On Duty

by Jillian

(Disclaimer: Characters are not mine and belong to their respective series, Gundam Wing and Maria-sama ga Miteru. I must say that inspiration for this ficlet came from a match-up-random-characters meme that tinpotcavalier had on her journal. I was amused. Then I couldn't stop turning the idea over until I knew I needed to write something. This is set in between episodes three and four of Gundam Wing canon.)

"You could use some more experience. You haven't learn to put the affection into your movements, that spiritual bit of cooperation that encourages communication between bodies without words. Where thinking takes a backseat to natural instinct."

"Well, I can agree on the wordless part. I prefer the mindless sort to being bossed around. Damn, you take it so seriously," Nichol spoke over his glass poised to drink but waiting until the urge to laugh passed. Life had been too solemn of late with the attack on Corsica. He could use good company and being in Lucrezia Noin's company usually provided hours of material to mock. Moreover, as they had the canteen to themselves, he was determined to be as disrespectful of his rank peer as possible.

"Best that they didn't make you a flight instructor," Noin gave him a critical but amused look, "And last I knew, mobile suits still needed a human being to fly them."

"Only a matter of time," Nichol teased, "It's good to see your skinny butt again though. I can hardly believe that you managed to graduate from that Academy. Let alone scoring a job such as Instructor for the cadets going through Victoria."

"I didn't expect to see you graduate either," Noin paused, running her fingers through the shorter fringe along her neck. Nichol remembered when they first met and the impractical cascade of loose black curls. Lucrezia had never been so overtly feminine after they were shorn.

'You're looking good," He said pursing his lips and willing himself not to feel awkward.

"You too."

"Yeah," Nichol took his drink, the urge to laugh gone. He took his time, but not to savor the taste, "I'm on my way up to Corsica. Changed orders from joining to the Specials to overseeing reconstruction."

"How many did we lose?" Noin asked, squaring her shoulders over elbows she'd propped on the bar. Changing the mood as quickly as the strobing lights shifted the accent of contours from her cheeks to forehead to jawline.

Nichol set his drink down, even as thirst intensified. Swallowed, "I haven't wanted to look. Did you hear about Walker?"

"He was one of your classmates, right?" Her reply overlapping his own question. She knew. The press had put a lid on the details to keep the public from panicking. But the unreturned messages from friends, the inner-communications of the soldiers, and having your bunk partner assignment change were dismal indications.

"Yeah," Nichol needed to distract himself, "He was always a big fan of that blond guy. What was his name? Milliar..."

"Zechs Merquise?" Noin corrected.

Nichol waved a dismissive hand in front of his face, leaning against the bar top himself. Catching a glimpse of his face in the reflective surface and noting that his own dark hair was probably getting too long for standard regulations, "Yeah, whatever. The guy who showed us all up, the guy who broke all the rules and everyone's hearts."

"Except yours,"

"Damn straight," Nichol playfully pounded his fist and not denying the smirk behind the pun, "It does seem fitting that he joined up with OZ. He and Treize are the same ilk."

"That's where he's gone." Noin said matter-of-fact, and Nichol studied her a moment to see if her emotions would betray themselves. Her smile might have been nostalgic. However, he wasn't the best at reading faces. Walker always said soldiers like Nichol needed guidelines, strict orders to follow, or they'd get lost. And emotions didn't have guidelines.

"I'd say that Treize has quite the upward potential in the Federation. And, I'd say we'll be watching the Lightning Count riding on his coat tails, but that's how rumors get started," Nichol caught himself mirroring Noin's movement as she subconsciously fingered her shorn hair again. Instead, he turned the motion into a forceful stretch and yawn, "These lights are rather dizzying."

Noin breathed a laugh, "The kids like them."

"And how much younger than us are they?" Nichol was skeptical. He spun around on the stool only to nearly fall off, startled at the flash of a camera.

"Hmm, I'm sure the lighting in here will make this snapshot relatively unusable," the young woman's voice carried the essence of remorse with a sly underbelly of sarcasm.

"Tsutako..." Nichol grumbled, "I should have figured."

"That I'd find you here?" She continued to hold the camera with both hands, one slim finger still prepared on the snapshot trigger. Her glasses reflected the timed lighting, hiding her eyes, but even Nichol couldn't miss the dry smile behind her chewed lower lip.

"And this is?" Noin raised an eyebrow. She looked as if she might have given a more formal greeting and offered to shake Tsutako's hand, except that Tsutako wasn't letting go of her grip on the came which made the otherwise docile equipment appear to be more of a weapon.

"Takeshima Tsutako, journalism major," Nichol rubbed his jaw as if the camera had punched him instead of simply blinding him with light, "She's wanting to do a character piece on the life of a soldier. I told her there wasn't much soldiering going on these days, but to make a try if she wanted to."

