Mel: Alright, it's been a while, hasn't it? Well, because all of you have pretty much agreed on a spark for me…

Reviewer mob: 1x2! 1x2! 1x2!

Tiny minority of reviewers: 5x2?

Reviewer mob: GrrRRRRR! *attack tiny minority*

Tiny minority: *battered and bruised* 1x2….. x.x

Reviewer mob: *glare at Mel*

Mel: *grins nervously* uh… 1x2?

Reviewer mob: *nod, then leave so Mel can write the story*

Mel: Phwhew. I didn't think I was going to get out of that so easily…

Lawyers: *look hopefully at Mel*

Mel: *sighs* Ok, ok… you can have this. *tosses lawyers a plastic bag*

Lawyers: ?.?

Mel: It's candy.

Lawyers: *dive into bag*

Mel: From two Halloweens ago.

Lawyers: *spit candy out*

Mel: Hey! Don't blame me! It's not my fault my parents hide the candy. My brother and I just found it last weekend.

Lawyer 1: Why do your parents hide the candy?

Mel: ^_^() Well, I'm hypoglycemic, so if I have too much sugar at once, my blood sugar plunges. Then I start feeling like poor Duo who hasn't eaten in days.

Lawyer 2: If I wanted to know that, I would have become a physician.

Lawyers: *leave*

Mel: Wow… no disclaimer needed? *grins* I'm starting to like my lawyers! Let's see how much more I can get away with

Disclaimer: There is nothing to disclaim. *grins* because I own ALL ANIME!!! MWA HA HA HA!!!!!

Lawyers: *are kicked into Mel's room through the door* (itai….) Fix that.

Mel: ^_^()

Disclaimer: I disclaim that last disclaimer, it's not mine.

Lawyer 1: *shrugs* good enough for me. Let's go bug Blue Blaze, she has cookies. *leaves*

Remaining lawyers: *look out door*

Lawyer 1: *runs in screaming* NOT THE DOGS!!! NOT THE DOGS!!! AHHHHHH!!!!!!

Mel: O.O

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing, just a few DVD with episodes on them.

Lawyers: Thank you. *sprint out of room*

Mel: oi…… *rubs temples*

Warnings: You asked for it, 1x2. Here it comes…

Heero moved his hand quickly across the paper. The side of his hand had turned silver from rubbing it over the graphite drawing. He couldn't forget how Duo looked when he saw him. The image gnawed at his mind, making it impossible to concentrate on anything else. He finally finished his sketch, and tore it out of his book.

The picture was done very well, and showed not only what was really there, but also what Duo had made him feel. The boy's eyes were covered in a dark shadow, his mouth was slightly open, lips chapped and bleeding. He had a small shred of something that looked like it once belonged to his white shirt dangling around his arm. The gun was being held in both hands, not quite covering his privates. Heero couldn't stand looking at the picture, and quickly crumbled it up and threw it into the trash can. It was the only piece of paper that hadn't been shredded first. For some reason, Heero couldn't bring himself to completely destroy any of his works, no matter how much they disturbed him.

"The curse of an artist," he muttered to himself. Deciding that he had spent enough time drawing for the moment, he slid his sketch book and pencils under the bed, a temporary hiding place while he looked for a better one. After concealing the evidence, he left to wash the graphite off his hands. He didn't expect to run into anyone on the way there.

Duo's eyes widened as Heero stepped out of his room right in front of him. He quickly reached out to put his hand on the wall, trying to keep his balance. It didn't work. He fell forward against Heero, and nearly knocked him over as well.

"What are you doing up?" Duo carefully stood up, gripping Heero's arm until he was sure he could stand up on his own, and then looked around. Slowly, he turned his head to either side, ending facing Heero again, and gave him a questioning look, pointing at himself. "Of course you, baka. What are you doing?" Duo smiled and pointed at the bathroom behind Heero, then held up his very messily braided hair. Heero nodded. "Let me know if you need any help." Duo rolled his eyes and passed by Heero, as if to say, 'You'd only mess it up!' Though he closed the door behind him, Heero lingered by the bathroom. He wanted to be sure the braided baka didn't do anything he might regret.

