*yawns*

[keire_ke]

Before you ask, I don't have the whole thing finished. I'm typing it up as I go along. And at this rate, it will be novel-lenght before I finish. *whimpers*

Please shoot me now.

Inky came to a stop on a meadow Duo dimly remembered as the one right outside the city limits. She immediately took to munching on the grass, leaving her disgruntled owner to slide from her back and glare and the surroundings in general. The time to do so proved to be limited however, when his eyes fell onto another horse helping himself to the grass. This one was pure white.

 

Some forgotten bit of knowledge surfaced from the depths of his unconscious mind.

 

“You are Binky,” Duo said accusingly. Binky raised his head and offered a horse equivalent of a grin. “This isn’t happening. I made it to the outskirts in three minutes, twenty times faster than it usually takes, on a horse that flies, met a horse who’s been carrying Death for the past several millennia and I am still wearing my jammies.” He glared at the world in general, starting off with the bright shining orb in the sky and finishing at Inky and Binky, who nuzzled one another’s noses in greeting. “I want my pants.” The two animals looked at him and, raising their eyebrows as much as the anatomy of their faces would allow, contemplated the young God of Death, Death’s (great great great…) grandson and his baby blue pyjama bottoms with adorable little bunnies.

 

“What?” the man snapped irritably. “It was the only pure cotton pyjamas I could find in the whole bloody city. And I like the bunnies!” Somehow, the fact that he was defending his choice of nightwear before a pair of horses failed to penetrate his skull. He might have been interested in knowing that at the very precise moment Binky’s mind was adding the scythe to the image, coming up with a pretty hilarious results, which he made known by a soft neigh. Crossing his arms on his chest defensively, Duo furrowed his brows.

 

“Is there a reason why I’m here, or is just to witness the social occasion?” The hippic pair looked at each other and trotted over softly, Inky motioning with her head towards her back. Giving the animals one last glare, Duo climbed on top of the black mare and held on for dear life as they took of for the sky. It would take him a while to realise that if Inky wanted to carry him (and considering that Death himself had chosen her for Duo, that seemed more than obvious) he wouldn’t fall if he tried.

 

They rose higher and higher, over the clouds and into the warmth of sunlight. Duo sighed happily when the warm rays finally caressed his skin. Shadows are nice to move in and all, but nothing beats a free morning in the sunbeam. Before he had a serious chance to enjoy the atmospheric sensations, the texture of the air and light changed subtly – Duo blinked in surprise. The air wasn’t golden anymore – it was silvery. He didn’t feel cold, the strange moon-like light was… well, it was cold, but in a very warm way. Smacking his forehead in annoyance, the man glowered at everything around him.

 

Golden fields… Black house. Black flowers. Black trees.

 

“And I thought I was obsessed,” he muttered, thinking back to his wardrobe. Slipping off Inky’s back, he made his way towards the house, casting one last look at the two horses, who automatically made their way round the black building – presumably to the equally black stables. He opened the door slowly, his bare feet making no sound – not that it mattered much. Firstly, the carpet was so thick a marching band would have made no sound and secondly, his footsteps cancelled the sound automatically. Just another benefit of having grown up on the streets.

 

Duo made his way through the house slowly, instinctively going for the room he knew absolutely nothing about. Somehow, he knew that he would know when he found it.

 

He was right. The enormous room filled with hourglasses might as well have had a huge ‘This Is It’ banner hanging from the ceiling. Duo made an effort to take everything in, but as with most things in Death’s domain, everything was just too much to take in. Starting with the fact that it seemed to be right over the capitol of Sanq, which was probably the most flown-over city in the world. No, rules of physics did not apply here. Belief did. If there was one thing people did believe in, it was the omnipotence of death. Hell, he himself lived that belief. And looks like he was right all along.

 

Rows of shelves of hourglasses stretched for miles and miles in the relatively small library, below each shelf of life timers one shelf filled with books. Duo followed some of the titles with his finger. Abigail Travis, Timothy Dahn… in no particular order, the life stories of all humans in existence. Turning away from the tomes he was standing by, the braided man closed his eyes and started walking again, letting the hunch guide him.

 

When he finally opened his eyes, he was standing by a massive mahogany desk, with scrolls, bottles of ink and quills strewn about it. Behind it was a shelf with maybe half a hundred books and timers, of which only one still measured time.

 

Somewhat, even without looking, Duo was certain the name on the plaque will be his own. Upon closer inspection, it turned out there were actually two names: ‘Gabriel Cathal’ and, a little below it, ‘Duo Maxwell’. Tracing the contour of the glass with his fingertip, Duo smiled a little. Fate apparently tried to make up his miserable childhood years to him by dropping, not one, but two families into his lap. Leaving the inspection of other names for another time, he picked up his own book from the wooden shelf. The surprisingly heavy tome automatically opened at ‘here and now’.

 

“Okay,” Duo took a deep breath. “How do I find out what can and can’t I do?” he asked the thin air.

