Smells Like Teen Spirit
by: Link Worshiper

(x) X (x)

Game 38
It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll
(But I Like It)

(x) X (x)

Duo looked down at his shiny shoes and the white cuffs sticking out of his black dress coat. The pants of the tuxedo were too big and bunched around his ankles, and there was a lot of room to spare in the jacket’s waist. His shirt was used and a bit battered, and his tie was dark red with a coffee stain decorating the underside. “I look like shit,” said Duo with an odd curl in his lips. Head flicking up, he snapped at the first person he saw. “What the hell am I doing like this?”

With a sigh, Noin set down her guitar case and made her way across the gym towards Duo, picking her way around the students decorating the place for the prom. They had arrived early, two hours before the event, to set up their instruments and perhaps get in a little practice before everyone started showing up. The purple-haired girl had yet to change into her nightly attire because it would have been hard to set up in a long skirt, but Duo still had to try on his second-hand tux.

“Honestly, Duo,” she said with a shake of her head as she reached to tighten his tie, “I think you look just fine. You’re preening.”

“I am not,” Duo said, batting Noin’s hands away and fixing his tie on his own. He turned around and squinted at his reflection in the glass doors that led to the lobby. He frowned at the image glinting faintly in the glass, and he could have sworn that the reflection was smirking at him as he ran his hand quickly through his already perfectly brushed hair.

“Duo,” Noin said, putting a hand on his shoulder and pulling him away from the glass doors. “You look wonderful,” she insisted. “I don’t know what you’re so worried about. No one’s going to care.” A dastardly grin meandered across her face as she added in a sly tone, “Unless, that is, you’re looking to impress someone.”

“I am not!” Duo cried, grabbing the lapels of his jacket and jerking them close together. “I just hate this stupid coat and tails and I wish I could just dress like I regularly do!”

“If you hate it so much,” Noin said with a leer in her eye, “then why did you make Hilde and me spend almost an entire afternoon helping you dig through all your crap to find it? If I remember correctly, you snatched it up and ran it to be dry-cleaned the moment we found the damn thing.”

If there hadn’t been so many other people hanging around, Duo would have zapped across the gym with his mutation to avoid Noin making jokes about the full-body blush that overtook him. He hadn’t mentioned to his friends directly that he and Heero were supposed to be a ‘couple’ at the prom, and he wasn’t about to do so anytime soon! Not only would it be the butt-end of all their jokes, but it would embarrass him in front of Heero. He just wanted it to be Heero and him, never mind his well-meaning, though beyond obnoxious friends.

“You’re blu~ushing, Duo,” Noin sang with that damn mischievous glint in her eye. “What’s the deal? You got a date?”

“Nuh-uh!” Duo cried, blushing more furiously.

“You do! You do, don’t you!?” Noin practically squealed. She had the disposition of an excited schoolgirl, something that was highly alien for the usually cool and collected Noin.

“Shut up, Noin! I do not!” Duo said, getting even more flustered. Time would only tell when Noin went for the jugular and started making cracks about him and Heero.

“Well, even if that’s true,” Noin said slyly as she sidled up next to Duo and slung a friendly arm around his shoulders, “I’m sure you got yourself gussied up for someone. You expecting to see someone special, eh?”

“None of your damned business,” Duo snapped, darting out of Noin’s embrace with a quick flicker of atomic cloud that would hardly have been noticed even if someone had been watching. With a shake of his head that sent his braid whipping about like a python, Duo straightened his jacket again and said, “I just don’t want to look stupid when we’re up there playing our music. The last thing I need is to be seen as even freakier than I already am.”

“Last time I checked, you didn’t care about that stuff,” Noin said, narrowing her eyes to match the wily smirk riddling her lips. “What brought about this sudden change in character, Mr. Anarchist?”

“I just don’t want to look stupid, okay! You’re over-reading into this!” Duo hissed over his shoulder as he stalked off towards the rest of the band, where they were still setting up Hilde’s drum kit and Quatre’s piano.

Noin sniggered when she caught sight of Heero’s shoelace, still tied in its usual place at the tail of Duo’s braid as it swung back and forth across Duo’s back and dusted the tops of his thighs. Even though she had gotten used to seeing the shoelace there, Noin couldn’t help her reaction. She was willing to bet that half the reason Duo pushed his honesty policy so much was because he was such a terrible liar.

They spent about an hour more setting up, lifting amps and hooking up microphones. Noin’s two guitars sat beside Dorothy’s eclectic collection of various instruments and Duo’s bass, all ready to go at a moment’s notice. Quatre sat at the piano, making sure it was in tune, while Noin chatted with the frizzy-haired DJ that was responsible for the rest of the music for the night. Hilde was busy arranging her drums the way she liked best and Dorothy was strumming some ballad on an acoustic guitar as she tested the equipment.

“I got thirsty, so I went to a bar. Met a little darling with the face of a star,” Dorothy crooned into the microphone, her low voice reverberating throughout the gym and serenading all those who were still working on preparing the place for the prom. “In the morning, I woke up to find... she stole my car, along with my heart, oh yeah!”

“Sounding good, Dotty!” Quatre commented as he gently pressed one of the white ivories, listening carefully to its sound beneath Dorothy’s song.

Dorothy shot Quatre one of her devilish grins as she sung from the corner of her mouth so she could watch her blond friend at the piano. “Oh well, I guess that’s just the way that it is. Don’t bother none--won’t help at all to worry ‘bout it.” She played a few heavy chords and then smacked the vibrating guitar strings silent with a hollow thud of her hand. “Wish she’d give me back my heart, uh huh!” Then she burst out into some wild strumming, her hand pumping up and down forcefully as her fingers bit the strings with every pass. Quatre even joined in on the piano with some rather impressive improvised blues-like tones.

As they slowed their frenzied music, a loud clapping noise came from the nearby DJ table, where the frizzy-haired record-spinner was pounding his hands together in excited praise. “You guys are awesome,” he said with a lopsided grin, which he shifted towards Noin. “Good luck tonight, okay?”

“Thanks, Mister,” laughed Noin with a wink. Then she walked away, heading for Duo, who was trying to make himself look busy with a tangle of cords and a roll of gaffer’s tape. “You ready to go, Duo?” she asked when she got over to him.

Duo glared up at her from his stooped position on the floor, still annoyed at her for her earlier commentary. With a moody swipe of his hand, he flattened a long strip of tape over one of the cords, securing it in place and ensuring it wouldn’t be disturbed during the night’s excitement. “Of course I’m ready,” he ground out tersely. “I’m always ready for music.”

“I know that, you giant dork,” Noin said with a smile as she fell into a low crouch beside Duo. “What I meant was: are you ready for tonight.”

“What do you--hey!” Duo sent his glare at her again, complete with a hard frown and a set jaw, which he had learned from observing Heero far too much. “I’m not on any stinking date, Noin. I’m just gonna hang of Heero’s arm for a while to keep the piranhas at bay.”

“Sure that’s the reason.” Noin rolled her eyes. “Good scam you got going if that’s the case,” she continued sarcastically. “I mean, going as far as kissing him just to keep Relena away is pushing it a bit, don’t you think?”

The colour Duo turned was at least four times as deep as the body-blush that had attacked him before. “Who told you I kissed him?” Duo asked, though his voice wasn’t as angry as either of them had expected it to be.

“A little, yellow birdie,” Noin grinned, making her look frighteningly like a cartoonish Cheshire cat as her eyes darted towards Quatre’s turned back. Sobering, she said more seriously, “But Duo, if you really like the guy, I don’t see why you have to hide it like the plague from people like us.” She looked thoughtful for a moment and added, “You and I both know very well that the fact gender means very little to you when seeking a lover isn’t going to change our opinion of you.”

Duo knew this to be true, but couldn’t help asking anyway, just to be safe. “You’d still think of me the same?”

