Heero had just arrived back from his latest mission; it had been a success. Enemy OZ base: destroyed. Leader of that base, who had somehow survived the attack: assassinated. All obstacles eliminated. Mission accomplished. Ninmu kanryou. And now, after all that, all the Japanese pilot wanted was to rest.

Heero found himself limping slowly towards his room, carefully avoiding furthering his injuries. He noticed that he was leaving behind a trail of blood drops on the until-then stainless ivory colored carpet. He winced ever so slightly; Quatre and his multitude of servants wouldn't be too happy about that...

After a minute that felt more like an eternity, the Wing pilot finally reached his bedroom. Breathing an almost silent sigh of relief, he opened the door. The sight that met him was a heavy blow to his overtired heart and mind.

WuFei was laying on the bed, sleeping, a book on his lap. Duo was asleep next to him, slumped against the headboard.

Heero tried to suppress the surges of jealousy and anger that hit him. Looking at the book he noticed that the writing was entirely in Chinese; WuFei had been reading to Duo again, apparently. Nothing new there; Duo was, perhaps strangely, fascinated by the Chinese language, and often begged WuFei to read to him in his native language. Occasionally the dark haired boy would give in and do so.

Heero considered waking WuFei and telling him to return to his own room, but he was just too tired. Right now, he wouldn't have cared if Relena herself was in the bed, he was so exhausted. And that was saying a lot.

Sighing under his breath, Heero shrugged and collapsed onto the bed next to WuFei, gratefully letting himself slip into slumber.

* * *

Duo awoke slowly, several of his muscles aching. He was half-laying, half-sitting in what was a highly uncomfortable position to sleep in. He stretched slowly as he took in his surroundings, then blinked. Sleeping next to him was WuFei, his hair worked halfway out of its pigtail. Laying next to him was Heero, dried blood and a half-closed wound on one of his legs.

"God, I'm in heaven..." Duo thought to himself, rubbing his eyes as he stared at the resting boys. "I just wish I could see how WuFei would react if he could see this the way I do."

An idea began to form in the American's mind, and he quickly worked to put it into action. Taking care to not wake up either of his two sleeping companions, he quietly opened the drawer of the night table next to the bed. After rummaging around for a few moments, he found what he was looking for.

"Ha! I knew I had a camera somewhere!" he crowed to himself silently, turning back to the bed. "Heh heh heh... Now I've got blackmail against them, just in case." He continued to himself, snapping three pictures quickly. "But until I do need it... They're back into the drawer." He declared. With his mind made up about that matter, Duo took a look at the instant photos to see if they were developed yet.

"Kawaii...!" he crooned, staring at his prizes. They were perfect! "And now, to make the best of this situation..." He ran over to the dresser and buried the photos beneath his clothes, then went back to the bed. He critically surveyed the amount of room between WuFei and Heero.

"Should be just enough room..." he mused. Shrugging, he squirmed his way between them and soon drifted off to sleep, a blissful, satisfied smile on his face.

* * *

"And the brave warrior slew the evil monster and returned home in glory." WuFei whispered drowsily, slipping away from the clutches of sleep.

As the Chinese boy became more alert, he realized that he wasn't in his room. He could remember reading a book to Duo; perhaps he had fallen asleep while reading. After all, it wouldn't have been the first time for that to happen. But if that was the case, then where was Duo? The braided boy had been on his left side when he had drifted off, but now there was nobody there, so...

WuFei could feel something warm against his back and turned to see what it was.

He wasn't surprised to find that Duo was asleep, but he was surprised to see another figure on the bed next to him. WuFei didn't even need to take a closer look to see that it was Heero.

"I'm surprised that he's sleeping with me still in the room. I'm surprised that I'm still breathing! He must have been incredibly tired to just let his guard down and go to sleep like that." WuFei thought to himself. "His mission must have been an especially intense and difficult one this time, then."

He truly felt sorry for the Japanese pilot sometimes. "At least I've known love before, even if I only loved Meiran as a sister; I highly doubt that Heero even knows just what he's feeling for Duo. If he's even letting himself feel anything, that is."

WuFei shook his head then, chuckling softly at the next thought that popped into his mind. "Well, I'm sure that Duo will be able to work around that; he's not just stubborn, he can actually be fairly resourceful and intelligent at times. When he desires to be, that is!"

WuFei contemplated getting up and returning to his own bedroom, but he didn't want to risk waking Duo and Heero; Duo was miserable to be around until he was fully awake, and he could tell that Heero needed as much rest as he could get. Instead, the Chinese pilot picked up the book laying on his lap, opened it, and quietly resumed reading where he had left off earlier.