Disclaimers: Don't own any part of Gundam Wing nor it's characters. Merely borrowing them for a little torture.

Warnings: Shounen-ai (because I suck at yaoi) , major A.U, some OOC I think, probably future mpreg

Fates and Choices

Part 2 : Of Meetings and Arguments

Using the word irate to reflect Heero Yuy's present mood was mild to say the least. The twenty year old tribe chief of the eastern Shifter tribe paced his dwelling while casting baleful looks at his friend, the tall green eyed Trowa Barton and his Healer mate, Quatre Winner.

"I leave for patrol of the boundaries for two days, two days," Heero ranted. "How in all that is holy did I get promised to some bearer of Shifters during that time?"

Quatre paled at the emotion running through his leader. His empathic abilities had always been more developed more than others in this tribe. "Heero, it was your parent's final wish for you to be mated by the time you turned twenty," he reasoned, rubbing his chest as if it hurt.

The taller Shifter looked at the smaller blond with concerned eyes and turned a dark glare at his leader. "Suck it up Yuy, do your duty. Most Shifters have children before they are sixteen." The unspoken cadence of the sentence said, You hurt my little one, you asshole.

Heero, taken aback by the venom in the other Shifter's tone could only back down. Of course, Trowa was right. Most Shifters mated and bore children at as young as fourteen years of age but the eastern side of the Forest had been having some problems with encroaching humans and then some of the mystical creatures had started a war amongst themselves. Shifters were sent out to settle the upheaval with Heero at the helm. After all, they were the peacekeepers within the Forest. It was their duty. Due to this, Heero had not had the time for anything else, much less something as trivial as mating. Of course, his tribe didn't see their leader's happiness and the continuation of their tribe as trivial and took counter measures when, after an extended bachelorhood, their leader did nothing to find a mate.

"Who is he?" Heero asked, quietly, burying a headful of messy brown hair into his hands.

"His father is the tribe leader of the western Shifters. Has two sons, one a bearer, another a Healer," Quatre explained, aqua eyes shining with joy, now that Heero had ceased to be irritated with him, with all of them. "I heard that the Healer son is extremely powerful. I would love to meet him, some day. I heard he can heal a tree four months dead without batting an eye and…" He was stopped by his mate's hand over his mouth, Trowa's eyes glowing with amusement and tenderness. He pushed the other Shifter's hand away and said meekly, "I'm sorry."

Heero sighed, knowing of his tribe's leading Healer's ability to run off at the mouth. When excitement hit Quatre, he was like a charging deer. "I think I should be getting more information about the other one?"

Trowa chuckled with amusement, laying a hand on his mate's shoulder. "I believe the older son's name is younger than you, but not much. I'm not sure what he looks like, but I assure you he is acceptable."

"Acceptable?" Heero felt his anger climbing again. "You people make decisions for me and expect me to agree to acceptable?" He resumed his frantic pacing again.

"Heero," a breathless voice called from the entrance of his dwelling.

It was Wufei, his most trusted warrior, most vicious, most able, most calm, or used to be. What had made him so flustered?

"What's wrong Wufei?" Heero asked. "Another insurgence of the pixies? The trolls attacking the goblins again? What?"

"Your mate is here," the dark eyed Shifter grinned, a look of almost wonder on his face.

Heero heart dropped to his feet. "Now?"

XXxxXX

It had taken Duo almost three weeks either winging or running to get to the other side of the Forest. There had been a few incidences of unrests amongst the mystical creatures but he had done his best to avoid them. A Shifter's presence amongst them would have caused more stress to them and the possibility of an escalated problem. No, Duo decided, it was not his battle, he Healed, he didn't kill. Then he fingered the new tattoo uneasily. The tattoo marked him as one who upheld the law now, and not one who healed the after affects of a Shifter's justice.

By the Ancient, what had he gone a gotten himself into?

"Halt," a dark haired, dark eyed Shifter ordered. "State your intentions."

Duo rolled his eyes. It was an ancient greeting and he hadn't heard it in a long while. He grinned easily. "Here to procreate," he stated bluntly, pulling his shirt to reveal the tattoo that had altered his status. He decided a direct approach was the best.

The other Shifter winced at the explanation and appeared indecisive of either to smile or to be affronted. He finally decided on stunned. The dark haired Shifter's gaze travelled slowly down Duo's form, taking in the form fitting dark shirt and the way his pants clung to his legs and something flashed within them. Approval? For some odd reason, that brought a trace of warmth through Duo which he quickly squashed. He didn't deserve the approval. He was living a damned lie. He was hurting these people and it wasn't in him to hurt anything living.

"You are Heero's intended?" Dark eyed asked.

"I'm Duo Maxwell," Duo glossed over the fact that he didn't agree nor disagree with that statement. Minimise the lies. So Solo's intended was called Heero.

Dark Eyes stared at him for a while before nodding. "My name is Wufei."

"Nice to meet you," Duo smiled. "Shall we get this show on the road?"

And Wufei laughed. It sounded unusually rusty, as if he didn't do it often and by the shocked looks coming from curious Shifters, he didn't. There was a soft murmur coming from those congregated, their curiosity for their leader's mate increasing. After all, he was able to disarm the normally serious Wufei to actually laugh. What would he do for their stoic leader?

