Disclaimer: I don't own any part of the GW characters.

Note: Many thanks to KS for editing and to everybody who has been reviewing. THis one is dedicated to Calamithy, who made me laugh on a very stressful Saturday. Merci mille fois!

Ground Rules:

They walked the length of the beach without talking, without touching except for Trowa taking his hand to help him over some slippery, seaweed-covered rocks.

'So…' Trowa asked finally when they'd reached the rocky headland jutting out into the sea. 'Where do we go from here? What happens next?'

Quatre took a deep breath, filling his lungs with salt spray. We. He'd said we. Both of them. He'd been sure – almost – that the kiss had meant Trowa wanted to stay with him, but it hadn't been a certainty and then he hadn't spoken for almost an hour.. 'I'm not sure. I'm going to have to go back to L4 fairly soon. I need to talk to my father, and sort out exactly what I'll be doing here in Sanque. I shouldn't be gone for more than a week or so.'

Trowa nodded. 'Just how pissed off is your father about all of this?'

'Not as much as I thought he'd be, to be honest.' Quatre wiped salt spray from his face and stepped a few paces away. 'I think he was rather impressed with some of my plans.' He couldn't help smiling at the memory. 'It was nice. He listened to me, properly, not just like I'm a child he's indulging.'

'Want me to come with you?'

'Not this time, if you don't mind. I would love to take you home, and I do want you to meet my father but I think I need to do this by myself. I'll be in meetings most of the time anyway. Is that all right?'

'Sure. Quatre, you said we'd have to be discreet. Define discreet. I'm not going to be your dirty little secret, with you sneaking off to see me when you think no one's looking.'

'Of course not! I wouldn't ask you to do that. I just meant that we'll have to be, well, rather low key when we're in public.'

'No PDAs?'

'Excuse me?'

'Public displays of affection?'

Quatre gave a rather regretful little shake of his head. 'Not when anyone can see us. I'm sorry.'

'Private displays of affection are all right?'

'Oh, yes! All you like.'

'OK.' Trowa pursed his lips. 'If you're going to be heading up a major corporation in this country, that makes you high profile. At some point, the media's going to find out about me. Us. How are you going to handle that?'

'I have no idea. Honestly. The media in Sanque does seem to be less intrusive than in other countries, but I suppose it will come out eventually. I don't care in this country, but homosexuality's not legal on L4.'

'What could happen to you? Worst case scenario?'

'Technically, a prison sentence. I think it's currently ten years for anal sex.'

Trowa drew his breath in sharply. 'Seriously? Shit, Cat, that's barbaric.'

'Technically,' Quatre repeated. 'Really, I don't think anyone's been prosecuted for decades. I'd have to have sex with you in the middle of a children's playground or something and then play it on the evening news to get into real trouble. There are gay people on L4; you just have to be very low key. The problem, really, is that it's still seen as a social disgrace for a man to be gay. Our board members are all very elderly and conservative; they'd probably have collective coronaries or something.'

'Thereby removing the problem?' Trowa suggested dryly.

Quatre laughed. 'I suppose it would in a way. I'd just rather keep a low profile, for as long as possible.'

'I have to tell some people who you are like Cathy, and my friends.'

'But Trowa….'

'No. I'll go along with your ground rules. That's one of mine. I'm not going to deceive the people who are close to me about who my boyfriend is. That's non-negotiable, Cat. If this is going to work, we need to trust each other.'

'All right. If you trust these people.' Quatre shivered slightly, not liking the idea of strangers knowing his secret. Still, it was bound to come out eventually. No pun intended or anything…

'I do. Totally. It's OK, Cat. Or d'you prefer Quatre?'

'Cat's fine.'

'Mmm. Yeah, Cat is pretty fine. So tell me, what's Quatre like?'

'He's me. It's not like we're two different people, you know. He's a workaholic, and he spends far too much time pleasing people. And he utterly adores his boyfriend.'

'Who happens to adore him back,' Trowa grinned, squeezing his hand. 'I guess we can work on the workaholic thing, and maybe narrow the pleasing people thing down to pleasing just one person.' He hesitated. 'Don't worry about me telling people, OK? It'll just be my sister, and Duo and a couple of other close friends.'

'Actually, I forgot to tell you. Duo already knows.'

Trowa frowned. 'What? How does he know?'

'He guessed. I think he only really worked it out last night, and he said it to me this morning. Oh, God, Trowa, I forgot. There's something awful that I meant to tell you earlier. Your friend Wufei is writing a story about me.'

