Title: Resistance is futile
Authors: Zanna & Laren (ZaLa)
Disclaimer & warnings: see prologue

A/N: Sorry it took us so long to update. We had some problems - Laren was abroad and my (Zanna) internet was down - for five whole weeks!!!! 'sob' Anyway, here is the next chapter. Have fun reading it!

Chapter 32 – Till death do us part

Heero threw a look at the monitor, which connected him with Deathscythe's pilot and watched Two's concentrated expression. They had been on their way for about twenty minutes now and Heero still had the feeling that his face was flushed red and his entire head was glowing.

And all that just because of one small, innocent question! Two had not even known what he had asked, so why had it been so embarrassing to Heero? For a moment he had been totally baffled. Trowa had placed his mouth on Quatre's mouth? Huh?

Then, in the next moment it had become quite clear to him exactly what Two had meant by that, but he had still simply been unable to believe it. Trowa was kissing Quatre? But that would mean that those two… Why had he never noticed that? Of course, until recently Heero had not had a clue as far as emotions were concerned, not to mention how to recognize them within one's fellow human beings. It wasn't really astonishing that his colleagues' relationship had escaped his notice. But now, when he was thinking about it in hindsight, the signs were oh so very obvious!

Trowa, who never left Quatre's side, who always supported him in everything and comforted him when he was sad. And Quatre, who had been totally devastated when Trowa had been missing for such a long time and had already been believed to be dead. On closer consideration, Quatre's reaction to Trowa's vanishing was very similar to Heero's own reaction to Duo's assimilation. Still, Heero had simply missed it! He hadn't noticed it! And if Two had not brought it to his attention, then he still wouldn't know it! Just why had J. refrained from teaching him at least the basics about interpersonal relationships? He hated to be this clueless!

After Two's blunt question Heero had not been able to hold back for the life of him and had carefully peeked out from behind Wing. And indeed, Trowa and Quatre had been so absorbed in their kiss that they had not even noticed how Heero and Two – who had been peeking around the corner right next to Heero – had been starring at them.

Heero had blushed immediately and had retreated hastily. How could he spy on his friends? They surely deserved a private, undisturbed moment. Heero had been so occupied with his own embarrassment that he had totally forgotten about Two.

But of course Two had not dropped the topic. "Why are they doing that, Heero?" he had asked in a quiet voice – apparently Two had not wanted to disturb the two either – and looked eagerly at Heero with huge eyes.

Heero had gone a bit redder. He had stuttered and stammered, but he could not manage to say a whole sentence for the life of him. When Two had then come up with the speculation that Trowa probably just wanted to replace all the liquid, which Quatre had apparently lost through the crying, Heero had not known whether he should be laughing or wishing that the ground would open up and swallow him in his shame. Luckily Quatre and Trowa had left the barn by then, so at least those two had not become witnesses of this embarrassing scene as well.

The only thing he had managed to say afterwards had been an extremely vague explanation in the form of "…if two persons are really fond of each other…". Heero could still happily kick himself. No wonder Two had looked at him so confused afterwards. His stammering had not even made sense to himself! And if you got right down to it he did not know all that much more than Two. Even though he had learned a lot about emotions during the last two weeks, everything was still so terribly new to him. The situation simply felt like too much to handle for Heero.

Still, somehow this situation was almost familiar. Though the roles – like so often recently – were swapped. In the past Duo always used to be the one who had to explain to Heero why someone – from Heero's former point of view – behaved illogical. What emotions were, and how they influenced the behaviour of humans. All that Duo had always tried to explain to him – and Heero had to admit that he had always been a lot more successful than Heero was now with Two. Duo…

"Heero?" Two's voice interrupted his thoughts.

Heero glanced at the monitor again, directly into Two's serious face. "Yes?" he answered.

"Are Trowa and Quatre friends?"

Heero groaned mentally. Two obviously had not come to terms with this topic yet.

"And they're really fond of each other?"

Heero felt himself blushing slightly again, shifted in his pilot chair uneasily and nodded in agreement.

"And if you're really fond of each other, then you'll do this kiss-thing?"

Ok, now it couldn't be disguised anymore. Heero was beet red. He had probably reached the deepest red that a human being could reach without having other body parts dying off on him due to blood loss at the same time. It could not possibly get any more embarrassing. He nodded slightly once more.

"Then why haven't we done this kiss-thing yet?"

He had been wrong. It COULD get more embarrassing. And he was honestly able to become an even darker shade of red. Interesting. If he had not been so embarrassed in that moment, he surely would have analyzed this fact more closely, but at the moment he really had other problems.

"Two…", he said weakly and returned Two's innocent look. "In order to kiss you need to feel more for each other than just friendship."

"More than friendship?"

"Yes", Heero nodded.

"So there is something better than friendship?"

For a moment Heero looked at him silently over the com-connection. "Yes", he then said quietly, "love".

