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"Halfway to Sublimity"Written By: Kaeru Shisho Disclaimer: I don't own any part of Gundam Wing
or its characters, nor do I make any monetary profit off this story. Rating: NC 17 Warnings: AU, male/male pairings, language Pairings: 1x2x1 Summary: When Duo moves to a new town on the river,
he meets a young man running the river and a rich boy who seems nice.
Maybe he'll settle down for awhile, or maybe not. "Halfway to Sublimity" Chapter Twenty-Nine Disclaimer: I don't own any part of Gundam Wing or its characters. I make no monetary profit off this story. Warnings: AU, language, rated for male x male sexual situations A/N: thanks for beta reading goes to Waterlily, who, along with Snowdragon, I'm most grateful for support and encouragement. (Heero's POV) To celebrate having his leg freed from its confines, Heero joined Duo and Trowa, taking the flatboat and a canoe north for surveillance duty. They felt pressure from Zechs to gather information on their enemy's reputed northern naval base, so they set out the very day the cast was removed. Duo insisted that he bundle up well and that he let Trowa and him do all the work. As a result, Heero decked Trowa in a tussle for the pole and stripped down to his shirt and fur-lined vest, a luxurious gift from Quatre to each of the men, before taking up his lead position at the "helm" of his boat. It was a stupid act of defiance, and he knew it, but it was his damn boat; his job. His lover "let him" show off for an hour then took over before he fell over. Heero was disgusted with himself. "My endurance is shot." Trowa, nursing his still-sore jaw, told him, "I hadn't noticed you goin' soft." "Sorry about that," Heero said sheepishly. Trowa's smile stretched and they both shared a gentle chuckle. "You be all righ' in no time." "I wish time would stop for a few days," Heero muttered, leaning back on a pile of folded oilcloth tarps. The enemy's steam ship building site and naval base turned out to be in a bedraggled shanty town north of Tumult called, ironically, Devine. Trowa was the only one of the three who had spent time there. He knew the area better than the others and combined with his experience at infiltrating, hiding, and gathering information from his past trading days, he became the best choice to lead the investigatory work. He knew that when the river branched, the "upper" way was more treacherous, but faster, and took them on the "lower", main part of the Rogue. "Dotcha think they'd hide a shipyard that way?" Duo had asked. "No, dere's rapids an' high cliffs, no way to make channels fo' boats." "Oh." Heero thought Duo sounded disappointed. He seemed to like excitement and daring acts. They'd be plenty when they found the hidden enemy base, of that Heero was certain. "Besides," the Cajun said with a half-smile, "I gots me an idea w'ere it may be." He steered the flatboat close in, examining every inlet, switching to his canoe when necessary to creep up on low lying areas. Ice rimmed the shoreline and a stiff headwind buffeted against them all the way. After one of his solo jaunts, he lashed the canoe to the flatboat and climbed aboard. "Well?" Duo asked. "It's here," Trowa replied. "The Rogue branches, the upper going up this way and the lower going here around that island ahead." "Flatboats stick to the upper; it's deeper and faster," Heero said. "The two parts meet up a mile ahead." Trowa nodded. "What the enemy's done is cut a canal into the lower river and taken it inland to the base." "We can't just float up there," Duo said. "No, we can't." Trowa just stood there looking into the distance, examining the shoreline. "We go by foot. Put in up dat small channel." Duo handed over the pole, "Here, you're the expert at tight-in maneuvering." "Hn," Heero grunted with satisfaction, and then he smiled. "Yes, I am in every sense of the word." His lover's pride-saving moves weren't lost on him; they were appreciated. "Every sense...?" Duo's smile widened as he got the sexual implication. "Oh, yeah. Love your dirty mind." Trowa snorted, making Heero chuckle as he put his back into the pole. He steered his boat to the shore and into the narrow waterway that dead-ended within 200 feet. There, Trowa hopped to the shoreline, slippery with ice, tested a few abject trees for one stout enough, and tied the boat off. Duo helped him sheer brush and cut branches and toss them to Heero