He was a man who laughed and wrote, 'Boom!', in black marker, while the bomb squad was trying to defuse the bomb.

He was a man who would run into a hail of bullets, and never get a scratch, while saving a fellow agent.

He was a man who could burp the Preventer handbook after three beers, throw up on your shoes after ten, and still take down a mugger on the way home from a bar.

Indestructible, brave beyond words, larger than life. It was easy to take for granted that he would always be there, that every day, he would be my partner. I suppose that certainty had kept me from needing to work up the courage to ask for more.

He had fallen asleep in his chair. After a long stakeout, we had only needed to finish the paperwork before heading to our respective homes. When I had sent the last form to the last clerk, I had looked up and seen him, slumped and snoring softly, close enough to touch.

It was a rare thing to find Duo Maxwell sitting perfectly still. It gave me a chance to really look at him. On the hand closest to me, I could see the light dusting of hairs, the mole on the second joint of his index finger, the scar that traveled along the back of that wrist, and the bandaid peeking out from his palm.

Sometimes, a man can have one startling epiphany based on something completely ridiculous. I was having one now, and the bandaid was the catalyst. It covered a wound. From what, I wasn't sure, but it spelled out that the man who wore it was only human, that he felt pain, that he bled, and that, maybe, he needed like any other man. It also pointed out that he wasn't invulnerable. He could... die... like any other man. My time with him, wasn't unlimited. If I kept waiting, kept being a coward, afraid of losing his friendship if he rejected me, I might lose him anyway.

"Duo?"

He yawned and stretched, purple eyes blinking open. He looked confused for a moment and then he smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, partner. Guess I was tired."

I never did anything by halves. I never hesitated when I made up my mind... finally... to do something.

"I want to have a relationship with you."

Duo's mouth opened slightly and he blinked again. "Am I having a dream?" He glanced around us as at the nearly deserted office, and then back at me. His eyes narrowed, taking in the reality and the implications of that reality.

"What brought this on?" Duo finally asked. "Did something happen while I was asleep?"

"Bandaid," I replied, at a loss for anything else.

He rubbed it unconsciously, reminding himself it was there, and then he sat up in his chair as he considered what it had meant to me. Maybe he understood, and maybe he didn't. Maybe, it didn't matter.

"I'll have to wear them more often then," Duo finally said. "I..." he leaned forward, very close to me, "I didn't know that they could make dreams come true."

I smiled, relieved, accepted, and suddenly facing a new life... with Duo. "Don't," I told him, and that puzzled him too. "I don't need you to be hurt again, for me to get my head out of my ass."

He laughed and pulled me into an embrace, hard, firm, and tight.