Notes: 1+2 fic, maybe AU (but not really). Hehe…this fic is really weird…just as a warning…and very sappy…

Written by Arkenjil

[Completed June 26, 2001.]

Another day, another mission… Heero thought as he struggled through the dim safe house. Another night, another cramped leg, another sore back, another bruise where I didn't notice it. He paused by the door to his room, putting his arm up against the door and resting his head on it for a split second. I wonder why I even bother…

He opened his eyes and stared at the ground, dimly lit by a light coming from under the door. War…I hate war so much. Goddamn it all to hell… He could hear faint clicking noises, like typing. Then it finally registered in his mind. A light from under the door? Typing?

Puzzled, he opened the door to find Duo sitting up in front of his (Heero's) laptop, typing away, wearing only his pajamas. His hair was still in its neat braid. Heero's eyes instantly narrowed. "Duo…what are you doing up at this time of night?"

*-*-*

He couldn't sleep. He tossed and turned over and over in his bed, trying desperately to keep his eyes shut, to lull himself to sleep. He had taken his hair out of its braid and re-braided it. He had even got up at 2:00am and took a quick hot shower, hoping that it would send him to sleep.

It didn't.

He turned over again, staring at Heero's empty bed, frowning. At loss for something to do that would send him to sleep, Duo finally got out of bed and powered up Heero's laptop computer. It blinked at him and a message had popped up: "Password."

Duo had a great time trying to crack Heero's password. Unfortunately, he succeeded after only an hour. The password had been a mumbled-jumble of letters and numbers: 1xdu02a1aaf. (1) Duo briefly wondered how Heero could remember such a random password like that, the finally decided that it was because his partner was, well, Heero Yuy, Mr. Perfect Soldier.

The hell…I'm not tired at all. He crinkled his nose at the thought. I didn't have any caffeine today…what'd wrong with me?

He returned his attention back to Heero's laptop and stared. What am I going to do, now that I'm in? He cast a glance around the room and his eyes alighted on Heero's empty bed again. I know why I can't sleep. Heero's on another goddamned mission again. He shook his head at himself. Since when have I become dependent on his presence to send me to sleep?

Trying to get rid of the thought, Duo looked at his side of the room. His gaze fell on his backpack. Homework, man. Since I can't sleep, why don't I do some homework? (2)

He walked over and got out his English notes and papers, looking at them. I don't know why we bother going to school when we're in a place for a while. We're only going to up and move again.

He sighed. Get as much education as one can get, I suppose…but it's not like any of us need it. I'm trying my best not to ace all my classes. (3) He read the English assignment over (okay, he gave it a cursory glance) and began typing. The only thing he could hear was the clicking of the keyboard. It's too quiet. I wonder where Heero is. He suddenly chuckled to himself. Not like his presence here would add that much more noise. And if he saw me on his laptop…ooh, I am so positive that he'd kill me. Luckily, he won't be back until tomorrow.

A part of him told him that it wasn't really "luckily," but Duo pushed it away and focused on the essay in front of him. Goddamned expository essays. They're so stupid. It's like a…I don't know what it's like. They give us a template and we just fill it in. I don't understand how people can totally flunk these things…

After a while, he finally got on a roll. The words flowed from his mind to his fingers, his fingertips to the keyboard onto the screen. He got up only once, and that was to fetch a disk because he was certain that Heero wouldn't want him saving his stupid essay on his precious laptop. He was in the middle of the last body paragraph, totally absorbed into his writing, when the door suddenly opened. Duo froze at the sound, mind running: Who'd be up at this hour?

"Duo… what are you doing up at this time of night?"

Slowly, Duo forced himself to turn around and look at the door. Heero stood there, the yellow light cast by the little lamp on the desk throwing a gentle glow over his partner's handsome features, lightening parts of his dark hair and throwing into shadow the rest. His eyes, however, were narrowed into cold, angry Prussian blue slits.

"Oh, Heero," Duo returned lightly, not bothering to slip his mask on, "I didn't know you were back." He returned to face the screen.

Heero advanced into their room, blinking rapidly and looking around. He was glad that Duo wasn't looking in his direction. His tired mind was functioning sluggishly, and he looked like he hadn't slept a wink for a few days – which wasn't too far from the truth. "You didn't answer my question," he stated as coolly as he could, considering the circumstances.

"Writing my essay – what does it look like?"

He walked over the stand behind Duo, looking at the screen. "On my laptop?"

"Sorry."

