Another -7 nov'12
Disclaimer: G-boys are not saru's... and saru already forgotten the details of the anime too.
chapter 15
*...they are beautiful and untainted;
they carry the worlds on their wings
they are loyal and unchanging;
they are what make us changed
If we call them righteous, then we will succumb to our dirty and disgraced passion
If we call them truth, then we will be admitting our corrupt and treacherous selves
If we admire them, then we will realize that we are lacking
If we yearn for them, then we will be unfulfilled
we cannot defeat ourselves; we are humans
...thus, we call them demons *
Odin stared at the beautiful handwritten preface. He didn't expect to read such admission first thing on the first written page. No wonder this book was banned from the library, probably kept away from common knowledge too; suddenly he didn't feel like reading anymore, he got the major idea what the Ancestors wrote on that book already... it felt like reading your parents diary filled with dirty secrets in the worst detailed words, with beautiful hand-writings, even.
So, how much had the human's knowledge changed? It would be devastating to know that the demons they all knew and fear as evils were actually not demons at all, and that the humans were not the protagonists but the antagonists instead. It's like opening the window one morning and faced with the upside down world outside. The demons might have taken pride in bearing the loathed name 'demons', fully knowing that it was the humans way to say that they themselves were in denial and repulsive.
Odin realized when he read the words 'we will' over and over in the text that the Ancestors viewed their writings as the imminent-facts, so they had to bend the future; their present lives.
...untainted, and unchanging... Odin frowned staring at the two words, he had always thought of his demon that way, and getting that verification in the Ancestors' admission only made him feel sad; because the book would tell him why that his world viewed Heero as anything but...
*We want to sully them, so we sullied ourselves-*
The first chapter's title stared at him in bold stylized letters; Odin groaned feeling a little nauseous. Or this book was written by a frustrated demon-obsessed Ancestor, he thought...
He decided that he didn't want to know what the Ancestors were doing with the history, he only wanted to know what's wrong with his demon; and flipped the pages randomly. To his dismay, the pages he cursorily turned were empty of writings; he paused and returned to the first page again, flipping the pages methodically, noticing that the writings were appearing in systematic lines.
"Aghhh! I should've known this book was written with magic...!" Odin stood and threw his arms in the air and stared down the book on his table as if it had challenged him to fight. He snorted and surrendered, if the book wanted him to read its content painstakingly, then he'd do it painstakingly... without missing a single word!
He read from the first line of the first title, pointing each line with his fore finger. There was a blank space where a year should be written and when his finger brushed over it a set of foggy numbers appeared in red, it stated a time over 4000 years ago. His brows arched at those numbers, noticing the last digit were shifty and less dense looking.
"Oh...! Convenient!" he admitted when he realized the book did the year-counting by itself. The earlier chapters of the book told stories about a beautiful world where the demons lived in; they had knowledge that the humans didn't have, and they created advanced things that the humans couldn't fathom. The first two chapters were written almost like a love-verse venerating the demon's world dreamily, and Odin could clearly tell that the writer was yearning for the world created by the demons, as they described it as if it was a utopia.
*They are knowledgeable, so they taught us knowledge;
we are ignorant, so we thought them how to ignore.*
-the third chapter closure line said; so at some point 4000 years ago, the demons and the humans were coexisting in peace. The demons had been assisting in many of the humans' life aspects. At one point they were called as 'The Teachers', and at another they were called 'The Guardians'; he couldn't tell whether there were many organizations in the demons' living system, that the writer was saying the demons as omnipotent creatures or whether there were systematic hierarchy in their social life depending on their skills or their usefulness. Odin frowned deeper, the last line seemed like a condemnation and he knew what to expect in the next chapters; it all went down from there.
*...The Guardians are watching us with their unblinking eyes, wide as the sun never closed itself watching from the sky.*
After that 'The Guardians' were written as 'The Watchers'; at first the humans presented their humble lives and selves just as they were, in hope the demons would give them their knowledge to help them improve; then the humans began to feel inferior and wanted their prideful life back, their egos didn't want to live in shame anymore, and they began to say that-
*...if the demons find so many wrongs in our ways of living, then it must be the demons' way of living that are not right;
that they are faulty for finding us at faults.*
x - - - - - - - - x
*And the first King stands up for his people.*
-the sixth chapter began.
