The Most Bittersweet Gift - Chapter 4	Home - Review - Previous - Next
“I had forgotten there was this much sand on the beach,” Duo growled, kicking off his sandals and brushing his feet off before sitting on the blanket Heero had packed, it being more sensible than a towel. Heero smirked and set down the small basket of stuff that he and Duo had thought necessary in his own right. Quatre laughed and settled across from Duo, a picnic basket in front of him. “There’s going to be sand in the food,” Duo said mournfully, eyeing the basket. Trowa smirked and Heero’s mouth quirked upward, nearing toward a grin. “Complain, complain, complain, that’s all you ever do,” Heero teased, ruffling Duo’s bangs. The other pilots seemed surprised by the unHeero-like action and the lightness in the words. Duo just looked back with a grin, shielding his eyes from the sun. Heero took off his sunglasses and put them over the violet eyes. “Gee, thanks Heero,” Duo said, patting the blanket next to him. Heero sat, looking out over the blue-green water, the sunlight reflecting off of it and making it shimmer. Despite the sun and the heat Duo had brought with him a sheet, which now rested over his lap. He wore shorts like everyone else, and a T-shirt that he planned to keep on the entire time. Quatre opened the basket; “I doubt there will be any sand in anything, Duo. We’ve only been here for 5 minutes, at the very most. Now, we can eat right away and wait about half an hour before doing anything or we can have some fun first then eat.” “Fun,” Duo sighed, looking out at the waves. “I want to build a sandcastle. Will you help me build a sandcastle, Quatre?” With a nod the blonde stood and held a hand out to Duo, who accepted it and allowed himself to be pulled to his feet. Duo rummaged around in the basket to come up the stuff he had packed just for this and followed the Arabian to a patch of sand that had gone unmolested and was both in the shade and close enough to the ocean to make a proper sandcastle. Trowa stayed behind, watching as the two played together like little kids. “Quatre has forgiven you, seeing as how you make Duo happy.” “But you haven’t,” Heero stated, leaning back against the blanket, supporting himself by his elbows. The sun felt good against his skin. “No, not like Quatre. I do believe you’re sincere in this emotion you show towards him now, I just worry as to what this emotion is.” Trowa stopped, but he was by far not done. With a little sigh he brushed back his hair a moment, then let it fall naturally into place. “You hurt him when you left.” “I know.” “No, I don’t think you do know. If you knew, you wouldn’t have left, because you would have known. He understood why you left, what you were afraid of. You don’t give him enough credit. It wounded him, but by no means did it break him.” Heero remained silent then gave a slight nod. Trowa glanced over, then back to the sandcastle, which looked about to topple over. It did and the two builders just laughed and tried again. “Give him the time he has left, even if you don’t care. Just give him two weeks of your time, and you’re heart. After that, well, you’re free to do whatever you wish.” “Two weeks?” Heero looked over sharply. “Is he going somewhere? He has at least a month left, subtract the time already spent, he has something near three weeks, and besides that that’s at the least. The way he’s going he’ll have the entire two months.” Trowa shook his head. “Apparently he no longer follows his motto, ‘I run, I hide, but I never lie’. Quatre called the doctor, just to check up, since that’s the only way he had of getting any news on Duo when Duo was out on his adventure quest around the world. The doctor says that Duo has two weeks to go, probably less, and Duo knows it, has known it for quite a while. He wanted more tests to see if there was a last ditch effort to help him, but Duo didn’t want the tests, so no one wants to push it. It’s his life, it’s his death.” A cold hard fear crushed Heero’s chest and he fought to breathe. Two weeks? Why hadn’t Duo told him? But Duo had told him; in the way he let Heero come closer and closer still to a heart that had once been broken. He wanted to love, to know love, but was afraid of Heero’s reaction, afraid of losing something that meant more to him than almost anything else, so close to the end. Just then Duo skipped over and pulled Heero to his feet with surprising strength. “Come on, come in the water with me.” Heero allowed himself to be led to the water’s edge, then into the