The Stand Still

By: SukiNora

Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own them, I just like to play with them.

Pairings: 1+2, 3X4, 5x?

Warnings: Heero POV

Chapter 2

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I could never understand why Duo had to be so difficult all the time. It seemed almost like he felt he had to be difficult in order to fulfill some unknown purpose. For as long as I've known him he's always been getting into unnecessary trouble, or making some simple situation difficult when, really, there was absolutely no need for it in the first place.

For example, there was absolutely no reason for Duo to go on a mission with Zechs. I was his partner, and had been through two wars and four years at a job where we risked our lives every other week. We worked perfect together. So why did he feel the need to branch out and work with other people?

That question had plagued my mind ever since he began planning missions without me, and started asking Wufei or Trowa for help with his paperwork when I was right across from him at our desks. It's like I said, Duo always has to make things more complicated than they need to be.

Maybe it was because Duo himself is very complicated. I've never been able to figure him out. Sure I've unlocked a few pieces of the puzzle, but for the most part I have no idea what is going on in his tiny little head.

For instance, I'm probably one of the only people in the world who knows that Duo actually hates Relena. I'm even willing to bet my entire loot from Romefeller that if he could travel back in time, and stop himself from preventing me from killing her, he'd do it with that cheerful grin of his plastered across his face.

It was strange at first, seeing the slight variations of how he addressed her at parties and such. He was always pleasant and cheerful, but there was always a little bite to what he had to say. Something you wouldn't really think twice about unless you were looking for it. There was just something he didn't like about her.

The whole glory of the situation was that because I knew, I could use this in my plan for revenge. Granted, I didn't think of it as revenge at the time, but I certainly do now.

It had been nearly a week since Duo and I had our fight over his mission with the recruits and Zechs. It had passed in stony silence, with no apologies or explanations. Only the absolute necessary communication past between us, and it usually involved something like borrowing a pen.

On the second day of silence, I started my own retaliation against Duo.

"Heero, are you ready to go?" I looked up from my laptop to see the retaliation standing in the doorway to Duo and I's office.

"Yes, Relena, just give me one minute." I hadn't really needed the extra minute, but I wanted to be sure Duo got a good look at who I was going to lunch with.

"Wow, your a long way from home your majesty." When I heard the distaste oozing from his every word a distinct feeling of accomplishment washed over me.

Relena, of course, missed it completely. "I am! But it's not everyday I get a call from the famous Heero Yuy asking to take me to lunch."

His head snapped towards me when he learned that I had been the one to initiate the lunch date, the look of complete shock was utterly satisfying.

"Y- you asked to go out with her?" I smiled as he stumbled over his words. I can tell he's at a complete loss, which is exactly what I had planned, which is why I had put my stapler in my desk a few moments ago.

After shutting my laptop I stood from my desk, walking towards Relena. I nodded, putting my arm around her, and flashing Duo the biggest smile I could without hurting myself.

"I thought a little change in company might be nice." I was so tempted to throw at a wink at him after his mouth dropped open it nearly killed me not to. But if I had he would have known the whole thing was just a means for pay back.

Duo and I always ate lunch together. We have every single day since we worked together at Preventers. That's what gave me the idea.

Well, I wont lie to you, it wasn't easy sitting across from Relena watching her mouth move but not really hearing anything that came out of it. I kept drifting back to Duo. Wondering what he was doing, how he was doing, and did I make him jealous enough to stop the feud growing between us.

I nearly grimaced after we ordered our food and began the arduous waiting period. I'm not particularly fond of Relena either, especially when all she has to talk about is how to increase a budget for something I don't really care about. Granted, I do respect her, but I can't honestly say that if I was given the opportunity to go back in time with Duo, knowing her like I do now, that I wouldn't have shot her. Not to kill of course. Maybe just to nick her a bit...

I ate lunch with her for three straight days, watching Duo grow ever more hostile towards her and moody during the day when I returned. It was the most fabulous and invigorating experience of my life. Sure, the lunches were complete torture, but for the first time in my friendship with Duo I found myself at the advantage, and that was worth any torture Relena could bring upon me. I had him pulling his hair out for a change. For once, he was the one with the attitude problem, not me.

Everyone started noticing how moody he was getting, especially around lunch time.

"You realize you're slowly killing him," Wufei asked me, sipping his coffee as we stared into Duo and I's office, watching him stab his desk repetitively with his pen. I smiled, it was almost noon.

"I'm just branching out," I defended, draining the last of my cup and setting it down on the counter.

"You know he came into our office yesterday when you were at lunch and asked us if he smelled bad." I raised my eyebrow.

"Smelled bad?"

Wufei glared at me. "Yes."

I shrugged. "He doesn't smell bad."

"I know that!" He replied angrily, slamming his hand down on the counter, scaring a few interns walking by.

He almost seemed astonished at his own reaction. He took his hand off the counter and ran it through his hair with a sigh. "Just promise you wont take this too far."

I nodded. "To the end of the week."

While walking back to our office, I wondered if I should feel slightly ashamed for taking so much pleasure in Duo's pain. Obviously it was bothering my other friends, but they hadn't been betrayed by Duo like I had. After much debate I realized I shouldn't feel too bad about it. He had been doing the same thing to me, so it couldn't be that bad.

I kept my eyes to the floor, watching my feet as I picked them up one by one, each step bringing me closer to our office. I shouldn't feel bad, I assured myself. Revenge is a dish best served cold.

My eyes widened as I felt myself being jerked into the office by my tie, hearing the door slamming behind me as I was viciously shoved.

"Why are you doing this?!" I leaned myself back against our desks after I caught my balance. Wiping myself off, I stared at Duo, fuming in front of me, his fists clenched at his sides. I could tell he'd been messing with his hair, probably pulling at it by the looks of his braid, as parts where sticking up and others completely loose.