to camouflage the flatboat. "Good 'nuff," Duo said. "My hands are numb. I gotta get moving or I'll freeze standing." Along the banks of the canal stretched a higgledy-piggledy lot of shanties all unpainted, all with little dirty windows, and all with a yard that was more than ankle deep in cattle filth. There was usually a rude fence, always broken, allowing the cows, poor thin brutes, and the pigs, ridge-backed, flabby, and bristled, to wander anywhere. The pathway crunched under their feet with ice but held. "Nasty place," Trowa said, but then Heero knew he hated the cold climate of the north, preferring the Cajun bayou. "Yeah," Heero agreed; he certainly had nothing good to say. When even Duo didn't share his thoughts, he wondered if it reminded him of the L2 area. "You hearing strange yells?" Duo asked, his arm flying out to block the way. "And animals comin' dis way, fast. Move off de road!" Trowa shouted. There came scampering a herd of Siberian ponies. The three travelers bounded to one side, shut their eyes, and prayed they wouldn't be trampled while the hairy beasts jostled by. "That was a close one," Duo said. He took a swipe at a chunk of mud flung onto his pants. "Shh! Don' move," Trowa ordered. Squinting into the rising mist, Heero saw tawny-jowled herdsmen with huge sheepskin hats about their ears, the wool inside, and with great sheepskin coats, also with the fur turned to the inside, riding sorry nags and whipping up the straggling ponies with long biting thongs. The men took no notice of the three travelers. "Ah, shit," Duo groaned. "Look at the road now." It had turned into a six-inch mass of slush, part frozen, forcing them three walkers to trample through the low brush and weeds at the side. They were glad for the warm coats and heavy boots-the air was several degrees colder here than in lovely temperate Sublimity. Lucky for them they hadn't far to go before spotting the enemy naval base. Numerous dry docks were filled with large ships in various stages of completion and a few ships were floating nearby. One had attached what Heero considered to be a rudimentary steam engine. "Man, I wish I'd brought explosives," Duo whined. "We could take out the whole place." "Too dangerous, mon ami." "That's right," Heero agreed. "It's up to Zechs to step up barricades to ports and manage land attacks. He just needs information." "So, let's get it." Heero remained in position, watching as Trowa scrambled down from the outlook to the water, close in to inspect the ships, and Duo worked his way to a far off point. Should a guard fire upon them, he would provide cover, Duo would set up the diversion, and Trowa would lead the retreat. He kept an eye trained on both friends, rifle at the ready. "Barton, you are one amazing man," he whispered to himself as he watched his friend thread through the tight ranks of ships unnoticed. "Don't go there," Heero muttered automatically, although uselessly since he couldn't hear him, warning his friend away from the building at the end of the dock. Trowa must have noticed the guarded entrance, Heero thought with relief, because he backed off, heading toward the ship with the steam engine instead. Heero glanced to where he'd last seen Duo and suffered a moment of panic when he couldn't spot him. When he did, Duo looked about to inspect an outbuilding. What Duo couldn't see was the guard playing solitaire on an upturned hunk of slag in the shadow of a stack of crates. "Get away from that," he whispered uselessly, again. How could he warn Duo without giving away his location and endangering Trowa? A shaft of light escaping from the low sun in the cloud-filled sky gave him an idea. "Keep with me, sun." Heero withdrew his knife, polished it briefly on his pants, and then moved it into the light, twisting it slightly until the sun glinted off the bright edge. He checked the result. Duo, however wasn't looking for warning flashes, so he adjusted the angle further, aiming right for his lover's head. Duo's hand flew to his eyes and he knelt to avoid the light. Heero followed his movement. "You can't escape me," he grumbled. He was rewarded by Duo's grin and a slight hand movement indicating he'd like Heero to back off. He lowered the knife. "Now, you back off," he whispered. Duo pointed at the building. "No you don't," he thought and flashed the light, now dim. He was about to lose the sun completely behind a cloud. "Back off." He held