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: @_@;;;