Disclaimer: The usual. I still don't own them….

Note - many thanks to KS for proof-reading.

Back to Duo's POV

Third Time Lucky?

I've always had a bit of a problem with the third date. I mean, you basically spend the first one making sure that the other guy has reasonable hygiene habits, and doesn't sound like he's got body parts in his freezer. The second time, they're usually still on fairly good behaviour, with maybe a kiss at the end.

The third time tends to be when it all goes horribly wrong. In fairness, I had managed to get past that awkward point with Mikhail, but only because we'd spent so much time together professionally, refining the design I was doing for his new shuttle, that by the time he declared any sort of romantic interest, I was already comfortable with him.

Somehow, my official third date with Heero went quite well at the start; we even made it most of the way to L4 without an argument. We had a couple of hours to ourselves, before he 'phoned Noin, until the others invaded our cabin, and we all sat around the table and ate freeze-dried noodles, and chatted a bit about the porn-smuggling business. When the others finally went off God-knows-where, Heero scavenged some cushions and blankets to pile on the hard bench.

'So…what's that supposed to be?'

Heero looked up from folding the blankets just so. 'I believe it's known as a bed in most cultures.'

'No kidding. And what's it for exactly?'

Blue eyes glinted at me. 'What do you think?'

Oh, boy.

'It's almost midnight, Duo. Steph said we'll be docking about five am. I thought we should try to get some sleep while we can.'

Sleep. Oh, yes, I remembered that. Vaguely. Of course that had been all he'd meant. And of course he was perfectly right. It was far too soon to think about anything else.

'Trowa was going to look through Quat's email accounts to see if he can find anything suspicious. You don't think we should help with that?'

'I think we'll both be more help to Trowa when we land if we're both rested, and you were nearly falling asleep over dinner.' He sat on the edge of the bench and held out one hand to me. 'Humour me, please? We can just lie down and talk if you're not tired.'

Talk? Oh, sure. So, Heero, read any good books lately?

It took a few minutes to find a comfortable way for us to fit together, without me pressing too much on any of his more sensitive, recently-stunned areas. Pathetic as it sounds, I must have dozed off pretty much straightaway after that; the result of a stomach filled with stodge, and too many sleepless nights lately. It was his voice that woke me, in the end, murmuring my name.

'Hey, you.' He smiled down at me, and for a long moment there was nothing else in the whole universe but the look in his eyes.

'This isn't a dream I'm having, is it?' I asked uncertainly. Please. If it did turn out to be a dream, I was going to make damn sure I fell straight back asleep.

'It's not a dream.' One hand gave my braid a quick tug to prove it. 'I'm sorry I had to wake you, but Trowa called me a minute ago. He's got Noin on the 'phone.'

Things went to hell pretty swiftly after we'd heard what Noin had to say. The issue, naturally, was me going straight back to Earth, like a good boy, and took place over Steph's voluble protests that she had no intention of turning around and flying back after refuelling; that she had a cargo to unload, and then she wasn't going anywhere until she'd had a night's sleep and found a new load of freight. At some point, Trowa and Ray had trickled off; Steph, who apparently viewed our quarrel as some sort of spectator sport, looked like she was quite happy to stay and watch, until Ray came back and dragged her off.

'We had an agreement, remember?' I was saying heatedly to Heero. 'I got a couple of hours here and then I'd do whatever you wanted.'

'I know what I said,' he told me. 'Please Duo. Just listen to me, will you? Noin checked out the co-ordinates of that email Quatre supposedly sent. It's an apartment building in a very run-down district. She sent a team of agents to investigate, and there was no trace that Quat had ever been there.'

'What do you mean, check it out? You mean they actually searched the building, or just went around asking the locals if they'd happened to see a blond billionaire who's been all over the news since he disappeared?'

'Noin is perfectly satisfied with her team's findings.'

'Yay for her. That doesn't mean shit. ' I muttered. 'Well, I'm not satisfied, and I bet Tro's not either. Is he planning to go straight back home and let the Preventers handle it?'

'Not exactly,' Heero admitted. 'But it's different for him. He doesn't have a court injunction keeping him in Florence.'

'Fine,' I glared at him. 'If you can assure me that the Preventers'll go back and do a proper search, then I'm quite happy to let the so-called professionals do their job. Otherwise, I'm going with Tro.'

