Author: pyrzm
see ch. 1 for warnings, notes, disclaimer

Broken Warriors + Chapter 99
Morning After

Heero woke slowly, aware at first of nothing but a warm weight on his chest. He opened his eyes and discovered that it was Quatre. He was sprawled on top of Heero, lying between his spread legs with his head on Heero's chest and his arms around him. Heero instinctively tried to wrap his arms around the sleeping boy but they were still cuffed over his head to the bars of the fancy wooden headboard. The others were nowhere to be seen and Heero raised his head, looking around in alarm. The heavy drapes were still drawn and there was no sound of anyone in the bathroom.

Quatre woke up as soon as he stirred. Sleepy blue eyes blinked up at him. "They left a note," he mumbled, showing Heero a crumpled piece of paper. "Didn't want to give room service an eyeful, so they went out to find us some breakfast." Before Heero could ask, he added, "Everyone's fine. How are you?"

Heero pondered that. Sober now, in the light of day, with a warm, naked Quatre still lying on top of him with no apparent desire to move, Heero decided that he was fine, too. "Just a little sore. Uncuff me, please?"

Quatre shifted against him, his smooth belly sliding over Heero's morning erection as he reached up and undid the leather cuffs. Heero lowered his stiffened arms and flexed them. Quatre settled back down with his ear to Heero's heart, giving every indication that he intended to go back to sleep right where he was. Heero rolled his stiffened shoulders, and then gently embraced him, stroking his hair. This felt good, as it always did, to touch and cuddle Quatre. 04 sighed and snuggled closer, completely relaxed and content.

Heero hugged him and combed his fingers through Quatre's silky mop of hair. He didn't like this new hairstyle, but it was only temporary. The short hair on the back and sides of his head was growing in nicely, and he'd promised to let it all grow long. At least he'd bleached it out to blonde again, with a few sky blue pieces over his eyes.

Quatre chuckled. "I love you, too."

Heero hadn't been thinking that, exactly, but he realized he'd been feeling it, and for a long time since he'd come back. "I didn't make love to you last night."

"Yes, you did. We just didn't have sex."

"Are you sorry?"

Quatre was quiet for a moment. "No. Are you?"

"No. This is--I don't know. This feels right." He was at a loss for words. Somehow, holding Quatre like this was enough.

"Yes, it does," Quatre agreed, hugging him. "Am I too heavy?"

"No, you're just right."

Another chuckle vibrated against Heero's cock, and that felt nice, but it didn't make him want to fuck him. It was odd, but--nice.

Heero glanced over at the bedside clock. It was nearly nine, and Christmas Day. Earth Fall Day. "Three years ago, we were all on Earth for the first time. Well, except for Trowa."

"Strangers. Funny, isn't it? It seems so much longer ago. Now we're family."

"Family." That sounded right, though Heero was quite certain they didn't fit any standard definition of the word. "How will this work? You and Trowa have to get back to your show."

"You and Duo are coming with us to New York, right? You said you'd help out."

"Yes, but maybe not as permanent members of the company."

"Let's just play it by ear. You guys have your wedding to think of, and what you want to do with your lives. Tro and I will support any decision you make."

"Thanks." Heero kissed the top of Quatre's head, loving his spicy, musky smell. "I hope you can resume performing soon."

"I will. Physical therapy is already helping. But--" He paused, and Heero felt him tense against him.

"Your family," Heero said, gently prompting.

"We don't have to think about them right now."

"I don't mind. What's going on with that?"

"There's going to be a competency hearing next week."

"Next week!" Heero rolled Quatre off and sat up, staring at him in surprise. "Next week and you didn't say anything? What can we do? How can I help?"

Quatre curled up on the pillows, took Heero's hand, and nestled his cheek against it. "Not much you can do, I'm afraid. Their lawyers are trying to use my relationship with you guys against me. Basically, they're making me out as a weak-minded pervert who's been led astray by infidels. I've certainly given them enough ammunition these past few years. And I did walk away from the family business."

"Is it true they're attempting to have your union with Trowa voided?"

Quatre shrugged, but his grip on Heero's hand tightened a little. "They want to put me in a mental hospital and 'cure' me."

"That's absurd!"

"Of course it is. I'm not even an L-4 citizen anymore. No, what they really want, especially my uncle, is to punish me, even if it's only dragging me through the tabloids again. In the old days, here on Earth, someone like me would have been killed for bringing shame on the family. At least they aren't going that far."

"I'm so sorry, Quatre."

Quatre smiled up at him. "It's OK, Heero. I never got along with that part of my family anyway. I didn't even know my oldest sisters, growing up. By the time I came along they were already off on other colonies, working. As for my uncle, he's in it for honor, but also to gain control of WEI."

"So what are you going to do?"

"Let him have it."

"The company?"

"He can't have complete control. There are too many other sisters as shareholders, and some of them still like me. But if he wants me out, that's fine. If they'll just leave me alone, that's all I ask. I've talked about this a lot with Trowa. I don't care about the money. He and I were living on practically nothing on L-3, using my allowance for extras. I don't care about that, as long as I have him. And anyway, it looks like the circus is going to support us quite nicely. We're going to be fine, Heero. Don't worry. And if it all goes south, well, then we'll just come and sponge off you and Duo."

