Vampires, Witches, Bears oh my! Not those kind of bears.
Trowa was swiftly rethinking this whole prince thing.
Coming from the humblest of beginnings he had always imagined the life of royalty to be worry free and the utmost of happiness. But his now-dead 'father' of a king had made any sort of luxury impossible.
"Sir Prince," another silk draped, lace trimmed and white wigged moron scrapped the ground at Trowa's feet. "We require your approval for the book on the next week's Reading Club. We have narrowed the choices to three, all recommended by the Queen to the South, Oprahria, but we would like your approval. This one-" the man began to prattle on and in the end Trowa waved a hand at the one with the fancy green cover and the man scraped his way out the door.
The entire afternoon had been like that. It was as if no one could make a simple decision on their own. "Bread or rice for lunch, sire?" "The red or blue robe for the dinner hour, sire?" "Does this dress make my ass look fat?"
Trowa looked up startled at that one and Princess Dorothy smirked back. With a wave of her hand the lingering crowd of richly dressed people disappeared. She settled herself in the smaller throne to the left of him, taking her time to rearrange her skirts.
"How did you do that?" Trowa asked, his voice nearly devoid of emotion.
"Well first you have to tuck the material under you just so or it wrinkles-"
"I meant with the people."
"It's the eyebrows," she replied. "So, if that un-dead guy hasn't gotten totally lost they should be arriving in the next few days with my fiancée. Are you planning on leaving?"
"I plan on living in the tower until I die of old age," Trowa said.
"I see. So, no plans for the throne?"
"No!" Trowa said so venomously she laughed.
"That's good for me I suppose," she stood from where she was sitting. "Let's hope this husband is as cute as you then."
Quatre was rightfully upset. First of all, yes, he was happy to have been rescued. After all, wasn't that why his well-meaning sisters had trapped him in that castle? But after all those years of reading nothing but those autobiographies of successfully rescued princesses, this weird pairing of heroes did not fit the description. Princess Aurora had clearly said there needed to be a kiss of true love, and Rapunzel was certain that there needed to be a horse. There just needed to be one. How was a victim expected to walk all that way when they had been restricted to their prisons for years on end? As it was, his rescuer hadn't even offered him a drink of water let alone a rest for his weary feet. At least the army of men now marching along with them seemed to be somewhat entertaining.
Duo was pretty cheerful considering. He was the last to admit it, but the vampire had made him slightly nervous. He was pretty sure that Heero wasn't going to try and eat him but it was always handy to have a back up food supply if things got out of hand and the prince looked pale enough and moved slow enough that Duo was sure he could outrun him if things looked bad. It didn't hurt that now they had forty-odd loyal bodyguards.
Heero was indifferent. He had the prince, the witch was quiet (finally) and his swamp was as good as his. Especially now that the plastic princess was gone for at least a few days. Just enough time for him to Relena-proof his home again.
Setting up camp that night proved to be a bit more troublesome then most people had wanted. Heero had insisted in putting as much distance between them and the discarded pile of skin and pleather as possible and no one was willing to argue with him.
Finally, Quatre put his foot down and they stopped just before nightfall. Duo and Heero found settling down for the night a strange affair. With over forty men the small clearing that had chosen was overrun with tents, fires and loud bodily noises in moments. Heero, frustrated and becoming slightly mad with hunger, disappeared into the forest. Duo, frustrated for purely Draconian reasons (or lack therefore of), climbed a tree overlooking the camp and moodily stripped bark off the tree.
All of the bodyguards tried to insist on toasting their new leader (several times) but Quatre begged them off until he finally managed to quietly slip away.
He hadn't gone far when a deep voice to the right stopped him.
"Where are you going?"
"H-Heero!" Quatre jumped. Guilty he looked at the ground as Heero stepped away from the shadows. "N-nowhere. The bathroom!"
"You're a long way out for the bathroom," Heero said and Quatre noticed something dangling from his hand. Curiosity got the better of him and he stepped closer for a look. Heero raised an eyebrow at his forwardness and held the object up so he could see better.
Quatre gasped at the dead rabbit and stumbled back a few steps. "What- why did you kill it?"
"I'm hungry," was all Heero said.
