|
"Straight to My Head"Written By: Miss Murdered Disclaimer: I don't own the GW characters - am just borrowing to torment for my amusement Rating: NC 17 Warnings: light angst, awkward romance, some smut Pairings: 1x2 Summary: Heero's yearly Preventer
evaluation is usually an annoying formality. But this year, it is
much more complicated due to a certain Duo Maxwell... "Straight to My Head " Chapter 4: Where You Are, I Call Home It had only been one night and Heero already felt like Duo had taken over his apartment - that he had changed it from it's usual fortress of isolation to something noisier and brighter and no longer entirely his. When Heero woke up, Duo had managed to spread out his limbs so that Heero resided on only a small sliver of bed and Duo was snoring softly, the sound irritating rather than comforting. Heero got up, gathered his work out clothing and headed out for a run, all without waking Duo or disturbing him in any fashion. When he returned, refreshed, head clearer - his apartment smelt of coffee, of bacon and of strongly scented shampoo and Duo was sat curled up on his couch, his laptop open on his knee, his ponytail of wet hair having left a puddle of water on the cushions underneath it. "Mornin'," Duo said, barely looking up, "good run?" Heero grunted in affirmation. It had felt good to run and he had always found solace in the practiced easy movements of his body and in the beat of his heart speeding up in his chest as he moved. He had thought that his run would ease the low level annoyance he had felt when he woke up this morning. Yet despite the endorphins still running through his body from his exercise, Heero still felt irritated at the way that Duo seemed to ingratiate himself into a space without any consideration for Heero's feeling. Or maybe it wasn't that Duo was inconsiderate, it was just that Duo was normal and Heero clearly was not. That Duo didn't have to analyse every little thing prior to making a decision and didn't order things way in a very specific way. They were Heero traits and traits that probably made it difficult for anyone to tolerate him for any length of time. Sometimes Duo's persistence with him should be admired. No one else stuck around like Duo did. Duo placed his laptop on the coffee table and Heero decided not to be irritated by the stickers that covered it. It was Duo's machine so that he could decorate it however he liked even if Heero's laptop was devoid of such personal effects. He had no idea what any of the logos meant - he guessed band or movies that he had no knowledge of but to Duo they meant something. So many things meant something to Duo - movies and songs and books. Heero wasn't like that but sometimes he wished he was. As Duo walked towards the kitchen, he stopped briefly to press a kiss to Heero's lips, soft and fleeting, and it made Heero unconsciously touch them afterwards to feel the phantom trace of it. "I'm gonna finish making breakfast while you shower, 'kay?" Duo said. It felt like an order, almost, so Heero followed Duo's advice without any question. It was only when he was stood in the shower, the warm water soothing the ache in muscles, that he realised he was already falling into some sort of faux domesticity with Duo and it didn't feel… wrong. Not like it had in the past. After his shower, Heero dressed in his boxer briefs and a white tank top, leaving his Preventer uniform stretched out on the neatly made bed to put on after breakfast. Towel drying his hair, he walked back to the kitchen/dining area of his apartment, to see that his table was filled with a breakfast like he had not had in years. As Heero approached, Duo was placing the last items down, the freshly made pancakes, hot and fluffy, and he smiled as he noted Heero's arrival. "Breakfast is served," he said with an additional flourish of hands. And breakfast was served - more than was possible for the two of them to eat. Eat of their plates had a large stack of pancakes in the middle but then there was a bowl full of fresh strawberries, a bottle of maple syrup, a tray full of crispy bacon and a can of some kind of imitation "cream" product that Heero was sure contained no actual trace of dairy in it. "I can see that," Heero said wryly, "you are aware there are only two of us here?" Duo didn't reply immediately to that as he took a seat with his back to the main door of Heero's apartment. It was as though he knew that Heero sat with his gaze on the main entry and exit to his apartment while he ate and he didn't want to intervene in Heero's routines. Duo always instinctively knew Heero's idiosyncrasies. "If I'm making breakfast I might as well go big or go home, you know?" Duo said finally as he added bacon to his plate and then lashing of syrup. Heero didn't know but he took his designated seat and tried not to make Duo aware that he did not know what "go big or go home" meant. It sounded like an old slang term or a Duo-ism - he didn't really require a definition. "When did you have time to do all this?" Duo looked up then with a mouthful pancakes, a quizzical expression on his face as he managed to articulate the word "hmmm" mid bite. "You were fast asleep when I left," Heero clarified. "Yeah," Duo said after swallowing his mouthful, "and you leaving woke me up and I had to go get my Prev uniform anyway so I thought I might as well make a nice pre-mission breakfast. I'm always concerned when I see the state of your kitchen, 'Ro. I know food is fuel but you take that idea far too literally, man." Heero picked up his fork, tasting the pancakes by themselves before he added anything else to his plate. They tasted good, Duo had always been a very good cook, so he added bacon, strawberries and a small amount of syrup to the top of them. It wasn't something Heero had eaten often, in fact, he'd only had it when Duo had made it for him. "Good?" Duo asked, a slight look of concern on his face, apparently worried by Heero's neutral expression. "Good," Heero replied, the slightest of smile on his face. That slight smile made Duo beam, a natural smile that Heero felt lucky to see as so few saw Duo like he did - with his guard down. "I got the mission brief about why you are on the security detail," Duo said after a few minutes of companionable silence eating. "I can't believe there are people out there like that still. Well, I can. I just hoped that I wouldn't have to deal with them anymore." Heero nodded. Sometimes he wished he didn't have to deal with them anymore. But then when it was people he cared for, Heero wanted to be there. Wanted to be on the front lines once again to protect and ensure that those that he called family were safe. "Do you think the threats are real or just some crackpots?" Duo asked, his voice low and melancholy as he twirled a small piece of pancake in syrup. It wasn't the first threat against Emilia Peacecraft. And indeed, Relena herself was used to a daily deluge of threats due to her central position in the complicated world of Earth Sphere politics. But this time, it was deemed to have enough credibility to initiate a few extra precautions. "I hope they're not real. I hope it's just Preventer being overly cautious." "Me too, 'Ro. Me too." ~ * ~ |