Noin took the opportunity and ran far with it. “You mean if we’d still think of you as the arrogant, cocky little bastard you always were, then yeah, of course!”

“Below the belt, Noin,” Duo scolded as he ripped another piece of tape, though he felt slightly better about his apprehension about the whole ordeal with Heero.

To tell the honest truth, it wasn’t so much what his friends would think, but what everyone else would. He wasn’t dumb enough to just assume that everyone was going to be okay with things just because Heero was practically their town’s Jesus. If anything, things would just get severely fucked up for both of them, and Duo didn’t want to have to deal with any more shit than he already had to. And with the way the school’s gossip chain was linked, he could only shudder at what the story would turn into by the time he heard it again. Yeah, ‘Lax star and gay mutant hook up’ would really fly great among the more conservative people around town. And if Duo knew anything about the way things played out, it would be the underdog who got slandered.

“I know you’re scared,” Noin suddenly spoke up, drawing Duo out of his musing. She reached out and put a hand on his shoulder, patting it in a sisterly way. “But just know that all of us will stick by you no matter what.”

“Noin....”

“Don’t be scared of doing what you want to do because you’re worried about what a bunch of bigots are gonna think. We just want you to be happy, and ever since you started hanging out with Heero, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you more content,” she said softly enough for only the two of them to hear. “You have fun with him tonight, you hear me?” she went on in that same quiet voice. “You kiss him and dance with him if you want to, and fuck whatever the hell anyone else thinks.”

Duo smiled weakly at her, looking up at her with a genuinely thankful expression.
“And Duo,” she said finally as she prepared to stand up again, “if you hurt that boy, I’ll kick your ass so hard, you’ll never sit down again, you got it?”

The smile on Duo’s face broke into one of his dazzling, thousand-watt grins. “I got it, Lucy. I got it.”

(x) X (x)

The lights were low, and the coloured spotlights swirled around the gym, illuminating the throngs of dancers out in the middle of the large, tarp-covered basketball court as they hopped and moved about in time to the music. The DJ had been cranking out music for a while as the kids had started showing up, all decked out in their dark tuxedos, elegant gowns and decorative masks to go with the masquerade theme. Round tables hung with long, white tablecloths lined the width of the gym and the bleachers that ran along the length of the place had been pulled out to create more sitting space.

Duo sat on the highest level of the bleachers, one crooked elbow resting on his knee as he cupped his chin in hand, the other toying with a velvety black and silver mask fixated on the end of a spindly wooden stick as he watched the dance with a bored look in his eye. These kinds of gatherings had never really been his scene, and if it weren’t for the fact that the prom committee had offered him and his band payment for performing that night, he wouldn’t have come at all. Then again, whether they had been playing or not, Duo probably would have ended up there with the bold statement he’d given Relena about being Heero’s date for the evening. At the time, he hadn’t meant it that way, really, phrasing it that they were only going together and leaving Relena to infer that they were planning a date. Now, obviously, that had changed, ironically enough, to exactly what Relena was imagining at the time.

“This seat taken?” a low, familiar voice purred from Duo’s left.

A startled tremor ran through Duo’s body as he turned towards Heero, who had somehow managed to sneak up beside him without Duo even noticing. “No, of course not!” he said to Heero as he gestured to the empty space beside him. As Heero sat down, Duo said with a wisecracking grin, “Heh, I was beginning to think you’d stood me up, lover-boy.”

Heero blinked at Duo, confused, his oriental, blue eyes glittering with dozens of colours in the dim light as the strobes flashed across his face. “I would never stand you up, Duo,” he said, running a stray hand through his perpetually messy hair. It seemed that even prom did nothing to tame those wild spikes of dark chocolate from sticking up all over his head and tumbling in front of his eyes, which glittered like studded jewels set in the empty eye-holes of the beaded, white mask he wore.

“Well, you’re just in time, anyway. We were going to start our set soon,” said Duo, not sure where he should have his eyes focused. He kept darting between the writhing dancers below and his handsome date, who looked even more amazing in that custom-tailored tuxedo than Duo remembered, especially after Hilde had touched it up a bit with those alterations.

That glimmer of a smile alighted Heero’s face, and Duo was beginning to realize that the expression was a rare one for Heero, despite the fact that Heero seemed to be very free with gifting Duo with as many as he could. “I love hearing you sing,” he said softly, leaning in close to Duo to whisper in his ear.

Duo shivered unconsciously, unsure of when Heero had gotten so close. Heero always managed to make his senses fall into momentary relapse. The logical, smug voice in Duo’s head suggested that it was because Duo was so comfortable around Heero that he didn’t feel the need to be on constant alert around him. Even as he was thinking those things, Heero wrapped his arms around Duo’s waist and pulled him closer so they were sitting flush against each other. The simple gesture made so many emotions rocket through Duo’s system that he started trembling.

Heero’s lips were ghosted across his ear, tickling the thin cartilage and making the delicate cross hanging from the lobe sway when he spoke. “Do you think we’d have time for just one dance before that?”

Duo found himself nodding, his mind all the while jesting that if Heero asked him to drown in the ocean, he would have agreed to it willingly. He stood up and took Heero’s hand when he offered it, feeling like he was being pulled towards the dance floor on a floating cloud.

The moment their shoes hit the ground, Heero pulled Duo towards him and wrapped the longhaired mechanic’s gangly arms around his waist, pressing as close to him as he could, still holding his black mask in one hand. It didn’t take long for either of them to align their swaying hips to the throbbing pound of the DJ’s music. Duo didn’t know the lyrics of the rap song that was playing, or even what it was called or who it was by, but it didn’t matter. All that Duo was aware of was Heero, melded to his body and stroking his forearms with callused fingers; Heero and his gyrating hips; Heero and the wonderfully arousing sensations he was sending through Duo’s nerve-endings.

Heero had never felt so free in his life, and all he could do was blame it on Duo. For many years, he had been too uptight, too shy and nervous to approach the object of his affections, but when Duo had joined up with the lacrosse team, practically being presented to him on a silver platter, Heero’s mind had gone into spasms. How could he think clearly with Duo so near and chances so rampant? He had hardened himself and become more aloof, only to find all that careful building for nothing; Duo’s presence had kept chipping away at him, and Heero had grown weary of lashing out at him. And here he was now, wrapped in Duo’s arms and dancing like no one was looking. It was an amazing thing, and the thought never failed to make Heero’s head spin.

“You move perfectly,” Heero heard Duo murmur into his ear as he pressed his cheek against the side of Heero’s head. The arms clamped firmly around him tightened more, as if to silently warn away anyone who was thinking of taking Heero away from him.

They were dancing on the edge of the crowd, kind of close to the bleachers and the tables near the glass doors that led to the entrance lobby. Together, they watched as more students slowly trickled in through the doors, each one looking more stunning than the last. Prom night somehow managed to transform even the plainest of people into princes and princesses with a mysterious breed of magic.

Even people Duo knew seemed to have a sort of ethereal, sensual quality when he saw them. He grinned as Milliardo arrived in a light gray tuxedo and a powder blue mask that covered the right half of his face. Noin was at his side and looking beautiful in the form-hugging gown that swished around her pretty body. (She sent a very smug look at Duo when she saw him dancing with Heero and waltzed off with her enthusiastic boyfriend, still leering at them all the time.) Tomboyish Hilde appeared without a date, but nevertheless gorgeous in a beaded, black dress that hung off one shoulder and was cut around the bottom to reveal one pretty calf. Even Dorothy had managed to scrounge up a dark, poofy-skirted dress that made her look sort of like some kind of vampire queen, especially with the black-accented, white-faced mask that covered her whole face.

“Don’t look now,” Duo grumbled as he saw who was just entering the lobby. He grabbed one of Heero’s hands and spun him out, dragging him back towards his body so that he was facing Duo. The surprised look of horror in Heero’s eyes as Duo had done this almost made up for the displeasure that gripped the long-haired teen when he saw the almost gaudy glitz and glamour of Relena and her entourage as they swept into the gym like they owned the dance.

