Heero awoke to a commotion outside their room. "Twin?" He shivered in dread. A cold feeling of fear crept through him as he rushed to throw the doors wide and leap down the stairs. There he found Twin being held by two guards men, "Twin! What is going on?"

    The jester smiled brightly at his newly found beloved, "I have been a very naughty boy Heero. These men are here to see that I am not ever again."

    The vampire's fear grew. Even though Twin made jokes, he was shivering with his terror and Heero smelt it in the air, thick as blood. "What has he done?"

    The first officer smiled saddly, "You are his companion then, I'm sorry you had to see this."

    "What has he done?"

    "He is a theif sir. A very good one. We would have never caught him if he hadn't stayed here so long."

    Heero fought down his dread to ask, "What will be his punishment?"

    "Well that there is where it gets gory. Ye see," The second man frowned, "'e steels yes, but tis from the dead. 'e robs the graves."

    Twin lowered his eyes, "Punishable by death Heero."

    "No."

    "Sorry sir, there's nothing we can do. Law is law."

    "Twin. . . Duex. . . I just found you again!"

    "I'll be waiting in the next life Heero." A tear escaped his brace eyes. "Find me ok?"

    The vampire blinked dead tears from his eyes, tears of ash and blood. "I swear it."

    Twin was sent to the tower. He sat there, had his last meal and confession and then, dawn the next day was taken to the gallows. He held his head high, knowing Heero was watching. He had to be brave. A soft voice caught his attention and all stopped and turned to the back of the crowed. Heero stood there, covered in love knots, singing the derge Duex and he had written. His eyes welled with tears and he faced his love as the sun rose behind him. "Heero."

    "I love you Twin." He signed silently.

    The boy nodded, "I love you Heero." Then before the magestrate could do it, he kick the barrel from beneith his feet and his neck snapped.

    The animal howl of grief and pain that followed chilled the mob to the bone, and Heero swept down to carry his love back into the forest of night, to lie at the base of the tree of death. The earth swallowed it's child, welcoming him home, and another body joined the bones of Duex, and the vampire wept as he held his love in death for the second time. "I'll find you."

**************

    Heero was awakened by the sound of someone approaching. He slid from his warm grave to hide above and wait. It wasn't a long one. A man came into the clearing sporting a long black coat and an array of silver and stakes. It was obvious he wasn't on a mission of good will.

    When the hunter knelt to dig up the grave that held Twin and Duex' remains, Heero attacked. He had disarmed the hunter in seconds and thrown him to the growned. He jumped up and glarred, "I'll kill myself before you can turn me!" He cried, snatching a hiden knife and holding it to his neck.

    "I don't want to turn you or anybody." Heero growled, "Leave their grave alone!"

    "Their. . .?" The hunter looked at the patch of dirt he had been ready to dig.

    "How did you enter the forest of the night?"

    "Like I'd tell you!"

    The vampire grabbed him by the collar, rapidly loosing his patience. The hunter held up his arms and dropped from the coat revealing a trim, muscular body, long legs, and a long ponytail that had been tucked away, now falling into the mud for all it's length. What stopped Heero though, where the amethist eyes. "Twin."

    "My name is not Twin."

    "Then what _are_ you called?" Heero asked softly.

    "Call me Trouble."

    "Trouble."

    "There's no way I'm handing out my real name to a vamp. I haven't trusted anyone with that for a long time, so don't bother trying to find it either."

    "You remind me of. . . someone." He looked at the grave saddly, "I promised him I would find him in his next life."

    "Oh my God! You're him aren't you?!"

    "Him?"

    "You're the first vampire. Heero."

    He nodded, "So?"

    "I have been looking for you all my life!"  Trouble gasped, "Look!" He held back his thick leather collar to reveal two puncture wounds on his neck.

    "Where did you. . ."

    "I was born with them. Everyone thought it was a sign that I would be a great hunter but I haven't wanted to be. Look at them please, do you know them?"

    Heero's breath caught, "They are my kiss."

    "That's how I can enter the forest. I bare my neck and it lets me inside. I never thought I would find you. Anyone I spoke to said you would hae the answer to their existence. Please, what do they mean?"

