Meekos

I worry that this isn't explained well, but...I understand it. Then again...ya know...the whole insanity thing...I did try very hard to make this understandable, but it's dealing with some very abstract concepts. Use your imaginations!!

Anyway, enjoy-definately, review-if you like, ya know, the usual.

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It was late, or early, depending on how you looked at it. Duo really thought late applied because he had yet to go to sleep. Last time he’d gone to sleep had been when he fainted on the alter. He fiddled with the twisting silver bracelet in his hands, thinking. It had been two days since he’d been freed from the Soul Cuffs. Freed from the bondage set upon him by Mages centuries ago, two days spent gathering his strength. He’d eaten more in the last two days than he had in the last month. Freed by someone he’d hated up until the moment when he realized that Heero intended to rip his soul apart to free someone he didn’t even know, who he knew hated him and wanted him dead. Two days and he hadn’t seen Heero at all. Even though he demanded to. Trowa and Wufei were no help at all, they didn’t know where he was either. Saying things like ‘He just needs rest’ and ‘He’ll show up in his own time’.
But the really amazing, miraculous thing that had Duo stunned beyond words was there were HUNDREDS of other Meekos living in the tree mansion or the surrounding forest. Maybe even bordering in the thousands. And they were all free. Every last one of them and they’d all been freed by Heero. Each one he removed the Soul Cuffs from and each one thought it was Trowa who helped them and they all hated Heero.

*Well screw this, I’m going to find him myself, I have things to discuss…how big can this tree really be?* He wondered as he slinked from his bed of soft leaves. *A favor for a favor. He freed me, now I can free him.* he thought firmly.
They’d all bathed properly in a hot spring and Duo now wore a simple outfit woven from plant fibers. It was made of three parts. The inner part was just a rectangle of cloth with his tail placed overtop, that tied around his waist in the front. The other end slipped between his thighs toward the front and tied in the back. The supple outer garment was two separate rectangles that simply tied around his waist and hung just above his knees.
*After all, I’ve never had a lot of patience, we all know that.* Duo thought as he held the thought of his loved ones in his mind, he couldn’t stop thinking about those he’d lost. They kept him awake in the darkness, each face and voice haunting him. Each of them he would never see again.

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*Hol-lee Crap!! I’ve been wandering around this tree for over an hour and not only can I not find Heero’s room, I can’t find anyone! I’d be glad just to get back to my room at this point!*
“Come on!” Duo spoke aloud. “Come on please ancient one, please Tree! I just want to find Heero!” Duo stated emphatically. Trees are alive after all. And as a Meeko he was tied to nature. He turned to his left as a sheaf of vines parted. He walked in slowly to the sound of very painful coughing. Fireflies blinked around the room gathering in large groups to create a never-ending stream of living light. The center of the room held a spacious leafy-net-hammock-bed with a small, thin form huddled on it. He recognized it as Heero and walked to stand over the bed.

“Wow! You look like shit!” He exclaimed before he could stop himself.

“I didn’t let you in here.” Heero wheezed harshly. The longhaired boy annoyed him and bothered him. He didn’t dislike him, quite the opposite in fact. He found himself wanting to be around him more often and that troubled him. So he’d tried to avoid him.

“No Tree did.” Duo commented smugly.

“What do you want?” Heero rasped and panted heavily. He was so pale Duo could see the blue of his veins under his skin where it wasn’t smudged with bruises; he almost looked like he’d been beaten. His eyes were sunken in and ringed in dark, black circles. He raised a delicately fragile arm slowly and brushed his dark hair back from his sweating brow. Each ragged breath he took rocked his frame.
*He’s dying!* Duo realized suddenly. *He doesn’t just look bad, he is bad!*

“You’re friends are worried about you. I overheard them say that you normally talk to them by the end of the second day.” Duo told him perching lightly on the edge of the springy bed.

“Well….I’m not feeling as good as I normally do.” Heero rasped sardonically. The two to them paused uncomfortably in silence.

“I can heal you if you want.” Duo offered hoping to help.

“I think if you tired to heal me I might not make it.” Heero grated.

“Why is it that just because I’m a Daman everyone assumes I can’t heal!” Duo exclaimed jokingly as he misunderstood what Heero was saying. “Really though…I’d like to do something to help you out…I owe you every thing. You and Wufei and Trowa.” Duo told him awkwardly.

“…Hn.” Heero replied to him. Something about the way he enunciated that single syllable……

“Oh………can I get you anything then?” He asked ineptly.

