Shallow Mist 27 nov, 09

Disclaimer: G-boys not saru's (not available to buy anywhere; even though saru might have no money to even try make a bargain over Heero…); 'mugen' is taken from Samurai Champloo, since he made a sign almost like a lying '8' to write his name (sorry for being ignorance and used it as pleased, but saru like Mugen, too)

Warning: critical AU, NCS, some weird occurrences…!

8. eighth day - mugen: infinity

The birds chirped merrily, it was almost the usual morning like any other, except for the sound of a crow cawing between those chirping birds; Heero tried to open his eyes, his instinct was sensing some presences in the room with him eventhough his physical senses had yet to waken. About 5-10 minutes later he could open an eye a slit, the sight of the white conventional high ceiling greeted him; there were the clear chimes from the wall clock sounded six times, and he opened his eyes widely in an instant when he realized just how many people -strangers- that were there in the room with him.

On his left, near his shoulder, PK was sitting on a chair, reading a book with no title on the cover; he could only see that the deep purple velvet jacket-cover was made of handmade embroidery of a very intricate design and that it looked old and expensive. Behind the preoccupied PK was none other than Ms. Wintergreen, sitting crosslegged on the bed with balls of yarns on her laps and was absorbed in her knitting; somehow her posture looked almost childish.

The thing that surprised Heero was that there was a stranger sleeping next to his head at his right side, it seemed that the stranger was originally sitting but now he was slumped forward and the sound of his snoring was even louder than Duo's, or three Duos for that matter; and the fact that he wasn't waken up or bothered by the sound was what annoyed him. The sliding window in the wall behind his head was opened and the sunshine outside made the shadows fell on the opposite wall like a projector, he could see the shadow of a bird, presumably the crow that had been cawing since sometime ago, standing in midair but it wasn't flapping its wings in flight; it simply just floating in the air.

"…oh, you're awake…!" there was a voice carrying a smile greeting him from the window; Heero tilted his neck up and saw that there was a young man sitting on the windowsill, and the bird was indeed a crow only that it was a white one, and the crow was actually standing on the young man's shoulder.

"…Good morning!" PK greeted and lowered his opened book when he heard the man's greetings. Ms. Wintergreen was pausing her knitting and put it down on the bed. The other stranger on his right side was greeting him with a louder long snore.

Hero looked back at the shadow cast on the opposite wall at some respected distant from his feet; there was still no shadow of the man sitting on the window. So, it's not against his logics, but he was quite surprise finding that a creature with no shadow actually went in public and show himself amongst other people. Unless those other people were also some significant creatures themselves, his mind said.

His thinking paused when the face of Ms. Wintergreen obstructed his sight; she was leaning over and checked his pupils with a small flashlight, the ends of her fingers were touching his temple carefully. They felt almost like a cool breeze, her fingers.

"How do you feel?" she asked softly. Heero only stared her for some time. There was a chuckle from the man sitting on the window, and a choked and coughed snore from the one sleeping at his right side.

PK was closing his open book with a silent puffing sound the papers made.

"It seemed that we have nothing to worry too much; eventhough there were seemingly some nightmares accompanying your sleep through the night…!" PK smiled and his tone was light and conversational.

"Awww… Don't flatter us too much, Ka-chan; we might get ahead of ourselves…!"

"You are if you're calling me like that!!" the ever-composed PK looked annoyed for once, and the man on the window chuckled again amusedly.

"So, Su-chan; the school starts at 7.00…!" the young man reminded conversationally.

"It's still 6.00! Don't call me that friendly, I'm a teacher and whether you like it or not, you are STUDENTS…!" Ms. Wintergreen said flatly.

"We're still suspended, so we call Su-chan just as your name is…!" he waved and dismissed with his hand.

"……your suspension period ended three weeks ago, gentlemen!" Ms. Wintergreen's eyes narrowed.

"Huh? So we skipped school for three weeks, right? Don't we get another suspension period?" he asked innocently. At that the cold composed Ms. Wintergreen unusually turned around, mumbling something like 'whatever…' and put her knitting and yarns into a cloth bag and left the room after she patted PK's head; Heero felt like he was currently being forgotten that he was there, but he didn't have any objection; he would rather that the others left the room as well with her.

"So, Ka-chan…-"

"Stop calling me that, it sounds like Kaa-chan…!" PK frowned with annoyance he rarely showed.

"Awww, Mother…we'll be depending on you for the rest of our lives!" the young man playfully said in exaggerated dramatic tone; and PK threw the pillow from the bed behind him to hit his face, but he countered it with his hand and the pillow fell on the one sleeping next to Heero's head.

Heero saw the white pillow flew above his face, and when it landed with a half-way stop shorted snore, he blinked. It seemed that only then that the other two remembered that he was awake and still lying on his bed, that he was amazed at the situation.

"Oh… I'm sorry, I shouldn't bother you anymore…!" PK frowned and looked apologetic, took his book into his jacket pocket and nodded in excuse, and walked to the door. Heero blinked at the retreating back, and felt something melted behind PK's back, he wondered what it was since he still thought that his senses were not as sharp as they used to be.

"Kahlua…!" the young man on the window called with a big grin, "Keep my records from the teachers, okay? His, too…!" he winked.

PK was already opening the door panel; he looked behind one shoulder and blew him a raspberry childishly and slammed the door shut after he exited. Heero knew what that thing he felt melted was, it was the boy's walls that were always erect around him like a small fortress, but in the company of the ones left with him in the room, that shatterproof PK was just another boy; from the way the young man laughed happily, he thought that they had shared such familiarity for a very long time.

