Disclaimer: I don't own or have any relation to Gundam Wing or any other Gundam series. I'm not making any profit from this, unless you count reviews.

Pairings: 1x2, 3x4 and likely 5x6… or if you want, 5x6x13?


Princes and Thieves

Chapter Three: Plots and Plans


It was a while after the nobles had left when Duo and Wufei entered the kitchen, talking quietly but heatedly amongst themselves. Sister Helen and Father Maxwell looked at each other with raised eyebrows when they heard, 'valuable', 'stupid', 'the king', 'stupid', 'stealing', and 'stupid'.

At a discreet cough, the teens looked up with identical startled looks. "Oh, Father, Sister – didn't see you there," Duo said cheerfully.

"We heard some… dubious snatches of conversations," Father Maxwell said.

"On Duo's part, at least," Sister Helen added.

Duo waved a hand dismissively. "Ah, it's nothing." At the disbelieving, inquiring looks thrown his way, he sighed and elaborated, "We were just trying to come up with plans that would endear us to our dear King."

"And why would you want to do that?"

"So that he'll have no reason to chase us off when we follow him back to the city."

There was a pause.

"Er…" Duo scrambled for words to explain their decision.

Then the Father smiled. "People who are stolen from do not usually welcome those who stole from them with open arms."

A wide grin broke out on Duo's face. "No, no, we were planning to steal it secretly, and then return it so that he can be in our debt," he explained.

"Oh, Duo, trust you to come up with such a reckless plan," the Sister sighed, but the smile on her face spoke of amusement.

"I told him it was stupid," Wufei muttered to no one in particular.

"Well, no one has a better idea!" Duo grumbled.

Wufei rolled his eyes. "We could just go out and look around the soldiers' camp, see if there's anything we could do. Remember they were saying something about questioning the bandits? Perhaps we could help out."

"Hey, that could work – why didn't you speak up earlier?" Duo demanded. "Never mind, let's go!" He grabbed Wufei's arm and started dragging him out of the kitchen. Suddenly, he paused and looked back at the two adults sitting at the table. "Are you sure… this is… is this alright, with you?"

They smiled back at him. "We never expected to keep you here forever," Sister Helen said gently.

"You have to follow your heart," Father Maxwell agreed.

Wufei nodded. "Thank you for understanding," he said seriously.

Duo smiled. "Yeah, what he says. Thanks."

Then they were gone.

The smile slipped from Sister Helen's face as she looked to Father Maxwell. "I never expected… but I wished. But it would be selfish of me to give them any doubt at all about leaving, wouldn't it?"

The Father patted her hand "You did the right thing," he said quietly. "This will always be their home, but they belong with those young ones."

"I understand." She rose determinedly. "Well, no use in sitting here talking – I've got to prepare my share of the food for tonight's feast."

"And I must oversee the setting up of the square," Father Maxwell agreed, getting up as well. "Or do you need some help?"

"No, I can manage on my own"

"Very well."


Shouting could be heard as they neared the camp – now, this would ordinarily be an expected thing, but Duo and Wufei detected very clear strains of alarm and panic in the haze of voices. Breaking into a run, they wove through the soldiers, tents and various objects littered around the campgrounds, heading towards the source of the commotion.

Someone was running towards him – going against the flow of people – and instinctively Duo dropped to the ground, bringing his leg around in a low sweep, bracing himself against the grass, just in time to knock the figure's legs from under him. It was a man, Duo noted distractedly as the poor guy hit the ground hard, all the air exploding from his lungs in a breath.

He was already back on his feet by the time the pursuers caught up. Three soldiers piled onto the man he'd knocked down, and two more produced rope from nowhere and began tying him up. As they finished the last knot, Zechs strode up to them, grim-faced, splotches of blood staining his uniform.

"Aiden?" one of the soldiers immediately asked him, dread on his face.

The Captain shook his head. "Stomach wound, too much blood. Can't find the doc. All we can do's make him comfortable. You got the bastard?"

The soldiers, grief-stricken at the news, turned their sorrow to fury as they hauled the man roughly to his feet. "Yes sir. Actually, this guy here got him flat on his face so we were able to catch up." They nodded at Duo.

Zechs looked at Duo and Wufei and forced a smile onto his face. "Hey. Glad you're well enough to be running around and downing people."

"I'd like to see that man of yours," Wufei interrupted. "I know medicine."

The silver-blond Captain looked at him, considering, then shrugged. "What the hell, it can't hurt. You guys clap the bastard in the stocks," he said to his soldiers. Then he nodded at Duo and Wufei. "Come with me."

As they hurried after him, he told them, "You'll have to wait, though. Aiden's the horsemaster, he was bringing Wing back to the stables when he was hit. Bastard got out of interrogation, grabbed a knife, and Aiden was at the wrong place, wrong time. We've got five or so soldiers trying to rein Wing in, but really, Aiden and the King's the only ones Wing'll listen to. So before you can treat Aiden, we've got to get him out of the mess around Wing."

They arrived at the scene, then, and it was clear Zechs hadn't been exaggerating. Wing was rearing on his hind legs, front legs flailing and lethal. If he were canine, he'd have been snarling; as it was he was whinnying loud enough to split eardrums. Zechs made his way over to the cluster of men at one side, shouting orders to move Aiden carefully, and Wufei followed. Neither of them noticed Duo stop, watching Wing with awe, and then moving towards the white horse.

Wufei shoved aside a few men to get to Aiden. The horsemaster was lying on the ground, gasping for breath, face pale and hand pressed to his stomach, where blood was trickling out from underneath his fingers. Wufei took one look at the scene and turned to Zechs, annoyed. "Get those men to back off and give the man some air!" he snapped, turning back to drop to his knees beside Aiden without waiting to see if he was obeyed.

