Lady in Red ~ by Nicole

*Disclaimer - I do not own Gundam Wing 

            It was her birthday-November the twenty-ninth. He thought it would be a good idea to finally treat her to something nice-something special just for her since he had been one of the many people who had forgotten it was her birthday. After all that has happened, she really needed a break from life, from work. The last couple of weeks, the only chances he got to see her were only small glimpses. They were the times when she took a coffee break between the long, gruel hours she spent in her office at the Preventers headquarters. Other than that she sat alone at her desk, filling important documents into her laptop that where given to her by Lady Une or Relena Peacecraft. She continued this for awhile-waking up early to work all day then finally retiring at an ungodly hour of night-until he had decided to put a stop to it.

            What did she have to prove? The answer was nothing. She was the best the Preventers had. So why in the world was she working herself to an early grave? He knew from the way she looked that she wasn’t eating enough or getting much sleep. Her eyes seemed darker and her skin was so white, almost translucent that it made her look like a ghost. He did not like it one bit. The woman he knew all these war-torn years was never like this. Finally one night, when they were the only ones in the building, he walked into her office without so much as a knock to warn her of his entrance.

            Lucrezia didn’t even flinch from surprise as she slowly moved her blood shot violet eyes away from the blinding screen of her computer to peer across the room at the intruder. Her face was collected and calm all though he could see her impatience brewing beneath the thin layer of dignity she usual wrapped herself in.

            “Milliardo,” she said at last, her voice heavy with the weight of many sleepless nights.  “I didn’t know you stayed so late here. What is it?”

            Milliardo did not move from his spot before the door of her black office. There were not lights on. The only light was the feirce light provided by the screen of her black laptop that made Lucrezia’s face appear all the more frightening and disfigured. Silent, he noticed his surrounding. Papers were everywhere. Where did she get all this work? Had it all been dumped on her? That was not like Lady or his sister.

            “Doin’ work?” Milliardo asked, casually leaning against the doorframe and crossing his ankles and arms. He smiled but Lucrezia wasn’t amused at all. Instead she frowned and looked away, beginning to type once more but looking up every once and awhile to peer across the room at him.

            “You can say that,” she replied, her voice was dull as lead.

            Milliardo found himself frowning. Lucrezia usually wasn’t this way. She wasn’t so dense. He could usually look right in her eyes and see what was going on inside her mind. It was a good trick they both had learned from being such close friends throughout their whole life. But now? Now her pretty face was hidden behind a tried mask of mystery. Lucrezia never were masks. She never tried to hide. Her pride taught her that, he knew.  So what was wrong now?

            They did not say anything for a long moment. Lucrezia typed quickly in her irritation, frowning and glaring at him. He knew she wanted him to leave her. But Milliadro hardly budged, finding it quite comfortable leaning against the doorframe so slothfully. He knew her mask was slowly melting because of her surfacing anger. Sooner or later he was bound to find out what was bothering his dear friend.

            “It’s dark as hell in here, Noin,” Milliardo began, reaching for the light switch just left of his broad shoulder. “I’ll turn some light on for you.”

            “No, don’t!” Lucrezia began.

            Too late. The switch was given a push and the bright overhead lights came on in their full blinding glory. She flinched at the brightness that filled the room and quickly rubbed her eyes, trying to ward of the dancing black dots she saw before her.

            “That’s better,” Milliadro remarked cheerfully as he moved away from the threshold and walked further into her office.

            “Yeah sure,” Lucrezia replied sourly as her fussed over her eyes. “You are not the one who is blind at the moment!”

            Milliardo smiled, leaning down to place his elbows on the polished desktop. Chin on knuckles, he stared at her with large puppy-dog eyes and smiled. She straightened her spine and frowned at him.

            “You look like hell, Noin,” he playfully mused. “Maybe I should have left the lights off.”

            Lucrezia tossed him an I-wouldn’t-go-there-if-I-was-you-you-damn-bastard look but said nothing. He only smiled at her all the more, his eyes quickly looking over her face. She was worn clear through, with dark bags under her large eye but she still had a look of a beautiful warrior he had always noticed. Despite her sudden throe with life, she would always carry her strong magnificence about her. She was the most beautiful angel he had the honored privileged to look upon. But not to gentle now, his angel sat frowning like the very devil himself…. herself.