As the pleasant laughter faltered, Heero knew that the young man was now looking intently at him; if it was Duo, he might say that it was impolite to stare down someone while sitting above that someone's head and would tell that person to get down immediately; but as he was still somewhat feel exhausted, he was only hoping that those strangers would be considerate enough and leave him alone.

"Huh…?" a slurred mumble asked, and the slumped head next to his jolted up suddenly; there was the dull sound of the pillow fell to the floor behind the stranger's back.

"…………………………" it was exactly 30 seconds long of pause before the stranger said, "…oh, you're awake…"

You're awake, Heero wanted to point out, but he didn't really care about such tiny details; above his head, the one on the window started another series of laughter.

"You're the ones from last night…" Heero left it at that.

"Yes, we are. Sorry for the inconvenience, Lord Yuy…" the black haired youngster yawned widely and rubbed at his sleepy eyes; he stood up and stretched his body. He wore black clothes; much like the school's uniform, only with a longer jacket that looked more like a duster than a suit jacket; and the collar was high and folded down like the old style.

"What time is it…?" the black-one asked while scratching the back of his head.

"Hahaa… sorry for his rudeness, he's exhausted from last night…!" the one on the window said lightly; Heero saw a glimpse of shining white hair when he tilted up to see him before; he was wearing the same clothes like his friend only that his were all-white colored, that even his crow was white too.

"I object!" Heero said simply. The black and white strangers stared at him; they were about 18-or-so, now that he paid more attention –not that he would admit it that he was interested in those strangers-, and their faces and postures were shockingly similar, like identical twins; but identical twins wouldn't have different hair colors, right?

"…'no one touches me intimately except for Duo'… I got it; and we know that our hands were uncalled for, but if you think that you could survive alone -especially now- then you could do it alone…!" the black-one said lightly.

Having it put so bluntly, Heero could only frowned in objection, but knew that he was indeed powerless at the time.

"I'm First; he's Second, by the way…!" the white-one decided to lighten the heavy air, "Almost like the two of you, right? 'Hi' from 'hitotsu' (1) and 'duo'…?"

Heero stared silently at the ceilings.

Second sighed and patted his hands to his hips to clean some imaginary dust off; "We are 'first scoundrel' and 'second scoundrel'; get it? We're just villains(2); so we do what villains do…!" –and that's violating someone's personal space too, a thought popped out between them but they didn't say anything about it; he bent forward and cupped Heero's face with both hands, Heero jerked as Second's face closed down to his and their foreheads touched.

"Would you rather I close my eyes?" he asked flatly. Heero's face hardened in defiant, refusing to show that he was bothered by the closeness eventhough they already knew that he was feeling so, and it actually brought an amused smile on that very close face; "Alright…" the black haired youngster said simply and complied, closing his eyelids, and Heero felt somewhat relieved when those black abyss of eyes no longer felt like penetrating his every wall and ward.

Heero was prepared to feel the painful charges ripped his body inside out like last night, but he felt like he was floating in a warm air for a short moment, and was a little flushed when he realized that he felt it pleasurable. Second smiled gently and lifted his face; "That's good enough for now. You should rest, we're going to do it again tonight…!"

Heero refrained from widening his eyes, he frowned instead. "You would want to be ALRIGHT when your brother got out from the Attic, right, Lord Yuy?" Second said between admonishing and coaxing, the tone made First laughed again.

"You can call me Hitori, Lord Yuy; 'first' is not quite simple to use to call someone…; firstly, many people mixed it in the grammatical forms!" Hitori seemed like he was going to rant some more of his logics, and Heero decided that the white-one almost had Duo's mouth and thinking pattern, and thought that they might not bothering him that much after all.

"Hey, that's cheating!" Second pointed a finger at his opposite-colored counterpart.

Hitori stuck his tongue out, "Decide on a name to use already; but whatever you'd use, you will still be the 'second' to me…!" he had that half-mocking tone that Duo used to use too.

Second tsk-ed and threw himself onto his chair back, crossing his hands on his chest and pretending that he stopped caring about the existence of his counterpart there on the window. It had passed about 3 minutes in silence, and Heero realized that he had to ask.

"…you're going to stay here?"

Hitori chuckled, his white crow cawed on his shoulder; "We don't usually attend class, Lord Yuy!"

"Just pretend that we're like groupies following you everywhere; only we're groupies without H-stuffs…!" Second put simply with the most rational tone anyone could use to state the weather outside.

"What…?!" Heero sweat.

Hitori laughed amusedly at his incredulous tone; "We'll keep enough distance when your brother returns… unless you want to be alone while being kept in this school's ground?"

Heero clamped his jaws, stubbornly didn't want to admit his helplessness, but he knew it was futile.

"We won't bother you; so, please rest…" Second said softly.


The wind brought the scents of flowers from the outside; it was past 12 o'clock, supposedly to be the break time, but outside seemed even busier than usual.

"It's that annual choir festival or something… everyone is busy preparing the necessities…!" Hitori offered nonchalantly, his book of World History was up side down in his hands; he was feeding cookies to his crow, letting the bird pecked at the cake crumbs around his mouth too.

