Note: Many thanks to KS for editing and commenting and sticking up for Heero, and to Snow, co-conspirator in saving our universe as we know it.

This one is for Dyna, with best wishes for a wonderful birthday.

Chapter 97/99 - The Third Time is the Curse:

The first time I left Heero was six days later and it barely counted; I only made it a couple of streets away, to a little park where I took Honey sometimes.

We'd been fooling around in bed and his phone had rung; that very distinctive Preventers ringtone. When he flung his arm behind his head to answer it, it was nothing more than a knee-jerk instinctive reaction on his part. I knew that. At least I figured it out later, once I thought about it. He was a Preventer, he'd got a call from HQ. There was no way he wouldn't not answer it. I got all that.

Trouble was, my knee-jerk instinctive reaction was that he'd rejected me, in the most intimate, vulnerable way imaginable.

And, being nothing if not predictable, I ran for it.

Luckily, I was fairly decent still, the fooling-around not having got to the level of full nudity and I was wearing a t-shirt and boxers baggy enough to pass as shorts on the street.

No phone, though; no wallet. No shoes.

Damn. I was really going to have to pack an emergency running-away kit to keep under his bed for the future, including the airline ticket he'd given me.

This was the first actual row we'd had – God, did it even count as a row if no words had been exchanged? – but it hadn't been exactly easy. Not quite the fairy tale I'd imagined.

We had discussed a lot of practical moving-in-together stuff. At my insistence, we'd set up a joint account for paying household expenses, and talked a little bit about dividing the chores, and maybe getting another dog, and about turning his guest room into a study for me to work from home.

All the practical things.

Heero had never said so specifically, but I was pretty sure he'd been thinking, like me, of all the things we'd fought over the first time, all the things that just hadn't worked out.

That this time we'd get to do it right.

As it turned out, neither of us had ever considered the things we did find difficult. For a start, we'd never even considered our different routines.

Heero, as I found out later, had fondly imagined I'd spend the day working on my computer while he was out, and then we could do nice, couple-y things together when he came home in the evening and at weekends.

That just – wasn't the way I liked to work though. I didn't have any sort of nine-to-five, Monday-to-Friday work ethic. Heero was methodical and organised and liked to get on with things. I was nothing like that. I could spend hours, days, faffing around and letting ideas simmer in my brain and then work for eighteen hours straight, eat something and fall into bed for a nap, and then get back to work.

In Heero's orderly mind, he would come home from work, just as I was clearing up.

In reality, he mostly came home to find me bored out of my skull, desperate for some company and attention, or else – more rarely – in the middle of something, with draft papers spread all over his living room and music blaring on the stereo, and only a quick smile for his presence.

He was mostly late too. Bloody Preventers. I got used to sudden 'phone calls about some crisis or other. I got used to biting my tongue, and saying pleasantly that I'd see him later. I felt like I was in a weird threesome, with his 'phone as the third party.

The boredom killed me, totally. Yeah, Florence was a whole new city full of amazing art and architecture to explore, but I'd done most of the touristy stuff with the guys, before they left. Walking around alone wasn't much fun. I took Honey for long, solitary hikes into the hills, I borrowed Heero's car when he didn't need it and drove for miles, pretty aimlessly. I hated his car. Hated it. It was reliable and fuel-efficient and built to the highest of safety and environmental standards and I couldn't understand how a guy who'd flown a Gundam could in any way be happy with it. It didn't even half a half-decent sound system. I missed my lovely summery car like hell, my car that could practically fly.

Heero tried, really. He took me to his gym, which also had a swimming pool, and got me membership. I did go with him, once. He obviously had nice dreams of it becoming a couple thing for us, working out together, and then cooling off with a leisurely swim. I made a couple of excuses to avoid going back and finally told him the truth; how uncomfortable I'd felt around all those strangers, calling out greetings to him, and eyeing me curiously, while I'd been in shorts and a skimpy little top. He'd felt really bad after that, and then I'd felt really shitty for making him dwell on just how screwed up I was, that he couldn't even take me to his gym, to meet his friends.

And then I was stuck in the house. Heero's five-roomed townhouse was perfect for one orderly, organised guy. Perfect for that guy and the occasional sleep-over guest who was pathologically careful to tidy up after himself, and not to leave reams of his stuff lying around.

Not really so perfect for two, full-time.

