Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Watching You ❯ Watching You ( Chapter 1 )

Title: Watching You
Author: Maldoror
Genre: Humour, sap (at least that's the idea!)
Pairings: 1x5
Rated: R to be on the safe side
Archived: http://www.raygunworks.net under the pen-name Maldoror
Feedback: Please! Particularly what you like/don't like about the fic.
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing belongs to its owners (Bandai, Sunset, and a whole host of others, none of which are me) and I'm not making any money off of them. Not a single peanut.

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This fic is dedicated to Dacia for being the font of good humour and excellent GW fics that she is. Plus she wanted my humour plot bunny's first efforts as soon as it came back to life...so here they are!

Sol is the inspiration of this fic (as in, blame her!!) She said I couldn't write sap to save my life. Well, it's a dangerous thing to challenge my bunnies. This one crawled up from beneath a rock in response. I think it's sappy. But it's also a relatively IC 1x5 - hey, if you're going for the challenge, go the whole way! - so obviously that put a bit of a limit on the sap...but I still think it's a bit sappy. Opinions?

Watching You

---

The two Preventer uniforms stood out among the gay holiday clothes of the tourists, like crows at a peacock convention. A third party observer would have noted first the sombre cut of the uniforms…and then their very attractive owners. Young in appearance, but mature beyond their years with authority and self-assurance. They were being entertained by the Director and his cronies.

"I hope that now that that unpleasantness is out of our way, you and your partner will be able to take full advantage of our holiday satellite, Agent Yuy!"

Heero nodded thoughtfully. He was toying with his wine - a rare treat, half a glass now that the mission was over. He looked at Wufei from the corner of his eye; his partner was also enjoying the release from tension and a successful mission, and was tucking into a triple-layer mocha delight with the serious attention he normally bestowed on sharpening his sword. Heero's lips curled minutely. So...typical. The man had a sweet-tooth that could rival Duo's, but he looked down upon any kind of weakness as pandering to the flesh and normally denied it. His customary diet was frugally healthy, even by Heero's standards and that was saying a lot.

It was one of their little rituals at the end of a successful mission; Heero would talk Wufei into having desert as if he were about one minute away from twisting the Chinese man's arm behind his back and forcing it down his throat, and Wufei would give in with a huffy 'well, since you insist' look and dive right into bliss. And Heero would watch. Discreetly of course; he wanted to keep his nose attached to his face. But Heero had a lot of practice watching Wufei so the latter wouldn't notice.

The director of the satellite was talking again. Annoying man. He was even louder than usual, as he voiced his relief that Heero and Wufei had successfully dismantled the drug ring that had taken up residence in his holiday resort without excessive violence. His two councillors were on either side of him. There was the wizened old coot called Ted who kept fiddling with his hearing aid. And, in a perfume zone that kept everyone else at bay, was the other councillor, an overly decorated woman of mature years - twenty seven, but Heero was eighteen and had already one successful career as a terrorist behind him so anybody over twenty was up there with Methuselah. She had spent the evening drooling over him until he felt he was going to have to do something violent.

"It's fortunate you missed your shuttle!" The director continued heartily. Wufei nodded in unlikely agreement as the tone prompted some kind of response while the words completely failed to filter into sugar heaven. Heero felt his lips twitch again. "This gives you an entire evening to enjoy yourselves! You've more than earned it. Isn't that right, Amanda?" He waved his hand in front of Amanda's face a couple of times, sending wafts of perfume rolling over the table. After he started snapping his fingers she finally nodded, her eyes fixed on Heero the whole time. Then her face brightened.

"Oh, listen, they've started the entertainment. They always have dancing here after dinner. Do you dance, Mr Yuy?"

"Yes." Heero replied politely. Three years of intensive lessons in the Do's and Don'ts When Not Among Gundam Pilots - courtesy of Relena, Duo and an exasperated Wufei - came to the fore; he decided to keep to himself the factlet that it had been part of his training with Odin who, as any good assassin would tell you, had to be able to approach a target whatever his social activities.

"They've cleared the tables." Amanda purred suggestively. "Now would be the time to invite someone out on the dance floor."

"Good idea." Heero said curtly. Amanda positively glowed beneath the make-up.

