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

Note – Thank you again, Tearless Wish! :3 I managed to slip in another one of your suggestions sooner than I'd thought.

"Al, stop!" Dib's faint voice reached my ears through the roaring wind, not for the first time, but I ignored him. I didn't want to stop until we were as far away from Star City as we could be. Or at least as far away from Gui as we could be. The unfading look of hatred on his face when he saw me again was more than enough to make me wish Dib and I had never left Sun City in the first place. Ignorance was bliss, and I was sorely missing it.

Shakily reaching a hand to my pouch, I withdrew a nearly-empty bottle. The contents had long-since been drained over the course of our lengthy flight. Barely a mouthful of the bright orange concoction remained, but it was enough for now.

Uncorking the small bottle, I drank the remainder of the stamina potion as best I could from my horizontal position. The refreshing-tasting potion eased the pain in my muscles slightly, making the continued rhythmic beating of my wings a little more bearable.

I returned the empty bottle to my pouch for future use, then unblinkingly fixed my eyes once more on the curved line of the horizon, focusing all of my attention on the sound of the wind rushing past and hoping vainly that it would be enough to drown out the ever-growing discomfort in my body and mind.

"I said stop!" Dib ordered again, this time pounding a fist on the back of my scaly leather top. I made no response, if only to fly faster. He leaned closer to my head, tugging on my shoulder guards as if he would be able to slow me down. "Al! You've been flying for hours! Potion or not, you're gonna kill yourself if you don't take a break!"

He waited several minutes for a reply, but when I didn't give any sign I'd heard him, he surprised me by shifting out of place as if he was slipping off my back. "If you don't stop, I'm gonna jump!"

"You wouldn't!" I yelled in disbelief over my shoulder, hoping that I was right.

I wasn't.

Dib stared at me defiantly for a moment, and then swung his left leg over my head to join his right dangling down the other side of my chest. My eyes widened in shock as he purposefully slid off before I could attempt to grab him.

I immediately pulled in my wings and fell after him. His calm face looked extremely out of place as he fell through the air with his arms crossed over his chest as if he were leaning against a tree and not falling to his death from a hundred meters above the ground.

Trying to make myself as flat as possible, I watched as he got closer, urging myself to fall faster. Glancing past him, a dread filled me as I saw the not-so-soft ground rushing toward us with much more speed than I would have liked it to have. I looked back to Dib and reached out to him. Rather than taking my hands, he simply continued to stare blankly up at me.

Panic started to roar through my head. Much longer and I wouldn't have enough room to pull us safely out of the fall.

"TAKE MY HANDS, YOU IDIOT!" I screamed, trying desperately to stretch my arms further toward the boy, but he was still slightly out of my grasp. A tiny smile twitched at the corner of his mouth, and he finally uncrossed his arms and did as I asked. Drawing him against me, I held him as tightly as I could while I unfurled my wings. The wind painfully tore through them as we roughly spun about, scattering black feathers into the air behind us.

I managed to slow down slightly and make the angle of our fall much more shallow, but not nearly enough to gain any altitude.

Twisting around at the last moment, I skidded across the grass on my back, protectively cradling Dib in my arms. My grip on him involuntarily tightened when I felt the humerus of my left wing snap in two when it was crushed between my back and the ground. Arrows and my bow bounced out of my quiver and scattered across the grass. I shut my eyes and gritted my teeth, blocking the lovely sight of the bright blue sky stretching out above us while I did my best to keep myself from yelling when wave after wave of hot pain washed over me as I felt, all too clearly, many of the other delicate bones in my wings break into countless pieces when they snagged on rocks and plants.

"That's more like it, idiot," Dib chided peevishly as he sat up after we'd come to a stop at last.

My arms released him and dropped wearily to the bloody ground. I didn't open my eyes to see what he was doing when I felt his hands tug at the pouch on my hip. Stubborn refusal to look at him wasn't the reason, but a simple want to hold back the tears brought on by the agonizing pain screaming through my body. I wondered faintly if my bow was okay, or if it had met a similar fate as my mangled wings.

Stupid realism level.

Stupid Dib.

Stupid Gui.

Stupid me.

