Unbroken 04/?? & Prologue
V of the "Chasing Down the Moon" Arc
Rating: pg13
Series: Gundam Wing
Genre: General/Romance
Pairings: 1+2+1
Spoilers: None
By Moon Faery

Warnings: Shounen Ai; Relena Bashing; Baiting of the Hee-chan; Duo-torture; Heero-torture; Humor; Language; Perverted YaoiFanGirls (like Little Shrimp); Tiny Cross-over

Archived: Moon Faery's Garden (); Kiss of Death (); Lev's Lair ()

Disclaimer: A statement created solely to save one's ass from becoming lawn for the proverbial legal mower. I do not own Gundam Wing. All materials are used without the permission of their various owners. However, this story line, original characters and plot are MINE. (Holds fic close to her.) Grrrr....

Author Notes: I SWEAR that there was supposed to be a hint of seriousness in this fic. Unfortunately, I gave up on that about a month ago. >>;; (bow) Gomen nasai!

***

"Everything's been taken care of, Ma'am."

"When?"

"Monday at noon, Ma'am."

"Thank you, Luitenent."

***

Mr. F smiled cheerily at the class from his spot at the front of the room. The students fidgeted in their seats nervously. The teacher had been standing in the same place watching them with the same too-happy gleam in his eye since class restarted after lunch. It was a Friday, and most of them had dates or plans for the upcoming night. As far as any of them were concerned, Mr. F's happiness was a bad omen for the upcoming weekend. It was never a good sign when the teacher was grinning at the end of the day.

"As you all know," Mr. F finally began, "this school has a number acedemic requirements, such as mandatory Language courses. Beginning Monday, you will begin learning basic horsemanship and riding as part of your Physical Education credit. There will be sidesaddle lessons for the ladies, and english pleasure for the gentlemen." He smiled even more broadly at the relieved sigh that came from most of the students. "I understand that most, if not all of you are already quite proficient on horseback, but please try to pay attention in class. You never know when you might need it. All Saturday and Sunday classes are canceled; you have the weekend to unpack or purchase proper riding attire."

In his seat at the back of the room, Duo sunk into his chair. His depression was so deep that he completely missed the ringing of the bell. Heero frowned at his partner's horror-struck expresion.

"Duo." He tapped Duo's shoulder roughly. "Class is out. Come on."

Duo looked up with an unhappy grimace. "Hey, Heero?"

"Yes?"

"I. Fucking. HATE. Mondays."

***

The dorm door slammed loudly behind them as Duo stalked into the room, five minutes behind Heero. As usual, he'd been mauled in the hallways, but that was nearly the farthest thing from his mind. He had bigger - roughly one ton bigger with teeth - problems to worry about.

"I'm not doing it!"

Heero glanced up from his text book unconcernedly, absently flipping to the next page. "Doing what?"

Duo actually tried to send a vicious glare at his partner, but the attempt died half-way through and turned into a pout. "I absolutely, positively, swear on my manhood and refuse to die am NOT even going to THINK about getting up one one of those damned big... THINGS." He shuddered, braid twitching with the movement. "I bet they have rabies or something."

"Swear on your..." Blue eyes blinked as Heero stared at him, looking as though he had just found hamster on a ceiling fan and couldn't figure out how it had gotten there. "Are you talking about the riding classes next week?"

"YES!"

"Duo, it's just a horse. Most of the ones provided for student uses don't even bite, much less have rabies. It's only a week until I'll be finished tracking down the people assigned to take out Relena, then we'll leave. No matter how little you like horses, you can certainly last that long." Heero re-opened the book he'd temporarily closed while talking with Duo.

"But we'll have to RIDE the damned things!"

"Duo, you must know how to ride a horse. It's simple." One of Heero's eyebrows went up, and the book closed again. After all of the training he knew Duo must have gone through to learn to pilot his Gundam someone surely must have trained him how to handle a horse.

"Maybe for you or Quatre!" Duo protested, waving his arms in the air and beginning to pace agitatedly. His loosened tie fluttered in the faint breeze from the ventelation system as he moved, emphasising his words with every footstep. "Hell, even Trowa and Wufei are probably better than I am! You guys probably grew up on the things! I didn't see one until we visited that zoo three months ago for that African Wildlife course in Russia!"

