Secret Santa
By Moon Faery
Rating: NC17 (take THAT, FF.N!)
Series: Gundam Wing
Genre: Romance/General
Pairings: 2x1
Spoilers: Not really.

Warnings: SAP! Get your pancakes out to soak the stuff up, please, or you'll never get it off your shoes. There's a lot of it. Just a tiny bit of angst. Language. Lemon.

Archived: Moon Faery's Garden (https://www.angelfire.com/anime4/moon_faerys_garden/); Kiss of Death (https://www.angelfire.com/gundam/kissofdeath/); Lev's Lair (http://www.gwaddiction.com/levlair/) Hint: Almost all of my fics from various fandoms are at MFG; the other archives might not have everything.

Disclaimer: A statement created solely to save one's ass from becoming lawn for the proverbial legal lawn mower. I do not own Gundam Wing. All materials are used without the permission of their various owners. However, this story line, characters and plot are MINE. (Holds fic close to her.) Grrrr....

Dedicated to Fuu-chan, Sailor Celestial from FD.N and everyone who read and reviewed Ribbons! (group glomp) I promise I'll get working on Chasing Down the Moon soon. ^^;;

Author Notes: (humming "Christmas Carol" to herself) I could have sworn that I wrote and posted this a long, LONG time ago, but I can't find the .txt file or any evidence that the fic ever existed besides my hand-scribbled rough draft and on a word processor that's so old not only will my computer not read the disk, but neither will the word processor. So here it is, maybe again! I got the inspiration from the song "Christmas Carol", artist unknown. (Believe me, if I did know who sings it I would have picked up the CD a LO~ONG time ago.) If I DID post this previously and you read it, the title's changed and so has 90% of the fic. The only thing that's the same is the main plot, and that's had lemon added. ^_^

***

"Why are your eyes purple? Aren't they supposed to be blue?"

Duo grinned down at the little boy on his lap. He loved kids, he really did, but the question had been old after the third munchkin had asked, and this had to be number one-thousand. He tried to think up a rude, sarcastic remark, but staring into those big, innocent brown eyes that were filled with hopes and dreams for the future he just couldn't bring himself to blow his cover. So he just put on his best secretive look and pressed a finger against his lips.

"Shh. I'm undercover," he whispered in the little boy's ear, hating the half-truth, but unwilling to break a little heart. "They're not supposed to know who I am."

The little boy (Duo had already forgotten his name) stared up at him, a mixture of awe and chocolate on his chubby face. For a second Duo was afraid that he'd over-done it and the kid was going to choke on a candy cane.

"Wow..." the kid - 'Eric! That's his name!' Duo mentally cheered - finally came out of it. "You mean they don't know who you really are?" His eyes couldn't possibly have gotten any wider.

Duo shook his head, missing the bounce of his braid, which was currently tucked underneath his Santa hat and wig. "No. They think I'm just a helper. Don't tell them, okay?"

Eric, who was delighted to have a secret that was just for him and Santa, nodded enthusiastically. He was rewarded with a merry wink.

"That's a good boy! I'll see what I can do about that truck!" Santa said jovially, bright violet eyes twinkling. An elf came over and handed Eric another candy cane. The three of them too a moment to pose for the camera before the elf picked the child up and took him back to his stressed-looking mother.

"Santa" hid his sigh manfully as the rug rat was taken away. A mental glance at his internal clock told him that he still had an hour before his shift was over. It was taking all of his willpower not to shift his pillowy belly into a more comfortable position, and his red velvet suit was damnably hot, even in winter. He couldn't understand how the real Santa did it.

Yes. Duo Maxwell, the God of Death, pilot of the Gundam Deathscythe, lover of all things that go BOOM and deep believer in the law that states, "When all else fails, swear loudly, swear frequently, swear fluently; just swear," was playing Santa Clause at Los Arcos mall, somewhere in the western North American continent. He was a sight to behold in his padded red suit and fake wig with its matching fake beard. Of course he wasn't the only one putting himself through hell and humiliation.

Quatre padded over to the giant Santa Throne, the bells on his curly-toed green shoes tinkling with every step. From his jingle-belled cap to his plastic pointy ears he was the perfect picture of one of Santa's helper elves, down to and including the glitter dust on his cheeks and his red and white striped socks. Short, blonde and adorable neatly summed up the entire look; the mall people loved him.

Right now his much-vaunted cheerfulness was stretched tight. Homicidal vindictiveness hovered in his usually bright eyes, barely hidden by the happy-go-lucky elf demeanor he'd adopted. Leaning down near Duo's ear, the blonde smiled a hard, vengeful little smile that showed too many teeth to be anything but pissed.

