Chapter 2- Fairy-tale
Sixteen hundred A.D. (or around it, anyway.)
Athrun, for once in his life, truly had on idea what to do next. This had to be some kind of trick. There was no way he could really be thousands of years in the past.
What if he wasn't even back in time? No. That was even more unlikely.
He sighed and searched his surroundings. More stares, more people, but no new ideas. But when he looked over to his left, he saw the forming crowd suddenly parting, and heard someone shouting, "Make way for the Duke! Make way, make way! The Dragon Slayer walks before you! I said MOVE, peasant!!!"
The next few things happened so fast, Athrun barely had time to blink more than a few times. A green haired boy pulled him from the center of attention, threw some sort of ragged cloth around him, and was dragging him to the back of the crowd. During the next few seconds, a tall man with long, silky, white hair stepped into the center, with a slightly shorter blond man standing beside him with his chest puffed out.
The taller one was a sight to see, for his attire was made of glittering, blue velvet and silk, and a few others Athrun recognized as very expensive stuff for this time period. His boots were silver, along with everything else shiny on him, from his earrings to his sword scabbard. Compared to the rest of the people around him, he could've been a king. He wasn't even old to have white hair, and he was quite the charmer. The only flaw on him was a continuous scowl. He glared at the people around him.
Beside him, the blond man was only a hinch less stunning. He wore mostly red fabric himmed in gold trim and ruffles of lace here and there. To Athrun, this man was much more handsome than the one he seemed to be shouting over. Several of the ladies in the crowd were swooning and batting their eyes, hoping he notice them. Aparently, he knew he was good looking. He looked around, sorting out each girl, and picked a prettly little farm girl to wink at. She fainted right there.
Athrun had been too busy watching the two men and their guards to notice the boy was vainly trying to drag him off again. "Please," he was murmuring, "please, please don't let them get another one..." Athrun realized that the kid wasn't speaking English, but rather something like French. Good thing Athrun had paid attention in his foreign language classes...
"Hey, um, where am I?"
His big, brown eyes widened. "You... You can talk?"
"Yeah? What do I look like, an elephant?"
"Huh?"
Athrun sighed. "Nevermind, and thanks for getting me out of there. What was that you were saying about 'another one'?"
"Nothing, nothing... C'mon, we've got to get away from here."
"Why, because of those two?" He tilted his head toward the important looking guys surveying the crowd.
"YES! They're exactly why! I don't understand them, but whenever they come, something bad happens. You would've been- oh, forget about right now! We have to get out of here!" He started to turn and run behind some market carts.
"Wait, what's your name?"
"I said forget it! Hurry!"
Since the boy sounded urgent, Athrun followed as stealthily as possible. He was led down three alleys, between countless houses, and even through a garden and a horse stable, before he finally stopped at a small cottage built from rock. The kid was panting and out of breath, but Athrun was fine. Fighting a battle in a Gundam would've taken more out of him than that little jog.
"Yes..." he said, "We... we made it..." He nodded toward the door. "Come on in. The duke's will leave once they find out there's nothing interesting. Talk about bad timing for a wizard to appear, huh?"
Athrun blinked and stopped staring at the flowers and houses at the mention of a wizard. "What did you say?"
"You are a wizard, right? How else could you appear out of nowhere?"
Athrun was slowly shaking his head no while the boy looked at him questioningly. Wizard? Dragon Slayer? Market places? "Yeah... yeah, let's go inside and talk."
They both stepped inside the small house; or hut, rather. It was very small, and had only one large room that had a bed, a chair, a fire place, a stove, a table, and a shelf with plenty of books. There was some kind of guitar, leaned against the wall in a corner, too. Athrun sat down on the bed, whilst the other practically fell in the chair. "Ok, first of all, I'm not a wizard."
"But you--"
"I don't kow how that happened. All I know is, one minute I'm sipping my coffee, and the next, I'm being eyed by thirty-some people in the middle of nowhere!"
"So... you don't know how you suddenly got here?"
"No. I don't."
A few moments silence passed. The boy looked slightly disappointed. Then he asked, "Are you a witch?"
"NO! I'm not a wizard, I'm not a witch, and no-before you ask-I'm not a warlock either! I. do. not. know. magic."
More silence. Athrun shook his head. Being away from everyone all this time had made him bitter, in a way. He snapped back at people when he was irritated. At times, not even Cagalli made him happy. It was quite the opposite, she annoyed him more and more often every day. The only happy thoughts Athrun had to hold on to were memories of Kira.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have offended you like that..."
Athrun looked back up at the green-haired boy. It was the first time he'd gotten a good look at him. He seemed quite timid, from what Athrun had seen of him. His fingers looked rought, probably from playing the guitar. He, like a lot of other things, seemed so familiar. When Athrun looked at him a third time, he felt like an idiot.
"What'syourname?" He said quickly, standing up and grabbing the boy by his shoulders.
"Uh--umm-uh--"
"Do you even have a name?"
