This is going to be long, and it will have nothing to do with the series... but it will POSSIBLY be cool...! Parallels with real persons, lives and shows *cough* are not intended...

ANGELIC PEACE

Did you ever believe there was a heaven and a hell? Frankly, there’s neither. Sorry, I am quite a sarcastic angel, you have to know. Oh... oops, I mean, hi, I am Duo, Duo Maxwell. Quatre is sitting right next to me and watches me while I am scribbling this pen on my paper... oh, but I am starting on the wrong end here, ain’t I?

I think I should begin in the springtime of this surreal world. By then, we had all lived here a year, but personally, I only knew of Trowa’s existence. He was living in the Yagen Valley, just like me, and we shared a room. You have to know, once you come to this world, you don’t remember much of your old life, down on earth. I know I have lived there, though there’s no connection to what I have done there in my little brain. Here, in this nameless world, we have a new life. I don’t remember being born into this world, I just was there. I knew I was fifteen, I knew I was a boy, and I knew I was an angel. It was all I had to know. I also knew the others’ names, as if I had lived here forever. Strange, it is, indeed, you wouldn’t believe it seemed perfectly normal to me. So, there was Trowa --- aw, me and Trowa! We happened to be the youngest of the clan, and our first year, everybody cared about us like a whole big family. Geez, I remember Noin even tried to cuddle me! Well, I guess, we are pretty young for being angels. Trowa, if I didn’t mention that, is a year older than me. He’s taller, too, but he came here at the same time.

The end of our first year was filled with anticipation for us younger boys. Everyone knows, you grow wings after your first year, and everybody you pass by, outside the houses or inside, keeps looking at your back and searching for them. It’s like you get into puberty – everybody looks at you, searching for changes, but nobody talks about it. This was a gross example, I am sorry. There wasn’t anybody to talk about that anyway. We are all responsible for ourselves here, and I greatly appreciate that. Trowa was the only male close to my age, and he was as clueless about how one grows wings, as I was. So we could only enjoy life and wait. We practically did everything together – checking books on flying styles, checking out Yagen’s fields and places, building hideouts and occasionally leaving the gates to sneak into the vast land, until we got caught. Usually it didn’t take long to get caught.

Without wings, you are not supposed to go anywhere, you know? The vast land separates our clan with the others, who live in the Cleeve Hills. The vast land in between is a neutral area, but usually full of fighting. I am getting ahead of myself, here, though.

It happened to me in the middle of the night. I woke up, because I felt all crappy and strange. Trowa was peacefully sleeping in his bed, rolled to the side and cuddled into his light blanket. I immediately knew something was wrong, because I never get sweaty while I am sleeping, not even with bad dreams. And I felt somehow haunted. Don’t ask me why, it was as if the devil himself was lingering under my bed, as if I knew he was there, although I had never seen him. And that, when I even knew for sure, the devil didn’t exist! I sat upright for what was approximately a minute, when something crawled up inside the flesh of my arms, like a snake eating itself through my bones. It wasn’t really painful, it was just creepy and strange. I felt it pull over my shoulders and into my spine, spreading over my whole back. I slowly got the hint, that I was about to grow wings...

A sudden pain, breathtaking, consuming, unexpected, shot through the nerves on my spine, forcing me to arch back and cry out in agony. It was a long cry, coming out from my mouth, but it sounded nothing like myself. I was seeking for something to hold on to, as my mouth kept up the screaming and my back pulsed in the stinging and biting inside of me.

Trowa yanked out of sleep, probably expecting an attack from outside. He found me, crouched in on myself, and hugging my knees as I tried to cope with the now ebbing pain. I was not screaming anymore, but I shivered all over. My shirt had ripped and lay spread out on the bed in pieces. I tried to get hold of the situation, hugging my knees tightly. A set of night-black wings was wrapped around my shoulders, warming and caressing me.

Trowa blinked at me in disbelief. I became aware of his presence and looked at him.

“I didn’t know it was supposed to hurt that much,” I said, rocking myself gently. I still was hazy from the pain. Trowa crawled over to me, not sure how he was supposed to touch me, with the large black bat-wings all around me.

