Never Again
Warnings: AU, chibi sweetness, evil Quatre, magic, fae and citrusy goodness. Oh and for some reason my hentai muse has decided to run a muck. *grin* All coming soon… though almost none of them show up in this part. Gomen!
Young eyes took in the scenery as the small boy stepped out o the forest. Teetering over the thick roots and vines he stumbled into the small clearing. Yet caught onto a rock before he could fall over. The boy wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand and looked around. All around him the humidity in the air was so thick one could have cut it with a knife or a dagger. As e gazed around the clearing he noticed the rock he'd used to catch his balance was just as tall as he was and much more suited to be called a large boulder. He took a deep breath and scrambled up the side of the boulder paying little attention to the fact that he scrapped his knee in his struggle to the top.
The boy found the topside of the boulder to be completely flat so he tucked his legs up and hugged his knees as he gazed out across the clearing. Beyond the edge of his boulder spread a large lake of blue fire. It started from a monstrous waterfall which dropped into the mouth of a lake and then filtered out into a relatively calm river. Surrounded by tall grasses and lined by a forest on all sides the only clue that this small piece of heavenly beauty even existed was the steady roar of the falling water.
Heavenly beauty? The little boy wrinkled his nose in thought as he concentrated on the soft white clouds in the sky. That's what Relena had called this place, a place of heavenly beauty. She'd always talked about it, her own private little piece of heaven that no one knew about besides her and him. The boy signed quietly, almost sadly, and shook his head.
He wondered if she still felt that way about this place now? That was, of course, assuming the dead could feel anything. About a week ago Relena had gone missing without a trace. After days of panic-stricken searching the grown-ups of the village had finally questioned him. After all she always boosted that he was her best friend, so it would only make sense that he would know where she went. After much convincing he'd finally relented and told them about her secret place. That night they'd returned to the village with her waterlogged body.
After that he couldn't help but feel a little bit guilty. Maybe if he'd gone and told them about the secret place right away she might not have drowned there. True, she would have been quite mad at him, but he could have lived with that. After all an angry Relena was much better then a dead Relena, right?
Cobalt eyes settled on the water and the boy couldn't help but shiver, despite the thick heat. It didn't take that much of a stretch for the mind of an eight-year-old to imagine what it might have looked like when they found her. She had been lying face down in the water, her blue dress torn from the rocks and her wheat colored hair fanning out around her head like some ironic mock-up of a halo. The boy blinked and for a moment he could have sworn he saw her there, floating in the water before him. Quickly he shook his head and the frightening vision disappeared.
The boy stood to his feet and gave a small nod to himself. It was time to head home. If his mom or his older brother found he'd journeyed out here expressly against their wishes he wouldn't be able to sit down for at least a week. Turning around he knelt to make his way down the dry side of the boulder when his foot slipped. The young boy gave a startled cry as his knee scrapped over the rough rock and he tumbled into the lake.
Sitting up in the shallow water the boy bit his lower lip and tentatively touched his skinned knee. It hurt! He desperately tried to blink back tears as he watched the small drops of blood slide down his leg and dissolve in the sparkling blue water. The boy quickly wiped away the mix of tears and lake water from his eyes as he tried to decide what to do.
"That's a pretty nasty cut."
The boy looked up in surprise to find he wasn't alone. Before him stood another boy about his size with long chestnut colored hair, hair so long it reached past his knees! Bright mischievous violet eyes watched the boy with child-like wonder and small finely pointed ears peeked out from his hair. Pointed ears? The boy scrambled backward in the water until his back met with the boulder and his eyes widened.
"You… you're fae!" The boy's mind raced, fae?! Humans weren't supposed to see the fae, and when they did there was almost always some curse that followed. He knew he should have followed his mother's orders, now he was in big trouble!
The elfish boy smirked at him. Slowly he leaned down in the water, right by the boy's injured knee. Violet eyes met with cobalt blue for a moment, as if asking permission and then he lowered his head and brought his lips to the wound.
