Angel Feathers and Dragon Scales part 3
By Koneko Shido
Duo stretched and yawned, enjoying feeling clean again after having been out in the rain and inside the remains of a very dusty, dirty, long-dead dragon corpse. He wrapped a towel around his waist and another one around his masses of chestnut hair, grabbing his brush from underneath the mirror before making his way out of the steamy bathroom. He'd expected Heero to be asleep so it came as a bit of a shock to find the blue-eyed boy sitting up on the bed, waiting for him. Heero's shining silver armor was carefully stacked in a neat pile on the floor below the window and Heero was now clothed in a ragged pair of Duo's old jeans and a tight black t-shirt, giving the braided boy a great view of the lithe muscles beneath the shirt.
"Hn, this "shower" contraption of yours is some kind of cleaning device?" Heero asked, running his eyes over Duo, who began to feel a little self-conscious standing there wearing nothing but two towels and a hairbrush.
"Uh, yeah." The normally braided boy said, moving to sit down at the dressing table and unwrapping the towel from his damp hair. He began to run the brush through the silken tresses but paused when he saw Heero's reflection in the mirror watching him intently.
"See something you like?" Duo grinned wickedly, fully expecting the glare Heero shot him.
"This "shower" device... show me how to use it." He demanded. Duo blinked and turned around on the seat to look at him.
"Err, if you say so," he shrugged, getting up and following Heero over to the bathroom, his damp hair falling down around his shoulders and making him shiver slightly. He leant into the shower stall and pointed to the dial, making sure Heero could see, and began to explain how to use it.
"Ok, you turn this dial here, and that turns the water on. Then this one here controls how hot it is. About five or six is good. Anyway, when you're done there're clean towels on that rack... over...th...there...? Um, Heero?" Duo squeaked, having turned around to gesture at the towel rack only to find Heero stripping off his clothes casually, as if it didn't matter to him that Duo was stood right in front of him.
"What?" Heero grunted, letting the t-shirt he'd been wearing fall to the floor. Duo stared at the vision before him and completely forgot what he'd been about to say, his mind going blank.
"See something you like?" Heero smirked, unbuttoning his jeans and slowly drawing the zipper down. Duo nodded numbly, fighting a losing battle with his hormones, and the tiny part of his brain still capable of conscious thought mused that towels really *didn't* cover much when it came down to it. Heero finally got around to stripping completely and backed Duo up into the shower stall, smirking at the look of slightly dazed lust on the longhaired boy's face. Heero stalked into the small shower after Duo, and a moment later the towel formerly residing around Duo's waist came flying out, followed by the sound of running water and a lot of steam, mixed with the occasional gasp.
"Dammit, all this steam is getting in the way, I can't see anything!" Hilde scowled, looking up at the foggy screen while she absently dabbed at Relena's forehead with a damp cloth. The banshee had fainted the moment Heero had started to strip, not that anyone cared much...
"Aww, how romantic," Quatre sighed, smiling dreamily. Wufei looked over at him, raising an eyebrow.
"How is a gratuitous shower scene romantic?" He asked, yawning. He was leant against Zechs, who had fallen asleep against Treize, who in turn had fallen asleep against the arm of the sofa they sat on, all three tired out from trying to fill the time waiting for Ddraig Gwyrdd to appear by trying out things that to a human would make the Karma Sutra look tame. Quatre yawned too, also having had quite a workout with Trowa, who was curled up on the chair next to him, purring softly and watching the screen with half-lidded eyes, his tail flicking back and forth lazily.
"It just is. Anyway, don't you think they make a good couple? It's about time Heero found someone." Quatre smiled, settling back against his feathered wings.
"Heero... mine..." Relena murmured quietly in her sleep, but as per usual she was ignored.
"They do seem to be enjoying themselves," Trowa added sleepily, shifting to lay his head on Quatre's lap.
"I suppose they do seem right for each other," Wufei admitted, "But Duo's hair is too long, he looks like an Onna."
Hilde scowled.
"Hey! I'm a girl and I have *short* hair! Plus Zechs has long hair and you never say *he* looks like a girl." She argued. Wufei yawned again sleepily and closed his eyes, snuggling against Zechs.
"Whatever..." He murmured, falling asleep. Hilde rolled her eyes and sighed, looking back up at the steam-filled screen.
