Heyla
minna-san! This is the first time I ever wrote a TQ fic so I hope it measures
up. And er, WK peeps? I'm working on my other fics, I really am! ^^
Author: Swythangel
Email: swythangel@hotmail.com
Title: To Heed the Heart's Desire
Rating: PG (for shounen ai content)
Warnings: Strong Language, Slash,
Fantasy AU
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing is owned by
Bandai and a passel of other people I never bothered to find out about.
It just depresses me to see all those bishies as someone else's property.
Archive: [Blinks]You'd seriously consider
archiving this? >. Just tell me then ^^
To Heed the Heart's Desire
Part 1
The sea was an emerald jewel, forever
changing and moving. If one were to scoop up a handful of its cool waters
again and again, one would never be able to capture the same handful on
the second dip. Such was the sea, almost ephemeral in its elusive quality.
/And such a mystery to us humans./
Trowa mused, as he stared out at the undulating waves with eyes the same
emerald as the sea. There was just something about it that called to him,
called to his soul and calmed his restless spirit. It had ever been thus
with him, even while he had been a lad of young years. It was as if the
sea was his second home.
His father would have called it foolishness,
an imagination run wild. But then, his father had been a staid, traditional
man much inclined to pragmatic thinking than youthful fancies.
Not that Trowa was much better. He
wasn't really a dreamer. In truth, he was quite the opposite. He was as
staid and pragmatic as his father was. Even as a child Trowa was reserved
and silent most of the time. It was only the sea that evoked such feelings
in him that could make him wax lyrical thoughts at all. A fact that his
father did not appreciate. Ever had his father and he been at odds with
their views in this and much time had been spent in companionable argument.
Arguments that Trowa missed as his
father had passed away years ago, as had his mother. A regent ruled the
country until the time Trowa turned seventeen.
And today, Trowa was officially seventeen.
As a gift, the regent gave him this magnificent ship on which to sail the
vastness of any ocean as King of Astoria.
Trowa should have been thrilled. He
was now King, he had a wonderful country to rule and he had this magnificent
vessel in which to sail with on his free time.
But he was not. And he didn't know
why.
It was just this niggling feeling that
something was dreadfully missing in his life, something he could not put
a finger to…
/Oh, Do not be so whimsical, Trowa.
It must be nothing./Trowa dismissed the feeling and turned back to
the crew who were feasting on board in honor of his natal day.
***
"Do not go so fast, my Prince! You
might figure in an accident." The normally low bass voice was high and
shrill in panic as he strove to catch up with an overenthusiastic royal.
"Oh, don't be such a dry blanket, Abdul!"
A golden-haired merboy laughed back at one of his guardians, not slowing
down in the least to accommodate the 40 odd mermans swimming after him.
"Prince Quatre!" The head of his guardians'
big voice boomed out in the green depths of the ocean as Rashid flipped
his powerful iridescent tail to catch up with the slight merboy. A reproving
gare was set firmly on his face. "You will slow down this instant and we
will proceed at a more sedate pace."
"But, Rashid!" Quatre's expressive
aquamarine eyes pleaded as his own iridescent tail swished in barely controlled
excitement. "Today is the day I'm finally old enough to be allowed to go
to the surface. I want to see so many things!
"If we don't hurry, we'll never make
it before the sun sets. And I want to see this wondrous globe everyone
keeps raving about."
Rashid's granite face softened, unable
to resist the pleading blue-green orbs that danced with golden lights in
their excitement.
"Alright…but not too…"
Even before Rashid could finished his
sentence, the golden Prince was off like a hyperactive dolphin, whizzing
past the other Maguanacs and up towards the ocean's surface.
Rashid shook his head. /He is going
to be the death of me./ With a glare at the other Maguanacs who were standing
dazed, he barked out commands. "What are you all standing goggle-eyed like
useless goldfishes?"
The Maguanacs transferred their stares
to him. And Rashid's face grew livid.
"Follow him!" He roared.
In the next instant, all 40 of the
merman corps pledged to protect one little merboy zoomed up into the briny
blue surface, following in the wake of the royal Prince of the Seven Seas
who had just turned seventeen.
***
/So this is the surface!/ Quatre thought
to himself as he stared wonderingly up at the sky and the surrounding sea.
/Its…beautiful! Everything is as I thought they would be. Or at least…most
of the things….but I thought the sky was suppose to be blue?/
A green-haired head erupted from his
right, followed by a protesting voice. "Prince Quatre!!!" A heavy note
of censure was in the panting voice, winded from the exertion of swimming
at a very fast pace.
