Wufei plopped the empty can of sky blue paint into the trash before heading out into the yard to find Trowa. Wiping at dried flecks of the dark paint on his forehead, he located the other man laying down in the grass near a new sapling, watching the sunset. Trowa' normal turtleneck had been replaced with a worn t-shirt and his white jeans were thoroughly stained with soil. Over the course of two days, they had cleaned the inside of the house, weeded the outside gardens, planted greenery of Trowa's choice, and repainted the bedrooms. Coupling this toil with his daily martial arts exercises in the morning, Wufei was exhausted. His muscles were sore with the steady ache of physical labor, not enough to cause real pain, but enough to send him stretching out in the grass next to his new housemate.

"Why did we do this?"

"Because it was fun and you're too nice to have let me done it on my own."

"Barton, bickering at the hardware store with a middle-aged version of Duo Maxwell over what defines jade versus puke green was hardly fun."

"It was for me. Besides, your room turned out great."

"We've had little time to discuss our plans."

"What do you want to know?"

"Tell me exactly what you told Quatre about him when describing your crush."

Trowa pouted, rolling on his side to prop his chin upon Wufei's chest. "It's embarrassing. You'll mock me."

"You have my word I will not. I need to know what qualifications I must live up to."

"He asked me what I admired most about my crush so I listed his intelligence and his kindness. Intelligence you can easily cover and you're usually even-tempered with me. He also asked me what was physically attractive about him, so I narrowed it down to his eyes and his hair. You have intense eyes, but you'll have to start wearing your hair down more."

"I will do no such thing."

Trowa wiggled his fingers underneath Wufei's neck to playfully tug on the ponytail. "We can mess it up a little. Make it look like we've been making out."

"I suppose on break tomorrow we can disappear and I can return less organized than usual. We can force something against your lips to make them appear swollen."

"You really are intelligent. Hate to say it, but I'm looking forward to seeing how fast they can figure it out."

"Figure out we're fooling them all to save our own conceit?"

"No. How fast they come to believe we're a couple."

"They will each be hard to deceive in their own right. Quatre is skilled at sensing other's feelings and may be able to see the truth. Duo, despite his incredible idiocy, is often very insightful and may be able to figure out our intentions. Heero knows our contrasting personalities too well to quickly believe we're intimately involved."

"We'll just have to be good then." Trowa smiled. "A grand-stand show."

"How long must this show be?"

"Until one of gets asked out by someone else, I guess. We'll fake a huge argument and put an end to the partnership."

"An argument over what?"

"We can decide that when it comes. But for now, we should sleep. We have work tomorrow and I'm beat."

Wufei stood up and lent a hand to Trowa to help him do the same. Not letting go, he looked at their joined hands for a long moment, noticing for the first time how different they were. Where Trowa was pale and slender, he was bronze and solid. But they were both undeniably strong, calluses from battle still lingering. "We'll have to get used to holding hands."

Trowa laced their fingers together, jokingly swinging their arms between them as they started walking to the house. "Don't worry. Neither of us is going to explode from prolonged human contact."

They spent most of their work days separated, Trowa spending most of his time in physical training and Wufei in his office. Several days out of the week, Trowa would be away on missions while Wufei rarely left the building. Occasionally though, Wufei would be saved from boredom with a special request from his former co-pilots for his assistance on a mission. Also, all the ex-gundam pilots were expected to spend their lunch hour together whenever possible, mainly under Quatre's orders in the name of 'bonding'.

Usually by the time lunch was over, Wufei was happy to high-tail it back to his desk. Especially when Duo insisted on pouring salt in his tea. Or hot sauce in his soup. Or honey under his shirt.

Cursing as he searched his drawers for his ever-elusive paperclips, he promised himself again for exact some kind of revenge soon. If only Yuy would actually allow him to turn the braided idiot's hair pink.

"Wufei? Are you in?"

Jumping at the knock on his door, Wufei sent paperclip-less files scattering to the floor. Biting back his irritation, he growled at the door. "Come in!"

Trowa slid in, bending down to help pick up the papers. "Are these classified, or am I allowed to touch?"

"I trust your secrecy. What do you want?"

"You're grumpy." Trowa tapped his friend's brow, right over the crinkled line between his eyes. "What's wrong?"

"I can't find any damn paperclips."

Standing up, Trowa picked up a small box from on top a file cabinet, shaking its contents with a smirk. "These?"

"I hate you."

"Great. Now you have to kiss me."

"Pardon?"

"It's lunch time. We need to be fashionably late and unfashionably ruffled." With a quick flick of his wrist, Trowa dropped the box and released Wufei's hair from its bonds. Tucking the hair band in his pocket, he watched as a wave of onyx hair hit the Chinese man's shoulders. "Pretty."

"Shut up. My office is too public. We need a supply closet."

"Classic." Taking Wufei's hand, Trowa pulled him down the hair into the janitor's room, flicking on the dim overhead light before locking them in. "How's this?"

