Author's notes!
I wrote the majority of this on my iPod Touch—it worked surprisingly well! Not only did I save paper, but saved the time of translating my very unruly scrawl from paper in to MSWord =D
This is also my first Gundam Wing story, so I hope its okay… it's just some Zechs/Noin fluffy drabbley pointlessness that takes place a while after Endless Waltz.
The title? Nothing special, I just borrowed the name from the They Might Be Giants song "Name"—I know, it's basically the same as just naming it Name out of the blue, but the song sort of inspired this.
I hope you like it!
----------------
The steady downpour rhythmically pounded on the roof with a gentle lull. There was no sign of the sun showing up for the rest of the day, seeing as the sky was completely blanketed in dreary gray clouds. That was just fine, though, as long as they stayed inside.
It was probably a little after one P.M. now, and rain still unceasingly pattered on the roof and against the windows.
Head leaning heavily on hand, a pale-haired man stared, or more accurately, was spaced out in the window's general direction. Days like this made Zechs Merquise think--well, more than he did on a regular basis.
Gradually, he changed the direction his grayish-blue eyes were pointed in to the opposite side of the table. Aimlessly flipping through a magazine was a dark-haired woman. He'd been thinking about her, just then.
"Noin..."
The woman looked up at her name. "Yes?"
"I've been thinking about your name."
She tilted her head slightly, quizzically. "What's wrong with it?"
"Nothing, really," Zechs responded. He folded his arms on the table and leaned forward a bit. "But when we're married--you're going to take my name, right?"
"Of course."
"Then what am I supposed to call you?"
"What do you mean?" Noin looked at him, slightly confused at this question.
"I've only ever called you by your surname."
Realization dawned on her. "Oh, that's right. It won't be Noin anymore."
Zechs nodded in agreement. "Exactly."
It was the woman's turn to think hard. "That's a good question..." An idea dawned on her and she grinned. "You'll have to call me Merquise, I think."
Zechs laughed and gave his own inputs. "Well, that depends on which name I decide to marry you as." His eyes shone mischievously. "If I decide to be Milliardo Peacecraft..."
"...you'll have to call me Peacecraft," Noin finished in a voice edged with held-back laughter.
"Or..."
"We could always call you by your first name."
Noin gave Zechs an incredulous look, as if he'd suggested her becoming some type of international musical superstar. "No one's called me by my first name in years. I doubt that I'd even respond to it."
"Then that's out of the question." The pale-haired man smiled again, and returned his head to his hand to look at his companion.
Noin mirrored his action. "Dammit, Zechs, now you've got me thinking about it too."
He only smiled innocently in reply, as if he'd had nothing to do with it.
Shaking her head, Noin straightened up in her seat and returned to absently flipping through the magazine. There was nothing good to it. The bulk of the content was pointless filler. Of course, this empty reading nudged her back to pondering this issue with her name. It really shouldn't be that big of a deal, but it was such a thought-provoking kind of question...
"You're thinking about it again, aren't you."
That definitely startled Noin. Her dark eyes glanced up quickly at the just-barely-smirking man.
"Yeah," she admitted. There was no use denying his statement. "How could you tell?"
"Your eyes. They looked like they do when you're thinking hard about something--slightly zoned, but still focused."
Sometimes Zechs could be so unpredictable with his responses. Sure, they looked at each other all the time, but Noin couldn't read his eyes that intensively. Zechs had had an advantage, though: with that mask on for the majority of his time as a cadet at Lake Victoria Academy and Oz career, all Noin had to read his emotions with was voice and body language. And that man was very, very good at hiding them. Difficult to read, yes, but possible, with enough practice and devotion.
"We'll figure something out," Zechs promised. His hands cupped reassuringly around Noin's, and she believed him. This was really nothing to what they'd faced in the past, yet they were glad that this type of problem was the biggest they'd be up against now.
The End