"Duo, that was a Zebra. A fake one, no less." Heero's other eyebrow joined it's companion. "They went extinct fifty years ago, remember?"

"You're missing the point!" Turning around in mid-stomp to face Heero, he crossed his arms over his chest. "There is no way in HELL that I'm getting up on one of those things. End of story." He stood up straighter and slammed one foot down on the floor symbolically. "My descision is made."

***

The saddle weighed heavily in Duo's arms as stood in front of a wooden box stall, shoulders pulled back and chin lifted in preparation for the torture he was about to be put through. He wore a loose long-sleeved shirt over a pair of very tight tan pants Heero called breeches. They were made of some sort of stretchy material, and were padded with psuedo-leather on the insides of the legs for some reason. Heero had also insisted that he wear a cup, which was not reassuring in the slightest.

Damn Heero and his threatening, fast-talking, gun-pulling ways. The least he could have done was not use the puppy dog eyes.

'I'm going to kill Quatre for teaching him that.'

At least it had been fun when Heero had helped him with the breeches.

Inside the stall a dappled gray horse with a nearly black mane and tail chewed on it's hay contentedly, completely ignoring the idiot boy standing outside it's stall. The brass plaque on the stall door proudly proclaimed the horse to be named Dancer. Underneath the plaque someone had scratched the name Mud into the wood.

Duo was definitely not reassured.

Heero appeared out of no where, and Duo took a moment to mentally drool over Heero in the form-fitting breeches, which revealed almpost as much as the boike shorts. The Japanese boy was carrying a bridle and various incomprehensible pieces of leather and metal, including something recognizable from bad BDSM cliches; Duo thought it was called a riding crop. Nearby a deep red horse with really black hair and legs was tied to the wall, probably Heero's horse.

"This is the horse you were assigned." The Japanese boy nodded his head at "Mud". "He's seventeen and a half hands, which is a little big, but you're assigned to ride him next week so you might as well get used to him now." [1] Heero hung the equipment up on a hook before taking the saddle from Duo's arms and placing it carefully on the rack. All that was left in his hands was a piece of leather with a rope attached that looked suspiciously like the bridle without the metal mouth-thingy.

"This is the halter; it goes over the horse's head and you hold the horse by the lead." Heero jangled each piece of equipment as he explained before handing the whole lot to Duo, who's face was staring to reflect complete and utter panic.

"You want ME... To go in there and try to CATCH that thing?" Duo asked shakily, wondering what he had ever done to Heero to deserve this. Maybe it was that thing with Elisia... No, he hadn't told Heero about that yet. 'More punishment for me. Yay.'

Heero supressed a sigh. "It's not that hard."

In the stall, Mud looked up from his food. Lazily he ambled over the door, chewing on an invisible wisp of hay. Duo's already wide violet eyes got even bigger as the horse came up to them. Finally he scrambled back, falling onto his butt in his haste. "SHIT! Heero, that damned thing's HUGE!"

Brass buckles jingled as Heero stepped forward to pat Mud's nose, shaking his head in irritation. He wanted to tell Duo that horses could get a lot bigger than Mud, but resisted the temptation for the sake of their covers. Duo had to know at least the basics about riding, or there was no point in being in the school at all.

"I'm not getting on that thing," Duo swore, dusting off his breeches.

"Yes you will, Duo." Heero stated firmly. "Come here." He held up the halter and let it dangle from his hand.

"No."

"Duo, NOW."

Duo's long braid swung in an arc as he backed up a step. "No." Steely blue eyes locked on sunset violet ones. Once again, Duo backed up, this time corssing his arms and shaking his head for emphasis. "No."

Heero's eyes narrowed dangerously as he advanced on his reluctant partner.

***

'How the Hell does he keep doing this to me?' Duo asked himself as he lead Mud over to the large arena. The horse, who was being held at arm's length, rolled his large brown eyes expressivley. Duo glared back; it looked almost as if Mud was laughing silently at some great joke, the butt of which was his soon-to-be rider.

Over on the railing, the usual crowd of admirerers had gathered, giggling over the sight of both boys in the tight breeches. There was a difference to this crowd, though. Scattered among the groupies were several boys who wore a look of sadistic enjoyment.

