Promise me you'll always be...
Happy by my side
I promise to sing to you...
When all the music dies
-Lyrics to 'Marry Me' performed by Train
Crimson Ties Part 78
(Flashback)
"This is the last of them that we could manage to get out tonight," Anna announced quietly in German as she stepped beyond the tree line into the clearing with a young boy of little more than three years of age in her arms. Hugging her neck tightly, the child's face was as dingy as the redheaded Vampire's.
Darkened as his face was, the lad's teeth were white as snow as his brilliant smile shone in the dim light of the full moon that trickled down through the evergreen branches when he found a familiar face amongst the humans standing by. "Mama!" he all but cried, only just managing to keep his voice low enough that no one beyond the wood could hear.
Stifling a cry, his head-shaven, sickly thin and shabbily dressed mother whimpered, "Meir." Her whole body trembling and tears rolling down her face, she approached the Infected with her bony arms opening. Just as Anna was moving to gladly hand the youngster over to his parent, she was caught by surprise when the young woman embraced them both tightly.
Kissing the cold cheek of the Irish immoral, the prisoner whispered in her native tongue, "Bless you all, every one of you. I have truly seen angels walking amongst us now." Moved by those words, the Vampire swallowed roughly and bowed her head as she was not about to try to speak at that moment. Carefully, she handed her widely-grinning charge to his mother so that she could hold him and rain kisses all over his face.
A few feet away, Trowa and Midi were in the process of passing around warm, dark-hued clothes to the men, women and children that were huddled closely together. Softly speaking reassurances to the haunted faces watching them, the couple saw that the black-and-white-striped rags draped over the frail forms were covered while passing out food and water that was greedily taken.
Raising a hand from the bag that was being all but shredded away in the haste, the 'little mother' insisted in German, "Slowly. Eat and drink slowly or you will make yourselves ill." Instantly, the older prisoners understood and carefully drank their water in sips, chewed their food in little bites.
"How many is that?" Wufei asked when he stepped out into the small meadow to approach his brother-in-law. Scanning the mortals' sunken eyes and frighteningly skeletal bodies, he fought the surge of emotions that were threatening to overtake him now that he could clearly see how badly off their charges were.
With a troubled look of his own, Yuy finally peeled his gaze away from the humans to meet the scaly Infected's eyes. "Twenty-nine total," he informed softly, speaking in Chinese now so that the already startled lot could not understand what they were discussing. "We should be able to move fairly easily with them, given they're not as bad off as many of the ones we had to leave behind."
Grunting in agreement to that, Chang nodded firmly and peered back to watch as his bride of two decades bent at her waist to quietly laugh and play with the children that had been eying her in curiosity. To those young faces that looked on wearily, she quietly sang songs that she knew to have come from their Jewish heritage and won them all over as they joined in. Before long, the adults were singing along as well, a shimmer in their eyes at being able to raise their voices in a tune that they would have been killed for had they dared sung it around their guards.
This was one very rare, beautiful moment when not race, nor gender, nor religious belief nor even the difference between human and Vampire mattered. Everyone was just a living being, trying to exist in peace in its truest nature.
Like the rest of her family, the Irish Infected's dark clothes had snags and tears from the barbed wire that they had cut through. Her hands were red with blood from deep nicks that many of those spikes had cut into her flesh that would take days for even their accelerated healing to completely seal. From literally clawing around in the grime and dirt, she had it splotched all over.
And yet, Wufei still couldn't help but smile in wonder and pride as he watched her. "I don't think Anna looked as beautiful on our wedding day as she does now," he breathed in his homeland's tongue.
Heero chuckled softly, understanding the warrior in his brother-in-law that would truly appreciate his dear sister's state a thing to respect- the remains of a hard-fought battle. Between that and how she was able to earn the trust of the mortals in spite of what she was or how she appeared, Anna remained a captivating force.
Considering the close calls that they'd experienced in getting the prisoners safely to where Trowa and Midi were waiting for them, Heero could only call what he and his siblings had endured a crusade. The sights, sounds and smells that they'd encountered were going to stay with them for the rest of their existences, far too horrid to ever bring up again, but they would all have it in common now.
