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I know, I know, i'm incredibly late with this, but I finally got off my lazy
butt and finished this next chapter. I just recently got my first full-time
job (7:30-4:00) and have had little time for anything else. So please forgive
me. Anyway, here it is. It's a bit shorter compared to the other two, but not
too short. Hope you enjoy.

CHRISTMASTIME IN OZ
By: Matt Taylor

Disclaimer: I do not own any GW characters, Bandai/Sunrise do. So if you send
me any money for this, I'm sending the company hitmen to your house.

NOTES: Well, I finally got off my lazy butt and finished this piece. This
chapter continues the story, and also includes my pathetic attempt at comedy.

*************

CHAPTER 3.

"I hate skiing, I hate skiing, I hate skiing, I hate skiing."

This unusual mantra was being repeated quietly by a young man positioned
on top of the ski slope. He wore a simple parka, wool pants, gloves and ski
boots, the most unusual thing about him was the mask on top of his head. This
was Zechs Merquise, and, to the uniformed observer he would appear to be any
other first time skier, however when you consider that he was a ace pilot to
almost all known mobile suits, you might think differently.

"Come on Zechs, it's not that far!" Shouted a feminine voice from the bottom
of the hill. At the bottom was an attractive young lady, dressed similarly to
the man above, but minus a mask. She had spent the last fifteen minutes
shouting encouragement to the man who had spent the last fifteen minutes in a
zombie state brought about by the fact that he had barely ever skied before.
Lucrezia Noin sighed and began to trudge back up the slope.

"Geez, Zechs, when you said that it'd been awhile since you last skied you
really meant it."

"Isn't this slope a bit...high?" Zechs asked.

"Zechs, this is the bunny slope." Noin said casually.

"I knew that! I just thought it was kind of...high for a bunny slope." Noin
sighed and shook her head.

"Zechs, you want to learn how to ski, don't you?"

"Of course, just maybe not today."

"Zechs, you can pilot an Aries, which can go over ten miles upward into the
sky, but you're afraid of the height of a bunny slope?" Noin teased gently.

"Well, they're two different things." Noin finally got up beside him.

"Please?" She asked, in a quiet innocent voice. Zechs could feel his
composure to stay right where he was waving slightly. Here he was an ace MS
pilot part of an organization with plans to destroy the current ruling class,
the Earth Sphere Alliance, and here he was, needing the sound of his best
friends patented "innocent" voice to get him to go down a small ski slope.
Zechs gritted his teeth, and walked to the edge of the slope.

Zechs looked down and for some reason the slope seemed to get bigger. He
turned around and Noin smiled and gave him a thumbs up.

"Here I go."

*************

"Look, young lady. The sign on the rack says $99.99." Une stared at the
cashier, untold amounts of intensity all directed at the hapless young lady
behind the register.

"I know ma'am, but the computer says $150.00." She said, her voice starting
to quiver.

"Then take off the 50 dollars."

"I'm sorry ma'am, I think the sign maybe a mistake, all our sale prices our
programmed into the system when we start them." She said, laughing nervously.

"I did not drive all this way out here just to hear excuses." Une said, the
familiar commanders tone in her voice. "I do not have that type of money on
me, and the sign above this dress says $99.99. And last I heard the customer
was always right."

"I know ma'am, but it's against our rules to take down a price on the
computer." She said, Une's eyes never leaving her, as they continued to stare
holes through her.

"I want to speak to your manager."

*************

Treize Khushrenada left the office of Duke Dermail, thankful to get out. All
the Duke had wanted to talk about was a few budget concerns, important but
boring as all get out. Treize reminded himself to remember how important
these things where, as they would be one of his duties if he really did
succeed Dermail as the Specials commander. Treize entered his own room, and
sat down on the couch.

It was not often that Treize opted to wear something as casual as this, a
simple blue sweater, and jeans. It was one of the very few casual outfits he
owned, add to the fact that tight military uniforms and tights tended to give
you colds in weather like this, and you could see where he was coming from.

