Forty five days earlier…
Noin tilted her neck to the side, trying desperately to work out a kink in her neck. With her right hand still massaging herself, she swiped her key card through the slot and entered her apartment. She didn't bother turning her lights on. Her quarters always had at least some light in them, and she had absolutely no desire to add to what there already was. It had been a long, long day.
Much like her duties when she was an OZ soldier, she was one of the top trainers for the Preventers. She had to mold the recruits, who were mostly awkward boys fresh out of high school, into professional agents. Needless to say, most of her days drove her insane. There were only a handful of young men who had the ability to rise to the occasion quickly, and all of them had been trained by someone else long before she ever had this job.
Some days, though, were worse than others, and this had been one of those days. It was the first day for this current batch, and she was more than ready to fill out reports on every single one of them. Usually, after the first week, Noin would pick out anyone who seemed to have the drive and the potential to make it in the program. If they were selected, they would receive basic training from a whole series of other agents, taking at least two years, before she would work with them again. Everyone else just got sent home with a report put in a permanent file describing exactly why they wouldn't cut it.
In the one day she had been working with this group, she was already fairly certain that not one was going to be recommended for the program.
They were terrible.
They were absolutely terrible.
And she had six more fifteen hour days with them.
She was in for a long week.
Noin listlessly kicked her bag underneath her bed, groaning as her neck kept agitating her. She was torn between flopping into her bed and letting her body give in to her exhaustion, and doing her full evening cool down to keep her from killing her neck further in the night. The trainer walked to her living room and began walking in circles, trying desperately to alleviate any of the tension in her neck. Her efforts, though, seemed to be to no avail.
It had been ten at night when she had reached her quarters, and by midnight, there had been very little improvement. Her stress level had not diminished at all, her tension was as high as ever, and the combination of those two factors were keeping her muscles tight and knotted up.
At half past midnight, there was a soft rapping on her front door. The young trainer rolled her eyes. There were only a handful of people in the world that would dare interrupt her in the middle of the night, only three or four that would knock first and call second, and only one that would do it quietly.
"Zechs, you have your own damn key. Let yourself in!" she called out, roughly attacking the knot in her neck again.
A few quick noises were heard before there was a very soft click, signifying the opening lock. Noin's eyes were closed as she listened to the near silent footfalls of her partner. "When the hell are you going to realize that the whole purpose of you having a key is so that you can come and go as you please?"
A soft shuffling was heard, and Noin knew that meant that he had brought another duffel bag's worth of stuff with him that evening. A small smile graced her lips as she tilted her head backwards, moaning as some of her tension lessened.
"I respect your privacy, Noin," his deep voice said.
Noin righted her head, lowered her hand, and looked him in the eye. "Zechs, you're going to have to get over this obsession with acting like an eternal outsider. You really don't have to knock every time you come home!"
Zechs smirked quickly before giving her a quick kiss. "This is still very new to me, Noin."
"Oh, right, because I got used to living together with you years ago," she sarcastically replied. "You know, before you decided to move in me."
Zechs shifted the bag on his shoulder, still smirking at his partner. "There's no need to be unkind, Noin."
"Sure there is," she replied. "I get to harass you about this as long as you continue to move in one duffel bag at a time and insist on knocking before coming in." She hissed suddenly, grabbing at the side of her neck.
Zechs brushed Noin's hand away from her neck, leaning down to tenderly kiss it from behind. "I take it you had a long day," he whispered.
Noin smiled softly as his lips danced along her neck. "How could you tell?"
"Because," he whispered, brushing her hair aside, "you always get very, very tense right…" his tongue brushed along one small spot where her neck met her shoulder. He grinned as she shivered. "…here."
Noin felt her knees threatening to give out underneath her. "Mmmm…" she moaned, leaning to allow more access to the tall blonde. "Could you just do that for the rest of the night? I could really use it."
Zechs chuckled into her neck, stopping to nuzzle against it. "You're so spoiled," he said with a laugh, pulling back completely. He spun the strong woman around, smirking down at her. "You don't even care whether or not I have any tension."
The trainer punched the ace pilot in the shoulder. "What the hell tension do you have?" she jokingly snapped. "You get to play with machines all day long, and I'm stuck with group after group of idiots making sure that they don't have access to your toys!"
