Sleep was leaving him and consciousness was gradually returning. A slight discomfort made itself known. He tried to raise his hand and rub one of his eyes, only to find he couldn't move. Someone was kneeling on his hands, pinning them to the bed.

Violet eyes immediately snapped open, to stare into dark red ones. Duo would have gulped if he could, but the sword poised on his throat would have made the movement at least a bit too risky.

The handsome face above Duo smirked, and a deep voice made itself heard. "Hisashiburi desu ne, Shi-chan?"

The sword was retracted a little. Duo finally managed to gulp, and whispered "So desu, Hiei."

Hiei leaned over Duo's face a bit more, and in quiet but angry tones whispered back, "I think you owe us some explanations. And they'd better be very good ones."

Duo opened his mouth, but before any sound came out of his throat, a loud 'click' was heard. Both Duo and Hiei glanced sideways, only to meet the sight of a certain Heero Yuy pointing a gun at Hiei's head. Not even blinking, he growled, "Get off him."

Red met violet again, and Hiei smirked one more time. "Keep down, Shi- chan." Duo did as was told, and Hiei slowly got off him. Standing face to face with Heero, the smirk still firmly in place, Hiei said, "What do you want, human?"

Narrowing his eyes, Heero hissed, "Drop the sword and raise your hands."

Heero never realized the gun had gone off and Duo had screamed "HIEI, NO!!!" The only thing he knew was that he was against the wall, with no gun in his hand, no air in his lungs and with that thrice damned sword now on his own throat.

Heero was silently fuming. How come he was so easily overpowered by that skinny, still smirking brat? The sound of footsteps reached his ears, and he glanced at the door. The other three pilots stood there, guns at ready, but gaping at the sight in front of them.

Duo quickly climbed out of bed and stood between the two groups. "Guys, drop the guns." Quatre blinked. "But, Duo-kun..."

"I said drop the guns!" Whirling around, Duo sent Hiei a furious glare. "Hiei, back off! You promised me you'd never do that again!"

Hiei suddenly became serious. "I don't think that's the right way to address me, Shi-chan. Where are your manners?"

Duo crossed his arms over his chest and smirked, just like Hiei had done before. "I never had manners, you know that. Besides, whose fault is that? Who raised me like I am now?"

Chuckling, Hiei stepped back. "You're right." Sheathing his sword, he completely ignored Heero and the three pilots on the doorway and turned to face Duo. "I'm still waiting for an explanation, Shi-chan. And make it good."

Duo sighed. "How long do you have?" Looking over Hiei's shoulder, he added, "Heero, stay put or he'll beat the shit out of you, man. He was just playing around with you the first time."

Heero sputtered something unintelligible, and Hiei chuckled again. "As long as I want. Kurama will show up latter."

At that, Duo's face lit up. "Honto ni? Sugoi! Let's go down and wait for him then!" Looking down, Duo realized he was half-naked, and blushed. "Hey, Quatre!" No answer. "Quatre?" The blonde snapped up, and looked at Duo. "Quatre, could you take Hiei down and get him some tea while I get dressed? Thanks, man!"

As he turned to his dresser, Hiei's question made Duo blush even more. "I've always seen you naked, ever since you were born. Why are you being shy now?"

Pointing at his friend's shocked faces, Duo answered "You may be used to see me wandering around naked, but they certainly aren't. Now shoo!"

Shrugging, Hiei left the room. Duo called after his friends. "Hey, guys!" As they turned, Duo gave them a thumbs-up. "Don't worry about him, he's family!"

The four pilots were giving Hiei suspicious looks, which the latter promptly ignored. Heero was still pissed at being so easily overpowered, so he was in a bad mood when Quatre tried to squeeze some info out of him.

"Have any of you seen him getting into the house?" At Wufei and Trowa's negative answer, they turned to Heero, who grunted, "When I came into the room I caught him" pointing at Hiei "over Duo on the bed, with a sword at his throat."

They turned at Hiei, who was glaring at his teacup like it was a poisonous snake. Quatre cleared his throat. "Anou... Hiei-san?"

Red eyes looked up. "Hn?"

"Have you known Duo for long?"

"Hn."

"He said you were family..."

"Hn."

Trowa gave Heero a sideways glance and whispered, "His answers remind me of someone I know..." Quatre tried to hide a smile, as did Wufei. Heero was about to reply when Duo's voice was heard from upstairs. "Don't kill one another yet! I'm coming!"

A few moments later Duo came barging into the kitchen, a towel wrapped around his hair and another around his hips. He poured himself a cup of coffee and ran out again, shouting, "Be patient! I'll be right back!"

Hiei glanced at the doorway, and then muttered, "At least he got himself a nice body."

The pilots looked at each other, and reached a common decision. Don't ask.

When Duo came down again he was already showered and completely dressed, but still had a towel around his hair. He dragged everyone to the living room and settled himself on the loveseat. Hiei grunted and sat by his side. "Why take a bath just to talk?"

Duo smiled sunnily. "If Kurama is coming to see me, I have to at least be presentable." With that, he started toweling his hair, sending small droplets over Hiei, who scowled and took the towel from his hands. "You still don't know how to do it without getting me wet, do you? Turn around, I'll do it."

Turning, Duo burst out laughing at the look on his friends' faces. "Hey guys, what's up? You look like you've swallowed a couple of frogs each."

