A/N: So my GW DVDs 1-49 finally just came in. and wow, the homoeroticism. Treize tells Zechs oh so sweetly, 'Shoot them down for me, Zechs.' I was giggling. Badly.
God I love your reviews. There aren't many, but they're quality.
God damn but Heero's hands felt good. They were calloused and rough and so damned strong that Zechs wanted to throw himself at the cattle rancher and make him go so crazy he'd scream. But as he had last night and the night before that he shrugged off Heero's hands and shook his head.
The night was too cold.
They'd just passed the Nebraska state line when Duo's gelding Diablo began to act up. The trick pony'd been well behaved before (bratty and stubbourn, but generally good) but once he stepped onto Nebraska soil it all changed. The paint started to throw his head excessively, ripping the reins right out of Duo's hands most times. Then he began to prance, feet moving about a mile a minute even though he was at a walk. Those were things that Duo could handle and Zechs didn't worry till Diablo decided to be riderless that day.
The first thing that came to Zechs' mind was that if Diablo was trained right, he'd make one hell of a saddle bronc. His bucks were perfectly natural and they flowed like rapids through a river. The pony had even tensed his neck so that Duo couldn't pull the reins up and pull him out of the bucks. And even worse when Duo landed, he landed hard and on his face none the less.
Duo stood shakily with blood pouring out his nose. Thankfully his nose didn't seem broken, only badly bruised. But he was going to be sore the next day no doubt about it and he was in no shape to get back onto the hellion on four hooves.
Zechs trotted Goose over to his hands, dismounting easily. "Here, take 'im and go find Wufei up ahead. He's got a painkiller draught in his wagon. Just tie Goose up behind the wagon, I'll take care of your paint."
Duo nodded slowly, his eyes still not quite there. "Mmkay. Wanna switch saddles first? You're gonna wan' yer own when he starts buckin'."
Zechs nodded, "Let me do that, just sit down for a little. The other hands can handle the herd for a while." Heero could do it on his own, that wasn't what he was worried about. What he was worried about was Duo. He was slurring his words pretty badly and his country accent was coming through stronger. While he was cinching his saddle up on Diablo (who thankfully hadn't run off but had opted to graze instead), he told Duo firmly, "Tell Wufei that you aren't allowed to go to sleep. Can you remember that?"
The brunette nodded slowly, staunching the blood flow from his nose with his bandanna. "Zechs?" His voice was quiet, tentative. Not typical Duo at all. "Didn't Trowa stop?"
"No, he probably knew you could take care of yourself." Zechs may have been busy changing saddlebags, but he still noticed the flicker of disappointment that flashed across his face.
Goose was a nice horse. Duo liked Goose. Goose didn't buck, he just trotted along really smoothly. That was appreciated.
He liked how Wufei wasn't too far away too. That meant that Duo had less time he had to ride. Even though Goose was such a good horse, the gelding's trot made his head throb like a bunch of chickens were scratching for bugs in his brain. Fei stopped the wagon quick too. His voice was gruff but kinda sweet, and Duo came to the conclusion that it was cute.
He even gave Duo some liquid that made his mind go even fuzzier. It made the pain in his nose go, so it was worth it. Problem was when he took it, all he wanted to do was sleep. So Wufei grabbed a tin from the wagon.
"Like your coffee black? I always keep some brewed, but this is pretty strong stuff. It should keep you awake."
Duo grinned in a winning way at him, idly noticing that he couldn't really focus his eyes, "That's fine, Ah'm from Texas so anything else is a waste of water."
And the coffee was properly made too. It was lukewarm, but it had enough bitterness to it that he'd winced when he took the first sip. In other words, it was the stuff he'd been raised on. He sat on the tongue of the wagon drinking the coffee as Wufei untacked Goose and tied him to the backboard. The cook then came up and sat with him, urging the mules forward with a gentle flip of the reins. The wagon was bumpy but the combination of the coffee and 'Dr. Xian's Miracle Painkiller for Man and Beaste' made the ride liveable.
"So." There was Wufei's voice again. It was pretty, If Fei was smart he'd go into singing. "Diablo started bucking?"
Duo nodded. "Yep. And he's got one hell of a nasty buck. His dam and his sire were both bronc stock so it's in his blood. Normally he's pretty good, but I dunno." He shrugged, "Today he just decided to live up to his name."
Wufei laughed and Duo gave him a grin through the bandanna still stuck up his nose.
Zechs was impressed. He'd pulled god only knows how many muscles in his shoulders, his inner thigh felt like it was on fire and his knee still throbbed after Diablo slammed the innocent joint into a sapling, but he was still impressed. The pony was the smartest god forsaken creature he'd ever ridden and he'd ridden some wily nags. But all of those seemed slow compared to this one.
Zechs first tried just running Diablo down till he was too tired to buck, but one sure didn't work because the demonbeast apparently didn't get tired. So then he tried to just turn him in a circle when he did something bad. Well when he did that, hellspawn took that as his que to buck. Every damn thing Zechs did, Diablo found a way to make it useless.
But Zechs wasn't such a good rider for nothing. He stayed on the pony like glue and never left the saddle. He also had the strength to wrench the reins and get control of the bit and Diablo was getting frusterated. His tricks got everyone else off, after all.
