things couples do

[self_named]

Duo was updating his PDA on the pool table in the rec room. This involved a lot of small tools and his tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth. He was leaning up over some scattered parts and carefully layering them back together again, and all this to make the battery more efficient

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[forged_hero]

There was something about hands that always got Moist. Hands. Hands that were writing a check or hands that were holding a cigarette, or hands that were doing things with bits of metal that wouldn't ever make sense to him.

All in all, he can't help himself. The recroom isn't empty, but it's not crowded, either. Last week he picked all the locks in the compound. Now, he's looking for a better pay out.

He wonders if Duo Maxwell blushes.

"Hey," he breaths against Duo's cheek, peering over his shoulder at Parts. To him, it frankly looks quite similar to boar parts, without the squishy bits and entrails. Fingers briefly touch the back of Duo's back and then apparently disappear.

It's not that hard to get the rubber band off the end of the braid.

"What's all this?"

[self_named]

"PDA," Duo said, grinning a bit at the proximity of Moist's mouth.

"Just getting it to run faster so the battery's charge is good for longer. What are you up to?"

[forged_hero]

"Battery?" Moist says, still looking down at the parts, mouth still hovering. He has to go slow, obviously. Duo has a tendency to whip around when he's not expecting it, so now he's very slowly, gently unknoting one fold at a time. His fingers remember well enough all on their own.

"Like what the Watch gets called in for?"

[self_named]

"Yeah, watches run on- Oh! No no no!" Duo said, starting up a little to grin at Moist over his shoulder, before turning his head back down to the mess of parts.

"Battery like a mini circuit of lightning? Remember? The little metal thing that holds the power that makes it work?"

[forged_hero]

"Oh!" says Moist enthusiastically, his fingers knotting in on themselves as the surge of adrealine went through when Duo very nearly turned around. His fingers hovered over the open tendrils of hair, patiently awaiting instructions. Moist took a steadying breath. Resume.

"Oh, of course," he says, fingers working steadily, not shaking at all. "The Igors used to do that. There was a whole room in the castle filled with bottled lightning. And...well...other things inside jars."

Things that had lived previous lives inside people.

[self_named]

Duo glanced over slightly at the enthusiasm, but wrote it off. Moist tended to get happy when they had some sort of shared experience that wasn't a near-death one.

"That's pretty awesome," Duo chuckled. "Igors. Man. So. Stolen anything lately?" he asked.

[forged_hero]

"Er. Yes, I suppose. They're astounding surgeons."

Just best not to let them cook dinner.

"Stolen?" Moist says innocently, the braid half unraveled and shortening quickly. What does he do when he gets to the end? he wonders. Pigtails? Duo will likely kill him. Well, better just to fall face forward into it and plan as he goes...

"I've turned over a new leaf, you know," Moist goes on. The K's were stashed under a floor board. Duo had an odd attachment to the machine that made Moist loathe to mention the recent ransacking. "No more theft or duplicity for me. I'm a Changed Man."

[self_named]

"Yeah?" Duo said, still conversationally, casually, twisting a small piece of metal and assembling another few. "You may've mentioned it. So how'd you enjoy the part in the Times office?"

[forged_hero]

"Ehr?" says Moist, his fingers stuttering for half a second. His brain was suddenly a very distracted foreman, unable to relay orders. He couldn't know. Duo couldn't possibly know. Maybe the wolf had talked. She'd seen him pull up the boards...

"It was very nice. Kind of Lady Sibyl to strong arm - I'm sorry, invite me to come. The editor," - and Moist savored the pronunciation, the exact amount of civic disdain infused into each syllable - "Seemed to enjoy his gift."

The fingers resumed, although the mouth carried on heedlessly. "It was...nice seeing Robb there."

[self_named]

Duo hesitated, then closed the pda up and set about making sure it stayed closed.

"Oh, man, was that a dangerous little pause. Nice, huh? I mean, I thought so, cuz I don't see him all that much and we're pals. I thought your doppleganger gave you the creeps," he said, laughing a little.

[forged_hero]

The fingers, heedless of the visual clue that he was almost done continued, almost up to Duo's neck by this point and still going.

"Well I was going to say creepy, actually," Moist admited, "But I though I was supposed to like your friends. Who you've slept with. Who look exactly like me. I thought that was a rule."

[self_named]

"You're not supposed to like anyone, you're just supposed to not hold it against 'em. People I've slept with, I mean," Duo added to clarify.

"Anyway, you're two completely different people. Looks only count for so much, yanno?" He turned the pda over in his hands, leaning back slightly and turning it on.

[forged_hero]

"It is faintly disconcerting," Moist muttered, and it was disconcerting enough that his fingers, diligently plodding along, suddenly aroused his attention. He frowned down at them and found, much to his horror, that they were rather irreversibly tangled in hair, just between Duo's shoulder blades. His eyes became wide. He dared a couple looks at Duo and bravely pushed forward, giving his hand a few, experimental tugs.

"Yes, two completly differently people who look exactly the same and have slept with you. You have no idea to what ends this reassures me. Honest."

Now he was frowning thoughtfully at the birdsnest that had developed in his hand almost instantaneously, his fingers anchored in a way that surpassed all logical explanation. He gave his pinky an experimental wiggle. A landslide of hair quickly made the motion impossible to repeat.

"Er..." he murmured very quietly, just to himself. Right. Okay. Now what.

[self_named]

"Not like I was engaged to the guy," Duo said under his breath, ducking his head-

And felt resistance.

"What- Hey!" he helped whirling, dragging Moist's hand around with his head. "What the-" There was a mass of chestnut hair, a mass of it, a waterfall of hair, aka a hairfall, tumbling over his shoulders and draping around his arms, back, hips.

"Goddammit!"

[forged_hero]

"Oh for-" Moist begins to say and then stops, because his arm is being dislocated as Duo spins around and -

"Whoops," he said, nearly holding Duo because it was either that or loose an arm. The arm in question was draped casually over Duo's shoulder, his fingers somewhere out of sight. Held hostage.

"Might I comment that your hair looks lovely today, darling," he says, summoning his best, roguish grin. It couldn't hurt, anyway. At least not conceivably more than the prehensile grip of Duo's hair.

[self_named]

Duo punched him in the shoulder and then reached back to find Moist's fingers and disengage them from his hair.

"You know how much of a pain in the ass it is to redo! Awe, man, what're you, stuck?!"