|
"Prince Duo"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: AU/Fantasy/Adventure, Angst, fluff,
sap, lemons… lots of lemons but usually of the non graphic variety,
light language Beta'ed by Mechante Fille ^_^ *snugs* Pairings: 2x4, 1x2x4, 5xM, 5x4, mention of 5x4xM,
1x2, 3x4, 1x2x3x4 Summary: A young slave finds more than his freedom
when he is purchased by the prince of a neighboring kingdom. " Prince Duo"
“Good morning! Are you hungry?” he asked, taking Hiiro by the arm and ushering him down the path. “Duo had to go tend to some business but he’ll be back before lunch,” he informed him. Hiiro noticed the looks and stares they were receiving as they made their way through the camp and decided he had had enough of this covert shit. “Exactly what is going on?” he asked then smiled slyly as he added, “Master Quatre?” The blond stopped a moment then smiled in return and shook his head. “You caught that, huh?” Hiiro nodded. Quatre sighed and looked around the camp as they walked. “These are my people,” he told him. “I am the last known heir to my father’s realm.” “You’re their leader!?” Hiiro gasped. Quatre nodded. “I’m afraid there isn’t much left of my kingdom, however. Lord Barton and his minions have all but wiped us off the face of the planet.” “They were taken as slaves?” Quatre nodded sadly and sighed again. “I had myself sold to Prince Duo before they found me.” “Why didn’t you just leave?” Hiiro asked as they settled themselves in the dining tent and sat on the overstuffed pillows while they ate. “There’s nowhere left to run,” Quatre told him. “Even your lands in the far east are not safe from Lord Barton.” Hiiro grimaced, knowing the truth of that statement all to well. “No,” the blond sighed. “We must stand and fight like Duo says.” “He’s fighting to end slavery?” Hiiro asked softly only too aware of the choker around his neck. Quatre seemed to understand instantly and smiled at him. “Don’t begrudge him that small indulgence,” he grinned. “You’re quite frightening when you want to be. Besides, how else was he to be sure you wouldn’t run that first night? You’d have been tracked and killed on sight without that little trinket.” “Better to die a free man,” Hiiro said softly then washed the words away in a goblet of sweet nectar. Quatre looked at him curiously for a moment then laid the fruit he had been eating down on the table and slipped into his lap. “Perhaps you should look more closely at what you have,” he smiled gently, kissing Hiiro’s lips. Hiiro responded in kind letting his hands wander the sumptuous curves of his lover’s body but after a moment he suddenly pulled away. What in the hell was he doing? The boy had just been kidnapped, beaten and raped repeatedly. He couldn’t do this! “Stop,” he gasped as Quatre nibbled at his ear. “Stop, you’re not well…” The blond laughed and pulled back to look at him. “After what I’ve just been through you’re honestly going to refuse me?” Hiiro looked at him confused but he didn’t push him away again as he went back to nibbling at his ear. “You... don’t want to ... rest or ... ummm… something?” He knew his hands had started to wander again but somehow it didn’t seem like such a big deal all of a sudden. “Mmm,” Quatre groaned and kissed him again. “I want to be held and loved and shown I’m still beautiful in the eyes of the people I love,” he said softly as Hiiro laid him down on the pillows and slipped between his thighs. “You’re exquisite,” Hiiro breathed, kissing him again. Hiiro relished the sounds as he moaned and wriggled until he lay half naked beneath him and they were both lost to the rhythm of their bodies. They didn’t notice when the guard pulled the tent flap shut and stood in front of it. They didn’t care when the men complained because they couldn’t get in to eat their breakfast. They dismissed it as trivial when those same men barked at the guard that they weren’t about to miss lunch too and someone had better find another place to prepare something to eat. The one thing that did distract them was when Duo slipped into the tent to join them. The three spent the afternoon together, the two making sure the blond knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that he was still one of the most tantalizing creatures ever to grace the planet. They’d run out of food by evening but none of them cared. They lay together for a long time just holding each other before Quatre thought to inquire about the prince’s outing. “We can expect Lord