Warnings: A teeny tiny bit citrusy. Duo made me do it. This is back to his POV, by the way.

Afterwards Part 21

Heero was curled up next to me like a puppy the next morning. That thought made my lips curl up in a smile as I thought about our conversation in the pet store yesterday. Only Heero could distract me like that. He had obviously been uncomfortable talking about Idun and Sanura, so he chose to set me on a different course. I knew he needed the distraction, so I let him do it.

It was oddly comforting in a way to have someone that knew me that well, and that I knew that well in return. Heero's realization last night that I was... well, a bit jealous of his supposed family just proved it. He knew me very well.

I rubbed my cheek against his hair and he murmured something sleepily as he curled up closer. This was something I never would've believed during the war. Heero Yuy- a cuddler? No way.

Heero Yuy, Frey Lowe, Fenrir Ohkami. I smiled faintly and wondered which name he'd stick with. Or if he'd just use all of them, the same way he'd used the two. I had no problem switching names for him, like I said at the time; street rats had tons of aliases. I tended more towards the 'Heero', since that is how I'd known him first, but if he wanted, I'd call him anything he chose.

His name never mattered to me. He is who he is, the person I love, my best friend and trusted partner.

"Duo?" Heero blinked at me, twisting his head around on my shoulder. "It's early, why are you awake?"

"Jet lag, I guess." He blinked again and looked at the clock.

"It's 4 am. Go back to sleep."

"I will," I assured him. His mouth curved up in a faint smile.

"Come here." He pulled me on top of him, one hand sliding into my hair as he pulled his mouth down to mine.

"Mmmm," I said, when he let me. "What are you...Heero?" His hands were tugging off my sweats.

"You're awake. You need to sleep. So," he smiled mischievously at me. "Wear yourself out."

"Wear myself out? What are you going to do?"

"Lie back and enjoy it," he chuckled and kissed me again.

"Lazy jerk," I muttered into his mouth.

He flipped me over and pinned me against the mattress. His mouth slid down my neck and his hands tugged my hips against his.

"I... I thought I was supposed to do the work?"

"You were taking too long," he informed me.

He was too smug.

"I don't think so." I flipped us back over so that I was the one on top. "It's called a slow seduction for a reason." I let my hands wander on his body, feeling triumphant as he twisted and moaned underneath me.

Needless to say, I managed to wear myself out quite nicely. I fell back asleep afterwards only to be woken up by the sound of the phone ringing a few hours later.

Heero, of course, was awake already. He answered the phone on the second ring, frowning and 'um-hmming' at whoever was on the other end. I wondered if it was the clinic.

"Thank you," he said into the receiver and hung up the phone.

"Was it the clinic?"

"Mmm," he nodded, eyes unfocused.

"And?" I asked, a touch impatiently. "Is she your aunt?"

"Well, they can't tell that," he focused on me and smiled faintly. "But she and I share enough similarities that it is a good chance that we are related."

"So we overreacted." Though considering that they had worked for Oz, I was still glad we had done the damn test. Better safe than sorry and all that.

"Or she paid the clinic off." Heero countered, paranoid little thing that he is.

"Are we still going to meet her at the apartment?"

"I think so," Heero nodded. "I'll call her."

He picked up the receiver and dialed the number. I lay back and watched him. His hair was damp. He was half-dressed, his jeans half-buttoned, a blue shirt hanging open off his shoulders and I wondered if the call had come right as he was getting ready.

He caught my eye and smiled again, that hint of mischief lurking around the corners. Then I lost his attention as someone answered the other end. Heero's eyes moved to the floor as he spoke, a shy little boy appearing before my eyes.

I slid from the bed and headed towards the shower, knowing we would be heading out soon.

It was a quiet drive back to his parents' apartment, Heero anxious and me... well, that jealous feeling was back. Not only of this woman who had waited and watched him for years, but also the fact that I wasn't going to be Heero's only family anymore.

That sounds mean and petty, I know it does. But that's how I felt. I mean, the other pilots- they were his family too- but they were also mine. Idun was... well, just his. Something I couldn't share.

Idun and Sanura were waiting for us on the steps. We buzzed to be let in, and the door opened without a comment from Kai, which surprised me. I daresay he saw who we had brought with us on his security cameras and decided to hide. After seeing the look Idun cast down the hallway at his door, I didn't blame him.

We followed the ladies up the stairs, Sanura chattering away about how Heero's parents had preferred climbing the stairs to taking the elevator, even when Freya was pregnant. I listened with only half an ear, trying to make that jealous feeling go away.

When we got up to the apartment, Idun took over the conversation. She took Heero to the back of the apartment, to the room we thought had been his, and began to tell him a story about how she and her sister had argued over what to paint on the walls. She had Heero chuckling in no time.

I wandered back out of the room and into the hallway, studying the pictures on the walls. Heero had been an adorable little boy, so very serious, even then. His mother and father were near him in nearly every shot- though I wondered in a few if that was Idun with him instead of Freya.

"Cute, wasn't he?" Sanura said over my shoulder. I nearly jumped wondering how she managed to sneak up on me.

"Very," I replied, smiling for her.

"You're an orphan too, yes?" She asked, those blue-green eyes looking at me with pity. I turned away from her and looked back at the walls.

"Yeah."

"Do you remember anything of your family? Is there anyone left?"

"Not really," I shrugged. "They died when I was too young to really be able to remember them. I don't have anyone left that I know of."

"This must be hard for you," she said gently. "Heero finding his family and you with none to find."

I shrugged again, wishing she'd leave me alone. Her hand reached past me and touched a picture on the wall.

"I lost my family on L2 as well. I don't have anyone left either. Truth to tell, I'm a bit jealous of Idun."

I turned my head to look at her, and she smiled for me. "I know how that feels," I told her before I could think about it.

"I know." Her fingers brushed the picture in front of us again. I looked at it. A double of herself sat there, with a young man leaning against her and a baby on her lap. There was a Siamese cat curled up on the young man's legs. "That was my family. My sister Kisa, her husband, and their son. And Bastet, of course."

"Bastet?"

"The cat." Sanura grinned. "I told you my family has always been a bit cat-crazy. My father was called Lionel and Sanura and Kisa both mean 'cat'. Kisa even continued the tradition with her son."

"Sanura?" Idun called out. "Where did you go?"

"Duo and I are in the hallway," Sanura called back. "Looking at pictures."

"Can you find the album for me?"

"Of course!" Sanura replied, and then put her hand on my arm, tugging me back down the hallway towards the living room. "So," she continued as she began to scan the bookshelves, "I know how you feel Duo. So, why don't you let me adopt you?"

"Huh?" I managed.

"Oh, not officially," she assured me cheerfully. "It's just when Heero comes to visit Idun, or vice versa, wouldn't you like to feel that you had an aunt coming too? Even if we aren't related by blood?" She glanced up at me. "We both lost people we loved on L2. We'll call that our connection. Okay?"

"Okay," I repeated, a bit stunned. She gave me a glowing smile and turned back to the shelf. I blinked, wondering what I had just done. Sanura uttered a small cry of triumph and pulled an album off the shelf.

"Ah hah!" She slid her arm through mine and kissed my cheek. "Come along foster-nephew." She pulled me down the hallway and I followed, swept up in her wave of enthusiasm.

It was a good feeling.

TBC...

 

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