Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Of thieves and Magi... ❯ Chapter 4

Wufei was waiting for him on the first stair, facing away, clearly impatient from the tense air around him and the stiffly crossed arms. As soon as the thief caught sight of him he was gone, leading the way into the unknown.

During the trek, it was revealed to Duo that the building was not so much a manor as a tower-- at least, he thought that must have been the case, since it seemed they went up far more than they went across. It was several flights of stairs before they reached their destination, and his guide opened yet another door in yet another hallway, gesturing Duo through.

Entering, Duo had to stop just inside the door, staring. The bedroom in which he had awakened downstairs had been hopelessly extravagent by his standards, the kitchen had been a dream come true, but this-- this room was paneled in warm, polished wood, with thick rugs and cushions scattered along the floor. This room had dark shelves on all walls, containing books and artefacts and shining things that caught and held Duo's eyes effortlessly. This room had as its dominant feature a circle of deep, comfortable chairs at its centre-- which the thief found himself wandering towards, his feet apparently having taken on a mind of their own.

He ran a hand down the side of one of the seats, feeling the incredible softness of the covering material. It took a sharply cleared throat from one side to draw his attention away.

The dark eyes were still glaring. "Are you going to sit in it, or simply stare?" The question was punctuated by the other man settling into another of the chairs in the ring.

For a moment, Duo had the perverse urge to remain standing, but gritted his teeth and just sat down wordlessly. Temper, Rat-- don't get yourself killed that easily. This is not the time.

The moment he was settled, he went on the offensive. "Are you a Mage?"

Wufei snorted lightly. "No."

"Quatre called you Master," Duo persisted.

The dark-haired man let out an exasperated sigh. "And he will no doubt continue to do so, no matter how often I tell him otherwise." For a moment, the long-suffering expression flickered into existence, but it was quickly replaced by impassivity once again.

Duo narrowed his eyes challengingly. "Quatre said that he and that guard were the only ones here learning from the Mage, so you're not like them."

"Very intuitive."

Biting back a growl, Duo forced himself to stay relaxed. "So who are you?"

The dark head dipped in what looked like a slight bow. "You may call me Wufei, Duo Maxwell."

"I knew--" Taking a deep breath, Duo choked off the angry words. "Why are you here?" he asked instead, in short clipped tones.

"I am to be your teacher, for the first portion of your studies."

There was the slightest of smiles on that infuriating face, which made Duo seethe inside. Bastard is enjoying this. "And how," he said, still in that clipped tone of voice, "are you going to do that, if you don't have any of this magic talent?"

"Wherever did you get that impression?"

Duo's next breath hissed in through clenched teeth, and his hands clenched to fists despite himself. "Okay, look, you--"

"Please. There's no need for names."

Barely suppressing an all-out scream of frustration, Duo glared lividly at the man sitting across from him. "What are you?" he ground out.

The dark eyes glittered. "Finally, a worthwhile question." And then--

Then the nondescript dark hair deepened in colour until it was shining black, and the faintly tanned skin bronzed to a rich golden-caramel. The very structure of his face shifted faintly, until Duo was not facing the unremarkable man he had sat down with, but someone exotic enough to turn heads wherever he went. Duo found his anger forgotten entirely for the moment, while he stared with wide eyes and absently wondered what had just happened.

Dear Fates--

Then he looked into the man's eyes to find that they had turned as black as his hair-- deep, bottomless black, swallowing the light instead of reflecting it-- and he knew.

Shock and fear shrilled along his nerves and froze him to the chair. "Hel take me," he whispered. "You're a Shade."

"Very good. I knew you had to be smarter than you seemed."

"But-- no," Duo floundered. "You're talking. Shades don't talk-- hey, wait a minute." Staring at the other's eyes, Duo's anger returned as a new thought struck him. "You were in my room. You're the one that brought me here!"

"Yes. It was the best way to ensure no one would be able to track you here."

"You--" Angry and frustrated, Duo could only sputter uselessly for a moment. "You had no right to-- to kidnap me," he finally managed to say.

The elegant, exotic face across from him tightened, showing impatience and irritation in the lifting of one black eyebrow. "You still don't understand, do you?" he snapped. "Let me explain in as simple a way as I possibly can. You have a talent for magic; it's latent at the moment, but it's there and it's starting to manifest. If you had been left on your own, you would have been completely defenseless when it fully awakened, letting every Mage in the city know of your existence, and as a result you would have been killed." The Shade's voice was flat and hard, showing no mercy either in tone or word. "By bringing you here, we saved your life."

Duo kept up his glare just by reflex. "Never asked you to," he muttered sullenly, though his anger had mostly died during the other's speech.

The eyebrow lifted another fraction, clearly expressing the owner's opinion of Duo's comment. Duo himself couldn't stop a small flush from creeping into his cheeks.

"Well, whatever, don't expect me to thank you," he eventually said with a deliberate sniff of disdain. It was only bravado-- Duo knew it, and he knew that Wufei knew it as well. But the defensive habits of the Warrens were built deeply into him, and wouldn't let him do anything else. Evade and avoid, hide your weaknesses-- hence his next action was to quickly change the subject, trying to turn the conversation around again. "So how are you talking?"

Wufei just looked at him for a long moment, as if considering whether to let the previous topic go so easily, but eventually his frown faded and a faint spark of his earlier wicked amusement returned to his eyes. "It's quite simple, really. I move my lips, open my mouth--"

"Shades don't talk," Duo interrupted firmly.

