Wolf Moon Part 32
Sharing much-needed baths in pools of steamy water bubbling up through underground fissures, the warriors' dispositions were greatly improved. Heero and Wufei even stuck to their bargain...no comparisons of manhood.
Of course it took Duo longer to shampoo his hair, especially when Quatre added a scalp massage to the relaxing routine but there was no rush, except for their grumbling stomachs' persistence to be fed.
Clad in clean garments, the quinque followed an alluring aroma to Zechs private quarters. The Keeper's abode was Spartan in design. An unbleached cotton mattress stuffed with straw, cotton sheet, rough woolen blanket and goose down pillow made up his bed. A freestanding closet and two trunks of red cedar protected his meager possessions.
A fire pit provided the means to cook, sufficient heat to take the edge off the cavern's chill and diffused lighting as the amber glow that was prevalent in the outer chambers was conspicuously absent.
Red cedar planks had been fashioned into a table and two benches. Six earthenware bowls and cups and wooden spoons had been uniformly spaced on the tabletop. Orange flames from four candles in tarnished holders supplied additional light.
Zechs had changed into sleek trousers, a flared-sleeve shirt and soft shoes. His silken silver hair was secured in a loose ponytail.
"You look a bit more human." he teased upon his visitor's arrival.
Zechs ladled a hearty stew of potatoes, carrots and mushrooms cooked in a thick sauce seasoned with leeks into a serving bowl and motioned for everyone to sit down. Crusty wheat bread and honey were an welcome addition to the simply supper. Sweet ruby wine rounded out the satisfying meal.
While they ate the Keeper explained how he kept connected with he outside world. "Trade caravans travel through once a month. In exchange for food I can't harvest from the forest, basic supplies and the latest news and gossip, I give away healing herbs, offer prayers to whatever deity is worshiped and exorcise bothersome spirits whether real or imagined."
Zechs smiled at Wufei. "I occasionally keep company with wolves when the pack leader grants me the privilege. Tomorrow evening when you're well rested you should seek them out during their nightly prowl."
Supper finished, the table cleared and dishes placed in a pot of water to soak, Zechs took two brown bottles and six green glass goblets from a cupboard.
"Is that what I think it is?" Trowa nodded at the bottles.
Zechs' smile was sure confirmation. "Sake, the nectar of the gods."
"Sake?" Duo inquired.
"Rice wine." Heero explained.
"Wine from rice! That's gotta be sacrilegious or at least defaming to grapes." Duo declared as the foreign liquor was decanted into his goblet.
Heero offered good advise. "Don't gulp."
Duo sniffed at the strange liquid, cut his eyes at Heero then took a cautious sip. "Tastes like piss." he announced with the wrinkling of his nose and overdone gestures accenting his disapproval.
Trowa grinned at the Irishman's sour _expression and put on an arrogant air. "Perhaps sake is too sophisticated for someone whose used to common swill." he teased.
"Give me beer, cheap wine or even bitters," Duo retorted in his defense, "I ain't drinkin' that...that...rice refuse."
Quatre was inclined to agree with Duo's assessment of sake. "It does seem to be a bit crude."
Heero turned up his glass then took a moment to contemplate the tang on his tongue before swallowing. "It'll numb your senses and that's all that matters."
"Since you're seeking oblivion," Zechs acknowledged the Tracker's wish for a temporary reprieve from reality, "you may have one bottle all to yourself."
"Now we," Zechs waved an inclusive hand at his guests, "might as well sink deeper into depravity."
Zechs searched through a trunk until he found a small red velvet bag bound with a crimson cord and a crinkled leather money pouch. When the scarlet cord was united and the contents removed, it was Wufei's turn to smile.
"Fan-tan."
Zechs emptied the pouch. Currency of different values spilled out on the table.
"Is it true that a fool and his money are soon parted?" Wufei wondered, running his finger over a coin stamped with the Peacecraft Royal Seal.
