Perfect Prey.

Natea
Title: Perfect Prey
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: AU, sap, angst, squick, shounen-ai, possible yaoi and citrus content.
Pairings: Focusing mainly on 1+2+1 leading to 1x2x1, other pairings 3x4, 5xS.
Summary: After being washed up on an island following a crash, Heero and Duo find themselves in the company of a woman who is not all she claims to be.
Disclaimer: None of the boys belong to me and I\'m not making a single penny from the writing of this fic (shame)...the idea for the story is inspired in part by a published work by Richard Connell called \"The Most Dangerous Game.\" Excellent story!

Perfect Prey.

Chapter 4.

Picnics and Nitpicks.

Heero was the first to wake in the morning.

For a while he lay there silently, listening to the birds outside as they began a tune up in preparation for the dawn chorus, his limbs still comfortably mingled with those of his partner\'s. After a while though the urge to get up, to be alert and prepared, was too great to fight and he carefully began the process of slipping out of the bed without waking his braided partner. Duo was still, for all intent purposes dead to the world and Heero wanted him to sleep as much as he could. They had been through a rough time lately and needed all the rest they could get in order to recover.

It was still early, not even fully light outside; Heero knew he should be trying to get a few more hours of sleep himself but his trainingldn\ldn\'t permit it. It was dangerous to be caught \'napping\' in unfamiliar territory and he for one had no plans to do that. Padding softly over to the window seat he pushed aside the netting, knelt on the cushion and leant forward, peering outside in the same way he had done before he had gone to bed. This time though there was a lot more information to be seen.

The room was west-facing so the rising sun itself was out of view. The lightening hues in the sky however hinted at the approaching dawn just as clearly. Heero breathed in deeply, filling his lungs with the cool, crisp morning air. Glancing down into the courtyard below he got his first glimpse of the bodies those eerie green eyes of the night before belonged to. Laying about in small groups of twos and threes, fully alert despite their lax postures, were eight, sleek, fully-grown Rhodesian Ridgebacks.

The ultimate hunting dog. Heero frowned a little, he didn\'t know a lot about canines in general but he did know that ridgebacks were dangerous. Another name for the dog was the African Lion Hunter. As big individually as a Great Dane, a pack of them could bring down one of the giant cats with ease. And there was definitely a pack down there in the yard. One was enough to rip a man apart, Heero thought; eight would be enough to rip you atom from atom.

He was safe in his second storey perch though and the dogs seemed docile enough at the moment and hadn\'t noticed him at all; he ignored them and cast a glance higher, taking in the surrounding land. The presence of the twelve-foot wall that spanned the courtyard didn\'t surprise him. Ivana would need something on that scale to keep the dogs in, that particular breed could jump like deer. Still, it was a bit disconcerting when he leaned out of the window a bit further and noticed the continuation of the wall around both sides of the building. Was it merely a courtyard enclosure? Heero wondered, or did it seal the mansion away from the island entirely? If so, why? To keep something out...or something in?

Apart from that there was very little else that could be seen. Inside the courtyard, apart from the dogs of course, there were a number of potted plants displayed and a couple of comfortable loungers that hinted at a sunspot in the afternoons. A large tree grew in the centre of the yard itself and provided a welcome bit of shade in the balmy afternoons.

He looked higher, raking his eyes over the countryside, only to be disappointed. Nothing on the other side of the wall could be seen yet; a heavy mist had rolled in from the sea overnight and was covering the land further away completely. Heero huffed slightly in annoyance and was about to turn away in disgust when he noticed something about the dogs.

It wasn\'t anything drastic, just a small change in body language. Whereas before they had been relaxed now they were holding themselves differently, heads were high, ears pricked and alert. They were waiting for something. Heero settled back on the seat, getting comfortable, and watched. It didn\'t take long, two minutes after he had noticed the change there was the soft sound of a whistle from somewhere close by. The affect on the dogs was immediate; they scrambled to their feet and charged off, skittering a little on the tiled area. He watched them run, leaning out of the window to try and see where they entered the house, but they turned the corner and within seconds the enclosure was empty. Must be six o\'clock, Heero thought, remembering Ivana\'s comment at supper about the housekeeper letting the dogs in when she got up.

