Author: Merula

Pairing: 1x2

Warnings: Yaoi

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: I don't own GW.

Virtual

"Watch your right- we pulled in two more on that side."

"I've got them- you just keep dealing with the ones in front of you."

"Why aren't you using the area attacks? We're getting mobbed here."

"I am! They take a few minutes for cool down, all right? I need some healing here-!"

"I'm on it already, let's just get this done."

A few minutes later, as the last pixelated villain gave their usual death gurgle and fellover in dramatic agony, Heero sighed. "We're nearly at the limit," he pointed out and was greeted with a mixture of relief and denial.

"We're so close!"

"Good. I have other things to do today."

"But Duo's right- I can see the boss from here."

"Yeah, and there's like six mobs between us and him. We can stop here."

"You and I could go and get him, Tro."

"And that would blow the whole thing- you know this is supposed to be a group therapy session."

"Gentlemen," Heero cut through the chatter. "We all know the rules. It's ten minutes until we have to log out- and I don't think we can get that far in the time we have left."

"Spoilsport," Duo's avatar made a face at him and Heero wondered if Duo had programmed it to do that. He didn't have a command like that on his- and the simulation headsets didn't pick up facial expressions.

"Agreed." Quatre's avatar swung his longsword onto his back. "Logging out. See you next Friday night."

"And that's the other thing- why do we do this on Fridays? Some of us have a social life," Duo complained and Trowa laughed.

"In your dreams, Duo. Besides, I thought it was still early where you are?" His avatar vanished in a puff of multicolored smoke.

"It's Saturday morning for me- and you know damn well it's the only time all of us are free," Wufei's avatar also vanished as he logged out.

Duo huffed at Heero. "Please tell me you aren't still here to make sure I log out."

Heero sighed again. "No. I'm having a little trouble with my hookups- everything is sort of tinted green-"

"Did you adjust the lenses?"

"First thing. I'm assuming it's a glitch in the interface."

"I have time tomorrow- if you can't figure it out, give me a call and we'll see if we can puzzle it out together. I've made some adjustments to mine."

"Really? What sort?"

Duo's avatar winked at him and leaned forward to cup Heero's avatar's cheek with his hand.

Heero sighed. "Are you messing with the interface? That's three things I've seen you do that I know we don't have commands for."

"Me? Mess with the game? Now why would I do that?" Heero sighed again as Duo laughed. "Call me tomorrow if you need some help." With another wink, Duo logged out.

~*~

Heero was working on his simulation headset the next morning, still clad only in his pajama pants, a cup of tea near his elbow and the manual open beside him. He'd managed to get rid of the green tint, but now everything was a reddish shade.

The soft chime of his vidphone caused him to look up for a moment. The ID was familiar- and expected. He checked the line- making sure it was secured. "Answer," he commanded and the screen cleared, displaying Duo in all his glorious early morning disarray.

"Hey Heero, how's the repair going? Obviously you didn't fix it."

"Well, I fixed the green- but now it's all red." He smiled when Duo laughed. "I think I've almost got it now- how are things on L2 this morning?"

"Same as always. I'm bored, I'm lonely and I'm marking the fucking days until I can get back to you." Heero looked up and found Duo's expression had changed from amused to frustrated.

"I know. It's only a few months more."

"Seven fucking months- and it shouldn't have been anything at all, if Chang hadn't followed that idiot kid-"

"Duo," Heero scooted his chair closer to the vidphone and reached out a hand to touch the screen. "We've been through this. His actions made the Sphere a little afraid of us-"

"Us? We saved their asses- and they banish us all back to our own colonies for a year- make us go through therapy-" Duo's hand touched the screen by Heero's and he sighed. "I know, I know. It could've been worse. I just- hate being away from you-"

"I hate it too. At least it's part of our therapy to spend time together- even if it's only online."

"I think the Doc just wanted us to be able to kick Chang's ass and get it out of our systems."

"Maybe that too," Heero agreed. The first game they had played together had been an arena -style tournament. It had been rather satisfying... it would've been more so if the damn thing had been virtual reality and they'd been able to really kick Chang's ass. Unfortunately, they only had the 3D simulation. "We're nearly halfway through- and then-"

"Then I'll be on the first shuttle off this hellhole and at your door- and we're not going to get out of bed for a week- maybe two-"

Heero leaned back, letting his hand slide from the screen. "You know, Duo- we didn't really discuss it- but-" he paused, wondering how to phrase the next part. How would Duo take it? Then again, he had complained about the Friday nights cutting into his social life...

"Discuss what?" Duo's eyes narrowed. "What's going on in that head of yours?"

"You don't have to- I mean- if you're feeling- deprived- I'm sure you could find some-"

"Don't even finish that thought, Yuy." Duo's finger jabbed at the screen. "Yes, I'm damn well feeling deprived- of you. I would never- and you damn well better not-!"

"I wasn't even thinking of doing it," Heero rolled his eyes. "Please. Last time I checked, you're the only one demented enough to even want to be near me that way."

