Title: Radio Gaga
Author: Link Worshiper
Pairing: 1=2, a dash of 3=4, maybe mentions of others
Stuff: AU with a bunch of fluff, sap, feel-good and a lemon on top
Disclaimer: Bandai and Sunrise are seriously contemplating giving me the rights to GW. At this point, they might as well __ Also, all the lyrics spattered in here belong to the respective band.

Summary: Heero becomes infatuated with his favourite afternoon DJ but has no idea what to do about it.

--

"Fifteen minutes to six and
Fourteen floors to go.
Thirteen suited strangers make the crowded elevator slow."

Heero hummed quietly with the rock song wafting softly from the speakers of his little red boom box, which sat on the shelf above his computer, wedged between a row of binders and the potted fern his boss had given him for birthday last year. Every once in a while, he'd drop a lyric unintentionally, and then he'd have to berate himself for slipping. He liked having the radio on while he was at work, but he shuddered to think he was being obtrusive also. The open cubicle setting didn't leave room for a lot of privacy.

"And I've got a million words and phrases on the tip of my tongue
For the only non-stranger next to me --"

A hand suddenly clamping down on his shoulder startled Heero out of his private zone, and he physically jumped in his chair. Whipping around, he sent a glare over his shoulder at the intruder. His intense expression relaxed only when he realized it was just his new cubicle mate, who had apparently just gotten back from lunch, judging from the sandwich bag he held in one hand.

"Trowa, don't sneak up on me like that," he gasped, trying to sound stern as he turned his swivel chair around so he could face his tall, green-eyed coworker.

Trowa snickered as he tossed his leftover lunch onto the desk space by his own computer, falling gracefully into his chair and lacing his fingers across his stomach as he regarded Heero with amusement. Trowa Barton wasn't new to Winner Enterprises by any means, but he certainly was new to Heero's personal space. After Heero had successfully scared off four consecutive coworkers with his gruff demeanor and his very particular organizational habits in just half a year, Trowa volunteered to relocate himself to Heero's cubicle. He was probably the closest thing Heero had to a friend at the office anyway, and unlike the others, at least had respect for 'the system', which was really all Heero needed to get on. On the other hand, Trowa's inability to be intimidated by Heero's usual tactics meant aggravation of a different sort for the blue-eyed Japanese man; he wasn't sure he appreciated Trowa's particular breed of humour.

"You know," Trowa started idly, spinning around to face his computer, "you're a regular old chatterbox when you don't think anyone's listening." He swept his mouse across the Lion King mouse pad lying next to his keyboard, casual as you please. "If I didn't know better, I'd say that radio of yours was like a friend to you."

"I like this station," Heero rejoined, sounding a bit defensive as he glared at the back of Trowa's head from his side of the cubicle. "It helps me concentrate, especially in the afternoons, when the hours just turn into a countdown to the end of the day."

"Really," Trowa mused, smirking at Heero's disgruntled expression, which he could see reflected in the glass protecting the photograph of his sister. He pretended to adjust its position for anal purposes, but was in actuality just angling the picture frame so he could get a better look at Heero's blustered face. His smirk intensified; Heero sure was a funny one. The job had been getting a bit boring lately; moving to Heero's cubicle ensured constant entertainment.

"Yes, really," Heero snipped back. Trowa's nonchalance was almost obnoxious. He pointedly spun his chair around again and went back to working on the proposal he'd been typing up before Trowa had come back. His fingers clacked noisily on the keyboard, jamming the keys a little harder than necessary.

Trowa chuckled to himself and tallied off another point for himself on the green post-it stuck to his monitor: so far, he was leading by twenty-one points. There were times where he found it almost too easy, but Quatre Winner himself had promised him lunch out if he could get to fifty without being evicted from Cubicle Yuy. He logged onto the Internet and went to check his e-mail.

Soon, the only sounds between them were the incessant tap-tap-tapping of fingers on the keyboard and the song on the radio, which was just drawing to a close. Heero's midnight blue eyes flicked up towards the radio as the DJ's voice took over the airwaves.

"Duo Maxwell here, hanging with you and Incubus," announced the smooth baritone issuing from the boom box's speakers. "Hope your Thursday afternoon's been going like a charm, whether you're at work or playing hooky. We've got more rockin' music coming your way, so keep your mitts off the dial, and we'll be back after this...."

One of the station's promos replaced the DJ's voice, advertising their current give-away before bleeding into a shampoo commercial. Heero's eyes sunk back down to his computer screen; he assessed he had about eight and a half minutes to get some serious work done before the radio show came back. Granted, he'd come to really enjoy the station's play list as good background music, but he couldn't deny that most of the reason he tuned in was -

"Hey, Heero," Trowa suddenly piped up, spinning around in his chair again, much to Heero's chagrin (So much for getting a big chunk of that proposal finished during the commercial break). "Doesn't that radio station broadcast from the top of this building?"

Heero didn't give Trowa the benefit of a scowl, but that was mostly due to the fact that his face was now a bright, rosy hue. Of course he knew that; it was half the reason he knew the radio station existed at all. 102 W-Rock had been occupying the same studio for almost as long as Winner Enterprises had taken up residence in the office space on the floor below. This piece of information had never made a difference to Heero until he'd quite literally crashed into a young man wearing a W-Rock tee shirt on the elevator one day, when he'd been running late to a one o'clock meeting. Since then, he'd found himself daydreaming about wide, kissable lips and big, ocean blue eyes, savouring the few chance encounters he'd had with the longhaired rocker here and there. It wasn't until one afternoon, completely by chance, that he'd overheard that familiar, snarky voice broadcasting over the stereo system in Mr. Winner's private office while dropping off some reports and realized what exactly the object of his fascination did at W-Rock. Heero went out and picked up a small radio for his cubicle on his way home that day and had been listening ever since.

Of course, Trowa knew none of this, and Heero was fine with keeping it that way. It was a silly notion, really, and Heero knew it all too well, but sometimes it was nice to let himself be fooled into thinking that Duo's voice was the voice of a good friend, and not just a DJ on the radio. Sometimes his instinctive reactions were just as much a detriment as an asset, he thought, especially when his thoughts really started wandering in regards to the afternoon DJ. Aside from the fact that Duo had this wonderfully soothing, gravelly tone, he seemed to have a way with words; Heero wouldn't have been surprised to learn Duo's seeming easiness made more people feel closer to the DJ than logic should have dictated.

Heero was so caught up in his personal thoughts that he almost forgot to answer Trowa. "Yeah, from the floor above," he affirmed with a subtle nod of his head, still staring intently at the blinking cursor in his word processor.

"Is that Maxwell guy new?" he asked, not even remotely aware of what his questions were doing to Heero's ability to get anything done. "Didn't they use to have a chick in this slot? Danni, or Sally or something?"

"I think he's only been there for a little less than a year or so," Heero answered automatically. Heero couldn't say he really knew for sure, as what he knew about Maxwell was all information he'd gleaned by listening religiously to W-Rock whenever he could. This would make sense, Heero reasoned, as he had only just noticed Duo around the building about that long ago. He was pretty sure he'd have been well aware of the longhaired DJ if he'd been around earlier than that. "I haven't really been listening long enough to tell you for sure, though."

"Huh, go figure," Trowa mused, chancing a quick glance in Heero's direction. "I never took you for a radio fiend. And rock, of all things?" His eyes raked his coworker up and down, taking in his pristine khakis, the trim, button-up oxford, the narrow reading glasses perched on the bridge of his nose and the pen stuck behind one ear. "You're a real piece of work, Heero, you know that?" he decided.

"And you're an asshole," Heero retorted, not meaning to sound as angry as he came off as he went back to glaring at his monitor.

They fell into silence once again, and the radio commercials ended not long after. "You're listening to 102 W-Rock, the only station that really rocks. This is Duo Maxwell, back in black and ready to spend some more time with all you out in radio land."

Trowa glanced over his shoulder, arching his eyebrow with interest as he watched Heero reach up to raise the volume on the boom box slightly. 'Curiouser and curiouser,' he thought drolly to himself, yanking up a new window in his Internet browser for a little bit of research. A couple of clicks later, he turned his head back towards his coworker. "Say, Heero," he said casually, hoping he didn't sound suspiciously innocent. "You ever actually seen this Maxwell guy? They got his picture on the website."

Trowa's emerald green eyes fixed themselves to the photo of his sister, waiting to see the reaction on Heero's face without being overt. He wasn't disappointed when Heero suddenly became very edgy. "He's pretty cute, in a kind of oddball way, don't you think?" Trowa prodded, turning his computer screen so it would be easier for Heero to see. "I like his hair."

Heero was doing his best not to make any comments that would give himself away; he knew the game Trowa was going at and the last thing he needed was yet another thing for his coworker to tease him with. For the sake of playing it cool, though, he sufficed to shoot a quick peek over his shoulder. Not that it made much of a difference: he was already quite familiar with that particular photograph. It was a silly photo of Duo in the W-Rock studio, sitting behind the mic with big headphones on his head, his mouth contorted into a ridiculous shape and his tongue hanging out shamelessly as he held up a pair of middle fingers to the camera. Wispy bangs poked out from underneath the cowboy hat perched precariously atop his head, the rest of his long hair woven into a braid, which lay across his shoulders and tumbled down his arm like a thick snake.

"Maybe it's just the goofy photo, though," Trowa went on thoughtfully, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms behind his head as he spun lethargically around. "I bet he really is quite the looker in person."

"I wouldn't know," Heero said tightly, deciding that the less Trowa knew, the better off his own personal sanity would be. By this point, Duo's voice had been replaced with a song: 'Everlong, Foo Fighters,' Heero's mind supplied automatically.

"Really?" Trowa said placidly, reaching to his desk to grab a pen to toy with. "You'd think you'd have seen him around, what, with being in the same building and all," he said conversationally, balancing the pen on the bridge of his nose. "You know, come to think of it, I think I've seen him, down by the vending machines every now and then. He likes chocolate-covered raisins and Snickers bars. I've seen him buy them."

"He probably also hates it that they sell Pepsi, not Coca-cola," Heero murmured under his breath, remembering a rant Duo had the other week about the significant difference in taste. Duo preferred the sweet, syrupy flavour of Coke and would only resort to its archrival if there was no other way to get caffeine into his system. He'd also seen Duo by the vending machines a couple times, but he'd never had the nerve to go over and say anything, or even to buy a snack at the same time.

"You sure seem to know a lot," Trowa pointed out glibly, and Heero's face turned sour - despite his bright red cheeks - as he mentally berated himself. There was no winning against the other man, that was for sure!

"He's very chatty. I mean, on the air, that is," Heero explained lamely. Though it was the truth, it still came off as a pretty poor excuse, which, even Heero had to admit, it was.

"Hmm," Trowa hummed, still twirling aimlessly around in his chair, while somehow still able to keep the pen balanced precariously on his nose. "But you like his chatter, right?"

Heero felt himself tensing even more, like a guitar string that was being wound far too tightly. "Well, obviously!" he snapped, flinging a wayward hand in the direction of the radio, almost knocking the fern next to it off the shelf. "I wouldn't keep listening if I didn't, would I?"

A triumphant smirk widened on Trowa's lips, figuring that he'd come out on top this round. So instead of answering, he just shrugged and turned back to his computer, deciding that warranted another point for in his own favour on the score post-it.

--

Trowa ripped into his hoagie, staring across the cubicle at Heero's back with wide eyes as he chewed. He probably should stop being so shocked when Heero did surprising things, he thought. "Wait, so run that by me again?" he asked Heero, taking another large bite of his sandwich.

"It's easy today," Heero said with a shrug, blindly reaching for the BLT sitting just at arm's length from his keyboard. "All three songs are by bands that involve Chris Cornell: Temple of the Dog, Audioslave and Soundgarden. You can blatantly hear his voice in all of them." He swallowed and set the sandwich down again, going for the bottle of Perrier he'd bought to chase it. "Yesterday's was easier, but I think it took longer for someone to get it: all songs that had title starting with the letter 'B'."

"Seriously, you really are a piece of work, Heero," Trowa reiterated for what seemed like the millionth time. "What songs were they, for the record? That doesn't seem so hard."

"Bullet with Butterfly Wings, Breadfan and Basket Case," Heero answered, still focused on his computer as he continued to methodically devour his lunch. "It really is simple, but you'd be amazed how many people don't know the real title of that first one. I think Duo fielded about sixteen calls before someone got it right."

Just as Heero was saying this, the final chords of 'Outshined' were playing over the radio, and Duo's voice was suddenly back on the air, immediately going for the phone lines. It was a daily ritual for Duo to play this game at 3PM with his listeners; it was a simple exercise in musical trivia he called 'Connect Three', in which he would play three songs in a row and have listeners find the relation between them in exchange for a prize if they got it right. Heero found he'd learned a lot about music just by listening to this little segment every afternoon. Though the questions were sometimes easy, like today's, some of them required a bit more thought, like songs that were all off of platinum records, or songs that were all obscure remakes or had all come out in the same year - things like that.

"Close, but no. For the hundredth time, 'Hunger Strike' is not a Pearl Jam song," Duo said, his voice taking on a certain, quick tempo like he wasn't expecting anyone to get the answer soon. A lot of people weren't really aware of the oddity that was Temple of the Dog; it was clearly the trick song of the day. "Hey, W-Rock, can you connect three...?"

"You should call in," Trowa suggested, licking his fingers clean of the mayonnaise that had dribbled out of his sandwich. "Every day, you have the correct answer almost right away."

Heero's rhythmic movements suddenly became stilted and he almost fumbled his sandwich. He froze for a few seconds, unsure of what to say without sounding stupid. "You know I don't like talking on the phone," he protested weakly, a little startled by how strangled his voice was. "Besides, there are other people who probably want the prize more than I do."

"Heero, everyone likes free stuff. Doesn't matter what it is, so long as you don't have to pay for it," Trowa pointed out, his tone candid. "Winning it is like an ego rub; makes you feel like you're special for a little bit." He took a moment to polish off the last bit of his sandwich before adding, "Also, you get to be on the radio."

Heero spun around in his chair to face Trowa for the first time that day, his expression stern. "Trowa, I don't need a free DVD box set to make me feel good about myself."

Trowa met Heero's stare evenly, though he had to fight to keep his mouth from quirking up into a smirk. "Maybe it's not about the free DVD box set." His eyes quickly flicked up to the radio just as Duo was finally sighing in relief that someone had managed to guess the right answer.

It was brief and subtle, but in that moment, Heero suddenly realized that he'd probably been more obvious than he'd thought. He should have known better than to try and keep something from Trowa, but he still thought it would be in his best interest to pretend like he had no idea what Trowa was insinuating.

"Jeez, I think you guys are slacking. I've even been easing up on you people, and still, it takes, what, eighteen callers before someone gets it?" Duo was saying, his voice full of exasperation. "Man, maybe I should jack up the prize. Might get you all to kick your brains in the ass a little harder next time."

"I still think you should call," Trowa repeated, crumpling up the paper wrapping from his sandwich now that he'd finished it. "Surprise him! I bet he'd love to hear someone guess right away."

Heero found himself desperately fighting to keep his head above water. "It's not so easy," he answered tartly. "It's all luck and timing; I might be the first caller, I might be the twentieth. It's not like only a handful of people ever call in, you know."

"Well, you always might get lucky," Trowa said, sounding smug as he turned to face his computer, reluctantly ready to go back to work.

"Doesn't help with not liking to talk on the phone," Heero shot back, pleased with himself for that one. It was true, more or less; he hated not being able to see the face of the person he was talking to, and if he could barely talk to Duo when he ran into him around the building, how could he be expected to have the courage to talk to him over the phone? And then having his voice on the radio - that just made it even worse.

"You could practice," Trowa replied. "Try requesting a song or something."

Heero wrinkled his nose with distaste, his reading glasses slipping a bit lower as he did so. He knew Trowa only meant well, but he didn't like getting so flustered every time Trowa dragged the radio and Duo Maxwell into conversation; it was seriously impeding his ability to get things done. "Maybe," he settled on, deciding that he shouldn't sound completely averse to the idea.

"Well, it was only a suggestion," Trowa said with a shrug. "It's not like he knows who you are or anything. No harm, no foul."

Heero stared over his shoulder at Trowa's back for a few moments, Duo's mirthful voice filling the odd silence. "And keep your ears out for our next big giveaway," he was saying. "Why buy tickets for the big summer Lollapalooza fest, when you can score them for free, courtesy of W-Rock and Winner Enterprises...."

Heero was so lost in his own thoughts, he only half heard what Duo was saying though, making a vague note in the back of his mind to ask Quatre when they'd started funding W-Rock events.

--

"What up? Duo Maxwell here! Who's this?"

"I -" Heero's breathing was raspy, and it hitched in his throat, the four, simple syllables that made up his name suddenly the most impossible sounds to make. He bit his lip, the phone shaking by his ear for a few more brief seconds before he gave up and suddenly slammed it back down on the hook. Dammit, this was harder than it seemed!

He took a surreptitious glance at Trowa, just to make sure he hadn't attracted any unwanted attention and sighed with relief when he saw Trowa still focused intently on the contract he was going over. However, just seeing his coworker reminded Heero of why he'd even bothered to try calling in the first place. Nothing ever got done by standing back and taking no action, he'd thought, but he was starting to feel quite hopeless that he'd never be able to pluck up the courage to talk to someone like Duo Maxwell. But Trowa was right: he needed to practice, and taking small steps at first was a good way to begin - not that Trowa needed to know the exact reasons why Heero was so determined.

"What song were you going to request?" Trowa asked from his side of the cubicle, his eyes still trained on the document lying on his desk as the ballpoint pen clutched in one of his hands continued to tap against the header.

Heero glared, seriously beginning to wonder if Trowa had the inklings of some sort of psychic ability. Heero's face became warm, but he kept his voice unnaturally tight as he said, "Something by Cake."

Trowa's deep green eyes actually flicked up in Heero's direction and lingered on him for a few, shocked seconds. "Definitely a piece of work," he mumbled under his breath, shaking his head. The long sweep of hair that fell over the side of his face shivered across his nose. "Having trouble getting through, then?"

"No, thanks," Heero retorted before he had a chance to think about what he was saying. He chewed on his bottom lip again, tempted to broach an aspect of conversation he wasn't quite sure he was ready to handle on his own, much less in the face of a friend.

It happened anyway.

Duo's characteristic laugh throbbed over the boom box's speakers, and Heero found himself staring at it as if he were making eye contact with another person. "He answered the phone, and I just got so... flustered. He makes it sound so easy, just happily greeting any and everybody who dials up the station, and here I am, barely able to string together my first and last name when prompted," he started to ramble, not really even realizing what he was admitting until it was far too late. "I don't have that natural ease - I know how I tend to come off to other people. The thought of coming off that way to him - and on the airways, still - that's just mortifying...."

"You don't seem to have a problem with talking right now." Trowa's voice was succinct. He'd gone back to staring at the contract, though it was obvious the printed text wasn't the first thing on his mind.

Heero wasn't exactly listening, becoming more and more absorbed in the nervous tangent as it strung him along. "And it's even harder when I can't see his face," he was saying, starting to involve his hands in his speech. "It's not like I don't have the opportunity to approach him whenever I want - like when he's buying himself a snack or something. But then again, I doubt I'd be in the predicament I am if I didn't see him freely wandering around the building during commercial breaks or whenever he goes traipsing up and down the halls...."

"Heero."

"I don't really even understand it, though," Heero went on, gripping the arms of his chair tightly. "How could I be so taken with someone I hardly know?" His breath hiccupped, his eyes becoming slightly wider when he caught what he'd just admitted. "I mean, just because I see him every day doesn't mean that I'm any different from anybody else who tunes in, so...."

"Heero," Trowa repeated, his voice ridden with the beginnings of a laugh as he dropped his pen and spun to face Heero again. That damn smirk was tweaking his features again.

"...it's not like I really have a chance at... what?" Heero finally slowed, feeling very embarrassed that he'd allowed himself to get so carried away. Sometimes it was easy for a person not used to expressing himself to let the most unexpected things come tumbling out at the strangest times. Heero was pretty sure this was one of those instances.

Trowa took a moment to revel in Heero's awkwardness before speaking. "Did you know that you're very funny when you're confused?" he asked Heero after about twenty seconds of nearly silent chuckling.

Heero narrowed his eyes, their blue irises glinting beneath his thick eyelashes. "What are you implying?"

"What are you?" Trowa countered, finding that averting his eyes towards the calendar on the wall, where a week full of meetings was highlighted in various colours, was the only way for him to keep himself from completely exploding with laughter in Heero's face. Much as he loved toying with his Japanese friend, he knew there was a fine line between teasing and being a jerk.

"Absolutely nothing!" Heero hissed back, the defensiveness in his tone glaringly obvious.

Trowa merely arched his eyebrows, drawing his fingers together into a peak as he regarded Heero with that knowing expression of his and Heero glared right back, just daring Trowa to say something he'd regret. The Red Hot Chili Peppers played on the radio in the background, the final minute and a half of the song going completely uninterrupted as the two men stared at each other. Trowa thought it was hilarious; Heero was borderline panicking.

'Give to me sweet sacred bliss!
That mouth was made to suck my kiss!'

The next one to speak actually turned out to be Duo, taking over the sound waves when the song ended. "Some Chilis for all you out there in radio land," he credited the artist. "God, I love that song."

"Want to tell them why?" piped up a female voice, which belonged to the woman who did weather and traffic reports during Duo's time slot, though many times, she acted as the foil for Duo's antics.

"No, Hilde, I don't, thanks," Duo snapped sarcastically. "Fellahs, never tell girls anything - especially if it's something you'd like to keep a little more discreet. They'll either run it to everybody they know or trick you into spilling the beans yourself."

"Not my fault you got a cru-u-ush - oops!" She didn't sound like she was very sorry for the slip-up, though.

"Dammit, Hilde!" Duo let out a long sigh, and Heero imagined that if this had been a normal, face-to-face conversation, Duo would have been turning to whoever else was there with a look of apology written across his face. "Don't mind her. She's crazy."

Hilde laughed boisterously, and while it was a good laugh, Heero couldn't help but think it was nothing when compared to Duo's. "You think I'm the crazy one!" she ridiculed. "I'm not the one pining over a pair of blue eyes." There was a momentary pause, and then she said, "You're thinking about them, aren't you." It wasn't even a question - merely a statement of fact.

"How would you know?" Duo's voice was very indignant.

"Look down."

Another pause fell between them, and then Duo retorted glibly, "I'm not even going to ask why you were staring at my crotch, Hilde."

Trowa's eyes flicked over Heero's head to the radio, and he nodded at it. "Sounds sort of familiar, doesn't it?"

Heero's glare became slightly more deadly and he made a point of turning his back to Trowa again, hoping it made his feelings on the matter more than clear - and that he'd been able to look away before his friend had gotten a good look at how red his cheeks had become. Or how the thought of Duo already being interested in someone made his heart so heavy.

