|
"Blood or Chocolate?"Written By: Karen Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing or any of
its characters. Otherwise, the show would've been way different. Warnings: First and foremost, this fic is supposed
to be a humor fic. Shounen ai and Yaoi next. Violence, blood and gore,
supernatural elements, such as werewolves, vampires, evil leprechans,
trolls, witches, and other stuff I think of along the way. Expect
lemons, limes, death of insignificant characters, and angst. (heh!)
OZ people are also going to really intermingle with the GW boys, particularly
with Duo. Pairings: Will be 5x2, 3x4, past 5x1 (and we're
talking WAY in the past), Meizer+2/2+Meizer and everybody+2 (hey,
everyone loves Duo). Summary: Duo Maxwell is an almost average guy
in a small, rural town. He works at the only gas station for miles
around, is gorgeous, but single. He also gets harrassed by the town's
rich idiot. But what makes him different is that he's a clairvoyant;
he can read thoughts by touch or he can simply 'hear' them. Kind of
complicates matters. Yeah. So when he runs across a man whose thoughts
he can't hear, although trying to gives him nosebleeds, he decides
that that is a fair trade. That is until he finds out that the guy
isn't a typical 'guy,' and that getting involved with him only leads
to trouble...and a few dead bodies. "Blood or Chocolate?"
Quick!" He complied. I kicked the door open, leaned over and
immediately upchucked. I thought that this time I saw my shoes come
out my mouth. "Oh god," I whined when I finished. "Somebody,
kill me." I looked down. Nope, my shoes were still on my feet.
"I doubt it's as bad as you're making it,"
Heero commented, pulling back onto the road when I closed the door.
"Try to relax. If it turns out to be too much, don't do it."
I exhaled, and wiped my mouth with my sleeve. "Yeah,
but this could turn out to be the break we need. I don't want to lose
it because I'm being too chicken-shit." "You're not being chicken-shit." He patted
me on the knee. "This is hard for you. It's hard for us too.
I mean, Mrs. Darlian treated me so kindly when I was first 'made'..."
I felt like a big donkey turd. It was so easy to just
think about myself. I never thought that they cared about each other,
or that this was hurting them too. "Heero, I'm sorry." "I know," he said softly. "I'm sorry
too." The rest of the ride was in silence. I spent that time
trying to get myself together. If I was able to see three mutilated
bodies, then an eyeball shouldn't be a problem. Yeah. Keep thinking
that Maxwell, and we'll be as right as rain. Way too soon for me, we arrived at the cemetery. I could
feel the bile trying to rise in my throat, but I suppressed it ruthlessly.
Finding my center, Heero and I got out of the car and climbed (well,
I climbed, he just jumped) over the gate. As we went our way, I started
to feel...different. Something massive happened here, and it was pushing
against my shields, trying to tell me something I subconsciously didn't
want to know. I stumbled a few times, and after the fourth time Heero
didn't bother to let go of me. My head was starting to throb with my heartbeat, and
the strain at trying to keep the forces at bay was giving me a slight
nosebleed by the time we made it to the others. My guess was we were
in the southeast corner of the cemetery, where the bodies of unclaimed
pets were buried. Wufei was there, with Trowa and Sally on either
side of him, and Auda was leaning against a headstone, looking extremely
put-upon. I could feel all of their eyes focusing on me, but I
couldn't respond to them. Something so traumatic occurred here that
it was stealing blood from my brain, forcing me into a natural high
where I could hear the trees whisper and the ground breathe. I could
see all of them how I saw Quatre yesterday. We were once again in
a black void, where they were no longer themselves, but red pulsating
energies, and I was able to distinguish each one from the other. Compared
to them, Quatre had been the lightest red. Auda was red with white
swirls. Trowa and Sally were red with blacks swirls, although Trowa's
was a darker red. Heero was the same color as Wufei, who was so red
it bordered on maroon, but Wufei had lightening strikes to his essence,
and vibrations of what I thought thunder would look like. "Duo?" I didn't know who said my name. I only looked down at
the eye. It was in the middle of their semi-circle, clean and unscathed.
What appeared to be a red trail of blood vessels still clung to it.
Other than that, it was whole and untouched. Even the ground it rested
on was whole and clean. I didn't need to touch it though. Mrs. Darlian's
essence had been obliterated, staining itself on everything. / ...How could you do this?... ...I love you... ...I don't want to hurt you, but you leave me no choice!...
