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"SHADOWS AND LIGHT: AN UNBREAKABLE BOND" Written By: Stone Angel
Please see Prologue for disclaimer, ratings and explanations. ^_^ AN:
SHADOWS AND LIGHT: AN UNBREAKABLE BOND:
Heero ran his hand through it carefully, not wanting
to wake Duo or trigger a nightmare. He brought it to his lips and
kissed it, smelling the fresh scent of shampoo. 'Oh no. Duo-kun...'
Heero looked to Duo's slumbering features. 'He took one of those cleansing
showers. He feels dirty. Duo...' Assessing his own feelings, Heero sighed. 'I feel bad
too. It's better than it was last night, but somehow, I think that
even if we talked about this in full, it would never heal completely.
How can he know his father did that and still be strong enough to
let me cry on his shoulder? It's the amazing inner strength that I
saw in him the night we met. He has to be strong. If he wasn't, he
would die. And no matter how bad things are, how much he is bleeding,
he always has the strength to lend a hand to others. I wish I was
so strong.' He kissed his hair again before gently running his fingers
through Duo's bangs. Duo scowled slightly in his sleep and a small whimper
escaped him before he woke and looked to Heero, a smile soon taking
over his features. "Ohaiyo." Heero smiled as well, leaving the subject of his previous
thoughts. "Ohaiyo. So today is Sunday. What do you want to do?" Duo thought about it for a moment. "I said I'd
help you with your math homework. I may not be able to help you with
that one assignment, but I can help you understand the contents of
the book. Or try to at least." He winced. "No promises,
mind you." Heero chuckled. Duo suddenly became stiff and looked around with a scowl
before his eyes widened. He was up and holding a sword and two stakes
faster than Heero could see. "Don't move from this room. Use
this if you have to." He threw a sharp and dangerous looking
stake to Heero who caught it out of reflex alone and was out the bedroom
door before Heero could even think of a question. No sound came from the other room for a few seconds.
Feeling his heartbeat begin to race, Heero was about to call out for
an explanation, despite his better judgment. A loud thud and a shriek
stopped him and he huddled in a corner, holding the stake to himself,
forming a Ki ball in his free hand, ready to defend himself. 'If anything
hurt Duo, I'll kill it.' He swore, cursing his own human weakness.
He waited, his heart feeling like it was being squeezed painfully
in his chest, so worried was he about his lover. Finally, after a few long moments, Duo called from the
other room. "It's safe, Heero. Come on out." Heero sprinted from the room, uncaring that the towel had fallen off of him in his sleep. He ran into the living room, flicking on the light to see Duo, over an unconscious 'boy' with shiny raven hair and Chinese clothes. "Wufei?" "Ah." Duo said as he placed a hand on Wufei's
brow. "The baka tried to knock the door down. I was about to
cut his damn head off but I recognized him. It was too late to stop
the sword but I managed to hit him with the side of the blade. And
stop myself from staking him." "Um... Why didn't you recognize him sooner?" Duo looked up for a moment. "We can recognize each
other, but first all we know is that there is another vamp in our
presence. When we feel that, THEN we scan them and see who they are.
I was just too distracted to do so. Plus, the last time a vamp showed
up at my door, it was a mark out to get me. Wufei and the others don't
even know where I live. Or, at least, so I thought." Heero looked to the decent sized wound on Wufei's chest that bled onto his white clothing, staining it red. "That's not going to kill him is it?" Duo shook his head. "No. But wounds caused by wood
take forfuckingever to heal. As it is, he's lucky that's all he got.
That and the concussion. He's still gonna be spitting mad when he
comes to. I guess I just barely missed his heart. This is gonna hurt.
And I can't stitch this type of wound. A gash made by a wooden blade,
yes, but this..." He stood and regarded Heero's state of undress.
"Um." He blushed. "Maybe you should go get changed." Heero looked down, remembering that he wore nothing but his scowl and smiled sheepishly, walking from the room to dress quickly. As he pulled on his shirt, he thought about the nightmare that had been the last time he had seen the Chinese vampire. 'What a couple of days that was, too. Man. Well, so long as I stay away from basements...' He grabbed Duo's clothing as well and headed to the living room where Duo was piercing the skin of a forefinger with his own fangs that had not been there when Heero had gone to dress. He watched as Duo applied the drops of blood to Wufei's
wound. His lover cursed quietly and Heero recognized the accents
of several languages. "Nani?" Duo looked up, obviously startled. "I was hoping
that this would help heal this a little better. It's not doing much,
though. I guess the only thing for this would be time." Heero looked to the unconscious vampire on the floor.