*...and there are light and dark rising as one, as so the perfect demon rise in pairs; and the world is shifting to a new age.
And the Wraths counterbalance themselves in greater rage, and the world starts over.
We ask for divine acknowledgment and get divine retribution on our behalf, because we are faulty for not admitting our own faults,
and we recycle our denials into justifications, and our lives to deaths -as they recycle our deaths to lives,
because they are alive and dead at the same time.
x - - - - - - - - x
And the first Maxwell rise from their leftovers,
I -rise from the memories of their smiles and gentle kindness,
scraping at the rubles and digging into the mud;
hoping to see that they will open their arms again...
And I -feel content in the possibility of a future where there is only one me standing before their Last
...so we can start over this cycle;
and I -will rise with a new name, or nameless, even
But I -will forever hold the name of their Last,
because it is my Beginning,
my Life...
my World
my existence.
Let it be my End.
May I-?*
The next page stayed empty after that, it was only a little over 1/3 through the book. Odin stared with a dumbfounded look, speechless for finding the fact that the book was written by the first Maxwell, and that the first Maxwell was in love with the demons...or the Last demon, or whatever; or should he say will fall in love...?
So it wasn't only his sarcasm saying that the first chapters were a love verse, after all.
He did make some pointers, though; 'the perfect demons rise in pairs', for example; or 'my Life' as the writer said it should be the Last (demon). Heero did say his Life as if it was a person; he was actually joking when he said it was Heero's fiancé.
'Life' was a person... the Last Demon...? There couldn't be the Last if there were still many demons out there, he pondered.
-or could it be that the demons they knew now were not the same demons as written in the book?
the leftovers... his mind pointed; if it meant not as things but as living beings -demons-, then the Maxwells were turning rubles -of society- and digging into mud -as in secluded places?- in search for...
"...the perfect demons...!" Odin whispered; the Last of the perfect demons, his mind repeated. Was that mean Heero is...-?
Or maybe not, wasn't that a too convenient of a conclusion? He at least concluded that Life meant an important somebody and that he/she had connection with Heero, regardless whether Heero's Life and the Life in that book were one and the same.
-no! That's not right, something's missing; he thought again.
The book was saying of the Last of the perfect demons... and Heero said his Life was still in the Demon Kingdom... and the book said perfect demons rose in pairs... and that meant...
"Heero and his Life are perfect demons...?" Odin mumbled; no, that's still not right. Heero and his Life is a perfect demon, his mind emphasized; as in, only as a pair...!
Odin closed the book abruptly with a puff.
That would explain why they were separated...because together they'd be a great threat, even to the Demon Kingdom itself.
Getting rid of a harmful weapon, aren't we? Odin smirked. And if need be, they could trigger Heero using his Life that was in their mercy; blackmailing him without making him feel like he was being blackmailed at all, making him thinking he was only carrying out his duty and at the same time ensuring his Life's safety, right? Maybe they're doing the same with his Life there. Heero did say that his Life didn't know his whereabouts; that his Life didn't know that he was being exiled into the humans' hands.
"You dirty leftoversss...!" Odin growled with a hiss at the end. But what good would that do? Unless they're sure that a perfect demon wasn't needed until-
Was that mean that the Maxwells had become a too great peril...?
They realized it too, the Maxwells; that's why they all committed suicide about 15 years ago, to protect this Kingdom from the demons' paranoia. And the demons brought Heero as a token of truce because they feared his capability...? Or for ensuring he could be in the right place to launch a deadly attack...
"Damn! I hate politics...!" Odin massaged his temples, took the book and threw it offhandedly onto his bed and covered it with his pillow. He did say that his demon had the right to destroy this Kingdom, but only if he wanted to, not because he was blackmailed to... Perhaps he should have protected his demon more.
With a loud bang he closed his chamber door; he thought he'd just eat his breakfast in the mess hall today, probably abducted the cook from his bed and stared him to death while he was preparing the meal too.
. . . that sounds like a good plan, he snorted to himself.
Duo groaned in exhaustion. The antler had stopped changing her horns, they're not shining anymore, and she was concentrating on just running. Duo shook his head each time his eyes dimmed; he didn't think that focusing his will to the antler would take up much of his mental strength. He felt more tired than to run his own escape; he listed more complaint to say to the barbarian girl.
