A sound from the other side of the room made Heero stiffen. Treize, inspecting a number of jars on a shelf, turned toward it. A moment later, a figure appeared in the doorway there, dragging a large bag of flour. It was a youth in ragged denim trousers and knit cotton shirt, his feet bare. He looked to be the same age as Heero, eighteen or nineteen, with an abundance of chestnut hair, most of which was plaited in a long braid down his back. Red-faced with exertion, muttering under his breath, he did not see the two newcomers. He struggled with his burden into the kitchen, dragging the flour toward a barrel against the nearby wall.
"Well, well," Trieze said, moving swiftly and silently to Heero's side. "Things are looking up."
The youth straightened, spinning around. Heero met a pair of dark violet eyes deep-set in a face that, while a little too thin, was unexpectedly pleasing. Those eyes got very wide and round. He let go of the sack, which fell over in a puff of flour dust. Around his neck was a collar and, on the collar, a short length of chain with a black chunk of stone on the end. So this was Dragonfell's shinigami.
Heero Yuy is content to be colonel in the king's guard. But when a distant cousin dies, Heero finds himself the new Earl of Wyrmhold, owner of the notorious Dragonfell Castle and its shinigami, an annoying, insubordinate and maddeningly attractive slave named Duo.
My notes: Medieval AU with political intrigue, a smattering of occult technology and a threat of war in the wind. A little noncon in parts because of power dynamics, and Heero’s a bit of a dick, but he gets better fast.