Chapter 1

On an overcast day in midsummer, on a Thursday afternoon, in the back of a local coffee house, two young men sat together at a counter, sharing quiet conversation and the best Starbucks had to offer. A young vet with two cats, and a pet store worker with tropical fish. Both young, gay, available, attractive, and potentially interested in each other.

It was a prearranged meeting, set up the week before while one had been busy purchasing cat food in the small pet supply store across the street and the other had been busy covering the store for his uncle for the day.

So why were the two of them sitting there and stirring their coffees and saying nothing?

Why couldn't Duo wait to get back to work?

Why did this feel like such a mistake?

A half hour later, Duo slumped back into the store, slid a grande mocha latte across the counter near his uncle, and propped himself dejectedly on the Formica slab near the cash register.

When his usually more forthcoming nephew remained silent, Howard tried a gentle prompt to get him started. "Okay, so, how did the much-anticipated date with vet-guy go?"

"It wasn't really a date, more like two guys with mutual interests talking over a couple of cups of coffee, and it was a bit of a bust, really." Duo reached over and aligned a point of purchase display situated next to the register and then looked up at his uncle. "Okay, truth was, it sucked rocks."

Howard paused midway in peeling back the lid of his coffee. "Sucked rocks? Is that the highly technical term that young gay men are using to describe the dating process these days?"

Genetically immune to Howard's sense of humor, Duo ignored him and persisted. "He's a cat person, and I'm more of a fish or maybe even a dog person. Or at least that's what we decided mid-way though the danish." Duo poked vengefully at another display until Howard lifted the box of specialty cat treats from his hands and set it safely out of his reach.

"So your date only lasted through coffee and a danish? That bad?"

"Yes, that bad, and I had real hopes for this one; he seemed perfect at the start. I mean, who better for a guy who works in a pet store than an attractive young vet, right?"

"Partial owner of pet store," Howard corrected upwards.

"Fine, fine. You just keep saying that because I lived in your attic up until six months ago and because I keep bringing you your Starbucks on a regular basis."

Howard winked. "No, I say that because you're my favorite nephew and because you deserve it."

Duo sighed and rubbed his fingers across a faded patch of countertop. "I'm your only nephew. Anyway, he sounded like he'd be great, but..." He waved his hand in the air, and Howard tried and failed to follow the huge gaps in the conversation.

"But what?"

Duo shrugged, temporarily at a loss for words. "Just... no spark I guess. He didn't do anything special for me."

Howard chuckled and dared to reach out and ruffle his nephew's bangs, a gentle token of affection reserved for a much younger man than the one before him. It said a great deal about Duo's troubled state of mind that he tolerated it now. "Try not to worry about it too much. The right person for you will turn up sooner or later."

Duo sprawled across the counter, pressing his face to the cool hard surface. "It's the 'later' part that I'm worried about at the moment. I finally got my own apartment so I could feel comfortable dating, and now I can't even seem to find someone I like enough to bring home." He let out a frustrated moan. "It's hopeless."

Howard had the temerity to laugh out loud. "The hell it is. Mister Perfect just hasn't walked through the door of the Safari yet." He laid a comforting hand on Duo's shoulder to soften the pain of the moment. "Give him time. He'll show up."

Duo poked at the pattern inlaid in the counter, stabbing at it to emphasize each of his words. "Yeah. Sure. Fine. Whatever."

"Heero? I think your car's exploding."

"No, that's not my car alarm; trust me, I'd know." He shot Trowa a dirty look, but his confident words didn't stop him from leaning over to the side in order to catch a glimpse of his car through the blinds. Heero could just spy the polished sheen of a late model Mustang Cobra fender resting comfortingly intact near the curb of his co-worker's apartment building where he'd parked. He slouched back against the arm of the sofa and idly traced his thumb around the lip of his bottle of Weyerbacher's HefeWeizen, mentally toasting Wufei's taste in alcohol at least.

His beer was warm, but he tipped back another swallow of liquid anyway before reaching for a slice of the cold pizza and settling back and wondering once again why Wufei hadn't arranged for delivery service for his new sofa instead of bribing his friends. Well, wondering about that, and doing his best to ignore the conversation between the two other people in the room. Conversation that, in this case, involved him as the primary subject matter. The latest round of which seemed to involve his dating prowess, or in this case, the distinct lack thereof.

"Now, hang on, back to the subject at hand, why, exactly, do you think Heero here has been scaring off his dates?" Trowa gave him another one of those looks, the ones that plainly said that he was hopeless and should give up all hope of dating and just live as a bachelor forever, but that, as his best friend, he felt honor-bound to intercede on his behalf and perhaps offer advice.

Wufei was wearing a matching expression that did little to encourage this line of questioning and looked Heero over again carefully. "Do you think you could maybe wear something a bit more casual on your dates? Not that you've managed to make one last for what? More than two hours at best."

Heero held up a hand with three fingers raised in mute protest, and Wufei retracted his objection. "I stand corrected; one brave soul endured your company for three excruciating hours." Wufei leaned back on his recent acquisition, stroking the new leather finish and trying for a different perspective on the situation. "You know Heero, how about you leave the khakis and oxfords for the office and pick up some jeans, or, god-forbid, borrow some of Trowa's sweatpants or medical scrubs or something? Try to look," he waved his hand in the air at Heero, as if, lacking magical powers or a Gap card, he could produce something more fitting to his line of reasoning, "scruffy?"

"It's more efficient to do it that way."

"Just because you always date people who work at our office doesn't mean you have to start your dates the minute the time clock clicks over."

"I assumed that people at work would share the same interests, common educational and financial backgrounds, and have similar schedules." Heero shrugged and looked unimpressed with Wufei's logic. "Most of them dress more or less as I do."

Wufei muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, "Try less," under his breath.

"Not the women, I'm betting," added Trowa, trying his best to sound helpful.

"No. Not the women," said Heero. "Still, I don't see any point in making the process any more difficult than it has to be."

Wufei raised his hands in surrender and claimed the last slice of mushroom and onion, handing the empty box to Heero as his dubious reward for having the last word.

Heero ignored his prize and nursed his beer along instead of responding further.

Trowa slid one of the pizza boxes aside and crossed his ankles on the crowded coffee table, ignoring Wufei's usual discouraging glare. "So, what did the last one say when you called her and asked her for a second date?"

"The one from over in the interface design department? Relena?" Heero looked thoughtful for a moment and then set his empty bottle aside in disgust. "She said that she was busy neutering her plants."

Trowa stifled a snicker. "That's... inspired." She sounds more intelligent than your average fare.

Wufei smiled. "Does this mean I may actually have a chance of her giving me more than the time of day if I ask her out to that new Italian place?"

Trowa snickered. "Do you think you have a chance because she's intelligent, because she's into neutered plants, or because she doesn't think our friend Heero here is worth a second round at the dating game?"

The comment earned Trowa a second glare as Wufei waited patiently for a reply.

Heero shrugged. "Go ahead and ask, it's a free country."

"I think I will. Thanks. So... It's the weekend, Heero." Wufei shifted Trowa's pizza box over and slid a slice of pepper and onion from the box underneath. "How is your wage-slave drone cube life treating you? Still enjoying it with the unmitigated relish of a geek for all things microprocessor-driven?"

Heero granted him a disdainful snort. "Not all of my pursuits are powered by A/C current, and since I'm driving a new Mustang while you're driving to that identical wage-slave drone cube life in a four-banger with an atrociously bad paint job that nine-tenths of the human race would be embarrassed to be seen as a passenger in, nevertheless admit actual ownership of..." he paused, considered, and nodded. "Yes. Yes I am."

"You mean, since you'll be making a huge interest-loaded payment on a front-loaded depreciating item for the next five years that you are forced to insure heavily, while I get to invest my marginally less-than-stellar income on a economical model that gets twice the mileage in half..." he caught the doubtful frown, "okay, one-sixteenth the style."

Heero shrugged, it was a long-standing argument, one they'd been arguing the relative merits of since they'd met at college all those years ago. "I still fail to see the logical sense in maintaining two separate wardrobes, and my car has always been my entertainment budget." Heero picked at the stitching of the sofa and grew quiet for a moment before continuing, "I don't seem to have problems getting first dates, it's the second ones that are always the problem. They either make excuses or don't show up for them. The last girl flat out told me that I had the soul of a machine and the heart of a calculator." He looked around the room. "You guys don't seem to have any problems with me. I mean, I seem normal to you, right?"

Trowa rolled his eyes. "Heero, I'm a vet. I don't have time to blink, never mind date anyone. I haven't been out on a serious date since college." He assumed the universal male sign for absolution of guilt or blame, shrugging and slouching across the arm of the sofa. "You've always seemed normal enough to me." He narrowed his eyes. "Bit weird around the edges though."

"Trowa, I'm trying to be serious here."

Trowa pointed over at Wufei. "Ask Mister Casanova over there. He's the one with endless weekend plans."

Wufei snickered evilly. "Do you really want to ask me that question and get a truthful answer?" He looked thoughtful for a moment before standing, stretching, and walking slowly over to stand in front of Heero and evaluate the damages: medium-tall, clean Asian features like his own, but with the mixed parentage that granted him those deep blue eyes; Heero worked out at the gym to balance the rigors of his desk job, so physical looks weren't a problem. He ticked off the rest of his attributes out loud on his fingers: "You're educated, smart, a senior programmer at the firm, you can't tell a joke right to save your soul, you insist on picking up the check, you drive a helluva nice car... women should be crawling all over themselves to adore you." He paused. "You're not gay, are you? I mean, not for nothing, but they can usually tell."

Heero looked at Trowa, who did his not-quite-as-innocent-as-he-looks, who-me? shrug. "No... Not that I'm aware of."

"Okay, so that's not the problem then. How about sex? You do know how to have sex, right? I have plenty of instructional material if you're been licking the windows on the short bus and require some assistance..." The last was mentioned with a vaguely suggestive leer and an eyebrow wiggle that earned him a wadded up napkin as a reward. Wufei's porn collection was legendary among the staff of Epyon. Given his predilection for cruising internet porn sites for new and inventive material of, to use his own words, "wondrous and glorious variety," it was probably approaching truly world-famous proportions.

Heero shook his head and settled deeper into the cushions of the new couch, the same one the three of them had just moved into the apartment, for which they'd earned the dubious reward of the pizza, the suggestion of takeout Chinese being summarily vetoed by Wufei. Heero had never quite mustered the courage to peruse Wufei's infamous collection. "I'm quite sure that you do. And while I have a basic understanding of the working essentials of the process, if I ever need to calculate the complex mechanics behind sex with four women and three men in a swimming pool filled with artificial tropical fish and lime Jell-O, I'll be certain to pay you a consulting fee."

Trowa handed him another beer, this one cold, and checked the third box for any remaining slices of pepperoni, then reclined back on Wufei's ex-favorite chair and offered his wisdom in pontificating tones, augmented by the tilting bottle of Weyerbacher's Blanche that Wufei stocked expressly for him. "What you need, Heero, is a babe magnet."

Heero gave each of them a doubtful look in turn. They seemed to be completely serious about this, whatever it was. "A babe magnet?"

Wufei nodded. "A babe magnet. A hook. Something women find irresistible. You know, something like carrying a baby around." At Heero's look of abject panic, he raised his hands quickly and explained. "It doesn't have to be yours! You just have to borrow one."

Heero looked over at Trowa for clarification. Trowa raised his hands as well. "Fresh out."

Heero shook his head and sipped his beer. "Oh, well, so much for that idea then."

Wufei plugged onward as the idea gained momentum in his mind. "Or it can be giving flowers, having a cute animal to wave around, or being exceptionally useful, or perhaps acting unusually helpless..." He shrugged and looked to Trowa for additional advice. "Quote unquote, chicks dig that sort of thing, or so I've been informed."

Heero looked at Trowa. "Well?"

Trowa looked suspiciously as if he was stifling laughter. Probably at the idea of Heero trying to lure a woman into his life by wandering around in a park with someone else's baby and waving it around. "Don't look at me. All fresh out of kiddies and kittens. Besides, I always sort of thought you were gay."

The other napkin sailed in his direction. "Thanks, Wufei. Trowa? Don't you have any other great ideas to contribute towards the great humanitarian mission of finding me a female that can stand me for more than three hours?"

"Heero?" Trowa seemed to have recovered some minor control over his laughter, stifled or no.

"Yeah?"

"I'm gay, remember?"

That only got him off the hook for a few minutes.

"So? Doesn't your 'hook' idea work for either sex?"

Trowa shrugged. "Beats the hell out of me. Remember what I said before? I haven't seen any action since, what... freshman year? Besides, given your preferences, you'd be better off asking Wufei to share his techniques." Trowa channel surfed through a commercial break and returned to the game before continuing the thought. "If you want to know the best way to de-flea dog or remove testicles from a tomcat, I'm your man. Besides, I'm not allowed to go out on a date until after my name appears out on the front placard under Merquise and Merquise. I think that may even be a stipulation in my hire contract somewhere -- career before lust or some such nonsense. At least that used to be my motto before my student loans crushed my brain and libido along with my budget."

Wufei nodded along in understanding at the limited budget. "Still doing the macaroni and cheese and fruit cocktail, thing?"

"Pretty damn close."

Heero was still wincing from the earlier comment. "Can we please leave the neutering terminology out of our conversations, Trowa?"

Wufei nodded and raised his bottle in agreement. "Amen to that suggestion." He gave a fond pat to the leather arm on his new sofa. "Face it, Yuy. This couch will see action before two you ever do."

Trowa shook his head and turned up the volume on the television. "That's a charming thought, Wufei. Remind me never to sit on it again without sterilizing the cushions first."

That same conversation was still replaying in his mind during his daily commute the next morning. Thankfully, Wufei was there via cell phone connection to continue to offer his advice. Heero adjusted the connection of his cell phone hands-free device and continued, "I am not obsessed with my car, honest."

As he said this during said morning commute and while running his left hand along the edge of the steering wheel, and while resting his right lightly on the comforting vibration of the shift knob, he had to admit the statement was a hair less than truthful.

"Heero?" Wufei's voice was not only growing vaguely patronizing; it was getting annoying.

"Yes, Wufei?"

"Trowa said that he drove by on an emergency call just last week and saw you standing out in public and buffing it with a diaper."

Ah, yes, that. Heero changed lanes and sighed in resignation. "It's a micro fiber polishing cloth specifically designed for cleaning clear-coat finishes."

Wufei sounded smug. "And how many people on the planet could state that fact with absolute confidence besides you?"

"Plenty."

"You're lying."

Time to try for misdirection and haul out the diversionary tactics then. "He's just as obsessed with his career as I am with other things, but you don't tease him nearly as much..."

"He doesn't react nearly as well as you do." A dry chuckle drifted over the cellular connection. "And stop trying to change the subject." There was a polite pause before Wufei asked, "So, how's your dating mission coming along?"

"Slowly. As in single nights in endless sequence." Heero shook his head, even though Wufei couldn't see the motion through the headset. "Not a repeat in the set so far this month, and only one made it past the two-hour mark."

"And where have you been taking these endless women of yours?" Heero noted that Wufei sounded amused, which was usually a bad thing.

"So far this month?" Heero paused for a moment to consider why Wufei wouldn't have known. "That's right, you haven't been on the same shift schedule at Epyon as the people who have been doing the real work, have you? Let me see." There was an additional hesitation as he checked his mirrors and changed lanes again before resuming. "That restored art theater downtown with Lisa from reception, then Lorna from accounting and the fireworks display on the riverfront..." He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel and continued, "the opening of that Russian Icons exhibit..."

"Hang on, Heero."

"What?"

"That almost sounds more like event planning than an opportunity for someone to sit down with you and get to know who you are. Don't you think?"

"Well you may have a..." The unexpected sound of a car horn drew his attention to his automatic safety checks.

The moment seemed surreal at first. Seen in reverse in the frame of his rearview mirror, the limp and boneless body of the dog drifted across the roadway as if it were skimming across a sheet of ice. The logical portion of his mind broke down the motion and discounted it as unlikely and therefore impossible. He couldn't have just seen that happen. The sound of braking cars and the dull impact of flesh against concrete barely registered. He shifted to the right lane, and then to the shoulder while still checking his rearview mirror for traffic, then slowed to a stop while his brain caught up and processed what he'd just seen. "Hang on a second, will you, Wufei? There's been an accident."

There was stunned silence while Wufei absorbed that news. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Followed by the expected follow-up to the unasked question. "And so is the Mustang."

"Is anyone hurt?"

Heero checked his other mirrors and windows, looking around hopefully for the vehicle that had struck the animal. Which was when he realized that he was the only person that had taken the time to pull over and stop.

"I really don't need this." He edged his car as far over onto the shoulder as he dared before turning off the ignition and cursed softly. "I really, really, don't fucking need this. Not today with all of the Motorola stuff going on, not now."

"Heero? What's going on? You okay?"

"Um, hang on a sec." He looked around, trying to judge the traffic and see if there were any obvious breaks in the pattern of moving cars. "I'm pretty sure that I saw an animal get hit, I want to go check and see if it's alive or dead." He switched from the hands-free device back to the hand-held cell connection and left his car behind, angling carefully across the lanes of traffic and jogging across the grassy median. "I don't see anything though. Maybe it was only stunned."

"Heero?"

"Yeah, Wufei?"

Wufei's voice was dry, with a twist of his trademark black humor behind it. "Number one, your luck just hasn't been that good lately. Number two, the accident's usually farther back than you expect it to be, since you're driving away from the point of..."

"Got him."

"And?"

Heero approached with caution and crouched down next to the large, mostly black animal. "It was a big dog."

"And?"

Heero held his hand against its ribcage, felt the steady rise and fall of breathing. "It's still alive."

"And?"

He checked as best as he dared with one hand, edging his body closer to get a better view of the damage. "It's bleeding pretty badly."

"And?"

"There's no one else stopping."

"And?"

He sighed deeply as he looked around at the rest of the people who were busily going about their morning commute. "Guess it's my day to be fucked."

Wufei gave a commiserating groan over the connection. "Just don't get bitten. 'Cause with the way your luck has been running, I mean with the sucky dating thing and all..."

Heero looked objectively at the dog. It remained unconscious, and seemed to be wedged partially under a car parked along the street, forced there from the impact of its skid across the lanes of traffic, no doubt. "Thanks for the advice, Wufei. Do me a favor and tell Treize that I'll be in late, then call Trowa and warn him that I'll be on my way to his clinic as soon as I can figure out a way to get this dog into the Mustang."

"Will do. And Heero?"

"Yeah?"

"Good luck."

He could practically see the commiserating smirk on Wufei's face. "Thanks."

He looked left, right, and all around, but none of the houses were close enough to seem likely candidates for help or possible ownership of the victim, and the manufacturing business that was supplying the cars parked along the road didn't seem like a good bet either. Heero tucked his phone in his pocket and mentally wrote off his new pair of khakis as he knelt in the street dirt and grime and pool of blood leaking out from under the dog, trying to figure out the best angle to approach the problem of working the animal loose from where it was pinned. He reached under and gave a tentative tug of a leg and felt bones grind shockingly loose. He let go immediately, fearing that the dog would wake, but it was both unresponsive and remained disturbingly limp. The blood seemed to be coming from the broken leg and the animal's nose, and short of something to wrap the dog in, there was nothing to do but talk his way through the situation and make the best of it.

"Don't wake up and bite me. Please don't wake up and bite me. C'mon. I like dogs. Really I do. Always wanted one as a kid. Hell. Don't wake up." He kept up a quiet muttering and rambling banter to comfort himself as he continued to carefully work the dog out from under the car and into his arms until he had a warm, breathing, bleeding, living presence resting solidly against his chest. "You. Are going to bleed. All over. My new car." He hefted her -- he thought the dog might actually be a her under all that fur -- in his arms once again for balance before taking off at an ungainly half-walk--half-jog for his car.

The competitive part of Heero's mind that usually kept track of such things noted that the time it took him to drive to the clinic was a new speed record for that particular run. All that Heero actually remembered was that the lights remained green, the traffic was lighter than usual for that hour, and despite all of his whispered prayers to any listening deities to keep her unconscious, she woke up before arriving at the veterinary hospital.

Trowa was waiting in the parking lot for him when he pulled up, braking slowly and carefully to avoid sliding the mostly standing dog into the back seat foot wells as he stopped the car. By the time he turned the engine off, Trowa was already reaching into the passenger side of the car and flipping the passenger seat forward to take a better look at his new patient.

"She's a lot bigger than I was expecting based on Wufei's call." He looked over at Heero's shirt and khakis, but didn't comment on his appearance or on the blood splatter on the rear window glass. "And she's being a very good girl so far."

"She was pretty out of it until just a few minutes ago. I think the rough road surface over on Wilson Avenue woke her up."

"Well, that would wake anyone up."

"She still looks pretty dazed though."

Trowa nodded in understanding. "Shock, probably." He waited until Heero got out of the car as well and faced him across the back seat on the other side of the dog. "Zechs should be out with the stretcher in a minute. She seems pretty tractable; we probably don't need to muzzle her, but it doesn't hurt to be cautious."

Heero watched as Trowa carefully fit the bright blue nylon and Velcro straps around the dog's head. She still didn't seem very responsive to human contact or to what was going on around her. Heero frowned. "You think she's going to make it?"

Trowa tested the fit of the muzzle with two fingers and tried to ease her into a more comfortable position. "Depends on how much damage she took to her chest. Generally the bruising to the chest cavity is what takes them down in the end, but that leg's not pretty, and we won't know about the rest of it until we get her inside and on the table." He looked over the top of the Mustang at Zechs who had approached while they'd been reviewing the patient. "How do you want to do this?"

Zechs raised an eyebrow at Heero. "How did you manage to wedge her in here?"

"She seemed a lot smaller going in."

Zechs considered the puzzle of the large injured dog, the small back seat, and the problem of not wanting to increase any of the existing damage, and looked over to Trowa for verification. "She's muzzled, so how about we get her owner to continue to talk to her to steady her while I take the hindquarters and leg out of this side of the car and you walk the forequarters through the car after me and onto the stretcher?"

Heero felt a protest rising. "Ummm... Technically speaking, she's not..."

Trowa nodded, preempting Heero's protest, and folded himself awkwardly into the back seat of the Mustang with the dog. "Heero? Next time, buy a minivan, will you?"

"Right. Next time. Sure."

Heero watched as the two men efficiently moved the dog from the back seat of his car onto the canvas stretcher and then began carrying her quickly through the side doors of the clinic. Heero followed in their wake, feeling very much like the odd man out. He stood to the side and watched as they moved her into a pre-surgical prep area, transferred her to another table, and a vet tech shaved her foreleg and inserted an IV needle.

Trowa nodded at Heero and explained, "Fluids to help her deal with shock." He indicated to the tech. "We'll be taking her in for her x-rays in a minute. Why don't you leave your contact information with the front desk and wait out in the reception area for a few minutes while we do a basic work-up on her and check to see if she has a microchip or not, okay?"

Heero nodded at his friend and turned towards the exit door. "You'll let me know what the x-rays show, right?"

Trowa, already working on evaluating his newest patient, gave an absent wave. "Course I will."

Heero found his way to the waiting area, currently empty of everyone including staff, and sat carefully on one of the plastic seats in order to spare the upholstered bench any damage his clothes might contribute. He sat quietly, elbows on knees, chin in his hands, and felt his heartbeat slow as the adrenaline slowly bled away from his system. After enough time elapsed for his logic functions to return, he checked the time and called the office -- Wufei first, then Treize, to update them on his unexpected delay.

He was just hanging up his cell phone when Trowa walked back into the waiting area of the veterinary clinic, wearing his 'doctor's face,' the one Heero couldn't read.

"Well?"

"Heero? This is going to take a while. You may as well go home, clean up, and go on to work for the day. I'll give you a call later and let you know how everything went with her surgery."

