I do not own Gundam Wing.

Chapter Five

Heero's perch on the monkey bars was uncomfortable, to say the least.  But he wasn't going to leave.  Not while Jinakel was still up in that tree.  There was something about her that…called to him.  He couldn't explain it, but he felt that there was more to her than just a terrible vampire that lived to drain the blood from helpless victims.  One: she wasn't terrible.  In fact, she was quite nice to Duo with the whole escaping thing.  Two: she didn't attack helpless victims.  She attacked other vampires, which throws out the whole "feel sorry for the prey" pity.  Three: she was gorgeous. 

Gorgeous?  Where did that thought come from?  But he couldn't deny his physical attraction to her.  There was something else that drew him to her though.  Something about the way she looked at him with those sorrowful eyes.  Like she never wanted to be a vampire at all. 

But what was he thinking?  He was a slayer.  Heero Yuy, leader of the Night Hunters and awesome slayer of vampires.  She was Jinakel, a vampire.  It didn't take a genius to figure out what was wrong with this relationship. 

Perhaps he was wrong.  She didn't want to be a vampire, and that was more than obvious.  She had helped Duo escape from Wufei's castle.  She had risked her life to bring him home.  She had remained calm when he held his own blade to her neck, mistakenly thinking that she'd hurt Duo.  But now, after all of that and witnessing her destruction of her own kind, Heero was very positive that she would never hurt any of them.  No matter if they threatened her life or not.  It was confusing. 

He'd seen her deep in the throes of what the vamps called Bloodlust.  And all this time he'd thought it was a myth.  And even in her rage for blood, he'd followed her around this godforsaken city, just to make sure she didn't hurt herself or get backed into a corner by someone who'd take advantage of her weakened state.  Except, it'd turned out to not be a weakened state, and she'd been more than able to control herself when confronted with those five goons of Chang's.  He was the one who'd messed it up.

But how was he supposed to know that his presence would unnerve the vamps holding the innocent girl?  How was he to know that he should have just stayed out of sight?  Heero Yuy, you are too eager for your own good, he told himself, looking back up into the tree where Jinakel'd disappeared a while ago.  And to his surprise, her dark eyes were looking back.

Heero felt his breath catch in his throat.  She was watching him.  Just as he had been watching her.  Could she feel the same way?  No, impossible, he told himself.  Just impossible. 

Jinakel dropped down thirty feet, landing lightly on the grass.  Only a vamp could pull off such a stunt, Heero cursed.  Wait, he should stop thinking of her like that.  Stop thinking of her as just a vamp, and start thinking of her as a real person.  She may be an immortal person, but she was still a person with feelings.  Just like him, no matter how many times he'd tried to deny those feelings. 

"Are you alright?" he found himself asking as she walked up underneath him.

"Why do you follow me?" she asked, not paying attention to his question and looking up to where he balanced on the monkey bars. 

"Because I worry about you."  Well, throw subtlety out the window. 

"Why?"

Heero sighed.  "I…I just care about what happens to you."

"You don't say how you feel much, do you?" she asked.

"Not normally."  Speaking of normally…normally Heero would be more than annoyed at having to answer so many questions.  But for some reason, he didn't mind answering hers.  Perhaps that meant more than he was willing to admit.

"Then what do you do normally?" she asked, continuing her investigation.

He thought for a moment.  What did he do normally?  "I ignore my feelings and act indifferent," he confessed.  "I have a feeling you do too, normally." 

"Perhaps I do."

"Hn."  Heero dropped down from the monkey bars and stood in front of her.  "Should we go now?  We will have a busy night."

"We should," she said, turning to leave.  Heero did a mental happy-dance as she slowed her pace, waiting for him to catch up as they walked side by side to Quatre's home.

*******

Staring up at yet another unfamiliar ceiling, Duo was unhappily reminded of his days as a street whore.  Looking at another unfamiliar ceiling in another unfamiliar room and laying on an unfamiliar bed.  But the very familiar weight on his chest and arm holding around his ribcage made him smile, despite having no idea where he was.  He glanced down at Hilde's bed-mussed raven hair and quietly slipped out of bed, careful to put a pillow in the place his body had once been. 