The smooth glass surface of a potion bottle was pressed gently to my lips, and I let my mouth open slightly. Rather than pouring a little bit, Dib upended the bottle's contents in their entirety, and I nearly choked as the health potion filled my mouth, its medicine-like taste mingling with the all-too-familiar metallic, salty tang of blood that was covering my tongue.

Coughing for a moment after I'd swallowed the potion, I finally opened my eyes and grimaced in discomfort as my wings fitted themselves back together and stopped jutting out at bizarre angles underneath me—my feathers were still rather messy-looking—the deep scrapes on my arms and back disappeared, and the headache I hadn't noticed until just then stopped pounding through my skull.

My body felt better, at least. Now all I needed was a potion for my numerous mental injuries.

Looking away from the sky, I dropped my eyes to look at Dib, wondering if he was uninjured. It seemed that he was, and he steadily stared back at me with an angry, challenging look as if he was daring me to try to fly again. "Surely there was a less reckless way to make me stop‽" I demanded hoarsely after a moment. "What would you have done if I hadn't caught you?"

"I knew you would," he said simply as he squashed the small cork back into the neck of the empty bottle in his hands.

"You trust people too much."

"And you don't trust people enough," he retorted snappishly, glowering down at me. "Especially me!"

Sighing at his words, I let my head fall back onto the itchy grass, not knowing what to say in return. Dib returned the bottle to my pouch before climbing off my chest and hurrying away from me. Carefully sitting up, I watched as he walked back the way we'd come, picking up my scattered arrows as he went. With realization, I ran my eyes over the long stretch of scraped-up ground we'd slid across. "Damn it all," I murmured angrily, quickly lifting a hand to touch the back of my head. Dirt, blood, grass, and leaves. Never mind a less reckless way to stop, couldn't it have at least been a cleaner method?

Standing shakily, I looked around for a moment, then hurriedly stepped to where my bow was resting in the grass a few meters away. Scooping it up and inspecting it, I was very happy to see it was undamaged, save a few new scratches on the limb's surface. After returning it to my probably-just-as-beat-up quiver, I turned around, hoping there was a river near in which I could wash myself off. Whatever was going on, I refused to be covered in filth.

My gaze snagged on a sparkling light between the trunks of a few scattered willow trees, and I ran toward it, feeling relieved. That feeling didn't last long, and I quickly slid to a stop, staring in revulsion at the once-longed-for pond. Giant brown water beetles as big as horses were skating to and fro on the rippling surface of the dark water, chittering to one another.

"Damn!" I swore again. Beetles and the like were something I made a point to never attempt to train on. Their exoskeletons were far too thick for my arrows to puncture. Plus they flew, making escape nearly impossible, or so I assumed.

Why couldn't there have been a fish monster, or something of that sort?

Stupid beetles.

"Al, what are you doing?" Dib asked as he came to a stop beside me, clutching my arrows in his arms. He let loose a sigh as he watched the nearest beetle float past, and then looked up. "Is now really the time to scope out potential training spots?"

"I'm not!" I denied in annoyance over my bath being taken away from me, and took my arrows back. Slipping them into my quiver, I crossed my arms and frowned. "I wanted to wash my hair, it's filthy now. Probably my wings, too…" They twitched slightly at the thought.

"I shoulda known, you neat freak," Dib muttered, running his eyes over the bank. "C'mere," he said after a moment, taking my hand and leading me around the edge of the water, far away enough that the shiny beetles didn't seem to notice our presence. We walked quietly to avoid exciting the swimming insects, and eventually stopped a quarter of the way around the pond where a long wooden dock was built over the water.

Dib let my hand go as he stepped up to the water's lapping edge and waved toward the pond. "Stay by the dock and you probably won't get seen."

Sending a cautious glance to the beetles I could see in the distance, I hurriedly slipped the leather bracers off my forearms. Dib sat himself down on the edge of the dock, removed his boots, and stuck his feet in the calm water while I carefully took off the rest of my armor and placed it all neatly on the ground next to my belted pouch and quiver.

Wishing I had a comb or something, I stepped into the warm water of the pond and waded out until I was close to Dib, and nearly out of sight of the beetles. I hoped there were no smaller ones lurking under the water where I couldn't see.

Looking downward somewhat fearfully at the water rising and falling slightly about my waist, I dipped myself underwater and glanced around. No beetles in sight. Quite a few small, silvery fish darting about, but they didn't attack me, so I slowly swished my wings from side to side and ran my fingers through my hair, getting quite a bit of the dirt and leaves out in only a few seconds.

