Taurus

Last place in Stern Bild didn't mean last place, literally. It meant "down there with Origami." The little guy was lucky - his bosses just wanted him onscreen, no matter how embarrassing his points tally was. Antonio had no such luck.

Antonio hadn't had any luck to speak of for years. Sometimes he wondered why he'd even moved to Stern Bild. California had treated him pretty well, all in all; he wasn't King of Heroes for LA or anything like that, but he'd come in as a solid runner-up several seasons running. But then his mother got sick, and he'd been sidelined with a knee injury at the time, and renting out his house and coming back east to help take care of her had seemed pretty reasonable; his sister still lived pretty close, but she had kids of her own. And Kotetsu had convinced him, once his mom was in remission and he'd recovered from the surgery, to try for the Stern Bild hero scene instead; he had a solid track record in a major city, he was a known quantity to several sponsors, so it was easy to get a Stern Bild launch.

Five years ago, now. He'd made a pretty solid showing that year, come in second, behind the Blue Streak. Looking back, he figured Maverick had been throwing softball criminals at him so he wouldn't have a disappointing rookie season. A lot of things like that made more sense now that they knew how much had been rigged. After that it had been a swift drop to the bottom. Whenever someone who outperformed him retired, he thought maybe this would be his year, but no; Nathan had replaced the Blue Streak, and while he didn't overtake her in first place, he'd hovered around the middle ranks ever since he debuted. Sky High replaced the Gray Ghost, and he'd gotten to King of Heroes in his second season and stayed there until Barnaby came along. Blue Rose and Dragon Kid were always duking it out for second or third, and Barnaby, well, no one could beat the Super Rookie. Outperforming Origami didn't count for much.

Now it was just him, down at the bottom, and Origami had actually outdone him on points - he'd gotten a lot better with his shuriken, and he could move pretty fast when he felt like it, which was pretty much the opposite of Antonio. He was actually dead last now. With Kotetsu retired, he was also the longest-term veteran in the cast, even if it hadn't all been in Stern Bild, and the oldest Hero.

The oldest hero, and completely washed up. Kotetsu had at least made King of Heroes before, and he'd had a good reason for his slump, even if he hadn't wanted anyone to know. And he'd turned it around later, when he and Barnaby partnered up. Antonio didn't have any of that. No glory days, no partner, no luck, no job, soon enough; his manager, Terry, had made it abundantly clear he was on thin ice. A heavily armored stone buffalo. On thin ice. You could hear it cracking from miles away.

"Hey, can I leave my car overnight?" Antonio asked the bartender.

"You already asked me that, man," the kid said. Jeez, bartenders looked like kids. When he first went out to LA they'd looked like... well, they tended to look like movie stars because a lot of them were aspiring actors, but they looked like adults. People he needed to impress. Prove to them he was old enough to order a drink. "Like an hour ago."

"Oh. You must have said yes if you didn't cut me off, huh?"

"Right," the boy said, grinning. "Think you need to call it a night?"

"One for the road," Antonio said. "Sidewalk. You know."

Antonio looked around the room while the kid poured his beer. Spinning a little, but he'd been here before. With Nathan, he thought. Wasn't too far from Nathan's place. One of Nathan's places. He had that mansion out in one of the nice edge-of-town neighborhoods where people had a lot of big yards and trees, and he'd talked about having a place on the beach, but he had a fancy apartment or something around here, didn't he? Hell, he probably owned the whole building. It was kind of annoying - not like Nathan had any reason to be a hero. It wasn't like he needed the money.

He'd go ask. It was late, he was in no shape to drive himself home, and he needed a place to crash. Nathan would put him up, he was pretty sure. Or give him a ride home in some car Antonio was way to drunk to fawn over like it deserved. He could always count on Nathan to grab his ass, and do nothing more than grab his ass no matter how drunk he got, and take care of him when he was completely shit-faced.

Was he shit-faced? He'd been working on it most of the night. Maybe this last beer would do it.

Antonio was at least a little unsteady on his feet as he wandered through the lobby of the building. The doorman had actually recognized him, go figure. He must have crashed here more than he'd realized. He stepped into the gleaming elevator, squinting at the buttons to find the highest number. 45? No, there was a P after that. That'd be it.

He leaned against the elevator's back wall, hands in his jacket pockets. Hi, Nathan, I'm feeling really sorry for myself, want to grope me so I know somebody likes some part of me? Then I'll fall asleep on your couch and drool all over throw pillows that probably cost as much as my first car. Maybe a little too honest. Not that it was all that hard to find things that cost more than his first car had. Had he actually kept the passenger door closed with duct tape, or was that just a joke he told about it later? Hi, Nathan, I promise not to puke in your bathtub this time. The elevator was all mirrors and gleaming metal and bright lights, enough to make him a little dizzy. He closed his eyes, which didn't help much. Damn, this thing took a while. Hi, Nathan. Why are you even a hero? I just realized I have no idea.

The muted chime as the elevator stopped jerked him out of a half-doze. Didn't getting drunk used to involve a fun, tipsy phase? Maybe that only kicked in when you were with people. Or at least not drowning your sorrows. He lurched out of the elevator before it could change its mind and went to the only door in the little lobby area.

He leaned against the doorjamb after he rang the bell. Might take a bit. It was late. Shit, what if Nathan had somebody over? That'd be awkward. Nathan's usual type was pretty much the polar opposite of Antonio, which made Nathan's thing about his ass that much harder to understand - unless it had just always been a joke all along, which was entirely possible - and also pretty much the polar opposite of the only type of guy Antonio had ever been interested in, so it wasn't like he was afraid he'd wake up next to someone unexpected. But he'd always made a point of knowing absolutely nothing about what his coworkers did in bed, or as close to nothing as he could get, and he really did not want to change that tonight.

When the door opened, he nearly fell through. "Oops," he mumbled.

"Antonio?" Nathan asked. Antonio blinked him into focus. Damn, Nathan had some shoulders on him. How come he'd never noticed that in the locker room? No makeup to speak of. He was pretty damn handsome without the eyeshadow. He was cut, too - he had those hip muscle things, what the hell were those called, leading down into the loose pajama bottoms he was wearing. They were all he was wearing. Oh, right, people liked you to look at their faces when you talked to them.

"Hey," he said, smiling.

"Do you know what time it is?"

"No?" Maybe he should have checked. "Late?"

"Come on in," Nathan said, wearily. He had a pretty respectable ass himself, Antonio noted as he followed. Maybe Nathan wasn't as far off from his type as he'd thought. "Is something wrong? It's been a while since I saw you get drunk by yourself."

"You should know. You were there."

"Okay, it wasn't the most graceful rescue, but none of those kids were actually hurt. And it's not like you were the one that threw the schoolbus. You caught it. You got rescue points!"

And then he got knocked off an overpass and left a crater so deep he broke a 48-inch water main. The sinkhole nearly swallowed up a car, and you damn sure didn't get points for saving people from problems you'd caused. "Still pretty sure my bosses aren't gonna be happy."

"Aww. Well, get some sleep, honey. Maybe it'll look better in the morning." Antonio sunk down onto the couch, feeling a little neglected, but Nathan yawned, and Antonio glanced across the room. Two-thirty. No wonder. "You need a blanket or anything?"

"Meh."

"I'll go find one." Nathan left, yawning again, while Antonio took off his shoes. Maybe it was just more personal, seeing him running around his own home in pajamas, compared to seeing him change in the training center, where Antonio was pretty busy not ogling anybody. Maybe he was just drunk enough that he wasn't trying not to look. Maybe it was beer goggles and he'd be back to normal in the morning.

Nathan woke that morning feeling vaguely guilty. By the time he sat up and stretched, he'd remembered.

Poor Antonio. He'd had a rough night of it, points or no - though the rescue points would do his standing a world of good - and Nathan had barely been able to get his eyes to focus, let alone be comforting. Of course, part of the reason for that was that Antonio had gone off to comfort himself first, but it wasn't like Nathan couldn't see that hadn't worked.

At least, he could see it when his eyes were all the way open. In other words, not at two in the morning. Now, he was just fine, and he could fully appreciate the sight of Antonio stretched out shirtless and face-down on his couch, blanket draped over one leg, even if he did nearly trip over the heap of clothes on the floor by the couch. He considered whether it would be wrong to take advantage, but really, it wasn't like he was doing anything to hurt Antonio if he leaned over him, ran one hand down his spine, enjoying the damn-near-sculpted effect of his back, and gave his ass a loving squeeze. Or if he then leaned over and nibbled on the edge of his ear.

"Mm," Antonio mumbled into the couch cushion. "I can think of worse ways to wake up."

"Oh, so can I, darling," Nathan purred into his ear, just in case Antonio was groggy enough not to know who was doing this. "But I thought it was supposed to be hands off your fiery--"

"Shouldn't you be the fiery one?" He yawned, propped himself up on an elbow, then changed his mind and flopped back down.

"I'm getting the impression you don't mind?" This time it was more like a caress than a grab. A long, lingering caress.

"Unless you've got a boy stashed in the bedroom or something."

"Excuse me. I sleep with men." So was Antonio shifting in discomfort, or something else?

"Not what they look like to me."

"Confirmation bias."

"Whuh?" Antonio halfway rolled over, though unfortunately he brought the blanket with him when he did so it draped over his front.

"You think I only take home cute young things you could bench-press, so those are the ones you remember seeing me with. You don't bother to recall the heavyweight boxer, or the rugby player..." he sighed nostalgically, "or the two different cops, or--"

"Okay, okay, fine, I don't need the full list."

"Besides, do you think I would have been asleep when you got here if I'd had someone over?"

"You seem to assume I was thinking."

Nathan chuckled, sitting back on the floor. "How silly of me."

Antonio heaved himself to a sitting position, and Nathan feasted his eyes on a lot more chest hair than he normally got to see. "Today's gonna suck," Antonio said. "Thanks for letting me crash here, Nathan. I never even thought of calling a cab."