“Does it still hurt?” he asked carefully. I shook my head. I only was confused and hazy, but there was no literal pain there, anymore. It had vanished in the same way it had appeared; like a snake crawling away. I hardly dared to move my new supplies. I was still tightly wrapped in them.

“Are they... good?” I managed to ask. Trowa looked at me for a while. It must have been a quite funny sight to see me, all covered in the black skin of my wings like a big black ball.

“I can’t really see them,” he said after a while. I nodded and carefully got up. I had no real experience with wings, but I supposed it just worked like moving your arm – totally by itself. I got up and walked to the middle of the room, my wings all hugged about me, like a thick black cloak. When I stood in the center, where there was enough space, I flapped them open with a loud thud, and tensed them to full size.

Trowa’s eyes grew big, and he leaned back some, as the wind made by my wings hit him. He looked at me quite a while, and I enjoyed his confusion, proudly presenting my wings.

“Wow, Duo! They’re huge!” he said after a while. I looked to my side and couldn’t tell whether they really were. From my angle I couldn’t compare them to my body size of course. To be quite frank, yes, they felt big, too!

“You really think so?” I asked cheerfully.

“Gosh! They’re even bigger than Treize’s!” he gasped. I flapped my right wing before pulling them both back to a resting position. Wow, I felt like an evil gargoyle! It was really cool to have wings, actually.

I need some explanation here, I guess. You see, Treize is the leader of our clan – the head of us Shinisouls – that’s what we are called once we have wings and officially belong to the clan. You know, it could always happen your wings turn out a different color, which would be kind of bad, but black-winged angels, to which I belonged once I had my wings, were part of the Shinisouls. And we were proud of that. Treize Khushrenada is the head of the clan, as I said, and he’s quite powerful. He is taller, than us young boys, of course, and always dressed ‘officially’, his hair combed back neatly, and it seems he is always serious under his long, strange eyebrows. He speaks at the assemblies, and has the most majestic wings you ever saw on a Shinisoul – well, before I was born! The size of your wing’s, to make that clear, is quite unimportant, but you can guess how much respect one gets, who walks around with a pair of wings in the size of a grown panther. Am I exaggerating? However, my wings were really huge, really powerful, really something to look at! I was really proud of myself. Trowa came over to me and touched and caressed them. I could feel his hand on the new body part of mine – my wings were in full function. And the hand felt good...

“I want to use them!” I cheered, pointing at the window. “Right now.” I thought I could do almost everything with these attachments, I was free like a bird, I was – indeed – an angel! I looked at the moonshine with perfect confidence, and to my own luck, Trowa pulled me back.

“Silly,” he said simply, dragging me through the door and out onto the lawn. He was right, jumping down from the third floor was maybe not the right thing to do for a beginner like me. I felt like this was no problem at all, to be honest, but reasonably, I had hardly an idea how to fly. So there I stood, in the middle of the lawn, flapping two incredibly huge wings and not moving upwards a bit.

“Why won’t they work?” I muttered, swinging them harder and faster. My back muscles already grew sore. All I wanted was to be up there and I had the necessary supplies, but it somehow didn’t work. As if I couldn’t grab the air to ride on. I gave another, strong flap and the resisting air in front of me sent me flying – onto my bum! I sat in the grass, legs spread out, wings partly tucked under myself. I used a hand to pull them out and spread them on the lawn around me.

“What you are doing looks weird,” Trowa said, coming up in front of me. I gave him an ungrateful look. This comment was so unnecessary, I knew I was messing up something, but I didn’t know how to do it right.

Trowa scrutinized me from the side, a finger scratching the skin of his rather pointy chin, his emerald eyes focused on the black wings of a totally discouraged Duo. My legs were still spread out in front of me and I pouted while I was playing with the grass in embarrassment.

“You know,” Trowa said after a while, “when the adults start off, they usually stand facing the wind.” I looked at him. He gave me a sign and I got up. There was wind coming from the east and on his sign I stuck my nose in it.

