Lena: Ohayo. Yes, I know, everyone’s mad at me (probably) for not going immediately to the sticky stuff. Well, ha! I have reservations and some idea of plot development, and by the way it’s called SUSPENSE, so there, nyah nyah!

Heero: (annoyed, whacks her over the head. She strangely fails to fall unconscious)

Lena: Ite te te te te te… (Rubs her head)

Duo: Here, Lena. (Offers a hand to help her up)

Wufei: Onna, are you feeling all right?

Quatre: Oh, don’t worry about her. She’s just had a lot ofstress, and…

Trowa: Cheese Danishes.

All Except Trowa and Lena: What?

Lena: You are correct, sir! Bwa ha ha ha!

Duo: Maybe you should lie back down…

Hordes: No! Post, post, post!

Lena: Okay, okay, fine. But I want some comments. Soon.

He swallowed nervously and shot a glance at the longhaired boy. The other didn’t seem to notice, blithely continuing on with the bandages. Surprisingly, he was doing a rather good job of it. Not like what he’d been expecting, certainly- but then, so far this boy had been fairly unpredictable. There were too many things he wanted to ask, and was afraid to ask all the same. Why don’t you want to kill me? Are you planning on maintaining this friendliness? Who are you? What are you? The list ran on, and on. Just as he was beginning to build his courage, the violet eyed child- he had to be a child, he looked so much younger than most people he’d seen- accidentally drew his nails across a fresh scab. The blood began to flow and he winced, barely.

Surprised, the boy looked up, worry evident in his eyes. The hunter found himself falling in those eyes…they were so deep, he could drown in those eyes and never, ever resurface…he could live for those eyes, die by them, therewas so much-

“Hey, are you all right?” The violet blinked and with a rush he was back in him, alive, breathing, completely free of the violet honey he’d been so entangled in before. He took a calming breath and nodded slightly. Unsettling.

“I’m sorry about that,” The boy looked down. “Here.” A carefully prepared bandage, with some kind of salve on it. He wrapped it cautiously about the hunter’s side, reaching around the unmoving buscari and in effect encircling the other with his arms. The hunter clamped down on his urge to run, or strike out at the boy, and carefully controlled his breathing. The boy certainly didn’t seem to notice.

“So, ah, well…” The violet closed. I’m so sorry, He wanted to speak but his throat kept closing on the words. It was as though he couldn’t get beyond that first moment when the boy had burst into the stable on him and stopped the relentless other. “Oh, hey, I don’t even know your name! I’m Duo, pleased to meet ya,” Behind the cheerful façade the hunter noticed that same deep quality to the eyes, more obvious now probably than before… before you made your grand mistake, Hescolded himself.

Tentatively, he reached out to accept the hand offered him, and swallowed at the lump. The least he could do was tellthe other his name.

“My name is Trowa Barton.” Deep, violet, rush, drowning,{help me} Duo jumped forward to catch the hunter- Trowa Barton- in his arms, confused and somewhat surprised. The moment their eyes met, there had been a flash of plea across the other’s face before there was nothing.

“Hey, hey! Trowa? Trowa, man, are you all right?” A weak moan escaped the throat of the other, and he was surprised to see an expression of pain on the delicate face. The hunter had been nearly emotionless as far as he could tell up to that point, for whatever reasons. Even when the plea had crossed those features, it had been momentary, and not particularly obvious. He carefully pulled the hunter back into a sitting position, keeping one hand on either ofTrowa’s to hold him up.

The green eyes cracked open, and he smiled reassuringly, not bothering to hide his worry.

“I…I’m sorry…Didn’t mean…” he blinked dazedly and then the mask of calm settled back into place, more noticeable now to Duo because it had been gone for a few moments. “Did I scare you? I…sorry…” With nothing better to say, the hunter looked down at his hands, noticing that Duo’s were on top of them. Gently, he pulled them away.

“I’m very glad to meet you, Mr. Barton.” The baritone voice belied the fact that the boy appeared to be no more than fifteen. Trowa held his peace, not entirely sure what to say. His own tenor voice would have belied his age had he not been only seventeen himself, and somewhere in the back of his mind something found it vaguely amusing that he considered someone his own age to be a child.

