Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Survival ❯ The Meaning of a Smile ( Chapter 25 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

The Meaning of a Smile

August 1st 197 - Tuesday - Brussels

Jake blinked, then covered his mouth to hide his smile… or quell the urge to just start laughing, he wasn't sure. It wasn't that it looked bad, quite the contrary, their princess was possibly more lovely than before. It was a new attitude that the hair suggested, and the devilish glint in both her and Dorothy's eyes.

Zechs was going to be having kittens.

“It's not polite to stare,” Dorothy informed him primly, twirling at her own hair… which also seemed to have lost over a foot in length. Not that that was saying much, seeing as it had been touching her knees before.

“I'm not staring,” he returned simply, moving his hand to hold the side of his head. “I'm imagining the lecture I'm going to get.” Relena had the grace to look mildly apologetic, but Dorothy outright cackled. I knew she was Satan incarnate…

“He can hardly lose his temper over my cutting my hair,” Relena noted, though her eyes shone in a way that meant she knew exactly what problems she was stirring up. “I've had the same hairstyle since I was twelve, it was long past time for a change.”

“And if you're doing it, you make sure to do it well,” Jake agreed, shaking his head slightly. “I'm not arguing, and it looks great… but you can count on him suddenly being more paranoid of any man that comes within a yard of you.”

The princess tilted her head slightly with an amused glint to her eyes as Dorothy practically fell over herself laughing again. With a completely straight face, she told him, “I'm afraid I have no idea what it is you're suggesting, Colonel Miller.”

Jake just chuckled and shook his head. She knew exactly what he meant and was rather pleased with the effect… and he couldn't blame her. She had stripped away what was left of the image of a demure teenager and was somehow shining all the more brightly for it. There was something… more powerful about her presence, and he wasn't sure if it was due to the many layered hairstyle that ended just above her shoulders, suggesting some degree of sass, or because she had gained the courage to cut it all off.

“You look amazing,” he reassured her, gesturing back toward the base they were near the entrance of. “My worry is more about toward convincing your brother not to leave me orders to skin alive any man who manages to brush past your shoulder.” Dorothy had insisted that just the two of them go somewhere earlier, and it hadn't been too big of a deal with the area of town Catalonia had suggested, so he had agreed. She had also agreed on what time she would be back by before he called out the cavalry, so he had met them as they exited the car.

“Tell him whatever you need to calm him down,” she suggested easily. “You and your boys won't let anyone who might take advantage within three yards in any case.”

“Well, no, I will because you'll be meeting with other politicians, but my general rule of thumb is to intimidate the shit out of anyone suspicious.” He grinned. “And since you practically keep me as a secretary as well, there's never any reason to send me out if others send their bodyguards as a sign of trust.”

Dorothy smacked him in the shoulder. “Stop stealing my job.”

He laughed, falling back slightly so he came between them, throwing an arm over each woman's shoulder. “Let's go face the music… this one should be pretty entertaining.”

***

Undetermined

“Catch your eyes, flash a smile,” Cathy sung under her breath as she stood on her toes, reaching for the serving bowl on the top shelf of the cabinet. “Maybe you could stay awhile…” Smiling a little at the irony to be had with the phrase, she shook her head. Trowa had come back yesterday and had spent most of the evening telling her about his escapades of the last few months… and it was always hard to say how long he would stay. Once, he hadn't left for nearly three months, but there were also times that his visit would only last a few days. It depended on a mixture of his mood and the situation of the world at large.

She could never figure out if he was busy or being lazy at any point.

Her brother had changed drastically from the young man she had once slapped for his uncanny willingness to simply throw his life away. Part of it had to have been from that Heero character that had stayed with them for so long, because even after the amnesia set in and she got him back from the first part of the war, before any of his old friends had found him again, he had insisted on some of the same ideal of following your heart that he admitted the other boy had suggested. Considering his lack of anything vaguely resembling direction or tenacity, she had only been too happy to support the idea. His interpretation of right and wrong was a little loose, but… well, that was how it was with all of those boys Trowa had sometimes brought home during the war. How else could somebody wind up as a gundam pilot?

Shaking her head again, she started to actually throw together the fruit salad for the communal dinner the performers were having that night. She had hated the very idea of war for as long as she could remember, having lost any romance surrounding the idea when her parents and little brother died when she was six. Well, probably, anyhow… Trowa had a strange scar on his back that was almost identical to one little Triton had had, though she couldn't remember her mother's explanation behind the mark beyond the fact that there had been a legitimate reason for it. These days he even looked an awful lot like the pictures she had of her father. Some part of her wanted to ask him for a blood test, but in all reality it didn't matter, and she was worried how he might react if it turned out she was wrong. He was what she had made of family for herself, and she didn't want him to possibly think she might reject him for not being blood-related.

