Lucrezia Noin stripped herself of her sweaty clothes. The rush of cold air that hit her hot body was cooling and comforting. She stepped into the shower stall and fiddled with the handles. She could never remember which one to use. The left one had a red mark on it and the right had a blue. Deciding she wanted a cold shower, she turned the blue one all the way around. The water shot out and hit her back. "Yiowww!" She shrieked as it touched her. The water was extremely hot. It was then that she remembered that the labels had been applied incorrectly. She quickly twisted the water off. "Noin?" A voice asked from outside the door. It was Zechs, coming to see what was wrong. "Damn," she cursed softly. "Nothings wrong. I'm fine," she responded. " fine I’ll be on the bridge if you need me," Zechs shouted through the door. She listened until she heard his footsteps fade away. She mentally kicked herself. How could she let him hear her? She turned back to her shower, angry with herself. Yanking the cold water on, she washed herself clean hastily. She wasn't going to let herself take all day after that incident. She stepped out of her icy shower. The icy air nipped at her bare body, causing her cheeks to flush. She pulled down her towel and quickly dried herself. After a moment, she pulled down her robe. It was a thick, fleecy fabric. The robe was a frost blue, the same as his eyes. Those eyes that one could get lost in. She paused in her thoughts. Why was she always thinking about him? She sighed they had just started the trip an hour ago "its going to be a long trip." She groused. She pulled the robe on and left the bathroom. She walked down the tight hallway and into her tiny compartment. There was no point in wondering why, she reasoned. All she needed to do was clear those thoughts from her mind, and she would be fine. That was all she needed to do. Somehow, her heart was telling her otherwise. She dressed in a pair of black pants and a yellow tank top. She then combed her hair to look like usual with most of it over her left eye. She walked out of her quarters that was on the ship headed to mars and went to the lift to take her to the bridge where she knew he would be waiting. She got of the lift and walked into the bridge "hi," she said. He looked up from the book he was reading and smiled "hi your self," he replied.

He heard her enter, and waited for her to say something, and she did. He heard her clear as day "hi". And so feeling like a teenager in love he looked up and said "hi your self." He felt really stupid feeling this way he was a mobile suit pilot for crying out loud he should be able to get over these feelings or at least tell Noin how he felt about her but he was being cowardly and he hated himself for it. He brushed some hair out of his eyes as he looked up and noticed she wasn’t in her enviromental suit, he frowned "Noin" he said warningly she smile "I know I know regulations. I really hate wearing those suits though. " He waited and just stared at her " oh all right" she relented and turned around to go get her suit from the suit lockers. He watched her leave and go into the lift and he watched her till the doors closed and she disappeared.

Lucrezia went down the two levels and turned into the cargo bay then went to the storage lockers and pulled out an environmental suit and scowled at it. She really hated to wear these things they were bulky and uncomfortable. She sighed. Regulations were regulations even if she didn’t like them. She got into the environmental suit and sealed it up except for the helmet, which she carried under her arm. She walked out of the storage locker area and was walking to the exit of the cargo bay when she heard something she walked the other way and listened carefully. She remembered that the engines were one level below the cargo bay and one section over. So it was no wonder she heard something she was practically on top of the engines. She could hear it something was wrong with the engines. Just then the communicator in the cargo bay beeped. She rushed over to it and activated it.

Zechs Marquise was a soldier and as a soldier he was trained to handle any situation that might arise. So when the indicators started their alert stating something was wrong with the engines he wasn’t too concerned. He figured that Noin would be in the cargo bay so he activated the comm. system and hoped he could reach her. "I’m here" he heard "good hey Noin some thing is wrong with the engines." "I know I can hear them," she stated. Suddenly a whole new alarm started to blare. Zechs paled as Noin asked "what’s that." Zechs could barely think straight " Noin are you still there you need to get the hell out of there the engines are going to." He didn’t get a chance to finish the whole ship shook with an explosion. Zechs was thrown off his feet and into a bulkhead and was knocked out cold.

It was dark her arm hurt as well as her head and it hurt to take deep breaths. Lucrezia Noin awoke and to put it simply she felt like crap. She tried lifting her right arm to wipe some sort of liquid off her face and nearly passed out from the pain. Aww hell, she thought, it’s broken which means its useless. Noin used her left arm and wiped away what she now knew to be blood off her face. She wished she knew if something was wrong with Zechs, but she had no way of knowing. She did a quick overview of her body. Broken arm, head wound probably a concussion and her chest hurt. She tried to sit up and nearly passed out. "ok that’s why my chest hurts the damn ribs are broken." She lay back down and wondered what to do next.

Zechs Marquise woke up with a splitting headache. He did a quick check and found only his head hurt. He slowly stood up and walked over to the control panel fighting the dizziness and smacked the button for the distress signal. He prayed some one would get to them soon. Zechs grabbed the first aid kit and walked out the door. He got into the lift and went down the to the cargo deck to look for Noin.

