Author's Note: Hi there! I started this QUITE some time ago and I meant to publish it earlier but of course, I forgot. x -x WELP.

Disclaimer: I don't own Dynasty Warriors or its characters except my own.

Hope you enjoy!

Today was the first of Daylight Savings.

The young boy raised his arm to block out the sun as he was trying to look at the sky. It was especially blue today, so that meant it wasn't going to rain. Hopefully. The last time the sky deceived him, he'd been depressed in his room the whole time, just watching the rain pour down like God was angry or had a bunch of extra water he didn't need anymore.

He was currently leaning out of his window, just trying to take in the entire world. It was so beautiful! But he was unable to go outside. Come to think of it, he didn't think he'd ever been outside before in his life. He was born indoors... and had stayed there ever since. He knew why this was, too.

The boy, Sun Bohai had only seen about fifteen winters. And 'seen' was the keyword. All those years he had to stay inside and watch all the other children play out in the snow while he gazed on in longing through his bedroom window.

And all of this was because he was an illegitimate child.

He was not to be seen by all costs, or else his mother would suffer great consequences.

As if on cue, the door to Bohai's room slowly opened and in stepped a woman with short amber hair that came a stop at her jawline. She looked no more than about thirty, give or take. She smiled and came closer, not forgetting to shut the door behind her. "How are you?" she asked, giving her son a warm look as she brushed a strand of amber hair from his face.

"I'm fine, mother," Bohai replied, though that was a lie.

He was miserable inside this room all day long, pretty much 24/7. But no matter what, he knew he could not blame his mother. He understood that she had a time of weakness while her husband was away and was seeking comfort. That was, of course, when he came about. He didn't even know who his father was, but he guessed that she didn't know either.

"Oh, my Bohai," the woman Sun Shang Xiang cooed, gently pressing a hand to his cheek. Bohai knew what was coming next.

"You're so strong and brave; I don't see how you still appear sane, being in this room all your life." She said the same thing nearly every day. It wasn't even like he had a choice in the matter. If he were to be discovered by someone, anyone, his mother would be exiled or worse- beheaded. She was, after all, still married to her husband of eighteen years, Liu Bei. He was such a kind man, Bohai didn't think he would actually kill his wife, though he knew he would be enraged about her giving life to some other man's child when they had been trying for their own heir or heiress for quite a while. The worst to be done would most likely be carried out by Xiang's brother, Sun Quan. He too, would be angry that his sister had slept around when she was already married. It wasn't really the same with concubines or mistresses, like with the men. They could sleep with whoever they liked, but if a woman did it, they would receive punishment for being unfaithful.

It was a long while before Bohai simply just smiled and turned his face away from his mother. He wasn't going to say anything to that- at least not this time. Without a word, he walked back over to his usual place at the window, and stared out at the bright world that he so longed to be in. "I know it's hard," Xiang said from behind him. Soon she was standing next to him, also looking out the window. It hurt her heart to have her only son living in such conditions where he was completely isolated from everyone and everything. It made her feel incredibly guilty, but there was nothing she could do about it. The penalty for being found out would result in not only her misfortune, but also her son's. And she simply could not allow that.

"I just wish..." Bohai began, still gazing out the window. Then he seemed to think better of his comment and did not finish it.

"Bohai?" Shang Xiang asked softly.

"I wish I could have a nice, hot meat bun," he said, turning to look at her with a forced smile.

It was just enough to fool his mother. She only wished to see what she wanted, and she wanted to believe that was a happy smile from her son. But it was really a sad one.

When Xiang had left his room, Bohai turned back to the window. He exhaled heavily through his nose as he stared out to the deserted palace courtyard. Why was the place always so empty at noonday? He wished it wasn't like that. He could bear being alone all his life if he got to watch the soldiers and handmaidens move about. But when there wasn't anyone around... he felt a terrible, smothering loneliness.

He sighed again and was about to turn away from the window when suddenly there was a little commotion and two people stumbled into the courtyard, their hearty laughs filling the almost deafening silence that had been going on.

It was a young boy and a girl, looked to be around the same age.

This wasn't the first time Bohai had seen people around his age, but these had to be the most boisterous he'd seen.
One wore garments of brilliant shades of orange and red, and the other lustrous colors of deep jade and pure white.

They looked like nobles, but then again, what child of high birth would be so… uncouth?

With eyes wide in curiosity, Bohai stared out the window, watching the people.

The boy who was wearing the green straightened up and hooked his arm around the girl in red's neck, pulling her into a painful looking headlock.
Just then, a stiff looking woman who also wore green approached the two, her face a mask of clear embarrassment.
She began scolding the boy and he immediately let the young girl go, but she was grinning just as wide as the boy was. He didn't even mind being scolded.

"Longwei! I expected better from you. You know better than to put girls into headlocks!" the boy's mother scolded.
Guan Longwei just shrugged, still grinning.

"And Chunhua! You are a lady. Act like one please," she snipped.

Chunhua rolled her eyes at Ah-lam's chiding and slouched her back defiantly.

Suddenly there was a sharp and painful slap on her back and Chunhua cried out in surprise. "Stand up straight!"
Guan Longwei sniggered to himself, earning a deadly glare from his friend.
The three were here running errands, Ah-lam having brought her son and his friend along because they had begged.

"Next time, you two are staying home," Ah-lam huffed, striding on ahead.
Longwei and Chunhua exchanged a look, then burst out laughing and followed after Ah-lam.

