Title: Clipped Wings
Author: Karina
Rating: PG
Pairing: Milliardo
Notes: Challenge 200. Baby Series 4 #56. Takes place approximately 15 minutes following Earth's Children
Spoilers: None
Warnings: Extended Length
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or the Characters from the series but the baby is mine.
Title: Clipped Wing
It was wrong to have that empty space a step behind his right shoulder; he had not realised he had become so accustomed to the presence. Chang was not at his back, brooding as only he could, a dark storm cloud waiting to break upon the heads of anyone fool enough to test his patience.
It was wrong to have that space. Wrong to think about it.
Chang was his own man now, independent. He was his aide, not his prop, his crutch. Chang had become a friend he relied on and he had known the young man would eventually branch out on his own. He had not thought it would hurt.
Shit, where had that come from? But it did hurt, a dull throb that threatened to blossom into something sharper, more profound.
Not good. It was proof he was beginning to care too much. Caring meant the traitorous heart beating within him was weakening to an attachment. How many times could one learn to love and, on the wings of that love, lose? How many times did one walk into the wonder of discovering wings to carry you to heights unbound... only to plummet to earth with a shattering dose of reality? Wings broken and bleeding, knowing that one must pick oneself up and learn to walk forward yet again.
It was as well the Clan of Chang was reforming. It would place distance between them, a comforting buffer from emotions he doubted he could survive a third time. He did not want to lose all contact though, and Chang had been adamant he wished to retain the position of Liaison. There was the formal investiture as Duke that would further tie them together... and permit that little bit of distance that should place control over emotions.
Peacecrafts were cursed with a passionate nature. They found passion in all things, but once emotional passion awoke it generally led to a deep and enduring love broken only by death. He had walked that path twice in short succession and he was not inclined to walk it a third time.
Chang had the world at his feet and he needed to test his wings against it. There was someone out there who would compliment him in ways a Peacecraft bound in chains, his wings clipped by the twin curses of formality and propriety, never could. His history added weights chained to his feet that would never again permit him to stretch his wings and fly free, not that he had ever truly been free of his bloodlines. Such ties binding him were a necessary thing.
The stage had changed scenery, but he still played the part Treize had dictated he play. The bastard had always intended he become Milliardo Peacecraft and step into the role he had been born into. It brought its own wings, golden, too heavy, that would not allow for free flight.
If Chang was fortunate enough to reform the Clan then he at least might know that rushing flight of free air.
End
Karina Robertson 2012