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"You are his best friend now?" Heero kept his eyes on the sea, refusing to look at the man beside him. Looking at the waves always helped him keep calm and grounded.
"I am. But he still talks about you all the time." There was a pause. "He never understood why you left."
"How did you meet?" Heero didn't want to talk about why he had left. He would rather hear how his oldest friend found a new one than having to explain himself.
From the corner of his eye Heero could see Duo looking at him carefully, examining him. It made Heero uncomfortable. He was about to say something, anything to make Duo stop staring at him when Duo started talking. "I'm not rich like him. When we met I had hit rock bottom. I was stealing for a living, just to get something in my stomach for a day or two. I was sloppy and a bunch of guards saw me one day. They chased me and soon had me cornered against a wall. Seven of them against little old me and my rusty sword." Duo laughed softly. "I thought I was done, and then there was this other sword, fighting the guards beside me."
"Quatre," Heero said.
"He was great. We were fighting back to back, seven against two, swords flying everywhere." Duo had moved away from the railing and was acting out the fight, holding an imaginary sword. Heero turned away from the sea and looked.
Quatre and Heero had learned swordsmanship together. As a servant, Heero wasn't supposed to learn, but when Quatre had started taking lessons he insisted on having Heero with him. On the days when Quatre wasn't too tired of his training, they would spar, just for fun.
"We won, of course," Duo said, and stabbed an imaginary fallen enemy with his inexistent sword. "That's when I had the chance to really look at Cat. His clothes screamed noble and the fact that he had that Healer's medallion didn't help me trust him. I was ready to bolt but then Cat smiled and introduced himself." Duo walked back to the railing and leaned back beside Heero. "He wasn't famous then. He had just left seclusion."
"Famous?" Heero wondered. Quatre had become very important in the Sank community and he had many people who cared a lot for him, like the Maguanacs, but that didn't make him famous.
"Yeah, very famous," Duo said. "The people love him. The first noble Healer they ever trusted. That had never happened before."
"You trusted him," Heero pointed out.
"He saved me," Duo replied. He moved away from the railing and stood in front of Heero. "I don't know you, Heero. I only know what Cat has told me. He trusts you, but I'm not like him. You're a pirate, you broke a promise you made to him five years ago and when you come back he ends up in a dungeon waiting to be executed!" The easy going expression was gone from his face. "He's a damn good guy and my best friend, and I'm not going to let him die, not for you or anyone, got that?"
Heero nodded and after glaring one last time, Duo walked away. Heero watched him until he disappeared below deck and then turned back to the sea.