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"White Knight"Written By: t-shirt Disclaimer: Gundam Wing and its characters are
copyright to Sunrise, Bandai, Sotsu Agency, and associated parties.
I make no money with this fic. Rating: NC 17 Warnings: Angst, fluff, WAFF , light lemons Pairings: 1x2, 3x4, 5+all Summary: Duo is a young boy who has dreams - dreams of the future. "White Knight"
Prologue There is a mist that hovers on the extreme edges of reality. It is the womb of dreams where anything imaginable can happen and the first place I ever saw…him. I was a child when the visions began, a lowly pauper with naught to my name other than a pair of pretty, violet eyes. It was these eyes that saved me from the pits as my mistress found them enchanting and insisted that I be allowed to serve as her personal aide. This was the first of my good fortune granting me not only a warm rug by the fire but privileges not readily bestowed upon a servant because she was not only a Lady of high quality but scandalously referred to as Colonel Une due to her open minded and often aggressive manor. I suppose she thought of me as cute though it went no deeper than a round face and those eyes she so cleverly utilized in securing my position. I had feared upon my arrival that I would be ill-used as my new mistress had made quite a show of fawning over the odd color of my eyes but it was made clear, very quickly that this fate was not to be. I was taken in and bathed, dressed in a black tunic and given a short sword, a pair of good walking boots and brought before my Lady to stand inspection. “Turn around,” she instructed seeming pleased with my obedience until I displayed the very reason I had been sent to auction in the first place. “Why am I here?” I asked quite cheekily unable to quail the burning desire to know what was to become of me. A man that was obviously already in the employ of my Lady looked crossly at me and moved forward as if to discipline me with the back of his hand but she stopped him with nothing more than the creasing of her brow. “Mind your tongue,” the man told me backing off readily under the Lady’s stern glare. “You were brought to the block by a priest,” she told me because her tone made it clear it was not a question. “Do you know why?” “He believes I am a demon,” I spoke clearly not caring how the statement made the women in the room cringe and whisper under their breath. “And why would a humble priest think such a thing of such a lovely boy?” the Lady grinned. I knew very well she already knew the answer and was using this line of questioning in order to make me answer my own. “You want to see my dreams.” Her eyes narrowed in careful calculation and I felt an odd wind move before she finally backed away and took her seat. “Come,” she told me making most of the small assembly gasp when she indicated a pillow on a stool beside her. It was most uncommon for a Lady of her stature to take an interest in a servant more or less allow them to occupy the same space as she but her lips curled slowly when I complied without hesitation. “You’re brave for one so young,” she observed with some satisfaction as I plopped down on the stool. “I’m nearly fourteen,” I replied haughtily and she openly laughed making me sull up and three of the maidens take their leave. “And yet not quite a man,” she commented. I didn’t care for her attitude nor was I accustomed to being under such tight restraint. At the church I had had free reign to do as I pleased most of the time which, admittedly, was party to Father Maxwell’s gradual belief that I was possessed of a demon but it had been the visions that got me sold to the auctioneer. This woman had shown me more respect in the short time I’d known her than anyone I had ever known so I held my hand but it rested on the hilt of my sword in warning at her mocking. Her eyes shifted cleverly to my sword then back to my eyes before she smiled in a way that chilled my bones and asked, “Will you tell me of your dreams…young demon?” “What interest have you in my dreams?” I asked gripping my sword a bit tighter as the need for flight bubbled inside me. She regarded me for a moment then asked, “Do you believe in the future?” I thought it a stupid question. “The future does not exist,” I replied taking a roll from the tray one of the maidens was offering my Lady in spite of the scandalous glare she leveled on me. Une seemed amused offering me a tankard of nectar from another platter and waving the girl away. “Yes,” she agreed which confused me because most people didn’t understand such things. “However, baring ones sudden demise it is inevitable.” I couldn’t argue with that so I munched on my roll. “I believe,” she went on watching me closely, “that you’re dreams… these visions that so easily frighten the superstitious and confound the curious mind may be a clue as to what is yet to come.” “You think it’s the future I see,” I stated having gotten this reaction before. “One future,” she shrugged sipping at her drink. “A possibility perhaps.” “He will come,” I told her knowing, as I always had, the absolute truth of it. Her lips curled again and her brown eyes sparkled as she leaned slowly forward and inquired, “Who?” The vision hit me so hard and so fast I was knocked back off the stool and sprawled kicking and screaming on the floor where the man that had threatened me before dove on me attempting to wrestle me into submission but when the visions come there is no containing me. He was tossed into the wall like a rag doll and I heard one of the girls shout… “Nichol!” as she rushed to his side and Une barking the stern command… “Don’t touch him!” when another of her men came for me. I knew my eyes weren’t right because I could see the fire burning in them from my