For Alonzo. Obviously. And his owner.
Thanks to KS for having the last word….
Trowa's POV:
Chapter 51:
It took a few minutes to wake up properly; to realise I was in Quatre's bed - excellent - and alone - not so good. Before I had time to wonder where he was and pscych myself up to go and find him, he appeared in the doorway.
'Where did you get to?'
'I had to let Maggie out.' He shrugged off his dressing gown; that would be one thing to look forward to when Dorothy moved out. We wouldn't have to worry about covering up all the time. 'And I called the surgery; that dog you operated on last night is stable. I talked to Catherine; she was very impressed with what you'd done.'
'He's really OK?' The dog, a cute little King Charles spaniel, had dashed across a road in pursuit of a cat and had a head-on collision with a motorbike coming in the opposite direction. I'd spent hours operating on him, hadn't really thought he'd make it.
'He's fine.' Quatre slid into bed, beaming. 'Apparently you're a total star. He's a family pet and there are six children who think you're their new hero.'
I snorted; maybe now they'd start keeping their pet on a lead around traffic. 'What time is it?'
'A little after nine. And don't worry; it's Sunday.'
'Mmm. Nice.' I hauled him over to my side of the bed, not that he was resisting very much, and wrapped myself around him. The previous day had been something of a nightmare; my shift, scheduled to end at six so I could take him out to dinner, had turned into an endurance test. I'd finally finished up just before midnight. After a quick stop home to grab a change of clothes and feed Leo, I'd driven to Quatre's, gulped a piece of toast and fallen asleep within about thirty minutes of walking in his door.
'Hey. Sorry about last night. I'll make it up to you.' Instead of being pissed off that I'd skipped our date, he'd been brilliantly understanding. There had been a hot bath ready, a cup of my favourite coffee and he'd snuggled happily under the duvet with me once I'd finally stumbled into bed. My perfect boyfriend.
Of course it didn't hurt that he was also adorably cute and sexy as hell, and currently naked in my arms. That didn't hurt at all.
'Will you now?' Those lovely eyes sparkled at me. 'That sounds like fun.'
'I'll make sure it is. And we can spend the whole day together in this bed.' Damn, that sounded good, almost as good as he felt against me. Supple and warm and hard in all the right places, and his hands were starting to do some deliciously interesting things.
'Um, actually we can't. There's the pet show, remember?'
Oh, I'd forgotten about the bloody pet show. 'We don't have to go. You haven't entered Maggie in any classes.'
'Well, I have to go,' he told me, all those lovely, teasing touches abruptly stopped.
Damn. 'I thought you were able to multitask, Quatre.' Trying not to laugh at his bemused expression, I caught his right hand and put it just where it had been, hoping he'd get the message. 'Can't you touch me and talk at the same time?'
'I suppose.' Thank God, his fingers began that slow, downwards dance of sheer bliss. 'I'm sorry but I have to go. I promised Duo I'd be there to cheer on Heero and Shinnie.'
'Obedience classes,' I gasped at what he was doing, 'don't start 'til three. There's no rush.'
'Nataku's class is one of the first, though.' Huh. Typical of him to have memorised the entire damn schedule. He squeezed gently, sending a pure current of desire blazing down my nerve endings. 'Don't you want to be there for that?'
My dear, innocent Quatre. 'Listen, honey. I really doubt that either Zechs or Wufei will be going anywhere remotely near a pet show today, so unless Nataku gets on the bus by herself, then you needn't worry about having to be there.'
'I don't understand.' Those big, cornflower-blue eyes widened as he took in just what I meant.
'Work it out. You're the one who's been angling to get them together. Zechs drove Wufei home on Friday night and Wufei hasn't been answering his 'phone since. Oh, don't stop what you're doing, please.'
'I'm sorry. You don't really think they're sleeping together, do you? Already? They hardly know each other!'
'Not everyone's like you, you know, wanting to wait until the stars are in the correct alignment, and making their poor, frustrated boyfriend wait.'
'Are you saying I wasn't worth it?' He pouted charmingly, and followed it up with a long, caressing stroke in a southerly direction.
'Of course you were,' I assured him. God, I'd have assured him of anything, given what his clever, knowing, talented fingers were doing. It was true anyway. 'Worth every minute. But people are different. And you're the one who made sure they spent all that time together last night.'
He nodded, teeth nibbling his lower lip. Damn. I really, really wanted those teeth to be nibbling somewhere else. 'Don't you think it's too soon, though? It's always a bad idea to have sex on the first date.'
