There's a bite in the air today. It's cold... colder than an April morning should be, but they don't mind. They huddle together in the chilly morning, side by side as the river courses underneath them. The waters are dark, murky and unknown, even as the skyscrapers around them catch specks of pre-dawn light. Somewhere in the distance a bird prematurely announces the arrival of the sun.

He smiles as he looks down at the water. Here and there, a fish will appear from the cold darkness, only to submerge once more out of sight.

His partner sips from his thermos of tea. Earl Grey.

"Say, Heero?"

A wind blows pass them and into their jackets.

"Hn?"

He shivers slightly as his partner pours another serving of tea into the thermos' cup and hands him the hot offering. He takes the cup with the reverence it deserves and blows on its steaming surface. "In the summer..."

His partner leans against the bridge's railing. He holds the open thermos with both hands and closes his eyes. He exhales.

"... Maybe, you and I could go to the beach," he continues before taking a sip of the tea. A faint rememberance of the sun's rays warms his face minutely. Dawn is approaching.

"The beach?" His partner's voice is soft, a bedroom whisper on the quiet bridge. There is no one for miles. There will be no one for another hour... perhaps two...

"Yeah," he continues, his voice matching his partner's. "Why not..." He takes another sip of tea and smiles.

A fish jumps out of the water for a brief instant.

His partner tilts his head to the side and looks at him from the corner of his eye. "Why not..."

He takes another sip of the Earl Grey. The hot tea ran down his throat and into his stomach, quickly losing its warmth on the way down. "Perhaps next time, I'll make the tea, Heero."

His partner nods in acknowledgement as he takes a sip from the thermos. The Earl Grey came out rather well that morning, so it is not a question of Heero's ability, but returning one gesture with another, equal gesture.

The water's surface breaks as a fish jumps up once more from the dark fluid.

"Duo," Heero whispers softly into the thermos. His partner lifts his head up from the cup.

"Yeah?"

Heero lowers his head and suddenly finds the tea's steam more interesting than his partner's face. "Thank you..."

Duo blinks, uncertain. "What do you mean?" He takes another sip of the Earl Grey, yet his eyes never leave Heero's face.

"For meeting me here..." The sun grows warmer as the sky gains a bright yellow tint. "Especially since you live..."

Duo nods, knowing what Heero refers to. It is a strange idea to most that these two men, strangers in every sense away from this time and place, who spend much of their days in separate homes and separate lives, had forged an odd friendship on the very bridge that separates their individual wards. Every morning, before the sun rose, the pair start their jogs from their different points in the city and meet, either through fate or coincidence, on this bridge, just as the sun begins to flash on the windows of the skyscrapers.

They share few words and a thermos of hot tea that one of the two had brought that morning as they patiently wait for their hearts to slow down and the sun to rise. It is always when the sun finally lightened the color of the river underneath them that one or the other will start heading back home.

They will share no words of goodbye, just as they do not acknowledge each other with a 'hello'. It became an unspoken rule to just savor the company of this other, and to never question the return that may never come.

Duo swallows the rest of the tea he had and gratefully returns the cup to its owner. Heero nods in response as Duo, without preamble or each a bit of stretching, begins jogging home.

Heero stands on the bridge and watches Duo go. In that early-morning silence, he wonders for only a moment about his jogging 'partner's' life. Sometimes, it is the not-knowing of this twilight friend that bothers him, but he has learned long ago that it doesn't matter.

Still...

"Perhaps, I will go," he whispers to himself as he drinks some more of the cooling Earl Grey.

Perhaps, there should be more out there for the two of them than this bridge, this superficial tie connecting them to each other. He smiles lightly as he closes the thermos and looks at the surface of the dark river. In the distance, a bird cries out in a futile attempt to wake the city.

