What A Wonderful World
By S. Mark Gunther
"I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world
I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world
The colours of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shakin' hands, sayin' "How do you do?"
They're really saying "I love you"
I hear babies cryin', I watch them grow
They'll learn much more than I'll ever know
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world
Yes, I think to myself, what a wonderful world..."
-- "Louie Armstrong - What A Wonderful World"
***
The plains grass of the testing site waved softly from side to side in the late summer wind. A setting sun framed the entire area in its warm glow. Sounds from the military base surrounded the area in a din of activity. And yet, to Kou Uraki, all was silent. All was quiet and the only thing on his mind was...
...There! With a flick of his wrist and a swish of his Gundam's arm, the target was sighted in his scope. A moment later, an eighty-one millimeter shell destroyed the metallic target ending the exercise. With a sigh, he popped open the hatch of his machine and hopped down to the soft grasses below. As he left the Gundam itself began to expel its steam and go silent like a tired warrior taking a rest. Kou walked to the woman holding the clipboard and looked down on the results.
"You did it, Kou," the young woman said with only a slight trace of emotion in her voice. "You hit your first one hundred percent since the time you've been here."
"Thanks."
"I know I don't sound very happy for you, but it's only because your form is still off. You shift your right arm too much when you try to circle blast the groups. It's throwing your balance off. And I know you can do better then this, Kou..."
"What happens if my form goes up but I lose my shooting skill?" Kou asked with a sardonic smile as he looked up at the shooting range attendant.
"Then I'll keep drilling you till both your form and your shooting are at one hundred percent!"
"You would, wouldn't you...?"
"Of course I would," She said as her voice caught for the briefest of moments in her throat. Her eyes gazed to his face and found that his eyes were locked upon one particular place. The place his eyes always seemed to be locked onto since he came to the base. The young woman sighed and gripped Kou's arm with her right hand, softly yet firmly. "I just know they are going to call you up to the front lines soon. And I will not send a substandard pilot to the battle lines."
"I know that." Kou's voice had a distant quality as he looked off into the place he knew she was. She had to know...she just had to know...
"Then wake up!" Her yell forced Kou to look at her and with that came a slightly pained smile and a crisp facial shift.
"I will. Thank you, Sergeant Holliday. Thank you for taking all this time with me...no one else will..."
"Please. Call me Amanda. And stop thinking that everyone hates you here. We're all just very busy. This is the only base that the earth can use after the entire Stardust fiasco. I'm helping you because I both want to and have to." She had to avert her eyes to keep from blushing and because of that she missed as Kou's arm slipped from her grasp and he walked away. By the time she realized that he had gone, she was alone. The winds blowing more on her back as the final gasps of the sun fell behind a nearby hill.
Amanda smiled softly as she turned and put her papers into her binder. Leaving the Gundam for the next day's training, she walked towards her small house to file her report. Something told her that central command would be very interested in her new findings...
***
The ground felt hard and unyielding as Kou walked away from Amanda. Soon he felt her presence gone from his body and all he could wonder was why she kept on being with him when all he did was mess up. Ever since he came to the base and was reunited with the rest of his friends, he still couldn't take his mind off of her. Nina Purpleton. The woman he loved and couldn't stop loving.
His work had helped him grow stronger as a pilot and as a person, but it did nothing for the frustration he felt when he saw her walking by. All they did now was smile and wave, passing a greeting or two between them as they passed to wherever they had to go. She still was as beautiful as ever, her smile still as radiant as the first time he had ever seen it. And yet he knew the sad tinge that seemed to curl just off the sides of her mouth and her eyes as she spoke. It seemed to permeate every part of her body, ever fiber of her skin and face.
He knew he was the cause, at least partially, for this sadness in her heart. He knew that he could have saved Gato on the colony, he knew he could have helped her escape and take the man who had shamed both him and his beliefs under his protective wing. And yet he couldn't. His choice rattled in his brain every time he saw her sad face, every time he gazed upon her working at a desk. Whenever he was close to her he saw it.