“Spread your wings,” he said, and I did as I was told (almost knocking him over). He backed away a little and looked at me, fixed on my position. He walked around me, as if I was a sculpture to be looked at. I waited, what else could I do? He came up in front of me and grabbed the upper bones of my left wing, gently pulling on it. I succumbed to his directing and turned it forward some, so the wings were more parallel to the floor. I felt the air streaming under it, now. Yes! This was much better. I twisted the other wing the same way and Trowa stepped away again.

“If you lean forward some, I think the air caught under your wing will carry you,” he stated. Well, easily said, really. I must have looked pretty dumb with my bum sticking out behind me, and my wings clenched in this awkward position. I inhaled a big breath, stretched my wings back and let them rush towards the floor. The air pressing against the skin felt like a soft pillow, as my feet lost ground. I let another flap carry me higher, rising towards the night sky.

It was incredible! So free, so easy. Once I was up in the air, everything worked automatically. I flew a slope, held my fingers out and touched the upper branches of the trees, and somersaulted in the air. I lost a little height when I did this, I have to admit that.

“Hey Trowa! Look at me! It’s great!” I said, daring to look down to the grass. I was quite high - no need to fear it, because I could really fly! Trowa didn’t answer. I searched him on the darkness of the lawn, when a sharp cry cut the night’s thick air into pieces. Trowa was pressing himself against a tree, as if something was pushing him on his back and pinned him against it. And he screamed in pain.

Wings, I thought and momentarily forgot to flap. I tumbled down through the air, the shock of falling made me forget to spread the black skin again. I painfully hit the grass, my feet gave away under my weight. I cursed loudly, realizing that I had to work on my landing abilities. Meanwhile, Trowa had stopped screaming. I brushed my knees off and looked at the tree where he had been. I could see nothing but a dark figure. As if in reflex, Trowa had automatically wrapped himself (and the tree) in his black wings. He was breathing hard, I could see the movement beneath the skin. I went around the tree and grabbed the edge of his wings, carefully unwrapping what was beneath. Trowa let me push his wings on his back. His forehead rested against the bark of the tree and he was still panting. His hands clutched the thin trunk tightly.

“It’s over,” I let him know, not knowing what else to say. I scrutinized his wings and ran my fingers along them smoothly. The touch and the feelings in his wings eased Trowa into relaxation. I already knew, that scratching wings was a wonderful past time – I used to massage Hilde’s and Noin’s all the time and they liked it a lot. And when Trowa had touched me – or them – in our room before, I understood why they liked it so much. Really, nothing’s like getting your wings massaged, patted and scratched! Trowa flexed his wings a little under the caressing and let go of the tree.

“They are not as big as mine, but... oh, Trowa - they’re so beautiful!” I said after a while, going over their insides with my flat hand. Trowa held his eyes closed and enjoyed. “It’s the most dark black I have ever seen on anyone... and the skin is all smooth and like velvet. Not as thick and rough as mine...” I really liked touching these wings, because they really were so beautiful – even silkier than Hilde’s. And, even though they were nothing compared to mine, they were of a very acceptable size, close to Treize’s. I have to admit, I always adored Treize – not only for his wings, which were beautiful and big. He’s the best leader I have ever met... the only one so far, I know, but I guess you get what I mean. He’s so reasonable – you’ve got to hear him talking. It’s as if he has an answer to everything. He has got the perfect leading qualities, like a good sense of justice and the will to fight for what he thinks is right. As for the wing-part – I started to re-think that, after seeing the pairs of wings me and Trowa had just gained tonight.

Trowa blinked his emerald eyes open. “Thanks.” I wasn’t really sure whether he was referring to the complements on his wings, or the scratching, but I let go of them. When I had retreated a bit, there was a big thud and Trowa’s wings tensed to full sized. It was a gorgeous display. He turned around and faced me. I let my own wings slip open, too, and eyed Trowa evilly.

“What do I look like?” I growled.

“Like the God of Death himself,” Trowa smirked back and leaned forward some.

“So then it is set!” I smiled a little, “I am the shinigami from now on!”