I tried, very hard, to be tidy. To put things away neatly, not to disturb his stuff, and he tried not to comment when he came home and his ground floor was a sea of designs and spreadsheets. I made an effort to keep the volume low on my music, or on my newly-bought TV, when he was in the house, because he preferred silence to noise, most of the time. I just kissed him when he bought me the most high-end ear buds on the market and conspicuously used them when he was around, to please him. I hated the damn things; I'd never used them before and it just wasn't the same with the music trapped in my head instead of swirling all around me, loosed into the universe.

So, there'd be no actual row until then. We'd both been determinedly polite and considerate, terrified of setting the apple-cart.

Well, I'd done it now.

Apples spilling all over the damn place.

I wandered around for a couple of hours, working out that I had three options. I could steal some clothes and money and stay away for longer. I could seek asylum at the Sanque embassy. I could go back to Heero's.

OK, I had four options. I could use the airline ticket he'd given me, and just go home.

I went back to Heero's. My feet were sore from the pavements, and I was tired of people giving me odd looks, and I just …didn't know how to do this.

He was sitting on the stairs when I let myself in, with the most god-awful look of desolation on his face.

'It's OK,' I gabbled, hurling myself into his arms. 'I'm sorry, I was stupid. God, Heero, I'm so sorry.'

Then we were both gasping apologies and wrapping ourselves 'round each other, and didn't even realise 'til it was over that stair sex is damn uncomfortable and made it upstairs to the bed.

We stayed up most of the night. Heero called in sick the next morning and we spent the whole day together. Just the two of us and the dog, his cell switched off and shoved at the back of a drawer. The sort of day I'd dreamed of us having.

He finally, officially handed his Preventers resignation the following day.

There was a ceremony two weeks later; speeches and a medal. I was invited as his guest, and it was awkward as hell, really. Didn't help that Une seemed to be constantly in my line of vision, glowering at me. I'd glared back a couple of times, and then settled for smirking at her, which seemed to piss her off more. Not that I gave a toss about her, but it had been hard seeing Heero surrounded by his colleagues, his friends, saying their farewells. One young trainee had cried. All very awkward. I suppose it was, in a way, our first official outing, and he was the hero and I was the bad guy who'd pressured him to quit.

Not that he ever said anything like that; but it was obvious that some, not all, of his colleagues felt like that. There'd been articles in the media. I hadn't said anything to him about having seen them.

Never mind.

'Do you mind?' I asked suddenly, when we were driving home. 'Giving it all up. For me. Really, Heero?'

I didn't get the instant answer I'd wanted. Instead, he just sighed and took one hand off the wheel, resting it on my knee. 'It's all right, Duo. You don't need to worry about it. I'm fine.'

'OK, so now I'm really worried that I pressured you into something you didn't want,' I snapped and then relaxed a little bit when he smiled at me.

'You didn't pressure me at all, love. It was my choice. You never said a word.'

'Didn't need to, did I? You know how I feel about Preventers.'

'I think the whole world knows, actually.' The hand resting on my knee moved upwards slightly, catching my fingers in his. 'Is it all about Une?'

'Some of it.' This was a slightly odd conversation, and I hadn't quite figured out his mood. More than a little melancholy, which I supposed was normal. He'd been a Preventer for years, taken such pride in it. He didn't seem terribly dejected though, and he apparently wasn't blaming me for it, judging the way he had his fingers wrapped around my hand.

'Their methods, sometimes,' I said. 'The powers they have, they abuse them sometimes. Not you, ever, but I've read news reports. 'Fei's told me stuff. And, God, Heero, he was so miserable working for them but then he fell apart after he was fired. And I guess I kind of blame them for us, not working out before. I know it's stupid.'

'I think that was my fault, not Preventers,' he said sadly. 'I was lost, Duo. I know Relena pressured me into joining after the war, but I probably would have anyway. Especially after Wufei did. I … needed something.'

Something that wasn't me. Something else.

'I did figure that out, eventually.' I swallowed. 'It wasn't your fault. It was both of us. We just didn't know how…to be together, when there wasn't a war.'

'Yes. Well. Can we stop for a minute?' Without waiting for me to answer, he pulled into the side of the road and un-clicked his seatbelt, turning in his seat to face me. 'I don't mind, Duo. Honestly. Once I felt that there was any chance of getting you back, I knew I'd end up resigning. Until all of this started, I wasn't even that involved with them, most of the time. I did some lecturing, helped out on special cases. It wasn't a major part of my life. I didn't want it to be.'