Once I resurfaced, Dib waved me over and I sloshed toward him. He took me by the shoulders and turned me around, sliding himself as close to me as he could without falling off his seat. My slight confusion over his actions vanished into gratitude as he began pulling the remainder of the leaves out of my hair, untangling it as he went.

Leaning back, I stretched out my wings and let them rest on top of the sun-warmed planks of the dock that I'd braced my back against, enjoying the feeling of the soft breeze pushing through the dripping feathers. After a moment, I pulled a portion of my hair over my shoulder to help Dib, but he slapped my hand away and took the hair back. "I'll do it," he offered quietly, running his fingers down the length of a now-clean lock. Not wanting to argue anymore, I let him do as he pleased, though it would have gone faster with both of us working at it.

A few minutes passed in silence, then I suddenly remembered I'd been wanting to talk to him. It seemed like an opportune moment, since there was no one else around at last, save the gigantic beetles on the other side of the large pond. But they didn't count.

"Dib."

"What is it, Al?"

Pausing briefly, I realized I still didn't know what to say. Everything I'd managed to mentally scrape together had been tossed out the window when Gui had unexpectedly come into the picture.

"Earlier when I arrived home…" I hesitantly started. Whatever way I phrased it in my head, it seemed like it would make Dib angry.

"Yeah?" he prodded after a moment of silence.

"My father told me that he knew…what we were doing in T City earlier this afternoon," I continued, unsure as to how I should explain the rest. I didn't know if he knew anything about my family situation, other than the obvious. Not that I'd ever tried to confide in him.

Dib hummed contemplatively for a moment and slowly pushed some of my clean hair over my shoulder. "I bet he didn't like that," he commented blandly.

"He didn't," I confirmed, feeling relieved that he seemed to understand.

Dib was silent for a few more minutes and his hands paused in their work, coming to a rest on my back. "Did I get you in trouble?" he asked, sounding somewhat guilty.

"No," I said quickly. "No, you didn't."

"…If there's no trouble, why're you bringing it up?" He gave a relieved sigh and his fingers resumed their gentle movements, tossing another leaf in the water. It slowly sank under the surface and out of sight.

"I'm not the one in trouble," I corrected, and turned to face him. He resolutely held onto the hair he'd been messing with, though it already looked suspiciously clean. Taking a deep breath, I leaned a bit closer and patted his small knee. "Dib, he…he threatened to fire you if I so much as speak to you when it's 'not necessary.'"

Dib's eyes widened slightly in surprise and they shifted between mine. Then he unexpectedly smirked and shook his head, returning his attention to my hair and laughing. "Geeze, he sure is exorbitant, huh? Going that far, just 'cause we got coffee together. Over-protective to the extreme."

"Of his assets, not of his son," I interjected, frowning at his airy response. This was the moment where he was supposed to be worrying about his career, not laughing over my father's excessive actions. I supposed from an outside view, my father did seem a bit silly for going to such lengths to keep me sheltered, but I knew it was only so I didn't do anything to embarrass him. Not that I thought my or Dib's actions were embarrassing in the slightest.

"Either way, he can do whatever he wants. It's his problem, not ours," Dib said calmly, sending a brief glance upward.

"I refuse to cost you your job."

Dib finally let my hair slip through his fingers and he leaned back, staring at me with an unreadable expression. "Are you…are you doing what I think you're doing?" he whispered, but I didn't reply, unsure of what to say. His eyes filled with worry at my silence. "Are you leaving me?"

"No," I answered, but then paused. "Well, yes. In real life. If we don't talk to one another unless we have to, he'll leave you alone." I tried to smile encouragingly at him when the look on his face took a turn for the worst. "We can still hang out here in-game," I hurriedly pacified, waving a hand through the air.

Dib breathed deeply for a moment. "What if I say no?"

My eyes narrowed at his continued apathy toward his situation. "If you and I don't distance ourselves from one another, you'll get fired and we'll see each other even less than we already do."

"Al, you're more important to me than my job," he softly apprised, looking extremely droopy as he frowned, glancing away from me. He raised his face again, suddenly seeming a bit more hopeful than before. "I can just find another one, and then we can still meet in real life, right?"