    "They mean you belong to me."

    "But I've never met you before. I don't feel like I know you."

    "Some bonds transcend lifetimes."

    "Was I your thrall?" Trouble dared, "Because I answer to no one! If I am your thrall I would rather die than fall back into servitude."

    "You weren't my thrall." He looked back at the grave that held now two bodies of one loved one. "You were my friend."

    "I fed you." He realized, hand straying to the marks.

    Heero nodded, "You wouldn't let me turn you because you insisted that you should be there to feed me."

    "So I died."

    "Yes. You were a theif, they killed you for it."

    "And that's _my_ body in that grave there."

    Heero nodded.

    "Oh God, I need to sit down." He flopped onto the ground and leaned back against a tree.

    "I can revive your memories."

    He shook his head, "I don't think I want you to. Do you know what they do to hunters who leave the guild? And I took an oath! I would be forced to give myself up!"

    Heero nodded, "You've died for me twice already, go. Run from me and forget this place, I don't want to hurt you again."

    Trouble blinked, unsure if the offer was real.

    "Go!"

    He stummbled away quickly, afraid and confused.

    Heero sat on the grave of his beloved's and rested his head on the freshly turned Earth. //Duex, Twin, Trouble, How many lifetimes must I lose you before you join with me?//

    When the hunters found him, Heero put up no resistance.

    "Why don't you fight?!"

    ". . ."

    "Vampire scum! You think we won't kill a docile beast?!"

    ". . ." //Maybe if I die, Duex will be sparred his pain.//

    "Give me the stake."

    "NO!!!"

    A dark form dropped from above and twisted the neck of Heero's assailent until it snapped. Two more were staked, the last got away.

    "Trouble?"

    "I thought about what you said." He smiled and offered the vampire a hand up. "If we've been together for two lifetimes, who am I to break the chain?"

    "You want to remember?"

    "You saw that guy who just left?"

    "Yes?"

    "He's my death warrent. He knows me and the guild will kill me now. I would like to know what love feels like before I die."

    "I. . . they will hurt you."

    "Death usually hurts, Heero."

    "I can make it painless."

    "Are you offering to kill me?"

    He nodded slowly, "I would do anything for you."

    Realization shone in Trouble's eyes, "You were going to let them kill you so I would be spared!"

    "I am only a creature. A beast, like they said. You are a light in my darkness, I would die before I let that light be extingushed."

    "Do it, Heero."  Duo begged, "End my life before they do, offer me a look at what was between us, and find me. Find me again."

    "Peace be the journey my love." Heero took the other boy in strong, slender arms and moved his mouth toward his neck.
 

    "Heero?"

    "Yes?"

    "My name. It's Double."

    He smiled saddly, "Peace be the journey, Double. Until we meet again."

   //I love you.//

<Part 4>
 

    Dos walked into the house from school and sat his book bag at the table. "Mom? Dad? I'm home!"
    He didn't recieve an answer, so the teenager picked up the phone and dialed up his friend. "Yo Uno, what's up?"

    Dos' real name was Maxwell Dillan the second. His father's idea, but a mouthful to say. At the age of ten the boy had decided he wasn't a 'Max' so he picked Dos for two, since he was the second. His friend Lorado Zander had jokingly said he was the first so he'd be Uno. The names stuck.

    "Uhuh. Yeah, got a B+. . . Sure I could have done better but I didn't study much. . . well I know I should have but. . . hay wanna come over? I got an awesome Blue Oyster Cult Cd! Don't fear the reaper. . . Mhm. . . no I don't take this death thing to far. . . Duo reached for a carton of orange juice and blinked at the door of the fridge when he shut it. "SHIT!"

    He dropped the phone and the juice and ran to his motorcycle.

    "Dos? Yo Dos man you there? Hey what's going on?!"
 

    The frantic boy tore into the hospital, "Mrs. Dillan!"

    "Room 135."

    He slid in the hall way and almost crashed into the room, "Mom!"

    His father starred at him, "What are you doing here?"

    "How is she?"

    "She doesn't need you exciting her! She's asleep! Go home!"

    "But mom. . ."

    "GO!"

    Violet eyes filled with pain and he turned away, hiding a sob.

