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 Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2008 6:55 pm
Hi folks,
Here's a teaser for the Une/Zechs friendship fic I'm working on for the contest; thought it might be fun to share. If you have any suggestions or critique please feel free to speak up! The story is called "Scattering Dust" and is set just after the events of "Endless Waltz". Une (to whom I gave the name Anneke based on what I've seen in several fanfics, and I do like the name) has gone to find Zechs' apartment, not really sure what she wants to talk to him about; she almost decides not to knock when the situation is taken out of her hands... The title comes from a line out of Richard Aldington's poem, Myrrhine and Konallis:
"In my life I was happy,
knowing many sorts of love and none evil.
If you are a lover, scatter dust,
and call me 'dear one'
and speak one last 'Hail'."
She was about to walk away, mentally berating herself for being a monumental fool, when the apartment door opened in front of her. Une startled, staring up into the nerve-wracking ice blue of a pair of eyes just as surprised as her own. She blinked. It had been long enough that she had forgotten just how tall he was. And thinner, her mind added with a tinge of worry, but she fought the reaction down and tried to smile.
“Anneke?” he murmured, looking distinctly taken aback. Zechs Merquise folded gracefully downward, and for a moment Une thought absurdly that he was curtseying to her; she bristled, then blushed to realize he was picking up the small pile of mail at their feet. “I did not hear you knock—please, do come in.”
No escape now… Une straightened her spine and walked past him, her head up, her expression somewhat bemused. “Am I disturbing you?” she asked politely.
“No, of course not.”
He somehow managed to make it sound smooth and polite yet somehow oddly sincere; she felt a brief stab of irritation, realizing this was one of the irrationally annoying things she had long ago decided she disliked in him. His manners were most often those of a soldier, blunt and occasionally arrogant—but then he would have these moments, princely moments, that she had always assumed were learned from hanging about with the suavity that was Treize. Little did I realize!
Merquise bowed her into the sitting area beside his tiny kitchen, asked if she would like tea; she would, and watched as he poured. His every motion was perfect, his hands were perfect, never a mis-step, each movement exact. She had always thought he had beautiful hands, the few times he had been seen without the immaculate, perfect gloves. Vague memory stirred and she wished she could hate him. Perfect, perfect, perfect. Wearily she wondered why.
“I am keeping you from dinner,” she murmured, looking up as he brought her the cup.
He gave a faint smile. “Not really. Do you mind if I keep cooking while we talk, though? I am at a critical point in the process.”
“Process?” Une leaned forward, interested to know what he was cooking. Then she realized with a jolt that she hadn’t realized he could cook. She said so aloud, surprising a huff of amusement out of him.
“Most people tend to be surprised to learn any man can cook,” Zechs said with self-deprecatory humour. He tipped a small bowl over the large pot before him; stewed tomatoes, carefully diced and mixed with chopped onions, slipped into whatever he was making. In quick succession he added several small doses of spices and what looked like fresh herbs. Sharp, pleasant scents reached Une’s nose as Zechs plucked pale green leaves from a bushy plant on the greenery-covered windowsill and began chopping.
“Is that spaghetti sauce you’re making?”
He shrugged slightly, looking self-conscious. “Uh-huh.”
“Good Lord. Zechs Merquise makes his own spaghetti sauce.” The idea seemed bizarre but somehow oddly… perfect. Une almost laughed, but he looked so curiously uncomfortable that she did not have the heart to. “Wherever did you pick up a skill like that?”
His expression went blank. Une felt something visceral change in the air around them, electric and coppery in her mouth as if lightning had hit somewhere very nearby. Zechs kept up the motions of chopping something—fresh basil, as it happened—but his eyes were staring down through the cutting board, suddenly looking as if he were miles away. Or years away… Une felt a stab of embarrassment as if somehow she might have offended him or called up an unpleasant memory. Before she could try to back them both out of the situation, Zechs spoke in the clipped, matter-of-fact tone she remembered hearing across a commlink during any of a hundred battles.
“Our… cook taught me. Long time ago. She said one could never go wrong knowing how to make a decent red sauce.”
Simple fact, simply stated, but oddly off somehow; still, his gaze shortened and he seemed to come back to the present. Zechs lifted the chopping board and pushed the basil into the pot with his knife. He dusted his hands in a businesslike manner on the towel hanging from his belt and turned to take more ingredients out of the small refrigerator. Une stared, wondering what she had said to bring this on.
“If you have no plans, you’re welcome to stay for dinner,” he told her after a moment, his brow creasing under the pale bangs. He looked at her through the hair, his eyes unreadable. “This place is not exactly on the beaten path. You’d have a difficult time convincing me you just happened by.”
Now that was more like the Zechs she knew of old—if she ever really had known him, a concept with which she was now wrestling. Une made a graceful gesture out of pushing her own hair back over one shoulder and gave him a slight nod.
“I would like that. We haven’t had a chance to really talk since you returned.”
The moment she said the words, she knew he had heard the brief hesitancy in her voice—the meaningful but unwanted pauses before talk and returned. She had served with him long enough, observed him closely too many times to miss that subtle shift in focus, the slight sharpening of those stormy eyes. Une braced herself for whatever might come next…
…which was nothing. He only blinked, sighed lightly, and reached for a wooden spoon to stir the sauce. “No, we have not,” he agreed, his voice flat and tired. “I haven’t had a chance to talk—to pretty much anyone.”
Let me know what you think? smile
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Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 7:18 pm
I thought it was interesting. It sounds very realistic as far as life goes, but I'm not sure about how in character these characters are. I suppose just about anything goes in fanfiction, but though I can picture a Zechs and Une friendship pairing, it sounds like it's going towards romance.
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Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 10:22 am
That's the peril of posting bits instead of chapters... smile It's most decidedly not going toward a romance. It will be JUST a friendship fic, because she is decidedly in love with Treize and mourning him--and Zechs is mourning the loss of his oldest friend. Once the whole thing is done I'll post it on FanFiction.net and put the link here.
What felt out of character for you?
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Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 11:50 am
Nothing now. It seemed out of character that Une would be falling for someone other than Treize (as much as I am interested in the ZechsxUne pairing...just like I like the DuoxRelena pairing but I'll have to face up to the facts that THAT is out of character for the both of them too.) So now that I know that, I don't think so much is out of character ^^;. It does seem a bit out of character though that she wouldn't like the soldier type, being a strong woman herself.
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Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 3:54 pm
Well... here she's more the softer, long-haired Une than the hair-up warrior woman... but let me clarify. It isn't *soldiers* she dislikes... she's working her way through her long-time dislike of Zechs personally, because (as it will unfold in the tale) there seemed to be an inordinate number of times when either Treize preferred Zechs' company to hers, or that Zechs was just *there* to her annoyance when she would have preferred to speak with Treize alone. That sort of thing.
Plus she's a little concerned, as leader of the Preventers, that she hasn't had a chance to sound him out ever on why he did some of the things he did during the war between Earth and the Colonies--and where he was when they believed him dead, etc. before the Mariemaia Incident.
All will eventually be revealed. smile
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Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 7:57 pm
I see. I do recall her having split personalities (I watch the series or bits and pieces of it here and there even recently, so I'm constantly able to refresh my memory of GW and even draw different conclusions of things or confirm old ones if I choose). It would be interesting to read the rest of it :3.
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Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 1:53 pm
I'll post some more probably after this weekend; I think I might actually have time to write for a change. smile
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Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2008 9:16 am
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