Running the programme always made his computer whirr. It was soothing somehow, filling the silence, especially when he was sitting, as now, on the hard kitchen chair with the clock on the wall barely visible in the early morning darkness.

Past three AM.

On the computer screen the small infrared figure shifted in his bed, leaving warm orange and yellow imprints on the bed sheets and pillow that faded to violet and blue farther away from the heat source. Heero watched the movement intently, waiting for something more... when nothing else happened he allowed a small breath and relaxed back into his chair.

A creak from the floorboards of the room upstairs let him know that Duo was awake, possibly a bad dream, perhaps nothing more than a bathroom break. Soft padding on the stairs a minute later told him that it was the former and he glanced away from the recorded figure sleeping on his screen to look at the door.

Duo appeared shortly, sleep tousled and groggy still.

“...H’ro.” he greeted around a yawn.

Heero nodded, returning once more to his computer. Grabbing a pan from the cupboard Duo lit the gas hob and pulled the litre bottle of milk from the fridge, momentarily sending a blast of cold, frosted, electric light in Heero’s direction.

“Want one?”

“Hm...hot chocolate?” Heero asked.

“Of course.”

He pushed his empty mug in Duo’s direction in silent consensus.

Picking it up Duo gave it a swill under the tap and placed it next to his own on the work-surface. Leaning his hip against the washing machine he gave the milk a quick stir and looked at Heero.

“What you doing?”

The figure on the screen shifted a little again and Heero delayed his reply for a second while he watched. “Nothing.”

“Oh?” Duo’s reply was airy, “Nothing seems to keep your nights pretty busy lately.” he commented, ladling out the spoonfuls of chocolate powder.

Milk heated up enough, Duo filled the mugs, passed one to Heero, and sat down in the seat next to him, near enough to see the laptop screen clearly. He took a sip of his milky drink, sighed, then said.

“You want to talk about it?”

Heero didn’t answer and the room fell into companionable silence for a while as the hot beverage worked its magic. It was a good five minutes later and Duo’s eyes were beginning to droop when Heero chose to break the quiet.

“Bad dream?”

Duo shrugged, “Not too bad really, just a bit disorienting I guess.”

“Hm.” Heero sipped his drink, looking thoughtful. “What do you dream of?”

Duo thought for a while before he answered. “Things that are important to me," he announced seriously. "People I’ve known, cared about, people I’ve not known, people I’ve killed. The usual.”

Another “Hm.”

“Why’d you want to know?”

Heero didn’t reply and once again the comfortable hush coated the room. A slight shifting of the figure on the screen caught Heero’s attention once more but it came to nothing and he settled back into his chair with a frustrated mien.

Duo watched him quietly from over the rim of his mug. Throwing back the dregs in one decisive moment he stood up, swilled his cup out, and stood it upside down on the drainer. Heero listened to the quiet, sticky sounding footsteps as they moved over the linoleum... making a mental note to wash the floor in the morning.

They stopped directly behind him and he exhaled softly.

“You know.” Duo’s hand had moved to hover over his left shoulder, not touching, just close enough to heat the air between their bodies. “Just because a person doesn’t remember, it doesn’t mean they don’t have nightmares. It seems to me if you were so interested in finding out if you dream or not you could always try asking the person you share a room with. They must know you better than any camera system after all.”

And with that he left the room, throwing a casual, “Night.” over his shoulder as he did so.

Alone once more Heero watched the little recording for a while longer. The floorboards creaked above him again and, coming to a decision, he reached out and powered down his laptop, plunging the room into the grey semi-darkness of encroaching dawn. The immobile recording had told him nothing he didn’t already know anyway.

He might have known Duo would understand.

Standing up, he stretched the kinks out of his back and rubbed the grit from his eyes temporarily.

The bedroom was dark when he arrived in the doorway but he knew Duo was awake. He therefore had no qualms about breaking the silence one more time that night... it was time to ask.

“Duo...”

Owari.