/ Rage. Hate. Disgust. Those feelings had their own pockets
in the air. "She knew her killer," I said in a hollow
voice. I could feel everyone's ears perk up. "She didn't know
what that person was doing, but she somehow found out. She felt...betrayed."
Yes, that was the right word. "The one who killed her killed
the others." I searched some more. I could feel the blood running
faster down my nose. "This was someone she cared about very much,
but she made a decision she felt she had no choice but to make. Both
choices were choices of betrayal to her." I turned towards Wufei,
although I couldn't see him with my eyes. "In the end, she made
the righter one. She tried to kill him or her." / ...No, I can't let you... ...Are you rabid?! You'll be killed! Or worst, thrown
out of the Pack!... ...He isn't like the others...that was the past...he's
different!... ...No, you'// have to kill me first!... / Rage. Hate. Disgust. Malice...resignation. "Whatever they were doing would be enough to get
them thrown out of the Pack." I was quiet as I tried to decipher
what Darlian's mate was trying to say without voicing the words. "She
was protecting someone," I figured at last. "Who?" Wufei asked softly. I tried hard, but there wasn't a name. She never thought it. Her only thought at the time was her fear of failing her Packmaster. "I don't know who. She didn't think
of the name." "Wufei, this is enough!" Heero almost shouted.
"He's starting to bleed from his ears!" I tried harder, but I still wasn't able find out who
it was. "She only said that they would have to kill her first.
He or she was going to do something..." / ...Ahhhh!... Packmast-- *crack!* / My concentration broke, and I cried out from the short
burst of her pain from when she died. Heero caught me, and swinging
me up in his arms, he carried me away from the cemetery. Easily vaulting
over the fence, he headed towards the werewolf headquarters, Wufei
quickly catching up to us. Once we were on the property, I felt it
strange for the place to be empty. The two times I've been here, the
house was teeming with energy and presence, even though the first
time I didn't see anyone. We entered through the front door, and as we turned
to make our way up the stairs, I saw Quatre sitting on the couch,
watching a soap opera. His eyes widened when he saw me, and a look
of shock crossed his features. "I'm sorry," I whispered
to him as Heero carried me up the stairs to Wufei's bedroom. Once
in the antechamber, Heero handed me to Wufei, and held the heavy door
open to allow us through. Wufei then laid me tenderly on the bed,
as if I costed him a million dollars. He brushed my bangs from my
face with his fingertips, and I nearly fell asleep from the soothing
motion. "I'll be right back," he whispered, and in
a few seconds he returned with a wet washcloth. As gently as possible,
he started to wipe the blood from my nose. The silence was so heavy it was oppressive, and what
I figured out weighed so heavily on my chest that I couldn't keep
my mouth shut. "The hydrogen cyanide is being used to kill your
sense of smell. That's why you're unable to find any scents."
He sighed softly. "Quatre told me what you've found
so far. I didn't know if it would have any relevance, but I'm grateful
you and Heero found this out. That is something we would not have
solved on our own." He started to clean the blood from my ears. I still
couldn't keep my mouth shut. "She died calling for you."
I didn't know why I was telling him this. "When she screamed
for you, they...he, broke her neck." Wufei stilled for a minute, then continued to clean
my ears. "Go to sleep," he told me in a thick voice. I closed
my eyes and relaxed, waiting for sleep to claim me. I felt the weight
of the bed shift as Wufei got up. I laid still, and noticed how silent
the silence was. All I heard was the fireplace. I didn't hear Wufei
leave the room...I didn't hear him moving around...hm, maybe this
room had a secret compartment or something! I sat up, and saw that Wufei was standing in front of
his fireplace with his hands folded behind his back. His head was
bowed slightly, and his posture was rigid. I closed my eyes again
and tried to feel what he was feeling, allowing his emotions a chance
to drift towards me instead of me trying to mentally approach him.
With Wufei's powerful mind, that was just not safe. Unfortunately, that didn't work either. Wufei was so...bottled
up that I wasn't receiving any kind of waves from him whatsoever.
