A/N: This chapter just boils down to...

Duo: Yay, a sleepover!
Heero, eyes bloodshot, staring at the ceiling: …

Chapter 23

Everyone moved as quickly and quietly as they could, dropping off supplies and putting together a cot for Sally to sleep on in the corner of my bedroom. One of the servants – likely one of Duo's maids – also had the foresight to move a couple of the decorative folding screens into my room, one to partially block the view of Sally's cot, the other set up in the corner closest to the fireplace where Duo was currently getting sponged clean.

I had intended to leave as Hilde got to work washing the blood and sick off of him, but Duo had nearly thrown another fit the moment I started walking towards the door; so instead, I sat in one of the armchairs that I'd moved to the opposite corner, face currently turned towards the wall to give him some privacy.

Privacy which Duo seemed to be completely rejecting because he had started narrating his bath.

"Why do you keep scrubbing my arm so hard? What kind of imaginary dirt do you think you're seeing?" Duo complained, voice pitched in such a way that it was more teasing than abrasive. "The only thing you're scrubbing off is my skin!"

"I apologize," Hilde deadpanned.

"I'm sick, you have to be nice to me!"

"I apologize."

"You don't look the least bit apologetic!"

I kept my steadfast silence. Maybe Duo forgot I was here? I didn't want to remind him and make him uncomfortable by speaking up, so I stared resolutely into the corner as his stream of complaints continued as Hilde moved on to other body parts.

It was best I stayed in the room anyway. Until Quatre and the others identified how the Duchess had been given poison, Duo would need a constant guard. My own guards remained posted outside the bedroom doors, and currently, the only ones allowed inside my bedchambers were Trowa, Quatre, Wufei, Meilan, Hilde, Sally, and Duo's three maids - although these latter three maids needed to have direct supervision.

Duo's guards were also outside, although I'd heard Simon and Mikhail had gotten into an argument as soon as they'd vacated the room. I would need to deal with that soon, once we'd apprehended the person or people who had put Duo's life in danger. I couldn't have Duo's guards be caught unawares just because they weren't getting along.

"Heero, you can look now – I'm decent."

I felt myself involuntarily twitch at Duo's words, which served as just another reminder he'd been indecent only a short few moments ago. Just thinking about his exposed skin getting sponged clean, the soft scent of lavender and honey wafting over him…

I forced myself to turn and look at Duo, hoping the image of seeing him fully dressed would chase away these more imaginative thoughts. He was fully dressed, but somehow, this only made it worse; Duo's skin was faintly flushed, both from the sponge bath and everything before it, which left him looking more rosy-cheeked than usual. The white satin gown draped over his delicate frame, the slender hollow of his throat and collarbone all the more prominent in the warm light of the room.

I'd never seen Duo in his nightclothes before, and it was an intimate look that made him seem all the more softer and delicate. I wanted to bundle him up into my freshly-changed blankets and cocoon him away from the dangers of the world.

I remembered his blood on the sheets.

"Oh," Duo's head cocked in thought. "Don't you need to change too?"

I couldn't help staring. Did he expect me to sleep with him?

"I believe His Grace the Duke intends to stay up tonight and keep watch," Hilde explained without ever looking in our direction, putting away the bathing supplies as two of Duo's maids carried out the bathwater.

Duo's brows furrowed in confusion, "But Berion and Mifune are already outside keeping watch! Heero, you should be resting."

Why does Duo know exactly who is perched outside the bedroom window?

"I'm fine, Duo," I said, arms crossed over my chest. "You're the one that needs to rest."

Duo turned to the other corner of the room where Sally was putting together some herbs that would help alleviate some of the lingering effects of the poison; it was a different concoction than the activated charcoal drink she'd given him previously, since Duo had had such a violent reaction to drinking it.

"Sally, tell Heero he needs to get his sleep too!"

Sally made a noncommittal noise, crushing some herbs into a stone bowl. "Your Grace the Duke, you should get some sleep too," she dutifully echoed in a droll tone.

