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Between Night and Day	By : kracken Category: Gundam Wing/AC > AU - Alternate Universe Views: 1261 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing and I don't make any money off of this

Chapter List
- 1-Between Night and Day
- 2-2
- 3-3
- 4-4
- 5-5
- 6-6
- 7-5
- 8-8
- 9-9
- 10-10
- 11-11
- 12-12
- 13-13
- 7
- 8
- 9
"He didn't want to sell me the pony or the cart," Duo told them as he rubbed the lanky pony on the forehead. It was showing the whites of its eyes at its new, supernatural masters, but it was a steady unimaginative creature, and well trained to obey once it was in its traces. "He's a good man and cares about his beasts. I suppose he imagines that you will have him for your dinner."

There was a lit lantern on both ends of the cart. Darkness was complete and the Ifrit was only a weary ghost hovering in the light. Heero was fully awake, though and testing the sturdy cart as if he doubted it could hold his body competently.

Duo frowned and fiddled with the pony's harness. "You've used powerful means to carry me great distances. I still don't understand why we can't do the same now?"

"It uses energy that I must replace," Heero explained.

In blood, Duo thought with a shiver.

"And using so much power will alert our enemy, as I have said," the Ifrit reminded him. "There isn't an easy way."

Duo touched the ring on his finger and looked back at the lights in Wu Fei's tower. The pang of separation was keen in his breast, but he knew that further goodbye's were unwanted and unnecessary. He had a dragon at his beck and call, in a dire emergency. The very act of placing such trust in Duo showed him how much he was loved.

Heero climbed into the cart, finally, and gingerly sat down. He stared uncertainly at the reins and the pony. Duo climbed on and sat beside him. He at least knew the workings of a pony cart, even if he had rarely practiced the skill. He gave the pony a few clicks of his tongue and it started forward, perhaps, in its mind, thinking that it was putting distance between it and it's strange masters.

The Ifrit settled into the lamplight and didn't move. Duo surmised that this was the way that the creature 'slept', though he doubted that it was ever truly not aware of its surroundings or its princely charge.

As the cart took the road out of town, the wheels making noises on the cobbled street loudly enough to make Duo wince, he considered his traveling companions and the supplies that he had purchased. An Ifrit didn't require food or blankets. A night creature slept like an animal when sated from feasting, under brush and on cold ground. Duo, in his wolf form, was as comfortable on a soft spot of earth as he was in the softest bed. He could also hunt, when he needed to, as either wolf or hawk, and eat prey raw. None of them liked the wet, though, or the intense cold of snow. Duo had packed a leather yurt against such times and dried tack for when hunting was scarce. Water he could not do without, and hot tea was always welcome. A kettle, tin cups, and a fat water skin had seemed essential.

"This is... strange," Heero said at last, his voice soft as down, and his body so close to Duo's smelling of old roses and comfort. Duo thought of hunting cats perched precariously, using a conveyance totally at odds with their nature or powerful abilities.

"Would you rather walk?" Duo wondered.

"No, I don't... walk," Heero replied.

No, he transported himself on will and night air, Duo thought. "You'll get used to it."

They left the town and started down a dark road that wound between low hills. Duo found himself pushing into Heero's arms, as if he was in wolf form, his need to be with the creature all powerful. As a wolf he would have showed his belly and offered his submission. As a man he was only able to press into silken flesh and clothing and want to be taken, body, blood, and soul by this man, this creature that, perhaps, couldn't feel an ounce of what he was feeling, just then.

"Mate," Heero said and his arms were strong as they held Duo. Duo felt the smallest pinprick on his juggler, the rasp of a tongue that made him hard and whimpering, and a small bit of blood leaving him. A taste, a snack, he thought with what little mind he could still use for thinking.

The world became Heero. The tongue licked along his juggler, the man's breath warming his skin, and an obvious hardening between their bodies telling Duo that Heero was not unaffected either. Was it all instinct? Was it all a reaction to holding prey/or mate in his arms? Could Heero know love? When the man drew back, but still held him, experiencing a mild swoon, Duo burrowed even closer to him, wanting the shelter, wanting comfort and love, as he was separated from everything that he knew.

The pony followed the road, taking a steady pace, wanting its barn and hay, but obediently going forward despite its masters preoccupation. It didn't notice when another creature began pacing after the cart, staying in the darkness just on the edge of shadows and admiring the Ifrit glowing in the lamplight.

