"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"

A/N: Thanks to Snowdragon for Wufei "eating crow" and Waterlily for all the edits, re-edits, re-re-edits (no kidding), and ideas

Chapter Eight-Paradise Lost

(o) Quatre's POV

My breath still came in shuddering huffs. Wufei had frightened me with his unjustified attack. I'd felt white-hot flashes of the other stallions' combined mix of envy and annoyance. His unstable behavior threatened our happy home, because he'd frightened Howard, too.

And now my lovely belongings, where had they all gone?

I stretched out my legs, scattering straw across the floor of my stall. While I could admire my pretty, clean fur, it was hard to ignore the ugly scars. My hooves had nothing twisted around them, but sometimes, when I felt the grass clinging and tangling around my ankles, it was like, like metal wire twisting- panic!

No, no, they were free and I was safe, I confirmed with another examination. I folded and tucked my slender legs neatly to my side and wondered what had happened to my dear little Percy. He'd disappeared in all the excitement, and although I knew he was alive, I could feel his life beating through his heart, it bothered me that I didn't know what had become of him.

"Move over. I'm not that skinny."

Dear Trowa. This lovely stallion had come to comfort me. He nudged me a little closer to the side of the stall.

"So, there's the cat," he said.

"Really? He's here?"

"Yeah." He moved aside some of the straw I'd mounded with my hooves to reveal a puff of white fluff snuggled into a nest of hay. "Breathing still," Trowa assured me, and then sank to the floor, missing the sleeping cat by a hair's breath.

He was the sweetest, gentlest horse I'd ever met. He was my soul mate. I loved his rare coloring and the way the roan frosted the underlying, reddish fur! Why he didn't think he was stunning, with the most perfect strawberries-in-cream spotted coat -like a rose syrup pudding-I couldn't understand, but there was no use asking him. Questions like that just made him go silent.

I just wanted to lick him all over just like my favorite dessert, nibble all those strawberry spots. I didn't; I wasn't entirely certain what he'd make of that intensity of attention.

He didn't talk much about himself or offer much about what he was thinking. I had to use my cleverness to tease a few scraps of information from him.

"How did you end up with Percy, was it here?" I licked his fur in a line along his spine.

Trowa let out a stream of air, ruffling his long forelock. "Duo saved him from sure death and dumped him on my back."

"And that didn't bother you?"

"I'd had big cats riding back there before. This one hardly counted."

"I was thinking of those little claws digging in."

"Well that wasn't great, but if you move evenly, they don't wobble and cling so hard. In shows, I'd wear a special blanket for protection, or I'd be dead by now."

"Oh, I'd think so, those huge claws!" I remembered encountering the mountain lions near our pasture. "Let me look. I see a spot of blood." I licked his shoulders, which he seemed to like. His breathing deepened and I smoothed my cheek against his soft fur. "Percy seems to like you. He won't even look at me."

"Aw, don't pout, Beautiful. Everything happened so fast, he probably thought he was on your back. He's asleep now. Who knows how long he'd been locked up in that trunk?"

"How true, poor thing. Of course, it was kind of you to get him that tin of sardines."

"Howard did that." He seemed amused by what I'd said and rolled so I could lick and nuzzle a bit under his chin.

"But you...lick, lick... pushed it where Percy could lap it up without moving."

"I didn't want to step in the rank smelling stuff."

"You are so...! Just let me compliment you." I pulled at one of Trowa's soft ears with my lips.

"Oh, you com-ple-ment me just fine."

I could tell he was proud of that joke and nuzzled him some more. "Mmmm." But he pushed me away to look at my neck.

"There's a ragged place in your mane."

I let my head sink onto my soft blankie, the only item besides sweet little Percy that had made it into my stall. It smelled of spices and desert. I felt a stab of pain in my chest. I liked it here, but I missed things about my last home, too. "It's nothing. I think Wufei bit it off."

"Bit it off? I'll nip a kink in his tail-"

"You'll do no such thing. It's not important. Really. Howard's upset with us. He doesn't think we're getting along. I can feel it."

"I believe you, but we can't let that asshole get away with biting."