Zechs blinked at Wufei's back, before his lips twitched in a smile. Damn but the boy was cute when he was all commanding and assertive. "You heard him, back away," he ordered his men, and they obeyed, wide-eyed.

Wufei was examining Aiden. "Blood's not clotting… blackish, trickling. Viscous," he muttered to himself. "Okay." He raised his voice, not bothering to look up as he began tearing strips off his tunic. "I need kingspray, daffides, mugsworth…" he rattled off a list of herbs, and a few soldiers hurried off each time he named one.

It took Zechs, watching him, a few seconds to realize that the neighing and yelling behind them had stopped. Surprised, he made his way out of the crowd around Aiden – and encountered another crowd in a circle behind him. Frowning, he pushed through the weirdly silent ring and ended up staring at the impossible scene in front of him.

Duo was talking quietly to Wing, stroking the horse's head, as if having some private conversation with a friend. The horse snorted occasionally, watching their audience with one wary eye, but the few times it made to head for someone Duo gently called its attention back to himself.

It was unbelievable, and weirdly fascinating to see Wing, a terrible force to reckon with in battle, so calm and docile with a stranger. Its usual reaction to unknown people getting close to him was to kick their heads in with its hooves; even somewhat more familiar people like Zechs couldn't get within a few strides of the horse without it beginning to scuff the ground warningly.

The soldiers were watching in awe. Murmurs were beginning to pass through the crowd, the initial silent shock fading, and Zechs had no doubt the whole camp would hear about this by the end of the hour. He grinned to himself; this was the perfect excuse to use with the King – they couldn't have planned any better.

Zechs stepped forward, into the circle of space inside the ring, and smiled at Duo. "Would you mind helping with the horses until Aiden is up and about? You seem to have a knack with them."

Duo caught on easily and grinned back. "Sure. If you'd show me where to bring Wing?"

"Of course. Follow me, I'll tell you along the way what you need to do for the horses."

They passed Wufei and Aiden's circle, soldiers hurrying to and from it. Zechs hoped Wufei would succeed, not only for Aiden but also for himself – Sally, the King's personal doctor, would be glad for extra help, seeing that she was the only doctor in camp. He sent a quick prayer up as they walked, the soldiers giving them a wide berth when they saw Wing trotting behind.

Please, let Heero accept them. He needs all the help he can get.


Quatre woke him in time to prepare for the feast – that is to say, ten minutes before he was supposed to be at the village square. He felt drained, more of an intangible emotional weariness than a physical one; his arm hurt, but he'd learned long ago to ignore that sort of thing. For once he gave in without a fight to Quatre's insistence that he help Heero dress, and as he dully obeyed Quatre's gentle commands to move your arm, turn this way he vaguely decided to blame it on his injury if anyone asked, later on. Everything just seemed so… pointless, all of a sudden. Bland and routine, dull and monotonous.

He let his training take over, or he would have gone straight back to his tent once he stepped out of it. He nodded at those who greeted him, made a few comments here and there on the tidiness of uniforms, spoke with those villagers who were brave enough to come forward and strike up brief conversations with their King. Inside, he was staring blankly out at the world as he tried to figure out what was the cause of this tired apathy, coming out of nowhere.

He's older, he's different, he doesn't remember.

His injury, perhaps? Loss of blood caused fatigue, Sally had always drilled into his head those first times he'd lost himself in the fiery wonder of fighting, or darting forward and lunging back, of the intricate dance between opponents. He had to be careful, she said, for blood is a precious thing, and even if you like the way it sings in your veins when you fight you will lose it if you fight too much, for you'll inevitably be cut.

I've never forgotten him in all these years struggling with J.

Or maybe it was the exhaustion of a sudden adrenaline rush after days of being in the saddle, trying to keep awake as they pushed for time through ungodly hours. All his soldiers were tired, he could tell; they trudged along dusty roads underneath a thankfully not-too-hot sun, and when their destination was in sight you could almost hear the relieved murmurs and feel the cool rush of air from their thankful sighs.

Am I so insignificant to him?

And at night, when they were asleep, he had to stay up and write down all he'd observed, the plans he'd formulated when riding during the day, the problems of each settlement and the solutions he could implement, how much of the budget he should allocate… it was a nightmare of information and facts and ideas, and he had to makes sense of it all.

I cannot know him again. I cannot waste all these years of hard work.

As to this feast… he hated things being blown out of proportion, pomp and glitter and too-much, too-loud. Every place they'd come to, the citizens always threw some over-priced banquet to welcome him, when he'd always preferred a quiet meal alone or occasionally with friends who didn't talk too much. Such pompous events always tried his nerves.

He's lost to me for good, now.

Yes, that was it. He was feeling moody because of exhaustion and annoyance and his injury. Unimportant things, unavoidable things.

It would pass.


Oh dear… Heero's being a twit as usual and not listening to his inner voice. Will the other boys prevail and defeat the evil that is, uh, other-Heero? Will they get through to that struggling inner voice that's trying to make him see sense? Tune in to the next chapter to find out!

Or actually, the next chapter will be more of 'will Duo get through to that struggling inner sexuality that's trying to make Heero lust after Duo?'

I am not cut out to be an announcer.

Well, this chapter was, again, rather boring, but in the next chapter… Duo and gauze. See-through gauze. Dancing… -grins-

Thanks to all those who reviewed this, or are going to review this now – the next chapter's for you!

Be warned, though… I might have to up the rating.

-Ashen Skies-
"I cannot know him again."