"This is where I work, Duo. I have to come back after I take my coffee break," I replied smugly, leaning back against my desk, enjoying the distressed look that appeared on his face.

"Are you serious?" He replied incredulously, his eyes nearly bugging out of his head. "I'm talking about Relena! Why are you spending so much time with her!?"

I merely shrugged, knowing that if I remained calm it would bother him all the more. "She's grown on me."

At that moment we both turned our heads as the door was slightly opened and Relena poked her head in.

"Heero?" She called, leaning in further to look around.

"You're not stealing my best friend from me you bitch!"

My head snapped away from the door back to Duo. He looks just as shocked as I am about his outburst. His eyes were wide and his face started turning a bright red color resembling a ripe tomato.

"I mean... I..." For a moment I think he's about to faint.

"Relena," I began, taking a deep breath of air. "Just give me a second."

She nods, the pain of Duo's remark showing on her face, and closes the door behind her. I nearly groan. She's probably going to cry all through lunch.

I was shaken from my self pity when Duo plopped back down into his chair, propping his elbows on his knees and burying his face in his hands. "I didn't mean to say that," he mumbled.

I could tell by the way he was acting that this was going to be one of those times when I would receive no eye contact from Duo. He always got this way when he felt truly guilty about something. He told me during the war that he had a no lie policy on life, but that he has no problem with hiding and running away. That's one thing I've certainly learned to be true, and if Duo Maxwell thought his eyes were going to give away something, then he'd keep them closed forever to save face.

"But you did," I pointed out, sitting on the edge of my desk.

He let out a long sigh and ran his hand through his bangs. His lips opened and closed as though he was going to say something, but then thought better of it. "I just want to know why," he said quietly, studying the coffee stain on our carpet left from last april fools day when he came in wearing a bald cap.

"Why do you have to partner with Zechs?" I asked bluntly. "Or anyone else for that matter?"

"Well, why do you have to have lunch with Relena?!" He shot back harshly.

"Because I know you hate her."

"Well, I know you hate Zechs too," he says, crossing his arms against his chest as though he's finally found the comeback he's been searching for all week.

I tilt my head to the side. "Exactly why should I feel sorry for you?" I asked, watching his proud look fall apart.

"Just tell me why you're eating lunch with Relena!" He screamed, jumping up and kicking his desk, making a few papers scatter off the surface.

"Why do you have to partner with Zechs?" He glared at me, plopping back down into his desk chair, averting his gaze.

"Why? Jealous?" He asked quietly, almost sarcastically.

"Immensely," I replied sharply, standing from my sitting position to lean down in front of him. "But not enough to tell that bitch Zechs not to steal my best friend."

I had no idea Duo's face could grow as red as it did just then. All the blood in his entire body looked as though it decided to take up camp in his cheeks. "I'm sorry, Heero," he mumbled. "So this was just about me getting a taste of my own medicine?"

"Was it bitter?"

"Worse than robitussin." I cringed as the memories of the first time I'd encountered that vile medicine came rushing back to me. It was all Duo's fault, like most other things that go wrong in my life.

The first thing you need to realize about Duo when you go on a mission with him, is that he's very stubborn. I can admit that I'm a stubborn person, but my stubbornness doesn't hold a candle to Duo's. The worst part about it is that he'd the kind of person who doesn't know he's as stubborn as he is. Anything he refuses to do he can justify, which gets quite bothersome.

It was the first time we'd taken our recruits out on a survival weekend. It was simple, you got a knife, a lighter, and an eight foot rope and you had to find food, make shelter, and not get caught by the opposing team, in this case, it was Wufei and Trowa's recruits. The weekend is mainly to show the new recruits how with team work you can prevail under high stress, low supply situations. As they excel, you take them on more weekends and give them less supplies with the same objective.

The agents who take the recruits on the weekend survival are there merely to make sure no one gets killed, and to see which recruits show more promise than others. So there we were, perched on top of a hill in tents while the rain kept pouring down on us.

That leads me to the real reason I had my run in with robitussin. Socks. Specifically, Duo's socks.

The water had seeped completely through his boots and efficiently soaking his feet, yet he refused to change his socks. He was "fine," as he put it. But after a weekend of having cold wet feet, Duo got sick.

And of course didn't come into work for a week, leaving a ton of paperwork that was pilling up to unnaturally high levels on his desk. I decided that I'd take them to him, since I feared they might eventually fall and trap me underneath them.

I remember exactly how it went. When I first entered his apartment with the spare key, I was completely consumed in a humid environment, rich in menthol. When I found Duo, he was laying in a pile of what looked to be mucus. Duo hadn't been taking any medicine, that was obvious, and after searching through all his cabinets it was also obvious he didn't own any.

After a short trip to the drug store, I returned with a bottle of something that seemed to promise everything except picking up dirty tissues The only problem was that Duo refused to take any of it. In the end, half the bottle was spilled all over his floor and bed and he convinced me to try some of it first.

I did not make Duo drink any of it.

Ever since then, whenever we had to compare something horrible to something else, we compared it to robitussin.

By this time I was cringing at the memory of the vile liquid, but I was glad to be reminded of it. I've had many life altering experiences. I've been mere inches from death, and had to make many split second decisions that would save or destroy thousands of lives. But when that memory came back to me, I realized something.

"Move in with me," I blurted out.

I didn't want to lose him.

His expression turned from one of utter shock to a toothy grin before he wrapped his arms around my neck.

"Okay!"

A.N. Well that's it, I know it was shorter but I didn't want to go too far until I decide on the POV's. I'm not sure which one I like writing better (or which one I write better for that matter), but I'm leaning towards Duo. I dunno. The next chapter will be much longer. Happy reading!