“I can't get over how much warmer it is here,” Trowa muttered as he came into the kitchen, toweling his hair. “Going outside with wet hair actually sounds nice.”

She rolled her eyes. “You've been spending too much time on Earth,” she decided. “Stay there for too long and you'll get depressed from lack of sunshine, especially with how much traveling by night you do; you don't even get the little bit of sunlight they have these days.” He grinned slightly at that, settling down in the little dining booth in the corner and leaning away from her to look out the window. All he was wearing was jeans… which looked to be high watered. Has he grown again? she wondered, dismayed.

“It's beautiful here,” he muttered after a moment.

“It's carefully cultivated to be beautiful,” she reminded him as she walked over toward him, resting her hands on the table and leaning forward to look out into the sunshine. “It's wonderful, really… but I don't know, it always feels so fake up here in the colonies.”

“It's the sky that makes it that way,” he half explained. “The plants are all real, and the lamps are made so they have all the right rays, everyone gets the right vitamins… but it's not cost efficient to make the colonies big enough so you can't see the curve of the gravitational wheel. The diameter isn't great enough to keep you from seeing the buildings on the other side.”

“I never much minded it before,” she told him. “But we usually didn't stay in the colonies for too long either; now it's pretty rare that we go down to Earth. It makes my skin crawl sometimes, the way everything seems planed… They do a good job of hiding it, but I can't help but feel I'm shut in a box.”

His smile turned rueful. “Earth is… wild, chaotic. There's something exhilarating about it, but this… I prefer the colonies. Ports of entry can be closely watched, there's a limited number of ways in and out. There's something… comforting, about that.”

“I would think it would be more of a problem than a security blanket for someone who likes to slip between the lines so much,” she noted, half teasing.

Her brother shrugged. “I learned every way around those security measures before I could read… most people have a harder time of that, though.”

Catherine rolled her eyes. “You have to go and remind me that you're some hardcore soldier boy, huh?”

His chuckle was self-deprecating… and it was a chuckle, not the bewildered stare from when they had first begun talking regularly. “It's so strange sometimes, Cathy… I know how to do all of it, but I still can only remember tiny bits and pieces. Staring at the soup this blonde girl was cooking, trying to decide if it was done… there's something important about her, but I can't even remember her name. I know I can play the flute, and I know Quatre can play violin, but I don't remember him ever telling me that. I remember hitting Duo so I could slip him a projector without the other guards noticing, but I can't remember why it was so important that he get it. I was hiding, and they'd been arrested by the group I was with… OZ.” He frowned. “I was half curious if Colonel Une was flirting with me… but I didn't care.”

She shrugged, though she was a little amused. “The lady Colonel had a thing for ya, huh?”

He grimaced. “If she did, I'm glad she never acted on it.”

Cathy just shook her head again, standing up straight. “You remember more when you talk about it, so if you want to, I'm game, but I thought you said you didn't want to bother anymore?”

He closed his eyes. “It's just frustrating.” Even if he had started talking more, smiling and laughing and teasing, even, his mannerisms were still quiet, subtle, fluid. I think I might die of shock if he ever threw up his hands in frustration like a normal person, she mused. “I gave up looking back for a way forward, but it's just… I know I know more than I think I do. What if there's something important that I can use from back then?”

She sighed. “Trowa, to be perfectly honest, I don't think much from back then would help you now; at least, nothing you don't still have, like you said, you still remember how to do everything. Quite frankly, any information would probably be outdated… and you were a very different person. There were times where you knew important things but went and ignored them anyhow for some reason, like you just didn't care. You were kinda… vacant, more often than not. Maybe it's from how you grew up, or something, I don't know… but you've said before that you don't like what you remember of yourself back then, so maybe you're better off never really getting the whole picture back.”

He turned back to her and shrugged a little, his expression tired. “I know… I just still think about it sometimes.” Looking around her to the counter he asked, “What were you doing?”

***

August 2nd 197 - Wednesday - Jerusalem

Opening the fridge and easily finding breakfast makings, Odin decided that this was probably a better idea than he had at first been willing to admit.

Marlé had been right about his leg… it still ached, days later, but he didn't need the brace or cane now. Unfortunately, they hadn't had any luck on finding her mother during the downtime either, largely because they had no idea whatsoever where to start. As bright of a student as his newfound sister was, she hadn't bothered to pay enough attention to her mother's career choice to even know what division of medicine the woman went into… and all they knew was that her name wasn't Barton or Benson.

