Worth It
by Sprinkles
5/28/A.C. 195
//Those friends who I live for...// Duo was still mulling over Tybalt's words as he approach the path to the safe house. It was about 8:00 at night, and Duo had been walking most of the day, thinking. It seemed like he was seeing even less of his friends than normal. Of course, he was *seeing* them the same amount, but before, he could shout or use the intercom. That was another problem! The gundam intercom. Sure Heero had installed that typing intercom, but in the thick of a battle what good would it do.
Heero. The major topic Duo was trying to avoid. Damn.
Heero was acting, well...off center.
First he's staring at Duo, then he's writing programs to help Duo out. Then pressing himself against Duo...//No! No! Don't think like that, Duo!// he berated himself. //Heero was just giving me something to do. Besides he probably doesn't even have a sex drive. Or if he does, he's got his gundam, or his laptop.//
But Heero had broken the sacred etiquette. He actually let Duo use the laptop. Without supervision. Whoa.
And Duo had looked at the variety of games on the computer. Most of them had been installed that very day. //Did Heero install those for me?//
Duo stopped walking. //I wonder if he's even--//
"Duo? What are you doing?"
He looked down. Sitting on the steps was Heero with his laptop. In his thought plagued trance, Duo hadn't even seen him there and had been staring blankly at the door for a minute.
In a perfect imitation of Duo from the other afternoon, Heero fluttered his eyelashes and patted the place on the step next to him.
So the coy look didn't go with Heero's face. At all. Duo had to smile anyway. //At least he tried.//
Duo sat down and immediately Heero placed his laptop in Duo's lap. Duo, shocked, looked over at him.
"I got a new text-to-speech program. Type and it speaks what you wrote." Heero seemed unsure of what to say next. "I was waiting to give it to you when you got home, but it got later and you didn't come home..." Heero trailed off but Duo caught the implication. //You were worried about me.//
Instead he wrote: Thank you. (enter)
"Thank you." Said the voice of Fred. Duo smiled more widely.
Heero began to smile and quickly tried to suppress it. "You can change the voice in the menu on the top." Duo was definately looking like his birthday had come early. He picked a voice and typed.
"All your base are belong to us."
Now Heero was grinning openly. Duo was laughing through his nose in a laugh that didn't require a voice. //Seeing that grin on Heero's face almost makes losing my voice worth it.//
"The Perfect Soldier grinning like an idiot." Said the voice of Fred.
Heero threw his head back and laughed. Duo looked at him. //What the hell do I mean 'almost'! It *is* worth it!//
Heero, aware that he had probably just terrorized some animals, tried to stop laughing. It wasn't that there was anything funny, so he didn't know what the hell he was laughing at. Unable to stop, he raised his hand to cover his mouth.
Duo was too fast for him and caught and held his hand in midair.
Heero stopped laughing. "Duo..."
"Don't." typed Duo. "I like it."
Heero blinked. "You like what?"
"Your smile."
Heero slowly lowered his hand, still being held by Duo's, to the ground between them.
"Hey, Heero?" both boys winced at Fred's barbaric pronunciation of the 'r' in Heero's name.
"Hn?"
"Were you trained in lip-reading when you were trained."
"Yes. I was trained in everything." Heero said almost sadly. //Except for people. J only taught me how to kill them.//
"Then why did you go through the trouble of installing this cool program if you could just read my lips." Duo found himself half smiling at the weird inflection of the computer program's voice.
"I..." Panic shot through Heero. This was unknown territory. Did he want to go this far? Heero decided and took a deep breath. No turning back. He whispered cautiously:
"I think your lips distract me enough by existing, without forcing me to stare at them..."
Silence. Duo stared at Heero as if trying to decide whether or not he was awake or sleeping. //So Heero does have a heart...// Heero became fascinated by an ant that was crawling over his shoe.
The spell was broken as Duo began to smile. Heero caught the motion in the corner of his eye.
"What's funny?"
Duo smirked as an idea came to him. He closed the laptop and placed it to the side. Moving as close to Heero as possible, he invaded Heero's untouchable personal space.
He mouthed 'You are blushing.'
Heero almost appeared unsure what to do now that his secret was out.
Heero stood up with a full intent to run away. "Duo, I have to--" Duo gave a hard tug on Heero's hand (which he was still holding).
'Wait.' Duo insisted with a squeeze of his hand.
"Why?"
'My mouth distracts you?'
A pause.
"Yes."
Another pause.
'Be distracted, Heero.'
Duo leaned forward, pulling on Heero's arms to prevent him from leaning away from him, and pressed a kiss to the corner of Heero's mouth.
//'Be distracted, Heero.'// Duo had said.
Heero considered the idea. After a few seconds Heero decided:
//I think that, very occasionally, this feeling is worth being distracted from a mission.//
Heero kissed back this time.
//To hell with occasionally! This is always worth it!//
Heero smiled at the thought.
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