"I can't believe he's our leader..." She muttered, dragging her hand down her face in frustration. Quatre smiled and stroked Trowa's hair gently, sighing.
"I hope they'll be ok," He said softly. Trowa purred quietly and closed his eyes.
"I'm sure they'll be fine." He said reassuringly.
Duo yawned and opened one eye sleepily, promptly closing it again and snuggling closer to Heero, who was sharing the bed with him, a possessive arm draped around his waist. Some time in the middle of the evening's 'activities' Heero's wings had unfurled from his back again, about the same time they'd moved from the shower stall to the bed. The feathers were remarkably soft, like silk, and felt nice against Duo's bare back, since one wing was curled over them both like a shield while the other was folded at Heero's back. The wings meant that Heero had to lie on his side, but it made Duo happy because it meant that he could snuggle against Heero's strong, muscular chest and listen to his soft breathing as he slept. The braided boy sighed contentedly and felt Heero's arm unconsciously tighten a little around his waist, pulling him closer. He was trying not to think about anything to do with dragons, such as sharp teeth, even sharper claws, or fire breath, but it was impossible not to worry. On the one hand, Heero could just be utterly mad from spending so long trapped in crystal, and there was no dragon at all, or perhaps Duo had just awoken him by accident. It certainly felt that way, and if that were true then there would be no dragon to fight and Heero would either stay with him or... go back to being frozen in the crystal. That thought made Duo shudder. Finally, there was the rather remote possibility that everything Heero prophesied was absolutely true and very soon now some huge green monster was going to start terrorizing Llandudno, looking for Heero, dead set on killing him. Duo shuddered again. He wished now that he knew a little more about this dragon. How big was it? Was it, like, car sized? Or maybe it was like Godzilla and would rampage through the town destroying everything in its path? The dead one he'd been inside was pretty big... And what could it do? Did it breathe fire? Did it fly? Did it eat people? And if it could, Heero was supposed to fight this thing with just his sword and that was it? It seemed a little unfair, and it slowly dawned on Duo that the odds weren't really on Heero's side. Well, he could help, couldn't he? Seeing a real, live dragon would be quite an experience, even if it were his last. He could distract it, or something, while Heero chopped its head off. Really, it was times like this, Duo always thought, that he wished he had a shotgun. Or maybe a tank.
"He's mine! How dare that little-mmph!" Relena the banshee screeched, only shutting up when Hilde clapped a hand firmly over her mouth. At present, they had more important things to worry about than Relena's insane babbling.
"It's on the move," Quatre commented, watching the screen along with everyone else as a snake-like, green shape slithered out of the Hornby cave and out onto the Orme, heading towards the lights of the town at the foot of the mountain.
"This is bad timing. Heero is asleep!" Hilde worried, and Wufei glared up at the image, which wavered and changed to show Duo and Heero, sleeping peacefully with Heero's white wing wrapped around them both. Relena gave a muffled shriek, but as per usual went ignored.
"I expected it to take longer to prepare, it must be counting on the element of surprise to attack Heero while he's sleeping." Treize said, stating the obvious. Hilde glared at him and looked exasperated.
"Well it's going to succeed if someone doesn't go wake Heero up. And no, Relena, you're not going." Hilde said firmly, and Relena looked disappointed. Wufei weighed the options and turned to Quatre and Trowa.
"It has to be one of you two." He said. "None of us can go, we couldn't do it. Hilde appears on earth as an enormous sea serpent and I'm a dragon, so neither of us could fit in the hotel room and Relena's out for the obvious reasons. Zechs, I'm guessing, doesn't care," Zechs nodded and folded his arms, "and Treize can't do it because he's a phoenix and he'd just set everything on fire if it touched him." Wufei explained. "You two will probably fit, so one of you should go."
"I'll do it." Quatre volunteered straight away. "I'm the fastest, and we don't have very much time."
Trowa gave him a worried look and stepped forward to kiss him for good luck, then followed with everyone else to watch as Quatre stepped up onto the ledge of the balcony outside the main room, turning and smiling at the other deities before he leapt from the castle, reverting to his original form mid-jump.
Duo, light sleeper that he was, awoke immediately at the strange sounds coming from his hotel room door.
