For Calic0cat, who donated to the tsunami relief fund and requested this.
"What do you mean, lost?" Quatre demanded incredulously, ice cream forgotten and dripping in his hand. Ever the opportunist, Trowa surreptitiously leaned over and filched it from him before the melted stuff could soil Quatre's trousers. "How on earth did you lose Heero?"
I bit my tongue and tried not to laugh as Quatre blinked, peering quizzically down at his left hand, still curled around a phantom cone. When his eyes flicked to Trowa in outraged betrayal, I had to cough hurriedly to keep from breaking out in a fit of hysterics.
"As far as I can tell, he's still in the maze somewhere." I waved vaguely over my shoulder in the direction of the hedge maze, supposedly one of the finest and most complex in Old Europe. No plans existed, and Heero and I had had something of a difference of opinion as to how to tackle the tangle of eight-foot privet hedge. He had favoured taking whichever paths seemed best, while I had gone for the easier option of exploring the thing in a logical fashion. My last sight of him had been his back vanishing through a topiary archway.
"So go and find him," Quatre suggested impatiently, his eyes shifting warily to the approaching figures of Relena and Dorothy, who seemed to be making for the stone bench he'd staked out for the afternoon, Trowa in attendance as always.
I suppose a little explanation is probably in order here. We � the supposed war heroes � had been invited by the President's office to spend Armistice Day with the Cabinet at the former stately pile of a certain deceased World Sovereign, now held in trust by them for his daughter. We'd done our bit, turned up to the memorial services and the formal dinners, and mugged for the vid cameras. Mariemaia and Une, though, had invited us to stay on for a while afterwards, something about 'enjoying the peace and quiet', with emphasis on 'peace'. More likely, the Lady wanted another opportunity to try and browbeat the rest of us into Preventers, but it wasn't like I was going to turn down a free vacation.
Actually to be fair, Wu Fei did seem to be enjoying his work with the department or agency or whatever it actually is. He and Sally were around somewhere too, quite possibly attempting to entertain our prepubescent hostess.
"Duo?" I blinked; Trowa was giving me a strange look, although Quatre appeared to have his attention fixed on the approaching girls.
"Uh, yeah." I shoved myself to my feet, brushing dry summer-grass off my backside, and swung my hair over my shoulder. "I'll go back and look again, OK? Later, guys." I gave them a wave, heading back towards the monstrosity of a maze. I knew that if I'd mentioned Heero's absence to Relena, we would all have been drafted in to search the estate for him, and for some reason that didn't really sit comfortably with me.
The hedge maze really was a bitch � I'd overheard a proud little comment from Marie that it covered over half a square mile � and it wasn't even straight-edged. The boundary hedges went off at strange angles to each other, curving around into a strange double bow. I'd found my way through it the first time by the simple expedient of taking every left turn I came to, backtracking when I hit a dead end, and even then I hadn't found the centre. I'd come out, as far as I could figure, almost exactly halfway around, opposite the entrance I'd used.
Taking a deep breath as I entered the first long, dim green passageway, I regretfully abandoned logic and common sense, and turned right at the next junction, then left. This put me in a narrow, curving pathway that was actually roofed over in several points by hedges that had grown together, blocking out the light and giving the place an almost spooky feel. I ignored the several side passages that radiated off, suddenly strangely intent on following the trail through.
It ended, like all the other maze corridors, by joining another passage at a sharp angle. Hesitating for a moment, I examined my choices. A wider passage leading to the right, and a narrow, almost completely roofed-over path to the left. I went right; it was a warm day and we were fairly far south, but it was still November and I preferred to stay in the sunshine. Almost immediately, though, I hit a dead end around a twist in the path. Shrugging philosophically, I turned back, eyeing the covered passage suspiciously. It really was dark as the armpit of hell in there.
"Think like Heero," I muttered to myself ruefully. His world was founded on choices � it had been the method J had used to control him while still giving his 'weapon' the semblance of free will. Heero was complicated, though, and he didn't always pick what I would have thought of as the obvious path. Taking a deep breath, I stepped from sunlight into shadow.
Within a few steps it was almost completely dark. The branches overhead had grown together so thickly that they blocked out almost all light. The occasional tiny beam of sunlight managed to penetrate, creating narrow shafts of light in which dust motes danced and making it much harder for my eyes to adjust. I stretched out one arm, brushing the dry, leafless twigs of the bordering hedge with my fingers, and stepped carefully.
I had gone barely ten metres when the itchy privet branches beneath my fingers gave out suddenly, vanishing into nothing. Halting, I explored the boundaries of this invisible passage, finding that it was even narrower than the path I was currently on. It felt� deep, though. Air moved against my face, and with sudden decision I turned, stretching my arms ahead of me (classic B-movie zombie; I was just glad no one could see me) in case I came up against something, and stepped into the new passage.
