Disclaimer – ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

Dib wasn't there when I logged in, not that I had been particularly expecting him to be after I'd made him do all that extra work earlier.

Sending a cautious glance toward the gigantic water beetles skating about nearby on the surface of the large pond beside me, I wandered away from the wooden dock to find something to do while I waited for the little boy to appear. Stopping under one of the bowed willow trees on the bank, I twisted around for a moment, attempting to look at my own back. Not being flexible enough in my armor to be able to see that far, I instead ran a hand along the backside of my top, and smiled with relief as I continued on away from the pond, up the small rise. The dirt and grime that had coated my dragon leather armor last night had disappeared by itself without me having to find a way to wash it off somehow.

Oh, the strange goingsons of Second Life.

I stopped as I entered the windy fields, brushing my hair out of my face when it blew about. The land was so flat, I could see for miles and miles. Not that there was anything particularly interesting to look at.

Dib and I may have flown for several hours last night, but we weren't anywhere near Sun City, which was still several days worth of flying away. There was nothing but wilderness and monsters in between the three towns, and that thought made me feel very small, standing out there all alone. I doubted many people came out here, unless they needed to travel to a different city, since it was obviously more logical to stay nearer to whatever city was preferred, for supply replenishing and whatnot.

Sighing in boredom, I looked down at my feet. Quickly sitting in the long grass, I ran my finger over the edge of a petal on a tiny blue flower that was growing there. A warm smile tugged at my lips as I laid down next to it and stretched myself out comfortably, resting my head on one arm and staring at the little plant. The flower was the same pale blue color as Jiao's dress. The petal felt soft under my fingertips, and I wondered if her skin felt as silky. It was so smooth-looking and pale and so very touchable.

I grinned and chuckled self-consciously at myself for having such thoughts, and felt my cheeks burn with embarrassment and happiness that no one else was around to see me acting so strangely.

For the first time in quite a while, I was rather excited about my social plans. I'd had outings with friends before, but I'd always found them very dull. Until Dib happened, I'd always avoided going places unless I went by myself. But now I had Jiao as well.

Though I'd been rather reluctant at first, I was very happy I'd gone to dinner with her. It seemed as though my father had finally forced me into something that would have a positive impact on me. And just yesterday, I'd been so unhappy because of my situation with Gui, but now things seemed much brighter. I even found myself considering returning to Star City with Dib, perhaps to watch that Grand Melee competition thing I knew Gui was going to be competing in with the Odd Squad, though I didn't particularly want to see hundreds of people murdering each other for fun.

Maybe he'd talk to me at last if I went. Maybe I would be able to explain myself. Maybe he would forgive me for what I'd done to him.

But perhaps I was being too optimistic in my good mood.

I gave the flower another brief look, and closed my eyes with a sigh, wondering if it would really be worth it to go see Gui, since I knew he would probably turn me away again like he had last night. However, it seemed somewhat of a shame to finally discover him after eleven years and leave him just like that. I'd been waiting for so long to be able to see him again, and abandoning the chance to attempt to make amends just because he told me to go away seemed rather silly of me, now that I thought about it. But staying and making him even more angry than he already was didn't seem very smart, either.

Damn confusing situations. Why did they keep springing up?

My train of thought was abruptly derailed when something fell on top of me and forced the breath out of my squashed lungs in one large whoosh. "WAKE UP, AL!" the very familiar, high and clear voice of Dib suddenly yelled at me as he punched the side of my head and bounced up and down on my back several times before finally relocating himself by my side. "Don't go to sleep here! One of those beetles might sneak up on you and gnaw your legs off while you're not paying attention!"

Gasping for air, I opened my eyes and rolled over, looking up into the triumphantly smiling face of Dib as he leaned over me. "Oh, thank you for jumping on me. I was just thinking perhaps I wasn't enjoying breathing very much," I declared after I managed to fill my poor lungs again.

Dib chuckled and flopped down beside me with a groan, burying his face in his arms. "No jokes. I'm mad at you, you know, stupid Al," he pouted, angrily kicking both of his legs in my direction.

I knowingly played along, propping myself up on my elbow and apologetically smiling down at him. "I'm sorry."

He flipped himself over, glaring up at me and pointing a tiny finger at my face, stabbing my cheek with it. "You should be, you jerk! Give me a warning next time you suddenly decide to make me work four extra hours. You shoulda heard the names everyone was calling you after you left. They got pretty dirty pretty quick."

"I probably shouldn't," I decided at once. "Anyway, I deserve them. I should have done the work myself, rather than dumping it on all of you."

Dib hummed for a moment, and sat up with a sigh. "Ah, well… It's over and done with. And I told off that one pudgy guy in our department for what he said, whatever his name is. He was being the meanest."

I smirked and reluctantly got to my feet, stretching myself out with a faint yawn. "Thanks."

