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 3

"How much did you hear?" Heero asked, slouching in a chair in his private rooms.

He had left Trowa to deal with the new slaves and had retired to his study to deal with the messy paperwork. He didn't know why he was forced to go through the huge mound of papers when Trowa was the Court Steward, which meant, all administrative work would go to him. He had been quite angry with his cousin for bringing this onto him when he clearly insisted that he didn't want any more slaves within the castle. What was the point of making slave trade illegal when he went around buying more of them?

Then Trowa had come barging into his study a while back with a gleam in his eye and demanded to speak with him in private. Heero had learned earlier on never to ignore his cousin when he had that look on him. Since his rooms were the most private in the entire castle, Heero had long ensured that, they had retreated there.

"I'm not sure what I heard," Trowa replied, leaning against the wall and flicking his long bangs aside with a casual gesture of his hand. "But this is the first time I've heard Wu Fei address someone with such respect."

Heero frowned at that, realising the truth in that statement.

Chang Wu Fei, by all outward appearances, looked like he was from the Eastern Lands and was a competent soldier who eventually rose to become the head of Heero's personal guard. Over the years, he had become more than that. Wu Fei had managed to sneak past Heero's defences to become the then stoic prince's friend. One of the reasons he had managed that was because of the refreshingly lack of subservient attitude in Wu Fei. The Eastern man didn't appear to be intimidated by Heero's oft times brusque attitude and seemed to adopt a similar one himself. He had been honest to a fault at pointing out where Heero had gone wrong in dealing with all situations, ranging from his estranged father to the other soldiers for whom he was in charge of. Heero had turned into a brilliant commander with excellent foresight and strategic planning skills. He had changed from the sullen boy to a confident young king who was well respected by all those who met him, if not well liked.

Reflecting on the past, Heero could probably say that it was Chang Wu Fei who moulded the man he was today. For that he was eternally grateful, but he could never forgive Wu Fei if he turned traitor. Instead, he would send Trowa do serve him a merciful end. Heero hoped it wouldn't come to that.

"Who do you think they are?" Heero asked. He wouldn't normally ask anyone's opinion except for his most trusted, which were basically his cousin and until that day, his Master Guard.

Trowa shrugged. "My closest guess would be royalty of sorts?" He studied Heero's sceptical look before amending, "Well, at the very least, I would say they are Wu Fei's commanders, but they hardly look like soldiers. They are too delicate. He's too beautiful." The final sentence was issued with a soft breathy sigh coupled with a dreamy look.

Heero raised an eyebrow, catching the fact that Trowa had said 'he' instead of 'they'. He shook his head at his cousin's faraway look and realised how infatuated he was with the little blond slave. He personally had no interest in these sorts of relationships, while he knew that it ran rampant within his court. Everything done within the court of the king was for political advantage and in this day and age, it wasn't just confined to marrying for status. Married men would take male lovers if it would gain them political status and an audience with the king. Admittedly, when he was crown prince, he didn't lack for offers from attractive men and women alike, in hopes they would gain favour with the king, not knowing the lack of civility between father and son.

For some reason, while he may have been physically attracted to some of the men, he had refused all their offers and lavished his attention on the females instead. Even then, each affair had been short and unsatisfying. It was as if something was missing from his life when he indulged in it. Each was quickly terminated with nothing more that a cold shoulder turned in each woman's direction. It was from those encounters that Heero garnered the reputation of being a cold-hearted, motherless bastard.

"You don't even know who they are," Heero admonished.

"My instinct tells me that they are harmless," Trowa insisted and Heero probably assumed it was to protect his blond slave more than anything.

Heero sighed, rubbing aching temples with the tips of his fingers. "They might be, but Wu Fei isn't and if he were to protect them, they cease to be harmless any longer."

Trowa nodded in agreement, albeit a little reluctantly. "Wu Fei's sense of justice would drive him to protect those two, whoever they are even if it meant killing you."

A sense of disquiet descended on the pair as they reflected the consequences of that. While they both were adept at sword play, it was Wu Fei who had trained them both and was the Sword Master at Castle Feldrock.

"What should I do with them?" Trowa asked.

Heero hissed in irritation. "You bought them, you got us into this mess and you are asking me what we should do with them?" He raked his fingers through his bangs, which was a nervous gesture for him. "How the hell am I supposed to know? Bed them? Put them to work in the kitchens? I don't know. You're supposed to be helping me in all this stupid administrative matters in Feldrock. You think of something." The young king started to ask something but stopped abruptly.

"The long haired one seemed alright. From what I gathered Sally was able to stem the possible damage of the lashing." Trowa bit back a short bark of laughter at the expression of intense irritation on his king.

"I didn't ask that," Heero muttered almost sullenly.

"You wanted to," Trowa countered and realised the folly of pushing his cousin too far. He found himself slammed against the wall, his head bouncing resoundingly against it.

Heero's piercing blue eyes gleamed like cold stone into Trowa's wary green ones. "Do not presume you know what I want."

"Yes, Your Majesty," Trowa answered with a slight sneer on his lips.