The boy's eyes widened even more and he stiffened as he watched the wound begin to heal. At the touch of the elfish boy's lips the blood reversed its flow and disappeared and the small jagged torn edges of skin began to knit back together. Second later the elfish boy stood back up and smirked. "All fixed," he declared happily.
The boy lightly touched his knee in an effort to dispel the illusion but found there was no illusion to dispel. His knee was actually healed. The boy looked up in surprise and found the elfish boy offering a hand to help him stand. He tentatively took it.
"My name's Duo, what's yours?" The elfish boy asked in a cheerful voice.
"H-Heero," the boy muttered quietly. The whole situation still shocked him. Sure he'd heard all about the fae but to actually meet one… he just couldn't believe it. Heero's eyes traveled over Duo's body. The young elfish body was thin yet tall and looked fairly strong for his apparent age. He wore only a loose white shift which had plastered itself against his shapely body thanks to the water and was also now practically see-through. Heero quickly directed his young eyes as he felt the blood rush to his cheeks.
Duo chuckled at the sight of him blushing. "Is this better?"
Heero blinked and suddenly they were standing on the edge of the lake, rather than in it, and their clothes were completely dry. Heero shot Duo a look of surprise and confusion that sent the elfin boy rolling on the ground with laughter. Heero looked away, slightly miffed that he was being laughed at.
"You looked so sad when you were sitting on the rock, what were you thinking about, Heero?" The elfin boy asked after his laughter had died away.
Heero didn't look back at him, instead his eyes drifted back to the sparkling water. "I was thinking about my friend. A girl. She died here."
Duo raised his eyebrows and sat up, following Heero's gaze across the water. "Why are you sad about that?"
"Because she died," Heero replied in a slightly annoyed tone as if the answer should have been obvious.
Duo shook his head. "That's nothing to be sad about. How can you be sad in a place as beautiful as this?" Duo dropped back to his back and gazed up at the sky. "This place is so beautiful… if I had to die I'd want to die in a place like this. And I wouldn't be sad about it."
Heero turned and looked at the boy with the pointed ears, raising his eyebrows in silent question. A second later Duo met his eyes with a look on confusion.
"What?" Duo asked.
"You're strange," Heero muttered with a small smile and then both of them broke into laughter.
"Heero!"
Both boys stopped laughing and turned as two figures stepped out of the woods. One was just a little older then Heero, by about two years, with copper colored hair that hung to cover one of his bright green eyes. The other was an older female with curled red hair and watery blue eyes that almost matched Heero's. As soon as the pair stepped out of the trees the boy raised his bow and readied to fire.
"Heero!" The lady said quickly, yet she made no move toward them, her eyes focusing worriedly on Duo. "Get away from my son!"
Heero shook his head and looked at his mother and brother. "No, mom, this is my friend, Duo."
The lady's eyes narrowed and her other son aimed the arrow straight at Duo. "Back away from him," came the soft yet threatening voice. Duo responded by crouching on his knees and hissing at the boy as his eyes crackled with little sparks of energy.
Heero stood frozen in the middle, his young mind unable to comprehend what was going on. Duo was his friend and Trowa was his brother. So why was Trowa aiming one of his deadly arrows at Duo? Why was his older brother threatening to kill his friend? "Trowa don't!" Heero cried.
The single visible green eye narrowed and locked on Heero dangerously, Heero froze. He knew his brother meant business. Trowa turned his attention back to Duo. "I said get. away. from. my. brother." He emphasized each word in a dangerous voice.
Duo's eyes crackled and he hissed again but otherwise didn't respond. Without warning Trowa let the arrow fly with amazing speed and Heero felt it shoot past his ear. One moment the arrow was hooked in the bow, ready to fire and the next it was imbedded in Duo's shoulder, throwing him backward into the ground. Duo gave a cry that reminded Heero of a wounded deer and Trowa raced to his brother's side, knocking another arrow and aiming it at Duo.
