Quick, nimble fingers moved over the rubbery surface, the movements almost unconsciously done. Slipping through holes and crevices…under…over…around…

Heero finished tying his shoelaces and looked up at his roommate. “Ready to go?” He asked, standing up and stretching. Duo smiled and nodded, grabbing the other’s arm and pulling him out of the apartment building. Glancing in both directions, he asked.

“Which route?”

Heero stepped beside him and pointed right. “Let’s take the round about way. That way we can have breakfast at Le Boulanger.” He knew that it was Duo’s favorite café and wanted to indulge a little. The bright smile he got was answer enough.

They took off, jogging at a steady pace, both of them wearing sweats. They passed the elderly couple as always, waving good morning and yelling a hello. They passed Micah and Chris, two other college students and high fived, as always, before continuing on. They talked about mundane things, movies, books, school. As always. They took the route through the local park, smiling at the other early runners, before stopping at the water fountain.

“Geez, the weather so hot today!” Duo exclaimed as he wiped his sweaty face on his shirt. It was late September and it still seemed like it was August!

“That’s not the only thing that’s hot.” He heard Heero speak behind him and turned to his roommate. Since when had the perfect soldier gotten a sense of humor?

“It’s supposed to rain tonight.” Duo didn’t understand the weather any more than he understood women. Both of them were strange. “Maybe you should cool off then, Yuy.” He said smirking, dodging a swat to his behind as he walked to the water fountain.

Duo took a long drink, one hand pressing the button for the water, the other holding his bangs out of his face. He gulped down the water like a parched man and stood back up, stepping aside for Heero, waiting patiently while the other took his drink.

Heero stood back up, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand as he faced the other. He found the braided ex-pilot staring at him appreciatively.

“Ogling at my ass again?” Heero smirked, running a hand through his sweaty bangs.

“Who am I to refuse when you willingly show them off?” Duo replied coolly, his eyes twinkling.

“I’m not the one who was getting checked out, Maxwell.” Heero mused, as he pulled off the sweaty T-shirt, revealing the tank top underneath. Duo looked over him once, twice, thrice…

“Oh, you will be, Yuy.” Duo said chuckling lightly.

“They know I’m taken.” Heero replied, stretching out his arms.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“By who?”

Heero snaked one arm out to grab Duo around the waist and pull him closer. “Do you even have to ask?” he murmured, resting his forehead against the other’s.

“I just like to hear you say it.” Duo replied huskily. It was starting to feel a lot warmer…

“Uh huh.” Heero pressed a kiss to those soft lips before him. “By you. I belong to you, Duo Maxwell.”

Duo shivered and took Heero’s mouth in a hungry kiss. “And I to you.” They stood in their embrace for a few moments longer beside the water fountain, neither of them wanting to break away. Until Heero crept his hand down and pinched Duo’s ass before running off, laughing.

“YUY!” Duo yelled angrily. “Just wait until I catch you, asshole!” And then he took off after his lover, disappearing down the path.

Yes, life was definitely good.

“HEERO!” THUD!

The said young man rushed into the living room, his cobalt eyes wide and panicked, fearing the worst. “Duo! What’s wrong?” Only he found the braided man on top of a stepladder, grinning wickedly at him. Amethyst eyes twinkled merrily as Duo regarded his lover with amusement.

“Can you hand me that please?” He asked sweetly, pointing to the ornament that had fallen from the Christmas tree, knocking over one of the gifts in the process. Heero looked at him dumbfounded before glaring at him. Shaking his head reproachfully, he bent down and picked up the blue ornament, scowling at it before giving it to Duo.

“Baka. Don’t give me a heart attack next time.” He said crossly. Duo just smiled sweetly at him before reaching to take the ornament from him. However his balance on the ladder had been rather precarious and he lost his hold on it, toppling backwards towards the ground. Luckily, a strong pair of arms caught him around the waist before he hit the ground.

