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More to Life Part 3

I flung open the apartment door. "We're home!" I called and Lia and Liam came running up to meow at us. I dropped my bag next to the door, took Heero's from him and pushed him in the direction of the bedroom. "Hot shower," I told him. He had to be aching after that long shuttle ride in the condition he was in.

He didn't argue, just headed off, limping a bit. Lia followed him for a few steps, then came back to join Liam at my feet.

"Did you miss us sweeties?" I leaned down to pet them. "You can't act like no one gave you any attention. Trowa was taking care of you." Which reminded me that I needed to call and tell him we were back.

Our mission to L4 had been a bitch. First nearly two weeks of trainings, classes, and all kinds of other stuff for staff up there. I despised being a 'resident expert' sometimes. Then the mission that we had been sent up there for in the first place. Heero was bruised from head to toe. We ended up having to crawl through a vent to get in place for the raid. Heero had ended up falling out of it, thanks to some rookies who decided to start the party a bit early in the wrong place. The explosion had knocked him out of the vent and down to a concrete floor. He hadn't broken anything, amazingly enough, which was the only reason that I hadn't ripped the rookies apart.

I lifted our bags back up and headed down to the bedroom.

The shower was on, steam beginning to fill the bathroom. Heero was pulling clothes out of his dresser, his shirt off, looking battered and bruised.

"Shit," I swore putting the bags down by our respective dressers as I ran my eyes over his torso. "Maybe we should take you in to Sally..." He turned around and shrugged.

"It's okay," he told me. "It's not as bad as it looks."

"You sure? You look like someone went after you with a two by four. At least take some pain meds okay?"

"Hn." He nodded and headed to the bathroom. I began to unpack my bag, sorting clothes, and thinking dark thoughts about the idiots that inadvertently injured my partner.

I turned to put some clothes in the dresser. And stopped.

Heero had forgotten to close the bathroom door behind him. Granted the steam was pretty thick in there, but still...

Bruised or not, he had a great body.

I shook myself. Staring at Heero in the shower was not a Good Idea. Still... my gaze drifted back... He had definitely added some muscles in the years since the war ended. I remembered how I used to wait for him to get out of the showers back then, enjoying my one little glimpse...

Stop it! I turned my back on the shower and decided that now was a good time to go and check my email. Yeah. We had been on L4 for three weeks, busy every minute it seemed like, not much time for personal stuff. Heero had finished up his projects before he left and had not taken any new ones because we hadn't known how long it was all going to be.

We'd still be there, except for that rookie screw up. The head of the Preventers on L4 had been very apologetic and told us that he'd handle the rest. Une had agreed with him, so we were home and off work for a few days.

I put the laptop on the coffee table, turned it on, and waited for it to boot up, lounging on the loveseat, mind wandering back to Heero.

He was on to me. That day I had found out about Hilde's marriage I had let the work thing slip, idiot that I was. The week that we'd had in the office before we left for L4 had been interesting. I'd go through my stuff and steal his, only to find out that some of the stuff on his desk was mine. Heero hadn't out and out said anything, never accused or blamed, he had just started using my tactics against me.

I needed new ones. I didn't want Heero to quit the Preventers.

Which was just plain selfish of me. He didn't like his job. Maybe I should encourage him to quit...

I pushed down a small flare of panic at the thought of having to work without Heero watching my back. I didn't trust any of the others to do that for me. Not that I had been so great at it this last time...

The computer beeped at me and I clicked on my inbox. There was sure to be a few messages from Quatre or Howard, but that was more than likely...

I blinked.

204 messages.

I didn't know that many people! What the hell? There was no way any spam had gotten through- not with Heero's precautions.

I scrolled down, not recognizing any of the names and frankly disturbed by the subject headers. The mildest ones were things like 'Hey Duo! Let's get together!' Most of them though bordered on pornographic. What the hell?

At the very bottom of the list was my clue. 'Welcome to Partners! Your online matchmaking service!"

Okay, someone was going to die. Who had signed me up for this?

I opened the welcome email and read the cheerful little message about how I was going to find the partner of my dreams through the wonders of the internet! There was a link to take me to my profile page and horrified by this point, I clicked it.

Someone was not just going to die. I was going to torture them first.

My profile had a picture of me taken at Quatre's house by the pool. I was in my swimsuit... of all the ones to pick! Once I got over that humiliation, I read my personality profile with growing dismay.

I was fun to be around, I had a good sense of humor and apparently I was a very good kisser.

Who the hell wrote this?

"What's wrong Duo?" Heero stood in the hallway entrance, clad only in his pajama pants, toweling his hair dry. "You're glaring at the computer. What did it do?" He looked tired. I hoped it was the pain medication and not because he'd managed to overdo it.

