Next
part! I actually almost forgot about this ficcie. sweatdrops>I hope
its still interesting. ^^ Sorry about the tenses, I always have problems
with tenses…they're too…tense lol>
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 3
Bright banners in the Astorian Royal
Family's colors fluttered gaily in the breeze atop the shiny turrets jutting
out of the beautiful castle.
This castle bore testimony to centuries
of benevolent rule of great kings, its own structure standing so proudly
on the mountain crag it was situated in, to loom protectively over the
valley that was its subject's home.
Today, unlike any normal day, all the
windows and doorways of the castle were filled to the brim with waving
servants and lords. Everyone had turned out to welcome back the sovereign
they had thought dead for a fortnight now.
As soon as the gilded horse drawn carriage
came into view, a deafening cheering broke out, startling Trowa into a
surprised daze.
"They seem so happy to see me…"
A deep Eastern-accented voice let out
a throaty chuckle beside him. "What do you expect? You *are* their monarch
after all. And after believing you dead…"
"But I haven't done anything to merit
this…this…affection." Trowa blinked. He was still overwhelmed by the intensity
of emotion being shown.
Wufei shrugged and leaned back. "Just
having you back is enough reason for them to celebrate. Besides, logically,
they have much to be happy about."
"Why is that?"
"Because a country without a monarch
can be plunged into war by greedy kings and pretentious would-be kings."
"That is true. You always come across
as so logical, Chang."
Wufei smiled smugly. "Of course. I
am Chang Wufei, scholar extraordinaire."
Trowa arched an eyebrow at Wufei's
smugness. "Not to mention errant prince who ditched his country to travel
the world?"
Wufei's face fell. "I am not ditching
my country as you call it. I am merely perusing other cultures to compare
methods and incorporate them in my own country. Are you insulting me, Trowa?"
The Easterner was huffing by now at
the supposed slight to his honor and had stood up. Unfortunately he had
forgotten that the carriage had a low slung ceiling and his head bumped
the padded wooden roof.
Trowa laughed. "Sit down, Wufei. I
was joking. Gods, you are so easy to rile."
The raven-haired youth sat back down
and whacked Trowa lightly on the back of his neck. "And you, King Trowa
of Astoria, love riling me."
"You noticed? It's one of my most favorite
pastimes."
"Idiot." Wufei muttered. "And wave
to your people, Trowa."
Trowa obeyed the imperious command,
waving and smiling at the people lining the streets. "I suppose this has
a logical explanation behind it as well."
Wufei arched his thin eyebrows. "What
do *you* think?"
Trowa burst out in delighted laughter.
It was good to be home.
***
Trowa stepped out into his balcony
and breathed in the fresh sea air. It had been two weeks since he had been
able to do so and he missed the smell of the Astorian sea.
Of course, his room in Adelniss had
overlooked the sea too but it wasn't the same. He had longed for this particular
balcony all of his stay there. He missed everything about it…from the white
marble railing to the unchanging scenery.
He could describe the scene to anyone
blindfolded…tell everyone of the three rock outcroppings that formed a
rough triangle in the east where the sun would rise in its exact center
every dawn and how the sun would set in the west at the exact center of
a rock's sharpened point. He could even describe the exact hues of the
ever changing sea at various points of the day...how it could reflect the
orange brilliance of a dying day to the grey turbulence of a stormy hour.
Although he loved all the aspects of
the sea, he still found the blue green emerald color when the sea was at
its calmest as the best. He could stare for hours on end at it. Just as
he did now.
Trowa hitched a hip on the marble railing
and slowly put the flute he held to his lips. This was another thing he
had missed…playing his flute here on his balcony.
/Scales first…/ He told himself
firmly. Much as he would want to launch into fullout playing, he knew he
had to warm-up a little first.
As his fingers danced in the well remembered
patterns, his thoughts flew inescapably back to…violins. All throughout
his stay in Adelniss it had been the one thing occupying his thoughts.
Whoever the violinist was, he knew that he or she would have been the one
who rescued Trowa.
Who was it?
It had been the first thing he had
asked when he had regained consciousness. Unfortunately he had received
no answer. Neither Princess Catherine or anyone else in Adelniss had ever
heard of a violin much less have a violinist in the court.
Trowa did not give up though…asking
everyone who was with the Princess when she had found him on the beach
if they had seen anyone else besides him. They all answered the same thing…no
one had been with him. Trowa must have been delirious, they said, and had
imagined the whole thing.
And yet…
Yet he could distinctly remember hearing
the sweet strains of a violin playing when he had regained consciousness
for a time…He was sure it hadn't been delirium, no delirium could ever
produce such a hauntingly sweet sound.
Trowa's brows knitted in annoyance
and it was reflected in the scales he had been doing.
