Due South - part 5

by KatiKat
 

"You´re still here?" Trowa asked as he stepped into the cabin they shared and looked at Heero. The Enforcer didn´t move from his perch on the side of the bunk where his claimed one lay, sleeping.

"He still hasn´t woken up." Heero was really worried. "It´s already afternoon. What´s wrong with him?"

The healer lay the leather bound book he carried in his hand on the table, then crossed the small cabin to the bed. He touched Duo´s cheek, then his forehead. The longhaired young man mumbled something, then turned on his side, facing the wall, his back toward his companions.

Trowa smiled. "There is nothing wrong with him, Heero."

The Enforcer frowned. "Then why isn´t he waking up? I tried to wake him but he didn´t even twitch."

This time Trowa couldn´t help but grin. "He is just drunk. Probably for the first time in his life. Yes, he is still not as strong as he used to be, but he is not sick. His body simply reacted strongly to the alcohol. Let him sleep. I guarantee that he won´t be too happy when he wakes up." Trowa had gotten drunk a couple of times in his life already, and he knew the annoying results. A hangover was a rather nasty thing.

Heero made a noncommittal sound, then caressed Duo´s now quite messy braid.

Watching his friend, the healer sighed. "Heero, why don´t you take a break. Go out in the fresh air. The sun is setting now and at night it´s too chilly to go outside."

The Enforcer didn´t even look at his friend when he shook his head. He wanted to be there when his mate woke up.

Trowa rolled his eyes. This was too much. "Gods in the sky, Heero. He is not dying." Who would have thought that the tough loner was such a mother hen?

The healer pulled the chair from the table and sat down. To pull his friend´s attention from his silently snoring love, Trowa asked. "Did you decide when you´ll give Duo what you bought for him in the market?"

Heero shook his head again. "I don´t know... I just can´t walk up and simply give it to him."

Trowa lifted his eyebrows. "Why not? He will be very happy, no matter how he receives it."

The Enforcer sighed and finally turned to his friend. "You see... we didn´t even have a proper ceremony with the child and his father´s treatment. Such a ceremony is usually held by the chieftain, but we couldn´t go to the village and ask for one, since the chieftain was Duo´s Sire."

Trowa nodded. He did understand but still. "You should really give it to him before we reach the City though. I know that you still have a couple of weeks, but you shouldn´t leave it for the last possible moment. You said it yourself, Duo needs some outer sign of his claiming for the people to see. He's suffered enough because of prejudice."

Heero sighed. "I know you´re right. But I wanted Duo to have a real ceremony. He never asked but..." He turned to his mate who just flopped onto his back again, and touched Duo´s face. "... he deserves it."

"The captain could do it," Trowa suggested casually.

The Enforcer turned to his friend with a frown. "Could do what?"

"Conduct the ceremony, you know? It´s rather common thing at sea." When Heero looked at him doubtfully, Trowa raised his hands. "If you don´t believe me, ask Rufus. I bet he would be willing to help you. He looks gruff, but I think he has a soft heart."

"I don´t know..." Heero said, running his fingers down Duo´s cheek. It was so soft.

Trowa sighed. "You know what? Think about it. But outside. Being confined to such a small room isn´t doing you any good." Seeing that his friend was about to protest once again, the healer continued. "I promise not to move from Duo´s side until you come back."

After a minute of persuading and even physical pushing, Heero reluctantly agreed to go out for a couple of minutes.

"And don´t forget to eat something!" Trowa called after him, then closed the door softly and shook his head. "Love does strange things to people." With that, he sat down at the table and engrossed himself in the book he borrowed from the ship´s healer.

*-*-*-*-*-*

Duo groaned, turned onto his side and groaned again. His head was killing him and his stomach felt as if it were floating on water. And the rocking motion of his bed didn´t help either. He cracked one eye open, then shut it tight immediately. Light hurt. A lot.

"Good morning!" chirped a cheerful voice somewhere in front of him. "Or I should say good evening since the sun is already setting."

Making an unintelligible sound, the braided lifebearer managed to crack his eyes open. He blinked once, twice until he managed to focus on the person sitting at the table, leafing through some thick leather book.

"Trowa?" Duo croaked, his throat parched.

