---------------------------------
Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme
      ~ A Moment of Haven ~
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	"So... what came after parsley again?"

	"P... no Q.  R.  Rosemary, wasn't it?"

	Duo snapped his fingers.  "Yeah, that was it.  Rosemary.  
Rosemary..."  He wracked his mind for more information.  "I think that's 
a pretty common one, isn't it?  Just seems like one I've heard around a 
lot."

	"I think it's common."  Heero shrugged.  This was just as much 
an adventure for him as it was for Duo.  "I remember several recipes for 
chicken with rosemary and lemon."

	"Sounds tasty."

	"Think we should make plans for a spice rack?"  He pointed to a 
spot on the laptop's screen.  "We could fit one there."

	"Hmm.  Maybe."  Duo contemplated the 3D mockup they'd made of 
their kitchen, glancing over his shoulder at the current arrangement 
just to be sure he had it all right in his head.  "Not a very big one, 
maybe, but... you know, it might come in handy.  Doesn't have to be used 
for just spices, I guess."

	Heero bumped shoulders with him, smiling faintly.  "Will we have 
to organize all of our spices in alphabetical order, too?"

	Duo returned fire, bumping back with enough force to make Heero 
take a half-step to steady himself.  "You do, and I'll hurt you, Yuy."

	"You were the one that wanted to work our way through the herbs 
and spices alphabetically."

	"I didn't hear you coming up with a better idea."

	That could possibly have been because he hadn't cared what order 
they went in.  That didn't mean he couldn't question Duo's decisions, 
though.  "And you had to start in the middle of the alphabet, too."

	Duo shrugged, turning around and leaning back, resting his 
elbows on the countertop behind him.  "Hey, don't you ever feel bad for 
those poor middle letters?  Things are always going in alphabetical 
order, and occasionally when someone wants to mix things up, they go in 
reverse alphabetical order.  Middle letters never get to be first, 
either way."

	"You're just bitter because you're filed under 'M'."

	"And you're just smug 'cuz you're a 'Y'!"  He flicked his 
fingers irritably at Heero's forearm.

	"Things are alphabetical far more often than they are reverse 
alphabetical."

	"Yeah, but even if things are sorted going forward, it's still 
really easy to find your stuff 'cuz you know you're at the end.  I'm 
always buried in the middle somewhere."  They had been alphabetized 
constantly while they'd been at that school, and it had been the most 
asinine thing ever, though in retrospect, he supposed it was better than 
being ordered by pilot numerical designation.

	Heero's attention had returned to their kitchen layout.  He 
fiddled a little with the virtual dimensions.  "How serious were you 
about making our own cabinets?"

	"I dunno."  Duo turned around again and tilted himself against 
Heero as he thought about it.  "Seems like it shouldn't be too hard to 
make something that, you know, won't fall apart.  But we should probably 
practice first with like a table or something.  And by the time we 
worked our way up to cabinetry, it'd be a long time later.  And the 
tools.  We'd have to buy a lot of tools, don't you think?"

	"I wonder if you can buy wood with the patterns on them already, 
or if you have to craft them yourself somehow."

	"Dunno."  Surely that was a specialty sort of thing.  Of all the 
tools they'd seen at the hardware store, he didn't recall ever seeing 
door carving equipment, but maybe the specialty woodworking place had 
something.  They hadn't quite worked up the gumption to go in there yet, 
though.  "I guess they'd still be all ours and personalized if we choose 
all the patterns and stuff, right?"

	Heero took the idea and strolled with it.  "We can install them 
ourselves.  I'm sure we can handle that without too much practice.  And 
we can probably stain them ourselves if we want to.  It'll probably be 
less expensive, anyway.  Combined with the countertop and the sink and 
the rest of it, we'll need to do as much 'less expensive' as possible."

	"Don't have to get obvious with me, Yuy.  I've been right there 
next to you every time we've run the numbers."

	"Not sure you're paying attention all of the time."  He wrapped 
an arm loosely around Duo's waist to take the sting out of the statement 
of fact.