Heero paused and took a good look at his ruined clothing, his scuffed shoes, the pants he'd temporarily forgotten were stained beyond all redemption. Another vet walked through the waiting area, tall, and very blond, the senior partner of the firm if Heero wasn't mistaken. The same man that had assisted with getting the dog out of his car earlier.

"Heero, right? Trowa's friend? Your dog is in very capable hands at the moment. Dr. Barton will do the very best he can for her." He nodded pleasantly as he picked up a new clipboard from behind the registration desk and continued on his way into another room, shutting the door carefully behind him.

Heero raised his hand in a partial objection. "Um..."

Trowa shrugged. "Go home. Clean up." He cracked a slight smile and waved a hand towards the parking lot. "Get the blood out of the upholstery of your alter ego and I'll give you a call when she's out of surgery. I'm going to go give Noin a hand in there with her and then I'll ring you later, okay? If I don't get a chance to call, you can assume that she made it through surgery with no complications and you can just stop by on your way home from the office and get caught up on all of the details then."

Heero winced at the thought of the cleaning job he had ahead of him, as she'd bled rather a lot. He hadn't thought she'd had that much left in her after what he'd seen on the pavement to have much left to donate to his car's interior. He grimaced as he neared his car and saw the spatter pattern on the rear windshield... and prayed for a non-eventful drive back to his home.

Although Trowa never got a chance to call Heero back later that afternoon, he had a good excuse in hand. As the main clinic in that part of the city, they'd had all manner of the usual emergencies to deal with that morning in addition to scheduled appointments, the morning surgeries, and Zechs' orthopedic consultations. One young, hit-by-car dog, now quietly recovering from general anesthesia in one of the larger bottom-rack cages, hardly took anyone's time. With the frantic pace of the afternoon schedule, and the number of emergency calls, she was hardly a priority. Recovering well, temperature stable, and they moved on to the next disaster.

So when Heero walked through the front door of the clinic, this time at a reasonable and official hour of business, there were already a few other patrons waiting in the seats and benches in front of the reception desk. Heero took little notice of them, mission already in mind, and walked over to find out why Trowa hadn't called him, expecting to hear bad news.

Quatre Winner, a new intern at the firm of Merquise and Merquise, more commonly referred to as Tallgeese Veterinary Hospital, took note of "Little Girl Yuy" on the patient log and politely informed Dr. Barton that Mr. Yuy had arrived to inquire about his dog.

"So she's not dead?"

"No, she's sleeping." Quatre smiled confidently up at him. "Dr. Barton is with another patient at the moment, but if you'll have a seat, he'll be with you in a minute or so."

Heero sat. And waited. And waited some more. And began to watch the other two people in the waiting room with their dogs. He ignored the woman with the cat in the carrier. The creature was yowling, and was soon put into one of the patient consultation rooms with its owner, much to the relief of the rest of the people in the waiting room and, Heero presumed, the present clinic staff as well. He turned his attention to the dogs. Small dogs. Not large dogs. He liked big dogs. Dogs you could wrestle with and thump their sides with your hand and not knock them over.

A dog like the one recovering quietly in the other room.

She probably had an owner already though. Definitely an owner, a pretty dog like that? And really, with the hours he worked, he had no business getting a dog. Fish maybe. He could handle fish. Nice. Simple. No bother to take care of. Feed them once a day and get those block things when you went away on vacation.

You couldn't hug a fish though.

Hell.

What the hell was he doing sitting here and waiting for news on a dog he didn't own? Trowa was right. He was certifiable. He probably should talk to a specialist about his problem at some point.

He didn't get up to walk out of the waiting room though.

Not even when it took nearly twenty minutes before Trowa opened the door to one of the examination rooms and waved him inside.

He took a seat and endured Trowa's flat look for what felt like a nearly unendurable few minutes before he noticed that Trowa was ignoring him completely and staring over his shoulder in the general direction of the reception desk long after the door had closed.

Heero politely did not remark on Trowa's fixed stare at the door. "So, tell me more about my dog."

Trowa slowly turned to face Heero. "She's not your dog, Heero."

Heero shrugged philosophically. "So?"

Trowa shook his bangs out of his face, and when that didn't work, reached up and moved them away from his face with the edge of the clipboard that seemed to be in constant use by every doctor of the practice.

Trowa didn't seem to be connecting all of the dots this morning though. Heero decided to give him another opportunity to wake up. "Trowa?"

"His name is Quatre." The drifting faraway look in his eyes explained it all. Heero had seen that look only a few times before while the two of them had been in their undergraduate years. That look did not bode well for Trowa's happy future if Quatre did not fall within a particular segment of the population.

Heero reached out and tapped the clipboard with a finger. "The dog, Trowa."

"Oh. Yes. Right. The one you brought in. Noin and I went over her post surgery. We think she's about seven months old or so, based on her teeth and the bone growth we saw in her x-rays. It's possible that she's a purebred puppy, but it's equally likely that she's a nice mix between a couple larger breeds. We eventually got around to scanning her for a microchip, but we didn't find one anywhere."

Trowa opened the door into the back holding room, the one Heero had only been in once before. "She's stabilized." He pointed to the door of one of the larger-size holding cages on the lower level, and Heero had to get down on his knees to see where she was resting on her side on a bed of folded blankets, the blood and grime from earlier still matting her fur. What looked like a painful series of staples secured a tube from her nose back over her head. She lifted her head groggily at his approach, trying and failing to keep her head steady.

"So far, she's been super sweet to work with. It could be because she's so beat up from her injuries, but I get the feeling that that's just her natural temperament." Trowa opened the door to the cage, swinging it wide. He waved Heero closer to the patient, and Heero reached out a tentative hand to stroke her shoulder. She sighed and settled back to her blankets at the contact, dropping a surprisingly heavy head across his arm and absently drawing a tongue over Heero's hand as he moved to retract it.

Heero rocked back on his heels, and looked thoughtfully at the dog. "For as beat up as she was when I brought her in, somehow I thought she'd look more... I don't know... wrapped and bandaged and cleaned up by now."

"That's the reality of this, the business side, if you will. She has some major breaks that need orthopedic surgery. The hospital is prepared to stabilize her and cover for her basic care for a few days to give her a chance." Trowa knelt down and adjusted her fluid drip and gave her a careful pat in passing. "But the sort of care she really needs will cost a great deal of money, and if her owner can't be found, or if a shelter or rescue group doesn't step forward to cover the cost, well..." Trowa didn't continue the thought, but it hung unstated between them. "Zechs and Noin are really great about allowing owners to make extended payments for financial hardship reasons and such, but putting hundreds of dollars or more into care for a dog that could potentially be destroyed by a kill shelter in a few weeks... Well, it doesn't make good business sense. Most places wouldn't have done as much as we just did without getting a credit card number on file first."

Trowa looked monumentally unhappy about the day-to-day operations of his chosen profession, and it showed.

Heero thought about it for a second or two, then shrugged. "Do it."

Trowa gave him that 'You're insane, and I'm not going to let you get away with it this time' look. "No way. Hell no, Heero."

Heero didn't have to re-think about his decision for very long. "I'm doing this. Give me a good reason why not."

Trowa counted off a number of them on his fingers. "One, she's not your dog, two, you can't be sure you'll ever get paid back for any medical care you pay for; three, she..."

Heero stood and carefully latched the cage door before facing his longtime friend. "One, she bled all over my car; and two, she just kissed me." Heero smiled at Trowa and dusted off his hands on ever-present khakis while patting his back pocket -- double checking to ensure that his wallet was still in place. "I don't care if I get paid back. You take care of scheduling the work, and I'll leave all of the payment information up front with Quatre." He slanted a look at Trowa. "You know, that blond guy out front that you very carefully haven't been mentioning. That will give you a chance to interact with him some more."

Heero was rewarded with a soft laugh and a flash of green eyes as he left the back room.

It was payment enough.

It only took three days for Heero's new dog to become a running joke of sorts at Epyon. Small 'dog warming' gifts began appearing on his desk -- a porcelain bowl with "Doggie Cuisine" written on the side in cursive script, a stuffed toy shaped like a monkey that shrieked evilly whenever it was squeezed, and a box of gourmet dog treats, all in anticipation of the day his "babe magnet" would move into his condo with him. If, and that was a big if, she wasn't claimed, and if, and that was an even bigger if, Heero decided that he wanted the responsibility of taking care of said large puppy, soon to be larger dog.

He hadn't actually confessed that second part to his coworkers yet.

Heero's manager rested an arm across the top of Heero's cubicle and leaned in to take a look at the current pile of gifts. "I have a message from the front desk for you. It seems that your girlfriend is feeling much better today."

Heero looked up from his monitor, briefly confused. "Girlfriend? Oh... right."

Treize crossed his other arm across the first. "So, I'm assuming that no one has stepped forward to claim her yet, right?"

"No, not yet. No one has called and left a message with Tallgeese Veterinary and they're," he paused to correct himself, "we're still waiting for any word from the SPCA."

Treize chuckled. "Well, the other part of the message is that you're supposed to stop by the veterinary clinic after work today."

Heero's face jerked back up with a freshly worried look. "Is she okay?"

"Your friend knows you better than you think. Remember, he told the front desk to tell you first that she was doing better, and second that you should stop by later." Treize paused and then thought to add. "In that specific order."

"Sounds like Trowa. Thanks for relaying the message."

"No problem. You'll have to bring in a picture of your girlfriend for your desk once you get her home and settled in."

The name on the index card in the slot on the crate door read "Little Girl Yuy"; the occupant of said crate lay sprawled across both blanket and potential owner while Trowa tried to convince his best friend to do something he probably already wanted to do anyway.

"Heero? She needs to go home with someone, and you're the logical choice. No one has come forward to claim her, you have a flexible work schedule and live close enough to your office that you can go home and walk her during your lunch hour, and you have a ground floor condo that allows pets." Trowa shrugged. "Look at it this way. She seems to be a really nice dog, and she'll be great company for you until the right person comes into your life."

"What if her owner turns up?"

Trowa's look turned serious and he leaned against the bank of crates. "Sure, that might happen. And it might not. You want to throw away a perfectly good chance of personal happiness based solely on the power of 'might'? You always wanted a dog, right? She might not be that German shepherd you were dreaming of, but she's a lovely dog and you obviously have an attachment to her already."

The object of discussion at hand lifted her head and looked up at him. Heero looked back at her and sighed theatrically at the inevitable direction his life seemed to be heading at the moment. "Looks like I've got myself a girlfriend. Go ahead and write me up a list of the things I'll need, will you?"

Trowa reached into his pocket and extracted one of the firm's business cards with his own name embossed in raised type. He flipped it over and quickly scrawled the name of a local store in his patented doctor-illegible penmanship on the reverse. "Go here. It's over on Dublin Avenue across from the Starbucks. If you were into guys, I'd tell you to ask the cute one to pick out your supplies for you, but the truth is that anyone who works there will be able to tell you what you'll need in order to get set up to take care of a dog her size."

"The cute one, huh?"

"Yeah. He always wears black and has long..."

"Long...?"

Trowa read the spark of interest in Heero's face, chuckled and winked once. "You'll see." He carefully latched the door to Little Girl's lower cage, automatically checking her fluid levels again while doing so.

Heero frowned when no more information seemed to be forthcoming.

Trowa continued to smile and gave in, teasing him a little more. "When he asks you, tell Duo to set you up with a 500 and Nutros."

Heero shook his head in confusion. "Hang on, when who asks me for what?"

Trowa patted him on the shoulder in what was no doubt meant to be a comforting manner. "It will all make sense in time, Young Grasshopper." And pushed Heero, still mumbling something about five-hundred Euros, out of the front door of the building towards his car.

Howard's Pet Safari. Right. Or at least Heero was 70 percent certain that that was what Trowa's illegible scrawl read. In any case, there was only one store across from the Starbucks on Dublin that seemed likely, and here it was. He'd stopped and sat in an overstuffed chair in the back of the Starbucks first to fortify himself for the experience with a café americano prior to pulling into the parking lot of the establishment. Now that he was parked in front of the store, he wasn't so very certain that the caffeine was helping. There seemed to be an inordinate number of sun-faded advertisements for dog food, dog food supplements, and cat-related products in the front windows. Heero pushed the glass door open with a faint electronic chime and not a little apprehension.

The first thing that greeted him was a dizzying display of dog toys, an entire wall of fuzzy Technicolor anthropomorphized food, smiling farm animals, and stylized bones and balls. It was so blinding that he might have been forgiven for missing the person dressed in the bright Hawaiian shirt behind the counter to his right.

Might have.

Heero stared in shock at the shirt, briefly captivated by the pattern of dalmatian dogs fetching... oh dear god, were they fetching what he thought they were fetching? Was that shirt even legal to wear out in public?

The store owner used the time to study the neatly dressed young man who had walked into his establishment. He acknowledged Heero's attention with a nod and a return of a level look over the sunglasses resting low on the bridge of his nose before dismissing him and returning his attention to the book he'd been reading before his customer had interrupted his chapter. "You'll be wanting Duo. He's in the back at the moment, but he'll be right out."

Heero shook his head and moved toward the service counter and the man he assumed was 'the' Howard of storefront name fame. "No, it's okay. I just need some dog supplies and..."

Howard held up a hand to halt his request and nodded somewhat vacantly. "You really want Duo. Trust me. He'll be right out. Or you can head towards the back of the store and find him. He won't mind."

Heero gave the man a decidedly puzzled look and decided privately that he would have to have a word with Trowa about the places he was sending him. This new dog thing was turning into more of an adventure than he'd expected.

He worked his way through crowded aisles with end displays of cat food and more dog toys and a prominent display of something called Nature's Miracle. The linoleum floor was checkerboard gray and white, but damaged ties had been replaced with gray over time and Heero's mind calculated the wear pattern as he worked his way through Toys, Small Animals, Cats, Birds, and Fish in his meandering route to the back of the store, labeled simply with a large sign: Food.

A slim young man dressed entirely in black was bent over a stack of shiny bags of dog food. A rope-like braid trailed down the man's spine and over the curve of firm buttocks hugged tight in silvered black denim.

Long. He finally got the joke.

A slow, genuine, sweet smile drifted to his features at the memory of Trowa teasing him over this, and remained in place as the man turned and noticed the stranger standing in the aisle behind him.

Duo took a long look at this new customer, then a second one. Then slowly rebalanced himself and removed worn gloves, reaching back to tuck them in the edge of a back pocket before offering a smile in return and slowly approaching the stranger. "Hello there. How can I help you?"

Heero's train of thought derailed for a moment, then two. Oh hell... there was something about that voice. He really liked that voice. He patted his jacket pocket absently as he tried to find an appropriate direction. Dog. Little Girl. Trowa. Card. Right. "I need some help."

If anything, Duo's smile broadened a little more. "Well then. What can I do for you?"

Once started, semi-articulate speech became easier. "I sort of have a new dog. Well, as soon as she can come home from the vet, and as long as no one else claims her, and..." Heero stopped once he realized that he was rambling. It was the other man's smile, it was disarmingly engaging; it made him forget his reason for being in the store. It didn't do great things for his powers of speech either, apparently. Hell...there was a thought, one that temporarily halted him in his tracks. He couldn't be attracted to him, could he? After all, he'd been best friends with Trowa for years and hadn't felt a twinge of attraction for men in all that time. Not a one. Still, there was something about this one... something oddly compelling that was luring him closer.

Duo nodded as if rambling psychotics who both had and didn't have dogs and needed supplies for both states of being was a common occurrence in his daily routine. "So congratulations both are and are not in order then?"

Heero found himself trying to evaluate the expression on the man's face and missed the question entirely. "What?"

"Just trying to determine whether this is an auspicious event or not." Duo paused, considering something. "I mean, is this a dog you actually want? Or just one you're taking on as a sort of an obligation to someone else?" When there was a significant pause while Heero sorted out how his situation fit that question, Duo reddened slightly and backed off a step. "Hey, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to ask so many personal questions. What can I help you with then?"

Heero found himself shaking his head. "No, it's just..." He found himself laughing at the uniqueness of the situation. And then he found himself giving in and explaining the whole story to this friendly stranger.

A few minutes into the recap, Duo leaned back against a pallet of dog food bags and verified his knowledge of the facts so far. "So this dog of yours is at the Tallgeese Veterinary Clinic, and may or may not have an owner but no one has turned up so far, right?" He waited for Heero's nod before continuing. "And she's had orthopedic reconstruction on her hind leg and her shoulder?" Heero nodded again and Duo let out a long low whistle. "You deserve the good Samaritan award of the year then. That sort of work, even with the best-friend-of-the-new-vet-at-the-clinic discount, doesn't come cheap." He gave Heero a slow evaluating look, the sort of look that made parts of Heero's insides sit up and take notice. Part of Heero's outside started to wake up as well, come to think of it, but before he had barely registered the thought, the interview had moved on to the next question. "So, have you ever had a dog for a pet before?"

Heero shook his head in apology, spilling his bangs over his eyes. "Not really, no."

"Not even a family dog when you were a kid?"

Heero shrugged. "We lived in an apartment. No pets allowed."

Duo rolled his eyes in sympathy. "I love dogs, especially big dogs. Always had a dog around when I was growing up." He waved his hand. "Now I live in a tiny apartment with a pet restriction; the best I can do is thirty gallons of fish." Duo cracked Heero a commiserating grin. "I think I envy you your maybe -- maybe-not dog at the moment. So, you're going to need some supplies, obviously, or you wouldn't be here." He sat back down on the edge of the nearest sack of dog food and patted a neighboring bag to indicate that Heero should do the same.

Heero, for his part, found himself oddly willing to go along with the impromptu interview. "Trowa said you'd be able to set me up, yes."

"Set you up? Ah, really?" Duo offered a hesitant smile in return. "Tall guy, new vet in training who works at your veterinary hospital, right? Cat person?" At Heero's odd look, Duo chuckled and explained. "Sorry, professional hazard, referring to someone by their primary animal of interest. Anyway, that would be your Trowa?"

There was a slight emphasis on the 'your' that Heero wasn't quite sure he'd heard, but for some reason, he didn't want any misunderstanding here. "We met in high school and have been best friends ever since then, yes."

Duo thought about that for a moment, and decided to pursue another direction for the moment. "Ah, well, so tell me all about this important new girl in your life then."

"She's black with brown markings and looks sort of like a Doberman with longer hair, and Trowa says that she's probably about six to eight months old." Heero went on to tell Duo about how he'd picked her up, quite literally off of the street, and taken her to Trowa. And how she'd managed to charm the socks off of the staff at the veterinary clinic and was making a remarkable recovery. As Heero told his story, he leaned back against the sacks of kibble and, though he might not have noticed, Duo saw how his face relaxed and his expression softened when he talked about his new dog and it was obvious how simply charmed he was by her already.

Duo stood and smiled. "She sounds like a real sweetheart. You'll have to bring her in once you get her home and on her feet, alright?"

Heero looked briefly confused. "I can bring her into the store?"

Duo nodded. "It's encouraged." He added a slightly embarrassed shrug. "It usually gets people to spend more money on their pets or more time in the store if they bring them along, but I just like to see how people match the pets they have. You know, how they fit each other."

Duo shrugged again in that charmingly disarming way, and Heero watched, oddly spellbound. Heero shook his head and chuckled at himself, 'Focus, Yuy.' Damn Trowa for putting ideas into his head that shouldn't be there. He turned his scattered attention back to Duo, nearly missing what he'd said last.

"Most people that come in here seem to have longer relationships with their pets than with their significant others, when it comes right down to it." He stood up and dusted off his jeans before leading Heero down the aisles toward the dog section. Now that he had a better idea of what age and size dog Heero was dealing with, he knew which part of the store to take him to. "An average marriage lasts what? Seven years? A medium-sized dog can live eight to fourteen years or better. There's a nasty little ancient toy poodle that comes in on the first Saturday of the month whose owner swears is twenty three." Heero followed his guide and instructor, his mind and eyes oddly fixated on a portion of the male anatomy he'd never taken much notice of before, drawn there by the gentle sweep of a long braid across worn denim pockets.

"Most people seem to give up on people before they'll give up on their pets." Duo looked briefly disgusted before he turned and looked at Heero, and colored a little. "And I've been preaching, haven't I?"

"Umm..." Heero tried to find that part of his brain that worked at linking words and sentences into conversational units. It seemed to be failing him at the moment. Duo's proximity seemed to have a definite impact on the process. And he was standing close... And looking concerned...

Duo tilted his head forward. Heero had a fleeting, but very strong impulse to reach forward and sweep away the long bangs that danced in front of those bright blue eyes.

Where did that come from?

He never had the urge to reach out and touch any of his friends before. Not Wufei. Not Trowa. Though casual touching happened all the time between friends, he'd never had the urge to touch like this before.

This time he had wanted to initiate the contact.

He was very definitely going to have to talk to Trowa about this.

"C'mon. You'll need a crate and some other things to get started with." Duo took a few steps away before tilting a look to the side and catching a glance of Heero still standing absently in the center of the aisle and distractedly brushing his hair away from his eyes. 'Gorgeous,' came the unbidden thought, but he let it slide by until he knew whether the man ran to his game or not. "Did your friend say anything about what size she'd grow into?"

You'd think a simple shopping trip wouldn't drive his brain into spasms. Yeah, you'd think that. C'mon, Yuy, think. His brain scrambled to remember anything Trowa had mentioned. "I think he said something about a 500 and Nutros."

Duo nodded as if that really meant something, and Heero blinked in surprise. "What, you guys have some sort of code system figured out?"

"Us guys?" Duo cracked a grin. "No, they only have so many standard size crates, and that gives me a good idea of how large she'll get." He tossed a smile over his shoulder at Heero and continued down the aisle. "I hope you like big dogs."

Heero paused and stopped again in his pursuit of Duo; he hadn't really taken the time to consider that. Little Girl was Little Girl, and that was that. He'd been taken in by her personality and charm and hadn't really seen her size beyond, perhaps, the initial impression. So it was with some trepidation that he asked, somewhat apprehensively, "Just how big are we talking about here?"

Duo raised an eyebrow, then discarded the easy risqué answer and returned a negligent shrug. "Based on what you've told me so far about her, she sounds like she looks a lot like a cross between a collie and a Doberman, so she's not going to be a small dog when she grows up." He added a smile to soften the news. "Bet she'll be pretty though, given that coloring." He pointed to the second largest in an assortment of crates. "That's your size."

Heero eyed the plastic crate with some trepidation, as it looked much larger than he'd expected. "I have no idea where I'm going to fit that. I need this, why?"

"Think of it as sort of a playpen or crib for your puppy in order to keep her out of trouble when you're not there to watch over her. It's a lot less expensive and much safer to have her confined to a crate instead of letting her decide that your electrical cords might be suitable chew-toy material while you're at work." Duo grinned, obviously much used to this argument. "It also makes house-training much easier, as most dogs consider their crates as den-like substitutes, and have deeply ingrained instincts against soiling their own beds."

Heero raised an eyebrow. "Most dogs?"

"It doesn't work for puppies raised in puppy mills and pet store environments." Duo looked briefly troubled and moved on. " I'm assuming that your dog won't have any difficulties, since you said that she seems to be doing well at the veterinary clinic."

Heero hadn't known, or thought, to ask Trowa about her bathroom habits. "I'll have to double check about that, but I'm sure Trowa would have said something if she was having a problem."

Duo chuckled. "Okay, on to interview question number one hundred seventy-two. What do you drive?"

"Mustang Cobra coupe," he replied absently. He looked up from the assortment of crates to catch Duo's reaction. If it was possible for Duo's smile to widen any further, it did, with a predatory gleam that Heero recognized and instantly felt a kinship to. "You like?"

Duo returned a tight nod. It wasn't just interest in the car, not really, but he could safely limit to that if he had to. "I like. Is it parked out front?"

"He is, yes."