Wufei stared at the hand in front of him, his coffee hovering at his lips. Then he glanced up at Heero. "Yes?"

"May I?"

Wufei glanced around the table as if trying to figure out what his partner was asking for. He was about to hand Heero the creamer when the latter sighed, took the cup of coffee from his fingers, set it down neat the empty plate, and tugged on Wufei's hand.

Wufei looked up like a rabbit staring into headlights. "What?"

"May I have this dance?" Heero enounced clearly and patiently.

Wufei looked at him like a rabbit staring into headlights of a UFO. "W-what?" Then his eyes twitched at the people around them in the restaurant. The other diners at their table stared - two open mouths, four wide eyes, and the old coot polishing his glasses, oblivious. "Erm...Here? I mean, now? Did you-...are you sure?" A slow blush had started to brush his cheeks with pink.

"Positive." Heero replied, tugging the hand again. Then he remembered many a lesson in manners. "Please?"

An interested observer - and there were many when the very handsome couple took to the nearly empty floor - would have noticed that the Chinese Preventer obviously did not know how to dance nearly as well as his partner. But that same observer would have also noticed that the other Preventer didn't seem to care much, and didn't intend to swoop them around the floor; he was mainly concentrating on making sure there was not enough space for even a handful of oxygen molecules between their two bodies. His colleague - who was visibly a lot more than a colleague from the way he was holding on to the other's waist - didn't seem to mind, though black eyes kept darting around at all the onlookers in visible embarrassment.

"Will you relax?" Heero muttered, then winced internally - not that anything was visible on his face. That had come out like an order. "Please?" He added gently.

The body in his arms relaxed a fraction. It was now about as pliable as a steel girder. But he moved well, Heero had to grant him that.

"Come on, Wufei. Mission's over." Heero wished he could make his voice teasing and light, like Duo did. Duo could say some very serious things, criticize even, but with that sort of little chuckle that removed any sting. Heero sounded like a sergeant major whatever he said...which probably explained why he was so bad when it came to flirting. "Stop acting like a Preventer and start remembering we're boyfriends."

Wufei mumbled something in his ear.

"What?"

"...we're still in uniform."

"So?"

"...we shouldn't be doing this while in uniform." Wufei's voice sounded a bit weak.

Heero turned slightly to the beat. "I know the five hundred and sixty nine rules of our charter as Preventers and I memorized the entire book on codes and regulations, but I must have missed the one that says a Preventer can't dance with his boyfriend while in uniform."

Wufei didn't answer. Directly. The way his fingers dug into Heero's sides - just where an acupuncturist would not recommend having someone squeeze you hard - were comment enough.

Heero leaned back a bit to see into deep, dark eyes, like the richest, darkest black coffee.

"I thought we agreed." He whispered. "You said you were okay to go out in public. Right?" The black eyes plunged into his. "To show everyone we're together."

"Yes." Wufei admitted in a whisper. He still had a trace of pink across his cheeks, turning his golden skin the colour of clouds at sunset. Heero was almost distracted from the next few words. "It's just...even with...well...I can't help think we should preserve the decorum of our organization."

Heero almost reminded him of the start of the week when they'd been slogging ankle deep through the satellite's waste recycling and disposal facility - presumably decorum had been waiting for them outside, sipping margaritas - but he wisely kept his peace.

"We'll go change once the song's finished." He compromised, then leaned his head in the crook of Wufei's shoulder. After a bit of hesitation, he felt a cheek lean against his dark hair and he smiled into his partner's uniform, which, he felt pretty sure, didn't really care what its owner did in it.

They made their way to the table hand in hand once the music ended. The director was the only one sitting there when they arrived.

"Where did the councillors go?" Wufei, as usual more sensitive to matters of formality, was apparently worried he'd missed their formal goodbye.

The director rubbed his balding pate. "Well, Amanda was a bit tired and begged to be excused. Ted left to go and, ah, get a new battery for his hearing aid."

Heero, who had excellent hearing, could read lips, and had kept an eye on their table, had a different interpretation. It was his observation that Amanda had thrown a hissy fit of major proportions and left in a huff, and that Ted had looked at the dancing partners for a few minutes before saying something like 'dang, I could've sworn they were both men, I guess I need new glasses' and then the Director had chased him away with a panicked look in Heero's direction.