When word was spreading that there was a case of mass genocide taking place in Germany and the lands that they'd conquered, it was too unfathomable to be taken as little more than a far-fetched rumor.
But when more and more of those whispered words were spreading, the Yuy and Barton clans did exactly what they'd promised Treize and the other Vampires of the high Council they would not do... they got involved. Under false pretenses, they had left their home in neutral, peaceful Switzerland. If something as horrendous as the taking of innocent lives was truly happening, they wanted to confirm it for themselves and from there they would decide what to do.
...Only, when they first arrived at Ohrduf to find the camp there filled with starving souls and mounds of bodies that had only begun, there was not a chance that they were about to sit back and not save as many as they could. Treize and his clans would just have to understand and forgive when the travesty that was the second world war finally came to an end, as they all knew that their friends would.
For this being only their first retrieval mission, it went well. At first, Heero would not have thought that they would manage to get more than a dozen people out safely. With well more than that in their care, he was optimistic that they would be successful in liberating more.
And there would be more of what nightmares they had seen... so much more.
"My God," Wufei finally whispered as he ran a hand over his dark hair, shaking his head as he looked on the poor souls that they had freed. "Can you even believe that we were ever capable of doing something like this when we were human?" he asked softly. "How can anyone, let alone thousands, do this to one of their own?"
Biting his lip, Yuy frowned deeply as he lost focus at whatever he was staring ahead at. Those were two of the many questions that he had thought over time and time again since their discovery of the inhumanity at its worst.
Slowly drawing a deep breath, the Original finally found his voice enough to reply just as quietly, "I don't know." It was not the answer he wanted to give or admit to, but it was the only one that he had. Nothing about this made any sense. There was only terror that such a thing was happening at all.
The realization of what they were up against threatened to crush Heero in that instant. Seeing just how grateful and elated those prisoners were as they continued to embrace and kiss his sister and cousins, he breathed, "We'll never be able to save them all. There are so many... and there will be even more camps like this one where there will be even more people... How can we be of any real help in this?"
Wufei rested a hand on his brother's shoulder, making their gold-flecked eyes meet again. "We save as many as we can," he replied simply. Gesturing to the lot that they had brought in, he commented, "It may not seem like a lot when you look at the whole picture, but it's sure as hell made all the difference for them."
Blinking, Heero looked back on the wide smiles of the prisoners as they spoke to the rest of their family with wide-eyed wonder at the Vampires for the mercy and kindness shown to them.
Hours ago, not one of those mortals would have dreamed that they would escape the hands of the Nazis alive. And now, not only were they free, but they were going to move on to live their lives as they had only wished they could before they were captured.
There was hope for them again.
Once this group was safely away in Switzerland, the Infected would be off to rescue the next prisoners that they could find in another camp. And so they would continue on until all of the bases were liberated, for however long that would be.
So, just as Wufei had said, at least they could make a difference for those that they could reach. Better a few than to leave all of those captives to the terrible fate dealt to them.
And it was in that moment when Heero really, truly looked onto his family to see them for the brave and selfless creatures that they were. There was never a doubt or complaint from any of them in this mission that they had enlisted themselves for without looking back.
In constantly being surrounded by his sister, brother and cousins, it was easy for the Original to take for granted just how remarkable a thing that was of them. Knowing them as well as he did, such courage and caring did not come as a surprise at first, they just came so naturally.
Now, looking on all of them, Yuy's chest swelled in recognizing just how much and how deeply he loved all of them. He was easily the luckiest Vampire to ever exist, honored in having the company of such incredible beings.
Frowning when the silence between them continued to stretch out, Wufei's scales shimmered in the moonlight as he tilted his head with a concerned, "Heero? Are you alright, brother?"
Just managing to fight the sting that filled his eyes, the Japanese immortal looked back at his sibling and smiled sincerely, "Yea. Never better, actually." Lightly patting the other Infected on the back, he nodded firmly, "We save as many as we can." Grinning back, Chang returned the small nod.
