Notes - Apologies for the length of this chapter, but it had to be this long in order to break in the right spot.
And if I intend to give cliffhangers, which I do, because I'm evil, I have to break where I do.
Zedax – Duo is in this horrible state where his body can barely sustain the life he is trying to make it have. The more he's pushed, the more it will fail, and the first thing a body will do to conserve energy is stop transferring short term memory into long term. Thus, the little things like letters and such are forgotten minutes after being learned. I've actually been there, it's fucking frustrating. Especially in school. Whether or not Duo can overcome this major problem remains to be seen, but it's not going to be easy for anyone.
Aryam McAllyster – Creepy that you were thinking of it on the day I updated. It isn't hard for Duo to be submissive – he's not really all there if you know what I mean. It helps that he's batshit crazy. He'd have to be to be able to do the whole dual identity thing. Kai is the name of that guy? Hm. Doesn't fit this story – Japanese names would have gone out of fashion when they started talking in English. Still, I'm glad I know it now. Also, Trowa never has a chance against Quatre. In any story, any situation. Quatre's a devious little tacticion crossbred with a minx. Portraying Quatre as anything but a manipulative, devious, deviant, sly little rascal is an insult to the character. Sure, he seems to be susceptible to other people's emotions – but I guarantee you given half the chance he'd use that against you in order to get his diabolical plan's success. The trick to it is finding a plan for him that's diabolical enough. Also, you're going to like the next chapter after this. Seriously. Hint hint.
CircleKV12 – I love how no one can see what I've got planned. Really, I didn't know I was this unpredictable. Let's just say that that's not quite how it's gonna go. This chapter might make people start predicting in the right direction. Let's just say that sometime soon: shit=fan.
Chapter Twenty Six – What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Luna stood on Heero's balcony, leaning heavily on the balustrade to keep the weight off his feet. He stared down at Zechs' procession with interest. Every one of his horses was white, he noted. He was too high up and too far away to tell which one of the riders was the Prince, but that didn't stop him from squinting hard and trying to see.
Heero had made a cryptic comment that morning about him attending tea with Merquise, then seemed at a loss for words as to explain it further, and just told him he would speak to him again after the feast.
The hairs on the back of Luna's neck prickled as he realized that something was out of place. He leant over the balustrade and looked down, jumping when he saw Trowa Barton lifting himself up to the balcony floor. The man then deftly lifted one leg over the railing, then the other, smirking as Luna looked at him as though he were a complete madman.
The castle had doors and stairs for a reason.
"It's a bit harder to climb than his old rooms, but still doable. Have you seen your master around?"
Luna shook his head. He hadn't seen him since that morning.
"Must be at the Dining Hall already. I wanted to have a word with him about my dream friend. You remember him?"
Luna nodded.
Trowa looked at him scrutinisingly. "Has Yuy spoken to you at all about tea this evening?"
Luna slowly shook his head.
Trowa rolled his eyes to the heavens. "Cutting it a bit short, aren't you, Yuy?" he said to the clouds, then spoke to Luna again. "Do you have any idea of what is expected of you?"
Luna shook his head and looked to the floor, feeling very unsure of his position. He had no idea how a concubine was meant to behave in public – and he often wasn't sure of how one was meant to behave in private either.
Trowa sighed. "As you may or may not have noticed, the King isn't very good at speaking to people. He'll often only explain things after the fact."
Luna was reminded of when Heero's back had gone out, and he had been completely unaware that there was even a problem. It had been explained to him after the event, but it would have been a lot better had it been explained earlier. Heero had given him gifts in apology for hitting him, but had not told him what they were for, leaving Luna to wonder whether Heero was trying to bribe something from him.
In that instance, Trowa had been the go-between, interpreting Heero's actions. Again, he stepped up to that role.
Trowa lifted himself onto the balustrade and sat on it, looking at Luna. "Yuy doesn't want to put any pressure on you," he said. "He doesn't want to speak with you about this because he thinks you might take it the wrong way."
Luna shook his head slowly. He could never take anything Heero said in a bad way – he had given himself to the King, all or nothing, and there was nothing Heero could ask of him that he wouldn't give.
But Heero didn't know that.
"If Heero keeps you locked up in here much longer, there will be talk. There already is. The kitchen staff have bets running on which day Heero will finally take you out of his rooms. I have five coppers on today," Trowa said with a grin. "Tomorrow I'll be a rich man."
Trowa shifted uncomfortably. "The thing you have to understand, Luna, is that you're the favourite. Yuy could have anyone he wanted, bar none, but out of all of them he picked you. And if he likes you so much, why isn't he taking you with him everywhere? You're expected to be with him always, like his shadow, and yet you aren't. People have started coming up with their own theories as to why, and people always think the worst. The worst thing that could happen is for the people to believe that Yuy doesn't trust you to act right in public, that he's worried you'll shame him. That he can't control you. And if he can't control one person like yourself, how can he be expected to control an entire Kingdom full of them?"
