Disclaimers: Don't own any part of Gundam Wing nor it's characters. It's a
loan.
Warnings: Shounen-ai, OOCs, AU (what else do I write?), gloomy Duo (sorry, can't help it for now)
Circle of Destiny
Part 2
Heero stared at the two newly acquired slaves with slight confusion. The blond was definitely pleasing to look at and had the interest of Trowa, if his cousin's dazed and besotted expression was anything to go by. But the blond slave with all his perfection didn't interest him, the other did. He found himself studying the unconscious man thrown carefully over Wufei's shoulder as they started the long trek back to the castle. The slave, Duo, he was told, wore nothing more than a pair of ragged pants that had obviously seen better days. His back was a mass of bleeding scars and old puckered ones. He couldn't see much of Duo's face, as it was laying against Wufei's back but he found himself admiring the mass of golden chestnut tresses that were bound in a dishevelled braid. The brown rope that Heero glimpsed tied around the slave's neck was actually the tattered remains of a once neat braid. The slave had so much of it but it didn't look all too healthy, judging by the lank and dull texture of it. It enraged him somehow to see such a beautiful thing in that condition. He would have never let it be this neglected. He remembered running a brush through it while Duo smiled at him with the most glorious violet eyes....
Heero stumbled on an apparently flat piece of ground as Trowa caught hold of his cousin before he kissed the dust beneath his feet.
"Are you feeling alright?" Trowa asked solicitously.
Heero nodded his head distractedly while his mind reached for an elusive memory that was fast slipping out of his grasp. As quick as it came, it was gone. The young king was left to puzzle over the new slave. Was it a memory? Or a fantasy? Both possibilities brought a sense of disquiet to Heero. He has never met this new slave before and he sure as hell didn't feel anything for him.
Something very strange was happening here.
They deposited the two new slaves into a chamber beneath the main kitchens. It was obviously quarters for slaves but it appeared in much better condition than most that Quatre had been in. It appeared that the new king treated his slaves much better than rumoured. The blond had been rudely surprised when they marched into the castle without any of the huge looking guards challenging their entry. Then one of them had addressed the blue eyed one as 'Your Majesty' and Quatre had lost control of his jaw hinges. They had been purchased by the King of Kyrin, the one who was stopping slave trade, the one he had held onto hope that would save them all. He felt betrayed somehow. But, if Master Trowa hadn't stepped in to help them, Duo would be dead right now.
"Your Highness," Wufei's soft respectful voice cut through the haze of thought.
Quatre's head jerked up to clash with endless obsidian as he hissed a warning. "Not here, warrior," he warned. "I no longer have any claim to titles. I'm a slave now," he grinned humourlessly. "Besides, it would have been 'Your Eminence'."
Wufei's eyes widened in understanding and bowed low. He looked at the prone figure on the bed, his dark eyes spoke of ancient pain. "How did he get to be like this?" He sighed heavily. "He used to be so alive. Now, look at him."
"We need a healer, warrior," Quatre said, not taking his eyes off his brother, who now lay on his stomach on the small cot. He stroked the back of Duo's head, knowing his brother normally took comfort in that contact.
"My mate is coming, You... Quatre," he amended when he saw the warning glitter in sea hued orbs. "She will help him."
"You are mated?" Quatre beamed, a delighted smile shining through. "Any little ones yet?" He stifled the urge to laugh at the sight of the proud warrior blushing furiously.
"No, Yo... Quatre." Wufei was fighting to bring his colour back under control. One doesn't go about embarrassed in front of the elite. It was a matter of honour and it just wasn't done. Men were not so easily embarrassed. And not in front of elites! "We are still trying."
"The more the merrier," Quatre teased with a little of his old humour. He used to love to poke fun at the warriors with the absurd notions of honour and justice. He found them horribly embarrassed about the oddest things and procreation just happened to be at the top of their list. He had taken it so far once that Duo had had to step in between a flaming red warrior and a mischievously smiling brother before the blond got squished.