"Come now, with the colony complaints and the stalled peace talks with the Federation?" Tsutako shook out her short brown hair, thin but cut to frame the shape of her face, "War is on our very doorstep. But, I'm... I'm interested in the personal relationships. Do you two have a relationship?"

"W-what?" Nichol sputtered, pressing down with the heels of his boots to keep from sliding off the stool again in shock.

"You seemed very close. Intimately close," Tsutako nodded curtly as if filing that fact away for further reference.

"Okay, this has stopped being funny," Nichol stood, wanting to be at his full height and started to shake his finger.

"Nichol?" Noin asked, bemused. Leaning her cheek against one hand.

"She was on the civilian transport that took me to the capital. Then she showed up at the train station, and later at the pub," Nichol checked himself, "But I didn't bring her here. You must have stowed away on the transport!" He accused.

"For the sake of journalism and truth," Tsutako nodded. Then she addressed Noin, "Pardon me for the intrusion of your time with the Lieutenant. And I did fill out the proper paperwork at the gate. Cadet Franklin was quite thorough in examining my credentials before I accessed the main buildings."

Noin glanced at the phone on the wall, but said instead, "I believe you."

Nichol could feel a flush creeping up his neck. He didn't trust Tsutako. She knew too much, and she'd overwhelmed him before. Women in the military were hard enough to understand. Those outside of it bewildered him completely. And he certainly wasn't immune to their attentions. Tsutako had knowledge. Which, given rather embarrassing circumstances, he hoped Tsutako would keep to herself.

"Then believe me when I say that Lieutenant Nichol is a soldier fighting for love. And that is the deepest desire of any person who finds themselves in battle, and I can clearly see it through any other motivations," Tsutako said, her declaration hardly more emphasized than a normal conversation.

"I am not," Nichol took a deep breath then spoke with well-measured annoyance, "And I will not fight for love. That is ridiculous. You cannot simplify the grit awful truth into something so idealistic."

"But it is true," Tsutako contradicted, "And I will find the source of your love." Nichol almost expected to hear her add, "and torment you with it."

Noin waited patiently, thoughtful. Then spoke, "Well, I can say that even though I did let this bloke take me out for dinner once, it was all a rather elaborate scheme for him to avoid someone else. I'm pretty sure I'm not the one to be jealous of."

Tsutako considered that, "But my theory is still solid."

"Maybe so. Maybe we do seek comfort protecting those we love, but isn't that just human nature. We do that in our rare moments of peace," Noin's voice changed, as if she were falling backward or forward in time to a lonely place from which Nichol and Tsutako were only being brought glimpses of a larger thought, "Love is fragile when shared. Too fragile to escape being broken. But when given, the giver is stronger for having loved."

He was used to Noin's philosophical tangents, and Nichol glanced back and forth between the women gathering so much as that they were connecting on some level that he wasn't quite part. Nonetheless, he was grateful for the reprieve from being the center of unwanted attention. Tsutako could be fun. A whole hell lot of fun, but the kid needed to realize that rules for a soldier were a good deal more strict than when he was on his week's leave.

A week's leave that timely set back his arrival at Corsica.

Nichol was certain that love had nothing to do with war. Two things could not be more separated.

He had been lazily becoming awake after a night of steady good drinks, with Tsutako's cheek against his shoulder, her fingers reflexively tangling and pulling the hair on his chest, like a well-pleased cat. All that on the same morning two Gundams moved in to destroy a Federation base. The same morning Walker died. It turned his stomach.

"And that's Nichol. He doesn't bend the rules for anybody," Noin saying his name caught his attention.

Alarmed, Nichol could see Noin's efforts not to laugh and Tsutako's thoughtful nodding. He knew he had been the raw end of a womanly exchange, somehow. He also knew he probably was better off not knowing.

"It's getting late," Noin stood, "Your transport takes off first thing in the morning," She fixed Nichol with a look, "Then I've got classes to instruct all day. I'm sure Cadet Franklin arranged quarters for Tsutako, if you won't be sharing yours tonight."

If he didn't have bones, Nichol knew he would have dissolved into a puddle to glide under the bar, "On duty," he heard the squeak in his reply.

"We tried to corrupt him," Noin apologized glibly, offering to escort Tsutako to the door and her evening's bed. Nichol sulked afterward, and offered a bitter but affectionate salute to both women before taking the hall to the wing of the men's barracks. He could taste the metal smell of the corridor. Not unlike the taste of blood after biting the tongue. And he wondered if he would ever see Lucrezia Noin again. And if a war larger than any they had anticipated was crouched just outside the atmosphere of their fragile planet home. He wondered if Tsutako would find her answers.

But of the three. He trusted he would see war the most.