CHAPTER TWO: Waking to Us

Heero caught the boy before he hit the floor and sat down abruptly, pulling the limp figure into his lap. His Others sat down around him, gazing worshipfully at the Fifth they'd nearly thought they were never to find. They all ignored the astonished crowd milling around them - they might as well have been alone in the room. Even Alvis, shouting in disbelief, didn't register any more.

Duo reached out a reverent hand and let it follow Heero's path, stroking the sleek black hair. "Damn, he's pretty." He whispered, making Quatre giggle and the other two grin. It was true enough - their Fifth was an Exotic, a rare type almost unknown even in Helia, astonishing to find out here in the middle of nowhere. His skin, rapidly regaining its normal color while in contact with his First, was a golden bronze, like honey, his eyes slanted like a cat's and with thick, curling black lashes. He had soft, full lips and he was clean, a lovely contrast to most of the people in this room.

"He's not pretty!" A petulant female voice finally broke in on their little circle. "He's a freak! He doesn't look like anyone else in the village!"

They stared up at Relena, not bothering to deny her words. Why should they? The girl didn't matter, and neither did her opinion. They had their Fifth! Nothing else in the world mattered right now!

"We should take him somewhere warm." Quatre said softly, reaching out to take the boy's only visible hand. "And someplace we can feed him, he's far too thin."

Heero nodded, and Trowa got to his feet and lifted their Fire into his arms. Heero stood and turned to the Mayor again. "Where is the inn?"

"O-other side of t-town." The man stuttered, not knowing that the cold look in Heero's eyes was his normal look for anyone who wasn't one of his Others. He thought he was in trouble because the boy was so thin. Fortunately for him, that thought hadn't occurred to the Four yet.

"What's his name?" Quatre and Duo lingered to find out the answer even as Heero and Trowa stalked towards the door, the villagers parting like waves around them.

"I - I don't know." The Mayor was still frightened. "He's just the inn boy."

Duo snorted and turned away.

Quatre gave the man a scathing look and hurried after him, muttering under his breath. "Inn boy! Inn boy!" He was certain the man could have named any other member of his village. He was becoming certain that their Fifth had a less than happy existence here. Well, it would make it that much easier for them to leave, wouldn't it? And hopefully it would be that much faster that they would Join, and become a WarCraft.

Heero led the way to the inn - the 'other side of town' was only a few hundred yards away - and shoved the doors open. Harris jumped up, staring at them and then at the bundle in Trowa's arms.

"M-my Lords, has he caused you trouble? I'll certainly punish him for it!" He moved forward, certain that would be the only reason his little slave laborer would be in the company of these men. "If you'll just let me have him..." he stopped abruptly as Heero moved to block him from their Fifth.

"Keep away." was all he said, but the man instantly started backing up.

"Sir... I don't understand?!" Perhaps the boy had collapsed, and these men were moved to help him? It was unlike Lords to worry about a common peasant, but stranger things had happened. "Is he ill? I - I can put him to bed..."

"Keep away." Heero repeated, pushing past him and waiting until Trowa and his precious burden were safely out of the man's reach.

"You serve food in this place?" Duo demanded, pulling the man's attention away from his Others. Heero and Trowa moved to the best table, close to the large fireplace, which wasn't lit at the moment but would make the room very warm when it was.

"Yes, sir, certainly. What would you like?" Harris was delighted at the distraction.

"Whatever's decent." Duo shrugged, unable to keep his eyes from going back to the table where Quatre was helping Heero ease off their Fire's cloak. Quatre had been right about him being too thin. But he was muscular - and oh, so pretty.

Harris had finally thought of another reason why his charge might be with these men, helped along by Duo's hungry eyes. He smirked - maybe these four would pay a decent enough price for the boy, instead of the paltry offers he'd gotten over the last year.

"Good sir," he lowered his voice, glancing around to make sure no one could overhear them. "Good sir, ye know it's not lawful for me to sell him to ye, but if ye were..." he paused, leering into Duo's wide eyes, thinking he was seeing acceptance, "...if ye were, er... desiring a warm fire in yer room tonight, I'll arrange it. For a fair price, sir."

Duo's Others looked up at a loud thump and were just in time to see the landlord hit the floor, blood streaming down his face from a broken nose.

They blinked, then turned their attention back to their new Talent. Duo would have had his reasons. They trusted him.

*

Wufei wasn't sure what was different at first - he swam back to consciousness with the knowledge that something had changed, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Just something there... something that had never been there before... something he... liked? Yes, he liked it very much - whatever it was. He sighed and snuggled closer to the warmth that was - holding him?! His eyes flew open sharply, staring up into the warm blue eyes of the blond who's arms he was wrapped in. The other smiled gently at him, but he was already jerking away, throwing himself backwards out of the encircling arms.

Unfortunately for his peace of mind, he just slammed into another sturdy chest and more strong arms went around him. He yelped and tried to escape sideways. The arms tightened, and he twisted around to stare up at a pair of laughing violet eyes, with something sad and worried lurking under the laughter. That was odd enough to make him pause.

"W-who are you?" He managed, his voice trying to strangle him.

"Duo!" the other boy replied cheerfully, "what's your name?"

"Wufei." he replied, not even considering lying.

"Wufei - nice name. That's Quatre." He pointed to the blond whose arms Wufei had woken up in. Wufei's dark eyes darted to him, then away, not returning the hesitant smile. He stared around him, only now realizing that he was in the best room of Harris' inn, had been sleeping in the huge fine feather bed.

'Gods, I'm dead.' he thought, knowing Harris would beat him for being in here. "I-I'm not allowed in h-here." He said softly, trying to slip out of the violet-eyed boy's arms.

