23 Aug 2001
Pairing: 2xR
Category: Romance
Rating for this section: NC-17
What to expect: Hetero-ai, probable sap, LEMON. I don't think this is OOC, but others are free to find it so. Takes place after EW, so it's AU in the way all hypothetical-future fics necessarily are.
Disclaimer: These characters belong to Sunrise, the Sotsu Agency, and Bandai, and I intend only to increase their revenues by contributing this derivative work.
Notes: I am SO not good at lemons. >_< But every so often I try to write one anyway! So, um, sorry in advance....
Ack! Almost forgot! From here on out, special thanks are very much due to Dalton--without her tireless cheerleading, prodding, and general support, this fic never would have made it past Part 5! ::glompsnoodle::
/ denotes thoughts
To touch is to heal
To hurt is to steal
If you want to kiss the sky
Better learn how to kneel
(On your knees, boy)
It took precisely an hour and ten minutes to walk from the salvage office to their front door; and it took more like two hours, Duo discovered, if one happened to be pushing a balky motorcycle most of the way. By the time the apartment building crept into view, he had exhausted most of his A-list profanity, and was reduced to mumbling comments about the machine's shady parentage. Reaching the door at last, Duo propped the stubborn bike on its kickstand, gave it an exhausted shove, and trudged up the steps. He knew he was very late, and Hilde had been home sick all day--she'd be worried, and Duo only hoped she might be feeling a little better. He hated getting yelled at and sniffled on all at the same time.
Hilde pounced on him just inside the kitchen door, her stuffed-up nose making her scolding almost incomprehensible. "I tried a'd tried to call you. Where the hell have you bid?"
"The bike broke down, and I had to walk it home. Man, you sound worse than you did this morning. Are you still running a fever?"
"Ged OFF!" She shoved his hand away from her forehead. "Will you lissed to be? She's here, Duo."
"Who's here? Are you delirious or something?"
"I'm here." Relena stood framed in the living-room doorway, hands clasped in front of her. In one moment of dumbfounded staring, Duo had time to notice that her hair was a little shorter, though still long enough to spill over the shoulders of her grey linen suit.
"Oh." He blinked, then looked cautiously back to Hilde. "Am I delirious?"
"Dope." Hilde shook her head triumphantly, wincing when the motion jarred her congested sinuses. "She's real. Go kiss her ad see."
"Hilde!" Duo made frantic hushing motions at her before turning to Relena. "She's flying on codeine, I swear," he insisted.
"It's all right. And I'm sorry to have just appeared like this." Visibly flustered by Hilde's exuberance, Relena hurried to explain her presence. "The governor invited me back for his birthday gala--I know I should have called, but there wasn't really time, and then Hilde wouldn't let me leave--"
"I told her I'd breathe od her if she tried eddythig," Hilde reported.
Relena spread her hands in a show of helplessness. "See? I was trapped."
"Guess so." Duo could not have looked away from her eyes if someone had set him on fire--which was, ironically enough, pretty much how he felt. Wrapped in unexpected flame, with no hope of rescue as long as she kept smiling at him like that.... Recollecting himself, he ventured to ask, "So how long are you here?"
"Just a day or so. The party is tomorrow, actually, and I leave the morning after that." Her bright eyes held all the guilty delight of a child creeping downstairs after bedtime. "I didn't tell the governor's staff that I was arriving early, either."
"She's stayig for supper," Hilde announced.
"Oh, no," Relena insisted. "I couldn't let you go to any trouble."
"I need to make dinner for the germ factory over there anyway, so it's no trouble." Duo extracted a can from the cupboard. "What's your official position on tomato soup, Minister?"
"Soup would be lovely. May I help?"
"Nah," he assured them, brandishing a saucepan. "You two contessas have a seat, and your feast will be ready in two shakes. In the meantime, you want something to drink? Nothing fancy, but we have about ten gallons of orange juice, and I think there's beer in here somewhere."
"Tea?" Hilde croaked helpfully. " I'd like tea."
"That does sound good," Relena agreed.
"You got it," Duo promised, handing the invalid another box of tissues before lighting a burner under the teakettle.
