Angst Chapter 2
Noin looked up and around at the large building before turning around to face Howard.
"Nice isn't it."
She smiled. "It's marvelous. How in the world did you ever find it?"
"A little help from Duo."
She faced him completely. "He won't be a problem, will he?"
"I strongly doubt it, when it comes to women, no offense of course, but Duo doesn't have a good memory. He could sleep with two different women and not know the difference between the two."
Noin just had to laugh at that. "Well I think this will be a good fit than."
"Now I want you to take a closer look at this place. Obviously as you can tell, height wise it's not tall enough to fit a mobile suit, laying down, you might be able to fit one. I strongly suggest building in small scale for the mean time however, and remember, you need to give me a call if you need any creative juices."
She winked. "Of course I will. I think I'll probably wind up selling off the little buggers designs to Une when the mobile suits return in larger numbers, as I'm relatively sure they will. Man isn't known after all for degrading his technological achievements."
Howard nodded and turned to leave. "Have fun, and call me if you need anything, and you're new id, and priors are on the counter."
She waved an off-handed thanks, and with that Howard was gone, leaving her to start anew.
Peacecrafts
"Are we sure she's going to be all right," Quatre asked with concern clearly written over his face.
Duo turned to face the vidphone. "She'll be fine Quat, she's strong willed you know that."
"But still, to hear something so brutal."
"Ya, sorta like you and the zero system, huh." Quatre shuddered. "Listen, we'll continue to work on things, you just work on work. We've got it covered."
"All right, " Quatre muttered, and he hung up, a note of discomfort still in his voice.
"You shouldn't give him false hope."
"What do you mean." Duo asked leaning over Heero's shoulder.
"Noin found me and Heero, Duo. She's an excellent tracker, possesses the skills to find whoever she wants, and therefore, if she knows where to go to find information, she knows what to do to avoid being found."
Duo nodded at Trowa. "That makes sense I suppose."
Two weeks later they still hadn't found anything, and so with annoyed presence they met with Relena.
"Listen, I hate to be a pain in the butt." Duo muttered, receiving glares of you always are from the other pilots. "But this is eating up resources, especially ours. If anything pops up on her, we'll follow up on it no prob, but even though she is a friend, we have other things to do."
Relena glared at him, fingers arched unpleasantly. "Do you agree with him?" she asked the other two. She received silent nods. 'Damn she thought, what am I going to do. Who in the hell is going to tell my brother?' With calculating eyes she watched the pilots and than, at the last minute called Duo back in. "Listen, Duo, could you do me a favor."
Moments later shrieks could be heard, but sitting back in her office, Relena was rather glad it wasn't herself.
Two years later
The answering machine clicked on with an ominous beep as the man standing beside it in the shadows decided to ignore it until he knew who it was. Couldn't be too careful anymore.
"VMM, um Living Death, that is you're name right, " the stuttering voice quivered as it spoke. "My employer, a Mr. Wilson, has a job offer for you." The tall man beside the phone cringed slightly as though he could see the person on the other side of the phone grasping his collar uneasily, as he was a small wiry man unsure of himself. Why was it always the simpering men who made the phone calls, what it supposed to impress him or elicit empathy. Those people always annoyed him, but he continued to listen to the message as the caller spoke anyway. "You see, he's recently gained competition in his industry, and he is looking for you to take the competition out. There's only one problem with the contract you might have if my employer told me your tastes correctly." VMM scoffed, people hiring him, knowing his tastes, ludicrous. He listened as the caller heaved greatly. The shadowed man growled slightly with irritation, maybe the job wasn't worth the wait after all, but than the wiry man spoke. "The target is a woman."
The man's lips curled slightly in an amused smirk, and he picked up the phone, putting it close to his ear, but not so close as that he had to listen to the caller's heavy breathing. "Can I help you ?" he asked mockingly.
Mr Wilson's assistant stuttered in reply. "Yes, um, yes sir. Mr Wilson can pay greatly for your troubles sir."
He shook his head slightly, before responding. "It'd be my pleasure. But put your boss on. I want to talk to him directly."
The other man paused, scared slightly for a minute, but the passing of the phone could be heard on the shadows end so he waited patiently for his not so decent customers.