his breath until he watched Duo creep away and go into hiding in a scrubby copse of trees, then his scrutiny returned to pinpointing Trowa's whereabouts. "C'mon, you Cajun sneak. Where are you?" A full minute later, he heard a bird call halfway between where he'd last seen Trowa and his own outpost. It was the agreed upon "all clear" signal for Duo to return and to warn him of Trowa's imminent return. Trowa knew better than to surprise a man like him on a hair trigger with a loaded rifle. "It's me, mon ami," Trowa said after making a purposely noisy entrance. "Hn. Duo's on his way." Heero's eyes flickered to catch Trowa's and then returned to scanning the path he expected Duo to take. "Dey had mounts fo' steam engines, but not so well designed as Howard's." "At least what you could see," Heero noted. Duo scrambled up the muddy path to join them. "Thanks for the warning. I might've gotten 'round the guy, but-" "Not worth the risk," Heero told him. He grasped his lover by the shoulders and drew him close enough for a hard, possessive kiss. He needed the reassurance that his lover was whole and alive and wasn't shy about revealing that vulnerability. Emotional needs were acceptable, physical less so, bodily injury should be overcome. "I need you," he whispered into the cold ear. "Me, too, babe," Duo replied, chuckling as Trowa cleared his throat. "I could tell dat dey were all sidewheeler's wid no way to climb de sandbars." "To do what?" Duo asked. Heero pulled away but kept an arm around Duo's waist. "Grasshoppering," He demonstrated. One hand held the thick braid, while his other hand bounded up the long braid on bent fingers. "With a boat?" Duo pulled his hair and whipped the braid to his back. 'You pulling my leg or something?" "No, no! Howard likes his boats mostly stern-wheelers fo' good reason. If dey hit a sandbar, dey turn about and dig dere way t'rough wid de big wooden wheel." "They 'walk' over the bar." Heero's fingers leaped up Duo's arm this time. "Grasshoppering," Duo said. "Dat's righ'." "When did you get so informed?" Duo asked Trowa. "Befo' I come here, I studied up so I know w'at to look fo'." Trowa rubbed his hands together generating little heat. "If dey got de engines fo' all des ships inside dat building, den Zechs' folks will be in deep trouble." "Then, let's get a message to him," Heero said, all business now. "There must be a postal service in Devine." Duo shook his head. "'Ro, I'm not sure we can trust the folks there to get a message south." "Probably right," Trowa agreed. "Let's check the town, then. We need fresh water and food supplies. If it feels good we'll send a message, if not we'll shoot directly home." "It'll be dark," Trowa warned. "I know the route from Tumult to home well enough to go in the dark." "Righ'. Den we go to town." First they wound back to their boat, uncovering it and driving it back up the channel and to the dilapidated wharves of Devine. They found an out of the way place to tie up alongside another boat, damaged and listing to the side, and covered it with oilcloth held down by broken crates. With their boat hidden, the three travelers set out to study the town. At one spot, behind the string of shanties, was a town square. There were a few big, blue-painted signboards with names on them, but most the signs had badly executed paintings of a fur coat or a plough or a kettle or a cabbage or a lump of meat, advertizing the clothing or agricultural implements or food inside to those unable to read. For a workday afternoon, the place was unwelcoming and desolate. The place appeared deserted, but then they caught sight of a lady hurrying along in layers of raggedy clothes. Around the corner they spotted an officer wearing a white linen jacket with a yellow band round his cap, a broad yellow stripe down his trousers, and an adornment of badges to distinguish his rank. They avoided contact with the officer by ducking into a bleak-looking dry goods. The shop, so dingy from the outside, surprised them when once inside. It was clean, full of commodities, a couple of attendants, and a few other purchasers, chiefly, judging by their blond hair and style of dress, from the far North interior of the kingdom. This decent store in so wretched a place amazed them till they remembered that Devine benefited from having the secret ship building to draw workers, workers who demanded merchandise, even if the local townspeople couldn't