Totes forgot to mention this. The title comes from a song by a protopunk band called "Sparks". Also, updated the story image and the genres! AFBoGfOS is probably not as tragic as Neglect was, so I moved it to General/Family.

Thank you for all the reviews yo!

AC 020

The Long Clan has been the dragon that protected China for China for years upon years upon years; a constant that has followed Yao through the ages.

And yet his boss was sending them away, too scared of the power that had, time and again, helped China to stand. And if exiling was not enough, giving the excuse that they were "protecting the nation's assets in space" just rubs the nation the wrong way.

Yao watches the shuttle leave the atmosphere with a heavy heart, feeling his beloved people leave his heart for good.

Some months later, the nation makes his first trip to space, dreading the conditions he will find. Instead, Yao is greeted by the Long clan elder who holds up a small child with intelligent eyes. It takes a moment to realize what exactly he's looking at, but then Yao smiles. It's been... so long since he'd seen such a tiny nation.

"I'm Yao, aru. And, I suppose you need a name too, yes? How about Wufei, aru?"

AC 084

"Gēge!" Wufei's small form launches himself down the slopping hill, impacting against the elder's legs. "You're here!"

Yao chuckles, ruffling up his younger brother's soft, black hair, before getting a good look at him. "Wufei! It's been too long. Are you getting taller, aru?" he asks, a smile on his face.

The young child laughs, before shaking his head. "You were just here two months ago gēge!" Wufei exclaims. "Did you remember to bring the new plants for the garden?" This was something Wufei was rather excited about, and he had been working hard on all his lessons so when gēge came by, regardless of when it was, he would be able to help.

With a smile, Yao reaches into his bag to reveal over a dozen packets of seeds, all of flowers. Wufei's shout of joy makes Yao feel lighter, and he is so glad he had been able to get away. A0206 was getting bigger, as there were occasional immigrants, but only the necessities made up the colony. This would change that.

Yao hates the fact that he could only have stolen snippets of time with this child, but he could not stay in space for long periods, nor was Wufei ready to leave his home.

It's for the best though - with war brewing upon the Earth, he didn't want Wufei there. He was much safer up in space, in the colonies.

AC 140

Meetings upon meetings upon meetings; that seemed to be the only thing Yao has done since he joined the United Earth Sphere Alliance. It had been some months since he had the time to visit A0206 and he was looking forward to relaxing with his youngest child.

It was early evening by the time he arrived on the colony, most of its residents were likely in their homes, but there was one person he knew would be out and about. Steps quick and sure, Yao made his way to the field of flowers that he and Wufei had planted ages ago and, sure enough, his younger brother was sitting there, nose stuck in another book.

Chuckling at the sight, Yao walked towards him. "Wufei, there you are, aru!"

The black hair child looked up from behind his glasses, before his eyes narrowed. Instead of answering Yao, he returned back to his book.

Was Wufei ignoring him? That was nothing like his polite dìdi. "Wang Wufei, that was very rude, aru. You know better than to igno-"

"Chang."

Yao snapped his mouth shut, unused to being interrupted by his younger brother. "What are you talking about?"

After a moment of thought, Wufei closed the book he was reading with a firm clap, and regarded the older man with an impassive stare. "Since you joined the Alliance," he spoke, words clipped and spoken clearly, "I feel you are obviously not my brother. The gēge I know certainly wouldn't force me to be shackled to them." He gave a careless shrug, already looking away. "As such, I felt I should change my family name, as we are not related. Please refer to me as Chang Wufei," he placed a heavy emphasis on his surname, "or not at all."

Yao felt his blood run cold. No, no, no, not again. "But dìdi, you don't understand, aru. The Alliance-"

"Wang Yao xiānshēng," Wufei interrupted again. "I believe I already mentioned that you are not my brother, and I would appreciate if you stop referring to me as such. Please leave, we of the Long clan do not care for outsiders." With that said, Wufei went back to his book.

Yao tried to speak more with Wufei, but the child of the colonies paid him no heed. At one point, many decades ago, Yao believed that his heart could never hurt as bad as it did when Kiku raised his sword against him.

He was right in some respects - this hurts worse.

AC 175

Yao tries to visit A0206, but he is asked politely to not leave his ship by one of the young men of the colony. Long Zi-ling gives him an awkward smile as he helps to refuel the spaceship, but he doesn't let Yao through to see his precious dìdi.

