Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ The Taming ❯ With Friends Like You... ( Chapter 4 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Wow! I'm so happy with all the positive feedback. It makes me feel really guilty for not updating faster though. Thanks to everyone who answered my Relena question. No one did at the ff.net and it made me sad. But now, I have a plan...heh heh heh...on with the story though, eh?

With Friends Like You...

"Hey Quatre," Duo called as he bounced over to his friend, who was eating some fruit at large oaken table. "How was the first night? Mine was okay but Hee-chan over here, he didn't try *anything*. If I didn't know better I'd swear he was straight but that can't be it, can it? I think it's impossible. Aren't I still pretty? You thing I'm pretty, right?" Duo turned to Quatre, who giggled and then Trowa who looked at Quatre in confusion.

"What is he talking about, little one? Hey, you laughed. He can laugh!" Trowa's normally blank face was stretched into the biggest smile Heero had ever seen on it. Trowa pulled Quatre into a hug before remembering himself and letting him go, apologizing constantly.

"Woah, Quatre, your master is apologizing to you? Huh."

"Just because I am Quatre's...er... master...ish...thing, doesn't mean that I can't treat him with respect. I want to earn his trust and friendship."

Dou rolled his eyes. "Well isn't that just charming. Although I kinda wish Master Hee-chan would try that. First he doesn't want to have sex, then he says he wants to talk dirty but then he changes his mind. So we talk for a while and I go to sleep and when I wake up, I'm naked and he's staring at me!"

That was finally enough to force Heero to break his silence. "I didn't want to talk dirty and never said I did. You undressed yourself and its hard not to stare when there's a naked person in my bed that's as bea-" Heero paused, aware of what he'd almost said, and then retreated to safer ground. "And don't call me Hee-chan!"

"I'm beautiful? Me? I bet you say that to all the girls." Duo leaped forward and spread himself out on the table in front of Heero. From his bed of squished sticky buns and fruit he batted his eyes at his master.

Quatre looked up from his chair. There was now an empty pitcher of grape juice in his lap, the previous contents soaking into his clothes, running down his face and turning his normally pale gold hair a rather interesting shade of purple.

"Ah sorry Quat, didn't mean to splash you. Guess this means you need a bath now." Duo smiled evilly. "Enjoy!" He turned back to his shocked master, saying, "Take me, I'm yours!"

Quatre began to giggle once more and Heero, deciding that this was a good time to start training his slave. "Duo get off the table or I'll beat you until you scream." Heero mentally crossed his fingers. He knew he could never hurt his new acquirement - that would be wrong. The life Duo must have had! Heero felt it was his duty to try and make Duo as happy as possible while teaching him to survive on his own. Of course, Duo didn't need to know this... Heero grabbed Duo's braid and gave a not so gentle tug. "Sit down and eat properly.

"Owww, you know there are better ways to make a person scream," Duo whined, sitting as ordered.

Heero wisely decided to ignore the last part of that comment. "Did I hurt you? I just wanted to get your attention, not-"

"Aww, Hee-chan, I didn't know you cared."

"I don't. I just don't want to hear you whining," Heero lied. No one but Quatre noticed the brief flicker of pain and fear on Duo's face before his smile was replaced, wider than ever.

"I know, I know, I'm just a hot piece of ass. Fair enough." Duo smiled and slid off the table, wiggling the aforementioned anatomy in his master's direction.

He was doing it on purpose! Heero knew that wiggle was for his benefit and all of his will power was focused on not grabbing that "piece of ass" as Duo had put it. He wanted to wrap his arms around that slim waist and pull the smaller man into his lap and then....something. He didn't know quite what, just that it would be great.

"Ahem" Trowa began, "Quatre, lets go get you a bath then, alright?" He waited for Quatre's nod and then called a servant to run a bath in his room.

Heero stared after them. He had completely forgotten they were even there. How did Duo do that to him? Make him forget everything except long legs, a longer braid and...stop, Heero ordered himself. He looked down at the table and noticed the full plate in front of him. "Where did that come from?"

"I served you, is that okay? You were just standing there so I thought that was what you wanted and when I asked what you wanted to eat, you ignored me, so I just guessed."

"That's great. Thank you." Upon examination of his plate, Heero saw it was almost exactly what he would have chosen for himself. He sat down and was about to begin when he noticed there was nothing in front of Duo. "Aren't you hungry?"

"I'm alright."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

Heero saw the way Duo's eyes focused on the cake on the table. "As your master, I order you to eat if you are hungry or if you want to."

Duo nodded and cut himself a piece of bread, He poured some water from a pitcher on the table and began to eat, wrenching his eyes away from the cake in front of him. Heero watched Duo, watching the cake.

"I want a piece of that cake." Heero pointed.

Duo cut a large piece and handed it to Heero.

Heero eyed Duo's plate. "Bread and water?"

"Food befitting a slave. You should have seen the trouble Master Treize had teaching me that rule, but I know my place now. At Master Treize's, we only got fed when we were done serving and they were all done eating whatever they wanted. We got what was left, anything they didn't want. 'Course we were grateful," Duo hastened to add, "in some houses all the slaves are allowed to eat is food the master gives them off of his plate. This bread is pretty good." The last was said with his mouth full.

Heero considered this for a moment, then made a show of taking a bite of cake and making a face. "Too sweet. Do you want this?"

"Alright. If you don't." The words were noncommital but the eagerness with which Duo attacked the pastry made his delight obvious.

Heero was unable to resist-he felt he *had* to try and make Duo happy. "You might as well finish the cake. I can't imagine anyone else wanting it."