“Three days ago you were going to kill me, now you want to be my best friend.” Heero commented bitterly, his voice wan and thin.

“I realized I was wrong. I’m sorry.” Duo told him sincerely. They were silent again.

“It’s alright really. I understand. I don’t blame you, I bring hatred upon myself. I let them think I’m a Mage. I encourage them.” Heero admitted wheezing. “I could actually use some water.” He said and Duo jumped up to find some. A large cistern of leaves held fresh rainwater in it and Duo dipped out a large scoop with a wooden ladle and carried it carefully to Heero, pouring the clear liquid into the parched, waiting lips gently.

“Why don’t you want anyone to know?” Duo asked setting the dipper aside.

“What do you think of me?” Heero responded with a question of his own and Duo was taken aback.

“I think that…you’re one of the bravest, most selfless people I’ve ever met. And I think that you’re a very big person to free me when you knew I hated who I thought you were.” Duo told him honestly after a moments thought.

“And now you know I’m not a Mage so you don’t hate me. Don’t you think that’s a little situational?” Heero asked sounding bitter once more.

“No, I don’t. I stopped hating you when I started to feel your soul shred in two. I still thought you were a Mage then.” Duo told him. They were silent again.

“To answer your question: I don’t want the Meekos to feel they owe a human anything, that’s why I have Trowa cast the glamour, that’s why I don’t tell them.” Heero told him emotionlessly.

“But you’re not a human. You’re a Meeko.” Duo argued.

“NO! I was a Meeko! Now I’m little more than an N-Mage!” Heero yelled back hoarsely. “I can barely stir to life the magick required to tie someone to this land and it gives me a migraine that borders on me passing out completely. When the Soul Cuffs are removed I just send the crippled threads of power I have left toward the Cuffs and they suck me in and do the rest. I can’t stop it once it starts.” Heero told him quietly, weak now from his outburst. “It’s going to kill me one day.” He whispered to himself. *Maybe sooner than I think.* came the unbidden thought. He felt like shit, just like Duo had said. He felt like he was going to die, but he couldn’t. Not yet, he had too much to do.

Duo crawled across the narrow bed and eased his weight onto Heero’s waist carefully. Legs slipped on either side of his body, hands pinned lightly between their warmth. Heero looked at him as if he were crazy. Duo took Heero’s face gently in his hands, their noses almost touching and looked down into his mystifying cobalt-blue eyes.

“I have taken many forms over the centuries, yet I remained true in my heart. I have lived lifetimes without my magick, but I was still soul-bound to this world. I am a Meeko because of my love for the Earth and my love for Gaia, not my form or power. Your friends love you and haven’t abandoned you and I won’t either, I’d like to be your friend. I won’t tell anyone who you are. But know this, you are a Meeko. You are a descendant of Gaia and you are still brother to this nature child.” Duo whispered softly and pressed his lips gently to Heero’s in a chaste, comforting gesture that shocked the human-looking boy more than anything that had happened to him in the last fifty years. His eyes were frozen open in shock. He wasn’t sure how to deal with this kind gesture. He never, never let anyone be like this toward him. He didn’t know how to take this tenderness, this acceptance, this offer of friendship.
Duo pulled back slowly and smiled kindly down at him.

“That was wanton and shameless. Do you always kiss strangers?” Heero asked his wheezing voice full of cruelty. Anger he understood. Hatred he understood. Those could take, loathing his could take, anger, sadness, rage, fear, those emotions he understood. He wanted Duo to be mad at him so that he would know what to do in this situation. Retreat behind his emotionless mask and blow the incident off as though it were nothing.

“Depending on the stranger. Sometimes I give tongue.” Duo told him still smiling, never missing a beat.

“Let go of me.” Heero stiffened as he hissed icily with a death glare upward, as the other boy still held his face steady.

“Nope. Not until you open up a little and accept the fact that I don’t hate you and aren’t going to get mad at you. Accept this comfort.” Duo urged softly, seeing right through him.

He would just lay still. He’d just ignore the longhaired pest until he went away. Problem with that was he was heavy and hot against Heero’s body and he was suddenly very aware of the other’s weight pressing down on him. Heero pulled his hand towards him to push the aggravating boy away, but the violet-eyed trickster tensed his thighs and pinned Heero’s hands tightly. He closed his eyes and pressed his lips gently to Heero’s temple and kissed down the side of his face and over to his lips again.

“If you don’t let go of me I’m going to kill you.” Heero stated coldly against Duo’s parted lips.

