Chapter Ten

Winter Festival of Nyne

"What's going on?" Duo asked, looking at all the decorations that littered the City of Nyne. There were people everywhere, making it difficult for the horses to walk through the street. They were some in costumes picking up children or handing out gifts. Duo was handed a white rose from a person in a unicorn costume, he smiled and took it, thanking the person.

"Odin said that it's their festival, celebrating the coming winter." Wufei said. "I asked around about it, I guess it's suppose to snow soon. ..you won't like this part Heero. Their first snow usually drops eight to twelve feet of snow, that's why the buildings are built tall." Wufei said.

"A snow in. So you're saying we may get stuck here for a few days." Heero said.

"A snow in?" Duo asked.

"Un-travelable conditions." Quatre offered.

"We will just have to wait and see what happens." Heero said

"I know he won't tell you so I will. Heero's birthday is sometime in the winter. He never told be when except that it's in the winter." Quatre whispered with a smile. Heero rolled his eyes and sighed, not this crap again, he hated his birthday for one reason, people always made a huge deal out of them. They were nothing special, it was the day that you're mother birthed you…woo exciting.

"Can I buy you a gift Heero." Duo said with a smile.

"No!." Heero snapped, Duo just nodded and looked at Quatre who just shrugged. Duo held out his hand to Quatre and showed him that he knew how to make gold too, so he didn't need to ask for it from Heero. Quatre smiled at him and nodded. Duo was going to get Heero a gift whether he wanted it or not.

"Can we get to an Inn so I can get out of this dress?" Duo asked, and so that's what they did.

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Duo woke up the next morning to the sounds of music and people laughing out side. He got up quickly and went to the window to look out. It was snowing lightly, and the people were happy and playing in it. Luckily it wasn't sticking yet. He looked at Heero who was also getting out of bed. Heero went into the bathroom and shut the door. Duo smile and grabbed his cloths, throwing his boots on quickly and left the room. Before he left the inn he threw on his over coat and scarf, both of which Heero and provided him with the night before.

He was glad to find that the others were not out of there rooms yet and made his way out of the Inn and into the streets, blending into the crowd quickly and set off to find his gift for Heero. He went from vendor to vendor looking at everything they had to sell, most of it was things that were too big to travel with, or just a hassle to have on a horse. Duo was thinking something small and special that would be able to go with Heero wherever he went. Then he saw them.

And old man was sitting at the opening of an alley, dressed in moth bitten rags with a large dog at his side. Duo watched him for a second, the man was working with his hands, carving something to small to see from where he was standing. Duo moved closer and saw that the man was working with silver, making a small chain linked necklace.

"What are you doing there?" Duo asked squatting down in front of the old man.

"I'm making a very special pair of necklaces…see here?" The man said holding up the one he had already done. Duo took it carefully and looked at it. It was a Blue Tourmaline stone. The silver holding it was carved like a feathered wing, and the chain was delicate but so tightly made that it was strong. He looked at the one in the mans hand, the stone was Amethyst.

"If I'm not mistaken, these gems are rare in this part of Kelas." Duo said, remembering the things he had learned from one of Solo's daughters. The man looked up at Duo for the first, and Duo gasped at what he saw, pure white eyes.

"Not for our kind, now is it." Duo smiled knowing know that the man was a Volaer.

"Why are you here?" Duo asked.

"Because, I find being around people a nice change from the our kind." He said simple, Duo didn't push it.

"May I buy these from you?" Duo asked.

"I don't need money for these." The old man said, handing the now finished one to Duo. "I only need Juna here." And with that the man stood and walked away. Duo smiled and starred after him until he was gone. He looked down at the amethyst stone and was surprised to find that it fitted to the blue one like a puzzle piece, forming a heart, protected in a dragon wing and a feathered wing.

Duo stood and headed back towards the Inn, stopping a few times when his interest focused on something.

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"Duo if you want, we could…" Heero stopped talking when he realized that the room was empty. He frowned, getting dressed quickly he headed down to the lobby of the Inn. Figuring Duo would probably be eating with Quatre and Trowa, or talking with Wufei, or something.

