Disclaimer: Alas they don't belong to me.

Pairings: 1x2. Finally…..

Warnings: See above. Plus an ocean of sap and a few droplets of angst….

Note: Many thanks to KS for beta-ing, especially in the middle of all your computer woes. (You know, you'll be the perfect editor when you just master the art of reading the files I forget to attach….)

Breakfast in Bed:

Waking up with Heero curled around me was like waking into the ultimate dream. So good that I didn't want to open my eyes at first, just in case I was dreaming.

'This is…real, right?' I managed. It should have felt weird, shouldn't it, being in bed with him for the first time in so many years? The weird thing was just how very right it felt, though. We'd always slotted perfectly together, and six years apart hadn't changed any of that.

He'd pretty much had to put me to bed the night before; getting me out of the bath and dried off, and into a pair of pyjama bottoms he'd produced from somewhere. The one thing I clearly remembered was his hesitating after he'd got me tucked in; I'd had to hold out my hand and to draw him in beside me.

'Oh, it's real. Very much so,' he murmured, as my lashes fluttered open a fraction, to check that he was actually there, and not some very realistic fantasy my poor deprived mind had managed to conjure up.

'G'morning,' I muttered and then added his name, just for the sheer pleasure of being able to say it to his face. 'Heero.'

'Duo,' he lifted his head slightly off the pillow to look at me and his smile was a caress. God, but he was utterly off-the-scale gorgeous; he was still wearing that blue robe he'd had on last night, but it had slipped off one shoulder, and he was all messy dark hair and piercing blue eyes and smooth skin gilded by the early morning sunlight….

Oh.

Morning.

'Uh, Heero, what time is it?'

He looked at his watch. 'It's almost six.'

'What? Six in the morning? Shit. Shit!' I jerked upright to glare at him, far too fast, and it felt like a Gundam exploded had self-destructed inside my brain. 'You let me sleep all this time? I can't believe you did that. You knew I wanted to get back to the hospital!'

'Duo,' he soothed, reaching out one hand to stroke my hair back from my face. 'Calm down. Please. Trowa's been calling me every thirty minutes. Milliardo woke up about two hours ago; Wufei was with him and they talked for a few minutes before he fell asleep again. Apparently, that's perfectly normal and the best thing for him. You wouldn't have been able to talk to him anyway, since he's only allowed one visitor at a time. Relena's with him now, Dorothy's outside with a team of 'Lena's bodyguards, and Trowa and Wufei have gone to have breakfast.'

I rubbed my poor head. 'It was still my decision to make. Not yours.'

'I'm sorry.' He did look slightly abashed. 'Trowa told me you hadn't slept since all this happened and he thought I'd be able to convince you to get some rest.'

'Oh, did he now?' I muttered, leaning across him to get his cellphone, lying on the bedside table and dialling Tro's number. 'Well, that wasn't any of his damn business.'

'Heero? What's happened? Is Duo all right?'

'This is Duo.' I'd meant to chew him up for ratting on me to Heero, but he just sounded so damn tired - dispirited - dejected - take your pick - I didn't have the heart. He'd been trying to be upbeat around me; he obviously wasn't bothering around Heero, and that made me feel as guilty as hell. 'I'm sorry, Tro. I just wanted to check everything's OK.'

'Well, nothing new's gone wrong' Trowa yawned. 'Things are pretty quiet here; Wu and I just had breakfast, he's gone to lie down for a bit, and I'm going to do the same. So there's no need for you to rush back, OK? I'll tell Dorothy to call you as soon as Zechs wakes up.'

'So, am I forgiven?' Heero asked as I handed him back his 'phone.

'I guess.' I shook my head to clear the crazy image of Wu cosily snuggled up with Trowa. 'Someone could have told me today was Gang up on Duo Day, though.'

He grinned at me. 'It was decided weeks ago. Didn't you get the memo?'

'Cute,' I muttered, and he just smiled. 'How's your head feeling? Do you want some more pills?'

'That would be good.' He had the pills already laid out on his bedside table, along with a glass of water.

'Mr. Efficient, huh?'