"Heero!" Came a soft, worried voice, and Duo sleepily unwrapped himself from the sleeping knight's wing and stumbled towards the door, wondering through a haze of sleep who on earth would want Heero, a knight who had been frozen in crystal for centuries, at this time of night?
Upon opening the door and finding himself face-to-face with a large, golden-white winged horse, Duo just shook his head.
"Heero, wake up, it's for you." He called, then turned back to the Pegasus.
"Can I ask you something?" He asked.
"I suppose so," Quatre answered, and at this point the fact that the horse was talking seemed strangely normal to Duo.
"How did you manage to get up here without anyone seeing?" Duo asked, wondering vaguely if this were some kind of hallucination that only he could see, and any second now he was going to wake up strapped to a table, wearing a nice, comfy straightjacket.
"I froze them before they could see me. It's quite safe, they'll recover and never even know what happened," Quatre explained, gesturing down the hallway with a hoof. Duo looked and saw the very strange sight of the hotel manager frozen in mid-step, not looking in the least surprised.
"Oh. I'll get Heero." Duo said, and Quatre thanked him politely. Just how strange, Duo wondered, did things have to get before he was officially in the Twilight Zone?
"Nngghh, go away." Heero muttered, turning over as Duo shook him. Duo folded his arms like a put-upon parent and scowled.
"Hee-chan, there's a talking horse with wings at the door asking for you. Could you please do something about it before I lose what little grip I have left on my sanity?" Duo asked in a slightly deranged-sounding voice. At that, Heero's eyes snapped open and he stood up abruptly, not seeming to care that he was absolutely naked. The knight stared at Quatre, who blushed as well as a horse can, and kindly averted his eyes.
"Uh, I came to tell you that Ddraig Gwyrdd is on his way." The Pegasus supplied, and Heero growled a choice curse and started toward the door, grabbing his sword. Duo sighed and grabbed Heero by the tip of one wing, stopping him in his tracks and earning a deadly glare.
"You may want to put on some clothes first." Duo suggested, and Heero growled, glaring at him again, but sat down on the edge of the bed and began to get dressed right there. Duo, deciding he didn't want to be left out, yanked on a t-shirt and a pair of jeans, along with some worn boots and a jacket, then followed as Heero led the way out of the door, past Quatre, and down the stairs, out of the hotel. Quatre trotted along behind them until they all stood outside on the empty promenade, Heero glaring with narrowed eyes up at the dark shape of the Orme, Duo glancing around, looking for anything that resembled Godzilla, and Quatre shuffling nervously away. Heero had the look in his eyes; the one that meant something gory and violent was about to happen to someone Heero wasn't overly fond of.
"I...I'll be going, then, I just came to warn you..." Quatre said quietly, but nobody noticed because at that moment there was an unholy-sounding roar and a huge jet of flame lit up the sky, coming from the very summit of the Great Orme. Heero, not even pausing for thought, sprang up into the air and spread his wings, flying off towards the dragon's challenge. Duo watched him until he was lost in the darkness then turned to Quatre.
"Can you give me a lift?" He asked, gesturing towards the place where Heero had gone. Quatre sighed, somehow having known from the moment he agreed to volunteer that he was going to get dragged into this one way or the other.
"I suppose so, climb on," he said, lowering his wings so that Duo could scramble up onto his back.
The inevitable fight had already begun by the time Duo and Quatre reached the summit, landing a little way away and trying not to be noticed by the large, bus-sized creature that was circling Heero, glaring hungrily at him with evil, slit-shaped eyes.
"Thanks," Duo muttered quietly to Quatre, hopping down and watching the dragon with wide eyes. It was quite beautiful, really, but at the same time, not something you'd want to be fighting. Its eyes were set below horned ridges and it had a long line of jagged, razor-sharp spikes down its back, starting just behind the eye ridges and ending at the very tip of its long, lizard-like tail. It also had evil-looking black claws, and even more evil-looking fangs, dripping green slime that hissed unnervingly whenever it touched the floor. The beast was crouched low to the ground, padding in wary circles around Heero, who looked tiny next to it, keeping the head in front of him but also trying to keep track of the tail, which could easily knock him off his feet. The green-scaled creature hissed at the knight, spreading its membranous wings threateningly then folding them behind it, flicking a snake-like tongue out to taste the air.
