Summary: Takes place in the middle of part 16, after Duo shows up to Heero's room that first time, after the night-time incursion against Meridian, while at Wufei's place, before going in to arrest everyone at Meridian.
Notes: You have zanzou_chan to thank for this part, because she asked nicely. Twice. ^_^
A Scene from Axiomatic
"I think he's out for real this time," Duo judged quietly. Heero had fought the good fight against drooping eyelids for a few minutes there, but eventually even he had to give in to the demands of his body. "Think he's getting soft in his old age or what?"
Wufei made a wry sound. "Heero Yuy may be many things, but I doubt 'soft' will ever be one of them."
The look on Heero's face was soft. A little bit tired, maybe, but maybe a little bit open, too. "He's... changed, though." Maybe Heero was right. Maybe he was saying that too often, but that didn't make it any less true, no matter what Heero insisted. Duo could admit now that, no matter what else he felt on the matter, he liked this Heero Yuy. "He's definitely changed."
"You've changed."
Duo tore his eyes off Yuy to throw Wufei a skeptical look. "Ha, me? No way." He wasn't sure if his eyes were pulled back to Heero, or if he just wanted to avoid Wufei's calm gaze, but either way, he looked back to Heero as he murmured a completion of his thought. "Haven't changed nearly enough."
"Since he came back, I mean. Just being with him, or even thinking about him, has changed you."
"Not for the better, I'd say." His near-silent chuckle still had the ability to hold an edge. Yes, maybe he hadn't been exactly happy leading up to Heero's return, but at least he hadn't had that discontent shoved in his face. He couldn't say he'd been all that fond of who he was proving to be.
"Heero isn't the cause of your--"
"Yeah, I know. Not like I haven't gotten an earful about it from everyone." He pouted for a few seconds before running a hand irritably through his bangs. "Not without just cause, maybe. Doesn't mean I have to like it, though. It's kind of stupid, though. The only one I haven't gotten it from is him. Well, okay, maybe a little bit, but not like... He's an odd bird, this one." He sighed.
"Birds of a feather..."
"Ha." It was only funny for a moment, up until he remembered that this odd little bird had disconnected himself from the flock a few years back. But now he had returned, and... what did it all mean? And why were Duo's feathers all in a fluff because of it? "Think he... does this often?"
"Does what?"
"Don't think I've ever seen him so... frazzled. He's usually more..." His expression soured. "Bah, how do I know what's 'usual' for him? I'm gonna take a shower first, if you don't mind."
Wufei gestured down the hall in allowance, but Duo was already in motion. He watched his guest pull out his kit and head to the bathroom with the stance Duo typically adopted when trying to walk away from something he didn't want to talk about. Wufei shook his head and glanced over to his other guest, still napping in the corner of his sofa. "You call yourself weak, Heero Yuy," he said quietly. "And yet your mere presence is strong enough to change the people around you."
He left the man alone and retreated to the kitchen with their loose tea cups for washing. Duo was right, to a certain extent, on several fronts. Heero had changed somewhat, but they had all changed. It had been five years since the end of the last war. It was natural that they were different, even Duo. And perhaps that was the most disquieting thing about Heero's reappearance.
Wufei had seen nothing amiss in Duo's development over the last five years. Duo had never quite settled down and achieved much of a sense of permanence, but that path simply wasn't for everyone. Duo seemed restless by nature, whether because he was accustomed to transience or because he was too full of energy and curiosity to commit himself to one place and one activity. Wufei had believed that his friend could and would find his own happiness in that lifestyle. But then Heero had returned, and whatever it was about his return that had stirred Duo up, it had clearly revealed that there was something lacking in Duo's life, something he had been chasing in vain. Wufei believed that Duo had not consciously known it until Heero's return, else he would not have been so unbalanced by it, so perhaps Wufei could excuse himself for being equally ignorant of this discontent in his friend. Perhaps.
Duo emerged from the bathroom in a quiet mood. He stashed his kit in its niche before moving to the kitchen to help out, but Wufei was was already done. They stood there for a while longer, Wufei watching Duo's glances return increasingly toward Heero until Duo gave up pretending altogether and just kept his eyes trained in that direction.