Two tilted his head to the side slightly and looked at Heero thoughtfully. "And that's why Trowa and Quatre are kissing each other? Because of – love?"

Heero nodded.

"And Heero and Two are not doing this kiss-thing, because they don't love each other?"

Heero stared at Two and swallowed. He was unable to give an answer to that. What could he have answered to that anyway? No, they did not love each other? But that was not true, for Heero loved Duo. Even though Duo was Two at the moment that did not change anything. And though Two and Duo were different from each other in many ways there were also enough similarities – which didn't exactly make the whole thing easier for Heero. It became more and more difficult for him to distinguish between Two and Duo.

But could he simply say, yes, they loved each other? Duo had said that he loved him, but was that still true now? What if Duo was unable to forgive him? If Duo could not love him anymore? And even if Duo still loved him that did not mean that Two felt the same. Why did everything always have to be so complicated?

So Heero stayed silent and did not answer the question, and strangely this time Two did not seem to insist on an answer, as he usually did when he was interested in a topic. Instead, he frowned and seemed to be thinking hard. Heero was not sure, but for a short moment he thought he had seen something like disappointment on Two's face, but he had probably only imagined that. Pure wishful thinking.

For some time they continued to fly in silence, trying out all kinds of different flight manoeuvres and were both dwelling on their own thoughts. Heero sighed mentally. If Two only knew how often he had been tempted during the last weeks to do this "kiss-thing". How often he had watched Two in his sleep, or how often he had caught himself looking at those wonderfully soft lips.

It had been just two weeks ago that Duo had kissed – and done so much more to him, but to Heero it seemed, as if years had passed. So much had happened in such a short time. And now, afterwards, even though he had only been able to enjoy Duo's kisses for one wonderful hour – and for this oh so short time span he had only himself to blame for – he was missing them nonetheless.

The feeling of those soft lips on his – that was something Heero would probably never be able to forget again. And he did not want to forget it, either! And he would prefer to experience it again. Immediately, if possible. But he knew he could not do that. Must not do that. For the kisses would inevitably lead to much more.

And even though Heero dreamt almost every night about holding Duo in his arms passionately, about feeling his bare skin and sinking into his warm, willing body, he nevertheless would not do it. Regardless of how much he missed it. And regardless of how much he would like to feel that wonderful warmth and security again, which he had felt in the one short moment after sex when he had just simply held Duo in his arms. As long as Duo was not himself again he would not kiss him.

He did not believe that Two would stop him from doing that. No, quite the contrary, with the same enthusiasm that he showed for everything new Two would also throw himself into a kiss. And Heero did not want to do that to him – nor to himself either. He would not take advantage of Two so shamelessly, regardless of how much he longed for it. That would not be fair to either Two or Duo.

"Heero?" Two's voice suddenly rang out.

"Hn?" Heero asked, still slightly distracted.

"What's the meaning of those flashing lights?"

Heero was startled. Flashing lights? A hasty glance at his displays confirmed his suspicion. Damn it, where had those two Leos come from so suddenly? Why had he not noticed them earlier already? 'Because you've been miles away mentally, Yuy!' a quiet inner voice was telling him, which sounded appallingly like Dr. J. Heero shuddered. Crap, crap, crap!

Should they attack the Leos? After all, there were only two of them, usually that would be a cake-walk for Wing and Deathscythe, but what if the Leos were occupied by Borg? Better not to risk anything.

"Two, those are Leos, they belong to OZ – and are probably Borg, too! We should get out of here!" Heero called out to Two over the com-connection.

"All right", Two replied, turned Deathscythe and joined Wing in retreat. However, the two of them did not get far, since another flashing light was showing that there was also a Leo closing in on them from behind.

"I reckon now there's nothing else for it but to fight, Two", Heero said, "Just do everything as you did it in the simulations and like we've just trained it. It'll work out", he reassured Two and himself.

Two nodded with a serious expression, and then Wing and Deathscythe moved into fighting positions.

As Heero had feared the Leos were obviously occupied by Borg. Heero had not witnessed the fight with the Borg-Leos in front of Gamma-3-Zeta, but he had read the reports of the others. And the fighting technique of these Leos was quite drastically different from their usual one. They were frighteningly efficient.

It was not easy for either Heero or Two to defend themselves. Heero was just glad that Two was such an excellent pilot. Duo had already been an outstanding pilot, but as far as agility and deftness were concerned Two still surpassed him by quite a few points. One thing had not changed, though – they were still a brilliant team.

Their movements were virtuously attuned to one another, each of them was perfectly balancing out the weaknesses of the other, and they knew without talking to each other what the other one was currently intending to do. Almost as if they were able to read each other's thoughts. Or as if Two had somehow managed to establish some sort of a hive-connection with Heero.

