The world of the white man may have been his by birthright but he'd concluded that it was in no way his own. The food was strange and too complicated and spiced and nobody understood honor properly. They had these strange ideas of ownership, as though you could possibly own a piece of land. They slaughtered the animals for fun, without necessity or even proper recognition of the animal's sacrifice. Their world just made no sense.
Granted, he'd made friends in this new society. He made friends where ever he went, truly. Heero understood the worth of his cattle and reminded Quatre of the warriors at home. A calf had been brought down by a coyote and Heero had sat by the carcass for a while, doing what Quatre felt to be the equivalent of thanking the calf's spirit. He didn't even demand that they go find the coyote and kill it, which was again and admirable thing.
Wufei still looked odd to him. He looked similar to the Lakota and yet so different that he was a curiousity. The Chinese man spoke English quite well and knew a lot about healing plants and medicine from his homeland so they traded bits of information,. Wufei'd been thrilled to taste nettle tea, which was far more cheap and more fresh than what they sold in stores.
The person who made him feel the most confused was Zechs. He was so much of a warrior that a peace loving man like Quatre was just put off. It wasn't as though the cowboss had done anything innately aggressive or violent. He moved with the grace of a hawk all of the time and that was a bit intimidating. But he was incredibly gorgeous doing so, so Quatre chalked his paranoia off to being intimidated. Though he rode like not a man but as the horse itself, and that was very impressive, like a Lakota warrior himself.
However, Zechs couldn't hold a candle to Trowa in terms of handsomeness. He was just… stunning. His face seemed familiar, with the high cheekbones and strong nose of the Native people of the Americas. His eyes, green as a glossy leaf, were just so stunningly exotic and his hair was the loveliest color dark blonde. Frankly, he was the reason that Quatre was two spirit.
And if Zechs was a hawk, Trowa was a cougar stalking its prey. And Quatre would know. In the dark isolated space they found each night, the mestizo would pounce. His arms were all whipcord muscle and his body was all strength. His hands were gentle but so firm and with what Trowa illicted out of him it was a wonder no one had heard them yet and… Quatre worried that he might love him. And that was scary because Trowa certainly wasn't Lakota and he certainly wasn't the proper mate for a medicine man. But he'd take care of that when it came along.
Duo was strange. He was the only other extrovert in their group so by all means, they should have been friends, all but for Trowa. He'd been Duo's sole friend for five years during the show and having someone come in between that? Of course it would seem intimidating. What bewildered Quatre was his behavior around his oldest friend. Instead of talking it out with his oldest friend he'd just argued with him. It didn't make sense, at home if two men had a fight they had to speak their differences with the medicine man or two spirit, and the three would work things out until they were at least civil. That wasn't how things worked here though, so Quatre would avoid taking sides. That didn't mean that he would just ignore the hot tempered hand. After all, Duo'd had a nasty fall the other day and a medicine man knew what plants would make the pain lessen.
Trowa's heat almost made him forget his mission and go back to sleep. But he was nothing if not stubborn so he untangled himself from his lover's long limbs, muttering a soft curse at the morning cold against his skin. There was a stir and Trowa looked up at him with eyes still clouded with sleep. He arched an eyebrow.
"I need to get some bark that grows down near the river for Duo's pain." Salt lingered on his lips when he kissed Trowa's tanned forehead, "If I'm going to get it and be back in time, I need to leave now."
The mestizo nodded in response and cupped his cheek gently before curling back into their blankets. Quatre grinned fondly at him before slipping his leggings back onto his body and moccasins. He walked back to camp and slipped into the herd, giving a respectful nod to Heero, the morning watch. Sand, his grullo mare, was easy as ever to approach and complacently let him slip his leather lariat over her tongue and under her lip, making the only bridle either of them had ever known. Thanks to her small height he mounted her easily and set off towards the river at a steady trot.
Being this close to the Platte, dew hung onto everything. The tall grasses soon made Sand's legs dark and wet and Quatre's own shoes were soaked but both were enjoying the solitude of the morning, moisture or not. Sand even seemed to appreciate the grass all the more for the water when he left her to graze. It helped Quatre none when he was harvesting bark, making the trees slippery as a fish, but he'd had experience and accomplished his task easily, slipping his goods into the same packet where he kept his pemmican.
Trowa'd spoke fondly of the desert he was from, but Quatre honestly didn't think anything could be more lovely than his plains. There was something beautiful about the dark fertile earth that fostered and raised everything it touched. Granted it had it's crueler points, tornados that destroyed whatever they touched and snow storms that were just as bad, but those made the good points sweeter. On the ride back to camp he let Sand have her head and take herself back home and appreciated.
Riding was something that his tribe valued highly. After all, horses were the reason that they'd succeeded so well with the buffalo. But there was more to it really. There was just something spiritual and sweet at the movement of a horse underneath you. It simply felt right, and even more incredible was the fact that such large animals would ever trust people enough to let them ride them. Sand was an especially good mare, just as fond of him as he was of her and they loved each other fiercely.
He was almost disappointed when the sounds of camp grew louder but there was no other way around it so he slipped the rope out of Sand's mouth and joined Wufei and Duo where they were packing up the wagon. Wufei was the first to see him and he gave him a quick smile, "Good morning Quatre."
"Good morning!" He opened the pouch at his belt and pulled out a few pieces of bark. "I actually have something you might like, Duo."
The air was tense when Duo turned around so damned slowly. His voice was low and it was like a stray dog was growling when he finally responded, "What is it."
"This is willowbark. If Wufei will put some water over the fire, you can add a piece of this to the pot and it'll make willowbark tea. If you drink it, the pain'll lessen and even better, it won't make your mind fuzzy. Granted it may upset your stomach a little, but personally I think it's worth it."
Wufei had certainly brightened up about the offering but he was the only one. Duo simply shrugged, "As you wish."
Well. That wasn't supposed to happen. Duo was supposed to accept the peace offering joyously and they were supposed to forget their differences and be the buddy extroverts. Utterly bewildered, Quatre turned and jogged over to where Trowa was filling in their latrine. He hugged the tall man fiercely.
"Duo didn't accept it?" Trowa asked quietly, dropping his shovel to wrap his arms around Quatre.
"No. I don't understand."
Trowa's chest rose when he gave a deep sigh. "He's fickle and hurt. He'll come around."
"I hope so." He muttered into Trowa's neck.
The tea tasted bad, even with the honey Fei'd put in. But by the time breakfast was over and they were getting ready to leave, his nose and his head were only a very dull ache and the only side effect was a small stomach ache that was far better than the loopyness of Wufei's medicine.
He mounted Cynthia, wonderful sweet good natured Cynthia, and when he rode past Quatre he made a point to mutter out a thanks. It was a quick thanks though and he quickly trotted over to where Zechs was saddling not Goose or Ep, but Diablo again. "Hasn't that little prick scared you off yet?" he asked impertinently.
Zechs snorted in response and pulled the reins up over the gelding's head, "I stayed alive while I was training Ep and if I did that, any other horse seems like a walk in the park. Besides, it'll be good for him if I continue the training for at least today."
"Trust me, that's fine. Besides, maybe tonight you can convince Heero to rub liniment on you again!" He winked garishly and chuckled to himself as he walked off. He never knew anyone's face could turn that shade of red.