Crossover With Non-anime Series Fan Fiction / Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ On a Pale Horse ❯ Duo Maxwell, Demon ( Chapter 15 )

Disclaimer: As far as Mobile Suit Gundam Wing goes: Bandai has rights. Sunrise has rights. Sotsu Agency has rights. Ladycrystalite does not have rights; she just likes to play with the characters. It's so much fun. As far as the world of Valdemar and Velgarth go: Mercedes Lackey has rights. DAW books have rights. Ladycrystalite (again) does not have rights; she just loves dropping confused bishies in and waiting to see how long it'll take them to swim. (Again) it's just so much fun!

A/N: "Italics" is Duo speaking in Standard. "No italics" mean he's speaking Valdemaren. :Colons and Italics: indicate Mindspeech.

On A Pale Horse
Duo Maxwell, Demon

Duo's day had gone from long to just plain exhausting. After his discussion with Ayden, he was given a verbal test that resulted in the Dean learning the scope of Duo's intelligence and knowledge. From there Duo was sent down to a basement area to meet the Collegium's housekeeper who gave him another test, thankfully shorter this time, to determine his housework abilities and was then assigned various chores.

When he was finished there it was late afternoon and he was due to report to Armsmaster Tehlin for an assessment of his fighting and self-defense skills. That little jaunt lasted for more than an hour and proved, once again, that Duo's strength still hadn't completely returned. If Tehlin had been a real enemy, Duo wouldn't have made it through the encounter. He barely had the energy to shuffle back across Companion's Field to the main building in time for dinner. At the halfway point he announced that he was done and that he was going to lay down in the grass and sleep for a week. Onette immediately threatened to haul him back by the scruff of his neck if he so much as thought that that might be a good idea considering he'd been bedridden for the last two weeks and clearly still wasn't well. When he protested that he didn't possess a "scruff," she told him that dragging him back by his braid would work just as well. Duo shut up and trudged the final distance to his destination.

So, it was with a lack of enthusiasm and no small amount of fatigue that he looked up from his full dinner plate to discover Keres grinning maniacally down at him.

"I heard something today that you might find either very insulting or very funny."

After his long day, he was three-quarters positive that he didn't want to know what his new friend found so amusing. At his hesitation, Keres' smile grew. Make that four-fifth's certain. Duo held in a sigh. It was dammed unfortunate that Duo had no resistance to that remaining fraction curiosity.

He set down his cup of tea before waving to the empty seat across from him. "I see that you find it very funny."

Keres plopped down into the indicated spot, unsuccessfully trying to school his features into a more sober look. "Sorry," he managed before his near stoicism melted back into only a slightly more sedate smile. "Sorry, but you've been out of the House of Healing for all of two days and you've already got rumors floating around about you."

Okay. That was a record even for him. Normally, it took a good week at a new school for the rumors to start up though he'd admit that circumstances were a bit more extreme in this case. "Rumors?" he prompted when Keres didn't continue.

Keres pointed to his temple and then at Duo. "It seems that everybody has gotten into their heads that you are a demon."

He was about to ask what the word "demon" meant when Onette automatically supplied him with the image of a shadowy creature with pointy gnashing teeth. Holy Hell! That creature wasn't real in these parts, was it?

:It's not something that has been seen in Valdemar for many, many years. Not since the time of Herald-Mage Vanyel.:

Ignoring the fact that he had absolutely no idea who or what the hell Herald-Mage Vanyel was or exactly how long ago he supposedly lived, Duo still didn't find any comfort in Onette's statement. If monsters like that existed in this place, it surely wasn't as peaceful or pure as he first assumed.

Duo deliberately took long sip of tea. It freed up a few seconds so that he could review that new turn of events. Clearly, given Keres' reaction, not everyone thought he was a monster, but the rumor had to have started somewhere. Okay, so he did apparently appear out of thin air in the middle of the night. That would be creepy enough on its own. He'd be suspicious of something as blatantly odd as that. He wouldn't feel the need to label the intruder a demon, but he'd keep a vigilant eye on them until he was sure of their motives. Given that no one decided to lynch him at dawn's early light, he could manage the situation. In fact, it eased his guild a little. Everyone he'd met up until this point seemed so trusting, he'd begun to think them naive. This was better.

This is what more he was accustomed to.

He managed a grin that felt forced only because he was so very tired. "Duo Maxwell, Demon. I can live with that."

To be continued...

A/N (additional): I'm so very sorry about the long wait. I suck at updating. I know this. I will try to do better. Writer's block, work, the crappy public transit in my area and the dammed addictive games on Facebook are just kicking my ass two ways to Sunday. Sorry. Sorry. So sorry.