FEELS LIKE HOME

He took a hesitant step forward the plane. What if its too late? He looked down at his feet and then looked away. He didn't know whether this is a very good decision for him to make. But there was something that keeps him going on. But, can I?

"Sir?" the stewardess asked, eyeing him carefully. "Are you coming?"

Zechs snapped his head up to look at the woman. "Oh, of course." He replied somewhat in a confused manner. He took a deep breath and picked his bag up and flung it back on his broad shoulder. Obviously, he was the only one they were waiting for before the plane takes off. The only one too worried.

Zechs took his seat quietly beside the window. An elderly woman looked up at him and offered a small smile. He managed to return the warm greeting. The stewardess helped him with his things and shoved them up on the upper rack. Zechs thanked her.

"First time?" the elder woman asked.

The young man looked at her and said, "No. I've been on many trips here and in space."

"Oh, you must be a soldier."

Zechs felt a slight lump in his throat at that, but he forced a small laugh at it anyway. "Not exactly."

The granny nodded her head and closed her eyes going, "Well, I'm gonna take a short rest, sonny."

He nodded.

Zechs took a deep breath and leaned against the window. "It has been a long time since I've been on any trips. I wonder what changed..."

Zechs stared down at the puffy white clouds beneath the plane. So long. He shifted in his seat for a more comfortable position. Then, finding himself fumbling inside his jacket for his wallet.

As hesitant as before, he sighed and opened the leather thing and his eyes fixed on a professional I.D. "Wind..." he whispered softly, carefully tracing the engraved codes on it. It's been a long time since he had contact with anyone.

"Noin,"

He hasn't seen her for somewhat a year already. He never heard of her, except that she has joined a newly found peace-keeping agency. And he was also to join the same organization.

Nothing's changed. He'll see her again.

Or so I thought nothing has. But I did. I always do.

"I'm a new person again." He sighed as he closed it and tucked it inside his jacket again.

"Will I ever cease to change?"

"Are you sure you want to take on this assignment alone?" Sally asked as she stooped on Noin's office desk. It's a bright Monday afternoon and Sally had just finished her shift and decided to hang around with her friend for a while, who was scheduled to fly off to L3 later at nine.

"Yes of course." Noin asked as she busily fixed all the papers on a rack. "What made you say that?"

"Well, I was thinking that you may be a little over-stressed and would like to stay here. You'd be staying there for six months."

"I've had enough pressure. Besides, I'd like to try and do something else. Going to L3 would somehow give me a break. Plus, a new challenge."

"But work is a lot tougher there." Sally replied, rummaging through her friend's desk.

"Exactly. Are you trying to discourage me?" Noin asked with a challenging grin as she turned around to get something in her drawer. "Cos it seems that you are, and to think that you were the one who told me about this."

"No."

"Then why are you telling me that?"

"I just wanna know if you think you've made the right decision."

"I did." Noin replied with a smile. "Now if you'd excuse me, I would like to be alone so I could finish faster." She said, opening the door for her friend who just shook her head and left.

Lucrezia sighed. She hadn't had any time to lie down and rest. She had to pack up for her trip to L3, which she never had the time to do because she has to make sure that everything is in check before she leaves.

Kneeling down on the floor, she reached for her bag with a quiet grunt, and she started stuffing it with her things.

Bending a little lower, she almost slipped under her bed to get her gun case. "Just in case." She muttered with a side grin. She stuffed the silver case inside her bag, and reached for another case. A little old box.

"Lemme see..."

Zechs sighed as he shifted to a more comfortable position in his seat. The contemporary channel had kept on playing beautiful songs, but he never actually gave any attention to it, instead, he had drifted off to sleep, his head leaning on the glass.

The woman beside her is already awake, too. She was drinking tea and contently listening to the music and occasionally telling him how she missed the way she lived back then when there was no war yet.

Zechs just keep on nodding his head and smiling at her.

"If she knew that I was one of the soldiers who cause lots of trouble." he muttered to himself with a smirk.

If you knew I was Zechs Merquise.

And now, he held a book and tried to finish the several pages left. Frustrated at how long the story seems to be, he decided to skip some pages.

The window breaks

Down the lone dark street

And the siren wake

In the night

"At last!" Noin sighed in relief as she flopped down on her bed. She rolled over and checked her clock, glad to know that she still has 30 minutes to sit down and relax.

"Then I'll be in L3." She murmured softly as she embraced her pillow. "For six months...a new life. New assignment. New faces..." then before she finishes her sentence, she trailed off. Her eyes travelling and fixing at a framed photo by her bedside.

"Zechs..." she sighed, her fingers, brushing against the cold glass frame. "I miss you." She said, taking it in her hand and looking at it with mere fondness.

For some time, she just laid there, looking at the photo, sighing every given second. "It's not the same doing things without you. You gave everything its complication..." she said, as if talking to Zechs himself just by staring at the photo. "I really miss you. You know you'd always be in my heart." She whispered softly, planting a small kiss on the beautiful face behind that glass.

But then...

"Is there any hope for me?

Zechs sighed in relief as they finally arrived in the airport. It was around nine and it was beginning to drizzle outside.

He walked along the airport in a hurry. In a time like this, it would be impossible for him to get a taxi in just a snap of a finger. Besides, he was too jet-lagged to even bother and wait. He had to rest. The Preventers were also too busy to pick him up, and besides, it was his choice not to.

Then as a thought crossed his mind, he stopped dead in his tracks.

What if she gets angry? I should have told her...

Then again, Zechs thought that she would really be happy to see him. Besides, he, himself, couldn't wait to team up with her again. She's the best partner he ever had.

He looked away and stared at a large glass panel.

"I miss her..."

Noin walked about the lobby, waiting for the guy who was supposed to drive her to the airport.

She stood there, thinking if going to L3 was really a good thing for her. She knew that she only made that as an excuse when Sally asked her; she'd go there because she wants to be alone. To be someone else than former-Oz-Captain Lucrezia Noin, to live up to Fire.

Try to heal.

Forget the bad things that happened in the past.

Forget...

The car pulled at her feet and the driver helped her with her things.

She sat there in the car, quiet and all. "Zechs..."

But then, for someone who had lived her life longer for somebody else's sake than hers, that would be a different subject.

She sighed. How can I forget you? You were everything I lived for. Your name. Your honor. You were my only family.

"But how will I know if you'd return and make up to your promise...?"