The courtyard now of no interest to him Heero cast a look back at the bed, wondering if he could possibly justify to himself the benefits of getting back in for a little while. Shaking his head a little he slid off the seat and walked firmly out of the room, in the direction of the showers; he was burning daylight.

***

Duo was awake when he came back. Awake and sitting quietly at the window in a mirror of Heero\'s earlier pose, oversized tank top pulled down to cover his knees as he knelt. He turned as the Japanese walked into the room and grinned.

\"Wondered where you\'d got to,\" he said. \"Shower?\"

\"What gave it away?\" Heero asked seriously, towelling his damp hair a little more.

\"Baka.\" Duo grinned before turning back to the window. \"Quite a view isn\'t it.\"

Heero shrugged, \"Haven\'t seen it yet.\" he said.

\"Aw Man, you don\'t know what you\'re missing.\" Duo leapt up and before Heero knew what had hit him he was being shepherded towards the window. \"Get an eyeful of that,\" the braided boy enthused, before falling silent in reverence.

The view was something else; Ivana\'s mansion was obviously built on a hill as the view seemed to drop away before them. Virginal forest stretched out as far as the eye could see, a few eddies of mist still clinging stubbornly to the canopy of the trees in places although it was spiralling away even as he watched, burning off with the heat of the sun already. In the far distance the ground seemed to rise up again, creating a small, shallow valley of jungle. Possibly there was a river or stream at the base, Heero mused thoughtfully. To the left, almost hidden behind the house, was a faint glimpse of hazy blue that was the ocean...although which ocean he wasn\'t sure. Finding out was number one on their \'to do\' list today.

The birds were still singing from their hiding places in the trees and the sky above them was a rich cornflower blue without a single cloud to mar the perfection. It was serene, majestic in a savage, untamed manner. The sight commanded, and received, respect.

There was silence for a while as both boys stared out at the scene. Finally Duo spoke, his tone hushed. \"Beautiful... isn\'t it?\"

Heero turned to find the braided boy looking at him strangely. \"Go and get your shower, Ivana wants us on the terrace for eight thirty.\"

Duo seemed to deflate somehow, but only for a split second and then the familiar high spirits were back. \"Bertha brought our clothes back by the way,\" he said as he grabbed a previously unnoticed black and khaki bundle from the bed.

\"Bertha?\" Heero reached for his own familiar folded bundle; finally clothes that fit.

\"Big Bertha, the housekeeper,\" Duo said, \"It\'s not her name but...well you\'ll see what I mean.\" He grinned wickedly and was gone.

***

They were on time for breakfast, strolling onto the east side terrace at eight thirty on the dot, dressed in their own clothes with the exception of their shoes...they were now resting peacefully on the ocean bed. Ivana was waiting for them; her hair pulled back into a ponytail, face shiny with sweat, the glamorous evening dress of the night before no more than a distant memory.

Duo cocked his head to one side as he compared the image of that Ivana to this one. That one he couldn\'t have pictured in khaki if his life depended on it, this one...well... he didn\'t need to, she was already wearing it. Combat trousers and a long sleeved shirt to be exact, both liberally splashed with mud and dirt and in one place something like looked suspiciously like blood.

She smiled at them and raised her mug in a greeting. \"Sleep well?\"

\"Hai.\" Heero nodded. \"Hunt well?\" he returned.

Ivana laughed. \"Not as well as I\'d hoped,\" she admitted, \"but it just means I get to go out and do it all over again tonight, doesn\'t it.\"

\"True.\" Duo said, sitting down at the metal table.

