DRAGON BAIT

Chapter Ten

In the dark alley behind the church, Heero resumed dragon shape so the two of them could leave Griswold without having to wait for the gate to open in the morning.

\"Please try not to pull my arms out of my sockets Heero.\" Duo grumbled. With his back to him, he couldn*t tell whether he*d already changed into a dragon and couldn*t answer or if*still human- he simply chose not to.

In another moment he felt Heero*s talon*s wrap gently around his waist, enclosing him. He felt a twinge of panic and dug his fingers tighter into the bundle of his clothes, but he didn*t have to time to shut his eyes before his feet left the ground.

With slow, powerful beats of his wings, Heero carried him up, higher than the town walls, higher than the trees, higher than te church steeple. At first he was disoriented, looking down on everything from the air, trying to make sense of half-familiar streets and buildings dimly lit by candles and torches and hearth-fires, till his eyes began to cross and dizziness bubbled up in the space behind his eyes. *As soon as my stomach catches up to the rest of me, I*m going to be in serious trouble,* he thought. But in another moment they*d left the town behind and were in the countryside and higher yet. Now the ground was too far away and too unreal to be frightening. Heero stretched his wings to catch and updraft, and fields and woods unrolled beneath them as he glided effortlessly on air currents. His grip around Duo*s waist was firm without being painful, and already steady enough that he didn*t worry about slipping loose. At the speed they were traveling the rush of the wind past his ears was deafening. Still, by the time he saw Heero was getting closer to the ground, he suddenly realized how disappointed he was at that thought. He laughed out loud at himself, and the sound was strange to his ears and, a moment later, was left miles behind..

With his feet once more on the ground, Duo again found himself dizzy, but this time it was a giddy-pleasant sensation. He let Heero*s clothes drop to the ground so that he could hold his arms out and spin around, with his face up to the stars, wishing he could hug them to himself. \"That was wonderful!\" he announced. \"I love flying!\"

He let himself fall to the ground and lay on his back watching the sky spin above him.

When things were finally standing still in their proper places again, he pointed up to a dark wisp of cloud shrouding the moon. \"Next time\"- he giggled- \"if there is a next time- wouldn*t it be fun to fly through a cloud-like diving into a big pile of unspun wool?\"

Heero sat down beside him to pull on his boots. \"You can*t feel them.\"

Duo rolled over an propped himself up on an elbow \"What do you mean? Are they too high up for you to reach?\"

Heero shook his head. \"I can reach them. But they don*t feel like anything. Well,\" he amended, \"some of them are a bit damp. What*s the second part of your plan?\"

Slowly Duo sat up and made his was onto Heero lap. With a smile Duo leaned down to press his lips lightly on Heero*s own as his hand trailed up under Heero*s shirt. Heero chuckled and shook his head before holding the boy closer to him.

\"The plan Duo.\"

Giving a sigh Duo pouted and took his time to look around the are. The silhouettes of the hills to his left were suddenly familiar, and he realized Heero had brought them to land just a short walk from the village of St. Toby*s. He rubbed his chilled arms and smiled as Heero held him closer.

\"I don*t think.\" he admitted, \"I*ll be able to use the same disguise as I did in Griswold. I*ve lived with these people all my life, and they would recognize me even in drag.\"

\"All right,\" Heero said equably.

He sat looking at him and he laid back looking him.

\"Well?\" Duo finally asked.

\"You wanna do it?\" asked Heero and Duo*s face turned as red as his dress and he shook his head.

\"Why wait until now to ask? Why not when we had a bed?\"

Heero chuckled and hugged the human closer to him.

