fic - the faithful and the brave : 37 [novella]
Title: The Faithful and the Brave
Part: 37
The Faithful and the Brave
Part 37
That evening, Wufei and Trowa returned with unfortunate confirmation of Sally's claim. A fan of the Cataclysm really could talk a person's ear off given half a chance, and they were indeed back just a mark after sunset, having only spoken to the closest neighbor on Sally's list. The geomancer had perhaps been a touch too willing to share what information she had after the dragoon's assistance, and none of it particularly helpful. She had no specific information to offer on the Necrohol.
The next morning, Wufei set off again, this time splitting the task with Quatre. Trowa volunteered to keep Quatre company this time with some cheerfully transparent excuse that Quatre did little to resist.
They returned to the chemist's house as the sky was beginning to darken. Wufei huffed irritably as he reported his findings. "One of Sally's geomancers has heard of the Necrohol."
Quatre clapped his hands together in triumph. "That's -- You don't look like that's great news."
He grimaced. "The Necrohol had an amazing mosiac in one of its courtyards, possibly the only work of the great artist M'Naani in Ivalice at the time."
Quatre waited a few seconds in cautious silence. "Location?"
"I've also learned today that the matter of pre-Cataclysmic geography is a matter of rather heated debate. Enough landmarks have been destroyed or significantly altered, whether by time or the Cataclysm itself, that attempting to locate any ancient structure in today's landscape is a fruitless exercise. Everyone has opinions, of course, but none worth repeating here. We could be looking for some place anywhere from Nelveska to Murond."
"We had similar findings," Quatre admitted. "Neither of the people we spoke to had heard of the Necrohol, but they did seem to agree, even if they had, we wouldn't be able to find it. One of our people recommended we continue our research at the library of antiquities on Mt. Germinas. Of course, the other person disagreed vehemently and called it an institution full of quacks."
"I heard good things about the place today. Mostly good. Perhaps that will have to be our next destination."
"I'm sorry no one had the answers you were looking for," Sally said, coming near to clear her table for the supper that Heero was currently watching over.
"Hardly your fault, Sally," Quatre responded. "Perhaps the library on Mt. Germinas will be able to tell us what we need to know."
By the hearth, Heero let out a resigned sigh. "We might be able to make it if we leave at first light."
"What do you mean?" Quatre asked, puzzled.
Duo made a loud noise of exasperation. "Oh poop! You're right. Did anyone catch up on politics while you were out there?"
Wufei looked at Quatre, who shook his head. "I heard a little... Gariland has finally declared for Lesalia. There was a skirmish at Duguera Pass."
"Was a bit more than a skirmish, what we heard. We know for a fact that --"
"Wait, 'we'?"
"Fine, 'me'," Duo answered impatiently. "I went out on the supply run while Heero sat around here moping, okay? Anyway, it's confirmed fact that Zeltennia got their hands on the old Queen Leia and executed her. Got around to returning her body to the Bartons. Rumor has it the body was desecrated in some way and, well, things probably got a bit more heated than a mere 'skirmish' might imply. Apparently one thing led to another, and now the armies of our two queens are starting their marches against each other. They're expected to meet in the lowlands near Fort Besselat."
"Our civil war is about to become quite uncivilized. Neither side is pretending any longer that there can be a diplomatic solution to this impasse. I suppose they were just waiting for everyone to choose sides. Why does that... Oh. That's... unfortunate. How much of their forces do you think will be gathered by the time we have to pass through the area?"
"We leave tomorrow, we'll definitely get there before the bulk of either army. But the scouts will likely be in place. Vanguards, too. Ground claimed, camps established, lines drawn, the whole bit. These guys aren't messing around."
"Hm, going the long way around would take almost two extra weeks. And we'd have to pass through the heart of Weyridge's territory. While they're not technically hostile to us..."
"We can't spare two extra weeks," Heero said levelly.
"Of course not. It seems you'll be rid of us on the morrow, then, Miss Po."
"Well, I'm glad I put these two to work today, then," she joked.
"Otherwise, we'd have paid you in good coin," Heero answered firmly.
