Disclaimer: Not mine.

Note: Many thanks to KS for proofing and to everyone who has been kind enough to comment.

Chapter 12:

There were dragonflies, hovering just over the surface of the pool.

Wufei had never really bothered about insects before; troublesome, buzzing, stinging creatures, but these were beautiful.

Everything, this morning, was beautiful, touched by magic and sunlight and love.

Zechs' eyes, smiling at him, were a colour beyond mere blue; a colour that was uniquely their own.

'What are you thinking about, querido?'

It was Spanish for darling, Zechs had told him that last night. Mi querido meant my darling.

'You. Being happy. Colours.'

They hadn't spoken much since they'd left Zechs' bedroom an hour ago. They hadn't really needed to. They'd talked all night in the intervals between making love. It had been a night of shared secrets and sighs and softly murmured confidences mingled with gasps of delight and the high, sharp calling of each other's names.

In the blue, clear morning, it could all have been a beautiful dream.

Except it wasn't.

'Hmm. Colours?'

In the bright sunlight, Zechs looked tired, which Wufei probably did too, after a night of practically no sleep. They'd settled in each other's arms on several occasions, to rest a little, and then one of them had murmured a question or an endearment, or curled a little closer, or been unable to resist a kiss or a caress.

He looked tired but happy.

Sated.

It wasn't a word that was normally in Wufei's vocabulary. It was now.

The whole night had been a seduction; slow, achingly sweet. Silken sheets on a huge, ornately carved wooden bed. Moonlight and candlelight gleaming on bare skin, glittering on blue eyes and black. The sharp tang of lovemaking had cut through the gentler fragrances of beeswax, of oil, of the distant smell of the sea, as desire ebbed and flowed, and surged again

Sated, he decided, was a good look for Zechs. He was so beautiful, his prince. That long, glorious hair caught the sun's rays and trapped them in strands of molten gold and silver.

'Blue. Your eyes must be the bluest thing in the entire universe,' Wufei elaborated, touching Zechs' lashes with one gentle finger and smiling. For all that Zechs teased him about accepting compliments, he was rather unsure about accepting them on his own account.

One of the things he'd discovered in the last twelve hours. Twelve hours that had changed his life utterly and irrevocably.

'You're going to make me horribly conceited.'

'Am I?' Wufei laughed. 'I think that will be two of us then, with all the things you say to me. Plus I'm the one who was propositioned yesterday, don't forget.'

'I know.' Zechs sighed, attempting and failing utterly, to look sorrowful. 'Is this how our relationship is going to work then? I stay at home to work and you wander around being admired by other men?'

'Yes. I love you.' He'd lost count now of how many times he'd said it. Amazing. 'One of us is going to have to work, after all. If I'm to stay here, I'll need you to support me.'

'I'm not sure if I could afford to support you in the style you're apparently getting accustomed to. Champagne at lunch time, trips to the Caribbean in a private yacht. I don't think I can compete with any of that.'

'You know you don't have to. You're doing a very good job of spoiling me anyway.'

'Good.' Zechs broke off a piece of croissant and fed it to him, smiling when Wufei licked stray crumbs off his fingers.

So decadent, all of this.

Juice and croissants and fruit by a sunlit pool. Zechs had originally suggested breakfast in bed. He'd even gone down to the kitchen to fetch it, at which point Wufei had decided that he couldn't bear for them to be apart for even those few minutes and followed him downstairs. The kitchen table was very sturdy, luckily.

Afterwards, they'd decided to have breakfast on the terrace, followed by a swim to wash off any jam or honey or other sticky substances.

Oh, very decadent. He'd never imagined that his life could turn out like this; being hand-fed a delicious breakfast by an adoring boyfriend. Not when they were both naked and tangled together on a sun-lounger under a burnt-blue sky.

'Eat,' Zechs ordered. 'You need to keep your strength up.'

'Do I?' Wufei teased, lifting his eyebrows. He was smiling. He'd been smiling for hours. Twelve hours ago, he'd been ready to walk out of this house, out of this man's life, for the things he'd said and thought.

It was one of the things they'd talked about, lapped in velvet darkness and each other's warmth. It had still stung, then, just a little. Even though Zechs had explained and apologised, he'd insulted Wufei's pride and honour.

At some point, he'd offered an apology of his own. He hadn't been entirely fair. Quatre was a close and long-term friend of Zechs'; it had been only natural for him to believe whatever was said. And, if he were to be totally honest with himself, Wufei knew he would have reacted in precisely the same way.

