By the Red Moon Part 31
He was drowning.
When his mouth parted along with the one against his own and their tongues roamed, Duo went from feeling as though he was being scorched alive to drowning.
Completely lost in the kiss, everything else went away. And if there was any worry to whether or not Heero was enjoying the exchanged every bit as much, it was put aside when a moan from him was heard and felt.
At the clanging of metal against the floor, the prince knew that the scepter had been dropped when its glow was replaced by only violet behind his closed eyelids. Hands came up to cup the sides of his face and he was lightly pressed back up against the wall behind him as the kiss became even more desperate and hungry on both their parts.
Then... there was a muffled cry and gasp. And suddenly, Heero was gone; Duo felt him pull away as quickly as he could.
Panting heavily, the braided teenager remained in his prone half-leaning state as his eyes shot wide open. Already on his feet and pacing back and forth before him, the knight was having just as difficult time catching his own breath.
A trembling hand running through his damp hair, Heero could not even look at the other boy as he breathed mournfully, "I am sorry. That should not have happened." Shaking his head, he continued to pace and rubbed the back of his neck. "I should have had better control" he said so quietly that it was as if he did not intend anyone but himself to hear it.
'Better control.' Duo blinked in surprise at comment, no longer wishing that he could find a crevice to crawl into after the knight's initial reaction to their kiss. Better control suggested that there was a chance Yuy had been fighting the urge to do that before.
Testing the waters, the prince pushed himself to sit upright and replied, "I'm just as guilty for that..." He paused for a rough swallow before adding, "...but I'm not exactly sorry that it happened."
Heero came to a stop and turned to face him with wide eyes that held a sea of emotions behind them. Taking a deep breath, he turned his head away after a few heartbeats and suggested quietly, "We should head back to the castle. Night will be falling by the time we return and the others will be worried."
With his own head turning away, Duo muttered under his breath, "And here I thought that running and hiding was my thing." Still, there was a relief over the fact that the other teenager did not say anything along the lines that he was sorry the whole kiss happened at all.
Something was going on that the Captain needed to work out, but that was not necessarily a bad thing. It was on that thought, and hope, that Maxwell was able to put on a grin and nodded, "All right. Let's go."
* * * * * *
The walk back to the pool was... awkward to say the least.
Neither Heero nor Duo spoke the whole way. Neither of them knew where to start a conversation after what had happened. So instead, they just headed back with their thoughts and confusions over the matter and how to behave around each other now.
Reaching the surface of the lake, they found Wing and Scythe sitting at a comfortable distance from each other on the beach, but still keeping a leery eye on another.
That attention centered on their riders when they came into view. Heads perking up and tails wagging, they hurried to the humans' sides and picked up on their emotional turmoil. Once the teenagers were dried and changed, the dragons' ears sank and mouths frowned deeply as they nuzzled them with their muzzles for comfort.
Sighing, Heero patted Wing's nose and rounded him to climb into his saddle. Rubbing his own hand along Scythe's jaw, Duo followed suit to secure himself onto her back. Instead of looking on one another with agitation, the dragons shared a concerned expression before they took to the skies on the command to return to the castle.
When they did arrive in the royal stables, Wufei and Anna were finishing washing their steeds. From the moment the other pair arrived, the knights could sense the tension in the air between them. Between how Heero and Duo would avoided looking at each other and how upset their mounts seemed, it was clear that something was wrong..
Sharing a wordless conversation when their eyes met, the couple quickly finished drying Nataku and Ingier and stepped out of their stalls. "Hey, guys," Anna smiled in greeting when they caught up. "Dinner will be served in the banquet hall in-"
"I am not hungry," the Captain interrupted curtly, making the others all pause in surprise. Never missing a step as he headed from the stable, Yuy peered over his shoulder and requested, "Please extend my appreciation to the king and queen for the meal, but I will be retiring early for the night."
His shoulders slumping, Duo watched the knight walk off ahead of them. So it seemed that Heero was even more unhappy about their kiss than he had let on. That hope that he had been holding onto that maybe his feelings were returned was dwindling quickly in light of the other boy's wish to be away from everything.
"I will talk with him," Wufei offered, rubbing his concerned lover's back before he ran after his friend before he disappeared beyond the stable doors.
Turning to face the prince, Anna frowned and asked in little more than a whisper, "What happened?" Duo was in the process of reluctantly opening his mouth to answer when Quatre and Relena hurried inside.
