Chapter 4 – To the Lighthouse:
'So,' Trowa cradled the 'phone under his ear, using both hands to drain his pasta. It had become a bit of a ritual over the past couple of weeks, having an evening chat with Duo. Never anything too heavy; just swapping stories about their day and a bit of joking around that just skimmed the borders of flirting. He didn't think they'd ever actually had any kind of deep conversation. Then again, he and Quat had spent years on the life-and-death, soul-searching stuff and what good had it done them in the end? 'Any plans for the weekend?'
'Yeah, looking at a couple of apartments first thing tomorrow. About time I got out of 'Fei's hair, really. Nothing much on otherwise. He's got Blondie coming over for dinner, so I guess I'll be making myself scarce. Don't want to walk in on them again. I'm still traumatised.'
Trowa laughed. 'You've seen naked guys before.'
'Not Chang, I haven't. Not doing stuff like that.'
'You can come over here for a bit if you want,' Trowa offered, putting the pot back on the gas. 'It's meant to be a nice day; we could go to the beach or something.'
'Sure,' Duo said easily. 'What time? You want to text me your address or am I going to have to hack your file?'
Trowa started to stir in the spaghetti sauce. 'You know where I live, Duo. You've been here.'
'Nope, actually. I was at that apartment you used to have, not the place you're in now.'
Trowa frowned; he was pretty sure that wasn't true, but a quick search of his memories didn't throw up any images of Duo. Heero and Wufei, sure; they'd helped him move in, and Wufei had helped with some of the earlier renovation work, and he'd had them both over for dinner a few times. No Duo. Odd. He was sure he'd asked him, or at least included him in some Heero-and-Duo invitations. 'OK, I'll text you. Come whenever. I'll be around all day.'
Duo turned up at ten, his jeep rattling over the dirt road. Seven storeys above, Trowa watched him manoeuvre his way through the boulders lining the track and pull up by Trowa's truck.
He gave Duo a couple of minutes just to look around; he always liked seeing people's reactions. The few people he brought out here, anyway. 'Up here,' he called down, and Duo's head jerked up. 'Door's open.'
'Holy shit,' Duo enthused when he burst through the door. 'I knew you lived near the sea, not that you actually lived in it.'
Trowa grinned, not bothering to stand up. 'You should be here when there's a storm.'
'Freaking amazing, I'll bet,' Duo said, looking around. 'This place is so cool. The way Quat talked about it, it was just a heap of stones.'
Trowa tried for a tight little smile. 'He was only here once, just after I bought it. It pretty much was a heap of stones back then.'
A disaster, that particular weekend had been. Naturally. Taking Quatre Winner, who liked his creature comforts, to stay in a tumble-down building which had been derelict for several decades, which lacked heat or light or running water. He'd thought it would be an adventure though. Candlelight and cooking over a camp stove and having to cuddle together to stay warm in front of an open fire. Like during the war, just the two of them.
Quatre, fresh from his over-heated mansion on L4 and a regiment of servants to coddle him, had been utterly miserable, had spent the three days huddling under every blanket that Trowa possessed.
He hadn't repeated the invitation, had thanked Quat politely for the offer of an introduction to an award-winning architectural firm which specialised in renovating unusual properties, and spent nearly two years working on the place himself.
He'd never asked Quatre back, having learned that particular lesson, had let Quat be the one to choose where they were to meet up after that.
'I think it's great.' Duo was half over the balcony rail, leaning out as far as he could. 'You must have put in a lot of work, huh?'
'I had help. A couple of guys from the circus, whenever it was in town, and 'Fei used to help out a lot, before he hooked up with Zechs. Haven't seen him so much since.'
Duo snickered. 'Yeah. I'll bet Zechsy keeps him pretty busy. God, Trowa. I've got, like, this image burned on my eyes, of the two of them.'
'OK.' Trowa put down the paintbrush he'd been holding and stood up. 'Seriously. You have got to tell me what the hell you walked in on.'
''Fei'd kill me.'
'Fei'd never know. C'mon.' He gave Duo a light kiss on one corner of his mouth, then nosed along his jaw to nuzzle at that place behind his ear. Duo smelled great; no fancy, foofy toiletries, just whatever shower gel he'd used that morning. His earlobe was temptingly close, so Trowa went in for a quick nibble. 'Spill, Maxwell.'
'Oh, fuck.' Duo shuddered as Trowa's teeth closed around his lobe. 'Yeah, OK, fine. God. But I'll kill you if you tell him I said. They were on the couch; the one where I'm sleeping.'