"You wouldn't have gotten such a delightful wakeup call if you'd done that."

"True," Antonio said, and it took Nathan a second to process that syllable. Seriously?

"There's more where that came from," he offered, with a wink, and Antonio still didn't produce the expected spluttering and protests. Instead, he reached out and ran his hand over Nathan's jaw, stopping at his chin, and Nathan might have forgotten to breathe for a second.

"I've never seen you with stubble," he said, and Nathan smacked his hand away.

"You are just cruel," Nathan protested, standing up and heading for the bathroom with the most exaggerated, hip-swaying sashay he could muster under the circumstances.

"Stubble's not bad," Antonio called after him, loud enough to be heard through the door, but Nathan wasn't going to answer that. Maybe it wasn't inherently bad - it could be sexy enough on certain guys, who weren't Nathan - but he didn't like having it or being seen with it.

More to the point, though, something was up with Antonio. Nathan had thought for a second that Antonio was going to go in for a kiss when he'd touched Nathan's face. No, Antonio wasn't straight, but all the relationships he'd ever mentioned had been with women - which wasn't many, he hated talking about that kind of thing - and when he slept with men, from what Nathan had seen, he always went for the big, macho types. Never anyone like Nathan, who felt kind of naked without makeup. He didn't seem to fall for guys, and usually Nathan didn't sleep with people he'd been friends with for years unless he was going for something more, which seemed pretty unlikely with Antonio.

Well, hell, he thought as he shaved. Just because he didn't usually do something didn't mean he couldn't. It wasn't like he was pining after Antonio or anything. What was a little casual sex between friends? He'd go out there, seduce Antonio, get whatever it was out of his system, and fortify him for the day ahead. Which did, indeed, sound like it might be pretty unpleasant. The water main breakage had left several blocks of Silver and Gold without water for hours, in the evening no less, and Kronos had been twitchy about him for some time.

When Nathan emerged from the bathroom, though, he found Antonio fully dressed and holding his keys in one hand and a glass of water in the other. "I gotta go," Antonio said.

"What, already? You don't need any aspirin or anything?"

"There's some in the locker room at work."

"Breakfast?" Nathan had liked his plan. Especially the element of surprise. You didn't just announce you were seducing someone, just like you didn't tell them what was in the present before they unwrapped it. He'd really been looking forward to the unwrapping part.

"No time. Terry already left me two messages. Thanks again for letting me crash here," Antonio said, polished off the water in one gulp, and let himself out.

Nathan didn't need to call himself stupid out loud, for the benefit of his empty apartment, but it did help give vent to his feelings a bit.

You didn't spend four years groping a man's buttocks without giving some thought to having sex with him, especially not if you were Nathan Seymour. He'd given ample thought to that. He'd also given some thought to an actual relationship, around the time he'd spotted Antonio in a gay bar and realized that all that grumbling about ass-grabs really had been about the fact they were in public.

And his conclusion had been that it wouldn't work. Antonio liked women, frequently and openly if not usually successfully; men seemed to be kind of a bonus side dish for him, and Nathan was nobody's side dish. Nathan was the main event, always. Straight boys were trouble, bi guys who didn't think that's what they were were only marginally less so, and Nathan was through with that phase by the time he had his MBA. He could appreciate that masterwork of an ass and be friends with its owner without falling in love.

So it was best just to put all of this out of his mind and go about his day. Which he did, successfully, until he stepped out of a merchandising meeting to find two missed calls from Antonio.

"How bad is it?" he asked without preamble when he called Antonio back.

"Pretty damn good! They actually filmed me accepting this big thank-you card the kids on the bus made me. And I'm not fired." Antonio was grinning on the screen, and Nathan could see one drill, so he must have just left his appearance.

"Darn, so you won't be living on my couch."

"It'd save on my house payments," Antonio said. "But nah, not just yet. Hey, can I buy you dinner?"

"What?"

"To celebrate!"

Nathan wondered if that wording had been deliberate. It hadn't been hey, let's go get dinner, like he might have expected, but could have just meant he didn't want to let Nathan pay. "Someplace that serves a lot of dead cow, I'm guessing. You cannibal."

"Hey, I eat all kinds of dead animals."

Nathan chuckled. "When should I pick you up?"

"I could pick you up..."

"Honey. No. No one else drives when I'm in the car. Will you be at the Kronos building?"

Antonio was waiting outside the Kronos building in suit and tie at seven. He'd considered changing to casual clothes, but time was running short, and Agnes had once told him he looked nice in a suit - which he'd latched onto happily for months, even knowing perfectly well she wouldn't date one of the cast - so hey, might as well see what Nathan thought of it. Nathan usually seemed to like him in a tux, anyway.

It hadn't just been the booze, clearly, and that was part of why Antonio was so jittery. He and Nathan had been friends for years, and whether or not Nathan went for a lot of young twinks, he definitely liked them good-looking. Not starting to show wrinkles, with a nose that had been broken twice before he was twenty - his powers hadn't manifested till he was fourteen, and he'd started getting in fights well before that - and a hairline that, much as Antonio tried to deny it, was slowly making its way up his scalp. The ass-grabs, and that wake-up call this morning, were as much a running joke as anything. Probably. Even if he was starting to wish they weren't.

He was pretty sure Nathan was too perceptive to miss that fumble about asking him to dinner, but he might pretend he had just to avoid awkwardness.

The car pulled up to the curb - red, of course, and not one Antonio recognized, so probably new - and Nathan rolled down the window as Antonio approached. "Don't you look sharp," he said, eyeing Antonio up and down.

"Didn't have a lot of time to change." Antonio pulled the door open and climbed in. "This one's new?" It didn't quite have the smell, but Antonio couldn't exactly afford cars in Nathan's range. Maybe they just emerged smelling like money.

"Newish," Nathan said, leaving it at that, which was a little odd. Normally he loved talking about his babies. "I got us reservations at K Grill, that new churrascaria on Gold. I'm not going to hold you to paying for it."

"I'm not broke, man. Just insecure."

"I think you worry too much. Trust me, I get to see the Hero Academy graduate roster every year."

"Yeah?"

"The most promising candidate was a stretchy guy. Don't get me wrong! I can see the combat applications, though costuming would be a nightmare, but that was the best of the bunch. After that was a woman who could grow her hair on command."

"I dunno," Antonio said. "Stretchy guy versus tough guy... novelty value might be enough to tip things in his favor."

Nathan sighed at him. "I'm trying to keep you from moping. The least you could do is play along."

"I'm not moping! I'm in a good mood today. I'm lookin' at this objectively."

"Hmmph."

"Seriously, the thing at the school was great. A bunch of kindergarten kids climbed all over me. They're adorable at that age. I bet they're a pain in the ass if you have to deal with 'em for long, but if you're just the human jungle gym for half an hour they're adorable."

"I bet you would be fun to climb," Nathan said, and Antonio felt his face heating up. Then Nathan laughed. "I didn't even mean it that way for once! Though, come to think of it..."

Antonio tugged at his tie. "It's usually a safe bet with you." And now he was envisioning Nathan trying to climb him. More fun without the armor on, at least for him.

Nathan looked entirely too pleased with himself as he nodded. "I have to wonder, though - aren't those drills a bit sharp?"

"Not too much. It's like with a... I'm going to say something about power tools and I know how you're going to take that...."

"I need to be less predictable," Nathan said. "At this rate we can skip entire conversations."

Antonio pulled at his tie again. "Sorry, I know you said I looked good, but it feels like wearing a noose."

Nathan grinned. "I miss your chest hair, so whatever makes you happiest."

Antonio loosened his tie, at first, planning to leave it at that. Then he wasn't sure how that looked, so he took it off entirely. He undid a couple of buttons on his shirt. Nathan interrupted his own story about planning an office party to say, "Now this is even better."

"What?"

"I get a date in a nice suit, then a striptease in my car. What's coming off next?"

"Shut up," Antonio protested, embarrassed, turning to look out the window. "Date" was good, but now he was all self-conscious.

"Aw," Nathan said. "So you're staying dressed? Don't get my hopes up like that."

"You need to buy me dinner first," Antonio said.

"You're not that kind of girl?" Nathan said. "Isn't that my line?"

"I dunno, I thought I was buying dinner."

"But sweetie, I am that kind of girl," Nathan said, and before Antonio had to come up with some kind of rejoinder to that, they pulled up, mercifully, into the valet parking lot.

If Nathan was so determined to be a lady, then fine; Antonio stepped forward to hold the door into the restaurant open for him. The smile he got for that was pretty dazzling, and Nathan took his arm as they followed the host toward their table. That, he could live with. And Nathan really did have an amazing smile, when he felt like it, makeup or no.

The server went through the canned explanation about the way the restaurant worked, then departed. "Short version: you never turn the card over to red," Antonio said.

"Because we both have an insatiable appetite for... meat," Nathan replied, running a suggestive fingertip around the edge of his water glass. Antonio buried his face in his hands. "Oh, come on, you had to know that was coming," Nathan protested, laughing.

"Yeah, I guess I just wasn't expecting that one..."

"At least I didn't say it in front of the waiter."

"True." Antonio looked up. "You can hit the salad bar if you want. I'm not eating a thing that wasn't part of an animal tonight."

"I guess I'll have to flag down the waiter, then. Tell him you changed your mind about the beer."

"Hey, none of that. Beer is honorary meat." Nathan cuffed him lightly on the shoulder and left the table.

The first time Nathan had dragged him to a churrascaria, he sealed the deal by describing it as "meat on sticks." Antonio had nearly balked when he saw how fancy that place was, and then they started circulating the beef. This one was new, so no telling how good the food would be, but he had high hopes.

When the steaks finally started coming their way, Antonio occupied himself with taking some of everything, until the servers stopped dropping by. He glanced at the card, which Nathan had turned over. "Hey," he said.

"Sweetie, come on. I got us a nice private table and you don't even want to talk?" Nathan pouted. "I feel like the spark's gone out of our marriage."

