Sapphire Eyes
Chapter 9: Desert Prince
By: Liewe
Standard disclaimers apply, Yanisha is the only personality I claim to own, and even then she is based on my late Great Aunt.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Noin stepped away from Zechs masculine form, her arms wrapped around her suddenly chilled frame. Tears fell from long dark lashes, and her body shook with sorrow that was liberally tinged with rage.

"Haven't you done enough damage?" she demanded of the man she had once believed to be her truest love. The blinkers had been lifted, he wasn't perfect, no one was. Everyone made mistakes, she finally understood Yanisha's words, you took imperfection and molded it to best suit you. Zechs didn't suit her.

"What do you mean? What damage? I'm sorry, I came to apologize," Zechs answered in puzzlement. He had known Noin for almost a decade and he had believed he knew her, but did he?

"Zechs, do you expect me to fall into your arms, like some besotted idiot?"

"Noin... what... no, I don't..."

"Good, because that isn't going to happen. The pain you caused me, it forced me to see something, which had been staring me in the face for the longest time. But it was something I chose to ignore. I ignored it, because I was naive," Noin began, as she turned to look at the bustling Maguanac camp. Her short ebony hair waving in the desert breeze.

"What are you saying?" Zechs asked cautiously.

"I'm not going back with you," Noin sighed, turning to face Zechs with a determined spark in her eyes. "I don't love you, I thought I did, but I was wrong."

"Noin?"

"Zechs, the relationship we were in, it wasn't healthy, I was devoted to you, because of a schoolgirl infatuation. I was holding you back, and you need to find the woman you love, I'm not her, and I need to find my love. I..." Noin trailed off, her entire posting reeking of defeat as she gazed at the man whom she had built her life around.

"It's Quatre isn't it?"

~*~*~*~

"Giving up so easily?"

"There's nothing to give up on, I was stupid to think I ever had a chance. She has the perfect male specimen why would she want me?" Quatre asked, as he carefully placed documents in his open briefcase.

Yanisha sighed as she ran a hand through her graying hair, her aged features taking on an exasperated look as she thought over the matter at hand. Men could be stubborn, especially when they were a Winner.

"Can you just give her a chance, she said she needed time to think right?" Yanisha asked, trying to take another route to stop her headstrong nephews flight from the desert sanctuary.

"You saw what I saw, she doesn't need time to think, she was just delaying her rejection of me, she didn't want to hurt my feelings! Noin's like that, she hates hurting people needlessly," Quatre said softly.

"Why are you so sure of that?"

"Because why would anyone want me? I'm worthless, father said as much to me through the years," Quatre stated his voice almost a whisper, each word dripping with years of pain, and insecurity.

"Oh Quatre, don't say that, it's not true. You are one of the kindest and most lovable people I know, and I'm not saying that because I'm your aunt, I'm saying that because it's true. Look around," Yanisha said using her arms to indicate the entire compound. "The Maguanac's, they're devoted to you, and it isn't because of the money you have, to them you are like a son, not only an employer."

"That's different," Quatre began, stubbornly refusing to take in his surroundings.

"How so? You said you were worthless, but to them, and to me you're not. By Allah, they would give up their lives for yours!" Yanisha declared, a hand held to her chest in conviction. "And I know that my brother never really thought you were worthless. He was so proud of you and what you were doing, but his pride wouldn't let him admit it. I knew him from the time he was a babe, what I tell you is the truth."

Quatre just shook his head, a sad smile curving the corners of his mouth as he closed the briefcase and locked the snaps. Slowly he moved out into the heat of the desert, the desert wind twining around his noble form. His gaze fell onto his favorite horse and for a moment he was torn. Already the sound of his helicopter could be heard approaching, but what if Yanisha were speaking the truth? Should he give up without a fight?

"I'm going for a ride," Quatre called out, passing his briefcase into the waiting hands of one of his tireless Maguanac companions. Without a backward glance he vaulted into the waiting saddle, and spurred the obedient animal away from the camp and into the never-ending dunes of the dessert.

~*~*~*~

"This is Goodbye," Noin said softly, turning away from Zechs, her shoulders set.

"Why?"

"I've already told you why, we don't work together. You and me, we don't work together as partners in life, with work, sure, that's perfectly fine, but life? No. We are to different and we want different things from life," Noin explained vehemently as if she were speaking to a child. 

"I can change," Zechs finally said, his pride breaking as he fought in desperation for something that wasn't his. The abandonment’s of his past were hauntingly clear to him, the death of his parents, the separation from his sister, and his life as the lightning count.

"No you can't, you wouldn't be you," Noin whispered. "Go and spend some time with your sister, get reacquainted with her. You have a life here, on Earth, don't go back to Mars. Relena misses you, you're her only living family, don't throw that away."

"I..." Zechs stuttered at a loss for words.

"Milliardo," Noin began, the name falling unnaturally from her lips, as she tried to bash some sense into Zechs' stubborn head. "Don't run away again."

As the last words left her lips Noin turned on her heel and exited the tent, a tired sigh escaping her lips as she thought over the events of the past few weeks. She missed Zechs, yes, but she didn't love him, but did she love Quatre?

~*~*~*~

Yanisha watched as Noin left the tent, and she smiled as she saw the change in the young woman's demeanor. Her mind was made up, it was easy to see, and Yanisha's heart told her that Noin had made the right decision. Her young bodyguard wouldn't be returning with the man once known as the lightning count.

"He took Dessert Prince for a ride," Yanisha called out, holding out the rains of her own horse, Sapphire Dream, and a hand held walky-talky. "Go and catch your Desert Prince," Yanisha said with a smile, as Noin grinned and flung herself into the polished saddle.

"Thank you," Noin called, her words drifting to Yanisha's ears on the wind.

"That's what friends are for," Yanisha whispered in reply.

~*~*~*~

Zechs stepped to the edge of the tent, and with resigned sorrow in his eyes he watched the diminishing dust cloud brought up by the hooves of Noin's horse. 

He had finally done it, he had ruined everything. Noin was no longer his significant other, and his chances on Mars were ruined by his little games. Maybe Noin was right, maybe he needed to reacquaint himself with his little sister. He had been so intent on keeping her safe for so long, maybe it was time to finally get to know her.

"Good luck," he said to Noin's disappearing form as he turned on his heel and headed back towards the abused Jeep which had brought him from the outskirts of the dessert to the Maguanac encampment.

~*~*~*~

~To Be Continued...

AN: maybe one more chapter? And please, don’t kill me, about how things are turning out, it’s the muses I tell ya!