Rowen woke to the sound of water running, a distant smell of pancakes and the distinct unpleasantness of having his tongue adhered to the roof of his mouth. Ugh. He remembered that there should be half a can of Mountain dew by his bedside table, if only he could find it it would take the taste of last night away... His fingers groped blindly, touching nothing. No other choice, he would have to open his eyes. He forced his lids back, only to have his irises seared by sunshine streaming in though the windows. His room wasn't near this bright, something was wrong. If he wasn't in his room-

"Shit!" He sat up abruptly, and wished he hadn't. He was prone to getting head rushes if he sat up too fast, and especially in the morning, forget if the night before had been... odd.

He was sitting smack in the middle of Seiji's empty bed, daylight fresh gold and green on the rumpled blankets, and smooth sheets against his skin. Of course, he wouldn't be sleeping in anything. Not after...

"uuhhnng, GOD." Rowen folded into his knees. Him. And Seiji. Last night. Right here. Rowen wondered rather desperately if there was any vodka left over from the party.

The shower thumped off, from the adjoining bathroom came the rattle of a plastic curtain being pushed back. Rowen's heart began pounding with a mixture of hope and apprehension, not to mention the effects of a mental image of Seiji dripping wet with water. What was he going to act like? Casual? Romantic? Rowen swallowed the taste away. Whatever it was, he didn't want to kiss morning breath. The archer looked frantically around, and saw his prize on the desk next to the abandoned paperback he'd been reading last night. A handful of melty butter party mints made a neat pastel pile, by the grace of some god he hadn't munched all of them last night. He grabbed a pink one and devoured it, wondering if he should lounge sexily on the bed or grab his clothes and hide. He wasn't the world's most experienced lover, if he pulled it off it was mostly from a natural bravado and being disgustingly well read. He was still debating when Sage opened the bathroom door, emerging in a cloud of steam, a green towel around his hips. He had another towel and was busily rubbing at his hair, which was damp and spiky, the ends dripping jewels onto his shoulders. His pale skin was flushed from the hot water, and steam curled up from his wet body in the cooler air of the room.

Rowen's heart did a back flip. "Ummm...."

"I'll take that as good morning," Seiji smiled, hanging the hair towel on the back of his chair and shaking droplets out of his mane. "Sorry if I woke you."

Rowen shook his head absently. "Nah.. yadidn't. .I just...umm.. wokeup... "

Seiji's thigh slipped out of the fold of his towel when he walked, exposing firm white leg and hip. Rowen swallowed hard. Sage's voice buzzed in his ears, saying something.

"Do you want it or not?"

"What?" Rowen started, looking panicked and guilty.

"The orange juice I brought up for you. Do you want it?"

Rowen slumped forward into his pillow. "Oh. Yeah, thanks." He reached for it, and remembered that he'd just eaten a mint. "Second thought..."

Seiji produced a muffin for him as well. "Here... I'm not being unusually nice, I just don't want you to have any reason to go yet." He blinked at Rowen. "Rowen... are you.. okay with what happened last night?"

Rowen slowly tore off bits of muffin and put them in his mouth, chewing mechanically. He nodded. "I guess.. I just dunno how I should act."

"Act like you're still my friend and you want me," Sage suggested. Rowen slowly lowered the glass of juice, tongue flicking out over his lips.

"Don't doubt it for a second." His eyes blurred turquoise with hunger of a different kind, softly engraved memories of the night past starting small warning fires in the pit of his stomach.

Sage's hand hooked into the towel, tugging it away to crumple at his feet. "Good." He slinked into the bed next to Rowen, his arms going around the archer's waist and his damp body pressing against Rowen's.

Soft curious lips kissed down the nape of his neck. Rowen leaned back into him as if it was something he had always done, his head going back as Sage kissed him, tasting like sweet tea and spiced apples. Rowen almost felt delirious.

"Are you.. not hurt?" Rowen blinked up at Sage once his mouth was free. "I know I got kinda rough on ya last night..."

Sage shrugged. "I think, if we intend to keep this up-"

"Like thea's any otha option?" Rowen's hands tightened on Sage's forearms. "I'm not gonna let ya go."

Sage smiled in a very delicate way, his eyes reminding Rowen of blown-glass violets. "Well, we need to invest in some oil or something... and when do you propose we tell the others about this?"

