Disclaimer: See chapter 1.
Chapter 3: If you lived here...
The base on Mars was highly advanced and welcoming. It reminded Trowa of a college campus in the way things were set up. His room was located in hostel five, so he slung his duffle bag over his shoulder and followed the signs toward it. It had been a long day and Trowa was ready to meet his senior officers and then get straight to bed. Each hostel was comprised of six rooms. One team resided in each particular hostel.
Trowa finally reached hostel five and knocked on the door labeled common room. He heard a woman's voice call him in, so he obliged and stepped inside. There on the couch sat Sally Po and Chang Wufei, two other women were at a table playing chess. Wufei looked stunned.
"Trowa?" He questioned after a moment.
"I didn't think I would be seeing you two." Trowa was pleasantly surprised. He received a hug from Wufei shortly afterward, which surprised him even more. Sally stood up and motioned for the two chess players to follow.
"I am glad they sent someone of such high caliber our way," she smiled, "you'll make a fine replacement."
"Replacement?" Trowa's brow furrowed.
"Noin was offered a job at H.Q.," Wufei answered, "you probably saw her there."
"Yes I did, actually."
"Well, we should introduce you to our other two officers," Sally stepped between the other two women, "go ahead and tell him about yourselves." The elder of the two stepped forward; her wavy blonde hair fell past her shoulders, and it matched well with her pale green eyes.
"My name is Gale Wright," she extended her hand, which he took gently, "I'm 21 and I have been here for about three years now, originally from England." She had hardly finished before the second girl came forward and gave Trowa an enthusiastic handshake. She was a little shorter than Gale, but had energy enough to make up for it. She had straight, shoulder-length, jet-black hair, which she had tied into a ponytail at the time, and here eyes were a dark chocolate brown.
"Andrea Kirin Ryan," she smiled as she relinquished her grip, "I'm 18 and I came here from Japan about a year ago."
"Nice to make your acquaintance," he smiled and looked from Andrea to Gale, "both of you."
"Of course," Sally interjected, "we will mostly be referring to one-another by our alias names, since things tend to run on them around here. Mine is Fire."
"I go by Horus on missions." Wufei said from off to the side.
"My alias is Willow." Gale smiled.
"And I'm Rhine." Andrea grinned, "What is the name they gave you?"
"Oracle."
"The new sect is Greek for sure, then," Wufei said almost triumphantly, "I wonder where they shall move from there." Before Trowa could ask what Wufei was speaking of, Sally shot a look over her shoulder at her partner before explaining.
"There is a pattern back at headquarters of naming," she reflected, "all names given during certain seasons of recruitment are related. It signifies seniority, or at least that is what we think."
"Sally came from the first, the elementals," Gale elaborated, "Wufei was shortly after, during the Egyptians. I came a year or so after, with the trees, and Andrea was on the tail-end of last season, which was rivers."
"Strange." Trowa mumbled underneath his breath.
"Not really," Andrea shrugged, "just easier for the blue-collar stiffs down at H.Q., they are like cattle-brands."
"You shouldn't refer to them as blue-collar stiffs," Sally tried to sound accusatory, but a smile still played across her lips, "now help Trowa with his things, he'll be in Noin's old room."
"Sure thing!" The younger girl smiled and latched hold of Trowa's belongings before he could protest, "She had a nice room, right by the door."
"Why was that the best?" Trowa slipped his hands into his pockets and followed, faintly smiling.
"Because she could come and go as she pleased." Andrea turned around and winked after opening the door to the small quarters. There was a simple bedroom connected to a small bathroom, but in truth, it was more than Trowa was expecting.
"Thank you, Andrea." He smiled and looked at the bare, industrial furnishings.
"No problem," she put his belongings on the modestly colored bedclothes on the queen mattress, "with a little time, it will seem like home."
"Maybe so." He mumbled.
