The Prince and The Assassin chapter 06/10
Gundam Wing
The Prince and The Assassin
Chapter 06: “Cry ‘Havoc’, and let slip the dogs of war.” - William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
*
Heero clutched at Duo’s hand as they neared the door to his room. The door had been shut to keep wandering eyes from seeing the disarray and gore inside. Heero’s stomach turned as he remembered the scene that had taken place there a few scant hours before then.
Duo moved closer to his pale lover and nuzzled his neck comfortingly before they followed Wufei inside.
The room looked a mess. Heero took in the disheveled bed, the wide open balcony doors, the massive pool of drying blood on the floor. “God.” He closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around his lover taking comfort in the beat of his heart and the warmth of his skin.
“It’s alright, love.” Duo soothed, wrapping his arms just as tightly around his shaking lover. “It’s over now, Heero.”
“I know.” Heero took a deep breath and moved away from his lover feathering a kiss to the corner of his mouth before he turned to the room and began looking for his dagger.
Wufei consciously ignored the display as he took in the room remembering what had happened and what he had seen with an internal cringe. “Do you know where you dropped the dagger?”
Heero frowned as he looked around for any sign of the dagger but despite the oil lamp still burning on the table the room had deep shadows crawling over the floor. “I think I dropped it right after I stabbed Duo.”
The sound of something metal falling to the floor followed by an agonized scream echoed in Duo’s head as he replayed his memories. “Try looking under the bed. I remember hearing it drop to the floor after I woke up.”
Kneeling on the cold floor Heero bent to the side and looked under the four poster bed. He could just barely see the hilt glinting in the lamp light half covered in shadows. Reaching under and pulling it out Heero fought a wave of nausea when he saw that the blade still dripped with Duo’s blood.
“I found it.” Duo turned at the rough sound of Heero’s voice and walked over to him as he stood up.
“Good.” Duo wrapped his arms around Heero’s waist and kissed him gently, his fingers rubbing comfortingly in circles on either side of Heero’s spine. “Let’s go. You need to go and give my prick of an uncle a wake up call and I have to get ready for the advisors.”
Heero returned the kiss and ran a hand down Duo’s braid. “You want me to meet you back in Trowa’s chambers after I collect my payment?”
“Most definitely!” Duo chirped. “You need to get cleaned up and changed to come with me.”
Heero looked at his lover in surprise. “You want me to come with you?” He thought he would just have to wait until after the meeting before he could see his lover again.
“Of course.” Duo smiled lovingly at his wide eyes. “I have other business to discuss with them after Dekim’s head is lobbed off.” He started to nibble on Heero’s ear making him grip both the dagger and his braid in a white knuckled hold. “It would be an awfully long time before I would be able to get away. I don’t like being without you.”
“Mm” Heero tilted his head to the side allowing Duo to continue kissing his tingling neck. “It was murder every time I watched you climb back over that wall, Duo.”
“I know love.” Duo sighed and kissed his way back up to Heero’s mouth. “Never again. We can be together now.”
Heero growled in agreement then pressed his lips to Duo’s and pulled the prince closer to his body savoring the feeling.
Wufei was patiently waiting for them to separate up until the point when it looked as though they were sucking each other down their throats. That’s when he felt the need to intervene. “Ahem!” he coughed over loudly. “I do believe Heero has evidence to deliver and Duo has advisors to schmooze.”
Separating with flushed faces and half lidded eyes, Duo chuckled breathily. “Oh, right. Forgot about all that.”
“So it would seem.” Wufei grumbled.
Heero placed a tender kiss on the corner of Duo’s mouth before stepping away, heading out of the room into the hall, and disappearing before Duo could blink.
Sighing deeply, Duo frowned in worry. He sincerely prayed that everything would go according to plan. He felt a cold breeze spike at his neck and he shivered. The difficult part of this whole plan was just beginning.
“Let’s go Wufei.” Duo walked ahead of his friend and they both traveled toward Trowa’s rooms to begin their preparation.
*
Surprisingly enough Heero didn’t find it hard at all to slip into his old habits as he moved from shadow to shadow on his way to Dekim’s rooms, his assassin persona rising to the surface all too easily.
Picking the lock on the door was a peace of cake, slinking through the oppressive darkness toward the snoring lump on the over large bed wasn’t much harder.
