Macross 7 and all characters are property of Bandai, Big West, FiX, and Manga Entertainment.
Please do not repost this fanfiction without permission.
lordofmerentha@yahoo.com

Starlight Dream

 

          She woke at the sound of footsteps.
          At first she panicked, feeling the coldness of concrete under her cheek and something hard next to her elbow, thinking maybe something had happened to her while she had been sleeping. But no, it was only the practice studio and she opened her eyes a crack, watching the moon shining through her lashes.
          Breathing deeply, quietly for a moment, she let her eyesight adjust to the dim light. That was right...she had wandered in to practice for a while and then sat down against the wall...She must have fallen asleep. She'd meant to practice the song that she had written a few weeks ago, the one that she hadn't ever played with the band because it wouldn't sound right without guitar, and...
          And Basara was gone.
          Ray's voice echoed in her mind.
          How about growing up one step further on Zola?
          She had meant to, but neither Basara nor Gamlin had given her the chance. It wasn't fair. Just as she'd been ready to give the question a serious thought, just as she had decided to give Ray's advice a try, for real this time, again those two were up to something different. How could she grow up on Zola when both of them had departed for the fleet as she had emerged out of fold?
          Idiots, both of them. Really.
          Images flashed through her brain: her father, her mother, Veffidas. Mylene, who do you love? Dr. Chiba, hands on hips, with Akiko smiling behind him. Mylene! Make up your mind!
          But she had been fourteen then, still a child, no matter how hard she had tried to deny Basara's poking fun at her.
          Just a kid. Why should I listen to a kid?
          She was almost seventeen years old now, and she wasn't a kid anymore. And not even Basara could deny that.
          She had arrived home last night, disgruntled to find Basara's borrowed Valkyrie parked outside the apartment when she had come to see if he was all right. Storming into his apartment to be greeted by his wide smile and his chattering about how grand the universe was. She didn't care how grand the universe was. He'd left a gaping hole in her heart when he had left, and now that he was back, his blatant disregard for her wasn't helping.
          So she'd gotten angry at him. And he had looked confused. And then stricken. And then she had left, slamming the door.
          Do you think you can just go anywhere anytime you please, Basara? What about us? What about me?
          What about you?
          Do you think I don't care if you leave?
          Eh? Do you?
          I hate you. I hate you!
          She didn't hate him. But she had never apologized to him, either, and she wasn't about to start now. He was a self-centered, conceited jerk, and she should never have become so attached to him in the first place.
          Mylene…who do you love?
          There was a silhouette in the doorway and she instinctively closed her eyes, flattening herself against the floor and lying very still. Opened her eyes to slits and tried to see who had come to the practice studio at this hour.
          It was him.
          He stood in the doorway for a second, as if scanning the room, then walked to the wall, picked up his guitar, holding it silently for a moment. Glanced her way, then froze. He'd seen her. She cursed mentally, wondering if she should still pretend to be asleep or ask him what he was doing.
          Her limbs didn't seem to obey the commands of her brain, staying frozen in position, and she breathed in and out deeply, hoping he would see she was sleeping, and go away.
          Go away, Basara. Just go away.
          But he didn't, simply stood staring down at her for a moment, then slung his guitar over his shoulders and turned on the amp. He didn't turn on the lights, she noted. Stood in the dark, silhouetted by moonlight. Ran his fingers slightly over the strings.
          Her heart ached.
          She recognized the chord sequence…it was My Soul For You, but he didn't sing, just sat by the wall and strummed. He was watching her. She could feel his eyes, and it took all her self-control not to squirm. He had the most intense eyes of anyone she had ever met. They were honest eyes, honest and fiery and pure.
          He wasn't wearing his glasses.
          It was all his fault. Coming back from Zola without a word, trotting into practice as if he hadn't been away for weeks without explanation. Ray and Veffidas took it all in stride. She couldn't. She was sick of him always pulling last-minutes on her, on the band when they needed him.
          If he didn't do something in the next minute, she was going to say something. Anything. It was making her uncomfortable all over, this soft playing with his eyes on her. She forced her breathing to slow, swallowing. If he didn't-
          He laughed.
          That was unexpected, over the tender playing of the guitar. It wasn't the smug laugh which he always gave her, the I-told-you-so laugh when she had done something wrong, or the gleeful, crazy laugh he uttered on occasion when he was ready to sing. A soft, self-deprecating laugh that caught her off guard, one that she had never heard before.
          "Why are you here, Mylene?"
