Author's Note: This fanfic contains explicit MxM slash – Tres x Abel – so please escape now if you don't like this kind of story. I wrote this back in 2006 but don't have the time to maintain my site so I decided to stick it here. Feedback is always welcome!

Part 1

"What are you doing here, Nightroad Shinpu?" Tres abruptly halted outside of the gazebo that he'd discovered Abel Nightroad lurking in. Or… more accurately - sleeping in.

"Hmm? Oh! Tres-kun!" Abel's eyelids flew open, his dewy lake-blue eyes focusing in on the culprit whose shadow was stealing away the sunlight. "I was just… relaxing." He smiled a little, trying to determine what kind of mood his comrade was in. Of course, it was all for fun. Tres didn't have moods, at least none that Caterina's hunting dog would admit to.

"Explanation required."

"Is Caterina-san looking for me?" Abel blinked when Tres entered the gazebo and the sun's welcoming rays found him once more.

"Negative."

"Esther-san?"

"Negative." Tres paused to take in his surroundings. Tall, lush shrubbery surrounded the garden maze, making it impossible for a normal human to see beyond each individual path. A multitude of flowers bloomed along the bushes, springing up in hues of deep reds, oranges, yellows and purples. Here and there, small plants containing ripened fruits cropped up. And in the middle of it all stood a freshly white painted gazebo, enshrouded in overgrown vines and loosely blown leaves. Although aesthetically pleasing, Tres had no use for such a delicate atmosphere. If anything, he considered the gardens to be a potential security breach.

Finding nothing particularly amiss with Tres' blunt demand that he explain himself, Abel once again closed his eyes.

"Awaiting response."

Abel gasped in surprise, his eyes automatically opening again by reflex alone. Tres' voice had sounded somewhere close to his left ear but the sensation of someone breathing on his neck indicated that Tres might be elsewhere. Upon glancing up, Abel discovered that Tres was indeed very close. Almost an inch away from Abel's face, Tres stared down at him as if in examination mode.

"What are you doing?" Abel squeaked, pressing his body flat to the earth in an attempt to widen the distance between them.

"Observing."

"Observing what?"

"Your expression."

"Why?!"

Tres backed off to sit beside Abel. "Examination complete."

"You're behaving very peculiar today, Tres-kun." Perhaps it would be best if he didn't leave himself so vulnerable to Tres' questioning. Abel also pushed himself up into a sitting position, brushing bright leaves out of his long, silver hair. "If you aren't here on official business… Are you here to keep me company?" Abel allowed just a sliver of hope to creep into his voice.

"Positive."

Oh good! Now he was getting somewhere.

"Is there anything specific that you'd like to discuss?"

"This." Tres reached into the folds of his short black cape and withdrew his hand to produce a box. He practically thrust it into Abel's chest, relinquished his grip, and returned to his bad habit of staring.

"What is it?" Gingerly, Abel shook the little peach-colored box, relieved when it didn't explode.

"Open it."

Left with very few options on how to respond to Tres' very brief instructions, Abel complied and opened the box. He pulled out a tiny object wrapped in white tissue paper and sealed with a single red sticker. "May I?" Abel indicated the sticker.

"May you what?"

Abel sighed. "Never mind." He carefully pried the sticker off and rolled the object along the ground until it was free of the tissue paper. A red cup-shaped bulb lay at the end of the tissue paper. It was most likely made of some sort of clay, sporting the carvings of many intricate flower petals, leading down into a yellow flower that hung separately from the inside of the bulb. When Abel picked it up by the wire at the top of the bulb, the yellow flower swung to one side, striking the bulb to create a twinkling sound. "It's beautiful." Abel peered at the ornament in wonder.

"Do you know what it is?"

"It's a wind chime. A very pretty one." Abel smiled and held the wind chime out to Tres. "Where did you get it from?"

Tres regarded Abel with a very sharp and somewhat unpleasant narrowing of the eyes. "You're attempting to return it?"