The paved road turned into a makeshift gravel street that led to the main compound. His eyes seemed to be locked in a permanent stare as he walked towards a nondescript building with the word tavern over its doorway. He smiled softly while going into the smoky tavern, knowing it would be another night of drinking and sleeping in his bed, sweating through another bad set of nightmares and tortured dreams. As the man who was to die is almost peaceful and serene on the final judgment hour, so too was Kou as he sat down at the corner booth. A small red booth light was the only illumination for his place of dishonor. Just as he liked it to be, so it was everyday he came. The bartender/owner knew just what he liked and never failed to deliver.
"Evening, Uraki," the bartender called out to him from his bar. His hands wiped down a glass with methodical precision as he watched the waitress on duty make the specialty of the house just for their best customer.
"Evening, Sam," Kou called back. His feet sighed out in relief as he sat down in the oversized booth. Soon the pitcher of chilled vodka sat before him, the glass sweating making small water rings on the plaid checked tabletop. He smiled tiredly at the waitress who smiled back and nodded to the bartender as she left the table. "Can I get a small dinner in about one hour with another pitcher, Sam?"
"Sure thing, Uraki. Hard day for you on the field?"
"Not nearly as hard as usual. But I'm glad I have the day off tomorrow. I intend to have to be carried home tonight."
"Those dreams happening again?" Sam asked, his hands now resting easily on the wooden top. Kou shook his head in the positive much to Sam's chagrin. "You have got to stop doing this to yourself, Kou. You've atoned for your sins. All you can do now is move on."
"Sure. I know that. You know that. Tell my subconscious that and we'd be alright."
"Suit yourself," Sam replied, knowing full well from Uraki's words that he wanted to get drunk alone. "But sooner or later you're going to have to deal with it. And who'll be the one to deal with it with you? Me, your long-suffering bartender. Me, Uraki! Samson Uriah Larinov! And don't you forget it!"
"I never do, Sammy," Kou said smiling and laughing a little. Soon both men were laughing at their daily repartee. Sam laughed along with Kou but his mind was still troubled. He saw Kou everyday and knew what he drank in the many moods he was in. On a good day it would only be a glass of beer and a whiskey chaser. On a normal day, perhaps a six pack of the local hard cider. But on the bad days only a chilled pitcher of vodka, three hundred fifty to four hundred grams, would do. And tonight was one of those very bad nights if he wanted food as well as drink. Didn't he know that his cook couldn't cook to save his life?
The tavern lapsed back into agreeable silence as the sparse evening crowd of regulars had not shown up yet. Kou sighed softly and poured his first drink of the night. Gulping it down, he remembered how he stumbled on the bar he called home. The first night he came to the base had been disorienting and downright frightening to him, just fresh off the jump ship. He had been in the space ship that he inhabited while his case was reviewed for 6 months and his fragile equilibrium was shattered as he saw Nina's face for the first time on the ground. The reunion was tense and slightly less comforting then a root canal to him. He had begun to look for a place to hide and lick his wounds almost as soon as he heard her first words to him. Stumbling through the streets after finding his room for the night, he had found the small bar and asked for a drink. Things happened, he cried at the bar while the few patrons there comforted him and got him drunk, and very soon he had a place to go and be welcomed.
The vodka was sweet and downright fiery as he drank it and he smiled inwardly at his good fortune. He liked the tavern. It was quieter then the other bar on the base, a rough and rowdy place where the other test pilots went to test their manhood by guzzling vast amounts of the local firewater. He didn't like the idea of seeing his fellow pilots beat one another up after a long drinking spiel and he had no interest in being seen and known by those who could peg him for being the gaffer, the choke artist that he had been. And since most of the base knew that he was who he was, Kou quickly realized that the bar he had stumbled upon was his place to be.
He heard the door open and a wolfish whistle escape from Sam's face. As he turned to the door, his eyes began to burn and his stomach churned, as he looked upon Nina's face for the first time in a long time. She walked in alone and looked very tense, almost as if she was waiting for something untoward to happen to her upon her entry. His heart began to beat faster in his chest as he watched her walk to the bar. The eyes that watched her felt heavy and riveted to her body. As she and Sam talked softly for a few moments, he could feel his hands clench and release silently under the table. Soon she walked to his booth and sat down, a glass in her hand and a solemn look on her face.
"Kou," Nina said softly as she sat her glass down on the table.
"Nina."
"What are you doing here all alone?" her voice warbled a bit in her throat as she spoke, the anxiety resonating from her heart causing her reactions to change from stiff calm to shaken stoicism.
