-A Child's Tears in Solitude-

The guard blinked at him in confusion, and then repeated uncertainly, "The baby? What about the baby?"

Duo could have leaned over the table, grabbed him by the collar, and started shaking him. He settled for clenching his hands under the table and nodding slowly as he spoke carefully, "Yes. The baby. What happened to the baby? It was a boy wasn't it? A son… And he looks just like her, doesn't he? He's got blonde hair just to the base of his ears and he's small just like she was. He likes blues, just like she must have, and he's got eyes that look like the sky does right before a storm hits. What happened to him? "

All of the people in the room were staring at him once again, mouths hanging open in disbelief like broken puppets. Just a room full of toys, welcome to the dollhouse, Duo. Why don't you become a toy to and play with them? He shivered violently at that unexpected thought and came too just to hear the last of Heero's comment 'know that?'. Duo reached a hand up and ran it nervously through his bangs, pushing them out of his eyes as he intelligently asked, "Huh? What did you say?"

Both Heero and Wufei were leaning across the table towards him now, unlike most of the people who were now looking uncomfortable and edging back to whatever 'work' they suddenly remembered they had too do. It seemed that as much as Elizabeth brought them together to reminisce and wool gather, that baby sent them running away in guilt.

The guard had himself practically stretched across the table before he finally repeated himself softly, "I said; how do you know that? You can't possibly know that. You describe him like you've seen him…"

"I have."

"You're lying! You can't have!" Wufei was snapping that quickly, one arm wrapped around Heero and trying to pull him off the table and back into his chair. And it didn't look like he was the only one troubled by Duo's short response. Once again he'd become the center of attention, but this time it was with people whispering all over the room and casting skeptical glances his way.

Heero thumped back into his chair and settled his head on Wufei's shoulder, closing his eyes and smiling as he stated- "No, Wufei's right. It's not possible that you saw him. Nobody sees him any more, we haven't in years."

"Well I did. You aren't trying to tell me he's dead or something are you? Because I've seen him twice now. Once in the gardens when I was in my room and looking out the window, and once when I first got here. When you went and saw the king, I saw him in the hall."

People all over started shaking their heads, and it was that nervous maid woman who eventually spoke up, coming towards him to pet his shoulder and then unconsciously wipe her hand on her apron like she'd touched something dirty. It was something he saw a lot when people felt what he was. "No, dear. Quatre isn't dead. He's… He's just like she was in the end though. He was born in that room and he's never been out of it. The king won't allow it."

Duo was out of his seat in second, staring at her and almost shouting. 'What? What do you mean? You can't keep a child locked up like that! That's inhumane!"

All around him people drew back, and many left the dining hall in a rush with no intents on coming back. The maid herself scooted back until she was safely behind one of the cooks and staring back at him with large eyes. It was Wufei that answered him, looking sad as he ran a hand over the now dozing Heero's hair and watched him. "She means he is locked up, just like she said. It's that simply really. And yes, it is all of those things, but it doesn't change the way it is. He's been in there for fifteen years already, Duo. If there was something to be done with it, it would have been done already, don't you know that?"

He felt the insane urge to cry. And for a boy he'd never even spoken too. The idea of all those nights alone, for never playing with another child, for never having a mother rock him to sleep. Learning to walk probably by himself, waking up from nightmare's and having no gentle hand to brush back his hair and tell him there was nothing under the bed waiting for his eyes to close. Getting older and watching the world outside the glass change but never the world someone else had put around you… It broke his heart. So somewhere in this castle there was a young male who'd never been given a chance to live. But he'd found his own way… Duo had seen him twice now, and that meant that the boy, the prince, had to be finding a way out somehow. In that, he found the only promising hope.

"But I have seen him… I swear I have. He's found his own way out somehow, and it's a good thing too. This is wrong."

Wufei gave him a dry smile as he stood up and helped Heero upright to loop an arm around his waist. "If you have, I'm thankful for it. I think anyone in this castle save the king would be. No one thinks that Quatre should live the way he's had too, but that is just the way it is. Some things aren't meant to have happy endings, and that child is like that."

And then Heero and Wufei left. They all left. Duo was soon sitting in a dining hall that even the cooks had temporarily abandoned, staring down at a mostly uneaten plate and not seeing it as his mind went repeatedly over the things he'd heard tonight. He was intelligent enough to recognize he -couldn't- let this go on, and that when he left finally however long down the road, something around this castle would have had to change first. It was half an hour later that the pale prophet with the long braid got up and headed to his room for the night.

-----

Quatre came to him that night.

