Disclaimer - Yes, the usual.

Note - Many thanks, as usual, to KS for editing.

Warning - Heavy sap; pockets of lingering angst (also as per usual, really…)

Public Displays of Affection:

'Uh, Heero, why are we stopping here? This isn't the shuttle port.'

It wasn't either; we'd pulled off the highway and stopped outside a little roadside café.

'You really do have unparalleled powers of perception, you know.' Agent Mason, the Preventer who was driving us both to the shuttle port, gave the beginnings of a snicker, hastily turned into a cough. Doubtless, he was already feeling an incipient Yuy death glare blasting him through the back of his seat. The poor guy was having a bad day; Heero had already given him an earful over his apparent violation of some Preventer code or other and Mason was probably planning to fall on his sword once his shift was over.

On the drive back into the city, he and Heero had exchanged Preventer speech; weird acronyms I didn't understand, although Heero translated some of it for my benefit. He was trying to be nice, to keep me in the loop. I knew that. But it just stressed how very far I was removed from that world.

The weird thing was that, even though Heero had resigned years ago, he was obviously very up to date with current procedures. He'd said he did some freelance consulting for them, but that still didn't explain it entirely. Nor did it explain why every agent we met treated him like he was God's older, more talented brother.

The gist of what they'd been saying was the evil witch woman, ahem, Commander Une to her unfortunate subordinates, had landed on L4 and promptly taken off for parts unknown, in the company of a couple of other agents.

Heero turned around to give me a little smile. 'The shuttle to Earth doesn't leave for over an hour. I thought we could stop somewhere and have something to eat first. The food they serve on shuttles is only one step up from cardboard.'

'Nothing wrong with cardboard,' I said automatically; it was an old joke between us. Breakfast sounded pretty good, though. Actual real food and real coffee.

On impulse, I swung back when I'd taken a couple of steps away from the car, and stuck my head in the passenger window. 'D'you take your coffee black or white?'

Mason just goggled at me, casting a despairing glance at Heero to check that it was OK to talk to me.

'You do know about coffee?' I prompted. 'Caffeinated, hot beverage, commonly drunk in the mornings. Or do you prefer tea?'

'Uh, coffee. Please. Black.'

'And a pastry or something?' Mason wasn't quite smiling when I left, but he looked a bit less like a whipped puppy.

'The fabled Maxwell charm in action,' Heero commented, shaking his head. 'A dozen words and you've got yourself a slave for life.'

I snorted. 'Hardly. I'm the nice guy. You're the one who bites.'

'I can be nice,' he said a little defensively, an expression in his eyes that in no way belonged to the mission-orientated person he'd segued into since we'd left the cottage. 'And I've known you to bite on occasion.'

'Only if you're being very, very good,' I teased, responding to that little hint of vulnerability, and it won me a laugh. OK, he was still a universe away from the Heero, my Heero who'd had a tiny meltdown in the bathtub earlier, but I could scratch the surface and find the boyfriend who needed me.

The café was warm and cosy and almost empty; we'd apparently hit that little pause between breakfast and lunch. There was one guy at the counter, reading the paper, and a couple of elderly women drinking coffee.

'I need to go to the bathroom,' Heero smiled at me. 'Order me something vaguely healthy, love.'

He strolled off, watched longingly by a bored waitress, who then condescended to come over and hand me a couple of menus. I ordered a breakfast bap for myself which claimed to be filled with 'anything that could be fried' and an egg-white omelette for Heero, with wholegrain toast on the side.

After I'd chosen our food, had some coffee and croissants sent out to Mason, and looked at the bland flower prints on the wall, there wasn't a whole lot left to distract me.

It had been the weirdest day. Correction; the weirdest morning. It wasn't even afternoon yet.

It had started off so damn well. Waking up with Heero in that huge bed, holding him in the tub. All the other stuff that had happened in the tub.

And then the weirdness had started. Heero thinking that Sarab was one of the bad guys; something I still wasn't convinced about. He was my friend; he'd been my friend since during the war. I'd been to his wedding. And Quatre trusted him totally.

God, Quatre. Quatre's voice on the 'phone; apologising and telling us to get back to Earth, whatever that was about.

