TITLE: Meeting
AUTHOR: Isisisatis (isisisatis@yahoo.de)
PAIRING: Marcus/Neroon, that means slash, that means male/male relationship! So beware!
RATING: PG13
SUMMARY: A woman meets someone who she thinks is dead.
DISCLAIMER: I only own my PC, but surely not the idea of Babylon 5!
A/N: Thanks to my Beta who makes English language out of my weird babbling.
Meeting
No!!! This is not possible! It simply can't be! But I would recognize that hair anywhere. It had to be him, there weren't many men with such beautiful hair. I sighed and ran a hand through my own short unruly hair. Many women were jealous of his hair, including me.
It simply can't be Marcus, he was on Arisia during the attack, and everybody had died!
I had been working with Marcus Cole for some time, while flying one of the ore transporters for the Arisia mining colony. The day of the attack, I had left just a few hours before its destruction.
On that day, Marcus and I had said good bye to each other like always, and once again he had asked me for a favour. He wanted me to bring some bottles of red wine back with me. He wouldn't tell me why, but I guessed it had something to do with Hasina. He wasn't at his best that day, he was grim and his usual jokes were missing. When I inquired what the matter was, he only shrugged it away, muttering something about a struggle with his brother William. I remembered that William had left Arisia about half a year ago to join the rangers, "chasing legends, playing hero" as Marcus had contemptously called it. William had apparently chosen to pay a visit today, which had resulted in a quarrel. No wonder Marcus had been in a bad mood.
Sometimes Marcus and I would talk about our hopes and our intentions for the future. He would always say mine were more likely to come true. He wanted to be loved, to have a family of his own (probably with Hasina), and to have a little house with a small garden and a cherry tree. If he stayed on Arisia that would never become true, "You really can't plant cherry trees in a high carbon dioxide atmosphere," he'd said with a laugh. As if the problem was with the cherry tree! No, his problem was that he was too shy to make a move on anybody, at least concerning a serious relationship. Luckily, he wasn't interested in me. If he had been, we never would have had long discussions about literature or played silly card games. I can clearly recall how much we laughed! I wasn't on Arisia often enough to be a good friend of his, but I was somebody to talk about something other than fucking, drinking or mining. Marcus was the one who made me believe that my dreams would come true one day.
After the attack my life as it was ended. I had to think where I wanted to go from there. I had some options open, but because of Marcus, I dared to take my meager earnings and went to the nearest university, situated on Tukaleb. It was a Human/Minbari run university and I decided to study universal/intergalactic linguistics. When I started attending classes with the Minbari on campus I learned that I knew next to nothing about these people Earth had fought only a short time ago. As always I got so curious that I spent more and more time with the Minbari, learning with them and learning about them. That's when I decided to add Minbari archeology to my studies. Because of my subjects and my connection to several professors, I was offered a job on the Minbari homeworld as soon as I graduated. Marcus had told me repeatedly that I could accomplish everything I wanted to do. And I did.
Could this man mere meters away from me really be Marcus? I continued to watch the man with the dark hair. Up to now he hadn't moved, he seemed to be waiting for somebody to arrive at the docking bay. I could only see his back clad in a dark long coat, and of course the shoulder length dark mane. This man looked like something out of the medieval novels Marcus had read back then. 'Only the sword was missing!' I thought with a grin. The male human sat down on one of the brightly orange plastic seats in the waiting area, only to get up a few minutes later and to fidget nervously. OK, not excactly nervously, because I knew these movements and they were more out of impatience than nervousness. And when the man even started pacing and his profile was revealed it was confirmed: it definitely was Marcus Cole! How, I don't know, but it was him. I was so overwhelmed at this confirmation that my vision was shortly wavering with tears and I closed my eyes. When I looked up again I saw that his impatience had given way to a look of anticipation, he was fixated on one of the gates, his entire body showing an unusual eagerness. I decided to wait and see whom he would meet. I didn't want to disturb if he was here on business.
Soon after, the one he was waiting for arrived. Marcus must have already seen and recognized the one coming but I could only make out a big, broad figure in a black cloak, a hood pulled over the head that hid the face. Marcus was all but jumping up and down by now like a child. He still was easy to read, at least for me. The hooded figure revealed his face: it was a Minbari. And it was no stranger to me. It was Shai Alyt Neroon, the current leader of the warrior cast! What did Marcus have to do with him? The two men greeted each other appropriately in Minbari custom à la warrior caste, but what surprised me a little bit, was that they greeted as equals. Now that was interesting and intriguing!
Marcus and Neroon left quickly after their formal greeting, walking closely next to each other. I almost died of silent mirth when I observed a little different kind of welcome which probably nobody was supposed see. Neroon slid his hand under Marcus coat. But it didn't come to rest on the small of his back as I had first anticipated. No! Considering the slight jump Marcus gave and where the coat bulged because of Neroon's hand, I assumed that the Minbari had let his hand travel over Marcus' buttocks to caress the cleft in between. Despite the initial jump, Marcus didn't show any further dislike, but kept calmly walking next to Neroon. If I hadn't watched them that intently, I wouldn't have suspected anything.
Now that would at least explain the impatience of Marcus, he had been waiting for his lover! Oh god! I should better leave before I started laughing myself into a boneless mass of tears.
Marcus and Neroon! That surely was not official in the Minbari government, not that I had heard of. Did anybody else know? Or did they want to keep it secret? Finally, I broke out into giggles. Who would have ever thought that Marcus would get together with a male Minbari? Especially Neroon! How had he accomlished that, when he hadn't ever gathered the courage to ask Hasina?
Smiling to myself, I collected my luggage and made my way to the room I had rented. I had to stay for several days and I was sure there would be an oppurtunity to speak with Marcus Cole at a more convenient time.
END
Isisisatis, July 2003