Luna nodded, realisation dawning that this wasn't a matter of behaving well to keep Heero's reputation as a person high, it was a matter of keeping him respected as a King. The thought of such a responsibility rested heavily on his shoulders.
"You need to treat him like a God. Lovingly but with fear. You need to be below him at all times, affectionate and submissive, and completely ignorant of everyone else around you."
Trowa spent a minute watching Luna take it in. "Do you think you can do that for him, Luna? If you can't or don't want to, let me know now, so I can tell Heero to call it off. Can you do this for us, Luna?"
Luna nodded, completely set in his conviction to be for Heero whatever Heero wanted him to be. He would do this, and he would do it well.
Trowa spent some time with him, telling him where he would be expected to stand when Heero walked, what to do if Heero sat down, where his eyes should be fixed at all times, explaining exactly how catastrophic it would be if a single patch of skin were to be showing.
Luna listened well, and by the end of it, he was a perfect concubine, apart from the butterflies in his stomach.
Zechs Merquise was a family man, down to the very last long white gold hair. He had been incredibly close to his identical twin brother, Milliardo, despite the fact that Milliardo stood between him and the throne. He had actually liked it that way.
When Milliardo was captured by Chalc, Zechs snapped in the worst of ways. The love of peace was replaced by anger and hatred, then his brain would reason that his brother would not have wished for such, and he would return to a peaceful, pacifistic Prince. Both sides strove to rescue Milliardo no matter the cost.
So, naturally, when he caught wind of a certain rumour, a rumour of a Princess with golden hair born to two brunette parents, eight months after his own golden haired father had made a visit ... with a last name of Peacecraft in tribute to Sanq... He added the pieces together.
It was possible he had a half sister. And Zechs Merquise was a family man, down to the very last long white gold hair. Whatever it took to assure her place in his familial loop, he would do it. The Princess was unwed, and that wasn't going to last long at her age and her status. Zechs had no intention of allowing such a marriage to occur without his consent.
Zechs stared at the gates of the city of Karen. He had one obstacle – the King, Heero Yuy. A part of him longed for a weak, fumbling new King, who would roll over and expose his belly for Zechs to tread on, so as to assure Relena's immediate retrieval.
Another part of him longed for a formidable opponent, someone who would fight him tooth and nail, like his brother. He needed the adrenaline rush of a fight between brothers. He longed for it.
After all, he was a family man, down to the very last long white gold hair.
"You'll never believe what happened to me last night." Trowa said into Heero's ear when he finally found him, sitting right where he was supposed to be at the head of the table.
Zechs Merquise sat at the other end of it, eating elderberries and having an avid discussion with his second, Lucrezia Noin, about brussel sprouts.
"It better not involve your stupid sorcerer," Heero snarled.
"Still angry at them, aren't you?"
"I've always been angry at them. What did the brat do?"
"Promised to come find me and be my obedient little banded concubine."
Heero stopped completely, frozen. "What?"
Trowa shrugged. "I know. He's a real liar, that one. It'll never happen."
"I have no doubt it will never happen. Tell me you caught him out on it and beat the brat into the truth."
Trowa looked at him lazily and shrugged. "Nah. I was too busy christening my bed slave."
Heero snorted and swilled his wine in his glass. "So, if he does show up on my doorstep, he expects to be welcomed with open arms?"
Trowa shrugged again. "If he thinks so, he's an idiot. He should know me well enough by now to know that I'd probably shove him into the dungeons, now that we can't send his kind into Yarani anymore."
"Probably?" Heero muttered, annoyed that Trowa had used that word. "You would put him there immediately, or I would slit his throat immediately. He's in your head, Barton, don't make me remind you that you're not the only one that's had a mage in your head. He probably doesn't even exist and is just a fabrication made by that damn assassin."
Trowa hummed in agreement. "I've already considered this," he said truthfully, then countered it with a lie. "I'm not attached to him. He's probably either an illusion made by the assassin or he's a mage working for him. He'll betray me some day, but in the meantime I'm getting some very good dreams. I don't see how getting aggravated over it is going to change anything, it would only prove to him that his plan is working."
Heero hummed in agreement, looking at Prince Zechs and Lady Noin for a welcome change of topic. "They're an odd two," he said. "They've been talking about an array of green vegetables since they sat. You'd be amazed at what they do with cucumbers in their Kingdom. From what I've heard, it seems as though they're hardly ever eaten."
Trowa furrowed his brow. "You left it a bit late to talk to Luna," he said, looking at Lady Noin, who was now entertaining her lover with a story about pea and ham soup.
Heero sighed. "I'm going to leave it a bit longer. I don't think Luna's ready for it, and having his first excursion out of my rooms being a meeting with a Prince probably isn't the safest idea."
Trowa shrugged. "I went to your rooms about an hour ago, trying to find you. I spoke to Luna. He's perfectly ready for it, and perfectly capable of behaving in front of Merquise."
