Interlude 06: Missing you

Step off the train,

I'm walking down your street again,

pass your door but you don't live there anymore,

its years since you've been there,

and now you've disappeared somwhere,

like outerspace

you found some better place,

and I miss you

yeah...

and I miss you,

like the deserts mystery

The young man fiddled with his pencil mindlessly as his blue eyes stared down at his worksheet untouched by the led point of his pencil. The hour was twelve in the afternoon and he had yet to write a single scribble down on his paper yet. He simply couldn't put his mind to it. He groaned brushing shoulder length blonde hair behind his shoulders, he soon began to tap the end of his pencil against the worksheet.

The subject; mechanics concerning mobile suits. The problem; he sucked in this subject and failed twice, today was his redo. 16-year-old Zechs Merquirse groaned once again as he readied his pencil to color in a small square beside the first question his mind stressed over: In what place does the program system for the battle data go on an Aries?; Zechs truly did not know, the flight type mobile suit Aries was not his favorite mobile suit so he neglected to study it at all.

Now it was coming back to bite him in the ass. Zechs truly understood the meaning what goes around comes around and it bugged him to no end. Zechs pounded his head against his bedroom's computer desk in frustration, his head hurt from all the thinking and not knowing the answer to the question irritated him.

"If only I'd studied instead of tinkering with the Leo, I wouldn't have this problem," He grumbled miserably rubbing the side of his temple. With one last look at his paper Zechs climbed out of his chair and headed of his door room he traveled down the hall ignoring all the swooning women he passed by. He headed down the stairs just as a short haired teenage girl brushed by him, Zechs turned his head toward her and sent a smile in her direction.

Lucreiza Noin, his most trusted friend and usual study partner just waved and continued up the sitars. Once the blonde was the end of the stairs he headed out of the dorm building making his way over to the mobile suit hangar where he hoped the motorcycle he parked inside was still there. On the way he was greeted by a crowd of boys younger than him proclaiming that he was they're 'idol' and they looked up to him. Zechs simply nodded continuing his journey to the hangar.

If they really knew what my life was like then they wouldn't be saying such idle things, he thought dryly just as he entered the mobile suit hangar. He had to admit the Lake Victoria base was indeed a large place to walk through, but he liked the challenge as much as he loved the exercise he benefited from walking for miles across the base. Zechs' eyes studied the vastness of the hangar as he traveled through it, he fixed his black sunglasses so that were back on the bridge of his nose before spotting the motorcycle parked beside a Leo.

His eyebrows furrowed in confusion; that wasn't where he had it. Groaning Zechs jogged over to the motorcycle unaware of Treize stilling upon the arm of the Leo above him. He pulled the keys for the machine out of his pocket and moved to put them inside the ignition but a short whistle caught him off guard causing him to drop the keys. Zechs looked up at the older man appearing to be amused by his little mishap. "What are you doing here, Treize?" He asked monotonously. Treize Kushrenada shrugged and climbed down from the Leo effortlessly.

Zechs watched him land gracefully on his feet not a single hair on his head out of place. Treize was a bit too perfect for his tastes at times. "Just visiting," Treize replied with a smile. "Your dropped your keys." Zechs' eyes averted downward spotting the keys on the floor nearest to Treize's feet. Muttering, the young man picked them up off the floor then headed over to the motorcycle.

"You seem eager to leave, what's your hurry?" Treize asked. "I need to clear my mind. There's too much going on at the dorm to think," Zechs said imprudently. Treize chuckled at Zechs' straightforwardness and watched as the young man pulled the motorcycle out its parking space. He stepped out of the way as the blonde maneuvered the machine toward the entrance of the hangar. "Well, I certainty hope you find peace on the open road," Treize said, as Zechs climbed onto the machine. Zechs smirked at his friend staring up the engine. "So do I," He replied. "I'll see you later." Treize nodded to his friend just as Zechs pulled off. Treize watched his figure vanish in the distance before heading off to the other end of the mobile suit hangar.

The wind blew wildly through Zechs' hair as he traveled down his desired road toward a certain vacationing house that was 3 hours away from the Lake Victoria base. His mouth was straight as he drifted back to a barely recognizable memory that had been hidden in this subconsciousness until recently. His blue eyes studied the road head of him while his mind concentrated on other things.

A young Milliardo trampled through the snow happily with his two and half year old sister upon his back, in what his mother called "a back pack for babies" or at least that's how he remembered it anyway, he could never remember the name for the contraption his sister rode in on his back. His short blonde hair was covered by his sweater cap with dog ears attached to the ends of them, his sister wore a suitable infant snow-ware attire although the snow cap on her head was a bit big and covered her eyes slightly whenever she moved.