Silence puddled into the room, as Rowen stared at Seiji's hands on his bare skin, so incongruous yet so perfect. "Can I keep ya ta myself, Sage? Just fa a little while?"

Sage nodded. "of course." He reached up to ruffle Rowen's azure hair, nuzzling it slightly.

Rowen stared up at the ceiling, his half-eaten breakfast forgotten in his fingers, listening to the soft sound of Sage's breath as the swordsman kissed his shoulders. "I already feel like... this has happened before." He frowned at the prismatic mobile dangling from the light fixture. it had been a present from the archer last Christmas.

"Maybe cos I hoped fa it so much."

"But you never-"

"Aw, hell, Sage..." Rowen looked sheepish. "By the time I realized exactly what ya were ta me, not some childhood crush... You'd just got back from New York-" a chill seemed to seep into the room just at his words, Seiji's arms tightened imperceptibly. "Well... I wasn't even shu'a.. if ya were gonna survive it. It was no time ta declare affection. "

Sage said nothing, but sank his face into Rowen's shoulder, hugging him tightly for a very long moment. "what did you hope for?" he murmured at last.

Rowen flashed a smile. "Well, mosta it would require proof of age if it was in print... " Sage didn't respond to the quip, and Rowen's grin faded. "I guess just ta.. ta be held dear by you would be... " Rowen swallowed back some of the emotion. "an Honor. The best kind. I don't.. I nevah.. I mean, you guys are kinda what I've got, ya know? I nevah have ta explain anything ta you.. not the deep stuff... ya just KNOW an'... I guess that's all I evah wanted.... Was fa somebody ta know without bein' told."

"I thought Ryou was that to you," Seiji murmured.

"Ryou?" Rowen slewed around in Sage's arms to look him in the eye. "What gave ya that idea?"

Sage shrugged eloquently. "there was something between you after you rescued the other three of us. I thought at first it was just camaraderie, after all the time you'd spent together... but you shared something. Even Kento noticed."

"We shared something... it's not a secret." Sage's damp hair had turned cool, a sweet contrast against Rowen's cheek. "but nothing that had been saved fa you. The whole world was cold, Seiji. If we hadn't... I don't think we could have saved you."

"You're explaining." Sage chastised softly. "when you know you don't have to."

"I know, I know. Maybe just ta myself. Things don't happen like we plan, you know.. like Ryou and I planned that night. Last night I... I think I was rather rat-assed, as Sai would say."

"You did knock over quite a few of those blue kamikazes...but the how isn't as important as the why."

"Would ya mind if I gave the how a better try?" Rowen had found that he was completely gone on Sage's neck, the softly defined tendons leading to his collarbone practically begged kissing. His skin smelled faintly of sandalwood soap, but tasted only of his warmth. Sage shivered, one hand brushing back azure hair as Rowen slowly kissed his throat. Their bodies entwined as easily and unselfconsciously as a Maxfield Parrish painting, each curled in the curve of the other's body. Words were not needed, all that needed saying had been said. But Sage could recognize the soft flare of Rowen's soul when he was touched, pleasure almost visible on their intricate bond. The first urgency was passed, they let themselves discover each other. Backs of knees and the soft skin inside elbows yielded surprising results. Sage found himself particularly entranced by Rowen's soft noises; Rowen could not get enough of Sage against his mouth.

Time lost meaning, the sunlight and shadow moving slowly across the room as they felt and murmured and sometimes did nothing more than kiss for long minutes.

"Rowen," Sage said, after perhaps an hour or more, the first word as hushed as the streaks of sunlight hitting his shelf of crystals.

"Yes... " Rowen eased himself across the bed, on his stomach, cheek resting on folded arms.

~Are you sure?~

~I've had long enough to decide what I want, haven't I? And don't give me that look, I know it's gonna hurt.~

Sage couldn't help the smile; Rowen had had his eyes shut the whole time. His gaze followed the long lines of the archer spread relaxed across his bed, the pose so natural that he could have simply flopped there for a nap sans clothing. The faint tension was there, along his spine, and Sage ran his fingers over it to smooth it out. Rowen slowly pulled his knees underneath him and tried to concentrate on breathing, not the intensifying burn between his legs or the strange pressure of Seiji's fingers against him.

"Relax." Sage encouraged, one hand kneading Rowen's thighs. "You have to let me, you know."

