Head back home...
After an hour, Heero stopped knocking, his knuckles red and in pain. Only to continue by pounding at the door with the side of his fist.
"Duo," he said in between bangs, unconcerned with the neighbors. "Duo, open up."
"What is it?" a peeved tenor drawl stopped him. Behind him was Duo, his hand holding a bag from a nearby convenience store.
Immediately, Heero composed himself, wrapping himself in that well-known cool. "Can I come in?" he asked.
"I don't see why you should," Duo replied.
"If you don't want me to say what I want to say out here," Heero said, trailing off.
Duo stared at Heero, assessing the threat, before sighing and unlocking the door. "Get in," he said. Together they entered Duo's modest 1LDK.
Duo placed his bag on the kitchen counter. "So?"
Heero looked up from a framed photograph of a stranger on Duo's small-screen TV. He wrapped his cool tighter around him.
"What do you want?" Duo insisted.
He could almost feel the words bubbling out of his mouth. I need you. i miss you. I love you.
But, before those words could escape, he bit them back, seeing the cool Duo was wrapped in as well. "It&s too late, I don't love you," he could say. "Even if I felt the same, I'm with someone else now," he could say. "That nice, but it doesn't mean anything to me anymore," he could say.
What's the use of exposing your heart to the hammer that will only shatter it mercilessly?
He opened the paper gift bag he had with him and pulled out a red, folded sweater. "You left this behind," he said, the cool not allowing any of his distress to show. "It's clean, so..." He placed it on the table in the living room. "Thought you's like it back."
"Heero," Duo said, drawing Heero's eyes to him for a moment. "You didn't come all this way just to return a sweater."
"No," he admitted. "But that's all I can do, isn't it?"
They stood in silence, separated by a kitchen counter and so many unspoken words. By the clock, it was only a minute, but it felt much longer.
"I should get going," Heero said, stepping towards the door, his words full of melancholy cool.
"Right," was Duo's reply as the door closed itself shut behind Heero.
The red sweater on the table drew his eyes to it. It was a beacon, a sign of something he could not fathom alone.
"Right."
~~~end
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