Description:
In an early world of war, drafts, and poverty, it pays to be nameless. Duo Maxwell, a stranger and a man without a title, finds himself in a friendly village; confident that he can leave behind the warmth of friendship and forget the smiles and memories whenever he felt it right, he works to pursue a short-term lifestyle. However, love and friendship sometimes have strange ways of holding a man and keeping his soul a blessed prisoner.

Rating:
M for language and adult content, moving most likely to NC-17 later on. I will warn you a chapter ahead, just in case ' pay attention to the Author's notes from here on in.

Where the World Began

Crimson Release

Chapter 3A Simple Handshake.

Smeared with the field, muddied with sweat and the breath of the sun, dark-haired and nameless, exhausted but masked indifferently, Heero Yuy loosed the laces on his mud-laden boots, leaving them to dry on the first porch step before creeping across the threshold of the back entrance. The sound of a meal in preparation in the kitchen to his right followed the Asian boy as he walked, stealthily, on the bare pads of his feet, his used socks crumpled in his hand. One step up, a silent step, another up, and another and then-

. . .Crik.

A soft Japanese curse escaped his lips, and he bent forward; just as he crouched to launch himself up the stairs, he was tugged back by a pale hand clutching the waistband of his pants, to stand upright.
Sighing in defeat Heero shoved his socks in his pocket and bowed his head.

"Good evening, Quatre."

"Good evening to you, Heero!" The blonde chirped and retracted his hand as the Japanese boy turned to face him. "Your day?"

"Fine, as always. Yours?"

"Interesting."

"Very good." Heero deadpanned and glanced up the staircase. "I was just about to go and wash up…"

"Take your time in the water, then; you look as if you've worked hard, and dinner won't be ready for a half of an hour yet."

"You know I'm happy with small, simple meals, Quatre." Heero said and shifted his eyes to the floor. "Why trouble yourself with hours in the kitchen on my account?"

"Only a single and half of an hour, Heero, and not just for you either. Tonight we've got- Oh, dear me!" The calm of his voice left him when a bang came from the kitchen, sounding as if a tin container had fallen. "Bother. Just bring him down to eat with you, when you've finished!" The blonde said as he rushed back down to the kitchen.

Quirking an arched brow, Heero shed his curiosity of his host's statement as he shed his shirt and worked his belt loose, while climbing to his room. Eyes cast downwards while he popped the button on his pants, he shouldered the door open and closed and stopped dead in his tracks with one hand holding up his now loose trousers, to meet the sleep-hazed violet of a stranger's eyes.

Blinking dusted sleep from his lashes, Duo sat up on his bed and habitually fingered his braid; satisfied that his hair was in fact, still woven, he yawned widely and pawed his tousled bangs from his eyes to get a better look at his intruder. Apparently, this blushing boy was not as comfortable with being half naked in front of Duo as he was to see him thus- and oh, he didn't mind at all. "Heero Yuy, I presume?" Duo said and leant his chin on his upturned palm, balanced on his knee, to watch Heero cover the trembling muscles beneath the bare skin of his chest and stomach with his shirt.

"That's right." Heero answered warily, and sidestepped towards his bed, giving Duo the impression of a startled, but ever-circling predator. Glaring through amazing depths of blue, Heero reached behind him to snatch a towel from a shelf on the left wall, and muttered: "I assume you are who I am to bring to dinner with me, ne? Your name?"

"Duo Maxwell, man of his word." Duo said quickly. "And you, Heero Yuy, are the first of my kind I have met who is anywhere near my age in quite sometime." Duo smiled widely and with agility Heero had not suspected of him, had leapt up to pump the others hand up and down with enthusiasm. "Nice to meet you!"

"A pleasure." Heero answered and pulled his hand back. "But I have a bath to take before I can socialize any further. Excuse me." After gathering a pair of slacks and a shirt from a drawer, the half dressed Heero strode past a still-grinning Duo and left for the Bath Room down the hall as quickly as he could manage.

- - -

A quarter of an hour passed in silence, and now, clean, relaxed and dressed in black tailored pants and a white button-down blouse, Heero returned to his room and nodded a greeting to Duo as he toweled his hair dry.

"Feel better?" The braided American asked, after allowing Heero a few moments of silence when he had lain back on his own bed.

"Much. I'm sorry for being short with you earlier."

Duo waved away his apology. "You were tired."

"How could you tell?" Heero deadpanned.