Heero had been straight on the 'phone to Preventers, rapping out orders for tracing and verifying the call like he owned the damn organisation, and, from what I could gather, everyone had just rolled over and done his bidding.

And then we'd called Rashid. Chalk that call up as the weirdest of all. He'd thanked Heero politely, said he believed it to be a hoax, but that doubtless Preventers would look into it. That was just wrong. Heero and I had decided that either he had some other lead he was following up, that he didn't want to share, or else he was taking Quatre's call seriously, but didn't want to let us think so.

Oh, well. Everything on L4 was pretty much wrong right now, so it didn't make a whole lot of difference.

Instead, I switched off for a minute to sip my coffee, and watch some sort of travel show on TV. A long curve of beach, glistening blue water, palm trees.

That would be nice. Just me and Heero lying on a white sand beach, with the warm waves lapping gently over our prone bodies. I'd just got to the point where we were rubbing coconut-scented sun oil onto each other's skin, when Heero arrived back.

'One day,' he murmured, sliding back into his chair.

'Really?' He'd talked about his little desert island fantasy, but I hadn't been sure if he'd been all that serious or not about it.

'Why not? I've never been anywhere like that. Which would you prefer? A little hut somewhere remote, or a fancy resort?'

'Somewhere in between, I think. I liked the place where I was staying in India with the guys. We had little huts on the beach, but there were a couple of nice restaurants close by. It was nice. Peaceful. But you saw it, that night when you arrived.'

'I - I wasn't really paying attention,' he admitted, suddenly completely absorbed in buttering a piece of toast. 'It was … all rather awkward. I thought Wufei was going to shoot me when I first arrived.'

'Why did you fly all that way yourself anyway? I mean, you could have sent someone, or faxed the court order to the nearest police station and had them shove me on a 'plane.'

'I'd never do that to you!' He sounded appalled at the idea of it. 'What Quatre tried - is trying - to do to you is utterly unacceptable. Relena thought it was a bad idea, to turn up with that sort of news, but .. I wanted to see you. So very badly.' He gave me a very faint flicker of a smile. 'I know the circumstances were far from perfect but I'm very glad of the outcome.'

'Me too.' I flipped my sandwich over, making sure to coat both sides in the pools of grease that were collecting on my plate. 'You still have that compulsion to rescue me, huh?' I teased. 'My knight in shining Gundamium.'

'Always.' He checked that nobody was looking at us, and reached over for the salt, giving my hand a brief squeeze on the way. 'Tell me what's bothering you?'

'Um, pretty much everything? Zechs, the kids, Quat, Trowa.'

'Us?' he asked shrewdly, and I just dropped my head, studying the gloopy cheese leaking out of my sandwich.

'I don't know.' OK, deep breath, Duo. 'The last couple of days have been amazing. Really. But we both have our own lives. I guess I'm just not sure how all this is actually going to work. Not when we both get back to our real worlds.'

'What part, specifically, is worrying you?'

'I don't know,' I repeated. 'You have a career, a house. A dog. I can't ask you to give all that up.'

'You haven't asked me,' he pointed out. 'I offered. And I'm not exactly planning to give up my own life, any more than I'd expect you to.' His hand inched back over the table and covered mine. I let it stay there for a second or two, and then pulled free, picking up my cup and trying to make it look casual.

'I want to be a part of your life, love. That's all. I'm not planning to take it over. I do know we need to look at certain…logistical issues, but we can work that out, if it's what we both truly want.'

The question was in his eyes only; the one he obviously didn't quite dare to articulate. He's always been too damn good at hiding his insecurities; that had probably been a major part of our problems.

There had been a few months after the war, when he'd been…adrift. That was the best word I could think of. He'd lost his focus, all of a sudden, trying to come to terms with the fact that he wasn't an anonymous terrorist anymore, but the guy who'd saved the planet. He'd spent his whole life in the shadows, and suddenly his picture was on every TV show and newsstand in the country.

It was probably the most vulnerable time of his life and I'd been the one he'd turned to. Well, until he'd really got into the whole Preventer thing, and my life had started to fall apart. But he'd let me be the strong one for a while; he'd let me think that he actually needed me. Those first few weeks after the War had been terrifying and exhilarating at the same time; for once, I'd got to be the one making the decisions.