'Is it? Why?'
'It just is! Trowa, I don't want it to be just a one night stand for them. I thought they'd want to get to know each other first, romance each other a little. You know.'
Ah. Of course. He'd had it all planned; he probably expected to orchestrate all their dates at the start. Little schemer. I wasn't sure whether I should be laughing or running for the hills.
'Wufei's not into one night stands,' I told him. 'If anything's happened between them, it means he's serious about Zechs, I can promise you that. And maybe they just spent the night talking.' Yeah, and I'd be called into the surgery later to treat all those flying pigs out there.
'Do you really think that?'
'Actually, no. Honey, stop worrying about this.' And ideally get on with what you were doing. 'I'm sure there'll be weekends in Paris and candlelit dinners and all that stuff as well. I just don't get why you're not pleased with all of this. The whole point of Friday night was getting them hooked up, wasn't it?'
'Not like this! I just think it's far too soon.'
'Maybe it wasn't too soon for them,' I suggested. There obviously wasn't going to be any action until he'd got this sorted out to his own satisfaction, which sadly meant that my own satisfaction wasn't going to be happening until he'd calmed down. 'Come on, sometimes it just works out this way, and that's how it's meant to be. And none of it would ever have happened if it hadn't been for you. They both really owe you.'
He smiled happily; a cute blond cupid with one hand cupped between my legs. 'They did seem to be getting on very well last night.'
'Absolutely,' I agreed heartily. 'The perfect couple. Quatre, do you think you could stop worrying about other people's boyfriends for about five minutes and concentrate on your own?'
It took far more than five minutes; once I'd helped him to shed all those inhibitions about sex, he'd turned into a wonderfully creative, enthusiastic, no-holds-barred lover. No wonder I was totally crazy about him. He'd been worth waiting for.
We didn't get to the show-grounds until almost eleven. Quatre had a tub in his bathroom, and his water heater had a far larger capacity than mine. After he'd tried to make French toast, and I'd cleared up the mess and made a second batch, we headed off.
Within ten minutes of walking onto the showgrounds, I was in love; utterly and completely, lost in the biggest, softest pair of dark eyes I'd ever seen, fringed by a veritable forest of long lashes.
'Isn't he gorgeous?'
'Yes, Trowa,' Quatre laughed. 'I think I'm starting to get jealous. You've never stood and stared at me for that long, and then told me I was beautiful.'
'Haven't I really?' I clicked my tongue. 'Very remiss of me. I'll make that up to you tonight. But seriously, isn't he the most beautiful thing?' I noticed he'd been hanging back a little bit, Maggie clasped in his arms. 'Come and say hell, honey. He's friendly.'
'Um, I'm not sure I like llamas,' he said, a bit nervously. 'Duo was spat on by one once when we were in South America. He said it was really disgusting.'
'That was a bad llama. This is a lovely friendly one. Aren't you, sweetheart?'
Quatre laughed, stepping up beside me. 'I'm not sure I like the idea of you kissing other boys.'
'You'll just have to make an exception for this one, I'm afraid. Just rub his back, yeah, like that. He'll love that.'
'He is rather cute. And he feels lovely.' Quatre ducked his head to read the little sign around my new love's neck. 'He's called Alonzo! That's so adorable. And he won the Unusual Pets class. Isn't he clever?'
'Hi, Trowa,' an amused female voice. 'I might have guessed you'd zoom in on the llamas.'
'Hi Sally. You remember Quatre, don't you?'
'I do, yes. Hi Quatre. Is this Maggie? She's lovely!' She bent down to hug the puppy. 'Trowa, have you seen Wufei yet? I was trying to call him all day yesterday. Is everything OK? That terrifying dog hasn't attacked him or anything, has she?'
'He's fine. Shacked up with Prince Milliardo Peacecraft, so far as I know.'
'You're joking! Really? Wow, good for him. When did that happen?'
'Quatre had a dinner on Friday. I think they properly got together then, but they've apparently been talking a lot over the past week or so.'
'Lucky Wufei. He's gorgeous.' She glanced over at Quatre, who was petting Alonzo and politely giving us a little privacy. 'You haven't done too badly for yourself either, have you? He's such a cutie. How serious is it with you guys?'
'Very,' I said honestly. 'He's great. We've swapped house keys and everything.'
