Work Text:
February 2013
New Macross City
“Thank you! Thank you all for coming!” A happy Minmei calls out to an adoring crowd of humans and Zentraedi alive, one of the macronized Zentraedi even standing to give an ovation to her for the performance of the evening. She’d soon disappear behind the curtain, the closer act soon entering which thankfully kept the crowd from demanding another encore. She knew she had final say in that, but she wanted to please even the meager crowd she had today as much as possible. As she slipped down the staircase and towards her trailer, her body language and demeanor shifted. Confident strides with a carefree step to her soon grew tired and slow, face beaming with a bubbly look of joy to just… Neutrality. A tired neutrality that even then betrayed how she felt. Exhausted. Tired. Wishing she could do anything but be out there.
Softly, she shuts the trailer door behind her and not long after that the dress she wore met the floor -once she made sure all the curtains were drawn of course. The trailer itself was modest, at least considering everything. A single room with a connected bathroom, bed, and dinette. Onboard cooking and everything. Unfortunately for her, she just flops onto the bed, hair falling across her face as she draws a pillow close to her chest as she curls up without even a sheet to cover her.
Life is only what we choose to make it
Let’s just take it
Let us be free
We can find the glory that we dream of
And with our love, we can win!
It’s been two years, almost, since she sang for the world and for millions upon millions in that fateful battle. A battle she wasn’t even sure was worth fighting. She wondered why she let Rick talk her into singing. There was nothing left, they were all destroyed. The wastelands she performs in are nothing like the world they left in 2009. Nothing like the world she envisioned before the Zentraedi destroyed it. Despite that, she still performed. Forced herself to sing, even when she could see what was going on around her. The scale of such a thing never really hit her until the fighting was over. When a look into the night sky, without all the light pollution or cloud cover, there was still debris even years later with the near constant salvage operations. She’d heard numbers in the range of four million ships. Each of those with countless hundreds each. Even just a single Zentraedi on each ship lost would be four million of them.
She grips the pillow tighter, screwing her eyes shut. She performed in front of the Zentraedi, yet she’s responsible for untold numbers of them being killed. Just… Gone. The Zentraedi who ordered Earth be wiped cleaned of life, he was dead. The Zentraedi under him followed orders because it was all they knew. Minmei, though?
She… She didn’t have that to fall on. She knew, in a way, what they meant. Especially… Especially when the cameras started.
“Minmei… You look beautiful in that dress.”
“Kyle…”
God, she was so naive about him, and now she’s stuck with him. Rick doesn’t even call her…
Click
The door into the trailer unlocks and shortly after light floods back in, a familiar figure blocking much of it. Minmei opens a single eye, spotting him and letting out a rough sigh, shifting her head and looking away, pillow still in her grasp. “We’re going to need to find a new venue, Minmei.” Kyle states. For once he wasn’t drinking on a concert date. Usually was enough of an ass to drink the money they make away before paying people or charity comes into the picture.
“I like performing here.” Minmei responds. She wasn’t sure if she believed it, but she’d knew travel would mean days alone, of uncertainty on the open road. New Macross City was familiar. Safe.
“Yeah, well if you like food and water we need somewhere better. Granite City’s always looking-“ The pillow Minmei was grasping was flung in Kyle’s direction. Whilst his recent proclivity for the bottle may have dulled some things, his martial arts training didn’t fail him, the pillow soon batted aside, Kyle glaring at Minmei as she sits up on the bed.
“Maybe if you stopped drinking, maybe we’d be doing better.” She grumbles, folding her arms.
“Please, I need it to deal with your diva attitude half the time.”
Minmei rolls her eyes and stands up. “What about the other half, then?”
Kyle just shrugs and turns away from her, taking a step towards the dinette only to spot Minmei’s performing dress on the floor of the trailer. He lets out a loud sigh. “Minmei, you’re supposed to take better care of these things.” He remarks, picking up the dress and promptly tossing it to her. She manages to catch it.