	"Well, you know, I get next to you.  I get distracted 
sometimes."  Duo made himself even more comfortable against Heero's side 
before deciding that nibbling lazily at Heero's ear lobe would be pretty 
comfortable, too.  "Do I ever distract you?"

	Heero decided not to incriminate himself and went for the 
tangent instead.  "You've had a smirk on your face all day, Duo.  Did 
you disembowel someone?"

	"No..."  He rarely got so far as a disembowelment.  Boring in 
some ways, really.  "But I heard you did."

	"Excuse me?"

	He grinned widely.  "Funniest thing.  Class today?  I hear two 
of the kiddies talking about something someone told them.  Said 
something about the CQC class, and its crazy instructor."  If he'd been 
looking at the time, he might have noticed a strained look on his 
partner's face.  "He's this kid, just like their improv teacher -- not 
half as cute, though, but I digress.  Apparently, first the guy offers 
to choke out everyone in the class.  As a teaching aid, yeah?  And then 
someone in the class gets huffy with him, and he --"  He finally caught 
a glimpse of Heero out of the corner of his eye and assessed his 
expression.  "You're embarrassed.  That's so cute."

	Heero looked away grumpily.  "I am not embarrassed.  Or cute."

	"You are, too.  Or at least..."  He drew Heero's focus back with 
a finger under the chin and studied him for a moment.  Cute, he was.  
Embarrassed... no, maybe not quite.  Maybe...  Duo let out a loud 
exasperated sound.  "Oh for chrissake, Yuy.  What's got your feathers 
all in a fluff?"

	"My...?"

	He stroked Heero's cheek gently with a thumb before letting his 
hand fall away.  "Tell me what happened?"

	It was inevitable.  Why fight it?  "I... I don't know.  I 
shouldn't have done it.  I probably alienated them."  He pinned the 
kitchen window with a far-off look.

	"If you were going to alienate them, Heero, I think that would 
have been when you offered to help them all pass out.  I heard something 
about being kind of bummed that you couldn't dislocate everyone's arms, 
too, or something like that.  Anyway.  That was a few days ago, right?  
How have things been since then?"

	"No problems."  Heero shrugged slightly, almost out of habit.  
"Business as usual."

	"Guy giving you any more crap?"

	"Not really.  He wasn't really giving me crap before.  His 
concerns were justifiable, and expressed in an acceptable manner."

	Duo snorted.  "'Acceptable' would have been in private, after 
class, not calling you out in front of everyone."

	"I'm sure he wasn't the only one in the class that wondered 
about my qualifications."

	"And you answered him with proof.  You take people down in class 
all the time.  Business as usual.  Not like you hurt him or something.  
I'd hardly call that losing your temper, Yuy."

	Not what Heero had called it, either, but... it wasn't that far 
off.  "No.  But I still think I chose the wrong response."  'Acceptable' 
would have been talking to the man after class instead of knocking him 
down in front of everyone.  He shouldn't have escalated the situation.

	Duo sighed softly.  "Hey, even you can be wrong sometimes.  It 
happens.  Deal with it."  It quickly became apparent that Heero's 
preferred method of dealing with it would be dwell darkly on it for a 
few more days.  Unacceptable.  He half-turned and wrapped his arms 
around his partner.  "Aw, come on...  I thought it was kind of sexy."

	Heero blinked twice before giving Duo a tolerant, reluctantly 
amused sort of look.  "You weren't even there, Duo."

	"So?  I can imagine how it went down."  Duo had a very good 
imagination.  Heero would have moved with elegance and efficiency, and 
with that intense look on his face that could send chills down a 
person's spine.  "Been making me kind of hot and bothered all day, just 
thinking about it."

	His expression went from almost amused to almost incredulous.  
"Tell me you're kidding."

	"Just a little."  Duo got a raised eyebrow for his troubles.  
"What?  I'm not allowed to think you're hot when you're being so damn... 
*you*?"

	"'Me'?"

