Shallow Mist feb 22, 09
Disclaimer: G-boys not saru's (not available to buy anywhere; even though saru might have no money to even try and make a bargain over Heero…)
Warning: critical AU, supernatural beings, violence, mature contents : male x male bonding, language, abusive tendency, relationship bordering to mutual-NCS (you'll understand after reading), to sum up: porcupine's dilemma; 2x1x2 or 1x2x1….umm, what's the difference?
1. first day
The corridor was already empty; somehow the tall ceilings gave a cold air in the passageways, the tapping sounds of the woman showing them their way were resounding emotionlessly, like the sound of a ticking clock, only more rapidly; like the sound of a march of no turning back.
Duo turned at his younger brother a little behind him at his side, he looked subdued and impassive, looking at an imaginary space in front of his feet while walking, as if he were a lamb ushered to a butcher's house even though that butcher had a gingerbread house; he hadn't utter a single word since waking up this morning. Turning back at the woman in front of them, Duo frowned at her very short skirt, remembering the very low v-neck shirt she wore that was showing her lacy-bra; '…Weren't we in an all boy school, didn't they have any regulation about how short a skirt should….' He coughed his laughter once; of course there's no school regulation about skirts in an all boy school, baka..!! -even though there's a potential of bating some harassment, but no one wears….-- He thought to himself and his left foot almost tripped over his right.
The acidic woman stopped and turned sharply at him; "Mr. Maxwell, do you have something to say?" she said squinting through her cat-eye glasses.
Duo easily gave her his good natured smile and answered a polite reply, "No, Ma'am..!"
And the woman actually snorted before she resumed her walk. 'What was that? Did you actually want that kind of attention working in such a place,….Ma'am..?!' Duo thought while looking utterly innocent on the outside. At the same time they turned on a junction and his younger brother brushed his side a little too roughly and 'accidentally' stepped on his right foot; he knew he'd meant it so he snapped his face at his younger brother but he had impassively slowed his steps again so he'd be one step behind him. Duo gave him an acid stare passed his right shoulder.
They reached the Headmaster's office and the woman reported their arrival, after she introduced him their names she gave the old man a curt nod, and with that she dismissed herself from their companies. The Headmaster pleased them to sit while he read their files.
"….So you requested to be in a same class?" his white brows lifted up from the cover of his large glasses and made the deep wrinkles on his forehead curved like another pair of lips.
"Yes, Sir..!" Duo answered with a nod.
"You're 15 this year, right, Mr. Maxwell; and your younger brother would turn 12..?" he left it hanging.
"Yes, Sir; but we're always together ever since…-" his violet eyes glanced at his stoic brother and found a dark glint in his eyes, "…-we were a lot younger. So could you please allow him to jump classes..?"
The Headmaster chewed on his pipe and gave them a penetrating stare in turn with the files in his hand and on the desk. "I see that you only had homeschool before you appointed yourselves to this school…!"
He took his ivory pipe from his mouth and put the paper from his hand covering the other on his desk, and leaned back on his tall-backed chair; "The way I see it, Mr. Maxwell, that your brother could enter your class easier than you do..!!" the old man said with a poker face.
"Ah, I know that my brother is a lot smarter than myself..!" Duo answered with a stiff grin.
The Headmaster gave a generic nod and bit his pipe again, picking up the files on his desk and put them on the side. "You already read the rule books you received with the uniforms…?"
"Yes, Sir..!"
"Then you are welcomed in this school. Room 113, Mr. Maxwell..!" the old man dismissed them briskly. Duo only blinked; it took him a full 5 seconds to realize that it was their classroom number and not something like a hotel's; a lot of traveling did that to someone.
"Oh, okay…I mean, yessir, Mr. Chromehart. Thankyou..!" he sprang to his feet with a little flush on his face, realizing his thought and its course and the way his body reacted.
"The more the merrier….!" He heard the old man muttered the words between his pipe when he closed the door, but he brushed it off of his mind since he had to erase some graphic imagination concerning about a hotel room and a certain someone wearing the school's uniform that used a black velvet ribbon as a tie...
A derisive snort; "You left your brain on your pillow..?!" a grumbling low voice asked cynically behind him.
Duo leered to himself, drooping his eyelids as a dark shadow colored his violet orbs; he turned sharply and not waiting his younger brother's body to bump on his, since they were walking, he pushed his smaller body to the wall using his chest and trapped him there with his hands. "What, you want me to think with my other head right now..?! You didn't get enough last night?!" he whispered throatily; satisfied when there was a flash of something sharp in his brother's eyes. He chuckled to himself, noting his brother's impassive mask didn't falter, but something in his brother's cold eyes enchanted him as always; and he dropped his leering face matching the impassive face under his.
"Leave everything to me..! Alright?" he asked with an authoritative whisper while his thumb stroked his brother's face, tracing his jaw line.
His brother didn't say anything, slapped the hand touching his face down and stood passively again as if challenging more contempt. Duo smirked, "Right…! Good boy!" he slowly licked the thinned lips once and turned his way again not waiting a respond from his younger brother, knowing he'd be by his tail.
Duo frowned and turned the map of the school in his hand around for the third time; if not for his brother's impeccable sense of direction they'd have taken a couple of wrong turns already. He sighed and closed the school's pocket book and stuffed it into his jacket pocket, and gestured his brother to lead their way. When they reached the destined class, the teacher already opened the door for them as she saw them coming from the corridor opposite the whiteboard from the windows.