"I'm going to kill Trowa," he growled, inaudible to the waiting children.

Duo nodded, making sure that he never lost his own jolly grin. "You're the one who bet Heero wouldn't shoot the T.V."

"You're the one who went along with me! And that corny children's show was your choice, not mine!"

The braided Santa sighed through his fixed smile. "Guilty. Today's our last day, though. Who's next?"

Quatre glanced down at the paper in his hand. "Lydia; she's eight years old."

With a nod, Duo settled back into his chair, assuming his Old Saint Nick persona, twinkling eyes and all. "Okay, bring her up."

A little old lady elf led a little girl up and sat her on Santa's lap. Lydia was tiny little girl who had wavy black hair down to the small of her back and huge dark blue eyes that were ever so slightly almond shaped. Her skin was so pale that her eyes almost looked black in comparison. Sharp, high cheek bones took away some of the babyish roundness of her face and reminded him vaguely of Quatre for some reason. The classic little-girl style jumper with some sort of insignia Duo didn't recognize on the breast pocket hung loosely off a frame that was noticeably thin for a child her age. Her cheeks were a little hollow with what Duo recognized as coming from a lack of proper food, but there was a subtle filling out there that informed him that malnutrition was no longer a problem she needed to worry about, thankfully.

"Merry Christmas Lydia," he chuckled merrily. He was about to move one to the obligatory "what would you like for Christmas" phrase, accompanied by "have you been a good girl"[1] but the words died before he could even think to say them. Those large blue eyes of hers looked up at him seriously, not even blinking. Duo's laughter faltered. he scrambled for some way to recover.

"Lydia is a very pretty name," he finally told her, know that he sounded stupid, but he needed to say something.

She just stared up at him solemnly. "The lady who took me to the orphanage thought I looked like a Lydia," she replied softly with a small shrug of her shoulders. There was no sadness in her gaze, just the simple acceptance of a person who had never known anything good enough to be sad about. It was a look Duo had seen in his in his own eyes when he was little, and wished he never had to see again. His heart twisted as she told him her story.

"I live at Lady Angel's orphanage. It's nice there, but kind of hard. There's never enough people who want to take kids home 'cause of the war and stuff, but the people are nice, so I guess it's not so bad." She cocked her head to the side and looked up at him. "But you already knew that, didn't you Santa?"

"That I did," he answered gravely, surprising himself by switching automatically to a more adult tone of voice.

Lydia's little mouth quirked up a little when he was that he wasn't going to try and give her the platitudes that she'd probably been hearing ever since falling into the system. "I thought so." She relaxed a little bit, making herself more comfortable on his knee. "See, Santa, my parents died in one of the wars. I was so little I can barely remember them. So I came to Lady Angel's."

Duo shook his head sadly. "You've had a hard life, Lydia. You're a very brave little girl."

She nodded. "But the wars will be over soon; the Gundams'll take care of it."

Duo barely managed to keep himself from falling over the side of his chair to the floor. Since when did eight year-old's sit on Santa's lap and talk like this? "You believe the Gundam pilots are the good guys?" he asked neutrally, looking a little wild around the eyes. 'What kind of kid IS this?!'

"Yup! That's what the Lady says!" For the first time since she'd been led up, Lydia was acting like a real child, kicking her heels and grinning. "And my boy says so too, and he's never wrong!"

Duo laughed his best Santa laugh, setting several kids squealing nearby. "He isn't, huh?" Lydia shook her head, still smiling widely.

Finally, the braided one remembered what he was supposed to be doing, and it wasn't having a conversation about the ethics of terrorism. "So, Lydia, what do you want for Christmas?"

She blushed bright red and shifted around on his knee, refusing to kook "Santa" in the eye. "Well... there's a boy who's been visiting Lady Angel's. He always seems really sad; he never smiles at all!" She stared up at Duo, still blushing.

'Someone has a crush,' he thought gleefully, glad that something about this girl finally seemed normal. "Go on."

Lydia fidgeted some more. "For Christmas, I... I want to see my boy smile. I want him to be happy for Christmas. That all I want!" She looked so desperately serious that Duo found it hard not to smile.

"That's a very kind wish, Lydia," Duo told her seriously, wondering absently who was good enough to incite this kind of devotion in an eight year old. "What do you think will make him smile for Christmas?"

She thought about it for a moment, pursing her lips into a tiny little pout of concentration and staring down at the candy cane she'd been given in line. "My boy always seems so lonely. I think that he likes someone, but I don't know who. I think they don't like him back though." Lydia looked up at Duo, hope making her eye shine even more blue. "Maybe if she liked him back it would make him happy enough to smile?"