          She panicked. How did he know she was pretending? It was…but no, he wasn't talking to her directly…he was talking to himself. She relaxed, listened, ears perked.
          "You should be in bed…it's too late for a kid to be in the studio...go home."
          He sighed, strumming a few more chords on the guitar, segueing into the chorus. "You confuse me, you know?"
          She fought to keep from blinking in surprise.
          "You're not a kid, you know…not really. You're so easy to read and so hard to understand…" The small laugh again. "I'm talking to myself. I must be going nuts faster than I thought."
          There was a stirring in her heart, and her muscles moved, and she sat up.
          "You're not nuts."
          The strumming stopped on a chord turned sour, and his voice bordered on the edge of surprise. "My-Mylene."
          It was now or never.
          "I'm sorry," she said. She didn't have to say anything else, because she knew he would understand what she was sorry for.
          "It's all right," he said after a pause. "I guess it was rather mean of me, huh?"
          "You could say that."
          "You were never asleep, were you?" A wry smile. "Trying to trick me."
          She turned up her nose. "You'll never know."
          "I swear, kids these-" he stopped.
          "You were saying?" she prompted.
          "Nothing." His voice was low, pensive, and she blinked up at him.
          "Basara?"
          He stretched, swinging the guitar over his head. "It's good to be back."
          "It's good to have you back," she said softly, playing with her shoelaces. "I…I missed you, you know."
          "So you've told me."
          "I'm serious!"
          When he didn't respond, she looked up at him. His eyes were unreadable, for once. "I know you are."
          "Basara."
          Instead of answering, he tucked his arm over his guitar. My Soul For You. "Sing with me, Mylene."
          "Eh?"
          She'd forgotten how pure his smile could be. "Sing with me. Like we used to. Remember…when we used to sing?"
          "Basara."
          "Omae ga kaze ni naru nara," he sang, eyes boring into hers. "Hateshinai sora ni naritai…"
          She scooted closer to him, eyes never leaving his, knowing that there was something deeper in the music that she didn't quite understand, but if she listened hard maybe she would…
          He jumped a little when she touched his arm, but kept playing, and she sighed and leaned against him and the wall. It wasn't anything new…they'd sat together plenty of times composing, after practice. But it was somehow different in the dark.
          "Come on people…kanjite hoshii."
          She closed her eyes and fell silent, listening to his voice.
          "My soul for you…"
          He stopped.
          "Basara?"
          She opened her eyes again, but he wasn't looking at her anymore, staring into the darkness at the doorway beyond. Veffidas' drums sat silently silver in the moonlight.
          "The song's not over yet, Basara."
          "It's unfinished," he said. His muscles tightened under her touch, but he didn't pull away.
          He wasn't making sense. "It…it is?"
          "Mylene." There was a hesitation in his voice that she had never heard.
          "What?"
          He took a deep breath, then blew it out. "Nothing."
          She sat up. He looked at her suddenly, and she was again struck by the burning in his eyes.
          "Basara?"
          His hand dropped from the guitar.
          "You should be getting home. It's late."
          "Tell me what you were going to say!"
          "Later," he said, but he was smiling.
          "Basara! Mou!"
          He gently freed his arm from her grasp and stood, placing the guitar back on the stand. "Come on. I'll see you home."
          "I drove," she protested.
          "It's too nice a night to drive. Let's walk."
          "I-"
          He caught her hand before she could protest, and he was pulling her to her feet. She could feel the calluses on his palm and fingers. His hand was warm.
          "Come on. It's a beautiful night."
          Somewhere in the back of her mind, she realized that he hadn't let go of her hand yet, and all she could do was nod dumbly as he pulled her towards the door, slinging her bass over his shoulder.
          "O...ok."
          The faces flashed before her eyes again, serious eyes.
Mylene, who do you love?
          If they had been in front of her, asking her this instant, she knew she wouldn't hesitate to respond. Tomorrow, or the next day, or the next week, that question might become a dilemma again, but right now, in the dark and in the moonlight and in the glow of his eyes, there was only one answer. 


NOTES:

I wrote this fic because the whole love triangle thing drove me nuts. I usually don't care for love triangles in general, but in Dynamite 7 especially it seemed rather pointless. The part where Ray tells Mylene to go grow up on Zola turned from a poignant scene to a stupid one at the end of the 4th episode. Why have that scene at all? Why not just do away with it, since it has nothing to do with the plot?

Anyway, that made me mad so I had to sit down and write a fic about it. ^^;; Part of the italicized dialogue is from the second part of Encore. Title from the Fire Bomber song on Radio Fire! I figure it's about time the love triangle got resolved. ^_^