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"Really Trowa! You know I have out grown my wild days!" he laughed slapping the boy on the back and laughing.

"Oh I see. Heero has made you decent is that it? I must say it is a lost to the world, me most of all." His guest winked at him. Duo blushed at the compliment, true their relationship has long since ended but it was different when you flirted with a former lover. It was as if both of them were reminding each other of what they once had and could have again if only they wanted it.

"Quit teasing Trowa." Duo smiled looking away from his green eyes.

"You used to like it when I teased."

"That was a long time ago."

"Not so long ago."

"How is Relena?" he asked changing the subject.

"She is fine." Trowa laughed at his attempt to evade what he was insinuating. He wasn't about to let him off so easily. "She is still jealous of you."

"She shouldn't be." Duo laughed nervously.

"I think she should."

"Trowa…"

"I know, I know. What we had was great and its over now. But it doesn't erase the fact that I still dream about you." he smiled sadly. A silence separated them.

"What are you doing here Trowa?" he asked after sometime.

"I came to see you."

"I am grateful you came and I love it when we get to talk like this. It reminds me of the times we used to have but…"

"But there could be nothing between us now." he finished, he could not bear to hear it come from his lips.

"Yes." Duo smiled apologetically. This was not entirely true, he did still feel something for him but his world could not accommodate these feelings. They were both happy where they were now and if Heero ever found out…

"I know Duo I was just teasing." Trowa smiled but this too was not entirely true. "One last request, a kiss before I leave?" he asked.

Duo bit his lip and looked at the door, imagining his very jealous lover suddenly come storming in. Then his gaze shifted to the boy sitting before him and the lost look in his eyes and he felt his knees go weak.

"You devil." He said motioning for him to come closer.

Trowa smiled as he tilted Duo's head to face him and slowly brought his lips down. His lips touched his ever so slightly and at the absence of resistance it suddenly became intense. His passion gripping them both and a long forgotten longing suddenly bubbled to the surface.

They felt the sudden invasion of their privacy but both of them were too deep in their silent seduction to care. Until the other party cleared his throat and made it sure they both acknowledged his presence.

"It seems I have worn my welcome." Trowa smiled his eyes not leaving the blushing boy's face.

"I think you have." Duo whispered breathless his eyes shifting to the other room's occupant. Trowa stood up and bowed before them and left the suddenly tension filled room.

Duo's eyes shifted to his seething lover, his blue eyes showing him struggling with letting his anger erupt, his brow raised in question.

"uhhm Heero love?" he asked wincing at the sure onslaught of hateful stares.

"Why did he have you in his arms Duo?" he asked each word dripping with contempt.

"We were saying goodbye." He smiled sheepishly.

"Hn." Was all he said, turning his back on him and leaving the room.

"Greeeeat!" Duo said throwing his arms up.

***

Duo sat on his cushion, his eyes nervously stealing glances at the still door. It was almost midnight and still his lover had not returned. He knew Heero was angry and the worried looks on the others' faces told him the entire kingdom knew as well.

His lover had a temperament with a study all it's own. Even he did not understand his mood swings. But he knew eventually that he would come home to 'talk' about it if needed.

He drew his sleeves back and looked at the bruises that were beginning to heal. Yeah they would sure 'talk' about this. No one knew.

Sure it was wrong and yeah he should have left him long before he first raised his hand against him. But he was a fool and he was in love. And even though no one deserved such treatment let alone a prince, he bore it, for leaving him would be like taking away half of his soul.

His lover was a jealous twit, but when it came to Trowa he was a jealous murdering twit. Trowa made Heero's blood boil and the fact that he drove Duo to embed scars upon his wrists did not help. Duo was so heartbroken when Trowa left him that he almost committed suicide.

He fingered the scars upon his wrists and his collection of bruises. He was an idiot. An idiot that falls in love so completely that his world would not, could not continue to exist once that love is taken away.

This was his secret.

***

It was almost morning when he returned. Walking into the sleeping palace his anger still brewed in his stomach, his breath reeking of alcohol and yet it did not drown his curses as he made his way to Duo's room.