	Oh good lord, Heero was adorable.  Sometimes he wished the world 
could see how sweet and sensitive this crazy guy who wanted to choke 
people out could be, but he had to admit that more often than not, he 
wanted to keep that sweet and sensitive and crazy guy all to himself.  
"Mmmm, oh yeah.  *You*."  Determined to show Heero how good being 'him' 
was, he tightened his hold on Heero and kissed him thoroughly, and was 
very successful in his endeavors.

	"Mmm."  Not quite ready to stop, Heero feathered his lips toward 
Duo's ear and down his jaw.  "Maybe I should take you down sometime?"

	"Yeah, baby, you can take me all the way down."

	Heero paused, then pulled back with a slightly puzzled furrow in 
his brow.  "I'm not sure if that was an innuendo or not."

	He snickered.  "Does it matter?"  He struck a dramatic pose, as 
swoonful as his manly form could make it.  "Take me!  Take me now!"

	Heero took, aiming for a grab of the arm and a sweep of the 
legs.  Contrary to his words, Duo resisted, pulling Heero off-balance 
and stumbling with grace as he recovered his feet beneath him.  Heero 
gave him no time to take the advantage, using his momentum to swing Duo 
around and go for an arm lock.  Duo hooked a leg around Heero's ankle 
and pushed back, then twisted to free himself.  His waistband was 
snagged by Heero along the way, and then a wrist, and then his back met 
the kitchen wall with a firm thump.

	He was greeted by two bright blue eyes, expressing a smile that 
surely was echoed upon Heero's lips, but Duo couldn't see too well since 
their faces were just that close together.  And for that matter, so were 
their bodies.

	"Gotcha."

	"Got me," Duo agreed amiably.  Heero smelled of their recently 
consumed dinner, but Duo was oddly disappointed not to detect any hint 
of parsley.  If, in fact, he could remember the scent of parsley.  He 
remembered some scent, but he may have had that confused with the 
oregano from the other night.  All these things were getting all mixed 
up in his head, and they'd only just begun their foray into the world of 
herbs and spices.

	Heero looked apologetic for a moment.  "Not quite down, but--"

	"Stop talking."  Kissing was by far a higher priority than the 
talking right now.  That should have been obvious to Heero.  In case it 
wasn't, Duo once more took on the task of communicating that to him.  
Heero proved very receptive to the notion.  So receptive that, without 
any prompting, his hand had migrated north from the waistband of Duo's 
jeans and up underneath Duo's shirt.  Duo encouraged this with a happy 
sort of sound and a little wriggling, though the wriggling was 
constrained by the hips pressing against his.  Well, maybe not 
'constrained' so much as 'transformed'.  Transformed into a really good 
sort of friction.  Really good.

	He had the fingers of one of his hands knotted emphatically with 
the hair on the back of Heero's head.  His other hand was still pinned 
to the wall near his head.  That wasn't quite what he wanted.  That hand 
wanted to *do* things.  He wasn't sure where he would move it, given the 
choice, but he was sure it would be somewhere on Heero's body.  All his 
fingers could do was claw at the air, searching desperately for 
something to play with.  Heero obliged and shifted his grip to offer his 
fingers, and, well, maybe that was where his hand wanted to be after 
all, in its own intimate embrace with its counterpart.

	This was the sort of position he'd assumed would equal 'trapped' 
in his head.  He scratched out that entry in his mental database, filed 
under 'Y' for Yuy, and replaced it with... Hm.  The way he was humping 
Yuy's leg with only mild restraint made him conclude that the proper 
association was 'awhellyeah'.

	When Heero felt moved to apply his lips somewhere other than 
directly upon Duo's mouth, Duo found himself sufficiently deprived of 
wits to moan out the first thing that came to mind.  "Aah, oh yeah.  Oh 
hell yeah."  He was dimly aware that his words did not express much that 
was probably not thoroughly obvious, but just a few seconds ago, his 
mouth had been able to convey that directly to Heero's mouth.  Now that 
Heero was busily communing with the line of his jaw, he was left only to 
speak to Heero's ears.  The medium was terribly inadequate, but his 
mouth was determined to work with what it had.  "Uhn... oh god... if you 
don't stick your hand down my pants right now, I'm gonna do it myself."

