Archivist's note: The theme for this story is #26, if only I could make you mine.

Peter Bjorn and John, "Young Folks"

In all the years we'd known each other we'd never bothered with before. Before our training, before the wars ... it was as if we'd been born the day we fell to Earth strapped in our Gundams. Maybe it was because we hadn't wanted to think about it, the ugliness of the past. Maybe it was because we were ashamed. Or maybe it was just because we were guys, plain and simple, and we just didn't talk about stuff like that. I don't know what it was, the beach, the closeness, or realizing we finally had someone who understood.

I'd sat and watched Heero gathering driftwood, digging my toes in the sand, as the sun sank lower in the sky. He had an expression on his face that some would label 'man on a mission', but that wasn't even close to the mission face I'd known. No, he was just ... Heero, focused and calm with the setting sun casting golden hues on his bare chest and his cargo shorts rippling in the breeze. He was relaxed and happy, a far cry from the boy who's face would be set in grim determination over the simplest of tasks. The world was no longer bearing down on his shoulders and I fell a little more in love with the man that serious boy had become.

Just as the sun dipped below the horizon, Heero had quite the pile of driftwood ready to burn. He'd smiled at me, a quirk of his lips that said so much as he flicked the lighter and ran the flame over the dried seaweed he'd used as kindling.

"I never knew you were a boy scout," I teased, grinning up at him as the breeze blew loose strands of hair around my face.

"I was far from a boy scout," he answered seriously, turning his face away. My grin had wilted and I'd bit my lip at the tension I saw in his shoulders.

By the time the fire was roaring it was fully dark and I couldn't see far beyond the light it had created. The ocean was a comforting sound as the tide pulled it farther away from our spot in the sand, but that wasn't the kind of comfort I suddenly needed.

"Come and sit with me?" I asked softly, studying his profile from where he crouched feeding wood into the fire. His hair was tousled from the wind, his bare skin patterned with flickering shadows, and I ached to have him near me.

I didn't have to wait long before he slid behind me in the sand and pulled me back against his chest. He rested his chin on my shoulder and I could smell the woodsmoke in his hair mixed with the salt on his skin. I took comfort in the arm he wrapped around my waist, in its strength and security, in awe that somehow the fates had deemed me worthy to have him. I must have said something to that effect out loud because he'd snorted softly in my ear.

"What?" I asked, turning slightly so my cheek brushed his chin.

"I'm the one not worthy to have you." His voice was low, his breath ghosting over my ear. I didn't miss the melancholy note to it and I had no idea why it was there.

I pulled his arm tighter around me then and stared into the fire, unsure of how to respond. Part of me wanted to pretend I hadn't heard him, not knowing what to say, or more afraid of what might pop out of my mouth. So many things about my past that I'd kept hidden deep inside were suddenly stirring, as if sensing a safe outlet to relieve me of their burden.

"If you knew my whole story, Heero, you wouldn't be saying that." The fire popped, sending burning embers towards the sky, and I tilted my head upwards to watch them go. "You wouldn't want to be with someone like me."

He'd snorted again and I could feel him shaking his head slightly. We sat in silence for a while, watching the fire, moving every now and then to feed the flames. The words came slowly at first, small snippets of our histories uttered softly in the shadows. It didn't take long, though, before those same words turned into a volley of stories about our sordid pasts mingling with snickers and dark laughter. By the time the fire died we both felt as free as the last of the smoke raising up to the star filled sky. We had bared our souls and had not only come out unscathed, but had come out closer than we'd been before.

I shivered slightly when he pushed me over, but it was more the hard heat of him against me than the cold sand against my back that caused it. I could still make out the tenderness in his eyes despite the darkness and I couldn't help but smile.

"I love you, you know," he said, bending to nuzzle my neck. "Nothing you've done could ever change how I feel about you."

I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him closer for a kiss. "Exactly."