/Who are you? Where are you?/
And then out of nowhere, a burst of
sound reached his ears, a light beautiful sound of pure delight tripping
in the air and somehow enticing Trowa to join it. He lifted his flute to
his lips and did so, weaving flute into the lighthearted violin strains.
The duet was a light mix of flirting
laughter, a game of catch, with the violin leading Trowa into the melody
and Trowa following behind willingly, matching each note easily.
Trowa lost himself in the music, closing
his eyes as he followed. He knew that this was the violin player who had
rescued him. There was no doubt in his heart that it was.
/He came back…/
Somehow the thought made Trowa happy.
/This time I will not let you go
without knowing who you are./
***
"Beautiful…"
Quatre opened his eyes as the song
ended, smiling in delight at having found his human immediately upon surfacing.
It had been sop long since he had last seen him that he had unthinkingly
gone closer and closer until he almost hugged the face of the mountain.
When the human and started playing,
he couldn't help himself. It had been so long since he had last sang with
anyone, ever since Duo had been called back by his father…and it had been
just beautiful.
Quatre bobbed up and down in the sea,
a silly little smile on his face, basking in the last notes of the song
when he heard his human, no, his Trowa, that was the human's name, throw
down a quiet question.
"You are the same violinist who played
exquisitely near my boat a fortnight ago were you not?"
/What's a violinist?/ Quatre
wondered but he understood enough to know that his Trowa was asking if
he had been the one near his boat. "Yes, yes I was."
"Can you show yourself please? I would
like to see the face of one who plays so beautifully."
Oh Quatre was tempted, very very tempted.
He wanted to, so very much that he ached inside. He wanted to introduce
himself to his human.
/If I do I will be breaking all
the rules Poseidon gave us merpeople. And we will be hunted down by humans
who crave peculiaties. Would it be worth all that?/
No, no it would not.
With a heavy heart, Quatre whispered:
"I'm sorry."
If he was smart, Quatre knew that he
should never go back to see Trowa ever again. He dove into the sea, leaving
Trowa with no answer, the small ripples the only sign that he had been
there at all.
***
But Trowa had become like a drug in
Quatre's blood, he could not get him out of his mind or heart. The green
eyed King was all Quatre could think about and he could not help but come
to the surface time and again.
Trowa would always be there, perched
on the same marble balcony with his flute, waiting. And every time, Quatre
would launch into song to let him know that Quatre had arrived. They would
play…at least the human would play and the merboy would sing…intricately
difficult pieces as time passed by, sharing in song what they could not
do in words.
And at the end of the song, Trowa would
ask Quatre to show himself and Quatre would disappear into the sea.
It was enough and not enough…each yearned
to be closer to each other, to know more about the other but the invisible
barrier kept Quatre back and Trowa, confused, did not know what else to
do.
Trowa knew was that he asked such a
simple thing…all he wanted was to see his rescuer's face, to see the face
of the one who could play so exquisitely. He even had a mind to ask the
boy to stay at the castle but he was afraid as to how the other boy would
react if he did so if the simple request of showing his face was enough
to frighten the boy.
A boy…Trowa never thought that it would
be a boy but sure enough, the melodious voice, light though it was, belonged
to a boy. /A very beautiful boy if the voice was any indication./
How could he even properly thank him
if he didn't want to show himself? Trowa was very frustrated. Not being
able to carry out a decent conversation irked him. He almost had a mind
to go out in the shallows with a small boat and wait for the boy to show
up. He was quite certain that the boy rowed out to the mountain's edge
every afternoon for their daily duet…but if he did, Trowa was sure that
he would frighten the boy away. And he didn't want that to happen.
Therefore he was at an impasse. He
could not force the boy yet gentle prodding had proved unsuccessful. He
didn't know what to do…
***
Quatre swam out to the surface again,
leaving Rashid with a disgruntled look on his face. As usual, he had told
Rashid that he was off to visit Duo. And since the Maguanacs found his
hyperactive best friend very trying, they had opted to be left behind.
After all, the Merduke Maxwell's guards would be ample enough protection
for the Prince of the Sea.
Of course Quatre took the seahorses
to alleviate suspicion but halfway to Duo's he turned at the nearest coral
bed that bordered the Astorian sea and shot up to the surface.
He knew it was wrong of him to do so
but he couldn't help it. His need to see Trowa had become like the air
he breathed. He couldn't go without him.
***
"Your name is Trowa is it not?"
Quatre said, softly, not daring to
increase the volume for fear that anyone else might hear. They had just
finished another song and Quatre, who did not want to go yet, wanted to
stop Trowa from asking the question he could not answer or give in to.
So he did it in the only way he knew how.
"Why yes, yes it is."
"It's a very beautiful name." Quatre
said sincerely. "Like waves ebbing in the distance."
"Thank you." The pleasure in Trowa's
voice was clear. "You say that like you love the sea."
