Garou + Part 6 (cont)
Revelations

* * *

"Can I ask you some questions? " Wufei leaned toward the blue-eyed boy. Heero hesitated and nodded.

"You can SMELL that Quatre's scared of you?"

"My five senses have been...Augmented. More than largely" he added, looking away.

It made him feel ill at ease to talk about that... he didn't know if he really had accepted the truth so fast, or if it was just the shock not having left yet. And all these things he knew about himself without having to think twice...

"To which point?" Chang demanded when he saw that Heero wasn't going to continue alone.

"I can read easily in the dark, I have five times better ears and as for my sense of smell, in comparison, if it had been sight, before I was blind as a bat."

"So, there aren't only inconveniences then..." Duo smiled, playing nervously with his braid's end. "There are good points in it too..."

He had had two days to get used to the idea, but he had never had the courage to catch the psychotic pilot to ask him to feed his curiosity. Heero was already hard to manage usually, but as he had seen, the virus was playing havoc with his self-control, it was better to let him the hell alone...

But Wufei didn't seem to think so.

"And the inconveniences?"

Heero gritted his teeth, but forced himself to answer.

"Sometimes, I am in... In overdose of sensations. There are too many all at the same time, and I don't know yet how to pick what I should pay attention to and what I shouldn't. Furthermore, emotional instability, stronger with the full moon, augmented aggressive reactions, and ... unnecessary impulses.

"How?"

"Intense sexual needs?"

Heero didn't even give Duo one glance.

"I'll make a complete report when all of our group is together. For the moment I don't want to repeat myself uselessly."

Heero turned heels and marched out of the house.

"The group...? First time he ever acknowledges the existence of a connection of any sort between us... Usually he acts like if he was at the same place as we are by pure hazard... Or because he was ordered so..."

Wufei only nodded in answer, surprised to see that Maxwell's analysis was hitting so close to home.

* * * * * *

Four hours later, once Trowa came back from Quatre's room after making sure that the boy wouldn't wake up, and Heero back from his trek in the woods (with his feet dirty and his tanktop damp), the promised reunion finally took place.

Wufei attacked first.

"I won't ask you when you were... changed, this at least is obvious from Maxwell's report. Since when did you know what was happening?"

Heero glared at him, still feeling annoyed with him, but remembered that he had himself accepted the necessity of this reunion. He couldn't go back on his word now. May as well be open and honest.

"That there was something abnormal with me, two weeks. The abnormality in question... the last mission."

"Not before? why? Weren't you able to understand?"

"Try to get bitten by a werewolf and we'll see how much time you need to realize what are the results" Wing's pilot lashed back, clearly annoyed. "That's not as if I had an absolute knowledge of lycanthropy symptoms, nor as if I was expecting to wake up a half-beast! And... Lastly, my cognitive functions were somewhat thwarted by a few... instinctive reactions."

"You know it would have been faster to just say that you had troubles thinking right?" muttered Duo in his corner.

"That is to say?" Wufei rushed, not to let him the time to get pissed at Maxwell.

Heero got up brutally and began to stalk back and forth in the room, with long, supple steps. He raked a hand in his hair, and Duo stared, fascinated. For him to show such obvious signs of stress, he really had to be feeling a strong sense of unease.

"I... The wolf's instincts ... they're so strong ... I felt too much, too fast, too often, I didn't have the time to think anymore ... That's why I isolated myself from you, I couldn't manage. And his senses, his strength, his suppleness... It was as if, all of my life, I had been living in cotton wool, behind a glass... and suddenly I was given a real body in a perfect state to replace the old rusty cyborg in which I was trying to function... It was too much at the same time..."

"Could you be more specific?"

"Yeah, you already told us about your senses..." Duo cut him.

He could FEEL that Wu was going to ask questions on the instincts... but it was not the moment for that. It was a ground even shakier than the other alterations, if they went and dug in here now, Heero would close up tighter than ever, he knew it as well as he knew his own name.

"It's mostly the sense of smell which has been modified. To be clear... before, I didn't have any. It is something totally...new. I don't think I can smell things as well as a dog, not in human form anyway, but I gather information by this way that you couldn't even dream of... and that I have no way yet of understanding. It's... another world... My sight... My acuity itself didn't really augment, but my nocturnal sight is ten times better, and the way I can zero in on the slightest movement.... As for my hearing, to give you an idea, I can hear your heart beat in your chest from this distance, if I concentrate on it. My touch didn't change in a measurable way, apart from my sensitivity to cold, which lowered rather significantly."

"The inconveniences to being a werewolf?" repeated Wufei.

Heero growled, unconsciously, and the other boys gulped and tried to act as if they hadn't heard.

"... instincts. I want to do things and most of the time I don't even know why. Or rather, yes I know, but... It isn't logical. Not justifiable. And... I do it without conscious control..."

Ouchie. The last admittance seemed seriously hard to admit.

"Like what?"

"Verify the house. Secure the perimeter. I can't rest, and I mean I can't, until I'm sure nobody entered my... territory. Sleeping hidden. Can't close one eye as long as I'm exposed. Smelling what I eat before I bite."

