A.N. Ever wonder what would happen if there was a yaoi arranged marriage? *gasp* You haven't?! Then you've come to the right place. So buckle your seatbelts, get the popcorn, and enjoy! ^_^

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing. Somebody else does.

Type: AU, yaoi, 3x4

Warning: Uh.there's no warnings yet, but later on I may have to change the rating for some lemony goodness. ^^ ____________________________________________________________________~*~

He rose from his bed long before the sun came up, slipping quietly out of his window, down the rope he kept attached to his window. It was a long climb down, but he'd done it many times before. Once his feet had touched solid ground, he slipped quietly around the castle walls toward the back stables.

The small, white horse he rode was waiting for him in the giant stables. He skittered around eagerly in his stall, softly nickering. He knew, as was the routine, that every morning before the sun came up, before the castle began to stir, that his young master would come to take him out for their long ride, carrying sugar cubes and a soft touch.

"Shh, Aquilla, settle down boy, if I know Rashid, he'll find out I'm gone any minute now--"

"Master Quatre? Are you in here again?"

"Oh no," trying to be as quick and quiet as possible, Quatre scrambled into one of the stalls as Rashid, big and burly as a giant, came into the stables.

He thought he'd heard the footsteps pass, but suddenly he felt a large hand reach behind him and pull him up by the back of his shirt. He was eye to eye now with his half bodyguard, half subsitute uncle and best friend. He tried for a sweet smile, "Rashid...I was just...I was just..checking on Aquilla! That's it..I was--"

Rashid was shaking his head sadly, "Uhh, Quatre~sama, what am I to do with you, you know your father would kill me if I ever let anything happen to you, you are the sole heir!"

Quatre's shoulders slumped as Rashid set him down, "Stupid rule anyway," he muttered

"What?"

"It's always the boy that has to be ruler? Why can't it just be first born? I never get to have any fun."

Rahid chuckled as he bent down to be eye level with the young heir, "Hey, how about we go for that ride, huh? It's no trouble if I go with you."

Quatre tried to scowl at him, "You never wanna get up to go with me in the first place, so you never let me go!"

Rashid laughed and patted Quatre's shoulder as he went to get his own horse, "You say getting up at four in the morning is a reasonable hour? Ha! Maybe for eight year old little boys with too much energy to know what to do with..."

When they rode out together it was still dark, with just the faint tinge of soft pink on the horrizon. The desert was a beautiful place, it gave the illusion of being bare and lifeless, but anyone who thought that would be a fool. It overflowed with life's essence and could become a deadly enemy.

Quatre's eyes lit up as he watched a jackrabbit sprint across their path. Laughing the careless laugh of an innocent child, he took off after it as it crested a hill.

"Master Quatre! Get back here, you know how dangerous it is in the desert! The theives..." Rashid gave up when he realized his young master wasn't listening to a word he was saying, he wasn't even in earshot. Sighing the loudly he took off after him.

By the time he caught up with his young master, the sun was already beginning to rise, painting the sky in beautiful pastel colours waking up the dull, throbbing heat of the desert. Quatre was sitting on a hill, facing the formless mounds and peaks of the nearby mountains, staring at the sun rising over the mountains. He sat with his legs straight out in front of him so his pant-legs rode up past his ankles, his hands stuck out behind him. Quatre's father demanded that the sole heir of the Winner clan be well dressed and refined at all times, but Rashid just didn't have the heart to tell Quatre to wear pants that actually fit him, and to quit wearing that scraggly vest and rumpled shirt and to sit back up straight. He got enough of that from his father. Rashid figured Arabid Baboi Winner didn't need to know what his son was wearing when he was not in his prescence.

"Rashid..."

"Yes Master Quatre."

"Why does my father forbid me to play with the other children at the palace? I know they work there and are poor, but that doesn't matter to me."

"I know it doesn't Quatre~sama, but your father believes they will be a bad influence on you."