    "I'll meet you at the house."

    He didn't answer, just ran away again. Away from the steril white walls and his angry father. Away from the beeping of the heart monitors and the drip of the IV. He stopped his bike at the park and ran to the old gazebo as it began to rain. Hiding from the fear and pain. His mother was dying and he couldn't do a thing about it!

    "Mom." He curled into a tight ball and let the tears flow.
 
 

    Heero blinked as he stepped out of the darkness once again. Duex had called to him. He was alive again.

    He followed the scent to an old, rotting gazebo in the middle of a run down park. In the center, crying like a lost child, was a boy with a long Chestnut ponytail and tear filled violet eyes. //I found you again.//

    He walked quietly to the boy and pulled him up into a sitting possition, then just held him.

    The vampire was surprized when the other boy threw his arms around him and cried harder. They sat there in a warm hug for what must have been hours until the child finally pulled back with a sniffle, "Thanks." He wiped his eyes with his sleeve and smiled shakily, "I guess I really needed a hug huh?"

    "It happens."

    "Sorry I got you all wet."

    "I was out in the rain, you didn't do much more damage."

    His laughed wettly and smiled, "I'm Dos."

    "Heero."

    "Well you sure were mine just then."

    "Your. . ."

    "Heero." Dos grinned, "Are you new here?"

    "Yeah."

    "You shouldn't hang around places like the park at night, it really isn't safe, I mean you could meet all kinds of wierdos and rapists and gang members and. . ."

    "And you?"

    "Yeah, I'm the worst." Dos grinned, "I am muerte."

    "A death boy huh?"

    He frowned and looked away, "Everyone I love dies."

    "Is that why you were crying?"

    Dos nodded, "My mom. . . she has cancer. . .she. . ." He began to shake and Heero held him again.

    "Death isn't the end you know. She'll be with you and then she'll live again."

    "You aren't advertising a cult are you?"

    "Personal experience speaking." He sighed, "I've lost my lover three times."

    "That a warning?"

    "Maybe you should listen to it."

    "Nah, never did listen to warnings."

    Heero blinked, "Don't you need to go home?"

    "My dad thinks I'm killing my mother, he spends all his time at the hospital. No one is at home to miss me. God that sounds pathetic, I didn't mean to angst ya."

    "It's alright."

    "Do you think. . . could you hug me again?"

    The vampire nodded and Duo collapsed into his arms.

    "I know you must think I'm nuts. but I just need someone to hug me. And you feel so safe. Familiar."

    "Do you believe in reincarnetion?"

    "I guess it explains this."

    "Aa."

    What are you some kind of wizard or something?"

    "Something."

    "Do you have any spells? Against death?"

    He smiled saddly, "I can't save your mother. Everyone dies eventually."

    "But it hurts so much."

    "I wish I could make the hurting stop."

    "Sorry. I know I'm being silly I just. . . she's the only one in my whole life that cares if I live or die. I have one friend but he moved away and we can only talk on the phone, and dad wishes I could die in moms place, I just. . . I wish I could."

    "No you don't! No matter how much life hurts there's always someone who loves you!"

    "You don't want me to emrace the light or something do you?"

    "Huh?"

    "Nothing."

    Heero looked up at the paling sky, "It's almost dawn."

    "Yeah."

    "Come on, I'll walkyou home."

    "I came on a motorcycle."

    "Oh."

    "Where do you live? Do you want a ride?"

    Heero shook his head, "I live close by."

    Dos tried to think of something to say, to lengthen his time with the boy. "I hope we will meet again."

    "I know we will."

<Part 5>
 

    Dos skipped school the next day. He couldn't face so much joy and life when his family was falling apart. As night fell he found himself entering the park again, in search of the boy from before. A friend, someone who understood, maybe even cared.

    A load flutter and growl stopped him cold. Heero was croutched by the gazeebo eating a live bird!? "H. . . Heero?"

    He looked up in guilty shock and tried to hide the bloody splotches on his lips and chin, a sadistic parody of a milk mustash graced his upper lip and the other boy gasped, "Dos!"

    "You. . . why did you kill it Heero?"

    "I have to eat. I was hunrgy."

