I get a little tongue-twisted

Every time I talk to you

When I see you

Quatre leaves breakfast cooking on the stove for a moment to go wake the others up. When he gets to Trowa’s room he stops, losing his voice to say ‘Ohayo’. The blankets have fallen off in the middle of the night and Trowa is only partially covered by a sheet wrapping narrowly around his waist and hips. Quatre’s face turns to guilty adoration and as he silently watches the French pilot sleep. ‘He’s so gorgeous’ After a few minutes, Trowa stirs and Quatre quickly snaps out of his reverie and slips back down stairs, nearly tripping over the top step and having to catch himself on the railing. Trowa opens his eyes and sits up just as Quatre disappears from view, missing him.

At the sound of the ‘crash’ he walks out the door, boxer-clad, to see what happened. Quatre, red-faced even though he knows no one saw him trip, pulls himself up just as Trowa leans around the wall by the staircase, asking if he’s alright. Quatre almost starts staring again so he pulls his gaze away to the bottom of the stairs, telling Trowa he’s fine. As he walks down the staircase Trowa lets his gaze linger on the blond pilot, a hint of a smile ghosting across his face, unseen by Quatre.

Quatre and Trowa move closer together, but just before their lips touch, Quatre wakes up. He hits the mattress in annoyance, every night the same dream, and it always stops just as it’s getting good. He gives up on sleeping and pads over to the window, watching the moon and stars and trying to make up the rest of the dream in his mind.

Quatre is fighting a horde of Leos on his own, for each he takes down another three come at him. Sandrock is knocked back by the force of an explosion and Quatre winces in pain. For a second he closes his eyes and imagines Trowa’s smile when he had first arrived at the safehouse. Opening them with new determination, he continues to battle his way through the mobile suits, and the wave of enemies falls back.

Quatre stands by the back door, looking out on the backyard and the stream. Trowa is standing beneath a large maple tree, in the shade, his back to Quatre. Quatre takes a deep breath as if preparing to go into a dangerous mission and walks resolutely toward him.

In battle, Trowa allows the enemy to surround him and separate him from the others, trying to take them all out himself, but just as the fight becomes tense Sandrock breaks through the MS, helping Trowa to destroy them. When Quatre’s gundam is struck from behind by another suit, Trowa returns the favor, slicing the Aries in half.

After the battle, Quatre contacts Trowa on their comlink and thanks him for his help, Trowa only nods. He wants to ask Quatre if he’s OK but can’t bring himself to say anything.

Trowa’s running a check on his computer, while deleting some old files he comes to one entitled "Une, Midii". After a second of staring at it he opens the file and looks at the picture of her beside her profile. The passive emptiness of his eyes is replaced by regret. He shakes his head as if to shake away a thought and deletes the file. The cold mask resumes its place in his eyes.

Standing beside Trowa, beneath the maple tree, Quatre finally works up the courage to tell Trowa that he loves him. While he spills out his feelings Trowa only watches him impassively. Uncertain, and feeling like a fool for being so forward, Quatre turns away, embarrassed and resisting the urge to cry by looking up toward the setting sun.

Inside of an OZ base, with alarms and klaxons going off all around him, Quatre is looking remorsefully at the body of a dead OZ officer on the ground, a smoking gun in his hands. Trowa jogs into the room, but slows when he notices what Quatre is doing. Quietly, he walks up behind him and places a hand on his shoulder. After a second Quatre turns around and runs beside Trowa toward the back entrance where the others are waiting. As he runs, a single tear falls from his cheek. Trowa notices, and reaches out to grab Quatre’s wrist, but stops when he notices the determination that has replaced the sorrow in Quatre’s eyes.

Trowa is tossing and turning in bed from a nightmare, an illusion in which he faces the lecherous smiles of a dozen men, when he wakes up, in a cold sweat, breathing hard and shivering. He gets out of bed and walks to the window of his room, mirroring the earlier image of Quatre watching the stars. Tears threaten to overflow his eyes so he shuts them tightly. His mind flashes back to Quatre, smiling at him so brightly although crying, from when they were first reunited after Trowa’s memory loss. When he opens his eyes again, the tears are gone, and he just looks up into the black velvet night.

Trowa is standing beneath the maple tree in the evening shade, thinking about Quatre and about the last mission. He’s just about to turn around and head back to the house when Quatre steps up beside him. The Sandrock pilot looks up at him with bright blue eyes, speaking to him, but at first Trowa doesn’t hear the words. He turns away, unable to look Quatre in the eye.

Quatre watches discreetly from the kitchen, sipping green tea, as Duo and Heero talk quietly in the living room. He can’t quite hear them but he can read their words: ‘This is still a war, and one of us could die at any time.’ ‘I don’t care about that, I just don’t want to lose my chance to have someone to love.’ The words mirror Quatre’s own thoughts as his gaze wanders over to the kitchen table where Trowa is quietly reading a book, seemingly oblivious to Quatre and all else around him.

Quatre and Duo are watching TV in the living room when Trowa comes back from a solo mission. The second he walks in the door Quatre stands up, smiling, and asks him how the mission went, and if he’s OK. Trowa makes a non-committal response and walks upstairs. Quatre’s smile falls as Duo watches him. Quatre tries to go back to watching TV but Duo keeps staring at him. When Quatre finally asks what’s wrong, Duo points upstairs. ‘Are you ever gonna tell him?’

Quatre peaks silently around the corner of the hallway and into Trowa’s room; the green eyed pilot is shirtless and bandaging a long laceration along his shoulder. Quatre looks from the cut, and back to Trowa’s face a few times before coming to a decision and walking into the room. He knocks on the doorframe, unexpectedly surprising Trowa, who quickly grabs a shirt off his bed and throws it on to hide the injury. Not having expected such a response, Quatre loses the nerve to talk to him. He apologizes and clumsily excuses himself.

Back to the maple tree, Trowa finally starts listening to what Quatre is saying and his head slowly raises when he hears Quatre say ‘Ai shiteru’ . He just stands stalk still as Quatre continues to talk, pouring out his heart to Trowa. It only shows in his eyes; Trowa’s shocked. When he finishes and turns his head away, Trowa reaches out for him, but pauses before he can touch him and hesitates.

Quatre begins to turn and leave, so Trowa grabs him, finally, and pulls him against his chest without even thinking. Quatre stiffens in surprise, but when he looks up at Trowa’s face, the green eyed boy is smiling, smiling more then Quatre has ever seen him smile before. Smiling himself, Quatre rests his head against Trowa’s chest as Trowa rests his chin on top of Quatre’s head.

"I love you, Quatre."

Lady Ezri: <sigh> well, minna-san, did you like it? Did I suck? Please drop me a line and let me know, cause if you don’t, I’ll keep writing more things like this. If I suck, you’d better tell me now before I take over the world and make this stuff required reading in school!