Authors note: Ok, many, many thanks to whoever has reviewed this, or will review it, I am very grateful, in particular thanks goes to Nightshadow, Thankyou for your help and comments on my stories, *waves* Hi!! And thaaaaaankyooooou!
We'll meet again sometime, in the dreams you're
searching for,
As you face into the wind, and I see your back
becoming small,
In the distance…
Good luck and Goodbye.
"What are you doing here?"
Duo blinked, brain still not functioning correctly and looked in (for once) silence at the long-banged emerald-eyed boy in front of him. However, Duo had this uncanny knack of making even silence sound loud, almost as though you could hear his brain ticking over.
Heero, not being able to take another moment of the loud silence asked the boy in a gruff tone, "Who are you? And what do you want." The emerald eyes regarded him thoughtfully for a moment before the red lips formed a reply. "I'm Trowa Barton, and I work here, you may not be aware of this, but the barn belongs to a circus." He paused before continuing, "I know who you are as well, Duo Maxwell," He looked at the still silent Duo, "And Heero Yuy." He once more turned back to the still glowering Heero.
"How do you know our names?" Duo had obviously come out of the stupefied state of mind and was now curious as to why he was infamous enough for this circus boy to know of him. Trowa smiled, "You're on wanted posters all over town, whatever you've done, Captain Mueller must want you pretty badly to go to such an extent as to nail them to nearly every door."
Duo visibly gulped, a light sheen of sweat breaking out on his forehead. "So, are you going to…turn us in?" He croaked out, lips suddenly extremely dry, he quickly licked them and tried again, "Because if you are…"
He was cut off by Trowa shaking his head, "It's none of my business, and I'm not about to get two probably innocent boys slung in jail."
Heero could barely hide the gratitude in his eyes, but managed it all the same, keeping his voice carefully neutral. "Thankyou Trowa, we are…in your debt." He winced at that, but honour required it, the acknowledgment of a life debt was important.
Before the long-banged boy could continue this conversation however a thunderous knocking issued from outside the wooden barn. "DUO MAXWELL, HEERO YUY, COME OUT, WE HAVE YOU SURROUNDED." A loud voice issued from behind the wooden panels. Duo turned paler, and even Heero looked slightly nervous as the sound of at least a hundred swords being drawn in one swift movement came clear on the still air.
"Oh well, we're boned, nice knowing you Heero." Shock flitted briefly across the blue-eyed boys face. Even in the middle of a crisis, Duo could sound cheerfully optimistic. It's like he doesn't even fear death.
The loud voice issued again, "IF YOU DON'T SURRENDER NOW,
WE'RE GOING TO BURN DOWN THE BARN." There was brief pause from outside and a
couple of muffled whispers that sounded suspiciously like, "yes I know the
ringmaster would go mad, but that's just his tough luck corporal."
"YES." The voice sounded as though it was trying to reassure itself this time, "THE BARN WILL BE BURNED."
Throughout this entire escapade Trowa had remained silent, now he turned to the would be dead men. "I know a way out, however, you must learn to trust me, because I'm going to have to go with you now, because if I help you, I'm going to be branded an outlaw to."
"You'd really do that to save us?" asked Duo dubiously, "Are you sure, you can always leave now…"
"I'm sure, there are some things that are wrong in my eyes, and condemning two people my age is one of them." Trowa replied firmly.
Duo was about to protest further, but thought better of it when he saw smoke curling under the door; Heero's bangs were already sticking to his head with sweat from the heat.
"Ok, let's go then." Carefully Trowa walked to the back of the barn and pried loose a couple of boards. "Through here."
Quickly the three boys scrambled through…and found themselves face to face with four armed guards. "Oh not again." Groaned Duo.
"I'll handle it." But before Heero could leap forward to engage the first guard, Trowa began to glow with a steady emerald light. "Wha…?" began Duo, only to find himself pushed to the ground by Heero, as the whole world exploded in a silent flash. Blinking the stars out of his eyes for the second time in twenty-four hours Duo looked around, there was Trowa, standing in exactly the same position as before, but of the guards, there was no sign.
"Trowa?" Heero asked, slightly concerned, as the said boy had not moved from where he had been staring at his hands. "Did I know I could do that?" Trowa whispered, still staring at the two hands.