As soon as they neared, Quatre clutched his chest as his face twisted in pain. "By the Creator," he breathed. "I felt such an overwhelming surge of emotion from Heero when he passed us just now that I could not sort them all out. All that I understood was you were linked to all of those feelings and so we came to check on you, but I cannot even begin to sort out what is swirling through you."
Relena rested a hand on the braided youth's shoulder and eyed the squires walking about and watching them. She suggested, "We can go some place more private so that we can talk, if you would like."
Nodding without a moment's hesitation, Duo smiled sadly, "Yea. I'd like that."
* * * * * *
Stepping into an empty room, Heero glared at the other knight that was closing the door behind them. "I thought that you would catch onto my wish to be alone, Wufei," he snapped.
The swordsman folded his arms and raised an eyebrow as he replied, "And I thought that you would know better than to assume that a brother would let you leave in the state that you were in without an explanation."
Heero knew better than to argue that. Wufei and Anna had always been there for him in the past. He should have known that one or both of them would follow after him to see what had him so on edge. And he had snapped at the one that was not there when she did not deserve it.
Running a hand through his unruly hair, the Captain sighed and slumped into a cushioned seat beside before the burning fireplace. "We kissed," he heard himself announce quietly as he stared into the flames. He paused a moment before continuing, "I don't really know who started it, but I know I did not exactly stop it as soon as I should have."
* * * * * *
"Then he pulled away just when I thought that he might have actually liked what was going on," Duo informed with a deep frown as he sat with his friends at a round table in another empty room. "We never spoke or even really looked at each other after that."
Biting his lip as he peered up to the worried faces on him, he questioned, "This is all my fault, isn't it? I've ruined being friends with him, haven't I?"
Anna reached over to squeeze his hand and reassured, "No. It took the two of you to make that kiss happen. And I can tell you with all certainty that you have not ruined anything between you and Heero."
Shrugging, she giggled, "In fact, we have all been sitting back and wondering when in creation you both were going to come to your senses and realize that you have been attracted to each other."
Duo straightened in his seat to stare in dumbfounded amazement at his nodding friends. "You mean... you all knew?!" he yelled. The others only smirked and nodded again.
Suddenly catching onto the archer's wording, he repeated quietly, "Both?" He could feel his heart racing in his chest as he focused on the empath to ask, "You mean that Heero... does feel the same about me?"
Under normal circumstances, he never would have intruded into anyone's private feelings with the gifted. However, he was at such odds over the situation and the Captain's reaction that he needed to know the truth since Heero was not talking.
Quatre folded his hands onto the table and took a moment. Finally, he nodding firmly, "Yes. He cares every bit as deeply for you as you do for him."
That was as thrilling as it was a relief for Duo to hear... enough so that it made his stomach flutter. And it also only served to confuse him all the more.
"But why the reaction?" he wondered. "If he really does have those feelings, why would he run away from me the way he did?"
Slowly, Anna and Quatre turned their heads to face Relena at the center of their group. Swallowing roughly, the seer cleared her throat by means of stalling to collect her words. "Well, I am afraid that there is a bit of a complication," she began when she locked onto the violet eyes watching her.
* * * * * *
Stunned, Wufei blinked his widened eyes. Quickly recovering, he took a deep breath and nodded, "I see. But you are in love with him, correct?"
When the other knight's head snapped up in his turn to be taken aback, he chuckled deeply and shrugged, "I do not need empathic powers to be able to read you. Nor does Anna for that matter. Even Relena picked up on the signs before Quatre even acknowledged your growing affections."
His head dropping down, Heero sighed. "Yes," he answered in a breath. "I do love him. But I cannot allow myself to get so close to him. Just my being a friend to him is a risk that we have not been able to avoid."
"You are still worried about the prophecy that Relena made," the swordsman realized aloud. Shaking his head, he reminded, "But she said that there was no certainty that what she saw would even come to pass. That branch of the future stemmed out in many possible directions. That is exactly why she has not refused you being anywhere near him."
Rising from the chair, the Captain responded, "She was still sure enough to mention what she saw in the first place." His hands clenching into fists at his sides, his looked to his friend and frowned, "The thought of what she predicted keeps me up at night... and not only for the fact that he is our prince."
Wufei filled in, "Because he is more than that to you now." Letting out a shaky breath, Heero nodded with his face etched in distress.
* * * * * *
Leaning forward, Relena informed, "My vision of your returning to this world was not the last that I had seen before my sight left me. There were other glimpses of things that could possibly come about. However, the branches that led to those visions and the actual images themselves were blurred."
