Kracken
1x2
"Let go," Heero urged him, his shirt hanging in his hands as he stood at the end of the bed.
"I'm no good for you," Duo told him tightly, face averted, hands jammed into the pockets of his jeans.
"Don't put me on a pedestal," Heero growled. "I have my own sins, blood on my hands, wrongs innumerable. I am flawed."
"I shouldn't be here," Duo insisted.
"I want you here." Heero replied angrily. "I wasn't tricked, wasn't coerced. I chose, freely. I made my decision, freely."
"Just like that, after all these years?" Duo retorted, doubtful and full of pain.
"You're the one that ran," Heero reminded him, but then, impatiently. "I don't want to fight. I want to love you. Let me. Let go."
"I was too young," Duo said as he paced in bare feet, "Too old up here, but not where it counted," he added, stabbing at his forehead with a finger.
Heero took hold of that finger, that hand, and pulled it to his lips. "We both needed to grow, to heal, I understand that."
"Don't lie to me!" Duo snarled. "I know how angry you were, how angry you are, now, still."
"Not now," Heero told him, and reached out with his other hand to start unbuttoning Duo's shirt. "Not know," he repeated, more strongly. "Not after I saw you, on that street corner, after so long."
"Did I thank you for tackling me and giving me concrete burns?" Duo sneered.
"You shouldn't have tried to run away. I'm faster than you are," Heero replied with the ghost of a smile.
Duo's smile was shaky, uncertain. "How did we end up here, after that?"
"Because we both want more than just to talk," Heero replied.
"You do," Duo said bitterly.
Heero's hands dropped and he stepped back, angrily. "This isn't a rape. If you want to go..."
Duo stared at his bare toes and then took a shuddering breath as he said, almost in a whisper, "I... don't... I don't want to go."
Heero's hands returned, patient and gentle. "Let go," he insisted. "Let us forget the past, forget the blood, and the pain, and have a life together, starting now, here, in my bedroom. We're well past being old enough."
"It's not too late?" Duo wondered, like a child needing reassurance, not a thirty five year old man, that had experienced more than men three times his age. "I saw you building a career, leading a normal life, after the war. I thought that I would taint it by showing up again."
"You won't," Heero assured him as he let Duo's shirt slide to the floor and then started on the man's belt. "We've waited long enough. Time for us, for our life together." He dropped the belt, and tugged Duo over to the bed by his belt loops. "Let go of the past."
Duo gave in, suddenly, hands pulling Heero in and lips taking his fiercely, in a passion held at bay for too long, years long, as he did, finally, let go, and hope for a future with Heero.