"You're right, and I'll think of something." I certainly would have to! How would it look if I let him bully me? Trowa would think I was weak and maybe there was some truth to the accusations. And if Trowa turned his back on me? How could I survive that? What hope would I have left that Heero or Duo would still want to be my friend? "I can stand up to him just fine. And I will. I really, really will!" Please don't believe I'm as worthless as Wufei said!

"Hey, settle down, my beautiful, beautiful heart. Shhh."

My breath caught somewhere between my chest and my lips. Had he really called me his heart? How sweet. The endearments eased my worries like balm to my aching soul - words usually reserved for a mate than a friend.

I must have "settled down" enough for him to unlink our legs and talk to me in his customary tone of voice.

"I know you've got more gumption than most the horses I've known. He was a first-class jerk. If the humans hadn't been there, you might've done him some harm."

"I'd never jeopardize the herd!"

"- And I saw you jump the chest, which was half your size. That took nerve-"

"Yes, yes, it did." I was brave too. Really I was!

"-And maturity."

"You're too kind," I began, but stopped when he snorted his difference of opinion in my ear. "Anyway, I can deal with him-" I insisted.

"We will. He doesn't know what you endured."

We-that sounded very nice, but... "I- I couldn't... I can't talk about escaping the terrible stallions and their cruel jokes. Not when my head was full of the awful things he was saying to me."

"Of course not. You owe your story to no one."

"But if he understood-?"

"Doesn't matter; he'd overstepped his bounds. Even Heero won't let him get away with wrecking our herd."

"Okay, we can deal with him in the morning. Right now, I'd like to talk about other things."

"Like your dowry chest?"

"It's not a -" I poked him in the ribs with a knee, and he trapped my legs again, intertwining them. "You were teasing me."

With a shake of his head, Trowa hid his near eye behind a curtain of forelock. I hated when he cut me off that way, so with my long tongue, I swept away the hair. "You think all those things are silly, don't you?"

"Not silly, nothing that means so much to you could ever be silly."

I just melted against him. He was so kind and being rather sentimental, but I relished it to bits.

"No," he went on, "your stuff's too valuable for that. Just surprised me to see it. What's the matter?"

Well, that was interesting. The monetary value of my things had never struck me, but Trowa counted and Wufei seemed particularly sensitive to appearances. Flaunting expensive things like I had must have seemed inconsiderate and foolish, which meant Wufei's anger had been somewhat justified. I sighed and fell back down onto my blankie.

"I'll probably never see it all again." I rubbed my face against the soft cloth, finding it still offered me comfort. "At least I have this."

"You still have me. Not that I really compare to all that treasure."

What a shameless thing for me to have said. I nuzzled him almost frantically. "You do! You're far more important than those - things! It's just that they remind me of my home, of my family."

"Hey, beautiful." He tried to put me off, but I could tell he loved all the attention I gave him by the way he lifted his chin, giving me better access to his sensitive spots. He had lots of those. He was virtually covered with all kinds of spots. Oh, my, was I getting light-headed?

A few heated moments later he shook his head free. "Your stuff's still around."

"It is?"

"Yeah, right outside your stall. I saw it on my way over."

"My keepsake chest? Do you think it's open?"

"I should think so. A-aw, don't get up to look. Stay put."

"I can't very well leave with you on my legs, can I?"

(o)

"Rain." I hadn't learned to accept the copious quantities of water pouring from the sky. It was gloomy and disheartening. And then Trowa found a way to sweep away my storm clouds.

"No problem, my beautiful little hydrophobic Equus ferus caballus. There's the indoor arena for exercise."

"Ha! I love it when you speak Latin to me."

"That's good."

"And I feel so much better knowing I don't have to go out in that."

"That's right."

"Morning, Sunshine... Spot."

"Hi, Duo.

"Yo."

"Hey, don't look so glum. We'll have a great day, you'll see. Say, where's the cat?"

"Percy!" I'd forgotten about him already. How neglectful I'd become!

"Whoa, I think I found him."

Dangling from Duo's tail, getting more and more tangled every second, was my Percy.

"Oh, dear! I'm so sorry! I'll try to get him to let go."

"That... vile vermin is still here?" Heero's irritation reached all the way up and down my spine. "Duo! I thought you said he'd been destroyed in the fracas?"