"You are late; it's 4 minutes to 11.00 now. This school starts at 7.00, Gentlemen..!" the Japanese-doll looking woman said as they entered.
"We're sorry, Ma'am; we arrived late last night and we had a few mishaps with the boxes while we unpacked, and we got lost in the way to school..!" Duo said genuinely feeling sorry, that wasn't a lie. The city's roads were like maze to outsiders, the citizens were already adapted; but tourists sometimes got lost and would eventually give the carriage-taxi drivers their share of income. Duo still wasn't old enough to get his driver license, so he didn't mind it at first at the city's limitation to motor vehicles, and he was too prideful to give in and take the public transport to get them to a school which everyone could see between the buildings tops (since it was obvious that they were wearing that school's uniform; but wandering around in the streets that always ended up in a dead end actually proved to everyone of them being lost, wouldn't it?).
"Very well, since this is your first day, I will give you one exception and not put it in your records. But the school's regulations are strict, Gentlemen, three absents and you will have to repeat the class; three late records and you will have penalty depending to the teacher's consideration; please remember that..!" she spoke fast and turned to the class.
"Gentlemen, I would like you to welcome Mr. Duo Maxwell and Mr. Heero Yuy-Maxwell. You may take any seat you like..!" she said dismissing them. Duo blinked at her swiftness, were all Japanese act that efficient..? His mind jested. He nodded to the class in general, noticing that there were only 15-20 students in a 30-seats class; it showed how difficult it was to enter that school (in grades and in funds). He thought that he was quite a bright above-average student before he took the school test and passed with only adequate grades while his brother passed with flying colors. …like always! (he suspected that they let him in because Heero didn't want to enter the school and claimed his scholarship if he's not included). Full scholarship and jumping classes and sociopathic behavior; wouldn't that make him an absolutely bully target..?
Heero didn't mind all eyes stared at him, and still looking at his imaginary spot he took a seat at the back where he could easily slip away from the classroom by the back-door; but it seemed that he didn't really want to show it, so he picked the second row from the said door. Duo, knowing his mind, took the next seat to him separating him and the others in class; he's always acted like his shield, anyway.
The one hour spent in class to the lunch break at 12 o'clock didn't felt that long; Duo was busy taking notes of every student in his head while his ears listened to the teacher's lesson. The World History didn't impress him that much, a little part of his mind already knew every little detail that even the greatest teachers wouldn't know, but the way the Japanese-doll looking teacher elaborated her material with her distinctive voice drew him in it; she seemed to know what he was thinking when their eyes met several times, but she didn't admonish him. Perhaps since she saw that Heero as well didn't take notes by his side, he was still staring at his imaginary spot somewhere on his desk.
The bell on the tower rang for six times, it's the signal marking lunch time. Duo lifted his brows at the old sound reverberating in the whole school; he saw the large bell on the church's tower when they arrived in the school territory but didn't think that they'd use it as the actual signaling device. The teacher summed up her lesson and gave them reading tasks for her next class, and she greeted the class before leaving. The students put their books away and headed to the dining hall; somehow they only exchanged very few words between themselves, Duo noted; there was still no one greet them or ask them questions, he imagined that they'd be showered with swarming flocks asking them questions and such; or may be he read too much manga..? May be this school students were not that social….
They were on their way to the dining hall when the Secretary called Duo in the corridor; Heero stared her arrogant attitude with impassive eyes, Duo felt a little uneasy that Heero would even spare a glance at her (perhaps it was her very low v-neck showing her lacy-bra, or her very short skirt; or both…or her condescending stare at his younger brother) so he told Heero to go to the dining hall by himself and wait him there. "Don't go intimate with anyone I don't know..!" he said pass his shoulder as an afterthought; and of course that meant everyone since they had never been in schools before so the chance for them meeting anyone they knew there close to impossible. Heero was still staring impassively at his leaving back, he waited until they disappeared in a junction and then he proceeded to the dining hall.
The extravagance of the very tall ceiling of the hall didn't impress him, he could ignore the superfluous details of the ceiling paintings and the wall and columns ornaments as well, it was enough if he could trace exits and escape routes with his eyes. It was Thursday so the students had to take their lunch in lines; Friday they had Mass after lunch, so the whole teachers and the Headmaster joined with them, thus they would already have their meals on the tables; while on Saturday they had the whole day for club activities. On Sunday they only had to attend to morning Mass, the school's church was big enough to act as the city's church as well so that meant they would be attending morning Mass in this church anyway even though he didn't pass the school's entrance tests, he thought; annoyed by the church choir's hymns that was beginning to make his eardrums ringing while he was in the food line.
There went his appetite, he thought as he put the tray on the table and stared at the food as if it was leering at him. He waited for almost 30 minutes and Duo still didn't show up; there were already some bad scenarios played in his paranoid mind about what exactly made him summoned by the Secretary, but the only solution he kept sum up to them was that he would keep insisted that Duo stay by his side.