"Hello VMM. We'll skip the formalities if that's all right with you. I'm offering $100,000 for the head of Guiseppi. Katrina Giuseppi, the bike detailer."
VMM laughed harshly in the shadows, a full laugh of a baritone voice which showed only great amusement in everything, especially life. A bike detailer, what a stupid, novel thing, and yet he'd seen people hire him for stupider reasons. "I'll take care of it signore. Just don't get in my way, and I require a down payment of half the agreement price put in a bank account of my choosing before going any farther." You always had to be wise with money, no? He'd learned that a long time ago, and he still practiced it.
"It's a deal my friend, my brother, call me with the details whenever its convenient for you, and we'll get down to business as soon as possible."
Living Death shook his head slightly, and pulled his collar up around his neck an old habit from another world, but one he rather liked. People were foolish, always so foolish. They never seemed to learn, and they always over estimated someone or something that got their pants in a bunch. It was funny really, that was how he saw things. Life was an amazing game meant to be played as though it was a sport or acted out as thought a script for a theater, he simply liked to perform his role to the best of his work which was what he was doing now. Make money at something he was good at, killing.
"I've gotta say, I think I've gone overboard on this one, It's an absolute beaut, Noin marveled to herself.
Noin stared at the bike, and ran an approving hand over its newly detailed body. A harley, her second one this week, that someone had sent to her to be detailed, and she had to admit it was addictive. If she didn't know any better she'd the things out for a test driver herself, only...the customers would probably get mad at her for that.
L2 had been nice to her and her detailing shop, she'd seen more people in her two years there than she ever would have imagined, and currently she had an apprentice. That idea was just amazing, sure she'd taught before, but this, this was different. She was known through the rings, good and bad alike, as the best detailer to go to. Anything they wanted done, she could do. It had taken her a lot of practice, but she had everything settled out now, except her name.
Howard had given her a new name, a new identity, and she'd taken it without hesitation, and they'd never caught up with her, not a one of them, and she was living in Duo's backyard. She'd even detailed his Dukati for him, not that he knew it. They only knew her as Giuseppi, like the little man from Pinnochio, funny ne? As always she'd used her last name instead of her first, and in doing that gave no clue as to her gender. It came in handy more often than not.
The two years of silence that had ensued after her hearing of a fateful conversation Zechs was having one night had led to a drastic change in her. She was mutely friendly, but she kept the biker's attitude, and not the good one for the most part either. It had become her well, and allowed for her to keep herself quiet, a lot of the people around called her mute, because that was in essence what she was. Motorcycles, and Mechas were her main friends, she didn't trust much in humans anymore. With good reason of course.
Beside a mental change, in the dearly beloved Lieutenant, there were physical changes as well. Almost always her hair was kept shorter than before, unless she missed a cut. She'd chopped it all off, wore it shaved on the side, and long on the top, her trade mark bangs of before had been removed, and her right shoulder sported the tattoo of a face split in half by a sword with one half angelic, one half mischievous. A picture most people misunderstood.
Still admiring her work Noin stood up, and backed away towards her hanger, a large area housing her mobile suits, all of her own design, except for the white Taurus she had constructed based on her previous suit, which had been left behind in Cinq in her haste to leave. After all, a mobile suit was, and isn't an easy thing to hide. In habiting the room was 3 suits, all prototypes, all small. Howard had supplied the tools just as he had promised, and she'd eagerly accepted his help was she was in a jam. She hadn't slept much during the development phases, until the plans were all finished. In fact, at the moment she had other plans stirring in her head, but they'd have to wait. She'd been able to put years worth of thinking into designs that she made come to life. They were small, but an easy site to lose yourself in if you were an admirer, and so she lost herself in them after finishing her 'official' work. She simply lost herself in the miniatures she hoped to make larger, but that at the same time she hoped would not truly be needed.
Zechs sat back warily in the plush chair and rubbed hard at his eyes. It had been a long day, although they always were. A fruitless search for a friend, and a mind numbing amount of paperwork. What more could anyone ask for?
Two years ago he had taken up the upkeeping of Cinq paperwise and the other joys of that sort that the public couldn't see, and didn't need to. His sister Relena tended to the media and political needs, and still retained her job as Vice Foreign Minister in a symbolic way. From the time he'd began he'd regretted his decision. His nature led him to take action, not to sit on his tuft. The fallen prince had promised however, and was making good on it.