	Heero slowed to a halt as Duo's words sank in.

	Duo slowed to a halt as his words sank in.  Stupid mouth.  "Um.  
Uh.  No pressure or anything."

	Heero licked tentatively at his neck.

	Duo nudged his hips against Heero's thigh a little and forgave 
his mouth.  It had just being doing his dick a favor in communicating 
its honest enthusiasm.  His dick didn't have the options that his mouth 
had, being trapped inside his pants, and it wasn't that keen on talking 
to itself.

	His hand on the wall sent him belated notification that he could 
probably lower his arm now.  Heero's hand had withdrawn from the field.  
He sighed, but halfway through the exhalation, his breath reversed 
course.  Withdrawn from one field to sortie into another.

	Heero fumbled one-handedly with the button of Duo's jeans for a 
few seconds before recalling his other hand from the inside of Duo's 
shirt to join the effort.  Three licks, two nips, and one long kiss 
later, the outer perimeter was finally breached.  He entered the foreign 
territory cautiously, thinking, as he did sometimes in that disconnected 
way of his, that it was awfully warm down there, and then he met the 
source of that heat, embodied in one semi-hard length of flesh.

	Duo held his breath, but only for a second.  He figured that, if 
he was going to deprive himself of oxygen, he might as well do it the 
good way, and he might as well have company.  Maybe that would help get 
Heero's brain off-line for a bit, enough for him to stop pondering or 
hesitating or whatever the hell he was doing and just move his goddamn 
hand.  But maybe his plan was too good, too distracting, and maybe Yuy 
was pouring all of his concentration into the coordination of their 
tongues.  He broke it off with an impatient sound.  "Dammit, Yuy, if 
you're going to be down there, then fucking do something!"  He thrust 
his hips pointedly.

	Heero finally remembered where his hand was and moved.  His 
strokes seemed more unsure than reluctant as he explored the angles 
available to him, and finally he encouraged Duo into a shimmy to tug his 
jeans lower and win more room to work with.

	A soft, throaty chuckle accompanied Duo's compliance.  The wall 
behind him was a good thing.  Between that and the arm he still had 
around Heero, his fingers still buried in Heero's hair, he didn't have 
to worry about mundane things like standing upright, leaving him free to 
concentrate on feeling good.  He glanced down and tried to guide the 
movements of Heero's hand with the motion of his hips.  It didn't work 
very well.  He laughed again and pulled Heero's head forward to whisper 
into his ear.  "Do me like you do yourself."

	Heero pulled back, just enough to grace him with an upraised 
eyebrow above a wry, if flushed, expression.

	"Ah.  Good point."  Apparently the sexy talk was a no-go.  He 
smothered his amusement against Heero's lips to let him know that all 
was right with the world, regardless.  "Let me show you what I mean."  
His free hand said hello again to Heero's only briefly before it 
diverted course to the waistband of Heero's pants.  With a smirk, he 
managed to get them unbuttoned and unzipped with just one hand, though 
lowering them enough to get them out of his way required the assistance 
of five toes adding a few extra tugs.

	A thought finally joined the party, a little bit late, but maybe 
better late than never.  There they were, standing in their kitchen, 
hanging out of their sagging pants, hands wrapped around each other... 
Wasn't he supposed to be feeling shy or embarrassed or nervous or 
something?

	Uh, no, his dick answered disdainfully, booting the thought from 
Duo's mind with an eager little jump kick.  Who invited that loser to 
the party anyway?

	Duo agreed, and attended to the matter in hand.  Admittedly, 
Heero had some justification for his slow-going.  The positioning of all 
the relevant parts was a little different.  His hand wasn't used to 
being all the way over there.  He solved this by tugging Heero closer, 
until everything was lined up all nice and neat right next to each 
other.  Things were more than a little different now, but in a way he 
could definitely work with.  A surge of masculine pride welled up from 
within, a giddy little laugh he knew was absurd.  Of course he was 
bigger than Heero was at the moment.  He was half hard, and Heero 
wasn't.  A situation that would be remedied immediately.