Heero turned to face Trowa. "You spoke to him? And how did he take it?"
Trowa kneeled down so that he wasn't looming over the Prince who still sat at the table. "He took it exactly how I expected him to take it. Like a perfect concubine that just needed to be told what to do." Trowa sighed. "He's a good kid, your Highness. He's not going to do anything wrong, so long as he knows what wrong is. I told him how to act. Where he had to stand, where he had to sit when you sit. He's fine."
Heero looked scrutinisingly at his second, wondering whether or not Trowa had any idea about how a concubine was meant to behave. He realized after a moment that there wasn't really a way around it, he was just going to have to trust in his friend's judgement. And in Luna.
"Besides, that kid would do anything for you. Are you the only one that doesn't see that?"
"You're absolutely sure you want to do this?"
A nod.
"I can make excuses for you. You don't have to do this."
A shrug.
"If your feet hurt, you just tap my shoulder, understand?"
A nod.
One last check of his slippers, his gloves. Luna sighed. Heero straightened his hood nervously. It was clipped into his hair so that it wouldn't move, and folded back so that his face was visible.
Once they left the rooms, the hood would cover him from the prying eyes of the castle, so long as he kept his head down, like a good slave. Zechs was allowed to see bits of him, so Heero might fold his hood back when they were in the Parlour, depending on how things were going.
Luna was sure he would make the walk, but Heero was less confident. He had said something about stairs, which Luna huffed at. It wasn't like stairs were difficult.
So Heero helped him stand, though Luna could do it on it his own, he just liked letting his master hold him by the hand. "A step to the left, remember," Heero said, holding his hands still and bringing them to his lips. The kiss was unpleasantly dulled through the gloves. Heero pulled his hood down. Luna lowered his head.
Heero nodded, but Luna couldn't see it, couldn't see anything more than the floor three feet in front of him. He saw Heero's feet move, as he turned away for the door, and Luna waited then followed, edging to the left.
One step behind and to the left. Trowa had explained that this was the place of a concubine. Take a step to his right, and he would be taking the place of a consort, and that would be overassuming his position.
In step with him, should they join him, would be a place for every noble of the court. His left side would be the only side most would accompany him by. His right was reserved for only the fair few. By name, Trowa and the Princess.
Luna wondered if he would see her today. If he did, he knew he would see little more than the hem of her skirts, but it would be a start. Heero spoke of her so fondly.
They reached the door. Luna could not remember ever entering through this door, so it seemed a mite strange to be exiting through it. A part of him, the part that threatened to hyperventilate, wondered desperately whether he would ever come back in that door. He had an irrational fear that leaving this room would mean leaving everything he had come to want in life, namely, Heero.
But the door was open, and he had to follow Heero the moment he moved again lest he fall out of step. Outside of the door, he saw a guard's plated boot move, and heard the chink of armour that said the rest of him had too. Heero's feet paused.
"Eyes off," he said sternly. And without giving Luna so much as a second to ponder what that meant, they were moving again.
And then they reached the dreaded stairs. It was a big staircase, but Luna knew it wasn't the biggest in the castle. From his vantage point, even with his head bowed, he could see it completely.
Two paintings adorned either side of it, but no one at all was on it. There was a red carpet folded over its steps. The red carpet signalled that this place was frequented by royalty. This stair was the main stair to and from the Royal Hall, where all the rooms for royalty were, and Heero climbed this stair at least twice daily.
Heero started down it and stopped a few steps below, turning back to him with his left hand out. Luna took it without question, but scoffed inwardly.
Who needed help with a measly stair? Certainly not one with his healing ability. He was perfectly capable of taking on a simple staircase.
It was only when he nearly collapsed down the stairs that he conceded that perhaps Heero had a point. At first he had not a clue what had happened, he just held on to his master's steady arm.
His knees were shaking something awful. He didn't understand why at first, and he wouldn't have at all if he had been anything less than a sorcerer. His knees, while perfectly capable of holding him on flat ground where they simply locked into place, were not strong enough to handle the lowering of his body down a step. They weren't even close. The moment he unlocked his knee to take the step, the muscles simply balked at the mammoth task and ran away.
He wondered how exactly Heero had seen this coming.
Elsewhere in the castle, the Lady Relena clutched her slave's arm as he helped her weak body down a flight of stairs.
Heero instructed for the Parlour to be vacated while he got Luna settled. "It's actually easier going up than it is down," Heero assured him, leading him on wobbly legs to the center of the room where four large seats lay, one considerably bigger and more exquisite than the others. Heero sat him down on this one. "You'll lie here, your head in my lap. Zechs' slave might not do the same, he might sit at his feet. Pay no heed to them. Act lazy and uninterested. Perk up if I touch you."
Luna spread himself out on the large, throne like seat, checking to make sure every inch of his skin was covered. "Zechs may see your face, if I allow it, but no more and in the presence of no one else," he reminded.