Wufei straightened as the door swung open slowly. The warrior put himself in front of the duo in anticipation of danger. He had spent years looking for these two and he will not let any harm come to them. A head full of long blond hair peeked through the door and he relaxed his stance. "Knock first, woman!" He groused at his mate, the healer in the castle, Sally Po.
"Please, you over muscled idiot, I'm here to..." The healer trailed off, taking in the other within the room before she gasped in between horror and joy, before falling to her knees. "By the... Your Highness," with that she flung herself into Quatre's arms, sobbing silently. "We found you, both of you," She lifted teary eyes to meet her mate's. "We found them. And..." She suddenly realised something. "They are slaves?"
Quatre cupped Sally's cheek with one slim hand. "Please, no more, healer. We chose this, or something chose this for us. There is nothing we can do about our lives now," he glanced worriedly at his brother, who had yet to move since the incident at the market place. "I beg you, healer, see to him."
Sally nodded and gestured for Quatre to move out of the way. Feeling a little lost, the blond slave moved to stand next to the Wufei and watched with anxious eyes as the healer began to apply salves and herbs to the bleeding lashes on Duo's scarred back.
"Did you kill the slaver who did this?" Sally asked, her voice harsh, but the motions of her hands still gentle as she laid strips of salve soaked cloth against the unconscious man's back.
Duo didn't even flinch.
"We had more pressing matters to attend to," Wufei told his wife with a slight flick of his eyes.
Sally nodded. "You had better go back there and do a thorough job of killing him, my heart."
Wufei flushed at the endearment in front of the elite who smiled softly despite the current situation. "Woman," he hissed.
"How did you get here?" Quatre asked, leaning against the wall, feeling suddenly weary. It had been an emotional day.
"We came to search for Sil... for it," Wufei told him simply, realising his slip at the last moment.
Quatre stiffened. He rounded on the taller man and grabbed him by the collar. "Never," he stressed. "Never use that term here. Do you understand?"
"Yes, my Lord. I'm sorry."
Quatre sighed, relenting. "I'm no longer your anything, perhaps your slave. Why do you think it is here? We... I," he amended. "Have been searching everywhere but I haven't found anything that felt remotely of... that."
"It is different here," Wufei said. "Don't you feel it?"
The blond frowned before opening his inner senses wide. He gasped in shock as he felt the Weaves, the Patterns, everything rushing to him. For the first time in years, he saw everything clearer than he had ever had before. He ran after it, that feeling, that ecstasy. The power swirled beneath the conscious surface and it danced, spinning around him. But when he tried to tap into it, he was met with a wall a mile high. When he came back to himself once again, he found he was cradled in a very worried warrior's arms while his mate was hovering over him.
"Hig... Quatre?" Wufei called out anxiously. "What happened?"
Aquamarine eyes blinked owlishly. "It's here," Quatre fairly breathed. "I can feel it, but I can't use it. Oh Duo, it's here, we found it! We can go home."
Sally seemed sad. "Your highness, your brother... he's... he's..."
The blond launched himself at the healer, shaking hands clutching at Sally convulsively. "He's going to be alright, right? He's going to get better, right? Tell me!!"
The healer managed to disentangle herself from the blond and held him at arms length. "He is very weak. I don't understand it. Doesn't he have any of his tree with him?"
Quatre paled at that and fumbled with a pouch that hung around his neck. It wasn't normally visible to the naked eye and he took great pains to perfect the glamour around it. That pouch held his survival and it was more important to him than anything in the world, except well, possibly his brother. When he left home, the pouch had been full to bursting, but over the years, the pouch had been reduced. He now worried he wouldn't be able to return home with seeds he had left before they ran out. "This is some of mine. We are of the same blood, it should help," he took out a one and offered it to Sally. "Help him, please."
Wufei came behind to steady the shaking blond and they stared with some trepidation at the healer.
"Wufei, I need your help to turn him over," Sally called out from her crouched position next to the cot.
"I'm fine," Quatre told the warrior who then obediently walked over and hunkered down next to his wife.
Wufei eased an arm in front of Duo and as gently as possible turned him over. A moan of pain issued from Duo's parched lips and the occupants in the room heaved a sigh of relief. It was a tiny indication that there was still life within the man.