The pilot of Deathscythe nodded. "It's a big order, Lydia, and there's not much time left. I might even have to call in a favor from Cupid, but I'll try my best."

"Thank you!" The next thing Duo knew, he had an armful of little girl as Lydia glomped him. She stood up on his knees, hugging Duo's neck tightly. Her voice, when it came, was a barely audible choked whisper. "He says his name's Heero Yuy. Please make my Heero happy for me, Santa." [2]

***

"Duo, what's wrong?" Quatre demanded as they pulled into traffic to the music of squealing tires, honking horns and the screams of terrified pedestrians. He still had the slightest traces of glitter and rouge visible on his cheeks, joining the visible pulse on his forehead as remnants of his time as an elf. "You've been quiet ever since we clocked out." Frustrated with Duo's silence, he blew his bangs out of his eyes.

The chestnut-haired boy looked up, forcibly pulling himself out of his thoughts. "It's nothing important, Q-tip; I'm just tired." 'Nothing. Yeah. Sure. Heero's in love, and it's nothing. I bet she's some damned all-legs thirty-six triple-D bimbo with a whole mess of gorgeous friends she's willing to share him with. At once. And probably richer than God to boot.'

Quatre leveled a very "Trowa" glare at his companion. "Care to try again? You weren't seething loud enough," he deadpanned.

Duo sank a little lower in the bucket seat of the old stolen jeep. "Is it that obvious?"

"Almost as obvious as the way you follow Heero around like a puppy," the blonde in the driver's seat answered. "I swear, the only people who don't know are Heero and Miss Relena." He shook his head in silent amazement at the density of some people. "So what's wrong?"

The braided pilot grimaced. "Do you know that Heero volunteers at an orphanage?" he asked, toy with the end of his braid.

"No, I didn't." Quatre dodged a little red car, throwing Duo against his seat belt. "Some people!" he huffed under his breath.

"Quatre, it was a little old lady!"

"That's a poor excuse for making me drive under sixty!" the blonde maniac behind the wheel argued calmly, swerving around an ambulance with it's lights running.

"IT WAS A SCHOOL ZONE!"

Quatre blinked and reached up to adjust his mirror. "So it was..." He shrugged. "No harm done. Now why don't you tell me about this orphanage Heero works at?"

Duo eyed the boy in the driver's seat warily, but resumed his slouch. "One of the kids he works with came to see Santa today. She had all sorts of things to say about him." Duo stared down at the tip of his braid, drawing patterns with it on the back of his hand. "Like that he's in love."

Quatre brightened as only a boy with twenty-nine older sisters can and turned the car into a side street, turning it up on two wheels briefly. After he'd skidded the jeep to a stop and killed the engine he turned to face his passenger. "Duo, that's wonderful!" he cheered. "Why are you... oh." The reason for Duo's depression finally hit him like the proverbial ton of old gym socks. "It's not you, is it?"

Duo shook his head soulfully.

The Arabian sighed. They sat in silence for a few minutes. Then the engine roared to life and the tires let out an ear-splitting complaint as Quatre backed out of the alley at warp speed.

"Quatre! What the hell are you doing?" Duo screamed, clutching his seat for dear life as Quatre backed up into heavy traffic without slowing down. Sirens started wailing somewhere behind them.

The blonde grinned at him and gunned the engine. "You're upset. I'm upset that you're upset. How about we out-run those cops and then drown ourselves in chocolate?" he asked, as if it was the most normal thing in the world to being doing eighty down a main street with no less than five police cruisers behind you.

Duo sat up straighter in his seat, never quite releasing his death grip. "Sounds great! Gun it, Q!"

They took off down the road to the sound of blaring sirens.

***

The God of Death sprawled on the living room sofa in the apartment he and Heero shared due to low funds, watching Heero. He had a week before Christmas, and a promise to keep to a little girl. Okay, so it wasn't really a promise; more like a delightful blend of morbid curiosity and uncontrollable masochism. Lydia was a convenient excuse though, so his subconscious stuck with it. Duo was determined to find out who Heero was in love with, even though the thought was like a punch in the gut. With spiky brass knuckles.

So he stalked, followed and studied pilot zero-one. At first he didn't notice anything unusual. Heero was acting exactly as he had since they had met. Then he happened to glance over Heero's shoulder while he was typing, expecting to see a report, school work or at the least porn. He wasn't writing any of that, however. What Heero was writing was...

Nothing.

