See all warnings and disclaimers in the first chapter.

A/N: Okay, got another question from my lovely readers, so here's a bit o' clarification. Relena didn't actually negotiate the Treaty of Tel'Mar. That occurred long before her time. But she has negotiated several contracts between Telmaran and potential human Bonded. I think that's all for now.

And due to an overwhelming response from viewers, there will be a lemon in this chapter. So if you don't like, don't read. Of course, if you didn't like, you wouldn't be reading my story since it's rated 'M' for mature. So if you are lost, please find your way out now or be lost forever!

Heero: Just write the damn chapter already.

Jewel: Oh, you want to see a little 3x4 action, too, hmm?

Heero: . . . just write the damn chapter.

Contrary to Popular Belief

"You didn't have to come with me, you know," Dorothy said in a low voice as her private shuttle whizzed to the hospital.

"I wanted to," Relena said. Her blue eyes met Dorothy's, hard and cold. "I say it's time we stopped playing games with each other for a change and started working together."

Dorothy blinked. "What?"

"Oh come on, Dorothy," Relena snapped. "We both know the only reason you had me exiled from the noble houses is because I knew you were plotting against your father, too. Only difference is you were in a position to do something about any other plots. You poisoned him, didn't you?"

For a moment, her cousin was silent. Then Dorothy smiled, a dark and dangerous smile. "If I said yes, what would you do about it?"

Relena tossed her golden hair. "Exactly what I said. I think it's time we stopped plotting against one another. You and I, Dorothy, could rule this empire together. No one has to know what transpired between us. I won't breathe a word of your plots, as long as you give me equal power. Think about it. Who plays this game better than us? Together we could take down the parliamentarian systems, getting rid of anything that detracts from our power. Co-rulers of the most powerful empire in history."

Dorothy folded her hands. "And could I really trust you to not stab me in the back?" she countered.

"Could I trust you?" Relena retorted. "We don't have to be fighting, Dorothy. I will give you my word if you give me yours, from this day forward nothing I do will ever be against you in any way. I will be your most trusted ally, Dorothy."

The two women gazed at each other for a long, long time in silence before Dorothy broke into an evil grin. "This is what I love about you, Relena. You are the cleverest, most conniving woman I know. From this day forward nothing I do will ever be against you in any way, I will be your most trusted ally. And can I make a personal request on the side?"

Shrugging gracefully, Relena allowed herself to relax. "Why not."

"If we're going to be joint empresses, can we have the traditional relationship thereof?"

Relena frowned. "What do you mean?"

Dorothy slid forward on the seat, taking her cousin's hand. "I mean, of course we can have our pretty boys on the side. I know you fancy Duo. So do I. Who doesn't! But believe it or not, the one person in the galaxy I am most attracted to has always been you."

That stunned Relena into absolute silence. For several moments she could not flounder out of her speechlessness into an actual response. She was of course surprised. Shocked. But appalled? No. Flattered? Beyond belief. And . . . thrilled? She finally smiled, a slow turning up of her lips.

"I suppose great minds think alike after all," she murmured.

o8o o8o

"You know," Trowa mused, his tongue making long swipes up the moist, naked skin beneath him, "it's odd that in order to turn you off, I have to turn you on."

Quatre, lost in a haze of red-tinted bliss, actually had to figure that out before it made sense. "I have a lot going on right now," he managed, proud that he could put together a whole sentence. "Active minds are always going."

"I think that applies to every part of your body, actually," Trowa said, nipping sharply at Quatre's hipbone.

Fingers clenching in the bed sheets, Quatre bit his lip to keep from crying out. "Me-meaning what, exactly?" he gasped as that teasing mouth wandered closer to where he actually wanted it.

"You're always moving, always ready," Trowa murmured. "You make me crazy. Mm, can you feel how much I want you, Quatre . . . ?"

Trowa took one of Quatre's hands and guided it between his thighs, squeezing around the Telmaran's burning heat. Quatre's eyes rolled back in his head when Trowa sent his own pleasure washing through his Bonded. It was the ultimate form of teasing, heightening Quatre's own desire until it was nearly unbearable.

"Trowa," he whined, no longer able to speak aloud. "Stop . . . stop teasing me . . ."

Trowa leaned down to lick at his lips. "This feels so good, Quatre. Mm, I love you, I love you pleasuring me . . ."

