Archive: Just ask! =)
Warnings: Slight shounen-ai.
Disclaimers: I don’t own any of the rights to Gundam Wing! Nothing wrong with a little wishful thinking, though, is there?
Blame: Challenge from GW Densetsu!
Notes: //thoughts//
*** begin flashback ***
The little boy gazed out the shuttle window in fascination. The sun was on the other side of the craft: he could clearly see the glittering display.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Iria said, pulling Quatre into her lap. He nodded, big aqua eyes solemn, and continued to observe the sparkling backdrop.
“You see that red one there, the one that looks like it’s so close to us?” He nodded again. “That’s Mars. And you know what? Pretty soon people just like you and me are going to live there.”
“Really?” Quatre’s young face bore a wide smile and his eyes were bright with hope. “Can I go, ‘Ria?
If you want to, Q. And you know what? One day we’ll even go out there, to the stars!”
“I wanna go!”
Iria laughed gently: the expression on her little brother’s face was priceless, just like him. “Well, that’s a long way ahead. But Mars… that’s a dream you can do, if you want to.”
“Are you filling that boy’s head with nonsense again, Iria?” Mr. Winner came out from the cockpit, frowning. “Quatre has to be my heir.”
“Winner Enterprises is not a monarchy,” the seventeen-year-old girl told him stiffly. “If Quatre doesn’t want to take over, he has more than enough sisters to do it instead.”
“My grandfather started this business and and handed it down to my father, who handed it down to me. Quatre is going to take over the business when I’m gone and that’s final.” Clearly in a bad mood, Winner left, heading farther aft.
“Why is Father angry at me?” Iria heard Quatre ask. His eyes were clouded now in confusion. She hugged him tightly.
“No, dear heart, Father’s not mad at you. He’s just having a bad day. And you know what?” She lowered her voice conspiratorially. “You can do whatever you want to when you grow up. You see all those stars out there? Can you count them? There’s a dream for every one of them, and more. And whatever you do, I’ll always be behind you, little brother."
*** end flashback ***
Quatre sighed. It was ironic, watching the stars of the planetarium wheel over his head when just outside those thin titanium walls, the real things blazed away.
//I miss you, Father. And I miss you too, Iria.// Iria had countered their father’s teaching so often; taken the brunt of his anger, as well. When he was finally old enough to understand, he asked her why she openly rebelled.
*** begin flashback ***
"Quatre, your father wants a male heir for Winner Enterprises. But he’s somewhat… narrow-minded, in his own way. He wants to see that the business stays in the family. But I’m worried. I don’t want you to just blindly take over without even knowing what other things you could have done.
*** end flashback ***
So many legends about the stars: the spirits of the dead, the spirits of those not yet born. Memorials put up by gods of yore to honor ancient heroes. But Quatre’s favorite was the one he remembered Iria telling him, that each star represented someone’s dream. Maybe his own dreams were up there: that always made him feel strange. Were Trowa’s? Or had they vanished?
He sometimes wondered if Trowa even had any dreams. From some of the things he’d said, Quatre had started to piece together the way the tall boy thought. Trowa was willing to do anything, even set aside his own needs, for the good of the team.
//But sometimes you need to have your own dreams. Perhaps that’s why he always seemed so… like he was waiting to die.// Tears came to his eyes as he thought of his friend, floating alone and all but forgotten out there among the stars that were even now pictured above him. //I’m sorry, Trowa. I didn’t mean for you to get the way. I guess this is the only way I have left to pay, in my shattered dreams.//
~Owari~