A/N: Sorry I had a writer’s block and I couldn’t think of what to type and I just made Wufei older than the other pilots although he doesn’t play a large role or anything.
Chapter 4
Victims of Honey and Powder
Stirring from his sleep, the young prince breathed deeply, his platinum blonde hair splayed over his charming face and his topless body. Slowly his eyelids flickered open, closing several times as the ice blue eyes adjusted to the morning light that greeted him through the glass windows. He stayed in the position for a while, snuggling closer to his pillow for comfort. Beside his queen sized bed was a small wooden bedside table, a plain silver clock on top. The time telling device ticked as the second hand continued its never ending rotation. It was only quarter to eight. Milliardo sat up stiffly and stretched his arms in front of him, supplemented with a loud yawn. Abruptly, a gush of wind blew at his bare torso, causing his to shiver and grab his blankets and wrap it around himself. The window had been left wide open and the curtains were fluttering with the breeze. He didn’t favour the cold wind that bit at his skin in the mornings especially if he wanted to sleep in even if it were for a little while longer. Once he had closed the window with his blankets still held tight around his body like a cloak, he trudged over to his bed and tossed the blankets onto the bed, exposing his boxer shorts he had been sleeping in. I need a shower…
Warm water splashed onto his face, the sprays of liquid slipping down his skin. He moaned softly, feeling the water caress his skin and commenced to wash himself with soap.
A figure crouched on a tree branch outside the prince’s balcony, the branch and the balcony only a few metres apart. Luckily the bathroom curtain had been closed or else the prince would’ve easily noticed the person outside. Hidden by the leafy branches, person whistled softly in a short warming tune. An animal flew from the balcony to its favourite perching spot, his mistress’ shoulder. The bird made sure he was gripping on the thick leather pad she wore over her shoulder to prevent his deadly talons from clawing into her soft flesh.
He poured the smooth creamy shampoo onto his hand, inhaling its delicious honey smell as he mixed the substance with water, rubbing it between his two hands until he felt satisfied with the foam even though he felt some unusual bumpy bits. Smoothing it over his hair, he lifted his head out from under the water and scrubbed his head gently with his hands, his fingers massaging his scalp. Just then something felt wrong, the water that had rinsed off his shampoo had changed into a different colour. He brought his hand down and looked at it, noticing the foam had turned a yellowish brown colour and the substance was always sticking eagerly to his palm and fingers. The familiar scent suddenly struck him; it wasn’t just honey scented shampoo but honey mixed with shampoo. Someone had added real honey and cleverly used specific proportions of shampoo, honey and most likely other substances and mixed it carefully so that the shampoo would only have the scent of honey but the texture of normal shampoo and perhaps the tiny honeycomb bits. Milliardo growled and furiously threw the bottle at the other end of the bathroom, closing the shower door afterwards so that the water wouldn’t leak outside. Who would’ve done such a thing? I know who it is… and she’s going to pay.
Stepping out of the shower, the prince stroked his fingers through his hardened and sticky hair. He gritted his teeth and quickly dried himself up, throwing on respectable but slightly casual attire. The teenager donned black breeches and a leather belt that strapped both of his breeches and white collared shirt in place. Over his socks, he was wearing a pair of subtly tattered brown leather shoes.
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Pulling on her archery glove, the powdery stuff coated over her hand even though she couldn’t feel its subtle touch. For archery, she only used a single glove which padded her from the sharp wooden edges of her bow. With her other hand, she adjusted the arrow into its position for a shot at the target board. She aimed it at the bullseye, taking several glances at the board for a more accurate shot. Her right arm bent diagonally above her head, high in the air. Suddenly, a twitch in her fingers gave the arrow a disastrous exit out of the archery area, landing harshly into a tree. Lucretzia dropped her bow and pulled off her glove, dropping it to the ground when she noticed the sudden amend of colour in her hand. Luckily no one was there to witness both the reddened hand and the strange landing spot of the arrow. The dark-haired girl resisted the instant urge to scratch her hand. Something must’ve affected it for it to turn as red as it was and the sudden numbness in her left hand.
