Warnings:
- AU, Yaoi, SLASH, NC-17, alternating POVs;
- Mainly a romance, drama with lots of angst and some action;
- Time: some fictional medieval age, nearly the 10th century (without technology nor gundams);
- Place: Earth with fictional context (not really caring about the real History);
- Supernatural contents (demons, angels and dragons).
- Some magic like seals, curses and spells (the 'Crimson Spell' kind, nothing like 'Harry Potter' things);
- Main Pairing: 1x2x1, 13x5;
- Background pairing: 4x3x4, Solox2, 6+2, 9+6, H+2, R+1, S+5 and maybe more…
- Theme song: Demons by Imagine Dragons. (I used the cover version, by Boyce Avenue, to alternate the POV's);
- Very important: English is not my mother language and mine is just rubbish (sorry about that!)
Cylina Nightshade kindly offered to be my beta, so maybe it was not that bad (after the two first chapters).
SFA started to help me as a sound boarding and also with the language in chapter eight, so it should be even better there.
Comments (of any kind) will be very welcome and helpful to me, I will be very glad if you are willing to share and leave your impressions (even the bad ones).
- I don't own Gundam Wing and I don't make any money with this. It's just a work for fans and for fun.
- I have a schedule guide for myself, but the updates will depend mostly on free time and the reader's support (and the mood of my muse, of course…^_^)
Summary:
Being captivated by a strong and devastatingly beautiful demon, that was captured very wounded, was just the start of the changes in Lord Heero Yuy's life. The implications of relating with the creature were as dangerous and revealing about things in the world that he had never before dreamed.
About this story:
Started because a scene - should be in chapter eight - that I wanted to write very much; and this should be a cute one-shot, but I don't know exactly how ended as a twenty-five chapter complex story. I have no control at all over my muse!
It's the first thing I'm writing seriously in English because I wanted to know how the English fandom was, once the Portuguese one died some years ago;
I'm not exactly into the happy ending, but this story was thought to have it since the beginning (for the main characters, at least). So, if you just like happy ending's kind of story, you can be at ease!
Maybe will have some light mention of biblical events and things involving the not traditional viewing of angels, I wanted to treat it very subtle and I have no religious intentions (of any kind). This is just a fictional work and I hope no one will be offended. It's just part of the context, there is nothing religious here.
Hope you enjoy it!
Diana Lua
Where my demons hide
01. Demon
(Heero's POV)
"When the days are cold
And the cards all fold
And the saints we see
Are all made of gold"
I was feeling so damn tired; the sight of the long slushy trail ahead, covered on both sides with dirty snow, made me ask why I still doing this myself. I'm a rich Lord, with lots of possessions. Despite the fact that the security of the people that live in my lands was my responsibility, that was still no reason to do it by my own hands.
But then I remembered the cold gray stones in my castle walls and, also, I remembered that I can't stand staying inside for long. The same way I can't stand staying away for too long.
I wondered if my horse was as tired as myself, when I patted his neck. At least Wing[1] wasn't hurt, just his white coat was dirty with demon's blood.
"Heero, are you ok?"
I just gave a glance to my first commander, Chang Wufei, as he approached on his gray stallion, not understanding his questioning.
"I called you a few times…" he told me in a lowered voice, "I think we should stop and camp here, give the injuries a more thorough check…"
I knew he was referring to my own injuries. Even though I had tried to hide them, Chang was always near me, he probably saw the last big demon that I fought. Compared to him, I felt sloppy, I never could notice his own injuries. He was a very precise warrior.
"I prefer to do it inside the castle walls. Just a couple of hours more..."
He said nothing, but I could feel his determined gaze watching over me, probably trying figure out how bad my injuries were just by the way I was riding.
"It was lucky we were near… this time the attack was different…" I changed the subject to another that bothered me more than the pain in my ribs or the big slash bleeding at my thigh.
"Well, it was a much bigger bunch of demons than we usually see…"
"No, it's not just the amount, this time was different… like a random assault…"
"You mean... like they just got out, without a clue about what to do or what they want…"
The voice came from my other side, from my other commander, Trowa Barton.
He approached with his chestnut horse, making me wonder how he could keep his horse so clean and glossy after those battles; Heavyarms'[2] coat shined in almost an orange light with no traces of black demon's blood. Not just his horse, but he looked like hadn't any wounds at all.
"You felt that too? I think it was… they weren't organized like always…" I turned to Trowa trying to identify if it wasn't just myself with this odd feeling.
"I just had time to notice there were a lot more to kill this time." Chang said. Which didn't surprise me; he hates demons so much that he normally just cares about efficiently killing all the ones who dare cross his path.
"Some village men heard something like thunder just before the demons' horde arrived." Trowa added. Chang and I looked to him trying to see if he believed in those village people or just mentioning some random comments. Knowing him, we already knew he found some kind of truth in that. There are no coincidences in this world.
(...)
An hour and a half later I was very happy with the familiar view of empty fields around my castle. My ribs complained after any small jolt in Wing's stride and my thigh started to ache a lot. I just wanted rest. Instead, the relief of thinking about a hot bath, dinner and sleep in my soft bed didn't last long.
