It seemed that almost as soon as Trowa's problems started to be resolved Duo's happened. Perhaps the difference was that Trowa was doing his best to overcome his problems, and Duo was encouraging his. Trowa was trying to please me, where Duo was trying to spite me.

It was hard to understand Duo at times. He was calmer and semi-rational with the other slaves. I wouldn't call him stable, but he did seem like a normally unstable teenager. By watching his interactions with the others from the shadows I could see that he had a bright personality, and that he liked to play and tease. His antics even brought a smile to my face sometimes, though it was bitter with the knowledge that the moment I stepped into the room he would become a spitting wolverine.

Oh, he could behave himself sometimes, but there were others where he went simply psychotic and Heero would have to physically remove him from the room, though more often he would run out of the room himself. He would randomly have mood swings or be set off by an innocent comment I made. The other boys would likewise set him off once in a while, but it was much more often that I did it, and he never, to my knowledge, went off if I wasn't present. It was worse if I tried to get close to him, and he generally panicked if I touched him. I did notice that, for all his teasing, he didn't like to be surprised or startled. He usually covered it well, and he never asked the others to stop, but they all got the message fairly quickly from his first terrified gasp. He didn't like shows of affection, either, which struck me as odd because of how friendly he was. He would accept hugs from Quatre, but he tensed up, and I could tell from Quatre's face that Duo was feeling some bad emotions. Quatre learned to keep his distance fairly quickly. The others weren't very tactile, so they never tried. I was well aware of his response if I were to try it, so I kept my distance.

Still, I couldn't bring myself to blame Duo. He had, after all, be tortured and tormented by his masters and fellow slaves for years. So the distrust, especially of me, I could understand and, to some extent, forgive. What actually caused problems was his blatant disregard of my authority. Whenever I asked him to do something he suddenly became a two-year-old, and would demand that I "make him." I was hesitant at first to use force with him, and even more so to use punishment, but repeated demands that I "make him" eventually garnered the expected result.

Unfortunately, Duo had been hardened by years of torture at the hands of merciless masters. The slaps and spankings I gave out couldn't come close, and I was neither willing nor able to do more. I say willing because I was partially frightened that in using the same methods his former masters did I would only enhance his sense that we were all the same. And I say able because Sally would have my head if I damaged any of the body she worked so hard to fix. And so, stalemate.

At first I tried to ignore it, hoping that he would eventually settle and grow out of it. That didn't last long, though, because I couldn't very well let him shirk his chores while strictly enforcing them with the other boys. There was also a risk of jealousy if I treated Duo differently. I knew my boys were all good at heart, but if they constantly saw Duo being allowed to break the rules they were forced to follow I would understand their being affronted. So after three days of yelling, threatening, and commanding Duo to do the dishes, mow the lawn, and help Heero with the barn, I was finally ready to give up.

It was Heero who convinced me not to. By watching Duo I soon found that I was not the only one curious about him, but I soon caught the stares that Heero cast him. It was only around Duo that I saw Heero relax, and it seemed that only Duo could get Heero to engage in activities of play. And Heero, for his part, was smitten, intrigued, and entertained by Duo. It was puppy love, perhaps, but I didn't doubt the depth of Heero's feelings for the long-haired slave. Separating Duo from the rest of the boys would be detrimental to Heero's social growth. Heero was already shy and antisocial, I worried that taking Duo away would cause him to retreat into himself. Not only that, but he would certainly feel as though he had failed in his responsibility for Duo if I had to remove Duo from the house.

And then, of course, there arose the question of what I would do with Duo were I to pull him away from the rest of the slaves. I would, most certainly, not send him back to Collar to be abused and killed, but I worried about sending him to one of my ranches. I had trustworthy personnel who could look after and even babysit him, but I wasn't sure how they'd do if he tried to run away. I wasn't completely sure they could keep him from escaping, and it was imperative that I maintain respect at Collar. Losing a slave would destroy that respect and set the mission back possibly by years.

So after about a week of struggling to get him to do even the most trivial tasks, I knew I needed to get another opinion. And it seemed only logical to bring in the only other person keeping a close eye on Duo. And so I set up a meeting with Heero to discuss Duo's recent behavior.

I chose a time when I knew Duo would be occupied because Duo tended to get nervous and paranoid when he believed he was being excluded. I didn't want to see how bad he would get if he knew we were talking about him. So I waited until after dinner, when Quatre and Trowa would wash the dishes, Wufei would meditate, and Duo would usually watch wrestling with Heero. I managed to distract him from Heero's absence by adding a bag of chocolate covered raisins. Duo loved them as long as I got them out of the bag before he saw them so he didn't know there were raisins in them, and it made me feeling better about him eating chocolate if there was something healthy in them.

But, regardless, with the introduction of this new element Duo barely noticed Heero's absence. Heero, however, took this fact with a detached humor and didn't seem at all hurt. We watched him for a moment to be sure that he was entranced with his show and his candy, then moved down the hall to my office. Heero seemed relaxed, but overly so, as if things were moving too quickly for him to keep up with. We entered my office and Heero sat heavily in the chair across from my desk while I sat in my customary place behind the desk. We probably looked like a principal and a naughty student.

"You know why I wanted to meet with you. Duo has no respect for me, and nothing I've done has managed to gain it. I've taken away all the amenities and playthings that this house has to offer, but Duo's been used to nothing, not even basic human necessities like food and the freedom to move around, so nothing I do can come close. It's the same with physical punishments. There's nothing that I can do that hasn't already been done a hundred times over. Without respect or a way to control him I simply can't keep Duo around. If we don't come up with a way to maintain some type of control over him... I won't be able to keep him," I admitted.