She whistled. 'Wow. The world must be shaking on its axis right now. Trowa Barton serious about someone; Chang Wufei snuggled up with the prince of Sanque, no less. I'm really glad for you. Anyway, I'm going to head off and see if I can find Tim; his parents have brought their two Siamese cats. Tell Wufei to call me if you see him.'
'What now?' I gave Alonzo one last pat, envying the hell out of whoever was lucky enough to own him. 'You want to get a drink or an ice-cream or something? There's a stall over there.'
'That would be nice,' Quatre said happily, walking out of the show and was promptly pounced on by a dark-haired young woman. 'Hey Quatre. Is this Maggie? She's so cute! You have got to bring her in to school some day.' She gave me an arch look. 'And this must be Trowa! It's so great to meet you!' She winked at Quatre. 'I'd tell you to bring him into school, but he probably wouldn't be safe.'
Quatre laughed. 'Hi Jen. Trowa, Jenny works with me; she teaches English.'
'Well, I try to,' Jenny smiled, giving me a not-so-subtle once-over. 'I'd better go; my sister's entered her poodle in the next class and I promised her I'd be there to watch. I'll see you in school tomorrow, Quatre. We must have coffee together and have a nice chat.'
'Something makes me think that I'm going to the subject of this 'nice chat'? Would that be right?' I asked, leading Quatre over to the ice-cream stall.
'Oh, yes! I'm afraid your ears will probably burning at around ten o'clock tomorrow morning!' He ordered two ice-cream cones and we wandered off to find a quiet place to sit and eat them.
'So the people at your school know you're gay then?'
He nodded. 'I've never hidden it. Well, not since I was eighteen or so. Once I'd told my family, I didn't really care about how anyone else reacted. What about you?'
'I've been pretty lucky, actually. My dad wasn't exactly ecstatic when I told him, but he didn't freak out or anything.' Or disown me. Damn, I'd been more than lucky. 'Cathy's always been brilliant; I think she used to hope people would make comments so she'd have a chance to beat them up! That reminds me, she keeps going on about meeting you properly. D'you think you could bear to have dinner at her house some day this week? I'm warning you, she'll probably ask you all sorts of madly personal questions.'
'Of course I'd love to meet her again.' He dipped one finger in his ice-cream and let Maggie lick it. She got all the fun. 'And this time I can ask her all sorts of personal questions about what you were like growing up.' His beautiful eyes shone, reflecting the sunlight.
'Then I'll have to get Duo drunk so he'll spill all your secrets,' I retaliated.
Quatre gave me a haughty little pout. 'He doesn't drink so that won't work. Anyway, I don't have any secrets.'
'Sure you do. I'll can always ask Zechs or Relena. Or Dorothy. Actually, Dorothy might be the best; she's living with you so she probably knows if you drink juice straight out of the carton or don't change your socks for days on end.'
'There's nothing to tell.' Quatre stood up abruptly, tumbling Maggie off his lap. 'Don't you think we should go to look for Zechs and Wufei now? Their class is due to start in twenty minutes.'
'What's wrong?' I stared up at him, and he gave me a bright smile. 'Nothing's wrong. I'm just worried about how they're all going to do. Heero's been working so hard with Shinnie, and it's really important that Nataku does well. Shall we go and find them?'
'Not in this crowd, no.' I decided to let that weird little interlude go. For now anyway. Maybe I'd just gone a bit too far with the teasing? 'We wouldn't have a hope of finding them. I think we should stay here until it's time for the Oriental Breeds in the show ring. If we get there a bit early, we'll have a chance to talk to them first. Assuming they even turn up.'
'What about Wufei's grandmother? I thought she was the one making him enter in the first place. Won't he be too scared not to turn up?'
I grinned at him, taking his hand and pulling him back down beside me, not quite sure how we'd catapulted from a nice, cosy chat into this abrupt subject change. I couldn't work out what I'd said that he hadn't liked. 'Mrs. Chang is on a whole other continent and probably won't be home for months. Whereas Zechs, well, you can use your imagination. If you had to choose between cosying up to a hot new guy or pleasing a far-away relative, which would you pick?'
'Good point,' he conceded, licking carefully around the base of his ice cream cone to catch the melting drips. Oh, God. That should definitely not be legal in public. It was making me want to do all sorts of things that would be considered very much illegal in a public place. 'I hope they do show, though. I'm dying to see them together.'
I nudged him. 'Your wish is about to be granted, honey. Incoming. Twelve o'clock.'