"...well, you've got the perfect set of powers to fix that, right?" Nathan grinned at him. "Fine, we can leave it over for now."

"Good, because I have so much more dirt about the Hero Academy picks. Admit it, lists of stupid powers are fun!"

"Sure," Antonio agreed, but he was only halfway paying attention. Looking at Nathan across the table, Antonio tried seeing him like he hadn't known him for years. He might not have pretty features, but if you took him from the neck up, he did make a striking woman... and without makeup, a pretty damn handsome man. It was a little confusing, because Antonio had always kind of liked women he could lift and men he could arm-wrestle. Okay, maybe not lift, not always really tiny short ladies, but really feminine women. Then again, he'd also always liked women who were smarter than him, and Nathan fit that bill. For that matter, they could probably arm wrestle, if Nathan thought his manicure could take it.

"Wait, wait. Sweat?" He couldn't have heard that right.

"Yeah," Nathan said. "I have no idea why you'd take that to Hero Academy. Tuition's not that cheap."

"Tuition's an arm and a leg," Antonio said. "But then again, I thought Origami's power sounded pretty useless when I first heard about him, and look how he's doing."

"It's those suits." Nathan actually sounded serious. "Back when it was all spandex, a power like yours would make you damn near unstoppable. But everyone's so armored-up now that being bulletproof is nothing special."

"What you're saying is I'm behind the times?" Nathan frowned at him. "I'm not taking it personal. I think you're right."

"They level the playing field," Nathan said. "But that means it favors someone with offensive powers to complement the suit's defense, or an offensive suit like Origami's. That's really what you need. Your suit's redundant."

"So why don't you have a big suit of armor?" Antonio looked longingly at the card - his plate was getting empty - but he did want to hear the answer.

"And cover all of this up?" Nathan leaned back in his chair, gesturing at his body - yeah, he was actually wearing a mesh shirt underneath that pink coat he loved so much. And making it look really good. "Come on, it'd be a crime and you know it."

Antonio thought about the Fire Emblem suit. Which had to be, like, vacuum-sealed or something for the way it showed off Nathan's build. Then he tried not to think about it anymore. "Yeah, well, I guess no one can make you change costumes, right?" Antonio turned the card over. This was why he'd had exactly one girlfriend since he moved here. It was one thing to pick someone up in a bar, but actually dating somebody? Trying to talk to somebody you actually really liked and also wanted to have sex with when you couldn't just say either of those things right upfront? It was impossible. And it'd never been a problem before. This was Nathan.

He got through the meal somehow, though, and succeeded in claiming the check - Nathan could be pretty sneaky about that - and they made their way out front to claim the car. Nathan slid his arms around Antonio's shoulders as they waited, and Antonio swallowed hard. The parking attendants were right there... but Nathan was right there. Antonio closed his eyes.

The kiss was soft, sweet, and surprisingly chaste, and when Antonio opened his eyes again, Nathan was watching him, looking a little... kind of amused and sad at the same time. "Relax," Nathan murmured. Easier said than done, Antonio thought, but he could think of one thing to do, so he kissed Nathan again. The other man swiftly took control, and Antonio found himself opening up to Nathan's probing tongue. His hands were clutching at Nathan's coat, and he made himself relax, flatten his palms against Nathan's back... and keep from yelping when Nathan's hands found his ass again. This time, the hands lingered, kneading, tugging their hips together, nothing like the usual joking gropes in bars and at the gym. He heard himself make a faint groan into Nathan's mouth, and he flushed as Nathan broke the kiss.

"Your keys, um, if you're ready," an unfamiliar voice said behind him, and Nathan reached past him to accept them from the attendant. Antonio followed him to the car, face burning, determinedly not making eye contact with anyone, which meant he was pretty much watching Nathan's ass.

"You'll never see them again," Nathan pointed out gently, once they were both inside the car.

"Be nice if that helped," Antonio mumbled. Not that it had done a damn thing about his hard-on, which was equally embarrassing.

"Aw, sweetie," Nathan said, his voice still surprisingly gentle. "Next time I'll save that for when we're in private, okay?"

"Okay," Antonio said automatically, then "Next time?"

"If there is one." Nathan started the car. "So, your place or mine?"

Antonio thought about his place, which would be in the state he'd left it when he got the call yesterday; groceries half put away, scraps of fabric all over the kitchen table, bills and junk mail and a big collection of empty bottles going back months all over the coffee table. "Yours."

Nathan spent most of the ride resisting the urge to talk Antonio through his self-consciousness. He knew from past experience it never worked, but it was still hard to keep himself from pointing out that the waiters or bartenders or parking attendants saw hundreds of people a day, and weren't going to bother remembering them in particular. To be fair, Nathan himself kind of undermined that argument - he rarely failed to look memorable. But he'd never been cursed with any fear of what anyone else thought, and he would have liked to be able to pass some of that fearlessness along.

But Antonio hadn't shoved him away, or bolted, or asked to be dropped off at his own place... or wherever his car was supposed to be at the moment. Good enough for Nathan. At his own apartment, he led the way to the elevators. "It really is just as shiny when I'm sober," Antonio said.

"I hope you weren't too hungover this morning."

"Nah, I was fine," Antonio said, leaning back against the wall. Nathan leaned against him, his hand exploring the front of the other man's shirt.

"You know, there aren't too many floor-to-floor visitors..." he began, toying with one of Antonio's buttons.

"Yeah?" That sounded promising.

"And it's a long elevator ride..." Button slipped through buttonhole. Pity Antonio was wearing an undershirt.

"True," Antonio said. "Kind of boring, from what I remember."

"Exactly," Nathan purred, pulling Antonio's head down for another kiss. No hesitation this time; Antonio's arms went around him, under his coat, and he opened up before Nathan's exploring tongue. He unbuttoned Antonio's shirt as they kissed, feeling the hands running up his back, back down, and then reaching his hips. Nathan grinned against Antonio's neck as he felt the other man's hands reach his ass, cupping and squeezing. He pressed his hips hard against Antonio's, feeling his obvious arousal, and the door chimed discreetly. Antonio let go of him in a hurry, less familiar with the elevator than Nathan was, and Nathan led the way out and to his door.

Keycode, thumbprint, and Antonio's lips on the back of his neck as the lock clicked open. "Let me show you the bedroom," Nathan said, laughter trying to bubble up through his voice; he'd figured he'd have to work a bit harder than this to seduce Antonio.

"Laughing at me?" Antonio asked against his ear.

"No, no. Just at the situation." Nathan turned to face Antonio, pulled him through the door, and peeled the suit jacket off of him. Half the fun of suits was the unwrapping. He untucked Antonio's dress shirt, undid his belt; Antonio was clearly stymied about how to do anything beyond undoing the one button on Nathan's coat. Nathan took pity on him and pulled back to shrug out of it. "Believe me, you don't want to miss the bedroom."

"If you say so," Antonio agreed, trailing after him. Nathan let his hips swing a bit - give Antonio something to watch on the long journey through the living room - and flung the bedroom door open. Of course, the cleaning service had made the bed, so no visible silk sheets, but he'd get to those, once he'd gotten tired of the view.

"Damn," Antonio said, drifting over to the window. Nathan followed, pleased to get to show it off; he'd always kind of wanted to show it to Antonio, but his friend always took invitations to his bedroom the wrong way. For some reason.

"And now you see why penthouses cost so much." Nathan was equally proud of the rest of the room - the clean, contemporary design, the pink and orange palette he and his designer had spent weeks hashing out, the neutral rug and walls to balance the bold accents he loved so much - but doubted Antonio would care. Except maybe about how easy it was to get in and out of the bed (very.)

"No kidding." The windowsill was deep enough to sit on, if not quite a bow window; Antonio leaned a knee on it. "So how do you ever get laid, if everybody gets distracted by this first?"

"Oh, I have my ways," Nathan said, pulling Antonio's shirt off. The big man helped him remove it, absently, and rubbed the back of his neck. Nathan slid his arms around Antonio from behind, reaching for his zipper. Antonio caught his hands, though, holding both wrists. "You're changing your mind now?"

Antonio looked over his shoulder, so Nathan could catch the corner of his grin. "Shouldn't it be ladies first?"

"Sweetie, you really know how to sweep a girl off her feet," Nathan said with an exaggerated flutter, to hide the real one he was feeling. This from Antonio, who'd sealed his fate as a groping target with a casual "Come on, man, you're not actually a girl," about three weeks after they met.

"I must have just learned," Antonio muttered, which Nathan ignored, running the tip of his tongue around the rim of Antonio's ear. Antonio's breath hitched, and Nathan tugged at his undershirt, which was enough to get him to turn his back to the window and turn his attention to Nathan. Big hands ran up his torso, and Nathan's own breath caught as Antonio thumbed his nipple through the cloth. "This thing does look damn good on you," he said, gruffly. "Always has, I guess."

Nathan had been wearing shirts like this for how long now? How long had Antonio been noticing? "If you're going to say it'd look better on the floor..."

"Nah," Antonio said, then lowered his head. His lips brushed Nathan's neck, making him shiver, as he asked, "So what's your bed like? Besides expensive?"

"Pink, too," Nathan said. "I can't believe you forgot that." He began backing that way, pulling Antonio along, not wanting to interrupt any of the very interesting things he was doing to his neck and upper chest. When the backs of his knees hit the edge of the mattress, he pulled Antonio down on top of him. "Normally I take the lead," he said, and then Antonio's mouth found his nipple through the shirt, Antonio's knee pressed his legs apart, and he stopped thinking in words for a bit.

"How the hell do you get these pants off?" Antonio finally asked, pulling him back to reality for a minute. "I mean, they don't feel like paint, but--"

"You're such a romantic," Nathan said, and took the opportunity to peel off Antonio's undershirt and his own before he turned his attention to the problem at hand. His boots and pants joined the heap on the floor, and he got Antonio's pants undone if not off before Antonio caught his hands.

"Am I going to have to tie you up?"

"Mmmmaybe..."

Antonio's face reddened. "I was joking," he said.