"When will he wake up?" "Don't know. Depends on how good I got him."
Duo lifted Wufei off the floor and hefted him over his shoulder, taking
the couch cushions off the couch and walking to the hallway. Blinking, Heero asked the only question that he could
form as he watched his lover carry the limp and bleeding body of his
friend into the other room. "Nani?" Duo looked back to him over his vacant shoulder. "He's gonna be in a weird state of mind when he wakes up. I need to put him in the spare room and lock the door behind us. These are so when he wakes up he won't think he's a prisoner. He was in a few wars in China, and, as I've told you, our mortal trials haunt us. Remember how out of it I was when I came to after that
dinner at the Jones’?" He threw the cushions onto the floor
in the shape of a long rectangle to form a make-shift bed. He then
carefully laid Wufei on them on his back and looked over the wound
on his chest. "I need to get some bandages for this. It won't
stop bleeding. And Wu-man hates his clothes to be stained." Heero looked over the unconscious 'boy' on the cushions
as Duo walked from the room to get said bandages from one of the drawers
in the bathroom. 'He actually looks peaceful when he's sleeping. Er,
knocked out cold. I guess Duo doesn't like surprises of this kind,
either.' He thought about Duo's words. 'Trials as a mortal? He's no
older than me in appearance. He was in wars as a child? I guess that
would explain his personality. And why he acted as immature as Duo
at the party before things went bad. Neither of them got to have a
childhood.' He thought he saw him move and yelped as he jumped backwards
and bumped into Duo. Duo nodded sadly at his obvious fear of the other vampire
before he stepped forward and unbuttoned the Chinese style buttons
on his old friend's shirt. As he saw the wound exposed for the first time, Heero
gasped. "Are you sure he's going to be alright?" Duo nodded. "Hey, this is Wu-man. He can pull through
anything. This is just a scratch to him." Heero gaped at the large and deep wound in his lover's
friend's chest. "How did you miss? Are you sure you missed?!"
He felt himself begin to panic, his breaths becoming fast and labored.
'I'm hyperventilating. I need to calm down.' Duo looked over the wound. "Don't worry, he'd be
dust of I had hit his heart dead on. I just barely missed. The tip
of the stake went to the side of his heart at the last minute when
I recognized him. I should have recognized him sooner. I was just
so scared that he was an enemy and I acted before thinking. I didn't
want you to get hurt. It was a shoot-first, ask-questions-later deal.
He'll be fine eventually." Heero gulped. 'It's my fault again.' "Do you need
help bandaging it?" Duo shook his head, glancing at him before taking the
bandaging tape and gauze in his hands again. "Iye. I can handle
this." He looked up and gazed at Heero for a moment before speaking.
"You might wanna go outside. I'll be able to control him when
he wakes up, but he's still gonna want blood on his hands. I'll live.