"Yes..." he was talking quietly now.
"Well? I'm not gonna laugh. What is it?"
"N-Nicol." His cheeks flushed a darker shade of pink, and Athrun let go of his shoulders, stunned. Of course! The two jokers back at the market square should've been enough to say this wasn't coincidence. He could've bet money that their names are Yzak and Dearka. In fact,
"Were the two guys back there by any chance named Yzak and Dearka?"
"You've been here before?!" He was aslo on his feet instantly. "Are you with the king? I could get killed for breaking the law like this! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, sooooo sorry! Please don't turn me in!"
"Hey! Slow down, Nicol. I thanked you back there for getting me out of that mess, didn't I? Why would I be with this...king...if I needed some help getting away from them?"
He got Nicol to nod slowly before sitting back down. "I'm sorry."
"Stop saying that."
"Ok. But, really, I'm too jumpy for my age." He was frowning. "The other guys say I should grow up. I'm eighteen, after all. I should be working at the mill or in the castle by now, at least as an entertainer." Hm, so maybe he wasn't so much of a kid after all.
Athrun threw his arms around Nicol and shut him up quite suddenly. Tears were threatening to fall from Athrun's eyes as he hugged the green haired boy. Nicol had died before the first war was even halfway through. Seeing him here, living... Athrun couldn't put into words what that meant. It was him. It had to be. Even if he was in some alternate universe that was similar to Earth back in the 1600s with dragons and wizards and kings, this person was the Nicol he knew.
Athrun stepped back as a knock at the door came. Nicol didn't have time to take two steps before the small door was knocked down, and Yzak and Dearka barged in.
"Well well well..." Dearka mumbled, looking back and forth from Nicol to Athrun. "What do we have here? A fugitive being housed by a commoner?"
"Fugitive?! I haven't done anything wrong!" Athrun shouted. Nicol winced.
"Rule #587: No one is to enter our fair kingdom without first having written permission from the king, or you are born here. I've never seen you here before." Yzak still seemed to be lost in his own thoughts.
"I'm sorry, but I don't really know the--"
"Seize him and the boy!"
This time Athrun took matters into his own hands. He was getting tired of just letting things happen. He was going to take charge of his own destiny.
With that in mind, he dashed out the door, regreting that he left poor Nicol behind. But he would've only slowed me down, he thought, running as fast and hard as he could. The guards were chasing him down street after street, and they didn't seem nearly as out of shape as Nicol had been.
Athrun turned corner after corner, each time hoping to lose the guards, but to no avail. Finally, out of breath and near collapsing, Athrun used his last bit of energy to sprint around one more building. He knocked over a pretty blond-haired girl as they both landed on the ground with an "Ooof!" Athrun was standing and leaning against the wall of the building trying to catch his breath before he knew he'd stood. The girl stood also and dusted herself off, frowning at Athrun.
At that moment, he finally got a good look at the girl. She was wearing the most exquisite dress; something that reminded him of the dress that Cinderella wore in the old fairy tales, and she had silky blond hair. She had gorgeous violet eyes and a smile that made him want to kiss her...
Athrun blinked. What the hell was wrong with him?!
"Um, I'm sorry I knocked you over..."
"No," She said sweetly; her voice was oddly low for a girl's, and she was quite tall, "I'm sorry I was in your way."
"Heh. Well, you're welcome, then." Athrun smiled. She did too.
"What were you running from?"
"Er- about that-"
"There you are!"
Athrun turned around, his eyes wide. A big, bulky fellow came wobbling around the corner, pointing at Athrun. "You! You are under arrest for the treason of rule #-- oh, my Lady. I did not know I was within your presence..." He trailed off weakly as he kneeled on one knee and placed his hand over his heart.
"Oh, Roger. Shut it with that princess act. You and I very well know we both can't stand one another, so get up and leave me be... NOW!"
"Y-Yes m'm'Lady!" And with that, he turned, and went back the way he had come. Athrun heard him yelling at the other guards also. Aparently, this princess had some high authority.
"Well, now that that's over, how about coming to stay with me in the castle?"
"What?! Just like that? But we barely know each other!"
"You seem like a nice guy. Why not?" Agh! That smile is so... so... Athrun's thoughts made him realize something. Now who in my real life has blond hair and I have an unexplainable desire for? A genuine smile spread across Athrun's face.
"What's your name?"
The blond girl simply smiled and started dragging Athrun off toward the biggest building made of stone that he'd ever seen in real life.
a/n: -.- glad that's over. Athrun's going to stay in a castle! Yay! And the next chapter I'll probablymake the rating go up because I plan on makingYzak do a little Nicol-torture! So all is well.This is extremely fast updating for me. Normally, I'd be weeks getting this up... So RuByMoOn17, here's ya a chapter a day later. This is longer than what I wanted it to be, but I'm trying to get into a habbit of writing long chaps anyway, so myeah.Hope ya'll find this somewhat interesting... And review (even if it is just to tell me to update fast!)
