The moonlight shone palely through the uncurtained window, lighting up a tiny room in a beachside house. It fell upon the small amount of furniture in the room, a dresser, a table, a pair of chairs...as well as a futon mattress laid out on the rough wooden floor. On this mattress, snuggled up together under thin cotton sheets, lay two people. They were both awake still, despite the late hour, talking quietly. This was something neither of them were used to...being able to be here with each other like this. Today, they had come home, together, just like they had always wanted. Kira and Lacus had immediately offered their spare room to act as home for the couple until they could find their own place to live, had welcomed the two in to share their lives. Murrue had been used to visiting the small house to see Lacus, or play with the children, and had readapted to the chaos with little difficulty. It was a slightly bigger problem for her lover, however. Mwu wasn't used to young children, and they weren't used to him. There had been some awkward silences, until Kira had invited the older man to join in a game of football on the beach. Things had quickly progressed from there, Mwu's merry laughter blending with the excited giggling of the orphans as the raucous game surged from one end of the beach to the other. And Murrue had watched with a soft smile, happy beyond belief that her beloved was finally getting a chance to live life again.

"It's so quiet here..." She smiled at the surprise and slight awe in his words, raising her head to gaze at him. "Not used to that, huh?" The blonde man shook his head slowly, the silvery moonlight falling across his scarred face. "I was always on board ship, or at military bases. It was never quiet, not really. But here...all I can hear is the sea, and our breathing..." He closed his eyes, a smile spreading across his face. "It's great.."

Murrue laid back down beside him, resting her head gently on his shoulder to listen to the rush and swell of the waves hitting the white sand of the beach. "I'm glad you like it here.." she murmured. "Now all we need to do is find our own place..." Mwu chuckled, one hand moving to stroke her dark hair. "You'd like that? Us living together?" She nodded, amber eyes half-closed as she traced one finger across the scars on his chest. "I told you that I would.." she replied. "Why, wouldn't you?"

"You kidding? I always wanted something like that," he said softly. "I never really thought about where we could live though, just that I wanted to live with you."

"Okay then.." said Murrue, propping herself up on an elbow to look right at him. "If you did think about it, what kind of place would you like to live in? I don't mind, as long as it's with you. And if I can have a little garden.." Mwu laughed at that, remembering how green-fingered his girlfriend was. "That sounds nice. Can it be near the beach?"

"Sure," she replied. "And we can have a big kitchen so I can teach you to cook." Her soft voice held a giggle as she playfully poked him in the chest. He wrinkled his scarred nose at that, slumping back against the pillow. Then he brightened as an idea occured to him. "A big comfy bed! And a big sofa to watch TV on!" She rolled her eyes at that suggestion, but secretly, she rather liked the sound of that. Lying back down beside him, she looked up to see the stars twinkling in the sky, and smiled softly as she remembered one of her greatest wishes.

"Are you okay?" he asked, concern in his voice, and she nodded quietly. "A place where..we can watch the sunset. That's what I want. In the house where I used to live..there was a balcony looking out over the sea. The sunsets there were so beautiful, and I always wished you could have been there to see them too.."

He was silent for a moment, pulling her close to him and caressing her back through the thin nightdress. Murrue knew, even without asking, that he would do whatever he could to grant that wish.

"Can this house have extra rooms?" he asked after a while, still tracing patterns on her back. She made a questioning noise, and he laughed a little. "Well...we might want a family one day, right?" At those words, she blushed poppy red, hiding her face under the covers. Mwu smiled. "You wouldn't want that?"

"N-no..it's not that...I-I would, but..." she stuttered, trying to get the words out, and he pressed a loving kiss to the top of her head. "It's okay, I know. Maybe one day. But I just got you back, and I don't want to share you yet. Just you and me, okay?" Murrue peeked out from under the covers, still pink, and snuggled back up to him again. "Okay.."

"Why'd they let us live here, anyway?" Mwu asked after a little while, listening to the sounds of the waves and his lover's gentle heartbeat. "They barely have enough room for themselves, but they gave up a whole room just so we could live here. We could have stayed on the ship.."

"We could have," she answered, "but they wouldn't have wanted that. The two of them, Kira-kun especially, understand a little the life you've had in the last two years, and also how lonely I was. They wanted to give us this chance to be here like this together on Earth...they want us to be happy." He considered this, then nodded thoughtfully. "They're good kids.."

The couple lay nestled in each other's arms like that for hours, softly talking about anything and nothing, his hands occasionally caressing her hair, or the smooth skin of her arms, her thin fingers, dancing across the bare skin of his chest, together in the first home they had ever had.

And all the while, the waves of the sea crashed upon the shore in an eternal song.

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( XD I love random waffle...

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