Quatre ignored the Maguanac and searched
the skies, a roiling mass of gray-black clouds moving at a very agitated
pace, for the one thing he had been anticipating.
"There's no sun is there, Abdul?" Quatre
asked the Maguanac who had popped up beside him and now bobbed in the vast
ocean's surface. Disappointment flared in the lambent blue-green eyes of
the merboy as he flipped fine gold hair out of his face with one pale hand.
"No, my Prince. I think there's a storm
brewing. That's why there isn't any sun." Abdul replied, surprised that
the Prince even remembered his name among the 40 Maguanacs. Of course,
it probably helped that he was the only one beside the Prince right now,
being the only Maguanac fast enough to catch up with the fast-swimming
Prince.
Abdul would have been surprised to
know that Quatre knew each of the Maguanacs' names. He might act like the
carefree Prince who did not know better but in truth, Quatre was more perceptive
and intelligent than anyone gave him credit for. He knew that Abdul, among
all the Maguanacs, was immediately distinguishable by the odd black markings
over both of his eyes and the big stripe of velvet red in his iridescent
tail…much like a carp would look like.
There were many things the merpeople
never knew about Quatre. For instance, they never knew how much of a brilliant
strategist their little Prince was. He could even discuss mer-battle tactics
with his father or play Game of the Mer-Generals *and* win.
It was because he was constantly overshadowed
by his 29 sisters. The chance of being noticed amidst a sea of golden-haired,
aquamarine-eyed replica of one's self was, however beautiful or intelligent
one was, next to nil. Quatre had learned a long time ago not to try.
Not that he hated his sisters for it,
because he did not. He loved them dearly and they loved him back. So he
contented himself with doing his own thing unnoticed. Sometimes though,
he thought it would be nice to be noticed for his accomplishments too.
It was not worth quibbling about. He
didn't have time for such a thought as he looked on with disappointment
at the angry sky. His first day on the surface! He couldn't understand
why the sun could not oblige him and show its face for him. He grouched.
"I'm sure there will be other days
my Prince! The weather is a changeable thing…" Abdul was droning on and
on to an unlistening Quatre who was even now swimming away to find new
curiosities to stare at. "Hoy! My Prince! Wait for me."
/By the soul of Moby Dick! The boy
is fast!/ Abdul thought as he swam after his Prince. By this time, the
blond was a mere pinpoint in the horizon.
/Where are Rashid and the others?/
Abdul panted as he reached the excitable young merboy who had apparently
seen something of interest now because the princeling was waving his hand
frantically at Abdul. /I am a guard! Born to protect and fight, not to
serve as a babysitter to a headstrong Prince!/
"Look, Abdul!" Quatre said as soon
as the Maguanac reached him. "What wondrous curiosity is that?"
Abdul blinked and followed the merboy's
delighted gaze to a vast ship. His eyes widened in alarm. "It is a *human*
ship, my Prince. Quick, we must submerge. You know it is forbidden to let
human eyes look upon our forms."
Abdul should have just kept his mouth
shut for all the heed Quatre took of his warning. Even now, the precocious
merboy was swimming to the ship in entranced fascination.
/Why me?/ Abdul followed Quatre with
a woebegone expression on his face. /O Poseidon! Why me?/ At this time,
Abdul was too tired and he followed at a slower pace.
/A ship!/ Quatre fairly crooned with
delight as he stared in fascination at the huge…*mass* in front of him,
bobbing in the water. He had heard of such a curiosity from his sisters'
stories and had seen sunken too-worn replicas at the ocean bottom but it
was the first time he had ever beheld it whole and working. /Oh what treasures
this must contain!/
He swam faster until he was at the
ship's hull. He ran his hands on the material, marveling at the texture
when he heard something emanating from the top.
/What the…/Quatre blinked and as the
sounds filtered into his mind, he realized what they were. /Music! It is
music! I didn't know humans made music!/
Quatre loved music. In fact, next to
his strategy lessons and family, it was the one thing that ruled his life.
And the sounds coming from above were the kind he loved the most…light
airy pieces that evolved into a complex explosion of sensations and emotions.
He laughed a delighted laugh, reminiscent
of tinkling bells as he moved about in the water in time with the music,
twirling and circling, and dipping gracefully in time with the wondrous
sounds. So lost was he in the music that he did not notice the moment he
opened his mouth and sang softly in time with the music.
