The room was mostly dark, only lit by a couple of moonbeams which forced their way between the curtains. Culgan opened his eyes slowly, knowing that it wasn't time to get up yet. His inner clock was always very accurate. Thus, he had to wonder why he had waken up.

He moved a little only to notice that there was someone lying next to him. He didn't have to turn to see who it was - he knew it was the only person he allowed in his bed. Besides, he remembered very well how the redhead had sneaked into his apartment last night.

"Seed..."

He smiled, sat up and petted the younger man's hair. Seed mumbled something and rolled over, curling up under the sheets. The older man leaned down to kiss the redhead's forehead, then lay down and wrapped his arms around the sleeping form. The young captain nuzzled a bit, obviously feeling very comfortable. Culgan pressed his face against the soft red hair and closed his eyes.

Unfortunately, the silver-haired colonel didn't have a chance to rest for long. He was half-asleep when he heard someone knocking on the door of his small apartment. He slipped out of the bed, covered the younger man with the sheets and picked up his bathrobe which was lying in a chair near the bed.

"Who on earth can it be this early...?" He mused aloud and opened the door to the other room while getting the bathrobe on. He crossed the room and stopped to take a deep breath before opening the door.

The disturber of peace revealed to be his superior officer, General Solon Jhee. The general didn't say a word before invading the silver-haired colonel's apartment and taking an evaluating look around in the neatly-kept room. Then he turned to face the other man, looking quite arrogant.

"Well?"

"Good morning to you too, General Jhee," Culgan replied calmly, closing the door. "May I ask what you're doing here this early in the morning?"

Solon's eyes flashed. "The papers about the assignments of the new cadets in my Company. I need them. Now."

The younger man looked at the general. "Interesting. I thought those were due the day after tomorrow..."

"Maybe, but I happen to need them now," Solon stated dryly. "I do hope you have had the time to check them already. If not... Well, that means I'll have to find someone else to look at them. That wouldn't make me too happy, since I have better things to do than to run around the garrison trying to find my men!"

Culgan gave the other man a cool half-smile and walked over to the window to draw the curtains aside. It was still dark outside, but he could see the first rays of the sun lighting up the horizon.

"Well?"

"I do have the papers, and I have checked through them briefly. I was going to take another look at them tomorrow afternoon, but seems that I don't have the time. If you wish, I can do it now and have them delivered to you by noon. In that case, I will have to rearrange my schedule, of course, but that would save you the trouble of finding someone else to check them..."

General Jhee gave him an irritated look. "I said I want them now."

"Well, if you insist, Sir," the silver-haired man answered. He could guess that someone above Solon, mainly King Agares, wanted those documents. "The papers are in my bedroom. I was reading them last night, so..."

"In there?" The general pointed at the bedroom door.

Culgan nodded. "Yes. Shall I go get them for you?"

"I can do that myself." Solon took a step towards the door, but the other man stepped in front of him, preventing him from opening the door.

"Sir? Would you mind... My bedroom isn't in a good shape, so I'd rather not have you in there."

General Jhee looked at him coldly. "Not in a good shape? Really? Or... Is it just that you have company? Probably some handsome young man... I know very well about your sexual preference. I've also heard some interesting rumors about you sleeping with lower-ranking officers. You should know there's a punishment for misusing your authority..."

"I can assure you that I'm not doing anything like that," the silver-haired man replied slowly.

Solon stared at him. "Is that so?"

"Yes. But, since I don't think my preferences have anything to do with those documents, I'll have to ask you to wait here while I go get the papers for you."

"What if I refuse to wait?" the older man retorted. "I'll get the papers. Maybe I'll also check what exactly in there isn't in a good shape..."

Culgan sighed as the general shoved him aside and pushed the door open.

The noise from the other room had awakened the red-haired captain from a pleasant dream where he was having a picnic with Culgan outside L'Renouille - naked. He reached for the other man, just to notice that the colonel was not in the bed.