“You. Are emotionally stunted.” Duo said still good-naturedly as his lips fluttered over Heero’s.

“Get the fuck off me! Now!” Heero demanded his voice growing softer. The tone held more strength to it than a shout ever could. Duo pulled back to view his face and was surprised to see fear clearly in the other’s eyes.

“Why are you afraid of me?” Duo asked gently and watched as Heero thrust his emotionless mask back into place.

“Get off me.” He demanded as an answer, failing to hide the shiver that coursed through his gaunt frame. Duo sat up and moved to sit at the foot of the large bed. He suddenly pulled Heero towards him and perched the thin boy atop his lap. Heero gasped and tried to pull back, but Duo wrapped him firmly and carefully in his wide wings, his tail coiling around Heero’s slim waist like a warm, thick rope.

“Didn’t I say I owed you everything I love? So why are you afraid of me?” Duo asked again, noticing that he was naked under the thin blanket of leaves.

“Let go of me now you son-of-a-bitch!!” Heero hissed as he pushed against Duo’s narrow shoulders. His head ached and stars danced across his vision from suddenly being upright. His breath came in sharp pants as he tried to control his rising fear.

“Look at me!” Duo commanded as he realized Heero was on the edge of panic. His dark sapphire eyes focused on Duo sharply at the sound of his voice. “I am not going to hurt you! But I’m not going to leave you alone either. You may not realize this but I’m pretty sure my talking to you is the only thing keeping you here.” Duo told him seriously.

“Please let me go.” Heero asked weakly as he shivered against Duo’s warmth. His head canted forward as he started to pass out.

“Okay, fuck this. I don’t care if you want to be healed by me or not. I can’t find Sally or my room so deal with it! Be livid later, but I won’t let you die.” Duo spouted crossly to the now unconscious boy he held against him. He reached out with his magick and brushed it against a few minor bruises, healing them as though they never happened. Duo was pleased that he still had his talent after all these years. He moved on to deeper wounds and was surprised to find how many there really were. There were massive amounts of internal bleeding and even a few broken bones, although how he’d been injured that badly was beyond him. Duo was surprised that Heero had held on as long as he had. He healed as many serious wounds as he could and left the smaller ones. Slowly some of the bruises faded and his breathing eased. Duo laid him gently against the bed and breathed a sigh of relief as he pulled the blanket over his frame.

After a few moments Heero’s eyes fluttered open. He turned his head slowly to look at Duo. Duo simply handed him a piece of fruit, which he ate hungrily, the juice running down his chin. He ate three more pieces before he felt his hunger was curbed enough to carry on a conversation.

“I don’t care if you’re pissed, I wasn’t about to let you die.” Duo stated and Heero looked at him as though he were crazy. “I left most of the less serious wounds because your body didn’t have enough energy to do anymore, but I can finish healing you later if you want. Or you can keep the bruises and be obstinate.” He stated and folded his arms across his chest.

“I…you healed me?” he asked in disbelief.

“Yes, I can heal people you know.” Duo replied cheekily.

“Do it again.” Heero demanded.

“Would a simple ‘please’ kill you?” Duo muttered under his breath as he shifted closer to the injured boy.

“I’m sorry…would you please…?” he asked meekly, surprising Duo.

“Sure.” He replied. “But not too much more, you don’t really have a lot of energy.” Duo cautioned him and he nodded. He reached out with his magick again and wrapped it around the once Dryad. Focusing it over his body and healing his wounds. Heero suddenly arched off the bed, emitting a strangled cry as tears rolled down his face. Duo pulled back his magick fearing he’d hurt him in some way. Heero grabbed his hand tightly and kept him from leaving.

“Please…” He practically sobbed. And Duo looked down at him worry and shock. “You don’t understand……I have no magick…Do you know what that means?! I can’t feel anything, I can’t connect. It hurts, it hurts in way you can’t imagine……it’s hurt for centuries…and I…you don’t, you don’t… I don’t know what you are, but you don’t hurt me!” He gasped his whole body trembling and shivering with emotion. “Please…” He whispered his cobalt blue depths filled with anguish.

*Ah…yes…um what I am. I’d forgotten that…* he mentally kicked himself at his oversight.

Duo was shocked. He knew that it’d hurt like hell for Heero to have his soul tore apart, but he wasn’t able to connect with other Meekos anymore!! Hell even a Meeko bound with Soul Cuffs could still make a connection with another, their souls were still whole, just fettered.

