18-Nov-2000
"Title wa nan desu ka" (It's slightly better than just 'Untitled' but if anyone can help me come up with a title, I would be very happy!!) part 2
Disclaimer: Blecchy!
I realize that my writing style can be confuzzling sometimes... If you have any questions, feel free to ask! ^^ Also, thoughts are in italics, the brief scenes seperated by ~~ are memories.
Warnings: AU, shounen ai
Pairings: 1+2/2+1
Spoilers: None
Archive: GW Addiction
It would happen soon. He could tell. Oh, the court was always filled with gossip, but it wasn't always the kind of gossip that produced suspicious glares towards the king, or the kind that dropped abruptly whenever he and Duo walked by. "They must think me an idiot.' He had been trained by the best, a Perfect Soldier of immeasurable strength and skill. But all of that quailed in this twisted system of parentage and power, where all that mattered was who you would marry and how much money you had to pay for it. 'Marriage...' His thoughts returned to that night two weeks ago, giggling, eager girls crowding over Duo, batting their painted eyelashes and wiggling in their expensively tailored dresses. None of them had any concept of reality, just themselves and what they could get themselves by marrying Duo. He curled his lip, sneering at no one as his thoughts wandered.
He wasn't sure how long he sat, straight in the high-backed chair Duo had demanded he have, until the knocking started. He jerked himself from his reverie, which was developing into a strangely pleasant, though disturbing, fantasy, then chided himself. There was a reason he'd started down that path, dammit!
He wrenched open his door, glaring at whoever it was, barely relaxing at the familiar cool visage of Trowa Barton. He flicked his eyes back to his empty room. Trowa, taking the unspoken invitation, slipped past him and stood until he closed the door again. He could barely see Trowa's raised eyebrow, a tacit question at the near darkness. He hadn't even realized that the one candle he left burning had long since gone out, and he's forgotten to put something under it. Wax pooled on the desk around it, smooth and curiously captivating.
"We don't have much time," Trowa said before he could move to clean it up. He shook his head. Captain Trowa Barton, his only close associate aside from the Prince, the only other person who knew of his suspicions. Trowa thought much the way he did, their mutual silence, for whatever reason, making it easier to communicate without speaking, something which had proved useful in several situations.
"Have you....?" There was no need for Trowa to finish, even without the slight glare he received.
"You need to." Acceptance was read from Heero's eyes.
"Soon." They discussed, quietly, for Heero's new quarters were close to many of the great gossips of court, until dark was chased away again, and the castle began to awake.
He was tired. He couldn't deny as he had so many times before. Not when his gaze kept unfocusing, his head kept slipping down further... He could barely hold his eyelids up. Oh, he knew outward signs were very little, as they always were. But if someone knew him well enough...
"Heero!" His head jerked to follow the sound. 'Kuso!' Someone like Duo, most notably.
"Hn?" Duo sighed melodramatically.
"Did you hear anything I just said?" His glare, somewhat softened by lack of sleep, said enough.
"Then my point's proven. What the hell have you been doing?" Heero turned the best blank look he had on his charge.
"Sleep, Heero! You need sleep!" His voice quieted. "I don't know what you're doing, and I'm not gonna ask, but you know as well as I do you're not doing yourself any favors with it."
Duo was smarter than he looked. The huge eyes and long hair, heart shaped face and wide mouth gave him the perfect look of a haughty prince, viewing the commoners from his castle on a cloud, never imagining what their lives were really like. But, perhaps because he did know what it was like, Duo had so far broken most all stereotypes he had. Heero hadn't served under any of the line but those still alive presently, although he'd heard they were nothing like the king, which must have been how they managed to stay in power for as long as they had.
Suddenly it occurred to him that now would probably be a good time to tell Duo... In only an hour or so, the guests for the latest in the batch of wife-finding balls would begin to arrive. His mind nodded in agreement. It could be days, even weeks, before he had enough time and privacy to explain everything he needed.
"Duo," he said staring straight into cobalt blue, trying to convey with my own the urgency of what I needed to say. "I need to talk to you." Duo looked almost like he was going to reply simply with some witty passing comment, but his grin abruptly dropped and he nodded.
