Setting: Just after the AC-195 war. Possibly AU, but it’s worked in so it doesn’t warp the TV storyline.

Pairings: 3x4, 1+2 (possibly more to come)

Rating: NC-17 but this is a mild chapter

Warnings: Violence, possible OOC? lemon, angst. Several OCs but they don’t necessarily play a big part. Plus, if making Wufei into a bad guy bothers you, don’t read this. It’s not exactly the Wufei you’re all familiar with but… oh what the hell just find out.

Disclaimers: The only characters here that I own are both alter egos, Machiavel, Malvad, and Sarrow. Characters I don’t own include: Heero, Duo, Trowa, Quatre, Wufei, Zechs, Treize and any other good ones in fact.

Also, I would like to note that I am not Christian - anybody that wants to know why can pick one of two courses of action, either accept the fact that I’m a Mahayanist or email me and prepare for a very complex credo - and I’d like to add that this is just a story. If anything in it offends anyone, I apologize very sincerely.

Rough Peace - Part 1

‘Will he honestly believe me?’ Quatre wondered as he came to a stop and knocked on Duo’s bedroom door ‘it’s pretty far-fetched, even by a Gundam’s standards. But I’m sure Duo’s one of them, he has to be. My soul doesn’t lie to me so cruelly.’

He felt his heart flutter nauseatingly in his chest as his nerves caught up with him ‘but Gabriel was so vague… I don’t know. I want to tell Trowa so badly but I just don’t know how. Maybe if I don’t tell Duo and just tell him not to ask in too much detail until I’m sure he’s the one. Oh, who am I kidding, that gives far too much away.’

Quatre gasped as he heard Duo’s upbeat “Who is it?” from the other side of the door. He took a deep, shaky breath. “It’s R- uh Quatre,” he stammered and caught on his name with the anxiety of the situation, “Can I come in?” he squeaked timidly.

“Sure, c’mon in buddy!” Duo replied happily as Quatre opened the door with shaking hands, “What’s up? You look like you just had a conference meeting with the Grim Reaper!” he laughed happily, “You didn’t did you? You have business meetings with the weirdest people.”

The little blond was vaguely aware of laughing in reply, but the sound was drowned out by the pounding noise in his ears and the tingling in his skin ‘I didn’t realize this body would react so intensely physically to emotions… this is near unbearable.’ He ran his hands over his back, feeling the foot long ridges that ran parallel with his spine and felt a strange combination of further apprehension and reassurance.

‘Just say it, be confident and there’ll be no need to let him in on this until you’re ready,’ Quatre told himself, attempting to swallow the lump in his throat. “I was wondering how you are with really big secrets,” he said with a smile, wringing his hand in anticipation of what could turn out to be a very revealing conversation.

Duo smiled and patted the space beside him on the bed. Quatre gladly took up a seat and yawned to alleviate some pressure. “Depends,” Duo said thoughtfully, “Do you mean keepin’ them or tellin’ them?”

“Telling,” Quatre choked out, the lump in his throat reforming at an astonishing pace, “how would you break really big news to someone?”

“Hmmm… well since I don’t really have anything I don’t want people to know, if they ever found out, it wouldn’t be such a big thing,” Duo reflected, “What kind of big news is it? I won’t ask if you’re not wantin’ to tell me, but what sort of thing is this? Are we talkin’ about something pretty *bad*?”

Quatre hesitated and took another deep breath, “To some people it may be.”

“I see,” the braided boy replied comprehensively, “it’s like being gay, then. Not necessarily bad or good, just different. Right?”

“Right,” Quatre sighed in relief as Duo obviously understood him. “You see, Trowa and I have been talking about… um…” He felt himself go red in the cheeks at what he was about to suggest, “well, taking our relationship up a step, if you understand. But there’s something I need to tell him before I can. It isn’t necessary but I think he’d want to know.”

Duo rolled his eyes slightly as if he knew everything that Quatre was about to say. “This wouldn’t happen to be the fact that you’re a virgin, would it? Because, I hate to burst your bubble, but I think he knows that already.”

