Chapter 8

"Well," Noin says when she answers Relena's vid call, "at least it didn't take you as long to get in touch with us this time." She looks faintly concerned, but mostly amused.

Relena smiles. "I do have more free time on my hands now." She waits a moment, but it seems as though she's picked the perfect time for this call. Her brother hasn't announced his presence yet, so he must be busy elsewhere. "How are things going, Noin?"

"Everything's good here," Noin reassures her. "And you? What are you up to nowadays, Relena?"

That's her opening. Relena doesn't give herself time to second-guess, and says, "Nothing much. I've started up a new business."

As expected, Noin's surprised by this news. "What sort of business?"

Relena arranges her hands so that they're folded neatly in her lap. "Security for homes and businesses, and personal investigations."

Noin lets out a sharp whistle at her response. "Nothing like keeping yourself busy," she says.

That startles a laugh out of Relena. "A little bit," she admits, though Noin's hardly one to talk.

"Who's working for you?" Noin asks. She knows that Relena's a capable person, but her strengths aren't readily apparent when considering the idea of personal security.

Relena pauses. "Well, technically, we now have an ex-Preventers agent working for us, but we're mostly focusing on expanding our clientele for now."

At that, Noin raises an eyebrow. "We?" she asks, a little more pointedly. "You have a partner?"

Relena nods. "Yes. Heero." And that's obviously all she needs to say. Noin looks taken aback, but very pleased.

"How did you manage to get her away from Preventers?" Noin asks, folding her hands under her chin and clearly ready to hear the gossip.

"Actually, she quit before I asked her to join me." Relena very much enjoys the look of shock that appears on Noin's face at this piece of information. Relena casually brushes a hand across the fabric of her pants, smoothing out a wrinkle while she waits for Noin to regain her composure.

Noin takes an obviously deep breath. Relena watches her shoulders rise and fall. "What happened?" she asks, concerned now.

Thinking about that mess still makes Relena angry. "A mission went bad, and Preventers opened up an investigation into Heero's actions. Everything got worse from there. It was all over the news here, so your next shipment should contain all the media clips about it."

Shipments to Mars take a year to arrive, and are very costly. The last one left Earth a few months ago, after Relena and Heero had both quit their jobs and started up their new business together.

Noin shakes her head. "What were they thinking?" she asks, but the question is clearly rhetorical. "Please offer Heero my condolences."

Relena nods in agreement. Heero isn't upset about what happened anymore, but she was intensely frustrated while the investigation was ongoing. Relena knows that her friend will appreciate Noin's concern, though nothing can change what happened.

And from what Relena has seen, Heero's still not used to others caring all that much about her personal life. Relena thinks that Heero needs all the positive reinforcement she can get, so Relena will be sure to pass along Noin's message.

"So," Noin says then, eyeing her, "you've finally decided on a new direction, I take it?"

She carefully doesn't ask about what that might entail. Noin seems to want to give Relena the option of keeping quiet about her plans. Relena's grateful that Noin is still willing to place so much trust in her.

That makes what Relena has to say next much easier. "Yes, I'm finally going ahead with my plans," she tells Noin. "I could use your help, though."

Noin smiles. "Of course. Anything you need."

It's funny. When Relena was growing up, the last thing she'd ever expected to discover was that she had an older brother running around somewhere. To this day, he's more of a stranger to her than anything else. But this woman whose face is before her…

Well, Relena doesn't really know what it's like to have an older sister, either, but she thinks this must be pretty close.

"I want to bring the Mars government into the rest of the ESUN," she admits. For now, Relena leaves off that she wants to coalesce everything into one government anyway, eventually.

To her surprise, Noin's response is a soft laugh. "I've been telling Zechs that we'll have to integrate into the ESUN for years now," she confides. "He's been resisting."

"I can't say that I blame him," Relena admits. Not with the way that every other government body seems content to profit off of Mars, but otherwise ignore its independence and existence. "But I need to bring Mars into the fold."

Noin sighs. "I'm with you," she reassures Relena. "But…"

But Relena's brother won't be, is what Noin doesn't say. Relena knows that. He'll be stubborn about joining them just because he can be. "Could we keep this just between us for now, then?" she asks.

Noin blinks in surprise, but then smirks. "Sounds fun. I can't enact any changes in Mars's constitution without your brother having the final say, though," she warns.

"I know," Relena says. "I wouldn't want you to go behind his back to that extent." Which is absolutely true. "But for now, if we could slowly start bridging the gap between Mars and the colonies, at least…"

If the two of them could just lay the groundwork for a few years, eventually Milliardo won't have any real reason to object to the integration.

"For now," Noin agrees. "It's a start."

That's good enough for Relena. She can count on Noin, and her other friends, and eventually, they're all going to change humanity's future into something safe and stable. Or at least more secure than it is now. She'll settle for only that if she has to. As long as they can all become one people, with one voice. If that's all Relena can accomplish in her lifetime, everything they do towards that goal will be worth it.

For now, this will do.