I'd been the one to choose our house and our car and what bank we'd opened a legitimate account with and set up all the little details of our lives. And he'd let me do it, with a…docility that had pretty much scared the hell out of me. During the war, he'd been the one with more experience in almost everything; it wasn't like I'd consciously deferred to him all the time but, he was the guy who'd been trained for this literally since birth. So it had been weird, suddenly being the one in charge.

It hadn't lasted. After a couple of months, he'd suddenly become the star Preventer agent, and that was that.

'I do want you,' I said firmly, suddenly realising he was right. If it came down to it, I didn't really care where I lived, once I could see my friends regularly. I could work anywhere, so that was never going to be a problem. And we'd sort everything else out between us. 'I want to be with you.'

'I want to be with you,' he echoed. 'Always.'

'Always,' I told him back, sealing the promise between us, hating the fact that we were in a public place and I couldn't just grab him. Shit. I wasn't sure when we'd even get to be private again. Maybe Agent Quinn could be persuaded to take a little walk or something after breakfast; the car had tinted windows so that wouldn't be a problem.

Always.

We'd promised each other that before; just after the War ended. We'd never dared to make promises like that while we were still fighting. Our always hadn't lasted very long, though; not even a year. God, this time it would be different. It had to be. I couldn't lose him again. Not now, when we'd sorted so much out.

The travel show ended with a nice long sunset shot, and a news programme started. Quat's disappearance was still hitting the headlines of course, but it looked like this show was also featuring Relena's disastrous little PR exercise, and Zechs being shot. Always good for racking up audience figures; the Peacecraft family. Even if an L4 programme probably wouldn't mention Zechsy's 'immoral' engagement to another man.

'Heero.'

'Duo?' He looked at my face and made it a question. 'What is it?'

'I can't go to Earth with you. Not right now.'

It was something I'd pretty much decided on the drive here; thinking about the guys just confirmed it. Saying it aloud still hurt, though. It hurt more that Heero didn't protest, much less fling himself at my feet and beg me to go with him. Instead, he just nodded.

Oh. So he didn't care if I went or not?

His foot nudged mine gently under the table. 'Stop looking like that. I want you to come with me. But I know you too well, love.'

I nodded, on a little shudder of relief. 'I'm sorry. Truly. But I can't leave the guys. Wufei's still beating himself up over Zechs getting shot, and Zechsy's going through a bad patch. And I don't want to abandon the kids with a gang of virtual strangers; that's not fair. They're my responsibility and I've hardly seen them in the last few days.'

'What about Trowa?' he asked quietly,

'Right now, you can help him more than me. You know all the legal stuff. Hell, they probably wouldn't even let me see him.'

'I could probably arrange something,' he said a little tentatively. 'He hasn't been officially charged yet; they can't forbid him to have visitors. And I'm sure he'd love to see you.'

'Thanks, babe.' I tried to put all the affection and gratitude I was feeling into my smile. He really did want me to go with him. 'I'll follow you, I promise. Zechs should be cleared for travel in a few days, and I'll need to sort out documentation for the kids to come to Earth with us.'

They were all valid reasons why I had to stay on L4 for a little longer. It wasn't like I was lying. I just wasn't telling him the other reason; the one that didn't really make any sense. Quatre had told me to go back to Earth, and there was no damned way in the universe that I was going to do any damned thing that Quatre wanted me to.

'I'll miss you.' Heero said quietly, taking a last bite of his toast and glancing around the room.

'I'll miss you,'

'It's us.' He announced suddenly, his gaze sharpening as he looked at something.

'What's us?'

'On the TV.'

Shit. It was, too. We were walking through the carefully landscaped gardens of the hospital. We were holding hands. I couldn't remember whether it had been one day ago or two. Life on L4 had just merged into one long blur of sex and sap and abductions.

'How the hell did they get those pictures?' I asked as we walked up the marble steps to the main door and stood facing each other. Heero was grinning at me, swinging my hand slightly.

