Legend-1

    " A wolphen, ne?"
     " Hai."
     " Do you know how hard it is to speak to an unwillingly caged animal?"
     " Hai."
     " But you're asking--iie, telling--us to do this anyway?"
     " Hai."
     Duo sighed. " Whatever. Come on, Quatre. Let's see what we can do with the thing." He headed off down the hall without even looking back to see if the other boy was following.
     Quatre gave the others a decidedly nastly look--something akin to a scowl. " I can't believe this! You all aren't the only one's who're tired! Duo and I need all the sleep we can get too!" He whirled and stormed after Duo, grumbling to himself.
     The ones still standing in the hall looked at each other curiously. " We have been pushing them a lot, haven't we?" Trowa asked.
     Heero grunted. " Hn. It's good for them."
     " I suppose," Zechs added, " though it gets rather annoying when Duo falls asleep in the middle of dinner and can't stay upright."
     Wufei humphed. " They better get used to it."
                                                              *~*~*
     " Where're Duo and Quatre?" Wufei inquired.
     Trowa snorted. " Where do you think they are?"
     " I'll get them," Zechs offered, setting his coffee down and leaving the room. He went upstairs to Quatre's room and knocked rather loudly, just in case the boy was awake but hadn't come down yet. There was no answer, so Zechs opened the door and peeked in. A huge lump decorated the center of the bed, only moving up and down minutely to prove that the thing was alive. " Quatre?"
     Silence.
     Zechs entered and went to the bed. No head rested on the pillow, but when he pulled the blanket away he discovered Quatre balled up and completely oblivious to the sun pouring over him. Zechs gave the boy's shoulder a shake.
     " Quatre, wake up."
     " . . ."
     " Quatre."
     " . . .?"
     " Get up."
     Zechs' hand was pushed away, making the blanket settle back over the boy on the bed. Zechs ripped the blanket off the bed and threw it on the floor. " ON YOUR FEET, WINNER!"
     Quatre snorted sleepily and rolled away from the noise, dropping to the floor with a thud. That woke him and he lifted his head, letting it roll around for a moment before forcing himself to focus. " Hai, sir." With that, he crawled into his bathroom and shut the door.
     Next was Duo's room. There was the same lump on the bed as with Quatre, but when Zechs jerked the blankets away, a smiley face with its tongue sticking out greeted him. He looked under the bed in the bathroom and closet, but found no sign of the braided boy. So he went back downstairs, where Quatre had relocated to and was once again asleep.
     " Where's Duo?"
     Zechs shrugged. " I looked everywhere, but he's not there."
     Heero gave the snoozing Quatre an unreadable look, then went upstairs himself. He entered Duo's room without warning and stopped in the doorway, listening. At first he didn't hear anything, but then he caught the faint sounds of a light snore. He began to check the room thoroughly, coming up with nothing except the fact that the noise was emanating from the bed.
     A spell? He searched through everything on the bed that might lend a hint as to what kind of spell, found nothing. Did he zip himself into the matress? He lifted the matress to check underneath for a zipper, finding exactly what he was looking for hidden amidst the boxes and other things normally shoved under the bed. " Up, Duo."
     " Fuck off," was the angry reply.
     " Duo, get up or I will pull you between the boards of this bed by your braid before cutting that damned hair off."
     The tired boy groaned, knowing his friend would do it, and slithered out from under the bed. Little dust particles and other unidentifiable things that clung to his hair as he slowly made his way to the bathroom.
     Heero left, standing just outside the bedroom door. If he was right, Duo would try try to go back to sleep after bathing. Sure enough, he heard the bed springs protest quietly to being laid on. He re-entered the room without a knock, grabbed the collar of Duo's shirt, and drug the already sleeping boy down the stairs, letting him hit every one. Heero hauled him through the kitchen and dumped him uncerimoniously into the horse's water trough.
     Duo slept on and Heero left him there, returning to his breakfast.
                                                               *~*~*
    " So?"
     The dripping boy snarled, " I already told you! Nandemo nai! Quatre and I spent four hours down there trying to make that thing talk! It didn't and now we're dead on our feet! I hope you're pleased with this outcome, Heero!"
     Heero glanced over at Quatre, who was laying, asleep, over Sandrock's withers. He briefly wondered if waking him up was worth the verbal thrashing he was getting from Duo. The decision was made for him. Wufei came up and pushed the Arabian off his horse. The boy hit the ground hard, but didn't wake up for a good minute afterward. " . . . What's going on? Did I fall off . . .?"
     Duo stopped his yelling and helped pull the other to his feet. " Iie, Wufei pushed you off. Kisama."
     " I heard that, Maxwell."
     Duo whipped around in his saddle as Quatre very slowly climbed back onto Sandrock. " Do I look like I give a flying rat's ass? Che, Wufei! You're such an asshole!"
     The Chinese boy raised an eyebrow and leaned over the pommel of his saddle. " Honestly, Maxwell. You better hope you don't slip like that in front of the king."
     " I certainly wouldn't even be like this to anybody if I'd gotten a half hour's sleep, which I didn't, if anyone cares at all."
     Quatre groaned. " Don't remind me."
     " Drop it, Duo," Heero ordered.
     " Urusai! Shimatta, I'll talk as long as I want to!" Duo squeezed out part of his shirt again and turned Deathscythe away from the others. " Go on, Shinigami. I don't want to kill any of them. Yet." Quatre followed blindly. As long as there was time to sleep, he didn't care where he was going.
     The others watched them go, then silently directed their horses to take the same path.