"Hey, Duo, good luck with the Flight Instructor!"

At the sound of his title, Mud arched his neck and pranced, obviously pleased with being recognized. Duo dodged the hooves that threatened to crush his toes. In the end, he ducked close to the horse's neck and put all of his weight on the lead rope to stop the grey's movements.

"Flight Instructor?" he asked shakily, hoping that he imangined the wicked gleam in his mount's eye.

"That's what he's called!" the helpful sadist called from the safety of the fence. "No one's managed to stay on him all year!"

The fear Duo felt at the thought of learning to ride seemed to take on a whole new depth. He stared at the boy on the fence, noticing absently that he looked an awful lot like Elisia. In fact, if he grew his hair out longer, they could have been twins...

Evil must run in that family.

Mud flicked his ears in annoyance. This tiny THING was going to ride him, and at every available oportunity he took his mind off the task at hand; namely, staying alive. That simply wouldn't do.

"Are you sure that THIS is the Flight Instructor?" Duo began to question the Elisia-twin shakily. "Couldn't it be sooON of a BITCH!" Something sharp, hard and very painful clamped down on his shoulder. Automatically he swung himself around and hit whatever it was, nearly wrenching his shoulder out of it's socket when Mud didn't let go immediately. It required two more punches directly to the horse's nose to force him to release his rider.

The boy on the fence nearly fell over in laughter. "Yeah, that's the Flight Instructor, all right!" he gasped. "None like him!"

Duo rubbed his shoulder and glared at his horse. Mud flicked his tail and glared right back.

This was going to be a long day.

***

Heero reached down and hauled his partner to his feet for the third time in their first fifteen minutes of lessons. Duo groaned and rubbed his lower back, completely ignoring the twigs and leaves in his hair.

"Duo, what did I tell you about stopping?" he asked, handing Mud's reins back to the other boy. After watching Duo be knocked off three times, stepped on, bitten, kicked and thrown into the gate, he wouldn't have been surprised if Duo had given up. Surprizingly, Duo snatched the reins from him eagerly.

"To not lean forward. I know, Heero. And I would've stayed on this time if that damned thing hadn't run me into the fence!" Duo brushed the dust from his face, tossed the reins back over his mount's neck and pulled himself back into the saddle, grunting in pain. The grey gelding stood placidly as an old children's pony, showing no signs of the evil lurking within.

Heero's mare danced backwards as her rider nearly ran into her while stepping back to look up at Duo in amazement. "You're going to try again?"

Under the helmet, Duo's eyes hardened. "No horse is going to beat the God of Death," he answered calmly, sliding deeper into the saddle.

'Besides, if I die I won't have to tell Heero about the porn thing.'

There was something to be said about self-preservation instincts, and it wasn't in the least bit complimentary. Confident in the fact that he couldn't loose, Duo flicked his reins and nudged Mud forward with his heels.

Mudd sighed and flicked his ears backwards at his rider, shifting his weight to his other leg. Didn't this boy ever give up?

Duo flicked the reins again, this time kicking the horse sharply in the ribs. Mud took off at a rolling canter, racing around the ring as fast as he could manage in the enclosed space. As was normal for a beginning rider, Duo leaned forward and wrapped his arms around the horse's neck, screaming at the top of his lungs for Mud to stop.

Now, Mud was a very well trained horse. He knew dressage, western pleasure and every type of English seat that could be imagined. His trainer had been careful to train him to leg, rein, music and even voice cues, so when Duo yelled, "WHOA!" into his ear, he was only doing what he was trained to do when he locked his knees and skidded to a sudden stop. When taken in that light, it was Duo's own fault that he went flying forward over Mud's head. However, it was just bad luck that he landed in a large puddle of mud on the other side of the arena fence.

Girls flocked to the braided teenager's side, cooing over his injuries and offering assistance, while Mud simply watched his idiot fondly from the safety of the arena, a wicked look in his brown eyes. It was really the boy's own fault that he liked him enough to be creative; usually Mud would just buck his riders off. It was such a shame that Duo didn't appreciate the special treatment he was getting.