It was pretty racy stuff for an L4 TV show actually; this close to the shuttle port, maybe they were picking up some sort of satellite signals?

'CCTV at the hospital, I'd imagine,' Heero supplied, something that made sense if I thought about it for a second.

'Oh God.' The on-screen version of me was suddenly, scaldingly scarlet and I was trying to remember just what he'd said to make me blush like that.

'You're not ashamed of me, are you?' The TV Duo was laughing up at the TV Heero. Very weird. Very, very weird, seeing us like that.

There was a moment when on-screen Heero leaned just a fraction closer to me, and I thought for a second that he was going to kiss me. Stupid. Of course he hadn't. Instead, he let my hand go and gave my braid a little tug.

'Of course I'm not! It's just …weird…'

The whole thing was just - several kinds of surreal.

We'd never bothered to hide the fact that we were together, but we'd never exactly advertised it either. As far as Heero had been concerned, it was our business and no one else's, and I wasn't overly keen on public displays

In the first few months after the War, there'd been a couple of short articles about us, mostly in gay-friendly publications, but by and large, the mainstream press preferred to concentrate on Heero/Relena speculation. We'd headlined in a few of the seedier tabloids, right along the stories of alien abductions, and psychics who'd spoken to Treize Khushrenada's ghost, but obviously, a possible romance between the Queen of the World, and the guy who'd saved it, sold way more papers.

Heero, on screen, looked amazing. He was wearing a dark blue shirt that toned perfectly with his eyes, and I thought I'd have to get a copy of that tape somewhere, just so I could watch the look on his face.

I looked - surprisingly like I belonged in those elegant surroundings, dressed up in the designer clothes Heero had bought me. I had this godawful goofy expression on my face, though, as he walked away from me.

'I look so stupid. Like a lovesick sheep or something.'

'You look wonderful. Now, stop fishing for compliments and clog up your arteries some more.' Heero gave my deliciously greasy breakfast sandwich a look of disgust, and took a bite of his virtuously healthy omelette.

I made a face at him. 'People can die from overdoses of protein, you know that?'

He threw me a grin. 'Protein happens to be a valid food group. Unlike grease.'

'Tell that to Howard. He loves greasy food, and he's perfectly healthy.'

'Hn.'

'Don't you mind?' He looked puzzled and I gestured to the screen. On screen Heero, all decked out in a dark three-piece suit was standing outside the main ESUN court building, talking to a reporter about something. 'All of this. Us on TV. The whole universe knowing that we're a couple.'

He chewed a mouthful of omelette. 'Not particularly. It's not what I'd choose, but I can live with it. Do you mind?'

'I - ah - I guess I can live with it. If I have to.'

'It won't last,' Heero assured me. 'There'll be some new scandal tomorrow and we'll be forgotten about.'

'You think?' I asked dubiously. The truth was, neither of us was exactly a stranger to the whole media circus thing. Two ex-Gundam pilots hooking up would be pretty big news, even given the hoopla that surrounded Quat's disappearance. I took a sip of juice and sneaked a quick glance at the screen to see what was happening..

I was standing beside Mischa, both of us tricked out in tuxedos. It was weird; there'd always been some little part of me that had never felt comfortable in his world, like I could be exposed at any minute for an L2 kid who'd grown up in the gutter, and was trying to pass myself off as a regular person. Seeing myself on the screen, though, relaxed and laughing, I looked just like I belonged.

There were some footage of Heero escorting 'Lena to some society shindig, and then I was back on screen; that infamous picture where it looked like Zechs was kissing me.

Shit, they'd obviously decided to show a nice little photo gallery of Duo Maxwell's life and times. I'd seen it all before; hell, I'd lived it. Really didn't need to see it all again on screen; all the threesome speculation about me and the guys; my depressingly well-documented slut period; the accident; the War. The stuff before.

'Heero, do you think we can get the waitress to turn the TV off?'

'No one else is paying any attention to it.' He was perfectly right; the waitresses were chewing their nails and chatting up the guy with the paper, and the old women had their heads together.