\"It wasn\'t a complete waste of time.\" Ivana continued, buttering a piece of toast as she spoke. \"I managed to wing him at least, that should make my job a little easier tonight. He\'s the best of my current stock so I\'m glad I didn\'t get him first time. Once he\'s gone it\'s all downhill until the boat arrives I\'m afraid.\" She bit into her toast with relish. \"So, have you boys decided what you\'re going to do today?\"

Duo opened his mouth to answer but Heero beat him to it. \"We thought we\'d explore the area a little...with your permission of course Ivana-Sama,\" he added.

\"That sounds fine to me,\" she answered with a smile that looked almost relieved. \"If you ask my housekeeper, Chantelle, I\'m sure she\'d be happy to make you a lunch of some sort. I wouldn\'t stray into the forest though...\" her tone turned serious for a second, \"...it\'s easy to get lost if you don\'t know the art of tracking and there is a lot of wildlife in there that is potentially dangerous. It would be ironic if you were to survive a plane wreck only to be killed by a rogue boar, wouldn\'t it?\"

Duo looked over towards the forest, hidden behind the wall. \"You actually have boars in there?\"

\"There are lots of animals in there,\" Ivana answered. \"Most are harmless...but there are a few that can cause a body serious damage.\" She sipped her coffee, \"If you head around to the back of the house there\'s a path that leads down to the beach. It\'s where Chantelle was walking when she found you both yesterday; it\'s not much but it\'s a lot safer than roaming around in the jungle alone. I see you got your clothes back eventually.\" She smilbothboth boys looked far more comfortable now in their own khaki coloured combat trousers and sleeveless tank tops. Heero\'s his omnipresent green and Duo\'s an old, charcoal black. \"If you do go out then I\'d suggest a long sleeved shirt over the top,\" she advised them seriously, \"The mosquitoes here are thirsty little beggars and they\'re not above giving out a disease or two in return.\"

Heero nodded his head in understanding, \"Anou... Ivana,\" he said, \"where should we put the clothing you loaned us?\"

\"Don\'t worry about that. Chantelle will pick it up later on when she does her laundry rounds.\" Ivana said. \"Do you have enough or would you like some more? I\'m sure she can rustle up a few more shirts for you. Her husband, God rest his soul, died last year and she has a lot of his clothes just sitting around. She\'d be happy to let you use them temporarily I know.\"

Duo blinked, not really sure whether he was happy with the idea of wearing the clothes of a dead man. \"No, that\'s fine thanks Ivana,\" he said quickly; \"what you\'ve given us so far is more than enough.\" But Ivana wasn\'t listening to him any longer.

\"You can\'t possibly last out in what I gave you last night. It was only the one outfit and your sleep shirts,\" she set her cup on the table decisively, \"I\'ll have Chantelle pick out a few more items of clothing, some shirts and cut-offs certainly, do you need underwear?\"

Heero smirked as Duo coughed. \"No thank you Ivana. What we have is...sufficient.\" He said, adding diplomatically, \"but the shirts and cut-offs would be appreciated. Arigatou.\"

\"It\'s my pleasure.\" Ivana smiled, \"It\'s nice to have some company around to spoil for a while.\"

\"So, picnic on the beach. Sounds good to me,\" Duo said, changing the subject and grabbing a piece of toast from the tray. \"Whaddya think Heero? Fancy a spot of sunbathing today?\"

Heero thought for a while, it would get them out of the house and away from prying eyes. They would be able to have a proper discussion about their situation, not whispered snatches stolen here and there, not to mention the night time Morse code. Besides, the beach was one of the places he wanted to scope out anyway, being the place where they were discovered. \"I have no objections,\" he conceded eventually.