'Wufei knows who you are?' Trowa's brows contracted over the furrow between his eyes. 'For God's sake, am I the only person in the entire universe who didn't know who you are?'

'No. He doesn't really know, but he's investigating Quatre Winner. He thinks there's some sort of scandal about why I've disappeared. Trowa, it's not funny!'

'It's freaking hilarious!' Trowa mopped his eyes on his sleeve. 'Oh, come on, Cat. You have to see the funny side of all this. Poor Wufei's probably been busting his ass to find out where you were, and you're living with me all along. I even talked to him yesterday, told him I'd got a new boyfriend and that you guys would have to meet. '

Quatre sniffed. 'I don't think that's funny at all. What happens when he realises who I am, and he sells the stories to every tabloid in the world?'

'Hey, calm down.' Trowa reached out one long arm, and hooked it around Quatre's shoulders. 'Nothing like that is going to happen. He's not that sort of journalist. He probably thinks you're up to some sort of shady financial deal, and he can expose that. He doesn't believe in journalists intruding on people's private lives provided they're not doing anything illegal. If it doesn't involve numbers in some form, he won't be interested.'

'Oh. Well, I suppose that's all right.' He didn't think it was all right, not at all, but Wufei was Trowa's friend, and like he said, they were going to have to start trusting one another. 'It probably doesn't matter anyway. My ex boyfriend's determined to out me, one way or another.'

Trowa frowned. 'What's the deal with that? It's the guy you knew in Canada, right? I thought you were still friends with him.'

'So did I.' Quatre bent down to scoop a handful of warm sand, letting it run through his fingers. 'His new partner works for a human rights organisation, and he's very involved in gay rights, especially on the Colonies. He wants our parliament to pass new legislation next year, and he thinks it will help if someone like me comes out of the closet. Basically, if I don't do it myself, they're threatening to out me.'

'Bastards. The pair of them. And your ex is just going along with this even though it'll totally mess up your life?' Trowa shook his head. 'Have they got proof?'

'Oh, yes. Jordan has photos of us together.' Quatre shivered suddenly. Some of those photos had been taken on deserted beaches in British Columbia. This wasn't the same. He trusted Trowa, utterly and completely. 'And he has letters and emails from me; all sorts of things.'

'And this Jordan guy is willing to fuck you up like that?'

'Apparently. He thinks he's doing me a favour, making me be honest with myself. Anyway, our lawyers are trying to sort it out, so I'm not allowed to contact him.' Quatre sighed. It still hurt enormously; that someone he'd loved would treat him like that. 'So go ahead, tell people who I am. They'll probably end up reading it in some newspaper anyway.'

'You don't know that for sure.' Trowa lifted his hand and kissed it. 'It's a hell of a way to treat someone, and I certainly don't want you to get in trouble for being gay, but in the long run maybe it would be better just to tell people.'

Quatre shrugged. 'Maybe. They all seem to guess anyway.'

'Speaking of which, how the hell did Duo know who you were?'

'A few things, really. I think it was partly Zechs not talking about me at all; partly him guessing I had money. And then Wufei mentioned Quatre Winner disappearing and he put it all together.'

'God, I can't believe I didn't work it out.'

'Well, you probably didn't even know I existed.'

'Here's the thing. I did. Zechs told me about a friend he had on L4 who was one of the Winner family, and who'd try to help us.'

Quatre nodded soberly. 'I'm so very sorry about that. He did call me, and sent some emails, but my assistant managed to 'lose' them, on my sister's orders.'

'I hope you gave her hell for that.'

'Oh, it wasn't just her fault. I could have tried harder to stay in contact with him. I kept meaning to call him, but I was always busy and I kept procrastinating.'

'Hmmm. Seems to be a bit of a habit.'

Quatre flushed. 'It is, I know. I'm trying to get better.'

'Oh well, we all have our little faults. Wait! That announcement last night about the forest; were you behind that?'

Grinning at him, Quatre nodded. 'That's right. It honestly wasn't a publicity stunt my sister dreamed up; I was trying to convince you that we weren't all evil.'

Trowa started to laugh again, catching Quatre's hand and swinging it. 'Oh, poor Cat. That didn't go quite how you'd planned it, did it? Was I supposed to roll over and start singing your family's praises?'

'Something like that,' the blond admitted. 'Trowa, do you think we could sit down for a minute? It's so lovely here.'