Barton and Zechs in three days time,” Duo informed them. “Will there be a trial?” the blond asked. “No,” Duo snorted. “He doesn’t have a case. We have the aborted offspring to prove Tsuberov’s offense. Don’t worry about it,” he added kissing Quatre on the nose. “Oh,” he said suddenly, reaching for his trousers and pulling a bit of leather from a pouch. “I have a gift for you,” he told Hiiro, holding out a string. Hiiro took it and examined it. It was another choker exactly like the one he was already wearing except this one had a dark sapphire set in the silver instead of an amethyst. He looked up curiously at his master. “That is exactly like the one you’re wearing,” Duo told him. “Since you seem to have a problem with it I thought it might help if I were to wear your mark as well.” Hiiro gaped at him so hard he completely missed the dropped jaw expression on Quatre’s face. “Why not just take this one off?” Hiiro finally inquired, fingering the dark blue stone in his hand. Duo sighed and got up to pull his pants on before he confessed, “I can’t.” “You can’t or you won’t?” Hiiro asked. The prince paused but didn’t answer. “There’s a train moving through the forest tonight,” he said instead. “Get ready,” he added then left them to their thoughts. Hiiro stared down at the stone in his hand thoughtfully before putting it in his pocket and following Quatre back to their tent to prepare for the night. The boy had changed twice, combed his hair and splashed himself with rose scented water before Duo lost patience with him. “He’s not coming for you!” he growled in frustration. Quatre looked affronted. “He might,” he retorted quietly, fluffing his bangs again. “You need to keep your mind on your job,” the prince told him. “Who is it you expect to come for you, Quatre?” Hiiro asked. Duo whirled on him, his eyes wide with shock then he turned on the blond as fury erupted in his face. “You told him your name?!” he growled. “NO!” Quatre snapped back. “He overheard it,” he added a bit more subdued. “But I did tell him the rest,” he mumbled, turning his gaze away from the fire in the prince’s eyes before Duo whirled on Hiiro. “Bury that name deep and never use it,” he told him. “No one must ever hear his true name. Understand?” Hiiro nodded. He didn’t really but he didn’t have a problem keeping the name a secret if it would protect Quatre. He was getting the feeling there was more to this than they were letting on but this wasn’t really the time to explore the issue. They had a train to catch and Hiiro was really looking forward to it. On the other hand, it might be useful to know more about the original subject. “So, who is he and why would he want to take our little Hikage from us?” he asked, snapping a bolt into his cross bow. Quatre’s head came up when he heard the ’our‘ and Hiiro felt an uncomfortable warmth settle on his face as he beamed at him. It made his stomach feel funny but it was a good sort of funny so he smiled back and ignored it when Duo rolled his eyes. “He’s the most handsome, wonderful, glorious creature to ever walk the land!” Quatre gushed. It was positively revolting the way he suddenly lit up and made that funny feeling in Hiiro’s stomach ache somehow. “He can bring down a sparrow in the night sky!” “You don’t know that,” Duo retorted. Hiiro got the feeling his stomach felt funny too as Quatre flashed an angry look at him. The blond had gone back to gushing when he turned back to Hiiro. “He’s the leader of the wood elves.” “Leader of their army and you don’t even know if it was really him,” Duo corrected him. “I do so!” Quatre whined in a huff. “He never even told you his name,” the prince countered. “Names aren’t important when you’re in love,” the blond pouted. It was so cute Hiiro almost snatched him up and kissed him but the fact that he had just admitted to being in love with this elf made his stomach ache a little more and kept him from acting on the impulse. He decided the ache must be a little green eyed creature named jealousy and shook himself mentally. “Love?” Duo chortled. “I think you’ve mistaken love for a jolly romp in the bushes, my pet.” Quatre’s expression turned sullen and he sat down to pout some more. Hiiro chuckled at him before asking, “What happened?” He just had to know the rest of the story now. “He disappeared on a hunting trip in the forest a year ago,” Duo explained, seemingly irritated by the recount. If his stomach felt anything like Hiiro’s he could understand