A couple of food trays were put on the table in front and next to his ignored tray, Heero trailed his eyes up in front of him without moving a single muscle of his other body parts, it brought a deep chuckle from the one he was staring. "You're new, right? I've never seen you before…!" a big student took the seat in front of him while his smaller friend took the one by his side, like cornering him; the one in front of him was not that big to look like a jock, just average 17-year olds or so, but to his 12-year old body both of them were certainly bigger.
Heero had deliberately picked a corner table that was separated from the lining long tables at the center of the hall so that he wouldn't have to brush with the other students; but seeing that the corner tables were set for at least 5-6 seats per table he realized that some jocks and their gangs would have already booked them for their own party, and he regretted that he didn't think about that sooner. It's not because he was afraid of them, it's just because he got so lazy for dealing with people; he flicked his eyes to the hall entrance where he got in previously, hoping that Duo enter the double doors soon, like now.
The big student seemed to interpret his action wrong for he laughed with an unpleasant grunting noise at the ends; "What? Missing your date, Honey..?!"
Heero suppressed the urge to roll his eyes at his miserable attempt to intimidate him (Duo did say not to get intimate, would that mean to intimidate other is alright..? He was beginning to think something he could do with his fork and dining knife…). The big boy's silver-cross cameo fastened on his collar had a red shield-form pin base; that meant he was in the athletic division with not much necessity of using his brain; while his smaller friend's pin had a green shield, meaning he's using halve of his brain.
"Woohooo..! Silver pin..!! Hey, he's an elite brain-stuff, Bard..!" Just as he thought about pins, Heero thought; the smaller student called Bard only spared a glance at his collar while he munched on his lunch, and stuffed more food into his mouth ignoring him.
"Hey, silver shield with gold rim; he's a full scholar, Bard..!!" the big boy leaned above him from across the table and looked closely at Heero's collar, his hand was almost pulling at it. Heero minded the approach and pulled his body back a little, the boy opposite him seemed to catch his action as an insult for he put on a menacing scowl on his face.
"Ah, there you are; I've been searching for you…!" a light happy voice cut the big boy's words before he voiced them; he flicked his eyes at the intruder angrily and his face immediately turned to a neutral mask once his eyes fell on the intruder's smiling face.
"Winner..!" he stated than greeted.
"Good day, Gridstein. Hello, Baldric..!" the smiling intruder greeted the boy and his smaller friend in turn. Heero thought in a flash hearing the name; Bard was from Baldric…right, no one would want to be called Bald even for a shortened.
Bard blew a breath, "I'm done..!" he said putting his tableware back into the tray. "Hello, you too, Quatre..!" he said standing from his seat and nodded at his tray, not to the person he greeted. "Are you finished, Reed?" he asked while he walked away from them; his big friend only stared at his still untouched food and his leaving friend with a scowl, thinking how fast his smaller friend could eat. "Wait..!!" he brought his tray along catching up to his walking friend who didn't even bother to look back nor slowing his steps.
"That was Reed Gridstein, the top at Gymnastic of the club; he's usually too open with his approach so sometimes people found him rude, but he's quite tame once you know him or he knows you. The other was Baldric Feuer, the nephew of the German teacher, Herr Feuer. He's bored to the bone living in the dorms all his life, so he never really tried hard with his lessons."
Heero glanced at the smiling boy who took a seat next to him by the wall, the light from the window made a halo around his blond head; the silver cross of his pin glinted like a little sun.
"I'm Quatre Raberba Winner, the dorms' attendant; this is my roommate Trowa Barton. Nice to meet you…!" the smiling boy offered him his hand but Heero ignored him and stared back at his imaginary spot somewhere on top of his already cold soup with soggy French bread. The boy's tall friend took a seat in front of his smiling friend after he introduced him his name, and he ate in silence.
Quatre chuckled to himself, "I know you don't apply for the dorms, but at least you should find someone to give you the tour around school. People do get lost in this school, you know..?" The smiling boy seemingly didn't take his ignorance as something impolite; he ate his lunch still with his shining air with relaxed graciousness. They ate in silence for about 15 minutes; then Trowa took out a pocket book from his jacket and read, Quatre took out a notebook and sketched something he saw from the window on it. They didn't try to chat with him so Heero didn't mind their companies, as long as they didn't mind him ignoring them.
Quite a number of curious students passed him and pointing at him, whispering with each other; but no one approached him when they saw the two 'busy' boys sitting with him. He could ignore them all the same. But his eyes couldn't help but notice the boys' pins on their collars; Quatre had a silver one with gold rim, the same with his, while Trowa had a silver shield with black rim; what ever that meant. Silver-Cross University was not using the same curriculum with other schools, or private schools for that matter; being a university in a tourism city didn't mean that they gave the students a slack in their lessons, thus they made the pin-grades to avoid social gap (seeing that mostly very rich parents could pay the school tuition for their children here; parents that once took a vacation in the city and got a tour in the school-estate as well or the church, and thought it'd be awesome for their children to submit to such a beautiful old school and had the whole city for vacation at same time); but as every system had its own flaws, this school apparently had something called pin-gap. He remembered Duo fussed about the yellow pin he got in the uniform box waiting for him in his room; being in the lowest brain level annoyed him more than necessary.
The bell rang for three times on the tower; Quatre turned his face at Heero still with shining smile, "That's three minutes before lunch break's over. Are you still waiting…?"
