Note: #Japanese words#.

Shinigami's Secret Part 2

When Catherine had turned eighteen her parents died leaving her the guardian of her four-year-old brother and the owner of a very famous circus that toured the world.

A year later she found a little two year old on their doorstep when they were touring America. He had a note pinned to his shirt it simply said,

~Please take care of my son. I got Aids form a dirty needle a year ago and I'm dying on the street. I have no family and his father is dead. I can't bear the thought of leaving him to the vultures or pimps that watch out for orphans. He's always liked clowns. Please take care of my Duo. ~

She used their family connections and money to adopt him the next day.

They were in the Middle East when she saw Quatre. He was dressed in a collar and nothing else being paraded to advertise a new Brothel. She had one of her jugglers Rashid beat up the guy and stole the four-year-old boy away. They left in the middle of the night but by the time their plane touched down in Lisbon, Quatre was legally her third son.

Wufei was the last one. They didn't meet him till he was seven. It was actually the most amazing story. While in China to retire some of their old animals to the small facility they kept in the mountains it happened. The village that watched over the facility had a chief whose daughter was beloved by all. She dared her little brother to go into the tiger lot and steal a food bowl. Calling him 'weak' and 'Scaredy cat'. So he did and one of Catherine's handlers Nat was injured saving the boy. He died that night. Deeply ashamed the Village chief disowned his son and gave him to Catherine saying he was no longer welcome in the Dragon clan.

After that Catherine didn't take in any more boys. She said she stopped trying to save the world one boy at a time. In reality, she was growing steadily sicker. Soon she collapsed unable to take the strain of the constant touring. One day she was there... then one day... the circus fell apart, but through the help of everyone she didn't die. After many months of surgery and therapy, they were broke. Lots of money would be needed to continue Catherine's care. Four lost boys were sent to stay with Catherine's aunt Noin.

Noin was in the Music business. One moment she was fixing the schedule for her hottest new star the next she was landed with four cute boys. What else could she do but make them a music group?

*****

Duo awoke to the sounds of sobs. It was still night outside the multitude of neon lights gave the illusion of false day. Momentarily confused, he wondered whom he was holding then he remembered. Heero.

He had distant memories of Quatre crying like this, back then, Catherine had to hold him through the night terrors. He still occasionally had those dreams and now only Trowa seemed to be able to calm him.

The rest of the group had returned sometime while he slept. They had noticed the young boy but hadn't done anything. It wasn't unusual for Duo to pick up strays. They all had at one time or another. Giving the ones whose fate they could have shared a hot meal and occasionally a bed. It was a kindness they learned young.

Pulling the boy back from the edge of the bed where he seemed to have moved in his sleep, Duo held him. Curling his body around Heero's smaller frame the touch seemed to calm him. As he held the trembling frame, Duo noticed he could feel the bones through Heero's thin skin. No wonder his eyes had seemed so big, he felt like he barely had enough to eat. Tucking the head under his chin Duo whispered softly, "What did she do to you?"

In his sleep Heero was still trusting his small hand curled around the end of Duo's braid as the other clung to the boy. As the pale cheeks gleamed wetly in the moonlight Duo thought about his past. In the quiet of the night when he was alone in bed he had wondered what would have happened to him if Catherine hadn't taken him in. Would he have been like Heero? Another nameless street child abused for the pleasure of strangers? Like a delicate flower picked before it's bloom, dieing too soon and mourned by no one. How many times had he turned his head and pretended not to see? He knew he couldn't save the world. But he also knew he couldn't turn away this time. Even if he couldn't save the world, if he didn't save Heero he wouldn't be able to look himself or anyone else in the eye again.

*****

Heero was use to nightmares. Dreams of nameless horrors but mostly of the closet. One time, his mother forgot to let him out after her 'friend' left. He had sat for three days in complete darkness knowing better then to scream. After she let him out, something in him had broken. It was the only time he ever fought her when she tried to get him back in there. To punish him, she had tied him up and thrown him in there for another three days. He never fought her again.

So here he was alone again in the darkness too scared to scream he simply cried. Not expecting anyone to listen. When he felt it, almost like another presence in his dream. A protecting embrace surrounded him loosening the tight bands on his chest. Unused to kindness the expression compassion to foreign to his world to understand Heero was simply grateful. And for the first time in all of his nine years he slept easily.

He awoke first, unused to being held he tensed up. Then sensing the rhythmic breathing of his companion Heero cautiously opened his eyes.

They were both still dressed and the embrace didn't feel sexual in the least. He realized with a cold feeling his mom was truly was gone. He was alone. With a slight frown Heero pulled back and studied the face of the sleeping teen. Duo's face was still innocent, not marked by lines of cruelty or anger. Heero decided he could do much worse. But last night his companion hadn't seemed interested in him. With a scowl he acknowledged that was probably because he had been acting like a baby. His mom had often told him the only thing of worth he ever had to offer anybody was his body. Heero told himself he was a man he could take it! Anything was better then being on the street.

*****

Noin stepped in to the room to wake up the boys, when a sight that made her shriek greeted her. Duo's face was turned away but she recognized the telltale braid. While she knew the boys occasionally brought home strays, but she was not use to seeing any of them with a naked child plastered to their bare chest, lips locked in a kiss.

'Angel Standing By' by Jewel

TBC...

Well do you still like it? Thought what I would repeat was 'Despite what it seems like it is not shota!'

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