[Fanfiction] For Fei- Gundam Wing Fanfiction

Title: For Fei
Gundam Wing
General, Romance, YAOI


Part One:

It was difficult enough for Shi-Ran to have made this decision in private, but to announce it to the whole village was a tremendous feat. He watched the faces of the villagers as they shifted from disbelief and shock to horror and anger.

“But surely we have another commodity that we can use to pay the emperor?” One of the elders of the village spoke up from the crowd. His idea was lamented and repeated throughout the throng as others joining up in agreement with his idea. Shi-Ran shook his head and looked up at the sky that had been gradually gathering clouds as the minutes wore on.

“I am afraid there is no other choice. We have no crops due to the raids. The emperor has bestowed upon us a great gift this year. He fed us in our time of need and provided new tools and seeds for this Summer’s harvest. We must repay him. At the time of the agreement he did not outline terms for payment, but it is only honorable to pay him in the new season. If we do not we risk a poor harvest. Our debt must be paid,” he turned his eyes down to meet the disapproving faces that surrounding him. At the back of the crowd he found the most disapproving one of all, his daughter Mei-Ran.

“It pains me more than any of you can imagine. For me it is an ultimate sacrifice, and it is mine alone to make. I am the leader of this village and the debt to the emperor is mine. Mei-Ran will go to the Capital. My daughter will be payment for the kindness our emperor has shown us. The decision is final. She will leave tomorrow morning.”

He watched as Mei-Ran’s face glowed with resentment. She then turned and rushed away from the crowd, vanishing between two mud and straw houses, into the falling dusk.

Chapter One:

“How could he do this to me? No, not just me, to us! We are betrothed, or doesn’t he remember? He can’t give me away. I am spoken for. Why me? I am not even pretty. I have hands rough from work and my face is manlier than yours! Why, there are many pretty girls in the village who would die for the chance to enter the emperor’s court. Why me? Just because I am his daughter?” Mei-Ran paced heatedly across the room, flailing her arms in her frustration. “Why must we pay him anything? It is his duty to take care of us. We provide grain to the palace, so why must we make such a sacrifice? If he had let us starve where would his precious noodles come from? No, I don’t think this is fair. It just isn’t fair!”

Mei-Ran grabbed her cup of tea from the squat little table in the center of the room where her betrothed sat on a cushion, cradling his own cup in silence. She took a long swig, twitched in annoyance and slammed the drab earthenware cup down against the table.

“Well don’t just sit there! Say something! Can’t you ask my father to change his mind? Tell him it would be dishonorable to give away another man’s wife. Tell him you love me and your heart would wither without me here. Fight for me, Wufei! Do something! What say you?”

Chang Wufei was at a loss for words. He looked up at the woman he was soon to marry and sighed. If this turn of events had happened he would be married to her in less than a month at the Spring Festival. It was the moment he had been waiting for all his life. He had been promised to her at birth, and here now with the moment so close unfortunate events were going to tear them apart.

He knew that this fate was worse than death for Mei-Ran. She was a free spirit, wild and outspoken. She wouldn’t stand a chance in the courts of the Emperor. Couldn’t her father see that? Mei-Ran wasn’t suited for being garbed in finery and paraded about. She didn’t know how to cook, or speak in polite dialect, or sew properly. She was crass and loud and messy. She never kept her opinions to herself. She always spoke over him and bossed him around. She would wither away in the confines of such a place. Her spirit would break and she would be nothing but a shell of her former self.

He didn’t want her to go. She and her father were the only family he had for the past seven years. After his parents died her father took him in and they had been together ever since. He loved her. She was all he had and now she was going to be given away to another man.

He couldn’t let this happen. Part of him wanted to grab his sword and confront the village and demand that they take into consideration his feelings and her wants and needs. He wanted to scream at the top of his lungs that this was unfair and protest loudly to the Ancestors that things would change. He had the strength to make it change, but he knew it wasn’t right. He knew it was only honorable to go through with her father’s request. The man had provided for him so long he couldn’t go against him, despite what he wanted or what he thought was fair. And as for the emperor, he had given the entire village a second chance at life. When it seemed as if there was no hope he had sent provisions and servants to help the sick and weak. He had fought off the famine and disease that had strangled their village. He deserved repayment for his kindness.

And if this was what Shi-Ran thought was right he could do nothing but comply and support the village Elder’s wishes.


He stared up at Mei-Ran who was glaring down at him with dark eyes, waiting for an answer.