His fair skin was suddenly awash with bright colour. Trowa had never seen him blush like that. Interesting. Whatever Merquise had been doing, he'd have to try it out.
He got his next words out in a rush. ''Fei had his tongue up Merquise's ass, Tro. Seriously. I mean, I didn't know people even did that, outside of porn movies.'
'Oh, they do,' Trowa murmured silkily. It beggared belief, that Heero had had Duo in his bed for all those years and apparently never done anything beyond the most basic getting off.
'Seriously? You?'
Trowa nodded. Seriously, he'd have to work on getting Duo to blush more often. It was gorgeous, that extra colour. He wondered how far down it went. 'We'll have to try it, one of these days.'
Duo took a step back, looking tempted and aroused and uncertain all at once. 'It's kind of kinky, no?'
'Rimming? Nope. It's good. Bet 'Fei and Zechs looked like they were having fun. What did you do?'
'Ran the hell out of there,' Duo grinned at him. 'Came back at three in the morning, they were in bed. Haven't mentioned it since.'
'God, you're adorable.' Trowa kissed him properly then, tasting sea-spray on his lips.
'How many dates are we up to now?' Duo asked not-quite-absently, mouth red and swollen and far too bloody addictive. 'Must be pretty much into double figures, no?'
'Probably.' He wasn't sure himself. There'd been the official dates; a couple more dinners, and a movie, not that either of them had got to see much of it, and the previous Friday night they'd had Mexican food and a few games of pool after where they'd done their best to slaughter each other. The best night Trowa had had in however long he could remember. There had also been a few casual lunches and coffee breaks at work, and a fairly heated few minutes in the photocopy room, and one or two interesting sessions in Duo's jeep. His resolution to keep full sex out of the frame was still more-or-less intact, but definitely well-frayed at the edges. 'Is that significant?'
'Just saying, Tro.'
Damn. It just wasn't fair how he could put on that butter-wouldn't-melt expression and combine it with looking like a freshly-debauched fallen angel. Damn it to hell, anyway.
Duo gave him a knowing little grin. 'So, what's the plan for today?'
Trowa cleared his throat, very deliberately. Cleared his mind of all those invasive fantasies of dragging Duo downstairs and tying him to the bed. Well, he tried to, at least. 'I just need to finish up painting the railings here. Shouldn't take long. Sorry, I didn't think you'd get here so early, or I wouldn't have started. Then I'll give you a tour around and we can decide.'
'Cool,' Duo said easily, apparently happy to go along with the lack of definite plans. 'But I can help if you've got a spare brush.'
'You don't need to.'
'It's fine, honest. I like stuff like this.'
Trowa shrugged, rummaging in his tool box for an extra brush. 'Well, if you're sure.'
They started to work in opposite directions around the sides. Duo obviously knew what he was doing, careful sweeps of is brush with no dripping, and he was an oddly unexacting companion, making an occasional comment about the view, or the seagulls swooping over them, but otherwise apparently engrossed in his task. Nothing like the annoying attention-junkie he was most of the time.
Like he was around Heero, Trowa realised abruptly, fighting incessantly for Heero to notice him.
If you took Heero out of the equation, he was perfectly good company.
'So, what's this place called anyway?' Duo asked.
Trowa just looked at him. 'A lighthouse. Don't you know that?'
'Asshole.' Trowa dodged as Duo flicked paint at him. 'Seriously. This part here, the platform or whatever it is.'
'It's called the lantern gallery.' He gestured to the glassed-in room behind him. 'That's the lantern room in there. It's where the lamp used to be, when the place was a working lighthouse.'
'But you don't have it any more?' Duo stood up, peering through the glass.
Trowa shook his head. 'It was removed when the place was decommissioned, years ago. I've been trying to find a replacement, but they're not the sort of thing you can just pick up anywhere, and I'd probably never be allowed to turn it on anyway.'
'Be cool though. I mean, it's amazing anyway, having your own private lighthouse. How d'you ever find it?'
'Purely by accident. I was out hiking,' he waved an arm inland. 'It's all national park along the shore, you know, and I guess I took a wrong trail and ended up on the beach, down there a bit. I saw this tower thing about a mile away, and came over to see what it was. Found an old 'For sale' sign and that was that.'
'Wow,' Duo marvelled. 'Serendipitous.' He grinned at Trowa's expression. 'What? I'm not supposed to know long words?'
'You mostly seem to prefer the four-letter versions.' He suddenly thought of something. 'Hey, how did your house-hunting go?'