'Noin doesn't have the resources for anything of the sort; but she has agreed to leave a couple of undercover agents in the area, to keep an eye out for anything suspicious and to sound out the locals. Duo, the truth is that we don't have any proof that Quatre sent the email in the first place. It could be a hoax, and even if it's genuinely from him, it could have been bounced off a different satellite to confuse us.'

'Oh, please! That email had to have been sent by Quat; it was in a code he and Tro had set up back in the War. It's not exactly common knowledge!'

Heero hesitated. 'There are certain people at Preventers HQ who believe there is a …possibility that the message was sent by Trowa, as a means of diverting attention from himself. He is still as suspect, after all.'

'That's bullshit!' I snapped, guessing who one of those 'certain people' might be. Une had never liked Tro; she'd been totally taken in by his undercover act during the War, and then he'd had the cheek to reject graciously extended offer to join the Preventers. If she could finger him for Quat's disappearance, she'd be only too thrilled. 'I've had enough of this. You can't just swan back into my life after all those years and you fucking can't start ordering me around and expecting me to do whatever you happen to think is best.'

My plan for storming out of the cabin was interrupted slightly by Steph, who was walking past the door, and smirked at me as I slammed the door shut.

'Lovers' tiff?'

'No!' It wasn't a lie exactly; we weren't lovers and weren't likely ever to be at this rate.

Her grin broadened. 'Heero's cute. I'll have him if you're sure you don't want him.'

Oh no, you won't.

'I think Ray might object to that.'

She shrugged. 'Maybe that cute prince of yours might object to you shacking up with Heero?'

Oh, not this again. I swore to myself that I was never again going to be seen with Zechs in public. 'I told you; I'm not shacked up with either of them. Zechs is my friend and Heero's my…..'

'Yeah?' She reached over and slid something into my back pocket. 'Here; if you figure it out, these might come in handy. Colour matches your eyes.' She winked. 'Tro's in the cargo bay if you need someone to talk to.'

'Thanks.' Ideally, I would have preferred to be alone, but with Heero infesting the cabin, Ray in the cockpit, and Steph prowling around, there weren't a lot of options so I ended up going to the cargo bay and settling on one of the crates, running my eyes over a printed manifesto that had been taped to it. God, some people are into really weird stuff. I pulled the paper free and pretended to examine every single item, in the hope that Trowa, who was likewise sitting on a crate and typing on his laptop, would take the hint that I didn't feel like talking. It didn't work.

'So. Have you two broken up again?'

'Dunno.' It came out indistinct, given that I was chewing on the end of my braid.

'Is that what you want?'

'Don't know.'

Trowa shook his head, hair falling all over his face. 'Duo, if you ever do decide what it is you want, the ESUN will probably declare some sort of national holiday.'

'That's not fair!' I exclaimed, stung. 'I do want Heero. I just don't want all that shit about him trying to control my life. I'm perfectly capable of making my own decisions.'

'Just because you've had a row with Wufei, it's not really fair to take it out on Heero.'

'That's not what I'm doing! And we didn't have a row! We had a ... discussion.'

It was too scary to think about, actually. We'd never had a real fight before. Not like this. It was too scary to dwell on the things Wufei and I had said to each other, and there was a tiny voice in my brain whispering that maybe he'd been right. And that maybe I'd really screwed up this time, that he'd only been trying to be a concerned friend, and now he was seriously pissed off with me. No, that was way too terrifying to contemplate; life without Wufei being there for me.

'How do you know about it, anyway?'

'He called me.' Trowa looked at me coolly. 'After you hung up on him.'

I swallowed. 'Is he really mad?'

'That was the impression I got. But I think he's mostly blaming Heero's bad influence. And me, for letting you come along.'

'That's unfair. I practically forced you to bring me and I'll tell him that. Tro, I'm really sorry about all this; it's the last thing you need right now, when you should be able to concentrate on finding Quat.'

Trowa shrugged. 'Maybe he and Heero are right, that I shouldn't have let you come. I don't want you to get into any trouble over all of this. Maybe you and Heero should just go straight back to Earth and let me do this.'

'No way! First off, you didn't let me come, as you put it! I wanted to. I still do. It's not like anyone's ever going to know I've left Italy. And the whole Heero thing? That'll work out or it won't.'

'Very philosophical.'

'Whatever. It's all just happened so fast, you know? Like I haven't really caught up with everything that's going on yet.' I gave the end of my braid a thoughtful nibble. 'Wu said some stuff that maybe I should think about.'

