30 Ways to Conquer Mars
#012 ゴキゲン
A.C. 197, May 3, 11:55am 「Capable of Trouble」
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.
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All security teams attached to the Megmillion Mars expedition were comprised of three members: two Mobile Suit pilots and a dedicated mechanic. Zechs hated theirs on sight, feelings that were fully justified when Noin, coming up to join him on the ship's MS hanger, squealed in delight and flew into his arms.
"Donn! Are you our mechanic? Oh my god, you look great!"
"Lucrezia? What a surprise!" The other man beamed, crushing her too amicably to his broad chest. Zechs folded his arms and thought longingly of his mask. In the old days, he could have scowled and glowered however much he liked and not get caught.
"And this," Donn set her down finally to sweep his hand at him, as though taking it all in, "this must be the infamous Lightning Count, Zechs Merquise!"
He grunted some form of non-committal pleasantry while the vast majority of his mind power rerouted towards placing the man whose neck his partner was hanging off of. Didn't she say at some point that she had brothers? Six of them, one of whom was his Court-appointed chess tutor. With any luck, one of the others had been named Donn…
"How have you been, Lucrezia? I heard about Lake Victoria, and then there was that thing about an ESUN warrant?" He turned his puppy-dog brown eyes back on Zechs, who was still dumbly holding his hand. "What kind of trouble have you been getting my girl into, eh?"
"Donn, stop," Noin shook her head at him, eyes sparkling, tiptoeing, "I can't blame Zechs— he's not my keeper!"
In that moment, irrational as the thought was, he rather wished she did.
"Honest to God?" There was an infectious quality in the man's open expressions that he was determined not to be swayed by. Anyone that charismatic must be harbouring some nefarious agenda.
The dispossessed prince chuckled charmingly and retrieved his hand with a sophisticated calm. "Lieutenant Noin is quite capable of getting into trouble on her own."
"And don't I know it!" Donn laughed, already focusing his attentions back on Noin.
"Lucy," he said, making Zechs' skin crawl, "I've been worried sick about you, doll, and there's one thing I really need to do."
"What is it?" She giggled, giggled, like a giddy schoolgirl.
And, as he suffered a thousand horridly petty deaths in the pilot's vivid imagination, the bear-like athlete picked Noin up and kissed her full and deep on the lips, right in front of everyone in the hanger.
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