Heero seemed to know at once what had made Duo so tense, and wasted no time in wrapping his arms around Duo’s neck and cuddling close, still rocking hard to the music. “I don’t want to have to deal with her,” he growled in a menacing voice. “Can’t we avoid her?”

“I wish,” was all Duo could mutter in response, a frown drawn firmly across his face in one grim streak as he slowly guided Heero deeper into the vibrating crowd of students, his narrowed eyes never leaving Relena and her group. He wasn’t about to let her ruin this night; not a snowball’s chance in hell!

He watched over Heero’s shoulder as Relena and Catherine waltzed into the gym, each with a young man on her arm. Catherine’s dark reddish curls bounced with ribbons and beads as she moved, her light green dress fluttering around her with each step. Her date was a blond jerk from the lacrosse team, who whispered about Duo whenever he was around.

Surprisingly, Relena wasn’t wearing a pink dress as Duo had expected her to. (He had noticed a long time ago that Relena had an unhealthy fixation on the colour.) Instead, she was draped in a royal blue dress that wrapped around her body many times and fastened at her hip. Long white gloves covered her arms and fingers, and a thin string of pearls hung around her neck. Her eyes were covered by a feathery mask, which was the same colour as her dress and kind of made her look like a peacock. But when Duo’s eyes fell upon her date, he couldn’t help but let out an angry hiss.

“Duo?” Heero whispered, feeling Duo’s body tense and coil into fight mode beneath his touch.

But Duo was too angry to even reply. Instead, his sharp, indigo eyes were flashing with violet rage as he glared through the crowd at Relena, who was standing arm-in-arm with none other than Solo, freshly-groomed and all decked out in a custom-tailored tuxedo and a blood-red mask that hid most of his face. Still, despite being clean and neat, there was no mistaking those long, chin-length locks of hair or that the scars that slithered out from beneath the mask. “Why the fuck is he here with her?” Duo seethed.

“Duo, what the hell is wrong?” Heero asked again, his voice serious and very ready for business. They had long since stopped dancing and were now merely standing amid the dancing throng of students with their arms locked tightly around each other.

“I... I....” Duo stammered, pissed beyond all words. He suddenly let his arms drop to his sides, releasing the still confused Heero as he muttered, “I... I think I have to go find Noin.... We’re gonna have to get ready to play soon....” He was already taking slow steps backwards into the crowd, his entire form drooping, nothing like the passionate dancer who had just been holding Heero.

“Duo, tell me what the fuck is wrong,” Heero ordered a moment too late as Duo skittered behind a girl with short, eggplant purple hair and disappeared completely. Heero frowned as a familiar stone dropped in his stomach when Duo vanished; he wasn’t sure if what hurt him more was the fact that Duo was no longer there or that Duo had refused to say what was bothering him. Then again, he thought as he slowly turned around, preparing to head for the tables to sit down, he looked more frightened than anything....

He had no sooner gone around an entire half circle, when he saw Relena and Solo, realizing quickly that had caused Duo to flee, and Heero suddenly no longer blamed Duo for having such a reaction when he also recognized Solo. A similar frown to the one Duo had worn crossed Heero’s features as he hung on the edge of the crowd, watching the strange couple carefully. There was something about the way Solo’s green eyes were glinting in the darkness that made Heero think that there was more to this arrangement than a new suit and a shower. Even as Relena flitted around and chatted with everyone worthwhile who happened by, Solo’s eyes were darting about, watching, waiting. It hardly took Heero three seconds to decide he didn’t like the look in Solo’s eye.

Then, much to Heero’s chagrin, Relena noticed him and called out to him. He pretended not to hear and readjusted the mask on his face, as if doing so would hide his features more. All the while, his eyes were darting around in search of Duo, or at least some other temporary means of escape. Things were bound to play out badly if things progressed this way, especially with Solo hanging around the way he was.

“Heero!” A hand suddenly clamped down on his upper arm to spin him around, and the next thing the Japanese boy knew, he was standing in front of Relena, Solo, Catherine and her date with all hopes of getting away squashed for the time being.

Swallowing his discontent, Heero forced a smile and bowed slightly in greeting. “Relena, Catherine,” he mumbled, glad that his mask at least did enough to hide the flaring expression in his eyes.

Relena giggled, hands thrown up over her mouth, and Heero thought she sounded slightly drunk, a detail he found particularly disturbing given her company. Grabbing Solo’s hand, Relena said, “Heero, have you met my date? This is Solo.” She seemed to have forgotten the pizza parlour incident.

Heero wasn’t sure if he should have pretended to know Solo or not, and spent a few silent moments trying to weigh up the repercussions of both options. Surprisingly, it was Solo who made the first move, extending his hand and saying, “Pleasure to formally meet you... Heero.... I’ve been hearing so much about you.”

Steeling himself, Heero accepted the handshake and said simply, “Nice to meet you too... Solo.” His dark blue eyes flickered with knowing resentment as they met Solo’s, and even though both of them were hiding behind coloured masks, there was no denying that things were far from over between them.

“Where’s the slut?” Solo mouthed with a cruel twist of his lips as he gave Heero’s hand a final, rough squeeze before letting it go.

Heero gritted his teeth and resisted the urge to slam his fist into Solo’s nose, settling to just ball his hands tightly at his sides. It would not do to make trouble here. His eyes flicked away from Solo to Relena, who was smiling at whatever Catherine was whispering into her ear.

She laughed and then turned what was supposed to be a coy smile at Heero. “Where’s Duo?” she asked innocently. “I thought you were supposed to be here with him?”

“His band is getting ready to play,” Heero responded tersely. It was obvious she was trying to make it sound like Duo had stood him up, and the only consolation Heero could find was that this meant she hadn’t seen him dancing with Duo earlier. “Why do you care?” he bit out with a frown.

“Oh, no reason,” she said with a clueless expression that made Heero want to gag. “We’re just looking for him to say hello, that’s all.”

It didn’t take Heero long to catch onto the game. “Relena, you keep Solo the fuck away from Duo,” he growled, not caring what would happen for making such a blatant assumption and threat. Then he added, just for good measure, “He’s here as my date, and if you cause any trouble for him, you’ll have to answer to me.” The snarl that flashed across Relena’s face made the comment oh-so worth it and Heero’s mouth curled into a sadistic grin.

“You’re always so negative, Heero,” Catherine piped up. Her date yawned and Heero glared at her.

Solo was smirking like a demon, and the expression made Heero think of Duo right away. For a moment, he could almost see how these two had once been such good friends, a tag-team of miscreant devils that ruled the streets. And now the tie was severed and they were both vying for the position of Prince of Hell. “Bitch,” he mouthed at Heero as he made a crude gesture at him, the movements of his lips and hands missed by everyone but the Japanese boy.

Heero refused to get angry, refused to let himself be manipulated by their damned games. He made some noise of goodbye and shoved his way between Catherine and Relena to get away, quickly darting into the crowd and weaving his way through it. Fortunately, it didn’t seem like they were going to follow him and he stepped down his frantic escape. Just then, all the kids pressed around him started to cheer and clap, and when he heard Noin’s voice booming over the speakers, he realized that Duo was going to perform soon.

Looking through the mass of people towards the area where the band had set up, Heero could see Noin standing by one of the microphones with her guitar slung over her shoulder by its black strap. She was making introductions for the band, a smile on her face all the while, as if she was thinking about something else that amused her far more than playing music. She got to Duo last, rolling her eyes as she gestured to him, and somehow, Heero knew that he was the reason Noin had that certain look on her face.

Duo was by the other microphone, perched on a high stool with his bass on his knee. He had taken the wooden handle off his silver-swirled, black mask and now wore it tied over his eyes and nose normally, the violet beads studding the velvet shining like amethysts in the dim light. He adjusted the microphone’s height and plucked at his bass guitar before addressing the crowd; “We’ve got some older songs to play so... I hope you like them!” Without much else fanfare, they started their set.

