Title: Quiet Achievers
Author: Karina
Rating: PG
Pairing: Wu Fei
Notes: Challenge 190. Baby Series 4 #27. Takes place at approximately the same time as Books and Hot Chocolate.
Spoilers: None
Warnings:
Many thanks to ShenLong Deb for her work betaing this set of fics.
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or the Characters from the series but the baby is mine.
Title: Quiet Achievers
He had expected the Elder to seek conversation with him and was more than a little surprised when the man formally bowed and made himself scare upon their return to the quarters assigned to the Clan. That man worried him. He knew what the Elders of the Colony had been like and he could not believe this survivor would be any different.
Certainly he could not have complained about the degree of formality and respectability of the initial meeting with the Court of Sanc. The Master of Protocol was a tyrant, but he was a knowledgeable tyrant who knew his craft. There were degrees of formality required with every political event, and one such as this evening involved a delicate play.
The entire show had not been for his benefit but for his people, particularly for the Elder. The man considered everyone not of the Clan to be a barbarian, and Wu Fei did not doubt the man had preconceived ideas about Sanc and the people who lived here. And about the man who wore the crown.
Sanc was a constitutional monarchy, but the Peacecrafts held a greater degree of factual power than most of the few remaining monarchies of Earth. Milliardo could, if he wished, dissolve parliament and everyone knew it. It was a very real part of the constitution and it gave the man a dangerous edge in the eyes of the politicians. Milliardo had commented to him once that if one wore the crown one did not need to know how to influence people, one simply breathed and it had all the influence in the world. A look, the twitch of a lip, the narrowing of an eye… it all was noted, commented upon and discussed in both public and private circles.
And too often such actions were misinterpreted.
It was part and parcel of being at the top of the food chain. What most people did not consider was that the monarchy existed for a reason, and it was their duty that kept them there. It was too easy to say 'be done with it' and walk away, but then who picked up the slack and ensured the continuance of Sanc?
Politicians came and went with the seasons, their influence hanging in the balance of elections by the people, but the nobility, particularly those who claimed royal blood, had to take their influence more seriously. They had to take their roles to heart. There were the few, fools who thought the world existed as their playground, but they were the minority. The many were the quiet achievers who knuckled down and kept their heads focused and plied their influence for the good of the people and the continuance of the country.
He would become a Duke of Sanc. He was The Chang.
He would be a quiet achiever and adhere to his responsibilities to the Crown and to the Clan. He would not be the only one working to raise Sanc's profile within the ESUN.
End
Karina Robertson 2012