"I'm about to get drunk. I've had a hard day on the range and I'm tired. My nerves are shot and I'm not feeling that good. I've received the day off tomorrow and I want to get drunk tonight." Kou took a sip of his glass and proceeded to fill Nina's glass from the rapidly warming pitcher of vodka. She drank it down slowly while Kou topped off his own glass. "I'd ask if you're going to stay, but something tells me you want to talk."
"Did you have someone give me this?" Nina asked while sliding over an envelope with her name on it. Kou took the envelope and read it; his eyebrow rose just higher then was his norm. "This was given to me just before I went to lunch this afternoon."
"By whom?" Kou replied softly, his eyes scanning the simply scratched words.
"One of the office secretaries gave it to me. She said another woman had given it to her to give to me. She said it was from you. Now what's going on?"
A small smile creased Kou's lips as he refolded the letter and placed it in its envelope. His hands then gripped the glass and lifted it to his mouth, the cold alcohol sliding into his gullet. His smile remained perched on his face throughout. "Well I can say for certain that I didn't write this."
"How do you know? How can you lie like this to me, Kou?" Nina responded in a calm yet angry voice.
"I'm not lying to you. I know who wrote this and I know why they did it."
"Well who was it?"
"My gunnery sergeant. Amanda Holliday. She's the one who wrote this. Though I can't say I don't agree with some of what she's wrote there..."
"How did she know all of this?" Nina asked warily, still not sure about all of the things she heard. Her hand grew cold on the glass from holding it and she placed both her hands on her lap to warm them.
"Because I told her. I told her about us, and how much I've missed you. And my nightmares about the war. All of it. She's been the one to get me to start living again because she's listened to me." Kou sighed and slumped down a little in his seat, the tiredness in his face becoming more and more apparent. "I've been training with her for about 2 weeks now and she's been trying to get me back to a point where I can go back to the front lines. She's been commissioned to get me flying again because apparently I'm needed to pilot a new Gundam."
"A new...a new Gundam?"
"Yes. A Gundam that the government is building just for me is what she is training me for. They seem to think that I'm the pilot that can get a victory from the Zion forces. I have 6 weeks to become flight ready again, in her eyes."
"Amanda's?"
"Yes."
Nina felt the ice in her heart begin to melt at the thought that she would be faced with another painful goodbye. Her hand reached out to touch Kou's and she found it to be cold, oddly stiff and tough. Not like the hands she had felt holding her on the federation galley...not the hands that had held her as she kissed him...
"It's not a big deal. I want to go back. I have to atone for my failures. I failed the federation in Stardust. I failed everyone. I especially failed you." Kou's voice dropped lower and lower as he spoke the angry words in a bitter monotone. He looked over and touched Nina's hand with his and for a long moment not a word was spoken between them.
"What if I don't want you to go? What if I want you to stay here, with me? What if I don't want to see you die trying to chase demons you'll never catch?" Nina asked softly as she clasped Kou's hand. Her eyes began to tear slightly at the corners and she felt the control of her emotions begin to melt. "What if all I've been waiting for you to do is tell me you want to stay? You think you've had problems, Kou Uraki? You think you've had demons? What about me losing one of the two men I've loved most in this world?"
"What about you, Nina?" Kou asked, his eyes round and full, his cheeks stained with slow rolling tears of his own. "What about you caring about someone like me? Someone who's failed you not once, but twice?"
"I don't know what, if anything is wrong for me loving you. I've watched one of the loves of my life die. I've watched him be consumed by hatred and anger, depression and rage. I've seen his death and watched his life. If anything, all I want is a normal life again for you, me and this whole planet." Another sip of the still cold liquor passed through Nina's lips. "You never failed me, Kou. You only showed me why I grew to love you in the first place. And...And maybe this all is showing me why I still love you."
For a long moment, neither person spoke. Then, in a slow and solemn motion he stood up and pushed his chair back. Without a word or a look at Nina, Kou walked to the counter and pulled some money out of his pocket. He laid some bills in front of Sam's register and looked at Nina. She looked back at him and without saying a word she walked to his side. Together they walked out of the door as silently as was their usual custom. Sam merely looked at the still half full pitcher of alcohol and smiled a knowing smile.