Looking up from his shorter stature, Duo grinned at his lover over his shoulder. “My savior!” He said dreamily. “Where would I be without you?” He sighed theatrically before offering his lips for a dramatic kiss. Heero just looked at him like he was crazy.

“Baka.”

Duo frowned, his pert nose crinkling up, eyes still closed. “This is where the savior kisses the one he just saved, you know?” Heero simply rolled his eyes and smacked a kiss on to his lover’s lips.

“Hmm. Chocolate.” Duo said thoughtfully. “One more.” Heero sighed before relenting, kissing him once more before pulling back. Duo smiled, before opening his eyes and whispered softly.

“Lights.”

With that he was out of the room and down the corridor, before Heero could even say “What?”

“Lights.” Duo repeated when Heero wandered into their bedroom to find the braided young man rummaging in the closet. More like just the braid considering how that was the only thing that was visible.

“Duo, what are you doing?”

“Trying to find the lights.” Came the muffled voice before Duo backed out, dragging a cardboard box with him. He then flopped on the ground with the box between his legs and began to go through it with childish curiosity. Heero simply leaned against the doorframe and cocked his head, drinking in the sight of his lover. He looked so utterly adorable sitting there, flinging random things over his head.

“Shirt…sock…ooh, bunny slippers! I didn’t know we had those…hmm…ah! Lights!” He started pulling it out, the never-ending length of the wire tangling inexorably with him. Heero hid a smile as his adorable love finally figured out the mess he was in and blinked dumbly. He lifted one wire and other, staring at each of them before attempting to pull at them in vain.

“Heeerroooo.” He whined, after succeeding to get himself tangled even worse. “Help me?” The Japanese man shook his head in silent laughter before coming to crouch in front of Duo.

“Stay still.” He ordered, a little smile teasing the corner of his lips, before getting to work. Duo glared at him.

“I don’t find this funny.” He said crossly, pouting like a petulant child. Heero had to laugh then. Really, his lover was too cute.

“Maybe that’s because you’re the one who’s tangled up in these wires and not me.” He smirked as he pulled the last part of the wire free and rolled the lights up. Duo simply muttered something about sexy bastards before the grabbing the lights and running out of the room, presumably to put them up. Heero shook his head again in amusement before heading to the kitchen.

It was the night before Christmas Eve. But as Duo claimed, there was always time for last minute decorations. Which was why Duo was still putting them up.

Either way, they still had work tomorrow and it was getting close to midnight. After getting his glass of water, Heero started to turn off the lights methodically, starting in the kitchen and working his way into the living room. He found Duo standing in the living room trying to untangle the wires. Walking over to his lover, he swiftly plucked the lights from Duo’s hands and threw it on to the coffee table.

“That’s enough for today.” He stated firmly, as he took the other’s hand and led him into the bedroom. “You can finish up tomorrow.”

“But Heero-” Duo started to whine, but the Japanese ex-pilot silenced him with a glare. Shutting the bedroom door, he turned around and led Duo to the bed, undressing him and getting him ready for bed.

“It’s late and we’re both tired. You can finish tomorrow.” Heero stated as he climbed into bed behind Duo. Wrapping his arms around the slender waist, he spooned against Duo’s back, kissing the nape of his lover’s neck as always. “Good night, love.”

“Hmm…” Duo turned in his arms and smiled at him. “Goodnight already?” He murmured, as he kissed the tempting curve of the neck in front of him. “I can think of other things that I want to do right now…”

Heero just chuckled and kissed him soundly. “I’m sure you can. But tonight I just want to hold you.”

“Sap.”

“Love you too.”

I stepped out of my last class, grinning like a loon. Not that Calculus was a particularly interesting or fun class, but because of the plans that I had later today. Whistling a lively tune, I headed for our off campus apartment to change for work.

It had been one year. One year since Heero had first kissed me. Since we had gotten together. Today was our one-year anniversary. I was excited.