"No, I didn't. What I'd said was-"

Wufei stuck his neck out his stall window, not having been freed yet by Duo. "Technically, a feline is not a vermin; it hunts them."

Percy bat away my nose as I tried to free him from Duo's luxurious hair. Heero hissed and Duo looked abashed and in pain as I found a cat-hold and tugged again, while poor Percy clung onto the tail for dear life.

Heero looked very unhappy as he glared at the mass of white spun in a fine black net, swinging. "That's my tail to play with." I felt Heero growing more incensed by the second. "You said you got rid of the menace."

"Um, what I'd said was more along the lines of watching the cat disappear with the circus horse..." Duo's voice trailed off. "Ouch!"

"Percy is sweet and precious. He's not a menace. Usually. Oh, this is so hard. I can't free both paws at the same time."

"Maybe if I pulled from the other side," my sweet Trowa offered.

"I did get rid of him!" Duo said to Heero, defending his actions, and then groaned. "I gave him to Trowa and he carried it away. What's the big-? Argh! You're pulling out hair!"

And suddenly we heard from Wufei. "No, no! Let me!"

Whatever did Wufei mean by that? "That isn't very nice of you to say," I told him. "Pulling hair hurts."

"Chewer." Both Trowa and Duo ground that out, and now I understood.

A hair chewer. So, mine wasn't the only mane to get snacked on? Yes, and that was why the new horse had wanted to rescue Duo's hair from Percy's grip, so he could have it for his own purposes. Foolish, foolish horse.

Heero butted into Wufei's door. "Pull in your neck before I break it!" he ordered Wufei, who looked astonished. "Crow's the only thing you'll be eating around here." He whirled around so I couldn't see what had become of my delicate little kitty, and shouted more orders. "Duo, get out of here."

He backed into the stall door again, harder. I heard wood split! This was not going to turn out well for dear, dear Percy if I didn't extract him at once. I pulled and Trowa blew air in the cat's face, distracting it. I had half a cat in my mouth.

"You've made of mess of Number Two's tail. The groom will have a fit."

"Shut up," Trowa told Wufei.

"There! Free!" Duo cheered me on. "Now hide the cat!"

Heero snapped at the kitty's huge, fluffy tail.

"Heero! Stop!" I blurted out, dropping the kitty cat.

Snap, snap!

Poor Percy! He skittled on the smooth surface but couldn't outrun Heero. "He's terrified!" I whinnied. "Oh, please, don't hurt him!"

Duo stepped in the way, taking the charge and most of Heero's weight, giving poor Percy a chance to get out from under hoof. Trowa nabbed him by the nape of the neck and plopped him onto his back.

"Move it, Duo. I hate cats!" Heero grumbled. "Where did it go?"

"Away. Geeze Louise, 'Ro, it's a cat not a rat. You gotcher rats'n'cats mixed up."

"I. Hate. Cats. All cats, including rats and mice."

I wanted to point out that rats and mice weren't cats, but Wufei had already tried and failed, and Heero was very insistent about his point, punctuating his words with a solid stomp of his hoof, so I gave up.

I nearly missed another hiss and Wufei leaning out from his stall again. He was talking to Percy!

"You think you are riding on Quatre's back, don't you, you stupid, color-blind animal? Well, you are not. That's the circus clown, which I'm sure a pampered pet like you wouldn't dream of sleeping near- Look over there. See? That's the yellow horse."

Percy's round eyes studied me hard. Did that cat actually understand what Wufei had said? Could Wufei really talk to cats and understand them? He understood human speech, so it wasn't entirely absurd. Percy rose up on his toes and his back went all upside down "U" shaped, and he dug in his claws.

"AH!" Trowa tried to pitch off the fluffy, upside down "U" shaped kitty with its tiny, sharp nails.

"Oh, dear! He doesn't mean to hurt you. It's just an automatic reaction."

Trowa reared up onto his hind legs-his automatic reaction, I guessed- to get rid of the annoyance clinging to his back.

Heero and Duo were heading back our way again; Heero to hurt my kitty, I could tell!

"Duo, out of my way!" Heero whinnied.

"Too late!"

