Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ The Ice Prince ❯ The Ice Prince: Chapter II ( Chapter 2 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Title: The Ice Prince or Such a Marvelous Rose
Author: Meiran Chang ( bonking_bishies @ swirve.com )
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: DorlianXSylvia, 1+R, 6+2, 3+4, 5+Dorothy, 6x9, 2xH
Warnings: shonen ai, AU, fairy tale, angst, verrrrrrry mild self-insertion in, like, the last sentence. I made Dorlian a total OOC wuss >_<. Also, I've played fast and loose with family relationships and situations.
Comments: Ohhhhh pretty please? --> bonking_bishies @ swirve.com
Archive: 6X2ML Archive can have it. (that's at http://6x2ml.topcities.com) Otherwise, please email me, I don't bite.
Disclaimers: I do not own Gundam Wing or any of its characters, they belong to Bandai and Sunrise and the American rights are owned by Cartoon Network. Please don't sue me, I'll just cry a lot. Also, the original story of "Beauty and the Beast" is by Mme Leprince de Beaumont and not mine either. I don't own anything except… the original portions of this piece of fiction…whatever they are.
Dedication: To the 6X2ML, because they're darlings all and the inspiration for this fic.

So the Maxwells left White Fang and its luxuries behind them, learning to farm the land and tend to their cottage. Fortunately, their neighbors were willing to help all they could; without assistance, the city-bred Maxwells would not have lasted through the first winter. To their credit, the family learned quickly, and by spring, the entire outfit was working smoothly.

Household chores were clearly divided. Relena was in charge of the realm of the kitchen, as she trusted no one else with the preparation of food she was expected to eat. Quatre took care of the farm animals as well as doing odd repair jobs whenever needed. Duo took care of the rest of the house, making sure everything was clean and everyone had fresh clothing to wear, while Dorlian had no set specific task, but rather assisted whoever called.

Since there were so few of them, they all helped with the hard labor, earning their food by the sweat of their brows. Calluses formed on their hands where they gripped their farming tools; muscles responded to taxation by growing stronger and leaner; Dorlian was never very happy with what he called "yokelism," but his children were satisfied.

Whenever the family had leisure, they relaxed in the small yet cozy sitting room. Duo lived to sing and Quatre was a skilled musician, so the two of them would perform for the rest of the family, Quatre accompanying Duo's voice on the flute he'd smuggled out of White Fang. Relena cared little for the technicalities of music and had no talents to offer in that area, but she had a good ear and was able to offer sound critique.

In a small farm a short distance to the west lived Catherine and Trowa Bloom. Catherine had once been a knife thrower in a circus, and Trowa, her quiet, green-eyed younger brother, had been her assistant and a skilled acrobat in his own right. As the circus traveled in the kingdom of Uchuu, Trowa became deathly ill. Though he hid his sickness for as long as he could, the pain eventually grew too great and he was forced to confess to Catherine. That same evening Catherine left the circus and took him with her in search of help. The doctors in Uchuu's capital Kah-Nohn were able to save him, but Trowa remained frail, resisting the label of 'invalid' only through sheer willpower. Catherine had brought him here, to the open countryside of Oz, in hopes that the clean air would heal her battered brother completely.

Oz healed him in both body and spirit, for in Oz, Trowa found Quatre. The two were devoted to each other from the first day they met. When they fell in love, no one was surprised. Their union felt as natural as the sky and sea.

To the east of the Maxwell farm lay the farm of the Yuy family. Shigeta Yuy was a native of the distant kingdom of Artemisia, while Hana Yuy was originally from Koelonye. They had one child together, a boy with Shigeta's dark blue eyes and Hana's gentle temperament. Heero was a wary young man now, somber, intense, and silent. Relena waxed eloquent over what she called his 'inner fire' and made many attempts to win Heero's heart, showing more patience than she or anyone else had expected.

Finally, Heero took her aside and told her the secret he had guarded so jealously: he had the rare, awesome Mage-Gift that not even Uchuu's scientists understood. He carefully explained that he didn't understand his Gift and wasn't sure he wanted to, and that she needed to stop trying to be his friend. If he allowed her to become close to him, he said, his Gift -- barely under control anyway -- could go rogue and devour her and everyone else he knew. Relena told her family later that night (for there were no secrets among the Maxwells) that Heero lived in daily fear of what he called "this monster inside me."

