Kracken
Disclaimer:I don't own them and I don't make any money off of this.
Warning:Male/male sex, graphic, language, violence, past NCS
Shinigami's Lover
"I wasn't going to forget," Heero said, as he carefully leaned into Duo's space and gave him a kiss. when he pulled away, a yellow stick on note was attached to Duo's forehead. It read, 'happy anniversary, love.'
Duo plucked the note off, crumpled it, and tossed it into the nearby garbage. "Wasn't taking any chances," he replied and motioned to the elegant breakfast before him on the kitchen table. "Harri didn't forget either." A note with a yellow rose was at the center of the table. "He gives us a congratulations for the day and breakfast with his compliments."
Heero knotted his robe tighter as he sat down and smiled appreciatively at the pastries, crispy fish and rice, and the eggs and bacon. "All our favorites. He needs a raise."
"We keep saying that," Duo chuckled. "Soon, we won't be able to afford him."
Heero grunted as he served himself some of the fish. "I wonder if he would stay on anyway?"
Duo thought about that and then said to his plate, as he dug into his eggs with a fork, "Someone putting up with us without getting paid? I don't think even Quatre's that charitable."
Heero winced, realizing that he had said something that might set the tone for the day. He tried to recover, by saying brightly, "So, we both have the day off. We need to make the day special. Any suggestions?"
Duo's mental gears shifted to consider it. "I think I want to take the dogs somewhere, first. That big wooded park on the north side. We could take some lunch, walk the trails. After..."
"We then drop the dogs off at home, and head for the ocean?" Heero suggested hopefully.
"That's a drive," Duo pointed out.
"Yes, but the sunset with dinner...?" Heero persisted.
Duo smiled at him. "All right. Sounds good."
"I'll let everyone know we'll be away," Heero said excitedly.
"Heero?" Duo said in a warning voice. Heero looked at him in confusion. "Stop planning. I can see a list forming in your mind, troop movements, supply lines, contact support... I want this to be a relaxing day where things just happen as they happen."
Heero frowned uncomfortably and admitted, "That's hard for me to do."
"I know, but I also know that you can do it. No reservations. No detailed plans. Just us, relaxing and going with the flow."
"Going with the flow," Heero repeated. "I can tell people where we are going?"
"You can do that," Duo agreed. "But that's all."
They ate in silence for awhile and then Duo said without looking up, "You're doing it."
Heero started guiltily and explained, "There are things that we need to make certain to bring. Your pills, dog leashes, treats, mats for the SUV, fluids..."
"Glock handgun, three knives, a few micro grenades, trackers..." Duo interjected.
"Not grenades," Heero replied defensively.
"You're just not spontaneous," Duo chuckled.
"No, I suppose I'm not," Heero snorted, "Love me anyway?"
Duo looked around them , fork full of food poised, and motioned to the kitchen with it. "You did build me a house..."
"You helped," Heero reminded him warmly.
"I'd love you even without the house," Duo told him earnestly.
"I'm glad," Heero replied as he finished his breakfast and then stood up, "Because, I can't help organizing and making lists."
Duo watched Heero dish a bit more eggs onto his plate and then take the rest away. "We can have more of that for lunch. Pack it," Duo told him. Resisting the urge to make Heero not take away his food. He was getting better at restraining his need to eat everything until he was sick, but he didn't want to chance a failure on such a special day.
Duo finished his eggs and stood up. Stretching and yawning, his nightshirt rode up and revealed a long expanse of hard waist and old scars.
Heero gave him an appreciative look and then suggested, tentatively, knowing Duo's sensitive moods, "We could stay in bed a bit longer..."
"And we'd never leave it," Duo replied. "No can do, love of mine. We are going out and having a relaxing, good time. Tonight, we can knock boots all we want."
"Knock boots?" Heero sighed. "I was thinking about making love, Little Baka."
"That too," Duo snickered.
Soda stood up from the side of Duo's chair and looked up at his master expectantly.
"Let's get the puppies and have some fun," Duo told the dog.
"Trained preventer dog, huge, still untrained puppies, in a public place. That's going to be fun?" Heero wondered sourly as he began cleaning up the dishes.
Duo leaned into Heero, slid an arm around his waist, and hugged tight. "It will be. Then, once we drop off the kids, their dads can go have some private fun."
