Mastery and Servitude;
Part one ~Breathing ~
By Lady AngelFiren

Heero Yuy looked at the screen of his laptop, an imperceptible frown settling on his features. The war was over. He had one last mission, and the he was free to do whatever he pleased. The thought was scary, but somehow comforting. It breathed of possibilities, and Heero intended to make the most of his freedom. He wasn't upset or terrified by the end of the war, he felt sort of neutral. He took what life threw at him. This is what he'd ended up with; peace, freedom and one last mission.

Gathering his things in a worn duffel and checking the time for his flight, Heero left the small apartment he'd been staying at and didn't look back. An hour and ten minutes later found him on a commercial shuttle to the L1 area, specifically the colony he'd spent most of his young life on. He had his laptop with him, a change of clothes and a toothbrush, and that was about it.

J had wanted to see him one last time. To say goodbye, among other things. Heero wasn't sure why he was going to see the scientist, but it didn't really matter, as long as he had his freedom after. J probably wanted to do a few tests or something, and maybe give Heero some pointers for living in peacetime. Whatever.

After a long eventless flight through space, Heero stepped off the shuttle into a small spaceport, catching a cab that took him to the infamous scientist's lab. He met the doctor and followed him into the lab.

Heero Yuy didn't see another soul for the next five years.

~o0O0o0O0o~ ~~Five Years Later~~

Duo Maxwell grabbed a bagel and sliced it in half, talking quietly to himself as he popped it in the toaster. He stared at the cheap linoleum countertop and drummed his fingers over it as he waited, wandering absently to the fridge to get some cream cheese. Its like watching paint dry, fascinating, he thought, still talking. He wasn't sure what he was saying, he just liked to hear the noise.

After getting his bagel spread with cream cheese, he went to the kitchen table where his very own laptop was waiting. His search was finished, and still no Heero Yuy. Obsessive? Yes. Compulsive? Yes.

After the war, Heero and Duo had spoken briefly, and then Heero had disappeared. He hadn't seen him for five years, and he still searched constantly. Nothing had ever turned up, not under Heero's name, or under any of the aliases he'd used in the war. Duo knew he had no business looking for somebody that didn't want to be found, but he couldn't help himself. He would be watching TV and come into the kitchen and realize that he'd been looking for Heero again. He didn't even know he was doing it. Lately, he was a little more in control, but barely. He just couldn't seem to hold a job or get friends or do anything. He had to find Heero.

One day Duo had pulled himself off of his couch with the realization that he hadn't left his apartment in a week, and hadn't eaten in three days. He got himself a glass of water and wandered through the tiny space he called home, then ordered a pizza and only ate one slice.

Not healthy, and defiantly not characteristic of Duo Maxwell. He knew he was depressed, knew he needed to pull himself out of his slump, but he really didn't want to. It was comforting to know that you could stay home and not worry about anyone or anything but yourself and a long-lost partner that would never be found. Duo figured that as long as he didn't start doing anything really crazy or dangerous than this was ok.

But four years after that first incident when he'd realized he was not quite ok, Duo had barely changed his habits, and the compulsive searches didn't end. He had looked everywhere, and still no Heero. He knew that today's search would be the same. Ideas a few and far between for the man who does nothing but try to have them.

Duo sat down once more and was not surprised to find nothing at all on the results page for his search. He decided to check his mail; it was the only way anyone contacted him because he had no phone, and he never went out. All bills and banking were done from in the apartment. He ordered groceries online, ordered clothes online, and hadn't seen a ray of sunlight in way too long for it to be healthy.

Signing in to his mailbox, Duo discovered that he had one new email. That was a rare thing indeed. He opened it. It was from someone he had never expected to hear from, ever. Not Heero, unfortunately. Professor G. Of all the people in the world, the mad scientist had decided to send him a message.

Reading over the short words, Duo's eyes got wide and he stopped talking to himself, concentrating completely on what was written. Duo hadn't had a mission since the end of the war, but that's what this looked like. A mission to go to L1, to Dr. J's lab, and steal his technology. G had not been getting along with J, and had found a way to kill him. J would be dead by morning, there was no 'if.' Duo was supposed to go into his lab and steal what he could, bring it to G, then he could go on living his life as if nothing had happened.