'Heero cheated on you; you almost died because of him, it took you years to get your life back, and now you've decided to construct some elaborate little fantasy about the two of you getting back together,' Wufei's voice was echoing in my head.

Oh God. Was he right? Was I mad for even considering this? Yeah, quite likely.

Except that - I so badly wanted to believe the things Heero had said to me. That he should never have let me go, and that maybe we could learn from all the stuff we'd done wrong. That he just wanted a chance to prove how serious he was about us. He'd said all that stuff like he'd meant it, like he believed it.

'It's all been good up 'til now,' I said slowly. 'Well, mostly. I just - I don't want it to be the way it was before. With Heero trying to control everything I did, and having a fit any time I even looked at another guy. I can't go back to living like that.'

'You don't have to,' Trowa said calmly. 'Back then, we were all still messed up from the War. None of us knew how to deal with normal life; Heero tried to cope by focussing on his job and on keeping you safe, because that was all he knew how to do. You've both changed since then. There's no reason for you to make the same mistakes.' He smiled slightly. 'Heero doesn't seem to be quite so possessive any more, if he's willing to leave you down here with your ex for this length of time.'

God, it actually took me a minute to figure out what he was talking about. 'Yeah, right. I don't think he'll be worried about that. I told him it was nothing serious and we all know the only guy you're thinking about right now is Quat.' I twirled the end of my braid around one finger. 'You know, that Steph girl keeps asking really weird questions about me and Zechs. Does everyone in the entire universe think the two of us are together? Or the three of us?'

'You can't expect me to answer for everyone in the universe. But one might draw certain conclusions from the fact that you all live together, that you spend a great deal of time together, and that there have been certain compromising photographs printed of you and Zechs.'

'That doesn't mean anything. You never believed it, did you?'

Trowa raised his one visible eyebrow. 'I didn't, until I went to stay with you, and you told me you hardly ever used your bedroom. That did make me wonder at first.'

'You didn't seriously think that, did you? I usually just end up crashing on the couch after watching TV or something with Zechs. Um, I mean, not with Zechs.'

'I know what you mean, Duo.' The eyebrow slipped up another notch or two. 'Why are you so worried about this right now? You've known all about those rumours for years.'

'Sure, but that was just stupid stuff in the tabloids. I didn't think anyone believed any of it.' Well, maybe they did. I'd believed whatever stuff I'd seen printed about Heero and Relena, after all. Damn. Bloody karma, having a field day with Duo Maxwell. We'd split up in the first place because I'd been jealous of Relena, fuelled by all the pretty pictures of the two of them together, and then he'd kept away from years because he'd thought I was with Zechs and Wufei. My head was starting to hurt from all this, and then I thought of something else.

'Tro?' He glanced up from his laptop. 'Can I ask you something. Heero said you knew he came to see me when I was in hospital, after my….accident. Why did you never tell me?'

'Tell you that he visited you? Why would I tell you something you already knew?' He lifted his head properly, brushing his bangs back with one hand, so I got the full impact of his gaze. 'Oh, God. Don't tell me. He never told you?'

I shook my head. 'I never really gave him the chance.'

'You're mad,' he said flatly. 'The pair of you. Certifiably insane.'

'Thanks a lot,' I muttered. 'I don't suppose it ever occurred to you to mention it at some point?'

'Apropos of what exactly? Heero firmly refused to talk about you; you've always been adamant that you don't want to discuss what happened between the pair of you.' He looked back down at his screen. 'Seriously, Duo, right now I have more important things to worry me than your inability to communicate.'

'Fine. Hint taken.' OK, I could see his point. 'I'll talk to Wu,' I promised, hopping down from my crate and heading for the door. 'And I promise none of this will get in the way of looking for Quat.'

He just nodded, not bothering to look up at me. Great. Wasn't this just my day to piss off all my friends in the galaxy? Still, Trowa had to be going frantic about Quatre; he didn't really need all my relationship problems heaped on top of his own. I squeezed his shoulder briefly as I walked past him, and turned from closing the door to find Heero standing in the corridor.

'I'm sorry,' he said resolutely, . 'You were perfectly correct. I don't have any right to tell you what to do. But I told you I will always want to keep you safe and I meant that. Can't we maybe come to some sort of compromise?'

'I'm sorry too,' I whispered. 'I guess I sort of over-reacted. 'But seriously, 'Ro, you can't just wrap me up and keep me in an iron box with you standing guard against the rest of the world, you know? I can't live like that.'