"Their 'dad' is Kong, Wu Fei's dog, and he's totally shirking his parental responsibilities," Heero complained.
"We make good foster parents, though," Duo chuckled, "and they'll all make people great working dogs, once I train them."
Heero relented and smiled. "I suppose they do liven up our lives... when they aren't destroying the back yard."
"Even more reason why they should all be apart of our anniversary," Duo pointed out with a grin. "Come on, leave the dishes. They'll keep until tomorrow. Let's get your list packed and be on our way."
"First things first," Heero warned.
Duo tensed uncertainly. "What?"
Heero carefully leaned in and seized a kiss. "Happy Anniversary, love," Heero whispered against Duo's lips.
Duo smiled into the kiss and replied, "Happy Anniversary."
______________________________
"They are filthy, Maxwell. Titus, especially, smells like stinkweed," Wu Fei growled as he stared down angrily at the wiggling puppies and Soda, who was quiet and waving his tail and pricking ears at Kong.
"Stop being a stick in the mud!" Mi Lee complained. "They are your responsibility, remember? It was the indiscretion of your dog, and your failure as a pet owner, that caused these puppies to be born."
Wu Fei frowned, but nodded stiffly. "You are correct. My apologies, Maxwell. I have forgotten your generosity in caring for them."
Duo blushed. "Uh, well, that's okay, Fei. Sorry about the stinkweed. Keep them in the bathroom, if you want to. They'll probably all go to sleep. They had a long morning running around."
"We'll collect them, later, much later," Heero added, giving Wu Fei a look that conveyed a silent message that made Wu Fei nod again and look uncomfortable.
The puppies had tumbled into the apartment and were quickly investigating as Kong and Soda followed them and tried to clean them with large tongues.
"Happy Anniversary!" Mi Lee wished them as she began herding the puppies into the bathroom.
"Thanks!" Duo called back and then was tugging Heero away. "Come on! We don't want to miss the rest of the day!"
Heero smiled indulgently as he gave Wu Fei a wave goodbye and let Duo pull him towards the elevator. There had been a time when Soda wouldn't have been left behind, when Duo would never have considered being without the dog. His independence, and confidence, now, still amazed Heero.
"They are so perfect for one another," Duo said as they entered the elevator.
"The dogs and Fei?" Heero wondered teasingly.
Duo rolled his eyes at Heero and snorted. "Mi Lee knows how to talk to the sour dragon and I can tell that he loves it, and her."
"He's always loved strength,"Heero agreed, "and she has a great deal of it."
"He needs to marry her," Duo insisted.
Heero shrugged. "They are still dating."
"It's so obvious that they belong together, though, like us," Duo replied with a warm smile. "It's like fate. They might as well just admit it."
Heero remembered the long years learning to love his Shinigami and couldn't help the sadness, not for their relationship, but that it hadn't ever been easy. He could remember thinking that Duo was his, no matter what, but the 'no matter what' had been a heavy, painful, ordeal.
Heero slowly reached out, took hold of Duo's braid, and brought the end to his lips. "I couldn't live life without you."
It was heartfelt, his words, and Duo was still, taking them in, trying to understand the suddenness of Heero's strong emotion. He replied, at last, bringing Heero's hand up to the scar on his forehead. "You know where I'd be without you. This is the proof of that. That's why I want today to be special. I want you to know that. I want you to understand how much I love you."
Heero leaned in to lightly kiss the scar. "We don't need to have special days to prove how we feel about each other."
Duo smiled. "You don't and you do. It feels good to mark it, to shout out to you and the world, 'I love you more than anything! Mark it on the calendar!' Makes it all official."
Heero smiled back and nodded. "It is like making a mark on the world."
"It also gives us an excuse to go have some fun together," Duo reminded him. "No work, no dogs, no worries. Just us and some fun."
Heero almost said, 'And I'll get to see you in a bathing suit.', but caught himself in time. It was always hard to tell how Duo would respond to a remark like that. If he became self conscious and considered that other people might be looking as well, the bathing suit would stay in their duffel, and Heero's plan to have a moonlight swim would be ruined.
"I'm looking forward to sunset on the beech," Heero said instead and Duo was nodding in agreement.
"Good thing we met during the summer time, then, or we'd be freezing our balls off," Duo snickered.
