Lionna's Corner of Anime Fanfiction     |  home Prologue       A week had passed since the Preventers had returned to Earth from their mission on a colony in the L4 cluster. A week since the disastrous mission that had wounded a handful of top agents and had transformed one certain Preventer from human to cyborg.        It was a bit ironic that Zechs had suffered damage bad enough to replace parts of his body with machine. His original assignment a month and a half ago had been to take care of a newly found cyborg and help him adjust. It was almost a role-reversal...      At the remaining Kushrenada estate there were five servants caring for the mansion and its four occupants. Treize had survived somehow through the Eve War and had been taken in by an unknown organization that had rescued him from death by creating a cyborg. He was to have been in Zechs' care along with his daughter, Mareimeia, although through thick tension the former OZ members had not communicated for a long time. Duo had joined as a guest to the estate when he required a place to stay since he was to take Zechs' place as a Preventer on Earth.      It was just before the mission that Zechs and Treize had come to a general conclusion to their differences with urging on Duo's part. Had the mission gone well, things may have settled down between the three men, but in the end things seemed to turn worse. With Zechs attempting to cope with his change, he closed in on himself, keeping out Treize and even his lover. Although it was apparent that trouble would come from the silence that dragged on, no one knew how to prevent it.      Duo stirred, slowly waking and blinking open his eyes. He was curled up against his lover, head resting on Zechs' right shoulder. Casting cobalt eyes towards the pale-haired man's face he was soon met by a crystal gaze. Yawning cutely, Duo raised himself up on one elbow so that he could place a feathery kiss on his lover's lips.      Zechs responded without pause, turning the gentle kiss into something a bit more heated. Duo smiled against kiss. After a few moments he pulled back no more than an inch or two and murmured, “Shouldn't we head downstairs for breakfast?”      Lifting his left hand to brush against Duo's hair, Zechs had been ready to argue against it and urge for more time in bed. But with the jolt of reality that flickered off his artificial arm, he sat up fully. “I suppose we should,” he responded softly, slipping out of bed and heading towards the dresser to find something to wear.      Duo was left sitting on the bed looking quite baffled. He blinked at Zechs' back with a cute, confused expression on his face. “Huh?” Less than a minute ago he had thought that they would drag their time out and get up in the later morning - skipping breakfast with the others. And the pale-haired man had seemed quite eager to agree but then he'd just backed away after... `Oh.' Realization hit the former Gundam pilot that Zechs had raised up his left hand to touch his face. He knew that his lover was still getting used to the fact that he was a cyborg, and it was still hard on Duo, too, but he wasn't about to let that get in the way of his love life.      “Love, there's no rush. Let's... stay here a bit... get our morning exercise?” Duo wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, lips spread in a wide grin.      “Perhaps tomorrow, I'm hungry this morning.” Zechs did not look back towards his lover, however, but he picked up his cloths for the day and headed to the bathroom to change. As the door shut, Duo winced.      Although Zechs had previously had the tendency to sleep bare-chested, that had altered after the mission. He wore something long-sleeved always and never undressed or dressed in front of Duo anymore. It was a bad sign, but Duo hadn't figured out a way to remedy it. “Damn... Love, I know you don't want to be reminded... but we all need to adjust,” he whispered to the empty room. With a drawn out sigh he got out of bed and gathered some clothes together for the day. ~ * ~ * ~ <<<      >>>