why. “I just about had a heart attack when we couldn’t find him. Even the stone betrayed me. I thought for sure he was dead. I found him two days later in a meadow naked, singing at the top of his lungs and gushing like a bubbling brook about some green eyed elf.” Quatre was grinning again as he gazed off at something on the ceiling of the tent and Hiiro chuckled at him. “I was so angry I could have strangled him,” the prince huffed. “Yes” the blond grinned. “You punished me for hours as I recall.” Hiiro chuckled as the vein in Duo’s temple throbbed. “You should not have removed your stone,” the braided boy barked. “He wouldn’t touch me as long as I had it on” Quatre pouted indignantly. “You can remove it?” Hiiro asked. Quatre huffed and turned his head as he grumbled, “Not anymore.” “I almost lost you,” Duo defended. “He could have kept you forever and I’d have never found you.” “I wish he had,” the blond grumbled again. Duo’s mouth dropped open and though Hiiro knew the blond hadn’t meant to hurt him considering the way his own stomach felt he knew he had. Quatre caught what he had done pretty quickly and his eyes went wide when he realized what he had said. “Duo… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that,” he began but the damage was done. The prince looked at him a moment then the tension drained from his shoulders as he walked over and pulled him into a deep kiss. Quatre was panting when Duo finally pulled back and laid his forehead against the blond’s. “Never forget that I love you,” the prince said softly. Quatre nodded as he kissed him again and Hiiro’s stomach began to feel a little better. They left their horses in a thicket and moved the last of the distance to the slave train on foot as they had the first night Hiiro had joined them. Duo had pulled his dark mask over his mouth and slipped silently away into the trees just as they heard the first sounds of the wagons. Quatre’s eyes glittered in the dark and he too slithered away into the darkness. Hiiro felt much better with proper weapons at his side. He took up his position and waited for the train to pass. It took longer with just the three of them but it was much cleaner. There wasn’t the pandemonium that he had encountered the first time. It was more of a surgical extermination. It wasn’t until most of the guards were dead that Hiiro realized the arrow in one man’s head wasn’t one of Quatre’s and Duo didn’t use a bow. He sheathed his sword and pulled the shaft from the man’s temple. A perfect shot. He glanced at the trees trying to ascertain who might be aiding them and was rewarded when he caught sight of a lone figure standing amongst the trunks in the dark. He would have missed him altogether if it hadn’t been for the glint in his emerald eyes and Hiiro knew they’d once again found the tall wood elf that had almost put an arrow in his chest the last time they’d met. He thought of Quatre and felt his stomach clench. Duo stumbled out of the bushes with a large man that fell to the ground as he extracted his blade from his stomach. He glanced at Hiiro for a moment and was just about to slip back into the shadows when Hiiro said something that stopped him dead in his tracks. “He’s here” The prince’s violet eyes flashed as he searched the trees but he saw nothing. He looked up and down the row of wagons as Hiiro searched the trees but neither of them saw their little blond companion. Duo sheathed his knife and stood up straight, closing his eyes as if he might catch his sent on the wind. Hiiro felt his breath slip away when those eyes opened, the purple irises glowing faintly in the night. He felt the stone at his throat pulse with life and his own heart beat thundering inside him. He suddenly wanted to take the boy down to the ground right there that very moment and ravage him beyond any means of human control because he had never seen anything so beautiful before. “There,” Duo said softly, moving off into the trees. Hiiro clamped down on his need and followed him into the woods. They traveled for a time before they came upon their target. He was sitting on a man’s chest pulling one of his arrows from his eye when they clamored into the small clearing and he looked up at them curiously. Hiiro felt the tension fade from his shoulders as well as Duo’s when they saw him. The prince’s eyes smiled as he walked across the clearing toward the boy. But suddenly, the world was moving in slow motion. Hiiro’s eyes took in every detail as it