Longwei was behind Chunhua, and he wasn't going to stop, but something told him to. He ceased to walk and slowly turned his head upwards to one of the palace windows. He could've sworn he saw someone there. Frowning, he shook his head and caught up to his friend.

Bohai released the breath he didn't realize he had been holding, and slowly slid down the wall. His hand was clutching at the front of his shirt, his breathing shaky.

He was sure that boy had seen him.

Even if it was just a glimpse, things were certainly ruined now.

Oh, how could he have been so careless!?

He couldn't imagine the things his mother would have to endure if anyone ever discovered him. And if she was to be beheaded for adultery, it would be all his fault and no one else's.

Knees shaking and body trembling, Bohai helped himself to his feet. He couldn't stop the morbid thoughts from running through his mind. Even if there wasn't actually any danger in that boy seeing him, it didn't help him to feel any better.

With this on his mind, he was unable to sleep during the night and the next day he was lying in bed, staring up at the ceiling. That was his exact position all throughout the night. He hadn't slept a wink. The sun shone through his window and the light spilled over his face, causing him to shade his eyes. Was it morning already?
Sun Bohai sat up in his bed, taking a look around his room. Gosh, it looked so bare. Through his guilty thoughts, wonderings of that boy kept swirling around in his mind. How old was he? He wondered what he did for fun. Maybe he played Go with his friend, or maybe Mahjong! Bohai smiled to himself, and got out of bed. That sounded exciting. He'd never played those games with anyone but his mother, and not even often. She'd been coming to see him less and less lately… He sighed, the smile from before slipping away.

He was about to go get dressed-though there was really no point; he could laze around in his night clothes all day if he wanted- when he heard the stamping of horses' hooves thundering throughout the courtyard. It took control of every fiber in his being not to fly to the window to see what was going on now.

His hands balled into fists and he bit his lip, staring longingly at the window. After a minute of contemplation, he approached it, hiding most of his face with the side of the wall.

There was a young man dismounting his well-groomed chestnut Balikun, and a woman being helped from her own steed. When the man turned around, Bohai let out a small, involuntary gasp. It was the same boy from the other day, but somehow he looked… different. He was wearing green garments like before, and they looked even more elegant than his others. But he wasn't smiling at all. His shoulders were stiff and so matched his face. Bohai wondered how such a happy person could also be like this.

Guan Longwei kept his face neutral as he handed the reins of his horse to one of the servants. They were here at the palace of Lord Liu Bei once more; the first time they came it was because his mother wanted to offer her services in hopes of good pay. The only thing they had left was their good name, and all the money was gone. Longwei knew this, but he hadn't really cared until now. Now, when his mother had suddenly gotten the bright idea to offer up his services too! He didn't know what he was going to be forced to do. Be some lowly drudge in the kitchen? He did not harbor any ill feelings against those people, but he knew he didn't want to end up like them. He had been enjoying his carefree life, hanging out with Chunhua all the time and spending the rest of the day in study.

But no, his mother had told him. It was time to stop being a child and grow up; get used to having responsibilities.

"Stand up straighter!" Ah-lam whispered in an urgent tone.

Guan Longwei stiffened even more than he already was before, hating how uncomfortable he felt.

God, how he despised this.

"Now, I know you're only used to being a child, but Longwei I have to tell you, those days of fun are over," Ah-Lam said as she and her son began walking toward the palace interior escorted by the guards that had approached them.

Guan Longwei couldn't stop his eyes from orbiting as he struggled to maintain his uptight posture while walking.

"Yes, for the absolute one hundredth time mother, I know."

Even though his tone was less than satisfactory, Ah-Lam smiled at the fact that her son knew well what he had to do.

Though his thoughts were on other unpleasing matters, Longwei's eyes traveled to that same window it had before. There was no one in it.. This time.

He knew that all the servants slept on the lower floors of the palace with the royalty on a higher floor, so it was even more perplexing to have seen someone up there. The first thought he had was that there was just a servant up there cleaning that room.

"Mother," Longwei began.

Ah-Lam tilted her head to the side a bit to show that she was listening.

"I overheard someone talking once about how everyone is banned from the uppermost floor of the palace. Why is that?"

Ah-Lam clucked her tongue and instinctively, her eyes went up to that floor as they passed by it.

"About some... Oh, fifteen years ago Lady Sun Shang Xiang issued an order and ban for everyone to stay away from that floor of the palace. Apparently she'd told Lord Liu Bei that it was a special place of memories for her when they first got married and simply didn't want anyone there."

Guan Longwei's brow furrowed in suspicion at that story.

He knew that Shu's ruler loved his wife a great deal, so he guessed it must not have been a problem for him to easily believe her. But maybe even eighteen years after their marriage, the place was still special to Lady Xiang. But for a different reason.

Guan Longwei exhaled loudly with the weight of his heavy thoughts on him. As he and his mother waited for their arrival to be announced the the Lord Liu Bei and Lady Shang Xiang, he made a mental map in his mind of how to get to that floor based on the height of the window.

As soon as this was done, he would do a little exploring.


Author's Note 2: Well? If you liked it, it would literally make my whole week if you reviewed. Everything including criticisms but excluding flaming or hating for any reason you could come up with would be very appreciated too. I first got the idea for this when I was randomly lying in my bed one night at about 4 a.m. and I had a very strong urge to do it. Sun Shang Xiang was my first favorite character when I played Dynasty Warriors 3 about... nine or eight years ago. I still love her (more so her ACTUAL tomboy look) so I really wanted to write this. I thought it'd be fun and well... it was! That's all; until next time!