

The next morning, Duo Maxwell was woken out of his sleep by his cell phone ringing cheerfully by his head. With a start he jumped up, book flying in one direction, his vision askew by the reading glasses hanging crazily on his face. Grabbing the small electronic device lazily, he pressed it to his ear.

"Whut?" he demanded grumpily into the phone, pulling his glasses carefully of his face and looking for where the book had just flown.

"Oh please," came Hilde's cheerful reply. Duo glanced at the clock. It was seven am, far to early for him to be up and cheerful. "Good morning, sunshine"

"Woman, its seven am here, there'd better be a reason behind this call," he grumped more, having found the book far too far away for him to retrieve without moving from his comfortable position.

"Duh," she said, sounding exasperated. "You're on vacation! Sleeping in is wasting the day, man. Get out there!"

"Sorry, sweetie," he replied in a mock tone of her own. "But none of the lovely attractions open till nine!"

"Oh," came the disappointed reply. "Well, you're just in time for breakfast then."

Duo's stomach chorused its agreement and he sighed, struggling to get up from bed, glasses and book discarded as he slumped across the room to his laptop. "God, I need a cigarette."

"No you do not, mister!" Hilde scolded, tone leaving no room for argument. Duo grinned, knowing just how to ruffle the girl's feathers. The expression faltered as yesterday came back in mind, and the conversation with Heero ran through his head.

He cleared his throat, suddenly nervous. Hilde didn't seem to notice, however, forgetting the cigarette business to go on about some great restaurants she had looked up in Tokyo that he should visit. Duo found himself smiling soon, suddenly glad that he did have such a good friend who was completely unawares of the whole mess suddenly around him.

"Those places sound great," he said, wondering why he was suddenly pondering if Heero had been to any of them. Now, he wondered if he should tell Hilde about Heero.

As she continued happily on, he decided against it. It would ruin Hilde's joy at his vacation, a pleasure he found hard to understand, as Heero had always been a touchy subject between them. Another unknown in his life. Burying these thoughts away, he brought himself back to the present and Hilde's talk of amusement parks.

Soon the conversation ended, Hilde saying a customer had arrived and Duo wishing her luck with the sale. He pressed the end call button the device and tossed it on the bed, plopping down in the chair before his laptop without his usual grace.

Deciding to check his email he found, to his infinite surprise two emails from Heero Yuy, a reply to his one last night, and none other than Relena Darlian. With immense curiosity, Duo opened the email from the female first and found a lengthy email going on about her worries over Heero and her thankfulness that Duo was helping. Basically, it was the mushy equivalent to what he had been trying to avoid the night before. However, it did make him feel better, especially since, in a way, he had found Heero already. Didn't mean he'd be telling the diplomat, maybe Heero didn't want to be found yet…

Closing out of Relena's email, he opened Heero's. The man took 'short and concise' to a whole new level, saying in two sentences that he was glad to see Duo again and that should meet the next day outside Duo's hotel. No, not asking if they could, saying that they should. 'Oh, Heero, I've missed you so.'

Sending off a quick reply of consent to Heero's email, he stared at Relena's in his inbox. Should he reply to it? And if he did reply, what in the hell should he say to the woman? They were never close-close, but they were friends and he didn't want her to worry needlessly. However, he supposed it was Heero's choice, whether the Wing pilot wanted to be found again was not Duo's decision. He wondered why his chest ached as he thought that.

Shaking his head at his silly sentimentality, and wondering if Relena's words had gone to his head, he shutdown the laptop. No more hiding in his hotel room. He had a town to paint red.

First stop was Shinjuku. Duo, despite what anyone might think, really did love to shop. Plus, he had nearly forty people back on L2 that he'd promised souvenirs to. From his map, it wasn't too far from his hotel, and a nice walk sounded great. The idea of being a tourist on vacation was distraction enough for the young man. Once, during the war, he had planned on visiting every spot he'd gone to during the wartime as a tourist one day, to see the sights as they should be seen, not through the eyes of a terrorist. However, these plans seemed to have been long put on hold, with his and Hilde's salvage yard taking the front burner in his life, all dreams seemed foolish in the face of everyday life.