"We will see." Zechs replied as the shuffled the cards.
*********
While Trowa, Quatre, Wufei and Zechs engaged in the Chinese gambling game of fan-tan, the wagers were accompanied by boisterous laughter, uninhibited drinking and unrepentant swearing.
Heero took his bottle of sake and retreated into a dim corner. He wiggled to get comfortable on the cold stone floor, drew his knees to his chest, gave his friends an apathetic glance and, not heeding his own advise, took a long swig.
"Damn!" he hissed as the liquor burned his throat and set his belly ablaze.
Duo observed the Tracker's morose mood then decided it wasn't proper for Heero to be a solitary drunk so he nabbed a bottle of wine and plopped down beside his comrade. "Mind if I join ya?"
"Do I have a choice?" Heero asked huskily.
"My, my, ya get surly when ya drink."
Heero leaned his head against the wall, shut his eyes and sighed."If you're going to sit here do it quietly."
*********
Fan-tan continued. So did the good-natured arguing over points and who should claim the winnings. All too quickly the sake was consumed and the resulting brain buzz made it hard to concentrate.
Quatre was the first player to drop out. He rested his head against Trowa's shoulder, yawned and tried to focus his bleary eyes on his lover's cards. Soon after the Twilight Priest, who was acting very unpriestly, folded his hand and forfeited his last coins.
Wufei took great pleasure in his friends' defeat then threw down the gauntlet to the remaining competitor.
"You and me to the end." he growled but the attempt at intimidation failed to fluster his opponent.
Zechs accepted the challenge. "Winner takes all."
Four hands, each one ending in a draw. With no clear champion, the hour growing late and, after the long day's journey the body begging for sleep, Trowa offered a suggestion to resolve the stalemate.
"Divide the pot and be done with it."
But..." Wufei began to protest.
Trowa's raised hand cut off the Beast's objections. "Divide or I take the money."
As Zechs and Wufei glared at each other across the table, Trowa counted out the money into equal piles and kept the odd coin for himself.
Quatre leaned close to this lover and whispered. "They do know those coins were replaced years ago and aren't worth anything now?"
Trowa nodded. "It's the game that matters not the reward."
*********
A crick in Duo's neck prodded his into a slightly improved state of alertness. He tried to move and discovered that the rearrangement was going to require extra effort.
Several factors contributed to Duo's difficulty. His head was stuffed with cobwebs, his brain was foggy and his braid was pinned underneath his butt. Furthermore the room spinning was not at all helpful.
But the greatest hindrance was Heero, the drained sake bottle clutched in his hand and his chin damp with drool, slouched against Duo's chest.
The Duel Spirit braced his hands and strained to straighten up. His elbow knocked over his empty wine bottle, which struck the floor with a hollow clink and rolled until it wedged in a rocky crevice.
The grating sound of glass jingling over stone shook Heero's sluggish brain from its stupor. He grunted, cracked open one eye and mumbled something about getting his crossbow and pinning Duo's scrawny ass to the wall.
"I swear..." Heero continued his promise of reprisal. "I'm...I'm...gonna..." he stuttered as his muddled mind refused to cooperate. "Ah...shit."
With a dull ache in full force along Duo's temples and his shoulders cramping, he cursed, grabbed a fistful of the Tracker's shirt and yanked him into a seated position. However propping Heero against the wall was all Duo accomplished before his hands were batted away.
"Need help?" Trowa offered even though his arm around Quatre's waist was scarcely shoring up his lover and Quatre was struggling to support the drowsy Priest.
"I can manage. Better get to bed before you both fall down."
Since manhandling didn't produce the desired results, Duo tired tactical coaxing. First he pried the sake bottle from Heero's stubborn grip. Next he tilted his head to study Heero's groggy eyes; then winced when his brain slipped off center. Lastly he spoke softly to prevent further threats of bodily harm.
"It's gettin' late and I got chills in my bones. Let's go to bed."
