Title: The Last Chance
Rating: PG-13
Shoujo-ai content
I do not own the characters of Gundam Wing. I am just borrowing.
Note: Originally written for the Yuri Challenge on live journal. This fic became and unexpected sequel to a fic by Jilly-Chan called "Dancing Partners". It isn't required reading but I highly encourage support for her fan fiction.
Lady Une always sent roses on this particular day of the year. They were never the same type of roses, but they were always roses, and there were always a half dozen of them elegantly and gracefully arranged in a vase, or bowl, or basket. There was always a card, but it only ever contained the lady's name signed across the small pale white space in black ink with equally graceful and elegant script.
The roses this year were white with varying blue stripes; the coloring in the petals was achieved much the same way that carnations were dyed with simple food coloring in the water. The fully open blossoms were arranged in a large globe shaped bowl filled half way with ice and water that had a slightly blue tint to it, presumably from the coloring in the flowers.
Lucrezia Noin hobbled over to her desk, using the cane the doctors had given her for support. She hated the cane, it was ugly, and, while necessary, it dug at her pride to have to use it. She picked up the card that was next to the bowl of roses, but rather than just the lady's name there was a very brief note scrawled on it.
Noin raised an eyebrow and began to exit her office when she noticed something leaning against her filing cabinets. She limped over without the ugly cane, wincing slightly as she moved. A grin tugged lightly at the corner of her mouth. It was a cane. A very well crafted wooden cane with a curved handle made of silver that reminded the pilot of bird wings (angel wings).
She grabbed the cane. It had a good weight to it. She held it and then began the walk to Lady Une's office.
Times had changed the world, and change moved swiftly for those that had once been apart of the Gundam battles. Revolution turned to politics and the young heroes of the war became adults. Lucrezia Noin had been nineteen at the start of the war, and now she was thirty-five. Not much had changed about her over all appearance except perhaps the manifestation of one or two worry lines at the corners of her eyes and mouth, and of course there was the occasional scar. She didn't heal like she used to as was evidenced by her limp and need for a cane. Of course a shattered ankle did not exactly heal, and where bone had once been there were now metal plates and tiny pins. She had been lucky not to loose the foot completely. She was lucky to still be alive.
It had been years since she had last seen Zechs. He liked to work out in the far depths of space with the colonies. She had found she did not like being out among the black voids of space isolated from the world. She was a pilot. She liked to have blue sky, and the moon and stars above her. She liked the freedom of constant motion, of the possibility to fall, but what she really liked was having a place where she could once again touch down. That was why she had initially gone back to the Preventors.
The Preventor offices on Earth had changed little except for the décor and the paint on the walls. The photo of the new President hung on the walls, the flags flew, and there was still that commemorative statue of the Gundams that half the world thought in poor taste and the rest lauded as a great tribute to the past. Noin had never formed an opinion on the matter. She was too close to that past to care about statues, what was important was that the war was over and some semblance of peace remained. Though peace was a delicate thing, it floated about wistfully ever in danger from those that would catch it and burn it to dust, and that was why the Preventors remained necessary.
The doors to Lady Une's office loomed ahead, and her secretary was already whispering into the intercom as Noin hobbled forward. She waited patiently for the secretary to give her the okay to enter. Once it was received the pilot stepped towards the heavy doors and eventually managed to pull one of them open and step inside. The ankle was her only apparent injury, but Noin had retained a few others that made things difficult. The secretary watched her with a pained expression on his face, but he knew better than trying to help. He had once before and the look he received was lesson enough. Soldiers had their pride, even when injured.
Lady Une's office was plain but exceptionally beautiful. It was the astute elegance of the desk in the center of the room that did it and the large glass windows that over looked the training area. The desk had very little clutter and there were no personal items except the small vase containing single pink rose, and the two photos in silver picture frames near the computer monitor. There were two water color paintings of flowers on the adjacent walls but they were fairly generic and had likely been a part of the office before Une had even taken it over.
Noin stood at attention, unable to break from habit, though she had tried. The military stuck in her blood, she doubted it would ever leave. The only thing she had truly managed to avoid breaking herself of was excessive saluting.
The lady was seemingly preoccupied with something going on outside. She was looking out of the window, arms crossed, head slightly tilted. Noin could barely make out her superior's reflection in the glass but there was a subtle shift in the lady's eyes.
"At ease," The lady said softly still looking out of the window. "You, Sally, and Nichol have never been able to relax around me."
Noin relaxed, but only a little. It still hurt to stand.
"Do sit down," Une said as she turned from the window. She walked around to the front of her desk and leaned against it. "I'm surprised you came so quickly."
"Your note was pretty clear." Noin replied taking a seat, immediate relief apparent on her features.
"It wasn't a formal request, that's why it was with the roses." She smiled softly. "How do you like them?"
"They were beautiful, but a bit…chilly."
Une nodded and moved to sit in the chair next to Noin. She crossed her legs and pulled a bit of her chestnut color hair behind her left ear. "You never called in the morning," Une said softly. "And you never wonder why I send you roses."