Heero hears its call...

~~~End

Duo is grateful for the shadows of early morning, especially in July. The city has been hit by a terrible heat as of late. He lifts his thermos of iced coffee to the dark river and the lightening sky, giving thanks that it's never too hot for a morning jog, so long as the sun doesn't rise.

Heero smirks as he watches his partner's salute before looking down once more at the cool, dark waters below. "You seem to be in a great mood."

Duo laughs. "Me, nah..." He drinks from his thermos of coffee without pretense. "There's just something about summer, though..."

Heero looks at Duo's face with strange care. Two strangers... forging a friendship under only one circumstance...

There's something strangely beautiful in Duo's face. Duo comes to the bridge morning after morning, sweaty and exhausted, but always with a smile on his face. Heero sees it, no matter how dark it is.

At first, Heero did not want to know anything about this bridge friend, but as days turned into weeks into months, he begins to itch for more of this man.

What is his whole name?

What does he do for a living?

Is he married?

A bird cries out in the distance, calling out to all the sleeping to awaken to the sun.

"Duo..." He takes a sip of the cold coffee Duo had served him.

"Yeah, Heero?" He puts his thermos down and stretches his arms above his head. He grins as a bit of reflected light flashes in his eyes.

"Do you... want, um..."

"Yeah?" Duo watches Heero, waiting. Below, a fish splashes up from the dark water.

"Go to the beach with me tomorrow?" he rushes out.

Duo's smile crashes as the question slips from Heero's lips. Moments upon moments slide against each other as Heero watches Duo's unpleasant reaction.

There have been moments while on the bridge with Heero that Duo will admit to wishing to see him as something other than a guy he meets after his morning jog. There is some regret within him, but he can't get involved with this man.

He knows nothing of this man other than his first name and his habit of exercising early in the morning. That is enough, he thinks briskly to himself as he lifts the thermos from the concrete and stretches his hand out for the cup still in Heero's possession.

Heero sees the sudden flash of fear flash in Duo's eyes, just as surely as he sees the steel within them now as his hand asks for his cup back.

He has broken the trust. The bird sings out once more.

He hands back the cup with some reluctance.

Not looking to see if there is any more of the coffee in the cup, he faces the river and turns it upside down. An ounce or two escapes to the river.

He tops off his thermos and tucks it away in the small pouch he has brought with him before turning once more to Heero.

He, of course, is gone now, gone before the last drop of coffee that had touched Heero's lips joined the dark river.

Duo snorts, strangely not surprised in Heero's actions, before walking back home.

It's colder this morning than yesterday, Duo thinks to himself absentmindedly as he leans against the railing. A hand reaches into his pouch and pulls out his thermos. Earl Grey.

It's Heero's favorite, just the way he likes it: sugar, milk, and a hint of lemon. He may not know much about his bridge friend, but he does know what he likes to drink on unusually cold mornings. Maybe he will let Duo apologize today.

Duo was wrong for doing what he had done yesterday. He likes Heero, really.

He stands on the bridge, waiting patiently for his partner's arrival from the east, even as the river turns from black to a presentable royal blue.

Even as more and more pedestrians pass him by, he stays.

Even as his stomach growls for food... and as the sun prepares to set, he waits.

As the last rays of sunlight disappear that oppressively hot day, he waits.

Only at the appearance of faint stars did he retreat back home.

With each moment, one is able to hear it: the faint ping of glass as it cracks and shatters slowly... painfully... in not one ward, but two...

~~~End

Life's not necessarily fair, he thinks as he finishes off the last kilometer of his jog, closing in on the bridge. Above him, the moon begins to rise in the east. In the distance, a church bell rings out 11 pm.

He stumbles slightly in the middle of the bridge, but not enough to make him fall. One hand reaches out for the rail for support as a passerby half-heartedly dives towards him in attempt to catch him.

He looks at the instant Samaritan and gave her a bit of a smile. "Thank you, I'm fine," he's able to apologize as he steadies himself back to his feet.

The young girl, still in her school uniform despite the hour, looks at him, uncertain. She still had her hands on his arms from the moment she reached out to keep him upright.

He winks at her as he becomes too aware of how harsh his breathing sounds to his own ears.

The girl slowly withdraws her hands from him, but the skeptical light in her eyes does not disappear.

"Kanzaki! Let's go! We're late!"

"Hey, is that your boy~friend?!"

The sound of the people and cars on the crowded bridge crashes into the moment, causing the two to blush in unison. The schoolgirl, sputtering apologizes, nearly skitters away. It's quite a feat to walk backwards on a crowded bridge in the late evening and still be capable of not tripping over someone.

He smiles as he wipes away some of the sweat from his brow. Perhaps it was too soon to double the number of kilometers.

Underneath him, he could barely hear the splashing and lapping of the waves of the river.

He pulls out the thermos of Earl Grey and slowly opens the top. The scent of tea, milk, and lemon floats up from the container.

How long has it been? It's November now.

Three months has changed Duo's life, for sure. He had found another job that required less time, while still earning the same, if not more. He could only jog at night because of this change.

He drinks from his thermos. He never uses the cup, especially after...

It is for the best that he jogs at night. It is for the best that he forces himself to double the kilometers every few weeks. That Heero fellow is not part of his life now.

He takes another sip of the Earl Grey. In the distance, above all the traffic and laughter, Duo can vaguely hear the call of a bird.

