When she first met the young Gundam pilot, she was quite taken with him. She thought the pilots would have been much older, nihilistic and far to corrupt to have any chance of redemption than the young teens they were. Having had prepared herself to face a large, brash man in his late twenties to early thirties, not a young wisp of a boy who if he turned to the side would disappear, Lady Une was shocked. Of course, she remembered Heero's self-detonating his Gundam, but would all the pilots really be that young? Everything about him unsettled her: those green eyes so expressive yet easily shifted to be void of any real emotion, that cocky attitude that could be taken down a few notches, and his bearing the way he walked everything; she would have been fooling herself if she didn't admit he was handsome, you'd have to have been blind. He was far from an exceptional pilot if he had been in OZ earlier it wouldn't have surprised her to see him fight alongside Noin and Zechs. His talent was so ingrained he could use any suit he was given. Sadly, he put Treize to shame with his expertise and natural agility that extended to piloting a mobile suit.
"He could be a spy!" Lady remembered Nichol's warning. She knew the young man was a spy, but unlike many of the high ranking officers around her, he was efficient and deadly and maybe that's why she kept him, he knew his place. They do, after all, say to keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Also, she found a great sense of enjoyment in how he ruffled Nichol's feathers every chance he got. Lady also couldn't get how much older he acted out of her mind, he was only three years younger than her, but he reminded her of Treize. He had seen some and done some messed up things before becoming a pilot.
Lady recalled the night when she invited him back to her quarters. She smiled at him and offered him a drink, he refused of course.
"Officer Barton, I know who you are." He didn't flinch or move away, he wasn't running, but the air around him deflated a bit, his stance relaxing as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. "I know what you're here for." She walked around him like a lioness stalking her prey. "I will stop you, your mission won't succeed."
His voice was low, dangerous, his eyes hidden behind that petulant, individualistic fall of his hair. Oh how she hated that hair sometimes, it was a perfect mask, the perfect way to block out the world. "If not me, there will be others. I am expendable, for the mission." She couldn't stop the goosebumps that rose on her arms or the nagging and gnawing in the pit of her stomach. She couldn't help the flare of pain in her chest, he found himself to be expendable, and she wanted to prove he was more than that. The next day Nichol vehemently expressed his dislike of Officer Barton's promotion to her adjutant, after all, she was practically sleeping with the enemy.
It would be another five years till she saw him again; the last she had heard was his mobile suit had been destroyed saving his friends. Treize had been gone for nearly six years; this was the fourth Christmas she would spend with Mariemaia. The young girl was extremely smart and one thing she had been asking for was to go see the circus, animals in the colonies where rare. As they walked the grounds, Lady Une picking at some cotton candy Marie wanted watching the teenager as he eyes lit up in excitement at the crowd gathering sideshows. Mariemaia watched a man swallow flaming swords, a woman folds herself into a box, a mime, the worlds strongest man, a magic show and the Lizard Man of Hesperia. The girl oohed and ahhed entranced by each attraction tugging roughly on her mom's jacket signaling her next move, her eyes wide and mouth agape at the sights in front of her. Marie did not move, the crowd backing away with haste as a lion and lioness were led through the main path of the circus. The felines walked calmly in the crowd, leashes slack from the hand of the handler, a young man who walked between them as they led him to the tent.
"Lady, look at that!" The girl was absolutely ecstatic, it wasn't every day to see large ferocious beast easily handled by one person. Lady nodded intrigued by the lions but stupefied by their handler, her breath caught as she drank him in. The young man, once her adjutant, her test pilot, the Gundam pilot who's cocky attitude was the bane of Nichol's existence for a good month -was well enough alive and doing by far the oddest job she could think off, but then he was a former Gundam pilot so working in a circus was quite normal in his case.
"Can I pet them?" Marie asked loudly pulling Lady back to the current plane of existence.
Trowa nodded taking a knee between the beast, the lions stretching out to lay on the ground. "Only, if it's okay with your sister." Lady Une blushed but Mariemaia waved a dismissive hand.
"My mom," Marie smiled, looking to the woman for guidance, acceptance, and permission.
