Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ All I Need ❯ Part II ( Chapter 2 )

A/N: Wow…I got Part II out quicker than I thought I would. But that's a good thing, right? Oh yeah, I am working on chapter nine for SotP!!! *rubs hands together* it's turning out to be a verrry action-filled chapter. ^_^ Oh yeah, I am also verry close to finishing Part III for Hand Me Down.

Disclaimer: I don't own GW or the song All I Need.

All I Need: Part II

If it's so easy, Sally, then why aren't you in a relationship?

Hilde's words reverberated through Sally's weary brain, and she chewed on the end of a pen absently. The German girl's words had struck a chord deep inside of her, no matter how hard she tried to ignore it. It was just one of those things you just couldn't ignore, no matter how you tried. It gnawed at your heart, or stuck in the back of your head, so its presence was always known…sometimes as a slight throb, and sometimes as an excruciating pang that filled your senses fully.

You shouldn't talk like that until you've actually experienced real love for yourself.

But sometimes the nights just got so lonely it was unbearable! There was actually a point when Sally had to heavily rely on sleeping pills in order to attain the rest she needed, but the doctor in her soon overrode the need to sleep, and she was forced to use other methods of relaxation. Like staring at the ceiling for hours. Oh joy and rapture.

You don't fool me…

"Augh!!!! Get out of my head!" Sally shouted, before realizing she had just yelled out loud to no one in particular. Her cheeks flamed in mortification, and she stood quickly, ready to bolt out of her office. It was time for an early lunch break.

Headquarters hosted a cafeteria on the first-floor level and, though the food wasn't the best, Sally often found herself accompanying an empty table, cradling a tray of whatever was being served. By the smell of it, it appeared to be something Italian… spaghetti or lasagna. Neither sounded appealing to her, but she chose not to be picky. She grabbed a tray of the food, still unsure of whether the glob was spaghetti or lasagna.

<Someone I can lean on until I don't need to.

Just stay all through the night and in the morning let me down.

'Cause that's all that I need right now.>

Sally stabbed a bite of the (newly-assumed) lasagna and chewed it vigorously; the…stuff…was just too damn chewy!

"Ugh! How can you eat that atrocious…stuff?" Lucrezia Noin questioned in disgust, plopping into the chair across from Sally. She had her nose turned up at the smelly lasagna, and-quite frankly-Sally couldn't blame her.

"Beats *chew* me." Came the confession through mouthfuls. Deep violet eyes rolled skyward, but the Italian didn't comment. It seemed the raven-haired Preventer was preoccupied, and her wistful sighs and far-away gazes were easily observed by the (still-chewing) woman across from her. Sally took a long swallow of iced tea, taking the chewy lasagna with it.

"What's wrong?" the tawny-haired woman inquired, though she assumed she already knew the answer. With Noin it was always about-

"Zechs." Was her friend's dry reply, distress etched onto her pale features. "What did you expect?" Sally didn't answer because it was a rhetorical question… and because she hadn't expected anything else.

"Everyone's having men trouble today," the Chinese woman replied sardonically, unable to keep contempt from rising into her voice. Lucrezia snapped out of her depressed phase and raised a delicate raven eyebrow.

She ran a hand through her hair. "If I didn't know you better I'd think you were some uber-feminist." Came the comment with a chuckle. "Either that or a lesbian."

Sally spit out the iced tea she had in her mouth, barely missing sloshing her friend with the liquid (didn't she have any luck?). "What a crude sense of humour!" Her indignation didn't stop Lucrezia's peals of laughter from issuing forth.

<Everywhere someone's getting over.

Everybody's life is someone.

People still use other people with a crooked smile.>

"Sorry, Sal," Noin responded, but the smile on her face showed that she wasn't really repentant.

Preventer Water quickly averted the subject. "So what were you saying about Zechs?" Noin immediately ceased laughing with the mention of her husband of seven months, and her attitude sobered considerably. She bit her lower lip in agitation, her brow furrowed.

"Well," Preventer Fire began, "he goes through these spells of extremely low self-confidence. He thinks he isn't good enough for me, and sometimes he even leaves home." Her eyes grew misty. "Sometimes he'll be gone for a week at a time. I've tried to pull him up and out of his mood, but I just can't! I don't know what to do anymore!" Sally studied her friend for a moment, amazed at all the problems these couples were involved in. The problems appeared so elementary, so easy to solve.

"Well he's had a tough past to deal with. I mean, his father was the leader of a pacifist nation!" Sally explained, peeling absently at the label on the iced tea bottle. "It eats at him, because he was an OZ soldier, and later the leader of the White Fang. He just can't deal with it, and he thinks he doesn't deserve to be a Peacecraft."

"So why does he think he doesn't deserve me, oh analytical one?"

Sally ignored the sarcastic comment. "Because you've always been there for him…you were even friends in the Academy! He probably thinks that his past is too horrible and that his hands are too bloodstained. That kind of attitude is quite common post-war." A loud sigh escapes Noin's lips.

"And how, pray tell, am I supposed to deal with this bout of low self-esteem?" she questioned, leaning back in her chair. People were beginning to gather into the cafeteria, and the semi-silence was traded for the low murmur of a mix of voices. Sally, having given up on the "lasagna", and instead was gnawing on the end of a breadstick. She ceased when she realized her friend was expecting an answer.

"Just try and wait it out." She held up a hand as Noin began to protest. "I'm not telling you to let him run away, but you shouldn't hover over him and lick his wounds for him. Show him that it hurts you when he leaves, and that the necessity for one another isn't just a one-sided thing." Noin shook her head, stray raven strands flopping against her forehead. The murmur around the room was growing louder.

<And all around the world there's a sinking feeling.

Out there right now someone's feeling down on themselves,

And don't know why, every night.>

"You make it sound so easy, Sally, but it's not!" Lucrezia countered, her deep violet eyes flaring. She leaned forward in her chair, resting her elbows against the table. Sally couldn't help the breathy sigh that left her lips.

"You know, that is practically exactly what Hilde told me…" A pause. "Well, to an extent…"

"And she's right!" Noin added as Sally took a sip of iced tea, having long since discarded the bread stick. "It's not as easy as you make it sound, no matter how much you try and pretend it is. You're normally so practical, Sally, but right now I'd go as far as to say you are being quite idealistic." The Chinese woman raised a skeptical eyebrow, taking slow, even breaths so she wouldn't blow up at her friend. Today just really wasn't her day…and that's an understatement.

"C'mon, Lucrezia, just how hard can it be?" Now Noin knew Sally was getting frustrated, because she had used her first name.

"Well great joy has its share of great sorrow, right?" Was the rhetorical question the raven-haired woman replied with. "Any relationship has its shares of ups and downs, but getting through those just makes the love even stronger." Sally sighed, massaging the bridge of her nose. Was that a migraine she felt coming on?

"Noin," she answered, her voice carefully controlled. "I believe you just answered your original question." The other woman blinked.

"Well so I have."

Sally banged her head against the table. This is so not my day…

A/N: I was going to add a part with Wufei and Zechs, but I figured Zechs wouldn't really go to anyone for love advice. He seems a little more private…anyway, please review!