Seeing Love Dogs
Part 9
"I want to fly like an eagle into the sea... " I was singing, but I thought I’d pretty much earned the right to. There I was about two thousand feet high, riding a carpet with a Greek demi-god and a Djinni, singing badly at the top of my lungs. The carpet seemed to like it though, occasionally bobbing and weaving in sync with me. *We* were having a great time.
"Duo?" Pan asked from where he sat huddled in the middle of the carpet.
"What?" I looked at him over my shoulder.
"It’s, fly like an eagle *to* the sea." He said, snickering softly before flopping back down.
"So sue me." I muttered, returning to my view of the Adriatic Sea glimmering below, beside it I could just make out a darker blotch to the right that was Yugoslavia at night, no, not Yugoslavia... whatever it was now, though I couldn’t remember for the life of me what that might be.
We’d decided to cut straight up the Adriatic, through Germany and on to the Netherlands, making the trip a little over a thousand miles. It was going to take us roughly three days to get there at the speed we were flying, hence the singing.
It wasn’t like there were in-flight movies, or little blankets and pillows to curl up with, but at the same time, I didn’t have to wear a seatbelt and I had one hell of a view. There were pro’s and con’s, and if I’d been more motivated I could’ve made a list of them to stave of my boredom. Instead, I decided to tease the demi-god.
I inched up beside him, sitting or rather lying, stretched out on the carpet, watching the night sky. Heero was on the other side of me, staring over the edge of the carpet, keeping an eye on the land to the right.
I nonchalantly stretched, tucking my arms behind my head. "So, Pan. How come Cupid never blamed you for the whole forest thing?"
It was a delight to hear the choked gasp he made, and it eased my boredom in an instant.
"What?"
Heero elbowed me, turning to look over his shoulder but not saying anything.
"Well, it seems to me, that Heero got all the blame, when really it was just as much your fault."
If we’d been on the ground, I swear I would have heard crickets chirping in the wake of that little statement.
"Duo," Heero said reproachfully, "Cupid and Eros refusing him until I found love *was* his punishment."
"Seems like an awfully mild punishment to me." I grumbled, turning over to face the rug and lie on my stomach.
"He’s right Heero, it was pretty mild."
"It’s only because he loved you Pan, he didn’t want to hurt you."
"Yes, and he didn’t want to hurt you either."
"So," I looked over at the goat boy, "The reason you got off so lightly is because he loved you? But... if he loved you so much, didn’t he trust you too?"
"Ah," he held up a finger, "That is exactly the point, he *did* trust me, until Aphrodite slipped us that drug and did the added double whammy of turning Heero into a girl whenever he got horny in the forest. I’ve always had a hard time resisting women." He concluded casting a leer over my shoulder at Heero.
"This is why Cupid and Eros haven’t talked to you since then Pan, how am I ever going to get this solved!"
My eyes opened wide in shock. Heero, being angsty and wailing about it? "Heero? It can’t be that bad... I mean, maybe Cupid and Eros have missed Pan." I turned to the god again. "You *have* missed them right?"
"Oh yes, definitely." He nodded vigorously for a moment. "They’ve always been first on my mind."
"On a long, long list." Heero groaned, burying his face in his hands. "This isn’t going to work, they’re never going to take him back."
"Why do you want them to take me back so badly?"
"So that you can get him to help get Aphrodite off my back!" Heero yelled, looking like he wanted to get up and stalk away.
"For all you know she isn’t even interested in you anymore!" Pan yelled back, and I realized I was in the middle of a brewing argument.
"Do you know that for a fact? You know how crazy she is! I do not want her chasing after me and making my life a living hell again!"
They stopped and stared at one another for a long minute, the anger palpable in the air between them, air I happened to be sitting in. I decided I needed to slow this down a bit, backtrack as it were.
"So, we’ll go see Cupid and Eros and find out if they’re willing to help. I mean... for all of Pan’s little... mannerisms, I’m sure they might take him back." I tried on a smile, forgetting my teasing for the moment.