But there’s no one out there who’s seen as many things as I have…at least, I hope…

“I can call you Trowa?” A nod. Yeesh, at least he’s calm. “Good. I have a few things to tell you, mostly survival tips. You understand?” Trowa blinked, his eyes narrowing a bit in confusion. A hesitant nod- again.

“Not exactly wordy are you? Anyway, firstly, I’m telling them all to leave you alone. They’ll probably take it to extremes, so you’ll be alone when I’m not around. Don’t worry about it…that’s better than if they don’t leave you alone. Secondly, stay away from Heero.” The brown-topped head tilted sideways in confusion. “Heero?” Oh… right…

“The man from the stall.” Now a flash of panic in the eyes. I expected that, Duo told himself, burying his feelings of worry. “All you have to do is avoid him if I’m not around. Things should be okay if you two don’t have to deal with each other. The only other thing is don’t be fooled by Quatre. He’s a blond, his sister also boards here. He’ll probably play real nice at be as sweet as he can, but he’s actually fairly manipulative when he feels it’s necessary-he’ll be after you.”

“Why wouldn’t they listen to you?” A slightly confused, manic laugh escaped him, and Duo realized that even the hunter must have been doubting his sanity at the moment.

“Everybody probably thinks I’m crazy right now. They won’t put a great deal of stock in what I say.”

“Ah.” They sat in silence, both avoiding each other’s eyes, and finally Duo began to feel out of place. Odd enough, considering that he’d been living in Quatre’s house for a few months, but Trowa seemed to deserve a little time to himself. Feeling as thought he was invading the hunter’s privacy, Duo stood and began to change, pulling on the outfit that was required by definition of an Almatomi. He didn’t miss the look of surprise that flitted across Trowa’s eyes, and allowed a weak smile.

“I’ll be back in the morning, Trowa. Unless you’re starving, you should probably stay here until then.” The green eyes flickered to him and then the window. “All right.” Duo left.

Heero stormed around the room, ignoring Quatre’s attempts to calm him. Iria watched from her couch, amused to no end by the informela’s behavior. It would have continued on that way, except Duo emerged from the bedroom, dressed and readyfor work.

“Heero, I need a ride. Are you holding grudges?”

“Hn,” He replied, turning away and crossing his arms over his chest. Quatre shrugged when Duo’s questioning, faintly concerned gaze lit on him. Annoyed, but not about to whine because of it, he headed for the door.

“Oh, and all of you need to know this: That hunter is under my protection. If any of the three of you so much as lays a finger on him…” Not taking the time it would require to finish the sentence, he left the house for work- wherever that would be taking him today. Iria broke the silence with a concerned comment;

“Do you suppose it’s healthy for him to be going back to his duties so soon?” Quatre shrugged and turned to Heero, who looked ready to knock out a wall as a dragon of somesort.

“Do you suppose we could stop him if we tried?” The blond sighed, heading into the kitchen. Perhaps he could establish some kind of contact with the hunter, and find out exactly how sane Duo had been acting. Perhaps if the almatomi was acting fairly unusual he could convince Heero to help him dispose of the buscari. Bastard, He thought idly to himself as he searched the kitchen for something proper. He wanted to give the Hunter only something to drink- that would be enough to maintain some kind of conversation.

A bag of tea leaves caught his attention. Harmless enough, He set a pot on the oven, completely lost in thoughts of vengeance. I could drug him, and then Heero could help me…maybe we could make him bleed a little more…

A faint whistling caught his attention, and he turned his attention from the window to the door, tearing himself from the stars. As he waited patiently for something to happen there came other sounds from the kitchen as someone prepared what sounded to be tea. A short time after, there was a hesitant knock on the door, and a blond head popped in, the dark sapphire eyes wide. Must be Quatre.

“Hello.” The light tenor voice was far higher in pitch than his own; he immediately recognized the voice of an almanade.

Why Duo…what interesting company you keep. He didn’t move, or react as far as the blond could tell. Taking the silence as an invitation, the boy slipped into the room. “I brought you some tea,” The boy offered. In order to discourage him, Trowa turned his head back to the window, pretending to focus on the stars. Steps sounded feather-light on the floor, and a sort of presence came into feeling behind his shoulder. He did not turn.

“You should drink something; you could get dehydrated.” A teacup brimming with gently steaming liquid appeared before his nose, and he could feel a sense of hope coming from the blond. He did not turn. “Sir? Do you have a name?” He swallowed and regarded the tea a moment longer, then turned his attention back to the stars, even as the blond boy came around to join the tea, trying to force himself into the other’s line of vision. He did not turn.

