Disclaimer: Oh yeah... still don't own

Pairings: 2x3 get togetherness, 1+2 bromance and a tiny hint of past 3x4

Warnings: yaoi, men kissing men, some language, a little angst

A/N: Inspired by the song Shot at the Night by the Killers and a conversation a long time ago about the lack of cliched 2x3... so here is a feelsy get together fic! Beta'd by Lunar Pull.

Shot at the Night

Trowa loosened his tie as he waited for his floor in the cramped elevator. Most agents were on their way home, quitting time as Duo would say, and Trowa was too after he'd stopped in on a particular office.

It opened on the third floor and Trowa pushed passed to exit, glaring at the other agents who didn't let him out easily. Most of them seemed young - maybe they didn't know who he was. Though he heard a whispered comment as he brushed by them.

He didn't hear much beyond "Gundam" but figured what had been said.

The office he was visiting was at the end of a line of cubicles - superior agents allowed their own space - and most of the men and women were packing up their stuff, readying to leave. A few glanced at him as he passed - he wasn't as well known around the Preventer Colony based HQ as Wufei or Heero or Duo as he spent so little time there but he was still recognisable - his bang of hair, his height - making him more visible around the building than he would like.

On arriving at the office, he knocked on the door lightly even though it was slightly ajar. There was an answer, a soft yes and all he could hear was the clattering of keys - no conversation, no radio - indeed, it indicated before Trowa walked in that it was only Heero in the office. His suspicions were confirmed as correct when he walked in.

The side of the office that was Duo's - a disorganised but uniquely organised desk, a little basketball hoop on the wall with a foam ball on the desk, a half drunk cup of black coffee - was vacant. He turned to Heero who had not stopped his typing despite looking up.

"He's not here," Heero stated.

"I see that," Trowa answered, dryly and Heero stopped typing.

"You're back early."

"Case closed."

Heero nodded, looked up at the clock and then back to Trowa. "He'll still be at Jack's. He only left twenty minutes ago."

He processed that information. Jack's usually meant something bad. Especially this early on in the night.

"Bad case?"

"L2. Child prostitution. Red tape."

Trowa had nothing to say as it always came back to that. Duo was uniquely qualified to advise and work on L2 cases - especially on a particularly bad colony in the cluster - and he did so out of a belief in doing the right thing but it didn't mean he enjoyed those cases. Or that they didn't bring back troubling memories.

"Don't - " Heero started to speak, paused, looked at his hands. "He missed you."

Trowa just shrugged as he could see that his usually taciturn friend was wanting to say something so let him. That's what made Trowa so good at espionage, the ability to see observe and understand people, his years of drifting among different merc groups equipping him with a unique set of skills. He could read people.

"Don't hurt him," he said, firmly.

"I won't."

"If you do... I'd have to kill you."

Trowa was tempted to say that Duo didn't need Heero's protection. He didn't intend to hurt Duo and yeah, the first kiss had happened at the wrong point when he was leaving for a month but still Duo was a big boy. One who swore a lot when angry, drank too much when he got down and got laid whenever he felt like it. Plus Heero had threatened death to so many people over the years - Relena, Quatre, Zechs, Duo on daily basis - that Trowa knew it was an entirely empty threat.

Instead, he answered without any of the sarcasm of his internal monologue. "I won't," he repeated.

He didn't need to say that he wasn't sure if Duo wanted anything more than a quick make out session and a few gropes. Then maybe Heero knew he did. Trowa didn't press that, instead looked up at the clock. It officially was quitting time now.

"I'm going to Jack's. You want to join me?"

"No," Heero said abruptly then tempered his tone. "I want to complete some work without Duo in the office."

Trowa smiled and gestured goodbye with his hand, leaving the office and the third floor and Preventer HQ all together.

The walk to Jack's was short and it was on the corner of two streets. It stood out on L1 as it was an imitation British pub in a colony that usually had slick cocktail bars and clubs. The clubs with one word names - Storm, Lightening, Mist. It was unsurprising that Duo preferred Jack's to those fancy bars. As did a lot of the agents. As did Trowa.

He arrived and paused for a second, undoing a few buttons at the top of his shirt, removed his tie. It was a stupid move but then in their last and only make out session Duo had been running his fingers underneath his shirt and his mouth had been latched at his throat and Trowa knew that Duo was into his body. He could use that to his advantage.

It was not difficult to find Duo in the bar, sat at a stool, his braid trailing down his back, mindlessly eating the peanuts as a distraction method, his eyes on the small screens showing some baseball game that Trowa was sure he didn't actually give a damn about. It was easy to see his mood.

He sidled up, his footsteps quiet against the sticky floor and caught the eye of the bartender, ordering a Guinness as that's what seemed appropriate for their location. Duo's blue eyes settled on him as he sat up on the stool beside him, his drink delivered and his tab started.

"You're back."

Trowa was sure that Duo would say "no shit, Sherlock" to that but instead he inclined his head as a yes and took the first sip of his drink.

"I thought it was a coupla months."

"It was easier than anticipated."

Duo nodded, took another sip of his own drink - some microbrew he assumed, not as dark as his own alcohol, and looked back to the screen. The silence between them wasn't comfortable at all and Trowa didn't know what to say - opening conversations were not his forte and did it sound desperate and needy that he'd missed him? He'd spent a month in a derelict building in the middle of Serbia, infiltrating a small time terrorist organisation and he'd found himself lying in a cheap sleeping bag on the floor, thinking about Duo - thinking about his lips, how he'd felt, the cold outside as the colony season had changed to autumn and it had made him fall asleep to the image of long hair and bright eyes.