side of the orbs but it was the vision dancing in the flames that seized my focus. Lady Une stood before me as she did in real time but in my minds eye she was wearing the armor of a warrior, her statuesque form standing among the bodies of her fallen foe. To her left was a golden light shimmering lively in the dusky mire and surrounding it a wreath of deepest green. To her right a mighty dragon of darkest pitch but it was the moment of his arrival as he rose up behind her, his strong body seated in the armored saddle of his massive, white, war horse as it reared up and thrashed its hooves that quickened the dream but all I could see where those incredible, blue eyes. I had seen them so many times but gazing into their limitless depths never failed to steal my breath away. I knew I was looking at my destiny though I had no idea how I factored into the equation. The presence of the others was new however, and startled me to the point that when the flames finally began to recede I found I was shaking terribly and unable to catch my breath. “Duo?” I heard my Lady calling and knew she was close by though she took great care not to touch me. “Duo? Are you all right?” “You will conquer them all,” I garbled unable to keep my voice from wavering. I saw the fear and anxiety in her eyes through the tears that were stinging my own and heard the gasped terror of the people in the room before Nichol was suddenly clearing them out and warning them to keep their mouths shut. “Duo,” Une spoke again daring to touch my hand and recoiling when the cold burned her skin. “He will come,” I told her feeling the darkness coming. “And your reign will begin.” “Be still!” was the last thing I heard Nichol say before the shadows took me. ** “Duo! Wake up!” I had been known to throw loose objects at the girl from time to time but she’d made sure there was nothing nearby to hurl. “Come on, sleepy head!” she laughed giggling inanely as teenage girls often do. “Why must you torment me?” I grumbled burying my head under my pillow and wishing her away. “Because,” she laughed dancing close enough to tug at my sheets. “If you’re late my picnic will go to waste.” Picnic? “”Lise!” I growled when my sheet began to disappear but she merely laughed heartedly and danced out of reach. “At least part of you is awake,” she giggled running when my pillow bounced off the wall where her head had been. I tend to sleep in the nude in defense of the abhorrent heat that swelters in the summer night so her early morning intrusions were irritating at best. Something was up though because she usually wasn’t so forward. In the weeks since I had come to Corsica Manor my life had changed a great deal. My fourteenth birthday, or the day I had chosen as such since my mother hadn’t been around to educate me on the subject, had passed giving me the right of passage and making it possible for Lady Une to put her plan into action. I heard Elise scamper by the door with her younger sister, Carmine, in tow and groaned as I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to will away the insistent problem that was keeping me from rising. A deep sigh escaped my throat when the visions came to taunt me again, images of him riding stoically tall on his pristine mount. I smiled loving the way the wind played with the deep blue folds of his cape and how beautifully his eyes shown in the sparkling sun. “Duo!” “All right!” I growled making a note to pick up a frog for her picnic basket as I rolled out of bed. The problem my dreams had left me with was stubborn and irritating since I didn’t have time to deal with it before my morning lesson with Master O but it still granted me a smile. The dreams weren’t usually as intense as the visions that took me when I was awake but what I had experienced that night hadn’t been a premonition at all. I knew the difference intimately and understood when the images of my white knight were conjured simply by my own desire. “Good morning!” Master O smiled bowing in his usual way. “The staff again?” I sighed having mastered the weapon within the first week of my training. I wasn’t exactly unskilled when I came to these people but the speed with which I learned sometimes amazed even me. “Confidence can be a powerful ally,” he told me in his wise and winsome way but I had never been one easily impressed by theatrics. However, the slight twitch at the corner of his mouth as he added, “But arrogance is often fatal,” gained my attention. I had gained enough of an advantage to keep me from getting my head cracked open when a form sailed over top of me from behind, my body acting on pure instinct alone and dropping me to the ground so that I crouched in front of my attacker when he landed light footedly five feet in front of me. Sometimes, when the visions come it feels as if I’ve been torn limb from limb, there is no true pain but I am so disorientated I’ll lash out at anything that comes within reach often flailing so chaotically I damage myself in the process. However, at other times I become acutely aware as was the case when the slight Chinese boy before me suddenly burst into ebony flames. In an instant his small frame was encased in the flickering form of a young dragon, its shadowy visage melding to him like living armor and though I knew it was merely a representation of who he truly was it was still a terrifying image. I saw the momentary confusion in his eyes when he saw fear flash in mine but my motto has always been… if it scares you… defeat it. And so I attacked. It was difficult to comprehend who I was fighting so I was surprised when my first blow whished through the empty space above his head. I had aimed for the dragons head unable to separate fact from fantasy and allowed him an opening that cost me a vicious hit to