A Persian's Tale: Scarred for Life 5
2/9/2008 -- 1510 words
Disclaimer: I don't own either Gundam Wing or Harry Potter, I'm merely a poor college student.
AN: Someone mentioned that they didn't think Persian cats came in calico colors. Look up "Calico Persian Cat" on google and then check the images that it pulls up. Calico Persians are black and tan usually with white-ish grey belly fur. You will also note I say Calico has yellow eyes -- I am not mistyping. Unless people have too much time on their hands to alter the photos of their cats, some of those pictures from the above named search had very yellow eyes. Black and tan fur with such striking yellow eyes peering out from twin tan circles where Harry's glasses would sit just struck me as the creepy, almost too perceptive feel I was aiming for.
The bold italic is Wufei Chang speaking in Chinese. Throughout the story the bold italics will denote non-English dialogue. Plain 'italics' caught in single quotes denote thoughts.
Quatre Winner was the shorter, nicer version of Lucius Malfoy. Blond hair, blue eyes, obscenely rich, politically powerful, and had all the high society bints throwing themselves, some discretely and most not, at his feet. And he was now Harry's owner.
However, unlike the Malfoys, Quatre exuded kindness and generosity. No matter how shy or persistent the woman, he never said a harsh word to them. He'd gently steer them away, either to a more eligible match or discussion partner. He danced with grace and fluidity and was honestly pleased to have the guests in attendance. The polar opposite of the Malfoy men.
They had arrived a half hour early, Harry in a nice cat carrier, but there were still over twenty people in attendance. Their host was caught up in a discussion with a few of his early guests, so Duo passed Harry on to a rather large Arabic man with a strange beard before wading into the fray with Heero. Mr. Beard put Harry in a side room already starting to fill with gifts, placed a dish of water in his carrier, and left.
He would not dispute the fact that the Dursleys were far from kind when he was growing up. Little food – sometimes going days without –, a cupboard for a room, and all the household chores that Petunia didn't feel the need to soil her hands with. Now, he wasn't stupid by any stretch of the imagination. It didn't take him much past being introduced to primary school to realize that things weren't right, but he was smart enough not to fight the Dursleys over their treatment. Head down, mouth shut, and keep moving.
Starting at eleven he was allowed to shed their training for nine months out of twelve but some things just stick, including a rather strong aversion to being locked up. After his rescue summer prior to second year he had, on the sly, gotten Fred and George Weasley to teach him the time honored art of lock picking. Thankfully the twins were perceptive enough to not question why he was so desperate for the knowledge, staying up past midnight for days on end practicing until it came as easily to him as breathing or seeking. A fine eye, nimble fingers, and a single minded determination to learn put him in good stead and he was frightfully proficient by the end of the summer.
'Thank you Fred and George.' Although he had calmly entered the carrier of his own free will at the apartment, he was eager to leave and promptly put his hard learned skills to work. In but a moment he was free and streaking out the door.
----
Voluminous red drapes that felt a bit like velvet covered large floor to ceiling windows and support beams crisscrossed high over head. Besides being the youngest seeker in a century he was also a cat; the three story drop waiting two inches on both sides didn't faze him. Even if it was a straight drop into the middle of the blond host's guest filled ballroom. People were dancing; waiters wandered serving food and drink, tasteful music softly drifted through the crowd. All in all a very well done party.
Or it was.
----
The security for such a high society party was amazing but when you want to kill the best, you hire the best. Undoubtedly it was his perch that let him see the oddball waiter inconspicuously make his way through the partiers on the second floor balcony overlooking the ballroom. Nothing jumped out and screamed 'suspicious' though his gut wouldn't be ignored and he focused on the waiter. It took but moments to realize that the inconspicuous waiter was too inconspicuous and nondescript. He instinctively followed the infiltrator with his eyes and his body quickly followed suit, stalking his prey from the crossbeams ten feet overhead.
When the waiter ducked into a unpopulated shadowy corner and drew a gun instinct he didn't know he had took over. The large Persian was all teeth and claws and screaming fury as he dropped onto the assassin, hell fire burning in his yellow eyes. Mr. Assassin shouted, waving his arm to rid himself of the possessed cat and accidentally discharged into the air. If the screaming cat or shouting man didn't attract attention the gunshot certainly did and the people filling the ballroom screamed and scattered, fleeing the ballroom with help from the prompt guards.