'I know. I just thought that after the War, I'd never have to see you face any sort of danger again. I know you can look after yourself perfectly well; I just - feel I should be there for you.'

'Yeah,' I admitted. 'I feel like that about you too. I always have. I still have those god-dammed nightmares about you self-destructing in Wing.'

'It's OK,' Heero soothed. 'I promise, I'll try not to smother you. I realise I have certain…controlling tendencies, according to my therapist.'

'You were in therapy?' God, my mind just spun away at the thought; Heero lying on a

couch while some shrink asked him how he'd felt about being trained as a child assassin, or the root of all those tendencies to self-destruct. 'When? Did you actually say anything?'

'Of course I didn't!' He sounded mildly affronted at the idea that he might have given any information away; well, I guess you can't overcome years of anti-interrogation training that easily. 'It was just after your…accident.. I was asked to leave after a few sessions, for refusing to participate.'

'Yeah,' I tried not to laugh. 'They kind of expect you to talk.'

'The whole concept was ridiculous from the beginning. What was the point of me spending all the time talking when I was there to receive advice?'

'I know. That always gets me too. Talk about an easy job, huh? You know I've been in therapy for years? Well, I was anyway. I stormed out of the last session and I haven't contacted him since.' Wufei would probably force me to go back at some point, though. When he'd had a few goes at me with his katana.

'I'm really sorry this is such a pathetic date. You took me to that fancy restaurant, and you set up the picnic, and all I do is abduct you and knock you out and feed you stupid micro-waved noodles and fall asleep on you.'

'I rather liked you falling asleep on me, actually,' his mouth curved into a smile. 'And none of the rest of it matters. You can buy me a nice breakfast on L4, if you really want to feed me.' Heero took a step closer, giving me a long, considering look. 'I've told Noin you're coming with me, and she'll have her agents turn a blind eye to your presence on L4 provided we're discreet. You're going to have to do something with your hair though; you're just too recognisable like that.'

'I'm not cutting it off!' I grabbed the end of my braid protectively and glared at him.

'Of course not,' he soothed. 'As if I'd ever want you to do that! But maybe we can just hide it for a few hours.'

He carefully prised my hand away from the death-grip it had on my hair, and ran my braid caressingly through his fingers. 'Let's see what we can do.' He stepped around me, still holding my hair, and fed it slowly down the back of my shirt, a process that apparently necessitated his fingertips stroking the back of my neck.

'There. That'll do for now.'

Oh God. His fingers were still moving, drifting oh-so-gently over my skin, dipping just a little below the collar every now and then, and his other arm slid around my waist, pulling me against him.

'I love this ... top,' he murmured against my hair, letting me hear the smile in his voice.

'You should wear red all the time, Duo. And it feels wonderful.'

'Mmm.' OK, not the most intelligent response, admittedly, but it was hard when he'd zoomed in one of my super-sensitive spots. Those gossamer-gentle fingers were actually massaging my earlobe, and I desperately wanted his other hand to move under my shirt and touch bare skin and...

'Oh, God!' I gasped as he apparently read my mind and did exactly that. Warm fingers tracing slow, elaborate spirals on my skin, and sparking off all sorts of little electrical charges as they moved up and then down.

'This feels even better,' he whispered, brushing his lips against the top of my head. 'Duo…is this all right?'

Oh, dear God, yes! So much better than all right. Something I'd been dreaming about for the past six years. Happening in real life, in a stairwell, on a shuttle, on the way to rescue our friend. Damn. Stupid, stupid brain getting forcing its way in on what should have been a private moment.

'Love?' Heero asked quietly, his hand pausing in the worst - best - spot possible. 'Do you want me to stop?'

Not if you want me to die! Go on. Please. No! Not go on…No going on.

'Heero, I…. I'm not sure if this - is such a good idea right now.'

Shit. I was sure there were many, many reasons why it was a bad idea, although the only conclusive argument that I could think of was that I was going to come if he didn't stop, just from the light pressure of his palm curved between my legs; that I didn't have a change of clothes with me; that suede is damn hard to clean up; and that unless Ray had a stash of spare outfits, I'd end up arriving on L4 wearing a pair of imitation-leather pants with my ass hanging out.

Not the best idea when I was supposed to be inconspicuous.

'No?' Both of his hands stilled, waiting for my answer.

'Not now,' I said reluctantly. 'I'm sorry.' I wasn't quite sure who I was apologising to; him or me.

