Save The Best For Last

"Gundam Wing" is copyright Sunrise, and "Save The Best For Last" is sung by Vanessa Williams. I have no rights to either work and make no claim to any.

I am tired to my bones and beyond them, as I stumble to my quarters. If Lord Treize appeared before me and demanded my loyalty once more, I don't know that I'd even have the energy to say "No" before I shoved past him. All I want is my bed.

Why am I here, anyway? There are a thousand other places where I could be useful, and I've worked in several of them.

The Project DJ appears to have become addicted lately to late 20th century popular music. Strange, how music that's over two hundred years old is still meaningful.

Sometimes the snow comes down in June;
Sometimes the sun goes round the moon;
I see the passion in your eyes;
Sometimes it's all a big surprise.

I open the door, yawning, too tired to take my usual care. If he's here, then he'll be as tired as I am and likely sleep through any noise I make. If he isn't, then how can any amount of noise disturb an empty room?

I was right; he isn't here. He must be working late. As if you weren't, a small voice whispers inside me, but I don't listen. He has a greater stake out here than I do; this is his second chance, the one he's not about to lose. I have friends I can go back to, a job to take back up; but Zechs has less than nothing, on Earth and the established Colonies, and many good reasons to stay well away.

For there was a time when all I did was wish
You'd tell me this was love.
It's not the way I hoped, nor how I planned,
But somehow, it s enough ...

As for me - well, I have only one; and if he's gloriously handsome with long platinum-blond hair and bright blue eyes, and has been known to answer at various times to Milliard Peacecraft, Zechs Merquise or "Wind", he's also mine.

Relena-sama was distracted when I last called her. I don't really know what to think of her. She's kind and loving and a good leader, truly the best person to lead our beleaguered home planet into peace, but sometimes it's hard for me to see the capable young woman she's become. I remember too well the half-spoilt teenager she was when Zechs first asked me to be her bodyguard, when she was first breaking out of the shell of her indulged childhood and trying to step into the adult world of politics which so needed her. Her affection for that feral Gundam pilot, Heero Yuy, was the turning point, I suspect.

It turns out that he's wandered off, again. I can't help sighing. He does love her - he wouldn't keep leaving her and then returning if he didn't. I can't help wondering about these Gundam pilots - and Tallgeese pilots too - why can't they see that we love them the way they are?

And now we're standing, face to face -
Isn't this world a crazy place!
Just when I thought our chance had passed,
You go and save the best for last.

I lie back in the bed and do the relaxing exercises we were taught at the Academy - maybe if I can relax, I can sleep.

I can't help remembering, though, as I lie here alone, of that time when I was certain I would always be alone, when life was empty and I worked myself so hard so I wouldn't have to remember ...

Remember the final battle of A.C. 193 ...

Remember the day that, to all intents, purposes and examination, the man known as Zechs Merquise and as Milliard Peacecraft died.

I shiver even now. They say grief is cold and mourning is pain - but without Zechs, the world was ... empty. He had gone, and hadn't even had the grace to take everything of importance with him so I could collapse into grief. He left me the Preventors and Relena-sama, and the task of helping Relena-sama to weld a peace from all the pain.

All of those nights you came to me,
When some silly girl had set you free,
You wondered how you'd make it through;
I wondered: what was wrong with you?

When we went through the Academy, I kouhai to his senpai, I was wildly curious about his past - well, everyone was. But I had to be the most inquisitive, and I was utterly determined to find out why he wore that mask all the time.

I wonder how he'd react if he knew how, and how often, I lurked outside his door, hoping to see a clue. He had to know of my curiosity from the way I kept talking about his homeland, the Sank Kingdom, and dropping hints.

And then the day came when he left his study door ajar. I peeped in - yes, I admit it, I was fifteen and madly in love, to the point of near-obsession - and I saw him without his mask.

The head teacher at the orphanage had been a fanatic Royalist. For all that Sank Kingdom had been invaded and crushed when I was only five, she and many others had clung to the fervent belief that Prince Milliard and Princess Relena had escaped the massacre of their family and were safely growing up in hiding. I had grown up with pictures of the Peacecrafts. It was impossible not to recognise the king-in-hiding.

I swore my loyalty to him, then and there, and did not speak a word of it. I couldn't. If the Federation had known that one of their assassination targets was a cadet officer in their own Academy - the failed assassination would become a successful one. This was my senpai and my king - in each case, deserving of my loyalty, but more importantly, this was Zechs.

For how could you give your love to someone else
And share your dreams with me?
Sometimes the very thing you're looking for
Is the one thing you can't see ...

On reflection, though, he must have realised that I'd learned the truth. I have never been good at duplicity; the fact that I stopped fishing for information and became even more protective of my senpai must have given it away. For it was then that I was told about OZ and Treize-sama's plans. I agreed and joined in enthusiastically - I wonder if they realized then that it was Zechs I obeyed, not Treize-sama?

No matter. Zechs followed Treize and I followed Zechs. I was honoured by the confidence he placed in me, and each challenge he set and each secret he confided bound me to him more.

I felt strangely divided when he asked me to guard Relena-sama. I was honoured that he would entrust his precious sister to me. But at the same time I was wildly jealous. I longed for his attention and love and he was totally devoted to her.

And now we're standing, face to face -
Isn't this world a crazy place!
Just when I thought our chance had passed,
You go and save the best for last.

I did as he asked anyway. At least then he would see how good a job I did - and the nod and "Thank you, Noin," he expressed his approval with were worth any effort. It wasn't his or anyone else's fault that I wished for more.

Sometimes the very thing you're looking for
Is the one thing you can't see ...

I yawn and roll over. The blankets are warm now and sleep is tugging me down. I can relax after all my longing and grief because my story has a happy ending. Relena-sama's may or may not, but I'm hopeful for her.

I couldn't stay with her after that day, not when her Heero was alive and my Zechs was not. I joined Lady Une's newly formed Preventors, taking the longest, hardest, furthest-away assignments - because, if I were tired enough, I probably wouldn't dream.

I distinguished myself - as usual - and when Marymaya Barton's forces attacked, I was recalled to Earth, to work with a new pilot, named "Wind".

Did I suspect? I don't believe so. I was looking to a battle, not a reunion. Especially not with him.

Sometimes the snow comes down in June;
Sometimes the sun goes round the moon;
Just when I thought our chance had passed,
You go and save the best for last.

I am almost asleep ... dreaming of my decision after that battle, when I finally told him my feelings and that I wouldn't allow him to leave me behind again. The riskiest thing I've ever done, but the reward I was reaching for ...

A cold body - Zechs - slides into bed beside me. I curl up against him, cold feet and all. His arms are velvet steel, pulling my warm body to his cool chest, his heartbeat strong and reassuring beneath my ear. I smile as I slip into sleep.

He's still holding me the next morning, when I awaken. I take full advantage. With Zechs' complete cooperation.

You went and saved the best for last.