Pairings: Duo/Heero, Quatre/Trowa

Warnings: possibilities of later violence, supernatural stuff, kinky moments, guns...um...gundams?

Author's comment: Double update! Well triple if you count another story I uploaded but yeah.

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Operation Blank Conspiracy 18

The little buzzing noise of his phone going off is what woke him up. Heero groaned reaching out blindly for the phone on his nightstand and pulled it to his ear. Pressing the talk button, he only gave out a grunt to acknowledge he was there.

"Heero, is that you?"

"Yeah." Heero rolled over onto his back rubbing his eyes. He glanced at the phone seeing it was 8:30 in the morning and grunted again. He didn't usually sleep in this late if he could help it. Usually he'd be up by 7:00 and out training or searching for information on the web. He must have sounded pretty groggy. He knew he felt like he was. He was barely able to keep his eyes open.

"Have you see Duo? He hasn't come to the lab at all."

Heero blinked at that. Duo was missing? No…last time he saw him was last night…in his bed. He turned his head looking to the side being greeted by Duo's sleeping visage. He could already feel his heart racing and sat up quickly turning away from him.

"He's here," Heero said quietly. "He's still sleeping."

"Oh good." Quatre sounded relieved to hear that, the panic in his voice disappearing. "I was worried he might have snuck away."

"No, he's been here all night." And aside from sliding closer to Heero's warmth in his sleep, he hadn't moved. Heero stared down at the soft features for a moment, his eyes focusing on Duo's lips before he rubbed at his own. Strange that he could remember the feel of Duo's lips against his.

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line before Quatre finally spoke again. "You two didn't…do anything last night did you?" Heero blinked before he caught on to what Quatre was implying and turned bright red.

"No, of course not!" He cursed his loud outburst and turned quickly to look down at Duo before breathing a sigh of relief. He was still sleeping. Geez, what was Quatre trying to do invoking that kind of response from him. He needed to calm himself, to relax before he did or said something stupid.

"You know I'm just teasing you a bit," Quatre said sounding like he was having a little too much fun with the teasing. "But really, Heero, it couldn't hurt to find someone to be with. It might help you to open up to people a little bit better." Not like Heero asked for his opinion in the first place. Heero frowned before a smirk lifted to his lips. He could play that game too.

"I could say the same for you. When are you finally going to confess to Trowa? You've been beating around the bush for a couple of years now. Hurry up." He could literally see the blush in his head. Good…Heero shouldn't have to be the only one suffering.

"T-That…I…uh…t-that's not any of your business, Heero!"

"Then stay out of my business." Heero sniffed just daring him to mess with him further.

"L-Look, just tell Duo that we'll continue the training tomorrow."

Heero looked down at the braided boy and quickly glanced away seeing the other stretch making his shirt slide up slightly before smacking his lips. Great…he was really going to need a shower now. "Alright, I'll tell him."

"I'll uh…I'll talk to you later, Heero." He hung up quickly after that apparently not too keen on being teased again.

Heero sighed looking at his phone before hanging up as well. Well that had been an interesting conversation. Heero frowned. He really wanted to get his shower. He always felt sort of sticky in the morning…from sweating. Of course at the rate things were going in his pants, he'd be sticky from more than just that. Just great, his bed was going to smell like Duo now.

He started to stand to get out of the bed, only to fall back into place. Heero blinked then frowned and tried it again with the same results. Interesting…was he hung on something? He looked back at Duo's sleeping face then followed down to his arm which was leading to his hand which was leading to Heero's shirt which he was clenching onto rather hard.

Heero stared at him with a bit of wonderment. Even in his sleep, Duo still had superhuman strength. He had a way around this though. Heero slide an arm out of the shirt then slipped it over his head before sliding his other arm out of it. He stood up completely shirtless and stared down at Duo who was smiling slightly in his sleep and pulling the shirt closer to him. That's fine…he could have the shirt.

Grumbling a bit, Heero rubbed at his hair before heading for the bathroom. Aside from his bicycle shorts he still wore, he was pretty much nude to the world. He did have a pair of sweats that he could slip on for the day and of course plenty of t-shirts for the harsh training.

Besides, he needed to talk to the colonel today. He wasn't nearly as mad as he'd been yesterday but he was still peeved about the whole situation. He just hoped that she was in her posh lady mood and not the witch out of hell one.

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Duo woke up to the sound of water running. He groaned and pulled the pillow over his head wanting to go to sleep again. Seriously, why did Quatre insist on him waking up so early? What time was in anyway?

Duo peeked from under the pillow to look at the clock and frowned a bit. The clock wasn't there. It should have been sitting on the nightstand. Strange, maybe it broke and Quatre threw it away. There was a cellphone there and Duo reached out pulling it to him to check the time. Whoa, 9:00? Seriously! Why didn't Quatre wake him up!