Heero and I didn’t really talk about this. I mean, after all we are college students, we can’t afford to spend a lot on celebrations. We exchange gifts during Christmas and order pizza but that was about it. No other occasion or festival was celebrated. I hope to change that. Maybe not the traditional festivals, but at least our anniversary.

I still had an hour before I had to get to home for the preparations. So I stopped by the bakery on my way home. A cake might be nice, I think I could afford to indulge a little bit.

The little bell jingled as I walked into the bakery, the sweet smells of bread being baked greeting me along with the warm atmosphere. I knew the sweet old lady who worked there. In this past year, Caroline had become almost like a mother that I had never known.

I first met her when Heero and I moved here. I had come to buy some bread and found the old lady on the ground, having slipped and fallen. After contacting her niece, who was the closest relative to Caroline, I took her to the hospital since she had broken her ankle. I visited her often enough that I became known as ‘that dear boy’ or ‘son’. Caroline apparently did not have any sons.

“Duo!” She exclaimed as I came to her counter, giving me a welcoming smile and hug. “I haven’t seen you hear in such a long time.”

“Sorry, Carry. Things have been a little hard recently.” I replied, taking a seat in front of the counter. She signaled one of her workers to take over the register, before turning back to me.

“What is it, dear boy? Is everything all right with Heero?” Yeah, she knew about my relationship with him. The whole town did apparently. They were pretty accepting.

“Yes, things are great with Heero, as always. But we’ve been so busy with trying to meet the ends and such. He’s taken on a double shift at the hospital to save up some more money.”

“Ah, yes. Life can be hard. “ She patted my hand sympathetically. “How are you doing though?”

“Well, I’ve been doing okay. Things are getting a little more hectic at the Salvage shop. My boss gets irritated easily nowadays and he’s been laying off people. I just hope I’m not next in line.”

“Well, you tell Jerry that Caroline will hurt him if he lets my dear boy go.” She told me firmly. I had to laugh.

“No, that’s okay. Things will get better. I just took another job at the café a few blocks down to save some money.”

“Oh, you’re going to burn yourself out like that!” She chided me, slapping my hand lightly.

“I’ll be fine. I actually just came by to get one of your special chocolate cakes.”

“Oh, today something special?” She asked as she went to the display and selected one of her largest chocolate cakes. She knew how much I loved chocolate.

“Something like that. Today’s our one year anniversary.” I said proudly. Yes, it was an accomplishment that we had survived a whole year together. We had more than our share of fights, but we made it a point to make sure that no one goes to bed angry. Besides I couldn’t sleep well without him.

“Oh my, that is special. Here. Let me give you some free sweet crepes.” I started to protest but she shushed me and forced a bag of crepes along into my hand and handed me the cake. “Now that’s a gift from me, all right? I’m not going to accept no money.”

I just gave her a tight hug, whispering thank you into her ear. She patted my back in that motherly way and told me to run along. Kissing her wrinkled cheek softly, I gave her a grateful smile and hurried out the door, walking the next couple of blocks to our apartment.

I fairly ran up the stairs, eager to get started on my preparations. It was already 4:45. Heero would be home by 6:00. And I still needed to make dinner! Thank god tomorrow was a Saturday, I don’t think we would be able to finish our papers by tomorrow.

After fumbling with my keys for a good 20 seconds, I finally got the door open. Stepping inside, I took off my shoes and put them neatly in the corner, hanging up my jacket and putting my backpack in the study room.

It was a two-bedroom apartment and we didn’t think that we were going to use the second one as a bedroom anyway, so we had converted it into a study room of sorts. Each of us had a laptop, the one from the wars, and a separate desk with books and other piles of paper. There was a small radio on my desk, since I sometimes liked to listen to music while I worked, and an old sofa from a garage sale was placed on the other side of the room.

There were huge windows facing my desk but Heero often complained that I would never get any work done if I kept staring out the window, even if the truth was he was the source of more distraction than the spectacular view of the hills outside.