"Your highness," Sally leaned in close, holding the small seed to Duo's cracked lips. "Take this."
Heavy lidded eyes opened a slit, taking in the blurred form in front of him and Duo let his head fall limp. "No... for... Qua... tre..."
Quatre flinched as if he had been slapped. His mind ran through the events of the time since he had met his brother again. Duo had given him his own pouch for 'safe keeping' as he put it. Had Duo been saving the trees for him all this while at the expense of his own life force?
"You have to, Your Highness," Sally insisted, forcing the small plant on Duo again. "You are going to die if you don't."
"Des... erve... it," Duo choked out. "Qua... tre..."
Sobbing, Quatre rushed forward to gather his brother into his arms. "Please, Duo, don't leave me alone here. We can go home now. It is here, we found it." He took the seed from Sally and coaxed Duo's lips open, dropping it in. He clamped Duo's jaw shut until the little seed released the recuperative powers of the tree that sustained them for life worked its magic on his brother's battered body.
The blond could feel the power, although weakened now, rushing through Duo as he gasped in something akin to elation. The pain washed from his body as it relaxed completely, dropping into true slumber as his body started to heal.
Sally released a sigh of relief as she took her patient from Quatre's protective embrace and laid him down flat again. She continued to work on the lashes, but this time it was more to avoid scarring than the fear of infection. Duo's blooding tree would ensure that he would heal from this.
Weary to the bone, Quatre accepted the support from Wufei who practically carried the blond to the cot opposite the one currently occupied by his brother.
"You need to rest yourself," Wufei told the blond gruffly, tucking the sheets around Quatre carefully.
The blond felt a drowse taking over him but as Wufei got up to leave, his hand shot out to forestall the warrior. "Please, I haven't seen our kindred in a long time. Tell me about yourself?"
Wufei smiled at this plaintive request for a bedtime story, then had to remind himself that this elite was still very young. "I left about the same time as your brother did. In actual fact, I was to find him and bring his runaway behind back. There were many times I actually thought I found him. I mean, how hard was it to track a man with a three foot long braid?" He continued to brush the blond's bangs while Quatre fought with sleep. "Your stubborn brother eluded me until now. He really pricked my honour. I was, after all, the best tracker amongst us and His High..."
"Duo," Quatre corrected sleepily, stifling a large yawn.
"Duo, has never been out of home before that. So I searched and finally gave up on looking for... Duo," Wufei tested the name on his tongue, feeling slightly sacrilegious to address the Elite that way. "... and decided to look for it instead. Where ever it was, I was sure Duo wouldn't be far behind." He stopped, realising the blond was now deeply asleep. He tucked the sheets even tighter around Quatre.
"What are we going to do about them?" Sally asked, having finished with Duo. She stood close to Wufei, feeling a need for reassurance.
Wufei hugged his wife, laying a bronze cheek against her soft hair. "I really don't know. How is Duo?"
"He will survive, but for how long..." Sally lifted sad eyes too met her mate's.
"I know. We are all running on a tight schedule as well."
"Do you think we will be able to find it?"
Wufei shrugged, exhaling explosively. "I really don't know, love. We have been searching for years now and this is the closest we have ever gotten to this feeling."
Sally frowned, delicate arches drawing close together. "We don't even know what it looks like. How do we find something like that? I was barely able to read the Weaves before, much less now."
"The only person that is able to tell us about it is..." Wufei's dark gaze trailed to the man currently resting on his stomach and dead to the world.
"He is a shadow of what he used to be. He's damaged in more ways than one."
"We have to protect them," Wufei stated flatly, his arms tightening around his wife.
Sally leaned into the embrace. "I know, but we are going to have a hard time keeping them a secret for long."
Wufei chuckled softly. "What makes you think they are a secret anymore? When I carried him in, I think there were at least twenty pairs of eyes trained on him."
"I have had at least five requests just now to see them on my way here," Sally laughed lightly. "At the time I couldn't understand why."
The couple stood there for most of the afternoon, watching the two men, no technically still boys, sleep.
