This one was co-authored with the amazing ElfMaidenOfLight. She has an ongoing 1XR multi-chapter at the moment, Quixotic, that I cannot recommend highly enough. You kind kinda tell who wrote what by the random spattering or British and American English. .

It is rated M for mature shenanigans near the end of the fic so, be warned.

Disclaimer: We do not own them and nor do we make profit from them.

Eggs for Breakfast

Heero folded his arms, frown turning into an almost uncharacteristic pout as he glowered, lost in thought. Relena stood over him, having made him sit down in her kitchen as she revealed the 'evidence' she'd found. On the table before them: a half-eaten block of military rations. Heero didn't see a problem. They were still good... alright, so a bit of it had gone bad, but it was still perfectly fine! Relena had acted like she'd found some illicit drug or something.

"I know your upbringing has meant you've adapted to a certain lifestyle, Heero, and you've succeeded in reminding me of this fact many a time. The knife under your pillow, the unscented shampoo, the disturbingly loving way you pamper your car...but, please. Please, tell me that you haven't been surviving the entire twenty years of your life on...grey stuff."

She cautiously poked the offending item with a well manicured fingernail and her mouth twisted as the thing squelched under it. She would need to find the Dettol.

A muscle under his eye twitched. "It's a perfectly acceptable method of caloric intake in the military," he murmured, "there's nothing wrong with it. It is edible," he said with strategic emphasis. And what did his upbringing have to do with his car? He thought with a huff. He just liked his machines properly maintained. "Besides," he let out a sigh through his nose, "there were a bunch of crates left over after the war. What was I suppose to do with them? Throw them out?" Why did everyone had to react the same way? Duo had been equally disgusted by his eating habits.

Relena fought the urge to bury her face in her hands, entirely unsure if she wanted to laugh for the sheer ridiculous typicality of his response. Picking the thing up she stood from her place at her kitchen table and walked over to the bin, throwing it in with some force for good measure before turning back to face him. "You have been a member of the civilian population for four years now, Agent Yuy. It's high time you learned to eat like one. Haven't you ever wondered what sun-grown, grass-reared, all natural goodness tastes like?"

Heero opened his mouth to protest as the bin lid closed back down with a snap. He glared at Relena. "We didn't have sun-grown, grass-reared, all natural food in the colonies." He was aware that his tone might he taken as mockery. "We learned to conserve what little we had, and that included military rations. Besides," he mumbled, looking away, "what are you going to do? Teach me?" He'd never cooked a single thing in his whole damn life and he didn't really see the need to start now. The MREs were fine for when he was at home, and if Relena wanted to go out, which she did on a weekly basis, he had no problem ordering food from whatever restaurant she chose.

Relena felt a vein throb in her temple at his mocking tone, but it was quickly displaced when his suggestion ran a circle through her head. Teach him? Teach him. It was the logical answer. After all, he wasn't going to be young and effortlessly fit forever and when he hit his thirties, grey stuff would provide all the physiological goodness of flavoured paper. And Heero had always displayed the incredible ability to adapt and learn at an alarming pace. It would be too easy. He'd hate it.

"Alright, it's a deal. I shall teach you how to cook a simple, basic meal. Put on your learning cap."

"I missing poker night..." Heero grumbled under his breath, glancing over at the clock hanging above the kitchen table. He was more than willing to sit through another night of Wufei's sulking, Trowa's winning every single hand, Quatre's syrupy good-naturedness, and... Maxwell... if it meant he could avoid... this. Whatever this was. He cast a dubious look in Relena's direction, where she was gathering up 'supplies' and setting them down onto the kitchen's center island.

It wasn't that he had an aversion to cooking, he just didn't see the point. He was way too busy during the war to find the time to learn, and his current lifestyle didn't really demand he become a 5-star chef.

Raising an eyebrow at Relena, he said, "Don't you already have a personal chef?"

"He only works during the weekdays. I'll have you know that I quite enjoy cooking, and the weekends are my chance to experiment. There's so much more to be said for fresh ingredients than...well, grey mulch and brown mulch. Take this for instance?" She broke open a small loaf of bread and started nibbling at the end, handing the larger chunk out to him.