Heero wisely decided not to make an issue of it though.

"We're going to change into casual dress, if we can borrow your office? Our hotel rooms were only booked until last night."

"Oh, no problem, no problem. And I'll get the hotel to set another room aside for you for tonight as well. Erm, a double?" The director chanced a very small leer.

"Yes please." Heero answered seriously after a glance at his partner, who nodded quietly.

"Good good. Did you young men have any idea what you wanted to do tonight? You've had an overview of our facility during your, ah, job here, so I don't need to tell you what we have on offer."

"We could go to the funfair." Heero said reflectively.

"The funfair?" the director and Wufei said at the same time. Nuance is a wonderful thing though. It changed the Director's two-word question into 'that's not very exciting, are you sure?' and Wufei's same two words into 'just how much wine did you drink tonight?!'

Heero shrugged. "It's not something we normally do, right, Wufei?"

"Well…" Wufei couldn't deny it, but he didn't look like he was eager to add this to the realm of his experience.

"We do have other forms of entertainment that should appeal to, ah, red-blooded young men such as yourselves." The Director's leer was slightly more pronounced. "Shall we say, more mature venues?"

That got him two very distinct looks. One from a pair of black eyes with nothing but mild, innocent curiosity. And from a pair of blue eyes the colour of a gathering storm, and an expression to match. A third party observer would have noted with interest the way the blue-eyed Preventer put a discreet but possessive and protective hand on his Asian colleague's shoulder and gave the Director a contemptuous look that had the chubby, balding man wilting like a morning glory at four PM.

"We'll go to the funfair, sir." Heero said in the kind of voice he use to say 'omea o korosu'. He slipped his hand from Wufei's shoulder to grasp his fingers and tugged him towards the door, away from the Director who was nervously nodding like his neck was on springs.

Someone close enough to hear would have noted an interesting conversation trailing towards the door.

"But Heero…a funfair?"

"Yes."

"I think I'd rather like a more mature form of entertainment."

"..."

"I bet he was going to invite us to that book lecture they're arranging in the conference room this evening."

"I doubt it."

"Or maybe he could have recommended a museum. That's good to get away from the crowds, and it's more mature than a funfair, surely-"

"Positively ancient but we're going to the funfair."

"But-"

"Come on."

---

A casual observer would hardly have recognized the two young men walking along the booths of the permanent funfair of the resort. Gone was the air of authority and overly mature self-assuredness they'd displayed; they'd apparently been removed along with the uniforms. They left two young men - teens actually - in casual clothes, holding hands almost shyly, walking slowly and looking at the booths though they didn't seem all that interested in the contents.

An observer might have been surprised that they stuck to the carnie side of the funfair; at this time of the evening, the rides were more popular, and this part of the fair was nearly deserted. But that same observer would have rapidly put two and two together the first time the blue-eyed Preventer dragged his partner into a dark corner between two deserted booths, far away from anybody, where they spent a few minutes in the curtain of the shadows.

When they emerged, their clothing was a bit rumpled, their cheeks slightly flushed, and Wufei was shoving his loose hair out of his face.

"I can't believe you broke my fastener."

Heero looked ever so slightly smug.

"Why were you fiddling with my hair anyway?" Wufei hissed, still trying to get the ink-black strands from his eyes while casting glances around them.

"The mission is over." Heero said as if that explained everything.

"What does that have to do with my hair?!" Wufei snapped.

"It means you can let your hair down." Blue eyes flashed a look through long lashes. "I think it looks nice that way." Heero added softly.

"I think it's a pain that way!"

"Well, that's why I waited until the mission was over."

"Uh?"

"I figured I could afford a broken finger or two now."

"Don't tempt me, Yuy." But Wufei sounded a whole lot less cross already, it was more a reflexive grumble.

"Oh, it'd be worth it, Chang." Heero slipped his hand up Wufei's arm to toy very briefly with the locks that had grown to past shoulder length since the war. Wufei humphed and grumped but didn't dislodge the hand that settled from his hair onto his shoulder.

