Slow and Steady Part 12
"You know what I love about you, Heero?"
"Hmm?" He was lying on his back on his bed, resting from his exercises.
"I hide presents in your closet, and you're polite enough not to look at them." Duo popped out of Heero's closet with a bag in hand.
"Well, of course. They're not mine."
"Actually, this one is." Duo set the bag down next to him, then sat down on the bed beside him.
Heero raised an eyebrow at him and held the look for a second before sitting up and taking the bag in hand. He spared it an intense look before nudging the tissue paper aside and pulling out the baby blue plushie within. "An elephant? Really?"
Duo grinned unrepentantly. "What, he's adorable, isn't he?"
He inspected the elephant critically before giving it an experimental squeeze. "I suppose he is."
"You may also consider him a little reminder, from me to you, that from now on, you should tell Duo about everything your elephants get up to, not because it's big enough and important enough to tell him, but just because Duo wants to know."
Heero looked up from playing with the elephant's floppy ears and gave him a faintly surprised look that transformed into a smile, and not one of those lopsided ones, either. "I will remember that." He gave the elephant another little squeeze before leaning past Duo to put the elephant in a place of honor next to his pillow.
The smile and everything that it meant decided it for Duo. He hadn't been quite sure whether or not he'd go for it, and he still wasn't quite sure, but his hand was skimming the surface of the bed to slide on top of Heero's, the one Heero had planted on the bed for support as he leaned over, so he supposed that was the answer right there.
Heero paused, then sat back up straight as warm fingers laced with his own. He stared at their conjoined hands for a few seconds. "So. We're going to do this now, are we?"
"I rather liked the idea."
"Why now?" He met Duo's eyes, his expression unreadable.
"You're not implying that I'd make a move out of pity or something, are you?"
"No. But... why now?"
Duo took his time in answering. "Because... all of this... None of this told me anything I didn't already know. It just reminded me of everything. Brought it all together. Made it clear, that this is the stuff that makes Heero Heero. And this is the stuff that you love. And all the low probability crap in the world isn't going to change that. It's not going to change the stuff that you love about him. And it's not going to change the fact that you love all that stuff. And why the hell aren't you telling him that? I think he'd like to know."
Heero dropped eye contact for a while, internalizing those words, letting them percolate through his being and drip warmth into places he didn't even know were a little on the cool side. "I... That is good to know. But..." He looked up again. "Don't you think things are a bit... complicated right now?"
Duo shook his head with a tender half-smile, both honored and amused by the fact that this was the first time he'd seen Heero anything less than confident over the last few weeks. "If anything... If anything, all of this has taught me how much we ourselves complicate things. We had a hundred and one reasons for never doing this before, didn't we? How many of those reasons seem completely nonsensical now?"
The tightening of Heero's fingers around his own was an answer of sorts. "Well, high-performing people do lie the best to themselves."
"Exactly. Cross a hundred and one reasons off the list."
"And you're left with one. A new one. This one." He lifted a foot slightly, as if it wasn't clear which one he was talking about.
Duo glanced briefly down at the foot, then back up again. "You're... on the mend. It's not like I haven't noticed. And maybe... maybe if I hadn't gone up, hadn't been with you, hadn't seen you. Maybe I wouldn't... But I did, and..." He laughed softly. "I'm just following your lead, Heero. It's not like you're making a big deal out of it, either. You're just cranking your way through it, same uncomplicated way you do with everything. There's no changing your tune now."
Heero twisted his fingers out of Duo's and flipped his hand so they could rest palm to palm. Their fingers curled naturally around each other once more. "I can't leave L1 for a while longer."
"I know." Duo shrugged. "A logistical issue. Nothing more. We can figure it out."
"We don't know if I'll..."
Duo lifted their hands and kissed Heero's knuckles. "Worst case, it just changes what kind of activities we do in our spare time. That's no biggie."
"What if we--"
"There's no point in contemplating failure when failure is not an option."
Heero made a helpless little sound. "This isn't quite fair. I can't even outrun you."
Duo looked at him seriously. "Do you want to?"
He looked back just as seriously, then smiled crookedly. "I do. I do want to be able to outrun you, one day." He leaned in to press a shy kiss to Duo's mouth. "But not today."
~*~
They chose an early morning start time to avoid the heat of the late summer day, and to avoid an audience. Duo watched Heero stretch with a critical eye, well-attuned to even the slightest twitch out of place. At length, Heero straightened, took a deep breath, then nodded.
Duo nodded in response and got ready to hit a button on his wrist watch. "You know I'm going to be thoroughly unimpressed if you manage to injure yourself doing this, right?"
"Understood."
"Alright. Let's go." He started the timer, and off they went down the obstacle course. They weren't going to set any speed records this morning, but that wasn't the goal of this exercise. All that mattered this morning was that they crossed the finish line. Together.
OWARI
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