"Anytime!" Dib chirped as he stood up as well and brushed the grass off his armor.

Hesitating a moment, I bent down and picked the little blue flower I'd been looking at, and then straightened again. Reaching into my pouch, I withdrew one of my empty bottles and dropped the flower inside, corking it up and tucking it safely into my pouch.

Dib watched my careful movements in slight bewilderment, but surprisingly didn't ask anything.

Afterward, I started off across the ground, wondering if there was anything nearby we could train on, besides those water beetles. I paused in my steps and looked behind myself in amusement as Dib clumsily attempted to scale my back. "What do you think you're doing back there?"

"What's it look like?" he asked huffily, dangling several feet off the ground as he held onto my shoulder guard, scrabbling with his boots to try to get a foothold so he could lift himself up. "I'm trying to… Urg! Why are you so darn… tall! I'm trying to climb on! Help me up, Al!"

"Oh, no you don't," I prompted, unwinding his fingers from around my top and taking a step away as he dropped to the grass. "I don't want you riding on my back after what you did yesterday."

He frowned up at me in annoyance. "I only did that because you wouldn't stop!"

"And I'm grateful for your concern," I continued with a slight nod, and resumed my walking, "but not your actions, and I don't want it to happen again."

"It won't!" Dib yelled.

I looked behind myself in alarm as I heard his footsteps hurrying toward me. He was charging me with a very determined frown.

Without another thought, I took off across the grass as fast as I could as he attempted to tackle me to the ground. I may have had lighter armor and much longer legs, but Dib's agility and strength were higher than mine, if only because he had been playing for longer than I had, and it didn't take him ten seconds to close the gap between us.

I evasively darted to one side, not daring to open my wings since the wind resistance would slow me down enough for him to catch me before I could take off. His indignant calls for me to stop running away rang out in the otherwise silent air, and I smiled playfully at him over my shoulder.

Looking backward was a mistake I belatedly found out as my foot stupidly put itself into a hole in the ground, causing the rest of me to fall into the grass with a yell of surprise. I watched as my arrows scattered across the grass yet again.

Dib purposefully landed on top of me a second time after he caught up a moment later, breathing noisily in my ear while he gave me a punch for good measure. I decided to stay face-down in the rather itchy grass for a while longer as he started laughing.

"Nice try, but not nice enough, Al!" he whooped, shifting himself into a more comfortable position on top of my spine. Comfortable for him, anyway.

I laid there quietly for a moment, and then rolled over, squashing him underneath me. He was stronger and faster, but I was undoubtedly heavier.

"A-A-A-AH! Get off, Al! Get off! HELP! I'M GONNA SUFFOCATE! GET O-O-O-OFF!"

"I don't think I shall," I announced, relaxing myself thoroughly. He gave a squeak as he was flattened even further. "This is rather comfortable."

"It is not! I can't breathe!" he wheezed, slapping my sides as he wriggled around to try to dislodge me. "I'm dying-g-g…"

Heaving a fake sigh over his dramatics, I slowly slid myself backward to lay on the grass instead.

He gave a roar, not acting at all like he was really dying, and roughly shoved my legs off of himself. "You jerk!" he yelled, trying very hard to look angry when a smile kept taking over. When I laughed at his efforts, he finally let his face do what it wanted and punched my leg one more time before flopping himself over my stomach and hugging me while giggling. "Geeze, Al. What in the world has gotten into you today?"

"Mm, nothing much," I murmured thoughtfully, staring at a scraggly cloud that flew over us through the sky. I didn't particularly want to tell him the very personal thoughts I'd been having of Jiao ever since she and I had parted outside the restaurant.

"Did your brother message you, or something?" he inquired somewhat cautiously, sitting up off of my stomach so he could look at me. "Yesterday, you were kinda… well…"

"No, he didn't," I answered, sighing softly as I shook my head. "And I highly doubt he would, with as deeply as he hates me."

Dib stared at me somewhat gloomily for a moment, and finally murmured, "Would it be too nosy of me to ask what his reasons are?"

"Mm," I repeated in a neutral tone. "I don't suppose it would be." He watched as I shifted myself onto my side, allowing me time to put my thoughts into order.

"When he and I were much younger, my father really… he really pushed us to compete with one another," I began slowly. Dib nodded as I paused to tangle my fingers in a patch of grass.

"For a very long time… for years, Gui Wen and I obediently went along with his orders, and we treated the other as rivals, constantly trying to be better than the other. But eventually, Gui Wen decided the whole thing was stupid—which it was, really—and refused to do as my father said any longer. However, rather than removing the burdens he'd placed on us, my father simply drove me harder.

"Since Gui Wen is so talented, he didn't really need to push himself, anyway, and still did extremely well in everything, even with little effort on his part. Me, on the other hand… I wasn't… Well, I'm not… I need to push myself so much if I want to achieve even a fraction of what he could so easily.