Duo struggled to his feet slowly and glanced with fearful eyes between the two brothers. Then he locked eyes with Heero and Heero could see the sorrow deep in those beautiful eyes. Then Duo turned and jumped into the water, disappearing under the waterfall.
Heero took a few steps after him and reached at the thin air, as if pleading silently with his only recently found friend to come back. But Duo was already long gone. Heero dropped his arm ad hung his head, his long dark bangs shading his eyes in the bright sunlight. Beside him Trowa slowly lowered his bow.
"He's gone," Trowa murmured softy.
Heero's head shot up and he glared angrily at his older brother, shoving him toward the water. "Of course he'd gone! You-you shot at him, Trowa!"
Trowa caught his balance almost instantly and looked at his younger brother in surprise. He'd never seen his younger brother react so violently before.
Without wasting another second the woman rushed between the two boys and wrapped her arms around Heero before he could strike his brother. Heero struggled against her hold. "Heero, stop, don't! Your brother was only protecting you."
Heero shook his head frantically. "No! Duo's my friend! He wouldn't have hurt me! He fixed my knee."
"Shhh," she embraced her son tightly until he began to calm down. "Heero, listen to me please. That boy wasn't human."
"I know!" Heero snapped angrily. "But-"
She cut him off by placing a soft finger gently over his lips. "Heero, he may have seemed harmless but the fae are dangerous. He's probably the same one who killed Relena."
Heero shook his head, but not as much this time. "But she drowned…"
The lady looked sorrowfully at her son.
"Heero, " Trowa said quietly. "You know Relena knew how to swim. She wouldn't have drowned by herself."
"But…" Heero stopped and hung his head once more. He knew his older brother was right, Relena would never have drown in the water, she was one of the best swimmers in the village. Some one or something had killed her. And yes, he had to admit that it could have been Duo, as much as he hated that thought.
"Heero, this place is dangerous, promise you'll never come here again."
Heero turned his eyes toward his pleading mother and slowly nodded. "I promise mother."
Warnings: AU, chibi sweetness, evil Quatre, magic, fae and citrusy goodness. Oh and for some reason my hentai muse has decided to run a muck. *grin* All coming soon… though almost none of them show up in this part. Gomen!
Young eyes took in the scenery as the small boy stepped out o the forest. Teetering over the thick roots and vines he stumbled into the small clearing. Yet caught onto a rock before he could fall over. The boy wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand and looked around. All around him the humidity in the air was so thick one could have cut it with a knife or a dagger. As e gazed around the clearing he noticed the rock he'd used to catch his balance was just as tall as he was and much more suited to be called a large boulder. He took a deep breath and scrambled up the side of the boulder paying little attention to the fact that he scrapped his knee in his struggle to the top.
The boy found the topside of the boulder to be completely flat so he tucked his legs up and hugged his knees as he gazed out across the clearing. Beyond the edge of his boulder spread a large lake of blue fire. It started from a monstrous waterfall which dropped into the mouth of a lake and then filtered out into a relatively calm river. Surrounded by tall grasses and lined by a forest on all sides the only clue that this small piece of heavenly beauty even existed was the steady roar of the falling water.
Heavenly beauty? The little boy wrinkled his nose in thought as he concentrated on the soft white clouds in the sky. That's what Relena had called this place, a place of heavenly beauty. She'd always talked about it, her own private little piece of heaven that no one knew about besides her and him. The boy signed quietly, almost sadly, and shook his head.
He wondered if she still felt that way about this place now? That was, of course, assuming the dead could feel anything. About a week ago Relena had gone missing without a trace. After days of panic-stricken searching the grown-ups of the village had finally questioned him. After all she always boosted that he was her best friend, so it would only make sense that he would know where she went. After much convincing he'd finally relented and told them about her secret place. That night they'd returned to the village with her waterlogged body.
After that he couldn't help but feel a little bit guilty. Maybe if he'd gone and told them about the secret place right away she might not have drowned there. True, she would have been quite mad at him, but he could have lived with that. After all an angry Relena was much better then a dead Relena, right?
