Summary: Brit Reed can't sleep.

Three a.m. and still sleep eluded him. With a sigh Britt Reed abandoned the warmth of his bed and his lover's arms. Kato stirred, but did not wake. It had been a long evening after several nights of only a few hours sleep snatched here and there.

Britt's own body screamed with exhaustion as he pulled on his robe, and he envied Kato the Zen philosophy that let him sleep so soundly when the world felt like it was collapsing around them. They'd almost been killed earlier tonight. Worse, they'd almost been caught by the police.

Britt feared that more than death -- being unmasked and sent to prison for the crimes of his alter ego. But it was the thought of Kato's imprisonment, not his own, that gave him nightmares. In a way it was foolish. Despite the fact that he risked death and injury each time he donned his Green Hornet persona, Britt had led a life surrounded by the trappings of wealth. His practical love would handle prison life far better than he would. But he detested the thought of Kato suffering for what often seemed like his own Don Quixote complex.

He thought of going downstairs to make a cup of coffee or indulge in something stronger, but found he did not want to stray so far from Kato's side. He opted for the comfortable lounge chair on the bedroom patio. The night was warm, so he left the door open in case Kato called him -- a frequent occurrence after an evening like this one. Sometimes Kato would wake up not remembering if he'd managed to pull Britt's sorry ass out of the fire once again.

He ran a hand through his dark brown hair and considered the irony of the life they had made together. To those who knew them, Kato was Britt's kept man, the former servant made a business partner as a reward for sexual services rendered, while the masked man who stood at the Green Hornet's side was considered a flunky not worthy of a name. But to Britt, Kato was ... everything. Friend, lover, business advisor and protector all wrapped up in a handsome, deadly package. Britt had lost track of how many times Kato had saved his life since they'd first put on their masks. And if he'd saved Kato a few times wasn't that counterbalanced by the fact that Kato would never have been in danger in the first place if not for Britt?

"What are you doing out here?" a sleepy voice asked, and he looked up to find a blanket-clad Kato standing in the doorway.

"Trying not to disturb you," he answered. "Go back to sleep."

"You think loudly enough to wake the dead, Wasp."

Wasp. It was Kato's nickname for him, born in their days at Yale when a young, wealthy freshman had made a pest of himself trying to get a graduate student with a reputation of being skilled in the martial arts to teach him. 'You are more annoying than an angry wasp,' Kato had told him the day he'd finally relented. The name had stuck -- a joking nod to the grasshopper nickname of a popular television character -- and had evolved into the Green Hornet.

Britt studied his lover. Six inches shorter than Britt and slighter in build, he looked five years younger instead of five years older. Time would never wear so kindly on Britt's Caucasian features, and sometimes he wondered. ... "Will you still love me when I'm a wrinkled old man, and you can pass for twenty?"

Kato walked over to him. "Shift forward."

Britt obeyed, and Kato settled behind him on the lounger, then drew Britt back to nestle against him. "If one of us were to tire of the other, I suspect it will be you of me," he said, kissing the top of his head.

Britt had never heard of anything so preposterous in his life. "Why would you think that?"

"I was experienced when we met and know well the value of what I have." He hugged Britt tightly. "Sometimes I fear you will become curious about what you might learn outside of my bed."

Sometimes he wondered about Kato. Give up what they'd had for the last nine years because he was curious? "Not a chance. You, my love, are stuck with your virgin 'bride' for the rest of your life."

"Good." Another kiss on his head. "Now, go to sleep."

"I can't. I've been thinking."

"Oh, no," Kato moaned dramatically. "The city is still reeling from the last time you said that."

"It deserved to reel," Britt muttered. It had been a night very much like this one when he'd decided enough was enough. He'd given a party that night -- one of the periodic society cocktail bashes expected from the owner-publisher of the Daily Sentinel. Nothing he'd not hosted a hundred times before, but he'd stood there with yet another beautiful woman posing on his arm, watching the man he loved playing servant, and knew things had to change.

Kato had the MBA, not Britt, who had gone the pre-law route. When Britt's father had died -- leaving a twenty-one year-old Britt the Reed fortune and all its responsibilities to contend with -- it was Kato who had handled the business decisions, leaving Britt the freedom to run the paper and broadcasting divisions without profit and loss dictating content. And through it all Kato had posed as his manservant because no one would think twice about a rich man having a live-in servant.

It had made a certain amount of sense in the beginning. Already nervous about a boy taking over the reigns of Reed Enterprises, the upper management might have been impossible to deal with if the boy had announced he was a homosexual engaged in an interracial relationship. Kato had urged him to give them time to grow accustomed to working for someone so young. That evening Britt had decided they'd had long enough.