'I try to please.' He gave me a quick kiss on the lips.

'It's working right now,' I admitted, lying back down and letting him slip an arm around my waist, pulling me closer. 'God, Heero, I can't believe we're actually in bed together. What is this anyway, the Royal Suite?' I hadn't been paying much attention to the décor the previous night, but it was pretty swish; tastefully decorated in shades of white, and awash with antique furniture and impressionist paintings.

'I can't believe they even let me in the door, given the state I was in. I think there was some sort of pondweed sticking out of my pants.'

He started to laugh and then stopped, biting his lip. 'I'm sorry, love. I had your clothes sent to the hotel laundry, and they called back an hour ago to say there was nothing they could do to clean them.'

'Oh, well, they're just clothes. It feels like I've been wearing them for half of my life at this stage anyway,' I shrugged, and then a thought hit me. 'You'll have to go out and buy me something, or else I'll be going around naked!'

'I'd like that,' he purred, and kissed me again, with just a faint flick of tongue against my lips. 'But seeing as this is L4, and they might not to approve of that kind of thing, I ordered you some new clothes last night. There are some twenty-four hour shops at the hospital and they do deliveries. They're in the wardrobe over there.'

'Thank you.' Damn, there'd been a hell of a lot of activity going on while I'd been asleep, hadn't there? That thought led to a nasty little suspicion of its own. 'Shit, Heero, did you give me some sort of sleeping pills last night.'

'No! I swear, Duo, I'd never do something like that to you. Never.'

'I'm sorry,' I murmured, pressing my lips to his bare, warm shoulder. 'It just sounded like half of L4 traipsed through here last night. Laundry, shop deliveries, and you said you were talking to Trowa every half hour….' My voice trailed off as that particular bit of information sank in. 'Damn, you stayed awake all night, didn't you?'

'It was a pleasure,' he murmured. 'Getting to hold you all night, watching you sleep. It was like you trusted me to watch over you.' He swallowed. 'You've no idea how much that meant to me.'

'I .. do trust you,' I whispered. 'I always trusted you to keep me safe, you know that.' I felt another sharp little needle of guilt prick my mind. 'You've been wonderful, ever since we got here, and I've never even thanked you properly. Figuring out a way for me to stay here, helping out with the kids, everything.'

'You don't need to thank me, baka. Speaking of the children, I forgot to give you this yesterday. It's from Lily.'

I opened the carefully-folded square of paper Heero handed me.

'Wow.' My first thought was that Lily had a promising career in modern art ahead of her; I'd seen paintings just as obscure in galleries, with six-figure price tags attached. 'Do you know what it's meant to be?'

'A flying llama,' he smiled, tracing the outline with one finger. 'It's got butterfly wings, apparently.' The smile faded slightly. 'Duo, what's going to happen to them?'

I sighed. 'I don't know really. Marlie's been trying to get them to talk about their parents, where they came from, to see if they have family anywhere, but they're not saying anything. I promised I'd look after them.'

'We will,' Heero murmured. 'They're safe for now and that's the important thing. . Gemma's discovered Disney movies, and Nat is teaching Marlie to play poker. I think she already owes him her salary for the next six months.'

He handed over another drawing. 'Lily did this for me, when I told her that I had a dog.' He looked down at the blob of black crayon like it was the Mona Lisa or something; he'd probably never had a little kid draw him a picture before. 'I thought we could...maybe put them on our refrigerator door some day, if you liked? That's what people do, isn't it?'

Our refrigerator. In our home, he meant. That was both scary and wonderful at the same time; the idea of living with him again. Realistically, even if Zechs and Wu had liked him, I couldn't just install him in our house, they'd both adored Mikhail and it had still been a little awkward the few times he'd stayed over. Somehow, the three of us had managed to achieve a balance that didn't really work when you added anyone else into the mix.

His talking about a home reminded me of something.

'Heero, can I have your wallet for a sec?'

He handed it over, looking puzzled as I rooted around for the little stash of photographs.

'Um, sorry, I wasn't snooping in your stuff or anything,' I said, slightly embarrassed. 'I just sort of found these by accident.'

