0.5
"Catherine!" she called to her friend. Waving for her to join them.
"Hello! Have you been waiting long?" she asked sitting beside her.
"No. Where is…?"
"Haha, Heero isn't with us today."
"Oh." She said disappointed. They have been meeting in the three towers for almost ten years now. Concealing their friendship from their parents, both knowing that it would end the moment they found out. And yet they did not know why.
Duo and Quatre came rounding the corner. The older boy chasing his auburn-headed playmate, wooden sword held up in the air.
"Hey Quatre!" Catherine waved at the boy who fell over as he attempted to turn in his chase. The girls laughed.
"What does it look like on the other side?" Relena asked.
"There's water everywhere!" Catherine laughed putting a piece of the cake Relena brought. "We have floating islands you know. And there is this one where we put our summer residence. It's great we don't spend one summer in the same place! But of course we have to find it first."
"Don't forget the snow." Duo huffed sitting down.
"Oh yeah it snows every night. But the land does not freeze, when the morning comes the white layers melt away. That is why it is always wet there." She finished.
"What about you Relena?" Duo asked.
"Well in our land it is always summer. The days are long and sometimes it gets hot." She said looking at her brother for help. "Oh we have floating islands too. But they float in the steam that rises from the ground and it's unbearably hot in it."
"We use it for saunas." Quatre supplied. "I like it here. It isn't too hot or too cold. And the flowers are always in bloom."
"Isn't it funny? That our worlds, so different can be separated by this old wall and this decaying castle?" Catherine wondered.
"Yes. It is peculiar." Relena agreed.
"Why do you suppose we were kept apart?" Duo asked. But Catherine kept silent.
"I don't know." Quatre whispered.
***
"Hey Heero, why didn’t you come to the tower? Surely father didn't talk to you the whole day!" she greeted her brother as she entered his room. He didn't answer and continued to stare out of his window. Catherine bit her lip, looking at her brother sitting on the ledge with a lost look in his eyes; it was a sure sign that he was troubled.
"What is the matter Heero?" But she knew the answer. He had turned eighteen that day and it was the day he learned of the truth. Of why the lands on the other side were sealed off from them. "You learned of the clans haven't you?" she asked. He nodded his head.
"Listen, I've known for almost five years now and I have not let that get in the way of my friendship with Relena, surely you can overlook this little detail…" she began lecturing him.
"Catherine…" she stopped, something in his voice asked her to listen. "I have been declared successor." He said looking at her. She sat down stunned.
"But Trowa…"
***
"I thought our lives no longer interested the three stars." He stated looking at the beautiful being staring back at him. This was the eldest of the three stars, those that ruled their world, or pretended to anyway. Since the wall was built and their kingdoms were separated forever, they have never really returned to their castle. They made their world, ruled it for a time, grew tired of it and then left it behind.
Stars were fickle, today they might burn with a passion that would engulf anything and then when the sun rises tomorrow, they would loose interest. Such was the fate of their world, until now.
"You thought wrong soul eater."
It whispered in its ephemeral voice."What must I do to ensure my clan's victory." He asked going down on his knee.
"You can do nothing to ensure such thing. We have not decided which side will claim the other."
"Then Creator, to what do I owe this visit?"
"Make your second born king."
He stopped, his confusion making him look up into its radiant face.
"But my eldest has been groomed for it, he will be crowned when…"
"Make your second born your successor, it is not a request."
"As you will." He whispered, his mind wandering to the boy with green eyes who has been created to precede his father and who must now be told he will never be king. And when Treize raised his head, he was alone once more.
***
Ever since that day Heero was told he and not his older brother would succeed his father he and Trowa slowly began to drift apart. The two brothers that used to share everything rarely spoke to one another and it broke Catherine's heart. She loved them both and even though she was never close to them, she knew Trowa loved his younger brother like no one else could, and Heero did as well. She sat helping Duo with his calligraphy and her eyes wandered to Trowa looking at the fire and Heero reading a book on the other side of the room.
He rarely came with them when they went to the three towers. And when he did he always seemed distant. And as she cast another sad look at her younger brother she could not shake the feeling that his childhood had truly come to an end.