Quatre clenched his teeth, turning his hot face into the cool pillows. And at the moment he was no longer looking, Trowa swooped down and swallowed him whole. Quatre nearly sat up at the shock of electric pleasure, eyes flying open to stare sightlessly straight ahead. Almost immediately Trowa pulled away again, leaving him pitifully bereft.

"You're too close," Trowa said, licking his own fingers with a smoldering look in his eye. "You can't come until I'm buried so deep inside you I can't get any deeper."

Quatre stared at him, panting. Wufei had told him once that cats had a sadistic streak a mile wide—they loved to torment their lovers. Of course, he'd been talking about himself and Treize, but it held true for this one, too. Trowa seldom gave Quatre what he wanted until he was begging and half-crazy with need.

Trowa pushed his thighs apart and pushed one slick finger inside Quatre with agonizing slowness. The slow burn of initial penetration spread through Quatre with familiar heat, and he bore down on Trowa's finger in an effort to make him hurry. Trowa held his hips still, leaning down to press light, sweet kisses to his panting mouth.

"No, I won't hurry," Trowa said, even his mental voice slow and soothing. "You'll just have to wait, my impatient lover."

Quatre groaned, flopping back onto the bed. "I can't. Please stop teasing me, Trowa! I want you!"

Trowa chuckled, the sound reverberating in his chest like a deep purr. "I know. I can feel it. You're turning me on like crazy."

"Then stop holding back!" Quatre demanded, aqua eyes meeting green. "You should know by now you won't hurt me!"

For a moment Trowa studied him, his finger pulsing gently inside Quatre. Then he grinned. "All right then, my love. I'll give you want you want." He pulled his finger free, grabbing Quatre's arms and suddenly reversing their positions so the Quatre was now sitting astride his pelvis. "Go wild."

A little surprised, Quatre eagerly accepted control. Holding their Bond wide open, he guided Trowa with one hand and plunged his hips down. Both of them hissed, Trowa flinging his head back to be suddenly surrounded by tight, almost unbearably hot velvet walls. Quatre had to force his eyes to stay open so he could watch Trowa. Because of their Bond he could both feel Trowa penetrating him and feel what Trowa felt being buried deep inside Quatre. He knew his Bonded could feel the same, and it made their couplings incredibly intimate.

"Don't . . . hurt yourself," Trowa gasped into his mind, even while Quatre felt him wanting his lover to thrust down as hard as he could.

Quatre grinned. "I won't." And he went wild.

It was strange how during these times Quatre found himself noticing little things. Like how the light hit Trowa, making the beading perspiration on his naked skin glitter and shine. How dark passion made Trowa's eyes. How different their skin tones were. The barely-audible sound of his gasps. It was easy to get lost in his lover, to drown in the combined sensation of his own pleasure and his Bonded's. He actually found himself hoping Duo and Heero could experience this soon. It was only a matter of time.

Trowa didn't guide him or hinder him, his hands resting on Quatre's hips for balance and nothing more. Except perhaps the pleasure of touching him. Their eyes never lost contact, not even when Quatre shifted so Trowa hit his sweet spot over and over. He squeezed inside to make Trowa answer in kind, causing his lover to drive up into him.

"You are . . . so beautiful like this, Quatre," Trowa panted, his hands gliding up Quatre's damp skin to grip his upper arms. He pulled the human youth down to hungrily kiss him, teeth and tongue nipping and caressing.

Toward the end of their climb into ecstasy, Quatre's rhythm faltered. It was here Trowa took over, guiding him into something more steady until that moment came when their breathing hitched, stopping in their lungs as their hearts skipped a beat. The pair teetered, always in synch because of the Bond, neither able to go anywhere without the other. They hovered right on the brink, all movement freezing for an unbearable heartbeat. Trowa drove his hips upward in one more powerful thrust, sending pleasure arcing to every nerve ending in Quatre's body, and that pushed them both into oblivion.

When Quatre's senses finally returned, he found himself lying on Trowa's chest, his Bonded breathing so deeply beneath him each inhale pushed the youth up. Smiling, he pressed a gentle kiss to his Bonded's collar bone, causing Trowa to stir.

"Finally back?" he murmured, sounding at once amused and tender.

Quatre smiled. "Yes." He could feel Trowa still buried inside. "Give me a minute and we can go back."

Trowa just laughed.

Yayy for another chapter that does not advance the plot! I know it's short, but it just felt irreverant to continue after such a lovely . . . scene. So I'm giving our boys a moment. XD

And oh, is it just me or are you totally weirded out by the hint of D/R?