0.3
"Where have you been?" she asked frowning down on her children. Each fidgeted in their own unique way. Heero's eyes were downcast, his toe grinding something or another into the ground. Catherine bit her lip and evaded her mother's gaze. Trowa, well Trowa just stood there not actually showing any sign of discomfiture. And Duo smiled at her and waved his tiny hands begging her to pick him up. She sighed.
"Clean up, your supper awaits you when you have joined us." She said motioning for them to leave. She picked up Duo and brought him to his room.
"Mama I was King today!" he smiled proudly as Queen Sally took off his clothes and began preparing a bath.
"Is that so?" She smiled amused.
"Yep, we played with radish people!" he squeaked. Sally frowned.
"Now Duo, I told you many times not to call people names."
"Yes but..." he stopped seeing the stern look on his mother's face. "I love you?" he asked trying not to get into trouble. Sally laughed and Duo laughed with her splashing the water in his bath.
"Ok Duo, just don't call them radish people."
"Ok I promise." He said not really paying attention for he was already playing with his wooden boat. Sally looked at the small child and placed a little kiss on his wet hair.
Duo was not her child, no matter how much she wanted him to be. His violet eyes were so rare that it seemed that he was the only one that had them. Perhaps his mother had the same color of eyes, maybe that was why Treize sired a son with her. He never told her of Duo's mother, he never actually talked about her other than she had died and he did not the boy to grow up without a home. Duo had been with her since he was a baby and in the time that he spent in her care, she had forgotten that she was not his mother.
"Ok Duo-bear, look all clean!" she smiled.
"Yay!" he squealed jumping on the bed and out of the towel she was drying him with. Sally sighed, what was the use of bathing him when he would get dirty the moment he stepped out of his bath? And he was about to feed, she might as well leave the towel where it lay, she would probably need it again soon.
***
They entered the main hall. First came Trowa then Catherine, Heero and finally Sally with Duo clutching her hand. Treize smiled, this was his family, this was his life.
"You were late." He said placing his chin on his hand and looking straight at Trowa.
"Forgive me father I was not aware of the time." he apologized.
"Be more responsible Trowa if something happened to your siblings…"
"Nothing happened Treize!" Sally whispered placing her hand on his arm, her eyes pleading that he end this argument.
"Ok let us feed then I know you must be famished." He said smiling. Actually he was pleased with Trowa's manner. He did not blame anyone and took full responsibility, he had raised him well. And soon he would be crowned.
"Yay!" Duo cheered bringing him out of his thoughts.
"Now Duo..." he began but the boy looked up at him, his eyes brimming with innocence and the king laughed. That moment was too precious to let slip away. Duo was everyone's favorite. He was loved most of all even though he did not come from their line. He could still remember his mother and that night when she left him in his arms.
Their guests were in conversation with the king and stopped abruptly as the children entered. Each looking as if the whole world was their oyster, an arrogant smile playing upon their lips. Not knowing that all they were, were cattle being fattened before they were slaughtered.
"Oh this is going to be fun." Catherine winked at the fat aristocrat that just waddled in.
"My Queen you look splendid." The aristocrat smiled.
"Thank you Duke Percy." She smiled. "Shall we dance?"
Soft music began to play and each took a partner to dance with. The Queen danced with the Duke laughing at his jokes, the King took the Duke's wife in his arms and Catherine had a young count. Trowa's partner was the Duke's beautiful daughter, Heero's was the chubby countess the young count's mother and Duo's partner was the old knight that juggled him in his strong arms.
Swirls of silk and ruffles filled the dance floor as they swept past each other, lost in the melody and enchanted by their royal partners. Time seemed to stop and all that mattered was the music coursing inside you, the handsome prince that had you had in his arms and the need to let go.
And then the music stopped. Caught in the web of deceit their king had spun for them. The royal blood leaned over and took their partner's lips, enveloping them in a searing kiss that sealed off their lives forever.
"Why did I get the youngest?" Catherine stuck her tongue out, "I wanted the Duke."
"Oh come now Catherine, you will get a better one next time." Treize coaxed his favorite. He turned around as Catherine and Sally began laughing. "What is the matter dearest?" he asked his queen.
"It seems that the Duke and the young Count are…" she stopped covering her mouth as she began to giggle once more.
"Oh how disgusting!" Treize spat out.
"It seems that the countess had pimped her son." Heero said fiddling with the countess' large breasts.
"What about you Trowa? What have you to say about your partner?" she asked turning to her son.
"She was innocent and spoiled." He said looking back at the girl.
"Aaaand?" Catherine prompted.
"She lusted after me." he said softly as the women began to laugh.
"Pity, she was beautiful." Treize said stroking the frozen girl's hair. "Do you want to..?"
"Perhaps." Trowa smiled.
"So I guess you will not take her eyes tonight then?" the King laughed.
This was their secret. They would call on the well-fed aristocracy of their kingdom for a night of dancing. A seemingly harmless courtesy call to the royal family, with a dinner at the end. And before the fist dance had ended, they would have devoured their lives. Oh but they weren't dead, they would die the moment their eyes were taken from them, their solitary truth ripped from their souls. Then they would die.
Trieze scooped out the brown eyes of the poor woman trapped in her own oblivion, and as he brought his teeth down on the orbs in his mouth she fell to the floor. Consumed at last. Everyone followed suit, except for Trowa who brought the girl up to his room to play with before he finished feeding off of her.
"Oh Duo!" Sally called as she popped the other eye out for him. Pearly liquid seeped from his mouth and a river of red dyed his shirt. She sighed as she gave the other eye to her baby and watched as he soiled his clothes even more.
This was a testimonial to the great skill that the soul eaters possessed. Their whole kingdom was vampire yet none of the humans they herded knew. They played games with their minds. Each day a new family would be given a rank, wealth and permission to take what life had to offer. Until a fateful night decades later when they would be called to a dinner at the palace.
They blinded themselves with their arrogance that they did not see that they were taking over the lives of others like themselves. Others that they would inevitably join in the lands where the sun no longer visited.
Although the vampires had a society all their own intermeshed with the humans, their main source of nourishment never found out. They lived their happy lives creating delectable morsels to be feasted on when their time had come.
And as their secrets became nothing more than a fleeting memory on their predator's mouth, the people who lived such full, tainted lives were forgotten.
notes: i got the eating the eyeballs idea from the fic lives by amanda, she made duo eat eyeballs there too check it out its in my archive