Lady Une is in the downstairs office when Mariemaia lets herself in the front door. She checks the time on the grandfather clock, just past nine. Mariemaia toes off her shoes, setting them beside the door, and hangs her jacket in the closet before making her way across the foyer and to the office. She moves nearly soundlessly on her socked feet, avoiding the floorboards that creak, and staying close to the wall so her shadow doesn't give her away.
The office door is partially open from where the latch hadn't caught. Mariemaia presses her ear to the wooden door and breathes slowly through her nose. She'd used the same process to eavesdrop on Dekim when she had been younger. She had believed her grandfather would remake the world, would place her as the figurehead just as her father had desired, but even as a child she had learned it was better to observe for herself than listen to others.
"We're still waiting on the next check-in."
"I'm not questioning you," Miss Relena's voice echoes. Mariemaia tilts her head, picking up the slight delay. It sounds like a video call. "I'm simply warning you."
"I understand that, Vice Foreign Minister. And," a pause, "I do appreciate it. But what the Minister is hypothesizing is nothing but paranoid delusions."
"I am doing my best. Quatre has agreed to help, of course. But he's not a minister or official."
"His word still holds sway in L4."
"It does, but the latest theft doesn't offer much faith."
Mariemaia hears a sigh and the creak of the leather desk chair. She presses her ear more firmly to the door, trying to parse out the conversation on the other side.
"What does Heero say about it?"
"Nothing." Miss Relena's voice sounds frustrated and fond at the same time. "The shuttle was gutted of any electrical wiring. It was eerie. Duo said he hasn't seen anything like it before. It was just a husk. No people. No cloth for the textile factories. Nothing."
The door creaks beneath Mariemaia's hands. Mariemaia freezes, waits to hear what her guardian will do. Lady Une surprises her by letting out a laugh. "I seem to have a fly on my wall. I'll touch base with you tomorrow, Vice Foreign Minister."
"Of course." Miss Relena's voice sounds amused as well.
Mariemaia scuttles back from the door as Lady Une pulls the door open fully. Her guardian is barefoot and dressed for bed. It hadn't been a scheduled call then. Lady Une raises her eyebrows questioningly. "Did you enjoy yourself?"
Mariemaia straightens up, glances into the office where the computer is still humming on the desktop. "Yes," she replies before frowning. "It was crowded."
"It is a Friday night, and a popular restaurant." Lady Une retreats back into the office, shutting down the computer and flicking off each of the lamps. Mariemaia hovers uncertainly in the doorway.
"Was that Miss Relena?" she questions finally.
Lady Une lifts her gaze to meet Mariemaia's eyes. "Your hearing is very acute," she states.
Mariemaia flushes. "She's calling late."
"Early, for her. It's tomorrow in L2 already." Lady Une switches off the last lamp, wraps an arm around Mariemaia's shoulders. "Come on, let's hear all about your dinner. How were the other girls?"
Mariemaia falls into step with her guardian, shrugs lightly. "Immature," she replies. "Julia snorted coke through her nose."
"So you had fun then?"
Mariemaia hesitates, follows Lady Une up the stairs. "I did," she replies. The honesty surprises her.
Lady Une casts a glance back over her shoulder at her. Her smile is small, genuine. Not the fake one with too many teeth she flashes at politicians ad reporters. Her eyes are the warm amber of honey. She looks happy, Mariemaia realizes. "I'm glad," her guardian says.
. . ... . .
Lady Une doesn't mention the call with Miss Relena. She doesn't admonish her for listening at the door. She doesn't acknowledge it at all, as if it had never happened. By the end of the weekend she wonders if she had imagined the whole thing after all.
Instead, they spend Saturday working in Lady Une's garden, weeding the vegetables and prepping the soil for the new flowers she wants to add along the fence line. Mariemaia had never understood gardening. So many hours digging through dirt, sweating and bent over pots and plots of dirt, so much time spent watering and weeding and hoping. There were stores that sold fresh vegetables, shops that provided freshly arranged flowers.
She had asked Lady Une about it, once, a year-or-so ago. Her guardian had looked at her, brushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear, and adjusted the wide-brimmed hat on her head. "Sometimes," she had said, "it's nice to be responsible for helping something grow, helping something live."
Mariemaia had tilted her head, hands deep in the black soil as she sought the roots of weeds. "But you're killing the weeds," she had said. "And you pick the vegetables. Are you really helping it live?"
Lady Une had fallen silent, had studied her with eyes that suddenly seemed ancient. "Everything has a purpose, Mariemaia." She hadn't said anything further on the subject and Mariemaia had let it dry up, had let it die.
Mariemaia is assigned to water the vegetables, to add the seeds, she's told to keep her bandaged hand away from the dirt and not to reopen the cut. She watches Lady Une move through the planters, checking each of her plants. She remembers what she had heard Miss Relena say, that there had been another theft. The implication that Yergin was gaining traction. Missing shipments. Missing people.