'Either it goes off, or I'll put a chair through the fucking thing!' There was a note in my voice that shocked me, and Heero's eyes widened. 'Look, they're obviously planning to do a whole fucking programme on my life and there's stuff I'd rather not see, OK?' I stared down at my plate, not really all that surprised to see it was festooned with long strips I'd torn off my napkin.

There was a sudden, scary moment when Heero stood up; I thought I'd pissed him off and he was going to walk out.

Shit. Why couldn't I just have asked politely. Come to that, I could have just got up and turned it off myself.

Instead, he stalked over to the waitress, and the TV flickered off, and then both waitresses as well as the three customers were heading for the door, with Heero locking it firmly behind them.

'How … did you do that?'

'The power of a Preventers badge.'

'Sorry.' I found myself wrapping a torn-off napkin strip around one finger. 'That was pretty stupid. I just - didn't really feel like watching an exposé of my whole sordid life, not right now.'

'No, I'm sorry. I never thought….God, Duo.' I was suddenly in his arms; one of those moments when I wasn't entirely sure which of us had made the first move. For once, I didn't really mind that he was holding me way too tightly. Probably too busy hanging on to him. 'There's nothing in your past that remotely matches mine; all those lives I've taken. I was only six the first time I killed a man. It wasn't a clean shot, and Odin made me wait beside him 'til he died. He forced me to watch, to listen.'

'Oh, baby. Stop. You were just a child, you were just trying to survive.'

'Ahem,' he murmured softly, and leaned in to give me a quick kiss on the mouth. 'Listen to yourself for two seconds, Maxwell, OK?'

'Emotionally blackmailing asshole,' I muttered. It's hard to be all that angry with someone who has you snuggled up against them, though, not when they're also drifting little kisses along your jaw line.

'Mmm.' His voice came out a bit muffled by my hair, and then settled me more comfortably against him. 'I hate leaving you. Not while all this is still so new.'

'You're not leaving me,' I tilted my head back, letting his mouth slide down my throat, sucking gently at the skin. God. Just as well he'd locked the door….'Not really. It's just for a couple of days..'

'Promise me,' he demanded suddenly. 'Please, Duo. I'm so scared that as soon as I'm gone you'll start doubting me, doubting how I feel about you, and I don't want to lose you again, I really don't; not now that we're back together and…'

'Hey.' I put one finger over his mouth, stopping him in mid sentence. 'Shut up, Yuy. I'm the one who does the senseless babbling, remember? All that stuff, it scares the hell out of me, too. You know? I don't want to lose you, either. Just..we need to trust each other, OK? That we can make it work this time.'

Unlike the last time.

No, wasn't going to think about that. This was different; we were different.

I closed my eyes, leaning my head against his shoulder and letting his hands slide up and down my back, cupping my ass on the last few strokes and lingering just a little. Sheer, utter bliss. The thought of two or three days without him was stretching ahead like a barren wasteland.

His 'phone rang first, just a few seconds ahead of mine, and probably just as well, before we embarked on anything a little more…serious.

'Duo! It's not true, is it?' Hilde burst out, over Heero's rapid Italian. 'I've just seen you and Heero on TV. Tell me you're not really back with that bastard. If you are, I'm going to….'

'Let me talk to her,' Heero murmured. 'Please. Lucca wants to have a word with you.' Coward that I am, I just handed over my 'phone and got his in exchange.

'Heero? Oh, Duo!' Lucca gushed. 'I've just seen you on TV. You looked wonderful. So happy, both of you. And where did you get that suit?'

'Ah, Heero bought it for me. I'm sure I can find you the name of the store.' OK, another little item to go on the TO DO spreadsheet. And that reminded me of something. 'Lucca, is everything OK with Honey? If it's too much trouble, I'm sure we can make other arrangements.'

'No,' he said firmly. 'She is no trouble. Every evening, I take her to the park, and I have met a very nice man walking his two Australian Shepherds. And tonight we are going for dinner together.'

'Well, congratulations,' I grinned down the 'phone at him, guessing that, in the context, Australian Shepherds had to be dogs, rather than farm workers from the Southern Hemisphere. Or possibly not. It was nice to hear him so happy; well, even happier than he usually sounded, but that did put the kibosh on me fixing him up with Leon. Who was, incidentally, another person I needed to call.