Duo beamed.

Internally, Heero smiled. Of course a slave wasn't allowed to eat cake on his own, but if his master had taken it and didn't want it....Heero let his smile show as he watched Duo enjoy the cake. It figured that he would have a sweet tooth. Heero suddenly remembered that he had forgotten to pass alone the message from Wufei. He decided that after breakfast, he and Duo could go. Duo seemed happy to see Quatre and would doubtlessly welcome more time with him

***** Trowa's room*****
"There you go. I'll leave you alone so you can bathe, okay?" Trowa stepped out of the room and gently shut the door.

Quatre slowly undressed and approached the tub. He stared at the steam swirling off the surface and was about to get in when the door opened to emit two men. They were just there to put more wood beside the fireplace but Quatre didn't know that and he shrank down, trying to make himself as inconspicuous as possible. He could still hear them.

*

"Okay Blondie, clothes off, get in the tub. You're no good to us this dirty."

"He's not moving."

"I think Blondie needs help. Throw him in."

Quatre was lifted and thrown unceremoniously into the extremely hot water. He shrieked and struggled as best as he could.

"Hold still, you little slut."

"Damn it, he kicked me!"

"Hold his head under until he stops squirming. That'll teach him." A hand grasped the back of his neck and his head was forced under water. The water scalded his face. Quatre opened his mouth to scream and instantly it was full of water. He blacked out.

*

Quatre was as far from the tub as he could get without leaving the room. He cowered in the corner, completely under the spell of the memory. The men took one look at him and ran for Trowa. Trowa was beside Quatre in a flash.

"Quatre? Quatre, its okay now. They won't hurt you, I'm here. Shh, its okay." He put his arms around the sobbing smaller man and rocked him as if he were a child. Eventually Quatre calmed down and stopped crying. He relaxed into Trowa's arms and began to enjoy it.

He wasn't the only one. Somehow, Trowa thought, having Quatre in his arms felt so right. Of course the circumstances were awful - Trowa vowed that if he ever found out who had caused whatever had triggered his Quatre's hysterics, he would kill them. No questions asked. Trowa failed to notice that in his mind he had referred to Quatre as "his Quatre" but the fact that the angel in his arms was naked did not escape his attention for long.

Trowa began to have a little problem.

Actually, if truth be told, it was a rather large problem.

Trowa tried to shift Quatre over a little, just enough so that his condition was not obvious but not so much that he would lose any contact with the little beauty. This is where Trowa encountered another problem: Quatre did not want to move. His face was firmly buried in Trowa's chest and his arms were tightly clasped about Trowa's neck. Almost against his will, Trowa's arms tightened around the smaller man. He dropped a kiss onto Quatre's forehead in a fatherly sort of way and Quatre looked up at him, startled. Another kiss, less fatherly, landed on Quatre's nose.

Trowa leaned down to gently brush his lips across the trembling ones beneath him and the door slammed open.

Trowa's arms loosened in shock.

Quatre's arms loosened in shock.

Quatre hit the floor.

"Hey Quatre, you all cleaned up?" Duo bounced in, completely oblivious to the scene he had just interrupted. "No? What is taking you guys so long? It's just a bath."

"Oh God, Quatre, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to...are you alright?" Trowa wasn't sure if he was apologizing for the kiss or for dropping Quatre. Probably both.

Quatre nodded and took the offered hand to help him get up before turning to their visitors.

Heero was more perceptive than his slave. "Are we interrupting something, Trowa?"

"Ah no. Of course not. What could we *possibly* have been doing?"

With a flash of intuition Heero clapped a hand over Duo's mouth. "Alright then, good. I forgot to tell you before but Wufei said that if you had any questions, he would be in his study. I thought that if you wanted to talk to him, Duo and Quatre could spend some time together. They may as well while they still can." Heero caught Duo's muffled expression of confusion from around his hand, "We will be leaving Wufei's manor within the week and after that we will separate and go home."

Trowa nodded.

"Therefore, since you two are friends, I thought that you would want to spend some time together. I don't know how long it will be until you see each other again. It could be months."

Duo, finally allowed to talk again, said, "Oh. Okay then."

"But," Heero continued, "let Quatre have his bath first. And get dressed too."

"Kay. See you later, Q-man."

Quatre blushed, having just realized he was naked, and tried to cover himself with his hands.

Heero smiled and escorted Duo out.

Trowa looked down at Quatre. They were all alone, Quatre was naked. Trowa's thought went south once more, as did part of his blood supply.

"So, a bath. Right." Trowa said, turning away from the little blonde. No matter how much effort it took, Trowa was determined he would not deny Quatre his privacy.

Quatre's gaze was attracted by movement towards the door. Trowa was leaving? Quatre looked into the bath water and slowly backed away.

On his way out of the room, Trowa heard a whimper. The expression on Quatre's face nearly broke his heart. Aqua eyes full of tears, hair still the purplish colour of blonde and grape juice, and the abject terror on his face, Quatre was still trying to get into the bathtub. Trowa tried to smile reassuringly while thinking he would happily kill whoever did this to Quatre. He carefully approached the smaller man. "Quatre, you're purple and sticky," Trowa tried to make a joke, "you look like a little grape. My little grape. Do you want me to stay with you while you have a bath?"

Quatre nodded, not meeting Trowa's eyes.

Trowa took a deep breath. Staying calm was not going to be easy but forming a trusting relationship was dependant on his ability to control his body's reactions. Trowa sighed, it was going to be a struggle.

















I don't want to hurt you.
As long as we're together, nothing can.