Picture Perfect
Epilogue
by Seaa
Duo gave his hair one final brush stroke, and deftly
plaited it into the customary braid.
“Looking good, Maxwell,” Quatre commented from the
doorway. Duo grinned.
“Third date, huh,” Quatre said, “Very important. Look
at you, all dressed up!”
He wasn’t *dressed up*, per say, but he did want to
look nice. He was wearing a dark blue silk shirt, and
form fitting black pants. Quatre was sniffing. “Look
at you, all grown up!”
Duo slapped Quatre lightly across the head, and the
blond grinned at him. “Glad it’s going well for you,
Duo.”
“Yeah,” Duo said, smoothing out his shirt. He narrowed
his eyes at Quatre. “Doesn’t mean I’ve completely
forgiven you!”
Quatre held his hands up in defence. “Hey, now, I just
wanted to wait for the right moment to introduce you
two.”
“And the right moment was when I was sick and he had
been suffering a hellish day?” Though that certainly
hadn’t shown through when they had been together…
Quatre shrugged. “You guys are so damn stubborn, I
wasn’t sure if there’d be another chance.” He looked
at Duo. “You ready to go? I can drop you off at the
restaurant on my way to the gallery, if you want.”
Duo nodded, giving his hair one last pat. “All set.”
***
The waiter had shown him to the table where Heero was
already seated. Duo was greeted with a small smile.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hey,” Duo responded, grinning. “You look nice,” he
mentioned, sliding into his seat across from Heero.
Heero raked his eyes over Duo, sending a small,
excited shiver up the other man’s spine. “You stole my
line,” Heero said seriously, catching Duo’s eyes.
Duo then realised that it didn’t matter that they had
only been one three dates, or rather, two and a half,
and it didn’t matter that he was still debating
whether or not to burn the previous pictures of Heero,
graciously provided by Quatre. Every worry of the day,
every heavy, burden-baring thought just flew straight
out of his mind, and there was only him and Heero.
Duo had never been happier.
The waiter broke the paralysis that had swept over the
both of them, bringing with him a bottle of wine.
“I hope you don’t mind, but I took the liberty of
ordering us some wine.”
How could he, when Heero was staring at him that way?
“No, it’s fine.” Duo beamed. “I have faith in your
taste.”
Heero chuckled slightly. “Always a nice thing to
know.”
The waiter poured the wine while they were selecting
their meals, Duo selecting his with ease. He had
already spotted his favourite dish on the menu, and it
lay comfortably between the
so-cheap-that-it’s-uneatable and the
ordering-that-will-mean-bread-and-water-for-the-next-week
price range.
Duo gave his order, and Heero did the same mere
moments later, and soon they settled comfortably into
a conversation that took no effort at all.
There were no awkward moments, no great silences, no
worrying that he would say something stupid.
Duo wondered if it was because he felt like he already
knew Heero, in a sense. If that was true – well, he
should have gotten Quatre to draw him a perfect person
sooner.
But better late then never, he thought, laughing at
something Heero said.
The guy was definitely worth the wait.
***
Duo had done the stupidest thing he could have ever
done during a harmless conversation about computers.
Heero had been listing the qualities of his brand new
laptop – the ultra fast modem, the large memory space,
the DVD player that came with it – and Duo had gone
and blurted it out.
“I got it just last week,” Heero had been saying, in
that voice Duo loved. “Trowa helped me seal the deal
on it, it isn’t even really out on the market yet.”
“Mmm,” Duo had said, whilst staring into Heero’s eyes.
Then: “I love you.”
It took him something between two to five seconds to
realise exactly what he had said, and another three or
so to quench the urge to stab the soup spoon into his
eye, and by then, it was much, *much* too late.
So now he was debating whether it would be more
profitable to: a) meet Heero’s eyes, b) run away, very
far away, c) actually stab the soup spoon into his
eye, or d) pass it off as a joke.
“Duo?” It had taken an incredible amount of effort and
will power to look at the man. “Are you serious?”
He nodded numbly, thinking with great horror that he
was exactly like all those wimpy girls he had dated –
and hated dating. Determined to change that, he
laughed, looking straight at Heero.
“Sorry about that,” he chuckled, rubbing the back of
his head nervously, “Didn’t mean to blurt that right
out, y’know? It just sorta flew out. No big deal,
right?”
“But you meant it.”
“Yeah, I did, but of course, you know-“
“Duo.” He stopped. Heero smiled slightly, tilting his
head. “I… Well, that’s always nice to hear,” he said.
“Most of the time,” Heero added as an afterthought,
startling Duo. “Oh, no, not you,” Heero hastened to
clarify. “No,” he repeated, “It was a very, very nice
thing to hear from you.”
Duo finally realised that those silly swooning maidens
in romantic novels did have a point after all.
Especially if their Prince Charming looked anything
like the guy sitting in front of him.
“So,” Duo said, trying to be flippant about it and
thinking that he succeeded rather well, “Is there a
chance I’ll be getting to hear it back?”
Heero sent him a – oh, it really was! – smouldering
glance that made Duo want to scream with excitement.
“Maybe,” he said, but it was all he didn’t say, and
all his eyes were saying that would give Duo enough
material to write his own romantic novel – with a few
twists, of course.
And of course, the night was still very young…
***
Duo didn’t even bother to ask. He had simply unlocked
his door, stepped in, and pulled Heero in after him.
“Coffee, tea or me?” he asked, grinning at the other
man and striking a pose.
Heero gripped his wrists firmly, but carefully,
pulling him until they were flush against each other.