Heero glanced at the white-one and his white crow stared back at him with its red gleaming eyes; he wanted to know about them, whether they were really taking his (and Duo's) side or with the others, whether they're just following someone's order or were they voluntarily, whether they're potential enemies or just some passer-by. The crow cocked its head as if reading his mind, Heero blinked and strangely he didn't mind if the bird was really doing it.

"…its name was originally blǣcan, but it was hard to pronounce, so it somewhat turned to beakan, from beak…" Hitori said with a piece of cookies between his lips, the crow's eyes turned to the cake back as it moved up and down with Hitori's words and the motion seemed to have caught the bird's attention.

"But mostly I call it 'It'…!" Hitori grinned, and the cake broke and the piece stuck outside his mouth fell but the crow pecked at it before it landed on the history book, and it swallowed it in one gulped. Then, the crow uncharacteristically scratched the back of its head like cats would, and yawned out a lazy caw, after clawing at the white fabric of Hitori's shoulder and made a couple of circling motion It decided to take a nap since it was noon. Hitori chuckled and leaned his head to the crow sitting on his shoulder; the bird unusually fawned on his head rubbing with its head and big beak and actually let out a crow-purr.

"Second calls It 'Neko', though…!" Hitori grinned again, "It likes to act like cat…-!" a crow's talon scratched at his cheek, and Hitori sweatdropped; "…okay; It thinks It was a cat in Its past-life!" he corrected.

Heero stared but wasn't actually interested about what that youngster rant about for the past 30 minutes, whether about the bird's name nor the world history nor about the upcoming festival.

"…'hitori' is not 'alone', right?" Heero asked silently.

"Hu?" there was a flush color on Hitori's cheeks when he looked up at Heero's face, he seemed a little flustered that Heero would actually ask something about him. "No… hi 'fire' and tori 'bird'…!" his expression almost like Duo's caught-expression, with a stiff grin but eyes twinkled like a child's.

Heero stared him fixedly with unaffectionate eyes, it made the boy with older looks blinked and pretended to read his book again.

"…you don't really know how to read or write, do you? Human's writing-systems are not making sense in your logics?"

Hitori glanced at Heero who was sitting on his bed, and there was a more distinctive hue of red tinted his cheeks. He didn't say anything to those questions and just let out a series of tolerant chuckles.

"Why would you guard me? You're not a Guardian…!"

Hitori gave a gentle smile at that, his cheeks were still flushed a little; it made his face looked girlish a little, eventhough he was about model-like handsome.

"I'm with him…!" he cocked his head at the doorway behind the back of his chair, and as if answering his words, Second came in with two trays in his hands and one on his head. He closed the door with his foot and walked to the only occupied bed and chair. Hitori raised the bed's table, and as Second put the tray from his right hand on it, Hitori took the seemingly heavy tray from his head.

Heero let the black-one arranged his lunch before him, he glanced at Hitori's tray as he took the cover cloth and revealed a mountain of soda cans. "You want some, Lord Yuy?" he asked childishly excited.

Second frowned at his white-counterpart in disagreement, "No…!"; and Hitori laughed dismissing his black-counterpart's look on him.


"You should eat something…!" Wu Fei said, sitting behind Duo's back on the bed.

Duo answered him with silence; his eyes were puffy from crying the whole night, even when he'd fallen asleep. There was a sad pout on his lips, and a deep frown between his brows in objection to the world in general. He'd woken up around mid-morning, and refused to talk or do anything move ever since; he'd ignored Wu Fei generally too.

"Duo…, at least have a drink; or are you going to starve yourself to death?"

Wu Fei sighed; "Well, for your information, your-kind wouldn't die just by starvation or dehydration eventhough you think you could cry yourself dry…!"

"……would Heero…?" Duo muttered.

Wu Fei's brows arched, so Duo still felt guilty about his brother's condition; well, not really, it was perhaps about his ignorance over his condition.

"No, I don't think so, Duo…"

"………but Quatre made it look like it…" Duo said bitterly.

Duo's tone was final, and Wu Fei knew he'd refused to talk again; sighing, Wu Fei patted Duo's arm from the top of the blanket. "Listen…"

"…you might not realize it, Duo…" the Chinese paused as he searched for the right words to explain it. "But other pairs had stopped growing up after they're initiated…?"

That fact had plagued Duo's mind too, but he kept it to himself; he guessed he could ask Heero about it if he wanted to.

"…so what are you implying, Wu Fei? That we're not actually bonded or that our initiation failed or something…?" Duo's tone was uninterested, but it sounded bitter.

"Don't you think it's the other way around?" Wu Fei was not sure whether he could reveal it or not, but he thought his -present- roommate need some reliefs.

That got Duo's attention enough; he turned his head behind, staring with anxious eyes. "…what other way?"

Wu Fei felt halve regret elaborating this, he didn't know whether it could mend things or actually bring more problems; he thought he just had to keep himself close so they would not get out of hands. "……." He swallowed his regret, Duo's eyes were piercing his with hope burning in them; he just couldn't betray those hurt eyes.

"…that…-" the piercing darkened violet eyes were too much for him, and Wu Fei averted his eyes, staring at his own hand on the blanket on Duo's arm. "-It might actually be that you're the one initiated the bond; and not him…?" his voice faltered at the end; he was afraid if his suspicion was wrong and he'd given Duo false hope, or crushing his leftover hope.

Duo jerked to sitting immediately, Wu Fei was surprise at the move and he reflexively looked up to Duo's face, and he couldn't avert his eyes away after that.

