Author: Merula
Pairings: 1x2
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Yaoi, AU, Myth
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing is not mine.
Seal Skin
There was a storm coming. Heero watched the dark clouds piling up over the water and shivered. Thankfully he was almost home- he should be safe by his own hearth fire before the storm broke.
He would've been home already, but he'd chosen to linger in the marketplace today, letting the wash of human voices and presences ground him again. He'd spent too long out on his boat with only the seabirds and the fish in his nets for company lately. He knew he should find a wife, settle down, and in so doing maybe he'd make the villagers less suspicious of him. It wasn't his fault his mother had left the village as a young woman to go live with relatives in the city- even less still that she'd come back pregnant without a husband. She'd claimed Heero's father had been killed in an accident- she had his ring and name- but most of the villagers had thought otherwise. Not that they'd been cruel to her- she was one of their own after all, and these things happened.
Still, since her death, Heero had felt more and more on the outside... maybe it was the distance between his home and the village, maybe it was that he looked so different than the rest... Maybe it was because in his own heart he knew that he didn't want a wife...
But that was something he never spoke out loud to anyone.
Still, a wife would be company, and he wanted company desperately... but he knew in his heart that wasn't a reason to marry.
Heero kicked at the sand and hurried his steps. Readjusting his bag over his shoulder, he nearly tripped over a piece of driftwood that he didn't see in time. He took a step to the left, cursing under his breath as his foot caught the log and flipped it over.
His breath caught. Under the log was a heap of fur. For a moment, he thought he had stumbled upon a dead otter, but a nudge of his foot proved that the fur was actually a skin of some kind... who would skin an animal and leave the skin behind? Or maybe it had fallen off a ship and been washed up here?
He bent down and lifted it up carefully. It was a seal skin. It warmed his fingers as he admired it, sliding the skin through his hands.
Well, wherever it came from, it was his now. Maybe he could sell it? He cast a glance at the clouds and hurriedly tucked the skin safely away in his bag. Time to get home.
He didn't notice the watcher, curled up against the base of a rock, who smiled in satisfaction as he watched Heero tuck the skin away.
~*~
The sky was dark, the first raindrops beginning to fall as Heero finished unpacking his bag and started making his supper. The sealskin was spread out on the window seat, and Heero kept glancing at it as he worked.
He wondered again where it came from- and smiled a little as he thought of his mother. She would've insisted that it was a selkie-skin, slipped off by a seal maiden who wanted to walk the beaches in human form. She would've told him to hide it under the hearthstone so the selkie couldn't find it and would have to stay with him as his wife.
She always had the best stories- knew all of the folklore of the shore and sea... Heero smiled at the sealskin. How she would've loved finding such a thing...
A pounding on the door made him jump. Who would be out this far? He went to the door and opened it, expecting to see one of the villagers who might have gotten caught out in the storm.
A young man, his eyes alight with laughter, a smile on his lips, stood there. "Begging your pardon, but it's starting to get a little wet out here..."
Heero didn't recognize him, but he stood aside immediately. "Of course, come in." The stranger stepped inside and Heero noted that his feet were bare, the cuffs of his pants soaked and dripping. More than likely he'd been out on the beach for some reason. Maybe he was one of those mad city folk who sometimes liked to come out to the shore and 'get back to nature'? The villagers saw a few of those every year.
"Many thanks." The stranger moved close to the hearth, stretching in the heat like a cat. Heero watched, fascinated as the man shook his head, sending his heavy braid of hair swinging in an arc.
"Please sit," Heero gestured at the table. "I was just about to eat- won't you join me?"
The stranger smiled, his teeth gleaming whitely against his skin. "Again, thank you. Such hospitality is hard to find in these modern times."
Heero snorted faintly as he went back to the stove. "Things never change here," he said, adding more meat to the pan.
"You'd be surprised," the other sounded wistful. "Things have changed even here."
Heero frowned a little. "I've never seen you here before," he said, "and I've lived here my whole life."
"I've seen you before," the man smiled warmly. "Many times."
"Truly?" Heero was surprised.
"I don't lie, Heero. Not ever." He chuckled at Heero's expression. "See? I even know your name."
"How have I not seen you? I thought I knew everyone in the village." Heero filled a plate with food and turned to hand it to his guest.
"I'm not from the village." The man took the plate with a smile. "My name is Duo."