There were ways to keep warm, Heero thought pleasantly, but let that comment go unspoken as well. The dance of romance, with his Shinigami, his black widow, was always a complicated one.
---------------------------------------------
"A definite five star restaurant," Duo chuckled as they settled on a sand dune with a blanket, wine, and a take out meal spread around them.
The ocean surf, and the crying of gulls, was their serenade as they settled against each other and faced the slowly sinking sun on the horizon.
"Sand fleas are going to attack us as soon as the sun sets," Duo pointed out. "We'll have to be ready for immediate bug out."
"No plans, remember?" Heero said and kissed and nuzzled Duo's ear as his free hand waggled a can of bug lotion.
Duo snickered. "You just can't help being prepared, can you?"
"It's how I am," Heero agreed.
It was better than trying to deal with his lover in a crowded restaurant, Heero thought as they necked slowly and enjoyed the roll of the ocean and the colors of the sunset. He wanted to enjoy their time together entirely, not battle old demons, and he was certain that Duo felt the same way.
"I'm sorry," Duo finally said, his fingers on the hem of Heero's shirt.
"Sorry?" Heero echoed, his attention on Duo pulling up that hem so that he could get access to Heero's chest.
Duo said against his nipple, tongue tickling, "For everything that you've had to put up with this year."
Heero kissed the top of Duo's head, body heating up as Duo suckled. "I don't put up with you," Heero replied. "I love you, so don't ever apologize like this again. Those things don't matter, not now, not ever. They're never going to make me love you less."
It was all the words that Heero could dredge, especially when Duo surprised him by unsnapping his jeans.
"Love?" Heero breathed, very uncertain.
"No one is around," Duo said. "We had to climb over a lot of rocks and dunes to get here. You made sure of that. It's okay."
Heero thought of the beech house that he had rented not a few clicks down the dunes, a surprise for his lover and the surety of a locked door to make sure that just this very thing could happen. As Duo's hand slipped into his jeans and underwear, hot and firm on his rising erection, it suddenly seemed too far away.
Danger. Disaster. Heero had scars from not making sure that Duo felt safe, from hot and heavy moments turning into panic and violence. That had been some time ago. Duo was better. Duo had shown him enough times that he had control.
Duo's head dipped down, arms sliding around Heero's waist. When Duo's mouth closed over the head of Heero's cock, tongue delving deep into the slit, Heero couldn't listen to the warning voice in his head any longer. He was Duo's, whatever happened.
They didn't undress completely, just enough to give them both access. Hands roved and teased. Mouths and tongues tasted and sucked. It was slow, sensuous, and erotic with the salt breeze blowing over them, becoming a little cool, and the light of the sinking sun making their skin seem bathed in fire.
"Happy anniversary," Duo breathed and then deep throated Heero until he came explosively.
It took Heero long minutes after that, flat on his back with a smiling Duo looking down at him, before he could pull himself together enough to return the favor. Penetration of any kind, he felt, would have been a mistake. Heero kept it to mouth and hands, knowing how Duo like his balls handled, almost roughly, while he gave Duo's straining member the attention that it deserved. When Duo's seed hit the back of his throat, Heero took it all down, loving Duo's deep groan and the hands twisted into his hair.
No shadows came between them, Heero was certain. Duo's eyes were on him, seeing only him, face sated and loving.
"Forever," Heero breathed, his heart in his eyes as he moved up to be face to face with Duo. He wanted that promise, that reassurance, though he didn't doubt Duo. He simply needed to hear it, to feel the solidness of that promise, sealing them together, body and soul.
"Forever," Duo replied firmly and then kissed Heero deeply.
The sun set and Heero revealed the secret of the beech house. Duo laughed, then, and Heero felt warm and comforted that Duo didn't regret not having made love in it's relative safety. It was small, only a tiny main room with a kitchenette, and an almost closet for a bedroom. The wind and the surf were still sounds that they could hear clearly, even with the door closed and locked, and that made it seem as if they were sleeping in the surf when they finally curled up together in bed and went to sleep.
-------------------------------------------------
"OH, shit, oh, shit, oh, shit!"
Duo had his hand twisted in the man's shark teeth necklaces and he was using muscle to shove the man up into the wall. His eyes were lost in memory, every synapse urging him to eliminate a threat by crushing the man's windpipe. The man himself was turning blue now, even his choked cries getting cut off.
