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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 Five-And One for All (o) Heero's POV The Doctors visited us each week; Trowa said it was regular and "on the weekend", but then he could understand human number systems, counting, and measuring time and space with numbers. Very useful skills to have in the band. Quatre had the horse sense, which was more than just stable thinking, as Trowa said, as a joke, Duo told me. It allowed him to feel his way through the mire of human thought processes. I felt was a burden to its bearer, but invaluable to the herd. I totally lacked it and I could use some insight into the behavior of others. The fact that he seemed very willing to please and follow directions relieved me to focus on the more recalcitrant members of our all-stallion herd. "Takes ten minutes from the barn to the far pasture and back," Trowa told me. But my asking "Why "ten"? only got me a shake of his head and an equally unclear answer. "'Cause eleven's too many and nine's too few." "Hn," seemed the appropriate response to that. To which he added further confusion, "Numbers are sequential, orderly, get bigger as you count up and smaller as you count down." "All the time?" I wondered. "Yeah." I felt satisfied. I did like order and dependability. Someday I'd like to get a hoof-hold on numbers. In any case, the Doctors came and rode us, putting us through our paces, testing our abilities. This week, G went without, spending his time with Duo, which was appropriate considering how close he'd been to death. The fool had gorged himself on apples and might have blown his guts up had Sally, our vet, and her assistant, Meg, not been present at the time and skilled in horse care. I hadn't yet forgiven him for his gluttony. He'd scared me to death. J rode me, a heavier load than my lady had been, but still I moved as if his weight was nothing to bear. I am a very strong horse, even if I appear fine-boned. My rider seemed pleased at how I'd learned to move on his commands. It wasn't complicated and I was an accomplished horse. Let him be impressed, though. Trowa carried S, providing a smooth and steady ride and even kneeling on command, which took effort on both their parts. He was nearly as sure-footed as Duo, nearly. He held his head a bit higher now that Quatre had arrived, I noticed. I noticed everything because as lead stallion that was my duty-to watch. H, who I had only seen once before, rode Quatre, whose flowing gaits were very attractive. He proved himself to be a very proficient horse. I had discovered he could run almost as fast as I, and liked it, but he had perfect manners as well, which charmed the humans. And Trowa. I was pleased that Trowa no longer tended to Duo's whims or stood quite so close. I welcomed Quatre's presence, "the little ray of sunshine", as Duo called him. Every other day, a trainer, Howard, or some other handler would ride or work us in the arena. Once in a while, we'd go for a longer ride through the pasture. Trowa told me he saw the wild horses far off in the distance; he was very imaginative. Five days, Trowa told us, after Duo had gone ill, we returned from our ride with the Doctors and I saw him: Duo standing with G outside in the arena. He whinnied and I answered back. He looked good. Breathtaking. He'd had a bath and been groomed so his sides gleamed black as a crow. His tail flew about in the breeze. Excitement and energy radiated from him like a storm cloud on the horizon. As soon as J gave me free rein, I raced to see Duo. I was brought up short when I spied her, Lady Relena, Relena leaning on the fence with her gloved hands gripping the uprights. "Heeero!" Howard was there, too, and he didn't look pleased at all. I meant to touch noses with Duo first, but there I was with the lady's arms around my neck. I didn't need to understand her exact words to get the gist of what she was saying. "My Heero!" I wasn't totally aware of my surroundings. I was stunned. Then Trowa's ass was pushing me back. "Duo," he nickered, and then he was running through a few kowtow bowing tricks. I heard Relena giggle over them behind me as I trotted over to Duo like I'd been headed to do in the first place. Quatre was blubbering over Duo, but moved over grudgingly when I nosed my way in. "He's here now. Everything's going to be all right, I just know it!" Of course everything was going to be all right. Why wouldn't it? "You look better," I told him truthfully. "Are you?" Duo turned away. He wouldn't talk to me. What was his problem? "You greeted the humans first and not him," Quatre explained. "Why would you go and hurt his feelings like that?" When had the Arabian gotten so bold? "I didn't mean to. What did he expect me to do? Of course I greeted them before him. They own me. Duo's just...a horse." "No. I'm just a horse. He's your... your best friend." At that Quatre tossed his head and flipped me a tail before trotting to join Trowa. I stood looking first at Duo's back and then at the humans, moving off. Howard's voice grew louder and Lady Relena's softer as they walked away. I assumed Relena