The freshly built wooden boat floated easily on the still black water. Its finish was as smooth as glass, and the smell of cedar invaded the occupant’s nose. Duo sat in the center of the boat, wearing tight blue jeans that were cut off just below the knee, and one of Heero’s green tank shirts. His hair was still in its customary braid, but the braid itself was wrapped in a bun that was hidden from view by his black hat. From the sky, he looked like an angel in disguise.

He was leaning back with his hands clasped loosely behind his head, and his legs crossed at his ankles. Trapped between his ankles was the fishing pole that hung limply but securely from its base between his feet. He relaxed and studied the sky like he always did, admiring the many stars that seem to expand endlessly, and the forever changing moon, which was in the shape of a crescent. The worms collected on his way to the lake roamed freely within a small tuna can that he decided to use to keep his bait, completely oblivious to their awaiting fates.

“This is the life.”

Duo breathed out loud as he took another drag of his cigarette, admiring the peace and tranquility of the nearby lake. He never thought he would ever have it so good.

“Father Maxwell, Sister Helen, Solo, I will enjoy my life for you.”

He had closed his bright, violet eyes in a silent prayer, when he heard the swishing of water from behind him. Turning his head, he saw another identical boat glide to him, where its occupant tied the two boats together by the head and carefully climbed into Duo’s boat, stretching his long, thin legs.

“What’s goin’ on, Muscles? Quatre’s suffocating ya?” Duo asked, clearly amused.

Trowa, clad only in his jeans, sat down beside Duo and returned his smirk. “No, not really. The only reason I’m not getting any right now is because he’s mad at YOU.”

“Hey,” Duo started, defensively. “It’s not my fault he doesn’t allow smoking in the house! If I had known he could raise hell like that, I would’ve waited until he was.... preoccupied.” Duo threw him a knowing wink. “I swear, Wufei has never given me a rant like that! I shit not, Quatre put him to shame!” Duo shook his head, shuddering at the memory.

“You know, smoking will kill you,” Trowa stated conversationally.

“No.” Duo turned, facing his comrade. “Smoking will not kill me. OZ damn near killed me. The wars damn near killed me. Hell, you almost killed me, twice! I’ll take my chances with cancer any day.” With that, he finished his cigarette and lit another one. Trowa couldn’t help but laugh affectionately.

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right. So, where’s Heero?”

“Oh, he’s asleep. I wore the poor man out.” Duo smiled wryly, clearly not sorry.

“I see.” Trowa glanced around, trying to hide his blush in the night’s color. Spotting a banged up silver bucket, he decided to change the topic. “And what have you caught so far? I don’t see any fish in the bucket.”

“Oh, I haven’t caught anything. Mainly, I’m just watching the shooting stars. There seems to be a lot of them tonight.”

Trowa leaned back in a similar position to Duo, but allowed his legs to hang over the side, where his bare feet lightly touched the cool water surface. “Are you going back to the colonies, Duo?”

Duo pouted a little at the question, before chewing on his bottom lip. “I don’t know. I like it here. I know you and Quatre wouldn’t mind me and Heero living here, which is cool, since he doesn’t have anything to go back to and neither do I. But I don’t want to impose, ya know? What’s really making me stay, besides you guys, is the moon.”

“The moon?” Trowa asked incredulously, still facing the sky.

“Yeah. From the colonies it looks like a graveyard. From Earth, it’s just beautiful man. Especially how it changes shapes and stuff. From the colonies, you can’t see it going through the cycles.”

“Oh.”

There was a comfortable silence for a few moments, which were eventually broken by Duo. “You know what I wanna do?”

“What?” Trowa asked, playing with a worm.

“I wanna go fishing on the moon.”

“What?!” Now Trowa shifted towards him, regarding his best friend.

“Yeah, I want to go fishing on the moon. Look. There is one similarity between Earth and the colonies, and that is the stars. From Earth, they seem to be really far away. From the colonies, it’s the same. Even when we were flying around in our gundams in space, the stars didn’t seem to ever get closer. So, I would go to the moon, with this pole and everything, kick back and catch a shooting star.”

“Well, what would you use for bait?”

Duo pouted again in thought before his face lit up with an idea. “Heero’s shorts!”

Both boys could not help but laugh out loud until tears streamed from their eyes.

“You would use Heero’s shorts,” Trowa stated, winded.

“Yeah. All I need to do is sew up the pants legs! They’re spandex, so it shouldn’t stretch too badly, or damage the star too much.”

“That’s it Duo. You are sick.”

“Saying I’m sick is saying I’m a genius.”

“No, it’s saying you’re sick.”

“Whatever,” Duo said, finishing the rest of his cigarette. “Believe what you want. I know the truth. And so do you.”

“Right.” Trowa tried not to smile, but failed miserably. “So, what would you do once you caught a shooting star?”

“Well, it’s an old saying that you could make wishes on shooting stars. So if we caught some, we could wish for infinite peace with the world and ourselves, and more importantly, wish for more wishes!” Duo perked up highly at the last proposition.

“I should’ve known.” Trowa laid back in the boat, enjoying the dark blue view of nature. “You know, fishing on the moon doesn’t sound like a bad idea. You have to take the rest of us with you, you know.”

“Of course I do!” Duo exclaimed. “Who is going to feed me while I’m up there?!”

Trowa punched him lightly on the shoulder, getting a light gasp from his effort. After that, both young men fell quiet to the nature surrounding them, lost in being at peace with their souls. “Fishing on the moon?” Trowa asked again, as if confirming the idea.

Duo let his eyelids slide closed, silently listening to the orchestra of crickets. “Yeah guy, fishing on the moon.”

(end)