"Oh," Quatre stared at the dangling rabbit, noticing for the first time the steady drip of blood onto the ground. He licked his lips. Heero look hard at him for a moment before turning on his heel.
"You should stay by the camp," he said shortly and left. Quatre gulped.
Duo was getting quite fed up with all the noise below him. He had grown up with a coven, a single male in the midst of hundreds of females, and he had gotten used to the feminine chattering and gossiping and shrieking. This grunting, smelly mass of male bodies was starting to turn his stomach. Even the whole tree thing wasn't helping. He dropped from the branch and set out to put some distance between him and the horde of bodyguards. He found a nice enough clearing and flopped onto the grass, stared up at the stars and sighed contently. He closed his eyes.
He opened them when the smell of rich spices became too strong for him to ignore. Three inches from his face was The Dragon Wufei.
Duo screamed, a very good imitation of his pinkest sister, and shot straight up, slamming his forehead into Wufei's nose.
Duo scrambled to his feet while Wufei fell back on his heels, cursing and struggling to stop his nose from bleeding. Duo backed up and turned to run before curiosity stopped him.
"Are you okay?" he asked cautiously but didn't get any closer.
"Doh!" Wufei tried to shout. "Mbay dose is bloken!"
"Well you shouldn't have scared me!" Duo defended himself. Wufei glared.
"Dyou shoudent be so careliz," Wufei mumbled and pulled his hand away from his nose to check the bleeding.
"I'm perfectly safe," Duo retorted. He crossed his arms. Wufei hardly looked scary sprawled on the grass in the dark with blood down his face and over his shirt. "There's a whole guard of tough, strong men over there to protect me."
"Dhey didn't hear you scream," Wufei was sounding more coherent as the blood stopped. He wiggled his nose to make sure nothing was broken.
Duo ignored that. "Move your hands."
"Bwhy?"
"Because I said so," Duo felt like being bossy and grumpily Wufei pulled his hands away from his face. Duo stepped towards him as confidently as he could and crouched down to be level with him Wufei smirked and even with his nose swollen, blood all over his clothes and one silk slipper Duo's heart skipped a beat. He swallowed hard.
With a quick murmur and a hand wave the blood was gone leaving Wufei with only a tender nose. Startled Wufei's hands flew to his face.
"What did you do?"
"Cleaning spell," Duo beamed. "I learned it when I was eight. First time I've gotten it right."
"You used unstable magic on me?" Wufei squeaked out and his hands flew to check his face and shirt more thoroughly. Duo laughed.
"Don't worry; it would either clean or burn your face off," he pulled Wufei's hands away and leaned in. "And trust me. You don't look burned."
Wufei took the hint and leaned back on his elbows as Duo straddled his hips and took his face in his hands. With nothing but the moon and stars watching they picked up where they left off.
Wufei's hands went to Duo's waists, sliding up his shirt to touch bare skin. Duo jumped at the cold fingers, which sent his hips pressing harder to Wufei's stomach, and the Dragon grinned as Duo broke away to gasp. In retaliation Duo undid Wufei's hair. Wufei undid Duo's pants.
A few minutes later Wufei had Duo pressed against the earth with his shirt hanging off his shoulders as Wufei panted against his neck, his teeth scraping skin as they rocked against each other in frantic thrusts. Dou's hands trembled and clutched as Wufei's back as Wufei reached to pull his knees higher and squeezed his ass. Duo gasped and pulled him down for a deep kiss as Wufei slide his hands down the back of Duo's unfastened pants, pushing them lower and lower, stroking the skin that appeared.
Suddenly, like a flash, Wufei pulled away completely and scanned the tree line. Duo gasped and reached for his shirt to pull him back down.
"No!" Duo babbled. "Come on, we were just getting' to the good part!"
"He's here," Wufei growled. He glanced down at Duo who was flushed in the dark despite the cold and bent for a long, aggressive, possessive kiss. "Be careful of Quatre. Do not tell him I was here. I'll be back."
And with that Wufei darted off with a limp.
Groaning, the witch fell back onto the cold ground, feeling the heat sliding out of him. With a sigh he moved to fix his clothes.
"Duo!"
Duo nearly screamed again and pulled his shirt over his bare chest quickly. "Quatre!"
