30 Ways to Conquer Mars
#002 音沙汰
A.C. 197, February: 「Aerare, Non Rapito」
Gundam Wing © SOTSU AGENCY - SUNRISE - ANB
This is a work of derivative Fanfiction. No claims are made towards the ownership of intellectual rights pertaining to the metaseries.
...
The atmosphere in the Preventers' headquarters was oddly heavy today, as though the building itself was holding its breath, waiting for something. February is the worst sort of season for brooding, Noin decided, flipping the antique 4.5 milimetre Kiss of Death that madre had given her as a precaution when she first started at Lake Victoria back and forth across her steepled fingers. The problem was Zech's birthday.
Most people threw a party of some description on their birthdays. Some demand presents, others give out presents. Some like it big, some like it small, some like to party with strangers and others prefer intimate gatherings; Noin herself spends the weeks leading up to those milestones accepting other people's congratulations and goodwill, then spends the big day itself mostly alone, getting drunk as a skunk. Before discovering alcohol, she used to allow herself to cry herself to sleep that one night out of every three-hundred-and-sixty-five-and-a-quarter. The point is everybody tries to commemorate it in some way; everybody wants someone to remember, one way or another.
Not Zechs.
No, Zechs finds a comfortable spot and hibernates for three days, then donnes his skulking persona and goes about his life, minus three days. That's sixty-three days of his life he refuses to acknowledge, so far. That kind of wastefulness irks her.
This year, he had chosen her bed, in her dorm, despite the room the Preventers had appointed for his use, forced her to bunk in with Sally for three days without even letting her get her toothbrush, and when the time was up, when she finally found her door unbarred, he was simply gone.
Again.
Just when she thought he was getting to become human again, too. Granted, he did leave a message this time, so he was trying. They do need to have a talk about whether or not scribbling on her bathroom mirror in her favourite lipstick was an acceptable way for him to leave a message, though.
"Aerare. Non rapito"
"Need air. Not kidnapped". That was six days ago. She had to admit, she thought it cute that he would use her native Italian, but the message itself made no sense at all and she wasn't sure if she should be amused or angry, especially after discovering he had walked off with her favourite leather jacket. Had he woken up one day, decided to go for a walk and never came back? Although now that she's put it into words, it does sound like something Zechs Merquise might do.
She has known his plans for days. It was quite obvious, after a fashion, just the sort of thing that would appeal to him. She just didn't know what to do about it. Noin heaved a huge sigh, as though she could lift the entire office's mood by herself with that simple action. Most questions that people ask when in situations like these are irrelevant.
The only question that mattered was: what did he expect her to do about it?
Sometimes Noin feels so much like the male in their partnership that she has to check herself for the right biological equipment.
...