by Raletha
Spring was too young for Duo not to feel the chill while walking back to the cottage that night. It was a night like many others: after asking Trowa to join him, Duo went out alone.
Some nights the solitude pleased Duo, for it made returning to the cottage... better.
He made his way through the iron gate, up the path, and noted the changes over the past months - the fresh paint and tidy garden, the brass fixtures and graceful curtains.
Duo smiled - he'd helped make those changes. That knowledge rested within him palpable, warm, and still pleasantly novel. It felt good to see the feline silhouette leap up to the window - and to see the young man on the porch stand to open the screen door for him.
"I missed you tonight," Trowa confessed, ushering him inside, where hands quickly caught Duo's wrists. Trowa pushed him against the wall, pressing close.
But initial urgency fled: they simply breathed in the same space for a time.
When their lips merged - softly, carefully - it felt like Trowa had been thinking about the past, and like many other nights, Duo coaxed him back to now.