"You'd better not be doing any checking-!"

"I'm not. It's just- I know that we- do what we can- and it's not near enough-"

"I'm working on that," Duo said and Heero blinked at him. "In the meantime, though, since it is a non workday- and you are already half undressed- and I'm only allowed two calls a week-"

"What did you have in mind?"

"Well... you could start by getting all the way undressed- and then I have a few ideas..."

~*~

"YES!" Duo cheered as the Boss collapsed and the tones rang out that signaled his defeat. "We kicked his ass!" His avatar exchanged a high five with Trowa's and Quatre laughed out loud.

"You know what this means?"

"A new game next Friday. Wonder what it'll be this time." Wufei sounded tired. "I do wish our shrink was a little more- conventional."

"Yeah, we could be spending more than one group call a week talking about our feelings instead," Duo snapped. "Course, if it wasn't for someone screwing up, we wouldn't have to-"

"Rules, Duo." Heero cut in and heard Duo sigh. "We have nearly thirty minutes of game time left- any ideas?"

"I'd like to rerun some of the tournament quests," Quatre said. "Now that we've defeated the boss, we don't have to stick together right?"

"Right," Trowa chimed in. "But I'd like to do that too. The jousting was fun."

"Let's go then. Anyone else?"

"I want to look at one of the city quests we skipped," Wufei's avatar summoned his flying mount. "So I'm headed back there." He left and they heard the faint click as he left the audio channel.

"Heero? Duo?" Quatre asked and Duo laughed.

"I want to go back to the jungle level and show Heero something. We'll go that way."

"Right. See you next Friday." Trowa's avatar performed a teleport and both he and Quatre vanished.

"Come on, Heero." Duo summoned his flying mount. "I can carry two, and we should go before the boss regens."

"I don't remember anything down there," Heero said as his avatar joined Duo's on the mount. "What did you want to show me?"

"Ah, there was a quest or two we missed," Duo said and then the private channel opened in Heero's array. Heero took the hint and switched to the private chat. Now that the boss was defeated, the therapy was technically over, but Heero approved of Duo taking them off the main channel. "Don't you remember?" Duo's voice purred in his ear. "I've been making some modifications to the system."

He hadn't forgotten. He'd meant to talk to Duo about that when he'd called on Saturday, but Duo had been very distracting.

"What did you do? You know you shouldn't do anything that might get us in trouble-"

"Ah, come on, Heero. You know you've wanted to tweak this thing since we started."

"I did think about adding Zero to it," he admitted, mostly just to tug Duo's chain. "Imagine fighting those mobs with it-"

He heard Duo's indrawn breath. "Shit. Please tell me you aren't working on that."

"Zero was destroyed, remember?"

"Yeah, like you couldn't figure it out again-" There was a long pause. "Heero? Please tell me you aren't thinking of it-"

"Well, now that you said it- it couldn't be too hard to integrate- the simulation system lets you use your brainwaves for certain things already-"

"It would take a lot of work-"

"I have the time," Heero countered. "It's not like I have a lot of other things to do."

Duo groaned. "I wonder if I can get the approval to call you more often- you shouldn't be left to amuse yourself."

"At least they don't limit our email- or texting."

"I wonder why," Duo snarled. "I'm really tired of being punished for something I didn't do."

"I think it's because Une's in charge of that monitoring."

"True. Ah- here we are-" Duo's mount landed their avatars in the middle of a swamp. Heero remembered it from early in the game. Used only for one quest, the area was rather deserted. There was a small empty hut on one of the islands and Heero had wondered if the designers had put it there for aesthetic purposes, or because something was planned there for later.

Duo's avatar stepped into the hut and Heero directed his to follow. A moment later, Duo's avatar had grabbed his in what Heero realized was a hug- except his avatar couldn't respond. There was no hug command in the game program.

"We came all the way out here so you could show off the commands you hacked into the system?" He teased and was surprised to hear a shaky breath on Duo's end.

"I can feel you."

What?

Simulation wasn't virtual reality. Virtual reality let you touch things, followed your movements and let you feel sensations- but it was also tremendously expensive. The only pilot who could afford something like that was Quatre. This game wasn't virtual reality- their simulation systems only let them play in a 3D world.

"You can feel me-?"

Another shaky breath. "Yeah. It's a lot like the first time I hugged you-"

He remembered that moment- he hadn't been able to let himself respond when Duo had thrown his arms around him after a rather intense skirmish- he'd wanted to- oh, he wanted to- and now- it was painfully the same- he wanted- so much-

"Duo, I can't- hold you- it's not-"

"I know, I know," Duo soothed. "It's not really the same. But to me it feels like holding you- the Doc insisted we pick charas like ourselves, remember? And- your voice is in my ear-" there was a long pause. "It's... close enough..."

For a moment envy choked off his breath. "Duo... damn it... you have to tell me how you did this... I have to- I need to be able to do this too-"

"I'll send you the modifications- encrypted-" A short laugh. "It ought to keep you busy at least... maybe you can do more..."

OWARI

 

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