Hogwarts Part 19
Lover's Quarrel
Heero sighed as he started to return to wakefulness. Duo's warmth was missing, but he could hear Duo humming something. Heero stretched and opened his eyes to watch as Duo brushed his hair. Duo's soft tenor voice sang a lovely little song.
"You're in my blood like holy wine. You taste so bitter and so sweet. Oh, I could drink a case of you, darlin'. Still I'd be on my feet. I would still be on my feet." Duo's slow strokes seemed to go in time to the song.
Heero just watched for a moment. "Beautiful."
Duo turned to smile at Heero. "Hey. There's a bath ready for you over there. You looked so peaceful that I didn't want to wake you." Duo put the brush down and approached Heero. "You okay?"
Heero nodded. "Honestly? I don't think I've ever been better. How about you? Are you sore at all?"
Duo chuckled. "A little. It's not as bad as that one time when I ate the beef stroganoff I made." He shook his head. "I should have listened to you."
Heero grinned as he got out of bed, uncaring of his nudity. Shyness between them had been a moot point for a long time. "Why didn't you?"
Duo shrugged and moved to braid his hair.
Heero bit his lip and stepped forward. "May I? Please?" He had known how important Duo's braid was since the first night on Howard's ship when someone had joked about cutting it off. For some reason, Heero felt as if he was asking for permission to do something greater than make love to Duo.
Duo smiled softly and lowered his hands. "After your bath."
Heero leaned forward to kiss Duo quickly. "Will you wash my back?"
Duo's soft smile turned into a smirk. "Funny... I was about to ask you that same question."
Heero kissed Duo again and headed for the tub. He frowned a little as he submerged himself into the warm water. Something was nagging him, and he worried about bringing it up to Duo. Everything happening was eating at him. Duo had been outed by his housemates, he'd been turned into a child, as a child he had been terrorized and now... he'd been hit by a Bludger. A Bludger that shouldn't have even been on the field. Christy had told him, while Dr. Cornu was checking Duo, that both the playable Bludgers had already been occupied by the beaters.
"What's bothering you, Heero? You've got that look on your face. The one that says you're chewing on some information mentally. Spit it out, love."
Duo's matter-of-fact tone prompted Heero to speak his mind. "You're being targeted. Until we know who is doing it, and why, I want you out of the air... off the team." He winced as Duo's hands stopped. "You did ask."
"Heero... you want me to cower in the shadows? You want me to stand aside?" Duo's tone reflected the hurt he felt.
"I want you to stay SAFE!" Heero turned and felt the loss as Duo started braiding his own hair. "Duo... think about this rationally!" He stood and wrapped a towel around his hips.
"Rational? Heero... during the war, we could only depend on ourselves REGARDLESS of whether we were being targeted or not!" Duo could not believe Heero would ever suggest backing away from a threat.
"Duo... must I remind you that we are no longer fighting a war? You are in unknown territory here and you no longer have Deathscythe to protect you! When magic is in the equation, Deathscythe might offer no protection at all!" Heero grasped Duo's wrists. "Just think about this for a minute without looking at it as if I were trying to keep you locked in a cage."
"But that's all you EVER do! I'll get in the way, so I should just stay behind like a good little boy, right?" Duo yanked his hands away from Heero and spun away from him. "STOP doing this Heero! You run hot one minute, then cold the next!"
Heero shook his head and walked around Duo to look in Duo's eyes. "That is NOT what's going on here, and you know it."
"NO! No I DON'T know it! If you're going to keep doing this to me, then you should go find a suit, self destruct and stay dead! It would hurt me LESS!" Duo's eyes widened and his limbs started to tremble. "Oh God!"
Heero clenched his teeth against the pain in his heart for a moment. "Duo... tell me that you didn't mean what you just said. Tell me it was the anger talking. You don't lie, Duo... so if you say that you didn't mean it, I'll believe you."
"Oh God!" Duo covered his mouth with both hands and squeezed his eyes shut. 'I did NOT just say that!' His knees started to give out from under him as a wave of nausea washed over him. 'Please, God, tell me that I did not just say that to Heero.'