Duo noted and tucked the pronoun away for later reference. "Let's pick out the rest of your gear then, so I have an excuse to take a look at him while we load all of your stuff."

Heero pointed at the crates. "Why did you ask what kind of car I drive?"

"Some crates collapse for convenience in transporting them. If you drove a minivan," Duo paused while Heero snorted in less than polite disbelief at that thought, "it wouldn't be an issue. Since you drive a rocket sled with minimal cargo space..." He pointed out a metal crate with its folded and boxed counterparts stacked neatly on the shelf next to the display unit. "That suitcase-style one is the one you'll want."

Heero deftly moved the bulky and rather heavy box to the aisle with an ease that had Duo blinking. "You work out, don't you?"

"Yeah, keeps the brain working at peak capacity."

Duo granted him a sly look. "Somehow, I don't get the feeling that you're joking about that."

"I'm not." Heero balanced the box on end and waited for Duo's next directive.

"So, what do you do for a living?"

"I work for Epyon in their software interface group." Heero shrugged. "The company designs custom software for large corporations. Mostly Fortune 500." Heero poked at a end-aisle display. "It's a job. Pays well enough."

"Uh, huh... Right. Let me get a cart for the rest of the stuff."

Heero was starting to look doubtful that all of this equipment was necessary. "There's going to be that much?"

"For the initial set-up, yeah. Crate, food dishes or buckets, food and supplements, brushes and grooming tools, collar, lead, pick-up bags, cleaning solutions, chew toys, play toys, a chew deterrent like Bitter Apple. You'll need to order identification tags and pick up a couple of good basic how-to sort of books. You'll probably need some first-aid supplies as well, given what she's been through, but your vet friend should be able to help you with all of that." He shrugged apologetically. "I know it sounds like a lot, and it can be expensive to start with. The crate is the worst of the lot, though keeping her out of trouble is a lot less expensive in the long run than replacing your sofa or removing pieces of your video collection from her stomach."

Heero gave him a thoughtful look. "You really seem to know a lot about this."

Duo smiled back at him. "This is what I do. I love my work." He looked directly at Heero, met his eyes and looked deeply into them for a moment before asking, "Don't you?" He turned on his heel and started towards the dishes and food pans as that question continued to wind its way through Heero's mind. Love? No. That word was reserved for something more personal and ... tempting. And then he realized that his guide was getting way from him again.

An hour later and significantly lighter in his personal finances than when he'd entered the establishment, Heero paused at the threshold of the store, holding the front door open wide enough for Duo to ease the shopping cart through. There was no need to ask which car in the lot was Heero's, and Duo gave it the full minute and a half of silent appreciation it was due before allowing a long low whistle to escape as he slowly approached it. "And I even like the color."

Heero looked up from where he was digging through his pocket for the keys, tilted his head to the side and chuckled. "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Steven Spielberg, 1989."

Duo cracked a very wide smile and rested one of the bags of supplies on the pavement near the trunk lid. "You are definitely my kind of guy."

Heero held out his hand to him. "I'm Heero. And given all that I've just learned in the past hour or so, I'm definitely in your debt."

Duo accepted the offering in the spirit of the moment; the handshake was one of the good ones, not too long, not too short, firm, warm, and utterly memorable. "Duo Maxwell, currently and always at your service."

He stood back from the side of the car as Heero finished loading the crate and the rest of his purchases, and eased into the driver's seat.

"Come back soon and bring your girlfriend, okay?"

Heero nodded and waved at him. "Roger that."

Duo watched as the car slowly backed out of the parking space and moved out of the lot.

Heero drove away with a smile on his face that even the thought of a weekend of programming couldn't dent. Two things had happened that had improved his day immeasurably: Duo had also referred to Heero's new dog as his 'girlfriend'; and more importantly to Heero's way of thinking, Duo liked his car.

His life was looking up.

Heero spent the rest of that evening setting up his apartment, which meant moving the sofa and the end tables around until he could fit the monstrosity of the new crate in the corner of the room. He was glad that Duo had taken a few seconds at the store to demonstrate how the crate folded and unfolded. Because, even with that simple and straightforward demonstration, and even with his engineering degree, and even once he'd broken down and actually read the directions that had come with the crate, in English, and then in Japanese, not that it had made much difference; it had taken a surprising amount of time for his brain to put together how the contraption operated. It was just as well he was doing it now, he thought. His dog would probably laugh at him to see him attempting it.

After reconfiguring the wiring for his reading lamp, which had moved because the end table had moved, which had moved because the sofa had moved, he settled in with a beer and the two books that Duo insisted were standard reading for new dog owners. It all seemed pretty basic to him though. Owning a dog was just like programming a computer: garbage in; garbage out. You fed your dog, you cleaned up after your dog. You trained your dog with the application of software or routines. You maintained it, kept it clean and operating at peak efficiency, and in return, it rewarded you with companionship and predictable behavior patterns. Though he'd never attempted it before, dog ownership seemed to be a ridiculously simple process.

That happy thought lasted only until Trowa brought Little Girl to him that night after his rounds finished at the clinic. He handed Heero all of her medications and the dosage schedule, less than helpfully scrawled out in his completely unreadable script. He handed over a small bag of dog food, already portioned out for her evening and breakfast meals. He explained how to care for the brand-new, shockingly bright, neon-pink cast on her hind leg, and what to watch for as far as infection around her sutures and staples. He handed Heero her leash, while she stood and patiently leaned against Heero's legs. And then, least helpfully of all, he wished Heero good luck with his new dog.

Heero held out until six A.M. before calling Trowa back, which, personally speaking, he considered one hell of an accomplishment. "Trowa? If you value what's left of your life and you don't want your sister to find out about what you keep in your closet, you'll get over here and pick up this demonspawn thing right now." Heero figured that if there was a snarling quality to his voice, it couldn't be helped at the moment.

"What? What is it? I can't possibly come get her now. I have to be in surgery in five minutes. We've got two HBC, a cat that ate most of a cassette tape, and a GSD with bloat." Trowa hoped that sounded sufficiently urgent. The cat was true enough, the hit-by-car dog and cat and the German shepherd with bloat had happened as well, but they'd all been treated and were stable.

Heero didn't seem to be buying his story though.

"She ate my laptop."

"She what?" Trowa stopped his pacing and braced his hand on the wall next to the phone for additional support should it be necessary. Okay, for a technogeek like Heero, that was tantamount to the coming of the apocalypse. "Can you repeat that? A little slower please?"

"She. Ate. My. Computer."

"How did she get access to your computer and why did you let her eat it?" Trowa waved off Zechs's slightly panicked look and leaned back against the wall at the clinic, expecting to be amused at his friend's expense for once.

"It was the tea's fault." Heero sounded rational, calm even.

"The tea... right... sure... You want to explain that to me in a little more detail, Heero?"

"I was working on that interface for the Motorola project, and she was on her blanket on the floor. The book said that she should have her own bed to lie on, and that I needed to decide from the start whether or not I wanted to allow her on the furniture." Heero stated this with due matter-of-factness, with the serious tone of voice that said that he knew he was in the right.

Trowa nodded silently and stifled a laugh. This was one time when Heero's literal mindedness would work against him, and he couldn't wait to report his findings to Wufei. This event was so worth the price of admission.

"I went to the kitchen and prepared myself a cup of tea, and when I had returned to the living room, she had the laptop on the sofa and was chewing the corner of it, and when I checked, keys A, Z, and X were damaged."

"So did she consume or damage?" Trowa couldn't help the mirth that was creeping into his voice. It was growing difficult to keep his amusement at bay in light of the situation. In the ongoing battle of Heero versus puppy, the more flexible and adaptable mind would surely win.

"It's not funny, Barton," snapped Heero. "It's not even my laptop, it's on loan from Epyon." Heero groaned. "I have to go in tomorrow and tell Khushrenada that my girlfriend ate my laptop."

Trowa couldn't stifle his mirth for much longer, and his odd reaction to the 'emergency' call was beginning to garner odd looks from the vet techs on the other side of the room. "Not 'my dog ate my homework'?"

"Not funny, Trowa." But there a growing touch of amusement in Heero's voice now that the immediate crisis was over.

Trowa gave in and laughed. "Listen, a good rule of thumb is that, if she's not with you or within sight of you, crate her. At least until you know her habits and routines better, okay? And I do have to run. Zechs is flagging me down. We really are going crazy here this morning." Trowa paused. "Give her three days. If, after three days, you still can't deal with her, I'll ask around and see if any of the interns will take her on as a special project, okay?"

"Two."

"Three. And today doesn't count. You need to get though the rest of today, Saturday, Sunday, and all day Monday. If you still can't cope, we have an intern that comes in on an irregular schedule who'll be here on Monday night for the late shift that I may be able to convince."

"Your blond?"

"He's not mine yet, but yeah, him."

Heero considered both of his options, which at the moment numbered few and none. "Done."

"Feed her, wait thirty minutes, take her for a walk in your miniscule back yard. Do not, under any circumstances, let her off of her leash. I don't want her straining anything yet. Put her back in her crate with some water, no food, and one 'safe' toy -- your laptop certainly does not qualify. Go home at lunch and check on her and take her for another short walk, no food until suppertime. Got it?"

Heero, resigned to his fate, delivered a flat, "Yes, Mom," into the receiver.

"And call me when you get home. Wufei called earlier and said something about stopping by your place later to meet your girlfriend if you were up to it. ...And I want to make sure I'm there to witness the moment."

Trowa disconnected the line before the spluttering could begin.

Heero hung up the now silent receiver and stared at the dog, crouched hunched over and unrepentant in her crate. "You're going to need a bath if we're going to make you presentable for company. Which means I need to go get you some shampoo." Which meant he would have to drive back over to the pet supply store on Dublin Avenue again. And deal with the weird guy in the shirt and sunglasses again. And the other guy. The one who liked his car. The one he wasn't so sure he was avoiding really.

"The things I do for you..."

Heero paused just in the entrance of the Safari, caught midway between the door chime and the service counter. He looked uniquely uncertain about his situation. "Um... Hello."

Howard glanced up from his magazine at the ring of the door chime, shrugged once, and picked up reading the article where he'd left off. 'A smile you could fall into for an entire afternoon and one hell of a sweet ride,' was back. Duo would want to handle this customer personally, no question about it. He turned back to his copy of Cichlid News and shrugged his shoulder in an offhand direction towards the back of the store. "With the fish. Follow the sound of the cursing until you find him."

The object of his quest was muttering quiet obscenities at a floor-level aquarium mounted under a bank of smaller and more brightly lit counterparts with active and varied types of tropical fish. Heero absently recognized a few of the common ones from his childhood as he walked past the tanks, but was presently much more interested in why Duo was voluntarily contorting himself under the shelf in such a fashion. Quest for knowledge set aside for a moment, he watched as Duo bent and twisted his torso under the overhang, while his right hand blindly reached out for an adjustable wrench a bare fingertip-length out of reach. Heero dropped down to crouch over his ankles and handed the wrench with a surgeon's precision into Duo's hand. "Looks painful, whatever you're doing under there."

Duo blinked at the solid feel of the tool in his hand and ducked his head out momentarily for a glance, and then a quick grin that widened as he took in his company. "Hello again. How're you and your new girlfriend getting along?" He carefully twisted out from under the cabinet, taking care not to accidentally tap the side of the aquarium with the wrench, and dusted the cobwebs from his gloves.

"Good, mostly. Okay, not really, but I have another problem that I wanted to ask you about."

Ten minutes later, Heero had his answer. "Alright, let me see if I have this straight."

Duo chuckled. "Straight, right. Go ahead."

Heero tossed him a puzzled glance and plowed ahead, anxious to test his understanding of the procedure. "So I take this," he held the bottle of 'for dark-coated dogs' shampoo, and even though it states that it's for black dogs, I can use it on her tan and white areas as well, right?"

"Right."

"And I put it on her and scrub..."

"Hang on a minute." Duo tried to think about the best way to explain this. "Have you ever given a bath to a baby before?"

Heero did an honest-to-God double take before replying. "Uh, no."

"No kids? No nieces, nephews, nothing?" At Heero's blank look, he thought again about how to explain the process of bathing Little Girl in terms that Heero would understand, and suddenly it clicked. "Okay, I'm assuming that you'd never let an automated car wash touch your Mustang, right?"

At Heero's fierce, "No way in hell." Duo smiled. "Bathing your dog is sort of the same in theory. She's got a cast, right? So I'd cover that with a couple plastic bags first and secure the top of those with something fairly absorbent, just in case. Then start with getting everything wet with warm, not hot, water. Uh, like with your car, you wouldn't want to risk crazing the finish, right?"

Heero's smile widened.

"Then soak the rims and wheels, in this case, her feet and legs and any bloodstains left over from her accident or the surgery, and then slowly work diluted soap in from top to bottom, letting it soak in for a while and then rinse very carefully top to bottom, twice, the second time with cool, but not cold water. Then press towels against her coat to soak up the excess water, and rub her dry with a second towel." He verified. "You said you're bathing her to get her presentable for company?"

Heero, preoccupied with reading the directions on the back of the shampoo bottle, responded automatically. "Yes, a friend is coming over to meet her tonight, so I want to clean her up so she can make a good impression for him."

If Duo's face fell a little at this news, the shift in expression was too subtle, and Heero was too distracted to take any notice of it. "Then, if you have a regular hair dryer, you can go ahead and dry her with that. That would also help keep her from getting chilled after her bath, which might be a good thing to be concerned about given her recent surgery."

Heero nodded in understanding and checked the price on the bottle as he started to walk towards the register at the front of the store. He stopped dead in his tracks and turned to Duo. "Where should I do this? Bathe her, I mean?"

Duo chuckled at Heero's look. "Most people just use the bathtub in their bathroom."

"I usually shower."

Duo's smile returned with a vengeance. "Well, yes, that should work."

Heero looked puzzled, as if hesitating to ask the next question, but duty bound to say the words. "So, how do I fit?"

Duo tilted his head, as if estimating Heero's dimensions. "Well, generally, you get naked, and you stand in the shower with her while you do this."

Heero blinked. And blinked again.

Duo's smile broke down into a light laugh at the shocked expression on Heero's face and slow reddening of his features, and he couldn't bring himself to stop chuckling. No matter that this was someone that he wished desperately to impress and not make look like a fool in front of him, fate had conspired against him and given Heero that expression to wear, and Duo... just... couldn't... help... himself. He did, however, in the interest of maintaining at least a minimum of a professional façade, stop himself just short of offering some personal assistance in the endeavor.

"I suppose, given enough time, that I could have puzzled that one out on my own." Heero shook his head and had to laugh just a little at his reaction and Duo's response. "Gave you some amusement then, didn't I? First time doing this and all."

If anything, that seemed to sober Duo rather unexpectedly. "Yes, well. There is that. Here's to first times then." He nodded. "Good luck."

Leaving Heero standing there holding the bottle of shampoo and wondering just what it was that Duo had meant by that remark.

She looked like a drowned rat. Actually, she looked like something soaked and wretched that an oversized cat had dragged in, and for some unfathomable reason, she kept sinking slowly to the tile, almost as if she were melting with the warmth of the water combined with the inadvertent massage of his hands. The 'girlfriend' moniker came back to the front of his mind, and he had to chuckle. "Hope you're enjoying this. I can't say I'm exactly in practice." Despite Duo's advice, he hadn't been able to bring himself to bathe her in the nude, electing instead to wear the green tank-top and black shorts he usually reserved for washing his car. "Sorry Girl, no naked showering with you. Not even on our honeymoon."

He had to practically lift her bodily from his shower, then towel her dry with the towels he usually reserved for the gym as she lay stretched out on his bathroom floor. She shed rather heavily as he dried her, and he watched with resigned dismay as black and tan fur rose and danced through the air in the current of his hairdryer as he brushed through her coat. She clambered to her feet and did a three-legged shake, managing to distribute a fair amount of water over his walls and what little of him was dry in the process. She then began to use him as an impromptu towel of sorts, leaning and rubbing herself against him very much as a large cat might, reversing the process of which was wet and which was dry. He pushed her away and held her steady while he finished drying her, pleased with the results. "Trowa's right, you're prettier than I thought. I really need to take you to meet Duo."

It wasn't until Heero was standing under the shower himself and washing off the flecks of soap and stray hairs that had been redistributed from Little Girl's bath that he realized what he'd voiced aloud. He still dared not think too long about it though. Maybe it would leave if he ignored the thought long enough.

Maybe.

Right.

Who was he kidding.

Little Girl was happily exploring the confines of the combined living room and kitchen area by the time Wufei and Trowa arrived with the take-out Italian and the celebratory bottle of wine. She walked right over to Trowa and immediately sniffed at the edges of the bag with animated interest.

He looked down in approval at her newly washed and dried appearance and announced with authority. "It looks like she's Italian."

"If she were Italian, she would have checked out the wine first to make sure it was up to her standards." Wufei looked at her with an evaluating eye. "So that's your babe magnet, hmm? I don't know, Heero. I expected something a bit more... I don't know... German Shepherd-ish. Still... she cleaned up pretty nice. Once all her fur grows and she loses the cast -- I assume the color choice was Trowa's -- she'll look very Art-Deco."

Heero shook his head, accustomed by now to Wufei's back-handed compliments. "As with weapons, just as with other things, you should not make distinctions or preferences."

"You still running around quoting Musashi's Book of Five Rings?" The delivery was flat and level, but it was said with a wry smile. "You memorized that entire book freshman year. Still have it locked up in your gray matter, then?" Wufei reached over and tapped Heero's temple with the lightest of casual touches, but Little Girl's head swiveled and targeted his hand and followed it with a precise eye and a very soft rumble that was not quite a growl.

Trowa lifted an eyebrow in surprise and smirked. "Where did that come from?"

Wufei eyed the dog dismissively. "I don't think your new dog cares much for me."

Trowa couldn't stifle his snicker.

Wufei watched her carefully, as she was a rather large dog, despite her delicate and refined appearance. "All animals love me." He looked over at Trowa for confirmation. "Your cats never leave me alone when I'm over at your place."

Trowa shrugged. "True enough; they adore him." He added in a comic aside to Heero, "Of course, the truth is that they seem to love everyone."

Little Girl, above such discussions, settled for stalking over to the sofa and jumping up to claim a corner for her own, and turning back a raptorish head to maintain a watchful eye over the proceedings near the kitchen.

"I thought you weren't going to allow her on the couch."

Heero looked over and shrugged at Trowa. "She looks comfortable."

Trowa winked conspirationally at Wufei. "And so it starts."

She gained her sofa rights, but Trowa firmly vetoed feeding of tidbits from their supper, even when he saw Wufei trying to cajole Little Girl into accepting him by trying to sneak the ends of his garlic bread to her. By the end of the evening, she deigned to allow his hands to touch her, but it was obvious that she tolerated him at best, and clearly preferred the company of her master and her vet.

Wufei ducked his head back into the kitchen shortly after leaving it. "Gentlemen? Your immediate attention is required in the living room." When that didn't bring Heero and Trowa running, he entered the kitchen instead, and took a seat on the counter with a deep breath. "Smells much better in here," he added mildly.

Heero and Trowa looked at each other, then at the living room doorway, and then down at Little Girl, who was standing at Heero's side and watching his face with evident enjoyment. "You didn't."

"She did." Wufei helpfully volunteered.

Trowa rolled his eyes and set his plate of dessert aside for the moment. "Heero? Hand me the bottle of Nature's Miracle, would you?"

Heero dug through the bottles of cleaning solutions under his sink. "White bottle. Red cap. Right?"

"Right." Trowa walked into the living room and began with his matter-of-fact cleaning of the carpet while Wufei watched suspiciously from his safe vantage point in the doorway.

"Better you than me," quipped Wufei. "Why couldn't you at least find a dog that was already housebroken?"

Trowa continued with his methodical scrubbing. "She probably is. She's old enough to have at least some training, but I'm willing to bet that the post-surgical anti-inflammatory meds we have her on have her system all out of kilter."

Wufei made a noise of understanding before walking the wineglasses back to the kitchen. "I'll clean up in here while you deal with... that, then I'm off." He nodded, but volunteered no additional information.

Heero handed over the bottle of cleaner to Trowa. "I had no idea what this stuff was." He smiled, and the expression was so unexpected, especially given the circumstances, that Trowa paused, and then had to call him on it. "Okay, give. What is it?"

"Just..." He settled back on his heels over the damp patch of carpet. "When I was shopping for this stuff, and Duo added this to the cart, I said something like, I thought that nature's miracle had something to do with the conception of life." Heero paused, trying to get the memory right, but being careful to not raise his voice loud enough for Wufei to hear. "And Duo replied, well, not always. And, it's just that I noticed that he was blushing at the time, and I didn't know why."

Trowa thought about Heero's hesitance in asking, his care in lowering his voice and waiting for Wufei to leave the room. Slowly, with a great deal of reservation, he volunteered, "The reason that Duo probably blushed, is because Duo is gay, and is probably attracted to you, and didn't know how to react to your comment." Trowa doused the stain and stood up. "That's done."

Trowa walked the dirty towels back to the kitchen and gave Heero a moment of privacy to come to grips with the fact that he'd most likely been subtly hit on by a gay man.

Heero studied the wet spot on his carpet, levered himself to his feet and grunted unhappily at Little Girl. ...And filed that fact away for later reference.

Trowa could tell that Heero was uncomfortable with the direction the conversation was heading. He leaned against the counter, reached for his wine glass, poured a refill for Heero, and searched for a safe topic. "So, how did you come up with the name 'Little Girl' anyway?"

Heero had to think back on that for a moment. "Well, it was on her paperwork, and I wasn't sure if you had named her that or not, and I didn't want to say anything about changing it if you had." He looked over at her on the sofa, and Little Girl, seeing that she had his attention, ambled over with her three-legged stride and leaned against his legs, begging for more petting.

Trowa tilted his head to the side and offered a slight smirk with his explanation. "That's what the documentation reads on all unnamed strays that come into the clinic. It's a little more personal than Dog A, Dog B, or Cat C, D, E, and they train the staff there to see animals as little girl or little boy, because customers and the general clientele tend to appreciate the fact that the staff is treating their pets more like family members then like animals off of the street. So, Merquise and Merquise train their staff to say, 'Get Little Girl Owens out of Observation Room B' instead of 'grab that skinny black cat from the back room'. There's a code to it: 'big' for adult dogs, 'little' for young ones, then 'cat' and 'kitty,' for the felines, though, frankly, as far as stray animals go, most people don't stop to pick up an injured cat, that's just a fact of life."

Heero looked momentarily crushed. "So that's all there is to it, hmm?"

"Mostly." Trowa watched as Little Girl leaned against Heero's legs, at the way he casually reached down a hand to stroke her ears, the way they both craved and reached out to each other for physical contact.

"It also, generally speaking, helps the staff maintain some separation from the patients. That way, when the animals don't make it or the strays get turned over to the adoption clinic and destroyed, it doesn't get quite so personal. Well... at least that's what it's supposed to do." Trowa looked at him. "After all of the years we've been friends. Did you really think I'd call your first dog ever something that inanely feminine?"

Heero laughed out loud. "This from the same man who named his cats Dain Bramage and Upchuck?"

"Well, he has and she does, rather frequently, I might add. What can I say? My talent for creative naming knows no limits."

"I did wonder about the name though, yeah."

"Are you going to change it, now that you know?" Trowa cradled his glass of wine and wandered back into the living room, raising an eyebrow at Heero before crooking a finger at Little Girl and waving both of them towards the comfort of the sofa.

"Can I?"

"Sure. Dogs seem to respond more to the tone of voice anyway. Just add whatever you want her new name to be on to the beginning or end of 'Little Girl' for a few days, like Little Girl Laptop or something, and then drop the 'Little Girl' part. She's bright," he said, stroking her shoulder. "She'll pick it up quickly."

"I'd better wait a while to see if I really have a dog then, shouldn't I," Heero added soberly.