"W-well, Duo-kun, we've never seen you so at ease with a stranger, nor with your hair down..." Quatre stammered.

"Oh? Well, my hair is something a bit too personal... and Hiei is definitely not a stranger."

Before anyone could ask more, Hiei interrupted them. "Give me the brush." As he started combing Duo's hair, Hiei grumbled, "I still don't understand why you and that baka kitsune insist in having long hair."

Duo cooed back, "Because you both taught me the best. You taught me how to dress," he pointed at their clothes, both wearing black and white "and Kurama taught me about hair care! And quit complaining, I know you like brushing our hair!"

"Duo." Heero ground out. "WHO. IS. HE?"

"Aw, Hee-chan, don't get jealous!" The brush paused mid-stroke for a moment, but before Duo could turn around and ask what was wrong, it resumed his task. "Well, since I have some explaining to do to Hiei, might as well tell you guys everything from the beginning.

"I'm a bit older than you guys think. Otousan is always busy, buried in paperwork, and okaasan never stayed with me for long periods of time. She's also very busy with her job, you know. So when I was still a toddler, I had no one to take care of me. I always got lost in the office, messed with the papers and made everyone's life miserable."

"You still do..." Wufei mumbled.

"Hey, Wufie! Not fair!"

"My name is WuFEI, Maxwell!"

"Yare, yare. Anyway, otousan thought it would be a good idea if I enjoyed my childhood for a while before I got old enough to start learning how to manage the 'family business'" Duo shuddered a little and Quatre gave him a sympathetic look, "so he sent me to be fostered away. As Hiei and Kurama are some of my parents' best friends, they took me in--"

Hiei interrupted him, "Took you in? That... that pacifier-sucker threw you at us and almost threatened us with the Special Forces if we didn't raise you properly!"

The pilots tensed, and Duo hastily added "Not that Special Forces, guys. He's talking about otousan's employees." Turning to Hiei, he asked "but you liked my company all those years, didn't you?" He batted his eyelashes for good measure. Hiei whacked him upside the head and muttered "Baka. Turn around and let me finish."

Turning to his fellow pilots, Duo continued "Well, Hiei and Kurama took me in and raised me as a son. Those were the best years in my life... Then I grew up and otousan called me back. I spent some time with him, learning about the office and working part-time."

"Then you disappeared." Hiei interjected. "Do you know the fuss that bubble-head mother of yours made? Here, I finished your hair. But I don't know how to put it up."

Duo reached out and started braiding his hair. "I know what I did was wrong, Hiei. But I don't regret it. You know otousan prohibited us in interfering with the world, and I had to stay inside the office pretending nothing was happening! I wanted to live in this world! I wanted to make a difference!"

Both turned at the sound of Quatre's voice "You wanted to do something to help instead of waiting for others... so you ran away from your father."

Duo nodded weakly "Yeah. Something like that."

Quatre gave him a warm look. "I understand what you felt, Duo-kun. I... I felt the same. And did the same."

Duo's eyes widened. "You... you did?"

Quatre nodded.

"Hiei?" Hiei jumped and turned around, eyes widening slightly. It was Trowa. "If you're the one who raised Duo, how old are you? And who's Kurama?"

Hiei shrugged. "I'm much older than I look. We took care of Shi-chan since he stopped using diapers. And Kurama is my mate."

Duo chuckled. "We don't say 'mate' here, Hiei." Turning to the others, "Kurama is Hiei's husband. They married long before I was born."

Wufei sputtered "T...two males... married to each other?"

He received three glares. Duo's and Hiei's were somewhat expected... but Quatre's? In unison, the three asked "Yeah... got a problem with that?" Wufei gulped and shook his head, earning back a "Good."

"I also think it's good" came a voice from the doorway. Before anyone could even blink, Duo threw himself across the room. "KURAMAAAAA!!!"

A loud 'OOOOFFFF' and the sound of someone falling to the ground followed Duo's almost shriek. Hiei snorted and the others sweatdropped (or they would, if it were possible). Duo started giggling like a child, and soon a deep, rich voice started laughing with him.

"I missed you a lot, Kurama!"

"I missed you too, Shi-chan."

When both got up, the four pilots were greeted with the sight of the most beautiful man they'd ever seen. Pale hands could be seen coming out of the heavy overcoat sleeves, and long silver hair came from underneath the man's hat. What caught their attention though were the man's piercing golden eyes. Cold. Assessing. But when those eyes turned to Duo, they became soft and warm.

Duo dragged Kurama to the middle of the room, then started pointing out his friends. "Kurama, these are Trowa, Quatre, Heero and Wufei. Guys, this is Kurama, my other father." Kurama bowed politely. "Yoroshiku."

The boys nodded, and Kurama sat beside Hiei. Duo chose to sit on the floor, back resting against their legs. Kurama reached out, grabbed the end of Duo's braid and started toying with it.

Heero narrowed his eyes. Duo looked like a happy dog whose owner was toying with its leash. How much longer would he keep up the act?

End Part 2

Oh, for those who saw EW... think that Kurama's hat is somewhat similar to Zechs' when he went to see Lady Une... I needed something to cover his ears!

1. "Hisashiburi": means something like "Long time, no see."
2. "So desu": he's agreeing with the above statement
3. "Sugoi": umm... in this case, I'd say it can be translated as "cool!"
4. "honto ni": means "is it true?"
5. "otousan" and "okaasan", which means "father" and "mother" respectively.

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