Another little snippet...

[calic0cat]

Sorry it's so short - blame it on my brother and his wife, who gave me Civilization IV for my birthday. I'll try to resist getting sucked in quite as badly as I did with the previous Civ games. At any rate, as a "Thank You" for all the "Happy Birthday" wishes sent my way, here's the next scene...


***

Duo leaned against the closed lower half of Scythe's stall door and spoke softly to the horse. "Hey there, boy." The horse flicked an ear in his direction but kept eating. Duo clicked his tongue sharply several times, and Scythe finally turned and came towards him, but not before grabbing a large mouthful of hay to bring with him. Chuckling quietly, Duo reached out and scratched beneath his forelock, right over the narrow crescent of white. Scythe bobbed his head, pressing into the contact.

Keeping his voice low, Heero murmured appreciatively, "He's a real beauty." He approached slowly and cautiously, joining Duo at the stall door.

"That he is," Duo agreed, drawing his hand back as Scythe's head went up and his nostrils flared at Yuy's approach. The black retreated to the far side of the box, watching them warily. "He's a prime bit o'blood - jumps like a deer, runs like the wind, loves the thrill of the hunt - but he can be a real devil, too. He was handled badly before I bought him, and it left its mark. Can't even *carry* a crop around him. He's better than he was, but still can't really be trusted, even in here." Duo shrugged matter-of-factly. "But, he can be a damn sweet goer, and I think his temper's learned, not bred. Mayhap we'll try him at stud, see what his get's like."

Heero propped his folded arms on top of the lower half of the stall door, his shoulder very close to Duo's. "You hunt him?"

"With the local Hunt? No." He hesitated, half-tempted to let Yuy make the obvious assumption. No, better to be honest, he decided, unfashionable though the truth might be. If Yuy couldn't accept it - well, that would be that. It wasn't a negotiable point for him. "I don't ride with the hunt. Spend a whole damn day racing neck-or-nothing across the countryside after a wretched fox, and for what? Just to watch the dogs tear it to shreds if and when it's caught?" He shook his head. "It's cruel and pointless. I don't need an excuse to ride."

Heero hadn't ridden with the Hunt in years. His father had forbade it after his grandfather had brought him home from his first hunt as a too-young boy, in shock from the sheer viciousness of the dogs as they tore apart the creature that had led them on such a merry chase and the casual callousness displayed by the old Earl as he'd ritually blooded him. He'd gone, years later, at the urging of schoolmates, and had failed to see the allure, but had continued to ride simply because it was expected of him. After he'd joined the army, there had been far fewer opportunities and he'd learned to be far less concerned with Society's expectations.

He'd also become far more familiar with blood and brutality.

"It's been years since I last rode with the Hunt, and I wasn't overfond of it then," Heero volunteered quietly. "After the war..." His voice trailed off and he closed his eyes against the memories of blood and pain, brutality and death, summoned by the very word. "...I think... I think, Winner, that it would stir up things best left undisturbed."

Duo wasn't about to say something trite like 'I know,' because he hadn't been there, so he obviously *didn't* know. He didn't think that anyone who hadn't fought in the war could really *know* what it had been like. But he had a pretty good imagination, and the dubious advantage of having spent months living on the streets of London, exposed to its shady underbelly. He'd seen and heard some very ugly things. And he remembered all too clearly how the hot gush of someone else's blood over his hands had felt, how it had turned thick and sticky as it cooled, how it had itched as it dried and flaked off of his skin.

But he couldn't talk about that, not without revealing secrets he'd sworn to keep, so he settled for simply shifting a mite to the side, so that his shoulder touched Heero's, and offering, "Duo, my lord. My friends and family call me Duo."

Heero smiled faintly and leaned into the shoulder pressed companionably against his own. "Heero. My friends call me Heero."

In comfortable silence, they leaned against the stall door and watched Scythe as he finally settled down enough to return to his manger and eat.

***

Well, that took a slightly different turn than expected. *blinks and eyes fic's innocent-looking fluff/romance bunny suspiciously*

Comments

[bleedtoblue.livejournal.com]

Ah, but I love the ones that shift and come at you from an unexpected angle!

Happy Belated Birthday! Best Wishes.

[calic0cat.livejournal.com]

Sometimes, those unexpected twists and turns work out okay. Other times, they just make things vastly more complicated than originally planned. This time, I think it's a case of the former rather than the latter.

Thanks for the birthday wishes! I had the best kind of day of all - slept in late and everyone left me to my own devices all day. *happy sigh* Sheer bliss.

[dragynville.livejournal.com]

Nice details, that added some new depth to the characters and gave them another common point.

[calic0cat.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'd intended them to bond over equine-related discussion, but it took a little bit of an unexpected twist when Duo decided that he didn't ride with the Hunt. It made perfect sense, and figuring out why Heero would feel the same way worked out pretty neatly too (and yep, good ol' gramps is J :P ), it just wasn't quite the fluffy repartee that I'd originally had in mind. *sweatdrops* Sudden 180 to a serious tone aside, I think the change fit their canon characters and backgrounds better than the original idea, yet still fit the Regency scenario.

[dragynville.livejournal.com]

I definitely like how it brought some of their canon aspects into the mix.

[sharona1x2.livejournal.com]

I like how they're finding that they have similar values, especially since they tend to go against the rest of their society.

[calic0cat.livejournal.com]

They ended up bonding over something a little (okay, a lot) more serious than I'd originally had in mind, but I think it actually worked out for the best. Fun though witty repartee and sly innuendo might be, it wouldn't help them really to get know one another the way that this particular conversation did.