afford to buy it. One of the employees looked free. "Let me question her," Heero said. "Aw, that lady could be my mom. We can trust her." Heero watched as Duo turned on the charm with his cheerful smile and wide-eyed expression. He didn't expect him to be so direct, though. "Is there a way to post urgent messages?" Duo asked the grey-haired woman manning the counter. Heero watched Trowa tense to high alert status as he bemoaned the situation. He'd meant to warn Duo against saying anything; he wanted to do it. Since the entire town was somehow involved in the shipbuilding- and it was a tiny out-of the-way sort of place with not a lot of through-traffic- Heero thought someone might report three mysterious strangers passing through, especially if they wanted to send a message. Oh, Duo. "All mail goes through Tumult and that's once a day and it's already out for today." Duo listened and shook his head. "Yeah, I imagine all these military hotshots milling about have their own means of communication, leaving the rest of us up shit creek." The woman's expression actually softened a bit. "We never have had better," she said. "You have important business in town?" Before Duo could reply, Heero stepped in to deflect any more questions. "It the boat. We haul goods and my tiller needs urgent repair. The port blockades make it difficult. I was just trying to avoid conflict and get word to a comrade to haul us out." Now he realized that Trowa had been reacting to a different possible threat. "You ole Cajun," said a loud voiced man in trader leathers. "Where you been hidin' yerself? Ain't seen hide nor hair of you in Tumult fer a year." With a hand on the pistol stuffed in his coat pocket, Heero limped to the rescue. If by favoring the one leg he mislead the stranger to think he was feeble and underestimate him, then that could work in his favor, plus he was afraid to put too much weight on the weaker leg and collapse. "He's part of my crew." "That so?" The stranger raked his eyes over him and Duo and then back to Trowa. "You pretty boys outta stick together." He grinned. "Maybe you need a he-man like me to guarantee yer safe passage outta here?" "You dink we need yer ugly mug for protection?" Trowa put in with a chuckle. He took the man aside at that point to talk completely defusing the pressure. The woman at the counter was even smiling now. Somehow the interfering man had given them credence, identifying them enough as not complete strangers. She leaned over the counter, close to Duo. "You should know that this is dock-check day and have your papers in order." Heero looked to Trowa, who wasn't paying attention in an obvious way. Trowa should have warned them about the possibility of port security from his stay in Tumult and trading past. "Er...? Today?" Duo asked. "Yes, they come by once every five days." "Oh, sure," Duo said with a mournful sake of his head, "but already? Yeah, well thanks for the heads up. This tiller problem's knocked everything else out of my head; don't want to lose the cargo, ya know." "No you don't." She smiled, apparently pleased to have helped us in some way. And that was that. Heero picked out crackers and beer, Duo a few dried fruits and a finger's width of excellent cheese, Trowa peeled away from his old trader acquaintance, and then they hastily left. "Dere hangs a filthy Nord'ern slothfulness 'round dis place." "Agreed. We must leave immediately to avoid the guards." It was not till they were in sight of the river that the patrol boat ghosted past the docks, just as the attendant had warned them; it was the day for it to check for official passes giving clearance to visit the northern ports or temporary freight orders. Not having either, the three young men skirted the shadows until they located Heero's flatboat. "As luck would have it," Duo muttered, "we'd pick today to go spying." "I don't think the guard'll be searching the deserted boats at this end," Heero said, ignoring Duo's crabbing. He was just glad they'd taken the time to conceal the boat well. "De best place fo' us is to lay low a while on de boat," Trowa said in agreement. Not that any of them wanted to remain in the dreary, bedraggled little town, but they had no choice until the patrol left. "Another delay," Duo said. "We'll report our findings to Zechs as soon as we can," Heero said, his jaw tight. His leg was aching, muscles unused to the wear and tear he'd been infliction on