            Finally she gave into the deliberate silence though not to confess her troubles like Miliardo thought she would.

            “I have a very busy job, Milliardo,” she started, her voice supernaturally chilled with acrimonious frost. “I do not have the time to sit here and play these games with you. Now if you have nothing else to say to me, I think you should leave so that I can get back to my work.”

            Milliardo only arched one eyebrow from under his long flaxen bangs. He stared up at her in surprise, his dark green eyes clouded with skepticism. “You have a busy life?” he echoed, his thick voice carrying his doubt. “You have work to do? Then let me why that you have the only one here that spends everyday trapped behind her desk, working endlessly to fulfill some unknown goal? Neither Lady Une nor Relena call for such laborious hours of work. Why are you doing this to yourself? There is no point for you to be doing this to yourself, Noin.”

            Milliardo continued to stare at her when he finish, his gaze hard and direct. He wanted her to see herself in his eyes-to see the ghost she was forcing herself to become-but she did not look up at him. Instead her dark eyes were focused on her lap, her raven head lowered. She did not speak but he could feel her retreat from the battlefield. So unhealthy, she was defenseless against the battle. Had she been complete in her full state, the fight would have lasted. But she was not well enough, he knew, to endure their battle. She was retreating and going quickly, trying to find some comfort within her mind.

            The silence continued and finally Milliardo reached out and claim one of her pale hands in his. Holding it, it left as light and broken as a dove’s wing. He held her cold hand and whispered her name.

            “Noin….”

            She did not look up. He frowned. Their still was a layer of thick pride he needed to break through before he would get anything from her.

            “Lucrezia…” he whispered. Her beautiful name rolled off his tongue like honey.

            Her slender fingers flinched momentarily in his than stopped. Still she did not look to meet his gaze. He sighed with worry. He was running out of options. What is my next move, he pondered, lowering his green eyes from her lowered head to the top of her cluttered desk.

            For a moment he was silent due to a rush of surprise. What was that lying on her desk? A card? He quickly reached for it; it wasn’t out of his reach. He pulled it toward his eyes. It was a card. A card stained with many sad tears. Oh shit! It was a birthday card! Sent from her grandmother all the way from Italy. It was her birthday! And no one had said anything about it or mentioned it. Not even himself!

Feeling like someone had shoved their fists into his guts with full force Milliardo stared in disbelief at the card. Then his eyes quickly flickered around the room. So that was way she was doing this. She probably thought everyone had forgotten it was her birthday and plunged herself into unnecessary loads of work to keep her mind occupied. Damn him, it was his own fault that she was doing this to herself. How could he have forgotten it was her birthday? She wasn’t that unimportant to him. She was the love of his life! Many a times back in the Victorian Academy when they were students there and her birthday would come up he always would get into her locker and place a lily-her favorite flower-neatly among her textbooks along with a little box filled with chocolates.

He always did this anonymously but she always had known it was he. When it was her sixteenth birthday-they had just gotten into a little argument about some law within the government system-he once again played the spy and placed gifts within her locker. But this time it was a dozen of roses with a teddy bear dressed as a solider with a silver mask covering its teddy head and a note that read *Lucia-Sorry about the argument. I only hope you don’t take your anger out on poor little BoBo the bear. Happy birthday. Zechs* 

Smiling at the memory, Milliardo placed the card on the table again and stood up quietly. Lucrezia hadn’t yet raised her head to look up at him. So he quickly walked around the desk, catching a picture of himself on a shelf behind her desk, and knelt at her side, his mouth placed close to her ear. He took both of her hands in his and whispered, “Happy birthday, Lucia. Sorry you find me without bear or flowers. I didn’t mean to forget that it was your birthday.”

“I didn’t want to be rude,” Lucrezia murmured, looking at him from under her damp lashes.

Milliardo gave her hands a warm squeeze. He understood her perfectly. Even though Lucrezia was above every human, she still had the feelings of the human heart. Sweet, demure Lucia, he thought. Sometimes you can be humble to a fault.