After a couple days of failure, especially the one surrounding the `Wufei' chase, it had seemed right to pull back and relax for a little… and then it had seemed right to retrace his steps somewhat.

Pulling out the eggs, sausage, and turkey bacon, he went looking in the pantry for the pancake batter that he remembered being there before… There was a waffle iron here too. He smiled at that, seriously considering putting the eggs in the thing like he remembered Odin doing… but there really wasn't much point when there was such a an expansive griddle at his disposal.

They were fond of breakfast food… something about `all things fried' that was apparently funny, but he hadn't quite understood.

Before long, he had a large breakfast coming along relatively nicely… he'd burned the sausage a little, but it wasn't too bad. It had just occurred to him that there had usually been toast too when he heard footfalls in the next room, and the kitchen door began to creak open. Turning around, he smiled at the man's suspicious look. “Good morning, Doctor.”

Samuel Srona stared at him with narrowed eyes for a few moments longer before his eyebrows shot up. “Yukio?”

He grinned at the name he had assumed for so long there. “Odin, now,” he said by way of agreement. “I thought I'd come back for a visit.”

Sam grinned and held up one finger in a “wait” sort of gesture before ducking back out of the kitchen… probably to fetch Moira. Soon enough his thoughts were confirmed from the sounds of the woman's sleepy grumbling and Samuel's whispers, and he turned to face the door fully as it opened. He couldn't help but smile at her wide eyes, but simply noted, “I made breakfast.” His eyes twitched back to the griddle. “Making.”

“Oh! I can see that!” she cried as she rushed over to him, pulling him into the hug that he had been expecting, but was still a little unsure of how he was supposed to respond to. He suspected he did better than the last time, however. “Oh, this is a lovely surprise! I was hoping you might come back, but I didn't think it would be so soon!”

He grimaced as he pulled away, turning back to the stove. “It wasn't Wufei after all… I finally caught up to him the other night. It seemed like a good idea as any to come back.” If he and his ward were too much of a risk or burden, however, they could leave after breakfast.

“Of course it was a good idea!” she scoffed as if she could read his thoughts. “Oh, and you made breakfast too! What are you going by now, with that blonde hair of yours?”

“Odin Lowe,” he returned easily… happily, he realized. Moira was just pleasant to… bask in. Like the sun. “The little girl on the couch is Marlé Lowe.”

“Oh really now?”

He shrugged. “I found her, and she needed somebody, so here we are. She didn't sleep on the flight over here, though, so she's tired.”

“Ah, well, look at you! You look so good, and the blonde really suits you too, and you're smiling!”

He couldn't help but smile wider at that. “It's gotten easier,” he admitted.

“And your leg?” Samuel asked clinically from the doorway.

Somehow, his smile stretched wider. Samuel had warned him that he would likely never run again. “I was sprinting the other day.”

The couple exclaimed over that, wanting more details… and despite being tired, and his leg still hurting like man from being overworked, and any of his doubts…

He just felt good.

***

Brussels

Milliardo looked like he had bitten into something sour as he pulled her into a hug. “Be safe,” he muttered softly.

“Of course I will,” she scoffed, hugging him tightly. However wrong about however many things… he was her brother. “What else would I be?”

“Willing to literally jump between two dueling specialized mobile suits?” he returned dryly.

She flushed at that; he had a point. “That was a long time ago,” she muttered in her defense. “I have more common sense, now.”

“And I'll make sure she keeps it,” Jake added, smirking.

Milliardo looked about to make a sharp retort for a moment, but apparently bit his tongue. Instead, after glowering a moment, he ordered, “You keep her safe, Miller.”

Her bodyguard reached out and clasped her brother's hand hard, his smile somehow serious. “You know I will.”

He nodded a little, seemingly much more relaxed… which made Relena curious. Why does he trust Jake so much that that's all the reassurance he needs? There was more to it than simple camaraderie, which was all Jake claimed laid between them… though it was still clearly not an outright friendship. Her brother didn't keep close friends… Jake was likely the closest thing he had to one, but it more laid in the fact that Milliardo had relatively severe trust issues combined with… not cowardice, but something vaguely related to it that was somehow deeply intermingled with his sense of nobility.

But he completely trusted Jacob Miller with her safety, without a second thought. Obviously, he had once entrusted Noin with exactly that, with the same degree of implied trust… but she had never learned his logic behind that faith either. Maybe camaraderie did go that far in his mind… but she couldn't help the nagging feeling that there was more to it than that. Noin had been as hopelessly in love with Milliardo as she had once thought herself to be with Heero, and he had known, and possibly returned, those feelings. That could easily explain the trust there, because Noin would no sooner have done something to hurt him than she would have cut off both her legs.

