Kiss 2

You know the song and dance by now. I don't own any of the Gundam Wing characters. I'm not pretending to own any of the characters. This is written for no profit, and is simply for myself and others sick amusement. Don't sue.

Warning: This part of the Kiss stories contains shounen-ai between Duo and Heero. As in kissing, kinda making out. If this bothers you in any way, then don't read.

Both Duo and Relena sat like stones on the living room sofa for a few seconds after Heero left the room. They stared at the empty doorway that Heero had disappeared through, too stunned to even look at each other. It was doubtful that they were even aware that the other was still present.

I screwed up, thought Duo, misery twisting his stomach into cold knots. I screwed up, and now he's gone. Why is it every time something good comes into my life, I have to screw up somehow? His breath was coming in hitching panicky gasps, and he realized that if he didn�t do something soon he was going to start hyperventilating.

Suddenly the cushion he was sitting on shifted with a groan of much abused springs. Duo drug himself out of the tangle of emotions running through him to see Relena heading toward the door. His breathing eased slightly now that he wasn�t totally focused on what was happening.

"Where are you going?"

"Where does it look like I'm going? After him!" The distraction and exasperation in Relena�s tone would have obvious to anyone. Blue eyes flashed in annoyance at being delayed from her goal. "What's the point?" Duo said, despair coloring his words. She gave him a blank look. "You don't seriously think he's ever going to trust us after that?" Relena rolled her eyes, as if asking heaven for patience.

"Duo, I've been chasing Heero for four years now. I'm not going to give up, no matter what."

Duo stared at her. The statement was so like Relena, it was funny. The girl wouldn't give up even if Armageddon was on her doorstep. No wonder it sometimes seemed as if Heero had no choice in the strange... relationship the two shared. Relena didn�t give him one.

"However, if you want to give up, I'll understand," she said giving him a slightly pitying look. Even if it wasn't said, Duo could hear the we can't all be perfect added onto the end.

Anger and shame pulsed through him then, fighting and winning against the pain and despair. He was a Gundam pilot. He had seen things during the war the would have caused most other people to crawl into a corner and lay there in a curled up shivering ball. Instead he had come through it alive, if not exactly whole. Yet here stood Relena, willing to face the consequences of what had happened in the room whatever they might be while all he could do was sit there feeling sorry for himself.

Duo hauled himself to his feet, and gave Relena as look as self-righteous as any of hers. "Outta the way, jo-chan." He strode past her through the doorway, towards the back bedroom while Relena gave his back an incredulous look.

"I can't believe," she said to the empty air, "that you actually fell for that." Relena had thought for sure that Duo would see right through her ploy. Obviously not. She shrugged. "Whatever works."

If she had time to think, Relena would have wondered why it was so important for Duo to come with her after Heero. But she didn�t have time to think about it. So she just relied on what instincts told her like she did in any situation where quick decisions were a necessity. And those instincts told her to that Duo was needed. Relena walked slowly down the hall of the apartment. She was pretty sure already where both Duo and Heero were headed. The bedroom the two shared.

Most times she could delude herself that what she knew was true wasn't, that Heero and Duo weren't actually... involved. It was convenient for both her heart and her sanity to simply forget what was reality. But in this case she didn't have time for delusion. If she - no, if they - didn't do something, Heero was going to leave for good. And that was surety she couldn't deny.

She arrived in the doorway of the bedroom to see Duo staggering back from a blow to the chin. It took a minute to process that Heero had hit the braided boy, that Heero had a duffel bag slung over one shoulder and was even now headed toward the door. However, once her mind had grasped the facts of the situation, Relena wasted no time in acting.

"No," she said quietly. Moving so that her body blocked the doorway, she looked steadily into Heero�s eyes, eyes that were filled with just as much determination as hers. "You are not leaving."

"Move," he said in a voice that was as dead and flat as any she had ever heard. For a moment Relena wondered if it might not be a good idea to move. Just as quickly as the thought came it was dismissed. This was Heero, after all. She had nothing to fear from him, no matter how threateningly he glared.

He marched up as if he would walk right through her, but a foot or so away he... paused. A flicker of confusion ran behind his eyes, before they firmed back into single-minded determination. He opened his mouth, but Relena beat him to it.

"You're not leaving, so put down the duffel bag and sit down. Duo, clear your things off the bed so we can all sit down." She gave a second glance to the mountains of clothing and unidentifiable... stuff that heaped the bed.

It�s incredible that any one person can sleep on the bed much less... Relena cut off that thought before it could finish. She couldn�t handle thinking about that now. Flustered, she snapped at the only target in sight. "Must you be such a slob?"

