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Chapter Eleven

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Light poked persistently at Duo's eyelids, luring him inevitably into consciousness. He was warm, and so very comfortable, nestled against the firm heat of Heero's body. His cheek was pillowed against Heero's chest, and the other boy's arms enfolded him comfortably, holding him close, fingers tangled in his hair.

"Good morning, Sleeping Beauty," a soft voice purred in his ear. A brilliant smile broke across Duo's face as he tilted his gaze upward to meet those deep blue eyes. "How are you feeling?"

"Good," Duo replied automatically--and realised almost as soon as the word left his lips that he meant it. He felt good. Wonderful, in fact. "Perfect, right now. You're here."

It must have been the right thing to say, because Heero's arms tightened around him, and he felt a kiss brush across his forehead. "I'm glad. I feel the same--like something was missing, and now it's finally back where it belongs."

"What, me in your bed?" Duo teased, though he wouldn't have moved for the world. A happy sigh escaped his lips as he snuggled closer, hiding under the blankets. "I /do/ belong here."

Heero chuckled, kissing the top of his head. "Yes, you do," he agreed. Then he turned serious again--he didn't move, but Duo could feel the transformation, the subtle shift in his partner's mood. "Duo...after last night...how much do you remember?"

The blankets shifted as Duo wriggled, finally poking his head out. "Kara and Trey-ti, mostly. And my mother's voice, but I can't ever picture what she looked like. And you, of course." A faint blush suffused his cheeks.

A pause, and then an almost tentative--"What do you remember about me, Duo?"

He shrugged. "Mostly your eyes. The way you made me feel." His face split with what he was sure must be a ridiculous grin. "Heck, that's easy, it's the same way you make me feel now. Not to change the subject or anything," he added, "but did you mean it? About waiting for centuries?"

Now it was Heero's turn to go pink around the edges. "Of course. But--well, I might have misspoke a little." He shifted, adjusting his body beneath Duo's, letting his stiff limbs stretch. "It had been so long...I didn't recognise you at first. I didn't /forget/ things exactly, not like the rest of you, who have all been reborn with new lives--I just put it all away for a while, because it hurt to much to carry with me."

He sighed, his voice taking on a melancholy note that made Duo's hold on him tighten protectively. "I used to say I'd never go a day without telling you I loved you, even after you were gone. And I did--for so long, Duo, I don't think you can even fathom the time. And every time I saw someone with long hair like yours, I hoped they were you. Everything I ever saw in that same shade of purple as your eyes made me want to cry. I looked everywhere for you, I never settled down anywhere, because I knew someday you'd be born, and I didn't know where, and I didn't want to miss you."

"Heero--" Duo pushed himself up, to stare down into his lover's eyes in wonder. "This may sound a bit ignorant of me, but--you meant all that literally, didn't you? You really haven't been reborn like the rest of us, you just--just didn't die--"

Heero closed his eyes, shielding his soul from that penetrating gaze. "Yes," he sighed. "That's what I mean. And after a while--a long while--I just couldn't do it anymore. There's a limit to how long anyone can go around being miserable before something inside just refuses to do it anymore. I couldn't control when you'd come back--I had to distract myself from missing you or I'd go crazy. So I gave myself new lives to lead, each one a new persona I could sink myself into." The next few phrases took him several attempts before he could finally force out the words, and even that was barely more than a whisper. "I'm sorry for that. I said I'd never forget you, ever, and--and I did for a while. I didn't recognise you when you came here; I didn't even remember myself right away. You'll forgive me, won't you?"

"Oh, Heero--" Duo's poor human heart was too confining for the burst of ecstasy that made him claim his lover's lips then, pouring into the simple meld of lips all the incredible, euphoric joy that infused him. Had he been considering it rationally, he might have attributed it to the loneliness of his younger life, the profound relief at the realisation that someone really /did/ care for him, and not only that but had spend lifetimes waiting for him, loving him--but he wasn't thinking rationally, he wasn't thinking at all, unless it was that he had to make Heero understand.

