Eh, this is old but I decided to finish it up and publish it anyways so people could read it. Not my best, but whatever. ~ zuzu

The first time Two met Six, the kid was only thirteen and stood barely five feet. He had shaggy dark hair and ice blue eyes that calculated him, decided that the older man wasn't worth his time and moved on. Looking. Always looking. This child, even though he looked skinny, was actually mostly muscle, as proved by the fact that he could take out a man that he had to tilt his head back to look in the face out in a couple precise moves.

Proven by the fact that, in three years of work, he never had any kills on his record.

(not officially)

(but killing someone wasn't all it's chalked up to be)

Six could be the world's greatest assassin if he wanted to be. He had no desire to do that though. Everyone is worth something, the dark haired teen would say sometimes. Everyone.

"Mm." was always the elder's response.

"Do you remember that pregnant woman with the headscarf on today?"

"No. But pretend that I do."

"Well how did she get pregnant? Did she-"

"Don't get yourself worked up now Lori..."

And Six would sigh. "Don't call me that. My name is Six. Not Loren."

"You need a proper name. And you need to stop calling me Two when we're together. MY name is Jamie."

"What an old name."

And so on.

Two was scared of Six the first time they met. Now, not so much.

(but sometimes, sometimes on missions he could see that fire in the boy's eyes and he was terrified)

(but at the end, when Six was nearly drenched in blood, hair out of its ponytail and going all over the place, he looked the most broken, the most defeated, like no one would ever ever be able to fix him and bring him out of his own personal hell)

(but that was it)

(no one else quite understood)

(except for Kyntak and Sevadonn and Nai)

When Two first met Kyntak, he was somewhat taken aback. Two Sixes? Were they both as strong? As smart? Did they give the same calculating gaze to those they just met?

The thing that threw Two off the most was that none of that happened. Kyntak was the exact opposite of Six in every way. Smiles and jokes versus cool gazes and silent lips. When Six arrived back at the Deck with a boy who looked almost like him, they were incompatible. But slowly, they molded into each other and now they quite literally might not live another day without the other.

Nai, well Nai was still their little sister, a year had rolled around since "the beginning", she was a year old now and the triplets were seventeen. She still looked to be fifteen, and you could tell that Six and the blond regretted deeply that they couldn't help her grow up. She was barely a year and yet she had killed an unthinkable amount of people.

And then there was Sevadonn. He was the misfit of the misfits. They didn't quite know what to do with him.

Sometimes, you would find Six staring absentmindedly off into the middle distance, fiddling with his dogtags, but if asked what was wrong he'd reply with 'nothing' and go back to what he had been doing before. It stung Two to see his boyfriend like this, and so would always make sure to give him a kiss when no one was looking. It wasn't that Six didn't enjoy public displays of physical affection, it was just that he didn't want to lose his concentration at work, or something. Two didn't really know.

What Two DID know, however, was the way Six could hold back almost any noise while they were making love by clenching his jaw and letting air out of his nose. Sometimes Two liked it and sometimes he didn't. Being quiet when someone might hear was one thing, but when they were alone it was quite another.

Six's hair was now amazingly short, for him anyway. He had gotten a haircut when he had learned that it might all fall out anyway so what was the point of keeping it long? Ace still occasionally made him take a dose of iodine, but mostly he felt fine.

(except sometimes when he couldn't get out of bed and Kyntak and Two and Ace went to his house and they, along with Nai, took care of him)

(Sevadonn just didn't care, really)

(Sevadonn didn't care about much)

(he was kind of an asshole most of the time)

(but they kept him, mostly for Six and Kyntak and Nai, because they had to stay together)

Six had just come home from a mission on one of Two's days off, the faint smell of generic soap and burning metal following him as it always did.

"Hey," Two had said from the couch. "How was work?"

The younger sighed and flopped down on the couch next to his partner, leaning forward so he could unlace his boots and yank them off. "I'm exhausted..." He muttered.

Two had to pause for a second to decipher what he had said. "That tiring, huh?"

The boy nodded, unbuttoning his coat, then tossed it to the floor next to his shoes and brought his legs up, pressing into Two's side. He had on a white shirt that was a bit too big on him, the collar sloping down further than his normal tees did and showing off his collarbones.