'Oh.' It was a sudden rush of relief and then a little shadow of dejection that I knew so little about him any more, really. 'You know, if you wanted to do….some lecturing, whatever, on the side, I wouldn't care.'

'Hn. Maybe one day.' He gave me one of those smiles he'd always kept just for me, and I relaxed because it really was all right. 'It's … rather nice, actually.' He sounded surprised. 'Knowing I'm not going to get sudden calls and have to put everything on hold to run off somewhere. I didn't know I'd feel like this.'

'Feels good?' I slipped my own seatbelt loose and slid over into his lap.

'That certainly does,' he chuckled, settling me across his legs. 'This time, it's going to work. Isn't it?'

'Totally.'

I said it with such sheer confidence.

Yeah, right.

He had this whole other job; his livelihood, as he'd said. Of necessity, he'd been neglecting the legal practice for almost three months. He had a sky-high backlog of cases.

Honey and I went back to our long route-marches in the countryside. I read a lot. I thought about home, all the things I did there. I got to know the people from Heero's office and I hung out with Lucca sometimes, I genuinely liked the guy, but…he was Heero's. Heero's friend, Heero's colleague. Not someone I could really confide in. I joined an Italian class, and started to make a couple of friends. My own friends, not people Heero knew. I made an effort to do stuff in the house, started a little herb garden in the courtyard, wishing he had more outdoor space for plants. I spent hours on the 'phone to the guys.

Quatre just grinned at my expression when I called him. 'What is it this time? The car, the house?

'Shut up, Winner. Yeah, OK, the house isn't helping. I've cabin fever or something. Seriously, Quat, I'm going to go stir crazy here.'

'Fine,' he said briskly. 'I'll get you a new one. What would you like; a palazzo on the Grand Canal in Venice?'

'That might work,' I considered. 'Shame you can't afford it since you gave all your money away.'

'I did no such thing, Duo!' He sounded affronted at the bare thought of it. 'I resigned from the board of WEI, that's all and gave away some shares. I certainly didn't beggar myself. That would have been ridiculous.'

'Does Trowa know?'

'Well, of course he does.' He gave me a cute little smile.

God, he was looking great these days. His hair was longer than I'd ever seen it, bleached paler by the sun. Tro's original plan of living in a bamboo hut in the jungle had lasted for less than a week; now they had an old beach-front villa on the Indian Ocean. I was just waiting for Quat, who had his own unique definition of 'roughing it in the jungle', to install a helicopter pad and infinity pool and spa.

Hr was a little bit involved with the admin for Trowa's tiger project, and taught English two mornings a week in a local primary school, but he seemed to spend most of his time lying in a hammock in their garden, while Tro was running around the jungle. He was talking about writing a book, some sort of mega-sappy love story by the sound of it, and was reading his way through a colossal stack of romantic novels for research purposes. He was, as he'd said himself, absurdly happy.

'Oh. Right then, I'd love my own palace in that case.'

'Would it help?'

'Dunno.' I shrugged, tugging my braid over one shoulder and smoothing a few loose hairs. 'What the hell is wrong with me, Quat? I've got everything I damn well ever wanted. All I ever do is complain about stupid stuff.'

'I think you're being a little hard on yourself,' he said gently. 'Duo, listen. I know you love each other, but you've made very different lives for yourself. There was always going to be an adjustment period; you understood that, didn't you?'

'Yeah. Um. No. Not so much.'

'Well, right now, you're in the middle of Heero's world. Everything's different.'

'It's what I wanted,' I said quickly. 'And it made sense; he has a job and a house here, and friends, and….'

'And you don't,' he finished, sighing. 'You need all those things for yourself, you know.'

'I know, Quat. I'm trying to figure it all out.'

He laughed out of my laptop screen, and then lay back on his hammock. 'Maybe you should stop trying so hard. You're with the love of your love; you're in one of the world's most beautiful cities; it's the middle of Summer. Try enjoying it. And do stop moaning about Heero spending so much time working; I don't blame him never coming home if that's all you go on about.'

'I don't!'