himself, and making his temper short. Duo, he thought, hadn't any excuse and should stop his complaining. Trowa slit peepholes in the oilcloth and took first watch. "Sleep if you can. I'll let you know w'en we can leave." Unfortunately, before Duo or Heero could settle in, they heard the most awful wail and splashing. Not far off, they observed a keelhauling taking place aboard a ship of hard looking men. One man had been tied to a rope that looped beneath the vessel and he had been thrown overboard. "I didn't think that kind of thing was still being done," Duo said. Keelhauling was a severe form of corporal punishment meted out to sailors, but once the ships were close to a town usually any malefactors were abandoned to land jails. The man's hollers were silenced as his body was dragged under the ship's keep to the other side. As the hull was covered in sharp barnacles, they guessed the man would be covered in cuts. "If dey pull fast, he'll be hurt, but if dey pull too slow, he'll drown." "Devine, huh?" Duo grunted. "Town's more of a Hell-hole than divine. It's like an ugly grey wart on a beautiful hillside." "Hn." Heero winced, taking the weight off his leg and closed his eyes. He hadn't meant to, but he needed rest, whether he wanted it or not. This time, he thought his lover couldn't ignore the signs, and before he could deny his weakness Duo was settling him in the cabin with blankets. He remembered Duo cuddling close and a kiss. When Heero woke up, Trowa was moving under the oilcloth, returning the canoe to its place. "Checked on de patrol," the soft voice said. "It's gone." Duo's fingers were tracing a pattern over his chest. "Hey, babe. Time to go." As Trowa pulled off the oilcloth, Heero could see that it was nearly dark out, but only a few moments before sun set when the rare winter sun split trough a crack between mountains, reflecting in glancing blows across the water, rippled by the wind, and streaming onto the flatboat and glinting off the auburn flecks in his lover's dark hair. He was sitting on a pile of blankets fully dressed. "All right." Heero smiled at his lover and stood. "Give me a hand on deck?" "Hey, I gave you my heart, a hand's nothing, heh, heh-" "C'mon, idiot," Heero teased. He felt much better and by the time he was fully awake, standing on his boat pole in hand and with Duo at the steerage. Trowa took point, staring into the dark ahead, poking with a pole to verify their position, test the water's depth, and break up ice crystallizing over the still or slow moving surface. They met no other vessels that night. No animals of the night crossed their path, and the further south they went, the fairer the weather, less ice, and the safer they felt. Ten miles out of Sublimity as the sky lightened with the first signs of dawn, they were met by their first boats. "Who's dat, do you suppose?" Trowa muttered, his sleep-deprived voice sounding ragged. "H-huh?" Duo shook himself alert and squinted ahead. Heero saw dark shapes looming out of the mist trying to recall when he'd last seen his pistol. "Enemy-- here?" "Hey-ya, ho-hoo!" The hailing crew made themselves known. Trowa's grim expression lightened with a slight up curve at the corner of his mouth. "Maguancs." He waved his arms over head. "Quatre must have sent them out looking for us." In an uncharacteristically loud voice he returned the call, "Hee-ya!" The two stubby, comical-looking boats materialized, fleshing out as they closed in, and revealing the Winner company logo from sagging banners draped about the sides. A great mountain of a man stood at the helm of one boat. "That's gotta be Rashid," Duo said. "Oh, yeah. Dat be da man." Rashid waved and hollered back, "It's the Master's daring bare-back rider!" Trowa's face darkened so fast with what had to have been a blush and he choked back any words he'd been about to say. Duo let out a snort and then began to laugh so hard he couldn't steer. Heero dropped the pole and laughed too. Had Rashid really meant that to sound the way it had come out? The Maguanacs seemed oblivious. Heero guessed they thought the laughter was all just relief at being home again, which was fine. Duo, he knew, would find a way to tease their friend about it later. Within an hour, Heero found himself feet up on a soft couch at Winner's Watergardens estate, a delicious-tasting hot mug of cheer in his hands to ward off the chill, and his friends, minus Chang and adding