He used to like driving, but now it only felt like a chore. Traffic, smog, and crazy people that didn't know when to cross at the crosswalk and not the damned middle of the street. He envied Duo, who worked at the space port near their apartment. Duo got to walk to work, and got to have lunch at home. Heero had to settle for overpriced salads and sandwiches in the Preventer's cafeteria.

Heero sighed slightly and turned onto their street, making a right into the underground parking area of their building. It was dark, dank, and always smelled of leaked oil and grease. Duo only ever came down here when they were going somewhere together, so he wasn't subjected to the smell everyday of the damned week.

Heero got in the elevator, relieved that he was alone in riding to the seventh floor. Their apartment was pretty large for this area, with two bedrooms and a large kitchen. The extra bedroom was used for whatever friends decided to visit and the extra space they didn't use in the kitchen was committed to their collection of computer equipment and spare parts. The hallway outside was clean and relatively free of people. And since Heero didn't long to see anyone but Duo he was very grateful for the silence.

He pushed his key, with its bottle opener keychain, into the lock and turned. The door opened with a squeak that Heero knew was intentional and suddenly he was inside the only place he considered a sanctuary.

And what made the sanctuary even better was the fact that he could hear Duo humming in the kitchen, with pots and pans obviously moving over the stove's surface.

"Heero, that you?"

Heero smiled faintly. "I'm home."

"Why don't you come in here and give me a kiss hello?" Duo asked with a hint of humor in his voice.

"In a minute," Heero sighed. His keys went on the rack by the door and his shoes were toed off and placed to the side. He padded into the bedroom and shed his work clothes, loving the feeling of a white cotton t-shirt and blue flannel pants on his body instead of a heavy suit and tie ensemble. He hung his suit up and reminded himself that it needed to be cleaned tomorrow.

Duo sometimes joked about being the wife in their relationship, since he did most of the cooking and cleaning. But Heero knew that Duo enjoyed having a place to take care of, a home to call his own. That was probably just as important to Duo as his relationship with Heero, and Heero was only too glad to let Duo do what he wanted with the place.

Heero didn't care where home was or what it looked like as long as Duo liked it and was happy.

"I smell something good," Heero remarked as he walked down the hall. "Smells like chicken, maybe?"

Any other questions Heero had died in his throat when he walked into the kitchen.

Duo put pink oven mitts on his slim hips and smiled. "Oh yeah. There's chicken, and snow peas, and some of those buckwheat soba noodles you like so much..."

"Duo?"

"Hmm?"

"You're wearing pink oven mitts."

Duo tilted his head to the side and smiled. "I ruined the last ones, and these were all the discount store down the street had."

Heero's eyes looked Duo's body up and down. "That doesn't explain why you're naked and cooking dinner with pink oven mitts on."

Duo smirked and closed the distance between himself and Heero. "You ever think that maybe, just maybe, I wanted you to find me here, wearing only pink oven mitts and nothing else?"

Heero's brain shut down as Duo licked a trail from his collarbone to his ear, drawing the lobe into his mouth and nibbling on it.

"Duo? Uh, the dinner? Is it..."

Duo blew softly into his ear and lightly ran his tongue along the outer shell of Heero's ear. "Already shut it off, love. It'll keep for a little while."

"Today sucked," Heero moaned as Duo bit into the small area right behind his ear.

Duo made a sympathetic noise and pulled off the oven mitts, tossing them aside.

"Well, today might have sucked," Duo started to walk toward their bedroom but stopped and looked at Heero over his shoulder, "but look at it this way: there's nowhere to go from here but up, right?"

Looking down at the tent in his pants, Heero could only agree.