Author's note: I don't own Gundam Wing or its characters. Please don't sue me.

By Your Side - Year One

Noin woke stifling screams. It was the nightmare again; it had been coming more often than before. There would be no getting back to sleep now.

The girl stealthily made her way out of her room and up to the roof. She would sit and stargaze until dawn after having the nightmares. It was the only thing that really helped.

As she reached the roof, Noin gasped. There was someone else there.

***

Zechs dangled his legs over the side of the roof. He had that nightmare again and had come up to the roof to clear his head. He like watching the stars.

A soft gasp startled him. A girl with raven hair stood halfway out of the trap door. She looked surprised to see him.

"Oh, I sorry; I didn't know anyone was up here," she said.

She turned to go.

"You don't have to leave."

The girl came and sat beside him. For awhile they sat in silence.

"Look, you can see Polaris," she pointed to a bright star.

"Polaris?"

"The north star. It points due north. If you can find it, you can always find your way home."

"Unless you don't have one."

"Yeah; that's my problem too."

"Who are you?"

"Noin."

"Zechs."

Zechs and sat in silence until the sun rose.

"We better get back," Noin said.

They parted ways.

***

A week later, Noin's first period teacher made an announcement, "As you know, this is the end of the first quarter. This quarter has been mainly used to test your knowledge and skills. We will be placing you in new classes based on this for the rest of the year. I'll be passing out your new schedules. Tomorrow you will report to your new classes."

Noin was pleased to see that her new classes looked both interesting and challenging. The next morning, Noin made her way to her new history class. The classroom looked a lot like a science lab, with tables instead of desks.

She took a seat at one of the tables in the back corner.

"May I sit here?"

Noin turned to see the boy from the roof.

"Of course," she replied.

The girl took a good look at the kid, something she hadn't done that night on the roof. He wore a silver helmet that covered most of his face. Sky blue eyes peered out from glass covered eye slits. He also had shoulder length platinum blond hair that most girls would die for.

***

Zechs was trying not to stare at his seatmate. He hadn't really looked at her before, except for her entrance on the roof. She really was quite pretty, with short raven hair, her long bangs that kept falling into dark violet eyes.

"Can we sit here?"

Two other students were standing by the table. A boy and a girl, both with brown hair, but hers was much darker than his.

"Sure," his seatmate answered after glancing at him.

"I'm Harm," the guy said.

"Mac," the girl extended her hand.

"I'm Noin," shaking the offered hand.

"Zechs."

Harm and Mac seated themselves.

"Shouldn't the instructor be here?" Noin asked.

"He still has two minutes," Mac replied.

Harm looked at his watch, "How do you do that?"

Mac just grinned.

The instructor entered and made his way around the class with a clipboard. At last he came to their table.

"Lets see, you four would be: Sarah Mackenzie, Zechs Marquise, Lucrezia Noin, and Harmon Rabb. Correct?"

Zechs noticed that Noin winced when the instructor used her first name. They all nodded and the instructor left.

Zechs found that Noin was in all of his new classes, and that Harm and Mac were in about half of them. All three of them were fun to be around. Zechs found himself smiling more than he had in years.

There was something about Noin though. He felt closer to her than anyone else. Maybe it was the comment she made on the roof about not having a home being her problem. Whatever the reason, Zechs was beginning to trust the girl, and that was something he hadn't done in a long time.

***

Noin slid into her seat by Zechs. The two of them and Mac and Harm had established a table for themselves at meals. They were tucked away in a back corner where they could see the entire room but weren't really noticeable.

"So, do you want to start with algebra?" she asked.

"Sure," Zechs replied.

The two of them dove into their work.

"You two are so intense. Do you do anything besides study?" Harm asked.

"I just want to make sure I really understand this," Noin answered not even looking up from her book.

She had found that Zechs shared her attitude toward school work. And he was a good study partner. They'd been meeting in the library after classes were over to do homework and study.

Noin had to do well in school. She had to especially if she wanted to make it to pilot training. Besides if she worked herself hard, she was too tired to have nightmares.