I went into our bedroom and changed into a large T-shirt and shorts. Well, the shirt wouldn’t have been that large if it were mine but it was since it was Heero’s. I don’t know why, but I just liked wearing his clothes and I think he liked it too. They were a little big on me since he grew after the war and I didn’t. It was a sore point for me and Heero had taken to teasing me relentlessly on that.

I wandered into our kitchen and set about making preparations for dinner. I had splurged a bit and had bought the ingredients for an Italian dinner. Heero loved Italian food. I like it too but I preferred Thai. I hummed to myself as I worked, getting things ready for tonight.

Truth is that I’m not much of a cook. Heero is the one who usually does the cooking and I compensate by doing the laundry. We take turns doing the dishes and other household chores. Chores that normal people do because it had to be done. But after being through two wars, both of us had had found contentment in doing normal things. Some kind of enjoyment. But paying bills were still a pain in the ass.

Once I had finished making dinner and setting the table, complete with a vase with two red roses in it and two candles, I moved to the living room. I set dozens of lighted candles around the room, in little cups so that they didn’t burn anything. I turned off the other lights so that the entire room had a ethereal glow. Then in front of the fireplace, I created some kind of a nest all with dark red blankets and pillows and rose petals. Hey, I was looking forward to a night spent with my lover. Dark and seductive was definitely in my plans.

I finished setting up the living room and looked around, pleased with myself. It had the over all effect that I was aiming for. Turning around, I was about to head into the bedroom to change into my tight pants and the violet silk shirt that I had laid out on the bed when the phone rang. I ran into the kitchen and picked up the cordless phone just before the answering machine turned on.

“Hello?”

“Hey, it’s me.” Heero’s warm voice sounded through the line and I couldn’t help smiling.

“Hey. What’s up?” I replied back warmly, turning around to lean on the counter.

“Listen, I’m going to have to stay late at the hospital. There was a fire on the other side of town and the Memorial hospital had to shut down their ER because they were full. So all the patients from the fire are coming in here.”

I tried okay. I really did try. There were people who were injured that needed to be taken care of and Heero needed to stay there and try to help and I understood. I really did. But…I couldn’t help feeling dejected. And maybe a little bit hurt.

“Duo?” His voice came back over, snapping me from my thoughts.

“Yeah, I’m here. How long do you think…?”

“I really don’t know, love. I might have to stay…maybe even all night.” Well, didn’t that just put a damper on my plans?

“All right, I’ll see you when you get home then.” I managed to say without sounding hurt or dejected.

“I’m sorry, baby.” He murmured softly. I could hear it in his voice too, I knew he wanted to be here with me and couldn’t.

“It’s okay. Make sure you get something to eat, all right?” I managed to make my tone light and chiding and he gave the chuckle even though we both could tell that it was forced.

“I will.” He replied warmly. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” I told him tenderly and then we said our goodbyes and hung up.

All that planning gone to waste. It really sucked. Not only because I was looking forward to spending the night with him, but also because…it was a date that I wanted to keep. I don’t keep many of them. I wanted to make this something special. Something that we would always look back on and think of fondly. Our first anniversary. I wanted it to be…well, special.

I cleared away the table, putting the food in the fridge. I wasn’t really hungry anymore. Besides the meal wouldn’t have tasted as good without Heero there. I blew out the candles and left the roses on the table, turning off the lights. Sighing softly to myself, I turned and walked into the bedroom.

The violet shirt and the black pants were still on the bed, mocking me silently. I picked them up and hung them back in the closet, caressing the shirtsleeve one last time before letting go. Heero loved silk. I had found out that he was amazingly tactile.

I left the bedroom and went into the study room. At least let me get some calculus done. I opened book and looked at the chapter title. Integration. “Geez, why don’t they just say area under the curve. Stupid complicated words…” I muttered to myself as I worked.

