Date: 8-8-2001
Pairings: 1+2.
Warnings: Mild Angst
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.
Death threats to: Anakerie@cinci.rr.com
Please note: I know very little about rituals. What is contained here is the product of my own imagination and not meant to offend any true practicioners of the Art.
It was one of those places that you would miss if you didn't know what you were looking for. Just a tiny shop nestled between a convenient store and a Quik-Loan. The sign "Maxwell's Mysteries" was intriguing enough, but the windows were filled nothing more exiting than dangling crystals and books on reading tarot. It was probably a popular enough resort for Goth kids and New Age hippies, but it wasn't the sort of place that got a lot of the mainstream crowd.
It certainly wasn't the kind of place that Heero would be expected to go to.
In his early 20's, he had already established himself firmly in the world of advertising. He was small potatoes now in the firm, but one day he would be a full partner and he knew it. Budding young executives went to Starbucks and art museums. They did not frequent places populated by what Heero's co-workers would refer to as "drug-ridden left-over 60's trash."
He paused at the door, and glanced at the gilt numbers listing the hours. He half-hoped it would be closed by now, since it was early evening, but no such luck. The red and white sign assured him that Maxwell's Mysteries was indeed open for business. He wasn't getting out of it that easily and he knew it. Heero took a deep, shuddering breath and pushed open the door. Bells tinkled.
The inside of the shop was what one could expect from the outside. One shelf held various kinds of tarot cards. Another was filled with both new and used books promising to teach self-hypnosis and guide one to healing their aura. Another was billed as a practical spell-book for up-and-coming witches. Heero smirked to himself, imaging presenting the book to his girlfriend's mother.
"See anything you like?" Came a voice behind him.
The boy was young, but how young was impossible to determine. His face looked like a teenager's but his eyes suggested that he was not. He was small, dressed in a tee shirt and shorts that had been washed and mended far too many times. His feet were bare, and he had the longest hair Heero had ever seen on another man; it hung nearly to his butt in a thick braid. His face was open and friendly.
Heero tried to speak but his nerve failed him. "I'm looking for someone... the shop owner..."
"That's me. What can I do for you?"
"You?" Heero said in surprise. "But..."
"You expected someone older. I know. But I can show you my id and my lease. This is my store." He grinned, shrugging. "I promise."
Heero glanced at the door, his feet inching toward it.
"Now, now, don't be like that. You're obviously not here for any of this crap." He nodded at the books and hanging crystals. "Although the witches book does make a lovely birthday present. But the hair aside, you don't really look much like Harry Potter. So tell me."
"Aren't you supposed to amaze me by guessing?" Heero couldn't help asking.
"Hey, I've been mistaken for a girl before, sure, but the Amazing Chloe I am not." The boy was still smiling, but had moved between Heero and the door. "Just spit it out. Believe me, I've heard it all. A woman last week wanted a potion to shrivel up her cheating husband's... well, never mind. Can't be any weirder than that."
"Okay." Heero gazed at the boy. "I'm cursed. I was told that the owner of this shop can remove curses."
The boy looked Heero up and down and his eyes narrowed, his face turning to all-business. "Maybe." he said at last. He walked over to the front door of the shop and flipped the sign to closed, and turned the brass lock." Come with me."
Heero reluctantly followed behind him, through a wooden door, and into a room beyond. It wasn't much. Shelves and a ceiling fan, and no furniture at all, just a few lamps leaning against the walls. One wall had a mirror attached. The shop owner motioned for him to sit on the floor.
"There are two kinds of curses in the world." The boy explained, sitting cross-legged on the worn floor mat himself. "The first kind is all up here, and it's the most common." He tapped his forehead with a long finger, and Heero noticed that the nail was broken to the quick. "Someone says to someone 'I've put a hex on you' and the so-called victim is so spooked they start wrecking their own lives. Kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy. In those cases, the best I can do is give a phone number to a good shrink."
"My curse is real." Heero interjected.
"And that brings me to the second kind. The real curses. Now those babies are rare. Not many people know how to cast a real one these days, but those that do can cast some real lulus. And those work best on people who don't believe in them; they'll attribute their bad luck to anything besides the curse."
He glanced around the room. "Which is why there aren't many people out there trained in breaking them. 90% of the cursed need their heads examined, and another 9% die before we can ever get a chance to help them out. But you, my friend, have come to the right place. Yours is the real kind, and I can help."