Duo decided to accept the mission, simply because he knew he needed something to do aside from being obsessive and anti-social and depressed. He got all ready, packed a small bag and took a flight to L1, just as Heero had five years earlier. Of course, Duo didn't know about Heero, but something hung in the air none-the-less.

~o0O0o0O0o~

Slipping naturally into an alert, stealthy countenance, Duo approached the lab in his rented Camaro. Apparently there wasn't any need to be stealthy or aloof, so the sports car wasn't a problem, even if it was seen. For a small colony packed with lots of people, the place sure looked deserted; there wasn't anyone in sight. Duo smiled to himself and parked in front of the strange building. According to his information, there wouldn't be anyone around; the doctor lived alone.

Duo got out of the car and went right up to the front door, knocking. It looked just like an ordinary house, well, more like a mansion, until you got inside. There was no answer, so the ex-pilot picked the lock and went in. Instantly the warm exterior image presented was transformed into a lab-like environment. Metal corridors, fluorescent lights overhead, and silence.

Duo followed the mental map he'd memorized and quickly found the main lab. In front of it was J's body, half machine, but obviously very dead. Checking to make sure, Duo was pleased when he received no pulse, and he set to work gathering up anything and everything in the room that looked like some kind of technology or another. He hacked into the main computer and copied everything onto discs then set out to look around the house for himself. He didn't even bother reading the information he was stealing, he just copied it. Ok, so maybe he was being a tad sloppy, but he hadn't worked in five years and he really didn't care. Fuck the bastard who lay dead on the floor behind him, fuck G, fuck the world. This gave him something to do, end of story.

The sound of quick breaths being drawn finally broke into Duo's head, and he turned around to look at J, although he knew the man was dead. And he was still very dead when Duo kicked him lightly and listened for the breaths. They were coming from somewhere to his right. He got up and looked around. Down near the ground was a set of bars in the wall, covering an opening big enough for him to crawl though. He looked into the wall and saw nothing, but the breathing was definitely coming from inside.

What the fuck? "Hello? Is someone in there?" The breathing got faster, shallower.

Duo frowned. Whoever was in there wasn't coming out unless he got them out. He looked around at the wall and saw a green button and a red button. Well, could we get anymore obvious? He pushed the green button and the bars slid up.

"Heeloo~ooo, are you gonna come out or am I gonna have to go in and get you? C'mon, there aren't any light switches around, its dark in there, come out."

Silence answered him, then a few seconds later there was more breathing; controlled this time, but still sort of frantic. Lord knows what J had locked in the dark room, but Duo's heart wouldn't let him leave until he found out. He crawled into the little space and found that there actually was some light, it was just extremely dim. He looked around. There wasn't much he could see, even though he had excellent vision.

He made out the shape of a person curled up in one corner, and a toilet in another corner. Something that looked like a bowl of water was in beside the person.

"Jesus, what the hell kind of sick pervert was J? Look, I know you don't know me, but I swear I'm gonna help you, ok? If you'll just crawl out of here with me, I'll take you somewhere safe. You're coming with me whether you like it or not, I won't let you just stay here. C'mon."

Silence interrupted by random breathing answered Duo's gentle tone. Then, after Duo figured that whoever was in here wasn't going to answer him, a soft, tiny voice was heard, and there was so much fear in it that it made Duo shudder. It also made him want to kill J again, just for making someone so scared and pathetic.

"I-I can't go."

"Why not? Don't you want to leave? How long have you been here? I'll help you, I'm not going to hurt you. Do you have a name?"

"Master will be angry"

"Master? That sick fuck made you call him master? Look, you're your own person now, Master's dead. Follow me."

"Dead? Butwho will feed me?"

Duo was growing frustrated, but he forced himself to stay calm and sound harmless for whoever the person stuck in here was. He had never been in a situation like this before, but it was pretty obvious that J's little slave was terrified, probably with good reason. He inched closer, but didn't touch the person. He thought it was a boy, by the sound of the small voice, but he couldn't be sure; there was so much fear and the voice was so soft that he hadn't really heard what was said.