cool lapping water, smiling. * * * * * “Had fun,” Duo murmured sleepily against Heero’s shoulder. Heero was carrying the American into the house, him having been asleep not but a minute ago, and paused only long enough to close the door and reset the alarm, then hoisted Duo higher in his arms. Duo wrapped his arms around Heero’s neck and closed his eyes, breathing evenly in and out, yet clearly not asleep so soon. “You need to shower,” Heero murmured into the hair, which smelled of sea salt and sand and the air of the ocean. Duo yawned sleepily and tightened his grip all the more, causing Heero to smile in the darkness. Stopping in front of the door to his bedroom Heero nudged it open and came to the bathroom door and set Duo down on his feet. Duo swayed, and then forced himself to stand without help, yawning again. Heero stepped around the American and into the bathroom, turned the shower on and adjusted the temperature. “You shower,” Heero told Duo, lifting Duo’s face up to look into the cloudy amethyst eyes. “And then you can go to bed.” With a nod Duo turned and shuffled into the bathroom, pulling his T-shirt over his head. Heero could see in the dim light the bathroom’s one light caused that despite the sunscreen and keeping the T-shirt on a good deal of the time Duo still managed to get a slight sunburn. Duo tugged the band from his hair and ran his fingers through it, sending it in waves to his knees. With a deep breath Heero turned away and called back. “I’ll just pop in the other shower real quick. I figured you would want to use mine because of the detachable sprayer. Make washing your hair easier.” There was a response that was drowned out by the water’s thundering and Heero left. Going into the room Duo inhabited Heero searched through the bag and pulled out a pair of boxers for the American, studied the orange bottle with a frown, then his eyes caught sight of the small white bottle that was for the antidepressants. Closing the bag Heero stood and did as he had said he would do. When Duo emerged from the shower it was amid a cloud of steam and an unsteady, shuffling step. Taking the American by the arms Heero supported the insubstantial weight of the young man and Duo looked up with a sleepy smile, not bothering to take any of the weight back onto him. Tilting his head forward he caught the others mouth in a kiss, slow and tentative, yet lacking the willpower to stop it or have resisted the temptation that the lips had represented. Nipping lightly at the bottom lip with his teeth the mouth opened in an invitation, which Heero accepted by nudging the lips even farther apart to deepen the kiss. “Heero,” Duo whispered softly. Heero pulled back doubtfully, stuttering the beginnings of an apology, when Duo interrupted with a sluggish muttering, “I’m tired, Hee-chan. Sleep sounds great right about now.” Heero nodded dumbly to have Duo curl up against him. Lifting the form into his arms Heero placed the American on the bed into a sitting position and moved towards the bathroom, picking up the discarded clothes along the way. “You have a sunburn, however slight, so tomorrow I’ll put something on it.” “Kay, Hee-chan.” Heero smiled slightly, moving to take the towel, which had been slipping from Duo’s grasp as he dried his hair and slowly ran the towel through the wet strands instead. Duo had found the boxers and pulled them on. Pushing the towel away Duo yawned and made to stand. “I don’t care about the hair right now, it’s too late, I’m too out of it. I’ll deal with it tomorrow morning when I actually will care.” Heero pushed Duo back down and Duo looked up at him curiously. “I’m staying here?” “Might as well, you’ll only curl up with me sometime during the night, right? Save yourself the trouble.” Duo studied Heero with wide, alert, piercing eyes then gave the slightest of nods and crawled precariously along the waterbed to curl up in a spot already familiar to him. “Go to sleep, I’ll brush your hair out for you. It will save you the trouble tomorrow and relax you at the same time. So settle down on your stomach,” Heero said softly, watching as Duo turned and did as asked, drawing the pillow up and closing his eyes. The trust nearly broke Heero’s heart. Picking up the familiar brush he had brought with him Heero scooted up to sit at the edge of the bed and lifted the heavy masses of hair from Duo’s shoulders and smoothed it down his back, before beginning the gentle and pleasurable chore of brushing through the long, silky strands. Duo purred softly under his