castleinthemist | 007 | Keeping busy

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gundam wing: duo maxwell [au1]

007 | Keeping busy

He was at the common table after a meal, working out most of his leather bolt. He'd cut out plenty of the shapes for making the scabbards for the two swords and machetes he had Toph made. Toph, who had disappeared somewhere he was more than a little worried about. He's seen her consistently almost since they met, and now? Where the hell was she?

So caught up in his worry over Toph, his hammer slipped as he hit his hole puncher into the two layers of leather. Hit his thumb, not hard, but hard enough to smart. He cursed under his breath and let out an aggravated noise of frustration. He dropped the hammer and let his head fall onto his arms.

Maybe he needed a break. Clearly he needed one if he couldn't even keep his hand steady. He looked up briefly at his work, knowing how tedious all of it was. He just wanted it all done. Least he got the ones for the scythe blades done. Hell, he made plenty of progress over the last week gutting the tech and using the remaining power cell to fuse the metal. That was about all the juice it had left after all. He now had two scythes for him and his brother. He wanted to show em of, but no real motivation to go get up and go get him either.

He lay his head back down into his arms, yawning into them. Just take a short catnap instead. Let the guys come to him.

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Heero doubted it too. Toph seemed to know better than to head out alone. Someone usually knew where she was to begin with. This is was very odd indeed.

As the rounded the corner, he saw something out of the corner of his eye. Next thing he knew, something had run into the older man. Someone that certainly wasn't human shaped. For a brief moment he tensed, poised and ready to strike if he needed to. Duo was in no condition right now. But the sound of deep chuckling and a friendly looking face eased him a bit.

He looked at the dragon and then at Duo. There was a dragon in the castle now. How fitting.

"Oh!--" And he was backed up into the opposite wall, nearly sliding into it. He put a hand against the thing's head and pulled himself back to stand.

"Hey bud." He said, patting the thing behind those ear flap things. He looked up to Heero and shrugged.

"Feelin' lonely boy?" All those pet names, he still didn't know if Toothless was actually a boy let alone what his name was.

"Heh." C'mon. He tugged the dragon around to look at Heero. "Here, dragon. Meet Heero."

Huh? What? Oh, another human? Well, that's great and all, but as far as Toothless was concerned, Duo was sick. Or tired. Or sad. He was something. He looked down, was moving slower than normal, held himself differently. Maybe most other humans would have overlooked something like that, but for the dragon who spoke through only unintelligible noises and body language, he perfectly understood what Duo was saying through his own movements.

Whether the human was sick, tired, sad, lonely, disheartened, or whatever he was, Toothless was worried. After giving Heero a quick look over (geeze, what a scrawny thing- almost as breakable as Hiccup, no doubt) he turned his attention back to Duo, circling him with a low pitched whine before nudging his head under his hand.

Cheer up, friend!

Heero didn't respond to Duo's introduction. It seemed pointless to him to do so verbally and he wasn't to reach out and touch an animal he didn't know. Toothless seemed friendly around Duo, but that didn't mean a thing when it came to him. He did keep his eyes on the animal while it tried to do whatever it was doing to Duo.

It was... cuddling. Like a cat. Pushing him forward.

"C'mon, lizard breath. Chill!" Duo patted Toothless on his nose, looking back at him, then helplessly at Heero.

Oi. Heero. Help him out, wouldja?

"He's okay, man. He's tame, I think."

Tame, yes. Potentially scary looking? Definitely. He was a great big powerful stealthy monster on wings, with lots of firepower in case his array of sharp pointy objects didn't do the job of completely ruining most targets. No doubt he could easily be confused for something harmful, even in his best of moods.

Toothless could tell that Duo wanted him to take notice of the other human, so he gave in with a rumble. He left the older pilot's side and moved to the younger. He stopped just out of arm's reach and sat, crouching in on himself submissively, paw lifted from the ground and ears only slightly erect. There was a low purr coming from him as he looked up at Heero with great big eyes and dilated pupils.

After determining whether or not the other would attack him, he moved in close enough to sniff at him, starting from Heero's chest and working his way up to the head.

Yup. Seemed to check out just fine. He sat back again, ears and wings perked.

"Auuurghrraw," he greeted before promptly ignoring him and turning back to Duo. There. Made friends. NOW will you cheer up?

Despite Toothless' attempt to show how docile and friendly he was, Heero still didn't reach out and touch the dragon. It didn't have anything to do with thinking he was dangerous anymore. The largest animal he had ever dealt with was a horse, which was trained, so he was a little bit scared to touch something that build wise was bigger than that. A lot bigger and stronger than a horse.

He looked back to Duo once the dragon ignored him and watched as Toothless tried to cheer him up. It was a bit amusing to watch it interact with the older pilot. Duo looked like he could fall over any moment and yet this dragon kept nudging him and acting much like a cat would.

"Hmm." Nudge him anymore and he might just fall over. Instead he just leaned against Toothless's head as he nudged him, yawning.

"Go'wan, dragon. Go t'sleep." He said, finally pushing Toothless away gently as he moved to step around the dragon, near tripping over his tail.

Oh, nudging back, are we? Take- whoa! Toothless reacted quickly, a wing shooting out to catch Duo and keep him upright.

He looked at him before casting his glance to Heero.

What was wrong with the boy? Did this other human know?

Hero did know what was wrong with Duo. This place exhausted him more than he'd seen in anyone else. It was a problem that needed to be solved soon. Duo wasn't going to last long in this place like this.