'Pretty meh,' Duo made a face at him. 'No, actually, it totally sucked. I just wanted to have a look at what was out there, you know. Some options. I've never done anything like this before. Ended up spending over an hour in the office on paperwork. Credit ratings and references and shit. And then when we did get to go do some viewings, they were all crap. Like, family houses in the suburbs or massive penthouses or whatever. I mean, I'd asked for a small studio in the city centre, and the only one that was anything like I'd asked for was pretty much a broom closet in some industrial estate.'
'Well, estate agents do that,' Trowa told him. 'Show you somewhere shit, and then take you to some really nice places after. They're figuring out how much you have to spend.' He couldn't help wondering that himself. Duo had to be making at least as much as he was, and he presumably had money stashed from the war. No reason why he couldn't afford better than a studio.
'Yeah, I guess,' Duo said glumly. 'Anyway, we talked a bit more about what I wanted, and I've got some more places to see on Wednesday. What should I do, just take the first place that's halfway decent?'
'Take a decent place that's got a short-term lease,' Trowa advised. 'You can usually find places that are being sub-let for a couple of months. That'll give you time to look around properly. And you don't have to rush into moving, do you? 'Fei's not going to throw you out on the streets.'
'No,' Duo grinned at him. 'I wouldn't blame him if he did; it's got to be cramping his style, having a houseguest, but he's been amazing. Won't let me pay rent or anything. Anyway, that's pretty helpful, what you said. I can do that.' He pursed his lips, considering. 'I never thought it'd be this hard. When Heero was buying his house, he set up this computer programme with all his specifications, and triangulated the locations he wanted to be close to, and then just bought the first place that came up on the internet and matched what he wanted, but I wanted to actually see a place before moving in, you know?'
'Sure. You didn't have any say in picking the house, seriously?'
'Huh?' Duo gave him a look of surprise. 'It was his place, not mine.'
'You were going to be living there.'
'Huh,' Duo said again, very flat. 'You give Quat any say in buying this place?'
Point and match, Trowa thought sourly. He had thought about Quat. Of course he had. Quat liked old buildings, the sea. And since he was so damn hung up on playing the straight, married guy, a remote lighthouse would be a good, discreet place for them to meet up. Except, just maybe, subconsciously he'd known Quatre wouldn't like it all. He wasn't sure what that meant.
'Sorry,' Duo muttered, and then launched into a volley of questions about when and why the lighthouse had been decommissioned, and how much Trowa had had to do to restore it. 'Ta da,' he proclaimed almost half an hour later, flourishing his brush in Trowa's face as they met in front of the door. 'So, you planning to pay me for all the manual labour?'
'I was going to make you lunch in a bit,' Trowa suggested. 'Maybe a beer?'
'But I had a massive breakfast, so I'm not hungry. And I'm driving so I can't drink. Any other offers on the table?'
'How about this?' Duo was crouching just a few inches across from him; he just had to incline his head. He'd forgotten how good kissing can be, with someone you liked, someone who wasn't not just a random pick-up in a bar, intent on getting laid without any of the niceties.
'Yeah, that works,' Duo admitted finally, and Trowa preened himself that he sounded more than a bit breathless. 'Jeez, Tro. We have totally got to rethink this stupid celibacy thing before I die of sexual frustration.'
'I know the very thing to take care of this,' Trowa purred, sliding one hand around Duo's neck and reeling him in again, his other hand sliding down Duo's side, and resting on the very pronounced bulge in his jeans. 'A nice swim in the lovely cold water.'
'In that?' Duo turned his head, looking at the churning waves below them. 'I'm not actually that good a swimmer, you know. You want to drown me?'
'Definitely not. There's a little cove about a mile along the shore. Very sheltered. Fancy it?'
'I know what the hell I'm fancying right now,' Duo groused, 'and it's not a swim. But yeah, whatever. Either that or a cold shower.' He stretched, throat thrown back, pelvis slightly thrust out above those long legs in tight denim, knowing exactly what he looked like and exploiting the hell out of it. 'Look, Tro. I know you made Quat wait for bloody years, but I don't have that sort of patience. Just so you know.'
'I didn't make him,' Trowa muttered. It had been lack of opportunity as much as anything; there had been a war on, and Quatre had had his own bloody army of heavily-armed chaperones, each and every one of whom was determined to keep them apart. That, and the fact that Quat, at fifteen, had been a shining miracle. Trowa had been utterly terrified of doing anything that might hurt or frighten him, hadn't wanted their first time to be a hurried fuck in some grotty safe-house or the cockpit of one of the Gundams.