If Hilde didn't manage to disembowel me first for not telling her about Heero. I'd meant to; I really had, but I'd been putting it off for the right moment and now she'd found out by seeing us on TV.

'I promise you, Hilde,' Heero's voice managed to cut through her ranting that if he hurt me again, she would cut out his heart with some sort of rusty, blunt, filthy implement. 'I will do everything in my power to make Duo happy, and if I fail, I will hand you the knife myself. I know how much you two mean to each other, but I love him.'

'Put Duo back on,' she demanded abruptly.

'I'm sorry,' I told her. 'I swear, I am so sorry I didn't tell you. It all happened very suddenly; we're still sorting things out, but I really do care about him. Please, don't be mad with me. Hilde? Say something?'

'Damn hormones,' she sniffed. 'Shit, Maxwell, I can't freaking believe this. You and Heero!'

'I…can't believe it myself, sometimes,' I admitted. Heero, presumably picking up on the fact that this was going to be a somewhat awkward conversation, stood up and headed for the door, mouthing that he'd be outside at the car.

'I just don't want you getting hurt again.'

'I don't either! Really. But I think maybe this will work out.'

'It damn well better,' she growled. 'Or I'll kick his ass for him.'

'Yeah. You'll have to wait in line. Hil, can I call you back in about an hour? Heero has to catch a shuttle to Earth, and I want to see him off.'

'Everything OK?' Heero was leaning against Mason's door when I walked out.

'I guess. Thanks for taking that on; she's feeling slightly less homicidal than when she first called.'

'Thank you,' Heero nodded to his own 'phone. 'Lucca's a wonderful guy, but he tends to be exhausting when he gets enthusiastic about something.'

'Oh, he's wonderful, is he?' I was partly teasing and partly - not.

'He is an incredibly competent, hard-working employee,' he corrected

'That's better. Lucca's in great form; he's met a guy in the park and they've got a date tonight. Um, I guess we should be going. You don't want to miss that shuttle.'

'Are you sure about staying here?'

'Actually, no.' I swallowed. Damn. I'd made my decision and I was going to stick to it. 'But it seems to be the best thing to do for now.'

'It's not for long,' he said gently. 'I can fly back as soon as I get Trowa sorted, or you can come to Earth, even if it's just for a couple of days. I'm sure Trowa would love to see you.'

'Yeah,' I slid into the car beside him and Mason pulled out.

'There's something we need to talk about,' Heero announced as we took the turn off for the port, his mouth twitching slightly, as if it knew I wasn't going to like the next few words that came out of it. 'Since you're staying here, I called Noin, and requested a protection detail for you.'

''Ro, I hardly think I need a bodyguard!' I rolled my eyes at him. 'Seriously, lighten up. I know you think there's this evil villain out there ready to pounce on me, but it's so not going to happen.'

'You don't know that,' he said stubbornly. 'We don't know what's going on at the moment. Quatre's missing and we still don't know exactly what happened to Zechs.'

'I know, babe, but I'm not Zechs. I love the guy, but it's not like he's the most popular person in the universe. And I'm nowhere near as important as Quatre.'

He just sighed heavily. 'You are to me. Duo, we still don't know that Zechs was the primary target. It could have been Wufei. There may be somebody out there with a grudge against former Gundam Pilots.'

'Oh, well, that narrows it down to approximately half of Earth's population, then.' I shrugged. 'No big deal, right?'

He moved so fast I never even saw his hand reach out to grab my wrist, blazing blue eyes boring into mine. 'Don't you dare make jokes about this, Maxwell. Don't you fucking dare!'

Oh, brilliant. When my safety is concerned, Heero's famous logic tends to be taken over by something more …primitive, and all that rational reasoning flees in panic. During the war, it had made him disobey orders and jeopardise missions. And while I'd never not grumbled and bitched about it, there'd always been a part of me that had lapped it all up; all that caring.

'You're hurting me,' I told him in the voice I use to call him out of his nightmares and he relinquished his grip very slightly; just enough so it didn't feel he was grinding my bones to powder. He didn't apologise, although the death glare diminished very slightly.