“Are you able to speak?” He nodded slightly, catching the brilliant smile out of the corner of his eye. He did not turn. “Then why won’t you talk to me?”

Slowly the green eyes turned to him, blinking only once. The hair that draped over the one eye allowed a slight sparkle to tell him it was there, and open. Somehow, the notion that this was progress edged into his head- at least now the hunter was looking at him.

“Duo told me not to.” The eyes returned to the stars, and Quatre blinked, utterly confused. Duo told him not to speak with me? After playing around with that in his head for a while, Quatre retrieved his cheeriest, least real smile and took one of the hunter’s hands in his own, placing the teacup in it afterward. The green eyes fixed on his hand, looking annoyed and possibly disgusted.

“Drink up!” The blond said, hoping that it would be this easy. “It tastes great.” The green eyes traveled back up to meet his and the faint tinge of disgust was still there.

“Let go of my hand.” Slightly embarrassed, the other did as he was told. He hadn’t meant to… “If you promise to go, I’ll drink it.” After a moment’s consideration, Quatre nodded.

The wary green eyes remained locked with his, a defensive near-glare within. Three sips, four, five…Quatre patiently waited for the hunter to finish his cup, and when the liquid was gone he smiled again, turning to leave. Trowa stood to see him out but found that when he stood the world began to sway- Quatre turned, and he saw a malicious smile before he fell to his knees, head pounding. “Wha?”

It was over quickly, and Quatre went to find Heero.

“Heero?” A small cat he’d never seen before raised its head. “Heero, come on. We can take care of him before Duo gets home.” The cat hissed and raced off towards the bedroom, Quatre following it at a leisurely pace, particularly pleased with himself. He found, to his surprise, that Heero had moved the hunter to the bed. Upon noticing him, the other got up and shoved him out of the room, proceeding then to close and lock the door.

“Heero? Heero!” He pounded on the door once for effect, and waited for a response. “Duo told us to leave him alone. If you won’t, I’ll make sure that you can’t get in the way of whatever he wants.”

The words stung; he had expected Heero to be as ready as he to end the buscari’s life. And Duo had told them to leavethe other alone, but…

“But I…” Dejected, he leaned against the door and closed his mouth. “All right. See you in the morning, Heero?” There was no answer; he took that as a yes and went searching for Iria, to ask at least for company, if not advice as well.

A hazy awakening, but he vaguely understood why. Duo… He winced as he realized his head was still pounding. I should have listened more closely to you. He had expected to open his eyes to find trouble, possibly worse than before. There was a grayish light filtering into the room, predawn shading, and an eerie quiet. Soft sheets covered him, a buoyant mattress supported him, and the only threat in the room was dozing off in the corner he had been the night before, when Quatre had found him. He recognized the form to be Heero; the one who had been torturing him in the stall.

And strangely enough, it didn’t look like the dark-haired boy intended to harm him any further. His eyes, still wandering, saw the door…locked, of course. He forced a sentence from his dry throat, waking his possible enemy,possible ally.

“What’s going on?” He winced again, raising a hand to massage his temples. The dark blue eyes blinked open, landing on him, and Heero yawned and stretched.

“Hmn?” Sleepy eyes focused on him, and a vague smile took possession of the lips. “What’s that?” The hunter didn’t respond at first, thrown off completely- this was nothing like what he’d seen of the other before. The change was hardto believe.

“What’s going on?” He finally repeated, sitting in the bed and wishing he hadn’t. He clutched his head, wishing that the throbbing would ease and go away. It spitefullyremained.

“Oh…well, Quatre wanted to get revenge. But Duo said to leave you alone-“ A huge yawn interrupted his sentence and the blue eyes blinked uncertainly as he tried to remain awake. “And I’m making him leave you alone. Don’t worry, I’m not usually much of a bastard, though Duo would disagree.”

Trowa nodded, allowing a sound of understanding to escape himself. After looking around the room, he carefully stood from the bed, doing his best to ignore the painful throbbing that insisted on its own continuation. Noticing the fatigued, pained way that the hunter was moving, Heero stood and went to help, leading the other to the door. While Trowa leaned heavily on the doorframe, Heero unlocked it.