'No, you're right. We shouldn't be rushing this.' Instead of moving his hand, however, he lit it rest lightly on my hip for just long enough that I could imagine the imprint of his fingers on my skin. 'We still have a lot of things to discuss, haven't we?' Damn, he sounded like he was talking to one of his clients about a court case, except that his hand had slid around my waist to squeeze my ass, and then slid down my thigh, and he shifted slightly so he was crouching in front of me.

His fingers slipped under the leg of my jeans and moved gently upwards, skimming the hairs on my leg and tickling that super-sensitive little hollow just behind my knee, making knot my fingers in his hair, and force myself to remember that breathing is a necessary thing that requires a small amount of conscious effort. 'Aha!' His hand slid lower and he produced the knife I'd had strapped to my right ankle. 'I knew you'd have one of these on you. Some things never change, do they?'

My knife clattered on to the floor, right beside the other little goodies he'd managed to sneak off my person. Shit! I couldn't believe he'd done that without me noticing. Well, I could actually. I was the one who'd taught him the first principle of pick-pocketing; always distract the living shit out of your chosen victim before moving in for the kill.

'What the fuck?' I demanded. 'All that was so you could strip search me?'

'Of course not,' Heero smirked up at me. 'That was simply an added bonus.' He captured the hand that I'd clenched into a fist, carefully unfurling the fingers. 'If you're going to hit me, maybe you could aim for one of the few places where you haven't already tasered me?' His hands slid up my sides as he stood and pulled me into his arms. 'Aren't you proud of me? I still remember everything you taught me.'

'I still can't believe you did that! What if I need to defend myself?' Damn. It was hard to stay angry with him when he was holding me like that. Asshole. He'd lifted my right hand to his mouth and was indulging the open palm with little dabs of his tongue. Very distracting.

'You won't,' Heero said firmly. 'The only remote danger is that something goes wrong and you're pulled in by some Preventer squad. In which case, I'd rather you weren't carrying enough illegal weaponry to start your own revolution.' He dropped my hand and kissed me hard enough to take my breath away. 'We do this on my terms, Maxwell. OK?'

'And if I say no?'

'Then I'm going to lock us both into the cabin and ravish you until Steph takes off again.'

'Oh.' That would be... Mind-blowingly crazy awesome? 'Fine. No weapons.' Well, not those anyway. 'You know, you could have just asked me.'

'But this way was so much more enjoyable,' his eyes gleamed. 'And you could have just asked me to come with you to L4, you know.'

'Not that again,' I groaned. 'OK, point taken. But you're only going to get so much more mileage out of that one before the guilt-trip gets old. And you'll have to protect me from any rabid Preventer agents.'

'Accepted. Incidentally, is there something I should know about your horizons having broadened a great deal in the past sic years?' He threw me a quizzical glance and produced those handcuffs that Steph had given me. Prettily trimmed with violet fur.

'Oh, those. Steph gave them to me earlier.' I couldn't help laughing. 'I think she was joking. And she offered a discount on anything we fancied.'

'Really? And have you seen anything you….fancy?' His blue eyes sparkled, teasing. Damn, but he's always had so much more self-control that I have.

'Maybe.'

God, but it was impossible, not to reach up and smooth his dishevelled hair, feeling it slide through my fingers as it fell back in exactly the same position.

'I ... thought we were going to stop this,' Heero said raggedly.

'We will,' I scattered tiny, biting kisses along his jaw line. 'In just one tiny little minute.' I'd missed this so much; missed the way his breath hitched when I swiped my tongue down the side of his neck, and grazed his collarbone with my teeth; missed his hands threading through my hair, which had somehow not only worked its way out from my shirt, but half-escaped from its braid. The kiss started off slowly; I nibbled his bottom lip, and then suckled it gently, before flicking my tongue inside, to twine around his in a delicate, deliberate dance.

'Sweetheart, I know this our third date, and I'm not sure what's officially permitted, but either we have to stop now, or else find we need to find somewhere more private.'

'I know.' Fuck. He was right. Trowa - or the others - could walk past and get an eyeful. But for a minute there, I wouldn't have cared if they'd been standing in front of us taking pictures and making notes.

There was an awkward pause when we both tried hard to get our breathing - and everything else - under control.

Heero broke it eventually, suggesting in a not-quite-steady voice that, as we would be landing shortly, we probably should talk to Trowa about whether he'd made transport arrangements for when we arrived.