It would be easier if Noin was with him though, but she wasn't. He noted often with irony and depressing sentiment that Noin had always been the one better suited for it, even though she detested it, but give her a cause and she was more than willing to fight. That was just one thing great about her.
Things had gone so wrong, he had started helping his sister as a distraction from his mind, lately it hadn't been working, and he'd taken up working at the Preventers as well on a part time basis, and on any assignments others didn't want. It was the only thing that distracted him completely anymore.
Life was odd and humorous, and yet he still couldn't find the humor in it, maybe it was simple black humor. He wasn't like the others, he got dragged down, and he'd used Noin to keep him afloat. He'd been floundering for a while. Somewhere out there she was hiding from him, not that he could blame her after what had been said, he still wanted her back however. Marvin had been fired from his job for several reasons soon after her disappearance, and Zechs had taken true delight in giving him the news. What a happy day that had been, but sadly enough hadn't brought her back.
Someday she'd turn up, he just knew it, she had waited for him, and now it was his turn to wait, and he wasn't about to let her down, not now, not ever again.
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A/N: Hey there. If you have any suggestions send um my way, otherwise, I'm going to work on what I've already got.
Queen of Shadows: I've just got to say this, you are an awesome reviewer, and on top of that you write awesome too. :D Although I think I reviewed your stories under a different name. Also if you would like the last two chapters I've completed, they're yours, I haven't finished this yet, but I do have chapters 11 and 12 done. So if you want them, just email me.
Chibi Noin, and Chibi Tsuki: You guys are great with sticking through reading my stories with all my quirks in it. This time I'm actually spell checking, and yes, I'm retyping all of this. Got rid of all my disk copies, and am left with my hard copy on paper. The offer extends to you guys if you want the last two chapters I've written, so just let me know if you do.
Also, anyone on the ZxN list, don't expect me to post there, nothing ever happens there, its dead. Also, for my own little amusement, I'm revamping my site, fanfiction included. And I plan on doing a little page for zechsxnoin fics all by themselves.
Noin looked up and around at the large building before turning around to face Howard.
"Nice isn't it."
She smiled. "It's marvelous. How in the world did you ever find it?"
"A little help from Duo."
She faced him completely. "He won't be a problem, will he?"
"I strongly doubt it, when it comes to women, no offense of course, but Duo doesn't have a good memory. He could sleep with two different women and not know the difference between the two."
Noin just had to laugh at that. "Well I think this will be a good fit than."
"Now I want you to take a closer look at this place. Obviously as you can tell, height wise it's not tall enough to fit a mobile suit, laying down, you might be able to fit one. I strongly suggest building in small scale for the mean time however, and remember, you need to give me a call if you need any creative juices."
She winked. "Of course I will. I think I'll probably wind up selling off the little buggers designs to Une when the mobile suits return in larger numbers, as I'm relatively sure they will. Man isn't known after all for degrading his technological achievements."
Howard nodded and turned to leave. "Have fun, and call me if you need anything, and you're new id, and priors are on the counter."
She waved an off-handed thanks, and with that Howard was gone, leaving her to start anew.
Peacecrafts
"Are we sure she's going to be all right," Quatre asked with concern clearly written over his face.
Duo turned to face the vidphone. "She'll be fine Quat, she's strong willed you know that."
"But still, to hear something so brutal."
"Ya, sorta like you and the zero system, huh." Quatre shuddered. "Listen, we'll continue to work on things, you just work on work. We've got it covered."
"All right, " Quatre muttered, and he hung up, a note of discomfort still in his voice.
"You shouldn't give him false hope."
"What do you mean." Duo asked leaning over Heero's shoulder.
"Noin found me and Heero, Duo. She's an excellent tracker, possesses the skills to find whoever she wants, and therefore, if she knows where to go to find information, she knows what to do to avoid being found."
Duo nodded at Trowa. "That makes sense I suppose."
Two weeks later they still hadn't found anything, and so with annoyed presence they met with Relena.
"Listen, I hate to be a pain in the butt." Duo muttered, receiving glares of you always are from the other pilots. "But this is eating up resources, especially ours. If anything pops up on her, we'll follow up on it no prob, but even though she is a friend, we have other things to do."
