Bride Price
Meilan fingered the coin absently, peeking out the small window that opened into the room she was soon to wed in. It was ever aggravating to her that she couldn't catch a glimpse of her soon-to-be husband, even standing upon a chair in the back room where she had to wait; there was a column in the way. She was beginning to suspect that it and the window of the chapel had been placed just so for the very reason that was upsetting her.
A scholar they had told her. A bookworm, she had decided. They said he had gone to boarding school. An even bigger dork. A philosopher. A pansy. Good-looking.
…Damn it, they put that pillar there on purpose!
She jumped down from the chair and glared at her father as he came into the room. His mouth twitched a little at the childishness of what she had been doing, instead of waiting patiently. Silently, he offered his fourteen-year-old a hand.
Tradition was tradition.
Taking her time, making him stand there awkwardly waiting for her, she straightened her dress – cumbersome, hideous, ritualistic garment it was – glaring over at him defiantly as she did so. A good match, they had promised. A good match for Nataku, the strongest of the clan.
Tradition was tradition, however grinding.
She stepped forward and took his hand, tucking the coin into her sash.
Wufei's back was turned to her as she walked to him.
How dare he show such impudence on his wedding day to his wife!
He met her eyes when she stood next to him, but this was not simply a gaze. It was an appraising look. Well, that was fine, she was appraising him as well, ignoring the words being said. He was probably of a height with her, without that ridiculous hat on his head. His shoulder-length hair was unkempt and looked like it might use a good wash. He had big, square glasses of a very annoying nature.
Handsome? With some work, yes. Spying a dandelion seed in his loose locks, her fists clenched. He hadn't bothered to even look decent!
After a moment of evaluation, he turned bored eyes back on the man reading the rites.
And he finds no favor in me?
Sniffing slightly, she too turned her eyes to the old man, waiting till it was time for her to hand over the coin.
The coin… She had loved it since she was a child, an old family heirloom of sorts, something from a time long past. No one seemed to know its age or origin anymore, but she liked it that way. It was timeless, mysterious… priceless; something that her family had held onto for generations, centuries. And now she had to give it to this fool, this mockery of a husband in symbolism of the old dowries. And she hated him for it. She nearly threw it at him when it came time in the ceremony to hand it over, and she spat the words that went with it. He only raised a cool brow and calmly took the coin, examined it a moment, and held it in one hand at his side.
He didn't even care.
As soon as the rites had all been said and she was officially married to this apathetic asshole, she decided that enough was enough. She had waited to tell the arrogant prick what she thought of him long enough. "So…" she said, letting her distaste drip from her words. "You're the clever brat, back from boarding school?"
He pursed his lips in annoyance, meeting her eyes. "…You're displeased?" he asked after a moment.
"You have no right to succeed our noble clan," she spat.
"I see…" He closed his eyes a moment, gripping his traditional robe. "Well, this wasn't my idea either," he announced heatedly. Doffing the ceremonial clothes and stalking off in the plainer ones beneath. "Go to hell!"
"Wufei!" cried the monk after him, but her husband paid no heed.
Meilan stared at where his over-robe lay, beside the hat. And the coin, the bride price.
Discarded.
"You disgraced me!"
He looked at her disdainfully. "And telling me I was unworthy to continue your bloodline wasn't disgracing me?" She had snatched up the coin and run out of the chapel after him, yelled his name to the same response the monk had gotten. However, throwing the coin and pegging him in the head convinced him to stop and confront her.
"You didn't even take the time to prepare for the ceremony!" she cried. "Your hair is full of grease and dandelions!"
Clucking his tongue slightly, he said, "Daisies, more likely." He started to walk away again. "Are you coming?"
"Where would I want to go with you?" she snapped.
He looked over his shoulder, eying her skeptically. "Your new home, wife. Your father has already had your things moved." And he was leaving, strolling down the hill the chapel was on.
Abandoned.
Discarded.