"Aww... Culgan, where the heck did you... Hmm?"

He raised his head from the pillow, analyzing the voices coming from the other room. The other one sounded a lot like General Solon Jhee... who was asking about Culgan having someone in the bedroom, and making a nasty comment about the colonel sleeping with lower-ranking men.

Suddenly he realized that Culgan was trying to prevent Solon from entering the bedroom, and the general was obviously planning on walking in despite of what the colonel said.

"Oh, shit!"

He rushed out of the bed, quickly gathered his clothes from the floor, sincerely hoping that he wasn't forgetting anything. He glanced at the window; trying to escape through it would be in vain, since there was no way he could get the window open fast enough.

The redhead spun around, listening to the voices from the other side of the door; the general seemed to be determined to enter the room now. Since Seed couldn't think of anything else, he squeezed into the closet, pushing a pair of Culgan's dark coats aside, and drew the door closed as well as he could.

General Jhee walked into the bedroom and stopped next to the bed, staring shortly at the tangled sheets. Culgan followed, taking a quick look around. Seed was nowhere to be seen.

Aren't you a clever little thing, my dear... he thought, smiling in his mind. A quick glance around the room told him where Seed was hiding, but naturally, Solon had no idea.

"Hmmh. So, where are the papers?"

The silver-haired man walked to the chest of drawers and picked up a few documents. "They're here, Sir. I strongly recommend someone goes through them again, because there are a lot of details in them."

"I see." The general glanced at the papers the other man was holding and folded his arms. "Well... In theory, how long would it take for you to check them and make the necessary changes?"

Culgan looked at the older man calmly, hiding his amusement. "In theory, till noon. I have some other things to do... But, if I manage to cancel a meeting and arrange some other things, I'd say about three hours."

"All right... Do it then. Three hours."

"Four," the colonel replied. "I need to find someone to take care of some things for me, and send a word to my right-hand man about the meeting."

Solon glared at him shortly. "Fine. But I want those papers on my desk in four hours from now, or else."

"You will get these documents in four hours, then. They might need rewriting before you send them forward, though." Culgan put the papers down and walked around the bed to pick up some of his clothes from the chair.

"Rewrite... that will be taken care of later."

"Ah. Well... would you mind...?" The silver-haired man nodded at his clothes. From the corner of his eye, he could see something moving in the closet.

General Jhee gave him another glare, then walked to the bedroom door and turned to look at the other man again. "Hmh. I shall be on my way, then. But remember; I expect to get those papers in four hours." With that, he walked out of the apartment and slammed the door shut behind him.

Culgan waited until he heard the door close, then put the clothes down on the chair, walked over to the closet and opened the door.

"Mmm... I could get used to this. Opening the closet and finding a naked redhead..." He gave the younger man a warm smile.

Seed looked mostly miserable. He threw one of Culgan's coats and his own clothes on the floor and stumbled out of the closet. "About time you got rid of him... That closet isn't really that spacious, you know."

"I wasn't exactly expecting to see him here this early, but... I must say, I'm a bit surprised at what you did. You know, he would've made a few quite mean statements about my... 'inappropriate behavior for a colonel' if he had found you here."

"Oh, whatever..." The red-haired man wrapped his arms around the older man's neck, leaning against him. "I think someone here owes me something for it, though..."

Culgan smiled again. "I guess so. I do have a reputation to keep, after all. You saved me from some trouble. But, you heard him; I have four hours to check those papers..."

Seed grinned. "We both know those papers will take you only two hours. And..." He nuzzled the other man's shoulder. "If you are nice to me, maybe I'll help you with them..."

The silver-haired man laughed a bit. "I have yet to see the day when you actually take care of some paperwork voluntarily. But..." He wrapped his arms around Seed, slowly leading him towards the bed. When they reached it, he pressed the younger man down on the sheets and kissed him.

"...Who knows, maybe that day has come."

Author's notes:

Just a short gift fic. Happy b-day, Romy-san!

- Elmina (April, 2002)