I shook my head slightly and his face fell back into its previous cheerlessness. "That won't work. He'll just find another way to stop you from associating with me. And then if he finds out I play this game, you and I won't see each other at all."

He simply stared at me with a stubborn expression, making no effort to agree. A moment passed, then he suggested, "What if I wear a disguise? Sunglasses and a hat or something so your father doesn't know it's me? I mean, you meet with your other friends sometimes and he doesn't care, right?"

"Well, no. He doesn't mind at all, in fact he encourages the outings as long as they don't get in the way of work," I admitted, continuing half-jokingly, "but those are people he deems worthy of my friendship."

Dib made a "humph" noise and stuck out his chin. "I deem me worthier than them! You said he'll fire me if you speak to me when it's not necessary? Well, I say it is necessary! To us two! So there! Loophole!"

Snorting in amusement, I smiled. "You're really not going to give up, are you?"

"Nope." He firmly shook his head and crossed his arms. "I think if we're careful, it'll be fine. And," he paused and gave me a reluctant, resigned look, "if it seems like he's noticed something, I'll back off. Okay? I don't want him getting mad at you, just 'cause of me."

I dropped my eyes to gaze at the warm water lapping about the waistband of my loose-fitting, blue leggings. "I don't know, Dib…I mean, it's not like I don't want to see you in real life. I really do, but I also don't want to disobey him…"

After a thoughtful pause, Dib murmured, "Is that out of fear?"

With a small shrug, I sighed. "Partially, I suppose, but there are other reasons."

He raised a hand and slowly dragged it down the damp skin of my abdomen. "I saw them at the hotel, you know," he whispered, a pained look settling over his face. "All over the place where clothing would cover up. Scars, cuts and bruises—some looking like they were barely a day old…I wanted to ask you about them, but, well, given the situation we'd been in…it didn't really seem like a good idea.

"Was it him?"

My distressed mood was further abraded when he brought up my humiliatingly marred body, and I looked away, reluctantly answering, "Some…most. A few are from normal every-day accidents. The rest are from the people—home tutors, the house staff and the like—my father had hired to watch me when I was a child."

"And yet you're still so dedicated to him," Dib mused in a disbelieving tone, "after all this stuff he's done to you for no good reason."

"He's important to me," I quietly scolded. "Even if he dislikes me, he still provided me with a proper education, a job, a place to live, and everything else. I'm very grateful to him. Regardless of the fact that he treats me so poorly, he just wants me to do my best. He's simply concerned about the future of the company he tries his hardest to advance. Anyway, all of that will be mine eventually, so obeying him will benefit me in the long run. Of course I'll do whatever he tells me to do. Not willingly at times, but I still try. Isn't it the same for you? Don't you want to do what your father wants?"

"Both of my parents are dead, so having either of them order me around would be kinda weird, don'cha think?" My eyes widened in surprise at Dib's hotly spoken divulgence, and I quickly inhaled to apologize for bringing it up, but he shook his head, dropping his hand to his lap. He tilted his head down, his gold hair overshadowing his face and not allowing me to see what sort of expression he was making. "Don't bother saying sorry. It's not like you knew about it…" he muttered. "Happened when I'd just turned fourteen. A car crash. Not too dramatic, huh?…I wasn't even in high school yet."

A tiny smile quirked at his mouth when he briefly glanced up at me through his curls, hints of tears gathering at the corners of his round eyes. "Stuff wasn't much different after they were gone, really. They both had always worked full-time. Left early in the morning, came home after dinner time nearly every evening when I was already studying. I pretty much raised myself and my three little brothers…Going about life like an adult, although I was still just a kid. Didn't have any other choice. Sometimes our neighbors came over and helped me out with stuff, though. Wasn't too hard, I guess."

With a sigh, Dib's face scrunched up like he was trying very hard not to cry, then he leaned forward, resting his head on my chest. Feeling horrible for accidentally upsetting him with my thoughtless remark, I carefully draped my arms around him and pulled him close, then drew my wings in front of myself and securely wrapped him up, running one hand over his curly head when he started quietly sobbing. Heng's reasons for creating Dib were coming into view, and they were unexpectedly a lot deeper than simply wanting free stuff and shopping discounts.