"Let's get him to his room to rest." The older pilot could whine all he wanted about it, but he wasn't going to her it. There was something seriously wrong here.

He wasn't going to argue this time. Not this time. He pulled himself up against the wing and moved around it. "M'tired, that's all." Sheesh. Explaining himself to a dragon! What was shaping up to be his pet dragon, getting a bit too close for comfort just now.

He yawned and stretched, heading over to the door to open it up.

"Heero? Can y'keep him company?"

Toothless followed Duo to the door until he read the way he held himself, and understood that the poor exhausted man didn't want to be followed. He sat and scrunched in his wings, wrapping his tail around his paws. One great big deadly cat.

His ears dropped and eventually his head followed.

Awr, left alone. Oh. 'cept Scrawny there.

"Yeah." Heero wasn't sure how to keep a dragon entertained, especially one that didn't seem to like him. Once Duo left, he looked to Toothless as the dragon sulked. Sorry Duo, this wasn't going to happen.

Turning away from Toothless, he decided to return to the common room to see what could he find out about Toph. Toothless was free to follow him if he wanted, but he wasn't going to pay much attention to him.

Well, of course he's going to follow!

This other human seemed to know how to make his own human friend feel happier, so he'd investigate the man as much as he could. He followed close behind him, taking careful, stealthy sniffs.

Had Duo mentioned something about finding someone? Maybe a good, sharp nose would help?

Ignoring Toothless didn't last for long. Those steathy sniffs of his were actually noticed by him and he stopped short, turning to look at the dragon. "Stop that"

Turning away then, Hero continued on into the common room and looked around for a moment. Top hadn't left anything here the last time he saw her. The one thing he did know was that she did sleep outside occasionally. So it was best to look there and see what he could find. Toothless would be some use out there.

So off he went outside, knowing the dragon would follow.

The dragon shrunk back, a paw raised and face taut, much like a dog being scolded by another, smaller dog.

He regarded the human intensely, watching him, reading him, trying to learn his method of communication. This one was a hard one to figure out. It intrigued Toothless, and he continued after him, a low sound rumbling from low in his chest.

Once outside, Heero looked aronf for the best place to sleep. There were a couple of trees nearby, so it would be great place to follow. He motioned for Toothless to folow and headed to the first tree closeet to them. Hopefully Toph had dropped something for them to get her scent from.

Once outside, Toothless left Heero's side, bounding to the tree closest to the water. He let out a loud moan and began rubbing against it, scratching the part of his back that his feet couldn't reach, thanks to his large wings. Oooh, yeah, that felt goooood!

Satisfied, he slid to the ground and rolled over. He lay still, except for his tail sweeping back and forth as he relaxed. The prosthetic fin edged closer and closer to the base of the tree until it hit something hard and the sound of falling stoneware startled him to his feet. He turned quickly to the noise, pupils dilated and head tilted, curious.

... a hand crafted tea set? Hm! It smelled faintly of the short little human that was often with Duo.

Further inspection caused the dragon to wince and back away, clucking lowly. Oops. He'd broken part of it. He subtly surveyed his surroundings. No one saw that, right?

The tree Heero was at was a dead end. There was nothing that Toph had left behind. No clues as to her whereabouts, or to who took her. At this point he was sure something had gotten her' whatever that was. She hadn't been at the sarcophagi room, or the fountain room. Those shadows had been active lately. He had Harth had almost been done in by them.

Hearing that clucking, he looked at toothless as the dragon looked guilty about something. He made his way over to him, he looked down and saw the tea set. Stone. Only Toph could manipulate that. Looking at the dragon, he reached out and pet the dragon on the head.

"Can you get her scent from that?"

Toothless looked from him to the broken set, then back at him.

"Hrrmph," he snorted, shaking his head and turning his head to the tree and the ground, sniffing deeply. He was no bloodhound, but he could hunt well enough.

The trail he found wasn't fresh and he often was side tracked by another smell, but he did lead Heero first to the stone where Toph spent some time talking to Harth.

After giving it a thorough investigation, he continued on, leaping off and over Heero's head to continue his sniffing on the ground. He strutted forward towards a hall and eventually a flight of stairs, but after that, the trail was lost to him. Stone castles weren't exactly good at holding any scent other than 'musty.'

Still better than nothing.

He followed Toothless around as the dragon followed Toph's faint scent. While they walked, he looked out for any material clues about her whereabouts, finding nothing until they reached the flight of stairs. The trail had ended there, from what he could tell by Toothless' mannerisms, but it did give him an idea.

Those Shadows had been hovering in the upper regions of the Castle lately, so maybe she had gone up to the roof and had been attacked just the same as he and Harth had. It still didn't explain why Toph hadn't been in one of the sarcophagi though. Unless she had been seriously injured and was still up there.

"Thanks." Heero ran his hand on the dragon's head in a thanks, giving him just a light scratch afterward.

Toothless liked that. He nearly purred as Heero scratched him. Huh, so this human was pretty okay too, he decided.

He waited, watching Heero's actions and movements. Heading upstairs? Toothless knew what was up there. He'd been attacked himself but had ultimately gotten out unscathed. He wasn't so sure a soft and squishy human would be able to accomplish the same thing. He was quite sure Duo would be upset again if his friend was eaten by the strange creatures that attacked him.

With that in mind, the dragon snuffled and shook his head before following a comfortable distance behind Heero. In the darkness, he instinctively quieted his breathing and his steps. He almost vanished if it wasn't for the gleam of his eyes in the stray bits of moonlight.

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007 | Keeping busy

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