Category: Angst, Adventure, AU, Slave/Master

Pairings: 1x2, 4x3 (eventually), 5x?

Rating: R (?)

Disclaimer: Standard. You know them all by now so I won't bore you with a repeat.

Warnings: This story does show how a lot of people felt about the owning of slaves, a feeling that was very alive in this country not that long ago, as well as in many civilizations down through the ages. There are some good owners and some bad owners, like in everything. If someone owning another person bothers you, you might not like this fic. But then I'm not forcing anyone to read it. There are also M/M relationships in this fic (I'm very much a 1x2/3x4 fan.) so if boys being together (and I do mean together) bothers you don't read.

Golden Lights Part Sixteen

By SilverLady

Trowa sighed softly and rolled over. After a moment of quiet reflection, he frowned. There was something different about this morning. Blinking, he opened his eyes and surveyed his surroundings. The sight of the canvas walls of the tent brought things into perspective.

With another sigh, he stretched and sat up. The mattress beneath him sifted slightly at his change it weight and then was still again. Trowa hadn't expected to sleep that well, he rarely did when not in his own bed, but to his surprise he hadn't woken once. The air mattress was as comfortable as Quatre had promised. In fact, for the first time in a long time his leg didn't ache so badly. It was just a small twinge, not the sharp pain he was used to.

Throwing back the covers, he looked down at the leg.  From hip to ankle it was marked by long scars, some of them rather thick and heavy, others thin and barely noticeable. The doctors had constantly told him he was very lucky that he hadn't lost the leg, but sometime he wondered. The pain he lived with every day was a reminder of what had happened and what he'd lost.

At that moment, he heard the sound of movement outside the tent. Who could be up this early?

Moving carefully, Trowa got to his feet. Grabbing the long robe that had been left on the chair, he headed out.

Blinking in surprise, Trowa took in the scene that met his eyes when he exited the tent. Quatre was scurrying about the site, gathering wood and placing it in the fire pit. The blonde was dressed and looked disgustingly alert for so early in the morning.

What was more surprising, though, was the sight of Duo sitting on a log next to the fire. He was trying to untangle his long locks of hair and didn't seem to be having a good time of it. His eyes were still half closed and it was obvious he was not very awake.

Trowa also noted that, in the place of the smaller tent the two had slept in, there was a pile of packs.

After slipping on a pair of soft slippers left conveniently by the entry, Trowa walked over to where Duo was sitting. "You should get Heero to help you with that," he commented as he sat down.

Duo blinked at him blearily. "I thought about it."

"You are up awfully early."

Duo nodded towards Quatre, who was working on getting a fire started. "Mister Energy there dragged me out of bed a little while ago, by starting to take down the damn tent. He said he wanted to do it early, so that it would be ready to go. Why does anyone have to be that awake at this time of the morning?"

"Living in the desert, they probably got moving early to take advantage of the cooler morning air."

Duo glared at Trowa through his hair. "You don't have to be logical about it."

Trowa smiled slightly. "And you think Heero is a bear in the morning."

"At least I don't try and kill you," Duo grumbled under his breath, going back to disentangling his hair.

Trowa looked at Duo. "When did Heero ever try that?"

"The first and only time I ever tried to wake him up before he was ready."

"You're serious."

"Yeah. He damn near choked me to death before he realized who I was. I couldn't talk for two days afterwards."

Trowa was stunned. He knew that Heero's early life had been hard, but what in the world could have happened to bring about a reaction like that.

Duo smiled slightly. "He did spend the next two weeks apologizing for it. That was about how long it took for the bruises to fade. Every time he saw them he'd wince and say he was sorry. I learned to make sure he knew it was me before I said anything to him."

"Did he ever say why he did it?"

"No. I think it's something he doesn't want to talk about. I figured someday, maybe he will."

Trowa slowly shook his head. "I knew his father was a harsh man, but…. I never imagined it was so bad that he felt he had to defend himself all the time."

Duo looked at Trowa. "You know what his father was like?"

Trowa nodded. "I saw the scars. He was good at hiding them from most. Not that it was too hard. Most people simply turned a blind eye on the abuse. It was none of their business. Masan Yuy was a harsh man and how he raised his son was his business."

"What about Heero's mother?"