Cobalt eyes settled on the water and the boy couldn't help but shiver, despite the thick heat. It didn't take that much of a stretch for the mind of an eight-year-old to imagine what it might have looked like when they found her. She had been lying face down in the water, her blue dress torn from the rocks and her wheat colored hair fanning out around her head like some ironic mock-up of a halo. The boy blinked and for a moment he could have sworn he saw her there, floating in the water before him. Quickly he shook his head and the frightening vision disappeared.
The boy stood to his feet and gave a small nod to himself. It was time to head home. If his mom or his older brother found he'd journeyed out here expressly against their wishes he wouldn't be able to sit down for at least a week. Turning around he knelt to make his way down the dry side of the boulder when his foot slipped. The young boy gave a startled cry as his knee scrapped over the rough rock and he tumbled into the lake.
Sitting up in the shallow water the boy bit his lower lip and tentatively touched his skinned knee. It hurt! He desperately tried to blink back tears as he watched the small drops of blood slide down his leg and dissolve in the sparkling blue water. The boy quickly wiped away the mix of tears and lake water from his eyes as he tried to decide what to do.
"That's a pretty nasty cut."
The boy looked up in surprise to find he wasn't alone. Before him stood another boy about his size with long chestnut colored hair, hair so long it reached past his knees! Bright mischievous violet eyes watched the boy with child-like wonder and small finely pointed ears peeked out from his hair. Pointed ears? The boy scrambled backward in the water until his back met with the boulder and his eyes widened.
"You… you're fae!" The boy's mind raced, fae?! Humans weren't supposed to see the fae, and when they did there was almost always some curse that followed. He knew he should have followed his mother's orders, now he was in big trouble!
The elfish boy smirked at him. Slowly he leaned down in the water, right by the boy's injured knee. Violet eyes met with cobalt blue for a moment, as if asking permission and then he lowered his head and brought his lips to the wound.
The boy's eyes widened even more and he stiffened as he watched the wound begin to heal. At the touch of the elfish boy's lips the blood reversed its flow and disappeared and the small jagged torn edges of skin began to knit back together. Second later the elfish boy stood back up and smirked. "All fixed," he declared happily.
The boy lightly touched his knee in an effort to dispel the illusion but found there was no illusion to dispel. His knee was actually healed. The boy looked up in surprise and found the elfish boy offering a hand to help him stand. He tentatively took it.
"My name's Duo, what's yours?" The elfish boy asked in a cheerful voice.
"H-Heero," the boy muttered quietly. The whole situation still shocked him. Sure he'd heard all about the fae but to actually meet one… he just couldn't believe it. Heero's eyes traveled over Duo's body. The young elfish body was thin yet tall and looked fairly strong for his apparent age. He wore only a loose white shift which had plastered itself against his shapely body thanks to the water and was also now practically see-through. Heero quickly directed his young eyes as he felt the blood rush to his cheeks.
Duo chuckled at the sight of him blushing. "Is this better?"
Heero blinked and suddenly they were standing on the edge of the lake, rather than in it, and their clothes were completely dry. Heero shot Duo a look of surprise and confusion that sent the elfin boy rolling on the ground with laughter. Heero looked away, slightly miffed that he was being laughed at.
"You looked so sad when you were sitting on the rock, what were you thinking about, Heero?" The elfin boy asked after his laughter had died away.
Heero didn't look back at him, instead his eyes drifted back to the sparkling water. "I was thinking about my friend. A girl. She died here."
Duo raised his eyebrows and sat up, following Heero's gaze across the water. "Why are you sad about that?"
"Because she died," Heero replied in a slightly annoyed tone as if the answer should have been obvious.
Duo shook his head. "That's nothing to be sad about. How can you be sad in a place as beautiful as this?" Duo dropped back to his back and gazed up at the sky. "This place is so beautiful… if I had to die I'd want to die in a place like this. And I wouldn't be sad about it."