This was becoming his ritual, they would fight and he would drown his sorrows in sweet intoxication and he would come home to Duo. He would hit him a couple of times and then they would make love like there was no tomorrow.

And in the morning when he woke up, he would hate himself.

Now here he was again. And all because of an idiot that had no right to be there. He was there when Trowa left Duo; he saw his tears and his body slowly wilt away. And if they had not cast a spell on Duo, he would have succeeded in taking his own life. And now it seems that the spell had waned.

He would never forgive him for causing Duo so much pain. And yet he was too blind to see that he was causing Duo the same pain as well.

He entered the room and saw his lover sleeping on the cushions. He had been waiting for him to come home. He took a step toward the angel and stopped in his tracks. His wrists were upturned, illuminated by the slowly dawning sun.

And his eyes fell upon the white lines that Duo eternally wore. Bracelets that reminded the world of a love that was forgotten. And his heart sank as he saw beside Trowa's mark a small discolored patch, his own emblem.

He gathered the sleeping angel in his arms, Duo stirred and almost jumped out of his arms.

"Heero! I am sorry please, please forgive me." his heart ached. Had he become so much like the monster he despised?

"Sssssh, we will talk tomorrow." Duo winced at the word talk but Heero did not notice. He laid Duo on the bed and climbed in beside him, encircling him in his arms. "Duo forgive me?" he asked the boy slowly falling asleep in his arms.

"Of course…" he murmured sleepily.

But Heero closed his eyes for there was so much more yet to be forgiven.

***

Trowa looked at his reflection in the mirror, his eyes straying to the small pendant hanging in the middle of his chest. It was a promise he once made.

***

"Why are you smiling?" she asked irritated at her companion.

"The two clans have been dormant for more than six generations now." she smirked.

"Yes." Hilde asked putting her goblet down.

"The tension has surmounted and one cannot help but wonder what catalyst is needed to bring the long silence to an end and call forth war."

"Where are you going with this Noin?" she smiled once more, and the mad gleam in her eyes brought shivers down her companion's spine.

"I have just killed a king."

***

The two vampire clans have ruled the east and west since the beginning of time. The body takers in the land of the sun and the soul eaters in the land of the moon, each living with the other side by side. Each harboring a secret longing to be the master of the other, for their lust went beyond the crimson wine that gave them their existence.

The body takers, a savage clan whose culture came primarily from copying their distant cousins, devoured the flesh and took the heart as their prize. The heart that throbbed in the center of the person, which contained his very essence, the heart that would plead for the life that they would never return.

The soul eaters, a meeker lineage lived on the lives of the people they herded. Taking from them the eyes for their prize, the orbs that revealed to the world what they truly were. For the eyes could not lie and this was what the people in the land of the moon treasured most, the truth that each life held and would never keep.

One line would consume the other; this was the prophecy that bound their fates together.

And after six generations of false peace the stage has been set for the last piece of the puzzle that would call one the victor.

***

The Queen Dorothy set aside her black veil. The wailing of her people permeating the thick walls that surrounded her. Her face not registering the grief she was supposed to feel.

"Call my children." She ordered her guards.

***

Milliardo looked out on the evening sky. He had been waiting for this his entire life. And now it has come.

His peoples' existence, his clan's own legacy depended on him. And he was not going to lose.

***

Relena brushed her hair; her eyes still stained with her tears. She loved her father, perhaps the only one who had. Her eyes look up to gaze at the boy lying on her bed, his bare chest rising and falling with his every breath.

Trowa had come back just that evening and she was thankful that he was there to hold her although she knew he just came from the land in the west. Even through the smell of the forest and the salty ocean, she could still smell his scent on his skin. And she frowned.

***

Quatre took out the little jewelry box he kept under the loose board under his bed. His sad blue eyes fell upon the silver swirls that formed the moon and the stars upon the azure surface that mirrored the pain in his eyes. The soft music lulled him from the reality he now faced. But he knew it was in vain.

It would begin. And his heart shattered.

***

playboy crimson 0.2