His eyebrow quirked as she waved the loaf in his general direction, sniffing it experimentally. Yeah, alright, it smelled nice, but couldn't he just buy it when he wanted it?

Watching her bottom lip pout as she eyed him made heat coil in his stomach. She'd better be careful. Cooking wasn't a good enough distraction and his attention would eventually wander...

Then again, maybe having her bustle around the kitchen was an added bonus. Yeah, he could make that work. After all, he did enjoy food, when given the opportunity. And he certainly enjoyed Relena.

A small smile pulled at his mouth.

Maybe he could make this cooking thing work to his benefit.

"Hn, yeah, it's nice," he said finally.

Relena's eyes lit up in an instant, a satisfied smile spreading across her face. Heero had the tendency to stubbornly and outright reject her attempts to introduce him to the joys of normal human life, so a simple 'it's nice' was definitely a step in the right direction. She would make a chef out of him yet!

"Great! Then we'll start with the very first thing Pagan taught me as a girl. Scrambled eggs on toast. Simple, quick, easy. You won't regret this!" And with that she strode with no small amount of energy in her step to the fridge to grab the secret ingredient; every good scrambled egg needs a large knob of butter.

The toast was burnt. By the time Relena had explained exactly what he was suppose to be doing with the eggs, the bread had blackened. As she moved away to discard the ruined slice, she left Heero alone at the stove for just a moment or two. He regarded the pan handle he was holding, reaching out to fiddle with the temperature.

Surely if it was hotter it would cook faster.

When Relena had returned she'd come back to half-burnt, half-runny eggs.

She'd laughed at the beginning, a twittering little nervous chuckle. It was just about getting a feel for the necessary steps, she'd told him.

Heero let her take and clean the pan.

By the third or fourth attempt, Relena was no longer laughing, and the cute expression she'd worn when they'd started had been replaced by dejected disbelief.

"I told you this was useless," he informed in a low tone as she ran a hand though her frazzled, tangled hair.

Relena once again picked up a smoking pan from the hob and poked at its charred contents with a fork. She could feel her teeth starting to grind against each other in an effort to stay patient but she reminded herself to take deep breaths. After all, no one man could be good at everything. Heero was good at so many things, perfect even. It wouldn't be fair if he'd suddenly mastered the art she'd dedicated so much time to.

But still...

"Heero. Butter in the pan, add eggs, put toast in toaster, whisk eggs constantly until cooked. It's four simple steps."

She could tell by the way his mouth twisted at her words that she was beginning to sound patronising but she found it difficult to keep it at bay. Not after four attempts. She dumped the contents of his most recent kill in the bin and washed out the pan again, praying to a higher power that he hadn't scorched off the Teflon.

"Okay," she said, holding the pan back out to him, "one more time. And I shall not take my eyes off of you so Lord help you if you murder this one too."

Heero glowered, but did as she asked. He wasn't one to give up so easily, especially when it looked like Relena was trying her very hardest to be patient with him.

"Fine," he mumbled, snatching the pan back and plopping to down onto the burner with more force than he'd meant to. "One last time." And that's it- the last part was left unsaid.

Except… in his frustration he turned the heat up too much and the butter was already burning. Maybe he could just turn off the heat and let it cool?

How were four knobs of a stovetop intently more difficult to master than the control panel of a mobile suit cockpit?

Alright, the heat was fine now. He could add the eggs.

Oh, the bread.

Heero paused for a moment, leaving the stovetop unattended to put in the toast.

Relena immediately grabbed the handle of the pan and took it off the heat as soon as Heero's attention diverted to the toaster. Close call!

"Eggs cook at quite low temperatures at a fast rate. It'll continue to cook but slower if you take it off the burner. Then if you need it, you can put it back on to add more heat." She picked up the whisk and continued beating the eggs for him, sparing a sideward glance to make sure he wasn't brutalising the toaster. A small smile reappeared on her face when she found instead his eyes fixated on her wrist, moving quickly in small circles around the pan as if it was the most fascinating show on earth. The attention bought a prickle of colour to her cheeks. "It's easy, see?"

Just as the toaster popped she put the pan down and added the salt, pepper and chives for the final touch. "One on top of the other and you have breakfast."