"Well, now that we're here, what exactly did you want to do?" Wufei looked around the booths, all bright lights and tacky colours. They were pretty much alone, apart from a few bored carnies.

"I bet I could win you a stuffed toy." Heero pointed a chin towards an air-rifle booth.

A curiously textured silence settled rapidly between them.

"Okay, I give up. Why precisely did you think that was anything like a good idea? Enlighten me." Wufei finally said.

"Well, it would remind you of me when we're apart. I think that's the principle." Heero shrugged, not entirely sure himself.

Another silence, highlighted by the frantically tinny music from the booths.

"Heero…"

"Yes?"

"We're partners, we work in the same office, we live two doors down from each other in the same apartment building, we often sleep in the same room while on a mission, just when do I need reminding of you?"

"It could give you something to snuggle up with when you go to sleep alone at night." Heero murmured.

That faint blush appeared again, but Wufei's eyes were rather dubious. "If I'm supposed to snuggle up to a cheap, moth-eaten, lime-green furry gorilla and think of you, then this relationship is in serious trouble."

"...you may have a point. Of course..." Heero's hand dropped caressingly from Wufei's shoulder to his hip via the small-of-the-back route, "it's better to snuggle up to the real thing, isn't it?"

"...a real gorilla?"

That smart remark earned him a few more mussed-up-hair, red-cheeked, rumpled-clothes minutes behind a booth selling liquorice and candy.

Instead of turning back at the edge of the strand of booths, they walked on, heading towards a small park. An interested bystander would have by now figured out they wanted privacy more than fun and would not have been surprised when they headed away from the lit paths and towards a small hillock with a bench. The scene was bathed by the overly bright light of an artificial moon in the satellite's fake sky. The voices could be heard drifting over cool grass, damp from that day's watering.

"This is nice..." Wufei mumbled, a bit timidly. Heero's arm was lying loosely along his shoulders.

"Hmm. Much nicer than the fair, I'll grant you." They both kept their voices low, the darkness and their whispers giving the solitude a shiver of intimacy.

They sat in silence for five minutes. Wufei went from looking at his arms crossed over his chest to darting looks around them as if he expected the entire fun-fair population to come watch them while munching on some peanuts. Heero eased his arm a bit more around his love's shoulders and glanced around too. No one in sight.

"Now for the next part of the evening." Heero announced, sounding like he was walking through a mission planner.

"Next-mf?!"

Heero didn't release Wufei's jaw until he felt the lips beneath his quiver and relax. Then his hand slid up the delicate face to bury his fingers in the inky black of his love's hair, where they'd been itching to play all day. Hell, all week. Actually, most of the time they were together.

"Hmmmm. Like silk." He whispered as they broke the kiss. Whispering was good. He didn't sound like he was barking commands on a battle field when he whispered. He found he could speak the words he wanted to say.

Wufei's cheeks had been invaded by a new blush, a lot more aggressive than the previous one. This one looked like it was there to stay.

"What is?" He asked, obviously a bit stunned by the gentle, searching kiss.

"Your hair...cool and sleek as silk." Heero whispered, letting his lips brush the blush on Wufei's cheek. "Your skin is like satin, soft and warm. And your lips..." Heero brushed them with his own, gently, "...are like velvet."

"...slightly fuzzy?"

"While your wit is like sandpaper."

"...sorry." Wufei ducked his head, annoyance and contrition and nervousness warring on his face, the expression so vulnerable for a moment that it took Heero's breath away. Then the sandstone-lips firmed and Wufei turned to kiss Heero resolutely - only to find himself stopped by a gentle hand on his chest.

"...you just can't let anyone in, can you...not even me." Heero whispered.

Wufei blinked and then his eyes flinched to one side, then the other, as if looking for some distraction in the night. "Wh-what?"

"Would it hurt to relax and just...let your guard down? Just for tonight?"

The black eyes stopped searching the park to centre back on Heero's in surprise. "I am letting my-...what do you think we're doing?!"

"We're making out on a park bench." Heero said dryly. "But that's just the outside. I meant the inside. Can't you just let me compliment you without lashing out in return? Can't we just say what we feel without worrying about sounding weak?"