Alata let out a shrill braying sound, almost sounded like a high-pitched chuckles. Duo patted her neck; "I know you're tired too. The King's City is behind that mountain, let's do our best; just a little more...!" he encouraged the exhausted antler, she answered with a low cry; the flock of beasts tailing them letting out their spirited cries as well.
Duo sweat-dropped; "You don't have to...!" he complained in his heart. A great-crow and a pair of whipping-vultures dove at them, "Concentrate on running, Alata...!" Duo whispered to the antler and glanced at the breaking dawn. The great-crow was hovering above them, he could tell by its shadow on the ground; the whipping-vultures opened their talons and tried some lashings with their tails. Duo held the rein with the left hand he also used to hold Heero's body; he swung his right hand at the opposite side of the incoming beasts and the first vulture squawked in surprise when its legs caught by a long black chain bent in a great arch from Duo's right wrist behind and around him. He pulled the chains a little and the jerk startled the vulture that it instinctively flapped its wings and lashed its tails in panic and drove the other whipping-vulture away.
He let the beast go when he thought it had learnt to stay away from them in a safe distance. He'd been doing that for the last couple of hours that his right arm felt like it's about to come off of his shoulder, but he knew when they're nearer the King's City the beasts would chase them with renewed hunger. He would need more effort than to just surprise them; he che-ed in disapproval, he didn't like hurting animals, much less killing them.
...because he could kill them easily and effortlessly... if only Myrica knew; or that girl Renn...
"...only if you have to...!" he muttered to himself; though he still couldn't accept what line separating the 'have to' and the 'not have to', he was afraid that if he drew the line and crossed it, then he would get used to do it even with the humans... or demons.
"Please just stay away from me... please?" he muttered again and hoped the distance to the King's City could be less than it actually was.
Odin stared at his right hand with a deep dissatisfied frown; the other soldiers on the parapet left him alone fearing his wrath, they'd seen his unhappy expression more than often and knew that wearing such dark frown like now meant he's about to snap even by a slightest approach.
Cail frowned too from one of the towers of the gate; he knew Odin would be agitated in his condition but watching him unmoving for over an hour staring at his hand was kind of bizarre. This morning the General had called him and his men to inform them about the ranking, he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander for a failure in carrying his task; he felt offended although he didn't show it outside... so he declined. His men, having him declined his promotion, had declined theirs too.
The General was only chuckling neutrally, like always; sometimes he'd question the blonde's meaning, self-conscious that the General was even younger than himself but posing such a grand presence.
"Are you alright, Sir?" Cail decided to divert his mind and approached Odin, having a yelling or two from the older man might be good for him too right now, for beating his inferiority complex or his self-pity down; for some reasons Odin was his role-model after all, the father he never had, though he would never admit it verbally.
"Sir?!" Cail tapped Odin's upper arm when the man didn't seem to register him being there, already welcoming the explosion... which never come.
That definitely signified something was wrong; the soldiers said Odin had been there from around 5AM, and stood there unmoving facing the gate-road to the city. He knew Odin was waiting for the demon to come back, that part made him felt responsible, he too was waiting for the young master to arrive.
". . . how about you?" Odin muttered breathily. Cail was somewhat caught off guard and didn't really sure if it was Odin talking, until the man's eyes shifted to him and stared from the ends of his eyes.
"Oh...! I'm alright, Sir; the healers said so!" he knew his face was flushed; something in Odin's eyes felt different, it was almost lustful not like his usual cold gaze.
"And your men?"
"Yes! Nothing to worry about, Sir!" Cail tapped his right foot at the ready; which earned him an arching brow from Odin for his suddenly formal attitude. "Sir! Is everything alright, Sir?" he asked again.
Odin almost grimaced with a sore expression. "What's with you? You're annoying suddenly...!" And that was while his wrists felt like they'd come off anytime soon; he could only imagined what Heero felt right now. He sighed deeply and stared back at his hand.
"...I'm about to lose my hands..." Odin said flatly, with calm acceptance in his voice.
"...Sir?" Cail asked reflexively in incomprehension.