	Introductions were made with some nuzzling at both head and 
crotch height, and then Duo parted the new friends with a promise of 
many playdates in the future.  It was a little weird to have his hand 
move on a dick and for him to not feel it, true, so he granted Heero 
another point in his favor, but then Heero started echoing his actions, 
and it was like he was feeling it, just with a slight delay.  A little 
surreal, but more than a little good.

	He glanced up and found Heero looking at his face again.  Only 
the faintest hint of his usual solemnity was there.  It had been 
overtaken by an expectant look, one that had glimpsed the future and saw 
many good things lying in store.  Duo answered with a grin of boyish 
glee and pulled Heero forward again for some more kisses that somehow 
managed to send an electric zing past that mass of sensation in his 
belly and groin and on down to his toes, which curled in delight.

	With each stroke, he thought less and less about the minor 
details.  Sure, their rhythms were a little off, but hey, if it was 
because Heero chose to apply a thumb to his tip at a different time than 
he did to Heero's, was he really going to complain?  Not so long as 
Heero kept it up.  And keep it up he did.  Before he knew it, he wasn't 
thinking of it as Heero mimicking his actions but ohmygod Heero effing 
Yuy was jerking him off and didn't it feel good?  Never one to leave his 
hands idle, Heero sent his free hand back underneath Duo's shirt, and 
his nipples sent tingly messages of joy down to his groin, and the 
exultation in his groin overflowed and dripped pleasure all over his 
knees, which went weak but didn't have to feel bad about not performing 
their duties because being sandwiched between the kitchen wall and Heero 
effing Yuy was doing a great job of keeping him upright, thanks.

	The sudden release of all that pressure that had pooled in his 
gut didn't surprise him this time, not like it had that time in front of 
the fireplace.  It wasn't that he was ready for it this time, so much as 
it was just the natural, inevitable consequence of their actions.  When 
he came back down from the high and gathered his scattered brain cells 
into an exhausted little heap, he realized Heero was as limp in his hand 
as he felt.  God, he hoped there were two puddles making a mess between 
them and not just one, or he was going to feel really, really bad.  Oh, 
wait, there was one accounted for.  He felt it on the skin of his belly, 
where Heero had shoved his shirt up.  It gave him a weird little thrill 
to not know whose mess it was.  But ohgoodlord the other one had better 
be around somewhere...

	He opened his eyes with a good deal of trepidation, and realized 
belatedly he didn't have to just to figure things out.  Heero's forehead 
rested against the kitchen wall above his shoulder.  He could feel the 
hot puffs of air as Heero calmed his breathing.  They'd both enjoyed 
themselves, then.  He sighed softly in relief, reflexively wanting to 
run a hand through his bangs, causing him to realize that his arm 
slumped lazily over Heero's shoulder now, his fingers only loosely 
playing through the short hairs above the neck.  He gave them a little 
more freedom, and they discovered that most of the hair on the back of 
Heero's head was in quite a disarray, and he had made it that way.  He 
winced, knowing that his grip had probably tightened uncomfortably at 
times, and smoothed it back down with some repentent finger-combing 
mixed with a light massage.  "Sorry."

	Several careful breaths later, Heero responded.  "That's not the 
first thing I want to hear out of your mouth right now."

	"Oh?  What do you want to hear, then?"  Running his fingers 
through Heero's hair was usually a relaxing activity.  It was a 
distraction now.  He didn't know what to say, but he knew what he didn't 
want to hear.  As long as Yuy didn't say, 'Get your damn hand out of my 
pants,' he thought he'd be okay.  Not that either of them was 
particularly inside their pants anymore, which was, he suspected, the 
problem.

	"Not an apology," Heero answered, turning his head so his cheek 
could rest against Duo's shoulder and he could speak more directly 
toward Duo's ear.  "No apologies."

