FIC: Color Me In
Title: Color Me In
Fandom: Gundam Wing
Rating: PG
Pairing: Heero/Duo
Length: 2,300 words
Summary: Heero tries to add color to Duo's black and white world.
Originally posted on 1x2 Yahoo Group in 2003 under the penname "Lady Archer"
Revised: July 1, 2006
"Duo…what color are your eyes?"
Duo Maxwell, sprawled comfortably on a plush couch, looked up from his novel and met the unhappy gaze of his best friend and lover. Heero didn't say a lot, but in the rare times he spoke in that particular tone it was as if he was a different person.
Uncertain what to expect, Duo said, "Um, what?"
"Your eyes," Heero said, a hint of irritation in his voice at having to repeat himself. He stared at Duo from the desk where he had been busily typing away on his laptop, and when Duo failed to immediately answer he added, "Their color?"
The eyes in question softened a fraction. Poor Heero. The idea of a colorless world made Duo shudder.
"They're hazel," he said. Heero, looking surprised, walked over to the couch, shoved Duo's legs off of the seat, and settled down in the recently vacated space. Duo, still feeling a certain amount of pity, restrained himself from shoving back.
"Really? Hazel?" Duo nodded in confirmation. "Do you mind…that is not the color I thought they were. Would you mind if I pictured them as a different color?"
Duo was silent for a moment, and then he shrugged and shook his head. So they were playing this game, now? It had never before been about Duo, but he supposed that it had only been a matter of time before Heero got around to him. At least Duo now had a reasonable idea of where this was going. "Sure, Heero. What color?"
Without the slightest hesitation, Heero said, "Violet." Duo scowled.
"Purple?" he snapped. "That's a pretty girlie color, Yuy." Heero's mouth opened to respond, but Duo cut him off. "I'd watch whatever you say next, because that's thin ice you're treading. Now why fucking purple?"
"I said violet," Heero said evenly, as if this even slightly alleviated Duo's concerns. "Not purple."
"That wasn't the question! Answer the question!"
Heero appeared to consider this, and he apparently settled on, "Lavender."
"That's not-lavender? That's worse than violet! I didn't even know it could get worse than violet, and then you come up with fucking lavender. What the hell, Heero?"
There was the briefest flash in Heero's serious expression, a quicksilver change come and gone, that just possibly suggested to Duo that Heero was quite enjoying himself. Duo's suspicion was not dampened when Heero's next response was, "Your shampoo is lavender."
"I don't use scented shampoo," Duo said, horrified.
"You've used lavender shampoo."
"I have not!"
"You have," Heero insisted.
"When?"
Fully expecting Heero to come out with an exact date and time, right down to the second, Duo was actually disappointed when all Heero said was, "The first time we slept together. Your hair smelled like lavender. I remember thinking it was strange…but not-not unpleasant."
Duo frowned, trying to remember a night already almost a year past. Impressions finally refocused into clear images in his mind, and his eyes lit up in comprehension. "Oh! That was hotel shit! D'you really-when we're on missions, I don't exactly pack my own shampoo bottles, y'know. Not what you might consider priority. But come on! That was one time. That can't dictate my eye color for the rest of my life!"
"It was a really nice smell."
"How do you even know what lavender smells like, anyway?"
"I looked on the bottle."
"What bottle?"
"In the morning, I was in the bathroom and saw the lavender shampoo. I smelled it and it smelled like your hair had."
Seeing that he was losing this battle, Duo quickly changed gears. "Then how do you know lavender is purple?"
"How do you?"
" 'Cause-'cause it just is. Hell, I don't know."
"Hmm. I asked someone, once, what lavender looks like. She told me it was sort of a light purple. She walked away before I could ask her what purple looks like."
Duo felt guilty, although he could not pinpoint why. He decided to concede the point. "Okay, so my eyes are-" He took a deep breath, steeled himself, and said, "-violet?"
Heero nodded. "They're beautiful."
"You do realize that people don't have purple eyes?"
Heero tilted his head to the side, looking at him curiously. "How would I know?" he asked. Duo sighed. He tried to be patient, he really did, but he could only take so much of this.