"Well excuse me for living in my own room!" Duo shot back, even as he pushed various articles onto the floor. The clothes landed with a muffled sound, and various things made sharper cracking sounds as they hit the tile. He wasn't seriously going to argue with Relena - not as long as she kept Heero in this room.

She took Heero's arm and guided him gently to the bed. Heero vaguely thought of resisting, but knew he wouldn�t. There was no way he could get out of her hold. At least not without doing Relena serious harm.

Duo can always dodge or defend himself if he feels truly threatened by me. He�s a trained Gundam pilot. Relena�s not. Though she�s just as dangerous as him sometimes. She gives out orders without a thought that they might not be obeyed. Which is why they are. Then quietly, forlornly, in his head I didn't agree to this!

Soon he was seated on a bed, duffel bag discarded somewhere on the floor, a person firmly attached to each arm. He couldn't look in any direction other that straight ahead not without letting some of what was happening inside him come out. To his right Relena radiated concern and a stubborn refusal to back down, to his left Duo gazed at him with poorly concealed desperation and ... guilt?

"Heero ..." Relena said, drawing his attention, if not his gaze. "Heero, we need to talk about this." Silence continued. "Dammit, Heero, talk to me! Don't shut me out!"

When she saw not even a flicker of acknowledgment, she looked beseechingly at Duo. The violet eyed pilot blinked, a little startled that Relena would ask him for help. Then Duo gave Heero's profile a considering look, catching the other pilot�s chin and forcing him to turn and look at him.

"If you're going to leave, Heero, then you can at least look me in the eye, and tell me why." Heero gave him an incredulous look, as if he couldn't believe Duo would even ask. Then his gaze slid down to the floor, and his shoulders slumped.

Duo was right. He deserved to know, and if Heero couldn�t tell the braided pilot why, then he didn�t deserve to leave.

"I want to know why," Duo continued. "I want to know why you're so eager to jump up and go without listening to a word from either of us."

"Because," the whisper came, "you looked right together." The pain that came in saying those words was greater than he had thought possible, greater than anything he had ever felt before. Duo was making choking noises, while Relena looked like she had swallowed a toad.

He wondered at their surprise, even as he fought what little relief their reactions gave him. But he owed them more than just that statement. The mission wasn�t over yet.

"You two are so ... so everything I'm not, and ... " Heero could be eloquent when dealing with ideals, or situations, but feelings and people were completely different. He struggled to put it into words, but there weren't any. It was just the feeling that those two would be happier with anyone else, even each other, than him.

"I always figured that you would find someone else eventually." The words were out of his mouth before he thought about what he was saying. He wished he could take them back, but it was too late.

"And then I wouldn't need you?" Duo asked gently, putting his worst fear into words. Then he pounced, engaging the other pilot in a kiss. But not an ordinary kiss, and certainly not chaste one. Heero�s lips were hard and demanding, and their tongues moved roughly against each other. Duo briefly thought, This beats the hell out of kissing Relena, before all thought processes shut down.

Relena stared at them her blue eyes wide. It was much different from just suspecting that they were ... involved, than seeing them attempt to give each other a tonsillectomy in front of her. She felt a blush heating her cheeks, and she was sure that if she were to look into a mirror, she would be the color of a ripe tomato.

This is what Heero felt, she thought, restraining the urge to run away, feeling like an intruder. She controlled the urge, but couldn�t control the sudden pressure in her chest. They look like two people who belong together ... two people who are together.

Several long, miserable minutes passed for Relena before the two finally came up for air. She spent all of them alternately staring and trying not to stare. There was something disturbingly fascinating about watching the two together.

Duo finally opened his eyes as he broke the kiss, and searched Heero's face for any hint of what he was thinking. What he saw made his shoulders relax and the tight vice around his heart ease. Heero wouldn't leave and the realization made him giddy with relief.

"Besides," he said, as if to continue whatever discussion had been interrupted by the kiss, "she threw herself at me. I was totally innocent."

"Innocent? YOU?? You tricked me!" Relena stated, her voice going up a notch. A feeling of panic went through her at the thought that Heero might not believe that she was innocent. That she might prefer Duo over him.

"I did not," Duo replied in a calm, reasonable voice.

"Yes you did!" Her voice climbed up yet another notch. Only Duo could ever get that kind of reaction out of her. The one where she forgot all her diplomatic training, and just reacted.

"I dared you to do it, but I didn't think you'd be dumb enough to actually go through wit it. My God, I'd rather kiss a dog!"

"Trying to keep it within your species?"

Relena suddenly covered her mouth with one hand, stunned. Duo looked equally surprised, then colored at the insult. Then the impossible happened. Between them on the bed, Heero wrapped his arms around his middle and laughed until it hurt.

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