He'd announced his decision after the guests had departed. Kato had resisted at first, but after a night of talking it over, they'd reached an agreement. Now, Kato worked out of the office across from Britt's and their relationship was old news.

Warm lips brushed Britt's temple. "So what have you been thinking about, my wasp?"

"Maybe it's time to retire the Hornet."

The hands caressing his arms stilled. "A man does not consider the abandonment of a life long dream without reason."

"I don't know if we continue to operate without Scanlon's help." It was the easy answer,
but a valid one. An old friend of Britt's father, District Attorney Frank Scanlon had known Britt was the Green Hornet from the beginning.

Scanlon had thought Britt's notion was crazy -- masked crime fighters masquerading as criminals -- but he'd soon changed his mind as the Hornet proved successful at going where the police could not. He'd gone from opposing them to helping whenever he could. But Scanlon was dead -- killed in a collision with a drunk driver -- and his replacement had made it her personal crusade to capture them.

"We could tell her the truth. Claudia was a friend of yours."

He winced. Yes, Claudia Bromley had been a friend, but she'd wanted more than friendship. She'd been far from civil the few times they'd bumped into each other since he'd come out of the closet. "I'm not exactly her favorite person these days."

"We do not have to tell her who the Hornet really is."

"No, but I suspect she'll figure it out. She knows me very well." They'd gone to the same schools since kindergarten, and everyone had assumed they'd marry some day. But everyone hadn't asked him.

"Yes, but by that time she might see how useful we can be."

"Or consider us vigilantes that belong behind bars."

"A possibility, but beneath all that flash and polish, she strikes me as a very practical woman."

Practical? Claudia? The woman Britt had known had enjoyed being a defense lawyer with obscenely high fees. She hadn't been the sort to abandon that opulence for life as a district attorney. Or so he'd thought. "Maybe, but I'm not certain it's worth the risk."

Scanlon had been their safety net. Britt had an information network that rendered much of what the D.A. had told him redundant, but Scanlon had always been there to stand up and say they weren't crooks if it ever came down to an arrest. How much good that would have done was anyone's guess, but at least it had been a measure of security.

"And what of your family legacy? You would give up on it so easily?"

"John Reed lived in a simpler time. And he didn't try to live in one place either."

"True enough. So why do I think you are making excuses?"

Britt sighed. It could be a real pain having someone know him so well. "Everyone knows the beginning of the story." John Reed -- the only survivor of a group of ambushed Texas Rangers -- had made a mask from his slain brother's vest and taken on the guise of the Lone Ranger. Only he'd never been alone. Tonto had always been at his side. "Most don't know the end."

"Tell me."

"A shoot out, like a hundred that had come before, but they were older, their reflexes slower."

"They died?"

"No, they won, but it was a close enough thing that John took off the mask. They lived the rest of their lives on his nephew's ranch."

"Your grandfather."

"Yes. Point is, they knew when to quit. They spent the rest of their lives together in peace instead of keeping at it until they went out in a blaze of glory."

"You fear that we will not know when to stop?"

"In that last gunbattle, Tonto was wounded. He almost died -- a victim of John Reed's quest for justice."

"Ah, you fear I might not be as fortunate."

"You could have been killed tonight. You should have left me to fend for myself."

Kato's hand cupped Britt's chin, gently pushing his head back until their gazes met. "You are my life, Britt. My actions were merely self-preservation."

Britt opened his mouth to speak, but a finger across his lips silenced him.

"It is possible to be too responsible, wasp. It is true that I would have led quite a different life had I not met you, but I walked into this one without reservations. As, I am certain, did Tonto. And like him, I will give up my own quest for my love, but it will not please me."

"I'll get you killed. I'm --"

A kiss silenced him this time. "Always too ready to blame yourself when you are this tired. You are brave, intelligent and resourceful. I have no qualms about following you into danger."

"I won't live without you," he said stubbornly.

"That, my wasp, is your decision, but I promise you I will do my best to ensure you never have to make it."

Britt sighed, knowing he'd been defeated. He was too young and there was too much left to do for him to retire the Green Hornet. As much as his heart might long to see the end of it at times like this, come the dawn a new outrage would compel him to don his mask again. "I love you."

"And I you. Can you sleep now?"

"Guess I'd better. I'll need my wits about me if I'm going to arrange a meeting between Claudia and the Hornet."

"That's my wasp." He kissed Britt again, then both men settled down to sleep away what remained of the night.

The End

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