[kracken.livejournal.com]

That was so sweet. *begs for more. * I can't get enough of this. ^_^

[calic0cat.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I'm glad that you're enjoying it! Hopefully, I'll have more tonight or tomorrow...

[jilltanith.livejournal.com]

Very nice. And they even got on first-name terms.

It occurs to me that Lady Relena is either not too bright or very self-absorbed (gee, ya think?) because she didn't know about Duo's superior horsemanship when she had her "accident" with the hat. Even if she had, anybody who has been around horses knows that accidents (real ones) can happen, and people get hurt (look at Catherine Bloom!)

And another thing about that hat; the Darlian family is clearly not in black ribbons any more so it must have been at least a year since the old Marquess died . . . the engagement of Peacecraft to Miss Noin predates his elevation. Why hasn't the wedding happened? There wasn't anything mentioned about him having been away at the war . . .

Oh, and do we get to see what Wufei is up to in this world soon?

[calic0cat.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I wanted them to have enough of a "bonding" opportunity to reach a first-name basis, but without pushing things along too fast.

Lady Relena just plain didn't think - she acted on impulse. Which isn't exactly out of character for her even in canon. It's scary how often even people who "should know better" do silly things around horses, then say afterwards - "oops... shouldn't have done that..." *remembers last summer's horse shows and shudders*

As for Milliardo - err, yeah, him being away at the war was mentioned in the first part:

The Marquess of Peacecraft gave him pause for a moment, until he recalled that Miss Noin had become engaged to Peacecraft - then Lord Darlian, as the old Marquess was still alive at the time - prior to his departure for the war. Napoleon had surrendered some months ago, so it was not surprising that Peacecraft had evidently returned home.

While some Regency engagements lasted weeks or months, ones that lasted several years weren't unusual either. With all the things that the new Marquess would have to do upon his return - and with the family just recently out of mourning (keeping in mind that it was the Victorians who later raised mourning to an ostentatious multi-year, multi-stage, angst-fest) - the wedding hasn't yet taken place. Perhaps, much like in GW canon, Miss Noin is far more enthused than Peacecraft himself. *grin*

At any rate, the Peacecraft wedding will take place in the spring (at the beginning of the Season), at St. George's, Hanover Square, in London. While weddings weren't the big affairs with huge guest lists that they are today (the Victorians get the blame for that, too), St. George's was the place for the fashionable to be wed (during its Regency-period prime, St. George's hosted about 1,000 weddings per year, an average of 3 weddings per day!).

As for Wufei - I'm not sure he's going to make it into this, unfortunately. Contact with China would be virtually all trade-related, and most of that involved trading opium for tea (which is a whole other can of worms that I just do not want to get into in this story). I do have ideas for him, but I just don't think they're going to fit into this scenario, since they don't involve making him a valet or cook or some other servant. Don't expect to see Treize or Une, either. The holiday house party scenario only supports so many guests before it gets out of hand, and I'm not really fond of just dropping names into the story in passing merely for the sake of mentioning the name.

[jilltanith.livejournal.com]

I haven't had a lot of experience with horses, but I've had enough to know that the wise person never, never forgets that something that outweighs you by that much can hurt you very easily, and that you have to be very careful of their reactions.

Oh. Yeah. Oops, that detail was the one that escaped me . . .

As for Wufei, well, if you can't fit him in then there's no point in forcing it, but if you can have the Earl of Yuy without worrying about Japan, you can probably have Wufei, Prince of Chang, without worrying about China.

Oh, and one more thing that just occurred to me . . . we know where Quatre's heir is coming from -- where's Heero's heir coming from? Maybe Wu is actually Heero's younger brother in this universe?

[sunhawk16.livejournal.com]

We like this kind of turn. ^___^
They both seem to be a bit more grounded in reality than a lot of their peers. I just hope that Duo's secrets aren't going to bite them in the butt later.

[calic0cat.livejournal.com]

This was one of those cases where the characters just grabbed the scene and ran with it, once I stopped trying to force it in the direction I'd originally intended.

They've both had enough of a dose of reality in their lives to give them that grounding. As for Duo's secrets - well, I know what I'd originally planned, but that plot bunny is looking far too innocent for me to trust it.

[aggie-june.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I am really enjoying this fic. Sometimes the ones where the plot bunnies do strange things end up being the best stories. I like the relaxed friendship they are settling into.

[calic0cat.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! Glad you're enjoying the story.

The physical attraction was there on both sides right from first sight, and the friendship part of the relationship is now off to a good start as well. Now they just have to see whether those two aspects of a good relationship will lead them to the next level...

[yanagi-wa.livejournal.com]

Another great chapter. They're on first name basis already? Lookin' good.

[shinigami2174.livejournal.com]

Just wonderful. Please continue!

[merula31]

Augh- nearly missed this!

Oo. More stuff in common!!! Yay!!

[rochan01.livejournal.com]

*blinks and eyes fic's innocent-looking fluff/romance bunny suspiciously*

good bunny. cookie! ;-)

[inthefire2002.livejournal.com]

I LOVE this story! I came across the link on the Gundam Herald today. Heero and Duo in a Regency romance is a wonderful idea. I have boxes full of books in that genre and you are doing a fantastic job in making your story accurate to the time period. I can't wait to read more. Do you mind if I friend you, so that I won't miss any of your other fics?