Heero didn't answer him; he was just stubbornly staring at the unlikely soup now rather than at his now unimaginable imaginary spot on top of it. Duo said to wait for him there, so that's what he's going to do. Quatre stood up with his tray, followed by Trowa; Heero didn't even glance at them leaving, he was too busy ignoring his paranoid mind going static that even the choir's hymns didn't enter his ears.
The bell sounded six times, students rushed out from the hall and they didn't mind him still sitting on his table with the untouched food; Heero gritted his teeth, he didn't mind being left behind by others he didn't even care to know, but his mind kept telling him that Duo more likely would have been in his way to their next class knowing that the lunch break was already over. He didn't want to be left behind by Duo.
A small hand pulled his arm to get him up; "Let's go! I've checked that we have the same class next; Mr. Copper is very strict with timing, he'd even sort to physical punishment, you know..!" Quatre said fast, while Trowa took his tray and dumped it unceremoniously in a corner trashcan near them.
"Let's go, Heero..!" Quatre pulled his arm with a strength not matching his small lithe figure and angelic face. Heero was a little stunned at hearing his name came out from the small blond that he let himself got pulled to the hall doors with Trowa close behind them as if herding him or not letting him escape.
He was surprised when he met a pair of glinting Duo's eyes as he was standing by the doors waiting the rushing line of students to pass by; his violets darkened at the sight of a blond stranger pulling him around and calling him by his name. They were the last ones in the line so if he could escape them Heero thought it still wouldn't escape Duo's eyes, seeing that he had already seen them anyway. Heero let out a minuscule sigh and pulled his arm from Quatre's hand and walked to Duo.
There was bright realization in his blue eyes seeing Duo smiling at him and his tall friend, and he smiled in relieved. "Room 99, on the third floor, east wing..!" Quatre told them neutrally with a smile while passing them.
"Thank you..!" Duo waved at him flashing his brightest smile in return; when they disappeared in a junction Duo snapped his head at Heero with a livid stare, Heero didn't stare back, he felt it was enough that he found his imaginary spot in front of his feet back.
Duo gripped his upper arm and pulled him roughly to the said east wing; once they reached the third floor he searched for an open door to the terrace, and found a secluded corner outside. Heero already readied himself for a lashing.
"I told you to wait in the hall..!" Duo's face contorted in a wild grimace.
"I did…"
"Didn't I tell you not to get intimate with anyone..?!"
As if what Quatre did to him could be called getting intimate; "I didn't..--" he heard the loud slap sound and it broke the ringing in his ears from the choir's hymns. A rustling of paper hidden in the unbelievably tall weeping willow caught his eyes as his face was turned facing it, the drooping branches swayed in the winds and he could see a uniform jacket hung on the woody branch, then a student lounging on the tree who apparently was sleeping in the cover of the drooping branches and leaves; he was using a book to cover his sleeping face and it seemed Duo's voice had woken him.
Duo's hand brought his face back at him before he could see the other student's face as he was lifting the book from his face.
He pulled his mind to the person before him; Duo was scowling darkly but he was stroking his heated cheek with his thumb. "I told you to leave everything to me, don't even talk with anyone without my permission..!" he said a little apologetically then crushed their lips together roughly as if getting his missed lunch. His younger brother opened his mouth to voice something but Duo didn't let him complain, he deepened the rough kiss using his hands to press his smaller body to his. Heero clung to his back as he was forced to stand on his toes, knowing Duo wouldn't stop if he didn't kiss back.
Duo let him down after a minute passed, "You got it…?!" and he still had his possessive glints in his eyes even though his dark scowl got tamer. Heero nodded once without even a word out; he noticed that Duo's pin of yellow shield was exchanged with a silver one with black rim, like Trowa's, but he didn't ask about it. Duo pulled him along to find the class and Heero turned his head behind to see the boy's face on the willow tree; he was a Chinese about Duo's age who was lifting one of his brows at the scene played on the terrace, a curious eye stared at him from under the book. Heero stared him for a second and turned to his front again at Duo's back.
Mr. Copper was, opposite to Duo's imagination of old orthodox teacher with a clock in his hand waiting the bell to finish ringing in the class to catch students who were late even for a second, still look young enough to be freshly graduated from the teacher university. They were late for about 5 minutes and Duo had prepared to get reprimanded, but evidently the strict Mr. Copper was testing their dynamics since they were quite the known absurd pair by the teachers, it seemed. He interrogated them in front of the class, like his usual drill, and seemed to press his questions on Heero; perhaps he was really demanding a response from his shut off brother, either because of him being a scholar or his ignorance to all people. Duo answered his questions in his good natured way, he could smoothen even the hardest of people to let them slip away.
As Mr. Copper finally told them to take their seats, Duo walked ahead leading their way as always; he saw the blond boy who was with Heero in the dining hall entrance before, they stared at each other and there was a minute grimace on the blond boy's face right before Duo heard a loud slap behind him. "You could at least acknowledge others who are older than yourself just for polite's sakes, couldn't you, Mr. Yuy-Maxwell..?" he heard the cold admonition. Duo turned around and he saw Heero's cheek turned redder; it was the cheek he'd slapped before.
There was something about Heero that attracts others, that made them didn't want to be ignored by him; sometimes people even sort to physical ways to get his attention. That's why Duo's overly possessive behavior wasn't an exaggeration, in a wider perspective concerning the whole other people and the rest of the world; sometimes he himself got to physical ways just to make sure Heero really saw him and not his imaginary spot floating somewhere in front of his face when they talked. But the right to get physical with Heero was his alone, his mind stated.
