According to wonderful reviewers, this story needs more closure. Thanks everyone who lent their voice! So here's the final chapter. It took a while to write it out…fluff is harder to write than drama…why is that? Anyway, some drama snuck in despite my best intentions.

Just a warning, this chapter does contain oral sex. So if you don't want to read…don't read! Sorry that I can't write such scenes very well. It all falls under fluff.

And…I'm babbling. Time to go onward!

Trowa's world came to a complete standstill as Duo's lips left his after too brief a kiss. Wide green eyes stared up at Duo, the older man completely silent, afraid to speak or even inhale in case he'd wake up.

Duo proceed to question his sanity. Oh crap, he's going to kill me now. It wasn't me. He isn't even saying anything! I wish it was me. His lips are so soft. Who knew they'd be so soft? "So, did I just ruin our friendship? Come on Tro, say something, will you?"

Convinced Duo wouldn't disappear if he moved, Trowa grabbed Duo's arms and forcibly brought their lips together again. "I love you, Duo."

Duo smirked, then sighed in relief as part of him danced on the inside with joy. It's me! "I'm glad, because otherwise this whole situation would be awkward."

"This situation?"

"You, laying on the bed in a towel. Me, laying on you laying on the bed in a towel."

"You weren't complaining before you kissed me."

"Why should I have? You're hot. And as I said, I'm enjoying having you captured and naked."

Trowa blushed again, happiness threatening to break through years of emotional suspicion built around his heart. "You captured me a long time ago, Duo."

"How did I do that? Why me?" He had Quatre, one of the greatest men in the galaxy. Why would he give up Quatre for the Shinigami?

Trowa traced the contours of Duo's face, finally able to touch him with the intimate caresses shared only between lovers. "Your kindness, your humor, your hope, your intelligence, your acceptance…"

He really sees me like that? No-one else has. Especially not myself. "You're starting to scare me, Tro. In a good way, but still."

"Are you going to run over a little sappiness?"

Smiling seductively, Duo playfully pulled at the towel. "No, but if you promise to be a good boy and wait for me here, I'll go get you some clothes from the dryer. You might like being captured, but you're going to get chilled soon."

"I don't have any clothes in the dryer."

"Yes, ya do. I washed them for you since you hate doing laundry so much."

"That was nice." Trowa laid his fingers over Duo's, curving them over the edge of the towel. "But what if I'd rather be a bad boy? What if I've dreamed of you in bed with me since the end of the war?"

Duo gulped, fire immediately pooling into his loins. I want to. I really, really want to. But this is a different game than I played with Heero. Mostly because it's not a game. Trowa needs to be romanced, not sexed. "Not today, Tro. I want our first time together to be really special." Don't be mad. We both need to be more to each other than just lovers.

Trowa pulled Duo down into another kiss, chaste but sweet and lingering. "You're making me fall for you harder." I'm not a nameless soldier to him. He's taking care of my feelings. He's protecting me.

"Don't worry, love. I'll catch you. Just like you caught me." Duo climbed his way off of the bed, trailing his fingers across Trowa's cheek. "I'll be back in a flash."

Bringing up the clothes a minute later, Duo watched as Trowa dressed, missing each appealing inch as they disappeared from view. "You're depressing me. I haven't been able to see all your sexy self yet. Now I can't even see anything."

Trowa bit his lower lip to keep himself from flipping happily around the room. "You're the one who went to get the clothes. Who knew you were such a virtuous boyfriend?"

"It's not easy, but…Boyfriend? Did you just call me boyfriend?"

"Do you not want to be?"

"Definitely! Can we go shouting from the rooftops?"

Trowa sighed, the long exhale silent as it was released slowly from his body, his elation going with it. "I don't know about that. Life is still unsteady right now. I'm unsure if I'm ready to bring this out into the open."

Duo felt his insides turn hollow. Right. He might love me, but I'm still the freak in our circle. "Are you ashamed to show me off?"

"No!" Trowa pulled Duo forcibly into an embrace. "I love you! I love everything about you! I'm only worried about keeping the family together. Heero and Quatre might feel betrayed."

Duo chuckled into the comfortable worn material of Trowa's turtleneck, fears relieved. He snuggled against the shirt, taking in the clean, fresh fragrance of ex-acrobat's soap over the subtle, sage-like scent that was purely Trowa. "Glad to hear it." He reached around and gave Trowa's toned rear end a firm squeeze, pleased when the usually graceful man jumped and flushed for the thousandth time that day.

"Duo! What was that for?"

"To see you smile."

As if on command, a smile appeared. "That's low."

"No, low would be if I groped your front side instead of your back side. Gimme a break—my virtuousness has cracks."