"There is that, yes. Though no one has responded to our listing on Petfinder.com or the weekly newspaper postings yet. Well, no one having lost a dog. I'm sure someone would be willing to adopt her eventually. She's a pretty girl, aren't you, terror?" She looked up at him mildly and continued to lean into his stroking fingers.

Trowa's look turned serious, and he settled cross-legged on the floor and leaned his back against the couch. Little Girl, rightly anticipating a prolonged audience, dropped her head and shoulders into his lap and thumped her tail in weak pleasure against Heero's shins when Trowa obliged her by rubbing his thumbs along the depressions at the base of her ears.

Trowa continued to massage his patient, avoiding Heero's eyes. "You know, you've never asked me why."

Heero looked over at his best friend, puzzled at the sudden switch in topics. "Why what?"

"When we were in college together, after high school, and I told you that I was gay. You never asked me why. You just said. 'Okay.' And then everything sort of continued on as normal. Which wasn't normal, because it shouldn't have happened that way." Trowa's hands stopped, and Little Girl's head lifted and shifted until they resumed their motion again, and with them his words. "I guess I expected you to either hate me or have all sorts of questions. Acceptance wasn't part of the plan. And then I wondered if you were gay, but didn't want to ask you about it. Because... because everything changes once you tell people what you are... what you prefer. But it didn't with you. And that made me wonder." Trowa shrugged. "But then you went on to date women, and well... It's just." He looked up.

"Listen, if it helps, it's never been a romantic thing for me, but we've always been close. And that's meant more to me than you can imagine. I just wanted you to know that, okay? And... Well..." Trowa swallowed hard and continued. "Something happened to me that I thought maybe you should know about."

Heero was getting an odd sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. One he mistrusted and associated with very bad news indeed, death of friends and the misery of bad news that could not be reversed, and he had the sudden urge to reach out and use his hand to block the words from Trowa's mouth.

The next sentence confirmed his doubts. "I spent some time with Duo a few weeks ago..."

Heero steeled himself for what he was pretty sure he knew was coming. The interest. The mutual hobbies and activities. The sense of humor. The way they just seemed to be a natural fit for each other. But he wasn't jealous? Or was he? He didn't have any right to be possessive over Duo, right? He wasn't interested in a relationship of any kind with Duo, right? Because he wasn't gay, right? Or even bi, right?

Then why...

Heero held up his hand in a bid for a moment of silence in which to collect his thoughts -- a silence that seemed to hold in the air between them and stretch. "Trowa? The other day, when you said that you thought that I might be gay. Why did you say that?"

Trowa chuckled. "While I was speaking with Duo, your name came up. Well, sort of. I mentioned you while we were out having coffee, and Duo corrected me. He said something to the effect of 'you just said your friend, you didn't limit your friendship by saying your boyfriend, your college friend, or your coworker -- you said your friend'." Trowa smiled and tilted his head up with a pleased and soft expression. "And do you know Duo stopped me? He said 'now stop, wait a minute, I want you to appreciate how rare it is have a friend who is just a good friend and isn't qualified in any other way. Not your gay friend, your black friend, or your second cousin. You were kids together, you grew up together, and that didn't change you; you are as you started out, just friends. That says a lot about the strength and bond of your friendship. It's pure. It's beautiful, and you should respect that'."

Trowa touched Heero lightly with his hand. "I wanted to thank you for that. Didn't think to say anything until he pointed it out to me, you know?"

Heero looked at him and tried a smile. "So, about this gay thing?"

"What about it?"

"Umm..." Heero started to look uncomfortable.

Trowa offered a soft laugh and ruffled Little Girl's coat. "Well... maybe you might just have a few gay tendencies."

Heero considered that. "I'm not real comfortable with the 'gay' label yet, can we try 'tentatively bi' for a while until we see how this goes?"

Trowa chuckled and offered, "We can work with that for a while. Sometimes it works that way. Sometimes it seems like you're perfectly straight, and you think you're perfectly straight, and you're going through life that way and then this one guy comes along and for whatever reason you have a strong attraction to him... and maybe, just maybe, this is the guy for you."

Heero considered that possibility while he turned the glass of wine in his hand. "Yeah, I think it might just be working that way for me this time." He smiled down at his new dog. "Weird, huh?"

"Stranger things have happened."

"Yeah, Trowa? Name one."

Trowa stared into middle distance for only a few seconds before volunteering: "Wufei took Relena out on a date last night and they didn't kill each other."

"No kidding?"

"No kidding."

Heero reached over and chimed his glass against Trowa's. "You win."

Monday morning, the nudge at his elbow wasn't just unexpected, it was, quite literally, damaging. Forgoing a towel, he pressed fingers hard against the razor nick and looked down at his dog accusingly. "Just how the hell did you get out, hmm?" He gave up on the cut and followed her out to the living room, but her crate looked normal aside from the open door. Perhaps he'd just forgotten to latch it properly. She waved her tail encouragingly at him and pawed at her food dish.

"You're shameless, you know that? Simply shameless."

He hadn't forgotten to latch the crate, but he did figure out that she'd managed to puzzle out the workings of the door catch on her own. She demonstrated this fact again for him by the time he returned from work that afternoon to take her for her lunch-time walk by meeting him at the door, whining and dancing and trying to wedge her head between the door and the frame. Only Heero's quick reflexes saved her from escape through the narrow opening. "I don't think so." He dropped his briefcase on the sofa and clipped her new leash to her collar before walking her through the patio area and into the miniscule fenced back yard behind his unit; and then picking up after her by using a plastic baggie as a glove for his hand and then inverting it over her offering as Trowa had efficiently demonstrated the night before. Heero's technique lacked Trowa's practiced efficiency, but got the job done just the same.

He latched her in her crate with careful precision as he left for the office, and then waited outside of the front door and watched her through the door's sidelights, mentally counting down the minutes he was running late to work. For her part, she simply settled down on her blankets, seemed to rise and fall once on a mighty sigh, and then fell deep into her bedding. However she was breaking out, she was too smart to allow him to catch her doing it.

She was loose again by the time he came home from work for the day, and this time she'd collected some distractions to occupy herself until Heero arrived. Unfortunately, said items included most of the contents of the bathroom laundry basket. She seemed to have a preference for his underwear, and, he noted with some resignation, he was going to have to go buy some more.

"Your time is running out, Little Girl. You're cute, but I'm not entirely sure you're cute enough to deal with all of this." He sat back on his heels and considered her. She looked up at him entreatingly before edging closer and licking at his chin.

He rolled his eyes at her. "Fine. You win. I'll go and see Duo and find out how much a different crate costs."

He walked her, latched her in her crate, and watched from the front door again. This time he got in the car, opened and shut the door and returned to peer through the glass before giving up and driving towards a destination he'd been both avoiding and heading inevitably towards for three days now.

This time the older man was reading a new magazine and wearing a shirt that was, if possible, even brighter than the last one and rivaled the dog toys in color combinations and patterns. Which was saying something, given the wide selection the store offered.

Heero nodded towards the rear of the store. "Is he in the back?"

"Duo? Nah. He's not here right now." Howard lowered the page and peered at Heero over the top edge of Cichlid World in order to see what his reaction would be to that bit of news. It would be worth it in order to report back to Duo, as his nephew had been working on a grade-ten obsession over Mustang Boy. Lately he'd been doing the head-swivel thing every time the door chime rang. It had been pitiful to watch. Thankfully, Mustang Boy was looking suitably stupefied by the news that the object of his quest was out of the building. Good. Duo was a better than average kid and he didn't want his nephew hurt. He shrugged and returned to the article on combining Mbuna varieties that had interested him in the first place. "He's across the street picking up my latte; he should be back in a few minutes depending on how many local caffeine addicts are ahead of him in line. Anything I can help you with?"

"That's okay, I'll wait." Heero edged away and pretended to look at the dog toys, stalling for time.

Howard smiled into his magazine. Mission accomplished.

Duo strolled in a few minutes later with an eager look in his eyes and a deceptively casual glance around the front of the store. He slid Howard's latte across the counter with a whispered, "So, where is he?"

Howard accepted his bribe with an equally quiet, "Currently wandering in small mammal territory. Unless he has a hamster or gerbil at home waiting for him, he's stalling and waiting for you to show up."

Duo slid his own latte over the counter, tugged his shirt down, flipped his braid to the back, winked at his uncle who winked back in return, and went Heero hunting. He found his prey reading the label on a VariKennel dog crate. "So, what's up? You find another stray you need a home for?"

It was said with a warm chuckle and a hopeful smile that had Heero turning and offering one in turn. "No. Still the same one. But she's turned out to be a regular Houdini with the crate I brought home, so I'm looking for a new one to replace the one you sold me."

Duo nodded with instant understanding. "Right. I've got just the thing for you over here then."

He waved Heero over to the front of the store, and Heero followed obligingly along, watching as the long rope of Duo's braid moved smoothly over work-faded denim, wondering idly when the curve of black jeans over a man's ass had become so attractive to him. Heero fought hard to not read a double meaning into Duo's words. He wondered how long Duo's hair would be when unbound, preferably in his company. Clothes optional. Dog crated. Dog. Crate. He blinked, realizing suddenly that they'd stopped, that Duo was facing him, and that Heero was still -- fortunately or unfortunately -- staring in the general region of the man's ass, which was now his crotch, and that Duo had apparently just said something to him. "Hmm?" Oh, right. That was eloquent, Yuy. He should probably try looking the man in the face to see if he had any better luck on the second try. God, now he knew firsthand what Trowa had felt like when he'd caught him staring at the damn door at the clinic. Thought processes were suddenly optional.

"I said, that will be twenty-five cents." Duo was looking at him and apparently expecting some sort of response.

Heero shook his head slightly to clear it. "What?"

Duo gave a sharp bark of laughter. "No use buying a new crate until you try this first. Trust me, okay?" He looked at Heero's face, and Heero felt himself nodding; and the odd thing was, he really did feel like he trusted this man's word. Which was unusual for him -- especially after such a short period of time. Duo reached out and tugged his sleeve, pulling him in the direction of the crates again, and then pointing towards the model he already had at home. "Snap." He held the snap in front of Heero's face and pulled back the spring with a sharp click and release. "Crate door." And he demonstrated where it should be used to secure the door of the crate to the framework of the crate. "That should keep your crafty little escape artist where she belongs." Duo rocked back on his heels and leaned against an aquarium display to better appreciate the scenery in front of him. "So, what did she get into?" His eyes were laughing, and Heero found himself smiling back.

"The laundry hamper..." A slow look of dawning horror grew and took hold of his features. "And she's probably loose again by now. Hell... I..." He dug in his pocket for the money, but Duo, seeing the genuine panic in his face, just waved him off.

"Go. Worry about that later. I think you're good for it."

Heero tossed him a look of grateful understanding and bolted for his car.

Duo walked slowly back to the front service counter to retrieve his latte, pleased both with the unexpected visit and the promise of seeing Heero again.

Treize leaned over the low cubicle wall and looked at the image on Heero's monitor. "So that's your babe magnet, hmm?"

"Wufei's been opening his mouth again, hasn't he?"

Treize chuckled. "Relena, this time. Apparently Wufei mentioned it to her and she found the idea charming for some reason." Treize shrugged with his usual brand of casual elegance. "It makes sense to me; I myself will approach a person out with a dog before I'll walk up to person on their own, and dogs are reportedly excellent judges of character, correct?" Heero frowned while his boss moved until he was standing directly behind the monitor, still studying the desktop wallpaper image carefully. "You know, Heero, that's a very nice dog. I'm very surprised that her owner hasn't turned up yet. Still..." He looked off to the left as if trying to remember something, then shook his head. "How's the Motorola project proposal work coming along?"

It wasn't until their lunch break that Heero thought to mention Treize's comments to Wufei.

Wufei tucked a piece of lettuce into the side of his sandwich before responding. "You know something? Trieze is right."

"About what?"

"About it being odd that no one has come forward yet to claim your puppy. Outside of a larger city that wouldn't be so unusual, but here? Population never changing? What are the odds that someone would lose a pretty dog like that and not try to find her? I mean, other than eating holes in all of your underwear, what other bad habits does she have?"

Heero glared back at Wufei, trying to impart dire threats behind the look. "If Treize brings up the underwear thing during my next performance review, I will never help move furniture for you ever again."

But the comments got him thinking. And worrying about just how long his new dog would remain "his."

She didn't have any bad habits that he could think of, now that she couldn't escape from the crate, and that had been his reasoning when he had decided not to call Trowa to take him up on his offer to take her off of his hands. She was company, of a sort he'd forgotten he'd a need for. And he'd forgotten, or simply hadn't noticed, or, more likely, hadn't wanted to recognize how very quiet and organized and structured his life had become since graduating and starting work. Wufei's criticism of 'wage drone' was starting to make some sense to him now, not that he'd ever admit it to Wufei in public. At least not in front of witnesses.

All in all, he'd decided, she was nice to have around. It felt surprisingly good to come home and be welcome there instead of opening the door to a dark and quiet house.

Leaving her was another matter altogether though, as she cried and whined whenever he left the room, raking her paws down the wire bars of her crate and digging at the pan at the bottom of it. He remembered the underwear though, and both Duo and Trowa's caution of 'better in her crate and out of trouble until she's older and trained', but didn't like it. He granted her freedom as soon as he got home until the time he went to sleep, and she alternated between pest and delight and quiet unassuming company well enough that he decided to expand her borders into the fenced yard area of his condo as well. Other than chewing on the cover for his electric grill, she seemed to get along well enough, shifting between her slow awkward walking and a faster tripodding gait with her cast leg held high and her tail a flag-like banner behind her.

She was curious, and Heero was enchanted by the way she explored and tested her immediate environment. Nothing was too small to be ignored, too bland to be tasted, too resilient to be pounced on. She chewed on the toys he brought her, and his magazines, and the corner of the end table until he sprayed it with the Bitter Apple, and his hands until he sprayed them as well. She played with her stuffed monkey like an oversized kitten might toy with a stuffed mouse, and Heero couldn't resist taking pictures of her play, snapshot after snapshot of her cavorting and gamboling around his living room. Her cast seemed to not slow her down at all, and in the way of young things, he had more fear for her than she did for herself, fearlessly leaping from the sofa and over the coffee table and causing his heart untold stress.

He decided to not show those pictures to Trowa. He was, after all, her doctor, and had advised Heero to keep her quiet so her injuries could heal properly.

He did, however, stretch the rules enough to leave the patio doors open between his living room and his postage stamp of a yard, so she could wander in and out freely while he sat on the couch and worked on finalizing his presentation for the Motorola project. Every now and then, when she did something particularly cute, he'd set the laptop aside and lift the camera to take an additional picture of her as she watched the birds land on the fence top, or as she napped in a sunbeam, or -- and he suddenly felt a kinship with every grandparent advertisement he'd seen -- even when she just tilted her head and really looked at him.

Heero was finishing his work for the evening and getting ready to call her indoors for the night, when she suddenly spied a squirrel dancing along the tree and stood transfixed.

"Got to get a picture of that..." His attention was only diverted for a moment. Just long enough to set his computer down and reach over to collect his camera again, but by the time lifted the camera to his eye, intending on spying on her play in the yard through the camera lens, all he could see was the end of her tail slipping over the top edge of the four-foot panel fence.

And then she was gone.

Heero bolted out the front door of his unit and around the back of the building at top speed, calling for her as loudly as he could manage. He just managed to catch a glimpse of her running hell-bent for leather, moving much faster than he expected her to be able to move given her injuries and the cast immobilizing her hind leg. He started running after her, knowing full well that he didn't have a chance of catching her, but not knowing what else to do. In his mind, the same mantra kept repeating over and over again: "Please don't get hit baby, please don't get hit again... "

By the time full dark fell over his neighborhood, he had to concede defeat. Yes, people told him, they'd seen a black and brown dog with a bright pink cast on her hind leg. Yes, they said, she ran that way, and they'd pointed. Or was it that way, and they'd pointed again. He walked home, finally, footsore and heart weary, and found his front door standing wide open and welcoming just as he'd left it in his panic. For a moment, hope surged anew, and he approached his home with a hopeful, "Here, Little Girl, here, Little Girl," that had his neighbor, just home from a previously up to that point very normal day, staring at him with open shock and not a little bit of hesitant reservation.

But the condo was empty. Heero closed the doors before slumping back on the couch in defeat, then he called Trowa and Wufei. "She's gone. What do I do now?" And he prepared for a very long and sleepless night.

"Jesus H. tap-dancing Christ." Duo slammed on the brakes and fought for control of the oversized cargo van, chanting "please-oh-please-stop, c'mon, stop-stop-stop-stop..." until the vehicle rocked to an ungainly, brake-squealing halt. Duo drew a deep breath in, released it slowly, then turned and checked on his uncle -- sitting with his arm braced against the dashboard, white and still in the passenger seat. He took in a deep breath before attempting speech. "Did you see that?"

"One little dog with attitude chasing a bigger dog with something pink on it? Traveling at about twice the speed of sound?"

"Yeah." He slid his uncle a look. "How many dogs do we know of that would fit into a 500 VariKennel, are black and tan, and have a neon-pink pink cast on their hind leg?"

Howard grinned in disbelief. "You really think that that's Mustang Boy's critter?"

"His name is Heero, and I'd be willing to bet money on it. He claimed that she was a quote-unquote regular Houdini when it came to escaping." Duo checked the street, but this early in the morning, the roads were still clear. Only a paper delivery serviceman was walking the rounds in this part of town, and he was snapping his fingers to the rhythm of his iPod, completely oblivious to his surroundings. "I'm going to go find her. I'll be in later, okay? If I need a lift, I'll call." He didn't wait for Howard's nod, but slid out of the van and jogged off in the direction he'd last seen the two dogs, whistling and calling out softly after them, cutting across the suburban neighborhoods and criss-crossing in the general direction of the barking dogs in the back yards and front windows of the houses.

By the time he caught up to her, she'd lost her pursuer and was standing alone in someone's front yard, breathing raggedly, standing splay-legged, and looking very uncertain. When he first saw her, for a brief moment he thought he might have been mistaken, as she looked smaller and not quite as Heero had described her. Though the color was right and there was something a bit collie-ish in her head and face, she looked more like a greyhound in body, with a plush dense coat about two to three inches thick. She turned then, and he saw the cast, which removed all doubt, but started a thread of fear running in him that she might have damaged her leg in her sprinting run across the road and in whatever other adventures she had found herself.

He crouched down near to the ground about thirty feet away, opened his arms to her, and put as much sincerity into his voice as he could muster, given his fear that she would turn and head off into the street at any moment. "C'mere Little Girl, c'mon." She swung her head around to him like a compass needle to magnetic north, wavering briefly, then fixed on him with determination. Past her panic and her run, with a cowering shuffle-footed approach, she walked right into his arms and started licking his face with abandon, pushing him over into the morning-wet grass and climbing directly on top of him in her need for comfort.

Duo enfolded her into his open jacket and kept his arms wrapped tight around her neck and chest to restrain her and hold her close to him as he felt along her leg for any heat and swelling. "Someone's going to be very, very happy to hear that you're safe. Very happy." He eased his belt from the loops of his jeans and slipped it around her neck to serve as a surrogate leash. "I saw you run, Little Girl, and your cast looks fine and I didn't feel any heat along that leg of yours, and you're sure as hell too heavy for me to carry, so you get to walk for another five blocks. We'll call your dad when we get to the Safari, okay?"

She continued to smother him with affection, and he pushed hard against her, not willing to chance another escape but needing the room to climb to his feet. "You certainly are the affectionate one, aren't you?" Standing, she was taller than she looked from a distance, and heavier, he remembered from being under her. "You're a big girl, too. C'mon, let's get you home then. You know about leashes?"

She did. And either her escape and run through the town had given her a healthy respect and fear of traffic, or she knew something about heeling and keeping close to the person holding the other end of the lead as well, for she walked easily on the improvised leash without pulling or tugging in the slightest.

Howard looked up at the electronic chime of the door. "Got her, hmm? Is that his dog?"

Duo cracked a wide grin. "Are you blind? Does this look like a parrot to you?"

Howard lowered his sunglasses along his nose with the shift of a finger and peered over them at his nephew. "Okay genius, how are you going to contact Mustang Boy? Did he give you his number after you drooled over his ride?"

Duo's smile faltered, then recovered. "Yellow pages. Check for Yuy, Heero. That was the name on the charge card."

Howard flipped the directory onto the counter and started scanning through the pages as Duo fit Little Girl with a replacement collar and leash.

"Any luck?" Duo dropped a moving blanket behind the service counter at his uncle's feet, then leaned over to look at the page and ran his index finger down the row of names and numbers along with him.

"Either he's spelling it differently, or he's got an unlisted number." Howard closed the phonebook and set it aside, tugging the blanket neatly into place as he did so. "You could always call the veterinary clinic or take her over there for them to hold her for him to pick up later." Howard looked over as the dog finished her fourth rotation and settled neatly into a coiled puddle at Duo's feet and dropped her head on the top of his left boot. "Or not."

Duo was eyeing the black book next to the phone with some speculation. "Howard? You need to check the inventory in the back, don't you?"

Howard noted where, exactly, his nephew was looking. "Ah, he ordered identification tags for her?"

Duo beamed and nodded his head. "Yup."

"Right. Definitely need to make sure that the last shipment of aquarium gravel was the correct colors and numbers. Wouldn't want to have anything to do with accessing private customer information, no sir, that wouldn't be ethical..." He leaned down and gave a parting pat on the head to Little Girl, who accepted the offering with a tired sigh, but refused to move her head from Duo's foot, enjoying her ad hoc pillow.

Duo ignored Howard's rambling muttering as he picked up the order book and flipped through the more recent pages before finding an entry for, "Aha, here you are. Little Girl, with a home address, home phone, work phone, cell phone..."

He looked down at the dog at his feet, then at the clock. "It's 7:52 in the morning m'dear, is your dad up this early? Or did you keep him up all night looking for you?" She blinked placidly up at him, but otherwise gave no response, not that he'd really expected one. "Well, another few minutes one way or another won't hurt, and you look beat." He scooted his foot out from under her, which caused her to heave to her feet and follow him about as he collected a second of the padded shipping blankets from the stack left near the door and unfolded it at his feet, and added a new ceramic dish for water, which was ignored in favor of the soft blankets as she spun the requisite four times and collapsed with a heartfelt groan that reverberated up his boots. Well, nothing to it. Time to call Heero. And yet he hesitated still, nervous about the moment. "Well, girl? Shall we try your home first?"

The phone rang five times before an automated machine picked up the line. "Hello, you've reached 555-8761, please leave a message..." The computerized voice neither confirmed nor denied the fact that the phone number did indeed belong to Heero.

"Let's try the cell phone before leaving a message then, shall we?" Duo had a moment of doubt, however irrational, and tested his faith by whispering 'Little Girl' just loud enough for her to hear. Her head lifted and turned to meet his eyes. "Okay, so I'm an idiot. I'll try the cell number next." He continued speaking out loud, not even thinking about how odd it might sound if his uncle or an unusually early customer found him rationalizing his call strategy with a dog.

Little Girl continued to watch him steadily. "Okay, okay, so I'm dialing already... Sheesh." She dropped her head back onto the top of his foot and waited. This time he got a connection on the first ring.

The voice on the other end of the line was out of breath, obviously rushed, and unmistakably Heero. "Trowa? Thank God you got my message! Little Girl is missing and Wufei and I have been out all night trying to find her but she's just nowhere to be found and we've got a presentation to make to the Motorola people in about thirty minutes and..."

Shit. Should Duo address him as 'Heero' or 'Mr. Yuy'? The title was nearly a requirement for customers, but this wasn't exactly a customer sort of situation and mister sounded pretty damn formal for someone who was nearly, if not exactly, his own age and that he had hopes of seeing naked at some point in the future, near or far, he wasn't being too particular at this point really. "Um..."