Duo smiled at me so victoriously that I couldn't dredge up the will to argue. I don't know why he was so intent on me sleeping – hadn't he wanted me here for protection purposes? – but I suppose I could entertain him by at least giving off the impression that I would do as asked. I wouldn't actually sleep of course, but it wouldn't hurt to pretend if it made Duo feel better.

I nodded in assent, standing and heading towards the en-suite bathing chamber. It was still chilly since I usually didn't take my bath this early, and they hadn't bothered heating it up for Duo to take his sponge bath in since that would have taken too long. I didn't mind the cold that much, so I could quickly wash off and get changed into my nightclothes without issue; I'd been in worse bathing areas on the field after all.

"Eh—Where are you going?"

Duo's clear panic stopped me in my steps. I turned and gave him what should have been a confused look, but there was no telling if my face was actually showing that. "…getting ready for bed," I explained. "I'll be quick."

"Why can't you just get ready in here?" Duo demanded. His eyes kept flickering around the room, and my heart burned at the obvious fear in his face.

"Duo, I'll be very quick," I tried to reassure him.

"No, it's too cold in there!" he refuted, now trying to rise from where Hilde had left him perched on my bed. (Duo, in his nightclothes, in my bed…) Hilde had already left the room to personally oversee dinner preparations, and Sally was still busy crushing various herbs with her pestle and mortar.

I moved hurriedly back over to Duo to stop him from standing, and he took the opportunity to grab my wrist. "If you really need to get ready in there," he said, looking straight into my face with burning violet eyes. "I'll come in there with you!"

It felt like the floor vanished from right underneath me, and the only thing keeping me tenuously bound to the current moment were Duo's fingers wrapped around the bare skin of my wrist and his amethyst-bright eyes.

"What?" The word came out so much more severe than I intended, but it was hard just trying to breathe through all the images Duo's innocent suggestion had evoked.

"I can help you bathe!" Duo continued, and there went my ability to continue breathing.

The idea of Duo sitting beside me, gently drawing a scented washrag down my arm, fingers splayed over wet skin… His fingers running through my hair, down the nape of my neck, across my shoulders… He'd hated my scars before, but would he care for them now? Would he tenderly trace them as a lover did?

"Your Grace."

I lashed out immediately, pulling Duo to my side and keeping him pressed close. He froze in my hold but made no sound of protest, and I consciously gentled my sudden grip on him so that it didn't hurt. His wide violet eyes were locked onto my outstretched hand, which was still pointed in Trowa's direction.

My old friend had quick reflexes and near-inhuman flexibility, which saved his neck from being snapped as he quickly stepped back and half-bent backward. He was quick to right himself as I halted my reflexive movement, his sudden presence having taken me by surprise.

"Your Grace, I came to report that we've found out what kind of poison was used," Trowa stated with his customarily-bland tone, as if I tried to break his neck every day and twice on the weekends. I usually appreciate his generally unruffled nature but sometimes it came across as passive-aggressive, especially if Duo was around.

I glared at him in annoyance. "How many times do I have to tell you not to sneak up on me?" He knows I hate it when he does that, and he was one of the very few who could.

"I always thought you enjoyed the surprise," Trowa lied, voice dry as ever.

I ignored him, instead focusing back on Duo as I stopped pinning him to my side. He didn't seem very bothered by Trowa's abrupt appearance, hardly taking more than just a single step away from me as if he was worried I'd suddenly disappear into the bathing chamber like I'd intended. I stopped myself from reaching out to touch him, quite aware that I'd taken enough liberties tonight.

I looked back to Trowa. "Report," I ordered him curtly.

"It's chrysomallus," Trowa stated. "The Aries. It was slipped into the Duchess's tea."

A poetic name for one of the deadliest poisons on the continent. It was taken from a golden-petaled flower known as the Golden Fleece, which was dried and ground down into a fine powder. The powder had a subtle taste but tended to thicken whatever liquid it was put in, which had forced those who used it to slip it into syrups to disguise it. It did not require much to be fatal to humans; little more than the size of a pea was considered a lethal dose.