The music they played was the same stuff they’d been practicing at Duo’s house for quite some time, and had Heero actually been able to take his eyes off Duo, he would have been pleased to note that the kids actually did seem to like it, even if it wasn’t the bland, synthesized beat that seemed to be so popular. But even as the people around him grooved to the music, Heero found himself riveted in his place, somewhat close to the front of the crowd, just watching Duo as he played and hardly cognizant of anything else. The only thing that mattered to Heero was Duo and the crackle of energy that whipped up and down his spine whenever Duo made eye contact with him. Heero felt like his stomach was being attacked by butterflies at the thought that Duo was singing only to him.

“Remember how I found you there,
Alone in your electric chair.
I told you dirty jokes until you smiled.
You were lonely for a man.
I said ‘Take me as I am.
‘Cause you might enjoy some madness
For a while!’”

As for Duo, even though he was absorbed in his song, it hadn’t taken him long to spot Heero in the crowd. It seemed like even in the largest groups, Duo could still find Heero almost automatically; ironically, the same had also been true back when they were rivals. It continued to prove to Duo that there was some unseen chemistry between the two of them, whether it was obvious or not. Heero looked like the Phantom of the Opera, standing there in his tuxedo and his simple, white mask, his startling blue eyes flashing in the dark. But unlike most, the Phantom didn’t scare Duo, and rather enticed him instead. Beneath that concealing mask of Heero’s, there was someone that Duo was pretty sure hadn’t been introduced very freely to many other people; Duo smiled at the thought, feeling very lucky that he’d had the privilege to.

Out of the corner of his eye, Duo caught sight of Solo and Relena as they infiltrated the crowd, no longer with Catherine and her date. He wasn’t sure if Heero had noticed Solo’s presence, or what Solo was even doing there with Relena in the first place, but he sure as hell didn’t like it one bit. He had a good guess that whatever it was, it had to do with him, or possibly even Heero. Memories of the pizza parlour incident flooded Duo’s mind, and he prayed that nothing of that sort happened here, where there were far more people who could be hurt by such a catastrophic tussle. That bled into thoughts about the fight after the drag race, where Heero had mutilated Alex, and Duo figured that Solo wasn’t about to let things between them slide so easily after something like that happened to one of his top boys. But that still didn’t quite explain what he was doing with Relena; neither one seemed quite suited for the other, and Duo was pretty sure that there had to be something that would make them hang out with people they would usually avoid, something Duo wasn’t seeing.

“Now think of all the years you’ve tried to
Find someone to satisfy you.
I might be as crazy as you say.
If I’m crazy, then it’s true,
That it’s all because of you,
And you wouldn’t want me any other way.”

Dorothy seemed to notice the distracted look in Duo’s eye, and followed it to Solo and Relena, frowning when she saw them. Unlike Heero and Duo, she wasn’t able to pick out right away that the masked blonde on Relena’s arm was Solo, as she had only seen him once or twice. But what she was able to tell easily was that he was someone dangerous, especially if he was earning a suspicious look from Duo, given his company. Though Dorothy found certain female-oriented characteristics of Relena to be endearing, the fact that Duo wasn’t fond of her was no secret; if Duo was fretting about her well-being, then things were far from fine.

Noticing the silent communication between Dorothy and Duo, Quatre tried to figure out what was wrong. There was nothing happening in the performance that should have alerted Quatre’s attention, and as far as anyone else knew, things were running smoothly. But when a feeling of foreboding clenched his Sense, Quatre confirmed his suspicions that there was trouble brewing. He quickly checked the crowd and had to bite his lip in order to stifle an instinctive gasp when he finally caught sight of Solo and Relena.

Despite the huge space between them, Quatre and Solo locked eyes and his Sense suddenly started throbbing, like it was on fire, a dull ache overtaking Quatre’s mind. It took every fiber of his being not to pass out and to keep playing the piano. There had been something weird in his head when his gaze had settled on Solo, like a thousand dark whispers blowing through it. It vaguely reminded him of what happened whenever he accidentally connected with Heero, only darker and a little frightening.

“You may be right; I may be crazy!
Hey, but it just might be a lunatic
You’re looking for!
It’s too late to fight!
It’s too late to change me.
You may be wrong for all I know,
But you may be right!”

Though there wasn’t much left of the song, the rest of it seemed to drag for Duo as his eyes tracked Solo and Relena. All he really wanted to do was jump into the crowd, grab Heero by the hand and pedal out of there as fast as they could before anything happened. Duo’s eyes swung across the crowd and found Heero still standing in the same place, though it seemed he too had noticed Duo’s unrest and was scanning the room for any trouble. Perhaps Duo was overreacting a little, but he had the hugest sense of foreboding looming overhead, and he was never one to ignore his old street instincts when they kicked in.

When they finished the music, a quick silent exchange of glances between Duo, Dorothy and Quatre was more than sufficient to communicate what each had seen during that last song. Knowing that Dorothy could take his place and keep the set running as smoothly as it was, Duo handed his bass off to her and she set aside her sax. Just as he was about to dart into the crowd to nab Heero, Hilde called from behind her drum kit, “Duo, where are you going?”

For a moment, Duo wasn’t sure what to say. He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out, so he just shrugged instead.

Hilde furrowed her eyebrows and shot him a strange look, like she thought Duo was bailing on them. “Hey, Duo, I know you hate this whole prom thing, but at least be a sport,” she said, still frowning at him with that expression on her face.

Duo turned to say something to her, but found himself faced with the same problem as before. He gestured with his hands like he was telling her to just stay put, and then quickly pushed his way into the crowd before Hilde had a chance to protest. He was pretty sure he was able to just catch the beginning of the softened explanation Quatre started to tell Hilde and Noin as he went.

Finally able to reach Heero, Duo latched onto him tight, not caring if anyone saw them and damning anyone who cared. “I don’t like it,” he said simply, pulling Heero closer than he had ever dared to in public before. Had the subject at hand not been so serious, the contact might have been taken far differently.

“I saw Solo,” Heero informed Duo in a low whisper, his voice clipped. Even though the rest of the band had started another song, which, when mingled with the loud din around them, was cover enough for their conversation, Heero felt the need for discretion.

“I don’t like it at all,” Duo reiterated fiercely, his arm around Heero’s back and clamping their sides tightly together. “He’s using her, I can tell. And she doesn’t even know it!”

Heero nodded in agreement, that somber frown of his decorating his face. Duo was pretty sure that Heero’s eyebrows were crinkled with anger and worry beneath that white, Phantom mask of his. “I don’t know what we should do, though,” he said in a reserved tone.

“Aw, I was counting on you!” Duo whined jokingly. Despite the ill timing of the tone, the words were exactly what were bothering Duo’s mind. He didn’t know how to approach the situation quite yet, and he had expected Heero to have come up with something with his usual calculated grace. “This whole thing is just doused in gasoline,” Duo commented, “and I’m just waiting for someone to strike a match.” He used his free hand to make a large, exploding gesture that almost nailed a nearby girl with long, blond hair in the face.

“Things are delicate,” Heero concurred with another nod.

Just then, Catherine swept by them and turned to face them when she noticed who she had just puttered by. “Oh, Heero, there you are!” she drawled, grabbing the arm Duo wasn’t holding. “Relena was wondering what happened to you.” Her green eyes flicked over to Duo and looked him up and down somewhat disdainfully. “Oh, so he did find you after all.”

“Cathy, leave us alone,” Heero ordered tersely. He pulled his arm away from Catherine and used that hand to flatten Duo’s palm even harder into his hip, pressing them even closer together.

“Oh, stop being such an asshole,” Catherine said with a curl of her lips. “Relena was just worried that you got stuck here by yourself, but I guess she was wrong.” The catty look on her face faded as she added with a sigh, “She was so sure that... that....” She squinted at Duo in thought.

