01-Mar-2001
Category: Sap, Sentimentality
Rating: R
Pairings: 13+11, 13+6, 6,11
Warnings: It's sap, but kind of sad sap. So if sad sappy bums you out, please skip it.
Feedback: C&C
Notes: '--denotes thoughts--'
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing and its characters belongs to Bandai, Sunrise and Sotsu Agency and are only being used for non profit entertainment purposes.
Lady Une watched as her adopted daughter Mariameia prepare to go out for the evening.
"Okaasan, are you sure you don't want to come with me?" Mariameia asked once more as she grabbed her cane. She was now a beautiful young teenager, who would always be weakened by the bullet that tore into her spine ten years earlier when her own grandfather rather for her to be dead than to change her mind about world domination.
When she thought Heero Yuy would end her pain and suffering, the click of his gun and her surrender to her fate brought about a rebirth. Mariameia Barton Khushrenada was no more. Just Mariameia, a child who never got to be one, awoke in the hospital to be taken in and loved by a woman she had never heard of before. Now she was Mariameia Une, a fighter of odds. Doctors predicted she'd never walk but three years of hard work and physical therapy proved them wrong. Many thought she could never lead a normal life as a former near despot who held Earth and the colonies hostage one Christmas Eve in AC 196. Now, very few even remember the events which lead to that almost downfall of civilization. All thanks to the love and devotion of a woman who wanted her in her life.
She knew today was a difficult day for her mother, but she knew there was nothing her mother would allow her to do to change that. It was New Memorial Day. A day of rememberance of the end of the war. The real war. The supposedly Eve Wars also know as the Mariameia Insurrection was merely a minor skirmish forgotten by many. This day was a double-edge sword for her mother. It is the day, peace came to earth and it was also the day the father she never met died.
"Mari, I will be fine. In fact, I will have company while you are out," Une said smiling as she recognized the concern in her daughter's eyes. "Do you have your things packed so you can spend the night at Lian's?"
"I know I promised Lian that after the parades I'd stay with her and her family, but ..." Mariameia began.
"There are no 'buts'," Une walked over to hug her daughter, "I will be fine. I promise."
"I wish I had a chance to meet him," Mariameia sighed in her mother's arms.
"I've told you all there is to know about him. I'm sure he would have loved you as much as I do," Une said softly.
"Kaasan, your version of my father is probably not very objective," Mariameia laughed. "When I get back, we'll go to visit him."
"Yes, we will. I'm sure he'll be happy to see us. I'll make sure we bring flowers from our garden," Une said as the doorbell rang. "That will be Lian. Let me help with your bag."
While Mariameia grabbed her sweater, Une grabbed the backpack that was serving as an overnight bag and headed for the front door.
Une opened the door and smiled at the young woman on the other side, waiting for her best friend.
"Good evening, Une-sama, is Mari ready?" the bouncing teenager asked, as she took the bag from Une.
"Li! Right here," Mariameia said as she walked up to her mother and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "If you need anything ..."
"Go have a good time you two," Une remarked, "See you tomorrow." Une stood and watched the two young women head to the car with Lian's father at the wheel. As they drove away, the gentle smile she had been giving to everyone disappeared. She closed the door and walked to the kitchen.
'Am I silly to still mourn for you after all this time, Treize?' she thought as she pulled out two wineglasses and a bottle of wine. 'Am I crazy to want to mourn with the only person who really understands?'
Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. She placed the glasses and wine on the small coffee table in the living room before heading to the door.
Zechs Merquise wondered to himself if this was the greatest of ideas. It wasn't like he and Une were best friends. During wartime they made each other's lives miserable. The only true link they have to one another was gone and on this day of Memorials needed to be remembered. 'Treize does deserve to be honored.'
Une greeted him at the door with the gentle smile she had graced earlier. "Zechs, come in."
Zechs stepped inside the small house. "Thank you, Lady. I don't recall ever seeing your house before. It's lovely."
Une turned back to Zechs and smiled. "Well, it's not like I'm big on entertaining. I don't think any of the Preventer's have been here with the exception of Noin. But she was just being nosy."
Zechs laughed. "Yeah, that is a pretty bad habit, but I guess it ultimately makes her a good agent."