    Duo took the dead bird from Heero and held it to his chest, tears spilling over his cheeks to splash it's lifeless body.

    "Dos?"
 

    "Why am I surrounded by death?! I hate it! I hate the tubes they stick in her and the white walls and I hate that they shaved away her beautiful hair! I hate the lifless look in her eyes. I. . . will be end up like the bord? Cold and still and gone? It isn't fair!"

    "Dos, mothers die sometimes. Some of them die before they see their babies. Some die after a long and full life, and some leave early. It doesn't mean she wants to leave you. I'm sure no one would ever want to leave you."

    "How do you know so much about it?"

    "I'm dead."

    "It feels like it sometimes, doesn't it."

    "No, Dos, I am really dead. I'm a vampire. I drain blood to survive."

    Dos nodded and dug a shallow grave for the bird.

    "You don't seem very surprized."

    "Like I said, I'm death. At least I wont have to worry about you dying on me. Why'd you come to me? I mean I'm not exactly the helpless young maiden they show in the movies. Wrong gender even! So. . ."

    "I told you that I have lost my lover 3 times."

    "yeah I. . . ME?! You think I'M your lover's reincarnation?!"

    "You are. I can smell you're soul."

    "That's weird, you don't just do around smelling peoples souls."

    "Dos. . ."

    "I mean doesn't it get a little uncomfortable?"

    "Dos."

    "What if you got an allergy or something?"

    Heero grabbed his shoulders firmly but gently, "Dos!"

    "Huh?"

    "Is it so hard to believe?"

    "Yeah! There's no way I'd ever get that lucky!" Dos watched Heero carefully, "You're really serious, aren't you."

    "Yes."

    The human boy fidgited and his hand rose to fiddle nervously with his crusifix before he froze, "Should I take my necklace off? I mean, do crosses hurt you?"

    Heero shook his head, "That's a wives tale. We lived together the first time in rome. We mer for the first time in a catholic church where I was singing with the choir."

    Dos snickered.

    "You wrote the song."

    Another snicker.

    "The first time I made you come I was in my cat form. You didn't react well to that."

    Finally Dos couldn't help it, he fell into Heero's lap laughing and the vampire smiled softly at his love until Dos settled down and blinked up at him with those endless amethyst eyes. "So my mom will live another life too?"

    "Until her spirit is completely pure." Heero grinned, "Out souls are connected, that's why you keep being reborn.

    "I still don't want her to leave me."

    Heero held the human and soothed his softly, "Shh, Shh, I know. I'm here for you. Always."

    "I'm sorry."

    "Why?"
 

    "That I keep leaving you."

    "It isn't your fault." Heero swore, "It never was your fault!"

    "I want to know you again. I like you."

    "I like you too."

    "Well? What are you waiting for? Talk."

    "Talk?"

    "Yeah! Tell my everything!" Dos grinned, "I wanna remember everything!"

    "Where to begin! Well. . . when I was turned. . ."

_________________

    Heero and Dos talked until the sun was rising and Dos had to leave for school. "Will you come back tonight?"

    Dos nodded and gave Heero a swift kiss.

    They met there in the park each night for 6 months. Then Dos' mother finally passed away.

    "Heero, can you come to the funeral with me? I don't. . . I can't do this alone."

    He nodded and held Dos' hand through the whole service and the walk to the grave.

    "Go on. Tell her goodbye, it'll help." The priest urged the braided youth.

    When Dos stepped up to the coffin, he opened his mouth once and collapsed into the open grave.

    "DOS!!!"

_______________

    Heero hated hospitals. These were much cleaner then the olden days but they still smelled stale and faintly or urine. And the doctors still wouldn't answer your questions. Finally he tracked Dos' scent to his room and snuck inside.

    Dos was in a clean white bed, tubes in his skinand beeping monitors surrounding his slight form, His beautiful hair was gone. "Dos?"

    Wide and worried eyes touched the vampires, "Heero."

    "What happened? Do they know what's wrong?"

    "I'm sorry Heero."

    "Dos?"

    "It was genetic."

    "What was?" Heero asked already scared of the answer.

