Title: Standing in the Shadow
Authoress: Uplifted & Lost-Remembrance (Red Tail)
Rating: R for later chapters
Disclaimer: WE DON'T OWN GUNDAM WING! GAH! OR THE SWAN PRINCESS! I just own a jelly-doughnut. Red Tail's got powdered.
Uplifted: Well, this is it! We worked for hours for you, after the idea hit me like a soda can. Or well, the soda can hit, then the idea. Our first joint fic! Imagine! Or well, don't...
Red Tail: Well, yes. Quite weird comparision's she has, doesn't she?
Uplifted: I wanted to spell him Hiro! She wouldn't let me ;; It looks so much cuter that way!
RT: Gr...as you can see, my reader's may like the way I spell it. anyhow, i let you have your way. I still love HEERO glomps
Uplifted: Actually...Oh! Are they still reading? Well, here you go folks! ENJOY AND REVIEW!
Chapter One
by Uplifted
Once upon a happy summer, the Kingdom of Scilla, previously heir-less, welcomed a beautiful baby princess into it's domain, the aged queen giving birth in the early morning hours. The kingdom rejoyced along with it's king, even as the queen faded from the world from the harsh birthing. The wailing of the infant could be heard through out the stone halls of the castle, and the king, though learned he was on the ways of foreign diplomats, had no notion of how to deal with a baby girl.
The neighboring kingdom of Ellis had a young queen who already had one young child under her care, and was called for assistance. The queen agreed to help the aging king, and set out with her young son in tow to meet the young princess and to advise the king on ways of child-rearing.
The traveling royalty arrived at the palace on the night of the princess' receiving ball, as each royal of the King's court gave the baby a gift. The prince, barely a year old, was being held in his mother's arms as they waited in the reception line. His stormy prussian eyes glared at the bright lights and jovial music that swept through the hall. As the young queen neared the baby's golden cradle, the king came into view, standing proudly next to his only daughter, who slept peacefully. The queen curtsied, and the little prince blinked at the blonde thing in the cradle he was supposed to be greeting.
"Good evening, your majesty. I trust your daughter is well?" the diplomatic queen asked, gown swaying with her figure as she rose from her curtsy.
The king smiled and nodded, adding, "She's in fine health today, though I confess I know nothing of how to care for a child. But I am hoping you will help in that area?" He asked shrewdly, and then turned to watch as the young Prince Hiro dangled a golden locket from his child-like finger into the cradle. The young princess awoke, and her blue eyes became captivated by the shiny metal. She reached for it with her small fingers, stretching her arm over the white satin and lace gown she had been dressed in. The queen dipped the young prince closer, and the King watched on, as Hiro gave the young princess the chain and locket, which she promptly stuck in her mouth. Gurgling happily, the baby smiled at the young prince, who narrowed his eyes and tilted his head in an inquisitive angle towards the happy baby. The King and Queen shared a small, secret smile above the tot's heads, and in both their minds, a plan had begun to form.
The queen took Prince Hiro away as nobles began to cough politely behind her in the reception line, and the two foreigners watched the rest of the line curiously, Hiro casually sucking on his shirt, and the Queen eyeing the other noblemen and women who greeted the young heiress to the throne. One man engaged her mind fully, as she watched a slightly aged man in blue shirt-tail and leggings approach the King, his hair gray and his mustache pointed. The king did not shake hands with this man, nor did he allow him to touch the baby. The man carried his own niece in his hands, a pale baby with sharp eyes and oddly forked eyebrows. The queen thought the man familiar, with a malicious air about him that made her recoil with her child in her arms. As the night wore on, and the line continued, the baby began to cry, first in hiccuping sobs, then in full-throatedness. The queen winced, and briefly looked at her son.
"Nana." He said intelligently, and the queen grinned at her son's words. She picked up Hiro from the refreshment table, where he had been smearing roast boar over his face and the tablecloth, and walked towards the King.
"If I may?" She asked, holding her dress in one hand, and Hiro in the other. The king, holding his hands over his ears, waved her on, and the two peered over the top of the cradle. The baby had turned red with rage, and was screaming.
"Poor thing." The young queen said, and placed Hiro in the cradle with the princess.
The blonde baby stopped mid-yell, startled out of her tantrum when Hiro pulled on her short locks. The Princess Relena frowned and turned away from Hiro, rolling on her chubby side to get away from the hair-pulling demon that had invaded her private space. She rolled back, and stared at the intruder. Hiro stared right back, then sat up and curled his toes together. As he did so, he saw the golden locket he had given the baby princess halfway unseen in the folds of the blanket that the princess laid on.
As his mother and the foreign king conversed on the proper ways of baby-care, the young prince held up the locket once more for the princess's inspection. Happily, as if what she had been missing was found, Relena reached for the sparkly item. The prince solemnly gave it back, unknowing that his parent and the king had seen the display. The two went a bit away, and started to discuss the future of their kingdoms, wondering as they did, if the two would be this friendly when they were of age.