“No it’s not that… I mean, I *am* a virgin but that’s not what I need to say,” he paused for a second and attempted to slow his pulse. “I’d rather not… It’s no insult to you, Duo but this is something I’m not sure I’m allowed to tell you.”

“Allowed?” Duo enthused, “Allowed? You’re Quatre Winner! Head of your family’s estate. You’re the one that tells other people what to do, not the other way around. If you want to tell me, tell me. If you don’t, don’t. It’s all as simple as that,” he added, putting a hand on Quatre’s shoulder. “Now are you gonna tell me or not?”

‘I should, I really should… this is Duo I’m talking to, he’ll understand’ Quatre bit his lip and locked eyes with his friend who was smiling encouragingly ‘but this isn’t a question of understanding, it’s a question of accepting something as absolute truth when he has no reason to.’ “Simply hypothetically speaking, would you (‘Gabriel forgive me if I’m wrong’) believe me if- what’s the matter?”

The expression on Duo’s face had turned to sheer amazement and he was staring at his arms. Quatre frowned and looked at his skin; there was a distinctly disconcerting glow about it that he recognized instantly. He gasped in horror and leapt to his feet, “I… I… uh excuse me!” he said hurriedly, tripping over his own tongue as he ran from the room and one very bemused Duo Maxwell.

He slammed his bedroom door behind him as threw his hand to his mouth as he saw his image flicker in the mirror. His skin was glowing a dazzling white and he’d left feathers on the floor. “That was too close for comfort,” Quatre whispered to himself as he bent down to pick his feathers up off the carpet.

To be able to tell his friends of his divinity was one thing, but revealing himself to them was something he hadn’t planned on doing. He was wondering just how much of his identity Duo had seen before there was a knock on his bedroom door. ‘No prizes for guessing who that is’ Quatre thought to himself. He cleared his throat and took a few deep breaths to steady his appearance, “Come in.”

Duo stuck his head around the door and smiled earnestly, “You okay in there, buddy?” he asked as he leant against the doorframe and folded his arms. “Ya looked a little, um, ill. I mean if there is a sickness that makes your skin glow like that.”

Quatre stared at the floor uncomfortably under Duo’s influence.

“C’mon Quatre, what’s going on with you?” Duo asked in a gentle voice, “The guys are gonna get back any time now and if ya don’t at least give me the gist of this, I’m gonna get them to help me drag it out of you.”

The little blond fidgeted, knowing that the threat from Duo was very real. But at the same time, realizing that the Deathscythe pilot was only concerned about him. “It isn’t anything-” Quatre attempted to say that it wasn’t anything dangerous but it could well be. If he were summoned back round about now, it would mean there was serious trouble in Niravaana (1). And that would be beyond dangerous.

//Your love and three more of friends and peacekeepers// Quatre repeated the phrase over in his head, “That first part seems so obvious but that last turn of phrase contradicts what I thought it should be.”

Duo raised an eyebrow as his friend started whispering to himself. ‘What’s he doing now? Maybe it’s about a year’s worth of shell shock and jet lag finally caught up with the guy.’

“Duo, why did you fight?”

The braided boy hesitated for a moment. ‘Why the hell is he asking me this?’ “This might take a while,” Duo warned, “I guess it sounds hypocritical but, to put it quickly, I hate war. And it’s a weird way of doing stuff but I fought to end the whole thing quicker. If you wanna put it simply, I suppose I fight for peace as opposed to justice like Wufei does.”

Quatre paused for a second, “But… I thought Wufei fought for peace like we did?”

Duo shook his head and let himself in for another one of their lengthy conversations, “No, Wufei often says he would fight for justice even if the outcome and the means weren’t peaceful. So he doesn’t fight to end the fighting, he fights to end injustice. He’s no peace lover by any count.”

‘So that makes my solid count as being: Trowa and Duo positive but Wufei negative. So who are the other two?’ “I see,” Quatre replied solemnly, feeling disappointed that one of his closest friends had to be kept in the dark.