Duo watched, holding his breath, and waited. The circling seemed to go on forever, until Heero finally spied an opening and snarled, diving forward towards the dragon's exposed mid-section. It slithered back and swiped a clawed hand at the knight, who dodged back just in time, avoiding being sliced into pieces by about an inch. The hasty dodge had put him off balance, though, so he stumbled when he landed and gave the dragon the perfect opportunity. Swinging the end of its tail around, Ddraig Gwyrdd slammed it into the backs of Heero's knees, sending him crashing to the ground with a grunt of pain. His silver sword, which until now had been firmly clutched in his fist and pointed at the dragon's head, went flying from his hand and landed point first in the soft earth near where Duo and Quatre stood, Duo giving a squeak of fear as the dragon raised a huge claw and slammed it down where Heero had been lying a moment ago, missing him by a hair as he rolled out of the way, drawing his dagger.
"He needs his sword," Duo hissed to Quatre, watching the fight, his heart racing.
"Uh, Duo?" Quatre gasped as the human boy took a deep breath, told himself in a firm voice that he was *not* going to die, then darted forward, grabbing Heero's sword and running toward the dragon, which was currently distracted by Heero flitting around its head like a moth around a flame. Quatre just closed his eyes, not daring to watch.
Now that Duo was nearer the dragon he slowed down a little, wondering if maybe he could creep up and throw the sword to Heero without the dragon noticing. Unfortunately for Duo, the dragon wasn't that stupid, and noticed him straight away. Before he had the chance to even raise the sword, Duo found himself knocked to the floor and pinned under a huge, clawed hand, his arms free but his legs and body firmly held down. He vaguely heard Heero cry out his name, but that was about when he noticed the throbbing pain in his stomach. Looking down, Duo was shocked to say the least at discovering that the one of the dragon's long, sharp claws had, in fact, gone right through his stomach and into the ground he was lying on. Coughing, Duo could taste blood in his mouth, and wondered in a strangely detached way why it didn't hurt more. It was just a dull, throbbing ache at the moment, and it seemed to be fading away slowly. The noise of Heero frantically trying to kill the dragon with only his dagger also seemed far away. Then it dawned on Duo that he was probably dying, judging from the amount of blood that was pooling around him, hot and sticky against his back. He looked up dazedly, wanting to see Heero one, last time if he could, and watched the knight get batted from the sky like a bug by the dragon, sending Heero crashing to the ground with the sickening crack of breaking bones. Heero lay there, unable to move at all, and the dragon gave an evil hiss of laughter. Quatre, having been watching in horror, galloped forward, but he was too late to stop the dragon, who knew that Heero was watching and wanted to torture the knight who had so cruelly killed its predecessor. Opening its jaws, the dragon prepared to kill Duo with one bite, swinging its head down in a blur.
Things seemed to slow down for Duo, who looked up into the jaws of death above him and then remembered something very important, wishing he had time to at least pray it would work as the jaws full of razor-sharp teeth descended over him.
Quatre gasped and Heero cried out as the Dragon's jaws swooped down, but then something strange happened. Ddraig Gwyrdd gave a strangled, gurgling noise and suddenly reared back, giving a roar of agony before it keeled over on its side, writhing for a moment then lying still. Quatre heard the sound of faint laughter and rushed forward to find Duo laying where he'd been pinned, Heero's sword in his hand, sticking straight up, having gone right through the dragon's throat.
"Yeah, that wasn't so hard." Duo commented in a weak voice, grinning up at Quatre, who looked down at him incredulously, turning to Heero when the knight managed to drag himself up shakily, limping over to Duo and falling to his knees beside his lover.
"Idiot, I could have handled it, you didn't need to run right into the middle of the battle!" Heero scowled angrily, though his eyes were filled with worry and were locked on the bloody wound in Duo's stomach.
"Yeah, right, like I was going to let you have all the fun," Duo smirked, blood on his lips.
"Is there anything you can do?" Heero asked Quatre quietly, his eyes still on the bleeding wound, knowing with sickening certainty that it was fatal.