"I apologize, Mr. Copper, he's much too shy to open up to his surroundings…!" Duo rushed in between the frowning teacher and his unresponsive younger brother who stopped in his track of following him. But didn't he just say it that even the teachers were just part of the surroundings and not of people...? Quatre's brows shot up in amazement; but the wonderment on his face immediately turned to a neutral mask as he saw Duo without any slightest doubt grabbed the teacher's tie and pulled his body down to kick his midsection with his knee in one fluid motion; despite his smiling angelic face which indeed seemed a little too bright.
There was a cumulative gasp from the class, but other than that the other students were mostly stunned with wide eyes, he didn't pay any attention at them. "So I would very appreciate it if you would just settle everything with me and leave him alone, Sir; he usually doesn't bother anyone, but I do..!" Duo grinned pleasantly.
"If you touch even a single hair on his head or brush his clothes when you pass by, or so happen to step on his shadow somewhere within my sight, I'll gladly rip your limb off one or two…!" Duo said with a mannerly merry tone to the doubled over teacher who coughed up rapidly.
"Go ahead, Heero, I'm going to the Headmaster's office to report myself..!" he said with full smiling face shooing his brother with his hand. Heero didn't spare a glance at them, and the whole class, and just did as he was told to find himself a seat. "…umm.. Go to the Headmaster's office, right? I usually went to the police station to report myself…!" he asked Mr. Copper just as an afterthought; the young teacher tried to straighten his body staring him with flaming eyes. Duo took it as a confirmation and excused himself politely. "Well, then, if you'd please excuse me, Mr. Copper, sir..!" he nodded satisfactorily and turned to the door.
"Just take your seat and I'll deal with you after school…!!!" Mr. Copper almost yelled lividly; underlined that it was a very orthodox school, no one yelled here.
Duo turned back slowly with wide innocently surprised eyes; "…You could do that..?"
Mr. Copper seemed to get caught by his unexpected expression.
"Like…take me in custody for a day with only one call…?" Quatre almost blew up his laughter at Duo's 'naive' question; he was used to spend a night in the police station, alright.
Mr. Copper rolled his eyes, it was unlikely before that but the students proved it to be wrong; "If you so eager to spend the night in custody then we'll lock you up in the reflection chamber, and we'll call your home for you..!"
"Really? Thank you..!" Duo smiled. He paused with a thoughtful face then, "…..you didn't put that kind of chamber in the school map..!" he half accused.
"Just take your seat, PLEASE..!!" Mr. Copper gritted through his neat line of white teeth, Duo couldn't help but notice them.
"Okay..! I mean; yessir, Mr. Copper, sir…!!" he hurried to sit next to Heero, put his books on the desk and arranged his body to sit straight like the rest of the students.
Just as Mr. Copper finished writing his material title, Duo whispered not so quietly to Heero; "Right..? I told you they have that kind of cell in this kind of place..! So where do you think it is, dungeon or roof; c'mon make a bet…!!" The class sweatdropped together, Quatre chuckled silently to his textbook; Mr. Copper made a very long line of a dot on the whiteboard with his marker pen.
"Missterrrrrr Maxwellllll…!! Page 19, pleasssse..?!!" if it were a chalk in his hand it would have been crushed to powder by now.
"Yessir, Mr. Copper..!!" Duo instantly opened his up side down textbook on his desk. By then Mr. Copper's face suddenly turned to a serious mask; "Mr. Chang, how nice of you to grace us with your presence..!" his voice was back to his cold stinging tone. Duo turned his head and found another student uncaringly entered the class back-door with a haughty air around him, he was wearing his jacket tied around his hips and let the couple top buttons of his shirt undone; he noted that the black velvet ribbon was used to tie his thin ponytail at his nape.
"Just came here to watch a scene..!" he said uncaringly with a shrug; "Don't get so riled up, Mr. Copper, that wouldn't work on me, either way. Please continue your job…!" the Chinese boy pulled a chair at the back and sat, Duo noted that the other students ignored the exchange; he glanced at the boy sitting two rows at left side from him and found a penetrating stare of a pair of raven black eyes bore on him. He blinked and stared back to his still up side down textbook, then to the whiteboard.
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"Aunt Leon, we're hooomme…!!" Duo called out while opening the door. There was a 5 minutes pause before Aunt Leonore came out from her basement studio.
"You're late..! Hungry?"
"Yes, please..!!" Duo grinned like a Chassire cat while hanging his coat on the hanger standing near the door, then helped his younger brother to take his coat off and changed into the indoor slippers he took out from the closet. They took the wing door for daily use; the main doors were too lavishly nice and made them think they were not in the same world with the one they used to live in before coming to that city.
"Your Headmaster called..!" she said between her chewed pencil while walking to the kitchen, noticing the boys followed her like a line of ducklings from the reflection on the glass of antique clocks and armoires lining the hall. She chuckled to herself at the image. "….again, Duo? It's still first day at school!"
"I won't do it again..!"
"..'Cross your heart and hope to die'..?" Aunt Leon rolled her eyes.