"No amount of force will cause Duo to collapse. The more you push him, the more he pushes back," Heero said, echoing my fears.

"Then it's useless," I sighed, rubbing my forehead.

"No," Heero stated. "You merely cannot push him to maintain control."

"Then how do you propose to do it?"

"You have to use someone else."

"What? That's ridiculous!"

"It's not," he replied, leaning toward me, his face more serious than I'd seen it before. "Listen. I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Duo's stubborn and he sometimes does things that are completely irrational, like trying to microwave six bags of popcorn at the same time," Heero said, referring to a rather disastrous escapade in the kitchen. We were still finding popcorn kernels on top of the cupboards. I smiled fondly at the incident, but it was a passing sentiment, and the seriousness of the mood quickly stole it from me. Heero continued. "But one thing Duo has been consistent in protecting."

"The TV," I said, nodding solemnly. "But I've already tried taking that away from him."

"Not the TV," Heero growled, rolling his eyes. "Me."

"Ah! Of course! He does seem to be rather fond of you."

"It's probably not just me. He did attempt to protect Quatre from getting hurt by convincing him not to tell you about his pills."

"I remember that. But Quatre certainly would have been in more trouble if I had found out before he told me."

"Yes, but Duo didn't know that. He was certain that you would hurt him if you found out."

"That's true, but I think Duo has proven himself more attached to you. He did attack me when he thought I was going to hurt you."

"Yes. He also tried to protect me when the guards attacked us. Which is why I should be his substitute."

"Substitute?"

"Hn. The punishments won't have any effect on him, so..."

"Oh no! Hell no! I'm not going to punish you for his behavior!"

"It's the only way. Duo has been conditioned not to care about what happens to his body as long as he can maintain his pride. That doesn't apply when it comes to someone else, though, so the only way to actually get through to him is to use someone else as a bridge."

"And what if it doesn't work, hm? You'll become his scapegoat, his whipping boy. He's not above you in importance, Heero, he's your equal. I won't give him special treatment."

"Why not?" Heero wondered, glaring at me. "You've given special treatment to Trowa."

His words startled and stopped me. I hadn't been aware that the others were aware of my sessions with Trowa. I suppose I should have anticipated it, as I had given Trowa a session every day that week, but I had thought we were being discrete.

"How... How did you find out?"

"I heard the piano playing while I study for my academic competitions. When I heard strangled moans coming from the room I assumed that he was injured or hurt and I went to find out. I thought his teacher might be abusing him, because I often heard the teacher chastising him. That's when I found the two of you. I didn't want to interrupt, so I just closed the door and went back to my room."

"I see," I said, processing that information. "Do the others...?"

"No. As far as I know I'm the only one who knows."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"What should I have said? It is not my place to question you."

"Well... yes... I suppose, but you could have said something. I would have explained."

"Explained what?"

"That I was only helping Trowa with his voice lessons."

"Oh," Heero replied, his turn to be surprised. "Then you desire none of us?"

"Excuse me?"

"I assumed, since you were with Trowa so often, that you had developed a taste for him, but if this is not the case, and you haven't taken any other slave, do you have no desire for us?"

"No, that's not it," I defended, blushing. "It's just... It's been so busy lately, and so stressful, that I suppose I just didn't feel the need to take anyone. It's nothing against you. But that's not what we're discussing at all. We're discussing you're insane idea of punishing you in the place of Duo."

"It's not insane, it's logical and necessary."

"It's not necessary."

"It's optimal, then."

"What do you get out of this?" I wondered. "Why would you risk so much?"

Heero hesitated for a long time with this one, deep in thought. For a minute I thought he might back down, but I should have known better.

"Do I... Do I really need to get something out of this?" He wondered, turning his eyes to stare at the opposite wall. "Aren't we... I mean, it feels like... it feels like... like we're a family. I want to... I want to defend my family, that's all," he said, his voice barely above a whisper.

How could I argue? I was not made of stone. If this was the closest thing Heero and the others could get to a family, what right did I have to deny them the power to protect it, to keep it united?

"How will we do this?" I asked. Heero smiled at me in relief, and I couldn't help but smile back.

"You will have to punish me as severely as you would him."

"But, Heero, if he were physically well enough I'd probably whip him for some of the things he's done. Especially with his tendency for cursing."

"I know."

"That's ridiculous. You didn't do anything wrong, so actually hurting you is idiotic. We'll simply fake it," I responded.

"We can't. It's too big of a risk. If Duo finds that we've cheated against him he'll never trust us again, and there will be more no way to control him. It has to be real."

"No."

"Master..."

"No, Heero, I won't. I'm not going to hurt you for Duo's choices, and I'm certainly not going to punish you as though you did something. No."

"Then there's no point in doing it at all!" Heero snapped, finally losing his cool. "I'd rather not do this at all than lose Duo's trust and any chance of actually helping him!"

"Then we won't do it at all! That's what I wanted anyway!"

"I don't want to lose him!" Heero shouted, jumping to his feet.

"I don't want to lose you!" I yelled, and we both froze.

"I won't-... I... I trust you. You won't hurt me. I mean, you will, but... I can take it," he said, moving closer to me. I looked away from him, knowing those eyes would be the demise of my argument, but he fell to his knees in front of me, and I couldn't help but look. He rubbed his head against my knee, looking pleadingly up at me, and I knew I couldn't hold out.

"Alright," I sighed, bringing my head down to rest against his. "But remember, I'm doing this under severe duress, and if I don't see some severe improvement I'm pulling the plug. I'm not playing around with this, Heero."

"I know," He replied softly. "I'm sorry for asking this."

"Don't be. You're only trying to protect your friend. I can't blame you for that, but I don't have to like it."