And I never want to let you down
Forgive me if I slip away
When all that I've known is lost and found
I promise you I, I'll come back to you one day
-Lyrics from 'February Song' by Josh Groban [1]
Crimson Ties Part 11
"This is incredible," Duo breathed as he carefully sheathed the ancient blade in his hands.
Gingerly setting the ornate blade atop its display rack, he shook his braided head and looked around the rest of the large room designated housing to the armors, flags and other such keepsakes through the many years.
Every space that he had been to was much like this, honoring an era or period or trade tastefully and all bearing the original pieces of men and women long past.
Until he walked through the residence, it was difficult to understand how a handful of Vampires would need such huge estates. Now, it was clear that they needed the space to house their countless treasures that they'd acquired through their existences.
Walking through each door was like stepping back through time and into a different land all together. Historians would have marveled if they had the chance to behold the artifacts. And there seemed to be no end in sight to the wealth of knowledge that the owner of those gems held.
A pleased smile spread across Heero's face as he watched from the doorway and said quietly, "I'm glad you like it."
Duo met his cobalt eyes, laughing, "Like it? How could anyone not be impressed?" Walking up to a glass display case that sealed away a fully arranged suit of ancient Chinese armor, he stated, "I never thought that I would have a chance to experience history like this when I first met you. Really gives a guy an appreciation for all of the things that have come and gone."
Leaning against the doorframe, the Infected replied, "Sad thing is most humans take for granted what they have when they have it. All too many times, my family and I have been witness to people forgetting to appreciate the simplest of joys and freedoms that they possess. There's something remarkable in everything that the world has to offer, but they're forgotten."
Gently running his fingers along the edge of the display case, Maxwell sighed, "I hear what you're saying there. And I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't guilty of doing that myself at times. But this..." Taking a deep breath, he shook his head, "it's pretty eye-opening."
All of a sudden, this look back into the days of old felt like a gift. Certainly few other humans were lucky enough to look on the memorabilia of their heritage. Turning to face the Vampire, Duo smiled and told him sincerely, "Thank you... for sharing this with me."
"It's my pleasure," Heero replied in kind with a slight bow of his head. "I appreciate the fact that you agreed to come see my home and meet my family. You're always welcome here and with us whenever your heart desires."
Feeling his pulse rise at that, the living did his best not to blush. What was it about the Infected that had him hanging on every word, wishing for nothing more than for the immortal to continue speaking with an almost reverence for him?
His throat tightening, Duo forced a rough swallow down before he could all but whisper, "Thanks, 'Ro. That means a lot." At that, he did feel the blush come on and he quickly turned his braided head away to conceal it. And he was silently thankful that he went with a high collar to conceal the color of the back if his neck.
It thrilled Heero to no end to see his Other so content. Smiling to himself, he watched the teenager continue to walk through the room as he announced, "This is the last of the rooms and you have free roam of the house to go about as you please. I'll leave you to make yourself comfortable."
...And to get if away for a bit to collect himself as it was becoming increasingly difficult to be so close to Duo without being able to act on his desires. He needed to hold it together, before he did something to jeopardize their ever-growing bond.
When the braided teenager spun to face the doorway, he frowned deeply at finding it empty. A sense of loss washed over him, but he forced it back down and allowed himself a chance to use this opportunity to get to know the rest of Heero's family.
Familiar with his surroundings, he navigated himself back through the hallways. All the while, he was in search of the remaining Infected and had to laugh at himself in noting that he was actually looking forward to being in their presence. It was only weeks before that he'd tried desperately to have his class changed to avoid being the same building as one of them.
Life certainly was funny.
Reaching the first floor, Maxwell followed the delicious aroma of whatever was being cooked for his dinner. In passing the living room, he peeked inside to find Wufei and Anna lounging together in a quiet conversation. Chang was running his fingers through his lover's long, red hair as she lay across from him with her head pillowed in his lap.
It was such a sweet, tender moment that Duo was not about to interrupt them. However, he did linger around to watch them for a bit.
Thinking back to the love in Anna's eyes when she and Heero were reunited at the library days before, what she held for Chang did not even compare as she gazed up at him. Giggling softly, she reached up to cup the side of his face at something he whispered to her and he leaned down to claim her lips with his own in a sweet kiss.
For a moment, the living forgot to breathe. His heart clenched at how painfully beautiful and absolutely captivated the pair were with each other. And even though he had never met them, or seen them together before, Duo couldn't help but be envious of what they had.
Once he was finally able to tear his eyes away, the scholar decided to leave them to their privacy and headed back down the hallway until he reached the kitchen where he found Midi adding ingredients to the large pot boiling on the stove.