--

There were days Duo Maxwell really hated his job. This was turning out to be one of those times. Ever since that afternoon where Hilde had made fun of him about his secret interest - on the air, no less! - he'd been the butt of everyone's jokes. Hell, even his boss, Wufei Chang, of all people, had the nerve to be humming Elton John's 'Blue Eyes' when they'd passed by each other in the hall. That had sort of been the end of Duo's patience for the moment; he'd poked his head into the studio and told Hilde to cover for him, no ifs, ands or buts, while he darted down to the vending machines to get some comfort food. It was only going to be so long before the general public started joining in on the 'fun'. He sure hoped he could keep his sarcasm towards callers radio-friendly; Wufei had yet to seriously threaten firing him over censorship fines, but Duo knew he was already in a lot of trouble for his mouth as it was.

He huffed through the lobby and to the elevators, jabbing the down button with such force that his index finger bent back a little. He wrinkled his nose in pain and then in annoyance, when he saw that the elevator was still down on the third floor.

"Say, Duo...." That would be Relena, the fair-haired secretary behind the lobby's front desk. From her spot, she had a clear view of the place where Duo stood by the elevators.

Duo looked up, mentally steeling himself for whatever question she might have. It wasn't that he disliked Relena, but the woman had a real nose for gossip, and it was pretty much a guarantee that if Relena had her hand in something, it probably would be just short of front-page news by the next day. He glanced at the display above the elevator doors: sixth floor; God, it was slow.

She didn't waste any time once she had Duo's attention. "So who's this blue-eyed baby of yours?" she wanted to know, leaning on her elbows, a coy smile on her face. "Wouldn't happen to be anybody around here, would it?"

"None of your beeswax," Duo said snidely, his eyes still fixed on the glowing number over the elevator. Ninth floor. He was really looking forward to buying himself a nice soda and taking that puppy on a little walk on a random floor, through random halls, where no one he knew would bother him.

Relena's eyes narrowed a bit, dangerously playful. "Oh, now I know you're trying to keep the lid on something," she pressed, leaning even further forward, almost as if she meant to climb over the desk. "Does Hilde know? I bet she does." Relena startled as an idea came to her, her pink lips rounding into a little circle; "Oh, I should probably just go ask her! A little one-on-one girl talk!"

Duo crossed his arms and stared blankly at Relena, hoping his disinterested expression would deter more questions. He was starting to hear the elevator dinging on its way up - a good sign it was almost there - but he still wasn't home free yet.

"Maybe someone at Winner's? Or the Marquise firm on floor six?" Now she just sounded desperate, as if she feared she might not glean any information out of this interrogation for her trouble.

Duo's eyes flicked back up to the number display, relieved to see that the elevator had just stopped on floor eleven, just below. Only a matter of moments before it arrived in time to save him from certain mortification.

The trip downstairs was a nice reprieve. It was well after the lunch hour, but still nowhere near the end of the day, meaning most everyone was mired behind their desks and not out and about. Of course, he realized as he stood in front of the vending machines, that also meant that there was a very dim selection of things to snack on. Even the goddamn Pepsi was sold out.

He crammed his hands into the pockets of his jeans, feeling very frustrated with life in general as he wandered back towards the elevator lobby. Maybe he would go spring a surprise visit on Quatre and lament a little; that guy had always been good about lending a sympathetic ear, and he was glad that he'd gotten to be friends with the young entrepreneur through various events Winner Enterprises had sponsored for W-Rock.

But when he got on the elevator, Duo couldn't bring himself to punch the button for the Winner floor, feeling like the last thing Quatre probably had time for was the local bum DJ and his problems. "Ugh, damn you, Hilde!" Duo shouted to the empty car as he pressed the twelfth floor button. "I was happy living my fantasy before you crash-landed there!" He spent the rest of the ride up cursing his friend in as many ways as he could, glad to have a scapegoat for a moment, even if she really hadn't meant any harm.

It also didn't help that Relena had been waiting to pounce on him the second he stepped off the elevator. Vaguely, he wondered if she was really that desperate, barely even listening to her as she prattled on. He waved absently at her as he passed into the studio, leaving her to find her own way back to the front desk. He thought he heard her mention something about someone swinging by to visit him, but he hadn't really been paying enough attention to know for sure.

"Hey, Duo. How was your walk?" Hilde greeted him cheerfully as he plopped back down in his familiar seat in front of the microphone. Thankfully, it was the middle of a four-song set, meaning Duo still had a little time to recuperate before he had to go back on the air.

"Nothing to report," he told her plainly, sinking low in his chair. He could feel the energy seeping out of his pores.

It didn't take him long to get the kick-start he needed, though. Just when he felt like he was going to pass out from fatigue, he espied a can of Coca-cola sitting in front of Hilde. "Whose is that?" he demanded to know, pointing at the red can. It was still damp with icy condensation, like it had been purchased out of a cooler recently.

"Oh, I forgot! For you," Hilde replied, sliding the can to Duo. It was sitting on top of a white square of paper with a message printed neatly across it. "Relena found it sitting on her desk when she came back from filing the contact information for the last Connect Three winner."

"You mean she has... no idea who left it?" Duo wondered, sounding skeptical even as he popped the can's top. It clicked and hissed crisply.

"Nope," said Hilde with a shrug. Her eyes kept darting from the can as Duo slurped at it to the square of paper still lying on the table, which he had yet to really look at. "Aren't you going to read that?" she finally asked, unable to take Duo's inability to pick up on subtleties.

Duo held up a silencing hand, his eyes closed as he took in a few deep breaths. "Wait, wait; I'm recharging my batteries," he said, sipping at the soda again. "Ahh, I can feel my dormant parts starting to wake up again."

"You're a junkie," she declared, crossing her arms and nodding as she watched the longhaired DJ pick up the paper, his large blue eyes darting back and forth as he read it from behind the can's silver rim. "What's it say?"

Duo was still looking at the paper, his face thoughtful. He was silent at first as he set down the empty can of soda, leaning back in his chair and folding his hands behind his head as he regarded the ceiling, still pensive. Then, ever so slightly, his eyes widened as he came to the conclusion of whatever the note had incited within him. He straightened up and snapped his fingers at Hilde, saying, "Cue up 'The Distance', would ya?"

Hilde twiddled one of the thick shocks of dark hair that spiked over half her forehead. "The Cake song?" she questioned dubiously even as she started going through the motions of finding the proper CD. She desperately wanted to ask Duo why he'd suddenly had the urge to play that song in particular. He usually wasn't picky about the play list so long as he wasn't spinning a tune he absolutely couldn't stand.

"Yeah, the Cake song," Duo said, sarcasm lacing his tone. "And break the set before you play it; I want to talk." He set down the piece of paper, almost immediately covering it with the can of Coke so that Hilde couldn't read it. He missed the disgruntled glare she was shooting the side of his face, though.

"Jeez, demanding today, aren't we?" Hilde huffed, feeling a little abused by Duo's almost gruff mannerisms. Still, she did as her coworker asked, deciding that even he deserved a little sympathy now and again.

Duo wasn't paying attention to anything she was doing, though; he already had the headphones over his ears and was too busy talking to really take notice. Surreptitiously, one of Hilde's hands wandered over to the Coke can, which she innocuously started to nudge off the note as casually as she could. What she saw took her a few moments to really understand, but once she figured it out, she felt her lips curl into a warm smile and she glanced over at Duo again: he really wasn't as much of an asshole as people seemed to think.

'The Distance from Sacramento, please. ~Shy,' the note read simply, printed in very neat, almost machine-like lettering. It was no wonder Duo was so willing to pull out all the plugs for this timid but creative listener - and it wasn't just because of the cola. Duo was practically a walking encyclopedia of music trivia; receiving a request that actually had him rifling through that stash of seemingly useless knowledge was clearly something the longhaired DJ would take to.

Watching Duo out of the corner of her eye once more, Hilde smirked and hoped to everything holy that this wouldn't be the last request from the shy listener. The entertainment value was too good - especially if it turned out to give Duo's blue-eyed darling a run for his money.

--

Duo's voice broke over the final notes of 'Kashmir', immediately distracting Heero from the estimates he was working on with a rather strange comment. "I've got a little something sweet here for my shyest listener," Duo said, sounding particularly pleased for some reason. "It's a bit of Cake and 'The Distance' here on 102 W-Rock."

Heero had to take a few moments to absorb what had just happened. He'd been trying to request a Cake song almost all morning but always lost his nerve at the last moment, and here Duo was playing his favourite one as if he'd known the entire time. For once, Heero felt compelled to make a comment about it and spun his chair around, already in the middle of a sentence: "Trowa, don't you think it's weird when -" He stopped when he got all the way around, though, quickly realizing that Trowa was still out to lunch.

"He's going the distance!
He's going for speed."

Heero took the moment to think as the song continued in the background. There really was no need to be so nervous about calling in, he told himself for what seemed like the millionth time. Obviously, whoever had called in the Cake song hadn't been so full of confidence either, and everything turned out fine. Besides, it wasn't like Duo was a complete stranger, either; Heero liked to think he'd been listening to W-Rock long enough to affirm that. Still, Heero also had come to realize that despite how open Duo seemed on the air, he was probably quite guarded. Heero tried not to dwell too much on that latter thought.

Another look at Trowa's empty workspace on the other side of the cubicle gave Heero's newfound resolve even more of a kick-start. His office phone sat in its normal spot near the edge of the desk, just below Heero's personal message board, where the W-Rock number was discreetly pinned in the corner. 'Just go with it,' Heero coached himself as he reached for the device and lifted the receiver off the hook. With surprisingly practiced ease, he punched in the sequence of digits and then started nervously playing with the curly cord as the dull ring signals toned in his ear.

The moments that passed as the first rings went seemed to drag on for an eternity. Heero watched the drifting galactic scenery of his screen saver up until the second ring, and then took to staring at the potted plant by the radio for the next two. On the fifth ring, he was staring at the photograph of his blond-haired, blue-eyed father, which was also pinned to the bulletin board, and just as the sixth ring was about to go, Duo answered the phone.

"Hey, you've reached 102 W-Rock!" Duo said, sounding as cool and nonchalant as ever. "This is Duo Maxwell; what's shaking?"

Despite the pep talk he'd given himself beforehand, Heero felt his throat drying up and his vocal cords incapable of speech all over again. Why was this so hard? What was it about Duo that set him apart from everybody else? Duo had just played the Cake song he'd wanted to hear; what did he ask for now? His breathing was loud and heavy and he was sure an eternity had passed already. Duo probably thought he was an idiot and it embarrassed Heero.

"Hello? Are you still there, buddy?" It was Duo's voice, right there in his ear, speaking to him - only to him! "Do you have a bad connection or something? Because every time I see this number on the caller ID -"

Why hadn't he hung up yet? More specifically, why hadn't Duo either? Heero's fingers tightened on the phone, his lips trying desperately to form the words he'd forgotten how to say. Cake still played on the radio.

"Because he's racing and pacing and plotting the course!
He's fighting and biting and riding on his horse.
He's going the distance."

Duo asked after him again: "Are you there? Because I'm just gonna..."

Suddenly, Heero felt overwhelmed with panic, not wanting to think about how he'd feel knowing that Duo had hung up on him. Before he could help himself, and not even entirely sure why, he blurted simply, his voice barely above a whisper, "Thank you."

He thought he'd heard Duo say something, but Heero didn't stay on the line long enough to know for sure. He tossed the phone back into its cradle as if it had been eating away at the flesh of his palm, leaning back in his chair and massaging the back of his stiff neck with all his fingers as a smile slowly grew on his face.

Today was a day for accomplishment.

--

"Duo?" Hilde called out tentatively, eyeing Duo with worry. "You're staring."

Distractedly, her colleague replied with a distant-sounding, "What?"

"The phone," Hilde reiterated, nodding at the device sitting directly in front of Duo. "You've been staring at it like it's some kind of heavenly artifact ever since you hung up. Who was that, anyway?"

Duo blinked, shaking his head as if he was jarring himself from a trance. "I don't know, actually," he said, flashing a wide smile in Hilde's direction, hoping it dazzled her out of asking too many questions. He wasn't sure, but he had this inkling that it was his shy listener who'd left him the can of soda. In any case, he'd had a wonderfully deep and silky voice.

Hilde reached across the table, shoving Duo aside as she reached for the phone and pulled it as close to her as the cord would allow. "Just hit redial on the caller ID," she said, bringing up the number on the tiny screen built into the phone. "Hey, check it out," she hummed as she handed the receiver to Duo. "It's from Winner Enterprises!"

"I guess that would... make sense," Duo responded slowly, figuring that it wouldn't be worth the trouble for someone who didn't work in the building to go so far out of his way just for one lousy song request. Absently, he held the phone against his ear as Hilde hit the redial button, listening to it ring twice before switching over to a welcome recording. Duo sighed and rolled his eyes, handing the phone back to Hilde; "It's just the general number. I think I need an extension to go any further - which basically means I can't."

"You know, I'm sure that Quatre Winner would love some VIP passes to the Lollapalooza fest - you know, since he's sponsoring a good bunch of it and all," Hilde said, reclining in her chair as if she hadn't heard a word of what Duo had just told her. Her fingers were locked together behind her head as she took to whistling along with 'Clint Eastwood', which was what the station was currently playing. "Maybe even a few extras that he can hand out to some select employees."

Arms crossed over his chest, Duo glared at the yellowed tips of his converse shoes. "Yeah, fat chance that he'll give one to my shy friend," he moaned with a frown. "I don't even know his name."

"Maybe you should go find out," Hilde responded smoothly. Now she was examining her pink nail polish, her thumb working at the cuticle of her index finger.

Duo's mouth was already open to retaliate, but Hilde's next throwaway comment beat him to the punch.

"Besides," she went on, turning her hand around to admire her nails from another angle, "I hear Quatre Winner is one of those friendly bosses who knows everybody who works for him."

Duo turned his stare from his shoes to Hilde, his eyebrows knotted over his pert nose. "If I didn't know better," he accused, "I'd say you were trying to set me up."

"Maybe you don't know better," she said casually.

"I hate you," he said, not for the first time, nor for the last. "I hope that grief and misfortune plagues the begotten soul of you and any babies you might happen to punch out during the course of your life."

"Thanks, Duo," she answered, obviously not in the least offended by the curse. "I'll look back on that threat one day and laugh."

She expected Duo to be back at her throat with another sharp rejoinder, but after a few long, silent seconds, she looked up and, upon seeing Duo's headphones hooked over one arm of his chair, realized she'd been addressing an empty room.

--

The Winner Enterprises offices were very open and spread out, mostly to keep employees from feeling like they were caged drones. Even Quatre Winner's personal office was visible to the rest of the workplace through a wall of tall windows next to his always open door. Still, Duo felt rather uncomfortable just wandering in as he was. The secretary in the front lobby, a woman with shining blond hair even longer than his, glanced up from her computer and peered at him from beneath her forked eyebrows enquiringly.

"I'm, uhm, here to see Mr. Winner," Duo said hesitantly, his nerves becoming even more edgy under her intense stare. Her blank, cerulean eyes were a little disarming.

"Mr. Winner has an appointment in ten minutes," the blonde informed him airily. "Can you be hasty - or are you willing to wait?"

Duo shrugged, honestly not caring. If he was going to be honest with himself, he'd admit that the reason he was here had much more to do with perhaps tracking down the shy listener as opposed to offering Quatre free concert tickets.

"If you're fast, you can probably catch him before he leaves," the secretary told him, tossing her hand in a shooing motion towards the corridor on the left side of her desk. Duo nodded and started walking that way, though he was internally panicking that the one he was looking for was somewhere at the end of the corridor on the right. He tried not to stress over it too much, though, and focused on trying to figure out how he could casually word his real enquiry without sounding like a complete sketchball.

At the end of the hall was an open space filled with about sixteen decently sized cubicles, each big enough for two people to comfortably cohabitate in. The cubicles were designed with a bit of modern flair, accented with lightly toned wood, stainless steel and squares of green and orange. Since Quatre's office was so convenient to these desks, Duo assumed that the people who worked here were ones reported directly to him.

Casually, the longhaired DJ took a stroll around the cubicles, peering into each one as he made his way over to the young CEO's office. He wasn't quite sure what he was looking for, since he really had no idea what sorts of things would signify a particular desk as that of his shy listener. By the time he got to Quatre's office, he felt even more hopeless and considered just forgetting the whole thing as he rapped softly on the doorframe. A cheerful "Come in!" rang from the inside and Duo obliged.

"Duo! I wasn't expecting you!" Quatre's already perpetually kind face brightened when he saw who his visitor was. Immediately, he dropped the pen he'd been writing with and stood up, rounding his desk eagerly so he could give his friend a hug. "Please, come and sit down for a bit," he said, offering one of the leather chairs in front of his desk to Duo. "Do you want a drink? I have Coke in the staff fridge."

"Nah, don't sweat it," Duo said, waving Quatre's offers off with a sway of one hand. "Just stopping in real fast to see if you wanted special passes to Lollapalooza. Don't want to hold up your busy day."

Quatre's large, aquamarine irises shifted upwards. "What a silly question," Quatre said, leaning against the edge of his desk. "I don't see why you had to take time out of your busy day to ask a question you already know the answer to!" He topped it off by laughing warmly at his own statement.

"Well, you never know. Maybe you wanted an extra or something," Duo said, aware that he probably sounded very distracted. He stared through the open door, watching as a tall man with long, cinnamon brown bangs passed by and entered the cubicle directly opposite the office. A tiny seed of excitement sprouted in the pit of Duo's stomach when he noticed there was a small, red boom box sitting over the other desk in the tall man's cubicle. Listening hard, he thought he heard Hilde's voice wafting softly over its little speakers.

"I think I'm all set with just two tickets," Quatre was saying, forcing Duo to pay attention to him again. "But I'll let you know if that changes, alright?"

"Sounds good," Duo replied, suddenly very eager to get out of there. He wanted to talk to the tall man, to see if maybe his voice matched up to the soft, endearing one he'd heard on the phone - and if it didn't, to enquire about the coworker who owned the radio.

For once, some higher power actually felt like complying with Duo's wishes, for at that very moment, there was another soft knock on the door, and both men looked over towards the door to see a smartly-dressed business woman with short, purple-tinted hair standing there, waiting to be admitted. "Oh, Ms. Noin, please come in," Quatre greeted her, beckoning her with one hand. An apologetic smile shifted across his face as he turned to Duo and said, "Sorry, but I'm going to have to kick you out now. Ms. Noin and I have been meaning to have this appointment for almost two weeks now."

"Don't lose sleep over it," Duo answered as placidly as he could, grinning back at his blond friend. "I'll let myself out. Ma'am," he nodded politely to the business woman as he squeezed passed her and out of the office. He lingered as unobtrusively as he could just outside until the woman entered the office and closed the door behind her before he made his way over to the tall man's work station. Knocking on the wall of the cubicle, he gave a tentative, "Excuse me?"

The tall man shot backwards from his desk in his swivel chair so he could properly see who was standing at the entrance to his cubicle. When he realized who it was, though, he blinked disbelievingly at Duo for two brief seconds before saying succinctly, "Well, I'll be goddamned."

"Really," Duo said, unsure of how he should proceed. He was seriously nervous as all hell. Despite how extroverted he seemed on the radio, Duo was actually scared to death of real people; there was a good reason as to why he'd gotten into a business that kept him very well protected behind a quite misleading social wall.

"Duo Maxwell," the tall man said in that same, incredulous tone. He shook his head, his long bangs shivering across his face as a tiny laugh crept into his voice. "What... terrible timing you have!"

"Huh?" Duo was confused as to why the man was laughing at him, as he had yet to embarrass himself.

"It's just my friend," the tall man answered, still grinning as he combed his fingers through his long bangs and attempted to push them out of his eye, though the gesture seemed useless. Nodding towards the empty desk with the radio, he continued, "He loves your radio show - keeps it on all the time."

"Oh. Tell him thanks," Duo said, feeling incredibly stupid for not being able to come up with something more intelligent.

"He just missed you too. He went off about ten minutes ago," the tall man went on, scooting back towards his desk to grab the bottle of water he'd left by his computer. "Oh man," he said, taking a long draught of water. "What he'd do if he knew you were here!"

"I don't know; what would he?" Duo said as a pang of disappointment stabbed at his gut. Seemed like this radio listener was just another excitable fan - certainly not the timid one he was looking for.

"Can't really say," answered the tall man, twisting his chair ever so slightly back and forth with the easy pivot of one foot. "He's a real... piece of work." He said that last bit with the faintest glimmer of a smirk. "Never was one for doing things the traditional way. He's always got some creatively unorthodox method of getting to whatever he wants done."

Duo hoped the eagerness that suddenly bit down on him again wasn't too glaringly obvious to the other. Perhaps he'd judged the situation too fast after all. "He wouldn't happen to like Cake, would he?" Duo asked, figuring that it was doubtful his coworker would be aware of the Coke can request.

The tall man looked amused, answering, "Chocolate, I think."

Duo rolled his eyes and rephrased himself: "No, I mean the band." There was excitement welling in his stomach now, though why he felt so happy that he was closer to finding out about this one particular listener was beyond him. Or maybe it was nervousness? He wrote that afterthought off.

A twinkle danced in one of the tall man's dark green eyes, that smirk of his overtaking the rest of his features as he said, "I'd say so."

"Really! I can't believe it!" Duo exclaimed so loudly that the woman in the next cubicle over poked her head over the partition wall to see what was amiss. Sheepishly, Duo tucked his head between his shoulders and apologized. The distraction also caused him to notice the radio again, which promptly reminded him that he'd left Hilde to fend for herself quite some time ago, and he let out a hissed curse. He really wanted to stay and wait around for the tall man's coworker to get back, even if it just meant putting a face with that haunting voice, but he knew it was impossible to risk any more time. For his own peace of mind, though, he said in parting to the tall man, "Look, could you just tell your friend when he gets back that he can request a song anytime? I'll play him anything; he's just got to say the word, alright?"

The tall man was in the middle of another long draught of water, though his eyes were still fixated on Duo. "I most certainly will," he assured him as he took the bottle away from his lips.

"Thanks, man," Duo said, winking and pointing his index finger at the other man in parting.

Figuring he'd done everything he was able to - at least for the time being - Duo shoved his hands into his back pockets and started back towards the elevators, wondering what he ought to do next, if anything at all. He was only casually watching where he was going, taking in sights around him only to promptly forget moments later, until he happened by the open door of the copy room. His feet unconsciously slowed as if he'd suddenly started mucking through a puddle of quicksand.

Standing with his back to the door was a smartly dressed young man about Duo's age with thick, chocolate brown hair. Duo would have recognized that mess of hair anywhere, even from behind; he didn't have to see the man's face to know that his unruly, shaggy bangs fell haphazardly over eyes so fathomlessly blue, there wasn't even a shade to properly describe them. Even just standing there, watching the man as he methodically went about with his Xeroxing, Duo could only stare helplessly, his ability to think rationally far overshadowed by his shameless want to come up behind the blue-eyed stranger and slide his hands into the other's front pockets as he pressed their bodies close.

