AN: I hope you peeps like plotless fluff because you're getting plotless fluff. "And I Know, This Is It, This Is Greater Than Anything", title from This Is It by Goodnight Nurse.


Perry the Platypus stood with his nemesis in the park where the man had finally proposed to him properly, what felt like a lifetime ago, the silver band around his finger still shiny and new. A matching ring rested on Heinz's hand.

Around them, autumn leaves twirled and fell onto the grass, orange and gold for the coming winter, as the sky darkened for the evening. Most had already gone home by now, but not them. Heinz, beside him, vibrated with eagerness to pounce, only Perry's paw around his finger keeping the man in check. That was more than enough, for now.

Then Perry, with a gentle squeeze, let go.

Heinz whooped with a childlike glee that more than made up for the bleakness of his original childhood, diving into the nearest pile and throwing leaves up into the air, awe in his eyes. Perry stood by and watched, glad his nemesis could let go and have fun for once. A kind of fun that didn't rely on inators or scheming or even musical numbers.

It was when Heinz started rolling around that Perry exhaled loudly and flopped into the leaves as well, joining the man who was to be his husband. His life, too, hadn't left him much room for simple joys.

Sure, Perry had had many opportunities for such things as rolling in leaves as a simple pet platypus, but none had ever been this free of expectations, secrets, masks. He'd spent so long hiding so much of himself that to let his guard down completely was a relief. To turn his head and see Heinz, wearing a matching grin, this man who had taught him so much, how to laugh, how to cry, how to want, was a greater delight than any he'd known.

Feeling lighter than air, Perry reached out to take Heinz's head in his paws once more, and pressed a soft kiss to the man's lips. Because he wanted to.

A soft smile graced Heinz's lips in response and he pulled their foreheads together, eyes half-closed, murmuring familiar words of affection into Perry's bill. The same monologue he'd performed while proposing, although then, unlike now, was free of interruptions.

This time, Perry rolled his eyes, kissing Heinz quiet. He'd heard it all before, and his answer was still the same. Of course he'd stay.

He didn't begrudge the man for needing to make sure. After all, he'd heard many of Heinz's backstories, and the pain and abandonment that underlay them, on many an occasion. He knew what he was getting into by accepting. It was therefore no surprise to him that Heinz would need frequent reminders that Perry wanted to be with him, and always had.

A quiet rumble filled the space around them and Heinz grinned sheepishly, a hand on his growling stomach, as if that would stop Perry's exasperated glare. Heinz had forgotten to eat again. While Perry did what he could to remind the man, he could only do so much.

The fact was that he rarely made it out to Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated in the mornings these days, between his family, his job, and the limited chances he had to sleep in as nature had intended. That's why he came over most evenings, to keep to some form of routine now that they weren't technically nemeses any more. Not that technicalities stopped them from falling back to that dynamic where all others failed.

It was as a nemesis that Heinz shoved playfully at Perry, and as a nemesis that he yielded a moment later with a yelp, Perry flicking at his long nose. The battle, it seemed, was over. Another victory for one Perry the Platypus.

Murmuring a long-familiar curse under his breath, Heinz cupped a hand under Perry's jaw and pressed a soft kiss to the tip of his bill... then tipped the platypus off him and into the pile of leaves. He too could use underhanded tricks to secure his victory. Barely a moment later he rose to one knee, holding out a hand to help his nemesis up, an offer Perry couldn't refuse.

The feeling of their fingers intertwined with the other's had become so second-nature by this point that neither of them let go, even after they were on their feet, content to stay like this. At least until a cool evening breeze twirled past them.

Perry couldn't suppress his shiver. Every year, his winter fur came in a little later than was comfortable, and this was no exception.

Noticing this, Heinz pulled his hand free and shrugged off his lab coat, tucking the thick fabric around Perry's now-tense body. He'd always known, on some level, that Perry's natural body temperature was lower than his own, but it had never been as immediate a realisation as this, that Perry would feel the cold more as a result of his size and species. That Perry could shiver.

Vulnerability wasn't part of any agent's training, least of all Perry's. And yet, around Heinz, Perry had come to find comfort in being more than just an agent, letting his stoic mask fall, bit by bit. The only remnant now was the fedora on his head, until even that was covered by the lab coat, flicked over top like a hood.

While Perry was average height for a platypus, a respectable two feet tall on his hind legs, he was short by human standards and shorter still compared to his six foot two nemesis. The base of the lab coat thus dragged through the leaves, even with his tail lifting much of the trailing end above the ground. Burrowing into the fabric anyway, Perry closed his eyes, breathing in the familiar and welcome scent of his nemesis.

Heinz, wringing his hands together in nervousness, mumbled something about going home. It wasn't that he wanted the evening to end, as such. More that, as cute as his nemesis was, wrapped up in his lab coat, he didn't want Perry to catch a cold from staying out too long. He on the other hand would be fine. Even if he wasn't, it wouldn't matter, he'd lived through worse.

Holding the lab coat around him with one paw, Perry nodded his agreement, then stretched up to take Heinz's hand in the other. Not even the cold would stop him reaching out.

The two of them shared a smile, turning their backs to the setting sun as they departed, together.


AN: Sometimes I forget just how much Perryshmirtz I've written. Then I look at this, or my series collection of Perryshmirtz fics on ao3, and remember XD