Title: The Ribbon and the Ring 26?

Author: Seraphim Grace
Archive: if you want it ask, I just like to know where they are. http/seraphim-grace. http/ Always appreciated and replied to.
Rating: 18 (This is an open rating so I don't have to worry).
Pairings: 1x2
Warnings: Angst. Some gore. Some incredibly bad French.

Notes: AU, and features necromancy.

Days slipped quickly into weeks as Duo lay prostrate on his stomach waiting to heal. He was never alone, people took shifts at his bedside and Heero took to sleeping through the days to watch over him at night, and Duo sometimes woke to the soft sensation of Heero reading to him as he brushed his bangs from his face. He knew then, half asleep and still mostly dreaming, that Heero loved him completely, it was only when he was awake that he doubted it.

He spent his mornings with Quatre who told him what gossip happened about the palace he never saw, he told him how Aia had made Trowa breakfast but Trowa had already gone out riding with the men and not known, and that Emithi had what he called a boy toy, a boy not much older than them that she invited to her room sometimes. Listening to him talk Duo was glad of Quatre's innocence even when it was faked for his sake, although he could be incredibly oblivious to certain things.

With Quatre he would listen and drink tea and know that somewhere in the palace Heero slept having relinquished his shift.

Midmornings belonged to Aia, who came in and washed his hair and what parts of him that Danev allowed her to clean. She chattered constantly about how wonderful Trowa was, causing Fenrir, who lay by the fire looking at everyone with the same casual disdain until mid afternoon when he loped off, to sigh.

Emithi came in for a few hours at noon, she fed him soup and talked to him like an equal about power and responsibility and how it might be an idea to order the Cadacus to sleep as he sat sentinel outside his door. She didn't seem to understand that the Cadacus didn't need to sleep.

After that his afternoon and evenings were Trowa's. Trowa told him honestly what happened through the day and whatever attempts that Aia had made to woo him, and how desperately unsuccessful they turned out to be, and Duo would laugh and do his impression of Aia saying "is it because I'm a demon?" to which he really wanted to answer, yes.

"So, what did you tell her?" Trowa asked, he sat on the edge of the bed in a green sweater and leather pants. He smelt of horses and outside.

"I asked her what she saw when she looked at us, I mean the five of us," Duo answered.

"And?" Trowa pressed.

"She said that with the exception of Quatre that we were scary."

Trowa scoffed, "Quatre's the scariest one of the lot of us."

"I know that and you know that but strangers always think it's Wufei."

"Speaking of him," Trowa said quickly changing the subject. "He was here yesterday, when I was in with you. He had to see Danev."

"Was it anything serious?" Duo asked. He liked Wufei even if Wufei generally didn't approve of Duo at all.

"Just a rash," Trowa answered, "but Sir Cameron carried him almost kicking and screaming here, stripped him to the waist in the main sitting room and said, "look, that' not a normal rash, is it?"

"And was it?"

"It was like dry skin, all flaky and hard, of course being as Sir Cameron stripped him everyone had a look, I saw it when I went to get your supper. It was like fish scales on his back. Danev said it wasn't anything to particularly worry about but not to scratch it and gave him some lotion for it. That smelled foul. It looked like he'd mixed up rabbit pellets with Vaseline and behaved like it too, but Wufei said it calmed the itch." He took a deep breath, he only ever talked like this to Duo and it tired him. "So, back to Aia, she said she found us scary."

"Yeah," Duo said, "so I told her that she wasn't scary enough for you, that you wanted a woman as dangerous as you were."

Trowa laughed out loud.

"She said that obviously if turning into a giant killer insect wasn't scary enough for you she didn't know what was." Trowa doubled over laughing then, this was the reason that he and Duo got on so well, although Duo appeared to be affable he was often cold and only really Trowa could make him laugh with his dry wit and Duo always made Trowa laugh. They each filled in the absences in each other's lives. Yet despite being almost two halves of the same whole there was no real love, not like Duo had for Heero. There was none of that vomit inducing need, none of the fear or the desperate need to touch the other that he shared with Heero.

Duo waited until Trowa had slowed his laughing to add, "perhaps if we give her more weapons that Halcyon's armoury, cut her hair and give her leather armour you'd look." Realising that Duo was aptly describing Calydon, whom Duo had never seen except by Trowa's descriptions, he laughed even harder. It was a rare sight, Duo thought, but still one to be cherished, Trowa doubled over, unable to control himself. If anyone else had have been there Trowa wouldn't laugh like that, even if it had have been one of the other pilots. Trowa was the only pilot that Heero trusted Duo with, and though sometimes that rankled Duo who was perfectly capable of taking care of himself, sometimes he liked that Heero respected his friendship with Trowa. Although he would also admit that Heero had become easier with it once Trowa had been seduced by the Valkyrie- Calydon.

"Trowa," Duo began once Trowa had caught his breath and wiped the tears from his eyes, "why does Heero only come at night, when I'm asleep?"

Trowa raised his left eyebrow, "he's not supposed to," he said, "Danev was worried he would make himself sick, it would explain why he sleeps so late." Trowa swept away Duo's hair from his face with a large calm hand, "it's alright, Duo, I won't tell anyone."