"I'm going to kill someone. Quatre I think."

"Why?" Heero walked over to join me on the loveseat, leaning over my shoulder to see the screen. He scanned the page, and then clicked on the bottom link to bring up my list of 'interested people'. "Looks like you have quite a list to choose from."

My eyes ran down the list, each complete with a little picture... whoa! Apparently my bathing suit was pretty tame for this site.

"I don't think I want to choose from this list!" I protested.

"But Duo, you said you wanted to find someone."

"And I do," I admitted. "But not this way." I went back to the inbox and began deleting emails. Heero yawned.

"Sorry. Took the meds. What could be wrong with this way?" Heero straightened up and returned to drying his hair. Damn, he was distracting... half dressed... damp... sleepy from the meds... I went back to deleting.

"Well, first, I like making a more personal connection, and secondly..." I clicked back on the profile page. "This isn't accurate."

"What part of it?" Heero frowned. "That's a recent picture, isn't it?"

"Yeah, but the personality profile is wrong."

Heero scanned the screen again. "Duo, you are fun to be around and you do have a good sense of humor."

That was nice of him of him to say, but still...

"But I'm not a good kisser and it doesn't mention any of my bad points." I went back to deleting email. Once I finished that I was going to delete that profile and send a message off to Quatre. Wait til I got my hands on him!

"Not a good kisser?" Heero repeated blankly.

"Nope. Hilde complained all the time." I told him as cheerfully as I could manage. Maybe that's why she fell out of love with me? I had thought she was teasing me about it but maybe she was being honest. I frowned for a moment before I remembered that Heero was watching me. Too late.

"One person's opinion. How many others did you get?"

"She's the only one that offered one. I kissed one other person, but he was not the type to make comments."

"He?" Heero blinked.

"Hmm," I nodded. "One of the sweepers when I was with G. He was cute, it was his last day, so I cornered him behind Howard's desk and kissed him. All he said was thank you." I shrugged. "Hilde had to kiss me more often, so I think her opinion should count."

Heero was shaking his head for some reason.

I finished deleting the rest of the emails and went back to the profile. There had to be some way of deleting it... but all I could find was an edit key... maybe I could blank it out?

I went to the edit page, but I could not remove the picture or my name. Well, I could hack the site or...

Grinning, I began to re-type the personality profile.

"Hmmm, let's see. I'm moody, irritable, loud, obnoxious and a lousy kisser..."

"Duo!" Heero protested. "Okay, yes, make it more honest if you like, but don't discourage people. Could it really hurt to go out and meet someone?"

"I guess not," I admitted. "But Heero, really, I'm being honest. This way they know all the bad stuff first."

"You're being stubborn," he huffed. "Fine. Leave the moody and loud on there, but take off the rest."

"But I am a lousy kisser." I protested stubbornly.

"Only according to Hilde."

"And where am I supposed to get another opinion?" I questioned. "Should I just go around and ask people to kiss me and fill out a card afterwards about it?" I knew I was being annoying, pushing his buttons.

"Duo..."

"Or maybe I could go to a kissing school, take some classes..." I knew that he was tired.

"Duo..."

"Or set up a booth somewhere, pay people to kiss me and give an opinion, like a survey kind of thing..." I knew that he was under the influence so to speak.

"Duo..."

"Honestly, Heero, I'm sure I'm just not very good at it..." I knew I would get some kind of reaction out of him. I just wasn't expecting the one I got.

A hand touched my chin, tugged my head around and then Heero's lips were on mine.

Warm, firm, gentle... oh gods... He opened my lips, slipping his tongue inside... I may be lousy at this but Heero was very very good... His hand slipped around to the nape of my neck, caressing and holding me in place while his mouth gently ravaged mine.

He was overwhelming my senses, his hands were moving, and I knew I was moaning into his mouth, leaning into him... his lips moved off mine and down the side of my neck, finding the sensitive spots, and I was lost...

Then he was gone.

I blinked, trying to regain my senses. It took a few moments. Heero was curled up into the corner of the couch, arms wrapped around his knees, pounding his head against them...

"Sorry Duo, I'm sorry..." over and over.

I moved closer, reaching out to stop his head and he flinched at my touch.

"Heero?" He looked at me, eyes wide and panicked.

"I lost control. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to take it that far. I was just trying to shut you up, but you were so responsive, and my training took over and I couldn't stop.. I'm sorry..."

"It's okay!" I assured him, panicked a bit myself at this point. I had never seen Heero like this. "Heero, you didn't hurt me. Relax. I was being annoying..." and I would be again if it meant he'd kiss me like that. Oh yes.

I mentally slapped myself.

"I didn't hurt you?"

"Heero, how can you hurt someone just by kissing them?"