Duo was still grasping for the right course of action, though anything he might have come up with would have subsequently become moot, because just then, the blue-eyed man came to the end of his chore and collected his papers. At last, he turned around, his thick eyelashes shadowing his piercing irises as he focused on the papers in his arms, which he was shuffling into a more orderly pile. He was so intent on the task, he hardly even gave notice to his surroundings as he started for the door and, incidentally, the place where Duo had become rooted to the floor. It wasn't until he'd decided he was satisfied with his packet of documents that he even checked to see what was in front of him, which was when he realized that Duo was standing there. His exotic eyes widened ever so slightly behind his wire frame glasses as he stumbled to a halt, obviously startled by the sudden discovery that Duo was blocking most of his path.

Duo was the first to gather his wits, though when he tried to move aside to accommodate the blue-eyed stranger, he found himself engaged in one of those awkward dances of simultaneous sidestepping. "Oh, jeez, I'm sorry," Duo tried to apologize as the other man tried to dart passed him, but only ended up careening into Duo's chest.

A flicker of pale cerulean swung around the circumference of the stranger's Prussian irises as he lifted his chin to meet Duo's gaze straight on. It was only for a moment, though, because the man balked and quickly looked away, taking advantage of the moment to slip around Duo and into the hall, hurrying on his way as if he was afraid to linger.

Duo didn't really mind. However brief it had been, it had still been enough to preoccupy him with the fact he'd just been staring into the deep blue eyes he'd been dreaming about for so long.

--

Heero fell into his chair, his diaphragm working double-time to keep his body properly oxygenated. The documents he'd just copied were tossed absently onto his desk as he fought to steady himself after the incident that had just occurred. "Trowa," he said after a few heart-stopping moments, "can you please explain to me what Duo Maxwell was doing in our office?" He had this sneaking feeling that the smug bastard he called his cubicle mate was a direct part of the reason.

"Oh, him," Trowa said with disinterest, as if he was commenting on that week's accounts. "He was snooping around for the person who'd called in that Cake song."

"You mean the shy listener?" Heero said dubiously, wondering how Trowa knew about it at all. Then he paused for a moment as he thought quietly to himself. "Wait, you spoke to him?" he suddenly exploded as the realization dawned up on him. "Weren't you out taking your lunch then?"

Trowa laughed, spinning around in his chair to face Heero, his arms crossed across his chest. "Yes, I did. He happened by."

Heero narrowed his eyes, watching for Trowa's reaction carefully. "What did you tell him?" he asked, his tone a bit clipped.

"Oh, nothing much," answered Trowa, whose ability to remain calm under Heero's intense stare was truly astounding. "Just that you like Cake... and his radio program - how you listen all the time."

Heero looked absolutely mortified, the colour draining from his face as he nervously fumbled for his glasses, which were tucked away in his breast pocket. "Brilliant," he moaned as he unfolded them and pushed them onto his nose, albeit with a bit of struggle. "Now he's going to think that I'm that shy listener."

Trowa tossed his head as he held his arms out on either side innocently. "Hey, what's it matter if he does?" he wanted to know. "He's aware of your existence now, right? Don't you think you could swing this to your benefit, Romeo?"

Heero's face was now so white, he could have camouflaged himself in a blizzard if he wanted to. A million responses flickered through his head, but not a single one seemed to either word his reaction properly or insult Trowa enough, so he just remained silent, his jaw hanging a bit slack as he glared.

"And hey, whether you are or not doesn't matter," Trowa was saying. "You still got an open invitation to call whenever you want - that's what he said."

"I'm not sure if I want to hug you or punch you," Heero said, his voice devoid of humour.

"Oh, punch me, please!" Trowa responded immediately, holding both his hands in the air. "It'd give me a good excuse to taunt you without feeling bad later."

Eyes narrowing a bit more, Heero frowned and said flatly, "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you like to make sport of me."

"Gotta keep myself on the ball somehow, you know," Trowa said, spinning back around to face his desk so Heero wouldn't see the extremely self-satisfied grin marking his features. He let Heero stew in that for a bit before adding, "I'm still waiting to hear a 'thank you'."

"For what?" Heero wanted to know, still completely unsure of how he felt about the situation. On the one hand, yes, he'd been handed a perfect opportunity to get closer to Duo on a silver platter, but even Heero knew that all the open doors in the universe were pointless if he was too unsure of himself to even take the first step through one of them.

Trowa, who was in the process of adding a couple extra points to his score tally, had to bite down any completely impulsive remarks and said instead, "Just make sure something comes out of my hard work. I don't just stick my neck out for just anybody."

Heero's eyes flicked up towards the ceiling as a sigh escaped his lips. "Thanks, Trowa," he said. "It's nice to know you care."

"Now, was that so hard? You're welcome." Trowa didn't have to glance at Heero's reflection in the picture frame to know that he was still glaring daggers at his back. Trowa reasoned it was worth it; Heero would owe him his soul by the end of this.

Meanwhile, Heero had decided that Trowa should at least get marks for having some vicious tenacity. He knew his friend really only meant for the best, but there was still that unsettling rush deep in his belly whenever he thought about how to proceed, even with Trowa's help. He wondered if he ought to ask his coworker for an opinion, but when he finally got to really wanting to, he found that Trowa was busy talking on the phone. "Forget it," Heero mumbled to himself, pulling the documents he'd just copied closer. Tool played on the radio, masking the otherwise dull office sounds around them.

"Hey, Heero," Trowa called over his shoulder, pressing the receiver against his shoulder. "Phone for you. Pick it up on line two."

Heero glanced at Trowa dubiously, wondering who in the world would need to talk to him specifically, when Trowa was just as capable of handling the same issues. Not really one to make a fuss, though, Heero picked up the phone and pressed the appropriate button on the keypad. A bit of muffled static resonated as he listened, followed by the sound of Trowa hanging up on his end; then Heero heard a voice, and he felt his fingers tighten unnaturally around the phone as his throat closed up.

"Hey there, caller! Can you connect three?" Duo exclaimed cheerfully into his ear.

Panic registering in his eyes, Heero fixed his gaze on Trowa, who had the nerve to actually be smirking at him. "Uhm, I just...." Heero's voice was hardly above a whisper, its tone soft even to Heero himself. He glanced nervously at Trowa again, who was making shooing motions with his hands, that stupid grin still fixed in place. "I just meant to... request a song..." he found himself saying a bit louder. "But I can try to connect three also... that is, if you want."

There was a momentary pause on W-Rock's end of the line before Duo wondered tentatively, "Shy? Is that you?"

Nothing came out of Heero's mouth when he opened it to reply, and he frantically looked to Trowa for a clue. His cubicle mate wasn't very helpful, though, sitting on the edge of his chair as he held two thumbs up over his head as he mouthed the words, 'Go Heero!' Heero quickly whipped his chair back around so he could stare at his computer screen, a passing thought about Trowa's odd breed of humour springing to mind for a second.

"It is you, isn't it?" Duo stated a bit more confidently, breaking off Heero's near-hysteria. "The one who works across from Quatre' Winner's office and keeps the red radio, right?"

"Y-Yes," Heero managed to gasp, amazed that any words came out at all.

"I suppose your friend told you what I said about calling in a song," Duo continued, for his part sounding a little hasty and excited as well. Heero wasn't quite sure what Duo was referring to, but he had a pretty good hunch that it had to do with Trowa's style of intervening. "I'll still play you anything you'd like, but before that - just for kicks - would you happen to know the answer to today's game?"

Heero balked; he hadn't even realized it was time for Connect Three; he hadn't even been listening to what the hints were! "Uhm, what were the songs today?"

"'Siva' from the Smashing Pumpkins, followed by A Perfect Circle and 'Weak and Powerless', and then Tool's 'Prison Sex'," Duo said slowly, obviously a little uncertain that just th

e bands and track names could assist his listener.

The answer came almost immediately, and Heero barely had to think before he was voicing the first connection that came to mind for the three songs. "James Iha played rhythm guitar for the Smashing Pumpkins and then joined A Perfect Circle to record their second album; the lead singer of A Perfect Circle is Maynard Keenan, former front man of Tool."

Heero didn't even have a chance to doubt if his answer was too farfetched, because Duo almost immediately let out an awestruck, "Well, shit. You didn't even weren't even breaking a sweat there, were you?"

Twin patches of rosy pink blazed on Heero's cheeks, as he self-consciously admitted a quiet, "Not really."

"Hot damn," Duo whistled, impressed. "I was expecting at least fifteen callers before someone Googled it or something. Yeah, I'll definitely play you anything you want, babe. What's your name?"

Heero somehow managed to muster enough coherency to respond with his name, his blush all the while becoming almost unbearably hot at the mention of that throwaway pet name, no matter how careless its use had been. His hands were suddenly very clammy, and he wiped his free one on his khakis.

"Heero Yuy, eh?" Duo said, testing out the way it sounded, while Heero found himself hanging almost pathetically onto each syllable as it rolled across Duo's tongue. Never in his life had he found the pronunciation of his name so wonderful to listen to. "I like that," Duo said decisively. "Now, Heero Yuy, what can I play for you? Your wish is my command."

Heero was pretty sure he was dead and that he'd come to an afterlife over which Trowa and his uncanny sense of humour reined supreme. A barrage of information assaulted and jammed his thinking process as he desperately tried to grope for the first song that came to mind, though all that he could really lend any true thought to was Duo. He was so nervous, he couldn't even get himself to just say the first song that sprang to mind and instead found himself just rattling off, 'Black, young Australian.'" Then, immediately feeling foolish for such a blunder, he threw the phone down onto the hook and sat back in his chair, gasping for air like a drowned man who'd just been dragged to shore. Clasping his hands to his chest, Heero willed himself to simply breathe normally, glad that the loud thrum of his heart pounding beneath his palms was resonating so loudly in his ears, he couldn't hear Trowa asking him what had happened.

Meanwhile, guilt was starting to tug at Trowa's conscience, and after watching Heero slump in his chair as if he was on the verge of fainting, he decided to switch tactics. Getting up, he walked over to Heero's side of the cubicle and handed Heero his bottle of water. "I'm sorry, Heero," he said, hoping it would suffice. "I guess I got a little carried away."

A pair of crisp blue eyes flicked up at Trowa. "You guess?" Heero asked sharply, though there was no real malice in his tone.

"Yeah, I...." Trowa rubbed his fingertips against the tiny hairs at the nape of his neck as his dark green eyes slid over towards Heero's boom box. "I guess it was just nice seeing you so taken with something - someone - that had nothing to do with work or anything."

The conversation seemed to be helping Heero to calm down a little. At any rate, he was glad it didn't seem like his heart was going to leap out of his chest anymore. "What do you mean by that?" he wondered.

"You're very duty-driven, I guess," Trowa answered with a shrug. "You do things because you have to, not because you want to. But Duo... you want Duo, right?" He tilted his head in the direction of the radio, smiling faintly.

"It's a stupid whim - just a fantasy," Heero answered. Wrapping his arms around his wais, he rocked back and forth slightly. "You act like I'd actually have a chance."

Lifting a hand, Trowa gestured emphatically as he said, "But that's just the thing! Now you do." He scratched the side of his head and turned around to retrieve his chair, which he wheeled over to Heero's side of the cubicle before sitting back down in it. "Take it from someone who knows, man, sometimes all it takes is a little dedication," he went on, leaning on one thigh with a crooked elbow. "No one ever got anything by letting life happen to them. You're bound to get it if you want it bad enough. Some people call it luck; I call it tenacity."

"But I barely know him," Heero protested, still a little unsure about approaching things Trowa's way. "I only see him around sometimes. It doesn't make me special."

"You don't give yourself nearly enough credit," Trowa said flatly, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms now. "I somehow doubt he'll forget you now, at least. You have to start somewhere, right?"

"Trowa, stuttering on the phone because your coworker" - here, he glared pointedly at Trowa - "set you up unexpectedly is not the same as making an impression on someone."

"So you say," Trowa countered easily, clearly not buying Heero's argument.

A heavy sigh escaped Heero's lips, and Trowa arched his eyebrows enquiringly at him. The verbal stalemate between to two continued as Duo chattered animatedly on the radio nearby.

"And congratulations to Heero Yuy for nailing today's round of Connect Three," Duo said, drawing the attention of both Winner Enterprises employees. "First caller, first guess; you people should take a page out of my buddy's book here, I'm telling you."

Trowa chose that moment to tweak the corner of his mouth up into a smirk that very obviously said, 'I told you so.'

"Anyway, my boy Heero wanted to hear a song, so I hope this delivers!" Duo went on as the rhythmic beats of 'Back in Black' started up beneath his voice. "Enjoy it, slick! You deserve it!" Then the song's famous guitar riffs exploded over the speakers, and Heero sat back, amazed.

The smug expression didn't disappear from Trowa's face, even as he started to scoot his chair back towards his desk. "You look surprised," he commented.

"I can't believe it," was all Heero could say, his entire posture still rather tense.

"Can't believe what?" Trowa wanted to know. "That he wants to please you?" The gleam in his eye signified what he was really trying to imply.

The overture was not lost on Heero. "No," he emphasized, sounding a bit frustrated. "I mean that I can't believe he figured out what song I'd wanted him to play from my rambling. I hardly made any sense at all."

By this point, Trowa had gotten back to work and was now only casually carrying on the conversation with Heero. "How do you mean?"

Feeling the irrepressible urge to explain, Heero found himself rushing to fill Trowa in, if only for his own peace of mind. "Even when he was asking me what I wanted to hear, the only thing I could think of was him," Heero said hastily. "His favourite song - the song he says is his theme song - is 'Back in Black', but all I could get out was the black part. And then I was rushing to the band, but I was so nervous and so backwards, I only got out Angus Young's last name and Australia, which is where AC/DC is from." Heero was speaking so fast, he was starting to lose colour in his skin from lack of oxygen.

"Whoa, slow down there, cowboy," Trowa said, waving a hand in Heero's general direction, though he didn't turn around to face his Japanese coworker. "I'm sure it's not as bad as you think. Maybe he thought you were just trying to riddle him back - a bit of playful trivia."

Whatever Heero had been about to say was pushed aside by Trowa's offhanded comment. "You... think he might?" That was a gleam of brightness on an otherwise dull prospect. "He would like something like that," Heero mused thoughtfully, as he removed his glasses to polish the lenses.

"You know," Trowa went on, "it's been my personal experience that half the time a person worries about something, usually it's something that only that person notices. Don't worry unless you have to, that's my motto. You're giving up before you get started."

Trowa certainly did have a way with sounding reasonable, but even still, Heero wasn't so sure. "Easy for you to be such an optimist, Mr. Third Party," he said, still feeling a bit deflated. He sighed and leaned back, pushing his glasses back on with one finger. "I guess I'm just upset I've ruined any chances of making a good first impression."

"For all you know, you already did," Trowa chuckled to himself, deciding that he better just leave it for a bit. Heero was clever; he would figure it out on his own eventually, anyway.

Heero leaned on his desk, idly going through the motions of checking his e-mail as he thought about what Trowa had said. Perhaps it was time to think about this in a new way.

--

Hilde checked over her shoulder again, and then peered back down the hall ahead of her, just to make sure it really was empty. Then, leaning in over Relena's desk, she whispered, "I'm telling you, he's got it bad. Completely smitten."

Relena pressed her chin into the palm of her hand as she took in the information with wide eyes, practically hanging on every word Hilde said as if it was holy. "Are you for serious?" she gaped, shaking her head in disbelief. Her long, beady earrings jangled beneath her honey gold hair.

"I kid you not!" Hilde said, thwapping the desktop with one hand. "Our very own Duo Maxwell, the infamous Devil DJ, is head over heels with this one listener." Hilde took another cursory glance around the area to make sure no one had crept up on them. "He's only called in a few times, and I think they've only really had one, maybe two conversations, but you'd have to be idiotic if you couldn't tell he fell hard and fast."

"He?" Relena was even more intrigued now.

"Well, you know how Duo rolls," Hilde said, and Relena merely nodded with understanding. "Call it a woman's intuition, but this isn't just a passing thing. I think this guy might possibly be even more of a music geek than Duo is."

"That's a feat in and of itself," Relena replied, her lips round with awe. A rustling sound from down the hall caused both of them to suddenly snap their heads in that direction, and they only relaxed when they realized it was just Wufei wandering to his office with a fresh cup of coffee. Certain they were alone again, Relena redirected her attention to Hilde and she started turning her hand in a circular motion. "Well, come on," she pressed. "Details!"

"He had the conversation on speaker phone, so I heard the whole thing," Hilde said, quelling the excited secretary with a sharp wave. "You know that shy listener who left the can of Coke?"

"Get out! It was him!?" Relena exclaimed, not realizing that she'd been just a bit too loud until it was too late. She turned red with embarrassment and tucked her head into her shoulders sheepishly as if it would help hide her if someone came wandering by to see what the commotion was about.

"I'm not even lying," Hilde assured her, glancing about, worried that Duo might have heard. "It was the cutest thing; he had to be the most flustered soul I've ever heard in my life." She grinned stupidly, an excited light gleaming in her eyes. "I'd even venture to say Duo's not the only one head over heels in this situation."

Relena stared at Hilde, still awestricken at the things the shorthaired woman was telling her. "You're shooting the bull, aren't you?" she said, batting Hilde's arm playfully. "You are! Duo doesn't get crushes. He's too worried about not knowing what to do and messing up."

Holding up a finger, Hilde made a small noise in the back of her throat that sounded a bit like a suppressed chuckle. "Uh, can I remind you of Blue Eyes?" she pointed out. "He still gets a bit starry-eyed when he plays stuff like 'Hey, Johnny Park!' or something."

"Well, what's he going to do about it?" Relena asked. She snapped her fingers impatiently. "Enquiring minds want to know!"

Hilde rolled her eyes hopelessly. "Absolutely nothing," she lamented, shaking her head. "He'll let it rule his mind, but fuck if - sorry - if he gets off his butt to do anything about it."

Still supporting her chin in her hand, Relena shook her head too. "Is it really that obvious?"

"Well, maybe not to some random calling in for Lollapalooza tickets, or even most regular listeners," Hilde said with a shrug. "But to anybody who really has a sense of the guy, heck yes! I mean, even just the way he eagerly answers the phone every time it rings, as if he's half expecting it to be Mr. Shy makes it plain enough."

"Wow," Relena hummed, completely lost on what to say next.

A Lollapalooza promo played over the speakers that were softly pumping the radio station's frequency into the main lobby Relena's desk overlooked. At this, Hilde straightened, cracking her back and swinging her arms. "That's my cue to get back in there," she told Relena, sounding reluctant to get back to her job. "Quarter hourly traffic report coming up and all."

"Enquiring minds!" Relena reminded her friend as she backed off down the hall in the direction of the studio. Smiling, she turned back to her computer and continued with the reorganization of the station's records she'd been working on before Hilde had interrupted her - not that she minded much, since she was always up for a little gossip. And gossip about Duo always proved to be enjoyable, particularly the juicy tidbits Hilde tended to come up with.

No sooner had Relena gotten back to her task, though, before Hilde came bursting back into her desk area. Relena was about to ask what Hilde was so darn frantic about, but the shorthaired woman hastily pressed her index finger to her lips, her eyes wide. Then she gestured for Relena to follow her back to the studio before hurrying back the way she'd come.

It hardly took Relena a few seconds to abandon her post to tail Hilde down the hall. Hilde led Relena to a smaller studio and sat Relena down in the large chair behind the mic. There was a glass pane that separated the little room they were in from the main studio, where Duo was leaning over the phone switchboard, oblivious the world around him. "Get a load of this," Hilde said conspiratorially, handing Relena a pair of headphones and flipping a switch that fed the conversation in the main studio right into Relena's ears. Hilde put on a spare set of headphones as well and plugged them into the secondary output jack.

"I know it's way early," they heard Duo say into the phone, all the while spying on him through the window. "But I was just wondering if you could nail today's Connect Three... I mean, since you can't call in and win again so soon. Off air, no strings - just for me."

There was a momentary pause, and then a delightfully low voice whispered back, "Alright, I'll try."

"That's my man!" Duo said happily, pounding one fist into his open palm. "Okay, the songs today are 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' from Nirvana, Pearl Jam's 'Alive' and Alice in Chains, 'No Excuses'."

Almost immediately, the listener was musing, "Well, they're all Seattle grunge bands...." Relena thought the caller had an unmistakable air of mystery in that deep purr of his, and she could definitely see how he had Duo all strung up.

"Oh come on, Heero! Less obvious!" Duo coached with a laugh, twirling a good section of his braid around like a windmill as he sat back in his chair, kicking his brown cowboy boots up onto the table.

"Hmm," the Heero hummed thoughtfully.

There was another momentary pause, and then a gasp of realization rasping over the speakers, which caused Duo to snap up, alert with excitement that his 'friend' might have figured him out. His boots hit the floor loudly "You have it?" he asked, drumming his fingertips against his thighs, for all the world looking like a fervent schoolboy.

"I think so," murmured Heero, sounding a tad doubtful of his knowledge. "April 5th is a significant date for all three bands: both Layne Staley and Kurt Cobain died that day, though a few years apart, and it's also the birthday of Pearl Jam's Mike McCready. 1965 or '66, I think."

Duo clapped and let out a wild whoop of joy. "Oh snap! Damn, boy, I think I love you!" he gushed, the captivated expression on his face causing both Hilde and Relena to exchange significant glances in their hiding place. "How'd you get so good at that?"

The prolonged silences that came before the speaker's words were getting to be regular; it was as if he was afraid to word his response wrong. "I have a strange memory for trivia, I suppose," Heero said at last, his soft tone still slow and careful. "But I think the interest came from... listening to you every afternoon." He spilled the last part out quickly, unsure if he wanted Duo to know that bit of information or not.

For the first time, Duo appeared flabbergasted to a point of incoherency. "Me?" was all the longhaired DJ was able to get out, dropping his thick braid and allowing it to swing limply over the arm of his chair.

"Yeah." The answer came without a wait this time, but it was hardly above a whisper. Hilde jacked up the volume on the sound system she and Relena were plugged into. "I guess you could say you sparked my interest."

Relena wasn't sure if she was making it up, but she was fairly certain there was a faint, pinkish tint rouging Duo's round cheeks. He scratched behind his ear with an almost bashful air, replying, "Well, gee, I'd have to say I'm sort of flattered, man. No one's ever said something like that to me before."

"Well," Heero answered, sounding fairly sheepish himself, "perhaps you just inspire it in people."

"Nah," Duo wrote it off with a jerky toss of his hand, though he was still smiling. "I'm just the wacky afternoon DJ who calls everybody 'Dude!' and says the government's a joke. I'm no one special."

Though Heero was quiet again for a few seconds, his breathing was still audible over the speaker. "How can you say that about yourself?" he asked at length, completely unaware of the bewildered expression etched into Duo's face. "I think you are."

