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"Dance with the Devil "Written By: Honor Disclaimers: Of course they’re mine. Everything
else belongs to me, why shouldn’t they? Pairings: 1x5x2x1x5…or something like that.
3x4 established. Rating: R. Definitely. Well, pretty definitely… Spoilers: Iie. Warnings: Lemon, violence, language, AU, questionable
humor…come on people, I wrote it, that’s warning enough.
A bit of a POV change after the first chapter. My betas
insist that I put a spew warning on this too. *grin* Betas: Velvet and Caitilin Archived: Gundam Wing Diaries and honordemandoren.livejournal.com
Author’s Notes: ::mental telepathy:: *emphasized*
"Dance with the Devil" Part One: From the Frying Pan into the Fire A weapon is a device for making your enemy change his mind.
“Very good, my lord.” The congratulatory words border-lined on being mocking. The shadow at the front of the room shifted, revealing itself to the faint candlelight. The man who stepped forward was short, with tousled blond hair and fair skin. He appeared to be only in his teens. The appearance was pure deception, and Treize knew it. “My Lord Quatre. This is very unexpected. What brings you here?” Quatre chuckled. There was no warmth in that sound. It sent shivers straight down the King of Oz’s spine. “You have something that interests me.” Treize racked his brain frantically but couldn’t think of anything that might interest a thousand year old vampire lord. “And that would be…?” “The Weapon.” Treize settled back into his chair, eyes narrowed in speculation. Every generation of kings in Oz had controlled a Weapon. Usually it was a young man that served as an assassin, although there had been times when it had been a woman. Since Quatre was more than capable of destroying anyone that he wished, Treize was at somewhat of a loss as to why the current Weapon would be of any use. “What about him?” “I offer an exchange. If you give him into my control, absolutely, then I will allow you to call upon my services at need.” Treize didn’t give away a hint of what he was feeling. The offer that Quatre was making was outside of his wildest dreams. To say that he wanted it would be to say that fire usually burned on wood. Mild understatement. “Define ‘need’.” Quatre chuckled again, stepping forward so that he could lean slightly over the desk. “You are cautious, aren’t you? Very well, whenever you call. Will it make you feel better to have it in writing?” “That isn’t necessary.” Treize wasn’t stupid enough to question this man’s—vampire’s—honor. He knew enough politics to keep his head intact. “Have him if you wish. However, I will ask that you give me some way to contact you.” Quatre nodded, amiable. He turned around in the study, heading toward the window. There he stopped, placing his palm flat against the wood for a moment. When he lifted the appendage away there was a faint outline against the wood. “Touch this when you have need of me and mine. Call my name once and once only. I will come.” Treize inclined his head carefully. “Understood.” Quatre shifted away with fluid grace. He turned back once to smile at Treize softly. “Good night, Treize of Oz.” “Good night,” Treize whispered into the empty room. + Quatre breathed in deeply once he stood outside the young man’s room. Step one: accomplished. Step two:…why the heck had he thought it would be better to do this alone? Pushing the door open he carefully rapped his knuckled against the door to make sure that he didn’t startle the other man. “That isn’t necessary. You’ve been standing outside for at least three minutes.” Quatre blinked. Actually, he had. He took in the figure lounging against the windowsill in the small room. The boy there was lithe in build with a long braid and fair features. Beautiful, really. “Shinigami?” The boy didn’t turn to acknowledge him. “Who do you need me to kill?” “No one.” The boy froze. Slowly he turned, facing Quatre for the first time. “Who are you?” “Quatre Raberba Winner.” Curiously, the Weapon showed no fear at this knowledge. He simply nodded, eyes thoughtful. “The Vampire Lord.” “Quite.” “The only trade that I deal in is death,” the boy told him after a moment. “You should know that better than anyone.” “Perhaps. Perhaps not.” Quatre entered the room fully, but wisely didn’t close the door or remain in front of it. He settled against the foot of the bed, leg casually tucked underneath him. “I’ve watched you the past few missions. You’re slowly losing your humanity. The casual deaths are eating you alive. In order to somehow save yourself, you’re cutting yourself off from everything that makes you…you. I think you’ve realized this.” Now there was fear, raw and pallid. “Okay. So what do you want?” “I want you to come with me. I want you to stop killing needlessly.” “Why?” “It’s not for my benefit. Well, not precisely. It is for…two others within my charge.” “You’re only confusing the issue,” Shinigami told him flatly. “I know.” Quatre sighed, rubbing at his forehead. There had to be an easier way to explain this. “Over the years, I have gained certain allies. Two of these are shifters. They have become dear to me. I find at this moment, however, that I cannot give them the help that they need. Unless I give them you.” Quatre held up a