"No. I don't think I would do it again since tomorrow the whole school would find out about me and Heero; that's what notorious teachers are good for, anyway..!" Duo said it with easy tone.
". . . . . . . . for making your warning clear to everyone; I see….!" She replied with a dry tone.
"Yes, you got the point…!" Duo grinned merrily.
"Duo, I couldn't always pull my strings to help you slip away for your misconduct behavior every time you decided to make your point clear..!!" Aunt Leon splat the meshed potato on Duo's plate not so politely.
"Sorry, Aunt Leon..!" Duo said humbly, and his stomach let out the loudest grumbling sound she'd ever heard; he might said it that he was sorry-but-right-now-I'm-too-hungry-to-reflect-on-my-deeds for all she knew. She knew he'd skipped lunch and for getting home after dark with only a little amount of breakfast this morning it was a miracle he didn't jump on every food stand they came across in the way from school.
Aunt Leonore let out a heavy sigh; "….well, I guess you already had an earful of warning yourself. It didn't work the last times I checked, so I'll just let fate decide what will happen to you next time..!!"
"Hehhe..!!" Duo responded with a grin full of meshed potato; Aunt Leon slapped her forehead at that, she was too young to be an authoritative aunty and acted more like an older friend most of the time. But even though she was a very distant-cousin of Duo's mother, their faces looked very much alike; on fast glance people would think that they were twins, so Duo actually listened to her. When he was smaller, some of his neighborhood friends would innocently ask something like 'I thought you said your mother was dead', and that's what drove him away from other people at first, taking refuge in Heero's impassiveness and becoming obsessed over it, over him. It had piled up for over 8 years now that it was too late for grown ups to take care of his obsession over his younger brother, he would see it as disturbance instead and act violently against their meddling now. They were ping-ponged to live with many relatives here and there before they decided to apply for an actual school; Aunt Leonore was too happy to take them in after she finished taking her master diploma.
"Take a shower after you finish, then start unpack again for the things necessary for tomorrow. The rest of the boxes could be taken care of in Sunday after the morning Mass…! And don't accidently put your box of clothes on fire like this morning!!" Aunt Leonore pointed her forefinger at Duo's face.
"Yes, Ma'am..!" Duo mimicked a salute pose; she was the curator of the city's museum and usually had home-works she brought from the museum to her studio. "And don't sleep too late, school started at 7.00..!" she got out of the kitchen, but not even 5 seconds later she stuck her head from the door again. "G'night, boys..!"
"Niiight..!" Duo waved at her with a grin. Heero gave her a slow deep nod; that actually made a pleasant smile bloom on her face before she disappeared to the basement.
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He couldn't breathe, it's not because of the smoke; even though the fire made a very dark shadow silhouetted the small room but the smoke couldn't enter, the darkness didn't let anything enter.
He could hear his father calling out his name in frantic, soon his voice was swallowed by the sound of fire; he trembled in fright, it was cold, the darkness didn't let him answer his father's calls.
He wanted to cry, but the darkness didn't let him cry out.
Just breathe….breathe..! He ordered his body; the shallow mist caught his legs and didn't let him fall and hide. So he kept his head high; as far away as it could from the shallow mist trailing his limbs up.
A pair of dim blue light stared at him from the darkened wall…
…take me……a soft echo entered his head, he tried to shake it in defiance but the darkness didn't let him.
Take me and you'll live…! The echo whispered sweetly; he remembered he could inhale a little, the darkness let him breathe in…he was breathing in the darkness……
RELEASE ME..!!!
Duo bolted half way to sitting up as the scream in his dream sounded like a thunder penetrating his conscious mind, his eyes jerked open to the dark ceiling of his room and feeling like he was falling into reality he was actually falling back onto his bed. It knocked his breath out of his lungs; he gasped desperately for air when he realized the darkness of his room let him breathe. Coughing up his sore throat, Duo turned to his side folding in on himself. He was cold, his sweat had dampened the bed and the night air cooled it. He realized his braid was undone, perhaps because he was tossing and turning violently; searching blindly for his blanket thinking that he'd kicked it to the end of the bed and not finding it there, Duo sat up and his eyes fell to the missing blanket pooled unceremoniously on the floor.
He groaned and threw himself back to the damp bed and pillow; the cold made a shiver ran up his spine, he jolted off the bed and uncaringly made a knot of his hair rather than try to find a hair band to tie it in the dark. Inspecting the lower floor and the door to the basement from the upper landing of the spiraling stairs down for any sign of Aunt Leon, and finding silence; he then tiptoeing into Heero's unlocked door and slipped into the room without needing the permission. Once he was inside, he reflexively locking the door without even thinking it.
Heero had chosen a smaller room with a window ledge protruding out of the roof; the moon beams fell on the bed through the round window frame and plastered a shadow-cross on the blanket, as if confining him there. The sight gave Duo a different shiver as he felt his body's needs stirring to wake as his eyes traced the shape of a body cocooned by the blanket. Heero was facing the wall and his back presented to Duo as if already offering himself.
Duo swallowed his watery mouth and licked his lips wet. Without needing permission he climbed into the bed and his hand pulled Heero's pants down under the blanket while he rested his body alongside his smaller back.
"Couldn't sleep…?" the subdued whisper made Duo groaned and attack his brother's jaw line with his mouth.