“Duo,” Duo supplied, figuring that she was groping for his name.

“Right, Duo,” Catherine picked up almost immediately. “That Duo wasn’t going to show.”

“Of course I was going to show!” Duo interrupted. He jabbed an impatient finger towards Noin and the others. “That’s my band! You think they’d be here without me?”

“Well, that doesn’t mean that you’d have gone to be with Heero!” Catherine snapped back, defending her best friend’s theory. To be perfectly honest, when Relena had said that Heero and Duo were going to prom together, she had found the notion plausible and therefore, hadn’t thought twice about it. But part of the whole best friend equation was sticking up for that friend even when she knew Relena was wrong.

“Contrary to popular belief, I’d never ditch Heero,” Duo retorted. Fixing his hold on Heero’s waist so that it was more obvious to Catherine, Duo added, “If you want us to go over to see Relena, please inform her that she’ll have to dispose of her date first.”

Catherine looked a bit shocked at the vehement comment. Narrowing her eyes, she said in an accusing voice, “Just because he might not be as lucky as you--”

“Luck ain’t got nothing to do with it!” Duo practically roared at Catherine, his jerky movements doing quite a number on Heero as well. “That guy’s a rat bastard, and if lil’ Miss Pink knows what’s good for her, she’ll stay the fuck away from guys like Solo!”

Catherine’s eyes widened at the mention of Solo’s name. As far as she had known, Solo and Duo had never met, and she didn’t know the details of Relena’s and Solo’s acquaintance. Solo actually scared Catherine a little bit; she noticed the shifty way he watched the world, and it had always sat funny in her stomach. It seemed to finally dawn on her that perhaps Duo had a good point, and she slunk off with a nod and not another word about it.

When Catherine had disappeared into the crowd, Duo whispered harshly into Heero’s ear, “Let’s find somewhere else less noticeable to hang out. I don’t think I can take much more of this.”

“Duly noted,” Heero answered, allowing himself to be steered by Duo towards the doors near the back of the gym that led to a usually empty hallway where the bathrooms and vending machines were.

The moment they stepped out of the darkened gymnasium and into the hall, they were assaulted with the almost blinding light of the fluorescent lighting fixtures overhead. It was a long, white-walled hallway with blue tiles that doubled back around the length of the gym to the front lobby. The loudness of both crowd and music were dulled by the doors when they closed behind the pair, and both were thankful for the fresh, cool air. Loosening their grips on one another, both boys strolled slowly down the hall, silently wondering what they ought to do next.

“Yet another complicated chapter in the satire that is my life. Things have gotten ridiculous and I doubt there’s very much we can do about any of it,” Duo sighed as he pulled Heero by the elbow towards the vending machines. Releasing Heero, he starting digging around in his pockets for some loose change as he started at the glass that protected the snacks inside the machine from thieves. It actually took him much longer than expected to select a chocolate bar, because he was distracted by the harrowed reflection in the glass display window.

“Do we have to do anything?” Heero countered smartly as he watched Duo stoop to fish his chocolate bar out of the machine’s depository slot. “We don’t have to involve ourselves with Relena or Solo or anyone if we choose not to.”

Unwrapping the top of his chocolate, Duo touched the brown sweet to his lips and closed his eyes. For the first time in a while, his lips quirked up into a smile at whatever was running through his head at the moment, and Heero found his eyes riveted to those wide, pink lips as they spread against the silver foil of the chocolate’s wrapper.

“But, we’ve already been tied into this whole affair by so many strings, it’s almost impossible to leave it alone,” Heero went on, forcing himself to look down the hall and away from Duo’s distracting mouth. “Whether we like it or not, we’re already involved....”

“Heero,” Duo’s voice interrupted Heero’s train of thought and called his eyes back towards the braided youth. “You don’t always have to be out to save the world.”

“Then what do we do?” Heero asked simply, shrugging his shoulders and letting his hands fall helplessly to his sides. Even behind his white Phantom mask, Duo could see Heero’s eyes quavering with confusion and helplessness. It was something Duo was sure Heero felt a lot, but didn’t much like showing. Once again, he was flattered to have seen another one of Heero’s rarer traits, proving how much Heero trusted Duo.

“Nothing,” Duo said, nibbling at his chocolate bar. “Strangely enough, it all works out fine in the end.”

“How will it?” Heero asked frankly, crossing his arms, and sure that he had beaten Duo to the quick with that one.

Eyes shining like two large, indigo stones inlaid in his black mask, Duo shook his head slightly and said softly, “I don’t know. It’s a mystery.” He offered Heero a weak smile.

“Well,” Heero said thoughtfully, fingering the lapel of his jacket, “at least it’s nice to know that there’s at least one constant in the universe.”

“Whuzzat? The ever-changing weirdness in which things play out?” Duo asked around a mouthful of chocolate.

Heero’s eyes flicked up from his jacket in time to catch a purely adorable and innocent-looking Duo blinking back at him with round, chocolate-filled cheeks puffing out beneath the silver trim of his mask. “Yes,” he said, smiling at the image of Duo at one of his more raw moments, when his guard was down. “And we’re Yin and Yang.”

“Which one of us is which?” Duo asked with a sly grin to match Heero’s pleased one.

“Your call,” returned Heero as he leaned against the snack machine and continued to indulge in watching Duo eat like it was some kind of guilty pleasure.

Duo laughed at that and offered Heero a bite of his chocolate as he said, “Ha, that’s probably the best assessment anyone’s ever done of me or you ever!” Noticing that Heero hadn’t even moved from his position against the snack machine, he figured simply holding the chocolate in Heero’s general direction wasn’t going to scream ‘offer’ at the literal Japanese teen. “Want a bite?” he asked, shaking the bar enticingly. “It’s dark chocolate... just like you.” He grinned, figuring that Heero would probably remember what he meant.

“Hm?” Heero snapped out of his daze. He’d been so absorbed in watching Duo and every subtle move he made, he’d missed the big picture, namely, that Duo was talking to him.

Duo neared Heero and leaned against the snack machine, his forehead pressed against Heero’s. “Chocolate, Heero,” Duo breathed, his cocoa-scented breath billowing across Heero’s nose and teasing his nostrils. “Do you want some?”

Heero assumed that Duo was referring to the half-eaten bar of chocolate he was holding, though Heero would have much preferred the melted glaze of chocolate smeared across Duo’s bottom lip. “Yeah,” he murmured, his eyes honed on Duo’s mouth.

“What?” Duo’s eyes crossed as he tried to look down at his nose. He lifted his black mask and held it over his head as he continued to try and scrutinize his chin. “There something on my face?”

“Yeah,” Heero whispered huskily. He was tilting his head slightly and wetting his lips, though Duo seemed not to notice the obvious invitation.

“Really? I don’t see any--”

Suddenly, Heero pressed his lips against his, and they were kissing for the first time that evening. It was the most public place they had dared to show any affection for each other, but the idea that someone might prance down the hall at any second kind of added to the excitement of the kiss. And since Duo was readily accepting it, even opening his mouth enough to allow their tongues a larger playground, Heero figured that his partner was more than okay with it.

In fact, Duo was beyond okay with kissing Heero and had finally gotten to a point where he could care less what other people thought. Every time they did, Duo found himself liking it more and more, and this one, be it the chocolate, the mood, or whatever, seemed to push Duo over the edge. Quickly taking control of the kiss, he let go of his mask, the black, velvet shell snapping against the top of Duo’s head as both of Duo’s hands went for Heero’s shoulders and turned the shorter boy’s back towards the snack machine. A dull rattle, punctuated with a low, drawn-out moan, echoed up and down the hall as Duo pressed Heero firmly against the vending machine. The forgotten chocolate bar lay by their feet in a crumpled grave of torn foil and paper.