Wufei promptly ripped the top button off of Trowa's uniform. "It's fine."

"Hey! I can get penalized for that!"

"What are you doing to do about it, Barton? Knock me out with a broom?"

"Don't tempt me. Now stand still." Trowa disheveled Wufei's hair, running his fingers completely through a few times. "You said yesterday that I need swollen lips. How do we do that?"

Wufei shook the invading fingers away and held his hand up to Trowa's mouth, forcing down hard but not enough to actually injure. "Such a nice way to shut you up."

"Hrmmph."

"What was that?"

"Hrmph!"

"Didn't quite catch you."

Trowa stuck out his tongue.

"Ugh!" Wufei wiped his now-wet hand on his uniform, even as Trowa proceeded to ruffle his shirt.

"I said I think we're ready, if we take the long way to the lunchroom. Heero already asked me about our living together this morning when he saw me file my new address. He probably mentioned it to Duo, so everyone in Preventers should know by now we're sharing a house."

Wufei checked the hallway, waiting until someone was in direct sight before pulling Trowa out. "Any suspicions on Heero's part?"

"Sadly, no. Only chastisements for living out of my truck for a week."

"Out of your truck? You told me you had a hotel room."

"Uh…"

Taking a few moments to again bite back his irritation, Wufei decided to reinforce his earlier offer. "You know you are welcome to stay with me as long as you desire. I'm not sure how Sally's old mattress sleeps, but I'm sure it is more comfortable for you than your front seat."

Just as Wufei pushed open the door to the lunchroom, Trowa leaned down and kissed his cheek. "Merci. I'll take you up on that."

"Please do so. I've enjoyed your company this weekend. Even if you did coerce me into physical suffering." Wufei left to get his food from the service line while Trowa took his bagged meal to their table, joining their three comrades with leftover honey chicken and fried rice from Wufei's refrigerator, plus a soda from the drink machine.

When he joined the group, Wufei picked up the soda and took a sip before sitting down. "What is this?"

"Cherry cola." Trowa took back the cup with a sheepish grin. "Cathy got me hooked. Do you want me to get you one?"

"I can find other ways to savor the taste." Wufei took a seat between Trowa and Quatre. "Sorry we're late."

Duo stole the pudding off of Wufei's tray. "Did you two get into a fight, meanie butt?"

Wufei snatched back his pudding with snarl. "No, we did not. My hair band snapped, you juvenile twit."

Trowa played with the ends of Wufei's hair. "I think it looks hot. In that intellectual sort of way."

Heero pounded Quatre's back as the Arabian nearly choked on his salad. "Trowa, did you just…"

"Hmm? Oh, sorry, guess I let that slip out."

Wufei resisted the urge to shake his head in amusement, knowing Trowa was thoroughly enjoying rubbing his 'relationship' in the face of the man who broke his heart. Even Wufei had presumed the two would end up together, but Quatre had surprised everyone by not only admitting his love for Relena, but also his heterosexuality. "I'll take it as a compliment."

Duo yanked on Trowa's collar. "You're missing a button. Isn't that against protocol, Heero?"

"Last time I checked. You didn't notice it was missing this morning, Barton?"

Wufei deftly removed Duo's grip off of Trowa's clothes with more energy than he normally would have used. "The button was there this morning when he dressed. It must have fallen off later."

"Ouch. Chill, Fei. I was joking—he won't get in trouble for a single button."

"If you don't mind me asking, Wufei, did you see Trowa this morning?"

Heero cleared his throat. "I can answer that, Quatre. Trowa lost his apartment because his landlord is a prejudiced asshole, so he's moved in with Wufei."

Duo laughed, winking at the new housemates in jest. "Next thing you know, Tro and Fei will be shacking up together!"

Heero and Quatre laughed, but Wufei sent another snarl in the American's direction as Trowa looked shyly down at his chicken. "And what would be so bad about me and Trowa becoming a couple, you mindless idiot?"

"Cause it's weird, justice freak."

Trowa poked at his food with a chopstick, letting his voice sound shaky. "How would it be weird?"

Duo opened his mouth again, but his lover pinched his arm before he could reply to Trowa's question. "Ow! Heero! What was that for? Everyone's beating me up today."

Heero patted the wound he inflicted, kissing the American's lips to sooth the inner hurt. "Duo, stop for a second. You're not as stupid as Chang makes you out to be. Don't prove him right."

"What do you mean?"

"Maxwell, Trowa and I are living together now."

Quatre dropped his knife amid his lettuce and tomato, splattering up bits of ranch sauce onto the table. "Oh my. C-congratulations, both of you."

Duo's eyes widened almost impossibly. "So you two are getting to be pretty close…friends?"

"Not just friends." Wufei wrapped his arm around Trowa's waist, pulling him closer. The taller man leaned into the half-embrace, putting on a timid expression before closing his eyes and snuggling into Wufei's silky hair. "We're boyfriends."