Both Duo and Heero rammed into Trowa, who'd been balanced on two legs. It was terrible! They all crashed into the stall. I heard the cracking wood, the whinnies, Wufei's rather disgraceful cry for help.

My poor crushed pussy-cat!

I disliked Wufei to the point that I actually hoped he'd been hurt. He really shouldn't have told the cat about Trowa, if that's what he'd done, and I was nearly certain he had.

And then suddenly Percy dashed out between my legs and last I saw of him was the tip of his tail vanishing into my stall.

And then the thunder of human footfalls. Oh, dear.

Everyone was okay, but not Wufei's door. It required repair.

Howard seemed exasperated with us. We were dressed in booties and horse rugs then summarily turned out into the muddy outdoor arena in the pouring rain.

We had made things worse by far. My horse sense told me that the humans were desperately worried about us not getting along.

We were a sullen lot. Standing, water running down our noses, nothing to eat. We'd missed breakfast! No sweet meadow grass. Just nasty nettles and prickly things. And if I hadn't had my frilly booties and monogrammed horse jacket, I would have been more uncomfortable than I'd ever known.

Which set off Wufei, again. Apparently, my cherished belongings had not been forgotten by him.

"You should all be appalled that a stallion amongst you has all those luxurious things."

Wufei made "luxurious" sound like "wickedness" and made me defensive.

"I didn't ask for them!" I shot back.

"I never had anything except my saddle and bridle, and my sword, of course."

Only I heard Duo add, "Don't neglect adding your obnoxious attitude."

"My breed would scorn all these overindulgent possessions."

I looked to the others for support. "All the Winner horses had nice things! Even the war horses!"

Wufei let out a derisive snort. "And who hasn't heard of the famous Winner warrior stallions and how battle-tough and brave they are? What happened to you?"

That nearly shocked the breath right out of me. "I-I was dismissed."

"Rejected from of this elite group? Well, that comes as no surprise to me. I want nothing to do with you," he said, turning to address the others, "and the rest of you should ignore him too."

"OH no! Please no!"

It wasn't fair. He was singling me out and it wasn't fair, but to defend myself I'd have to reveal my deepest darkest fears. I couldn't talk about my nightmares yet. I couldn't talk about the awful stallions. And yet, I knew I must stand up to the bully, I knew that, before he put questions in their heads and created more friction.

"I think you should shut your yap." Love my stalwart Trowa!

"That's pretty harsh, Wu." And Duo.

"We all got ousted from one thing or the other," Heero told him. "It's not the horse's fault most of the time either."

"And not mine for being a treasured part of the Sheik's horse harem," I said, "if only until I grew up. It's lovely to feel special and treasured. Didn't anyone ever love you?"

He didn't say anything. I could feel anger boiling in his chest. Maybe, if I was gentle and sweet I could make him see things from my point of view. I couldn't hurt to try.

"You spent your whole life being tough and strong and don't know what it's like to be cherished." Without thinking, I glanced at Trowa when I said it. "Not yet-"

Waves of resentment washed over me, and when I looked up, Wufei was gnashing his teeth and swishing his tail. I felt so sorry for him, but I was making things worse.

"Save the dewy-eyes for the spotted freak," he said.

Trowa spoke up as he walked steadily toward the other horse, taking the verbal assault in a frontal attack and shielding me. "Now, just a doggone minute-"

Wufei backed up a step. "Stay away from me!"

"Please, Trowa! I don't want a fight over me. It's okay. I utterly understand why Wufei is so bitter and angry."

I tried to worm past Trowa to appeal to the angry Chinese warrior horse, but Heero nudged me out of his way, the two horses walling off Duo and me from Wufei. Still, I could feel the resentment and ire flowing from him.

"Argh! Shut up! I just want to kick you!"

And equally strong emotions roiling off my kind protector. "So help me, Wufei, I'm going to lob your head over the far fence if you don't apologize to him."

Oh, no! I just couldn't stand by while everything was escalating out of control. I had to stop the violence.

Duo seemed to read my mind when he bowed his head to the side and said to me, "I'm going this way."

We circled around the horse knot in opposite directions, leaving Wufei in the center. He couldn't attack us all at once.