Luna nodded his understanding, lowering his head onto the seat, wondering when exactly humanity had created a lounge that seemed for all the world like a bed.
"I will meet them outside," Heero said, "then bring them in here. Trowa may join us at some point. Don't be startled if he turns up without warning, or if you look up and he's hanging from the rafters. He does that. It's become a bit of a running joke, to see how many people he can sneak up on."
Heero paused for a moment, his brow furrowed. "Forget I said that. You aren't allowed to look up."
Then he did something that made Luna very glad that there was no one else in the room. For there would surely have been an uproar if anyone had seen the King of Karen Miya kneel before his slave.
Heero placed his hand under Luna's hood, lowering his face so that he could see beneath it. "Forget I said that. You are allowed to do anything. I cannot forbid you from anything. Just … it would make me look bad. And I would be jealous."
The thought came to Luna that Heero truly had no idea how dedicated he was, and that as he had no words, he could not truly express it. He would not dream of doing something that would make his master look bad, and never would he want him jealous.
Luna belonged to him, uttlerly and completely. As Heero moved to get up, his prior words about not forbidding anything came back to Luna. Emboldened, he pushed himself up and hooked his arms around his master's neck to prevent him from leaving.
Heero fought an internal war between his royal pride and his desire to encourage affection in Luna. He was kneeling and he hated every moment of it, and he loathed the fact that Luna was preventing him from getting off his knee.
But he didn't loathe the position of their upper bodies. Not at all. Nor the expression on Luna's face, beneath his specially designed concubine's hood. Even with their equal position and Luna's raised head, he could only see his mouth, and it was shadowed, but it was curved in one of those small smiles that Luna always threw at him when he had done something right.
A gift, a compliment, a pat on the head, a cuddle on the balcony, all earned him this smile. Heero had no idea what he had done this time. Then Luna was tilting his head back and to the side, and Heero could see his eyes.
In that moment, Heero remembered Trowa's previous words. 'That kid would do anything for you.'
Luna's eyes, filled with passion and something that Heero could label only as worship, slid closed as Luna leaned in to kiss him.
It was one of the rare occasions when Luna initiated any romantic contact. Normally something so bold would see a slave slapped for trying to take control in the relationship, but Heero actually found himself craving it.
But still, Heero stopped him just as their lips touched with the hand on his cheek, under his hood. "I really don't have to worry about that, do I?" he said softly against Luna's lips.
Luna's eyes opened, still filled with that expression of absolute worship, and before he could even answer, Heero knew for certain. Luna was perfect. Luna would do everything asked, and more if he thought possible. Luna would never make him look bad, never make a mistake, never make him jealous. Luna was perfect.
Perfection smiled again as he shook his head softly, their lips grazing together as he did so.
Heero brought his other hand up to Luna's other cheek, cradling his face as he closed the extra distance and kissed Luna. Luna opened his mouth to it, allowing Heero access to the mouth he owned.
The few kisses they had shared paled in comparison. One on a balcony, after a punishment Heero could now barely believe he had needed to give. He now believed it to have been entirely redundant. Then one in a bathtub, chaste and intended to be innocent. One in bed, where Luna had been deprived of his reservations by Deathweed, and had lasted but half a second. One where Luna had not known what to do, and Heero taught him by having him mimic his actions. Several innocent pecks on a balcony.
This kiss was something entirely different and entirely welcome. Heero even forgot that he was on one knee for its duration. Luna bent his neck to get to an angle where they could press together firmly, their mouths open and crushed together. Heero's tongue entered his mouth and Luna accepted it without question, licking it softly, playfully as it did.
Heero's tongue only left Luna's mouth so that he could suck on his top lip, and then dove back in. The hands on Luna's cheeks told him that Luna was attempting to smile even as he kept his mouth open and moving against his master's.
Heero pulled back to see it, and caught a glimpse of his slave's reddened lips and brilliant open mouthed grin, but the interruption to the kiss reminded him of his knee.
Hastily he stood up, then bent to kiss Luna again, but on his feet now, where he belonged.
Luna kissed him back, seeming to have no concern at all for the changed position.
When Heero pulled back again, to see Luna looking at him with those eyes again, it was all he could do not to shove him back onto the lounge and take him right there. He was perfection incarnate with his eyes locked on his and his lips red, his breath caught in his throat.
Heero knew if he kept looking at him he wouldn't be able to stop, so he pulled him close into a hug, wrapping both arms around him, pushing his face into his shoulder where he couldn't see it. But that plan also backfired as Luna innocently acquiesced to the hug, pushing into it and nuzzling his face into his master's neck, where Heero could feel his smiling.
"I have to go find Zechs," he said, finding the first excuse he could, and thanking whatever was up there that it was actually a good one. He knew if he stayed with Luna in this way for a moment longer he would snap and have to do something – touch him, push him against the chair, kiss him again, jump on top of him on the lounge, anything – and that he'd end up pushing too far. He didn't know if Luna was ready for it, and he didn't want to do it outside the bedroom, and he didn't want to deal with the repercussions of pushing it just before the meeting.