'You don't…. mind, do you? That I have these?'

'God, no. I didn't know if you'd even bothered to keep them or not.' I chewed at my lower lip. 'While I was in the hospital, one of the pipes burst in my house. I guess it was my own fault; I'd been meaning to get the plumbing fixed for weeks, but most of my stuff got destroyed. There were just a couple of photos and some books that had been on a high shelf, but everything else was ruined.' I shrugged. 'When I found out, it just seemed, I don't know, symbolic or something. Like another sign that we were finished, you know? I only had a couple of things left that showed we'd ever been together.'

'I still have all those pictures I took when we were together,' he said quietly. 'I'll show you when we get back to Florence.' He hesitated. 'I put them away before you visited; I wasn't sure how you'd feel about me having pictures of you.' He took the photos from me, picking out the holiday one of us in Vietnam. 'I keep this one by my bed, normally. I've always loved it; we both look so happy. I used to look at it and try to remember what it was like, feeling that way.'

'It's gorgeous,' I'd given it a quick, guilty glance on the shuttle and now I rested my head on Heero's shoulder and looked at it properly, remembering. Such a lovely picture, all the jewel bright colours and the South China Sea sparkling in the background. 'You'd bought me that sarong earlier, remember? From that boy selling them on the beach? And you'd spent ages tying it around my waist, and I was teasing you that you wanted to turn me into a girl.'

He snorted. 'That's rich, considering you kept trying to put flowers into my hair.'

'They suited you,' I grinned. 'Fair's fair, anyway. If you made me wear a skirt, the least you could do was let me decorate you a bit.' I put the picture carefully aside and picked up the one I'd originally been looking for; the one of us both with 'home' written on the back. He smiled as I held it out.

'Did you mean that? That it was home?'

'Of course I did. It was where you were.'

'I never really knew that, you know. I thought it was a just a convenient place for you to crash between missions,

'Never,' he said firmly. 'Sometimes, when I was away, I used to imagine living there with you all the time, and the two of us fixing it up properly, and …doing all the normal things that other people do. I would still like that, more than anything. Truly.'

'I ...want that too, 'Ro. For the two of us to be together. To have a home, you know. I really want that.' I took a deep breath. Where do you want to live?'

'With you,' he said promptly. Sap. 'Where do you want to live?'

'Here would be sort of nice,' I sighed, snuggling back into his arms, sighing as he began to trace slow, delicate patterns on my skin.. 'I never actually want to leave this room. Or this bed.'

He grinned. 'That would be acceptable. I would have to get a second job to pay for it, though, so I mightn't actually be around all that much.'

'I can pay. I did tell you I talked to my boss yesterday, didn't I?' That conversation with Mitch had been a bolt from the blue; he'd called me a few times and I'd been avoiding ringing him back, sure he was going to fire me. Instead, he'd wanted to talk about a design I'd patented a few months previously, that a major corporation wanted to buy. 'What about your job, anyway? Do you want to stay in Florence?'

'I said I want to live with you; that's the most important thing,' he said firmly. 'I could get another job. Or I could be a kept man for a while. I might like that.

'Really?' I twisted around to kiss the tip of his nose. 'Does that mean you're only after my money?'

'Absolutely not,' He stuck his tongue out at me. 'I'm after several other things as well.'

'Would that mean I'd get to boss you around? If I were picking up all your bills?'

'You already boss me around,' he said wryly. 'Of course, if I do end up being financially dependent on you, I'd have to do something in return, just to salve my pride, naturally.'

'Oh, naturally,' I echoed, groaning as his fingers found that sensitive little spot on my hip. 'What sort of things would you planning to do? We should probably be very clear on what we both expect from this arrangement, don't you think? Before we commit to anything definite?'

'Absolutely,' he gave me a solemn little nod. 'Well, as you know I'm a very good cook, and I could handle all your legal business and - ow! That hurt!'

'Not good enough,' I kissed the spot on his shoulder where I'd punched him. 'I already have a royal prince to cook for me, and the best legal team in Sanque. You'd better offer me something …special.'