Between the oddness of the main road being empty in the middle of the day, my eyes narrowed after seeing big black marks on the snow descending the hill straight toward the gates.
I rushed Wing in that direction, worried; didn't think about alerting my men. Not that I needed to, between the sounds of the horse's hooves, I heard Chang yell to Trowa follow me at once and shouting orders to others.
I could make out some kind of weird furrows half covered by snow along the road and through the completely open gates. When Trowa and I approached, we could see that something was dragged inside, something big. There were deep scratches on the outside rocks and in the wood on one side of the gate. I doubted that was the fruit of some hunting, even a big bear couldn't offer that kind of resistance. I saw a broken blade and a lot of broken arrows, everything covered with thick demon's blood. That made me shiver thinking of some attack while I and most of my men were out, bringing terrible memories of the last time when something like that happened.
More than quickly we were inside, unhorsed with swords in hand. After all of my concern, everything looked unnervingly calm.
When the stableman took Wing and Heavyarms' reins, I saw his frightened look, watching me bend to take a completely black feather out of one of the furrows in the ground, covered by demons blood. The man shivered making the cross-sign before taking the horses out of the main courtyard.
Trowa was looking closely at the trails leading us to the dungeons. Other than the ground, there were no other signs of violence.
"A demon?" he asked confused, his excellent tracker skills sending conflicting messages "... trapped. A big one, I think."
I was still looking to the black feather curious and already walking to the dungeon's entrance. I handed that feather to him and he look uninterested, throwing it away like he hadn't a clue about what really happened in there. But I was thinking about some really rare kind of demon, one that I knew he even dares to think about.
An unguarded dungeon's entrance was not surprising, seeing that the furrows made on the ground continue on to the stone floor, like it wasn't any difference between through dirt or solid rocks.
Inside, some of the torches were out and the vision of some saints and crosses hanging on pillars made me smirk sadly, thinking about the innocence of those who think that there exists something to hear their prayers or, at least, worry about us from heaven.
We saw three of my men at the bottom of the stairs, in front of the big last cell. They looked relieved to see Trowa and I; they all were fully armed and appearing tired.
The one I left in charge of castle security came to me holding a torch.
"It's a demon, my lord."
With no possibility of seeing the creature in the darkness, I took the torch and headed near the bars. "How many did we lose?" I just left enough men for a standard day of castle's defenses, not enough for any battle, even less for such a powerful demon. Judging by the floor damages I'm not sure if even my best squad could handle it...
"No one, sir."
The answer came from behind, the man not wanting to approach the bars with me. Trowa and I exchanged an unbelieving look. No one?
"Just wounds… nothing really serious…" his voice sounded disbelieving, like just now he was realising how improbable this appeared.
"Why bring it inside instead just killing it?" That seemed like a huge effort that I couldn't imagine any reason for.
"We weren't… successful in killing it… the normal means didn't work, so we used an iron grid to bring it inside…" Again, he was trying to find reasons, I'm sure they didn't have much time to think about at the moment when it all happened. For sure I can imagine they probably wouldn't be able to kill it, but… none lost? No fatal wounds? No escaping from a simple iron net? That didn't make any sense.
I just stuck close the bars and lifted the torch, consumed by curiosity. Trowa brought another one and I finally, with the yellow light of fire, could find it in the shadows.
First, it was just a big deep black shadow in the corner of the cell, when my eyes adjusted to the flickering light, I could see the big black wing covering almost all of demon's body. This wasn't a common black skinned wing; it was dirty but it was a soft graceful feathered black wing. The realization that the feather that I found before was truly from it, made me lose my breath in surprise. Could it be…?
"Small…"
It was the whispering of Trowa by my side, and I almost didn't register it. I realized that the demon was a lot smaller than I could ever guess. But I wasn't thinking right anymore, in that moment I was completely drowned by a sparkle of bright that I could see in a pair of hiding eyes.
The fire wasn't reflecting on the completely black eyes that I expected; the fire was reflecting in bright purple-blue eyes.
The creature's body was shrunken in pain, almost all hidden by the left wing. The other one was falling oddly against the wall, a mucky broken leg revealed on floor showing small spots of white skin.
"Call Chang, I need tranquilizers right now…" I heard my own voice shouting.
The small demon retracted itself even more if possible. Those hypnotizing indigo eyes brightening right straight to me and what I saw inside made my heart squeeze hard.
"Your eyes, they shine so bright"
(TBC...)
Diana Lua
Diana C. Figueiredo
Written in: May/2016 - Published: May/29/2016
Beta reader: Cylina Nightshade (Sep/2016)
Last change: Sep/04/2016
Notes:
[1] They all have Gypsy Horses (because I love horses, and I love even more those big hooves with long fur) named after their Gundams. And I tried find the more fitting horse colors to match them too.
[2] After all, was really strange to call a horse Heavyarms, but what could I do? All the others are paired with their names, I couldn't change just one.
# This chapter was updated in July with some grammar corrections by Maria Angela, and again in September with a full review by Cylina Nightshade ^_^ that offered to be my beta reader. Hope the english was better now;
# In my profile has a link to my facebook public album that had some images from the horses that inspired me, and also a fanart from the demon.
So, looks interesting? :)