The line became very quiet before a hesitant, "Who is this?" trickled over the phone connection.

Duo swallowed hard, took comfort from the heavy weight of Little Girl's head on his foot, and plowed ahead. "Heero? You don't really know me, but this is Duo Maxwell. I'm the guy you met that works at the pet store over on Dublin, Howard's Pet Safari..." There was a long pause where Duo gave Heero a chance to absorb that much information before he went in search for the courage to continue with the rest of it.

Heero made what he hoped sounded like an encouraging sound for Duo to continue, truly not knowing what to expect next from him, and wondering if he was being asked out on a date, as that was oddly what the approach sounded like.

Duo continued in oddly halting words, "...And I... and I think I." He paused to take a deep restorative breath. "I'm pretty sure I have your dog."

"You what?"

"Have your dog. Black and tan, pink cast on her leg, pretty tired out at the moment, thank you very much." He shrugged, even though Heero couldn't see him over the phone connection.

There was a pause of about five-seconds, during which Duo wondered if Heero had heard him correctly, then Heero's voice resumed with an urgent quality that had been missing for the past few moments. "You have my dog? How did you find her? She got out of my house... Is she okay? And..."

Duo laughed in relief. "Yeah, yeah. I do, yes, or at least I'm ninety percent positive that I do, since she responds to Little Girl and has the day-glo attribute you mentioned. I saw her running across the road in a nearby neighborhood on my way to work and stopped and picked her up and brought her into the shop. I looked up your name in the file of records we maintain of people who order pet identification tags from us, and then called you." Duo added a rueful chuckle. "I believe that brings us up to the present time."

"Is she okay? How's her leg?"

"She seems to be doing fine. Tired, but fine. I checked her for cuts and for heat and swelling around the cast." He paused, replaying the conversation so far. "You mentioned something about a meeting?"

Duo could practically envision the look of sheer panic on Heero's face. "Ah hell... hell.. yeah. Listen. I'll call around and see if I can find someone who can present this stuff for me and I'll..."

"It's okay."

"What?"

"It's okay." Duo smiled at the confusion he could hear on the other end of the line.

Howard peered out from around a tall stack of Eukanuba dog food. "What's okay?"

Duo waved at him to be quiet and covered the mouthpiece of the receiver. "You're still taking inventory."

Howard's eyebrow went up. "Is that Mustang Boy?"

He motioned frantically for silence before hissing, "Yes, yes! Now go."

"I'm going... I'm going..." Howard wandered off while muttering, "What's this world coming to? See what I'm reduced to? A slave taking orders in my very own store." But he smiled as he walked backwards, waving Duo on, enjoying the rare moment of watching his normally unflappable nephew blush and stutter on the phone before he turned to check on his inventory order.

Duo shook his head at the retreating Hawaiian shirt and concentrated on his conversation. "I mean, she's okay here until after your meeting is over and you can come pick her up yourself. She's fine, she's just a little tired. I'll just get her a little snack and find her another blanket. She's already half asleep behind the counter and she's going be perfectly okay here for a while if you can't pick her up right away." She wiggled her head off of his foot in protest of his nervous tapping and looked up at him before dropping it back down on the top of his boot with a solid thunk. "Honest."

Heero's mind was racing. She was okay. She was with someone he knew. Well... sort of knew. Wanted to know better, anyway. And Trowa hadn't called him back yet, and Wufei would be at the same meeting he would be at so he couldn't pick her up either... the very same meeting that he would be late for it he didn't make a decision in the next minute or two.

Still, he hesitated. "You're sure she's no trouble?"

Duo wiggled his toes a little in his boot. She didn't move. "No trouble at all. She's already sound asleep with her head on my foot."

"I'll be there as soon as my meeting is over. If it wasn't a client meeting, I'd be there already, but this is something we've been working on nonstop for three months now, and I have to present a key part of it and... hell... is that really the time?"

Duo laughed. "She's not going anywhere. We'll be here when you're done. Good luck on your presentation!"

"Thanks. I'll see you in a few hours. And Duo?" There was a pause while Heero tried and failed to come up with something better. "Thank you."

Heero dashed out of his condo, spirits indelibly lifted by the double boost of the safe return of his dog and the surprise bonus of early morning contact with the object of his latest mental obsession. Luck. It had to be a sign of good fortune. He called Trowa and Wufei on his drive into the office, relaying the good news.

Wufei met him at the front door of Epyon, automatically reaching over and straightening Heero's tie. "You're late, and that is the ugliest thing I've ever seen you wear."

Heero gave him a stressed look. "I ran into a bunch of guys putting up orange and black protest signs on my way to the office."

"The ones saying 'end construction'?"

"Yeah, they're picketing in your neighborhood too?"

Wufei paused to give Heero's suit a critical once-over and nod of approval, reaching over one more time to brush invisible lint off of his tie. "I got your message. You found her? She's okay?"

Heero brushed Wufei's hands off. "That's my lucky tie, you cretin, hands off. And Duo found her for me."

"Duo, huh? Isn't he the one that..."

Heero rolled his eyes and pulled away. "Yes."

Wufei's look turned speculative. "And now he's got your..."

Heero's answer was clipped and abrupt; designed to dissuade further comment. "Yes."

Wufei held his tongue, but Heero could tell that his mind was working on that tidbit of information. No good could come of this. Wufei waited until they were seated at attention around the gray conference room table. Just before the clients were introduced, he tugged on Heero's sleeve and whispered close. "So, he found your girlfriend for you, right?"

Heero nodded cautiously, sensing a trap.

"And he's watching over her today and keeping her safe and out of trouble until you can pick her up?"

Heero nodded again, irritated that Wufei would press the point in front of customers like this. It wasn't like his friend to be unprofessional like this.

"So." Wufei waited for an additional tension-raising moment before continuing. "Have you figured out what his reward for finding her is going to be?"

Heero reddened abruptly as his thoughts headed south, then blanched white as the ramifications of those particular thoughts hit him. He sent a prayer skyward in thanks for the solid oak conference table. The ones in the small group consultation area were made from clear glass.

Wufei smiled, licked the tip of his finger and drew an invisible line on the table while mouthing the words: "My point, Yuy."

Heero winced and hissed back a barely audible, "Screw you."

The dimming of the room lights interrupted Wufei's whispered sing-song return volley of, "Apparently, I'm not the one you're thinking of," and signaled the start of the presentation. Heero kicked his friend under the table and claimed victory before launching into his segment of the presentation.

By the time the afternoon hour approached, Duo had a fair idea of how Little Girl had managed to escape from two households in her admittedly short life.

"She's... cute."

Duo pushed a black and tan head out of his way for the fifth time and looked up at his uncle. "Did you run out of words for 'annoying' in your vocabulary?"

"No." He watched the pair of them for a few minutes before asking, "Is she letting you get any work done back here?"

"Not much, no. She's been a bit of a pest. No wonder he wanted an extra-secure crate for her. She's been following me everywhere and getting into pretty much everything."

Howard leaned back against the doorway to the storage room with an enigmatic smile playing at the corner of his mouth.

Duo tilted his face up at his uncle, trying to head his expression. "Okay, I give up. What is it?"

"Looks like her ride's here." Howard stepped away from the door, revealing a slightly puzzled Heero standing behind him. "I'll be in the front." Howard walked away, leaving Duo with a jaunty half wave as he moved off to the front of the store.

Heero peered into the back inventory room, previously off limits to customers. "Is this... ah, hello." Little Girl, now the proud owner of the four new toys she'd managed to wrangle off of the display shelves and mildly deface into making her own, tripodded the favorite of her new acquisitions over to Heero and proceeded to convince him that he had been sorely missed during his absence by squeaking the pink hippo against his crotch in a bid for attention.

Duo chuckled. "She's, uh, something else."

Heero made a desperate grab for the saliva-coated hippo. "She's unique, that much is certain."

Duo raised a can of Coke from the top of a stack of boxes and toasted Heero's comment with it. "Here's hoping that much is true."

Heero watched as she paraded her new toys out for him, delighting in showing him first one, then turning and pouncing on another in turn. Despite his fears and concerns, she seemed to be behaving normally and doing just fine.

Duo, displaying that uncanny ability to read his thoughts, spoke aloud. "She's been acting okay, but you should probably get your vet friend to take a look at her."

Heero nodded in agreement. "Great minds... I have an appointment at Tallgeese for her in about thirty minutes to get her checked over, just in case."

Duo nodded. "Good idea. You can never be too safe, especially considering all that she's been through recently." He knelt down in front of her and laughed when she instantly sprawled in a belly-up tangle of legs, begging shamelessly for tummy scratches and affection. "Ah, who's the good girl then, hmm?"

Heero watched, and as part of his mind calculated the difference between her cool reserve with Wufei, her reaction to Trowa, and her comfortable affection when she was with him with this happy abandon, the other part of his mind simply enjoyed the moment, savoring it for replay later. Heero found himself, however briefly, envying his own damn dog. Hell. He shook his head to clear away the forbidden thoughts, but they proved pervasive. He waved at the toys and sighed with unfeigned dismay at the sodden pink hippo. His dog had no taste. "I suppose I should get her to the clinic. What do I owe you for her new favorite distractions?"

Duo stood and gave Little Girl a final rub along her side. "On the house." Duo laughed softly at Heero's expression. "Hey, given the way this creature of yours mows her way through toys, I figure you're good for the repeat business." He watched as Heero attached her leash to her collar and she moved to sit close to her master's side, changing allegiances as simply as that. "Goodbye, Sweetie." Duo gave Heero a calculating look. "Hey, if you ever need someone to dog sit or watch her when you go on vacation or anything..." He shrugged, feeling her loss already, not to mention that of her owner, who hadn't been there long enough to suit him yet. "Well... she's a great dog."

Heero gave Duo a calculating look, sliding an extra glance at him. "I'll do that. Thanks."

"And let me know how she does at the vet, okay?" Duo slanted a bit of a rueful grin up through his bangs, and the glint of deep blue through the sun-chased gold-brown of his hair caught and held Heero tight. "I've a bit of a vested interest in how she does from here on out, you know what I mean?"

Heero smiled, offer acknowledged and accepted, and nodded in agreement.

It wasn't until he was safely back in his car that he allowed himself to relax his hands on the steering wheel and rest his forehead briefly against his knuckles.

God he was in trouble. He definitely needed to think about the directions his hormones were leading him in.

He turned the key in the ignition and turned down the highway toward Tallgeese, with Little Girl twisting against her restraints in the back seat.

"Hey, Heero." Trowa dropped into the seat next to Heero as if poured there and slumped uncharacteristically across both his seat and part of the end table. "Doctor S is doing a series of x-rays, just to make sure that everything is still where we put it, but so far, everything looks good. We can wait for her here in the waiting area and he'll bring her out when he's done."

Heero took a long look at his friend, added up the difficulty in contacting him via cell and home and office phone, and current shredded appearance, and came up with only one solution to the puzzle in his head. "Long day?"

"And night, yeah." Trowa cracked an eye open and peered at Heero through the filter of his bangs. "So... Duo found your dog for you..."

"Yeah, he did."

Trowa nodded and slumped back along the hard wooden bench, completely exhausted. "I wonder if that's how she got loose before. Only she didn't get found that time."

Heero's mind was on a different track entirely. "I was lucky that he found her."

"Lucky he was at the right place at the right time." Trowa hoisted an eye open with a great deal of effort in order to check Heero's reaction to that statement.

Heero grunted in response, not certain how much luck had to do with things, not sure how much Trowa was trying to imply with that statement, and content for the moment to sit in quiet companionship as he waited for news on his dog. He looked up as Zechs and Noin entered the waiting area and crossed the room from opposite sides, he from surgery recovery, she from patient room one. They looked up at each other, smiled, touched the edges of their clipboards lightly in passing with the air of regular custom, and continued in the opposite direction without saying a word to each other. But a smile that had been absent before the moment of contact remained in place after.

Heero looked over at Trowa to see if he had noticed that moment, that connection, the subtext that passed between them. He pointed at the other side of the room where the two doctors had disappeared. "I want that."

Trowa shifted in his seat, pulling himself upright. "No, no you don't."

Heero offered a confused look back. "Why the hell not?"

Trowa looked at the closed door and counted on tired fingers. "Well, for one, you haven't seen her before her first morning cup of coffee." He cringed and pointed in the general direction of the closed door. "Oh my god she's awful. And, two, you haven't seen him when he's dealing with someone who's obviously abusing or neglecting an animal. Basically you haven't seen them at their worst or when they're irritated and angry with other people or at each other. They really aren't the best people to be around."

"I don't care. I saw that moment. And I want that with somebody else."

Trowa started to protest, and then paused when he saw the expression on Heero's face, and simply nodded in return. "Fine. You win. You want that." Trowa pointed at the exit door, too tired to belabor the point. "Go and get it then."

"Yeah, well...." Heero looked around the room, at a loss for words before turning back to his best friend. "How?"

Trowa looked back at him, suddenly feeling equally tired, confused, and exhausted. "Damned if I know how."

Little Girl entered the waiting room then, breaking the tension of the moment, straining at the end of her leash and lunging towards her owner on the zero traction of the ceramic tile. Trowa was too caught up in his thoughts to pay attention to the reunion, suddenly saddened by the realization that Heero had never had a moment like the one between Zechs and Noin with anyone in his life. He seemed to be craving a serious relationship very badly. And Heero was a man who knew what he wanted, that wasn't the problem.

Trowa sat back in his seat, rocked there by the realization that, while he and Wufei might have been teasing Heero about this over the last few months, that all this time Heero had apparently known subconsciously exactly who and what he had been looking for. And that for whatever reason, he had been using his job, his car, his clothing, his selection of locations and date activities as his litmus test, as his screening agent and method of filtering the women he'd been dating.

And he had been doing it in such a brutally efficient manner, that he'd been successfully eliminating them on his first dates. In three hours or less.

And he didn't even realize that he'd been doing exactly that during all of this time.

Damn.

Trowa sat back and smiled at Heero and his dog. His dog, that, like it or not, was leading Heero in an entirely different direction. One that Heero didn't seem to be protesting all that much, come to think of it.

"Have you decided what you're going to offer Duo as his reward for finding Little Girl for you?"

Heero offered a sly look in return, but didn't answer that question right away. After a moment, a smile twisted his lips and he lifted his eyes to Trowa's. "So, can you explain to me how this gay thing works? I mean, how can you tell if someone is interested in just being friends or if the interest is sexual or not?" He looked back down at the floor. "Cause I can't seem to get my eyes off the way his jeans hug the curve of his ass." He looked tentatively back at Trowa. "That's a sign, right?"

Well, this was unexpected. Good. Direct. But unexpected. Heero was accepting this change of events much easier than he'd expected him to. Maybe having a gay best friend all of your life had advantages after all. "You mean, how can you tell if Duo is interested in you?"

"Well, yeah, I think so. Assuming that I'm interested in him." He fiddled with the end of Little Girl's leash while thinking. "Okay, yes."

"You have it easy. You already know that Duo is gay. All you have to do is tell him about yourself, that you're not sure how you feel, but that you'd like to ask him out on a date." Trowa smiled. "You even have a ready-made excuse: take him out for dinner as your thank-you for finding your dog for you."

Heero was looking at the registration desk, more specifically at the man currently talking in slow soothing tones to someone on the other end of a phone connection. He lowered his voice and moved closer to Trowa. "So you haven't asked him yet, hmm?"

"It's different when you don't know if they play on your team or not, Heero."

"How?"

Trowa gave a frustrated sigh. "Well, if he's not interested, and not curious, and he's the least bit offended by my interest in him, I could wind up with my nuts ripped off and stuffed down my throat."

Heero couldn't quite suppress the grimace. "Thanks for the vivid visual." He glanced over at the counter, then back again. "But you like him, right?"

"Yeah, yeah I do."

Heero risked another glance at the blond man standing at the desk, now sorting client data and checking the active terminal. "He sure doesn't look that intimidating."

Trowa followed Heero's glance, and let his eyes rest on the man standing capably at the counter. Tall, blond, with an open expression and cheerful demeanor that hid a keen intelligence and charm. "You haven't seen him lift a snarling hundred-pound Rottweiller like he was a feather pillow."

Heero tapped him good-naturedly on the shoulder. "You should say something to him."

"No. Not yet. It's too soon."

"You should. His eyes follow you when he thinks you're not looking." Heero nudged Trowa again. "I think he likes you."

"He does not."

"He does too. He's done it three times since I've been watching him."

Trowa gave Heero a level look. "Okay, fine. You go back over to the Safari and ask Duo out to dinner. I'll stay here, suck it up, and go see if Quatre has any interest in the male of the species. Sound like a deal?"

Heero offered a laugh in return and waved at the blond at the counter, who returned a puzzled look, a shy smile, and a hesitant wave back.

"Deal."

Trowa glared daggers at Heero. "Stop flirting with my date."

"He's not your date yet. Time to get to work and change that."

"Fine. Take your dog and get the heck out of here."

Heero wrapped Little Girl's leash around his wrist, took her clean bill of health and his thoughts and walked out of the glass doors of the lobby, giving Trowa a thumbs up as a departing salute on his way out.

Trowa ambled over to the high counter separating the waiting area from reception and casually leaned over the divider, admiring the more than pleasant view and kissing any hope of neutrality goodbye.

Quatre turned up a curious look at Trowa as Heero walked away. "Is he a... friend of yours?"

"Heero? Yes. We've been best friends for years. Went to high school and undergrad together. He became a software engineer. He's got a new dog now, the HBC that came in last week that he just walked out with. I also thought he was gay, but then he turned out to be straight and was dating, but now he's not so sure that he's straight anymore, and he had some questions that he needed answered about faded denim and the sexual attractiveness of the male species."

Quatre blinked, and blinked again, slowly setting down the clipboard he was holding before he dropped it. "Perhaps you'd better explain that to me again, as I'm not so sure I got that right the first time around."

"How about discussing some of those details over dinner tonight."

Quatre's smile broadened as he smiled up at Trowa's face. "That would be lovely."

Trowa picked up the clipboard for his next case. His day was looking up.

Heero fitted Little Girl back into the buckle collar and fixed leash Trowa had suggested for securing her in the car, and gave her a comforting pat for being good and holding still during his amateurish fumblings. "Trowa made this look easy, didn't he? You ready to go visit Duo again? Daddy's going to go ask him out on a date."

He closed the door and walked around to the driver's side and leaned against the door while muttering, "I can't believe that I just referred to myself as the dog's 'Daddy.' Must make a mental note never to do that again. Ouch."

Once they entered the Safari, Little Girl strained at the end of her leash, and for once, Heero didn't need to ask Duo's uncle where Duo was in the store; Little Girl seemed to know exactly where to find him. She pulled him on a direct beeline course with her leash angling around corners and her toenails sliding and clicking on the tile floor.

Duo jumped down from a short stool when he saw the two of them coming down the aisle. "Hey! All clear on the bill of health?"

Heero thought the beaming smile might be infectious. As it was, he couldn't seem to take his eyes off of Duo's face, even as Duo dropped down to his knees to greet Little Girl as she slid into a wiggling mass of puppy at his feet and tried to snuggle closer.

"She passed with flying colors. She's apparently none the worse for wear for her latest adventure." Heero looked down at his puppy, who even now was sprawled across the linoleum like a dead cockroach, shamelessly begging for tummy scratches.

Slowly, carefully evaluating and measuring every word, "Speaking of which, after I drop her off at home..." Duo looked up openly at him, patiently waiting for Heero to piece his sentence together. "Would you be interested in going out to dinner tonight as a thank-you for finding her?"

Duo settled comfortably on his heels, his hands smoothing over Little Girl's coat, and looked up at Heero neutrally. "Dinner with you?"

Heero pulled back, startled. "It doesn't have to be. I mean, I could get a certificate for any place you like and you could go later with someone els..."

Duo reached up and touched Heero's hand, halting his words. "Dinner is good. With you is good." He stood up, bracing himself against the display unit and automatically held out his hand to prevent Little Girl from leaping up to solicit more attention, the hint of a smile starting to twist the corners of his lips. "Tonight, you said?"

"If that's okay with you. Any place you want to go. I'll need a few minutes to drop Little Girl off and change clothes..." He trailed off at the mirth hiding in Duo's expression. "What is it?"

Duo chuckled. "My choice? Any restaurant?"

Heero relaxed a little and started to smile in return. "Your choice."

"Then you don't need to change, and you don't need to drop her off. She can come along, just so long as you think you can manage to keep her off of the table long enough for both of us to actually eat something."

Heero smiled, and felt the power of his elation run through him. His day felt brighter, his body lighter. "I think I can manage that. Now?"

"Now is good. I mean, now is great!" Duo untied his working apron, tossed it casually to the side, and cracked a wicked, kid-like grin at Heero. "Does this mean I finally get to ride in your car?"

Heero laughed, giving his unexpected joy an outlet, and waved Duo grandly towards the exit of the store and the late model, high-horsepower, metallic blue sin that rested on seventeen-inch rims just beyond the door.

Heero looked at the front of the building. "It looks like a converted fire house."

Duo smiled. "It is a converted fire house. But they have café tables out in the courtyard in the back. We can't take her through the main restaurant entrance for obvious reasons, but..." He pointed out a narrow alley decorated with Christmas lights and potted herbs set out along the side of a brick path and painted walls. "We go that way."

Little Girl seemed hesitant to go down the unfamiliar path, but she was ready enough to follow Duo if he led the way. Heero remembered Treize's earlier words about animals having good judgment of character, and walked along down the alley toward the lighter patch of sunlight at the end.

Iron café tables with lattice-style tops and fabric umbrellas with logos from popular imported beer brands were arranged in a small courtyard carved out from the remains of an open garage lot, likely used for equipment storage during the prior tenant's use. It was cheerful, not overly crowded, but there were enough regulars present to indicate that the food was decent enough quality to warrant frequenting by large families and intimate couples. Duo waved at the only waitstaff on duty and pointed first at Little Girl, then at the corner table.

"That way she might not be able to get into as much trouble. Two brick walls should limit the escape routes as well."

"Smart thinking." Heero sat Little Girl in the corner and took a moment to appreciate the scenery. He took a moment to look at Duo and to appreciate the moment. So this is what a date with a guy felt like. Funny. It didn't feel much different than going out for a business meeting with one of the guys at work or hanging out with Wufei or Trowa. Then again, this was Duo. He could feel his skin warm at the thought of that and the hopes contained within this, and that made all of the difference. More anticipation... More tension...

Duo watched as Little Girl gave into the inevitable and stretched out on the ground under the table with her body close to Heero, but rutching around until she was comfortable and was close enough to use Duo's boot as a pillow for her head. Duo grinned widely across the table at Heero and pointed down through the table top at the resting dog before handing one of the menus to Heero. "They make a great cheeseburger here."

"Sold." Heero wrapped Little Girl's leash around his hand twice for good measure and placed his order.

Duo talked with his food. Heero watched as he conducted his way through the meal waving first a burger and a sequence of fries, and then by sliding a beer and its refills from one side of the table to the other. Heero fed fry after fry to his dog surreptitiously under the table and watched his dinner companion, fascinated by the subtle details of his movement and behavior. It was like dancing through the courses of a meal while sitting down and talking.

It was fascinating.

If Duo noticed how much Heero was watching him, he was too kind to call him on it, preferring instead to keep the conversation to general topics they had already proven a common interest for: dogs, fast cars, and popular movies. Expanding on those proved surprisingly easy given the quick minds involved, and Heero found his ideas turned back and challenged more than once.

It had been a very long time since anyone had made him think on his feet. Had made him work to keep up with thoughts expressed into words in such rapid-fire expression.

It was addictive. He liked it. Heero didn't want the meal to end.