What's the extra connection between him and Jake?

“Stop that before you make my head hurt.”

She turned and gave Dorothy a very level look before pulling her into a hug. “Why does he trust Jake so much?” she asked quietly, so the two men couldn't overhear. “We're missing something.”

“I know, but the best I can come up with is friendly sodomy,” her friend returned in a completely neutral voice. Relena choked on that, hard, actually stumbling so that Dorothy half caught her, pulling her tight so it just looked like a tearful goodbye. Not that it really mattered, considering the fact that they had left the press behind for a private farewell a few minutes ago, but still, she was grateful for it. Sighing dramatically, Dorothy continued with, “Yeah, that's about how believable I find it too, but still, it was worth a thought.”

“A fleeting thought,” the princess grumbled, straightening herself and pulling away to give her an incredulous look.

“I haven't come up with anything worthwhile, though,” the woman practically pouted.

“Then say you don't know?!” she hissed back, feeling bewildered.

Dorothy really did pout then. “But that would be boring!”

“What?”

Relena turned, utterly mortified, back to her brother's mildly curious expression before Jake put a hand on his shoulder, shaking his head. “Trust me, if she's that red, the best policy is not asking.”

Relief flooded through her as the men turned back to their conversation, and she looked up when Dorothy rested a hand on her shoulder… only to catch the mock coy look the other was offering her, flicking her eyes back over at the similar gesture from the bodyguard. Her heartbeat thundering loud in her ears, face surely brighter than before, Relena did the mature thing.

She glared.

***

Jerusalem

Having woken up for breakfast, eaten, and curled back up on the couch, Marlé was unsure of what to make of the doorbell ringing. Odin didn't seem too worried about it, though, so she supposed there was no reason for her to fuss.

“Gramma!” a little girl squealed once Moira opened the door.

“Leah!” their hostess returned with equal enthusiasm, though it was obviously put on for the little one's appreciation.

“Hey Mom,” a woman's voice greeted lazily. “We've got an hour to kill before Leah's gymnastics class, so I thought we'd swing by.”

“Well, this is certainly a day for surprises,” Moira happily agreed, and Marlé could hear the door shutting. Turning back to Odin, he seemed thoughtful for a moment before standing and gesturing that they move into the kitchen.

Moira continued on happily. “Remember when I told you last spring you'd acquired another brother?”

“That patient of Dad's, right?”

Odin blinked and shrugged at Marlé, sitting back down… which she took as her cue to retake her place on the couch. He did say that these people were the closest thing he had to family… She had thought they took it a little less seriously, though. Apparently not.

“Yes, well-”

Any further eavesdropping was interrupted when a little girl with dark eyes and wavy brown hair done up in pigtails happily announced, “I'm Leah. What's your name?”

Marlé blinked; she had little to no experience with little kids… this one had to be under five. “Marlé.”

“Hi Marlé!” she greeted cheerfully… before bolting up the stairs.

“Don't make a mess!” called a twenty-something year old woman as she and Moira entered the living room. “We have to leave in forty minutes!”

“I won't!”

The girl's mother shook her head slightly, amused, before focusing on Odin. “So you're the boy my mother's determined to keep?”

“Hn. I suppose.” This was delivered with mildly narrowed eyes.

Marlé fought the urge to roll her eyes; trust Odin to the most evasive affirmative answer in existence. Moira seemed to feel the same, as she did roll her eyes and noted to her daughter, “He's not exactly a social butterfly, Annie, don't take it to heart.”

Odin… butterfly… The imagery set Marlé giggling. Sure, the guy smiled but so far as she had seen, only for her and this Moira woman… and not exactly frequently. Well, no, he does it when he's acting too… but he's so not like him then, it doesn't count, she decided. Moira tossed her a wink as her daughter, Annie, raised a brow, first at her, then at Odin when he sighed.

She seemed to get past her skepticism, or whatever it was, quickly. Striding across the room, she held out a hand to Odin. “Anne Moore; the hyperactive little thing with perfect curls that just vacated the premises is Leah. I'm Sam and Moira's youngest, for all that my brothers have yet to produce any children so Mom and Dad will quit spoiling mine rotten.”

Her mother scoffed. “Nonsense; we'll just spoil all of them.” Gesturing at Marlé, she added, “And this is the little sister he's adopted, though they're still searching for her mother.”

Anne turned and offered her the same hand. “Annie.”

Marie grinned; she liked how frank the woman was. It reminded her rather a great deal of her mother. “Marlé.”

***

August 3rd 197 - Thursday - Amsterdam

“How did you talk me into this again?”