It never even occurred to him that Luna might accept, and then he'd be in the trouble of having to choose between sex with Luna or the meeting with a Prince he had scheduled.
Luna nodded into his neck and pulled away, smiling softly still. He studied the room before he curled up, looking at the plush lounge opposite his, the beautiful purple drapes over the windows.
When he curled up, he lowered his eyes and tried to look small and submissive. Heero gave a curt nod before rising and going to the double doors.
There was a period of a few minutes before he heard voices, then the doors opened again and several footfalls entered. Luna recognised the sound of Heero's feet, though he had no idea when he had committed that to memory. He was light on his feet and tended to walk without putting much weight into his step.
There was one very loud step, walking almost in sync with Heero's. Luna guessed that it was Prince Zechs'. His footfalls were the heavy thump of a man with a lot of weight in his body. He was, by the sound of it, either tall and with enough muscle to knock over a tower, or tall and fat.
"Please, sit," Heero instructed, guesturing to the lounge opposite where Luna lay.
Zechs' legs came into Luna's view as he unceremoniously fell into the chair. From the sight of them, long and well muscled, Luna knew that he was the former. This man would easily dwarf Heero, and make Luna look like a gnome. He hoped that wasn't something that Zechs would use to try to manipulate Heero, but his concern seemed unfounded. Zechs acted casually, as though he were in the company of guardsmen and not in a diplomatic meeting between royalty.
"Miyan feasts never cease to amaze me. If I ate one more elderberry you could put me in the basement and let me ferment wine for you."
Luna startled a bit when he saw Heero in front of him, and moved his head out of the way a bit too quickly. He had been distracted by Zechs' voice, smooth and deep, and seemingly without any hidden meanings or diplomatic foot kissing.
Heero took his seat and guided Luna's head with his hand to rest on his thigh, as Zechs continued in a musing tone, "You seemed to enjoy the meat, Lucrezia."
There was a strange, muffled, annoyed sound, seeming to come from behind Zechs. A moment later a pair of feet joined his, smaller and in less of a relaxed sprawl.
"I'm glad you enjoyed it, Prince Zechs, Lady Noin," Heero said, and Luna heard quite obviously the change in his tone. He spoke in a controlled scolding tone, one that Luna had never heard before. All of a sudden he felt as though he were actually in a room with royalty, something he hadn't felt so prominently before. He wondered just how different Heero was with him than he was with everyone else.
"I'm glad King Yuy has the kindness to name me as I wish to be named," the woman, Lady Noin, said. "He quite obviously is far above the rudeness of some I could name."
Zechs laughed outright. "Come now, Lucrezia. Don't pretend you're not used to it by now."
Lady Noin sighed tersely. Heero's hand continued to pet Luna's head through his hood.
"Lucrezia, would you bring Lír to me? I've changed my mind. I don't want him alone while he has a cough."
Noin stood up sharply. "Make up your mind, for god's sake," she said, then turned and left.
There was complete silence until the door was shut behind her, then Heero spoke. "She isn't respectful to you," he said simply.
Zechs snorted. "We banter. It's not her respect I demand, it's her loyalty, and she'd gladly spit in the face of an offer to betray me."
Heero's tone changed. "It could be said that loyalty is the greatest form of respect," he said smoothly.
Luna could tell it was getting diplomatic. That was a blatent foot kissing using words.
Zechs ignored it. "Her disrespect isn't the reason I sent her away. I can tell you have something to say, Yuy. Your little finger is twitching."
Heero's hand left Luna's head and he stared at it. "Well there's a tell I never knew I had."
"Your father had it," Zechs said testily. "Out with it, Yuy."
Heero's words were weighed when he said them. "I received correspondence from the Kushrenada house."
Zechs sat forward immediately. "You? What does Kushrenada want with you? Did he say anything about Milli?"
"Not much. He said that his daughter is ill. They're riding here at full haste to see my Healer."
"And what are you going to do about it?" Zechs was testy. Luna realised he was tense. He had no idea who any of the people they were talking about were, but he knew they were all sore subjects.
Heero took a moment to respond. "Nothing. Kushrenada is facing exile for even leaving his estate. But to make it worse, he's taken Prince Milliardo with him. Now he's facing treason. If the Catalonia's catch them before they reach our border, Kushrenada will be executed and the Prince will probably end up in the Catalonia keep dungeons. So I'm letting them come here. The Prince will not stay with Kushrenada when he gets here, of course. The only thing I will do is remove him from Kushrenada and give him proper rooms and accommodation here. He'll be free to do as he pleases. What happens next is up to third parties."
Zechs gaped. "Milliardo will be here…? Wait, third parties? What third parties? Who have you gotten involved in this?"