At the extreme interest and surprise of the other pilots, he suddenly blushed.

"... running after the people ... things running away from me..."

Duo burst out laughing.

"Heero, are you trying to tell us that you're chasing after rabbits?!"

He whirled around and gave him a murdering glare, but calmed down nearly as fast as he had gotten angry. Trowa noted with interest that it was without a doubt linked to the fact that when Duo had been surprised by his reaction, he had thrown his head and his shoulders back, revealing for a second his throat.

"No. Squirrels..." admitted Yuy with a shadow of a self-deprecating smile on his lips. "And... I can realize quite well that I am unnecessarily aggressive with most of the males I meet. I don't know why, I try to keep a hold of myself, but..."

"Dominance conflict", diagnosed Trowa. "You don't have this problem with women?"

Heero thought about it for a second, then shook his head, frowning. He lifted an eyebrow for Trowa to encourage him to share his thoughts.

"Wolves have a very hierarchic social structure. I think that by your aggressive behavior, you are trying to establish a dominating/dominated relationship with the other males you meet, to know where you stand. Wolves have troubles attacking females, though. As for the verification of the perimeter, it's the same instinct that pushes canines to piss all around their territory. To mark their possession."

"I am not that much of an animal!!!" growled Heero while stepping toward Trowa, his eyes blazing with fury.

Rather than returning the glare, Trowa lowered his eyes to the floor, slightly tilting his head on the side in a way that made his turtleneck unveil a little bit of his skin, and adopted a more lax position, letting himself slide downward, opening his belly to attacks. The Asian pilot stepped back. Very calm, Trowa waited for him to return to his previous place before looking up once again.

"You just expressed your dominance upon me by raising your voice and stalking into my personal space in a menacing manner, and when I showed you my throat in a way expressing my acceptance of your place and my lack of desire to challenge you, you calmed down at once" Trowa remarked in a placid voice. "There are not many clearer conversations for a canine."

Heero clenched his fists.

"But you didn't make a sound, and him neither!?!" Duo exclaimed, looking at them alternatively.

"Wolves have a very evolved language, it just doesn't use only sounds like ours, but smells and body language as well. You should learn to pay attention to your body language, as it has a much greater impact on a wolf than it has on a human. At least until Heero learns to live with his instincts" the ex-mercenary added, as a concession to the stumbling control the Japanese boy had on his temper.

"Really? How do you mean that?"

"You can say something kind and friendly to him, if your scent and body language say that you are angry or aggressive or mocking, he'll attack you anyway without even thinking twice." Trowa shrugged.

Heero gave him a nasty glare, but didn't comment, too conscious of the fact that, for the moment at least, it was mostly true. If Trowa's voice had been only slightly less impersonal, he would have jumped him.

He looked at the other boys. Duo was sitting calmly, twisting his braid and looking at the floor, pensive. Wufei had his arms crossed on his chest in a way that tried for collected and superior but was only defensive and wary, and his eyebrows were frowning less in anger than in indecision.

"... Any other questions? No? I'm going out."

"You're living more out than in here..." remarked Duo.

"You prefer that I stay? The wolf is too strong, I don't want a repeat of what happened with Wufei and Quatre. The full moon only finished yesterday. And I still feel the call..."

"The call?" repeated Chang, confused. "What do you mean by that?"

Heero bit his lower lip. He had said too much... Bah, he didn't gain that much of an advantage by hiding it from them.

He tried to find words to put on the sensation, but it was not easy, because it needed allusive words, nearly poetry. For someone used to call things by their technical name, it was hard trying to deal with the metaphors that alone could explain accurately what he felt.

"I... The more the Moon was getting full, the more I could feel... Like if someone was calling me, but I couldn't quite hear the words nor recognize the voice... Now I know, it was the wolf rising ... It was as if someone was hidden in the shadows of my mind, near the surface... and ready to jump in the broad daylight at the first occasion. It's hard to explain in a rational way " he admitted, shrugging in a helpless way.

He suddenly turned around.

"I'm going out" he informed them abruptly, before doing just that.

"Heyyyyy... well. Don't catch a cold!!!"

"BAKA!!!"

The door slammed, letting three very confused boys alone in the room.

* * * * * * * *

The young empath opened an eye, then the other... and swore. The atmosphere couldn't fool him... he was once again in Yuy's dreamforest. He hoped that knowing where he was and how, would make it disappear, but nothing happened. The forest was staying here... Sighing before the unavoidable, Quatre began his trek to the bottomless lake.

It was strange, it seemed that he just had had to think about the place to he there... he walked to the shore and bent over the edge to look at the bottom of the thawing out waters. The rocks were cascading down to crystal-blue depths... and the vaguely apparent reflection of lava, all the way down. The lake was a drowned crater.

He didn't have to wait for the presence for too long. Ever the same. Anger at his intrusion...

This time, Quatre didn't run. He knew what he would see... he wasn't afraid.

Well, to be truthful, yes he was... but less than before. He had had time to think about it, and... Well, it would be hard, and if he could have chosen, he would never have wanted it.