\"Good.\" Duo said, \"It\'s settled then.\"

Ivana nodded, \"Chantelle will make you up a lunch,\" she yawned suddenly, raising her hand to hide it. \"Now if you\'ll excuse me boys it\'s been a long night. I always sleep the mornings away after a good hunt. If you return to the house before two o\'clock please try not to make too much noise in the east wing. That\'s where my rooms are. Try not to stay out too long past four, unless of course you want to get caught in the rain.\" Duo cast a dubious glance up at the cloudless blue sky above and Ivana chuckled. \"I know, I know,\" she said, taking in his expression, \"but believe me Duo, it will rain this afternoon.\" She pushed her chair back and stood up.

\"We\'ll be back.\" Heero said. He raised a hand, stopping Ivana from leaving the table. \"Before you go Ivana...\"

\"Yes?\"

\"Is there a map or an atlas we could see at all?\" he asked.

\"Don\'t like not knowing where you are?\" She smiled in understanding, \"There\'s a small library on the first floor, next to the parlour. I\'m sure you\'ll be able to find something there which will satisfy you. If that fails then I know Chantelle will be able to direct you somewhere.\"

\"Arigatou.\"

\"You\'re welcome,\" she stood up, draining her coffee in one fluid move. \"Is it purely the location you\'re after?\"

\"Aa, mostly.\" Heero said.

\"This island is called Sakhalin, I named it myself,\" she said as she walked from the terrace, \"but you won\'t find it on the map. At least not in this area of the world.\" Stopping in the doorway she smiled at them, a strange thin-lipped smile, \"You\'re on an island roughly one hundred and thirty miles west of Pontianak on the west coast of Kalimantan Borneo. It\'s five miles long and three miles across at its widest point. I doubt if it will even be in any of the books but you\'re more than welcome to look. Enjoy your breakfast boys. If you want to ask Chantelle about the picnic and the clothes you can usually find her in the kitchen, just through the doors and to the left at the end of the corridor. Have a nice day out.\" And with that she was gone.


***

Duo stretched out a little more on the warm sand, leaning back on his hands and raising his face to the sun; this was the life. Was it only yesterday he hadn\'t wanted to smell the ocean ever again? He wondered, taking in a deep breath of the salty air with satisfaction. It certainly beat the smell of exhaust fumes and fast food dead, he decided.

The small path Ivana had mentioned to them at breakfast had turned out to be a series of natural worn ramps set into the side of a cliff roughly twenty feet tall. They had half walked, half clambered down the rail-less walkway, their hearts in their throats at times. All to search a stretch of sand that could only be called a beach in the broadest sense of the word. And so far their results had been less thxcitxciting. They had found one of their life jackets...still inflated they were surprised to note...and what appeared to be half a dead jellyfish washed up on the tiny stretch of sand - but nothing else.

Surveying the beach as a whole, they had come to realize just how lucky they had been to come out of the experience as relatively uninjured as they had. The whole place was enclosed within an arch of cliffs. Tall and imposing, they wrapped around the beach almost entirely; the only break was where the ocean made it\'s way up to meet the land. Looking at the coast as a whole it was sheer luck that they had been washed up on the strip of beach and not a little further to the left or right where they would have been battered to shreds by the dark, sharp rocks that made their presence known. White tipped waves coming in from the sea hinted at the continuation of these rocks far out off the coastline.

A small, sortie out into the ocean, ostensibly to paddle and look at the wildlife, showed the continuation of these cliffs, stretching out for as far as they could see in both directions. They seemed to maintain a height of roughly fifty feet for the most point although they did deep down to a mere twenty feet at the point where the beach met the coast.

The shore itself was miniscule, a shallow, smooth plane of sand barely fifty feet long and twenty feet wide, it had taken them less than two hours to search the entire strip thoroughly. Now they were relaxing, settling back against the cliffs a little and trying to look as though they were out to simply enjoy themselves. Chantelle, or Big Bertha as Duo had nicknamed the large, portly Irishwoman, had made them up enough sandwiches to feed an army. She\'d supplemented these with roughly half a dozen bars of chocolate...not the cheap stuff either, Duo was pleased to note as he bit into his second bar and relaxed against the warm rock at his back with a sigh, no this was seriously good quality confectionary.

