Fic-Cpop (Various Artists: A-mei centric)-Queen of the Sky

Jan 17, 2009 23:48

Title: Queen of the Sky
Author: virdant
Length: 1,278 words, one-shot.
Rating: G
Genre: AU-ish, Romance-ish
Pairing: A-mei x Buing Wang (王宏恩).
Summary: But she is twenty-four now, and she is here, in the city where they made dreams come true through petty manipulation and sheer force of will. She is here, and she opens her mouth to sing, it is as if she is home, among the trees, and effortlessly she reaches up. And does not touch the sky, but rather embraces it wholly. Queen of the Sky, they begin to whisper..
Warning: Reference to Shin from Shin Band, Buing Wang, Jam Hsiao, and Shen Mu Yu Tong. A bit of politics.
Notes: for muu_chan. Happy birthday! I hope you love this. It has the references you asked for. ♥ I hope you like it. :/

Queen of the Sky


She is twenty-four, and not for the first time, she seeks the sky; she seeks to stand in the clouds, in the sky itself, instead of reaching for it from the ground.

She was not born here, here in the place where they make ladders of concrete and steel to control the sky through sheer force of will. She was born among trees and people who knew how to touch the sky without building ladders of concrete and steel that were too heavy to ever reach the sky.

But she is twenty-four now, and she is here, in the city where they made dreams come true through petty manipulation and sheer force of will. She is here, and she opens her mouth to sing, it is as if she is home, among the trees, and effortlessly she reaches up.

And does not touch the sky, but rather embraces it wholly.

Queen of the Sky, they begin to whisper.

*

They call her A-mei: sister, kin. It is almost her name; if she closes her eyes when the fans chant A-mei, she can almost hear the words Zhang Huimei, her birth name, instead.

They are good fans. They are supportive, waving their boards with LED lights set in the pattern of her stage name. They scream and scream when she sings her heart out, and at the end, when she thinks that there is nothing left, they are there.

And, it is brilliant.

The thrill and joy of performing, of singing, of success.

They call her A-mei to her face.

But behind her back, they call her something else. Queen of the Sky, they call her: for her voice, for her dancing, for her ability to catch and hold the crowd's attention.

She accepts the title.

When she is twenty-five, she makes a choice. She sheds any hope of anonymity; she gives up her life; she steps into a new role. When she is twenty-five, A-mei choses to be Queen of the Sky.

*

It is not bad. That would imply that she resents the pressure on her life. She doesn't. She relishes every moment of singing, of performing, of standing high. She is a star among stars, ruling over the land before with a firm but understanding hand.

Her heart is in her song and it is her song that rules over the others. It is her song that carries her up into the sky to be queen, and it is her song that keeps her there, on a throne made of song.

*

There are other princes, other princesses, and even other kings and queens, all fighting for the sky.

She meets Shin, King of Rock. They flirt with each other's territories, but in the end, A-mei concedes his kingdom to him, and he concedes her kingdom to her.

“You will rule well,” she thinks he tells her, the King of Rock and Roll, his throat rasping as he sing-screams.

“You will rule well,” she thinks she replies.

He is not the only one. There are many more, some kings and queens, like her. Others are merely princes and princesses. And others, others are not even residents of the sky. But they all share one trait in common, one trait that she herself partook in before she became queen. They fight among themselves to walk to the sky, and when they finally stand on the sky, they fight each other until they stand before a throne of song to rule from.

*

Across the ocean beneath them, a girl climbs to the sky until she is also Queen of the Sky where she is.

“This patch of sky is mine,” the girl who is now also Queen demands.

And A-mei protests this treatment. Protests, because she has every right to conquer this sky through song and skill. Protests, because up until now, she has been ruling this sky gently and carefully, the way she rules all the skies she has under her control.

But when she protests this, they lock her away from this sky, and the new girl watches her with part sympathy and part gloating.

(She has been aided on her quest for the sky. A-mei does not grudge her this gloating. And A-mei accepts this sympathy.)

*

This is not the first of setbacks. Time is her greatest enemy. It wears on her: on her heart, on her soul.

(And she fears, on her voice).

*

She steps away from the sky for a while, knowing that the others who squabble for her throne have not song enough to sustain it in the sky. It is safe for now, her throne of song in the sky.

She steps away. Steps far far away from the sky, watching the others squabble without caution, but instead with excitement, wondering who will rise up to stand on a throne of song comparable to her.

When she comes back, ready to sing again, she steps down from the sky to involve herself with the affairs of the land. It is there that she meets Buing Wang, and falls in love.

*

“I haven't left your love,” She sings, and she thinks that perhaps she is Princess Balenge, singing to the Snake God. Or perhaps their roles are reversed, because it is she that is queen, and him that is merely mortal.

But A-mei is Queen, and Balenge is Princess. There is only time separating their roles.

“I haven't left a love that cannot be released,” Buing Wang sings in response, voice overlapping with hers, and A-mei lets herself imagine that they are in love.

But in the end, he is merely a small star in the sky, barely noticeable from the earth, and she is confined by her throne of song.

*

It is then that the world sees Jam Hsiao, whose voice is as strong and clear as hers (used to be). He is young, younger than she was when she first took her throne. He sings, and in the second his mouth opens and song comes out, she knows that the sky is his for the taking.

She sings with him, thinking of Buing Wang all the while. She sings for a moment, knowing that she will never have one.

Even as she sings with him, she wonders why: why is it him that will be King, why is it him that they call Prince and think he will ascend to her throne, and why is it not Buing?

He asks if this is fate, and she has no answer for him.

*

There are others, now that she is back on her throne and watching, the brightest star in a sky full of stars. There is Jam Hsiao, who is already shining brightly, too brightly for her to stay on her throne without any worry. And there is a couple, a duo, who she knows are fighting for Shin's throne, and perhaps hers as well. They are young, denial in their eyes but love in their song, and she sees herself and Buing in them.

She wants them to ascend to thrones in the sky, together.

As for her, she is alone, the way she was when she began, the way she was when she first reached for the sky, all alone, with no one else.

Perhaps this is the fate of the royalty of the sky.

To be alone.

Like Shin, King of Rock. Like the girl who sought her throne, all alone. Like Jam Hsiao, who people already call Prince of the Sky, in the years to come.

Like her-

Queen of the Sky.

End.

Sorry that there is not much Yuming x Meizhen... 王宏恩 protested his lack of appearences, and demanded a romantic relationship.

genre: au, fandom: cpop, genre: romance, organizational: fic, one-shot

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