“I…” Wufei paused. He was never much good at words, let alone words against this woman. She was quick witted and harsh, and he knew that what he was about to say would crush her and make her angry. “Your father’s decision is a wise one. It would be dishonorable to go against him. You are the daughter of our leader. Your mother was a noble, and therefore as much as you don’t think yourself worthy you must go as an offering to the emperor. You are the only one worthy to go. I would he honored to have the woman I love serve our Divine Ruler.” He lied.

Mei-Ran’s face turned as red as a pomegranate. Wufei thought she would have cried at his words, but her unrestrained anger overrode any such outburst.

“How could you?” She screamed at the top of her lungs, her voice becoming so shrill it seemed to rip through her throat. “How could you say such a thing? Don’t you love me? How can you think that? Are you as dense and stupid as that to follow something so blatantly wrong so blindly? You are pathetic. You are weak and pathetic. How can I love someone so pathetic as you? You sicken me. You don’t deserve me then if that is how you feel. I will leave tomorrow. I know I can’t stop that but I will leave hating you. At least then I will be satisfied to get away from this place.”

She stormed out of the room, nearly ripping the thin paper of the door as she did. Wufei felt his fingers tremble around the warm teacup in his hands. He was expecting her to react that way but it didn’t make her words any less harsh.

He felt helpless. There was nothing he could do in this situation. To go against Shi-Ran would be dishonorable. He had thought of running away from this place with her. They could escape to the north where the emperor’s hands hardly reached. They could make a life there. He would work fields or do hard labor, anything to make it work. They could marry in the springtime as they had planned for so many years. He could make a family there. He could do it anywhere, and Mei-Ran certainly could handle a hard life. Her life up until now had hardly been easy.

But he couldn’t. He had always lived his life honorably and justly. He knew it was wrong, and that this was what was necessary for the good of the village. He didn’t want to make this sacrifice but he knew it was the right thing to do. He just wished it could have been easier for Mei-Ran. He would do anything to give her a second life, and to free her from the duty she was now required to take.

He looked down into the teacup, catching his own reflection in the dark green tinted water. A small tea leaf floated carelessly against the surface, obscuring one of his eyes in his reflection.

As he stared at the fine lines of his face, the almond shapes of his eyes widened. A peculiar notion began to drift into his mind, parting the chaos he felt to bring him a small beam of hope.

But no, the idea was insane. He couldn’t pull it off. There was no way he could get away with such a ruse. Or could he…?

He would do anything for Mei-Ran. He would do anything to free her from this burden and set her free. He knew that their future and husband and wife was over, there could be no way they could be together. He could accept that, but this idea… it showed promise. The emperor required payment. Shi-Ran wanted to offer a woman of noble blood as payment for the emperor’s kindness.
Perhaps he could make both of these things a reality?

“What if I go in her stead?” Wufei murmured down at his reflection in the cup. As he voiced the idea it sounded even more crazy, but the more his desperate mind thought on it the more powerful the idea sounded. Mei-Ran was right; Wufei had a fair looking face. In the past, with his hair loosely done he had been mistaken for a woman. He had full lips and fine, glossy hair. With a shaking hand he reached back and tugged free the tie that held his hair so tightly back. As he did a cascade of shoulder-length fine, straight black hair fell to either side of his face, framing his high cheekbones and smooth forehead.

The face that stared back at him now was beautiful and alluring, despite the shock and anxiety that glistened blatantly in his eyes.

For a moment hope began to spring to life in his chest. He could pull this off. The idea bounced around in his brain before chanting loudly in his ears.

I can pull this off… she doesn’t have to leave.

The plan began to construct itself in his mind and the more he thought on it the more right it sounded. If he went in Mei-Ran’s place she could stay here and never suffocate in the confines of the palace. Her father’s debt would be repaid.

There were risks to be sure. If Wufei were to be discovered the emperor could punish Shi-Ran for sending a man instead of a woman. But Wufei was confident nobody would find out. He knew a lot about the royal court, though he had never been there. One of his favorite things to do was to read scrolls of personal accounts about life in the palace. The odds of being found out were few. The emperor, if he was anything like his father, could have up to 300 to 3,000 concubines. The odds of Wufei even seeing the emperor for the rest of his life in the palace were slim.

He nodded at his reflection resolutely. This could work. He could go. He would be less of a burden on Shi-Ran. Mei-Ran could certainly marry someone else in time for the Spring Festival, and the debt would be repaid.

It was the only way.