Gundam Wing Meets the Little Prince
Chapter Three: The Tea Party
Back in the dessert hanger Trowa was treating himself to a cup of tea. He sat on the first tier of the port where his Gundam unit was docked and looked up at a window that looked out onto the night sky above. The Little Prince was feeling rather bored and climbed up to join Trowa on the first tier. Trowa sighed as he watched the Little Prince sit across from him, examining his tea pot with his intense young eyes.
"You look like you have never had tea before."
The Little Prince smiled.
"I haven't. This would be my first time. If you will let me have some, that is."
Trowa rolled his eyes and poured the Little Prince a cup of tea. He set the cup in front of the Little Prince who examined it thoroughly. Trowa found this behavior to be quite odd but gave the Little Prince some advice just the same.
"Look, it's not some foreign creature you examine, ok? There is only one thing you have to remember when drinking tea; it's hot, so drink it slowly."
The Little Prince nodded and shakily put the cup of tea to his lips. He took a sip very slowly like Trowa had instructed but the tea still burned his tongue. He placed the cup back on the floor quickly and spit out the hot liquid onto the hanger floor below.
"Ouch, ouch! You did not say it would burn! I'm sorry friend, Trowa, but I do not think that I like this earth drink called tea. Ouch!"
The Little Prince breathed in and out heavily until the pain on his tongue went away. This made Trowa chuckle in spite of himself.
"Little Prince, there is more to drinking tea than drinking it slowly. You also have to cool it off by blowing on it before you drink it. I thought that everyone knew that, or I would have told you."
The Little Prince looked at Trowa with question in his big blue eyes.
"What's the point of drinking a hot beverage if you are just going to cool it off before you drink it? You might as well just leave it cold."
Trowa tried to think of an answer but nothing in particular came to mind.
"It's just the way that things are done, ok? It's like a tradition. You warm up a drink because that is the way it's been done for many years."
The Little Prince did not seem satisfied with Trowa's answer.
"That's a funny thing to say. Just because something has been done for a thousand years, it doesn't make it right. That is why you remind me of a man I once met, friend Trowa. He always said funny things like that too."
Trowa took a sip of his tea and then said, "Oh really; is that so? What was this man like?"
The Little Prince smiled and said, "Oh he was a very good man. I liked him very much. I met him on this world, actually. He was a pilot. However, it was a long time ago that I met him. I don't think I will ever see him again. It's been too long since the last time I saw him, you see."
Trowa looked at the Little Prince intently. He wanted to say something to comfort him because he saw the subject made him a little sad, but he couldn't think of anything to say. Trowa was relieved when the Little Prince smiled again and attempted to cool off his tea by blowing on it.
"I guess I will give this strange earth beverage another try. Here goes!"
The Little Prince held his nose (the way most children do when they are forced to eat foods they do not like) and cautiously took another sip of the tea. This time, instead of spitting it out, he swallowed the green liquid and a big grin swept across his face.
"Hey, once you get the hang of drinking it, it is pretty good! I think I know the answer to why you heat up cold beverages only to cool them down again, now."
Trowa laughed.
"Why is that, Little Prince?"
The Little Prince beamed and his smile seemed to light up the room.
"It's so you appreciate what you are drinking more. See, with a cold beverage you can drink it anytime. You are so used to drinking it and it is so easy to do so that you do not appreciate the way it tastes. But with a warm beverage, you have to take care of it and nurture it until it reluctantly gives you the flavor you desire. This makes you appreciate it more, wouldn't you say?"
Trowa smiled gently at the Little Prince.
"I guess you are right."
The Little Prince looked up at Trowa with his big blue eyes and said, "Now I am going to tell you why you remind me of that pilot from a long time ago."
Trowa nodded.
"Go on, I'm listening."
The little prince took another sip of his tea and then said, "A long time ago on this world I met a pilot. He was stuck in this very dessert many years before the colonies appeared in outer space. His plane lost an important engine component, you see, and he was stuck out here all by himself. This pilot was very good at drawing. You might say he had an artistic soul. However, he was so caught up in a thing called a war that he wasn't even aware that he had this talent."