Now, though, they seemed fresh and tasted as wonderful as they day they'd first crossed his mind. With these new people milling around him, living lives Duo had never seen before, the prospect of travel to see more of these Earth-grounded people was exciting. They were all very different from those of the colonies. It was strange, but Duo realized it all around him, the way they talked to each other, interacted was all at variance to colonists. In the many years the colonies had floated over head, it seemed the people above had formed their own universal interaction, while the Earth stayed to true to its own.

Soon the massive shopping district came into view, populated immensely by shoppers and holding true to the name of one of the most popular destinations if city-goers. With a grin to split his face, he started his own personal tour of the place, getting to know every shop and every clerk there personally. People smiled and greeted him easily, understanding and tolerating the little bit of Japanese he knew and being as helpful as ever.

After a few little choice stores he stumbled upon the colossal store Odakyu with surprise and excitement. He had read about this store in the tour guide on the shuttle ride in, it had sixteen floors of shopping bliss and even a food department that the guide had boasted pleasantly about. Stomach growling again in annoyance at being ignored for so long, Duo decided this was the place to eat, and headed on inside.

Duo had certainly never been to any place like this before. He'd been to almost every colony twice and the malls there were never like this. Due to the fact they could only be a certain height, the colony malls were spread out flat and required much more walking. Earth's malls were always towering and massive, full of thousands of stores and wonders that made Duo giddy at the thought.

Finding the food court, Duo found himself very, very thankful Hilde had insisted it was Japan he went to. He found himself loving the place more and more with every glance. The place was just so alive! Not to mention the shopping and the food. Munching happily on some freshly made authentic sushi that was nothing like that made at his local grocery store, Duo contemplated his next destination. Figuring that he should at least look around Odakyu instead of just eating there he decided that this would probably spend most of his days. After all, sixteen freaking floors.

Five hours, six shopping bags, and two aching feet later Duo found himself stepping out of a cab back at his hotel. He stared up at the four steps of stairs with apprehension before finally climbing the things. Despite his slow gait, he found himself quickly back in his room, spilling large shopping bags onto his bed.

Staring at them all with a critical eye, he pulled out a small slip of paper that ended up being a napkin. After thinking on needing to get souvenirs for his friends at lunch earlier that day, he'd made a list of all the names of people he needed to shop for. Staring at the sloppily written names in his half-cursive half-print writing, he counted that he had successfully shopped for ten people in total. It was a satisfying feeling, and Duo knew there was nothing better than giving gifts to your loved ones.

Throwing himself on his bed next to the bags, he grunted in happiness at the small little cube of mint chocolate on his pillow and indulged in consuming the thing, finding himself looking at the ceiling again. This staring contest ending quickly, as he sat up and looked over at his laptop, sitting innocently open, glowing softly in the afternoon lit. On. It was on. Eyes narrowing, he looked around the room with a more alert air. Someone had been in his room, and still was, he realized as he slowly got up from his bed.

They had been sloppy thus far, obviously hoping that Duo would be staying out later than he had. "I know you're here," Duo announced with a bored tone, eyes glaring about the room. "So save yourself the trouble and show yourself."

There was movement from the bathroom, making the braided man tense, ready for action until he found himself once again incredulous on his vacation. Chang Wufei stepped out of his hotel bathroom with an air of chastised petulance. They stared each other down for a good minute, one blue confused gaze becoming irritated and the other black one becoming even guiltier, though no less dignified.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Duo demanded, none to kindly. He felt he had the right to, all that and more for blatant the invasion of privacy.

Wufei cleared his throat, fixing the sleeves of his sports jacket unnecessarily before answering with a slightly raised brow, "Nothing much."

With an explosion of breath in an exasperated sigh, Duo shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. "Wufei," he said with a smile that was only annoyed now, not ready to 'punch-your-head-into-the-wall-to-see-if-it'd-bleed-answers' in the least anymore, making the Chinese man visibly relax. "There had better be a damn good answer."