'Really?' He gave him a long, speculative look. 'So, what, you go all passive aggressive instead? Duo, if you really put your mind to it, I'm sure you'll be able to think of some ways to get him to leave the office early occasionally. Or you could ask Tro for some hints; he never had any problems enticing me home if he thought I wasn't spending enough time with him.'

'I don't need hints, thank you very much! And I'd prefer Heero to want to spend time with me, rather than me having to …entice him.'

'Oh, piffle,' he said briskly. 'You know what Heero's like when he starts focussing on something; he needs a nice distraction.' He flicked me a saucy little wink. 'FYI, sexy text messages usually do the job rather well, or suggestive photographs. Trowa used to send me all kinds of things. That should take care of your little problem quite nicely. Now, when are you coming to visit us?'

'Soon, honest. Just give me a few weeks, OK? Heero's got a couple of big cases coming up, and I was planning to go and visit the kids fairly soon. The social worker said I should give them a month or so before I went to see them. '

'Things are going well with them?'

'Great, yeah. I've been 'phoning them; they're settling in really well. Nat's even started working with this private tutor.'

'All good, then. But, please, do come out as soon as you can. With or without Heero, all right? Promise?'

'Promise. Honest, Q, I can't wait to see the place.'

'Oh, it's gorgeous,' he enthused. 'Heavenly. Apart from all the creepy-crawly creatures. I didn't realise there would be so many of those. Horrid things, but Trowa's wonderful about clearing the house out. You'll love it here, Duo, really. Oh, I'd better go; I said I'd walk into the village to meet him after work. Good luck with Heero! Buona Fortuna!'

OK, he'd always been the strategist. It would have been damn stupid to ignore his advice.

Especially when it very obviously worked.

Heero genuinely tried hard to be home by a respectable hour in the evenings, and took a few days off. The weather was gorgeous; so we took some trips together. Small towns and villages in Tuscany, and a long weekend in Venice. That was the best four days of my life, probably. He'd never been there either, so it was a new adventure for both of us. Our hotel room overlooked the Grand Canal – I was giving some serious consideration to letting Quat buy us our own place there – and we spent hours sitting on the tiny balcony, looking out and talking. We did most of our exploring in the early morning, or evening, when we could find secluded places to ourselves away from the hordes of tourists, just us and the gentle lapping of water.

Things got better.

Back home in Florence, a couple of the girls from my language class started doing a cookery course and they nagged me into going along, and loved it, figuring that if Quat could learn to cook, so could I. I signed up for a series of lectures on art history at the Uffizi gallery, and Heero came with me sometimes, if he could take a morning off. I sat in on a couple of his court cases and was totally blown away by him. I bought a tonne of art stuff, and started sketching around town. I was never going to be much good, but it was kind of fun. Heero found a stable an hour's drive from the city, and we started having weekly rides. We invited people over for dinner, went to their houses, began to get to know each other's friends.

We started learning actually to live together. Sure, we'd been together for almost a year after the war, but he'd mostly been off on some highly classified mission or other. We'd never actually been with each other for any significant length of time. Most of the time, he'd either been exhausted or high on post-mission adrenalin.

We started to develop a tentative routine. Favourite cafés and restaurants; a farmers' market we went to on weekends; evenings sitting in our little garden playing chess or talking. Heero started to talk about his cases; I started to show him my designs, get some suggestions.

I started to fall in love with Florence, with living there.

And then we had the next big blow-up.

It was stupid. I knew it at the time, even as the row was starting over some inconsequential, infinitesimal thing that I'd done or forgotten to do. I couldn't even remember what had started it when I was yelling at him. Something Heero had said, some stupid casual remark that I'd taken the wrong way and flipped over.

I got to the end of the street, which gave me just enough time to realise what an ass I was being, and then raced back, and found him sitting on his staircase stroking Honey and looking like the world had ended for him.

Things took their … fairly predictable course at that point.

I sat up a bit and winced. Damn. The amount of time we spent on the stairs, we really needed to get some cushions or something. 'Hell. We have to stop doing this. I'm going to do my back in.'

'Time to take things upstairs?'

'Can't walk, 'Ro. You broke me.' I gazed pleadingly at him until he laughed, standing up and then swinging me into his arms.

'You're such a caveman sometimes,' I teased, and he obligingly growled, and lowered his head, biting down on my neck.

'You like it.'

'Yeah,' I muttered, squirming a little bit and settling my face against his shoulder, hiding the blush. I did like it; it had always been a bit of a turn-on, how strong he was. How he could combine that strength with such unbelievable gentleness.