As they were leaving the Ferry Street Firehouse, walking single file down the narrow alley back to his car, Heero thought about contact -- about reaching out and touching Duo. Again with the desire to touch... It was so unusual for him, and unexpected. He walked along with his dog, thinking about when and how he might initiate that first contact beyond shaking hands. Was it okay to touch Duo? When would it be okay to touch him? Heero had a feeling that he would know... something important... something vital about himself only if and when they touched.

Then Little Girl forged ahead of him, pulling ahead of Duo as well and drawing the two of them close together. It was accidental contact; stumbling and harried in the twilight between the buildings, Heero's hand resting briefly on Duo's shoulder for balance, Duo shouldering into Heero's side and laughing in surprise as Little Girl barged past them both.

It was heaven.

It was innocent.

It told him everything he needed to know.

Duo turned to Heero as they reached the car. "Listen, my apartment is only a short walk from the restaurant, so I'm good from here." He leaned down and gently stroked Little Girl's ears and she reciprocated the contact by leaning into his legs and pressing her head against his thigh. "Umm... I don't know if you're interested, but there's a dog park over behind the tennis courts in the city park system. I go there sometimes just to see the dogs, but it would be a great place to let her off leash for a while. If you..."

Heero wasn't certain how this game was played. Was it okay to be this eager and excited to see him again? To want to spend more time with him? "When? Now?"

Duo chuckled, then gave into an inner urge and smiled, deep and wide. "Is tomorrow okay with you, Heero? After work?"

"Yes."

Duo nodded. "Then it's a date, right?"

If possible, Heero's smile widened to match Duo's. "It is. How about I pick you up at the Safari once I swing home to pick up Little Girl."

"Somehow, I think it's genetically, morally, ethically, and otherwise impossible for me to refuse a ride in your car."

Heero couldn't contain the glow of pride. "Then I have you in my power."

Duo laughed, eager and pleased. "Doesn't take a fancy car to do that."

Heero's smile took on a playful and teasing quality as he leaned against the smooth curve of the fender. "Now you're flattering me."

"Will it get me another ride in your car?"

"Yes. Tomorrow."

Duo beamed. "I win."

With a toss of his hair over his shoulder, and a slide of that same braid over the recently oft-admired, faded denim curve, he was gone. Heero looked down at his dog. "I'm so fucking doomed. Let's go call Trowa and find out what the hell I'm supposed to do next."

Heero waited until after he got home, then stalled until after breakfast, and, truth to tell, delayed some more until he found his courage at the bottom of his second cup of Starbucks at the office the next morning before calling Trowa. The chocolate pecan brownie he stole from Wufei's desk helped bolster his confidence somewhat as well. "Trowa? I called at the clinic first, and they said your shift didn't start until noon. I have a date with Duo tonight and I need some more of your advice."

There was a long moment of silence and a soft uncharacteristic rustle at the other end of the phone line that gave Heero pause. "I didn't wake you, did I?" Heero heard something that might have been a contented rumble, then the unmistakable protest of bedsprings, and a mumbled pardon too indistinct for him to make out.

There was a muffled quality to the sound that told him Trowa was cradling the cordless phone between his neck and shoulder. "You did. Since you're my best friend, I may forgive you some time in the next century if you give me a good enough reason for your call. And I'm making breakfast now. You have the duration of my brewing a pot of coffee and the process of toasting and buttering English muffins before I hang up on you and go back to bed. And yes, that was bed, not sleep. Please note the difference." This was said with a degree of well-deserved smugness. In the background, Heero could hear the sound of Trowa moving pots around in his kitchen as he waited for Heero to recover and catch on.

"My god... How could... Why..." Heero paused for a moment to allow his mouth to catch up with his brain. "One date and he's spending the night? Damn... That's fast, Trowa."

"When you're dealing with two guys that actually know what they're doing, it doesn't take quite as long to actually hook up and start having sex, Heero."

Heero seemed rather taken aback at Trowa's frankness. "I guess not. But... hell. One date for me and we had a nice normal quiet dinner that I might have had with you or Wufei except that, well, it was in a public place and we had a dog as a chaperone. Okay, and only one moment of contact, and I had the dog to thank for that. Well, the dog and a long enough leash to tangle us in. Anyway, here you guys are sleeping together after the first night..." He trailed off and could hear as Trowa continued with his breakfast preparations.

"You're rambling and the clock's ticking, Heero. What did you want to know? And are you really ready for that? The tangling with or sleeping and sex? Do you really want all of that at this point?"

Heero paused for a moment to think about that. "Want?" And he thought for a moment or two more until the images shifted through his mind of Duo bending over to pick up the sack of dog food at the Safari, his faded, silvered black denim shifting over skin; of his braid trailing casually over his arm while at dinner; and of Duo brushing his bangs out of his eyes and looking up at Heero. Heero's skin grew warm and his pants tightly uncomfortable. "Oh yeah, absolutely." But ready? Did he know what to do? Did he know how Duo would react? Was he ready to take that leap in their relationship? Was he ready for that? No. No he wasn't, and he admitted that to Trowa. "Shit, I'm at the office, you pervert. And you know what thinking about him does to me."

"That's a good sign." Trowa chuckled dryly at the other end of the connection and the china clinked. "Well, well then here's your next mission assignment. You're going to go out on a date with Duo. A real date-date."

"We're going out on one tomorrow." He added almost as an afterthought, "Date-date. Like that's an official term."

"Did Duo actually use the word, 'date'?"

"Yes, Trowa, he did."

Trowa sounded insufferably pleased all of a sudden. That didn't bode well. "Well, there's half the battle won then, he's interested in you." There was another pause. "You accepted, right?"

"Yes."

"Did you use the word, 'date'?"

"Yes, I used the word date."

"Well, that means that you're interested in him too, right?"

"I'm not totally clueless, Trowa. I mean, I do know what a date is."

Trowa actually laughed out loud at him. "Sometimes, Heero, Wufei and I have wondered about that. Okay, so where is this date? Are you guys going traditional, like out to the movies and dinner or someplace where you can snuggle and grope? Or a dark and private grotto where you can finally get some physical contact?"

"We're going to the city bark park... with the dog."

"Well... that's a start I guess." Trowa sounded somewhat doubtful. "Did you pick the location, or did Duo pick this?"

"It was Duo's choice."

"Well, he's probably trying to learn more about you without pressuring you too much, trying to find some neutral ground so you're both comfortable. Heero? If you're serious about this... and really do want to learn more about him, go ahead and tell him that you're interested but that you're really uncertain about the lifestyle and that this is all brand new to you. Just tell him that. I think Duo's the kind of guy that, if you confess that this is all new territory for you, he'll help walk you though it."

"Trowa?"

"Yes?"

"How do you know all of this?"

There was a suspicious pause before Trowa coughed on the other end of the phone line. "Well, I admit that I think that Duo's pretty cute too, and I took him out for coffee at Starbucks a few months ago to see if we had anything in common. But he's a dog person and I'm a cat person and that was that. We just didn't seem to hit it off."

Heero had to think about that for a few minutes before deciding that he just didn't like the idea of Trowa taking Duo out on a date before Heero had. Admitting that he'd spoken with him about Heero was one thing, but this? He didn't like that feeling all. After he managed to tamp the jealousy down a little, he tried to broach the subject with a bit more in the way of rational thought behind it to see if that would help. "So, Trowa, how does this whole attraction thing work between men?"

"Well... have you ever felt attracted to me? I mean, sexually, as opposed to just as friends."

Heero had to think about that for a moment before answering. "Maybe. There was a time, maybe twice, where I thought you were attractive and, since I knew you were gay, I wondered and looked. So yeah, if we're being completely honest and open about everything here, I would say, probably, yes."

"Okay, well, if you had to think about it and if the answer was maybe, then that really isn't a positive response. Now... think about Duo. Tell me about the first time you met him. Think about that. Now... tell me how you felt then. When you first saw him, was the attraction there?"

"Yes..." Immediate and strong and vivid and... damn, his khakis were too damn tight again.

"Now do you know what the difference is?"

"Yes. Now I've got it. Now I understand." Heero chuckled. "You and Quatre, hmm?"

"Something very like that, yeah. And my coffee is done, and I have four more hours before I have to be at the clinic, and no offence, but I'd rather not spend them speaking on the phone with you."

"Thanks, Trowa."

"Good luck, Heero. Enjoy your date tonight. See if you can come up with something a bit more interesting for the next one, okay?"

Okay. Right. Fine.

The end of the work day couldn't come soon enough for him.

Duo was waiting for him when he pulled up in front of the Safari after work.

Heero left work a little early, then circled around to his condo in record time. But what did one wear to a dog park? It didn't seem quite a dress-to-impress occasion, but then again, it was time spent in the company of the one person on the planet he had an interest in impressing at the moment, so every opportunity counted. Heero figured that he probably wasted all of the minutes he'd gained by leaving early and rushing the lights by questioning his wardrobe choices.

Duo, of course, managed to look perfect. Relaxed and self assured, leaning casually against the storefront with two cups bearing the familiar Starbucks' logo in hand. He saluted when Heero pulled up and walked over to lean on the open window ledge, handing over the café americano. "Yours."

Little Girl made happy jingling noises in the backseat as she pulled against her improvised seat harness in an effort to greet Duo. He reached in and patted her head. "No coffee for you, very bad for growing puppies, this is big guy medicine."

Duo slid comfortably into the passenger seat, raising the cup at Heero. "This okay? I know some people are weird about stuff in their cars."

Heero gave him a long, measuring look and opened the retracted cup holder for their use. He took a swallow of his own beverage and set his cup in the holder, tapping the cap with a thoughtful finger. "It's okay; I trust you."

And the odd thing was, after all of those years, all of those first dates, it was finally true.

"She's a wimp."

"She's not a wimp. She's young and insecure. She'll grow out of it."

"She's not having any fun."

Duo rolled his eyes and chuckled at Heero's over-protectiveness. "You'll make someone a great dad someday."

"I'm not in the running for fatherhood at the moment, just dog ownership."

"Well, I think you're a good candidate for either field, trust me."

"I don't think she's up for this quite yet." Heero pointed to his dog, who was sitting rather solidly on top of his feet and not twitching a muscle when other dogs approached her for an inquiring sniff.

"She'll get better in time. You can see the potential in her. She's got spark."

Heero sat next to Duo on the park bench, Little Girl a heavy weight on his feet. The park was noisy around them, but here, on the bench, only a few inches between them, there was a pocket of quiet. He looked up at the tree overhead, at the three other dogs in the field and their owner walking slowly around the perimeter of the chain-link fence half an acre away. Heero gave Duo a level look. He could do this. He could. "Listen, um... I need to go out of town this weekend on Eypon business for a follow-up client meeting to discuss some more of the software customization for... never mind, you're probably not all that interested in that. Anyway, I was going to leave Little Girl at Tallgeese, but you mentioned once that you'd be willing to watch her for me if I ever needed a dogsitter and..."

Duo shrugged. "When?"

"Saturday through Sunday. I mean, she's used to me being at work all day, so you'd just need to stop in and feed her and walk her and maybe watch some television or something with her so she doesn't feel like she's been abandoned. I just don't want to have to board her at the hospital again so soon after..."

"Heero?"

Heero was aware that he was probably rambling, but he couldn't seem to halt the flow of his words. "Maybe you could take her to work with you or over here to the bark park or something. Okay, that might be too much given her injuries and all..."

"Heero?"

"Hmm?"

"I'd be happy to watch her while you're away."

He looked at Duo, unsure at first how best to respond. "Thanks. I owe you one."

Duo looked him up and down very slowly and winked. "I'm sure I'll be able to come up with an interesting way for you to repay me."

Heero smiled back, willing to follow in the spirit of the offering. "Any coin is open to consideration."

Duo laughed. "So when do you want to do all of the negotiating for keys and contact numbers?"

Heero shuffled Little Girl off of his feet. "How do you feel about dropping her off at my condo? I can walk you through all of the details and then maybe we can swing by the mall parking lot for a while? It's classic car night. The Mustang Club I belong to meets there and there should be some nice cars..."

Duo touched his arm. Just a touch, light at first, tracing from forearm to wrist before he hesitantly took Heero's hand in his. "Is this okay?"

Heero shifted his grip, firming it and making the connection more solid. "Yeah, I think it is."

"You ready to head out to the mall?"

"I think that sounds like a good idea."

"You bought me supper, so how about I buy you dessert?"

"Are you...," Heero tried to come up with a better word, but gave up and went with the first one that came to his mind. "Interested in... this?" He wanted to say 'me', but it was easier somehow to ask for something non-specific instead of something so very personally intimate.

Again that hesitant touch, this time releasing his hand but following from his wrist and drifting slowly to his shoulder before slipping off into empty air and tomorrow's wishes. "Heero? Do you really have to ask? Don't you feel it too?" There was a soft whisper of denim on worn wood, as Duo slid closer on the bench. "You know, your friend never said if you were... well... anyway."

Heero looked back at Duo, but Duo was staring back out at the field again, at the woman with the three dogs who was now clipping leashes to collars and getting ready to leave the bark park.

"I'm not sure if I am."

Duo withdrew a fraction of an inch with Heero's reply. It felt much farther than that to Heero, and he reached out to Duo, not realizing that for the first time, he was the one bridging the gap between them. "I'm not sure if I am, but you're right. I feel something too. Maybe all those years of hanging around Trowa did something to my brain." He shrugged, but there was humor and a touch of acceptance in the movement. "Be patient with me, will you? I haven't a clue what I'm getting into here, okay?"

"You don't often do things by half measures, do you?"

"'Fraid not. I'm willing to see what happens, and open to opportunities though. I can't honestly promise any more than that."

Duo nodded. "See how it goes? Take things slow? Okay. I can't ask for more than that in return." He shuffled his boots in the dust and turned his head to the side, and a wide smile escaped. "Okay, now you can take me home with you." He nudged Heero in the side with a gentle press of knuckles. "Let's take your girlfriend home and you can show me all the details for taking care of her while you're away for the weekend, deal?"

Heero smiled back. "Deal."

Duo walked around from room to room, Little Girl following him like a four-legged shadow. It felt decidedly odd to be in Heero's home without Heero around, odd, but at the same time, well... good. Very good. It was difficult to put his finger on what it was about Heero's place that he liked about it, other than the fact that it was Heero's, and therefore bound to be attractive to him. Perhaps the large collection of framed photographs on the wall from vacations Heero had been on with family and with friends, the large collection of books in the living room, the soft colors and elegant color scheme -- though Heero had confessed that the paint and drapes had been courtesy of the previous owner. All of the art and collectibles were his though, handed down through his family for generations from father to son. Duo fingered the hilt of an elaborate sword and wondered for a moment about the pride he'd heard in Heero's voice then, when he'd confessed to his legacy, and then he let the moment go.

Duo had enjoyed the tour. He liked the home he lived in. And the personal tour guide? Well, he was pretty damned spectacular, if Duo had a say in the matter and was taking notes and saving them for the fantasy after-hours replay. Which, well... he was.

He'd only been living on his own for four months. Living with his uncle hadn't been a hardship exactly, but he'd wanted his own space. His own apartment was a significant step down from Heero's condo, but then again, he'd only been living in it for a short time yet, and it hadn't come with any of the pre-interior design perks or the handed-down family history to help assist with the decorating. The only problem was that he couldn't afford to live in his own apartment and maintain his car as well, so his car was currently hibernating under an auto cocoon in Howard's barn. He missed driving his own car. While the company van was adequate transportation and his own car certainly wasn't the stunner that Heero's was, it was still something he was proud of. It certainly wasn't inexpensive to insure though, and that had been the kicker in his budget plan.

Duo chuckled and leaned back on the sofa, moving his book from right hand to left as he reached for his drink. Little Girl, snuggled up close against his chest, grumbled in protest at the slight shift in position, but otherwise refused to move. "Wonder what Heero will say when he sees the '69 Reaper." He returned to reading through Heero's excellent collection of Mustang reference books, and lost track of time yet again.

"So much for flights being delayed for weather." Heero collected his luggage at the baggage claim carousel and pushed his way through the crowds around the airport departures gate area. His airline cancellation had instead turned into his rare good fortune, landing him an earlier connection on a partner airline that had him with his feet on the ground a full three hours earlier than expected, and hopefully with a few more hours of sleep available before the end of the weekend wound down into the small hours of Monday morning.

Thankfully, it was only raining at his destination airport, the freezing rain that had bogged his connection was three states safely behind him, and it was nearing eleven-thirty. Not a late hour, nor an early one, probably too late to expect Duo to still be at his condo though.

At first he'd fought with the idea of calling Duo over the weekend, ostensibly to check to see how Little Girl was doing while he was away, but in actuality, to hear Duo's voice and to test whether the connection they'd made, or that Heero thought they'd made, was strong enough at this point to hold over the narrow extension of a phone line.

He quickly found that it was, and Heero had found himself hard pressed to not call Duo during his breaks and then again, long after his sessions with the customers were through for the day. There was something about talking with Duo, for however long or however brief a period of time, that made the day seem better somehow. Their subject matter ranged from the inane blandness of the weather, to what Little Girl was doing at that moment, to Heero listening in as Duo put his cell phone in his pocket and spoke knowledgeably to a customer about the type of fish to buy for his son's first ever aquarium set up. Duo had apologized for the time it had taken, but Heero hadn't minded at all, content to hear Duo's voice even if it wasn't directed at him. He wished he could capture the quality and timbre of it and bottle it somehow and save it for other times. He had a sense that it would come in useful.

He wanted to keep Duo close to him. Was that a good thing? Or something too dangerous for consideration at this point in his life?

By the time he pulled up outside of his unit, the rain had tapered off to a heavy mist, miserable but bearable, and he was very much looking forward to the comfort of being home. The door was locked, the outside lights were on, welcoming him home, and he could tell that the television was on by the flickering glow coming from the living room area. He opened the front door, set his bag and briefcase on the hall floor with care, and approached the back of his home with growing apprehension.

Why wasn't Little Girl crying in her crate or coming to the door to greet him? His answer to that question, once he found it, stopped him in his tracks. Even tired and worn from his weekend of work and his endless day of travel, she still managed to wring a pale chuckle from him. "Some watchdog you are."

Here he was, triumphant in his return to the household from his journey away from hearth and home, wishing nothing more than a warm welcome from his faithful companion. What did he find instead? Duo Maxwell, stretched out in all his relaxed and rumpled glory along the breadth of his sofa, arm wrapped carelessly around a throw pillow, the other falling across his face and shading his face from the glare of the television screen, and his dog sprawled out on top of him, sound asleep until the moment Heero so very rudely interrupted her slumbers.

Heero looked hungrily at Duo. Lucky dog.

She lifted her head to look him over in an 'oh, you're back' sort of fashion, and then dropped it heavily back to Duo's chest startling him into shifting his position and moving his arm on top of her. That was apparently her cue to move, as she clambered off of him with much apparent painful foot and elbow positioning and ran over to Heero to make up for her initial quiet greeting.

Duo yawned and slowly propped himself up on his elbows as he watched the excited wiggles and dancing of the reunion from a safe distance. "I think she missed you."

"You're still here."

"She wasn't the only one who missed you, you know." Duo shifted position until he was sitting more comfortably on the sofa. He patted the cushion next to him in a silent request for Heero to join him. "You're back early."

"My flight was cancelled, and the other airline had a better connection." Heero yawned as well, despite his best effort not to do so. "Wasn't expecting to find you here." He smiled at Duo, trying to put some of what he'd been thinking over the weekend into his expression. "Thanks."

Duo leaned over and stroked Heero along the side of his face with at first tentative, and then very gentle fingers. "You look ripped." He leaned over and gave a very surprised Heero a gentle kiss at the corner of his mouth and then stood back to survey his work, paying careful attention to the balance of surprise, tiredness, and tender welcome he found there. "Go get some rest. I'll call you tomorrow."

And then he was gone. Leaving Heero sitting on the sofa with his dog, who was far too large to be considered a lap dog, studiously trying to cram the entirety of her bulk including her cast onto his lap. He felt along his face and traced his lip with the tip of his tongue, tasting Duo there as he absently patted her.

Tomorrow, only a few hours hence, seemed a long time away.

Heero could hear Trowa ratting silverware and making breakfast in the background. Quatre must have spent the night again. Lucky bastards, both of them. Not that he was sure he was ready for the whole gay sex adventure, but the almost-sort-of-kiss had been damn hot, and he was getting fairly anxious to see what the rest of the vacation package had to offer. Especially given the personal tour director he had in mind...

"This is starting to sound pretty serious."

Heero backpedaled and tried to downplay his involvement. After all, it wasn't like he was as involved as Trowa and Quatre were. "It's only been three sort-of dates and a few other times that I've seen him in the store that you can't even remotely consider official date-type sort of activities."

"This from the same guy who has the three-hour one-date elimination process down to a clinical science? Heero? What aren't you telling me?"

Okay, so the man had a valid point there.

"Trowa?"

"Yeah?"

"This is starting to get pretty serious."

There was the sound of something dropping. "I'll be right over. Don't go anywhere."

"Hell, Trowa, not this morning. I need to be at the office in... Trowa? Trowa! Dammit." Heero looked down at Little Girl, who stared patiently up at him as she waited for her toast crust. "I love him like a brother, but I swear to you that if he had anything to do with making me gay..."

Trowa found him on the kitchen floor fifteen minutes later, hugging his dog and crying.

"No, honest, I feel better now." He waved off the offer of another cup of coffee and sat limply on the sofa, a worried Trowa hovering over him. "I just never applied the term to myself like that before and it just hit me strange, I think."

Heero leaned over and fisted his hands in his hair. "Ah, fuck. I really don't want to talk to my parents about this." He looked up at Trowa with red eyes. "I really don't."

Trowa sat on one of the low chairs and looked unusually serious. "Heero? Look at it this way, if this is the guy for you. If this is the one person, the one soul, the one individual you're supposed to spend the rest of your life with. Who truly loves you and that you love back, that brings you joy, and that you bring joy in return, and that you truly do want to spend the rest of your life with. Realize that it is not going to be easy. It will be complicated." He paused and his expression lightened somewhat. "It can have incredible rewards, but it will be complicated. It may make things very difficult, if not impossible, with your parents. You may lose some of the closeness you currently have with them, but you don't live with your parents anymore. On the other hand, if you work at your relationship, and he wants it to work as much as you do, you'll have him, he'll have you. And, you have to decide. Is it worth it? Is he worth that?"

Trowa shrugged one of his negligently elegant shrugs. "In the end, it really is both that complicated and that simple, all in one." His look turned serious once more. "But be aware that this lifestyle is a true life-changing decision, and you should take this very slowly and be very certain for both your sake and Duo's. Your family may hate you, everything from employment to grocery shopping to mistletoe becomes a social issue you can't afford to ignore. Do you really want to live the rest of your life that way?"

Heero looked forlorn and lost, plucking dejectedly at loose fur in Little Girl's coat. "I'm not sure I had a choice in the matter. In any case, I think it may already be too late for me. I'm not so sure about Duo."

Trowa pulled Heero to his feet and gave him a push towards the door. "Why don't you go ask him?"

"He's at work. I'm supposed to be at work. We're supposed to meet later anyway." Heero shoved Trowa towards the door instead. "Thanks for the pep talk. I owe you another bottle of that red wine you like. Go home, Trowa."

"Hey, I've been dealing with this most of my life, you're just getting used to the concept."

"Yes, I know, you're earning your way though a full case of wine at your present consultant's rates. Now go home." Heero waved Trowa through the threshold and then wedged his knee in the doorway to prevent Little Girl from escaping. "And thanks."

Trowa hesitated on the porch. "You know Heero, I have a wide selection of books and videos when you get to the next stage of your relationship."

Heero smiled back, implying that he knew more than he was letting on. "I'm certain that you do. Thank you, Trowa." He shut the door, already feeling much better about his late morning.