breath, for that was the only way to describe the noise the ex-gundam pilot was currently making, and it caused Heero to smile softly. Within no time the young man had been lulled into a deep sleep and Heero braided the hair, as he had been shown so long ago on a rainy night, remembering the feel of the hair between his fingers then and now, the sensation never dulling, the wonder never ceasing. So beautiful. Curling up next to the other, pulling Duo into his arms, Heero wrapped the end of the braid around his hand and drifted into a dreamless sleep. * * * * * “I hadn’t realized I had been sunburned so badly,” Duo remarked, glancing down at his skin. Heero snorted softly from behind Duo, “You’ve had worse.” Duo nodded, “I know, it’s just for so long I’ve been avoiding the sun and everything so it’s a little strange to see my skin pink after so long it being pale. I thought you promised to put something on it for me.” Heero looked up from where he was finishing the end of the braid again from where it had become unraveled during the night and gave a nod. “Yes, I did, and yes, I will, just give me a moment.” Duo nodded, and after that moment was up Heero did rise from the bed and motion Duo to follow him, leading into his bathroom. Opening the small mirror/cabinet Heero withdrew a small tube of something that boasted relief for sunburns and slowly began to rub it into the skin on Duo’s shoulders, before traveling down. Watching in the mirror as Heero’s familiar hands ran an even more familiar trail Duo let his eyes close and he melted into the sensation, refusing to look beyond the moment, the feel, the hands against his back, still callused yet softer. Then came the unexpected touch. Head tilted back Duo held his braid up curled like a snake at the top of his head, and at the nape of the neck the American felt the feather light kiss, the brush of air against sunburned skin, then another feather light kiss farther down the column of the throat. Taking in a shuddering breath Duo tilted his head back farther, inviting the next kiss that placed itself behind the ear, then the tongue darted out tentatively and dabbed at the same spot. “Duo,” Heero breathed. “Mmm…” Duo felt Heero’s hands run lightly up his back, then stop at the shoulders and rub in soothing circular patterns as the mouth settled on the throat, moved to the underside of the throat, kissed briefly over the place where Heero could feel each uneven breath, the snake-like movement of the throat muscles as Duo swallowed, the vibration of the vocal chords. Pulling the American around Heero searched the heart-shaped face for some clue as to how to continue, found only the moistened parted lips, the dark lashes resting against flushed cheeks, the jagged bangs resting against the warm forehead. Bringing his mouth down he kissed lightly the other’s mouth and nudged the lips apart with a curious tongue. Tasting the same sweet, hot mouth he had so many times before wrenched a low moan from Heero’s throat and he gathered the willing body against his, hands sliding down the back lightly, mindful of the sunburn as he deepened the kiss. The braid came down and brushed against his roaming hands as Duo wrapped his arms loosely around Heero’s neck, giving the Japanese man his entire weight to support. As his hands came to rest on the curve of Duo’s buttocks Duo let out a soft moan into Heero’s mouth and pulled back, panting, and rested his cheek against Heero’s chest, head tucked under the chin. “Hee-chan,” Duo breathed, absently fiddling with the buttons on Heero’s shirt. Heero lifted the other’s face up for another kiss and he slowly began to unravel the braid, fingers running through the hair, separating and parting it into waves of chestnut that reached his knees. When Heero pulled the American into his arms fully, lifting him off of his feet and into the air Duo made no protest as he placed his hands on Heero’s shoulders to keep his balance. Another kiss found them moving toward the bed, then the bed shifted and rolled beneath the two bodies as they settled against the sheets, Heero’s hands exploring the planes of Duo’s chest. With unsteady hands Duo pulled Heero’s shirt over his head, breaking their kiss, and dropped it idly onto the floor, movements sluggish. “Are you sure?” Heero whispered as Duo’s hands brushed over the newly developed muscles along Heero’s abdomen; rock hard beneath skin of silk. “You talk to much.” Heero’s laugh was smothered by the American’s mouth.
Layout Designed by Ivy Dreams. Edited by Wispy.