Trowa flattened himself outside the door to the new slaves' quarters, his hands tightening over the two slim collars he had intended to bring for Quatre and his brother. He closed his eyes, leaning his head against the wall. A feeling of... what? Disappointment? Betrayal? Sadness? Trowa couldn't be sure and he wasn't able to properly identify it but he felt something at knowing his friend, no, someone akin to his brother had a big secret kept from him and Heero.
Now he had someone else to protect Heero from. While instinctively he knew Wufei wouldn't harm Heero purposely, but it appeared that the dark haired man's loyalty was obviously else where. At this point, Heero needed men that were absolutely devoted to him and if Wufei couldn't be trusted, Trowa would have to do something about it. It hurt him to think of needing to get rid of Wufei.
His thoughts strayed back to the two mysterious slaves he had acquired today. The blond sparked his interest to the point of it being fever pitch. But it wasn't just Quatre. Despite looking like he had been pulled through the mud and having blood caked all over his back, Quatre's brother was still a very beautiful man, or was it, boy. Age was difficult to pin on the two of them. Beautiful was not exactly a flattering word to use on a man to describe them, but when it came to both Quatre and his brother, no other word was more suitable and more apt.
Both of them had a certain delicacy in their features that was no doubt masculine but could hardly call handsome. It was too harsh a word to call them that. There seemed a soft glow on their pale skin that somehow made them seem more ethereal.
He had noticed Heero's rapt attention at the brunet and he wondered at that. His cousin had never shown any interest of that sort to any of the males within the court and Trowa knew he wasn't lacking of any offers. More often that not, it was the women that held Heero's attention, so this was something out of character for him.
To compound to their problems, now they would have to keep a closer eye on Wufei and his wife. This was getting to be a real headache fast.
Trowa silently slunk back out the cramped corridor, collars in hand. He would have to speak to Heero about this soon.
Duo, Quatre, Wufei, Sally.
Just who the hell are you people? Trowa wondered.
tbc...
Whoa, thank you everyone!! I have never had so many reviews for the first chappie of a fic!
I am very touched. I am writing this, but slowly, so more updates of the other two fics than this one. Okay?
Later people!
Warnings: Shounen-ai, OOCs, AU (what else do I write?), gloomy Duo (sorry, can't help it for now)
Circle of Destiny
Part 2
Heero stared at the two newly acquired slaves with slight confusion. The blond was definitely pleasing to look at and had the interest of Trowa, if his cousin's dazed and besotted expression was anything to go by. But the blond slave with all his perfection didn't interest him, the other did. He found himself studying the unconscious man thrown carefully over Wufei's shoulder as they started the long trek back to the castle. The slave, Duo, he was told, wore nothing more than a pair of ragged pants that had obviously seen better days. His back was a mass of bleeding scars and old puckered ones. He couldn't see much of Duo's face, as it was laying against Wufei's back but he found himself admiring the mass of golden chestnut tresses that were bound in a dishevelled braid. The brown rope that Heero glimpsed tied around the slave's neck was actually the tattered remains of a once neat braid. The slave had so much of it but it didn't look all too healthy, judging by the lank and dull texture of it. It enraged him somehow to see such a beautiful thing in that condition. He would have never let it be this neglected. He remembered running a brush through it while Duo smiled at him with the most glorious violet eyes....
Heero stumbled on an apparently flat piece of ground as Trowa caught hold of his cousin before he kissed the dust beneath his feet.
"Are you feeling alright?" Trowa asked solicitously.
Heero nodded his head distractedly while his mind reached for an elusive memory that was fast slipping out of his grasp. As quick as it came, it was gone. The young king was left to puzzle over the new slave. Was it a memory? Or a fantasy? Both possibilities brought a sense of disquiet to Heero. He has never met this new slave before and he sure as hell didn't feel anything for him.
Something very strange was happening here.