Trying unsuccessfully to keep his blush from spreading, Trowa cleared his throat. Grope to your heart's desire. "Guess it would be better to go ahead and tell them now instead of hiding." Hiding my emotions only hurt Quatre more the last time. "How about we tell Heero first? I think he knows about our mutual feelings anyway. He's as astute as a perfect solider should be."

"I wouldn't doubt it. Oh!" Duo's expression suddenly turned wicked, making Trowa force down a tremble of desire. He loved when Duo went mischievous. "I want to shock the haughty crap out of Wufei's ass. Can we, pretty please?"

"And that entails what exactly?"

"Us making out in his library."

"I'm sold."

"Hmm…" Duo rested his chin on Trowa's chest, peering up at him thoughtfully. "It would be awkward for me to talk to Heero about this. I'm guessing it would be the same for you and Quat. I'll talk to your ex if you'll talk to mine, then we can meet up in the library for Fei."

"Agreed." Trowa regretfully pulled away from Duo, his body immediately cold and his heart immediately lonely. "Good luck."

"Don't need it. It's going to work out."

Not sure if he could be as confident, Trowa headed to find Heero, locating him in the workout room in the basement beyond the gameroom. He watched with trepidation as the Japanese man easily sent a punching bag rocking, knowing that the bag merely budged when he had tried to do the same. "Hey."

Heero glanced back, wiping a layer of sweat from his forehead with gloved hands. "Are your arms better?"

"My arms?" Trowa had forgotten about the events earlier in the day. "Right. Yes, they're fine."

"You're distracted."

Trowa sat down on the bench, waiting as Heero settled down beside him. "I need to talk to you about something important."

"Duo. You two are now involved in a romantic relationship."

Forget astute. He's physic. "I'm not going to ask for your approval because I would date him without it, honestly. But you were once his lover and I don't want to make you feel like we're not considering your feelings. Are you upset?"

"Mostly, no. I'm glad Duo has fallen in love with a man I trust. Otherwise, the man would have been eliminated."

"Ah." Trowa swallowed hard, trying not to be intimidated. "Then why just mostly?"

"You stopped talking to me for a while because you were jealous."

Not having expected being faced with that accurate accusation, Trowa laid a cautious hand on Heero's shoulder. "That is entirely my fault and I'm sorry. I never should have let my feelings for Duo get in the way of my friendship with you."

"Duo and I are becoming friends again. Slowly, but we are. Yesterday we spent half an hour trying to beat Quatre's pinball score. A pointless victory, but we achieved it together when we've spent a long time hardly speaking. Would you get in the way of that in order to protect your relationship with him?"

"Getting in between yours and Duo's returning friendship would only hurt him. And I never would hurt him, Heero."

"How do you know that?"

"Because he's the cream to my cookie."

As Heero let out a laugh, Duo was drumming on the kitchen table upstairs impatiently. Even after he had repeatedly told Quatre the upcoming conversation was important, the Arabian had insisted on finishing brewing his tea before they started talking. Quatre remained standing when he finished his task. "Alright, Duo. What was it you wanted to talk to me about?"

Deciding to go ahead and dive in, Duo stood, wanting to face his friend on equal footing. "Trowa and I have decided to start a relationship together."

A shudder ran through Quatre's body, running raw over unhealed wounds and sending hot liquid over his sensitive fingers. I'm alone. I'm alone and I wish it was all Duo's fault, but it's mine. Why wasn't I good enough for Trowa? What did I do so wrong? "That was fast. What, were you lonely without Heero? Needed someone to lay you?"

Duo tried to make his words sound slow and delicate, but his anger gave his tone a sharp edge. "Don't make this harder than it could be. I love Trowa and want to be with him whether sex is involved or not."

"You can't love him like I do! I let him go, Duo! I let him go so he'd be happier. Would you do the same if Trowa found someone else?"

"No."

Shock was evident from the blond man. "If you loved him, you would want him to be happy, even if that meant stepping aside."

"Don't take any offense, Quatre, but I love Trowa too much to just let him walk out of my life, especially since I know now he loves me too. If you really loved him as much as you said you did, how much you say you do, you would fight for him."

Quatre's blue-green eyes were brimming over with tears, just a few of the many which had flowed down his porcelain-white face lately. "You would fight to keep him."

"Darn right I would."

"Just like he fought to keep you here."

Duo smiled, brushing away his comrade's tears with a friendly touch. "Exactly. Love can pull off the craziest schemes, can't it?"

Quatre glanced down at his teacup, noticing it was about to cave underneath the pressure of his clenching fingers, so he sat it down on the counter. He didn't want to look at Duo, so he addressed the cup instead. "I hate you right now. I shouldn't because it's selfish. I helped Heero move on when he realized he no longer was in love with you and I know Trowa will be ten times happier with you than he was with me. You'll help him adjust to civilian life, you'll help him grow as a person. But I hate you."

