Disclaimer:Don't own them, don't make any money off of this.
Warnings: Male/Male sex, graphic, language, violence, NCS Flashbacks
Shinigami's Lover II
Sequel to Caging the Beast
Epilogue
"You should be very proud," Heero was saying as he stripped off his tie and unbuttoned his shirt.
Stretched out wearily on the bed in just his underwear and gold cross, Duo had his eyes closed, trying to banish the ugliness of the day. Soda nosed at his hand. The dog wasn't any worse for wear despite his having been drugged, but he had clung very closely to Duo since his return to the house. If a dog could have a guilt complex, Duo thought, Soda was definitely having one. The way the dog kept breathing in Duo's scent and pressing against his body repeatedly, it was as if the dog blamed himself for Duo's capture. Mr. Hulitt was almost of the same mind, only he was blaming himself. The man had hovered anxiously at their return, wanting to know every detail and offering to cook them a meal and take care of everything while they rested. It had taken both Duo and Heero's assurance that they were all right, and that they didn't blame him for not being aware of the men kidnapping Duo, to calm him enough to go back to his home.
"Proud?" Duo sighed.
Heero stripped off his shirt and tossed it over the back of a chair. He reached down and picked up a square of plastic from the dresser. It was a new Preventer Agent badge and it was Duo's, given to him that day by a grateful Sally Po.
"You're an agent now," Heero pointed out. "Sally didn't have to test you, you passed your own test and did it with flying colors."
"It doesn't feel right, not finishing my training," Duo muttered. "They had things to teach me."
Heero raised an eyebrow. "Not many men would admit something like that."
Duo snorted. "I'm not a man yet, I still have some growing to do, mentally and physically. I'm smart enough to know that."
Heero thought about that for a minute, frowning down at the badge with Duo's picture grinning wearily back at him. He let it drop and then turned to his lover. "They have helped you," he conceded. "I don't think that you could have... remained so calm and performed your duty, if you hadn't trained with them."
"I know I couldn't have," Duo replied. "It was all those regulations that saved the day. I just kept repeating them to myself until I couldn't think of anything else."
"You saved the day," Heero countered. "You escaped. You saved Harri. You brought down a mobile suit factory that we had been searching over a year for. You handed it to us on a silver platter, defeated, and destroyed. One man, you, Little Baka, so don't minimize your accomplishment."
Duo yawned and curled on his side, his cross in one fist and tucked near his cheek. "Too tired to do anything, baby. Just wanna sleep."
Heero grunted and then smiled as he moved to the bed and covered Duo with a comforter. Duo pulled it under his chin and squirmed deep into the pillow until he was comfortable. "Sleep," Heero told him. "Sally told me that she didn't want to see your face for a week."
"That's crazy," Duo said around another yawn. "I'll be ready for work tomorrow."
"Hn," Heero replied doubtfully as he stripped out of his shoes and pants. He nudged Soda aside and climbed under the comforter with Duo. Carefully, he molded himself along Duo's back. He waited for a reaction and was surprised when Duo turned and nuzzled his chest, moving into Heero's embrace. "Sleep," Heero repeated.
"Can't yet," Duo mumbled against Heero's chest and his hands began smoothing over Heero's back and hips.
Heero captured Duo's chin with one hand and tilted his lover's face up to look at him. Duo smiled sleepily at him, his amethyst eyes half closed. "Duo..." It was a question. Duo was confusing Heero. The last thing that he had expected after what Duo had gone through was for the young man to want to be intimate. It made alarms go off in Heero's head, ones that hadn't sounded since the war, not since Duo had stopped attacking him at night, mistaking him for one of his darker memories.
Duo didn't seem nervous or hesitant. He was half asleep, his movements slow and erotic, but he seemed more than willing to try and stay awake long enough to be with Heero. His erection pressing into Heero's belly was enough to alert Heero that his interest was real.
"Duo..." Heero said again, but Duo's hands were sliding around and beginning to give attention to Heero's own rising need. When Duo wrapped both of their erections together in his hands, Heero was almost lost. He moaned, panted, and then, with a force of will, he pulled Duo's hands away from him. "Duo," he said insistently. "Please talk to me."
Duo stared and then looked away tensely. He was still weary, but Heero's words had been a cold dash of water. "I wanted to be sure..."
"Of what?" Heero pressed, but he knew already. He knew that Duo needed to say it, though, to acknowledge what was going on in his mind.
"That what happened didn't make me...," Duo groped for the words and then turned to look at Heero again. "I don't think I can go to sleep without knowing whether what Richards did effected me or not."
"And if it did?" Heero asked patiently. "Do you think that I would love you less or even go away? I was with you through the bad times and I waited when you realized that you needed help, that you couldn't become well on your own. I'm not going to act any differently now, Duo. If you are afraid again, I'll still wait, I'll still be patient, and I will not leave you. So, go to sleep and leave it for when you can keep both eyes open. We'll find out together and, if something is wrong, we'll deal with it together too."
Duo's eyelids drooped despite himself and he yawned. "I love you, you know that?"
"Yes," Heero said as he rolled so that his back was to Duo. He shifted, trying to ease his disappointed erection, "and I would do anything, suffer anything for that love, Duo."
"I don't know why," Duo mumbled as he snuggled deeper into the covers.
Heero chuckled as he heard Duo begin to snore lightly, "Because I love you too, Little Baka, and the way that you just fell asleep next to me proves that everything will be all right."
The End of Shinigami's Lover II
Shinigami's Lover III, and Duo's adventures in the Preventer's, will begin after
a bit of a vacation. ^_^