By Joy Lyn
AC 186
Quatre peeked around a corner. Whenever his family came to stay at a new house, he loved to go exploring. Abdul called it re-comet-ing, which made all the other grownups laugh.
This house was different from any of the others he remembered. It was next to the sea. He'd seen pictures of the sea before they'd arrived, but they hadn't prepared him for all that water. He'd been thinking of the sea as a kind of big swimming pool, but this was unbelievable! He didn't think that much water existed in the whole universe! Most of his sisters had gone swimming, but he hadn't wanted to. All that water was just too scary! It seemed very powerful, in an elemental way he'd never experienced before but felt to his very core. The sea was dangerous. Right now it seemed to be sleeping and was very beautiful, but he didn't want to wake it up. And it might be faking, like his sisters did sometimes to play jokes on him. His sisters always looked particularly beautiful then, too.
Quatre scowled, his teal blue eyes darkening with indignation. His older sisters were all so mean! They treated him like a baby, but he wasn't! He was almost six and a half years old!
Quatre's mental ranting broke off as he heard the faint sounds of music. Curious, he tried to find where it was coming from, and started off in that direction. Other than the music, this part of the house was very quiet, almost as if he was the only person here. As he drew closer, the music became clearer. It was the most wonderful music he'd ever heard. Entranced, he kept walking until he came to an open door. Inside the door was a room with big windows that showed the sea. Two women played music, one on a piano, and the other on an instrument he didn't recognize. The one at the piano wore pants, and her blond hair was as short as his sister Aliana's was. Aliana had gotten a haircut just before they left because she had chopped off a big chuck of her hair with scissors. Father had been very angry. Quatre wondered if this woman's father was angry about her hair, too. The other woman had long, wavy teal hair, a little darker than his eyes looked in a mirror. She was wearing a long dress.
Long-wavy-hair looked up and saw him standing in the doorway. She smiled, and that smile was so warm and welcoming and familiar Quatre felt drawn into the room, and was halfway across it before he realized he'd moved.
He stood there for some time as the song went on. And then, it drew to a close. Long-wavy-hair brought her instrument down, and short-hair swiveled around to face him.
"That's all?" he asked, disappointed.
Short-hair chuckled. "You can listen to some more in a little while if you want," she said. She had a deep voice for a woman.
"Who are you?" he asked, boldened by her reply.
Long-wavy-hair answered, "I am your cousin Michiru, and this is my very good fried Haruka."
Quatre blinked in surprise. "I didn't know I had a cousin Michiru!" he exclaimed happily.
Quatre spent a long time talking to his newly discovered older cousin and her friend. She told him all about her instrument, which he learned, was called a violin, and about how much she loved to play it.
"It's very peaceful," Michiru said, "When I play the violin, the rest of the world drops away, and there's only me and the music, and Haruka if she's playing with me."
The two of them also played more music, which Quatre listened to eagerly. He sat very still and quiet, his eyes wide open, not wanting to miss anything.
As the room began to darken, Michiru suddenly grew very serious. "Quatre, come here," she said. When he went over to where she was sitting, she put both her hands on his shoulders, and locked her violet eyes with his teal ones. "Quatre," she said, very, very, solemnly, "I know you felt the power and the song of the sea for the today. Remember that wherever you are, that power will always be with you. When you are in great need, you can call upon that power, and it will help you. If you listen to its song, things will become clearer to you. What was before as murky as thick coffee will be as unclouded as a glass of water. Remember." Quatre just looked confused, and a little frightened. "Here," she pressed something into his hand, wrapping his small fingers around it, "take this, and keep it safe." She hugged him, and kissed the top of his head. "Now go eat your dinner," she said softly, and turned him around and gave him a push towards the door.
Confused, he twisted around to look at Michiru and Haruka. They both looked sad, and a little stern. Michiru stood up.
Something in their faces made him turn back around and go out the door. Somehow, he knew he would never see them again.
When he remembered she had given him something, he opened his hand and looked inside. It was empty.
"I hate this," whispered Michiru.
"I know," responded Haruka, enfolding her lover in a comforting hug, "but it is necessary."
When Quatre reached the main part of the house, he found everyone in an uproar. "Where were you?" demanded one of the extremely upset servants, "we looked everywhere and couldn't find you! We thought you'd been kidnapped!"
He was never able to find that room again, or that part of the house at all. His father told him he didn't have a cousin Michiru, but the way he said it, Quatre knew his father knew *something* about her.
Everyone decided he'd fallen asleep somewhere, and had a dream. Quatre never believed that, and never forgot the day he spent with Michiru and Haruka, or what Michiru told him.
He begged his father to let him take violin lessons. He never told anyone why.
After that day, he could always hear the sea playing its endless song in the back of his mind.
AC 199
Quatre found his gaze drifting away from his dinner companions. The restaurant was at the top of a tall building near the sea, giving the dinners an excellent view of the overcast sky and the choppy water. Despite what Michiru had told him, he had always resisted the pull of the sea. Its power, the power he sensed he could use, had always frightened him. Only in space was its song dulled to a soft unthreatening murmur.
~Owari