AN: This is the last chapter in this short story. Thank you for all who reviewed, it helped me get this story written as quickly as it was...

The Queen of Hearts

Chapter 5

Trowa had difficulty getting to sleep that night, but when he finally managed to get the two blondes out of his head, they just re-appeared in his dreams. He could hold, and kiss, and touch Quatre as much as he wanted, but the blonde in his arms kept shifting between the Queen of Hearts and the Shy Piano boy. He could tease and hold and play with the wild Queen, and still have Quatre at the next kiss whenever he wanted one or the other. That was the beauty of dreams… he could have the one body morph from one blonde to the other.

When he awoke the next morning, he made sure that he paid enough to stay for at least another week and made his way across the road to the Horse Shoe Saloon: Home to the two biggest mysteries of the west which he was determined to solve.

He took his regular seat in the saloon, but Quatre was doing his level best to ignore the presence that had come into the bar. Quatre's playing never faltered, but he felt a pair of green eyes boring holes into his back as he played. He became a hundred times more conscious of what was happening in the room, but he couldn't let Trowa distract him. The show must go on!

The hours ticked by, Trowa sometimes asking for a song, but otherwise, nothing happened. Quatre made sure that they both weren't alone at any given point. When his set was up, Quatre was glad to see that Trowa immersed in a poker game; leaving him one golden opportunity to get out before Trowa noticed.

"DAMMIT!" one of the other players (a regular with a long braid), yelled. "The Queen of Hearts has it in for you! How the HELL did you manage to win with a royal flush in hearts for the third time in a row?!"

"Maybe you should learn to shuffle better," said another voice, belonging to the man with the dark hair and blue eyes.

There was grumbling and the sound of cards being shuffled and re-shuffled as Quatre snuck out of the main room. He let Rashid know that he was done for the day, as per custom, and then ducked upstairs to change for the evening. He washed and began putting on the stockings and garter belt first, thinking about Trowa and what he would do to him as the Queen tonight in retaliation for last night. The thought of touching Trowa again made him both blush and grin. As The Queen, he could get away with such things, as Quatre, he couldn't, and he was planning of taking advantage of every liberty being Q-baby would grant him tonight! He'd managed to tug on his corset and black lace panties, but he had yet to don the short skirt that went with this outfit for now. He was always short on money because of the costumes he bought for his 'Queen of Hearts' act, but as The Queen, he made more than enough money to pay for it. In fact, even with the added expense, he was actually living better than he would have been living with only a piano player's wages. He was in the process of applying rouge to his lips when there was a knock at the door.

"Who is it?" Quatre called out, his hands stilling.

"Quatre, it's me, Trowa," the voice called out from the other side of the door. "I have your violin."

"One moment please!" Quatre called back as he scrubbed away the makeup, tugged on a pair of pants, and hastily buttoned a shirt on over his corset. He was glad at that moment that the wig was always the last thing he donned, and quickly made a sweep of the room. He tossed everything Q-baby-related into the tiny bathroom and closed the door, making sure that the doors to the small armoire he owned were also closed shut.

He was flushed from running around by the time he opened the door and pulled Trowa inside. He knew that it was dangerous for Trowa to be here. Some of the girls thought that Quatre and Q-baby were siblings sharing this room. He couldn't have Trowa be seen around here. He looked out the door and spotted Rashid coming up the stairs. The man gave Quatre a concerned look, telling him that he'd tried to keep Trowa out, and Quatre could only nod.

"I'll let everyone know she won't be performing tonight," Rashid said, with an understanding look in his eyes.

"Thank you," Quatre said, then turned around and closed the door behind him. Trowa was standing by the small window, staring over at the stables below, the violin resting on Quatre's bed.

"Where is she?" Trowa asked as he turned around, green eyes blazing. He was mad, jealous, and felt completely betrayed. He'd come into the room and the whole place smelled like her. Like Q-baby. He knew that it could have just been a spilled perfume bottle that could have marked her presence in the upstairs rooms, but he spotted a gold and black garter on the floor, halfway under the bed. He picked it up while Quatre was speaking to someone at the door and fisted it tightly. In his mind's eye, he remembered how harried Quatre had looked when he opened the door. He had looked disheveled, flushed, and had a trace of smeared rouge on his lips… and now he was standing there, red-tinged mouth agape as he stared at Trowa, blue eyes wide.

