Duo gave up staring at the wall and spent some time automatically sorting the filing into alphabetical piles. Being alone in the office, it gave his hands something to do while his mind continued to poke and prod at the horror in the woods. Poor Julie. A useless, meager thought, still it ran around his head a few more times. Poor Julie, poor Julie, poor Julie...
The police hadn’t talked to her yet. She was still off in la-la land somewhere, spouting nonsense even as her fingers flew over her yarn and stitches, and hats, scarves and blankets appeared as if by magic.
The sheriff’s department wanted to have all their little ducks properly lined up before they tried to talk to her. Her doctor knew, though, and was horrified. He also wanted some more time to talk with her, to see if she could be coaxed into talking about her mother and sister on her own.
The tests would take a couple of weeks, the detective told them. Was it called an autopsy, he wondered; if there wasn’t anything left to autopsy? He leaned his forehead against the smooth wood of the file cabinet and sighed. Maybe he should have stayed home today... He sure wasn’t very ‘present’.
“Duo?” A hand squeezed his shoulder. “Are you all right?” asked Enrique carefully.
“Yeah,” he said, straightening. “Just... you know... wondering about that guy. Wondering why... The usual.”
“I know. It is insane, it is impossible, and yet...” He shook his head. “I also wonder, but it is very likely we will never understand. That particular sickness seems to infect Humans alone.” He hooked his arm around Duo’s shoulders to give him a squeeze; Enrique had no fear of Heero’s anger. “Perhaps I can bring you something to take your mind off this terrible thing. Q has requested that you come to his office.”
Duo blinked. “Oh, crap. What’s happened now?”
The Elf smirked at him. “Nothing bad, I promise. He only wants to tie up some loose ends.”
Duo still didn’t look convinced, but Q didn’t lie to him and Enrique seldom bothered with even social lies.
Enrique kept his arm around Duo all the way down the stairs. The Banshee gave him a sidelong look, but didn’t try to pull away. Heero, Wufei and Trowa were gone today; the odds that they left without arranging replacement guardians were pretty much non-existent at this particular time. He sighed to himself, but truth be told, he didn’t really mind right now. If something happened, Teal would be at his side within minutes, but he’d spent a lot of time convincing his uncle that he didn’t need a keeper; really, he didn’t, and he didn’t want that effort to go to waste by freaking out over something as small as a summons to Q’s office.
He grinned to himself and slipped his arm around Enrique’s waist. Who knew that a warm body could be so comforting?
They reached the bottom of the tower and started across the square when Inazuma joined them. He slid up to Duo’s right side and mirrored Enrique’s arm-around-the-shoulders position.
“Hi, Duo!” He grinned at Duo’s expression and fluttered his currently-green lashes. “You’re just in time!”
The Banshee looked back and forth at the two elves, light and dark, both of them behaving in a strangely adolescent fashion. “Okay, what’s going on? It’s not my birthday, and I don’t for one minute believe that either of you could bring bad news with this much glee. So, what’s up?”
“Music!” cried Inazuma.
“Dancing!” exclaimed Enrique.
Sure enough, someone nearby was running scales on a flute and fine-tuning a violin. And it was indeed Tuesday morning, the time when the musically inclined of their community got together to play and socialize.
“Dancing?” he echoed hesitantly. The flute trilled and launched into a sprightly air, joined a few bars later by the violin. “What the....” The boom of a drum startled him.
The elves grabbed his hands, pulling him toward the flagstone ‘dance floor’.
“Come on, Banshee; I know you can dance!” laughed Enrique. Inazuma let go and Enrique swung Duo around and into something part waltz and part polka, skimming lightly around the floor. The musicians laughed, and several called to them. Other instruments began to come in. Duo had a hard time at first just keeping his feet under him.
“Are you nuts?!” he demanded of his friend.
“Of course! I must be nuts; I am dancing with Heero Yuy’s Chosen!” He leaned closer, lowering his voice. “Heero asked us to keep an eye on you if you seemed sad. Not that we wouldn’t anyway.” He spun Duo around, nodding his approval as the Banshee picked up the step at last and began to keep pace automatically.
