Gundam SEED Fan Fiction ❯ In The Arms Of A War Hero ❯ Reluctant Chance ( Chapter 6 )

-Author's Note-

I'm baaaaaaaack! Thanks to everyone who read the fic while I was away. California was amazing, and I had a great time. But all the while I was thinking of ideas for the fic and thought up some good ones. So, I hope you guys like them.

 

BTW, I realized that there are A LOT of typos in the last update, and I apologize for all of them, lol. It was late and I was excited, gimme a break! lol.

 

Hope you guys enjoy!!

 

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In The Arms Of A War Hero

 

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Reluctant Chance

 

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Chapter 6

 

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They stood together once again. Their minds racing, summing up their lives to this moment. Recalling all the battles they fought, the battles they shared, the lives lost, the friends gained; the hope unrelenting.

 

“Athrun, is it really you?” Kira smiled doubtfully, his hand remaining of his friend's shoulder. Athrun smiled and nodded. Cagalli stood opposing Kira and Athrun, smiling at the two of them, watching them reunite.

 

“Yeah, it's me.”

 

“What are you doing here? You and Dearka?”

 

Athrun explained the tracking system situation, Kira listened intently, nodding his head and shaking his head regularly, his arms hanging limp at his sides.

“Your father…” Kira said with a nod then lowering his head, soon after looking back up at Athrun with a swift glide to remove the bangs from his eyes.

 

Dearka joined the group, standing beside Cagalli, “It's actually kinda a miracle really,” he said. “We were locked up for that entire time, and now, it seems so unrealistic to be here in the open air.”

 

Athrun added a nod to Dearka's statement, “We were to retrieve this device then return back to deliver it.”

 

“What then?” Cagalli said, making the men around her look at her suddenly as she spoke her thoughts. “You're just going to return to the PLANT and then that's it? No seeing you again except when you're running errands? Just wait around for the occasional letter?”

 

“Cagalli…” Kira said furrowing his brow at his sister, an edge in his voice.

 

“It's alright, Kira,” Athrun said. He turned to Cagalli and let out a sigh, “After we return the tracking system, we'll be coming back to Earth.”

 

Cagalli's eyes widened, then they lowered back and she crossed her arms, tossing her hood to her shoulders with a backwards thrust of her head that set her golden hair free. She tried to tuck the adjacent hairs behind her ears. “More errands after this,” she replied nimbly; more a statement than a question.

 

“No,” Athrun emphasized, “to stay.”

 

The words echoed in the depths of Cagalli's cranium. To stay. Staying. Athrun staying? On Earth? Not returning to PLANT? Cagalli ran her eyes in every which direction, at a loss for words.

 

Staying. He said staying. He's staying? On Earth? Oh my God - Athrun's staying…

 

“Staying?” she said finally. Able to motion her mouth to make the only word that reverberated around her skull.

 

Both Athrun and Dearka nodded. “We're both staying,” Dearka said, “on Earth. After we return that,” he said, motioning his head towards Athrun's bag, “we'll be coming back. To stay.”

 

“What about ZAFT? Your father?” Kira mentioned looking briskly at Athrun.

 

“Apparently, he's allowing us to stay here. Relying on us to find out information on a new weaponry enhancement for the Earth Alliance Gundam Mobile Suits,” Athrun said, “Dearka and I are able to remain here by retrieving every bit of information in detail about this machinery. If not -”

 

“We're booted back to PLANT,” Dearka finished, crossing his arms.

 

Cagalli and Kira both nodded.

 

“So, you'll be leaving to return back to ZAFT HQ to give your father this tracking mechanism?” Kira inquired.

Dearka replied, “Yeah, we're gonna leave and then try to hurry back. You guys gonna wait for us,” he added with a playful smile, directed more at Cagalli than at Kira.

 

Athrun looked at Cagalli, and Cagalli stared at the ground, “We're here with ORB. We're going to be staying here until our expedition is over and then return back to Kyoto.”

 

“You can meet us in Kyoto,” Kira said, giving a questioning look to his sister than glancing at both Dearka and Athrun. “You can meet us at The Rosary for lunch. Hakaku Centre, in Kyoto.”

 

Athrun nodded and took a glimpse at Cagalli before saying, “We'll see you there.” He turned around and motioned for Dearka to follow. The two ZAFT soldiers walked away in the fleeting brisk snow.

