Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Of thieves and Magi... ❯ Chapter 7

Anyway. No warnings for this chapter. And as usual,*this* is emphasis, and [this] is thought.

--------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------

SEVEN:

Duo woke suddenly, with his stomach protesting loudly and his last meal already well on its way to making a reappearance. Clamping a hand over his mouth, he struggled to get himself out of his bed, fighting with limbs that didn't seem to want to work quite right. His feet touched the floor-- only to be followed shortly after by his knees, then one hip in a rather painful manner, as his legs decided not to hold him.

[Ohh, Fates. Gonna be sick, gonna be sick--]

Cool fingers were on his neck, steadying, and a basin appeared in front of his face. "Easy," a quiet voice said.

Duo was quite sure that the voice said other things, too, but at that point he became too busy with losing his lunch to pay any attention.

Some time later found him still slumped on the floor, trembling and gasping and leaning heavily against something that rubbed soothing circles on his back. He managed to lift his head enough to see the face of his basin-providing saviour, and found himself blinking blearily into a pair of night-black eyes.

"Wufei?"

The Shade nodded faintly before producing a damp towel from somewhere, and wiping Duo's face as if he were a child. Part of Duo recoiled at that, and tried to make him jerk away-- but despite his best efforts, all he managed to do was twitch an arm. Instead, he settled on a faint-- and rather whiny, even to his own ears-- growl, which earned him a soft chuckle from his caregiver.

"Next time you have vomit on your chin, then, I'll leave it," Wufei said blandly, before hoisting Duo effortlessly into the air and settling him back on the bed.

Duo let out a weak squawk of protest that turned into a helpless sound of contentment as he sank into the pillows. His eyes dragged closed of their own accord, but opened again when he felt a hand settle gently on his forehead, brushing sweat-soaked bangs away from his face. "Wha're you doing?"

Wufei sat back in the chair that was pulled up next to the bedside, but left his hand where it was. "Hmm?"

Blinking a few times in an attempt to clear his vision, Duo frowned up at the Shade. "Why're you here?"

"I'm monitoring you," came the casual reply. "Acclimatization to an artificially awakened talent tends to be taxing for even those with weak powers. And there can be-- difficulties, sometimes. I habitually keep an eye on our students at this stage."

"But--" Duo tried to lift an arm, and managed at least to flip his wrist in vaguely the right direction. "You-- why're you doing *that*?"

As if to recognize that they'd been noticed, the Shade's fingers moved through Duo's bangs again. "Doesn't it help?"

Duo blinked, thinking about it. It-- *did*, in a way. He was too hot, sweating even though he was shivering, and the Shade's cool fingers felt quite good against that fever-heat. But at the same time-- they somehow made things not feel quite so *off*. It felt like something was shaken loose in his head, like things weren't quite in their right places, like some strange not-quite-dizziness was lurking behind everything that was going on. And that touch, light and careful and very real, seemed to anchor him somewhat against that.

Duo found himself nodding, slowly, in reply to the Shade's question. "You do this for everyone that comes through here, then?" he asked, though somehow he wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer.

"No," Wufei answered simply.

Duo's face crinkled up in confusion. "Well, then-- why?"

"Because--" Wufei tilted his head back, chewing over his words, before continuing in a very quiet voice. "Because in all of this, you have kept your dignity, despite being in situations far different from what you know. Because you have never tried to take advantage of what trust we've given you, like many others have. Because you ask the right questions, and seem to actually want to learn. Because of many things. You have earned some measure of respect," the Shade declared solemnly. "Therefore, if there is anything I can do to ease your way through this time, it is only right that I do it."

Blinking, Duo stared at the Shade with his eyes as wide as they would go under the current circumstances. Some part of his mind had seized upon the word 'respect' and had dragged it away to puzzle over in the corner, while the rest seemed content to exchange blank stares and wonder just what exactly had just happened. "Um," he finally managed. "Well, thanks, then."

Wufei nodded slowly in acknowledgement, his fingers brushing softly over Duo's skin.