Heero serious was normal. Heero distant and serious was also. Heero annoyed and serious, was, as well, a normal everyday thing. Heero concerned and serious was not. For that reason Duo followed him silently from the room. They ended up in a hallway, which Duo recognized as one of the passageways only servants were supposed to know about, but he had discovered through his frequent wanderings and Heero, well, Heero knew where everything was.
Heero scanned their surroundings cautiously, as if scared one of the servant girls might pop through the walls, which were the only cover Duo could see. He probably would have laughed if not for the look on Heero's face. It was grave even for Heero; just seeing that look made his stomach churn, for only something more serious than he'd ever dealt with would cause that look.
"Ah... Heero?" The young soldier was silent for a long moment, and the finally began to speak.
"You really have no idea, do you, Duo?" He blinked.
"About what, Heero?" He crossed his arms over his chest and stared at a portrait of some long dead ancestor, trying hard not to be annoyed. Another silence, with both pretending not to be looking at the other, until Heero appeared to have sufficiently schooled his thoughts, or at least just decided to speak.
"I didn't think it would be this soon, Duo." He nearly interrupted, asking him again to explain himself, but Heero began again of his own accord.
"But it is, so you have to be prepared. You know the situation your father is in politically. However, I don't think you realize how deep in he is. There's been talk in the court and council of a coup for... years now. However, since you've come back, its intensified and focused. They've decided not that, instead of the whole government, only your father has to go, which means they can do it quicker and with less rebellion or support. Which means -"
"Any day now, my father could be dead?" Comprehension had dawned almost immediately, but he still hadn't finished. He hadn't said what was most important.
Stepping in closer, so that Duo took and automatic step backwards, he said in as low a voice he could manage, "However... As you'll remember, your sixteenth birthday is also the time for you to become the legal successor." Duo blinked once, then his face went white and he seemed to sag against the cold stone wall behind him.
"I don't have to clarify, do I?"
"Of course net," Duo whispered, looking past Heero at the same ancient portrait, then shifting his eyes, a strange dark blue in the half light, back to Heero's, which somehow maintained their bright blue shine. A slight shake of the golden brown hair was all the response he needed.
"Well... What are we going to do about it?" Duo looked lost, aware finally of the fact that he was in a dire situation, with the majority of the most powerful politicians and merchants in the country plotting how to kill him, any day now.
"We leave."
He collapsed onto his bed, still not used to the way the down bedding made him sink so deep. Leave? And go where? He wasn't going to delude himself... It had been quite a few months since he'd been more than a few miles outside the castle wall. He had no doubt about Heero, who seemed to maintain his edge no mater where he was or what he was doing, but would he be able to keep up anymore? He smiled at a distant memory that tugged at his mind slightly, relinquishing to it and reliving the past. He used to barely be able to keep up with me! Oh, yes... He'd led Heero on quite a chase.
He started at the figure who had so suddenly dropped, falling from the heavens to crouch in front of him, arms out and ready, face shuttered and unreadable, but made brilliant by an uncommon beauty and shining blue eyes that seemed to distort everything into their color as he gazed at them.
"Duo Maxwell." It was not a question, and it was only then that Duo realized what the strange figure was wearing - a uniform. Not just any uniform, but the uniform of a guard. A palace guard. Whoever it was noticed the sudden tensing of his frame and dove before he could move, catching him in a hold he couldn't break - and he wasn't weak, nearly fifteen years on the street had given him a toughness and endurance belied by his appearance.
But he hadn't been trained like this soldier; one arm captured his, bent them to his side, and the other was pressing somewhere on his neck, something that hurt like hell and made him a little dizzy as well.