"That's a silly question," he said as he pulled away. Heero's eyes were shining, and he knew he'd accomplished his goal. "I would never have wanted you to be miserable," he whispered, nestling into the curve of the other boy's side again.

The next time he awoke, it was because his stomach was growling at him, and Heero was shaking his shoulder gently.

"Wake up...let's go get breakfast...."

"Food?" Duo repeated intelligently--quite possibly the only temptation that could have dragged him from the warm and comforting circle of Heero's arms. He crawled out of bed, tugging his clothes straight and looking about for a brush to drag through his hair. He was still hunting when strong arms caught him from behind, pulling him back against his lover's chest.

"May I?" Heero breathed huskily in his ear, stroking slender fingers through the long hair like a comb. Duo nodded, not quite trusting his voice as he bent his head forward and Heero went to work--he must have had a brush somewhere, and now he put it to good use, deftly working through the tangles that inevitably snarled in Duo's hair when he slept.

It was considerably longer than they'd intended before they finally /did/ leave the room for the breakfast hall.

Their friends were huddled around the table, muttering in low, unhappy tones, as they approached. "Hey," Duo called cautiously, "What's up?"

Hilde reached behind her to seize his hand and yank him closer, without ever turning her head. "Have a seat. Have some cereal. We're plotting. Treize and Trowa left already." Which explained, Duo supposed, why Quatre was staring despondently into his cereal rather than eating it. "Miss Noin's taking over all his classes. Though I don't see how they expects us to go through the day like normal when--well, you know--"

"That's exactly why we have to," Relena interjected softly. "If we cancel classes and go around looking like we're preparing for a war, we won't exactly have the element of surprise on our side, will we?"

Hilde grumbled. "I guess not." She scooted her chair over, looping her fingers around Duo's wrist and pulling him into the one next to her. "I dreamed about you," she informed him under her breath.

It surprised him, although it probably shouldn't have. "I dreamed about you too, a bit. Kara. You were a brat," he couldn't resist adding, and she stuck her tongue out at him.

//"Kara!" He was calling her--he'd been looking for her ever since he returned, and his cries were getting more frantic with each breath. It was bad enough he had to come back and tell his family that he hadn't been able to find Trey-ti, that their elder brother and his exotic, eccentric lover had vanished completely. It was worse that he would have to explain what he had learned about the mysterious enemy haunting their every step, and see the resigned sorrow in his mother's eyes as she tried to be strong enough for all of them. But now he couldn't find Kara, and he was getting worried--

And then he found her. Crumpled in a heap across the threshold of the stable, a handful of grain scattered in the dirt around her body--she must have been on her way to talk to her horses, but never made it. Her back was twisted at an angle no-one's body should ever be forced into, and traces of coagulated blood crusted in the short dark hair that covered her face.

He screamed--//

"Duo!" Hilde's hand clamped over his mouth, muffling the wailing that he suddenly realised hadn't just been in his mind. Heero's arms encircled him from behind, protective and gentle. "I'm right here, idiot," Hilde was telling him, her voice worried. "I'm no more dead than you are, ssh, it's okay--"

"'m sorry," Duo mumbled through her fingers, and since he didn't seem about to scream again, she pulled her hand away. He winced--there were teeth marks in her skin. "Ow, sorry, Hilde..."

She shook her head. "Don't worry about it. It's me, remember? Doesn't even hurt. You just had a flashback." She sighed, explaining her sudden expertise on the subject. "We've all been having them for most of the morning."

"Except me," Catherine interrupted, a tint of bitterness in her voice. "I don't have any past life memories. Zip, zilch, nada." She shot a glance toward Quatre, who, once it was clear Duo was in no immediate mortal danger, had gone back to poking his spoon into his soggy cereal.

"How come?" Duo asked, and the telekinetic shrugged.

"Beats me. Lady Une couldn't pull anything out of me either, but you were passed out by then."