“Yeah, right!” he exclaimed, “Shinigami of the Shinisouls!” before he leaped into the air and gracefully headed towards the sky, as if nothing was easier. It was incredible to believe, this guy had never used his wings before! I was a skilled flyer! I did the same, leaping into the air, and struggled some to get the right grip to push me higher. Once in the air, things were much easier. I caught up to Trowa, carefully avoiding to be battered by his wings. He looked over at me, enjoying the feeling of freedom as much as I did. He gracefully dived through beneath me, and tickled my tummy with the tip of his wings. I protested and dived after him, trying to catch his leg. A wild chase began. With our new ability to fly, we did everything we could think of. At the very beginning, I almost crashed into things when I tried to land, while Trowa – that evil jerk! – could spot-land gracefully on a coin, if necessary. Yeah, I’ll say it out loud: He was much better in flying than I was! He was incredible. Later that night, we started learning to land in tree-branches. I toppled down trough them at least four times. Trowa did, of course, not.

We didn’t even care about the fact that it was dawning, and when the sun had reached the upper layer of the Cleeve Hills far away, Treize appeared on the lawn, along with Lady Une. Trowa and I fluttered down from the branches and spot-landed in front of the leader and his... uh... best friend. I had learned the spot-landing by then. The wind we made, ruffled Une’s hair a little.

“Duo, Trowa,” Treize said, letting his eyes wander over our new shapes. “These are quite useful items you got there!” he said, reaching out a hand. I let him touched my wings. Hm... another ruffling hand on them! It was so good! He also smoothed over Trowa’s.

“You know what, Treize?” I smirked.

“Hm?”

`”Mine are bigger than yours!” Treize looked at his own wings shortly before he stretched them out behind him and Une. I did the same with mine, and there was no doubt: My wings had beaten his in size.

“Quite good!” he acknowledged. Trowa looked a little embarrassed. Treize carefully withdrew his wings and walked around my friend, checking his ones out in silence. “Beautiful,” he said finally, causing Trowa to look up in joy. “I’ve never seen wings of such a perfect black before...” It seemed Treize was actually astonished. When he was done walking around Trowa, Une carefully poked his side.

“Oh yes, our morning meeting! Come on!” he waved us to come and we followed him to the hall. You have to know, the whole clan, which consists of about twenty angels, meets in the mornings to check what was up in this nameless world. Treize or Une usually held the convention. With us having our wings, quite something was up.

Treize placed us next to him on the stage. We held our wings neatly folded on our backs, but up enough to let everyone see their existence. When people came in, great murmuring started and hands pointed at us. I was so proud!!! I stood there smiling, waiting for everybody to be seated.

“Morning!” Treize greeted cheerfully, causing people to shut their mouths. He smiled approvingly. “You all can perfectly see, that we have to greet two new members of our clan and our family. You all know them, so there’s no need to introduce our youngsters, now, is there?” He made a long and meaningful pause. “Oh well: Welcome Trowa and Duo!” Angels clapped and waved at us.

“The weapons you will wear in future have been chosen by the star of your birth,” Treize said formally. “Duo Maxwell, you have been born as the second child under the star of Deathscythe,” he said, “Your weapon of protection and fight will be the scythe.” Une came around and laid the new shiny weapon into my hand. I loved it from the moment I held it. It was just suitable for a shinigami, don’t you think? I ran my fingers over the shiny metal and smiled. As the traditions told me to, I held it up and spread my wings for the first time in front of the others. Quite a few jaws dropped, eyes popped out – yes, my wings were huge! Now everyone could see it. After a while I drew them back and stood aside, to make room for Trowa’s part of the ceremony.

“Trowa Barton, you are the third child born under the star of Heavyarms,” Treize announced, “The weapon of the Heavyarms Shinisouls is the energy gun. Use it with care.” Une handed him a large black gun, filled with shining bullets. Trowa walked up front, held it in front of him, as if he was about to shoot the whole audience and stretched his wings. The angels were almost as astonished as they had been with me before. Trowa’s wings were also quite big, extremely dark, and of a natural beauty.