There didn't seem to be anything to say, after that, so a silence fell between them, and Duo began to drift again. Bits of thoughts still wafted past him, mostly being ignored in favour of the lure of sleep, but one in particular seemed to want to stick. He opened his mouth and let it out. "So-- you knew that this was goin' to happen, then. The whole-- gettin' sick, throwing up thing?"

To Duo's rather sleepy delight, a faint look of chagrin passed across the Shade's usually unflappable face. "We knew there would be some reaction, yes," Wufei began reluctantly. "If it means anything, there was a very good chance that it wouldn't be that bad, that you'd sleep right through it. We didn't tell you of the possibility because we didn't want to worry you needlessly."

"Y'know what?" Duo groused, eyes already slipping closed again. "Next time, let me decide if it's needful or not, okay? I'm gettin' real bloody sick of you guys not telling me things."

There was a moment of silence, and the hand on his forehead was briefly still. Duo started to drift away somewhere between fever-dreams and true sleep, before the Shade's quiet reply drew him partway back.

"I suppose that's only fair."

[Damn'd right it is], Duo thought muzzily, and opened his mouth to say as much only to be interrupted by a yawn. Sighing, he gave up the idea and let himself go, sinking away into sleep, with the feeling of a gentle touch on his forehead chasing him all the way.

* * *

Waking the next time was thankfully less eventful, though in many ways infinitely more unpleasant. [At least the puking was over with relatively quickly], Duo thought muzzily as he stumbled out of sleep into an aching, muscle-cramping reality. He tried to move, to roll over, and groaned as the attempt set off little spasms through his limbs. [Ohh, bloody Hel, this hurts.]

He instinctively tried to curl up on his side, and gasped as the motion set off more aching flares in his muscles. [Wufei? Make it stop--]

"You're awake already? I'd hoped to be back before you woke. Hold still, moving will only make it worse--"

[Yeah, I figured that one out for myself], he thought acidly, and only then realized that the voice he was hearing was not the one he had somehow expected.

There came the sound of glass-on-glass, some bottle being opened-- and a sharp, cool scent that suddenly overwhelmed the room. "This should help a bit," the voice said. "But as soon as you can get up, we'll help you up to the bathing room. Hot water will do more good than anything, at this point."

A touch on his arm made him hiss momentarily, before a cool, welcome numbness started spreading from that touch, even as the pungent scent in the air strengthened. Duo groaned in relief, and did his best to lay still until the worst of his aches-- calves and shoulders, most notably-- had been dealt with.

He opened gritty eyes and was greeted by the sight of blonde hair. "Quatre?" The blurry flash of white that followed, he interpreted as a smile. "Where's--" he began, then broke off in embarrassment as he realized what he'd been about to ask.

His embarrassment only grew, however, when Quatre chuckled slightly and answered anyway. "Master Wufei was called away by Master Heero just a little while ago. He said you were through the worst of it, but asked me to keep an eye on you until you woke." Ignoring Duo's faint blush, the other man efficiently stripped back the sweat-damp sheets covering the bed and started to coax Duo into a sitting position. "I would have been here anyway, even if he hadn't asked-- I remember this stage of things. I was completely miserable. But like I said, a hot bath helped, so let's try to get you up there, shall we? Trowa, could you take his other arm?"

Duo blinked as a shape he hadn't even recognized as human detached from the wall and started towards him. A moment's squinting made the shape come into focus as the tall guard, who stooped down next to the bed and reached out smoothly to steady Duo as he pitched forwards off the bed towards the floor.

Duo grinned weakly up at him in thanks, and was both surprised and pleased to get a tiny, quiet smile in return.

Strung between his two helpers, Duo managed to get up the stairs and to the bathing room. It was a long and frustrating trip, one that left him with a blinding headache and made him wish one of the two would just pick him up and throw him over their shoulder-- but the walk was apparently supposed to be good for him, just like the bath that awaited at the end of it, and so walk he did. Despite the fact that most of his weight was being supported by the arms around his waist, and despite the way his feet caught the edges of nearly every step--

[Why can't the bathing room be *downstairs*, damn it?]

