Genre: Romance, fluff, the usual stuff

Rating: ummm... yeah. nothing strong :mumbles about having to remember the rating's letters:

Parings: 1x2x1

Warnings: Language (just a bit), light lime in preventer's halls. A pissed Wufei. A startled Une.

Disclaimer: Hahahaha….naaaah, don't own'em. Wait. Do you? O.o

Author's note: This was inspired by the song "As lovers go" and therefore was named like it. If you know the song, you might notice the sentences they're using from it. Enjoy!

Feedback: To review is so easy that it should be illegal ;P

As Lovers Go

By Complexly Simple Kiddo

"Hey, Heero, wanna go out with me?"

The addressed man was sitting on one of those common computer chairs that whirl around and across, picked up entirely for its practicality. He was wearing the regulation green Preventers jacket, with the regular white shirt. Occasionally, it was moss green. Dark gray slacks, a mop of dark brown hair and a frenetic typing on a black laptop completed the image. Without taking his blue eyes out of the screen, his hands not even halting for a nanosecond, he answered.

"Sure, Duo. We still have to go to that Tai food place you saw".

Duo, resting in the frame of the medium sized office, shifted his shoulder and crossed his arms. His long hair bounded in a plate behind his back waved with the movement. Blue eyes, of a more cobalt-like shade, rolled in annoyance. His jacket was also regulation, but below that there was a red T-shirt that had yet to be defeated by Lady Une's ranting.

"No, Heero, I mean like a date", he explained, a trace of annoyance again faintly threaded with the words, but it was muted enough by obvious habituation. Heero, far from being startled by this, merely snorted.

"So Wufei was right. You really did become this desperate". That took Duo out of the relaxed position against the frame.

"Ey! Waddya mean with that?!"

Heero's finger fell on the enter key and a squeal warned that the plotter got to work. He really ought to fix that one day.

" I mean what I say, Duo. You're wasting time fishing around here".

The miracle of laser prints made the whole 20 pages report ready in the short meantime of the conversation. Taking the pages from the plotter tray, he got them square by hitting the pack against the desk, and then stacked them in a black folder. Standing to leave, he finally raised his eyes to Duo.

"I don't fish", he finally answer in a matter of fact tone, waiting for Heero to actually look at him to get the message across more efficiently. Fat chances.

"Yes you do", he said with a tone to challenge Duo's. Heading for the door, firmly, Duo had two options. Move or crash. He valued his body's safety too much to even have to think about choosing. Deciding to move backwards, knowing Heero was capable of leaving him locked in the office, he let him get through the door and then started to follow him through the hall, trying to keep up with Heero's quick pace.

"You think I'm fooling! You know well that I don't lie!"

"No, you don't. But do you think I'm some kind of easy mark?" 'Like the others' was pretty much implied in that sentence. He really knew how to talk with the silences.

"Do you take me as someone who would call a friend an 'easy mark'? You wound me, Heero. I'm just telling you..."

"Duo! I didn't get to return that book you lent me", interrupted Quatre, who was coming out of an office with a stack of papers with both hands, trying not to let them fall. "Do you have a minute?"

Taking his eyes away from Heero's back, he shifted them quickly to Quatre, not stopping in his pursuing.

"I'm really sorry, Quat, but don't worry about the book, ok?" Waving him quickly to dismiss the issue, he turned again to Heero's back, only to find it incredibly tiny compared to the last time he saw it.

"EY! Wait up!"

"What is it now?" Heero asked in a bored tone, once Duo reached him again with a quick jog.

"What the... nothing NEW you twat! I haven't finished discussing this!"

"And pray say, what brings on such persistence? Why am I so worth of your tenacity?"

"Are you asking me this seriously?! Look, Heero, you've..." annoyed by the fact that he couldn't see Heero's face, he quickened his pace, passing by him and turning around to face him. Unplanned was that Heero didn't actually stop, so he was forced to walk backwards if he didn't want to end flat on the floor.

