Holding Back

by Lady Pax

Zechs never showed much affection to Noin - or anyone else. But what if there's a reason? What if someone from his past was holding his heart back? And what if that person came back into his life...? Introduces OC. but NOT OC romance!

Holding Back

By: Lady Pax sterio723@houston.rr.com

A/N- Yeah, I know, I should be working on Namae wo Tsukete(Yaru) and my collaboration fic with Death's Daughter: Thief of Hearts. Well, it's one of those days where you want to start a new fic that will PROBABLY NEVER GET FINISHED [like the others], but why should that stop me? *lol* Anywho. Enjoy. This isn't yaoi, but it is an OC-romance – or somewhat, anyway. The romance this mainly deals with is in the PAST...

+Zechs never showed much affection to Lucrezia Noin. Was it because he never loved her in the first place? Or was it because he *couldn't* love her? What if there was something – or someone – holding back from loving her? And what if that someone came back into his life...?+

~+~

PART ONE

Aurenne Du'Frene

Bannon's Secondary School :: Northern-Europe :: Year After Colony 185

It was February Fourteenth. A day Zechs Merquise despised. Ever single solitary female in the school gave him either a home-made valentine that 'came from their hearts' they said, or a single rose (that he now had learned came in decorator colors) that they thought 'was as handsome as him'. He appreciated it yes, but...he was merely a teenager. Barely fourteen! How could all these girls had fallen head-over-heels in love with him if he was a new student from last year? And most importantly – he hated roses. Despised them. He hated their shape, hated their thorny stems, hated all their colors like golden, crimson, velvet, peach, white. And he hated their smell. But the insisted! The girls there sure were persistent!

Zechs walked through the halls with his friends. Hopefully some girls would get nervous with so many people around him and would hesitate to give him valentines. He hoped right. It worked for most of them – but some, the older girls, just pressed a valentine-y gift in his face and continued on their way.

It had been sometime around this year that his father had moved Zechs away from the family to 'learn some manners' at Bannon's Secondary School. He hadn't wanted to go. No, he hadn't. These people were different from he. Some were amazingly posh, as if everyone but him or herself was of lesser value. Then there were kids that everyone – even the people that had taken the money – wondered how their parents afforded to send them there. It was different from his old school in England, that was for sure. But he had gotten used to it now – had made friends with at least two people of almost every learning level there. Most being girls which he wasn't totally ready to handle yet. He learned manners, and held his head up high...but girls were like a whole foreign race!

+

The last bell rang. Finally. The boys could retire to their dormitories! The girls bell had already rung, but Zechs could hear them waiting for them outside his last class's door. He found a large ground, squirmed his way to the middle which was easy for his lithe but tall frame, and passed by the girls without them noticing. He rushed to his dormitory before they could spot him.

His long legs carried him swiftly down the halls and corridors and stairwells, past class doors, until he reached the fountains where the boundary from the girl's dorms and the boy's dorms was. No one was around. Luckily.

Zechs stopped against the fountains to catch his breath. He didn't think he needed physical education when he had THIS every Valentine's Day. It made up for all the gym classes. He took a quick drink, and was about to go to the dormitory rooms, when a small voice stopped him.

"M'excuser, Zechs de Monsieur..."

Zechs looked around the double fountain, and arched an eyebrow at the young girl standing there. Her hair was a stunning orange-red splashed with gold that went to her shoulders in a low ponytail, and her complexion was fair. Her enormous eyes were almost hidden behind long lashes, but they were a deep violet. The girl was small and petite, but he could tell she would be tall when she grew more. "Eh...yes?" he said, not knowing much French. He only spoke it in French class. Not in the halls.

"For you," she said, and handed him a single red rose. Zechs took the rose from her, careful not to stick her with the one thorn still on there, and he looked at the rose – then back at her.

"Eh, merci, I think," he said uncertainly.

The girl smiled, brightening her face. "Votre accueil!" she said, grinning from ear to ear then ran off to the girl's dormitories.

Zechs stood there for a few minutes until the sounds of students coming up the stairs alerted him. The face of the small girl burned in his mind, and he wondered why.

He saw Aurenne Du'Frene – 'twas her name – many more times, and they became friends even though he was seven years her senior. But they became good allies to each other – and they stayed that way until Zechs graduated from Bannon's Secondary School when he was fifteen. They had been known to the rest of the student-body as brother and sister, but the two knew from some unspoken bond, that it was more than that. So much more.

The day he graduated, Zechs unrolled his diploma with the others, and a rose fell out with a note attached. There was no signature, but a shape. The shape was a heart, made in purple ink that shone silver in the light. And in the heart was the French words 'je vous aime' in beautiful calligraphy. He smiled, and immediately knew who it was. He looked for Aurenne all day, and skipped out on the other graduating boy's prank to slip into the girl's gymnasium locker room to look for her. But never saw her again.