Drinking the rest with hurried movements, he closes the thermos and tucks it back inside its pouch. As his body becomes chilled from the weather against his sweat, he begins walking back home.

~~~End

The snow crunches with each step he takes towards the next ward. In his hand is a letter in need of a stamp.

The city is soundless in the constant of a cold February snowstorm. The streets are empty of people and vehicles. The river splashes in the distance as he approaches the bridge.

He has never gone into that particular ward. In fact, it has been six months since the last time he has been anywhere near that bridge.

A sudden wind curls around him while blinding him momentarily with snow. He wipes some on the snow from off his face and continues.

The closest post office to his house that is open is in the next ward... the ward Duo came from. The post offices in his own ward can be on the other side of the city, as far as convenience is concerned.

He pauses in the calf-high snow and looks up at the white curve of the bridge. He hesitates, feeling the skin on his face contracting in the cold.

Tightening the grip on the fragile envelope in his hand, he takes the first, thus bravest, step onto the bridge.

He walks across the bridge slowly. His more foolish side makes a wish with each step, but as he draws closer to the center, logic settles in.

Somewhere, in a frozen corner of the city, a bird calls out.

Heero looks up at the sound and gazes out on the dark waters of the river. Even in the cold embrace of winter, it refuses to freeze. Heero gives it a smile.

Something dark in his peripheral vision moves, drawing his attention away from the waters.

He turns in time to see a thinly dressed figure stumble and begin to collapse a third of the way across the bridge. Without hesitation, Heero dives for the figure in an attempt to catch him.

The jogger falls into the soft snow before Heero reaches him. A strong wind began to blow upstream, threatening to bury the exhausted young person in the white nothing before Heero can get there.

Falling to his knees, Heero grabs the person's soaked sweatshirt and pulls his face up. He almost lost his grip on the wet cotton once he sees who it is.

"Duo..." Heero whispers the name so softly he couldn't hear his statement above the harsh breathing of the young man he chanced upon. Duo's skin is cold, frozen and covered in sweat, as Heero wraps his arms underneath Duo's and tries to haul him up.

Duo makes no attempt to acknowledge what is going on verbally. His hand clenches the coat Heero is wearing as Heero pulls him closer. He holds his old bridge friend as a white silence wraps around them.

Out, in the midst of snow and wind, a bird calls out in a shrill voice.

Heero looks down upon his shivering bundle and instinctively lifts the dead weight up. Ignoring the wind and the deepening snow, he begins walking back to his apartment.

He accidentally leaves the white envelope behind.

Heero repositions the moist towel on Duo's forehead as the snowstorm begins to lessen outside. His breathing has become more natural and regulated, yet a fever has settled in. Heero was able to remove the wet sweatsuit and worn sneakers before tucking Duo into his bed.

Duo's wet clothes are on the plush carpet by the foot of Heero's bed. On the wall, a clock ticks out the seconds of silence, one after the other. A weak light filters through the apartment's windows. The sky is still overcast and the city is still silence.

Heero left the kitchen light on for some strange reason, allowing the warm amber to seep into the otherwise dark bedroom. On the stove, a pot of water slowly boils itself ready for some noodles. The defrosting boneless chicken he will use for tempura sits right beside the stove in a bowl of cold water.

Heero sits in a chair he had pulled up to the bed's side and watches his bridge friend sleep. Duo's thermos stands by his feet, waiting to be used.

His phone begins to ring, but he makes no move to get it. After twenty rings, it stops.

Duo stirs slightly in the bed. He opens his eyes slowly and sees his old bridge friend looking down upon him in a silent, dark room.

"Where am I?" he whispers, his voice rough and tired.

"You collapsed on the bridge. I brought you to my place." Heero lifts the thermos up from the floor and opens it. With the open thermos in one hand, he helps Duo sit up with the other. "Drink."

Duo takes the thermos and holds it with both of his hands. "I fainted, huh." He lifts the thermos to his face and breathes in the smell of tea, milk and lemon.

Heero nods. The clock ticks off its seconds.

Duo takes a drink from the thermos, allowing the hot liquid to course down his throat. The warmth did not dispel, but rather gathered fiercely and distinctively in his stomach. Duo smiles.

Heero frowns, but keeps his opinions to himself. "Would you like to stay for dinner?" he asks instead.

Duo looks at Heero for a moment, wondering if it's the kitchen light that is making Heero look so fierce. "If you don't mind..."

Heero nods once more. He takes the cloth that had fallen from Duo's forehead and stands. "My name is Heero Yuy." He extends his hand.

Duo looks at the hand offered questioningly before extending one of his own. "Duo Maxwell. Nice to meet you Mr. Yuy." They shake hands.

In the other room, the phone begins to ring.

~~~End