“He must’ve given you a powerful drug. Sorry about that.”

Trowa allowed the other to steer him to the apparent central room of the house, and a nice, comfy chair where he could sink as far down as he liked. Heero glanced around at all the other rooms that had easy access to the living room and, satisfied, moved to the kitchen.

“I’ll make you breakfast,” He explained. “Duo will be back soon, so I should be making him dinner anyway.” A pause,then,

“Dinner?” Heero chuckled to himself about the volumes thatword held.

“Dinner. He’s an almatomi, if you hadn’t noticed…” There was the tell-tale prickling along his spine that meant the hunter’s green eyes were now on his back.

“So they keep fairly late hours?” He shrugged, not sure quite how to answer that.

“There are too many souls to collect and judge for normal hours. The few almatomi that have the same hours as do the rest of the world are very lucky or very inexperienced.”

Silence, and after a pause, he felt the hunter’s gaze move off of him. Once the prickling had gone completely he sighed in relief. Sometimes he had trouble dealing with being seen; this was fortunately rather mild.

The door swung open and shut. Both turned to see who had entered, expecting Quatre. Duo beamed at them both, looking rather beat even still. Trowa stood and helped him into a chair, feeling it was the least he could do, while Heero continued to cook in the kitchen, grinning to himself.

Perhaps the hunter would be more helpful than he’d thought as an aide to recovery. The other apparently knew how to be careful with Duo, and right after work was when the braided boy needed gentle care the most. They seem to make a good pair…

“Duo,” Heero called from the kitchen. The violet-eyed boy called some indecipherable response. “I’m making youdinner.”

“Good,” the boy replied, turning his attention to Trowa.

The hunter’s lips seemed to be curling up at the edges just a little bit. “What on earth could you be smiling at?” He wondered plaintively. “Have I got something on my face?” The smile widened a little a bit and the hunter replied quietly,

“I’m glad to see you made it through the night.” Duo blinked, sitting up straighter and allowing his puzzled thoughts to play out. Trowa, what kind of game are youplaying?

“You are, are you? Why exactly is that?” Before Trowa could answer the question himself, Heero entered the room with food- namely, two egg sandwiches, bacon included.

“Quatre drugged him and tried to hurt him last night. If you had died, logically there would have been little reason in Quatre’s mind not to try the same thing again.” The three allowed the silence to build, none understanding the whole story behind what had happened the night before. Finally, Duo turned back to the hunter.

“Are you hurt?” The green-eyed man shook his head. “All right. Will I be needing to have a little talk with Quatre?” Heero shrugged, handing them both their sandwiches.

“It would probably help.” Duo nodded, staring at his sandwich a moment before proceeding to scarf it down. With a mouthful of food, he turned accusing eyes on Heero, who procured a glass of juice. Apparent joy flooded the violet eyes and Duo downed the liquid as well; Trowa hadn’t even touched his food, so enthralled by the display that he even smiled, a more complete smile than the ones Duo had caught not too long before.

Seeing where Trowa’s attention had wandered to, the braided one winked and pointed to the food in front of the hunter. Trowa slowly ate the food, feeling the headache go away, and drank the juice Heero offered him, suspecting no treachery this time. Once the two had finished, Heero disappeared from their area, leaving them to regard each other warily. Duo was certain that after Quatre’s little trick the hunter would no longer trust him, and Trowa was certain the other was annoyed with him for not paying closer attention to what he’d been told.

They stood at the same time, and not particularly surprised by their synchronous actions, both went to the bedroom, lying down on either edge of the large bed. It wasn’t long before both were asleep. He awoke with a start, to find himself at home, in bed, next to the hunter. The rather predictable sight calmed him; in the past few weeks the two of them had gotten used to sleeping during the day and waking around sunset, splitting the bed more fairly with the other three residents. It was still mid-afternoon, so the light made all colors visible.

Sunbeams consisted of the warm, honeyed light that only comes in the later summer, and they played about the room, one resting on Trowa’s face, accenting the near peace there. He rolled over, landing half-on, half-off Duo, and encircled the other with his arms, murmuring incoherently.