His screen was filled with a long string of letters. There was no pattern or reason to the letters. It wasn't even a code that Duo could decipher, and Duo was very good with codes. A quick look at Heero's face gave him another clue; his eyes weren't even open and he was smiling. Well, it was more like a minute shift of muscles than a smile, but Duo was accustomed enough to watching Heero that he noticed these things.

It didn't take Duo long at all to figure out that this sort of behavior was what he needed to watch for. Maybe he would be lucky and Heero would let something slip during one of his off-moments.

Duo found himself indulging in his new hobby at some of the strangest moments. In the middle of breakfast Heero would continue eating, but his eyes would go unfocused. At those times he'd stare deeply into his blueberry pancakes and almost sigh. Another time, Heero dropped a bag of groceries half-way through the door while Duo was on the couch, brushing his hair. Duo dropped his brush and rushed to help. Heero had muttered some comment about the handles on the bag breaking, but they were whole when Duo looked.

It continued like that down to Christmas Eve. Wufei had gone on a mission, so he wouldn't be coming over. Trowa and Quatre were doing some private celebrating that probably involved candy canes and peppermint-flavored lube.

The sound of Duo mentally gnawing on his own liver in jealousy was nearly audible from across the hall.

The two of them were left at home, alone, and Duo was more than ready to tear someone's (preferably Heero's) hair out in frustration. He knew that Heero was head over heels for someone, but he couldn't figure out who! None of the people he'd talked to had noticed anything unusual, and Heero had stubbornly refused to let even the tiniest clue slip. Not that Duo had come right out and asked, but it was the thought that counted, right? It occurred to him that he might have been imagining it, but he discarded that idea almost before it fully formed. It was Heero, after all; the man who's anal retentiveness and one-track mind made ants look like airheads. Nothing distracted him. This Duo knew from experience.

Being sneaky had earned him nothing, and Heero had recently managed to make himself completely immune to the big guns known as Relena and/or Quatre, which was his next choice. It was time for Duo to loose his last shreds of dignity (and tact) and break out the C4. Hopefully not literally.

His quarry was sitting on the couch, barefoot. Without any warning Duo bounced up behind him. "Hey, Heero!" He draped himself over Heero's shoulder as the other pilot was reading a book that could have easily passed as a dictionary at first glace. A second glance would reveal it to be, in fact, a thesaurus.

Duo settled his weight down onto Heero, resting his chin on his temporary leaning-post's head so that he could see what the other boy was doing. The pose was very carefully calculated to hold just the right amount of "casual" to keep Heero from killing him, while at the same time feeding Duo's craving to be as close to his partner as possible.

"What do you want, Duo?" Heero asked patiently, flipping to the next page.

"Nothing much," Duo answered semi-honestly. He rationalized that the importance of what he wanted to know depended entirely upon a person's point of view. There had to be someone in the Earth Sphere who didn't care about Heero's love life.

"Then why are you here?" Again Heero flipped the page. It was almost like he was timing his questions with his reading.

"I live here too," Duo protested. "I have every right to be in this apartment."

For a moment Heero's eyes flicked upward in an attempt to glare at Duo. When he realized that there was no way to see the top of his own head without a mirror he let them fall back down. "That wasn't what I meant."

"How was I supposed to know that?" Duo asked reasonably, taking a deep breath in preparation for what was coming. "I mean, sure, I know that you organize your socks by color - I still think that's freaky, by the way. They're all WHITE for shit's sake! - and that you're the same height as me - short - and that you STILL don't get what was so funny when Wu forgot to get dressed before coming to breakfast that one morning and that you picked up playing the piano somehow and your favorite food - or complete LACK of a favorite food, which is even weirder than the socks thing - and why you haven't killed Relena and why you haven't killed ME and why you keep you hair short, but I still don't know things like how you hide your gun or where you got the name Heero or why you read things like dictionaries or who you're in love with or what your favorite color is or at least what color you dislike least or why you still have those ratty old sneakers or what religion you are or-"

"Duo?" Heero sat his book down and was looking up at Duo with an expression that hovered somewhere between confused and annoyed.

"Yeah, Heero?"

"Please repeat the tenth comment from the first mention of my socks."

Duo blinked. He hadn't been paying attention to his rambling beyond getting in the sole comment that he'd wanted to make, much less been numbering them. "Huh?"

Heero tilted his chin up so that Duo's chin was on his forehead. He was glaring up at the tip of Duo's nose, but at least he was glaring at something. "To quote, 'I still don't know things like how you hide your gun or where you got the name Heero or why you read things like dictionaries or who you're in love with.' Does that help?"

"Oh, that." Duo chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his head.

"Yes. That. Explain." Heero paused thoughtfully before adding, "Or I will kill you."