"What are you doing?" the pale prince looked shocked at finding the witch half naked and lying in the field. As most people would be. But Duo was ever quick on his feet.
"Uh, s-sky larding?"
"Larding?"
"Lacing."
"Sky lacing?"
"Uh, landing!"
"You're doing a sky landing?"
"Um, yes?"
"Do you mean a skylark?"
"Yes! Yes! A skylark! Naked witch dancing! Thank you!"
Quatre gave him a puzzled look but blushed as any sheltered prince would. "Oh. I'll just leave then."
"No, no!" Duo jumped to his feet and nearly tripped as his pants started to slide down. He yanked them up and buttoned them quickly. "I was, uh, just finishing up! We can go back together."
Needless to say, the awkward factor was through the roof as they walked back. Quatre refused to meet Duo's eyes but Wufei's words ran over and over in Duo's mind and it took all his self-control to not blurt out a question. Quatre finally broke the silence.
"So it's getting late," he ventured and Duo nodded. It was dark in the forest but the moon was bright enough to see by. "You should be getting some sleep."
"You too," Duo said graciously. "You must be tired from all this walking. I suppose you didn't get a lot of hikes in that castle."
"No," Quatre agreed. "But vampires don't sleep."
"What?"
"Heero! Heero's a vampire right?" Quatre's voice almost caught but not quite. This time he made a huge effort to avoid Duo's gaze. Duo nodded and tried to meet his eyes. In the whole eye-avoidance dance, neither saw the huge root until it was too late. They both tripped over their feet and flew face first into the dirt.
This time it was Duo clutching his nose and cursing in pain. "Gobbam mit!"
He was bleeding from his nose, hands and knees and he for one wasn't going to risk one of his spells backfiring on him. He glanced over to see if Quatre was okay. The prince was staring at him with a very odd look. Duo remembered vaguely the same look only it had been a few days earlier and on Heero's face. He scrambled to his feet, holding his nose. Wufei's warning hung ominously in the air.
"Oh Lok at da dime! Dnit ee dnit!" and then took off to the sounds of drunken singing that only moments before had driven him off.
Quatre and Heero didn't return to the camp until the final morning walk When questioned about his whereabouts Quatre waved them off with a smile and shot several sideways glances at Heero. Then he panicked when one of the men forecasted sun and conned another into lending him a ridiculously huge hat.
Duo was so distracted watching Quatre that he tripped and fell on his injured nose three times. Heero trailed sulkily in the back wondering if the 40 men horde escorting them through the forest would forfeit the deal of him getting his land back.
Quatre for his part was quite happy to flutter back and forth between the men just content to converse with someone that wasn't a dragon for once. However he never stayed with more then one person before floating over to another until he had chatted with them all. Duo watched as he drifted farther and father back to the edge of the group and separated himself from the crowd. Soon he was level with Heero. Duo sped up a little but kept twisting his neck back to watch.
Quatre was getting closer and closer to Heero who wasn't exactly backing off but before anything could happen Duo tripped on a huge root across the path and face planted into the dirt.
He stayed there, stunned, for a moment and no one took notice of him. It was, after all, the fourth time this morning and there was only so much interest people would take in him. Even Heero and Quatre passed him, Quatre talking in a low but cheery voice. Heero looked… not unhappy.
Not wanting to be left behind and finally getting some bearing back, Duo stood to hurry after them but an abrupt yank on his elbow sent him tumbling into a hard body hidden just off the path in the bushes.
Duo was ready to scream an alarm when he was cut off by a very insistent mouth and found his back pushed roughly against some bark and then found he had no interest in being discovered.
Wufei pulled back but Duo kept a good grip on his jacket.
"How do you keep sneaking up in a white coat?" was the only thing Duo could think of and Wufei sighed impatiently.
"Never mind that," Wufei said sternly. "You need to help me."
"Really?" Duo wagged his eyebrows in a very suggestive manner. "Is it a hard problem?"
Wufei growled and said, "You can't let Quatre reach the castle."
"Why the hell not? We fulfill the mission, the little vampire is happy, I'm not a hunted creature anymore, all is good in the world."
"It's complicated," Wufei said. "Quatre… is cursed."