'Special, hmmm?' He frowned very slightly. 'Maybe we could discuss this over breakfast? Love, when was the last time you ate? '

'Just before I saw you last night, actually.' It probably wasn't a good idea to tell him it hadn't exactly been a nutritious meal. 'Trowa's been keeping tabs on me, so I'm perfectly well fed.'

'So you haven't eaten for about ten hours. I'll ring reception and have something sent up. Is there anything special that you'd like?'

'Just toast or something. Or maybe some fruit?'

In the end, I was hungrier than I'd realised, and we shared my bowl of stewed fruit and yoghurt, and his scrambled eggs. Of course, the toast he'd ordered turned out to be some wholegrain rubbish, all seeds and nuts and sawdust, but I compensated by smothering my first slice with butter.

'Honey?' He proffered a small porcelain dish from the tray.

'Yes, dear?' I teased, trying to keep a straight face.

'Ha ha,' He dipped a finger into the bowl, sucked it clean and then bent down to kiss me. 'Would you like some honey on your toast, Duo?'

'Um, I guess that would be nice.' I bit squelchily into the piece he gave me, and he leaned over to swipe his tongue across my chin, licking delicately at the crumbs that had gathered at the corner of my mouth.

'You taste delicious, love. But there's more on the outside of your mouth than inside.' He turned me over in his arms, pillowing my head in his lap. 'I'd forgotten what a messy eater you are. Maybe I should feed you?'

'You know, we'll get crumbs all over the sheets if you do that.'

'I'm sure we'll survive.'

He broke off bite-sized pieces, letting me suck butter off his fingers, trading richly indulgent, honeyed kisses.

'I don't think I can eat any more,' I muttered finally. 'Enough, 'Ro, please, unless you want me to explode all over the bed.'

His mouth quirked. 'Well, we'll have to see about that. Unless you think you could go back to sleep for a bit?'

I shook my head. 'I'm all wide awake. Guess you'll have to entertain me.'

'Will I now?' He collected the tray and placed it carefully on the floor. 'Does your head hurt?'

'Just a little bit,' I grimaced. 'This sucks, 'Ro. We finally get to be in bed together and I have a damned headache.'

He only laughed. 'Last night you fell asleep on me, and now you have a headache. Is there something you're trying to tell me?'

'I just said that I have a little bit of a headache. We could probably…work around it. If you wanted?'

'I'm…not entirely sure what you want, sweetheart.' He slid hand over my braid, stroking gently. 'We were going to take things slowly, weren't we?'

I shrugged. 'We've been taking things slowly, and look where we are. This is what? Our fifth date or something?'

'I've lost count by now,' he confessed. 'I hadn't realised last night was officially a date.'

'I damn well hope so, since we ended up in bed together! I'm OK, really. My head's a little bit sore, but I'm sure you could…take my mind off it.' I swallowed. 'Please?'

'Anything you want,' he murmured, echoing what he'd said to me in the bathroom. 'Just tell me. Duo, would you mind if I let your hair loose, please?'

'No. I'm impressed it's still braided to be honest. I thought you would have released it into the wild ages ago.'

'I wanted to check that you wouldn't mind.' He slid the elastic on to his own wrist and very slowly, very gently began to unravel the braided strands. 'It's so beautiful. You're so beautiful.' He kissed my flaming cheeks. 'You told me you were better at accepting compliments, my love.'

'Sometimes,' I muttered, not wanting to say that I could accept the words, just about, but not the look in his eyes.

'Better get used to it.' He slid the sheet back, and splayed the fingers of one hand on my chest, stroking slowly downwards, pausing at the pyjama waistband.

'May I? Please?'

'You first,' I muttered.

It was stupid, really; it wasn't like we hadn't seen each other naked countless times. He'd dried me and put me to bed last night, but it didn't really count as I'd been well over half asleep.

He'd never been remotely self-conscious about nudity; well, what a body like his, he'd never needed to be. I, on the other hand, had been shy about that sort of thing before the accident and doubly so after. The scars and skin grafts had pretty much faded after a year or so, but I still had memories of all those months when I'd looked like Frankenstein's pin cushion.