“You were bored and desperate to get out of the house,” Melissa cheerfully reminded her friend. “Kay warned you that it'd be boring, but you packed up the baby anyway.”

Karina rolled her eyes. “Okay, fine… but why are we painting the floor?”

Melissa clicked her tongue, dipping her roller back in the paint. “It's presentation,” she explained shortly. She and Duo had finished painting the garage walls a grey similar to the concrete yesterday, covering the old marks and keeping a warehouse sort of feel that wouldn't fade out the professional attitude of the room once it got dirty. Now she and Rina were doing the floor a deep green while her boyfriend painted their little office space in the next room. It was a dark enough color that it might look good with the inevitable dark grease and oil stains, but brought a new sort of life and friendliness to the garage. Seeing as they wanted to keep the garage open as much as they could while in business, the effort for presentation would be worth it.

Karina, however, was ever the pretty princess. “My back hurts… how many coats of this are we putting down again?”

“We can't put down another coat until this one dries,” she returned exasperatedly. Seriously, that's just common sense. “Go play with your daughter if it's that annoying.”

The little blonde just huffed out a sigh as she continued to doggedly paint. Melissa rolled her eyes, but kept her peace; if they weren't such cheap-asses, they would have some bigger rollers and this would take considerably less time, but between her and Duo, they could penny-pinch enough to put any scrooge to shame. The time spent easily made up for supplies that couldn't be done without. Besides, the Father had said Amos was coming over to help once he was out of school, and Nolan had agreed to help too. A few of the younger Devils boys had also offered to help if their homework was light.

They had only just gotten possession yesterday, and they ought to be able to officially work out of here once the bottom floor was finished. They already had a number of accordion file folders and a single file cabinet for paperwork… Melissa was mostly done with drafting different service forms. Kay had been muttering about wanting to cut that Plexiglas today, and she figured it was better to let him do it than try herself, considering his history, and-

“Hey, are you two almost done in here?”

“Almost,” Melissa confirmed, looking up as he leaned into the garage. Those bright blue eyes of his were happy, content… sometimes she swore she could stare into those eyes forever if he let her. “What's up?”

Amusement lit his face up even more as he pointedly didn't break her gaze; he knew what had caught her attention and, as usual, got a kick out of it. “I want to cut out our new window before I crash for a few hours… Renee's due to wake up soon, isn't she?”

Rina frowned, looking up at the clock that Melissa had hung shortly after they arrived. “Yeah, she'll be hungry in twenty minutes or so.”

Kay nodded a little, biting one lip. “You should take her home, then… I want to get it done before I need to sleep, and the paint fumes down here would be really bad for her.”

Their friend frowned slightly but nodded just the same, setting her roller down in the tray. “Just give me a minute.”

Watching her go out through the garage to double back through the front door, Melissa shook her head… and Chaos jumped from the doorway to the bit of paint-free floor. Rolling her eyes slightly, she quietly asked, “You heard how irritated she was?” Especially after learning his past, she knew better than to think he had missed eavesdropping on something.

“She doesn't see the point, but she's so bored out of her mind she'll do it anyway,” her boyfriend agreed. “She's been cooped up for too long, but Renee's the only consistent thing she gets to spend energy on anymore.” Frowning, he added, “She needs to get herself a job before the cabin fever gets much worse.”

“Easier said than done,” Melissa reminded him.

“Not as hard as it used to be either, now with the Militia work,” he argued. “And did you have anyone in mind already for recommending when you quit the bar?”

Blinking, she admitted, “I actually hadn't thought about that beyond the fact that I need to give my two weeks' notice.” Between opening up an official shop and work Militia patrols, she was making enough to leave her waitress job, and more effort on her part would make the shop thrive more. They'd decided that it would be smart for Kay to keep his night labor job for as long as he could handle it, but that worked much like her patrols did. Either way, they were still bringing in more money than before.

And with her sweet face and perfect mannerisms, Rina would make a damn fine waitress. Her boss knew how much more patronage a pretty girl waiting or bussing tables could bring him, and as he knew her work was good, he might trust the idea of someone she recommended. And it wasn't like childcare was a worry; there was always someone around who could take care of Renee, so long as they got Rina a breast milk pump so she didn't have to be present for the baby to get fed.

There was the sound of someone coming walking around upstairs and Duo bent his head slightly to give her a chaste peck on the lips. “Walk her back home, or to the church?”

“Sure.” It was a given, after what had happened last month, that Rina shouldn't go anywhere alone anymore, and it was probably a show of how badly the incident with the Slingers had scared her that she didn't argue the point. Well, she hadn't yet, anyhow; the dispute would come eventually, but for now, everyone felt safer with the precaution, even if it was pointless, considering how she and Kay had more or less wiped the Slingers from existence.