"I guess if you want my eyes to be purple…"
"I do. They match your face. Your face is very elfin, and I think purple eyes suit you."
"So now I have an elfin face?" Duo, who was not entirely clear on the definition of elfin, was trying to decide on the level of offense he should be taking when Heero nodded and said, "Yes, you're my violet-eyed, elfin lover."
"If I didn't know better, Yuy, I'd say you were trying to be romantic."
"Romantic? No. I merely-" And again, Duo saw the slightest, almost non-existent flicker of amusement in Heero's face "-state facts. If you wish to construe those facts as being romantic, than that is entirely up to you."
Chuckling softly, Duo said, "Yeah. Whatever. So I have purple eyes."
"Yes. And your hair? Its color?" As he said this, Heero reached out and grabbed a hold of Duo's braid, rubbing a few strands between his fingers.
Duo rolled his eyes, but nevertheless answered. "It's brown. Nothing special or anything. Drab brown eyes-"
"Your eyes are violet."
"-drab violet eyes and boring, brown hair."
"What about the gold streaks? I think you have gold streaks in your hair. That's not boring." Duo only barely bit back a sharp retort. Heero had never played this game on Duo before, and Duo could not have anticipated the ache in his chest that Heero's answers were causing. It was starting to hurt.
"I promise you, Heero," he ground out, "it's plain old brown."
"It's auburn with gold streaks," Heero said stubbornly.
"I think I'd, y'know, know, but I guess you don't really care?" Heero nodded in agreement. "Well? Aren't you going to tell me why I have gold streaks in my hair?"
"I pictured it blond when we first met, but that never seemed right…you seem to want to hide yourself from the world, and blond is too-obvious. So I realized that you would hide your blond hair behind auburn, just letting hints of its true beauty show." Duo laughed outright.
"Brown with blond streaks? And violet eyes? I think you're clashing colors, Yuy."
"The red, then, I suppose does not help that matter."
Duo blinked and looked down at himself. "Where?"
Heero motioned to the braid still in his grasp.
"In your hair. I should have mentioned. There are also streaks of red, along with the gold. I do not-I admit, I do not have a good explanation for that. But I'm certain there is red, too, underneath the auburn. It's beautiful."
Duo smiled sadly, running a finger along the drab brown strands.
"I guess," he said, not really up to arguing the point anymore. There was a long silence, which Duo was in no mood to fill.
But apparently Heero was, because he said suddenly and with absolute conviction, "You wear black." Duo could only stare at Heero in disbelief.
Finally he managed to get a word beyond his unexpectedly dry lips, "What?"
Heero gestured to Duo's clothes. "Black. You only wear black."
Wordlessly, Duo stared down, and he slowly fingered his bright red T-shirt and navy blue slacks. "Black?" he said, his voice breaking when he asked, "Why black?"
"It's a priest's outfit, actually," Heero said.
"A-what?"
"A priest's outfit," Heero firmly repeated. Duo could only stare at his brightly colored clothing. He touched the white undershirt he wore. Huh. He supposed if his shirt and pants were black it might look like a priest's outfit, but still…
"Why?" he repeated.
Heero paused for a second, as if thinking. But Duo knew he had an answer all lined up and was just putting it into words in his head.
"Because you're in mourning."
Duo choked. When he finally caught his breath-and after a few good thumps on his back-he managed, "Mourning?" Heero merely nodded. Forcing himself to calm down, Duo shook his head and said, "I don't understand."
"You wear a priest's outfit, but it is modified slightly so that unless one looked for it, it wouldn't be instantly recognized as that of a priest's. You wear it because you want everyone to know you're in mourning, but you hide it at the same time because you don't want anyone to think you're crying. You seem ashamed to cry, Duo."
Ashamed? Duo knew that boys didn't cry, but he had never before attached this knowledge to the concept of shame. Uncomfortable with this train of thought and feeling his vision go a little glassy with what he refused to acknowledge as tears, he said, "Yeah? So who am I mourning?"
Heero thought about it, then shrugged. "Me. You. Everyone, I suppose."