Wufei looked like he was completely out of his depth but he latched on to a word he recognized: "I am not weak!"

"Oh? You're acting like a coward." Heero murmured, keeping a strong hand around the slender neck when Wufei jerked away.

"I am not a - " Wufei snarled and grabbed Heero's face and crushed their lips together.

The first kiss had been gentle; this one, after a stunned second, was passionate. The park, the satellite, in fact the whole solar system, blinked out of existence while lips and tongues made love and war. Heero slipped his hand down the hard, muscled body pressed against his - awkward angle but he wasn't complaining - and let it rest on the inviting curve of the hip, hooking his fingers slightly in the waistline of Wufei's jeans as if making sure his love was well and truly caught.

They broke apart, breath ragged, lips moist and tingling.

"Okay, probably not a coward." Heero said, trying to sound analytical, which is hard to do when you're panting but Heero could pull it off in most every condition. "Maybe you're just shy."

"Shy?!"

Cue another assault in the form of a kiss. If there had been any spectators present - someone who didn't know these two characters all that well - they would have rolled their eyes to the heavens in surprise that the Chinese youth, who appeared extremely intelligent in his own right, was so easily manipulated. Of course, a closer look at the couple would have maybe clued the observer in; apparently, being manipulated like this was not something the black-haired young man minded terribly. If the way his fingers were playing in rough, chocolate curls and up and down a firm chest were any indication.

After a good twenty minutes of this, with their hair mussed, shirts rumpled and breathing ragged, Heero had finally come to the admission that Wufei was, in fact, quite brave.

"Maybe we should take this somewhere else..." Heero murmured, easing himself back and wishing his jeans were a good deal looser.

Wufei blinked, as if coming back to himself. He glared at his fingers, where they were knotted in Heero's collar, and brow-beat them until they loosened and slunk back to his side.

"Well...I like it here. It's quiet, there's no one around." He said, his eyes searching Heero's.

"Yes, but..." Heero glanced around. "I think we'd both feel more comfortable letting our guard down somewhere even more...private."

Wufei's eyebrows arched in a symmetry Heero found almost as distracting as the quirk in his lips.

"Private?"

"Like our hotel room."

His love ducked his face once more as that cold, distant expression came back. Heero wished he could remove it like the mask it was, but he'd known from the start that loving Wufei would require of a lot of patience and mean considerable frustration. And worth every second...

"...we could stay here a little longer." Wufei suggested, his fingers shyly - yes, shyly, just don't tell him - playing with Heero's.

"The jury is still out on the legalities of dancing in uniform, but I know what Une will think if we get arrested for lewd behaviour in a park." Heero smirked. Wufei coloured and glared and that led to more kissing which was entirely his own fault because it should be illegal to look that cute in Heero's opinion and as a Preventer it was his duty to do something about it.

"Okay." Wufei finally said, his voice husky and his eyes dazed.

Anyone watching would have been amused at the speed the brown-haired Preventer shot up from the bench and dragged his boyfriend away, back towards the lights of the concourse and the strip of hotels. It was pretty obvious where this was going. Ahh, young love. Predictable, yet so sweet.

Their luggage had been put by the door but was completely overlooked as the couple stumbled into the room and made their way straight to the bed, kissing and tripping over their own feet.

Despite their agreement and the familiarity and trust between them, the tension returned as Wufei's back hit the covers. Heero sighed internally and got ready to breech yet another line of resistance - who knew his military training would still be in use in peace time. But loving Wufei was a battle, and he wouldn't have it any other way. And if this, like many others of their fights, ended in an even score instead of having a winner and loser then that would be perfect.

"Shhhh." Heero murmured, hands gentle and calming rather than aggressive. "We've got all night. Let's go slow."

Wufei fastened his lips on Heero's and there were no more words for a few minutes.

Heero kept his touches light, almost neutral. He knew it would happen. His love was like good, strong coffee. You needed to get through the first bitter tang before pleasure could assault you.

"You are so beautiful." He gasped, breaking away to look down at the man in his arms, black hair splayed out like the dark halo of a fallen angel, cheeks burning, eyes bright and unfocused. Feverish, Heero thought. He felt like he was burning up as well. His lips sought out more of the fire.