Reaching up, she laced her fingers together behind his neck and rested her weight against him, breathing in his soft scent… the paint half ruined it, but it was still there enough to make her want to relax completely, washing away any of her worries…

And somehow, he was hers. He knew about her history in the red light district, and he didn't care, didn't think her less for it or expect more from her physically than the occasional make-out session and heavy petting they had done before he found out. He didn't treat her any differently than before, and… he seemed as romantically interested in her as she was in him. They had laid bare their secrets for each other… and this funny, righteous, powerful, gorgeous guy still wanted her. He had said he used to pilot a gundam as if he thought she would leave him after knowing, which was ridiculous… the gundam pilots had been heroes.

Now, he was the Devils' hero. …Her hero. Well, Karina's, really, in terms of heroship, but he wanted to be her guy, and that was more than enough to make her giddy. She had had to make sure that he really had lost interest in the ex-soldier girl - because Hilde really was still just a girl, somehow - before dropping hints that she was interested… and it had taken him so long to catch on.

“What're you thinking about?” he asked in a whisper, his arms loosely wrapped around her. That gentle but happy voice, with a hint of amusement, and more than a touch of affection, combined with his soft breath by her ear, sent a shiver down her back. He let out a deep breath… and she realized he was smelling her hair. He did that a lot, really… Whenever she was near him, it seemed like he was always smelling or playing with it.

Is this love? Whatever it was, love or not, she liked it, and intended to see it through to the end, wherever that end was. “How lucky I am,” she answered, smiling into his chest.

He went completely still for a moment… then relaxed more than before, pulling her closer at the same time. “I… I can share the sentiment.” He shook his head slightly. “I'm not sure why you would think it… but I never really thought anything good would ever happen to me before.”

She snorted. “That's just stupid. Good stuff happens all the time, we just don't look at it as much as we should.” Shaking her head a little, she added, “Life is about happiness, right? Yours or the people you care about? If you focus on that… you can handle anything without breaking, because it's that important.”

“Yeah…” He was running one hand up and down her back now. “I don't know, you just…” He paused to lick his lips. “So long as you're okay, it's like…” He cut himself off, growling. “I feel like I'm in some sort of low-budget, tacky vid, I'm not saying it like that…”

Melissa giggled into his chest, feeling vaguely light-headed, almost as if she was about to start floating. This really was akin to some cheap romance movie, only considerably more awkward… yet incredibly awesome at the same time. “Need to find a pretty way to say it, then?” she teased.

Letting her go somewhat, he rubbed at his face with one hand. “I'll figure it out…”

She couldn't help but giggle again at that. He was odd, sometimes, but his quirks were more cute than anything. “I'm going to walk Sin home, then.”

“Alright…”

“…That means you need to let go of me.”

“Right…”

***

Undetermined

“They all…” Relena frowned, biting her lip. It was the first day of her tour, and she had known her work was cut out for her, but… “No one's smiling,” she muttered quietly to her bodyguard.

Jake rested a hand on her shoulder. “You need energy to smile, Princess… and for that, you need hope.” He grinned a bit when she looked back at him. “That's what you're here to give, huh?”

She smiled at that; it wasn't exactly how she would put it, but his reasoning was close enough. She was bringing help… but then, what was hope, but the promise of coming relief? This was that important…

“Don't think too hard on it,” he suggested. “You'll get nervous.”

She gave him a look; she had never had any issues with stage fright. The way he was smirking, however, suggested he knew and was teasing her… so she settled for smacking his arm, which made him chuckle. “You're impossible,” she decided, looking to her watch. She still had twenty minutes before her initial speech; she had woken up far too early this morning in anticipation, and seeing as she couldn't start surveying until the people were ready for her, they were waiting in the backstage area of the outdoor platform, people watching and drinking hot tea.

“In their defense, it's also damn early,” Jake noted. “They could just be hating the fact that they're already out of bed.”

“Mmm,” she returned noncommittally, focusing on her drink. Waiting around for everyone else to get their crap together was getting old really fast. “Maybe we should have spent our extra time watching tv or something,” she grumbled.

Jake snickered. “I'll try to make that point if you insist on waking up this early again.”

“You guys are friggin' nuts,” Mitchell declared, blowing on his hands as he walked up to them. “Why couldn't we wait inside?”

Jake snorted in amusement. “We were just wondering the same thing. What're you doing out here already, though? Your shift doesn't start until evening, you should get some more sleep.”

“Curiosity killed the cat,” the other ex-Special muttered darkly. “I wanted to see what insanity you two were already up to.”