Heero stalked to the other side of them room and waved at Trowa dismissively. "Go, and I don't want to see you until daybreak. You are to be responsible for the slaves and I don't want to see them anywhere near me. Do I make myself clear?"

Trowa, still stinging from Heero's mistreatment of his person, bowed mockingly. "Crystal, my Lord," before quietly exiting.

Heero sat there staring at the closed door for the longest time. He didn't understand why he was on such a short leash. Normally, he was able to hold his emotions and expression with amazing ease but something was upsetting his balance. He didn't know what it was but it was annoying him. He still needed to rip the current court up by the roots and destroy the weeds. He couldn't accomplish it if he couldn't maintain a calm mind. He sank onto the floor and began the relaxation techniques Wu Fei had thought him to help him through his nightmares when he was younger. As usual, a sense of lethargy filled him and he felt himself drift off into the comforting arms of slumber.

XXxxXX

"Come on!" A soft lilting tenor teased and a strong smooth hand tugged at him.

Heero almost groaned. Not this dream again. He couldn't handle this dream.

"Where are we going?" He found himself saying. He had no control what he did when he dreamt this particular dream and this one haunted him over and over and over for years now.

"To see something special." It was always the same. Heero could hear the voice, feel the touch, but the other man's features were always an indistinctive blur.

He heard himself laugh. "I've seen every inch of this place. You made sure of that," he resisted the playful tug of the hand and pulled the other man into his arms.

As usual, the gaping holes in Heero's soul, the gnawing pain he never noticed completely disappeared. It faded as pure contentment filled him in every pore of his body.

"I've a better suggestion of what to do," Heero nuzzled the other man's creamy neck teasingly, a tongue flicking out to lick a sensitive spot. He felt the other man shiver with anticipation but was pushed and held at arms length.

"No, not yet. I want to show you what I've been ordered to guard for the rest of eternity!" The blurry form laughed, and the sound rushed through every fibre of Heero's soul. He found he had missed that infectious sound.

That wasn't right, how could he miss something he never realised he knew? Did he know? Did he forget? How could he have forgotten him?

Heero smirked and grabbed the other man's hips, grinding his own with mysterious strangers'. "You can guard this for all eternity."

Abruptly, the other man's teasing demeanour vanished. "You don't have eternity."

The joy that filled Heero drained along with the other man's. "I could."

Hands were clasped hurriedly over his mouth as he heard a frantic whisper, "Don't say things like that here. I know you know about it, but you can't let anyone know you do know about it."

"What happens if you lose it?"

"We die, we all die. We lose eternity," came a soft and horrified tone.

Abruptly the scene changed. Heero found himself in the middle of a field of red flowers and they were rippling in the wind. On closer inspection, he realised that it wasn't flowers, but a sea of blood and it was lapping against him.

Hands reached for him, hands stained with blood, pulling at his clothes, painting them red.

"Traitor."

"Thief."

"Liar."

Fear clogged his throat and tore at his heart as the sibilant whispers continued.

"No, I'm not" once again he screamed his denial but the voices continued to taunt, to haunt, and to rip into his very being. "You have to believe me!" He yelled, wanting the one person that mattered to hear, to understand.

The one person that stood far away, stripped naked of clothes and the blood caking on a shivering body. The last thing Heero remembered of the dream before the hands pulled him into the tide of blood to drown was haunted violet eyes accusing him for all eternity.

Heero bolted from his nightmare, chest heaving. His pulse was hammering a wild tempo as he stared at the darkening sky. He rubbed a weary hand across his face. It had been years since he had this dream and as always, it disturbed him. There were times when he stared down at his hands and could literally see the blood coating his hands. That voice, those eyes, they screamed out to him to remember. But remember what? The only thing he remembered was why he stopped using Wu Fei's relaxation techniques. It always brought on the nightmare.

Those eyes, the burned him and he didn't know why his heart clenched painfully when he saw them filled with accusation and hurt. Many times he wanted to scream at that phantom, ask what had he done but as usual the dream was never in his control. He covered his eyes with a hand as he tried to calm his still racing pulse.

A sudden realisation hit him. The slave, the long haired one, he invoked the same feeling his dream had. A long buried instinct told him that he should stay away from that slave.

XXxxXX

Duo was floating in blessed darkness and for the first time in ages, felt at peace with himself. Oddly, he felt no pain but he was certain he was tied to the whipping post again yesterday. He left off pursuing that line of thought when a gentle hand threaded through his hair, stroking his forehead. It was gesture of comfort for him and he leaned into the touch with a soft smile on his lips. A soft murmuring filtered to his ears. It was a familiar tune and one he knew from his childhood. A low rumble started low in his throat and somehow on the way up turned into a purr of pleasure.

"Odin," he whispered, leaning into the touch more fully. The caresses stilled abruptly and something awoke in his mind. His eyes flew open as he bolted upright. Panic seized him as he stared into his brother's blue/green eyes.

Silence reigned except for Duo's heavy breathing as his panic receded a little. Had he actually uttered that name? Why did, after all these years, did he connect comfort with the man that ruined his life, his home and possibly the future of his people? Why did he still think of him? Why after all these years did the feeling reawaken?