'I'm sorry, Heero. But I am careful. I've spent the last seven years being careful and I swear, I will take all reasonable precautions. But you can't lock me up somewhere with an army of Preventers to guard me. I'm not going to live like that.'

He gave me a faint duck of his chin. 'Fine. But I've already requested that Agent Mason be assigned to you until you leave L4. He'll be discreet; I swear, you'll hardly know he's around.' He gave me this pleading puppy look I think he'd learned from Quatre. 'Please, Duo. Just humour me on this one?'

'It'll be a total waste of his time. I'm sure he has something more productive he could be doing. I mean, I'll be at the Embassy; it's already crawling with security staff.'

'Then you won't notice one more guard,' Heero said smartly. 'And Mason certainly doesn't consider it a waste of his time; he was honoured to be given the assignment.'

'Oh, fine,' I huffed. 'Whatever. I swear to God, you and 'Fei are going to drive me insane with all this over-protectiveness. I am actually perfectly capable of looking after myself, even if neither of you seems to realise it.'

He actually had the nerve to burst out laughing. Asshole. 'People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones,' he murmured. 'And you know perfectly well that it's only because we care about you.'

'Well, maybe the pair of you should start to worry about preserving my sanity,' I told him. I tried to summon up a little bit of irritation to put behind the words, but it didn't really happen, not with the way he was looking at me. 'You and 'Fei; you're all OK now?'

That question got me an oddly terse little nod, and then he looked away from me to glance out the window. Hmmm. I wasn't sure if my being aggrieved over the protective thing really, truly warranted further poking at this particular Pandora's Box. Maybe some boxes were better off left locked and bolted and consigned to the deepest part of the ocean. Instead, I asked him one of the other questions that had been niggling at me.

'Just tell me one thing, OK? How come you get to boss all these baby agents around? I mean, you resigned years ago, and you just do some consultancy work for them, now.'

He actually looked a little embarrassed. 'I've only given a couple of seminars and training workshops. It isn't a regular thing, but Une has occasionally asked me to …share my expertise in certain areas.'

'Right. I'm guessing our Agent Mason attended one of these seminar thingies? And a few of the other agents we met today?'

He nodded, just a little uncertainly. 'I'm sorry. I should have told you, but I know your opinion of the Preventers. I'm really not closely involved with them, Duo. I've just helped out sometimes.'

'It's OK.' I swallowed, wondering if that was entirely true. I didn't have a problem with the Preventers as such. I liked Noin; I'd liked some of the other agents Heero had worked with. I had a problem with Une; partly from stuff she'd pulled during the War; partly from how she'd treated Wufei. She'd forced him to resign; she'd wanted to have him court marshalled, and it had almost killed him. 'Although I'm not sure if I really like the idea of my boyfriend being ogled by all these buff guys in uniform.'

He grinned. 'I don't know why you always say I'm the possessive one!'

'Just territorial. It's kind of cool, really. Maybe you could stage some sort of coup and take over the organisation for yourself?'

He granted me a faint smile. 'I don't think I'll have time for anything like that. Not if I aim to spend the rest of my life making you happy.'

'You're such a sap, Yuy,' I muttered.

'Your own personal sap, yes.' Taking advantage of darkened windows, and Mason concentrating on finding a parking space, Heero leaned over to kiss me.

'Let's go.' When he finally released me, he was back in full mission-mode, striding through the shuttle port to find his departure gate with Mason and me trailing behind.

'I'll see you soon, Duo. Take care.' He put out one hand to touch me, and I ducked under his arm, hating myself for hurting him, but it was just too public. Heero might be prepared to announce to the world that we weren't shy about showing affection, but I wasn't quite there yet.

'You'd better go through, 'Ro. I'll see you in a couple of days, OK?'

'Ready to go, sir?' Mason asked at my elbow. Great; I now had my own personal shadow. Still, it shouldn't be too difficult to evade him if necessary.

'I guess.' I didn't make any move to leave, though, watching Heero reach the check-in desk and hand over his passport and ticket. The young woman checking his papers was swishing her hair around wildly, and trying to make all sorts of eye contact, and my dear boyfriend was totally ignoring her.

