A story about Une & Treize, it's a variation on the Scrooge story and it is set after Endless Waltz
Une poured herself a glass of cognac. The second anniversary of Treize's death is coming, she thought. I never liked holidays but this makes it even more... There was a knock at her door. "Come in," she said.
Mariemeia walked in. A year of intensive rehabilitation and nerve graft treatments had allowed her to walk on her feet. The cane she was using was more ornamental than anything else. Soon, the treating doctor would wean her away from it. "Are you coming to Quatre's Christmas party?"
"I don't know. I'm not in a celebratory mood," she said. "I don't mind if you go, though."
"But... "
"Whether or not I go, you should go."
"I don't really know anybody."
"You know Wufei."
"That's true."
"If Wufei doesn't mind going, then you shouldn't have any problems, either. I should know, I work with them everyday."
Mariemeia sighed. "I'm going to sleep." She closed the door.
Une sighed. I'll go to sleep, too, she thought. She turned off the desk lamp, then slid into bed and turned off the lights.
She was awakened by the jingle of bells. It can't already be morning and besides this is a Saturday night. I wouldn't have left the alarm on. She sat up and saw a sight that she never thought she would see again.
It was Treize but not the defeated man she rescued only to be killed, not the confident commander that she remembered relaxing in his rose bath, but a brash teenager wearing winter clothes. "Hello, Lady."
"Treize... " Of all his incarnations, this was one she would never have expected. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm the Ghost of Christmas Past," he said, smiling at her with an amused tenderness at her befuddlement. "Take my hand."
She hesitated, half-afraid of this apparition.
"Lady, you trust me, don't you?"
The note of hurt she heard in his voice made up her mind. "Of course." She got out of bed and put her hand in his. His hand is warm, she thought.
The room around her faded from view and instead, she saw a young teenage Treize driving a sled down the hill with a young girl sitting in front of him, screaming her lungs out. "Oh, I remember this!" said Une.
"No matter how much you screamed, you always wanted go back up to the top of the hill and go down again," he said.
Une put her hands over her face. "I haven't thought of this in a long time."
"Let me show you some things you've forgotten."
They walked to a cabin in the distance. They peered through the window.
Une, Treize and his family were sitting around the table. There were chestnuts mixed with fluffy sweet potatoes, honey-roasted ham, fresh baked buns, green beans and other dishes on the vast table.
"Remember what year this was?" said the Treize standing next to her.
Une turned to him but said nothing.
"It was the year after your father died."
"Yes, I remember... I remember quite well. I would have had a miserable Christmas if it weren't for this."
"Look over there."
In the distance was a very sad looking snowman. Its eyes were askew and the hat on top of its head was unraveling. It didn't even have a carrot for a nose, but simply a rock. "How absolutely wretched looking," said Une before she laughed.
She laughed for quite some time, then as she caught her breath; she caught him looking at her. His eyes were smiling and warm. "Une... I don't think you've laughed like that in a while."
"No... I haven't." I can't remember when last I laughed, she thought.
"Une... I'm sorry... "
"Why are you sorry?"
"I'm sorry that I took away your laughter."
Une gasped and turned towards the young man that Treize used to be, before he became so confident and polished. There was still the vulnerability and slight awkwardness that all teenagers had. She also saw the sadness in the way he stood, the way his shoulders sagged. They were looking at each other eye to eye, he hadn't yet hit his growth spurt. Une wrapped her arms around him and said, "No, you're wrong. You didn't take away my laughter. You couldn't be more mistaken. It's just that times were so tough... When my father was killed in an ambush, my mother couldn't do anything but cry and cry for him. I tried to be strong because there was no one I could turn to... And with the war continuing around us... There was so little to laugh about. When I was a child, you used to tell me how you planned to change the world... You told me what you would do once you had the world in the palm of your hand. It would be a different world, you said. I didn't really understand everything you said at the time but I knew that unlike everyone else, you would keep your word. I knew that much so I followed you, believed in you."
"I was just a teenager shooting my mouth off, saying things he didn't understand much himself."
"No, you always knew where you were going. It was just that you went somewhere I couldn't follow." Tears slowly began dropping from her eyes. "I wanted to cry when you died, but I thought I had to be strong. You always thought that I should be graceful or strong, and crying was neither... "
"I was very hard on you, wasn't I? I'm sorry. Une... we have to leave here."
"No."
"Yes, there'll be another guide once we get back. When you see who it is, it won't be so bad. Une, this day was one of the few days of my life that held nothing but joy for me."
The winter landscape faded away and Une found herself standing alone in her room.
"Quite nostalgic, wasn't it?"
Une turned to see an older Treize, one dressed as a military academy senior. "Treize... "
"Watch," he said.
The room dissolved around her to show a young man standing in the snow, wearing a long, brown wool coat. Steam spilled from his lips as he blew on his gloved hands. Then he put his hands down as he spotted a girl off in the distance with glasses and ribbons in her hair.
"Une?"
"Yes?"
"Since when did you start wearing glasses?"