happened. There was a sound, bushes rustling as he turned his head and Duo took another step. Quatre’s eyes registered shock as he began to notch his arrow and aim at the intruder. Hiiro drew his sword but he knew it was already too late. The blade the man had thrown sank into the prince’s chest just before a stranger’s arrow embedded in the man’s throat, killing him instantly. Hiiro was at Duo’s side before his body hit the ground, his sword falling forgotten by his side. He couldn’t breath. This couldn’t be real. Not him. Not like this. He looked down into the pale face and pulled the ebony veil away. He was aware of Quatre by their side but he couldn’t really see him. All he could see was the horribly still face of the boy in his arms. His chest felt as if it would explode. This just couldn’t be happening. Duo’s head lolled back in his arms and the pain in Hiiro’s body was suddenly more than he could bear. He felt hot tears splashing down his cheeks as the rage and anguish rose in his throat and ripped free, sending the creatures of the night scattering for a mile around. He was still shaking uncontrollably when he saw the tall figure standing at the edge of the clearing, his emerald eyes glowing softly in the shadows. ** It had been a day and a half he had waited but it felt more like an eternity. The wood elves were strange creatures. He hadn’t seen one sign of any type of house or structure since they’d come to be among the fey creatures, only the soft bed that had been made of thick mosses and fur’s that Duo’s silent form lay upon. The Elvin healers had come and gone many times. They’d managed to extract the blade from the prince’s heart without killing him but hadn’t been able to promise his continued survival. There was only so much even they could do with such a gravely mortal wound. Hiiro fingered the stone at his throat again and closed his eyes. He hadn’t seen much of Quatre since their arrival but he knew it wasn’t because he didn’t care for the prince. Someone had to deal with the business at hand and Hiiro was in no condition to take on the task. The tall elf that had brought them there had indeed turned out to be the leader of the band. Hiiro still wasn’t sure how many of them there were as it was impossible to tell with them appearing and disappearing like the wind. All he saw most of the time was the trees and the shadows and Duo’s silent face. He opened his eyes and looked up as Quatre entered the small cave where he kept his vigil. The blond smiled and stepped aside to let someone else enter and Hiiro about jumped out of his seat when he saw that someone was Sally Po. Wufei came in behind her followed by the tall, green-eyed elf Hiiro now knew as Trowa. Sally went to the prince’s side without a word and Hiiro sat up anxiously, his heart suddenly beating again as hope washed through him when Sally laid her hand on Duo’s forehead and closed her eyes. Hiiro stood and moved closer to them. He could feel his lungs starting to strain for breath as the woman went as still as the grave. He couldn’t even hear his own heart as it thundered painfully and even the sunbeams seemed to hold their breath and still he waited. All was deathly still for what felt like a lifetime then as slowly as the sunrise, violet eyes began to open and Hiiro felt the blood in his veins begin to move. He caught the woman as she collapsed and handed her to Wufei then knelt by the fallen prince, taking his hand and staring into eyes he had feared might never open again. There was a quiet joy in his heart as Duo gazed up at him, a little quirk of a smile on his lips. “Oww,” the braided boy tried to chuckle but grimaced instead. Hiiro chuckled for him then leaned down and kissed his mouth. “I almost lost you,” he stated softly, glancing at his throat. Duo’s eyes screwed up as he lifted his hand and touched the sapphire that rested there. He smiled and closed his eyes and pulled Hiiro down to kiss him softly. The kiss quickly lit a fire between them as the braided boy pulled him down on top of himself and drank deeply from his mouth. The others backed out quietly and left them to each other. They made love slowly as if it were the first and last time they might ever get the chance then lay in each others arms until the sun went down and the air was filled with fireflies and the strange melodies of Elvin pipes. When they rejoined the others they were gathered around a small fire. They were told Sally was resting but would be