When it's family, they're a mirror of the worst and best in you
And they always put you to the test
And you always try to do your best
And just pray for god to do the rest... when it's family
-Lyrics to 'Family' performed by Dolly Parton
Crimson Bonds Part 40
Flashback
The ticking of the grandfather clock was the only sound filling the living room of the quaint Swedish estate. Gathered around the table at the center of the space, four Vampires sat together in what had been yet another attempt on Midi's part to bring on some conversation between the family.
However, two of the participants remained stubbornly uncooperative.
Seated directly across from each other, Heero and Wufei looked anything but thrilled to have been forced into another 'get together.' Arms folded across his chest, the Original was practically exhaling smoke from the rage that had not left him since the scaly Infected's arrival into the home that he and his cousins shared nearly a month ago.
For his part Trowa had finally given up the ghost of his own anger towards Chang and gave him a second chance after he had put up with Yuy's ire without so much as batting an eye. It was impossible for Barton to not show the conformed Vampire respect for wanting to be with Anna bad enough to tolerate the relentless silent treatment and glares from her brother.
Midi had seen these rough patches coming while Trowa prepared them both for the fallout of whatever transpired now that two unofficially named enemies were staying under the same roof.
No one had expected Heero to be easily won over. It was his best friend who had been locked away thanks to the Chinese warrior.
It was Wufei's initial rejection of Anna that had nearly destroyed her... that had her willing to accept death for her actions if that was what the Vampire Council had chosen as her fate. And in the interim, it was her brother who had to pick up the pieces to put her back together to some resemblance of the fearless, existence-loving being she had once been.
Now the Irish Infected was to be released from her prison soon, causing the Bartons to use drastic measures in bringing the two most important creatures in her life together. There needed to be peace and understanding before healing could finally begin.
So for a week, they sat. And waited. Hoping for one challenger or the other to offer an olive branch so that that the bridge of a treaty could be forged.
But still they sat. And waited.
Clearing his throat, Trowa attempted to get the ball rolling by addressing the scaly Vampire. "Have you been able to settle into your wing of the second floor, Wufei?" he asked politely.
His head raising to meet the emerald-and-green eyes of his deemed cousin, Chang grinned, "Yes, thank you." Gesturing to the matriarch of the Clan, he complimented, "I've also had a lot of help from Midi in finding some furnishings and paint colors for the walls that would make Anna feel at home when she returns."
Relieved to have the opening to bring the silent Original into the discussion, the lovely brunette turned towards him as she suggested, "You really should have a look at it, Heero. I have a few finishing touches in mind, but you know your sister better than any one of us. Maybe you could give some-"
"As if I would ever set foot in that wing wherever he is," Yuy gritted through his teeth as the first words he had spoken all day. Glaring at him, he growled deeply, "I still say it's too soon to assume that it would be a good idea for Anna to stay with the same being who turned her away even after she willingly risked her existence-"
Unable to hold his tongue any longer, Wufei bit out, "I am Anna's Chosen! She needs me as much as I need her. You do not have the same say over her that you did before she met me!"
A physical jolt rocked its way through the Japanese Infected at that. By the time the blow wore off, his fangs were showing and only everything terrible was promised through his eyes. The Chinese soldier's scaly hands balled up tight as his sharp teeth poked through his drawn back lips as he prepared himself for the retaliation that was about to come.
Instantly coming out of her stunned stupor, Midi shot to her feet so fast and furiously that she knocked her chair to the ground.
"That's enough!" she bellowed, slamming her fist on the table. She shot her heated expression to the stunned Vampires at either side of her in a back-and-forth as she shouted, "You are both going to sort this out once and for all! Tonight!"
Barton swallowed roughly as he sank back in his own chair. Widened eyes blinking, he knew better than to say or do anything when his wife was in such a state.
The times that Midi had been driven to anything like this would have taken less fingers on a hand to count... but they were enough for the Latin Original to have learned silence was the best way of weathering the angered mother bear.
Feeling her own fangs growing in, the little mother snarled, "Neither one of you are allowed to leave this room until you come to some sort of resolution. Trowa and I will give you your space, but this ends now. I am not going to have Anna return home in a couple of weeks to find you two like this! She's been through enough heartache as it is!"
