30 Ways to Conquer Mars

#028 ワダカルシウムCD3
A.C. 197, August 12, 22:42:「Kiss/Kill」

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.

Also not in any way a pharmaceutical endorsement or libel.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with WADA CALCIUM CD3 pills that I am aware of.

...

When Chief of Security Terren Miller strolled into the medical bay in the dead of the night during curfew, he found two of his security officers, Merquise and Noin, leaning against each other on the infirmary bed, bloody and spent, resting their feet on the prone body of a man who had been generally presumed dead twelve hours ago.

"He's alive," the female officer assured dully before he could get closer.

"Yes," Terren said mildly, "I wonder why."

Zechs raised his gun, too weary to take aim. "What do you want, Miller."

The bespectacled man smiled. It was the kind of ambiguous villainous smile that sinister young men with glasses pulled off so well. "I'd like to see you in bed. There's a curfew in effect and it would look bad for me if my own officers were found in defiance of it."

It seemed a reasonable enough proposal.

Noin even had second thoughts about her harsh assessment of his character, until she was woken up barely three hours later by his ship-wide broadcast announcing the end of the Marsprojekt's quarantine, at which point she decided he was a sadist.

She took Zechs' advice and left the clean-up to conventional channels. So long as the threat was not to World Peace, he'd pointed out, it was out of their jurisdiction anyway. She thought about it and filed his words away for future reference. It was a good cop-out, and Terren Miller was frighteningly effective. The entire scandal was dealt with by the end of the day, with elegantly phrased deniabilities wrapped up in a PR-friendly speech meant to allay concerns over more members of the crew going space-crazy.

Officially, Sheldon Donnovan suffered a methamphetamine–induced psychotic breakdown. Although how he had acquired the drug eighty million kilometres from Earth remained a mystery, it was a sufficiently embarrassing situation for the Space Guild that further lines of questioning were quickly dropped; along with the misplacement of some security footage from Donnovan's room on the evening of the 12th depicting part of Chief Miller's routine collection of the disgraced mechanic's personal effects, during which Donnovan's team-mates held him at gunpoint.

"You really should pay more attention to your image as Prince of Pacifism, Peacecraft," Terren observed in a cynical half-laugh.

"We will take that under advisement," Zechs nodded graciously.

He offered no resistance as Noin extracted the three vitamin bottles he had pocketed only a second ago and patted him down thoroughly.

"Tell us about… WADA Calcium CD3, Mr Miller," she suggested pleasantly, peering at the labels.

"As you can see, Miss Noin, it is a combination supplement of calcium, L-ascorbate and cholecalciferol."

"Vitamins don't turn perfectly normal people into psychopaths, Mr Miller."

"Ah," he actually chuckled then, "Clearly you have not met some of my ex… business associates in the pharmaceuticals industry…"

Click-click. Zechs cocked his weapon.

"It is an unimaginably stressful field," Terren finished, "Much like yours, I imagine, Preventer Wind."

"I no longer answer to that name," Zechs replied, every bit as smooth as he was.

"Of course."

"The pills, Mr Miller."

Terren met and held Noin's deep purple gaze steadily, and she knew before he spoke again that he wasn't going to tell them anything they didn't already know, if at all, and that they were going to let him. Just like the Space Guild.

Noin had to admit, there was a certain twisted poetry in spiked vitamins, turning something good for you into a means to destroy you. They'd already guessed when she took the pills from him that they have more than likely found the source of Donn's methamphetamines. Whether the problem was in the tablets or merely repackaged in these bottles remained to be seen, and was ultimately unimportant. The WADA brand was a famed competitor to the Miller family pharmaceutical holdings, so, in the light of how much he stood to gain when the WADA brand's involvement breaks out into scandal, why would Terren want to cover it up?

The painfully average-looking man smiled into her eyes.

"I am an opportunist, Miss Noin, not an idiot."

Zechs lowered his arm as Noin retreated to his side. Teren turned to face them.

"And being such a despicable opportunist, I propose a bargain: one small, inconsequential compensation for keeping your dual identities secret."

They could have walked away. It was true that the had yet to reveal themselves as Preventer agents for a purpose, as long at the nuclear weapons stockpiled for the Terra-formation project remained available, it could still pose a threat to the Earth Sphere and their life-long struggle for its conversion to Total Pacifism.

But Zechs was curious, even intrigued, by the cold Asian man.

"What do you want?"

Terren smiled sweetly, almost cheekily.

"A kiss."

Zechs frowned a little, and looked at Noin. It made sense now, his suppositions of tragedy stemming from an attraction to Noin. If he felt that way about her, this would not be the first time someone has projected their own reasoning and fantasies onto others. Naturally, it put Zechs' flags up that he had basically implied having considered murder for the sake of an infatuation. Still, Terren had not been the one to go charging about the ship guns a-blazing from the fires of love and jealousy raging in his chest.

A kiss could be inconsequential, though it was hardly his place to tell her what to think.

"Noin?" He prompted softly when her shocked silence persisted past his silent conclusions.

"Oh no, not from Miss Noin," Terren took a step forward, capturing his bright blue eyes in his endless black, a hand landing lightly on the edge of Zechs' free hand, where the back met his palm. "A kiss, Peacecraft, from you."

...

A/N:
L-ascorbate – vitamin C
Cholecalciferol – vitamin D3
I tend to write for heterosexuals when I do write about couples at all. Am I anti-yaoi? No. But like all relationships, I prefer my homosexual hook-ups to make character and canonical) whether fanon or series) sense. Unless it's a PWP. Actually, m favourite pairing types are Narcissists. I don't know why, could be lasting damage from being into MinaminoKuramaxYoukoKurama at a young impressionable age.