He'd wanted a childhood.

"I miss…th-them a lot," he choked out, wiping his teary face off on me. "E-even if they weren't there very much…they were still really nice people…Working so hard for m-me…Spent their days off with my brothers and I, do-doing w-whatever we wanted, when they coulda been resting…And…and…" He wiggled around for a moment and made an annoyed noise, then glared up at me, his chubby face very red from crying. "AND YOUR STUPID WINGS WON'T STOP DRIPPING COLD WATER ON ME! IT'S GOING DOWN THE BACK OF MY SHIRT AND MAKING ME ITCHY!"

I nearly laughed at his unexpected outburst, but managed to hold it in. He jumped from mood to mood faster than anyone else in the entire world, although I suspected this instance was simply an act. But I decided to play along instead of making him say anything further if he didn't want to. I was completely empathetic when it came to touchy subjects that were difficult to discuss.

Frowning at the mad look Dib had on his face, I lifted my wings overhead and shook them out in a want to liven him up. A shower of water droplets flew off my feathers and rained down on us. He squealed and leaned against me again, covering the top of his head with his hands. "NO! Don't do that! It's freezing, you jerk!"

Grabbing him under the arms, I stepped away from the dock and held him up over the water. His eyes widened and he held onto my wrists very tightly. "Don't you dare, Al…! Don't do it!"

Keeping my face as blank as possible, I pretended to drop him. He screamed at the abrupt movement, kicking his legs and squirming about in an effort to escape. When he noticed that he wasn't underwater, he glared at me. "You jerk! Put me down!"

With a mischievous smile, I said, "Okay," and started lowering him toward the water's surface.

"NO-O-O-O! PUT ME DOWN ON THE DOCK!" he snapped when his bare toes came in contact with the water. He curled his legs up in front of himself, trying his hardest to stay out of the pond. The water wasn't cold in the slightest, the exaggerating brat.

"Stop being so loud, or you'll make those beetles come over here," I warned, obediently setting him safely back on the pale timbers. He jumped to his feet and I cautiously backed away, lowering myself down into the rippling water until my shoulders were submerged, wings floating around behind me. Raising an eyebrow, I watched while he started roughly removing his own armor, tossing the tiny, silvery pieces next to his spike-toed boots. "What are you doing?"

"I'll…I'll show you, you jerk! See if you pick on me again! I'm gonna teach you a lesson!" he snarled threateningly, forcing his leather jerkin over his head, then tossing his red undershirt on top of the pile. When he only had his leggings left on, he took a few steps back, then dashed forward, leaping at me. I reflexively caught him, falling backward when he forced me underwater, smiling fiercely. His tiny fists punched my chest several times, then he used my stomach to launch himself back up to the surface.

When he began treading the water above me, I reached up, grabbed one of his skinny ankles and mercilessly tickled his foot. The faint, muffled sound of him screaming yet again slowly reached my ears, and the water violently churned around me when he started thrashing about. Inwardly laughing, I finally stood up again, breaking the bubbly, wave-covered surface and smiling down at his very angry expression.

"YOU'RE SO MEAN!" he shrieked, flinging a great deal of water at my face. I shielded myself with my wings, then splashed him in return. That was all it took to set off a full-blown water fight that lasted for several very berserk minutes. After getting doused with a particularly large wave, I briefly pushed him under to buy myself some time, then twirled around and frantically attempted to run away, using my wings and arms to wildly propel myself along through the choppy waves of the once-tranquil pond.

Even with my extra appendages giving me an unfair advantage against the tiny boy, I only got a short distance before he caught up, grabbing me from behind and knocking me over again. Coughing and sputtering, I gasped for air once he'd stopped jumping on me. Flipping myself onto my back, I picked him up and nearly threw him, but then noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. Turning to look, I stared in slight surprise at the large number of water beetles zooming our way, irritatedly clicking their pincers together. "Oh, great. Look what you attracted."

"Huh?" Dib looked to the side, eyes going very wide. He then grabbed me as tightly as he could. Without another thought, I leapt to my feet and dashed to the bank. "WAIT! WHAT ABOUT OUR EQUIPMENT?" Dib demanded, slapping my shoulder. "THAT ARMOR IS BRAND NEW! DON'T LEAVE IT!"