Une nodded, "True, but it's still annoying."
"Where is Mariameia?"
"Out for the evening with friends, celebrating."
"Celebrating the end of a horrible war. I wonder how many people who were on the real front lines spend this time celebrating?" Zechs asked.
Une handed him a glass of white wine. "Especially people like ourselves who seemed to constantly flip flop our positions in that matter."
"Treize never 'flip-flopped' on any decision he ever made," Zechs sighed.
Une smiled. "No, he didn't. I wondered who would be the first to invoke his name." They sat down together on the sofa. "He knew what he had planned the entire time. I only wished I understood his plan sooner. I thought I knew him."
"You knew him, Lady. Better than most," Zechs said. "He trusted you implicitly."
Une nodded her head. "That's sweet of you to say, but it's not true. I could never know him as you knew him. He trusted me, yes. But he loved you and at the time I hated you for that."
Zechs smiled ruefully. "Isn't that funny? I thought the same of you. He loved you in a way he could never love me and I hated you for it."
"I don't see how you can say that either," Une said with a sad smile. "You were lovers after all. I was merely a subordinate that you both delighted in tormenting."
Zechs stared at the woman who showed a strong front, but could see the fragile soul still peeking behind the steady gaze of soft brown eyes. "I'm going to tell you something, I'm sure you didn't know. Treize would kill me for telling you this, but I will anyway," the tall man said. "When you joined the academy, Treize and I were pretty competitive back then. We made a bet as to who would win the heart of one strait-laced, uptight, ice queen by the name of Une."
"Nani?" Une asked, staring incredulously.
"So all that torment was our way of flirting with you. Don't you remember when we first met?" Zechs asked.
"Yes, we were in the mess hall. I was sitting at a table with Noin, I believe. You and Treize walked over and introduced yourselves. I seem to remember Noin wasn't very happy that day."
"That was because she knew Treize and I were hitting on you," Zechs laughed.
"You WERE?" Une laughed with her former nemesis. "I didn't know. I thought you two were just being nice to me."
"But I knew the moment you stared at Treize, your heart was lost to him, much like my own," Zechs remarked.
"If you loved Treize then, why bother flirting with me?"
"I was young and horny. I liked both men and women. Still do. But there was something about Treize ..." Zechs said.
"That made him unlike anyone else," Une finished for him.
Zechs stopped. He took her hand. "You do understand."
"I always have," Une said seriously. She pulled her hand away from the man and slowly walked across the room to a small bookcase. She picked up a photo album and returned to the sofa. "I keep these out for Mari. I wanted her to know her father, but as she tells me many times over, my objectivity is suspect."
Zechs began looking at the pictures in the album. Many were from their days together in the academy. "Une, I seem to recall being in several of these pictures, yet, I don't see myself."
Une blushed. "Well I kind of cut you out of them. Sorry. I still have the negatives somewhere I could make you a set and you can cut me out of the pictures to make it even."
Zechs laughed. "That's quite alright! We just looked so young back then."
"We were young back then. Remember this one from that picnic from hell?" Une asked.
"Picnic from Hell?" Zechs asked.
"Don't play innocent. You, Treize and I went on a picnic during a leave and you two delighted in playing every practical joke in the book. Everything from plastic feces to whoopie cushions!" Une laughed.
"Oh yes, now I remember. It was our way of getting you to loosen up."
"By making me mortified the entire picnic. I concluded I would never go on another leave with the two of you!" Une smiled.
"If I remember correctly that picnic got very interesting towards the end of it," Zechs said huskily.
Une blushed. "It ended very interestingly, but rather frustratingly for me."
"How often do you think of him?" Zechs asked abruptly.
Une stared into ice blue eyes. "It used to be everyday. And when I adopted Mari any time I looked at her, I thought of him. He stays in my thoughts in the most unusual ways. I'll be walking down a busy street and think that I see him. Or sometimes as a pass a florist with their wares outdoors, the smell of roses ..."
Zechs nodded. "Everywhere I've lived since the war, I've made sure I've planted a rose bush."
"There are three in my backyard, all favorites of his," Une said. "When I'm really lonely for him ..."