Heero smiled thinly. "All I told you was that I was cursed. You haven't asked me any details about it, and yet you assume I'm not out of my mind." A charlatan. It was a mistake to come here. He felt like an idiot, but he had exhausted all other possibilities...
"I don't have to ask you to know you're cursed." The boy shrugged. "Sometimes I can just tell. But if it will make you feel better, I can try and show you proof. Not that you need it; you believe that it's real. What you don't believe in is me. That's okay, not many do at first." He stood up, his long hair brushing against his tailbone.
It was warm in the shop's back room, and smelled like tea-leaves. Heero glanced at the various bottles and jars on the surrounding shelves, none of which he recognized. All part of the show, he reasoned.
"Take off your shirt." The boy commanded.
"Excuse me?"
"If you want my help, take off your shirt, but before you do, let me tell you this." His face was serious. "A real curse almost always leaves some kind of mark on the body. Most people think it's just a birthmark they've never noticed before, but they're always the same. Very dark brown, almost black, and they take a shape to represent the curse. They're often tiny, and easy to miss. If you are cursed, my friend, you'll probably have such a mark."
Heero shook his head. "I've never noticed anything."
"Let's find out. Take off your shirt."
Heero sighed and began undoing the buttons. "I usually like to get the name of the person I'm undressing in front of." He quipped.
"Oh, sorry. I'm Duo Maxwell." The boy grinned. His eyes slid up Heero's bare chest in appreciation. "Whatever your curse is, my friend, it's not a physical one. You look healthy to me."
Heero flushed red, his hand crumpling the shirt into a ball.
Duo turned on a green lamp to better light the room and moved closer to Heero, examining his chest carefully. "Nothing there."
"I could have told you that."
"Turn around."
Heero turned his back toward the boy and heard Duo suck in his breath. "Bingo."
"What?"
"I'll show you." He led Heero over to the full-length mirror, and then handed him a small one. "Look for yourself. I'm not going to touch it; you'll say I stuck it on there myself if I do, but look below where my finger is."
Heero craned his neck to look in the mirror where Duo hand was and blinked. Below the boy's finger was a dark mark shaped like a heart. In the dim light of the room it looked jet black, almost like a tattoo.
Duo moved away and was quiet for a moment. "I'm sorry to have wasted your time. I'll give you the address of a friend of mine. He was my mentor, and he's better at this sort of thing than I am. He can help remove your curse."
"Wait a minute." Heero pulled the shirt back on, leaving it unbuttoned. "Why can't you help me?"
Duo shook his head. "Because I'm not good enough. I know what that mark means, and you need someone with a lot of experience."
"Okay, what does it mean? Can you tell what my curse is from it?"
Duo smiled sadly. "The Heart of Stone. People who have that mark are unable to feel love in any form; not of family, not of themselves. They take lovers to their beds they feel nothing for. Often they raise children whose lives matter nothing to them. One of the rarest curses there is, and one of the hardest to remove."
Duo touched Heero's hand. "There is someone in your life, a woman, yes? And you would give anything to love her the way she loves you, but you cannot. In desperation, you even sought out me, a man you think is a con artist, to help you."
"You can help me." Heero said firmly. "I know you can."
Duo made a face. "You don't understand the risks. If I fail, then no one will be able to lift it from you. You will never love anyone for as long as you live."
"I will take that risk. I can't explain it, but I know that you can help me. And I'm not leaving until you do." He sat down on the floor.
Duo sat down across from him. "If I am successful, then you will pay my fee?" He named a high price and Heero gave him a strange look.
"I told you. Curses are rare. A guy has to eat."
"If you can remove this curse, than I'll pay you double your fee." Heero promised.
"Very well. Tell me how you became cursed in the first place." Duo urged.
"My mother cursed me."
"Your... mother?" Duo stared at Heero in surprise.
"Let me explain." Heero began. "I was born when my mother was very young. She left me with my father when I was only a few days old, and I did not see her again until I was nearly eight. My father had remarried and I loved his wife as my mother, although I knew we were of no blood relation."
He paused a moment. "When I was eight, my birth mother reappeared in my life. She frightened me terribly and I had no wish to see her, but she received the courts permission to do so, and my family and I were helpless to prevent the visits.
"So each weekend I went off with her, dreading each visit and counting the minutes until it was over. She was a hard, demanding woman, and I did my best to please her, but it was never enough.