'THAT makes me feel so much better,' Duo grumbled internally. Admittedly, it was somewhat comforting, if only because Heero had said that to him many times before and had yet to go through with the threat. However, that didn't mean that he wouldn't if provoked. Luckily, he'd planned for this situation. "You're a healthy guy, right? You've got all those urges that teachers are always talking about in sex ed."

"Sex and love are two very different things, Duo." There was a barely noticeable tenseness in Heero's voice that told Duo he hasn't gotten into the safe zone yet.

"So if you're not in love, then who do you want to fuck?"

"DUO!" Heero stood up suddenly, sending Duo sprawling face-first over the back of the couch when his perch vanished. "What kind of question is that?!"

"The kind that ends in a question mark. What other kind is there?" Duo managed to pull himself around until he was facing the ceiling, but left one leg hooked over the back of the couch, the heel of his other foot stretched out to rest on the arm of the sofa while his head hung upside-down over the edge of the cushion, rapidly turning bright crimson from thw blood that was rushing to his head.

Heero briefly considered pulling his gun, but there really wasn't much point since he had no intention of shooting. He had already given Duo too much information simply by reacting; there would be no stopping the boy now. "The type that does not involve a major breach of personal privacy."

Duo waved the objection aside, face turning even redder red from the continued blood flow to his head. "If you can't tell your partner who you're after, then who can you tell?"

"So you're not in love, and you're not interested in sex," the long-haired pilot thought out loud, shifting around to make himself more comfortable. Unfortunately, this made his t-shirt slide up (down?) his stomach until the only thing keeping it from falling over his face was the fact that it was pinned between his back and the couch. "What kind of teenage guy are you?"

"I never said that," Heero replied a bit too quickly.

"Ah-ha!" Amazingly considering his head-rushed state, Duo managed to flip himself over and roll to his feet, where he swayed only slightly. "So you DO love someone! I knew it!"

"It's none of your business."

"Of course it is," Duo grinned. "Who is she? That cute chick from three schools ago? The one with the pigtails in Europe?" He paused for a second, looking disgusted as he could while hanging upside down. "And if you say Relena, I'll put you out of my misery."

Heero actually twitched. "Relena? It's not Relena." He shuddered. If there were such a thing as spiritual incest, that was it.

"So you DO love someone!"

If Heero's nerves were a violin's E string and Duo the tuner, Duo would have ended up with a scar across his nose as the string snapped. As it was, Duo was very lucky, because the rebound as Human-Heero's nerves gave was much more interesting than E String-Heero's.

Heero grabbed Duo by his shirt and pressed him back against a wall, effectively trapping the other boy. "Who I'm in love with?" He leaned closer until they were nose to nose, lifting his partner a good inch off the ground. "You want to know who I'm in love with?" Heero's tone was conversational, even pleasant when compared to his usual speaking voice. "You really want to know?"

There really wasn't much Duo could do but nod. He'd gotten himself into this mess, there was still a possibility that he could get out of it alive. At least Heero didn't look mad. Then again, he was pinning Duo against the wall, so maybe that wasn't a good thing.

Blue eyes crinkled up at the corners as Heero smirked. "Then I'll show you." Before Duo could get his mind to work beyond the first word Heero had said, Heero's lips were pressed against his own with bruising force.

Beneath the braid, the finely tuned and delicate computer that was Duo's consciousness began running in circles, circuits fusing together as the main operating program tried to comprehend this new and unexpected change in Duo's programing.

Ctrl+Alt+Del

*The program reality.exe is not responding. Wait or End Task?*

End Task.

*The program duo.exe is not responding. Wait or End Task?*

Wait.

*This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down. If problem persists, contact program vendor.*

Enter.

Behind Duo's closed eyelids - 'When did I close my eyes?' - something flashed bright blue.

*The system is busy or not responding. Press any key to return to Duo and wait. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart the system.*

Enter.

*Can't breathe captain; we don't have the power!*

What the hell? Enter-Enter-Enter-ENTER Ctrl+Alt+Del

*Warning, screen saver will begin in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...*

Everything went black.

***

Heero reveled in the feeling of Duo's warmth pressed up against him, knowing that it might end up being the only time he was able to. Wrapping his arms tightly around the other boy's slim body, he pressed as close as he could while keeping the kiss reasonably chaste. Well, tried to at any rate. He really couldn't say how that tongue crept in there. Really. That was probably the only thing that kept him from dropping Duo when he passed out. He stared down at the glazed expression on Duo's face. No matter how hard he tried, or how deeply he dug into his mental file of Duoisms, Heero was unable to find a sign of anything other than perfect, mindless bliss on his partner's unconscious face.