"Fenrir's watching over him, isn't he?" Duo asked, referring to the large wolf.

Trowa nodded, "you never see one without the other, I wonder if the Eldest sent him here, as Aia said, to protect you or to protect him."

"I want to get up," Duo said glumly, "I'm tired of lying here and what goes on in this place goes on without me."

"I can't imagine it will be long, the stitches are out now, I'm sure Danev's just covering so you can't open it up again, it was horrid, Duo, it looked like raw meat, the only one of us it didn't nauseate was Heero because he was too angry with you."

"I thought that was why he hadn't come." Duo said into his pillow, "That he was angry with me."

Trowa laughed again, a high peal that was more seductive than his unrestrained giggling of others. "Angry with Emithi for enforcing Danev's order, yes, if she took him as seriously as the rest of us do she wouldn't leave her room without being surrounded by a brace of guards, but she just laughs and squeezes his cheek. I think if Relena Peacecraft ever tried it that he would have just turned tail and ran away, I think he would have taken Wing to the farthest reaches of the galaxy to get away." He watched Duo's look of horror, "she calls him a little cutie and keeps trying to hug him."

"He's mine." Duo growled.

"Despite the fact that you think he doesn't love you?" Trowa tilted his face.

"He's my Senshisha," Duo was growling, "He has no choice but to love me, look at Jored and Deakon," he protested.

Trowa laughed again, "Duo," he protested through the laughs, "Jored isn't Deakon's Senshisha," he said calmly, "Devlin is."

"What?" Duo pushed himself up, "no," he protested, "I've seen the two of them, and…"

"Devlin is Deakon's Senshisha, ask the Cadacus if you don't believe me."

It was obvious that Duo didn't, "Cadacus!" he called out, the door opened and the Cadacus put his head through the door. "Who is Deakon's Senshisha?"

"Devlin," The Cadacus replied calmly, then he stopped, "oh, there's been some misunderstanding," he smiled, "Duo, the Tennosha was married to the Senshisha to give their bond meaning, eventually it became tradition. There is love between them but not necessarily true love." The Cadacus was impassive but there was a hint of amusement in his voice. "I see now," he closed the door behind him, and sat down on the edge of the cot beside the bed that had been set up for Heero. "Trowa," The Cadacus said calmly, "would you fetch Heero for me? Thank you." He didn't wait for an answer and just looked at him until Trowa rubbed Duo's head and then went.

"Duo," the Cadacus said patiently, "had I even an idea of this mistake," he watched Trowa leave, "I would have amended this six hundred years ago. Heero told me he worried that you had some reservation, that something held you back from everything but his comfort, I assured him that it was probably just your age and nerves and it seems I was wrong." He took a deep breath to measure his words. The Cadacus, other than the deliberate rise and fall of his breaths, was as still as stone. "Where did you get the idea that Heero was only the true love of your life because he was your Senshisha?"

"You," Duo said, "and Achren, she said he had to love me."

"He does," The Cadacus corrected, "he has to love you to protect you, but that doesn't make it so that the sun rises in your eyes. Have you seen the way he looks at you? Would he do that if he didn't worship you?"

"But you and Mina were so unhappy." Duo protested, he wanted to roll unto his back or his side but he could not. "And you loved each other so much it made you so miserable, and then you have all those other Tennosha that live in my head, they were all so unhappy. You were all so unhappy, and then Achren tells me about how he has to love me, and I'd rather that he was somewhere else, with someone else, that making him unhappy."

"Baka," Heero said from the doorway with a faint smile. "To think that I would love you just because I had to, that you would sacrifice yourself to save me." He walked across and sat on the cot beside Cadacus, clutching Duo's hand, "We can't keep each other safe if you are worried over such silly things."

"You told the Cadacus all this," Duo protested, feeling rather childish, "that you thought I was pulling back and you never told me why."

"You told Trowa." Heero replied calmly. "I think that perhaps we should learn to talk to each other, I talk to the Cadacus because he knows what I suffer without you." He ran the pad of his thumb over Duo's palm. "Danev thought that you would worry if you thought I wasn't eating or sleeping and if that was the case that you would be slow to heal."

"You came at night." Duo said, wanting to melt into the touch, to know that Heero would be there. He had no comprehension of why.

"This," the Cadacus said, "is the bond between Senshisha and Tennosha," his voice was soft, "this need to touch, the desire to do all in one's power to protect and by touch we can verify that they are safe. Watch Devlin and Deakon, watch the way that their fingers linger against each other." Duo thought that another man might have smiled fondly but not the Cadacus, "anything else you feel for the other on your own." He stood up with a stretch, "I will ask Danev if you can travel to Meirin anytime soon, I think that the two of you need some time alone and the tower will give you that." He walked towards the door, "the tower can protect you from everything and what you can learn from each other is best learned on your own." He held open the door, "and Duo, I'll see if I can arrange for you to get out of that bed some time soon, you look like you're about to go stir crazy."

"You were worried about that?" Heero said, slipping off the cot to kneel on the floor by Duo's head, "baka."

"I wanted you to love me." Duo said, "I didn't want to make you, Trowa said I was being silly but I couldn't stop worrying."

Heero cupped Duo's face with his hands, "baka," he repeated and then pressed his lips against Duo's.