You on the other hand... It would just be safer if you were where
he couldn't get you. The sun will guard you well enough. Don't come
back into the house until I give the 'Ok'. Alright?" Setting his lover's clothes down, Heero nodded and stepped
back out of the room, closing the door behind himself as he made his
way to the front door and stepped outside. He looked through the waxing
light of dawn and saw the Honda in the driveway. It was a new model
Civic with chrome rims and a metallic paint, though what color, he
was unsure. A light color, either ivory or white. Looking inside,
he saw many suitcases. "What the hell is he here for?" * Duo finished bandaging his friend's wound and looked
it over. "Well, Justice-boy." He spoke to the unconscious
man. "You're shirt is ruined, but you'll be fine." He looked
down at himself and took in the fact that his friend's blood was covering
much of his skin. "Kuso. This is just like you, Wu-man. You have
to make everything hard on me. Even when you're hurt." Grabbing his clothes, he stood and walked to the bathroom
to wash the blood from his body. This he did quickly before drying
himself and dressing swiftly in his usual attire. He walked back into
the room where his friend lay on the cushions. "Wu-man, if anyone
can look dignified when they are sprawled out on the floor and damn
near mortally wounded, it's you." He said to the unconscious
figure before him. "Baka. What the hell were you thinking, just
coming here without a warning? You could have let me know. You're
just lucky I have good reflexes." He sat by the Chinese 'boy'
and crossed his legs, waiting for him to wake. After nearly an hour, Duo heard Wufei moan. He turned
his attention to him and prepared himself for the worst. Wufei woke with a shriek fit to break glass and was
up and crouching in a corner before Duo could say anything. He hadn't wanted to touch the alarmed Chinese before
he knew what was going on and where he was, the knowledge of how dangerous
it was keeping him sitting perfectly still as Wufei's eyes turned
to him. He waited, not speaking or moving or even breathing, letting
his friend of old recognize him on his own, not wishing to make him
think he again was a prisoner in ancient China. "Where am I?!" He demanded harshly in Mandarin,
reaching for his hip where a sword would be but finding none and obviously
being alarmed by that fact. He yelped and clutched a hand over the
wound on his chest as the pain registered. He formed a Ki ball in
one hand and waited for Duo to move. Duo knew he wouldn't throw it at him until he knew for certain that he was an enemy. So he stayed perfectly still, waiting for his friend to make the first move and speaking softly and in English. "Wufei, you are at my house because you came here. You were knocked unconscious when I didn't recognize you and I tended that wound." His eyes glowed for a mere second, a touch stone for the other to jog his memory and hoped Wufei would recognize the gesture as something strictly vampire-like and come to his senses. ‘"Remember."’ Wufei blinked and then cursed as he weakly slumped against
the wall to the floor, the weapon dispersing into air. "Maxwell."
He growled as he looked up at him. "What the hell did you do
that for?" Duo scowled. "Me?! What about you, Baka?! You just
show up here without so much as a warning?! What the hell were you
thinking?! You're lucky I didn't kill you, you fucking bastard!" Wufei grumbled as he rubbed the back of his neck where
the skull met the spine. "You hit me with a sword?!" "Just the broad side. I saw your face at the last
second." Wufei scowled. "And you just cold cocked me? What
the fuck?!" Duo was on his feet. "Listen, buddy! You're in
MY house, using MY roof as shelter from the sun! How about a little
respect?" Wufei glowered at him. "And as for the reason of my attack, Heero was
here and I didn't want a mark to hurt him." Duo threw his hair
over his shoulder and stuck his nose in the air indignantly, an uncommon
gesture for him. Wufei's scowl softened slightly at the words. "You're
serious about that mortal, aren't you?" Duo nodded. "Yes. I am." His tone turned menacing.
"And if you so much as_" Wufei growled. "Maxwell, shut up. Give me a little
credit." He seemed ashamed. "That...thing that happened
in the basement. ...I...regret it." Duo knew that was the closest thing to an apology he
was ever going to get from the Chinese man before him and let his
scowl fall. "I know. Just instinct I guess. Don't get too close
to him or touch him, though. He's skittish about you guys." He
said softly. Wufei nodded solemnly. "I can't really blame him."
He felt the bandage-covered wound on his chest. "I can't believe
you missed. This hurts like hell." Sneering, Duo replied. "Be happy you're not dead,
ass-hole. I came really close to killing you, you know. Now lie down."
He kicked the cushions idly. "You need to rest." Wufei nodded and stood slowly to fall back against the
wall. Crossing the room, Duo helped his friend to stand and
walk to the center of the room. He helped lay him onto the cushions. There was a quiet knock at the window, startling the
two vampires. Wufei paled, terror overtaking his features as he spoke
in a hushed whisper. "It's day and it has Ki. Maxwell, this is
bad." Duo smiled. "It's just Heero." He knocked
on the window as well. ‘"Go ahead and come in. He's himself."’
He listened as the footsteps left for the front of the house as he
went back to his friend and knelt by his side. "He has Ki?" Duo looked to his friend's puzzled and frightened expression.
"I gave him some of mine so he could feel and learn to grasp
it. Now that he knows what he’s doing, he can access his own.
You can sense him?!" Wufei nodded, an incredulous look on his face. Frowning, Duo tried to understand why he could not but
soon gave up. "Look, don't be scared of him. He's scared of you,
but he has no hard feelings over..." After a moment, Duo heard the front door open and Heero's
footsteps approach the bedroom he was in. * Wufei nodded respectively to him though he did not meet
his eyes for more than a mere second before looking away. "Heero."