According to Relena, if Heero better understood his Gift like a trained mage did, he wouldn't need to be so afraid. Among the White Fang elite, everyone was taught at least the basics about Mage-Gift, just in case. With her knowledge, she helped him build a precarious control. Everyone saw the positive results: Heero came out of his shell for the first time in years, talking, laughing, joking, blue eyes bright, truly alive, a marked contrast from the withdrawn young man he had once been. Shigeta and Hana thanked Relena profusely, and Relena shrugged modestly and told them the truth: she would do anything for Heero, because she loved him.

Those were the most colorful and interesting of their neighbors, and the ones the Maxwells grew closest to. There were other families, but they were normal countryfolk, and the Maxwells were uncomfortable around them. The peasants of the area were generous and helpful, but Duo, Relena, Quatre and Dorlian couldn't relate to them at all. Their mannerisms were crude and their ways were strange. Duo in particular had trouble with them for one simple reason: many of the families had daughters. And to Duo's dismay, they universally adored him.

When Duo worked in the fields, he didn't bother with a shirt. As he soon discovered, a shirt would only get filthy and nasty very soon if he wore one to work. Since he did the laundry, he did himself a favor and went without. The problem with that was the sheer number of girls it attracted. When he went outside to work, there was always a covey of peasant girls hanging on the fence, giggling, winking, teasing, blushing, coquetting. Duo didn't get it. Weren't they supposed to be working?

Duo couldn't even tell them apart; they all had thatch-like mud-brown hair and eyes of the same indiscriminate shade and utterly regular, boring features. They were so unlike Heero Yuy, with those exotic Artemisian eyes and sharp features, or Trowa Bloom, with that piercing green gaze and soft honey-brown hair. Relena and Quatre were lucky. They had found the prizes that this area had to offer.

None of the daughters were prizes. They had only enough intelligence to be able to breathe and walk at the same time, but made up for it in their sheer reproductive drive. They fluttered, preened, murmured about how the family depended on them to keep the house clean, what wonderful cooks they were, what marvelous seamstresses they were, until Duo felt like shouting, I know what you're trying to do! I know what game you're playing. I don't care about you. I don't even like you! Please go away!

Of course, he couldn't actually say any of that. Some of them genuinely liked him, and he didn't want to be some kind of heartbreaker.

So he kept himself aloof. He refused to give them false hope. When they chattered at him, Duo said just enough to be polite and promptly fled. To make up for it, he talked nonstop at home. It got on everyone's nerves, but he had to balance somehow.

His brother had Trowa Bloom. His sister had Heero Yuy. He had a legion of farmer's daughters. There was no justice. Duo didn't resent his siblings' happiness in the slightest, and when they asked him what he thought, he always answered honestly and told them that he was happy for them. He was.

But he did snap at them. He was human, after all. "This is just like White Fang," Duo told Quatre one day. "Just like White Fang." He abandoned his attempt to dust the fireplace shelf -- he was knocking off too many keepsakes -- and flounced crossly down into a convenient chair. "Quatre, I don't like girls at all, you know that. Do I have to tell them so to make them go away?"

"Sorry, little brother." Quatre looked at him compassionately and sighed. "I hate to tell you, but they really won't care. They'd probably take you on as a cause and try to cure you."

"I'm not diseased." Duo scowled. "If I hadn't been born liking men, I probably would have ended up like that by now. They won't leave me alone, Quatre. I don't even like them! Why can't they just leave me the hell alone…"

His older brother bit his lip and Duo watched as Quatre tried to think of something comforting to say. "Well, think of it this way. At least you wouldn't be lynched if you did let them know," Quatre said brightly. "So if you can't think of anything else to do, letting them know is always an option. It's just that they'll… um… probably refuse to accept that as the truth. I don't think they'd give up on you."

Duo made a face and slumped. "Makes me wish I were ugly," he said glumly.