So, making sure to make noise as I approached (I wanted to keep my
limbs) I walked around until I stood in front of Wufei, and wrapped
my arms around him. He stiffened, but a moment later he wrapped his
arms around me. I kissed him gently on his jaw and neck. "Wufei,
talk to me. You're upset." He didn't say anything at first. Then, "She called
for me." I didn't say anything. I waited for him to continue
when he would. He didn't keep me waiting. "Five hundred years
ago, when I first became Packmaster, I told my Pack that if they ever
needed me, they were to call for me." He buried his nose into
my hair. "I never told you to do that, but last night when you
called for me...I came to you. I was so glad that you called for me."
He held me tighter. "I failed her. She called like she was supposed
to. I just wasn't strong enough to hear her." Holding his head in my hands, I gently kissed him on
the lips, and looked into his eyes that were so full of pain. "I'm
so sorry for your loss," I told him. "But remember that
this wasn't your fault. If you had gone to her, you could've been
killed too." "No, I couldn't. I am the Alpha. There are none
here that can defeat me." I didn't know what to say to that, so I didn't say anything.
We held each other for a little while, swaying slightly with each
other in a tiny dance. After that, I coaxed him to lie down with me,
and some time later, he and I fell asleep. *** I jumped awake to the sound of howling. It was long
and drawn out, scaring the tar out of me with the sound of its chilliness.
Light was shining in my face, but it was pale. Moonlight. (Shit, it
was night?!) I looked up to see something that I never noticed before.
Wufei had a skylight in his room, but it was slanted sharply, only
allowing moonlight to shine in when the moon was directly overhead.
This would happen for a few days once a month. Clever. I jumped again. Looking around, this time I noticed
that I was alone in bed. Well, damn, did I snore or something? Jumping
a third time, I climbed out of bed and scrambled for the door. The
howling was louder, numerous, and intense. It wasn't just one wolf,
or ten, or twenty. Whatever they were about to do, this was the warmup.
And if this was the warmup, I didn't want to stick around for the
grand finale. Just when I darted back to drag Wufei's handy night
stand to the door, it opened. Quatre was standing there, looking decidedly
nervous. "Come on Duo." He gestured for me to follow him.
"I don't think you should stay here for this." Curious (but not enough to kill the cat), I followed
him downstairs. Instead of taking me to another room like I thought,
we went outside, and stuck to the shadows like spies. All around us
were the werewolves, and they were in their alternate skins, howling
with vigor at the moon. I could make out Wufei's gigantic form standing
towards the back of the gathering, posture strong and proud as he
looked over his wolves. Our eyes met, before he bowed his head to
me in apology and returned his attention back to his Pack. "Come on," Quatre said in agitation. I turned
around and saw he had jumped into his car. I did the same. Then Quatre
slowly backed the car up and drove away from the house. We slipped
out of there quieter than a ghost. "Hey, what's going on?" "They're grieving," he told me in a thick
voice. "They all know that Darlian's mate is dead. Even though
they know one of their own is responsible, they all will grieve together.
It's not customary for members outside of the Pack to be there."
I studied Quatre. He was upset; a lot more upset than
I thought he would be. "Quatre, what's wrong?" He took a shuddering breath. "Who would do that
to her? Of all of us, why her? She was the weakest. What threat could
she have posed? Hell, she wasn't strong enough to hurt anyone, not
even Mariemaia! Why?! She...she was the kindest of us all. Why?!"
he shouted, and banged his fists against the steering wheel. "Quatre, pull over," I demanded, and was relieved
when he obeyed. Making sure he put the hazard lights on, I reached
over and hugged him. He hugged me back (painfully so) and although
he didn't cry, I felt a lot of hot, shuddering breaths against my
shoulder. "This may not be my Pack," I heard him say
into my shoulder, "but I care. This is Trowa's family, so I treat
it like my own. When he hurts, so do I." "I understand," I told him, and I did. I had
taken Wufei's loss as my own. I was going to make it my personal mission
in life to find the werewolf responsible, and shave his furry nuts
with a rusty, broken, sharpened plastic spoon. "We're gonna catch
him Quatre, just wait and see." He pulled back from me. "No, you're gonna catch
him. Then you'll be held in the highest esteem." I shook my head. I didn't care about stuff like that.
"Let's go to my uncle's. You can spend the night there too, but
it'll be better if he doesn't see you." "Understood," he said, and we took off into
the night. *** All chances of sneaking in like teenagers were shot
when we pulled up and my uncle was on the porch, having a smoke. He
had his 'Where The Hell Have You Been' speech memorized and ready.