"There is," Wufei replied, sitting casually and as if he belonged there in one of the chairs at Duo's kitchenette table. "I was just seeing if you had any information, yet, on Yuy's whereabouts."

Duo was suddenly glad he had put the business card in his wallet this morning. Making and irritated noise, Duo perched on the corner of his bed. "I'm on vacation," he said, rolling his eyes. "I haven't exactly been thinking about finding Heero Yuy, sorry."

"You have made contact—"

"Wait," Duo held up a hand, the 'punching-head-in-wall' look back. "You've been following me?"

Wufei looked nervous and guilty all at once and Duo knew he had. Throwing his arms up in frustration, Duo stood and stormed across the room to go look out his third story window, hoping to quell his anger over the matter with the scenic view. It wasn't very helpful, actually. All he saw was his angry reflection staring back at him and the vague shape of Wufei standing up behind him.

"My apologies, Duo," Wufei said, after a good pause of silence. "I am currently on a mission here in Tokyo for other reasons but am taking up Heero's disappearance as a personal matter. Relena has come to me and asked for my help, I could not refuse her."

"She didn't ask you to go through my things," Duo snapped, whipping around and ignoring the thump as his braid hit the glass window from the force of the motion. "She didn't ask you to fucking follow me! What's the big deal, huh? Can't you just leave the guy alone?"

Wufei still looked as guilty and nervous as he had the last time Duo looked at him, and Duo made an irritated noise again at the look. It meant nothing to him now, he felt betrayed. "Duo, please, you must understand," Wufei said, gently as if Duo were some sort of raging animal.

"No," he said, firmly. "I take back what I said, I am not helping you. You've broken the trust by invading my privacy and are certainly not helping by telling me what the fuck is going on here. It'd be best if you'd just leave, Wufei."

"But you---"

"Leave."

Wufei gave him one last look, one that Duo pointedly turned his head away to, to stare at the wall beside him. He didn't look back until he heard the door click shut. Leaning against the cool glass behind him, Duo glared into space. What the hell was going on here? Why were they so desperate for Heero to return? Was there a threat to the peace? Or was Relena just antsy and stirring up trouble?

Cursing all this confusion, Duo stormed about his room, changing into clubbing clothes and leaving. He would forget all this mess under the guise of a tourist again, and waste the night away with drinking, smoking, dancing and whatever else it took to rid this ache.

The pounding was insistent, just in tune with the throb of his headache, and the flimsy hotel door shook under the power of it. Whoever was knocking at his door when Duo Maxwell had a hangover had better have a good reason, or they'd be met all to welcomingly with a fist. Storming as carefully as he could without jostling his noggin, Duo headed to the door and threw it open.

"Fuck off!" he hissed, even when he'd seen it was Heero Yuy on his proverbial doorstep. Heero just raised a single brow and gently pushed past Duo, straight into the room without a care. 'Damned Asians, gotta come in my place as if they own the freaking thing,' Duo growled mentally, closing the door quietly and rounding to glare at his fellow pilot.

Heero wasn't paying attention, and was instead flipping through the novel Duo had been peacefully reading before having been rudely interrupted. Duo just sighed, done with waiting for an answer, and collapsed on the bed with a moan.

This triggered the other man into breaking his silence, "Its past time for our meeting," the man said, obviously irked on the matter. Duo supposed Heero had the right to be angry; it was a good hour past their arrangement.

"Yeah, I know," Duo replied, rolling over to give a sheepish look at Heero. "I just woke up an half hour ago."

"With a hang over," Heero concluded, suddenly amused.

"Unfortunately," Duo griped, rubbing at his temples. "Your banging didn't help."

"No," Heero said completely unapologetic. "But, we still have a lot of the day left."

Duo stared at Heero, blinking his large blue eyes at the other. "We do?" he asked, not sure if he was hearing the other man correctly.

"Yes, we do," the Japanese pilot declared, again, giving Duo a stern look. "I made an arrangement with you, are you going to blow me off?"