“Are you telling me that you’re always alone! You never get to bond with someone!?!” Duo demanded aghast. Heero nodded silently, his bottom lip trembling from the remembered pain of years. “You don’t just live through the pain when you remove the Cuffs from someone, you live with it EVERY SINGLE DAY!!!!!” He yelled in shock and outrage as he grasped what was being said. “That’s not fair!!!” He ranted angrily. “That’s cruel and wrong…and…and…sadistic!!!”

The best way to describe it to a human would be sensory deprivation. You can see the people around and hear them but that’s it. You can’t feel them touch you or taste or smell anything about them. Imagine trying to hug your mother and having it feel like razors across your skin. Imagine breathing in and not being able to smell anything in the air around you, not flowers, not fresh baked cookies, not the scent of an old book or your lover’s skin. Imagine all the food you eat tastes like motor oil that’s been lit on fire. But everyone around you can experience the world just fine.

“Not fair? Of course it’s not fair!!!” Heero shouted back angrily. “Life’s not fair! But what the hell do you expect with Mages enslaving us left and right! What the hell are we supposed to do!?”

“NO! No Heero, this is wrong. You don’t deserve this!” Duo argued. “There’s got to be a way to undo it!”

“How the fuck do you know?” he shot back. “And there’s not, if there were I’d take it!”

“But NO ONE deserves this! It’s bad enough to have to go through it to take the Cuffs off, but to be tortured with it EVERY SINGLE DAY!!” Duo shouted.

“Well then I’ll just put them back on!” Heero shouted and Duo paled and staggered slightly. He clenched his fist tight and held it at shoulder level. Heero felt a Spike in his magick, as he seemed to gather the shadows in the room to his fist menacingly.

“I have been chained for centuries. I have not felt what it is to be a Meeko in all that time. The beauty, the glory that it is to be filled with this power.” Duo whispered and leaned closer to the pale boy, the shadows coiled and snaked around his fist and forearm as if they were living, breathing things. “And if I thought for a moment that it would make you whole…I would not hesitate to shut myself away again…” He avowed softly, barely breaking the stillness of the room as he released the shadows from his grip and they fled back to the corners. He cupped Heero’s face gently against his palm and let his power flow along Heero’s skin causing him to shiver. He ran the tips of his fingers down over the other’s neck and along his shoulder. It tingled against him and spread out in waves that felt like liquid rapture to his long dead soul. He arched his back slowly and he tossed his head backward against the bed, leaning into the touch as it slid lower along his body. Duo pulled back the coverlet with one hand and knelt over top of the gaunt figure, as he had before, legs to either side, resting atop his thin waist. His body tensed in fear and he tried to push the other away.

“Shh.” Duo soothed and directed his power to cascade over Heero’s torso to his waist as Duo ran his hands downward. Heero let out a moan of pleasure. Duo rose up on his knees and wrapped his arm tightly under Heero and around his waist. His dark, questioning eyes stared upward, tinted with apprehension. Duo rolled him over quickly and carefully, feeling him stiffen in fright. He tried to roll back over but Duo prevented it and he felt a stab of panic grip his heart. He began trying struggle but Duo ran another burst of power over him causing him give another low, throaty moan of bliss and he lay still. The skin of the Daman’s thighs pressed warmly against his sides as he lowered himself to straddle his waist once more. Heero fisted his hands in the bedclothes tightly and Duo leaned down to nibble the back of his neck lightly, his entire body pulsing with energy as he made skin-to-skin contact with Heero. The pale figure arched underneath his weight, pressing against him harder as elation coursed through him in torrents. His hands slid firmly over Heero’s back as he sat up to gain more room. Down the plains of his body, massaging leisurely, he moved slowly over Heero’s buttocks causing the other to tighten and his breath hitch in his chest.

*Am I really going to let this happen?* he asked himself silently. *Am I really going to trade my body for a few moments of pleasure…* Gaia knew he wanted to, he wanted to very, very badly. He felt alive again, he felt whole, complete and he didn’t want it to stop. Duo’s hands moved lower on his body to grip his hips lightly. *Will I really let myself be a one-night stand? He’s going to think I’m a slut.* he managed to think as another wave of joy ran over him, followed closely by a second. His anger, pride and fear rose up, each clamoring for a place over the pleasure that flowed through him.

“No…” He managed to croak out although it didn’t sound convincing as it was followed quickly by a panting moan. Duo pulled back his magick immediately. “I…don’t…” Heero stated panting still.

“I’m not going to hurt you.” Duo whispered softly into the pale, human-looking ear.