Midi lifted a finger to her stricken cousins, warning, "And if either of you so much as give her the indication that she has to choose between you, I promise you that I will make you regret it for the rest of your days. I would hope that you both would have the decency to realize that it would be impossible for her to have to pick between the two she holds the most dear."
Overcome by the emotions raging at the very thought, her eyes welled up as she whimpered, "It would kill her and you know it."
Despite their own embattled feelings over the Infected across from them, Heero and Wufei instantly lost the heat of their anger as they took the shot that pounded squarely in their guts. Fangs recoiling, their shoulders slumped and their fists relaxed as they stared blankly at the table surface before themselves while their own eyes began to mist over.
Releasing a deep sigh, Midi sniffled and wiped away the tears running down her cheeks. "We're family," she all but breathed, losing her pointed teeth before she finished the sentiment.
"Like it or not, this is what we all signed on for so that we can have others in our existences who understand and love us. And family moves forward together, not concerning themselves with the past. So please, work this out that we can all continue on from here."
At that cue, Trowa rose up and rounded the table to drape an arm around his wife. A proud smile on his face, he leaned in and kissed her temple. "Come on, love," he urged softly. "Let's give them the room." Peering from the corner of his eye to their cousins, he added, "I'm sure that they've got it now." A hint to them that they had better get it.
The reluctant 'brothers' remained still and silent as the Bartons slipped from the room together. And for a long moment after they were long gone, the only sound once more was the ticking of the grandfather clock.
Finally, with a seep sigh, Wufei reached up and dry-washed his face as he considered his first words. Lowering his hands, he settled his gaze on the Original across from him, he muttered sincerely, "You have every right to be furious with me, Heero."
"You're goddamned right I do!" Yuy cried as his head lifted on a snap so that he could glare into the gold-and-onyx eyes set on him... the first time since Chang's arrival at his home that he so much as looked at him so intently. "You couldn't even begin to understand how badly you crushed Anna with your rejection... not only of her but of what she did to save the life you tried to throw away!"
Taking on the ire being sent upon him, the scaly Infected swallowed with a shallow nod. "I know that it's an excuse, and one that you'll probably reject," he frowned, shaking his head, "but you also lack the knowledge of what it was like for a living like myself at the time... one who had been terrified of Vampires from early on who came to realize that they actually did, in fact, walk amongst us."
Chang went on, "You couldn't possibly grasp how terrifying it was when I stumbled upon one who captivated me instead of frightened me. I had to question everything that I thought I knew when what should have been my instinct to kill or run from Anna suddenly turned into my being drawn to her."
With a deep breath, Heero got to his feet and walked towards the large bay windows to gaze past the front porch and into the night beyond. Crossing his arms, he gave a small nod of acknowledgment that he was still listening.
The frown on his face deepening, Wufei sighed to his brother's back, "There is nothing that I can say or do to convince you of how sorry I am for what I did... is there?"
"You pleaded for Anna's existence to the Vampire Council before they came back with their sentence," the Japanese traveler muttered to the pane. "For that much, I'm grateful since they would have had no choice but to give her the ultimate judgment of death. But that does not mean I forgive you the rest of it."
Blinking, the scaly Infected stood and moved to lean his side against the living room door frame. Already half expecting what was about to come, he mentally prepared himself for the contempt that he deserved.
Slowly turning to take in the mutant, Yuy stated, "You left. Without so much as looking at her. Your first rejection was hell enough for Anna and you made her feel that again. Yes, she is still existing because of you, but it meant nothing to her if you did not accept her..."
He made vague gestures in the air with his hands, spitting out, "...if you did not accept whatever this whole supposed cosmic connection between the two of you is. That condemned her to something even worse than death!"
Crossing the room to lean forward and grip the edge of the table he had occupied, Heero's fiery glare returned as he hissed, "I was the one who was there with her every possible night I could be to comfort her for these last ten years."
One hand freeing to point at his own chest, he yelled, "I was the one who heard her crying in her cell just before I showed, knowing exactly who she was so distraught over! I was the one who sang to her, occupied her, held her hand when I've wanted nothing more than to be able to hold her!"