"He's harmless," Heero said in Duo's ear as calmly as he could. "A beach bum. Probably the handy man. Remember, the sink was clogged. He's probably here to fix it and didn't realize we were here. Little baka, please let him go so that he can do his job. I want breakfast."
Duo blinked, teeth set together hard, and the man in his grip came into focus. Young, slim, and wearing beach clothes, he had blonde dreds with beads woven into them and a small scraggly goatee.
"Want to find a restaurant on the beach for breakfast or head inland?" Heero asked.
Duo eased up pressure and the man sucked in air. Duo didn't let him go, though. "He's..." he struggled. "He's not a handy man," he managed.
"He's harmless," Heero tried again, hands tensing as he readied to physically step in and break Duo's hold on the man.
"He's not harmless," Duo measured out each word, his eyes still boring into the eyes of the intruder.
Heero looked the man over. There weren't any tools. He was wearing heavy soled shoes. Not really the type that a beach bum would choose. He wasn't holding himself like a military man either. Heero doubted that he had ever been in the war as a soldier. It only took seconds for his mind to eliminate possibilities. What it was left with allowed him to understand Duo's actions.
He addressed the man, now that he knew that Duo's actions weren't entirely irrational. "Why did you come into the cabin? I rented it. I checked in with my cell phone."
A quick flick of eyes let Heero know that the man was lying before he managed to say, around Duo's constricting arm, "I just came to clean. Didn't say anyone was here. Let me the hell go!"
Heero picked up his watch from the tiny kitchen table and checked the time. The sun was just coming up through the slats over the windows."You work early."
Heero called the number of the owner's of the cabin. It took several rings before a man answered sleepily,"Yeah? I mean, Paradise cabins, how may I help you?"
"Okay, okay, I'm lying!" the man Duo was holding choked out. "He doesn't know I'm here."
"Sorry, wrong number," Heero closed his phone and pocketed it. "I'm sorry that I doubted you, Duo."
Duo frowned, trying to stay in control. "Later. I want to know who the hell this guy is."
"In my pocket," the guy said. "You'll see."
Heero reached into the man's pocket and pulled out a stack of flyers. It was for Cain's parasailing."Are you Cain?" Heero guessed, as he looked over the flyer.
"Yes," the man replied and then when Duo's grip tightened on him, "I swear! I was stupid, I know! Lopez leaves an extra key under the eave of the roof, because tourists keep losing the ones he gives them. He told me about it. I use them to put flyers on the tables... business has sucked... I thought I could stir up some more doing this. I didn't know this cabin was rented. There's no car in the sand lot."
"That explains the shoes. Traction when he's controlling the equipment," Heero said thoughtfully. "I think you can let him go, Duo."
Duo thrust the man away from him. "Get the hell out!" he snarled. "You ruined our morning."
The man scrambled out the door and ran off into the rising sun, gasping for air. They stared after him and then at each other. Duo had lost his anger and now simply looked pained.
"One day," Duo whispered, "I'll be well enough for you to trust me."
Apologizing again wasn't going to sound convincing. Heero couldn't take back his reaction, his belief that Duo couldn't climb out of memory and stay in the here and now long enough to react properly. A part of his mind was still certain that, if he hadn't come out of the bedroom, when he had, Cain might not be among the living.
"I want last night back," Heero sighed and turned to get ready to leave. He was surprised when Duo caught at his arm and held him still. The hand was trembling and uncertain.
"If we let him ruin our anniversary, then that's worse, isn't it?" Duo said softly. "I don't want that. Let's have breakfast, relax on the beach, and... forget this."
Heero looked at Duo searchingly. A shock like that one could put Duo off for days, make him skittish, and want security. That had meant home and Soda. "Am I safe enough?" Heero wanted to know.
"Yes," Duo replied and Heero had to close his eyes against the emotion that threatened to overwhelm him.
Heero smiled at last and looked at Duo. "It will be all right," he reassured his lover. "We'll get a bag of glazed donuts, coffee, and take it out on the beach. There won't be many people this time of morning."
"I'd like that," Duo replied, smiling back.
Heero gathered their things and then faced Duo as the sun arrowed through the open doorway and covered them both. "Happy Anniversary."
"Happy Anniversary, love," Duo replied with a warm smile and they walked out together.
End
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