"Nonsense. You're old friends."
"And you've a business to run. Best we were on our way, anyway."
"We're off to slay some epic bad guys," Duo chimed in. "It'd be a pretty sorry tale if we went about it, leaving a string of unsettled debts behind us. Huh, actually, that might make for a pretty hilarious song. Where's a bard when you need one?"
Sally smiled. "Well, in any case, it's my policy not to charge anyone outside their ability to pay, and I'd say you boys can no longer afford the time. Your ribs still sore, Trowa?"
The dragoon shook his head. "You brew an excellent curative, milady."
"I'll give you some for the road. In exchange for slaying some epic bad guys. The world needs fewer of those."
Quatre dipped his head graciously. "Thank you. I wish we had the time for more natural healing. I hope you didn't work these two too hard."
"Oh, don't worry. I left Heero plenty of time to mope. And Duo got time to read whatever secret documents he was reading."
Duo stood up and headed for the alcove where Heero had been resting. "Right. So I started reading through this because, well, no particular reason, I suppose." He returned to the table with the annotated text Pargan had given them.
Wufei frowned. "Where did you-- You went through Quatre's things?"
He rolled his eyes. "No. I had Heero go through Quatre's things, because I knew you'd get all prickly about it. And I totally didn't let Sally get a good look at it, either."
Wufei eyed Heero as he came to the table bearing a basket of warmed bread. "He's convinced you to be an active participant in his skulduggery. I suppose it was those very same skills that allowed him to steal your heart."
"One cannot steal what is freely given," Heero said calmly, placing the basket on the table and returning to the hearth.
Duo blinked a few times, mouth slightly agape and feeling a bit warm in this room all of a sudden. Eventually, his lips curved upward into a somewhat incredulous smirk. "Wait, really? You're just going to drop a statement like that and walk away?"
Quatre plucked the journal from his lax grip and started thumbing through it. "What did you find, Duo?"
He was torn for a moment between answering and going after Heero, but decided in the end that Heero could wait a minute. He snagged the journal back, flipped through the pages quickly to find what he was looking for, and handed it back. "Here. Here's where our guy made some notes about stuff he didn't include in his reports about the other guy because they didn't make a whole lotta sense to him. Stuff that seemed out of place. The old guy didn't get around to translating any of this part, but maybe some of it will stand out to you?"
Wufei peered at it over Quatre's shoulder. "None of this is translated. So how do you know what it's about?"
Duo shrugged. "Skulduggery includes code writing and code breaking, donchaknow. Translatin's not too different from code breaking in the end, 'specially when you've got all the old guy's previous notes and translations as reference. I didn't have time to go deep on it, though."
Wufei studied him for a few seconds before making a neutral sound that could liberally be interpreted as grudging respect.
"Wufei, what do you think about this?" Quatre asked, pointing at something in the text. "A spell?"
Duo figured that was his cue to leave the mages to their work. He countered Trowa's lazily raised eyebrow with a lopsided grin as he moseyed on over to the hearth. "So, Heero...," he started.
Heero had started to dish out the hearty stew. As Duo came near, he had a bowl thrust unceremoniously toward his chest. "Whoa," he muttered in surprise. He had barely closed his fingers around it and was distracted for a moment keeping the hot contents inside from slopping over, so it took him an extra second to realize that Heero had slapped a hand to the wall to steady himself as he swayed. "Heero!"
Quatre broke off his reading aloud of the alleged spell and rushed over. Sally got there first and put a hand on his elbow in concern but Heero waved it off. "I'm fine," he insisted, opening his eyes again. "I'm fine."
"Was it...?" Quatre asked.
He shook his head irritably, at himself more than at Quatre, and straightened slowly. He caught Duo's eye and murmured an apology before turning back to his other friend. "That other side? No. Well. Yes. Sort of?"
"The shields didn't work?" Quatre was fairly certain Heero had gotten the hang of them yesterday.
"They did, but... the event came from... that spell, I think. What you were reading just now. What was it?"