Heero briefly smiled ironically. Nice theory, just that it had not been any different before Duo's assimilation. During a fight Duo and himself had always gotten along with each other perfectly. It was only when they were not in a fighting situation that Heero always botched everything up.

However, right now Heero had no time to brood about that. He had to concentrate on the fight, and on getting Two out of here unharmed. There was no way that he would allow Two to fall into the hands of the Borg again!

Out of the corner of his eyes he could see how one of the Leos withdrew a bit from them. Heero frowned. Did he want to flee? Did Borg even do something like that? But in the next moment it became quite clear to him that the Leo was not at all intending to flee. Instead he accelerated and headed directly towards Deathscythe. He intended to ram him!

"Two!" Heero called out as a warning, but he knew that Two would not be able to react quickly enough anymore. For a hundredth second Heero contemplated, whether he might still be able to destroy the Leo with his weapons in time. But then he discarded the thought again immediately. Even if he would hit him – and after the previous fight Heero was not even too sure about that – he probably would not be able to harm the Leo with his weaponry power. He would need several shoots, and he hardly had time for one. And so he did the only thing that was left for him to do in this situation. He threw himself in between them.

However, although Heero had set himself into motion almost immediately, he was nearly too late. He had intended to ram the Kamikaze-Leo himself, but the Leo was slightly faster than expected, and therefore Heero only grazed him. It was enough, though. The Leo was thrown off his flight path – far away from Deathscythe, as Heero was able to see just before Wing and he crashed.

The impact was severe. Heero got shaken thoroughly and thrown around in his safety belts. His ribs were aching, his head was throbbing, and he felt as if he was going to faint any moment. Groaning, he tried to stay conscious, but it was not easy.

"Heero! Heero!" Two's worried voice finally came through the throbbing in his skull.

"Heero! Are you all right? Heero!" Two's voice sounded more and more agitated, and Heero opened his eyes groaning.

"I'm fine", he assured panting and tried to sit up slightly in his chair. After a few attempts it worked. Luckily Wing was apparently not too damaged, for Heero was able to straighten up his Gundam again and even bring it up into the air.

"Really?" Two kept pressing on.

Heero gave him a shaky smile over the com-connection, which surprisingly had not blacked out during the whole incident.

"Yes, really, don't worry", he assured Two. Then he turned his attention back to the events of the battle. Apparently, some things had changed during the short time, in which he had been half unconscious.

It looked like the Kamikaze-Leo had not collided with Heero or Two, but directly with one of his comrades. Apparently, Wing's grazing had thrown him off track in such an unpredictable way that the other Leo had not been able to dodge anymore, Borg or not. And that meant that Heero and Two were now merely faced with one Leo.

Again they threw themselves into the battle, and now they actually had a good chance. And really, after a few minutes they managed to eliminate the Leo. Luckily those three Borg seemed to have been on their own, since no further backup had come along.

Heero briefly glanced at the smoking wrecks of the three Leos. "Let's fly back, Two", he finally sighed and navigated Wing in the direction of Relena's house.

Upon their arrival they stowed the Gundams away again inside the barn, then they set off towards the house. Heero should have checked Wing's damages immediately, but his ribs were aching like hell – hopefully nothing was fractured – and besides, Two would not allow it anyway.

The moment Heero had climbed out of Wing a worried Two had already been at his side. When he noticed the bleeding cut on Heero's forehead – which Heero himself had not even been aware of yet – and the fact that Heero groaned with each step, he insisted on taking Heero into the house and patching him up immediately. Yes, he even wanted to carry him there, but Heero was able to talk him out of that after some to and fro. However, he could not deter Two from supporting him while walking. And to be honest, Heero did not even mind the assistance all that much.

Together they walked through the garden and stepped into the house. Strangely no one came towards them. Heero had not expected Quatre and Trowa or Wufei and Zechs to be back again already, but usually they were always welcomed by Pargan. But neither he nor Relena showed up. No one seemed to be home.

When they had reached their room Heero got out his first-aid kid and attempted to tend to his cuts himself, but Two simply took the disinfectant out of his hand. Heero sighed and sat down on the bed obediently and allowed Two to clean the wound on his forehead with a serious expression on his face.

When he was finished he looked at Heero. "You got hurt!" he finally said, and his tone sounded almost reproachful.

Heero shifted uneasily and suppressed a silent groan. Dammit, his ribs, he had totally forgotten about them. But how could he not have forgotten them, with Two being so close to him?

"It's all right, that's just a small scratch", he tried to reassure Two a bit belated.

Two frowned and simply continued to stare at Heero. Heero closed his eyes. Dammit, he did not want to upset Two even further, but he would have to examine his ribs now. So that he could bandage them, if they were fractured. After all, it could still take hours until the Doc returned from his mission. With a sigh he lifted his hands to his tank top – and groaned painfully in the next moment.

"Heero! What is it?" Two immediately asked worriedly.

