Title: Space Lion
Rating: PG
Characters are not mine I am just borrowing.
A/N: Post-EW. Just a little something different.
There were more dark places than light in space and Lady Une sought out solace in each dark spot. She had avoided leaving earth for a long time, but her responsibilities made trips to the colonies inevitable. She shut her eyes and pressed her hand into the cold window, wanting it to be glass, knowing it was a strange synthetic type of ecological and space friendly plastic. Let the chill wash up her spine as she blinked back memories from the wars.
Then her solitude was broken as the lights were switched on in the conference room. She stayed at the window and waited for a noise of apology, or something to mark the intruder's intentions. There was only silence and then the polite clearing of a throat. She tilted her head to the side and caught sight of platinum blonde hair. Then she shifted her eyes back on the view from the window, crossing her arms over her chest.
Lady Une never knew what to say to Zechs Marquise. She barely understood how to properly command him when he had returned to become a Preventor. She thought it was very likely that he obeyed her command because of Treize's affection for her, or perhaps it was out of deference to being the only person beside himself that had truly understood Treize Kushrenada. Though she was certain she never did, and yet it was confirmed once by the man himself.
Zechs had moved and was leaning against the conference room table with his arms crossed over his chest. She could just barely make out his reflection in the window with the lights on. He was in civilian clothes having left the Preventors with Noin to work on some terra forming project. He stood up and then moved over to turn off the lights in the room, locking the door.
"You don't mind my being here do you," he asked, his voice low.
She shook her head.
"Are we the only ones who remember?"
Lady Une turned to face him. Through the dark of the room he was lit only by the pale light from the stars and the occasional blink of an outside light on the colony. She nodded then and leaned back against the window, blocking most of the light.
"Does it surprise you," she asked. "We are basically all he had left."
Zechs nodded and then said, "His wife?"
"She might," Une replied and there was lingering resentment steeled away in her tone, jealousy, and regret at feeling any of it. By now she had thought it would have gone away, but it hadn't.
"I see." Zechs said. He was looking down at his feet or at least in the direction of the floor. "I'd like to come back to the Preventors," he said softly.
"And Noin?"
"Will do as she pleases." He paused and then took a breath. "I can't be what she needs me to be."
Une didn't even know what to say to that. "You are welcome to go back. I may be leaving soon though."
Zechs immediately looked up and over at her.
She shifted her position, standing to the side allowing more light into the room, but still leaning into the window.
"I'm aware of what His Excellency would want me to do, but I'm a little tired. I've been leading and politicking for a long time, longer than I'd like." She confessed. She grinned and said, "You might be a good candidate for the job."
He shook his head. "Do you miss your bell tower," he asked after a moment of silence.
Lady Une nodded, smiling that such a thing could be remembered. "I was best at being a sniper, a hidden assassin."
"Being a sniper has made you an interesting politician. It helps you see everything and then take aim in the right places."
"Yes," she said. "It still gets old and feels…I need to take some time away."
"Where will you go?"
"Germany, the remains of Austria, maybe a colony… There are estates tied to the family name that could probably use an occupant."
Zechs nodded and then stepped over to the window. He looked out and then pressed his hand into the glass that wasn't. "I miss him."
"I do to." She shut her eyes and took a deep breath. "He'd never let us hear the end of it, knowing we were in the same room and not shooting daggers at each other."
Zechs nodded and stepped off towards the door. He left and Lady Une remained at the window.
"Happy birthday, sir," she whispered. "You've wanted this one thing for a very long time, and now you have it."
End.