"You weren't hungry last night..!" Duo accused, his left hand circled on Heero's body to his front and slipped under his T-shirt to tease his nipples, while his right hand busied itself teasing his opening.
Heero's body shook a little with what Duo's demanding hands did but he kept his face impassive; "….it's not my fault that you have nightmares..! --!!" he arched his back stiffly a little by the pain when Duo pushed two fingers in roughly as a punishment to his uncaring words.
"You were suppose to eat all my nightmares before I sleep, were you not..?!" he asked huskily, licking the stiff nape feeling every little shudder traveling the small body. "Hmmm…" Duo hummed savoring the taste of his brother's light sweat and the shiver on the taught back that his tongue had made, "Don't make a sound; you don't want Aunt Leon to see this side of you, right..?"
Heero made a wheezing sound deep in his throat, and Duo's member knew the call when Heero was ready to feed. "…..aa…!" Heero's vulnerable little voice drove Duo's mind away and he acted on lusty instinct after that; bolted to his knees he threw the blanket to the bed post, pulled Heero's left leg up roughly spreading him on his back.
Then without cue he pushed himself into Heero in one deep thrust, letting his body fell onto his chest as he crushed his small body and arms in a dead hug. Heero arched his back as the searing pain attacked him without notice; his neck bent backwards burrowing his head into the pillow, his mouth opened wide in a mute scream. Duo held him tightly as his small body shook and jerked in light seizure, when the broken shaking stopped Duo could feel rather than see that his fangs were out; he only had halve a second to gasp in some air before Heero's head snapped forward and planted his wet fangs in his neck. He widened his eyes as their bodies dropped to the bed; and biting the pillow he suppressed his scream as he came heavily when he felt Heero sucked his blood in greedy gulps, filling Heero's cool channel with his hot seed just like Heero filling his own throat with his hot blood.
He didn't remember how long he lost himself in the twisted ecstasy as his head gotten lighter and his vision turned darker with blotchy blue speckles popping up in static image; he came to in Heero's embrace with his small hand stroking the back of his head like petting a cat. He lied there like a boneless sweaty heap in silence, and when he tried to move about 20 minutes later he realized he was still inside of Heero; and still hard.
Duo groaned as a new hot wave stirred inside him by that little movement; he propped his upper body with his elbows and licked the trace of red congealing liquid from around Heero's mouth under him. "You're not in the mood again tonight..!" he breathed as he rocked his hips a little feeling Heero's placid member pressed under his lower abdomen. He didn't wait for an answer for it wasn't a question; instead he kissed Heero's slack mouth open and suckling it clean until he couldn't discern the tangy taste of his own blood inside, after that he took the time to neck him slow and gently.
"The church choir gave you that much of headache today..?" he mumbled to his damp cool skin. Heero's answer was his steady stroke still on his disheveled brunette head, while his eyes tracing an imaginary spot that was floating somewhere under the low sloping ceiling of the roof.
"Why did you even consider submitting yourself to a Catholic School was beyond me…! More over it was the one that uses silver-crosses as uniform accessories!" Duo rolled his eyes; "They're very generous with silverware, you know; did you notice the chandeliers and tableware were all made of silver..?!"
He snorted; "Right, how could you not notice it…!" he corrected himself. Their conversation was usually one sided with only Duo's words like that, but Duo could feel Heero's mind like another brain in the back of his mind, even more when he'd fed on him like just now; it's just that he needed to hear them in words sometimes, wanting to be in the same plane with the rest of the world. "Look, I know you're different from those blood-sucking low-life-substances; but I'm worried about their weaponry, Heero…!"
Heero's eyes stared at him in impassive question; Duo scowled, "You don't think they stocking that much of silverware just for prestige, right..?!" his violet eyes flicked to the school uniform hung neatly on the wall, the silver-crosses glinted as if staring back in the dark. There were a couple of crosses fastened on each cuff, one on the cameo pin, and a bigger and neatly engrafted cross on the rosary; a total six crosses for each student per uniform, remembering that they were given more than one suit meant every student had more than six crosses with them. With the shape of the ends of the cross bars pointed like a stylized small sword; those were undoubtedly weapons, right..?! A chandelier was big enough to be used as a killing weapon to normal humans just by using it as a club to the head, or a stab through the neck; not necessarily through the heart of a vampire.
"They are small..!" Heero said as a passing, referring to the crosses on the uniform; Duo was quite agitated when he found out about the cross accessories on the uniform that morning; of which material Heero never really cared, anyway. Heero didn't get that much bothered by silver, but Duo seemed to see them as a meddling. They got quite a spat over it, hidden from Aunt Leon's knowledge, of course; and Duo turned to his dark side the whole day because of that. But wouldn't wearing a crossless jacket or pin make them stand out more? As if confessing outright about what their natures were…right?
"Well, they have bigger ones in school..!!" Duo said with loud voice to press his importance of it, and Heero reflexively covered his mouth with his, before Duo decided that his sound-filter already turned off and started yelling his arguments and woke up the whole block (that happened more than once before, of which ended with them got kicked out from the resident and passed to another relative that even Duo didn't know of). After that Duo took the kiss as another way of quarreling and used his mouth to conquer Heero's ignorance, but the result was always turned out that he was the one who got himself conquered by his own needs; it showed their levels in their mutual-benefit based relationship, that he's lower than Heero.