"Return it?" It took a while for Abel to make sense of Tres' words. "Do you mean that this is for me?"

"Positive."

"It's a present?"

"You have already asked that question. Do you require an answer to your rephrased inquiry?"

"No no no!" Abel waved his hands in the air to ward off Tres' barrage of verifications. "Thank you very much!" He tapped the wind chime to listen to the crystal clear tones that it produced.

"Mission accomplished."

Mission? Abel laughed. Trust Tres to compare gift giving with battle! "Did you give anyone else a present?" Although Abel asked in a kind of offhand way, he did feel slightly concerned that maybe this encounter was not unique. What if Tres had gone around the Vatican handing out wind chimes to everyone he knew just to gauge their reaction? That would surely diminish the significance of Abel's cheerful mood.

"Negative. You are my only objective." Tres' fingers found their way into Abel's hair, combing out the tangles and plucking out the occasional leaf. "The Professor clearly stated that background noise was necessary. I purchased the wind chime in order to fulfill that requirement."

As quickly as Tres had infiltrated Abel's personal space, he just as easily escaped from it. Taking the wind chime from Abel's hand, Tres stretched to the top of the gazebo where he securely fastened it, leaving it a victim to a heavy Autumn's breeze. It rang back and forth, Tres watching it do so but concentrating more on what Abel was up to.

Abel had got up from his comfortable perch on the ground to approach Tres from behind, timidly bringing up the topic that Tres had broached. "What were you discussing with the Professor? Background noise for--.?" Abel never had the chance to finish his sentence.

Tres swiveled around on his heel, moving lightning quick to seize Abel by his wrists, forcing him back into the inner shell of the gazebo. He pressed his body in tight to Abel's, preventing any possible escape.

"Tres-kun?"

"It will benefit us both if you try to remain quiet." Tres moved one hand to grip Abel by his chin, holding him in place to force acceptance of a tight-lipped kiss. Abel gave a muffled sound of protest, struggling against Tres but would have had more success trying to shake off a rabid dog. It continued, the pressure building, until Abel's lips parted in a desperate attempt to suck in air. And in that instant, Tres's tongue slipped inside, exploring, his mouth sealing possessively over Abel's. Their tongues battled and Abel flailed in Tres's makeshift embrace.

Approximately two minutes later, Tres calculated that Abel needed a fresh air supply and broke the contact. "Wh—what…? Why?" Abel wheezed, contradicting his befuddlement by instinctively drawing Tres nearer.

Instead of answering, Tres moved in for another kiss. This time, his teeth grazed Abel's lips, daring his companion to refuse the attention. When his tongue darted inside Abel's mouth a second time, he detected a moist sweetness and a compliance that spoke of how quickly he'd managed to arouse Abel into a submissive state. His tongue slid alongside Abel's, coaxing him into deepening the kiss further.

When next they parted, Tres had no need to restrain Abel. Both of his hands set to work stroking up and down the slender body before him, eliciting moans and sighs and bringing a red, heated glow to Abel's normally pale flesh.

"We are compatible," Tres informed Abel, brushing feather-light kisses up the pale throat that caused his soon-to-be lover to shiver. "I have already sought the Professor's advice. He assured me that my interest in you would be reciprocated."

"Tres-kun…" Abel gripped Tres by his shoulders, fidgeting from left to right as a skillful tongue traced the outer pattern of his ear, dipping inside and causing Abel to gasp.

"Do you consent?"

If Tres was asking what Abel presumed he was… this wonderful Autumn's day would soon be transforming their relationship into something completely different. "You're asking my permission?" Abel grinned, his face rather flushed from the day's turn of events.

"It is necessary."

"Wasn't it necessary before you trapped me up against this fence?"

"Understood. I no longer require permission." Tres perceived Abel's light teasing in the context it was intended. He really couldn't be bothered waiting for Abel's permission. At any rate, they might be discovered at any moment and Tres preferred that moment to be after he'd completed his pleasuring of Abel's body.

... to be continued ...