I would like to thank the wonderful people who commented on this fic I would like to thank the wonderful people who commented on this fic. Lovely lovely people ^-^I would lik to thank the wonderful people who commented on the fic. I love you guys! ^^ I think I'll go write TQ more often ^o^v

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: ff.net

To Heed the Heart's Desire
Part 2

Quatre opened his eyes to find himself still on the human's chest. He smiled to himself. It felt right to be there.

He wouldn't have moved from his position if not for the warm sensation on his back.

Ever the curious one, he turned to look at what was causing the warmth. He looked up and saw the burning globe in the sky obscured by a few stray gray clouds from the broken storm.

"The sun!" Quatre cried out in delight and in that moment he completely forgot about the human in favor of the one thing he had obsessed about since the beginning of this journey to the surface. /It is morning already./

/The sun!/ He stared in wonderment. It was unlike anything Quatre had imagined, nothing under the sea rivaled it. /Such light…and warmth./ He tried to catch the sunbeams that flittered down near him, delighting in the way his fingers slipped through them as he basked in the warmth. And as was usual when he was on the tides of happiness, Quatre unconsciously crooned out a melody.

The Prince of the Sea wanted to share this happiness with the human and so turned to look at him. What he saw made Quatre stare at the human with wonderment, the sun forgotten. If he had thought the human beautiful underneath the darkened skies of the storm, it was nothing compared to the scene presented to him now.

The sun's rays danced on the human's sleep-softened features, warming them until a faint reddish tinge adorned the human's cheeks. Quatre had never seen such a phenomenon before. And he sought to caress the faint tinge, wondering how it felt. All he felt was satiny soft skin. /What a wonderful thing! It does not present discomfort but enhances the land-ling's features./

The more he stared, the more Quatre wanted to stay with the human. It was, of course, idiotic to hope for something so impossible. But Quatre was a dreamer, had been a dreamer since he was young. And for these few hours before the Maguanacs found him he could pretend that he could be with this one to find out what it was like to live in a human world, with human things, human dreams.

With nothing better to do, Quatre started singing again…weaving the formless strands of longing, curiousity and wonder into a song of enchanting sweetness made of sunbeams and wishes.

***

Violins…that was what Trowa heard as he drifted in and out of consciousness, the same violin strains he had heard on board the ship, the exquisite sounds of pure emotion that he was fast learning to identify as belonging to one very talented musician…

…the same one who rescued him. Trowa realized. For how could he be lying on sand, whole and alive, if the person had not?

Trowa's brows drew together in worry. /I cannot remember his face./ All he could remember was a voice, a very musical voice that somehow reminded him of the violins.

He wanted to open his eyes, wanted to see the musician who could coax such wondrous notes from the instrument. The desire to gaze into the face of this person who risked his own life for Trowa's own was strong but his body was too tired and heavy eyelids did not want to obey him. They remained closed and uncooperative even as Trowa willed them to open.

/Fine! Be like that. What could be the most important time of my life and now it doesn't want to cooperate./ He snorted in self-derision, remembering all the unnecessary times of acrobatic exercise he put in when his body actually moved willingly with his mind.

So Trowa contented himself with listening, much to his disgruntled disgust at his own body.

The music was exquisite as always but there was something else, something Trowa could only identify as…impossible longing…embedded in the strains, as if the musician was contemplating something he desperately wanted but could never attain.

/Sad./

Yet even as there was sadness in the music there was also wonder, curiosity, delight…as if the musician still found hope and beauty in his surroundings.

It was a very unique piece of music. One that sent Trowa plunging into a dark chasm of sadness but before he could hit the bottom, the notes cradled him in gentle arms and soared up into the golden sun, taking him with it.

/Dreamer./

It was the last thoughts he had as he drifted back into sleep, stirring to seek the warmth of the musician's body.

***

The human stirred a little but Quatre did not notice because mermen heads started popping out of the water a few miles away shouting out his name in relief.

"Prince Quatre!"

Rashid swam forward, satisfaction clear on his face. "Thank the Sea God that we found you!" He hugged Quatre roughly and Quatre allowed it. Rashid was his father's oldest retainer. He had taken care of Quatre ever since he had been a merling. No one else would have dared.

"Let us go home, my Prince."

"But, Rashid, the human has not regained consciousness. I can't very well leave him here."

Rashid's eyes flared as his eyes took in the human form. "You know as well as I do, my Prince that you have already broken the rule of Poseidon's children. I am willing to overlook that fact seeing that the human would probably never remember you…"

/Not remember me?/ A flash of regret tore through Quatre though Rashid did not notice Quatre flinch, continuing on with his reprimand. "…I am prepared not to tell your father King Triton of this infraction. As it is, he will be livid, we have spent more than a day on the surface. You well know I will cover for you as best as I can, but only if you come back home with us now."