Duo chuckled lightly. "And I think you're giving me way too much credit, man."

Despite the casual air, both Hilde and Relena thought that Duo had been affected by the comment, even just judging by the easy way he was shooing the conversation along. Already being aware of Duo's unmistakable interest in the caller with the soothing voice, it was plain to see that he was just trying to play it off. It was possible that Duo was maybe even shyer than his shy listener.

"How I think of you is something only for me to decide," Heero countered softly, his voice sodden with the truthful weight of his statement. "You must not understand: I used to listen to the radio casually a lot; I gave up on it after a while - found too many commercials and disc jockeys bored with the job, uninspired by what they were doing," he went on, taking on a more frank, serious tone. "But you... I knew right from the first moment that you had a passion like so few people have in anything at all. You love music; you love the art of it, the stories, the blood and sweat that goes into a truly good song. It's contagious, Duo; you're contagious."

Relena gripped the arms of the chair she was sitting in and Hilde had her arms wrapped around its tall back as both women watched Duo's carefully constructed defenses slowly crumble with each word Heero said. They'd seen Duo carefree and always ready with a rip-roaring punch line, but never before had Duo ever come so undone like this. "So this is what Duo Maxwell is like when he's alone," Hilde said to no one in particular, though Relena was nodding in agreement. There was something strangely moving about the sight.

Duo snorted, obviously trying very hard to collect himself again, though it was just as apparent it was very difficult. "Heh, passion, you say. I'm just another loser staking it out behind the music, that's all. Nothing extraordinary about it - unless you thinking running and hiding is something worth noting."

"That's complete bullshit!" Heero retorted with unexpected enthusiasm. He took a couple of seconds to regain his composure, and when he started speaking again, his voice was back to that usual, throaty whisper, though it was clear he was fighting to keep himself schooled. "If it was really as simple as all that, you'd have picked a dull job that kept you buried in a cubicle," he said, sounding almost choked. "You wouldn't be able to keep my dull workday lively - to make ripped jeans and long hair seem cool again, or tell me which Beatles song Eric Clapton played guitar in- "

"'While My Guitar Gently Weeps', 1968," Duo answered automatically.

" - or the song that gave the Goo Goo Dolls their first platinum album -"

"'Name', off of 'A Boy Named Goo', 1995," Duo cut in again. Shaking his head as if trying to orient himself again, he gasped, "What's your point?" He seemed to be struggling to find his voice, uneasy about feeling so vulnerable.

The answer was still hushed, but it had a solemn ring to it. "What I mean to say is that no one would throw himself so completely into something he didn't feel in his heart, Duo."

Duo was leaning on the countertop that supported all the broadcasting equipment, the phone sitting between his elbows and his braid now coiled reassuringly around one hand. His head hung low between his shoulders, making it impossible for either Hilde or Relena to catch exactly what the expression on his face was like. "No one has ever spoken to me like that," he whispered with a touch of melancholy. "No one says my name quite like...." His entire body quivered as he spoke, his voice shivering as it trailed off into nothingness.

"No one else," Heero repeated more firmly this time. He was blissfully unaware of what his words were doing to Duo's composure.

"I'm really no more special than the next guy," Duo was adamant upon insisting. He pulled his braid even more tightly around his hand; its woven lumps dug into his flesh.

"I told you that wasn't something for you to decide!" Heero said, sounding far more confident than ever. "I look forward to your program every day. I'd do anything just to hear your voice... every day...."

Duo's heart felt constricted and seemed to have leapt up and lodged itself in his throat. It was an altogether encompassing yet unfathomable emotion. "Heero...."

"I fell in love with the songs you play," continued Heero, his pace beginning to falter a little as his words slowed. "I fell in love with..."

"I just talk a lot, okay! I talk a lot about the same old nothing bullshit!" Duo interrupted skittishly, much to Hilde and Relena's dismay. "I'm a loser motor mouth who idolizes Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain and barely did well enough growing up to even get by. You talk like I salvaged your monotonous life," he said halfheartedly; "But all I do is queue up song requests and the same old play lists day after day while I complain about how much my life sucks in between." His hands were pressed behind his neck now, pushing his head down so it was parallel with the tabletop beneath his curved torso. "My life sucks, Heero. No one gave a fuck what I had to say when I was fifteen; why the hell should that change now?"

A weighted silence thickened the air. After a few moments of tattered breathing, Heero spoke again. "I can't tell you how to feel, Duo, but similarly, you can't know the way I do, either." He gave the statement a bit of time to sink in before finishing, "You can play me a song, and you can think how happy it would make me - how happy it makes all the callers you get every day."

Duo's tense, drooping posture morphed a bit, his shoulders perking up as he lifted his head. His braid swung from his fisted grip, resuming its usual place down the length of his spine. As if he was having an epiphany, he said, "I can do that." Head bobbing up and down with a nod of affirmation, he proclaimed in a more self-assured voice, "I can play anything for you."

A noise like a smug snort or swallowed chuckle came muffled across the speakerphone. "I want one of the hits off the record that was jamming at the top of the UK charts for 56 straight weeks in 1976."

And with that mysterious request, Heero hung up the phone, and Duo slumped back in his chair, staring absently at the ceiling. He had no words to describe what had just transpired between him and shy Heero during that conversation, but he knew it was significant. Having confirmed this fact to himself, satisfied with that much for the time being, he leaned forward and, flipping a switch on the broadcasting equipment, said into the microphone, "You two rats can crawl out of your hole now." He spun around in his chair and set his wide blue eyes on Hilde and Relena, who he could see through the glass window they'd been spying through on him from behind. He arched an eyebrow at Hilde's pissed off reaction, but said nothing else as he watched them slink out of the small studio.

Moments later, Relena was returning to her post at the front desk and Hilde was creeping back into the main studio, hoping Duo had elected to give her the silent treatment instead of chewing her out, as she wasn't sure she could quite weather the Maxwell storm at the moment. While this didn't quite turn out to be the case, she was lucky Duo wasn't in the mood for yelling either.

"What do you think?" he asked, somehow knowing that she was in the room with him again. They were on commercial break and had some time to talk.

Hilde decided that this was a situation that called for a little honesty. She liked to think she'd worked with Duo long enough to read the times when dealing with him required sarcasm or sincerity. "I think he's not so different from you, even if it seems otherwise," he said, though she couldn't help but add that she also thought Duo needed to work on his self-esteem and then suggested he play a little Offspring after the break.

Unfortunately for Hilde, this was a Duo she'd never had to handle before, and her estimations of his mood were completely off base. "No, you twit!" he snapped a bit unkindly. "I meant about the song! What's he want?"

"Well, Duo," Hilde said, remaining firmly where she stood and crossing her arms, "isn't that something you're more apt to figure out than me? He asked you."

Duo grinned snidely at her and then turned his chair around so the only thing distracting him was the microphone hovering inches from his lips and the blinking lights on the electrical equipment in front of him. "What song, what song?" he kept repeating to himself, his index finger tapping methodically on the countertop. Suddenly, he straightened, his fingers clicking together as his mind finally landed on the proper piece of information. "It's a Marley song," he said to himself as if he was trying to egg himself on. He let out a groan almost immediately though, snapping his head forward and then swearing under his breath when he knocked his forehead against the mic. "God, but which one?" he complained. "There were like four hit singles off that album!"

Tentatively, Hilde approached the chair where Duo sat, quietly taking her spot in the chair in front of the mic next to his. "Maybe I can help," she offered feebly, though she knew that was very unlikely. "What did he ask for again?"

"A hit off the album jammin' at the top of the UK charts in '76," he repeated, sounding just as lame. "Heh, jammin' - what a way to phrase it...." He trailed off and then stopped completely. "Dammit, I'm stupid!" he suddenly exclaimed, his melancholy almost completely reversed in mere seconds. "We're jammin'! And I hope you like jammin' too!" he sang, giving his chair a hearty push away from the counter and sending it rolling over towards the massive collection of CDs that filled the shelves nearby.

With Duo's back towards her again, Hilde felt safe to grin shamelessly as she thought unabashedly, 'Somehow, Duo, I feel like he does - he really does.'

--

By six o'clock, when the evening host replaced Duo on the air, the longhaired DJ was more than ready to get home, and at seven, when he was finally able to leave, he felt like he was walking on air. Ever since Heero had called that day, Duo had been ridiculously distracted, unable to really concentrate on much, since he almost always found his thoughts wandering back to the shy listener. He wasn't sure how to explain what he felt whenever this happened, but he was sure that he was warming to Heero, far fetched as it seemed. Still, stranger things had happened.

He couldn't even really say he had a problem with it, though, he thought as he walked towards the elevators, pointedly ignoring Relena as her knowing grin tracked his movement through the front lobby. Nothing was impossible, he reminded himself as the elevator doors slid closed in front of him - just highly improbable.

It was a disgustingly hot summer day outside, and Duo wrinkled his nose with distaste and rolled up the sleeves of his burgundy Blood Sugar Sex Magik tee shirt to combat the sweltering heat. He cursed the city's public transportation system as he started on his fifteen-minute trudge to the nearest Metro station, and when he took a break from that, he went on to curse the assholes who made in-town traffic thick and gas prices high, which was the main reason he didn't bother driving in to work every day. His old woody probably wouldn't hold up against all the stop and go traffic anyway.

He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw there weren't too many people waiting on the platform for the train to come. He supposed that there were certain benefits to getting off work on the tail end of rush hour, even if it meant the trains would be a little less frequent. Fortunately, he seemed to have timed his arrival at the Metro station just perfectly for a train that was estimated to arrive in the next two minutes according to the electronic notice board hanging nearby.

Despite the heat warming the above ground station, the wait seemed to sail right by, and before Duo knew it, he was gratefully stepping on board one of the brown and white train cars. He found a seat on a red-cushioned bench by one of the large windows and leaned the side of his forehead against the glass tiredly as the train chimed its doors closing warning.

It was standard for most subway systems to close the doors about thirty seconds before the train was actually supposed to leave, since there was almost always someone diving on board at the very last minute. Of course today was no exception. Duo perked up and craned his neck to see just such a commuter when he heard a strikingly familiar deep voice shouting, 'Wait, wait!', accompanied by the loud slap of sneakers against the station's tile floor and the click-click of a bicycle that was being pushed alongside its rider. Had that been Heero? It sounded like him, at any rate.

Duo didn't actually get a good look at the latecomer until he boarded the car Duo was sitting in with his navy blue bicycle. When he did, though, Duo felt his heart bounce up into his skull, where it continued to pound and thump very loudly as he watched his blue-eyed crush sit down on one of the benches facing his on the other side, supporting the bike by the handlebars with one fingerless gloved hand. The blue-eyed stranger was no longer sporting the crisp attire he'd been wearing around the office, but instead wore a pair of black spandex, an olive green tank top and a pair of sneakers, revealing a pleasingly well-toned body. Leaning against one well-shaped thigh was a small backpack with a tan bike helmet hooked through its top loop, which Blue Eyes was currently digging through. He was a bit damp with sweat and was still recuperating from his last-minute sprint to the train, but Duo thought breathlessness suited him. All the while supporting his bike, Blue Eyes somehow managed to simultaneously push his reading glasses onto his nose and crack open the book he'd fished out of his bag - Scar Tissue, the autobiography written by Anthony Kiedis, Duo was pleased to note.

But he didn't want to stare! Duo quickly averted his eyes towards the window to his right on the pretense of watching the outside scenery shoot by while he could, since the train would be heading underground soon. The familiar landscape wasn't Duo's main focus, though, but rather the pale reflection of the blue-eyed biker reading on the opposite side of the carriage. Duo's lips spread into a private grin as he recounted what a lucky, good day it had been.

Duo was so busy making sure he was being discreet about checking out the other passenger that he didn't realize that Blue Eyes had barely looked at his book since he'd opened it and had instead taken a keen interest in staring at the longhaired DJ. He seemed to be in the middle of an internal debate himself, as if he wasn't sure if he should engage Duo in conversation or not.

The time for rationalizing those sorts of things was quickly severed short when the train suddenly lurched to a random halt in the middle of the track. Startled, Blue Eyes lost his grip on his bicycle, and it started rolling down the aisle, teetering dangerously without a rider to balance it.

Reacting quickly, Duo shout off his bench and quickly grabbed the bike just as it was wobbling passed his bench. He offered Blue Eyes a crooked smile and wordlessly rolled it back towards its owner, almost falling over as the train jolted back into motion again. At least it saved him the disgrace of opening his mouth and sounding like a complete idiot.

Blue Eyes reached out to reclaim possession of the bike, his fathomless eyes flicked up above the wire rims of his glasses as he whispered softly, "Thank you, Duo."

The blood froze in Duo's veins when he heard the words pass those beautifully plush lips. "...Heero? It's really you?" he wondered aloud. "You're Heero Yuy?" He felt struck with the urge to both cry and fall to the floor at the same time.

"Yeah," Heero said, his eyes flicked back down to his lap nervously as he removed his glasses and folded them up. "Talk about a coincidence."

"You have no idea," Duo managed to gasp. He realized he was still holding onto Heero's bike and quickly let go, his stray hands groping mindlessly for one of the nearby poles. He then realized that Heero was staring at him, and he felt an acute blush far hotter than the weather outside rush across his face. "So... so...." It was amazing to him that he was paid to be witty on the spot, and yet now he was completely lost for words. "So you bike to Winner Enterprises every day?" he finally blurted, nodding towards the bike. "Where do you live?"

Heero had the decency to chuckle a little, though Duo didn't know Heero was busy trying to mask nervousness of his own. "Yes," he assented. "I live in a townhouse in Georgetown and I don't own a car, so I just ride to the Dupont Circle Metro station. It's good exercise, anyway."

Duo hoped the appraising look he just scanned Heero with wasn't too obvious as he managed to sputter, "Well, it certainly seems to have a ton of payoff."

"I think most things do," answered Heero, a rather ambiguous smile tweaking his lips. Duo tried hard not to read too much into it, though he sorely wished that it was a sign Heero was being coy.

Thank you, by the way," Heero went on, closing his book and dropping it back into his backpack. "For playing 'Jammin'' for me today. You're two for two."

"So are you," Duo grinned, glad for the distracting change in topic. "Got any more guessing game requests squirreled away? Lay one on me! It'll be the first song I play tomorrow, I promise!"

Heero's face became completely unreadable then, his deep blue eyes fixated so intently on Duo, it seemed as if he was assessing the request on a very personal level. "Alright," he said at last, the fingers of his one hand clamping down a bit more tightly on the handlebars of his bicycle as he thought on his request for a bit before speaking. "I want a love song fit to be a gift."

Duo felt his stomach twist itself into a tight knot but did a good job of keeping the reaction hidden. Was Heero asking for a love song because he was trying to drop a hint? It just seemed like something he'd do, since he'd already proven to prefer being roundabout when it came to personal things like that. He swallowed the notion though, fighting very hard to gear himself into thinking that it was just another one of Heero's cleverly worded clues. "You enjoy making me work for this, don't you?" he managed to say, his voice sounding parched even to his own ears.

"Well enough," Heero said, a smirk that was nothing less than sly crossing his features. It was in that moment that Duo realized that the answer to this one wasn't going to be so simple, though as he was about to open his mouth and make another probing query, Heero held up a hand and silenced him by saying, "No need to consult me on it. Just play the song tomorrow." His smirk intensified as he finished, "That is the game, isn't it?"

Duo turned his head slightly, regarding Heero carefully out of the corners of his eyes. "I don't know; is it?" he asked. Then he added flatly, "There's a catch, isn't there? I can feel it in my gut."

"Possibly," Heero answered with an unhelpful shrug. "It's only as hard as you want it to be - a challenge of sorts. Call it a Connect Three of my own."

Now that was interesting, Duo thought, though he kept it to himself. He wondered if Heero had planned this from the beginning and then lauded his shy listener for being so clever. At the moment, he couldn't quite figure out how Bob Marley was related to AC/DC, but he was sure that as soon as he figured out this third song, he'd have the clue that brought it all together. A devilish grin of excitement seeded itself on Duo's face and he rubbed his hands together mirthfully; this would be fun. "What do I win when I get it?" he asked.

"I'd say you -" Heero immediately cut himself before he blurted something prematurely. "Well, let's worry about that when you figure it out," he said instead, averting his lovely eyes towards the window, which was much to Duo's dismay, as he'd sort of liked the way he'd shiver when Heero was focusing on him. "For all I know, it's not even something you'd be interested in," he said, sounding a little melancholy at the notion.

"How do you know that?" Duo begged to differ. "Everybody likes free stuff. Who am I to say no to a DVD box set?"

Heero's gaze flicked back to Duo long enough for him to say with a note of sarcasm, "Would you accept a 'Sex and the City' box set, even if it was free?"

Duo was appalled that the suggestion had even tumbled out of Heero's mouth. "Hell, no!" he assured the Japanese man. "Are you saying that's what I get?"

That faint glimmer of a smile returned to Heero's face as he shook his head. "Definitely not," he said, pushing a thick lock of shaggy brown hair behind one ear, "but I'm just saying that maybe it's not always about the free DVD box set, that's all."

Now Duo was just plain old curious. "Better than free DVDs, huh?" he mused, stroking his chin contemplatively. "Damn, it's probably got to be the best prize on the planet, huh?"

Heero refused to say anymore on the matter and merely tossed his shoulders in response. Duo repressed a sigh and decided he might as well take the opportunity to get to know his blue-eyed angel a little bit better. He couldn't believe his dumb luck that the two people who fascinated him the most turned out to be one and the same. It was almost too good to be true; Duo decided it was best not to get his hopes too high in preparation for when the other shoe decided to drop. For all he knew, Heero was taken - or straight - or would somehow shatter his heart even more completely than he already had.

Though Heero had already proved himself to be an interesting person from their brief chats on the phone, his sweet nature really came through as the pair chatted amiably, ignorant of everybody else on the train. They talked about stupid things like favourite colours - Heero's was sky blue - and then progressed to a witty debate over who the best guitarist of all time was. Heero was fierce that the title belonged to Hendrix; he thought 'Little Wing' was one of the best songs ever, even above some of Hendrix's other, more famous hits, and Duo couldn't help but agree with that point. Especially since he thought the song was quite reminiscent of Heero himself, he thought privately.

They were so involved in conversation, Duo almost missed the announcement for his stop as the train pulled into the station. Reluctantly, Duo had to cut the discussion short, saying, "Man, this is me." He jerked his thumb in the direction of the train doors just as they slid open to allow passengers to disembark.

Heero nodded with understanding and replied, "It was quite a treat meeting you in person. It's something I've always wanted." He smiled serenely up at Duo, and before the longhaired DJ realized it, had reached out suddenly to grab one of Duo's hands in his, giving it a firm shake. "Don't forget my song," he added, meeting Duo's wide blue eyes. "And if you want to connect three, I'll be by the vending machines at six."

It felt like all the blood in Duo's body was rushing to the fingertips of the hand that was clasped in Heero's. Not a single description in Duo's repertoire could adequately describe how he felt right then, as if his heart might implode from fear and joy at the exact same time. "I will," he promised, giving Heero's hand an affirmative squeeze when he finally regained the coherency to respond properly. His skin still tingled when he pulled his hand away. "And don't you forget my prize!" Duo called over his shoulder as he shuffled quickly to the train doors, hurrying to get out before they closed again.

Heero didn't say anything, but the parting expression he left lingering upon Duo as he stepped back onto the platform was answer enough. He stood dumbly in the ill lit station as the train pulled away, the memory of Heero's palm against his still prickling his flesh and the erratic quivering in his stomach at the mere thought of those blue eyes sweeping across him still fresh.

Stepping backwards towards the escalator, Duo's attention was still fixated on the train's red taillights, which glowed like twin suns as it disappeared into the subway tunnel. And as he stumbled with clumsier feet than he remembered having, he couldn't help but wish how he would much rather be going home to those beautiful midnight blue eyes, instead of saying goodbye.

--

"Well, you certainly look self-satisfied," Quatre said, leaning into the cubicle Trowa shared with Heero. He fiddled with his gold pocket watch, which was cupped in his free hand, flipping the shiny lid open and then clicking it shut again over and over.

Trowa spun around to face the blond CEO, the surprised look on his face possibly even more apparent than the time that Duo had wandered by. He was alone in the small office space; a car commercial played on the radio in the background over Heero's empty desk. "Why would you say that?" he wondered, a little unsure of what Quatre was even doing there, despite the fact that it was, after all, his company.

"It's just the look on your face, that's all," Quatre said with an innocent shrug, his large eyes flicking up from the distraction of his watch. "What have you been up to?"

"You could say it's a personal project of mine," Trowa replied, neatly lacing his fingers across his chest. Quatre found his attention rather drawn to the contrast of Trowa's flesh to his dark blue tie.

"Really?" Quatre was intrigued, snapping his watch closed with a note of finality and dropping it back into his vest pocket as he leaned casually against the cubicle's wall. "Please tell me about it," he asked, his brow knit with curiosity. "I like to get an idea of what my employees take an interest to. Especially the ones I work closely with."

At this, Trowa seemed a bit hesitant. It wasn't that he thought Quatre would have a problem with the meddling he done with Heero, but he wasn't quite sure if it would be fair to Heero to go broadcasting it. The poor man was unsure enough about his feelings for Duo, even with just Trowa egging him along. Besides, there was always that risk of overdoing it one ran when inviting another cook into the kitchen. After a bit of internal debate, Trowa found himself returning Quatre an ambiguous explanation, deciding it would be enough to suffice. "It's complicated," was what he said, hoping that it didn't seem too abrupt. Personally, he wasn't keen on falling into Quatre's bad graces, even for Heero's sake.

"Complicated?" Quatre wondered. Of course he wasn't about to just settle for an answer like that, something Trowa should have probably guessed. "I promise I'll try my best to understand if you tell me," he prodded.

"Haven't you ever heard of curiosity killing the cat?" Trowa asked stretching his arms over his head and then folding them behind his neck to form a kind of pseudo pillow. He lounged a little in his chair, assuming a more relaxed position.

"Of course. Fortunately, I'm not of feline descent," Quatre rejoined, his eyes quickly raking down Trowa's long form as he added a personal thought about the green-eyed man's rather cat-like charm. "Just give me the gist of it? Please?"

Trowa figured that part of what had made Quatre so successful had to be that unassuming way he had of needling other people to his way of thinking, gently scooting people to his side of the fence in the most innocuous way possible. Deciding not to fight it, he gave in and grudged a little more information: "Just giving quiet Heero a little helping hand with some personal complexities, that's all."

"Really! So it's that sort of project!" Quatre's eyes widened with excitement, a haphazard grin in place. "You've got to tell me how that's going! I've always wished someone would help give him a little push in the right direction. He's such a nice guy, really."

Here was where Trowa decided to draw the line for the time being. "It remains to be seen. It's all in his hands now; I did my bit," he answered, his uninformative reply coming much to Quatre's personal frustration.