"You've nuts if you need me to number them out to you, but you've got wits", he started, taking a finger with each one and taping it with the index of his other hand, "a sense of humor that's uniquely you, and makes your interesting personality, you're seriously quite the looker, having that mix of Asian and blue eyes and stubbornness really going for you, and the compact but lean complexion doesn't really go against it all. And you have a passion with everything you do, and intensity! I mean, seriously! Have you ever looked at your face when you're concentraAGH!"

Strong arms caught him before he bounced off that sudden wall of a person and fell hard on the floor. Turning around, he faced his unexpected obstacle.

"Maxwell, If you're going to make an habit of walking backwards in halls, please do us the favor of informing us". The smirk could be heard in that voice.

"Ha! Sorry, Zechs! I'll make sure to send a memo!" He smiled at him and then noticed that Heero had passed by them a while ago and was again out of reach.

"That goddamnmotherfucke... Sorry, Zechs! See you later, I need to rush!" and with that, he bolted trough the hall, leaving Zechs in an imaginary cloud of dust, an amused expression on the blonde's face.

"Interesting set of qualities, Duo. But it still doesn't mean you can get to eat this fish", Heero said, once Duo managed to, again, catch up on him.

"Goddamnit, Heero, for all the intelligence you've got, you're really damn stupid right now! You've got me all wrong here! And stop with that damned fishing analogy, will ya?"

"Why? It's such a fitting one"

"Because you're not a fish!" He exclaimed, raising his hands in the air in a desperate move to make his point across "and because as much as you're right, I've BEEN 'fishing around' as you say, it's not the same with you!"

"Why would that be?" He asked, turning right to go through a new hall, it's walls filled with office doors, much like the other one.

"Because you're my friend, you're not just anyone!" He barely registered the second turn, too much engrossed thinking ways to tie Heero up so he could stop moving for a minute.

"So? I'm not your only friend, take Wufei, for example", Duo rolled his eyes again.

"It's different, I don't care all the time about him"

"Well, that is nice to know, Maxwell"

The different voice startled him, and he finally looked away from Heero's back to take in his surroundings, finding himself with a very pissed, a bit hurt, and slightly amused Wufei. A further look around told him he was actually standing in his office, which was Heero's apparently destination, given by the fact that he was placing the black folder in Wufei's desk and was already turning around to leave. He looked quickly between Heero's retreating form and a pissed Wufei waiting for explanations, and he set his brain to work again.

"Look, Wufei, it's not like I don't care, you know I appreciate you a damn lot, I was just trying to get a point across that THICK head of Heero. But I love you! Never forget that!" and turning around again, setting himself for another fast jog, he went to the hall to try and catch Heero again.

Walking beside him and looking fixedly was proving to be useless, not to mention an uncomfortable way to walk through halls. Sighing in exasperation with the silence, he was about to prod Heero again when he beat him.

"Why now?"

That was a difficult question to answer. Duo looked up in contemplation, searching ways to start explaining what he felt.

"It's not like I never noticed you, Heero, but we've been friends since the war, and I may have been mature on a lot of things, but there were others that still needed to evolve at that time. I was a kid, and you were a kid. And since then I always saw you as one. I mean, don't get me wrong, I realized you're far from that lanky kid now, but deep down, I dunno", he rolled his shoulders, unsure if he was getting it right "you were always that kid for me. Even when I had grown and I saw the changes in myself, you still were that constant in my life."

"Then what changed? Why now?" Heero asked, but the defensive tone was nowhere to be seen now, all was left behind was a low voice and an honest will to know. Duo, being optimist, saw it as a won step. But the next answer was even more difficult to answer in an honest way.

"Umm, well it's kinda stupid, really"

"Don't evade the question"

Crap. With no other possible way out, all was left was honesty.

"Well, remember that day a week from now that we all went to that pool? I saw you but didn't realize it was you until you turned around. It was... ummm"

"You were checking me out and then you realized it was me", Heero finished for him. If Duo were a man to blush easily, he would resemble a tomato by now.