	"Oh."  Duo's hand faltered for just a moment before he squeezed 
Heero in a weak hug.  He did what he could, given that his one hand 
didn't want to budge from Heero's hair, and his other hand, well, it 
wasn't too eager to leave its current position either.  Maybe he hadn't 
blushed with nervousness earlier because his nether regions had had 
quite a hold on his blood supply, but now that things were getting back 
to normal, he noted the flush was coming back with a vengeance.  Or 
maybe that was just the healthy flush of pleasure, the kind that came 
along with knowing that Heero's hands hadn't moved much either, and once 
he figured that out, it really didn't bother him so much.  He smiled and 
tipped his head to touch Heero's.  "No apologies."

	Heero's hand shifted, and Duo closed his eyes briefly.  God, he 
was still so tingly, but as nice as that was, he realized Heero's 
intention and signaled his willingness to cooperate.  They separated 
reluctantly, just enough to get everything pointed downward again.

	"I should go dig out that old tube of lube from before," Duo 
said as they straightened themselves out, unable to simply let things go 
without some sort of commentary to ease them out of the mood.  He 
resorted to the mundane.  "See if there's a due date."

	"We'd need to get more anyway."

	He chuckled low in his throat.  "Horny bastard all of a sudden, 
eh?"

	"Just practical."  Heero pecked him on the cheek.  "Hold on to 
this, would you?"

	Duo automatically held his shirt up in place as Heero removed 
his hand from underneath, but whined in protest and pulled Heero back 
for another kiss.  It was only after several seconds that he realized 
why Heero was keeping a certain amount of distance between them.  He 
glanced down at the stuff starting to dribble down his abs.  "Oh."

	"And you laughed when I mentioned wetnaps."

	"What, you meant like carrying them around in your back pocket 
or something?  You'd still have to go get one from wherever you'd 
stashed them."  He paused for a moment of revelation.  "God, you're 
going to stash them everywhere.  Kitchen, bedroom..."

	"I'm sure I can find somewhere near the fireplace..."

	Duo just about died when Heero winked at him.

	"I'll be right back."  Heero kissed him again and was kind 
enough to step slowly almost backwards toward the paper towel roll 
hanging off to the side beneath one of their wall cabinets, filling the 
short distance between them with his presence.

	Duo blinked dumbly at him for a moment before an absent thought 
made it through the haze in his mind and out into the air.  "Oh, there 
it is."

	"Hm?"  Heero's eyes followed the line of Duo's gaze and found 
the second mess on his shirt.  Well, a paper towel wouldn't work to fix 
this.  With a philosophical shrug, he pulled his shirt off, and Duo 
slumped a little further down the wall.

	"Oh fucking hell, Heero," he cursed softly to himself.

	"It's going in the laundry anyway," Heero explained carelessly 
as he returned sans paper towel to wipe Duo's stomach off with the hem 
of his shirt.  When he was done, he tossed his shirt onto the counter 
next to them.

	Duo slid another centimeter lower.  "Oh god."  His eyes were 
presented with such a visual feast that they didn't even know where to 
start.  "The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak," he groaned.  The 
flesh gave it a valiant effort, but couldn't be bothered to stir more 
than weakly.  "For fuck's sake, Yuy, put yourself back into your pants 
before I start something I won't be able to follow through on."

	Heero, damn the man, looked amused.  "Language, Duo."

	Yeah, yeah, he saw that one coming.  And he should have known 
better, but just as Heero hadn't been able to stop himself from 
neutralizing that agent and being his usual badass self, Duo couldn't 
stop his saucy reply from slipping out.  "Wanna wash my mouth out with 
your tongue?"

	Heero's tongue seemed quite up to the task, but its master 
pulled his wits together at the last moment and shook his head as if it 
clear it.  "No, you're right...."

	They finished getting themselves looking a little less like 
they'd just done something sinful at a healthy distance to each other.  
Duo was just finishing up when he looked over to see Heero's fingers 
toying thoughtfully with the button of his pants.  "Hm?"

	"The other day... when 'that' happened... I heard one of the 
women say, 'Just whip 'em out and get a ruler already.'"  He looked up 
with a contemplative expression.  "I finally figured out what she 
meant."

	Duo collapsed against him with helpless laughter.



_________________________________________
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last modified : 8/5/2007 00:16:48 PST