"Well," Quatre hummed thoughtfully, tapping his chin as he drew his gaze upwards. "Maybe if we carried this discussion on in a more private venue? Somewhere that's not really work-related." He blinked, and then his sea foam green eyes were locked with Trowa's deep emerald ones again. "Would that yield a more fruitful conversation?"

"It might," Trowa croaked, his throat suddenly a bit dry, and a direct empathy with Heero's nervousness overcoming him. "What are you suggesting?"

"That remains to be seen," Quatre answered, his grin becoming a bit smug. "I have an extra VIP pass to Lollapalooza. Maybe you'd like it. We could grab lunch on our way to the concert and you could tell me all about it there with no one to bother us. But, of course," he added, a knowing chuckle lacing his words now, "it's all in your hands."

Trowa's arms fell limp at his side, and for once, he didn't have a witty comment to fling back immediately. There were so many subtleties in what Quatre had said and he had no idea what nuances he ought to be receptive to. When his answer finally came, it was pieced together very carefully, direct yet completely unassuming. "I haven't gotten to fifty yet," he said, gesturing to the green post-it pasted to his computer screen.

At this, Quatre doubled over with laughter. "You think this is a matter of just points?" he managed to gasp, gripping the cubicle wall for support lest he topple over. "I can assure you going to Lollapalooza with me has nothing to do with keeping score... for the most part, anyway."

Trowa chewed the inside of his cheek. He could hear Duo chattering away on the radio behind him. "The first song of the afternoon goes out to my Metro buddy from last night," he was saying as s series of soothing into chords began playing underneath his voice. "I'll admit you had me thinking a bit harder on this one, but I got it. Hey, I told you I always deliver! It's the Cure and 'Love Song' on 102 W-Rock."

Listening to Duo's voice fade into the touching ballad reminded Trowa of the way that Heero got whenever he was in the face of the person he was inexplicably drawn to. He supposed that he would be the same way if he had Heero sitting there to heckle him every time Quatre came by, and then realized that he'd have no right to bother Heero about opportunities if he didn't act on them himself.

So he regained his composure, though the physical evidence of this was very slight, since Trowa rarely appeared without it, and he bluntly asked, "Are you asking me on a date, Mr. Winner?" No sense in beating around the bush, he reasoned.

With almost frustrating ease, Quatre shrugged innocently and said with a smile, "Maybe I am, Mr. Barton. But I've done my bit; it's up to you now." With that, he gave Trowa a small wave in parting and started away from the cubicle as he called back, "Ask Heero about details on Lollapalooza. He should know; I heard him win tickets on the radio last week."

Trowa blinked a few times to orient himself after Quatre had gone, staring at the place where the blond CEO had once been standing. He felt jumbled and windswept and completely content all at once.

He loved it.

--

"Hilde - Hilde, drop that doughnut and come here!" Relena whispered loudly into the staff kitchen, hanging between the two doorframe posts in the most unladylike manner.

Hilde turned towards the secretary, though she refused to relinquish the pastry in her hand. Whatever Relena wanted her to see had to be important, which was obvious merely judging by the haphazard way her lavender cardigan was hanging off her shoulders and the crooked placement of her white skirt on her hips. Hilde decided she'd alert Relena to the fact the skirt's side zipper was twisted 'round to the front after the secretary dispelled whatever excitement was racing through her veins at the moment.

"He's waiting to pick up his Lollapalooza tickets," Relena was saying rapidly as she led Hilde down the hall towards the front lobby, another clear signal Relena had something good. Relena was usually the most genteel of ladies, and was often the calming voice of reason in the chaotic W-Rock studios, though she did have her more excitable moments - much like this, for instance.

Relena led them to the junction in the hall a few yards away from her desk, allowing them to remain inconspicuous while peering out over the secretary's post and out into the purple-walled lobby. "On the sofa with the Guitar World magazine," Relena indicated with a nod of her head, and Hilde strained her eyes to see.

"What about him?" Hilde wondered, her comment stifled almost immediately by a sharp gasp when she caught sight of his almond-shaped eyes, which glistened a startling, deep blue beneath his thick shaggy bangs when they flicked upwards to check the nearby wall clock. "Oh, sweet Jesus, he's gorgeous," she spilled out, now shamelessly staring.

"Exactly," Relena emphasized with a grin. She seemed to have realized how mussed she'd become in her excitement and was in the process of primping herself up again. Her more ladylike personality was setting back in, though it was clear she was still energized. "I thought you'd want to see."

"Well, play it up, girl! Go do your job!" Hilde told her, giving her friend a small push in the direction of the desk. "See if you can weasel dinner out of him or something."

Relena laughed nervously as she stumbled back towards her desk. Dinner with such a handsome man would be nice, she supposed, but she had a feeling that he was the sort who was only meant to be easy on the eyes - at least as far as she was concerned. Maybe when she was fifteen, hormones and naivete would have kicked in and dictated a different reaction to the handsome man, but she was glad she'd matured beyond that stage. Clearing her throat, she dusted some invisible dirt off her sweater as she sat down again and called out to him.

He glanced up when he saw she had returned and then folded the magazine, carefully replacing it exactly as he'd found it on the coffee table in front of the sofa before walking towards the desk. He had a certain angelic grace to him, his movements sure and calculated, yet still possessing an air of hesitance.

"I just need some identification to prove who you are, Mr...." She trailed off, waiting for him to fill in his name.

"Yuy," he said curtly, digging into his back pocket for his wallet, from which he produced his work ID. It was a Winner Enterprises card. "I'm Heero Yuy."

Part of the reason Relena made such a good secretary was her ability to remain unruffled no matter what circumstances arose before her. That she knew exactly who Heero was and that a certain DJ in W-Rock's employ was beyond smitten with him was something Heero would never figure out since she hardly flinched at the mention of his name. Despite that, it didn't mean that her insides weren't all twisted in an excited knot and that her heart wasn't beating at an irregular pace. "Just a moment Mr. Yuy." She picked up his ID and went over to the nearby filing cabinets, pulling out one of the drawers in search of the contest winner records.

Seeing this as a prime moment to get in there, Hilde quickly shuffled over to join Relena by the filing cabinets. "Duo's boyfriend is fucking hot," she whispered to Relena, hoping the more business-related guise rang true.

"I don't know that I'd say he's Duo's boyfriend," Relena said, still focused on the papers she was flipping through. She paused and glanced over her shoulder, absorbing the way Heero was leaning against the desk while he waited. "But he's definitely Duo's something," she amended as she turned back around. "You can hear it even in just the way he breathes."

"Can you really?" Hilde asked, her eyes wide.

Relena shook her head, her browsing fingers paused again. "I was being metaphorical," she emphasized with a roll of her eyes.

"Oh," Hilde said, though it really wasn't of any consequence to her. She was quiet for a few moments more, just watching Relena's speedy hands before asking, "Do you think I should go grab Duo?"

"Why?" Relena asked, finally coming across the page with Heero's information, which Heero had been required to give the station after he'd won the tickets. She pinned the identification card against the page with her thumb and forefinger as she compared the data on both documents.

"So he can get a load of how damn hot his shy caller is!" Hilde replied as if it was obvious. "Do you think he knows?"

"No need to embarrass them both," Relena answered flatly, sticking Heero's approved information sheet into a new file for callers who'd already collected their tickets. She pushed the drawer closed and stepped around Hilde so she could get back to her desk. She ignored the other woman as she slid the ID card back across the desk to Heero and bent down to pull open one of the desk's side drawers from which she produced a bundle of Lollapalooza tickets. She pulled two out of the rubber band-bound stack and also handed them to Heero while saying, "The event is two weeks from this Saturday and is general admission, so the earlier you get there, the better your spot will be. Gates open at 11AM, and the concert should be underway by noon." She cocked her head and smiled politely, concluding with, "Thank you for listening to 102 W-Rock."

Heero was in the process of carefully tucking the tickets into his wallet with his ID card. He looked up at her, noting the expectant way she was watching him, "No, thank -"

"Duo?" she inserted cleanly, her expression hardly changing at all, though there was certainly a mischievous gleam in her pale blue eyes.

"Well, yes," said Heero, now feeling very edgy. He elected to wrap this up as quickly as possible; he had this inkling that this young lady had an aim to trick him into saying something he wasn't sure he'd like to have whispered all over the W-Rock studios. "Please just tell him I'll still be waiting to hear from him if you could, thanks."

This was clearly the wrong thing to say, because Relena's eyes lighted up even more. "Waiting for him to say what?" she wanted to know.

Heero was definitely uncomfortable at this point. "Just the answer to a question I asked him, that's all," he said, already starting to back away from the desk.

Suddenly Hilde was looming behind Relena, her hands fisted beneath her chin. "Oh, I should have known you were the Metro guy Duo played that Cure song for," she interrupted, not bothering to mask her enthusiasm. She nudged her elbow in Heero's direction, a smirk on her face as she needled, "Trying to drop a hint with that one, huh?"

"I -!" Heero was just short of panic now. He found himself wondering if Duo knew more than he was letting on, if he'd long since figured out his game and had become common W-Rock employee knowledge. Or what if Duo was just being his friendly self? Maybe Duo had no interest in him at all. Maybe the whisper of a hope he'd had was just a trite fantasy after all.

"Oh Hilde, leave the poor boy alone," Relena admonished, swatting the shorthaired woman away from her desk. She turned back towards Heero, who was standing there with wide eyes and pursed lips. "Don't worry about Duo; promises are just short of the law for him," Relena assured him, overtaken by the urge to reach forward and pat Heero on the shoulder. "And I can promise you that whatever he said he'd do is the foremost thing on his mind today - every day, even."

Heero blinked owlishly at the towheaded secretary, unsure of how to read what she'd just told him. So instead, he just nodded appreciatively and started for the staircase, deciding it was something he could mull over for the rest of the afternoon.

When he'd gone, Relena gave him the benefit of three whole minutes before she whipped around in her chair and grabbed Hilde's wrists. "Ohmigod, Hilde," she gushed. "Did you see the look on his face every time Duo came up in conversation? He's so head over feet and it's so cute."

Hilde chuckled with her friend, leaning against the nearby wall as she surveyed the now-empty lobby. "I wonder what Duo promised him, though," she thought out loud, shifting her lips to the side quixotically.

Relena spoke candidly, leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms. "Well, I for one hope it involves kissing and a whole lot of sex."

"Relena!" Hilde gasped, completely shocked by Relena's blunt statement. That was the sort of comment she'd never expect to hear from someone like her! She supposed that the two of them spent too much time gossiping together and that some of her crudeness was starting to rub off on the dirty blond secretary. All Duo's fault of, course, she amended; she, in turn, had to learn the behaviour from somewhere else in the first place.

"What? I'm not kidding," Relena defended herself. "Duo needs somebody to love him before that phony happiness of his drives him - or more specifically, me - absolutely insane. Don't you ever watch him, Hilde?" she asked, sounding quite serious. "He smiles big, but his shoulders droop; he sings along with the songs he plays, but only the sad ones, or the ones about loneliness. It's actually sort of painful to see."

Hilde blinked at Relena, more preoccupied with trying to figure out when Relena has observed this than to combat the truth of it. "Do you really think that Heero Yuy is up to a job like that?"

Grinning, Relena arched a slim eyebrow, complete confidence radiating across her face. "Hilde, I'm a secretary; I'd like to think I've got a good sense for reading people," she informed her colleague as she leaned heavily on one arm of her chair. "And let me tell you something: if anybody is suited for a job like making Duo happy - really happy, I mean - it's that Heero Yuy."

"Do you really think so?" Hilde breathed, awed by Relena's perception skills.

"I know so," Relena assured her with a nod. "You heard them talking on the phone; you see the way Duo plays him request upon request, and the way they talk about music like it's their job." She ran her fingers through her honey blond hair, slipping her fingernails beneath one of the little braids twisted around to the back of her head. "When it comes down to it, they're just a pair of shy rock dorks who have different ways of staying out of the sunlight, that's all."

Hilde could only shake her head in amazement, knowing that Relena was most certainly correct. "The same but only not at all, huh?"

"Precisely," Relena said, gesturing with one hand. She was pleased Hilde seemed to have caught her meaning. "Which is why I say Heero's the only one who's going to help our Duo." She nodded sagely again, her eyes closed. "There's something in the air about him - Heero, I mean. You can just tell."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Hilde agreed. She adjusted her pink beret and combed her spiky bangs out of her eyes. "I just hope Duo can tell, too."

--

Meanwhile, Duo Maxwell was taking advantage of the fact Hilde wasn't in the studio with him, which, in short, translated to him having a minor heart attack. He'd been so sure that when he'd figured out Heero's last song request, the Connect Three he'd mentioned would simply fall into place easily, but that was hardly the case. So far, Duo had absolutely zero luck in relating the three songs to each other, no matter what threads he tried to find. Neither band history, nor song topic, genre or minor trivial facts seemed to link any of them, and he was starting to worry he wouldn't be able to come up with anything for Heero at six. Would Heero think less of his music knowledge? Would Heero think less of him?

"Ugh, this is ridiculous," Duo moaned to the empty studio, pulling at his long bangs in frustration. He'd even taken to writing facts about each song down to make a sort of visual web for himself, but that also proved fruitless. "What's wrong with me? Am I losing my touch?"

All Duo could think about was what Heero possibly knew about those three songs that he didn't. Was it something obvious? He growled at his diagram and then took his pen to it with an angry scribble. He wasn't going to lose Heero over this - not if he had anything to do with it, that was for sure. He was just really starting to stress that it was out of his hands.

The ticking of the studio's large wall clock seemed far louder than the rhythm of any song. Duo's eyes kept creeping back to it nervously as its hands slowly inched closer and closer to the target time he was to meet Heero. Trying his best to ignore it, Duo junked his diagram in the wastebasket and forcefully redirected all his attention to his job, impossible as that seemed to be. He just hoped that Hilde wouldn't pick up on his unrest when she returned from the break room; the last thing he needed to hear was her sisterly harping.

When Hilde came back, she found Duo leaning close to the microphone, tapping his foot nervously beneath the equipment counter. "I feel like it's more like a blindfolded date than a blind date - not that it's a date in the first place," he was saying, his hands expertly removing a Sublime CD from its case to queue it up for the next music set. "I mean, it's not like I'm meeting somebody I don't even know, but it still feels like I'm going in there with my eyes closed. What if I screw it up, you know? That feeling like the other person is just waiting for you to do something stupid so they've got an excuse to scram is the most nerve-wracking thing ever. Then you've junked your chances for even being friends, and I don't think I can handle the pressure."

Hilde didn't say anything as she quietly assumed her position next to Duo and replaced her pink hat with her headphones. The switchboard lit up as a call came in, and she leaned over to see where it was from, nodding her head at the phone when she saw it was the Winner Enterprises number.

Duo's eyes widened and he clenched his teeth together, shaking his head wildly, but Hilde would have none of it. She answered the phone and took over the broadcast. "Hey, this is 102 W-Rock; you're on the air," she said, smirking at the fearful-looking Duo.

She had been expecting to hear Heero reply, but was surprised when she heard another familiar voice. "Hilde? This is Quatre; put Duo on."

"Don't you have a real job?" Duo asked, secretly praying to every god he could think of that Quatre didn't trick him into saying something extremely crippling over the air. He'd been friends with Quatre Winner long enough to know that the blond CEO had a penchant for interventions - especially when he felt they'd profit some entertainment for him, a surefire guarantee that he would exploit Duo for this often.

"I fortunately pay my own salary," Quatre deadpanned.

"That still doesn't explain why you're calling me while I'm trying to earn mine," Duo retorted instantly. Briefly, he wondered just how much Quatre knew about his situation since he worked so near Heero's cubicle and seemed to be good friends with the man Heero shared it with. It was thrashing his nerves to imagine Quatre

accidentally saying something that would mortify him forever, especially if Heero was listening in, which was most likely the case.

"Oh, yes, that's right," Quatre laughed easily, as if they were having a casual discussion about his new tie over tea. "I just wanted to tell you that you don't need to get yourself so worked up over something you don't even know yet, that's all." There was a pause, potentially for Duo to interject with some comment, but when the longhaired DJ said nothing, Quatre blazed on. "I know the way you deal with things Duo, and though it would probably be unrealistic of me to ask you to just roll with it, I can do my best to assure you you're wasting a lot of energy on undue stress."

"I don't believe this," Duo moaned with defeat, slapping the edge of the table as he leaned back and shook his head. He shook his head and recuperated quickly, bending back towards the mic to respond to Quatre. "Do you seriously have no life, Q? You don't know left from right on this one."

Quatre, never one to miss a beat, said, "Well, at least I can tell up from down, Duo."

"So sayeth the mighty third party," Duo retorted, his patience waning quickly. It was unfair of him to take his frustration out on Quatre, he knew, but he had very little control of his mouth, and the words just kept coming every time Quatre prompted them. "You don't understand, man. I have until this afternoon, or I can kiss my chances sayonara forever."

"You act like you're being tested," Quatre commented, not allowing Duo to get in the edgewise words he was aching to. "Even if you are, I somehow doubt it matters how well you do. Sometimes it's about just covering your eyes and taking that blind step forward."

"It's not so easy," Duo complained. "How would you know anything about it anyway?"

"Because I happen to speak from recent experience and I thought I'd share," Quatre answered. This time, the sarcastic twang didn't ring in his reply and the modesty of what he'd said caused Duo to slow down his own scathing retorts. "You say it's a test, but really, what are you afraid of?"

Duo actually took a few moments to think about his answer, softly blowing air out between his flattened lips. Hilde watched quietly, her own thoughts on the matter kept silent. Finally Duo gave Quatre his response. His mouth back in front of the microphone, he said, "What I don't know."

The raucous laughter that followed made Duo feel slightly belittled, especially since he'd actually tried to give Quatre an honest answer. Quatre's voice sounded raspy over the speakers as he spoke. "Ha, Duo, if that's what scares you, then you might as well be afraid of life in general, because I can pretty much assure you that there isn't a single person on this good planet Earth who knows everything - or even anything at all!" More laughter followed, albeit a bit more muffled and controlled.

"Yeah, well, Heero knows something I sure as heck don't and I have no idea what I'm supposed to do about it," Duo said, impatience starting to creep up on him again. Only one moment too late did Duo realize that he'd accidentally let Heero's name slip and knew that there was no saving himself when he heard Quatre start to chuckle again. It was a sound Duo was beginning to find rather loathsome. "What's so damn funny? Why are we still on the air with this?" he demanded to know, directing the question at the passive Hilde, who was nudging the trash can with the tip of her foot.

"Good question, Duo," was all she said. "It's your show; you're in charge."

"Shut up Hilde," he snapped, throwing his arms in her direction. "And you," he went on, addressing Quatre again, "you have yet to give this call a purpose."

"Ooh," Quatre hummed, his voice still smacking with mirth. "Well, if that's the case, I want to request a song. That purposeful enough for you, Mr. Maxwell?"

"Fine, fine," Duo gave in. He bent his elbow on the arm of his chair and pressed his cheek against his palm as he waited for Quatre to decide on a song, simultaneously thinking about how he was going to purposely wait to play the request just as he was about to walk out the door to get back at Quatre for trying to play him like this.

"Jesus Christ," Duo moaned tiredly after Quatre had hung up and they'd rolled on with another set of music. He rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands and then dropped them into his lap, where they landed with a smack against his black denim jeans. He rolled his head in Hilde's direction with something to say, but swallowed it when he saw that Hilde had fished his Connect Three diagram out of the trashcan. Hastily, he tried to snatch it away from her, but Hilde had been ready for him.

"What's this, Duo?" she asked, waving the crumpled paper at him. "Either you're working way too hard at trying to thwart your listeners, or it's got something to do with your hot date this afternoon." She dangled the paper in front of Duo's eyes like a baited worm coiled around a fishing hook.

"Shut up, Hilde! It's none of your beeswax!" Duo exclaimed as he tried to grab the paper from Hilde again, the unrest in his eyes giving him completely away.

But Hilde was too fast for him, and by the time Duo's fingers were grasping at the air where the paper had once been, Hilde was already on the other side of the studio with it, her eyebrows arched with interest as she scanned the things written on it. "You must think I'm completely stupid," she said, her amusement quite apparent. "Did you think I wouldn't recognize that these are the three songs Heero Yuy requested?"

"You weren't supposed to recognize them at all," Duo retorted, not at all pleased that Hilde had turned the tables on him. "A man's trash is very personal!"

Hilde didn't even benefit Duo with a response and instead focused on the rumpled piece of paper, mirth shining in her eyes. "Heh, do you remember the time you did that power hour of pure reggae because you decided that there weren't enough listeners who appreciated it?" she asked, some of the notes on the page springing that particular memory to light. "I think you played every Bob Marley song that had ever gotten onto the radio in that little segment - in addition to all that UB40 and whatever else you had squirreled away in the archives."

Snorting derisively, Duo said, "Hey, I found it personally insulting that that one guy I'd been talking to that day had no idea who Bob Marley was. Bob Marley is basically God."

"You mean Jah," Hilde countered smartly, one corner of her mouth lifting up a bit as she crossed her arms. "Well, you showed him, anyway," she shrugged, still looking very smug, despite the way Duo was glaring with displeasure at her.

"Yeah, well, that was then and this is now. Not doing me much good, is it?" Duo grumbled, immediately finding himself right back where he started in regards to solving Heero's puzzle. He dug his palms into his eye sockets and moaned helplessly. "The Cure," he complained to no one in particular. "The goddamned Cure...."

"I think that song is so romantic," Hilde said, the dreamy tone in her voice giving Duo the urge to gag.

"I'd hope so, since it was a wedding present from Robert Smith to his wife." He paused long enough to groan again. "Ugh, you're not being very helpful," he told her shortly, giving the clock a nervous glance. It was getting close to the time he was supposed to meet Heero and he still had no idea what he was going to do. If he couldn't think of the answer, would he just stand Heero up? Or would it be better to show up anyway, even if he hadn't a clue as to what he was supposed to say. He could envision at least a million and one ways for both options to blow up in his face and separate him from Heero forever.

Crunching the paper, Hilde tossed it back into the trashcan. "Maybe if you told me how I could be helpful, then I could do something about it," she said frankly.

"Forget it," Duo lamented forlornly, pressing his hands against his forehead. The minute hand dictated that there were only fifteen minutes until six, and if Duo hadn't been able to come up with the connection in the past day, there was no way the next quarter hour was going to yield much more. "It's too late anyway. I might as well face the music and admit to myself that I'll never have a chance with a guy like Heero fucking Yuy," he went on with the same note of despair. "He's way outta my league and this whole fiasco just proves it."

