What if Myth
By Prinder
A gundam wing fan fiction
Rating: PG 13- R for swearing, violent situations and POSSIBLY some suggestive dialog
Disclaimer: I do not own gundam wing or any of its characters. I also do not own Felina or Jasmine they were so gratefully lent to me by my dear role-playing friend Ashley.
Keys:
"…" Indicates talking
'…' Indicates thinking
(Notes from me)
Chapter 7
It was closer to dawn then it was to midnight by the time the harvest feast was finished and everyone was tucked neatly into his or her own beds, sound asleep. That is, except for one young soul.
"I don't think I have a choice… Heero, what did you mean?" the young princess pondered as she sat on her lonely balcony, gazing at the heavens above her, or more precisely, the silver moon as it too got ready for bed, and the sun stretched his golden beams in a yawn and readied for the ever-promising new day.
"You promised you would come back, Heero, where are you now?" she murmured to the gentle wind as it played in her tresses and kissed her rose tinted cheeks.
Unknown to her, he was much closer then she would ever dared to think.
"Relena…"
"I still don't see why we had to camp out here all night, Heero, Heero? What're you looking at?" Questioned Felina as she picked the seemingly endless amount of leaves out or her hair and off of her back from sleeping on the hard castle grounds.
"Nothing…" was all she got for a reply as he turned away from the angelic view of the fair princess and back to his cousin.
"Okay! So, now what do we do?" she asked with a beaming cat-like grin.
"You stay with us," an all too-familiar voice said from not far behind them.
"Trowa! What are you doing out here so early?" Felina asked as she rushed over to him and gave him a warm hug, which he returned with surprising ease.
"That would be risky for you, why make an offer like that?" Heero questioned.
"I always wake early, and when I over heard you talking in the bushes I thought it best that you be somewhere safer then outside" Trowa replied, in his ever-calm way.
"Hn." was all he got for a reply.
"In Heero-talk that means 'lets do it'" Felina said with her ever-present and ever-pleasant smile.
"We're set up this way," Trowa said as he turned and motioned them to follow.
"Come on Heero… I want to sleep on one of those human beds again, those were comfy!" Felina exclaimed as they quickly followed him.
*****
She staggered forward so suddenly as she walked down the long wood bridge to the all-too-firm ground that was land that she fell upon her hands and knees onto what was a low mountainside that dropped off steeply into the waters below.
Wufei smirked at her misfortune, leaning over the rail of the ship as he did so.
Wong, not being able to take his quiet insults, stood up on shaky legs and promptly dropped back down to her knees again.
Wufei's smile faded away as he made his way off of the ship, wobbling a little himself (people who aren't used to being in ships for a long time get what you would call "sea legs" meaning that they are used to the sway of a ship, and when they go on land, well this happens) as he made his way over to her.
"M-Master Wufei, forgive me, but I don't think I can do this" Wong said as she looked down and stared at her hands like they were the worlds most interesting things to look at.
"Get up Woman, you whine too much" Wufei said as he looked at her out of the corner of his eye.
"Yes Master Wufei…" she said with an aggravated sigh as she finally managed to get onto her feet and stay up for the first time since they had left port in India.
"About time" Wufei remarked as they descended down the hill and into the town below.
"I would have thought that they would have met us when we arrived" Wong commented as they tried to find their way through the town and to the castle gates.
"I did too, but we were also late in arriving, it is possible that they are busy with things of more important nature" he replied.
"Hum… perhaps, though I highly doubt it"
"Do you now?"
"Yes, is it not custom in these parts not to invite a guest into ones land without at least sending someone assure that said guests are taken care of and are indeed well?" Wong questioned.
"That is very correct, which is why I was sent not two hours ago to see if you had arrived Mister Chang Wufei and Miss JinChi Wong" a stout man of about twenty-three said as he made his way through the crowd and over to them.
"And just how do you know that we are who you say we are?" Wufei asked warily.
"Milord, forgive me for saying so, you might not have realized it, but you stand out much more then you would like to believe here then you would back in China" the man replied.
"Master Wufei, look around, he is right, everyone looks very different then those in China, our robes themselves stand out among all of these, these…" she trailed off, running out of English and resorting to Chinese to explain.
Wufei just nodded to her and turned back to the man. "What do you call what you wear?" he asked harshly.
"We call them many things Milord, you can call them clothes or garments, if you will" the man replied.
"Garments…" Wong echoed as she tried the strange new word on her tongue.
"Yes Milady, if you will both follow me, I will take you to Castle Cinq" the man said with a smile.
"Yes, lets see your 'castle' as you call it" Wufei replied.
