SongBird
by Snow Tigra

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Heero unlocked the door to his dorm room and glanced around, quietly closing the door behind him. The lights were out and he could see the small outline of his roommate up in his bed, sleeping soundly. Breathing out a sigh of relief he went about gathering the things he needed from the room as quietly as he could. Clothes, school books, money for food, a few snacks-

The lights snapped on around him and Heero jumped in surprise.

"Caught ya," his roommate murmured in a sleepy voice.

Heero frowned, shaking away his surprise and went back to packing his stuff. As soon as he got everything together he started shoving it into his backpack, making sure to add some extra clothes for Duo to wear since his dress was in such bad condition.

"Where you going to?" His roommate asked, sitting up in bed and nearly hitting his head on the ceiling.

"Staying with a friend on campus for a few nights."

Heero's roommate smirked. "Girl or guy?" He asked, waggling his eyebrows suggestively.

Heero ignored him and only shot him a glare. "I'll be back later."

His roommate yawned and lay back in bed, shrugging under the covers. "Yeah, whatever. See ya then, I promise not to have too many parties. But if you don't ever come back can I keep your computer?"

"Hn."

With that Heero picked up his bag and left the room. He knew his roommate was only joking about the computer, it was something he did commonly even though he had a pretty nice computer of his own.

Heero would have liked to bring Duo back to his own dorm room, knowing fully well the room was much safer then the research room in the library, but dorm rules forbade it. Like most dorms his had this rule against co-habitants, saying that a guest could stay for three days and then they had to leave. And lets not forget that Heero's roommate had been the one to pull him into the club in the first place, which meant he knew who Duo was. Explaining what had happened to Duo and why he needed a place to stay would turn out to be more trouble then it was worth, so at the moment Heero decided the library was the best place.

Slipping his keys into his pocket he walked down the hall and headed back for the library, his mind already working through what he would have to do to keep Duo a secret. It was obvious he couldn't send the boy back to the club, especially not since he'd learned that the tall blond guy had hurt him, he wasn't about to send him back. But he wasn't sure what he could do. Duo couldn't live in the library for the rest of his life, they would have to find a place for him to stay and Heero didn't have many ideas.

Maybe Duo had parents, a family. Maybe they could look into his history and see if he had any relatives living in the area he could stay with. There wasn't much hope in this area of thought but it was currently the only thing Heero could think of and currently it was better then nothing, so he decided he'd ask Duo when he got back to the library.

By the time he did reach the library it was quite late and not many students were out on the school grounds. Using his keys from his job he opened the main doors and let himself back in, then moved down to the lower basement.

Surprisingly he found Duo asleep under the quilts, curled up tightly and shivering. Heero set down his things and pulled his quilt closer to the boy. Without even thinking he wrapped his arms around the shivering singer and pulled the last quilt over both of them. Duo stopped shivering and seemed to relax in his arms. Heero found himself slipping off to sleep with a smile of contentment on his face. He knew he could definitely get used to this.

**

Duo opened his eyes to find himself curled tightly among blankets with a warm scent drifting through the air. Rolling over under the quilts he found Heero sitting next to him paging through a thick book, a mug of something warm and steaming sitting between them. Duo smiled softly.

"Smells good."

Heero put the book down and nodded. "Hot apple cider. I picked some up at the coffee shop above us, I didn't know what you liked."

Duo sat up and timidly took the mug with one arm, still avoiding using his injured one. Sipping at the drink slowly he winced as it burnt his tongue, but quickly got over that. The drink was delicious and so much better then the bland stuff Zechs had always fed him. Quickly finishing off the drink he noticed that Heero had gone back to reading in his book, occasionally jotting notes down on the sides of the page.

"Do you live in this room?" Duo asked, not sure what to think. He recognized all the books around them as books, but his only experience of the world was with where he and Zechs had lived. The library room was new to him and it seemed like an odd place to stay most nights.

Heero shook his head. "I live in the dorms across the street. I'd take you to stay there but they have rules about other people living in the rooms. You'd get in trouble."

Duo nodded.

Heero sighed softly and set down his book, marking the page. "I hate to bring this up but... do you have a place you can stay?"

"No." Duo shook his head. "I'm not going back," he murmured a second later, his breath taking on a threatening tone.

"And I won't send you back if he hurt you. But you can't stay here Duo; eventually someone will find you and try to send you back to him and the club. Do you know anyone else in the city? Any family? Relatives? Friends?"

Duo shook his head and turned away, hugging his knee as he stared off into space. "No. I lived with Zechs, no one else. Never even been outside the club before."

Violet eyes glanced back at Heero as he leaned back against the book shelf and frowned. Duo responded with a sad look of his own, his eyes moving back to scan the shelves. He didn't want to go back to Zechs, but he didn't know where else to go. It hadn't really occurred to him the night he'd run away but he knew nothing about the world outside the club. He didn't know any of he people, didn't know what to expect. Upon reflection he realized that running away like he had had actually been very stupid. He was completely lost and now had no where to go. He certainly couldn't go back, since that would only make Zechs even more angry, but still trying to run and avoid him would only anger him more...

Duo sighed. "I'm going to get you in trouble aren't I?"

Heero swallowed and nodded slowly. "I'm not sure what to do. What about your parents?"

He shook his head. "Didn't have any."

At that Heero raised an eyebrow. "Everyone has parents, you couldn't survive without them."

Duo shook his head. "Zechs raised me. I didn't have any parents. Just him."

Heero stood up and paced around the room a bit frowning. "You don't remember anyone besides Zechs? Not even a flash? You had to have had parents unless..." His eyes widened slightly. "Unless you were kidnapped or orphaned."

Duo just sent him a confused look.

"Duo... how long have you been singing?"

"As long as I can remember."

"But... how old were you in your first memory?"

Duo frowned and closed his eyes, trying to think hard. "Not that old, I guess. About half as tall as I am now..." He flashed Heero a helpless look. His memories didn't go back that far and were usually pretty fuzzy. Trying to remember only brought a strange combination of emotions and feelings that didn't make any sense at all.

"The only thing I can think of is actually trying to hunt down your family, but that will be pretty hard since you don't have any memory of them..." Heero frowned once more and ran a hand through his hair in frustration.

"I wish I could just stay with you," Duo whispered softly.

Heero's eyes widened for a moment then a small sad smile crossed his face. Crossing the room he wrapped his arms around Duo in a soft embrace. Duo immediately leaned back into the embrace feeling content and safe in Heero's arms. So safe, he wished they could stay like this forever.

"I know," Heero murmured back. "I wish you could too."

Duo closed his eyes and relaxed in that embrace.

"I promise I'll find a safe place for you. I won't let him hurt you again."


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