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Gundam Wing is property of Sotsu Agency, Bandai Studios, and TV Asahi. Sainan no Kekka and all original characters and plot copyright 2000 by Quicksilver and Gerald Tarrant. Please ask permission before reposting. SAINAN NO KEKKA
MEMORANDUM FOR RECORD
Going to bed that night was one of the hardest things Noin had ever had to do. It wasn't that she was not tired. She had pulled an all-nighter the night before, cramming for a quantum physics test that she still wasn't sure had been worth the lack of sleep. She had been cranky at the dining hall for the noon meal and had skipped the mobile suit sortie that afternoon altogether, stumbling back to her dorm to catch a few hours of sleep before wing stand up and her counseling with the Academy commander to make sure her papers were in order for graduation. Graduation. It had seemed so far away then. She wondered where all the years had gone. Maybe it was the nap that afternoon, but as the moon came out and the hot African air cooled, she found herself tossing and turning on the bed between the suddenly scratchy sheets. Her back itched and she wanted a drink of water. Getting up, she threw on a sweatshirt over the oversized t-shirt and shorts she usually wore to bed, silently exiting her small room and padding down the hall, out the door of the dormitory. The chow hall was across the street and they usually had a little cafeteria section open for students who needed a snack during an all-night study break. "You're up late." She jumped, whirled around as a silver mask emerged from the dim sidewalk behind her, and she breathed a sigh of relief. "Zechs! You scared me." "Couldn't sleep?" he said easily as he came up beside her, holding the door open for her as they both entered the cafeteria. She laughed. "I took a nap this afternoon. I guess I shouldn't have." One of his hands brushed hers and she shivered slightly, pulling it away and trying to ignore the side look he gave her before he motioned her ahead of him in line. There were a few cadets sitting at the tables along the far end of the cafeteria, sipping coffee out of paper cups, books open. Some of them had fallen asleep, slumped forward onto the tables. "That's all right," he said. "I couldn't sleep either." Something in his voice made her turn and look at him, but the part of his face visible under the mask was inscrutable as ever. She moved forward, ordered a cup of coffee in a low voice, waiting for Zechs to make his choice. Instead, he simply moved along with her in the line as she picked up the steaming cup and handed her student ID to the woman behind the counter. "You're not going to order?" "I don't want anything, thanks." His voice was odd again, but she didn't look at him again until they had exited the cafeteria. The night air was cooling fast and she found herself wishing she had brought a jacket or a sweater. "Are you cold?" "I'm all right," Noin said, sipping her coffee. The wind was chill against her skin and then something warm settled over her shoulders. She looked over startled, at Zechs who was now only wearing a loose sweatshirt, his coat draped over her. "You'll be cold!" "I'm fine. You'll get sick." "Thanks," she murmured, slipping her arms into the sleeves. The garment was a little too large for her, but she tucked her hands into the sleeves, holding the cup of coffee on the outside, warming her hands. "Do you want some coffee?" He shook his head. "What are you doing up?" she asked again. "Walk with me," he said. "I'll…tell you on the way." He held the door open for her again as they exited, she clutching the cup of coffee through the large sleeves of his coat, he walking beside her, his breath steaming in the cool air. "Zechs?" "It's bright tonight," he said. "I've never seen it so bright." "What are you talking about?" A shiver passed down her spine, and it was not from the cold. He was acting strange…he wasn't acting like the Zechs she knew. This Zechs frightened her. "Zechs, what are you talking about?" "The moon." He pointed, and she looked up, at the huge silver glittering face hanging in the sky by the thread of stars. "My father once told me…people who wish on the moon are fools, but at least they have something to believe in." She stopped walking, suddenly, looking around her, realizing that they were standing on the hill that led to the big tree. Her tree. "That's the first time…you've ever mentioned your family." He laughed, a rueful laugh. "I don't like to talk about them often, I suppose." "That's all right," she said. "I know it can be hard." "Yeah," he said. "I miss them." Something in his voice cracked and broke, and suddenly he was just a thirteen year old boy away from home, missing the ones he loved. She set the coffee cup