Quatre whipped toward him with such vehemence that Rashid thought he was about to attack him with claws and teeth bared, "My father is wrong!" he shouted stubbornly, "They aren't a bad influence at all, they are all of good hearts, and they actually get to have fun!" As suddenly as it had come, Quatre's anger slipped away, and a look of longing came over his sweet, boyish face. "Just once I'd like to know what it's like to have a real friend, a boy my age, not a body guard, or a horse, or 29 sisters, but an actual friend that I can sneak off and do fun things with, fun things, things that I like.

Rashid merely laughed his gentle laugh, "That's quite a speech you've got there Quatre~sama. That's been building up in you a long time hasn't it?"

Quatre lowered thick, golden lashes over his eyes and looked down. "Yes."

Rashid put an arm around his young master, "There's no need to feel ashamed about the things you've said about your father, Quatre. I know he seems like a big, mean old ogre who forbids you to have any fun , but your father is just trying to do what's right, he has a lot of responsibility on his shoulders, sometimes it's hard for him to see that what his son needs to learn first, is how to be a child.

When Quatre raised his face again, he was smiling, "I-"

"QUATRE! Quatre where are you?!"

They both whipped around at the same time, and were greeted by the site of Asghari racing madly toward them on her black, arabian stag, her brilliant red hair flying out behind her like fire.

"Oh no, it's my sister, come to drag me off to my doom."

"Now Quatre, that's no way to speak of your sister," Rashid attempted to sound stern, but ruined the affect with his broad smile, "She's really something, isn't she Master Quatre?"

Quatre watched the expressions on Asghari's face change from annoyed to enraged and watched her mouth move even faster as she got closer. He knew she was yelling something at him, but he was too far away to hear what she was saying. Perhaps he didn't want to know. His sister could get herself into quite a temper when the mood struck her, and it struck her quite a bit.

"Yesterday she told me she was going to sneak into my chambers while I was asleep and slay me with her sword so she could take back the title that was rightfully hers."

Rashid let out a snort, watching as Asghari closed in the distance rapidly, "What about her 28 elder siblings?"

"She said she'd kill them too."

Asghari didn't wait for her horse to stop running but leaped off when she neared them. She started toward Quatre with deadly intent but Rashid grabbed her before she could reach him.

"Where have you been?! Father has been tearing apart the palace looking for you, do you know who's waiting back in the parlour?"

"Ah..."

She didn't wait for him to finish, "Gosfridus Nikolaus Barton. The Gosfridus Barton, of the Barton Olaf's, the most prominent arstocrats in all of Germany! They're here, well at least Gosfridus and his son is, but that's not the point. Father told you to be up with the sun and dressed appropiately for the arrival of our royal guests, they wanted to meet you, you Quatre of all people, and what do you do? You ride off into the desert." When she was finished she stood with arms crossed, like a mother waiting for an explanation from the child with his hand caught in the cookie jar.

Quatre hated it when she acted like she was so much more smarter and superior to him, like she was one of his father's minions, just because she was four years his senior didn't mean she could scream at him, "Asghari, I forgot alright? I forgot they were coming, I don't see what the big fuss is about anyway, why do they need me to be there?"

Asghari's dark brown eyes flashed and she opened her mouth, but Rashid lay a hand on her shoulder, "That's enough Asghari," he stated in his soft, stern voice, "This is as much my fault as it is Quatre's, I'd forgotten they would be arriving so early as well, I will answer to your father."

He met Quatre's eyes, "Your father wants to connections with the Barton family, it would be very useful for both family's to have strong connections to each other, they would both benifit greatly, your father and Gosfridus think the best way is to have he and his son stay for the summer, so that you and his son may form a bond that in later years when you are both ruling the family fortunes would keep the connection."

Quatre's bleu eyes clouded over with worry, "They're staying the whole summer? But Rashid, I hate all of those stuffy rich men and their children that visit here, they're so arrogant, I can't imagine a kind word has ever passed their lips."

"Come now Quatre~sama, maybe you'll finally meet that friend you were wishing for," Rashid cajoled gently while he lifted him up onto Aquilla's back, and the three of them started back through the desert toward the palace.

"No," Quatre muttered quietly, "I won't."