Five-thirty-six P.M. after a nearly useless day at Epyon, during which no less than four people leaned over the side of his cubicle and shook their heads in disbelief at the state of his production schedule, Heero slotted his Mustang into its now-customary spot in front of the Safari.

Five-thirty-seven found him face to face with his favorite addiction, this time stacking bags of different colored aquarium gravel onto the store shelves before waving Heero over to the register area.

Heero stared at him, trying to feel out the best way to approach what could be, for the two of them at least, a potentially volatile subject. "So, Duo, that kiss yesterday, what was that for?"

Duo paused and glared at him accusingly. "Because it's your fault that I was answering every damn call that came into the Safari over the weekend. Every. Damn. Call. Uncle Howard thought it was hilarious. Every time the phone would ring I'd drop whatever I was doing, ignore whichever customer had my attention the moment before, blush like mad, because I knew that deep down inside he was laughing hysterically at me, and I'd run for the phone anyway, because you might have been on the other end of it. That kiss, Yuy, was takeback for a weekend of public humiliation."

Heero noted that Duo did not look in the least bit embarrassed at the moment to be stating this as fact. In fact, he seemed somewhat pleased with himself. Heero nodded. "So noted. Do I owe you then, or is the tally even for the moment?"

Duo grinned wickedly and propped himself on the counter, leaning back against the palms of his hands. "I think we've accounted for up until five P.M. or so on Friday. So I'd say you still have the rest of the weekend to work off."

Heero looked down along the length of Duo's torso, liking what that pose was doing for the inside of him. A lot. "Any suggestions on how you'd like me to... work that off." This was still blindingly new territory for him, as Trowa hadn't had a chance to explain how this part was supposed to work yet. He supposed he could just wing it though...

"I'm sure you'll come up with something."

Was Duo being suggestive? Or casual? Or... damn. He was probably double- or triple-thinking this. "How about dinner tonight?"

Duo pretended to consider that for all of about a nanosecond. "Okay."

Heero gave him, and his suggestive pose, a second look. "In or out?"

Duo blinked at him. "What?"

Score. "Dinner in, or dinner out?"

"All of this and you can cook too?"

"I can, yes. " Heero rolled his eyes. "Actually, I promised the guys I'd meet them tonight for dinner at the Carousel. Trowa wants to introduce us to Quatre." He looked at Duo and smiled. "What time can you leave? I still need to stop by the house and let Little Girl out before we head over to the restaurant."

Duo laughed. "Guess this means I'm going, huh?"

"Unless you..."

"Easy." He rested a hand on Heero's shoulder with easy familiarity. "Thanks for including me. Give me a few minutes to let Howard know what I'm up to and to grab a clean shirt from the back, okay?"

Heero felt himself relax under the warmth of that hand, under the truth in the words. "Okay."

Duo winked as he headed off to the storage room, braid swinging. "And you still owe me."

"I still owe him. Right. Sure I do." Heero looked around the store. "And now he's got me talking to myself."

Duo reappeared a few minutes later, tugging a black tee shirt into place and carrying a stuffed toy. "Howard's going to close for me, so we can leave now."

Heero eyed Duo's chest with a fair bit of enthusiasm, the dog toy in his hand with something a bit less. "Do I want to know about the duck?"

"It's for your girlfriend. We get sample merchandise in all of the time and I thought I'd try it out on her.

Heero raised an eyebrow in silent question at him.

"It has an electronic soundbox that quacks."

"Oh, rapturous joy." Heero tried for a deadpan expression, and subsequently decided that the sound of Duo's laughter was worth any pain the quacking duck would bring. He shook his head and waved at his car. "Go, get in the car, or we'll be late."

They both entered his condo to the sound of Little Girl pawing at her crate and whining loudly for attention.

"You go get changed; I'll get her fed and outed and set up for the evening, okay?"

Heero gave a dubious glance at the living room, at the dog toy, and at Duo's clean tee shirt. It sounded too good to be true. "What's the price for this service?"

"I'll come up with something." Duo shoved Heero, not ungently, towards the bedroom. "Now go, we're on a timeline here."

"Not that much of one we're not," he called back over his shoulder, already stripping off his tie.

"That would depend entirely upon what it was I intended to ask you for as my payment for dog care services this evening."

Heero started changing his clothes with a newfound urgency, and elected to walk back though the house still carrying his shoes instead of taking the time to put them on, calling out for Duo as he went.

"In the kitchen."

Heero stopped at the edge of the tile to appreciate the view. "What is it with you and sitting on counters. Ummm, not that I'm complaining, mind you."

"You're not complaining? Could have fooled me. And here I thought you would have put in multifunctional countertops -- good for all sorts of uses."

Heero tried to look insulted on his kitchen's behalf, but failed to suppress a chuckle. "It's holding its own admirably, just like its owner."

Duo waved him closer. "Yeah, well. I think maybe it's time to see just how well your technique measures up. Tit for tat and quid pro quo and all that."

Heero knew a challenge when he heard one. Not quite understanding the best way to approach the subject, he stalked across the kitchen until he stood between Duo's bent knees, and moved in until his chest pressed lightly against Duo's, his hands sliding along the slick marble countertop until he came up with the better idea to slide them around Duo instead. He leaned forward until his face neared Duo's, and he set his lips to work exploring the varied textures of Duo's lower lip, slowly working inward, tugging slowly at his prize until Duo gasped openly in surprise or some other emotion, and he took advantage of the moment to explore gently within.

Men's mouths really weren't that different than women's he discovered, firmer, more demanding, less sweet, and equally smooth. He liked kissing Duo. Very much. He pulled back, licking his lips slightly to reach for more of the lingering taste. "God, you taste good."

Duo, he found upon withdrawing and looking at his face, was wearing an expression somewhere between bewildered, enchanted, and enraptured. He leaned after Heero as Heero backed away from the kiss, as if an extra moment or two of contact would be more than worth the risk of falling from his perch on the counter. "More?"

"Later."

"Now."

Heero laughed. "Greedy."

"Where you're concerned? Hell yeah, especially after that appetizer."

"We need to leave soon if we're not going to disappoint Trowa."

Duo reached out and draped his arms over Heero's shoulders. "I vote for disappointing the man then."

Heero chucked. "Do you really? After all he's done for us?"

"Okay, when you put it that way."

"Trowa is introducing Quatre to Wufei, and I thought it would be a nice opportunity for them to meet you as well. I mean, Trowa you know already, but..."

Duo held out a hand. "It's okay, Heero. Where are we going again?"

"We're supposed to meet them at that new restaurant over on Hageman."

Duo nodded, doing his best not to alert Heero to his nervousness, but Heero leaned into his touch again. "Don't worry, they're good people, even Wufei, who can be a bit of a prick. Trowa you've met; Quatre works with him at Tallgeese, and Wufei works with me at Epyon." Heero got a thoughtful look. "I don't think Wufei is planning on bringing anyone to dinner. He's been dating someone at the office, but I don't think they've reached the stage where they're meeting other friends yet."

Duo smiled. "And we have?"

"Yes. We have." Heero pulled him into a tight embrace. "It feels good, doesn't it?"

"Yes, yes it does."

Heero looked up at him. "Do I get another kiss for that?"

Duo smiled back. "Now who's being greedy?"

Midway though the dinner, Trowa gave Heero the signal and pulled him aside behind a privacy screen of wood lattice and live plants for a moment, standing with the table within sight, but careful to keep his voice low. "So, I wanted to ask but things got busy at work, how's everything working out so far?"

Heero couldn't help the mild smirk that escaped. "Fantastic? Wonderful? Terrific?" He gave Trowa a calculating look. "Or were you asking me about Duo instead of my new dog?" Heero ducked the half-hearted swipe Trowa aimed at him.

"Idiot." Trowa cocked his head, half listening in on the conversation between Duo, Quatre, and Wufei before turning to smile at Heero. "So, what do you think of Quatre?"

Heero shrugged. "I don't think it matters nearly as much what I think of him as what you think of him, and it's obvious that you think he's perfect, so..."

"Go ahead, be blunt with me, Heero. I can take it." Trowa laughed softly, but there was a painful quality to it, at being caught out and unprotected in his feelings.

Heero gave in and patted him on the shoulder in a commiserating fashion. "You've fallen hard for this one, haven't you?"

Trowa nodded.

Heero saw something different in his friend's face as he stood and watched Quatre speaking with the others at the table. Something he hadn't seen until that moment, because he hadn't had anything, any personal experience, to compare the moment with until now. "Do you love him?" he asked quietly, hoping the others were as distracted as they seemed to be by the loud conversation at the table.

Trowa nodded again.

"Have you told him yet?"

"You don't think it's too soon? That I shouldn't wait and make sure that he's 'it', the one and only, the real thing?"

It was Heero's turn to shrug his answer.

Trowa got a distant look on his face, and Heero poked him in the side to gain his attention. Trowa waved him to silence and pointed to the other side of the privacy screen. "Listen."

Heero shook his head and then paid closer attention to the conversation that had been going on beneath his notice. Something Wufei had been talking about to Duo and Quatre about Heero's obsession with cars. Heero shrugged and opened his mouth to continue questioning Trowa, but Trowa held up a finger in a bid for silence, and Heero waited.

Wufei was continuing with, "Did you know that he slept in that car the first night he brought it home? If you transport food, it needs to be in a leak-proof, closed container and either strapped into the seats or loaded into the trunk. He doesn't allow anyone to drink anything in it either, not even tap water. " Wufei paused, building up for his finale. "The day he allows someone to sit in his car with an open drink container will be the day he's finally found the true love of his life."

The sound of Duo's voice, "But Heero and I drink our coffee in the Mustang all of the...," brought Heero and Trowa from around the barrier just in time to see the pole-axed expression on Wufei's face, and the puzzled look on Quatre's.

Seeing the group reaction, Duo backpedaled in a rush. "I'm sure it was just an occasional thing, really..." But Wufei's shocked face told him otherwise. Heero had made a regular exception in his case, and a big one, if his friends' reactions were any indication, and they continued to send telling glances his way throughout the remainder of the meal.

Maybe it was that simple realization that Wufei brought to new light, maybe it was the fact that he saw Trowa struggling with finding love and it made him see his own with more clarity. For whatever reason, Heero decided that it was time to bring the topic up again on the drive home from the restaurant.

"Duo? I'm not sure if this is the time for this, or if there ever really is a good time for this sort of thing..."

Duo recoiled in the passenger seat as if struck, eyes wide with hurt.

Oh hell. "Duo, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to start like that. I didn't realize what that sounded like until I said it. It's not that. I'm serious about you... but I think maybe we should talk about where all this is headed.

"Hell, Heero... Can this wait until we get back to your place? I mean, okay, yeah, you're right. We probably should sit down at some point and talk about some of this before, well, it all gets too complicated and stuff." Duo gave him a glazed look, one that still looked spooked and shocked.

Heero didn't want to let this rest. Not this. Not after the damage he'd just inadvertently done. "Is tonight okay with you? I know it's a work night, but I can drive you back to your place after we talk for a while, and it's still early yet..."

Duo watched the traffic slip by in the opposite lane, the scenery moving along outside of his window... life passing him by? "Okay."

The rest of the drive was covered in awkward and tense silence. When they arrived back at Heero's condo, even Little Girl seemed to sense that something was up, and was unusually quiet when they let her loose. After a few false starts, first in the kitchen and then in the dining area, Heero sat down on the sofa, pushed Little Girl off of his lap, and called Duo in to sit next to him.

Heero started, hesitant and stilted. "Well, I wanted you to know that, yes, I'm interested, but despite being close friends with Trowa all of my life, all of this is pretty new to me and, well, it might take me some time to get used to some things.

"Trowa came over this morning and we talked about things for a while. And while I'm nervous about telling my parents, I just wanted to tell you that, though maybe I'm wrong, I think what we've got is worth dealing with the folks for."

Duo slumped back against the sofa cushions, looking bleakly at Heero in the dim light of the room, reading the absolute sincerity in his face. "God, I feel like such a fraud."

"What?"

"I already had it out with my parents. I brought my college roommate home for Christmas years and years ago. We were close, he was openly gay, and my parents jumped to, in this case, most of the correct conclusions. They packed up all of my things and shipped them to my college address. At least I had a full scholarship, otherwise they probably would have pulled the plug on that too. Uncle Howard showed up at the end of the semester and took me to his house. He never asked me any questions, never gave me any conditions on living with him, just opened the door and welcomed me in." Duo started to sniffle a little, but Heero politely ignored that, not sure how he should react. "My own parents didn't even do that, and I was their own kid.

"Uncle Howard, now he's a trip. He went away to the war and stayed in Southeast Asia, got married, but they didn't have any kids. She died of cancer about ten years ago, and he came back stateside to be closer to what family he has left here, which would be my mom. I think he still talks with her about me, but he doesn't say anything to me about it. I just hear him on the phone every now and then, talking really softly late at night. I saw the phone bill once, and the number was my old phone number, so I guess she still cares, at least a little."

Heero looked a little closer, tears were trailing silently down Duo's face, somehow made all the more poignant by the fact that he did nothing to draw attention to them, nothing to wipe them away.

"Listen, I... I'm pretty sure I'm falling in love with you. But I can stop. I know I can. As long as we end this now. If... if we go on any further, if you let me get any closer to you, let me love you any more than I'm pretty sure I already do, then I don't think I'll be able to make this offer ever again."

Heero reached out to touch Duo, but Duo held up a single hand to stop him. "Think about it. Even just for a moment. Of what it would be like to never go home again. To never talk to your parents ever again. I'm not worth that. No one is. Family is flesh and blood. Family is generations of your relatives, people you know and grew up with. Family is important."

Heero finally gave in to his urge and grabbed Duo's shoulder and pulled him in a little bit, and Duo leaned in, and Heero tugged a bit more and Duo started crying, and before Heero knew it, he had Duo curled up entirely on his lap. Duo struggled to hold onto his control before Heero's arms around him allowed him to relax the mental walls he'd built around himself, getting through to him that he was in a place of safety and security. He finally let go and began to cry. Deep heart-wrenching sobs that he had held within for years without anyone to share the pain with, with no one to hold him and support him... he cried for his loss. He curled himself around Heero and let go, tucking his head under Heero's chin and bawling. Heero could feel the rumble and vibration of Duo's sobbing through his chest.

Duo's grief moved him as few things had up to that point in his life. Heero simply held him in the semi darkness of the living room -- completely lost, both in love with Duo and in awe that Duo trusted him enough to let go like this with him.

He whispered against the warmth of his skin -- feeling Duo's hiccoughing breaths as he tried to gain control. "I don't need to think about it. You are worth it. All of it." As he held Duo in his arms, he realized that he'd finally made his decision, and when it had come right down to it, there hadn't been any decision to make at all.

Three HBC, a pyo that the owner had been convinced had "just been a bit off really" that he'd struggled with for hours that might pull through against all odds, and a bloat case that had had him up on the table with both arms up to the elbows in the rib cage of a great dane, where he and Zechs had done all that was humanly possible and done everything by the book, and the dog still hadn't survived. Zechs was still quietly comforting the mourning owner in surgery two. Trowa had quietly excused himself and wandered out to the reception area for a much welcomed breather. The look on Quatre's face slowed him down though, dropping his steps to a near standstill as he headed across the room. "What is it?"

"You're not going to believe the call I just had."

"Try me."

"You'd better sit down first."

"Are you serious?"

"Yes."

Trowa dragged the surgical cap from his head, releasing his bangs in a cascade across his face again for a brief moment before he swept them back with his hand. He leaned back and slowly stretched overwrought back muscles, stressed from standing in surgery for hours too long before dropping onto one of the waiting area benches. "Okay, I'm sitting now. What is it?"

Quatre gave him a sympathetic look. "I know an amateur massage therapist who works for good rates."

Trowa tilted his head and looked over at Quatre with interest. " Just how good are we talking about here?"

"A commute to and from work and a hot breakfast? Interim activities other than massage at the sole discretion of the massagee."

"Massagee?" That earned Quatre the smile he'd worked for. "You're on." Trowa grunted and shifted to stretch out his shoulders, doing what he could to ease the tension. "So what's so dire that I had to sit to hear it? Or was that just your way to get me off of my feet for a few minutes?"

"I just took a call from a lady two states away while you were in surgery. She's missing a seven-month old black and tan female borzoi puppy that escaped her handler at a regional specialty show held at the county fairgrounds a couple weeks ago. She's been calling every clinic and shelter in a six county radius. She had the correct coat pattern, markings..." Quatre frowned, "everything."

Trowa slumped in his chair in fatigued surrender. Never challenge the power of worse; his day had just become irreparably more fucked. Hell... he was going to have to call and break the news to Heero. Little Girl had a home after all. "Shit."

Quatre nodded. From where he was sitting, that pretty much summed up the situation in a nutshell.

It wasn't until Heero woke up much later than his alarm that morning that he noticed that his answering machine message light was blinking. Hell, when did that happen? Okay, not that it mattered after the long night they'd had. He gave another fond look at Duo, tangled in the blankets, his hand trailing over the mattress edge and wound in Little Girl's fur. He pushed the bedroom door shut with a determined click and went to investigate the demand of the blinking red light, hoping like hell that Treize didn't need him at the office for an emergency meeting. He just wasn't up for emergencies at the moment.

He took Little Girl for her morning walk, and then took care to turn down the volume on the machine before hitting the play button, not wishing to risk disturbing Duo's hard-won rest.

"Heero?" He knew automatically by the low tone and the hesitation in Trowa's voice that the news would not be welcome. "It's about Little Girl. Give me a call when you get this message, okay? Quatre took a call at the clinic last night, and it looks like her owner finally managed to track her down. I haven't spoken with the lady yet, but according to Quatre, all of the facts and the physical description she gave Quatre are a dead-on match. So, anyway, I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Call me."

He played the message a second time through, just to make sure he'd heard it correctly. After all this time, what were the odds? Not in his favor, apparently. Fuck. He trudged back to the bedroom to wake Duo.

He couldn't bring himself to disturb his rest though. Especially after the rough night he'd had, and after the early morning hours shifting restlessly within the circle of his arms before drifting into restless sleep. Heero stood at the edge of the mattress, looking down at his future, at the man he wanted to grow old next to, to hold near for the rest of his life, and he felt not the slightest twinge of fear or regret over his decision. He'd never felt so sure of anything in his life. Little Girl left her self-appointed post by Duo's side and looked questioningly up at Heero. He ruffled her ears. "Not giving up on you either, Sweetheart. You're family too, like it or not."

He eased back into bed, patted the mattress in invitation for the dog, drew Duo close to his chest and gained comfort from the warm exhale of breath against his neck, and thought about where his decisions were leading him. There was something about waking up to the warmth of a lean presence pressing in along every line of his body, following every curve, and the comforting weight of him resting on the mattress next to him.

Duo... Just the thought of him leaving, offering to leave like that, caused an involuntary tightening of his arms. Little Girl wasn't getting away that easily either; maybe they could negotiate for visitation rights or something. Maybe if her owner lived close enough they could work out some sort of joint custody arrangement, he wasn't certain how it worked with animals. Maybe Duo would know.

He blinked. Then smiled at the realization. He'd put Duo first. Not Trowa, Not Wufei. Not his friend he'd known most of his life, not his co-worker he'd known since his college years. Duo. Heero pulled him closer into the circle of his arms, and smiled when Duo not only didn't wake up, but simply nestled closer and took another deep inhale before his breathing eased once more into regularity. He cuddled. Heero decided that he liked that about him. He fingered the end of his braid and wondered when the moment would arrive when he'd finally see it unraveled... a whole lifetime of little things to explore about each other.

He couldn't wait to begin.

He'd thought similar thoughts about Little Girl not so long ago. It was so difficult now, to remember what it was like before she'd come into his life. He shivered, once, at the tremendous fear of losing her, at the realization that he'd already invested an enormous amount of love and affection and emotional energy into his relationship with her in a very short period of time, and that the thought of losing her was crushing him.

He didn't realize that Duo's eyes were open and watching him until after he found that he was gripping the blankets with unnecessary force and gritting his teeth against the threat he couldn't voice.

Duo reached up and traced Heero's features, his fingers feather light. "Sorry I bawled all over you. I haven't done that since I was about six, so if it helps, I don't make a habit of it. Not mad, are you?"

Little Girl, her sleep disturbed by the voices, climbed higher up on the bed between them and dropped heavily on their legs.

"No. I got some bad news while you were asleep."

"What's wrong?"

"Trowa called and left a message on the machine. Someone called the clinic and said they were missing a dog that fit Little Girl's description. Trowa seems to think it's a legitimate claim." Heero hugged Duo close, not feeling insecure, oddly enough, but simply feeling a desire to have Duo closer to make talking about the subject of giving her up easier to bear. "He asked me to call him back once I got his message."

"Have you?"

"I wanted to talk about it with you first."

Duo smiled at him, an expression improved by the extreme close range. "I'm getting the distinct impression that you're going to be better at this relationship thing than I am." He reached over and kissed Heero on the tip of his nose. "At least at the beginning." He eyed the bedside clock and gave him a gentle push. "Go call Trowa and see what he has to say. She's squirming for a reason, so I'll go take her for a quick walk and meet you in the middle for the debrief."

Heero managed a slight chuckle. "Done." He reached over and picked up the phone extension and dialed a familiar number from memory. The reaction at the other end of the line wasn't quite what he was expecting for nine A.M. on a Tuesday morning though...

"Heero?"

"What's wrong, Trowa? You sound... odd."

"Long day, and night, and very early morning. Followed by about three hours of sleep." Trowa groaned somewhere midway between pain and pleasure. "Did you get my message?"

"Yes. Um... If this is a bad time..."

There was the sound of another soft stuttering moan immediately followed by a sharply indrawn breath. "Yes. No. Um... Quatre's working a few kinks out in my back."

"Of course he is," whispered Heero under his breath.

"What was that?"

"Oh, nothing, nothing at all." He was pretty sure he could hear Quatre laughing softly in the background. "You sure you don't want me to just call back later?"

"No. Yes. Um."

"Trowa?"

"Yes?"

"We covered that exact territory a few seconds ago. I'm going to assume that you're distracted with other things at the moment and hang up the phone now, okay?"

Trowa was gasping. Heero was trying to not think too much about what Quatre might be doing to him on the other end of the phone line. Unfortunately, Heero's own imagination had been providing nonstop ideas of things he'd been thinking he'd like to do with Duo, so he had an endless supply at hand.

Trowa's voice fell back into its normal range, softer than usual though. "Heero? Little Girl's owner is going to be... at the clinic tonight at... seven, ah, P.M. Can you arrange to be there?"

"Tonight? Do I need to bring her with me?"

There was a long sigh over the line. "Sorry, Heero. Yes."

"Okay, We'll be there. See you tonight. Good bye, Trowa. Quatre. Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

"That certainly leaves the field wide open."

They spent the day with her, figuring that, if it was going to be their last one, they wanted it to be as memorable a one as they could make it. After rushed explanations to Duo's Uncle Howard, and a second round of explanations to Heero's boss, they played with her in the house over breakfast, teasing her with her extensive collection of toys while Heero took pictures to remember her by. For lunch they took her back to the scene of their first date together, where she would be able to accompany them. Heero bought her a cheeseburger of her own, no fries, and a side order of carrots, since she seemed to enjoy them.

Duo, who normally had a comment or two about how Heero was spoiling her rotten, had no words to contribute.

They spent the afternoon at the dog park on the park bench under the shade tree. Few other dogs came by in the middle of the weekday afternoon, but Little Girl wandered around the large fenced field, alternately curling up next to Heero and Duo's feet and napping, or chasing after the squirrels that unwisely crossed the fenced area in search of nuts and other food sources.

They ended their too short day in one of the private consultation rooms at the Tallgeese clinic.

Heero folded and re-folded the leash in his hands. "I hate waiting."

"Me too." Duo reached out and touched the edge of his shoe to Heero's. "Gotcha."

"Gotcha back.