"That could happen?" Duo' s face was torn between hope and anxious and incomprehension and other contradicting feelings. "How…?!"

Wu Fei lost his train of thought by the intensity in Duo's gaze, and he had to form it from the beginning in his mind. "Like… It's just some theory, Duo; there's no proof of such thing could actually happen, and…-"

"How, Wu Fei…?!" Duo barked, and Wu Fei choked his fear in.

"…unhh… it's more of…" he swallowed dryly, if he was wrong then Duo might feel betrayed even more. "-…a thought of…- It's like this…!" he sounded depressed at himself, scratching his head roughly, pulling out some strands sticking out from his neat masochistically-tight ponytail.

"Slayers are not ordinary humans, you see…; some of my kin wouldn't even classify them as ones…! Much like ourselves…!" Wu Fei hit his laps in exasperation; Duo's eyes didn't seem to get what he wanted to say either.

"Firstly, humans don't live this long…!" he paused to see if Duo caught his direction. At his small slow nod after a long pause, Wu Fei continued; "…this might just my kin's suspicion that was born from qualms and aversion towards Slayers; but some of us believed that Slayers feed off their prey's…life…!"

Duo blinked several times in puzzlement. "……hu…?"

Wu Fei clamped his mouth shut and let the teenager to mull at it for some time; "…You're saying…" Duo shook his head ever so slowly, "…that Slayers feed on vampire's…what…?"

Duo's brows frowned deeper, "…they're dead, Wu Fei… vampires don't have …life…anymore…!"

"They have souls, Duo…" he said silently.

"Really…?" Duo asked slowly in skeptical tone.

"…souls condemned for eternity…!" Wu Fei pulled his eyes from Duo's gaze. "Slayers feed off vampires' eternity…!"

"…eternity?" Duo repeated slowly.

"That's why Slayers gained more power with more preys they'd slain…!"

"Power… and longer lifespan…" Duo mulled slowly, "…like you…!"

"Yes… like me, and my family…" Wu Fei turned his face away from Duo.

"Why?"

"……we preyed on Slayers too…" Wu Fei admitted silently.

Duo grasped where this conversation lead to; "…your first kill…-"

"…was a Slayer!" the hardened tone made Duo didn't want to prod some more; it was about himself and Heero he wanted to know.

"So you're saying that I might be…-…Heero?" he implied something he didn't sure of himself.

"I don't really know, Duo. What I wanted to say was; that it might be you're the one initiating the bond; not him…!" Wu Fei didn't dare staring at Duo's eyes.

"You're saying that our bond was one-sided from me…?"

"Look, Duo; my suspicion didn't have strong base, and it's just a thought, and-…"

"…that's why Heero refused my blood?" Duo concluded by himself.

"Duo, it's just something that might have been the case; don't jump to conclusion that desperately. You have to ask your brother to make sure; I could be wrong…!"

"That makes sense…!" Duo had a manic grin as he stared distantly at his blanket covered laps; "…Heero seemed like he doesn't want to be with me most of the time!"

"Duo, please listen…!"

"So, it's like this; he was kept for demons knew how long in my basement, and I was desperately seeking help at the time… and of course he was extremely weakened back then, and I did something that could be counted as binding him to me…?" Duo paused and looked up at Wu Fei's face, asking desperately for confirmation; and, yes, that theory could be applied.

"So, that means…?!" Duo's eyes looked manic and Wu Fei knew he had to calm him down before he gets hysterical.

"Listen carefully, Duo. If someone like your brother wanted to reject somebody, wouldn't you think he could do it without so much of a blink of an eye?"

Duo didn't look like he got what Wu Fei meant. "Don't you realize that I'm being too careful of saying his name when he's not around? He's that grand, Duo…! Do you think someone like him could be bound by a mere Slayer?"

Wu Fei huffed, "Forgive me for saying this, but you were only a would-be Slayer at the time, so I don't think that your brother would be pulled by you if he himself didn't want it …!"

Duo was dumbfounded for some second, his eyes were blank when he spoke his thought; "…Heero was waiting to be released from his confinement; of course he would want to be pulled out of there…-"

Then it dawned on him; he widened his eyes in panic. "It…It didn't necessarily have to be me…! It could be anyone just as long as he could be freed…!!"

Wu Fei gripped his shoulders and shook him hard, "DUO! You're not listening to me!!" and he actually gotten a bit angered at Duo's mud-brain.

"He stayed with you eventhough he had to endure things; he wanted to be with you even if it costs him his existence…! Why would he do that? He could bind you and stop your growth and made you just as mere food, but he chose to grow up with you…! Don't you see?!" Wu Fei spelled it slowly in admonishing tone; he only got more exasperated when Duo didn't seem to get his words.

"So…alright, Heero might yet found the right one to be-…" Duo flailed in denial; his mind was too baffled in grief and desperation that he couldn't think right.

"No! Vampires DON'T grow, Duo! Even if they wanted to…!" Wu Fei jerked him to stay still and actually think.

Duo stilled, and made some efforts to say something, but he couldn't form any words, not even in his mind. He shook his head slowly, and smirked in skepticism, and looked frightful, and chuckled at something he didn't seem to think funny himself, and stared dumbfounded at Wu Fei's face.

"He's not…?" his voice was so small and childish and fearful; since he'd thought of Heero as a vampire since the beginning and treated him like one. The fact that Heero was not a vampire would shatter his world and annulled the very base of his years spent cohabiting with Heero.

