Disclaimer: I own nothin'
Pairings/Warnings: 6x9, past hinted 13x6, side 4xR and 1x2 mentioned, het, implied sexual content, angst
Beta'd by Lunar Pull and inspired by a conversation with her about Noin. Also this was written in November and might be the last of these random one-shots I keep forgetting I wrote. Might be...
Fireworks
The heady mix of alcohol and mundane conversation drove him outside into the night air. He stood, leaning against a marble pillar, looking up at the clear night sky and ignoring the proceedings inside. The party was partially his own homecoming. Partially as it was also the moment to officially announce the heir apparent of the Peacecraft dynasty - even if Relena didn't go by that name at all. She was Darlian-Winner now - her husband had been following her closely during the evening, Relena clutching her stomach throughout the event even though she was barely showing - motherly natural instinct kicking in.
But as he'd been engaged in awkward conversation by men he could barely stand, he'd wished he'd stayed on Mars. Not capitulated to Relena's request - her soft blue eyes begging him over a vid screen. That for the health of the baby, she was going to take a backseat in her role in the ESUN - a small scare of bleeding that had made Quatre especially cautious and the doctors had advised her to clear her busy schedule and do the absolute minimum for the remainder of her term.
He was to take over - an outcome he would've never believed, as he after all, had tried to destroy Earth, once, but then he was a Peacecraft. Much leniency was given to him. Relena thought his mind at the end of the war had been warped by Treize and offered him some forgiveness but she never really understood. Never entirely forgave. And he would not blame her.
"Zechs?" asked a familiar voice, one that made him turn his head immediately.
"I'm afraid it's Milliardo from now on, Noin."
"Milliardo then," she said, stepping towards him, her heels making a clacking noise against the marble.
He smiled at her, dressed in an elegant black halter neck dress, it exposing her throat, a sweet heart neckline, low on her breasts. It showed her body perfectly and she was aware. Knew that men's eyes were upon her as she moved.
He'd watched her earlier, dancing with Duo Maxwell, while his partner. Heero Yuy, was stood in conversation with Relena - the young man somewhat changed from the boy he remembered. Taller, yes, but also less confrontational in his stance, he'd even been willing to shake Zechs' hand like he'd refused to do immediately after the Barton Rebellion, before he went to Mars.
She'd danced with Duo, impossibly graceful, leading him as he was clumsy and untrained at that sort of dancing and he'd seen her smile at his jokes, his commentary, and Zechs wished it was him that made her smile like that.
But he hadn't. Not since Mars. Maybe not since the Academy and their young foolish experimentation.
She'd walked over with that slight sashay that the high silvery heels gave her, the heels that made her only a small amount shorter than him.
"I didn't think you'd come back," she said, a little glint in her eye.
"I'm needed."
Noin laughed, soft, and she reminded him of her young and wide eyed and enchanting to him. "Zechs… always thinking you are the only one who can do things. She would've found someone else. You could've stayed in the shadows."
"One day I had to come back. It was just a matter of when. I couldn't stay in the shadows forever."
She looked up at him from under her eyelashes, he could hear the low hum of the party inside, and yet they felt so apart from it as he leaned on the marble pillar. He could see the Preventer security, men in suits sweeping the area, yet they all ignored them - though Zechs had a gun with him, the holster around his shoulders, unable to feel entirely comfortable in his home - on Earth. He'd gone to Mars out of self-preservation as much as exile - as the first assassination attempts were deserved. He knew that.
"No," she said, "you'd always come back for her."
He quirked an eyebrow at that. "Did you want me to come back for you?"
"Oh Zechs," Noin whispered, moving to his ear, "you were good but you were not that good."
"You've had better?"
"I've had different."
Noin eyes sparkled as she teased him - she'd always done that - since the Academy - a more than capable match for him than anyone had been. Treize had been domineering. Always. But Noin was his equal. Strong. Determined. Capable.
He thought of her aboard their shuttle to Mars, wearing his red t-shirt, it stopping at the top of her thighs, the brief glimpse of black panties as she pushed him to one of those bunks, taking control, grabbing him roughly by his hair, the curve of her thighs against his torso until he couldn't stand her tease anymore, pinning her to the rough grey blankets and thin mattress to slide his fingers through black lace and lick and taste and made her shudder and come through the skill of his tongue.
It was a Honeymoon - the journey aboard that shuttle as on Mars he couldn't be what she needed - her version too idealised, too unreal and she had returned to Earth, Une persuading her to take a senior position within the Preventers. She'd gone to Mars out of some misguided notion that he needed her - and some devotion that Zechs was entirely undeserving of. Maybe he did need her. When she'd gone, he spent nights alone remembering the way she smiled, the way she walked, the way she looked as she came.
He regretted that he didn't fight for her to stay. And maybe he was not worthy of her devotion but he wanted to be worthy of her love. It was only in the red dust and isolation of Mars that he discovered that.
"The fireworks are due to start soon," she said, her voice bringing him out of his reverie. "Your sister will expect you to be there."
"Is that why you came to find me?"
Noin shook her head. "I came because you looked so… So out of place here now. I wanted to see you were okay."
"You've always worried too much about me, Noin."
"You've always done such stupid things. You need someone to worry."
He laughed. "It will always be you."
"No, not always. One day I will give up on your selfish pompous ass."
"Selfish?"
"Yes, I have other insults I could throw but I don't have all night."
Zechs looked at her, that wry half smile, they had never entirely worked as a couple but they had always had such beautiful fights - wars of words where she was his equal in wit and intelligence.
"Indeed we don't so excuse me when I do this…"
He didn't surprise her, he even wondered if he could, as she knew him on an intimate level since they were teens, all those memories of sneaking to meet in locker rooms in the Academy after midnight, her on her knees or him between her spread thighs, discovering pleasure together. Reciprocated pleasure, unlike with Treize.
So when he went to kiss her, she anticipated entirely, leaned in to avoid a bump of noses, opened his mouth without his askance, pulled at his hair, wrapping it around a clenched fist to demand, to drag his head where she wanted him. Noin had always been like that. Never surrendering to him, fighting back, demanding her own pleasure. Her own wants.
And it was her that backed off, released the strands of blond hair and smiled - a smile that had made him do stupid things since he was a teen.
"I should go and watch the fireworks with my dear sister," Zechs said, his voice a little uneven.
Noin's fingers went to his chest, to the white fabric of a dress shirt, poking him harshly through it.
"Or you could make fireworks with me."
He flashed her a smile. "That was a terrible attempt at a joke."
"It's wasn't a joke," she said, "and just wait til you see how terrible I can be."
She walked away then, her fingers ghosting across his chest despite their absence and he heard and saw the first fireworks explode in the sky.
Zechs thought about joining Relena - standing to watch light and colour explode in the sky with numerous politicians and men like the former Gundam pilots. Instead, he shook his head, gave a small smile and followed to where Noin had disappeared to - hoping she had found somewhere discreet that they could make their own fireworks.