"And then she made a request that I could not grant. She ordered me to love her, and only her, and not my father or his wife. And I refused. I threw a great fit and told her that I hated her and never wanted to see her again."
Heero shivered at the memory. "She laughed at me, and said 'Hate me, do you? You have no idea what hate is, little one, but you will. You will. From this point on, Heero, you will love no one ever again, until you are dust in your grave. Your little heart will be as stone.
"I turned and ran out the door as fast as I could until I reached home, where I told my parents what had happened. My father was furious at her for frightening me that way, for he believed in nothing of curses, nor did his wife."
He shook his head. "But the curse was done. I looked at my parents and felt nothing for them. Not hate, not love. Nothing.
"They sent me to doctors, who blamed the power of suggestion for my condition, but none of them could bring warmth to my heart. Finally, my parents could tolerate me no longer and sent me away to school. I have not seen or spoken to them in years. My birth mother, I never saw again after that night. And I have never loved since then." He finished.
"Tell me of her, this woman who loves you now."
"She is a good woman. Her heart is kind, and she believes that if she is just patient, I will return her affections in time. She does not believe that I am cursed any more than my parents believed it. The truth is, that you are the only person I have ever met who does."
Duo thought for a minute. "I understand. I will do my best. It will not be easy." He warned. "Do not expect that once the curse is lifted to fall immediately in love with the world. Feelings take time to build; you must learn them again as a child taking first steps..."
"You know of this curse more than you let on."
The boy looked like he was going to avoid the question, but then decided not to. "A lover of mine cursed me when I didn't share his affections. It was in my quest to remove the Heart of Stone that I became interested in curses in general. My teacher was the man who removed my curse."
"A lover? But you're no more than a child." Heero blurted out.
Duo laughed. "I'm nearly 21. I was sixteen when I was cursed, five years ago. No, it didn't stop me from aging. I'm not a vampire. By coincidence, I've simply aged well, that's all."
"Sixteen is still young to have a lover." And Heero paused, remembering that Duo had said 'when I did not share his affections'.
"Things happen. He was a little older than me, but I agree with you. Sixteen is much to young to fall in true love. He didn't share my beliefs." Duo laughed then. "But that was long ago. Not so long, however, than I don't remember the pain of the curse. I know how you suffer, my friend. Let's begin."
"Now? Don't I have to wait for the full moon or something?" He was intrigued by the young man, how his speech kept changing from formal to familiar.
"Of course not. If you'd feel better I can douse the lights and light some candles and chant, but I warn you that anything I chant might sound quite a bit like the lyrics to Van Halen."
"So what does this removal involve?"
"First it involves removing the rest of your clothing." Duo instructed. "Don't look at me like that. I didn't make the rules. I promise not to compromise you in any way. Just because there's no chanting involved doesn't mean mean I don't have to do weird things. And they require you to be in the buff."
"Do you have to strip to?" Heero asked.
"No, don't worry. I promise to keep everything on."
Heero shrugged his shirt off again and then undid his belt. Duo discretely looked away as Heero finished undressing. "Now what?"
"Well, I need to be sure about your name. Is it Heero? I need the name given to you when you were born; nicknames won't do it."
"It's Heero." He did not volunteer his last name and Duo did not ask.
"Lay down on the floor on your back, Heero."
Heero complied, covering his groin with one hand.
"Are you this shy with your doctor?" Duo demanded. "Think of me as Dr. Maxwell. You have nothing that I haven't seen before."
Heero removed his hand and placed his arms stiffly at his sides.
"Granted, that's a little nicer than I'm used to... hey, I'm just trying to relax you. I wish I could tell you this isn't going to hurt, but I can't lie. You will feel pain, my friend. Maybe more than you've ever felt before. But I will guide you through it."
"Hnnn."
"Exactly." Duo began taking various bottles off the shelves and piling them on a table. "I'll be right back. Don't go anywhere." He instructed, and vanished behind a curtain.
Heero lay on the floor, staring up at the turning ceiling fan. It was almost hypnotic, and he felt himself drifting away slowly.
"Back." Duo sat down a cloth bag. "Now we begin. I'm going to ask you again, Heero. Are you sure about this?"
"I'm laying naked on your floor and you want to know if I'm sure?"
"Just checking, just checking." He sat down next to Heero and opened the bag, pulling out what appeared to be a piece of flat bread. "Here, eat this."
"A communion wafer?"
"Not exactly. But you need certain elements in your body for this to work and the bread contains them. Don't worry, it's harmless." He placed the bread in Heero's mouth, and the naked man chewed it quickly. It tasted like a tortilla shell.