"I decided that it was my mission to show him that he had this hidden talent. So you know what I did? When I saw him drawing up schematics to figure out was wrong with his plane engine, I asked him to draw me a goat. The man said he did not know how to draw a goat and to go away because he was trying to fix his plane. But I insisted and finally he drew what I desired."
"In fact it was even better than what I had desired. The man drew me the goat inside a crate! That way, I would never lose track of him, you see. I got the pilot to draw me other pictures as well. He drew me a muzzle for the goat so it wouldn't eat my flower back home. Oh! And he tried to draw me a rope but as I recall I thought that would be sad because the goat couldn't wander wherever he pleased on my world, so I refused that drawing."
"Anyway, the more the pilot drew for me, the more he realized how much he loved it. You see all artists have a similar spirit. Once they're talent is unlocked, they have an endless desire to utilize it. So the man drew me all sorts of pictures. At the same time, he worked on his plane engine. All the while, I told the man stories about the different worlds I had visited. The man liked my stories and told me a few of his own about his family, friends, and even a few sad stories about the war."
"I guess in the thing called war many people leave this world never to return again. I remembered feeling sad at that thought, for there is nothing more bittersweet than leaving the place where you were born and an eternity is a long time to be away. Each day I grew fonder of this pilot but I could see he was becoming weaker each time I talked to him. I knew that I had to get him food and water or he wouldn't survive so I lead him to a well and made sure he was rescued the very next day."
"He returned home after that. I heard that he became a very successful children's book writer and artist. I knew that he would. Out of all the people I have met on my journey, there are only a few that I learned something valuable from. The first person I learned from was a fox. The fox taught me to tame him and in turn I was tamed. It was because of that fox that I learned how to be a true friend. The other person I learned something from was that pilot. Through teaching him how to be a good friend and giving him the tools to unlock his potential, I learned to love."
"I always loved that pilot as a father since I never really had one of my own. It's funny how something like a war can make you forget the things that are really important. He returned to the war after my meeting with him and I never saw him again. But you know, I always knew that he cared. He wouldn't have written children's books if he didn't. Anyway, there is something in you that reminds me of that man, friend Trowa. Maybe it is your hidden talent. You should strengthen it and become the best you can be."
The Little Prince smiled at Trowa who felt his eyes tearing up.
"Little prince, I only want to know one thing; how is it that you know…"
Before Trowa could finish he heard his comrades cheering in the background. The Little Prince did a cartwheel off the first tier and ran to see what the commotion was about. Trowa cleaned up the area where he had tea with the Little Prince and regained his composer before joining his friends on the other side of the hanger. He arrived to find Quatre running tests on the asteroid which was now resting beside the gluslog. Trowa gave Heero a look of utter confusion, hardly able to believe what he was witnessing with his own two eyes.
"How may I ask, did you get that thing out of the gluslog?"
Duo walked up beside Trowa and put his hand on his shoulder.
"It was pretty easy, once we figured out something interesting about Mr. Gluslog over there. That kid was right; it appears to take one month for that thing to digests asteroids and other space matter in its stomach. And do you know why this is?"
Trowa shrugged. "You've got me. Why does it take that long?"
Duo smirked and pointed toward the gluslog's stomach.
"It's stomach is some kind anti-black hole! As crazy as that sounds, I decided to put it to the test. Our Gundam units are designed to do reconnaissance missions in any environment. So naturally, I stuck my Gundam's scythe in that things mouth and I ended up hitting the top piece of the asteroid. We used Wufei's serpent arm to fish the thing out and the rest, you might say, is history."
Trowa chuckled and looked down at the Little Prince.
"Well what do you know; listening to a kid came in handy after all."
Everyone laughed; even Heero, which prompted everyone to stop laughing shortly after. There was always something odd about seeing Heero express any kind of emotion.