was going to be living here now, which was fine. I buzzed Duo's neck with my lips, moving over his cheeks and licked. It felt good when he did it to me, a soothing yet also titillating caress when he moved to stroke my neck. My lips weren't as agile as his, but I thought I'd executed the move properly. I licked his eye and make him shiver and snort. "Geez, 'Ro, I just had a bath. Ewww. I'm going back in." That hadn't gone as well as I'd expected. We all moved to the stables once our saddles were taken and we were groomed. Someone mixed molasses in with the bran and oats, making it delicious. I didn't stop eating till it was done and I'd licked the bowl clean. I heard Duo snuffling about and stuck my head out my window. "What are you doing? Are you okay?" "Just bored-waiting. You done eating over there? What did you guys do, run for the hills and back?" "Over trails. Exercise gives me an appetite." I remembered something else I wanted to tell him. "Oh, are you able to unlatch the doors tonight?" "Oh sure. I'm just fine now. Whatsa matter? Miss me?" "Quatre's been atrocious. And I did miss you." He nickered deep in his chest, a happy sound that made me do the same. "You nearly went all sappy on me there, 'Ro. Eat your hay. Trowa'll let us know when the humans leave." Sappy? Must have been referring to the molasses. I didn't have any on me and couldn't possibly gotten any on him. Idiot. That night, Trowa kept Quatre from kicking his stall, and we all got a good night's rest. (o) In the morning, I learned that Trowa had successfully mounted Quatre and kept his imagination occupied, thus keeping him quiet. I filed that important information away for my own use. Duo got a fly up his nose right after unlatching our door. Snort! "Ugh!" He ran out into the arena to blow it out. From there he had the gate open to the pasture before Trowa had his eyes open. "C'mon!" I nudged the sleepy spotted horse. "Duo's feeling his oats this morning." "And that means we all have to run like crazy before breakfast?" Quatre asked. "Yeah," Trowa said. "We have to miss our oats." I led the others chasing the black tail streaming up the hill ... and along the ridge, catching up to Duo first. "Freedom!" Duo whinnied like a demon possessed. "You are feeling better." And looking great, I thought. "Yes!" Quatre skipped about eager to join in the race or fun or whatever Duo was up to. Trowa buried his nose into the grass with one last word. "Dandelions." "The pretty yellow flowers?" Quatre asked in an attempt to show interest. "Are they good?" "They're great! I can attest to that," Duo put in. He already had one between his teeth, the flower bobbing around as he chewed the stem. "Spicy." I stared at him. Hard. "I'm not eating more than one, so don't give me the evil eye." Mine was not an evil eye. It was an "I dare you to defy me" eye. And he didn't. He kept his word and to a mostly all-grass diet. We spent the entire day grazing the hill, moving further from the stable than we ever had, on our own, until we stopped at a fence. "Over there is where the wild horses live. On the other side," I told Quatre. "We've smelled them and heard them." "I've seen them." That was Trowa. He couldn't see them; he just said he could. If I couldn't see them, they weren't visible, because they were too far away. "Wild-? What are they like? Do they look like us?" Quatre got the strangest, stupid look in his eyes. They were horses-of course they looked like us. "Most have spots." Sure. To Trowa most horses had spots like him, even though most didn't. Most looked like me, brown. "More like blotches." Uh, huh. Quatre believed him, listening with bated breath. Eyes back to Duo. "Duo, what is it?" He always had to be watched. Without a lead mare, I was on watch duty at all times, and he was the one most likely to push the boundaries. He passed it off as acceptable because he'd been a "city horse" all penned up, which made no sense at all to me. "A gate." He sounded thrilled. To him a gate was an invitation to adventure. "Too bad." That was Quatre. To him a gate was a blockade. "Not bad at all," Duo chattered and then went silent as he messed around with the latch. I watched but I knew I couldn't open it. I could break it, possibly, with a good, swift kick. "You know what they say about doors? One door closes and another opens." Duo knew the strangest things and repeated even odder things. "Maybe we should stay on this side. The Doctors made us ride past." I agreed with Quatre. In principle. Still. "Humans put up fences to keep us out of cool places. They put gates in so they can get to the other side. You know what's on the other side, don'tcha?" "More grass?" Quatre said, seeing plenty of it as the gate door swung open. "Food, for sure," Duo agreed. Those two were pretty buddy-buddy going though the opening to the other side, so Trowa and I had to follow. We, at least, should be vigilant and on the lookout for danger. "Big cats." "You're not in the circus anymore. Ditch the cat stuff." Please! My Lady had cats and I didn't like them. Or their sneaky ways. Untrustworthy eyes. "Don't move!" Trowa shouted. Shouted. Trowa had raised his voice. "Halt!" We were like statues, even Duo. So, when Trowa had said "big cats" he'd meant as a warning that there were big cats in the pasture. Here! I was going to have to speak to him about being too low key. Quatre was trembling. "I must run." "Run and you'll be attacked. Fight it." When had Trowa become the specialist on mountain lions? "D'oh! This is such a lame way to die! This is so not cool!" Duo complained, loudly, but he didn't twitch a muscle. {A/N: nod to the GW series for the quote.