"Let me get this straight," Duo said, willing the tears to not start falling, "I'm a violet-eyed, brown with-"
"Auburn."
"-Auburn with red- and gold-streaks haired mourning guy in a black priest's outfit? This is what you see when you look at me?"
"You're beautiful," Heero said simply.
Duo nodded dumbly, and brought his legs up into his chest, wrapping his arms around his knees. He laid his head in his arms and was quiet for a long moment. Heero too was silent, although in what thoughts he was lost Duo could not begin to fathom.
He looked up as Heero's voice once again broke the melancholy silence. Duo, unsure of how much more of this he could take, stifled the urge to get up and just leave the room.
"What color are my eyes?"
"Don't you know?" Duo choked out miserably.
"I never thought to ask," Heero said. "And no one's ever told me. But I'm curious. What color are they?"
Duo slowly crawled forward until he was nose to nose with Heero. He stared into deep brown eyes and whispered, "Blue." Heero raised a surprised eyebrow.
"Really? I thought-isn't blue unusual for an Asian?" His breath tickled across Duo's face, their faces still bare inches apart.
"They're blue," Duo said firmly. "In fact," he breathed, "They change colors sometimes, too."
Both of Heero's eyebrows went up. "I was under the impression that eyes were only one color, though I suppose it's reasonable that I may be mistaken." This close, there was no mistaking the momentary flicker of amusement.
"Sometimes they're cobalt," Duo continued, as if Heero hadn't spoken, speaking almost to himself. "When you're really happy they're more like a prussian. When you're angry they're sort of…sort of sapphire-like. And when we make love they darken to a midnight blue."
Heero smiled softly, the kind of smile a person wears when they get a joke that no one else could ever understand. "Cobalt-blue?" he mused to himself.
Duo made a soft sound of agreement and then slowly nestled his head in the crook of Heero's neck. He settled deeper as he felt strong arms wrap around him.
Fingers gently cupped his chin and brought his face up until their lips met in a sweet kiss. Leisurely they explored one another's mouth, until Heero pulled away, panting slightly. "Your lips? What color are they?"
Duo made as if to grin, but it faded before he did more than curve the corners of his lips upwards. "Red, Heero. Lips are red."
"They are? But there are different shades. What shade of red are your lips?"
Shades don't mean anything to you, Duo wanted to say. They don't change anything for you. Any answer I give will be pointless. "What shade d'you think they are?"
"Strawberry." Duo blinked once, then another time, and then started to shake until he threw back his head in loud laughter.
When his laughter had subsided into low snickers, Duo said, "I have strawberry-red lips?" Heero nodded.
"Yes, and they're beautiful." Perhaps to emphasize this point, he kissed Duo again, his tongue tracing Duo's lips as if looking for physical proof of any inclination towards strawberry-red. Heero was the one to break away from this kiss, too; and instead of the anticipated story of how on some special occasion he had kissed Duo after Duo had eaten some strawberries and so ever since then he knew that Duo's lips were strawberry-colored even if Duo never ate another strawberry again, he said, "I should finish my work."
Game over, Duo thought. You win. Again. Heero stood up and returned to his desk. After a bit of searching, Duo recovered his novel and stretched once more over the entirety of the couch. For a long time there were no sounds save the clicking of a keyboard and the soft rustle of a turning page.
"Heero?"
"Yes?" Heero replied without turning around or pausing in his typing.
"You always do this, y'know. No matter what color I tell you something is, you always insist it's another and refuse to believe me. I don't mind you seeing me with violet eyes and all that shit, but why bother? Why even ask?"
The clicking stopped. Still facing his laptop Heero smiled, a small, gentle smile with just a hint of amusement that Duo saw reflected in the laptop's monitor and probably wasn't supposed to see.
"Because, my violet-eyed love, sometimes I like to add a little color to your life."
He resumed his typing. The ache returned to Duo's chest, although it pressed in a different, less painful way. Smiling, Duo returned to his novel.
And when Duo looked in a mirror later that day, he found he saw violet eyes staring back at him, framed with auburn hair and streaked by hints of gold and red.