Duo stared at his reflection in the mirror. His normally pale skin was almost white, and his violet eyes looked dull and empty, void of the spirit that everyone knew him for so well. He looked like a demon. Duo reached for a washcloth and ran the water in the sink until it was hot, then rubbed his face carefully with the dampened cloth. It felt good to have that warmth pressed around him; it was comforting and helped him clear his head. After he had finished, he put the cloth to the side and smiled at his reflection. It looked much better. His face had some more color to it, and his smile looked genuine, but his eyes still seemed to be lying to the world. Duo pushed the thought out of his mind and continued with what he had come there to do.

He reached into the drawer under the sink and pulled out his brush. Then he took out his hair tie and shook his head, letting his tangled locks cascade over his shoulders. 'At least my hair's clean,' he thought as he began to brush the ends of the mass of brown hair. After he had untangled his hair as much as he thought possible, he reached up over his head to start to braid it. He was greeted by white sparks invading his vision, and a sudden piercing pain that coursed through his upper body. His knees gave way under him and he fell to the floor. His mind only vaguely registered the pain when his head smacked against the wall behind him, and then again into the cold linoleum floor. Duo felt numb. That was the only way to describe it. It was as if his brain had become overwhelmed with the sudden pain and had shut down just so it wouldn't have to deal with any of it. He noticed a sudden darkening of his vision, and wondered if he was about to pass out.

"Duo? Duo!" Heero knelt down next to Duo's limp body and gently rolled him over onto his back. The boy was breathing, and his eyes were open. Heero sighed in relief, assured that he was conscious. "Are you alright?"

Duo furrowed his eyebrows, trying to see what was in front of him. He could make out a dark mesh above him, but he didn't want to try to move to reach out to it. The dark patch moved slightly, and he felt a sharp pain lancing through his left shoulder. He gasped as the fire coursed through his arm, and began to breathe harder. It felt as if no matter how hard he tried, he would never be able to fill his lungs. He was becoming dizzy, and what little bit of his vision he had regained was now slipping away from him.

Heero quickly removed his hand from Duo's shoulder. The boy was still gasping for air, and Heero didn't know what to do to make him calm down.  Finally his mind told him to go get help, and he prepared to leave the room to find Quatre.

Duo watched as the dark shadow above him began to move away. He panicked and reached out with his arm, hoping to get a hold of the figure. His fingers wrapped themselves around something soft, and the figure stopped moving. Duo closed his eyes as he waited for the pain to pass, satisfied that he would be able to see the person when it was over.

A hand reached up and grabbed Heero's arm, keeping him from moving anywhere. Duo's white-knuckled, shaking hand was clenched hard enough to bruise Heero's arm, but the braided boy had begun to breathe normally, and that alone was worth all the pain in the world.

Duo slowly opened his eyes again; the pain was over for now. He smiled as he saw Heero above him and tried to sit up.

"Ugh" As Duo pushed himself up, he pulled Heero down on top of him. The American grinned sheepishly and let go of Heero's arm, allowing him to sit on the floor next to Duo. "Are you alright now?" Duo gave a small nod, and propped himself up against the wall behind him. "What happened?" Duo again grinned sheepishly and rubbed his shoulders, then pointed to his once again messy hair.

"You were trying to brush your hair?" Duo gently shook his head and wove his fingers together, then held them up to Heero's face. "Braid?" Duo nodded and closed his eyes. "Do you… want help?" The mute boy gave Heero an incredulous look.

'As if he knows how to braid hair. Hah!' Even though thoughts of disbelief were running through his mind, he wanted his hair braided and out of his face, so he handed the brush to Heero.

"You'll have to move if you want me to be able to reach the back of your head." Duo sighed and lifted his still aching body off of the floor, and sat down on the toilet.