"Where is who?" Quatre asked; his heart was pounding in his chest like a caged hummingbird. It was too soon! This couldn't be happening!

Trowa snarled, he hated being messed with, and Quatre was obviously playing dumb. He grabbed the collar of Quatre's shirt with both hands and shoved him against the locked door. "Don't fucking lie to me, Quatre," he growled, "You know who I'm talking about. Where the fuck is Q-baby? You're sleeping with the whore, aren't you?"

Quatre felt like he'd been slapped in the face, for all his attitude as The Queen, he was still untouched, how dare Trowa call him a whore?! "I am not sleeping with Q-baby," Quatre said coldly, prying Trowa's hands from his shirt, but Trowa would not let go, and merely shoved him against the door again.

"Bullshit! You smell like her, I found THIS on your bed," he said, holding up the gold garter, making Quatre wince at his having missed it during his hasty sweep of the room, "and your fucking lips are stained with her rouge." Trowa was seething, "I hate being fucked with, and I hate being lied to more. I want the truth now, Quatre. Are you fucking her? Is that why you keep pushing me away?" The last question held a significant amount of pain as it was delivered. Quatre wouldn't have been able to lie to him even if he wanted to… but right now, he wanted to come clean.

"I will tell you everything…" Quatre began, "But first, I need you to let go of me and answer something for me as honestly as you can."

Trowa let go of him and backed away a step, "What is it?"

"Are you interested in being with me, or with her? Which one do you want?"

Trowa growled, "What does it matter? You're both obviously unavailable!" This was really tearing him up. He wanted them both, but he'd seen something in Quatre that he wanted to protect.

"Please… just… just answer," Quatre begged.

"I want you both, okay?!" Trowa snapped. He wasn't good at this sort of thing and he was infuriated at being toyed with by both blondes. Was this all a game? What did they stand to gain? He couldn't tell Quatre about all the indecent things he'd wanted to do to them both, but the hungry look in his eyes gave him away.

Quatre then did the unexpected: he leaned forward and kissed Trowa softly. The kiss seemed familiar, passionate and affectionate, but Trowa just pushed him away roughly, "What the hell do you think you're doing? Tell me what the fuck is going on."

Quatre straightened from where he'd almost fallen over at being shoved so harshly. "Open the bathroom door," he said.

Trowa glared at him for stalling and went to the door. When he opened it, he had been expecting to see a half-naked Q-baby awaiting him with a harsh tongue and a slap. Instead, he found stockings hanging from the shower rail, garters drying on lines in the bathtub, makeup scattered on the counter along with bottles of perfume, and finally, a golden blonde wig sitting innocuously on a stand by the sink. What was going on here?

Trowa turned around to ask just that, but what he saw made the words stick in his throat. Before him, was Quatre…Quatre was standing there in ladies' stockings, a garter belt, black lace panties (which did not hide the obviously MALE attributes), the gold and black corset that matched the ornamental garter Trowa held in his hand, and the blonde was in the process of slipping on a short black skirt with ruffles that offered a minimum amount of modesty.

"Q-baby?" Trowa asked, his voice cracking just a bit, Quatre just looked up from where he finished fastening the skirt and gave him a tiny smile, "QUATRE?! Y-you're… you and she are one and the same?" Quatre just shrugged a little, looking very nervous. Trowa couldn't take this and just sat down on Quatre's bed. Thankfully, the violin was at the foot of it, and didn't get crushed beneath his weight.

Quatre was fidgeting and needed something to do. Seeing that his violin was in danger being out in the open, he put it away, vowing to look it over later for damage from where he had dropped it. When that task was done, and with no where to go, he tentatively went to sit next to Trowa.

Trowa meanwhile was stuck. His brain just wasn't dealing with this well and all he could think about was that he wouldn't have to pick between blondes… but could he even trust them – him, her? What was Quatre? He was too pretty to be a boy, and she was too flat to be a girl, and after long minutes of agonized silence, Trowa finally broke the silence.

"Which is the real you?" he asked quietly, looking down at his hands and pointedly NOT looking at the person sitting beside him.

"I was born Quatre Winner and I was disowned for having an attraction to men," Quatre whispered.

"And why the act?" Trowa asked, still not looking at him.

"I needed the money… It was easy to pretend I was someone else, entertain for the money. All I had to do was sing, dance, and allow a few men to pinch my ass before I slapped them," Quatre answered honestly.

