"I can’t believe they did this, Rashid. My own Parents! I trusted them more then that, why can’t they trust me?"

"I understand your upset, Master Quatre, but betrothal between royal families is a time honored tradition, and besides, our kingdom will benefit greatly from an alliance with the kingdom of Celestia."

"That doesn’t mean I have to be happy about this. I thought they were going to let me choose my own bride. They expect me to be learn to love a woman I’ve never even met and am being forced to marry?" Rashid sighed as he shuffled through the thick stack to royal documents and letters. There were times when he envied his young master’s life of riches and influence, but today definitely wasn’t one of them.

"Prince Duo! Sir, we must get going or we’ll be late to meet your parents in Avalon City."

"I know." Duo didn’t even look up from the tablet he was writing on. His normally cheerful face was set in a frown as if he was giving his writing his full concentration. The servant waited anxiously for orders or at least a full response, but none came.

"Your Majesty?" Duo rolled his eyes and gave an annoyed growl.

"Just go, Dekim. My parents can wait." Obviously the man was nervous, but after a second of deliberation about whom it would be worse to upset, Prince Duo or the King and Queen, he decided on the Royal couple and quickly left the room. Duo just snorted and returned to his writing; the tablet was now half full of his messily scrawled words: I hate this place, I hate this place, I hate this place…

Silence wasn’t an unusual thing coming from Prince Trowa, but since the day his parents had informed him of his upcoming meeting with the princess of Saphria, his future betrothed, he had not said a single word, and that was a month ago. Princess Catherine was beginning to get worried, she was used to her brother’s silence but he had never before given her the silent treatment for so long before. He hadn’t even said anything in response when his parents had told him of the arrangements; he hadn’t even reacted at all.

"C’mon, Trowa, it probably won’t be that bad, you’ll see. I mean, if she is a princess, and Saphria is a very beautiful kingdom, then I’m sure you two will have a lot in common." Silence. Catherine gave a defeated sigh and slumped against the side of the carriage. ‘Even I wasn’t this bad when I was betrothed.’

Clash, crash, Clash. Prince Wufei directed all of his energy and overflowing anger into demolishing the armor-clad, straw-stuffed dummy before him and he had no plans to leave anything intact. The royal mother, Cologne, watched her grandson from a safe distance, well aware as she was of his temper and his reasons for being angry. Only when he had succeeded in turning the dummy into a flour-stuffed piece of scrap metal did she approach him, being sure to make her footsteps noticeable.

"You seem troubled, grandson, are you really so worried about your meeting with your future bride?" Wufei turned a glare on his grandmother, but apologized at the scarier one he received for his insubordination.

"I will not marry some stupid woman I have never met, royalty be damned!"

"You owe this clan for your life, grandson, and you owe this kingdom for your power. This is the price that royalty pays, I paid it; as did your mother. You must honor our family by carrying on with tradition."

"I will not!" Wufei’s face was red with anger and exertion. ‘Injustice!’

Prince Heero glared out at the landscape surrounding the caravan of horses he was leading. They were very close to Avalon city now, perhaps only a four hour ride away, and the closer they got the more determined Heero became. By tradition of his kingdom he must marry the princess of Sanq, whom his parents had betrothed him to. It was his mission and his duty, his parent’s royal orders; and those were the only things that kept him from running away and never returning.

"Nervous, your majesty?" A cracked old voice cackled.

"Hn. I’m not nervous. I’m perfectly capable of carrying out this mission. Do you doubt me, sorcerer?" Prince Heero turned his best death glare on his old mentor but the white haired man only gave another dry laugh, completely unfazed. ‘How does that stupid old man know what I’m thinking, anyway?’

It was already past sundown when Prince Quatre’s entourage arrived at Avalon City. Avalon City was the central point between all thirteen kingdoms in the realm, and had long been the neutral meeting place for the royal families when they gathered for their semi-annual council sessions. A city gilded in gold and silver and built sparing no expense. When he was young Quatre had imagined that Avalon City was a magical place, one full of mysteries and intrigues. Today, however, Quatre saw the city as only the backdrop to the end of his freedom, and possibly his happiness.

"I’d rather not have to deal with my parents tonight, Rashid, could you excuse me from dinner tonight?"

"Of course, Master Quatre." The last thing Quatre was in the mood for was to argue with his parents again. They had left for Avalon City some three weeks ago, for the council meetings, but the summer session of The Council of the Thirteen Kingdoms had ended. So now, Quatre’s family, as well as the royal families of several other kingdoms, (Celestia included) were staying for a vacation. A vacation during which the royal heirs would be introduced to their future brides and husbands-to-be.

"Heero, my darling! You’re here! Your father and I have been waiting all day. How was your trip, no trouble I hope?" Heero had recognized the ceaseless chatter of his mother as soon as he had gotten inside the palace gates. He did his best as the dutiful son to reassure her but made certain to excuse himself from dinner, the last thing he wanted to hear was his mother’s chitchat with the other royal women all night.