Smiling evilly, Heero lifted a leg and began to crawl over the mattress toward the fat blob, the pleasure of a game of cat and mouse reminding him of why he became an assassin in the first place, apart from the money that is.
Once he came to within an uncomfortably close distance from Dekim’s sleeping form, Heero sat cross legged on the satiny comforter, pulled a smoothed down sharpening shone from his pocket and began to sharpen one of his daggers. The sound of the steely metal slicing away at the stone echoed blaringly loud throughout the room.
Dekim scrunched up his face in annoyance. He couldn’t put his finger on it but something was demanding his attention, something important and detrimental to his health was tugging at his dreaming mind. His snoring stopped and a grating sound cut through his unconscious making itself known.
He huffed, twisted in his sleep then pried his eyes open and saw nothing in the darkness of his room, but he could still hear that eerily steady sound and feel a weight and warmth next to him on his bed.
Hastily sitting up and reaching for the oil lamp next to the bed, Dekim yelped in fright when the light flooded the room illuminating the assassin sitting on his bed a lot closer than Dekim had realized.
Dekim flinched away from the deadly man when he noticed that the sound that had woken him was the continuous drawing back and forth of an extremely sharp dagger on a glossy black stone.
“Wha-what are you doing in my room!?” His voice squeaked and he stuttered in the tiniest bout of fright.
Heero kept his face an intimidating neutral as he brought the blade up to eye level and flicked a calloused thumb along it testing the sharpness and drawing his own blood. “The agent informed me that the other half of the payment would be available upon immediate completion of my service to you.”
Dekim watched as the assassin licked thoughtfully at the blood running down his thumb tasting it with a bored look on his face before wiping the rest on his shirt. Swallowing compulsively and growing nauseas at the sight of dried blood already splattered all over the man’s shirt, Dekim asked, “It’s done? But I requested that you poison him discreetly.”
“Murder is never discreet.” Heero informed him as he continued to play study the sharpened blade of his dagger, sticking his tongue out and licking the scant bit of blood from the blade. “Besides,” He grinned wolfishly, “I felt like a having a little fun tonight.”
A rush of air escaped Dekim’s lungs as he struggled to keep from shaking. He had wanted David killed. Perhaps not so brutally, he reasoned, but dead is dead. One can’t be too picky now can they? “Do you have proof?” Heero raised an eyebrow at him. “Do you have proof that you completed the deal?”
Heero began to twirl the dagger in his hand like a small baton. “What? You need more proof than the blood on my hands, and the splatters on my shirt?”
His eyes flicking to Heero’s hands, Dekim finally noticed that his hands were stained coppery brown. Turning the slightest bit pale green, Dekim tried to sound stern and demanding. “I require solid proof that you have killed the prince. No proof, no money.”
“Suit your self.” Heero shrugged and unsheathed his right dagger. He had made sure some of the blood on the blade was still wet and, timed perfectly, a large drop of blood fell from the blade and landed on Dekim’s wrinkled white night shirt. “Here,” Heero offered, “You want to taste? It’s good and sweet.”
Shoving himself as far against the head board as he could possibly be to get away from the blood drenched dagger, Dekim gagged barely keeping his stomach inside his belly. “Get that thing away from me!”
Heero shrugged again. “Your loss.” Then, remembering that Duo’s rooms were on the complete other side of the castle, put a dreamy look on his face and added, “He tasted so good. He was a screamer too.” He sighed heavily, “Perfectly exquisite.”
Dekim did throw up then. He leaned over the side of bed and lost both his dinner and his midnight post-coital snack.
Heero sheathed the bloody dagger and waited until he was done dry heaving and was sitting straight on the bed again wiping his mouth with the sleeve of his night shirt before asking, “Where’s the rest of my payment?”
Gesturing quickly to the other side of the room where his desk was, Dekim hurriedly answered, “In the top right hand drawer. All fifty thousand as we agreed on.”
Bouncing merrily off the bed, Heero practically skipped across the room and didn’t even bother asking for a key to the drawer he just used his strength and ripped it open. Reaching his hand in, he pulled the marginally heavy black velvet bag up and out, weighing it in his hand with satisfaction.
Turning back around, he nodded his head and gave Dekim a decidedly evil smile. “It’s been a pleasure. Do tell your friend’s about me.” Then he glided out of the room leaving Dekim clammy and shaky in his wake.