"I meant with me," Trowa sighed, "Why didn't you tell me? Were you just playing with me?" He then waited for the answer with baited breath as Quatre took a deep breath.

"I was afraid. This, what we have between us right now, isn't accepted and you know it. I…I figured… if… if you liked me as Q-baby also, then maybe we could work something out…" Quatre was nervous, and well… downright scared. What if Trowa didn't want this? What if Trowa left?

"When were you planning on telling me?" Trowa asked, trying to keep his anger in check.

Quatre gulped, "If not tonight, then the day after…I just wanted to make sure that you also wanted Q-baby… I… I'm sorry."

"Does anyone else know?" Trowa felt compelled to ask.

"Only Rashid and his wife… she's the one that makes all our costumes, and Rashid gave me the job and a place to stay when I had less then nothing."

Trowa then turned to Quatre, "This is going to take me a while to think about…" Quatre just nodded, feeling his heart break and seeing his chance of being with Trowa go out the window. "But until then…."

Quatre gasped as Trowa crushed their lips together then moaned as Trowa pushed him down onto the bed, a hand reaching down between them and kneading Quatre's groin. Trowa smirked and took the opportunity to delve his tongue into Quatre's sweet mouth. When they broke apart, Trowa's verdant eyes were ablaze with heat and desire, "I'm going to fuck you all night, Q-baby… you're mine now."

"Call me Quat," the boy beneath him purred as he reached out for Trowa and pulled him down for another kiss.

--Epilouge--

I remember all the fuss for a long time after that. Q-baby never did come down that night, and we were disappointed. The blonde piano player disappeared after that day, but no one really paid him any mind. The rumors said that he left after the stranger made an honest woman out of his sister. Yes, sister. Many were shocked to find out that Q-baby had a brother, but it explained why he was never seen amongst the patrons when the show-girls were out. Many figured he couldn't bear to look at his sister when she was dressed like that.

And so… the man who was once a stranger in the town fell in love with The Horseshoe Saloon's brightest star and was no longer known as the stranger.

Later, he became deputy sheriff after proving his skill with a gun when a band of armed highway men came roaring into town, guns blazing for show. He'd helped Sheriff Yuy bring down the band and was then seen as one of the town's heroes.

As for Q-baby, she changed her stage name from the 'Queen of Hearts' to 'Queen B' after she married the new deputy sheriff, Trowa Barton and took on his name. Also, after that day, no one was allowed to call her 'Q-baby' other than her husband, so she was addressed as Ms. Quat by the people in town. She still sang and danced at the Saloon, but now she would not leave the stage. Her costumes were still corsets, but the skirts came all the way down to her ankles, and she mostly devoted her time to helping create costumes for the shows, or playing the piano or violin for the performances. As the times passed, she and her husband helped Rashid and his wife turn the Saloon into a theatre, where many famous acts came to perform. Some of these acts included the mysterious masked magician, Zechs Marquise, and an up and coming Opera debutante Relena Peacecraft. Ms. Quat spent the majority of her life working at the little theatre until it was no longer "little" and their town flourished into a city.

In her old age, Ms. Quat gave music lessons and her husband became well known for the stories he told about his youth and his travels. By the time they'd reached their golden years, Trowa Barton was a well known author and his petite wife, a matron of the arts in the area.

The pair lived long and no one questioned it when Ms. Quat could not conceive… it was for the better, really. No child should have a mother that worked entertaining all her life, like she did, or so the old wives said, though they all loved Ms. Quat to death.

The two lived out the rest of their long lives in a house they'd built together, without anyone else ever finding out the truth. On the outside, they were a perfect, loving couple with a few idiosyncrasies and petty squabbles between them. It was only natural really, with such a willful woman and such a stubborn man… and that, ladies and gentlemen is the west's best kept secret.

"The show must go on!" Ms. Quat would say, and so they both played their parts flawlessly in public, but in private, they had the hottest, most mind-blowing passion burning between them, filling countless nights with ecstasy … all under the careful guise of a man and the Queen of Hearts.

Owari

Jess' Rant: Again, thank you, Dentelle, for all your help! hugs Remind me to buy you a cookie or mango with chile at Y-con, kay?

SO! How'd y'all like it? I hope the ending met expectations… umm… yeah…

Again, thank you all for sticking with me. I had fun writing this and until next time, take care, you funny bunnies! .