Reading Time:
18 Minutes
The Sakura trees that lined the large quad were in full bloom, their mild scent drifting along the warm summer breeze. Their delicate blossoms fluttered down to cover the paved paths below, carpeting them in brilliant white which stood stark against the verdant lawns.
***************************
Université Aurélien
Auremont City
Sanq Kingdom
United Earth Sphere
The Sakura trees that lined the large quad were in full bloom, their mild scent drifting along the warm summer breeze. Their delicate blossoms fluttered down to cover the paved paths below, carpeting them in brilliant white which stood stark against the verdant lawns. Students milled around in groups and cliques, walking together, sitting on benches and on the grass, hunched over books or devices, discussing the course work or just taking a break from the rigorous pace of study.
MJ tied off the end of her second French braid, absently running fingertips along the part down the middle of her head. She usually liked keeping her hair loose and wild about the palace and in private spaces as Piotr loved running his fingers through her soft waves; but it helped to keep the tresses controlled when out and about in crowds. Too much stimuli at once was a fast track to zoning.
She hated the unsettling feeling of falling into the fugue state, all other senses falling away as one spiraled beyond her control. It made her feel trapped and untethered at the same time, floating in, not cold dark, but hot blinding light that blocked out all else. It usually took great effort to fight her way back, even after bonding with Piotr; and she loathed how helpless and vulnerable it left her feeling.
MJ exhaled slowly, shaking off her morbid meanderings and leaned back on her hands, the grass fresh and lush under her palms. It was freshly cut and the scent curled up as her hand pressed against the blades of grass. She could just make out a mix of coffee, sweat, paper and the ink of cheap ball point pens. Someone was eating chilli cheese snacks behind her and she wrinkled her nose with a huff.
She steadied her hearing level, filtering out the conversations and intermittent laughter happening around her as her eyes reflexively scanned the area. Both Heero and Wufei had been a great help in teaching her how to properly handle her senses in public; knowing how to recognize, categorize, prioritize and file away what didn’t pose immediate threat.
She was slowly getting used to life in the capital with all of its sights, sounds and smells. It had been tough learning how to handle being around so many noisy people so close and all at once; especially after years of clinical isolation and heavily restricted social engagement.
The cells back at the chateau had been stark and insulated, the labs sterile and daunting while the training rooms had been vast and echoing. Most of the people she’d seen during her time there had been the silent guards that stalked around as bulging blobs of white jumpsuits, guns, goggles and tinted faceless masks: while Doctor Zasca and her little coterie had been a blur of cold faces switched in and out, only identified by their crisp white lab coats, shiny sharp needles and cold, bruising hands.
The warm sun on her face now was a vast difference from that place. She’d never even seen the vibrant landscape surrounding the chateau until they were being air lifted for rescue. As she’d stared out of the window of the rescue craft a carpet of verdant meadows unfurling outward for miles as the large estate grew smaller. It would have been breathtakingly beautiful sight if not for the utter nightmare the old building represented, sitting in the middle of the idyllic countryside like some festering sore, rotten and rank.
Piotr tumbled to sit beside her, his chest heaving under his burgundy Aurélien hoodie from the impromptu frisbee game he’d just been a part of. He was smiling and panting. His skin flushed as he ran his fingers through his damp curls, his forehead beaded with sweat. He looked so happy. So different from the pale, thin boy with a bird’s nest of curls she’d met that day back at the compound.
The day that changed her life forever and given her a hope that she’d long thought dead.
Joy bounded across their bond, the golden glowing thread almost seemed as happy as her guide. It made her happy to see him happy. To see him so free with his emotions and expressions without looking over his shoulder or hunching small after every laugh or show of mirth.
The docs back at the chateau had only been interested in emotion as far as recording how successful bond transfer went between bonded subjects. Piotr’s effusiveness had gotten him more time in the tank than anyone else MJ had ever heard of during her stay and it was a wonder that the boy was even sane after all of that..
“What are you thinking about?” he cracked open a water and took a long draw, “I could feel you feeling hinky even during the game.”
MJ raised a curious brow. “Hinky? That even a word?”
“According to Duo it is. He’s been teaching me Sweeper slang.” the brunette grinned the shrugged. “Well… more like he’d been talking in it a lot and I’ve been picking it up along the way.”
“Nice.” she nodded, pulling up her leg and wrapping her arms around it. “…and to answer your question… I ‘ve been thinking about our time at the chateau and how far we’ve come since then. I mean…” she waved a lazy hand around the quad. “… we’re sitting in the sun. No guards. No tests. No tank.”
She paused at Piotr’s wince and gently took his hand, threading their fingers together. He was warm and real and his skin a familiar feel against her hers. Comfort thrummed along the bond and encouragement for her to continue. She sent back gratitude and gave his hand a squeeze.
