Skin and Steel

-----part 1-----

Duo made a banking turn, then came barreling full throttle toward the OZ plane that was trying to shoot down Heero.

"Thanks, Duo-chan."

A blast from Shinigami missed Heero by inches.

"Hey!" 

"Wasn't me! But I'm sorry just the same. Shini' must have a faulty circuit."

"Either that or he's jealous, 'eh, Duo?" Trowa ribbed.

"Erm.. yeah. That's it." Duo laughed, nervously.

The OZ troops were soon dispatched and the five friends headed home to their hideout.

Duo woke to the sound of Shinigami taking off. "HEY!" he called out. "Where the..." he ran after the runaway gundam. "GET BACK HERE!" He ran back inside. "Heero, wake up."

"What?"

"Deathscythe just went AWOL."

"All right, let's work out just what we're..."

By the time Duo and Heero had sketched out a rough plan of what to do, they could hear the familiar sound of a gundam landing.

"Never mind." Duo sighed. He went outside to demand he be told where Shinigami was.

Shinigami was holding an immense bouquet of flowers. These he gave to Duo.

Duo blinked in shock, then fainted.

-----part 2-----

"Aw, come on, don't be that way." Duo was saying to his gundam as the others came out to work on theirs.

Deathscythe had his head pointed up and to the side in such a way that it looked like the gundam was pouting.

"Look, it's not that I don't care about you. I do. Really. Look how nicely I keep you polished." Duo went on. "But what you want... it just could never work. We can still be pals, right?" he added. "Aw, please?"

"Lovers' quarrel?" Heero asked.

"We are NOT lovers!" Duo shouted.

"I think Deathscythe thinks you are."

"That's the problem." Duo sighed. "I told him it won't work out, but he won't listen to reason. He's locked me out of the cockpit."

"What won't work out?" Quatre asked, he then remembered the flowers Duo had been covered with when Heero had carried him in the night before. "You mean... Deathscythe is...?" He started to laugh hysterically.

"Gee. Thanks." Duo muttered.

"I do hope you'll invite us to the wedding."

"There's not going to be any weddings." Duo exclaimed. "Look, it's obviously faulty wiring or something. I'll check it later on."

"Why faulty wiring?" Quatre asked. "Admit it, Duo. You're so cute even you're gundam has fallen in love with you."

-----TBC-----