Next to him Heero was building a small pile of the broken shards of rock. He looked intent on his task and Duo watched for a while until his curiosity at seeing the wing pilot ostensibly building sandcastles finally overrode his desire to lie back and laze.

\"What\'re you doing?\"

Heero didn\'t look at him as he arranged one final rock on the pile and turned his head to gaze out over the ocean. \"I don\'t like it.\" He said finally.

Duo smirked, \"I thought as much.\" He sat up and crossed his legs, taking on a more serious expression for a while. \"If it\'s any consolation I\'m right with you. What don\'t you like?\"

Heero thought for a while, trying to decide what point to bring up first. \"I don‘t know,\" he said eventually. \"There\'s nothing that really strikes me as being suspicious. More like a lot of small things that just seem...off somehow.\" He paused, Duo was nodding in agreement and, encouraged, Heero continued, picking out the main point that bothered him. \"Ivana\'s lying,\"

\"She\'s lying about a lot of things.\" Duo said. \"Which lie are you talking about?\"

\"Our location.\" Heero leaned back a little and glanced at his partner.

Duo nodded, \"Yeah.\" He met Heero\'s gaze levelly. \"We\'re a little bit too far north for my liking there.\"

\"Hn.\" Heero murmured, \"We were flying against the wind during the storm, if we were to be blown anywhere it would have been back in the direction we\'d come from. We were off the south coast of Borneo when we went down, only halfway across the Java sea.\" He frowned a little, \"If Ivana is telling the truth then we\'ve been blown off course by more than one hundred miles...in the opposing direction to the wind.\"

\"Pretty impressive I agree.\" Duo muttered. He took a long, slow drink from his water bottle before continuing. \"So where do you think we are really?\"

\"At a guess I\'d say somewhere between the south coast of Borneo and Java.\" Heero shrugged, looking thoughtful, \"She may be telling the truth but I doubt it.\"

\"Ocean currents can be ornery little beggars.\" Duo said, in an attempt at being diplomatic and giving their hostess the benefit of the doubt. \"It\'s possible...not really likely but possible...she could be telling the truth.\" Heero looked unconvinced. Duo continued, \"I\'m with you Heero, she reeled off that info just a little bit too nicely, if you know what I mean.\"

\"We\'re not at war now. There should be no reason for her to want to keep her location secret.\"

\"It could be innocent.\" Duo mused, \"She said herself she doesn\'t really like people, this could just be a way of making sure we don\'t announce her location to the world once we get back to civilisation. There are people like that in the world Heero, I think if you got your way you\'d be one of them, ne?\" Heero said nothing. Duo sighed, \"Wanting to be left alone in itself isn\'t a crime Heero. What else?\"

\"The clothes.” Heero’s tone was firm. “They didn\'t belong to the housekeeper\'s husband.\"

Duo looked over at his Japanese partner in surprise. Heero had a thoughtful look on his face, his head tilted to one side as he watched the waves coming in intently. \"How can you tell?\"

Heero shrugged. \"Different sizes on the labels of the vests; the trousers were different lengths and girths too. There\'s no way the man who wore those vest tops was able to fit into the trousers. The waist and chest sizes are too out of proportion. I’d say the clothes came from four different men rather than just the one.\" he turned and glanced at Duo, \"You know they\'re military, don\'t you?\"

\"What, the trousers? No, I didn\'t.\" Duo confessed.

\"Hai. Oz actually. They used them as field uniforms in the more temperate climates at the beginning of the war. I recognised the maker\'s label and the style from training sessions with Dr. J.\"

Duo \'hmmed\' thoughtfully. \"You think she may have had connections with Oz?\"

\"Possibly. It\'s not unheard of; Oz weren\'t above accepting donations from the wealthy just as the colonies did.\" Heero replied, \"She may have even been a part of Oz, she is a good marksman.\"

“And that brings us on nicely to the sixty four thousand dollar question. What do you think she hunts?” Duo asked curiously.

