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, nor have permission to write it.

Pairings: 1x2, 3x4 and likely 5x6, since quite a few people object to 5x6x13. Anyone wants to pick out someone for Treize then?


Princes and Thieves

Chapter Five: Comings and Goings


"Iman! Did you see the King pass by?"

Yet another shake of the head greeted Duo and he groaned out loud in frustration. "Great, just great… Thanks anyway." He looked around him for any clue as to where Heero had gone, but everything seemed normal. How could he have lost someone in his own village?

"Dammit," he muttered, and walked another two steps before promptly plopping down right there in the middle of the path. This was stupid. He wasn't going to get anywhere –

"Are you alright?"

Duo blinked once, twice, and then turned to stare at the exact person he had been looking so futilely for. "You!" he exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at the King, and then let out a scream of frustration and flopped over onto his back, spread-eagled on the ground.

Heero was hovering over him in an instant. "What's wrong?" he asked, and Duo could detect a tiny spark of worry in that otherwise cold voice and those cold eyes. "You suddenly fell – and now you're lying on the ground –"

He cut himself off abruptly as Duo suddenly jumped up and grabbed his shirt. "Aha!" the braided boy exclaimed triumphantly. "I've got you now!"

Heero looked at him blankly.

"Uh…" Duo looked around at the villagers, who had stopped to stare in horror at one of their own attacking the King. Smiling cheerily at them, he said loudly, "Just thanking my Lord, here, for saving me and 'Fei today! No worries!"

Gossip travelled fast, he knew, and was relieved to see that this time was no exception. Everyone turned back to their business, and Duo pulled Heero into the small alleyway between the pub and the herb store. Heero, surprisingly, offered no resistance.

Then they were alone, hidden in the shadows with just enough light to make out each other's faces. Duo was suddenly awkward, as Heero just stood there silently, expressionless. Too late he realized he had absolutely no idea what he wanted to say. "Uh… I remembered my past," he said brightly, for lack of a better way to begin.

Heero was silent for a while before he shrugged. "Good for you."

Duo deflated. "But not for you?" He stared at Heero until the other boy looked away. Then he sighed. "Look, I'm sorry I got caught back then, okay?" he said uncomfortably. "I got you into this whole mess –"

"No."

"What?"

Heero's voice held some of the same hesitation that Duo's had. "…It wasn't your fault."

Duo shook his head vehemently. "But I got caught, and then I just had to go and lose my memory and forget all about you –" The braided boy shut up as he saw something flicker over Heero's expression, and realization dawned. "Oh. Oh. Heero – how could you think – I could never forget you. Not willingly. You're too important to me to forget! And didn't I remember you immediately when I saw you?"

"Not immediately," was the muttered response, almost too low for Duo to hear, and by the look on Heero's face he regretted letting it slip.

Duo's heart ached at those telling words. On impulse, he took two steps closer to the King and hugged him, wrapping his arms around Heero's waist and burying his face in his neck. "But I did," he whispered, and felt Heero's arms rise, hovering, and willed them to wrap around him.

They pushed him away instead.

Stumbling back until his back impacted the wall, he looked up pleadingly. "Heero –"

"I want you to forget me."

He could only stare.

Heero's gaze was intense in its coldness. "Forget me, and I will forget you. It is the only way. You are nothing to me now. We can never go back the way we were before."

"We don't have to!" Duo snapped, his tone coming out sharper than he'd intended, but he pressed on. Anger was beginning to grow out of his hurt. "We can remember the happiness before, and build a new friendship out of that! And I'm not nothing to you, Heero Yuy, and you know it!"

"I will change that."

"Will you really? Can you?" Duo paused, anger seeping out of him – he had never been able to stay angry at Heero for long – and sighed. "Do you want to?" he said quietly. "And before you say it – what you want does matter."

Heero's only answer was to turn to leave. Duo caught his arm. "I don't give up so easily," he informed the other boy.

The young King wrenched his arm free and whirled to glare at him. "I said that once," he bit out. "And now you too will find that it's easier to break than you think."

He strode out of the alley without another word, and Duo let him leave.


Trowa and Quatre blinked as they watched Heero stride past them on their left, radiating cold murder. They paused in the middle of the path and watched him head towards the fork in the path and take the right-hand one without hesitation, going back to camp. They looked at each other with questioning looks.

Then they jumped as Duo passed them silently on their right, and there was a black look on his face. He didn't acknowledge them, just walked on down the path and took the left-hand fork. Trowa looked at Duo's retreating back, at the path Heero had just vanished down, and then looked down reprovingly at Quatre.

The blond gave him a sheepish smile. "Oops?"

Trowa raised an eyebrow.