Duo, surprised but unconcerned, allowed his arms to snake around the other boy, smiling at himself. He hadn’t realized how much he missed hugging things. The sunlight glittered off of the light-brown hair, and Duo wondered absently if Trowa knew how absolutely beautiful he was. For a long time, they lay there together, Trowa continuing to sleep peacefully, Duo continuing to gaze at him and trying to fall back to sleep. There was a slight change and suddenly Duo realized that the gentle happiness that had been holding Trowa’s face was gone, and there was worry etched in the lines of his mouth.

Concerned, he watched Trowa’s face as it smoothly transformed from an innocent child’s to a terrified, haggard young man’s, and all the while the other boy was holding him tighter and tighter, the fingernails digging into his back and the mouth opening and closing soundlessly. Then the green eyes snapped opened and he cried out, a thin, weak cry. The green-eyed boy buried his head in the crook of Duo’s shoulder, shaking with barely controlled sobs, and clenched the other to him as though he would neverlet go.

After the shaking eased a bit, he began stroking Trowa’s back, murmuring soothingly and returned the bone-crushing embrace one-handed. They lay together, clinging to each other, and waited for the fear and panic to go away. Duo noticed that the sun was setting.

“D-duo?” The soft voice was lost, and he felt that pity which had before pricked him every time he got slightly annoyed with Trowa. Only now it flooded him, stronger than ever before, and brought a different feeling along with it.

“Duo? I-is…is that…” The green-eyed boy drew back to look up at him, warm salty tears still threatening to spill from his blood-shot eyes. And still, Duo couldn’t help but think,God, he’s beautiful…

“I-is t-th-that you? I-I…Are…are you…real?” Duo locked his eyes onto the green ones, and nodded once, slowly, leaning down and going with his instincts. Trowa allowed himself to be kissed, watching Duo’s violet orbs as closely as the other watched his emerald, the fear draining slowly into the day, fading under the gentle, short kisses that the braided boy was planting all over his face.

“I’m real, Trowa.” The hunter sighed and his eyes closed, his mouth parted to accept a deep kiss. Duo obliged, feeling completely perfect as he was, and hoping that Trowa felt thesame.

“Duo,” The other said breathlessly when they finally paused for air. “I…you need to know…how it happened…I owe it to you.” Violet eyes searched green ones, and Duo nodded his assent, ceasing his distracting barrage of kisses. Trowa still clung to him tightly, though he wasn’t digging with his fingernails any longer. Taking a deep breath, the hunter dove into the violet pools and let the story come out from his heart, truthful down to every last detail.

“It was dark.” He licked his lips slightly, looking lost. “And cold. The rain just kept getting colder. I…I was hunting for food. I wouldn’t have realized if I hadn’t been…but when I…I saw a deer, and-“ Duo placed a silencingfinger over his lips.

“Don’t force yourself to tell me. Take it slowly. You saw a deer.” Trowa nodded, a tear making a track down his cheek.

“I did. And I thought I’d killed it. But when I…when I went to butcher it for meat, I couldn’t find the deer. I only found the unicorn, pierced by an arrow…” Trowa shuddered and closed his eyes. “I thought you would want to torture me to death.” Duo kissed him again, and waited for the green to reopen. When it did, he smiled.

“I might have, too. But you were wearing this.” Duo pulled the silver coin from his pocket where it had been resting since he’d found it. He’d also gotten a silver chain for it from Quatre, and it dangled from his hand spellbindingly, swinging around in the light. Trowa’s eyes widened, and he glanced from the coin to Duo inquiringly.

Smiling, the braided boy slipped the chain over his head, and proceeded to kiss him again.

“Duo? What does that have to do with it?” The almatomi closed his eyes, and pulled his own golden coin from beneath his shirt, displaying it for the other. Wordlessly, he returned the coin to its usual resting place- next to hisheart.

“I don’t think anyone who carries the same charm deserves to be judged before they’ve been given thorough examination. You deserved the chance to prove yourself.”

They were silent for a long moment, and the Trowa leaned up to Duo, planting a kiss on his forehead.

“I haven’t proven myself yet, Duo.” The violet-eyed boylaughed.

“Oh? You haven’t?” Trowa nodded, trying to look veryserious.

“There are three ways to prove yourself. You can prove yourself through your attitude, you can prove yourself through the kind of death you earn, and you can prove yourself…” His voice trailed off. Duo, pretending to be cross, questioned after that last method. “You can prove yourself how?”

A long silence ensued, while Trowa carefully slipped both of their remaining clothes off. “I can show you.”