WarCraft

CHAPTER TWO: Waking to Us


Heero caught the boy before he hit the floor
and sat down abruptly, pulling the limp figure
into his lap. His Others sat down around him,
gazing worshipfully at the Fifth they'd nearly
thought they were never to find. They all
ignored the astonished crowd milling around
them - they might as well have been alone in
the room. Even Alvis, shouting in disbelief,
didn't register any more.

Duo reached out a reverent hand and let it follow
Heero's path, stroking the sleek black hair.

"Damn, he's pretty." He whispered, making Quatre
giggle and the other two grin. It was true enough -
their Fifth was an Exotic, a rare type almost unknown
even in Helia, astonishing to find out here in the
middle of nowhere. His skin, rapidly regaining its
normal color while in contact with his First, was a
golden bronze, like honey, his eyes slanted like a
cat's and with thick, curling black lashes. He had
soft, full lips and he was *clean*, a lovely contrast
to most of the people in this room.

"He's *not* pretty!" A petulant female voice finally
broke in on their little circle. "He's a freak! He
doesn't look like anyone else in the village!"

They stared up at Relena, not bothering to deny her
words. Why should they? The girl didn't matter, and
neither did her opinion. They had their Fifth! Nothing
else in the *world* mattered right now!

"We should take him somewhere warm." Quatre said
softly, reaching out to take the boy's only visible
hand. "And someplace we can feed him, he's far too
thin."

Heero nodded, and Trowa got to his feet and lifted
their Fire into his arms. Heero stood and turned
to the Mayor again. "Where is the inn?"

"O-other side of t-town." The man stuttered, not
knowing that the cold look in Heero's eyes was his
normal look for anyone who wasn't one of his Others.
He thought he was in trouble because the boy *was*
so thin. Fortunately for him, that thought hadn't
occurred to the Four yet.

"What's his name?" Quatre and Duo lingered to find
out the answer even as Heero and Trowa stalked towards
the door, the villagers parting like waves around them.

"I - I don't know." The Mayor was still frightened.
"He's just the inn boy."

Duo snorted and turned away. Quatre gave the man a
scathing look and hurried after him,
muttering under his breath.

"Inn boy! *Inn* boy!" He was certain the man could
have named any other member of his village. He was
becoming certain that their Fifth had a less than
happy existence here. Well, it would make it that much
easier for them to leave, wouldn't it? And hopefully
it would be that much faster that they would Join, and
become a WarCraft.

Heero led the way to the inn - the ‘other side of town'
was only a few hundred yards away - and shoved the doors
open. Harris jumped up, staring at them and then at the
bundle in Trowa's arms.

"M-my Lords, has he caused you trouble? I'll certainly
punish him for it!" He moved forward, certain that would
be the only reason his little slave laborer would be in
the company of these men. "If you'll just let me have
him..." he stopped abruptly as Heero moved to block him
from their Fifth.

"Keep away." was all he said, but the man instantly
started backing up.

"Sir... I don't understand?!" Perhaps the boy had
collapsed, and these men were moved to help him? It
was unlike Lords to worry about a common peasant, but
stranger things had happened. "Is he ill? I - I can
put him to bed..."

"Keep *away*." Heero repeated, pushing past him and
waiting until Trowa and his precious burden were
safely out of the man's reach.

"You serve food in this place?" Duo demanded, pulling
the man's attention away from his Others. Heero and
Trowa moved to the best table, close to the large
fireplace, which wasn't lit at the moment but would
make the room very warm when it was.

"Yes, sir, certainly. What would you like?" Harris
was delighted at the distraction.

"Whatever's decent." Duo shrugged, unable to keep his
eyes from going back to the table where Quatre was
helping Heero ease off their Fire's cloak. Quatre
had been right about him being too thin. But he was
muscular - and oh, so pretty.

Harris had finally thought of another reason why
his charge might be with these men, helped along by
Duo's hungry eyes. He smirked - maybe these four
would pay a decent enough price for the boy, instead
of the paltry offers he'd gotten over the last year.

