'...' thoughts
/.../ telepathy
Daystar's Prophecy Part 30
Shinigami gritted his teeth and continued to concentrate all his energy and power into the spell he was casting. He had felt the moment the others had fallen out, not long after the spell had begun, leaving him alone to complete it. Luckily, he had been prepared for that and managed to keep himself completely focused on the task at hand. However, now that he was the only one channeling magic into the spell, he could feel his own strength dwindling quickly and the injuries to Duo's back and wings were not helping him much either. But he would not stop, not with the world's future in the balance and with one sharp and desperate push, he finally felt the dark mage's spirit slip from the elf's body. It was to that spirit then that he turned the focus of his magic, using the little fairy's power to backup his own. It was rather simple after that to open the doorway that would take Zallithus to his eternal prison. While it was true that they had talked of killing the mage, it had never been the plan. They continued to allow the dark mage to think it was though, knowing as they did that he would be even harder to defeat if he knew the truth behind their plans.
So, once he had opened the doorway far enough, Shinigami used his magic to give Zallithus' spirit one more, final push, sending him through the door before quickly wrenching it closed and speaking the words that would complete the spell and seal the opening. A hallow and terrified scream escaped the doorway just as the last of the spell was spoken, causing the spirit of darkness to flinch violently. It faded quickly though and with the spell now done, he allowed himself to relax. Unfortunately, the small amount of magic that remained from the spell suddenly reversed itself, pouring backwards into his borrowed body and drawing the spirit of darkness along with it. With no energy left to fight it, Shinigami allowed himself to be swept along, not even realizing where he was until a solid right hook landed firmly on his jaw, sending him to the soft, flowery ground.
"You bastard." Duo practically hissed as he moved to stand over the spirit's fallen form; his hands were balled up at his sides as if he were trying very hard to hold himself back from causing even further damage to the spirit's face.
For a long moment, Shinigami could only rub lightly at his now bruised jaw line, checking to make sure nothing was loose or broken while staring in wonder at the braided boy. He had known that Duo would be angry after the way he had been treated, but he had not been ready for violence from the fairy. After all, fairies just do not do that.
Even as the thought crossed his mind though, he began to register the other aspects of the boy that his initial reaction had missed; aspects such as the trembling that gripped the slight form as well as the brightness of the fairy's eyes. With careful movements, he climbed back to his feet, unconsciously putting a few feet between them. "Duo--" he started.
"Don't you dare 'Duo' me." the fairy snapped. "You had no right, pushing me back like that. Between you and Solo I'm getting damn sick and tired of being treated like a child."
"You're right." Shinigami conceded with a slight nod, fighting down the smile that threatened as the boy snapped his mouth shut on his next angry statement and blinked in surprise at him. Of course, Duo had thought it would have been more difficulty making the spirit admit that he had been wrong. "I shouldn't have done what I did. But can you honestly tell me that you could've handled it? That wasn't a game, Duo. Talking and discussing the fight is one thing, but it's nothing like having to live it."
"I know that." the fairy protested, trying his best to hold onto his anger for just a little longer but Shinigami's quick apology and understanding words had effectively drained most of it from him. The fact that he knew the spirit was right did not help either; there was just no way he could have dealt with the fight. Maybe for a short time, but when time came to actually take another life, he would have frozen. Even the mere thought of it caused his stomach to turn and his heart to twist. If he could not even imagine himself in that position then there was just no way he could do it in real life. That still did not give Shinigami full reign over him and once again he turned his eyes to where the spirit stood. "You still shouldn't have pushed me."
"I know, and I'm sorry." Shinigami said as he stepped forward to pull the fairy into an apologetic hug. The anger had left the boy's voice so he did not think he had to worry about another punch coming his way.
"So," Duo began after a few moments, pulling back a step so he could see the spirit's face. "what happened? Is the battle over?"
"Yes, and we won." the spirit offered with a bright smile before settling himself down onto the soft grass once again. He was pleasantly happy when Duo did the same as the two of them looked out across the field of white flowers. "Zall is gone and will never be coming back."
"You... killed him?" Duo asked in a soft and hesitant voice.