"Well, yes..."

Silence, more walk, and a new turn. Left, this time. How many darn halls did preventers HQ had, anyway?

"So it's only physical, after all", Heero stated.

"No, Heero, that was only what made me realize that you were far from being the kid from before. It was just what made me open my eyes and see that you've really been around all this time, and I wouldn't thought of you that way. But now that I think back, I realize you mean far more than any normal friend does. I just negated myself to think of you that way, but now I see it! And it's so stupidly obvious! I've been with guys and guys and never could find myself comfortable, and at that time I didn't put much thought on the fact that every time I felt uncomfortable with any guy, I wished I could go to your house, or go see a movie with you. I guess I labeled it as you being my friend, but now I see it as it is. Now that I let myself see you as the man you've become, I realized I really, seriously like you."

Heero didn't turn around, nor did he stop walking for a while, Duo following him like a shadow. When he finally stopped, it was to grab a cup of water from the dispenser that was at the end of that hallway, before the corridor parted ways to the sides. Duo stopped along him, and when the silence really started to get to him, he began to tap his foot on the floor.

"Come on, Heero, at least say something! I'm baring my heart here, and you know how much I hate to do that!"

The lack of answer of that either, along with Heero's stoic face, still facing the water cup that he was filling, made his chest felt tight. All his ever-present confidence was starting to crack, and he suddenly felt stupid, tiny and insignificant. Not to mention insecure.

"Is it because you find me annoying?" He asked, sort of afraid of what the answer might be. Heero was his friend, true, but he was sometimes brutally honest.

"If I did, you wouldn't be my friend, Duo", he stated, turning his cup to the hot handle to compensate the extreme coldness of the water.

"Then you don't find me attractive, that's it, isn't it?"

This time, Heero did look at him, his expression clearly asking something along the lines of 'are you stupid?'

"Duo, it's of general opinion that you should be on the top five of sexiest preventers, if it were to be one, and I'm not an exception." Duo's confidence came back in a small measure after covering those two aspects, but it wasn't enough to make it fully back.

"Are you straight?" Heero looked at him with the same expression and he shrugged. Hey, it was a valid question, even if he knew the answer, better safe than sorry. "Then you see me as just your friend", he stated, finding it the only option left. Heero shook his head in denial, and then looked down with a pained expression. It was the first change in the stoical face he had retained from since the conversation started, and Duo was slightly worried.

"God, Duo, far from it. You mean so much more than just a friend"

"Then WHAT is it?!" He stomped his foot in a very childish way, knowing he could get away with it. For all he knew, Heero's refusal was as childish as him stomping his foot. "I mean, we find each o..."

"Duo, I'm gonna buy lunch, do you want the same as..." Trowa started to say, but stopped when he raised his eyes from his wallet to see the situation. He took a symbolical step back, looking from Heero's uncatalogable expression and Duo's frown. When that frown turned into a glare directed at him, he merely raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, buy me the same as always", Duo finally said, saying each word from between clenched teeth.

"Are you both ok? You seem a little... tense", he asked. Duo cursed at his fate, cursed at Preventer's hallways, and cursed at Trowa for picking up the worrywart characteristics from a prolonged exposure to Quatre.

"Yes, Trowa. Same as always. No mayonnaise, cash's on my desk."

Taking it as the dismissal it clearly was, he shrugged and passed by them, heading back to Duo's office. Duo sighed, clearly tired from the constant interruptions, and he turned and rested himself against the wall. He noticed with gratitude that Heero had stayed this time.

"I just don't get it, Heero. We both feel attracted to each other, we like how we are, we mean more than friends do, then what is stopping you? I already assured you it was far from being like it was with the other guys I've been with. I could never feel equal to them as I feel with you, I'm stupidly cavalier when you're around sometimes, and you get me to tell you what I really think, not just half-truths. It's different, it took me this much time to come to terms with the fact that I liked my friend, but it's really meant to be! Why do we have to complicate something that's really simple? It could be so wonderful, yanno? What's the purpose of waiting when we have it all resolved?"