He heard a small sound coming from the kitchen as he made his way stealthily down the long curving staircase in Quatre's house.  Peering around the corner, Duo saw Jinakel sitting on top of the counter, her feet swinging idly and occasionally bumping against the cabinets below.  Another soft thunk rattled as her feet brushed against the metal handle of the cabinet door. 

"You're awake," she said, still looking away from him.

His surprise kept him silent, but only for a short moment.  "Yea, I am usually the first to get up.  Guess my light sleeping habits from the streets still haven't worn off."

She nodded.  "I knew you'd probably hear me down here.  You have a sixth sense about that sort of thing."

Duo's eyebrows knitted in a confused expression.  "Yea, how'd you know that?"

"I've known you all for a long time."

Duo pulled himself up onto the island countertop.  "How'd you know us all?"

"I've followed you since the three original dragons met in Hong Kong.  Quatre and I were living there at the time.  That was right after the war.  And I was there when Hilde joined the group in Germany the next year.  And I was there when Chang was taken by the Triad and then became the leader after dissolving the Triad.  I have been keeping track of you all for a long time, because Heero has been keeping track of us."

"Heero?"

"Yes, he searches for the last of the Purebloods.  He asks questions in dark alleyways and follows broken clues to find where Quatre and I hide.  And he always brings you and the Night Hunters with him on a chase."

"Why does Heero hunt you and Quatre?" Duo asked, intrigued with Jina's story.  He'd never known that Heero had a plan behind the seemingly random moves from city to city, country to country. 

"He thinks that we are bad.  I'm sure even you've heard rumors of a vampire that cannot die, a vampire that consumes a thousand souls in a single night.  You've heard of a vampire more terrifying of death and more powerful than a god, haven't you?" she asked.

"Every hunter's heard rumors about a demon vampire who kills whole cities within a few days, who eats the damned and the mortals and flies through the air…" his voice trailed off as he looked at her.  He remembered the wings.  "You're that vampire, aren't you?"

"I didn't choose to be this way."

Duo nearly fell off the counter.  "So you're the one that Heero's been hunting all this time.  Why…?"

"Why what?" she asked sharply.  "Why didn't I tell you who I was?  Why didn't I just give up and let Heero kill me?  What is it that you expect from me?"

He sat for a moment.  "I expected you to be evil."

"You forget who tells the tales.  Vampires spread the rumors of my existence," Jina said as she stopped swinging her feet and pulled them up under her to sit cross-legged on the counter.  Her head rested against the cabinets behind her. 

"Of course they'd make you seem more evil.  It was them you were hunting," Duo reasoned.  Jina nodded her head, making the cabinet door shake.  "So why didn't you tell us?"

"Would you have believed me?"

"No."

She sat for a moment, her breathing loud in the quiet room.  "What is Heero like?" she asked.

"Heero?  He's pretty hard to understand most of the time.  He keeps to himself," Duo shrugged as he talked.  "And there's always something going on behind his eyes, you know what I mean?  He's always thinking or analyzing something that's just way over everyone else's head."

"Hn," Jina said in a very Heero-like fashion. 

"Why did you want to know?"

Her eyes focused on Duo, and for a brief moment he thought he saw a flash of fear in the depths of her dark brown eyes.  She blinked, regaining her air of indifference and strength.

"He bothers me."

"Hey, Heero bothers everyone," Duo joked with a bright smile.  "There's no reason to get worked up about it.  He does it all the time."

"Do you wish to stay here?" she asked, changing the subject very quickly.

"What?"

"Do you wish to stay here for any length of time?  I shall need to go and get food for you non-drinkers.  Quatre sometimes has a little on hand, but nothing at the moment.  Do you wish to stay?" she repeated, jumping down of the counter with the grace of an acrobat.

"I know I wish to, but I'm not so sure about the others…" Duo started to say. 