He realized with glee, though, that he had been quite underestimated - the soldier's initial display of force has probably been to scare him, which it sure had. However, his legs were left wide open, an opportunity Duo took advantage of quickly. He lifted his foot quickly, ignoring the nausea that fluttered through him, and brought it down sharply onto the soldier's left knee. He grunted, more in surprise than pain, and relaxed his hold just enough for Duo to fling his arms free and take off, hearing the other boy's footsteps lightly behind him as he recovered too quickly and took off after him. He could hear the other's footsteps gaining on him, and he frantically looked for somewhere to duck into, jump behind - There! He turned a sudden corner, and flung himself into the doorway of the bar that had suddenly seemed to jump out of an otherwise barren building. Tate isn't going to be happy with me for bringing a guard into the building, but hopefully he'll understand... He slunk into a corner, watched but made no noise as the soldier stepped in - he was favoring his right leg, Duo noted with a smile.
Everything stopped as slowly the denizens of the bar noticed someone totally not wanted in their midst, and drew out of the way of the soldier, leaving him along in the center of a side circle. Duo thanked whatever deity looking out for him that the people had crushed in front on him so thickly that he could only see the soldier's thighs as he slunk to the floor, though small spaces between the legs of those that frequented the bar. The soldier, blithely ignoring everyone, canvassed the bar with his eyes once, then turned and stalked out, albeit less imposing due to a slight limp. Duo stuck his tongue out at him childishly, and then slipped through the recovering people to the back exit, in case the soldier was waiting.
Now that I think about it... I should have been more worried about him being at the back. He sighed as he thrust himself free of his daydream, and reminded himself that the present - and future - was much more important. Heero had said he should pack a small bag with a few spare changes of clothing - nothing too showy - and whatever he needed. Digging deep into his closet, he was able to find some clothes he'd forced that servant, Jaques, to buy before his father interceded and got him all the gold-threaded finery he'd had to swim through to find something less... Tacky. He packed them quickly, and realized that he had nothing else he deemed important enough to bring with him. Except... he flipped through several drawers of the disgustingly ornate desk until he found what he was looking for, then thrust the small metal locket on is silver chain into the bag, sandwiched between several articles of clothing. All done. he smiled, and went to go find Heero again.
Heero Yuy had long since stuffed several outfits into the same bag he'd used six months ago - when he'd gone out to bring Duo here - and had nothing he was attached to. His eyes followed a long, thin grease stain up the side, and he barely smiled at the familiar sight.
A smirk barely ghosted across his face as he crouched on the window. He'd found him again, after nearly two weeks of slipping through what could only be called the city's underworld, becoming merely a specter, worming his way into circles and societies the royalty didn't even know existed. Finally, it had paid off.
Barely twenty feet away from him, his target - Duo, he'd heard people call him - stopped flirting with the same purple-haired girl he'd been with for the past twenty minutes and, hefting the box of... something... he was carrying, continued on his. Heero slipped out of the window and followed, staying to shadows and out of everyone's way, doing everything to make himself inconspicuous.
At least, until he landed on that knee wrong; leaping swiftly off a ledge to avoid the stairs choked with people, he twisted the same knee Duo had kicked two weeks earlier, most likely tearing some cartilage that hadn't been helped by all the wandering he'd been doing through the bowels of the city.
Simply because his luck was flowing that way, his arm flew out to steady him, hitting the packages of some other man, who then fell into the kiosk of a vender of some sort of small, purple fruit, which flooded the ground even as the kiosk collapsed with a loud crash. He jerked his head towards Duo, who had clearly been startled by the racket. Almost right after he reacted, his gaze slid to Heero, the round eyes that had first made him suspicious widening in recognition. However, he was burdened both by the box and by his courtesy, asking his way through the crowd as Heero simply shoved. He was caught in only a dozen seconds, and this time Heero took no chances. He shoved one knee into the boy's neck, grinding his arms into the cobblestones and staying out of the way of his legs, but leaving one of his own free in case he was taken unawares again.
"Who - the hell - are you?" the boy asked, he chest heaving until Heero's legs as he struggled to breathe.
"I believe I should be asking you the same thing. Do you really know who you are?" He smirked at the confusion the spasmed across his prisoner's face.
Had he known, then... Would he have come with me?[1]
TBC
Strange part to end at, I know... ^^ But I don't want to get too much established before I bring in the other characters.
Notes:
[1] To avoid confuzzlement, that's Heero thinking.
Ryan Harbin
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