Firmly set to that plan, Heero led the way back to the rest of their family with a filled heart and a new found hope for the future if the world that they continued to exist in together.
(End Flashback)
* * * * * *
Sighing deeply, Duo sank back into the mattress beneath him as his eyes drifted closed. With a husky chuckle, he smirked, "So much for getting back to Treize and Lady Une's home before anyone noticed we were gone."
His body still trembling from the love making session he and his Vampire had just engaged in, he smiled fully at the feeling of a familiar tongue running along the new puncture wounds that now made for a matching pair of bite marks at either side of the nape of his neck.
"I do hope that doesn't bother you," Heero snickered as he brushed back a few of the long and loose hairs that had stuck to the sides of his Companion's dampened face. Reluctantly extracting himself from Maxwell's body, he shifted to settle onto his side next to the lithe Reformer.
Maxwell opened his silver-and-violet eyes while turning to curl flush against his Chosen. "Like I care about that. Being with you any and every chance we get is the only thing I care about," he smiled before he craned his head up to press their lips together in what would have been a bruising manner were their blood flowing normally.
Wracked by both those words and the intensity of the kiss, Yuy's eyes widened for a couple of stunned blinks only to close with a deep moan that resonated through his whole being.
Breaking away, Duo sighed and nestled the side of his head against the strong shoulder beneath it. Biting his lip, he fought the sting in his eyes that came from the profound love that had been shown him through every look, touch and sound that came from his Vampire.
Never before would he have ever hoped to feel as precious, as adored as the way that Heero made him feel through even the simplest of ways. Locked away from the rest of the world as they were, nothing more than his loose hair spread over their bodies, those sensations were all the stronger... enough so that they were almost impossible to believe that they were real.
...Almost.
There was no denying the depths of Yuy's devotion when their eyes met.
Swallowing past the lump that formed in his throat, the hybrid whispered up to his lover, "I love you... so damned much, 'Ro."
With a small, unintelligible sound, the Infected smiled and gently brushed his finger tips along the edge of his Companion's face. "You are my everything, Duo," he replied just as softly Shifting his hand to run it along the gold band on the Reformer's arm, he commented, "I consider myself the luckiest creature to exist in this world in having you as my Other." Unable to trust his voice, Maxwell responded through his actions in the slow, deep kiss that he claimed.
For a time after they broke away, the immortals simply basked in the peacefulness of the moment that they had to themselves. Content to simply lay in their large bed where they could kiss and touch with abandon, they stayed in a companionable silence until the room lightened along with the brightening sky beyond their drawn blinds.
Instead of his normally talkative partner speaking up first, it was Heero who broke the quiet by announcing, "I just can't wait any longer."
Blinking in confusion at the sudden comment, Duo shifted to prop the top half of his body up as his Vampire moved to rise from the mattress. His mouth opening so that he could ask what he was doing, the Reformer was stopped short with a kiss that was pressed on the tip of his nose.
"Wait right here," Heero requested, a small smirk tugging the corner of his mouth before he quickly gathered up his clothes that were piled in a heap on the floor and moved from the room without looking back.
Maxwell sat up to reach over his half of the bed to that he could retrieve his boxers and pants to at least pull those on. Whatever it was that his Infected had planned, they would have to be off soon after to catch back up with their family, friends and new allies. Now that he was without his Vampire, the responsibilities and realities were already flooding back to him.
There was so much for them to do...
First Duo wanted to check up on Trowa to see how he was coming along in finding the location of the scientist's base with the help of his birth mother's journal. Then, they also should find out more on Doctor J and his pupils' progress in pulling together more Hunting packs for the war. At some point, the Reformer needed to sit with Anna so that she could draw more of his blood to evolve another handful of trusted Vampires should the opportunity present itself.
Once that was all out of the way, the retrieval of the next victims Solo had planned would be in effect. According to Treize on the way to meet at the Hunters' base, Relena was nearly finished fine-tuning her ability as well as testing its limits. As soon as she had it figured out as to how she could see potential Companions in danger, the Preventers would be able to intervene and make their offensive known to Solo.