"My ribs", Heero gasped, "I've got to examine, whether they're fractured. Can you help me to take off my shirt?"

Two nodded and helped him gently peel off his tank top. Carefully Heero traced each single rib with his fingers and clenched his teeth in order not to groan again and give Two renewed reason to worry. However, Two's horrified look told him that he did not even need to groan. A look into the wardrobe mirror showed him, that he was covered with bruises from top to bottom. No wonder Two looked so horrified. But at least the ribs were not fractured, merely bruised. He could live with that.

Heero gave Two a wry smile. "It looks worse than it is."

"How can you say that, Heero?" Two shouted almost furiously, "You are in pain! You are hurt! Why did you do that?"

"Why did I do what?"

"Why did you throw yourself at that Leo?"

"Oh… I couldn't possibly allow anything to happen to you, Two! If I hadn't thrown myself in between, then the Leo would have hit you directly! And you could be dead now!" Heero briefly closed his eyes at this dreadful picture. He would not have been able to go through that a second time without losing his sanity.

"That wasn't right", Two said and Heero opened his eyes wide again.

"It wasn't right?" he asked baffled.

"Two is supposed to protect Heero, not Heero Two!"

"Two… I will always want to protect you, no matter what's going to happen!" Heero did not know exactly, what Two was getting at. "I've always wanted that! If I'd just protected you better last time, then you wouldn't have been… I couldn't let that happen again, do you understand that, Two?"

But Two only shook his head stubbornly. "It was an unnecessary risk. I can protect myself. I would have dodged the Leo in time; my reflexes are as fast as those of the Borg pilots. Heero shouldn't have done that."

Heero sighed. "Two, you are my friend, and my emotions for you will always make me want to protect you. That's also what friends are for, you know?"

"Emotions?" Two looked at him thoughtfully for a moment then his face turned into an expressionless mask. "Emotions are irrelevant."

Heero gasped. It was, as if he had received a severe blow in the region of his stomach. Emotions were irrelevant. That was exactly what he had said to Duo on that certain evening. God, how could he have been so stupid? If Duo had felt only half as awful then as Heero did in this moment, then it must have been truly dreadful. However, Heero was afraid that it must have felt quite a lot worse for Duo – after all, Heero's cold statement had been preceded by Duo's confession of love. Just how had he been able to survive that? No wonder Duo had behaved in such an unpredictable manner afterwards.

'Duo', Heero thought and closed his eyes in pain. Just what had he done to him? Maybe it was a good thing that Two did not remember. Just as long as he could not remember this pain.

"I'm sorry", Heero whispered, looked up at Two again and flinched. Two's ice cold gaze was horrible. Heero could not bear it. He had to see life in those eyes again. Warmth. He could not allow for Two to become a Borg again – even if it was just his behaviour. And even more than that he could not allow for Two to become such an ice cold bastard, like he himself had been.

Carefully he got up and approached Two. "Two, emotions are not irrelevant."

"Yes, they are. They're only obstructive during missions."

"That's true; sometimes emotions can be very hindering. But emotions can also be something very beautiful, Two." Slowly Heero stepped even closer to Two.

Two shook his head vehemently. "No. Emotions hurt. I can't breathe then. And they allowed for Heero to get hurt. Emotions are not beautiful."

Heero only stared silently at Two for a moment. What should he do? Just how could he make Two understand that he should not repress his emotions? After all, Heero knew from his own experiences what that behaviour earned you.

But the only thing that came to Heero's mind – was something that he had sworn to himself not to do. He could not do it – could he? No, that would not be fair towards Two. But he could prove that way that emotions were something beautiful. And if only this time he…? Heero decided to simply risk it.

Determined, he took one last step closer and stood directly in front of Two now. Carefully he took Two's face in both hands and looked deep into his eyes. Confused, Two returned this look. Slowly, very slowly, in order to give Two enough time should he want to break away from him, Heero lowered his head and kissed Two.

Gently he let his mouth wander over Two's lips. They were so soft. And so tender. Carefully Heero nibbled on one corner of his mouth, and when Two gasped in surprise, Heero shoved his tongue into the now slightly opened mouth.

Heaven, Heero was in heaven. At least it felt like it. Like he had finally come home. Slowly he let his tongue wander over the inside of Two's mouth, explored the velvet cave and tried to memorize everything, while his hands gently caressed Two's face. And then the unbelievable happened. Two began to return the kiss!

Shyly and at first uncertain his tongue met with Heero's, but shortly afterwards it started caressing the alien intruder far more boldly. The quiet moans, which came from Two at the same time, made Heero only drown deeper in his lust.

Suddenly Two jerked away from Heero, staggered two steps back, held his head and screamed in pain. And the only thing Heero could do was to watch helplessly, stunned, as Two broke down screaming and finally fell unconscious on the floor.