"Duo?" He shook the limp body of his partner. He didn't have much romantic experience, but Heero was fairly sure that Duo looking like an addict who had just gotten his fix was a good sign.

Duo blinked lazily as sight and sensation returned as his screensaver turned off. Every cell in his body felt like it was tingling and he was fairly sure his knees were still attached to his body, even though he couldn't feel them. Somewhere in front of him Heero was staring at him with a faintly worried expression, which only scrambled his systems more. "Hm?" He knew on some level that he should respond more, but somehow he just couldn't make himself leave the pleasantly drugged feeling of euphoria.

"Are you okay?" Heero propped Duo up between one arm and the wall and held up a finger, slowly moving it from left to right while staring deeply into Duo's eyes. "Your eyes aren't focusing properly, and I think they're dialated."

The question sunk in slowly, giving Duo ample time to contemplate his answer. He let his head loll to the side so that his braid brushed the ground, eyes gazing at the wall over Heero's shoulder blankly. Forcing his over-taxed mind to work felt like wading through a river of molasses, but he eventually arrived at his answer. "Yup."

The short, concise response, spoken as it was in a heavy, slightly drunk tone made Heero blink. The giggle that followed it made him stare.

A few minutes later Duo's brain was able to get itself back in working order. A warm, fuzzy feeling of hope began to grow just under his rib cage, tinting the world rosy with golden sparkles. Wait, that was the Christmas lights. "Hee~eero?" he asked, snuggling himself into Heero's neck and shoulder. "Did you really mean it?"

Heero started slightly. When had Duo learned to purr? "Did I mean what?" He was having a hard time thinking straight[3]; Duo had found JUST the right place on his neck to nuzzle. For some reason his eyes were starting to cross.

Duo paused. Dark violet eyes looked up at Heero with painful expectancy as their owner paused in his ministrations. The uncharacteristic somberness on his partner's face shook Heero to his core. "When you said you lo- when you kissed me. Did you mean it?"

There was a long pause, and Duo braced himself for rejection. Just a second ago he'd been so sure that Heero loved him, or at the very least lusted after his body. Now he wasn't so sure. Fate, destiny and Murphy's Law obviously hated him, and he wouldn't put it beyond them to make this whole thing one big joke.

Heero opened his mouth to reply, but closed it almost immediately. He wanted to give Duo an immediate, extravagant and absolute answer, but Duo deserved complete honestly. "There are some things I don't like about you," he began slowly, listening to each word to make certain that he didn't screw up. "But they make you Duo." He frowned, trying to work his mind around an incredibly simple concept that was still completely alien to everything he'd ever heard anybody say about... what ever it was he was feeling. "You leave hair in the bathtub and you can't cook or seem to stop talking, but you know what I'm thinking, sometimes even before I do. Your jokes are funny, and you'd never leave a person who needed you..." He trailed off and shrugged, hoping that Duo understood what he was trying to say. At least then one of them would.

Duo swallowed the lump that had magically reappeared in his throat. He told himself that he should probably see a doctor about it. "Are... are you someone who needs me?" He ran his fingers through his bangs, averting his eyes nervously. "I... I think I'm someone who needs you." His final comment was quiet, almost a whisper, like he was afraid saying it would break something intangible and important.

"I think I am." Heero leaned down and pressed his forehead against Duo's. "I don't know much about being in lo... needing someone," he confessed quietly, carefully sidestepping something that neither of them were ready to deal with yet. "Maybe... we can learn together?"

The new position provided Duo with all sorts of interesting possibilities. He took advantage of the least of these, tilting Heero head back and taking the kiss to the next level, prepared to back off if Heero showed the slightest hint of resistance. Instead of being smacked across the head like he half-expected, Duo's tongue running over Heero's lips was met with a warm welcome. There weren't any fireworks or sudden showers of golden light. It was better than that; it was like they were coming home.

Duo was the first one to break away. The world was still spinning from his time spent on the couch, and kissing Heero had only made it pick up momentum. "Heero, I..." He just shook his head, braid slithering down over his shoulder to at the movement. There were so many words, but he couldn't say them all.

"I know, Duo." Heero reached up and cupped Duo's cheek, which was suspiciously wet, and pulled him down for another kiss, reaching around to grab Duo's waist and pull him closer until their bodies were pressed together from thigh to ribs. Two hardening erections brushed each other through their jeans. Heero moaned softly around Duo's tongue at the sensation, obligingly shifting himself lower on the couch to get more of the feeling, using the new leverage from bending his knees to push up against Duo's hips with his own.

