Ryuu no Hikou

a Gundam Wing fic by Sara

Pairings: 1+R, 2+H, 3+4, 5+S, 6x9, 11x13

Warnings: AU, het, shounen-ai

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Gundam Wing, nor do I claim ownership of the respective influences to this fic. Gundam Wing is owned by Bandai/Sotsu/Sunrise. All of the dragons, as well as the original characters herein, are property of me.

Author's Notes: I had quite a bit of influence from a wide variety of sources for this fic, most notable Anne McCaffrey's Pern novels, the Dungeons and Dragons game, and maybe even a little bit of ElfQuest thrown in for variety. The dragons themselves are modeled after the D&D dragon profiles, though my characters are modeled after my own expectations, and not as much from the dragon profiles from the game.

I have many, many people to thank in writing this fic, whose intervention and gentle prodding helped immensely; without it, this fic would not exist today, but in name I want to thank Jan and bearilou for reading and commenting and getting excited about this fic! Extra-special thanks go to my honorary co-author, Ashura. She did the most excited prodding, helped immensely with choosing which dragon went with which, and is the brains behind the names and the Oracle's language. Without your help, this fic would've remained just an idle thought and tossed aside. Thanks, everyone!

One point that will become apparent as soon as the dragons are introduced is the fact that they all have two names. This may get confusing, so I'll explain it here. Each dragon that has a rider also has two names: a head name, and a heart name. The head name is the name that everybody knows. The heart name is the name that only the dragon and their rider know. Think of it as sort of like a first name and a middle name, with the middle name being a secret to almost everyone. So if you see a pilot refer to his dragon by one name, and the dragon be called something entirely different in the next paragraph, don't get confused. I meant to write it that way. ^^ It should become easier to understand the farther into the story I get.