Duo was uncorking a bottle and dipping in a paintbrush. He closed his eyes for a minute, and then lowered the brush to Heero's chest. It smelled terrible. Duo's hand moved quickly, painting something over Heero's heart. Heero could not see what it was, but the substance on the brush felt icy cold against his skin.
"In this chest beats a heart of stone. Let the stone break." Duo commanded. He opened a pouch and sprinkled some kind of dust over what he had painted. "Let the stone shatter to sand.
Heero stared at the fan, moving around and around. Duo put his hand over the dust on Heero's chest. "Let the stone in this man's heart forever break; let him love once more. I command it."
Heero screamed. It felt as if his body had been stabbed with thousands of daggers, and they gouged and tore at him. The fan. Focus on the fan. He watched the blades spinning, watched them throwing and catch dust motes in the air. He tried counting the blades, counting the revolutions, counting the dust, trying to do anything to relieve the agony.
"Don't fight it, Heero." Duo was saying, and his voice sounded distant. "Give into it and it will end."
Give in... give in... he felt tears streaming down his face as he at last surrendered. The pain seemed to swell in joy as it claimed him, and it brought its cousin darkness with it. And darkness was far kinder. Darkness lifted Heero, cradled him to her breast, crooned lullabies into his ear, and he relaxed against her.
Duo watched Heero's face go slack, and brushed aside the bangs, soaked with sweat and tears. That was the easy part.
He wiped the dust and paint off of Heero's chest and painted another symbol quickly. From another pouch he took a handful softer dust and sprinkled it over.
"Let this man's heart be reborn. Let it heal to flesh once more. Let his soul again love."
He felt Heero's neck. No pulse beat there in the rapidly cooling flesh.
"Let this man himself be reborn. Let his soul live, let him love. Let his stone heart beat as a flesh heart."
He pulled out a small knife and slid it across his palm. The blood flowed out quickly and over Heero's body. "Let my life become his. Let the seeds of my beginning grow to root in him. Let my heart give life to his own." He paused and added softly. "Please."
He felt the neck again. Still nothing.
Tears streamed down his face. He had failed. He was a fool; he didn't have the character or the strength of will needed complete the ritual and restore Heero to life. Heero had trusted him, and he had responded to that trust by killing him.
One of Duo's tears slashed against the pattern he had drawn, and something happened.
Heero coughed.
"Heero?" Duo felt his neck again, and was rewarded with a sluggish response.
"Heero, come back to me now." Duo commanded, wiping off the symbol. "Come back to life, my friend."
The man shivered, his teeth chattering, and blue eyes opened wide.
"Heero?"
"Cold..."
"Here." He picked up a dusty blanket from one of the shelves and placed it over Heero's body, taking the other young man's head in his lap. "Don't try and move yet. You've had a long journey. Do you hurt anywhere?"
"No..." Heero said. "But... you're bleeding."
"Oh." Duo had forgotten about that. He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and quickly bound his hand. "Small accident. Nothing serious. Don't worry if I got any on you; I'm clean."
"What happened?"
"Well, two things. Either your curse is broken or you're stuck with it for life. There's no way to tell right away."
Heero sat up, and his face broke into a smile. "It did work. My parents... I can feel for them. What they must have suffered... I can feel again!"
It had worked. Duo sat back in his heels. He had done it. But his happiness was for Heero, not for himself. "I'm glad. You deserve it, Heero. I can tell you're a decent guy." He had to add, "And a naked one. If you can move, you might want to get dressed now."
Heero made a grunting noise and reached for his clothing, but he was unable to stop smiling like an idiot. He felt like a blind man who had been shown the sunlight. He zipped up his pants and reached for his shirt when he heard Duo comment. "The mark is gone from your back."
Heero turned around, looking long at the young shop owner. His savior. "Money isn't enough to thank you with, but it's all I have." He reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet, removing several large bills. "Here."
Duo took the money and frowned. "This is a lot more than we agreed to."
"It's a tip. For your kindness. For believing that I wasn't crazy. For being willing to help me." He extended his hand and Duo shook it.
He finished getting dressed, and followed Duo back out into the front of the shop. "And it will cover the customers you lost while you were busy with me."
"Oh, don't worry about that. I probably wouldn't have got more than two anyway." Duo said with a half-shrug.
"How do you survive then? How do you keep the shop open?"