The healer closed the book, then turned to the young man on the bed. "Yes. How do you feel?"

Another nonsensical sound, then Duo turned on his back. "Why does my head ache so much?" he asked, rubbing his forehead.

"You have a hangover," Trowa said with a smile.

Duo turned to his friend, a frown on his face. "A hang-... How? That´s impossible. I don´t drink."

"Well, that´s probably the reason why something as innocent as flambed cherries could take you down so easily."

Duo groaned again, hiding his face behind his hands. He got drunk. Oh gods. He had never been drunk before. Then something struck him. "Wait a minute. How did I get back from town?"

"Heero carried you in his arms."

This time the braided lifebearer moaned his misery. That was so embarassing. But... He turned his head and looked around the small cabin, lit by the oil lamp hanging on the hook from the ceiling. "Where is Heero?" He kind of hoped that in a situation like this the Enforcer would stay with him until he woke up. Unless... "He isn´t mad at me, is he?"

For a moment Trowa thought about teasing Duo, but after seeing the truly worried expression on his face, he decided otherwise. "No, he isn´t," he reassured the braided lifebearer. "Actually he was really worried when morning came and he couldn´t wake you up. I think you really scared him."

Duo blushed and looked away. "Sorry."

"He sat with you for hours, not wanting to leave before you woke up. But in the end I managed to convince him to go out and breathe a little fresh air. I promised to stay with you and tell him as soon as you woke up. He left only minutes ago."

Duo sighed. To get drunk from cherries flambe was bad - and embarassing - but it would be much worse if Heero was mad at him too. Oh gods, his head ached. Duo closed his eyes.

The sound of a chair scraping over the wooden floor echoed through the small cabin, then footsteps followed, stopping next to the bunk. "Here, drink this. It´ll help."

Duo sat up, took the offered cup in his hands and sniffed at it. "Eww, that smells awful." He wrinkled his nose.

Trowa smiled. "But it´ll definitely ease your aching head."

The lifebearer looked at his friend doubtfully, but then took a tentative sip of the bitter, dark brown liquid. Almost immediately, the throbbing in his head lessened. He closed his eyes and sighed in relief. "Thanks."

The healer sat down in his chair. "Well, I have had enough hangovers in my life to know how to remedy them."

Duo opened his eyes, hearing the bitter tone in the other man´s voice but seeing the closed off expression on Trowa´s face he decided to let it go and not ask. Then he looked around the small cabin, frowning. "Where is Shini?"

Trowa blinked, the odd expression disappearing from his face. "He is with Mil. Apparently he fell in love with little Zechs. He won´t move away from the cradle." He smiled.

"Mil..." Duo´s eyes popped wide. "By the gods, I promised Mil to help him with Zechs this morning!"

"Yeah, he was asking about you. He was worried that you were sick. I assured him that you were merely drunk." Even though he was trying, the healer couldn´t help it and the corners of his mouth twitched.

Duo groaned hiding his red face behind his hand. "Gods, does everybody on this ship know?"

"Well, since Heero had to carry you on board..."

The lifebearer groaned again. "This is so embarassing..."

Trowa smirked again. For a while they were both silent and Trowa decided to return to his book. Duo sipped at his tea, his stomach settling and head feeling almost normal again. When the healer turned the second page and lifted his eyes from the book long enough to throw a glance at his friend, he saw that Duo was obviously thinking hard about something.

"What is it?"

"Huh?" Duo turned to him. "Oh, it´s just... I mean..." He flushed red, stammered again, then took a deep breath and decided to try again. "I've wanted to ask you something for a couple of days now, but I wanted to do it when we were alone..." His voice trailed off as he obviously lost his nerve again.

Trowa closed the book. It was obvious that he wouldn´t finish it today and there were still some weeks of journey in front of them during which he would have nothing much to do. But his friend seemed troubled and needed his help now.

"I´m listening," he urged Duo.

The lifebearer fumbled with his cup, staring into the rest of the dark brown liquid on the bottom. "It´s... it´s about sex," he finally forced out, flushing even more. Duo knew that the healer had seen him naked, bleeding, puking... knew more about him than Duo himself, but to actually talk about such things with him... He had never been good at it.

"What do you want to know?" Trowa asked gently, not wanting to spook the lifebearer.