Okay, find the integral of 4x2 – 3x3 + 14. first…add one to the exponents of the variables…so…4(x)3/ 3 – 3(x4)/4 + 14…wait. That doesn’t work. 14x? 14/x? I threw my pencil down in frustration and glared at paper. Why couldn’t Heero be here? He would help me with the crap. He actually got this stuff. And then we could be doing much more enjoyable things…that involved a bed and no calculus…

Sighing in frustration, I got up from the desk and walked out of the room, snatching up my panther plushie on impulse. Heero had won it for me at a fair that we had gone to. I had to force him of course, but we had had fun, even Heero had admitted it. He had taken a liking to cotton candy even more than I had.

Plopping myself on the nest in front of the fire, I cuddled my panther and stared forlornly into the fire. It shouldn’t bother me so much, but it did. Dammit, tonight of all nights, he had to work late. And tonight I was missing him the most. I wonder if he remembered. That it was our anniversary. We didn’t really talk about it, but…I wonder if he remembered.

I laid down on my side, still looking at the fire, still cuddling my panther. I remember when we had first moved into this apartment. We were still trying to get used to peace and had spent a week together inside the double sleeping bag. We hadn’t unpacked anything, not that we had much. We didn’t even have furniture. But those were the days when we had nothing else to do, but enjoy the peace and each other’s company. We hardly got out of bed that week, spending days wrapped around each other. I guess we eventually became responsible. But sometimes I still wish that we could go back to those days.

He wanted to become a doctor. I wanted to go into the field of mechanical engineering. While he wanted to help by saving lives instead of people, I did not want to see blood or people dying on a daily basis. I have lost enough in my life to know that while I might want to help people, I couldn’t do it by working in the hospital. But technology was improving daily life as well. And I’d always loved taking things apart and putting them back together.

I eventually fell asleep in the nest, thinking about Heero and me in the past year. I was probably conked out for a good while because the next thing I knew, Heero’s voice was gently calling me back to consciousness.

“Come on, love. Wake up now…” Hands stroked my face gently, brushing aside strands of hair. I blinked my eyes open slowly and saw Heero hovering over me. He smiled, leaning down to give me a chaste kiss.

“Hey. You’re home.” I murmured softly, sitting up so that we were at the same eye level. “What time is it?” I asked, yawning and rubbing my eyes.

“It’s a little after midnight.” He told me. So I had ended up spending our anniversary alone. I noticed that he had changed already and was wearing his nightclothes: boxers and a T-shirt.

“How long have you been home?” I asked. He wrapped his arms around me and leaned back on the cushions, bringing me along with him until I sat on his lap.

“About ten minutes.” He told me, nuzzling my neck. I shivered. It always was a weak spot for me.

“I’m sorry.” He murmured, kissing the curve of my left shoulder that had been bared due to the oversized shirt. I buried my left hand in his hair and turned my head towards him. “I didn’t want to miss being with you on our anniversary. Especially when you had all this planned out…”

He did remember! I wrapped my arms around his neck and drew his face up for a kiss. “It’s ok. You’re here now…” I whispered softly to him when we broke apart.

“Hmm, I have something for you.” He reached behind him and picked up something on the coffee table. I took the moment to admire his silhouette in the firelight. He looked…absolutely beautiful.

“You look beautiful.” I told him when he turned back to me, brushing my lips against his. He returned the nuzzle and reached behind me to slip the band from around my braid, letting loose waves of chestnut hair.

“So do you.” He then took my hand and slipped something cold onto my fourth finger. Something like…a ring.

I looked up at him startled. “Heero...is this…” Commitment?

“It’s…a promise ring.” He told me gently. “I mean…we survived a year together. And since same sex couples can’t get married, I came up with the next best thing.” He kissed the ring on my hand and then he kissed me.

“I love you. You are everything to me.” He whispered to me. I looked at the ring, the simple gold band that signified so much more and then back at him.

“I love you. My heart, my soul.” I kissed him deeply, hungrily, consumed with the need to just be with him. In the end, it didn’t matter if he was a day late. It only mattered that he remembered. And that he gave me the most precious gift that he could ever give me. A life of commitment and love.

It might have been a little late, but that made it no less beautiful.

4. Dancing