"Duo?" I was both amazed and wary that he seemed oblivious to my arrival. "Une said there was an emergency situation we needed to handle." Given the Preventer's established codex (Preventer Handbook, Chapter 19 Article 8 Section 1 clearly stated: Two or more agents who are romantically involved in any manner are required to report the nature of their relationship to their commanding officer. They are expressly forbidden from serving in active field duty together), the fact that Une wanted us together on a mission sent up all my red flags.

"Heero! About damn time, man!" He sprang from the chair and was out of the room like a rocket, stopping only to pick up a single garment bag. At the same time, I noticed that he wasn't wearing the uniform I had helped him put on this morning, meaning this was obviously an undercover job. "Let's go," he called back to me from halfway down the hall.

I jogged after him and we ended up at the Preventer car pool. He slid behind the wheel of an unmarked sedan after depositing the garment bag in the back seat. There was absolutely nothing to read in his expression and no information seemed to be forth coming. Usually, when cases sprang up like this, he was going a mile a minute to convey all the appropriate details to me. That he was being so uncharacteristically tight lipped was starting to give me uncharacteristic anxiety. All I could do was belt myself into the passenger seat, but Duo's hand shot out to stop me.

"You need to change," he said as he jerked his chin to indicate the garment bag in back.

I merely nodded to acknowledge his statement and climbed into the rear of the car. He started the engine as soon as I was more or less situated and punched it out of the garage. Even from the back seat, I could feel nervous tension rolling off him. He pushed the speed limit the entire way to wherever we were headed. It didn't take a degree in advanced human psychology to know he wanted nothing more than to floor it, so I was surprised that he shot down my suggestion to use the beacon light in clipped tones. He said that he was trying to keep our arrival a secret.

I dwelled on that, pondering also his unusual taciturn behavior. He cleared his throat and once he had my attention via the rearview mirror, jerked his head as if to say, 'Get dressed already!' I nodded again and unzipped the bag. Inside were rather plain clothes: a pair of khakis and a simple white, button up shirt. Immediately, I started to strip. Like a properly drilled Preventer agent, I was 'suited up' and ready to go inside of a minute. It was odd, however, that there was no body armor of which to speak; that detail was incongruous with the Commander's and Duo's reactions.

"It's not a hostile situation yet, so no armor." Duo practically read my mind. For all the time we'd spent together both professionally and personally, his ability to almost read my mind never failed to amaze (and, more often than not, to please) me.

"Yet?" I repeated what I thought was the key word. It was time for details. "Who are we dealing with?" I asked as I climbed back into the front seat.

A second of undisguised panic washed over his face before he expertly schooled his expression into neutrality. The anxiety in my stomach grew; it got colder. There were few things I was aware of that would mess with Duo's 'game face.'

"I'll be the one dealing with any potentially volatile situations," he said.

"Back up?"

"No, no, that's not really necessary..."

I gripped his shoulder. What I didn't feel there, namely any sort of protective gear under the shirt, made that pool of anxiety get colder still. What the hell kind of mission was so bloody important that Une would break protocol not once, but twice. First, by sending two agents in a committed relationship with each other out into the field together; and second, by allowing them to enter Duo just admitted might become both hostile and volatile without any equipment or backup.

Maybe the world was going to come to an end; or maybe just my world was going to come to an end if Duo couldn't pull off this mission.

"Promise me," I commanded.

"Nah, it's nothing like that," he said with a smile. Curiously, there was not even the faintest hint of the panic that had consumed his features just a moment ago.

"Promise. Me." My words sounded more like a snarl than actual speech. I didn't care; I would accept nothing less than everything if this damn situation was as bad as I was beginning to fear.

"Heero," he sighed. "Take the wheel for a sec, huh?" I did as he requested, keeping one eye on him and my spare eye on the road.

He reached up and unclasped the necklace he always wore. It had made it through at least whatever constituted his Gundam training, two wars, and eight years of service to Preventers. It had also survived five years and counting of the very physical relationship I shared with Duo. It wasn't that he never took it off. On several occasions, he'd tucked it into a small velvet jewelry box that sat on our dresser while he was performing an extended undercover mission. What stuck in my mind was that he wasn't taking it off for the sake of the mission this time; he was taking it off for me. There was a difference there I did not want to acknowledge. Not for a single damn thing on all of creation could ever stand in for Duo Maxwell.

"Thanks," he said as he took the wheel back with one hand, and with the other, he held out his cross, "Take it man."

He was offering me his cross; but he was offering that super chilled anxiety in my stomach a million nucleation sites. It was the catalyst that changed that nebulous pool of anxiety into crystals of ice instantly, infinitely.

"Duo Maxwell, if you do not say it right this second, so help me God --"

"Heero Yuy," his fierce voice cut me off, "I promise I will come home to you. For as long as you'll have me."

"Thank you," I said quietly; and only then did I accept the cross. "And I'll have you forever," I tacked on, as if merely giving voice to my fondest desire would actually make it come true. It was a naive wish, given our professional lives, but hope springs eternal. 'Stupidly,' I was sure Duo would amend if he could hear my thoughts.