"Pig," she muttered, lifting her skirts and following him.
"Why are we here?" demanded Meilan grouchily, her arms folded as she sat on the hill beside Wufei. They were in a meadow now, full of daises. The sky – though she supposed it really wasn't, just a well-done illusion – was a beautiful blue, and the flowers were certainly beautiful but… This was so pointless. She didn't want to just sit around staring at daisies day by day, and that was all her new husband seemed to be interested in. Sit in the field, stare at the scenery, and shove his nose in those damned books of his. Three weeks they'd been married, and that was all he cared to do. Flowers, books, read, sleep, eat. It was enough to make her scream.
"I came here to read," he told her, turning a page. "You followed me."
"All you ever do is read!" she complained, glaring over at him. "What kind of man are you anyway?"
"The term is usually 'intelligent' or 'scholar,'" he informed her, not looking away from the pages he was absorbed in.
"Pansy," she corrected maliciously.
He closed his book and glowered over at her. "And they usually call your kind raging imbeciles who never take the time to think."
"Passionate," she defended. "Just."
"Foolhardy," he argued, standing. "Dreamers."
"Ungrateful pig!" she cried, brandishing the coin she had given him at their wedding, that he had careless tossed away.
He frowned. "Didn't you give that to me?" he asked.
"And you cast it off like trash!" she barked, genuinely hurt that he hadn't even noticed.
Rolling his eyes, he reached over and took it from her, pocked it. "If only it were that easy," he told her coldly, heading back to the house.
She didn't follow him immediately because she didn't want him to know that was enough to make a woman cry.
'If only it were that easy.'
Forgotten.
Discarded.
"Watching you cook is like watching a man taking vengeance on the criminal who killed his mother," commented Wufei absently one morning at breakfast. When she didn't respond, he added, "Only with eggs."
"Do you live to torment me, husband?" she demanded, spinning to face him, whisk in one hand. "Do you try to hound me so? I am only trying to-"
"You're getting egg everywhere," he reminded her, pointing to the cooking tool she was waving angrily.
Screaming in frustration, she grabbed the bowl of eggs she had been whisking the whites and yolks together in and threw it at him. Utterly to her surprise, he dodged it entirely and was beside her in a moment, grasping her wrist. "Do you really hate me so?"
Twisting out of his grasp, she yelled, "You dishonor me, you dishonor my family! I am a warrior, the strongest of my clan! I am Nataku! And yet you just push me aside as though I am nothing! You are not worthy of the title as my husband, I want no children of you, a weak man, one I can point to as a bad example when they ask who their sire is because his head is in the clouds, his nose in his books!" She stared at him, her chest heaving. "Have you no pride?" she whispered, her voice broken as she leaned against the refrigerator. "Have you no standing? Have you no sense of truth or justice?" She shook her head, rage overcoming her as she stood up straight and stalked back over to him. "Am I of no worth to you?"
He stopped her by pulling out the coin, her dowry, her bride price, and holding it up in front of him. "A coin of unknown but ancient origin, mysterious as can be," he announced crisply. "Plain, made up mostly of silver, and on the counts of just its metal, is worth maybe fifteen dollars today."
She cringed at his words. "It's an antique, an heirloom," she argued, her voice not quite as firm as she might've hoped. "It's priceless."
"Unknown original worth," he continued blandly.
"Why are you doing this?"
He pocketed the coin, meeting her eyes. "Unknown," he stated softly, running his tongue over his teeth. "So who really knows?"
"Why?" she asked again, teeth grit.
"But who really cares," he finished, walking out of the room to leave her to clean up the mess she had made.
Unloved.
Discarded.
'Wufei! Why don't you practice martial arts like the others?'
She had had no idea what she was getting herself into when she had said those words.
'Why… Do you fight?'
'To uphold justice!' Justice in the world, justice between them. She had had enough.
'Justice? Do you really think such a thing exists?'
'Shall I show you?' She was the strongest in her clan; it had been time to teach the asshole a lesson.