"Where's your head?" Lady Une questions. Mariemaia jumps slightly. She hadn't noticed her guardian's approach. Lady Une glances at the puddle of mud in front of Mariemaia from where she'd gotten distracted and left the hose on one spot too long. "Mariemaia?"
"Sorry," she mumbles. She adjusts the direction of the water, turning it onto another planter. She eyes the freshly tilled dirt along the fence. "What are you planting there?"
"Roses."
She looks quickly at Lady Une, but her guardian isn't facing her. She's brushing dirt off her hands. Mariemaia returns her attention to the hose. It doesn't mean anything, she tells herself. Plenty of people have roses. But she wonders, wonders if it has any connection to her father. She isn't sure if she hopes it does or it doesn't.
"That's enough watering, you'll drown them," Lady Une states.
She takes the hose from Mariemaia's slack grip. There's a mischievous look in her eye and suddenly she turns the hose on Mariemaia. Cold water sprays her, soaking her T-shirt and shorts. Mariemaia shrieks, laughing, tries to wrestle the hose back from Lady Une. It doesn't take long before they're both soaked and laughing.
Mariemaia can't remember the last time her ribs hurt from laughing so hard.
. . ... . .
Im bored
R u there?
This rain is TERRIBLE. We should go 2 the shops, yes?
Mariemaia stares at the series of texts on her screen early Sunday afternoon. Kenzie had sent them over the past two hours, and she wasn't wrong. The rain had started mid-morning and hadn't let up, falling heavy and persistent outside the windows. Mariemaia had curled up in the living room, studying for her history test the following day. She had thought Kenzie would give up with her messages, but her silence only seemed to make the other girl more persistent.
If not, Jules says we can hang out at her place
She's got surround sound
R u there Khushrenada?
Mariemaia sighs as her phone lets out three more pings in quick succession. She picks up her phone, thumbs through the messages and rolls her eyes.
I am studying for Dr. Arthav's exam tomorrow.
She sets her phone down and turns a page in her textbook. She can hear Lady Une in the office down the hall. She had checked, but the door was closed securely today, and Lady Une's voice had been muffled by the thick wooden door. She sighs again, picks up her phone.
Have fun at Julia's. I will see you tomorrow at practice.
The reply is almost instantaneous.
Fine. Enjoy studying
She spends the afternoon studying, listening to the dull drum of water on the glass windows. Occasionally, she wanders down the hall to check the office door, but it remains securely shut. Each time, Mariemaia wonders if Minister Yergin has instigated another meeting, if another theft has happened. If something else has happened. She remembers Miss Relena's voice from Friday night. She had sounded exasperated, but she'd been tense as well.
Mariemaia remembers that same tension from the rebellion, from when Dekim had pulled her aside, had told her it wasn't a game, had sworn Miss Relena would tell her nothing but lies. She remembers that same tension from before, from when Uncle Trowa had gone missing and Mariemaia had inquired after him every day. That tone always meant something was going to happen. Something was being kept from her.
Lady Une emerges from the office at six on the dot. She appears in the doorway to the living room and it takes Mariemaia a few minutes to notice her standing there. She looks tired. Mariemaia raises an eyebrow, lifts the corner of her mouth.
"You're hovering," she states.
Lady Une offers her a smile in return. "So it seems I am," she agrees. She pushes off from the door, crosses the room to sit on the sofa next to Mariemaia. "What are you reading?"
"History," Mariemaia replies. "I have an exam tomorrow."
"You've always been good with history."
Mariemaia stares at the text in front of her. She runs a finger over the image of a man she doesn't know, has never met, but remembers Dekim mentioning. Heero Yuy. The politician. The start of Dekim's plans for vengeance. Perhaps, she thinks, the start of Dekim's own downfall. She thinks of the Gundam pilots. Trowa Barton's name had not been a coincidence, she knows that deep in her bones. She wonders if Heero Yuy's was.
"History always repeats itself, doesn't it?" she muses. She can feel Lady Une's eyes on her. "Sooner or later, the musicians pick up their instruments, the dancers take their place, and the waltz starts once more."
Lady Une lets out a long sigh. Mariemaia glances up from her textbook once again, finger tapping lightly over Heero Yuy's heart. "It does have a habit of appearing to, doesn't it?" she questions. Mariemaia's finger stills, the nail digs lightly into the page, creasing it. "We just have to hope people are smarter now than they were then."
Mariemaia remains silent, watches as Lady Une pushes to her feet.
"Leftovers alright for dinner tonight?"
"Yes." Lady Une is nearly at the door when Mariemaia calls out. "Was it Miss Relena again, on the phone in your office?"
Lady Une pauses, looks over her shoulder at Mariemaia. "Yes, little fly."
Mariemaia frowns, sticks her tongue out. "More trouble with Minister Yergin?"
Lady Une shakes her head. "It's nothing for you to worry about." Her eyes drift to the textbook in her lap. "Dinner will be ready in about fifteen minutes, make sure to wash-up."
"Yes, ma'am," she states