“I know,” he whispered back.

She smiled a little, glad that he understood her so well.

“Lucia?”

“Yes?”

“Please look at me.”

Reluctant she slowly raised her eyes to his face, retreating an inch or to when she noticed how close they were. Milliardo could see that rare look of hopelessness in her violet eyes and she did not try to mask it. He freed on of his hands and gently traced the outline of her cheek with his slender fingers.

“Do you have a dress?” he asked.

Her pale brow twisted with confusion. “Yes,” she said slowly. “But I don’t know it you will be able to fit into it.” Then she smiled.

He frowned at her even though he was silently laughing. “Not for me, you silly onna!” he replied, smiling as he flicked her thick bangs from her large ears. She laughed and immediately went to fix her hair. “I was asking because I’m planning to take you out tomorrow for a long postponed birthday.”

“Milliardo! I didn’t-” she immediately protested but he raised his hand to silence.

“Enough,” he said. “It is truly the least I can do for you, Lucia. Please let me.”

“All right,” she gave in with a heavy sigh.

He nodded. “Good. I’ll pick you up at seven thirty tomorrow evening.”

She smiled. “Make it eight.”

~*~*~*~

            Milliardo pulled the car up to an antique brick apartment in the Italian quarter of the city. The neighborhood was nice and home-like, clean with small Italian restaurants on every corner. He liked it. The apartment building was old but it certainly had the flare he knew had caught Lucrezia’s eyes into renting a flat there. It was elegant, dignified like her but at the same time very welcoming and warm. It must have reminded her of her youth in Italy.

            He parked his car before the apartment and turned off the engine. In the passenger’s seat beside him, he reached over the grabbed a bouquet of beautiful lilies and a bottle of the finest wine Treize had recommended him get. These gifts were only trivial little things that Milliardo had thought would cheer Lucrezia up all the more, but the real gift was in his breast pocket, locked safely in a velvet box. A beautiful pearl ring with both of their names inscribed on the inside of the band. Then he opened his door and climbed out, the night breeze causing his long blonde hair to bellow outwards. He sighed, suddenly nervous as he stared up at the tall building.

She is in one of those rooms, he though in awe as he closed the door and moved away from his silver car. Waiting for me and no doubt looking as beautiful as an angel.

She had told him last night that her room was located on the top. Room 418. It had the best view of the city, she had told him with an embarrassed smile. She could see all the city lights at night glowing like hundreds of polished gems and was the first to know that is was snowing in the winter. This made him smile too. For the longest time he knew of her love of heights. She always wanted to be so high that it felt like she could fly and easily touch the stars.

After a moment of standing there, he was finally shaken from his daze when a young girl around thirteen called to him from an open window on the lowest floor of the building. Her eyes and hair were dark and she spoke with a thick accent.

“Mister! Hey, over here!” she called out to him, poking her head out of the window.

Startled, he only looked at the young girl without saying a word.

“Are you Mister Milliardo?” the girl asked with a bright face.

He nodded. “Yes.”

The girl smiled at him. “I’m Sonya. Lucia told me to watch for you and to remind you that she is in room 418.”

Milliardo smiled. “I am glad of your service, miss.”

The girl smiled all the more before being pulled out of view. After a moment another woman stuck her head out. She was most likely the girl’s mother because she had that same hair and eyes and accent as she talked.

“Ah, so you are the one who Lucia has been talking about all the while,” the older woman remarked with a kind smile. Then she remembered her manners and said, “I am Marie Vontallio, a good friend of Lucia.”

Milliardo smiled. “I am glad to have meat you.”

The woman smiled too. “Dear Lucia has been fretting all day. I’m so glad she is finally happy again. She can just be radiant when she is all smiles! I’m sure you have noticed as well, sir. Yes, she is quite a beauty. Attracts at least two admires every week or so but she never thinks about them.” The woman frowned and shook her head. “None are good enough to suit my little Lucia. Ah, but there is certainly one fellow whom she is quiet fond of. And I’m sure you know who that is.”

Milliardo found himself blushing at the audacious woman’s words.