The sound of something solid hitting the floor, followed by the distinct feeling of spilled water, made him stop talking. Opening eyes that had been closed during the previous speech, head straightening from where it was laying on the wall, he looked at Heero. His plastic cup was gone from his hand, now lying on the floor, empty. He turned back to Heero's face, and he found so many expressions swirling in those eyes that he felt like bracing for the sure to come storm. He didn't know what he said to provoke it, nor he knew what kind of storm would it be. But he knew Heero well enough to see there was definitely one coming, and he was surely about to discover why. Full lips were now thinned in a line.

"What do you know about waiting, Duo?"

"Huh?"

The question was a strange one. But Heero's face was really starting to worry him, and he didn't have much space to think about what was being asked. Heero calmly walked to where he was leaning on the wall, his feet accompanied by the sound of splashes when he stepped over the spilled water. Standing in front of Duo, his eyes were focused on something at his right, offering the braided man a full view of Heero's profile.

"I asked", he started again, with all the patience of someone explaining something to a kid. He did a pause and then turned the full power of his gaze directly at Duo's eyes. That power of a gaze so close should be considered unhealthy, according to Duo. It made him want to run the hell away and yet stay and see what he would get. It made him confused. He didn't like to be confused.

"What do you know about waiting?"

"I don't... whaddyamean?" He sputtered, his brain capacity on full shutdown now that those eyes were so close. God, those eyes. Heero smirked at his question. It didn't help his case, really.

"I know about waiting, Duo. I've been waiting for you since long time. You think you've waited enough? Don't make me laugh".

This kind of Heero was seriously spooking him. The fact that it was also turning him seriously on was something that should have disturbed him but really didn't. His mind got to register the words, but the brain cells where to busy being shocked to work into sending the mouth a coherent sentence to speak. Heero got even closer, his hand fell on the wall, close to Duo's head, for support. One of his knees bumped into Heero's one, and even though the contact was only there, and through fabric, Duo felt the whole warmth of the body raise.

" I waited for you to realize I was here. I watched you go from one guy to the other, wishing you would soon get tired and open your eyes, but too afraid to tell you. I waited for so long, I sometimes thought I was going crazy, that I was hopelessly mental, but every time I thought that, I saw you and it didn't matter. If I only had a chance, you were more than worth any wait".

Heero's elbow bent slightly and it took him even closer, faces only distanced by mere inches that could get so easily erased. Duo felt now every vibration of the word before he got to hear them.

"All those moments in war, I felt I was sane when I was with you. It never really changed. When you're around, I feel like I might not be as crazy as I think I am, that I have a chance at being humanly sane, but the illusion disappears so easily when you leave my side."

Knees were an obstacle now, and the leg slid forward, leaving the knee behind and choosing to leave the thigh to make all the work. This also brought the elbow to fully rest on the wall, and the chest decided he rather liked the thumping of the one in front of him, and choose to reach for it. Duo's brain cells were confused now. The nerves were feeding too much information. Duo didn't know where to focus his attention, to his thigh side pressed flushed against Heero's, or his knee dangerously close to find how much Duo liked that. The chest was thumping badly now, because Heero's was almost resting against him. But what finally caught his attention, or what was left of it, was Heero's lips. He didn't just felt the vibrations of the words now, he actually could feel every shift of the lips against his own. It could be barely called a kiss, there was no direct intention of actually kissing, but it felt far more powerful than one. Heero's words where now merely whispered. He didn't need ears to hear them, after all. Nor did he needed eyes to lip-read them. He got them directly to his mouth, so directly that he didn't know if it was really Heero saying them, or him.

"So I wondered, and I discovered one thing, and one thing only: I rather like that illusion. It has a very high price for you, I'm afraid. Do you understand now? It's not something easy. I don't need to complicate it, because it's really simple, but it's not easy for you. Now that you know the extent of what I feel..."