The counters beside her were pristinely clean, save but for the opened recipe book and the ingredients that were waiting in their mixing bowls. In the sink, a short stack of already used utensils was building up. Whatever the meal was, it apparently had taken the better part of the Vampire's day to prepare.
Stepping away to reach for a long spoon, she happened to look back over her shoulder to notice her guest standing in the doorway. "Oh," she smiled, pausing to run her free hand along her white apron and push back her loose wisps of brown hair. "Hello, Duo," she greeted in that song-like voice of hers. She scanned around with her brown eyes before she asked, "Is Heero not with you?"
"Hi, Midi," he replied with a small grin as he stepped up to the stove. "He stepped out a minute ago, but I'm not really sure which way he went."
Already guessing that her cousin needed to separate himself from his Other, the 'mother' of the family kept her assumption to herself and did her best to not worry about him. She shrugged, "He probably didn't want you to feel like you needed to be watched while you're here."
Humming an affirmative, Duo's stomach growled from the hunger that he'd ignored before he'd smelt the meal being prepared for him. Chuckling at the loud gurgle as he peered into the pot, he complimented, "Whatever you're making smells great."
As her shoulders sagging in relief, the brunette sighed, "Aw, I'm so happy you said that. I've never made this particular stew before, but I've been anxious to try it on someone who could actually enjoy it."
Chuckling, Duo reassured, "You won't have to worry about that. But still, you didn't have to go through all of this trouble for me."
With a huff, Midi waved her hand in the air that was not busy stirring the contents inside the pot and smirked, "No trouble at all. This kept me busy, which makes me all too happy. If I have nothing to do around the mansions, I simply have to come up with something to occupy me as I consider myself the proud homemaker of the lot."
The braided teenager took a step back to give her some space at the stove as he questioned, "Do the others have jobs of their own? Heero mentioned something about Anna working a long shift somewhere. And since he works at the library, I'm assuming they all have careers."
Giggling at her visitor's curiosity, the Infected nodded, "Trowa works at the car mechanic's shop just beyond town. Wufei consults with computer programmers from home. And Anna is a full-time nurse at Sacred Heart Hospital." Her smile grew as she stated, "I have quite the talented family."
Impressed, the living's eyebrows rose and he snorted, "I'll say." While the self-proclaimed homemaker continued to busy herself, he took to one of the chairs at the small table at the center of the kitchen.
Obviously caring and kind, it was easy to see how Midi was the 'mother' of the family. And it did not take much for Duo to understand how this good creature was a natural in her role as a nurturer. Already, he was drawn to making conversation with her.
"So, Heero told me that you and Trowa had known each other before he was turned," he heard himself comment. "I can't even begin to imagine what it would have been like for someone like you to have your loved one taken away only to come back like... that."
A small smile warming her face, Midi hummed, "Mm. Well, Trowa and I always had a very special bond since we were children growing up on our parents' shared stretch of vineyard in the Spanish countryside." Tapping the spoon against the edge of the pot, she lowered it onto the towel on the counter and removed her apron.
Very slowly, as if to keep from startling the teenager, she pulled out the chair across from him to sit in it. folding his hands on the table, Duo leaned towards her that little bit to give her his full attention, already captivated in his longing to know more about the Vampires that filled Heero's existence.
Shaking her head as her gold-ringed brown eyes shifted at her losing herself in the past, the brunette smiled wistfully. "I always knew that I was going to marry Trowa, even as a little girl when we were so young and so unaware of what love really was," she giggled softly. "When we were teenagers, we finally officially began courting. It was innocent and sweet, but it was all the proof I needed to know that we were made for each other."
For a moment, the Infected returned to the present and purposely locked onto the violet gaze that was steady on her. "It was as if where one of us ended the other began, like two pieces of a puzzle melding together," she explained. "He always made me feel beautiful and as if I was the most precious thing in the whole world. Even the word 'love' seemed a pale in comparison to what we shared We were... the very best of friends and then some."
Pausing, Midi's mouth opened and closed as the light in her eyes faded to be replaced by tears that welled up on her. When she found her voice, her smile had faded and she whispered, "Then... one February, Trowa had fallen ill. I knew immediately by his symptoms that he'd contracted consumption. And it was running through his body rapidly."
At the sight of her tears, Duo was suddenly looking around the room almost frantically when he saw a box of tissues at the counter. Just short of jumping from his seat, he took it up and returned to his spot to pull a few ply loose.
With a quiet laugh, the lovely brunette accepted the offered tissues and dried her face as she squeezed his hand in her own cold one. "Thank you, dear one," she grinned.