"I know a little about it," Sally interjected with a frown, her eyes now scouring Duo intently. "Death usually occurs within the first six hours."

"You are just a fountain of optimism," Duo grumbled quietly.

Trowa just nodded at Sally's words. "If left untreated, the victim will experience severe stomach pains, nausea and vomiting, partial to complete blindness, fever, and confusion," he added. I wondered which of them had volunteered to ingest some; given the amount of time Trowa and Quatre had been absent, and now Wufei, it really could have been any one of them. They didn't require that much recovery time, especially against poisons.

"I guess I got lucky!" Duo chirped brightly. "I don't really have any of that anymore."

Sally marched over and shoved an herbal-smelling drink into his hands. "It's still better to be cautious. I'll monitor you tonight to ensure that the toxins have been taken care of," she said with a chilly look when Duo opened his mouth with an argumentative gleam in his eyes.

"Even if it was a small amount, it's better to be safe, Duo," I added in support.

Trowa's eyes were boring into a spot just past Duo's slender right shoulder. "We were fortunate that you only ingested a small amount, Your Grace," he said, passive-aggressiveness shining through in full form.

I glared at him. I wouldn't say anything, as usually Trowa's quietly snide remarks tended to slip under Duo's notice, and bringing it up surely wouldn't end well, but it still irked me. I understood the resentment my friends (and some of the servants) had for my husband, and knew that it came from a place of love and respect for me – but that didn't make it any less aggravating.

Duo didn't say anything, Trowa's unsaid words clearly flying over his head as he downed Sally's concoction in three large swallows. I watched his throat bob with the motion, entranced for a second, but then Duo was handing the cup back to Sally and a single drop of the herbal remedy escaped from the corner of his plump lips and down to his chin before he absently wiped it away.

Trowa stepped on my foot.

"Duo, you should rest," I said, jolted abruptly out of my wayward thoughts. A displeased frown flitted across Duo's pink lips, but before he could argue, I continued. "Commander Barton can sit with you while I change."

It was almost funny that the exact same expression of betrayal flashed across both of their faces, although credit went to Trowa for smothering it quickly under professional indifference. This was the best compromise I could think of at the moment; I trusted Trowa with my life and knew that he would do his damnedest to protect Duo, even if he didn't much like him.

"I think Commander Barton is busy, Heero," Duo said hollowly.

Trowa rose an eyebrow, although he kept his gaze pointed in the opposite direction. "Commander Barton agrees with the Duchess's observation," he intoned dully.

"The Duchess appreciates Commander Barton's honesty."

"…Commander Barton thanks the Duchess for his thoughtfulness."

What were they doing? "Stop speaking in the third person," I told Trowa gruffly.

"…" Trowa stared at me.

Duo pouted. "The Duke should just change in here," he reiterated.

Don't include me in the third person!

I was saved from responding to that – or trying to respond to that – as there was a polite knock on my bedroom door. After I'd called out permission to enter, Quatre pushed open the door and stepped through. He'd changed outfits from what he wore earlier today, and though he looked perfectly fine, I could tell he seemed faintly paler than usual.

"Quatre," Trowa called out, monotone echoing vaguely with admonishment. He obviously didn't like that his lover was already moving up and about; I understood the sentiment, but we both knew that no one could keep Quatre from doing what he thinks needs to be done.

"Quatre!" Duo called out with much more exuberance, immediately releasing my wrist in order to rush towards the blonde. (I ignored the spike of disappointment at how quickly Duo had turned his attention away from me.) Quatre hurried to meet my husband, concern clear on his face as he grabbed Duo's forearms.

"Your Grace, you should be resting," he chided, already leading Duo back over to the bed.

Duo laughed softly. "I'm fine – I'm feeling much better now! I think I just needed to throw it back up is all."

"That's not how poisoning works, Your Grace," Sally chimed in.

I turned back to Trowa as Duo began to argue with the woman. "Did you find the perpetrator?" I asked him quietly so that I didn't garner Duo's attention.

Trowa shook his head subtly. "Quatre identified the poison after drinking some of the Duchess's tea," he explained. "Recovery took thirty minutes."