Urgency and need were not unfamiliar visitors to their kissing, but this time, both seemed to be of utmost importance. Of all their kisses, this was by far the most rough and rowdy one they had ever shared. Lips were bitten, teeth collided and tongues sparred. Though it was Duo who had Heero pinned beneath him with both his hands and his hips, Heero was far from submissive to him, and was in fact the one whose biting actually drew blood. Their hips rocked and bumped against each other, Heero’s body constantly thumping against the vending machine whenever Duo returned his ferocious assaults.

The sound of one of the nearby bathroom doors opening drew their attention for about half a second, long enough to notice a blond young man sweep into the guys’ room, before Heero pushed Duo across the hall and quickly resumed the kissing with Duo slumped against the wall and beneath Heero this time. Duo’s arms quickly wrapped around Heero and yanked him just as close as they had been before, jutting out one knee slightly and wedging it between Heero’s. The lacrosse player was perched at the top of that slim, muscled thigh, grinding against Duo with small, seductive movements of his narrow hips as they kissed.

“I somehow... think....” Duo managed to gasp when they stopped momentarily for a breath, “... that we’re finished with.... this whole scene....” His chopped words were cut off by another moan when Heero’s lips found their way to skin between Duo’s ear and jaw.

“What do you mean?” Heero growled against Duo’s neck, nipping at it with his teeth. (Duo was beginning to learn the hard way that Heero was a biter, but he found it too much of a turn-on to say anything about it.)

“Let’s just put... Solo and everything... on hold,” Duo panted, turning his head to the side so Heero had more skin to lap and bite at.

“I think we’re doing a good job of that,” said Heero against Duo’s skin, his lips caressing Duo like twin flower petals. It was amazing how moments before, Duo had been the aggressor and was now whimpering like a needy kitten beneath Heero’s lips. That was one of the best things about their relationship: their equality. They truly were like the two halves of the Tao, fit together perfectly in the wild chaos of the universe, and each with a little of the other inside him.

Duo made a noise that was probably some word of agreement in his head, but got lost somewhere between his thoughts and his tongue as his lips parted into a wide, open-mouthed gasp when Heero started tugging at his tie to get at more of his neck.

Their steadily rising passion was abruptly cut short with the sound of a door slamming shut and a shout of, “Yuy!?”

Though he made no move to pull away from Duo, Heero’s head did snap up as he glared down the hall at whoever had dared to interrupt them and narrowed his eyes. There, standing by the men’s bathroom, was the blonde they had briefly noticed earlier. Upon closer inspection, they both realized that it was the lacrosse player Catherine had brought as her date; Heero’s face became dark and stormy and Duo flushed with embarrassment as he pulled his mask back over his eyes and nose.

“Yuy?” the blonde said again as he took a few tentative steps down the hall towards them. “No offense, but you’re the last person I’d expect to go running off to make out, but....” He trailed off when he got close enough to see just whom Heero had pinned against the wall with bruised lips and dotted with a few love-bites here and there. He narrowed his eyes and spat out at Duo, “I always knew you were a little faggot, faggot, but I never expected you to stoop so low as to seduce our captain. You don’t aim low, do you, faggot?”

It was hard to say whose face looked more murderous, Heero’s or Duo’s, but it was fairly certain that neither were pleased by the comment. Unfortunately for Catherine’s date, he seemed not to notice the warning signs. The guy had always been a bit of a bigot towards Duo for really no reason at all, but now that he had something to go on, things were about to go downhill.

Suddenly, the blonde found himself being slammed against the wall, a heavy hand pressing his cheek into the hard, concrete blocks. Just out of the corners of his eyes, between the slim, callused fingers that were gripping the side of his face painfully, he could see the raging face of Heero, and straight ahead was Duo, leaning against the wall breathlessly, and watching the blonde impassively.

Heero’s deep, angry voice growled into his ear, quiet like a tiger that was just waiting to pounce. “If you ever even think of insulting Duo like that again,” he threatened in a voice that meant business, “I’ll skin you alive and hang your bleeding, screaming body over the front doors of the school. Am I clear?”

The blonde was more frightened than he had ever been in his entire life. His frightened, round eyes darted to the side again to see Heero’s snarling expression, then back to Duo, whose face was still watching with that dispassionate look on his face, his mouth drawn in a tight frown. With the both of them wearing those masquerade masks, they both seemed surreal and unearthly, which sent rockets of cold through his body. He swallowed in fear and whimpered a noise of acquiescence, sounding much like a kicked dog.

Apparently, that wasn’t good enough for Heero, and he slammed the boy against the wall harder, smacking his blond head against the wall hard enough to pad the side of his head with a light sheen of blood. “Am I clear, you fucking bastard!?” Heero shouted fiercely.

“Yes, yes!” the blonde cried as the pain seared through his head. “Oh God, fucking yes!”

As he said this, the hands released the blonde and he fell to the ground in a crumpled heap. A smear of blood was painted on the wall, pointing down towards the broken jock on the floor. He leaned against the wall and nursed his bleeding head, trying hard not to cry, especially in front of Heero. He had heard rumours of Heero’s violent tendencies, but he had never thought that he’d be at the wrong end of them. Quite frankly, he hadn’t thought that Heero would have reacted so passionately to his little comment. Angry, sure; but almost getting a beating? That hadn’t been at all expected. Then again, he also hadn’t expected the stoic, powerful captain of the lacrosse team to be queer.

“Let’s go. There’s no more reason for us to stay here,” said Heero in a gruff voice to Duo, jerking his thumb down towards the end of the hall that led to the front lobby.

Duo nodded and started after Heero, pausing for a moment by the blonde to look down at him with that strange, almost saddened look in his eyes. It was only a moment, but that moment seemed far longer than it actually was. Breaking eye contact with the bloodied blonde, Duo quickly followed after his boyfriend, grabbing his arm and heading towards the exit.

As they left the gym and followed the little road that led to the parking lot, where Heero had left his Cooper, Duo could sense the Japanese boy’s tenseness. Gingerly wrapping one arm around Heero’s waist and holding him close, they walking in silence towards the car. All the while, Duo didn’t take his eyes off his little Phantom of the Opera once, trying to figure out what was running through his head.

The tree-lined sidewalk they were walking along was trimmed with yellow-glowing street lamps, illuminating their way across the dark campus to the student parking lot. On their way, they passed a few limos, which were waiting in the street for their parties to get bored with the dance and pile in for a ride to their after-parties.

“Heero?” Duo broke the silence at last, coming to a halt beneath one of the lamps, which stood at the end of the sidewalk, near the edge of the parking lot. “Are you okay?” he asked.

“I’m fine, Duo,” Heero answered with a brief glance in Duo’s direction.

Even though he’d only brushed his eyes towards Duo for the sake of being polite, Duo had seen enough to catch that sad wobble to Heero’s midnight blue eyes. “Don’t you go crawling into your little hole, Heero Yuy,” Duo admonished in a firm tone, reaching for Heero’s chin and pulling it to face him. Gently stroking the bottom of Heero’s white mask, his finger flitting across a wet dot as it slid out from beneath it, Duo said softly, “You know how much I hate liars, Heero.”

“I’m not lying to you,” Heero said, rubbing one eye with the tip of his knuckle. “I’m perfectly fine.”

“Then how come you don’t look fine?” Duo replied almost instantly as his hand trailed up the side of Heero’s cheek, across the firm, white mask that covered the upper portion of his face and to a chunk of his unruly bangs, which Duo tucked behind Heero’s ear. Fingers continuing around the shell of that ear, Duo slowly bent down and laid a chaste kiss on Heero’s lips. “I can feel you shaking,” he whispered against Heero’s mouth as he pulled away.

With a sigh, Heero relented, pulling away from Duo and taking a few steps towards the lamp post. Clenching one fist, he angrily laid a frustrated punch on the black pole, causing a hollow, metallic sound to resonate across the parking lot. “That bastard should have never said those things to you,” Heero growled as he nursed his now-scraped knuckles. “No one deserves to be spoken to that way, ever. Just because you’re different....” Heero let out a frustrated noise from the back of his throat and slammed his fist into the lamp post again, the impact making the glowing bulb flicker a little.