The blonde's smirk dropped for a moment, and a sad look washed over his graceful features for no more than a second. "I do more than just 'play with my toys', Noin, and while you have to deal with new recruits, I'm stuck with Maxwell all day long, six days a week."
The Italian laughed. "Fine, I'll give your shoulders a rub if you do the same for me."
"Fair enough," Zechs replied. "Do you wish to go first, or should I?"
Before the pilot could figure out what was going on, he found his legs being swept out from underneath him as he seemed to be falling into a kitchen chair. A rough hand on the back of his clothing jerked him around so that he landed in a seated position, and his jacket was swiftly torn from his shoulders.
"I'll do you first," the instructor whispered in his ear, standing right behind the chair. "That way, you can be nice and relaxed as you ease my muscles all night long."
Zechs closed his eyes and bit on to his tongue, fighting desperately to get rid of the image that had just popped into his head. Anything involving Noin and 'all night long' was almost more than the pilot could take. "That could be good," he hoarsely whispered. They were the only words that he could get out at the time.
Noin ran her slender fingers over his shoulders and down to his bicep. She gently began to dig her fingers into his flesh, and couldn't help the cat like grin on her features as she listened to him trying (and failing) not to moan. As she worked the tense muscles in his upper arms, she couldn't help but frown for a half a second. "You know," she casually said, sliding her fingers around, "this would probably be more effective if there wasn't so much here…"
The young man popped open one blue eye, half glaring at his love. "Not this again…"
"Seriously though, Zechs," Noin said, leaning in to hug him from behind, "what is up with this new muscle bound thing you're doing? This is a phase, right? I mean, you're going to eventually go back to the lean, mean, piloting machine that I first fell in love with, right?"
Zechs reached up with one hand and clasped it over Noin's. "You know, I'm not the only one to have been spending a lot of time in the gym. You've bulked up too, Noin."
The young woman let go of him and sharply smacked him on the shoulder. "First of all, I'm going to pretend that you did not just break rule number one of relationships, which states that never should a man insinuate that a woman in any way, shape, or form has gotten bigger. And secondly, while I may be a little more toned up than I was a couple years ago, you've gained at least twenty pounds in solid muscle!"
The blonde shifted uncomfortably in his seat, knowing that she was expecting an explanation for the chance. "It's not that much…" he started.
He didn't get to finish, though, before Noin was in the closet, pulling something out. "Exhibit A, in my right hand, is your jacket from last year. Exhibit B, in my left hand, is your jacket from six months ago." She tilted her chin to indicate her next direction. "And exhibit C, behind your chair, is your current jacket."
"Why do you have my old jackets?" Zechs asked, getting to his feet and praying it would change the subject.
"I felt like it," she sharply responded. "Now, if you will look at them, I think that it is fairly obvious that they are not all the same size."
"But not by that much!" Zechs protested getting to his feet.
"Oh, really?" she shot back, tossing the first jacket at her love. "Put that on."
Zechs just held on to the coat in his hands, not knowing what to do next. He knew, just as well as she did, that there was no way he could possibly fit in to it. He had, in fact, been very deliberately gaining muscle mass over the course of the last few months. But he wasn't supposed to let her know why. "I don't know why you're pushing this so hard…"
"Because you're defensive!" Noin snapped back. "And you only get defensive when you are hiding something very, very big from me. You don't give a damn about someone else's opinion. Now what the hell are you keeping from me?"
The seasoned pilot sat back down in the chair, resting his elbows on his knees and hanging his head. He was sick of keeping this from her. They had finally managed to get themselves into a stable relationship, and here he was, keeping something this big from her. He sighed, shaking his head. She was going to find out soon enough on her own. She might as well hear it from his lips.
"I'm leaving tomorrow."
Noin's blood turned to ice in her veins. Leaving? He was leaving her? Why? What could possibly be the reason could there be for her leaving her again?
"I don't have a choice," he went on, still unable to look at her. He couldn't believe that he was doing this to her, especially after all that they had been through.
"Don't…you don't have…what the hell do you mean you don't…" she stammered. She couldn't put the sentence together in her head or her mouth. It was just such a devastating blow to her heart that she couldn't even think straight.
