Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Moments in Time ❯ Permanence ( Chapter 15 )

Title: Permanence
Author: Mookie
Pairing: Heero/Duo
Warning: lime
Rating: R
Notes: Dedicated to both Natea, for encouraging the shiny worship, and for Porcelain, for bribing me with eye candy. Inspiration for this comes from this pic.

Deathscythe touched down a bit roughly, causing Duo to wince slightly before he opened the hatch.

He leaped from the cockpit to the nearest branch of one of the trees providing a bit of cover, and scrambled down to find Heero pulling the camouflage netting over his Gundam.

Duo followed suit, despite his desire to watch the other pilot work. There was something about seeing Heero's thigh muscles flex under his tight black shorts that appealed to Duo's baser instincts.

When he was done, he turned, catching sight of Heero stretching both arms overhead and arching his back slightly. A warm flush settled over Duo as he remembered the last time he'd seen Heero's posture in a similar state.

Heero bent his neck one way, then the other, then his eyes met Duo's in a heated gaze.

Seemed Duo wasn't the only one having rather inappropriate thoughts.

Duo loosened his collar and rotated his head a few times, working the kinks out of his neck.

Heero cleared his throat, and Duo stopped and grinned at him.

"You thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?"

"I'd never be so bold as to presume I knew what goes through your head," Heero responded.

"Ah," Duo said with a leer. "But you've been bold enough to know what my head goes through, now, haven't you?"

He took a couple of steps toward Heero.

Heero nearly snorted. "Your little pilot is far from intimidating."

"Ouch, Heero. You really know how to hurt a guy." Duo's expression assured Heero he was amused rather than insulted. He took another step, then paused and brushed his hand over one of Heero's eyebrows.

"You're bleeding," he said, showing Heero the blood on his fingertips.

"It'll stop," Heero shrugged.

"Yeah, I know. Doesn't mean I have to like it. You're not indestructible, you know."

"Duo..."

A wave of Duo's hand put a halt to Heero's protests. "Listen, Heero, shit happens, we get hit, we get shot at, we push ourselves to the limit, I get it."

"I know you do."

With that, Duo nodded, a rueful smile tugging at his lips.

"Yeah. So do I."

A moment of awkward silence fell, then Duo gave a brief bark of laughter.

"Only you, Yuy, could manage to look that damn good, blood, dirt, and all."

"Yeah?"

"Fuck, yeah."

Heero raised a brow, and Duo recognized the glint in his eye.

"I'll hold you to that," he said. "But first, I'm going to wash off the 'blood, dirt, and all.'"

Duo watched Heero as he walked to the edge of the forest toward the riverbed they'd noticed when landing.

He and Heero had engaged in a mutual release of tension on three occasions to date, and although he'd tried to convince himself that that was all there was, a release, he knew he was only kidding himself.

For all that Heero acted indifferent toward many people, he was far from cold in the sack.

Not that either of them had yet had the luxury of sex on an actual mattress with linens, yet. So far it had been a spontaneous thing, a celebration of sorts, of victory, of being alive.

That's when he'd known that Heero, despite his self-destruction attempts, didn't really harbor a death wish. The reasons for Heero's wanting to stick around on the mortal plane weren't clear to Duo, but he'd like to think that maybe, outside of keeping the peace and protecting the weak, that there might be some tiny little piece with his name on it.

Duo looked at the position of the sun, and decided there was enough time to work on getting the tension out of his own body. He followed Heero's path, noting the rather shallow waterfall as he neared the river.

It would have been nice to indulge in something approximating a shower, but he supposed it was enough that the water was biting cold without standing under it as well. It would serve well to rinse the filth from his clothes, however, and that was something. He unfastened his jacket and shirt, removing them as he reached the bank.

Heero's clothes were strewn over a nearby rock, and the boy himself was standing waist deep, near the waterfall. The spray of water caused Heero's skin to glimmer in the sun, and Duo's breath caught as he noted the lean muscle in Heero's upper body.

It wasn't that he'd not ever seen it before, it was just that he'd never viewed it with anything other than a medic's eye. Their fumbling sexual encounters hadn't been conducive to doing more than unfastening his pants and lowering Heero's shorts, and their session of dry humping hadn't even required that.