“Oh, I have been to forward with you,” the woman remarked, noticing the crimson glow on his cheeks. “My apology. I am so happy to finally see Lucia’s suitor. She is like a second daughter to me and her happiness is my happiness.”

He smiled again.

“Well,” I mustn’t keep you waiting anymore, sir,” the woman said. “Take care of little Lucia will you?”

“Of course, madam.”

“Good lad. Well, goodnight.”

He nodded. “Good night.”

With that, the woman disappeared from view. He sighed slightly. What a pleasant woman, he thought as he walked up to the front door of the apartment. Quiet like Lucia in a way. 

Knock…knock…knock.

Milliardo stopped, straining his ears for any sound from beyond the closed door. Nothing. He frowned with concern. Then, footsteps. Light delicate ones tapping gently on a carpeted floor. The sound was hardly audible but he could hear it all the same. He imaged her dressed for the evening, looking to see if she looked all right in a mirror as she walked towards her front door, probably as nervous as he was.

The door was unlocked from the inside and pulled open. Milliardo smiled and held out the flowers, saying, “With so many admirers I’m glad I brought these along.”

Lucrezia grinned out at him and took the flowers. “You talked with Marie didn’t you?” she asked.

Milliardo nodded and she blushed deeply.

“Marie can be a very blunt woman at times,” she started to explain as she turned and moved into her apartment. “But she takes good care of me. Come in, Milliardo. I have bugged nothing to jump up and bit you. You are perfectly safe.”

He smiled and stepped over the threshold and closed the door. Through a long rectangular window in a wall parallel to the front door he could see Lucrezia in her kitchen admiring her flowers and arranging them in a beautiful glass vase. She was just as beautiful but to his confusion wore only a long red bathrobe.

“These flowers are beautiful, Milliardo,” Lucrezia commented, emerging from the glowing kitchen, vase in hands, to place it on her coffee table. “Thank you. They are my favorite.”

He smiled. “I know.”

She straightened her spine and turned to face him, her long raven bangs covering part of her beautiful face out of view. He pointed to her enchanting attire and said, “Even though I think it is charming I do believe there is a dress code for the restaurant I’m taking you.”

Immediately Lucrezia blushed something fierce, remembering that she only wore and old red bathrobe.

“Milliardo, you won’t believe the day I had today!” she explained. “Firstly after I talked to you in the morning, my phones went dead. Then I took my dress to be dry clean and turns up a girl destroyed the thing. Did you know that if you try to iron a silk dress it will burn? Bad thing was it was my only dress too. Plus I am missing a shoe, my cat has turned up missing, I have numbers cuts on my legs because of a stupid razor, and I bumped my head.”

“Will I think you had the ultimate bad day,” he mused with a smile as he moved closer to her. “Congratulations.”

“I didn’t mean too,” she replied, wrapping her armed around his waist as he offered a hug. “The day started out so good! I was so happy. Then one by one bad things started to happen, causing my happy to have a crash landing.”

“There, there,” Milliardo said, playfully patting her shoulders. He saw her smile. “Everyone has bad days.”

“Of all days to choose from,” Lucrezia sighed. “Fate had to ruin this one.”

He laughed and bent down to kiss her brow warmly. “We don’t have to go to the restaurant. We can do it some other time.”

“Thank you,” she replied. “But we still have a date tonight? Think a bad day will make me forget that? No, sir, you have a seat in here. I’ll go make some spaghetti for us and change.”

With that, she moved away towards the kitchen area but Milliardo grabbed her hand and quickly pulled her back. The turned lazily around in a circle as she laughed. Milliardo lowered his mouth to her ear and said, “It’s your birthday, Lucrezia. I don’t want to bother you. I’ll order something of us to eat.”

“Sounds good to me.”

“Oh and, Lucrezia?”

“Yes?”

“Don’t change, okay?”

Her large violet eyes stared up at him in confusion. “Huh? Why not? It’s just a bathrobe.”

He smiled down at her and kissed her lightly. “You look beautiful.”

“Hmmm…”Lucrezia seemed more muddled by his explanation. “Then let me just fix myself up a bit, ‘kay?”

“All right,” he replied and kissed her again.