And then Quat had almost got himself killed, courtesy of Dorothy Catalonia, and there'd been months in hospital, and that convalescent home after, and then trying to settle into normal life, studying, working their way up to a proper relationship.
'Hello!' Duo snapped his fingers in Trowa's face, startling him out of his favourite fantasy.
It was too cold, in Sanc, in April; nothing like the tropical heat in the Caribbean, but the sound of the waves was about right.
'Jesus!' Duo snapped. 'I'll bet you even think about him when you're screwing other guys.'
'No.' He shifted a few feet away, hair falling over his face, as he muttered the lie, but it was pretty obvious that Duo didn't believe him anyway.
'Yeah, right.'
'I didn't, with you.' That was true, as it happened, even if Duo didn't believe it. The first and only time he'd ever been with anyone and not thought of Quatre Winner.
There'd been only Duo.
'Yeah, OK,' Duo said quietly, looking at him. 'Come on. Let's go and see this beach of yours. You can give me the tour on the way down. I've never been in a lighthouse before.'
He didn't say much as they walked down the first three flights of the spiral staircase, just glanced quickly into the circular room on each floor. It was probably the longest Trowa had ever known him not to talk.
'So?'
Duo shrugged. 'It's very different. Minimalist. You know, other people have this thing called furniture. And stuff like paintings and, I don't know, plants, maybe.'
'I do have furniture.' Not a lot, granted, but he'd both the necessary things, and a few people from work had passed on cast-off items, and there were a few odds and ends that Cathy and Quatre had given him. 'And I don't like clutter.'
'Yeah, that's pretty obvious, Tro. I do sort of get why Quat was worried about you moving in here.'
'It's none of his business how I live.'
'Trowa's tower,' he'd said softly, just before Trowa had driven him to the airport, back to his reality. 'You're not going to shut yourself totally away, are you?'
'Well, it's great here, but it is kind of … bleak,' Duo said, clearly choosing his words with care. 'I mean, even Heero said so, and he's not exactly Mr. Home Comforts, but we, ah, he does have electricity at home. And a bathroom.'
'I have solar panels,' Trowa said defensively, and then wondered why the hell he cared what Duo thought. Or Heero. It was none of their business. None of anyone's. 'And the bathroom's in one of the outhouses downstairs.'
Duo just grinned at him, the idiot, not a bit fazed by his tone. 'All the way down? Shit. What d'you do in a storm? Piss out the window?'
'Once or twice.'
The grin, impossibly, widened. 'Cool. Bet you have to check the wind direction first though. I tried that in 'Scythe once; not a good idea in a gale, seriously.'
Trowa laughed. 'I'll bet. Seriously, I haven't got around to doing anything with the top floors yet; I've just been using them for store-rooms. The rooms below us are furnished.'
'What, like with actual furniture and stuff?' Duo teased. 'This I've got to see. So, what's down on the next floor?'
He was off before Trowa could answer, standing in Trowa's bedroom before he caught up. It was probably the best-furnished room in the place. His bed, and a carved wooden chest at the foot, and a couple of things actually hung on the walls. A hand-painted bamboo scroll Wufei had given him as a house-warming present, of a Chinese junk under full sail, and the painting that Quatre had bought him, years ago.
'So.' Duo took a long look around. 'This is where all the action happens, huh? Barton seduction central?'
'I don't bring people home.' He said it lightly enough but the words hung in the air anyway.
'OK.' Duo leaned over and gave him a quick kiss on the corner of his mouth. 'Don't think you can say that anymore. It's nice here,' he approved, and then crossed over to sit on the mattress. 'Ooh. Bouncy. Very nice.' He gave Trowa one of those sly little smiles and then tilted his head back to look at the painting on the wall behind him. 'Shit. Is that for real?'
'It's genuine, if that's what you mean.'
It was pretty stupid, probably, keeping a genuine Gaugin in a damp, crumbling building and he did sometimes think about lending it to a gallery or something, but it was his, and Quatre had given it to him seven years before, along with a promise. The promise was broken, but he'd kept the painting.
Duo let himself fall back on the mattress, then rolled over, pulling a pillow from the headboard and propping his chin on it. 'Seriously, Tro. I want to marry this bed.' He was smiling. People who didn't know him at all said that Duo smiled all the time, but it was mostly teasing smirks, or that knowing jester's grin, or smiles full of measured, calculated charm, with a mission behind them.