Fandom: Gundam Wing
Rating: PG
Pairing: Heero/Duo
Length: 2,300 words
Summary: Heero tries to add color to Duo's black and white world.
Originally posted on 1x2 Yahoo Group in 2003 under the penname "Lady Archer"
Revised: July 1, 2006
"Duo…what color are your eyes?"
Duo Maxwell, sprawled comfortably on a plush couch, looked up from his novel and met the unhappy gaze of his best friend and lover. Heero didn't say a lot, but in the rare times he spoke in that particular tone it was as if he was a different person.
Uncertain what to expect, Duo said, "Um, what?"
"Your eyes," Heero said, a hint of irritation in his voice at having to repeat himself. He stared at Duo from the desk where he had been busily typing away on his laptop, and when Duo failed to immediately answer he added, "Their color?"
The eyes in question softened a fraction. Poor Heero. The idea of a colorless world made Duo shudder.
"They're hazel," he said. Heero, looking surprised, walked over to the couch, shoved Duo's legs off of the seat, and settled down in the recently vacated space. Duo, still feeling a certain amount of pity, restrained himself from shoving back.
"Really? Hazel?" Duo nodded in confirmation. "Do you mind…that is not the color I thought they were. Would you mind if I pictured them as a different color?"
Duo was silent for a moment, and then he shrugged and shook his head. So they were playing this game, now? It had never before been about Duo, but he supposed that it had only been a matter of time before Heero got around to him. At least Duo now had a reasonable idea of where this was going. "Sure, Heero. What color?"
Without the slightest hesitation, Heero said, "Violet." Duo scowled.
"Purple?" he snapped. "That's a pretty girlie color, Yuy." Heero's mouth opened to respond, but Duo cut him off. "I'd watch whatever you say next, because that's thin ice you're treading. Now why fucking purple?"
"I said violet," Heero said evenly, as if this even slightly alleviated Duo's concerns. "Not purple."
"That wasn't the question! Answer the question!"
Heero appeared to consider this, and he apparently settled on, "Lavender."
"That's not-lavender? That's worse than violet! I didn't even know it could get worse than violet, and then you come up with fucking lavender. What the hell, Heero?"
There was the briefest flash in Heero's serious expression, a quicksilver change come and gone, that just possibly suggested to Duo that Heero was quite enjoying himself. Duo's suspicion was not dampened when Heero's next response was, "Your shampoo is lavender."
"I don't use scented shampoo," Duo said, horrified.
"You've used lavender shampoo."
"I have not!"
"You have," Heero insisted.
"When?"
Fully expecting Heero to come out with an exact date and time, right down to the second, Duo was actually disappointed when all Heero said was, "The first time we slept together. Your hair smelled like lavender. I remember thinking it was strange…but not-not unpleasant."
Duo frowned, trying to remember a night already almost a year past. Impressions finally refocused into clear images in his mind, and his eyes lit up in comprehension. "Oh! That was hotel shit! D'you really-when we're on missions, I don't exactly pack my own shampoo bottles, y'know. Not what you might consider priority. But come on! That was one time. That can't dictate my eye color for the rest of my life!"
"It was a really nice smell."
"How do you even know what lavender smells like, anyway?"
"I looked on the bottle."
"What bottle?"
"In the morning, I was in the bathroom and saw the lavender shampoo. I smelled it and it smelled like your hair had."
Seeing that he was losing this battle, Duo quickly changed gears. "Then how do you know lavender is purple?"
"How do you?"
" 'Cause-'cause it just is. Hell, I don't know."
"Hmm. I asked someone, once, what lavender looks like. She told me it was sort of a light purple. She walked away before I could ask her what purple looks like."
Duo felt guilty, although he could not pinpoint why. He decided to concede the point. "Okay, so my eyes are-" He took a deep breath, steeled himself, and said, "-violet?"
Heero nodded. "They're beautiful."
"You do realize that people don't have purple eyes?"
Heero tilted his head to the side, looking at him curiously. "How would I know?" he asked. Duo sighed. He tried to be patient, he really did, but he could only take so much of this.
