Title: Tell Me the Lies
Rating: PG-13
Characters are not mine I am just borrowing.
A/N: Prequel to The Land Sinks Into Mellow Blueness, and Meet Your New Road.
The frontier colony had an open window observation deck that was meant to help attract tourists once the colony found its bearings. It would easily accommodate at least two hundred visitors and there was an amusement park being built near to it as well. Most of the entertainment portions of building for the colony would be on hold for five to ten years since the most important project for the colony was the construction of a resource satellite.
The observation deck was complete save a few touristy extras, like a light show pointing out the local constellations and stars, and activity kiosks. The lights in the upper level of the deck had been turned down to give a better view of the stars and the two occupying the space seemed to enjoy the quiet of the room.
"It's beautiful up here," Relena Peacecraft-Darlain said softly and leaned into the railing of the upper deck. "I don't think I ever really…" She trailed off. The last year for her had been eye opening. "I never really appreciated the view when I was in space before."
Her companion nodded and looked up at the stars. She had her arms crossed over her chest and tried to remember the last time she had looked into space and saw beauty instead of the inky blackness between dim points of light.
"How long are you staying out here, Noin," Relena asked.
"However long I want to." Noin looked over at Relena and then asked, "Will you be reinstated?"
"I've been told that the ministry offices are in quite the stir without me." She chuckled and then shook her head. "As far as I know I will be reinstated. If not-"
"If not?" Noin seemed amazed it was even a possibility.
Relena shrugged. "I was told by the Foreign Minister that I was killing my career when I decided to take an extended leave. Maybe I have, but it couldn't be helped. I needed…I needed a change of perspective." She grinned slightly. "If I'm not reinstated as the Vice Foreign Minister I'll run for political office in Sanq." She looked down at the floor and stepped away from the railing. "It's become quite the up and coming little democratic republic."
"I've heard." Noin privately wondered how Zechs felt about knowing that no monarch would rule the country again. "With a standing army and everything."
"Yes, and…" She shook her head and bit at her lip. "It's for the best."
Noin arched an eyebrow, but said nothing. There it was. Relena had grown up and had her own true ideals.
"Where did you go on your leave?"
Relena stepped over to where Noin was standing. She shrugged slightly and then said, "All over…Africa, the Americas, the moon, a few of the recovering colonies. I worked a lot with public works projects, building houses, and roads. I got my hands dirty and…Well, it was important to do."
"What happened, exactly, that made you-"
"I went to see Mariemea Kushrenada in the hospital. I did it just once and…" She searched for words, and then looked over at Noin. "It was like someone had held up a mirror to me, and I really didn't like what I saw."
Noin nodded.
"What about you?"
Noin blinked and said, "I want to be away from…everything. This is as away as I can get while still being useful."
"Right."
****
"This shirt…is awful," Relena said as she twined two fingers along the fridge of Noin's infamous cowgirl shirt. "Why didn't Sally or my brother have this thing burned?"
"I like this shirt," Noin defended and then added, "Sally was just- She kept trying to sneak into her piles of clothes she was giving away to charity."
Relena grinned. "Well what else do you have?"
Noin held up a pair of culottes with a matching jacket.
"Absolutely not." Relena walked over to the closet and opened it. She shuffled through the sparse selection of civilian wear and sighed.
"Cathy tried to have it destroyed too," Noin added.
"Who?"
"Trowa Barton's sister, well not real sister, but…Anyway, his sister." Noin sat on her bed and watched as Relena pulled out clothes from her closet. "I met her when the circus came up here last month."
"Oh." Relena said distracted by trying to find a shirt that would match the acceptable slacks she had pulled out. "Oh you are so lucky I'm not Dorothy," Relena said in a huff.
Noin nodded, unseen.
"You need a personal shopper, or barring that…Well, you definitely need a chaperone when you go shopping."
"It can't be that bad."
Relena spun around with a shirt in hand. "You wanted to wear culottes with a jacket."
Noin rolled her eyes. Ten minutes later she was redressed in the ensemble Relena had pieced together for her. She eyed herself critically in the mirror.
"I look like Quatre."
"Yes, well, at least he can dress himself," Relena replied.
"Careful, you're sounding like Dorothy."
Relena stepped up to Noin and smoothed out the line of her light violet vest. "The only good thing I learned from Dorothy was when to be absolutely brutally honest. And…you…need it."
Noin huffed. "The only thing…I thought you two were-"
"No, never." She turned away and then muttered, "We wanted very different things."
****
Dinner had been short, and back at Noin's quarters the conversation had taken an interesting turn.
"What was it?" Noin asked.
"What?"
"That you wanted that was different from Dorothy?"
Relena was perched along the counter of Noin's small kitchen. She'd reached out and tugged Noin towards her, gripping at edges of the light violet vest. She kissed the slightly older woman tentatively, an experiment, and then deeply, pulling Noin closer and wrapping her legs about the Preventor's waist.
Lucrezia Noin wasn't ready for the consequences of such a thing, but found herself unable to resist or deny the eager wanting of Relena's lips.
Mistakes were being made, and for the moment they seemed acceptable, if not unavoidable.
The entire evening had been filled with veiled advances from Relena's end, and they were only veiled because there was a part of her that felt slightly awkward at being attracted to her brother's ex. It was the same sort of guilty feeling she had felt in her chest after the wars when she started to find Lady Une absolutely fascinating, crushing like the teenager she was on a woman that was, from her perspective, completely forbidden. There were rules, she was sure, about never ever dating the woman responsible for your father's death.
Lucrezia wasn't exactly the same though, and Relena used that name in her head to escape the guilt of wanting what her brother had foolishly discarded. He always called her Noin. Relena wanted to call her Lucrezia, but she never could. She never could, except now with Noin's lips crashing into her, and fingers tugging around the buttons of her blouse.
Still, she whispered it, "Lucrezia." Finding a positive response to it as the woman's lips kissed down the length of her neck.
****
Morning was awkward, rushed. Words were hasty and stinging.
Mistake, mistake, was all either women could think. Except that Relena didn't really believe it, and Noin was not ready to believe that it wasn't.
"Just, a flight of fancy," Relena said.
"Right," Noin replied.
"I'm due back-"
"I know."
And that was it. That was it, except that at the shuttle waiting patiently for Relena was a small bouquet of flowers, a small and almost grubby selection, because the colony wasn't really set up to have anything better yet, and despite this they were perfect. Perfect and terrible because neither was ready for the other, not yet.
End.