His voice escalating through every painful memory he verbally relived, the Original reached the point of forcing it to crack as he finally screamed out what had needed to say. "Ten years, Wufei! Where the hell were you when you were the one Anna needed the most?!"
Chang's head was tilted away and his eyes were closed for the last of it. Biting into his subtly quivering bottom lip to suck in a deep breath of his own as the regret and anger that he had for himself took over.
"Away from her," he whispered at last, a stray tear rolling down his face as he opened his eyes once more to take on the other Vampire by staring him straight on and into the equally dampened cobalt-and-gold irises that were fixed on him. "The very last place I should have been. I should have been the one with her. You should not have had to do that."
Shaking his head as he lowered it, Heero commented, "I would not be able to survive seeing my sister broken like that again. And as much as I want to on hating you, I am not able to for her sake because I know that she cannot be without you... even though I have done everything I could to be enough for her when she is all I have."
In hearing that, Wufei's eyes widened at the startling revelation. "You are jealous of me," he breathed.
Frustrated, Yuy's head raised back up as he barked out a laugh and exclaimed, "Of course I am! I am jealous of what you mean to her... of what the two of you have! It was always me and Anna against the world." His arms falling lifelessly at his sides as his entire body slouched in defeat, he murmured, "And now she does not need me anymore."
"Heero," the scaly Vampire breathed. Recovering from his surprise, a small smile curled his mouth as he was taken over by a round of snickers that quickly grew until he was full on laughing with his head falling back.
Dumbfounded, the Original blinked in disbelief. Straightening himself, he snapped, "What the hell is so funny?"
Rubbing away the shimmer from his right eye, Chang contained himself enough to admit, "Heero, all this time I've been jealous of you. I have been ever since I met Anna." Completely taken aback his would-be brother's jaw opened and closed to protest, but he could not find his voice to do so on account of his shock and confusion.
A sad grin returning to his scaly face, the warrior informed, "You weren't there for the nights that we spent talking to hear how she would go on and on about her amazing brother who not only saved her existence, but who she has admired and adored more than anyone. I was jealous of the decades, centuries that the two of you were able to share. That's something that can never be replaced or forgotten when you faced the best and worst of times together."
"Not to mention the fact that I was not the one there for her when she was in prison because of me," Wufei concluded with a frown marred by regret. "But I finally came to see that I do not need to compete with you when it is impossible to do so."
Rolling his shoulders back he continued, "Whatever I may be to Anna... Chosen, lover and what I sincerely hope may include my becoming her husband one day... you will always be her best friend, Heero. I do not want to get in the way of that, nor could I. We both provide what she needs by being different sorts of soul mates to her."
Yuy's walls shifted back a bit at the comment. His sister had suggested that they were soul mates in their own way. The fact that he was being considered and accepted as much by Chang was unexpected, to say the least. For that alone, he was all the more interested in carrying on their discussion... giving the Chinese Infected a chance to begin mending the past that had wedged a fissure between them.
Without hesitation or doubt, Wufei held his head up as he declared solemnly, "I love Anna. More than I could ever love or cherish another creature in existence. And I would hope that you believe my word when I promise that I will never do anything to make either of you question that. The sun rises and sets with her in my world.
Gasping, Yuy's bewilderment intensified as his own words replayed in his mind, "...some day you are going to meet the one who will treat and love you better than I ever could... the creature who really completes you in every way I cannot... someone who believes the sun rises and sets with you.' Those had been the heartfelt sentiments that he had told his sister when she had been so terribly upset in finding that no one had attended her funeral.
There was no possible way that there was such a precise recanting of such a unique remark.
All of the uncertainty that the Original had over the bond between those now called Chosens was suddenly perfectly clear to him. It really was true that there were two beings who were always meant to be together. Perhaps there might be challenges in their union, but there was no denying the tie that bound them to each other.
Feeling the sting of tears refilling his eyes, Heero was unable to help the small smile that tugged his lips.
Perhaps he couldn't be everything for Anna that he had wished he could be... but Chang was right... she still needed him even though she had found her Other. Before, he had been so resigned to the possibility of losing her when that was not even a notion in her mind or her partner's... no matter the silent treatments and glares that he had to suffer for days on end.
