"Honey! I'm leaving! Goodbye darling!" Relena's voice steadily rose in pitch, waking the gently slumbering Heero up. He opened an eye and saw
Relena bending over to gather her purse and a stack of office papers in her arms.

Greatly annoyed and not a little bit terrified of the sight, he scrunched both eyes shut and wriggled deeper into the warm, comforting blanket. He
heard the sound of her high heels clicking their way towards him, and he cringed.

"Heero?" Relena made a sound of disgust when she saw him lying on the couch. "Please, don't ever do that again! You had me so worried...And to come home *drunk*! Of all things!"

Heero made a muffled, noncommittal noise, just hoping she would *shut up* and go away.

"Oh well, honey muffin, I've got to get off to work! Hmmm...Oh, yes, the maid won't be here today...You'll manage, won't you? ...Well, got to go make a living for us... *One of us has to.*" She clicked her way through the living room and slammed the door shut. Seconds later he heard the sound of her Acura starting up.

I don't think I was supposed to hear that last part... Heero mused quietly to himself. It didn't bother him too much. Maybe, if he'd been fully awake, he would've been pissed, since she *was* living off his inheritance money... How the hell did she get her nice fancy Acura, huh? ...But, as it was, he was happily on his way to dreamland.

He shifted his position so that the sunlight would touch his face. Hmm... Much better...He drowsily thought, noting that there would be no meddling maid or raucous Relena to bother him.

Content, he dozed off.

Damn... Heero thought slowly, opening his bleary eyes. He'd fallen asleep, right after Relena had left for work. Not having the strength to move (very much), he slowly rolled himself off the couch.

Hitting the floor with an appalling thump helped clear things up a little.

"Shit..." He whispered, voice hoarse. He slowly picked himself up, managing to stumble over to the living room clock, which read 12:04.

"Looks like I can still make it to Duo's..." He murmured to himself. He suddenly caught what he just said, thinking 'What the HELL?' Once again, he had to remind himself that Duo was a MAN. M-a-n. Dammit.

Well... It couldn't hurt... Besides, they'd gotten to be friends last night, right?

Somewhat more than friends...An inner voice trumpeted gleefully.

What?! He screeched to himself. Suddenly, it all came rushing back. The stumbling walk home, (he cringed, remembering how idiotic he'd been) Duo's arm around his waist...The attempted kiss...

"Holy shit." He voiced aloud, before falling right back onto the couch. "I can't believe I did that." Hearing his own voice say it didn't make him feel any better.

"But...he's gay! And I just! ...That was terrible! I... *teased*...Ohhhh, shit." He threw a hand over his eyes and groaned, wanting to fall through the couch and disappear.

"Damn." He said again, quietly. I hope Duo's not mad... He thought, wincing.

Right after that, came another thought; I've got to get up. He couldn't just lay around all day, much as he'd like to. He just didn't feel like proving Relena right. Plus... he had to think of something to do about Duo. Should he just pretend that 'it' had never happened?

Whoa, slow down, he thought to himself, that's assuming you even *want* to see Duo again...

An instant flash of disappointment spread throughout him, and he stifled a groan. Yes, he did want to see Duo again. Most definitely.

"Okay, so I'll get up." He said, feeling his voice catch. He cleared his throat, then stared at the ceiling. The boring, off-white ceiling.

"This isn't working!" He announced to the living room in general.

He rolled over comfortably, winding the blanket around him tighter, and temporarily giving the battle up. He just started to close his eyes when the doorbell rang.

Aww... He thought disgustedly, hauling himself off of the couch, and I was so comfortable, too...

He shuffled toward the door, blinking rapidly, still wrapped in the fuzzy blanket. He fumbled at the doorknob, and finally managed to open it, feeling his eyes slide shut once more. He mumbled, "Hello...Yui residence."

"Heero? Ah, is this a bad time? I could always come back later..." A hesitant, but familiar voice greeted him, and he instantly shook off all vestiges of sleep.