"I'll feed you. Will you follow me out into the lab at least so I can look at you?"

" Yes Master."

Duo growled unintentionally. "I'm not your master, but I'll be your friend and I'll try to take care of you until you can look after yourself. For now, just follow me out of this tiny dark box, and let me have a look at you."

Duo crawled out of the little cell and for a minute he stood and waited, then he heard the rustling of metal chains and slowly a thin, shaking figure covered in bruises and not much else crawled out of the hole and knelt at Duo's feet. From his position he could see that it was a boy. He was naked except for a metal collar around his neck that was attached to a chain; That's what he'd heard dragging. There were metal bands around each wrist, but mostly Duo noticed the bumps of the boy's spine and the impression of his ribs showing through his back. He was so thin, and there were shallow bruises all over him, although nothing that looked really permanent or damaging. The bruises around the boy's hips suggested something that Duo didn't even want to think about. His skin was extremely pale, paler than Duo's and he hadn't been outside in a really long time.

Duo bit his lip and looked down at the excuse for a human being kneeling before him. He had no idea what to do.

"Uhm, what's your name?"

Not looking up, the shaking creature replied, "I don't know."

"I want to get you out of here, get some food in you. I'm gonna get you out of those chains first, I'm not going to hurt you."

Duo bent down and picked the lock on the metal collar around the boy's neck, then did the same to the chains around his wrists. The boy never moved or looked up at him. He didn't smell at all, he was clean, which sort of surprised Duo; he'd never heard of abeing clean. There was short dark hair on the boy's head, and that was as much of him as Duo had seen up to this point. Duo got back onto his feet.

"Can you stand up?"

"Am I allowed to?"

Brows furrowing in frustration Duo told the boy that he was, and watched as he slowly got to his feet, still not looking at him. Duo had not yet managed to see the nameless boy's face at all. He was shorter than Duo, and painfully skinny. Duo remembered that his change of clothes was in the car.

"Can you wait here for a minute, I'm gonna go get you some clothes. Would you like that?"

"If that is what you want Master."

"I'm not your master, stay here. I'll be right back."

Duo ran out of the room to his car, forcing himself not to hyperventilate. He really didn't want to go back into that room, back to the poor boy that J had obviously controlled. He got the change of clothes and ran back in hastily, despite his sudden urge to retch. He held out the clothes to the boy who was standing in the exact same position Duo had left him in.

"Here. You can put these on." Duo held out the clothes.

"Thank you Master." The boy fearfully took the clothing from Duo's hands and put it on. A plain black tee-shirt that was supposed to be snug, although it wasn't on the emaciated boy, and a pair of jeans that were old and a bit frazzled looking. Duo caught a glimpse of the boy's face when he was putting the tee-shirt on, and he gasped.

"Look at me."

The boy slowly raised his head, and Duo took a step back in fear and surprise. His heart leapt into his throat and he felt like hiding in a corner.

"Heero? Oh my God, Heero!"

The boy, Heero, looked terrified and confused. He obeyed and looked at Duo in the face, but wouldn't meet his eyes. Duo felt ten thousand different things race through him and he finally opted to wrap Heero in a hug, tears coming out of his eyes when his friend simply stood still, shivering, his breathing shallow.

"Christ Heero, are you ok? What the hell are you doing here? I'll take you back to my place and we can talk, ok?"

There was a moment of silence, then a confused 'yes master' and Heero followed Duo out of J's lab. When they reached the doorway Heero stopped and hesitated, squinting into the bright world beyond. He looked at Duo, who was already walking towards his black Camaro, then looked into the rest of the colony. His gaze was so innocent, like he'd never seen any of it before. Tentatively, Heero stepped out of the house, looking at the ground. He inched towards the car, then knelt down behind Duo.

Duo was keying himself into the car when he realized that Heero was kneeling down behind him. He accidentally stepped on the boy's fingers and all he heard was a whimper as Heero scooted backwards, away from Duo. There was also a soft apology, and Heero began to shake, as if he thought Duo was going to hit him. Duo whirled around and glared down at the terrified boy, then got a hold over his anger at J and bent to get down to Heero's level. He put a gentle hand on Heero's shoulder, watching, horrified, as the boy winced when he was touched.