This was different; open, winsome, happy.
'It's already taken,' Trowa told him. He knew exactly how Duo felt though; he loved his bed. It was one of his extravagances, along with his sinfully luxurious leather couch and a few fancy kitchen appliances. The bed was Danish and had some sort of body-conforming mattress, and he'd blued a couple of pay cheques on bed linen worthy of it; Egyptian sheets with an astronomical thread count, just because he'd got spoilt after all those years with Quatre. 'I could maybe agree to some sort of open relationship. If you're at all interested.'
'You know I am.' His gaze was very direct. 'Wasn't entirely sure you were. You've been all over the place since that first time. Talk about mixed signals! Couldn't work out if you wanted me or not.'
'I just wanted you to want it. Me. Not because you were pissed with Heero, or having a shitty day or whatever.'
'Well, I do. Want you.'
He hadn't even remembered moving but he was suddenly beside the bed.
'That's all I had to do?' Duo queried, looking amused. 'Lie on your bed and smile at you.'
'Pretty much, yeah,' Trowa muttered. 'Turn over,'
'I just knew you'd be the bossy type in bed.' He obeyed though; flipping himself over and lying back on the pillow with his hands behind his head. God, maybe it was because he'd made a damn career out of being mouthy and contrary and non-compliant that it was such a turn on when he suddenly – just complied.
'I'm not even in bed yet.'
'I know,' Duo said silkily. 'So much to look forward to. You planning on doing anything sometime soon, or you just gonna stand there and look?'
And then he suddenly knew exactly where he wanted to start. He reached for the top button of Duo's shirt, fumbling it just a little because his hands weren't entirely steady. The inverted triangle of creamy skin was smooth, flawless, no trace of the mark he'd left there a few days ago. He laced kisses down Duo's throat, his mouth dancing against Duo's skin, and then let his teeth rasp against the collarbone, making Duo's breath hitch before sealing his lips to the precise spot he'd marked before, and sucking. Duo went still for a heartbeat, and then moaned, low and wanting and utterly filthy, and Trowa suddenly had two sets of very insistent fingers at his belt buckle.
' Don't. Duo, just let me. Please. I want to do this, OK?'
Duo smiled winningly up at him. 'So, you're asking my permission to freaking worship me? Tro, bring it on.'
'This.' Trowa grasped the hem of his shirt. 'Off. Now.'
Duo sat up just enough for them both to tug it over his head; by a happy accident, the hair tie somehow came off at the same time. Loose, his hair was longer than Trowa had expected; a shining cascade of every imaginable shade of brown, with metallic glints of copper and bronze sparking when Duo tossed his head and it caught the sunlight. It was glorious, and the perfect length to wrap both hands around it, and pull Duo closer to have his mouth again, and somehow drag their clothes off without breaking the kiss, and then lie him back on the mattress, and let his mouth move gradually south.
He took the scenic route on the way down, thinking of it as a preliminary incursion into _ almost – unexplored territory, mapping out all the places that would warrant a more in-depth exploration later, but this time he had his eye on the main prize; he wanted Duo in his mouth, to taste him, to hear what sort of sounds he made when he came.
He took it slowly, pulling back a little every now and then - he wanted Duo begging and moaning, not to give him a heart attack - and the way he was acting he'd never had a decent blow job before – and waited for the trail of obscenities – fuck, Jesus, fucking hell, just fucking do it – to peter off into little moans and gasps and whimpers – Trowa, please, Tro, please, I'm dying here, please.
'Worth waiting for?' He asked after, trying not to smirk because that would be just plain rude. Anyway, he knew how it had to have been.
'Shit, no,' Duo said emphatically. We could've been doing this for weeks. All that time wasted. Anyway, I wanted you to fuck me.'
'Demanding sod.' Trowa covered his mouth, kissed him deeply. 'Next round, OK? That was just the warm-up act.'
'Oh, yeah,' Duo crooned, 'I could go for that. So, my turn now, yeah?' He flipped them both over and gave Trowa a leer. 'Oh, nice view from up here. Let's see if it's any better close up.' He took his damn time about it; it took Trowa a minute to realise he was exactly mimicking what Trowa had just done to him, all those teasing little nips and licks and bites, and then gave him a wicked little grin and swallowed him whole. Giving blowjobs was presumably he'd practised a lot, something Heero presumably liked, because he was incredible.
When he was finished, Duo sat up and wiped one hand across his mouth, ineffably smug. 'Worth waiting for, Barton?'