"Aww." He pouted for a moment, but he wasn't about to derail things now. "Okay, I'll be good." Not that it was all that difficult to stop interfering, when Antonio's hands were sweeping over his thighs and Antonio's tongue was flicking like liquid fire at his nipple. Nathan tried to catch his breath as Antonio sat up for a moment. But then Antonio's hand circled Nathan's shaft, Antonio's mouth closed over the head, and he heard himself actually moan. The whole world narrowed down to the heat of Antonio's mouth, the big hand working Nathan's shaft, the other, cool with lubricant, reaching back, probing, and then sliding in. He sighed something unintelligible, only to feel Antonio's mouth leave him for a moment.

"You all right?"

"God yes," he gasped. "Don't stop." Nathan heard him chuckle, then he resumed, taking Nathan deeper, working the finger in and out of him, and Nathan gave himself up to the rhythm Antonio had set. He heard himself groaning with each breath, he felt himself nearing the edge, and then diving over, his audible gasp all the warning Antonio would have had.

He just laid there happily, panting, as Antonio wiped his mouth, found some tissue, and joined him on the bed, the mattress creaking under his weight. "I guess that worked, huh?"

"You could say that," Nathan agreed. Antonio kissed him again, with enough heat to remind him of his original plan, and Nathan sat up, his hands roaming Antonio's chest, easing him back down onto the mattress. "My turn," he said, sliding a bare leg between Antonio's still-clothed knees.

"No arguments here," Antonio said. Nathan just sat over him for a moment, taking him in. It wasn't just his ass, his whole body might as well have been chiseled out of stone; the powerful arms, the chest and abs only partly veiled by his wedge of chest hair, leading down into a treasure trail neatly centered on his half-undone fly.

"I can't believe I didn't try this sooner," Nathan said, unzipping him the rest of the way.

Antonio obediently lifted his hips while Nathan pulled his slacks off. "You weren't trying every time you grabbed my ass?"

"Honey, when I'm trying, you know. As I think I proved today." Nathan rubbed him through the boxer briefs, enjoying the intake of breath that won him, then crawling up him to kiss him again. He ran his nails lightly down Antonio's arms, back up, noticing the small shiver that created before he turned his attention to Antonio's ear, his neck, down his throat. His nipples got nothing more than a hitch in the breath - not as sensitive as Nathan's, then. Unfortunately.

Nathan began tugging down the waistband of his underwear, and Antonio lifted his hips again to help. There should be some kind of fanfare or something, Nathan thought. He'd been a good girl, all this time, and never snuck a peek in the locker room. Antonio was a big guy in all respects, his cock bending a bit downward, like it weighed too much to lift beyond a certain point. And while Nathan gave it an exploratory lick from base to head, he stopped at that for now. "Hey," Antonio complained.

"Am I going to have to tie you up?"

"Hmmph."

Nathan's first boyfriend had been a rugby player, and he considered himself kind of a connoisseur of men's legs. And every other part, but he had a soft spot for legs. Antonio's were some of his favorites, solid, well-defined, and apparently enough of a sensitive area to suit Nathan's purposes. The light tracks of fingernails on his thighs made him shiver, the smooth backs of the nails dragged over his inner thighs got a small noise of approval, lips and teeth made his breath catch, and he was panting eagerly by the time Nathan moved on to the main event. His tongue just underneath the head netted him a grunt of satisfaction, his mouth engulfing it a satisfied groan, and the steady rhythm and pressure of hands and mouth he set up after that produced heavy, escalating breathing, rising to a groaned, surprised-sounding "Fuck, oh God," as he spurted into Nathan's mouth.

Nathan let him lie there, recovering, as he went to clean himself up; Antonio hadn't even discovered the palatial bathroom yet. When he returned, Antonio was propped up on his elbows. "What the hell were we waiting for?" Antonio asked.

"For you to stop screaming every time I goosed you?" Nathan said, coming to stand over him. "Or at least stop screaming in terror."

"Yeah, well, you sneak up on me. How am I supposed to know who's grabbing me?"

"Basic pattern recognition," Nathan suggested, and Antonio snorted derisively. Nathan gave his now-quiescent penis an affectionate pat and went around to the other side of the bed to turn the covers down. Antonio sat up.

"You weren't kidding about the pink."

"Real silk, too."

Antonio flopped back on the covers. "Kind of makes my head hurt to think how much money you have," he said.

Sometimes it blew Nathan's mind a bit, too. "Just get under the covers," he said. "Trust me, you'll like it."

With much grumbling and creaking - you'd think he was wracked with arthritis the way he carried on sometimes - Antonio joined him between the sheets. "Huh," he said, cautiously. "I guess this is pretty nice."

"I think so," Nathan said, stretching out, his arms folded behind his head.

"I kinda meant... the whole thing. You know, being here. With you."

Nathan stopped himself just before he could say I don't get many complaints. Antonio was laying on his side, looking at him, his expression so serious it made Nathan's heart pound. "It is, isn't it?" he said. "I'll have to convince you to celebrate more often."

"If I have something to celebrate," Antonio said. "Be nice if I did, though."

"What, you don't think I'm reason enough to celebrate?" Nathan rolled over on to his side, too, facing Antonio.

Antonio just smiled at him, a little sleepily. "Maybe you are."

Nathan had just grinned and said "You know I am," and closed his eyes to go to sleep, leaving Antonio to lie there mooning over him like a crushed-out teenager. He'd known Nathan for years, so why was he only now getting all goofy over the way his eyes crinkled up when he smiled, how smooth his skin was, how sweet he'd been in the car after Antonio got all embarrassed? And some other thoughts like damn he can do some interesting things with those fingernails, but the goofy crush stuff was what was dominating, and that freaked him out pretty good.

Yeah, Nathan didn't mind sleeping with him, and even kind of acted like more than once might be okay, but that didn't mean he was okay with the crushed-out teenager thing. And he was kind of scarily perceptive, especially when it came to feelings and stuff like that - he'd called Blue Rose's crush on Kotetsu a good six months before anyone else noticed - so Antonio was worried he'd figure this out, too.

Or maybe he should just say it. Rip off the band-aid. Ignore the terror from that thought, like he ignored the voice saying I'm going up really high in the air and then I'll fall and die and my powers won't help when he got the word to use the launcher. Nathan was a good guy. He wouldn't be a jerk about it. But knowing Nathan wouldn't torment him over it didn't help him shake the feeling that the world would end if he told Nathan and Nathan didn't feel the same.

Or what if he did? That was kind of terrifying in its own way, too. What if they tried and it didn't work out? Friends with benefits was one thing, but when you got all those squishy feelings involved, it got messy in a hurry. Granted, they wouldn't have to lie to each other, and that'd have to help, but people broke up for a lot of reasons beyond You're not being honest with me or I could accept being stood up repeatedly if you'd just explain or If you're actually a doctor on call, where did you go to med school? If he and Nathan broke up, that'd be like... he couldn't even think of a good metaphor. It'd be like the world ending. Like being fired from the ground onto the roof of a skyscraper without any armor or NEXT powers.

The only good way for this to work out would be if Nathan felt the same as he did and they... oh God, what about after that? Like they should live happily ever after?

The only good way for this to work out was to get the hell out before Nathan noticed how goofy he was acting, and then pretend nothing had ever happened between them until he got over it. Right?

The next morning, Nathan pretty much confirmed that with a light "Got it out of your system?"

"Huh?" Antonio responded. He'd been vaguely aware of Nathan being up and moving around, water running somewhere, but he'd drowsed through it. He sat up, taking in the sight of a makeup-free Nathan in a towel, which was easily the second-best wakeup call he'd gotten in the last twenty-four hours or so.

"Maybe not," Nathan practically purred, letting the towel slip as he advanced on the bed, and while the next half-hour or so was pretty fucking amazing, that out of your system nagged at him. Like it was going to go away? Granted, he kind of hoped it would, but it was a little disheartening that Nathan obviously did too. And maybe a little unlike Nathan, who seemed to consider himself the best thing that ever happened to most men - with good reason, Antonio was starting to think - but maybe wanting Antonio not to follow him around like a lost puppy trumped ego.

Eventually, Antonio investigated the bathroom - which was bigger than the first studio apartment he'd rented in LA, he thought, and also bigger than his kitchen in Stern Bild - and emerged to find Nathan absent from the bedroom. Noises led him to the kitchen, where Nathan was doing something at the counter. "Breakfast?" he asked brightly, like a housewife from some old black-and-white sitcom. He might as well be wearing pearls as he vacuumed.

"Uh, sure," Antonio agreed. "What are you making?"

"Scrambled eggs, pancakes... don't make that face, you can have them with jam or something. Or plain. And there's bacon."

I love you, he thought, the kind of thing he'd have said as a joke yesterday at that news, but sure as hell couldn't say right now. He was a little afraid to sit down, to make it like he was waiting for his wife to serve him breakfast or something, but he wasn't sure what else to do. Try to raise the whole hey, I think I really like you, we should keep doing this only without the cracks about getting it out of my system issue? Offer to help in the kitchen somehow? Try to imagine doing this every day, for years, waking up with Nathan? Stand there, leaning against the table, arms folded, until Nathan told him to stop glowering and sit down?

By default, that last one won out, but rather than sitting, he went over and wrapped his arms around Nathan from behind. Without the heels, he was a bit shorter than Antonio, short enough for Antonio to rest his face against Nathan's hair. Oh God, he thought, I am so fucked, but what he said was, "I wasn't glowering."

"Mm, well, if you say so," Nathan replied. "If I'd known you liked to watch me cook I would have worn my frilly little apron."

"You have a... what am I saying, of course you do." Nathan laughed, and Antonio considered that image. "And nothing else?"

"You'll just have to find out," Nathan said. "Anything on your mind, honey?"

"Nah," he lied, nuzzling Nathan's shoulder. Just more of the kind of thoughts that were going to be the death of him one way or another, like the fact that Nathan smelled really good. Kind of spicy and flowery. Did he wear perfume or cologne? Probably better not to ask, he sometimes got offended by questions like that.