"The spell?" Quatre looked reflexively at the journal he had left on the table. Wufei was appropriating it for a closer look. "I'm not sure. We weren't even sure if it was a spell."
"It... I don't know. Something inside of me responded to it. It was just unexpected, that's all."
"Duo," Wufei called out. "Can you translate this?"
Duo blinked, not really expecting to be involved in the conversation, and by Wufei no less. "Umm." He went over, put the bowl of stew down, and took up the book. "Hmmm. Well, obviously not off the top of my head, but..." He flipped back and forth between a few pages, checking references. "I'd say it's a spell. Well, more accurately, I'd say the forms, the vocabulary, it's different from the rest of the writing. It's not prose, not in the same language or dialect or whatever you wanna say as the rest of it. So I'm not gonna be able to translate that at all. Stuff around it?" He held the book out for Wufei to look at and pointed to the relevant parts. "This here? Refers to the, uh, object of his observations. You see that all over, like here, and here, and here. This word, and those like it, that's 'one', 'once', that sort of thing. 'Not understand' up here... Well anyway, give me some time, I might be able to figure out where or when he observed it, 'cuz he took decent notes on that kind of thing. But the whole point here is, he didn't know what this stuff was, either."
"It seems we have one more question to ask of the library of antiquities, then. Surely they will have someone that can do a proper translation."
They did not expect trouble to find them here, nor did they expect that their questions about the Necrohol would have set off any immediate alarms. But they did not think it would be excessively paranoid to set a watch for the night.
Heero did expect his two old friends to protest when he volunteered for first watch, and his expectations were met. He quietly but firmly overruled them, reasoning that he had spent most of the last several days resting and it was their turn now.
Duo took second shift, using mostly the same reasoning, but no one particularly protested his offer. He woke without Heero needing to wake him and found Heero at the bench next to the herb garden.
"My watch," Duo said, sitting down beside him.
Heero acknowledged him, but showed no sign of returning within.
Not that Duo was going to work too hard complaining about the situation. He leaned back and breathed deeply, taking in the fresh scents of the herbs in the crisp night. Then he thought about that conversation that hadn't happened earlier that evening, and pondered whether or not to let Heero get away with it. He stealthily observed Heero out of the corner of his eye, noticed a bit of this and a bit of that, and sighed silently. "Somehow I get the feeling you're not flirting with me."
After a brief pause, Heero looked at him with a puzzled tilt of his head. "I beg your pardon?"
"Because based on prior experience, I think you'd be much more straightforward with your flirting. Or what passes as flirting for you. So it's not that."
"I'm not flirting with you," Heero responded uncertainly. "I'm not even doing anything?"
He nodded judiciously. "Yup, my point exactly. So it can't be you flirting with me, you staying out here instead of going inside to get some sleep when you're obviously tired and you know how important it is you stay on top of your game. So is there some other reason you don't want to go inside?"
The nonplussed expression followed by the aversion of his eyes was a tacit admission of guilt. Heero shifted slightly in his seat, his fingers flexed in his lap. "Last night... I did not remember my dreams upon waking, but they left me ill at ease, nevertheless. Something about it nags at my subconscious. Like not being certain if someone has called your name in a crowd."
"Not eager to try your luck tonight, eh? Admittedly, I don't know the way of these things very well, but usually being tired makes a person more susceptible to stuff, not less."
Heero's shoulders slumped a bit in defeat.
Duo leaned in and bumped shoulders with him. "Well, I suppose you can sit with me for a little while. But then you really should get some sleep. Sally's potions can't fix everything, yanno."
"I know," Heero answered softly. He pressed his shoulder to Duo's, and then did not leave. Duo didn't think twice about putting an arm around his shoulders. Heero was still for a moment before settling into it. "When this is over..."
The trailing silence as Heero searched for the proper words was long enough that Duo felt it probably wasn't helping Heero getting any rest. "Hey, maybe I should tell you a bedtime story, yeah?"
Heero fought the change in subject for a few seconds before giving up with a faint snort of amusement.
"Hmm, what should I tell you...? Ooh, I should tell you about this black chocobo I met once."