“And aren’t you supposed to be taking better care of our equipment?” Minmei retorts. “My microphone cut out for a good minute the first time through My Boyfriend is a Pilot! We had to use the backup one, remember? Not to mention the-“ Even more annoying than the lack of maintenance that was being done was that Kyle was seemingly ignoring her, making his way to the small fridge and opening it wide. It was distressingly empty of fresh foods, instead a few nondescript bottles that Minmei knew just what they were. “Ugh! Of course!” She shouts, just diving back into end, tears welling. “I try so hard and you just-just can’t-“
This manages for a moment to get Kyle to cease his filling of his flask. Minmei doesn’t notice.
“…Was it even worth it?” Minmei mumbles into the other pillow from the bed, sheets messily wrapped around her.
“Was what worth it?” Kyle asks approaching. “This show? Hell no.”
“Saving Earth.” Minmei responds, tears beginning to wet the pillow, her earlier fixation bursting through once more.
“Minmei, what would even make you think that?” Kyle asks, approaching the side of the bed Minmei has laid on. It was a bit tight, but he’d kneel down next to her, meeting her gaze when she lifts her head up. Already her face was getting red.
“There’s nothing left, Kyle.” Minmei says. “Is… Is Yokohama even still around?” Kyle remains quiet a bit too long, enough that Minmei already feels like she has an answer for that. “We… I did all that, all that for… For what? Just to… to do some dumb concerts and pretend it’s all okay?”
Kyle bring a hand up to wipe tears from Minmei’s eyes, brushing her hair out her face in the process. “Minmei… You wanted this. You wanted to sing, to be on stage. You can’t tell me now you’re having second thoughts.”
“It’s not just that, Kyle.”
“Then what? If it’s money, we’re back to that argument. You just want to give all of that away and-“
“Kyle, I helped kill all those Zentraedi!” Minmei finally shouts, sitting up and with the blankets held to cover herself, she looks down at the knelt Kyle with a scowl. “I-I-I sang, and they said it would distract them enough that they could just… March through and just… Kill them all! And-And it wasn’t just- I-I had a front row seat to it, Kyle! Every ship, everyone of them, I saw!”
“Minmei-“ Kyle stands up now, a single leg resting on the bed as he places his hands on her shoulders. She attempts to pull back only to relent and let him. “I was there too. There wasn’t anything we could’ve done.”
All she can do is look away with her eyes shut. “You were barely there, you wouldn’t understand, Kyle!” A thought then hits. She hadn’t talked with him about the events of that day and… To hear him so blithely remark on that… “Why was it okay then, but not before or after?!” She shouts. At this point she didn’t care if anyone was peeping on them. “You were always protesting the military, why did you help them then?” She wanted to accuse him of being in it for himself, but she couldn’t bring herself that far.
“Minmei…” Kyle takes a breath, leaning in. “I only did it because I saw just what those damn aliens did to Earth.” He then places a few kisses up her neck. Minmei shudders. “And we did it. We saved what was left. We’re picking up the pieces, together.” Minmei’s silence was deafening as the two just stare into each other’s eyes.
“…Kyle…”
“Hm?”
Minmei takes a breath, letting it out slowly. “…Am I a bad person?” Kyle shakes his head almost immediately. “Then why do I feel so terrible when I look at the Zentraedi?”
Kyle shifts from just holding her shoulders to now pulling her into a hug. Minmei has the urge to back off, but suppresses it. “You’re beating yourself up over nothing, Minmei. You-“ She gets a peck to her cheek and a circle rubbing against her lower back. “-don’t have anything to feel bad about.”
Minmei takes another breath, shakier this time. “…Are you sure?”
Kyle nods. “Of course.” He then grins and lightly presses forward, Minmei losing grip of the sheets, her almost nude body being revealed for Kyle to see again. “I love you, Minmei. I’ll never forget that.” He says, Minmei ending up on her back, pillow propping her head up only a little as soon Kyle was atop her. She wanted to push him off and just tell him she wanted to be alone, but… If she did, he’d probably go off to the bar and spend more of their money on that swill.
“I…” Minmei’s eyes meet Kyle’s. She may have had feelings before, briefly. It was wrong, but they were still real. But now, when she stared into them, all she could see was a man who only wanted her body. Not like the man she truly loved even after all this time, knowing that he’s with another woman.
“…I love you, Kyle.” She says, putting on a performer’s face and tone.