"I work nights as an orderly at the hospital. The pay stinks but it's enough to keep the doors open. I'm hoping that eventually maybe business here will take off enough for me to quit, but so far no luck."
He glanced at his watch. "And I've got to get ready, as a matter of fact."
"Can I give you a ride?"
"Thanks, but I like the walk. Fresh air feels good after spending the day cooped up here."
Heero knew he should leave but he felt reluctant to go. "Well, good-bye then. And thank you again."
"Thank you, Heero." Duo said softly. "You've given me a great confidence boost. But be careful with that new heart of yours; I'd hate to see it broken."
"I promise."
He left the shop, and heard the lock click behind him. He took a breath, feeling like he had just left another world, and headed for his car, walking on air.
Duo yawned as he headed downstairs to open the shop. Last night has been tiring, and he hadn't slept well after he had gotten home.
It had been a week since he had cured Heero's curse, and he found his thoughts drifting to the other man more and more. He couldn't deny that Heero was a good looking man, but he wasn't shallow enough to be attracted to someone based on looks alone. There was something else in Heero that appealed to him. Maybe the way he had been willing to risk his life to be able to love again. Maybe it was the intelligence in his eyes, or how much like a lost child he had looked when speaking of his mother's evil. Whatever it was, Duo could not deny that it was powerful. He chided himself for mooning over the impossible.
When he reached the shop, he stared at the door in amazement. A line of people stood outside of it, tapping their feet and glancing at their watches. Some were dressed in odd clothing; but most looked like normal, average Janes and Joes. Duo was confused as he opened the door, and they immediately rushed in, bombarding him with questions.
"Do you have any hand-painted tarot cards? My aunt reads them and it's almost her birthday..."
"Is this crystal real quartz? Do you have any more?"
"How much for this witches book? I have this neighbor..."
The hours passed quickly, and by noon a good portion of Duo's stock had been snapped up, and his confusion had only grown. He moved about the shop, straightening what was left of the books, and picked up a discarded newspaper. And stared.
It was open to a full-page color ad. "Maxwell's Mysteries" was done in glassy lettering, and underneath was a picture of a violet crystal filtering light into a rainbow of colors. Below was a list of the things the shop carried. "Let Duo Maxwell guide you on the path of your own mystery." The ad urged.
The door chimed and a voice spoke up. "Do you like it?"
Duo turned at stared at Heero in shock. "But... Heero, I can't afford this!"
"It's a gift. I work for the company so it was no problem at all to get it printed up. I can do a lot more too. I want to help you bring this place to life. Like you brought me back to life."
Duo was still shaking his head and Heero laughed, and then turned serious. "I actually came here to ask you about something else, though."
"Yeah?"
"First of all, my parents still don't think I was cursed but they were thrilled when I called them. We talked for hours and managed to heal most of the wounds."
"I'm glad."
"And I remembered what you said about not forcing feelings. I realized that the curse had nothing to do with the fact that I felt nothing for my girlfriend. I care about her, but not like she wants me to. And time isn't going to change that. We've broken up."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be." Heero was blushing a little now. "I was wondering if maybe..." He glanced away. "Would you like to have dinner tonight?"
Duo felt a burst of joy, but his inner demon forced him to say "I usually have dinner every night."
Heero looked frustrated. "Would you like to have dinner tonight... with me?"
"I would like that very much. The hospital can survive without me for a night. Hell, if you can get my shop successful I can quit."
"I don't think that's going to be a problem."
Duo picked up a small rock from behind the counter. "You never told me who recommended you come see me in the first place, to remove your curse."
Heero smiled. "Samuel Robinson."
Duo's jaw dropped. "Sammy sent you??? He was my mentor!"
"I know. I passed by his shop one day and went in to see him. I told him what my curse was and he told me that he wasn't able to help me, but that he had a heck of a good friend who could. And that I wasn't to take no for an answer."
Duo muttered something. "What was that?"
"Sammy doesn't do anything his inner voice doesn't tell him to. He must have had a reason for wanting us to meet."
"Maybe." Heero tilted his head. "Maybe he had a good vision about us."
Duo was thinking about that, when the door opened and more people filed into the shop. "You got me into this." Duo commented. "You can help me wait on people."
"You got it."
He watched Heero greet a woman whose purse probably cost more than Duo made in a year at the hospital. He didn't consider himself psychic but he was having some good visions of his own right now.
End
(:./lasha/flesh)
