Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ The Sea in I ❯ II ( Chapter 2 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

*cheers & hugs Cewo, Dyna, & RaRa * glad you like the beginning cross your fingers for me in hopes of reaching the end.

Thanks to Sharon and Efrite. Without their help, I think this would make a lot less sense then it already does *snickers*

Italics ~ thoughts
Warnings: Duo torture, MXM goodiness, suggestive content
Pairings: 1x2 eventually

Input/feedback much appreciated.

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I don't own any of the sexies in Gundam Wing AC, I just love to help them live a little.
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II

On his knees in the road, Duo felt sweat on the back of his neck as hushed tones began replacing the thrum of the market. He glared at Heero’s heaving form crouching on the road, nearly on all fours and caught the glint of one squinting, teary cerulean blue eye. He snorted digging his heels into the dirt road, leaning into the pull as he yanked at his braid. Duo gasped when his back hit the foot worn road and gapped at the smug looking Heero a few feet away. He kicked dirt toward Heero as he scrabbled backwards then up into a low crouch and weaved between the legs of people who had been watching them, and startling a few who weren’t. He chanced a glance at the surrounding vendors before ducking underneath a pottery stand’s table. He winced in apology at vendor’s curse and the subsequent shattering sound of one his pots.

Duo crawled through the paths of memory that led him under tables and through the narrow spaces behind carts and stands. Paths that he and others like him had secreted through and left angry vendors and soldiers of the like befuddled by their agility- but he had to be in the here and now. They were not many anymore and right then, right now there was only him. He slid around the corner catching the ghost of a memory, a child with shoulder length hair the rich brown color of the earth and a bright smile. He stumbled at the sight of the child and the ache in his chest. He slowed and glanced back, balling up the remaining tether to his bindings and felt unbalanced by the echo of laughter in the absence of memory’s image. He turned the last corner he knew would lead him to safety and all the air rushed out of him as he crumpled to ground. He felt moisture bead in the corners of his eyes as he cracked them open to see a boot coming at him. He tried to roll out of the way but it caught him in the side and pain screamed along ribs and his muscles when he was knocked into the dirt wall. Duo curled up into a tight ball, gulping as much air as he could before he was hit again.

“Ethan, cease!”

Duo uncurled a little at the breathless command that sounded some ways away. He peeked around his bound hands, and saw the booted foot drop back to the dirt. Dust misting up around his heel as Ethan dug it into the sand, scuffing up more dust into the dry air.

Duo wheezed, spit dripping out of his mouth and then his whole body jerked. Stunned, Duo ended up breathing in more dust and coughing before he peered up through his bangs to see Ethan’s foot coming back down to stump on his side. He turned over, trying to get to his feet in a half -crawling scramble but he felt the boot come down on his back long before he was a few hands from the ground. He felt all the air leave his lungs in a whoosh.

Duo groaned at Ethan’s foot pushing him down into the dirt, the heel digging into his back. The pressure from his back was gone for a second before Ethan’s foot came back down on his back, again and again, stomping on him mercilessly. Duo bit his lips trying to stop his agitated and pained whimpers until he stopped. One squinting violet eye saw Ethan stepping away with a cocky smile on his face. Panting, Duo breathed in as much as he could and spat at Ethan. Ethan’s smile was gone and Duo winced, but smirked through it, drawing himself up to his knees with an arm half bracing his side.

“You mangy animal!” Ethan hissed, drawing back and reaching for his sword.

“Ethan!” Heero caught Ethan by his elbow and glared at him.

“Sir?” Duo smirked fully, even though it hurt to do so, at how rigidly straight the black haired boy had gotten when Heero stepped slightly between them. “He was coming out of this breeze way, Sir, like you said he would and he resisted.”

Heero quirked a brow slightly, looking to Duo as if he expected him to say otherwise. Duo glared at them both, red welling up and mixing with the dirty grit from the path in the corner of his mouth.

Heero looked away, his lips pressed in a firm line while his face remained expressionless. He released Ethan, his hand dropping, fisted to his side and began walking back to the mouth of the alley. “Get him up and let’s head back.”

Duo jumped up when Ethan grabbed for him with a wide grin that made his mouth hurt and darted away from him.

“Oh, no you don’t.” Ethan grabbed his braid, yanking him around and kicked Duo’s feet out from under him.

Duo went down belly first with a pained grimaced from his aching neck, his arms and hands burning as they skidded against the stone and sandy path. The dust wafted around them and Ethan leaned in close, keeping Duo’s braid taut and making Duo arch backwards to try to ease the pressure and strain in his neck and on his arms.

“All this hair just makes it easier to snap your neck. No one’s going to help you now.”

“Ethan, why are you doing this?” Duo gritted out between his clenched teeth and Ethan yanked on his hair. “What’s happened to you? Can’t you just--”

“Set you free?” Ethan laughed and slapped Duo across the back of his head. Duo winced, easing onto his knees, trying for balance with his fingers barely touching the ground. “Not going to happen. Trash like you shouldn’t be left to prey on the good townsfolk. The One doesn’t condone it and neither does the Principal.”

