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"Horse Tales"Written By: Kaeru Shisho Disclaimer: I don't own any part of Gundam Wing
or its characters, nor do I make any monetary profit off this story. Rating: NC 17 Warnings: Yaoi, Very AU, so very AU it's AD, another
dimension. The GW boys are horses. My apologies. Please heed the warning. Pairings: 1x2, 3x4, 6x5 Summary: A few lucky stallion purebreds are given a second chance at the Horse Haven Sanc-tuary. A/N: In defense of my writing this extreme version
of a GW story… Waterlily and Snowdragon made me do it, heh, heh… " Horse Tales"
Chapter Twenty-Two- The Other Endings (0) Duo's POV Heero is a great horse and all but he is in no way a great story-teller. He left out all kinds of things thinking he could get the final word in and be done with it. Or he knew I'd step up to the task of doing it myself, since I'd been his stand-in for little more than a day. Anyway, while old Treize was re-cooperating and his herd was bolstering their nutrition on our rations, pretty much making themselves at home in our arena, indoors and out, there was more going on with our little band of stallions. Here's how it went down for real. We all got back and roughly settled in with about twenty extra horses milling about. It took Howard about an eye blink to cull us stallions from the wild ones and lock us in the barn. He seemed most concerned for the mares. "Foolish waste of energy," Goldie muttered as he was forced to move with more zeal than he felt, I guessed. As true as what he'd said was, I think he just said it because he still liked to gripe a lot. Alone in our barn, I felt it was time to get our house in order. "Okay here's where I officially pass over the reins, heh, heh, and return the leadership to Heero. No objections, right?" "Not from me, no offense," Spot, his mane in a rare loose muss, said with a wink, but not aimed at me. He was targeting his pretty little ray of Sunshine. "None taken." I said, not that he was paying attention. "It's so goo-od to have you back as our leader, Heero." Sunshine garbled most of that because his face was buried in Spot's mane, easing it loose from the few remaining braids. My guess being that earlier he yanked most of the ties out for fun, or something. Heero gave them both a chin dip acknowledging their solidarity, probably. "Thank you, Quatre." There was a reason for those two being so goofy, gooey-eyed, and inattentive. They hadn't had any alone time lately and it made them...frisky. "You know what Wufei overheard that Relena person say to Howard?" Sunshine asked in a breathy sort of voice. Spot limited himself to a shiver for "no". "I need spurs and a whip to really get him going." Spot moaned a guttural, "Ooh, yeah." This response seemed to delight Sunshine, who went on in like vein, "And Howard said, 'Put some excitement between your legs, ride a horse.'**" Then he whickered and Spot whickered. Barf! Spot smoothed his nose all over Sunshine's back. It was kinda mesmerizing watching it. "You remember saying how you couldn't decide whether to love me or kick me?" "Mmm, hmmm." Accidently I looked Spot in the face just as turned back his lips, showing his large teeth and making his voice sound all husky. "Why not do both, honey?" "Can we?" "Ah, shucks. Your nice ribbons are all gone, though." "Oooh, and maybe we can hunt through the leather harnesses for some bonding fun?" Ah, geez... And then they started in on the really graphic stuff with globs of sugar-coating. That was quite enough romance-talk, their kind, for me. I turned away so I could ignore them and focused on the other two, the silent pair, conspicuous by their absence in the conversation. Distracted by things as I was, I hadn't missed how Goldie and The Count hadn't checked in, how they were whispering secrets and not participating, and nor had Heero, I figured. Heero's glare darkened in their direction. "Wufei, stand down. This is between Zechs and me," Heero ground out between clenched teeth. I didn't get it. Wufei had been really nice and supportive to me while Heero'd been gone. But now I could feel things weren't right. "Zechs." Heero said his name, but added a threatening stance and toss of his head. Not good at all. "I guess we're heading into a showdown, pardner," I said half joking. But Heero wasn't in a joking mood. "Yes," I heard him mutter just as his body tensed for action. Whoa, horsies! Zechs moved first, lightening fast. He reared back on those really muscular haunches of his and lashed out high into the air with his front hooves. "Watch out, 'Ro! He means business! You picked the wrong stallion to mess with, Count!" Yeah, I was like a one-horse cheer squad for Heero. The others stood back, preferring to watch quietly, for some reason. Well, you didn't want to get in the middle of a fight for dominance if you were smart, but where were Sunshine's pleas for sanity and peace? Well, I could answer my own question there. He was lost in dreams of leather bindings and soft slithery