Déjà vu? When did his happen before? "Again?" was all his mouth could say.

"Sorry." Duo didn't move to get off the laptop.

Heero studied his profile for a moment before finally saying, "It's all right with me." He turned to his own bed. "I'm not going to use it tonight." He paused, glancing at the clock. "Or, this morning, to be more exact. You should get to sleep, too, Duo."

Duo's head jerked up to look at the clock as well. 4:00? Shimatta! I'm going to be dead tired tomorrow. He clicked on the save button and ejected the disk before shutting down. "You're right, Heero. I hadn't realized what time it was."

He crawled into bed and curled up under the blankets. He could hear Heero doing the same on his side of the room, his breathing slowing to a normal, restful pace within a matter of minutes. He must be really tired. Duo concentrated on his partner's breathing and let himself drown in the comfort it offered him.

He finally fell asleep.

*-*-*

Duo jolted awake with the ringing of the alarm clock, his body screaming protest, his mind telling him that he needed more sleep. He flipped over quickly and smacked the table. He moved it to the left and smacked again – and missed again. The other direction brought his hand into direct contact with the offending piece of technology, silencing it.

Flopping back down onto his pillow, Duo allowed himself a groan before hauling himself out of bed, into the bathroom, and getting very cold water on his face to wake himself up. He stared at his reflection in the mirror, noticing the dark rings under his eyes. I haven't gotten much sleep the past few days, he acknowledged. Scrubbing the water from his face, he bounded back into the bedroom.

Something's wrong… It took him a moment before he could place it. Heero was still asleep, sprawled haphazardly on his messy bed. Duo almost laughed at the sight but didn't.

He approached his partner's bed, planning to shake him awake (or doing something more obnoxious to wake him up) when he noticed the identical dark rings under Heero's eyes. He stopped then, frowning at them. Damn…it looks like he got less sleep than I did.

Leaning over, Duo called softly, "Heero. Wake up." Heero stirred slightly but didn't wake up. Duo grabbed his shoulders and shook him gently. "Heero, it's time to get up."

No reaction. Duo frowned. Well, if being nice doesn't work… He shook him a little harder. Heero's face, angelic and serene in sleep, contorted in a grimace. He groaned before he cracked an eye open to stare at Duo.

"Hey, you awake? You better get up if you don't want to be late for class," said Duo.

Heero groaned and covered his eyes with his arm.

Duo watched him for a bit more before shaking him gently again. "Hey, Hee-chan, you all right? You look almost as bad as I do."

Moving his arm, Heero looked up at Duo's worried face and noticed, for the first time, the dark rings under his eyes. How'd he get those? Yawning, he shook his head and sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes as he did so. "Jus' a sec," he muttered thickly, throwing himself out of bed and into the bathroom, slamming the door after him.

Duo stared at the closed bathroom momentarily before shrugging it off and shoving all his school stuff into his backpack. He looked around the room. I'm missing something; I know it…What is it? He laughed, realizing then that what he was missing was his school clothes. He opened his closet and rummaged around before finding his favorite shirt and putting it on, finishing with a pair of tight black pants. Duo smiled at himself in the mirror as he re-braided his hair. I love black.

Heero came back out of the bathroom, looking more awake but not by much. He grabbed a change of clothes and pulled them on – a pair of worn blue jeans and an oversized blue and white sweatshirt – and, slinging his backpack over his shoulder, nodded sleepily to Duo.

Grabbing his backpack, Duo followed Heero out the door and downstairs to the kitchen. They could smell the scent of food drifting up from it as they neared. "Warm milk, scrambled eggs, hash browns, sausages, bacon…man, that Quatre sure has improved to be a gourmet chef." (4)

Heero nodded, waking up. His stomach growled at him. "Pancakes, too," he added.

Being more vocal this morning, aren't we, Heero? "Yeah." Duo opened the door to find Quatre with said food in plates on the table.

"Good morning!" the blond Arabian chirped happily at them.

"Morning!" Duo returned in the same tone.

"Ohayo," Heero mumbled, yawning. He blinked slightly.

The two took a seat at the table and wolfed down their breakfast hungrily. Quatre bustled around the kitchen, cleaning pots and pans. "Trowa and Wufei are coming back today," he told them as they ate. "They sent word yesterday."

"Oh, really?" Duo blurted out around a mouthful of scrambled eggs. He swallowed. "Hee-chan here was going to come back today too, but…" He paused. "Well, technically, he did come back today. Very early this morning."

"I noticed. He managed to leave a pair of very dirty shoes by the front door."