"Hummm."
"Bed. Now."
Heero pawed several times before he realized he was grabbing at thin air. He rolled onto his hip and, with Duo's help, finally centered himself on his hands and knees.
Duo pushed off the wall and crouched beside his woozy comrade whose four-point posture resembled a scruffy canine. He took Heero's arm and applied persuasive pressure to pull him to his feet.
After swaying on rubbery legs, bumping against each other and grumbling about how Zechs should level up the floor, the Lone Hunter and Duel Spirit staggered down the passage to find a place where they could drift off into a serene state of nothingness.
*********
Zechs and Wufei were still sitting at the table. They'd said goodnight and sent Trowa and Quatre tottering off to bed.
With amusement they watched Duo and Heero figure out the baffling process of standing up and walking, even debated about intervention but decided their concern might be viewed as meddling and they had to wish to incur Heero's wrath.
The candles had melted away to frail flames and the fire pit's embers were shrouded in ashes. The Keeper and the Beast sat side by side, heads bowed in quiet conversation. They discussed odds, victory and defeat and pondered how life was a game of chance where fate dealt the hand and luck held the trump card.
Soon Zechs and Wufei would also surrender to the Sandman. Zechs could remain in his quarters and Wufei retire to a separate room or they could share a platonic bed.
But tonight they would be lovers.
Tonight their union would be driven by lust. Hungry kisses. Torrid touches, skin against skin, erections throbbing. Breathless endearments whispered in secret. Moans of ecstasy...bittersweet orgasmic release that lingered no longer than the afterglow. Fleeting sensations then holding each other and praying for dreamless slumber.
Perhaps Wufei would be granted a brief respite from the utter loneliness and insatiable rage he'd suffered every day since his mate, Meilan, had been hunted down and killed.
Perhaps Zechs would find solace for his devastated heart that had been broken by Trieze's madness. Perchance he would seek forgiveness for his failure to save his soul mate or beg for absolution for his loss of faith.
For a time the night would hide their sins but Zechs and Wufei knew the morning light would expose their transgressions but, perhaps, Gabriel and Michael would not judge them too harshly.
*********
Glacial currents surged from a wide chasm that swallowed up the passage then howled up an overhead shaft that corkscrewed through the rock. The vertical tunnel ended in a hole, ringed with silver moonlight, that offered glimpses of the star-studded sky.
The tornadic gusts slammed into Heero and Duo's bodies, battered their faces and shivered through their clothes until it felt like bony fingers were scraping over their skin.
"Duo! Take my hand!" Heero shouted above the wind's deafening drone.
Struggling to keep his feet planted on the path, Duo intertwined his fingers. "What unnatural fury is this?"
Heero dared to lean into the powerful updraft but was forced back by the biting cold. "I don't know. We have to find another route."
He looked behind in the direction he and Duo had traveled but the darkness had melted into a fluid mass that undulated in an ebb and flow motion as if trying to suck the warriors' into a black vortex.
The passage moved. A subtle shift at first.
Duo's heighten sense of motion felt the faint vibrations and panic seized his guts. He tugged at Heero's hand. "We have to get out of here."
"Where do we go?" Heero yelled as the path bucked beneath his boots.
Without warning the entire area started to pulsate. The chasm's rim began to crumble. Sandstone pebbles, layers of slate, large chucks of rock disappeared over the trembling edges, plummeted into the deep abyss and sprayed up suffocating clouds of gritty gray powder.
Fracture lines raced through the floor. Thin spots bulged until the surface tension couldn't bear the stress then split with a scraping sound that froze Duo and Heero's heartbeats.
The fragmented path was breaking up more rapidly than Heero could escape the disintegration. He stumbled. Duo cursed and jerked his comrade backward but the breach grew wider with every violent tremor.
Heero gazed into Duo's fear-enlarged pupils then craned his neck to study the opening above them. In an unpredicted move he grabbed Duo's shoulders and fixed his sight with a resolute glare.