The King's City was encircled by its citizens' farms outside its wall, thus the barrier was set several kilometers from the farms outer edge. Duo had recognized the stones of which they set the barrier-spell in from afar, since his tired eyes were desperately searching for those stones. With a triumphant squeal he tapped Alata's neck, giving her the boost of spirit; "...we'll be there soon, girl...!"
The antler was too exhausted to make a sound, her spit was slobbering her mouth down to her neck, and Duo knew it was only about time she fell from overexertion. Once they entered the City barrier they'd be able to slow down a little, so he hoped; but he was expecting the beasts behind their tails would took a last plunge on them before that. So he readied himself, fisting his hand so tight that his knuckle felt numb.
...he didn't want to use it.
The beasts started screeching when they neared the lining stones, Duo knew his cue and stood on the pedals and bent forward presenting his back to the beasts, covering Heero with his body; just in case they really took that last plunge before...-
"Ugh-!" Duo gritted his teeth and he was so sure that he'd have to take the brunt before passing the lining barrier stones; but just like that...
"...huh-?" he looked back at the flying beasts staring at them outside the barrier, as if making sure that their preys got into the barrier safely.
"...eeh?" -as if! right?
And just like that, they entered the King's City; breaching through the city gates and making quite a ruckus along the way on the crowded streets... but Alata wouldn't slow down, ignoring Duo's coaxing and words, despite Duo having a pass and all. Maybe it was because Myrica told her to focus on sending them to the Palace; so he just tried to steer the reins so as to not make damages here and there while ignoring the city gate soldiers chasing them and telling them to stop. Treize could handle their complaints later...!
As they climbed the sloping roads of the Palace rock mountain, the antler was already at her limit; Duo could tell from the horrible sounds of her breaths.
"Alata! Alata, slow down a little! It's alright now...!" but he knew the animal took the soldiers on their tails as another form of threat.
"ALATA! WE'RE FINE HERE!" Half way climbing up he was forced to pull the reins to snap her out of her trance, though it resulted in contrast to his aim. The antler shrilled and bucked up, as if trying to throw him from her back. Duo yelped while holding Heero's body tightly, calling out the antler's name and thought that they're going to fall off the road cliff. And that's the end of their journey back.
But suddenly, like a candle put off with a single blow of air, she stopped; and Duo was thrown forward by the previous momentum onto the antler's neck; his neck and back felt like it's broken from the whiplash, his air knocked out of his lungs, and his lower lip was broken... he wasn't sure when, perhaps when she jolted repeatedly his chin collided with Heero's head. Coughing out and tried to inhale at the same time, and chased his dizziness away; his watery eyes tried to see if Heero was hurt, his numb hand shifted from around Heero's body and found Heero's hand encircling Alata's neck with fingers giving light pressures on and off onto the thick fur. So it was Heero who calmed her down...-wait!
". . . Heero...?" Duo called tentatively with a trembling voice, mostly because of the exhaustion and the sudden excitement... and the demon answered with a soft moan.
"You- ...YOU'RE AWAKE! I'M SORRY THIS'S PROBABLY TOOTIGHTANDUNCOMFORTABLE...!" Duo instantly came into his alert side and took off the shawl from around Heero's head, half expecting to see his wings loosened too but disappointed when he saw that they're still plastered to the sides of face tightly.
Heero moaned again when his wings exposed to the winds; the soldiers that were chasing them stopped abruptly when they saw the white wings glistened in the sunlight, Duo spared a glance at them and immediately urged Alata to move forward again. She complied with slow steps this time, and realizing that she didn't need his weight, Duo jumped down and guided her walking up the zigzagging slopes, with the soldiers following on their horses from a respective distance behind. He didn't mind them as long as they let them be; what worried him was that Heero was moaning as if he was in great pain.
The last slope was long and straight, leading to the barbican gate where some soldiers standing at alert, probably already had the update of them climbing up the road. A tall man waited in the middle of the gate entrance, he was frowning with a dark aura around him; that must be Odin, Duo thought; and before he finished thinking that, Heero squirmed about and forced himself to dismount the antler from the other side. Duo caught his arm when he almost fell down, but Heero shook his hand off.