Thirty minutes. That was longer than usual for us, but that just meant the Aries was a more lethal poison. Quatre would have undergone all of the same symptoms as Duo in a shorter span of time, but whereas Duo had to swallow activated charcoal to battle the effects, Sandrock would have neutralized the poison and forced out the toxin.

"Lady Meilan and Howard are investigating the kitchen staff," Trowa relayed to me. A fair choice, as they would have recognized all of the usual servants given that they'd remained in the estate for the past year. "Wufei is going through the guards and the other estate servants who had access to the tea."

I should have been out there with Wufei, but I wouldn't leave Duo after he'd asked me to stay. Well, my eyes moved back to my husband. He'd wanted me to stay until Quatre had arrived.

"Don't take your jealousy out on my husband, Your Grace," Trowa snarked at me quietly.

I snorted, turning around and entering the bathing chamber while Duo was distracted. I usually did my bathing by myself, having never gotten quite used to being washed by servants even after all of these years. The number of attempted assassinations I'd been subjected to when I was first revealed as the heir to the Yuy duchy had hardly made it better.

The water was nearly ice-cold as I quickly and thoroughly washed myself, but the chill hardly bothered me. Once I'd been thoroughly scrubbed down, I took down the small jar of sandalwood oil and lightly dabbed some on both wrists and under both my ears. After it quickly dried, I pulled on my nightclothes and padded quietly out of the bathing room.

Trowa had already left but Quatre stayed behind, sitting in a chair beside my bed and speaking softly with the Duchess. Duo was thankfully in the bed, but he was sitting cross-legged and gesturing animatedly as he spoke, clearly telling Quatre about the strange black bird that had burst through the window earlier.

"Hilde dragged it out though," Duo frowned. "What do you think she did with it?"

"It sounded like it was badly injured. They'll have to put it down, out of mercy," Quatre replied.

Hilde eventually rolled in with a cart of food, Quatre electing to stay to eat since Duo seemed to relax more in his presence. It went without saying that the food had all been tested for poison, but even so, Sally had restricted Duo to consommé and a simple bread roll.

It was still quite early in the evening, and despite everything that he'd been put through, Duo did not seem the least bit tired. He complained a bit more about being put on bedrest ("Can't I at least jog in place?" "No."), then would try to inch his way out of bed the moment any of us looked away from him.

I sat in an armchair positioned closer to the fireplace, trying not to look in the direction of the bed too obviously. Quatre had just finished his evening cup of coffee when Hilde returned once again, this time coming in with a stack of papers bound with leather string.

"My notebook!" Duo cried out happily.

"Since the Duchess seems inclined to staying up for a while longer," Hilde said, although with the way her eyes drilled into Duo, it was clear she was not exactly happy that he refused to sleep. "It seemed prudent to bring you something to share with the Duke."

I perked up.

"Oh, good idea, Hilde!" Duo thanked her, taking the proffered book and then looking over to me with clear excitement. I stood and walked over, drawn more by his expression than anything else, and then froze briefly as Quatre stood from the chair next to the bed. He patted me encouragingly on the shoulder as he passed, bidding us a cheerful "goodnight!" before he left the room, Hilde shadowing his steps.

Sally, the only other person present in the room now, had taken over my bedchamber's sole desk and was busy scrawling out…something… in the light of her table lantern, her back to us and clearly refusing to take part in whatever was happening on our side of the room. For all intents and purposes, Duo and I had been left alone.

"I planned to talk to you about this a bit later," Duo began, flipping through the leather-bound pages that seemed to be filled with sketches of things I couldn't quite identify. "I have some small-scale models in my study if you want to see them in action, but I can give you a little overview!"

I stared down at the pages. It was a very thick stack of papers.

Duo beamed at me, apparently taking encouragement from my silence. It took a moment to see past the way excitement highlighted his delicately beautiful features, plush lips stretched into an expression so inviting and interested that I wanted to lean just a bit forward to see if I could catch some of that warmth.

"So, let's start with the steam engine!"