I knew we had to stop before something terrible happened. "Think everyone! You don't want the humans to break us up or have to sell us, do you?" I demanded their attention by stomping my hooves, and then appealed to their better natures. "You mustn't fight! Either of you!"

The mares who reared me taught me about pacifism and being nice to those who are mean to you and that I should try to help and understand them. I had to teach the others and make them all understand.

Duo had his own ideas. "You're as big as him. Show him you can kick butt!"

"What? I thought you wanted to stop a fight, and now you are inciting one!"

Heero and Duo looked on, expecting me to fight. Duo meant well, I knew it, but he and the others didn't see why I wouldn't fight with Wufei.

"No, that's not the way to help, can't you see? You should feel sorry for him, rather than trying to make him apologize for how he feels."

I jigged sideways to Trowa with a second's warning from a flare of blinding hate, just avoiding Wufei's charge. I knew he wouldn't really hurt me; at least, he couldn't reach me since Trowa was there and would always be there to protect me. And I could run almost as fast as a Thoroughbred! Much faster than the Chinese warrior horse.

"Heads up!" Heero warned.

Then Howard and the farrier appeared from the barn door and headed directly for the golden stallion with a rope and halter.

"What's this? I was under perfect control," he complained.

"No, you were hounding Quatre," Heero corrected him.

I didn't like the feelings I was getting from the humans. Not at all. They were concerned for our safety, and their own, but also worries that ran deeper. The humans' conversation seemed intense, and so did Wufei's interest in it.

Wufei stood only inches away so I could hear him grinding his teeth and whispering. "Again! It's being suggested again! Oh! How mortifying! Imagine, one of the Dragon clan being damaged that way. In the prime of my life! The injustice of it!"

Heero understood the disorder to the herd, I think; he certainly noticed Wufei was most disturbed, enough to demand, "What are you muttering?"

I wondered why he just crossed his rear legs that way?

Heero was about to lose his carefully controlled temper and glared at Wufei. "Explain the human speech. What are they talking about?"

I could feel Wufei's panic and see the white rimming his eyes. I could also tell that he wasn't about to tell us what he'd heard when he tossed his head defiantly.

Heero was just as intent on getting his answer. "I will kill you if you don't tell me."

No! Don't overreact!

Duo leaned in to bump shoulders. "Hey, 'Ro, it's not about you, what they're saying."

"You don't know that!" Heero snapped, a sure sign he was tense.

Duo smacked him with his tail. "They're not saying our names."

Heero sighed, giving way to Duo, who whispered, "They haven't mentioned Relena for a long time."

Oh! Was Heero still worried that he might yet be sent back to Relena? Fighting with Wufei could make that possibility a reality!

Heero leveled a glare in Wufei's direction. "I mean it. Tell me."

And I knew he was mad enough to attack, and just might attempt it, which was stupid, really. It would make the worst come true! Everything was going wrong. The humans were getting more nervous by the second. Couldn't the others tell?

Duo shook his mane. "C'mon, Wu, what's the big secret? Um, better spit it out before you get hauled away."

He was answered by a snort as Wufei directed his comments to Heero. "You'll be separated from Number Two, if you try-"

"He's not a number! Humans might label us. Attempting to reduce us to numbers, devaluing us, but we are better than they are. So call him by his name. Call him Duo!"

Heero did have a point. And he so obviously adored Duo to bits. I hoped that affection was stronger than the impulse to dominate Wufei and start a fight.

"The humans will haul you away and you'll never see your..." his tongue stumbled over the name, but he spit it out, "... Duo again."

Heero showed his teeth. "Only if I got caught mangling your dead body. And I wouldn't."

Another good point. And I could feel Wufei's resistance fade.

"And I'll help quarter, mash, and hide your body parts, and stand by him," Duo said, ever loyal to our leader.

"Count me in," came from Trowa. "In fact, I'm gonna find me a crow. He can start breakfast with that."

I kept my mouth shut. I didn't think Trowa would kill a crow much less make Wufei eat one. I couldn't even pretend to be that brutal and anything I'd say would ruin the moment for Heero. Male hormones pervaded the air, his neck thickened and mane bristled.

And the less dominant horse backed down.

Wufei gave in. "The operative word was castration."

And we all crossed our legs...

Chapter 9

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