Relena glared at him, fingers arched unpleasantly. "Do you agree with him?" she asked the other two. She received silent nods. 'Damn she thought, what am I going to do. Who in the hell is going to tell my brother?' With calculating eyes she watched the pilots and than, at the last minute called Duo back in. "Listen, Duo, could you do me a favor."
Moments later shrieks could be heard, but sitting back in her office, Relena was rather glad it wasn't herself.
Two years later
The answering machine clicked on with an ominous beep as the man standing beside it in the shadows decided to ignore it until he knew who it was. Couldn't be too careful anymore.
"VMM, um Living Death, that is you're name right, " the stuttering voice quivered as it spoke. "My employer, a Mr. Wilson, has a job offer for you." The tall man beside the phone cringed slightly as though he could see the person on the other side of the phone grasping his collar uneasily, as he was a small wiry man unsure of himself. Why was it always the simpering men who made the phone calls, what it supposed to impress him or elicit empathy. Those people always annoyed him, but he continued to listen to the message as the caller spoke anyway. "You see, he's recently gained competition in his industry, and he is looking for you to take the competition out. There's only one problem with the contract you might have if my employer told me your tastes correctly." VMM scoffed, people hiring him, knowing his tastes, ludicrous. He listened as the caller heaved greatly. The shadowed man growled slightly with irritation, maybe the job wasn't worth the wait after all, but than the wiry man spoke. "The target is a woman."
The man's lips curled slightly in an amused smirk, and he picked up the phone, putting it close to his ear, but not so close as that he had to listen to the caller's heavy breathing. "Can I help you ?" he asked mockingly.
Mr Wilson's assistant stuttered in reply. "Yes, um, yes sir. Mr Wilson can pay greatly for your troubles sir."
He shook his head slightly, before responding. "It'd be my pleasure. But put your boss on. I want to talk to him directly."
The other man paused, scared slightly for a minute, but the passing of the phone could be heard on the shadows end so he waited patiently for his not so decent customers.
"Hello VMM. We'll skip the formalities if that's all right with you. I'm offering $100,000 for the head of Guiseppi. Katrina Giuseppi, the bike detailer."
VMM laughed harshly in the shadows, a full laugh of a baritone voice which showed only great amusement in everything, especially life. A bike detailer, what a stupid, novel thing, and yet he'd seen people hire him for stupider reasons. "I'll take care of it signore. Just don't get in my way, and I require a down payment of half the agreement price put in a bank account of my choosing before going any farther." You always had to be wise with money, no? He'd learned that a long time ago, and he still practiced it.
"It's a deal my friend, my brother, call me with the details whenever its convenient for you, and we'll get down to business as soon as possible."
Living Death shook his head slightly, and pulled his collar up around his neck an old habit from another world, but one he rather liked. People were foolish, always so foolish. They never seemed to learn, and they always over estimated someone or something that got their pants in a bunch. It was funny really, that was how he saw things. Life was an amazing game meant to be played as though it was a sport or acted out as thought a script for a theater, he simply liked to perform his role to the best of his work which was what he was doing now. Make money at something he was good at, killing.
"I've gotta say, I think I've gone overboard on this one, It's an absolute beaut, Noin marveled to herself.
Noin stared at the bike, and ran an approving hand over its newly detailed body. A harley, her second one this week, that someone had sent to her to be detailed, and she had to admit it was addictive. If she didn't know any better she'd the things out for a test driver herself, only...the customers would probably get mad at her for that.
L2 had been nice to her and her detailing shop, she'd seen more people in her two years there than she ever would have imagined, and currently she had an apprentice. That idea was just amazing, sure she'd taught before, but this, this was different. She was known through the rings, good and bad alike, as the best detailer to go to. Anything they wanted done, she could do. It had taken her a lot of practice, but she had everything settled out now, except her name.
Howard had given her a new name, a new identity, and she'd taken it without hesitation, and they'd never caught up with her, not a one of them, and she was living in Duo's backyard. She'd even detailed his Dukati for him, not that he knew it. They only knew her as Giuseppi, like the little man from Pinnochio, funny ne? As always she'd used her last name instead of her first, and in doing that gave no clue as to her gender. It came in handy more often than not.