“It’s so itchy… why is it so itchy?” she complained as she poured the water out of her bottle onto her hand, letting the water sip through her fingers. Although it wasn’t as itchy as it was before, she still couldn’t feel her hand except for the tingling feeling that bite at her flesh under the skin. With her hand in a weird condition like it was right now meant that she could no longer lift up her bow properly with the use of her left hand. She sighed and picked up the glove and bow with her right arm, digging her left hand into her pocket so that no one would observe the absurdity before rumours flew around the palace and soon after the village about the princess with some infected hand that everybody would worry about although it was nothing.
A soft groan escaped her mouth as she tried to pull out the tail half of the arrow, squeezing the feathers as she pulled hard. Suddenly it was out and Lucretzia toppled over, landing onto the soft padded grass. This was not her day. Once she had picked herself up and brushed the dirt off her clothes, she gathered her equipment and left the archery field.
“Lu!” a familiar voice wailed. It was Hilde rampaging down the corridor towards her sister, attaching herself onto the older girl. “I heard a maid said that you needed some bandages and cream. What happened?”
Shaking her head slightly, the princess smiled and replied, “I wonder where you were hiding in a game of hide-and-seek. Let me guess, the infirmary? You know you aren’t supposed to hide in there or eavesdrop on the maids’ chatter.” Her voice had dropped to a whisper.
“What did you say about the maids?” Hilde muttered, cutely tilting her head as she released her clutch on her sister’s shirt.
“Nothing. Now go and play, your friend would probably be wondering where you disappeared to.”
“Nah, Relena won’t mind.”
Lucretzia glanced down at her sister curiously. “Relena? Who is she and when did she come?”
Before she trotted off, Hilde informed her sister, “She’s Signor Milliardo’s sister and she only came yesterday evening and she’s gonna stay with us until her father and brother leave.”
Now that her sister was gone perhaps the maid could see what was wrong with her hand. Entering her room, she sat down on her bed, throwing the glove through the bathroom door into the basin. Earlier on, she had left the bow and arrows outside the building for the servants to clear away since she wasn’t really able to do it herself. So Milliardo’s sister has come for a visit. It’s good that Hilde has a new companion to play with for a while. When she had told her personal maid about her hand, she had told her to keep it to herself but it seemed as if she had mentioned it to the others. The twenty year old maid had only attended her for half a year since her other maid had gone on leave for the holidays back to her family. Although it was a long holiday and Lucretzia had missed her very much, she would be back sometime.
Soon her personal mind returned, a first aid kit bundled in her arm. “Thank you Rosea,” Lucretzia uttered as the woman stepped through the door and into her sleeping chambers, closing the door gently behind her.
“Thank you Rosea, but don’t you think this is a little extreme?” Lucretzia gulped at the sight of her well bandaged hand. “I mean, it was just a normal rash wasn’t it?” She could not longer feel her own hand or her fingers. The bandage was bound so tightly that she couldn’t even feel the blood circulate through her hand. “Rosea, you may be dismissed now.” Speaking as politely as she could, Lucretzia waved a hand and watched as the older woman stepped out of the door, leaving her princess alone in the room. Instantly, the girl unwrapped the coils of bandages and dropped it onto the ground revealing a rather bright red hand. Gingerly, she rewrapped the bandage again, being careful not to make uncomfortable folds. In her mind, she made a mental note to be sure to see the ‘more’ experienced maids about it.
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Lucretzia Noin took a quick glance at the elder maid, noticing her face showing the deeper wrinkles when she scrunched up her face, deep in thought. “Iris? You know what’s wrong with my hand?” The old woman only brought a finger up to her lips to silence the girl while she continued to study the hand. Her strange expressions only made the raven-haired beauty more or the less confused but she had managed to keep her face in order from showing her own expressions. Ten minutes had slowly gone by before the maid spoke again.
“My dear princess,” she uttered in her low deep fragile tone, “the white powder in your glove was itchy powder and if I remember properly, you’re allergic to the powder so that’s why your hand is as red as it is without your scratching.”
“Why would anyone put such powder into my glove?”