***
"Kou?" Nina asked as they sat on a hillside just outside the base. The night's panoramic sky seemed to stretch endlessly in front of them as they sat next to one another. A soft wind swept by them and rustled the grasses as they sat.
"Yes, Nina?"
"Why did you bring me here?"
"I...I've always wanted to bring you here, Nina. I saw this site once on one of my first walkthroughs of the base and the surrounding area. I..." Kou said softly, his voice catching slightly in his throat, "I wanted to take you somewhere where I could kiss you again. I..."
"Kou, stop."
"Wha..." Nina's lips, gently touching his and pressing closer, cut off Kou's words. He responded immediately, closing his arms around the woman he loved with a tightness that only distance could generate. As the shooting stars in the sky soared by their heads, Kou Uraki and Nina Purpleton resumed their love affair. As Nina drew closer to his body and they moved closer to the ground, Kou could only think one thought: 'It truly is a wonderful world, after all..."
By S. Mark Gunther
"I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world
I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world
The colours of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shakin' hands, sayin' "How do you do?"
They're really saying "I love you"
I hear babies cryin', I watch them grow
They'll learn much more than I'll ever know
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world
Yes, I think to myself, what a wonderful world..."
-- "Louie Armstrong - What A Wonderful World"
***
The plains grass of the testing site waved softly from side to side in the late summer wind. A setting sun framed the entire area in its warm glow. Sounds from the military base surrounded the area in a din of activity. And yet, to Kou Uraki, all was silent. All was quiet and the only thing on his mind was...
...There! With a flick of his wrist and a swish of his Gundam's arm, the target was sighted in his scope. A moment later, an eighty-one millimeter shell destroyed the metallic target ending the exercise. With a sigh, he popped open the hatch of his machine and hopped down to the soft grasses below. As he left the Gundam itself began to expel its steam and go silent like a tired warrior taking a rest. Kou walked to the woman holding the clipboard and looked down on the results.
"You did it, Kou," the young woman said with only a slight trace of emotion in her voice. "You hit your first one hundred percent since the time you've been here."
"Thanks."
"I know I don't sound very happy for you, but it's only because your form is still off. You shift your right arm too much when you try to circle blast the groups. It's throwing your balance off. And I know you can do better then this, Kou..."
"What happens if my form goes up but I lose my shooting skill?" Kou asked with a sardonic smile as he looked up at the shooting range attendant.
"Then I'll keep drilling you till both your form and your shooting are at one hundred percent!"
"You would, wouldn't you...?"
"Of course I would," She said as her voice caught for the briefest of moments in her throat. Her eyes gazed to his face and found that his eyes were locked upon one particular place. The place his eyes always seemed to be locked onto since he came to the base. The young woman sighed and gripped Kou's arm with her right hand, softly yet firmly. "I just know they are going to call you up to the front lines soon. And I will not send a substandard pilot to the battle lines."
"I know that." Kou's voice had a distant quality as he looked off into the place he knew she was. She had to know...she just had to know...
"Then wake up!" Her yell forced Kou to look at her and with that came a slightly pained smile and a crisp facial shift.
"I will. Thank you, Sergeant Holliday. Thank you for taking all this time with me...no one else will..."
"Please. Call me Amanda. And stop thinking that everyone hates you here. We're all just very busy. This is the only base that the earth can use after the entire Stardust fiasco. I'm helping you because I both want to and have to." She had to avert her eyes to keep from blushing and because of that she missed as Kou's arm slipped from her grasp and he walked away. By the time she realized that he had gone, she was alone. The winds blowing more on her back as the final gasps of the sun fell behind a nearby hill.
Amanda smiled softly as she turned and put her papers into her binder. Leaving the Gundam for the next day's training, she walked towards her small house to file her report. Something told her that central command would be very interested in her new findings...
***
The ground felt hard and unyielding as Kou walked away from Amanda. Soon he felt her presence gone from his body and all he could wonder was why she kept on being with him when all he did was mess up. Ever since he came to the base and was reunited with the rest of his friends, he still couldn't take his mind off of her. Nina Purpleton. The woman he loved and couldn't stop loving.