Heero grunted in agreement as she worked. He understood the steps and the directions, but pulling it all together was another story. Besides, he liked watching her better than doing it himself. Her quick, sure movements. The confidence she held as she moved about.

What he was witnessing was a woman in her element. Doing what she loved and being good at it. For a moment he seemed to understand her fascination with him and his mobile suit.

He felt heat creep up his neck as she slid a plate towards her, placing the toast down first before adding everything else. The way her cheeks turned pink with pleasure at a job well done.

A smirk twisted his lips. "Forget teaching me. You should make us breakfast every morning."

He hadn't meant to suggest anything inappropriate, but as soon as the words left his mouth he could hear the accidental subtext. And so what, he thought, watching Relena turn off the burner, he could get use to this.

Relena's heart thumped a little too energetically in her chest at his words. She was sure he hadn't meant to imply what he had, by the way he neglected to correct himself, but it had instantly put wayward thoughts in her head that she'd spent far too long trying to repress.

What...what would it be like...to wake up next to him? A night next to him...his arms around her, lips on her neck in the glow of morning...

She put the pan in the sink with a little too much force than intended. No. Heero needed his independence and he had made that very clear from the beginning. And she'd accepted that and all the cold mornings that came with it. Waking to hands roaming her body.

"T...try some, won't you? If you know how it's supposed to taste you'll be able to cook better. I'm hardly going to come over and cook for you every day."

Lifting the toast he took a bite, blinking in surprise as he said with a mouth half full of food, "Mh. It's good." He watched her back as she bent over the sink to clean up the mess he'd made.

Heero tried not to think about it.

Generally, he hadn't really failed at anything before. Well, he'd been unable to complete certain missions. And there'd been that one time... and if he were really counting the- but anyway the point still stood that when it came to the mechanics of a task, he at least had some proficiency. Otherwise, how could he have survived for so long?

Chewing, he let out a huff through his nose.

Why was this so frustratingly difficult? The he understood the concepts, but the execution...

"Every day..." he said at length, echoing Relena's words, and then continued with a smirk, "I hope your not expecting that much." He watched as the water from the sink ran over the fry pan, splashing droplets onto the counter. Taking another bite he realized he's eaten more than half, and put the plate down so Relena could share in her accomplishment.

Good thing he still had boxes of those old military rations stored in various locations around his apartment, and the office, and that one weapons cache he'd secured by the now dismantled military base, as well as... other strategic positions within a general proximity. One always had to be prepared for the worst.

He gave the half-eaten food a dubious glance.

And if the foreboding sensation creeping down his back was anything to go by, this was shaping up to be one of those times.

Putting the last of the washing up on the rack, Relena tried to push all salient and unspoken promises the very idea of "every morning" brought to the fore. On the one hand, he seemed to be making light of sudden heavy tension in the room that rose as a result of his unintentional quip. But the way he stared at the half-eaten food on his plate with such purpose told her that his head was in as equal amounts of disarray as hers.

"You can finish that if you want...I'm not hungry." She'd meant it to sound light-hearted but it came out with an anxious note she didn't recognise in herself. People in her position couldn't speak with anxiety. She didn't like that she should do so now, when something unknown to her seemed to teeter in a delicate balance.

"You know...we could. Every day I mean. Have breakfast. Take it in turns, maybe? I want to know you're taking care of yourself..."

She was babbling, and for Christ's sake she didn't know to what end. She was doing what she always did when faced with a complex issue. She spoke her heart.

Heero took another bite. He didn't want it to go to waste, but she should share in the reward of her hard work.

"Both our workdays start fairly early," he said in a low tone, almost offhandedly as he lifted the toast to take a bite, chewing thoughtfully.

...taking care of yourself...

He'd been taking care of himself for years, and even if she was well-meaning, those words had stung.

But then…

As he compared the delicious flavors as he chewed to the old MREs he'd been rationing off to himself as meals… maybe Relena was right. Maybe she did need to know he was taking care of himself.

He swallowed, pushing the plate away.

"I…" At his hesitant word, he saw her shoulders stiffen. But it needed to be said. "I appreciate you being here." His heart thumped. "For me."