"So." Hilde turned back to Relena, propping her chin on her hands. "If you're not officially here, where'll you be staying?"
Relena looked uncertain. "Oh. Well, I didn't exactly make a reservation yet, but I brought the numbers of some hotels."
"Uh-uh. They'll be booked solid--there's a festival for the big guy's birthday, see," Hilde informed her solemnly. "Better stay here."
There was a sudden clatter by the stove, and then muffled cursing as Duo retrieved the ladle from the floor and dropped it into the sink.
Hiding a smile, Relena turned back to Hilde. "That's so nice of you, Hilde, but I really couldn't. Especially when you're sick, and--"
"No buts," Hilde commanded. "The couch folds out--as if you'll need it--and there's lots of room." Her regal tone was somewhat undermined by a fit of sneezing, but she held firm.
Relena raised her eyebrows at the interjection, but offered a reluctant compromise. "Why don't I try to make some calls later, and we'll see? But I'm very grateful for the offer, either way."
Duo listened to them chatting at the table, Hilde's temporarily raspy voice alternating with the low, almost musical tones he was used to hearing only over the phone. He kept his eyes on the pan, where the soup swirled in gentle spirals around the spoon: a mesmerizing pattern that seemed of a piece with the entire hallucinatory evening.
"Bowls're over the sink," Hilde offered from her seat at the table.
Jerked back to reality, Duo gave his head a sharp shake. "I know where they are, goofball--hold your horses," he began, but then there was a gentle clink as Relena set the bowls down on the counter at his elbow.
She reached out to lay tentative fingertips against the back of his hand. "I missed you," she admitted softly.
His stirring slowed to a halt. "Me too. A lot."
Relena didn't speak, but leaned her cheek against his shoulder for a moment; then the teakettle shrilled, and she busied herself with Hilde's mug.
Three bowls, three spoons: only one more than usual. Only one extra chair pulled up to the battered kitchen table, too. But somehow, one extra person made a huge difference; the kitchen was fairly brimming over with excited conversation, not to mention glowing with several billion volts of excess nervous energy.
Hilde watched over the rim of her mug as they talked--as if such a commonplace word as 'talk' could possibly capture the electricity sparking across that kitchen table. The conversation was like a ball they were tossing back and forth, or a many-colored web they were weaving; they finished one another's sentences, leaping from subject to subject and spinning new thoughts before the old ones could vanish into the air. Hilde smiled secretively into her tea, more than a little pleased with the success of her efforts.
The giddy whirl of words might have gone on indefinitely, but in Hilde's weakened condition, ten o'clock felt like the wee hours of the morning. Reluctantly gathering up her bowl and spoon, she moved toward the sink, fully intending to slip away without disturbing them. It didn't quite work.
"Now you have to let me help," Relena said, rising to her feet with a handful of spoons and crockery.
"Oh, all right," Hilde conceded, moving aside to make room by the sink.
Suddenly reminded of his long walk home, and of the correspondingly dusty state of his clothes, Duo pushed his chair back. "If you guys can entertain each other for a while, I think I'll grab a shower before Mr. Perotti starts running his bath."
"Our upstairs neighbor likes a good soak after dinner," Hilde explained to Relena.
"Yeah--and he steals all the hot water," Duo snorted. "So I'd better hurry."
"Go, go. We need a little water for the dishes, but we won't take it all," Hilde promised.
When Duo was safely gone, Hilde turned back to Relena with a smile. "Now. Didn't I tell you it was good that you came?"
"You did," Relena admitted, taking the offered dishcloth. "Several times, as I recall."
"And you're not going to do anything silly, like call a hotel--right?" Hilde narrowed her eyes, trying to look menacing.
Relena sighed, looking as downtrodden as she could--though the effect was somewhat spoiled by the laughing glint in her eye. "Since you leave me no other choice? No. I suppose I won't."
"Good girl." Hilde rinsed another bowl and handed it to her. "It's really something, you know? I've never ever seen him this happy. I mean, I'd hardly call him gloomy most of the time, but this is impressive."
Relena smiled down at the bowl she was wiping. "You give me
too much credit."