"So when are you leaving for the Christmas break?" asked Mac.

They had two weeks until the Christmas break. Noin knew that Mac was leaving the day before school got out for her Uncle Matt's, and Harm was leaving the day after for his stepdad and mom's place.

"I'm not," she replied shortly.

"What?" Harm exclaimed.

"I'm staying here."

"But you'll be all alone. That's no way to spend Christmas," Mac said.

"She won't exactly be alone," Zechs spoke up. "I'm staying here too."

Noin blinked. She hadn't known that. Well, he had made that comment on the roof about not having a home. It would be nice to have some company.

***

Zechs found himself rather pleased that Noin was staying at school for the break. He found in her a kindred spirit. The two of them made good partners.

It wasn't that he was glad she didn't have a place to go. It was just that he was beginning to realize just how lonely he was. Zechs had built a wall around himself too keep everyone out. Noin had somehow gotten through that wall, and Harm and Mac were following close behind.

In a way it was kind of scary. He was beginning to care again; he hadn't really done that since he lost his family. Even Treize, his mentor, hadn't affected him this way.

"Zechs, do you remember if Mr. Engle wanted a full two pages or a page and a half for the history homework?" Noin asked breaking him out of thought.

"I think he wanted two pages."

***

"They're all gone now," Noin said softly.

Her elbows were resting on the window sill. Besides the two of them, only one or two faculty and staff remained at the school. There were five days to Christmas.

"Do you want to go to town tomorrow?" she asked.

"Sure," Zechs answered.

Noin yawned, "I'm going to bed. See you tomorrow Zechs."

He watched her go. He would go to bed himself in a few minutes. The boy was glad she had suggested the trip to town. Zechs wanted to get her a gift for Christmas as well as ones form Mac and Harm. It had been a long time since he had wanted to get involved with the holidays. But now he was looking forward to Christmas. Besides, he had a feeling that Noin wouldn't be getting many presents.

The next morning they met in front of the school. While neither wore the school uniform, both of them were bundled up against the cold. They had a mile long walk to the bus stop and a thirty minute bus ride into town. The two of them tramped cheerily through the snow.

Neither of them had actually been to the town before. A lot of students mad the commute every weekend, but Zechs and Noin had never bothered. They had been too busy studying. Now they explored the shop lined streets with evident glee. While they were serious students at a military school, they were also teenagers.

They ate lunch at a little café. It was lightly snowing on the shoppers bustling outside. Afterwards they just ambled down the streets; both of them had already made all of their purchases.

***

The bus driver smiled at the two weary children who were his only passengers. Both were half asleep with their bags beside them. The girl's head rested on her friend's shoulder; they made a cute couple. While it was not on his route, he decided to drive them all the way back to the school. After all, it was almost Christmas.

***

"We're here."

Noin lifted her head from Zechs' shoulder. She looked out the window to see not the bus stop as she had expected but the entrance to the school. The girl slipped her gloves back on and gathered up her bags.

"Thank you," she told the bus driver as they got off.

"No problem.

The two of them wearily walked back to their rooms and fell asleep. The next morning they actually got to sleep in. Typically both of them had to be up by seven everyday except for Sundays, and even on Sundays they tended to get up early to study.

After breakfast they wrapped and mailed the presents for Mac and Harm. On their way back from the post office, Zechs scooped up a handful of snow, packed it into a ball, and lobbed it at Noin. It hit her hat and knocked it off.

Noin quickly retaliated, and soon they were involved in a full fledged snowball fight. It was a good thing no one else was around, or they might of found themselves pelted with snow. The fight ended when Zechs dumped Noin in a snow bank only to have her pull him down with her.

Rosy cheeked from the cold, Zechs and Noin headed inside to find some hot chocolate. They found that and a tree waiting for them.

"I thought you two would want some thing warm when you came back in."

It was Mrs. Giles. Both she and her husband were on the housekeeping staff. They were also both from the British Isles.