Heero turned and looked at the boy with the pointed ears, raising his eyebrows in silent question. A second later Duo met his eyes with a look on confusion.
"What?" Duo asked.
"You're strange," Heero muttered with a small smile and then both of them broke into laughter.
"Heero!"
Both boys stopped laughing and turned as two figures stepped out of the woods. One was just a little older then Heero, by about two years, with copper colored hair that hung to cover one of his bright green eyes. The other was an older female with curled red hair and watery blue eyes that almost matched Heero's. As soon as the pair stepped out of the trees the boy raised his bow and readied to fire.
"Heero!" The lady said quickly, yet she made no move toward them, her eyes focusing worriedly on Duo. "Get away from my son!"
Heero shook his head and looked at his mother and brother. "No, mom, this is my friend, Duo."
The lady's eyes narrowed and her other son aimed the arrow straight at Duo. "Back away from him," came the soft yet threatening voice. Duo responded by crouching on his knees and hissing at the boy as his eyes crackled with little sparks of energy.
Heero stood frozen in the middle, his young mind unable to comprehend what was going on. Duo was his friend and Trowa was his brother. So why was Trowa aiming one of his deadly arrows at Duo? Why was his older brother threatening to kill his friend? "Trowa don't!" Heero cried.
The single visible green eye narrowed and locked on Heero dangerously, Heero froze. He knew his brother meant business. Trowa turned his attention back to Duo. "I said get. away. from. my. brother." He emphasized each word in a dangerous voice.
Duo's eyes crackled and he hissed again but otherwise didn't respond. Without warning Trowa let the arrow fly with amazing speed and Heero felt it shoot past his ear. One moment the arrow was hooked in the bow, ready to fire and the next it was imbedded in Duo's shoulder, throwing him backward into the ground. Duo gave a cry that reminded Heero of a wounded deer and Trowa raced to his brother's side, knocking another arrow and aiming it at Duo.
Duo struggled to his feet slowly and glanced with fearful eyes between the two brothers. Then he locked eyes with Heero and Heero could see the sorrow deep in those beautiful eyes. Then Duo turned and jumped into the water, disappearing under the waterfall.
Heero took a few steps after him and reached at the thin air, as if pleading silently with his only recently found friend to come back. But Duo was already long gone. Heero dropped his arm ad hung his head, his long dark bangs shading his eyes in the bright sunlight. Beside him Trowa slowly lowered his bow.
"He's gone," Trowa murmured softy.
Heero's head shot up and he glared angrily at his older brother, shoving him toward the water. "Of course he'd gone! You-you shot at him, Trowa!"
Trowa caught his balance almost instantly and looked at his younger brother in surprise. He'd never seen his younger brother react so violently before.
Without wasting another second the woman rushed between the two boys and wrapped her arms around Heero before he could strike his brother. Heero struggled against her hold. "Heero, stop, don't! Your brother was only protecting you."
Heero shook his head frantically. "No! Duo's my friend! He wouldn't have hurt me! He fixed my knee."
"Shhh," she embraced her son tightly until he began to calm down. "Heero, listen to me please. That boy wasn't human."
"I know!" Heero snapped angrily. "But-"
She cut him off by placing a soft finger gently over his lips. "Heero, he may have seemed harmless but the fae are dangerous. He's probably the same one who killed Relena."
Heero shook his head, but not as much this time. "But she drowned…"
The lady looked sorrowfully at her son.
"Heero, " Trowa said quietly. "You know Relena knew how to swim. She wouldn't have drowned by herself."
"But…" Heero stopped and hung his head once more. He knew his older brother was right, Relena would never have drown in the water, she was one of the best swimmers in the village. Some one or something had killed her. And yes, he had to admit that it could have been Duo, as much as he hated that thought.
"Heero, this place is dangerous, promise you'll never come here again."
Heero turned his eyes toward his pleading mother and slowly nodded. "I promise mother."