Moments of Haven Part 135
April Showers
They showed their ID three times before winning access to the rooms they had been offered by Relena, and even then, they were escorted to their door. They'd already visited once earlier in the day, to drop off their packs and freshen up before heading out, but security was tighter at this hour of the night. Heero approved.
Duo smirked. "So you think you maybe won't have to meet Relena's head of security for yourself?"
"Hm. Maybe."
They got their shoes off at around the same time. Duo waited patiently for Heero to pull both pairs neatly off to the side before he snatched a good kiss. "Next one's all you, Yuy."
"Hm?" That small sound was all he needed to ask for clarification as he obediently followed Duo deeper into the suite.
Duo surveyed their domain for the night before leading them over to the dignified loveseat in the sitting area. They hadn't banked on Relena extending her generosity to them for the night, but they'd come prepared for its offer and accepted it readily. It allowed them to enjoy their evening at a more leisurely pace, freed from having to catch the last train back to Brussels, and there were plans for a breakfast the next morning before departing.
He dropped into a comfortable sprawl on the sofa and let Heero settle beneath the curve of his arm along the back of the sofa before answering. "You pretty much humored me all the live-long day. Whatever totally random thing you want to do next, we are so there."
"Oh." Heero didn't really see it that way at all. "I'm just as invested in our backyard as you are."
"Yeah, but I think your approach probably would have been totally different than -- whose idea was the garden anyway?"
"Ours."
Duo chuckled at the prompt reply and pressed his lips to Heero's temple. "Okay, but you can't take any responsibility for the beef Wellington."
"We had to have dinner somewhere. I'm glad it lived up to your expectations. More or less."
"'Like sweet ambrosia' woulda been cool, but you're right, I totally wasn't expecting sweet ambrosia, so we lucked out."
"I'm just glad we went out to try it. It didn't seem like something we could easily have made in our kitchen without knowing what it was first."
"No, but we could still try one day. For fun."
"I'll make a note of it."
"And thank you for letting me drag you all around the city today."
"It was... an exercise in creativity." An exercise that Duo definitely bested him in, but they both knew that making up stories about places they'd never been before fell firmly within Duo's province of expertise, and there was no shame in that.
"Heh, I'm sorry I wouldn't let you buy a guide book. We can pick one up before we leave."
"That information is freely available on the net, and... I enjoyed it nevertheless. And... it's pretty much your birthday. You got all this for free."
"Oh. Yeah, huh. I kinda forgot." They timed their visits to HQ as a birthday salutation to Relena, after all. It was only sort of a coincidence that his personally designated birthday was around the same time. "Well, I take it all back, then. You don't get any props for just doing your job."
"But I did it rather well, didn't I?"
"Hm, well, yes, I suppose there was a bit of Heero Yuy flair to it. Very well. I give you back full credit. Aw man, I'm, what, like nineteen or thereabouts then?" He raised a hand to give it a little study, raised a foot in a nice stretch to do the same, as if he could gauge his level of growth, personal and physical, through his not-quite-so-gangly-anymore limbs. "Whoa, you know what that means? It means we're almost not teenagers now. Like, officially. From a larger societal point of view."
"I'm not sure it will make a difference. We already think of ourselves as adults, and the government already treats us as adults."
"Yeah, but... what if I can't pull off cute and adorable anymore?"
"You'll always be..." He trailed off thoughtfully. "Do you want to be cute and adorable in my book? Or is that something you'd rather just pull out on occasion?"
Duo chuckled heartily. "I have no idea, but thank you very much for asking. Maybe I'll have to work on being charming and suave."
"You seem to be doing pretty well in that department. I thought that poor curator was going to kick us out after she got an earful of your BS."
"Eh, nothing a little ol' Maxwell charm couldn't fix. I'd feel terrible if we went wreaking havoc through Relena's home town. That just wouldn't be right."
"So our birthday present to her is not wreaking havoc? We're so generous."
"Hey, she's like a big fancy-pants princess in these parts, right? You'd think they'd have a parade in her honor or something."
"I don't think she'd like that. A visit from friends seems more her style."
"Yeah, I wonder..." He stopped only long enough to assess the situation and decide that the time and place were finally right for this. "...if her meeting with Sylvia this morning was all business, or happy birthday. I guess I don't know if they're friendly enough for a happy birthday."