 

‘… his eyes followed the fiery letters as they burned onto the page. The ordinary, black, even script remained unchanged, as it had in the rare occasions over the previous pages when the fire-like letters appeared in the past. The knowledge flows unbidden into the brain; in one place where knowledge, space and time are interwoven tightly, he finds that there is nothing to learn – he already knew it all…’

 

“Holy fuck!” Duo cried dropping the book and falling to his knees beside it. Thumbing through the pages quickly, he noted that indeed, the fiery script appeared only in a handful of places –

 

‘… bullets whizzed past him as he ran towards the truck, running in a straight line, flashing through time and space…’

 

‘… along with Heero he faded into the background; the band of soldiers marched past the two of them in plain sight…’

 

“Holy fuck,” he repeated, staring in total disbelief. “Fucking mother of all things improper… Talk about being a freak.”

 

He didn’t know how much time exactly he spent in the library, gazing at everything and nothing. He was, in a way, not quite shocked – his hair got him used to unnatural stuff. After all, how many people had a braid that *poured* them coffee after a rough night. But this… this was different.

 

This was no not-quite-a-pet-but-no-passive-mass-of-keratin-either. This was massive. This was epic!

 

“This is about saving the world, idiot,” he told himself sardonically. “I really should add that to my resume.” He replaced the book on the shelf and stretched. Brushing his fingers against the delicate hourglass of his mother’s, he smiled lightly. It ought to be fun. It had better be.

 

Or else he would quit.

 

“Now I know I need a pot of coffee,” he said aloud, walking out of the chamber. “If I’m in luck, gramps put one on a century or so ago and it achieved proper thickness by now.” A brief inspection of the kitchen disappointed him – gramps apparently did not indulge in coffee. “His loss,” Duo muttered, making his way outside. “Understandable though. Fuzzy brain must not happen to him very often, on account of him having none.”

 

“Okay,” he announced loudly to the perfectly straight rows of black roses outside. “Now I am going to get back home. Then I will brew the most caffeinated pot of coffee on the face of the planet. And then, after I passed a brain fuzziness test, I shall think.” As if summoned, Inky trotted over to him and nuzzled the side of his face in a friendly horsy manner.

 

“Lady, I sure hope you are not expecting,” he told her sternly. “A human baby I could probably deliver, a colt I know I can’t. Furthermore, I expect you have memorised the way here. My landlady, as much as she adores me, will not be happy with a horse in the house. And that will come after she asks all the difficult questions.” Inky neighed and nuzzled him again. A warm, soft human skin against her nose was a treat not to be ignored lightly!

 

Getting onto her back, Duo tried to make himself as small as possible, clutching at the horse’s mane desperately. “I am not going to get used to thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis!” Inky, apparently, favoured sudden take-offs.

 

This time he managed to keep his eyes open as his ride neared the solid wall of his apartment. He felt the briefest sensation of mist sliding over his skin and before he knew it, Inky halted in his living room. Sliding off and landing on unsteady feet, Duo patted the animal on the neck. “Good girl. You wait here for a minute, I’ll bring you a sugar cube. Am fresh out of oats, sorry. Also, if you know what’s good for you, stay away from my ferns,” he warned. The black mare batted her eyes at him.

 

“Yeah, right. Like I’ll ever trust an innocent look,” Duo snorted making his way to the kitchen. “Don’t make yourself too comfy, you can’t stay,” he yelled from the kitchen, his voice drowned in that of the heavenly, life-saving contraption, also known as the coffee machine. Minutes later Duo returned to the living room with a bowl of sugar cubes and a bottle of milk in one hand and a cup balancing on top of a pot in the other.

 

“Now off you go,” he instructed the horse after feeding her several white dices. “I need to think now. You are smart enough, I should think, and Binky will look after you. Tell him he’d better,” Duo added seriously. She answered him with a soft neighing sound. With a final nuzzle to his neck, Inky was gone. The young man yawned and poured himself a cup of the black beverage, before seating himself sideways on the couch. Popping a few sweet cubes into the mug, he sighed heavily.

 

“I am to make people believe. In anything at all. The obvious thing could be setting up a Christmas stand in the middle of the street and attaching antlers to the -inkies, but judging from today’s excursion no one would notice them anyway. And Santa usually isn’t that popular in May.” Taking a long sip, he stared at the window. The few clouds in the sky arranged themselves in the enticing shape of cotton candy.

 

“I could try for the God of Death church,” Duo wondered. “This would have the advantage of having a really lovely altar, on account of me being supposedly so pretty and all.” As the winner of Preventers’ fifth unofficial male beauty pageant, he could be allowed a little narcissism. “But considering that a lot of people still are out for my blood, that would end up in human sacrifices. ‘Course, nothing spices the faith up like a human sacrifice, but it’s the principle of the thing.” Yet another sip.

 

“What else do people believe in? Besides gods and I-art-better-than-thou?” The phone chose this precise moment to interrupt the plan to save the world by ringing rather loudly. Duo sighed and set the mug back on the small table, getting up to answer it.

As a side-note: I have no life.

Comments

[theotherdigit.livejournal.com]

As a side-note: I have no life.

Sure you do n_n. *swings pocket watch in front of your eyes* And the pupose of your life is to write GW fanfiction and draw pretteh pictures.

And what's wrong with novel-length XP? *certainly wouldn't complain*

[merula31]

If I shoot you, I won't get anymore of this story, so nope, sorry, can't do it.... *grin*

So much stuff I like... Inky and Binky, the books, Duo's possible plans, the need of coffee... *sighs happily*