Once he was down the hall and out of ear shot Heero dropped the bag of coins and wretched in the corner of a secluded stair case. The things he had said had brought images to his mind that made his stomach roll and his head spin. “Fuck.”
His curse was breathed out almost inaudibly as he spit the remaining bile from his mouth and wiped his mouth with his hand, smearing blood from his thumb on his cheek. It was too easy to imagine Duo laying a pool of his own blood, strips of his flesh sliced off, pale in death, his beautiful eyes dull and vacant.
Shivering, Heero straightened and picked up the bag of coins to continue gliding his way down the hall toward where he was instructed Trowa’s rooms were.
*
Duo paced Trowa’s study as Quatre, Wufei, and Trowa watched him in amusement. The sky was barely growing lighter out of the window and Duo was already dressed for his meeting with the advisors.
“Duo, I’m sure everything went alright.” Quatre tried to assure his nervous friend. “Besides, Heero’s an assassin. How much damage do you think Dekim could do to him?”
Stopping in mid pace, Duo closed his eyes and took a deep calming breath. “You’re right.” He clasped his hands in front of his face to center himself. “You’re right. I’m just nervous. A lot has happened in the last twenty-four hours.”
“I’d say so.” Trowa sounded amused and looked just as much as well. “Heero is a trained professional. I think he can fake your death without anyone disbelieving him.”
Duo nodded but continued pacing. It helped burn off his nervous energy. He may not be as nervous about Heero anymore, but facing the advisors was always nerve racking.
He was about to give up and sit down when the door to Trowa’s room opened and Heero stepped in, looking pale and frighteningly tired.
Duo’s eyes were immediately drawn to a smear of blood along Heero’s cheek. “Oh God! Are you alright?” He rushed toward his lover and began to search him for injuries.
Wasting no time, Heero wrapped Duo in a shockingly tight embrace and sealed their mouths together only letting his lover up for air when he had satisfied himself that Duo was perfectly flushed, perfectly whole, and perfectly vibrantly alive.
Duo’s head was buzzing as Heero suckled on his bottom lip and his body felt comfortably warm, but he found it in him to protest. “You’re hurt. I need to find out where.” His voice sounded weak and breathy.
“I’m fine.” Heero assured as he continued to nibble at Duo’s damp and slightly swollen lips. “Just a scratch on my thumb.”
Duo nodded dumbly completely enjoying Heero’s ministrations till a taste in his mouth caught his attention. Frowning suddenly he pulled back to focus on Heero’s face. “Did you throw up?”
Blushing slightly, Heero nodded embarrassedly. “I’m sorry; it’s just that I wanted to scare Dekim a little bit.”
“So you threw up on him?” Duo raised his eyebrow in amusement
“No.” Heero huffed in annoyance. “I woke him up to the sound of me sharpening my dagger.” Duo raised his eyebrow again, this time with a mischievous grin attached. “Then I described how I-” Heero paused holding down a gag as the images flashed through his head. “How I made you scream, how your blood tasted.”
Duo’s amusement melted into concern as his lover started to turn pale green. “Heero, are you alright?” He stroked his hands down the sides of Heero’s face. “Was it really that horrible?”
A wry grin formed on Heero’s lip chasing away the green but not the pale. “It made Dekim throw up.”
His laughter floated through Heero like a balm on his raw nerves and queasy stomach. “After this is all over,” Duo exclaimed, “you’re going to have to tell me exactly what you said and did to that fat bastard.”
Smiling as his lover’s mirth affectively chased away the last of his sick nerves, Heero nodded in agreement. “I think I might have gone a tad over board, but it was worth it.”
“I’ll bet.” Duo smiled again saying, “Let’s get you cleaned up and ready for the meeting,” then scrunched up his face and puckered his mouth. “I think I’m gonna clean up again myself, actually.”
Heero chuckled along with their audience, then he and Duo headed for the bathroom.
Duo watched in the mirror while he brushed his teeth and rinsed his mouth out as Heero stripped out of his stained cloths and stepped into the steaming tub. He felt his heart flutter and his stomach flip as he was reminded of just how gorgeous his lover truly was. The scars over his whole body added an unbelievably sexy roughness to his graceful movements.