He took his documents back and gave her a faint nod, before heading to Immigration. He didn't look back.

Shit.

I couldn't just let him go off like that.

'Hey, Heero! Wait a sec!'

'Duo!' He dropped his bag just in time to catch my headlong rush into his arms. 'Have you changed your mind about coming with me?'

He'd probably meant to say a bit more, but by then I'd captured his mouth with mine.

The kiss mightn't have been quite so…forceful if his lips hadn't opened immediately, welcoming my tongue, permitting everything. It just rocks my entire universe when he goes all submissive. He was gasping for breath when I finally let him go, lips all red and swollen and his eyes just a little glazed over.

'Oh, I'll always come with you,' I leaned up to whisper in his ear. Behind us, someone let out a piercing wolf whistle, and there were plenty of flashes going off. Oh, well, time to get used to being one half of the new celebrity couple. 'I'm sure some enterprising person will sell one of those photos to the networks. You should catch us on the news during your flight. It'll give you something to look at.'

'I'll replay it for the whole flight,' he promised and then gave me a quick, sweet peck on the lips. 'And I'll be looking forward to seeing you. Both on screen and in person.'

There. That hadn't been so hard. The hardest bit was walking back through the shuttle port; a couple more flashes went off and I wasn't sure which of us was blushing more when we finally made it back to the car.

'The Sanque Embassy, sir?' Mason asked politely, managing not to meet my eyes. I wondered whether he had my problem with public displays, or he just hadn't liked the fact that I'd drawn so much attention on his watch.

'Just Duo.' I ignored the back door he was holding open for me, and slid into the passenger seat. He'd probably burst a vein if I actually tried to drive myself anywhere. I couldn't resist grinning at him. 'What happens if I say I want to go somewhere else. Or did Heero tell you where to take me?'

'He…said it was where you would want to go,' he said anxiously. I could almost see the thoughts whirring around his unfortunate head. In his book, Heero was obviously to be obeyed at all costs, but he wasn't quite sure how to cope if I wasn't willing to do just that.

'It's fine.' Great; Heero had obviously hand-picked this one. I felt too damn sorry for him to push things; anyway, the Embassy happened to be where I wanted to go. I had to push down the desire to suggest an alternative destination though; just to see what he'd do. Probably try to escort me at gun point.

Since conversation, obviously wasn't on the cards, I flipped on the car radio, hoping I could find some sort of decent music station.

Instead, there was a 'breaking news announcement' that Quatre Raberba Winner was safely back home, following a brief stay in hospital.

'Mason,' I said firmly. 'We have a slight change of plan. Do you happen to know the way to the Winner mansion?'

'Mr. Maxwell, please,' the guy practically begged me, a vein starting to throb in his temple. 'I already have orders where to take you; to the Sanque Embassy.'

Yeah, I'll bet. I was going to give Heero shit over that one when we next met; sending me around the place like some sort of registered parcel.

I was only surprised he hadn't tried to stick a label on my back; Deliver to Chang Wufei, Care of Sanque Embassy, L4. Maybe with a few Handle with Care and Keep Right Way Up stickers for good measure.

'Those are your old orders, Agent Mason,' I informed him sweetly. 'I'm afraid the situation has changed, and these are your new orders.'

'But Mr. Yuy said…' he spluttered.

'Mr. Yuy isn't here though, is he?' I swear, Mason actually looked around despairingly, as if he hoped Heero might suddenly materialise out of thin air and rescue him. 'Now, I am going to visit Quatre Winner, and either you drive or you get out of this car.' His eyes shifted from the steering wheel to the keys I was dangling in front of him, wondering how the hell I'd managed to get my hands on them, and how hard it would be back to filch them back. 'Oh, I wouldn't recommend that. If it comes to a wrestling match, I promise you that I'll win.'

Apart from anything else, I knew damn well that if the guy so much as hurt one damn hair on my head, Heero would kill him. From Mason's expression, he knew it too, which gave me a somewhat unfair advantage.

I'm not always the nice guy. But I was going to see Quatre Winner, and find out what the hell was going on, and nothing that any of Heero's little groupies could do was going to stop me.