…was he going to discuss engineering with me?

It turned out Duo could talk about engineering for hours. Uninterrupted.

I'd heard a little bit about this from Quatre when I first came back, and had wondered why he seemed a little glassy-eyed when he recounted his own engineering discussion with the Duchess. Hilde had not said much about Duo's newfound passion, although she did look a little more aggravated than her usual – but I had just attributed that to her usual attitude regarding Duo.

I had some background in engineering, at least as much as was needed to run an effective military force. I knew how to use the machines and weaponry our military engineers crafted, and it didn't take me long to make them myself – but it was not a passion, it didn't drive me to invent more, especially technology that didn't serve a military purpose.

Duo's words from before came to mind: do I want to turn every child in this province into a soldier?

For Duo to come up with the ideas he had – not just his orphanage reformation proposal, but also these new technologies that have little to nothing to do with our military – showed that he was thinking more about the future, idealistic though it may be. (I struggled to think of the last time there was peace on the continent. The war between Sanc, Lagrange, Oz, and Romefeller seemed endless.) He was not concerned with weapons development, but rather with the development of our land and people.

The steam engine was already being proliferated throughout the coastal towns of our duchy; it wouldn't take long for the technology to reach the other provinces. It wasn't limited to steamboats anymore, these engines tweaked to fit the desired context: pumping out water from underground mines, and now, possible use across land to speed up transport of both goods and people.

Duo had gone over the schematics for the locomotive, a caravan that ran on steam and coal rather than horses, pulled along tracks at consistent speeds that would turn a normally week-long journey to only a couple days. If tracks could be run across the entire province, travel times would be cut down to a fraction of what they currently were; if we popularized it across the entire kingdom, trade would see an economic boost.

It wasn't just these engine-based technologies that Duo had gone over – there were other things, smaller in scale but no less significant. He'd gone on and on about lights, something he referred to as 'electricity' that in his haste to explain, I could only understand that it did not involve fire and oil.

He also went over the different things he'd been slowly pushing into the town market: a writing instrument that held an ink cartridge on the inside, an improved distillation process that had made whiskey and bourbon possible, the band-aid Duo had argued with Meilan about, hair care products, new-age perfumes based on oils rather than scented satchels.

A multitude of ideas, all centered around the theme of improving the daily life of the people of our duchy – not for war, but just for the people.

Some of the ideas flew past me, Duo too lost to his own zeal to properly explain the finer details, and I didn't want to interrupt him out of my own ignorance and dampen his spirited mood. Duo was breathtaking in his passion: his eyes, glazed and in pain only a few short hours ago, were wide with excitement as he jumped from one idea to the next; his long, chestnut-hued hair tumbled over one slender shoulder in a loose braid, bangs framing the gently-illuminated heart-shaped face; his slender body looked soft draped in his sleepwear, his small form seemingly swallowed within the sheets of my bed.

It was only as the light from the tableside lantern began to wane that Duo finally seemed to wind down. Sally had long extinguished her own desklight, laid out on her corner cot and seemingly asleep. Duo closed his leather-bound work – his 'notebook' – and I took it from him to place at the bedside table. His wide violet eyes tracked my movement, and then inexplicably, he shifted over on the bed so that he put more space between us.

I didn't let it hurt me. Even with the attempt on his life and his plea for me to stay with him, I knew that did not mean he intended to sleep so close beside me. Whatever minuscule amount of room he could put between us – him on the bed, me in the chair beside it – was expected.

What wasn't expected was the confused expression on his face when I re-took my seat. Did he want me to sit back in the lounge area?

"Heero," Duo began, bemusement heavy in his tone. "What're doing? Aren't you going to sleep?"

Ah, his obsession with me sleeping. I don't know why amnesia made Duo so concerned with my sleeping habits. "Don't worry, I'll sleep," I told him.

Duo stared at me.

I stared back.

"…Then why aren't you getting in the bed?"

I felt the floor drop out from under me, for what had to be the fifth time today. "…what do you mean?" I managed out of a dry throat. Surely not-?!