Rowen nodded, let out his breath, and used years of training to make the stress leave his body. Then Sage took its place. Rowen was unaware of making the soft keen of pleasure-pain, his body arching back to the invasion of Sage's hand.

~Hurt?~

"Unnh!"

Sage murmured a soft laugh under his breath, wrapping his body around Rowen's. ~Don't push... ~

Rowen shook his head almost frantically, a promise that he wouldn't. His arms trembled as he held himself up, fighting the urge to collapse, gasping, into Sage's pillow. Slow and burning and seemingly impossible,

Sage delved into Rowen's heat. A startled noise came from Sage's throat, counterpoint to Rowen's anguished gasp.

Gods, but it hurt! how had Sage taken this without crying out? It was all Rowen could do not to scream. He blinked past the discomfort, biting his lip. Pain or not, it was what he had wanted so badly, and no way did he want Sage to stop. In some strange fashion, even the hurting part of it felt good. The slow entry was making them a part of each other, joining in the most intimate way they could. Sage's hand closed on

Rowen, and the archer pushed back instinctively, despite Sage's caution.

Something about the way Sage moved in the sheath of his body radiated bright sparks of pleasure. Rowen was shoving his hips back hungrily for quite some time before realizing the pain had faded, and Sage was moving into just as urgently as he was moving against.

Sage's nonverbal growl warned of a sudden rush of speed, his hand going faster on Rowen and his body nudging at that spot buried hidden and unnoticed deep within the Archer's slender frame. Rowen gasped without sound, then let out a soft guttural groan that didn't stop, his release spilling hot over Sage's hand in a reversal of the previous evening.

~yes...~

Sage threw back his head and tensed, Rowen's interior reaction to climax something he hadn't planned for, setting off explosions of finality that left him scrambling for oxygen. This what Rowen had felt last night, inside of him?

Rowen's knees slid out from under him; he whimpered in returned pain as the fall made Sage abandon him. For a long time they lay side by side, breathing heavily, too hot and sticky to fold into each other's arms.

"God." Sage managed, and swallowed. He fumbled for and downed half of Rowen's remaining orange juice, offering the rest to the warrior just now lifting his head. "Here. Are you-"

Rowen nodded, drinking noisily, both hands clutching the blessedly cold glass. "fine," he panted, dragging a hand across his mouth. "But I feel like I've run a marathon in August."

"In a rainforest." Sage fell loosely back against his disarrayed sheets, bare skin glistening with exertion.

"When I find the floor..." Rowen hung his head over the bed and groped about. "I'm crawling to the shower."

"Me too."

The clock ticked a minute or so away. Rowen's arm slowly stopped moving, dangling over the edge.

"Rowen?"

"nn?"

"Are you asleep?"

"Yes."

"Oh good, so am I."

"They've been up there all DAY!" Sai put his hands on his hips, feather duster jutting out of his back pocket like some bizarre tail. "What I wouldn't give to be a fly on the wall..."

"With a camera..." Kento muttered to his magazine, playing oblivious when Sai glared at him. Shoot, the routine got Ryou out of enough trouble.

Speaking of which- "What do YOU think's goin' on?"

Ryou blinked blankly at the two of them, Mario paused on the screen. "Huh? What do I think about what?"

"Oooh!" Sai spun on his heel and stomped back to the kitchen "Why it's ordained that I alone have to clean up after every party is just beyond me. God knows I'm not the one who..." His tirade diminished into silence as the door swung shut behind him.

Ryou hopped over a few pits and demolished a castle. The room was quiet except for the dopey video game music and the rustle of Kento turning pages. Finally he set the magazine down with a snap. "You KNOW what's going on, don't you."

Ryou shrugged. He knew what Rowen hoped for, but Sage was unreadable and if something had happened was anyone's guess. But he wasn't going to let on. He shrugged, smiling enigmatically. "hmm."

"C'mon, tell me!"

"You haven't got enough money."

Mia glanced up from her midnight snack of strawberries, scowling at the rush of water through pipes. Honestly. How many showers could Sage and Rowen TAKE in 24 hours? This was the sixth, at least. She shut the door and grumbled up the stairs. At least she'd convinced them to shell out funds for the utilities, or they'd all be living on the street.

She giggled, hugging her suspicions happily. And then where on Earth would all of them go to fuck?