***
Trowa was *resting* in one of the ship's
lifeboats, away from the festivities on board. No, he wasn't hiding, he
was resting. After all, it would be bad form for the celebrator of the
party to sneak off, even more so when he was the monarch. So Trowa wasn't
hiding, he was resting.
After all, surely being at the party
for an hour or so and enduring the presentation of a statue of himself
was good enough to assure that he had discharge his duty as grateful birthday
boy.
It was not his subjects' fault if he
was the tiniest bit anti-social or that he did not want to indulge in festivities.
So he had silently crept away when no one was paying attention to him and
found this little haven.
/Besides, it isn't as if I am not enjoying
the music they're playing for me./ Trowa rationalized as he closed his
eyes, appreciating the pieces the musicians were playing. He loved those
pieces, which was why the musicians chose to play them.
/They're quite good, I must say./ Trowa
thought. He wished he had his flute with him so he could play with the
musicians. But he had forgotten to bring it with him. /More's the pity./
He sighed.
He was about to recline on the hard
wooden lifeboat when he heard a strange yet sweetly familiar sound…
/Like violins…but I swear I did not
see any of the musicians with violins…and,/ Trowa swung his head around,
straining to hear the ghostly strains,/it is coming from the sea./
It was unlike any violin playing he
had ever heard. The sweet violin strains reverberated inside his very bones,
inflamed his blood and touched his heart. He had to know who was responsible
for it.
/Perhaps a wandering minstrel on his
own small craft? I must see. It is the most exquisite playing I have ever
encountered./
He crept up on the lifeboat's edge
to peer down into the water only to find nothing. /Dolt! It was coming
from the other side!/ He cursed himself and clambered out of the lifeboat
surreptitiously to avoid discovery by his crew when the violin strains
stopped abruptly.
Trowa felt bereft, cast aside. There
was a feeling of loss inside of him so deep he couldn't explain it, even
to himself…
***
"Prince!" Abdul finally caught up with
Quatre only to be scandalized with what the merboy was doing.
He was crooning. Poseidon's trident!
Crooning!
"Desist at once, Prince Quatre! The
humans might hear you."
Without further warning, he cuffed
the semi-oblivious boy on the neck and glared at him, his fear of being
discovered by humans overriding any fear of being punished at cuffing a
royal member of Triton's household.
Quatre blinked, dazed. When his eyes
finally focused, he realized his error and apologized to Abdul. "I am sorry.
I got carried away by the music." He hung his head in embarrassment.
/Good, he knows what he has done is
wrong. Maybe he still has hope./
But as quick as a tadpole flicked its
tail, Quatre recovered, bobbing up and down in excitement. "Oh, but the
music, Abdul, the music! It was exquisite."
Abdul sighed. /He is hopeless./
Thunder cracked in the distance and
lightning lit the darkened sky even before Abdul could say a word.
Quatre started at the unnaturally loud
sound. "What was that?"
"Thunder, My Prince and the light that
preceded it was lightning. We had better go to somewhere safer. A storm
is coming."
"But…"
"No buts. If you wish to watch the
ship, then we do so in a place safer than this or we go back now." Abdul
searched the horizon and found a small formation of rocks. "There. You
can watch from that fair distance and be safe."
Quatre complied, more from the threat
of going back home so early in the day rather than the practicality of
the suggestion.
The two mermen reached the safety of
the rocks just in time as the wind picked up and a sudden squall hit the
ocean, buffeting the massive ship into suddenly angry undulating waves
and punishing winds.
***
"Tighten the main mast!"
"Someone go down and bail! The water
is fast rising in the hold!"
"Captain!"
As the ship's crew scurried around
the crazily tilting deck of the ship shouting out orders and the ship's
condition, Trowa scurried along with them, lending a hand where he could
and stepping back when he could do naught more.
At the moment it looked like the situation
was hopeless. The sudden storm that hit them unaware had turned the peaceful
sea into a roiling angry mass of danger. The soft undulating waves had
turned into raging battering rams, cracking the ship's hull everytime they
slammed up against the ship's sides and allowing the salt water to fill
the ship's hold. The gentle refreshing wind had turned into a howling banshee,
threatening to topple the towering wooden masts and ripping the sails.
/Ah, the ocean is a very changeable
mistress indeed./
Trowa knew the ship would not be able
to take it anymore. A thought that the Captain echoed as he appeared at
Trowa's side.