Nataku looked fairly relaxed, ambling along beside her owner, who was looking pretty relaxed as well. He and Zechs weren't holding hands or anything, but Zechs was walking close enough, ostensibly correcting Wufei's grasp on Nataku's lead, that a certain amount of physical contact was inevitable. Wufei didn't seem to have a problem with that. He looked happy; all the usual edginess presumably smoothed out by many hours of presumably very satisfactory sex.
I still couldn't resist teasing him, though. 'Hey, Wufei. I was starting to worry about you; I couldn't get through to you yesterday.'
'I was busy,' he said, bold as brass, but giving Zechs a warm look. Wow. I'd never seen him look at anyone like that, and the tall blond was gazing adoringly back. Quatre practically had little sparkly hearts dancing out of his eyes as he watched the two of them together. 'I need to register Nataku for her class. Zechs, can you hold her here for a minute?'
'Of course.' Zechs went even more googly eyed and there was a certain amount of surreptitious caressing as he took over Nataku. 'I'll miss you; don't be long.' He waved my best friend out of sight, and then turned to us, all the gooey stuff turned off like a light. 'Quatre, what am I going to do? He still thinks I'm a brilliant dog trainer, and she's probably going to attack someone. Me, in all likelihood.'
'But why can't you, um, do what you did the last time?' Quatre cast me an oddly uncomfortable glance. 'To, ah, relax her. You know.'
'Because they have to be awake! To walk around and stand for the judge and probably turn bloody somersaults. I thought they just had to lie in a cage or something so it wouldn't have mattered if she was sedated but they have to do things.'
'You drugged her?' I snapped, glaring at him. 'You fool. Do you have any idea how dangerous it is to do something like that? You could have killed her!'
'He was really careful,' Quatre put in anxiously. 'They were just herbal pills; I don't think they could have harmed her. And he had to do something! She'd bitten him, half-killed Relena's cat, and done all sorts of damage.'
'You can't tell Wufei,' Zechs begged. 'Please Trowa. Everything's been going so well and he'd be furious if he found out.'
Damn. It was hard to stay angry when faced with two beseeching blonds. 'Fine. I won't tell him. But you can't do something like that again, OK?'
'OK. But what am I going to do now? He still thinks I'm a professional dog trainer. He called his grandmother in China this morning and told her an expert was handling Nataku in the show so she was bound to win.'
'You could always tell him the truth,' I suggested.
'Don't be ridiculous! Of course I can't. Then he'd know I'd been lying to him.'
'But you have,' Quatre said perkily. 'I think Trowa's right. Wufei obviously really likes you; I'm sure he'll understand. He might even be flattered that you were willing to do anything to get him to notice you. And it's so important that you're honest with each other from the start.'
'She mightn't be that bad, anyway,' I put in, taking pity on the poor guy, who looked as if he was about to start hyperventilating. If he really was that serious about my friend, it would be a shame if anything went wrong so soon in the relationship. 'I've never actually seen her this calm. She's a perfect example of a Peke; if you can keep her from getting too excited, she might do pretty well.'
'I'm sure she will,' Quatre enthused. 'She's so cute, and she matches your hair colour perfectly. She'll probably win first prize, and then the grandmother will adore you, and Wufei will think you're amazing, even more amazing than he already thinks you are, and I'm just so happy for you both! I've known along you'd be perfect for each other.' He beamed happily at us both, and I mentally added twittering bluebirds to the string of dancing hearts.
Zechs' mouth twisted sourly. 'God, Trowa, how do you put up with him when he gets like this? Ah, Wufei.' His expression changed miraculously into a besotted smile. 'Is everything sorted?'
'I think so.' Wufei glowed up at him; my imagination provided a whole cast of friendly forest animals, all about to break into a Disneyesque love song.
Shit, what the hell had I got myself mixed up in?
'Shall we head over to the show ring now, Trowa?' Quatre, my Quatre, touched my arm lightly. 'We want to get a good place to watch.'
'Sure.' I reached for his hand, thrilled when he just closed his fingers around mine. 'Listen, honey, since romance seems to be in the air today, I just want to say how glad I am that we met up. You're one of the best things that's ever happened to me, and I am totally crazy about you.'
His hand squeezed gently, and his mouth settled into a demure, in-public little smile, but not before mouthing 'I love you'.
My heart thumped hard to an imaginary beat and I couldn't wipe off the silly smile that kept stretching my face to what was sure to be cosmic proportions. And even though the timing was right for this fantasy moment, I didn't break out in song, aloud. Love was grand and we were all humming along.