Duo was almost panicked when that happened, and Alata took it as the cue of dismissal as she fell on her belly and didn't budge again. For a moment, Duo was torn between helping Heero walk and staying with the antler, but seeing that Alata was looking like she was about to topple over with exhaustion, he stayed put still holding the reins and stroking her neck; watching Heero dragging his feet towards Odin while the others watched silently with mix emotions in the heavy air.
Heero stopped several times to gather his leftover strength to move again, his body was hunched forward and trembling like a leaf; he almost fell a couple of times too... but nobody moved to help him; even Odin only stood stoically on his spot... with a deeper frown of dissatisfaction, and a much darker aura after that, and more after it repeated. Then Duo realized what he was witnessing, it was the ritual between a master and slave; the realization hit him like a stab to his chest that he wanted to cry by the pain. And as if answering him, Heero fell down just meters from Odin; and he struggled to stand up... JUST HOW MUCH MORE DO YOU WANT TO SHOW OFF YOUR DOMINATION?! -he wanted to shout out to Odin or just about everyone watching there, but his throat constricted and he could only gasp and gritted his teeth, somehow knowing the demon wouldn't appreciate it if he snapped and stated the obvious in front of everyone who didn't care about him or his dignity.
After much effort, Heero managed to come to Odin's spot and fell to his front, and only then the man moved his arms to catch him. The crowd made a reflexive gasp together when it happened, mostly because they wouldn't catch a demon when he fall in front of them -they'd dodge instead. Odin let out a soft snort and dragged Heero on his feet, secured under a possessive arm, while he clung with both hands around the man's body; and they both moved towards Odin's chamber in silence while the crowds made way for them, watching until the two disappeared from sight with frowns on their faces.
Duo tried to breathe again after it passed, what he witnessed came as a shock to him and he fell sitting beside Alata with labored breaths. He never saw what kind of treatment given to a demon before; humans were all the same to him... a stranger, a by-stander, a face he never saw before, a voice he suddenly became aware of -and maybe soon forgotten; but Heero was more than that...!
He was more than all of you! -he wanted to scream, but no moan coming out, let alone a shout; he only trembled there feeling all energy drained out of his body, and his sight grew dim and narrowed.
"DUOOO!" a shout reached his ears; "My gods, you look like a mess!"
A pair of strong arms pulled him up into a bear hug, of course it was Treize, the halo around the blond head blinded his eyes and he closed his eyelids... and laughed while hugging his cousin back.
"Duo...? Are you alright?" the blond asked with concern; Duo knew he was still laughing and didn't seem like he was about to stop soon, but he couldn't help it, it was all he could let out...he wanted to cry but couldn't, and the laughing tears formed in his eyes felt almost as good.
Suddenly he wanted to go back to the covenant.
He didn't want to enter the Palace; he knew he wouldn't find anything good by living in there. The only problem was that he didn't have a home to go back to... and there was a flock of assassins keeping his name on top of their lists.
The sound of a deep relieved sigh.
A large hand behind his head.
The doors looked familiar.
The sound of fire burning in the hearth.
His clothes were gone in no time.
The air was steaming.
A muscular body behind his back.
. . . water was hot...!
"Oh... Is the water actually too hot for you?" A grimace. The white beard glistened with tiny beads of water from the steam.
"...r... you tr-... boil m-...?"
"...if boiling you works wonders, then I'll boil you...!" the voice was roughed, "For now, shut up and sit still!"
-Not like he had any power left to do the opposite.
The man harrumphed and continued massaging his right arm under the water using both his larger hands.
-As if anything will flow again in his veins.
There was red mixing with the clear water.
". . . angr-...?"
The man tsk-ed. His hands were rough on his arm; more than being angry, perhaps he was impatient. Then the man encircled his head with both arms, from under his chin; probably keeping him from talking more.
They silenced.
The steam filled his blurry vision, like erasing his already dim sight; it caught on his long eyelashes and weighing them with water beads. If he could close his eyes, perhaps he could sleep...
". . . I thought I was going to lose my hands . . ." the man said silently, something implicit weighing his tone.
His closing eyelids flew open again. The water beads rolled down his cheeks like tears. He tried focusing his vision to the man's face above his; his older face looked solemn.
...somewhat sad.
"...the-...still -ere..." he tried to say it audibly.