"Just give it a chance," Andrea smiled and walked toward the door, "you may just end up finding what you've been missing here at the base." He smiled faintly back as she shut the door. He went about unpacking his things, which were few, but he did begin to agree with the girl. The simple, slate-blue room looked a little better with a couple books upon the shelf, jackets hanging in the open closet, and his few photos in the mirror's frame. Something about the room was still different though. It was the smell. At first, he could not put his finger on it, but as he lay on the bed for a time reading a book, it struck him. It still smelled like Lucrezia. A soft mix of hair products, perfume, flowers, and her skin's own natural scent hung gently in the air. He hoped that as he lived in the room that the scent would eventually disappear, the sooner the better. He was snapped out of his thoughts by the sound of the main door opening and shutting. He put his book down and lifted himself from bed as he heard Gale speaking to an inaudible male voice. He opened his door just in time to nearly crash into Milliardo Peacecraft.
"Sorry." Came the only response from Milliardo for a moment. Trowa was almost uncomfortable with the silence and proximity. He took a step back and stiffened.
"Good to see you too."
"That was rude of me, wasn't it?"
"It could be taken that way," Trowa felt a smirk nagging at the corner of his mouth, but he kept it tamed, "so, may I ask why you were going to barge into my room?" Milliardo's smirk came unhindered, and his pale eyes danced in defiance.
"And why do you think I was going to barge in?"
"Because your hand was on the keypad," Trowa looked outside of the door to the small LCD screen on the electronic lock, "and you already dialed half of the code." Milliardo, to Trowa's surprise, merely chuckled.
"So you caught me," he looked up with a domineering stance, "I heard we had a new recruit, I just didn't know it was you." Trowa studied him. If this was an attempt at intimidation, it was not working.
"Sorry, I didn't leave a note." Trowa stated flatly, "So, what am I supposed to call you now?"
"Zechs, or Wind if we are on mission," Milliardo was tired of playing; he was angry enough as is, and the banter with Trowa wasn't funny anymore, "what is your mission name?"
"Oracle." Trowa answered, uncrossing his arms.
"I'll remember that," Zechs turned around to the rest of the group who had been watching their momentary distraction in between their mundane tasks, "letting you all know, they changed dinner hour on us this week, so we should head down there in about ten minutes in order to get first shot." With that, he left to his room. Gale rolled her eyes after the door shut. Trowa looked at her curiously. She looked at him, giving a weak smile as she walked over.
"He has been intolerable since Noin left," she whispered in his ear, "they were together for quite some time, but they were having problems. She finally broke it off when she got her promotion."
"No means for him to act out."
"Ahh, give him some time," she smiled in her hushed tone, "after all, you are her replacement of sorts, he probably resents her for abandoning him." Her mouth curled into an amused smile, which made him chuckle.
"Gale, quite spreading gossip," Andrea came over and took Trowa's arm, "you heard Zechs, we get early meals this week, lets show our new teammate around this bunker." Gale conceded with an over-dramatic sigh and took Trowa's other arm.
"I guess." She rolled her eyes again, followed by a laugh at herself. They led him to the door when Wufei called to them.
"Hey Trowa, don't let them brainwash you, it wont be pretty," he said in a rueful way, to which the other girls gave a little protest, "we will join you in a few minutes." Wufei ignored the girls' protests as Trowa led them out. Zechs just sat in his room, looking at a stack of paperwork that would take forever to finish, and a photo from years past that gave him so many unanswerable questions.
A.N. : I have been working pretty hard on this one, burning the midnight oil as they say. I do most of my writing around 11pm to anywhere from midnight to 3am, depending on how into my writing I am that night. The beginning of this chapter was written in Febuary, but about a quarter of the way through is fresh as of a couple nights ago. I finished this chapter last night and have launched into #4 with a lot of good ideas and ways to create some trouble for my favorite Gundam boy. Don't fret, though, I won't get him into a space that he can't get out of eventually. Thank you all who have been reading, and I hope you like this installment!