"You weren't there." The voice came from Quatre's corner of the table, but had none of the Siren's usual melodic timbre--it was more like a growl. "You weren't there," he continued, fiercely defying anyone to interrupt or question him further. "Only Trowa was. You were formed because I split him in two!" His voice rose, hysterically, and collectively the others flinched away from him. "Crack! Broken Trowa. Broken soul. Becomes twins. Happy now? All your questions answered?" Quatre thrust the bowl away from him and twisted out of his chair, storming out the door.

Silence fell. Catherine stared after Quatre, her hands clenched, confusion warring with concern in her face, until Hilde leaned over and brushed a kiss across her cheek. Wordlessly, Cathy rested her head on Hilde's shoulder and closed her eyes.

*****

It was harder than anticipated to keep up the illusion of normalcy. Lady Une's personalities shifted sporadically even throughout her class, and her normally coherent lectures ranged between tangents too frequently for her already-preoccupied students to keep up. And it was disconcerting whenever she would forget herself and call them by older, less familiar names. When she stumbled at last to a halt and dismissed them with a vague, vacant smile, it was all they could do not to collectively run for the door.

Zechs' class, they were sure, would be easier to follow.

Except that they never quite made it there. Halfway through the garden, when the tall willow that overlooked the pond was just coming into view, Catherine let out a startled cry and collapsed. Hilde barely kept her from hitting the ground, and stood staring helplessly at Duo, Heero, and Quatre.

"What do I do?"

"Take her to Sally," Quatre answered, worry overcoming whatever it was that had been depressing him all morning. "Hurry! It might mean there's something wrong with Trowa!"

What else /could/ it mean, Duo wondered, but decided it might be best to keep that thought to himself. Heero, stronger than Hilde, lifted Catherine out of the smaller girl's arms, cradling her delicately against his chest. "Duo," he said, his blue eyes pleading, "go find Sylvia--" Then he turned and hurried away, back toward the hall.

Duo mumbled something that he hoped was taken as agreement and pelted up the walkway, skidding through the door, and running full tilt for the staircase that would take him to Sylvia's basement. He didn't want to go down there alone--if he'd stopped to think, he would have been amased that he remembered the way--but it didn't take a genius to figure out that this was important. He almost tripped over the first loose stair, flailing wildly to catch himself on the rickety handrail, but at last he made it to the artist-oracle's den in one piece and banged hard on the door.

"Sylvia!"

The door swung open before he was ready and he stumbled inside, regaining his balance before swinging his gaze around the room.

He startled to call her name again but stopped, startled into silence, unconsciously straightening as he caught sight of her.

Gone was the tattered uniform of smock and jeans and stocking feet, the careless knot of hair tied at the nape of her neck. She had discarded them all for a long white shift that clung to her legs and decked her like a Greek goddess, fringed with silver threads along the sleeves and hem. More silver cinched it at her waist and glittered around her neck, where it mingled with the long strands of daffodil-golden hair now falling loose down her back. Only one slender arm was visible beneath the folds of the burgundy cloak draping around her shoulders, pushed back over one of them for freedom of movement as she rummaged through a collection of pigments and paints in a box against her easel.

She turned toward him, gesturing with a paintbrush. "Come in. I'll only be a moment."

Duo swallowed. "Heero asked me to find you."

Sylvia nodded. "I thought he might." She frowned. "They found Trowa too soon--they weren't supposed to, you believe me right? That I would have warned him if I'd known it?"

He nodded, bouncing on the balls of his feet, waiting impatiently. "Of course."

She sighed, relieved, and the cloak fell across her arms as she reached for something behind her table on the floor. "Help me, Duo, would you please--?"

He knelt next to her, helping her drag something long and hard and wrapped in blankets out from under the table, rocking back onto his heels as she unwrapped it.

His breath caught in his throat. It was a sword. It was easily four feet long, perfectly straight, with a slender blade and a snake coiled around a rose as a hilt. The snake's beady emerald eyes glared balefully at Duo as Sylvia returned it to its sheath and slung it across her back, under the cloak.

//I've seen that before, I know I have--//

She grabbed his hand. "We should go."

Duo hurried up the spiral staircase in her wake, feeling that this was all rather uncomfortably surreal.

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