Title: #38 Coming Home
Arc: Life With Heero
Author: Calic0cat
Story Completed: Feb. 8, 2003
Genre: Shonen Ai/Yaoi, Domestic, Friendship
Pairing: None yet
Rated: G
Warnings: AU, OOC
Archives: At Mediaminer.org under Calic0cat. Anyone with archive permission for my other fics can help themselves; anyone else, please ask.
Disclaimer: Duo and Heero and the rest of the GW gang aren't mine. This story is. Nuff said.

Notes: The arc begins between one and two years after Endless Waltz. Duo POV in this story.

'Thinking'
"Speaking"
************ Time passing or scene change

Author's Notes: See earlier fics for notes on the arc as a whole. Feedback is appreciated.

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Duo yawned and wished for the umpteenth time that he'd booked into a hotel for the night instead of hanging around the shuttleport and catching the redeye flight back home. But all he *really* wanted was to go to sleep in his *own* bed.

The week-long salvage job had stretched into a month when a sealed-off, long-abandoned section of the satellite turned out to have been abandoned without *anything* being removed. Operations had ground to a halt temporarily as Duo and Hilde negotiated adjustments to the contract with the owner of the satellite. Even after work resumed, progress was slow as everything from office supplies to the contents of maintenance closets had to be cleared before the heavy salvage work of removing actual equipment and fixtures could take place. The job wasn't completely *done* even now, but the clean-up crew that had been left behind had more than enough experience to finish the job on their own.

As the announcement to prepare for docking came over the speaker system, Duo smothered another yawn. It would be a while yet before he'd get to sleep. Once he cleared customs, he'd still have to catch a cab to the office, drop off some paperwork, then catch another cab back home. Heero was *not* going to be happy about the amount of paperwork that would have to be hand-entered into the computer. But Duo had ended up doing a lot of hands-on salvage work himself rather than sticking to a supervisory role. There had simply been too much to be done for him to sit around doing data entry.

'Wonder how Heero's *really* doing,' he thought. 'He's sounded okay the few times I've talked to him, but he hasn't been left on his own this long since he moved in with me. Wonder if he's missed me.' He had certainly missed Heero, though he had been too busy to spend much time thinking about it.

Gathering up his things, Duo went through the familiar procedure of disembarking and clearing customs. He'd been through it enough times that it was almost automatic. He had just walked away from customs and was heading for the cabs when a familiar voice asked quizzically, "Your best friend gets up at this hour to come meet you and you don't even have a hug for him?"

Startled, Duo spun around to face Heero. "Heero?!" 'I didn't know for sure *what* flight I was coming in on yesterday. All I said when I talked to Hilde was that I'd be coming home sometime today.' "How did you... Oh, never mind." Dropping his bags, Duo wrapped his arms around Heero in a thankful hug. "Of course I have a hug for him."

"I'm glad you're back," Heero said as he hugged Duo in return. "Come on, let's get you home."