The man snorted cynically, "...Yeah, right. They're still here...!" his arms tightened for a second; when they loosened, the man let his red-bound wrists lingered around the small neck in a loose hug. There was a matching circling red marks etched on the pale skin, like some angry ligature marks of a lynch; and as the reds bled out its color and spoiled the water in streams along the demon's naked body, he let his hands fell into the water again... somehow not wanting to feel like he was desecrating someone's grave even more.
And some time when it took place the demon had shut his eyelids while looking up to his face, having his head lulled onto his chest, wings still tightly cupping his cheeks; he noticed a speck of blood on the white feather and pondering whether he should cleanse it or not. In the end he decided to let the wings untouched while the demon wasn't awake; moreover, it's the first time he saw those wings in such condition. He didn't want to ignorantly make it worse, so he continued what he intended to do from the beginning, warming the demon's body until his joints and muscles somewhat pliant; and then took him to bed and let him leech off his vital force under the many heavy blankets until he woke up. That was what he'd been doing in those years cohabiting with the demon, although it's not like the demon taught him how to take care of him or anything if the necessity ever arose.
Only this time probably took a longer time for him to wake.
The man sighed again as he watched the oblivious sleeping face on his chest; if it were a human boy's face then anyone would have melted seeing that serene beautiful face. What made him so wrong just for being a demon? His demon had never done anything wrong, he couldn't help but stray his mind to that depressing thought again.
-they are faulty for finding us at faults.
The words floated up into his mind and he remembered about the book under his pillow, and he was sorely aware of its existence like it was a hard jaggy rock against his head making him too agitated to sleep. He snorted to himself, might as well read some more and see whether anything else worth to make some pointers for. Half reluctantly he opened the book pages and somehow his mind had remembered what to read in them, so he took a sum of pages from the empty parts and let them slid to the front like a closing wing, and frowned at his unwillingness then closed the book. He was about to slip the book under his pillow again when his mind thought he saw a flash of red in the turned pages.
But the book was written with black ink-
He jerked into alert and instantly propped his upper body on an elbow, straightening his upper body so he could read the book better. Opening the pages to the empty page and found the red letters writing itself on it, and something appalling stirred inside his chest while he stared angrily at the letters...
x - - - - - - - - x
I made a mistake today.
I shouldn't have, but I'd done it anyway...
I sacrificed my humanity and
I start hating the demons for what I did
x - - - - - - - - x
Duo sat on the floor of his room; somehow he'd managed to slip from Treize's clutch and fled to the place where he thought he'd be alone for some needed solitude. The thick wooden doors felt like a friend's supporting back for once...
"DUO, I TOLD YOU TO GET THE HEALERS CHECK YOUR WOUNDS, ALREADYYY!"
-...or not!
Treize paused at the doorway, looking down at him for some moments.
". . . what are you doing prostrating on the floor like that...?" he asked with innocent frowning face.
You could make such comment without feeling guilty for banging a wounded guy with a thick wooden door-panel while making innocent face too, huuu...?! His mind retorted but he was too exhausted to voice it out; he had a bleeding bump on his forehead to add to his mind right now.
"Look, don't act like you don't feel the pain now, your eyes are watering, you know?" Treize snorted and squatted down beside him.
"WHO THE HELL SAID I DON'T FEEL THE PAIN JUST NOW-?!" Duo snapped and regretted it as his head felt the pain hit him with vengeance. He doubled over and moaned in pain, and moaned again when moaning hurt.
The blond sighed and gave in; "Alright! If you don't like some strangers checking your body, you could at least let me help you treating your wounds, right? Not like you could do it by yourself anyway, you got a new bump on your forehead from falling on the floor; see?" he admonished and cupped Duo's left cheek with his right hand, thumb carefully wiped the blood sliding down from his forehead.
"...-!" Duo stared speechless with pale incredulous expression. No wonder he heard people talked about his cousin secretly with fright when they thought no one's looking! He could glide through hard times with cunning maneuver while posing himself as the-good guy whenever he liked.
-in other words: slyly in denial. And with shimmering imaginary background around him too!
"...! Look, your face started to get really pale! Let's get you bathed before I could treat your wounds...!" Treize smiled kindly and scooped Duo's body from the floor like he was a pillow.