With a sigh, Duo put a hand on Heero’s shoulder and turned him back around. Somehow, both his hands found their way to Heero’s cheeks, and he let the pads of his thumbs wash softly back and forth across them as he spoke. “Heero, I’m way used to people talking to me like that,” he said. “It’s not a big deal if one more jerkwad decides to call me a faggot or a freak or whatever the insult of the week is. I can’t help it if people think mutants and homosexuals are disgusting, so I just hold my head high and ignore them. Why stoop to their level?”

Heero leaned into one of Duo’s palms, nuzzling it with the side of his face as if it was his last reassurance on the planet. “It shouldn’t have to be that way, though.”

A dark expression that morbidly matched Duo’s ornate, black mask flickered through the long-haired boy’s eyes. “There are a lot of things that shouldn’t have to be the way they are, but they are anyway,” he said with a frown. “There’s not much we can do to change stuff like that.”

“But there are things we can change,” Heero said as his eyes slipped closed. Duo’s touch easily helped him forget his troubles.

“Some things, yeah, but not everything,” Duo answered, gently tilting Heero’s head back so they were staring past each other’s mask, deep into one another’s eyes. With a light snort and a chuckle, Duo shook his head, saying, “Oh, my poor little friend of misery.... Why do you insist that the weight of the world should be on your shoulders?”

“I just....” Heero trailed off, shaking his head and unable to find just the right words, though it was somewhat hard to do so with Duo holding his head still.

“Forget it, okay?” Duo said with a soft smile as he leaned in to kiss the tip of Heero’s nose. Heero bumped Duo away for a second with a toss of his head, positioning himself so he could kiss Duo’s full, wide lips instead. They remained there for quite some time, just two costumed performers kissing in the moonlight: one a harlequin jester and the other a white-masked phantom.

Pulling away from his partner at last, Duo stepped back and bounced back and forth in front of Heero in a flurry of atomic cloud, then zapped himself a few feet in the direction of the red Mini. He twirled about, braid whipping around behind him like a weighted pendulum as he said breathlessly to the star-speckled sky, “Let’s go somewhere, okay?”

“Where do you want to go?” Heero asked, already digging in his back pocket for his car key, his other hand groping for Duo’s as he neared the long-haired teen. They started heading for the Cooper with their fingers linked together, still leaning heavily on one another.

“I don’t much care where. Anywhere. I just want to go driving away from here,” said Duo, still entranced by the spatter-painted sky. “It doesn’t even really matter if we get somewhere or not. I just want to go.”

“Everywhere is somewhere, Duo,” Heero said plainly as they reached the car. He released Duo’s hand and walked to the driver’s side of the car to unlock the door. “So no matter where we go, we’re bound to get somewhere.”

“Yeah, but the point is I don’t much care which way we go,” Duo pointed out with one of his wily smiles as he leaned on the top of the car, waiting for Heero to unlock the other door. “Everyone gets somewhere, if only they walk long enough.”

There was a low clicking noise from inside the car as Heero turned the key and opened the door. He climbed inside and reached across to the passenger door to unlock it and push it open for Duo. “I wouldn’t advise wandering through life without a destination in mind,” he said to Duo as the violet-eyed mechanic clambered inside and made himself cozy in the seat. “I think you should have at least somewhere in mind.”

Duo quirked an intrigued eyebrow as he closed the door of the car. Crossing his arms, he leaned against the side of the car and said smoothly, “Alright then, Mr. Heero Yuy. Why don’t you tell me just where you want to go.”

As he said this, Heero was in the middle of bending down to insert the key into the ignition. There was a pause in his movements when he heard the question, and then a slow recovery. He didn’t twist the car to life with the key, but left it there and leaned on the wheel, saying slowly, “I wanted to get to you.”

“Me? Ha!” Duo snorted. His arms flopped onto his thighs and he leaned across the middle arm rest between their two seats with a demanding expression on his face. “No, come on. Tell me for real what you’ve been after all these years.”

Heero simply turned his head and met Duo’s disbelieving stare with an even, serious one of his own. “You think I’m kidding, don’t you,” he said flatly, not even posing it as a question.

With a roll of his eyes, Duo retorted glibly, “Oh come on, Heero! If you really expect me to believe that your life’s ambition was to track me down, you’ve got to be kidding.”

A sad smile teased Heero’s lips as he reached up and slowly pulled his white Phantom mask off for the first time that night. Setting it aside, he turned and looked at Duo with those deep, emotion-soaked eyes of his. “It’s true,” he said softly as his fingers went to push Duo’s mask up onto his forehead. “All I ever wanted was someone who could love me for me, Heero Yuy, the person. Not the lab-bred assassin, the unattainable lacrosse champion, but just me, the orphaned boy. I searched for you, and here, I’ve found you.” Heero’s hand traced the black mask sitting atop Duo’s head, feeling the gems and lines of silver encrusted in the velvet and the shaggy bangs that stuck up oddly around it.

“Heero, I hated you when we first met,” said Duo frankly.

Opening his mouth, Heero seemed to be on the verge of saying something else, but seemed hesitant to do so. “There was something in your eyes I saw in that moment before you first put your shields up around me,” Heero said instead, “that made me realize that you were just like me inside. That’s how I knew you’d still love me... somehow... some day....”

Duo caught Heero’s hand as it started to trail down his cheek again. “Heero....”

“Where are you going, Duo?” Heero asked softly. “Where is that someplace you have stuck in your mind? Where do you want me to take you?”

Leaning into Heero’s hand, only Duo’s eyes flicked outside the window towards the pearl-studded sky. “The stars,” he breathed softly. “Take me to heaven, Heero.”

“As you wish,” Heero answered in just as hushed a tone as he laid a tiny kiss on Duo’s lips before he drew away. Switching the engine on, he smiled warmly at Duo and added, “Just say the word, and I’ll fly you to the moon and back.”

(x) X (x)

Noin and the rest of the band were still going, carrying on fairly without Duo, when Catherine finally caught up with Relena and Solo again. They were sitting at one of the tables, bent close to each other as they whispered a secret conversation to one another. Hearing Cathering wrench one of the metal folding chairs out from underneath the table, Relena and Solo snapped apart with low-watt glares aimed in her direction.

“Well?” Relena demanded in a questioning tone after a few moments of awkward silence between the odd trio. “Did you find him?”

“Who? Heero?”

“Yes, of course,” Relena snapped at Catherine impatiently. Relena had been somewhat annoyed that the bobble-haired girl had returned so swiftly, and though she had wanted to drag Heero back to her side, she had purposely sent her off into the crowd so that she and Solo could have a private conversation. To be perfectly honest, she often found that Catherine was in the way, a bit too passive and sometimes a little boring. Not that all those things were necessarily true, but they were the complaints against Catherine that ran through Relena’s head most.

“I saw him, but he was with Duo,” Catherine answered with a shrug. For her worth, Catherine hated Relena’s holier-than-thou attitude and often just ignored it. Even though she wanted the best for her friend, she was glad that Heero had taken such a shine to Duo. Catherine personally felt the slap in the face was high on the list of things Relena sorely needed.

Relena said nothing and silently boiled, while Solo patted her back sympathetically, saying, “Don’t worry, love. He’ll be out of the picture if you just do exactly as I say.”

Pretending not to be interested in the comment, Catherine dusted her shiny, dark red nails on the skirt of her dress, ears suddenly perked and listening. Offhandedly, she said, “Oh, I’m pretty sure they’re just hanging out together. They are friends.”