hand to forestall the heated protest that Shinigami was ready to snap out. “Hear me, please. I need you to partner with them. I need you to guard them as closely as you guard your heart. They will not survive otherwise.” “How deep of a relationship are you wanting?” “That isn’t up to me. That is between you and them.” “Shinigami.” Quatre said softly when the boy turned away from him abruptly. “You will never need to return here again if you come with me tonight. I made a deal for you. Come with me. I swear you will not regret it.” + How the hell did I wind up here? I keep going over the scene that had happened only a few hours ago in my room, but for the life of me I can’t pin down the exact moment on when I agreed to accompany fang-boy. Unless he pulled some kind of mind-compulsion trick on me. I am SO in over my head. Everything that he had been saying earlier was true. Way too precise, actually. He was putting into words what I had been unconsciously denying for months. It had scared me spitless to hear it out loud. I think that might have been part of the reason why I went with him. He knew something, and I wanted to know how. The room I was standing in now was comfortable in a snobby rich-kid kind of way with overstuffed chairs, masculine furniture and books lying about. Sitting next to the fire was a tall man with dark auburn hair and emerald green eyes. He looked up when we entered, smiling. “Quatre.” The blond vampire moved across the room, leaning over slightly so that he could kiss the man. Oh. So he bats that way, huh? I tucked that interesting piece of information away and moved to sink into a chair. We had been riding for almost the entire night and I was tired. My sole interest in the moment was sitting on something that didn’t move. Quatre leaned back, settling on the arm of the chair and draping his arm across the back. “Shinigami, this is my mate Trowa.” I nodded to him. “Are you a vamp?” “No. I am of the Fair Ones.” Both of my eyebrows shot up at that. A fairy was mated to a vampire? That had to be one interesting courtship. I wonder how drunk I would have to get Trowa before he would tell me the story. “Huh. Okay, that’s cool. So, what am I doing here Q?” Trowa was staring at me, a little bit of surprise on his face. Quatre was laughing though. Actually, Quatre had been laughing at me most of the night. I think my lack of reverence for everything amused him for some reason. The vamp had one twisted sense of humor. “To meet Heero and Wufei.” “Riiight. Why?” “They are the shifters I mentioned.” Oh yeah. That. I still wasn’t sure what to think of that. I had become Shinigami in order to keep from starving on the streets. Duty or loyalty was an alien concept to me. But I had this inkling suspicion that as soon as I met these two shifters, I would be living those concepts. Not something that I was comfortable with. “Yeah, so I repeat. Why? Why are you so focused on pushing me in their direction? Why can’t you do what you’re wanting me to do?” Trowa made this little hmming sound. “I see you didn’t tell him much.” Quatre sighed heavily. “I didn’t know how.” There was this change in the air behind me. I was up, my back to the fire, before I had fully registered the sensation. A boy about my age came in, dark chocolate hair tosseled around his face, strong build. He was about five feet away from me when he stopped and I got a good look at his face. Yum, by the way. Trowa and Quatre weren’t bad either in the looks department—actually, they were pure eye candy in a lot of ways—but the whole supernatural bit and vampirism kind of threw me off. This guy, though…oh yeah. I could eat him whole, no problems. He had the darkest blue eyes I’ve ever seen, which were fixed on me. We weighed each other for a few moments…then he bowed to me quite formally. I blinked. Okay. Sooo not what I was expecting. “Shinigami, this is Heero,” Quatre murmured. *This* was Heero? My whole purpose in coming here took on a whole new light. Suddenly, the idea of being someone to this person didn’t look like a bad idea. Hell, my body was all for it. “Nice ta meetcha and all that. Not to be rude or anything but what are you?” Quatre hadn’t mentioned anything in that regard. “Gargoyle.” Oh yeah baby. Sexy voice. Whoa, wait, what did he just say?! I blinked and felt the strongest urge to sit down. Gargoyles were about as common as icecream dishes in hell. “I’m…Uh…” Ah screw it. I sat down heavily on the chair nearest me and rubbed my eyes with the heels of my hands. “Q, explain to me exactly how you have a gargoyle, a fairy and a vampire all living under the same roof. And then explain to me why you three haven’t managed to kill each other by this point.” “It is a human misconception that the different races in the magic world are not capable of mutual interaction. True, we usually do not associate with each other, but that is more a result of different cultures and lifestyles than anything.” “Okay. I can get that.” I knew enough of the supernatural beings in this kingdom to get a rough grasp of what he was telling me. “I still don’t get why I’m being pulled into this.” “They…are in need of a partner. They have been faced with a task that they cannot do alone. They need you. They need your stealth, your humor, your