Duo gave Heero a look of mock horror. "Heero Yuy! Didn't Quatre ever tell you not to track mud into the house?"

Heero looked at Duo levelly, looked in the direction of the front door, and looked at Quatre. "Oops?" he offered.

Duo nearly fell off his chair. "H- Heero! Quatre, did you put something in his food?"

"I don't think so," the Arabian replied, looking worried. Then, upon catching Duo's look, he cracked a small smile. (5)

Heero frowned at the two of them and continued eating. Smiling, Duo followed his example. The kitchen once again became quiet, for a grand total of one out of one loud mouth was busy eating.

The clock in the hallway chimed seven o'clock, and Quatre looked up from his Earl Gray breakfast tea. "Time to go," he said cheerily.

Duo shoved the last of his food and jumped up from his place. "Thanks for the food, Q-man!" he chortled, giving the Arabian a hearty pat on the back. Heero slowly and methodically got up from his chair, finishing his food as he went. He followed the braided pilot out the front door and into the garage.

Pausing by the motorcycle to look at Heero, Duo said, "Look, Hee-chan, you're really tired. I can tell. How about I drive?"

Heero nodded sleepily in assent.

*-*-*

…Against my better judgement, he groaned internally as Duo swerved in and out of traffic, screaming "I am Shinigami!" at the top of his lungs and ignoring the honking he got in return. He tightened his grip around the hyperactive American's slender waist and moaned.

"Hee-chan, are you all right?" Duo's voice drifted back to him over the wind and the sounds of traffic. He sounded worried.

"Hn," Heero replied. He found his nose right next to Duo's hair, and he could smell the strawberry shampoo that his partner always used. Mmm, smells nice…

"Whoop, we're at school," said Duo, making a sharp right turn across all three lanes, eliciting a fury of honking and fingers as he did so. He turned into a side street and made another right into the school's parking lot, scattering swearing students on bikes as well as on foot. "Sorry," he shouted over his shoulder, swerving into a parking space a second ahead of the slower car, whose driver sighed in exasperation and moved on.

Heero staggered off the motorcycle, disoriented. "Now I remember why I always insisted on driving that thing to school," he muttered to himself.

"Aw, Hee-chan, I didn't drive that badly, did I?" Duo asked, smiling at Heero. He dropped it at his partner's glare. "Fine then!" he huffed, turning on his heel and walking off toward school.

Heero watched him for a minute, trying to determine if he was putting on an act or really was offended. He finally decided that it was the former, shouldering his bag and following Duo into school.

"Ohayo, Heero!" a voice chirped, soon followed by a chorus of "Hello, Heero!" 's. He grunted in return. Duo, who was ahead of him, turned around at the voices to give him a look before grimacing in disgust and continuing on his way.

"Matte yo, Duo!" he called, hurrying after the longhaired American. Duo didn't even listen; instead of waiting, he walked faster. Puzzled, Heero followed. "Duo? Hey, Duo! Wait up!" He quickened his pace, previous weariness forgotten.

Duo heard him coming and quickly ducked behind a crowd of students, weaving in and out of them to get away. Heero found himself blocked. Kuso, he swore mentally, what's gotten into him? He began to push his way through, excusing himself as he went.

When he finally got into their classroom, Duo was sitting by himself at his desk, warily fending off questions his fanclub was asking. Heero smiled a little to himself – Duo always managed to acquire a fanclub no matter where their new school was – and began walking over to where he sat when the bell rang.

Kuso. He scrambled for his seat as quickly as he could, which wasn't quick enough for the teacher. Heero found himself standing outside in the hallway for the next twenty minutes with a bucket of water balanced on his head. The juvenile class delinquent next to him had mastered the balancing – for Heero's part, his hands kept straying up toward the bucket to make sure it didn't spill.

Unlike the rest of the class, Duo didn't even glance in his direction when the two of them re-entered the classroom. Heero frowned. Why is he intentionally avoiding me? He took his seat in the back of the classroom and scribbled on a piece of paper, "Daijobu ka, Duo?" in Japanese.

He took notes sporadically, waiting for an opportune moment to throw the note at Duo. When the teacher turned his back, he launched the note in Duo's direction.

It hit him in the head. Duo swiveled around in his seat and looked down on the ground at the piece of paper. He picked it up, read what it said, and shoved the note in his desk.

Heero watched him for the next fifteen minutes, but Duo didn't do anything to acknowledge his existence. He scribbled another note, "Answer me," and launched it again. It hit Duo in the same spot, but this time, Duo didn't even bother looking for it.

