01-May-2001
Disclaimer: I don't own the G-Boys
Date: May 1, 2001
Pairings: None at the moment. Further 1x3 and 2x5. (although it may seem otherwise Duo and Heero are simply very close friends in this story)
Warnings: None that I can think of. Well, OCC if you want to be picky. Relena portrayed in a rather unflattering light.
Rating: PG?
This part is in honor of Mayday!
If Heero had asked, he knew that he would have been permitted to sleep inside the main house in the servant's room. In fact, both the late master and his son, the new master, had urged him to do so, but he had declined.
He'd been sleeping in his tiny space above the stables for as long as he could remember, since before Old Leon had died and he had become head groom himself. He was perfectly content there, and although Lord Milliardo often teased him about it, he respected his young servant's wishes and let him be.
An orphan, he had been found by Lord Milliardo's father some thirteen years before, and brought to Peacecraft Keep. By the old lord's reckoning he had been about four or five at the time, and his earliest memory was of the late Lord Peacecraft holding his hand on a ship and telling him about his new home.
The fact that he had been made a servant didn't bother the young man. It was hardly to be expected, after all, that he'd have been trained as a knight. Peacecraft Hall was full of foundlings like himself, all trained in a different task, and all deeply devoted to their foster father. His death had been a terrible blow for the entire keep. It had been nearly a year, and Heero still missed him keenly.
Heero laid back in his feather tick, hearing the horses kicking straw and whinnying below him, breathing in the familiar scent of manure and hay. Outside of the barn he could hear muffled voices of guards changing posts, and someone laughed. These scents, these sounds, had soothed him to sleep most of his life, and they did not fail to do so now.
Something hard clasped over his mouth and a voice hissed in his ear. "Your valuables now, milord. Hand them over and you won't get hurt."
Heero bent forward quickly, flipping his assailant over his shoulder to land in a heap in front of him.
"OW!" the figure was a dark blur in the filtered moonlight as he rubbed the back of his head gingerly. "You're mean!"
Heero laughed. "So you've come back, have you?"
The blur nodded. "We just arrived back tonight. Quatre and our new player are at the tavern, but I decided to pop by for a visit. Did you miss me?"
"Always." Heero smiled in the darkness. "Was it a good run?"
"Very good. We were well received everywhere we went. Well, mostly. And then on the way back here we picked up a flutist. You'll have to hear him, he's very talented. So we're a band of three now. We'd be four if others would come to their senses and join us."
"Duo..."
"I know, I know." Duo gave a theatrical sigh. "But I have to try, you know. We have Quatre for the lute, and now Trowa for the flute, and I sing and dance a bit, but you're a far better dancer than I am. We'd make a fortune."
"I'm not interested in fortunes. I'm very happy where I am." Heero assured him.
"What, smelling like horses?"
"Sleeping in the same bed each night. Working for a kind master. Who would accept you and Quatre back without question, I might add."
The boys were close in age and had grown up together in Peacecraft Keep. Small blond Quatre had been literally dumped on the doorstep of the keep at several months of age, his parentage unknown. Duo had been orphaned in a village fire at the age of six. He had been passed around the village from home to home, but proved too wild for any of the families to keep for very long. So he had showed up at Lord Peacecraft's gate one night, barefoot and grinning, and asked what he could do to earn a crust of moldy bread. The good-natured child had immediately won the hearts of everyone there.
It was after the old Lord's death that Duo had mentioned his desire to becoming a wandering minstrel. Heero had laughed at the idea but Quatre had been all for it. So with wave goodbye and a last ditch effort to convince Heero to go along, they had began their travels all across Namaran, stopping back home now and then to spread gossip and visit their old friends.
"Will you be at the Firedance tomorrow?" Duo asked after a minute.
"Aye, I haven't missed one yet. Will you be performing?"
"Of course." Duo was quite for a while again. "Heero... I have something to tell you."
"You can tell me anything, you know that."
"Quatre and I have been saving our money back for a while now, and Trowa had a bit of his own. We've decided...well, we have enough to book a boat passage to the mainland. We're leaving Namaran and trying our luck there."
Now it was Heero's turn to be silent. "That's a long journey. How long will you be gone?"
"We don't know. It's possible that we won't be coming back. That depends on how our luck goes. But we're young, Heero. It's a large world out there and we're bored with our small part of it. We want to see more, do more. We have enough money for a forth passage."
He held up a hand to silence Heero. "Don't answer me yet. Think about it. We'll be here until the morning after the Firedance. We don't want to go without you."
"Duo... I'll think about it." he said grudgingly. "I can promise you nothing more than that."
"That's all I asked for. Shove over."
"You're not going back to the inn?"
"Nah, I'm tired and I'm already here. I'll bunk with you instead." He curled up at Heero's side like a kitten. "Like when we were small, eh?"
Heero remembered the nights the three of them had curled up together for warmth. Quatre, the smallest, between them sharing their body heat. Nights they had told stories in the darkness, scared each other by pretending to see phantoms coming out of the walls. The thought of them going so far away, that he might never see them again, made his heart ache.
"Just think about it." Duo muttered sleepily. "We'd miss you..."
Duo was gone when Heero awoke the next morning and he briefly wondered if he'd dreamed his old friend's visit, but his ribs held a familiar ache from the other boy's elbow. This was another reason, he remembered chuckling, that he had usually placed Quatre between them.