She froze in place as his words hit her ears but it wasn't until they reached another place, deep inside where only he seemed to ever reach, did her face light with a smile. For all intents and purposes, a statement like that from Heero Yuy was tantamount to a confession, and by the way his ears suddenly burned crimson from their hiding spot between his shaggy locks, he was all too aware of it.

"Are you going to wash up, or am I going to do everything around here?" She joked, playing with her pendant out of nervous habit. Something had shifted between them just now and while she was sure it was in the right direction, it made her nervous, almost anxious in anticipation for what that would mean. What does this lead to?

"Hn," he nodded, picking up the plate with its last bite of toast. A few sure strides and he was at the sink next to her. "Here," he said simply, picking up the last morsel and holding it out to her. They were close, so close; he only had to lift his hand up just a fraction for the bite to be level with her lips…. which he shifted his eyes down to, and then away again, taking a audible breath in with his nose before reaching around her to place the plate into the sink.

Warm water rushed over his hand, and he turned back to look at Relena, seeing if she'd taken the bit of food he'd offered her.

Relena couldn't stop the colour staining her cheeks when she finally leaned in and closed her mouth around the last of her handiwork. She couldn't avoid taking in part of Heero's finger in the process and a bolt of something instant and primal set her skin alight. She must have looked bright as a tomato and upon the realisation that she had yet to relinquish his index finger she quickly pulled back with a wet *pop*, wiping her mouth as guise to hide her inflamed cheeks. She dared to take a glance up at him, hoping to high heaven that he hadn't noticed. But the eyes that stared back at her were blue and intense anddark, and all of a sudden she felt so very vulnerable.

Heero gulped, staring at her with a blank but intense expression. Had she really just done…? His fingers, wet from her mouth, twitched back down to his side. He was vaguely aware of his other hand still under the running faucet, until he had enough sense to turn off the stream with a quick flick.

"Relena…" But he wasn't sure what he was about to say. Still, her name seemed to ground them both, as if they realized they were still in her kitchen instead of… somewhere else.

It might have been some impulse, it might have been because, at that moment, it looked like she might have moved away from him in embarrassment, but he reached out with the hand, those still-wet fingers, and clutched her wrist. He could feel her pulse against his skin.

As soon as he touched her, all the fire in her cheeks seemed to migrate south in an instant and she nearly cursed. She thought she was over this, over the way even the slightest touch would send catch the air in her throat and make her body hum with need, but here she was paralyzed by the hand she had practically debauched and those beautiful dark eyes.

But unlike before, she didn't feel the trepidation, the looming knowledge that giving in would leave her ultimately empty. She felt his thumb move over her pulse, as if reassuring her of something, and everything that had shifted earlier seemed to make things...easy.

"Heero..." Her voice came out low and husky with her mounting arousal and she felt an uncomfortable ache below her waistline that only he had ever soothed. She was only vaguely aware of their unorthodox location. "The kitchen..."

"So?" Heero said gruffly. "It's just the kitchen." Some people like the kitchen, he was going to say, but thought better of it.

His hand left its place on her wrist and surged up her arm, pressing, kneading the skin as it traveled up to her elbow, up the inside of her arm, his thumb digging into the soft skin there until he was clutching her shoulder.

His eyebrows jumped, the side of his mouth quirking up. "This was your plan all along. To corner me here." Even thought he knew it wasn't. Even though he was the one cornering her. But it was easier to think that way. Easier to think that he was just giving into her, when he was acting on his own desires.

That smirk made her heart run and every muscle in her tummy clench deliciously. That smirk was the historical precursor to the source of her most treasured and erotic memories, events that still made the lady in her flush furiously at the replay. Heero was not a gentle lover. He had a gentle soul but his entire physical self was strong, rugged and oh so rough around the edges. As his voice thrummed through her, that deep, sinful voice, he spoke unvoiced promises of memories to come and her body quickened in anticipation. She felt his hand move back down her arm to her hand, only to trap it over her head against the pine unit behind her. She was at his mercy.

"I thought we weren't going to do this again..."

Give me a reason not to regret this...

"I'll stop," he said plainly, sincerely, "if you want me to." His voice was even but his eyes betrayed him. He didn't want to stop. But he would, if Relena desired it.