He must have been asleep for about four hours when the sound of his door creaking open woke him. In the pale light of the moon coming through his window and with one eye barely squinted open, he could just make out a form creeping through the door and then closing it silently behind itself. The first thought that came to Duo's mind was that one of the people he'd been around must have been really unhappily affected by his aura and had come up here in attempts to threaten him into leaving, hell, it had happened before. But those thoughts vanished the moment the sneaking figure stepped into the little patch of silver light on his floor. It's him…

The little prince stood in his chambers as if he belonged there. His blonde head was tipped gently to the side and his eyes were closed as he faced the window. Even in what little light was there, Duo could see his lips were parted and tilted slightly up into a smile. He looked captivating, innocent as any creature out there in a dove white shirt that was just a little too big and hung off his slender frame in the most appealing way. His violet eyes kept returning to that one bared shoulder. How could something so innocent as seeing his shirt hanging off his shoulder hit me so hard? Almost as if his thought had been heard, those flashing cerulean eyes opened and fixed on him, and Duo's breath caught.

Quatre's smile widened as he slowly padded across the carpet and towards the large bed with the single male laying in it's center and staring back at him. The blonde didn't stop when his legs hit the end of bed either, he crawled up onto it and sat back on his heels, his light weight resting less then a foot from where Duo's feet were. He could feel the surface of the bed shift towards that heavenly vision. For better or worse, Duo lifted himself up on his elbows, and then up completely to pull back and lean against the beautifully carved head board.

They sat there in silence for several minutes, Duo taking the chance to look over the boy he'd seen before, and trying to memorize every detail from the soft way his legs looked against the gold of the top blanket to the way one strand of that honey touched hair fell in front of his eyes, and the young prince staring back at him as if mildly amused.

Finally Duo could no longer help himself. He leaned forward and started, "How do you get out? How long have you been escaping and living the way you should?"

The boy didn't answer him, at least not verbally. Quatre climbed over the covers on his knees and came to lay down right beside him. He was resting mostly on one side now and gazing up at Duo with that mysterious half smile. As if this weren't enough to halt the half demonic boy, he then reached a hand up and extended a finger, slowly laying this over Duo's lip as he shook his head once from side to side.

When he opened his mouth to ask what the prince meant, he found that hand now completely covering his mouth and again the blonde was shaking his head. Okay… No talking. Why doesn't he want us to speak? There has to be a way I can communicate with him!

Deciding to try another way, he shifted to lift his hand in hopes of gesturing what he wanted to know. But the boy lifted the hand he had over Duo's mouth and moved it to hold his arm under the blanket. And then he leaned forward quickly, and Duo found himself caught in the sweetest kiss he'd ever tasted and felt.

He heard his own helpless moan from miles away. There was no option of not responding here, a priest couldn't have kept themselves from kissing this golden child back, and he had never claimed to be one. Slowly he pressed back against the warm lips on his own, and he felt his sanity slip a little as they parted so trustingly against his. His hands felt like they belonged to someone else as they eased out from the blankets. One reached around the boy to rest on his neck and hold him still, and the other fell to gently kneading that teasing bare shoulder. Slowly he licked the boy's bottom lip, and the sharp gasp of breath he received for his actions sent his blood boiling hotly through his veins. He pressed against his mouth firmly, exploring the warm opening unchecked and uncontrolled… And the boy was kissing him back, the small muffled mewling noises coming from him enough to drive Duo insane.

He was touching this creature, and it was all completely willingly. This boy had snuck into his room, crawled onto his bed, and kissed him first… And he hadn't pushed him away. But perhaps he'd spoken (or thought) too soon, the blonde was shifting beside him right now.

His doubts were brushed aside as he suddenly felt Quatre's body press up against his completely. The boy had been trying to scoot closer. And when Duo felt one small hand searching for the tops of the blankets, he didn't even think before lifting them up and allowing the prince to join him underneath in their warm cocoon.

He'd always slept in nothing when he thought he could get away with it, and here with his own private room, a door that could be locked, and in a castle nonetheless , that was how he'd gone to bed. As he felt the prince's bare legs slide in against his, then wrap unselfconsciously around them, he broke their kiss momentarily with a shuddering moan. Here was a being he could nearly guarantee had never been touched intimately before, and he was lying here beside him, harder then he'd ever been in his life and contemplating touching the pure stranger.