“No we’re free. We have Duo and Heero and the others. We have everyone up at the Lodge. We’re taking classes at a real college and learning how to drive and do grown up things. It’s just… I never really thought we’d get out of that place alive. I never wanted to hope…”
Poitr pulled her close, wrapping his arms around her as she leaned in. MJ didn’t usually show this kind of vulnerability. Certainly not in public like they were. She liked keeping her emotions behind a hard shell. Her life had been one hard lesson after another about leaving herself vulnerable. Too many people she’d loved and trusted had hurt or abandoned her. It was his honour and privilege to be her bonded guide, to be able to see past all her pain and trauma into the beautiful soul she was.
Meeting her that day had been a boon. A blessing in his life. He’d never lost the hope that things would get better. Never lost faith. So if his wonderful, amazing sentinel needed a little faith in her life. If she needed hope she’d long lost sight of… then he had more than enough for the both of them.
“We’re never going back there. Not ever. Not until we’re going back with Duo and Heero to blow that godforsaken place up.” he promised softly against her hair.
She pulled away, just far enough to meet his eyes, her own shiny with unshed tears. “Seriously?”
He nodded solemnly. “Heero said that once the investigations are done and the last of the really bad cases are moved, Sanq will lay claim to the property through a shell company Dorothy set up years ago. That part got a bit complicated and I still don’t understand it all but they can do it … legally. After that they’ll be able to do whatever they want with it and nobody can stop them.”
He cupped her cheek and pressed a kiss to the corner of her mouth. “Duo promised to record it all so everyone back at the Lodge can watch it live or whenever they’re ready. He says it’s good to have closure. So that we can all be sure nothing like what we went through happens in that place ever again.”
“Wow.” she blinked and huffed a soft laugh. “They really are the coolest people I’ve ever met.”
Poitr chuckled and nodded sagely. “They really are.”
MJ pulled back all the way and smoothed down her hair once more. Her eyes were bright and the shadows from before had cleared. Poitr was relieved to see her relaxed smile. Happy that she felt safe enough with him to share feelings out loud that she usually kept to the privacy of their bond. The sunny day seemed even brighter for it.
“I can’t wait to head to the Summer Palace. Stupid exams. Why did they have to be so late? The others must be having so much fun already.”
“Thankfully they all done now.” The slender girl rolled her eyes at his pout. “I’m surprised you were able to sit through today’s final practical. Professor Wallace was about to borrow woodshop’s nail gun so he could fasten you to your seat. ”
“The honeysuckles should be in full bloom by now. We’ll be there just in time for harvest season.” Poitr’s pout was adorable, even though he was practically bouncing with excitement. Despite the fact that he’d accompanied both Duo and Heero on trips there over the past few weeks, he was still more than ready to go back. He kept talking even as they gathered their stuff. “And there’s even a whole Annual Honeysuckle Festival where they do all kinds of delicious foods. Honeysuckle cakes, jams, ice creams, soap and everything. Imagine a whole entire festival dedicated to a flower.”
They were scheduled to fly along with Une and Mariemaia on their connection from Zurich on a Preventer flight at midnight so they had a few hours still to stop on at the Lodge before heading back to the palace to pack the rest of their bags. It would be a tight schedule but they’d been packing all week in between exam prep so they just had a few things to toss in and they’d be golden.
MJ just let him go on, talking his hand as they walked back to school to pick up the rest of their things. Happy to let her guide fill the air with his joy and enthusiasm. He deserved it after all he’d been through. All they both had been through. He deserved sunlight and summer breeze and the freedom to wax poetic about flowers and gush over silly things. Her wonderful guide deserved all the good things.
Because he was her good thing.
She would never forget that. No matter how hinky life felt. She would never forget.
********************
Une Residence
Apartment 1145
Haus Bläsistrasse
Zurich, Switzerland
United Earth Sphere
Mariemeia sipped at her juice, eyes sliding back and forth between her mother and Sally as they giggled over their red wine at the other end of the table. She narrowed her eyes, gaze calculating as they studied their body language. Turned towards each other, knees touching under the pristine white tablecloth, heads bowed close together, wine glasses in relaxed holds almost intertwining but not quite. Easy smiles and lingering looks. Interesting.
The two women had been colleagues since the first war had ended, with Sally Po working closely with the Preventers in the aftermath. After the Eve Wars, she’d become one of Une’s closer friends, moving to Zurich and establishing of a special clinic that dealt specifically with research and development. After Zechs’ coronation, she took up the position of the Official Physician of the Crown Family and spent her days jetting between Zurich and Sanq.
Mari had somehow missed the slow transition from ‘good friend’ into ‘maybe something more’. She blamed her hectic school schedule and frequent trips to see Ilora. Things were happening in her mother’s life that she, as a daughter, was not aware of. Granted, her mother was a fully grown and capable adult woman, but that didn’t mean that it wasn’t Mariemaia’s privy and prerogative, as a daughter, to be all up in her mom’s personal business.