Hilde wasn't quite sure what she should say to comfort Duo. She didn't think that his defeatist attitude was really helping his cause but she was hesitant to point that out to him, knowing it would probably just send Duo reeling further. Figuring that all the time she'd been spending with Relena would finally pay off, she decided that the diplomatic approach would be the best course of action for this situation. "I know what they say about crying over spilt milk," she began slowly, "but really, it's not like you've even knocked the glass over yet." She had the urge to wrap Duo into a tight embrace, but instead settled for just laying her hand on his knee. "Maybe what you're trying to find isn't so ambiguous after all. You know, like when you're looking for your keys and you overturn all kinds of furniture and pillows in search of them when they were sitting on the hall table the entire time."

"Maybe," Duo mumbled, obviously not really absorbing any of the things Hilde had to say. "Still need the keys to get places. Can't get in anywhere without them."

Hilde withdrew her hand with a longsuffering huff. "Maybe it'd be a good idea for you to backtrack a little and start over - retrace your steps a little. You might discover something new when you revisit things from a new angle." She made a big show of putting her headphones back on and readying herself to go back on the air. "You breeze out of here and let me take care of the rest of the afternoon," she told him as she went about this. "I'll play the Audioslave song Mr. Winner wanted and all that, don't you worry. You just go figure your shit out, okay?"

Much as Duo wanted to protest, he still found himself assenting to Hilde's suggestion. He knew better than anyone that he just wasn't really fit to stay around in the studio much longer, especially with thoughts of Heero and their meeting fresh in his head. Hilde was probably right: a bit of time to himself would definitely do him some good. "Alright... but only because you insisted," he said as he removed his own headphones and stood up, dusting at an invisible nothing on his black Zero shirt. "Don't go fucking anything up," he warned as he started for the door.

"You can trust me," she assured him. "Contrary to popular belief, I'm actually somewhat competent." She shot him a cheeky grin and stuck her tongue out as she flashed him a peace sign in parting.

"Yeah, I know," replied Duo, the smile on his face very obviously faked. He waved at Hilde and quickly retreated from the studio and mumbled under his breath, "I only wish I was, too."

--

The vending machines sat in a small hallway just off of the main first floor lobby, around the bend from the security guard's front desk. Heero had been leaning against the huge, glowing Pepsi logo on the soda machine for the past ten minutes, just in case Duo had decided to show up early, all the while nursing a bottle of soda that had long since gone flat. Quatre had smirked at him in the most unsettling way when he'd asked if he could leave work a bit early that afternoon, and he couldn't help but wonder if it was some sort of omen as to how things would play out. He could hear the radio sitting on the security guard's desk, which was dutifully tuned to W-Rock.

"Someone finds salvation in everyone,
Another only pain.
Someone tries to hide himself
Down inside his selfish brain...."

Humming along with the song was the only thing that could keep Heero's mind distracted enough to keep from stressing out about Duo and whether or not he'd show up. More specifically, he was concerned about the challenge he'd left for the longhaired DJ, how he'd react if Duo figured it out - or if he didn't. In his backpack, the Lollapalooza tickets burned against his skin through the thick leather of his wallet and the spandex cloth of his biking shorts.

"Someone swears his true love until the end of time,
Another runs away!
Separate or united,
Healthy or insane!"

Puffing his cheeks and blowing a loud breath of air through his pursed lips, Heero closed his eyes, hoping that it would allow him to focus a little more. It wasn't very helpful. He'd never thought he'd find himself in a situation like this, and try as he might to suppress his shyer tendencies, he couldn't help but fear that they'd crop back up at the worst possible moment. Gathering the nerve to speak to Duo on the phone had tested his limits beyond what he'd ever imagined, but this was getting to be a completely different ballgame. There were so many things he didn't know, so many subtle nuances that he may or may not have read right... so many things that could potentially go wrong! What if he told Duo that he wanted to kiss him, only to have Duo laugh at him sympathetically - or worse still, recoil with disgust. Heero squinted his eyes tighter, willing that thought out of his mind with all his might.

"And to be yourself is all that you can do.
Yeah, to be yourself is all that you can do!"

Snapping his eyes open, Heero lifted his wrist and glared emptily at the timepiece adorning it. After factoring in the extra five minutes he kept his watch ahead by, he saw there was still a minute and thirty four seconds left until six and still no Duo. Heero trapped a bit of his lower lip between his teeth and nibbled as his arm swung to his side. Maybe he wouldn't show up after all.

--

Meanwhile, Duo was pacing circles around the main lobby, just by the elevators. He could see the archway that led to the vending machine niche, but he was still apprehensive about turning up without an answer to Heero's riddle. 'Maybe the answer is that the songs have nothing to do with each other at all!' Duo thought desperately, his fingers combing worriedly through the tail of his braid. According to the large clock over the security guard's desk, he still had one minute and twenty-one seconds to figure out what he was going to do.

For what seemed like the millionth time, he reviewed every fact he could think of for each song. 'Jesus, 'Back in Black' is my favourite goddamn song and I love Bob Marley pretty hardcore,' he thought as panic really started to set in. 'There's not a single thing I don't know about either one, so why is this so hard?' He tugged at his braid even harder, feeling the roots of his hair pull at his scalp. 'And then that damn Cure song - what's that about?'

It was the same, repetitious thought process he'd gone through again and again, and it was getting to a point where he could almost feel the seconds rushing by. Once in a while, he'd stop in his pacing to just stand and stare at the empty archway to the vending machines as if it would help him. He thought the words 'Abandon all hope ye who enter here' would have looked fitting if they were painted above it.

"That's it," he decided firmly, throwing caution to the wind. "I don't care that he managed to trick me at last. I want to see him anyway." So, balling his fists tightly at his sides, Duo marched purposefully over towards the vending machine niche, his chin held high and his heart slamming wildly in his chest.

All his resolve drained from him the moment he got to the vending machines, though. He found the little nook empty, save the illuminated Pepsi machine and the two snack machines that flanked it - just junk food and no Heero. Duo's jaw hung slack, unsure of what to make of this completely unforeseeable predicament. This had been the place Heero had specified, hadn't it?

As he stood there, frantically trying to figure out why Heero wasn't there, he vaguely registered security guard saying amiably, "Have a good evening Mr. Yuy!" Duo froze for a split second as the pieces fell into place, and he whipped around, his long, heavy rope of hair smacking against the Pepsi machine with a loud thunk.

Rushing back into the lobby, he was just in time to see Heero passing the guard's desk, dressed in his biking clothes with his backpack slung over one shoulder. He looked a little dejected, his thick eyelashes shadowing his sharp blue eyes, which were downcast as he shuffled across the marble floor towards the front doors, tossing out an empty soda bottle on his way. It was then that Duo realized he'd let almost twenty minutes pass, and that he must have just missed seeing Heero go by while he'd been trying to puzzle out the riddle at the last second. He was becoming rapidly aware of how quickly his window of opportunity was beginning to shrink. He wasn't sure if Heero had noticed him standing there, but it was in that moment that Duo realized that he couldn't stand to see Heero walking away - walking out of his life and from him!

The time for thinking was long since over, and Duo gave into impulse. He power walked by the security guard, waving stiffly as the guard called out a befuddled "Good evening" to him on his way by. The second he'd burst out onto the street, Duo switched his pace to a fleet-footed dash to the Metro station. He knew that if he ran the entire way, he could probably get there just as Heero did, given that the blue-eyed listener had to go fetch his bike before he could start out.

Accompanied by the blaring screech of rubber on the asphalt and a drawn out horn blast, he leapt off the curb, dashing across the street just as the signal was starting to change. He chanced a quick peek over his shoulder to check on Heero's progress as he dodged around the purring cars halted at the intersection. The blue-eyed man had just set out and was still at the other end of the block, most likely to be stopped by the red light when he got to this particular spot. Duo turned and kept running.

He could see the train station at the end of the next block. The black cotton of his tight Zero shirt was sticking to his back in the intense heat, his hair was getting nappy, and he regretted wearing jeans that day. All that didn't matter, though, he reminded himself as he pressed onwards. He'd already wasted too much time with Heero, and it was time for him to finally take some action before it really was too late. He thanked his lucky stars that Heero had gotten stopped at the intersection as he fumbled his way through the turnstiles at the train station, or else he might have never been able to head him off.

Duo leaned against one of the standing billboards - an ad for W-Rock, incidentally - that ran down the center of the platform, while he waited for the train. If his lucky streak continued, he'd hop the train before Heero did, thus landing him at Dupont Circle before Heero was even halfway there. It would be much easier to stop Heero as he left the station than to try and chase him down on foot with him riding that bicycle of his. Maybe they could walk to his house together - Duo quickly shook that notion off, knowing he shouldn't hope for too much.

Much to his amazement, as he was thinking these things, the squeal of the train's brakes filled the air as it started to coast into the station. He hurried onto one of the cars and plopped down onto one of the orange seats as soon as the doors opened, silently willing them to close immediately so that the train would leave before Heero arrived.

Fortune seemed to be having a good time screwing with Duo's mental welfare, though. Just when he thought he was home free, he heard that familiar shout of, 'Wait, wait!' as Heero came dashing down the platform with his bicycle in tow. The almost-closed doors of the train retracted as he dove onto the car ahead of Duo's. Panic spiked up in Duo's gut as he frantically started trying to come up with a plan for when they got off at Heero's stop.

People streamed on and off the train at every stop along the way, but Duo hardly noticed any of them as they crowded around his bench and trod on his toes. Even when a somewhat hefty passenger was occupying the seat next to him between Friendship Heights and Cleveland Park, Duo barely paid any mind. The gears of his mind were too busy churning out possible outcomes and scenarios for how the second leg of this chase was going to play out. Of course he had to make things more complicated for himself by not showing up at the appointed meeting time, he'd repeatedly groaned inwardly. Then he'd think about how worth it Heero was - how it wasn't every day that someone had such an impact on another person's life - and he'd feel a bit better until the panic reinstated itself and the cycle looped back around to the beginning again.

Duo was so saturated by this mental routine, he almost didn't recognize the Dupont Circle station when the train finally arrived there. He elbowed a crowd of businessmen that was gaggled around the cluster of poles by the doors as he rushed to get off the train. He had lost sight of Heero in the pressing crowd, but he knew that the blue-eyed man couldn't have gotten very far.

He hurried towards the escalators and shot around the corner beyond the turnstiles just in time to see Heero heft the frame of his bike around his shoulder as he started to jog up the staircase running between the two longer escalators that lead to the surface. For someone who was a bit on the short side and also carrying a backpack, Duo couldn't help but admit that Heero was making pretty good time; though for his own sake, he'd sort of wished Heero wasn't in such good shape. He leapt on the escalator and started running up, not feeling a bit of remorse as he shouted 'Walk left, stand right, asshole!' to every person who was obstructing his side of the moving staircase.

The brightness of the sun was a bit of a shock to Duo's eyes when he finally got to the top, and he had to squint to orient himself. Heero had beaten him, despite carrying the bike, and Duo was forced to waste a few more precious seconds trying to relocate Heero in the busy intersection. The moment he caught sight of him, Duo's feet were immediately carrying him in that same direction. Things were going to get harder now that Heero was in front of him and back on his bicycle, and Duo prayed for a miracle that would keep Heero at least within his field of vision. He silently cursed the commuters that had gotten in between him and Heero en route, ruining his entire plan.

That afternoon, Fortune seemed to be smiling on Duo, even if there was a sadistic catch, for his miracle came, but not exactly packaged the way he'd have hoped. As he climbed up onto the curb, he was suddenly startled by the sound of a bell being rung frantically. He realized just in the nick of time that there was a lady on a bicycle heading straight for him and he narrowly dodged being run over by her.

"Are you even paying attention to where you're going, hot stuff?" the woman asked as she screeched to a halt at the corner. Her bike was a pale pink lady's bike with a big wicker basket fixed to the handlebars, which also sported long, baby blue tassels. There was a little plastic license plate fixed beneath the bike's large, white seat that read '2CUTE4U' and pink ribbons woven into the spokes.

The pink monstrosity captivated Duo's attention more than it should have, the whole presentation so disgustingly girly, he was completely unable to look away. Glancing quickly down the sidewalk in the direction Heero had gone was enough to put Duo back on track, and before he had a chance to really think about what he was doing, he was sidling up to the woman and her bike, his hands sliding comfortably over hers as he purred sensuously, "What's your name, sweetheart?"

A red blush that clashed terribly with the bicycle overtook the woman's features as she stared at Duo's hands on top of hers, mumbling slowly, "Sara...."

"Well, Sara, how about I ask you a little favour, here - some tit for tat," Duo went on, his tone still silky, despite the fact he was now digging his shoulder into Sara's upper arm. He didn't even really wait for Sara to respond before he really started applying pressure to her side, his intent to force her off the bike more than apparent. Before Sara could even really comprehend what had happened, Duo had managed to muscle her off the bike and had mounted it in her place, speeding off down the sidewalk after Heero with a throwaway shout of thanks over his shoulder.

"Hey!" she shouted, starting to jog after him. "What do I get out of this? That's my bike!"

Sara was out of Duo's mind almost immediately, quickly replaced by the omnipresent Heero. Duo tried his damndest to ignore the odd stares he was getting for the set of wheels he'd commandeered, hoping to high heaven that he wouldn't pass by anyone he knew. The ends justified the means, he reasoned as he peddled harder. Already, he was gaining on Heero.

The ride from Dupont to Georgetown was an annoyingly long one. Historically, Georgetown was the nice part of town where most of the rich folks lived, and they hadn't wanted a Metro stop in their region because they thought it would bring too many untouchables to their hallowed streets. Of course, nowadays, all that this decision really did was frustrate commuters and tourists alike, making a visit to Georgetown almost not worth the trouble. This, coupled with the fact that Duo hadn't ridden a bike since he was sixteen and was chasing a man who rode his along this route every day was making for quite the task. Almost taking out that old lady walking her yippy terrier was a close call Duo probably could have done without, and he hoped that she heard the apology he shouted to her as he sped past.

A few blocks ahead, Heero had turned onto M Street, marking their arrival to his home neighbourhood. Duo was tired and hot and felt very dehydrated and faint, but he kept pressing onwards, even as Heero turned yet again onto one of the residential streets - one, which, of course, was on a steep, upward incline. At least here, the road was shaded by a canopy of thick foliage.

Some more twists and turns later, Duo breathed a sigh of relief as he saw Heero dismount his bike in front of a small, traditional townhouse sandwiched in the middle of a row other similarly Colonial homes. Heero trotted up the small wrought-iron staircase that led up to the front door, unlocked it and then went to fetch his bike, which he brought inside with him, closing the door just as Duo was breathlessly peddling up to the house.

Panting hard, Duo dismounted his stolen bicycle and leaned it haphazardly against a nearby tree, forgetting it easily as he approached Heero's home. The row of townhouses was all of dark red brick, with black slate roofs and painted woodwork. Thick ivy covered most of the walls and twisted around the ironwork of the front stoops. Each house also had a little staircase that dipped beneath the sidewalk, leading to a partially subterranean side door; a peek through the window beside Heero's showed this door led to the kitchen. Duo hesitated, unsure of which door to knock on.

Deliberating on the decision didn't really make much of a difference, because just then, through that same window, he saw Heero wander into his kitchen, wearing only his sinfully tight spandex shorts and his socks. A slightly voyeuristic feeling overtook Duo as he stood there, helplessly watching Heero as he went about fetching himself a glass of water. His torso was finely chiseled with lean, powerful muscles, and Duo couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to dig his fingertips into that bronzed skin. Even the elegant way Heero seemed to move like a tiger was a bit of a turn-on for Duo. He swallowed nervously and leaned heavily against the guard railing that surrounding the stairwell down to the kitchen door, all the while trying to gather up the courage for the thing he'd come all this way to do.

Steeling himself, he threw caution to the wind and hopped the rail, lowering himself down onto the brick steps with a catlike grace of his own. Then, he turned to face the black-painted door and lifted his fist, which lingered over the wooden paneling for a few more seconds before it finally came down upon it in three, steady knocks.

Duo had barely lifted his knuckles from the third knock before the door was being pulled open, and he was standing face to face with his blue-eye quarry, who most certainly seemed very surprised to see him! The reaction was quickly schooled and tucked away as Heero asked the obvious, "Duo? What are you doing here?"

Duo grasped the doorframe, still fighting for his breath. "I know I'm a little bit late," he said, sounding rasp. "But I had to come after you, whether I knew it or not."

Heero arched an eyebrow, though whether it was in amusement or curiosity was slightly ambiguous. From inside the house, Joan Jett sang 'I Love Rock 'n' Roll!', filling the somewhat awkward silence.

"I have no idea what AC/DC has to do with the Cure, or what the Cure has to do with Bob Marley, or what he has to do with AC/DC," Duo went on, by means of explanation. "But I decided that didn't matter - not as much as you." He found his hand twitching towards Heero, instinctively wanting to touch his waist, but he retracted it before it really got near. "So I'm sorry about disappointing you there," he continued, tucking his hand safely into his back pocket. "All I've brought is myself." He smiled feebly.

If possible, Heero's expression became even more unreadable as he cocked his head to the side, his lips falling apart like he meant to say something but wasn't sure how to. "But Duo," he finally said, his words almost completely drowned out by the song in the background, "that's all I wanted."

Duo blinked, feeling as if he'd just been sitting on a cloud that had suddenly evaporated beneath him. "Huh?" he grunted, very befuddled.

"You," Heero repeated, his eyes flicking between his toes and Duo's face sporadically. "That's it - the answer I was looking for."

For once, Duo was lost for words as he stammered, "M-Me?" But even then, the connection was suddenly beginning to dawn upon him: his favourite song; a tune about music by another artist he loved; a love song by....

"I don't know how else to say it," Heero went on, sounding very sheepish. His unsure demeanor coupled with the very enticing sight of his bare chest made for a strangely arousing image. "Maybe it was easier to have someone else say it for me - to sing it for me," he said.

"Heero," Duo murmured, his hand itching to touch the blue-eyed man again. He seemed so forlorn, like he was the one who had made the mistake, when Duo was inclined to think he was the one who ought to be apologizing - though for what, he wasn't quite sure. The song issuing from the radio inside floated between them again, and Duo found himself unconsciously drumming his hands against his thighs to keep them busy.

"I love rock 'n' roll,
So put another dime in the jukebox, baby!"

Heero took in a deep breath before speaking again. "I know it's stupid," he said, "and it's okay if you don't want anything to do with me - that is, I'd understand, I mean." His fingers skirted around the shell of one ear, worrying the tiny waves of dark brown hair at the nape of his neck with the tips of them. "You'd laugh if I told you that I fell in love with your voice."

Unable to resist any longer, Duo let his hands reach out towards Heero, cupping his chin and holding his gaze firmly with his own. "How could I say that?" he wondered softly. "How could I say that when I fell in love with your voice, too?" The rough pad of one thumb slid across Heero's cheek, loving the way it curved beneath his touch. "I fell in love with your voice only to find out I was already in love with your eyes."

"I love rock 'n' roll,
So come and take your time and dance with me!"

They stood there on either side of the door like that for many long seconds as Heero allowed Duo to explore the planes of his face with his cautious touch. It seemed like he had to be imagining this scenario. There was no way Duo Maxwell could want him like this - not when there were so many others out there. But the way his stomach felt almost sick with butterflies, as the warmth of Duo's fingers permeated through his skin, was a definite reminder this was anything but a dream. "Won't you please step inside?" he whispered, his eyelids drooping heavily with euphoria. The intimacy of the moment, no matter how much he enjoyed it, had to stop quickly, lest he embarrass himself.

"Said 'Can I take you home?
Where we can be alone?'"

Duo's hands fell from Heero's face, and the longhaired DJ felt overcome with tenseness. He wanted to lean in to kiss Heero, but the chance for such a whim had been snatched away before he'd gathered to courage to do so, and he cursed his fear of making a mistake. But that was in the past, and now Heero was stepping aside to allow Duo entry into the low-ceilinged kitchenette. "Watch your step," Heero warned, gesturing to the two steps just beyond the threshold with a slight nod of his head.

The idea that he was entering Heero's house finally became clear to Duo, and the significance of it assaulted him with monster-truck force. He closed the door behind him and took a moment to absorb his surroundings. The kitchen was an odd mishmash of modern conventionalism and old world class. The cabinets were white-painted wood, the countertops stainless steel, and the white fridge looked like it dated back to the 1950's. The floor tiles were tiny black and white squares and the walls were plaster, but the wooden support beams overhead were fixed with silver track lights and the stove was a very industrial, high-end gas range. A table built into the wall jutted out beneath the one window by the door, covered with newspapers and old mail; a single chair sat beside it.

"Okaeri," Heero said quietly, letting Duo absorb his surroundings. He knew his home wasn't really fit for guests - the truth was that he never really had any - but he hoped that the fact it was good enough for him made it good enough for Duo.

Duo moved to sit down on the short flight of steps that led up to the main foyer on the other side of the kitchen, feeling a bit uncomfortable with taking the only chair in the room for himself. Heero was over by the sink, where he'd left his glass of water, filling another for Duo. His movements were still enchanting to Duo, who was content to just watch the other man; there was something about seeing how comfortable Heero was in his own home that touched Duo in a way he wasn't even quite sure he could describe.

Heero came over to Duo, offering the other cup of water to him as he said, "You look like you ran all the way here." Then, with his own glass of water in hand, he sat down on the top step, which was just above the one the DJ was already lounging on.

Duo didn't say anything about Heero's choice to sit with him instead of on the chair, but inside, he was giddy, especially with the touch of Heero's calf against his upper arm, despite the fact they were both still sweaty and gross from the heat outside. He sipped at the icy water, hoping the rim of the glass hid the shamelessly content smile that kept threatening his lips.

"Duo," Heero said after a little bit, causing Duo to lean on his elbows and roll his head back so he could see Heero's face while he spoke. "Do you still want what I promised you?"

Duo was a little confused, and the way he knit his brows made it apparent. "What do you mean?" he wondered.

"Your prize," Heero clarified, audibly clearing his throat. "For guessing my Connect Three."

"But I didn't guess it," said Duo, unsure of what Heero was trying to get at. He set his glass down on the step by his foot and twisted his body towards Heero.

"You did - you said you brought yourself," Heero said plainly, not trying to dress up his meaning with any kind of clever wordplay this time.

"I -" Duo cut himself off, deciding there was no point in trying to argue. For once, Heero was being perfectly clear, and he knew he'd be lying to himself if he tried to say he wanted it any other way. "What's my prize, then?" he asked, relenting with a small laugh.

Heero's fingers were lost in his thick, chocolate hair, his eyes dancing around Duo nervously. "I have two tickets to Lollapalooza..." he hinted carefully, hoping that he hadn't read Duo wrong. Despite the sweet moment they'd had at the door, he still feared rejection from the one he'd allowed to crawl so deep into his heart.

Duo arched his eyebrows, tentatively stretching his far arm across Heero's shins so he could place his hand on the step beside Heero. He lifted himself a little so he could peer underneath Heero's thick bangs and into his eyes, leaning in a bit closer. His mouth was moving, but the words were trapped deep in his throat.