There was a fair bit more biting as he took me upstairs and laid me on the bed. He didn't lie down, quite, just propped himself up one elbow and used his free hand to stroke my hair which had somehow got loose downstairs and manage to acquire a fair few tangles.

'Tell me. Honestly. Are you regretting this?'

'I'm not regretting you, Heero. Ever. But the rest of it, it's not like how I imagined.'

'No,' he agreed softly and I bit my lip.

It so clearly wasn't how he'd imagined things either. But. We were together, the two of us, in our bed, with his hands touching me, cherishing me. 'So, you tell me. Are you…. regretting this? Me, being here?'

'No!' He said it with such absolute certainty that it blew away any dark little doubts I'd maybe having. 'Of course not. I love having you here. Everything we do. It's like being normal. I never thought I'd have this.'

'Oh, Heero. Baby. Don't.' I sucked in a deep breath; it always killed me when he said stuff like that, how very little he really wanted. 'I'm sorry. I'm a selfish ass, you know that. I just want to be with you, OK? Just the two of us. Nothing else matters a damn.'

I shifted onto my side, obedient to a little nudge from him, curling into his body. His fingers slid through my hair, fanning it out.

'How did you think it would be, my love, the two of us?'

'I don't know, really. Just that it would be me and you and it'd be all happy ever after. Stupid.'

'Not stupid at all.'

I smiled up at him. 'No, it's not, is it? Heero, I love you. You're the most important thing to me in the whole universe. You always will be. But you do have a life of your own, and I just think I could do with something else. As well as you. Look, I knew you did your law stuff; I mean, I've even read about some of your cases in the paper. But the times I went to see you were in court, you were totally passionate about it. It was pretty damn hot, actually, seeing you in action.'

'Really?'

'Totes really.' I grabbed him for a kiss to show just how much I'd appreciated the show. 'God, yeah. I'm still not used to how sizzling hot you look in those suits. I want something to be that passionate about. Besides you, obviously. I want something like that in my life, something as well as you.'

'But you have a job,' he objected. 'You've talked about it with me; you enjoy it.'

I shrugged. 'Heero, the only reason I studied engineering is because Quat and 'Fei fixed it up, and then I couldn't be bothered changing to some other subject. And then I kind of fell into a job after my Masters; I got a prize for designing this shuttle and some company offered me a contract. I do enjoy some of it, I guess, but I'll never get to fly any of them, and seriously, they're toys, most of them. Racers for rich kids with way too much money. It's never really been more than a hobby that pays a bit, to be honest. I think…I can't let myself get too involved. I can't ever fly them.'

I fell quiet after that. None of the things I excelled at really mattered any more. I was good enough at lots of other things, but not superlative and I wasn't passionate about them anyway.

'What did you do all day, when you were with Zechs and Wufei?'

I thought for a minute. 'I don't know really. All kinds of stuff. 'Fei was busy a lot, writing or at the university, so I hung out with Zechs. We went hiking, or hired horses, and go up into the mountains. God, you should see where we live; you'll have to. It's amazing. You can walk for miles and never see another person. Just all kinds of wildlife; bears, deer, wolves sometimes. All kinds of birds. We were keeping this log of animal sightings. And it's so quiet; you can just hear the birds and the wind in the trees and the river behind the house.'

'You miss the countryside,' he said, sounding surprised. 'I always thought you were such a city person.'

'Not so much anymore.' I was surprised myself, until I thought about it. I was missing the silence; Heero lived on a quiet street, but there was always some noise. Even when we went into the countryside, there were often other hikers. I couldn't think of the last time it had been just me, outside.

'I do miss it, yeah,' I said, considering. Odd, that. Heero had always been the solitary one, happy with his own company, but I'd learned to like it, sometimes. Watching an eagle fly, or a family of fox cubs playing. 'What else do I do? I drive around a lot. I go to the coast with the guys. Look after my orchids. Mess around with guns. Watch Zechs cooking or painting. 'Fei and I play chess, do stuff in the garden. I help him out with work a bit when he's busy sometimes, doing research and stuff. Go to the movies. Zechs and I drag him to nightclubs, sometimes.'

It all sounded horribly self-indulgent, really, put like that. Compared to Heero, human rights lawyer extraordinaire and part-time saving-the-world Preventer agent.