"I'm sorry Heero, I didn't see you there. Look, I don't know what J did to you, but I'll try and fix it if I can."

"You don't want topunish me? I'm sorry I got in your way Master, I really am. I can do better!"

Heero's voice was desperate, like he wanted to make Duo believe that he would try harder to please him. Duo was, once again, shocked and angered by how pathetic the strong soldier had become.

"Heero, please stop calling me master, my name is Duo. You know my name, don't you remember me?"

"I'm sorry Master Duo, I don't remember youbut I can serve you. You can do anything you want to me, I won't make a sound. I'll be really good, I promise. I can cook and wash dishes and clean, and I can wash you and pleasure you any way you'd like, I'll do anything you ask of me. I can brush out your hair for you, and I will try very hard not to get in your way again."

By this time tears were trailing down Heero's cheeks and he was shivering so violently that he was having trouble keeping his teeth from chattering. Duo couldn't seem to make any words come out of his mouth. He stared at the broken boy, then rubbed his back and asked him to stand up and go sit in the passenger side of the car. Heero looked confused, but Duo showed him where to go and he promptly did as was asked. Duo sat down behind the wheel and drove to a burger place a few minutes away. He went through the drive-through, then thought about where he could park the car so that they could eat. He found a nice park full of trees, and parked beside a man-made river and turned off the car, opening both windows to let the warm, fresh air in. This was a nice, prosperous colony, there was always a fresh feeling in the air, unlike the L2 colonies, which were nothing nearly as expensive.

Duo unwrapped his spicy chicken burger and bit into it. He chewed in silence for a bit, then noticed that Heero was watching him. When he looked at Heero, the ex Wing pilot lowered his head and stared at his hands. The food Duo had given him was on his lap, but he hadn't touched it.

"Don't you like burgers? If you don't I can get something else, its not a problem, just tell me."

Heero looked uncomfortable for a second, then went against his own will and questioned his new master. "You want me to eat? I apologize Master Duo, I thought this was for you. What would you like me to eat?"

He doesn't even get to decide what he eats? Fuckthis is getting scary

"Yes Heero, of course I want you to eat! Have as many of those burgers as you want, and one of the giant sodas is for you. If you're still hungry, then I'll get more food. I want you to tell me if you're hungry or thirsty or cold, or if you want something. And please stop calling me master, just Duo is fine."

Heero took this all in, then warily took a burger out of the bag, still afraid that Duo would become angry at him for doing it. When no blows rained on him, he unwrapped the food and took a tiny bite, his stomach bubbling with excitement at the first thing he'd eaten in days. He managed to eat half a burger, then he started to feel sick from the worry and fear of eating in front of Duo. He didn't know if he should force himself to eat more, because he knew he'd really be sick if he did, and he thought Duo would be very unhappy if he was sick in the car. But he also knew that Duo would hurt him for being ungrateful if he did not eat. Well, maybe he didn't know that last part for sure, but he was almost positive that his new master's good graces only extended so far.

Caught between such a simple choice, Heero started to cry, small tears leaking slowly down his cheeks without him even realizing it. He was looking down at the food in his hands and sniffling, when Duo noticed what was going on.

"Heero? What's wrong? Do you want to eat something else? We can go get something you like better if you want, you don't have to cry, just tell me. I already said I'm not going to hurt you."

Heero looked fearfully at anything but Duo, not at all sure how to handle the situation. "I-I'm sorry Master Duo, I didn't mean to be ungrateful or disobedient, I just can't eat anymore. I don't want to make a mess of your carbut I'm so full, and-"

"Enough Heero, you don't have to eat anything you don't want to. I'm not going to make you. You are your own person now, lets just try to get back to L2 without me upsetting you anymore, alright? We can buy you some clothes and find you some food you like and then we can sit down and discuss why the hell you think you're a slave. Then we can sleep. Does that sound ok?"