"Good, Good… now if Milady would honor me as to take my arm, we shall go" the man said as he extended his elbow to Wong, who only look at him vaguely.
"I do not understand this custom, forgive me, please explain" Wong said, more then slightly hesitant.
"Ah, yes, well how silly of me, it is really just a form of curtsey a gentleman shows to a lady" he replied nervously.
"Curtsey for a woman, we do not show such things in public, how does this act of 'taking arms' show such a thing?" Wong said as she slowly linked her arm with his.
"A waste of time, that would be better spent elsewhere, if you ask me" Wufei said as he walked a few paces in front of them.
"Well Milady, I never really thought of why it does, I suppose it could be that a gentleman could watch-out for a lady, no man would lead himself into a muddy river just to spite the woman on his arm and ruin his garments" the man replied, knowingly or unknowingly, ignoring Wufei.
Wong smirked. "I can think of one that would do such a thing" she huffed.
"Then he is no gentleman and someone should take a tall tree and a short piece of rope and put him out of Milady's misery" the man commented, not realizing the evil glare he was receiving from Wufei, and the tell-tale smirk on Wong's face.
"I could never permit such an act upon my Master Wufei" Wong said as she buried her face in his shoulder, and if it were even possible, she earned an even viler glare from Wufei as he looked over his shoulder at them.
"Oh ho! You are a vixen you were talking about Chang! You wouldn't be trying to cause me any misfortune now would you Milady?" he asked with a grin and a sly look in his eye.
"Humph!" was all that was said from Wufei.
"Hardly, you did that on your own" Wong replied, glad that she could out smart not one, but two men at the same time.
"Well at any rate, here we are! Welcome to the Castle of Cinq!" the man announced as they stopped at the drawbridge.
Wufei and Wong looked up at the mighty stone castle with expressions akin to pure awe at its size, it was HUGE!
"Having a house so tall is unseemly…" Wufei grumbled, trying to hide the fact that he was as amazed as Wong.
Wong could only stare up at the banners flowing freely on the very top of the watchtowers with mute shock and marvel at their height.
"Well of course it's unseemly Lord Chang! It was made for royalty! And after all, royalty loves to be seen, and what better way of making everyone notice then to build and live in a castle!" their guide exclaimed.
"Don't call me Chang, you will refer to me as Wufei, nothing more" Wufei snarled at him.
"Please excuse me! I didn't mean any disrespect Lord Wufei, I didn't know"
"And now you do, see that it doesn't happen again"
Wong sighed inwardly. 'He just never learns, will he ever learn to be humble?' she thought as they made their way inside and were promptly greeted by King Milliardo, Queen Lucrezia, and Princess Relena.
"How, many, goods, it, is, to, meat, you" Milliardo said in very badly broken Chinese and a sloppy bow.
Wong had to fight with herself to keep a straight face as she and Wufei shared a look at one an other before Wufei replied back in Chinese, "If you expected us to be impressed with your butchering of our language, expect nothing more then pure disgust"
To which Milliardo replied, one again in that butchered Chinese, "Great, many, thank, you, tell, us, do, you, talk, English?"
Wong had to bite her tongue to keep her giggles to herself.
"Much better then your Chinese I would hope!" Wufei snapped in his almost perfect English.
Wong lost it this time as she covered her mouth with her hands and she giggled wildly at the expression on the King's face.
Relena, realizing what had just happened, also chuckled at her Brother's demise.
"Now that that's done, lets get to the introductions, I'm Queen Lucrezia, this is giggling thing next to me is Princess Relena, and the victim of your joke is none other then my husband, King Milliardo" Lucrezia said as she wiped away the tears of laugher in her eyes.
Wong composed herself and took a bow. "I am Wong, JinChi Wong, it is a pleasure"
"My name is Chang Wufei. Perhaps it would be best if we did our negotiations in your language, your grasp on ours is not anywhere near as refined" Wufei commented, not even bothering to bow like Wong.
"Yes, well… ahem! Shall I have one of our servants show you to your chambers?" Milliardo asked, quickly trying to save what little of his ego that he had left.
"You have servants?" Wong questioned.
"Yes, with as large as a place this is, we need many servants to keep it running in perfect order" He replied.
"Wong was once a servant in my house, we freed the others but she stayed at my wife's last request, we still manage to run the house in perfect order without them, as I am sure that you could just as well" Wufei said calmly.
"Yes, um… well, that is something to think about now isn't it?" Milliardo said thoughtfully.
"Relena, Why don't you show Lord Wufei and Lady Wong around the castle?" Lucrezia said, effectively changing the subject.