Now that Duo knew his lover was an assassin he didn’t have to really ponder upon how his body became riddled with scars. Hazards of the job, he guessed. They made Heero even more beautiful.
“Are you going to rinse your mouth or are you just going to keep staring at me?” Heero’s amused question drew Duo’s eyes from roaming over his muscular torso to connect with his deep blue eyes in the mirror.
Spitting into the basin and cupping his hand under the faucet, Duo responded, “I was just wishing we had enough time for me to join you.”
Heero picked up the bar of soar and the wash cloth, wetting both and rubbing them together. “Do I get a rain check for after this thing is finished?”
Duo finished wiping the drops of water from his face and strode over to the tub to kneel beside it. “Most definitely.”
Wrapping his arms around Heero’s damp shoulders, Duo brought their faces together for a slow heated kiss. “Can I wash your back for you, lover?”
A deep growl almost made it out of Heero chest. “Be my guest.” He leaned forward and began to kiss down Duo’s neck as he handed over the soapy wash cloth.
Duo tilted his head to the side, eyes half closed enjoying the feel of Heero’s lips on his neck, as he waited for Heero roll up his sleeves so that he could dip his hand into the bath and begin his self appointed task.
Heero finished rolling up Duo’s sleeves and ran his hands up and over his shoulders to bury themselves in his thick braid and tilt his head further allowing him greater access. Sighing against Duo’s throat, he shivered as his lover’s gentle hands began to stroke the cloth over his stomach in slow circular motions.
Loving the firmness of Heero’s body underneath his hands, Duo turned his face just enough to drop a few kisses on Heero’s shoulder without disrupting his lover’s attentions to his neck. He stroked the cloth over his stomach and up his ribs before slowing at his chest. Both of Duo’s hands were wet and soapy as he brushed the cloth over one of Heero’s hardened nipples while he stroked and circled the other with his slick finger drawing a sudden shuddering breath from his lover and nice deep quiver.
Biting down gently on the curve of Duo’s neck and shoulder Heero licked and sucked at the skin there, creating a pink mouth shaped mark to his satisfaction; the sound of Duo’s breath hitching in his throat, bringing a smirk to his lips.
Duo brought the cloth up and drew it lovingly over Heero’s strong broad shoulder and up his arm to his elbow before retreating back down to curve it over his shoulder and continue its soapy path down his shoulder blade.
His hand skimmed over a few bumps as Duo brought the cloth over two long raised scars on Heero’s back making him gasp in surprise as the sensitive tissue sent light ripples of pleasure through his body.
“Duo.” Heero growled low in his chest. “You’re torturing me.”
“I do believe,” Duo murmured as he switched the cloth from hand to hand and stroked it over Heero’s other shoulder and up the side of his neck, “that was the general idea.”
Chuckling, Heero drew away from his flushed and mischievous lover. “We’d better quit this before I pull you in here with me.”
“Nothing’s stopping you.” Duo’s eyes were half closed but his smile was tempting and lecherous.
“And ruin your neat clothes?” Heero asked, playing the scandalized party.
Duo, realizing that his fun had finally come to an end, sat back on his heels, pout firmly in place. “But I have plenty more, love.”
“I’m sure you do.” Heero agreed as he relieved his lover of the wash cloth and kissed him softly on his pouting lips. “But we don’t have enough time to do all the things I want to do to you and we have a greedy glutton to accuse and execute.”
Sighing in resignation, Duo dipped his hands into the bath water and rinsed the soap from them, but before pulling them back out again he took hold of Heero’s half hard erection and gave it a long firm pump causing his lover to gasp and arch his back in surprise and pleasure. “I’ll be looking forward to all of those things, Heero, when this is over with.” He whispered huskily.
Heero barely had time to shiver in pleasure and return the hard kiss Duo landed on his lips before his smirking lover was up and gone through the bathroom door. Looking down in frustration at his now fully erect penis under the hot water, Heero muttered, “What am I going to do about this?”
*
Heero stood behind Duo’s throne like chair in the meeting room, Wufei to his right and Trowa to his left, Quatre had a smaller seat to Duo’s left.
After cleaning away ever bit Duo’s blood from his body, Heero had to borrow a shirt from Trowa and a pair of pants from Wufei. Duo had grumbled that he could have borrowed clothes from him but Heero pointed out that he would have snapped almost every seam. He wasn’t much taller but he was broader and had more defined muscles than his beautiful lover.
