Author's note: I do not own Gundam Wing or its characters. Both Zechs and Noin are thirteen years old. Some of these chapters have been posted before as part of This Kiss.


Fresh Blood

Noin was not exactly thrilled to be here, but she wasn't going to let that show. She had enough problems as it was. She went where the Alliance sent her, and she didn't have a say in it. Neither did the rest of the students, so they should get used to her being her. There were only three other girls at Lake Victoria, two of them in her cohort and one in the cohort after hers, and none of them were in any of her classes. So she was the only girl in the advanced classes, and it apparently rankled some of the boys. That was evidenced by their treatment of her. In classes, they pretended she didn't exist. Outside of classes, they did their level best to make her life a living hell.

She had barely been here a week, and Noin had already been the victim of more than a dozen pranks. She did her best to ignore them if possible and avoid future ones, but she knew that she wouldn't be able to avoid them all. Admittedly, Noin had started taking her frustration out during hand to hand combat lessons. She might come away with bruises, but she wasn't the only one. Truthfully, the only time she really felt anything close to being content was during their flight simulations. She couldn't wait to really be able to pilot a mobile suit. There was just something freeing about flight.

Running a hand through her short hair, Noin glanced around the cafeteria for a place to sit that wouldn't get her lunch ruined before she could eat it. Spotting Marquise sitting alone, she made for his table. Noin was ambivalent about Zechs Marquise. On the one hand, he did not participate in harassing her, and he was one of the few students that matched her skill and intelligence wise. On the other hand, he was anti-social to the extreme, and his very name was a reminder of what she had lost. Still, sitting by him would be better than having to guard her food every minute.

He looked up as she sat down across from him, and Noin considered the odd mask he wore. There were plenty of rumors about why he wore, though she didn't give credence to most of them. Besides, she better than most people understood keeping secrets.

"And you're sitting here because?" Marquise drawled. She couldn't tell if he was amused or annoyed.

"Are you going to steal my food, attempt to ruin my food, or otherwise make my lunch unpleasant?" At his headshake, she smiled. "That's why I'm sitting here."

Marquise just shrugged and went back to eating. It was a quiet lunch, but Noin couldn't say that she minded. Once she was done with her food, she headed for the library. It was one of the safer places for her to spend her time. It wasn't completely supervised, but very few people dared to incur the librarian's wrath. Noin picked out several books on tactics and strategy and sat down to do some studying. She looked up when someone sat down at the same table as her. It was Marquise.

"You made an interesting point in class yesterday about logistics and strategy," he said. "I wanted to know what you thought of this week's assigned reading in regards to that."

It wasn't quite an offer of friendship, but it was something. She smiled at him.

"Sure."