'We could do that.' Trowa collapsed gracefully on the warm, soft sand, and pulled Quatre down into his lap. 'Wow. I've got a boyfriend who can do stuff like that. It's like dating a superhero! What else can you do; buy some halfway decent players for Sanque United so they might actually have a chance at the next World Cup?'

'Now, you're being silly,' Quatre scolded, twisting around to look at his boyfriend. 'Although…I suppose it is good to know what you might want for your birthday.'

'Cat…I was joking.'

'Oh, so was I. Honestly! I'm not that wealthy or anywhere near it. I get a good salary and I have shares in WEI, but I certainly couldn't buy a football team or anything like that.'

'Damn.' Trowa wrapped both arms around Quatre's waist, pulling him closer. 'I was hoping I'd got lucky with you, and found someone to keep me in the sort of luxury I'd like to become accustomed to. You're really just a wage slave like everyone else?'

Quatre soulful sigh was utterly belied by the twinkle in his eyes. This was so much sheer fun. Trowa knew who he was, and had accepted it and everything in the universe was perfect. 'I do hope you're not too disappointed.'

'Devastated. Although, if you really tried, you might be able to find some way to make it up to me.'

'Might I?' Quatre leaned forward, ghosting kisses over Trowa's face. 'Really? What would I have to do?'

'Uh, forget about the whole no-PDA ground rule for a start?'

'Well, we are on a deserted beach….with no one else around…that probably means it doesn't count as public, as such. Not when it's just the two of us…'

'Just us,' Trowa confirmed, moving his mouth over Quatre's, placing a hand on each hip and shifting him so two very sensitive pieces of anatomy came into searing, urgent contact.

'Oh, God.' Trowa's mouth was on his throat suddenly, alternately delivering sharp little nips and slow, nibbling kisses, and one hand was fondling between his legs and then the delicious, building pleasure suddenly crested and flooded. 'I can't believe I did that! I've never done that before, not in my clothes. That was amazing!' Quatre made a face; finding the aftermath of having sex fully dressed to be considerably less pleasant than the deed itself. 'Ugh. I'm all sticky.'

'Take your clothes off,' Trowa suggested, grinning devilishly. 'There's the whole sea to clean up in, and I really like the idea of you being commando for the rest of the day. Have you ever been skinny dipping before?'

'I can't!' Quatre objected, a lifetime of L4 modesty suddenly leaping forward.

'Sure you can, Cat. I've seen you naked before and I don't have any problems with it. and there's no one else around to see. Which is good, 'cause I don't want anyone else looking at you.' He stood up, tipping Quatre at his feet, and starting to take off his own clothes.. 'Get a move on, Winner. You were bitching about being all icky sticky a second ago. Time to get you naked and cleaned up.'

'Are you always going to bully me around like this?' Quatre nonetheless accepted Trowa's outstretched hand, letting himself be pulled up. He wasn't entirely averse to the idea; especially not when Trowa was rapidly becoming naked and it was very, very obvious that his boyfriend hadn't come and was more than ready to.

'Let's see.' Trowa's head, hair even messier than usual, emerged from the neck of his t-shirt. 'Am I always going to order you to strip and drag your clothes off if you're too slow about it? Oh, yeah, I think the answer to that one would be a very definite yes.'

'Yes, sir!' Quatre threw him a mock salute. What was the point in being modest? Trowa had seen him naked; they had the whole world, stretching to the horizon all to themselves, and no one would be able to see them from the road, through all those trees and bushes.

He still shivered faintly as he peeled off his briefs. A combination of cool air – there was a chilly breeze coming in form the sea – and Trowa's eyes on him. And …other parts of Trowa's anatomy that were very clearly attuned to his presence – his naked presence.

'Want me to warm you up a bit?' Trowa's mouth quirked as he glanced down at himself. 'I'd better warn you now; the water's going to be damn cold. If you'd like to help me with this little problem, you might want to do something now.'

'Little?' Quatre teased, dropping to a crouch at Trowa's feet. God, he couldn't believe he was being this….brazen. And loving every second of it. 'Not that little, really. You know, Duo did say I should promise to be your sex slave for all eternity and you'd forgive me for lying to you.'

'Duo's a sensible guy,' Trowa said hoarsely. 'Shit, you should have just said that from that very beginning and I'd have let you away with anything.' Quatre was gentle at first, just lips and tongue and fingertips, and then he suddenly stopped being gentle and Trowa screamed, hands tightening on Quatre's shoulders.