He ignored the panicking guests, focused only on the man before him threatening the lives of his new friends and their brother-in-all-but-blood. No one threatened the braided menace or his blue eyed lover but him. His paw snapped forward, claws out, and racked across the assassin's eyes while his back claws were sunk deep into the flesh of the gun wielding hand wrenching and tearing from the rapid movement of the waving arms. The gun discharged a second time, this time pointing down into the ballroom, and something very deep snapped.
Calico twisted his body, sunk all four sets of claws deep into the gunman's hand and wrist and bit down, aiming for bone and veins. Mr. Assassin screamed again and dropped the gun from the unexpected spike in pain and the warm, slick feeling of his blood pouring from the wounds in his wrist. His prey flung out his arm one more time, pumped on pain and adrenaline; between the blood and the power behind the throw Calico was sent flying over the railing out towards the middle of the dance floor. However, he didn't got alone and took the gun with him in an unnatural display of strength and flexibility of his prehensile tail. Dead or not, Calico took grim satisfaction that his prey would be lucky to live from the pulpy mess that was his wrist.
----
"Calico! Dammit, Heero get that bastard!"
"Hn." Heero's gun was in his hand at the first disturbance from Calico and he was already bounding up the grand staircase before Duo spoke. Quatre was crouched behind one of the large roman columns holding up the second floor balcony, gun trained on the flailing target and attached hellcat. Trowa crouched behind the column before Quatre's with his own pistol in hand.
By the second accidental discharge Heero was two yards down from the infiltrator with his gun trained on the man's heart and just waiting for an opening. The assassin flung out his arm sending Calico flying over the balcony along with his gun. At the same time that Calico cleared the railing Duo tackled him from behind, smashing the assassin's head against the marble railing struts. However, the assassin was too high on pain and adrenaline to give in and he threw his weight to the right, slamming Duo hard against the same struts. Heero moved forward over his lover, waiting for an opening and immediately slammed his fist into the assailant's temple. No mere assassin could stand up to the fist of a pissed off Perfect Soldier and he immediately fell unconscious from the vicious hit. Heero got a visceral type of satisfaction feeling the thin bone cracking under his fist.
Duo, feeling the assailant fall limp, jumped up and craned as far over the railing as he could, trying to locate the bravely stupid Calico that he would never, ever make fun of again as long as the evil fluffball was safe. Looking down, he broke out into raucous laughter – if it was tinged with hysteria no one mentioned it.
----
He wasn't dead. How the hell was he not dead?
"What is going on?"
He could feel arms tightening around his shaking body, hugging him tight to a lithely muscled chest. The arms held him securely and he could even feel strong fingers expertly running along his back going a long way to soothe his frazzled nerves. Whatever had snapped earlier was lying dormant again and all he could do was frantically scream in his mind, 'What the hell possessed him to do that?!'
Something odd managed to penetrate the shocked fog shrouding his mind besides his own heartbeat; Duo was laughing, this side of mad, and no one seemed able to stop him. He might not necessarily like the evil kitty wannabe but that sounded a bit too familiar for comfort and promptly wriggled out of his rescuer's arms. Ignoring the confused Asian man yelling in his native tongue, the amazed blond, or the worried Dr. Barton, he scampered up the staircase, used Heero as a climbing post, and jumped onto the shoulders of the laughing man. Purring loudly, his entire body shaking – whether it was the shock or purring was up for debate – he wrapped himself like a stole around Duo's neck. He wasn't surprised to feel a desperate hand almost immediately bury itself into the ruff of his neck and just purred harder, nuzzling the grasping appendage.
"You are a crazy, evil, suicidal little hellion and I don't think I've ever been more grateful. Thanks kitty."
I hit this idea and flowed with it. How's this for a birthday party? Just wait until Quatre realizes that little hellcat that saved his life is in fact his birthday gift from Heero and Duo. If you noticed at one point I had Harry being referred to as Calico, you may or may not want to pay attention to that little fact. As well as the fact that Harry has no idea whatsoever what possessed him to save Quatre, just that something required him to act, almost hi-jacking his mind to see it done. Yeah, Harry does still have a love/hate relationship with Duo but living with Duo for a month and seeing him at this most relaxed and intimate moments left a very strong bond between them. No, Harry won't be Duo's cat ultimately -- his love and loyalty will be directed at Quatre.
Huh, almost twice the number of words of my previous longest chapter. Don't expect this often. This was an important chapter and I wasn't going to skimp on it. Leave a review, especially about the action scene. I'm not completely happen with the action from the G-boys POV but for some reason I loved the action from Calico's POV. So, which do you prefer? I'm almost disappointed at the slow down of reviews but considering this is my second best story I won't bitch loudly.