Warnings; AU ness (duh), 3x4(duh), perhaps 1+2, and OOC ness (Of course)

Disclaimer: I don't own nothing!

CHAPTER EIGHT

While Duo was off talking to Trowa, Heero made his way to Quatre's side and not too gently pulled him away from the girls he had been talking to. The set of them seemed to glare at dark haired Duke but said nothing as they turned away and went elsewhere to have their conversations. Quatre, although he was never really interested in talking to them, glared as best he could at his friend. "That was very rude of you Heero," he admonished but went with the other anyway.

"I know it was but that is not the point," Heero answered a bit coldly and turned towards his smaller friend upon finding an appropriately secluded spot. "Quatre, I have to talk to you about something important. It's regarding Trowa."

Instantly the blond was all ears. "What about him?" he asked somewhat fearfully. Had someone threatened his half-breed?

Heero sighed. He wasn't very good about having delicate conversations like this but Duo was even worse. "Just tell me honestly," he said, running a hand through the fine hairs at the base of his neck. "do you love him?"

Quatre's turquoise eyes almost jumped out of his pretty blond head. "What? What are you talking about?" His tone was very nervous as he spoke, betraying his feelings to his friend even if it was indirectly. "Who told you that?"

Blue eyes rolled in irritation as the other man hissed "Just answer the damn question. Do you love him? Enough to save his life yet separate him from his family?"

The birthday boy shook his head and frowned, his fingers running through his hair. "What do you mean Heero? You're seriously scaring me and I am so confused." He knew Trowa lived in the woods, without a home or a decent meal in the cold but how did they know that? Catherine and the children were healthy, he had leant them money to buy appropriate clothes for the party, and Trowa himself was just as well dressed as they were. Sure he was still a bit thin but no where near as skeletal as he had been before.

Heero had heard that blonds were dense but damn! "Quatre, no one in their right mind would sell a home to a set of Gypsy kids, especially with that tail of his and those cuffs on his ear. He must have been homeless and from the way he seems to be able to ignore all the food around here when he must be hungry means he was starved at some point. If he loses his job here that's what he goes back to isn't it?

"

"Yes! Yes that's it Heero! You solved it!" Quatre hissed, stepping back from his friend in serious anger now. "So what are you going to do about it? Have me marry him and get disowned so the two of us live like that? What about the Dukedom I have to produce an heir for? My parents won't let me marry a man even it were the norm because the family line HAS to be secured."

Heero grabbed the blond by his scrawny shoulders and practically threw him against the wall, pinning him there. Quatre winced, knowing he had crossed the line now. "And do you think this is any easier for Duo and I? HUH?" The flare of anger in those blue eyes roared now. "You shouldn't care if you get disowned, so much as you love him enough to lose all ties with this life so be with him. Obviously your love for him isn't strong enough."

"You know nothing about him! You don't know what kind of life he's led! You try feeding so many mouths as he's done with nothing but a flute and music from your otherwise wiped out clan! He already doesn't make enough to satisfy the mouths he does feed! He doesn't need another!"

Heero let the other man he had held down so easily go and ran a hand over his face. This was not going to be as easy as he had hoped. "His sister, Catherine, is human isn't she? I spoke with her briefly before the dance. She hopes you'll keep him in your services even after this little party of yours."

Heero looked over to where Duo was talking with Trowa, watching the way that long cat's tail waves back and forth almost nervously as his lover spoke. "She will take herself and the children to an orphanage nearby to give them a real home. All she wanted was to make sure her brother would be alright before she did."

He noticed the movement of the other Duke out of the corner of his eye as he too looked to the other pair talking. "Do you love him?" he asked again, just as the other pair turned to look at them. When Trowa's eyes locked with Quatre's and the half-breed began to make their way to them, he knew he had his answer and so without saying a word, left so the two could be alone.

3X43X43X43X4

By the time the demon made his way to his employer, the party had just reached its peak with everyone else so focused on dancing and having fun that no one seemed to notice them. He was glad for it but at the same time wished that he wouldn't have to worry about such things in so lovely a place. What he didn't see was Wufei keeping an eye on him from his post near the entrance, his position of head servant forcing him to be there to supervise all his employees. Onyx eyes glared at the swift movement. What in the world was going on?

"Trowa!" Quatre smiled as his half-breed came to him and clasped his arms. Emerald eyes were sparkling now, a sign of happiness he had never noticed in the Gypsy before. "What's the matter? You look as if you are beaming."

Trowa paused for a moment, holding on to his master's arms before pulling the smaller man into a tight embrace. "I can't tell you what is going on here, Master Quatre. I will tell you, but not here."