"My husband, myself, and some of the others are going to decorate the tree tonight; you're welcome to join us," she added.

"Thank you for inviting us ma'am," Noin said.

"Please call me Jenny. We don't often have any of you younglings around over Christmas."

There really weren't that many people who stayed over the holidays. Noin and Zechs were the only students. Besides the Giles', there was Emma, one of the cooks, James, who was a groundskeeper, and Mr. Stewart who taught algebra two,

They all had fun decorating the tree. Noin was enjoying herself more than she had at Christmas since she was eight. The next day both she and Zechs found packages in the mail from Mac and Harm that contained Christmas presents.

Zechs and Noin laughed and enjoyed themselves. They let themselves be the kids they were instead of the serious students everyone saw them as. On Christmas Eve, the two of them went to church with the Giles' after a wonderful meal.

The next morning, Noin felt like a five year old as she giddily raced toward the tree. She was met by Zechs, and the two of them waited impatiently for the others to arrive. When the adults did arrive, the two teens dove for their presents.

Noin received a music box that played Bridge Over Troubled Waters from Mac and a glass fountain pen from Harm. Zechs gave Noin a book about astronomy. She gave him a mobile suit model kit. He also got a fountain pen from Harm and received a book about planes from Mac.

The two of them spent the rest of the day putting the model togther. On New Year's Eve, Zechs and Noin decided to stay up to midnight. The school had an extensive video library which they raided. They found they had similar tastes in movies. After much debate they finally narrowed their choices to six movies to watch: Clue, Miss Congeniality, the Fellowship of the Ring, the Two Towers, the Return of the King, and King of Hearts.

After building up a stockpile of snacks, they settled into one of the student longues that had a tv and VCR. Noin had brought pillow and blankets so they were quite comfortable. The two of them laughed and talked all night. It was sometime the next morning when they sought their beds. Two days later the other students returned.

School went on as it had before. Well except for one thing, Noin's nightmares were getting worse. She did her best to work herself to exhaustion every day to prevent them, but it didn't always work.

Not that anyone noticed. Both she and Zechs worked themselves harder than any of the other students. Of course they didn't study all the time. That was because Mac and Harm were always dragging them off to have fun.

Actually, the work itself wasn't that hard; it was the amount of work. They had anywhere from a half an hour to two hours of homework every night. And then there was studying for tests and quizzes as well as those long projects they had several weeks to complete.

Noin was surprised by how quickly time passed. It seemed like just yesterday when she was starting school, and now it was almost spring break. Both Mac and Harm had decided to stay with Zechs and her during the break.

Two days after the break had started, Mac dragged Noin into town with her.

"Where are we going Mac?"

"You'll see."

They finally stopped in front of a boutique.

"And we are here because?"

"We're getting our ears pierced; well, at least I am."

"I'll think about," Noin said as Mac led the way into the shop.

Twenty minutes later the two of them exited the store Mac with gold posts in her ears and Noin with winking amethysts in hers. They headed home after stopping by an ice cream place.

Zechs was the first to notice the earrings. Since both girls wore their hair short, the new earrings were quite noticeable.

The four of them had a great time over break. When classes started again, Mac and Harm began to join Zechs and Noin for study sessions. They also managed to get Zechs and Noin to stop working so hard.

Of course when finals rolled around, both Zechs and Noin fell back into their study till you drop mode though they weren't the only ones cramming. The library was now packed with students using every second of their free time to study. But Zechs and Noin worked harder than most.

They needn't have worried. Zechs and Noin tied for the highest score in their class. Both missed five problems. Kids began to head home for the summer. Mac and Harm were going though they said they'd try to come back early. Zechs and Noin watched them go. Again they were the only kids at the school.

The two of them started going for hikes in the hills around the school. They enjoyed the time to just do whatever they wanted. Noin found that without all her school work, her dreams came back with a vengeance. Zechs noticed she wasn't getting that much sleep, but he attributed it to the fact that they were staying up all hours talking.