AC 180

Sitting in his favorite field, Wufei tries to concentrate on his latest book, only to find his mind slipping. It was like a spark igniting somewhere in his chest... What in the world could cause that? Ah, that's right, Master Long's grandchild was being born today. It probably would not be remiss to visit the newest member of the clan, his family.

When Wufei first saw Long Meilan, he thought, so long as she adopted her grandfather's mannerisms, she would be another great leader of the Long clan and a good boss. And then she took one look at him and started crying.

AC 194

This was wrong on so many levels.

Wufei fiddled with the clasps of the traditional robes he wore, sending covert glances at his wife-to-be. It was Meilan's fourteenth birthday and, in accordance to the clan's laws, she was to be wed. But the lack of marriage partners in her age group caused a dilemma that was circumvented by marrying the brat to him. If he didn't respect and admire Zi-ling so much, Wufei probably would have asked if he was crazy.

His bride hated him and showing her just how weak she was just made it worse. Master O's later lecture did nothing for his mood - the man did not understand Wufei's standing within the colony, as he was an outsider. His wife, although understanding that he had a relationship of some sort with her grandfather, still thought Wufei was just some orphaned clans member, living on the good will of Master Long. It was just... so frustrating. Wufei planned to hide himself away for the next few days with his books, but the sirens and klaxons sounding across the colony made that impossible.

Finding out what was happening made it even worse.

"Stupid woman!" Wufei spat, already rushing towards the hangar bay that housed O's mobile suit. How does she think she can uphold justice without any strength? It didn't matter that Shenlong had no weapons installed yet, Wufei's only priority was saving Meilan, his stupid, stubborn,wonderful wife.

After the last enemy mobile suit retreated, Wufei quickly returned home. There was no question of it, Wufei would honor Nataku's request. Even though he would have preferred to have her checked out by a doctor, his wife asked to see the flower fields. "It's... beautiful isn't it? I've never appreciated flowers like this before." A soft breeze wafted through the glade, picking up some stray petals that had been crushed during the fighting. To think that the field that he and gēge planted would still look perfect after a battle... "Wufei."

"What?"

"I... was strong, wasn't I? You weren't ashamed of me as your wife, were you?"

Wufei couldn't bring himself to say that he was ashamed to be her husband. Nataku deserved so much more than him. "Yeah... You're strong... Stronger than anyone." His words rang with utter conviction, as he had already decided.

Nataku chuckled, allowing herself to lean against Wufei's shoulder. "No... You are... stronger..."

"Get off of me," Wufei groused, although his words held no bite. But even as those words left him, Wufei could feel the flame within him that was Nataku sputter out. Sequestering and isolating himself away has brought nothing but ruin, Wufei should have known that. It had taken Nataku's sacrifice to open his eyes, but now...

Watch, Nataku! I swear I will bring justice!

Notes: And there's the final pilot! My knowledge of Chinese is nonexistent, thank you wiki.
Gēge == older brother
Dìdi == younger brother
Wang Yao xiānshēng == Mr. Wang Yao (I very nearly had Wufei use the honorific associated with deceased relatives, whoops!) And I had no idea what I was going to do with Meilan for the longest while. Official sources point to the Long Clan being exiled after A0206 goes up, but for my purposes the event happens at the same time. I could not find official scans of Wufei's chapter in EZ. Nor can I find scans of the original Japanese so I couldn't even translate them myself for the character's lines. *sighs* Regarding the name: "Wufei" is the fifth "child" Yao has taken care of, with the first four being Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. This is utterly ignoring the fact that China had a huge impact on pretty much every nation in East and parts of South East Asia, but I feel Yao "raised" those four more. Fun fact, the characters for Wufei's name pretty much calls him "Fifth Flight". Whether the meaning is similar in Chinese is debatable, but it will definitely have something to do with wings/feathers/flying. Well, would you look at that, it does have the same meaning!
The character used for "Chang" is made up of the components for "long" and "bow". I thought it was really different from Wang ("king"), but then I looked up words that use the character for "Chang" and got "hari", which holds the meaning of "will-power" or "pride" and was ridiculously happy. Of course, I should be using the Chinese meanings (more inline with the kanji meanings of stretch, spread, or open up) but idgaf.