"Maybe," was the muffled reply, Duo had long since stuffed his head in a pillow, deciding that Heero was somehow making his headache worse.

Heero sighed and Duo knew that was his cue. The braided man sat up, scowling to himself for being so soft, and stood slowly to his feet. "I need to get dressed, then," Duo announced and Heero said nothing, not that he was expected to. With a sigh of his own, nearly matching that of Heero's in frustration, Duo slumped to the bathroom.

Once there, he stared fruitlessly at his reflections, marking off the things that had changed about him since Heero last saw him. He certainly, as Heero had already kindly pointed out, hadn't gotten any taller. Perhaps an inch or two, but no more than that, obviously destined to live his life a shrimp. His face had sharpened, more masculine angles on the heart shaped face, and all traces of baby-fat long vanished.

Duo was never one for vanity, but he felt he looked pretty damn good. Better than the next guy could look, at least. Heero definitely had him long beat in the looks department, even in their youth when the boy was scrawny Heero had this certain way about him. Now, having come into his manhood, Heero was the epitome of handsome.

"Watching you get dressed is an interesting experience," came Heero's voice from right beside him, making Duo jump a good foot away from the other. Heero was casually leaning in the open bathroom doorway, a single slim brow raised, adding to that smug and amused expression.

Duo frowned, glared and took a step towards Heero. "No one asked you," he said, placing his palm flat against Heero's chest and leaning in close. Then with a loud 'humph!' Duo pushed as hard as he could, sending the taller man a few stumbling steps back, and slamming the door resolutely after.

Wincing at the noise, Duo turned and looked at the shower. He was definitely in desperate need of one after last night. Nodding his head in the most determined fashion he could manage, Duo set about getting himself ready to spend a day with Heero Yuy. It was a thought that almost made him groan aloud, but somehow happy none the least.

"You make me nostalgic," Duo sighed, sitting down next to Heero who was reading the newspaper.

Heero glanced at him, folding the paper and setting it on the bedspread beside him. "Oh?" he asked rhetorically. "I can say the same for you."

"Nostalgia gives me gas," Duo said, having not once looked at Heero instead staring wistfully ahead.

Heero was snorted in surprise, obviously having not thought this was what was going to come out of the other's mouth. "Keep that to yourself then," he said, laughter lilting his voice.

Duo suddenly whipped his head around to glare at Heero with narrow eyes. "Who are you?"

"Heero Yuy."

"No!" Duo denied.

"Yes."

"No!"

"We could go on like this all day," the Japanese man said, standing and walking across the room to grab his coat.

"Well, we have so much of it left! Why not?" Duo mocked, crossing his arms, and turning to glare at the wall.

"Duo," Heero said, brows furrowing. Duo refused to look at Heero, setting his jaw tight at the sound of his voice. "Why're you acting this way?"

"Why?!" Duo burst out, standing suddenly to glare harshly at Heero. "Because---!" Stopping, Duo frowned, tense shoulders slumping and head lowering to stare at the floor. "Because…I don't understand."

Heero waited for the other to elaborate, and when Duo didn't, he gently prompted the other. This earned him a death glare that rivaled his own for his efforts, but did get Duo to continue, nonetheless.

"I don't understand why you want to "hang out" with me," Duo said, making the quotation marks with two fingers and everything. "After you left so suddenly, I just don't understand why you would want to be my friend now when you didn't want to be then!"

Heero flinched, diverting his eyes. "I…"

"What, Heero?" Duo said, voice soft now as he dropped back down to sitting on the bed. "I…I'm sorry, I shouldn't have yelled or said those things…its not my place…and I—"

"No," Heero interrupted, voice far firmer than before. "Its your right to know…just not yet, okay?"

Duo looked up, confusion clouding bright blue. "When, then?"

"…Soon, as long as you tell me why you kept away yourself," Heero said, gaze getting its familiar stern glare.

Duo nodded, raising three fingers in scout's honor. "I promise."

"Then so do I."

Please review!

To be continued…