\"I*m joking Duo. You think I would really think to take you out here? Lets get back to your plan little one.\" he paused when he remembered what Duo had said, \"Assuming we can work around people recognizing you, what would you like to see done?\"

Duo considered. \"Trieze wanted my father*s land so othat he could expand his own shop. His wheel working is very important to him. I think I*d like to see him lose his shop, ruin his reputation.\"

\"Easy to do. What about the daughter?\"

Duo remembered the glee with which Relena had embellished the false accusations her parents had made, and how she*d suggested burning Duo at the stake. Duo felt a tightness in his chest and was suddenly finding it difficult to breathe. \"I want her to be accused of the same thing I was, to know that she*s innocent and to have nobody believe her. I want her to be just as scared as I was.\"

Heero smirked. \"And the mother?\"

Duo jumped to his feet. \"I don*t know,\" he cried. \"Its not going to work anyway. They*ll recognize me as soon as they see me. Why are you doing this?\"

The dragon-youth looked at him calmly, and whether he was considering the nature of clouds or thinking that he could have saved himself a lot of trouble by eating him on the mountain that first night, Duo couldn*t guess.

Heero said, \"It*s not that late. I*ll go to the village now and tell Trieze that I need a wheel for a farm cart. Then, tomorrow, we*ll both go to the village.\" He kept on talking though Duo had started to shake his head. \"We*ll place a bandage around your head and face so taht nobody can get a proper look at you, and tell them your jaw is broken so you can*t talk. I*ll tel them you were injured when the wheel we bought from Trieze broke. That way we*ve already started to chip away at his reputation AND we*ll say that we have nowhere to stay so Trieze-feeling guilty- will have to put us up.\"

\"Trieze has never felt guilty about anything in his life,\" Duo said.

Heero shurgged, and indication, Duo supposed, that they*d worry about that when they came to it.

Duo once again tipped his face up to the night sky, annoyed that Heero could take all this so lightly. \"The rest of it could work,\" he conceded.

When Heero didn*t answer, Duo looked and saw that he*d never waited for his decision but had already started walking toward the road that leg to St. Toby*s . Duo had to run to catch up. \"Am I suppose to wait here, or what?\" he demanded.

\"Your decision,\" Heero said, \"Though I*d have thought you*d be interested.\" He was making it sound as though he*d been wheedling not to go.

\"That*s not*Oh, never mind.\" With Heero*s longer stride, it took all Duo*s breath just to keep up without looking like a silly little puppy.

Heero stopped walking causing Duo to run into him.

\"Oi! Why did you stop?\" Heero smirked at him from over his shoulder before swooping the beautiful boy into his arms. \"This will make it easier for you.\"

\"Through the woods here.\" Duo pointed to where the road began the final curve before the village.

They stayed to the perimeter of Zech*s pasture so that the trees would hide them from anyone looking out a cottage window, for the moon was full, and the night was bright. Then they cut across the corner of Wilfred*s wheat field and so came upon St. Toby*s from behind.

\"This is as far as I dare go,\" Duo whispered and Heero set him to the ground so that Duo could crouch between rows of black currant bushes to make himself as small as possible. Heero stooped down also, resting his hands on Duo*s shoulders to look beyond him where he pointed. \"That*s Trieze*s house, the one with the wagon wheel by the right hand corner.\" Candlelight peeked out through the chinks by the window, though it must be getting close to bedtime. Next dook, dark, was the house in which he*d been born and hand lived all his fifteen years. Loneliness-the yearning for his father, for things to go back to the way they had been-swept over him. The house was close enough that-except for the fear of being seen-Duo could have run up and touched it in the time he would need to count to twenty.

Upon seeing Duo*s misery Heero brought him into his arms and placed a kiss gently on the top of his head. \"I am sorry if this is bringing up bad memories for you. Is there anything I can do to help?\" With a long sigh Duo pressed his cheek to the broad chest.

\"You are already doing more for me than anyone ever has. If you*re going to be telling them that you*re-we*re-from one of the farms between here and Griswold, you*d better circle round to the front and approach openly.\"

Heero gave him a cold look which could have meant that he*d thought of that already, or that Duo was being too loud, or any of a dozen other things. Without acknowledging his suggestion, without even standing, he moved back and disappeared between the bushes. Only he could have made such a move look graceful. If he himself had tried it, he*d have pitched forward onto his face.

Eventually Duo gave up trying to catch some telltale movement or rustle to betray Heero*s passage, and he sat down to wait, trusting that there was no reason for him to abandon him here. He propped his chin up on his hands and enjoyed the quite of the night and the reassuringly familiar smell of good farming earth. He found his head beginning to nod when suddenly he caught sight of Heero approaching Trieze*s house, walking next to Treize*s wife. Presumably Une had been out late visiting one of the households on the edge of the village when Heero had entered, and she must have offered to guide him to her husband*s wheelwright*s shop. But to Duo*s dismay, he realized that while he could see well enough, he could hear absolutely nothing.