The warning was implicit. Quatre knew what his father would do. He would probably be banned from the surface for the rest of his mer-life and worse. Much as he wanted to stay he could not. The punishment was too heavy that it didn't bear contemplating.

Still, Quatre would not give in without wringing one concession from his guardian. He raised his chin in a stubborn angle.

"At the very least, Rashid, grant me the courtesy to see the one I saved regain consciousness."

"Bu…"

Before Rashid could get out even one word, Quatre's voice sliced through his protest. "I know what you are going to say and no I do not intend to disobey Poseidon's Rule again. He will not see me at all." Sadness colored Quatre's voice. But he overcame it. He pointed to an outcropping of corals in the far distance. "We can conceal ourselves in those corals until such a time as the human regains consciousness."

Quatre's tone brook no argument. Rashid found it reasonable enough so he nodded sharply and then turned towards the others. "We will fall back to the coral outcropping."

Quatre watched as the Maguanac corps dove as one and moved towards the outcropping. Before joining them, he cast one last look at the human on the sands.

"How I wish I could keep you." He whispered, planting a small kiss on the human's cheek. /Or at least see what your eyes would look like./ And before Rashid could turn around and reprimand him, Quatre dived into the ocean and overtook the Maguanac corp.

***

Princess Catherine of Adelniss was out taking her morning walk on the beach with her ladies-in-waiting. The ladies were all laughing and chattering about the grand ball that had been held last night.

"Oh Princess Catherine, I feel sure that His Highness Prince Siegfried is going to offer for your hand."

Catherine put forth a very unprincesslike snort, ruffling a few strands of silky brown locks that had somehow managed to come out of her well-coifed hair. "Siegfried is a cockatrice…a well decked cockatrice with no brains. I would rather die than have him as the sire of my children."

"But, Your Highness, he comes from a very good lineage…"

"What good would lineage do my children if they grow up into idiots? Besides, who ever said I was going to marry?"

Catherine told them and with a flounce of her skirts, she walked faster, leaving her gaping ladies behind. The ladies all blinked at the princess and as one rolled their eyes. Catherine was headstrong and always spoke her mind which frightened off any and all suitors who tried for her hand. The King of Adelniss was in despair at the situation as it was.

"Ho, Ladies! I see something up ahead. I am going to investigate." Catherine shouted at them for a distance. "Follow at your own leisure."

And with that Catherine hiked up her skirts and ran towards the curiosity on the sands.

/It is a boy./ She quickly discovered as she drew closer. An almost naked-boy wrapped in shredded finery./Probably a noble./

/Now where is his ship?/ Catherine blinked and surveyed the ocean, noting the various flotsam and jetsam that floated about and came to a conclusion. /Shipwrecked from the storm yesterday, the poor soul./

Catherine knelt down and brushed the bangs from his eyes. "Here now, My Lord. Are you awake?" She shook him gently.

With a tired moan, eyelids opened to reveal the most verdantly green eyes Catherine ever saw. And she found herself falling in their depths.

Somewhere in the distance, a splashing sound was barely audible as a glistening sapphire blue tail disappeared into the ocean depths. The human now awake, the Prince of the Seas was now forced to go back to the ocean depths where he belonged.

***

"And so I told Adana that I'd ask you. What do you think…" Iria trailed off noticing that her companion was not listening to her. Quatre was staring off into the distance with a faraway look in his eyes.

Her lips turned down in a moue of dissatisfaction. Here she was trying to alleviate the pall of sadness which her brother was indulging in for days now and he wasn't even paying attention. She whacked Quatre playfully with her amber tail. "Quatre! What is it with you today?

"Wha..what? Oh Iria, I didn't notice you. Were you saying something?" Quatre snapped out of his preoccupied state to look at his sister who was now reclining in his seabed beside him.

Iria rolled her eyes. "No, I was just shouting at you to exercise my lungs." She put her arms akimbo. "Of course I was saying something, flounder face!"

Quatre smiled an apologetic smile. "Sorry. Its just that I've been thinking."

"Well. It must be something really serious, sea-ling. You've been doing it for days now." Iria told him, wrapping her arms around her brother. "What is it about?"

If it was anybody else, Quatre would have just waved his hands and closed his mouth. But this was Iria, his closest sister, his heartsib.

/But can she help me? Or understand?/

Quatre shook his head. No, he didn't think that Iria for all her empathy would ever understand what was bothering her little sea-ling. So instead of replying to Iria's question, he used the time-tested tactic guaranteed to divert the attention of his easily distracted sister.