“Is that the best you can do?” he teased. “I thought Banshees could *dance*!”
Duo snorted. He and Heero were going to have another little talk, but in the meantime.... “Just try and keep up, Elf!” He twirled Enrique and took the lead.
~*~
“You’re sure we aren’t late?” asked Duo for the third
time, climbing the steps to Q’s office. They had spent a good half hour
dancing, and even though Q was a fairly relaxed boss, he didn’t like to
be kept waiting.
“I’m sure,” replied Enrique for the third time. “In fact, he asked for you to be here at 1030; I came early because I knew you would be nervous.”
“Am I that much of a wuss now?” the Banshee muttered.
Enrique smacked his arm lightly. “You are nothing of the sort, silly infant! But you must admit, you are much more relaxed now; are you not?”
“This is true... Do you know what’s going on?”
“Yes, but I am not going to tell you,” he smirked.
“Some friend you are,” Duo snorted.
“It is a good thing; you will be happy.”
“You think so?”
“I know so.” They paused at the door to the office. “Go along now...” He nudged Duo gently through the door.
Raia beamed at him. “Right on time! I saw you dancing, Duo; may I claim a dance the next time we all go out?”
“Um... Sure,” he replied automatically.
“These silly Wizards can’t dance to save their lives, most of them,” she snorted. “Always staring at their feet and counting their steps, right before they step on your feet. He’s waiting; go right in.”
In spite of the reassurances, he opened the door apprehensively.
“Ah, Duo; right on time,” smiled Q, rising from his chair. “Come in; we have visitors.”
Duo blinked, noticing the strangers seated to the side of the massive desk. A man, a woman and two small children were getting to their feet.
“Duo, do you remember –“ began Q when Duo interrupted.
“Allen’s mother!” he exclaimed, recognizing the woman from the parking lot before the mall incident. “Oh...” he caught himself nervously, but the woman was smiling, and so was the man with her.
“Mrs Guinevere Graham,” finished Q without missing a beat. “And this is Mr Ian Graham and their children, Arbutus and Allen.”
Duo blinked again and suddenly Ian Graham was shaking his hand and Guinevere Graham was hugging him and both children were bouncing up and down excitedly and words were bubbling all over the room.
“– Thank you –!”
“– So grateful –!”
“– Scared to death –!”
“– Rescued my brother –!”
“– My baby –!”
“– Had no idea –“
“– Sheriff’s department finally –“
“– You were hurt –?”
“– That filthy pervert –!”
And then they were all seated, with the children gazing at him in wonderment, and Duo was hearing the woman’s side of the incident.
“Allen can’t manage the buckles yet to get it off, so I just knew someone had taken him. Muriel swears she only looked away for a moment, but it’s not her fault. She never imagined... *I* never imagined! Right in a store! Ten feet from all of us! Thank god you were there!” She babbled on while her husband just nodded his agreement.
After a polite length of time, Duo cleared his throat, fearing that his blush would lead to spontaneous combustion if it got any hotter. The worshipful stares of the children were beginning to unnerve him, as well. He wondered what nonsense the sheriff’s detectives had told them.
“I didn’t actually see him do anything...” he explained slowly into the ensuing pause. “I just bumped into him by those tables. He said something about tantrums and I probably would have been as clueless as anyone else, but then you screamed, and he got a funny look on his face... Kind of... anxious. I recognized you... and then I recognized Allen. And I remembered there weren’t any adult males in the parking lot with you. That’s when he punched me.” He glanced over at Q, who looked quite as eager as the Grahams to hear the story. He hadn’t actually told it to Q at the time; he’d been still upset when he and Heero returned home, and a few days after he’d just described the bare bones of the situation. Melting the car engine embarrassed the hell out of him and he still wondered when he was going to be called to account for all this unconscious mayhem.
“If I’d been more... awake or aware or something, I think I could have stopped him then, but the punch surprised me, and he took off. I’m really sorry Allen had to go through that; I should’ve noticed sooner that something wasn’t right...”
“Oh, Mr Maxwell; no! You saved him! Someone else might have just shrugged and let him go!” she cried clutching at his hand.