“Then it is true what they s-say...”

Ethan shook Duo’s head with his braid, making Duo bite his tongue, “For you... You ingrate, the Principal permitted you to get away with harming him when --”

“Ethan.”

Ethan stiffened, rising to his feet in one smooth motion and yanking Duo right along with him.

“No more of that. We must return.” Duo peered over Ethan’s shoulder at Heero who stood alone in the cool shadow of the market canopy.

“Yes Princ- Captain.” Ethan quickly corrected himself at Heero’s scowl.

“Give him here.” Ethan bowed to cover the face he made, jerking Duo forward with his braid so he stumbled.

They moved forward. Duo’s mind working frantically to find away to get away again as the mouth of the alley grew closer. “Ethan don’t let them do this to me. We used to-to-” Duo choked, Ethan slapped Duo across the back where he’d punched him in between his shoulder blades a few moments before.

Ethan leaned in close to his ear and hissed, “You don’t know me. I was never dirt like you.”

Duo sneered over his shoulder at Ethan and end up walking into Heero. He glared up at the taller man who reached for the tether to his bound hands. Duo gripped the tether balled up in his hands and jerked them away from Heero. “Don’t touch me you brainwashing monster!”

Ethan was suddenly in his face, his own contorted in anger. “Silence you trash!” Duo eyes went wide when Ethan backhanded him across the cheek. Duo swayed from the shock of it but stayed on his feet.

Ethan began to advance on him again, the other three soldiers in Heero’s company now standing in the canopied opening of the alley where Heero had stood and remained there, watching them. Duo forced himself to stay still, if he was going to die then he’d prefer to die here in the alley, in the dirt where he was himself. At least he’d die knowing he was free and not some shell of himself.

He felt his knees shake and his stomach mewl at the blood he’d swallowed. He half grinned, he hadn’t eaten for a few days now, and it struck him funny that in a sense he was eating...

He grimaced, swallowing more blood from his twice nicked cheek and half gagging as he spit it out.

Duo offered Ethan a dopey grin steeped in bitterness, knowing Ethan wouldn’t even remember what it was like to be hungry. The grin slipped from Duo’s face as Heero came closer. Heero’s eyes smoldered with intent and a hidden something Duo didn’t understand.

“You will behave,” Heero commanded under his breath, the icy tone brooked no argument and Duo gripped the tether tighter. Heero started walking again and Duo found himself following, watching his captor hold the end of his braid with a confused look on his face as they left the alley.

Duo was brought out of his daze when one of the soldiers pulled his hood over his head to shield him from bright noonday sun or to hide his abuse at their hands as he passed them. They continued on, flanked by Heero’s men with the walls of the palace-temple rising higher with their every forward step.


At the opening of the two large wooden doors that made up the entryway to the palace-temple and the temple commons within the high walled enclosure, were two older men eyeing goods in a cart one of squires were rolling in.

“Principal, we welcome you back.” Both older men looked up from their inspection of the cart’s goods to see the young dark haired captain just inside the door.

“Oh, and how he’s grown.” The bald headed man with the bulbous nose mused as he stroked his graying goatee.

“Yes,” the other man with shoulder length white hair chuckled, “the little half-ling he was. I don’t remember ever seeing him unattached to someone of his family - clinging to his brother, trailing behind his sister’s skirts or crying.”

Another guff of laughter came from the bald man, earning a raised brow from the other, “Ha! Always crying that one! He has come far.” The bald man remarked, sobering with a thoughtful expression on his face.

Jirrad nodded slightly at the approval in his companion’s voice. “Yes, a useful appropriation.” Jirrad looked at his hand with a slight curl to one side of his mouth then to his companion. “It has been awhile since you last visited, hasn’t it. Death and great losses often make you toughen up. Although, I seem to recall he did still cry when I scolded him, though silently.” Jirrad brushed his cloak back from his shoulders to show the deep blue color of his clothes and the emblem of a royal halo with squiggly lines inside it on the left side of his chest. They were not only a sign of his rank as the One’s officiate but also of his position as the head of the Monarch’s military.

“Ha!” The surly man snorted, rubbing his bald headed with a hint of a smirk. His eyes cut to white haired man, “I don’t see how any child wouldn’t.”

Jirrad glared at his cohort, even though the man had left the verbal ‘you’ out of his statement, it was perfectly understood.

He hid his distaste at the man behind a thin-lipped smile and turn toward his approaching charge. “Heero!” he waved over to his protégé, his pale brows arching when the young man gave him a nod before yanking a rope ...of hair. The hooded body that followed stumbled forward but didn’t fall and he mentally commended the girl for withstanding anything like that from Heero. Though he was sure, she was in some fair amount of pain. He met him halfway and clapped the boy on the shoulder.

“Heero,” he inclined his head though the touch was more than he usually allowed. Heero returned the nod with a curious look in his eyes. Yes, the boy was quite aware of his likes and dislikes but he understood that people weren’t always predictable though Heero himself was. “Is this our newest recruit? Perhaps she’ll be worthy enough to be among the ladies that serve the One?”