“Now you are legally allowed to leave the borders of Yagen Village,” Treize said with a quite uncomfortable look at us, the undertone in his voice was quite suggestive... There was clapping and cheering, and also laughing, as we hurried towards our places.

Hilde poked me as I passed her. “Was a good night, hm?” I nodded and sank onto my chair, totally forgetting about the pain of growing wings, and I found it quite hard to adjust my huge attachments enough to sit comfortably. Treize went to the business part now.

“I have to regret, though that today is the day of the unnatural ceremony of the Shouriwings,” he declared. The Shouriwings where the angels from Cleeve Hills. “Which means for us, that their three new members get their wings and weapons as well. Three new members, three new enemies. I expect you to be cautious, since we do not know much about them yet.”

Yes, the Shouriwings! Our all-time enemies! The Shinisouls and the Shouriwings have been enemies since the time angels can think of, so it seems. Nobody knew the real reason, at least nobody ever really told me and Trowa. The Cleeve Hills angels live across the vast land, and as the fragments of our tales say, they have wronged us intensely in the past. They robbed us of the land we used to posses, and killed our leader Romefeller. Ever since, the Shinisouls tried to win the Cleeve Hills back, which were rightfully theirs. And each and every member of the two clans was involved in the fighting. A constant war was ragintg between the two clans; whenever two of the different kinds met, they would immediately start fighting. There haven’t been any casualties for years, though, but lots of injuries. An end of the fighting was, however, not foreseen.

I am now gonna hand that pen to my impatient friend Quatre who’s going to tell you what happened in the Cleeve Hills by then.

Okay, here I am, Quatre Raberba Winner. I am from the so-hated Shouriwings.

It must have been about the same time, me and my friends got their wings. It works a little different over there in the hills. As Treize had said, we were three young angels, having spent our year in the clan. It was me, my friend Heero and my other friend Wufei. In the opposite of Duo’s clan, we knew perfectly well, when we would get our wings – it would happen in a big morning ceremony, exactly one year after our “arrival”. How they knew that it was one year, I don’t know. As Duo said, we can’t remember getting there, it’s like it has always been this way.

Heero and Wufei, I have to say, are usually quite sinister persons. We had a lot of fun in our first year, though – after all, we are all fifteen-year-old boys, having the same stupid things in our heads as any other. We, too, used to sneak out of the portal to the Cleeve Hills to explore the neutral grounds, the vast land. We were always dragged back immediately – through the gate, only angels can pass. I don’t know what happens when you pass it without being an angel, but they have these gates in front of Yagen Village and the Cleeve Hills for some reason.

So, the morning we were supposed to be taken inside the clan as full members, we woke up in anticipation. To be quite true, nobody really cares about the member-thing, everyone is just anticipating the day they get their wings. So were we. That’s why we were all up pretty early, I guess. For a year we had been the “kids” of the Cleeve Hills, now we’d become what they all were. No more jealous staring at Sally’s beautiful wings, when she called us to dinner... no more wishing to fly like the big ones do. No more waiting alone, when Relena and her friends flew out to visit the spirits of the vast land! Ahh! What a wonderful morning we had! The sun woke me, tickling my nose. I stretched and yawned lightly. Sleepily, Wufei sat up in bed. The Chinese-looking (half-)angel’s black hair, was all messy and stuck out of his pony-tail in all directions. I giggled at the sight.

“Wha?” Heero moaned, as he sat up in bed, too. His short dark-brown hair was just as messy, but for Heero that was quite normal. It gave him something dangerously sinister, fitting his character.

“Wufei-kun needs a check in the mirror. They won’t give him his wings, if they see him like that!” I joked. Wufei grumbled something about disrespectfulness and combed his hair.

Milliardo, our skilled leader, was already waiting for us on the stage, as we entered. Everyone was seated and we were all in anticipation. We lined up in front of the little stage and waited for the begin of the ceremony.

“My friends and family,” he started friendly, tossing the long blond mane a little, so it fell over his shoulder, “the day has arrived our children, Heero, Quatre and Wufei, will become adults and the complete angels they deserve to be. One year has passed, and we found the true hearts of the Shouriwings inside them.” The audience nodded. Rasid, one of my adult-friends, twinkled at me. He probably remembered his own ceremony a while ago.