Heero was faced with a very difficult choice. He could either stay or go. "Duo... please say something. I'm lost here, Duo. Tell me what I should do. Tell me what I should say. Anything at all... I can't lose you again, Duo, and it looks like that's just what is happening. It looks like I'm losing you again. Tell me to stay... tell me what to do to make this right. I have no idea why you're so mad at me." He fought for breath as he knelt beside his lover. "I just... I want you SAFE! I can't bear the thought of seeing you broken the way you were in that Oz prison and on the Lunar Base. I swore that you would never have to go through that again. Please... tell me what I'm doing wrong!"
Duo met Heero's eyes and let out a sob as all the anger washed away.
Heero shook his head and opened his arms for Duo, sighing with a small amount of relief as Duo sank into the embrace. "It's all right, Duo. I forgive you."
As if the forgiveness was needed, Duo suddenly found his voice again. "Oh GOD, Hee-chan! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean it! PLEASE don't kill yourself!"
"Shhhh! I somehow knew you didn't really mean what you said. With all that you've been through, you'd never say something like that unless you were angry. But WHY were you so angry, Duo?" Heero stroked the skin on Duo's back. "There is no reason to put yourself in danger."
"I don't like feeling as if all my freedom is being taken away. It's like that hospital room you told me to stay in during the war. You told me I would just get in the way."
"I said that because I would have been too busy worrying about you to do my job effectively. You needed the down time, koi." Heero pulled Duo close so Duo's head was resting on Heero's shoulder. "And I needed to know you were someplace safe. Let me protect you, Duo. I may not be the soldier anymore, but I need to protect you." He tightened his hold briefly and relaxed. "Can you imagine how I would feel if something happened to you? You're all I have in the Earth Sphere by way of family. I'm not even really close to the others. If anything happened to you that I felt I could have prevented... it would kill me from the inside out." He rubbed Duo's arm. "I'm not trying to lock you in a cage, although it IS tempting. I'm trying to reduce the risk to you. Lord knows there is enough that could happen to you without you flying around." He buried his face in Duo's hair. "I might not be there to catch you the next time you fall!"
Duo sighed as the rest of his irritation melted. If Heero had been the one targeted, Duo might have reacted the same way. "I'm sorry." With that, he carefully pulled away from Heero and retrieved his hairbrush. He'd never been able to properly braid his hair when agitated. With a sheepish smile, Duo offered the brush to Heero and sat in a nearby chair.
Heero smiled gently. The apology was calmer... and Heero knew Duo was ready to listen to him. The silent offer was not lost on him, either, and his smile softened as he approached Duo. He bent down and kissed his beloved gently... just a sweet touching of lips. Then he walked to the back and started to brush Duo's hair. "I put that badly."
"Well... I DID ask. Given time, you might have thought of a better way of saying that you were worried in a way I would have found sweet and thoughtful." Duo sighed. There was no feeling to compare with Heero brushing his hair. "What brought the statement on in the first place? Now that I'm not upset, I know you would never ask me to leave the team without a good reason."
"There were three Bludgers on the field when you were struck. The one that hit you should not have been on the field at all. It came out of nowhere." Heero frowned a little when the brush hit a slight snarl.
Duo blinked. "How did you know? We were both so focused on the Snitch that I doubt we had room to notice something like that."
"Christy told me while Dr. Cornu was examining you. It was actually her idea to pull you out of the air and make you an announcer for the time being." Heero managed to get the snarl out and continued brushing, glad for the calming influence. "Duo... I understand you were upset and angry, but please think before you lash out verbally. I know you didn't mean what you said, but... it hurt." He sighed. "Maybe that was the point, but... you should never think that hurting me in that way will help matters." Heero put the brush down and wrapped his arms around Duo. "Why are you trying to sabotage this... to sabotage us?"
Duo gasped. "I didn't even realize that I was doing that. I guess I still have issues... I don't know. I thought I was over that."
Heero shook his head. "Duo... I'm not going to leave you again. As tempting as it would have been to take the easy route and just leave, I choose to stay and stick this out because I love you, and I'd rather live with your issues than live without you. I learned that the hard way when I made the mistake of walking out on you."
Duo blinked. "Why didn't you say so the first night?"
Heero chuckled. "You weren't ready to hear it, and it would have sounded lame then. Seriously, Duo, after your emotional outburst, if I had told you then what I just told you a second ago... would we be together now?"
Duo sighed. "I don't know. Maybe... maybe not."
Heero kissed the top of Duo's head and started braiding the long strands together.
TBC...
Note: "A Case of You" is from the Practical Magic soundtrack and is sung by Joni Mitchell.
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