"Buddy, I can understand that. But guess what? I love you too much as a friend to let you walk out on me either."

Quatre turned his gaze back to him. "You mean that." It wasn't a question. Quatre could feel the honesty of Duo's words in his heart.

"Yep, yep. You're still loved Quat. Come on, if you stay ticked at me, I'll have to fend off all the introverts by myself."

"I still hate you. I love you, but I still hate you."

"I can live with that, as long as the hate goes away after a while."

"It will. I've suspected at Trowa's infatuation over you for a while now." Quatre knew he wouldn't be able to keep holding a grudge forever. Duo was right—love perform amazing feats. "Would it be petty to admit I wanted to pour my tea over your head when you told me?"

Duo winced, but bowed over. "If it'll make you feel better…"

When Trowa entered the kitchen a few minutes later, Duo was alone and toweling off his hair with a dishtowel. "How did it go?"

"Could have been better, could've been worse. You?"

"Heero gives us his congratulations."

Duo smiled, groaned, and leaned on Trowa's arm. "It's been a long day. Can we have fun now and go shock Fei in the library?"

"Mmmhmm." Trowa picked Duo up and carried him to the library, setting him down on the couch there, attempting to massage the tension out of the shorter man's shoulders. "Hey, Duo? Why do you smell like tea?"

"Don't ask. Will Wufei be here soon?"

"Probably. His class ended about fifteen minutes ago and he'll come in to set his textbooks down."

"Okay." Duo melted magic was worked on his tense muscles, unbuttoning his collar so Trowa could slide his fingers underneath his shirt. He nearly moaned when skin met skin, smiling at the suddenly light touches. "Harder, Trowa, please. No need to be shy now."

He gasped as Trowa trailed wet kisses up his neck, the taller man's voice slightly deeper than normal and spoken softly against his ear. "Watch your pretty mouth or I'll be tempted to show you just how 'shy' I really am."

Duo leaned back, reaching up to tangle his hand into Trowa's hair, pulling him down so their mouths ghosted over each other as he talked. "Not great motivation for me to shut up, is it?"

Smirking, Trowa turned Duo to face him and pushed him gently back onto the couch before effectively stopping any continuing conversation. Thoughts of their housemates faded from their thoughts as the kiss was deepened. Trowa plundered the hot mouth underneath him without hesitation, his own heart thundering in his chest as he broke for air.

"You taste so good." I've wanted to taste you for so long. Let me taste you.

Any answer from the braided man was lost as Trowa pulled Duo's shirt above his head, letting the cloth drop onto the carpet with a promising whisper. "Tell me if you want me to stop." Starting where Duo's neck met his shoulder, Trowa kissed down his chest, beginning a slow trail to the hem of Duo's pants. Latching onto a nipple, he sucked leisurely, nipping while he let his fingers trace small circles around Duo's navel.

Moving down after a long moment, he ran his tongue along the dip of Duo's stomach, copying every inch into memory. I want to remember all of him. Just in case I never have another chance.

Duo tried desperately to find a grip on the couch with sweaty palms, the pleasure he was getting from Trowa's actions evident in his moans. "You're…you're killing me up here…"

Trowa panted as he adjusted over the bulge in Duo's pants, the pressure of his breath causing Duo to writhe more. Calm down, Nanashi. He wanted the first time to be special. "Should we stop?"

Duo could have kneed him. "Damn it, if you stop now you're gonna regret it!"

"But you wanted our first time…"

"Oral sex can be smutty, okay?! We'll save penetration for later!"

Trowa laughed, dropping a kiss to the wet spot nearly invisible on the black cloth, wrenching out another moan from his love. If he doesn't stop that, I'm going to come soon. Quickly unzipping Duo's pants before either of them could change their minds, he dove onto Duo's sex, his consciousness forgetting everything except the hot, pulsing organ in his mouth.

Duo muffled a scream as he was sent into ecstasy, every nerve in his body on electric fire as Trowa expertly took all of him in, riding him with a tight, moist heat. All too quickly, he felt the sensation build up in waves, releasing powerfully onto Trowa's waiting tongue.

For a moment, Duo floated in the realm of dreams, brought back when he felt Trowa kiss his lips, tasting himself in his boyfriend's mouth.

"Your turn." Duo slid his left hand underneath Trowa's jeans and boxers, wrapping his fingers on the column of stiff flesh he found there, already wet with precum. Trowa quivering, whimpering quietly with need as Duo firmly but slowly pumped up and down his sex.

"Duo…Duo, please..."