'God, yeah.' He tugged Duo down on top of him, liking the feel of all that hair drifting against his skin, remembering how it had felt when Duo went down on him, those silken strands falling over the most sensitive parts of him.
Duo chuckled, one hand slipping between their bodies. 'Someone's getting to ready to play again. You ready for the main event, Tro?'
'You're so demanding,' Trowa mock-grumbled. He gave Duo a hard kiss, and leaned over him to rummage in his bedside drawer for lube. 'Condoms?'
Duo grinned. 'Bit late for that after the last time, no?' He shrugged. 'Unless you want to? Heero used to. I prefer doing it without them anyway. No point licking a lollipop when it's still got the wrapper on.'
'Me too.' Quatre had liked using them mostly, just to keep the mess to a minimum. 'Roll over. On your stomach.'
'Just knew you were dying to get to be all masterful,' Duo said. He did it though, craning his neck to look behind him. 'So, get a move on then. Or d'you need me to draw you a fucking diagram?'
'A fucking diagram,' Trowa echoed amused. 'That's appropriate. No, I know what to do.'
He'd planned this; he'd been fantasising ever since that first time of how it could be, between them. Longer than that, if he was totally honest. It wasn't like he'd never looked at Duo and just wondered. It was what guys did. Wondered what it would be like to take Duo and screw all the stroppiness and attitude out of him until he didn't know his own name, until he was sated and smiling and glowing, the way he'd never quite looked with Heero.
He'd planned just how he wanted it to be.
Of course, the one thing he'd left out of all his calculations was Duo himself. Quat had always been more than content just to lie there, all but purring with pleasure at Trowa's devotions, but Duo was the sort who reached out and grabbed at chances himself, rather than waiting for the world to be laid adoringly at his feet.
Just prepping him properly was a damn challenge. That shouldn't have been a surprise, since Duo was always about the immediate gratification. The first couple of times he tried to hurry things along, Trowa just pressed him back to the bed, and kissed the back of his neck, but the third time, he gave Duo's ass a swat with his free hand, and Duo muttered something about domestic violence and twisted around to gave Trowa a baleful glare.
'Behave yourself,' Trowa said calmly, and then added a third finger and twisted them, looking for that place, and Duo practically launched off the bed.
'Oh, Jesus, Tro! I don't think I can take much more of this.'
'It'll make it better, just wait.' He stilled his fingers, deep inside Duo, and bent down to kiss his bare shoulder, trying to calm himself as much as Duo. He didn't think he'd ever wanted anything this much, and the fact that Duo quite clearly wanted it just as much was the ultimate turn-on. And he was gorgeous; all Trowa's fantasies, except way better. Just as sparky and passionate in bed as he was everywhere else, and that fucking perfect body – utterly, fuckably perfect – and the hair, and the way his hips arched up to meet the press of Trowa's fingers.
'Shh,' he murmured, pulling out and turning Duo over to face him. 'You OK? You ready?'
'Been ready for bloody hours, you sadistic pervert,' Duo retorted. 'Oh, God.'
All his good intentions lasted precisely until the moment when Duo tilted his body upwards to meet him. In fairness, it had been months, if you discounted those few minutes in the locker room, and he'd been thinking about having Duo ever since. He did try to make it last as long as possible, but he was only human and he did have Duo Maxwell under him, and he didn't think he'd ever come so hard in his life, with just enough presence of mind to slide one hand around Duo's waist and help him find his own completion.
After, he just had enough energy to lie there, collapsed on top of Duo, utterly spent. Just enough energy to wrap one hand in the silken river of Duo's hair, and kiss whatever skin happened to be in reach.
At least, he'd finally found an effective way to keep that smart, overly active mouth quiet. Duo was breathing heavily but he had the fingers of one hand entwined with Trowa's, and he looked beyond happy, quite uncaring of the fact that he was a leaky, sloppy mess. Quatre had always wanted to clean up immediately afterwards. Trowa had told himself that it was just Quat, that he was finicky and fastidious and it was just the way he was, but there had always been just a tiny sting, that Quat was so keen to wash off the evidence of them being together.
Duo, quite plainly, didn't care.
'OK?'
'It was all right.' Just a faint ripple of humour in Duo's voice, but he pressed Trowa's fingers just that bit tighter.
'Hard to please, aren't you?' He pressed a kiss to Duo's mouth, surprised by the sudden, warm rush of affection, and rolled them both over, 'til he had Duo wrapped in his arms.
'I have exacting standards, is all.'