“Heero Yuy, you were the first-born under the star of Zero, to our joy. We give you this sword as your weapon of protection, it is the symbol of the Zero-star,” Milliardo announced. Relena laid the weapon in front of Heero, and then she and Milliardo walked behind him. “You are a real Shouriwing, and you deserve to wear them,” he said and both laid their hands on Heero’s back.

Heero waited a while, patiently. Suddenly a scream came from him, and he stumbled forwards, Relena and Milliardo kept him from falling off the stage. He moaned in pain, as their glowing hands pulled two white feathery wings out of his back. He sank down on his knees, breathing in pain, his wings shielding him from sight in a reflex. He was panting heavily. After a moment of recovery, Heero stumbled to his feet. The white feathers about him were pure and light. Relena and Milliardo helped my tenshi-friend to stand upright. She handed him the sword, and he held it with both hands, as his wings spread out, revealing their full size. And that was some size! He had strong wings with thick feathers, quite big and forceful. Even in a folded position, they reached high over his head and the downer feathers touched the floor. They were bigger than he was!

What shocked me, though, was the pain-filled cry, I had heard. Heero is quite good at bearing pain. I had no idea that getting wings was something painful. Nobody had reacted to it, so I assumed it indeed was normal. Would I have to bear such pain then?

“Quatre Raberba Winner, you are the fourth son under the star of Sandrock. These curved, heat-radiating blades are the weapon of the Sandrock-fighters.” Relena placed the two shiny blades on the floor in front of me, before the siblings stepped behind me, to lay their hands on my back. Something clutched my chest as they did, and I got problems to breathe. Was this normal? I wondered. A moment later, a pain, starting at my heart pierced through my back, stabbed my flesh and bone. Before I even realized it, I clenched my fists and gave one of the most painful cries of my life. The pain dizzied my senses, I could barely feel my pink shirt rip under the pressure of my emerging wings. I tried to open my eyes, but there was only mist about me...

I awoke again in Relena’s arms. Obviously, the pain had just knocked me out. As angel reflexes make you, my wings were wrapped around me in a protective way. Milliardo stood in front of me and forced the white feathers apart. Still they were tensed in the natural angelic reflex; he had quite some trouble to force the right one behind my back. Relena scratched the feathers softly. The feeling was incredible... it eased me up quickly, so Milliardo had no trouble to fold the other wing carefully. I shakily stood up, my muscles were still a little weak. Relena handed me my blades. One in each hand I tensed my wings behind me. The Shouriwings gasped, which I didn’t quite understand. My wings were not particularly big. Oh, they felt good, especially when I remembered how Relena had scratched them.

Next one was Wufei. “Fifth child of the star of warriors, the Nataku – Chang Wufei! The star chose your blade, carry the katana with honor!” Milliardo announced. “Now receive the wings you deserve.” With these words, Relena placed the katana in front of Wufei, and moved next to her brother to his back. Once again their hands started to glow. Wufei clenched his teeth and moaned, the pain already shot through him. Bravely, he tried to avoid screaming, but he had no choice as he sank down to his knees, and the white wings shot out from his back, wrapping themselves around him immediately. There he knelt, quivering in front of his katana, all crouched under white wings. His wings had extremely long and slim feathers, they looked very slender and beautiful. Some had a light-gray shade to them, making Wufei’s new organs look silver a little. Relena laid the palm of her hand onto his back and rubbed the fluffy surface. Wufei’s wings, totally surprised by the new sensation of being scratched, went limp in relaxation. Relena pulled him up some, he grabbed for the katana. As he held it securely in his hands, his wings snapped out from behind, and everyone could see the silvery shimmer reflected from them. They applauded, until Milliardo calmed them down.

“Welcome to our family. I allow you to leave the morning assembly to exercise your flying skills,” he announced, and didn’t need to say it twice, we were already hurrying to the door. As we were walking towards the front of the house, Heero asked:

“What did Relena do to Wufei? How did she make him open his wings so easily?”