"Oh of course, that is if they want to, I'm sure after that long sail across the seas to get here must have made you both quite weary" Relena replied as she looked at the two scholars with a pleasant smile on her face.
"You are quite correct Princess Relena. Perhaps another time would be best, after we have regained our strength" Wong said with a polite bow.
"Then how about I show you to your rooms?" Relena asked.
"That would be most kind of you Princess Relena" she replied as they followed Relena up one of the many flights of stairs, down hall ways and corridors, until they almost couldn't keep track of all the turns anymore!
Once they had arrived in their respective chambers, Wong was very surprised to see how finely decorated her room was; it had a rich cherry wood, four poster, canopy bed located in the middle of the wall on the far end of the room, matching night stands, a desk, two chairs, one by the bed and the other next to the desk, a nice warm fire in the hearth, and lovely trinkets and knickknacks everywhere she looked.
'And I am not the one they should be impressing! If my room is this grand, then Master Wufei's must be simply stunning!' she thought as she climbed into the sweet smelling hay and down filled bed, and promptly falling into a blissful sleep.
*****
She was laughing the whole way back to the church when they made their getaway from her aunt, who was most likely sporting a nice fireball red color from her head to the very tips of her toes by now.
"That- that- that thing was your AUNT?" Duo gasped.
"You got it! That hell cat was, indeed, my loving aunty Kiora" Fiora snickered.
"But, if she was so mad, why did she let us get away?" he asked once he had caught his breath.
"If she had one of her goons with her she wouldn't have!" Fiora replied as she wrinkled her nose in disgust.
"Goons?"
"Some of the Pirates are more loyal to her then to me, she's got some of the bigger guys running around like her lap dogs! Don't know how she do it, but she do and I'm out numbered ten-to-one if my dad ain't there to take my side" Fiora spat.
"Oh… so… um… now what do we do?" Duo asked, changing the subject after getting a mouthful from her.
"Now YOU get changed into this," she replied as she removed the wrapping from the garments and revealed them for the first time.
Duo's costume consisted of a pair of skintight black leggings, cream colored blouse-like T-tunic, breastplate over-shirt made with royal blue and black for the trim, and a long black cape with a gold clasp in the front to keep it in place.
Duo turned around a few times as he admired himself. "Whoa, you sure this is for an earl? It looks more like it was made for a prince!" he exclaimed.
"Really? Huh…donno, I thought I grabbed the right costume, I might have been wrong, it used to be my older brothers; he grew out of it so he left it on my dad's ship, it's a nice fit on you, besides that, I ain't about to do back there to get the right one, you can just tell your prince friend that you've moved up in the world quite a bit since the lest time you two met and it won't be a problem!" Fiora said, as she looked him over carefully.
"Hey… what about you?"
"What about me?" Fiora asked.
"What're ya gonna wear?" Duo questioned.
"Who me? My job is just to get you into the castle, our deal said nothing about getting ME in" she replied.
"But I already know how to get in! I needed…" Fiora cut him off.
"You needed the costume, I ain't got anything else that you'll need other then that, so what's your problem?" she said.
"… I wanted you to come with me; I'm not any good at this royalty stuff! I don't know how to act! You're good at this stuff! I saw you with my own two eyes when you pretended to be me! You fooled everyone! You just gotta help me! PLEASE!" Duo all but begged.
"…Ugh! Fine! I'll do it, but don't think I'm gonna like this for one second, figures that I would get roped into this, why me? What the hell did I ever do to deserve this?" she whined as she grabbed her sack and marched off into the only other room within the church that was still standing to change.
Duo was tempted to sit down but didn't for fear of messing his clothes up and risking the tiny pirate girl's wrath so he waited. And waited. And waited. 'What the hell is she doing? Setting up camp?' Duo thought as he tapped his foot in the dusty floor. "What's taking you so long?" he finally asked.
"You…try…gah! To… get dressed… Ouch… in at least five different layers of… clothing… and at least six different kinds of female torture devices… THEN can you ask what's keeping me! OUCH!"
"Aren't you finished yet?"
"NOT YET! This… oh… stupid piece of… ugh! Won't do what I want it to! God…"
"HEY! Watch it! This is church!"
"BITE ME!"
"Well… okay, sense you asked…"
"GAH! No! I take it back!"
"You ready NOW?"
"Yeah, yeah… I'm finished" she replied as she walked back over to him, she was dressed in a dark burgundy floor length dress that consisted of a girdle, hoop skirt, floor length T-tunic, two under skirts, shoes, garters, and then the very burgundy dress itself.