silks-with soppy spots. Heero landed a swift kick, which was returned. "You hurt him!" I whinnied and made a leap of my own. I might have made it into the fray, but for Spot's polka-dotted butt in my face and Sunshine's grip to my neck. "Stay put," Spot said. Sunshine added emphasis with a bit more tooth. "All right! Lemme go." The fracas had continued while I had my own little power struggle, which I lost, but I hadn't really been trying, and they knew it. "Step aside," Heero ordered the big white stallion. And then I noticed Goldie hoofing it away from the doorway. When had he left? How had he reappeared so quickly? What this the evil vampire possessors of translational movement phenomena, eh? Damn them anyway. There he was swishing about, wanting to say something, and The Count and Heero actually stopped their posing, postponing their dominance play, so he could interrupt. "I found them fornicating in my stall," was his announcement. Heero's fur bristled. "Another... cat!" "Girl cat," Spot informed us, although even I could have pieced together that puzzle. Goldie snorted whereas the rest of us just let his statement of the obvious pass. "There had better not be any kittens showing up in my stall!" "Or mine!" Heero added unnecessarily. Percy knew where he was most unwanted. "That's how you get rats." Er, no, 'Ro. Rats weren't kittens. Spot and Sunshine looked a little wall-eyed, but no one dared try to correct him. Heero must have collected inspiration from this because he elaborated on his rhyme theme. "Some fly. Bats." And the very tiny ones are gnats .*** Ugh. Change of subject time. "Where did she come from?" I asked of the gray striped female cat being attended by Percy. Zechs replied, sounding as if he was at the bottom of a bucket, kinda low and resonant. "I found her." Really? "Okay, Count Cat-ula, where do you find another cat? I was sure this place was cat-free, except for Percy." "It was," Heero stated with the utmost certainty. "Oh, I have my ways," The Count said purposely being slippery as a loose cinch. "Night ways. We creatures of the dark find one another sooner or later." Then he pealed back his lips in such a way that his teeth shone but didn't reveal the fangs, and I knew he was pulling my leg; I'd get no real answer out of him this day. And it was too late to warn Percy that his missus was of the vampire breed. He was one of them by now. Their numbers were growing- "Make them go away." Heero said, and being rather stubborn about wanting to get his way, like Goldie, a shared flaw of theirs, he lunged at the cat pair, scattering the cats to the far ends of the barn and diffusing my thoughts out the wired-covered air vents. This sent Sunshine all aflutter on his "save the cats" mission. It was amusing to watch him chase after the cats trying to tell them they'd be safe with him when it was obvious that he could stomp them to smithereens in a hoofbeat. I was so consumed by the show, that I almost missed another little drama acting out between Heero and The Count. I just caught The Count saying to him, "You think you can return and have things just as they were before you left?" "Yes." Heero moved in closer and pitched his voice low enough that we couldn't hear, but I struggled closer and heard, "You promised this would be temporary." "Oh, it is, I mean I mean it to be, but, well, I'd like a little more show, just for Wufei." So, all that fight for dominance had just been for show? Not real? Well, I for one had had enough. "Game over!" I announced. "No more getting hot and bothered for nothing. I wanna go back to my stall. You coming, 'Ro?" "Hmmm, hot you are. Heero, you'd better jump him while you have a chance," the big white stallion said by way of a warning him that if 'Ro didn't, he would. It was just an educated guess on my part, though. Was that all for Goldie, too? He looked pretty angry, and I didn't blame him. I didn't want nobody making a move on me, or even threatening to. "Back off," was all my 'Ro had to say, that combined with a possessive jostling of me away from the vampire that itself said, "He's mine, my dark horse. And he doesn't know what you're talking about. He just wants to go eat." "Hey, you can all hold your horses! I'm standin' here, you know, on my own four legs, and, 'Ro, I really do get the sexual connotations of what he just said. I'm not stupid." Not any longer. He looked me in the eye in that deadly serious way of his that made everybody do what he said and made my legs go wobbly now. "Let's go." "Okay." I even let him push and shove me out into the hall to the stalls, just a little. He seemed pretty worked up. "Hey," Heero nudged me a little until I touched noses. "Hey." "I'm here." I rolled my eyes. "I know that." "I'm here and I love you no matter what." "Me, too." Aw, that made me paw at the ground. I couldn't look him in the eye. "I like your, ah, hair." There was more than enough of it that was for sure. I was about to say the same to him, but when I looked up and saw he appeared