Nathan just responded with another hmming noise, then a moment later with "Might be easier to eat if you let go of me."

"I like a challenge," Antonio said, but he let go, headed back over to the table. Nathan followed, bearing two plates of food. The table already had jars of stuff - jam and jelly and what-all, maple syrup, salt and pepper.

Nathan waited until he had a mouthful of eggs to say "I think we need to talk about our relationship," then laughed when Antonio kind of choked. "I love doing that," he said.

"'Cause you're evil," Antonio complained. "What the hell?"

"Well, really," Nathan said. "Are we doing this again?"

Oh shit. "Um. Do you want to?" Nathan just gave him one of those enigmatic smiles he liked to use when he was toying with a wine glass. "I mean, I... wouldn't mind..."

"Good," Nathan said, giving him that eye-crinkling smile again, and Antonio thanked God he apparently looked like he was glowering even when he was thinking embarrassingly-romantic thoughts about the co-worker making breakfast for him. "I've been wondering - when was the last time you went home?"

"Geez, don't even ask. I just hope I put away the frozen stuff before we got called out day before yesterday. Good thing I had a change of clothes at the training center." And that they could do laundry there. They had their schedules for that day to talk about, Nathan's as terrifying as ever - he was already poking at his corporate PDA, answering emails between bites of pancake - and Antonio's fairly full, by his own standards, as well.

"Ought to be nice to sleep in your own bed for a change," Nathan said, and Antonio nodded, hoping that wasn't some kind of subtle brush-off. "I need to get going, sweetie, early meeting today - you can stay as late as you want, the door will lock behind you."

Antonio nodded, continuing to eat as Nathan flitted from room to room, emerging at one point in the underpinnings of a suit to test out his lipstick by kissing Antonio, another time in search of a pair of earrings. Talk about our relationship, Antonio thought, watching Nathan shrug on a suit jacket of a subdued pink. That was unexpected, but so was most of this. He'd thought he'd be the one trying to find a reason to leave, bumble out the door and hope Nathan wasn't feeling sorry for him on the other side of it, not watching Nathan rush off, a million other things on his mind.

Was that better? Instead of being Nathan's poor besotted friend, he was safely filed under F, for fuckbuddies. No need to worry about him any further.

Antonio's eyes were a really amazing shade of green.

Nathan must have noticed at some point before an evening spent making out with the guy, but the fact gained a new relevance after that. And every time the idea recurred to him, he tried to slap himself mentally. Antonio wasn't in this for a relationship - he'd wanted somebody to celebrate with, and he hadn't felt like trying to pick someone up in a bar and maybe getting shot down. That's all this was. That hug in the kitchen... whatever that was, best not to read too much into it. Maybe there was a bit of something. Traces of a crush. Nothing Antonio wouldn't get over if he tried, and Nathan suspected he was going to try.

Okay, he might be up for a couple of more rounds later on, he hadn't entirely gotten Nathan out of his system, but time would tell, Nathan decided. Maybe Antonio would be calling up within the next few days, or maybe he'd freak out and start trying to avoid Nathan at work, beyond the usual wary circling and watching of Nathan's hands. Though if he stopped doing that, that would be a pretty good indicator in exactly the right direction. I wouldn't mind, he'd said. Waiting to follow Nathan's lead. What to make of that? It hadn't been an enthusiastic "hell yes, just say when" like Nathan would have given if Antonio had asked.

Stop that, he ordered himself. He needed to stop thinking about that, and the sound of Antonio's voice and his breathing and the feel of those big hands against his skin, the rasp of stubble on his neck, the way he'd looked when they'd kissed in the parking lot. For a guy who seemed to live and die by what other people thought, he'd been surprisingly willing to go out of his comfort zone with Nathan, and Nathan needed to stop thinking about that. He had work to attend to, and he was not going to spend his commute falling for a friend when he had a conference call with the Europe office in twenty minutes.

Unfortunately, in the way of meetings, there were a lot of wasted words to sit through, and he found himself staring at his nails and, yes, thinking about Antonio. He'd been perilously close to falling for him for a while now, being honest about it. From "you're not really a girl" and the retaliatory groping campaign, they'd taken to drinking together, talking; Antonio apparently hadn't considered sexual harassment any kind of barrier, and Nathan just considered it a perk. Nathan found Antonio was a lot more relaxed when they had a private room or quiet corner. Nathan would have expected the reverse, that he'd be uncomfortable being alone with the flamboyant gay man who kept fondling him, and that intrigued him. He found out, to his surprise, that Antonio still lived on Bronze. "It's not like it's a hellhole," Antonio had said, defensively. "Trust me, I know bad neighborhoods."

"So do I, sweetie," Nathan had retorted, and they'd spent the evening talking about their childhoods.

Antonio's parents had been solid citizens, he'd said; a teacher and a nurse. "You can imagine how thrilled they were when I turned into a little hellion," Antonio said, and Nathan had laughed. He'd been a good kid, himself. The problems had all come from other people.

A few months later, he found out why Antonio had stayed on Bronze; he was trying to help a neighbor with a feral cat colony near his place. "She's kind of tiny, and they're usually not too happy about being trapped," Antonio explained. "I have a truck and I don't need to worry about scratches, so I help her get 'em to the vet. Get their shots, get them fixed, and then release 'em. They'll live a bit longer and they won't produce a bunch of kittens to run wild and starve."

"Good for you," Nathan had said, running a finger around the rim of his wine glass, wanting to just let Antonio talk.

"I wish someone could adopt 'em," Antonio had said. "Cats can get by on their own, but they're not made for it. They'll live like five years, tops, and my mom's still got the housecat we got when I was in grade school. But all except the kittens are just way too wild. If I could I'd foster some of the kittens, but I'm not home enough to socialize 'em."

Big, tough Antonio with a pile of kittens. It wasn't meant to be, apparently. Antonio didn't want to get a pet until he had plenty of time for it, and eventually he moved up to Silver Stage, bought a nice but modest four-bedroom house - "guest bedrooms for the family," he explained - and apparently ran out of surprising revelations, until he took up sewing. Nathan had been just as enchanted by that, and only too happy to accompany him to fabric stores - Antonio seemed to trust his judgment when it came to colors. Antonio breezed through them with confidence, happy to ask the saleswomen for help or advice, but knowledgable enough they didn't need to teach him the basics. It was always fun to watch them realize that for the first time; they always assumed either that Antonio was shopping for someone else, or that Nathan was the customer. If they turned to him, Nathan just feigned total ignorance, referred them to his "boyfriend" to see if Antonio would get flustered, and then sat back to watch the show.

For all the macho front he liked to put on, Antonio was clearly pretty secure in his masculinity underneath, and that was even more appealing than his derriere. Nathan had kept a close eye on himself, because he did not do unrequited love. At least, he didn't if he could help it. It was starting to look like last night might have been a huge mistake.

The meeting ended. Nathan put it out of his mind for the expected chit-chat with people on his end, but it was back as soon as he parted from the VP who'd coordinated the meeting. Hadn't he told himself he wasn't pining for Antonio? What was wrong with him today? Or possibly, what had been wrong with him yesterday, he amended. Either way.

Maybe it would pass.

Or maybe he'd find himself blushing at the sight of Antonio on the weights when he walked into the training center, and Karina, damn her, would happen to be looking at him right at that moment and make the sort of half-chuckle noise of recognition that he'd made so many times, and he'd have to scramble to regain his footing, which was a challenge since whatever they'd been talking about had fled his mind. Antonio seemed too focused on his workout to notice Nathan was there - or maybe he'd already started avoiding him - and Karina hauled him over to the seating area.

"So when did that happen?" she asked.

"Last night," he said, without thinking, and only then remembered how old she was. Not that he needed to protect her virgin ears, but it felt a bit irresponsible to be that blunt about it. "Or thereabouts. We had dinner yesterday. He was celebrating not getting fired."

"Celebrating?"

"It's a new euphemism. Think it'll catch on?"

She grinned. "It might. So are you two dating?"

"It's complicated." He sighed, a real one, not all theatrical like he'd intended, but he managed to salvage it with, "He just doesn't understand a woman's heart."

"Tell me about it," she said, and he leaped at the opening.

"Any email from Tiger?"

"Latest one was a week ago," she said. "It's like he doesn't understand there's a difference between it and snail-mail."

He nodded sympathetically, happy to sit back and listen to her. It took his mind off things. Or at least it did, until Antonio wandered by and gave him a soft smile like the one Nathan had seen across the table the night before. He continued toward the locker room, and Nathan just stared after him, his mind for once more on the smile than the way he walked.

"Clearly you've got it bad," Karina said, jerking him out of his reverie. "You want to go talk to him? Or 'talk,' I guess."

"No," Nathan said. "I mean, yes, I want to, but I haven't even started my workout."

"Your choice," she said, sound skeptical. He settled his towel around his neck and headed over for the weights. If he was considering taking advice from a seventeen-year-old, he really was in dire straits, he thought. Not that it couldn't be good advice - she'd learned from a master - but it was the principle of the thing.

Antonio's apartment hadn't actually gathered dust while he was gone - at least not so he'd notice - but it felt a bit strange to finally be back there. He'd managed to put away everything that needed to be kept cold except some butter, so it could have been worse, and he cleaned up a bit, thinking of what Nathan would think of it. That seemed kind of stupid, Nathan had been over before, but not when Antonio wanted to impress him.

They'd known each other four years. It was a little late to impress him. And a little impossible, considering what Nathan's apartment was like.

It was a quiet evening. He spent a lot more of it than he would have liked to admit thinking about Nathan. What he would have admitted to was that he was watching a baseball game on TV and hand-sewing a purse. Or a purse-like-thing, because Dragon Kid seemed to think purses were far too girly for her, but she needed something to carry stuff in sometimes. She'd asked for something like a backpack, but when he started thinking out loud about how to make sure it was strong enough, she revised her idea to something more like a messenger bag.