Duo let out a long slow whistle. "How is it that you can even walk in that thing?"
"Sometimes I wonder that myself… you ready to go?"
"You bet!" Duo exclaimed as they ducked out of the opening leading into the church without being seen and made their way down the street.
"We'll need to get some horses, I seriously doubt that a fine outstanding man such as you my lordship would be WALKING to the castle" Fiora said with a laugh.
"And just where do we get horses? In case you haven't noticed, I'm BROKE here!" Duo all but yelled.
Fiora just waved her hand in the air as if to brush his words aside. "Duo the Street urchin might be broke, but not Sir Maxwell!" she said with a mischievous grin as she tossed a rather large leather pouch into his hands.
"Hey… you don't mean…"
Fiora only nodded, her grin turning into an all out smile.
"But this isn't mine…"
"They don't know that! Once my dad's ship leaves port I'll be earning more of that gold, and besides that, I ain't got anything better to spend it all on anyways!"
Duo looked at her for a moment, unsure whether she was just joking or not, then all but ripped the pouch open and peered into to see what it held within. "Oh my God! Would you look at this! There must be a small fortune in this thing!" He exclaimed.
"Shhh! Could you tone it down? The last thing you want is for the other thieves to know what you got! What with all this fancy clothing on we're already a target for them!" Fiora said as she glanced around nervously, trying to see if anyone heard, and even took any notice of her wolf in sheep's clothing (in other words, Duo dressed as an Earl).
"Oops… Sorry about that" Duo said quietly as he tucked the pouch of gold into the front of his T-tunic and out of his fellow street urchin's grasps.
"Don't worry about it, look there's a guy at town that sells horses, lets go there first"
"Sounds like a plan to me!"
"Good, cause that's just what it is!" Fiora laughed as they started off.
*****
Word arrived that morning that there was to be a calibration at the Cinq palace in a few days, in honor of the new treaty between the Cinq kingdom and China, and all of Cinq's allies were invited.
Quatre was sitting on his throne, rereading and contemplating whether or not the kindhearted, and shy Princess Jasmine and he should go.
"Quatre? Is something the wrong?" Jasmine said when she entered the throne room, having been retrieved moments ago by Abdul. Quatre had asked him to bring the lovely Jasmine to speak with him.
"Huh? Oh no! Nothing is wrong, I just wanted to ask you something, that's all Jasmine" he replied, snapping out of his thoughts and focusing on the woman in front of him.
"Really? What is it that you wanted to ask me Quatre?"
"King Milliardo is holding a party in a few days from now, in honor of their new treaty with China, and has asked that I come and join in the festivities, and I was wondering, if it wouldn't trouble you that is, you would care to join me?" he asked with a slightly embarrassed smile on his face.
"I would love to come, when should we leave?"
"If we travel by carriage, and we don't stop along the way, if we leave by morning light tomorrow we would make it the day before that actual party begins" he replied, doing some quick calculations in his head.
"Wonderful! I can hardly wait!"
"King Quatre!" Amid called as he ran into the throne room.
"Yes? Is there something wrong?" He asked as he stood up quickly and rushed over to him.
"There is a man outside wishing to speak with you, he says his name is Sir Maxwell" Amid replied. (Most of the people that are called Lords are usually either men born into a high ranking or are knighted, the knighted ones are also called Sir. Some of them are also Earls, who only take orders from the king)
"Sir Maxwell? I don't know anyone by that name, I did meet a Maxwell once, but could he really be the same as this Sir Maxwell?"
"Quatre, isn't the name Maxwell very common name?" Jasmine asked.
"Ordinarily yes, but my friend was far from just your average fellow that you would meet on the streets, no, he was far different then anyone else I have ever met" he replied thoughtfully.
"King Quatre, what should we tell him?" Amid asked.
"Tell him that I'll speak with him in the court yard, but keep an eye on him, I'm not sure if we can trust him yet"
"Yes your Majesty" Amid, replied as he bowed and hurried out of the throne room.
"Well Princess Jasmine? Take to join me?" he questioned as he turned to look at her, offering her his arm with a smile.
"Yes, of course, I would love to" Jasmine replied, no longer quite as shy with him as when they first met.
They exchanged looks at each other as they smiled and made their way down the maze of corridors, hallways, rooms, and stairs to the courtyard, Where Sir Maxwell and Lady Eleri awaited on horse back for the new king.
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Woohoo! I know, I know, long time no updates! Ugh! I was just having so much trouble with this one! But good new! I've almost got them all together! YES! *Does a little dance* hope you like! Send all stuffs that you want to say to me at FioraEmbyr@aol.com later!