The next several minutes were filled with incredibly tense silence. Just as I was about to break into the conversational void, he announced that we had arrived. Our car rolled to a stop in downtown Brussels, in the fringe between the business and shopping districts.

"Grote Markt?" I asked as my mind immediately thought of the potential for a significant number of civilian casualties.

"Yup. Time to rock'n'roll," he said as he jerked the keys from the ignition and practically jumped from the car. I barely had time to register that the nervous look was back on his face. I followed him out of the car, determined to watch my lover's back. I felt none of the calm serenity I usually felt before a mission. Indeed, something felt very off, from the tightlipped way both Une and Duo had been about the nature of the mission to Duo's reaction talking about it. I didn't like it one bit.

But I couldn't question him further, he was already darting down through the streets that got increasingly narrow and difficult to manage given the press of tourists and stalls set up along the narrow, winding alleys. I ran in his wake, muttering extra apologies in French, Flemish and English; people shouted back in anger and surprise. Finally, we broke out into the square. There were still throngs of people, but also enough space to make maneuvering much easier. Duo booked it at top speed to the Stadhuis.

"DUO!" A familiar voice rang out. I turned to see Relena come darting out of the building, followed by closely by Wufei. "You're in luck, I just managed to catch him! You wouldn't believe the strings I had to pull to --" It was the hand pressed suddenly to her mouth more than the blush that made it clear she had said more than she'd intended to say. I heard two familiar voices call out to us and turned to see Quatre and Trowa navigating the crowd. Relena waved them over with a look of relief and said, "OH! You got Quatre and Trowa as well?"

"Heero! Duo!" Quatre enthused and he and his lover jogged up.

"Duo? What the hell is going on?" There was no rhyme or reason to the series of events that had occurred since I'd left Une's office.

"Hold up, everyone," Duo said. He swung around to face me. The look on his face was so intense, it was practically impossible to describe all the layers or define all the emotions. "Heero, before we go in there..." He hesitated.

Duo Maxwell was hesitating. That was unheard of. He was a man of action, he'd proven time and again that he would do whatever it took to protect what he loved: the Maxwell Church, peace, me. Hell, he'd looked down the barrel of my gun, prepared to die for the cause during the wars. There hadn't been the faintest hint of doubt on his face then. Now, however, it was clearly mixed in with the melange of feelings.

"I can take it, whatever it is," I said, encouraging him.

I heard some comments from our newly-arrived friends ranging from disbelief to dry chuckling. None of it seemed apropos given the gravity of this potentially volatile, hostile situation, one which apparently required the presence of five elite Preventer agents and the Vice Foreign Minister.

"Okay, er... in the time-honored tradition of doing things last minute and truly flying by the seat of my pants --" right there in the middle of the sidewalk in downtown Brussels, he took my hand in his and got down on one knee "-- Heero Yuy, will you marry me?" His free hand was suddenly holding a simple metal band.

"...what did you say?"

"Will you... marry me?"

A myriad of images of our life together passed before my eyes. The flood of memories surprised me and it was something that I had thought was just a tired old cliche. For all the near-death situations I'd experienced in my life, I had never experienced anything like this parade of memories -- barring the Zero experience. More amazingly, every single moment was filled with wonder, comfort, joy, and love. If anyone else were privy to that same rush of thoughts, they would undoubtedly think of me as the luckiest damn bastard alive.

And I didn't need some silly piece of paper to tell me my life was irrevocably intertwined with Duo's... yet, with him kneeling before me asking for my hand, it seemed entirely logical. More than logical, ineluctable. But of all the things I could have said to accept his offer, the words that actually came out of my mouth were this:

"Your cross?"

"Something borrowed."

"The clothes?"

"I nicked the khakis from the dresser this morning -- something old. But that shirt is new."

"What's the blue?"

He only had to tug at my belt loop to jog my memory as to what color briefs I was wearing. It wasn't hard to remember that they were blue when Duo had used his teeth to put them on me this morning. The memory made me smile.

"The mission?"

"Er, put a ring on it." He held up the simple round of metal again and I indulged him my stretching my hand out a little further, inviting him to slide it into place. He did; it was a perfect fit.

"And the volatile situation?" I asked, even though I could pretty well guess. I gripped his hand and pulled him bodily to his feet and into the circle of my arms.

"Well, I know you're not exactly keen to have a stupid piece of paper saying it's official, I was kind of afraid you might react... unfavorably to my request."

"I never called it 'stupid'."

"Not to my face," he said with a small, knowing smile.

I grinned a grin of the truly chagrined. My closest friends had gathered in a show of support, Relena had pulled strings to make it happen, Duo had done his best to make the official side of it as brief as possible. Above all else, however, I took in the hopeful look in my lover's eyes as he kneeled before me with only one simple desire: to be with me forever.

"Duo Maxwell, I would honored to be your husband." He beamed as I pulled him to his feet and into a tight embrace that lasted all of half a second before our mouths were crushed together. Our friends cheered for us, strangers passing by applauded for us. Relena cleared her throat for us, reminding us of the Justice of the Peace waiting to perform the ceremony after hours as a personal favor to her.

"Alright, then!" Duo said, "Let's go make an honest man out of you... and me!"