Acknowledgements:
Huge thanks go to Jenny for beta-reading for me! She did an incredibly thorough job.

"It's late," Trowa's soft voice said when Quatre opened his eyes. The blond boy looked at Trowa in some confusion, until he continued. "Past ten." Never one for wasted words, Trowa left it at that. But Quatre immediately knew what else his lover was saying. It was that late because of all the activity from the night before. He wasn't particularly surprised that they'd slept over seventeen hours since laying down. Between the sex and the mission, they'd all be utterly exhausted.

"How long have you been awake, koibito?" Quatre asked gently. He then rolled over, starting to stretch. The action was cut off with a muffled and audible wince, the sound drowning out Trowa's answer. "I'm stiff!" Quatre exclaimed. When Trowa laughed gently, wounded aqua eyes turned to him.

"What did you expect?" Trowa asked philosophically, stretching out himself before slowly rising. "After last night, we're both stiff. I imagine the rest of the pilots are pretty bad as well." Quatre agreed with him, rising himself after another long, much-needed stretch. Muscles still protested the movement, but the protests had died down to a dull roar, rather than the screaming pain of a few moments before. Quatre tottered briefly, then began to move toward the door in a kind of shamble.

"Trowa?" he asked as he reached the door. Turning, he just managed to catch the pants his lover flung at him. "How do you feel about last night?"

Trowa managed to finish doing up his own pants before looking steadily at Quatre. "Now?" When Quatre nodded, the pilot of HeavyArms smiled gently, making his way to his blond love. "I'm happy, Quatre. I think we all needed last night, don't you?" Once more, Quatre nodded, this time looking much more sure of himself. That caught Trowa's heart, and he enfolded the boy in a gentle hug. "I know you wouldn't leave me, koi. I know that you love them, but it's me that you're in love with. And I hope you realize that I feel the same way."

"Oh, I do!" Quatre immediately responded, hugging Trowa back with a strong, firm grip. "I didn't want to hurt you last night. I just . . . they needed us, didn't they?" He giggled slightly when he felt Trowa's response to that – a well-placed nibble on his neck. "Ne, Trowa, I'm hungry!" he protested sweetly, detaching himself from the hug. "Come make breakfast . . . er, lunch . . . uh, dinner . . . with me! We'll make enough for the others so that when they wake, they won't have to do so much. Something tells me that at least a couple of them are going to be more than stiff!"

Trowa laughed, trailing Quatre to the kitchen with a very happy smile.

"Why did I think last night was a good idea?" Wufei groaned from Heero's arms. Heero blinked awake, glancing around for a second before his internal clock supplied the time. As Heero's arms moved, Wufei tried to crawl away, only to collapse on the bed with an obviously pained moan.

"Are you all right?" Heero asked gently, surprising himself with the tenderness in the question. Sable eyes glanced up at him, and he summoned up a gentle smile.

"Hai, I'm fine, I suppose," Wufei said, after taking stock. "I'm sore and stiff, but fine. I don't want to walk yet, though. I'm not even entirely certain I CAN walk," he continued after a moment's thought.

Heero chuckled. "I suppose that's what we get for last night. I never expected to participate in such a . . ." he trailed off, not sure what term would be appropriate for the partner-trading they'd been up to the night before. He saw Wufei nod as the boy burrowed under the covers.

"I know what you mean," Wufei agreed. "In a way, it doesn't seem quite real." Heero didn't answer, instead bundling Wufei into the covers. The slender Chinese boy no doubt felt the cold a great deal more acutely than Heero did.

"Are you hungry?" came the next question. After a second, once Heero realized that he had, indeed, been the one asking, he started a quick, internal examination. What he came up with was simple. He loved Wufei, and wanted the pilot of Shenlong to be happy. And somehow, he knew that this new gentleness was part of the answer to that desire.

"A bit. I can get us food," Wufei offered, trying to rise. He got perhaps a quarter of his body off of the bed before he was pushed back down by Heero.

"No. You're sore. I'll get the food. You stay and rest. I'll be back in a bit." The promise made, Heero rose, stretching out quickly. He decided that his normal morning exercises could wait until after he'd retrieved breakfast for the two of them.

Duo moaned softly, staring out the window. It was very obvious that daytime had come and gone while he was asleep. He didn't truly expect for the others to be awake much before he was. The only problem was, he hadn't eaten since well before the mission the previous day. Glancing at a clock told him that it was probably a good thirty-six hours since he'd last had even a nibble. And between the mission and the sexual exploits of the previous night, he was feeling muscles he'd never even realized existed.

He rolled to his stomach, wincing with each movement because it put extra strain on his muscles. Just as he decided to stay in bed, his stomach grumbled loudly. He blinked, then balled his pillow up under him. It was very obvious that he was going to be in bed for a long while. Fishing off the side of the bed, he came up with a well-thumbed and ancient paperback novel. He stared at the cover for a long while, looking thoughtfully at the blond hero on the back of a wolf, his silver-haired friend standing beside him. Finally, he shook his head and opened to the fourth chapter.

Heero strode into the kitchen, pulling up short when he realized he was faced with Quatre and Trowa. Color flooded his face, and he glanced away, embarrassed. "Anou, Heero-kun," Quatre said, gentle voice almost reproachful. When he looked back, he saw that both of them had moved to stand just before him. Quatre's aqua eyes were gentle, the hand on his arm caring. "It's all right. You don't have to be embarrassed."

Still red, he nodded briefly. "Wufei's hungry." As he moved to rummage in the refrigerator, Trowa handed him a plate. "We made enough for everyone." Heero nodded, pulling out a tray from beside the refrigerator and piling the plate on top of it. He added a second for himself, then hesitated.

"Does Duo have his yet?" When the others shook their heads, he added a third plate. "I'll handle it." He flashed them a brief smile, then headed back to his bedroom.

"Duo?" Heero knocked on the door, shadowed by Wufei. Together, the two eased the door open to find Duo's wide eyes watching them. "We need to talk."

Duo scowled slightly, then sighed, wincing as he sat up. Once he was in a seated position, Wufei placed a tray of food in front of him. "You should eat, Maxwell," he said gruffly, flushing when Heero shot him an annoyed look. "You'll feel better."

"So," Duo started, ignoring the food. "The two of you are in love and you wanted to talk to me about . . . what? Wedding decorations?"

They blinked, then looked between themselves. Realization finally dawned on them. Duo didn't know what was going on! Heero shook his head, reaching out to place a hand on top of Duo's. "No, Duo. We love you." Duo frowned.

"No, I heard you. You love each other."

Wufei laughed quietly. "And you, Duo. We want to try a relationship together. The three of us, if you're willing. A ménage a trios, as it were."

Duo grinned blindingly, tossing the tray off his bed and dragging his two new lovers down beside him. As they snuggled, Heero glanced briefly toward the door, nodding at the two standing in the doorway.