I knew who it was from when I gave the invitation to Heero. Relena had decided that turning thirty was an occasion worthy of celebration and was having a small, intimate get together at her residence.

Actually the card only indicated a time, a place, and a handwritten note at the bottom encouraging Heero to attend. He's the one who told me it wasn't a party. A party, to Heero, is something where you are lucky to know the host and one other person, and that you attend out of a sense of obligation.

Heero hates parties.

I was surprised at her reaction to seeing me walk in with Heero. She looked completely stunned when I took her hand and bowed over it, but she recovered the moment I winked at her. She kissed me on the cheek and told me it had been a long time.

It had.

I don't think I realized the significance of this year until that moment. It had been fifteen years since I'd first set foot on the earth. Fifteen years ago to the day since I first met the man next to me.

Half a lifetime ago.

When we got home the next day, Heero closeted himself in the study for hours. I tried to wait up for him, but I knew that trying to stay up while reading in bed wasn't the best guarantee of that happening. I found my eyes growing heavier with each paragraph, and I soon stopped listening for his footsteps outside the door.

At first I thought I was dreaming. I heard Heero's voice calling through the fog and I reached out for him, seeking his hand. My fingers touched his cheekbone and his lips pressed against mine, reassuring me that he was there.

I blinked at him. The room was dark save for a couple of candles. Heero picked up the cupcake and held it out to me. I blinked the haziness of sleep from my eyes and accepted it, but I didn't blow out the candles.

Neither of us know when we were born, and we've never found it necessary to find out. A birthday is just a way of marking the passage of time between birth and death, and we've both been far too close to that finish line for me to want to start now.

"People have imbued fire with mystical properties since before recorded history," Heero said.

I love listening to Heero talk. He could recite the periodic table and I'd still find it sexy as hell. The more intent he is on what he's saying, the more it turns me on. Some people are aroused by a flash of skin or a suggestive smirk. I'll take Heero when he's passionate about something over any of those.

I missed half of what he said, but it wasn't the words that were important so much as what was behind them. He wrapped his fingers around mine, still holding the cupcake. A liquid puddle of wax formed at the base of the candles, one for each of us.

I lifted the cake to my mouth and took a bite, careful not to set Heero's hair on fire. I'd blow the candles out soon, but not yet. I didn't need to.

Heero took a bite from the other side and I knew he understood.

I already have everything I could wish for.