"Good sir," he lowered his voice, glancing around to
make sure no one could overhear them. "Good sir, ye
know it's not lawful for me to sell him to ye, but if
ye were..." he paused, leering into Duo's wide eyes,
thinking he was seeing acceptance, "...if ye were,
er... desiring a warm fire in yer room tonight, I'll
arrange it. For a fair price, sir."

Duo's Others looked up at a loud thump and were just
in time to see the landlord hit the floor, blood
streaming down his face from a broken nose.

They blinked, then turned their attention back to
their new Talent. Duo would have had his reasons.
They trusted him.

*

Wufei wasn't sure what was different at first - he
swam back to consciousness with the knowledge that
*something* had changed, but he couldn't quite put
his finger on it. Just something there... something
that had never been there before... something he...
liked? Yes, he liked it very much - whatever it was.
He sighed and snuggled closer to the warmth that was
- holding him?! His eyes flew open sharply, staring
up into the warm blue eyes of the blond whose arms he
was wrapped in. The other smiled gently at him, but he
was already jerking away, throwing himself backwards out
of the encircling arms.

Unfortunately for his peace of mind, he just slammed
into another sturdy chest and more strong arms went
around him. He yelped and tried to escape sideways.
The arms tightened, and he twisted around to stare up
at a pair of laughing violet eyes, with something sad
and worried lurking under the laughter. That was odd
enough to make him pause.

"W-who are you?" He managed, his voice trying to
strangle him.

"Duo!" the other boy replied cheerfully, "what's
your name?"

"Wufei." he replied, not even considering lying.

"Wufei - nice name. That's Quatre." He pointed to
the blond whose arms Wufei had woken up in. Wufei's
dark eyes darted to him, then away, not returning the
hesitant smile. He stared around him, only now
realizing that he was in the best room of Harris'
inn, had been sleeping in the huge fine feather bed.

‘Gods, I'm dead.' he thought, knowing Harris would
beat him for being in here. "I-I'm not allowed in
h-here." He said softly, trying to slip out of the
violet-eyed boy's arms.

Duo tightened his hold gently, making sure he didn't
squeeze the thin boy too hard. "It's alright, Wufei.
We're renting the room, and you're staying with us."

Wufei's heart plummeted. "W-why?" he managed, unable
to keep a flash of fear out of his eyes.

Duo's grin faltered a little. "Not for that, ‘Fei.
We wouldn't do that to you." The grin carefully
reasserted itself.

Wufei blinked, not sure he was hearing correctly.
If that wasn't what they wanted - then he had
no idea why he was in here. Quatre crawled closer,
seeming to sense his confusion.

"Wufei, do you remember us at all? From the Arena?"

Velvet dark eyes turned back to him, studying his
face. His eyebrows drew together, and both
boys watching him decided he was cute when he was
confused. "I - you..." His eyes abruptly
widened. "You're the Four that came! Part of
them..."

"Right," Duo said softly, squeezing him gently,
noticing that Wufei had relaxed without realizing
it. "Right, Wufei, but we're not Four anymore."

Wufei looked back to him. "You found your Fifth?"
he asked, awe in his voice. If that was true,
there would be Four's coming to this village for
years, hoping to find their own Fifths. "Was
it Alvis?"

"Alvis?" Quatre asked, confused.

"The Mayor's son. He has red hair..."

"Gods, no!" Duo laughed, cutting him off even as
he bent and rubbed his cheek against Wufei's
soft black hair. "No, Wufei, *you're* our Fifth."

"I'm not." Wufei said calmly, not even hesitating.

"Yes, you are." said a voice from the doorway.
Wufei jerked around to stare at a Spirit Talent,
a tall boy with icy blue eyes. Intimidating...

Wufei felt like cowering, but he still had some
pride, and it kept his chin up. There was
another boy behind him, but Wufei didn't have
any attention to spare him, yet - the Spirit
sat on the bed and was reaching for him, and
Duo was letting him go - Wufei's heart leapt
into his throat and he took advantage of the
instant that no one was holding him to escape,
throwing himself off the bed and across the
room away from these unnerving boys.

