A week after they had let Russet go Heero lay on his bed thinking about the cat.  He had been on his mind since he had last seen him.  The cat had looked so happy to go again, but, selfish as it was, Heero had just wanted to keep him.  Even now, a week after, he missed the animal and he wondered if he always would.

A scratching noise outside his window brought him out of his reverie and he went to the window and peered over the sill.  A young boy was climbing the trellis hung under the window and it had been his boots that had made the scratching noise against the wall.  Heero looked at him, hung like he was in a net.  He must have slipped because his feet were hanging out in midair, his hands gripping the wooden trellis so he wouldn’t fall.

“What are you doing there?” Heero didn’t have patience for this today, not that he ever did, but today was worse and his voice was hard.

“Well, if you help me up I’ll tell ya,” the boy looked up at him.

Heero was just about to turn and leave the boy to sort his own problem when he noticed the colour of his eyes.  They were the same violet colour as Russet’s and he couldn’t resist putting his hand down and pulling the boy over the sill.  As he did so, he also noticed that the boy had the longest braid he had ever seen, it fell to his knees and Heero wondered how long it must be unbraided.

“Now, tell me what you were doing there and who you are,” Heero flung the boy onto the bed with the momentum left from hoisting him over the sill and stared at him.

“My name’s Duo and what I was doin’ there, well, ya see, I was kinda runnin away from these guys coz I av somethin’ they want an I won’t give it to them an they aint happy about it,” he stopped and looked at Heero as if to make sure he was still following him.  Heero noted that the boy talked quickly but he didn’t have a problem keeping up, “then see, I noticed that there was a house over here and I noticed that your window was open so I just thought if I could get in here they wouldn’t find me.”

“And you couldn’t have just said you were running from somebody?” Heero watched as the fey boy smiled at him.  It was the most open smile he had ever seen and for some reason he felt himself soften to the youth.

“Well I talk far too much,” he looked at Heero with those wide violet eyes, “everyone tells me so, but I just don’t know when to stop.  I can talk for hours, and will if you let me carry on, and have done to some people, but only the people willin’ to listen coz everyone else tells me to shut up after a while.  I think they get - ”

“Okay, okay, I get the message,” Heero watched the boy hang his head and smile shyly.

“Sorry, but ya get my meaning.”

“All too clearly,” Heero was talking to the boy but it was his braid he was staring at, it was the same colour as Russet’s fur and with the eyes too… but no, Russet was a cat, a cougar to be more precise, not a fast talking American boy.

“You like it?” Duo asked, holding up his braid and pointing to it with his right index finger, “it’s never been cut, not once and it took a long time to grow it this long, it’s my pride and joy, and my lucky charm.”

Heero nodded mutely, “It was the colour I was looking at, actually, but it is an extraordinary length.”

Duo smiled and nodded enthusiastically.  Heero wondered briefly if he was just imagining the similarity between the boy and the cat, after all he was missing Russet and the boy was pleasant, but he was sure they were the exact colour he remembered, and he wasn’t likely to forget soon, after all the cat had been special to him.

“So, what were they after?” Heero tried to change the subject to get his mind off his own thoughts.

“Somethin’ I have that they want,” the boy avoided the question and seemed to not want to elaborate this time.

Heero tried again, “Yes, you already said that, but what do you have that they want?  That was the question I was asking,”

“Oh, they want it quite badly, but I can’t give it to them coz if I do I’ll be in a lot of trouble and I don’t like to be in trouble, with my lifestyle trouble usually hurts,” Duo had avoided the question again, Heero noted, he seemed to have an uncanny knack of doing that without actually lying.

“What sort of trouble are we talking?”

“Trouble that would be quite painful.”

“Yes, but why exactly would that be?”

“Because it would cause pain to me.”

“Yes, but why would it cause pain to you?”

“Because it would be painful.”

Heero realised they were going in circles and he wasn’t going to get a straight answer from the youth no matter how long he tried.

“So, what are you going to do now?”

“Well, I guess I’ll have to go find a place to stay for the night,” Duo looked up, apparently this turn in the conversation agreed with him, “once they’ve moved on and it’s safe to go out I’ll have to go and find somewhere around here that’ll take me in for the night, do you know of any hotels that are anywhere near here?  Or do you just think I should camp out for the night coz I don’t av any problem with doin’ that and any way it’ll be a nice night so I don’t suppose I’ll be cold!”

“You can stay here if you want, there aren’t any hotels anywhere near and I can’t let you camp out with people after you and no equipment,” Heero was shocked that he had actually said that but it was too late to take it back now.

“Really?  Thanks man!  I didn’t actually expect ya to say that, I wasn’t after you inviting me here to stay, if ya wanna change your mind you can.”

