Notes:
Set immediately after EP34 – Private Time (or, the one where Rick leaves Lisa waiting at the café all day). The timeline has been stretched & padded a bit and it diverges from canon from here. In this universe, Khyron doesn't attack the SDF's, but instead limps his ship out of the solar system never to be seen again. Oh yeah, and the other 'seasons' and Robotech II: The Sentinels don't exist.
I've cherry picked events & dialogue from various canon sources and have molded them into something that makes my heart happy and that (hopefully) you'll enjoy reading.
*sidenote – Bobby Bell (feat. In Reconstruction Blues) is a bigger character here. For some reason, as a kid, I was weirdly obsessed with this minor background character with 0.16 seconds of screen time so I decided to have a little fun with him in this story.
UPDATE March '21:
This story has had a title change for reasons that will hopefully become clearer later. It's evolved slightly since I wrote the first draft but it's still the same story and I wanted a title to reflect that. There has also been some minor formatting changes to bring it more into line with how it's present on A). I hope it's not too confusing for anyone following along.
This story has an accompanying playlist that you can find here: FIC PLAYLIST LINK
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TAGS:
canon divergence, romance, mild angst, misunderstandings, grand declarations of love, domestic fluff, established relationships, canon timeline doesn't exist, Robotech II doesn't exist, this is the most self-indulgent thing I've ever done and I love it.
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[FIC PLAYLIST LINK]
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PROLOGUE
Its fury alone that sustains her long enough to find a cab and make her way home without succumbing to the tears.
It burns just on the inside of her chest, right where her heart should be. Better to savor the burn, she thinks, instead of succumbing to the other emotion that lurks around the edges. The hurt, the frustration…
The humiliation.
She had waited the entire day for him, all while he was off on urgent personal business with none other than Miss Macross herself.
Cool air whips around her legs and her hands shake as she opens her door. The dusk has grown into night and she's grateful for the dim light to hide the pinch of her lips. The wind catches her hair, making it billow softly around her face as the street lights slowly wink awake. A whole day she's wasted. A whole day sitting around waiting for him.
For an intelligent woman, you can sure be a fool sometimes, Lisa thinks to herself.
In the sanctuary of her pre-fab quarters, the edges of her anger morph into something more painful now. Something that if she looks too closely at will hurt so much it will leave her breathless. She doesn't look at her tiny kitchen, still strewn with the mild chaos of her early morning cooking session. She had been so eager to get to the café to meet Rick, she promised herself that just this once she would break ranks and leave the dishes to wash up once she got home.
She regrets that decision now. Perhaps if she had taken the time to tidy up like she should have, she wouldn't be standing here chilled to the bone after wasting an entire day waiting around for a man who obviously couldn't care less.
It hits her like a wave anew and the force of it makes her gasp out loud and reach a trembling hand out to grip the doorway. He really chose Minmei over her. Again.
Her eyes sting and she shudders. She tries to tell herself it's just a chill from being caught out in the cold. It's not entirely a lie. She's cold from the chill evening air outside, but she's colder yet from the treatment she received.
How can she ever hope to compete against a star crossed love like that?
The answer is a simple whisper through her thoughts… She can't.
So perhaps it was time she stopped trying.
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