Hilde eyed her shrewdly. "I hope not--and I hope you know what you're doing."
"What do you mean?" Relena turned to her, concerned.
"Look, I may be out of line here, but I wanted to say--" Hilde frowned at the dishwater, figuring out how best to phrase her worry. "It's just that Duo puts on a pretty good tough-guy act, but he's still breakable." She looked up from the sink, her eyes wide and serious. "Be careful with my boy, Relena."
"I will," Relena promised just as solemnly. "Always."
After a long, measuring glance, Hilde nodded briskly. "All right, then."
"You guys about done solving the problems of the universe out here, or d'you need another minute?" Duo came back into the kitchen, buttoning his shirt.
"Oh, not the whole universe," Hilde smirked. "Just you."
"Uh, thanks--I think," Duo said, raising his eyebrows.
They sat down again around the table, but the easy chatter of early evening had given way to something more hesitant; the air fairly vibrated with unspoken questions, and an almost unbearable anticipation.
Having assessed the situation via a series of covert glances, Hilde hoisted herself out of her chair with a theatrical sigh. "I'b goig to bed," she announced, managing to sound even more melodramatically congested than before. "Ad I'b tagig lods of cold bedicid, so I'll be cobpletely udcodshus. Wod't be able t'hear a thig." With that, she trailed off to her room; the door slammed emphatically a moment later.
Left alone, they could barely look at one another. /Here we are again,/ Duo thought to himself. /You and me and a whole lot of nighttime./ And underneath the more articulate activities of his brain, a slow ache of hopeful desire flexed and coiled with all the inexorability of tectonic shift.
He cleared his throat, trying to look urbane. "You've seen just about all of the apartment, so I guess a grand tour would be kind of moot." /Except that it'd give me an excuse to get you into my bedroom, and--down, boy. You'll scare the pretty lady./
Relena lifted her eyes to him almost shyly. "Well, I was wondering."
"What?" /Anything. Look at me like that one more time, and I'll hand you the moon./
"Where's your computer? I didn't see one out here, and I was--" She seemed to steel herself to continue, and her next words came out in a rush. "I was wondering where you sit when you write to me."
"Oh." He swallowed, throat suddenly dry. "It's in here."
Fortunately, his room was fairly tidy; the laundry basket was overflowing, but with clean clothes, and for once his bed was even neatly made. Relena slid onto the straight-backed wooden chair that faced his desk, and reached out to touch the keyboard. "Une just got a system like this. It's a fast one, hm?"
Duo was trying not to watch her hands, but couldn't lift his eyes from the strangely intimate sight of her fingers moving against the familiar keys. He could almost feel that caress against his skin; the phantom sensation alone was nearly enough to bring him to his knees, and he had to bite back a groan as she curved her palm over the mouse. /Mother Mary and the angels, I am not going to survive this./ Before his legs could give out altogether, he leaned sideways to prop a shoulder against the door frame.
When Duo didn't answer, Relena swiveled in the chair to look at him; her eyes widened under the weight of his helpless stare, and a slow blush crept over her cheeks. She cleared her throat, folding her hands on the desktop in front of her. "You know," she said after a moment, "I'm not especially fond of your governor--I don't even know him all that well."
"Is that so?" He waited, not even breathing.
"It is. And so I don't really care all that much about his birthday party." Relena's voice had steadied, and now her playful tone deepened to match the intensity of her eyes. "I just--I came here because dreaming wasn't enough, not any more, and I wanted to see if we could make it real. Even if it was just for a little while."
His heart jerked painfully inside his chest, then began thudding so forcefully that she had to be able to hear it, even across the room.
Relena was staring down at her hands with a rueful smile. "But it's funny, you know--I came all this way hoping to seduce you, and now I don't have the faintest idea where to start."
Duo felt light-headed, even a little drunk; was it possible she didn't know? "Walk through the door; that's all it takes." He lifted his shoulders and let them drop. "That's how it's always been. Come into the room, and you've got me. Any way you want me."
"Oh." Relena stood up so quickly that the chair threatened to tip over; when she managed to speak, her voice was husky with entreaty. "Oh, come here!"
