Stars By Djinn

Shoujo ai. I really wanted to see a Dorothy/Hilde fic, so here it is, enjoy.

//none of it's mine// * * *

She shouldn't have been caught.

Hilde had been trained by OZ, admittedly not for long, but her instincts were honed just enough that she shouldn't have been caught. And her hacking skills were her saving grace - she'd always known they would come in handy someday. But fat lot of good they did her if she was caught.

The cell was tiny - four dingy walls stained with substances she had no desire to identify, a rather ragged looking mattress covered by an even more ragged blanket. She wasn't really worried too much about the bed - she doubted she'd be here long enough to make use of it. It had only been an hour, give or take, since she had been thrown into the cell where she now counted rat droppings to pass the time. A lesser girl might have been squeamish. But Hilde was not a lesser girl. She was descended from a long line of able-bodied, mildly unscrupulous metallurgists, and she could take most situations in stride.

She hadn't really expected to end up living with a Gundam pilot, though.

She still wasn't sure how it had happened, how they had met again, after her OZ days. Her dishonorable discharge made her a veritable hero among the sweepers, who were as anti-OZ as it got. Duo had come in looking for parts - parts she knew could only be for a mobile suit.

And then they'd ended up in that rickety old shack in front of the scrap yard, together.

Hilde sometimes wondered if she might be more than a little in love with him, but she wrote it off as hero worship and nothing further. Besides, the only thing that interested him was Deathscythe. If there was one thing that Hilde had learned, it was that there was no place in war for romance.

The door slid open with a hydraulic hiss, flooding the room with garish halogen light. Hilde looked away for a second, shielding her eyes, which had adjusted to the darkness. When the dots in her vision cleared she directed her gaze to the curvaceous silhouette in the doorway.

Hilde's brow furrowed. "Aren't you a little young?" She asked.

The blonde girl with split eyebrows raised one brow and she smiled. "Aren't you?"

* * *

"Where are we?" Hilde asked reasonably. The room was not one for interrogation, it was a private quarters. A large, soft bed lay in the corner, a desk against the far wall, and a large picture window showed the stars.

"My room." The girl replied. "Hands."

Hilde had no idea what the girl meant by the last comment until she reached out and lifted Hilde's shackled hands herself, sliding a key into the binders and releasing them. Hilde rubbed at her wrists for a moment, looking around the room once more. The mere sight of the bed made her tired, but she forced her eyes to the window instead.

"Now then." The blonde said. "Who are you?"

"Who are you?" Hilde replied, rather sharply.

"I am Dorothy Catalonia, granddaughter of Duke Dermail." She replied with a smile, taking a seat on the bed. "At the moment, I am a lesser officer of the White Fang, serving under Milliardo Peacecraft." She patted the bed beside her, inviting Hilde to take a seat. The other girl did not oblige.

"I'm - ... Hilde." She finally said.

"Hilde." Dorothy repeated softly, making the name delicate and sacred. "Might I ask why you are here on Libra, Hilde?"

"Oh well you know, I was on the internet looking for a good vacation spot, and everyone recommended a battle station in the middle of dead space." Hilde growled back, sarcasm dripping from every syllable. She crossed her arms over her chest as if she were cold - actually, it was rather chilly - and stared out the window sullenly.

"Well, why not? They have everything out here. Hatred, battle, Gundams, and ... stars." Hilde looked up sharply at the last - it seemed so out of place she could not help herself.

"Stars?" She repeated.

"Oh yes." Dorothy replied. "There are so many more stars out here than you could ever see from earth. Sometimes I like to just stand at my window and watch them." She rose from the bed, heels clicking on the floor despite the thin carpet, and came to stand very near to Hilde's side, causing the other girl to be more aware of the blonde's height advantage. "Are you from the colonies, Hilde?" Dorothy asked, without looking at her.

"Well ... yes." Hilde replied, not seeing the harm in sharing the information.