'I think it sounds wonderful.' He kissed the top of my head, looking slightly wistful. 'I can't believe you gave all of that up to be here.'

'I wanted to!'

'I want you to be happy. If you like, we could look at buying another house. One outside the city. You could have a workshop and a garden, more space to grow plants if you'd like. Would that help at all?'

'Maybe. It's crazy, right? I mean, once I'd have been happy to have my own cardboard box.'

'A long time ago,' he breathed

'I guess.'

His hand brushed across my mouth and I kissed his knuckles. That made him smile; then he gathered up a handful of my hair, and let it spill over his fingers. 'I can't believe it, still. That you're here. With me.'

'I am, Heero,' I said softly. 'I really, really am.'

'Hn.'

He was still stroking my hair with one hand; sheer bliss. I let my lashes fall, basking in the feel of him, feeling treasured. Feeling safe. God, he'd always been able to make me feel like that. Always.

'There's this other thing, actually. I – I really miss the guys.'

'I know, love. Of course you do.' I'd thought we were about as close as we could possibly be. Turned out I was wrong. He still managed to slide one leg between mine, got one arm around my waist so he could stroke my back.

'Right.' I hadn't been quite sure if he'd understood what I'd been really trying to say when I'd talked about my life at home, how much I was missing Zechs and Wufei. Of course he had.

'I was thinking, I have that case coming up next month. It'll probably take three or four weeks; why don't you go to visit them?'

'You wouldn't mind? Me going off by myself?'

'There's no earthly reason why you have to choose between us, Duo. I'd like to think you'd spend a little more time here than with them, but I never thought for a second that I'd get to keep you all the time. I know how much they mean to you; I'd never want to keep you from having that. I never thought you'd stay this long, to be honest, without at least going to see them. I don't want you to think you have to stay here, or I'll be upset at you leaving.'

'Oh,' I blinked. 'That's not really why. Honest. I thought it would be good for them to have some time alone. They're married now or engaged or whatever they're calling it, and they've both had it rough over the past couple of months. I wanted to give them some privacy.'

It was his turn to exhale, a soft, deep breath. 'I never thought of that.'

'I'm never not going to miss them,' I said. 'They're amazing. They've both always been there for me, you know? We've lived together for years. But they're together; I was always this…spare. You know, between them and then Quat and Tro, I was the off one out. They never made me feel like that or anything,' I added hastily. 'It was just, we'd do all stuff together, all three of us, and it was great, but at the end of the day, they'd be the ones closing the bedroom door, so I did feel kind of lonely now and then. A bit jealous, sometimes, to be honest. Not having someone like that. And now I do.'

That won me a smile, washing over me as warm as sunshine. 'So do I. We're all right then?'

'We are totally all right.' I arched against him, letting him feel the extent of my all-rightness. 'Just a couple of things we maybe need to take care of, Blue. In the pretty damn immediate future, actually. Like, before I explode with wanting you.'

'I thought you liked explosions.' He did something fast and blurry and I ended up on my back, with him poised over me. 'I seem to remember you keeping bomb-making equipment in the kitchen, once upon a time.'

'A fucking long time ago. And it was in the microwave. It was fine,' I muttered, reaching out to touch him, and getting my hands batted away. 'Sadist.'

'Let me do it,' he purred, lowering his head to kiss a nipple, closing his mouth around it in, all warmth and heat. Oh, God. He had one hand still knotted in my hair, one delicately dancing up and down my side, down a little more each time, down to the very centre of me. Flickering wildfire on my skin. Every touch of hands or mouth a new little explosion, so deliberately detonated in one of those places. I closed my eyes, imagining it, visualising my whole body in flames, inside and out, trails of crimson fire criss-crossing my skin, explosions underneath. That final conflagration when I couldn't do anything except cling to him.

After, curling up under the blankets with him, I didn't think I'd ever been so happy.

The third time, a couple of weeks later, that was the biggje.

Always is.

Things always come in threes, right?

I really properly left that time. Got-on-a-plane left, and flew across the Atlantic. Bought my own damn ticket at the airport, leaving the one Heero had given me on the kitchen table, It seemed like a suitably screw-you gesture.

I didn't even bother telling the guys I was coming, just got a cab home from the airport.

Home, right.

The house we'd shared for years would never not be my home, but it was ….more their home, now.