It would only be a matter of time before they would all meet to end the conflict... one way or the other.
The room was completely flooded with natural light when Heero returned, fully changed and bearing a rectangular case the size and shape of a personal jewelry box that Duo had never seen before. A thoughtful frown spreading across his face, the silver-and-violet-eyed immortal lowered his hands from the work of braiding his hair that he had only just begun when he was partially dressed so that the strands fell loose around him again.
While he had no idea what the box was, Maxwell instantly understood its importance to his Vampire in the way that Yuy was handling it- as if were made of some fine, delicate material instead of the shining silver metal that it actually had been carved from. The closer his lover drew, the better the Companion was able to make out the ornate carving and rises in the design that gave away how the trinket had seen many a decade.
A small, almost nervous smile working its way across his lips when their eyes met, the Infected sat on his half of the bed. Shifting so that they were facing each other with their legs touching, the Vampire held up the finely crafted box as he shared, "This had been a gift from one of the Holocaust victims that our family and I rescued. It was one of the only things of hers that she had managed to hold onto by burying it in the woods beyond her hometown before she had been captured."
Reverently running his cool fingers over the intricate carvings when he looked down at the box, he continued just as softly, "She insisted in gifting it to me for helping bring her to safety, as many of the other prisoners that we brought out of the camps had bestowed what precious and few belongings that they could in return for our efforts." Chuckling softly, he shook his head, "Of course they all knew that we gladly took the chances that we did because it was the right thing to do and not because we expected anything in return."
Still lightly tracing his fingers over the lid, the Infected smirked, "This was the only gift that I couldn't talk my way out of. And since having it bestowed on me, it's become one of my most cherished possessions." That nervous expression washed over his face again as he gazed back up at his Companion, holding the silver box out to him.
Biting his lip, Duo very carefully wrapped his hands around the cool metal. Gingerly setting the box in his lap with all the care and respect that it deserved after everything that it had endured to come into the hands of its permanent owner.
Captivated by the intricate details in the craftsmanship, his own fingers brushed over the carvings and rises that formed a very vintage design. Setting his hand over the front of the lid, he slowly lifted it open to gasp sharply at the contents inside.
At the left and right sides of the box, tiered shelves folded out, growing smaller as they got closer to the bottom of the box. Rather than holding jewelry, each of those staggered tiers held a different picture of his family.
Some group shots and other individual images, the photos spanned the lifetimes of the Yuy and Barton clans' members. It was a heartbreakingly beautiful display of how dear every one of those creatures was to Heero for him to have taken the time to make the collage that would forever be kept safe.
But it was not only those pictures that captured the Reformer's attention. Wide-eyed, he stared at the single, black velvet box that was stored at the bottom of the case. Feeling his slowed heart rate rise, he couldn't tear his gaze away as he stammered in a breath, "H-Heero?"
The nervousness slightly fading from his handsome features, his Vampire reached inside to take up the small case. "I wanted to wait for this when all of this was finished, but I just couldn't wait any longer," he informed before opening the box to reveal the solid ring of silver inside. At the sight of the band that was highlighted with weaves of dark lines shaped in infinity knots, Maxwell's throat closed off with a large lump that stifled the whimper breaking from him.
As small tears filled both their eyes, Yuy gently turned his lover so that his legs fell over the edge of their bed. Tightly gripping his Companion's hand with his own free one, the Original lowered himself onto one knee on the floor.
"Duo," he began, voice so thick with emotion that it threatened to break, "You are everything in my existence. None of it made any sense before you came along, but all of the loneliness and constant searching for direction has been more than worth it now that I have you." Sniffling, the hybrid smiled widely while his tears rolled freely down his face as his heart went on to race in his chest.
The Infected snickered, using his arm to the hand that was holding the box to wipe at his shimmering, golden eyes, snickering, "I realize that this is all a formality now," Taking a deep breath, he focused back on his partner to ask in a revered whisper, "Would you, Duo Maxwell, do me the greatest honor of marrying me and becoming my husband?"