When his phone rang, it took him a little while to unearth it. The screen showed the flamingo he'd picked for Nathan, and he nearly dropped the phone before he managed to answer. "Busy?" Nathan asked.

"Nah, just had to find the phone. What's up?"

"Nothing's up," Nathan said. "I was just thinking about you, that's all."

"Yeah?" he asked, trying not to feel too happy. "Me too. Thinking about you, I mean."

"Anything good?" Nathan said. "On second thought, don't tell me yet if it's too good. I have to go back in soon."

"Back into what?"

"Charity dinner," Nathan sighed. "I wish you were here, but you'd hate it."

"Probably," Antonio said. "Lotta rich people... I'd embarrass you with my table manners."

"Oh, don't be silly," Nathan said. "You make it sound like you eat with your hands. You'd be fine, but you'd be bored."

"So'd you wear a dress or a tux this time?" Antonio asked.

Nathan laughed, then apparently tried to stifle it. "You are so rude. I only wore a dress that one time, to one Hero TV banquet! Never to anything like this."

"It was memorable!" Red velvet halter dress, pretty much backless. It had to have been made to order, not just because Nathan was taller than most women; the dress wasn't cut like it was designed for boobs.

"In a good way?" Nathan asked, sounding genuinely curious rather than doing his usual seductress thing.

"Y'know, it was," Antonio said after a moment's reflection. Nathan's back and shoulders on full display... and if he remembered right, the skirt had been slit up one side too. Long legs, really cut, in black silk stockings. It was Nathan all over; kind of feminine, kind of really not, and hot as hell in an extremely confusing way. He was starting to think confusing wasn't bad. And wonder why he hadn't just pounced on Nathan back then. "Didn't really think of it that way at the time, but I wouldn't mind seeing you in that thing now."

"Mm. Maybe you'll get your wish," Nathan said. "I should head back in, though. Time to schmooze."

"Just a sec," Antonio said, because that dress was on his mind right now. "Just wondering... if we were, you know, serious, would I call you my boyfriend or my girlfriend?"

Silence on the line for a second. "Which would you prefer?"

"...I dunno. It's kind of up to you, right?"

"Sweetie, did Kronos send you to sensitivity training or something? You've been telling me I was a man ever since we met."

"I pick things up slow, that's all." Or, more to the point, he'd tried something different and it had worked way too well for him to ignore the results. He wasn't dumb, just stubborn.

Nathan seemed to be thinking about something. "Was that... was that purely hypothetical?"

"I, uh." Crap. Should have expected this. "Can I get back to you on that?"

"Later," Nathan said. "I need to go back to my event." He sounded very... clipped. Brusque. Shit. He'd given the wrong answer. Very wrong answer.

"Nathan, wait!" he said, but the call was over. He tried calling back, and it went straight to voicemail, so he settled for a text: I meant I think we should talk about it in person. He'd actually panicked, and Nathan would know, but they should talk about it in person.

Halfway through a mopey and restless night, it finally occurred to him that Nathan wouldn't have gotten so upset about the evasion if he hadn't been hoping for an answer more like Of course it wasn't hypothetical, I want to get serious. So maybe it wasn't hopeless yet. Maybe. Unless he'd hurt Nathan's pride too much to make it up to him now.

He checked his phone when he woke up to find a text reading <3! Training center? That had to be good, right? The heart and all? Not that it made him any less nervous, but it was an optimistic kind of nervous.

At least, it was until Nathan didn't show up. After that it was just gloom, no nervousness involved at all. Made it even harder than usual to concentrate during meetings, not that they really needed their failed walking billboard to pay a lot of attention. Then, after about an hour, his phone beeped discreetly - some kind of a message - and he spent the rest of the time fidgeting. The last ten minutes or so were the worst, as the meeting broke up but people hung aound like they just wanted to keep talking. Many of them to him, as it turned out. "Keep working on that ranking!" at least two different men said to him, and he hoped like hell his grin looked like a real grin and not some kind of rictus.

When he finally escaped, he pulled out his phone, barely looking at the message, and called Nathan. "Listen," he began, but Nathan cut him off.

"Can we go to screens, please? Because I don't know when I'll have a chance to see you in person."

On the screen, Nathan looked tired. "You okay?" he asked, figuring any comments on appearance could go badly wrong right now.

"I've been putting out fires here since seven a.m. Sorry I missed you this afternoon."

"No, it's... you were busy. I get it. I, uh... Can I... get you anything?" He winced inwardly. Like Nathan didn't have whole offices to get him coffee and shit like that.

Nathan shook his head. "Unless you're free tonight. Late tonight."

"Yeah, I'm... assuming we don't get a hero call, I mean. What time?"

"I'll call you," Nathan said. He looked away from the screen, like he was going to hang up, then back to Antonio. "I have to ask."

"Okay?"

"If I'd asked you instead -- what if I wanted a relationship -- how would you have felt?"

Antonio couldn't remember the last time his heart had beat so hard it kind of hurt. "Um. Happy? But scared shitless."

"What's so scary about me?" Before Antonio could answer, Nathan looked away again. "Tell me tonight? I need to go."

He agreed. They said goodbye, the screen winked out, and Antonio leaned against the wall, his phone still in one hand, staring up at the ceiling. So much for trying to hide this and get over it. So much for Nathan letting him do that.

Karina had been right. Here he was, calling Antonio just to hear his voice or see his face, getting all upset at a perfectly natural reaction - it had been a sudden question, Nathan hadn't known how to respond at first either, so why be suprised when Antonio panicked at having it turned back on him? - and planning to duck out of a dinner party early just to see Antonio before the day was over.

Apparently, all it had taken was one dinner - well, dinner-with-intent - and a couple of orgasms between them to open the floodgates. He'd wanted Antonio for years, but he'd convinced himself the whole time it was just physical, just appreciation, no matter how close they were, no matter how well they seemed to understand each other. He should have seen this coming, really, and he was angry at himself that he hadn't. Antonio showed some interest, and suddenly he was all Nathan could think about.

He knew Antonio well enough that he should have known how it would go. Of course Antonio blurted out an evasion when Nathan raised the topic of relationships, even though he'd been the one to bring it up. Of course Antonio babbled awkwardly after that. Of course Antonio wasn't going to sweep him off his feet with smooth talk and a dozen long-stemmed red roses, and just as well, because the last guy to romance him that way had been a liar and a cheater and a terrible kisser. Fantastic in bed, but a terrible kisser. It defied explanation.

And Antonio didn't need the roses or the smooth talk, because Nathan was sitting here thinking about him during every breather he had in the day from hell.

They got a hero call at eight, and he had to call Agnes and check in. He still had his hands full with all the work he'd ignored earlier in the day while he was busy soothing an angry and very important client, so he wouldn't be on the scene, but he turned on Hero TV on his laptop and returned the bulk of his attention to his last few reports.

It was a classic Hero TV crime, an elaborate robbery involving a high-speed chase. The criminals were armed but they were only exchanging fire sporadically with the police. They got a lot of those, because Maverick used to stage them, presumably; they were perfect for TV, enough danger to keep audiences involved but without any deaths to make them feel ghoulish for watching. It was probably easy to find volunteers for them, and criminals seemed happy to cook them up on their own now. It made sense; a high-profile crime on Hero TV could open up later opportunities for them after they got out of prison, provided they hadn't wreaked enough havoc to put them away for too long a term.

On the screen, Antonio shot out of the launcher. Poor baby. It wasn't so much that it was unlikely for a guy like him to be afraid of heights - phobias could happen to anyone - but the fact he admitted it had surprised Nathan. A lot of things had, at first. At first glance, he'd taken in the jacket, the boots, and wondered what had happened to the ten-gallon hat. He'd never have expected this man to accept his invitation to dinner, a week after they met. Or to eventually admit to the big, squishy heart of gold, or the fear of heights, or to break down in tears late the night after Tiger had announced his retirement.

Nathan watched him land in the middle of the freeway, and just stand there, legs braced, while the getaway car plowed into him. They'd all been through a lot that day and night; had their minds tampered with and then put right, been beaten and imprisoned and taken Tiger for dead, and then they'd learned that powers could be lost, that the fixture who'd been a hero longer than any of them was going away, and Antonio was closer than any of them to all of this. Tiger was his best friend, not just a colleague. Blue Rose had cried on his shoulder about it all, but that hadn't been a surprise, not like Antonio sitting on the bumper of the Helios transport had been. He'd just had his jacket and jeans, and he was shivering, huddled in on himself. Nathan hadn't changed yet. He'd said something - asked what was wrong, maybe, or why Antonio hadn't gone home yet - and Antonio's face crumpled. Nathan had just held him for a long time, trying to warm him that way, and Antonio had clutched him like he could keep him from drowning.

Nathan should have realized how he felt right then, he thought.

Antonio punched an armored fist through the windshield of the crumpled car, grabbing one of the crooks by the collar and hauling him out over the airbag, then repeated the process for the driver. A third was on the run, but two arrests! Sky High would pick up the third, or Blue Rose. Nathan turned back to his work. In about half an hour, he could call Antonio; he still had the damn dinner party, but at least there'd be a chance to talk.

When Antonio answered, he looked happy, but exhausted, and Nathan felt a stab of guilt. Antonio had had one self-inflicted late night and another where they'd kept each other up, and it showed. "Don't guess you had time to watch," he said, grinning broadly.

"Sweetie! I made time. Congratulations!"

"You were watching?" Antonio looked down, bashful.

"You thought I wouldn't? You looked good out there." He looked good right now, too. Smiles looked good on him; his face could be homely when he glowered, which he seemed to feel the need to do a lot of the time, but it was transformed when he smiled.

"I, uh, glad you think so," he said. "It's not like I can tell. Though they did get the damn launcher out again."

"Next time I'll give you a ride," Nathan said. "Honey, you should get some rest. I know we talked about plans for tonight, but you look wiped out, and I've been keeping you away from home all this time..."