Why? Why? Why?

"So, his name was Odin," Quatre said softly. He covered his brother's shaking hand with his own. "You never told me. You never told anyone."

Duo averted his brother's piercing look. "There's nothing to tell."

Quatre continued to stare at the top of Duo's bent head and decided that it wouldn't do him any good to push his brother into admitting anything. It was the main reason Duo ran away in the first place.

"Who bought us?" Duo asked at length after realising his brother wasn't going to pursue that line of questioning.

"The King of Kyrin's Steward," Quatre told him, seemingly dazed.

Duo's head came up in shock. "Where are we?"

"Castle Feldrock."

"We are in the damn castle!" That came out in almost a scream. "I thought the king was abolishing slave trade, if not slavery?"

Quatre shrugged. "Would you prefer if you died? Master Trowa was trying to save our lives."

Duo glared at him. "So it's Master Trowa now?" He sneered at his brother's easy acceptance of their new master. "So ready to climb into his bed and warm his sheets now?" His head snapped to one side as the flat of his brother's palm connected with his cheek.

"Do you think I enjoyed that?" Quatre hissed. "Do you think I want men and women alike to use my body? Do you think it is fun for me?" His chin quivered at the thought of his brother's sneer. Even Duo thought he used goods, trash. What was left for him? "I do the best I can…" His voice shook with the effort of holding back tears. "I… I…" his control deserted him completely as fat tears crept down his pale cheeks. He bent his head, his hands clenched into fists in front of him as the tears dropped onto the rough cover on the narrow cot.

Duo stared at his silently weeping brother as guilt ate at his soul. He had no right to accuse Quatre of anything when he was the one that brought this catastrophe on them all. He pulled his brother into a tight hug, resting his chin on the top of Quatre's golden hair. Quatre was a quivering mass in his arms as he tried to get his tears under control. He started whispering soothing nonsense and tracing random patterns on Quatre's back until the blond reduced his tears to the occasional hiccoughing.

"I'm sorry, Cat. Please, forgive me. I shouldn't have said those things," Duo apologised when Quatre finally calmed his tide of tears to listen. He sighed shakily. "If it would take all the pain away, I would have ended my life years ago."

Quatre clutched Duo's shoulders urgently. "Never say that. You didn't do anything but fall in love!"

"With the wrong person," Duo muttered. "With a person that brought this stupid whole nonsense on us all. I shouldn't have been allowed to live. Father was too weak not to order my death."

Quatre hugged his brother tightly around the waist, burying his tear streaked face in Duo's thin chest. He could remember the days when his brother had strong muscles that were eye candy for all the women back home. "Don't say something like that. Father had long forgiven you. If I hadn't been so stupid to get caught and sold, we would have been home."

"If I haven't runaway, you wouldn't have needed to come and look for me. Then you wouldn't have needed to…" Duo was cut off when Quatre's arms tightened around his waist.

"No more recriminations. Let's just agree we are both idiots?" Quatre grinned cheekily at his brother, wiping away the remnants of his crying fit.

Duo answered with a small quirk of his own lips.

Quatre's grin faltered as he once again realised just how much his brother had changed over the years. The Duo he knew from before would have returned a grin twice the size and a hundred times cheekier but he guessed the years had effectively killed the child in his brother. What emerged was a cold and hard man.

"I remember Mueller," Duo frowned slightly. "I remember being whipped and then, then…" He tilted his head questioningly at Quatre, silently asking a question.

The blond gripped the front of his tattered shirt where the pouch was back under the glamour once again.

"You gave me a seed?" Duo shrieked. "What did you do a stupid thing like that?"

"Because I wanted my brother to live!" Quatre countered defensively. "I'm not going to allow you sacrifice yourself for me!"

Duo stared at Quatre sullenly.

"Just how long haven't you had something from your blooding tree?" Quatre asked with a defeated sigh.

Duo shrugged one shoulder.

"I want an answer," Quatre pressed.

"A month," Duo sounded like the words were dragged out of him.

"A month?" Quatre's voice climbed an octave. "You went without it for a month? Are you crazy?"

Duo flushed but remained stubbornly silent.

The blooding tree was part of every one of their people. A blooding tree was planted for each child born and their lives revolved around it. They spent their lives caring and nurturing their trees. If in the chance that their blooding trees were to wilt, so would their lives. They would have to be close to their trees, which was a source of their strength and their life force. When away from home, the trees would continue to nourish them by way of the blooding tree seeds. They would need to replenish themselves at the very least once every two weeks and anything less than that would be complete, utter suicide.

Which was what Quatre was accusing Duo of right now.

"I just wanted…"

"We can grow them now, so you will take them. Promise me!" Quatre shook his brother gently. He knew if Duo promised him something, he would do it. Duo never lied.

Duo's impossibly azure eyes widened. "Grow? What are you…"

A sharp knock on the door ended all discussion as Duo's arms came around Quatre again, protectively this time as his eyes narrowed on the door.

Tbc…

Oooh, lookie, Tsu decided to continue to story. Aaaack! Too many stories at once! Haaaaalp!