His tone was that of acknowledgment and respect. Heero noted how pale he was and was certain that though some of it was from being near mortally wounded, it was also caused by the fact that he was afraid that Heero was still angry at him for the things he had not only said but done at Quatre's. He used the same tone as the Chinese vampire when he spoke. "Wufei." Heero stepped into the room to show
he was not afraid, though he was certain that the others could smell
his fear, and stood by Duo's side. 'I shouldn't be so scared. I did
what I had to. And I know it wasn't him talking. But still... I guess
I have the right to be afraid.' Duo sighed. "Not that I'm not loving this uncomfortable
silence, but why did you come here? How did you find me?" Wufei snorted. "You were easy enough to find. For
the last few nights your emotions have been projecting themselves
for miles for anyone sensitive enough to pick up on them. I don't
know what's wrong but you're really hurting about something." Duo began to shake lightly and Heero placed a hand on
his shoulder. Wufei glared ice at Heero. "You didn't do anything
to hurt him." He demanded. It was not a question but it still
demanded an answer. Heero was taken aback by the tone and look in Wufei's
eyes. 'He does care about Duo as a friend. He just doesn't normally
show it. They are good friends.' "No." "Whatever." Duo growled. "Why are you
here? And so close to dawn?" Wufei scowled and was silent for a moment before speaking
in a calmed but angry voice. "The onna kicked me out." There was a moment of silence before Duo laughed. "So
what, you're in the dog house now?" Wufei growled. "Shut up. I had nowhere to go. She
had all my stuff on the lawn and I couldn't get in because she had
asked a ningen friend to move in with her. I can't get into my own
house now, the bitch. And the woman living with her now knows about
us and won't invite me in, either." Duo laughed again harder. "Ha! The vamp way of
changing the locks on you while you're out! Hahaha!" Wufei glared at him before his expression became somewhat
ashamed. "I came here because you're a friend and I didn't want
to go to Quatre's and Trowa's." That statement killed any humor. Duo stopped laughing and Heero felt his blood run slightly
colder. "I guess I can understand that. We'll, you're welcome
to stay here for a while. What made Noin want to throw you out, anyway?" Wufei looked exasperated and stared at the ceiling.
"Damned if I know. The crazy bitch didn't even give me a heads
up. I will see her tonight at work_I hope_and then try to talk some
sense into her. Or beat some sense into her. Which ever." He
shrugged painfully. "Damn, Maxwell, when did you get to be so
impulsive?" Duo cleared his throat. "You were saying?" Wufei continued to stare at the ceiling. "I will
try to get her to let me move back in. If she will not, I will go
back to China. I have a house there, but it was close to dawn when
I had gotten home from work and found all my belongings strewn about.
It was too late for me to get a ship." He scowled. "What
the hell is wrong with women?! I mean, are they ALL this insane?" "Nope." Duo shook his head. "Just the
ones you get your sorry ass mixed up with. You can stay here until
you know what it is you are going to do. And just rest until you are
healed. You can talk to her later, ne? I don't think even you could
pull off more than a few minutes of walking right now." The Chinese vampire winced again at his wound, holding
a hand over it and grimacing. "I reserve the right to kill you
when I'm healed of this." Duo snorted. "Yeah. That'll happen." He said
sarcastically as he stood. "Ok, get some rest. I'll be in the
other room." Heero watched as Wufei's eyes glazed and waited for
long moments before Duo turned to him. 'He was talking to him. I wonder
what about?' He stepped out the door and Duo closed it behind them.
Smiling wryly, he tousled Heero's hair. "Well, there's no chance in Hell that I'm going back to sleep now. You?" Wordlessly, Heero shook his head, finally giving in to his fear and memories of the last time he had seen Wufei, shaking minutely. Duo embraced him. "You don't have to be scared
of him. I know the only time you met him was under bad circumstances
but these are normal circumstances. He's no more dangerous that I
right now. Ok? Hee-kun, please stop shaking." He kissed his hair.
"It's Ok." Heero nodded but could not loosen the grip that fear
had upon him. "I know." Duo nodded and kissed his cheek. "Why don't we
go over your math homework, ne?" Heero nodded again. "Hai." * * * * * * * ** * Back to
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