ability to improvise at need. Frankly, you can balance them.” “You’re putting a lot of faith in me.” “Quite simply, yes.” So now I know Quatre’s side of all of this. I really wanted Heero’s though. And Wufei’s, whoever he was. I turned away from him and knelt before Heero. The posture seemed to bother him badly, though, so I just as quickly rose again and sat beside him on the wide couch. “Tell me your side of this.” He frowned at me, confused. “Tell me why you think I should join you.” “I have seen you fight. You move with purpose, direction. Nothing makes you falter. You are stronger than I am.” Okay. So in other words, the strength that he was referring to was more mental than physical. Although I was willing to bet that physical put in a certain large percentage to his thinking somewhere. “And Wufei?” “He feels the same.” “Kay. Where is he, anyway?” I looked to Quatre for this information. “Coming.” Well, that answers everything perfectly. Thanks so much, lordship. I rubbed my hands over my face hard, trying to stop my brain from whirling around in panicky circles. It didn’t help. When I lowered my hands I looked over to Heero. I’ve seen a lot of fear in my short life, but never anything quite like what I was seeing on his face. “Heero?” “You do not wish for this.” Hell no. But I had a feeling that if I said that, he would act like I had slapped him. Don’t know why, call it intuition, but I didn’t do the first thing I thought of. Which was run for the door screaming. Nope, I reached out to him instead and smoothed hair away from his face. “My brain isn’t quite up to the mental contortions necessary to think of you as a…hell, I don’t know what you’d be.” I would have said more except that he rubbed his face back against my hand, eyes locking onto mine. Oh gods. I was ever in so much trouble. He liked it when I touched him. And I liked touching him. Little warning bells were clamoring in the back of my head. They nearly deafened me when I felt someone else enter the room. I was up and facing the door in about two seconds. Our latest little visitor was a lithe teenager, also about my age. He had coal black hair that fell to his shoulders, slanted dark eyes. This then was my other future-watchamacallit. Oh great. Two hotties. If they were trying to tempt me, this was definite overkill. He glanced at Heero and some kind of silent little conversation went on there. Then he gave me the same formal bow that Heero had. I nodded back, gesturing for him to sit next to Heero. When he was settled, I spent a moment just looking at the pair. So. Quatre wanted me to keep these two, be their partner or whatever. My hormones were trying to take control of my body long enough to scream a ‘you betcha’. Trouble was, those little warning bells of mine hadn’t stopped ringing. “Are you Wufei?” He nodded. “Right. And what, precisely, are you?” There was this confused look scrawled all over his face. “You have not been told?” “Nope.” “Hm.” He gave a strangely piercing look at Quatre before nodding slowly. “Very well. I am Chang Wufei of the Dragon Clan.” A gargoyle and a dragon? Were they out of the freakin’ minds?! Quatre’s little speech to the contrary, certain races simply did NOT mix. It had long been held that the gargoyle clan was a direct result of the dragon’s promiscuity among humans. Neither side held a great deal of love for the other. Certain pieces were being twisted to fit into place. I wasn’t going to be a ‘balance’ between them I was going to be a damn shield. “Why are you willing to take me on as a brother-in-arms?” Hey, now there was a pretty good way to put it. “You deliver justice.” Wufei’s voice was just as sexy, in a completely different way. It had this husky shimmer to it that made me think of beds draped in satin sheets. Red satin sheets. I had to make myself focus on what he was saying instead of the voice it was delivered in. “You are…fair. Kind.” Now it was my turn to be confused. “You consider kindness to be a sign of strength?” “Only the ones who possess true strength can be kind without it being considered a weakness.” I nodded slowly, trying to process what they had just told me. What they had said did make a funny kind of sense. They wanted a partner strong enough to control them, but not use that strength to hurt them. Granted, I wouldn’t give into temptation and beat sense into them. But I couldn’t help but think that this was a mistake on their parts. I was human in more ways than one. I was bound to make some serious mistakes. “They do not ask for perfection, Lord of Death,” Quatre murmured to me. I looked up at him, drawn to the quiet authority he was emanating. “They are certainly not perfect, so they could hardly demand that from you. When they ask for you to be their partner, it means more than just guarding their backs.” Yeah, it was that ‘more’ that had my stomach doing contortionist tricks. But looking at the hope in their eyes, I just couldn’t say no. …lust may have played a small part too. But only a *very* small part. Miniscule even. I smiled a little. “Okay. Just keep in mind that you’re going to have to explain things to me from time to time. I have no idea of how this is going to work.” “In the morning,” Trowa interceded. I jumped, startled. The man had been so quiet