Duo patted the spot beside him in bed, and what felt like my heart joined wherever the flooring had gone. "Come on in. I promise I didn't vomit on this side," he remarked with dry amusement.

I didn't move. Both the reminder of his blood on my sheets – of how close Duo had come to dying – combined with the current situation did nothing to help my mental state. Duo got tired of encouragingly patting the empty spot beside him, now moving to sit up; the bedsheets pooled around his slender waist, seemingly swallowing up his small form that looked all the more delicate in the firelight.

I found myself immediately moving back up to my feet and then on to the bed, all to make sure Duo wasn't moving around unnecessarily when he should be resting.

Why was it so hard to get Duo to rest?!

"Lay back down," I snapped at him, the tone I used with my men slipping out unintentionally. I felt my own facial features stiffen; I hated speaking like that to Duo, and it only ever seemed to happen at the worst times. Duo used to flinch at the tone, but his contempt for me served as a rallying point for his courage, and he'd usually snap back before storming out. It had made the few discussions we did have very tense, no matter how short the duration.

The Duo now, however, just waved a negligent hand at me and scooted back under the covers, practically cocooned under the sheets. He'd turned to face me, peering up with a smug, victorious grin – as if he was satisfied that I'd crawled into bed with him. As if he wanted me here.

I laid flat on my back, feeling stiff and awkward in my own bed, eyes locked on the canopy above us. The fireplace illumination cast jumping shadows across the canopy and ceiling, and my eyes trailed these fleeting images just so I wouldn't give in to the urge to look at Duo instead; me staring at him would hardly help him get comfortable enough to sleep.

Which seemed like a waste of effort when I felt a single tap on my arm. "Hey Heero," Duo said, a tad quieter than his normal volume – was he being considerate because Sally was sleeping, or because I was so close to him? "You know none of this is your fault, right?"

I turned my head to stare at him, and forcibly stopped myself from moving more than that at just how close he'd gotten – I hadn't even felt him move. But he was laying only a hand's span away, and now that I turned to face him, I could feel the warmth of his body heat so close to mine.

I didn't say anything, so shocked by our proximity. Duo took this as his cue to continue, "Not just the poisoning, I mean everything. The greenhouse fire, the amnesia, everything afterwards… None of it was anyone's fault but mine."

I wish I could have this conversation with at least a desk between us, because having to look into Duo's brilliantly purple eyes as his breath ghosted over me with every word was more than distracting. "Duo," I managed out. "I am responsible for keeping you safe. That I failed to do so—"

Duo slapped a hand over my mouth.

I didn't dare open my mouth and risk my tongue touching his skin if I tried to speak. Duo, ignorant of the derailment of my thoughts, sighed explosively. "I knew you would think like that! You have such a hero complex!"

I stared at him. A complex?

With his free hand, he pointed a finger in my face. "You have to stop blaming yourself for every little thing that goes wrong, especially when it comes to me! How the hell would you know that I would set the greenhouse on fire and nearly kill myself?"

I said nothing because his hand was still over my mouth.

"Or that I'd go hiking and run into some bandits? Or that Ishigaki's governor was a piece of shit? Or even that the Bluefield Orphanage was run by some greedy asshole and her hatchet-wielding sidepiece?"

Where was Duo picking up this vocabulary?

"The point is, I don't expect you to be omnipotent. I might run into some trouble with human traffickers or weirdoes in churches, but it's really not anyone's fault but my own."

…What was that about weirdoes in churches?

"So you need to stop trying to take the blame for everything. I make my own choices too, Heero," Duo finished, and then finally removed his hand from my mouth.

I took a moment to breathe and wet my lips; the scent of honey and lavender was soft against my tongue, the lingering aftertaste of Duo's touch. Violet eyes bored into my own the entire time, as if he were waiting for my agreement with his words.

But I didn't agree, at least to a certain degree. Duo's autonomy had always been something very important to him, although before where he would lash out any time he felt restricted, now it seemed to have translated through his amnesia as accountability for his choices. It was such an odd change; Duo used to mock me for my attempts at hiding the fallout for some of his choices, such as his affairs or the verbal abuse he used to heap on the servants, as if it was amusing that I'd try to keep his name as clean as possible in the Sanc Court.