"You have to fly." Heero ordered, with a firm shake accenting the situation's urgency. "There." he nodded towards the moonlit hole.
"Fly?" Duo repeated, not certain he understood. Suddenly the command became clear and Duo was determined to have no part of it. "NO! I will not leave you!"
"Dammit don't argue with me. FLY!" the Tracker hissed with another forceful shake.
Duo shook his head so hard his braid whipped over his shoulder. "There's another way out; we'll find it."
"Look around us. There's no other way." Heero stated with certainty.
What Heero did next was not done in desperation, even though the cavern was literally sinking underneath him, but was driven by an unselfish act of emotional surrender.
As dust clogged his lungs and each quake was stronger than the previous one, Heero Yuy brushed a chaste kiss across Duo's grime-caked lips. "I love you, Duo Maxwell. Please take to your wings for I couldn't bear to carry your death with me through eternity. Please, Duo, do it for love." he begged.
With tears tracing tracks down Duo's dusty cheeks he whispered. "Love will be my only reason for leaving you. But I pledge on all the saints and every angel in heaven that when my time has come and Death claims me, we will be together forever." he swore the solemn vow then sealed the promise with a kiss.
Heero let go, stood back and watched as Duo transformed into a falcon. With a mighty flap of wings the Duel Spirit began to rise above the unrelenting devastation.
Just as the final remnants of stone shattered, Heero reached up and pluck a single tawny feather from the falcon's tail. Clutching his remembrance of Duo to his chest, Heero closed his eyes and, saved by the serenity of Duo's promise, he descended into the void.
Duo opened his eyes then realized it was Heero thrashing about that had disturbed his sleep.
The Tracker was snarled in the sheet, his face glistening with a sheen of sweat. His hands were grappling for something known only in his nightmarish dreamscape.
Heero muttered, cried out then went so limp it frightened Duo.
Duo sat up and leaned closer. Upon closer inspection he knew from the steady rise and fall of Heero's chest that he was breathing. He stroked a single finger across Heero's clammy forehead to brush damp bangs aside. "Wake up." he urged.
Heero sighed, one eyebrow twitched.
"Wake up." was repeated with louder volume.
With a forceful intake of air, Heero's eyes snapped opened and stared with a vague cobalt gaze.
"Heero. Can you see me?"
Gradually Heero's vision focused. His eyes centered on Duo, his bottom lip quivered then with surprising speed, he wrapped his arms around Duo's waist, buried his head in Duo's chest and clung to his comrade as if his very survival depended on the physical connection.
Duo was momentarily taken aback by his friend's sudden need to be held. But instead of analyzing what had prompted the uncharacteristic contact, he drew Heero into a comforting embrace.
"I'm here, nothing can harm you." he assured that everything would be all right.
While Duo cradled Heero and rocked back and forth he recalled a song he had learned years ago when he lived with the Gypsies.
"If you are lost in your way, deep in an awesome story, don't be in doubt and stray, cling to your lonesome folly.
Now you're too close to the pain, let all the rain go further, come back and kiss me in vain, lover is it no bother.
Hear the chorus of pain, taking you back to proper ways, it's so easy to find if you could remind me.
Now you are lost in your way, deep in an awesome story, so I will find you again and kiss you for lonesome folly."
The words of the song gave way to soft humming that encouraged Heero to relax. When Heero closed his eyes and snuggled closer, Duo eased both of them down on the rude bed with the straw-stuffed mattress, pulled up the sheet and blanket and tucked the coverings tight.
Duo hummed the last stanza once more then all was quiet and still. He might ask Heero about his dream. He might not. Maybe it was best for Heero to decide.
TBC...
Author's Notes:
Gabriel and Michael are archangels who led a holy army during the battle between God and Satan.
Duo's song is entitled "A Stray Child" from the .hack//SIGN OST 1.
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