The couch let out a protesting creak as Duo automatically threw his weight back into Heero's, throwing his head back and hissing. When his head came back down the first thing his lips encountered was Heero's cheekbone. Farther searching brought an earlobe and jaw line within reach, each receiving a small kiss or nip in turn. A few nips lower and he found Heero's pulse, which fluttered erratically under his tongue and seemed to jump when he sucked at it. Heero's skin was slightly tangy, but the flavor had a way of rolling across Duo's tongue that made it seem absolutely delicious.

There was a muted thwacking sound as Heero's button-down brown shirt mysteriously managed to unbutton itself under Duo's fingers and get thrown against the wall. Duo's brain had returned to that delightfully fuzzy state it had been in earlier, and refused to listen to any protests or petitions by it's various parts about the speed at which the very new relationship was moving. There was only one thing that could have stopped Duo from continuing the red-marked trail of kisses and nibbles he was creating down Heero's chest, and Heero was too busy undoing Duo's braid while simultaneously trying to peel off Duo's t-shirt and kissing anything within reach to say anything.

A brief moment of darkness occured as Heero managed to rid Duo of the pesky shirt, but it retreated too quickly for Duo to have to pause more than a moment as his tongue traced a path down the sculpted line of Heero's stomach to the button of his pants. He glanced up at Heero, eyes questioning and fingers poised over the zipper.

Heero suddenly became aware of how close they were to breaking boundaries that might be better left alone. His hands paused in unraveling the final third of Duo's braid. The sight of Duo on his hands and knees, hovering over Heero's bulging khaki pants forced him to swallow before he could speak. "Duo... if you stop now without one hell of a damned good reason, I really will kill you."

Violet eyes gleam at him wickedly while the button on his pants was popped off by nimble fingers and then practically ripped off Heero's legs, following the way of the shirts in thwacking against the wall. "Yeah, and then where would you be?" Duo asked huskily, giving him one last meaningful look before leaning down and grabbing the zipper with his teeth, slowly freeing Heero's erection from it's confinement.

Duo leaned over and breathed on the hot piece of flesh less than an inch from his lips, letting his tongue dart out to taste the tip. Heero gasped as the warm, moist air flowed over him. His hands fumbled as they worked on the final twists of hair, but was he was able to finish the job based on willpower alone. He was barely in time as Duo took the plunge and wrapped his mouth around Heero's cock.

It took Duo a few seconds to refine his technique into something that neither made him gag (a reflex he reminded himself to work on somehow) nor left him slobbering on himself. Heero, being on the trial-subject end of this impromptu lesson quickly learned of the wonders of tongue work as Duo created hot little trails over and around him occasionally dipping lower to roll his tongue over Heero's balls before moving back up. Duo was a wonderfully quick learner, and with Heero's little gasps, shivers and moans as his guide he found that he learned even faster than usual. In spite of his inexperience, he soon had to pull away, leaving Heero hovering on the brink of orgasm. In a flash he was up from the couch and pattering down the hallway, flowing hair trailing after him.

"Duo!" Heero yelled after his new lover. "DUO MAXWELL, GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE RIGHT FUCKING NOW!"

Someone in the apartment under them thumped on the floor in protest.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Duo called back in the strange echo that comes from being in a bathroom.

"Not without me you don't!" Heero yelled, trying to find the muscle control to get up and go after his partner, who was obviously trying to kill him.

Duo appeared from the hallway just as Heero had levered himself to his elbows, something held in one hand. While gone he had disposed of his own pants and shoes.

"Where the hell did you go?" Heero demanded with a tiny twitch of his facial muscles that could have been a pout.

"Finding the closest thing to lube we have." Duo slid back into his place over Heero, kissing those almost-pouting lips deeply. Heero's "aa" of understanding was swallowed by Duo as they kissed. He was so distracted that he didn't even notice where Duo's hands were until something slightly chilly touched his skin.

Heero pulled back and gasped at the feeling. "What thooohhh...." His exclamation of surprise vanished into a moan as Duo slid one vaseline-slickened finger inside of him, massaging Heero's inner muscles gently. The next finger was a tighter fit, but Heero loosened up quickly, ramming himself down on Duo's fingers eagerly as they stretched and teased.

"Heero I... May I?" Duo wriggled his fingers inside Heero, making the other boy's hips jerk.

"Just do it, Duo!" Heero gasped.

The long-haired boy slid his fingers out of Heero and lubed himself up, gritting his teeth at the feel of his hand on his own shaft. Only the knowledge that there was something infinitely better waiting kept him from finishing right then. Reluctantly he let go of himself, moaning as Heero pulled his knees higher in invitation.