Seven careful, halting steps, and my hands found hedge. I turned to the left, reaching out carefully, and found thin air for another three steps. Another turn to the left, and to my relief I could see a glimmer of light up ahead, enough to illuminate my path. It seemed to be coming from a side passage, leading off to the right. I hurried towards it, deciding that I'd definitely had enough of chilly darkness.
When I turned into the new passage, I was almost blinded. The green tunnel evidently terminated completely up ahead, coming out into a junction or wider area of some sort; I blinked rapidly to try and alleviate the effect, walking forward slowly.
The sun on my face was a relief after the coldness of the autumn shadows, but almost immediately I knew that I wasn't alone. My eyes snapped open, and I found myself at the edge of a wide, open space in the midst of the maze, roughly circular and fully ten metres from one privet wall to another. There seemed to be no other opening save the one I had come through, but my attention was directed elsewhere. The centre of the grassy space dipped down into a gentle hollow centred on a small, rock-lined pond that seemed to be fed by a spring.
Heero was sitting on a low stone bench on the other side of the pool, one knee drawn up beneath his chin, dark-blue eyes focused amusedly on me.
"Hello, Duo." The smirk wasn't quite there on his face, but it was definitely in his voice. I rolled my eyes and stomped around the little pond to sit beside him.
"You have any idea how long it took me to find you?"
He was silent for a moment, staring at the ripples on the water. Then, without looking up: "But you did find me, didn't you."
There was more to that than any simple statement. I had found him, and I had done it by trying to think like him, by exploring the maze the way he would have rather than actively trying to solve its puzzle.
The corollary to that, though, was that I could think like him. I knew him, knew his patterns of thought and movement, could predict the way he would react to almost anything. And that was the only reason that I had found him, I realised.
"Yeah." I leaned forward a little, following his gaze, letting my hands rest on the edge of the bench. It was warm; it had been sitting in the sun all summer, waiting for us.
The slow play of sunlight on the water was almost hypnotic. No one would have denied that it was peaceful, but the comfort I felt was both alien and intimately familiar. Somehow, the callused warmth of Heero's hand as it settled over mine came as no surprise at all.
I don't even know how long we sat there, separated but closer than we had ever been. After a time, though, I exhaled slowly and turned to face him, my hand twisting to catch his, our fingers twining together. Heero was already there, dark eyes locked on mine. They held my gaze for a moment, then dipped to my lips, and when I leaned forward, helplessly drawn, to kiss him, he was there waiting for me.
It felt� I don't even have words. It was hardly the first time I'd kissed someone, or been kissed, but it felt like it was. Nothing I'd ever done with anyone had felt as good as the simple brush of Heero Yuy's mouth against mine. I felt myself shivering, gasping for breath as he pulled back for a moment, and pressed forwards, closing my eyes and wrapping my free arm around his neck.
Heero shuddered against me as I tugged him closer, his fingers tightening on mine and his head tilting, lips parting beneath mine. I kissed the corner of his mouth, swiped his lower lip with my tongue, pressed myself against him as far as our awkward posture would allow. Inside my head, the tiny part of me that wasn't caught up in pure sensation � his mouth on mine, his hair rough and sun-warmed between my fingers, his hand clutching mine like a lifeline � was chanting to itself, Heero, Heero, Heero� Heero, to rhyme with mine.
Our tongues met, too desperate to be hesitant. God. I don't know if it was the suddenness of it, or just the nearness of him, but I wanted him so badly. We'd been dancing around this for so long, eyeing each other, poking at the edges of this thing between us, and now�
I shifted, pressing further into the kiss, straddling the bench, trying to get as close to him as I could. Heero responded, all but crawling into my lap as he released my hand, sucking hard on my tongue and wrapping his arms around my neck. I floundered for a moment, off-balance with his weight against me � Heero Yuy may look skinny, but that's all muscle � and only just managed to save us from tipping into the pond by falling backwards to lie full-length on the bench. I ended up flat on my back with my legs spread, Heero on all fours above me.
He was smiling again � that tiny, barely-there expression, just on the boyish side of shy, that I'd seen so often in the past few weeks. I abandoned the sensible idea of catching my breath and reached for him, arms around his neck and tugging him down for another kiss that he met eagerly.
Somewhere in there, in that tangle of breath and tongues and teeth and oh-my-god-I-think-I'm-losing-my-mind, it hit me. We hadn't been dancing around each other at all; that had all been me. I had been the one who was unsure, the one trying to work out quite where the boundaries lay between us. Heero had known exactly what he wanted, and had just been waiting for me to make up my mind. He'd been right there waiting for me all along.
I smiled up at the blue autumn sky, unable to repress a gasp and shiver as Heero's mouth skimmed my jawline, marking a trail of tiny kisses before turning his attention to my suddenly-sensitive earlobe. He had the fingers of one hand buried in the thick hair at the back of my neck; mine were tracing circles beneath the collar of his loose shirt. I made up my mind there and then � finally � that there would soon be no boundaries between Heero and I at all.