"Nobody knows who she is. Masan just showed up at court one day with a baby boy. He never said where he'd found him or anything about his parentage. No one is even sure if Masan was really Heero's father or not. If Heero knows he's never said. Masan made him his heir and that's all that anyone cared about." He glanced at Duo. "Of course, he'd be furious if he knew his son and heir was sleeping with another man, and a servant to boot."

Duo winced and lowered his head. "Then maybe it's a good thing he'd dead."

"I suppose."

"Trowa?" Duo's voice was just a whisper.

"What?"

"Do you…. Do you think he's just doing it because his father would have hated it?"

"Doing what?"

"Sleeping with me. Having sex with me."

Trowa was shocked by the question. He turned to look at Duo, about to berate him for such a question, when he really looked at him. He realized that he was getting a glimpse at the boy beneath the facade. The one who had been so badly hurt by the things that had happened to him. The one who couldn't believe that anyone could truly care about him. "Duo, Heero never does anything he doesn't want to. Not anymore. I think you can safely say that Heero cares a great deal for you. How deep that goes is hard for me to say. That's between you and him. If you are worried about his reasons why don't you talk to him? It's best to get them out and talked about then to let them fester beneath the surface."

"I'm afraid of what he will say," Duo admitted.

"Isn't it best to know now than to wonder?"

Duo sighed. "I suppose." He rose to his feet. "I'm going to go see if he's awake yet."

"Sound like a good idea. You might want to check on Wufei as well." Trowa glanced over at Quatre, who seemed oblivious as to what was happening around him. "I think Quatre is intent on getting breakfast ready, whether we are or not."

Duo smiled. ""He is set on his own little track, isn't he?" Duo headed across the clearing towards the tent.

Trowa shook his head. He had a feeling that this single mindedness of Quatre's was just his way of coping with what was happening.  By focusing on the small things, like getting breakfast ready, he didn't have to think about the overall situation.

*****

Wufei sat on a log staring at the fire. He didn't want to admit it, but he had actually had a decent night's rest. He had been prepared to have a long list of complaints that morning, but so far he'd found nothing to really complain about. Of course, he was ready for anything that might come his way. Like this breakfast that the little blonde was preparing.

Quatre smiled a little as he brought the plate to Wufei. Of the four, the foreign boy stuck Quatre as the most difficult to please. He had heard no complaints about the sleeping arrangements this morning, which was a good sign.

Wufei took the offered plate and glared at it. A mound of yellow something was sitting in the middle of it, surrounded by several pieces of brown colored bread. "What is this?"

"Scrambled eggs and toast."

Wufei eyed the eggs. He'd never seen them made like this. "What is in the eggs?"

"Eggs and a bit of cheese."

Trowa was also looking at his eggs. He noticed that even Duo had yet to get up the nerve to actually try them yet. "Quatre?"

Quatre turned to look at Trowa. "Yes…."

Trowa heard the cut off 'Master' and looked at the boy for a minute. "Where did you get the eggs?"

"I brought them with me."

Duo made a slight face. He didn't even want to think about what condition an egg might be in after being in a pack for at least a day and half.

Trowa looked at his plate. "Quatre, eggs don't keep very well."

"Not the way you keep them, no."

"And you keep them differently?"

Quatre nodded. He knew what everyone's concern was. "They are fine."

"You had to have packed them the night before last."

"Yes."

"Then how do you think they managed to remain edible for this amount of time?"

"Because I know a little trick. If you dip the eggs in paraffin they will keep much longer that if you leave them as they are. The paraffin seals off the little holes in the egg and prevents air from getting into the egg, which is what makes it go bad." (1)

Duo sighed. So far Quatre had been right about things. Picking up his fork, he bravely took a bite of his eggs. To his surprise, they were very good. "Hey, they're pretty good."

Quatre smiled slightly. He knew that if Duo was willing to eat it, the others would follow. Duo might seem like an indiscriminate eater, but he was actually very picky about what he ate. If Duo said something wasn't any good, the others would listen. Another hurdle crossed.

*****

Trowa stood watching Quatre. He'd gone down to the stream to wash up and had come back to find Quatre busily loading the pack horses.

"Quatre?"

Quatre froze. "Yes."

"I thought I told you I wanted you to show the rest of us what to do about packing and unpacking the horses."

"Yes?"

"I meant it. You can wait for the others to return and then you can show us how to saddle our own horse. You have enough to do. I certainly think the rest of us are capable of helping."

Quatre lowered his head. He hadn't really thought Trowa had been serious. He was, after all, just a slave. Why would they want to help him?