Quatre shrugged. "You'd be my brother either way. But you know," and he smiled, "I really should thank you. The girls have been entirely distracted by you. Did you know they used to bother Trowa?"

"No, I didn't know." Duo regarded his slight brother curiously. "What did Catherine do?"

"Wielded her rolling pin, causing mass destruction until Trowa was left in peace." Quatre grinned.

Duo laughed. "I could just picture her doing that, too… Well, I'm glad I help to protect your snuggle-muffin's virtue."

Though Quatre had cheered him up, Duo was still fed up with the unwelcome attention. That night, he formulated a plan; the very next day he put it in action. He went to the mothers of the girls and begged them to call their daughters off.

"Please," he would whisper urgently, widening his eyes, cocking his head a bit to the side, hands clutched in entreaty. Then he'd close his eyes, slowly for dramatic effect, bow his head, and pretend to fight away tears. "I… I don't think I can take it anymore. I have no time for myself anymore… and I feel so guilty. I feel I have been misleading you… Your daughter is a wonderful person, but she could never be happy with me." He would then sigh and open his eyes, gazing directly into the eyes of the mother. "I don't like girls, milady." He'd bite his lip here and look away shyly. "No girl wants to marry someone who can never love them."

The mothers were very nice about it, apologizing for any trouble their daughters were giving him and promising to stop them. Duo deliberately acted over-emotional, almost effeminate. He went to great lengths to seem pathetic and childlike, weak and helpless. This served a dual purpose. It made the mothers like him, for they jumped to protect this poor little unhappy thing. He got lots of hugs, lots of reassurance, and lots of cookies, which wasn't disagreeable. It also made the mothers believe somewhere in their subconscious that he was still a boy, a child, who wasn't yet ready to marry and sire their grandchildren. None of these tough country women wanted weakling men in their family.

After that, the girls stopped bothering him, though he suspected they'd never stop staring. The males of the area ignored him as they had from the start.
Duo turned sixteen that winter. The birthday marked a profound change in Duo; he had grown more thoughtful, more pensive, though he was careful to seem the same cheerful, carefree Duo. But he wasn't. He was very lonely, for one thing, and the way his siblings' love lives were blossoming just aggravated that loneliness. Seeing Trowa with Quatre in particular… the way they just clicked, their friendship, their mutual respect, the warmth of love in their eyes, their tenderness, all those times Duo saw them holding hands under the dinner table when they thought no one could see… It was beautiful, and it was hard to look at without wanting. Relena and Heero were like that, to a lesser degree -- they didn't have the convenience of a perfect soulmatch, so they had to work to stay together, but they liked and loved and respected each other enough to work for their relationship.

Duo had never seriously thought he might be alone in his life, but for a while he gnawed at the possibility. He tried to reject it as impossible, but all he could see was the evidence. All his life, people had spoken of his beauty, had praised or hated him for how he looked. Not one of those people had ever talked to him to discover what kind of person he was; he could have been a pathological murderer for all they knew or cared. He knew that he could live alone if he had to, but he would always feel so… incomplete, if he didn't have someone to share his life with.

At night, when no one could see him close his eyes to ward off the raw and painful emotions, he tried to work through what he felt. He was supposed to be happy out here in the country. The work wasn't awful, the farm girls didn't bother him anymore -- well, not that much, anyway -- and he was free from those stifling bards. Nevertheless, he was frustrated and lonely. He wanted someone to love him the way Trowa loved Quatre, the way Relena loved Heero. But because he was born with big violet eyes and chestnut hair and a slender body, he feared spending forever alone.

In the bright sunshine, hacking away at the crops in the field, his confused turmoil seemed ridiculous. Adolescent, almost. After all, he had his family, didn't he? And they loved him, he never for a moment doubted that. But his emotions refused to be dismissed by such logic, so Duo worked past and around them, until sometimes he could fool himself into thinking that he never longed for a lover's embrace. Sometimes he really was that cheerful, beautiful boy everyone saw when they looked at him. He wouldn't burden his family with his selfish yearning.

So time passed, as time had a habit of doing, and soon enough, Duo's seventeenth birthday dawned.

Back | Home | Next