They were still shooting glares across me at each other, and then Heero returned to staring over the edge of the carpet, his back rigid. I sighed, wondering if it were possible for a three-day trip to last forever.
"Do you want them back Pan?"
"Of course," He gave a half strangled moan and turned towards me, his eyes bright green in the moonlight. "You have no idea what they’re like, they’re so, so beautiful and giving, lusty too." He groaned again, shaking his head. "I miss them so much."
"How come you’ve never tried to get them back until now?" I asked curiously, turning over to face him and propping my head up on my hand.
"Because, one of the clauses in this whole affair, was that they wouldn’t even consider having me back until Heero found true love," he paused and grinned at me, "That would be you by the way."
I returned the smile in kind, scooting closer to the warmth of Heero resting at my back. "So where in Amsterdam is he? How did you find out where we have to go?"
"Ah, well he’s a club owner, Club Erato, named after his favorite muse. As for who told me, Dio and Bacchus did, they never bothered to tell me before, they said, because I’ve never asked." He rolled his eyes, sitting up and grinning. "He’s such an asshole."
"Cupid?" I asked stupidly.
"No, Dio and Bacchus."
"Oh." Then I thought of yet another thing I’d been meaning to ask. "How come I can say your name now? And Cupid’s?"
"Well, now that I know about you and Heero, pretty much all bets are off."
"Huh?" I tilted my head, giving him a puzzled look.
"Cupid knows we’re on our way, and he knows why, he probably even knows exactly when we’ll be there." Heero muttered from behind me.
"And as for my name." Pan shrugged. "It doesn’t matter, I just like to mess with humans."
"If you have to call me something, call me Trowa." Heero imitated, then began snickering, stifling it against my shoulder.
"Hey! I thought it was creative!"
"Oh yeah, so creative." Came the muffled response.
"Hmph, well it could have been creative. At any rate Duo, Cupid knows we’re heading that way now, so there’s no point in hiding it or not saying his name. I think if he were angry still, he would’ve done something by now."
The wind was a gentle breeze over my face, my back nestled against Heero, and soon my eyes closed, cutting out the world for a few hours. The conversation pretty much died after that, seeing as how I had fallen asleep.
***
I woke up to the sun streaming in misty clouds over my eyes, and the sound of voices arguing.
"Come on Heero, let’s just do it."
"We can’t, you know how dangerous it is, besides we’ll need three people in order to do it right."
"Listen, we’ve done this before, we can do it again."
"That was so long ago, what if we mess up? And what about Duo? We can’t take the chance."
"How can we mess up? Don’t worry, and I’m sure Duo is a fast enough learner to catch onto the idea. It will make the trip go more quickly."
I heard Heero let out a deep sigh and shift beside me. "Alright, we’ll give it a shot, but if Duo doesn’t like it... "
"Don’t worry, I bet he’ll love it."
I had to say something; I couldn’t stand not having a clue what they were talking about one minute longer. "What will I love?" I sat up and eyed the two of them.
Pan was curled up on his side in front of me, his face serious in the morning light. "Time hopping."
"Oh no, uh uh, no way, not again, I’ve had enough of that thank you." I said rapidly, standing and walking towards the edge of the rug as if I would leap off at the mere mention of time and travel in the same sentence again.
"See? I told you he wouldn’t like it."
"I don’t get it, why wouldn’t he like it?"
"Go on Heero, tell him." I said, turning back towards them and gesturing with one hand.
"I made him travel back in time to Istanbul, to my former self."
"Ohh, nice one." Pan said enthusiastically, slapping Heero’s shoulder and grinning.
"He was my concubine for three months." Heero added, smiling slightly.
"Ohh, very nice." Goat boy said, starting to chuckle.
"And I got him to wish for it without knowing what he was saying." Heero finished with a smug tone.
Pan doubled over, laughing his ass off. I did not find it amusing, as a matter of fact, the whole incident still tended to make me furious. I gave Heero a glare, and kicked him lightly in the thigh.