As the two monarchs discussed the legal wedding age of their separate countries, baby Relena began to wail once more, and even the Prince set up a howl. The king turned, his heart beating frantically, to see his noble advisor the Duke Dermail with his dark eyes peering down at the two children, and his niece among them, ripping the necklace away from the princess. Hiro, older than the two, was sitting on the pale haired girl, and Relena was wailing at the top of her lungs as the Duke's hand emitted a horrible blue light that seemed to drain the healthiness of her plump young body. The nobles and women of the court had backed away, and some were screaming as blue sparks sprang from the Duke's form.
"DERMAIL!" roared the king, and he stepped forward, hand going to his hilt for a steady sword that always hung there. The young queen lurched forward from her sitting position in her chair, face pale with worry for her child. Relena started crying fat tears that rolled down her cheeks with every passing minute, as the scary glow-up man continued towards her, his hands itching for power.
"Stop there!" the king threatened, his hand drawing the sword with practiced ease. Hiro, in his sitting position on Dermail's niece, noticed his mother with her worried face. He turned back towards the glowing man, then glanced at the young princess who was crying. Again. If babies could be exasperated, Hiro would win the award of the year. As it was, he turned around, and shook his head at the magician. Dermail grinned, and his power-fevered eyes glared at the three children.
"Queen Catherine, today is the day I take back all that should be mine. Today is the day everything you love, everyone you love, will become mine!" He yelled, his hands flying upwards, where the blue sparks set the rope, holding a candelabra, on fire. He glared at the foreign queen, and the king who stood in front of the ashen woman. As the candelabra swayed and threatened to fall, the royal guards of the Queen crept behind the Duke, their swords and shields at ready. With a roar of power and speech, the Duke sent a blue flame towards the ceiling, completely disintegrating the candleholders that were threatening to fall.
As his arms were thrown upward in this power display, the guards rushed him as one, and subdued the evil, glowing man. Relena watched from her cradle, the mean baby under Hiro growling, as the glowing man was crushed under a dog-pile of guards. One guard stood by her cradle with a shield over the child's bed, blocking the rest of the events from her view. Queen Catherine ran from her safe position to her baby, and plucked Hiro from the wailing niece of Dermail, Dorothy.
"Oh Hiro, you're safe." She cried, and buried her head in Hiro's tiny chest, not minding the smeared meat that got in her exquisitely done hair. She held the tiny tot in her arms and cried tears of relief that her baby was safe.
King Argle was surveying his daughter for damage, and was weak with relief that his young daughter had escaped from harm's way. That being thought, he turned to assess Duke Dermail, and wonder at his connection to the queen Catherine. He picked up his infantile daughter, and glared at the young baby Dorothy, who wailed incessantly for her uncle. It seemed that the same traits that the King had disliked in his advisor had been passed onto his niece. He stalked forward to the queen, and although he was exceedingly happy to see the young prince unharmed, he needed to know why his somewhat odious advisor had turned on his guest so suddenly.
"I am sorry, Madam Catherine, for Duke Dermail. He is certainly a Duke no more. If I may ask," he inquired, as he moved the sleepy Relena to his shoulder, "Why was he so murderously intent on your kingdom?"
The queen hugged Hiro tightly to her, and glanced with worried eyes to the King, and then to Duke Dermail.
"I don't think he's ever forgiven me for exiling him to this kingdom for larceny of the treasury." She explained, and continued on to say that the Duke had long harbored a need for power, and her kingdom, though when he left, he had seemed perfectly docile.
"I'm so sorry! I didn't know that he'd seek employment here." She said, realizing why the man had looked so familiar to her before. She looked down at her Hiro, and then to the sleeping Relena.
She smiled then.
"I am glad that we were able to meet, King Argle. I suspect that our little ones will meet soon enough? What would you say to next winter, your journeying to my abode?" She asked, bright eyes glinting mischievously. The king nodded, also smiling, as he held the sweetly sleeping Relena.
"You will regret this Catherine! I will have your kingdom one day! One way, or another, that land, and your loved ones, will be mine!" Rang The former Duke Dermail's voice through the hall while several courtiers watched avidly.
"You are hereby exiled from this kingdom!" Exclaimed the king, becoming irate as he looked over the bound magician. Guards from the two kingdoms surrounded the would-be usurper, spears held at his throat at every turn. Dermail began a rant, but the silent and fuming king just pointed towards the door. The soldiers accompanied Dermail to the border.
The young Dorothy was placed in the exiled Duke's care, and his threat faded with his cloaked form, into the night.
End of Chapter One
AN: Hiro's so cute as a baby....And then he grows up. And becomes hot. 'Sex-god' as Red puts it.
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