so earnest and hopeful and his mane was a mess and the spots of white paint hadn't washed off (what had we used?) so he had a rakish sort of wild look about him, I knew I had to be sincere. I liked that look. I liked him. Correction. I loved him and I wanted him to stay by my side, never leave, and love me forever. "I like how brave you are," I decided to tell him. "Like when you stood up to the cougars... and tried to blend in with the Mustangs... and... all." What all was I babbling about? "Like with thunder and everything-" Now I was chattering nineteen to the dozen like an idiot, which Spot had told me meant far too much. His eyes blazed out from under the shaggy forelock and his lips parted and his long tongue flipped out and tickled my cheek until I shivered. The tongue disappeared and he nuzzled my ears. "Not as brave as you. You had to walk away and trust me and take my place as leader." "Aw, that was nothing, um; that is... you had it all set up for me ahead of time and it wasn't for long at all and everyone was great and got along." He nudged me. "Oh, Duo... when you grow up I'm going to be hard put keeping you in your place as number two." "No, you won't. I am happy where I am, thank you. No going over the top for me, er; I mean, going for the leader job." And you can wipe off that smug expression, 'Ro. It was just a slip of the tongue. "You know what I mean." "I understand you don't want to take my position?" I was not going to fall into that semantic trap and ask 'what position do you mean?'. I'd picked up on plenty of sexual innuendo from listening in on Spot and Sunshine's dilly-dallying. "You can have it. And I am grown up, well, nearly. I feel grown up." "Do you?" Again, that hopeful note. His question was loaded with hope. I leaned into him and shared heat. I felt his heart pounding against his ribs, which in turn pounded against mine, and that made my heart speed up. Then my lips went dry. My whole mouth went straw dry. Heero prodded me with his nose. "I'd offer you a rose, but someone fenced them off." "I don't need bribes, but thanks just the same." "Duo, you know I'm willing to risk everything to make you happy with me. And wait for you to catch up." "You shouldn't excite yourself," I told him, with a return shove with his hindquarters. "You're still injured." He'd been given shots and stuff and I could see he favored the one leg a little. "I'm not exciting me." "Heh, how are you feeling?" "I'm fine. Just fine." "Well, in that case, come along. I think I've done nearly all the catching up I'm gonna do." "Y-you mean that?" he stuttered. "I mean, did you mean to say-?" I lifted my tail in what I thought might be an enticing gesture and he lunged at me. "Ugh!" "Sorry. Excited. Very." "Ah, well, that's all right, but, um, I can't actually carry you all the way to my stall." He climbed off my back, panting. "Right. Right! Okay. Let's walk. Quickly." And quickly we went. And it wasn't so bad after all, what he'd been trying to do for so long. And it improved by the second and third try. I understood where the "thorough" in "Thoroughbred' came from now. I didn't see sunbeams and sparkles, like Sunshine promised, or hear funny music in the background, like Spot said he'd heard-calliope, whatever that was- but I definitely felt connected, both literally and mentally, with Heero. That was good enough for me. Real good. I felt sticky and sore and made a mess of my own on floor. Heero kicked some straw over it. "That's normal. Thank you for letting me make you mine. I-I love you, you know." "Love you, too, 'Ro." Our tails swished together in time with our heart beats, sorta, and I drank some water, sharing the trough with him. "So, the others, think they'll know? About... us?" I was curious. "Yes." He was certain, which is why he was the leader. "Oh, yeah? How can you be so sure of that? Do I look that different or something? A big bruise on my ass saying 'Heero was here'?" "No. I'll tell them." "You... will?" "You, I'm proud of winning above all else." Now, that was romantic! That was the Romantic End. There's one more. The Bollywood favored one... (o) Wufei's POV While Duo and Heero sauntered one way, and Trowa and Quatre the other, Zechs and I were left with the entire barn to ourselves. Plenty of room to spread out or kick up one's heels. "I thought what you said to Treize when he left was..." I replaced my first word choice "noble" with a more delicate one, "...gracious. I felt very proud." "He'd wished me well. He was happy with his herd and satisfied with his position and attentive mares. He only wished me well, you know." "I heard." I twitched my ears. "You told him you'd found you heart's content and purpose." "And you know I meant you, do you not?" "I had aspirations; it was a fine prospect." I felt him search my face for deeper understanding, or sympathy, I supposed. "A very fine prospect. You saved my soul. I was lost, without hope, my purpose questionable. I found my mind wandering aimless-" I had to stop that talk. He