I forgot. I forgot that Heero had been trained to hurt someone this way. Because he started to answer me, to list all the ways that you could hurt someone- just with your mouth...

"Stop it." I put one of my hands over his mouth, thought better of it, went to move it, realized Heero would take that the wrong way, and left it in place. Heero would not hurt me.

"You didn't hurt me. Not even close. I'm seriously considering asking you for lessons, that was so good."

Lessons sounded like a great idea.

I wrenched my mind back on track and took my hand off of Heero's mouth. "See? I'm fine. I'm the one that should be apologizing to you. It's been a hellish few days, you're exhausted and hurt and I was pushing it. So I'm sorry, okay? Go to bed, get some rest, and I promise I'll be less annoying in the morning."

Heero went off without further protest. I sat on the sofa and closed down my machine. I'd deal with all this in the morning.

I stared at the closed laptop, brain whirling.

I would not deny that I was seriously in lust with Heero Yuy. The man was simply gorgeous. He was also my best friend, and the one that I had promised myself that I was going to help. I was failing miserably at it. He had caught on to my work scheme and I hadn't done anything to help him with his fear of relationships.

A little voice in my head pointed out all kinds of ways to make Heero more comfortable with the physical parts of a relationship. I told my libido to take a walk. Heero didn't need me using him to make myself feel better.

Maybe after I strangled Quatre for the whole signing me up with a dating service, I could ask him for help. I was feeling a bit over my head.

I got to my feet and headed for bed.

~*~

When I woke up the next morning, Heero was already gone. I didn't hear the shower running, there was no music on, no clacking of computer keys... Heero usually makes some kind of noise.

Oh no, I thought I had told him last night everything was fine... I jumped out of bed and pounded down the hallway, stopping when I caught sight of Heero, sitting at the breakfast table, reading the paper. He looked up at me, turned faintly pink, and nearly vanished behind his paper.

"Good morning Duo," he said hesitantly.

"Morning Heero." I walked over to him and ruffled his hair. "Feeling better this morning?"

He nodded, still watching me warily, afraid and nervous. I sighed.

"Heero, I told you last night I was being damn annoying. I was ticked off and taking it out on you. It was totally my fault, I'm sorry and no, one last time, you did not hurt me. I was totally serious about the lessons. People would pay you to kiss them like that."

I sure as hell would. If he just kissed like that- imagine what he'd be like... I yanked my mind out of the gutter.

Heero turned pinker, which was very cute. I didn't think I'd ever seen that embarrassed blush before.

"So, it's all okay buddy. Right?"

He nodded and I saw his shoulders relax. Good.

I walked over to my laptop and booted it up. Then went back to the kitchen for some coffee.

"I was thinking- maybe I should sign Quatre up for that service- you know, revenge kind of thing..."

Heero put the paper down.

"Duo- what if it wasn't Quatre?"

"Oh, it has to be Quatre." I took my coffee back to the computer and plopped down on the floor in front of it. "No one else would think that signing me up for a dating service would be a good idea..."

I opened my inbox. A few dozen more messages... didn't people have anything better to do?

"But Duo, you said you wanted to meet someone..."

I froze. Heero's voice was continuing on in the background, but I couldn't hear him.

Hilde had emailed me.

I opened the email cautiously, wondering what had prompted her to write. I mean, she had gotten married without so much as a phone call...

I scanned the email. Tried to remember to breathe.

Heero's voice got closer.

"Duo? Duo- are you listening?"

A hand waved in front of my face. I grabbed it and pulled it down closer to me, knowing on the other end was a body to hang on to.

Heero let me grab a hold of him, even as he leaned forward and read the email on my screen.

'Hey Duo! I'm sorry that I haven't written you sooner, but I thought it would be best to give things a little time! I'm sure that you've heard through the grapevine that I got married. I'm sorry I didn't let you know, but it was a whirlwind kind of thing- we got so caught up in each other we kinda forgot to let people know. I know it was probably shocking to hear that I married BC- I guess I just have a thing for Sweeper guys!

Anyway, the point of all this- BC and I decided that it wasn't fair to just run off and get married like that. His parents were mad and so were Howard and the guys. So, we decided that we're going to have a real wedding next month. I'd like to invite you to the wedding- BC and I would love to have you there to share the day with us. I've attached the invite to this email! Please say you'll be there! Love, Hilde.'

"Who is BC?" Heero asked.

"An old friend of mine from the Sweepers. He'd come over for dinner all the time- kind of like you did. He and Hilde always got along real well..." I blinked.

"Quatre said she married someone she'd only known for a month."

"Maybe the wires got crossed somewhere," I shrugged. "Doesn't matter right?"

"Do you want to go?"