Finally he tore himself away. "So beautiful...like Wing." He murmured.

"I'm like a fifty foot tall, seven tonne, Gundanium-alloy mecha?" Wufei gasped, shoring up the last bit of sarcasm he possessed as defence against the inevitable. Heero didn't mind because of the way the long, strong fingers were kneading his shoulders and back.

"Yes. Beautiful and deadly. A warrior's grace. A mind as deep and complex as the libraries of Alexandria, and the body of a god of battle." Heero murmured into a delicate ear. He could almost feel the heat shimmering from the lovely face near his.

"...I knew you liked that Gundam a bit more than was normal." Wufei said then gasped as a hand slipped down his torso, over his hips and between his legs.

"I like you a bit more than I should too, I'm afraid." Heero whispered, lips drifting over the curve and whorls of the ear he wanted to nibble - soon enough, soon enough. Too bold now and he wouldn't get to the Wufei he wanted to see. He might hold the body in his arms, but the soul would retreat within it like a snail in its shell. It had to be coaxed out slowly.

Wufei licked his lips - one of the most distracting things in the universe, black holes were mere hiccups next to that phenomenon - and stared as Heero eased himself back and slowly slipped out of his shirt

"Oh." Heero reluctantly came back to earth for a few seconds to unhook his holster from the back of his jeans. "Let me put this away, before we roll over on it or catch the trigger in anything."

"Good idea. I'd hate to have to explain that friendly fire incident to Sally." Wufei smiled. It was shy but direct and Heero almost ran to the chest of drawers to get the distraction out of the way.

"Oh, and yours?" He asked loudly, pausing with the drawer's handle in his hand.

"I put it away in the hotel safe when we changed." Wufei reassured him. Then his eyes, as Heero turned around, burned with a hint of challenge. "I don't particularly require the feel of a gun on my person at every moment of the day to feel like a man."

Heero slammed the drawer shut and stalked back to the bed, cracking his knuckles. "Now that's fighting talk."

"Really?" Wufei stretched back on the bed - still not fully relaxed but getting there. "You'll just have to make me take it back then."

"Oh, I will, Chang, have no fear, I will." Heero smirked, leaning slowly over his partner's body. "In fact, you've just earned yourself the longest foreplay in the history of sex. We'll see who'll be screaming and begging the other first!"

Black eyes gleamed...and there was warmth there, a connection, and a slight gratitude that Heero understood. But the tongue was as sharp as ever. "Big words, Yuy. You got anything to back that up or are you just planning on self-destructing again and hoping I'll be impressed this time."

Heero just growled and attacked. Nimble fingers ran up and down the strong body, twisting beneath Wufei's tank top and slowly peeling it off.

"You're a smart-assed, sharp-tongued bastard, Chang, and I really wish I didn't love you this much." Heero growled, just to feel the body jerk and cower beneath his fingers. But the reflexive shying away from the dreaded L-word was only for a few seconds. A whirl of motion and Heero found himself beneath the other, lips an inch from his own, hair like threads of smoky silk tumbling onto his face.

"You're a stubborn, controlling, pushy asshole, Yuy, and if I didn't like you as much as I do I'd hate your guts like poison." Wufei hissed and bit Heero's ear.

Heero used his enhanced strength and determination to whip Wufei around him again and pin him to the bed. They were lying across it, it was quite wide enough, and for what they were intent on doing they didn't need pillows.

Dark blue eyes scrutinized eyes as dark and beckoning as a warm, sultry night. "Like me...? Is that all-..." He caught himself, and let a finger trail across reddened lips. "I'm sorry." He whispered. "I know I shouldn't push. I-"

With only one arm to pin Wufei down, Heero wasn't able to keep his position when his love bucked and rolled him into the rumpled covers.

"Okay! I love you too! There, happy?!"

"Ecstatic..." Heero breathed against the lips an inch above his, as he curved up his hips and ground his rising excitement against his love's. For an instant he thought he'd gone too far, too fast, as Wufei froze above him, caught off guard, suddenly unsure despite the very obvious desire Heero had felt against his own.

Heero raised his head slowly, brushed Wufei's lips with his own.