"I apologized for it didn’t I?" He mumbled, looking up at me sheepishly.
"Not enough apparently." Pan said inbetween fits of laughter.
I nodded, agreeing completely. Heero definitely still owed me for that, and he owed me big time. Eventually I would get a better apology. Briefly, I thought of the many pleasant ways that could be done. Oh yeah, he still owed me all right.
"Ok, enough of that, just tell me about the time hopping." I muttered, sitting down and crossing my arms, wondering when a stewardess would serve breakfast. No such luck on that of course, but I could dream.
"Time hopping usually is best done with three people able to use magic." Pan said, sitting up and assuming a semi-serious pose. I blinked when he snapped his fingers and a pointer appeared in his hand. The blackboard that materialized beside us nearly sent me rolling off the rug in surprise. The little half moon glasses that appeared on his nose however were somewhat cute and did not astonish me. So, I remained mostly calm, and managed to listen to what he was trying to explain.
"The first person needs to keep track of what time it is, no matter how much time we pass through, I’ll handle that since being a god I have a natural feel for time." He smirked and pushed the little glasses up, peering through them at me.
"Heero will handle the distance and watch out for objects that may enter our path within the next few days, hours, minutes, and seconds." He nodded at Heero, who nodded back just as gravely.
"All right, so what about me?"
"You get the hard part," He gestured at the blackboard with the pointer, and I noticed the little piece of chalk on the tip of it.
"The hard part?" Why did I get the feeling that this was not going to be fun?
"First," he drew a little box shape on the board, "This is the rug," he drew three dots on it, "us," he sketched in some fluffy objects to the right of the rug, "clouds."
I rolled my eyes. "Ok, so?"
"Ah!" He held up a finger, "what you need to do is steer the rug, it can’t handle flying through time as well as actually navigate itself. So your job is to take all of the information we give you, about what’s coming up next," he gestured to Heero, " that’ll come from him," he pointed with the chalk at his own chest, "And I will tell what time it is, so that you don’t get lost."
"Whoa," I held up my hands, titling my head and giving him an incredulous look. "So I don’t get lost? I don’t know anything about traveling in time, of course I’ll get us lost!"
"Hold on, it isn’t as hard as it sounds." He gestured placatingly at me, pushing me back down to a sitting position. "Just hear me out before you go getting all bent out of shape." He rolled his eyes. "Humans, yeesh."
"All right, explain." I wrapped my arms around my knees and waited.
"You have to... well you have to navigate for the rug. You see Duo, the rug although now a living thing, isn’t very intelligent, it was only a rug before it was alive. So what Heero taught it only extends so far, it’s knowledge is very limited." He glanced at Heero and nodded.
"You have to become the rug for us Duo." The Djinni said softly from where he sat beside me.
"I what?!"
"Whoa! Hold your horses Duo! It isn’t so bad." Pan pushed me down again; patting my shoulder in what I imagined he thought was a soothing manner.
"It’s not permanent, it’s not painful, and I thought you would like it because you’ll be able to fly." He smiled at me, his vivid green eyes sparkling.
"Fly? What do you mean? I’m flying right now, aren’t I?" I shook my head at him, echoing his smile. "What would be so different?"
"Think of the view, you’d be able to control the speed, the altitude, and you would see as if you were a bird."
And suddenly, it didn’t sound that bad at all. I mean, why not? Who gets to fly like that? Me, that’s who, "Ok, I’ll do it. But how will I know how to use all this information you give me?"
"Oh... well... " Pan and Heero exchanged glances.
"I have to teach you Duo, just like I did the rug, only I have to teach you all about time, once you become the rug, you’ll already know how to fly and navigate."
"Why does this sound like a bad thing? What’s so horrible about teaching me something?"
"Well, for one thing," Pan said, shifting and giving me another serious look. "The teaching takes about 10 minutes, it will last for two hundred years, and in the end you’ll know what it’s like to be... infinite."
There’s not much you can say to a statement like that, except maybe... "Holy shit."
"Yup."
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