'So I get my very own sex slave?' he mused, when they were both sprawled all over each other on the sand, not quite ready to summon the energy to get clean. 'I really like the sound of that.'

'And the sight?' Quatre teased, cuddling closer.

'Mm, yeah. And the feel of you, and the taste and the sound you make when you come.'

'I like those things about you too.' Quatre tucked his head into Trowa's shoulder, suddenly a little shy. 'A lot.'

One large hand slid down his back, squeezing his buttocks gently. 'Shit, I wish I hadn't left my bag back in the car.'

'We could … improvise. Don't you think?'

'Seawater and spit?' Trowa's tongue sneaked out and licked a slow, sensuous trail along Quatre's jawline. 'You taste all salty. Yum. It wouldn't be enough, Cat. How long's it been for you?'

'A while,' Quatre looked down and their joined hands, suddenly aching with the need to be even closer. And this would be the perfect, perfect place, with the waves lapping gently around them, and a whole world to themselves. 'You could…go back to the car. Very quickly. If you wanted.'

'I could,' Trowa mused. 'It's a long way though. And I'd have to get dressed again. You know, a good slave would do it for me.'

'We sex slaves never have to perform actual physical tasks,' Quatre stretched languidly against that long, lean body. 'We need to save all our energy for pleasing our masters. They don't usually complain.'

'Some slave you are. No notion of obedience; you're going to need some serious training.'

'That sounds awfully like fun!'

Trowa sighed. 'Brat. How long d'you reckon it would take me to run back to the car and get back here?'

'Not long,' Quatre said eagerly. 'Not long at all.'

'Right.' Trowa flipped them over, so he was lying on top, looking into Quatre's eyes. 'Sure about this?'

'Very sure! I would have, last night, if it hadn't been for Ellie. Trowa, you're sure no one's going to come along?'

'It's a work day and too early in the season for tourists. No one ever comes out here anyway; there are nicer beaches closer to the city. It's too rocky here and there's a current. No one's going to see us. And if they do, I'll murder them so they can't tell. Now, I want you to stay there, and not move a muscle. Got that?'

'Yes, master.'

A week ago, he could never have imagined doing something like this, not in his wildest fantasies, Quatre thought hazily. Lying naked on a beach, in plain sight, and about to have sex for the first time with the man he'd fallen in love with.

When Trowa came back, he was carrying a large towel as well as his small backpack. He spread the blanket for Quatre to lie on; producing a large tube of lubricant and an unopened packet of condoms.

'Are we going to need these?'

Quatre was abruptly scarlet, eyes fixed on the brightly patterned blanket beneath him. 'We should. I've always been careful, but I have been with other people, fairly recently. Just in case.'

'No bother.' Trowa tore the packet open. 'I had actually had a full medical check last month, for my insurance and there's only been you since then. You could look at getting cleared and then do it the fun way. OK?'

'Oh, yes please.'

'Good! Now, come here, and show me exactly what you meant about saving your energy for pleasing me.'

It wasn't like any of his experiences on L4. Quatre curled up in Trowa's arms, and began to kiss his mouth, very slowly, letting each kiss press a little deeper. It wasn't just going to be a hurried act between two strangers who were only seeking a physical release, and perhaps a moment's fantasy of real intimacy.

He and Trowa could take it slowly, enjoying each step along the way, and afterwards they could kiss and wash each other off, and walk away hand in hand. Together.

'How d'you like it, sweetheart?' Trowa questioned softly, reaching for the lube and slicking his fingers. 'Nice and slow?'

'Slow is good. Really good.' Quatre moaned blissfully, rocking himself gently on the finger that had slid between his legs.

'Slow it is,' the tall man echoed, tongue invading Quatre's mouth even as he added a second finger.

It felt wonderful; the slow, sure possession. Much, much better when Trowa withdrew his fingers, and shifted to lie on top.

'Can't promise this part will be all that slow.' Trowa's eyes, glowing down at him, were a deep, jade green. 'I really, really want you.'

'I want you too.'

It all came down to purest sensation after that. Trowa plunging inside him, hands gripping Quatre's hips, those green eyes gazing down and that low, husky voice murmuring his name.

'Quaaaaaatre…'

He'd never thought his name could sound sexy. It did, when Trowa screamed it like that; wrapped up in need and desire and lust and ecstasy, all his syllables sent flying out to sea.