”You don’t know?” I smirked, reached out my hands and let my fingertips crawl over Heero’s wings in an almost massaging manner.

“Ahhh!” Heero gasped, due to the nice feeling, which caught him by surprise. I massaged him all the way to the outside. He almost purred, and it was so unlike Heero!

There was quite some wind outside, and I lost a few feathers which had been loose from my fall into unconsciousness. I picked one up and held it under Wufei’s nose, “Hey Wufei-kun, why did people gasp when I was spreading my wings?” Wufei looked at me with complete surprise, as if I had just asked the stupidest question of the nameless world. His gaze shot to Heero. The Zero-born raised an eyebrow and hooked onto my arm, leading me to a little lake in the garden.

“Look,” he said, pointing to the surface. I dumbly looked inside and couldn’t see anything, but the familiar reflection of myself. Wufei and Heero shook their heads, each on grabbed the tip of one of my wings and forced them to spread. There I was, reflected in the water and my wings where whiter than white... They were shining and pure... they were... beautiful! As if dirt would never be able to stay on them. Wufei forced my arm up and held the feather, which I still had in my hand, in front of my nose. I watched it. Something was on there – small, tiny little dots reflecting the light... more like dust. My focus returned to the water. Whatever made them look so white and pure, it must have had something to do with the dust, because my wings sparkled as they reflected the sunlight. I had never seen this on anyone before, and now, it was on me! I stared at my reflection with big eyes. The feather fell onto the surface and crumpled the picture.

”Are you coming, or what?” Heero’s voice called. I looked about me and found him somewhere in the sky, floating on his back (!), then somersaulting back into a normal position. Wufei was right behind him, sneaking close to steal one of Heero’s feathers. He succeeded and Heero winced, as it was plucked from his wing. He immediately chased after him, intending to fleece his pair in return. It looked like a lot of fun.

I ran across the lawn and flapped my wings wildly, achieving to lift myself from the soil. I was flying! It was a cool feeling. I didn’t really know how to steer and it was quite unfortunate, that I came across a tree. I flapped wildly, achieving to at least get high enough to not hit the trunk headfirst. However, I landed awkwardly in the branches; there was a lot of noise and a lot of flying feathers. I limply hung in the branches, trying to pick myself up and separate with the tree. Wufei was hanging in mid-air, holding his tummy as he laughed crazily. His wings flapped wildly, holding him in position.

I moaned as I put my (now lesser) feathers back into order. The problem was, that I found myself in the middle of a tree and the way down was quite long. I closed my eyes, jumped and tried to flutter up some. I felt myself fall a bit, before my wings caught on to the air and send me upwards. Once up there, everything went perfectly well. It was as if flying was just an instinct. It worked just the way it should. My first target – of course – was Wufei, he had to be punished for the laughing. Flying close to the floor, I picked up a bucket and flew over the lake, filling it with water. I had to struggle a bit to not fall into the lake myself.

Then I pulled up above Wufei. He was busy playing with the katana in mid-air. I turned the bucket around and hit both, Wufei and Heero, who happened to just swoosh through beneath my other angel-friend, with icy water. They both promised me revenge. We were playing like little children, enjoying ourselves, forgetting about the war outside.

At some point, Rasid and Sally came to the garden and scooped up the feathers I had lost on the tree. I landed next to them, panting from the chase, my cheeks slightly hot from the effort I had put into flying.

“Quatre, my congrats!” Sally said.

“Congrats?” I asked confusedly.

She nodded softly. “I have never seen such beautiful wings on anyone before. Can Rasid and I keep the feathers?” She held up the bunch of them, she had in her hand. My sparkling feathers...

“Sure,” I smiled. At that moment, Heero grabbed me from behind and lifted me up into the air. “Hey? What’s that?” I yelled.

“Nothing, we just thought, we’d strip off your clothes in mid-air!” Heero grinned.

“WHAT?” I struggled into freeness. Sally down there turned to leave and yelled: “And don’t loose them all, your feathers are too beautiful to be ruined!”

Angelic Peace Part II

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