Heero shook his head, “I don’t know,” he admitted.

“She’s not exactly overflowing with information on that is she.”

“Iie.”

“You think it could be something on the endangered species list? That could explain the secrecy a little.”

“It’s possible,” Heero conceded, “but if it were endangered then they would have problems getting hold of the animal to hunt. She doesn’t appear to be worried about her supply drying up at all.”

“It can’t be too big.” Duo muttered, more to himself than anything else, “From the sounds of the shots last night the firearm she used was only a regular handgun. You’d have to be either crazy or a really good shot to bring something like a tiger down with a pistol. What?” Heero was looking at him strangely, Duo noticed. The Japanese shook his head slightly, dismissing Duo’s question.

“I’m sure we can find out what she’s hunting if we search the house.” Heero said. “She seems to enjoy displaying her kills. If this animal is such a good chase then she must have some trophies hanging on the walls somewhere.”

“Don’t remind me.” Duo groaned. “I swear that tiger was going to jump us last night at dinner.”

“It didn’t put you off your food at all.“

“Nah.“ Duo grinned, “The food itself was enough to put me off I think.“ He shuddered a little at the memory of the schi. Heero smirked silently, taking another drink of water in order to hide the expression.

They sat in silence for a while, watching the tide begin to draw in. Duo settled back against his sun-warmed rock and pushed his shirtsleeves up to his elbows roughly. It was damn hot. Running the back of his arm across his forehead to remove the fine layer of sweat that was beginning to bead there he glanced up at the still-cloudless sky.

\"You think she was right about the rain?\"

\"Probably. She\'s lived here a lot longer than we have.\"

The idle chat died out again and Duo was left with an empty feeling deep down in the pit of his stomach. Glancing over at Heero again he watched the Japanese youth as he took a long drink from his water bottle. It hit him suddenly how he\'d never really had an honest-to-God casual conversation with his partner. Oh, he\'d had monologues that was for sure, but at this particular time and place he couldn\'t recall a single episode where Heero had initiated a conversation simply for the joy of getting to know him. It had always been work, missions during the war, missions for the Preventers, and now, stuck on this island paradise, far away from the monotony of daily living...it was still work.

He\'d heard of people getting lost together in the wilderness and growing closer as a result. Sharing deep dark secrets with each other, learning about their pasts and their dreams for the future. Anyone else but Heero would have been spilling their soul to him right about now, Duo mused sadly, but then again...the only person he actually wanted to spill his soul was this taciturn boy sitting next to him right now. He wanted to know Heero, really know him; he sighed in regret.

Seems the only time he could actually get close to the other boy was when he was asleep, Duo thought, remembering the gunshots that woke him last night and his initial surprise at finding himself tangled up comfortably with his...his what? Friend? Partner? Colleague? Acquaintance? The titles left a bitter taste in Duo’s mouth.

You’d think that after fighting side by side in two wars you would get to know a guy, he thought. Not so with Heero.

Even without the wars something like this should have brought them closer together...should have...but hadn\'t.

Still, if Heero was willing to talk \'shop\'...\"So...what\'s the plan Hee-Chan?\" He smirked as the briefest of reactions flickered across Heero\'s face at the mangling of his name. \"What do we do while we\'re waiting for our ship to come in?\"

\"We wait.\" Heero answered briefly. \"We keep our eyes and ears open and our powder dry.\"

Duo nodded, understanding the soldier reference immediately. \'Keep your powder dry\' - \'Be prepared\'. \"We could have a look at her library this evening.\" He offered, knowing Heero was annoyed by the fact that he wasn\'t sure precisely where they were. \"I want to look a few things up myself.\" And with that statement he leaned back against his rock again and looked up at the blazing blue sky in disbelief.

Rain, pah.

TBC...................

A/N I just want to say thanks to everyone who’s reviewed so far.