Zechs watched Une's face, waiting for her to finish. "Yes?"
Une got up and left the room. She quickly returned with a small bottle. She opened the stopper and placed the bottle under Zechs' nose. "His favorite bath oil."
Zechs' eyes closed as he inhaled the scent. His mind could see Treize so clearly and he could feel his body reacting to the scent. He opened his eyes slightly embarrassed.
Une replaced the stopper on the bottle and gently touched his shoulder. "It's okay. I do the same thing. I feel like he's in the room with me, when I smell this scent. She grabbed his hand and pulled him up from the sofa. "Come with me."
"Where?"
"To another time, another place," she said. He followed her, still letting her hold his hand. They walked into the bathroom.
Zechs eyes widened. "Where did you? How did you?"
"Buying this house was cheap remodeling this bathroom cost a small fortune," she said proudly. The room looked much like the private bath of Treize, right down to the Grecian looking tub. "Shall I draw a bath? The room smells wonderful when the oil is allowed to do its job."
Zechs nodded. "Is that really his tub?"
Une smiled at him. "Yes, it wasn't easy. Much of his quarters were destroyed after the war." She began to fill the oversized tub with warm water and the rose petal bath oil. "Do you think, I'm crazy to have this?" she asked.
Zechs smiled. "If you would have told me, then yes. But seeing this, I have to say ... no, you're not crazy." He deeply inhaled the heady scent of roses with his eyes half closing.
Une turned off the water. "Well?"
"Well what?" Zechs asked confused.
"Shall we submerge ourselves in the past?" she asked as she began to take off her clothes. As the last bit of clothing left her body, she slowly walked over to Zechs and began to remove his clothing.
"Lady?" Zechs asked, stunned.
"Don't be afraid. I'm not going to do anything. We are just going to have a bath," Une said, as she gently continued removing his clothing.
Zechs took this moment to gaze at the body of the woman who was once both his friend and nemesis in the past. She had a lovely body. Small, firm breasts bobbed slightly as she unbuttoned his shirt and eased it off his shoulders. His hand stroked her face gently. "Lady."
As she began unzipping his pants, Zechs toed off his shoes, his eyes never leaving this beautiful woman. Naked, he followed Une to the tub.
She turned to him and smiled, "You first," she said as she gestured to the tub.
"Shouldn't that be ladies first?" Zechs smiled.
"Ah, but you are my guest. I insist."
Zechs laughed. "Okay." He stepped into the deep tub as he sat to submerge himself, he marveled at the perfect water temperature and that scent.
"You know," Une said, as she also stepped into the tub to sit across from him, "Treize dared me to get in the tub with him."
"And did you?" Zechs asked.
"I almost didn't, but then I decided why not. I knew he thought I would blush furiously, which I did, and back off. But I didn't. The look on his face, " she began to laugh.
Zechs laughed with her.
"I will never forget that look of shock!" she continued to laugh, although she had tears in her eyes. "I figured what the hell, maybe I could persuade him to lose some of that honor of his and touch me. Which, of course, he never did."
Zechs moved closer to her and gave her a hug. "I'm sorry."
"God, how stupid can I be?" Une continued to laugh and cry. "I'm naked in a tub with a man and I'm crying."
"It's okay," he said gently with his hand cupping her chin, forcing her to look into his eyes.
"How often do you think of him?" Une asked.
"In the beginning, I thought of him every day. Now," Zechs paused, "I can barely remember what he looked like. I remember feelings and events, but his face is sometimes fuzzy. When I close my eyes right now, in this room, I can see him clearly." He closed his eyes.
"So can I," Une said quietly as she closed her eyes, tears still streaming. "But when I open my eyes, I see Treize's passion and love in you." She stared at Zechs, her hand pressed firmly against his chest over his heart.
Zechs opened his eyes. "When I open my eyes, I see Treize's heart and soul in you, Lady." He placed his hand over her heart and kissed her lips.
Une accepted the kiss and smiled. "Shall we sit here for a while until we're all wrinkly and recall things we loved from times past?"
Zechs smiled and placed an arm around her shoulder, pulling her to him. "Yes, let's do that."
OWARI
(:./babaca/memorial)