They deposited the two new slaves into a chamber beneath the main kitchens. It was obviously quarters for slaves but it appeared in much better condition than most that Quatre had been in. It appeared that the new king treated his slaves much better than rumoured. The blond had been rudely surprised when they marched into the castle without any of the huge looking guards challenging their entry. Then one of them had addressed the blue eyed one as 'Your Majesty' and Quatre had lost control of his jaw hinges. They had been purchased by the King of Kyrin, the one who was stopping slave trade, the one he had held onto hope that would save them all. He felt betrayed somehow. But, if Master Trowa hadn't stepped in to help them, Duo would be dead right now.
"Your Highness," Wufei's soft respectful voice cut through the haze of thought.
Quatre's head jerked up to clash with endless obsidian as he hissed a warning. "Not here, warrior," he warned. "I no longer have any claim to titles. I'm a slave now," he grinned humourlessly. "Besides, it would have been 'Your Eminence'."
Wufei's eyes widened in understanding and bowed low. He looked at the prone figure on the bed, his dark eyes spoke of ancient pain. "How did he get to be like this?" He sighed heavily. "He used to be so alive. Now, look at him."
"We need a healer, warrior," Quatre said, not taking his eyes off his brother, who now lay on his stomach on the small cot. He stroked the back of Duo's head, knowing his brother normally took comfort in that contact.
"My mate is coming, You... Quatre," he amended when he saw the warning glitter in sea hued orbs. "She will help him."
"You are mated?" Quatre beamed, a delighted smile shining through. "Any little ones yet?" He stifled the urge to laugh at the sight of the proud warrior blushing furiously.
"No, Yo... Quatre." Wufei was fighting to bring his colour back under control. One doesn't go about embarrassed in front of the elite. It was a matter of honour and it just wasn't done. Men were not so easily embarrassed. And not in front of elites! "We are still trying."
"The more the merrier," Quatre teased with a little of his old humour. He used to love to poke fun at the warriors with the absurd notions of honour and justice. He found them horribly embarrassed about the oddest things and procreation just happened to be at the top of their list. He had taken it so far once that Duo had had to step in between a flaming red warrior and a mischievously smiling brother before the blond got squished.
Wufei straightened as the door swung open slowly. The warrior put himself in front of the duo in anticipation of danger. He had spent years looking for these two and he will not let any harm come to them. A head full of long blond hair peeked through the door and he relaxed his stance. "Knock first, woman!" He groused at his mate, the healer in the castle, Sally Po.
"Please, you over muscled idiot, I'm here to..." The healer trailed off, taking in the other within the room before she gasped in between horror and joy, before falling to her knees. "By the... Your Highness," with that she flung herself into Quatre's arms, sobbing silently. "We found you, both of you," She lifted teary eyes to meet her mate's. "We found them. And..." She suddenly realised something. "They are slaves?"
Quatre cupped Sally's cheek with one slim hand. "Please, no more, healer. We chose this, or something chose this for us. There is nothing we can do about our lives now," he glanced worriedly at his brother, who had yet to move since the incident at the market place. "I beg you, healer, see to him."
Sally nodded and gestured for Quatre to move out of the way. Feeling a little lost, the blond slave moved to stand next to the Wufei and watched with anxious eyes as the healer began to apply salves and herbs to the bleeding lashes on Duo's scarred back.
"Did you kill the slaver who did this?" Sally asked, her voice harsh, but the motions of her hands still gentle as she laid strips of salve soaked cloth against the unconscious man's back.
Duo didn't even flinch.
"We had more pressing matters to attend to," Wufei told his wife with a slight flick of his eyes.
Sally nodded. "You had better go back there and do a thorough job of killing him, my heart."
Wufei flushed at the endearment in front of the elite who smiled softly despite the current situation. "Woman," he hissed.
"How did you get here?" Quatre asked, leaning against the wall, feeling suddenly weary. It had been an emotional day.
"We came to search for Sil... for it," Wufei told him simply, realising his slip at the last moment.
Quatre stiffened. He rounded on the taller man and grabbed him by the collar. "Never," he stressed. "Never use that term here. Do you understand?"
"Yes, my Lord. I'm sorry."
Quatre sighed, relenting. "I'm no longer your anything, perhaps your slave. Why do you think it is here? We... I," he amended. "Have been searching everywhere but I haven't found anything that felt remotely of... that."
"It is different here," Wufei said. "Don't you feel it?"