"You know, my boy, you can only put off meeting the princess of Sanq for so long. It’s unlike you to shy away from a duty, Your Majesty." His companion observed as they reached his suite.

"I didn’t ask for your opinion, J, and as for my feelings regarding this whole affair, they are not your concern." Heero answered coldly. The last thing he wanted to deal with was a know-it-all wizard; royal life was more then enough problems.

Everyone else was at dinner and the palace was completely empty, so Prince Quatre took advantage of the opportunity to head down to the library. Choosing to take the darkest and most remote hallways since he didn’t want to get caught, Quatre made his way through the maze of passageways in the dark. The darkness, combined with his preoccupation with tomorrow’s ceremonies of betrothal, made it hard to notice the quickly moving figure moving toward him from an adjacent hallway. The two boys nearly collided, only the other boy’s quick hands saved his candle from lighting up the thick carpet.

"S- sorry about that, I guess I wasn’t looking, I didn’t think anyone would be here at this time of…" Prince Quatre trailed off as he noticed whom he had run into. "Prince Heero?" The dark green and black clad teenager looked the exact same as he had two years ago when they had met at the summer council session, right down to his short black pants and stone face.

"Prince Quatre. It’s been a long time." Relieved at the friendly (editor’s note: Friendly? Since when is Heero friendly? Author’s note: Hey! It’s an AU fic! What do you want from me?) face, Quatre smiled.

"Too long, it’s good to see you again Heero. Did you come for the council session, or are you taking a vacation?" Heero scowled deeply

"Neither, I’m here to meet my betrothed."

"Your betrothed?" Quatre was shocked, he knew he wasn’t the only one who was being betrothed, but he had no idea Heero had also been drawn into this. "You too?"

"What do you mean ‘you too’?" Quatre gave a wry laugh.

"That’s why I’m here. I’m supposed to be introduced to the Princess of Celestia tomorrow. And you?"

"The Princess of Sanq." Heero didn’t bother to hide his annoyance now, Quatre was a friend, someone who could be trusted unconditionally, Prince Heero had learned that the last time.

"So I guess you wanted to skip out on dinner with our royal people tonight too. I was just on my way to the library to do some reading, wanna come?"

"No thanks, I want to get some sword practice in."

"Well, we each have our own ways of taking out stress, oyasumi nasai, Heero, and it’s good to see you again."

"You too, good night Prince Quatre."

The library was a huge circular room with a domed roof painted with images from various ancient legends. It was always dark, only lit with a fire and, occasionally, candles. It was a quiet and relaxing room, maybe it wasn’t his private library at home, but it was a good substitute for now. All Quatre could think about was losing himself in a book and trying to forget about tomorrow, until he opened the door, that is.

"Who ever that is, I’m NOT coming to dinner! And if you think you’re going to make me I have a dagger in my boot that says otherwise!" the voice was a girl’s, and laced with pure venom.

"Ah, whoever you are, miss, I just came to do some reading, I’m not here to drag anyone anywhere." Quatre slipped around the stacks of books to find the girl sitting in an overstuffed, gray armchair. "And besides," he added wryly, "I happen to have quite a lot of experience in hand-to-hand combat."

She was slim and beautiful, with straight jet-black hair that fell to her waist and shining violet eyes, eyes which were now glaring at him well enough to compete with Heero.

"So then what are you doing here?"

"I came to read. Or is that illegal too?" Quatre asked innocently. After a moment of studying him the girl relaxed.

"That’s fine." Neither recognized the other, but the girl was secretly too embarrassed for yelling at the wrong person to continue the conversation and Quatre only wanted to read.

Meanwhile, at a small inn, a day’s ride away from Avalon City, a small entourage arrived, asking to spend the night. The young man leading the entourage gave a very shocked hostess a six-pound bag of gold and told her not to let anyone else in for the night.

The last thing Prince Trowa wanted to deal with that night was company, unfortunately for him, someone else had beaten him to the bar, a boy about his age swathed in black with a meter long braid was downing sake at a rate of two a minute. Trowa watched the boy wordlessly for a moment, but then took the stool beside him. Wordlessly, the violet-eyed boy handed him the sake pitcher.

"It’s been a long time Tro, So let me guess, you got sucked into this damn mess too."

"Hn." Was Trowa’s only response.

It was already past eleven o’clock when Quatre remembered to look at the clock. The library had been completely silent ever since he had started reading, so he was surprised, as he rose, that the girl from before was still there.

"I’m, uh, I’m going to call it a night. It was nice to meet you miss..?"

"Oh, I’m Princess Kira, of Celestia. And you?"

"Prince Quatre of Abydos." Both shook hands, smiling politely. One…two…three…*click*.

"You!? You’re the one I’m betrothed too??"