He moved so his mouth was over Duo’s ear and
whispered, his breath wonderfully warm, “I’ll have my
Duo with sugar, but hold off the milk, please.” Duo
smiled, but Heero wasn’t done. “Are you going to keep
me awake all night long?”
Duo levelled him a smouldering glance of his own.
“Depends how much of me you want,” he murmured, then
leapt deftly away from Heero’s searching arms to
wander over to the kitchen.
He started to shout something, but Heero’s warm arms
slid around his waist, wrapping Duo in a cocoon of
satisfaction.
“Whatcha say to forgetting about the coffee?” Duo
asked, setting down the mug.
“And go straight to my serving of Duo?” Heero nipped
at his neck. “I have no problems with that.”
Duo found himself being steered to his bedroom, but he
wasn’t about to kick up a fuss. They were tumbling
onto the bed, and Heero was trailing kisses down his
trembling stomach, up his right arm. He was dropping
feather-light kisses across Duo’s collarbone,
unbuttoning the top three buttons of the braided man’s
shirt, leaving Duo perfectly content to let him take
charge if he felt so inclined.
Heero was reaching for the tie on Duo’s braid, and he
pulled it off, wrapping his hands in Duo’s hair. Duo
reached for his head, pulling him down, sealing their
lips in an urgent, fiery kiss.
He tilted his neck to give Heero better access to his
neck – a silent demand for more. Heero was drawing
closer, his breath warm and welcoming – and he
stopped.
“Heero,” Duo groaned, “what-?” He bit his lip as soon
as he saw what had caught Heero’s eye.
The portrait – the original one, as it happened – was
sitting innocently upon his bedside table. Heero was
moving to sit up, still looking at it intently.
Damn it!
“Heero?” Duo ventured. His mind was still foggy, and
he did not want to have to explain himself; to have to
persuade Heero that he was *not* an insane stalker
type person.
“Honest, there’s a good reason, and please don’t be
mad, cuz I-“
But Heero’s lips were over his, warm and welcoming,
and Duo relaxed and took it as a good sign.
“Mad?” Heero rumbled, “No, not really. A little-“ he
ran his hands up Duo’s stomach, “surprised, maybe,” he
nuzzled, cat-like, into the hollow at the base of
Duo’s neck, “and maybe, even-“ his lips drifted down,
along the arch of Duo’s shoulder, “a little honoured.”
“Tha-that’s good,” Duo managed, or at least, he said
something along those lines. He was completely lost.
Heero was leaving a blazing trail of warmth behind;
every inch of skin he touched was set afire.
“It is,” the cobalt eyed man caught Duo’s lips again,
before he lifted up and gave the other brunette’s
bottom lip a quick lick, “isn’t it, Duo.”
Duo’s shirt was completely open – maybe Heero had
unbuttoned it, maybe the pesky buttons had simply
fallen off, either way, Duo didn’t care.
“We are going to talk about this later,” Heero
murmured, and Duo didn’t doubt him. But now wasn’t
later, and Heero didn’t seem quite as lost as Duo was
feeling.
Determined to see the other man’s eyes clouded with
desire, determined to set him afire too, Duo attacked
him with renewed fervour.
And after that, they settled into an evenly matched,
glorious and completely satisfying routine that left
them both dazed and extremely, exceedingly happy.
And Duo was left with no doubt as to exactly how Heero
felt about him.
***
“Duo?”
The mentioned man blinked groggily, and gave Heero a
stunning smile. “Mornin’, lover.”
Heero smiled. “Sounds nice,” he said.
“Very,” Duo agreed.
“But we have to talk about that picture of yours.”
Duo pouted. “Do we really, because I think that we’ve
discovered lots of alternative things that we can do
with our time…”
“Duo!”
“I seem to remember you saying that a little bit
louder last-“ Heero darted down, cutting of the end of
Duo’s sentence, but when he caught sight of Heero’s
face, he was pleased to note the slight reddish sheen
across the man’s cheeks.
“Duo…”
“All right, all right,” he surrendered. “Look, there’s
really nothing to tell. I was just feeling a little…
hopeless, with all this… love stuff. And I happened to
mention to Quat that it would be nice if I could have
just an image of my Perfect Guy to hold on to. And
there was this guy at the bar once, and he had these
amazing eyes, and I-“
Heero was staring at him.
“I… didn’t really need to say that. Heero, don’t, I
mean, there’s no one else, and you don’t need to feel
threat-“
“At the bar?” Duo nodded. “So that *was* you,” Heero
mused, looking a little far away. “I thought so,
because of the braid…”
“Me…? That… was you? At the bar? ‘Screw’? On that
Sunday? St… staring at me?”
“Yes to them all,” Heero said, smiling slightly. “So I
suppose I don’t need to feel threatened, though I am
glad to hear that there’s no one else.”
“That all works out pretty nicely, huh?” Duo laughed.
“Anyhow, I saw you, and I just happened to describe
the picture that I built up around his – your – eyes.
And then Quatre was done, and he had drawn this
amazing picture, and there you were.
“You had me completely and totally crazy. I was
positive I was going insane, I mean, I thought you
were a picture! A damned fine picture, but still…” Duo
sighed. “I just couldn’t *not* look at you.” He looked
up. “Do *you* think I’m insane?”
Heero chuckled. “Perhaps just a little, but only in a
good way.”
But before Duo could analyse exactly what he meant by
that, Heero started tickling him. Which led to other
things.
Other very, very nice things.
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