Zechs, gathered close to discuss what they'd discovered. Merquise had already rushed to send orders to attack the base and returned to pace the room and tug at his chin. The man appeared more troubled than usual, and Heero thought Duo noticed it, too, but instead of leaving the man his privacy, his curious boyfriend just blurted out, "The base was just where you thought it would be, but no bigger than expected, so what's bothering you so much?" Duo asked. Zechs looked irritated enough to walk out of the room, and then Quatre added to the tension, much to Heero's surprise. "It's Lucrezia Noin," Quatre said. "Don't look at me that way, Zechs. You know you can trust everyone here." "It's rather personal." The troubled man stood and moved away to gaze out the window into the grey rain. "Yeah," Duo said, "nothing worse than girl trouble at a time like this. What she do? Give you THE ultimatum?" Zechs' lip quivered. Heero had no doubt the man was holding back several biting remarks. He stepped in to stop the blow he thought was surely to be delivered to his mouthy lover's head. "That's the least of his problems," Quatre said airily. "Winner-" Zechs growled. "Merquise-" Quatre said mimicking the tone. "It's nobody's business but my own." Quatre shook his head. "I disagree. It involves the success of this venture of ours." He paused a moment, but Zechs said nothing, so he went on to say, "Zechs' problems with Miss Noin has to do with divided loyalties. She must decide to take orders from him and cross Treize or not, which I'd assume would mean turning him in for treachery." "Why's Noin so tied up with Khushrenada?" Duo asked. "Why you were spying up north," Wufei answered. "Hilde and I uncovered a little more information. It seems that when Noin's family destroyed the Catalonia bridge, she was put under contract to Treize." "To pay off the family debt," Zechs said. "A minor thing, but she is an honorable woman. Treize assigned her to my command, where she's been an excellent lieutenant." "But when you directly attack Khushrenada, you place her in an awkward position," Quatre said to him. Heero watched the two men hold a stare-down contest. Duo didn't. He jumped right into the fray as if he'd been burning for a fight for days, and maybe he had. Heero knew the guy needed to let off some steam and they hadn't shared a truly private intimate period of time together for some while. "So I was right!" Zechs turned his head so fast his hair whipped Trowa in the face. "What was that?" "Gah-damned mane. Put it in a braid like Duo," Trowa grumbled, completely ignored by everyone except Winner, who pulled him onto his lap with a whispered, "Brilliant, dear," comment. Zechs was in Duo's face and Heero wound an arm over his lover's shoulders to mark his loyalties. "What do you mean?" "Look I don't claim to be an expert with boy-girl romances or anything, but I do know how women's minds work being 'round Hilde for so long." "What has any of that got to do with--?" "I'm getting there. Jeesh! Noin's got it bad for you, that much is obvious. I mean everyone can see by the way she follows you around, tongue hanging out-" Zechs dropped his foot from the footstool to the wood floor with a loud thump. "Don't be ridiculous!" "Duo's confusing Noin with Zechs' watchdog," Quatre whispered into Trowa's ear. "Non, mon ami, not if Noin is a bitch." Heero wondered how Zechs kept his composure. He had to have overheard their whisperings, but his eyes remained glued to Duo's. "Listen, Zechs, I know you're pretty smart and all, but you're missing all the clues here. Noin's bonkers over you and figures she's not getting any younger, ya know? How long's she been waiting for you to make some kinda move, eh?" "I'm her superior officer! I can't make a move, as you call it, on her, you blathering idiot." Duo's grin widened but Heero felt his shoulders tighten at the insult, his eyes, if Heero could see them, must have been flashing. "I'm sure you can work around the rules, if you want. She knows you can. Her dithering between you and the big bad "TK" (he pronounced it like "tick", the blood-sucking insect) is all a ploy, don'tcha see?" "No-" "Yeah, ya do. She can't just go and ask YOU to marry her. That's not cool. She's calling your bluff. I'll bet you my house-" "It's mine too!" Heero reminded him. Don't gamble our home away! "Don't worry, 'Ro, I'm so right about this," Duo remarked and then pursued his train