"So far? You. You're the third party. Once they're here, I don't care what happens to Kushrenada, so long as it doesn't involve me."
Zechs smirked. "You're good, Yuy. I like you. By the way, I have a few spare regiments under Noin. Ones home garrison can always use a few more hands, don't you think?"
Heero snorted. "That was blatantly obvious, Merquise."
Zechs shrugged. "I'm not into hiding in shadows."
There was silence for a few seconds.
"How long have I got to reinforce your garrison?"
Heero chuckled. "The daughter is dying and she's doing it fast. Unless your regiments can outrun the speed of a desperate father, then I guess I'll just have to do without the extra hands."
"Guess it's just me, Noin and the Honor Guard then. Of course, I don't think the armour of my Honor Guard will allow them to sneak around under your nose."
Heero grinned. "You'd be surprised, my nose can be rather accommodating when I want it to be."
Zechs let loose a colossal sigh of relief. "Thankyou, Yuy. If this doesn't turn out to be a scheme of Chalc's, I might actually get my brother back."
Heero nodded. "There is always the condition, however."
Zechs looked as though he were about to snarl. "What do you want? Make it reasonable, Yuy, or Sanq will walk all over you."
Heero chuckled. "Consideration for the daughter. According to the letters, she and the Prince are friends. For all we know she could have been all the Prince had as company in the Kushrenada estate. I'll be content to let you walk right under my nose, so long as you do not harm or impair her treatment, and you treat her as an innocent in all of this."
"That's it?"
"That's it."
"You give me a goldmine of information and an opportunity to get my brother back and you ask me for nothing I wouldn't do anyway?"
"That's right. All of this could just be a setup, anyway."
"Bullshit, Yuy. You want a trump card. I don't give those out."
Heero sighed. "There's no real way to say this nicely, but if you want to insist on making me, then keep pushing."
"Don't make me beat it out of you, Yuy. What do you want?"
"I want your brother on the throne," Heero said simply. Luna cringed internally. Even he knew that was a bad thing to say. "You're too unpredictable, and frankly, if you take the crown there's not a chance on this earth that Sanq would stay pacifistic. I like Sanq the way it is. There's no threat to me from Sanq. I have it damn easy with Sanq like it is. If you take office, god knows what you'll do when you've taken over Chalc, which you probably will once you get the entire kingdom's manpower. And what then? Then you'll want the coast."
Zechs stared at him as though he thought he was completely mad. "You think I'd take Karen Miya? Don't be ridiculous. You know, half the population back home still thinks Karen Miya's a state of Sanq. It seceded five hundred years ago. Sanq hasn't had an issue with Karen for five hundred years. Karen Miya took our coast, our biggest trade route away five hundred years ago, and through that we never so much as squabbled. I wouldn't touch a friendship that strong."
Heero shook his head. "It's not about what you would and wouldn't do. It's about how I can read you. And in all honesty, Merquise, you're about as readable as a Yarani tome. You could be up to anything, for all I know."
Zechs scoffed. "Well that may be, but … wait, what's a Yarani tome? I've never heard of that before. Yarani's that island we send all our mages to, isn't it?"
Heero nodded. "The natives haven't developed letters yet. That's why you've never heard of their tomes."
Zechs nodded. "I see. You're doing this for you, not me. I can't really say that I blame you. If Milli's unharmed by all of this … I'd want him on the throne too. He's always been better at nobility than me."
The door opened. Noin was back. Behind her walked someone in black, and judging from what Luna could see of his clothing, he was a concubine. Zechs' concubine.
"Lír," Zechs said cheerily, as though the previous conversation had not taken place.
Lír sat down at Zechs' feet and rested his head on his master's knee. "He might cough his lungs up a bit, but he's alright. He's not contagious."
Heero looked at him, scrutinizing. He looked to be a good concubine, submissive and small, the complete opposite of Zechs' partner, Noin. Heero wondered if they got along, or if Zechs kept the two apart. He wondered how Noin, Zech's well known lover, felt about sharing him, and how Zechs coped with juggling the two.
"Still, I'd like it if you kept him away from my sister. She has a habit of catching things that can't be caught."
"Of course. How is the Princess? I didn't see her at the feast."
"She rarely attends them. Too much food makes her ill."
"Really? She hasn't outgrown the stomach plague then? Last I heard about her was when she was still, oh, twelve."
"My Healer doesn't think she ever had the stomach plague. It's something else entirely, she'll probably live with it for the rest of her life."
"Sad," Zechs said, frowning. "To live so close to the Karen Miya feasts, and not be able to enjoy them… I pity the poor girl. Aside from the illness, what's she like? Is there a marriage planned? She's of age, isn't she?"
There was a tense silense. "She's of age," Heero said. "She will not be wed. She is too frail, will bear no children and will not survive a move to a husband's estate. She would not last two months without my Healer and nor would I, so she stays here under my protection as a figurehead to the people."
Zechs raised a brow. "I had no idea it was that bad."