Chuckling Iris patted her on the back. “Perhaps someone’s playing a prank on you or testing your temper. It’s nothing to worry about, now go along now and let me attend to the herbs before it gets too hot.” The young teenager was instantly shooed out of the infirmary into the corridors where her sister and her new friend were playing a game of chess… sitting on the ground? Lucretzia kneeled down beside the couple. Luckily the corridor was fairly wide and so the bustling maids were able to freely pass them without disturbance and usually if they were in the way, the less experienced maids would try their best to squeeze past without asking their mistresses to move. Sitting opposite Hilde was a honey blonde haired girl, about the same age as her younger sister. “Hilde…”
“Shh,” Hilde hushed, deep in concentration.
“Hil…”
“Shh!” The girl was more determined this time to silence the onlooker.
“Oh, sorry Lu. I didn’t know you were here. I thought you were…”
Looking at her doubtfully, the older girl finished off her sentence, “You thought I was some servant maid right?”
“Yeah.” Both girls were looking at her apologetically.
“Are you going to introduce me to your friend here?”
Hilde nodded and smiled, “This is my sister, Lucretzia and Lu, this is Relena Peacecraft. My friend I was telling you about.”
“Nice you meet Princess Lucretzia,” Relena stood up and curtseyed politely out of pure good manners.
“No need to be so formal Princess Relena,” Lucretzia uttered. So this is Milliardo’s sister. I hope she has better tolerance than the prince has himself.
Speaking once again, Hilde pointed at her sister’s wrapped hand, wondering curiously what had happened for it to become in such a state.
“Nothing, just some allergy I have.” Soon Lucretzia excused herself and let the two girls become consumed once again by their concentration on the chess match.
Everyone seemed to have disappeared and no one was about in the palace except for a few gardeners and several maids who were working on cleaning the family portraits with care. Her boots clicked against the ground as she walked in a slow steady pace. Where had everyone vanished to? There wasn’t even a trace of her brother playing the piano or violin nor could she hear her squabbling cousins who had arrived early that morning. They were probably enjoying themselves outside in the summer air while it was still warm outside. Just when she thought she would have to sit around and do nothing again, she noticed her friend at the window seat, reading a book while the sunlight beamed through the windows, exposing the words typed onto the paper to form that book. “Sally, where were you this morning? I was searching for you at breakfast,” Lucretzia stated, approaching her friend.
Looking up from the book, Sally smiled and replied, “I had an early breakfast because I was practising French with my tutor. I’m sorry Noin.”
“It’s alright. I’m not blaming you,” Lucretzia dramatically rubbed under her eyes as if brushing away several tears.
“What happened to your hand? It’s bandaged.”
“Nothing truthfully. Only an allergy thing,” she led the way out of the house and into the vast garden where the birds were chirping and twittering joyously.
Sally nodded and placed her book down gently on a bench as she followed her friend through the mazes of the garden. It was so large that if you didn’t know your way in it well enough, you would possibly be lost for several hours or perhaps even a few days. Suddenly an idea strung through her mind. Let’s see you get out of this one, Signor Peacecraft. Lucretzia smirked inwardly and followed the wall of the maze, her hand stroking against the plants’ neatly trimmed hedges. “I remember coming into here once when we were only what, nine? Hilde and the little boy with the braid followed us in and they got themselves lost.”
Her companion chuckled and let out a sigh. “Now you remind me, I seem to remember it. Shinigami getting lost in a maze? That’s something I have to tease him about.” Then walked on, enjoying the sun as it shone onto them.
A shrill sounded high in the air above them. Hovering in the sky was a falcon, crying out aloud. Both the girls smiled as Lucretzia whistled. The bird obediently swooped down and flew around them, landing onto Lucretzia’s leather pad which she worn often when she was in either her riding gear, archery gear or basically any type of sport gear. Razer gave her a light peck on the cheek when she tilted her cheek, gesturing for a kiss. Sally admired the bird’s talents, astonished at how the bird acted some human-like sometimes. “He’s a quick learner,” Sally commented scratching the falcon’s chest lightly with her finger. “I remember your archery instructor giving him to you two days before we left and back then he was just a scrawny little bird.”