Duo paused to admire the body on display before him before stripping the rest of his clothes and laying them next to Heero's.

He shivered as he waded toward Heero, noting wryly that Heero's "little pilot" comment was certainly true now, not to mention that the co-pilots were retreating into the cockpit.

His eyes flicked downward. He hoped to find evidence that Heero's ability to regulate his body wouldn't put his own to shame, but he was unable to see beneath the shimmering surface as the sun danced across the water.

Foiled in that regard, his gaze slowly began the return path up Heero's stomach and chest, still glistening with droplets of water.

And something else.

Duo's mouth dropped open, and he quickly looked up to see Heero's lips twitch.

"Like it?"

"Like it?" Duo repeated. "I..."

He let his eyes return to the silver ring surrounding Heero's right nipple. "You've not had it long."

"No," Heero said, still seeming far too amused. "Not long at all."

When the hell Heero might have found time to get his nipple pierced - although Duo was sure Heero had pierced it himself, and he didn't even want to know with what - was beyond Duo's comprehension.

Why Heero had decided to do it was another thing entirely.

"What's the matter, Duo?" Heero asked softly. "Don't you want to touch it? To tug on it with your teeth? To run your tongue through the hoop...?"

And over the erect nipple, of course. Duo supposed that idea might be arousing to some, but at the moment his weekend warriors were still attempting to crawl into his groin and the little scythe had lost interest the moment the cold water had licked at the underside of his balls.

Despite his questioning Heero's sanity over the adornment, Duo's hand reached out toward the bit of silver.

"Didn't take you for the type," he said, flicking it lightly with his thumb and forefinger.

Heero's body shook with silent laughter as the ring went flying several feet before disappearing beneath the water.

"What the hell?" Duo asked, even as he realized he'd been had. He shook his head, smiling all the while. "You are bound and determined to make me eat my words, aren't you?"

He'd certainly never again accuse Heero of not having a sense of humor.

Heero's eyes shone brightly, and Duo brushed the tousled bangs out of the way so he could look straight into them. His hand slid down Heero's face to cup his cheek.

"The most technologically advanced piece of fighting equipment known to man," he murmured, stroking his thumb over Heero's cheekbone. "And your cockpit is equipped with pneumatic suspension."

"The air springs were just temporary," Heero said with a shrug, but the delight in his eyes was still obvious.

Duo pressed his forehead against Heero's. "You say that like it's a bad thing," he joked.

"Some things are only meant to be temporary," Heero said, his hand reaching up to cover Duo's, trapping it against the side of his face.

"Yeah."

"Duo. People are not things."

A smile spread across Duo's face at the implication, and he leaned toward Heero, their lips meeting in their first kiss.

Tomorrow they'd likely be heading their separate ways, depending on where their orders sent them. There were no guarantees that either of them would live to see the end of the war. Neither of them could make the other any promises.

Duo's hands ran through Heero's hair as their kiss deepened.

He didn't need any promises.

As Heero had said, some things were temporary. Like standing in ice cold water making out with the one person who had gotten under his skin like no other.

He pulled away from Heero, the corners of his eyes crinkling as he smiled again. He gathered their clothes and they scrubbed them briskly under the waterfall, then spread them out to dry.

As they lie on their backs, arms outstretched and fingers barely touching, Duo felt warmed inside and out. It had nothing to do with the sun beating down on his skin.

He wasn't sure he agreed with Heero entirely. On the one hand, it was true; things were temporary, circumstances were temporary.

People weren't things, but they didn't necessarily stick around forever either, sometimes through no fault of their own.

However, he was willing to give Heero the benefit of the doubt on this one.

Heero's fingertips hooked Duo's, and Duo turned his head to meet Heero's heavy lidded gaze.

He stretched his arm toward Heero just a bit further so their palms were touching, and looked back up at the clouds overhead.

They couldn't make promises to one another, but Heero had done so anyway.

"No, Heero," he said quietly. "People are temporary. But...the way we feel about them...when it's sincere...is not."

The squeeze Heero gave his hand in response told him that Heero had understood.

After all, it was bad enough to fall in love at fifteen, in the middle of a war, with someone of the same gender.

Knowing it was requited...made it seem not such a bad thing.