He splashed water on his face and used his chamber pot, and then climbed down the ladder to the stalls below to start his morning routine of caring for the animals. The lesser stable boys filtered in sleepily a few minutes later.
"Heerooo." a voice called out.
The young man swallowed a sigh and turned around from brushing the new colt. Tundra took offense to this and began rubbing against the brush, finishing the job himself.
"I brought you some breakfast." The girl held out a loaf of bread and a hunk of cheese. "We missed you at dinner last night."
"I had work to finish up. My thanks, milady." Heero accepted the food.
"You know you can call me by my first name now." she chided him. "We've known each other since we were nearly babes."
"That would not be proper, milady." Heero nodded over the bread.
She pouted. "Will you at least dance with me at the Fire tonight?"
He couldn't think of a fair excuse to get out of it, so he nodded again. "It would be my pleasure, milady"
She giggled. "You're always so formal, Heero. You should try and relax more."
"I will try, milady." He took a bite of cheese and turned back to Tundra, who was nibbling on the brush now.
"Well, until the Fire then, Heero. Goodbye."
"Farewell, milady." he called without turning around. "And thank you again for the food."
He shook his head and Tundra repeated the motion, making Heero laugh and scratch the little white colt's ears.
He was fond of Lady Relena in the same way he would be fond of a sister. They had played together as children, although not as roughly or as often as he had played with the servant boys. Relena had been fond of tagging along after them and they had grudging allowed it. The problem was, Relena had never outgrown her habit of trailing after them, especially Heero. He knew that she was interested in him, but he could no more imagine kissing her than he could Tundra.
He finished with the colt and poured him some oats and then went to the next stall. He'd dance with the silly girl tonight, one dance, and then he was free to do as he liked. He had put the idea of Duo and Quatre leaving far from his mind.
"Hey, come back here with that." Lord Milliardo took off after the laughing, braided thief and retrieved his money pouch from the boy's hand. He shook a fist in mock warning at Duo. "I'll lock you in irons yet."
"Is that a promise?" Duo asked, eyes wide. "I'm always open to new experiences."
Milliardo gave the braid a sharp tug. "Brat. When are you going to come back home where you belong?" Having been a child himself when they had come to live at Peacecraft Keep, Milliardo had appointed him an older brother to all of them, and felt it his sacred duty to try and keep them in line. In Duo's case, it was a lost cause.
"Ah, milord. If I stayed here, it wouldn't be fair." Duo gave a hearty sigh. "Everyone would fall madly in love with me and want me to wed them, and there wouldn't be enough of me to go around. I would not be the one to cause such strife in your happy home."
Quatre laughed at the comment and the new flutist, Trowa, smiled. Heero noticed that the new boy didn't have much to say, but he sensed no hostility in him. Well, he was a stranger here, after all.
Milliardo snorted and shook his head. "Now where has that silly chit I call sister gotten off to?" He vanished into the villagers.
"Strike up a tune, Duo." the miller called out. "We're here to dance." The crowd around the bonfire cheered.
The Firedances were an ancient tradition, held once a season, and everyone in the village and nearby Peacecraft keep attended.
Duo reached behind himself and undid his braid, letting his long hair fall thickly across his shoulders. The crowd grew silent, watching. He looked fey, overwordly, and he knew this and milked it for all it was worth. Duo had rejected all attempts to give him a proper education; he could barely sign his own name, but he did know how to entertain. He was a natural showman.
Just as the lute rang out it's first note the boy leaped high in the air, his hair flying out around him. The flute chimed in as he landed, and then spun up again.
The villagers joined in, dancing madly to the wild music. Babes rode on their father's shoulders, women danced back to keep their skirts from catching ablaze.
Duo looked like a fire spirit himself, leaping and twirling. Watching him, Heero felt something bite at the corner of his mind, but he couldn't say what it was. Only that as he joined the dance himself he knew what he was doing. His feet traced patterns in the hard ground that he had no recollection of knowing.
The music increased and he spun from partner to partner. Duo's hands were in his own and they danced together around the flames, and then he was dancing with the baker's daughter, and then the miller's son, and nothing mattered but the music and the stars above and the freedom of the movement.
Wearily, Heero made his way back into the stables, his feet aching but his heart light. He reached for the ladder to his sleeping area when a lantern light appeared.
"Heero?"
Relena stepped out of the shadows.
He blinked. "Milady? Is something the matter?"
Lady Relena had a odd look on her face, like a mischievous child. "You broke your promise, Heero. You didn't dance with me tonight."
"My apologies, milady. I grew weary and decided to leave early."
She giggled. "I think..." and she moved closer. He could smell wine. "That you are simply shy." She touched his arm and he drew back.
"You need sleep, milady. Come, I'll escort you back to the main house."
"I have something for you." she whispered. "Do you want it?"
He took her arm in his own. "Come now."
He staggered backward as she threw herself into his arms. Her wine-flavored lips were all over his own, and her hands were petting him. Startled, he tried to push her away, but she clung tighter. "I've always loved you." She whispered against him. "Even when we were children. Kiss me back."
Heero grabbed her upper arms to force her away from him.
"What goes on here?" A voice demanded angrily, and Relena drew back. Heero found himself pinned under the gaze of Relena's brother, Lord Milliardo Peacecraft. And Lord Milliardo did not look happy.
End Part 2
(:./lasha/night2)