 

Kira and Cagalli stood put for a couple of seconds before Kira turned to his sibling, “You ok?” he asked. Cagalli nodded and began to walk in the direction she had seen Kira come from.

 

“Yeah,” she said, “I'm fine.”

 

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“No, Jimmy, I'm not worth it! Take the pearl and just leave me here!”

 

“No, Marian, I won't lose you again!”

 

Miriallia sat on her flower duvet loveseat, her legs crossed and a pillow in her lap that she held in her arms tightly. She had a bag of salted chips beside her that she repeatedly kept residing on to comfort her as she watched the soap opera on the television.

 

“Jimmy…I love you. I've always loved you. I want to be with you forever. Until the day I die -”

 

“She's lying,” Miriallia mumbled into the pillow reaching for more chips, “she's lying to your face, you stupid ass. She doesn't love you.”

 

“I love you too, Marian. I've loved you since I first set my eyes upon you. Vivian doesn't mean anything to me. It's you I want to spend the rest of my life with.”

 

“Stupid soap operas…” Miriallia whimpered over a mouthful of chips as she changed the channel quickly.

 

“Lose weight in only six days!”

 

--

“Inviare il suo denaro a…”

 

Miriallia turned off the television and sat on the couch and gripped her pillow tight to her chest, resting her chin onto the pillow. She reached a hand into the chip bag and put a couple small pieces into her mouth and crunched semi-loudly. She brushed the crumbs off the pillow and sat there.

 

Miriallia felt herself jump when she heard the phone begin to ring. Not at all in the mood to talk to anyone, she would let the machine get it. She sat in the darkness of her three room apartment, the only light displayed through the crease in the curtains.

 

“Hi, you've reached Miriallia Haww, I'm not here right now, so leave me a message and I'll call you back. See ya!”

 

After the beep Miriallia heard a familiar masculine voice on the end of the phone line.

 

“Hi, Miriallia? It's Ikaru.”

 

Ikaru Hamishira was an eighteen year old secretary for Mikoto. Miriallia had met him on her first day there, and instantly he began to flirt with her. He would follow her around the building and sometimes even on photo shoots.

 

A couple days ago while she was heading out of the building, he stopped her and had asked her to go out with him. He gave her his phone number and told her to call him. She never did.

 

“I realize that it's rather odd that I be calling you at your home, but I was wondering whether you had decided on going out yet? I'd love to get together and would like you to call me when you get in. Take it easy, babe.”

 

The machine beeped, “End of message,” the automatic female voice announced.

 

Miriallia sat there in the darkness, glancing at the flashing red light on the machine beside the couch on the small wooden table.

 

She placed the chips on the small table beside her on top of the answering machine and got up. She opened up the curtains and stared outside at Matsue, Japan. Watching the people meander in the dimming sunlight of the evening. She saw her favourite restaurant on the corner of a main intersection and realized how hungry she really was. She put on her light jacket, fluffed up her hair, gave her self a quick look-over in the mirror and then walked out the door.

 

She wasn't planning on calling Ikaru back. She hated it when he called her `babe'.

 

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“Ms. Clyne? You have a letter.”

 

Lacus looked at her guard ambitiously as he held out a small envelope towards her.

 

“A letter?” she said taking the paper and thanking her guard. She sat on the chair at the table she had been sitting at and opened the envelope.

 

Could it be from Kira? she wondered eagerly.

 

She opened the letter and took out the paper inside. Her smile faded as she read the document thoroughly. It was not from Kira.

 

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Cagalli was sitting in her favourite black Lay-Z Boy reclining chair flipping through the television. She had been quiet on the plane ride home and once she and Kira had arrived home after the plane had landed, she had dropped her coat and file of documents onto the stair steps and taken position in her chair.

 

“Are you hungry, miss?” Reyna, the third maid, had asked once entering the room.

 

“No thanks,” Cagalli said settling on an old game show that was on the television. Reyna nodded and left the room.

 

Kira was sitting at the dining room table and was reading over the documents Cagalli had received from Mayura and then had dropped on the step of the stairs.

 

“Tea?” Miyu asked as she brought out a tray with cups and a kettle, residing it in front of Kira on the large wooden table.