"I'm not saying that he's not one! I'm saying that he's different! The others knew that he's different, too; that's why he needs protection, Duo!"

"……especially from me…!" Duo added.

Wu Fei's veins popped out on his temples; he hit Duo's forehead with his forehead not so gently.

"Eat something first… then use the calories to THINK…!!" he almost yelled, letting go Duo's shoulders and watched his body fell behind to the bed with both hands covering his abused forehead and moaning in pain.

Wu Fei hmph-ed and stomped to his own bed and took whatever book from the shelf in the wall, and pretended he didn't hear Duo's childish whine.

"…owwwh…Wu Fei you nutcracker-headed meanniiie…!!" whatever that meant.


The winds brought the choir's song into their window softly, from every direction of school and town, and Duo who had been picking on his food for the last 20-minutes while looking outside.

"I missed Heero's singing…!" he smiled sadly, "He used to sing a lot whenever I felt down back then…", now he felt the pieces of meat stared back at him accusingly.

"I wonder why he didn't do it anymore… perhaps because he was too full of me…!"

Wu Fei glanced at the opened window, "They're practicing for the Choir Festival…" he lifted one shoulder, "If you behave, perhaps PK will let you out before it starts that day and you could actually have a date and some quality time with your brother in the festival…!"

Duo stared because Wu Fei had said it so nonchalantly. "…you're not coming?"

"I've had it for how long, I didn't care to count it anymore, Duo…!" Wu Fei frowned in annoyance.

"So… you just cooked yourself in here for how-you didn't care to count anymore-long?"

"Leave me alone…!" Wu Fei frowned at his book.

The nonchalant Duo would tease him about how loners would choose to spend their loneliness by being alone, but he had his lesson and didn't want to tease anyone for now, after what happened yesterday.

"Wu Fei…"

"…tell me more about my family…!"

Wu Fei stared at him, but with skeptical face.

"The Maxwells?" Duo didn't need to say it; the Chinese boy knew what he meant, though.

"Go ask your aunt!"

"I had a feeling that she wouldn't elaborate the things I wanted to know that easily…!"

"It doesn't mean she would keep them from you forever…!" Wu Fei said to the book he'd been staring at for the rest half hour or so; "Perhaps she just couldn't find the right moment…"

"Perhaps she could try elaborating when she found us shivering in the ruins of my house and covered with sooths and ashes and wondering why that happened…?"

"How old were you at the time?"

"An 8-year old who had seen his parents died in the fire screaming his name to their very last breath would want to know the reason for it however twisted it sounded…!" Duo almost barked out, but he tried to restrain his temper.

Wu Fei silenced for some time; and asked flatly "……were they murdered?"

Duo didn't answer.

"Did you think that it was your family's doing?"

At the eyes snapped at his direction Wu Fei lifted his shoulder again; "You seemed like you don't trust them that much…!"

"…do you belief in witchcraft, Wu Fei?" Duo asked silently, as if diverting his own question.

"I might have used something like that in the past; but I wouldn't call it witchcraft…!" the Chinese said nonchalantly. Duo stared at him for some time, or perhaps he just didn't want to look at his food.

Wu Fei sighed, "Well, Hunters used their own methods which were usually individually different with each other; Slayers too have their own skills; just like vampires have their own powers. It's mostly like humans have their own different talents for different things…!"

He knew what make Duo asked that; perhaps the boy had seen the seal, which looked like patterns of spells and circles, that was used to confine Heero in.

"How did he Initiate you? Did he take you?"

"Yes…" Duo didn't have a fraction of hesitation revealing that.

"Right; that's common. Vampires connect with their initiated-ones through sins… so that they could be in condemnation together…!"

"We did it in turns, you know…" Duo admitted it without shame, he wouldn't care if he had to do it (elaborating, or just down right doing the act) in front of anyone else just to show his bond with Heero; but he felt like his pieces of meat now leering at him from the plate; he threw the fork down.

Wu Fei stilled for several seconds; "…I've never heard something like that!"

"Not even with Quatre's pairs…?" Duo asked since he thought Quatre would be the receiver instead of Trowa; it's clear like an open book, right?

"Hmph… They could hear you talking about them, you know?" Wu Fei chuckled, Duo arched his shoulder uncaringly. "It didn't have to be lechery, Duo; they could do it through gluttony…"

"Blood-sharing…" Duo added for himself; duh, wasn't that the most familiar things he'd seen in vampire movies of how to Initiate some human into another-creature…?

"It's faster that way; and didn't have to get messy doing it, or after that…!" Wu Fei smirked to his opened book, feeling that the letters now seemed like only black patterns on white papers.

"I bit Heero first!" Duo admitted, staring at the meat and amazed that thinking about biting Heero actually made him hungry. He took a piece with his fingers and chewed it slowly.

There was a thump sound as Wu Fei's book fell to the floor. Duo glanced at him and almost laughed at his gaping mouth.

"I was scared, I wanted to scream, and I was aching all over, and I just though that I should fight or something; even if it's useless. So, I bit his neck…!" Duo swallowed and took another piece. "His blood was cool and slid down my throat like silk, I didn't even feel like I was swallowing it, you know; it kinda felt good in the heat of the fire roaring around us…"

Wu Fei was still gaping at him unmoving with incredulous eyes.

"Hmm… and I think I heard him saying something like 'forgive me' in my head; but at the time I was nearly unconscious from smoke inhalation, so I could be wrong about that…!"