The blond frowned before opening his inner senses wide. He gasped in shock as he felt the Weaves, the Patterns, everything rushing to him. For the first time in years, he saw everything clearer than he had ever had before. He ran after it, that feeling, that ecstasy. The power swirled beneath the conscious surface and it danced, spinning around him. But when he tried to tap into it, he was met with a wall a mile high. When he came back to himself once again, he found he was cradled in a very worried warrior's arms while his mate was hovering over him.
"Hig... Quatre?" Wufei called out anxiously. "What happened?"
Aquamarine eyes blinked owlishly. "It's here," Quatre fairly breathed. "I can feel it, but I can't use it. Oh Duo, it's here, we found it! We can go home."
Sally seemed sad. "Your highness, your brother... he's... he's..."
The blond launched himself at the healer, shaking hands clutching at Sally convulsively. "He's going to be alright, right? He's going to get better, right? Tell me!!"
The healer managed to disentangle herself from the blond and held him at arms length. "He is very weak. I don't understand it. Doesn't he have any of his tree with him?"
Quatre paled at that and fumbled with a pouch that hung around his neck. It wasn't normally visible to the naked eye and he took great pains to perfect the glamour around it. That pouch held his survival and it was more important to him than anything in the world, except well, possibly his brother. When he left home, the pouch had been full to bursting, but over the years, the pouch had been reduced. He now worried he wouldn't be able to return home with seeds he had left before they ran out. "This is some of mine. We are of the same blood, it should help," he took out a one and offered it to Sally. "Help him, please."
Wufei came behind to steady the shaking blond and they stared with some trepidation at the healer.
"Wufei, I need your help to turn him over," Sally called out from her crouched position next to the cot.
"I'm fine," Quatre told the warrior who then obediently walked over and hunkered down next to his wife.
Wufei eased an arm in front of Duo and as gently as possible turned him over. A moan of pain issued from Duo's parched lips and the occupants in the room heaved a sigh of relief. It was a tiny indication that there was still life within the man.
"Your highness," Sally leaned in close, holding the small seed to Duo's cracked lips. "Take this."
Heavy lidded eyes opened a slit, taking in the blurred form in front of him and Duo let his head fall limp. "No... for... Qua... tre..."
Quatre flinched as if he had been slapped. His mind ran through the events of the time since he had met his brother again. Duo had given him his own pouch for 'safe keeping' as he put it. Had Duo been saving the trees for him all this while at the expense of his own life force?
"You have to, Your Highness," Sally insisted, forcing the small plant on Duo again. "You are going to die if you don't."
"Des... erve... it," Duo choked out. "Qua... tre..."
Sobbing, Quatre rushed forward to gather his brother into his arms. "Please, Duo, don't leave me alone here. We can go home now. It is here, we found it." He took the seed from Sally and coaxed Duo's lips open, dropping it in. He clamped Duo's jaw shut until the little seed released the recuperative powers of the tree that sustained them for life worked its magic on his brother's battered body.
The blond could feel the power, although weakened now, rushing through Duo as he gasped in something akin to elation. The pain washed from his body as it relaxed completely, dropping into true slumber as his body started to heal.
Sally released a sigh of relief as she took her patient from Quatre's protective embrace and laid him down flat again. She continued to work on the lashes, but this time it was more to avoid scarring than the fear of infection. Duo's blooding tree would ensure that he would heal from this.
Weary to the bone, Quatre accepted the support from Wufei who practically carried the blond to the cot opposite the one currently occupied by his brother.
"You need to rest yourself," Wufei told the blond gruffly, tucking the sheets around Quatre carefully.
The blond felt a drowse taking over him but as Wufei got up to leave, his hand shot out to forestall the warrior. "Please, I haven't seen our kindred in a long time. Tell me about yourself?"
Wufei smiled at this plaintive request for a bedtime story, then had to remind himself that this elite was still very young. "I left about the same time as your brother did. In actual fact, I was to find him and bring his runaway behind back. There were many times I actually thought I found him. I mean, how hard was it to track a man with a three foot long braid?" He continued to brush the blond's bangs while Quatre fought with sleep. "Your stubborn brother eluded me until now. He really pricked my honour. I was, after all, the best tracker amongst us and His High..."