"Oh. Oh! No, no... Duo... Uh...Come in, please. Sorry, I just woke up, uh, I'll go get dressed, I'll be just a second, right in here please, go ahead, sit on the couch, ok?" He showed Duo in, babbling.

As soon as he saw Duo sit down on one of the couches, he dashed up the stairs. Most of his clothes weren't in the bedroom, which was only down the hall... No, Relena forced him to move his clothes to his writing hide away, which meant it would take even longer to get ready.

Reaching the top step, he shut the door behind him and whirled around, striding quickly towards the closet. What to wear? He though bemusedly as he opened the doors, surprised but pleased by Duo's visit. What about my... No, wait, you don't care! He reminded himself frantically.

He undressed quickly, throwing his PJs on the floor, then grabbed a plain black t-shirt and baggy jeans out of the closet, and threw them on.

Picking up a comb off the desk, he struggled to brush through his wayward locks. It was no use. He sighed and put the comb back down.

Alright... Here you go... He rubbed his eyes a bit, then descended the staircase slowly.

"Hi." He greeted Duo more civilly, now awake.

Duo was awkwardly perched on the edge of the cream sofa, adjacent to the one Heero had been sleeping on.

"Hi, Heero... I came by to see if today was a good day... You did say you wanted to learn how to mix drinks...Pour 'em and stuff...Right? I mean, I *could* come back later-"

"Oh, no! Now's a great time. I'm ready." Heero interrupted him, pleased to be able to learn - pleased that Duo had remembered. Oooh, wait, dangerous territory there... Straight, straight, straight!

He closed his eyes for a second, wishing that he didn't have this problem.

Yet, Duo was the most interesting person in his life right now. There was no way he could go back to before, with just Relena and the grocery man for acquaintances.

"-you ok?" He heard the tail end of Duo's query, and he smiled at him before answering, "Oh, I'm fine... Still sleepy, though." To punctuate his sentence he yawned.

Duo laughed nervously, glancing at him, then quickly lowering his eyes to the ground.

What was wrong? Heero wondered, then it hit him. Of course! Duo was worried about what had happened last night... More accurately, he was worried about whether *I* remember or not... But how do I set him at ease?

"So, I'm ready to go... You?" He said, at a loss as to what to say.

"Oh, yeah, sure." Duo gave him another sideways glance before standing up and going to the door.

"Nice place you have here..." He said quietly, as he stepped outside into the bright sunlight.

Here's my opportunity! Heero thought exultantly, following him. He closed the door and locked it. "Yeah..." He said, then asked curiously, "How'd you know where I lived?"

Duo looked at him quickly, eyes wide with disbelief, then asked, "You don't remember...last night?"

Heero looked him in the eyes, lying, "No... Why?"

Grinning at him suddenly, Duo laughed relievedly, explaining, "You got *drunk*, man! You could barely walk! I had to go with ya to make sure you wouldn't just fall over in the street or anything!"

"Oh." Heero said intelligently, "That was why I felt so awful this morning..." He smiled to himself, pleased that he'd been able to squelch Duo's worries.

Pulling his keys out of his pocket, Duo gestured to his car. "Hop in, the door 's open."

Heero got in, pleasantly surprised by the interior. The seats were leather, and it was spotless.

Duo slid into the drivers seat, then pushed the keys in the ignition. "Ready?" He asked Heero, mouth quirking up slightly in one corner.

"Yeah...why?" Heero asked, a sense of foreboding making him suspicious.

Duo smiled brightly, maybe too brightly, then shrugged. "I only ask a person once." With that cryptic comment, he started up the car.

Heero looked at him, then, before he got a chance to ask, Duo slammed the car into reverse, making tire marks on the street. Duo revved the engine and sped off, and Heero hurriedly put his seatbelt on, with shaking fingers.

"You know this is a 15 Mph zone?" He asked, voice trembling a bit.

"Yeah, yeah..." Duo said, laughing.

"Then *why* are you going 50?!" Heero yelled.

Duo took his eyes off of the road for a second and gave him a *look*.

Heero gave up, and resigned himself to his fate.

TBC