"Hey, Heero just saved Duo! And Duo was all eager to make things right, wasn't he? I thought nothing could go wrong… okay, okay, I'm sorry. I was wrong." He hung his head.

The taller boy sighed and patted the blond's head. When Quatre looked up, Trowa gave him a small smile, but then something caught his eye. With an inaudible sigh he gently turned Quatre to face the fork in the path again. Wufei and Zechs were coming down the two paths, looking back over their shoulders every now and then with puzzled looks on their faces.

"Aha!"

That exclamation was very soft, and almost under his breath, but Trowa heard Quatre anyway and shook his head resignedly. He smacked Quatre's head again.

"Ow!" The blond rubbed his head and looked pleadingly up at his lover. "Come on, Trowa, these two will be easy – they don't have any past between them that'll make things harder. But they're not going to get together without a push."

"…"

"Please?"

"…" He added a glare for effect.

"Trowa – oh hey, Zechs! And Wufei! A nice night for a stroll, isn't it?"

Trowa looked heavenward and raised his hands in a 'why do I even bother?' gesture. Wufei and Zechs, approaching the two of them, looked at him weirdly.

"Uh, is he alright?" Zechs asked Quatre as he stopped before them.

The blond smiled sweetly and elbowed Trowa in the side. "He's absolutely fine. Just peachy."

Wufei spoke up. "My lords, did something happen to Duo? I passed him on the road just now and he would not even acknowledge me, and growled when I greeted him."

Zechs looked at Wufei, startled. "I just passed Heero, and he glared at me when I greeted him – have you even been on the receiving end of his glare? He looked like he wanted to gut me with a spoon and barbeque me."

"Actually, he prefers to grill his food."

Zechs looked at Wufei.

Wufei looked at Quatre.

Quatre looked at Zechs.

"I didn't say that!" the three of them exclaimed indignantly at the same time. There was a pause.

They turned to stare at Trowa, who simply stared back at them.

"Okaaay," Wufei said slowly. "Uh – okay." He seemed to be at a loss for words. Zechs just gaped.

Quatre recovered faster, being used to his taller lover, and seized his chance. "Actually, I was wondering – if the two of you could finalize the details, make contingency plans, and so on? For coming with us to the capital. Zechs, you know how Heero's like, and Wufei, you know the skills you and Duo have."

The two unsuspecting men shrugged. "Good idea," Zechs agreed. "Heero will definitely try everything to get rid of Wufei and Duo, so a half-baked plan won't do. If Wufei doesn't mind…?"

Wufei shook his head. "It is fine, my lords."

"Quatre," said Quatre immediately, as Zechs went at the same time, "It's Zechs." The two grinned at each other while Trowa nodded.

As Wufei smiled his surrender, Quatre looked up at Trowa. "Shall we go check on our stubborn lovebirds?"

Trowa gave him a Look. It was something like this: (¬ .¬)

Quatre just smiled sweetly, grabbed his arm, and dragged him in the direction Duo had been going, calling a 'See you later!' over his shoulder.

The green-eyed man turned his head to look forlornly at the retreating backs of Zechs and Wufei. He wished he was going with them… he loved Quatre, really he did, but sometimes the blond didn't know when to stop.

He had a bad feeling about this.


Well, now things are out in the open between Heero and Duo, and Wufei and Zechs are getting there. Ooh, how exciting.

Or not.

Drat FFnet, I'm going to reply to reviews anyway.

Those who read my other fics might notice I'm updating a few in a row, or going to anyway, and this is why. I've been going back over my stories and their reviews, in hopes of getting ideas to write, and what I got was inspiration – by all your comments.

For all my reviewers, who put up with my insane updating times and yet still manage to review so enthusiastically, and make me smile and want to write more. For Kerrilea who was reviewed backwards in chapters because she was too frustrated with my updating speed (sorry! To everyone as well). For people like Noroi-Inu and Rekishi Niiro and Silver Cateyes and Nikkler, who keep reviewing all my fics and never give up on me, and for people like AmePiper and Serenity Cathedral and Borglemash who wrote long comments (or relatively long anyway) about what they liked and what they didn't, because only then do I have an idea of what's good and what's not.

Thank you, so very much, to you all!

Okay, now please don't report me if this is against the rules (I've gotten contrasting information about this, so I have no idea). I won't do it again! Or at least, I won't do it much.

If anyone is really, really frustrated with my never-appearing updates, you can find me at Livejournal (check my bio) and leave a note, and I'll get to it ASAP. Or email me.

Next Chap: Quatre and Duo come up with – and implement – a plan! Trowa as a not very willing helper (Quatre threatened him into it, whee guess how), Wufei as a sceptical critic, Zechs as a worried subordinate.

Ashen Skies
"I didn't say that!"