But finally, he was settled into a steaming tub, and he couldn't hold back a full-throated groan as the heat started to beat against his battered muscles. Smiling blissfully, he sank down into the water. He heard, as if from a distance, Quatre saying something about getting food, and then the sound of departing footsteps and a door closing. Then there was only thick, humid air and the rippling sounds of water.

After a moment, though, Duo's instincts twitched awake and informed him that someone was nearby, despite the silence of the room. He dragged his eyes open to find Trowa sitting on a bench to one side, staring off into not much of anything, just-- sitting. His black guard's uniform was crisp and straight despite the moisture of the room, and likewise Trowa himself seemed unaffected by the heat.

The guard turned his head and met Duo's eyes, just as Duo realized he was staring. The thief froze awkwardly for a moment, then remembered that tiny smile from earlier and grinned. "So you went through this too, did ya?'

Green eyes widened a fraction, and Trowa blinked in what might have been surprise, but then that smile was back-- more in the eyes than on the face, Duo decided. An implied smile, one that most probably wouldn't notice. [Their loss], Duo thought flippantly. [This guy might be human after all.]

"I did. We all do, though you have it worse than anyone I've seen."

"Lucky me," Duo said sourly, and as his eyes slid closed again he thought he heard a faint, amused snort. [Wonder if he's just naturally that quiet, or whether it comes from having to go out as a guard all the time? All this with hiding and Masks-- it's gotta have some sort of effect on a person.]

The door opened, and a few seconds later the smell of food invaded the air of the room. Duo's eyes flew open as his stomach growled, *loudly*, and made him suddenly aware of just how empty it was. "Ohh, Quatre, Fates bless you."

The blonde snorted and grinned, setting the rather large tray down at the edge of the tub. "I thought as much. Now, are you going to be able to feed yourself, or do you need me to do it?"

Duo blanched at the sudden mental image of being spoon-fed. Determined, he gritted his teeth and concentrated on lifting his arm out of the water. It took a while, and his fingers were trembling when he closed them around the fork, but he managed. Quatre even looked impressed when he got the first forkful to his mouth without dropping anything.

Duo remembered that first mouthful-- then suddenly the plates were empty and he was sinking back into the water, exhausted and full and a little bit light-headed. Voices murmured over his head, but he didn't really care to pay them any attention. Even the sensation of being lifted carefully out of the water, dried off and then picked up completely couldn't shake him from his lethargy-- though at some point the smug thought drifted across his mind that at least they weren't making him walk this time.

His pillows enveloped him, and that was all he knew.

* * *

Strange dreams chased him through sleep this time, keeping him from drifting as far away as he had previously. Odd shapes and heatless flames, the sensation of flying and an endless parade of curious eyes-- and, eventually, the feeling of a hand touching his forehead, somehow familiar, somehow different than the rest--

"He'll be all right?"

Fingers carded briefly through his bangs, and he immediately imagined them long, slender, golden-skinned.

"He'll be fine. He just needs to sleep, at this point." A hesitation. "Heero--"

"Hm?"

"He's different from the others. You know that, don't you?"

A faint snort. "It's hard to miss. He's as strong as I would be, if I didn't have you. That *should* be impossible."

"Yet here he is." The fingers moved again, brushing lightly.

"Hm."

"I wonder where this will lead?" Quiet, thoughtful.

"Back upstairs, I hope, if you're done." Dryly amused. "It has been a very long day, and though *you* might not need to sleep--"

A muffled snort of laughter. "I know, I know. You need me to tuck you in."

Then silence, but for a muttered curse that had no venom in it. The fingers ran one last time through Duo's hair, then withdrew accompanied by the sound of a sigh.

Something moved in the room. "We'll teach him," the second voice said quietly, seeming to move further away. "After that-- we'll just have to see."

"I know that."

More movement, and the sound of a door being quietly opened. Duo frowned faintly.

[Wufei?]

The door closed. The frown slowly faded as Duo slid back into sleep, and in his dreams suddenly all the eyes were black.