“Where’d these feathers come from, Q?” Duo said, bending down to pick a handful off the floor. “You burst a pillow or somethin’?” he ran his fingers over the feathers in his hand, they were soft like velvet. They couldn’t be real bird’s feathers but Duo was sure it wasn’t possible to manufacture something this fine and silky, the feel of it was almost supernatural.

Quatre decided to take advantage of Duo’s mesmerized state and quickly spoke up, “They’re angel feathers,” he interjected and then waited on tenterhooks for Duo’s reaction.

Duo looked up from the plumes in his hand and frowned deeply as it suddenly dawned on him. “Would I be completely off-base if I suggested they might be *your* feathers, Quatre? I thought so,” he added to the look on his friend’s face. Quatre suddenly felt as if he was going to throw up ‘What if he hates me?’

He buried his face in his hands and his heart began to pound again until he felt Duo wrap his arms around him. Quatre uncovered his face and gingerly leant his head on Duo’s shoulder. “You believe me?” the blond boy whispered incredulously as his friend rubbed his back.

Duo stepped back and held Quatre by the shoulders, “You’ve got no reason to lie to me Quatre. I can tell you’re being honest but…” Duo trailed off and sat down on the bed, “You’re gonna have to walk me through this.”

“What do you want to know?” Quatre asked, feeling the sickness and throbbing pains slowly ebb away when faced with Duo’s trust and affability.

The Deathscythe pilot gazed into Quatre’s azure eyes and gaped inwardly at what he was doing. ‘Okay, so I’m sat next to a real live angel, who just happens to be my best friend and probably has more than half the knowledge in the whole universe, and he’s asking me what I want to know. Wow, talk about indecision…’ “I guess I could go for the obvious and ask why there’s evil and suffering in the world.”

Quatre’s heart sank and he swiftly felt the sickness return, “Please… don’t…” he said quietly, feeling tears sting in his eyes, “I can’t answer those kinds of questions, they’re far outside my jurisdiction.”

“What does that mean?” Duo asked inquisitively, “how can angels have jurisdictions and limits?”

The blond angel sighed, “The angel choirs are ranked in throngs-”

“Ranked?”

“Yes,” Quatre nodded slowly ‘he looks horrified’ “there are nine orders, from seraphim down to simple angels, which is where I rank. If I fulfill the task of my namesake, I could become more than that, but it’s a very tricky classification.”

Duo scratched his head and screwed his eyes shut in concentration, “So… why are you here anyway? You’re not just down here for the scenery!” he laughed readily and opened his eyes again to take in the sight of a true divine body before him. “Hang on a second though,” Duo interrupted his own question, “I’m not saying I don’t believe you but… this is hard to take in without, I dunno, *seeing* something. Got any visual aids?”

Quatre nodded slowly ‘I know it’s safe to do this in front of him’ “You might wanna shield your eyes,” he said, getting to his feet to pull off his shirt. He sat back down and relaxed as much as he could under the circumstances and let his skin glow again. His skin prickled and it sent shivers down his spine. He loosened up the muscles in his back and felt the ridges next to his spine twitch and burst open.

He fixed his eyes on the floor before shutting them altogether as his skin shone too brightly to look at, he reveled in the warmth that slowly spread throughout his body, reaching every tip of his limbs. The feeling slowly began to fade and his skin calmed down to his flesh color, completing his transformation and thoroughly exhausting him. ‘It’s been far too long since I did this.’

Duo gawped at the sight facing him ‘I can’t believe what I’m seeing… Quatre, no this isn’t Quatre. I don’t know who the hell this is, it looks like Quatre just sprouted wings and a slightly gold glow. But there can’t be a god, there just can’t be. Not with how messed up this world is. Man my head hurts…’

Duo shuffled to sit closer to his friend and held his hand, “You alright you look, among other things, like you’re gonna pass out.”

Quatre nodded, “I haven’t had much practice lately,” he replied weakly. “I’m usually good at this but if I go for too long in my human form, it becomes very draining to transform. The first time I did it, I was unconscious for hours. I’ll be all right in a few minutes.” He paused for a while as Duo looked at him, absolute astonishment shining in his eyes. “So… what do you think?”