Decided that he needed to be prepared for anything, Heero sat with Trowa’s cleaning equipment and began to clean every drop of blood from his dagger then sharpen them both while the other four plotted how to approach the advisors.
By the time Heero was satisfied and they were through, the sun had risen and like clock work, they heard a frightened blood curdling scream coming from the direction of Duo’s room.
Cringing as his ears began to ring, Duo turned to Quatre, “Jeeze, Quat. What did you tell her? To scream like she was being eaten alive?”
“Actually,” Quatre wiggled a finger in his ear to try and stop the echo, “I just told her you’d give her a hundred gold coins if she pretended to find your dead body.” Then tilting his head as if remembering something, he said, “Oh. And I told her to make it believable and have fun with it.”
Chuckling Duo was about to say something witty when suddenly they heard the maid Quatre had enlisted to spread the news run passed their room still screaming at the top of her lungs, this time with little gasps of breath in between. “She’s going to hyperventilate.” Duo said. “Who did you ask anyhow?”
“Relena.” Quatre smirked.
Trowa, Wufei, and Duo all cringed. “Well that explains the ear splitting shrieks.” Duo rolled his eyes.
“Well,” Quatre conceded, “she can be a bit over dramatic.”
“Quite the understatement.” Wufei huffed then stood from his seat on the couch. “I do believe it is time to head for the meeting. Don’t you agree gentlemen?”
By the time they had reached the meeting room, the advisors were in an uproar and panic thinking the prince was really dead. Duo had smirked, satisfied. “Well news certainly travels fast.”
“Your Highness!” Dorothy, one of the advisors, gasped. It was a minor miracle that he was standing in the door way after the display Relena had put on over discovering his death.
Duo strolled into the room, fingers entwined with Heero’s his three friends following behind. “Yes, Miss Catalonia. I am definitely healthy and alive.”
“But, Sir!” She gasped as the other advisors looked on in amazement and none too little relief. They wouldn’t have been able to stop Dekim from assuming the throne and that would have been a complete disaster. “We just got word that you had been assassinated!”
The prince simply smiled charmingly and tugged on Heero’s arm. “Meet my assassin, Heero Odin Yuy.”
The assembled group gasped in surprised and fear. They had all heard of Mister Yuy. He got the job done and never failed, never.
Dorothy leaned closer and lowered her voice so that only Duo could hear. “Sir, that’s Heero Yuy, the assassin that ‘never fails’.”
“That’s right.” Duo grinned completely unsurprised. “Isn’t that what I just said?”
Zecks Marquise, another of his advisors, stepped forward and cleared his throat. “It would seem that we are in the dark here, Your Majesty. Kindly fill in the blanks.”
Heero found it strange that a whole room of older more experienced men and one woman were calling his fox-like lover things like “highness” and “majesty”. It baffled him and made his chest swell with pride.
“Of course, Zecks.” Duo nodded respectfully to the older man, pointedly ignoring the lecherous gaze directed at his body guard, Wufei. “If we can all be seated, we have little time to explain the situation before Dekim appears and tries to take my throne. I assure you there is a reason for faking my death and for bringing Mister Yuy into our midst.”
The group began to murmur and whisper but dutifully organized themselves and took their seats.
“Now,” Duo folded his hands in front of him and began his explanation with maturity and confidence. Heero watched his lover in awe. “Late last night it had come to my attention that my uncle, Dekim Barton, had hired Mister Yuy to kill me before my eighteenth birthday so that he could assume the throne.”
Strangely enough several of the advisors looked nervously around unsurprised by this revelation. Duo raised an eyebrow and looked over his shoulder at his wall of defense, giving them a significant look. They nodded and each chose an advisor to watch very carefully.
Dorothy and Zecks both looked angered. “He was planning to usurp your throne.”
“That’s right, Zecks.” Duo nodded. “Thanks to Heero, he didn’t succeed.”
He went on to explain that he was requesting to take the throne early in light of recent events and met little to no opposition. He explained his plan to trap Dekim then announced his order of execution. That had brought up some shocked exclamations.
“But Sir!” A fat sweating man protested. “You cannot simply behead a member of the royal family.”