His work had helped him grow stronger as a pilot and as a person, but it did nothing for the frustration he felt when he saw her walking by. All they did now was smile and wave, passing a greeting or two between them as they passed to wherever they had to go. She still was as beautiful as ever, her smile still as radiant as the first time he had ever seen it. And yet he knew the sad tinge that seemed to curl just off the sides of her mouth and her eyes as she spoke. It seemed to permeate every part of her body, ever fiber of her skin and face.
He knew he was the cause, at least partially, for this sadness in her heart. He knew that he could have saved Gato on the colony, he knew he could have helped her escape and take the man who had shamed both him and his beliefs under his protective wing. And yet he couldn't. His choice rattled in his brain every time he saw her sad face, every time he gazed upon her working at a desk. Whenever he was close to her he saw it.
The paved road turned into a makeshift gravel street that led to the main compound. His eyes seemed to be locked in a permanent stare as he walked towards a nondescript building with the word tavern over its doorway. He smiled softly while going into the smoky tavern, knowing it would be another night of drinking and sleeping in his bed, sweating through another bad set of nightmares and tortured dreams. As the man who was to die is almost peaceful and serene on the final judgment hour, so too was Kou as he sat down at the corner booth. A small red booth light was the only illumination for his place of dishonor. Just as he liked it to be, so it was everyday he came. The bartender/owner knew just what he liked and never failed to deliver.
"Evening, Uraki," the bartender called out to him from his bar. His hands wiped down a glass with methodical precision as he watched the waitress on duty make the specialty of the house just for their best customer.
"Evening, Sam," Kou called back. His feet sighed out in relief as he sat down in the oversized booth. Soon the pitcher of chilled vodka sat before him, the glass sweating making small water rings on the plaid checked tabletop. He smiled tiredly at the waitress who smiled back and nodded to the bartender as she left the table. "Can I get a small dinner in about one hour with another pitcher, Sam?"
"Sure thing, Uraki. Hard day for you on the field?"
"Not nearly as hard as usual. But I'm glad I have the day off tomorrow. I intend to have to be carried home tonight."
"Those dreams happening again?" Sam asked, his hands now resting easily on the wooden top. Kou shook his head in the positive much to Sam's chagrin. "You have got to stop doing this to yourself, Kou. You've atoned for your sins. All you can do now is move on."
"Sure. I know that. You know that. Tell my subconscious that and we'd be alright."
"Suit yourself," Sam replied, knowing full well from Uraki's words that he wanted to get drunk alone. "But sooner or later you're going to have to deal with it. And who'll be the one to deal with it with you? Me, your long-suffering bartender. Me, Uraki! Samson Uriah Larinov! And don't you forget it!"
"I never do, Sammy," Kou said smiling and laughing a little. Soon both men were laughing at their daily repartee. Sam laughed along with Kou but his mind was still troubled. He saw Kou everyday and knew what he drank in the many moods he was in. On a good day it would only be a glass of beer and a whiskey chaser. On a normal day, perhaps a six pack of the local hard cider. But on the bad days only a chilled pitcher of vodka, three hundred fifty to four hundred grams, would do. And tonight was one of those very bad nights if he wanted food as well as drink. Didn't he know that his cook couldn't cook to save his life?
The tavern lapsed back into agreeable silence as the sparse evening crowd of regulars had not shown up yet. Kou sighed softly and poured his first drink of the night. Gulping it down, he remembered how he stumbled on the bar he called home. The first night he came to the base had been disorienting and downright frightening to him, just fresh off the jump ship. He had been in the space ship that he inhabited while his case was reviewed for 6 months and his fragile equilibrium was shattered as he saw Nina's face for the first time on the ground. The reunion was tense and slightly less comforting then a root canal to him. He had begun to look for a place to hide and lick his wounds almost as soon as he heard her first words to him. Stumbling through the streets after finding his room for the night, he had found the small bar and asked for a drink. Things happened, he cried at the bar while the few patrons there comforted him and got him drunk, and very soon he had a place to go and be welcomed.
The vodka was sweet and downright fiery as he drank it and he smiled inwardly at his good fortune. He liked the tavern. It was quieter then the other bar on the base, a rough and rowdy place where the other test pilots went to test their manhood by guzzling vast amounts of the local firewater. He didn't like the idea of seeing his fellow pilots beat one another up after a long drinking spiel and he had no interest in being seen and known by those who could peg him for being the gaffer, the choke artist that he had been. And since most of the base knew that he was who he was, Kou quickly realized that the bar he had stumbled upon was his place to be.