I thought about it. No. I did not want to go. I did not want to watch Hilde get married to BC- even if it was the second time.

What was bothering me so much about this? Did I still love Hilde? Was I jealous that she found someone and I hadn't? That she was getting married so quickly after putting me off for years? Did I think that she'd been seeing BC behind my back and the month thing was just to throw off the rest of us?

Course it didn't help that BC was six feet tall, built like a linebacker, gorgeous, had supportive family... complete opposite of me.

But... BC was a decent guy. Hilde and I had our differences- but she was a decent girl. Neither one would deliberately hurt me. Hell, Hilde was going to marry me anyway despite the fact she'd fallen out of love with me just because she said she would... I was glad I had confronted her about that. We would have been miserable.

It was all for the best. So why did I feel so awful?

I put my head on Heero's shoulder. It hurt. I couldn't puzzle it out and I really didn't want to. I didn't want to be logical. I just wanted to curl up in Heero's arms and let him hold me. I wanted to mope. I wanted to be depressed.

I couldn't be depressed. That would just worry the others, Heero especially.

Shake it off, I told myself. You can't do this. Heero is already worried, Quatre is signing you up for dating services... god only knows what will happen if Trowa and Wufei decide to help too.

I lifted my head up, but Heero didn't let me go.

"You going to be okay?" He asked.

"Hell if I know." That didn't seem to reassure him.

"What can I do?"

I had to check my first response. I very nearly told him to kiss me again, take me to bed, do whatever the hell he wanted with me, even if it hurt, anything that would take my mind off this and make me feel needed. Wanted...

Was that what was wrong with me?

"Duo?"

"Sorry," I made an effort and let go of him. "That just kind of came at me out of left field. I wasn't expecting it."

"I know." His hand stroked over my braid.

"I'll be okay," I told him and wondered if it was true.

"Of course you will be," Heero sounded so positive. As if it was a foregone conclusion.

"If you say so, then I will be." I smiled for him, knowing that it looked false. "Thanks man. I really appreciate you putting up with all this..."

He frowned slightly. "You're my friend Duo- isn't that what I'm supposed to do?"

"And you are a great friend." I was the lousy one. I hadn't managed to help Heero at all, and now all I was doing was worrying him, but I couldn't help it...

Heero's frown vanished and was replaced by a faint smile.

"Am I really?"

"The best." The smile increased a bit and I began to feel guiltier. Hadn't I ever told him before?

"Are you sure?"

"Of course Heero. You're the best friend I could ask for..." He was too. Better than I deserved.

"Then you won't be mad at me?" The smile was now a grin.

"Mad about what? You haven't done anything..." Was he talking about the kiss? Hadn't I reassured him that it was okay? "I don't think I could be mad at you for anything for very long..." Heero eased himself to his feet.

"I signed you up for that dating service."

He... WHAT?

"YOU?" I tried to get to my feet and stumbled in the process. "Heero! How could you do that to me!" I glared at him once I managed to find my footing. Heero didn't seem intimidated.

"I'm your friend Duo, I was only trying to help."

"You jerk!" Why was he still smiling? Smug bastard!

"But Duo, that service is the most popular one on the web, according to Jude at HQ..."

"You asked Jude? Playboy Jude? Sleep with anything that breathes Jude?" I know my voice was louder. What was Heero doing talking to Jude? The flash of jealousy surprised me.

"He seemed the most logical choice." I gave that part of it up.

"Why that picture?"

"It is the most recent one we have."

Of course, only Heero would take that recent thing seriously.

"And all that garbage you wrote?"

"According to the latest research people look for a sense of humor, want someone fun to be around..."

"You looked up research!" I was torn- did I smack him or laugh? Only Heero...

"There is a lot of it. And according to Jude, everything rests on the whole kissing thing-"

I was not going to let Heero talk to Jude again. Ever. God only knows what other devious schemes he might devise to 'help me' after this!

Wait a second here-

"You didn't talk to Jude about me did you?"

"No, of course not. I told him it was for my own information. He told me that he'd be more than happy to help me out..."

Of course he would. I knew just how. I frowned.

"Heero, promise me that you won't ever ask Jude for help again."

"If you don't want me to..."

"I don't want you to."

"Then I won't." His smile was still there. "Want breakfast?"

"Sure..." Heero turned and went back to the kitchen, leaving me blinking after him. Why was he so happy? I should sign him up for that service... I turned back to my computer. Hilde's email was still on the screen. I stared at it for a minute and decided that I could deal with it later. Darn thing had nearly sent me back down into a depression. If Heero hadn't of mentioned the dating service...

Then it hit me.

Damn it. That's why he'd been smiling. He snapped me out of it.

Sneaky jerk.

TBC...

 

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