She reached out blindly for him, and he met her halfway across the worn carpet, pulling her close. So strange, and so wonderfully familiar: she curved against him as if his arms had been designed to hold her, the golden head turning to rest against his shoulder.
For a little while all he could do was hold on, getting used to the three-dimensional reality of her warm body fitting against his. But Relena wasn't holding still; in fact, she was pressing closer with a delicious wriggling motion that wasn't doing anything to help his concentration. Duo's hands slipped from her shoulders to her back, finally settling on her hips--but instead of creating distance, he ended up increasing the maddening friction by urging her even closer.
Losing patience with such petty niceties as clothing, he pushed Relena's open jacket off her shoulders, letting it slide down her willingly extended arms to drop to the floor. Feeling for her collar, Duo encountered a puzzling lack of fastenings.
"How does this come off?" he demanded, his voice sounding oddly rough.
She laughed, a warm ripple against his chest. "It buttons up the back. Here--" Relena stretched to reach for the top button; the change in position pressed her breasts against his chest in a most distracting way.
He batted her hands away before the contact could overload any more of his synapses. "'S okay. Got it."
They were tiny buttons, and slippery ones, but Duo persevered--all that lock-picking experience finally coming in handy--and eventually the stubborn garment joined her jacket on the floor. Relena sighed with pleasure as his hands slid over her nearly-bare back and shoulders, and then giggled.
"Duo. You do realize that you've never even kissed me?"
"Can fix that." And he did, taking her flushed, laughing face between hands that were unexpectedly steady. The kiss began with something like reverence; a series of brief, infinitely gentle caresses against her parted lips. But then it deepened gradually into a heated exploration that left both of them shaken.
Duo finally dragged his mouth away, whispering into her hair. "Relena."
"Hm?" She leaned against him, blissfully dazed.
"We need to sit down before I fall down," he managed. "Besides, I want this door shut. Now."
Relena rubbed her cheek against his in an almost feline nuzzle, then disentangled herself with a devastating little smile. "Cutting off my escape?"
"You got it." Duo leaned out into the living room long enough to take a swipe at the light switch, darkening the outer rooms. When he closed the door and turned around, Relena was folding her skirt neatly over the back of his desk chair. Her shoes already rested beneath it, heels and toes primly aligned. He laughed. "How is it that you can make even compulsive behavior sexy?"
She turned, self-consciously tucking her hair behind one ear, and Duo gulped. He hadn't gotten a good look earlier at what was under her troublesome blouse, but now he realized that instead of the demure undergarments he'd expected, Relena was wearing a complex garter-belt arrangement constructed entirely of some incredibly sheer peach-colored fabric.
"Whoa. Did you go to a store for that?" The image of her selecting this confection from a department-store rack left him momentarily tense with possessive jealousy--if some clerk had seen this, and even thought about imagining her wearing it, he'd--
"No." Relena blushed, the fascinating wash of color making her skin only one or two shades darker than the pale silk. "I had it delivered. I told you I had a plan? Well," she gestured uncertainly toward the ensemble. "This was Phase Three."
"Good plan. Especially Phase Three." He swallowed. "Did I mention that this plan has my full support?"
"I got that impression, yes." Gaining confidence, she tilted her head invitingly. "You know, this fastens in the back, too."
"That would be Phase Four," he parried. "And I'm afraid that stage of the plan requires you to be on the bed, ma'am. If you don't mind."
Relena narrowed her eyes at him. "I thought this was my plan?"
"This kind of strategy is very delicate," Duo explained, coming close enough to curve his hands around her waist. At close range, her outfit was even more interesting; the fabric appeared almost iridescent, and clung to her body like a calyx cupping the petals of a half-blown rose. Very interesting, indeed. "Yup," he continued unevenly. "You, um, really ought to leave it to an expert."
"And that would be you?" Relena rested her hands lightly on his upper arms as he steered her to the bed, seating her on its edge.
"Absolutely," Duo confirmed, dropping to his knees to investigate the clasps holding up her stockings; flipping them open, he grimaced at the red indentations the clips had left on the delicate skin of her thighs. "Ow. Don't these things pinch?"