By the time the hour was over, the ground around Duo's desk was littered with notes. Heero, unfazed, kept on throwing, so focused on getting a reaction out of Duo that he failed to notice where the teacher's attention had gone.

"Mr. Yuy," the teacher intoned. Heero's head jerked up to look at him, note still in hand. "You've been a regular pain in the back today. Outside, another twenty minutes. The water is where you left it."

The class snickered or gaped at him as he rose and went outside to stand. Heero could hear the teacher bemoaning the loss of another fine student "going off to the wild side" as he balanced the bucket on his head.

By the time he got back in class, there were only ten minutes left of the period, and Heero's balancing-a-bucket-full-of-water-on-the-head skills had improved tremendously. Duo avoided his look by pretending to furiously finish writing notes on the teacher's lecture, and Heero knew that he was pretending because Duo never took notes on lectures.

He spent the last ten minutes staring at Duo's back.

*-*-*

The rest of the day continued in the same fashion. Duo managed to dodge Heero at lunch by meticulously avoiding the parts of school that he knew Heero was, but Heero was positive that he'd catch him in last period Phys Ed.

Heero stood in the midst of other PE-uniform-wearing boys on the school basketball courts, looking for Duo. He finally say Duo emerge from the locker rooms with a groups of guys, talking and joking with them. Heero was threading his way through the crowd to where Duo was when the teacher called for the warm-ups to begin, which meant that the students had to line up by number.

Nearly swearing aloud, Heero did a one-eighty and went to his line to warm-up, cursing the fact that his and Duo's last names were at near opposite sides of the alphabet. As they did their jumping jacks, Duo glanced over at Heero and saw that the frown on his face had only deepened since that morning. However, he felt no remorse; he was in a contrary mood and didn't want to have anything to do with the stoic pilot at that moment. They finished up quickly and the teacher rattled off the teams. Heero and Duo ended up on opposing teams. Heero wondered briefly if fate would always have them separated.

Duo found himself as Heero's blocking partner. He grimaced - he knew that the other pilot was an efficient if not cruel basketball player, mirroring how he did much everything else - but consoled himself with the thought that maybe he could get rough on Heero and let out some of his pent-up anger that way. For the first time in a couple hours, Duo fixed his brilliant cobalt eyes on Heero, intending to make eye contact.

Heero looked up and saw Duo looking at him, unspoken challenge charging the air between them with unconcealed tension. His mouth quirked slightly in a mock-smile, and he saw the muscles in Duo's face twitch ever so slightly as Duo's eyes narrowed.

The whistle announcing the start of the game sounded, and Heero exploded in a flash of red uniform. (6) He got the ball and raced down the court to the other side. Duo and his team sprinted after him. One of his teammates made a swipe at the ball but failed as Heero twisted away and continued running. Within seconds, the ball was through the net and bouncing on the gym floor.

"Nice job, Heero," congratulated one of his teammates, but Heero just grunted assent at him and otherwise ignored him. He was watching Duo, whose expression had hardened after Heero's basket. Heero could see the determination in his eyes and, for a second, felt fear wash over him. It wasn't fear for himself, but rather fear for what a determined Duo could do. However, the fear was quickly replaced by resolve as the game began again.

Duo got the ball. He ran down the sideline toward the basket where Heero was blocking another player from receiving the ball from Duo. Duo swerved, twisting away from an offensive (7) player and approached the basket. Heero, seeing that there was no one else close enough to block Duo, disengaged and lunged toward Duo, not expecting to make contact.

Unfortunately for both of them, Duo had skidded to a near stop in order to get a better shot at the basket. Heero crashed into Duo, knocking both of them down to the ground. There was a thud as they hit the ground, Duo's head connecting with the floor.

Heero got up first, blearily shaking his head. He looked at Duo, who was staring straight up at the ceiling. "Duo?" he asked.

Duo didn't respond.

Pure – and irrational – fear seized Heero. "Duo? Hey, Duo. Are you ok?" Heero shook Duo, trying to get a response out of him.

Eyes closing, Duo moaned, "Uhn." His hand unsteadily reached up toward his head. "Ow." Heero moved away as Duo sat up, holding his head.

"You all right?" Heero asked, getting up.

"Yeah," replied Duo, shaking his head slightly. "Damn." The world was tilting at funny angles, and – dear God – were there two Heero's? (At this point, his mind started telling him that he must be dreaming, because two Heero's was too good to be true, and when did the ceiling ever look like that?) "I…I need to sit down," he told one of the Heero's in a faltering voice.