 

“Yes, thank you,” he responded.

 

“If you'll excuse my asking, Mr. Yamato,” Miyu said as she poured a cup of tea of Kira, “but is Ms. Attha alright? She seems a bit…glum.”

 

Kira took a sip of the hot tea and sighed. “She is. But I don't understand why, though.”

 

Miyu nodded.

 

“We saw Athrun Zala and Dearka Elthman while in Alaska. It's been fifteen months since the four of us have even seen each other. And I thought Cagalli would be happy to see them. But it seems to have made her depressed.”

 

“May I say something, Mr. Yamato?” Miyu asked folding her hands in front of her.

 

“Yes, of course,” Kira replied.

“I believe Ms. Attha may perhaps be in a state of disbelief, or shock. She might not have been able the sudden meeting of Mr. Zala and Mr. Elthman after all this time and might be a somewhat shaken up by it.”

 

Kira took a quick glance at Cagalli then shook his head, “No…I don't think that's quite it, Miyu,” he said, “she seems to be upset. She has a sad aura about her. And I can't begin to think why she would be upset. Athrun came back, and he's going to stay. I would think she would be happy about that.”

 

“If I may say so, Mr. Yamato,” Miyu began, “It might help her if she knew that you cared about her sudden change in behaviour. After all, you are her only family, Mr. Yamato, so she would confide in you if she is troubled.”

 

Kira took the last sip of tea and put it back on the tray and looked up at Miyu and smiled at her, “That's a good idea,” he said standing up. “Thanks Miyu.”

 

Miyu smiled and picked up the tray, “Not at all, sir.”

 

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Why would they come to stay on Earth…? It's just another ZAFT order…

 

“Cagalli?”

 

Cagalli turned in her seat and saw Kira walking into the room. He sat on the loveseat beside her and turned his body to face her.

 

“What's wrong, Cagalli? You seem really depressed…”

 

“Nothing's wrong, Kira,” Cagalli said, bringing her knees up to her chest.

 

“That's not true, and you know it,” Kira said a bit more harshly. “Some is bothering you. And it's not like you to hold back any troubling thought.”

 

Cagalli sighed and turned towards her brother looking at him and then blowing her bangs out of her face.

 

“Ok, fine,” she said defeated. “It's this whole thing about Athrun and Dearka coming back to Earth after they return that gizmo-thing.”

 

“It surprised you?” Kira queried.

 

“Well, a little,” Cagalli confessed, “but, are they coming back just because of this order they were given my Athrun's father? It didn't seem like they wanted to come back on their own at all! Athrun seemed colder, Kira. And I know you noticed.”

 

Kira looked down and fiddled with his fingers, then looked up at Cagalli, “Yeah, I noticed.”

 

“There's something about him. He hugged me,” Cagalli said with a blush, “but when he said he missed me, it didn't sound like he was saying it because he wanted to, sorta like he needed to, like it was something he was expected to say. He acted differently towards me, and I don't know why.”

 

“Him and you were close before we were separated…” Kira added.

 

Cagalli nodded, “Yeah, we were. But, it doesn't seem like he wants to come back to Earth to stay. Like he's just coming back because he was ordered to.”

 

Kira nodded and sighed.

 

“Something must have happened to Athrun,” Cagalli said chewing on her bottom lip. “When he and Dearka were in that jail…something happened to them that made Athrun like this.”

 

“I think so too,” Kira said, “when he looked at me, it didn't seem like the old Athrun. There's something changed in him.”

 

Cagalli nodded in agreement, “Whatever happened in that jail must have had some kind of giant impact on Athrun. Because from the Athrun I know…it takes a lot to get under his skin.”

 

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-Author's Note-

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter!! It adds on to the plot of the story I'll try to be updating as frequently as I can and as daily as I can, lol.

-Special Thanks to-

3xotic_rosie - your review is much appreciated and I hope you'll stick around as the fic progresses.

Shadowedsoul - lol, I hope that update means you like it, lol. Thnx for the review.

~Alexs - and last but not least, lol. My very first reviewer, you rock, lol. Thnx for sticking around while the fic has developed so far. Much and many thnx.

 

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If you have any comments what-so-ever, or questions at all, I would love to hear them via e-mail or review.