    He felt his hopes shatter all over again when Dos said the words he know were coming. "The cancer Heero. I have cancer."

<Part 6>
 

    //No! Again. I'm going to lose him again.// "Dos." He pulled the boy close and buried his face in the soft crook of his neck.

    "I have to do it again. Heero I'm sorry."

    "It?"

    "I'm going to be leaving you again." He sobbed, "It isn't fair. I. . . why couldn't it be forever?"

    Heero rubbed his back soothingly and shushed him, "Are you hurting?"

    Dos nodded saddly, "It's eating me from the inside out. I can actually feel myself dying. It hurts so much Heero. Don't leave me alone like this."

    "Never." He held the slim boy tighter and fought his own tears, "I only asked because I thought I could still turn you. I can't though. Your body would still have the cancer. It would always hurt and I couldn't do that to you."

    "I wouldn't have let you anyway. You know that."

    "Dos. . ."

    "Shhh. I'm going to lay down for a little ok Heero. I'm so tired. . ."

    He currled up on the bed behind his soul and held him softly. //I won't leave you Duo. I'll be by your side until the world ends, or until you end for good. Then I'll join you in forever. Because I love you. Always.//
____________________

    The vampire lived in a kind of purgatory for over a year. Watching his soulmate battle his own body each moment for another day beside him.

    The beautiful hair that Dos loved so much had been gone a long time. His weight had dropped and his sparkling eyes dulled into a muddy blue insted of the rudy violet Heero knew so well.

    "Why do you stay Heero?" Dos asked in the thready whisper his voice had become.

    Heero held the fragile hand and smiled at his soul. "Because I love you."

    "I'm not even 'me' anymore. Leave Heero. I don't want you to see me like this."

    "Not a chance."

    "Heero. . ."

    "No." He stated firmly and leaned in to hold Dos tight. "I. Love. You."

    Dos sniffled, "But I'm so ugly now. . ."

    "Never." The vampire ran a hand over one high, pale cheek and grinned, showing a flash of fang. "You are the most beautiful man I've ever seen all the centuries I've lived. And you're even more beautiful because I love you. So don't talk about me leaving. It won't happen."

    "I didn't want to go."

    Heero climbed onto the narrow bed and held Dos tight amid the tangle of IVs and monitor wires. "I'll find you again you know." He grinned. "And next time I'm turning you."

    "Hee. . ."

    "No. I've lost you too many times."

    "It has to be my choice." Dos sighed, "You'd never force me to do anything."

    "I've forced your soul to keep living."

    "Have you? I think I chose to keep living, to find you."

    "You've been there since I first woke from my first sleep in the forest. I know you care about me each time, but you forget each time too. And all the while I love you more and more. Each of your forms are still you."

    "I don't think I have very long now Heero. I can feel it growing."

    "Let go if you need to Dos. I'll find you again."

    "I don't want to leave you."

    "It's only goodnight."

    Dos nodded and Heero wiped away his tears, "I love you Dos."

    "I love you too."

    Heero fought back the tightness in his throat, "Go to sleep now my love. I'll be here when you wake up."

    He smiled sleepily and breathed, "Heero." As his eyes closed for the last time. The monitors began to beep and Heero smashed them in his grief. He snatched up his love and pushed his way out of the hospital into the forest and to his grave. There he lay prone on the pile of bones that once was each of his soul mate's bodies. The newest dead held tight to him.

    "Goodnight, sweet prince." He whispered. "And flocks of angels sing thee to thy rest."

    Then he let the night overtake him and the forest rained it's soil in on him and his lover's corpses, keeping them safe and warm through centuries. Until one day, five hundred years later.  When an explosion and the sweet smell of war's blood and canons found him.

    He stumbled groggily out of the mud and into the world and found himself submerged in water. A huge machine faced him. A thing of metal with the body of a man. Inside a boy was trapped. He looked so much like Heero the vampire was stunned. He pried the hatch open and checked the child's pulse. Dying. He sank his fangs into the mortal, sucking him dry, pulling his being inside of him. His memories, his training.
 