Duo enjoyed hearing Trowa's voice strained with pleasure, especially when he knew how much the ex-mercenary had suffered in his past. I want to make up for that. I want to make him happy every day for the rest of his life. He increased his pace, feeling Trowa tense as he fell into the first rushes of an orgasm.

Crying out softly into Duo's shoulder, Trowa climaxed into his boyfriend's hand. Duo rubbed his back soothingly as his shaking subsided, his own body beautifully sated. He removed his hand from Trowa's boxers, pushing back wet bangs from the older man's cheeks. "How do you feel?"

"Wonderful. You?"

"Wonderful. Completed. Blissful. That was fantastic, Trowa."

A quiet cough broke into their sphere of contentment. Startled, they turned their gazes towards the desk, discovering a young medical student laying down his textbooks.

As Duo scrambled frantically to fetch his shirt, Trowa calmly zipped Duo back into his pants, pulling out his turtleneck to hide the wet stain on his own front as he stood. "Sorry, Wufei. We forgot you were arriving home soon."

Duo stood and finished covering up, his face still flushed with more than embarrassment. We were only supposed to be making out! "Yeah. We were waiting to tell you we were together and we got carried away, so I guess you know now, but—"

"It's fine, Maxwell."

"Huh?"

Wufei smiled in his small way, the dark onyx of his eyes filling with warmth. "I'm glad for you both. You make each other happy in ways no-one else could."

Duo blinked back a few tears, surprised at the Chinese man's acceptance. He reached for Trowa with his right hand, interlacing their fingers together as he heard his boyfriend's breath hitch, knowing without seeing he was surprised as well. "You really mean that, Fei?"

Wufei clasped his caramel-toned hands around their intertwined ones, his grip strong with years of both study and battle. "Shi. We have all tried to make love grow from the aftermath of war, to build a courage within ourselves to live by placing our foundation on another. Sally taught me a valuable lesson when she realized I was depending on her to define my own being. She refused to be my foundation."

"I don't understand, Fei. How is that helpful?"

"Mm. It is helpful because she forced me to be my own foundation. To find my own identity with her support but not by her definition. And now I can love her as a full spirit, because I know who I am, what I can offer her, and what I can't."

Trowa nodded slowly in understanding. "You can love her better because you love yourself now."

"Yes. And this is what I see in both of you. You did not join together out of a desperate struggle to cope with civilian life. You could both live well without being together, no matter how much your hearts may hurt in doing so."

"Alright, I still don't get it."

"Duo, he's saying we love each other for each other, not because we were expected to end up together during the war or because we feel we have to."

"Oh. We're together because we want to be."

"Exactly. And you both have come to shine, building your heart's home in each other while laying the foundation in your own selves." Wufei bowed over their hands in a symbol of honor. "Congratulations."

"Thank-you, Wufei."

"Yeah, man. This means a lot."

The dark-haired man rose and smiled again, making his way to the door. "You may have your privacy back now. But remember, the next time you decide to have sex in my library, I will hardly be so kind."

"Aw, come on! What do you plan to do?"

"My katana still itches for your braid, Maxwell. Remember that."

Trowa laughed as Wufei smugly made his exist, Duo clutching his hair with his free hand. He snuggled his cheek against the chestnut locks. "Don't worry. I like your hair too much to let anyone harm it."

Duo's eyes sparkled even as his mouth formed a sly smirk. "Falling over you while we make love?"

"I thought you said that was cheesy."

"Cheesy, romantic, and incredibly appealing." Duo arched up on his toes to teasingly rub his nose against Trowa's, throwing his arms around Trowa's neck for balance. "We can try tormenting Wufei again in a few weeks. He was cool, so he deserves something of a reward."

"I promise not to make dinner for an entire month to please his stomach."

"Good, because you're going to be too busy cooking up with me."

Trowa placed a warm kiss against Duo's forehead, his smile curving against the soft skin. "Now who's being cheesy?"

"Get used to it, Barton-Bloom-future-Maxwell. I happen to like cheesy. And what you did to me a few minutes ago."

Future Maxwell? Does he really…"Wait, do you mean that? You'd marry me one day? Plan your future with me?"

"Well, duh. You know I love you, right?"

"Yes." I do now.

Tracing Trowa's lips with gentle fingertips, Duo laughed. "I think you're beaming, babe." I'm beaming too.

"I have a reason. He's in my arms."

"Ooooh, nice one. Life not so unsteady anymore?"

"No. Not at all."

Duo Maxwell wanted to share his life with him.

Duo Maxwell wanted to share his life with him.

For Trowa Barton, life has suddenly become perfect.

Owari. For real this go-round. Hope everyone enjoyed!