Duo and I sat in the bushes as we tried to catch our dinner

Duo and I sat in the bushes as we tried to catch our dinner. I was bored. I had been poking him for the past ten minutes, at least, and was wondering when it would eventually get on his nerves. I had really just been poking him for the fun of it. Ya know, in the same spot… over and over and over…?

Poke… poke… poke… poke poke…

Smack…

Poke poke…poke…poke poke

Soon he had just stopped responding. I guess he figured if he ignored it long enough that I would stop.

HA! Fat chance.

Finally, he violently turned to me and gave me the "do-it-again-and-I'm-gonna-kill-ya" look and naturally I stopped. ^__^

I looked to the where Duo was watching.

"Um, Duo? We didn't order this dinner to go did we?"

"No. why?"

"'Cuse there it goes," I said, pointing to a bunny hopping back into its hole.

Duo growled "Luvin"

I shrugged. "I hate fast food."

Duo shook his head and laughed in a sigh of defeat. My eyes went wide and Duo noticed that I wasn't looking at him.

"Now what?" he asked.

I pointed a trembling finger behind him and he turned to see what it was.  His eyes went wide when he saw a huge green scaly dragon. Keeping his eye on the dragon, he quickly handed me a small dagger and sprinted through the trees. I looked at the dagger in disgust.

"Gee, thanks, Duo!" I yelled. The dragon roared and I looked at it with wide eyes, then screamed as I got up and ran in Duo's direction. After a few minutes I found him trying to catch his breath at a nearby path. He was bent over with his hands on his knees, panting.

"Yeah, thanks a lot." I said stepping beside him breathing equally as hard.

He looked at me then, back down at the path. "Yeah well, bein' a necromancer at my level, I couldn't exactly fight that thing. I woulda been guaranteed toast," he panted.

I looked at him in surprise. "And this is coming from you?"

"Don't rub it in. Orcs are more my style."

"Ya know, it would be fun seeing you fight one of them lego's," I said, biting my lip slightly.

"Heh" he laughed.

"Oh come on," I teased. "Broken bones, gaping winds, burning flesh… it does seem to have a slight ring to it…"

He shook his head "No, thanks."

We looked back as a ring of flames came around us, looked at each other, then ran down the path. We weren't exactly thinking that we where leading the dragon into a town… we just wanted to get rid of the thing. I ran as fast as I could, leaving Duo behind.

 I ran head first into a couple walking down the road and shoved a girl to the side. A man was behind her.

I thought 'Hello Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome.'… then came the sword… straight in my face.

"WHOA!" I yelled skidding to a halt then turning around to run the other way. I ran past the girl again and head first into Duo. I landed on the ground, face up, and stayed there. Duo stood over me with his hands on his hips.

"Ow" I squeaked looking up at the sky.

"What am I going to do with you?" he asked shaking his head.

"I don't care!" I yelled. "Just GET ME UP!"

He laughed and held out his hand to pull me up. I took it, pulled myself, up and dusted off my blue dress. I pulled at a lock of blonde hair that had come out of my braid.

"Duo!" I whined with pleading eyes. He growled.

"Ya really should learn how to do this on your own." He said as he untied my hair then re-braided it.

"But it always looks better when you do it." I said tossing the braid over my shoulder.

"I've had more practice."

I blew him a raspberry, thus, ending the argument. The dark haired warrior approached us again. I smiled.

"Hello," I squeaked. I hadn't forgotten the sword he pointed at me earlier. He drew it again.

"Hey! Whoa!" I shouted throwing my hands up in surrender.

"Heero! Stop it!" the girl shouted trying to pull his arm down. "You really shouldn't go pointing your sword in the face of every one that comes passing through."

He growled and lunged at us. Duo grabbed me around the shoulders and pulled me out of the way. The dark haired man ran into the bush behind us where we heard metal against flesh… then a plop and a thud that caused the ground to shake.

"…the hell?" Duo said trying to look into the bushes. I had my arms around his waist, hugging him tight. My face was buried in his crow-feathered robes with my eyes shut tight. Duo had his arm around my shoulder and the other reached behind him under his robes to grab his wand. With a squeeze it grew into a long wooden staff. With staff in hand he brought it across my back in a protective gesture. The dark man came out of the bushes, wiping blood off his sword with a cloth. He looked at us and threw the cloth to the ground. Duo strengthened his stance.

"Stay back!" he shouted.

The dark haired boy sheathed his sword. "Nasty dragon back there." 

The girl stepped beside Duo. She had short black hair with purple eyes. She was dressed in skin tight dark leather.

"I'm sorry he scared you like that. I'm not sure where my brother's brain is half of the time," she said with a glare to the dark haired boy across from us. She smiled "I'm Juliana. That's my brother, Heero Yuy."

"It's a pleasure," the boy said expressionless.

"Yeah, I'm sure," Duo said with sarcasm. He squeezed his staff and it returned back into it's original form. Then he let go of me.

Of course, I was completely oblivious and still hung onto him with all I had.

"Luvin," he said poking my shoulder. "Luvin, its ok."

I opened my eyes and looked at him. I turned and gulped as Heero came into my view. His expression seemed to soften a bit.

"I'm Duo Maxwell," Duo said to the dark haired girl. He threw his arm around my shoulder and pulled me to his side. "This is my baby sister, Luluvinu"

I growled and punched him on the arm. "BABY!?"

He beamed me his goofy grin. "Yeah, got a problem with that?"

"YOU JERK!"I whined.

Juliana laughed. "You're cute."

I stuck my tongue out at her.

Then I noticed that the gazes of Juliana and my brother had locked. I waved my hand in front of his face.

"Dabbing on watercolors?"

"What?" he asked with a confused face.

"Just saying something stupid to wake you up" I said straitening the strap of my dress.

"Are ya sure that's the only reason?" he asked rubbing his neck.

My jaw dropped and I stomped on his foot.

"OW!" he shouted, slightly bending over.

I stuck my tongue out at him. "That's what you get."

I turned to Heero and gave a polite bow. "Thanks for killing that dragon, even if you did scare me half to death. It had chased us a couple of miles before we got here… made good time though."

I gasped and turned to Juliana. "Oh! I almost forgot." I gave her a polite bow as well.

"I'm sorry for, kinna, shoving you out of the way. I wasn't sure if he was still on out tails and I didn't want to stop to find out."

Juliana smiled. "All is forgiven."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

tbc… ^__~