Tall, lanky and dressed in leathers patterned like the forest, the bow in his hand was yew and smoothed by more years of use than most human men owned. He was young, though, and hardly looked more than twenty. He smiled under a fall of brown hair and his eyes glowed green like a cats. Those and the delicately pointed ears marked him as out of the ordinary and not of human kind.

The Ifrit pulsed and then settled as if making some judgment about the newcomer and the man's smile grew wider. The back tongue of the cart was open and he lightly leapt up and settled on it without making any sound. Long legs dangling off the back, his body was turned so that he could continue admiring the Ifrit.

"Who are you?" Duo asked warily when Heero finally came out of his swoon and he was released. Noticing the man behind them had startled Duo badly. Heero gave the man the measured look of a predator, but Duo's eyes were wide and fearful. He moved into the cart, confronting the man as if he needed to protect Heero. It was foolish, of course. Heero alone was formidable. Coupled with an all powerful Ifrit, he was a force to be reckoned with.

The man was still smiling, not moving, but not cowering either. "I am Trowa," he announced. "I am of the Elfin tribe of Waterfall Crevasse."

Duo was even more alarmed. The elves were known for killing any trespassers in their territories. Few had ever lived to tell the tale of their existence. Duo had often though them the stuff of fairy tales.

"We are not in your territory," Duo protested. "We are simple travelers-"

The man laughed, short and abrupt. "Simple? If you were simple travelers I wouldn't have been drawn to you. I smell the making of a legend, to be told for generations. I want to be part of that."

"I don't understand," Duo replied with a frown, still not relaxing.

"A shape shifter, a night creature, and an Ifrit," Trowa chuckled. "Surely you are not taking wheat to market? I will be disappointed if you were."

Duo glanced at Heero, but saw Heero watching the pulse in Trowa's neck. The man couldn't be relied on to make a decision. The Ifrit was another matter. Was he asleep? Did he realize that this man had joined them?

Trowa saw his gaze go to the glowing Ifrit. "I think he approves of me."

The glow banked as if in embarrassment and the Ifrit said nothing to that.

Trowa chuckled. It sounded serious, though, the sure, confident laugh of a man capable of defending himself. Even from an Ifrit? Was the creature of light afraid of an Elf?

Duo didn't sense that. "We are on a quest."

"Ah, good." Trowa settled deeper into the cart, using the yurt as a cushion. "You will need my bow, then." He settled the polished wooden bow on his knees and caressed it as if it were his lover.

"I thought..." Duo chewed on his lip, not sure about custom and what was permissible where Elves were concerned.

"Elves do like forests and solitude," Trowa explained. "I have had my fill of that. After four hundred years, a man needs... excitement." His green eyes caught the light from the Ifrit as he admired it. "And new possibilities," he added.

Duo blinked in shock, not sure that he could deny the Elf when his companions seemed unwilling to act against him.

"I was on my way to hire as a mercenary," Trowa explained. "It was good fortune that placed me in the path of destiny."

"Destiny?"

Trowa shrugged. "It is possible to sleep through one's own destiny, to miss it when greatness shows herself."

"Greatness? Her?" Duo shook his head. "I don't understand."

"Too Human, even with your abilities," Trowa replied with a grave nod.

Duo didn't think that being Human had anything to do with whether he could understand Trowa's beliefs.

"Never mind it," Trowa said with a dismissive gesture. "I am here, and I shall use my bow in the service of your quest."

"How did you know that I was a shape shifter?" Duo wondered.

Trowa wrinkled his nose. I smell dog, Human, and bird when there is only Human before me," he replied. "I am not just an expert with the bow. I have many skills honed in the deep forests."

"If you know what we are," Duo pointed out, "Then you know that we all possess abilities to protect ourselves."

"Not as I can protect you," Trowa replied without elaborating. He tucked himself up as if against the cold and then went very still, head on upraised knees as he contemplated the Ifrit.

Duo sighed as he returned to sit by Heero. No matter what the Ifrit thought, he wasn't going to completely trust the Elf. He had heard too many stories that had ended with the death, or near death, of the person unlucky enough to have run afoul of them. They were reported to lack Human understanding and feelings as well. That didn't bode well for himself if they did run into trouble. He couldn't imagine any of his companions taking a thought to saving his life if it was needed.

He was on his own, Duo thought, amidst a company, and he had to prepare himself to fight alone.

Duo leaned into Heero again, trusting the Ifrit to at least protect Heero from the elf, and turned the pony onto a narrow road, when it forked, that led them into the deeper wilds of the countryside.
- 7
- 8
- 9
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Between Night and Day