Maybe she thought…

Did she think he was using her? That she was just a woman he had, at time, used simply for release? The thought made him simmer with…anger. Not at her, maybe not even at himself.

"This isn't meaningless," he said finally, and he adjusted his stance so her back was against the countertop and his knee had edged into the inside of her thigh. "This isn't nothing, Relena." His eyes flitted down, away from her gaze that questioned him too much, asked too much, for him to hold it.

Despite how much space he required, how much independence and self-assurance, she was what he needed most of all. He wanted to be selfish with her.

And for Relena it all fell into place. Those words gave her the simple acknowledgment she had been searching for, always just out of reach, since his lips had first claimed hers. He'd branded her that day and had tempered it swiftly not too much later with a distance that had never quite gone far enough. He kept coming back. This isn't meaningless. She should have known from the outset; Heero never did anything without meaning. It was one of the things that most made her love him. Care for him. Teach him how to cook eggs.

And so she raised herself to her tiptoes and touched the smile on her lips to his, arm still held in place above her and willingly trapped by hard muscle and that thigh pressing against her already wet centre, relieving it so little and building her up and up.

"Prove it."

He smirked, making a sound in the back of his throat as he reached down to hook his free arm under the backs of her thighs, lifting her up onto the lip of the counter and pressing her back with the same hand now on her hip.

He didn't bother to undo her blouse, instead just snaking his hand under the fabric as the other finally released her arm. He trailed his fingers it down her side, down to the waistband of her skirt as he palmed her hipbone, thumb rubbing circles against her skin.

This wasn't going to be some languished, romantic encounter amidst the fluffy pillows of her bed. This was like those times in her office, in his cruiser, but it was intimate. This was her home. And he'd said, in a roundabout way, how he felt. What all of this meant to him.

But in all honestly, as her darkened cheeks puffed with excited breath, lidded eyed searching his face, he just wanted to ruin her. Fuck her. Hard. He'd be kind, as much as she needed, but he knew certain parts of her were thrilled at the way he could be dangerous, too.

She shuffled against the hard marble counter top, anything to release some, any of the pressure that had pooled in her groin and the movement made her painfully aware of the slick proof of her arousal when her panties slid against the crease of her womanhood. She felt Heero's hand inch closer to her waistband a finger dipping here and there beneath it, teasing her and she wasn't in the mood for it. Sadly, experience told her that if he felt like teasing, she had little choice in the matter.

"Heero, please..." She sounded so pathetic, but it exhilarated her at the same time. She loved this. She loved being at his mercy, an instrument to his pleasure, knowing that he loved control and she relished the utter trust that he would always bring her to completion.

"Hn," he responded to his name automatically, but wasn't actually paying attention. Instead he was slipping her clothing off her waist, pushing them down to her ankles with his other knee. Turning his hand so his fingers faced south, pressing down with the heel of his palm under her bellybutton, he watched with rapt fascination as he moved his palm lower and lower, down past the juncture of her thighs towards a place that was very warm against his skin.

That hand seemed to hold her there as he undid his belt, fingers darting here and there, keeping a steady rhythm in time to his the pouring of his heart.

Teeth flashed as his grin grew, eyes still trained down to where he was torturing her. To where her stomach fluttered and jumped.

Each press of his palm against her swollen mound made everything beneath his hand clench, each spasm driving the heat through her body, over her skin and shocks that made the nub of her pleasure throb. When she finally felt the calloused pad of his finger slide up and down through the dampness of her opening she held her breath.

"Ahhn!" She cut her cry off, biting her hand against the sharp and intense sensation of his finger curling inside her, caressing her most secret spot oh so gently over and over again while his palm still ground against her. She could feel herself clench around his invading digit, and she wished more than anything in that moment that it was something much thicker sliding against that spot.

Heero stopped, pulling away his fingers, leaving her heaving with want. She almost scrambled up to reach him, but he had other plans.

With a smirk he leaned over her, his free arm coming to up press against her collarbone, just over the swell of her breast and just below her throat. His elbow held down her left shoulder, his palm held down her right, and the entire length of his arm an iron bar against her body.