“Oh? I can’t?” Duo questioned with a raise of his eyebrow. “Is that not precisely what Dekim had hired an assassin to do to me? Is that not what has been happening in royal families since the dawn of time?”
“Wouldn’t you want to show some compassion? After all,” a balding man in his fifties with his remaining hair slicked back pointed out, “he is your flesh and blood, married to your mother, the queen.”
“I know very well who he is married to.” Duo stated in an aloof and patronizing tone. “I also know that he tried to have me killed. He tried to have your prince and future king killed. I would think that would constitute a beheading.”
Heero didn’t like this one. He growled low in his throat and his fingers twitch at his daggers. The slick man was underestimating his lover. Unacceptable.
Duo could hear the slight growl from behind him and he smirked evilly. “Defy me in my decision and I will have you executed right here. Do I make myself clear?”
Slick man and Fatty both sat back in their chairs and kept their mouths shut. If they had thought Dekim was a hard ruler; they were realizing that David could be much worse.
“Good.” Duo smiled at the rest of the advisors. “Dekim should be appearing any minute now and when he does,” Duo stood from his place and motioned for everyone to do the same, “I want him to see his world crumbling before him.”
*
Dekim practically skipped down the hall, Gertrude in his wake crying pitifully into a black handkerchief, black net veil draped over her face and black dress trailing behind her.
“My poor baby!” She wailed dramatically. “Who could do such a thing?”
Dekim did a good job of ignoring her but her whimpering sobs were beginning to grate on his nerves. First thing, he decided, he was going to do once he was crowned was going to be shipping her off to France or Switzerland. At least then he could have some peace and quiet.
“I don’t know, darling.” He consoled. “It’s so tragic.” He was practically howling with laughter inside.
Gertrude nodded miserably then continued to follow him as he made his way toward the advisors’ meeting room.
Once he had gotten his stomach back in place after the assassin’s visit he had scarcely been able to contain his delight. David was dead! David was dead! David was dead! It had such a lovely ring to it.
King Dekim. That also had a lovely ring to it.
After he had killed his half brother he had been climbing those steps toward that throne, then it had come to his attention that his brother had a son. The crowned prince.
Not more than a little squirt at the time, David had been mischievous, head strong, and abnormally clever. Dekim knew he would be an obstacle he needed to traverse very carefully, but if the boy grew up like most privileged royals did he wouldn’t need to worry over much. Though, as time passed and David grew to be a teenager, Dekim realized that his seat of power was being threatened by a substantial force.
It had taken him three years to track down an assassin willing to take on the murder of a royal. Three bloody years of waiting and watching as David grew smarter, cleverer, and more defiant. Than one day the agent had happened upon his door step.
The agent was the best known on this hemisphere. He knew who the players were and how to get them. His commission: vastly expensive; his expertise: invaluable.
Dekim had only to pay his travel expenses and wait a fortnight before the agent returned requesting fifty thousand gold coins down payment on the most lethal, most fearless assassin. To say that the agent from the Khushrenada Firm was a God send, would not be over exaggerating.
Sighing at the wonderful memory Dekim stopped in front of the meeting room door and gave his wife one more annoyed roll of his eyes before pushing open the door and stopping mid stride in abject horror.
There, with a satisfied grin on his beautiful face, was Prince David James Maxwell, and standing behind him looking every bit just as satisfied was his know-it-all squire, his haughty body guard, his scheming cousin, and, Dekim gasped in surprise and fear, the assassin.
“Good morning.” Duo smirked evilly at his suddenly pale uncle.
Gertrude rushed past her husband and launched herself at her son. “David darling! You’re alive!”
Heero reacted before he could think and blocked the woman from getting Duo, knocking her into the table. “You are not to touch him.” His voice was flat and growled.
Duo surprised by his lover’s reaction placed a restraining hand on his shoulder. “It’s alright Heero. She’s harmless.” Then he turned to his mother and ordered, “Get up, Gertrude.”
She whimpered as she watched her son look down at her with a distinct pity and indifference. “David?”
“Despite your many transgressions, you are innocent in this.” Duo did not smile, simply watched as the woman that bared him stood shakily to her feet. “You will stand witness, Gertrude, to the execution of your treasonous husband before you are asked to leave.”