He started to worry about her after finding her on the roof one night. She looked terrible but didn't want to talk about it. A week later her screams woke him from a sound sleep. He found her sitting up in bed sobbing. Zechs took her hand and led her up to the roof; she seemed to be most comfortable there.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked.

"Zechs, I can't! It hurts too much. Besides, you wouldn't understand; no one does."

"You might be surprised."

Noin remained silent for a moment then softly began to speak, "I'm the youngest in my family. At least ten years younger than my next youngest sibling. It must be twelve years; Paolo is twenty five. They didn't want me. They didn't need another child, let alone another girl. They didn't know what to do with me. When I was two, they sent me to live with some friends of theirs. They had daughters ages eight, ten, and fifteen at the time. I grew up with them; they loved having a baby sister. I've always hated the name Lucrezia, so the called me Lucia. I lived with them until I was eight."

She stopped. Zechs gently put an arm around her silently encouraging her to go on.

"Just after my eighth birthday we were traveling to Rome for a festival. We were caught in what's now called the Tiber Massacre. Mama saved my life. She put herself between me and the gunmen. Francesca grabbed me; she managed to hide me but was shot too many times. I'm one of the five survivors. Over fifty people died. My family didn't car; they didn't even let me go to the funerals. They hired a bunch of tutors to teach me to be a proper daughter. I skipped out whenever I could. You learn a lot hanging with street urchins. I can pick almost any lock and outfight most kids and some adults. My family didn't like how disobedient I was getting, so they sent me here."

He couldn't find the words to tell her how he felt, so instead he hugged her. It was like opening a flood gate. Noin began to cry. He just held her and let her cry. He had a feeling that the tears were long overdue.

While she cried, Zechs slid the silver mask that cover his face off and placed it on the ground beside him. He would tell Noin the truth; he trusted her. It was something he'd been struggling with, but he was sure it was the right decision.

***

Noin had managed to remain fairly stoic throughout the recitation of the events that comprised her short life. But then Zechs hugged her. There was a lot of emotion in that hug: compassion, sympathy, understanding. She lost it.

It felt good to cry. She had the tears pent up too long. She lifted her head from Zechs' chest and stared in shock. He had taken off the mask.

He was quite handsome; a scar or disfigurement wasn't the reason he wore the mask. In a state of shock, her fingers traced the lines of his face. He smiled at her.

"Why do you wear a mask?"

"You only ask that now?"

She smiled at him, "It seemed too rude before."

He ruffled her hair and tried to compose his thoughts, "I wear a mask to protect myself. My name's not really Zechs Marquise; my real name is Prince Milliardo Peacecraft of the Sanc Kingdom."

"But the Sanc Kingdom was destroyed and the royal family was murdered. How did you escape? Did others survive?"

His smile held bitterness now, and he drew something out from under his shirt. It was an old silver locket. The large oval was engraved with climbing roses. He opened it and showed her the two pictures inside. One side held a picture of a younger Zechs proudly holding a baby. The other side had a picture of a three year old girl; Noin guessed she had been the baby.

"My little sister, Relena. She was sent to safety a week before the attack. She's alive, but I'm not sure where she is or if she knows about her past," he explained.

"She's adorable."

"I always thought so. I was out riding during the attack; that's what saved me. Treize found me sifting through the rubble. I had just found the locket; it was my mother's. He hid me from the Alliance. The mask was his idea."

"Why are you here then?"

"To train and study. I'm going to join Oz when I'm ready, so I can avenge my family."

She was silent a moment, "Thank you for telling me."

Tears began running down his cheeks now. It was her turn to hug him. She realized something. Zechs mus trust her very much to reveal his past to her. It could have gotten him killed.

"Why did you tell me?" she asked.

"I trust you. I don't know why; I just do."

"Thank you." She held out her pinkie to him, "Best friends?"

He grinned and linked pinkies with her, "Best friends." He paused a moment then said, "Want to see if there's any ice cream in the kitchen?"

"Have I ever said no to ice cream?"

Arm in arm the headed downstairs both with lighter hearts than before.

Tsuzuku (to be continued)