"I... " She took off her glasses and looked at them strangely. "For a long time."
"You seem like a whole different person with them on, for some reason."
"It feels that way," she said, her voice becoming softer. "I don't need them, really."
"It's good of you to visit me during the holidays. I haven't seen you in a long time."
"You should tell me all about the Academy."
"Why, are you planning on going?"
"Yes."
Treize turned to her and said, "Are you serious?"
She put on her glasses and said in a stern voice, "Perfectly."
Treize stared at her for a little while. He reached out and gently slid off her glasses and said, "Can I take the ribbons out of your hair?"
"All right."
Instead of standing behind her, he reached around her and began tugging at the ends of the ribbons. While he was untying the knots, their faces were inches away from each other. The steam from both their mouths intermingled and was blown away by the winter wind. Slowly, they began leaning closer and closer together. Then as the last ribbon unraveled and fell into the snow, they kissed.
"At the time, I was puzzled but I tried not to think much about it," the guide said to Une, who was watching an earlier version of herself, walking hand in hand with Treize towards the house. "I didn't know at the time what it meant. I wondered if it was some kind of affectation. But the rest of your visit, you seemed fine. If I had known, I would've discouraged you from going to the Academy."
"You couldn't have changed my mind, no matter how hard you tried."
"I suppose not. Still, you wouldn't have suffered as much as you did if... "
She took his hand and squeezed it. "I chose my path. If I hadn't gone, I never would have been able to spend as much time with you as I did. And you suffered, too. I know, I was there to see, every single day."
"But Une, even now you are suffering... "
Une stared at him without saying anything.
"I think you're starting to realize why I'm here, aren't you?"
"You... came back to help me?"
He smiled. "You have one more visitor tonight. Don't be afraid "
Then he stepped back out of Une's grasp and he faded along with the vistas of snow.
Une didn't have to wait long for the last visitor.
Treize stood in his military uniform, looking as regal as he did during the war. He held out a gloved hand. "Just one more vision, Lady," he said.
She readily took his hand. The minute she did so, she found herself at her study. She found herself sleeping at her desk. "It seems I'm always doing it nowadays," she said, smiling.
Mariemeia walked into the room. "Une... I need a ride to the doctor's office. We're going to be late. Wake up, I'm serious." She passed by the Une watching and reached out to the sleeper. She shook her shoulder.
Une didn't move.
"Wake up, it's already nine o'clock. You're always telling me I should be early to everything," Mariemeia shook her harder, only to have Une fall out of the chair. She hit the ground without moving.
Mariemeia fell to her knees and began screaming. "Somebody help!"
"What is this?" said Une, turning to Treize. "What happened?"
"It's obvious, isn't it?" said Treize softly. "You kept pushing yourself too hard and worked yourself to death. You put down your head for a nap and suffered a heart attack."
Mariemeia continued trying to shake her awake. "Don't leave me alone! Not again!"
Une turned away from the scene. "It's just like what happened when I came back home from the holidays that I spent with your family... I remember. My mother... she had hanged herself in the study. I was the first one to see her. She was still warm... Oh, my God. Isn't there any way to change this?"
Treize held her shoulders. "This is the reason I'm here, Lady."
A servant came in and began dragging Mariemeia away from the dead body. "No, let me go! No, let me go!"
Suddenly, they were back in her bedroom. "Une... don't be like me. I gave up my life for my ideals because I thought that I was the only one who could make sure they came true. I trapped myself, thinking that. I created a plan where the only way it would work was if I died. However, you don't have to give up your life for your purpose. You have the love and friendship of some of the best people in the world. You have a wonderful young girl who looks up to you even if she doesn't say so... You've become a lot stronger since I've been gone. And in the future, I know that you'll one day meet someone who can stand by you and let you shine the way you were always supposed to."
"Treize... "
They kissed each other, holding other.
"Une... I want you to enjoy life. Ideals are supposed to serve the people who work for them, not the other way around. I want you to experience all the things I couldn't. I don't want you to run away from life like I did... "
"No, you never ran away," said Une. "But I know that I was trying to bury myself in my work with the Preventers. I wanted to pretend that my feelings were dead, that only my devotion to a cause remained. The night you died, I offered a gun to Relena, hoping she'd put me out of my misery. I didn't want anybody else to feel the grief I was feeling. I wanted to make something good come out of all that suffering. So, I made the Preventers. It was my lifeline, the reason for my continued existence. I was scared of having my feelings turn against me... so I devoted myself to it alone. But doing that, it kept me away from the people who could do me some good and made me isolated. But I'm not going to hide anymore."
"Une... You were always stronger than me."
"Treize... "
And when morning came, she swore she could smell his cologne on her pillow.
Christmas Day
"Where're Une and Mariemeia?" said Trowa as he walked up to Quatre, who was throwing some more wood on the fireplace.
Quatre smiled and said, "Look out the window."
Trowa did. Outside was a woman driving a sleigh down a nearby hill, a red headed girl sitting in front of her, screaming her head off with delight.
The End
(:./mk/winter)