"It´s not the sex per se. I´m not a virgin after all, but... Am I... am I okay enough yet to have sex again?" Do asked tentatively.

Oh, that was what bothered the longhaired man. "For normal, gentle intercourse... probably yes. But I wouldn´t recommend anything strenuous. You might feel okay, but your body can have a different opinion in this matter."

Still bright red, Duo nodded and relaxed a notch. "Good."

Trowa looked at his friend searchingly for a moment. "Duo, can I ask you something now?"

The lifebearer turned to look at him. "Huh? Yes, of course."

"Duo, do you want to have sex with Heero - I think we are speaking about sex with Heero here, right? - because you love him and want to be even closer with him, share something special with him... or simply because you want a baby? Think carefully about the answer because if you want to do it for the wrong reasons, you could hurt Heero terribly."

Duo huffed with indignation. "Of course I meant Heero. Who else? I love him." Then he fell silent, thinking about the question Trowa asked him. "I... I want to make love with Heero because I love him and I want to give him something special. I... ache for his touch so much sometimes..." He looked Trowa directly in the eyes. "Yes, I want to have a baby with Heero, but not now, not yet. I know that it won´t be easy when we arrive in the City. Even with Wufei´s money. To bring a child into such a situation would just add to our troubles. And it wouldn´t be fair to the baby itself... So, no. I don´t want to make love with Heero only to have a child. I want to be with him. We have been together for months now and nothing has happened as of yet and sometimes... sometimes I fear that I´m not attractive enough for Heero, that maybe he minds that I´m not a virgin after all..." He lowered his voice to a whisper. "I´m scared that he doesn´t want me."

Trowa sighed. He would really have to talk to Heero about this or his two best friends would never cross this particular bridge. It was time for Duo to understand the truth about his mate. "Duo, do you realize that Heero is a virgin? There might have been Bearers in the village, interested in seducing him for the power his position represented, but he never accepted their offers. He never had intimate intercourse with anybody."

Duo blinked at him, his eyes going wide with shock. "I never... I didn´t... I didn´t realize that he had never... Oh, my..." He touched his brows with one hand and rubbed them. "I´m such a fool, really."

"He knows a lot about the theory of it, after all he had seen more than one couple have sex out in the woods, but he had never done it himself."

Duo blinked again. Had seen... in the woods. Oh gods, did he see him and Wufei too? The lifebearer blushed deeply, closing his eyes. He didn´t want to know. Really. He would never be able to live with it if that was the truth. Heero had loved him for so long and if he saw him make love with Wufei, give the black-haired youth his virginity... that must have hurt like hell then...

Noticing the long-haired man sinking into uncomfortable thoughts, Trowa decided to change the subject slightly. "I was asking about your reason because of another thing too," he said, bringing Duo´s attention back.

"Huh?" Duo said.

"Since I would not like to see you pregnant so soon after the whole bleeding disaster, I would like to recommend you some protection in case you do decide to make love with Heero."

Duo, whose color returned to normal for a moment, blushed again. It seemed like this was his permanent condition in Trowa´s presence this day. "Err, I know some potions-"

"No!" the healer interrupted him sharply. "No potions, Duo. I know that some Bearers do drink them, but the homemade stuff can be very dangerous. One ingredient too many and you could cause permanent damage or even become barren." Trowa really hated the village rumors the old lifebearers spread about potions and their abilities to prevent pregnancy. In most cases, they caused more harm than good.

Duo paled. "You mean... I could have caused it myself? I could have caused the miscarriage of my child?" The thought horrified Duo. Was it possible that he killed his child himself?

Trowa shook his head slowly. "I don´t think so, no. From what I´ve seen the fetus wasn´t nestled properly and your Sire´s beating caused the rest. Maybe you could have carried the baby to term but you could have lost it anyway, even if you hadn´t been beaten."

Duo swallowed painfully, the tight grip on his heart weakening. "But... what should we use then?"

The healer got up from the chair and walked towards his bag, hidden underneath Duo´s bunk. He pulled it out and took out a box. He opened it and reached inside. "Use this," he said and handed Duo a small bundle wrapped in plain brown cloth.