*Oh I know it won’t hurt…* Heero told himself. “I…” he trailed off. How to put something like this into words…*I love everything that you’re doing, I’d love everything you did to me…*

“I just want you to feel. I’m not going to take advantage of you.” Duo told him simply.

“You could do anything you wanted to me and I wouldn’t care. I just…don’t want to be a one-night stand.” He whispered softly, glad he wasn’t facing the other, as his face was bright red.

“Oh……well that’s good. At least I know you’re not using me just for pleasure.” He responded nervously. Heero was shocked, he hadn’t thought about it that way because he would never have done anything like that.

He placed his hand firmly on Heero’s back and pushed his magick deep, letting it throb inside the other boy. Heero moaned loudly and Duo sent another harder pulse into him causing him to cry aloud. A third rocked his frame and he screamed raggedly Duo pulled back in shock and worry. Heero pushed himself off the bed, knocking Duo backwards slightly. He turned to face the Daman and reached a shaking hand out to him. Duo gripped it tightly and pulled Heero against him as tears coursed down the others face. He cradled Heero in his lap and wrapped his arms and wings tightly around the other boy so he lay curled in a cocoon of Duo’s flesh.

“Don’t…stop…” He panted with a small moan.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Duo stated fearfully and pulled back. Heero’s eyes snapped open and he stared at Duo.

“Don’t stop.” He ordered to clarify what he’d meant. Duo looked relieved and gave him a hesitant kiss, which quickly deepened. He pulsed wave after wave of his magick over the other in rapid succession as he tried to keep a tight hold over the writhing body in his arms as they continued to kiss deeply, Duo swallowing each of Heero’s moans gratefully.
Somehow Heero ended up straddling Duo’s waist, which worked fine for what Duo had planned. He tore at the ties holding his clothing on and Duo found himself derobed faster than he’d ever been in his whole life. He grabbed Duo’s erection and positioned it at his entrance quickly.

“Heero!” Duo protested and wrapped an arm around his slim waist pulling him forward.

“I can take pain!” Heero told him arguing and arching against his body in longing.

“That’s not the point!” Duo told him. “The point is you don’t have to.” Duo told him and pressed two of his fingers against his lips. He set a thrill of energy through his soon-to-be lover causing him to gasp and slipped his fingers inside the now open mouth. Heero moaned around the slim digits he sucked on as Duo continued to let his power flow over him.

When Heero had coated them enough, Duo pulled them from his mouth and slowly pushed a single digit into his body. He gasped at the feeling and again when a second was added. It felt unusual; it had been a long time since someone had taken time to prepare him properly. Although that was usually his fault. Duo gripped Heero’s waist tightly in his long-fingered hands and lifted him slightly so that he sat just at Heero’s entrance.

“Are you sure?” He asked pulling back his magick completely. And Heero looked shocked at the loss of it, but mostly because Duo was bothering to ask him what he wanted. Heero allowed himself to stop and think clearly a moment. He hesitated.

“No matter what, I’m not going to abandon you. Just like I said.” He reassured Heero that whatever choice he made was the correct one. Heero nodded once. Duo cast his power around the room, sealing them in a ward. No one could get in or out and no one would be able to sense what went on in the room. Heero threw a nervous glance at him. “I swore I wouldn’t tell anyone about you and I won’t say a word. Now you have to swear that you’ll never tell a soul about what goes on in this room!” Duo demanded seriously. “Swear it.”

“O-okay.” He stuttered fearfully. *What the hell…* Heero was beginning to realize he had no idea who Duo was. The reality had slipped his pleasure-wracked mind for a moment. And it slipped away again as Duo wrapped him in his power once more. “I didn’t come here to have sex with you, as nice as this is. I came here to help you and I will. The sex, which is wonderful so far did I mention, will just make it easier on me, which is good because I’m…rusty.” Duo told him. He slipped into Heero gently causing him to gasp and tense up at the intrusion.
“Its okay relax.” Duo told him softly as he slowly pushed himself further into the warmth of Heero’s body. He sighed pleasantly as he rested fully inside the other boy. Heero shifted slightly but Duo lay against he bed with his eyes closed, just enjoying the moment. Heero shifted again, rocking his hips forward with a gasp. Duo gripped his hips more firmly and thrust upwards as he pulled Heero downward. The rhythm gaining faster and faster. Heero’s cries of ecstasy rising higher as Duo pounded into him.