Collecting herself with a deep breath, Midi dabbed the last bit of shimmer away from her eyes and sighed, "Anyway, I rarely left Trowa's bedside as he continued to decline. Fearing for my own health, my parents physically pulled me away to return home with them. I was watched for a whole day before I was finally able to sneak out and return to the Barton's household... but he was gone."
Tightly clutching the tissues with both hands, her demeanor shifted again... this time to anger as she growled, "His parents told me of how they had given him away to be researched. I never even had a chance to say goodbye, and knowing that I would never see him again I became very bitter. Maybe even more bitter than I was in grief over the loss. I was mad at God, at our parents, at the men who stole Trowa away in the night."
Maxwell swallowed past the lump in his throat that had formed from his being caught up in her emotions. Folding his arms on the edge of the table, he laid his head on them and kept his violet eyes on the Vampire.
Another sigh escaped Midi as she continued, "I didn't sleep well for weeks. Every day and night, I wondered what had become of him. I kept wishing that we'd just had more time." Slowly, her smile returned and she breathed, "And then he returned to me."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
(Flashback)
A hand reached up to wipe away yet another stray tear... one of countless over the past couple of months. Was the grief ever going to subside? Would she ever get over her broken heart and let Trowa go?
Laying on her back in her bed, Midi stared up at her bedroom ceiling musing as she had for hours on end ever since her love, her best friend, had been taken from her life. Her parents were worried over her lack of sleep and appetite. She couldn't have cared less about those things when all she could think of was how Trowa had likely died a horribly painful end... alone.
Her parents be damned for not giving her the chance to say farewell. May his parents forever regret setting a price on their son to allow him to be swept away. To hell with those scientists for using her love as an experiment in his last days.
Another tear.
Quietly sighing, the young woman rose from her mattress to play with her shoulder-length hair and fuss with her long, white nightdress. It looked as though she was going to have another restless night.
Sleep did not matter, hunger was an easily forgotten nuisance. Such things would pass. It was the broken heart that would never truly let up.
Closing her eyes, Midi pulled her legs to her chest and buried her head in her knees as her body shook with quiet sobs. Her moment was broken when the there was a loud bang at her window. Gasping, her wet face shot up to look over to see the swinging pane that had been blown in by the wind. Her moon-lit, white curtains floated on the breeze that came in to appear like ghostly arms reaching out to her.
With a hand over her racing heart, the wide-eyed girl sagged in relief and caught her panting breath as the startle wore off. Rising from her bed, she crossed the room to take hold of the door-like glass pane and sealed it shut again. As she set the latch and rubbed her arms to warm them after the feel of the winter air, she silently wondered when the wind was ever strong enough to undo the window lock before.
"Midi," a voice whispered from the other half of the room behind her.
Frozen where she stood staring out her window, the wine-seller's daughter could not pull the air around to fill her lungs when they seized up from her shock.
That voice... she would know it anywhere. It was the one that she had wished and prayed to hear once more.
Slowly, Midi turned herself to stare at the other half of her room. Squinting her eyes to see beyond the dark shadows, she did gasp sharply when she recognized the outline of the silhouette standing there. Her brown eyes growing, her body began to tremble.
Maybe her parents were right... perhaps she was losing her mind. But she could not help the surge of hope that filled her, nor the ache from her racing heart as she whispered back, "Trowa?"
A shallow nod from the dark figure answered and suddenly neither the questions nor the answers mattered. The only thing that flooded her mind was that he was back.
With strangled cry breaking from her, the brunette threw herself forward to wrap her arms tightly around her lover's neck. When her skin brushed against his, however, she leapt a step back. "Y-you are as cold as ice."
Closing the distance between then, Trowa stepped into the pale light to reveal his pale, face and emerald eyes that were rounded by rings of gold. More than the strange rings, what took the girl's breath away was the haunted, tormented expression in them. "Oh, my love, what has happened to you?" she breathed.
"Midi.... I..." frowning deeply, her best friend's fists shook at his sides. Lowering his head, he said quietly, "That was a mistake. I put you in danger by coming to see you again like this."
The young woman shook her head, "Trowa, I do not understan-"
Stopping her short when she moved to step towards him, the pale boy cried, "Do not come any closer! I cannot control myself around you the way I thought that I could!" His eyes clenching shut, he turned away and covered his face with his hands. "I do not know what I am anymore, but it is too dangerous for us to be together anymore. And just when I thought there might be a way..."