Nodding before his Vampire could finish his question, the Reformer replied just as softly, "Yes. God, yes." Only having half the mind to set the jewelry box aside, he slid down to his own knees so that he could have his fianc¨¦ pull him into a tight embrace. Returning the hold tenfold, he pressed his face against a firm shoulder as Heero let out a soft sob along with him. Exchanging a few soft kisses and whispered affections, the pair stayed latched to each other until the tremors that wracked their bodies faded.
Finally convinced that he could pull back without the fear of falling apart, Yuy's damp face practically glowed with the elated smile that had spread across his features. Removing the ring from the box in his hand, he slid it onto Duo's left ring finger as his Companion held it out to him in a perfect fit.
Turning his palm so that he could admire the simple, yet exquisite band as it caught the light filling the room, Maxwell laughed and threw his arms back around the Infected's neck in a fierce hug. "We're going to be married!" he laughed, thrilled over the notion of being husband to the most incredible creature that he had ever known.
Yes, the engagement may have been a formality of sorts. After all, Duo had willingly given everything of himself including his own prolonged existence to Heero. However, the significance of a real marriage was not at all lost to him.
It was one thing to be tied out of the unique connection between them. It was a completely different story to have his Chosen want to be with him in every way he possibly could be, as husbands in addition to a Vampire and his Companion.
"I love you, Heero," the hybrid whimpered when he pulled back again to cup the side of his lover's face. Rather than return the sentiment with words, his Infected leaned in to claim a passionate, deep kiss that echoed the sentiment back, scorching in its intensity.
Parting their lips some time later, Maxwell wiped away the last of the tears from their faces and went on to stare in awe at his ring. "We have to tell the rest of our family," he declared, meeting his fianc¨¦'s eyes with a wide grin that threatened to split his face. "Do you think that anyone will notice this right away?" he asked, waving his ringed hand in the air.
His head falling back in his sharp round of laughter, Heero stated, "Oh, I have a funny feeling that there's one person who will probably pick that up before we have the chance to announce anything."
* * * * * *
"Oh my God!" Anna squealed when her brothers walked into Khushrenada's home with a sharp gasp.
Her enlarged eyes fixed on the shimmering ring set on Duo's finger, she sprang from the living room couch that she and Wufei had been occupying to charge and nearly tackle the couple when she flung herself around them. "I've been so anxious for this!" she cheered excitedly. Laughing as she continued to embrace and rained over kiss their faces, Heero and Duo got their footing enough again to return her embrace.
Snickering when he was freed, Yuy rubbed the top of his sister's head, smirking, "You were anxious, huh? I couldn't tell with your pestering me at least once every day since Duo agreed to stay with us to know when I was going to propose to him." At that, Maxwell blinked at the redhead's as she ducked sheepishly.
Moved by how badly she had wanted this engagement, he felt a new sting of tears come on at the same time that her gold-and-blue eyes watered over with happy tears.
Quickly closing the distance between them, Duo pulled her into another tight hold and kissed her cheek. "I'm honored that you would want me to officially be your brother so much, Anna," he breathed by her ear. Giggling, the Irish Infected hugged him just as fiercely, burying her damp face against his shoulder.
Entering the hallway, Wufei smiled to the Original, "My most sincere congratulations to you both. Our family's truly complete now." He stretched out his scaly hand for firm handshakes with his brothers that were given along with their quiet words of appreciation.
Within seconds, the conversations had reached Midi's sensitive ears and she swooped into the scene, exclaiming brightly, "I have a wedding to plan?!" At the sight of the ring on Maxwell's finger, she was immediately caught up in the excitement as she laughed along with her cousins.
Heero stepped back a moment, his own emotions getting the better of him as he looked on his family to take in how readily they accepted his lover as one of their own. Just like that night in Germany after their mission of liberating their first charges from the concentration camps, he was reminded of how deeply and completely he loved every one of the creatures before him.
Now with Duo, a most fitting addition to the unit, they were finally a whole clan.
And once again, there was hope for their future.
TBC...
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