Standard Disclaimers apply.

     "Heh.  Um. . .Heero?  What did I do?  Don’t look at me like that!  What?" Duo said, frozen under the blazing cobalt eyed glare.  "All right, all right, I’ll shut up."  Duo stood up, and as he crossed the room, Heero could still hear him muttering.  "Damn it, I could get better conversation with a rock.  Or a wall."  Duo snickered, and turned to the door.  "So, Mr.  Door.  How are you today?  Yes, I’m fine.  So, what’s it like, being a door and all?"

     Heero fought violently to suppress the laugh that was creeping up his throat.  Turning back to his algebra homework, he heard Duo’s next comment.

     "Yup.  Just like talking to Heero.  Maybe even better.  Hey, at least the door listens to me when I say something."

     "Duo," Heero said. Silently, he added, ‘I listen to everything you say. I just don’t let you see that.’

     "Fine, fine.  Just spoil my fun, talking to Mr.  Door and all."  He flopped down on his bed. "This place is sooooo boring!!!"  Heero rolled his eyes.

     "It’s a school, Duo. They tend to be boring."  Duo sat up, his eyes rounded in shock.

     "The great Heero Yuy finally speaks!??!  That was . . ." here he counted quickly on his fingers ". . . nine words!  In a row! That must be some kind of record."

     There was a knock on the door, interrupting Duo’s newest topic of discussion. ‘Thank you,’ Heero said silently to whomever was listening.  The knocker was Kito, a boy that Duo had befriended in the 48 hours the two had been here.

     "Hey, Duo, there’s going to be a party over at the Shark Club tonight.  Wanna come?"

     "Sure!" Duo said.  "Alcohol?"

     "Is it really a party without it?" Kito answered.

     "All right!!  I’m there.  What time?"

     "Around eight."

     "Cool." Duo shut the door, doing a weird sort of dance.  He turned to Heero.  "You gonna come?" he asked, his eyes sparkling with mirth.

     It took a lot of willpower for Heero not to jump Duo then and there.  "No," he finally got out.  "Definitely not."

     Duo’s face fell.  "Aw, come on!  It’ll be fun!"  He grinned again.  "You can get smashed," he added in a sing-song voice. Heero was finding it harder and harder to say no.   Finally, he just gave in.

     "Fine!" he nearly yelled.  "I’ll go."  As an afterthought, he added, "If only to see how much of a fool you can make of yourself."

     Duo beamed.  "Oh, you’ll have fun.  We’ll both get smashing drunk and . . . and . . . and have a jolly old time!"  He said the last part with a terrible English accent. Heero sighed and went back to his "jolly old" algebra homework that just wouldn’t get finished.

     At ten o’clock that evening, Heero was standing off to the side of the party, watching Duo make a total ass of himself.  He was doing a pretty good job of it, too.  Obviously drunk (but so was mostly everybody) he was flirting with everyone, guy and girl alike. Heero was getting royally pissed.  At Duo and himself.  ‘Why I actually came to this thing, I’ll never know,’ he thought miserably.

     Finally, around midnight, Heero gave up. Nearly dragging Duo outside, he (none-too-gently) pushed Duo in the car. Duo protested weakly, but just as soon gave up, falling asleep on the short ride back to the school.

     Parking the car, Heero smiled faintly at the boy next to him. ‘He’s oblivious to the world,’ Heero thought to himself.  ’Guess I’ll have to carry him.’ Not that Heero really had a problem with it.

      Picking Duo up, he quickly started for the room they shared.  Most of the students were at the party, but it was possible that someone might see them, and Heero did not want anyone to see them. On the walk, though, he let his mind wander, and what do you know, it wandered straight to Duo.

     Heero knew he was attracted to the braided baka.  He wasn’t stupid enough to deny himself that.  But from there, the thoughts got kind of jumbled.  Heero had never really liked someone, so he had no idea how to go about anything of the nature. ‘But,’ he thought wryly to himself. ‘At least I’m not like Wufei where simply the word kiss brings on a nosebleed.’

     Heero knew that Trowa and Quatre were a "thing."  They had done nothing to hide their relationship.  He also knew that if he and Duo were to get "involved", Duo would want to do the same thing.  And Heero didn’t.  ‘Besides, there is no way in hell Duo would even think about me like that.  That boy is a girl-magnet.’

     Reaching the room and opening the door, Heero put Duo down on his bed with such gentleness that the other pilots would probably have passed out, had they seen it.  Giving in to the urge to brush Duo’s bangs off of his face, Heero jumped when he stirred. But Duo just turned over and snored loudly. Smirking, Heero got changed for bed.  ‘That baka’s gonna have one helluva headache tomorrow morning.’

     The next morning, Heero was awoken by the sound of someone gagging in the bathroom.  ‘Duo’s up,’ he thought wryly to himself.  Opening the door, he found Duo paying homage to the porcelain god.  His hair was falling all around him, like a golden brown waterfall.  Against his better judgment, Heero gathered it up and secured it with a scrunchie he had found on the sink, then went in the medicine cabinet for the aspirin Duo was definitely going to need.

     When Duo finished emptying his stomach, Heero handed him the water and aspirin.  Duo looked at him for a second, before swallowing the pills and gulping down the water. He took a few stumbling steps towards the bedroom, but nearly fell over before Heero wrapped his arm around the boy’s waist and guided him towards the bed.  Duo laid down and smiled weakly at Heero before falling asleep.

     Heero sighed.  Hormones were easy to suppress, but emotions attacked often and without warning.  And when they did, Heero became completely and utterly lost. It was like being stuck in a whirlpool, slowly but surely being drug towards the middle and, ultimately, under the water.  Nope.  Heero had no idea how to handle his emotions. Honestly, he was frightened of them. Well, not all of them.  Hate he could deal with.  Fear wasn‘t even an option. But love. . .

     ‘Waitaminute!’ he said to himself. ‘Love?!  Where did that come from?!’  But there it was, screaming at him from the back of his head. ‘YOU LOVE DUO!’ it screamed over and over.

     Throwing himself on his bed, Heero began to try and sort out what he was thinking.  And then the voice came back.

    ‘You love Duo.’

    "I do NOT!’

    ‘Yeah, ya do, Yuy.  You love him, and you know it.’

    Heero sighed dejectedly. ‘Yeah, you’re right.’

    ‘See!?’

    ‘Oh, go to hell.’

    Heero’s interesting conversation with himself was cut short as the braided baka started talking.

    "Hey Heero!  Ohayo!  Wasn’t the party great last night!"

    Heero snorted.  "Duo, you’re insane.  How much of last night do you actually remember?"

    Duo looked thoughtful.  "Well, hm. . .lessee.  I remember dancing, and having fun, and then you practically dragging me out of there and shoving me in the car. . . and . . . um . . . hm. . ." Duo’s brow creased in concentration.  "Then waking up here.  How’d I get here, Heero?"

    Heero sat down in front of his laptop and started typing so that Duo couldn’t see the flush creeping into his cheeks.  "I had to carry you," he said, keeping his tone emotionless.

    "Oh," Duo said.  If Heero didn’t know better, he would have said Duo sounded disappointed.  But he didn’t worry himself about it.  He had OZ files to get to.
 
 

A cookie to anyone who can figure out what song I loosely based this on.  Arigato, minna-san!