Her heart leaping in her throat, Midi's jaw fell. "A way..." Tears filled her eyes as she insisted, "Trowa, whatever the danger... whatever the cost, if there is a way that we can be together, I accept them all!" She whimpered, "I already know that I cannot live in a world where you are not with me!"
"You do not know what you are saying," her lover whispered from the shadows, the strain in his voice almost unbearable to listen to. It was as if he was fighting with demons sent from the depths of Hell... and he was losing the battle.
Glaring heatedly at the silhouette, it was the girl's turn to snap, "I do. You know what is in my heart just as I know what is in yours. And I do not care what you have become, I will join you gladly if it means that we will never have to be separated again. I love-"
Once again, her words were silence, but this time by the feel of her partner's cold lips pressing roughly against hers in a desperate kiss. Caught off guard only for a heartbeat, Midi closed her eyes and held onto her best friend tightly as she met the kiss with everything she had in her.
Breaking only to breathe, she silently wondered how it was Trowa was not panting for air as she was. Again, her questions did not matter. The same love that had shone in those emerald eyes for her before held the same intensity as they shimmered in the moonlight with unshed tears.
The voices of Midi's parents approaching along with their hurried steps had the couple spinning to face the door. "Our time is up," Trowa sighed, his head dropping in defeat.
"No," the brunette growled deeply. Tightening her hold around his chilled neck, she demanded, "I am going with you, wherever that is. I have prayed for more time with you and I am going to see that I have every possible second with you for as long as you exist in this world. The explanations can come later. I know what I want."
And there was not a shred of doubt in her mind. This was her decision, whatever the consequences. Whatever the end to the means.
Meeting her gaze, Trowa's lips finally curled up in the smallest of smiles as he told her, "I love you." It was all the warning that he gave before he scooped her up into his arms and shot them across the room to undo the lock of the window in a flash that left her gulping air from her surprise at his speed.
The window panes flew open to them just as her parents cried and banged away at the other side of her locked bedroom door. "Hang on," her lover urged as he leapt to land on the railing of her balcony.
Burying her head against his shoulder, Midi closed her eyes and gripped onto him all the tighter when she felt them fall through the cold air.
(End Flashback) [2]
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Smiling, the Vampire reclined back in her chair. "In a safe haven not far from the city, Trowa told me everything that he knew of his strange condition... and that a way had been discovered to turn a human into what he had become," she said quietly. "I never hesitated in expressing my desire to have him bite me so that I may join him."
As she raised her head to lock onto the violet eyes, she grinned and shrugged, "There has never been a second that I regretted my decision. My life is full not only with Trowa, but a whole family of my own that I can care for. If I ever had the chance to go back, I wouldn't change a thing."
Moved by the story of such a strong love, Duo sat upright and let out a deep breath as he whispered, "That's... pretty incredible. You had no idea what you were getting into, but you were willing to endure whatever came because of what you and Trowa shared."
A frown marring his face, he shook his head, "But... you had to know that you were going to have a difficult time in life when word of your kind was out with the humans. There were the burnings, the hunts and killings of the Vampires... you went through it all."
"In all the years that I have seen and by being both a human and a Vampire, there is one truth that I know to hold truth for both races," Midi replied as she held up a finger.
Taking a short breath, she declared, "It's easier to hate than it is to love. It takes less effort, and you don't need to care about what the person you hate thinks of you so there is no guilt. Love takes work, patience, appreciation and it leaves us vulnerable to the risk of being hurt."
Bending at her waist in her chair, the Infected smirked, "It's even easier to hate that which we do not understand."
Truer words... were never spoken. Duo knew him to be a good example of that. And it left him mentally reeling as he fell back in his seat as if he'd been punched in the gut, the air rushing from hi lungs.
In a lot of ways, that simple logic was every bit as effective as a physical blow. It was a profound thing for him to consider after all of his years of rage and hate towards creatures like the kind one sitting across from him... a creature who loved beyond bounds enough to sacrifice her life as she knew it for another. Such a thing could only come out of goodness.
Midi smiled and reached over to squeeze his arm. "I'm so very glad that you came to visit us, Duo," she whispered sincerely. That said, she rose from her chair and slipped silently from the room to give the teenager a moment alone.
As a stray tear that had broken past his defenses rolled down his cheek, Maxwell grinned to himself and breathed, "Yea... so am I."
TBC...
[1] I haven't used lyrics to go with chapters to my fics in a long time. And this fic is really inspiring me to return to that. In there is a fitting song to accompany a moment of the chapter, it will be incorporated as this lovely song is.
[2] Of course they would be talking in their native tongue, but I'm saving time by just writing the dialogue in English.
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