“I suppose so,” Relena said tersely, though her voice certainly didn’t sound like she agreed, despite what she often tried to tell herself. She’d always been aware of Heero’s lack of interest, but she had also always hoped there might be a glimmer of a chance that he would wake up and smell the roses one day. Then Duo waltzed into his life, and any hopes she’d had were dashed, especially with all the odd glances and touches they gave each other. Even Relena could admit that what it all boiled down to, from her hatred of mutants to the close bond Heero and Duo shared, was nothing other than simple jealousy in its most raw and pure form.

“Friends who kiss, that is,” Catherine muttered darkly under her breath, half-hoping Relena would hear. Living in the same house as Heero did lead her to a bit more inside information, some of which Catherine wasn’t sure she was quite willing to share with Relena until it was more opportune. Besides, some of the things she’d heard Heero talking to Trowa about would make a lady like Relena explode. Sometimes brotherly conversation just weren’t meant to grace female ears, ever.

Apparently not hearing Catherine’s commentary, Relena twittered again, “Then why didn’t you just bring Heero over here anyway?”

Catherine groaned. “I thought I just told you that he was with Duo!” she snapped sharply. Glaring hard at Solo, she added, “Neither one would come over here so long as he’s with you... or so they say.”

“The slut’s smarter than I thought,” Solo murmured, cupping his cheek in one hand as he traced circles on the tabletop. “Guess he’s just scared to be without his bitch.” He turned to Relena, saying, “The idea was to split them up, right?”

“So I recall,” replied Relena in a warning tone, shooting a look between Catherine and Solo. Whirling totally on Catherine, she hissed, “I thought I told you to make sure Heero came over here!”

Any more to the conversation was cut off when Catherine’s date appeared from the shadowy dance floor, staggering a little and clutching the side of his head as if he were in pain. Sitting down, he slumped over the tabletop and pulled his hand away from his temple, staring with wide eyes at the red sheen that coated his palm. Relena let out a startled gasp of disgust at the bloody gash on the side of his face, Solo whistled and Catherine doted on him with cringing ministrations.

“What happened?” Relena finally managed to ask, though she kept her eyes pointedly on Solo’s amused smirk so she wouldn’t have to look at the blood. “Did that little punk hit you, Brent?”

Brent, Catherine’s blonde date, grimmaced and frowned. “Didn’t quite work out the way you said it would,” he growled at Relena, obviously not happy with the circumstances.

“What do you mean? You didn’t get into a brawl with him, did you?” Solo demanded, taking control of the situation. “I thought I told you to just clock him one and make sure no one noticed!”

“Well, that was the plan,” Brent hissed acidly, ripping a piece of the tablecloth off to use as a makeshift bandage. “But you told me you’d make sure he was alone,” he went on with a snarl. “And you never mentioned a word about having to deal with Yuy.”

“Heero did that?” Catherine yelped with surprise. Despite living with Heero, even with all the extra things she knew about him over Relena, there still was a vast ocean of secrets Heero kept from her, and from the rest of the Barton family, save possibly Trowa.

“Yeah,” Brent answered with an even deeper frown. “The fucking little psycho came out of nowhere and nailed me for making some comment about that goddamned, faggot manager of the lax team.”

Relena bit her lip and huffed at Catherine, “Oh, why couldn’t you just do your job right and seperate the two of them!?”

“Well, sorry!” Catherine threw her arms up defensively, glaring dangerously at Relena. Anyone well-versed in human interaction would have recognized the tell-tale beginnings of a cat fight. “Why can’t you just get the hell over Heero Yuy and leave him alone!?” she snapped, quite a few years of annoyance finally just pouring out. “I’m so sick of hearing about how Heero is related to everything you do, when he could care less.”

“Oh, like you know anything about it,” Relena shot back, a murderous look dancing in her crystal blue eyes. “Shut up and sit down, Cathy.”

“I know plenty more than you,” Catherine growled dangerously. “He’s virtually my brother, for crying out loud!”

With a roll of his eyes that was just vaguely shadowed by his red mask, Solo sighed, “Ladies, ladies, please. Enough of this stupid fighting.”

Both girls glared pointedly at him, as if daring him to intervene. Had Solo been anyone else, he might have been scared by those twin expressions, as two pissed off, fighting young women were probably the most dangerous spawn of creatures on the entire planet.

Instead, he merely shrugged it off and said in a controlled, even voice, “It won’t do to fight if you really want to make this all work.”

With a sigh and one final sharp glare at Catherine, Relena relented. “Yes, I suppose you’re right, as usual, Solo,” she said, leaning on one elbow. “What do you suggest we do in light of this setback?”

“For starters,” Brent said, wincing as Catherine dabbed at his wound with another scrap of cloth, “make sure that fucking Yuy is nowhere to be found if you want to lay a finger on that Maxwell brat. That guy’s just as nuts as ever.”

“What exactly happened?” Catherine demanded to know. She had that scary, girlfriend look in her eye; the one that scared stupid or submissive, whipped boyfriends into doing whatever the hell a girl wanted. Unfortunately for Brent, all of those applied to him.

Brent snorted and averted Catherine’s hard gaze. “I was stewing around, trying to find Maxwell for ‘Lena’s friend, and I just happened to stop at the bathroom. And who should I find there, but both Yuy and Maxwell--”

“And let me guess,” Catherine sighed with an annoyed roll of her eyes, “you walked right up to them and made some dumb-ass comment and got Heero pissed, right?”

“Hey, they were asking for it,” Brent defended himself sharply, holding both hands up on either side of his head. “I always thought Yuy was as heterosexual as they come, but there he was letting that Maxwell kid suck the lips off his face.”

“WHAT!?” Relena shrieked so loudly that everyone in the general vicinity stopped moving and speaking for a few seconds as they all stared wide-eyed at her. (This Relena was different from the perky cheer leader they were used to seeing on a regular basis.)

Solo, meanwhile, paid Relena no mind, and instead chuckled quietly to himself. Pointing to Brent, he said, “So you walked right up to one of the most dangerous kids around and insulted his plaything?” Solo paused to laugh some more, apparently finding the whole thing extremely entertaining. “Kids are very strange about their pets, you know,” he said as seriously as he could with that devious smirk of his still pulling at his lips. “Insult a kid’s pet, and he’ll kick your ass, as you seem to have learned the hard way.”

Brent seemed torn between seething at Solo and accepting the biggoted truth of what he was saying. In a twisted, strange way, Solo made a whole lot of sense. But then again, Solo had a gift for language and manipulation, and his words often were ambiguous on purpose, to lead people wherever he wanted. It was almost painfully obvious where Duo had learned a lot of his own verbal tricks and why Solo had always thought Duo would have made a good gang leader.

Relena, however, was far from accepting of the whole matter. Rising to her feet, both hands planted flat on the table, she demanded shrilly, “Where the hell did they go!?”

“I think they left, ‘Lena,” said Brent in a small voice, afraid of the wrath the blonde girl would exact upon him. He physically sunk in his chair and tried to look as small as possible.

Whirling around to face the doors in a swirl of blue chiffon, Relena growled in a very uncharacteristic voice, “I’ll be damned if I let that damn Maxwell kid turn my Heero gay!” (Catherine, upon hearing Relena’s strange, unfamiliar tone, decided that Duo had definitely been right when he said Solo was a bad influence.)

Also standing up, albeit far more casually, Solo took Relena’s arm, patting her hand in a sickeningly calm way. “You know, if you want a job done right, it’s best to do it yourself,” he told her with that disturbing gentleness. Looking over his shoulder, tone suddenly gruff and commanding, he said to Catherine and Brent, “Relena and I are going out for some air. We might be back later.”

And with that, he escorted Relena towards the door, already formulating a scheme in his head as to how he was going to get at Duo and the wild Yuy boy.

(x) X (x)

a/n: Wow, what a long chapter! See, it makes up for the real short ones you sometimes get. The chapter title is a song by the Rolling Stones; the song Duo is singing during the dance is by Billy Joel (called ‘You May Be Right’). The song Dorothy is singing towards the beginning is actually from Cowboy Bebop, which is easily the coolest soundtrack ever. Ever!

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