“Her hair is long enough! Perhaps we’ll have it measured before its cut to compare it with the One’s and see if her hair rivals hers?” Jirrad nodded, though he felt his cohort Senjit could’ve kept his commentary to himself. He eyed the mangy looking rope of hair trailing from the lowered hooded head and frowned.

He strode over and reached inside the hood, jerking the hiding girl’s face forward from beneath the shoddy cloth. His brow furrowed at the caked on grim he felt beneath his fingers, his other hand already seeking out his kerchief to wipe the filth away as he shook the child by her jaw. Jirrad’s thin-lipped frown began to curve at the corners seeing her wan face remain still, eyes simply closed as if he were of no importance. Jirrad gave a toothy smile down at the girl; this was the kind of resistance he’d dealt with under more controlled conditions and preferably in a private location. He felt the heavy weight of Heero’s ever-observant eyes and those of his four subordinates and squeezed her cheeks until they dimpled and her lips puckered out as she struggled to hide her grimace of pain. Jirrad sneered down into oddly hued eyes that opened to glare up at him from beneath long dusty lashes and through the fall of bangs, the color of sun burnt twain the townswomen used to weave wicker baskets. “When a person of my status, or anyone serving the interests of her Grace, wishes to see you, you will respect that and do as they ask.”

Jirrad felt satisfied at the fear that entered the imp’s eyes then winced when teeth were suddenly embedded in the space between his thumb and index finger. He saw Heero move first out the corner of his eye and raised his other hand to stop him and the other soldiers who’d just begun to move.

“Just like the animals we saw you urchins becoming.” He said without pause even as some of his soldiers flinched at the blood that dribbled down the imp’s chin. “Be grateful you are one to be saved.” The imp pulled at his hand and Jirrad shifted his grip, pushing his hand into the girl’s clamped teeth. He smirked at the child’s searching look and the reflexive swallow that made his eyes linger on the child’s throat.

“Oh I know the perfect place for you,” he whispered to the imp leaning down closer to the child’s widening eyes, as Jirrad’s other hand came up behind his head to hold him in place. He smiled at the boy when he struggled all the more, pulling at Jirrad’s hand with his still bound ones. Jirrad forced the boy’s head back into his grip and lifted him, shaking him until tears beaded in the corners of his eyes and scoffed at the heat simmering in the young boy’s gaze, Still defiant are we?

At the feel of the boy’s tongue jabbing insistently against the damaged webbing between his fingers, Jirrad eased his grip on the boy’s face. Jirrad set the boy back on his feet as he removed his left hand from the boy’s mouth and left the other firmly holding the back of the boy’s head to stop him from stooping over or wiping off anymore of his blood. Marked, he laughed inside at the thought while his lips remained in a thin, slightly curved line. He guided the imp over to Heero who stepped forward, although cautiously, noticing how the boy’s gaunt and now colorless face made his mentor’s blood standout over the dirt and filth that covered it as Heero took a thin arm in his gloved hand.

Jirrad’s smirk coalesced into a thin line, “Take care of your new charge, Heero. He’s to undergo the tour and be your subordinate.” He half wondered if the twitch of muscle on the side of Heero’s jaw would be the full extent of his protest. After all the years of training, the boy still voiced his dislike of tour in subtle, non-vocal ways. He had the feeling the urchin’s quiet resolve was only a glimpse of the willful child he’d broken many times before.

Jirrad’s thick brow twitched when the urchin stiffly followed Heero, a little too quickly for his tastes. “And...” Jirrad drew out the word, making Heero pause in his forward motion. The boy’s saw him stop and glanced at Jirrad wearily before trying to keep moving. Jirrad smiled and Heero jerked the boy back to his side, he had made the impression he wanted. “Leave the hair, have him presented to me once he’s clean and fed so, Senjit here can get his measurements.”

The bald headed Senjit came to Jirrad then, clapping him across his shoulder before he walked off toward the castle with a smile and quizzical look at the boy.

Jirrad glanced at Heero meaningfully and Heero nodded his answer. He grinned as his protégé’s right hand fisted to tap twice over his left breast in salute of his service to the One, the kingdom and lastly opening that fist at his breast, his head tilted in display of his loyal deference to his superiors and few equals.

Jirrad allowed his lips to twist into a small smile as Heero’s company mimicked the gesture in the exact same manner before pushing the boy and leading his men up the main path to the palace-temple’s doors. In Heero’s hands, he wanted to see how long the boy would last before he crumbled. Jirrad wrapped his kerchief over the sluggishly bleeding teeth marks. He caressed the covered wound, running his fingers down to an inch below his wrist where the tone of the skin was a shade off. He flexed his fingers before fisting his wounded hand until the kerchief darken over the wound then bleed through the surface. Satisfied, he dropped his hand to his side and headed for the palace-temple at a leisurely pace as he considered paying a visit to the One. Her kind heart had made it possible for him to have a hand again and freed him from his goggles so he could see unaided. She would, no doubt, fret over the wound dealt to him by one of the savages they were trying so desperately to save.

tbc...