28-Jan-2002
He was so very, very tired. All he really wanted was to sleep, if even for a few hours without all the company. Visions that dogged him during the day turned into monsters at night and after his experience at the Preventers office, he wanted to think about something other than how badly he had failed Hilde. He was just about to go into the kitchen and get the prescription sleeping pills and force himself to sleep despite his dislike of them, when there was a knock at his door. Rising from the couch he made his way over and looked out the peephole. His brows creased slightly in confusion, but he opened the door as much as he could with the chain still latched.
Heero waited patiently for Duo to answer the door. It was quarter after ten and he figured the boy had gone to sleep after pacing around the Preventers HQ all night waiting for him. When the door opened partially, he automatically flashed the badge.
"I know who you are. What are you doing here, Detective Yuy?" Duo asked impatiently from the small space between the door and its frame.
"May I come in?"
"What for?"
Heero glared at him until the boy finally let out a small huff of resignation.
Duo shut the door completely and slid the lock from the latch reopening the door a moment later to let the detective in. "I thought we finished at your office."
"Mr. Maxwell... "
"Duo. Call me Duo. That Mr. Maxwell stuff gets old quick." Duo closed and relocked the door then made a gesture for Heero to follow him into his tiny kitchenette. "Coffee?"
Heero watched as Duo relocked the door once he was inside the small apartment. The boy obviously had issues with trust, or maybe he had been robbed before? He shook his head slightly and frowned. Maybe the kid was just paranoid. "Thanks. I was only being honest about my reasons for questioning you in my office earlier."
"It took a lot for me to come there you know." Duo's voice was still the same soothing tenor only it was now laced with a bit of anger as he pulled down the coffee tin from the cupboard above his head and began measuring out the grinds.
He watched Duo prepare the coffee for a few moments before he turned and took the time to look about the small apartment. It was neat and orderly, not many personal objects in view. Lots of books; stacked in neat columns on the floors, tables and some even on the few chairs in the room. Many of them looked to be very old. His eye fell to the well-worn, black covered bible on the floor near the couch and reminded him of the question he had been thinking on the way over. "Why were you unable to predict the Maxwell disaster on L2?"
Duo spun and fixed him with a heated glare of his own. Heero just looked at him expectantly.
"I'm not physic. I didn't predict shit." He growled out and slammed the pot into the coffee maker. "I was just a kid."
"I read the article."
"Whatever." Duo calmed as he turned back to bring down two mugs. "So is that why you came here? Curious about the strange little orphan who survived the Maxwell Church disaster? Well, buddy I hate to disappoint, but I don't have a sixth sense and I can't read your fortune or anything."
"I came to tell you I believe what you said in my office earlier."
Duo turned and looked at the Detective carefully. His eyes searched the cobalt blue ones in front of him for a long couple of minutes. Heero Yuy was certainly attractive. Duo took in the whole of the detective's appearance, from the tiny lines near the corners of his bright eyes, to the small white scar on his chin. His hair looked as if it hadn't seen conditioner in his entire life but made Duo crack a slight smile at the thought of running his fingers through the disshelved messy dark strands. He was older than he was and very good-looking.
Duo wanted more than anyone to have someone believe him, to trust what he said was real and true, but he also knew that was probably just him being needy and tired. Everyone wants something and trust isn't free. He had trusted people before, and other than Hilde, he had gotten hurt, and badly. He wasn't about to put himself in a dangerous position again. At least not emotionally anyway. He let out a small shrug and went to the refrigerator for milk, grabbing the tiny covered sugarbowl on his way back over to the to the counter where Heero had been standing assessing his living space. "I saw that girl in the paper, then Hilde disappeared and I knew something was really wrong. That or... "
Heero sat on one of the wooden stools at the counter opposite Duo and waited if he was going to continue before prompting him, but Duo seemed to drift away for a moment. A sad smile quirked his lips making Heero desperate to know what was going on behind those amazing eyes. "Or what?"
He flashed Heero a radiant smile and seemed to snap back into focus. "Or that I'm losing my damn mind."
Heero took the cup of coffee Duo offered and watched as some unreadable emotion flickered over Duo's face briefly before he spooned three heavy servings of sugar into his coffee. Duo's long hair kept catching bits of light from the stove behind him, making his highlights glow with flecks of orange and red as he turned his head to dump a liberal amount of milk into his own coffee cup. He watched as Duo pursed his lips in a small o to blow on the rising steam from the cup before taking a tiny sip and setting the cup back down as he tried to ignore the faint flush of his body at the thoughts of those lips wrapped around something other than the edge of that mug. "Is there anything else you remember?" He said clearing his throat slightly before sipping his own sweetened drink.
"Naw. Look, Detective Yuy... "
"Heero."
"Okay, look I haven't slept since yesterday, and it's way past my bedtime. I don't remember much of anything else that I think you could use right now."
"All right. Then I'll get going. Here's the card you left at my office. Call me day or night if you remember anything else." Heero smirked as he handed Duo back the same card that had been previously flung at him. He took one more quick sip of his coffee, savoring the warmth of it before standing and heading for the door.
Duo took it the small white card with somewhat of a sheepish grin and walked him to the door. He unlatched the chain, turned the deadbolt, and flicked the lock. They stood there for a moment just looking at each other in the doorway neither quite sure how to bring the strange meeting to an end, before Heero turned to go down the hall.
"Heero?"
"Hn?" He turned back to the elegant boy leaning in the doorway seeing the tension in his frame and the way he was picking at a bit of lint on his shirt and waited for him to say what he had wanted to say. Duo's eyes darted up to meet Heero's and locked there as he seemed to weigh him again. Then with a gusty sigh, Duo smiled another radiant smile and cocked his head slightly to the left, making Heero's heart start to triphammer in his chest. He hadn't realized he had been holding his breath from the moment Duo had said his name.
"Thanks. Ya know, for believing me."
"No problem. I'll be in touch." He nodded and watched Duo shut the door. He waited to hear the locks being done before he made his way down the stairs and out to the parking lot. He was still thinking about the way the light kissed Duo's hair in the kitchen and that heavy weight in those indigo eyes as he got into his car, completely unaware of a pair of dark brown eyes watching his every move from the shadows.
End Part 3
(:./ebony/within3)