Quatre at first was surprised but said nothing and hugged his thin gypsy back. He felt so warm, so comfortable, like a giant human pillow or something. "Well, how about we go up to my room and discuss it, I'm sure my parents won't care. They got what they needed from me."

The servant let his master go then to go ask for his parent's permission to leave. While noble was doing this, he hurried off to the entrance doors, prepared to wait by them to escort the handsome blond to his room again. He was so excited at the idea of being able to tell Quatre the truth that he didn't see Wufei waiting for this opportunity to initiate his plan.

The Asian head servant, since this animal had been employed, had gone from being Master Quatre's closest friend and advisor to merely another servant, albeit higher than the others, and he couldn't understand for the life of him why. This beast was no better at preparing the meals than any of the others and his scrawny form prevented him from doing any of the heavy labor all the others were doing anyway. The only thing he was good for really was playing music and even then that depended on who was listening. Still, enough was enough. It was time to get this scum out of the Master's home once and for all.

As Trowa stood at the door, eagerly awaiting his pretty blond employer, Wufei leapt at the opportunity and grabbed the taller man's ear cuff around his ear, ripping them off. The half breed almost lost his balance thanks to the height difference but then his cries filled the whole party hall, causing every eye to look his way. The head servant backed far enough away to look innocent before the familiar turquoise eyes of his boss turned on them and sneered. Those ear cuffs, he decided, were all that kept him his beautiful human self. This version of the beast was much more grotesque.

Long, human legs bent and twisted in the inverse direction while long feet shrank and became the four toes with sharp claws that belonged to the cougar half of himself. His lean face stretched out into a cat's visage and his thick, chestnut hair receded back into his head as his hands and arms also shifted, becoming the paws of a cat. His whole long body became covered is thick, chestnut brown, white and dark fur in the traditional pattern of the cougar and as his final few seconds of transformation came, as his whole form shrank down to the size the cat should be, his cries of both surprise and pain became the feral roars of the mountain cat, his long, sharp fangs growing in place of his teeth.

Everyone at the party backed away from the beast, the women screaming as they tried to run from him while the men tried to look brave and stand their ground. Trowa, knowing someone had taken the cuffs that kept him human, stepped out of the clothes he had been wearing before and searched the crowd with his now better eye sight looking for the culprit. Whoever it was had better return them and quickly.

When Trowa had transformed into his cat self, Duo and Heero, who had been quietly making out in a dark corner, emerged, startled by the sounds they heard. At first though, Heero pulled out his gun to shoot the beast, but then Duo, spying the abandoned clothes on the ground, stopped him. "That's Trowa," he hissed to his lover. "don't kill him. Some moron stole his cuffs."

Heero cursed and replaced the weapon while stepping ahead of the retreating crowd. Someone needed to make sure the half-breed didn't go ballistic and start killing everyone. What surprised him was what he saw when he emerged from the group of almost 100 people who had practically suffocated him with their bodies just moments before.

While the graceful and deadly feline sat there in the middle of the room, watching everyone with it's deep, emerald green eyes and growling low in it's throat, Quatre approached him, slowly and carefully, as if unsure if he would be attacked or not. Duke Winner, the boy's father, tried to stop him but one of the servants held him back, saying something to soothe him that the dark haired heir couldn't hear. He was too focused on what his friend was doing.

Meanwhile, as Quatre stepped closer to the cougar that sat calmly in the middle of his party hall, a combination of fear and awe couldn't help but flow through his mind. He had never actually seen one of these mountain lions up close, only read about them in books, and the sight of his handsome servant as one of these rare beasts was a sight in and of itself. He wondered if he could touch it, pet that soft looking fur, without getting snapped at and before his knew it his feet were already taking him towards the animal graceful Trowa had become.

Trowa, for his part, knew of the fear this form instilled and people and had vowed when he had first transformed, to never use it unless he absolutely had to when hunting. It was hard enough now to control the urge to pounce on his master, bury his fangs into that pale neck and tear out the wind pipe from that delicate looking throat that he didn't even want to think about what would happen if he had been born a full blooded were-cat. It was because he was half human that these urges of his were quelled at all. What would he do if that hand reaching out to him really did touch him?

Chapter Eight it done! Sorry for the long wait. Took me a while to re-gather all my notes and stuff plus I have 2 research papers due this week. I'm not even in college yet! I know I promised fluff this chapter and so, to make up for it…even more fluffiness than originally intended to come. What do you think so far? READ AND REVIEW!