"No." Shinigami answered with a shake of his head. "We sent him away. To a place he can't escape, a sort of limbo, where he'll spend eternity by himself."
"I think death would've been better." Duo whispered and when the spirit looked at him, he was surprised to see the paleness of the boy's face as he contemplated the existence that Zallithus would now be forced to live.
"Maybe." he conceded. "But I just couldn't do it, you know? But we had to find a place that he wouldn't have been able to escape from. This way, I can always hope that one day we'll be able to free him again. You know, when he's better."
Placing a hand on the spirit of darkness' shoulder, Duo gave him a small smile. "I understand, and I hope that one day you will."
"Thanks, little fairy."
"So, now what?" Duo asked after they had sat for some time in peaceful thought.
"I don't know." Shinigami admitted with a slight shrug of his shoulders. "I guess that's up to you."
"What do you mean, and where are the others anyway. Shouldn't they be here too?"
"They're probably with my friends, just like I'm here with you."
"But why aren't we all here together, like last time?"
"Because our time here is almost over." Shinigami answered with a lopsided smile. "It's time for us to move on, to whatever is beyond this life. But before we go, we wanted to give the six of you something as our way of saying thank you."
"Like what?"
"A wish, of sorts." the spirit said simply.
"O-kay." Duo drawled, his face pinched in confusion. "If that's all it is, why are you being so evasive about it?"
Shinigami had the decency to blush at the fairy's reprimand; he had hoped the boy would not notice but should have known better. Beside, it was not that he was being deliberately evasive, just stalling for time. Taking a deep breath though, he turned himself to fully face the boy who, above all the other hosts he had had, meant the most to him. "After fighting this battle, none of us has much magic and since the majority of what's left had to go toward healing the lot of you, we had to be careful about what we offered."
As the spirit spoke those words, Duo's eyes widened while his right hand quickly reached over his shoulder, seeking out his wings and back. His last, clear memory of the battle was of the intense pain that had radiated from his back and even though he did not know the exact reason for the pain, he could have guessed from its intensity that the damage was beyond severe. Now though, as his hands brushed over the limited area he could reach, he could tell they were perfectly whole.
"Your injuries were pretty bad, Zall managed to shred your entire back and pretty much destroyed your wings. It took quite a bit of magic to heal them completely but I couldn't very well leave them like that now could I?" the spirit smiled and gave him a wink. "So as I was saying, after the fighting, casting the final spells, and healing you guys, what magic was left to us wasn't very much so the wishes had to be something we could handle. For the others, it came down to choosing one of two options. Solo's is whether he would like to have more children in the future or whether he wanted the child Hilde is currently carrying to be male or female. The chances of them having another child without the wish are very slim. Actually, they're lucky they managed to conceive this one."
For a brief moment, Shinigami paused in his explanation. He was not sure just how hard Duo would take his next statement but knowing as he did that the fairy would not let it go now that he had started, he took a deep breath and trudged forward. "As for the four humans, Heero included." the spirit continued, feeling his heart skip a beat when he saw the apprehension enter those large, violet eyes. "They're being given the choice of remaining here or returning to their homes in their own world."
Duo sucked in a sharp breath at that declaration, the sudden blossom of pain in his chest making it nearly impossible for him to think beyond it. He had never really considered what would happen when the battle was over, even though he knew that the day would eventually come. But the thought of Heero choosing to leave had never occurred to him and now that it was before him, he did not know if he could handle the fact if his love chose to go. It was several long seconds before he could bring himself to whisper softly, "And what did they decide?"
"I don't know." Shinigami sighed. During their time spent in the dreamscape while bonding with their chosen, the spirit's had taken the time to discuss among themselves the choices they would give their bonded when the battle was finally over, granted they all survived that is. Unfortunately, there was just no way for the spirit of darkness to even guess at what the other chosen would choose. He could only hope that Heero made the right choice.
"What about mine? What are my choices?" the longhaired fairy whispered softly a few seconds later. His head was bowed by that time, but Shinigami could still see the glistening track of tears that trailed along the boy's cheeks.
"You don't have any." the spirit answered, causing Duo's head to snap up, his eyes filled with hurt and fear. "No choices to choose between, little fairy. For you, this is truly a wish. If it's within my power to give, then it's yours."