He slipped out of the bed before he realized he was holding something in his hand. He blinked at it holding it up to see a shirt. Why was he holding a shirt? Even worse, it looked like a very familiar shirt to him. He tossed it on the bed feeling like he was missing some important fact. When he looked around the room he saw a lot of things missing that were in Quatre's own bedroom, such as the photo of his friends or family or whatever they were. It also just…didn't feel like Quatre's room at all.

The shower stopped and Duo looked over at the bathroom door quickly. Crap, did someone get him drunk last night? Had he snuck into someone else's room? Where was he? He looked towards the bathroom door then to the exit. He was stuck between two options. He could either get the hell out of there before they got out, or he could sit and wait to see who the bathroom revealed.

He lost his chance to choose when the bathroom door opened letting free the steam trapped inside. Heero stepped out of the bathroom using a towel to dry his hair off. He had another towel hanging loosely off his hips and Duo followed its every moves. Then he let his eyes travel back up to Heero's face meeting his cobalt eyes again and he flushed turning his whole body away quickly.

Heero's room?! Of all the rooms to find himself waking up in! Why not Wufei or Trowa's? Or even some random Joe whose name hopefully wasn't Joe! Instead he ended up in the very room of the very man he spent many sleeping hours dreaming of doing erotic things to only to wake up and see said man! And in a towel! And a really short towel!

"You're awake," Heero said not sounding even a little surprised he was there. Wait…they didn't do anything, did they?

"…Why am I here?" Duo didn't take a chance to glance back behind him, feeling his blush growing more when he heard Heero's bare feet walking closer to where he was. The drawer to a dresser opened and Duo just assumed he was getting some clothes. Good. He couldn't take much more of this.

"You're here because you had Quatre freaked out enough to think you were going to attack him in his sleep." Duo felt himself pale hearing those words. Had that really happened? Well Heero wasn't the type to joke about something like that…at least he didn't think he was.

"…What exactly happened? What did I do?" Duo looked back at him then turned back around quickly with a blush when he saw Heero about to take off his towel. Was he really going to do that while he was standing here in the room?

"We learned just how much you hate nurses." Duo heard the flump of the towel hitting the ground and reached up gripping his shirt, his imagination playing all kinds of naughty images in his head even though they were talking about something serious here. Damn it, why didn't he escape sooner when he had the time?

"I didn't hurt anyone, did I?"

"No," Heero said ruffling around behind him. Duo risked glancing back behind him and caught himself checking Heero out. Heero had some gray sweats on, thank god, and was now pulling on a shirt to cover up the toned back that Duo was staring at. As Heero started to turn around, Duo turned quickly rocking on his heels. "Quatre has a few scratches but nothing serious."

"Good. I'm glad I didn't hurt anybody badly." And he was. He'd had this episode once when he was little. It'd been when he'd first joined the Maxwell Church and had gone with the other children for a six month checkup. They didn't fully understand his situation at the time. It resulted in his breaking a few of the doctors' arms though.

Heero grunted. "Let's go eat." Duo turned around and blushed staring Heero straight in the eyes. And damn if his infatuation wasn't starting to get worse. Heero glanced away first, rubbing lightly at his lips for a moment before he returned his eyes to him. Strange… "Quatre said not to worry about training for today. You've still got time before your next meeting."

"Uh…f-food. Yeah food!" Duo moved around him avoiding his eyes. He felt like something more had happened last night. But then again he might have been just imagining more happening since those dreams. "Let's eat!" He started for the door.

"Where are your shoes? Did you leave them at Quatre's?"

"Huh?" Duo blinked and looked down at his bare feet and frowned wiggling his toes. His shoes…where did he leave…. "Oh yeah…" He blushed thinking back to the embarrassing moment where he broke down in front of Wufei. Geez…did he really have no control over himself? Even if it was a touchy subject. Hospitals and things related to them just did not get along with him.

"I think I left them in the training room when I was practicing with Wufei. Guess I just forgot to put them on when I left."

Duo saw Heero frowning when he looked back at him. "What would make you forget to wear your shoes?"

"Nothing that's any of your business," Duo found himself saying. Seriously, why what it even bothering Heero? He wasn't his keeper. "Look, I'll go by later and pick them up. It's no big deal. And would you let go of me!" Heero had grabbed his hand again and was already pulling Duo out the door before he had a chance to finish talking.

"We're going to get you some more shoes."

"Look, I don't need to waste money on shoes when it could go to better waste buying some food!" His cheeks felt like they were going to burn off his face. It didn't help that people were staring at them and a lot of the women were giggling at the hand holding. Great, it looked like he was being pulled around by his boyfriend or something.

Getting stares from people because they were freaked out or scared was fine with him. He was used to that. He'd literally learned to ignore the looks. But getting looks and giggles suggesting that he was a couple with some guy he barely knew? It was weird! Did Heero really need to be holding his hand right now?