Duo tightened his hold gently, making sure he didn't squeeze the thin boy too hard. "It's alright, Wufei. We're renting the room, and you're staying with us."

Wufei's heart plummeted. "W-why?" he managed, unable to keep a flash of fear out of his eyes.

Duo's grin faltered a little. "Not for that, 'Fei. We wouldn't do that to you." The grin carefully reasserted itself.

Wufei blinked, not sure he was hearing correctly. If that wasn't what they wanted - then he had no idea why he was in here.

Quatre crawled closer, seeming to sense his confusion. "Wufei, do you remember us at all? From the Arena?"

Velvet dark eyes turned back to him, studying his face. His eyebrows drew together, and both boys watching him decided he was cute when he was confused. "I - you..." His eyes abruptly widened. "You're the Four that came! Part of them..."

"Right," Duo said softly, squeezing him gently, noticing that Wufei had relaxed without realizing it. "Right, Wufei, but we're not Four anymore."

Wufei looked back to him. "You found your Fifth?" he asked, awe in his voice. If that was true, there would be Four's coming to this village for years, hoping to find their own Fifths. "Was it Alvis?"

"Alvis?" Quatre asked, confused.

"The Mayor's son. He has red hair..."

"Gods, no!" Duo laughed, cutting him off even as he bent and rubbed his cheek against Wufei's soft black hair. "No, Wufei, you're our Fifth."

"I'm not." Wufei said calmly, not even hesitating.

"Yes, you are." said a voice from the doorway. Wufei jerked around to stare at a Spirit Talent, a tall boy with icy blue eyes. Intimidating...

Wufei felt like cowering, but he still had some pride, and it kept his chin up. There was another boy behind him, but Wufei didn't have any attention to spare him, yet - the Spirit sat on the bed and was reaching for him, and Duo was letting him go - Wufei's heart leapt into his throat and he took advantage of the instant that no one was holding him to escape, throwing himself off the bed and across the room away from these unnerving boys.

"Leave me alone!" He said sharply, automatically falling into a defensive pose. If they thought he was helpless, they would find out differently! To his surprise, they beamed at him.

"Good," the Spirit Talent said, "You know how to take care of yourself. Very good."

Wufei wondered why his heart swelled with happiness at those words - he'd never before cared what anyone thought about him, why did he care what they thought? The blue-eyed boy was getting off the bed and coming toward him again. Wufei forced himself not to back away and the boy stopped just out of arms reach.

"I'm Heero. You're Wufei?"

Wufei nodded.

"Trowa." Heero said, pointing toward the fourth boy. Wufei's eyes flicked to him for a moment - taller than Heero, with thick auburn hair hanging in his face and a single visible eye that was a beautiful shade of emerald green. He gave Wufei a nod and a smile, but didn't speak. Wufei turned his eyes back to Heero.

"He's our Third. Our Earth Talent. Can you feel him?"

Wufei was confused again, not sure what he meant - until he felt something well up inside of him, a warm, safe feeling that somehow made him think of dark soil and trees, of flowers and falling leaves.

He dropped out of his defensive stance and just stared at Trowa.

Trowa smiled again.

Heero took advantage of Wufei's distraction to move closer and wrap his arms around the smaller boy. "You're our Fifth. Duo's our Second. Can you feel him?"

This time it was like a cool welling of liquid flowing over his tired, rumpled soul.

"Water Talent," he said, not hesitating.

"Perfect." Duo said cheerfully. "Way to go, 'Fei."

Heero tightened his arms - they were being gentle, but Wufei was starting to tremble anyway. "And Quatre's our Fourth."

Gentle spring breeze.

"Air." Wufei whispered, trying to keep from putting his arms around Heero. He desperately wanted to hang on, but he wasn't weak. He wasn't! And he didn't want them to think so. Quatre was nodding, smiling at him in gentle delight. He tried to smile back, but it felt odd on his face.

"Easy," Heero murmured, "just one more."

Wufei couldn't describe the feeling that welled up inside him then - an awareness, a heightening of senses, a realization of exactly what his soul was, like he'd never realized before...

"You." He barely got the word out, wrapping his arms tight around himself since he didn't want to wrap them around Heero.

"Now let us feel your Fire." Heero whispered, his breath warm against Wufei's ear.

"How? I don't know..."

Heero gently pressed his palm against Wufei's chest, even as Wufei gave in enough to hide his face against Heero's own chest. "Here," he said softly, all his attention centered on the slim figure in his arms, just like the other three were. "Feel your Talent here - think about it here."

"How will that...?"

"We are your Others, Wufei. We will feel you, when you do this."

Wufei felt like rolling his eyes - no matter what he was feeling right now, he was certain that these boys were wrong - he'd been told for so long that he was worthless, that he had no Others, that he'd finally come to believe it. He'd do as they asked, anyway - maybe that would prove it to them.

The other boys felt nothing for a long moment - long enough to make them nervous, wondering if Wufei was going to refuse them. He had that option. They never once considered that he wasn't their Fifth - they knew.

Finally, they saw him take a deep breath, and felt that gentle warmth from before welling up in their hearts again, warmer and warmer until it was the delicious fire of their Fifth.

They all sighed in unison, close to ecstasy - they'd waited so long to feel this. Waited so long to find the slender boy their First was holding close. They couldn't resist the urge to answer him - even knowing that it would make him collapse again. It would be all right - Heero was holding him, and he looked as if he could use the rest, anyway.

Wufei felt a gentle swell of emotion in his chest again. This time he recognized it as the presence of all the boys in this room, and he knew enough of Talents to realize that this meant... that this meant they were his Others...

...that he was their Fifth...

...and they were WarCraft...

...which meant...

...that this was all too much, and he felt blessed darkness swallow him again.