"…you fed on him first…?" Wu Fei asked slowly.

Duo was caught by the words and paused, he realized what he was doing with the food on his plate and stared at it foully; he pushed the plate further from him. "Yeahh…, if you put it that way; I guess I did!"

He swallowed and stared at the still gaping Hunter who looked like he needed a dictionary to spell out his words. "What… did it make us, then…?" Duo asked hesitantly.

It was Wu Fei's turn to look dumbfounded, and he took the fallen book with blank face and put it back into the shelf. "You might have to ask your brother about that…" he said slowly, and decided to get some nap. In his dream, he was haunted by the sight of surrounding white flowers of jade-orchid(3) in a circling garden, it was a beautiful sight, but he wanted to get out from the center of the garden, and he had to break down some flowery branches to make his way out, but he couldn't do it; that's why he was trapped in the center.


"I'm boooored…!" a little boy said throwing a book above his black hood covered head almost hitting the high arty ceilings, he was lounging on a sofa that was covered with cushions and stylize coverlets (or perhaps one of it was a tapestry from the wall).

"Would you like to go to town?" a dark-skinned boy smiled as he was standing near the sofa feet, like a butler waiting for the master's order.

The book floated in the air and flapped its covers like wings.

"You might want to stop doing something like that; the Colors will see you…!"

"Just brainwash them again then, Naja…!" the small boy said uncaringly.

The dark-skinned boy blinked and smiled; "You'll get another warning from PK!"

"Warning may come as it may come, leave me alone when I'm bored…!" the small boy whined, he was acting just as his looks, exactly about 6 years old would.

"Well…" his Blackedge sighed, "Tell me something you'd want to do and I'll do it for you…!"

The small boy turned his gaze to the standing boy's face, his black hood revealed a little of bluish-grey locks accenting his cherubic face. "Let's hunt!" he smirked evilly.

"That's breaking the Main Rules #7 of No-hunting…!" Naja said indifferently.

"Agh, you're just a liar!!" A cushion flew and hit his Blackedge's face who didn't even blink to it.

"Boundless is here…!" Naja informed suddenly, asking his Gold what he wanted to do about it; Blackedges usually called other Gold with a cognomen except if they're given the permission by that Gold to call him by his name.

"I DIDN'T CALL YOU, FREI…!!" the small boy yelled, and his Blackedge winced at his rudeness.

"You didn't have to summon me, Cleo; I'm not summonable…!" a sweet voice said silkily, a gush of breeze and the coverlet from a matching lounger across the one occupied by the small boy suddenly arose in a twirling movement and made a human shape when the ends of its corners casted aside in inert flows.

The Gold Cleo didn't seem he was fascinated that another Gold from different Wing came visiting him without notice and now standing in front of him under his sofa blanket on his sofa. After taking enough pause giving it the impression as if he was thinking anything, Cleo said acidly "Surely you're not here to leave shoe-prints on my sofa, right, Frei?"

"I see you're bored enough to be rude to me…" it's said with a sugary smile.

"Leave me alone…!" Cleo cut before the other Gold had a chance to make him un-bored with whatever he was going to persuade him to do.

"The Pact is signed…!" Frei said slowly with his silky tone, giving enough ideas about whatever he was implying.

"I said, leave me alone!" Cleo scowled and used the flying book to hit the human-shaped cloth with enough force to make a hole in a body.

The book hit the coverlet at its middle part and stuck to the sofa backrest by one of its corner, making an odd sense to the human-shaped coverlet as the cloth was nailed to the backrest as well as if it was only a human-shaped air underneath.

Cleo didn't seem fascinated by the sight, or the fact that his book might have just made a dent on his coverlet and a quite bothering hole on his matching sofa's back and not the person he intended. "If it's about war, I'm not interested…!" he frowned.

The human-shaped cloth arching his shoulders, "The others are already in for it…!"

"I'm not going to waaar…!!" Cleo whined and made a tantrum on his sofa with flailing hands and feet, Naja flipped the coverlets draped on the backrest to cover his Gold and smiled at the other Gold.

"Do the others need my Gold, Boundless?" the dark-skinned boy cocked his head in a suggesting gesture and the red mark on his forehead shone with right angle; it was the customary Indian's red mark, only his was as if the round mark was smeared down and made a creepy shape of a torn key-hole.

"You mean; is he needed in the war, Serpent? Of course not, it's you that's might be needed in the war…!" Frei said with a mocking tone.

"NAJA IS MIIIINNE….!!" Cleo flailed under the cloths and an explosion sounded from the East Wing area; the human-shaped cloth blew up too by a sudden of bursting wind and made the sticking book fell to the floor.

Naja widened his eyes knowing what his small spoilt Gold had done to the other Gold's room in the East Wing, he glanced down to see his Gold had stilled and looked up to see the cloth had moved down to 'stand' on the floor, and a white hand sneaked under the stooping human-shaped cloth to pick the fallen book. The human-shaped cloth straightened up and was examining the book in the hand.

"No wonder you're bored, you should read something more sophisticated then just children fairytales…!" Frei commented through the coverlet.

Naja narrowed his eyes, "Boundless, I apologize for my Gold's doing, but would you please unhand him…?" he said slowly with enough silky warning.

Frei chuckled and his hand threw the book uncaringly; and the hand slipped under the cloth again, "…or what? You're going to set his blanket on fire?"