"L-Look, I'll follow you, ok? I'll even buy some dumb shoes! Just let go! People are staring!"

Heero stopped and turned around looking at him, still holding his hand as he glared at him. "They're staring because you're acting like a child."

"No," Duo said glaring back though his cheeks refused to return to their normal color. "They're staring because we're two guys holding hands! It looks like we're on a date or something!" Heero's eyes went wide and he actually looked at the surrounding people apparently just now starting to listen to what they were saying.

Duo saw Heero's throat move as he swallowed and finally let go of Duo's hand. His cheeks were red. Duo knew he saw it this time. But he didn't know if it was just from embarrassment or something more. He found himself wishing it was the something more option. God, he wished his heart would stop pounding so hard.

"Like I said," Duo said to break the ice after the two stood there looking like two mortified idiots. "I'll follow you and buy a pair of shoes, ok?"

"…" Heero nodded his head, keeping his eyes looking away, his fingers lightly brushing against his lips. The gesture seemed odd to Duo and he wondered if he'd bite his lip by accident or something. He'd done the same thing back in the room. But his lips didn't look hurt at all. Heero turned around starting to walk again. Rubbing at the back of his head, Duo followed after him meekily. This was awkward. This was soooo awkward!

Neither of them spoke as they walked to the store. On this side of the ship he saw more of the stares he was used to. As strange as it was, he felt comforted by the wary gawkers. He was used to this…he knew these because he knew how to ignore it. As soon as they walked into the clothing store, Heero paused in front of him.

"What size do you wear?" Heero asked not looking back and Duo quietly told him the size. Heero nodded and the two of them started moving again heading to the shoes. There were a variety of shoes in the area. He saw flip flops, boots, sneakers, and some sandals as well. He grabbed a pair of boots, pulling them off the rack and sliding into them frowning at the fit. They were a little tight.

He glanced over at Heero whose back was still turned to him and hesitated before grabbing another pair to try. He found he hated most of the shoes here. Nothing was like the shoes he'd left back at the training room. They were a perfect comfortable fit that seemed to outline his feet just right. None of these shoes did them justice.

His eyes did keep passing over a particular pair of boots though each time he found his eyes sliding down to the price. It was more than half of what he had on his card. He loved the decoration of skulls on either side of the boots and how they each made a little trail to the scythe's sitting on the toe of the boots. Heero was still waiting. It couldn't hurt to try it out first though, even if he wasn't going to buy something that expensive.

His feet fit inside the shoes perfectly. And they just looked plain awesome! It seemed like they were the last pair too. He wanted them…but he wasn't willing to pay this much to have them. As he'd said before, food was more important. When he'd managed to earn more money, he'd come back for them.

He'd just taken the first one off before Heero's voice startled him.

"Found anything yet?"

"Huh? Oh uh…" Duo slide a pair of cheaper shoes over letting Heero see them. "These seem like they fit the best." He slid the other shoe off and slipped both of the skull boots back into their box. His fingers gave a soft caress over the scythes before he placed the box back into the slot on the shelf.

Heero glanced down at him then at the box then back at him before he lifted a brow. "You want those too?"

"Hm? No…well…yeah but, I'll get them later." Duo stood up holding the box with the cheaper shoes in it and headed to the register. Handing the cashier the box, he pulled his card to pay and was about to hand her his card before another box was pushed into the cashier's hands.

"We're getting these too."

"W-What?" Duo blinked seeing it was the box with the boots he wanted and frowned before glaring at Heero. "Hell no! There's no way I can afford those boots!"

"I never said anything about you paying for them." Before Duo could stop him, Heero pressed his card into the cashier's hand paying for both of the shoes.

"W-Wait! You can't!" Heero looked right at him and Duo froze staring at him feeling his cheeks heating up again. Heero reached out grabbing the card and shoes from the cashier. He took the box with the fancy boots and pushed it into Duo's hand, holding on to the other box.

"Put those on."

"But-"

"Don't make me repeat myself." Heero stared at him hard and Duo found himself kneeling down and fumbling to put the boots on him. He wasn't even sure why he was getting so nervous. It wasn't like Heero had the power to make him do anything. He'd just finished tying up the second boot before he felt a hand resting on top of his head. Surprised he looked up at Heero seeing the other looking away though his lips were working to form words.

"They look…good on you," Heero said before he walked past him. Duo wasn't sure what just happened but his heart felt like it'd just exploded like billions of fireworks. Duo stared down at the shoes finding himself getting more attached to them than he should have. Then his lips broke out into the softest smile he'd ever had on his face. There was no way he was going to be able to leave this place now, not while he had these silly affections he needed to work out.

He pushed to his feet seeing Heero's back by the door waiting for him and rushed off to join him for breakfast before his training with Trowa. Today was turning out to be a pretty good day.

TBC…

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And the promised second chapter for this weekend is done!