"Er, what were you saying before Iria?"

Iria frowned at Quatre. "You aren't going to distract me that easily, little brother!"

"Its something about Adana was it not?" Quatre gently prodded with an innocent smile on his face.

"Why, yes, Adana was just saying…" Iria narrowed her eyes. "Quatre! You did it again!"

Aquamarine eyes similar to Iria's danced as the merboy laughed.

Iria's irritation vanished when she heard her brother laugh. It had been days since she had heard the melodious sound.

"Oh, Iria. You are just too easy to distract."

Iria whacked Quatre again gently. "Dreadfully disrespectful of you to say so, sea-ling!"

"But its true, nonetheless!" Quatre protested, swimming out of Iria's range to avoid getting hit by the tail again.

Iria grinned. "Yes it is and you're the only one allowed to say it to my face."

"Iria!! Quatreeee!"

Both of them swiveled their heads to the shrill sound of one of their sisters screaming in the hallway.

"Oh Iria! Did you ask him already?"

Quatre winced. "What does Adana want?"

Iria blinked. "Suffering seahorses! That was what I was telling you about. Adana and the others found a new sunken ship in the Astorian Sea. We're going to go treasure hunting and I was going to ask you to come along."

Quatre perked up noticeably at her words. Iria and the others knew of Quatre's obsession with human things and the merboy never passed up a chance to investigate those. She smiled a little and teased the prince. "Of course, if you're too busy thinking to go, we can always leave you behind."

Her only answer was a very excited merboy dragging her out of the room at full speed, almost bumping Adana over. "Come on Adana! Swim faster!" Quatre shouted at his sister, never slowing down.

/Quatre is just so predictable./ Iria thought to herself as she allowed herself to be dragged all the way to where their other sisters waited for them. She still didn't know what was bothering the merboy though. /That can wait for another day./

***

The royal entourage made of 29 princesses, a prince and the whole Maguanac corps surrounded the sunken ship, inspecting the materials left behind.

"Oh, oh look, Cara! Look at this funny contraption."

"And this! What could this be for?"

"Who knows? These humans make such strange things!"

Girlish giggles echoed on the sea floor.

Rashid ordered the Maguanacs to guard the perimeter of the ship to protect his royal charges.

"Abdul! Make sure none of the princess or the prince wanders away from the perimeter."

"Yes, Captain!"

Abdul saluted Rashid and proceeded to circle the perimeter of the ship. /This looks so familiar somehow./ He thought as he saw every inch of the ship's wrecked hull.

He did not immediately place it but it was the same doomed ship from which Prince Quatre had rescued the human days ago.

***

Quatre had noticed immediately upon laying his eyes on the vessel that this was the ship his human had been on. The human he had saved, the very same one plaguing his mind right now.

Of course, he did not betray the fact that he recognized the ship to anyone. Not after the bristling talking-to he had received from Rashid. Besides that, Rashid had taken to shadowing him like a rabid shark, wherever he went. And if he ever went near the beach where he had left his human, the Maguanac captain would block his way and turn him back home.

If he told the others that this was the ship, he was certain that Rashid would whisk him away from here faster than a wriggling eel with a severe case of hyperactivity.

/Maybe there is something here he owns. O Poseidon, let it be so./ Quatre thought as he left behind his giggling sisters in the main cabin and quietly swam past the wooden corridors slowly warping as the sea water permeated every pore of the wood.

Maybe Poseidon condoned his actions or loved Quatre dearly…or maybe it was just pure luck but as Quatre reached the end of the corridors, he cried out in delight at what he saw.

In front of him was a very familiar face blindly staring out towards him with a small smile on his face.

/He's here! My human is here!/

Quatre swam towards the figure, hugging it with all his might. /He's cold!/

It took a few seconds for him to register that this was not his human. It was a reasonable facsimile but it was not the human. He came to this conclusion when he realized that instead of yielding, silky skin, he encountered cold hard stone. Also, the pallor was not right. There was no color to this facsimile, it was made of white marble…

/Stupid! Even if it was him, he'd die. How can he breathe here in the water?/

It didn't stop him from wishing it was though. He yearned to see him.

/Stop it, Quatre! Moping will never get you anything. Look on the brighter side of the ocean!/ It was still something of his human and Quatre delighted in it, latching onto it and staring unmoving into the beloved face, crooning.

This was the exact same position on which Iria found Quatre in when she finally noticed that her brother had disappeared and went to search for him.

She was surprised and not a little bit curious at the happiness she could see in Quatre's eyes as he embraced what seemed to be a piece of…rock.

"Quatre? What are you doing?"

"Isn't he beautiful, Iria?" Quatre crooned dreamily, not bothering to turn around to look at Iria.