"What if I want to see you?" Antonio asked.

"Maybe I could come over to your place?"

"No silk sheets."

"Well, obviously I won't spend the night if you can't support me in the style to which I've become accustomed," Nathan said with a sniff. "Honestly. Like that's the only kind I've ever slept on."

"Up to you," Antonio said. "I mean, you know where I live."

"Precisely. I don't know when I'll be able to get away tonight - ten or eleven, probably."

"So, uh... I guess I'm just going home, then? You'll come by later?"

Nathan nodded, but Antonio seemed to be waiting for something more. "I promise," he said, and that seemed to be the right answer, because Antonio smiled at him before he hung up.

When the phone rang, Antonio rolled over, squinted at the screen - 12:03 - and the Nathan-flamingo. "'lo?" he mumbled.

"I'm so sorry, sweetie. I wasn't able to get away as early as I hoped..." There was road noise in the background.

"Yuh," he agreed. "Sorry, I'm..." he broke off to yawn.

"I should let you go back to sleep," Nathan said. "Maybe I shouldn't have called."

"You're still coming over, right?" Antonio tried to yawn silently. Wait, Nathan was trying to say he wasn't coming over? He sat up and rubbed his face.

"You want me to?"

"Yes!" Even with his brain fogged by sleep, he knew some of the right answers. "We can... uh. I need a minute." He fumbled for the lamp by the bed, and blinked in the light.

"It's not like this is our only chance to meet up."

"You're not right at my door, are you? Come on over. I'll be fine."

"Well, if you insist," Nathan said, sounding all coy.

"Yes," Antonio said firmly. "I do. Get over here."

After they hung up, he ran his hands through his hair. He had five or ten minutes, probably... should he shower? No, he'd showered right after he got home, he should be okay. Brush his teeth, he decided. Check for lube and condoms and all of that. Quick sweep of the living room for empty bottles or anything else. When the doorbell rang, it occurred to him that he could have included "put on pants" or "comb hair" in the list, but it was a little late now. No one would be on the street to see him in his underwear anyway. He opened the door.

Nathan looked him up and down, smiling. All right, pants would have been a waste, Antonio thought, even as he felt his face heat up and his groin stir at Nathan's appreciative survey. "Happy to see me?" Nathan asked.

He was torn between embarassment and fondness, but his voice just came out gruff. "Shut up and get in here," he growled, pulling Nathan in by the hand and shutting the door.

"It's your gracious manners that really won my heart," Nathan said, but then he kissed Antonio, saving him from responding to that. He pulled back after a moment, Antonio's face between his hands. "I mean it, baby. You look exhausted. Did you get any sleep last night?"

"A little?" he said. "I was worried I'd pissed you off."

Nathan smiled slightly. "You did, a bit, but nothing to lose sleep over. I know I kept you up the night before that..."

"That was more me," Antonio admitted. "I was kind of freaking out. Can we go back to the kissing part?"

"No, you just reminded me. What's so scary about me?"

"It's not you," he said, regretting he'd ever used that word. "It's... I'm not good with words, you know that." He covered one of Nathan's hands with his, and turned his face enough to kiss the palm.

Nathan just rested his head against Antonio's chest, but after a moment he said, "I think I know what you mean."

"You do?"

Nathan looked up, wearing that half-smile again, and kissed him softly on the lips. "You should go back to bed. We can talk more in the morning."

"You comin' with me?"

Nathan just smiled at him, and kicked his shoes off. His toenails were painted pink, Antonio noticed. "Lead the way," he said.

He hadn't actually meant to - he'd been thinking he'd prove he was fully alert and ready to go - but he fell asleep while Nathan was taking off his makeup. He didn't even notice when Nathan came to bed, sleeping too soundly for any creaking of the mattress or fight for the covers to get through to him. He woke around six, just before his alarm, to find a warm, very solid body in bed next to him, and then he remembered. He shut off the alarm, then rolled over onto his side, draping an arm over Nathan's waist and curling up against his back. Of course Nathan slept naked. He didn't know why he hadn't expected it. They could both sleep in a little, he thought. Probably.

Except apparently Nathan wasn't a very sound sleeper, because Antonio had barely gotten comfortable before he felt Nathan's hand covering his. "Aren't you chipper," Nathan said sleepily.

"Nah..."

"Well, one part of you is," Nathan said.

For all that this was the plan all along, Antonio felt his face heat. No point to trying to pass it off as just morning wood; it might even backfire. "Hey, can you blame me?" he managed.

"Mm." Nathan snuggled back into him a bit. "I'm a mess, though."

"Huh? You mean you haven't shaved? I don't care. I guess if you do..."

"Morning breath, stubble..."

"Nathan, you always look good to me." Nathan turned halfway over, enough for Antonio to kiss him on the mouth. Okay, the breath was pretty rank, but his was nothing to write home about either, and stubble, well... he didn't see or feel anything he'd even call five o'clock shadow, not that he'd have cared if he did. He slid his hand up Nathan's chest, rubbed a thumb over one nipple, and then tried kissing his collarbone when Nathan threw his head back.

"Now you're just not playing fair."

"Nope," Antonio agreed. "You can get out of bed whenever you want, though," he said, then lowered his head to Nathan's chest, flicking his tongue against the nearest nipple before he closed his mouth over it.

"Really unfair," Nathan groaned, but he laid there for a moment, breathing heavily, letting Antonio continue. Then he pulled away, pushed Antonio over onto his back, and climbed on top of him.

"Okay," Antonio said, running his hands up and down Nathan's thighs. "You're the boss. Might work out better if you let me take off my underpants, though."

"Oh, fine," Nathan sighed, and Antonio was grinning at the mock-petulance as he peeled them off. "I might ask you to roll over onto your stomach..."

"You don't have to be all sneaky about it," Antonio said. "Being with you is worth a sore ass the rest of the day."

Nathan seemed speechless for a moment, but he came back with, "It's not being sneaky. It's being persuasive."

It turned out the persuasion started with a backrub - "you're gonna put me back to sleep," Antonio warned - which then focused in on his ass, but once he got over trying not to laugh about that, he found himself instead hiding his face in the sheets. Nails and fingertips trailed over skin, waking up nerves he was barely aware of the rest of the time. He hadn't realized exactly how good this could feel, and while he couldn't hide his breathing, the way he shuddered when Nathan's light touch hit certain spots, he could at least keep his face hidden. "I want to see you," Nathan murmured, but he didn't stop what he was doing, and Antonio couldn't hide his reactions any other way. He felt Nathan's fingers spreading him, stroking along his crack, stopping just short of the hole, then lifting his hips, nudging his legs open enough that he could stroke the sensitive skin just behind his balls. That was when he groaned, and while Nathan seemed to pause for a moment, he didn't stop. Antonio felt something warm and soft pressed against his ass, then the hot flick of Nathan's tongue, and he groaned the other man's name, his hands clenched in the sheets.

"Are you saying you want me to stop?" Nathan asked, and Antonio nearly sat up just to give him a disbelieving stare.

"I just want you to... I just want you."

"Normally I'd ask you to finger yourself for me, but I know you better than that."

"...yeah," Antonio mumbled, face flaming. Of course Nathan wasn't going to ruin his manicure every time he fucked a guy, but going on display like that...

"Can you roll over for me, baby?"

Antonio complied. "Figured you'd want to see my best feature, though," he said.

"I want to see your face," Nathan said, and kissed him lightly before he leaned over for the nightstand, opening the drawer to look for what he needed. Antonio watched him, the muscles moving under smooth, dark skin, and felt the same rush of affection and fear he'd had in Nathan's kitchen. Nathan turned back to him, his smile crinkling the corners of his eyes.

"Of course you found a pink condom," Antonio said, mostly just for the delighted laugh that got. They spent an awkward handful of moments sorting out where Antonio's legs should go, but then Nathan was pushing into him, more easily than Antonio had expected, but slowly, so slowly.

"All right?" Nathan asked, and Antonio nodded, most of his attention on the way it felt to be stretched around Nathan's cock, the electric jolt when Nathan hit his sweet spot, the slow rhythm of his thrusts. His hands roamed over Nathan's arms, his chest, his back - there was so much of Nathan he didn't know, hadn't touched, and he needed to fix that. He wrapped his legs around Nathan's hips, urging him in harder, deeper, and Nathan shifted position enough that he could wrap one hand around Antonio's cock. Antonio groaned, closed his eyes, and gave up to Nathan's skilled hands, stroking in time with his body.

"Antonio," Nathan said, and it was his voice that took him over the edge, left him gasping and panting, too lost in sensation to be self-conscious or embarrassed, even when he could see Nathan licking semen off his own hand. It didn't take Nathan much longer, and Antonio was still recovering when Nathan's movements slowed and finally stopped.

"Don't move," Nathan said, before he pulled out, and Antonio ignored that to reach for the box of tissue on the nightstand. When Nathan pouted at him, though, he left it that, laying still while Nathan disposed of the condom and returned to the bed to dab Antonio's belly and chest clean, then his own.

"Get down here," Antonio said when he seemed to be done, tugging Nathan back into the bed.

"You could have just asked," Nathan said, but he curled up against Antonio's side, head on his shoulder, like he'd been made to fit there.

"This worked," Antonio said. "Besides, I probably don't have you for too long."

"As long as you want," Nathan said, and sighed.

"What, really? You don't have anything this morning?"

"This morning? I meant more in the long term." There it was again - fear, and affection, and happiness. Nathan could probably hear his heart pounding, but he gave no sign of it as he continued, "No, I have a meeting at ten."

With the arm that wasn't around Nathan, Antonio reached for one of the hands on his chest, covering it with his own. "Long-term, huh?" he said softly. "Good."

"So was it my voice that did it for you, or saying your name?" Nathan eventually asked. "Antonio." He drew it out, with relish - he'd always enjoyed Antonio's name. Part of the reason he'd never shortened it. "Antonio," he repeated.

"I'm not Italian," Antonio complained. "That's how you're saying it."

