In Short

Duo had figured there would be reactions, but the scope of them still unnerved him. Most of the people at the office wouldn't do much more than grunt or wave a greeting, much less outright wish him a good morning. He couldn't fault them; it wasn't as if he went out of his way to wish hello, either. Given the big number of people employed at the Preventer main branch office, a civil sense of ignoring each other was adopted.

But the stares... Sure, he'd expected a few looks, especially from those who actually paid attention to his looks. He hadn't expected the gaping mouths, the blank expressions, the pens slipping out of hands and rolling off desks. The filing girl with the nose ring were one of the few that usually gave a cheerful greeting - and the way her jaw had fallen from the smile, much like the folders in her hands slipped to the floor, got to him more than most reactions.

It was with some trepidation he approached his own office - or in particular, his colleague sharing it. His hand stalled at the handle, but as someone rounded the corner and gasped upon seeing him, Duo figured it was better to get it over with. He entered, and shut the door behind him.

Heero was preoccupied with paperwork, not at all unusual since he joined the codebreaking staff a month ago. "Duo, did you finish typing up the Davies report? Une wants to see a copy on her desk befo-"

That was roughly when Heero looked up. When he saw. When his mouth went agape and words were lost on him.

Duo clenched his teeth. It figured. When he finally pulled off a stunt to make Heero speechless - something numerous and in his opinion quite ingenious practical jokes had failed to - it was for something as simple as this.

"D-Duo, your hair..."

He wrote it all off with a bitter grin and ruffled the back of his head, the stubs barely going higher than his fingers. "You like it?" He waited for Heero to say something, but even the stoic ex-pilot simply stared at him, dumbstruck. Duo moved over to his desk and sat down. "Hey, you're the one who kept saying how it went against company protocol, and how it got in the way during missions, and how it made me stand out when we went undercover."

"...yes," Heero at length admitted. "But I never thought you'd actually... You cut your hair? And that short?!"

He had to suppress a laugh. "Sheesh, it's only hair. What's my braid to you, anyway?"

Heero opened his mouth as if to say something, but changed his mind. He chose to glare at the door, hoping Duo would mistake the slight color growing in his cheeks for fluster rather than embarrassment.

Score, Duo thought.

"...I thought you said it was important to you - that it tied you to your past."

Duo shrugged it off. "Yeah... but mostly, I liked the look. Besides, maybe I want to explore my future now."

Heero slowly faced him.

"Sometimes, you have to give a little to gain a lot, you know."

Heero's brows closed minutely, but he said nothing.

"So..." Duo said, rummaging through the fresh newspaper at his desk, only read once by a certain prissy co-worker seated nearby. "For the more immediate future, I was thinking of the Odeon tomorrow night. There's a new action movie showing. Wanna come?"

"...I..." He couldn't stop staring at the back of Duo's head. If this was another of Duo's pranks, he couldn't see where Duo would have hidden his braid. No, it was actually and quite simply gone.

Duo noticed, put the newspaper aside, walked over to Heero's desk and sat down at one end. "Want to touch?" Not waiting for an answer, he grabbed Heero's hand and put it against the short bristles at the back of his head. Heero's mouth was locked in an 'o' at first, and it took a few heartbeats before he dared move his fingertips.

Very slowly coaxing Duo's grin closer, he dared breathe out "...yes..."

Give a little, gain a lot, Duo repeated in his mind, just before chasing most thoughts away.