"I know it's nothing that special - especially considering you and your job and everything," Heero went on, fighting hard to keep himself under control with the sudden proximity of Duo. He wasn't sure if he was imagining it, either, but every moment, despite Duo's inability to speak, he seemed to be creeping even closer. "B-But, I'd really love it if you'd come with me," Heero managed to stammer.

There were so many things Duo thought to say to this, but he thought they would all taste a lie on his tongue. He was too intoxicated by how close he and Heero were - how it seemed like they were inhaling the same breaths of air. He wanted to touch Heero again, to give into that impulse to kiss him.

He did.

Heero's lips were parted in surprise beneath his, trembling, but they were firm and damp with a rather pleasant flavour. Duo's eyelids slipped closed and one of his hands wandered up to cup Heero's cheek as he allowed himself to simply feel and taste the object of his affections for so long. For his own part, he was amazed that Heero wanted to kiss him back, his farfetched fantasy somehow sinking into reality. Did he dare hope for more?

"Is that a 'yes'?" Heero asked softly when they parted and Duo had moved to settle his forehead against the crook of the Japanese man's neck.

"Do you really have to ask?" Duo murmured against Heero's warm flesh, liking the way Heero's pulse felt beneath his slowly moving lips. "I'd go anywhere with you."

Though he loved the way Duo's body was twisted across his, Heero felt like he was just short of having a panic attack with all the unrest that was coursing through his body. He didn't want to ever leave this moment, afraid that he'd never get it back. "I've never felt like this before," Heero found himself admitting, his voice a shaky whisper.

"Me too," said Duo, pressing himself closer to Heero's body. He could feel the hard planes of Heero's muscles through the thin, black cotton of his sweat-soaked Zero shirt, yet he still wished he could rip himself free of it and feel skin against skin. "I can't say I particularly dislike it, though."

Heero made a low, whimpering noise that was meant to be a sound of agreement. He wasn't all that capable of coherent thought at the moment, too preoccupied with thinking about how he'd like to have Duo's hands on him. One of his own hands trailed across Duo's shoulder, toying idly with the hem of his sleeve like he wanted to tug it off. "Are you going to stay?" he asked softly, his fingers twisting in the black cotton faster now.

"Will you let me?" Duo asked, turning his head a bit more so his words fell more like kisses against Heero's neck.

Heero thought it would be sort of redundant to say anything to that, so he merely reveled in the touch of Duo's lips on his skin, his fingers clamping down hard on Duo's arm as the DJ's mumbled words melted into a series of aggressive kisses. Duo's palm was flat against his bare hip, the other against his back.

Before long, Duo had eased Heero back onto the floor of the foyer, his legs sprawled down the short flight of steps to the kitchen. His chest was pressed flush against Heero's, his shirt riding up over his abdomen as he slid across Heero, his mouth searching for the other's lips. The hand that had been lingering on Heero's hip had now dragged itself almost forcefully down his thigh, clamping down on the strong muscles.

Duo had wanted to kiss Heero for a long time, a wish that had been aching his heart more intensely every time he passed Heero at work, stood with him in the elevator, or even just thought about him. A thousand possible scenarios as to how their first kiss might play out had recycled themselves through Duo's mind over and over, but not once had he dreamed that it would turn out like this. Being sprawled out on the floor of Heero's foyer, their bodies separated only by a thin, cotton tee shirt as they kissed and touched was like a fantasy that had been even too beautiful and wonderful for Duo's own imagination. Heero had seemed like everything he could never be and would never have, and yet, here they were, holding each other tightly. It made Duo wonder what it was that Heero found attractive about him in turn.

"I want you to be mine," Heero hissed against Duo's cheek, arching up against him as their movements became a bit more frantic. His legs slowly inched apart as Duo's hand began to wander across his thigh and down his groin, and Heero pressed his blunt fingernails into Duo's shoulder blades as if the longhaired DJ was the only thing keeping him grounded on earth. "I want - I want --!" Heero's voice was beginning to sound course as his panting sped up, his head tossing from side to side. "I want you!"

Leaning heavily on one arm, Duo's wide blue eyes were fastened intently on the bare-chested man beneath him. He couldn't help but gasp along with Heero as the touch of his wandering hand elicited passionate reactions from him. He had the urge to just rip off Heero's spandex biking shorts, to spread his legs further apart and settle between them and pleasure Heero with even more intimate ministrations. And then there was that urge to just tear off his own clothes and give in to the raw, animalistic need that was starting to seed itself in the pit of his belly.

That urge - that need - the rims of Duo's eyes suddenly felt stiffened, the hand that was palming Heero's groin freezing abruptly over the growing heat between his legs. "What are we doing?" Duo whispered hoarsely, his eyes raking Heero's sweat-slicked body as if he'd never seen it before. He seemed almost horrified he'd let himself lose his control so easily.

Still breathing hard, Heero regarded Duo carefully, his face unreadable. "What's wrong?" he asked softly, hoping he sounded as neutral as possible. Despite how desperately he wanted to continue, he could tell that Duo had become uncomfortable with their situation, and he didn't want to say or do anything that would frighten him away.

"Everything - nothing...." Duo shook his head, clearly unsure of how to explain. He pulled himself off Heero, sitting up on his step and folding his hands between his knees as he peeked back at Heero from behind his long, wispy fringe. "It's not your fault," he tried feebly. "I just... well, getting so carried away and all, and we've barely kissed - that's not right, is it?"

Heero pushed himself up onto his elbows, understanding now evident in his dark blue gaze. "I suppose I know what you mean," he agreed, though his body desperately missed the way Duo felt against him. It was an alien sensation, certainly, but he'd already admitted that he'd never felt this way before; surely that meant the rules could be slightly different.

"Can we kiss a little more, first?" Duo asked, his acute fear of taking the wrong step with Heero cropping up again. He didn't want to move to fast; according to most stories he'd heard, as well as some personal experience, it was the premiere way to screw up a relationship. "Just to get more comfortable with each other, I mean. So we can take it slower."

Heero couldn't believe that Duo Maxwell was so hesitant with growing close to someone, but thinking on it, he supposed he really wasn't all that surprised. "I don't have a problem with that," he agreed, sitting up and scooting down to sit beside Duo on the same step. He leaned in close to Duo and carefully reached up to cradle Duo's face just as Duo had done to him prior, guiding their mouths nearer. The kiss was soft and tentative, even more so than their first one, and it was then that it truly became clear to Heero that this was right - more right than anything in his life. His eyelids were heavy when they parted, but he still felt like he could see galaxies.

"I like kissing you," Duo mumbled, still sounding a bit unsure. He pulled his face away and stared down at the kitchen tiling. "I like kissing you enough that I'm afraid to. I'll fuck it up. I always do."

"You're thinking about it too hard," Heero said.

"The last couple times, I messed up because I wasn't thinking about it enough," Duo answered glumly. "I'm not up for a repeat performance - especially with you. I can't. I don't know what I'd do. I - I think I love you, though - not that it's something you don't know already." His eyes flicked over to Heero quickly, just to gauge his reaction.

"Duo, it's okay; I understand," Heero said, tentatively laying a comforting hand on Duo's shoulder. "We have a lot of time, though; it's not like the world is ending tomorrow."

Duo looked up at Heero, a wane smile trembling on his lips. "With this weight I feel, Heero, it might as well be."

Heero didn't say anything to that, knowing there was no point in trying to argue a feeling that didn't even belong to him, even if he was sure he felt the same way. Instead, he just allowed his hand to creep over to Duo's, his fingers curling reassuringly around the palm. He supposed that if he couldn't subdue Duo's fears about his universe falling apart, he could at least hold his hand while they watched it crumble together.

--

The next morning, the first thing Trowa said to Heero when he finally strolled into their cubicle - a whole four minutes and three seconds late at that - was, "You totally got laid, didn't you."

The rather pleased expression that had been adorning Heero's face was immediately replaced with a reddened look of embarrassment. "Trowa," Heero admonished sharply as he pointedly sat down in his chair, clunking his backpack loudly onto the desk.

If anything, that served to make Trowa grin even more deviously. "You so did," he decided with a sage nod. He wheeled his chair over to Heero's half of the cubicle, rubbing his hands together like a gossip-hungry girl. "So tell me how it went. Where? Was it you? Or was it Duo who did the fu -"

"Trowa!"

The green-eyed man winced in surprise, but not because Heero had rebuked him again, but because Quatre had startled him by appearing in their cubicle, calling his name. Trowa immediately pushed away from Heero as if he was worried his boss was going to reprimand him for teasing his cubicle mate.

Heero quickly spun around to face his desk, pulling the zipper of his backpack open with unnecessary force before he started jerkily rooting through it for his office clothes, which he still had yet to change into, all the while trying hard to shut out the things Trowa had been insinuating before Quatre had shown up. It was really to no avail, though: the image had been planted in his mind, and all he could think about was that make-out session with Duo and the things it had most certainly been leading up to.

The bathroom was thankfully vacant when he got there; he always got a bit self-conscious changing when other people were there, even if he was safely hidden away in one of the stalls. Selecting the largest one so he'd have some space to turn around, he locked himself inside and hung his backpack on the door's hook before untucking his tee shirt and pulling it over his head with both hands. Balling it up unceremoniously, he went to shove it into one of the backpack's side pockets, but ended up pausing momentarily as he did, remembering that this was the same shirt he'd been wearing that first time he'd spoken to Duo on the Metro. He growled a little, wishing Duo was the sort of person that was easy to push to the back of his mind, but knew that was impossible. Hastily, he divested himself and redressed in his usual khakis, oxford and tie.

He was glad to find that Trowa and Quatre had wandered to Quatre's office to carry on whatever conversation they'd been in engaged in when Heero had left for the bathroom. Heero kicked his bag underneath his desk and plopped down resolutely in front of his computer, determined thrust himself into the business of the day without a thought for anything else - particularly Duo. He still turned the radio on, though, excusing it with his dislike of pure silence.

The day was fairly regular, except for when Heero's mind would still wander back to what had transpired on the floor of his front hall. He at least managed to keep himself fairly controlled and on task, even when Trowa would shoot him these odd, knowing glances every once in a while, like he could peer into Heero's mind and see all the shameless desires squirreled away there.

The routine of the day was clearly too circumspect, because around eleven o'clock, things came just short of being derailed. Just when Heero thought he'd purged himself of the animalistic needs that he attached to Duo, the longhaired DJ chose to call, shoving Heero right back to square one all over again. For Duo's benefit as much as his own, Heero fought to keep from embarrassing himself when he answered the ringing phone, praying that Trowa wasn't paying attention.

"I was gonna come in to the station early today - something with the boss about being more careful about what I say on air or some shit," Duo told Heero. The whoosh of passing traffic muffled his voice in Heero's ear. "That's not the point, though," he went on, his words coming out a lot faster now, making his nervousness more than apparent. "I was just wondering - since I'll have a bunch of time to kill before my shift and all - would you like to go have lunch with me? If it's convenient to your lunch break, I mean," he added hastily.

"Of course I would," Heero answered almost immediately, completely red-flagging his eagerness. "Tell me the place and when and I'll meet you there. I don't care where it is - I'll go."

"Really?! Sweet!" Duo sounded fairly pleased himself, even as he gave Heero brief directions to a small Chinese restaurant a few blocks away. "It's called A & J's - sits at the end of a little parking lot," he explained. "It's next to this tiny oriental bookshop that's got Asian pop stars hanging in the windows. You can't miss it."

After a little more brief chatting, Heero hung up the phone feeling exceedingly giddy. He was sailing so high, the very pointed, smug stare Trowa was wearing didn't even faze him. It relieved Heero to no end that Duo still wanted to be with him; he had been so sure things would sort of fizzle out quickly. Lunch couldn't come quickly enough.

Heero found the restaurant with a fair amount of ease. Duo was waiting for him on a park bench outside the place when he got there, and he immediately sprang to his feet when he saw Heero walking towards him. Nervously rubbing sweaty palms against the thighs of his jeans, Duo smiled and choked out a nervous hello.

Moments later, they were sitting opposite each other at a small table for two in the little restaurant. The place was simple in dŽcor, with plain wooden furniture and only a few Chinese paintings mounted on the eggshell white walls, but almost all of the restaurant's patrons were Chinese, a good testament to the quality of the food there.

"I'm glad we got a chance to hang out like this," Duo said after they'd given the waitress their orders. He leaned his elbows on the table and folded his hands beneath his chin, content to just watch Heero and his genteel movements. "We're both so busy and I want to spend more time with you - I like it a lot."

Heero's smile was serene and content. "I like it too," he agreed, startling a little when he felt Duo's knees collide with his beneath the table. "I like you," he whispered, his voice becoming significantly quieter.

Duo kept feeling tingles shooting through his body every time his long legs got tangled with Heero's beneath the table, but when he heard Heero say that last bit, he lost feeling in every nerve from head to toe. "What does that mean, then?" he wanted to know, wanting so very badly to reach across the table to take Heero's hands into his. "For me and you, that is."

Though he knew the sort of question Duo was angling with and the sort of response he was looking for, Heero wasn't sure he would be able to answer it. He was well aware of what he wanted, but how could he be sure it was what Duo wanted too? Maybe Duo was just looking for some kind of affirmation of friendship, the devil on his shoulder would whisper into his ear, despite the evidence that stated otherwise. Not knowing anything for sure would allow Heero to fool himself with the illusion that there was some sort of real future for him and Duo Maxwell. At least, that's what he told himself.

"You're awfully quiet," Duo commented, drawing Heero out of his fearful spiral of thought. "I sure hope that's not a bad sign." He sounded a bit nervous. "I mean, what you said was true, right? You like me? Because I -"

Hands folded genially on the tabletop, Heero met Duo's eyes and said instinctually, "Duo, I love you." His voice was emphatic and his expression sincere, though it still wobbled in places. "It's a strong thing I've felt for a long time - longer than I've really known you - and I'd... understand if you told me what you felt wasn't the same."

Duo's hands crept across the tabletop, seeking Heero's. "You say that almost like you're expecting me to turn you down - like you're used it," he said, weaving his fingers through Heero's. "Heero, I already -"

All waitresses seemed to have an inherent skill for knowing when a conversation was reaching a climactic point to bring the meal, and this waitress was no different. Duo's hands slid free of Heero's as he slouched against the back of his chair with an annoyed sigh, blowing his long bangs out of his eyes with a moody puff of air. Meanwhile, Heero watched silently as the woman set down the various plates and bowls containing their food. She plunked a hot metal teapot on the table and then promptly glided away, completely unaware of what she'd interrupted.

It was hard to get the conversation back to where it had been before, so Heero and Duo instead just took to silently dishing themselves samples of all the things on the table. Their chopsticks got interlocked in the bowl of peanut noodles, and there was a moment where they were both pulling on the same piece of shredded pork ear, but other than that, the pace of the meal had become significantly slower and neither one was quite sure how to pick it up again.

While pouring himself a cup of tea with shaking hands, Duo cursed his inability to confidently tell Heero how he felt, still worried that he had no idea what he was doing. He was so distraught over this that his cup overflowed, and in a panic, he fumbled the teapot, scalding a pair of his fingers on the hot metal. Immediately he grabbed for his napkin to mop up the spilt water.

"Are you okay?" Heero was quick to ask, concerned when Duo started sucking on his two burnt fingers. "Let me see those." He worked hard to keep himself focused; the image of Duo suckling his fingers like that was making it very easy for Heero's mind to start pulling out the erotic imagery that involved the two of them on just about every flat surface he could think of.

"It's not a big deal," Duo said, removing his fingers long enough to speak, thankfully dulling Heero's rather overactive imagination. "Just me being a klutz."

But Heero would have none of that. He quickly snatched Duo's hand and held his palm gingerly as he examined the burn. Much to Heero's relief, the burn truly wasn't a thing to be concerned about.

"Really, don't worry about it," Duo insisted, trying to pull his hand back, despite the way Heero's hand automatically tightened around it when he tried to do so.

"I want to worry about it," Heero said adamantly, keeping Duo's hand still.

Duo stared across the table at Heero, letting his fingers go limp in Heero's reassuring grasp. "Me and you," he whispered. "What's going on?"

Heero opened his mouth like he meant to say something in response, but he found the words crowding in his throat. His hold on Duo's hand loosened, but Duo's hand still lay there tamely. "For as right as this feels, we certainly seem to be doing things completely wrong," Heero commented, his eyes drawn to the way Duo's skin crinkled around around the contours of his palm. His deep blue eyes flicked up towards Duo; "Is it because we're really that thick... or are we just afraid to be right?"

Every time Heero looked at Duo that way, the longhaired DJ felt pinned to the spot, his breathing uneven and his heart rate sporadic. "Just give me a little more time," Duo mumbled, Heero the only thing in the room he was able to see. "I just need more time to get things right."

Heero smiled and gave Duo's hand a squeeze to convey that he understood just as the waitress came by with their check, a pair of fortune cookies and a sliced orange for good luck. The moment she set it down, the hand that had been lying in Heero's all this time suddenly twitched and shot for the bill. He held the paper up so Heero couldn't read it and went digging into his back pocket in search of his wallet.

"How much is it?" Heero asked as Duo pulled a twenty and a ten out of his wallet.

"Twenty-six dollars and some change," Duo said casually, laying his money down on top of the paper receipt.

"That's what I owe?" Heero asked, reaching for his own wallet.

"No, that's the total," Duo replied, still focused on the check.

"Half of which I'm going to pay," Heero said as he started counting money out of his slim black wallet.

"Forget it," Duo said sharply, pushing Heero's hand back as he tried to lay fifteen dollars onto the table. "This one's on me."

"I can't let you do that; I'd feel bad about it," Heero argued back, pushing his money back towards Duo.

Duo shook his head, his braid quivering behind him as he did. "I picked the place, so I got the tab," was his reasoning.

Heero let out a sigh of defeat, knowing it was a silly thing to row about. "Alright, you pay this time," he said, reaching for his fortune cookie, "but only on one condition."

Duo was in the middle of reading the slip of paper that he'd just removed from his own cracked fortune cookie. 'Perfection in life lies in its imperfections,' it said. At the sound of Heero's voice, his head snapped up, his eyebrows arched in question. The waitress strolled by and Duo absently handed her the check with his thirty dollars, ignoring the fifteen Heero had contributed.

"I'm taking you out another time so I can treat you," Heero said with a note of finality in his tone as he watched the waitress walk away. "Somewhere really nice where you'll have to wear a tie and a dinner jacket."

The series of shapes that morphed Duo's lips made his face highly amusing as he struggled to come up with a way out of this one. "You planned that, didn't you!" he accused, wagging a playful finger at Heero. "I don't even own a dinner jacket!"

"Are you saying you don't want to go out with me?" Heero asked, arching one eyebrow. He nodded at the money still lying on the table; "It's still not too late to pocket that."

Duo glanced down at the fortune still pinched between his scalded fingers and then back up at Heero, his mouth splitting into a wide grin at last. "Of course I would, Heero," he said. "Of course."

--

Relena stood in one corner of the elevator as it approached the top of the building. On the other side of the small car stood Duo, decked out in his usual tight black ensemble, and the handsome, reserved businessman named Heero Yuy. All three of them had run into each other in the ground floor lobby while waiting for the elevator, and since then, Relena couldn't help but keep a spying eye on the pair. She could tell things were changing between them - that they were starting to grow even closer - and she couldn't help the bud of joy that flowered inside of her every time she even thought about it. Duo had been a cynic long enough; it was time for him to start relishing it for what it was.

"Stop by later," Duo said to Heero when the elevator doors opened on the Winner Enterprises floor.

"I will," Heero smiled and nodded, gripping the brown bag containing his lunch against his chest. The doors slid closed with a low ding.

"Don't think I didn't see the way you were discreetly trying to hold his hand," Relena said slyly when they were alone. "He didn't look like he was complaining too much either."

A rosy blush warmed Duo's cheeks and he clenched his hands into fists at his sides. "Is it really that obvious?"

"What, that you want to do him shamelessly?" Relena asked, casually glancing at the dainty watch on her wrist. "Wearing a sign around your neck is possibly the only way you could be more so."

The elevator doors couldn't have reopened on W-Rock's floor fast enough; Duo practically ran to the studio, praying that Hilde was still out with the flu so that she and Relena couldn't have one of their little gossip rendezvous. After a quick chat with the midday DJ on his way out, Duo took to settling in for the afternoon. He dropped the blinds on the windows that peeked into the soundproof studio, a habit he'd gotten into ever since Hilde and Relena had taken to spying on him from the other, smaller one. The concept of someone watching him while his back was turned seriously creeped him out.

With a resigned sigh, he whipped off his purple jacket, tossed it over the back of the chair in front of his microphone, plopped down into it and snapped the headphones onto his head. When the Trews song that had been playing finally came to a close, Duo folded his arms on the counter and leaned in to the microphone. "102 W-Rock, this is Duo hanging with you on your Friday afternoon - hope it's going awesome for you. I'm all by my lonesome today - Hilde's still got the plague. But that doesn't mean I won't deliver you some hot tracks to tie off your workday. Let's kick this bitch off with one of my personal favourites: it's the Chili Peppers and 'Falling Into Grace' only on 102 W-Rock...."

Duo leaned back and dug the heels of his palms into his eye sockets tiredly, all the while trying to pretend that he didn't think of Heero whenever he heard this particular song. True to his word, Heero had treated him to dinner at one of the nicest restaurants in town the night before, and he'd been up ridiculously late thinking about the intoxicating kiss Heero had left him with and where it might have led if he'd been able to follow through.

"And when we get
In the same place
At the same time
It is your grace
That I want to fall into now...."

Listening to the song, Duo realized what a mistake it had been to put it on right away. Now all he could think about was how he wanted Heero to be with him right then and how he wanted to just buckle down and tell him all the things he'd had on the tip of his tongue for so long. There was no need to hide behind the music anymore - especially when it had been the very thing that had brought him Heero in the first place.

Still, Duo knew there wasn't much he could do about it until he saw Heero again. He decided it would be best to try to avoid playing songs that would make him contemplate his relationship with the beautiful Japanese man and resolved to make his desire for him more than a thing he found in his dreams every night.

--

Meanwhile, at Winner Enterprises, Heero had long since finished the salad he'd bought and was now back to working on the contract he'd abandoned before he'd gone out for lunch. The radio was on, but it was proving to be more of a distraction than mere background noise. Every time Duo took a moment to comment between tracks, Heero found himself impatient for a free moment so he could run upstairs and see the longhaired DJ.

He was certain he'd be able to at least finish his current task before the urge to kiss Duo became beyond overwhelming, but then the erotic beat of the last song he needed to hear at the moment started to fill the airwaves. "Got a request for 'Closer'," Duo said, sounding a bit unsettled, despite his apparent insouciance. "Man, if only you guys knew the hits I take for you."

"You let me violate you...."

If Heero's thoughts hadn't been wandering to Duo every ten seconds, he probably would have been able to ignore the lyrics of the almost unbearably sexual song. He knew it was going to take every scrap of willpower to his name to keep from embarrassing himself.