that I had forgotten he was even here. “You are exhausted. Rest first.” Yeah, true enough. I haven’t exactly been sleeping well the past year or so. Ever since…forget that. I wasn’t going to dredge up the past anymore. Well, no more than necessary. I nodded, stifling a yawn. “Do I get to pick or are you just going to toss me in a room?” Heero led me to a bedroom, Wufei close behind. They moved like a unit, each anticipating and reacting to the other almost before they moved. I wonder if I’ll ever…no, best not to think like that. I stumbled into the room, stripping off daggers and boots as I trudged over to the huge poster bed. I barely made it before collapsing and falling instantly to sleep. + Let’s get something straight right now. I don’t sleep with people. I wake up when someone—anyone—enters the room. It’s absolutely impossible to sneak up on me. Many have tried; most didn’t survive the attempt. Because of this, I am at an absolute loss as to why I’m in a bed with two shifters. At a suspicion and after a glance under the sheet…oh boy. Change that to naked and in a bed with two equally naked shifters. Two drop dead gorgeous shifters that are wrapped tightly around me. This had better not be a dream, dammit. I looked carefully at Wufei, who was currently using my shoulder as a pillow. He had an arm wrapped around my shoulder and one leg resting in between mine. How he had gotten into that position without waking me up was currently beyond my deductive abilities. I’ll wait until I’m awake to figure it out. Cautiously turning my head, I looked at who was warming my back. Heero had an arm thrown over my waist, head resting against my shoulder. Oh, and the end of my braid was held possessively in his hand. Relaxing again I considered the full ramifications of this job. Partner to two shifters, both of them gorgeous and into cuddling. Boy I could learn to like this. ::Shinigami.:: I growled. ‘Get out of my head, Quatre.’ I didn’t want his little interruptions. I was enjoying the moment. ::Alright. If you feel that way about it, meet me at the study in five minutes.:: There was no way in hell that he was getting me out of this bed. With a muttered curse I gave in. ‘Fine. What do you want?’ ::Thought you’d say that.:: The blood sucker can be so annoying sometimes. He was insufferably sure of himself. Arrogant little bastard. ::Trowa and I have something to take care of. It shouldn’t take more than two days. Heero and Wufei can show you how everything works. I am sorry to desert you like this right after you have arrived, but I don’t want this to come back later to haunt me.:: ‘It’s fine, Q. You don’t need to baby-sit me. Go.’ ::And so I will. Just please don’t leave the house. There are certain things that I need to warn you about before you show people that you’re here.:: That was fine by me. I had no desire to face any new people just yet. I had my hands full with the two sleeping next to me. ‘Not a problem. Later.’ There was this suspicious chuckling sound before Quatre’s presence faded out of my head. I blinked back into focus to see Wufei looking up at me. “Mornin’.” “Good morning, Shinigami.” “Duo.” “…Duo.” “Is that your true name?” Heero asked, breath warm against my shoulder. “Yup.” I shifted about a bit so that I could look at both of them. Or I tried. They instantly shifted with me. “Uh…am I always going to wake up with you two?” “We will not if you do not wish it.” Wufei’s
eyes dropped away from mine. Heero shifted slightly behind me. If I was reading that little movement right, he was uneasy about the question/statement. “We like touching you.” “You feel safe,” Wufei added softly. Finally they had said something that made sense. Few people that I knew felt ‘safe’ enough to touch. And even among those people I wouldn’t trust more than two or three to guard my back. For whatever reason, I trusted these two more than I have ever trusted anyone. They could hardly sleep all tangled up with me for an entire night without my noticing otherwise. “Gotcha. Well, it’s okay by me since I trust you enough to not wake me up at every little movement.” Since we were laying there all cozy I decided to get some answers that I had been too tired to ask last night. “So how does this whole partner thing work? Is there some kind of magical doohikey that I need to activate? Some spell that needs to be done?” “You must claim us. And allow us to claim you,” Heero murmured. “Riiight. And how do I do that?” There was this little expectant silence. “Oh you have got to be kidding me!” Sitting up abruptly I turned around on my heels so that I could look at both of them. “I’m supposed to have sex with both of you?” They both nodded, giving each other these little anxious looks. When I had entertained those little lurid fantasies last night after meeting them, they were just that. Fantasies. I would never have forced them into…that. There is nothing that I despise more than people who force others into sex. It’s worse than murder, in my opinion. There was no way in hell that I was going to do it. “Look. I don’t force anyone to have sex with me. End of story.” “You wouldn’t be forcing us.” Wufei shifted about so that he was sitting up a little as well. “We don’t mind being with you.” “There is a damn big difference