} "Don't show fear. Show your teeth, which are big and impress them. Then be prepared to kick the hell out of them." I could feel the rumbling purr of one cat vibrating through my whole body before it turned around and ran off at our unified front and show of teeth. I felt silly baring my teeth that way, but it worked. The remaining animal met our eyes, glaring, ears back and lashing its tail, and then snarled. "Geeze, Trowa! This ain't the circus. That's no trained lion or nothing. That's a wild one." "Heero, Duo-rear kick. Quatre, stand up. On a count of three-" "Three what?" We all wondered that. "Now!" We attacked in a very un-horse-like way. It was instinctual to run off and yet we lashed out our sharp hooves and the mountain lion whipped about. It didn't fight back at all. It cried once and ran. "We did it!" Duo and Quatre bumped shoulders. "Risky," I reminded them all. "You're amazing." Quatre's eyes were wide, his flaxen mane blowing in the wind as he stretched his neck and touched noses with the spotted horse, who practically elevated into the air with pride. "I worked with the big cats, starting with learning how to 'read' them and anticipate what they'd do before they did it. I suspected cougars would be pretty stable creatures, like tigers, and they were." "Lucky guess." "Yes!" Quatre agreed with Duo. "Lucky break for us." Trowa shook his head. "You all pulled together. Did the right thing. The only luck was bad, running into them." "That's right." I granted him that. "Back to the stable, and, Duo? Lock the gate." "Yes, sir. As you say, boss." I think Duo was being sarcastic, but I was too shaken to care. I hated cats. The bigger they were just made them worse. "Those mountain lions were far too close to us for comfort." "Wild mares dropping foals could attract the cats." Trowa shook his forelock out of his eyes. "Told you I'd seen the wild horses. They come close-in sometimes." Know it all. (o) I didn't see Lady Relena. I hadn't seen her since the day Duo was well. Just that once. She either was busy and didn't have time to visit me or I'd been wrong thinking she was staying with Howard and the Doctors. "Duo." "Yeah?" I did my best to ignore how he'd put a bit more distance between us. Every time I tried mounting him, he'd twist away. It was all a game for him. Or, possibly he wasn't completely well. Now, I had it in my mind to find out if Relena lived in the big house, and he could help me get a closer look, if he'd cooperate. "Sometime, I want to get up to the big house, where the people live." "Oh? Okay, you mean you want me to get you past the gates?" "Yes. I want to know if Lady Relena lives there." "I don't think she does, 'Ro. She'da been hanging around you. From the looks of it, she was here visiting and lives someplace else." "That's the other possibility, sure." "I think she came looking for you and wants to take you away." "She wouldn't do that. This is my home. Howard and the Doctors wouldn't allow that." "Humans change our world, who knows their plans?" I would have let him snuggle up and rest his head on my back, but he didn't try. He wasn't totally aloof; he spoke to me and chased me around a little. I just sensed a change, more of that distancing I'd noticed before. It left me feeling confused and empty in a way no amount of hay could fill. Mostly confused. (o) Ever watchful. That should have been my name. It suited me. But, it was hard to concentrate when my mind replayed what Duo had said. What if he was right and Relena had come to claim me, that my stay had been temporary from the start? No, that didn't make sense, even for humans. Everyone had gone to too much effort for a temporary stay. I'd been assigned number 1, the one and only or the first, not the one to go. Duo was wrong. One by one, the grooms checked us for pests and curried our hair. A very pleasant procedure. When my turn was over I watched the newest stable boy clean Duo's stall. He'd stopped twice already to answer the buzzing device hidden in his hip pocket. Nervous energy radiated from the human, and distraction rose off him like a fog from damp ground. Duo nearly ran him down returning to his stall. His stall. Idiot, put that device away! "Whoa, ho! Sorry little guy. Geez, don't humans know we're like a bazillion times bigger than them? You'd think self-preservation would set in and they'd look out when a horse is aiming for the feedbag, wouldn't ya?" "You would think so, yes." I agreed with Duo wholeheartedly, and he returned me a look that made me shiver. His eyes slid over me from hoof to shoulder, nose to tail, examining. "They did a nice job on your