"What is it?" Duo asked and setting the empty cup to the side, he unwrapped the small thing. He blinked with confusion when he saw the small, flesh colored thing lying on his palm. He took it into his hand and spread it out.

Trowa sat down on the bed. "I bought it in the City. They call it a 'preservative' there since it protects the lifebearer from becoming pregnant."

"Oh. And where do I put it?" He turned the soft pouch like thing in his hands.

The healer looked at him and raised his eyebrows. Duo stared, then turned his eyes back to the thing in his hands. Suddenly, with a silent "oh", he flushed such a deep red color that the bed sheets almost caught fire.

"You put it on the Sire´s member, then bind these two twines-" he pointed at the strings at the open end of the preservative "-around it to keep it in place. It´s made from the intestines of a pig-" seeing Duo´s disgusted look, Trowa smiled "-don´t worry, they clean them completely first, but they give you the fleshy feeling as if you were touching the real thing, you know?"

Embarassment forgotten for a moment, Duo ran his fingers down the protection. It really did feel fleshy. But would he be able to put this on Heero? Without dying of embarassment?

As if reading Duo´s thoughts, Trowa continued. "It does require some time to get used to, but the whole act of putting it on could become just as much a part of the foreplay as anything else. It does feel good," he assured the lifebearer when the other man looked at him doubtfully.

"You mean, you have... you used..." Duo couldn´t ask after all, no matter how curious he was.

Trowa´s smile was gentle. "Yes, I use such a thing every time I make love to somebody. And before you come up with another embarassing question - no, I haven´t had sex for quite a while now. Not since I had stayed at your village."

"Oh." Then Duo frowned. "What do you mean with another embarassing question?"

The healer snorted. "Well, if I remember it right it WAS you who asked me yesterday in the middle of the town´s main square if I was a Bearer or a Sire."

Duo groaned, hiding his face in one of his hands. "Please, tell me that was the last embarassing thing I did yesterday?"

Trowa tried to supress his smirk. "Well, you called Heero 'darling' too, and jumped into his arms."

"Oh gods, oh gods, oh gods. Please, Trowa, never let me anywhere near alcohol, okay?" he mumbled.

This time, the healer laughed out loud.

*-*-*-*-*-*

Over the course of the next few days it looked like the bad luck followed Duo and Heero. Between Heero promising Rufus to help him with the training of Treize´s personal guard, and Duo helping Mil with the baby, they never seemed to find time alone. Something or someone always came up, disturbing them. And so it seemed that the chance for Heero asking Duo officially to bond with him and for Duo to try and seduce his mate was nowhere in sight. But in the end, five days after setting out to sea, it looked like luck decided to be on their side for once.

"These are for me?" Duo asked in awe, as Heero handed him the amazing set of knives. Even to his inexperienced eyes, they were a masterpiece.

Heero nodded. "Yes. I thought you should learn how to protect yourself and knives are easy to hide." He pulled up his sleeves, revealing two leather sheets bound to his forearms. "We will have time enough on this journey for me to teach you some basic moves."

Duo nodded, clasping the knives to his chest. Then he moved closer to his mate, where they sat on their bunk and leaned into him. It seemed like forever since they had been together alone for a prolonged period of time. He really loved Trowa, Mil and Zechs but it really bothered him that they always seemed to pop in at the least suitable moment.

"I love you, you know?" Duo whispered. "Thank you for looking out for me."

Heero embraced his love, bringing him even closer. He really missed the seclusion of their hut back in the woods and especially the privacy. They managed to steal some time to just cuddle together, but on a ship with so many men, even their small cabin didn´t offer much retreat. "I love you too."

For a moment they enjoyed the peaceful atmosphere of just being together, then Heero pushed his lover away slightly and reached into the pouch at his belt. When Duo looked at him questioningly, Heero cleared his throat. "I... I waited for us to be alone and... " He cleared his throat again, then blushed slightly, which caused Duo to raise his eyebrows. "I... I wanted to ask if-"

But he never finished his proposal, and Duo never heard it since at that very moment, the door was thrown open and Trowa almost fell in, panting. "A storm is coming. It looks really bad."

At the same time, the ship lurched as the first of the high waves the storm was causing reached the ship. The dark sky opened and it started to pour icy rain.


TBC