Humming softly into her drink, she carefully set her glass aside and dove back into her eggplant lasagna. Which should have been, frankly, a sign in itself. Her mother rarely stepped up to show her expertise in the kitchen, usually relying on their personal chef to keep both ladies fed and healthy. It was only on special occasions that Une put in the effort into their meal. Usually for Mari’s birthday or the Ultra Cool and Totally Hip Mother Daughter Bonding Days™ they each carved out of their busy schedules once a month.
With Lady Une running the Preventers and Mari taking college grade classes, the two ladies were, most days, up and running from dawn to dusk and they both appreciated a slow day spent together just talking and cooking and laughing. It helped keep them both grounded and close, the effort they put into keeping their little family happy and healthy paying off in spades. It also seemed that she needed to schedule one soon so that she could shake her mom down for the details of whatever it is she was seeing.
After dinner, she excused herself, leaving the women to transfer their discussions to the couch. She glanced back as she climbed the stairs, smiling as the women sat, shoulders touching as they laughed. Sally looked comfortable in the space, her dark hair tumbling about her shoulders. Une, on the other hand, had her brunette tresses swept up in a clip; messy and easy and so unlike her usual uptight manner. She also looked relaxed, smiling easily at whatever the other woman was murmuring.
Mariemaia’s soft smile turning into a grin and she silently ran up the carpeted stairs on her socked feet, a kind of happiness bubbling in her chest. Her suitcase was still open on her bed, the last of the things to be packed laid out with military precision on her duvet. As far as she’d come from that little girl with delusions of grandeur and an over inflated ego to match who though herself entitled to rule the world; there were still some habits trained into her from her time at her grandfather’s knee.
Her need for neatness and order. Her caution. Her cynicism. Her confidence. Her absolute disdain for bullshit. Such things were not easily dismissed or abandoned. Even when she broke, utterly and completely, standing in the shaking crumbling underground bunker with Dekim and Relena as Heero Yuy fired on them with a beam canon. Even in the face of encroaching death and the devastation of her entire world view, there were still some things that where who she was as the core.
Mariemaia Barton. Mariemaia Khushrenada. Mariemaia Une. She was still the same person deep down.
She’d struggled a lot with that in the aftermath of the attack at the Ice Creamery and the subsequent kidnapping. The violence of the raid. Emma’s death. Seeing Miss Relena. Seeing Dorothy. Hearing Ilora’s terrified screams and feeling the hot spurt of Doctor Zazxa’s blood on her face as the woman’s chest gave it’s last death rattle; her blade still sticking out of the woman’s bubbling throat. They still plagued her nightmares. Even with therapy. Even with meditation with Zechs and Wufei. Even with her mother’s ever ready shoulder for crying on and ear ready to listen. The memories still plagued her.
She sat on the bed, holding her late mother’s music box. It was the only thing she had of the woman who had died when she was two. The only thing she took with her into her new life with Une. She carefully wound the key on one side, laying back amongst her clothes as the tinkling song began to play.
It was a lullaby. Her mother’s favourite song, if her grandfather was to be believed. She could never be sure. Dekim Barton loved couching truth in lies and twisting it all as it suited him. She could have hardly asked her father. A man she’d seen mostly on screens and had met maybe once or twice in passing when she was still too young to remember.
Sometimes she mourned not knowing either of them enough to know if she was like them in essential ways. She’d learned of her mother from Dekim and the Nannies. Known of her father through other’s skewed memories. Une had obsessed over Treize. Zechs had worshipped him. Dekim had seen his use. Dorothy had idolized him. Wufei had seen him as an honourable foe. The world had both loved and loathed him.
No one could tell her of Treize the man. Treize the father.
Just as no one could tell her how to be his daughter.
The music box stopped and she wound it again before carefully placing it on the night stand. She would be taking it to the summer palace because it helped with the nightmares. It helped with the screaming before Une scrambled into her room and swept her up into a tight, almost painful hug. It helped to calm her gasps and tears as she shook in the woman’s steady arms. It helped hearing her mom sing the lyrics in her soft alto into Mari’s wild curls as she burrowed into her warm embrace. Helped her feel safe.
She began to sing along with the music, mostly just humming along lightly as she began packing the last of her things into her suitcase. They were due in Sanq in three hours to pick up Piotr and the others before shooting straight for the summer palace. Both Duo and Piotr had shared pictures of the never ending fields of flowers and she was looking forward to seeing them in person.
****
“I wish you were coming with us.” Anne made a face as she drained the last of her coffee.
“Me too.” Sally chuckled, swirling the last of her cup contemplatively. “But we’re at a critical stage at the Lodge and Doctor Wen would string me up by my toes if I ask for leave now. Even if it’s just for a few days.”