Heero was a little worried to find that there was no café in this Inn, and that Quatre and Trowa where still in their rooms. He stepped out and found Wufei sitting on the bench, placed out under the eves, sipping on tea and watching the people passing by. Heero knew what he was doing, he was gathering information. Anything he could pick up from the people around him that would prove useful to them. Heero sat down next to him.

"Have you seen Duo?" He asked, Wufei lifted an eye brow.

"I thought he never left your side, like a little puppy following his master." Heero growled slightly, but ignored the comment.

"I figured he would be down here eating with one of you guys." He said.

"There's no café here." Wufei pointed out.

"So I have noticed. Maybe he went with Quatre and Trowa." Heero said, he couldn't help but feel a little worried that Duo might have gone into the streets on his own.

"Who went with us?" Quatre asked coming out of the inn with Trowa right next to him. Heero's heart started to pound and his stomach twisted. Duo had gone into the streets on his own.

"Please tell me you two have at least seen Duo?" Heero said. Quatre shook his head.

"We…um…slept in today." Quatre said, blushing brightly. Heero ignored them, he had more important things to do, then give Quatre and Trowa a hard time about what they do in the morning.

'We need to find him." Heero said standing up.

"Calm down, look, he's probably just looking around. When we find him don't be mad at him." Quatre warned. "It would only prove to make him upset, and you madder."

"I'm not mad, I'm worried." Heero pointed out. "What if he was taken, or what if something happened." Heero said.

"Look I'm just warning you." Quatre said. They all split up to look for Duo.

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Duo was looking at the nicely carved two necklace pair he had gotten from the old Volaer, when he was pulled into complete darkness.

"Hey!" He cried out. He calmed when he saw Trowa. "Oh," He laughed.

"Do you have any idea what you have done?" He asked, Duo's expression fell, and he tried to think.

"No." He said honestly.

"We've been looking for you for hours, now. Heero is nearly on the verge of killing everyone in this city, just to find you." Trowa said, Duo's eyes widened, he hadn't realized how long he had been gone. He had been having to much fun, he had lost track.

"I just wanted to give him a gift." Duo said.

"You should have asked one of us to come with you." Trowa said. "Look we are not mad at you, by all rights you should be aloud to have a life, but because of the circumstances you need to take extreme caution until we get to White Fang." Trowa said. "I just want to warn you about Heero. When he gets worried he gets mad, so he's going to yell, just listen to him and let him go and it'll be over quickly. He's coming now, he found you, okay?"

"Okay." Duo said. Trowa pushed him out of the darkness and into the street where he had been standing, Duo realized that he had been in a shadow. He looked up and spotted Heero turning a corner, looking quiet mad actually. Duo wanted to run rather then be with a mad Heero, his expression scared him. But just as he was turning to run Heero spotted him.

"Hi, Heero." Duo said happily. Heero didn't say anything, he grabbed Duo's upper arm in a grip that made him wince, and pulled Duo back to the Inn, it was all Duo could do to stay on his feet.

"Oh, Heero-shit!" Trowa was pushed back into the shadow he was stepping out of, his suspicions confirmed. Duo's eyes widened. He had expected to be yelled at, but now he wasn't sure if that's all he was going to get.

Heero pulled Duo into there room and locked to door, roughly pushing Duo into the chair near the window. He leaned forward placing his hands on the arms of the chair with enough force the wood started to crack. Duo swallowed hard and looked at Heero in the eyes.

"Do you have any idea how worried I have been? If you wanted to go enjoy the festival, all you had to do was ask." Heero was on the verge of talking loud and yelling. Duo swallowed again, then spoke, his voice was quiet.

"I would have asked you Heero, but-"

"NO!" Duo flinched, he thought he could handle being yelled at by Heero, but to be truthful Heero was scary. "You don't understand…you don't now how to use the only weapon you have, you only know exercises, not to mention you left it here. You can't protect yourself without taking this off." Heero poked Duo's circlet which was now visible, Duo looked confused at that comment. "There could have been Oz Guards looking for you, they could have taken you from me. They could have hurt you." Heero said.