“Sheer nerves,” Relena retorted, handing her mug to Mitchell. “That should warm you up some.”

“I really shouldn't have caffeine yet…” he muttered dubiously.

“It's chamomile,” she dismissed. “Like I said, nerves; I don't need any caffeine right now either.”

He blinked at the cup, then back at her hesitantly. “You serious?” At her nod, he made a thankful sort of noise… and started chugging.

“It's… a little hot for that,” Relena protested, waiting for an exclamation that wasn't coming.

“He does that,” Jake noted, rolling his eyes.

Mitchell, having finished, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “You do too,” he reminded.

“It's not that cold,” the other protested.

Mitchell snorted. “So just because it's not Siberia, you're denying yourself some extra warmth?”

“I can do it, but ability doesn't translate to liking,” Jake retorted. “There's this thing about how it burns.”

“Pussy,” his friend returned happily. “I feel a whole world better.” Raising the mug, he asked, “Miss Peacecraft, do you want me to go get you another one of these?”

Jake snatched it out of his hand. “I'll do it.”

“You're just looking for an excuse to go back inside,” Mitchell didn't quite whine, staying where he was as the other walked off. Cupping his hands around his mouth, he called, “My way works better!” Relena covered her mouth to smother a giggle as she watched Jake, still calmly walking away, flip off his friend without turning around.

“I can never get over how close you two are,” she said after a moment. “That you can get away with insulting each other like that.”

The now jovial man shrugged easily. “We've been friends since I was…” He looked up, obviously thinking. “It was before Noin joined up, and Zechs came a while after her, so I guess I was fourteen or so. Jake would have been nine.”

She blinked, not really enjoying the odd creeping up her spine. “Jake joined when he was nine?” The absolute earliest she had ever heard of was ten, and even that was uncommon. Then… “And if you were fourteen, what would you have had to do with a nine-year-old?”

David Mitchell snorted. “That nine-year-old could outshoot me and kick my ass without breaking a sweat on his first day. Treize took to him really fast, I think it was probably the Khushrenadas that pulled the strings to get the asshole in, so he took him under wing, kind of thing… The brat was already trained enough to be a field operative before he joined OZ, so there wasn't any point in sticking him with his age group. Treize and I were close, back then… we kinda started going our separate ways once he got so good with mobile suits that he started teaching, since I went more into groundwork…” He shook his head a little. “Jake bounced around between everybody, really, never had a hard time making friends despite his age. Well,” he rolled his eyes, “with the exception of Zechs, anyhow.”

She frowned. That was bizarre… but so long as she was asking questions, she might as well see what she could get. “Really? They seem so close now, though.”

“Well, yeah, now they are, but that was a mix of Noin knocking their heads together enough times along with…” He grimaced. “Jake… he changed a lot after his family died. He kinda bolted for almost a year; Noin and I had to forge his paperwork for it so he wouldn't get called out for desertion, made it look like legitimate leave, before Treize sent me out to tail him. He calmed down about it all eventually, and we came back home… we were close enough before that, but after…” He shrugged a little. “I guess he's been my best friend since then. Ten months on the road can really change people, I guess.”

Sighing, he added, “Then once we were back, Noin, Zechs, and Treize were completely wrapped up with MS while Jake and I were kinda mediocre at it, so we stuck together for more groundwork stuff… Treize still liked to keep Jake as his relay when the timing worked for it, so he didn't completely lose touch, but I honestly hadn't seen Zechs for years, before the new Regime started up.” At her curious look, he noted, “I kinda backed out of fighting with all the confusion… was too worried about all the political bull flying around, you know?” He chuckled a little weakly. “Stayed in Sanc for a while, to be honest… Jake had joined White Fang, but knowing him, it was probably more curiosity than belief that their idea to end the fighting would work. He really doesn't like unknowns… prefers to scope everything out for a while before committing and making his move.” Smiling, he added, “But once he commits, he's in, hook, line, and sinker.”

She smiled back, and honestly felt it… Jake really did seem to go all the way when he committed. What else he had said, though… “You never mentioned you lived in Sanc.”

He shrugged a little. “My family was from there originally, but then, well…” Shrugging again, he finished lamely with, “Well, you know. I was eleven when it fell the first time, so it was nice to go back and see it all again.”

Relena nodded a little herself. “I don't have any memories from before the kingdom fell,” she admitted.

“Well, that makes sense; you were only a toddler, if I remember right.”