"You let me desecrate you...."

Very quickly, the importance of

finishing the contract for the business deal he was taking care of the next day was waning. Whatever cruel entity had inspired someone to call in this song was probably having quite the laugh at Heero's expense right then. The 'hits' Duo had been referring to suddenly became very clear to Heero.

"You let me penetrate you.
You let me complicate you."

Heero's hand smashed roughly onto his keyboard, causing a string of random letters to zoom out from the end of the last sentence he'd typed. There was no way he was going to be able to handle this like a sane person. He felt like a starved man being teased with glimpses of an extravagant feast.

"I wanna fuck you like an animal!"

By the time the song had rolled around to its first chorus, Heero had had more than enough. He pushed his chair back and abruptly stood, just short of running out of the cubicle and towards the elevators. Trowa stood up and poked his head over the partition, calling after Heero as the Japanese man hurried away: "Yo, Heero, what's wrong? Is everything okay?"

Heero flashed Trowa a hasty thumbs up sign before disappearing around the corner. He didn't even bother to wait for the elevators and instead found his way to the stairwell, taking the steps two at a time in his rush to get to Duo. He didn't even care if he seemed promiscuous showing up at W-Rock to see Duo because of that song.

He burst into the W-Rock reception room and skidded to a halt, finally forcing himself to take a few deep, even breaths. He was thankful that the blond secretary - Relena, if his memory served him right - barely looked up from filing her nails as he stood there, trying to gather his wits. "If Duo's expecting you," she said nonchalantly, "just go on back and knock on the door. He'll let you in."

Heero completely missed the sly grin she had pinned to the back of his head as he walked by her desk on his way to the broadcasting studio. Hoping he was still welcome, he rapped his knuckles against the door and waited to be received. Nine Inch Nails still played in the background, wafting from the speakers that seemed to be all over the station's offices.

The door opened a few moments later and a familiar hand shot out, grabbing Heero by the tie and dragging him into the studio. Duo let go of Heero's tie and gave the door a hearty push once Heero was inside in favour of slamming him against it, one hand planted firmly on the doorpost and the other clamped tightly over his shoulder as he assaulted the Japanese businessman with a ravishing kiss. Duo's lips worked Heero's mouth open, giving Duo room to push his tongue inside.

Heero let out a kittenish mewl as Duo worked one of his thighs between Heero's legs, pressing up against him with shameless need. Heero supposed this sort of thing was inevitable with all the tap dancing they'd done around each other for the past few weeks. The build-up must have been eating away at Duo's core just as badly as it had been at his.

"I wanna fuck you like an animal!
My whole existence is flawed.
You bring me closer to God!"

As the song started to fade back into the thrumming beat that made up the song's driving pulse, Duo's wild kiss started to ease up, and by the time the W-Rock promo played and shifted over to the next song on the play list, Duo had released Heero completely. He stepped back and collapsed in his chair, nervously running his fingers through his thick, sienna hair. "I'm sorry, Heero," he said, his blue eyes darting all over the place. "It's just that I'd finally gotten to a point where I could be straight-forward with you, and then that song and you showing up right then...."

"It's okay," Heero said breathlessly, still leaning against the door lest his weak knees send him toppling to the floor. "I've been thinking about seeing you all day - the song made it urgent. I don't know if I'm thankful or annoyed that it was requested."

"Same here," Duo agreed, the merry flicker returning to his wide eyes.

"I couldn't help myself, Duo," Heero explained with a tiny shrug. "Even without the song, just the sound of your voice excites obscene numbers of feelings inside of me. Everything else could wait; I had to see you right away."

"I just...." Duo trailed off for a moment, playing with his hair again as he tried to gather his thoughts and arrange his words properly. "It's hard for me to really say - I don't have a lot of self-confidence, and my self-image is terrible; I have trouble understanding what the hell you see in me, but what I do know is that this thing I feel for you - whatever it is - it's just like that. I want to be close to you, Heero Yuy." His hands were sliding down the length of his long braid one after the other, over and over again.

"You don't have to try and explain," Heero insisted, holding up a hand. He finally felt sturdy enough to walk towards Duo and knelt on the floor beside Duo's chair so he could rest his forearms on Duo's lap. Heero decided he had to be living a dream as he laid his head down in the cradle of his arms, purring a little as Duo started messing with his hair instead. "I was always here for you, and here I'll stay," Heero murmured, his eye half-closed in contented euphoria as Duo's fingertips massaged his scalp.

Duo chewed his lip as a torrent of emotions threatened to burst free. Even though he knew that they were in the privacy of the soundproof studio and that the only person who would see him cry would be Heero, he didn't want to concern the other man. In all honesty, he simply wanted to kiss Heero all over again. And then, as that want tingled upon his lips, he couldn't help but ask, "Heero - why? Why go to such lengths for a guy like me?"

Heero lifted his chin, unfolding his arms so his hands could seek Duo's. "I'm not sure there really is a why," he said after a brief moment of consideration. "A why is a reason - a motivation. I don't think reason or motivation has any place here." He rose up and gracefully straddled himself across Duo's lap so he could easily lay another kiss on Duo's parted lips. "But if you really need some sort of validation, that's my answer," he whispered, pulling away just long enough to speak before leaning in for another kiss. A shudder ran down his spine when he felt Duo lay a hand upon his hip, and he soon rested his own on top of it, holding it firmly in place as their kiss began to grow more explorative.

Duo started tugging at Heero's crisp oxford linen, pulling the tails out of his khaki slacks so he could slide his other hand underneath it, pressing his palm against the small of Heero's back. He followed the ridges of Heero's spine downwards, plunging his fingers beneath his belted waistband. He just wanted to touch Heero, to know that he was really there and to hold him as close as possible. The fact that they were in a rather inappropriate place for this kind of thing wasn't really the first thing on Duo's mind right then; the music was set to just keep playing on its own and he needed this right now.

Heero nipped at Duo's lips, then kissed along his jaw line and down his long neck. Perhaps what Duo needed was a little coaxing, a reminder that it was okay to be intimate with him and that he had nothing to be afraid of. He heard Duo let out a little whimper as his tongue traced the shape of his collarbone, and he smiled against the DJ's skin.

"Heero, maybe we should be more discreet," Duo rasped, his fingertips digging into Heero's hip in an effort to hold him in place. "This feels - it feels so -!" The loud gasp that followed fell heavily from Duo's lips as Heero rolled his hips roughly against his. The feeling made Duo's already tight pants feel even smaller, despite the stretchy fabric. "I mean, should we be -?" His words were cut off by another needy moan.

"If it feels good, do it," Heero said hoarsely as he climbed off Duo's lap so that he would be able to more easily nuzzle his way down Duo's chest and abdomen. He fell back to his knees, but this time, instead of just settling on the floor, he pushed Duo's knees apart so he could remain close to his body.

Sitting in the chair with Heero nestled between his legs like that had Duo gripping the edges of the seat with a white-knuckled hold. Heero was currently nosing the fabric of his tight, black tee shirt up so he could taste the skin beneath it, his fingers toying with Duo's belt and the waistband of his pants enticingly. "It feels good," was all Duo was able to get out coherently between his racing gasps. "God, it feels good...."

The smirk Heero pressed against Duo's abdomen was nothing less than mischievous. Glancing up, he was treated to the beautiful image of Duo tossing his head back and forth, his long braid twitching behind his chair with each movement. It seemed that Duo had thrown his inhibitions about pacing to the wind, and that only spurred Heero on further.

"Tell me if you're still comfortable with this," Heero said softly, making sure he caught Duo's eye as he spoke. The DJ was sprawled low in the chair now, his chin resting against his collarbone as he watched Heero with a half-lidded gaze, breathing hard.

Duo probably couldn't have made complaint if he'd wanted to, and he just let out a sound of acceptance. No sooner had the contented sigh left his lips before Heero's fingers were at his silver belt buckle, jerkily pulling the leather strap free of it and whipping it from Duo's hips with one fell twist of one arm. He cast the belt aside and then placed his hand atop Duo's muscled, quivering stomach, forcing his bucking hips back into the chair. Heero's other hand was busy working at the buckles on Duo's motorcycle boots, pulling them off his feet one at a time, followed soon after by both of Duo's black socks. They landed haphazardly near the belt.

If it hadn't been clear what Heero's intentions had been initially, they certainly were now. Duo looked down hazily at Heero, who was watching him carefully from beneath his thick eyelashes as he lingered over the mounting heat between Duo's thighs, all the while toying with the shining snaps that kept Duo's pants tightly fitted around his hips. "Please let me be closer to you, Duo," Heero breathed, his words warm against Duo's bare skin. "Don't be afraid of me."

Duo reached down and cradled Heero's head gently, inviting him to continue. After all the thinking and needed he'd been doing as of late, he wanted Heero to know he was no longer frightened by the unknown: that he was willing to take that fall for Heero - with Heero.

The simple touch was enough to convey Duo's meaning, and Heero hardly had to be coached twice. He ripped the snaps of Duo's pants apart with savage force, impatiently pulling the fabric out of his way and revealing a thatch of hair just a twinge darker than the thick sienna hair covering Duo's head. Peeling Duo's pants further down his hips, he left him sprawled in the chair, naked from the waist down, his tight shirt bunched up around his midsection.

Pants caught up around one shin, Duo spread his legs further apart, bending one over the arm of the chair, his back arching with pleasure as Heero's lips sought his hardening cock. He had never felt so raw and free before, and he knew it was this passion that burned for Heero that excited this yearning need within him. Even just the flutter of Heero's long eyelashes against his groin was enough to make Duo want to come right then and there.

Heero's tongue flicked across the hardened flesh between Duo's thighs, a pair of his fingers curling beneath it to toy with Duo's shifting sac, palming and teasing it as he licked his way down the heavy shaft. He could barely stand how wanton he felt giving Duo pleasure like this, but the feeling was strangely alluring all the same. His free hand worked the knot of his tie, loosening it before running down to his own belt buckle, which he deftly unfastened with all due haste. Desperately, Heero fumbled for his own arousal, which was growing more needy with each passing second his tongue was occupied with Duo's. He began to build up a steady rhythm with his hand, which he mimicked with his mouth.

"Uhn - Heero - God, Heero," Duo grunted, urging Heero's mouth further down onto his cock, wanting nothing more than for his Japanese lover to just swallow him whole and suck him dry. He was well aware that Heero was stroking himself from the muffled groans that vibrated against his sensitive member, though the image of Heero's slim fingers wrapped around his wet penis was only serving to make him more needy.

Duo was so close to that sweet pinnacle of ecstasy, but just as he thought he was going to reach it, Heero retreated and sat back to free himself of his khakis and boxer briefs. Duo wanted to cry out piteously for Heero to come back and finish what he started, but he found himself taken with the innocent way Heero looked as he struggled to tug his pants off. Duo noted, with a droll sense of humor, that the Hawksley Workman song 'Striptease' was playing in the background.

Suddenly, even though he was wearing only his rumpled shirt, Duo felt he was far too covered. He wanted Heero to see all of him, to take pleasure in the sight of his completely naked body and tell him that he was beautiful. Deftly, he yanked his shirt over his head, flexing the muscles in his shoulders as he did so. Smirking at Heero, he tossed his shirt in his direction, just short of laughing when the black garment landed on his head.

Heero returned the playful expression lighting Duo's eyes as he pulled the tee shirt off his head and threw it aside. He lifted a coy finger and beckoned Duo to the floor with it, a command the braided DJ seemed more than willing to comply with. Duo fell on all fours and crawled over to where Heero sat, greeting him with a ferocious kiss that left their lips raw and bruised.

As they kissed, Duo's hand started to wander back towards his still-aching cock, desperate to bring himself off before he simply couldn't bear it anymore, but Heero was quick to grab his wrist. "That's for me," he growled into Duo's ear, pushing him back onto his haunches. "I want to be the one to touch you." The admission made Duo's insides twist with anticipation; he loved how Heero gave in so completely to his most instinctive primal urges.

Heero moved to settle behind Duo, one of his arms wrapping around Duo's torso so he could fondle his lover's sobbing cock. He flicked his thumb across the tip of it and dragged it down the length of the hardened organ as his eyes took in the sight of Duo's back, which was patterned with a beautiful mural of tattoos that stretched from the back of his neck and dipped across the curve of his buttocks. He was so caught off guard by the unprecedented artistry adorning Duo's skin that his hand even slowed in its ministrations, much to Duo's growing frustration. "Kirei da ne," Heero breathed as he traced some of the patterns inked into Duo's back with his other hand and then bent to kiss Duo's shoulder blade.

"Heero, you're not helping me out here," Duo moaned, stretching like a feline beneath the kisses Heero was showering upon his back. His cock swung stiffly between his thighs, begging to have Heero's hand wrapped around it and pumping again.

Heero applied a pressure to his kisses that lead Duo onto his hands and knees once more. Duo seemed more than happy to oblige, pleased that Heero would finally allow him that release he'd been craving for far longer than he'd realized. Duo could feel Heero molded behind him, his chest flush against his back as he continued to follow the swirling lines marking Duo's skin with trails of kisses. One of Heero's hands cupped the strong, flexing muscles of Duo's ass, holding him still as their passions started to mount and take complete control.

Supporting himself on his other hand, Heero brought the one that was gripping Duo's flank to his mouth, sucking on three of his fingers before slowly dragging it across Duo's ass, guiding is middle finger between the firm cheeks as he sought to penetrate him. The muscles flexed around Heero's slick finger as he pushed it deep into his lover, feeling his belly tighten dangerously when Duo let out the most erotic-sounding whimper he'd ever heard. Still bent over Duo, the oxford and tie he still wore tumbling around their bodies and cloaking their nakedness, he leaned closer to his ear, soothing, "Be sure to tell me if you still want this. We can stop any time you want."

A strangled moan choked Duo's throat as Heero's finger curled inside of him. Breathlessly, he rasped, "God, don't, baby doll - don't ever stop."

Heero took his cue, pulling his finger out long enough to add his other two saliva-slicked digits and then roughly pressed the trio of them back inside, gently spreading and stretching them to the chorus of Duo's needy moans and grunts. The sounds tumbling from Duo's wide lips were driving Heero's libido wild, making his thrusting fingers piston more quickly. Sitting back on his calves, he redirected the hand he'd been using to support himself to his despairing arousal, which was still weighted with need. He jerked at it forcefully, his mind already envisioning the sensation to be like plunging himself deep into Duo's tight body.

Meanwhile, Duo's vision was cluttered with star speckles as he rocked back onto Heero's fingers, wanting desperately for the other man to stop teasing him so cruelly. He wanted to feel what it was like to be joined with Heero in the most intimate way possible, to feel his thick, hot seed leaking between his thighs as they made love. He wanted to beg for Heero, but his voce was incapable of anything more coherent than hoarse shrieks of passion.

The waves of euphoria Heero was riding were starting to mount to a completely insufferable height, and he knew it was well past time to stop playing around. Removing his fingers from within Duo, he prepared to jam the longhaired DJ with his agonizingly hard cock, which was twitching impatiently in his palm.

Duo mewled hungrily as Heero slowly pushed the rounded tip of his penis into him, the muscles of his ass clenching uncontrollably all the while. "Too slow," he managed to gasp, frustrated with the careful way Heero was entering him. "Fuck me hard, angel. I want it rough and hard and fast and - uhn...." He shuddered with pleasure, just then feeling Heero's cock nudge that certain spot buried deep inside.

Heero's hips jerked against Duo's ass, and Duo let out a pleasure-sodden groan. Despite the fact Heero had started to speed up his pace, it still wasn't enough for Duo, and he took to throwing his own hips back, slamming himself harder onto Heero's thick member. "That's better," he purred, loving the way Heero allowed him to take control of their lovemaking. He threw his head back and let the raw bliss consume him.

Finding that Duo wanted to do most of the work, Heero soon started to sink backwards, propping himself up on his elbows and then falling to his back, repositioning them so that Duo was straddling his hips backwards and riding him with savage force. Heero pushed his hips upwards to meet Duo as he forced his body down on Heero's cock, stifling his euphoric moans with the back of his wrist. His other hand lay splayed out on the carpeted floor beside him, his fingers spasming each time Duo took his cock inside. His legs fell crookedly, spread wide to accommodate Duo.

Duo's still-aching arousal thumped heavily against his abdomen as he pleasured himself on Heero's cock. His eyes rolled back in his head as he blindly groped for it, forcefully fisting it with one hand and working it hard, wanting to get off before he couldn't stand it anymore. "Oh, Heero, yeah..." he groaned as he felt himself getting closer, his rhythm becoming just short of frantic. As Duo's burning seed exploding across his stomach, he yelled Heero's name at the top of his lungs, the passionate shout kept safely protected within the soundproof studio.

If Duo riding Heero's cock as violently as he was hadn't been enough to send Heero over the edge, that abandoned scream sent him tumbling. He thrust upwards with one leg, lifting his lower body off the floor as he rammed himself as far into Duo's ass as he could possibly get until he felt his own seed spurting from his cock, filling Duo's hot passage and dribbling down across Heero's groin. Then he collapsed, completely sated as he felt the last of his energy slowly seep from his pores. He was breathing hard, and he had a number of rug burns on his back, but he'd never felt so good in his entire life.

Dismounting Heero, Duo crawled around and stretched himself out across Heero's body, ignoring the little flecks of cum that dripped off their thighs and stained the carpeting. Tossing a leg over Heero's hips and pressing his groin against Heero's side, Duo wrapped an arm around the Japanese man's shoulders and pressed his lips and nose against his neck. "I think I just caught a glimpse of heaven," Duo murmured tiredly, his lips spread in a satisfied grin against Heero's skin.

"I think I just felt it," Heero answered, staring up at the ceiling with vision that was still a bit hazy and unbalanced.

Duo laughed warmly, his eyelashes fluttering against Heero's cheek. Then he kissed his face affectionately and sat up, groping around for Heero's boxer briefs, which he then used to wipe himself up before doing the same for Heero. With a smirk, he deposited the now-soiled underwear onto Heero's stomach, saying, "I sure hope you don't mind going the rest of your day commando."

"I know you won't mind," said Heero, sitting up and arching an amused eyebrow.

"And don't you forget it," retorted Duo as he started to pull his tight pants back on. The throbbing sensation in his ass was a bit uncomfortable, but he didn't mind, since it served as an explicit reminder of what he and Heero had just done.

Duo was just in the process of pulling his shirt back on when there was a muffled knock on the studio's door. He quickly got to his feet and padded over in his bare feet, opening the door just wide enough for him to poke his head out into the hall and keeping Heero's half-naked state something for his eyes only. "Yes?" he asked, his more than apparent cheerfulness almost suspicious.

Relena was the one standing outside the door, her arms crossed sternly over her chest. "Wufei wants to know why you've gone almost forty minutes without a break of any kind," she announced. "You're supposed to mention Lollapalooza at least four times an hour."

Duo smirked, sticking his hand through the crack between the door and the doorpost so he could make a shooing motion with it. "Wufei needs to trust that I know how to do my job," he said, still smiling stupidly. "Tell old jerkface not to get his knickers in a twist - I got it covered. Just was a little... busy for a moment or two there."

"I see. Well... carry on, then," she said, waving her hand dismissively at Duo as she continued down the hall towards her desk.

Duo closed the door and leaned against it, an indulgent expression crossing his features as he watched Heero slowly pull his khakis back on over his muscled thighs. The recent memories of Heero's naked body filled Duo's mind, sending a pleasurable jolt down his spine. He grinned lazily as Heero stood up and approached him, his shirttails still hanging out of his pants and his tie loose around his neck. He wrapped his arms around Heero's waist when he got near enough, pulling him close for a kiss and whispering, "Give to me sweet, sacred bliss - that mouth was made to..."

--

Relena leaned back in her swivel chair, idly filing her nails as she cradled the phone between her ear and her shoulder. "He's such a dork sometimes, I know," she was saying as she held her coral pink nails up to the light for inspection as the person she was talking to made another comment. "Oh God, I know! You couldn't leave him to take care of anything by himself."

"Maybe I should get sick more often," Hilde said from her end of the line, her voice a bit thick with the phlegm coating her throat. "I feel like there's serious potential for amusement here."

"Or amusement here," Relena emphasized, tossing her nail file aside and taking the phone into her hand. "Let me just say: the studio's soundproof, yes, but it's not that soundproof, if you catch my meaning...."

Hilde let out a sickly gasp. "Well, there are at least a million and one innuendo-filled songs left to request," she said around a low cough. "Thank God I sound like a man with this sore throat. He didn't have a clue."

Relena was still laughing as well, her sky blue eyes twinkling with mischief. "I told you it was brilliant." She and Hilde shared another chuckle at Duo's expense, and then Relena said, "So you'll cover for me if I call in sick next week? Ever since I saw how fast his boytoy come speeding in here, I've been thinking about songs."

"Relena," Hilde said in all seriousness, "I am so there."

Just then, there was a faint beeping in the background of their conversation, and Relena excused herself for a moment to take the other call. "Hello, 102 W-Rock; this is Relena speaking."

The person calling didn't speak right away because it sounded like he was trying to quell the rather audible laughter of someone in the background. "Hi - hello?" a male voice said after the situation on his end seemed to be resolved. "This is Quatre Winner..."

"Oh, Mr. Winner!" Relena's back suddenly straightened, though it wasn't like Quatre was there to see how good her posture was. "How can I help you?"

The hysterical laughter suddenly spiked in the background again and Quatre had to pause for a second time to tell the other person to calm down. "Nothing terribly extraordinary," he said, his voice smacking with amusement. "I was just wondering if, about fifteen or so minutes ago, my ears were working properly when I heard a couple interesting addendums to 'Intergalactic Planetary' on the radio."

"What do you - oh, shit." Relena suddenly stopped, lifting a hand to her mouth as she tried to bite back the laugh that was threatening to burst free. Part of her felt like she should have been embarrassed for her friend, but most of her was just beyond entertained. Smirking, she said, "Mr. Winner, I can assure you that you are not crazy and that what you heard was just a bit of... experimental remixing, courtesy of the one and only Duo Maxwell."

"That's what I thought," Quatre said, this time not even bothering to silence the uncontrollable laugher of whoever was sitting with him on his end. "Well, just let him know that if he ever needs any pointers my door is always open." Not even Quatre could keep his voice steady as he said that last bit.

Relena grinned, suddenly really excited for the next meeting Wufei and Duo were going to have about censorship. "I'll be sure to let him know, sir."

"And another thing," Quatre added. "Tell Heero that while I appreciate him wanting to lend Duo a hand with his... experimental remixing... I don't pay him to flirt."

"I'm sure that's exactly what our boss is telling Duo as we speak," she replied with a grin. "Anything else you want me to relay?"

"Yeah," he said, his voice actually becoming a tad more serious. "Tell him to keep up the good work. The rewards are bound to be limitless."

--

End

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A/N: I'm starting to wonder if writing fanfics is a method of agonizingly slow suicide....