Wufei shook his head. "I don't mean to question your judgment, Duo... but are you sure you know what you're doing?"
Duo's answer came without need of thought. "Haven't an effing clue, Wufei. Haven't an effin' clue." He rubbed at his eyes for a few seconds.
"Did you resolve anything? When you went to see him?"
"I..." He turned to lean his elbows on the counter and stare at the backsplash for a while. "'Resolved' some stuff, maybe. Definitely didn't make everything make sense, though."
"Did you think it would?"
"Ha. Good point. No. No fricking way anything involving that guy could be simple. Not for me, anyway. He seems to think everything's simple. Not that I don't probably overcomplicate everything. But he's still... a very odd bird."
"You... still worked well together."
"Heh, yeah... guess we still fit after all." He said it with a faintly self-mocking undertone. He turned around again for more comfortable conversation, or perhaps so he could look in Heero's direction again without being too super obvious. "That guy... You know how sometimes you talk to someone, and it sounds like you're having a conversation, but you kind of get this weird feeling that you're not both having the same conversation? I get that a lot from him. It's weird."
"Do you get that a lot from him, or yourself?"
Duo rolled his eyes. "Okay, fine, legitimate question. Weird question, but point taken. I don't know. Obviously I think the conversation I'm having is the right one, otherwise I wouldn't be having it. He's just... I don't know. I just don't know where he's coming from, a lot of the time. He's such a black box to me."
"Wouldn't the solution be simply to take the time and figure it out?"
"Hey, I'm giving him his chance now, aren't I? Not my fault there's so damn much inside his head to figure out."
Wufei raised an eyebrow with some irony. "'His' head?"
"Okay, fine, my head, too. Happy now?"
He shrugged. "That's what I'm here for."
Duo exhaled audibly. "Yeah. Sorry. Thanks. Anyway. Yeah. I can figure out some stuff, but some stuff I'm just not going to figure out. Like this stuff with Zero. And how the hell could he have just plugged in with the neural interface that night? God, he pisses me off sometimes. He's weird about Zero, Wufei. I don't get it."
"We all have things we're weird about, Duo."
"Yeah, but couldn't he have chosen something a little less weird to get weird about? Heh. Don't answer that. And especially don't point out something I get weird about."
There was some wisdom in the boy after all. "See? You two have some things in common."
"Ha." His mood switched quickly from wry humor to brooding again. "God, he pisses me off sometimes. And sometimes... I don't suppose we resolved anything the other night, except to agree that maybe it needs resolving. Guess it was just kind of bugging me, not knowing where we stood. Wasn't like a giant pink elephant, but, yanno, like a, um, small blue elephant or something."
"Will you be pursuing this... 'small blue elephant' further?"
"Yeah, seems like. Don't really care how it turns out, one way or another, I guess. Just gotta turn out *some* way so I can get it out of my head."
"Fair enough." Wufei watched Duo watch Heero a bit more. "What do you intend to do about him tonight?"
Duo blinked, waiting for his attention to return properly so he could answer the question. "Tonight? Hm. I don't wanna wake him. He's not the kind of guy that would normally fall asleep in the middle of a conversation. He's gotta need the rest. Meh, don't worry about it, Fei. I can curl up on the other end of the couch."
"Are you sure?"
"What, you want me curled up on the other side of your bed?"
"Not really."
"Exactly. Nah, it's cool." He pushed himself off the counter and padded back into the living room. "'Sides... kinda feel like it wouldn't be nice to leave him to wake up somewhere strange all by himself."
Wufei could only shake his head as Duo settled carefully into a seat on his end of the couch. "You do care, Duo. How it turns out. You care."
He glanced over his shoulder almost guiltily. "Um. Well. Okay, I 'care', sure, but I mean... I'm not really sure which way I want things to go right now. It would be all kinds of weird, but he's..."
"Totally under your skin."
"..."
"That's all it really boils down to, Duo. Is he in you?"
The answer came only after a long, pensive silence. "Yeah. Maybe. I guess."
"Then that's that."
And Heero shifted and stirred and woke.
OWARI
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