“He was very scrawny back then,” Lucretzia chuckled, giving her a deserving peck on the ear for moving. She rubbed her ear gingerly as the falcon flew off her shoulder and instead, perched on a branch. Both young ladies cracked up into laughter. “Trowa did a great job helping me to teach that little thing.”
“Trowa? Is he a servant?” Sally questioned once she had shook off her laughing fits.
Lucretzia shook and her head and replied, “No, he’s the groom’s son. Barely thirteen but he’s very good with animals and he’s an animal tamer. He can even tame the wildest beasts. But he’s rather quiet but he’s a good companion if you want silence.”
“By the sound of things, he’s even better than you.”
“Yes, I must admit he’s a professional.”
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Milliardo pondered, wondering where his rival was. He had seen her gone off back towards the palace after scoring an arrow into the tree. The blonde had been laughing behind his muffled hand when he was hiding to make sure that the raven-haired archer hadn’t seen him. But ever since she disappeared back into the castle, he had lost her trace. He stepped into the garden, glancing up at the tree that reminded him of the situation when Treize had stopped him from trying to ‘rescue the princess’. Milliardo paused before continuing along the pathway down further into the garden, noticing the hedges that covered a separate path. His curiosity got the better of him as he followed it, through a strange pathway that seemed to follow like a maze. Paths split into two and he decided which one to follow, considering whether to walk to the left or right. Eventually he took the right one instead of turning back which hadn’t come to his mind that he had a great possibility of getting lost.
After walking for over fifteen minutes, he heard a familiar voice and walked towards it, hiding behind a hedge while listening partially to the conversation.
“Sally, so I heard that you’re going to be wedded within several months? To some Chinese man by the name of Chang Wufei?” the young princess muttered, still wearing her archery clothes. Sally nodded shyly, trying to avoid her face from turning into a deep pink colour. “He’s a gentleman right? Do you like him?”
The honey blonde-haired woman nodded and muttered so softly that Milliardo had to strain his ears to hear what she was saying. “Wufei’s not a proper gentleman whom I would consider very well mannered and courteous but he’s sweet and charming even if he’s only still my height.”
“Getting a late growth spurt I presume?” Lucretzia smiled and hugged her friend happily. Soon she released her and continued to stand half a metre away from her.
Noticing the bandaged hand, Milliardo soon became curious as to what was wrong with it. That’s the hand with the itching powder on it. What’s wrong with it? As much as he wanted to go out from his hiding spot and ask her out straight, he resisted the feeling and stood peeking through the branches and leave of the hedge that acted as a wall.
“What about you Noin? How do you feel about marriage?” Sally questioned, seating herself down at the bench and possibly the only bench in the maze.
Standing still, Lucretzia responded, heaving a sigh before she spoke. “I truthfully don’t want to get married. What’s the fun of getting married and bearing kids when all I want is freedom? Nevertheless be able to live freely and riding out on my stallion on adventures and perilous journeys.” She had spoken in a staccato rhythm during her last sentence, emphasizing her dream. “But it’s all just a mere vision. Just a dream, that pops into my head each night when I lay my head on my pillow. If I could ever leave those palace walls and leave the boundaries that keep me locked safely inside, I would’ve left ages ago. Perhaps I should try it someday and run free like the wild stallion that rears and battles through those barriers.” For a second she smiled at the thought but soon it vanished again. “But that’s impossible unless I wasn’t born a princess or noble. Either way I guess I must let myself realise that it’s my life and that there’s nothing else I can do.”
Silence slipped in between them until Sally broke it that is. “Noin, think about it this way. Life is like a spinning jewel, so precious yet fragile. Until your life’s over, who knows what will happen when you’re still alive? Sometimes the jewel will spin out of order and perhaps that’s when your journey begins.” Sally always had this way of speaking to her, using her knowledge to grasp at Lucretzia’s emotions and bring out her better thoughts.
“Thanks Sally,” Lucretzia smiled, closing her eyes for a moment, refusing to let tears blur up her vision. “You’re my best friend and nothing can change that.”
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A/N: Sumimasen, it was an awfully late posted chapter but I didn’t mean to. It was going to be longer too but I thought that you’d want this chapter first. Please, please, please review! They kept me going on. Ja, ne!