"Your Majesty! I advise that you get
on into one of the lifeboats. As of the moment they are our only chances
of surviving."
Trowa inclined his head. "Are there
sufficient lifeboats for the whole crew?"
"Yes." The Captain said.
"Good." Trowa was relieved. He did
not think he would be able to get into a lifeboat knowing someone would
be left behind.
"Abandon ship, men!" The Captain roared,
sounding the warning bell to let all personnel know of the impending danger
of the sinking ship.
Before Trowa knew it, the Captain was
hustling him into a lifeboat and lowering the craft into the roiling ocean,
saluting him as he went. "God watch over you, Your Majesty. And if Poseidon
permits, we will meet again."
***
On the small rock formation, Quatre
sat, watching the scene unfolding before him with confused misgivings.
Unidentified emotions were fighting inside him to be heard…fear, panic,
anger…they all roiled together in a confusing tangle that made Quatre's
heart beat faster.
"Abdul, what is happening to the ship?
And the humans?" Quatre asked, unmindful of the beating rain that hammered
on his skin except for the occasional wince as the buffeting wind threw
some raindrops hard enough to hurt the merboy's skin. His attention was
focused on the unusual going-ons on the ship as men lowered small boats
into the sea and rowed as if their life depended on it.
"Their ship is sinking into the sea.
They are trying to save themselves." Abdul told the princeling, his attention
also on the men. Almost under his breath, he commented. "They are not likely
to survive. Not with mother ocean this rough."
Unfortunately, Quatre's ears were sensitive
enough to hear Abdul's pronouncement. "What? Then we must help them! We
cannot let them die!"
True enough, the lifeboats floating
on the wide ocean, overturned one by one as the monstrous waves proved
too rough for the little crafts.
Seeing this, Quatre tried to dive into
the ocean to save the floundering men when Abdul held him off.
"Let me go, Abdul. We have to help
them. They are dying." Quatre only spared Abdul a glance. He could finally
trace where the emotions he was feeling was coming from. They were coming
from the men floundering in the ocean. And it hurt Quatre.
"No! You more than any other must never
forget the rule that governs Poseidon's children! No human must ever set
eyes upon one of our kind."
"But they will die if we don't help!"
"So be it." Abdul shrugged. "Mother
Ocean is a changeable mistress. She will take what she will. If the men
die then it is their destiny to do so."
Quatre stared at Abdul in disbelief.
He could hear the deathscreams of the men drowning in the waves as they
tore through his insides. He could not, *would not* stand by while they
died.
Utilizing every wile and acrobatic
trick he had learned to evade his caretakers, he twisted out of Abdul's
restraining hold and swam as fast as his tail could carry him to the people
drowning in the water.
"My Prince!" Abdul's voice calling
out his name in panic was the last thing Quatre ever heard before he took
off. Regret tinged his aquamarine eyes for the disservice he was doing
to the Maguanac but he had chosen his course and he would not turn from
it.
/I am sorry Abdul but it is not in
me to let them die. Not when I can feel their pain, not when I can still
do something to save them./
***
/Is this what it is like to die?/ Trowa
thought to himself. He had long ago stopped in his useless attempts to
swim for anything that resembled the shore as he allowed himself to be
battered into the flotsam and jetsam that was once his majestic ship.
He knew as soon as the lifeboat overturned
that there would be no hope for him or the crew. Too far from land to find
safe purchase, too strong the wind and waves to ever hope to stay afloat
until help came. He had latched onto a piece of driftwood and floated aimlessly,
swallowing salt water with every punishing wave that pounded into him.
His eyes were blurring and his body tiring, wishing for sleep.
/I will never even get to finish my
seventeenth birthday./ He thought to himself in self-derision. /I guess
this is goodbye then…/
His half-closed eyes were about to
close all the way when he felt an insistent tugging on his arm. /God! To
be so annoyed in the moment of my death./ He swiveled his head around in
annoyance to find bright sunshine in the middle of the storm.
/No. It isn't sunlight. It is someone's
hair./
Hair the color of golden sunlight,
undimmed by the torrential rain…and eyes the color of the shifting sea
on a bright day staring at him in concern. A beautiful combination set
in a pure innocent face.
"Hold on to me."
The voice was sweetly melodious and
strangely familiar though Trowa could not place it. He blinked at the boy
in confusion, trying to find a name to suit the face and finding none.