It wasn't that he didn't want to tell him that - it was just that it sounded desperate and all Duo could want was something brief, a fleeting, meaningless moment and Trowa couldn't do that. Not with something he knew.

"Sorry, 'Tro, I'm shitty company, I'm gonna bail."

Duo downed what remained of his beer, slid out his wallet and left more than the necessary amount on the bar - Trowa followed his lead, taking one more gulp and paying for his drink despite only having a few sips of it.

"No, you stay."

Trowa looked at him sceptically. "And drink by myself?"

Duo reached for his jacket then, slipping it over his shoulders and gave a little shrug.

"Huh, yeah, drinking on your own is kinda depressing, lemme tell you."

"Don't recommend it?"

"No," he said as he exited, Trowa walking beside him. "Hella depressing actually. I'm gonna get the bus, hit the hay and all..."

"I'll walk with you to the stop."

Duo didn't argue as Trowa's apartment was in this area and so they walked in a little more comfortable silence than at the bar.

"'Ro tell you where I was?"

"Yeah."

"Tell you why?"

"Just said a case. Didn't explain much beyond that."

"He say L2?"

"He mentioned child prostitution."

Duo sighed. "You know, sometimes I'm kinda sick of being the expert on this shit. Think they need to get another L2 expert - " His rant was cut short as they rounded the corner and the bus was pulling away - disappearing to the other side of the colony. "Shit!" Duo said, loudly, stopping and angrily turning around in frustration, his arms raised in a 'I give up' way. "Man...can my day get any worse?"

Duo expression shifted from anger to a sort of sadness that Trowa had never seen before - yeah, it was just a missed bus but it was a bad day, bad memories and Trowa wanted to do something about it.

"Duo," he said and he turned back around to face him.

"Yeah?"

Trowa grabbed him by the wrist, pulling him close and leaned down to kiss him, Duo unresponsive at first and then reacted as his instincts obviously caught up with what Trowa was doing. At first, Duo let Trowa control the kiss, his hand fisting in the back of jacket, Trowa's tongue allowed entry into his mouth, a languid slide over Duo's as arms wrapped around the shorter man's waist, pulling him nearer.

The kiss started as re-familiarising, as though they were flashing back to that first one, and then Trowa felt a hand drift to his hair, and the tempo increased, their bodies impossibly close and he couldn't help running his hands down Duo's back, sliding down to jeans, putting his hand in the pocket, pulling him even closer.

Duo tasted of beer and peanuts, felt like warmth against him in the cold of the colony air, was all skilled hands and a talented tongue. It was the best kiss he'd ever had and it ended abruptly, coming to their senses, a street corner was not an entirely appropriate place for making out - for groping, for becoming far too hot underneath a Preventer jacket and a collared shirt.

"Shit...Tro'. We shouldn't be doing that... You and me... Fuck, it won't work and -"

Trowa cut him off. "Give me a shot."

That was all Trowa wanted. He didn't need it to be romance and roses - was willing to take Duo as he was - whether he was cracking jokes or contemplative and quiet. Whether he was the loud mouthed and crude or thinking, remembering - scars of life of loss making him cautious with his feelings. Trowa didn't blame him for that - that his life had been one coloured by hurt and abuse, it was right to be cautious. But it didn't mean he had to stop living. Stop taking any risks.

They both should've died so many times before that this risk was nothing.

"'Tro..." Duo started, his body retreating, stepping back a little, avoiding his eyes and sliding out of Trowa's arms. "Shit, if this doesn't work then it makes things awkward and you know my track record -"

Sick of hearing the excuses, Trowa reached for him again, dragging him back closer. He held onto the side of his face, forced him to stop avoiding his eyes, stopping him from running and hiding.

"Just give it a chance."

There was so much he wanted to say, try to articulate but that wasn't his thing and so he looked at Duo's eyes, so blue, and the way his eyebrows were drawn together and tried to impress things in a look. It didn't have to be perfect. It didn't mean they wouldn't be friends if it didn't work out. It didn't matter that Duo was what he termed 'difficult' as Trowa had enough failed relationships to show that he was too. They were both beautifully messed up – shitty childhoods and war ravaged psyches and now working fucked up missions and assignments where children died and the world they fought was still terrible and awful.

Trowa just wanted a shot - one night to show Duo it could be worth it, take him back to his place and show him. Not just sex, not just screwing around, not fuck buddies but he felt Duo's reluctance, his desire to escape and he resigned himself to a battle lost. Always knowing your retreat was important.

Men like them knew that. It didn't stop it stinging slightly. The rejection after that kiss.

Trowa made his decision, walking away, leaving Duo behind like he'd left so many things in his life - the circus, the merc groups, Quatre. He walked down the block, long strides, his hands in his pockets, tempted to buy cigarettes even though he'd officially quit due to Catherine's begging.

"Tro'!"

He heard the nickname but didn't stop until he heard the pounding of feet on the asphalt underneath and then Duo was in front of him having run and Trowa found lips on his, Duo leaning up to him, kissing him, his eyes closed, head tilted, his hand at the back of his neck, his tongue insistent. He yielded to that kiss, grabbed at Duo's braid, his other hand in the small of his back, his body automatically meeting the other. Wanting connection from head to toe. Wanting heat and lust. Wanting naked skin against naked skin.

Duo backed off, his face slightly flushed due to the cold or, Trowa hoped, that kiss and he had that small grin on his face that was more real than many of his other expressions. It wasn't a mask.

"What -" Trowa managed to say but Duo hushed him.

"I'm giving you a shot. Now take me back to your place."

Trowa leaned to peck at his lips one more time - and stopped the satisfied smirk from crossing his face. He wasn't sure what would happen between them, if it would be one moment but he knew that if Duo gave him one night - he had a damn good shot of it working out.