The two years of silence that had ensued after her hearing of a fateful conversation Zechs was having one night had led to a drastic change in her. She was mutely friendly, but she kept the biker's attitude, and not the good one for the most part either. It had become her well, and allowed for her to keep herself quiet, a lot of the people around called her mute, because that was in essence what she was. Motorcycles, and Mechas were her main friends, she didn't trust much in humans anymore. With good reason of course.
Beside a mental change, in the dearly beloved Lieutenant, there were physical changes as well. Almost always her hair was kept shorter than before, unless she missed a cut. She'd chopped it all off, wore it shaved on the side, and long on the top, her trade mark bangs of before had been removed, and her right shoulder sported the tattoo of a face split in half by a sword with one half angelic, one half mischievous. A picture most people misunderstood.
Still admiring her work Noin stood up, and backed away towards her hanger, a large area housing her mobile suits, all of her own design, except for the white Taurus she had constructed based on her previous suit, which had been left behind in Cinq in her haste to leave. After all, a mobile suit was, and isn't an easy thing to hide. In habiting the room was 3 suits, all prototypes, all small. Howard had supplied the tools just as he had promised, and she'd eagerly accepted his help was she was in a jam. She hadn't slept much during the development phases, until the plans were all finished. In fact, at the moment she had other plans stirring in her head, but they'd have to wait. She'd been able to put years worth of thinking into designs that she made come to life. They were small, but an easy site to lose yourself in if you were an admirer, and so she lost herself in them after finishing her 'official' work. She simply lost herself in the miniatures she hoped to make larger, but that at the same time she hoped would not truly be needed.
Zechs sat back warily in the plush chair and rubbed hard at his eyes. It had been a long day, although they always were. A fruitless search for a friend, and a mind numbing amount of paperwork. What more could anyone ask for?
Two years ago he had taken up the upkeeping of Cinq paperwise and the other joys of that sort that the public couldn't see, and didn't need to. His sister Relena tended to the media and political needs, and still retained her job as Vice Foreign Minister in a symbolic way. From the time he'd began he'd regretted his decision. His nature led him to take action, not to sit on his tuft. The fallen prince had promised however, and was making good on it.
It would be easier if Noin was with him though, but she wasn't. He noted often with irony and depressing sentiment that Noin had always been the one better suited for it, even though she detested it, but give her a cause and she was more than willing to fight. That was just one thing great about her.
Things had gone so wrong, he had started helping his sister as a distraction from his mind, lately it hadn't been working, and he'd taken up working at the Preventers as well on a part time basis, and on any assignments others didn't want. It was the only thing that distracted him completely anymore.
Life was odd and humorous, and yet he still couldn't find the humor in it, maybe it was simple black humor. He wasn't like the others, he got dragged down, and he'd used Noin to keep him afloat. He'd been floundering for a while. Somewhere out there she was hiding from him, not that he could blame her after what had been said, he still wanted her back however. Marvin had been fired from his job for several reasons soon after her disappearance, and Zechs had taken true delight in giving him the news. What a happy day that had been, but sadly enough hadn't brought her back.
Someday she'd turn up, he just knew it, she had waited for him, and now it was his turn to wait, and he wasn't about to let her down, not now, not ever again.
#################################################
A/N: Hey there. If you have any suggestions send um my way, otherwise, I'm going to work on what I've already got.
Queen of Shadows: I've just got to say this, you are an awesome reviewer, and on top of that you write awesome too. :D Although I think I reviewed your stories under a different name. Also if you would like the last two chapters I've completed, they're yours, I haven't finished this yet, but I do have chapters 11 and 12 done. So if you want them, just email me.
Chibi Noin, and Chibi Tsuki: You guys are great with sticking through reading my stories with all my quirks in it. This time I'm actually spell checking, and yes, I'm retyping all of this. Got rid of all my disk copies, and am left with my hard copy on paper. The offer extends to you guys if you want the last two chapters I've written, so just let me know if you do.
Also, anyone on the ZxN list, don't expect me to post there, nothing ever happens there, its dead. Also, for my own little amusement, I'm revamping my site, fanfiction included. And I plan on doing a little page for zechsxnoin fics all by themselves.