“Heero…” he breathed softly. “Rise with me.” he requested and Heero looked down at him shocked. A physical joining was considered casual, a magical joining was considered casual when compared to a spiritual joining. Only mates joined with each other that completely. Well mates and…
“Come and let the Lady make you whole.” Duo said echoing Heero’s words spoken on the alter. “Let me heal you.”

Heero tentatively released the death grip he had on the tattered edges of his power, then tried to pull them back with a startled cry as Duo’s magick brushed against his and pain lanced through him.

“Shh, it’ll only hurt for a second. Let me see.” He said still sheathed inside the now trembling boy’s body. As if he were speaking to a child that wouldn’t let their parent see where they’d been hurt. He was fine with Duo reaching out to him, it felt wonderful, but the moment he tried to respond in kind, it hurt. He could feel the pleasure he just couldn’t come out of his ‘shell’.
“Trust me please.” Duo pleaded softly. “Rise with me.” Heero closed his eyes and with tears pouring down his face released the crippled, frayed parts of his soul completely. He threw his head back and screamed with an inhuman volume as Duo quickly wove his magick through Heero’s, almost like a blanket. A single thread alone is weak, but together they are strong. He supported Heero’s power with his own and the pain faded. Heero founded himself curled against Duo’s chest, but he didn’t remember moving. Duo shifted their combined magick towards a cluster of starflowers growing near the bed. Heero reached out as well and felt the magick of the flowers rise to answer them. Heero willed them to be healthy and happy. He opened his eyes to peer at them and saw their colors were brighter, their leaves greener. He looked to Duo in wonder and Duo smiled crookedly in return. “Rise with me.” Duo asked again and brushed pleasure up his spine. Heero rocked his hips in response and urged his energy to increase. Duo followed closely evening out, then rising higher. Heero followed without thinking as Duo ground his hips against Heero wildly. Their energies built up higher and higher, like steam in a boiling pot. Heero reached his limit and could go no higher, but Duo soared still and wrapped a firm hand around his erection, stroking him quickly. It was like a wellspring, as unending as the ocean and Heero couldn’t even cry out as it crashed down upon him, filling every cell in his body with a euphoria so intense that he no longer knew the meaning of the word pain or what it’s purpose in life was. Heero climaxed, crying out loudly. And in that moment of release, in that moment, when all have and all you are is given to those that are making love to you, Duo gave purpose to their combined energies, their combined souls and wave after wave of healing energy stole over Heero. A harsh scream tore its way from his throat as pain lanced up his back, but it faded quickly. He collapsed against Duo wearily, both of them panting hard, barely able to get enough air. Duo wrapped his wings carefully around Heero.

“I think I broke something.” Heero croaked with his eyes closed, basking in the warmth. He expected to feel sore from the pain that sliced through him, but he didn’t. He felt pretty good, really good actually.

“Good?” Duo questioned still breathless.

“Yeah.” Heero breathed contentedly, tiredness weighing down his limbs. “Really good.” he sighed and snuggled closer. Something tickled against his forehead and he brushed it away absently. It fell forward again and moved it once more. Again it fell forward to tickle him. He examined it with his fingers. *There’s a fern in my hair.* He thought tiredly and tried to pull it out.
“Ow!” he exclaimed and Duo snickered. “Its not funny there’s something caught in my hair!” he stated and pulled again. “OW!!” Duo still chuckled, but took his hand.

“Heero leave it alone.” Duo told him.

“Fine.” He grumbled. It was amazing how comfortable he felt with Duo now. It seemed like they’d known each other for years, but they didn’t know a thing about each other. They were just very at ease with each other.

“Water.” Duo stated and shifted Heero to the side gently. Heero gave whine of protest, but let him go. “You, ah, don’t look like shit any more.” Duo said laughingly with a smirk as he drank from the cistern with his back to Heero. A strangled choking noise came from Heero and Duo chuckled. “Finally opened your eyes?” he asked and another strangled sound was his response. He turned to face him cheerily. His large blue eye wide in disbelief, his skin pale from shock. He held his pale green hands out before him and stared at them in astonishment. He looked over his shoulders quickly and saw a pair of lacy green wings, like the veins of a leaf. He flicked them in disbelief. A shaking hand reached up to touch the dark green fern that hung against his forehead lightly. He felt all the way to the root of it, where in sprouted from his scalp. Tears poured down his face as he sobbed aloud tears of joy, disbelief, and release. Duo crossed over to him and hugged him gently against his chest as he cried himself to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~TBC~~~~~~~~~~~