“Yeah…”

They stood in silence for a while, Relena, at least, thinking about everything she had just learned. It was reassuring to know that the trust between Jake and her brother wasn't some strangely automatic thing, not that she had thought it was before. The fact that he had been so well trained at so young an age was unnerving, but it also explained Milliardo's firm belief that Jacob was a perfect bodyguard. She didn't understand why he had apparently “bolted” after his family died, but there was something about the way Mitchell said that part that made it clear he wouldn't be more specific on the information… which meant it was important, somehow, and Mitch didn't see it as any of his or her business.

…Who would train a child to the point that he could be a field operative by nine?

“Alright, you two are too quiet, what's going on?” Jake joked as he came back to them with three fresh cups of tea in hand.

“It's way too early to be awake, let alone chatty,” Mitchell returned darkly, holding out a hand for his mug. “But if I'm up already, I might as well stand with you and let the cameras flash off both of our brass. The more obvious her support, the better this deal runs, right?”

“Eh, good enough excuse for me,” Jake agreed, handing Relena her cup before setting his on the ground, reaching into his coat… pulling out a rather large brown paper bag. “Muffins?”

“Hell yeah!” Mitchell exclaimed, snatching the bag and opening it up. He sniffed at them, then made a happy sort of noise before offering the bag to Relena so she had first pick.

“Thank-you.” The first one she pulled up was blueberry… and that seemed lovely.

“I'd have sworn you used to be shy,” Jake commented mildly, taking the muffin Mitchell handed him and biting into it.

“Mm.” His friend swallowed some more of his tea after his hasty bite of muffin. “I'm sorry. You didn't have any bets set on that, did you?”

Jake snorted, taking a sip of his own drink. “You're way too happy for this early in the morning. Even the sun is still half-assing it.”

“You're just annoyed,” Mitchell returned, practically bouncing. Eyes sparkling with amusement, he told Relena, “Don't mind him, he's special when he's running low on sleep.”

“I'd noticed, actually,” she returned, smiling around her cup. Not that he'd been acting sleep-deprived earlier… but it might just be catching up now.

“I'm not tired, I'm just disgusted by your dripping on everyone,” the blonde man replied, eyes narrowed.

Mitchell just laughed delightedly. “If you hadn't gone to the work of getting it for me, I'd douse my drink over you.”

“Good thing, Dave… I'd be irritated enough to maim if you got that rambunctious.”

Relena snickered. “You're almost as bad as Dorothy, David.”

She had meant the comment to just add to the banter, but Mitchell went rather pale, and Jake started laughing in that naughty way of his. The other bodyguard quickly flushed and moved to hit Jake, only to have him dodge… and soon they were playing an odd sort of game of keep away, made considerably difficult by the fact that they were trying not to spill their drinks.

…I'm not really sure I want to know.

***

Jerusalem

“Why don't all of them have pictures?” Marie didn't quite whine. “This is going to take forever.”

Odin sighed, rubbing at his eyebrow. “You sort through all the files with pictures, and I'll catalogue the rest. If we can't find her picture, we'll start searching in person.”

Despite his words, however, this was something of a disaster. He was almost positive that someone trying to hide as actively as Leia Barton appeared to be would not have a photo, but they had to check in any case… and hope she wasn't in the registry under one of the names with a photograph, only with the picture of a different woman. It was true that female doctors in the age range they were looking at were a minority… but it was also true that the human population was around twelve billion.

As it was, he estimated it would take several months to search out everyone that would come to be on his list, even traveling as efficiently as was possible.

“The worst case scenario,” he muttered after a moment, seeing his `sister's' depressed look, “is that we find her right before Christmas.”

She scrunched up her nose. “Well, that still sucks…” Sighing, she added, “But at least it's something, I guess.”

He nodded. “The sooner you can get through those photos, the better.” There was no point in planning out a route until they had all the components from what he was cataloguing, and they would leave then… but it would be much faster traveling if she could finish going through the photos on the Sronas' computer before he finished his list and they were relegated to just one computer again.

“Ten minute warning!” Moira's voice called up the stairs.

“Thanks!” Marlé called back cheerfully.

They would probably be heading out on their new search in a week or so… and it ought to be more fruitful in the long run than his ghost chase on Chang Xutao. It also had no particular time constraint, and it looked like the majority of the areas wouldn't be crawling with Regime types that would automatically know his face, so that risk was fading away. The only immediate order of business to take care of would be getting Marlé some decent identification papers.

This chase would be far more relaxed… and despite how monotonous that seemed on some level, the idea also appealed.

Huh, over fourteen pages this time… not bad, I guess. I honestly didn't expect Melissa and Duo to get so disgustingly mushy there, but whatever, I guess… I'm not sure when the next chapter will be up, I don't have as much of it planned as I did this one, but we'll see, I guess…

Thoughts, questions, theories?

…Review, maybe?