/What's so beautiful about a rock?/ Iria thought. "Quatre…I hate to tell you this but you're hugging a rock."

Quatre glared at her then. "It is not just any rock! It's a rock that looks like him!"

"Him? Who him?" Iria said, confused.

Quatre looked back at the statue. "My human."

"HuMaaannn!!!!" Iria shrieked in surprise.

"Yes, Iria, human." Quatre said, twitching a little as his sister's piercing scream entered sensitive ears. This effectively snapped him out of his trance-like state of adoring worship. "Do be a little more quiet, sister. I am not deaf."

Iria looked at Quatre oddly. "How can you tell me to keep quiet when you just said human? And how come I never heard of it before today. You never said anything to father about this."

/Really. Who could ever believe that the prim proper Iria everyone sees at court can be such a nagging er, narwahl./

"I suppose I should have told father that I rescued a human? Why don't I just swim up to the surface and let myself be captured in the human's nets while I'm at it?"

Iria blinked at Quatre's sarcasm and then subsided. "Good point. But rescued a human? And what is it with this *my* you keep talking about?"

"Iria, it's a long story, I really don't think you want to hear…"

"I have the time." Iria interrupted. A determined gleam was in her blue-green eyes, one that told Quatre that she would not stop until she got what she wanted.

***

"Great White Whale! Quatre! What have you done?" Iria burst out as soon as Quatre finished his story.

I didn't exactly plan to do what I did, Iria. Its not as if I wanted to." He said miserably, looking up at the statue. Iria noticed that he hadn't let go once ever since he had latched onto it.

Iria sighed with him, shaking her head. "That empathic heart of yours always gets you into trouble."

"I know." Quatre sighed, absently stroking the cold stone and hugging it tighter.

Iria frowned. After everything that Quatre had told her she was sure of one thing…this obsession her brother had with humans had just gone a notch more dangerous…the Prince of the Sea had fallen in love, fallen in love with a human.

He might not have said it or realized it. Iria would willingly bet that it was the latter. Quatre was relatively more innocent than the others when it came to love, being unused to such an emotion from other merpeople other than his sisters.

Being the youngest had its disadvantages, mainly remaining relatively unnoticed in the sea of siblings, eventhough he was the only male. That did not count in the mer-world. Unlike the humans' society, the mermanoid society did not place much stock on gender. Rissa, as first-born princess would be heir. That meant that Quatre being the last child was nothing more than what he was…a prince. Only his sisters and Rashid ever paid attention to him. Not that Quatre ever asked for anything more.

The worst thing Iria could ever have dreamt of had happened. Quatre had fallen in love. It was not that Iria didn't want her brother to fall in love but she wanted to have prepared him for it at the very least.

/And to a human!/ Iria was horrified. How could such a relationship work out after all. They were from different worlds…

"Iria! What does this say?"

Lost in her thoughts, Iria had not noticed that Quatre had been circling the statue and had found an inscription at the bottom, to which he pointed at.

"Hmmnnn…" She squinted. Iria, among al the princesses, had studied human writing. "It says…In com…comme…" She stumbled a bit at the unfamiliar writing. "…commemoration of his 17th birthday. His Majesty, King Trowa Barton of Astoria."

"Trowa." Quatre said the name under his breath lovingly. "So that's his name."

Iria watched as her brother went into ecstasies over the inscription. She couldn't help noticing the happiness that suffused his features.

/Oh, Quatre! To feel the happiness of the emotion love is a gift from the gods themselves. But why did you have to fall for a human?/

/Astoria!/ Quatre realized that the kingdom would be near where they were now since this part of the ocean was called the Astorian Sea. His heart beat faster. Maybe, maybe if he would be able to go to the surface right now, he would be able to catch a glimpse of his human…his Trowa.

He shot out of the room with a heave of his tail.

"Quatre, where are you going?" Iria called after him.

"Just to the surface, Iria. I want to see something." Quatre shouted out, not stopping at all for fear that Iria or one of the Maguanacs would block him from his desired course of action.

/Great God of the Sea! Please let me see him. Just this once, please let me see him./

TBC ^_~

Kill Swyth-chan? Stupid Chapter? Nice enough? This was meant to be a really short fic but as always my muses ran away with it.o.O I'm not even in the part where Quatre turns human…whacks muses>
Tyrcel: glares>Hey, what was that for?
Swyth-chan: For being muses of epic proportions...
Tyrcel: That's Rayne's fault not mine...
Rayne: Well blame Tyrcel for lagging on fic ideas...
Swyth-chan: dryly>Well maybe if you both concentrate on my fics more than on each other, we'd get somewhere faster...
Tyrcel and Rayne: @_@;;;