The queen, felt something in her chest quiver. She realized that she had never been very maternal, but her beloved late husband had wanted an heir and she had produced one, much to his satisfaction. Quickly she found she wasn’t up to raising a child and turned his care over to a woman far more suited to loving and caring for him. It was then, as she pulled herself off the floor, that she was struck with a bitter sweet pride.
She was proud that her son had grown into the man she now saw before her, saddened that she didn’t have a hand in it, and ashamed to have made those mistakes that now fruited in David simply regarding her as the woman that gave birth to him. But, despite how much she wished other wise, it was true.
Looking past the stern man that had protected her son so readily, she gave David a small humbled smile. “I will obey, Your Highness.”
Watching the many emotions flit across Gertrude’s face, Duo let his stern expression soften. “Thank you.” He said. After all she had never wronged him, just simply ignored him.
Nodding her head at the obvious dismissal, she stepped back and kept her head bowed in submission.
Turning back to regard his uncle, Duo took much satisfaction in his pale face and angry features. “Dekim.”
“David.” His tone of voice made Heero tense, his fingers flexing for his daggers. “I’m so happy you’re alive.”
Scoffing Duo leaned on one hip. “Don’t kid your self, Dekim. You don’t fool anyone here.”
“No.” Dekim conceded than looked at Heero with a thoughtful expression. “It would seem that I have been the fool. Tell me,” he demanded, “were you working for him the whole time, or did he just pay you more?”
Heero smirked, a very scary smirk. “I couldn’t very well betray my lover, now could I?”
The room filled with suddenly startled gasps and Dekim’s face went pale again then completely red in anger. “So the little slut paid you in sex instead. Either way it’s still payment.”
Duo had an arm around Heero’s shoulders a split second before the assassin tried to lunge at Dekim. “No Heero.” He said into his ear. “I promised Trowa, remember. We can’t disappoint him.”
Taking deep calming breaths, Heero took some satisfaction in the fact that Dekim had backed up against the closed door in an effort to escape him. “No we can’t.” He was released from Duo’s hold and stepped away from his lover to give Trowa a companionable smirk. “If you don’t finish him, Trowa, I will finish him for you.”
“I would expect nothing less.” Trowa smirked and fingered his sword dangling at his hip.
Duo stepped forward and took a deep satisfying breath. “Dekim Barton, you are charged with treason to the crown, treason to the kingdom, and conspiracy to commit murder.” Then with a decidedly malicious grin, Duo finished, “You are hereby sentenced to death by beheading.”
Dekim listened and found he couldn’t believe it. His snotty nephew was actually trying to order him around, trying to order his execution. He couldn’t help himself. He laughed.
“You have no authority!” He shouted, almost doubling over in laughter. “You are a prince. I am a king. I can do anything and everything I want.”
“Actually,” Dorothy stepped forward with an angered scowl on her forked brow, “as of this morning you are no longer acting king of the kingdom of Sanq.”
That stopped Dekim’s laughing and he paled as Dorothy continued. “You have been stripped of your title, and as such David is now the ruler of this kingdom.”
“No.” His head was spinning. This wouldn’t be happening. That little brat can’t do this. “That can’t be! I’m still king until that bastard turns eighteen!”
“Correction,” Duo pointed out with a helpful grin, “You were still king, but in situations of dire need, the rightful heir to the throne can by pass that law and assume the throne.” Dekim stared at him, wide eyed and unseeing, but Duo simply continued to grin and wiggled his fingers at him, his right index finger sporting his father’s crest ring. “Gotcha.”
Dekim saw red and with a mighty yell drew his ornamental sword that had since then been forgotten at his side and charged forward like an angered bull.
Heero watched in slow motion as Dekim came at his lover. He knew Duo couldn’t move out of the way in time, knew that the sword, however dull it might be, would impale his stunned lover, knew that he alone was close enough to stop it.
Before he was even conscious of doing it, Heero lunged forward and pushed Duo back an instant before he felt the unsharpened tip connect with his chest and explode through the skin to impale him directly underneath his sternum.
Duo felt himself fly backward, heard Dekim’s scream, saw Heero collapse to his knees, ornamental sword protruding from his chest, blood streaming down his body to pool around him on the marble floor.
Then all hell broke loose.