"YOU'RE A LIFE-HAZAAARD...!" Duo protested and tried to struggle, which only earned him happy chuckles from the blond.
x - - - - - - - - x
I sacrificed a life, trying to act human
while in my heart I know I'm not humane
-but I know the spilled blood won't be on my hands
it will be in the demons' names
I'm not afraid
humans are faulty, the demons said
-thus for being faulty,
I am right
x - - - - - - - - x
"Duo? Hey...!" Treize tapped lightly on his cheek. "Don't sleep in the bathtub; if you're that tired I'll treat your wounds on the bed. Come on!" He pulled Duo to stand and covered his body with a wide fluffy towel and carried him in a hug to the large bed.
Duo hugged him back and didn't let go when Treize put him to sit on the mattress.
Treize loosened his arms, but thought that right now his smaller cousin seemed to need that hug more than medicine; so he put one knee to support his weight on the bed and hugged Duo again, more affectionately. Knowing his cousin only let out his true feelings to him alone since they were way younger.
"...this is 10-years-worth of hug?" he smiled and stroked the back of Duo's head.
Duo moaned something to his shoulder.
He waited until Treize's stroking made him comfortable enough to speak, ". . . Treize . . ." he started almost hesitantly.
"Hm?"
". . . I killed someone on the way-" Duo mumbled slowly.
"Did you use your hands?" Treize's reaction was too immediate for his liking, but he kept it to himself.
He shook his head lightly.
"Well then, it's alright-"
"NO-IT'S NOT ALRIGHT!" Duo shoved him angrily for the apathetic smile.
Treize stared him for a moment, waiting for Duo's heat dissipated; and started his approach with kisses on Duo's face and head. "...I'll kill anyone who hurts you!" he whispered between kisses, and paused; lips lingering on Duo's ear for a while, letting him felt his presence and steady breaths.
". . . and seeing how you're hurting right now..." he breathed slowly, his fingers combed Duo's long wet hair a little, "...then it saved me the work if that someone is already dead...!"
Duo frowned in silence for a long moment; in the mean time Treize was already bandaging the wounds around his wrist from where Myrica pulled him up from the falling bridge.
". . . Treize . . ." Duo half-reflexively whispered out when he realized he'd been staring at the blond hair under his sightline, as Treize was kneeling before him.
"Hm?"
"You're being unfair, you know...?"
Treize smiled without looking at Duo's eyes. "It's alright for me to be unfair..." he kissed the back of Duo's hand he'd finished bandaging. "It's so you don't have to live in fear...!" then he looked up and slipped the hair hanging in front of Duo's face to behind his ear.
. . . but it's unfair to Renn . . . !
Duo frowned deeper staring into Treize's gentle eyes, his face gotten really hot and his breath hitched. Tears flowing out from his stinging eyes; and he cried onto his cousin's shoulder when the older one embraced him again.
x - - - - - - - - x
...but I fear Me-
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Odin glared at the book in his hands as if he could burn it just by heated gaze, but knew he couldn't do anything to stop that book from writing itself.
This book is happening now...!
-and he realized that something, somewhere... had its eyes set on his demon after 4000 years being inert in sleep.
x - - - - - - - - x
x - - - - - - - - x
saru's note:
...the General-Treize and the cousin-Treize... hahahahahahaa (we were laughing our *sses-off when hearing his voice again, Treize is Byakushi...! didn't realize it back then)
thanx for Cuzo for always reviewing :D -and to others who read this fic and gave appreciation;
this will be the last chapter for this year... can't belief it's been going for about one and a half year
how time flies by
(and in that whole time, we didn't get to finish even one book? -sweat- oh shoot...! OTL)
it's been cold lately, although it's just raining everyday; can't imagine what happened in snowing-climate.
this monkey will certainly be dead -frozen...
almost got hypothermia from car AC once, and that was while this monkey wore 2 T-shirts + 1 shirt + a double-layered jacket too (we're checking out of the hotel after finishing a project and the luggage was too heavy so saru thought to wear the excessive clothes), while the colleague from London was sweating himself until his skin turned red. was it that different of temperature between here and there?
in saru's town, below 20°C is already considered really cold... you probably add a 'minus' in front of that number for your town's temperature and just laugh at this note, though... haha