Gundam Wing: Noin/Zechs - Morning Comfort
Author: Parsnip
Fandom: Gundam Wing
Pairing: Lucrezia Noin/ Zechs Merquise
Theme and #: Theme 2-School, 17-First Encounters, 34-Rituals, 45-Memories
Title: Morning Comfort
Genres: Romance, Reminiscing, Gen
Rating: G
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing and all its characters do not belong to me and are only used to provide mutual amusement at no profit.
Summary: With Zechs missing in action, sometimes the best comfort is found in the memory of habits and habits shared.
Morning Comfort
Skin stretched over cracking bones as her muscles eagerly flexed and contracted in bliss. Noin rolled over onto her back and looked at the ceiling. It was 4 am, and she was wide awake as usual.
Sighing to herself, she crawled out from underneath the bed covers and walked to her closet. Pulling out a pair of shorts and a muscle t-shirt, she quickly changed out of her bed clothes, following an age old ritual started during her years at the academy.
Limbering up her body for her early morning run, she let her mind wander to those first few years when she met a certain someone six months missing in action. Zechs had always been a quiet, studious man with his head stuck in a book or hooked into a training simulator. The only odd thing he ever did was wake-up before roster call and take an early morning run before the sun rose over the horizon.
Noin smiled softly to herself as she let herself out the door to her modest looking apartment. She had originally been dismayed that first year when she found out her coveted early morning runs were being infiltrated by another student when they first crossed paths a month into the year. She had been even more dismayed when she recognized that same student as her whispered rival in tactics. Who else would go running in the pre-dawn with a helmet covering his head? He was insane to trap all that heat inside his body. Surely the sweat would get to one, but she never did see him without his mask during those first years.
Rumor had it that the man was disfigured beneath the mask and cared not to be pitied. Still others thought that the helmet provided enhanced sensory perception. No one really knew so when Noin headed out of her dorm and set off at a quick pace through the dew kissed school grounds, she felt betrayed by the dawn for sharing her time with a man who unfairly kept an edge over her and all her newly acquired friends and school mates.
At first it was just a few seconds of discomfort when they passed each other on the beaten track, each going their separate ways and steering clear of each other. Later, as their rivalry began to set into daily life, they changed their daily courses so they ran next to each other for a short while, some five hundred yards or so and tested his or her paces against the other. As the year rolled to a close, they silently came to the mutual agreement to start and end their runs together, each complimenting the other’s style and pushing each to new heights of fitness.
No words were ever spoken to each other. It was just an easy camaraderie that lasted until their graduation. It wasn’t until that last year that they truly spoke to each other, broaching a friendship already cemented in daily ritual. Now, Noin took comfort in her morning runs, believing against all hope that somewhere out there, Zechs was enjoying a similar pastime wherever he found refuge.
Noin pushed herself off the ground, flying across the twisted streets of the city towards the park. The silence of presumed death weighed heavy on her heart much as the silence of the dawn weighed on her limbs, the air empty by her side. Silence was a necessity though, wherever he was hiding. It was needed to ensure peace lasted in this dawn of a new era, but if only she had known where he found refuge. She would give up everything to have just one more run in the crisp morning air while the long strands of his hair streamed behind him.
She ran on through the ill-lit streets, shedding her misgivings in lieu of the comfort of habit. He would surface again one day, and when that happened, she’d be ready to run by his side for all the years to come. She could wait him out. She did it before, and she’d do it again. A smile creased her face as she picked up her pace. She would be ready.
Fandom: Gundam Wing
Pairing: Lucrezia Noin/ Zechs Merquise
Theme and #: Theme 2-School, 17-First Encounters, 34-Rituals, 45-Memories
Title: Morning Comfort
Genres: Romance, Reminiscing, Gen
Rating: G
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing and all its characters do not belong to me and are only used to provide mutual amusement at no profit.
Summary: With Zechs missing in action, sometimes the best comfort is found in the memory of habits and habits shared.
Morning Comfort
Skin stretched over cracking bones as her muscles eagerly flexed and contracted in bliss. Noin rolled over onto her back and looked at the ceiling. It was 4 am, and she was wide awake as usual.
Sighing to herself, she crawled out from underneath the bed covers and walked to her closet. Pulling out a pair of shorts and a muscle t-shirt, she quickly changed out of her bed clothes, following an age old ritual started during her years at the academy.
Limbering up her body for her early morning run, she let her mind wander to those first few years when she met a certain someone six months missing in action. Zechs had always been a quiet, studious man with his head stuck in a book or hooked into a training simulator. The only odd thing he ever did was wake-up before roster call and take an early morning run before the sun rose over the horizon.
Noin smiled softly to herself as she let herself out the door to her modest looking apartment. She had originally been dismayed that first year when she found out her coveted early morning runs were being infiltrated by another student when they first crossed paths a month into the year. She had been even more dismayed when she recognized that same student as her whispered rival in tactics. Who else would go running in the pre-dawn with a helmet covering his head? He was insane to trap all that heat inside his body. Surely the sweat would get to one, but she never did see him without his mask during those first years.
Rumor had it that the man was disfigured beneath the mask and cared not to be pitied. Still others thought that the helmet provided enhanced sensory perception. No one really knew so when Noin headed out of her dorm and set off at a quick pace through the dew kissed school grounds, she felt betrayed by the dawn for sharing her time with a man who unfairly kept an edge over her and all her newly acquired friends and school mates.
At first it was just a few seconds of discomfort when they passed each other on the beaten track, each going their separate ways and steering clear of each other. Later, as their rivalry began to set into daily life, they changed their daily courses so they ran next to each other for a short while, some five hundred yards or so and tested his or her paces against the other. As the year rolled to a close, they silently came to the mutual agreement to start and end their runs together, each complimenting the other’s style and pushing each to new heights of fitness.
No words were ever spoken to each other. It was just an easy camaraderie that lasted until their graduation. It wasn’t until that last year that they truly spoke to each other, broaching a friendship already cemented in daily ritual. Now, Noin took comfort in her morning runs, believing against all hope that somewhere out there, Zechs was enjoying a similar pastime wherever he found refuge.
Noin pushed herself off the ground, flying across the twisted streets of the city towards the park. The silence of presumed death weighed heavy on her heart much as the silence of the dawn weighed on her limbs, the air empty by her side. Silence was a necessity though, wherever he was hiding. It was needed to ensure peace lasted in this dawn of a new era, but if only she had known where he found refuge. She would give up everything to have just one more run in the crisp morning air while the long strands of his hair streamed behind him.
She ran on through the ill-lit streets, shedding her misgivings in lieu of the comfort of habit. He would surface again one day, and when that happened, she’d be ready to run by his side for all the years to come. She could wait him out. She did it before, and she’d do it again. A smile creased her face as she picked up her pace. She would be ready.