[Blushed Blue]{DetestingYou}



Sometimes looking dangerous is enough. Now .it's not.







Zechs finally sat up. Noin had continuously poked and prodded him until he had peeled open an eye, and then had tugged gently on an arm until he had consented to let her help him sit up. When he winced she hurt, and when he sighed she felt lonely and tired.

The room was nearly silent as Noin brought him his meal. It was impossible to determine what time in the day it was, and the meals all seemed to blend into one another. The door was open, the tray from the last opening was taken, and a new one, along with sometimes steaming food, was slid in.

Today it looked particularly interesting.

Zechs couldn't even tell what it was.

It tasted okay, though. Noin didn't seem to like it all that much. The look on her face was almost comical, and she'd take three gulps of water to each bite of the stuff. Zechs managed to get most of it into his mouth and swallow it before he nearly fell asleep again. He placed his bowl at his side and twisted so that his legs fell over the edge of the bed. He was stick of sleep.

Today, he'd rather think a little bit before losing to his world of nightmares. Once his eyes were closed, he sank like a stone in water. And, like that stone, it was almost impossible to float back to the surface without some sort of help. In this case, it was Noin.

Noin.. Why was it they had no use for her? Not like they did him, anyway. She knew things, he could see, just as he did. And their captors had given him no inkling to what he was even supposed to be confessing to them. Maybe they figured they could take whatever they squeezed out of him.

Which brought him back to Noin. They didn't definitely know that he knew more than she did. And her illness was a poor excuse. As far as he could see, she was perfectly fine now. And unless their plan was far more sinister, they weren't going to get very far in barraging them for the information they didn't have.

And it wasn't like he would tell them anyway.

Treize might not have been the most reliable or truthful person around, but it wasn't like he didn't try, at least part of the time... And it wasn't like Zechs was going to go and spill all of his friend's secrets just because of a single beating. Near-death experiences didn't seem as threatening anymore.

He woke from his reverie as Noin stole his bowl and placed it back on the tray by the door.

She washed her hands in the little sink next to the toilet in what might have been considered a room built off of the room. She walked back out, wrapped herself in one of the blankets that heaped in a corner of the room, and sat to stare at her knees.

He'd noticed that she did that often. He wasn't much of a companion, not much of a talker, and most of the time he was asleep anyway. He suddenly realized exactly how little he knew about her. He didn't ask, though. It was her life. If she wanted to tell him, she would.

"What's it like?" Her voice broke the silence. She didn't look at him.

"What's. what like?" He asked her, lying back down on the bed.

"Being dead." She asked. "Or at least. having everyone think you're dead."

Zechs pondered this before answering. "It's. almost like a dream. No, almost a nightmare. You're always someone you're not. Like the world is a game of pretend. After a while, though.. It all kind of dulls into a soft numbness. Like you can't feel any of it at all. It's. kind of hard to explain."

"I think I understand." Noin responded from under her hood of blankets.

"Noin." He said. "Never die. It's not something anyone should ever have to go through, especially not you." He frowned at the ceiling. " No one else should have to suffer such a thing as living after their death. at least not as I have."

Silence.

Then, footsteps echoed down the hallway, drawing ever closer. They stopped terribly near, and the ring of keys sounded. The lock turned, and a voice called.

"You, girl.. Come here."