the stomach. I rolled with it but he wasn’t pulling up like O usually did so it took me a second to regain my feet. It occurred to me that he must be a student of my Sensei as well when he showed enough integrity to wait until I had gathered myself before he attacked again. I blocked but once again the blow I thought to guard myself against was that of a dragon’s claw causing my jaw to erupt in pain and my body to crash to the ground. When I hit I heard him growl something at O in Chinese but it was easy enough to understand he was complaining about having been offered such a lame opponent and that’s when my mind flashed on him. He was gorgeous, majestic and grand standing beside his mount in the glow of the coming dawn and his gaze was centered on me. I saw the question in his eyes and wanted desperately to answer but conversing with visions wasn’t something I had figured out how to do. However, there was one thing I knew he would understand. “…is a waist of time!” the Chinese boy was saying having switched to English so I could understand his frustration. “Duo?” O called as I pushed myself to my feet. “Are you all right?” he asked clearly concerned for my sanity as well as my body. “He is unskilled and weak,” the Chinese boy snipped arrogantly looking down his elegant nose at me. “I see no reason to continue ACK!” He spun around twice from the blow before catching his balance and casting a deadly glare my way. I could feel His gaze and the swell of pure, raw energy inside me just knowing he was watching nearly pushed me off the ground as I took my stance and waved my opponent on. When he came I smacked him in the face with the end of my staff, rolled and smacked him on the ass as he went by then stopped to grin at him while his ears flared red and he gaped at me. The next half hour of my life was the hardest fought I had ever known. Wufei, as I would come to find his name to be, was an elite at O’s school and had surpassed every known fighter in the land by the age of nine. He was quick and nimble and dead set on inflicting as many injuries on my person as possible without actually damaging me. I had managed to convince my mind that the dragon was nothing more than a hissing, fire breathing shadow and concentrated my efforts on its master. However, after a time I began to tire and realized that he not only possessed the speed and determination of the beast encasing him but its endurance as well. I could not win at my present level of expertise but it was not in me to give up. I kept fighting until my body was so exhausted I could barely breathe and he stepped back to gaze at me appraisingly. “Yield,” he demanded holding his staff at the ready before my nose. I sucked in another deep breath and eyed the stick angrily as I was on one knee and it was trying to intimidate me with its vibrancy until I stubbornly declared, “No.” My fatigue was a greater enemy than my opponent in that moment because when the dragon hissed and spit its fire my mind forgot that it wasn’t real and I curled into a protective ball on the ground. When I realized what had happened and dared a peek up at him he was staring at me with the most bewildered expression on his face and I burst out laughing. “Is he insane?” he asked our Sensei straight faced and I rolled ever harder with mirth because the dragon was wearing the same gawd awful expression as he was. “Duo?” O inquired cautiously approaching. “Have you ever… seem a dragon… gawk?” I laughed fighting to get to my feet. “What?” Wufei gasped looking from O back to me before stepping forward as if to engage me in battle again but O stopped him. “Why did you say that?” the man asked holding a staying hand out to his irate counterpart. “B…because it looks ridiculous,” I chortled. “What do you know of dragons!?” Wufei snapped advancing again but O stepped between us. “Only that one surrounds you now,” I chuckled. They looked at each other skeptically so I explained. “It hovers about you,” I told them. “That’s why I couldn’t fight you at first. It was difficult to tell you apart but I figured it out.” “Then you truly are a demon,” Wufei surmised. “Demon, man or dragon,” I shrugged. “It doesn’t really matter does it?” I asked then grinned widely as I declared, “I win.” “You did not!” “Wufei,” O sighed pushing him back again. “I’m still standing,” I jeered dancing about just out of reach. “Only because I allowed it!” he snapped attempting to smack me in the head with his staff but between O’s interference and my quick reflexes he missed. “Is he always like this?” I laughed avoiding another blow. “You shouldn’t taunt him,” O warned taking the next one for me when I ducked and the staff hit him in the back of the head. “Over here!” I teased popping up on the other side. “OW!” O barked and I laughed dodging left. “Be still, imp!” Wufei growled accidentally stabbing O in the ass. “Yield!” I cackled. “Never!” “Yield already!” O gasped narrowly evading a blow to the face. “Cowardly wraith!” Wufei snapped trying to hit me from over O’s shoulder. “Using an old man as a shield!” “It’s only fair,” I argued popping between O’s legs to snatch his pants down before dancing away as I laughed, “I haven’t a dragon to aid me!” I’d never seen a human turn that color before and he forgot in his rage that his pants were around his ankles lurching for me and falling flat on his face while I held my side and roared with laugher and O stood panting and nursing his bruises. He apparently had only one more thing to say. “You’re evil.” “Yes,” I grinned coming to stand over him so that his face and mine were up-side-down to each other. “But you have to admit… I’m very good at it.” His laugher was the beginning of a lifelong friendship
that I would come to cherish with all my heart. ~ * ~ tbc... |