~+~

"Zechs!" Lucrezia's voice broke through his thoughts. He turned towards her, his expression clearly reading what he wanted to say. "Nothing, it's just that you were spacing out. There's work to do. This planet's not going to terra-form itself."

Zechs and Noin were on Mars, working on the terra-forming project. They had been for about a year now. The war against the Barton Foundation had ended with some casualties, but not as many as the Eve Wars. And that they were thankful for.

"I'm sorry, Lucrezia," said Zechs in a low and quiet voice. "Just reminiscing on the past is all." He finished up a terra-form-status report, and printed it. "I'm going to give this to the director. You can go on ahead to lunch without me. I've got speak with Mr. Manchucci anyway." He was referring to the director of the terra-forming project. A very determined and demanding young man named Davide Manchucci, a very good choice on Lady Une's behalf.

Noin hesitated, but nodded anyway. "Ah...Alright. I'll be at the same table, Zechs." Then she walked off with the other workers for their lunch break in the main cafeteria.

+

Zechs walked down the lonely halls towards Davide's office. He didn't bother knocking. Manchucci wasn't that strict on rules, which was hard for many of the workers – seeing as many were soldiers used to the orders and regulations of wars and armies and generals.

But Davide Manchucci wasn't sitting at his desk, speaking to the Preventer Unit that provided the funds for the terra-forming project, or doing paperwork like usual. He was talking to a young woman with her orangey-red hair flowing down to the eye of her back like a waterfall of lava. Her eyes were a piercing violet-purple, and glittered in the light as she laughed – which was how Zechs first saw her.

"Am interrupting anything?" Zechs asked. He knew Davide. Not that he wasn't responsible – oh he was – but when he met that special woman, he tended to bring her to work with him, and forget about his duties, or that he was in a building full of people that barged in his office every minute of the day.

Davide and the young woman turned towards him. "Ah, Zechs Merquise! Just the man I wanted to see!" He pushed the young woman in front of him. "Zechs, this is Aurenne Du'Frene, Aurenne, this is Zechs Merquise. He will be your instructor and 'tour-guide' for the next few days, alright? Yes. Okay. You guys get going to lunch, and Zechs, I'm expecting her to WANT to work here at the terra-forming project."

Aurenne was purposely avoiding Zechs's eye. "Oh I'm sure I'll love working here, Mr. Manchucci. It seems like a very interesting thing to do for a living." She smiled a dazzling white smile.

"Oh," laughed Davide, "call me Davide. No need for formalities! We're all friends here, right? Now get going you two, I've got work to do. And no, Zechs, I can't see you today. Sorry. Now scat!" He shooed them out of his office, and the two walked around the hallway bend before they stopped and stared at each other.

"Milliardo..." Aurenne murmured, stepping closer to him. Her head barely reached his chin, but it was expected. She *was* barely 15. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

Zechs could only nod dumbly. The young girl he had known all those years ago had sprouted like a rose into a beautiful young woman. Her hair, once limited to her shoulders fell to her back like shimmering layers of sunlight contained in silk red strands. Her eyes had now become a suitable size for her face, and were the most beautiful and fragile shade of purple. Her noise was the exact size to fit her face, and had a light dusting of freckles across if because of sun. The white, button-down shirt that almost covered her hands with the cuffs unbuttoned was hardly stretched over the chest area, but it wasn't important. Her long, model-material legs were hidden behind silk-like pants that went tight around her figure and fell like bells in folds over her black pointed-toe boots.

"Well, are you going to say something, Milliardo; or are you going to stand there gawking at me?" she asked freshly in her beautiful but light French accent.

He looked at her. "I've abandoned the Peacecraft name, Aurenne," he said softly, as if he were now disgraced. "You should know..."

Her eyebrows came together. "I do know, Milliardo, but I'm still going to call you Milliardo. That's who you were, and that's who you are to me. Though Zechs is shorter and easier to remember after all these years – but it sounds like something nasty." Her face scrunched up cutely, and Zechs laughed slightly.

"You'd better get your mind out of the trash, Rene," he said playfully. She looked at him.

"My name is Aurenne," she said stubbornly. "Aurenne Du'Frene if you ever cared to remember!"

"I tried contacting you," he said. "Honest I did, Aurenne. But if it was waylaid by the Gundam—"

"Be quiet, Milliardo. I don't need your excuses!" she said, laughing. "I was only joshing! Now, you must know somewhere private where we can talk. I have a feeling we each have our own story to tell now..."

~+~

A/N- How was that? Three good reviews and I continue!

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