Disclaimers: Not mine, darnit
Pairings: 3x2, 5x4
Warnings: fluffy fun and not much more
AN: Thanks to my beta reader, TanithNight and all her help. Appreciation sent with grins!!
Duo woke from a sound sleep, opening his eyes to frown into the darkness of the bedroom. He remained still, trying to find anything out of place, but everything was as it should be. With a mental shrug, he closed his eyes.
Click…click…click, click…
Eyes shooting open, he tried to identify the unfamiliar yet familiar sound. Concentrating, he cataloged every sound he could hear. The rattle of a pipe that needed to be fixed, water dripping in the sink in the bathroom, the usual creak and groan that came from a house settling at night and there was small shudder from the train a few miles away, but no click.
After a moment, he assumed he had imagined the sound in his half-asleep state, perhaps recalling the noise from a dream memory. With a sigh, he once again closed his eyes.
Click…click…click…
Not bothering to open his eyes, he went through a list of things that could possibly be the cause of that annoying sound keeping him awake. It couldn’t be a clock, the noise was too erratic and their clock was digital. Other than an occasional buzz, it ran silently, casting a red glow on part of the room.
Could it be a phone? No. Both cell phones had been left in the living room on their respective chargers. The house phone had the ringer turned off so he could rest after a particular grueling assignment that had left him exhausted and bruised.
Had an appliance stopped working correctly in the week he had been gone? Surely not, his lover would have informed him of such a thing and likely would have made an effort to have the appliance either replaced or fixed before Duo returned home.
Could someone be trying to get inside the house? Not probable; the alarm system was armed and state-of-the-art. Duo was always afraid his work would follow him home one day, putting his lover’s life in jeopardy. As an added deterrent, a siren would go off if the alarm system was ever tripped, possibly resulting in the would-be burglar having a heart attack.
Weary in mind and body, Duo began to drift into sleep once again, his trancelike state interrupted…again.
Click…click…
An annoyed huff worked its way from his throat, not loud enough to disturb the man sleeping next to him. Then again…
His lover was normally hyper alert when Duo first came home from an assignment, the slightest movement of the bed enough to wake the other man. In such cases, Duo’s love was there instantly with a strong arm of silent support or a soothing word, whatever Duo needed at the time, sensed and given without hesitation.
Altering his focus from the rest of the house to the bed’s other occupant, Duo realized his lover was completely still, breathing steady and even. If it had been someone else, anyone else, Duo might have believed the other man to be asleep, but knowing his lover’s penchant for wanting to take care of him, Duo was instantly suspicious.
Closing his eyes again, he settled down and waited patiently, regulating his breathing so it would appear he was sleeping once again. Sure enough, less than three minutes later, just when he was on the threshold of sleep…
Click…click…
Recalling his lover’s fascination with the new toy he had brought home, Duo smiled into the darkness. He thought the device would bring pleasure to his lover when they were separated, providing a tangible, if weak, connection between them.
He allowed the noise to go on for a few minutes longer, until he couldn’t stop his eyes from closing once more. One more click and he growled, his voice low and raspy from lack of sleep and the exhaustion pulling at him, “Trowa, I swear to the burnt husk of Deathscythe, if you brought that thing to bed with you while I’m lying right beside you, you’re sleeping on the couch for the next month.”
One more click was followed by the sound of something hitting the floor beside the bed a moment before strong arms wrapped around Duo, pulling him close. The tall man’s voice was both apologetic and amused as a nose burrowed into the back of Duo’s hair, “Sorry, love, I never realized how much fun one of those could be before. I didn’t mean to keep you awake.”
“I bought it so you could use it when I’m gone, not when I’m right next to you. I feel…neglected,” Duo teased, wincing at the soreness in his throat, caused by being in the heat of a desert with nothing to drink for too many hours.
“I never want you to feel neglected,” Trowa apologized, lips moving to Duo’s shoulder and lingering there for a long moment. “I thought you were so tired that you wouldn’t notice me playing with it.”
“I might not have noticed it, other than it was so out of place. I knew I had heard the noise before, but it wasn’t a normal sound, not in our bedroom.”
“You’ve heard the noise before? You mean you played with it before you got home?”
“Well, yeah, it was a long flight back and I had to have something to keep me busy. It’s not like there’s a lot of people to talk to or anything when you’re on a Preventers transport helicopter,” Duo defended, sighing as a hot tongue made a trail along his neck.
“If you already had it when you were coming back, when did you have time to go shopping?”
“There was a delay before I left and I ended up with a few hours to kill,” he replied quietly, reduced to whispers by the soreness of his throat. “I didn’t want to stick around at headquarters for that long, so I went and wandered around the mall. I didn’t really pay attention to where I was going and walked into a store where there were several of those to choose from. It took me longer than I thought it would to pick one out for you, but the sales guy was very helpful.”
“I can imagine,” Trowa’s voice was a low growl.
Turning in the arms that held him, Duo smiled tiredly, “He really was. He answered all the questions I had and I had a lot. In the end, I felt that I found the perfect one for you. Of course I had to play with it a little; I had to make sure you would like it.”
“Did you have fun with it?” the other man’s smirk was knowing, a gleam in his green eyes.
“Yeah; I never knew you could do so much with one of them, either. If you want, we can both play with it some tomorrow.”
“Are you sure? We’re supposed to have dinner with Quatre and Wufei tomorrow night. We’ll have to catch an early shuttle to make it on time.” Trowa paused for a moment, “We’re staying with them tomorrow night, aren’t we?”
“We can take it with us, Tro. I doubt they’ll mind if we bring it along.”
“Are you sure? It might be considered rude to use it in their house when we’re guests.”
Fully awake and needing something to get him ready to sleep again, Duo moved his hand down his lover’s naked body, certain he had Trowa’s full attention when the other man gasped, “I don’t think they’ll care. They might want to see what it can do. It is the most recent model.”
The other man didn’t respond for several long seconds and when he did, it was in a breathy tone, “Do you think they’d enjoy something like that? It doesn’t seem like the kind of thing they’d be interested in.”
“They both like technology, Tro. They’ll like it as much as you do.”
“It still seems…ahhh…rude to bring it to their house, assuming they won’t mind.”
When Trowa’s body arched into Duo’s touch, the braided man smirked, “They aren’t going to care, I promise. I wouldn’t mind if someone brought one here to use.”
“Duo…”
“Trowa, they won’t care. Shut up and help me feel less neglected.”
“Since you put it that way,” the green-eyed man shifted in a way that had Duo’s eyes crossing. “Maybe you’re right; they wouldn’t care.”
“They won’t. After all, it’s only an MP4 player.”
End
Back to Fanfiction