"It'll be fine!" I hastily took off into the air, nearly crashing into one of the large, swaying willow trees dotting the bank. I was very determined to get out of the beetles' preset territory so they would calm down, regardless of how we were leaving everything we owned—except our pants, anyway—behind. It wasn't like the beetles were going to steal the stuff, and there was no one else in sight.

Dib suddenly wrapped his arms around my neck and nearly strangled me. "A-A-A-AH!"

"WOULD YOU STOP SCREAMING‽" I yelled in annoyance, flying up and up and up, not daring to look back to see what it was he'd seen. I could hear the loud buzzing noises just fine, so perhaps I didn't really need to look to know what was going on back there.

"BUT THEY'RE FLYING AFTER US!"

"OF COURSE THEY ARE! YOU WERE SO LOUD, THOUGH I TOLD YOU TO BE QUIETER!"

"THAT'S YOUR FAULT, YOU JERK! YOU WERE PICKING ON ME!"

"YOU PICK ON ME ALL THE TIME! YOU'RE IN NO POSITION TO GET HUFFY WITH ME FOR RETURNING THE FAVOR!"

"S-SHUT UP AND FLY FASTER, THEY'RE GAINING ON US!"

Rolling my eyes, I re-tightened my grip on Dib, having what I hoped was a good idea to escape. I folded my wings against myself, swooping downward. A glance behind told me the enormous beetles had thankfully copied my action, closing their wing cases and dropping after us like horse-sized bombs. Turning back around, eyes watering from the force of the wind blasting over my face, I began carefully counting down the distance in my head.

"AL, WE'RE GONNA BE SQUISHED UNDER THEM!"

"We will not!" When there was barely enough time to pull out of the fall, I let my wings snap open, halted myself, and looked up. Evasively darting to one side, I moved Dib and I out of the insects' paths. With crunchy-sounding crashes, they all landed face-first on the ground, having been unable to stop their own barreling descent. My plan worked.

Smiling with triumph, I lowered Dib and I to the bug-guts-spattered the ground when the game announced that the beetles had been defeated. And there I'd been thinking they were such terrible opponents, since I couldn't use my bow. They were actually quite easy to kill. One would think that even NPC bugs would have the sense to pull out of a dive, even if their prey was getting away. Apparently they didn't. Maybe these particular bugs were just on the low end of the intelligence scale of game monsters.

After I'd set Dib down, he stared for several long moments at the twitchy-legged corpses sticking bottom-end-up, then breathed, "Whoa. That was cool," and scurried forward to get a better look. Feeling very relieved that he seemed quite a bit cheerier than he had on the dock, I followed after to help him pick up the loot. Afterward, seeing how late it was becoming, we returned to the pond—now empty, as the silly beetles hadn't respawned yet—and picked up all of our belongings, hurriedly dressing ourselves before our alarms could go off.

With a small sigh, I crouched down next to Dib while he adjusted his belt. "Sorry," I murmured, and he glanced up, "for making you upset earlier…"

He smiled and straightened up, hurrying over to tightly hug me. "It's fine," he assured, patting the back of my head. "Wasn't your fault or anything. I just hadn't really thought about it in a while, I guess. Made me a little too weepy. I'm happy I said it, really." He pulled away slightly and beamed up at me. "See you at work, Al."

Frowning, I glanced over toward the serene pond. "I make no promises that I'll act any friendlier with you than I have in the past, even if there isn't anyone else around." Taking a deep breath, I looked back at him. "But it's not…how I want to treat you. You know that, right? I just don't want to cause you problems that could have been avoided with more caution."

A silent moment passed, then he very unexpectedly kissed me on the cheek. I stared at him with a messy concoction of embarrassment and bewilderment afterward, and he laughed. "So popsicle-like, as always."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, drawing together my eyebrows in annoyance.

"You're cold, but sweet!" he lightly explained. He then added with a serious stare, "And skinny, too."

Sighing, I shook my head and smirked at him, wondering if I was supposed to take that as a compliment or a joke. Either way, I was simply glad that he was in such a chirpy mood again, and I lightly patted a hand on the top of his head, fondly ruffling his golden hair around. The happy warmth I'd lost earlier from Gui's attitude slowly began to creep back when Dib gently hugged me a second time, murmuring his goodbyes into my ear.