"That's a good enough answer.  As long as you won't all be running off as soon as the sun sets, then I'll get something from the grocery store.  I'll be back before they wake up," Jina said as she walked out of the kitchen.  She deftly maneuvered to avoid running into Heero as they passed each other in the doorway.  Heero turned to watch her leave.

"Where is she going?" he asked Duo.

"Grocery store."

"Hn.  She expects us to stay then."

"I think she wants us to stay, Heero.  I think she gets lonely with Quatre.  And I'm sure she's more than tired of running from you all the time," Duo said with a venomous glare. 

"So she knew?"

"Of course she knew.  She's the one you're hunting.  Why?"

"She killed my family…"

"You know that she doesn't feed on humans," Duo interrupted.  "It must have been someone else.  Someone that looked like her."

"I never saw her.  I just knew that the vampires who killed my family talked about a Pureblood, a vampire that flew in and destroyed my family before they could eat my parents.  I've been searching for that Pureblood ever since," Heero stated, far exceeding his word quota for the day. 

"She's not a Pureblood vampire," Trowa's quiet voice came from the doorway.

"Right, so you're chasing after the wrong person Heero," Duo tried to convince him.

"And who is the only Pureblood?"

"Quatre."

"Who said I was hunting her?" Heero asked, taking a step closer to Duo in his most menacing manner.  "I'm hunting the one that destroyed my family.  If she protects him, then they are both my enemies."

"Ask questions before you carry out your personal vendetta," Trowa warned.  "There may be circumstances you do not understand.  And killing wrongfully would eat you away until even less of a man remained."  He turned and left, ignoring the death-glare he received from his closest partner and war comrade. 

"You know, he's right…" Duo started to break the silence.

"Don't talk to me.  I'm going back to sleep," Heero said suddenly.  He left the kitchen and went back to the couch.  Instead of lying on the couch he'd slept on earlier, he flopped himself on the second couch, Jina's couch.  Breathing in the scent of Jina, he fell back asleep. 

Duo waited in the kitchen for someone else to come in; whether someone else was getting up or Jina was getting back from the store, he didn't care.  He just wanted to have some more company in this tense environment.  Heero's anger was suffocating, and he was sure that a little extra sleep wouldn't be enough to convince his friend to take a path of non-violent forgiveness. 

"She will kill him, you know," Catherine said with a soft voice from behind him.  Everyone was sneaking up on him today.

"What makes you say that?" he asked, curious as to how Cathy had this insight.

"I talked with Quatre last night, after everyone went to bed," she blushed a little as she mentioned the word "bed."  After a little shrug, she continued, "He told me that Jina would kill anyone who tried to hurt him, and that she has before.  Plenty of times.  He wanted me to warn Heero and the rest of you about it."

"So he already knows that Heero wants to kill him?"

"Yes."

Duo sighed.  "This is a lot tougher than I thought it'd be."

"What's tough?"

"Thinking of a way to control Heero.  You know how stubborn he is.  If he has a plan in mind, nothing short of the end of the world will keep him from completing whatever mission he has set for himself.  Hell, even if it were the end of the world, I think he'd ask God to just wait with the Apocalypse thing until he gets through with his mission."

"Should I go and talk to him?" Cathy asked.

"No, Trowa and I have already scolded him.  He's gone back to bed," Duo admitted.  "I don't think it'd do any good to get him any more angry than he already is."

"Just tell him that Jina means business, Duo.  Let him know that Heero's little charms aren't going to change her mind when it comes to protecting Quatre.  She's done it for hundreds of years.  Heero isn't going to get her to stop now, and he sure as hell isn't going to be able to defeat an enemy like her," Cathy said, giving Duo a little hug before leaving the kitchen and going back upstairs.

Duo sighed.  "I know that Heero won't be able to beat her," he said out loud to himself.  "And I know that Jina won't neglect the purpose for her existence to stand by and let Heero kill her Master.  How do you get two stubborn people to live together in relative peace?"