I knew exactly how dirty my own name was in that same social circle, all because of the blood in my veins and on my hands. I just wanted to keep Duo separate from all of what marriage to me entailed – but to Duo, that had seemed laughable.

Duo had been right.

But I didn't think he was right now. I may not have known about any of the underlying issues that he'd inadvertently stumbled upon in my absence, but I should have: I should have known about the bandits around Aoba-ku, about the corruption in Ishigaki and the provincial capital orphanages, about the human trafficking ring. I should have mandated a guard around Duo at all times, even if he was just visiting the estate greenhouse. There were so many pre-emptive measures I could have taken, so many things I should have known about before and dealt with immediately; but instead, I'd left Duo alone and in danger, all through my own incompetence.

"I," should have known better. "Need to strengthen our forces."

Duo frowned at me. I could see him internally chew through my answer, a long moment where his gaze weighed heavier on me than any suit of armor. Instead of speaking immediately, he let out a small sigh, followed by a long-suffering smile – as if he was unsurprised by my response but didn't have the energy to argue it now.

"Actually, you need to sleep," he corrected me, tone light and teasing. It sent a tingle down my spine, the interaction so at odds with what I was used to. Duo never teased – he taunted.

I turned my gaze back up to the canopy. "Goodnight," I managed out of a dry throat.

"Sweet dreams," he cooed to me softly.

He did not move away.

"Did you get any sleep?"

I stared balefully at Quatre, wishing not for the first time that I had nicer friends. My friends were definitely kind and good people – they were also just complete assholes.

Quatre knew damn well how little sleep I would get last night, sharing the same bed with Duo and already more than paranoid after the poisoning attempt. Duo, who had slept sweetly and soundly all night laid out right beside me, had been close enough that I could hear his soft exhales and feel his body heat. At some point, his hand had landed on my arm and clutched at my sleeve the entire night, as if even subconsciously, he was worried I'd leave him.

I'd woken up early from what little sleep I did get, although Duo was not far behind even then. He'd sat up in bed, yawning and sleep-soft, and it took forever to tear my eyes off of him. I'd only just managed to do so as Sally came bustling up to the bed, another detox drink pushed into Duo's hands as she checked him over.

It was only after Duo was given a clean bill of health ("You're almost too healthy," Sally had said with narrowed eyes) and Meilan had arrived that I left Duo's general vicinity, quickly getting ready and leaving the room. Breakfast was to be taken separately today; Duo and Meilan would take it in my bedroom, as Duo was still on bedrest for the rest of the day, while I took it in my study with the others.

"Well I certainly didn't," Wufei scowled. True to our conditions though, it hardly showed; generally, we wouldn't suffer any of the negative symptoms until at least 72 hours had passed without sleep. The current record was kept by Quatre, who'd managed an astonishing 8 days before he just collapsed. Trowa had not been amused. "Despite how much we know about the Aries symptoms and origins, a fully effective cure has yet to be developed."

The Aries was renowned for its utility; it was subtle despite the thickening effect and could easily be slipped into drink or confection. However, the Golden Fleece – the flower used to make it – were rare and hard to find, and even now only grew in one part of the continent.

Romefeller.

"We were unable to locate who poisoned the tea," Trowa recounted in cool tones. "Our best guess is a Romefeller spy who slipped in with our returning forces. Chef Morris has restricted access to the kitchens now and has chosen to only keep the staff who have already been serving the Duchess for the past year."

That would keep access more restricted, especially while Trowa and Broden combed through the returning forces and looked for any unfamiliar faces. Despite the contempt some of the guards and soldiers had for the Duchess, they were unlikely to have poisoned him; being able to get the Aries poison would be difficult even for me, let alone the common soldier.

"It's also difficult to tell if they were targeting the Duchess specifically, or if they were hoping to poison the Duke as well," Trowa continued. Assassinating the Duchess would have served as a threat and was something common when it came to Sanc's relationship with her neighbors; if they could poison the man who also led the opposing forces, all the better.