But when he saw how pathetic I looked, and especially Quatre, he reigned
in his temper long enough to get the facts. He invited Quatre in,
and I got the blond shape-shifter situated as my uncle and Hilde heated
us some leftovers. As soon as we were all armed with food and drink,
Howard and Hilde explained that Darlian was healing very rapidly from
what they understood, but that they were unable to visit because he
was off limits to everyone, not just his family. I then went into
what Heero and I found to be the purpose of the hydrogen cyanide,
and I told them about what happened at the pet cemetery. I explained
that we left because the wolves were doing their thing, and that brought
us up current, gossip-wise. "And what is your relation to Wufei?" Howard
asked Quatre, not unfriendly but not nicely either. "My name is Quatre Raberba Winner. I am mate to
Trowa Barton, Alphagué Bodyguard to Chang Wufei." "Oh yeah, I've been meaning to ask about that,"
I said, trying to head off on Howard figuring out that Quatre wasn't
human either. He was so innocent-looking that I knew it wouldn't occur
to my uncle to think otherwise. I wanted to save that ass-chewing
for another time. "What is Alphagué and Betagué?"
"It's the order of rank," he explained, tiredly
but happily. "You have in your militaries different ranks: lieutenant,
sergeant, captain, et cetera. We have similar positions. Betagué
is second in rank. They are the second strongest under the Packmaster,
and that position you have to fight for. The Betagué you know
of is Sally. Alphagué is the highest rank, which is the strongest
werewolf under the Packmaster. That rank you have to be born in. Trowa
and his sister, Catherine, come from a family line where every member
has been an Alphagué, and Mariemaia will do the same. Not even
the Prince of Werewolves has that distinction in his entourage."
Ohhh, now there was a subject I wanted to sink my teeth
into. "Quatre, who is the Prince of Werewolves?" He paled, and I could see that he regretted mentioning
that tidbit of information. "I probably shouldn't--" "Quatre, please, okay? It will probably take all
year for Wufei to get around to telling me. He only refers to him
as a 'blond piece of troll shit.' " "Oh my!" he gasped, but I could see the slight
smile he was trying to hide behind his hand. Then he sobered. "Okay
Duo, I will tell you, but don't repeat anything I say. The air is
treacherous, and it will carry your words to him if you're not careful."
I thought that was a weird thing to say. 'The air is
treacherous?' But I wanted to know, so I agreed. I made Howard and
Hilde agree too. They were soaking this stuff up as much as I was,
although Howard was the professional at hiding it. Dork. "The Prince of Werewolves is Milliardo Peacecraft.
He is royalty of the werewolf species, literally. His family were
the first spawned, and his fathers have been the kings of the Lagranges
since its conception." "I'll explain the Lagranges later," I told
Hilde and Howard right when they opened their mouths. "Keep going
Quatre." Ohhh shit. No wonder Wufei couldn't stand his ass. "And
that's what keeps him elevated above Wufei; his title." "Yes," Quatre answered. "His Pack, the
Siberian Werewolves, are one of the two strongest in existence. I
could give you three guesses who the other Pack is, but you'll only
need one." The three of us nodded. After all, rocket science this
was not. "So you understand that it's not just strength
between us and the Siberian Werewolves. Over the centuries, all battles
fought between them and us were tied. The two Packs are equal in every
way. The only separation has been the Prince's title." He sneered.
Heh, I saw what he thought of that! "It is Wufei's wish though,
that you'll never see or hear of him." He gave me a firm look.
"He is dangerous and not to be trusted. He is old; so old that
many Master Vampires fear him. Do not speak of his name, okay?"
I nodded even though I didn't understand. But I learned
not to argue. If it was enough that some kick-ass vampires were scared
of this dude, then it was enough for me. "Got it." "Good." Stretching, he gave a big, jaw breaking
yawn. Because yawns were contagious, it spread between the three of
us like wildfire. "Okay, off to bed everyone!" Howard announced.
"Quatre, you can sleep in Duo's room. He has an extra sleeping
bag in there." After I got my guest situated, I stretched out
in bed and went over today's events in my head, mentally retracing
my steps to see if I missed anything. I did. I had felt another set of emotions in the cemetery as
Heero was carrying me out of there. Grief. Revenge. I had a bad feeling about this. ~ * ~ (tbc)
|