"So? You'd rather be Tony? Answer the question."

Antonio sighed so heavily Nathan could feel it, and let the subject drop. "I don't know what it was. Why are you asking about this?"

"Because I'd like to know. Voice is versatile. Saying your name, not so much. I guess we'll just have to experiment."

"Damn," Antonio said happily. "Don't know how I'm gonna live with that."

Nathan smiled, and part of him would have liked to leave it at that, but he didn't want to spend any more time worrying about this. He propped himself up on one elbow, and Antonio turned his head to meet his eyes. Nathan drew a deep breath. "Sweetie, I have to ask... I'm serious about this. Are you?"

Antonio lifted a hand, fingers grazing Nathan's cheek. "Yeah. It's... scary. It feels sudden. But I ain't going nowhere."

"Sudden? I think I should have seen it coming miles away. On my side, anyway."

"Maybe I should have, too, if you weren't just joking around all the times you groped me."

"Did you think I'd grab just anybody's ass?"

"Kinda? If they were hot?"

"There you go," Nathan said, smiling as Antonio's eyes widened in realization, then flicked away from his with sudden self-consciousness. Nathan sat up. "I wish I could stay longer, but I need to get ready to go. You're welcome to sleep in..."

Fortunately, Antonio wasn't as interested in additional sleep as he was in helping Nathan shower. Nathan called it an experiment in refractory periods, and Antonio called "I don't want to make you late or nothin,' but don't stop doing that," and fortunately they didn't discover the limits of Antonio's hot water heater. Antonio managed to find a spare toothbrush - something to do with a health promotion - and Nathan took over the sink. Antonio watched from the edge of the bed as Nathan carefully put himself together as best he could with a borrowed razor and only the lipstick and lipliner he'd stashed in the pocket of his jacket. Nathan tried not to look his way. Antonio was watching him with open admiration - desire, even, and tenderness - and while Nathan was used to inspiring that kind of look, seeing it on Antonio's face was different. "I should have carried a purse," he lamented. "I can keep one of almost everything in a little clutch bag."

"You know you look good without any of that, right?" Antonio said. "You look good first thing in the morning with a pillowcase crease on your face."

"I think you may be biased," Nathan said, warm as that detail had made him feel.

"And I like you with stubble."

"Aw, honey." Nathan blotted his lips with a tissue and came back into the room to kiss Antonio on the cheek. This time it did leave a lip print. He rubbed it off Antonio's face with a tissue as he continued. "I know you do. This isn't about just looking good... how do I explain this? It's about how I want to look."

"I just don't want you refusin' to have sex with me in the mornings," Antonio said, slipping his arms around Nathan's waist. "You look good with it, you look good without... seeing you without any makeup or anything was kind of, uh..."

"Really? I thought surely you'd seen me that way before. In the locker room?"

"Yeah, well..." He was looking down again, all bashful - how could a man this massive be this adorable? "That night I crashed on your couch? You were just wearing some pajama pants... hey. If you wore those to sleep before, why'd you sleep naked here?"

Nathan giggled. "Why do you think? Besides, I couldn't very well answer the door naked. If I don't wear anything to bed, I keep something around in case of emergencies." He pulled away, dropped his towel on the bed, and began retrieving last night's clothes. Would he have time to drop by his apartment to freshen up, or would he have to do a walk of shame right into his office? "But go on."

"Oh. Uh... that was it. Hadn't seen you like that before. In the locker room you always, you know..." He mimed holding something up to his chest. It was true, that was how Nathan always wrapped up in a towel.

"Just because I'm stuck using the men's locker room doesn't mean I can't maintain some semblance of modesty."

"That wasn't... I dunno how to say it. It was like it changed how I see you?"

Let Antonio see him as male, not as androgynous, or feminine. Nathan wondered if he should feel hurt, but he wasn't blind; he'd seen how Antonio looked at him recently, even when he was made up to perfection. Just a catalyst, he hoped, not an ironclad preference. "Still want to see me in that dress?" he asked lightly, just to check, and the way Antonio reached for him was all the reassurance he needed. Maybe later he could try to explain how he preferred to present himself; he suspected it would take a while.

It wasn't really a priority, anyway. Not when they could sneak in furtive makeouts at the training center (nothing more - Antonio didn't find the risk of discovery to be the least bit of a turn-on) and spend free nights together, ruining what little semblance of a healthy sleep cycle either of them had ever maintained. It wasn't that they didn't talk at all when they were together, but they'd had four years to talk.

One of the things they didn't bother to discuss was whether or not they were going to tell their colleagues about the relationship. The question was answered for them after a couple of weeks when Nathan saw an opportunity to sneak up on Antonio and took it; the undignified shriek Antonio let out would have been plenty of reward even if he hadn't had a handful of Antonio's derriere at the same time.

"How are you so damn sneaky?" Antonio demanded. He wasn't doing anything to shake off Nathan's hand, though. Nathan slipped his other arm around Antonio's waist, reaching down in front, but Antonio caught that hand before it could reach its destination.

"I needed to see if I could still make you scream," Nathan explained. He'd been trying for an innocent tone, but laughter bubbled up through it.

"When you just ambush me like that, yeah!"

"That wasn't how you reacted last night..."

"Last night we weren't in public," Antonio countered.

Someone made a sort of choking sound in response to that, and both men's heads whipped in the direction of the noise. Karina had one hand pressed to her mouth, completely failing to hide her wide, gleeful smirk. Next to her, Sky High was simply staring at them, eyes wide, mouth hanging slightly open, face distinctly red. Not quite as red as Antonio's, but then, he was starting from a paler base, Nathan thought. "So, we have some news for everyone!" Nathan said brightly.

"I think... I think we get the general picture," Karina said. "We'll just be going!" She caught Sky High by the elbow and towed him out behind her. Then she poked her head back in and gave Nathan a thumbs-up. In full view of Antonio, but that was unavoidable. Nathan grinned and blew her a kiss, and she ducked back through the door, letting it hiss shut behind her.

"There, that wasn't so bad," Nathan said soothingly, and kissed the back of Antonio's neck. "I wasn't even molesting you."

"Depends on how you define it," Antonio said, but he turned so he could kiss Nathan again.

That was that, Nathan had thought, and been happy to consider things settled, but he hadn't counted on the fact that they worked together in a frequently dangerous pursuit. And that Antonio was exactly the kind of guy who got protective of his friends and loved ones; hell, that was what his whole power was about, even if he hadn't already been that way just by temperament.

Antonio was riding on the back of the Open Broil more and more these days; it spared him the launcher and gave him some mobility, and Nathan's hero division manager had given her usual long-suffering sigh and admitted she couldn't think of a reason for him not to do it. Antonio's managers didn't have any objections as long as he got points. It was another chase - escaping jewel thieves, this time, who'd staged such a brazen smash-and-grab that they couldn't have been surprised by Hero TV's involvement - which meant more coordination than the two of them had ever applied before.

Nathan spun the car to let Antonio jump off, checked to make sure he had a good footing on the rear bumper of the robbers' van, then spun back and zipped ahead to take out one front wheel with a fireball; he hoped that would make it less likely to overbalance onto Antonio. The driver tried to shoot at him, and he deflected it with an arc of fire as he swung back behind them - Antonio had drilled through the door in the back and collared at least one of the robbers - and around to the other side, where he took out the other front tire. The truck ground to a halt against a cement divider on its left, hopefully trapping the armed driver, and Nathan braked smoothly to a stop a few yards from them.

He saw Antonio step off the back, holding one of the crooks by the collar, and he saw the driver scrambling over to the passenger's side and pushing the door open. He was readying a fireball, shaping the flame between his hands, when suddenly Antonio shoved his arrest into Nathan, rumbling "Hold this." The fire fizzled out in his hands, Nathan grabbed the man by the arms in case he had more fight left in him than he seemed to, and a gun went off.

Of course. The driver. He heard Karina's voice some distance off, and felt a cool breeze, so she must have the other two, and Antonio was charging the driver, yelling something. Sweet of him to be so protective, Nathan thought, but really unnecessary. He could handle small-arms fire like this without breaking a sweat. The driver had pretty much frozen up at the sight of a brick wall armed with drills lurching towards him, and Antonio got another two hundred as he knocked the gun out of the man's hands. Nathan sighed - that should have been his, though it was hard to grudge Antonio any points - and began marching the accomplice over in Antonio's direction.

"I think this is yours," Nathan said, passing the crook back to Antonio. Nathan might not be burning up the charts either - his power was far too dangerous to be used as freely as most of the other heroes used theirs - but he also wasn't going to fire himself for poor performance.

"Hey," the guy protested.

"Nah, it's..." Antonio said, but Nathan persisted. "Okay, I guess." Antonio slung the man over his other shoulder, between the drill and the horns. He didn't get many escapes. Nathan hung back, enjoying the sight of Antonio walking away from him. They'd have to have a bit of a discussion about this. They weren't partners as heroes, but there was no harm in working together, as long as Antonio didn't get in his way. Which he'd done, however good his intentions.

He waited until the police cars drove off before he walked up to Antonio. He'd promised, so he got Antonio's attention with a hand on his arm, not his ass. Antonio turned. "Sorry about that," his voice echoed from within the helmet. "Sort of swiped your target there. It was just reflex."

"Mm," Nathan agreed. "Just don't let it happen again. Not if the gun is in front of me."

"Right," Antonio agreed, carefully putting one armored arm around Nathan's waist. "I know you're always watching my back. At least part of it. So I should have yours."

"Fair," Nathan agreed. "Baby, you have noticed there are still cameras around, right?"

"I know," Antonio said. "We're not doin' anything bad. Hands above the waist and everything." He tapped the side of his helmet, opening up the faceplate. "What d'you think? Enough room to kiss?"

Nathan studied his expression, but he didn't look the least bit uncertain. Kind of pleased with himself, in fact. "Only one way to find out," he said happily.

Nathan made sure to let one leg pop up when their lips met. A first kiss on camera needed to look perfect, after all.

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