A smile curved Quatre's lips. "I do
love the sea."
"I'm not surprised. I do too. We seem
to share that."
Silence. Quatre didn't know what to
say to that without revealing what and who he was.
It was Trowa who spoke out.
"Well since you already know *my* name,
do you not think it is only fair that you give me yours?"
Quatre's heart skipped a bit. Surely
nothing wrong would come out of giving his name to Trowa. "Quatre." He
said. "Its Quatre."
"Quatre." Trowa tested the sound on
his lips and found that it felt like it belonged on his lips. "That's a
beautiful name."
The compliment fell on the silent ocean
as Trowa found that the boy had disappeared again as silently as he had
come.
/Quatre…well that's a start, I would
think./
Trowa smiled. At last he was making
progress.
***
"I'm going to Duo's, Rashid. Don't
bother coming with me." Quatre said cheerfully as he passed the Maguanac
captain.
Rashid's features scrunched up in an
unreadable mask. "It seems that Your Highness has been spending entirely
too much time with the Duke's son. I do not find that advisable."
"Oh Rashid!" Quatre said with a laugh.
"Duo's not so bad. And he's my best friend. Besides, he comes from the
few families father approves of."
And with that Quatre swam unto one
of the seahorses in the stable and waved to Rashid. "Well, I'll be off.
Better to catch the undercurrent to Duo's."
Rashid watched his young master go
with apprehension and a nagging suspicion that the Prince was hiding something
from him.
***
Quatre had a bad feeling that something
bad was going to happen. He couldn't shake off the feeling. And wondered
if it had anything to do with Rashid. The Maguanac captain had definitely
been suspicious of his actions for some time now.
Quatre felt guilty for lying all the
time and for using Duo as a cover but he didn't know what else to do. He
could not tell Rashid because he knew what the Maguanac captain would do
if he found out where Quatre spent his afternoons. And he could not give
up Trowa. He would sooner give up breathing than give up Trowa.
The problem turned itself over and
over in his mind, so much that he didn't realize that he was at the coral
bed junction where he always went up to the surface. Fortunately, his seahorse
Sandrock, knew the way from repeated excursions and turned on its own.
The preoccupation also made Quatre
miss the slight figure on a black seahorse who was waving at him.
"Now, where in the seven seas do you
think Quatre is going, eh, Deathscythe, boy?"
Duo, son of Duke Maxwell and Quatre's
best friend said as he looked up at the fast disappearing Sandrock and
the blond Prince of the Seven Seas.
***
"You WHAT?" Rashid roared out at Duo
who flinched at the loudness.
"Hey Rashid! You didn't have to shout
you know. I'm right beside you." Duo grumbled, rubbing at his ear. "You
just might have deafened me for life."
"I am sorry, Your Lordship. But can
you kindly repeat what you just said."
Duo whuffled the bangs out of his face
and tugged at his long braid in exasperation. "Honestly Rashid. I think
you're getting too old for your job. Your hearing is going or is it your
memory? Can't you remember? I just told you."
At any other time, Rashid would have
winced at the barrage of words from the hyperactive merboy in front of
him but right now he was too intent on the news the young lord had just
unwittingly imparted. "Humor me." He said in a hard voice.
Loud sigh. "All right, all right. I
just told you that I was happily riding Deathscythe towards the palace
to visit Quatre seeing that I haven't seen him for a very long time now…"
"He has been visiting your Lordship
for 2 consecutive weeks." Rashid interrupted with narrowed eyes.
"Eh?" Duo scratched his head. "Well
if he had I have never seen a scale or fin of him…you're mistaken Rashid."
Rashid's black brows drew even tighter
together. "And you were saying, Lord Duo?"
Duo brightened oblivious to the simmering
Maguanac. "Ah yes…I was just saying that I am very hurt that he did not
say he was going to go up into the surface. He knows I love treasure hunting
and sightseeing,"
The Maguanac didn't even wait for Duo
to finish as he swam away in agitated strokes, yelling out for the whole
Maguanac corp to assemble.
Duo frowned. "Really! Dreadfully rude
of Rashid to just get up and leave. With his scales all ruffled too."
He swam after the Maguanac captain
to say so when he heard the Maguanac captain dress every Maguanac guard
down for allowing the Prince to even go up to the surface without monitoring
his actions.
"Uh oh…" Duo said to himself. "Looks
like I got Cat into trouble."
TBC ^_~ Comments are dearly sought
after. And boy I love an oblivious Duo! Oh oh, the duet I was trying to
describe (and failing miserably at ^^;) was the duet in the OPeration 1
CD of Trowa and Quatre. I love that so much that I played it continuously
the first time I got it. IF anyone wants the mp3 of it I'd gladly send
it out ^^
Next Part: The Evil Sea Witch Dorothy!
Ahohohoho!