He fully expected Heero to take the hint, so he wasn't disturbed at all by the short silence that followed his last remark. Finally, Heero sighed softly. "I guess you've been humoring me all day, so we're probably even."
Now that he had his invitation to ask, he wasn't sure what he wanted to know. He kept it simple. "So. Sylvia."
"Sylvia Noventa," Heero echoed, leaning against him subtly.
The way Heero said her name could make a guy shiver, but that was okay with Duo, because the way that Heero said his name could make a guy shiver in an entirely different and entirely better way.
The conversation stalled out after that, neither seeming to know what should go next. Duo had pretty good aim, so he took a stab at it. "She seemed... pretty happy, after you guys were done talking."
"Hm." Like he was evaluating the truth of the statement. "She... I let her know I was doing well. She was glad to hear it."
"Yeah..." Duo acknowledged absently, deciding that the details of their conversation didn't really matter. "I get the history. Assuming it's as simple as you and Trowa make it out to be, I get it. I get why she's important. But... like... what does she mean to you now?"
Here was another long stretch of silence. At some point, Heero shifted a hand to rest on Duo's thigh, but that was it for a while, until he finally wrangled his feelings into words. "She... reminds me not to feel bad. About surviving. And living. And... being well. She reminds me that... I have a duty. To the people I've killed. To not... let my life be meaningless. Because if it's meaningless, then their deaths become meaningless, and I... don't want that."
Duo let out his breath in a long, soundless sigh. "Can I borrow a piece of that mojo?"
Heero's hand squeezed his leg briefly. "Certainly. Take as much as you need."
"Sorry. Hadn't really meant to end the evening on such a downer." Although he really ought to have guessed that the topic of Sylvia Noventa wouldn't be all rainbows and sunshine.
"It's not a downer, remembering what a joy it is to be alive. And to have someone to share that with."
Ah, rainbows and sunshine, after all. "Guess I don't really need Sylvia. I've got you."
"...Now I feel bad because I do have Sylvia. But that doesn't mean I don't need you."
Duo chuckled. "Damn straight you do. Bet you couldn't get her -- or Relena -- to storm a Federation hospital for you."
"...Actually, Relena kind of did."
"...Crap, you're right. I remember now. She was there. But, uh, she wasn't really storming, so much as, uh, April-showering. I guess. I actually have no idea what she was there for. We should ask her tomorrow..."
Heero hushed him with a kiss to his cheek, then decided that was hardly sufficient and went full throttle on a kiss that bore Duo back into the seat cushions. "They could never... understand me the way you do." His lips brushed the tip of Duo's nose. "You do things for me and to me that they... could never imagine." Those lips ghosted over his cheek, with a flicker of tongue near his ear. "You make me feel things... I never imagined." He pulled back just far enough to establish eye contact without being comic. "You do that, Duo. Only you."
Oh look, there was that way Heero had of saying of his name, the one with all the best shivers. Or maybe it was just the way he sounded, no matter what he was saying exactly. Or maybe it was just the way that Heero was looking at him. All kinds of little shivers were migrating through him, combining to make little tingles that started to puddle in his belly and lower.
"Say..." he started. plucking softly at Heero's shirt. "What say we get out of these clothes before we wrinkle them too bad..." They traveled lightly, which could involve some recycling of clothes.
Heero obviously agreed to something or another since he started unbuttoning Duo's shirt. He soon got them upright so he could remove said shirt, looking over Duo's shoulder and frowning slightly at the bed as he pushed the shirt off and tossed it distractedly over the sofa. "We don't have..."
"Hmmm?" Most of Duo's higher brain functions were tied up in trying to pry Heero's belt buckle open. A few brain cells not participating in that activity started to think maybe it had something to do with Heero's obsession with... uh... stuff? before they were overrun by a crowd of happy hormones.
Heero pulled his own shirt off over his head without bothering with all the buttons and flipped it over to join Duo's. "Bathroom," he announced.
"Wha--?" Luckily, Duo didn't actually have to think about anything, so much as follow Heero's lead as he got tugged along to the room in question.
Once the door was firmly locked behind them and all of Heero's privacy issues were resolved, they were able to get down to business.
OWARI
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