coat," he said, and I shivered again. He could do that to me with a look. I wanted him in a way I didn't quite understand yet. Trowa's heroics aside, I had no illusions of our odds living long, healthy lives in the wild. Humans were fragile and flawed, but they worked magic and held our lives in their hands. It was a good pact we had. Still, they required watching. Like this boy. He swatted DUO! No one punishes my friends unjustly without consequences. It wasn't Duo's fault you got in the way, idiot! I whinnied and stomped. "Let it go, 'Ro. No harm, no foul." Whatever THAT meant! Where had Duo picked up all that nonsense to say? He looked good, though, and I know he hadn't been harmed. Yes. He looked real good in spite of having his face half covered by his food. He seemed unaffected, so I sucked on a straw and watched his shadow moving as he ate, and watched the human. That human stood in the doorway from the barn to the outside. I couldn't see him; I made out his shadow in the dirt and I heard him muttering into his device and then I sensed something else. Sniff! SMOKE! "'Ro? You wanting out again? Hey, stop banging about. I'll getcher door. You just have to ask, you know?" "SMOKE!" "Huh? Where?" I knew where and wasted no more time. I dashed through the barn and leaped toward the man I knew held fire. He didn't hear or see me. His back was to me and he held that device to his ear with one hand, fire on a short stick glowing in the other. Above his head stated the rules clearly so even a horse could read it-NO SMOKING. I roughed him up some, stamping out the glow of fire. I didn't hurt him. I could have and I knew better; I knew my limits. What? Now he was screaming bloody murder and holding his head, bleeding. A tiny scrape he got when he fell-I didn't do that! What a baby. "Fuck! 'Ro! You go crazy here or what?" "He had fire. I put it out. He's all right, and if he'd shut up I wouldn't feel like killing him." "Don't. Do. It." Duo used a scary voice which broke through my fury with the human. Suddenly people were all around us, some shouting. Shouting at me! A rope was lashed to my halter and I felt a yank. "Duo! He had a glowing fire stick. Look in the straw. Look! Don't let him hide it!" The last thing I saw before being led back to my stall was Duo's nose snuffling in the straw. I hoped my friend was as clever as I gave him credit for. I was confused by the sudden activity around me. I calmed myself by reciting safety details. Ideally, hay and bedding should not be stored in the same building as horses, and actually, here, very little was and they maintained the hay storage area well, keeping it clean and dry. This place even collected rain water runoff from the gutter and stored it for fire control. I'd noticed that get filled and emptied with the storms. I'd skimmed the design manuals, mostly the pictures. What else? There were dozens of highly visible fire extinguishers and the doors opened out for fast escape, for humans. It wouldn't do us any good if we were locked in. I was grateful for Duo's talents. All of them, honestly. He rubbed my back and sheltered me from the sun and flies with that gorgeous tail of extraordinary length. He nibbled and scratched at all the right spots. He said the most encouraging things and looked up to me, sometimes. He could do more of that and I'd be happier. He was number 2 at the stables, but to me he was special; he was my number 1. Trowa stuck out his head. "What's the ruckus?" I explained how I'd put out fire. "You hurt a human, though. They're pretty particular about that. Oversensitive to my mind. In the circus, headstrong stallions got sold." "Thanks." "Don't be too sad. You've been Howard's favorite all along. He won't let you go without a fight. 'Cuse me, Quatre's in a state." I could hear his excited voice over the uproar of humans'. What a mess. I hadn't intended to turn the place upside down- just save us from a disaster. I may have over-played my role, but I didn't think so. Fire killed. I'd never forget the cries of my stable mates or the smell of burning horseflesh. Quatre, Trowa and I stuck out our necks to the outside and still found it hard to hear. The Arabian could pitch his voice to carry the best. "They keep repeating things I don't understand, but I did hear your name over and over. They are very upset." Great. "I put out the fire while it was only a smoldering end of a stick, that's why." Quatre sniffed. "You did the right thing. Howard's got to see that. Um, where's Duo?" "Saving number one's ass, we hope." Trowa reached for a rose bud from the thorny mess by the stable doors, clipped it neatly with his front teeth, and swung to the side to deliver it under the Arabian's nose. And I really held onto that hope as the fear of being torn away washed over me. I didn't want to part with this home. Especially from Duo. I didn't want to be apart from him. The terror of it seized my breath. Because between my attack on the stable boy, justified or not, and the possibility of Lady Relena's threats, my being turned out suddenly sounded like a serious prospect.
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