Heero filled his own plate, perplexed. He'd never heard of anyone by that name. How did Duo know him? He knew he would've remembered the other if he had ever met him before- it was impossible to think that he'd forget someone so...
He cut the thought off quickly.
He sat down at the table across from Duo and lifted his fork. "Then where are you from?"
"A place not far from here, though I doubt you've heard of it." Duo took a bite and hummed in delight. "You cook very well. Your mother taught you?"
"She did," Heero bit his lip. "You knew her?"
"Only by sight. She was a lovely lady. You must miss her."
"Very much." Heero focused on his plate. They ate in silence for a while, and Heero searched for something to say. After all this time to have company- and not know what to do! He looked up to find Duo watching him, his expression warm and thoughtful. "I... I found something interesting today, on the beach. Would you like to see it?"
"Please," Duo got to his feet when Heero did, followed him to the window seat.
"I found this under a log." Heero spread the sealskin over his hands, and his guest smiled.
"A lucky find."
"Not so lucky for the seal," Heero frowned, a sudden thought occurring to him. "I hope it's not a poacher..."
Duo shook his head. "I doubt it. Poachers haven't dared touch a seal in these waters for years- and the fishermen are careful. Especially you."
How did he know? "I try to be. Mother taught me to be respectful."
"So many aren't these days." Duo lifted the skin carefully out of Heero's hands and grinned mischievously. "Maybe it's a selkie skin."
Heero laughed. "I thought of that. It's what my mother would've said. She would've bid me hide it under the hearthstone so the poor selkie maiden would be stuck with me."
"Poor selkie maiden?" Duo lifted an eyebrow. "Many men would love to have a wife so biddable."
"Forced to stay until she can find her skin again?" Heero shook his head. "It always seemed cruel to me."
"Only if the wrong man found the skin." Duo chuckled and replaced the skin in the window seat. "Maybe the maidens leave their skins deliberately to be found."
"I'd hope so." Heero went and sat down beside the fireplace. "Though Mother's stories never included that."
"What did your mother say about the selkie men?" Duo's head was bent, his face hidden.
Heero thought for a moment. "That they took revenge for murdered seals- overturned boats, brewed up storms. Sometimes they took human women to wife- I think..."
Duo joined him on the hearth. "So they did."
"You sound like you believe." Heero had to smile.
"Maybe I do," Duo smiled back. "Do you think I'm insane?"
"No," Heero shook his head. "I wish I could."
Duo leaned forward and Heero found himself caught in the other man's gaze. "Let me help you to believe."
Heero closed his eyes as Duo's mouth touched his, he opened his lips without protest, let Duo taste him.
Duo tasted of salt...
"Bed," Duo murmured against his mouth, and Heero let Duo pull him to his feet, tug him across the room towards the bed.
"I haven't..." he managed as Duo tumbled him down into the sheets, his hands sliding under Heero's clothing.
"You'll get the hang of it quickly," Duo assured him.
Duo was a patient teacher- and a through one. Heero was fighting exhaustion at the last, Duo's legs tight around his waist, Duo's mouth open and pleading under his. Pleasure coursed through him in a wave, and then he remembered nothing more.
He awoke the next morning to an empty bed. Heero pulled himself up and searched his house and his small yard, but there was no sign of Duo.
It was only later, after he'd washed and dressed that he noticed the sealskin was missing.
He stared at the empty window seat. It couldn't be....
But hadn't his mother said that you could always tell a selkie by the soaked cuffs? And their kisses were supposed to taste like the sea....
Heero shook himself. Utter nonsense. Maybe he'd dreamed the whole thing. He had to get out on his boat...
His catch that day was the best he'd ever had- it was as if the fish were throwing themselves into his nets. It would've been something to boast about... if he had anyone to boast to...
As he made his lonely way home, he stopped by the piece of driftwood that had hid the sealskin the day before. There was nothing there of course, but he couldn't help wishing...
He opened his front door and stopped in amazement. Duo was sitting in his window seat, the sealskin at his feet.
He looked up when Heero entered and smiled, tossing the skin at him. "This time hide it where I can't find it," he said. "Otherwise I have to go back..."
Heero held the skin tightly in his hands. "Are you sure?"
"Of course. Why do you think I left it for you to find in the first place?"
OWARI
Back to Merula's Fanfictions Page