Noin heard the clanking of the lift descending and instantly perked up. "Zechs is on his way." She forgot about her pain for a moment. "Great once Zechs gets here he can get me out of here then we can find away to get back to earth and the colonies." Noin could hear Zechs’ boots thumping on the hard metal floor; the footfalls stopped right outside the door. There was a hissing sound and the door only opened a crack. Noin gingerly inched herself over to the door and looked up she could see a blue eye looking back.

Zechs walked up and pressed the button to open the door it opend about three inches then stopped Zechs looked through the crack and noticed Noin inching her way over to the door. She looked up and spotted him looking back and he could have sworn her face glowed, her violet eyes sparkled and her lips formed a smile. Zechs smiled inspite of himself unaware that his eyes were sparkling. "Noin are you all right?" he got a weak no in response. He replied " hold on let me see what I can do." Zechs then proceeded to try and force the door open but it would only budge another four inches not nearly big enough for some one to fit through.

Noin could now see his face and it was marred with worry. All the sudden something on the other side of the door started to beep and Zechs looked over at it and she noticed his face paled considerably "Zechs?" she asked " what’s wrong?" He replayed in a voice that reminded her of the gundam pilot Heero Yuy "the atmospheric seal has been breached we have about two hours of breathable air left. Noin paled even more she was scared of the slow death she didn’t want to die of suffocation. She watched Zechs sit down. "Zechs what are you doing?" she asked shocked. "I’m staying with you." Was the reply. She sighed. There was that Heero Yuy attitude again. She slowly extended her uninjured arm through the crack and grasped his hand. They both stayed like that holding onto each other till they both passed out from lack of oxygen.

He could hear birds chirping and he had the worst headache. The last thing he remembered seeing was Noins unconscious form lying on the floor with her hand still clasped by his. Then it all went black. Zechs finally opened his eyes he was in a white room in a hospital bed. He felt really confused how had he gotten here? The door opend and a haggard looking Relena Peacecraft walked into the room carrying two bouquets one was white roses the other was of lilacs. He smiled that was his sister for you to the rest of the world he was Zechs Marquies but to her and a few others he was Milliardo Peacecraft the lost prince of a pacifist nation. Relena walked over and took a crystal vase and placed the roses inside not having looked at her brother yet. Relena turned around and met her brothers eyes they widened and tears started to spill out of them. She ever so slowly walked over to the bedside and hugged her brother and whispered "I thought I had lost you brother." She buried her face into his shoulder and cried her heart out. He just let her get it out. She finally stopped and looked at him dabbing her eyes with a tissue. He was finally able to ask the question that was bothering him since he had awakened "Relena what happened out there?" Relena sniffled a bit then began her tale about how Duo had borrowed some Preventers, and had gone to the old lunar base to salvage some equipment. Then when they were getting ready to come back they had picked up the distress call and had rushed out to pick them up. Milliardo grinned a bit. Rescued by duo, could have been worse could have been no one. Relena continued her story unaware of her brother’s thoughts. Duo said the atmosphere was so thin they had to wear environmental suits just to board the ship. Relena then went on to describe how they had found an unconscious Milliardo griping a hand in his. Duo had taken one look into the room, noticed Noin and had said something along the lines of "anything at all for the one you love." Milliardo thought if they only knew she means so much to me. She then went on to describe how duo had come back and how he and noin were rushed to Cinque to receive the best care and be close to family. Well that explains how I got here Milliardo thought. Now for the second question he had, "where’s Lucrezia, Relena?" Relena looked like she was going to cry again but controlled herself "she’s in the room next door, Milliardo she’s in a coma the doctors aren’t sure she is going to make it. Milliardo looked shocked but said, "I would like to see her Relena please arrange it." Relena went out and made the arrangements. Soon an orderly came in with a wheel chair and took Milliardo to Lucrezia’s room. Milliardo watched Relena put the lilacs in a crystal vase then turned to look at him. "I must go I shall see to it you are left alone." Milliardo smiled his thanks and watched Relena walk out the door. Milliardo got up and walked over to Lucrezia’s bedside and took the hand nearest him which happened to be the uninjured one. Oh Lucrezia you mean so much to me I want you to get better do you hear me that’s an order from a superior officer. I want you to be my princess Lucrezia would you like to be my princess finally he could take no more and collapsed to the floor holding on to her hand.

Lucrezia Noin became aware of an aching pain through out her body. She was also aware of some on softly crying and that some one was holding her hand she looked over and saw a head of platinum blond hair. she recognized it immediately she softly whispered "Zechs" Milliardo looked up startled and when he saw lucrezia looking back he smiled and hugged her and started to talk to her " noin I was so worried I thought I had lost you, you mean so much to me I don’t know what I would do with out you. Noin I love you so much I really do." Lucrezia smiled and replied, " I love you too Zechs." "Lucrezia noin would you do me the honnor of becoming my bride" Milliardo popped the question before he lost his nerve. Lucrezia broke into a radiant smile. "yes zechs ill marry you!" lucrezia hugged him as hard as her battered body would allow.