Naja didn't react to that, still staring the other Gold down with narrowed eyes; his large eyes were outlined with kohl and made them more sharp looking when narrowed; eventhough when it came down to power there's no way he could fight a Gold when he's just a Blackedge.

Frei took the fight in Naja's staring contest through the coverlet too; the Blackedge could feel his winning smirk even without witnessing it. By then, another boy landed on the opened windowsill and Frei let Cleo go with a jerk. "I'll visit again when he's not bored…!" he said as a farewell and the cloth twisted again until it made a tight pole-like twirl and opened as it fell into a heap on the floor.

"What was that?" the boy on the windowsill asked with an alarmed frown, he had a silver pin attached on his shirt collar.

Naja practically ignored him and uncovered his small Gold, who was baring his beast teeth with a wild expression at no one in particular, since he knew Frei had already left his room. Naja rounded the sofa end and kneeled down examining the handprint bruise on Cleo's neck with a worried face.

"Don't do something like that…!" Naja whispered with anxiety; kissing his small Gold's forehead and brushing the bruise with gentle fingers. "It's breaking the main Rules # 3 of No fighting another Gold for personal reasons…!" he added matter-of-factly.

Cleo's eyes snapped to Naja's face from the ends of his eyes shooting out poison; then without warning he grabbed the Blackedge's nape and attacked his neck viciously, since he'd already gotten his teeth out.

"Owh--!" the Silver choked on his yelp and instantly turned around from witnessing Cleo's mess, cursing under his breath as he heard the sounds of crushing jaws and splattering blood repeatedly.


(…that's Cleo…!) Hitori said with his telepathy; Second didn't look impressed and chewed his ice cubes with silent crunching sounds while scribbling something on his small whiteboard on his laps with a piece of charcoal.

(Do you think they'll wait until Scion awake…?)

Hitori stared at the bed between their chairs, Heero was sleeping soundly under the blanket; the shadows of the trees outside the window protected his small bundle from the dying sunlight of the dusk. (…do you think we'll make it before Scion awake?), he countered his black counterpart's question; the white crow on his shoulder was giving a light crow-purr with its breathing.

Second turned his gaze to Heero's sleeping form as well; (If scion wakes before him, then we'll just have to kill Scion!).

Hitori snickered; (You made it sounded easy; do you really think you actually could take Scion after he wakes up?)

Second smiled at his whiteboard and busied his hand again.

(…then we just have to take Scion before that…!)


"Waah! Your Aunt Leonore didn't tell me that your brother is this cute…!!" the plump woman squealed merrily and Heero squirmed behind his back.

He chuckled, "I'm sorry, Granny Erne; he's shy…!" Heero's fingers dug into his pants cloth and he thought he should pull them before they left nail mark tears on it; so he pried Heero's grip off his pants and held his hand, knowing his other hand would be balled before his lips, as if afraid anyone could see his fangs eventhough those teeth were not out.

"Ooh, I'm sorry; did my tone scare you, Sweetheart? This is just our way of speaking; most people in my town talk lively…!" Granny said nodding her head vigorously; her hair color was dark grey with two streaks of white locks on the left side. "And, Master Duo, please don't call me 'granny', it makes me feel old…!" she dismissed the grin from his face.

"Then what should I call you with? Mama called you 'nanny', that's why you're my granny…!" he pulled Heero along while entering the house. The smell of flowers instantly assaulted his nose; he remembered only blinking at the sensation while surveying the small fairytale-looking house. Outside, he could still hear the sounds of the sea and the sea birds in the sky; the small cheerful-colored small flowers on the window boxes swaying with the salty breeze.

No, the house wasn't fairytale-looking; it was something came out of a painting.

"What's wrong, Honey?" Granny Erne asked when she saw him paused.

He shook himself, "No; nothing, Granny Erne. You have a beautiful house, I wouldn't have guessed…!" he smiled politely.

She smiled knowingly; "Well, I'd wished that I could have you here for, may be, a holiday; but I thought if I do have you here I wouldn't want to have you back to your home, Master Duo. So I never asked your parents about it... I'm sorry for what happened…!"

"We're fine, Granny Erne. I didn't really think about what happened; I don't know what to think about it, mostly. I guess my parents bequeathed me their last legacy, so I have to be strong…!" he arched his shoulders and Heero hid behind his body when the old woman's eyes turned to him again at his words.

There was a darkened color in her eyes that made her smile looked sad, he noted; he wondered why everyone who knew his parents would see Heero with saddened eyes, perhaps they sympathized with him when they knew he was supposedly having them as his foster parents but already losing them in his first night after arriving. Some other people he wasn't too eager to meet would see Heero as a jinx and mistreated Heero behind his back; he supposed he should be grateful when Aunt Leon sent them to the people who loved his parents, people who would love their heirs as well.

He closed his eyes, smelling the salt in the air, sensing the smell of flowers mixed in every breath he inhaled and was complaining a little at the odd mixture. The winds were strong enough that he could feel his braid was played by the breeze, frowning at the straying lock of hair that tickled his face and nose continuously. When he opened his eyes, a vast body of dark blue waters greeted him; the sounds of waves and sea birds filling his ears; he knew if he looked down the stone window he couldn't see the base of the cliff and the water lapping at the cliff wall and some projecting rocks because there were some thick flowery bushes on the base of the tower blocking his sight.

He wondered why Heero hadn't reached his place; he'd ran ahead of him thinking that Heero wouldn't find difficulty ascending the stone stairs to the top level of the ex-lighthouse to find him; since behind Heero's shy and listlessness was a creature far superior than most human on earth.