Heero bit back his comment You're already sitting down, realizing that Duo probably had a concussion. He nodded and helped Duo over to the bench, choosing to sit out with the braided boy for the rest of the period. Continuing to stare at nothing for a while, Duo didn't notice when his body began to sway slightly. Heero, however, did.

"Duo," he began, reaching out and pulling the other pilot toward him, "just close your eyes. You're going to lose consciousness again if you don't."

Duo muttered something but complied, leaning against Heero, who found himself thinking for the second time that day how nice Duo's hair smelled. Duo managed not to go unconscious again as he snuggled up against Heero automatically. Seeing that Duo was in no shape to get back into the game, the teacher excused the two of them early.

Sliding an arm under Duo's for support, Heero helped Duo toward the locker rooms and gave him some water to drink. Duo gulped it down, spilling some on his shirt, but it seemed to help him. When he stood up again, he didn't sway. Heero felt a sort of disappointment deep in his chest – because now I can't help him change? – but pushed it aside.

The two of them changed into normal clothes quickly. Heero grabbed both his and Duo's bags, hefting them in one hand, and helped support Duo with the other. Duo leaned against Heero as he walked, not really going anywhere but following the Japanese boy's lead.

Upon reaching the motorcycle, Heero left Duo standing and shoved the two bags into the storage compartment under the seat. He turned around and looked at Duo, analyzing his health. "Can you hold?"

Duo blinked. "Onto what?"

"Me."

Duo blinked again. "You want me to hold you?" he asked incredulously, not believing his good luck – if it were that.

Heero sighed. "No, I want you to hold onto me so you don't fall off the motorcycle. Can you do that or do I have to hold on to you?"

Eyes almost crossing, Duo tried to think about this. He felt a tinge of displeasure. "I think…I think it'll be better if you held onto me. I'm going to fall asleep or something."

"All right." Heero took Duo's hand and seated him sideways on the bike. Then he climbed up behind him, grabbing the handle of the bike and starting it up. Duo instinctively turned his head into Heero's chest and wrapped his arms around him.

They made it back to the safe house without much event – the only thing that happened was that Duo did fall asleep. Heero gently shook Duo awake and, since the Deathscythe pilot was still groggy, carried him inside and up to their room. Duo clung to Heero as he lay him down on the bed. " 'ee-chan? Stay?"

Heero hesitated.

"Jus' a lil' bit?" Duo slurred, yawning but not letting go of Heero.

"If you really want me to."

"Yeah."

Heero removed Duo's shoes first, then his own. He was chuckling slightly to himself, looking at the ground. What would Quatre think? I haven't learned to not track mud into the house yet, huh? He climbed into Duo's bed with him and pulled the blanket over both of them. Duo, he quickly learned, was a snuggle bug. He instantly cuddled up to Heero when he got in, sighing happily at the Wing pilot's presence.

"Love you, Heero," he breathed into Heero's ear, and the he was asleep.

Heero blinked before a slight smile tugged the corners of his mouth upward. He nuzzled Duo where his shoulder and his neck met, and Duo huffed slightly, smiling and tightening his arms around Heero. I love you too, Duo. He kissed him.

It wasn't just another day, after all.

*Owaru*

First of all, I'd like to say that I've been working on this fic for a long, long, long time. It just didn't come to me, really. I've got to say that this fic was really weird, and I don't like it much.

(1) "1xdu02a1aaf" means "1 by Duo, 2 and 1 always and forever."

(2) Duo doesn't seem like the type to do homework, but hey. When a person gets really bored and NOTHING entertains them, homework seems the best bet. And anyway, this is early in the morning, and Duo hasn't had much sleep. Who knows how rationally his mind is functioning?

(3) I've read stories in which Duo tries his best not to fail all his classes but ends up doing so anyway. Contrary to what they think, I believe Duo's really smart and should be able to ace all of his classes. That's just my opinion, though. Everyone is entitled to his or her own beliefs.

(4) Along the same lines, Quatre supposedly cannot cook. In my world, he can, and he does it well.

(5) Again, I decided to make Quatre a bit naïve in this. Each to their own.

(6) Red is the primary color out of all of my school's colors, and the PE uniforms are basically red, so whenever I think of PE uniforms I think red.

(7) Offensive as in offensive-defensive, not offensive as in insulting. I had to clear that up; it sounded funny to me.