"I love you." A light kiss, like a sigh. "I will never hurt you." A whisper. "I will do my damnedest," a kiss like an angel's feather, "not to die on you." Wufei shuddered beneath his fingers. "I'm rather known for being tougher than I reasonably need to be." A lick of tongue on lips the colour of red sands that had twitched into a minute, tentative smile. "I don't fear your wit, Chang Wufei, or your fists, or your mile-high walls, or your last-ditch defences." A kiss at the corner of the mouth, tickling and sweet. "I know I'm nothing but a soldier." Rough hands running down a proud back. "I had my own impenetrable defences until I met you. I'll never be able to offer you much in the way of tenderness and romance..."

"You're doing okay..." Wufei whispered, his voice hoarse and unsteady.

"...but I'll let you into my heart, and one day, I hope you'll feel fully at home there." Heero murmured against Wufei's lips before kissing him again, deep and slow.

The sound of Wufei's reserves shattering was as inaudible as the shards of moonbeams breaking on the bed and as significant as the trumps of doom. Heero suddenly found himself with an armful of passionate boyfriend and, though all his words had been honest and from the heart, he remained enough of a soldier to chalk up a 'mission successful' statement before letting himself melt into the flow.

A third party observer would not have appreciated the surrender for what it was, would only have been bored out of his mind with all the chit-chat, and relieved by the action. The bed squeaked as the two bodies tussled on it - apparently, they were a fairly new couple, they hadn't gotten all the top/bottom details sorted out yet, or else they were feeling playful - rolling, nipping, hands running hither and thither. Small stifled groans and gasps and hitched breathing. It was obvious to anyone watching that those two had forgotten the world existed, and were creating one of their own, built of raw sensuality and passion. Fingers tugged at the waistband of jeans, though the way hips were curving and surging, it looked like they didn't even want to take the time off to get rid of them. Or else this was foreplay, in which case the observer was vaguely impressed by what would have followed. But what was certain was that they were deep within each other in a way that went beyond physical, and nothing could wrench them away from themselves, not even the presence of a gun carefully aiming at them from the doorway.

In one smooth movement Heero's hands dived into the back of Wufei's jeans, ripped out the hidden Derringer, curved his back against the bed and fired upside down at the figure near the door.

The momentum from the latest roll and Wufei's instinctive pull of his partner away from the weapon pointing at Heero rolled them over once more. Heero lay over his partner, Derringer still pointing at the slumped figure, ready to discharge the second barrel if necessary but the soldier's aim had been perfect, right between the eyes.

Dressed in black, medium height, balaclava and charcoal-rimmed eyes, now open and glassy in death, the same eyes that had been itching along Heero's spine since yesterday-

"Get the hell off me Yuy!"

Heero found himself propelled off the bed and landed flat on the floor.

Wufei sat up stiffly, almost trembling with fury. Heero found himself gripping the pitifully small Derringer instinctively.

"Is there a problem, Chang?"

"Is there a-...I can't believe...just how far-..." Apparently coherency and Chang Wufei were still not on speaking terms.

Heero drew himself up, cold and hard. "I'll remind you that you agreed to this yesterday, when we found out the cartel had sent their top assassin after us." He said coolly. "In fact your words were, 'Damn it, it's a stupid idea and I should kill you for suggesting it, but it's better than having him put a bomb on our shuttle!'"

Wufei choked. His face darkened even further and his fingers flexed on the side of the bed. He kept glaring at Heero than flinching away from the bare well-sculpted chest.

"I didn't think-...I agreed to pretend to relax and f-flirt and let our guard down to draw him out. I thought baiting him out by hanging around deserted areas would be sufficient." He finally ground out.

"Then you didn't think." Heero said, arrogantly - he was already in trouble, might as well go for the prize. "We knew this guy was a first-class killer as stealthy as Maxwell. Hell, he's been after us since yesterday and we've not caught sight of him once, merely felt him! Even I didn't hear him come into the room! And he knew we were pros, he wasn't going to try to kill us unless we were both as vulnerable and distracted as possible."

"...and just how far were you going to go to-..." Wufei's voice was white with anger.