"Really."
"Hey, they exist, yanno. They're hard to find, but they're out there. Not like those silly golden chocobos. No way those things exist. I mean, how hard could it be to find something that sparkles in the light?"
"I don't think they mean a metallic sort of gold. A particularly opulent yellow, perhaps."
"Then they're really just plain yellow chocobos with delusions of grandeur, aren't they?"
Heero chuckled, and relaxed a notch despite himself.
"Anyway, my buddy Scythe, now there was a --"
"You named it 'Scythe'?"
"Bird had a killer beak. Almost killed me, maybe. See, we met, well, 'by accident'..."
There were perhaps two more hours before dawn when Trowa emerged from the chemist's cottage. He looked around and found Duo on the bench next to the herb garden. Duo met his eyes boldly. Trowa nodded a mild good morning before throwing a raised eyebrow and a smirk at the man snoozing against his shoulder.
Duo tilted his chin defiantly and made a shooing gesture.
Trowa knew when he was not welcome. He decided a little patrol of the grounds would be an appropriate action. Particularly if Duo had spent his watch tied to that bench. Sally had herself a nice piece of real estate. This Academy of theirs seemed to help a person get started off on the right footing.
He also kept an eye out for signs of their chocobos. It had seemed a bit too obvious to leave five birds hitched outside of one chemist's clinic, five birds liberated from the stables of the ill-fated Yardrow, no less, so they'd set them loose to forage the area on their own. They were well-trained enough not to wander far. It was part of Trowa's task this morning to rustle them back up for the next leg of their journey.
Duo strolled up next to him. "Hey." They bumped fists in greeting. "Heh, I heard the most hilarious thing today. Guess who used to sleep together?"
"Wufei and Sally?" That hardly took any thought at all.
"I know, right? But no. That's part of the story, though."
Trowa mulled over what else Duo would find hilarious. "Sally and... Heero?"
"Yup."
"Before or after her research paper?"
"During."
"Scandalous."
"Sally's pretty saucy underneath that professional veneer. I could see it. The really scandalous bit is actually that Heero's buddies don't know."
That was pretty scandalous, by the standards of those fellows. He could hardly imagine. "Huh. A torrid romance or...?"
Duo shrugged. "Just friends. Heero didn't seem like he had a specific reason for not mentioning it at first, but then apparently he heard Wufei might have a thing for her and he kindly cleared the field for him."
"Wufei never capitalized?"
Duo snorted. "What do you think?"
Trowa shook his head. "Those guys really are dead set on keeping each other from getting any. It's beyond belief."
"Seriously. So. Don't mention it to his buds. Heero nearly freaked out when I figured it out. Not sure if it's because he still thinks Wufei might have a thing for her, or if he doesn't want Wufei to feel bad about him breaking things off because of him, or what. But I was wondering, now that I've cleared the field for you... How was your day with your hot blond?"
He smiled with a certain lazy satisfaction. "Productive. Definitely productive." They stood in companionable silence for a minute, simply reaffirming their long friendship on a very basic level. Trowa assumed Heero was safely returned to his bed before his nanny-friends noticed anything was amiss. Duo was probably out here just to catch up before going back in for a nap before they set out, but it was just as likely that his instincts had told him not to be so blatant about having spent the night with Heero. Innocent as that night appeared to be. "You manage to follow up with him?"
"No." The answer was dropped without irritation.
Granted, Heero's statement pretty much spoke for itself. But still. "You could have him. So easily. He's already yours."
"Yeah, but..." Duo paused thoughtfully. "Doesn't take an exceptionally perceptive person to figure... if things go sideways. If anything happens to his sister. If there's a single moment where he feels he didn't do every last thing he could to prevent it. That's going to haunt him for the rest of his life. And whether you've got a thing for the guy or not, that's a terrible thing to knowingly, consciously do to a man."
"So you're going to wait this thing out?"
"Well, that's the plan at the moment, anyway."
"Hm. Well. Don't die before that day comes."
"Ha, didn't need the extra motivation, but thanks."