"Do you need character witnesses?" Heero asked, more upset than Quatre seemed to be. "I'll testify for you."

"I appreciate that, Heero, but that might do more harm than good, considering." He gestured down at the two of them, naked together in bed. "No, so far it's just going to be us and our lawyers with the judge, in a closed hearing."

"It still doesn't seem right," Heero grumbled.

"That's because you didn't grow up on L-4," Quatre said sadly. "I did. It wasn't easy for me, letting go of a lot of things--beliefs--to be with Trowa. I'm not sorry, either, but I'm willing to deal with the consequences."

"You think you deserve this."

Quatre just cuddled closer, nuzzling his way under Heero's chin. "Don't worry about it."

Duo and Trowa came in just then, dressed in jeans and tee shirts under their snow-dusted leather coats and bearing pink bakery boxes and insulated coffee cups.

"Whew, it smells like orgy and ass in here!" Duo said, wrinkling his nose. "You two still in bed?"

"Just talking," Quatre replied, sitting up.

"Lazy bastards," Trowa said, pretending disapproval even as he and Duo stripped to their briefs to join them. "You're here, all warm and snuggly, while Duo and I walked ten blocks in a blizzard to find breakfast for you."

Quatre raised an eyebrow. "A blizzard?"

"Well, it's snowing," Duo told him.

They ate pastries and coffee in bed, and then made ready to go. Trowa and Quatre took the first shower, and Heero could hear the murmur of voices over the hiss of the water. Alone at last with Duo, Heero pulled him close and looked deeply into his eyes. "Are we OK?"

Duo smiled up at him. "I am if you are. And you and Kat seemed real OK when we got back."

"We were just talking."

"I know, baby. I can read you both like books." He grinned and kissed Heero on the nose. "I love them, too. You know that, and I've done my share of messing around with them. I'm glad you're into it, too. I don't feel so guilty about it anymore."

"But you never had actually had sex with them before, and now we both have."

"Yep. And it was fun, and maybe we'll do it again sometime, if it feels right. But we all said last night that things aren't going to change. Does that still go?"

"Yes." Heero kissed him gently, heart bursting with sudden tenderness. "You're still my one and only, little mermaid, no matter what."

"Mmmmm, yeah," Duo purred. "Back at you, 'ro. Kat's a sweet ride, and it was hot, but he's no Heero Yuy."

#

There were many shades of silence with Trowa. Quatre had long ago learned to read them without being too invasive. He lathered his husband's lean back, letting his fingers linger over the tattoo there. "Talk to me, Tro."

Trowa turned and took him in his arms. The spray of the shower pounded on his shoulders, casting a cloud of mist around them. "You're not mad, meli?"

"Why would I be mad? It was my idea."

"I know, but we were stoned."

"Are you sorry?"

Trowa stared down at their feet. "I wish I was, at least a little."

Quatre cupped Trowa's chin and rose on his toes to kiss him. "No guilt, love. No brooding." That was like telling Trowa not to breath, of course, but it had to be said.

This had been a huge step for Trowa. He and Duo and Quatre had all fucked their share of other men, but only Quatre, of all the five of them, had ever willingly bent over for strangers, outsiders. And there's been plenty of them, during his wildest days right after the war, when Trowa had left him to go back to the circus to try and make things right, and Quatre had returned home to start his big breakdown. For a long time, nothing had seemed real or right, not even what he'd shared so briefly with Trowa on Peacemillion. Bereft of the body he so craved, he'd careened out of control and held his own ass cheap, offering it to anyone who seemed to offer a momentary respite from the crushing emptiness in his heart. To this day, he still marveled that Trowa had never held that against him. Quatre could tell now, though, that he was having trouble extending the same mercy to himself. He'd wanted Heero, and he'd given himself to him, loving every minute of it while it lasted with every fiber of his sensual soul. Now he had to suffer for it. Quatre could feel the guilt building.

Quatre guided him out from under the spray and turned him so Trowa was facing the wet tile. Without a word, Quatre stroked his hands firmly down his back and gripped his buttocks, then worked a finger between them, penetrating him none too gently.

Trowa was still stretched from Heero's cock, and slick with last night's lube. He was sore, too, and hissed softly through his teeth even as he pushed back for more. Withdrawing his finger, Quatre rose on his toes again and entered him with a single hard thrust. Trowa cried out softly and braced himself against the wall, rocking his hips back, opening himself to pain and possession.

Quatre wrapped his arms around Trowa's waist and gentled his thrusting, kissing his lover's back and shoulders. "You're mine, Trowa. I love you, and you're mine."

"Ti amo," Trowa moaned, reaching back with one hand to stroke Quatre's face. "Thank you, meli. Don't ever leave me."

"Never."

They came together, shuddering against each other, then washed and dried each other tenderly, kissing and caressing.

"I liked seeing you come with Duo," Trowa murmured, and Quatre knew his husband was all right again.

Heero and Duo must have heard something or guessed what was going on. When Quatre and Trowa emerged from the bathroom they were waiting with open arms, and the four of them shared a long embrace.

"I don't want things to be weird with us," Duo said.

"Everything's fine," Quatre assured him. "Now, let's go home!"

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