"I-" Quatre began, but he was cut off by an almighty roar and a jet of flame which lanced across the sky. Heero whirled around, ignoring the fiery pain of his broken bones, and expected to see Ddraig Gwyrdd before him. Instead of green scales, though, Heero was met with red ones, shining in the moonlight as a dragon twice the size of Ddraig Gwyrdd landed elegantly a few yards away.
"Tell me he's a good guy?" Duo whimpered weakly, fading fast. Quatre nodded and stepped aside as the red dragon padded forward and came right up to where Duo lay, Heero knelt brokenly next to him, almost at the point of collapsing. The dragon's huge head leant down and cocked to the side, one huge, black eye peering down at Duo and Heero.
"You two make a good team." The dragon commented, eyes glowing white for a moment. "Are you going to just lie there all night? It's time to go, I can't exactly hang around here too long, I'll have the army all over me in a few minutes, after all the noise you two made." The red dragon complained, turning away to deal with the body of Ddraig Gwyrdd, burning it to nothing but black ash. Duo scowled, about to comment that he wasn't really in much of a state to be getting up at all any time in the near future, until he realized three important things. Firstly, Heero was now fine and standing up, glaring down at him as though nothing had happened and he'd never been used as a volleyball by a dragon. Secondly, Duo found that he was also fine, the wound in his stomach having completely vanished, and thirdly, and this was perhaps the most important, Duo now found that he had a pair of large, angel-like wings hanging from his shoulders, matching Heero's.
"Are you ready now?" Wufei, the great red dragon, asked irritably. Duo, not wishing to sound stupid but really having very little grasp of the situation at the moment, sat up and scratched his head.
"Ready...? Eh, what's going on?" Duo asked, confused to say the least. Wufei sighed, which made the ground shake.
"Heero is going back into the crystal until next time, and since you two make such a good team, I assumed you'd want to go with him." Wufei explained, rolling his eyes. Quatre would have smiled, had he not at present been a horse, since he thought the whole idea was very romantic.
"And I don't even get a say in this? It's kind of a big decision to make on the spur of the moment, don't you think?" Duo muttered, in a mild state of shock from pretty much everything that had just happened.
Heero looked hurt, slightly annoyed that Duo had killed his dragon, and at the fact that, being given the choice to spend all of eternity with him, Duo was hesitating.
"So we'd just be frozen? Asleep until someone wakes us up?" Duo asked, weighing his options. He wanted to be with Heero, but not if they were going to spend forever asleep inside a tomb of crystal! Wufei scowled, hating having to explain things to people.
"Only your bodies get frozen. Your spirits come back with us to where the deities live. In this world you'll be like ghosts, you won't be able to touch anything and you'll be transparent, but in our world you'll be just like you are now. Are you coming or not, I don't have all night, you know." Wufei growled, and Duo decided he liked this new information a lot better than the sleeping beauty theory of sleeping the time away.
"Ok, I'm in." He grinned, latching onto Heero's arm and handing him his sword back.
Heero scowled, but it was only to hide the smile tugging at his lips.
"Ok, stand still." Wufei ordered, and Duo stood next to Heero in the gap in the crystal deep inside the Hiding Cave where Heero had been frozen, looking a little pale. It's hard not to be intimidated when you're about to be frozen in rock for countless centuries, Duo mused, but he was glad to be with Heero. Wufei's eyes glowed white and the crystal began to grow up around them like a living thing, flowing like water over their feet, their legs, their stomachs... At the last moment, before the liquid crystal rushed in on him, Duo felt Heero's hand wrap around his own and he smiled, all his fear melting away as his amethyst eyes slid closed.
Duo's eyes opened again a few hours later and he sat bolt upright, blinking as he found himself in a huge, white room, surrounded by people with various types of wings, gills, horns and tails, all lounging about on sofas and piles of pillows, some watching him, some watching a screen on one wall, and some just talking to each other. He looked down at his hand, half expecting to be able to see right through it, but was relieved to find himself all there.
"Well, this is nice," he said, smiling and leaning back against something soft and warm, which turned out to be Heero.
"Hn. Wait until you meet Relena," Heero snorted, and wrapped his strong arms around Duo's waist, holding him tightly.
Duo just closed his eyes and smiled sleepily, deciding that, when it came down to it, his holiday hadn't really gone that badly at all.
End, at last. ^_^;;