Her husband leaned forward then. “The sheriff’s deputy said you disabled the car with magic...”
“Um... Yeah... I did, kinda,” Duo admitted reluctantly. “I couldn’t let the guy get away, and I just couldn’t catch up to him. I’m fast, but he was... well, I guess he was pretty motivated, too. And I was watching him instead of where I was going, and fell over a bench,” he sighed, running his fingers through his bangs. “Still feel like an idiot for that one...”
“But you stopped him,” said Ian. “You stopped him and saved Allen. We wanted to thank you personally for that.” He glanced at his wife and she dug into a large tote bag. “We wanted to do something else, something more, and Mr Winner said that you enjoy yarn and beadwork...”
“We hope you’ll accept this,” said Guinevere, offering him a long envelope. “There’s no way to quantify what our children mean to us, but... Some kind of reward seemed appropriate.”
“You don’t have to *reward* me,” Duo protested, vaguely horrified at the very idea. “I didn’t do it for a reward; I did it... because I couldn’t *not* do it! I couldn’t let a child be kidnapped right in front of me! That would be just... just... *wrong*!”
“Duo,” said Q gently, and the Banshee turned toward him. “Mr and Mrs Graham simply want to express their gratitude in a tangible way. I told them about the things you make for various charities and suggested that perhaps they could offer some help in that direction.”
“But Q...”
“Trust me, Duo.”
Ian sat forward then. “Mr Winner explained that Magical Creatures might consider the offer of... well... compensation for a good deed to be insulting, but we don’t mean it as an insult; really we don’t.” He glanced at his wife. “Could we call it ‘positive reinforcement’ instead? Perhaps to make up for people who’ve forgotten how to say ‘thank you’?”
It just seemed wrong... People were supposed to look out for each other out of kindness and connection, not for-for *money*. He thought about it, though, since Q seemed to think it was all right, weighing his pride against their gratitude. He did want to make things for the year-end charities... and yarn did cost money, even if he had only the vaguest idea of that part. He didn’t want to spend all his income on yarn and it wasn’t right to expect Heero to fund his generosity... Maybe... Hmm... Maybe... He glanced at the two remarkably well-behaved children. Maybe they would like something as well...
He could even get more yarn for Julie. He had a feeling her industriousness had a lot to do with trying not to think about things, and if that were true, she might be even more in need of distraction once the cops talked to her. Yarn wasn’t cheap, according to some of the wide-eyed looks he’d seen on his friends’ faces...
“I think... since you put it that way... that I can manage not to be insulted,” he said with a tiny tentative smile. Q nodded his encouragement, smiling benevolently. Duo took the envelope and then didn’t know if he should open it in front of everyone. He glanced again at the Wizard for help and Q shook his head minutely, so Duo tucked the envelope into his otherspace. “Thank you... I do have a lot of things in mind to make and I’m sure this will go a long way towards that.” He decided then that such good children deserved some kind of reward of their own. “Would you allow me to give Arbutus and Allen something?”
Both adults blinked, but Guinevere said quickly, “Of course, but you don’t need to do that...”
“I have a niece a little over a year old; children shouldn’t be scared or worried about things; that’s what adults are for.” He happened to be storing some experimental things in his otherspace right now... With a flick of his hand, he produced two of them, a car-shaped pillow modeled after Heero’s car and a long knitted dragon that mimicked Wufei’s dragon phase, and offered them to the children.
Allen’s eyes lit up and he reached immediately for the pillow, until his sister poked him in the ribs. He started back and looked hopefully to his parents. When they nodded their approval, he accepted the deep red pillow-car with a huge grin and a remarkably clear “Thank you very much!”
Arbutus took the dragon eagerly and cuddled it happily. “Thank you very much, Mr Maxwell! I love dragons!”
“You’re both very welcome. But could you please call me Duo? ‘Mr Maxwell’ makes me feel... weird. It’s just a name I use in the Human world; Banshees don’t have last names.”
A disturbance in the outer office caught their attention. Q got to his feet and Duo turned toward the door just as it burst open and Heero stalked in, followed closely by Wufei and Trowa.
“Q!” Heero roared. “What is going on here?!”
Q opened his mouth to reply, but Duo got in first.