between ‘I want you’ and ‘I don’t mind’ Wu-baby.” They were both looking at me as if I were speaking a different language. Shit, maybe to them I was. “Let me see if I can explain this. I agreed to be a partner to you guys for a very simple reason. I didn’t want you to fall into the wrong hands. I don’t know what task you’re going into but it’s obviously dangerous if our resident neck nibbler is worrying about it. For all I know you’ve volunteered to take on a nest of monsters or something. I just…ah screw it, I can’t explain why! I just didn’t want you guys hurt when I knew that I might play some role and keep it from happening. And I’ll be damned if I turn into the very monster that I’m trying to protect you from!” Wufei was smiling at the end of my little speech. There was this suspicious glint in Heero’s eyes as well. They looked at each other and the happy expression just became more pronounced. “We chose well,” Wufei told his partner. “Yes,” Heero agreed. I could swear he was grinning. Good. Now we were all on the same— “Fei!” I looked up at the boy who had just pounced on me. He was leaning over me, grinning. “What the hell do you think you’re—mmm.” Damn but he was good at kissing. Without conscious thought I tangled a hand in his hair, tilting my head so that I could get better access to his mouth. Tongues were warring, trying to dominate the other’s. We kissed so long that I was forced to debate which I would rather do more: kiss Wufei or breathe. Breathing was coming in last when he finally let up. “We want to belong to you. We want you to belong to us,” Wufei whispered above my mouth. No problem. The feeling is beyond mutual. Wait, there was a problem to that. I rewound a little bit before Wufei had tackled me. I had been fighting this. Why? It had something to do with forced sex…oh yeah, now I remembered. “Fei, I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t interested.” Down, boy. No, that hadn’t been to your address. Shut up and stop complaining. “But have you thought about this? I’m human. Surely there are better people than me that—” Heero had maneuvered around so that he could idly nibble on my ear. How he managed to home in on my weak spot so quickly was beyond me. I groaned a little. “You’re ganging up on me.” “Would it make you feel better if you weren’t taking advantage of us?” Wufei murmured, placing light kissed along my jaw line. “What if we were taking advantage of you?” “Sure. That’ll work. Heero, so help me, if you don’t stop that I’m going to come right now.” Heero smirked. I could feel it. I shifted my arm so that I could get a grip on the back of his neck and draw his head down to mine. Mmm. He tasted just as good as Wufei. Screw playing things right. They wanted me. And I was tired of fighting against what I wanted. Wufei slid around until he was on the opposite side of Heero, mouth busy exploring my neck and one hand idly caressing my nipple. With a hiss I moved one of my hands so that I could caress his thigh and hip. These two *really* knew what they were doing. I drew back so that I could breathe a little—oxygen is such a pain, somebody needs to find a way around it—and debated with myself on who I was going to attack first. Heero was in the middle of convincing me that *he* should go first by virtue of his tongue down my throat and his knee between my thighs when a distraction popped up. Yes, I mean that quite literally. Fire elementals are very distracting, especially if you’re surrounded by very flammable bedding. This one was smart enough to make a great deal of hissing noises instead of coming to where I was. In the past, a few of them were actually impatient enough to try to hop on the bed with me. And people sometimes wonder why I don’t sleep well… I groaned and rolled away from the two shifters. “What?” The little elemental grinned at me and pointed at the door. This time my groan was more heartfelt. “Now?” He nodded quickly. Man, I hate it when this happens. “I’m assuming that he’s in the usual place.” Another nod. Well, at least I didn’t have to go hunting for him. “Fine, fine. Tell him to give me an hour or so, kay?” With a pop of heated air he disappeared. Don’t ask me how this works. I’ve wondered about it for years. But there are some people in this world that can make it eloquently clear that they aren’t happy with you without saying a word. Or without you even looking at them. These two were experts at it. Turning back to them I shrug. “Sorry, guys. This is one thing that I can’t ignore.” “Quatre told you not to leave.” Wufei scowled. It wasn’t intentional, just a little miffed twitch to his mouth. It was very cute, too. “I know. I won’t be seen by anyone though. I’m used to sneaking in and out to…well, never mind that. I won’t be more than a few hours. Stay put and be good, okay?” “No,” Heero growled. “Yes,” I growled back. “Look, I don’t have time to argue this. It won’t mean any danger for me. He just wants to talk to me for a bit.” “Who is this man?” I was beginning to figure out how this works. Wufei was more of the talker than Heero. He was the thinker. Heero is more of an action person. “His name is Howard. We go way back, so he’s one of the few people I trust absolutely. No danger. I’ll see you guys in a bit, no worries.” ~*~*~*~ |
