The Little Things Arc
Part Fourteen: Duo's Sofa
by D.C. Logan
Duo was out again. Either at the salvage yard or off on a
delivery, or out on some task or completing an
errand--something else that had taken up more of their
precious time together recently. He usually left a note
attached crookedly to the refrigerator--but he must have
been running late today.
Heero wasn't often home alone in the afternoon, but a
change in scheduling had left him at loose ends, and
instead of spending the Tuesday afternoon at a desk
tracking down dead leads for potential clients, he'd
decided to come home early to surprise Duo. Too bad Duo
wasn't home to be surprised...
He'd fed the fish, parsed though his email, and opened the
door to the refrigeration unit about four times and had yet
to take anything from it. That was one of Duo's habits, one
that he hadn't noticed himself practicing until today. That
in itself was a sobering thought; what other habits had he
picked up that he hadn't noticed? He thought back though
his morning routine and nothing stood out--but then again
he'd probably been opening the door to the fridge for weeks
and hadn't noticed *that* either. Even that easy acceptance
of change was new, no debating, no mental list of pro
versus con. He chuckled, amazed at what a few months of
living with Mr. Maxwell had done for him.
He walked back to the refrigerator, opened the door, and
stood in front of the assortment of packaged and repackaged
foodstuffs. He didn't want to do anything more than prove
he could do it, even after realizing that he'd done it four
times already over the past hour. No, Duo wasn't in the
crisper drawer this time either, but he _was_ on Heero's
mind. Heh, from impediment to distraction, from
acquaintance to liability, from friend to lover to partner;
and it had come to this--missing him for a few hours and
searching out parts of Duo's life in unexpected places.
Damn.
Actually, it was probably a good thing that Duo wasn't
around to see him wandering at loose ends like this. Still,
it would have been nice to have something new for Duo to
tease him about. Yes, he'd been to blame for the
unintentional meltdown of the coffee maker, but that had
been two weeks ago, and he was getting mightily tired of
Duo's wry grin over breakfast every morning.
He closed the insulated door against its seals and
meandered back to the sofa. Duo's sofa, the only piece of
furniture he'd insisted on keeping when they'd agreed to
move in together. It had seen many better days, and not
just a few good times. He slipped his shoes off, toe
against heel for one foot and then the other, crushed the
throw blanket into a shapeless mass, and crammed it against
a worn arm. Then he stretched out his body along its lumpy
breadth with a satisfied groan. It had been Duo,
predictably enough, who'd discovered the furniture's true
calling. It wasn't a sofa for sitting on--indeed, it was
extraordinarily uncomfortable for that--it was a sofa for
laying on, sprawling on, and at least one fantastically
memorable time, for having mind-blowing sex on.
He found himself growing hard just thinking back to that
day. Hell, where was Duo when he _really_ needed him? Well,
he could fix that. He loosened his clothes and closed his
eyes, then formed an image of Duo in his mind, imagining
him in three dimensions, watching, waiting, and allowing
the smallest tip of his tongue to trace the bottom of his
lower lip. With that picture firmly fixed in his mind, he
reached down and in and tugged at the part of his mind that
controlled this for him--let it go--and remembered.
Duo breathing over his fingers to warm them first while
watching Heero under heavily lidded eyes. Cupping his hands
as if in prayer, and then slowly and rhythmically rubbing
them against each other, creating additional warmth with
the gentle friction. Then sliding his hands up the warm
silky skin of Heero's sides--shifting them under the folds
of Heero's shirt and working his way upwards...and then
down. The vivid replay alone was enough to cause Heero to
arch his back in response.
It was amazing, that even the months-old memory could bring
him to this--and that the reality was his and his alone. He
found himself thanking the powers that be on a daily
basis--not quite believing his unfathomable luck and the
string of circumstances that had drawn the two of them
together. Some days if just didn't seem real or
possible--almost as if some stranger lived in his body and
walked through his life.
But Duo made it all real and tangible for him, and when he
became overwhelmed by it all, broke it down into pieces
Heero could understand and absorb and cope with. Such a
gift, and given freely and daily without any expectation of
anything in return. It still had the power to blow his
mind... and he missed him dearly, even in these small
moments.
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