Teena: Wow... I finished this part really fast... Duo's here, yay.

CNShini: *cackles evilly*

Duo: Uh-oh... Damn cat...

Danse Macabre-Part 5

"Duo!" Quatre gasped, putting away his gun. Anita lowered her own gun,
grinning wryly.

"You sure can call 'em, Taichi."

"Duo! Get in here and let me see it. What the hell have you done to
yourself now?" Heero snapped, putting his gun away and stepping forward.
"Anita, go get a first-aid kit."

Anita ran into the back room as Duo stepped forward with a resigned air.
His left forearm was covered in a makeshift bandage, apparently torn from
his white undershirt. "Man, how do you always KNOW? But it was NOT my fault,
I didn't do anything this time!"

Quatre hurried over right behind Heero, eyes wide with concern. "Duo, what
happened?"

Duo started to explain, wincing slightly as Heero untied and peeled off
the strips of fabric covering his arm, revealing several very deep gashes.
"I was staying in shadows and alleys, you know, staying out of the way and
out of sight, when this fucking huge black cat just JUMPS on me outta NO
where! Thing tore my arm up, you can see that, and I was trying to get the
damn thing OFF. Weird thing, I was landing some really hard hits on the
thing, it just shrugged it off, then my cross fell outta my shirt and hit
it on the nose, and the thing just yelped and ran off."

Heero cursed under his breath as he took the first-aid kit from Anita,
opening it. "Didn't you tell me once that your cross is pure silver?"

"Yeah, sure, what's that got to do with anything?"

Heero, Anita, and Jean-Claude exchanged meaningful looks, and Edward
frowned. Heero started to clean the gashes on Duo's arm, lips pulled into
a thin line. "Do I have to be with you every MINUTE, just to keep you out
of trouble? If you really believe in your God, you'd better pray hard,
Duo. This is very bad."

"C'mon, it's just a couple of slashes, I've had way worse than that."

"No, you haven't. Believe me," Heero told him, threading a needle. Duo's
eyes widened.

"Hey, you are NOT going to just stitch my arm up without anything for
the pain! I'm not like you, I can't set my own leg and just walk away!"

"Duo, shut up. We don't HAVE anything for the pain. Stop acting like
a whiner and deal with it."

"You have absolutely NO compassion, Hee-chan..."

"Duo, don't CALL me that."

"Pissing off the person about to shove a sharp needle through your skin
probably isn't a good idea," Anita chimed as she strolled over to Edward.
Duo winced.

"Thanks for reminding me... Who ARE these people, anyway?"

Jean-Claude stood up from his perch on the corner of his desk, walking
over. "I am a very old friend of Heero's. The rest can be explained after
your injury is dealt with."

"I didn't know Heero HAD any old friends..." Duo muttered, shooting a
quick glance at Heero, then looking away when he saw Heero test the point
of the needle on his finger. Heero sighed and looked up.

"Duo, look at me."

Automatically, Duo turned his head to look Heero in the eye. "What?"

Heero reached out with his power, his eyes turning into drowning pools
of blue, and Duo's face went blank. Outwardly calm, Heero took Duo's arm
and started to stitch the worst gashes quickly. Quatre blinked.

"Heero, what did you do?"

"I gave him something for the pain," Heero answered simply, continuing
to work. "It's only light trance, and I'm not going to bite him, so it
won't leave any lingering traces. I didn't feel like listening to him
whine and bitch the whole time."

Quatre gave Heero a knowing smile. "You mean, you don't like to see
Duo in pain."

"Oh, shut up..."

"You realize, when he wakes up, he's going to want to know what happened,"
Quatre pointed out.

"You heard Jean-Claude, 'the rest' is going to be explained after his
injury is dealt with. 'The rest' includes the truth about me."

Anita looked up from her discussion with Edward, face grim. "Does 'the
rest' also include the implications of his injury?"

"Yes. I'm almost looking forward to seeing how he'll react to finding
out he's going to turn into a black leopard once a month."

"He might not. Cat-based lycanthropy is one of the less contagious forms,"
Anita told him matter-of-factly. Heero shot her a wry grin.

"If he's still here at full moon, he'll change. I think he would've been
born a wereleopard if he'd been in a more magical dimension."

Quatre laughed softly. "It does suit him, doesn't it? Do you think he'll
be okay with it?"

"Actually, it might be a moot point. Hopefully, we'll be gone before the
next full moon, and if he hasn't fully changed when we go back, your less
magical dimension probably won't allow him to," Heero said as he tied off
the last stitch. Edward glanced over, interest grabbed.

"Excuse me?"

"Right, you weren't here for that discussion. Sorry, Edward," Anita said.
"Taichi... Uh, Heero... can go between dimensions. He and his friends got
dumped here by accident."

"Interesting coincidence..." Edward mused. Heero shook his head.

"I think the rift homed in on the fact that I belonged somewhere else, so
it dumped me, and everyone in the rift with me, in my home dimension. Now,
landing here, where Jean-Claude is the Master, THAT was an interesting
coincidence."

Jean-Claude smiled faintly. "Perhaps it is fate, mon ami. Perhaps it is,
as you say, an interesting coincidence. Either way, wake up your amour,
and let us explain things to him."