Once again, Duo found himself unable to speak as various possibilities and ideas flowed through his mind; all of them receiving at least a moment of consideration before being discarded. Finally, with a heavy heart and equally heavy sigh, the fairy gave his head a rueful shake before asking, "What if I can't?"
"What do you mean?"
"The only thing I want is Heero and if he chooses to... go, and I decide to go with him, then I'd be leaving Solo and Hilde behind. I don't know if I can do that." Duo supplied in a hoarse voice, the tears from earlier threatening to choke him all together. "On the other hand, if I wished for Heero to stay here, but he really wants to go home, then he'd hate me for forcing him. I don't know what to do."
"Oh, Duo." Shinigami breathed. "If Heero is truly what you want, you have to be ready and able to make difficult decisions."
"I know. I just... can't make that choice." Duo said before burying his face in his hands, the hard sobs that wracked his body almost frightening in their intensity. Shinigami gently pulled the violet-eyed boy into his arms, cradling him like a child as he began to rock back and forth. "What kind of life would it be here for him anyways?" the fairy whimpered. "He's human. Even as he grows old, I'll still be the same. In time, I'd lose him anyways so maybe it'd be best if he left."
Shinigami could find nothing to respond to that comment with and even as he felt his own tears beginning to flow freely down his face, he dug deeply into his mind, hoping to find an answer. It took a while and in that time, Duo had managed to calm himself down, but now the spirit had an idea, even if the likelihood of it working was very slim. "What do you want Duo?" he finally asked. "What is the one thing you want above all else?"
"Heero." the small boy sighed and clung even tighter to the spirit.
"Then so be it." the mage promised, his voice lined with steel. Not a second later, the field of flowers faded around them, everything turning dark before disappearing all together.
*************************
The next thing Duo knew, he found himself lying on a soft surface, feeling warm and protected. At his back, another body rested and just from the feel of the person, the fairy had little doubt of the person's identity. Not wanting to wake the boy, he turned over as gently as he could, to find himself staring into Heero sleeping face, bringing a soft smile to his own. A quickly look around the dimly lit room not long after that, showed that they were once again in his room in the dwarf's stronghold. For a brief moment, he had to wonder how they had arrived there from the battlefield, but before the could give it any serious thought, the door behind him flew open and in ran Solo, looking harried and not a little bit frightened.
"Little bit." Solo gasped as his eyes fell on the fairy, who was just turning over once again and sitting up. "Oh thank the gods. I was afraid that you'd gone as well."
"Gone?" he asked. "What do you mean gone?"
"The others, Quatre, Trowa, and Wufei, I can't find them anywhere and I was afraid that you'd been taken with them."
"They weren't taken, they went home." Heero's sleep deepened voice supplied, causing Duo to spin around in surprise where he found his lover sitting up in the bed, gently rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
"Home, what home?" Solo asked in confusion.
"They went back to our world, the one we came from."
"But, why are you still here?"
Instead of answering, Heero merely turned his head and look straight into curious and nervous violet eyes that were currently staring back at him. It only took a moment for the green-eyed elf to catch the meaning of that movement and even though he was still not too sure about his little brother being with the boy, he could not help the smile that spread across his face as the implications made themselves perfectly clear.
"Well then." he said, clearing his throat but when he did not receive an answer from either boy sitting on the bed, he decided that there would be time later to discuss things and quietly backed from the room, pulling the door shut behind him.
"You stayed for me?" Duo breathed in wonder only a second later.
"You're my home now, Duo." Heero answered even as his hand came up to cup the fairy's soft cheek.
"But, the others--"
"Shhh." Heero cooed and leaned forward to brush his lips across Duo's. It was meant to be a chaste kiss, but the soft sigh of contentment that escaped the fairy's lips drew an equally soft groan from the blue-eyed boy and he found himself pressing forward once again, feeling his blood begin to pound in his ears when Duo opened for him.