"I guess if you want my eyes to be purple…"
"I do. They match your face. Your face is very elfin, and I think purple eyes suit you."
"So now I have an elfin face?" Duo, who was not entirely clear on the definition of elfin, was trying to decide on the level of offense he should be taking when Heero nodded and said, "Yes, you're my violet-eyed, elfin lover."
"If I didn't know better, Yuy, I'd say you were trying to be romantic."
"Romantic? No. I merely-" And again, Duo saw the slightest, almost non-existent flicker of amusement in Heero's face "-state facts. If you wish to construe those facts as being romantic, than that is entirely up to you."
Chuckling softly, Duo said, "Yeah. Whatever. So I have purple eyes."
"Yes. And your hair? Its color?" As he said this, Heero reached out and grabbed a hold of Duo's braid, rubbing a few strands between his fingers.
Duo rolled his eyes, but nevertheless answered. "It's brown. Nothing special or anything. Drab brown eyes-"
"Your eyes are violet."
"-drab violet eyes and boring, brown hair."
"What about the gold streaks? I think you have gold streaks in your hair. That's not boring." Duo only barely bit back a sharp retort. Heero had never played this game on Duo before, and Duo could not have anticipated the ache in his chest that Heero's answers were causing. It was starting to hurt.
"I promise you, Heero," he ground out, "it's plain old brown."
"It's auburn with gold streaks," Heero said stubbornly.
"I think I'd, y'know, know, but I guess you don't really care?" Heero nodded in agreement. "Well? Aren't you going to tell me why I have gold streaks in my hair?"
"I pictured it blond when we first met, but that never seemed right…you seem to want to hide yourself from the world, and blond is too-obvious. So I realized that you would hide your blond hair behind auburn, just letting hints of its true beauty show." Duo laughed outright.
"Brown with blond streaks? And violet eyes? I think you're clashing colors, Yuy."
"The red, then, I suppose does not help that matter."
Duo blinked and looked down at himself. "Where?"
Heero motioned to the braid still in his grasp.
"In your hair. I should have mentioned. There are also streaks of red, along with the gold. I do not-I admit, I do not have a good explanation for that. But I'm certain there is red, too, underneath the auburn. It's beautiful."
Duo smiled sadly, running a finger along the drab brown strands.
"I guess," he said, not really up to arguing the point anymore. There was a long silence, which Duo was in no mood to fill.
But apparently Heero was, because he said suddenly and with absolute conviction, "You wear black." Duo could only stare at Heero in disbelief.
Finally he managed to get a word beyond his unexpectedly dry lips, "What?"
Heero gestured to Duo's clothes. "Black. You only wear black."
Wordlessly, Duo stared down, and he slowly fingered his bright red T-shirt and navy blue slacks. "Black?" he said, his voice breaking when he asked, "Why black?"
"It's a priest's outfit, actually," Heero said.
"A-what?"
"A priest's outfit," Heero firmly repeated. Duo could only stare at his brightly colored clothing. He touched the white undershirt he wore. Huh. He supposed if his shirt and pants were black it might look like a priest's outfit, but still…
"Why?" he repeated.
Heero paused for a second, as if thinking. But Duo knew he had an answer all lined up and was just putting it into words in his head.
"Because you're in mourning."
Duo choked. When he finally caught his breath-and after a few good thumps on his back-he managed, "Mourning?" Heero merely nodded. Forcing himself to calm down, Duo shook his head and said, "I don't understand."
"You wear a priest's outfit, but it is modified slightly so that unless one looked for it, it wouldn't be instantly recognized as that of a priest's. You wear it because you want everyone to know you're in mourning, but you hide it at the same time because you don't want anyone to think you're crying. You seem ashamed to cry, Duo."
Ashamed? Duo knew that boys didn't cry, but he had never before attached this knowledge to the concept of shame. Uncomfortable with this train of thought and feeling his vision go a little glassy with what he refused to acknowledge as tears, he said, "Yeah? So who am I mourning?"
Heero thought about it, then shrugged. "Me. You. Everyone, I suppose."