    The body desentegrated after he was through, and Heero slid the clothes onto himself. The boy was a pilot. The metal man was a Gundam. And if he had absorbed the boy's memory correctly, there were five such things and five pilots. One, according to files, was a violet eyed boy with a braid. He was named Duo. It couldn't be a coincidence. Duex had been reborn once again!

     When the pilots met for the first time, Heero found it hard not to stare. Duo. His beloved, was right in front of him! His beautiful artist who's blood was on his hands. His laughing jester with a poet's heart, his reluctant hunter and grief filled mourner searching for spells against death. He was there, and alive and beautiful!

    And now he was in a dorm room, alone with the object of his undying effection for so long. He made himself focus on the laptop as the other boy would have done.

     "Oi Heeeeero." Duo smiled and slid up behind him, "What'cha doing?"

     "Hn."
 
    "Come on, you looking up porno sites?"
 
    "Hn!"

     "Ok, no. Then what?!"

     "Go away." //It hurts to much//

     "Oh come on!"
 
    //Duo. Don't you remember me? Don't you remember anything?// Then he heard the music. Duo's music wafted through the air. He turn so sharply he almost fell out of his chair. Duo was playing a CD It was the music they had composed together! "What is that?"

     "Hm? Oh some old Celtic songs, no one remembers who wrote them. But they're soothing."

     "Some might call them haunting."
 
    "Some aren't me." Duo smiled, "They're like a lullaby." He smiled at his new partner and roommate, "You like Celtic music?"

     "I like that music."

     "We must be soul mates." Duo laughed and looked at the laptop again, "What'cha looking for?"

     "Some paintings."

     "Oh?" Duo looked at the picture of them on the net, "Woah! Is that you?!"

    "These were painted around the time of Michelangelo."
 
    "It looks like you!"
 
    "Mm."
 
    "So who painted them?"
 
    "Michelangelo's adopted son."
 
    "I never knew he had one."
 
    "He disowned him when they burned him at the stake for consorting with the devil."
 
    "Harsh."
 
    "Yes."
 
    "So who was this devil?"
 
    "The boy in the painting." Heero touched the computer screen and bit down so hard stolen blood filled his mouth. He swallowed and continued, "They were lovers. Very much in love. But the boy in the painting was a child of the night and he couldn't convince the others that that didn't make him evil. Duex was the only one who cared. In the end, the burned Duex during the day. His lover couldn't leave the darkness, but the next night he stole the charred bones and ran. No one ever heard from him again."
 
    "Sad story."
 
    "Aa."
 
     "You told it like you lived it."

    "I am a student of history."

    "Bullshit." Duo grinned, "And I say that in the nicest way."

    "Nani?"

    "You 'are' the guy in the painting." The braided boy nodded, "Bet you're a vampire, inhuman at least. That's how you keep surviving all those stunts you pull. You're looking for those paintings because you miss him. Bet you're here to find his reincarnation."

    Heero was instantly alert, "How did you know all that?!"

    When Duo grinned again Heero growled and turned away, "Of course, God of Death right? Go to sleep. Stop tormenting me."

    "Have you found him yet?"

    "Hn."

    "What does he look like I can help!"

    Heero took a drink of water.

    "It's not RELENA is it?!"

    The vampire spit the water all over his computer and cursed, quickly wiping it off.

    "Heh. . . sorry?"

    "No he is NOT Relena!" Heero closed his eyes, //He's so like Duex in his darkness, Twin in his humor, Double in his conviction, Dos in his sorrow. Gods I miss him.//

    "Heero? You ok?"

    "Ah."

    "Wanna talk about him?"

    ". . ."

    "Was he handsome?"

    "Go to sleep Duo."

    "Come ON Heero! I'm curious!"

    The vampire turned, fangs bared and eyes glowing. "GO TO BED!"

    "Eep! Going!" Duo dove under his covers playfully and pretended to be scared. He knew Heero wouldn't hurt him, he would have done it already. But Heero didn't know he knew. It was more fun that way. "Night Heero."

    "SLEEP!"

    "Sleeping!" Duo grinned under the covers.

    Heero stared at his computer and wept silently for Duex, for all of his lovers who were placed so perfectly into Duo's soul. This was the one. He would not let them go again. He couldn't let him go.
 
 
 
 

~tbc~