of thought again. "I'll betcha anything you want that if you ask her to get hitched, she'd jump at that so fast you'll be walking-" "-de plank-" "UP the aisle in your next breath, if you get my drift." Duo rested his hands on his hips and cocked his head to the side. Heero took the opportunity to nuzzle into his hair and nibble at an ear, all the while keeping a wary eye on the other man opposite them. He wondered if Zechs even noticed how hard Duo had been working to get the "L2" slang out of his speech. "You expect me to buy her loyalty with a promise of marriage?" Zechs spat out. "Me? What does it matter what I expect? She's the one that is expecting to hear wedding bells. Once she's secured you, ole Tick'll be tossed out with the bath water faster than-" Zechs cut him off. "And you are willing to bet anything on this outrageous supposition?" Not I. "We'll bet our flatboat she accepts your offer and vows fealty to you and you alone," Heero answered. "You really believe what he's saying?" Zechs asked, astonished. "You must. That boat is your livelihood and the most important thing you own. All right, I'll take that bet but I don't want the boat. I want the two of you to serve in my fleet for one year, under my orders, if you are wrong." "What about you?" Duo asked. "What if we're right? What do you bet?" "If you are right then I lose my bachelorhood, don't I. Isn't that enough?" Zechs smiled at this. Heero didn't think he would mind losing the bet at all, actually, but acquiesced. "Agreed." "Good. I don't mean to be rude." Winner stood with an arm firmly around his lover's waist. "But, Trowa and I need some time to reacquaint ourselves." He smiled. "You all know where to find rooms?" "God, yes," Duo said. "Don't bother calling for servants at this hour." "I'm off, then to see to my troops. The bridge is in place, Howard's nearly ready." His face looked drawn with concerns and weighted with responsibilities. "The next time we all meet we'll most likely be at war." "If that ship Deathscythe's all it's cracked up to be, then it'll be a short one." Duo sounded plucky again. Which could only mean one thing-time to find a room. He felt Duo rearrange arms to take on some of his weight, and after saying goodbye, was lifted off his feet. "Hey!" "Hang on! I want you to have enough energy left for what I have in mind." With Duo's words ringing in his ears, Heero could barely hear his other friends muffled laughter fading into the distance. He was about to demand Duo put him down, when he heard Trowa yelling for the same respect and decided to go along with act. From what he could hear before the door slammed shut, Winner won the round, too. Heero put up a half-hearted attempt at topping his hot-blooded friend, but Duo's determination surpassed his many-fold. He submitted to the burning kisses, the smoldering gaze from the half-lidded, lust-filled eyes of the man astride him totally overpowered him. Why not surrender and yield complete control over to those ministrations? "You are delectable." At least, he thought Duo said something to that effect before the fiery ring of his lips soldered to his erection, sucking, and fingers wormed into his gut and pistoned a fast and hard rhythm, stroking, massaging, until Heero knew he was ablaze and burst apart with a scream. Silenced by a press of firm lips and the thrust of muscular tongue, fingers replaced by a larger, thicker, wet, hot poker-he could only raise his hips and meet his lover's driving beat with his own all-consuming thrusts. His body took over. With his lips unsealed he cried out, "D-duo!" and sent his lover to the brink. "Ugh! Ah!" was what he heard in reply before he felt the short, hard spasms, harsh breath cries of "Yes!" A great weight pressed him into the mattress, a rope of hair slithered over his face, and his lover covered him with his body. "Love you so much." Heero could only agree, "Yes," because he did but he was near exhaustion. Duo rolled off with a sigh. "Me, too. Now sleep." "Ummmm." Duo was asleep before he finished his thought. Happy, sated, complete, and dead to the world for the next eight hours. Tomorrow he'd be home, sleeping in his own bed with the promise of a long hot soak in the tub, his dog, his cat, his own home-cooked meal. Oh, he'd be training to operate his new craft, Deathscythe, too. It was all good. A good life. Sublime to be sure.
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