"You can find out about whether you knew or not later." Replied Duo firmly, "right now, I want to get as far away from here as possible if that's just peachy with everyone."
"Hn."
************
"Captain sir, the outlaws are dead." Mueller smiled as he heard the lieutenant's report. "Good work soldier, and the losses?"
"None dead sir, but four missing."
"Four miss…?" Mueller leapt to his feet, "you fool!" he hissed in anger, "you didn't see them die did you?"
"Well, no sir…but we burnt the barn, there was no way…"
"Don't you see what you've done?" Mueller yelled, veins standing out in his neck as his face turned bright red, "You let them escape! Ten to one they killed the four guards and could be anywhere in this gods cursed kingdom now, if at all!"
"But sir…" the unfortunate soldier was cut off again, this time with a sword in the throat. As he fell to the floor making little bubbling noises Mueller yelled out into the next room. "You out there!"
The man stuck his head round the door, "yes sir?"
"You're promoted to lieutenant, now remove this," he pointed to the now dead man, "And fetch me Zechs Marquise, he's the best tracker we've got."
**********
"Man I am so HUNGRY!!!" Whined a certain violet-eyed boy.
The three boys had been walking for three days since we last left them, dodging all the towns and cities in case any one recognised them, and stealing what they could to survive.
"Shut up and keep walking." Came the curt reply from Heero.
"But Heeeeero I'm huuuuuungry." Whined Duo, louder this time because he could see it was winding the other boy up.
Trowa said nothing.
As they continued their walk through dense undergrowth and trees (you might have guessed they were in a forest) Duo began to daydream about hot food, and warm beds, out loud of course. Eventually his fantasies began getting to the other two, and in the end Heero had to call a halt at the nearest stream so they could have a drink, and at least shut Duo up about, "The lovely cool glasses of cider that you get in those comfortable taverns."
As Heero and Trowa watched, Duo ran down to the waters edge, and frantically began scooping up water with his hands. Suddenly the braided boy over-balanced, falling into the particularly deep area of the rushing water.
"Duo!" Heero called worriedly, running down to the edge, panicking slightly, he wasn't sure if the baka could swim.
As he gazed down at the glittering surface, a hand snaked up and grabbed his leg, pulling him off balance and down into the cold liquid.
"Aaaaah!" Heero yelped, it was really cold water. Duo's head broke the surface at the same time as his, grinning he spat a mouthful of water at the scowling boy, who promptly tried to drown him.
Trowa watched the other two for a while, both of them trying to kill one another. Well ok, that wasn't strictly true, Heero was trying to kill Duo, and Duo was evading his attempts with considerable ease.
Smiling slightly, he turned away and froze. A rustling was coming from the bushes. There it was again. Walking swiftly over he parted the offending foliage. "Who…?" He began angrily and stopped, staring in amazement.
In front of him was a pure white deer, with dainty black hooves, the only strange thing was the deer's eyes, they were not the normal brown, but a light, clear blue, that looked at him with what could have been human intelligence.
However, the beauty of the creature was spoiled by the ugly hand made arrow sprouting from the creatures side.
Gently Trowa picked the small deer, up, carrying it back over to near the water's edge. As he stopped he carefully lay the creature down, before turning to ask the other two for help.
"Hey, can you give me a hand over here?"
Duo, rather curious, and getting bored with Heero's failing attempts to drown him, swam over. "YAY!! You found food Trowa my man!!" He licked his lips hungrily, "good work, it's already hurt, so we're really doing it a mercy." He began to get a glazed look over his eyes, "I can cook it for you, but you're gonna have to gut it…"
"No." The reply came quietly but clearly across the distance between Trowa's lips and Duo's ears knocking the braided boy what can only be described as, sideways.
"But Trowa, we haven't eaten in THREE DAYS!!! And now you want us to starve so you can save this pathetic animal. THREE DAYS WITHOUT FOOD, AND YOU WANT ME TO SACRIFICE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO EAT!!" Duo's voice had risen to a shriek now, "What are you, a vegetarian?" [1]
"Yes."
"Good one Trowa, but seriously,"
However Duo was once more, shut up mid-sentence, the deer had begun to change…
To Be Continued…
[1] I have absolutely nothing against vegetarians, I am one, so before anybody gets offended that Duo thinks vegetarians are weird, remember, I'm insulting myself too.