/An angel?/
He stared in fascinated wonder. /An
angel has come to get me./
The vision before him scrunched his
face in an unangelic irritated frown. "Look, if you do not help me at all,
I will not be able to save you by myself."
/Not an angel…but what?/ Trowa summoned
enough strength to hook an arm around the other boy's soldiers. To which
the boy beamed at him with an incandescent smile that made Trowa think
twice about the boy being an angel again.
"Now hold on tight, alright? And I
will get you unto human land."
Trowa barely had time to clutch at
the boy when the boy took off in the water like a dolphin intent on winning
a race, startling a tired Trowa at the sheer speed.
/On second thought, he isn't an angel.
He must be part fish./ It was the last amusing thought in Trowa's head
as he finally succumbed to tired slumber, slumping his weight down on his
savior.
***
Upon seeing a little patch of land,
/Beach. Iria told me these land masses near the ocean are called beaches./
Quatre dragged the unconscious human halfway out of the water, leaving
the human's legs in them because he could not go much further. His tail
would be painfully abraded by the rocks if he did so.
Seeing the pale form so still, Quatre
laid his head down to the human's chest to listen to the human's heart,
finding a strong heart beat.
/Good. You will live./
Quatre smiled as he looked unto the
face beside him, marveling at the difference between them. He was fascinated.
It was the first time he had ever seen a human.
He touched the hair, fine fine hair
but oh so different from his or from the other mermen. Mermen had green
hair except for those of royal blood who, like Quatre had golden hair.
It made for a very monochromatic color scheme.
This human's hair was…wonderfully different.
It was the color of some fishes in the ocean, a color he found dull on
the fishes but on this human it looked so exotic and…right. It was long
and covered one side of the human's face, obscuring one of the human's
eyes.
And the face…so piquant yet strong
at the same time. Quatre didn't know how to describe it but the face conveyed
a sensitive gentle nature. He wondered if it was true. If the human did
have such a personality…because if Quatre relied on the stories his sisters
and the other merpeople told him, humans were uncouth, uncivilized, and
cruel.
He looked more closely at the human.
This one did not look any of those things. In fact, he looked strangely
beautiful, lying there, fast asleep.
/He does not look so very different
from me./ That is, if one discounted the fact that the human had two legs.
/Legs…I wonder how they feel./ Quatre
touched the human's legs hesitantly, marveling at the different feel to
his own iridescent sapphire blue tail. /I wonder how it feels to move as
they do…to walk on two legs…/
Impossible thoughts. A merman could
sooner swim through dry land than wish to walk. But Quatre was curious
as could be. He had always been unnaturally curious about humans. But had
been forbidden to come up to the surface because he had never been old
enough. Now he was old enough.
And wasn't it just his luck that the
first human he would see would be this beautiful creature lying beside
him. There was something about this one that drew Quatre to him. Even in
the almost blinding storm, Quatre had unerringly gone to his side without
realizing, because this one's thoughts and emotions burned brighter than
the rest, called to him above the rest.
The human stirred restlessly in his
sleep and Quatre placed a hand on his chest to still his movements. "Rest.
You need to rest."
But the movements intensified, growing
more violent until Quatre had to lie down on top of the human just to stop
him from injuring himself.
"Honestly!" Quatre muttered to himself.
"He has got to be the most contrary creature I've ever met." /Aside from
me, that is./ He smiled.
/Maybe I should sing him a song. Maybe
that will make him calm down. Yes. A song might just do the trick./
Without further thought, the Prince
of the Seas opened his voice and out poured the most melodious violin strains.
Quatre did not just sing, he loved each note, pulling it from the place
inside his heart, teasing it out and loving it before letting it go, only
to catch another one and repeating the process.
In this, none compared to him. Not
Iria or any of the others. He could sing the most tragic song and all would
wallow in the depths of despair and sorrow. Or he could sing the most glorious
piece to entangle the audience in sublime happiness. It was Quatre's element,
Poseidon's gift to this one, Triton's last child. The ability to weave
a siren's song.
It seemed to work as the restless motion
ceased and the human's face cleared as he sank back into a deep sleep.
"That's right, land-ling. Sleep. Until
you are well enough to awake."
Quatre yawned himself. It had been
a very long day, even for him. And since there was no sign of Abdul, he
decided to stay by the human's side until one of the Maguanacs found him.
He laid his head down on the human's chest and promptly fell asleep.
TBC ^_~ I am a shameless hussy! Comments
onegai? Ahohoho!