“Geez, where do I start?” Duo said quietly, “first of all, I’d say you’re probably the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.” Quatre blushed intensely. “And, to be honest with you, it almost feels unethical for a guy like me to be sat so close to you, let alone touching you.”

“Where did you get that idea?” Quatre asked, taking hold of Duo’s other hand.

Duo gulped and stared as the angel clasped his fingers around his hand, in doing so he noticed something weird to say the least, “Your scars have gone,” Duo remarked, running his fingers across the back of Quatre’s hand. “You had a big scar all the way down your hand to your wrist.”

“Oh… that was-” Quatre stopped as he heard the front door open and he leapt to his feet, followed closely by his recently enlightened friend. “Oh no! I have to change!”

“What? Why?” Duo asked quickly as Quatre’s wings involuntarily fluttered at the tips with his panic, “What’s wrong?”

Quatre quickly shut the door, “I can’t let Wufei see me like this!”

Whether Duo had been expecting Quatre’s next statement to be some sort of decent explanation or not, he wasn’t so sure, but all it did was confuse him. He settled to the fact that he wasn’t going to find out as Quatre switched his form back and then promptly collapsed into unconsciousness as Duo stepped forward to catch him. Duo frowned at the literal angel in his arms and shook his head ‘I hope Trowa doesn’t freak out at this.’

He picked Quatre up and set him down on the bed, taking a moment to brush the hair out of the angel’s eyes before throwing a blanket over him and slipping downstairs. “Trowa! You there?” he shouted along the hall and then came face to face with Heero. ‘Aww, dammit! I was doing fine until he showed up!’ he thought awkwardly but instead said, “Hey Heero! Mission go smoothly?”

The Perfect Soldier shrugged and tore his gaze away from Duo’s skin-tight clothing, “A few glitches but nothing major. If you’re wanting Trowa, he’s out with Wufei getting some food. For security purposes they had to go to some place about twenty miles away so they won’t be back for a long time.”

“Shoot, Quatre’s just passed out,” Duo explained, seeing a trace of concern flash across the Japanese boy’s face, “I think it’s just exhaustion but he looks really weak and I thought it might do him good to have Trowa with him.”

Heero frowned, “Exhaustion? What was he doing?”

Duo smirked, he’d pre-empted that about a millisecond before, “Exercising. He was in the gym and really wore himself out.” ‘It’s not lying, it’s not lying. He was in the gym earlier, I’m not lying.’

“But he’s just getting over flu,” Heero sighed, walking past Duo and going upstairs. “You should’ve told him to take it easy,” he remarked as the braided boy followed him.

‘For someone that doesn’t practice, I’m pretty good at this’ “I did, but you know Quatre, if he gets an idea in his head he’ll see it through,” Duo replied as Heero entered the little blond’s bedroom to check on him ‘if it’s technically true, it’s not a lie.’ Despite his justification, the violet-eyed boy could feel his heart racing with trepidation. ‘If I picked up on it, there’s no way in hell *Heero* is gonna miss something like this.’

Heero checked the Sandrock pilot’s pulse and breathing, “His pulse rate’s a little fast from what I can tell,” he said, stopping to pull his gloves off and then check it again. The Wing Zero pilot almost gasped as his bare fingers touched Quatre’s neck, the boy’s skin was as cold as ice, like there’d been a severe loss of blood to all his limbs.

He stood up and turned to glare at the Deathscythe pilot who took a step backwards. “Duo, what’s going on?”

“Uh… I… Aww Heero, please don’t make me do this,” Duo sighed eventually, “You know I hate dishonesty!”

Heero’s face softened and, despite his mental protest, he stepped closer to Duo, “What do you mean, Duo?” The braided boy could tell how serious Heero was being when he stared to use his name every time he asked a question. “Duo?”

The American took his worried violet eyes away from Heero and turned his back to him, “I can’t tell you so don’t make me lie.”

Heero hesitantly took another step towards him and put a hand on Duo’s shoulder. The Deathscythe pilot jumped at the contact and whipped around to face him, closing the proximity they were already in and inadvertently brushing their lips together.