Two rather liked it when he could see that. He shifted and kissed the spot right behind Six's ear, the only place he had been able to find a blemish on Six's skin that wasn't a scar.

He swatted his boyfriend away. "Jamie, not now..."

Two have a laugh-sigh. "Then what do you want with me?"

"Nothing. I want to sleep."

"You don't want anything to do with me? That's rude,"

Six giggled. Actually giggled, and that's how you knew he was extremely tired, he let his shell go and he was friendlier than usual.

So Two let him snuggle against him and relax. There was a bandage wound around his forearm as well as a few other small cuts and bruises across his skin. There was also a pretty impressive bruise on his left cheek, darkest on his cheekbone and spreading out from there.

Jamie gently brushed his thumb over it, grimacing as Six winced slightly. "How'd you get this? Wasn't it just supposed to be a recon mission?"

The teen shifted against him. "Let me return your question with a question as my answer: when are they JUST recon missions?"

Two chuckled. "You got me there."

Six shifted again, moving so that his head was in Two's lap, heels settled on the armrest as he crossed his legs at the ankles, entwined his fingers together stop his stomach and stared up at his partner with half-lidded eyes.

"Gettin' comfy are we?"

Six smirked. "You know it..."

Jamie grinned. "Go to sleep." And Six sighed as he began to pet his hair, finally allowing his eyes to close.

Normally in a situation like this, Six would feel extremely vulnerable and exposed, all open and easily attacked. But Two made him feel comfortable. Everybody from work did. Well, okay. He felt fine around the other people from work, it's just that he felt especially comfortable when he was with Two.

Jamie looked down at him. "Mind if turn on the TV?"

"Yes."

Two rolled his eyes and clicked it on anyway, but with subtitles, so Six didn't have to hear it. The boy could hear Two's breathing, for Shuji's sake.

After a while, Two murmured, "Damn, what the hell did you do?" He was staring at the screen, frowning. The news was on, and it showed a building that was now reduced to crumbles of concrete and slag. Thick black smoke gushed out from the wreckage, obscuring sight to almost zero.

A pause. Then, "Six?" Two looked down at his boyfriend, who had shifted, curling more around Two's body, and he was... Vibrating?

No. That wasn't correct. He was... Purring?

Six was purring. Like a fucking cat. A deep rumble spreading out from the middle of his chest.

"Six!"

This time, the boy opened his eyes, starting slightly, and the noise subsided.

"What?" He noticed the look of shock on his boyfriend's face. "What is it?"

"Do it again."

"I... Do what again?"

"The purring! You were purring."

"I don't purr."

"Yes you do."

"No? I don't?" Six sat back up, next to Two, frowning at him. He pushed a few stray strands of hair out of his eyes.

"It might've been unconsciously."

Six snorted. "Like hell I purr..." With that, he stood up from the couch and stalked from the room. "I'm taking a shower."

Two rolled his eyes and leaned back so he could watch his boyfriend undo his ponytail as he slunk away into the bathroom.

"Stop watching me, you ass. I heard you move so you could look."

Jamie laughed back.

"Do not doubt me!" The younger replied over the noise of the water running. "I have quite impressive hearing, you know." He ducked back out, shirtless, glaring, but there was a smirk playing on his lips. His fingers flitted to the bandage on his arm as he started to take it off.

"Ooh, here, do you need help with that?" Two darted over to him, taking his hand away from the gauze and pulling him into the bathroom.

"I can do it myself, Two..." But it was an empty request. Six liked it when Two did this for him. He watched as Jamie took it all the way off and winced at the sight of the gash which had been stitched up by Ace back at the Deck.

"Did she clean it up and stuff?"

Six nodded. "Could I take my shower now?"

"Does it hurt?"

"Of course it does. But I'd like to get cleaned up now, thanks."

Jamie sighed. "Alright, alright."

Later, after they've had dinner and watched some television, and Six has argued with Kyntak over the phone (Two tries not to laugh, and fails horribly), they're curled up in bed and Two is once more stroking his partner's raven hair. Two hopes that Six will fall asleep, but also wants to feel the purring
again.

He is almost gone when he feels it- thrumming steadily through Six's body to hum through Jamie's as well.

The elder decides he loves it.