“Heero! Stop that! You’ll scare the kids!” he snapped. “What are you doing here?!”
Heero stopped short, blinking at the wide-eyed children. Wufei and Trowa hung back just inside the doorway, Raia an exasperated presence behind them.
“Um... Inazuma said you’d been summoned...” he said faintly. “You’re upset.”
Duo rolled his eyes. “No duh, Sherlock.” He waved a hand at the startled Humans. “We were just having a nice conversation, Heero. I appreciate that you worry about me, but honestly, I am hardly in any danger in Q’s office!” He gave the Wyvern and the Weres a hard look. “And you even brought back-up. Geez, guys...”
He turned back to the Grahams. “I’m very sorry; my friends are sometimes over-protective to a fault.” He crooked a finger at the intruders. “This vocal thing is Heero Yuy, my... boyfriend. Heero; Mr and Mrs Graham, Arbutus and Allen. Allen likes your car,” he murmured as Heero eyed the pillow.
“And these are my friends, Trowa Barton and Chang Wufei. Trowa, Wufei; Mr and Mrs Graham, Arbutus and Allen.”
The Weres looked at each other, at Duo and at Q. And smiled, broadly if a bit nervously.
Greetings were exchanged then, and with Heero’s initial rage cut off at the knees, things got a lot less stressful.
The adults chatted for a few minutes, then Duo announced that they really should get back to work, that it wasn’t fair to make the Elves do all their work.
A round of hugs ensued and finally the Magical Creatures were able to make a gracious retreat.
Q shook hands with the Grahams and thanked them for coming. He squatted down to shake hands with the children also.
“One question before you go,” said the Wizard smoothly to the adults. “Have either of you had a Witch or Wizard in the family?”
The Grahams exchanged looks. “Not that we know of,” said Ian. “Why do you ask?”
Q tipped his head minutely in Arbutus’ direction. “You do now,” he smiled.
~*~
Duo kept his smile in place until they were out of Raia's office and almost
to the stairs. Then he grabbed Heero by the collar, pulling the Wyvern's head
down to be nose to nose with him.
"Heero, what the fuck?!"
"Duo, angel..." Heero began.
Behind him, Wufei poked Trowa in the ribs and nudged him towards the stairs with a silent hiss. They had taken only a single step when Duo growled.
"You two stay put; I got plenty to go round," he snapped, not taking his eyes off Heero.
They froze in place. "I told you," Trowa whispered accusingly.
"I know!" grumbled Wufei.
"Dammit Heero! I'm not a little kid; I don't need a 24/7 babysitter!"
"But angel, you've been so upset -" Heero tried.
"And I'll be upset again! I'll probably be upset lots of times in my life! That doesn't mean I need a damn Elf hanging around my neck like an antidepressant insurance albatross! Honest to crap, Heero; I love you to death, but this has got to stop!"
He totally missed the flash of momentary delight in Heero's brilliant eyes.
"Chosen..."
"I spent seven damn years looking after myself and I did a pretty fucking good job of it. I had a bad month! One month! This isn't about me anymore; it's about Julie and her whole family. What happened to me is *over*! Am I not allowed to feel bad for someone else?! Are you going to try to dictate even my moods and feelings?"
"I'm sorry!" Heero blurted out, trying to make an opening in Duo's rant. "Chosen, I'm sorry... I just... I hate to see you upset."
Duo glared at him a moment longer before sighing heavily and resting his forehead against Heero's. "But I feel like such a pathetic loser whenever you do this... Heero, would you be treating me this way if I was another Wyvern? Or a Were-Dragon?"
Wufei strangled a snort; Heero was a damn alpha Dragon; of course he would look at everyone in the world as being in need of his protection. Didn’t Duo understand that yet? Trowa poked him and they exchanged glares.
"I... I don't honestly know," Heero admitted softly, nuzzling at his hair. "I just hate seeing you upset... for any reason."
"Geez... You are such a guardian!" Duo grumbled. Arms went around Heero's neck, giving him leave to wrap his arms around Duo's waist. "It's just... we were doing pretty well,” he murmured softly, “and then you freaked out on me again." He kissed Heero's cheek. "Good thing Enrique doesn't see any point in with-holding information from me. Try to get a handle on it, okay?"