Heero shrugged. "She could be taken from us at any time. We have all learned to live with that. Marrying her off would not be a lifelong commitment. She could die within the first week. There would be no point."
"Except for political ties," Zechs said. "I'm sure you could find someone in high places who would marry her nevertheless."
Heero let loose an ungainly snort. "I could find several, and I could also refuse them all."
"Who's the most prominent man you've refused?" Zechs asked.
Heero raised an eyebrow at the odd question. "Most prominent status would have been the Empress of Jire, the islands just southwest off the coast."
"Empress?"
Heero shrugged. "She had five heirs already and wanted a companion, a lover. In their empire the marriage of two women is sacred. Oddly enough, the marriage of two men is forbidden."
Zechs nodded. "Weird, but fair enough. Jire is about, one tenth the size of Karen Miya?"
Heero nodded.
"And Karen Miya is one fifth the size of Sanq." There was a pause. "So, theoretically, an offer from Sanq is completely incomparable."
Heero shifted. "Depends. Jire was royalty. I would have gotten my seat in with them to the point that they became a state."
"Theoretically, say it was Sanq royalty."
"Then I would ask what in God's name you're playing at."
Zechs sat perfectly still, a strange smile on his face. "I'd take good care of her."
Heero shifted again. "You're going to push this ridiculous joke, aren't you?"
Zechs grinned. "I most certainly am."
"If, theoretically, you were to propose a marriage to my sister, then I would, theoretically, refuse it. Publically, it would be because it would be unfair to you and risk unrest between our countries when she died, and privately, I would tell you quite sincerely that I am an extremely selfish and possessive person, and you can't have her because she's mine. All other reasons, while they are significant, pale in comparison to the fact that she's mine and not yours."
Luna expected that it would have ended there, after Heero had been quite clear about it, but it was quite the contrary.
"I want to marry her," Zechs said. "This is a formal proposal. Take your time to consider it and tell me when you have reached, hopefully, a favourable answer."
Heero took a deep breath. "This isn't the reason you came here, Zechs Merquise. This is a front, an odd and roundabout way to get to something else entirely."
"Keep refusing my front and you'll get to my back, Yuy. I'm sure you won't like it."
"Well. I'll be prompt in my answer to your proposal. I will tell you, and only you, that the Princess is unavailable for marriage, due to my being unable to share. If you want to tell people about your request, I'll tell them it was because she's ill and incapable of being a proper wife. Don't ever ask me about this again, Zechs." Heero's tone was harsh and crude, like the smash of a lumberjack's axe.
Zechs sighed, and in a low and slow, but threatening tone, he drawled, "You know, this stomach issue she has sounds a lot like the Peacecraft's curse, but that's just in our line. She couldn't possibly have it. You know, apparently, the stomach issue my father, and his father, and his mother, and both me and Milli have, is settled with mint, but worsened extremely by hashish. I could check how she is with a tiny bit of hashish – if she gets worse, she's got the Peacecraft curse, no idea how she could have gotten it-"
"That's enough!" Heero said loudly. Luna saw Lír jump a bit, then look around as though confused. He had been asleep.
"I will not tolerate your insulting my mother. I know about those rumours. Yes, your father was here when my mother conceived, but no, your father had nothing to do with said conception! And you're just sick, to believe that rumour and propose in the same conversation. This is why I don't want you on the throne, Zechs. I don't ever want to have this sort of conversation with you again." Luna could tell that Heero was losing his patience and what was left of his calm.
Zechs gave Heero a dry and unamused look. "Don't fight me on this, Yuy. You know I'll fight back."
"See? This is exactly the kind of attack on me that I was just predicting!" Luna moved out of the way just as Heero stood up in anger. "I won't let you tarnish my good name, my sister's good name, and my mother's good name with this lie. That rumour is a ridiculous rumour and nothing more than a rumour that housewives consider up to cure their boredom from their unfulfilling husbands. Are you an unfulfilled housewife, Merquise?"
Zechs smirked and looked at Lír. "I don't know. It's his job to monitor my fulfilment, not mine."
Lír made an odd look. Luna could only see part of it, and it was in shadows from his hood, and he could only see his mouth because their faces were on about the same level. He looked confused and completely unsure about what they were talking about, having missed the entire conversation.
Zechs sighed eventually. "I can see you won't be favourable in this. Your lack of cooperation is starting to make me tired." He started to stand up. Lír moved out of the way and yawned, but didn't move to stand up.
"When did you get him, by the way?" Zechs asked. Luna felt his eyes on him. "I thought you hated concubines."
"I have a general dislike of them, but there is always an exception. Luna is it."
"He's very good. Almost as good as my Lír. Which house was he trained in?"
Luna stayed impeccably still, but furrowed his brow beneath his hood. House? Trained?
"None," Heero said impatiently. "I saw him in the Yarani dungeons and decided to give him a chance. I've yet to regret it."