Noin took in a deep breath and tensed. No, she never did and she never had asked. She wanted to say she had meant to, but the truth was that she hadn't. In part she had wanted to forget, or so she told herself. It was really more along the lines of not wanting to admit to a mistake.
Lady Une stood up and moved back over to the window. She looked out across the training field; the bright clear blue of the sky unhindered by clouds forcing her to squint just a bit. Violet eyes watched her and then the pilot stood up and limped over to the window. Noin watched a Preventor squadron work through their morning exercises and then leaned into the glass for support.
"I'm sorry." Noin said. "I should have."
"Should you have?" Une asked. "Why would you have even thought to? No one really ever does."
"Oh?"
"His Excellency always said it was important to acknowledge those that had changed you, and so I do, though I'm not sure the change you sparked in me is something he would want me to celebrate."
"Oh." She looked at the carpet and then back out at the men and women on the field. Noin took a deep breath and then said, "And about that other-"
"What makes you think they aren't one and the same?" Une looked over at Noin and then shook her head. "Of course they aren't."
"Bitter?"
"No more than I deserve to be. It's the job. Being a leader is hard work, but you know that." She paused and then took a step back from the window. She moved behind Noin and leaned in close to ask, "How's the ankle?"
"It hurts like hell." Noin said flatly.
"I read the doctor's report."
"I can still fly." Noin said defensively. "Don't tell me I can't."
"I wouldn't dream of it, but my replacement might." Une stated and then took a step back.
"You're quitting?"
"Retiring. You know I was in a military academy by the time I was eight because it's the best education for nobility. It is a shame it got into my blood like it did, it's almost an addiction, and like all addictions it takes its toll. Now I'm in my thirties and feeling the weight of it, the years of service piling up on my shoulders, the weight of the dead on my soul." The lady stepped back a little more and leaned back against her desk, turning her gaze out of the window, not looking out of it, but at the reflection of Noin in the glass. "You should sit down. It can't be comfortable for you to stand like that."
The pilot shut her eyes and nodded. She turned and looked over at the lady.
"There was a Christmas party once," Noin said. "You said you had tired of chasing after younger women."
"And you had expressed some regret as well," Une stated coolly and then added, "but you never called me the next morning and we slipped quietly back into routine. Don't try to tell me all the things you had meant to do differently. We both know there's nothing you would have changed."
"No, there isn't."
"Neither would I, because you looked better out of that dress than in it."
"Where will you go?" Noin asked.
"I'm repairing a family estate in Germany. I may take up hunting again, but I've not decided." Une replied and then said, "The President will ask if you would like the position.
The violet eyed pilot shook her head. "I don't want your job, I never did."
"I know." Une shut her eyes and said, "You might be able to convince Wufei to vouch for your capability to fly-"
"But Sally won't." Noin interrupted.
"No, she won't."
The lady stood and walked over to the abandoned cane. She held it in her hand for a moment and then stepped over to the window, holding it out for Noin to accept. The pilot did so with reluctance, avoiding looking into Une's eyes. There was always a lot going on behind those eyes, and yet with all they seemed to be planning or calculating they never gave anything away.
"Thank you for the cane," Noin said to break what was fast becoming an uncomfortable silence.
"It wasn't from me." Une replied. "Sally got it for you."
Noin arched and eyebrow and grinned. "But only at your insistence."
"I may have suggested you'd appreciate it." The lady said with a smile and then she sighed, feeling she was a little too close. She backed away moving once again to the safety of her desk. It was a solid obstacle between them to mark the invisible ones that existed. "If I asked you to come with me," Une began and then trialed off, immediately knowing better than to even ask.
"I couldn't say yes."
The pilot shook her head because she wanted to say yes, but she didn't know if she would ever mean it, at least not the way the lady would have liked it meant. Everything that had occurred in the past stood before her. She wanted to deny ever having felt a thing for the lady. Lady Une was not someone that was easy to like. Noin shut her eyes and realized that despite that fact, once one allowed it to it happen, the lady was so very easy to love.
"I'm sorry." Noin whispered and then found strength in her voice again to say, "If there is nothing else-"
"You are free to go when you like," Lady Une cut in, and there may have been a hint, the barest twinge of heart ache in her tone, but it was masterfully hidden under layers of professionalism.
Noin nodded and began her exit out of the office. She stopped at the door and looked over her shoulder at the lady who was once again standing at the window. There were words she wanted to say. They stuck in her throat and stabbed at her. She swallowed and then opened the door and walked out of the office.
She moved slowly through the halls back towards her own office. Her grip on the cane was tight and the pain in her ankle seemed to be a little worse than it was before. As soon as she reached her office she opened the door and quickly moved inside. Her mind was abuzz with a million different things all pointing in the wrong directions.
She shut her eyes from the pain that was emanating through her body. It was not just from the ankle, it was from all the other places that were not quite healed yet and centered at her heart. She took a deep breath, violet eyes opening and falling in sharp focus on the roses atop her desk. She lurched forward and then swung her cane violently shattering the glass bowl and sending shards of glass, ice, rose petals, and blue tinted water across the room in a shower of frustration.
All she wanted was to fly.
All she needed was to be able to fly.
And now there were no more second chances left.
End.