The lips increased the pressure and they caught Duo's lower lip in a soft embrace, a ghostly touch of tongue, and enough pressure to make Duo raise his head, wishing he could get more.

"... are you brave enough to leave with me, Duo?"

Tired of the barely there feeling of touch, Heero slid his free right hand against Duo's neck to cup his head and press it forward, opening his mouth to fully go against those lips that couldn't talk but were saying so much. His tongue grazed Duo's lips, not needing to really ask for anything. Duo's mouth fought back, turning his head to be able to claim even more. Teeth grazed lips and warm skin that felt rough and soft and everything in between. They didn't need air right now. They were breathing each other. And although it felt like an eternity, slow and painfully pleasant, it lasted only a mere handful of seconds.

When he opened his eyes, waking slowly out of a dream that was reality, the blue eyes that were looking at him felt even more intense than ever, and he fought to make his words voiced, despise of his cells being in a comatose state, courtesy of a one damn sexy Heero Yuy.

"I might not know about waiting, Heero" he said, looking directly at his eyes. Not because he was trying to gain something, but because he knew that if he looked one more time to his lips, his chance at speaking would be blown away.

"but I know a few things about needing. You said you wanted the illusion. I was living one". He attempted one fast look at those lips, but he couldn't reach with his eyes, being so close. Instead, he decided to feel them, just to reassure himself that they were still there. Same did the chest, helped by a hand that reached out and pressed Heero's back to him. The thigh got to discover how nice Duo felt, but Duo got information in return. Heero didn't mind the proximity as well. The warmth scaled a few degrees. He could really get used to it.

"I was living the illusion that I didn't need anything else. When I had to open my eyes, I got to find you. I don't know about it Heero, and I won't pretend to understand it, but I know that I don't mind to keep your illusion, as long as you keep mine from getting back." He gasped for air, talking now was considered impossible with the sweet friction that Heero's leg was doing between his legs. The preassure was minimal, but it was more than enough. Wanting more, he slowly rocked his hips forward, earning a gasp from Heero, who closed his eyes in pleasure. When he opened them again, Duo was smirking. He couldn't help but smile in return. He was about to claim those lips again when Une's voice rang from a door somewhere at their side. He frowned, trying to recollect his thoughts and guess where they ended up after his mindless walking through the halls, and realized they were at Une's office. Neither of them made the effort of moving when the door closed. They did turned their heads to give Une at least a minimal attention.

"Agent Yuy, I was hoping you could have a word with m..." Finally looking at where she heard the voice, she stopped talking at the scene. Duo was still pinned to the wall, one of his hands pressed against Heero's back. Heero, in turn, had his elbow resting on the wall, leg between Duo's, too close to be casual, and his other hand had come to rest over Duo's hip at one moment. When neither of them made an attempt at straightening, she coughed.

Heero glared at her, pressing more firmly against Duo, which in turn broke the smug smile from Duo's face to contort into a silent moan, his hand clenching at Heero's jacket.

Une coughed again, but this time, a faint blush could be seen in her cheeks.

"When you have a free time, then, agent Yuy, agent Maxwell" and with a nod to each, she closed her office's door with more strength than it needed.

When Heero turned to look at the braided man, he found an amused smirk. He frowned.

"What?"

"You just told Une to sod off", Duo stated, smile widening when Heero's frown deepened.

"I did not"

"The equivalent"

"Hn"

And dismissing the thought, he grabbed Duo's arm and tugged him along the corridor, heading back to his office. The braided man yelped.

"Oi, what's the rush!?" he asked, looking around and noticing they were passing through a set of cubic offices that led room to look over the walls. Most eyes where on them, looking at the most unusual scene of Heero tugging someone so forcefully. Heero's nonsense voice spoke up then, and if all eyes weren't on them before, they certainly were now.

"My office. Locked door. No interruptions."

Duo smiled at the startled faces and let himself be pulled along the hall, and with a final wave, the door closed.

The faint click´of a lock and Duo's laugh was all they got in return.

Owari