"Do you understand me?" Trowa's voice was soft, but firm.

"Yes."

"Good. The others should be back in a few minutes. Show me what you are doing with that pack." Trowa walked up to stand next to Quatre.

With a silent sigh, Quatre began to show Trowa what he was doing. Why is he trying to be nice? Why is he making me like him?

When the others showed up a few minutes later, they were surprised to find Trowa standing in the clearing with all the tack for his horse in a pile in front of him. Tied to a stump to one side was the horse itself. The other horses and tack had been similarly arranged.

Trowa looked at the others. "Get by your horse. Quatre is going to give us a lesson in saddling the horse."

Sure enough, Quatre was standing next to his own horse. But unlike the others, his horse wasn't tied up.

Wufei looked at Trowa with a 'you've got to be kidding' look on his face, but walked over to wear his horse was patiently waiting.

Quatre smiled as he looked as his rather reluctant students. He'd make this as short and as simple as possible. Reaching down he picked up the bridle. "I won't insult you by describing what each piece of tack is. I'll just show you how it is placed on the horse." Turning so that they could all see what he was doing, Quatre gently opened the horse's mouth and slide the bit into place. A gentle tug had the rest of the bridle settled into place and he was buckling it on.

"You want me to put that in its mouth?" Duo demanded, watching Quatre.

"Yes."

Duo eyed his horse. It had a lot of very big teeth. "I don't think so."

Quatre walked over to Duo. "It's not that hard. He's been trained to accept the bit. All you do is place your hand like this," Quatre demonstrated where he wanted Duo to place his hand. "and give a light squeeze. He'll open his mouth and you can put the bit in. Then you take and place this behind his ears and that will make the rest of the bridle fall into position. You buckle it here and here. That's all there is to it."

Duo frowned. Quatre might make it sound easy, but…. "I don't think I can do this."

"Sure you can. He won't bite."

"Did you tell him that?"

Quatre laughed. "Just try."

"And if he bites me?"

"You can hit me for being wrong."

"Oh, gee, thanks." With a great deal of reluctance, Duo picked up the bridle and followed Quatre's example. Much to his surprise, he found it wasn't as hard as he thought it would be.

Quatre nodded. After checking make sure the others had managed on their own he returned to his own horse. "The next thing you do is place the saddle blanket on his back. Make sure there are no wrinkles in it. A wrinkle in the blanket could rub his back raw if it is left." Laying the blanket on the horses back, he smoothed it out carefully.

The others followed his example. Quatre moved about, checking to make sure everything was all right. After he was satisfied that everyone's blanket was smooth he picked up his saddle. "Take the saddle and lay the one stirrup across it so that it's out of the way. Then place the saddle on the horse and cinch it into place." With those words he proceeded to saddle the horse.

Trowa frowned as he lifted his own saddle. The way Quatre had picked it up he had thought it would be pretty light, but it wasn't.

He heard a choked off laugh and turned to look. Heero had taken his own saddle and proceeded to throw it right over the horse.

"Not quite so hard," Quatre said quietly.

Heero grunted a reply as he went to retrieve his saddle.

Trowa cringed when he heard the string of curses coming from Wufei. Apparently he hadn't picked up hard enough. The saddle hadn't even made it onto the horse's back.

Even Duo was having difficulties. He would get the saddle onto the horse's back with no problem, but when he went to cinch it into place it would tilt and slidee back off.  He had carefully reset the blanket and saddle three times, but still had had no luck.

With a slight sigh, Trowa lifted his own saddle into place. Fortunately, it stayed where he put it. Moving carefully he took a hold of the cinch and slide it through the buckle. So far, so good. With another sigh, he stepped back. It had worked.

Quatre stepped up beside him. "Always check the cinch to make sure it's tight. Some horses with suck in a big breath of air when you're saddling them, so that the cinch winds up way too loose. Then, when you go to get on, the saddle will just slidee around." Reaching out, Quatre pulled on the cinch. Sure enough, he was able to tighten it up quite a bit.

Trowa nodded. "I'll remember that."

Quatre smiled slightly. "Good." Moving on, he checked the others to make sure they were doing all right.

It took them a while, but finally everyone had they're own horse geared up and ready to go.

Everyone was so busy with taking care of the last little things; they didn't notice that someone was watching them from the woods.

*****

 (1) I found this in a book on backpacking. Sounded like something Quatre would know.