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This entry was originally posted at https://turnippatch.dreamwidth.org/161939.html.
Part: 37
The Faithful and the Brave
Part 37
That evening, Wufei and Trowa returned with unfortunate confirmation of Sally's claim. A fan of the Cataclysm really could talk a person's ear off given half a chance, and they were indeed back just a mark after sunset, having only spoken to the closest neighbor on Sally's list. The geomancer had perhaps been a touch too willing to share what information she had after the dragoon's assistance, and none of it particularly helpful. She had no specific information to offer on the Necrohol.
The next morning, Wufei set off again, this time splitting the task with Quatre. Trowa volunteered to keep Quatre company this time with some cheerfully transparent excuse that Quatre did little to resist.
They returned to the chemist's house as the sky was beginning to darken. Wufei huffed irritably as he reported his findings. "One of Sally's geomancers has heard of the Necrohol."
Quatre clapped his hands together in triumph. "That's -- You don't look like that's great news."
He grimaced. "The Necrohol had an amazing mosiac in one of its courtyards, possibly the only work of the great artist M'Naani in Ivalice at the time."
Quatre waited a few seconds in cautious silence. "Location?"
"I've also learned today that the matter of pre-Cataclysmic geography is a matter of rather heated debate. Enough landmarks have been destroyed or significantly altered, whether by time or the Cataclysm itself, that attempting to locate any ancient structure in today's landscape is a fruitless exercise. Everyone has opinions, of course, but none worth repeating here. We could be looking for some place anywhere from Nelveska to Murond."
"We had similar findings," Quatre admitted. "Neither of the people we spoke to had heard of the Necrohol, but they did seem to agree, even if they had, we wouldn't be able to find it. One of our people recommended we continue our research at the library of antiquities on Mt. Germinas. Of course, the other person disagreed vehemently and called it an institution full of quacks."
"I heard good things about the place today. Mostly good. Perhaps that will have to be our next destination."
"I'm sorry no one had the answers you were looking for," Sally said, coming near to clear her table for the supper that Heero was currently watching over.
"Hardly your fault, Sally," Quatre responded. "Perhaps the library on Mt. Germinas will be able to tell us what we need to know."
By the hearth, Heero let out a resigned sigh. "We might be able to make it if we leave at first light."
"What do you mean?" Quatre asked, puzzled.
Duo made a loud noise of exasperation. "Oh poop! You're right. Did anyone catch up on politics while you were out there?"
Wufei looked at Quatre, who shook his head. "I heard a little... Gariland has finally declared for Lesalia. There was a skirmish at Duguera Pass."
"Was a bit more than a skirmish, what we heard. We know for a fact that --"
"Wait, 'we'?"
"Fine, 'me'," Duo answered impatiently. "I went out on the supply run while Heero sat around here moping, okay? Anyway, it's confirmed fact that Zeltennia got their hands on the old Queen Leia and executed her. Got around to returning her body to the Bartons. Rumor has it the body was desecrated in some way and, well, things probably got a bit more heated than a mere 'skirmish' might imply. Apparently one thing led to another, and now the armies of our two queens are starting their marches against each other. They're expected to meet in the lowlands near Fort Besselat."
"Our civil war is about to become quite uncivilized. Neither side is pretending any longer that there can be a diplomatic solution to this impasse. I suppose they were just waiting for everyone to choose sides. Why does that... Oh. That's... unfortunate. How much of their forces do you think will be gathered by the time we have to pass through the area?"
"We leave tomorrow, we'll definitely get there before the bulk of either army. But the scouts will likely be in place. Vanguards, too. Ground claimed, camps established, lines drawn, the whole bit. These guys aren't messing around."
"Hm, going the long way around would take almost two extra weeks. And we'd have to pass through the heart of Weyridge's territory. While they're not technically hostile to us..."
"We can't spare two extra weeks," Heero said levelly.
"Of course not. It seems you'll be rid of us on the morrow, then, Miss Po."
"Well, I'm glad I put these two to work today, then," she joked.
"Otherwise, we'd have paid you in good coin," Heero answered firmly.