"Leave me alone!" He said sharply, automatically
falling into a defensive pose. If they
thought he was helpless, they would find out
differently! To his surprise, they beamed at
him.

"Good," the Spirit Talent said, "You know how
to take care of yourself. Very good."

Wufei wondered why his heart swelled with happiness
at those words - he'd never before cared what anyone
thought about him, why did he care what they thought?
The blue-eyed boy was getting off the bed and coming
toward him again. Wufei forced himself not to back
away and the boy stopped just out of arms reach.

"I'm Heero. You're Wufei?"

Wufei nodded.

"Trowa." Heero said, pointing toward the fourth boy.
Wufei's eyes flicked to him for a moment - taller
than Heero, with thick auburn hair hanging in his
face and a single visible eye that was a beautiful
shade of emerald green. He gave Wufei a nod and a
smile, but didn't speak. Wufei turned his eyes back
to Heero.

"He's our Third. Our Earth Talent. Can you feel
him?"

Wufei was confused again, not sure what he meant -

- until he felt something well up inside of him, a
warm, safe feeling that somehow made him think of
dark soil and trees, of flowers and falling leaves.

He dropped out of his defensive stance and just
stared at Trowa.

Trowa smiled again.

Heero took advantage of Wufei's distraction to move
closer and wrap his arms around the smaller boy.
"You're our Fifth. Duo's our Second. Can you feel
him?"

This time it was like a cool welling of liquid
flowing over his tired, rumpled soul.

"Water Talent," he said, not hesitating.

"Perfect." Duo said cheerfully. "Way to go, ‘Fei."

Heero tightened his arms - they were being gentle,
but Wufei was starting to tremble anyway. It was
always difficult for Talents when they were first
Chosen - the new experience of 'sensing'their Others
could be almost painful.

"And Quatre's our Fourth."

Gentle spring breeze.

"Air." Wufei whispered, trying to keep from putting
his arms around Heero. He desperately wanted to hang
on, but he wasn't weak. He *wasn't*! And he didn't
want them to think so. Quatre was nodding, smiling at
him in gentle delight. He tried to smile back, but it
felt odd on his face.

"Easy," Heero murmured, "just one more."

Wufei couldn't describe the feeling that welled up
inside him then - an awareness, a heightening of senses,
a realization of exactly what his soul was, like he'd
never realized before...

"You." He barely got the word out, wrapping his arms
tight around himself since he didn't want to wrap them
around Heero.

"Now let us feel your Fire." Heero whispered, his breath
warm against Wufei's ear.

"How? I don't know..."

Heero gently pressed his palm against Wufei's chest,
even as Wufei gave in enough to hide his face against
Heero's own chest. "Here," he said softly, all his
attention centered on the slim figure in his arms,
just like the other three were. "Feel your Talent
here - think about it here."

"How will that...?"

"We are your Others, Wufei. We will feel you, when
you do this."

Wufei felt like rolling his eyes - no matter what he
was feeling right now, he was certain that these boys
were wrong - he'd been told for so long that he was
worthless, that he had no Others, that he'd finally
come to believe it. He'd do as they asked, anyway -
maybe that would prove it to them.

The other boys felt nothing for a long moment - long
enough to make them nervous, wondering if Wufei was
going to refuse them. He had that option. They never
once considered that he wasn't their Fifth - they *knew.*

Finally, they saw him take a deep breath, and felt that
gentle warmth from before welling up in their hearts
again, warmer and warmer until it was the delicious
fire of their Fifth.

They all sighed in unison, close to ecstasy - they'd
waited so long to feel this. Waited so long to find
the slender boy their First was holding close. They
couldn't resist the urge to answer him - even knowing
that it would make him collapse again. It would be all
right - Heero was holding him, and he looked as if he
could use the rest, anyway.

Wufei felt a gentle swell of emotion in his chest again.
This time he recognized it as the presence of all the
boys in this room, and he knew enough of Talents to
realize that this meant... that this meant they *were*
his Others...

...that he was their Fifth...

...and they were WarCraft...

...which meant...

...that this was all too much, and he felt blessed
darkness swallow him again.