'He'd better know what he's doing…' Heero ran the brush through the thick locks gently, pulling hard enough to untangle the hair, but not hard enough to pull on the scalp. After the hair was straight, he carefully separated it into three equal sections and crossed the right section over the center and caught the center one with his pinky, pulling it to the right, then he did the same thing with the left strand. His hands moved slowly from lack of experience, but his work was nearly flawless. Not a single hair escaped the woven tress as he worked. When he finally reached the bottom, he didn't have a hair tie to secure the braid with.

"Where do you keep your hair ties?" Duo turned his upper body around, wincing as he did, and pulled a black band off of the end of the brush, then took his hair from Heero's hand and secured it with the elastic band. After he had finished, he stood up and looked at his hair in the mirror. His hair was exactly as it should be. His eyes widened in surprise and he turned around. 'Where the hell did he learn to do that?'

"There. Now, go get something to eat." Duo tried desperately to get his question across, wrapping his braid around his hand, staring at it, and then pointing to Heero. But the Japanese boy purposely ignored him and returned to his room.

~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~

Heero pressed his back against the door and took a few deep breaths, trying his hardest to subdue his erection. 'It's a miracle Duo didn't notice…' He walked over to his bed and sat down. Then he hit his head against the wall… repeatedly. "Stupid. Baka. Idiot. Moron. Can't. Believe. You got. Aroused. From braiding. Hair." Every word brought his head crashing against the wall again. Finally realizing that what he was doing would definitely attract attention, he flopped back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. 'Not the most productive thing I could be doing,' but Heero wasn't feeling up to much more that that at the moment. He was too busy berating himself for acting like that around Duo. He was in bad enough shape as it was. 'Alright, time to get some work done.' Though Heero's mind was telling him to get up and get to work, he was too busy thinking about how scared he had been just a few moments before, and how stupid he was for how he had reacted afterwards.

~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~

Quatre stared at Heero's closed door, wondering just what his friend was doing behind it. Weighing the possibilities, he figured that it probably wasn't as important as what Quatre needed to talk about, so he opened the door and stepped inside.

"Heero?" The Japanese boy lay sprawled out on the bed, his legs hanging off the side. He sat up quickly and glared at the blond.

"You could have knocked."

"I... forgot." Quatre turned his head slightly to the side, not wanting to look Heero directly in the eyes. This conversation had certainly not started out as well as it could have.

"…" Heero ran his hand through his hair once, then stood up. "What did you want?" Quatre looked down at the floor, again averting the Prussian blue eyes.

"We have to talk… It's about Duo…" Quatre risked a glance upward to see Heero's reaction the boy simply stared at him with uncaring eyes, waiting for him to continue. The blond shivered involuntarily before he spoke again. "Do you think he's… he'll be able to pilot?"

"He won't have to for two weeks at the very least. He should be healed up by then."

"Yes, but…"

"You mean mentally?" Quatre winced. That was exactly what he was getting at, though it pained him to think that way about his friend. "He seems to be as stable as he's always been, aside from the fact that he refuses to speak."

"I spoke with Trowa and Wufei last night…"

"And?" Heero arched an eyebrow and waited for Quatre to get to the point.

"They feel that he should be suspended from all missions until he… recovers…." Heero took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Quatre could sense his anger, though he felt that even the most unobservant people could feel the rage radiating throughout the room.

"And you?" Quatre bit his lip, knowing that what he was about to say would only make things worse.

"I agree with them." Quatre was sure that Heero would have hit him for taking such a side. He was very surprised when he nodded.

"You're right. But as I said, there won't be anything to worry about. He will have fully recovered by the time we're given missions again." Quatre closed his eyes and gave Heero the best smile he could muster.

"Of course. Duo always bounces back. Anyway, I have to leave for a meeting. I'm going to be gone for about 5 hours, so you and Duo are going to have to manage dinner on your own. If anything goes wrong, call Wufei. He's stationed in the area. I left the number near the phone." Heero nodded and watched as Quatre left, closing the door behind him. Heero slumped back against the bed again and closed his eyes, thinking.

To be continued….

Mel: We hope!

Tsuru: No, readers hope. We doubt, and you go off to Kat's.

Mel: Noooooooo, I'm staying here and gathering some more fics to post tomorrow morning with this one!

Tsuru: Oi….