"Duo," Quatre corrected sleepily, stifling a large yawn.
"Duo, has never been out of home before that. So I searched and finally gave up on looking for... Duo," Wufei tested the name on his tongue, feeling slightly sacrilegious to address the Elite that way. "... and decided to look for it instead. Where ever it was, I was sure Duo wouldn't be far behind." He stopped, realising the blond was now deeply asleep. He tucked the sheets even tighter around Quatre.
"What are we going to do about them?" Sally asked, having finished with Duo. She stood close to Wufei, feeling a need for reassurance.
Wufei hugged his wife, laying a bronze cheek against her soft hair. "I really don't know. How is Duo?"
"He will survive, but for how long..." Sally lifted sad eyes too met her mate's.
"I know. We are all running on a tight schedule as well."
"Do you think we will be able to find it?"
Wufei shrugged, exhaling explosively. "I really don't know, love. We have been searching for years now and this is the closest we have ever gotten to this feeling."
Sally frowned, delicate arches drawing close together. "We don't even know what it looks like. How do we find something like that? I was barely able to read the Weaves before, much less now."
"The only person that is able to tell us about it is..." Wufei's dark gaze trailed to the man currently resting on his stomach and dead to the world.
"He is a shadow of what he used to be. He's damaged in more ways than one."
"We have to protect them," Wufei stated flatly, his arms tightening around his wife.
Sally leaned into the embrace. "I know, but we are going to have a hard time keeping them a secret for long."
Wufei chuckled softly. "What makes you think they are a secret anymore? When I carried him in, I think there were at least twenty pairs of eyes trained on him."
"I have had at least five requests just now to see them on my way here," Sally laughed lightly. "At the time I couldn't understand why."
The couple stood there for most of the afternoon, watching the two men, no technically still boys, sleep.
Trowa flattened himself outside the door to the new slaves' quarters, his hands tightening over the two slim collars he had intended to bring for Quatre and his brother. He closed his eyes, leaning his head against the wall. A feeling of... what? Disappointment? Betrayal? Sadness? Trowa couldn't be sure and he wasn't able to properly identify it but he felt something at knowing his friend, no, someone akin to his brother had a big secret kept from him and Heero.
Now he had someone else to protect Heero from. While instinctively he knew Wufei wouldn't harm Heero purposely, but it appeared that the dark haired man's loyalty was obviously else where. At this point, Heero needed men that were absolutely devoted to him and if Wufei couldn't be trusted, Trowa would have to do something about it. It hurt him to think of needing to get rid of Wufei.
His thoughts strayed back to the two mysterious slaves he had acquired today. The blond sparked his interest to the point of it being fever pitch. But it wasn't just Quatre. Despite looking like he had been pulled through the mud and having blood caked all over his back, Quatre's brother was still a very beautiful man, or was it, boy. Age was difficult to pin on the two of them. Beautiful was not exactly a flattering word to use on a man to describe them, but when it came to both Quatre and his brother, no other word was more suitable and more apt.
Both of them had a certain delicacy in their features that was no doubt masculine but could hardly call handsome. It was too harsh a word to call them that. There seemed a soft glow on their pale skin that somehow made them seem more ethereal.
He had noticed Heero's rapt attention at the brunet and he wondered at that. His cousin had never shown any interest of that sort to any of the males within the court and Trowa knew he wasn't lacking of any offers. More often that not, it was the women that held Heero's attention, so this was something out of character for him.
To compound to their problems, now they would have to keep a closer eye on Wufei and his wife. This was getting to be a real headache fast.
Trowa silently slunk back out the cramped corridor, collars in hand. He would have to speak to Heero about this soon.
Duo, Quatre, Wufei, Sally.
Just who the hell are you people? Trowa wondered.
tbc...
Whoa, thank you everyone!! I have never had so many reviews for the first chappie of a fic!
I am very touched. I am writing this, but slowly, so more updates of the other two fics than this one. Okay?
Later people!