Title: Friends and Enemies

Series: Leaders and Rouges #2

Fandom: Mighty Ducks: The Animated Series

Author: Rauhnee Ranshanka

Email: GateKat@TransFur.com, GateKat@Home.com

Feedback: Always. Praise and Problems welcomed equally. Publicly or privately.

Starts: Many years after the series.

Genre: FanFic, Slash (M/M), Furry

Category: Slash (M/M), Furry

Parings: Duke/ m, Wildwing/ Canard

Rating: PG

Codes: Slash (M/M), Furry (feathery?), Death

Status: New, Complete

Website: http://www.gatekat.net/index.html

Summary: Tabrin's message threatens to rip the team apart, and Wildwing isn't around to mediate as he's trying to get Duke to talk, and drops some information about himself in the process. Picks up all of three seconds after 'Last Will and Testament.'

Disclaimers: Not mine, no harm intended.



LEADERS AND ROUGES 2: FRIENDS AND ENEMIES
By Rauhnee Ranshanka

"I always knew that duck was a thief," Mallory hissed, "but a pervert too? It figures."

"What are you talking about?" Nose Dive turned on her.

"Duke's a faggot, that message was from his lover," Mallory spat. "At least one of them's dead."

"Anger at the unenlightened is unbecoming." Grin spoke for the first time. "He overcame one weakness, he can overcome this one."

"Say what you want, Grin, but he's still a thieving faggot."

"Umm, waitaminut." Nose Dive looked from one teammate to another. "If he dates ... yuck, guys, why was he so hot on that Lacrisha chick?"

"Covering up," Mallory shrugged.

"I still don't see what the big deal is." Tanya finally spoke up. "Who is he hurting?"

"Himself," Grin offered quietly.

"Well *I'm* going to do something about him, now." Mallory stalked towards the main door.

"Mallory," Nose Dive caught her shoulder. "Isn't this Wildwing's call? He *is* Team Captain."

"Yah," she turned for the other door, brushing his hand off. "I'll be at the mall." And added quietly to herself, "if he can't make the right choice, I'll make it for him. I'm not playing with a faggot."

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Duke settled roughly on his couch with an absent wave for Wildwing to sit where he willed. "So how'd you and Canard get together anyway? I always figured you were a straight shooter."

"Hu?" Wildwing looked up, startled. "Not anywhere close, Duke. Canard's the only duck I've every wanted."

A low chuckle escaped against Duke's will, "ah, youth."

"How did things work between you and Tabrin?" Wildwing risked pushing in honest curiosity.

"What do you mean?"

"You apparently meant a lot to each other, but you went gaga over Lacrisha, and I've seen you with human women. I never got any impression you were in a long term relationship."

"Hey, don't remind me of that one." Duke growled, then sighed. "And we weren't," he looked at his hands. "Not really. When we were together, we were together. When we weren't, we weren't. Simple as that," came with a shrug.

"Doesn't sound simple to me at all," Wildwing rested both forearms on his knees, watching Duke aimlessly for a long moment before a thought came. "What was he like?"

"Hu? Oh," Duke looked over from his own thoughts. "You saw him, too handsome for anyone's good." He looked down, refusing to meet his teammate's eyes. "He's also the only Duck to keep after me until I listed to him, made me see beyond the obvious and the next day. Not even Canard did that, though he fought pretty hard to keep me on the team." He picked up a small black leather case from the chest in front of him and fingered it as he continued. "Mallory's going to cause trouble over this, you know."

"I'll deal with her," Wildwing's voice was silk coated steel.

Duke looked at him a little curiously, "I really don't think I want to know what you have planned, but I'm going to ask anyway."

Wildwing smiled humorlessly at that and his thoughts. "She makes trouble for you over this, she makes for trouble for me, and Canard. After all, you at least *like* girls. We don't."

"You sounded like Tabrin right there," Duke tried to hide a smile.

"So just who was he?"

"Tabrin Mal'Ra," Duke made an empty-handed toast to where his image would have been. "The greatest treasure hunter in the galaxy. Much less known as a consummate diplomat, pirate, and rehabilitator of damned. He went about the galaxy searching out lost treasures, making friends, stealing from those that needed to be taught a lesson, and recruiting a lost soul here and there for his crew."

"So just how'd you two meet?" Wildwing inquired, thinking of too many possibilities on his own.

"He cleaned me out, and kept coming back until I finally caught on enough to see him. Then he beat the tar out of me when I challenged him to a duel." Duke held up an intricately carved, glittering black saber hilt. " SinRath makes that sword we brought back from the magic Anaheim look like a toothpick. It's his trademark."

"And the clothes?" Wildwing motioned as Duke put his new sword away.

Duke chuckled, "I adopted his uniform when I joined his team. If you look, Tattan's wearing it too. But when he had me bloody on the floor, he made an offer I couldn't refuse; join his team and accept what he was going to teach me, or find out what it felt like to be cut apart on the subatomic level. He then demonstrated the concept with one of my diamonds." He shivered at the memory of the hardest rock on the planet being sliced apart in a completely unnatural pattern.

"Hell of a way to start a romance," Wildwing couldn't keep the concern out of his voice.

"Oh, that wasn't the start of the romance," he waved the concern off. "That was the start of my training to be his teammate. I learned to like him, then love him, much later."

"Is that what he meant by 'and playing with a team no less'?"

"Probably. I held to my oath of never working with a team through it all. I called him my partner and the rest of the 'team', all two of them, were _his_ teammates, not mine." Duke looked down and shook his head. "Canard was the first to make me break that oath, and used only slightly nicer methods. But by then, I'd already given up stealing from Ducks, and was giving away what I got, so it wasn't as much of a stretch."

"Wow," was about all Wildwing could think to say in the following silence.

"You never said how you and Canard got together." Duke changed the subject.

"Not much to say," he shrugged. "We were in school together, he helped me out, we played hockey together, became friends. On my sixteenth birthday he offered to share a very important secret. When I told him I'd keep it no matter what, he kissed me." Wildwing's eyes closed in remembrance of better times. "It didn't take me long to understand why I'd never felt anything for the girls. Or at least, nothing like that."

"You really do love him," Duke whispered, half in pity, half in astonishment.

"Yes," Wildwing looked up. "You doubted it?"

"No, I doubted it was the 'True Love' he said it was." Duke looked down. "Canard really wasn't crazy."

"Huu?"

"Canard told me his mate was the only thing either of them needed outside of hockey and freedom." Duke shivered. "I figured he was giving me an object lesson, until he named you Team Captain. Then I figured he was just exaggerating. You're lucky to have had that at all."

"I know." Wildwing's voice was soft. "I know just how lucky I am."

"Umm, Wildwing?" Duke waited for a nod. "Would you mind leaving me alone for a while? I want to go through his stuff without company. Even understanding company."

"Yah, sure." He stood up. "Just remember I _do_ understand."

"I will. I'll be okay."

Wildwing paused at the door, "Duke?"

"Umm?"

"If you wouldn't mind, call Tattan. It never hurts to have backup players, or their gear."

"Right-o," Duke saluted before Wildwing shut the door. He waited in the darkness before flicking the hologram back on and paused it. "Love, you always could turn my life upside down. I wish you were here to fix it this time, too."



End: Leaders and Rouges #2