Slowly, Zechs got to his feet and walked up to his love and grasped her hands. "Believe me, if there had been any other way…"
Suddenly, Noin's brain seemed to turn back on. She violently tore her hands from his and punched him squarely across the jaw. "You son of a bitch!" she hissed, pulling her fist back for another blow. "You God damned son of a bitch! After everything, everything that I have done for you, after all of these years of standing by your side and defending you, even at your lowest points, you have the audacity to tell me that you're walking out on me and that you have no choice?!?"
Zechs slowly brought his own hand to his cheek, stunned at her actions. He had done a lot of horrible, horrible things in his life, and she had stood by him all the while. She had loved him, supported him, and done everything in her power to help him see the right path. Never, never had she lashed out at him before, and certainly never with her fists.
"Noin…" he stammered, still in a state of shock. "Noin…I…"
"Get out," she cried out. "If you're just going to leave me, then leave now. But don't you dare come back here again. This is the last time you walk out on me…" she drew a long breath before hissing his name, "Milliardo Peacecraft."
The ace pilot felt like he had been hit again. She knew that he hated going by that name, that it brought out too many bad memories. She wouldn't have used it unless she was serious about never wanting to see him again.
Never in his life had Zechs felt this horrible about something he had done. He should have told her. He should have told her sooner. Hell, he should have told her as soon as he had known about it. But he hadn't, because he had been under very specific orders to not tell anyone, especially Lucrezia Noin.
That order was about to fly out the window, though, and the hell with the consequences. "Une is sending me undercover," he quietly said. "I was informed of the possibility of this mission six months ago, and was sworn to absolute secrecy."
Noin felt herself recoil at those words. "Undercover?" she whispered. "There's something so big going on that we need to send a top agent undercover? And why the hell does it have to be you? Zechs, what the hell is going on here?"
The prince once again averted his gave from her. "There was…speculation that something might happen. I'm sorry, Noin, I cannot tell you what it is. Should it go as feared, Une will tell you. If not, I'll tell you everything as soon as I return. I promise."
The instructor slowly approached him, lifting his chin and making him look her in the eye. "So, you've been doing this to your body so that you'll be less recognizable," she realized out loud. "But your hair…"
"Goes in the morning," he replied, not bothering to hide his disappointment. "My hair will be cut and colored, my eye color will be altered with lenses, and Yuy is actually scheduled to break my nose first thing tomorrow and set it wrong." He paused, running a finger along her cheek. "When I come back, you won't know who I am."
Noin sat down on their couch, not sure how she would react. As his words finally and fully began to sink in, she drew a long and deep breath. She knew, as any other top level agent would, that not even family members were allowed to know when someone was about to go undercover. They would just be told that they were being temporarily relocated. An agent would have pre-taped and pre-written messages that would be systematically sent to their loved ones. Even if their family consisted of other agents, it was still entirely hidden.
That was why he hadn't told her anything. That was why he had been changing himself. That was why he had been so hesitant about moving all the way in to her apartment.
"You're..." she softly began, not sure where her words were going. "you're...going through a complete physical transformation...that's why you've been putting yourself through this, why you've been so quiet, why you've been dodging me ever time I asked about your almost insane workouts..."
Zechs honestly didn't know what to say next. What do you say to the woman you love when you're leaving and forming a new life, even if it is only temorary?
"Can I at least know what you'll vaguely look like when you come back?" Noin softly asked. "I mean, so I know who to kiss?"
Zechs knelt down in front of her, brushing his fingers along her cheek. "You're forgiving me?" he quietly asked.
Noin closed her eyes, nuzzling against his hand. "The fact that you told me at all, knowing full well what will happen to you if anyone finds out, tells me all I need to know. So, how will I know you when you get back?"
The ace pilot leaned in close, leaning his forehead against hers. "I'll be the one doing this," he whispered. He closed the gap between them, kissing her passionately. She instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck and tried to pull him even closer to her body.
"How long will you be gone?" she huskily whispered, pulling both of them to their feet.
Zechs shook his head, kissing her again. "I don't know," he honestly answered. "Une said that it could be up to a year, but I promise you, Noin, I will do everything in my power to get back as soon as I can."
"A year…" she whispered, looking away for a moment. She seemed to be thinking carefully about something before she brought her eyes back up, meeting his head on. "Then we need to make this last night together really count…"