"Heero…?" he called and the void of stone tower bounced his voice back to his ears; he grimaced at the sound.

"Heero, aren't you coming up?" he tried a little softer and wondered why he didn't get any answer; didn't Heero followed him into the lighthouse? He frowned and decided to descend the fractured stone stairs back down, only realizing that the things were not as strong as he thought anymore as he had to dodge stepping on some loose stone bricks that fell down making loud noises.

Halve the height of the tower was sunk in thick white fog, he widened his eyes as an unsettling feeling clutched at his heart seeing it; a bile choked his throat and he had to struggle to call out Heero's name in the fog. His hands searched his way along the tower wall and his stomach churned when the wall turned wetter as he descended lower, it was clammy and wafting an unpleasant smell; his mind recognized the thick gel-like goop making his palms felt thicker was congealing blood.

He wanted to retch; but didn't want to show weakness in such a situation.

"Heero…?" he was quite amazed that his voice sounded composed enough and didn't betray him. His hands found an opening in the wall, although blinded by the fog, and by the width of it he recognized that it was a door. A small voice in his heart reminded him over and over that it wasn't the shape of the door to the tower he'd use to enter, and even knowing that the tower wasn't suppose to be that deep down; if it was right, then that meant he was below ground level right now.

Trying hard to see into the room through the doorway didn't help him to figure out the place, sometime before his feet stop stepping in he'd already realized that his heart had stopped beating; so he wouldn't have it jumped into his mouth when anything surprise him there, he thought.

(You weren't supposed to be here…!) a reverberating voice said indifferently; and he widened his eyes as his mind felt like knowing that voice. It almost sounded like Heero's, only deeper and thicker, as if the voice of an adult Heero.

Then suddenly a painful charge tore his body inside out before he could ask anything; there was a voice far away calling his name over and over, a voice from another world.


"DUO…!!" Wu Fei slapped Duo's face as his desperate attempt to wake him up.

Duo's body arched from the bed and shook hard in taught spasms before his eyes snapped open, and fell to the mattress wheezing as if in pain.

"…are you alright? I thought I've lost you back there…!" Wu Fei was crouching above him and wiping his cold sweaty face with palms, setting aside his bangs that were plastered to his face by his sweat and trying to calm his squirming body which seemed to be in pain. "Duo, you okay?"

Duo wheezed a couple times more and glanced at Wu Fei's wary face; closing his eyes again as his breathing calmed down a bit. His skin felt numb when Wu Fei dabbed the moistened towel on his face.

"…Fei… 'eero…!" he tried breathlessly.

"What?"

"…Heero's in pain, Fei…!" Duo lifted his hands asking help to get him up. And Wu Fei thought that Duo had shortened his name to only 'Fei' because he was out of breath at the time, so he let him; eventhough it felt a little too intimately sounded.

"…'need to get to him…!" Duo's hands gripped Wu Fei's shoulders tremblingly, and Wu Fei frowned.

"It's in the middle of the night, Duo! The clock just struck 12…!" he glanced at the table clock on the desk; "…you just had a nightmare, that's all, Duo! Try to calm down and sleep again, okay? Do you want some water?" he pushed Duo down, not knowing whether to be relieved or be alert when Duo's hands fell weakly from his shoulders.

"No!" Duo squirmed and gripped at Wu Fei's wrists, but his strength betrayed him. "It's real, Wu Fei…!" he sounded like he was about to cry by the desperation but soon gave up when his body turned numb with every thrashing he made, and lied still with a trembling body and dimmed eyes.

Wu Fei felt Duo's forehead checking for his temperature, and was half relieved when he found that he didn't have a fever. "Do you want some water, Duo? A warm tea, perhaps…?" he repeated, and that was all he had in his room, a small electric stove and an abundant of tea supply in the cabinet under his bed.

Duo shook his head, his eyes turned focused and unfocused as if his sight was swimming; like he was drunk. Wu Fei's frown got deeper; "Are you cold? Want some more blankets?" he asked while fixing Duo's blanket to cover him back.

Duo shook his head again; he mumbled out Heero's name a couple more times before he looked too tired to move his lips.

Wu Fei stared him down with worried frown for some time; he decided he could company him like last night, and held him until he fell back to sleep; watching for any sign of nightmare so he could wake Duo up again from its clutch. A little voice in his mind wondered whether Heero was really alright out there; but he only had Duo that was entrusted to him to safeguard for the time being, and knowing he wouldn't bother to get out and check by himself with the others outside, he could only stay with Duo.

"I hope your brother is alright, Duo…" Wu Fei whispered to Duo's head when he felt that his breathing had evened out.


1. Saru only guessed it; cmiiw… -sweats-; First is just like Saru, then… he's guessing the meaning of words and actually just thought that he could relate words that have the same pronounciation, like 'hi'-fire and the kanji 'hi'-one

2. just knew that the word 'villain' was derived from 'villa' (village); it's as in the sense of saying 'villagers' or 'peasants'… and everytime we heard about superheroes and villains (…'superheroes vs peasants'…? Ouch!), we just laugh ourselves off… it's kind of ruining the image –sweats more-

3. Yulan; Chinese magnolia

.....is being confused with the auto-editing system of FF; since the fic saru uploaded is needing to be edited live....manually.... saru is GAPTEK, for heaven's sakes...! -sobs-