"Ooh," Zechs said simply, quiet for a moment. Luna could tell Heero wanted him to leave. "I've heard the untrained ones are the last to break in a Rose Order. Lucky you."
It sounded like just a statement to Luna, but Heero could never tell with Zechs Merquise. Daring to mention a Rose Order in correlation to his slave, was that a threat, an empty threat, a ploy to make him scared, or just a simple statement?
"I intend never to find that out, Merquise," he said lowly.
Zechs nodded dryly, a hand reaching out to touch Lír for the first time since he'd arrived. "Me too. Of course, my Lír wouldn't break at all, just smash his head on something hard until he wasn't of any use. He's good like that. Anyway, my stomach is full to bursting and my eyes grow heavy. Let's chat again tomorrow, good King Yuy."
Finally, he left, Lír walking behind him. Heero fell back into the seat, his hand immediately going to Luna's head. "The nerve! To even mention a Rose Order in front of you."
Luna gave a clueless shrug, nuzzling his nose into Heero's knee. He wasn't really bothered by anything Zechs had said, except for the fact that whatever it was had made Heero mad, and that somewhere along the line, an insult to his mother had been made. He didn't even know what a Rose Order was.
"You've been away a long time, Luna," Heero said quietly. "The Assassin's guild has gotten more depraved in the last four or five years."
Heero stayed silent a while, giving Luna enough time to wonder what the Assassin's guild had to do with anything. And they had always been depraved. He should know, he used to collect information for an assassin when he was on the street. He would sit in front of a house with views to all the bedroom windows for a week, and return to the assassin with the hours that everyone fell asleep, and whether there were any restless sleepers in the house.
"There was a time once, when assassinations were hard to do, when homes were harder to get into. Back then the Assassin's guild used to be thankful if an assassin even got in, let alone reached his target. Now it's different. Assassins are more skilled, or worse, they're mages, and the people evil enough to hire them aren't content with a simple killing. They want torture too."
The thought of Heero being tortured sent chills down Luna's spine, but that was not even slightly what Heero was talking about. "A Rose Order," he continued, "is a red rose with the name of its target cut into the stem. The assassin who accepts it takes the rose and enters the house of the target, takes his consort or concubine, and leaves the rose in his place." Heero sighed and made a disgusted noise. "The slave is methodically raped and mutilated. There's no set parameters as to what has to be done to them, but typically their eyes are burned, their tongues cut out and their ears punctured until they can't see, hear or speak. Every inch of their body is cut and tattooed. And then they are returned to their master, alive, to guarantee that they die in his arms while he tries to convey to them that cannot see or hear that he won't hurt them."
Heero's hand had tightened on his hair. "It's sick. I will allow no roses in my rooms as long as you are here. You needn't fret about it. A Rose Order is rare, and Zechs is above that. Also – the only way into my rooms to get to you is through the window, and the only way to that is to climb past Trowa's window. He takes down assassins before they even reach my balcony."
Luna didn't feel so worried about an assassin getting past Trowa. He knew that Trowa had to have skills for Heero to even be bothered with him. What worried him was if one bypassed Trowa's window completely. After all, corrupt mages favored the Assassin's Guild, and one in particular had already shown that he was sick and insane enough to carry out a Rose Order.
But that was not what Luna thought about. Luna did not fret about such a dreadful thing coming to pass, so much as he thought about how Heero would feel about him if it were.
If Luna were to be taken away on the morrow, what would Heero do, Luna wondered. He had seen his master cry for him once, when he had thought him a goner. Would he cry again? Worse, what would he think of him as a slave? Would he look back on the experience and say to himself that he'd do it all again, or would he simply pick up where he left off with one of his many other slaves?
Worse still, Luna realised, were his own regrets. If he were to be taken away and tortured, he wondered what would hurt him more; the torture, or the knowledge that he hadn't fulfilled his duty to Heero as his bed slave?
He felt torn. He was reminded of when he had first offered himself to Heero and been told to wait until he wanted it. He hadn't wanted it then, due to stress, illness and fatigue. Those factors were all gone now, or at least mostly gone. Fatigue seemed to follow him everywhere, and illness seemed to be always lurking behind corners, but he was not the same way he had been. For the first time since he had left prison, he felt human, not like an invalid, and try as he might, Luna couldn't seem to find a single reason not to offer himself again, except for a nagging feeling that Heero didn't want him anymore. He hadn't initiated anything sexual which left Luna wondering whether he had done something wrong, or whether the King had simply moved on. But even contemplating those things, he realised that the only way to find out if there was truth in them was to offer.
So Luna decided he would offer again and see where it got him. If he was rejected, then at least he would know where he stood. If he was taken ... then he'd be content in knowing that he was doing what he had set out to do when he had taken on being Luna.
And in the end, this was Heero, kind and gentle Heero. And the first time, though hazy, had been enjoyable. What was the worst that could happen? What could possibly go wrong?
A/N: Oops. I jinxed it.