Anne huffed. “Not even by official Preventer orders?”
“Not even by Royal Decree. And you know how much she likes Zechs.”
“Because he’s married to Wufei?” Anne quirked a brow.
Sally leaned in and whispered. “Because she thinks he has a cute butt.”
They broke out into laughter at that, their bodies leaning closer util they were almost plastered together.
“I’m not sure if I’ve had enough wine for this.” Sally said softly, looking at Anne though her dark bangs. “… whatever this is.” she gestured between them with her now empty cup.
“And what do you want this to be?” Anne’s voice was hopeful and almost reverent, her brown eyes warm and open without her glasses.
“I… well… ah fuck it.” Sally could only huff softly and leaned in, claiming Anne’s mouth in a gently and searching kiss.
Anne all but melted into the contact, eyes falling closed as she reached a hand into Sally’s dark hair. The kiss deepened and got hotter as they both moaned. Anne stiffened and pulled back, glancing towards the staircase with a concerned look on her face. She then gave Sally a sheepish look.
“Sorry. I thought I heard Mari… I…”
Sally grinned. “I get it. We just had our first kiss. No need for an announcement in the press just yet.”
Anne grinned and quickly ducked in for another kiss. That soon turned into another and another and soon enough they were necking like teenagers in the back of a movie theatre. Every squeak and creak from upstairs had them giggling and shushing each other, both their faces flushed from the wine and making out.
“We have a flight in about… two hours. I need to get Mari rounded up and ready to go. Our car is coming in about forty minutes.” Anne pouted regretfully, annoyed that she had to leave as soon as they were about to start something.
“You’ll be back in no time. You know where to find me.” Sally only smiled and pecked her on the corner of her swollen lips. “Maybe you could try to bribe Doctor Wen. Get a shot of Zechs in swim trunks. That might get me a few days.”
Anne barked a laugh, throwing her head back at the mental image of the older Chinese doctor at the Lodge blushing over a picture of the King Regent of Sanq in hot pants. “I’ll see what I can do.”
She glanced the clock on the wall and did some mental calculations before turning back to Sally and licking her lips. “I’m basically already packed and can always take a soldier’s shower. There’s still time for some more kisses I think… It’s not like the plane can leave without me.”
Sally’s girlish giggles were soon muffled.
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Orbital Lift Gateway
Luxembourg
Eurasian Block
United Earth Sphere
“How are your levels, 87?”
“Efficient, 88.”
“Let me know if that changes.” 88’s head tilted minutely as he glanced up at the shuttle runway that stretched up into the sky. “Even at this distance the Frequency discrimination can fail and your auditory cortex will begin suppressing information that, in turn, can affect target discrimination and your vestibular system will likely become compromised.”
“I am efficient, 88.” 87’s lip curled in an annoyed sneer. “As I have been the numerous times I have passed through this terminal for various reasons including space travel. I know how to regulate my hearing, block out harmful vibrations, differentiate between frequencies and situational awareness. I’ve completed my training in cognitive filtering and target discrimination the same as you.”
88 narrowed his eyes at her tone, pushing down his own ire. She wasn’t the only one dissatisfied with their match. He’d just accepted it with better grace than she had. 13 had his own reasons and 88 was never one for frivolous emotional baggage.
“I was just trying to confirm that you were functioning at peak efficiency. You’ve been… distracted… recently.”
“I am… and have been… performing at peak efficiency.”
The glare she gave him over her shoulder was hot enough to melt a hole in Gundanium Alloy. He nodded sharply and resigned himself to another night of uncomfortable ire along their tenuous bond. He sometimes wondered if she felt as much as he did from it. Research indicated that Paladins felt the bond as deeply as Vanguards did but that was usually skewed to the higher percentages. Their bond was 50% compatible and as efficiently as they worked together, he would have much preferred to form a more productive bond with a Paladin more suitable.
87 wasn’t the only one with ambitions. She was just the only one with 13’s favour.
Thankfully the tense silence was broken when their target emerged from the crowds and walked towards them with the brisk walk of former military. Her purple hair was cut short and curled over one side of her face. Her clothes were worn, patched and dusted red while her face was sunburned and peeling from the unforgiving Martian sun.
She stopped before them, fine red dust floating off her combat boots and travel leathers as she hoisted her duffel further up her shoulders and raised her dark goggles to reveal stunning grey eyes.
“You’re the ones the old man sent?” her voice was husky and hoarse from Mars’ fine sand.
87 nodded and stretched out a hand showing the way to where their vehicle was parked. She made no move to shake hands or make small talk. There was no need for such pleasantries between them. There was a lot to be done and no need to be polite about it.
“Welcome back to earth, Commander Noin.”
Noin just curled her lip. “Yeah. Whatever. Let’s get this all over with.”