"Blurred?" Duo echoed, tilting his braided head. "So, what does it mean when they're blurred?"
Taking a deep breath, the seer explained, "Well, it would usually mean that there is not a certainty that those things will come to pass. Other events and situations would have to come to pass to guarantee their happening. In those cases, there is a good likelihood that something will change the course of that particular future so little weight is held in them. They are merely meant to show prospect and not a reality."
She hesitated a moment before concluding, "However, because these visions came to me just before I lost my gift, there is a chance that my sight was being tampered with to make them appear blurry. So, I do not know if they were meant to be clear or not."
"And this has to do with what happened between me and Heero how?" the prince inquired, still unsure how all of this information was linked.
Relena bit her lip and turned to her husband. Taking her hand, Quatre squeezed it with a sad smile and nodded. Anna seemed to be holding her breath while focusing back on her braided friend, reaching out to grip his forearm.
Meeting the violet eyes on her once again, the seer replied quietly, "In one of those blurred images, I saw Heero betray you... betray all of us by joining forces with Dekim."
A sharp gasp filling his lungs, Duo's eyes widened and he could feel the color draining from his face. "W-what did you say?" he whispered.
* * * * * *
Shaking his head, Wufei told his Captain, "I just do not believe it. You are not capable of turning against everything that we have stood for... everything that we have fought for and that thousands have died for. What Relena saw, cannot and will not, come to pass."
"We do not know that," Heero replied solemnly. "The events leading to that vision remain unknown. What I feel for our cause and what I feel for Duo, there is nothing that would make me side with Dekim. But what if there are things of influence beyond my control?"
The swordsman spread his arms wide and laughed, "Those branches could be non existent now! Any one of them could have changed down a new path and you are here worrying for absolutely nothing!"
Raising a hand, the Captain reminded, "Unless the vision was actually a clear one that had been meddled with."
* * * * * *
"I just don't believe it!" Duo shouted as he rose to his feet and began to pace. "I can't believe that Heero would ever do that!"
Anna sat up, declaring, "Not one of us believe that it could be true, either. But ever since he heard about the vision while Relena was under the influence of her gift, it has haunted him. Just the mere possibility of it coming true had him questioning whether or not he should ever be trusted. However, we all know him enough that he would sooner die than turn his back on us... on you especially."
Nodding, Relena commented, "If I, or anyone for that matter, thought that what I had seen would surely come to light, I would have seen to it that he never laid eyes on you again when you returned. He would never have been able to serve as a knight, let along Captain when we need strong and sure leadership in this war."
But it was still enough to scare Heero, Duo realized. Now his reaction to that kiss made perfect sense. It was not that the Captain did not love him, it was that he was looking out for him as he always did.
Sinking back into his chair, the braided prince let out a long, slow breath. "Man," he sighed. "Just when I thought things couldn't get anymore more complicated."
* * * * * *
Heero dry-washed his face with his hands and muttered, "Just when I thought things couldn't get anymore more complicated." He shook his head, "I thought that I could get control over my feelings for Duo and I realized with that kiss that I could not be further from being successful at that."
At that, Wufei smirked, "Well, as someone who has been there, I understand that. I also know that it is an impossibility to ignore such a powerful thing. We cannot help falling in love. All that we can do is..."
"Follow our emotions," the Captain said in time with his friend as he stared back into the burning fire. If ever there was a challenge to Odin's advice, this would be it.
Closing the distance between them, the swordsman patted his brother's back and suggested, "Who knows, maybe this kind of a connection between you and Duo is the very thing that will prevent what Relena saw."
When Heero did not look back at him, Wufei decided that he had said enough for his friend to think on. Turning on his heels, he decided to give him that privacy that he needed.
Stopping when his hand fell on the door, he peered over his shoulder and said, "For what it is worth, I really think that you would both be good for each other. You deserve to be truly happy for a change and Duo could stand to have someone in his life who would love him unconditionally."
A small smile on his face, the dark-haired knight shrugged, "Just a thought."
Heero bit his lip and rested a hand on the mantle over the fireplace, still never gazing back to face his friend. "Thank you, Wufei," he whispered sincerely. Nodding, the swordsman pushed his way through the door.
Lost in his thoughts and fear, the Captain sighed, "Nothing worth fighting for is ever easy."
It was a common saying of the knights. And in that moment, he realized that it was also speaking about love.
TBC...
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