"Nonsense. You're old friends."
"And you've a business to run. Best we were on our way, anyway."
"We're off to slay some epic bad guys," Duo chimed in. "It'd be a pretty sorry tale if we went about it, leaving a string of unsettled debts behind us. Huh, actually, that might make for a pretty hilarious song. Where's a bard when you need one?"
Sally smiled. "Well, in any case, it's my policy not to charge anyone outside their ability to pay, and I'd say you boys can no longer afford the time. Your ribs still sore, Trowa?"
The dragoon shook his head. "You brew an excellent curative, milady."
"I'll give you some for the road. In exchange for slaying some epic bad guys. The world needs fewer of those."
Quatre dipped his head graciously. "Thank you. I wish we had the time for more natural healing. I hope you didn't work these two too hard."
"Oh, don't worry. I left Heero plenty of time to mope. And Duo got time to read whatever secret documents he was reading."
Duo stood up and headed for the alcove where Heero had been resting. "Right. So I started reading through this because, well, no particular reason, I suppose." He returned to the table with the annotated text Pargan had given them.
Wufei frowned. "Where did you-- You went through Quatre's things?"
He rolled his eyes. "No. I had Heero go through Quatre's things, because I knew you'd get all prickly about it. And I totally didn't let Sally get a good look at it, either."
Wufei eyed Heero as he came to the table bearing a basket of warmed bread. "He's convinced you to be an active participant in his skulduggery. I suppose it was those very same skills that allowed him to steal your heart."
"One cannot steal what is freely given," Heero said calmly, placing the basket on the table and returning to the hearth.
Duo blinked a few times, mouth slightly agape and feeling a bit warm in this room all of a sudden. Eventually, his lips curved upward into a somewhat incredulous smirk. "Wait, really? You're just going to drop a statement like that and walk away?"
Quatre plucked the journal from his lax grip and started thumbing through it. "What did you find, Duo?"
He was torn for a moment between answering and going after Heero, but decided in the end that Heero could wait a minute. He snagged the journal back, flipped through the pages quickly to find what he was looking for, and handed it back. "Here. Here's where our guy made some notes about stuff he didn't include in his reports about the other guy because they didn't make a whole lotta sense to him. Stuff that seemed out of place. The old guy didn't get around to translating any of this part, but maybe some of it will stand out to you?"
Wufei peered at it over Quatre's shoulder. "None of this is translated. So how do you know what it's about?"
Duo shrugged. "Skulduggery includes code writing and code breaking, donchaknow. Translatin's not too different from code breaking in the end, 'specially when you've got all the old guy's previous notes and translations as reference. I didn't have time to go deep on it, though."
Wufei studied him for a few seconds before making a neutral sound that could liberally be interpreted as grudging respect.
"Wufei, what do you think about this?" Quatre asked, pointing at something in the text. "A spell?"
Duo figured that was his cue to leave the mages to their work. He countered Trowa's lazily raised eyebrow with a lopsided grin as he moseyed on over to the hearth. "So, Heero...," he started.
Heero had started to dish out the hearty stew. As Duo came near, he had a bowl thrust unceremoniously toward his chest. "Whoa," he muttered in surprise. He had barely closed his fingers around it and was distracted for a moment keeping the hot contents inside from slopping over, so it took him an extra second to realize that Heero had slapped a hand to the wall to steady himself as he swayed. "Heero!"
Quatre broke off his reading aloud of the alleged spell and rushed over. Sally got there first and put a hand on his elbow in concern but Heero waved it off. "I'm fine," he insisted, opening his eyes again. "I'm fine."
"Was it...?" Quatre asked.
He shook his head irritably, at himself more than at Quatre, and straightened slowly. He caught Duo's eye and murmured an apology before turning back to his other friend. "That other side? No. Well. Yes. Sort of?"
"The shields didn't work?" Quatre was fairly certain Heero had gotten the hang of them yesterday.
"They did, but... the event came from... that spell, I think. What you were reading just now. What was it?"
"The spell?" Quatre looked reflexively at the journal he had left on the table. Wufei was appropriating it for a closer look. "I'm not sure. We weren't even sure if it was a spell."