Flushed, she finally broke their embrace and walked away, telling him to stay put while she would go to her room. He watched her leave, saw her walked into her room at an end of a short hall and close her door but not before winking at him. He sighed, smiling a little, as he quietly moved into the small kitchen and hunted for two wineglasses. The kitchen was only large enough to fit a stove, a refrigerator, some wooden cabinets, a counter, and a slender table. After a moment he found two glasses and sat down in the living room, pouring the rose-tinted wine into the crystal glasses.

“Ta-duh!” Lucrezia exclaimed, coming into the living room to spin around a bit. She was still wearing her red bathrobe but underneath it a pair of tight black pants and a white shirt with the emblem of the Victorian Academy on the front.

Milliardo smiled at her, thinking how marvelously beautiful she was, and stood up from the couch, handing her a glass of wine. She look at him, blushing and playfully questionable, just took the glass, politely taking the glass into her own hands.

“Thank you,” she replied, sipping delicately at the deliciously sweet wine. “Hmm…this is wonderful.”

Milliardo secretly smiled at Lucrezia as he reached for his cell phone. He straightened up, brushing his long golden bangs from his eyes, and said, “Anything you want to eat tonight I will gladly bestow upon your table, Lucia.”

She blushed, laughing slightly at his terrible English accent, and gracefully moved to sit down on her couch. She placed her wineglass on her coffee table next to her flowers and replied, “You have already gone out of your way already, Milliardo. I don’t want to be selfish or spoiled. Anything you want is just fine with me.”

He half-hearted glared at her. She only smiled all the more from her place upon her couch.

“That is not a valid answer,” Milliardo told her. “It is your birthday and I can spoil you all I want.”

She raised a perfectly arched eyebrow at him and looked at him. “Where does it say that in the book?” she quipped.

“Don’t patronize me, onna,” Milliardo exclaimed with a smile. “It is my mission to make you have the happiness birthday you have ever had. Now what do you want to eat tonight?”

Lucrezia sighed heavily and gave in. “Fine,” she murmured. “All right. You win, you stubborn man. Call 555-0912. It is a Chinese restaurant-the best one around here.”

Milliardo dialed and held the phone up to his ear. He listened to the ringing and asked, “What do you want, Lucia?”

She shrugged. “Whatever you want,” she teased.

Millirado glared at her. She immediately smiled sweetly back at him and giggled. “Chicken lo-mean and crab rangue is fine.”

He nodded and told the person on the other line their order and the address of the apartment building. After a moment he hung up and placed the cell phone down on the coffee table, saying, “It will be here in twenty minutes, madam.”

She smiled and sipped at her wine. “Thank you.”

Milliardo sat down next to her. “No problem, birthday girl.”

Beside him, Lucia made a face of disgust. “If you valued you life, I wouldn’t call me that again.”

“Ouch,” he teased with a smile. “I’ll take note of that.”

Lucia smiled back at him, playfully giving him a little shove in his shoulder, and stood up, leaning over to sit down her wineglass. She walked to the corner of the small living room to her black boom box, and fingered through her CDs.

“Want some music?” she asked.

“Sure,” he replied, studying her from across the room, noticing how her slender fingers moved through her crowded CD rack, how her long raven bangs fell over her violet eyes. Lucrezia was sure something else, he thought to himself. Beautiful, determined, and bold he had never seen any other woman quite like her. And with the soft glow of her lamps surrounding her, she looked so divine, so utterly beautiful. 

Suddenly the theme song from Sailor Moon blasted about the room from the boom box. Milliardo laughed and Lucrezia blushed a bright red color as she struggled to turn of the song.

“What’s this?” he quipped, laughing all the more. “Sailor Moon?”

“Wrong CD,” she replied over her slender shoulder, not looking at him for fear of more embarrassment. Her voice sounded strained from the effort not to laugh at her own mortification.

“You have a Sailor Moon CD?” Milliardo asked in disbelief, smiling over the absurd thought.

“Yeah,” Lucrezia murmured slowly as she looked for the right CD to play. “Call me a Moon Mama. I love that show. And if you dare tease me about it I swear I’ll hunt your ass down and get my revenge.”