"Like you wouldn't believe," Relena admitted, and then caught her breath when he bent to soothe the red marks with lips and tongue, rolling her stockings smoothly down her calves at the same time. Duo looked quickly up at her to gauge her reaction, and smiled more than a little triumphantly at her dazed expression before turning back to his work.
"Not that I don't appreciate the effort, but--" He unfastened the garter belt itself, setting it carefully on top of the discarded stockings. "I'd be just as happy with clothes that don't bite, y'know."
"Mmm," Relena replied, more in response to the caresses than the accompanying words. Gathering her wits, she tugged meaningfully at his shirt. "Why am I the only one almost naked?"
Duo sat back on his heels to laugh up at her. "Because you're more fun to look at, silly."
"That," she announced, "is a matter of opinion. Off, please."
"All right, all right." He obeyed the directive, unbuttoning his long-sleeved shirt--and then laughed at Relena's exasperated reaction when all he revealed was a cotton t-shirt underneath.
"Always so many layers," she complained, yanking until she had the second shirt free of his jeans. "What are you hiding under here?"
Duo didn't still her hands, but his laugh held wariness. "I have a lot of scars. From--you know." Grateful for a reason to look away, he took his time pulling both shirts off over his head, and then paused a bit longer to disentangle his plait from the bundle of cloth.
"I know." Relena smiled into his eyes, reaching out to draw him onto the bed beside her.
"Some of those are really old," he explained, watching her face for signs of distaste as she scooted to lie next to him. "I got knocked around a lot when I was a kid, and that was before the war even started."
"Mm-hm," Relena replied absently. "Can you feel that?" She laid her fingers against one of the knotted ridges that crisscrossed his chest and abdomen.
"Nope." Duo craned his neck to see what she was doing. "That one's a burn; it was pretty bad. Took a while to heal."
"This?"
"A little bit, if you push. Shrapnel."
"But you can feel this." The very tip of her finger traced a shallow curve along one of the rare smooth patches.
"Yeah." It was exquisite, that feather-light touch against skin so long deprived of contact. He closed his eyes.
"And this."
Those must be her nails, moving in a teasing spiral where shoulder became pectoral; he could actually see the sensation, mapped out behind his eyelids in distinct silvery lines. Unable to speak, Duo resorted to a wordless nod. She laughed low in her throat, and then he felt the soft press of her lips where her nails had been, followed by the silken sweep of her hair as she kissed her way from shoulder to shoulder, and then down across his chest. The wash of sensation was making him dizzy; he opened his eyes, hoping that a visual anchor would make things stop spinning, and reached down to thread yearning fingers through her hair.
Relena paused, looking up with an enigmatic little smile before tugging at the waistband of his jeans. "You're not done, I think."
"Guess not." Duo sat up, wrestled briefly with button and zipper, and shimmied out of the rough fabric. Still sitting on the edge of the bed, he paused. "Before anything else comes off, I need to get something."
Relena cocked her head to one side. "Should I be worried? This isn't going to require heavy machinery, is it?"
Duo stretched, trying to reach his bottom dresser drawer without abandoning the bed. "Nah. It's just that--I mean, I've been run through just about every test they've got, and everything keeps coming back negative, but I'd still rather not--"
He was only a little distracted when Relena came to nestle against his back; but then he gasped, almost falling off the mattress, when she reached around him to slide both hands under the waistband of his shorts. "Hey, now--don't--oh. Oh, my god." He bit down hard on his lower lip, trying not to cry out more loudly as her exploratory movements became rhythmic. "Sweet merciful christ...."
"I'm afraid it's just me." Relena punctuated her apology with
light kisses along his spine. "No deities in sight."
Well beyond the reach of words, Duo managed only a formless groan by way of reply. He'd had this dream before, in this very bed--and to have it coming true, to know those were her hands on him instead of his own, sent waves of heat crashing over him. But if he could just hang on for another minute, this could be even better; calling on his fading reserves, Duo groped for her wrists. "Hold that thought. And don't hold anything else until I say so, okay?"
Relena giggled. "Okay."