"It... I don't know. Something inside of me responded to it. It was just unexpected, that's all."
"Duo," Wufei called out. "Can you translate this?"
Duo blinked, not really expecting to be involved in the conversation, and by Wufei no less. "Umm." He went over, put the bowl of stew down, and took up the book. "Hmmm. Well, obviously not off the top of my head, but..." He flipped back and forth between a few pages, checking references. "I'd say it's a spell. Well, more accurately, I'd say the forms, the vocabulary, it's different from the rest of the writing. It's not prose, not in the same language or dialect or whatever you wanna say as the rest of it. So I'm not gonna be able to translate that at all. Stuff around it?" He held the book out for Wufei to look at and pointed to the relevant parts. "This here? Refers to the, uh, object of his observations. You see that all over, like here, and here, and here. This word, and those like it, that's 'one', 'once', that sort of thing. 'Not understand' up here... Well anyway, give me some time, I might be able to figure out where or when he observed it, 'cuz he took decent notes on that kind of thing. But the whole point here is, he didn't know what this stuff was, either."
"It seems we have one more question to ask of the library of antiquities, then. Surely they will have someone that can do a proper translation."
They did not expect trouble to find them here, nor did they expect that their questions about the Necrohol would have set off any immediate alarms. But they did not think it would be excessively paranoid to set a watch for the night.
Heero did expect his two old friends to protest when he volunteered for first watch, and his expectations were met. He quietly but firmly overruled them, reasoning that he had spent most of the last several days resting and it was their turn now.
Duo took second shift, using mostly the same reasoning, but no one particularly protested his offer. He woke without Heero needing to wake him and found Heero at the bench next to the herb garden.
"My watch," Duo said, sitting down beside him.
Heero acknowledged him, but showed no sign of returning within.
Not that Duo was going to work too hard complaining about the situation. He leaned back and breathed deeply, taking in the fresh scents of the herbs in the crisp night. Then he thought about that conversation that hadn't happened earlier that evening, and pondered whether or not to let Heero get away with it. He stealthily observed Heero out of the corner of his eye, noticed a bit of this and a bit of that, and sighed silently. "Somehow I get the feeling you're not flirting with me."
After a brief pause, Heero looked at him with a puzzled tilt of his head. "I beg your pardon?"
"Because based on prior experience, I think you'd be much more straightforward with your flirting. Or what passes as flirting for you. So it's not that."
"I'm not flirting with you," Heero responded uncertainly. "I'm not even doing anything?"
He nodded judiciously. "Yup, my point exactly. So it can't be you flirting with me, you staying out here instead of going inside to get some sleep when you're obviously tired and you know how important it is you stay on top of your game. So is there some other reason you don't want to go inside?"
The nonplussed expression followed by the aversion of his eyes was a tacit admission of guilt. Heero shifted slightly in his seat, his fingers flexed in his lap. "Last night... I did not remember my dreams upon waking, but they left me ill at ease, nevertheless. Something about it nags at my subconscious. Like not being certain if someone has called your name in a crowd."
"Not eager to try your luck tonight, eh? Admittedly, I don't know the way of these things very well, but usually being tired makes a person more susceptible to stuff, not less."
Heero's shoulders slumped a bit in defeat.
Duo leaned in and bumped shoulders with him. "Well, I suppose you can sit with me for a little while. But then you really should get some sleep. Sally's potions can't fix everything, yanno."
"I know," Heero answered softly. He pressed his shoulder to Duo's, and then did not leave. Duo didn't think twice about putting an arm around his shoulders. Heero was still for a moment before settling into it. "When this is over..."
The trailing silence as Heero searched for the proper words was long enough that Duo felt it probably wasn't helping Heero getting any rest. "Hey, maybe I should tell you a bedtime story, yeah?"
Heero fought the change in subject for a few seconds before giving up with a faint snort of amusement.
"Hmm, what should I tell you...? Ooh, I should tell you about this black chocobo I met once."
"Really."