By the end of the day, Diablo was still being a pill but he was at least working enough so that Zechs could actually do work with the herd on him. That control came at a big expense to both of them, however. Diablo's flanks were covered in sweat and his ears flopped to side as though it was too much work to keep them upright. Zechs wasn't much better, drenched in sweat and slumping wearily in his saddle. He didn't even have his hat on, deeming his ride too much danger for his sacred Stetson and gave it to Heero to watch over.
Thus, seeing camp ahead was sweet. Even better was the small stream that trickled past, too small too bathe in but big enough to fill a bucket and dump it over one's self. Zechs slumped off of Diablo without any of his usual grace and could have kissed Heero when he said that he'd untack botch Win and Diablo. He made a run for it to the stream, snagging a bucket and jamming it in the brook. He then nearly ripped his shirt off, grabbing the bucket and taking a long draught of water before dumping it over his head.
He hadn't known his appreciative moan was so loud till he turned around awkwardly and saw the whole camp staring wide eyed at him. Even the cows were looking at him, the wenches. Heero snorted and went right back to unsaddling Diablo, while everyone else had to take a moment.
Zechs shrugged. He hated being sweaty and if they didn't like his obsession with cleanliness than he didn't care. He turned around and continued to dump water over himself, sounding as happy as he wanted. It was probably a good thin that he didn't see the appreciative look on Trowa's face and the lecherous grin on Quatre's.
His muscles screaming bloody murder at him by that night. He'd gotten through dinner but only in a permanent slouch and when he walked back to his sleeping pad he was definitely bowlegged. Thus when he had gotten underneath his covers he fully intended to go to sleep and stay that way for a few days.
Heero had the one thing that could pull him back out; a bottle of liniment and hands that knew just where to rub to make everything feel better. The bedroll was warm and he was awfully close to sleep though. He glared up at Heero from his jacket/makeshift pillow and asked gruffly, "Whaddya want."
Heero proceeded to throw the blanket off of Zechs and ignored his whining. "Get onto your stomach. Sooner the massage is done, the sooner you can get back to sleep."
After weighing his options he came to the conclusion that this may be a win win situation. He flipped onto his stomach and moaned gratefully when Heero poured the liniment onto his back and began rubbing. The liniment heated up when it touched skin and when anyone rubbed it in it'd get even warmer. With a normal person the liniment would have felt good. With Heero rubbing it in, it was nothing short of heaven.
His hands worked out every kink and knot and his back and he was feeling like goo so when Heero started working on his legs, he didn't object. He didn't even say anything when Heero slipped his hands up to massage his inner thigh. His hands were so close and the friction was so damned delicious…
Heero withdrew his hands and smirked when Zechs whimpered. "I'm going to let you sleep. That is what you want, right?"
Zechs growled and flipped both of them, slamming Heero back onto the bedroll. "You little asswipe!"
He kissed him hard, hard enough enough that they'd both be bruised the next day but the rush of heat when Heero arched up was so worth it.
The dredges of the caffeine and that damned potion here finally starting to leave Duo and he really didn't take it well when Trowa, his best friend, decided to sneak into a quiet grove with Quatre. Again. For the fourth night in a row.
"Come on man, I got hurt. Me. You know, your best friend? Since we were like, eleven? Stay with me, we can talk and stuff. Like when the show was still running." He sounded like a little kid but he couldn't help it. He hadn't been able to talk to his best friend, really talk to him, since that damned blonde sashayed into the picture.
"Duo. You're overreacting." Owch. Duo got the 'pissyTrowa' glare. "I like Quatre, and he likes me. We fool around. I am allowed to have friends, right?"
"Of course, but you're forgetting about me. Last I checked I thought we were, ya know, friends? You didn't even check up on me when Diablo decided I oughtta learn how to fly!"
Trowa rolled his eyes, something that made Duo's blood boil. It got worse when Trowa opened his mouth though. "You're a big boy Duo. You can take care of yourself and I know that so I didn't need to make sure you were okay because I knew you would be."
"That isn't the point!" Duo stood and grabbed his bedroll and his things, "You didn't care about me. Do you know how shitty that felt? Hell, even if you'd just ridden over and said anything I would've felt okay but you didn't even do that much. Go and fuck Quatre but I ain't gonna be here when you get back."
Trowa laughed, a soft chuckle that grated, "And where are you going to go? It's not like you're the loner type."
"I got to know Wufei a little better today, I'm sure he won't mind company. At least he took care of me after my fall." With one last glare at Trowa he stalked over to the chuckwagon and plopped his things down. Wufei looked up from where he'd been sewing a hole in his blanket. Duo only shook his head and crawled under his blankets.
He tried not scream when Trowa and Quatre walked off into a grove of trees.
"So why did you get Cynthia? Mules are tricky bastards, most people won't put up with them."
Duo snapped his head up and stared at Wufei for a minute while what he said registered. A smile broke over his face and they launched into a conversation about the good qualities of long ears. And it was exactly what he needed.
A/N:
I just recently had a huge fight with my best friend that happened a lot like Duo and Trowa's. It felt really, really good to write that down. Thus... this chapter is dedicated to Sally.