fine by morning and could travel back to the palace with them. Duo and Hiiro had both frowned when they saw Quatre sitting in Trowa’s lap but neither said anything. Trowa explained that his people had grown weary of the constant battles in their forest. They didn’t like the idea of slavery to begin with but stayed out of it until their peace had been disturbed. Hiiro noticed Duo’s eyes flash every time the elf petted the blond in his lap but Quatre shown brighter than he had ever seen him before. It was an odd feeling to want to both steal the boy from the elf and see the look being in his arms brought him at the same time. It made Hiiro wonder just who this elf was and if he truly loved him or just wanted him for that “romp in the bushes” again. Seeing the blond’s face at that moment made him wish for the former. Duo told the elves of the coming war and promised to try to keep it out of their forest but he couldn’t make any guarantees. Trowa had openly offered his aid if things came to that and given him an amulet that could call to them if they had need of it. It was an oddly generous thing for an elf to do and Hiiro had to wonder if it didn’t have more to do with the blond in his lap than the tall elf’s desire to protect his forest. It was getting late and the fire was dying when things took a turn for the worse. Duo had been watching the elf’s hand as he stroked the small of Quatre’s back when he suddenly stretched and said, “We should get some sleep, we’ve a long journey tomorrow.” Quatre had stilled and looked from the prince’s violet eyes to the elf’s green nervously. Trowa smiled at him and pulled him a little closer stating simply, “He’ll be staying here.” Duo’s eyes hardened in defiance and Hiiro reached out to touch his hand soothingly. “I’ll not abandon him to become your plaything,” the braided boy said smoothly. “Elves are not known for their tolerance of human beings.” “Duo please...” Quatre interjected but Trowa only chuckled. “You know as well as I he is not human,” the elf replied then before Duo could respond he added “You failed to protect him.” “I failed to protect him,” Wufei interjected but they all knew the final responsibility rested on Duo. “Duo,” Quatre entreated again, his eyes as soft as a baby’s sigh “I... want to stay.” Hiiro felt the cold dagger slide into his heart and knew the pain in the prince’s eyes intimately. Both had been dreading those words all night. The confusion that danced behind the prince’s violet irises manifested itself in his voice. “How do I know I won’t find him wandering the forest again?” he asked, staring into the flames. “It was not necessary to take him at the time,” Trowa explained. “I regret my weakness caused you any pain. I should not have claimed him that night.” Duo closed his eyes; Hiiro could see him holding back the tears and it made it almost impossible for him to keep his own from spilling over. “We love him,” he said suddenly, unable to hold it in any longer. Trowa smiled and gently brushed the bangs from Quatre’s eyes. “He’s easy to love,” he said, pulling him in for a small kiss before he added, “But he belongs with me.” Hiiro felt it was true but he was having a very difficult time coming to grips with the pain on Duo’s face. It almost tore his heart out when the braided boy suddenly whispered “Quatre,” into the night as if the name might bring the boy back to him. To his surprise the blond rose and came to kneel in front of him, his ocean blue eyes swimming with tears. “Duo,” he said softly, reaching up to touch the braided boy’s face. Duo opened his eyes and gazed down at him. He looked so beautiful in the firelight, his huge cerulean eyes dancing under the night sky. It made Hiiro’s heart hurt. “I love you,” the blond whispered then kissed him softly. Duo looked at him for a long time when he pulled back
then reached up and put his hands on either side of his face and drew
him in for another kiss. Hiiro felt his heart breaking when he saw
him lose the battle with the tears and felt his own spill down his
face. When Duo pulled back, their lips clinging for a moment in the
firelight the choker was in Duo’s trembling hands. Quatre took
the trinket and wrapped it around his palm then kissed the prince’s
eyes and hugged him tight. Duo looked at Trowa as he held the blond
in his arms and felt something pass between them, an unspoken accord
and Hiiro made sure the green eyed elf understood he would hold him
to the promise.
~ * ~ tbc... |