on the ground carefully, and touched his shoulder. He shuddered. "Zechs, are you all right?" The silver mask slid away from her vision, and he started walking again. She stared after him for a minute before grabbing the coffee from the ground, swallowing the rest of it, running up the hill after him. "Zechs! Wait, Zechs!" She was breathing hard when she reached the top of the hill. He was already standing under the big branches of the tree, looking over the Academy. The lights in the clock tower still shone steadily and the floodlights on the flightline were beacons of white lightning across the dark landscape. The lake beyond glittered in the moonlight. "You're not mad at me," she said hesitantly. "Are you?" He shook his head. The silver mask looked like a bird's head. A bird of prey, with a hooked beak. "I could never be mad at you, Noin. You should know that." She hugged his coat closer around herself, stepped in a little nearer to him, basking in his body heat. "Sometimes I feel too young to be doing this," she said. "And then sometimes I feel very old." "So do I." He seemed to hesitate on the last word and she looked up at him, up at the blue eyes she could see through the silver mask. "You've been wanting to tell me something," she said softly. "What is it?" He turned fully to face her, and for a moment her heart pounded as he stood frozen, as if in the middle of some momentous decision which he could not bear to make. And then his hands, his arms moved slowly, up to his face, above his head, and she whispered, "no, Zechs, no," as he placed his fingers spread across the metal of the mask and pushed it up, above his nose, his eyes, his forehead, across the last wisp of golden hair. There was no monster behind the mask, after all. Zechs Merquise was just a boy. Noin reached out hesitantly, with one hand, touched his face, traced the cheekbones and the plane of the nose and the shape of his eyes as his eyelids closed and he just stood there, feeling the touch of her. His face where the mask had been was paler than the skin around his lips and his chin, which had seen the sun. Her hand moved to his hair, and as she felt the strands between her fingers, his lips moved. "Noin." Her hand dropped to her side and she squeezed her eyes shut, expecting to open them again to the mask, the realization that she had been daydreaming. But his face was still there, a human face, eyes looking at her with almost a kind of guilt. "In seven years," he said quietly, "you are the second person to ever see my face." "Who's the first?" She knew the answer before his lips shaped them, and she breathed the name along with him. "Treize Khushrenada." "He took me in," Zechs said, turning away from her. "When I had nowhere to go." "Zechs?" She closed her eyes as his hand reached for her, cupped her chin gently in his hand and traced the shape of her lips with his fingertips. "Zechs," she said, her words a whisper on the cold night breeze. "Who are you?" His voice was low but steady when he answered her, his breath warm on her hair. "I was born in the Cinq Kingdom. My name is Milliard Peacecraft." It was as if she had always known, because her heart kept beating and she merely nodded, as if somehow, it was right. "You're royalty." "Royalty without a kingdom." His lip twisted. "A prince without a crown." "I heard about…what happened," she said. "My uncle was one of the delegates to the peace talks. I think. He never really talked about it." Zechs shrugged. "I don't think anyone did. Treize…Treize was there for me, when I was left after that. He took me in. He gave me my life back, and a cause." "To take back your kingdom?" "To avenge my people. To avenge my family." The words were rough with the raw edges of pain. "To take back what I lost." "That's a high calling," she said softly. Putting a hand on his shoulder. He stared at her. He was beautiful in the moonlight. "You agree with me?" "With what?" "Vengeance. You don't think it's wrong? You don't think it's wrong…to repay blood for blood?" She smiled at him. "I'm not one to judge you. Not everyone has lost a kingdom…certainly not me. You do what you need to do, Zechs, and I'll be there for you. You know that. Or should I call you Milliard now?" She had meant that partially as a joke, but he reached out suddenly and took her hand. Her breath caught. "Call me what you want," he whispered. "As long as you say my name, I'll be all right." I think I'm falling in love with you, she wanted to say, but didn't, because she knew that he knew already, and it was better left unsaid. Instead, she squeezed his hand, moving close to him as he put one arm awkwardly around her shoulders and they stood there under the tree, watching the moon together.
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