"I only wanted to go-."

'Duo, they now you're weakness, and they now what you look like. You can't go off on your own anymore." Heero said, going down on his knees in front of Duo, he reached up and cupped Duo's face, pulling him into a gentle kiss. "I was so worried." He whispered, Duo held out the amethyst wrapped in the dragon wing necklace. Heero looked at his with wide eyes. "You went out to get this for me?" He asked.

"Yeah, no one was downstairs when I left, otherwise I would have asked. I didn't want you to know because you seemed mad about it yesterday, but I wanted to do something special for you because…because you saved me from them. Because you let me have ice-cream, and you make me feel things I didn't think I would ever get to feel." There were tears running down Duo's cheeks. Heero wiped the tears away with his thumb.

"Don't cry." Heero said, pulling Duo into his arms. Duo pulled back and lifted his head to kiss Heero, burring his hand in Heero's hair. Heero kissed him back roughly, standing and caring Duo, still kissing, to the bed, where he laid them down so that he was on top of Duo. He started unbuttoning Duo's coat, pulling it open and putting his hands up Duo's shirt, lifting the shirt to take it off Duo, but a knock on the door stopped him. He dropped his head in defeat 'why me?' he grumbled. Duo laughed and pulled himself out from under Heero, pulling his shirt down, he went to the door and opened it, finding Quatre, Trowa, and Wufei standing there. Quatre pushed past Duo, and Wufei started laughing. Duo glared at Wufei.

"What!" He snapped.

"You two were where getting physical." He said. Quatre completely took it the wrong way. Duo just looked confused, and Trowa, well Trowa just laughed and walked away from the room. Maybe he had been wrong.

"Heero I told you no to be mad at Duo." Quatre said, looking at Heero who was face down on the bed. He turned his head slowly to glare at Quatre. Quatre's eyes widened and he blushed, then pushed it aside. "Anyway it doesn't matter anymore, does it Wufei?" Quatre said.

"Uh, no I guess not. There's talk of the guards we left behind yesterday, we need to leave, now. It's only three days until Lownay, but with the upcoming storm and all, I don't know if we can make it before then." He said. Heero sat up.

"Then well leave now-" Trowa came back into the room.

"There's a bit of a problem." He said, pointing towards the window.

"What?" Heero said, he walked over to the window and pulled open the curtains. The once slowly drifting snow and transformed into a windy blizzard.

"Will this storm hold off the Oz Guards?" Heero asked.

"Doubt it. With Lady Une they would probably be able to get threw this easily." Wufei said.

"Then we need to leave. We have to pass the Tylol Mountains right?' Heero asked, Wufei nodded. "then we'll make a shelter there, I'll carve a cave into the rocks and we can wait for the storm to calm." Heero said.

"Heero, that may not work out to well." Quatre said, Heero turned on him, only to see Duo standing just behind him, shaking slightly, his arms folded around himself, he was looking away from them, his eyes seeing something that they couldn't. Heero walked to him and tilted his head so that he was looking at him, Duo blinked a few times before his eyes meet Heero's.

"Duo, it's the only way to hide from Oz, they won't be able to find us there with the storm, and it'll only be for a few days, not years like before." Heero said. "And you won't be alone." He added quickly.

"I…um…I…it'll be fine." Duo said quietly. Heero knew that he was struggling with the idea of being in a cave again, but it was the only way to keep Duo safe with this storm.

They quickly packed their stuff, Duo and Quatre went to get the horses, while Trowa went and bought enough food for a few days.

"Ye be crazy to travel in this storm." The stable 's owner said as the five of them mounted there horses. Neither of them answered as the kicked their horses into a gallop, the mountains were only a few hours away, but with the blizzard it was take longer.

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Yeah another chapter of greatness, lol, just kidding.