Duo actively leapt backwards and shifted his eyes, looking for something else in the room to fix his stare on.

‘I have to get out of here’ Heero told himself as he felt his lower half start to react to the intimate contact with the boy he’d had a huge crush on ever since he met him. “Okay,” he said, attempting to end the conversation quickly, “just tell me it wasn’t anything… sexual.”

“What! No way in fucking hell!” Duo yelled, quickly casting his eyes to the bed to make sure he hadn’t woken Quatre, “What kind of slut do you take me for! I’d never do anything like that! Besides that fact, I’m still a vir… uh, never mind,” Duo trailed off ‘Why did I nearly say that? He doesn’t care.’

“That’s fine,” Heero murmured and made for the door, “I just wanted to… I mean because Trowa… sorry, it was very presumptuous of me.” The Wing pilot quickly fled to the room that he and Duo were sharing and sat on the bed.

Duo bit his lip, “So, I just need Trowa and Wufei to have a reason to run away from me today and that’ll complete the set.”

‘What is *wrong* with me!?’ he screamed in his head and threw himself back on the bed. ‘Hn. Adolescence, go figure.’ Heero covered his face with his hands and groaned in frustration. Why Duo? Why that braided baka? What was there to like about that hyperactive, frivolous, chatterbox of a pilot? He put his feet up on his bed to rolled over to reach his nightstand and pull the top drawer open.

He smiled slightly as he picked up the photograph of Duo that the braided boy didn’t know he had. Heero had dropped a sheet of paper behind the radiator one day and when he reached down to get it, the first thing he found was this old photograph of the object of his desire. Duo was about thirteen on that photo and he was pictured on the beach with someone Heero didn’t recognize.

From what Heero could gather about Duo’s past, it was his old friend Solo. ‘That must’ve been taken just before he died’ he mused ‘Maybe I oughta give this back to him… he looks so happy, have I ever seen him like that?’

Duo did seem a little happier right about then as Quatre came back round and opened his eyes. “Hey, Quatre,” he said in a very soothing voice, stroking Quatre’s face, “y’okay? You gave me a bit of a scare there, buddy!”

Quatre blinked several times and smiled weakly. “I’m okay Duo thanks,” he croaked and held onto his head, “uhh… did I black out? Oh boy, I *am* out of practice. You won’t say anything, will you?”

“Don’t worry that pretty little angelic head of yours,” Duo laughed, ruffling Quatre’s hair. “I’ll keep quiet, you just get some rest. You could do with the extra sleep, right?”

Quatre nodded and then frowned deeply as the braided boy took hold of his hand. He tightened his grip and felt Duo’s emotions flow into his heart, “Talk to Heero,” Quatre whispered, locking eyes with Duo. “You really like him, don’t you?”

Duo suddenly turned bright red and let go of Quatre’s hand, “Well… kinda, maybe, sorta yeah. Sometimes that space heart of yours is more revealing than I feel comfortable with. But you’re right, I guess I do. I don’t know why! He either completely ignores me or, when he does notice me, he treats me like shit! Sorry.”

“What are you apologizing for?” Quatre asked lightheartedly, “I don’t care if you curse. You’re not blaspheming, so it doesn’t bother me.”

“Blaspheming? You mean that whole, taking the Lord’s name in vain thingy?”

The angel yawned widely and rubbed his eyes, “Well, not exactly. Can I explain this to you later when I’m feeling a little more philosophical?” Duo laughed and nodded before getting up from his crouched position on the floor. Quatre grabbed Duo’s wrist as an afterthought and added, “Just promise me you’ll talk to Heero?”

“I promise to talk to Heero if you promise you’re gonna tell Trowa tomorrow,” Duo replied stubbornly. The little blond hesitated for a second before nodding. “Good, I’ll send Trowa up when he gets back. Relax, Quat. You’ll do fine.”

TBC……

(1) A spin on the traditional spelling of Nirvana, which I just stuck in as a quirky name for a paradise or a heaven thingy. Alright then, *you* think of a better name for it!

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