"Eight hundred dollars worth," Quatre sighed, "I don't think anyone else had a chance to eat any. It's like an addiction with him, Heero. I didn't mind indulging that appetite during our dinners together, but this is a public gathering. It doesn't look good if one of the Preventers best agents is seen gorging himself on blueberries, when he should be guarding the guests. Will you please, speak to him about it?"

"Blueberries..." Heero said, mystified, as he opened the car door for Quatre.

"I swear, the man would do anything for them, Heero," Quatre chuckled. "I can't blame him, I suppose. They won't grow in the colony's hydroponics, properly, and shipping them from Earth raises the price outrageously. He'd never tasted them until I introduced him to one at a government function."

"I'll talk to him," Heero promised.

"Thank you, Heero," Quatre replied as he slid into his limo. "At least tell him not to be such a glutton."

Heero nodded as he closed the limo door and the car whisked away. He stood, staring at nothing, and then he repeated, "Blueberries."

"Say that again?" Duo spun in his chair, almost sending his work off of his Preventer desk. His eyes were wide, with a slightly fevered anxiousness to them, as he searched Heero's desk.

"I saved a few blueberries from the function the other day," Heero repeated carefully, a little taken back by Duo's intensity. "I'm not really hungry. You can have them."

Heero produced a sack from his desk drawer and handed it across his desk to Duo. Duo snatched at it and opened it with fumbling fingers. Heero watched his face suddenly look as if he had found the answer to all of his dreams.

Duo grinned at Heero, and said happily, "Thanks, buddy! I can't even begin to pay you back for this. These are freakin' expensive."

Heero shrugged and then sat back to watch Duo eat one hundred dollars worth of blueberries in a matter of moments. Those moments, though, made every penny worthwhile. The man groaned around each bite, as if he were having the best sex of his life, face flushing and eyes glazing over. When he finished by licking his fingers, pink tongue darting out over each slender digit, Heero was finding it hard not to groan himself and to control the bulge in his pants.

Glad that he had a desk to hide behind, Heero glared and pretended to go back to work. He was still watching Duo, however, beneath the fall of his hair, as Duo searched the bag, hoping for one more.

"Never enough," Duo finally sighed as he crumpled the bag and tossed it into the wastebasket. He looked at Heero brightly and then said, "Thanks again, buddy!" before swiveling back around and continuing his work.

Patience, Heero told himself. He couldn't execute his plan too quickly. Aside from not having the money, he knew better than to rush Duo into anything. The man seemed open and friendly, but Heero had found a surprising skittishness when anyone approached his partner with serious intentions. Watching the long line of rejected suitors, Heero had been waiting in the wings, wanting to have all the information, before he made his move. Knowing that he had something that effected Duo so strongly, gave him the confidence to finally begin.

Heero adjusted his tie for the hundredth time and watched Duo eat his dessert of blueberries and brie, one worshipful spoonful at a time. The way the man's tongue licked at every drop, and the pleased hum he was making, eyes glazed with joy, was enough to make Heero want to lean over the table and seize a taste of the blueberries on Duo's lips.

Seated at a five star restaurant, full of other diners, kept the urge leashed, though, and Heero in his seat.

"This was a big surprise," Duo said, after sucking his spoon clean. "I never knew that the lottery pool, at work, included dinner for two at this swanky place. I didn't even enter the damned thing. Hilde probably put my name in. She's always tossing her money down the drain on those things and thinks I should too."

"Thank you for inviting me," Heero replied, looking down at his plate and his meager meal.

Trusting that Duo would invite him, out of everyone else, after buying the dinner reservations, and lying about the lottery pool, had been a risk. When Duo had asked him, without hesitation, it had seemed to Heero, as if he had been the one to win.

"Who else?" Duo retorted fondly. "You're my best buddy, after all."

Heero smiled and Duo seemed captivated by that small expression. He smiled in return after a moment, as if he had been affected, and Heero told himself to smile as much as possible. That glow in Duo's eyes seemed to be for him and he wanted more of it.

"Run that by me again, Heero?" Relena asked with wide blue eyes.

Heero blushed and looked down at his toes. "I'm having trouble getting blueberries from the shops. I really can't afford the restaurants that carry them."

Relena laughed. "Heero loves blueberries. My hero of peace has a weakness."

Heero's blush deepened. "They aren't for me. I thought, with your connections..."

"They are expensive," Relena reminded him. "This person must be very special to you."

"Very special," Heero replied with intensity.

"I'll see what I can do," Relena told him brightly, "but this person should really care enough about you to not ask you to buy the most expensive fruit in Space."

"He didn't ask me to buy them, "Heero was quick to defend Duo and then realized what he had said.

It was Relena's turn to blush. "They're for a man?" When Heero didn't respond, Relena reached out and patted his arm. "It's all right, Heero. Love is love. I'll make sure that you have blueberries for your special person, all right?"