Heero nodded, smirking. "Does this mean I don't have to hang out with Chang tonight?"
Duo punched his shoulder affectionately. "No, you don't have to hang with Chang tonight! Asshole."
Wufei and Trowa grinned at each other. Duo's anger seemed to have disappeared, leaving them safe this time.
"Now, about you two..." Duo turned toward the Weres, hands on hips.
"It wasn't my idea!" blurted Trowa, wide-eyed.
"You rotten cat!" Wufei protested, punching him in the shoulder. "You agreed!"
Duo folded his arms over his chest, glaring at them. "You were all in this together, right?"
Wufei huffed and turned his back on Trowa.
Trowa shifted on his feet guiltily. "Well... yes, I guess so," he admitted reluctantly. "Heero said you haven't been sleeping well... and since we all had to be gone... We were sort of talking about it while you were getting coffee... But Enrique and Inazuma volunteered to keep an eye on you! We didn't ask them!" He looked to Heero and Wufei for confirmation and received matching nods, however reluctant. "See? So it's not really our fault... Is it...?"
Duo snorted. "Trowa, you can't tell a lie to save your life. I'm gonna repeat myself here. Do not do this to me again. I mean it. You guys stick me with babysitters again and I will go Banshee on all your asses. You are worse than a pack of mother hens." He rolled his eyes. “Now, take me out to lunch; you two can buy," he ordered the Weres.
They breathed a sigh of relief and readily agreed.
~*~
After a companionable lunch at Duo’s favorite Chinese fast food place,
he and Heero went out together to check on some things. Wufei and Trowa went
back to the office, hoping to be able to rip a few holes in the Elves, but they
were disappointed. The two were gone, along with both Witches and Estaban.
Wufei snorted sourly and tucked his nose into a parchment. Trowa got a soda from the new refrigerator and headed back to his own desk. Along the way, he paused to give Elspeth, the tower cat, a chin scratch. When he sat down, he noticed that Wufei was now smirking. That was... scary.
“What’re you grinning about now?” Trowa asked cautiously.
“Duo made a Dragon,” Wufei said smugly.
Trowa rolled his eyes. “Oh, get over yourself!” he snorted.
“You're just jealous,” Wufei pronounced in that annoyingly officious tone he sometimes had.
”Of what? He didn't give it to *you*.”
“No, but it was very obviously made in *my* image.”
Trowa gave an exasperated sigh; the pissy Dragon would be positively insufferable over this. “And your point?”
“It was a Dragon. D-R-A-G-O-N. Duo made a Dragon that looks like *me*. Not a mangy old cat.” His smirk threatened to swallow his ears.
Trowa glared at him and growled. “That doesn’t mean anything! Just that he felt like knitting something new.”
Wufei tilted his chair back and propped his feet on his desk, lacing his fingers together behind his head. “It means he would rather knit a dignified, sinuous, elegant and *stylish* Dragon than a rumply old bag of fur. Ha!”
The clatter of boots on the stairs announced Duo’s impending arrival.
Wufei grinned toothily at the irritated Were-Puma. “Why not ask him yourself why he chose to immortalize me and not you?”
“Hey, guys!” cried Duo, all smiles now that his Chinese craving had been satisfied. “I stopped at the yarn shop; Danielle finally got in the special yarn I ordered. Trowa... which of these two colors do you think best matches your fur? I ordered enough of each; I can return the extra one,” he explained, offering the two balls of fuzzy golden-tan yarn to the surprised Were. “Wufei was easy to make, cuz he’s a regular color; everybody carries red, black and gold, but it took me weeks to decide on this for you.” He bounced eagerly as Trowa stared at the two shades of Puma gold.
A loud bang turned them both around. Wufei was on the floor, trying to untangle himself from the over-balanced chair and swearing in Chinese.
Trowa smirked and preened airily. “That’s true,” he snickered, “Dragons are such *common* things.”
Wufei stopped struggling and let the laughing Banshee lift the chair off of him. “Rotten cat,” he muttered under his breath.