"I have a lot of respect for Gui Wen, but… but back then, sometimes I caught myself resenting him quite a bit. He is so much more capable than I, and even to this day my father often praises him and compares me to him. When I was a child, it made me feel so… so hopelessly inferior. No matter what I did, I was never good enough. And when Gui Wen stopped trying to compete with me, while I suppose I was somewhat relieved, a part of me was angry at him for it, as if he also saw me as someone who wasn't worthy to challenge him."

Sighing deeply, I tore some of the grass off the ground and tossed it to one side with a frown. Dib stayed silent, his face filled with worry as he waited for me to continue. I quickly looked away from him in fear of what his reaction might be to what was coming next. Feeling extremely ashamed of myself, I took a shaky breath, blinking away the tears which were gathering at the corners of my eyes, and plowed onward in my explanation. "Eleven years ago… Gui Wen confided in me that he wanted to study literature at a university of his own choosing, rather than business as my father had planned for us both.

"I don't know what possessed me to do it… Maybe jealousy, or some naïve hope that my father would stop oppressing us, or something of that sort, but…" I paused again, feeling hot tears spill over my eyelids and run down my cheeks. It was getting harder to breathe, the more I spoke. "I told my father what Gui Wen said to me," I finally whispered, laying my head down on the wet grass and squeezing my eyes shut. Dib leaned against me and slowly ran a hand over my hair, still not saying a word.

"Gui Wen never spoke to me again," I choked out after a moment, "and a month later, he left home. Until our unfortunate reunion yesterday, I hadn't seen him since."

Several minutes passed in silence, save the noise of my crying, and I finally sobbed, "He trusted m-me, and I betrayed him out-t of spite. I'm a h-horrible person, who deserves every bit of t-the hatred he has for me, and mo-more."

"You're not a horrible person," Dib disagreed softly and unhesitatingly, still patting my head.

"Yes, I am," I hiccuped in response as I looked at him in disbelief over the crook of my elbow. After what I'd done, how could anyone think otherwise?

"No, you're not," he persisted. "Truly horrible people don't think of themselves as horrible people. They find twisted ways to justify their actions so they seem good, and you aren't doing that at all."

"That doesn't make what I did any less despicable," I pointed out miserably.

"I didn't say that," he corrected in a somewhat reproving tone at my stubbornness to beat myself up. "Yes, what you did wasn't a good thing, of course, and it's understandable that Gui's angry at you for it, since, knowing how controlling your father is, I'm sure Gui's plans were all messed up with your interference.

"However, you were an affection-starved, completely smothered, neglected, and worn-out 13-year-old boy, who simply wanted his father and brother to acknowledge his efforts. You're not the only one at fault in this situation, so stop trying to take all of the blame, okay?

"I have three younger siblings," he continued with a slight shrug. "I know all too well how bad sibling rivalry can get. Definitely not to your extent, though. And I made plenty of stupid mistakes while I grew up. Many more than I would care to admit. There isn't a person anywhere who can truthfully say otherwise."

I fell into contemplative silence as Dib wrapped his arms around me tightly, burying his face in the back of my neck. "I'm sure if you try to talk to Gui, he'll listen," Dib soothed, his voice somewhat muffled from trying to talk through my hair.

"What if he won't?" I asked quietly.

"He will. After all, he's also had eleven years to grow up and think about things," Dib said confidently. "And if he refuses, we can get those insane teammates of his to help us out."

Chuckling somewhat reluctantly, I smiled at the thought. It seemed as though Prince's violence had a purpose after all. But I didn't want to force Gui to listen. I wanted him to be willing to talk to me, or else there wouldn't be any point in trying to apologize.

Dib suddenly thumped me on the shoulder and stood up, lifting me easily into the air to set me in a sitting position. I looked down at him in surprise, abruptly realizing once more just how strong the tiny boy was. When I'd been squishing him, he could have pushed me off of himself whenever he wanted.

Drawing his small hands over my tear-streaked face, he shot me a determined smile and patted my cheeks. "Now then, let's go back to Star City and find them."

Sighing again, I stared at him for a moment and then nodded. "Okay."

After allowing him time to climb onto my back, I stood up, finally gathering my scattered arrows from where they'd fallen when I'd tripped. I passed them to Dib so he could return them safely to my quiver.

Extending my wings, I slowly took off, aiming for the city and hoping that Gui would willingly listen to me. I wasn't dense enough to assume that he would be over what I'd done, eleven years passed or not—with how he was acting, he obviously wasn't over it at all—but I still hoped he'd give me a chance to apologize, at least, even if he would refuse to accept it.

"Hey, Al?" Dib called after a long stretch of silence.

"What?"

"Why'd you pick that flower earlier?" he asked curiously.

"Oh," I said quietly, smiling fondly down at my hip where the flower was stowed away in my pouch. "I'll tell you later."

Ahhhh… I finally tied things together. xD