All unsuspecting. Une lead the dragon-youth to her door. She turned back to say something to him-Duo could see that flash of her smile in the moonlight-then she went in while Heero waited outside, never glancing in Duo*s direction. Trieze came out, and in agony of frustration he watched the two of them talk. Trieze kept shaking his head, but after a few moments, he entered his shop, and Heero sat down on the ground, leaning his back against the wall. That had to mean everything was going smoothly. Didn*t it?

The back window opened, and daughter Relena dumped out a pan full of water before securing the shutters again.

Une cam eout of the house carrying a steaming bowl, presumably left over from supper, and handed it to Heero.

*Hmph!* thought Duo, who had never gotten a free meal from Une despite the nearly dozen wheels he had his father had paid Trieze to make

Une went back inside and Heero turned in Duo*s direction to hold up the bowl and stick out his tongue which made Duo smile at the very un-Heero like antic.

Heero tossed pieces of whatever it was Une had given him out into the street, where a suspicious, but apparently half-starving, dog gobbled them up, coming closer and closer, but warily.

*Aww! That*s was certainly kind of him* thought Duo.

Une came back out, fanning herself with her hand as though the house was too warm, which Duo didn*t believe for a moment. He*d seen the way the women Griswold had looked at Heero, and even from far away he could recognize that Une was giving him the same look. *Why that fucking slut! How dare she try and hit on Heero! She*s married!* thought Duo angrily as he stuck his nose in the air, *Besides, I*m so much more better looking than she is.* Just than a thought struck Duo and he blushed, * I hope I don*t look that goofy when I look at Heero. Shit. Now I*m going to have to try and keep myself in check!*

Trieze came out of the shop, rolling a wheel before him. Heero returned the bowl to Une, no doubt with his usual charming smile. Duo could see him pay Trieze, then lift the wheel up onto his back and start off down the road to the outskirts of the village.

Duo drawled along the row between the bushes, then cut off through the wood to meet him just beyond where the road curved.

Either he heard him coming despite the fact that he had deliberately moved as quietly as possible, or being a great hulking dragon had given him steady nerves, for he didn*t flinch when he jumped out behind him and glomped onto his waist.

\"Heero, I couldn*t hear a thing,\" he told him, still holding his waist as they walked, \"What did they say?\"

Heero positioned himself so that he was facing the direction of St. Toby*s. He set the wheel down on its edge and looked over his shoulder at him. \"The shop closes at sundown and I have a lot of nerve interrupting a hardworking man*s rest.\"

Duo walked around to glance at the meaningfully at the wheel. \"Obviously something changed his min.\"

\"The wife.\"

Duo snorted. \"I can imagine. Stupid wench.\"

Heero seemed to shift intent between the breath he took and the words. \"Is there something specific you want to argue about, or are you just being generally unpleasant?\"

Duo squirmed before bringing himself to Heero*s side and glomping him again. \"I just don*t like the thought of that icky woman touching you is all.\" Heero shook his head. \"She didn*t touch me.\"

\"Would have if she got the chance. They didn*t seem to suspect anything did they?\"

\"No.\"

\"Une seemed in a rare talkative mood. What did she say?\"

He looked beyond Duo as though to make sure no one from the village had followed. \"ALL of it?\"\" He sighed.

Duo smiled. \"Just the important parts.\"

\"There weren*t any important parts.\"

This time Duo laughed, and Heero*s attention shot back to him. \"She was flirting with you,\" Duo explained lest Heero thought he was laughing at him. \"She liked you. Its kind of like what I do to you when I feel flirtyious.\" (That probably isn*t a word but just go with it.) Heero looked down to where Duo was joined to his side.

\"She didn*t do that. In which I am quite grateful for.\" Heero*s _expression changed to thoughtful innocence, he looked back towards St. Toby*s and said, \"Maybe we can use that against her.\"

End Chapter Ten