Worse probably. If anyone had given him the faintest hint that Zechs had just been playing with him in some way, had been using him, he would have reacted very badly indeed. They were so alike, the two of them, in some ways. They both had problems with trust, they'd both been hurt.

He knew it had to have been worse for Zechs, abandoned by someone he'd truly loved. He hadn't loved Trowa, not really. Not in the sense that he'd felt anything like what he felt for Zechs. That all-consuming desire that wasn't just sexual, but the need to see the other man smile at something he'd said, or to twist a lock of that long, pale hair around one finger, or simply to be near him, or hear his voice. He'd never felt that for Trowa. For anyone.

He'd confessed all of that, along with his apology and Zechs had rolled on top and kissed him until he could hardly breathe.

It wasn't just sexual, no, but that was a part of it.

Gods, yes.

They'd discussed it as the sky outside Zechs' window started to flush a pearly-pale apricot. Sunrises, like dragonflies, were something he'd never paid overmuch attention to before. That was going to change.

They'd talked about trust, and how it would need time to develop, and how there would be more misunderstandings, in all probability, between two highly opinionated, stubborn, passionate people. Lying with his head resting in the curve of Zechs' shoulder, with all of that gloriously tangled, white-gold hair drifting over them both, and Zechs' hands entwined with his, he'd been able to say things he'd never said to another person.

And they'd taken the first steps toward establishing a belief in one another.

'You're thinking again,' Zechs commented. 'I can hear you.'

'I'm thinking about you. Again.'

'I'm here.' Zech's long, supple body shifted slightly, just enough to roll on to his side, resting his chin on Wufei's right shoulder. 'With you. You can do more than just think about me.'

Wufei considered it. 'I could. Of course. If you liked.'

'I would like. Very much.'

'I'm starting to think that you're insatiable.'

'For you. Yes. Very much. Haven't I told you that you're intoxicating?'

'An actual sentence. And a word of five syllables, no less,' Wufei teased. He'd rather enjoyed the fact that a drowsy, sated Zechs had been apparently incapable of speaking more than two or three words at a time. 'And yes, you have told me. That night in the moon-garden. No one had ever told me that before.'

'Then they were all idiots.' Zechs sighed softly at what Wufei's hands were doing. 'You are. Very. Ah. God. Please. Just like that. Oh.'

Wufei was smiling as he pushed the blond man on to his back and slid to cover him. Back to monosyllables then. Good.

Then no words at all, from either of them.

He was whispering Zechs' name as he collapsed on top of him, saying it like an endearment, a prayer, a benediction. 'I love you.'

'Mmm. Love you too.'

The tiny piece of Wufei's brain that, miraculously and against all the odds, was still functioning, suggested that falling asleep in bright sunlight might not be a terribly good idea. Very true. But dozing for a few minutes couldn't hurt. He didn't think he could move, anyway, even if he wanted to. Which he most emphatically didn't. And Zechs' eyes had already drifted shut.

'Querido.' He whispered it, gently easing himself into a more comfortable position at Zechs' side. He'd let him sleep for ten minutes or so, and then they could go back inside and shower and go back to bed and sleep properly.

He'd just have to stay awake for a little longer. He could do that. One hand, moving of its own volition, slid around the other man's neck, cradling him carefully, and the other tangled itself in all that warmed, sunlit hair, stroking gently.

Zechs mumbled something and he stilled at once.

'Don't stop.'

'I thought you were asleep.'

Zechs snorted. 'With you doing that? Never.'

'How do you feel?'

His smile was a beautiful, slowly-blossoming thing. 'I feel you.' He took one of Wufei's hands, placing it, palm down, over his heart. 'Everywhere.'

'Not too sore?'

Another snort. 'Did you hear me complaining? Are you?'

'No. We should probably go and clean up a little bit. Maybe use that gigantic bathtub of yours?'

The blue eyes, bluer than the sky, than the sea, gleamed at him. 'Why bother going all the way upstairs, when there is a pool full of water a few paces away?'

'True.'

He'd always been totally fastidious about cleaning up immediately afterwards, something that had intensely irritated Trowa. With Zechs, it didn't really seem to matter all that much, although the thought of cool water on his bare, warm skin was rather attractive.

'Ever been skinny dipping?'

'Certainly not.'