Duo closed his eyes, fighting his surging lust down; something wasn't right with that school and he wanted Heero to admit it as well, then he could try and talk him out to cancel their submission. Pulling away from their heated wet kiss, Duo said with flushed face; "I know you think you're that almighty, Heero, but you're still not fully awaken yet..!!"
When Duo opened his eyes after that reasoning he found himself a pair of shining inhuman prussian eyes staring him with an evilly smirking immaculate face; "Really…?"
The husky whisper reverberated with power and hunger blew Duo's hot face to beet red at hearing it; his lower body felt Heero's fully awakened member pressing up. "..aaagh..!" Duo yelped as Heero turned their position, gripping his wrists at either sides of his head while he bent his smaller body crouching above him, and suddenly pulled himself off of Duo's member that was still inside him before; a victorious light shone in his beastly irises as his pupils turned to fiery vertical slits.
Duo made a sound of pain through his gritted teeth, his thighs pressed stiffly together as his hips made a few slow thrusts up in his effort to refrain himself; just seeing Heero's hungry eyes and his long fangs between his smirking lips from his submissive eye-level like that could make him come at once, but sometimes he held his dignity more than necessary. He let out a mewling sound as Heero licked a tear trailing from his closed eyes.
"….you know I don't like taking too much from you..!" he muttered to Duo's ear, then proceeded to slowly lick the fang-wounds on his neck as if apologizing. Duo snapped his head to the side exposing his bitten neck more and made a strangled grunt and bit the pillow hardly as his hips jerked up once.
Heero blinked at his face, looking down at the narrow space between their bodies as he felt a hot liquid spurted to his abdomen. He smiled tenderly looking like an angel for a moment and bent down to Duo's ear; "Shinigami…, my slut..!!" he whispered with a devilish leer slowly.
Duo's chest jerked up as his body wrecked with spasms, and suddenly he flipped their position back and crouched down even with body still had the aftereffect of the spasms; "You called…., my cursed angel..?!" he whispered with the matching devilish leer and opened his eyes showing his black-hollow of irises filling his entire eye sockets leaving two red shining small-rounds as his pupils in the center.
"…'Seemed like you were holding yourself since yesterday..!" Heero said in a very low voice, "Such modesty doesn't apply to you….!" He smirked as he was actually feeling happy; hit Duo's forehead with his, he flipped their positioned again, sitting on Duo's stomach with left hand gripping his right wrist on the pillow and the other one on his neck keeping him down.
"May be I should just quit this boring game and kick your ass back to hell…!!"
Duo chuckled gleefully, his red shining pupils turned to vertical slits; "I could have something more than my own ass in hell..!" his free hand hit Heero's side of head and using his feet around his neck to pull him onto his back behind, Duo easily topped his smaller body; gripped Heero's right hand together with his left still at his own neck with his left hand, Duo kept Heero's body down with his right palm on his chest at the bottom of the cross-shaped shadow casted on his body and head. He let out his darkness and made the cross-shaped shadow blackened, like a seal.
Heero widened his eyes, tried to gasp like a fish out of water; his fingers digging at Duo's neck slackened and as he lost his physical strength Duo let his hands fell unceremoniously down not long after. He then used his left hand to stroke Heero's cheeks and head gently, seeing that his wild eyes had turned serene and his face slackened to his impassive mask again.
"My deserted angel…! The Cross hates you still…." He whispered breathily, conveying his heart with every stroke of his hand. Heero's eyelids drooped then slowly closed; his face looked like he was desperately swallowing back a tear. Duo let out a small moan at that expression, he bent down and kissed all over his face gently.
"I'm here….I won't leave you….!" He whispered huskily, using both hands to embrace Heero's slack body and presenting him his already healed neck.
Heero opened his eyes a little, knowing that Duo used his own body to cover him from the cross-shaped shadow of the window sills. He let out a pained breath slowly, kissed Duo's neck several times and planted his fangs to feed some more. Their bonding ritual usually violent, even bloody sometimes; a little part of them tried to fight themselves but eventually they had to yield to their own needs, leaving them sated but frustrated afterwards. And Duo knew he'd turned himself to a possessive abuser with more passing time, but it was just what things turned out to be; he wouldn't let Heero go.
Duo tightened his embrace and rolled to the side, away from the shadow of the window sills, taking Heero along making him sprawled on top of himself; and while he let Heero feed on him he let Heero claimed his body as well.
And somewhere in the process he was drowned in a dark realm where no nightmare could reach him….
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Saru didn't mean to start another series, but waiting the editor's approval to start another comics was too long; so saru vent out some stress writing this…..please tell saru what you think so saru could decide to continue this or stop (once the approval came saru would be too busy with drawing, BTW). Pleasssse…???
For everyone who noticed that saru never play-around to visit other's writings; saru didn't mean to be cooked up in saru's own shell (saru used to read lots of lots of fics before joining FF), it's just that saru got easily affected by other materials (be it books or fics or comics or films that saru used to get lost in saru's head with the plotting/story….hey if anyone noticed, saru watched the –nth-times of re-run of 'Children of the Corn 3' n said to Sister-Snake that "…it's so BL-formated!!" while it wasn't the last time saru watched it –that time perhaps saru haven't gotten this much formated- haahahahaa)
Thanx for reading