'…Very well.'
She had had no idea that he was such a fighter. She should have known from the way he had moved when she had thrown breakfast at him, before. She should have known that he could beat her, leave her broken on the ground, tell her that her justice was dead. She should have known.
'Nataku, eh… You chose an arrogant name for yourself.'
"Are you alright?"
She turned and glared at Wufei as he walked into the room. "What do you want?"
"To know if you are well," he replied gently, sitting next to her.
"What do you care?" she asked, shying away from him. "I'm worthless, remember?"
He clucked his tongue and put his hands on her shoulders. "Unknown," he corrected. "My mystery bride."
She looked back over her shoulder at him in surprise.
"I hardly know you, woman," he reminded her.
Maybe not discarded.
After a moment, he pulled out the coin again. It seemed he carried it everywhere, now. "Unknown," he murmured. "I think maybe we're the two sides of this."
She didn't know what to say to that.
"Tricksters."
"Regals."
"Fools."
"Warriors."
"Same difference."
Meilan rolled her eyes at that. This had become almost a game of theirs. First it had been about who the original owners might have been. Then whose hands it might have passed through. Lounging out in the meadow he loved so much, it was almost… fun.
He chuckled a little and picked it back up. "Gypsies."
"Rumor," she disagreed.
"Gypsies existed," he argued.
"Nuh-uh," she countered.
"They just turned into circus people. Clowns."
"Lions."
"Why would a lion have it?" he asked, raising a brow.
She yawned, rolling over and staring up at the artificial sky. "He ate it."
It was his turn to roll his eyes. "You're impossible. Travelers."
"Tourists."
"Same thing."
"Travelers don't have to look like dorks."
"Fine." He thought for a moment. "Americans."
"Oh come on, you can do better than that, Americans could be anybody," she protested.
He scrunched his nose. "I don't know, from what I've heard they're pretty bad. Noisy obnoxious cowards. I wouldn't want to meet one."
"Whatever. Cherry pie."
"What?"
"I almost choked on it once when I was little because I accidentally dropped it in the mix when my mother was cooking. Cherry pie."
"What's its worth then?" he asked sarcastically.
She sighed contentedly, putting her hands behind her head. "Prime suffocation material, that's what."
"…And you call that worth?"
"Yes!" she cried, leaping into the air and pouncing on him, laughing as she tried to cover his nose and mouth with her hands.
This was it. She hadn't thought it would end so soon. She had thought she'd be fighting him for years to come, and they'd earn their full acceptance of each other, and it would work out, somehow.
But she hadn't been willing to stand by and let the colony be destroyed.
So now it was only her being destroyed. She was the only one who would die now.
But Wufei had come after her, tried to save her in a mobile suit that had no weapons. She hadn't known he had any chivalry in him. And she in turn had saved him, in the end.
So here they were, in his favorite meadow, the field of flowers where she had asked him to take her for her dying moments.
"I… was strong wasn't I?" she asked after a few minutes. "I was worthy as your wife, right…?"
"Yeah…" his high and mighty mannerisms had almost completely dropped. "You're stronger than anyone."
Stronger than anyone. Worthy. Priceless.
She smiled at him. "Naah… You're… much… stronger."
Wufei sat at his desk with his feet up on it, examining the old coin. Since the end of the war, he had found the time to figure out its origins. Nothing special, really; an old coin left from the before Roman Empire days. It hadn't been worth too much then, and was only valued by historians and collectors now.
But to him, nothing could be more priceless precious than this.
"Hey, Fei," asked Duo, coming up behind him. "What's that?"
Quickly, he tucked it back in his wallet, which he shoved into the back of his pants. "Nothing," he replied, smiling at the memory of what he had told Meilan about Americans that day. Noisy, obnoxious… But Duo was no coward. He had thought he understood so much when really he knew so little, back then. "It's nothing you'd understand, Duo. Don't worry about it."