But so was being a Gundam pilot.

He just would have to make do with it. He was sure that there were positive sides, if you searched long enough...

He turned around, slowly, ready to meet the Wolf heads on. The beast was staring at him from the bushes, growling low in his throat. He only saw his glowing eyes, too blue...

"Come..." he breathed while kneeling on the bank.

And slowly, the beast walked out of the bushes.

It was the Wolf... and it was Heero... and Heero was the Wolf... Later, when he would remember the dream, he wouldn't know anymore how he could see a wolf and a man at the same time, but still only one being. But in the dream, it was something normal, logical.

He opened his arms, spreading them to offer his body, accepting whatever the beast...Heero would do to him for having penetrated his dream-territory once again... a cold nose pressed itself against his throat, sniffing, then disappeared.

* * * * * *

"Katoru?"

"Heero? ... mmmm... it's cold in your forest ..."

After retrieving the cover from the ground where the blond boy's thrashing had sent it, and giving it back to the sleeping boy who hugged it close at once, the Japanese smiled softly then closed the door behind him. He didn't know what had happened, apart from the fact that, when he had woken up, he had been feeling the urge to go check on the golden-haired pilot.

The picture of a young boy, throat bared with trust, was floating at the back of his mind...

... a boy with animal-like ears.

Dream-Quatre was already beginning to evolve.

* * * * * *

The morning after, Heero burst in the bathroom when Duo was drying his hair, singing and still only clad in a little towel hung on his shoulders. The American boy yelped and whirled around to face him.

"SHIT, HEERO!!! Does it occur to you to KNOCK on the bloody door?!!?" he shrieked, embarrassed, while snatching his towel and tying it around his waist.

"I need bandages for Quatre's arm," said the Japanese boy without bothering to answer that. "Where are they?"

"Lower shelf" sighed Duo, understanding that trying to get angry at his partner when he was in his 'ignore Duo' mode was a dead end.

The long-haired boy nearly tore out half his hair with a careless stroke of his brush when Yuy bent over to look at the closet, giving him an absolutely perfect view of a certain part of his anatomy the spandex was showing off more than it hid. He felt himself redden and turned around to face the wall, absorbing himself in brushing and braiding his hair.

"Duo."

Oops. The American boy slowly turned around.

"Yeah?" he asked with a big, nervous grin.

Heero was coldly staring at him, his expression as... as non-expressive as always.

"Are you interested in me, in a physical way?"

Duo blinked a few times and turned an interesting shade of hot pink.

"NO!! Not at all, what are you imagin..."

Heero's eyes imperceptibly narrowed, and the braided pilot remembered what he was now, correlating it with some things like heightened senses and the distinct smell of different states of mind, like the scent of a lie... and the scent of desire.

"Err, well, I... well..."

He began to torture the end of his plait between his fingers. To have to admit this as flatly, to a Heero who seemed as cold as ever and probably didn't give a damn about ruffled feelings...

"You would not be unattractive, I suppose..."

Heero turned slowly around to face him, and speared him with his so intense eyes, his expression unreadable.

"You'd like to date me?" he asked in a detached tone of voice.

Crap, Heero knew that he liked males. Now, if he was reacting badly or not about it, Duo couldn't judge.

Duo wondered for a second if he was asking... No, from the tone, he wasn't, he just wanted to know his intentions on the subject. Would have been too great to be true.

Now, to answer that. He didn't want to say that he was bi if Heero was homophobe, but, hell, he couldn't flat out lie either. And Heero already suspected, and strongly enough that he was speaking of it.

"Well, I... Not specially, well, I mean, if you wanted to I wouldn't spit on it, but like that, I dunno..."

"Duo."

"I never really thought about it, but... Yes, I'd like that." The American forced the words out, struggling to keep looking at him in the eye. He wasn't ashamed of his preferences, he wouldn't lower his eyes.

Heero narrowed his eyes even more. His voice was totally devoid of any warmth or even coldness, just precise and mechanical, when he clued Duo in about his view on the matter.

"From my experience, the... lycanthropic 'disease' transmits easily by ways of contact with contaminated spit and blood, and probably as well by sperm."

Duo started, shocked at first by the crude, cold terms, and more than a little hurt by the apparent disinterest and contempt; then after a second he put the cold aside to remember it was Heero he was talking to... and then, his hurt out of the way, he was hit dead on by the reality behind the scientific terms the boy was using.

Heero could never, would never, be able to touch someone like that, with a lover's touch, to share sexual intimacy with another person; not without contaminating them, condemning them to his and Quatre's fate. Never.

"But going so far as a transmission of seminal liquid wouldn't even be necessary" the Wing pilot continued, drilling his message home. "One kiss would probably be more than enough."

Yuy turned to the door, carrying an armful of bandages.

Duo stared at his retreating back, his mouth slightly opened, his arms limp, shell-shocked. He didn't even acknowledge the brush falling from his nerveless fingers to break on the floor.

+

[part 5] [back] [part 7] [back to Asuka Kureru's fic]