"Jean-Claude, he's not my-"

"Don't make a liar out of yourself, Heero," Quatre interrupted, grinning.
"You know you do, I know you do, I think the only one who DOESN'T know is
Duo. And possibly Wufei, but you know how HE is."

"Dammit, Quatre, why are you so pushy all of a sudden? If you've got any
stupid ideas about playing matchmaker, just forget them."

Quatre just stared at him angelically. Heero muttered something under his
breath in Japanese, then released Duo. Duo blinked, looked around, looked
down, and stared.

"Hey... When did you do that?"

"They'll explain," Heero told him curtly, heading for the door. "I'm going
to get something to eat."

"But Heero, you already..." Quatre trailed off as Heero glared at him, then
shook his head as his vampire friend walked out. "Poor Heero... This is so
hard for him..."

"Quat, what is going ON here?" Duo asked plaintively, running a finger
lightly over the neat stitches on his arm. "And why is Heero wearing that
outfit, not that I'm complaining, of course."

"Well, I haven't got a clue about the clothes, he was wearing that when
he came to get me, but I think I pretty much understand what's going on."

"Heero has dressed like that for as long as I have known him," Jean-Claude
interjected. "I think it is meant to be a challenge, or a taunt."

"To who?" Quatre asked, brow furrowing lightly. Jean-Claude shrugged.

"Those who once passed him around like a pretty toy. He has always been
bitter about his past."

"And you're just SO philosophical about yours," Anita quipped sarcastically.
Jean-Claude simply shrugged again.

"I am much more accepting than he. I have reached a position of power,
and I no longer feel I have anything to prove. I have let go of my past,
but he carries his with him."

"Well, he can't have THAT much past to carry, I mean, he's only 16," Duo
said, looking concerned. Quatre rubbed his neck, looking at Jean-Claude.

"Duo... That's one of the things we need to tell you. Heero ISN'T 16."

"Huh? Well, that was only an estimate, I figured we were all around the
same age."

"Not even close, I'm afraid," Quatre said. "Jean-Claude, how old IS
Heero?"

"I'm not entirely sure. He was already over a thousand when I met him
almost two hundred years ago. He was never specific about when he was
born."

"NANI?!! You guys are yanking my chain, right? I mean, that's impossible!
Humans just don't live that long!"

"That's the POINT, Duo," Anita said. "Your friend isn't human. He's a
vampire, just like Jean-Claude."

"Uh, look, ojousan... Heero called you Anita, right? There's no such
thing as vampires."

"Not where YOU'RE from. But you're not where you're from. This is a
different dimension altogether, and here, magic is real."

"But that's ridiculous! How could we be in a different dimension?"

Quatre laid a hand lightly on Duo's uninjured arm. "Duo, calm down.
It's the truth. You accepted my uchuu no kokoro, and I recently found
out it's more than I thought it was. Heero IS a vampire, but he's still
Heero."

"Quat, YOU believe all this? ...Are you sure?"

Quatre tilted his head and tugged his shirt collar out of the way, showing
two small puncture wounds on his neck. "I'm sure. I fed him earlier today."

Duo reached out slowly and touched the small wounds, pulling back when
Quatre winced. "So... Heero did that? Hold on, when he left, he said he
was going to get something to eat..."

"He was lying," Quatre said, shaking his head. "He didn't want to be here
when we told you."

"Huh? Why?"

"Basically? He's terrified you won't like him anymore," Anita said, rolling
her eyes. "I never MET a Master so concerned about whether people like him.
It's almost refreshing. Most Masters care more about power than friends."

"Anita, as interesting as this venture into vampire psychology is, I have
a job to do," Edward interrupted, leaning against the wall. "Are you going
to ask him or not?"

"I was getting to it, Edward... Look, Duo, do you know where you were when
the leopard attacked you?"

"Yeah, sure. I saw the street sign... Gimme a pen and paper, I'll write it
down," Duo said, shrugging. Jean-Claude took a pen and notebook off his
desk and handed it to Duo. Duo thought for a second, then wrote down the
street name. "Thing's probably long gone, though."

"Yeah, but now I know it's here, and it might have left a trail. When I
took the job, they told me it'd gone completely insane, so it might not
be trying to hide it's tracks," Edward said calmly, taking the notebook
and ripping out the sheet with the name.

"Insane? Edward, you did NOT tell me that, dammit! You just told me it
was a rogue from another state!"

Edward shrugged. "You didn't need to know. I can handle it, no problem."

"Edward, you are a secret-keeping bastard. Get out of here and find that
thing before it kills somebody," Anita snapped. Edward gave her a quick,
mocking salute.

"Yes, ma'am," Edward replied before turning and walking out. Anita called
after him.

"And if you see Heero on your way out, tell him to get back up here!"

"Can everybody stop going on tangents and just EXPLAIN what the HELL is
going on to me now?" Duo asked, dropping into a chair. Quatre sighed,
settled into another chair, and began to explain exactly what had brought
them there.

tbc...

Duo: You rotten little BASTARD!! *trying to throttle CNShini*

Teena: You object to being a wereleopard that much?

Duo: *still holding the cat by the throat* Not really, but I can't pick locks one-handed, and I really HATE getting stitches.

Teena: *sighs* Put him down. We have our differences, but I sort of need him for this fic.

Duo: *pouts, but puts CNShini down*

CNShini: Heh... Full moon's only a week away...

Teena: Seriously? That soon? Heero better work fast...