"Yeah. You do."

Heero smiled and nudged his foot back, finding small comfort in the childhood game.

Duo winked back at him. "Did Trowa say anything else?"

"Only that he wanted to have her owner meet us here since it was neutral ground, so to speak, and so that he and Zechs could explain some of Little Girl's medical follow-up stuff to her."

Duo stroked the puppy's side as she leaned heavily against him. "I wonder what her real name is."

There was a disruption and voices on the other side of the door. Little Girl walked to the end of her leash and stood whining at the door, sniffing loudly at the crack between the door and the frame. "I guess we're about to find out."

The door opened, and Little Girl, cast notwithstanding, attempted to launch herself at the person in the doorway.

"Well, she obviously recognizes you." Heero's last hope dissolved as the woman entered the room and Little Girl practically climbed, cast and all, into her arms.

She ruffled the dog's coat happily and made a fuss over her before standing and offering her hand, first to Heero, then to Duo. "I'm Barbara, and you'd be the ones who've been taking such good care of my Kitty, yes?"

"Kitty?" Both Heero and Duo's heads swiveled towards the largish dog, the one who in no way resembled a cat, kitty, kitten, or a feline of any description. Obviously the woman had some major screws loose.

Trowa chuckled and closed the door behind him as he entered the room and stated definitively: "Kitty."

She danced around at the sound of her name, obviously well familiarized with it. "Kitty?" Heero tried it himself to see how it felt on his lips, and she bounded to his side and collapsed at his feet, obviously deciding that that was where she belonged. Heero smiled; one small point for him. Even though she technically wasn't his any longer, that small victory felt very good.

There was a brisk knock at the door and Zechs entered, films of Little Girl's... no, Kitty's, hind leg and shoulder in his hand. "Good evening. I'm Dr. Merquise, the senior orthopedist on staff. Dr. Barton asked that I stop in for a moment between my appointments in order to explain to you some of the procedures we went through in working on Kitty's shoulder and pinning together her hock and..." He looked around the room curiously and extended his hand to the one person he didn't recognize. "Is this a good time?"

She stood as well. "Thank you, doctor, but Dr. Barton has already covered the details of her medical history in some detail with me over the phone, though I'll admit I'm curious to see her x-rays."

Duo watched in amazement as the gray-toned images were illuminated, and gave a low whistle in response. "She got more hardware in her than my toolbox."

The puppy in question moved towards Duo at his whistle, trying without success to crawl into his lap. "Silly Girl. Kitty. Um..."

Barbara looked at Trowa and Zechs and Duo in turn and coughed slightly. "I'd like a moment to speak with Mr. Yuy privately please? If that is okay with everyone?"

Zechs collected the x-rays and excused himself at once. Trowa waited for a moment more. "Heero?"

"It's okay. I'd like Duo to stay though, alright?"

She smiled at them both. "That's quite alright." She sat back in her uncomfortable plastic chair as Trowa excused himself from the room.

Duo tried, but seeing how Heero was hurting, he couldn't bring himself to hold the question back. "So, what happened? Why did it take you so long to call?"

Barbara sat in one of the plastic seats, folding her purse strap back and forth in her hands as she put words to thoughts, turning to address Duo directly. "Kitty was away from home for the first time, with a professional handler that a friend recommended, and she got loose from him at the show grounds, ran off, and apparently covered a lot of territory before your Heero saw her get hit by a car and brought her here for her surgery.

"Since she covered so much ground between the show grounds and this town, since the handler wasn't from this region, and since I'm not from here, we didn't do a very good job canvassing the area and trying to advertise to find her." Kitty, anxious for attention, nudged at Heero's hands until he began stroking her sides. Barbara smiled and continued. "She was just over six months old, had just started her show career and had been sent out for her national specialty, and she hadn't been microchipped or tattooed yet. Since she escaped from ringside at a dog show, she didn't have any of her regular identification tags on her, which is why we lost track of her so quickly."

"Your friend Dr. Barton speaks well of you and the home you could provide for her. I understand that, if the situation allowed, you wished to keep Kitty and give her a permanent home. Is that true?"

Duo looked at Heero with a look of dawning hope.

"After speaking with Dr. Barton, his professional opinion is that the odds of her recovering well enough to continue her show career aren't very likely, as she will likely always favor that hind leg at least a little. In light of the circumstances, since Heero obviously wants to keep her and has invested a fair amount in her medical costs, so long as he is willing to agree to spay her, and to sign a contract agreeing to send her back to me should his circumstances ever prevent him from keeping her, I'd be willing to allow him to keep her. Is that agreeable to you? Or should I say, agreeable to both of you?" She watched for their reaction before continuing. "Her official name is Celestine's Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, but her call name, or the name she answers to, is 'Kitty'."

Neither Heero nor Duo seemed to be able to formulate a response. "If you need some time consider that, I can give you some privacy. I know that can be..."

That snapped Heero out of his daze. "No, no! What do we sign? Where?"

She pulled a sheet of paper from her purse and handed it to Heero to read over. "This is a simple adoption contract. It basically lists the same terms I just stated."

Heero glanced at the contract briefly before handing it to Duo for review, waiting for his hesitant grin and nod to tell him that it was real, that he was going to be able to keep his dog. That they were going to be able to keep her.

The paperwork to make the adoption process official moved quickly after that. Trowa and Zechs were called back into the room in order to witness and sign the contract under Duo and Heero's signatures, and Heero's new puppy was microchipped to provide her with a permanent means of identification while her breeder waited and listed herself as the third contact with the microchip registration agency. After exchanging contact information and congratulating them both on their new puppy and wishing Heero and Duo her best, Barbara gave Kitty a big kiss on the end of her nose and drove off, leaving Heero, Duo, and the dog sitting in the examination room together, still not quite believing their good fortune.

Trowa leaned against the door to the examination room once the breeder left, staring at the tired threesome. "Well Heero, it looks like you're got yourself a dog after all."

Heero, still not quite over the shock, prepared mentally and emotionally for one eventuality only to have it reversed, could only nod tiredly.

Duo pulled himself to his feet and motioned for Heero to do the same. "C'mon. Time to get her home. And you."

"It has been a long day. And night." Heero unfolded the leash in his hands and reached over to clip the snap to her collar.

Trowa nodded in agreement. "Amen to that. Go home. I'll call you tomorrow to see how you're all doing."

Heero nodded. "Will do."

"And Heero?"

Trowa watched as the three of them paused by the door -- his best friend with his new boyfriend and his new dog, all together as a modern-day family unit: such a Kodak moment, and no camera at hand. Damn. "Now you'll need to have a puppy shower for your new addition."

Heero groaned softly. "Oh, hell no."

The clinic door closed to the sound of Duo's laughter.

"So you've decided to call her Kitty, huh?" Duo watched as she danced around him on her toes, her toenails clicking slightly on the kitchen tile, her cast hampering her movement only slightly in her endless quest for a possible treat.

"She seems to respond well to it, and it's shorter to call out than 'Little Girl,'" Heero replied.

Duo dangled replacement identification tags in front of Heero's face with a chiming jingle. "Yeah, I thought you might be thinking somewhere along those lines."

"Did you then..." Heero read the name on the shiny new ID tags before he reached over and exchanged one pot for another. He then checked the cabinet for another utensil while Duo boosted himself up to his customary perch on the counter in order to watch Heero cook.

"Mmm hmm... Only the best for your girlfriend."

"Were you also thinking about dinner?"

Duo leaned back against the corner cabinet. "You did promise me something along those lines, yes. Besides, I think I like watching you cook, there's something so indecently sexual about you and sharp knives and spices in the same room."

"If you want to eat food, you'd better stop there." Heero threatened him with the spatula.

"What? Not up to your usual multitasking skills?"

Heero offered him a calculating look. "What, exactly, are you proposing?"

Duo used the advantage of his height to try and peer over at the stovetop. "That would depend on what you are cooking."

He exchanged the spatula for a wooden spoon. "Dinner. What are you wrangling for?"

"Dessert." Duo added a wink and bit of a leer for good measure.

"You mean that?"

"Um hmm. I Do."

"We never did get around to finishing that conversation we started the other day..."

"The one about history?"

"Yeah, that's the one."

"So, just how serious was this relationship with your college roommate, the one that upset your parents so much?" Heero was hesitant to bring up the subject again, given how much it had upset Duo last time, but he was curious about how much experience Duo had against his own inexperience in sexual matters both hetero- and homosexual.

Duo shrugged. "We fooled around. Kissing and touching mostly. Enough for me to realize that contact with a guy, any guy, far surpassed anything I'd ever tried with women."

Heero set the spoon aside and reached over to touch Duo, sensing that the moment was important, he pushed him back against the cabinets and leaned against him. Breathed in the same air. "And?"

"It felt good at the time, but it didn't mean anything." He pushed back against Heero, arranged his legs to straddle Heero's more comfortably and settled closer against his body. "After all, I managed fine without sex until now, didn't I? Until you?"

Heero reached out and took Duo's face, framed it within his hands, studied his eyes for the truth within them. "I love you, you know that, don't you?"

Duo's eyes crinkled at the corners. "I think I'm starting to believe you."

Heero kissed him slowly, thoroughly, pushing as much faith into the contact as he could manage. "More where that came from."

"Promise me?"

"With all my heart."

"Then I suppose I can wait until after dinner."

Heero looked back at the pot on the stovetop. "Damn. I was afraid you would say something like that."

"Well, we could try fooling around on the sofa, but last time I even thought about doing that, your dog started to get in the way." Duo touched Heero's lip thoughtfully with his thumb. "Just my luck, I go out and find myself the world's hottest guy, and he already has this incredibly protective girlfriend living with him." He looked down at Kitty. "Yeah, you. You're a pushy broad, you know that?"

She looked up and slowly waved her tail back and forth, completely unimpressed.

Heero fought to maintain his composure, but his sense of humor got the better of him, and he pitched forward onto Duo's shoulder, spluttering with laughter.

"He's a graceful guy, too." Duo added as an afterthought. He waited for Heero's breathing to return to normal before asking, more seriously, "So how about you?"

"What? History? You're kidding right. I'm a glorified hacker; my way with women is notorious. I haven't been beyond a second date, okay, maybe one second date, since college."

"No guys at all, huh?"

"Not until you."

"Well, Uncle Howard always did say that I was special."

Heero snickered and checked on his meal preparations. "So, only the one guy in college?"

Duo dropped down from the counter to investigate dinner more thoroughly. "Yeah. Just the roommate from hell who dropped me for the wrestler with the Camaro."

"A Camaro?"

"No worries, I'm a Mustang man all the way." He paused. "I did mention that I have a Mustang of my own, right?"

Heero spun around, surprised. "You didn't, no." Then a smile lit his face. "So we're going to need a bigger garage?"

Duo laughed. "Spoken like a true aficionado."

Heero hesitated, then continued with the previous conversation, "So, as far as the sex thing goes, we're going to be uh, working our way through all of this together?"

"Looks that way, right?" Duo leaned back against the counter, confident and at ease.

"Yeah, it does."

"You gonna be having any problems with that?"

Heero tilted his head, considering the question fully. "You know, if we ever have any real problems, we can always go to Trowa for advice. But he'd never let us live it down. So, probably not."

"Do you think he has any idea how inexperienced we are at this?"

Heero gave a light laugh. "Probably."

"Do you think he'll ever let on that he knows?"

"Hopefully not."

"Let's keep it that way."

"All right."

"Ready to move over to the sofa for a while?"

"I am if you are."

"You think dinner will survive?"

Heero looked at the pots on the stove, then back at Duo before clicking off the oven and the heating elements and pushing Duo towards the living room. "We can order take-out later. Dominos delivers. We can go door to door and take up an emergency food collection from the neighbors..."

Duo laughed and tripped ahead of him. "Definitely my kind of guy -- has his priorities in order and everything."

Heero dived for the couch. "Yeah? I've got your priority one right here." He pointed to his upper lip and waited to see what Duo would do next.

Duo moved in. "Okay, I like priority one. Is there a priority two on tonight's schedule?"

Heero laughed and pointed to his lower lip. "After that, it's all up to you."

"Roger that, soldier."

Heero bit back a groan. "I never should have mentioned the military communications devices that Motorola loaned us to play with..."

"Are you sure this is okay with you? I mean, I thought you said that you liked..."

"Yeah, this is better than okay. I like that." Heero moved in, touching Duo's arm from elbow to fingertips, taking Duo's hand and placing it on his chest. "And this." Duo started exploring, mapping the textures above and below the oxford shirt, finding the areas that made Heero gasp and then inhale sharply before Duo seized Heero's lower lip between his teeth and tugged hard.

Heero groaned, deep in his throat and leaned back along the length of the sofa, inviting greater access. Duo leaned forward, licking downward to the corner of Heero's mouth, as his hand reached forward, pinching and tugging at a nipple that was suddenly taut. It was like turning on a switch. Suddenly Heero was pulling Duo to him, wrapping his arms around his chest and thrusting his erection frantically against the swell of Duo's own in his jeans, the sofa suddenly seeming much too narrow. "God, so close..." Heero gripped the base of Duo's braid in his fist, attempting to control a hot mouth that was threatening to slide down his neck.

Heero looked up just in time to see a large black and tan dog launching herself for the entangled pair, and just managed to yell: "Holy Fuck! Kitty! NO!"

Their evening of romance ended much more abruptly, and more painfully, than either of them expected.

The next morning when Trowa saw Heero and Duo trying to sneak into the 7-11 to pick up early morning breakfast supplies, his first reaction was an out-and-out double take at the damage. His second was a private snicker. He approached them in the checkout lane, resisted the urge to issue medical advice, and instead offered politely: "When you do it properly, it's not supposed to leave marks like that, guys."

Heero considered phoning in sick once he looked in the mirror and saw the damage to his face. If he hadn't had a follow-up meeting scheduled with this boss, he would have been sorely tempted. He'd never felt the urge to wear make-up before. He hoped never to have the feeling again. After their meeting had concluded, Treize took Heero aside and mentioned, confidentially of course, that he'd be happy to pay for partner counseling, in the interest of affirmative action and all. Heero fumed quietly at his desk for an hour before finding the humor in the situation and calling Duo to tell him about it.

Heero shrugged, took the number Trowa had given him that morning, and made an appointment to sign up for dog obedience classes instead.

It was a few weeks later that the official "welcome Kitty to the family" party was held. Considering the number of chew toys and stuffed animals lavished upon the guest of honor, she seemed less than impressed with the formalities. "So she's finally all yours, huh? It's official and everything? You got the registration papers back from the AKC and you have ownership?"

Heero fielded Trowa's question, but his eyes were tracking Duo as he moved across the room, setting out the latest set of Heero's Kitty pictures. "Well, technically we have dual ownership. We decided to do that in case something should ever happen to one of us. So she belongs jointly to her breeder and to me, yes."

Trowa gave him a puzzled look. "Not Duo?"

"No. He said he wanted me to be sure first. That I could always add him to her registration later if we felt that it was important, but that it didn't matter much to him, that being involved in me finding and keeping her was the important part."

"Personally, I think you finding him was the important part." Trowa tapped the neck of his beer bottle lightly against Heero's in a private toast.

"So where's this dog of yours, Heero?" Relena looked around the room. "I think I'm the only one here who hasn't met her in person yet."

Heero looked around. "She should be around here someplace. She was right here a second ago."

Duo rolled his eyes, set his beer aside, and started pretending to look under books and behind the pictures on the walls, while Heero called out, "Here Kitty, Kitty Kitty," in an entreating, high-pitched voice.

Trowa shook his head. "On the walls, Duo?"

He nodded. "You wouldn't believe some of the places she's turned up."

"I might."

Wufei entered the living room, a fresh six pack in hand. "Hey, did you realize that someone left the front door open?"

Heero's face fell. "Oh hell..." And he ran for the front yard, the rest of his friends following behind him. All save one.

Wufei stood in the entranceway, appalled at the scene they were making: five rational adults in various stages of panic, trying to locate a single dog. Heero and Duo seemed to be the worst off, searching through their neighbor's shrubs and calling, "Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty!"

The same helpful neighbor who called out to Heero through her kitchen window. "Did you lose your cat?"

"No, a large black and tan dog." Heero held his hand at his waist. "About this tall. Have you seen her?"

"You were calling for a cat," she said, obviously distrusting both him and his claim to sanity.

"Her name is Kitty. Honest."

To his right, a few yards over, Duo was doing his best not to snicker as he called out to her. Wufei, overhearing the neighbor as well, sat on Heero's front steps and laughed.

Heero turned and glared at him. "You know, you could help."

"I am, she could come back to the house, in which case, I'll shut the door behind..." There was a rattle of a trash bin lid, and a flash of black and tan fur before she burst across the neighbor's yard and into Duo's arms, completely bowling him over and knocking him to the ground in a perfect flying tackle.

Quatre climbed back up the front steps and stood in the doorway of Heero's house behind Wufei. "Well, that's that then. I suppose we won't be needing my car in order to search the neighborhood for her after all."

Heero looked shocked and pleased all at once as he walked over to where Duo was getting plastered with puppy kisses. "You found her."

"More like she found me. And it looks like she knows her name alright."

"Oh, Heero?"

Heero groaned, softly enough that only Duo could hear, and replied. "Yes, Wufei?"

"You know Heero, the way everything worked out for you, it looks like you wound up with more of a stud finder than a babe magnet."

Heero gave up and collapsed to the ground with Duo and Kitty. You just couldn't argue with the truth when it smacked you in the face like that. Not when she'd found him a perfect match like Duo.

"Well, we could try fooling around on the sofa again, but my bruises have barely faded from the last time we did that, and Uncle Howard made me work inventory so I wouldn't freak the customers out. I hate taking inventory."

"We could try crating her."

"Yeah, but the last time we did that, she screamed so loud that your neighbors pounded on your front door and threatened to call the police." Duo picked at the seam of his jeans and didn't look up.

Heero tapped his fingers on his knee. "So what are our other options? What else have we tried?"

"Shutting her out of the bedroom?"

"Same problem, only with the destroyed trim and carpeting where she tried to dig under the door."

"Oh. Yeah. Right."

Heero frowned. "So you're telling me that we're never going to have any sex, because my girlfriend is too protective of me."

"That's sort of the way it's looking at the moment, yeah." Duo got a hopeful look on his face. "Hey, wait a minute. She seems to be okay as long as we stay on the kitchen counter..."

"Duo?" Heero shook his head at him. "I absolutely refuse to have sex with you on the kitchen counter the first time we do this." Heero considered and titled his head to the side, evaluating possibilities. "We'll save the counter for whenever else you want, number two through four thousand if you want, but I'll be damned if my dog is going to get the best of me and that our first time having sex together is where I routinely make meatloaf."

"I haven't heard it called that before... Making meatloaf, huh? Maybe we should call Trowa and..."

Heero slumped back in his chair. "That's it, I can't take this any more. Kitty be damned, I need some nookie."

Duo laughed. "Okay."

Heero blinked. "Okay, okay? Really?"

"Really. Really. It's not like I need candlelight and roses and Rhett Butler to carry me over the threshold or something and..."

He lost his words along with his breath as Heero grabbed Duo and, in the style of manly men doing manly things, picked him up and wrestled him onto his shoulder, patting his rear comfortingly in the process of doing so.

"Hey, that's uncomfortable, you bastard." More so because he was laughing his ass off and couldn't breathe.

"Fine." Eight steps later, he was summarily dumped onto the unmade expanse of Heero's bed. "Is that better?"

Duo rolled over onto his back in order to face Heero and give him a teasing eyebrow wiggle. "Well now, that depends on what I get for the rest of the show."

Heero slammed the bedroom door and dropped to his hands and knees, slowly approaching the bed and slipping up the side of the mattress to Duo. "What did you have in mind?"

"See how it goes, and just move along with what we're comfortable with for now." Duo reached out and tugged Heero closer by way of his shirtsleeve. "Though I think we're both wearing too much at the moment." This was familiar territory for them both, at least.

Heero managed to get his shoes off and was working on removing Duo's left boot when the whining started. By the time he made it to Duo's socks, the whining was loud enough that it was becoming distracting. By the time Duo had Heero's shirt on the floor, she was crying and scraping her toenails along the door, and something had to be done. Duo made it to Heero's underwear before he gave in and started laughing.

Heero gave an insulted yelp. "What?"

"I don't know whether to kiss her or kill her." Duo pointed at the convenient hole she'd eaten in Heero's underwear. "First she provides the easy access undergarments, then she complains about us using them!"

Kitty took that moment of opportunity to begin howling on the other side of the door.

Duo gave Heero that look, that 'when are we ever going to get this figured out' sort of look, and Heero sprawled over on the mattress and laughed. A minute later, Duo joined him.

"You know, if this were a conventional relationship, that could have been a six-year old girl on the other side of the door, asking what we were up to."

"Yeah, Heero, but we would have at least had the pleasure of making her first. And had the honeymoon period. I'm not going to even ask which one of us got pregnant, because I don't want to know." He lifted his head and looked at the door. "Are you going to let our daughter in before she breaks the door down?"

"Fine." Heero clambered out of bed and wrenched the door open. A frantic whirlwind of adolescent puppy leapt onto the mattress and did her level best to dive into the covers. She missed, and hit Duo head on. "Oh, bitch... that hurt." Duo rubbed his chest where she'd impacted and looked up at Heero, standing barefoot in the doorway with most of his clothes missing. "Well, it was a good start that time, Heero. Maybe we can talk with Trowa about boarding her or something."

Heero stomped over to the bedside in a fit of 'I have had fucking enough of dogs, dammit'; settled Duo carefully back into bed; arranged the pillows to prop him up; kissed him tenderly on the lips, completely ignoring the flailing puppy on the opposite side of the bed; and tugged the sheets carefully back into place. "Comfortable?"

"Eh, yeah. What's this about, Heero?"

Heero pushed him back against the nest of pillows when he made a move to rise from the bed. "Stay... Just. Stay."

Duo leaned back and watched, wide-eyed as Heero left the bedroom, and then returned a few minutes later amid much cursing and banging, with Kitty's dog crate from the living room. Duo moved to rise from the bed, but a warning growl, from Heero this time instead of the dog, kept him pinned to the mattress.

Heero set the crate in the corner of the bedroom and left, only to return a few moments later with the bedding for the crate, and then the water bucket, a toy, a chew bone, and with a nod at Duo, a blanket from the foot of the bed, which he folded once and draped over the crate. "Can't have her watching us; it just wouldn't be right."

Duo stared blankly at the production, starting to feel a flicker of hope that it might just work. Heero wrestled Kitty off of the bed and forced her into the crate and latched it, and then left the room again, leaving Duo with his jaw dropped and wondering what else could go wrong.

"Heero?"

Heero reappeared against the bedroom doorway wearing nothing but a smile and carrying the security snap for the crate. He clicked the spring on the fastener, smiled at Duo, and pronounced: "Now we're ready."

Duo laughed. "Now that's what I call foreplay."

It didn't happen until much later that evening, after they'd managed to shift the mattress off of its frame, after Kitty had proven that, yes, she really did want to know what her two dads were doing, and they'd paused in the middle of what they were doing to find two liquid brown eyes locked on them in the bed. She remained, however, mercifully quiet.

As they eased slowly off towards sleep, after working their way though more of the condom box than they'd hoped to in one night, tired and sated and sweaty, they found the small words for each other, tucked up against each other in the nest of bedding and sheets.

Heero tucked him a little closer, adjusted a blanket with care. "So, um, I guess at this point, saying that I love you might be taken the wrong way."

"There's a wrong way to take that?" Duo opened his eyes, tired, but wanting to see Heero's face at that moment.

"I guess, maybe, there really isn't."

"Good, 'cause, I love you too."

Heero moved a little closer. "Does this mean you're keeping me?"

"Yes, yes it does."

"Good, because there's no return policy on that adoption contract."

"That's nice to know."

End