He looked back and smiled at her, Relena's big blue eyes sparkled as she tried to catch the falling snowflakes in her hand, babbling happily. Milliardo stopped in his tracks at the sight of a hill and smirked. Yet another challenge for Relena to overcome, carefully the young boy shrugged the straps of the backpack off his shoulders careful not to alarm his sister. He brought it over in front of him and slowly removed Relena from the contraption with ease.

Milliardo looked back at the Sanc Kingdom that was a good distance away from them before turning to smirk at his little sister. "All right, I've got another game for us to play, Relena," He announced. He placed Relena onto the snow holding her slightly so she wouldn't skin through it. "See this hill?" Millardo pointed the at the hill in front of them. Relena nodded causing her hat to fall over her eyes. Milliardo pulled the cap from over her eyes with a chuckle.

"See if you can climb up," He said. Relena gave him an uncertain look before proceeding toward the hill on wobbly legs, Milliardo watched her fall through the snow vanishing at times but always reappearing and continuing onward. He followed behind her his hands behind his back. Milliardo couldn't help but laugh at his little sister attempting to walk through the snow no doubt. It was truly a sight to behold. "Milli, I can't climb it," He heard Relena whine.

Milliardo came up to his sister's side and kneeled down in front of her, Relena looked up at him through her snow covered eyelashes. "You can do it Relena, don't ever doubt yourself," Milliardo said. Relena nodded grimacing a bit as her brother whipped the snow off her face, before she could continue her attempt in walking, Millardo lifted her off of the ground into the air and spun her around in one big circle. Millardo smiled at the gleeful sound she made as he spun her around, Relena's eyes were as bright as the stars themselves that day. He wouldn't have it any other way......

Zechs brought the motorcycle to a halt in the middle of the empty road near a small cottage house used for vacationing; the entire landscape was shaded by trees and shrubbery except to the part nearest to the road. He stared at it with intent eyes as the front door opened and a young girl skipped out holding a woven basket in her grasp. He watched her honey-blonde hair bounce with every step she took down the stone path that would lead her to the small garden and into the forest. "Relena, be careful dear! Don't be out too late!" Came a woman's voice. Relena Darlain stopped half way down the stony path she turned toward the door where Mrs. Darlain was standing with her fist close to her chest and her other hand upon the door knob.

Zechs watched the girl smile sweetly at her mother before saying, "I won't mother, I'm just going out to pick some of those berries I read about. They say spring time is the best time to pick them. They'll be a good desert!" Relena explained before continuing down the path. Zechs watched her mother linger in the door way then close the door and this was around the same time Relena spotted Zechs.

The 16-year-old stiffened in his place, she had noticed him! Relena leaned forward a bit cocking her head to the side slowly making her way over toward him instead of her desired place. Zechs' hands gripped the handle bars of the motorcycle readying himself for a hasty retreat. Relena was now edging closer to the edge of the road the more she moved and the longer he waited.

"Hello sir, are you looking for someone?" She asked stopping her tracks. Zechs bowed his head careful to make sure his sunglasses didn't fall of his face. "No, I just stopped to admire the scenery," He lied with a straight face. Relena smiled oblivious to this fact and nodded. "Yes, it is very pretty out here isn't it?" She said looking about. "Ineed," Zechs smirked turning the motorcycle around, he noticed Relena seemed a bit taken aback about this but he paid it no mind.

"Well, it was nice talking to you sir," Relena said with bow. "Likewise," Was all that Zechs said before heading back down the road. Relena leaned forward a bit to get a look at him before he completely vanished, for some reason there was something familiar about his aura that she couldn't put her finger on. The feeling was more like a distant memory to her but she couldn't remember. With a shrug the young girl headed over to the path once again.

Zechs could feel his heart pounding as he headed back to the base. He hadn't expected to find her there, the vacationing cottage was someplace he went to think, now it was occupied by someone he hadn't since in eons. Zechs fought back tears as he continued down the road. When he arrived at the Lake Victoria base, he immediately parked the motorcycle back in the hangar and headed back up to his dorm room.

Zechs locked the door wishing to be alone, he strode over to his desk remembering he had to answer that question in order to finish his test. But when he sat down and picked up his pencil, he noticed that the second square above the lower one was colored in. He pulled his sunglasses off and stared in bewilderment at the underlined answer; Nearest to the weapons and mobility systems. Zechs could think of only one person that could have known that besides half of the entire student body at the base and that person was.......

"Hey stranger, where've you been?" Zechs turned his head toward his bed. There sat a smiling Noin with a book rested upon her lap. He swallowed ignoring the pounding in his heart, he shook his head before turning his chair around to face her. "Nowhere..... thanks, I guess," He said gesturing to the paper. Noin gave him a shrug of indifference. "You look like you had other things on your mind today, I thought I might help you out just this once," She said. Zechs nodded in amusement then turned around to finish the paper.

Fin: Interlude 06. Disclaimer: "Missing" belongs to everything but the girl.