"Hey, they exist, yanno. They're hard to find, but they're out there. Not like those silly golden chocobos. No way those things exist. I mean, how hard could it be to find something that sparkles in the light?"
"I don't think they mean a metallic sort of gold. A particularly opulent yellow, perhaps."
"Then they're really just plain yellow chocobos with delusions of grandeur, aren't they?"
Heero chuckled, and relaxed a notch despite himself.
"Anyway, my buddy Scythe, now there was a --"
"You named it 'Scythe'?"
"Bird had a killer beak. Almost killed me, maybe. See, we met, well, 'by accident'..."
There were perhaps two more hours before dawn when Trowa emerged from the chemist's cottage. He looked around and found Duo on the bench next to the herb garden. Duo met his eyes boldly. Trowa nodded a mild good morning before throwing a raised eyebrow and a smirk at the man snoozing against his shoulder.
Duo tilted his chin defiantly and made a shooing gesture.
Trowa knew when he was not welcome. He decided a little patrol of the grounds would be an appropriate action. Particularly if Duo had spent his watch tied to that bench. Sally had herself a nice piece of real estate. This Academy of theirs seemed to help a person get started off on the right footing.
He also kept an eye out for signs of their chocobos. It had seemed a bit too obvious to leave five birds hitched outside of one chemist's clinic, five birds liberated from the stables of the ill-fated Yardrow, no less, so they'd set them loose to forage the area on their own. They were well-trained enough not to wander far. It was part of Trowa's task this morning to rustle them back up for the next leg of their journey.
Duo strolled up next to him. "Hey." They bumped fists in greeting. "Heh, I heard the most hilarious thing today. Guess who used to sleep together?"
"Wufei and Sally?" That hardly took any thought at all.
"I know, right? But no. That's part of the story, though."
Trowa mulled over what else Duo would find hilarious. "Sally and... Heero?"
"Yup."
"Before or after her research paper?"
"During."
"Scandalous."
"Sally's pretty saucy underneath that professional veneer. I could see it. The really scandalous bit is actually that Heero's buddies don't know."
That was pretty scandalous, by the standards of those fellows. He could hardly imagine. "Huh. A torrid romance or...?"
Duo shrugged. "Just friends. Heero didn't seem like he had a specific reason for not mentioning it at first, but then apparently he heard Wufei might have a thing for her and he kindly cleared the field for him."
"Wufei never capitalized?"
Duo snorted. "What do you think?"
Trowa shook his head. "Those guys really are dead set on keeping each other from getting any. It's beyond belief."
"Seriously. So. Don't mention it to his buds. Heero nearly freaked out when I figured it out. Not sure if it's because he still thinks Wufei might have a thing for her, or if he doesn't want Wufei to feel bad about him breaking things off because of him, or what. But I was wondering, now that I've cleared the field for you... How was your day with your hot blond?"
He smiled with a certain lazy satisfaction. "Productive. Definitely productive." They stood in companionable silence for a minute, simply reaffirming their long friendship on a very basic level. Trowa assumed Heero was safely returned to his bed before his nanny-friends noticed anything was amiss. Duo was probably out here just to catch up before going back in for a nap before they set out, but it was just as likely that his instincts had told him not to be so blatant about having spent the night with Heero. Innocent as that night appeared to be. "You manage to follow up with him?"
"No." The answer was dropped without irritation.
Granted, Heero's statement pretty much spoke for itself. But still. "You could have him. So easily. He's already yours."
"Yeah, but..." Duo paused thoughtfully. "Doesn't take an exceptionally perceptive person to figure... if things go sideways. If anything happens to his sister. If there's a single moment where he feels he didn't do every last thing he could to prevent it. That's going to haunt him for the rest of his life. And whether you've got a thing for the guy or not, that's a terrible thing to knowingly, consciously do to a man."
"So you're going to wait this thing out?"
"Well, that's the plan at the moment, anyway."
"Hm. Well. Don't die before that day comes."
"Ha, didn't need the extra motivation, but thanks."
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This entry was originally posted at https://turnippatch.dreamwidth.org/161939.html.