He lurched forward to rifle through a pile of sweatshirts, coming up clutching a box of condoms still sporting its shrink-wrapping. "Got 'em!" he announced, and then it occurred to him to turn the carton over to check for an expiration date. "And they're still good to go, too."
Relena leaned over his shoulder to investigate. "It would have been all right, in any case." She looked more than a little proud of her foresight. "I brought some with me."
He shook his head, peeling off the plastic wrap with impatient fingers and setting the box within easy reach. "You're too much."
"Is that a good thing?" Relena pondered, still kneeling on the bed next to him.
"You bet." Turning to face her, Duo dropped a quick kiss on the end of her nose before scooting farther onto the bed. He tugged one peachy strap down to bare her shoulder, leaning in to graze her skin with his teeth. While Relena was distracted, he reached behind her, managing no less than three hooks and eyes with one twist of his fingers.
She laughed, miming applause, as he twirled the confiscated lingerie around one finger before sending it flying across the room. She applauded again when he launched a pillow at the wall switch with perfect accuracy, darkening the room without setting foot on the floor.
"Very impressive, Mr. Maxwell," she observed, eyes sparkling with laughter even in the suddenly shadowed room.
"Oh, you haven't seen anything yet," he promised, turning back to her with a dangerous grin. "Nobody's got better aim than me."
Relena actually snickered. "Not even Trowa?"
"Trowa--" He shot her a reproachful glance before lowering his head to nuzzle her shoulder. "--may have a big gun--" His mouth moved lower, ghosting over the upper curve of her breast. "--but he's always running out of bullets. Ask Quatre."
Smothered giggles giving way to another kind of breathlessness, Relena started to lie back, but then something seemed to occur to her. "Duo."
"Yeah." Duo didn't lift his head from her breast, so the word was another caress against her skin.
She shivered at the delightful sensation, but remained stubbornly focused. "Say so."
Uncomprehending, he repeated, "Sew?"
Though Duo couldn't see it, her smile became devilish; the next moment, Relena had slipped out of his distracted arms, and had his shorts down to his knees.
Without even thinking, he moved forward into her searching hands, letting her inexpert fingers encircle him again. "No fair," he muttered, trying to retaliate by nipping her shoulder.
She only laughed, undeterred, and kept up her languid stroking. Desperate for more, he reached down to guide her hand, taking charge of her clumsy caress. "Like this?" she whispered, obediently tightening her grip.
For a moment the only answer he could offer was a hiss of pleasure escaping through clenched teeth; eventually, though, he achieved speech. "Yeah. Like that." He swallowed, trying to remember what else he'd intended to say. "Too good."
"No such thing," Relena pointed out.
"Maybe," he rasped. "But this is going to be over before it starts, if you keep doing that. Give me a minute to--"
Regretfully withdrawing her hands, Relena shifted to lie back against the bed, stretching both arms luxuriously over her head as she watched him. Duo turned aside just long enough to reach for the box on the nightstand and tear into one of the foil-wrapped condoms. Kicking his shorts onto the floor, he sat up for a moment to put it on, then leaned forward in the semi-darkness until his lips blundered against hers for a long, sweet kiss. Her fingertips hovered over the lines of his face, a series of butterfly-light caresses at his temples and along his jaw.
This was good, but not enough; he turned onto his side so he could feel the whole length of her body under his. One knee slid between hers as he changed position, and she pressed against his thigh--tentatively at first, but then with increasing urgency. Her need was intoxicating; he rocked to meet her, purring, "You like that?"
Relena bit her lip, nodding, and pushed forward again.
"Shh. Here." Keeping one arm under her neck for support, he eased the other hand between her legs, pushing the thin fabric aside to dip into the even more silken heat beneath it.
"Better?"
A low, pleading sound escaped her; motionless under his caresses for only a moment, she began to press hot little kisses against every part of him she could reach.
Without ceasing the tormenting motions of his right hand, Duo sat up enough to reach down with his left and snag the elastic at her waist, coaxing her knees up until he could do away with the last bit of clothing. Duo shifted his weight to his left elbow, a sly smile playing about the corners of his mouth. "If you thought sneezing was fun, you're going to love this."
"What are you--oh."