Both eyebrows went up this time. "I beg to differ."

Duo blushed slightly again as he realized just how ridiculous his previous statement had been under the circumstances, but he pushed onwards nonetheless. "Shades aren't supposed to talk," he amended.

"Really. Fascinating." The black-haired man snorted faintly. "And how did you become such an expert on the subject?"

"I may be a Rat, but I'm not stupid," Duo replied, daring to give the other a hint of a scathing glare. "The rich Workers hire people to come to their homes and teach their kids; I used to sneak up and listen at the windows."

The expressive eyebrows were still up, but there was genuine surpise showing in the black eyes beneath them, which Duo couldn't help but respond to. "What, you didn't expect that?" he challenged. "In the Warrens you have to do anything you can to get ahead. The more you can do or the more you know, the more respect you're going to have, and the less chance you're going to get your throat slit in the middle of the night." Duo paused, then shrugged. "Well, most of the time. But you don't get anywhere by being ignorant, and that's something you've got to learn real quick."

The dark head nodded slowly. "Quite true," was all that Wufei said, though there was something different in his eyes. They seemed to consider Duo a little more seriously than they had before.

Duo studied that look for a second, then shrugged. "Anyway, these tutors? They told all sorts of stories about the Magi, and how the kids should all be good little Workers when they grew up, so they could serve the almighty Magi just like their parents. And in all of those stories," he continued forcefully, leaning forward in his chair to deliver his point, "there was nothing that said a Shade was anything but some sort of magical power source that each Mage gets when they're born. They're only seen as a shadow with eyes or maybe very occasionally a person that looks-- well, like you. They don't walk around on their own, they don't respond to anyone but their Mage-- and they don't talk." Punctuating his last words with a brief, sharp gesture, Duo leaned back again.

Wufei regarded him with his expression gone blank and his eyes unreadable. He almost seemed to be considering Duo's words, or considering what to say in response-- but there was an odd tightness to his face that Duo couldn't help but notice.

Finally, the Shade gave an elegant one-shoulder shrug-- that was very carefully controlled, and quite possibly forced. "All of that is usually quite true," he said neutrally. "However, there are exceptions to every rule. I suppose I am the one, in this case."

"Any particular reason for that?" Duo asked, eyes narrowing. "Or are you just randomly special?"

The black eyes flashed with a hint of real anger, and Duo knew that whatever small conversational advantage he'd momentarily gained was gone. "There are reasons for everything that occurs in this world," came the surprisingly mild response. "Yet most of them are not for our understanding."

In other words, mind my own business. Right, well, I can take a hint.

Wufei rose from his seat in a quick, fluid motion and moved to one of the shelves lining the walls. After a moment's perusal he reached out and pulled a single book out of the clutter. "Here," he said, returning to the chairs and handing the heavy volume over to Duo. "Take this, and start reading it. It explains something of magic, on a basic level, and has a lot of other useful information besides." He paused, waiting for a response, then frowned at the uncertain expression on Duo's face. "What's wrong? Certainly such a learned person as yourself can't be put off by a little research?"

Damning the blush that had come back to his face, yet again, Duo ran a hesitant finger over the book's gilded wooden cover. "I-- I can't read. Not more than a few words." He shrugged awkwardly. "It's not like I could get that through a window. There was no one to teach me, and nothing to practice from."

Wufei blinked at him. "Oh." He frowned slightly, and let out a sigh of air. "That will slow things down. Well, I'll have to speak to Quatre, then. I'm sure he'd be willing to teach you. Keep the book, for now," he added. "It's as good as anything around here to learn from."

He paused, then nodded decisively and started heading for the door. "If you have more questions, they'll have to wait until tomorrow. I'll come and get you in the morning, and we'll begin-- I'll have to talk you through the basics instead of having you read them, but there's no help for it." He opened the door and then stopped with his hand on the knob. "You can find your way back down to your room on your own?"

Duo's eyes went wide with shock. "Uh--"

"Four floors down, below the kitchen," the Shade directed, interpreting his surprise as confusion. He cast a considering look at Duo. "I suppose you would explore this place whether we let you or not, so you might as well go ahead. You'll be living here for a while, so you should be familiar with it. Just don't go above this floor, for now. You'd get into Heero's supplies and workrooms, and might end up inside-out if you touch the wrong things."

Wufei smiled tightly at Duo's instinctive shudder, then vanished through the door.

Duo sat frozen for an instant, then sprang up from his chair and ran after the departed figure into the hallway-- though if asked, he couldn't have told precisely why. But the hall was empty, making Duo frown in both irritation and something like disappointment.

He certainly moves fast, he noted absently. But I suppose, being a Shade, he might have just-- vanished into thin air or something. He shuddered a bit at the concept, but didn't really notice as his thoughts had moved on.

So let's see, here. What have I learned? We've got a Mage that wants to teach me magic instead of killing me, for reasons that still haven't been explained. We've got a Shade that, by his own words, is unlike any other Shade out there, and who seems to be very touchy about that fact-- I'll have to be careful, if he's going to run away every time I start getting close to some answers. Duo suppressed a snort, and then a sigh. So really, I don't know much.

He glanced down at the book in his arms. But they're going to teach me to read, he thought, with a touch of awe. I'll be a god in the Warrens--

Chewing on the corner of his lip, Duo stood in the hallway for another long moment, just looking at the book and thinking. Then he sighed again and, giving himself a shake, shoved aside the thoughts and went in search of the stairs.