And maybe that meant even the Japanese Infected would some day meet the other half of his own soul to fill the few gaps remaining it in.
When there was a long pause, Wufei swallowed roughly. "Heero?" he called almost nervously. Encouraging as the grin on his brother's face was, a better confirmation that there was a shot at them coming around was still lacking. "Look, no matter how much I try to prove that I would never hurt your sister again, it would not mean anything unless she can first forgive me for leaving-"
"She has already forgiven you," Yuy heard himself state before the other Vampire could finish his thought. He shook his head to the desperately hopeful expression watching him, snorting, "She forgave you even in the hour since you rejected her immediately following your turning." Chuckling, he added, "If you asked her, she would not even think that you did anything wrong at all."
Uncomfortably vulnerable, the Original rubbed the back of his neck as he admitted, "For the last ten years, it infuriated me that she could not even be the slightest bit mad at you. But now... I think I finally understand."
The funny thing was that he really did. A whole decade worth of questions were quickly coming up with answers. It was liberating. It was scary. Yes it was making more and more sense.
Wufei brought a tight fist to his mouth his effort to choke back the sob that wracked his body in hearing that Anna did not hold any fault over his actions. Overcome by the relief of knowing that she still cared for him as deeply as he knew he did her, a new wave of tears came on. "Oh thank God," he whispered so softly that the other Infected nearly missed the words.
Chewing on the inside of his cheek in consideration, Heero nodded firmly in resolve to himself. "Anna's favorite color is purple," he shared quietly. "She loves horses, rainbows and stars." To the confused look he received, he smirked, "The shops in town are still open for a couple of hours. I know one that sells carousels, carvings and paintings that could help finish up your wing... if you want to go."
"I-I would like that," Chang stammered, smiling warmly. Brushing away the last of the dampness from his scales, he said sincerely, "Thank you."
Rounding the table, the Original shrugged, "It's still a little early for me to feel up to hugs, but this will work fine for a while." At that, he extended an open hand.
The corner of his own mouth turning up in a smirk, the warrior nodded and accepted the offering into a firm shake that solidified their letting go of the past... while taking on the future as family from that day on.
End Flashback
* * * * * *
Heero blinked back into the present time at the relentless sound of the clacking of keys being typed at a furious pace.
Peering over to the shadowy figure silhouetted by the flickering campfire light, he was able to pick up the shimmer of scaly skin as Wufei continued to work away at his laptop where he sat perched atop one of the many large rocks within the cave that they had taken refuge in.
Silently musing over that emotional night, the Original couldn't help but marvel over how time and experience had overridden any of those early tensions upon which had been their foundation. They had come so far from how they had started that it was difficult to remember that things had not always been so comfortable between them.
Now, here they sat huddled away in wait for the next time Crystal called to warn them that they had been sitting too long and needed to move before the mole watching the tracking blips relayed their location. For three months, the brothers were set to the task of finding their Others... the ones who filled in the gaps of their souls.
Three months. And there had not been one solid break in the search.
Like so many other times when Anna was away on a mission, Wufei buried himself in his computer or whatever else he could get his hands on to preoccupy his mind. Heero took comfort in Trowa's support. In the end, none of these things would provide relief from the maddening situation as far as the one missing their Chosen were concerned.
Once on opposing sides, Yuy and Chang were the only ones who understood where the other stood in the world that had been crushed at their feet.
Closing his cobalt-and-gold eyes, the Japanese Infected focused on the continuous clicking that filled the air to ease his fears over one of the prisoners in particular... the one who would not be able to contain her secret for much longer... if she had succeeded in keeping it from her captors up to that day.
* * * * * *
"A-Anna," Duo breathed, his eyes wide and skin paling as he watched his sister slowly rise from her bed.
Frowning deeply, his sister met his gaze and murmured, "I know."
Over the last few weeks, the Irish Vampire had been carefully stretching out her purple tank top's hem as far as she could to conceal what she had dreaded Septum would come to learn.
But now, there was no hiding the small and obviously round swell of her lower abdomen.
TBC...
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