When they finally pulled apart again a short time later, both were breathing heavily and Heero had to bite his lips to keep from moaning at the look of desire in Duo's eyes. He wasted no time after that and immediately attacked those petal soft lips once again while pushing the boy back down to the bed. They spent a good, long time just kissing and touching, their hands sliding over clothed arms, chests, and legs. Finally though, Duo could take no more and began pulling on Heero's tunic, forcing the boy to pull it off before the fairy managed to rip it. As soon as the cloth had cleared his head, he dived back down to capture Duo's lips again even as his hands began working on the laces that held the smaller boy's vest together.
Duo did not waste any time either, his hands sliding up Heero's well-muscled chest, ghosting over hardening nipples, before slipping around the boy's shoulders and down his back. It did not take him but a moment after that to realize that something was wrong and it was the shock and surprise of his discovery that caused him to stiffen not a second later when his hands encountered something that was not supposed to be there.
"Duo?" Heero questioned gently, having felt the boy freeze beneath him and pulled back to see what was wrong. But Duo merely stared at him in awe with a little fear mixed in before suddenly sliding out from beneath him and moving to climb from the bed.
"Heero?" he breathed softly once he had gained his footing and turned back to the boy, his hands reaching for Heero even as he pulled away again. The fairy's actions alarmed Heero to no end and he quickly scooted from the bed as well, coming to stand beside him while still leaving a small distance between them in case Duo needed it. But instead of shrinking back as Heero had feared he would, the fairy gripped the dark-haired boy by the shoulders and spun him around before Heero could even stop him.
"Heero?" Duo gasped once again, his shaking hands moving over the boy's back in erratic and harried patterns. "Since when do you have wings?" the fairy squeaked.
"Wings?" Heero echoed as he turned back to look Duo in the eye. "What are you talking about?"
Instead of answering, Duo grasped Heero by the shoulders once again, only this time he only turned him halfway. Then, he reached over and picked up one of the eight velvety wing sections that were so much like his own, bringing it over Heero's shoulder so the boy could see it.
For a moment, Heero could only blink in surprise at the wing being presented to him, his eyes moving up to Duo's face and back again before he reached up and grasped the section himself. Unfortunately, in his shock, he gripped the wing too hard and the pain from that quickly shot through his back, drawing a gasp from him.
"Easy." Duo said, taking the wing from him again. "You can't squeeze them like that, Heero. You have to be gentle."
"How...?" the blue-eyed boy stammered. "It can't.... I didn't...."
"I don't know." the violet-eyed fairy said with a shake of his head. "I would've never thought this was possible. But...."
In the next instant, their eyes snapped up, staring wide and not a little astonished across the short distance that still separated them.
"Shinigami." Duo gasped at the same time as Heero's own disbelieving utterance of "Reestlin" filled the room.
Duo quickly shook his head though before closing the distance between them and wrapping his arms around the dark-haired boy's waist. "It had to have been Shin." the fairy complained. "He said that Reestlin didn't have the power to grant anything but the two choices you had been given."
"But Rees didn't have to do anything." Heero argued even as his own arms came up to circle Duo's smaller body. "I chose to stay here so he didn't have to use any magic to send me home."
"Shin was the one who knew I was so upset about the difference between us."
"So was Rees; Trowa brought it up just before they left."
For a brief moment at the mention of the other boys, Duo's face fell and he could not stop the deep sadness that entered his eyes. In the short time they had been on his world, they had become good friends. The fact that he had not even been given the chance to say goodbye hurt too.
"It was their choice." Heero said softly, momentarily tightened his hold on the boy. "It was what they wanted."
"I know, but I'm gonna miss them."
"Me too."
"So, now what do we do?"
"I don't know." the blue-eyed boy breathed as he buried his nose in the crook of Duo's neck, inhaling deeply the sweet smell his lover always exuded. "I guess whatever we want. After all, it looks like we have eternity to do it in."
"Yeah." Duo whispered, a huge, face splitting smile replacing the sadness on his face. "But first things first."
"And what would that be?" Heero had to ask, pulling back once again to take in that beautiful smile that lit his little love's face.
"Flying lessons." the fairy chirped and Heero could not hold his laughter at the twinkle in his lover's eyes and with a rueful shake of his head, he swooped down to capture the boy's lips in a deep kiss. Lessons would have to wait until later he decided; much later.
OWARI
Back to Gypsie1201's Fanfictions Page