"Not really by looking at you, but in the way you shook my hand."

Heero turned his head to look sidelong at Duo. "My handshake?"

"Well sure!" Duo smirked and crossed his arms. "If I hadn't seen you topless as a male moments before, I would have mistaken you for a girl."

The Asian flushed and sat upward, eyes blazing a threatening indigo. "And just what do you mean by that, then?"

"Hold on, hold on, I wasn't insulting you. . . Exactly. . . Not intentionally, anyway. I just meant that your grip right then was kind of…"

Heero stood up, his fists by his sides. "Yes?"

"Well, kind of. . . I don't know!" Duo shrugged, suddenly wary of the closeness of this unpredictable youth. "Feminine?"

"Feminine?" Heero repeated in a low tone, his voice dropping to something like a dangerous purr in the back of his throat- like that of a wild cat, maybe, which rose the hair on the back of Duo's neck and brought about a well tuned instinct to run.
Quicker than he had thought the other could move, Heero was suddenly standing behind Duo, and had seized both his wrists in a twist to meet the traveler's shoulder blades. Tightening his hold to grip the joints closer together, the Asian smiled to himself upon hearing his captive gasp and leant forward, his breath skimming the bare of Duo's neck and braid. "How then, could I do this as a woman? Unless you admit to have the strength and ability of a small child, I suggest you withdraw your previous comment or suffer the softness of a man who holds no down of his own."

"Well, aren't you poetic?" Duo hissed, his palms now tingling and numb. An application to a point of pressure brought back the stinging prickles in his fingertips and he whimpered, much to his shame. "Offense was not my intention, Heero."

"Retract it anyway." He squeezed harder and continued his reply with a sensual kind of smirk. "Or else I'll make you scream, like no woman ever could."

"Alright! Alright, I take it back!"

"Domo." Heero said in soft Japanese, and pushed Duo lightly forward so he would topple over onto his bed, face down. "I think we've waited long enough for Quatre to finish downstairs." Heero said, blankly. "What would you say to dinner?"

"I'd say fine, though your suggestion sounds more like an invitation of courting to some fair maiden." Duo replied in mirth, now righted and sitting properly on Heero's bed. His smile faded, however, when Heero stalked closer and bent to put his calloused palms against the flush of Duo's cheeks, all the while wearing an unreadable expression that did not reach his eyes.

"You are fair enough." He shrugged back his shoulders and moved to the door. "Invitation or not, you are hungry and so you should follow me."

- - -

Duo ate as silent as possible, sitting directly across from Heero and to the left of Quatre, who was making an effort to create some sort of conversation. Heero answered whatever questions brought his way with automatic politeness. It would seem to Duo, who was watching Heero with shy eyes, that the Japanese boy was more of an introvert by choice and would have preferred to be ignored, despite Quatre's attempts on his social skills. Duo could sympathize; after all, he may have been able to put a smile on for anyone and talk about nothing and make it seem interesting, but for the most part, he really would have liked to be ignored.

"So Duo," Quatre said and turned his smiling eyes on the fazed out braided boy, snapping him away from his thoughts and tearing his indiscreet gaze off of Heero. "Why don't you tell us about yourself?"

"Huh. . .? About my. . . Oh! Right-Right-Right!" He plastered a stupid grin on his face and rubbed the back of his neck, making his braid jolt between his shoulder blades and audibly hit the back of his chair.

"Welcome back to planet Earth, Duo. I hope you had a time as nice as the look on your face just now, wherever you flew off to." Quatre teased and took a sip of his wine.

"Sorry." Duo flushed and leant his arms on the tabletop. "Just lost in thought. What would you like to know?"

"Well, everything you can tell." Quatre replied over the glass brim between his fingers. "So we can get to know you better."

Duo glanced at Heero, who was gazing down at his plate with no real expression on his face, before looking back at Quatre. Starting with a traditional Maxwell smile, he leant forwards so he could look between the two contrasts of interest and began.
"You want me to cast aside the strangers robe, eh? Well then, I guess I'll start from the beginning. I'm not native to these lands, you see, and so my story begins across the largest ocean, in the Far-Away America's..."

Author's Notes: Well, I've been done this chapter for awhile, but have had very little time in which to have it typed out (I've been writing during class) and I am so glad to have finally finished! It was a fun chapter, especially Heero's reaction to Duo. Was it believable, do you think?

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