was so predisposed to brooding, and, as attractive as that might be, I wanted to hear more on the topic of me. "But no longer?" I prompted him. "No. When I met you, the sun gilt the hillsides and melted my heart." Much better. See, he meant the world to me, too. I wanted to hear him tell me I was his most cherished treasure. "You share with me your body, which is my most treasured possession. Something I shall cherish forever-" That was the "ticket" as Duo would say, drat his commonplace idioms adhering to my mind. "Cherish me now?" I asked, not begged. And things got steamy in his stall after that. We'd hardly had a chance to cool down with a fresh pail of water, when humans intervened. They shooed all us horses outside to clean the stable and barn, ending our tryst, and, from the looks of things, inconveniencing everyone else. Especially Heero, who just glowed "I did it!" all over the place. We were still cloistered apart from the wild horses and had little to do but stand and stare off into the distance. Then I had a thought. "I know you can be a leader again, if the need arose." "I don't think so," he began to argue. So I used a trick of Quatre's- I could learn tricks, too-and tilted my head just so, making my eyes sparkle as if lit with tiny stars. "I have an idea even Heero might agree to." "Will I like this idea?" Zechs asked. "Certainly." Wufei whinnied, interrupting Heero and Duo's conversation. "Heero, I would like Zechs to show us some of his dance steps-" "And we could all follow along!" Quatre chortled, dragging Trowa over by a leather strap wrapped around his neck. "And Trowa can teach us a few of his!" This wasn't what I had in mind. I'd envisioned it being just Zechs leading us all, but Heero was nodding his head so there was no going back. "What do you envision the rest of us doing?" Heero asked. "You could just copy what I do." "Show them, Zechs." Quatre gave Trowa a little tush push to the forefront. "Go on. Stand in front where we can see your hooves. Come on, Duo. You can stand between me and Heero. Oh, this will be fun! Where do we start?" I trotted in line beside Heero. "You once named the steps for us...beginning with peas." "You are referring to the three "P" level movements." "Yes, those." "All right. Trowa, would you count out loud to this tempo, please?" Zechs demonstrated the piaffe, and we all trotted in place. With a few minutes practice, we could keep in perfect cadence and rhythm. "Now to the left and slow- the passage-keep it slow, like you're in slow motion and floating." We marched to the left and then to the right and then in a circle, until we could do it together. I was impressed at how quickly Trowa and Quatre picked it up and humbled. I was clumsy as a colt. But I improved and found it wasn't so difficult to perform the faster, cantering pirouettes. Duo couldn't keep up, so he and Heero were making up their own dance, but it fit into the general pattern and rhythm well enough. With a little more persuasion from his ardent lover, Trowa directed us in a few steps and bows, working them into a sort of routine with Zechs' steps. The two of them put their heads together for a few minutes and then Trowa moved back into line, leaving Zechs alone to face us. "Well, try this ...Starting to the right, step one, two, three, four, bow, and circle slow and floaty-" It was a remarkable feeling, being a part of a moving team of horses, synchronized in our steps, dancing. We were dancing together on the rise overlooking the outdoor arena as the sun was setting. (o) Howard POV I headed back to the house. What I needed was a glass of wine and to put my feet up. "Mr. Howard, sir!" I nearly stepped up the pace and dashed away, but, well, never knew what the hands had to report. "Better be important." "I'm not sure but... well, you can see for yourself. Up there!" I saw my horses silhouetted against the colorful sky. In a line. Moving around. "I think, sir, that they are imitating the large white horse. I've read about that as a part of herd behavior. You think I'm right?" I observed the prancing horses, trying to see them as just animals acting out of some instinctual herd pattern of behavior, but what I saw were six remarkable horses line dancing. "What, sir?" "Line dancing. I call'em as I see'em. Good night, now. Don't let them stay out too long in the dark and see to it they get extra rations. They're burning extra calories tonight." Let him make of that what he will. He hadn't commented on the Mustangs when they had left, trotting into the fog. What I really wanted to know, but was afraid to ask, was how the wild horses had come by Quatre's silk ribbons? I wasn't afraid to ask. I was afraid of the answer. And this was The Real Finale End. * Quotes or paraphrasing taken from the original series ** Not my joke, but I don't know who passed it on to me, but thanks. *** credit goes to Waterlily for this line Thank you for reading and I hope you liked the story.-KS
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