Duo tilted his head to the side. "Come on, the faster we meet, the faster babies can be made," he joked, but it felt sour in his mouth. There would never be babies. How could he stoop to this level? Guilt ate at him, momentarily losing the lustre in his normally brilliant violet eyes.

Wufei shook his head at the tall braided man and flew towards his leader's dwelling, while Duo stood there, still smiling, letting the rest of the village take a good long look at him. Before long, Wufei came back with three others, one was smaller than the rest with aqua eyes and silky blond hair. Duo's empathy told him that this was their lead Healer. And the smaller blond was almost as powerful as him in healing, but as Duo was the more reckless one when it came to healing, it made him more powerful. The other was tall, even taller than he was, and he was considered tall amongst his own tribe. He had auburn hair with bright green eyes and by the way he had one arm across the blond's shoulders, Duo guessed that they were mated, or at least lovers. That meant the last person was Solo's, no, his intended. He was slightly taller than the violet eyed boy, but only a little. A mess of brown hair fell carelessly over his forehead and dark blue eyes burned from beneath brown coloured bangs. His intended didn't look like he smiled much and had a weight of an entire world on his shoulders. Probably did.

By the Ancient, he was gorgeous. If Duo wasn't careful, he would find himself falling for this enigmatic leader. And this Shifter wasn't his to love, not now, not ever.

"Greetings, I'm Quatre, I'm the Healer here," the small blond stepped forward, both hands extended.

Duo took a deep breath and controlled his body's responses to the presence of another Healer and took the blond's hands in his. "The name's Duo."

Quatre's brow furrowed in confusion for an instant. There was a distinctive tremor, a sort of feedback from the hands he held. It was so slight that he almost missed it, but for the life of him, he couldn't place this sensation. It was almost familiar, yet not. Then he realised that he was gripping the violet eyed man's hands a little too hard and instantly released them. "Uh… and this is my mate Trowa."

The long haired Shifter almost sighed in relief. The Healer had almost recognised the resonance coming from him. "Nice to meet you," Duo worked to modulate his tone, which was definitely on its way to shaky.

"Hmm, I think agreeable is an apt word," Trowa laughed quietly, seeing the almost pole axed expression of his leader's face.

Quatre giggled uncontrollably.

It appears Wufei was as confused as Duo at this exchange.

Heero just appeared stunned. His intended was exquisite. He looked like one of the pixies that came to him for help last month, delicate yet strong. His irritation for his loss of control was still there, but he knew he shouldn't project that irritation onto Duo. Something this perfect shouldn't be the object of his annoyance. But yet, he still needed to lay the blame on someone, some how. There was no one but Duo.

"Hn," Heero turned and walked away.

Duo stared at the retreating back in annoyance. What the hell was wrong with this man? What ever did he do to annoy him this much?

"Nice to meet you too, Mr Tribe Chief," he called out.

He sudden found himself in Quatre's grip. By the Ancient, this little Shifter gave him a run for his money in terms in being tactile. Duo had to keep reminding himself to keep his barriers as high as possible.

"He's not happy with the arrangement," Quatre informed the new member of the tribe needlessly.

As simple as that, Duo had been accepted into the eastern tribe and mated with their leader. No arduous ceremony, nothing more than his ability to travel to his intended's tribe without an escort and alive.

"What did the hell did I do?" Duo asked crossly. "It's not like I arranged it."

"It's not you," Trowa explained.

Duo nodded. "Then it's the stick up his ass then?" He said loudly, causing some of the tribe to gasp and others to laugh uproariously. Wufei merely looked positively scandalised. "For the love of… Where does that idiot stay?" He swung smouldering violet eyes to Quatre who speechlessly pointed the way. "Thank you," he said, courteously before stalking towards the tribe chief's dwelling.

Heero had a hard time remembering to breathe. His mate was a real surprise to him but he told himself he could not have such a distraction in his life. He still had many things to do for his tribe and for the Forest and Duo would be an unwanted distraction. He already was. Heero couldn't seem to get his mind off the braided man before him, standing jauntily as if mocking him.

"Hey, Mr Tribe Chief," the melodic voice from outside had followed him into his private home.

"What do you want?" Heero growled at this unwanted intrusion.

"I just came half way through the damned Forest to meet you and all I get is a grunt?" Duo matched his mate's growl. His mate; a term that scared the hell out of him and when Duo Maxwell was scared, he reacted.

"I didn't want this," Heero bit out, letting him temper rise with the other Shifter's. If it was a fight Duo wanted, he would give him one. "I sure as hell didn't want you."

Duo flinched as if slapped, and couldn't stop the hurt from filling his being. He betrayed his tribe for this, for this Shifter who didn't want this match. He lost everything for this. Weeks of stress, worry, and guilt came crashing down on Duo and he was unable to stop the tears from pooling in his eyes.

"Thank you for being honest," he whispered before turning and bolted out of the dwelling.

Oh shit, Heero thought. He knew he had said the wrong thing the moment he said it. He didn't mean it, but his new mate seemed to be able to push all the right buttons, or all the wrong buttons. He wanted to go after the braided young man but that would mean he would show a weakness and Heero Yuy was anything but weak. So, instead of trying to mend the rift, he let it widen into a crevasse.

tbc…