“No, you can stay in here, that way I’ll know what you are doing,” Heero sighed and stood, “anyway I have to go and clean out my horses stable.”

“Gee, thanks, I’ll help you, it’s the least I can do after all.”

Heero allowed the boy to follow him out to the stable and then advised him to stay away from the horse, as he would probably end up injured if he didn’t, as the animal didn’t like anyone but him.  In fact, the only other thing Abbrevail had liked had been Russet and the cat wasn’t around anymore.

“It’s okay,” the boy flounced up to the stable door, “he likes me.”

Duo reached over the door and put his hand to the stallion’s nose.  Abbrevail pinned his ears to his head and looked as if he was about to bite the boy and Heero waited for the inevitable yell but Duo made a soft purr noise in his throat and the horse settled and swivelled his ears forward again.

Heero couldn’t believe what he was seeing, if the boy could touch Abbrevail, had the same colouring as Russet and had a long thin scar running from his shoulder to his wrist, what did that mean.  Heero realised that he had noticed the scar a while ago, but his brain had not processed the information properly as he had been thinking about other things.

“Okay,” he pinned the youth to the stable door and looked him directly in the eye, “what’s going on here?  You have a scar just like the one my cougar had, you can touch my stallion, you have eyes that are the same violet colour that I had never seen until I found Russet and your braid is the same colour as his fur,” Heero grabbed the said appendage and held it up in front of Duo’s face.

The boy looked at him, eyes wide, and snatched the braid away from his hand.  His lips rolled back from his teeth and he growled low in his throat, the boy actually growled at him!  Heero didn’t move, just looked down at him with an inquisitive expression.

Duo sighed, “Coincidence?” he shrugged, but it wasn’t a statement but a question, the boy didn’t lie, hadn’t lied yet, just dodged questions.

“You can’t lie, can you?” Heero smirked when Duo’s eyes dropped from his, “okay, I want to know what’s going on, and don’t dodge the question, I want to know everything.”

“Okay, I’ll tell you, I think I can trust you anyway,” the boy shoved at Heero’s shoulder, but the dark haired boy didn’t move, “let me go, I promise not to run away, but I need to show you something.”

Heero cautiously stepped back from Duo, dropping his hands to his sides and watching wide-eyed.  Duo smiled and stepped away from the wall, he ducked out of his top and stepped from his pants.  Standing in front of Heero naked he dropped to all fours and his form seemed to shift.  Heero watched as the boy morphed into the cougar he had nursed back from near-death and then sat against the wall staring at the chestnut animal.

“Now you know,” the animal came to stand in front of Heero, his huge violet eyes looking worriedly at the shocked boy, “it’s my fur they wanted, they were hunters, I just ran for cover, I didn’t realise where I was going until I was climbing the trellis.  I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have come, but I knew you would take me in, I just didn’t think you would figure all of this out.”

“So what are you?” Heero implored, “You can’t be human.”

“No, I’m a faire, or at least that’s what you would call me, a magical creature, I have the power to change to any animal vaguely my size, but if I get injured as that animal I can’t change again until I am well.  I thought I was going to die that last time, I thank you for that, you saved me.”

“So you’re really a faire?” Heero stroked the cougar on the head, “not a cougar, and your name is Duo not Russet?”

“You’re right about the name, but technically I suppose you could say I am a cougar,” he giggled lightly, “you see, I was an early baby and my mother was a cougar when she went into labour, so I was actually born a cougar.  I guess that means this is my true form, but I can be a boy…”

“I see,” Heero smiled, “and you came back to me when you were threatened.  I’ll inform my father that there are poachers on his land, he can sort them for you.”

“So I have to go?” Duo looked upset by the news.

“No, you don’t have to go, in fact, you had better stay the night just in case they aren’t removed straight away,” in reality, he didn’t want the boy to ever leave, he was the only human – or anything like – that Heero had ever felt connected with.

Duo changed back to a boy and quickly dressed himself.  He wore a huge grin on his impish face and his step had gained a little bounce to it.  Heero smiled watching him as he proceeded to clean and tidy Abbrevail’s stable and stroke and talk to the horse as if he could understand him.  He skipped out of the stable whistling to himself and wrapped his arms around Heero’s waist in a tight, possessive hug before returning the equipment to the tack room.

Heero was shocked by the show of affection, but had still had time to notice the boy’s exceptional strength.  Not that Duo had hurt him, but he could tell how much strength was in the arms that had held his waist, and it was more strength than anyone could have guessed from the appearance of the boy.  In fact, Duo was very slight in build and only about five foot, two in height, the same as Heero.  Heero had a lot to learn about this boy, but the most intriguing thing was the fact that he wanted to know.

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