Heero nodded with relief. Once he had them, he had to use them wisely. His bank account wasn't going to take much more abuse.

"They were left over from my last party," Quatre told Heero as he put the small bag on his desk. "I know that you took some from the last function that you attended, and I don't much care for them, so I thought that you might enjoy them."

Quatre was staring at Heero with eyes that said a lot more, but he kept his exasperation hidden as Heero thanked him and then said, "Thank you, Quatre, but I think Duo would appreciate them more. Would you like these, Duo?"

Duo had spun around in his chair at the mention of blueberries and now he was taking the bag in hand with clear greed. "You bet, Heero! Thanks a lot, man!"

Heero and Quatre both watched Duo devour blueberries. Heero with clear relish and Quatre with equally clear disapproval. When Heero reached out to take the bag back from Duo, they were both sure of Duo's reaction.

"Hey!" Duo protested. "There was more!"

Heero replied calmly, "I know a dessert, made from blueberries, that you might enjoy. Would you like to try it?"

Duo's eyes were on the bag. He licked purple lips and replied, "When would this be?"

"Tonight? At my apartment?" Heero replied.

"Okay, that sounds good," Duo agreed, though his eyes still hadn't left the bag. "What time?"

"Around six?" Heero suggested.

"Six," Duo repeated. "Sounds good. I'll be there." With a last, longing look at the bag, he turned back around to his work.

"Heero, may I speak with you, privately?" Quatre asked in a low voice.

Heero nodded, rose, and followed Quatre away from his work desk. When they were out of Duo's hearing, Quatre said in a low, fierce voice, "Heero, you can't be serious? You are playing off of Duo's addiction to blueberries! I hardly think that bribing someone is a healthy way to begin a relationship."

"I'm not bribing him," Heero replied irritably. "I'm putting him into a position where we can talk... openly. He's refused everyone else. I'm simply assuring my success."

Quatre made an exasperated sound. "Heero, he's not a mission... or a target... He's your friend. If you just speak with him honestly --"

"I will," Heero replied. "Tonight."

"This is good," Duo said around a mouthful of blueberries in cream and brulete. "I didn't know that you could cook. Take apart a semi automatic in three seconds, make a bomb out of paper clips and staplers, hack the best computer, and make it do a cha cha, in five seconds, but... cook? That's a new one."

"I'm glad that you like it," Heero said as he put down two cups of steaming coffee on the coffee table and sat down beside Duo on the couch. He moved a fork through his own dessert, nervously, but it was only partly eaten.

Duo was dressed in black and sporting a white nehru collar. His braid was tied off with a red ribbon and he looked very relaxed and at home on Heero's couch. He was a handsome man and Heero was finding it hard to ask a man, who could have anyone, to choose him.

"These blueberries must have cost a fortune," Duo said around a mouthful. He looked blissful, smiling and almost glowing. "Good thing Quatre has a lot of money, or I'd never get any."

"You really do love them," Heero noted, mentally wondering if his bank account could handle yet another purchase. He didn't think that he was going to get the courage to say anything that night.

Heero saw the last bit go into Duo's mouth. To keep him there, a little longer, hoping against hope that he might yet manage to say something, he offered his own dessert.

"I'm not very hungry," Heero said as Duo's eyes widened. "You can have mine."

Duo took the plate and dug in. Savoring another mouthful, his eyes were mischievous as he looked at Heero over the dessert. "Yeah, I really do love blueberries. They are so sweet and juicy, and they burst in your mouth with flavor. I do have something I like even more, though, something that makes blueberries seem like nothing."

Heero frowned. "Something better than blueberries?" Mentally he was wincing, wondering what other hideously expensive food Duo loved.

"Much better," Duo said, but then sighed as he put down his plate. "But the idiot doesn't know it."

Heero felt as if he had suddenly run into a brick wall. He floundered. "He?"

Duo cocked his head at Heero, his smile soft and sad. "You see, I've been too much of a coward to tell him just how good he is and he's been too busy thinking I have to be stuffed with blueberries to date him."

Heero blushed hotly, feeling even the tips of his ears burn. "I... I'm sorry... you turned down so many people..."

"Because I was wanting you," Duo admitted and moved closer to Heero. "Why don't we get the food and the fear out of the way, and really be honest with each other, just like Quatre said?"

Heero floundered again. "You heard that?"

"You always leave your cell on, dumbass, and I can hack anything," Duo snickered. His arms went around Heero and pulled him in tight. "No more dancing around, Yuy. Let's get serious."

Heero took a deep relieved breath and then let it out as he tentatively put his own arms around Duo. Feeling Duo's muscled strength under his hands felt good and right. "I'd like that," he replied, but they didn't need any words for quite awhile after that.