When Duo's cock brushed against his ass, Heero forced himself to relax. There was a slow, almost pleasant burning sensation as Duo slid home. They both paused to pull savor the sensation. Heero's mind's eye automatically took a mental snapshot of the moment, memorizing the sight of Duo sheened with sweat and hovering over him with his hair curtaining away the rest of the world, the hot throb of Duo within him and the musky smell of sex that they would probably never manage to get out of the couch completely. Heero couldn't bring himself to mourn the loss of the security deposit they had undoubtedly just lost on the rented piece of furniture. It was too perfect to think of things like that. When Duo moved it got even better.

At first there was nothing but tight, small circles of Duo's hips. In one sudden movement Duo pulled back and snapped his hips back in, balancing on his knees long enough to pull Heero's legs higher around his torso for a better angle before leaning over the Japanese boy again and slamming home. Heero screamed as Duo brushed something inside him that made the world go white. He barely heard Duo's chuckle as that spot was hit again, and again, and again until he didn't have a voice left with which to scream.

"Come with me Heero." Duo reached down and feathered his fingers over Heero's shaft, brushing down it's length lightly before he firmly gripped the base and pumped. His lips locked onto Heero's, letting his partner deaden his own cries as they both came.

Duo's arm trembled in exhaustion, but it held him up until he managed to come back to his senses and pull out. Then he collapsed, half on Heero and half hanging over the couch. Heero slid closer to the back of the sofa and pulled Duo back with him, spooning themselves tightly together.

"Remind me to bug you more often," Duo murmured sleepily, snuggling backwards into his lover. His only reply was a soft snore.

***

Heero grumbled, shrugging deeper into his jacket. He'd been woken up at dawn and shoved out the door by his brilliantly grinning - and completely naked - boyfriend. He was lucky that he had been allowed breakfast and a chance to rinse the itchy remains of their activities of the night before away in a shower. The exasperating pilot from L2 had handed him a jacket and shoved him out the door.

"Remember to smile for the children, Heero," he had teased before slamming the door and locking it. Heero had considered kicking the obstruction down, but they were already going to be in enough trouble for the noise level of the night before. Not to mention that Duo was much too intelligent to have not covered that contingency.

Thus it was that he stood outside the doors of Lady Angel's orphanage on a not-very freezing Christmas Day at roughly one hour past dawn, with a hoarse voice and several aches in unbefore known locations.

Just the memory of what caused those aches made Heero grin as he walked through the doors to the building. He still had to find out how Duo knew what he was doing with his free time, but the options open for interrogation were much more pleasant than they had been twenty-four hours ago.

Children and overseers alike heard him enter and looked up. Some smiled and waved, then returned to what they were doing. One tiny body, however, came flying at him, wrapping around his legs and squeezing with all her might.

"Heero! Heero! I knew Santa could do it, I just KNEW IT!" she cried, holding onto her favorite person with her legs as well as her arms for good measure. "Jimmy said that he couldn't, but I told him that Santa could do anything! And I was right! He did it! He really did!" the little girl bubbled, not even pausing for breath.

He pried her off his legs and picked her up, resting the excited girl on his hip. "Lydia," he said, not quite able to assume his normal expressionless face. "What are you talking about?"

Lydia blushed and suddenly became fascinated by the zipper on his jacket. "I... Uh, sort of... asked Santa to make you smile for Christmas," she confessed, meeting Heero's gaze with wide, innocent eyes. "Christin says that he wasn't the real Santa because his eyes were purple instead of blue, but Mr. Mikhail said that she was wrong! And she was! He was real!" She hugged Heero again, throwing her arms around his neck and clinging for all she was worth.

Heero blinked, a strange suspicion entering his mind. "Purple eyes? Lydia, where did you meet Santa?"

"At the mall, of course!" She looked at him worriedly. "You're not mad?"

'A Santa.. at the mall...' His eyes narrowed slightly, but his smile grew even wider. "No, Lydia, I'm not mad at all."

"Really?"

"Really. Thank you for your Christmas wish. It was very kind."

"You're welcome, Heero!" Lydia pecked her boys cheek and hopped out of his arms, scurrying off to play. Heero smiled widely and waded through the clustered children.

"Santa" had a lot of explaining to do, and maybe this time they could try an actual bed.

***OWARI***

[1] As hordes of Duo-fans jump on his lap and scream, "NO!" Return to the story.

[2] Alright, who DIDN'T see this coming by the first mention of Lydia's boy? Return to the story.

[3] Pun intended! Return to the story.

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