Very deliberately he pressed his hips against the inside of her thigh, so she could feel the hot length of him against her skin, sliding his body forward so that it almost reached…. but not quite.

His free hand, still wet from her, curled under her right thigh, bringing it up and locking in in place with a strong grip.

His chest heaved, and he arched an eyebrow at Relena, who was trying to lift her head up to look at him, but his arm was making it difficult.

"I wonder how long I can keep you in this position," he murmured quietly, but the rough purr in his voice made it husky.

With her hips tilted towards him she watched fixed on the thick flesh that had been release from its confines, flesh she had enjoyed time and again during stolen moments, sliding it between her lips until he groaned her name. Heero knew that he was attractive, knew that effect he had on women, on her. And that confidence in which he displayed himself in front of her so blatantly made her mouth go dry. He pressed his hips into her, the length of his shaft nestling between her swollen folds before sliding up, and down and up again, starting a torturous rhythm as the head of him bumped against her painfully sensitive nub.

"Nn...nnn" She had no hand to hold back her cries now. She didn't want to hold them back, but she knew that Heero enjoyed them. Holding back would make him work for it. The kitchen filled with the sound of flesh slicking against flesh, the buckle of his jeans jingling with his rhythm and her own barely suppressed gasps.

He watched her turn her head this way and that, as if to hide from him. But of course she couldn't. He found it immensely arousing. With her held down like this, with his strength, she couldn't get away.

Heero debated on how to do this. Should he make her suffer even more, make her wait it out? Should he?

But there was a voice in the back of his mind telling him, if he didn't get on with it, seeing her like this pressed forcibly against the counter top, he'd loose himself. Completely. Before he'd even satisfied her, and that was not an option.

His hips stopped, drew away momentarily to catch his breath. His head bowed down so as not to look at her, instead watching her way her hips moved on their own accord, as if to coax him back into pressing against her.

He switched the arm holding her leg with his shoulder, which parted her thighs even more, moving that hand to her hips to still their movement. Now she was utterly immobile, save for the heave of her chest and stomach, and the way her legs tried to clench around him.

With one strong push, not waiting for her to get accustomed to him, not drawing out the sensation, he came up and inside of her to the hilt. The force would have slid her body back, but he'd held her still.

Relena gripped the edge of the counter top for dear life as a sudden fullness nearly tipped her over the edge of her pleasure. This time she couldn't help herself as her back arched against her constraints and a loud, broken cry that vaguely resembled his name tore from her lips. She was losing her grip on her sanity and was grateful that he had stilled to let her grow accustomed to the feel of him inside her. As wet and aroused as she was, the angle ensured she felt every engorged inch of him and it was intense. Her muscles fluttered around him, gripping trying to get used to the intrusion. It was delightful and soon she just wanted him to move, to slam inside her again so she could feel that heat coil where she had come so so close twice now.

"Heero, God, please. Do...please..." She tried to shuffle her hips to feel that delicious friction of his girth against her but he held her steadfast, the dark pleasure plain on his face at her distress.

His pace was slow but forceful. He could feel the roll in her hips, her wanting him to go faster.

He let out something between a sigh and a gasp.

With a particularly violent buck, his hips slammed into hers, and then he stopped.

She almost begged him for more. Almost.

He had to swallow thickly before he was able to say, "What was that?" He was still buried in her, but unmoving.

A coil of pleasure and near-giddiness skittered through his body. He could feel his face was flushed, could feel the sweat rolling down from his hairline under his shirt collar. He wanted it. But Heero could delay his body from its wants. He could do it with pain, with hunger, and with this.

Relena had a harder time at it, much to his delight.

She whimpered. Heero had a penchant for making her break composure, making her say and do things most girls of her upbringing would find vulgar. He loved knowing that he could possess her in that way, that she would come alive completely under his command. She usually made a point of not making it easy for him but at this point, she was burning up from pure raw need and she would give him the world to make it stop.

"Fuck me. Pl...please move."

"Mmn…" he shrugged one shoulder up and down, as if he were considering Relena's proposal.

"I could," he suggested matter-of-factly, pulling out very slowly, only to enter her again with one quick thrust, and then stilling.

She swallowed thickly.

"Then again," he countered, doing the same motion over again.