He'd only been wearing that damn robe for my sake; a little sop to another one of poor Duo's hang-ups.

I lifted my hips slightly for him to strip me, and that was that; I suddenly had a naked Heero wrapped around an equally naked me. A naked Heero, furthermore, who very definitely wanted me.

'Let me touch you, Duo. Please.' he breathed. 'Not that. Not yet. I just want to feel you.'

I lay back against the pillows and let him do as he wished. Hands stroked across my shoulders, swept down my back, then up again to slide down my arms to a brief entwining of fingers. His lips pressed gently against each knob of my spine, all the way down to my waist, and back up again.

'Is this all right?' He gently moved my hair aside, kissing the back of my neck.

'Very all right,' I murmured twisting around to face him, sliding both arms around his neck. Our mouths sealed ravenously as his hands ventured down and down.

He lowered his mouth to my chest, tongue barely grazing skin, took one nipple between his lips and began to suck. He took the other lightly between finger and thumb, rotating it gently.

'So I see,' he affirmed, closing his palm over my crotch and squeezing lightly. I moaned my desire into his open mouth, knotting my fingers in his hair, His fingers curled speculatively about the growing bulge, then he began to stroke teasingly, and I sighed as he took me in a firm hold, his other hand slipping between my legs to cup my balls. I closed my eyes; the fingers moving between my legs were gentle as gossamer; his fist was around my shaft, working me in a measured rhythm that echoed his kisses.

'I'm going to come, Blue.'

'Not yet, my love.' His hand pulled back a little, squeezing me lightly with thumb and forefinger, and he began to kiss his way downwards, taking his sweet time about it, stopping now and then to bite or lick or nibble at a particularly sensitive spot. 'I want to feel you come in my mouth, to taste how much you want me.'

'Oh, God,' I nearly came there and then, just from what he'd said, and the look in his eyes.

'Would you like that?' Damned tease, he gave me the lightest little kiss on the very head of my cock, flicking his tongue suggestively against the slit, and then pulled back, watching me. I arched upwards, trying to push deeper against those curved lips. Heero relented slightly and touched tongue tip to throbbing crown, then his tongue was everywhere, dabbling tiny kisses up and down my shaft, before fastening his lips about it.

He was always been quite incredibly good at this. The first time he ever tried, he swallowed me down without skipping a beat, and God, he could do the most amazing things with his throat muscles. He hadn't lost any of those skills in the years we'd been apart.

His lips traced caresses around my groin, then his hot, suckling mouth was taking my shaft I pressed myself against the pillows as he began to suck, letting him swirl me into ever-widening circles of desire, until I exploded into his mouth.

He wrenched me up into a crushing embrace and our kiss was fierce; I tasted myself in on his tongue, knew I'd lost myself in his mouth moments before, feeling his own poor, neglected erection rub against my hip.

Oops. Selfish Duo, forgetting that he'd need his own release.

It didn't take long, just a few strokes of my hand around the hard, smooth, molten heat of it, and he climaxed volcanically over us both.

'Wow,' I gasped as he collapsed on top of me, letting me take his weight for a few moments.

'Very wow,' he agreed solemnly. 'Seriously, totally, fucking wow, in fact. That was…'

'I know, Blue,' I whispered, locking my arms around his waist when he tried to pull off me. 'Stay, please?'

'I didn't want to squash you, and I should probably get us cleaned up a little bit.'

'Not just yet,' I cajoled, pressing closer and kissing the bare arm that lay across my chest. His body was curled around mine in a deliberate, enfolding arc and I felt unbelievably cherished.

'I wish we could just stay here in this room,' I murmured the words against warm, naked skin and his arms tightened around me. 'For ever. I don't want to have to leave. I don't want you to leave me again, not even for one second.'

'Oh, Duo.' He said it on a sigh, and his lips settled on my nape, kissing softly. 'I'll always come back to you. I promise. Or you could just come with me, and we could have a bath together? '

'I thought I did just come with you, 'Ro.' I tossed him a teasing little grin, so full of sheer, sudden happiness that I could almost taste it. 'But if you really want to go and wallow in that massive bathtub, I guess I could come and keep you company.'