Treize checked his watch, and wondered when Une was going to get back. Unlike
most of the women who would be at this party, who tended to take days just to
decide what kind of hat to wear before deciding that the hat wouldn't work
with the dress at all, Une was more straightforward. He had always assumed
that Une would just take the first nice looking outfit she saw.

He hoped she wouldn't choose one of the outfits most women associated with
Romafeller chose. It was strange, Treize noted, that at the onset of the new
calendar and the launching of the colonies, the people of Earth seemed to
regress in their beliefs and fashions to what Treize had found out was
something akin to early European style. While much of what had been modern at
the time had gone with the early colonists to the colonies, and was still
there now. Not that Treize had a problem with this.

****************

Zechs Merquise sat on the couch, his mask put aside for a moment as he leaned
back on the Couch, with his left foot lifted up and resting inside a small
basin of hot water. Not to mention the heating pack behind his back.

"Man, Zechs! I've never seen someone do that many somersaults going down the
bunny slope." Noin said from her seat at his side.

"Yes, the people who run the lift say it's a new record." Zechs said in a
monotone voice. It was a record he would have gladly let the previous holder
keep. Thankfully, according to the doctor he was just sore, and a night of
rest and heat would make him better.

"Uh, Zechs, I just wanted to say...." Noin trailed off.

"Go on." Zechs said in that same monotone.

"That...I was really sorry about making you go on that slope." Noin stared at
the ground, and looked guilty. Zechs looked over at her, intending to blow up
over her forcing him to do that, but her guilty look caused him to stop.
Zechs just looked at her for a minute, before returning to staring at the
ceiling.

"It's okay." He said with a sigh. "But no more skiing for me, okay?"

"Okay."

"I didn't join Lake Victoria to become a championship skier."

"Okay."

Zechs laid his head against the back of the couch, as it got quiet. Zechs
closed his eyes, and felt the onset of sleep. Noin saw her comrade slowly
fall asleep, and quietly got up. She went to the kitchen and got a cup of hot
chocolate, and went back to the living room, She picked out a small paperback
from the bookshelf, and sat down across from Zechs, who was now softly
snoring.

Noin sipped from the cup, and opened to one of her favorite parts. She looked
over at Zechs for a moment, and smiled slightly.

***************

"I am sorry very sorry about this ma'am." Said a smiling young man. The fact
that he was actually older than her meant little to Une. She had been
standing there, her eyes staring lasers through his body for the last five
minutes. She could see the sweat form on the managers brow, as his smile got
more and more hard to hold.

"Do you know that I serve in the military, young man?" Une said, her voice
holding that tinge that said something terrible was coming.

"I...was not aware of that ma'am." He said, congenially,

"Now, the customer is always right, right?"

"Yes ma'am."

"So basically you could say that I'm your superior officer." Une said
thoughtfully.

"You...could look at it that way."

"Young man..." Une looked at his nametag." Steven, do you know what happens
to junior officers who lie to their superiors?" Une's eyes closed to near
slits, and her voice was ice cold.

"I wouldn't call it lying, miss, we just forgot to change the signs."

"Now you're trying to interrupt your superiors!"

"Sorry." The manager eeped out.

"As I was saying. Young officers who lie to their superiors would often get
several nights in the brig, where they sleep on cold hard bed made of wooden
planks, and are fed gruel, if we decided to feed them at all! They're lucky
if a rat doesn't decided to crawl into their mouth while they sleep!"

"That...doesn't sound very nice."

"No, it doesn't, you need young officers to both respect and fear their
superiors, it makes them act better." Une said, tossing one of her trademark
scowls at him. The manager hit a button on the register.

"$99.99." He said grinning. Une threw a Mona Lisa smile at him.

"Smart choice." Said Une, who handed over her credit card.

END OF CHAPTER THREE.

****************
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Subject:	[zechs-n-noin] Christmastime in OZ part three
Date:	Tue, 8 May 2001 22:17:40 EDT


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