Trowa registered Duo’s scream of agony a moment before he withdrew his sword and plunged it into Dekim’s stomach stopping the man mid stride. Dekim’s eyes grew wide in surprise; blood began to pour out of his mouth. He looked up into Trowa’s hard face, “But I’m your father.”
“No,” Trowa stated unemotionally, “You are not,” before twisting the sword in Dekim’s gut and pulling it out to watch the man fall to the floor, eye’s wide and vacant.
Duo scrambled across the floor toward his bleeding lover and caught him as he began to fall sideways. “Heero?” He throat was dry. “Heero! Oh God! Please! Please look at me!”
Duo patted Heero’s pale cheek lightly trying to get his rolling eyes to focus on him. His lips were stained red as blood began to bubble up into his mouth and his skin was pale and clammy. “Babe? Love, please talk to me!”
Heero could hear his lover’s voice pleading with him, he could feel the sword in his chest, but his vision was blurred and hazy. He gave a cough and a trail of blood escaped the corner of his mouth. “Duo?”
“Yes!” Duo’s vision blurred as his eyes filled with tears. “It’s ok. You’re alright. Sally’s coming. Hang on.” He looked up at the stunned people staring or running around in a panic. “Get Sally!” He ordered fiercely. “Now!”
He didn’t know that Dorothy had already turned to run out the door in search of the castle Doctor, her heels pounding painfully on the marble floors.
“Duo.” Heero swallowed; the taste of copper heavy and over powering in his mouth. “I’m sorry.”
“What?” Duo looked back down at his lover lying limp in his arms staring up at him almost unseeingly. “No. No, no. Nothing to be sorry for. You’re going to be perfectly fine.” A tear fell from his eyes to land on Heero’s face making him blink.
“I didn’t- didn’t want you to-” He coughed again, more blood flowing from his lips.
“Sh.” Duo whispered as he stroked Heero’s cheek lovingly and wiping away the trail of blood. “Don’t talk, save your strength.”
Heero pressed his lips together, shut his eyes tight and shifted a fraction in Duo’s gentle secure hold, causing a violent shock of pain to jolt through his body. Duo sobbed and brushed his hair away from his face, trying to find something to do besides watch his lover die. “Don’t move, love. Sally’s almost here.”
A bloody chuckle escaped Heero’s mouth as he opened his glazed deep blue eyes and was finally able to focus on Duo’s tear stained face. “I didn’t think I would die this way.” He admitted.
“You’re not going to die.” Duo scolded. “Where the fuck is Sally!?”
“Duo.” Heero reached up and placed a shaking hand on Duo’s wet cheek. “It’s alright, love.”
“No!” Duo sobbed. “It’s not alright! You’re fucking impaled on a sword!” He clutched at Heero’s hand pressing it firmly to his cheek, not caring about the blood being smeared on his skin.
Heero smiled in slight amusement before he coughed, spraying Duo with blood.
“Shit!” Duo pulled Heero closer to his chest and continued to stroke his hair soothingly. “Heero, please.” He finally broke down and began to beg. “Please don’t leave me. I love you too much.”
Heero smiled up at him. “I love you Duo. With my whole being.” He ran a thumb along Duo’s trembling bottom lip. “I didn’t want you to get hurt.”
Agony sobbed out of Duo. “You shouldn’t have done that! I can’t live without you!”
“No one will harm you while I still breathe.” Heero quoted himself before his eyes began to drift closed.
“Heero! Stop it!” Duo slapped him hard on the cheek, shocking his eyes open. He leaned down and kissed him hard on the lips, not tasting the blood. “If you die, Heero of my Heart, I will follow you.”
Another amused and saddened smile, tinged in red, broke at Heero’s lips. “I love you, Duo.” Then his eyes closed and he went limp in Duo’s arms.
Staring in stock, Duo’s hands began to shake. “Heero?” He wiped Heero’s bangs away from his brow. “Love? You can’t do that!”
Suddenly another pair of hands moved toward Heero’s neck and Sally felt along it for a pulse.
Trowa had Quatre wrapped up in his arms while the blond sobbed against his chest. Wufei had his fingers entwined with Zecks, his heart breaking from Duo’s agonized cries, even as Sally focused all her energy on her hand at Heero’s neck.
The whole room held a breath.
Sally looked up and ordered, “Someone get me a stretcher! He’s still alive.”
~*~
TBC….
Chapter 07