"I see. Then I'll bet you hate the stars."

"Hate the stars?" Hilde repeated in confusion. "How can you hate stars?"

Dorothy cocked her head, her expression unreadable. "But don't you fight against them, on the side of the earth?" She asked.

"What? No!" She fumbled for a moment. "Well, I mean, yes, but it's not like that at all!" Hilde responded vehemently. "Milliardo Peacecraft doesn't fight for the ideals of the colonies. He's lived on Earth all his life; only someone who knows the earth could hate it as much as he does." She turned to face Dorothy. "*I* fight for the colonies, because the colonies desire peace more than anything!"

"And if you want peace, you must prepare for war." Dorothy replied, easily smiling. "You're so passionate, Hilde-san. You remind me of her ..."

Something in the way Dorothy whispered that last word made it seem as if the person's name was infinitely sacred, too precious to be spoken. Hilde wondered despite herself who she could be referring to.

"Who?" Hilde whispered, matching Dorothy's awed tone.

"Watakushi no aito." My adversary. My rival. My lover. "She told me that war solves nothing, that one should never fight. Not for any reason."

"Sounds like an idiot to me." Hilde replied.

"Oh, she is a fool." Dorothy took Hilde's hands without asking, slowly running her thumbs over Hilde's palms while she held the other girl's eyes steadily, unflinching. "She's a helpless fool. But the fact that she can believe so easily, so totally ... doesn't that say more about her than what she believes in?"

She leaned closer; Hilde could feel the blonde's breath against her skin. Despite herself, she shivered. "I ..." she stuttered, swallowing hard.

"Shh ... do not worry, little soldier." Dorothy whispered. "You are safe, after all. I will not harm you ..."

"Why not?" Hilde breathed.

"Peacecraft-sama does not know that you are here, and I will not be the one to tell him, but ..." And then Dorothy stepped back, white teeth flashing in an almost savage smile. "But you must do me a favor, Hilde-san. You must get someone for me." She cocked her head at Hilde, her smile some impossible cross of savage and wistful. "She will not die here."

"Who?" Hilde asked uncertainly.

"Relena Peacecraft." Dorothy responded. She moved to her chest of drawers as she spoke, rifling through the contents. "I can tell you where to find her, but you may not tell her I did. I do not want her to think I am sympathetic to her." She finally laid a tan, button-down shirt down on her bed, and her fingers ghosted over Hilde's hips as she removed the oversized sweater in a single pull.

"What are you ...!!" Two fingers over her lips silenced her.

"Shh." Dorothy murmured. "Shh."

When the fingers were lifted Hilde repeated, this time softly, "What are you doing??"

"You think you can simply wander through Libra dressed in violet? Don't be silly." Dorothy responded, raising one forked eyebrow. She stepped around the other girl and slipped the tan shirt onto her arms, pulling it up to her shoulders slowly, every movement having a double meaning. Fingers brushed against Hilde's throat as the blonde straightened the collar. Hilde tried to ignore the pounding of her own heart, and numbly moved her fingers to work at the buttons, but she lacked the dexterity, her mind elsewhere. Dorothy's hands flew over her front, fastening them quickly. When she was finished she stepped back and swept her gaze over Hilde from top to toes.

"Something is missing." Dorothy said. She returned to the chest of drawers and fished out a scarf. "Here." She returned. "Perfect."

She reached around Hilde, arms encircling her to tie the scarf at the back of her neck, her lips very close the flesh of Hilde's throat. Hilde wondered at the tremor that overtook her; her mind was so concentrated on the sickly sweetness of the warm, wet breath against her skin that she nearly cried out as teeth and lips fastened over her pulse with a vicious sucking bite. The mark that it would undoubtedly leave was quickly covered by the scarf, and the blonde straightened the fabric critically, placing it so that it was just so.

"Will you?" Dorothy asked. "Will you do this for me?"

Hilde swallowed, and very slowly, she nodded.