Even as Duo's own mind tried to make sense of reason and he began trying to work through his guilty issues, the blonde who'd crept into his bed, and into his heart he was beginning to believe, never stopped. Quatre nuzzled the side of his throat with warm and uncertain kisses. And there was the weight of a small hand sliding over his chest and laying splayed over the ribs, fingers arching up and ever so lightly clawing. His skin arched into this touch like it was obeying it's true master, and he didn't think he'd be able to make himself behave if he tried… But worse was the realization that he didn't want too. He wanted this boy. He wanted what no one else had had and he wanted to hear what were bound to be the loud and harmonized cries the boy would let out when he claimed him as his own. He wanted to feel Quatre around him, and see those ever shifting eyes staring up at him, seeing him, as he fell victim to his first pleasures and surrendered.

And the prince was now kissing down the center of his chest.

Duo's breath became a needy growl in his throat as those pretty little lips found one of his nipples and gave it a soft suck before moving on. He didn't know how the boy knew what to do, but he was sure he hadn't done any of this before. There was something too… careful and slow, with each kiss that rained down on his skin. He slipped his hands down the silk covered back now partially above him, letting his nails catch the fabric and pull it up as he drew his hands slow back up. And the boy removed himself from his soft touches and exploration just long enough for Duo to pull the shirt completely off him.

His eyes widened as they traveled over the perfect form he'd revealed. There wasn't a mark on the boy, not on scar from falling down and banging himself as a child, not a bruise, and not a single thing he could find wrong. His hands moved up and over both of the pale shoulder, locking gently around them and pulling Quatre down to again taste his lips.

The blonde let out a soft, breathy laugh as Duo's tipped his head up and placed several feather soft kisses all over his features, and the prophet found the sound bringing a smile automatically to his lips. It was a sound he knew he'd want to hear again.

Finally when the boy had had enough of his teasing, he broke away and slipped down to continue his downward assault. Duo was determined not to stop him, if the prince wanted to explore this, he needed to be given the chance to do so… No matter how much the heated little kisses that were now dusting over his lower stomach made him want to just grab the boy, flipped him over onto the bed, and ravish him. He closed his eyes and listened to the rapid pants coming from his mouth and the soft sounds that accompanied Quatre's kisses, and entwined his hands into the sheets to either side of him.

As that first light and curious touch descended onto his arousal, he gasped and arched up to stare down himself and at the boy perched beneath the blankets and over his waist. Quatre was looking right back at him with beautiful wide eyes. He was sitting on his heels again, lightly teething his lower lip in an unconsciously seductive way as he stared at the prophet and seemed to consider. One little hand was laying in his lap, shyly covering himself… And the other was hovering just an inch over Duo's length. As he watched, the boy let his hand lower again and a single finger ever so lightly traced up the side of his erection, his eyes never leaving Duo's flushed face. His whole body shivered at that touch and he groaned from want, but he found himself unable to look away. He couldn't recall ever wanting someone as much as he did right now, he was vibrating from desire.

Already he could see a pearly white drop forming on the tip only a short distance away from those angelic fingers. When he shifted his eyes to Quatre and started to open his mouth to plead, the boy wrapped his hand firmly around Duo and stroked him. He never had a chance. The moment that warmth enveloped him and started to rise and fall, he was lost, and looking up to see the most sweet smile on the child's face only pushed him even further over the edge. He came with a cry and that was Quatre's name. It fell from his lips like a prayer.

-----

And it was that cry that awoke him.

Duo sat up in his bed with a jerk, looking around the dark chambers with eyes wide enough to reflect the moonlight around himself like mirrors. It was still night, and he was alone… He had been since he went to bed just an hour or two before. He glanced over to the door and found his eyes stinging with tears to find it closed and locked, as he left it before stripping and retiring into his bed. The loss of that dream was actually painful.

He rolled to the side to twist the knob on the bedside lamp, and grimaced at that slick, sticky wetness coating his stomach. Of course that had been real enough… He hadn't had a wet dream for, hell, five years. And now he was probably dealing with the most dramatic one he'd ever gone through. What was the matter with him? He'd felt so damned guilty when he'd thought that he was kissing the prince and was seriously considering to make it something more, (because touching someone like that was just criminal, don'tcha know?) and now that he was sitting awake in an empty room, he just wanted the blonde back in here again to continue. It was sick, it was twisted, and god how it felt wonderful.

As he settled back against the head board and stared regretfully at the door, the details came washing over him like a sea wave. He'd get up and run himself a bath in a few minutes, and get rid of the evidence of his late night obsessing, but for now he allowed himself to relax and think through it. Though he knew it was a dream, he would have sworn to the gods themselves it was real while he slept. It was perfect, from the feel of cloth under his fingers to the weight that had shifted the bed when the angel first crawled on. How often did people have a dream that involved things like that, especially one that ended the way his did?

And as he let his tongue dart out and run over his lips, he could still taste that sweetness there. It turned out to be a very long and restless night for Duo.