Milliardo grinned at her. “Enough said,” he remarked, giving up the battle. “I promise not to tease you, Moon Mama.”

Lucrezia spun around, her pretty face locked under a bloodthirsty death glare. Milliardo quickly grabbed a couch pillow and held it up to his face so that he could hid behind it.

“Don’t hurt me,” he pleaded. “I was only kidding.”

Lucrezia glared at him. “I’ll let you off easy this time,” she told him. “But never again. Got that?”

“Yes.”

With a satisfied nod of her raven head, Lucrezia turned towards her mission once again. Milliardo smiled and placed the pillow back down upon the couch. He still could never picture his strong Lucia actually watching television besides the news. Especially sitting down to watch a cartoon like Sailor Moon. Then again he might not know her as well as he thought.

After a moment another song filled the silent air. It was a sweet song with the title ‘I Wanna Love you Forever’ by Jessica Simpson. He had heard the song before but only little fragments. Still he thought that it was real beautiful and touching. As the song continued, Lucrezia turned away from the stereo and smiled at him, her face dreamy.

“Better?” she asked.

Milliardo nodded and stood without a word. He walked towards her, knowing that her eyes were placed directly on his own. He stopped inches from her and merely raised a hand, palm up.

Confused, she stared down at his hand.

“What?” she asked.

“Will you dance with me?” Milliardo asked with a little smile.

She blushed and grinned up at him, her eyes glowing with celestial light underneath her long bangs. Then she placed her small hand on top of his and allowed herself to be lead to the center of her living room, giggling all the while. Then Milliardo turned to her and placed his other hand around her waist as Lucrezia rest her hand on his broad shoulder. At last they began to move with one another to the rhythm of the song. Their dance was slow while their bodies were pressed closely to the other.

Milliardo looked down at Lucrezia and smiled. She blushed and placed a side of her face against the front of his dark suit, sighing and closing her beautiful violet eyes. He smiled all the more and held her tightly in his embrace.

“Lucrezia,” he asked softly after a moment, his mouth near her ear.

“Yes, Milliardo?” she replied, a little breathless.

“When did you turn into such a beautiful strong woman?”

She smiled against his chest, her eyes still closed. “When you weren’t looking.”

He grinned and kissed the top of her black crown. 

~*~*~*~

When the food finally arrived upon Lucrezia doorsteps, they called quits to the dancing and sat down on her carpet to eat and finish off the wine.

Milliardo looked across the plates and white boxes of Chinese food and watched Lucrezia for a moment. She was looking down at her glass of wine, oblivious to his stare. She looked so angelic then. Perfectly relaxed with not a care in the world. She was such an amazing woman, he though to himself. So beautiful, bright, so selfless and courageous. There was no wander to why he loved her.

Then he remembered the ring.

She raised her head and saw that he was gazing at her. He watched her blush again and smile back at him. He automatically returned the smile and slowly climbed to his feet without saying a word. She watched him, curious, her eyes never leaving his perfect form. In the silence of the room, she watched him move closer to her and knelt down behind her. He wrapped his arms tightly around her slim waist and held her tightly against his chest, his chin resting in the crook of her white neck. He felt her melt into his warm embrace and lean against him.

“My Lucia,” Milliardo whispered in her ear. “I love you. And I hope you will accept this gift I give to you.” With that, he placed the velvet box under her violet eyes.

She gasped. “What is it?”

“Open it up,” he suggested.

She looked at his quickly, wide-eyed and pale, then took the black box into her hands and slowly opened it up. She gasped and did not say a word, surprised at what she saw lying like a gem admits the velvet cushion within the box.

“Oh, Milliardo…” she began softly, her voice barely reaching a whisper.

Smiling, he took the delicate ring from the box and gently reached for her left hand. He slowly slid the silver band onto her thin ring finger then kissed her hand.

“My dearest Lucia, will you marry me?”

She looked at him; her pink mouth parted with bewilderment while tears of happiness streamed down her cheek. For a moment she stared at him then suddenly she smiled and threw her arms about his neck.

“Yes!” she exclaimed as he held her tight against him. “A thousand times yes!”

  ~ End ~

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