But Duo being not only the Duchess of the Yuy province but also the second son of Duke Maxwell makes him a prime target. It may not be common knowledge, but we could never entirely discount the fact that perhaps some higher-ups in Romefeller and Oz knew exactly who the Maxwell's were and what purpose they actually served in Sanc.

"Does the poison have any permanent effects?" I asked, looking to Wufei. He was the one who had spent the entire night looking into the Aries poison, tasked with finding some way to either cure it or alleviate the symptoms enough so that Duo could recover naturally; Sally, as our primary doctor, was tasked with the more immediate concern of making sure Duo just survived the night.

Wufei scowled. "So far, it looks like the only permanent effect is death," he replied shortly. "There's no cure and no means to alleviate symptoms. Activated charcoal supposedly makes it worse."

I stiffened, knuckles turning white from how hard I'd clenched my hands together atop the desk. "Worse?" I echoed, remembering very well what we'd force-fed Duo the night prior.

I remembered how he'd begged me to stop.

"Not exactly worse," Wufei corrected himself, too proud to wince at his poorly-chosen words. "It generally has no effect on the Aries, although in a small number of cases, it has been known to…speed up the process."

It was only the fact that Sally had already checked Duo over that kept me in my seat. Duo himself had looked unbothered; perhaps a bit peakier, but he'd reported no pains or discomfort, even as he'd started doing some weird stretches after climbing out of bed this morning. The Aries was known for its speed, but once the victim hit that downhill, they never perked up.

"If the Duchess is already up and moving around afterwards, then he's already overcome it," Wufei continued, clearly meaning to console me in his usual taciturn way.

Here, he paused and glowered at some indistinct spot in thought. "Actually, the fact that he's recovered so quickly is more concerning to me," he said. "Even those who had recovered from Aries poisoning – usually because they had only ingested an extremely small amount – still took several days to recover."

Wufei's words and eyes were equally sharp as he spoke, "It took the Duchess less than three hours."

His statement hung heavy in the air. Quatre was one thing; whether it was internal or external injuries, poison or just plain lethargy – our bodies were different. When it came to recovery and healing, we kept it between us as much as we could; whispers and rumors, while damaging, were still not as damning as actual confirmation. The fact that I'd once taken a spear to the gut and was walking around less than an hour later was information that would have terrified not only our enemies, but also our allies.

So if Quatre recovered from the Aries in a short amount of time, that was one thing. But for Duo…

"The Duchess is still a Maxwell," Quatre pointed out. "It wouldn't be strange for a dandy from a prominent family like the Maxwell's to have been trained at least a little in poison resistance."

Wufei's scowl deepened. "Aconite and baneberry are one thing, but the Aries?"

"If anyone in Sanc would have access to chrysomallus, it would be Duke Maxwell," Trowa returned.

That opened up another branch of thought that I felt more comfortable in discarding. It made no logical sense for Duke Maxwell to poison his own son, even if he had the means; the subtle threats he'd issued me when I'd been courting Duo had not been just hot air. For him to be so obsessed with his child's safety and then to turn around and try to kill Duo didn't make any sense.

But Solo Maxwell, as the Maxwell heir, would have that same access, wouldn't he?

…Would Solo Maxwell kill his own little brother?

I never understood Duo's relationship with his family, especially with his brother; the way Duo regarded his immediate family and the way those same family members spoke about Duo were so at odds, it was almost as if they were speaking about different people. I had sat at the same table with all three of them at one point, and not once had they ever even looked each other in the eyes. The Maxwell's were a family where the more you questioned them, the less sense they made.

Then again, it had been made clear to me from the very start that Duo was strange, even for a Maxwell.

"The Duchess will have around-the-clock guard," I decided. "Notify Simon immediately."

Whether it was Romefeller, Oz, or a threat much closer to home – I wouldn't allow Duo to be put in danger once again.

A/N: Amazing how many weird things Duo can get away with because of amnesia and 'idk my family is just really fucking weird' ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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