Relena's eyes drifted shut, lips parting breathlessly as she concentrated on the feelings building inside; her hands slid through Duo's hair and wandered over his back, lighting fires of their own every time she touched him. Duo murmured little nonsense words of encouragement into her ear, trying not to lose himself just yet. At last she stiffened, a soft cry of surprised pleasure escaping her as she convulsed around his fingers. One hand clutched helplessly at the sheets, the other tightening on his upper arm in a silent plea as she arched back against the pillows.
Finally returning to earth, she blinked up at him. "Oh." Her eyes were huge with wonder. "Oh, do it again!"
Duo laughed, a little shakily, and stroked her damp bangs back from her forehead. "Just getting started."
She slid both arms around his neck, pulling him down for a long kiss, and then drew back a little; one fingertip traced the outline of his mouth. "Can we? Please? I want to feel you."
He closed his eyes for a moment, overcome by a combination of tenderness and sheer unrelenting need--and then opened them again to meet her trusting blue gaze. "I'll be careful." His voice was a grating whisper, and he couldn't keep the anxiousness out of his eyes as he shifted to lie between her legs. "But this might hurt."
Relena touched his cheek, lips curving in a faint smile as she nodded. "I know."
Duo kept his eyes locked on hers, watching for flinches as he gradually pressed forward; light strokes eased the way for deeper ones until he was completely embraced by her. It was almost too much--this closeness, this incredible heat, a flame that made his most daring dreams seem pale and chill by comparison. His body was screaming for release already, and they had barely begun. Shaking with the effort of restraint, he gasped, "Okay?"
"Yes. Oh, yes." She wriggled a little, adjusting to the feeling, and then beamed up at him in delicious surprise. "Doesn't hurt--it didn't hurt, Duo."
He couldn't answer her--all words were lost in a haze of pure sensation--but he managed a dazed smile in response, and began a gentle rocking motion.
Relena twisted, trying to wrap her legs around him; Duo shook his head doggedly, sliding her knees down from his hips until her legs were nearly straight. She made a reproachful noise, almost a growl.
"Trust me," he hushed her, and then started to move again. /This I know how to do,/ he thought rather smugly. /And I'll make it so good for you, Due. Just let me--just like this..../
This position limited him to slow, shallow movements; not the most satisfying arrangement for him, perhaps, but the angle meant that he was dragging against her most sensitive spot on every stroke. It didn't take long before she was moaning mindlessly under him again, desperately clutching at his shoulders. He let his head droop almost to her shoulder, loving the way she clung to him, the trusting abandon of her hungry movements. He paced himself as carefully as he could, reading her body to know when she was about to take flight.
Her cry, when it came, was barely audible--just a soft little "Oh!" against his throat. And then Relena trembled all over, a quick rippling shiver like wind over grass, even as he felt her inner muscles clench around him. That did it; he clutched her even closer, pouring himself into her in wave after wave of almost painful pleasure.
Regaining her breath, Relena pushed her face against his neck with a shaky sigh before sagging back onto the bed. "Is it always like that?"
Finished with the discreet disposal of their precautionary measures, Duo rolled onto his side to look at her. "I think it's supposed to be." He stroked her hair back from her face, intent on memorizing every detail of her dreamy, contented expression. "Never felt like that before, though."
She arched her neck to look up at him, definitely preening. "Not bad for a debut performance, hm?"
He couldn't help laughing. "Nope. Though I can't wait to see what happens when you actually get some practice."
"Mm. I think I'll need a lot of practice," she agreed, finding a comfortable position against his shoulder as he rearranged himself to lie on his back. A drowsy silence settled, broken only by the cadence of their breathing and the muted ticking of his bedside clock.
"I'm not falling asleep," Duo informed her hazily.
"Oh?" She smiled into the dark, not moving.
"Nope. That'd be rude." Completely enervated, every muscle deliciously relaxed, he didn't even have the energy to yawn. "'M just resting my eyes for a minute."
"Mm-hm." Relena stretched just enough to tug the blankets over her bare arms, then nestled back down with a sigh. "Maybe I'll rest mine, too. Just for a minute."
End of Part 6: Mysteries
(:./lilias/mystified6)
