Title: Soul Mates

Author: Ah Hael

Genre: Alternate Universe, Supernatural, Angst, Romance

Rating: PG-13

Pairings: 2+5 (unfulfilled), 5xM and 2X4

Spoilers: None

Summary: Everyone hopes for that special someone that will be their "soul mate" and Duo meets his. Only he doesn't live in the same city, country or time?

Archives: http/ Nope, not mine. I checked, definitely not mine.

Special thanks: Thank you ever so much to Wulan of for helping me with the cultural and language gaps in this story and listening to all of my ridiculous questions.

Soul Mates – By Ah Hael

Prologue

Wufei

Foolish.

So incredibly foolish, he kept berating himself. He told himself he deserved every moment of discomfort his punishment was bringing. After all, he knew better.

His parents had been so pleased when Master Long had agreed to train him. His exploits were as close to legend as was possible in their region of China. Wufei too, was so eager to meet and learn from him.

Then he learned that not all legends live up to their names.

From the moment his master laid eyes on him and saw the unmistakable spark of intelligence, he seemed determined to crush it. No matter how hard he tried, he could never successfully hide his tendency to think independently.

Wufei quite clearly remembered hearing Long ask him to bring four buckets of water from the river at dawn this morning. The same as he did every morning of training.

Perhaps the Wufei had made the chore appear too easy or perhaps Long had planned on changing the amount to six buckets and simply forgotten to say anything to Wufei. Regardless of the cause, the young student was unable to stop himself from flare of temper when he found himself flat on his back after his master struck him for stopping before he was finished. He managed to stop himself before he said anything that would cause him more trouble, but the quick flash of anger was all it took.

So now here he was standing in the middle of the courtyard in the rain holding twin Dao in each of his hands straight out from his body. The flat of the butterfly swords facing up with a tea cup balanced on tip of each sword. And now he was to remain there until both cups were filled with rainwater. Shoulders aching, he'd already spent half of his morning waiting for it to even begin raining.

Reminding himself yet again what a fool he was and reaffirming that he would be more careful in the future kept his mind off the screaming in his shoulders.

It one point he tried to pull himself into a semi-meditative state to ignore the pain, but then he almost dropped the cups. He didn't dare try that again. On the positive side, the rain was now falling heavily. Certainly, he was freezing and soaked to the skin, but the cups would take very little time to fill at this point.

As if he sensed Wufei's almost relief from knowing the end of his punishment was near, Master Long stepped out of his house and looked at his pupil darkly. Wufei stopped himself from standing a little taller, pleased with himself that he successfully hid his willfulness when something unexpected happened.

It was as if his body was possessed by something else. His limbs began jerking uncontrollably like they didn't belong to him anymore and refused to take his commands. His last thought before darkness swamped him was that his master was going to kill him for breaking the tea cups.

Duo

Stupid.

How could he have been so stupid? Didn't he already know not to trust anyone who gave you something and never asked for something in return? After all it wasn't like Mr. and Mrs. G took in foster children out of the goodness of their hearts. Hell no. It had more to do with being paid by the government and getting free labor for their farm. It was a crappy gig, but it coulda been worse.

So why was he so stupid when it came to Solo?

Idiot! He thought he was so cool when Solo let him hang around with him and his friends. The Grafton's had a dozen foster kids on their farm and Solo and his gang were the coolest of the bunch. They always had little parties with soda pop and chips and stuff and Solo even had his own gameboy that he let Duo play. Sometimes they even had drugs, but the joint he tried made him feel ill so he stayed clear of them after that.

It never occurred to ask where everything came from. Stupid.

He supposed they just stole the food and a few other things for cash. Solo waited until the Gs had gone into town to tell him what they really wanted of him.

It was time he started helping pay for their parties.

It was all he could do not to throw up on Solo when the older boy told him he knew a guy that would pay seventy-five bucks for a virgin.

Seventy-five bucks. Duo knew he wasn't worth much, but he did know he was worth more than seventy-five frickin' dollars! The other boys in his little gang even had the balls to go so far as to say that maybe one day he could buy his own gameboy.

Even years later, long after gameboy had advanced to have color and went through several more evolutions, just the sight of them or hearing the name would always be accompanied with a shudder of revulsion tainted with shame.

He was just lucky it was raining. When they started to get mad at him the mud helped him wriggle free and lazy as they were, Solo and his gang didn't seem to want to try looking for him too hard if it meant they'd get cold and wet.

All he had to do was just hide out until the Grafton's came home then he could find his way out of this. He really hated the thought of being a tattle-tale, and he would try hard to avoid it, but if it came to that it was a hell of a lot better than… ugh… the alternative, which just made him want to barf forever. Duo almost started crying when he heard the sounds of Mr. G's truck splashing through the puddles on the gravel road.

Time crept by painfully waiting for the truck to make its way up to the road almost to the house, but he couldn't leave his hiding spot too early. He had to wait until he could see the Graftons and more importantly, they could see him. He figured none of the other boys would try anything if there was a chance of adults seeing them.

Making a break for it, he ran as fast as his legs would carry him. A flicker of movement caught his eye and his heart lodged in his chest to see Solo moving to head him off with two more of his buddies coming in on the other side. Guess they had the same thought.

Quickly judging their position to his, he knew he was going to make it. He even saw Mrs. G look up at him in surprise watching him run at her like a rampaging bull. Then for some reason his body stopped doing what he told it to. It jerked to a halt, and started spasming while his momentum made him fall flat on his face.

Solo was going to kill him for sure.