"Yes." Lady Une folded her arms, the hair on the back of her neck standing on end; watching the little girl pet the lions a crowd forming around them to listen to the kneeling performer. Trowa smiled softly at Mariemaia, telling her non-essential facts about lions, such as the lions tail can be used to signal to pride mates and that lions are associated with pride, courage, and strength. Green eyes flicked up to Lady, her breath catching -he recognized her. A young woman ran up to them, her outfit clinging every curve the girl had her face contorted in a frown.
"Trowa, we need those lions they're on in five!" Trowa stood as did the two felines, the three stretching in unison. Mariemaia frowned scratching behind the lioness' ear and stepped away mumbling a thank you.
"Alright, Cathy," Cathy's smile ignited a fire in Lady Une, a green flame. Trowa held his hand out, Marie carefully resting hers in his palm. "I hope you will enjoy the show." Trowa moved his hand leaving the teenager with a single white rose eliciting a gasp of surprise from Marie. Lady Une smiled at him, blushing as he lifted her hand leaving a gentle kiss, "My Lady."
The world stilled, Lady Une focusing on the retreating figure of Trowa Barton, heart racing. "The show is going to start soon Lady!" Mariemaia jerked on her arm wrapping her hands around her bicep. Swallowing, Lady Une glanced to the side where a group of young girls where glaring at her having been ignored by the handsome clown. Lady turned to head another way only to run into an old woman who was also glaring at her and shook a purse at her. Trowa Barton had certainly grown up and seemed to have a majority female fan following. She couldn't blame them as she drove home that night idly wondered what his back would look like once she was done digging her nails in.
"I know what you're thinking!" The old woman has hissed at her as they sat in the stands to watch the show. "I think the same thing, seen the show four hundred and thirty-nine times, always a new fantasy every time."
It would be another year before they ran into each other again. She had asked Noin to gather some of the best agents she could for a special top secret assignment. Upon entering the meeting room she saw many familiar faces. Heero and Duo were regulars and Wufei was an everyday occurrence, Quatre while rare spent most of his time in the engineering unit and worked down there on vehicle manufacturing but seeing Trowa Barton was a rarity. For a moment she wondered if he actually worked with the Preventers or Noin just pulled him off a reserve board for an assignment.
"Lady, here are our best."
Lady Une looked them over and pointed to Trowa, "does he even work here?"
Duo started laughing, and Heero tried to hide his smirk. Quatre looked at her worriedly and Wufei turned away disbelief at the question. Noin frowned and nodded. "Preventer Barton is the best in our espionage division and just came back from a mission last week."
Lady Une nodded agreeing with Noin to save face. Noin was in fact right and stated matter of fact she was running a government agency so they would need to excuse her memory lapses. I really don't remember any report or him working here, Lady Une tapped her hip handing folders to Noin to disseminate to the gathers agents.
"There has been a report of an old mobile suit factory being used near Hawaii." The rest of the briefing was standard. Lady Une stopped the clown before he left, her hand resting on his bicep.
Trowa looked down at her, Une looking up into both eyes noticing his hair had been trimmed back slightly. "Yes, ma'am?" Lady Une smiled at him. He had differently grown up over the last six years since she had first met him.
"How about lunch, when this assignment over." It wasn't a question; she was stating they would be eating lunch together. "Like a date." Clarity in demands was her negotiation expertise. Trowa smiled at her following his friends. From the doorway, she could hear Duo ask what the Boss wanted, and found it surprising to hear Heero's curiosity ladened 'spill it.'
It would only be a week after the mission when Duo, who silently swears he was innocently dropping off a report, caught her hastily pulling her uniform skirt down, his eyes catching the tiniest bit of flesh and received a punch to the face. Duo stunned, stumbled backward out of the office; the report rudely grabbed from his hand before the door slammed shut and locked. The braided pilot would never speak of his deduced knowledge, the fresh nail tracks on the Heavyarms pilot's back in the Preventer gym locker room were more than enough proof to the rest of the pilots that Lady Une's good mood was in more than one way attributed to their friend.