"Yes Master Duo," mumbled very softly as Heero tried not to cry anymore. He was so confused, everything had just up and changed on him. He didn't ever remember being outside of J's lab, and he wasn't sure why Master Duo was calling him Heero, but he was happy that his new Master hadn't hit him yet. Duo seemed to know him, maybe he was someone from 'before.' There was a black spot in his memory. He didn't know where he came from or anything about his past, it was covered in fog and murky blackness. All he knew was serving Master J. Now J was dead, and Heero was left with nothing to hold onto except for this new Master, a Master who didn't want him. Heero wanted to try as hard as he could to please Duo. He told himself that he would pleasure Duo every way possible tonight, no matter how tired and scared he was. Then Duo would keep him, he hoped.

The ride back to the spaceport was quiet. Master Duo didn't speak at all, and Heero thought he must be angry over the food, and because he'd gotten in the way before. Maybe Duo was saving up his punishment for when they got to L2. They approached a large place, bigger than anything Heero ever remembered seeing. There were ships everywhere! Duo stopped the car in a parking spot and turned to Heero, who shivered fearfully.

"Heero? This is the spaceport. You look scared, don't be. We're gonna return this rental car, and then we'll get a flight back to my home. Now something very important for you to remember is that you can't act like a slave or servant in public. Its illegal, and I could be charged, then they'd take you away from me, and that would really suck. I'm guessing you don't really know how to act normal, so all I'm asking is that you stay quiet, and don't call me master. You have to call me Duo, ok? Can you try that for me?"

"Yes Mas-Duo. I will do my best."

"Heero, do you ever remember leaving this colony? Do you remember anything before you were with J?" Duo was curious, with reason. He didn't want to upset Heero, but his curiosity was getting the better of him.

"No, Ma-Duo. I have never been out of the lab before that I can remember. There are flashes.but nothing I understand. I guess there must have been something before Master J, maybe a different Master, but I don't remember if there was. I'm sorry, its all dark and foggy in my head. But I will tell you if I remember anything."

"Ok Heero. We're going to go now. Just stay close to me, I don't want you getting lost."

"Yes Master Duo."

Heero followed Duo out of the car. Duo decided to walk the short distance to the spaceport rather than take the mono, because Heero seemed extremely shy around people. He hoped the poor ex-pilot would be ok on the seven hour flight to L2, it would really suck for him to freak out on the shuttle.

~o0O0o0O0o~

Duo sat in the aisle seat, watching Heero as they flew through the stars. Heero was trying to stay still and look at his hands, but Duo could see that he was absolutely fascinated by space, as if he were seeing it for the first time. Duo could also see signs of fatigue in Heero. He never said a word about being tired, but he was looking very worn indeed. He had bags under his eyes and he kept hunching forward in his seat or nodding of against the shuttle wall before he pulled himself awake again and looked out the window.

"Heero. Are you tired?" Duo finally asked, seeing that Heero was not going to sleep unless he was told to.

"Yes Ma-Duo, I have not slept in two days, but I will stay awake for you, I'm sorry." Heero looked genuinely sorry. It made Duo want to scream.

"Heero, go to sleep. I'll wake you up when we get there."

"Yes Duo. Thank you." Heero leaned into the wall and let his aching body and mind finally relax, and he was fast asleep in less than a minute. Because no one had told him when to wake up, he instructed his body to sleep until Master Duo woke him, and he did. Six and a half hours later, there was a gentle nudge on his shoulder. Heero opened his eyes and was met with Master Duo's smiling face. Heero was instantly awake.

"Wake up sleepy head, we're almost there, I thought you'd like to look at the colony from the widow, since you don't remember seeing one before."

Heero nodded and remembered to call his Master simply Duo. "Thank you Duo, Is there anything you want me to do for you right now?"

"No Heero, just do what you want, look at the colony or whatever."

"Yes Duo."

Heero looked at the colony from the shuttle window, fascinated by how big it was, and its interesting shape. He kept an ear out for Duo in case he wanted something, but he was really into the colony. He thought about how different it was in the real world compared to the lab. No one had slaves or servants, everyone talked to everyone else like equals. Heero wanted to understand, but his mind just wouldn't let him. He sighed in fear and confusion and waited for Duo to tell him something to do.