At her writhing he smiled, and not a dark smirk either, but something much warmer and much kinder...just for a brief moment, however, until it dropped, replaced by pressed-lip determinism.

Before he released her upper body, using both his hands to grip her waist, he leaned over and pressed a searing kiss against her mouth. He then redoubled his pace and force, dragging her body back to meet his as he surged up to take her again and again.

Relena threw her head back in a silent scream, breath hitched in her throat. It was too much, too too much and she was burning. She felt his right hand shift from her hip to brush his thumb over and over the apex of their joining as his solid flesh pistoned into her at an unrelenting pace. She gripped the counter and she forced herself to look at him, eyes flickering briefly to where his length was disappearing inside her over and over again before catching his gaze.

His eyes were hungry, some of his wild bangs sticking against his forehead and teeth clenching as his own vocal pleasure hissed through them. Heero Yuy, this infallible soldier of unmeasured skill, strong and dangerous, in the throes of passion was a sight to behold, and the way he looked at her at that moment made her feel more goddess than mortal.

"Nnggg, Heero I ...I can't...I'm...I'm...oh please..."

She was beautiful. Heero Yuy wasn't sure if he believed in God- he'd toyed with the idea before, off an on- but for an instant he thought that perhaps something out there had spared him enough, just enough, so he could live to see this.

He caught her lips with his, breaking to gasp against her mouth as the pleasure in the pit of his stomach began to break free.

He felt her nails dig into his back as he jerked against her, letting a dark curse tumble from his lips as he groaned, burying his head into her neck.

Still, he was coherent enough to keep his fingers moving against her, bringing her with him right to the edge.

Her cries were long and broken, entirely without rhyme or reason but they carried the full force of her ecstasy as her entire body convulsed around him, eyes clenched shut as a stray tear began to fall down the flush of her cheeks. It was immense, and it left her physically and emotionally shattered.

Small tremors still wracking her body, her arms went limp around his shoulders and her legs fell from around his stilled hips.

She could feel the chill from the autumn air touch her dampened overheated skin as her breath tried to return to normalcy.

"Hee...mmmm". She felt her eyes gain weight and her head fell forward to lull on his chest. He was warm, and sturdy. Warm and sturdy was good now.

For a long time they breathed together; deep intakes of air that filled the kitchen. His eyes were shut, but they opened just a crack to look at her draped elegantly on the surface before him.

Heero gathered her up in his arms, resting his forehead against her shoulder, pressing his lips to the skin there, moving them to her neck, to her jawline.

For a moment he tried to pull her back into the sitting position, but Relena was utterly boneless. So he tried to make her as comfortable as possible, still propping her up, even thought his legs felt shaky and his body like it were liquid.

"Are you alright?" he asked, a whisper against the shell of her ear. He worried, sometimes, amid the abandon they shared, that he'd hurt her.

She smiled lazily at the tenderness in his voice, and for a lack of any energy, merely nodded. "I don't think I can do this anymore." At the sudden stiffness in his shoulders she realised her meaning had gotten across wrong and she chuckled. "Not like that. I mean...the counter is hard..."

This is not meaningless. Those words held so much promise. Maybe she truly couldn't do this anymore. Not the way things had been before. He could never be just her friend.

She felt his fingers drift lazily over her hips, his lips resumed skimming the now cooling flesh of her neck and she knew something had changed. It felt too much like an echo of the deepest affection for her to continue assuming that this was a confused form of friendship.

"Mmn." He understood, and slid her off the counter, preparing to pull away and hold her against him in his arms, but as soon as he'd taken a step back, her weight fully in his grasp, his legs began to buckle.

Turning quickly, he backed up against the side of the counter, and they slid together down to the floor, Relena coming to rest in his lap.

"Perhaps," he said, closing his eyes and tipping his head back to rest against the solid surface there, "we should prepare breakfast together more often. Though, every day might ruin me." His lips quirked, and he opened one eye to stare at her. "I'll try harder." A faint blush crept across his cheeks. "With the cooking, I mean."

"Mmm. Cooking." And with that her breathing evened out and fell softly against his chest. Before her the warmth of sleep embraced her, a light lit inside her at her last coherent thought.

Eggs for breakfast.