"Let me get this straight," Duo said, willing the tears to not start falling, "I'm a violet-eyed, brown with-"
"Auburn."
"-Auburn with red- and gold-streaks haired mourning guy in a black priest's outfit? This is what you see when you look at me?"
"You're beautiful," Heero said simply.
Duo nodded dumbly, and brought his legs up into his chest, wrapping his arms around his knees. He laid his head in his arms and was quiet for a long moment. Heero too was silent, although in what thoughts he was lost Duo could not begin to fathom.
He looked up as Heero's voice once again broke the melancholy silence. Duo, unsure of how much more of this he could take, stifled the urge to get up and just leave the room.
"What color are my eyes?"
"Don't you know?" Duo choked out miserably.
"I never thought to ask," Heero said. "And no one's ever told me. But I'm curious. What color are they?"
Duo slowly crawled forward until he was nose to nose with Heero. He stared into deep brown eyes and whispered, "Blue." Heero raised a surprised eyebrow.
"Really? I thought-isn't blue unusual for an Asian?" His breath tickled across Duo's face, their faces still bare inches apart.
"They're blue," Duo said firmly. "In fact," he breathed, "They change colors sometimes, too."
Both of Heero's eyebrows went up. "I was under the impression that eyes were only one color, though I suppose it's reasonable that I may be mistaken." This close, there was no mistaking the momentary flicker of amusement.
"Sometimes they're cobalt," Duo continued, as if Heero hadn't spoken, speaking almost to himself. "When you're really happy they're more like a prussian. When you're angry they're sort of…sort of sapphire-like. And when we make love they darken to a midnight blue."
Heero smiled softly, the kind of smile a person wears when they get a joke that no one else could ever understand. "Cobalt-blue?" he mused to himself.
Duo made a soft sound of agreement and then slowly nestled his head in the crook of Heero's neck. He settled deeper as he felt strong arms wrap around him.
Fingers gently cupped his chin and brought his face up until their lips met in a sweet kiss. Leisurely they explored one another's mouth, until Heero pulled away, panting slightly. "Your lips? What color are they?"
Duo made as if to grin, but it faded before he did more than curve the corners of his lips upwards. "Red, Heero. Lips are red."
"They are? But there are different shades. What shade of red are your lips?"
Shades don't mean anything to you, Duo wanted to say. They don't change anything for you. Any answer I give will be pointless. "What shade d'you think they are?"
"Strawberry." Duo blinked once, then another time, and then started to shake until he threw back his head in loud laughter.
When his laughter had subsided into low snickers, Duo said, "I have strawberry-red lips?" Heero nodded.
"Yes, and they're beautiful." Perhaps to emphasize this point, he kissed Duo again, his tongue tracing Duo's lips as if looking for physical proof of any inclination towards strawberry-red. Heero was the one to break away from this kiss, too; and instead of the anticipated story of how on some special occasion he had kissed Duo after Duo had eaten some strawberries and so ever since then he knew that Duo's lips were strawberry-colored even if Duo never ate another strawberry again, he said, "I should finish my work."
Game over, Duo thought. You win. Again. Heero stood up and returned to his desk. After a bit of searching, Duo recovered his novel and stretched once more over the entirety of the couch. For a long time there were no sounds save the clicking of a keyboard and the soft rustle of a turning page.
"Heero?"
"Yes?" Heero replied without turning around or pausing in his typing.
"You always do this, y'know. No matter what color I tell you something is, you always insist it's another and refuse to believe me. I don't mind you seeing me with violet eyes and all that shit, but why bother? Why even ask?"
The clicking stopped. Still facing his laptop Heero smiled, a small, gentle smile with just a hint of amusement that Duo saw reflected in the laptop's monitor and probably wasn't supposed to see.
"Because, my violet-eyed love, sometimes I like to add a little color to your life."
He resumed his typing. The ache returned to Duo's chest, although it pressed in a different, less painful way. Smiling, Duo returned to his novel.
And when Duo looked in a mirror later that day, he found he saw violet eyes staring back at him, framed with auburn hair and streaked by hints of gold and red.