Duo pushed himself to his feet and tightened his grips on the reins, which he had never let go of.

Mission accepted.'

***

The fifth time Duo kissed the dirt after that, it was neither his own nor the horse's fault. To Mud's credit, even Heero was startled when something orange and menacing appeared out of nowhere from behind the stables.

"Oooohhhh, DUUUOOOO!!!! HEEEEROOOO!!!" the Thing called piercingly, fluffing it's citrus-colored, curly hair in what was supposed to be an alluring manner. "We brought you a SNAAAAAAAAACK!!!!" It's companion, Relena, sighed and hid her face, wincing as various thumps, screams and yells of pain resulted from their abrupt appearance.

Once again Heero found himself pulling Duo back up to his feet, only this time he had to do it to himself as well. "I think that's enough for the day."

Duo rubbed his newly aching shoulder, closing his eyes and mouthing and silent 'thank you' to whatever was watching, and probably sniggering as well. At least it had some pity, or Heero would have insisted on continuing. "How long was that?" Wincing, he passed the Flight Instructor over to a helpful groupie, who took both his and Heero's horses away to be put up.

Heero checked the wrist watch that hung off his breeches, absently dusting the back of his pants off. "Fourty-three minutes, twenty eight seconds."

"Oooooooooooohhhh...."

TH-TH-TH-THUNK

The two boys turned to see a small crowd of fans, fully half of whom had fainted from the sight of Heero brushing himself off.

Relena and her companion slipped between the slats of the arena fence and trotted over to Heero and Duo, both clutching mottled pink heart-shaped boxes. Oddly enough, the swirls of pink of the cover of both boxes looked vaguely like young boys playing leap frog. [2] It was probably just a coincidence, though.

"We thought you might want some food, after working so hard," the Orange One simpered, shoving her box at Heero and batting her eyes.

Duo took his from Relena carefully, inspecting it closely for anything remotely suspicious. "Are these drugged?"

Heero peeked inside his box, raising one eyebrow at the selection of beef jerky, bean dipping sauce, rice and other foods, all of which were either dyed pink or heart-shaped. "Are they?"

Relena pouted. "How could you think that of me?"

Duo rolled his eyes, looking away and muttering under his breath. "Easily."

"You're going to need all the protein you can get for the photo shoot," the girl with the awful hair explained, winking outrageously.

Duo froze, stomach knoting into a tiny little ball that kept screaming, 'Oh shit oh shit OH FUCKING SHIIIIIIIIITTTTT!!!!!'

Heero's other eyebrow joined it's companion. "Photo shoot?"

Relena blinked, throwing a near-glare at her companion. "Be quiet!" she hissed, clamping a hand over the orange-haired girl's mouth. "She must be talking about the yearbook photos everyone was asked to submit!"

"MMPH!" Garish hair flew everywhere as the girl squirmed out of Relena's grasp. "You know what I'm talking about!" She grinned viciously, eyeing them both. "I bet you already made some for us, huh? That's sooooo thoughtful of you!"

Duo grinned nervously and backed away from his suddenly scary partner as Heero's patented glare was turned on him. Neither boy noticed Relena's look of embarassment as she muttered some implausible excuse and dragged her friend away.

"Photos?" Heero asked flatly, taking a step towards Duo.

There were several choices that Duo had, but the long-haired pilot decided to take the one that was most likely to let him live. He ran for his life. Heero followed only a few feet behind him, swearing vengance for what he was sure was not going to be a good development.

Over on the fence, a blonde girl leaned against her boyfriend and sighed. "Isn't that sweet? I bet they're racing off to do something romantic. They're so cute together!" Her boyfriend nodded absently, too busy trying to squirm his hand under her blouse to listen. He didn't even notice when his friends look at him out of the corners of their eyes and inched sideways, away from him.

"DUO! GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE!!!!"

"HELL NO!"

***

[1] A hand is four inches, so the Flight Instructor (Mud) is seventy inches tall from the ground to the highest point on his shoulders. That's five feet, eight inches for those of you who don't want to do the math. Basically Mud's shoulder is seven inches over Duo's head.

[2] Okay, so this was practically stolen from the Bird Cage. Don't sue, please? (Borrows Heero's puppy dog eyes)