'This might be a good time to start, then.' Zechs stood up, carefully, wincing just a little bit, and laughed at the guilty look on Wufei's face. 'Stop that. I loved every minute of being pillaged by you. I want to do it to you. I want you to do it again.'

'Demanding,' Wufei noted. Zechs, sliding into the pool, looked like some mystical sea creature. He couldn't remember whether sirens were exclusively female.

'Very.' Lying on his back, Zechs flicked him a grin. 'I was badly spoilt as a child, you know. I was the eldest and the boy. It's made me very demanding.'

'I did notice, actually.' Wufei dipped one foot into the water and shivered slightly. It was only an hour or so since dawn; the sun hadn't had time to take the chill away from the water yet. 'It's cold.'

'If you come in, I'll warm you up.'

Wufei thought of an atrocious joke but didn't say it. He really had been spending too much time with Duo.

The water was cold; probably in contrast to his sun-warmed skin, but he swam a couple of brisk lengths with Zechs at his side.

The thought suddenly occurred to him that if he stayed here, this would be a part of their routine in the morning. Breakfast and a swim and perhaps a run on the beach before he headed to the library and Zechs went to work.

It was very appealing.

'You see?' Zechs flung one arm over the side of the pool, anchoring himself in place, and snagged Wufei with the other. 'It's not that cold.'

'No,' Wufei agreed. It felt good, especially with Zechs' body wrapped around him like that. Especially when Zechs kissed him.

'I wanted to do that the first time I saw you in Quatre's pool,' Zechs confessed. 'You don't know how much. You were just lying in the water, gazing up at the sky like you'd never seen it before. So beautiful.'

'I can't believe that was only - what? Four days ago? Five? It seems like I've known you for so much longer than that.'

'I know. Doesn't it? Perhaps we've somehow managed to tangle up the fabric of time between us? Do you know anything about physics?'

Wufei shook his head. 'I'm a historian, not a scientist. Do you believe in reincarnation? I never used to.'

'Maybe it's simpler than that. Maybe we just recognized something that had been missing from both of our lives?'

Wufei pouted, just because it would make Zechs laugh and kiss him again. 'I was rather liking the idea of us knowing each other in a previous life.'

'I know. And you were the dashingly exotic pirate captain and I was your helpless captive. The gay version of the historical romances my sister reads.'

'I can't imagine you being exactly helpless.'

'Hmm. I don't know. Brought to your cabin, bound hand and foot, awaiting your pleasure. I think I'd be rather powerless in that case. It sounds quite appealing.'

'It does actually.' Wufei felt his breath quicken, both at the absurd little fantasy and at Zechs' hands, trailing slowly down his spine.

'What an appalling fate for me.' Zechs' voice was very low, smooth as raw silks. 'If I didn't please you sufficiently, I could end up being thrown to the sharks. Or to your men.'

'How …would you plan to please me then?' He was very, very proud that his voice didn't waver. Zechs' might be the slave in his fantasy; in their reality, Wufei was entirely enslaved by what the blond was doing to him.

'Like this. Perhaps.' One of the hands resting on his waist strayed slowly upwards, found a nipple and stroked until it peaked, thrust a hard little nub against his palm. Zechs smiled as Wufei moaned, a soft, inarticulate sound of pleasure.

His mouth settled on Wufei's again, as if it belonged there, doing his own share of pillaging.

'You're very forward…for a slave.'

'Aren't I?'

Wufei shuddered as the hot, moist tongue licked across his neck, gasped and squirmed as sharp teeth found his earlobe and nipped.

Very forward. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered. Wufei twisted free, found Zechs' mouth with his own and returned the kiss avidly.

'Do it.'

'Do what, master?' Damn him, those questing, searching fingers actually paused. There was sheer mischief dancing in those sunlit, impossibly blue eyes.

'Me.'

It was different, in water. Legs wrapped tightly around Zechs's waist, Wufei let his head fall back until he could feel his hair skim the surface of the pool. Like a dragonfly. Flying, as his prince moved inside him.

Sunlight and cool water on his skin and hard, fierce heat within.

Soaring joy.

It was Zechs' voice, smooth and silken and warm with affection, that called him back to reality, and the other man's arms were still wrapped around him, and his eyes were a shade darker than usual from desire.

'I was flying.'

'I know. Come here to me.'

Wufei smiled at the silly command; how, really, could he come any closer than he already was? It was just possible though.