"Well, I wasn't going to get you out of your jeans, Chang, since that's where we hid the Derringer." Heero smirked.

For a second he thought Wufei would actually attack him.

"Get a grip, Chang!"

Wufei stiffened even more, but the familiarity of this Heero made him pause before leaping off the bed.

"The mission is over and we were successful." Heero's voice was as cold as ever. "Now I need you to snap out of it and go and get the manager to the hotel. I'll call the Preventers we stationed here incognito, they'll take charge of this now. Wait for them in the lobby and get them up here when they arrive. Une wants us both out of here ASAP, so we're leaving as soon as someone takes charge of the body. Go."

Wufei got slowly to his feet. The familiar parameters of the mission were bringing him out of his indignant fury.

"So...the mission." He said, turning away abruptly to pick up his tank top and pull it on.

"Yes?"

"...I'll go get the manager."

Wufei spun at the door and suddenly his eyes were blazing again. "But we tell no one about this, and especially, particularly and on no accounts...do we tell Maxwell!"

"Why on earth would I tell Duo something like this?" Heero sneered.

"Right."

Heero's brisk words caught him as he opened the door.

"We'll have to write the report this weekend. Une'll want it Monday. We can sleep on the shuttle...pizza at my place tomorrow at noon, and we'll take it from there. Right?"

It was their usual post-mission ritual. Heero waited, and after a few seconds Wufei half turned back towards him. "Write the report."

"Yes."

"...pizza."

"Yes."

Wufei straightened and nodded firmly. "Very well."

"Good."

Heero called the Preventers. It didn't take long; they'd been expecting to be attacked before they left the satellite, everything was in place to make this smooth. Une would have preferred the man arrested, but seeing how cautious and discreet the bastard had been - despite all the baiting they'd tried, gambolling around like helpless lambs in dark and deserted areas - he thought he was lucky to have gotten the killer at all without any injuries to either partner.

Heero gave a quick report and the room number to the man in charge, but his mind was nowhere near his work.

...It was remembering the feel of lips accepting his.

...The undeniable excitement in a pair of black eyes...and in the hardened body rubbing against his own.

...The anger that was over the top even for his hot-tempered friend.

...A look of hurt, fleeting but intense, when Wufei had said the word 'mission', before quickly turning away.

...The hesitation and pain when Heero had said they'd meet up the next day.

But the best, the most promising, was the way Wufei had said 'pizza', as if all the tears in the universe had been kneaded into flour, flattened out and presented to him with pepperoni on top.

The feelings had been quickly and expertly buried into the pits of two black eyes as the shattered facade finally re-established itself. But they'd been there. Oh the signs were so slight; only someone who knew Wufei in and out, who'd fought by his side, been imprisoned with him, fought with him, worked with him, and watched him constantly, if discreetly, would have noticed.

But feelings had been there, and that was enough positive indication for the soldier to make plans for the next, more complicated mission.

Just one call left to make then.

"Hello? Duo, it's me. Yeah, fine, look, shut up, I only have a minute."

Heero took a breath, then relaxed. A third party observer - one who wasn't lying dead on the floor with a bullet between the eyes, that is - would have seen the mask slip and another person entirely relax and look at the closed door with something like tenderness and predatory intent combined.

"Duo, remember how you said I would never, in a hundred years, have the guts to tell Wufei how I felt about him? That, even if I did, I'd never get him out on a date? And I'd never, ever, ever get him into bed even if the universe exploded and we were all propelled into the twilight zone? Well-"

A loud whoop followed by many questions erupted from the receiver. All of them ignored.

"-well, you owe me a big, double-deluxe pizza with all the toppings. Have it ordered so I can pick it up tomorrow at noon at the usual place. You still have that spare key I gave you? Then go to my kitchen and transfer the triple-chocolate cheesecake you'll find in the freezer to the fridge to defrost. And Duo? Be a good friend. Don't show up this weekend. At all. Or else. Okay? See you on Monday."

Owari!!

Right, I may have cheated, just a little...I wasn't sure how to get Heero to spout all that, AND get Wufei to listen, and still be reasonably IC. Still...Was that sappy? Or just weird? Anyway I had lots of fun so I guess that's what counts!