He heard the door open and a wolfish whistle escape from Sam's face. As he turned to the door, his eyes began to burn and his stomach churned, as he looked upon Nina's face for the first time in a long time. She walked in alone and looked very tense, almost as if she was waiting for something untoward to happen to her upon her entry. His heart began to beat faster in his chest as he watched her walk to the bar. The eyes that watched her felt heavy and riveted to her body. As she and Sam talked softly for a few moments, he could feel his hands clench and release silently under the table. Soon she walked to his booth and sat down, a glass in her hand and a solemn look on her face.
"Kou," Nina said softly as she sat her glass down on the table.
"Nina."
"What are you doing here all alone?" her voice warbled a bit in her throat as she spoke, the anxiety resonating from her heart causing her reactions to change from stiff calm to shaken stoicism.
"I'm about to get drunk. I've had a hard day on the range and I'm tired. My nerves are shot and I'm not feeling that good. I've received the day off tomorrow and I want to get drunk tonight." Kou took a sip of his glass and proceeded to fill Nina's glass from the rapidly warming pitcher of vodka. She drank it down slowly while Kou topped off his own glass. "I'd ask if you're going to stay, but something tells me you want to talk."
"Did you have someone give me this?" Nina asked while sliding over an envelope with her name on it. Kou took the envelope and read it; his eyebrow rose just higher then was his norm. "This was given to me just before I went to lunch this afternoon."
"By whom?" Kou replied softly, his eyes scanning the simply scratched words.
"One of the office secretaries gave it to me. She said another woman had given it to her to give to me. She said it was from you. Now what's going on?"
A small smile creased Kou's lips as he refolded the letter and placed it in its envelope. His hands then gripped the glass and lifted it to his mouth, the cold alcohol sliding into his gullet. His smile remained perched on his face throughout. "Well I can say for certain that I didn't write this."
"How do you know? How can you lie like this to me, Kou?" Nina responded in a calm yet angry voice.
"I'm not lying to you. I know who wrote this and I know why they did it."
"Well who was it?"
"My gunnery sergeant. Amanda Holliday. She's the one who wrote this. Though I can't say I don't agree with some of what she's wrote there..."
"How did she know all of this?" Nina asked warily, still not sure about all of the things she heard. Her hand grew cold on the glass from holding it and she placed both her hands on her lap to warm them.
"Because I told her. I told her about us, and how much I've missed you. And my nightmares about the war. All of it. She's been the one to get me to start living again because she's listened to me." Kou sighed and slumped down a little in his seat, the tiredness in his face becoming more and more apparent. "I've been training with her for about 2 weeks now and she's been trying to get me back to a point where I can go back to the front lines. She's been commissioned to get me flying again because apparently I'm needed to pilot a new Gundam."
"A new...a new Gundam?"
"Yes. A Gundam that the government is building just for me is what she is training me for. They seem to think that I'm the pilot that can get a victory from the Zion forces. I have 6 weeks to become flight ready again, in her eyes."
"Amanda's?"
"Yes."
Nina felt the ice in her heart begin to melt at the thought that she would be faced with another painful goodbye. Her hand reached out to touch Kou's and she found it to be cold, oddly stiff and tough. Not like the hands she had felt holding her on the federation galley...not the hands that had held her as she kissed him...
"It's not a big deal. I want to go back. I have to atone for my failures. I failed the federation in Stardust. I failed everyone. I especially failed you." Kou's voice dropped lower and lower as he spoke the angry words in a bitter monotone. He looked over and touched Nina's hand with his and for a long moment not a word was spoken between them.
"What if I don't want you to go? What if I want you to stay here, with me? What if I don't want to see you die trying to chase demons you'll never catch?" Nina asked softly as she clasped Kou's hand. Her eyes began to tear slightly at the corners and she felt the control of her emotions begin to melt. "What if all I've been waiting for you to do is tell me you want to stay? You think you've had problems, Kou Uraki? You think you've had demons? What about me losing one of the two men I've loved most in this world?"
"What about you, Nina?" Kou asked, his eyes round and full, his cheeks stained with slow rolling tears of his own. "What about you caring about someone like me? Someone who's failed you not once, but twice?"
"I don't know what, if anything is wrong for me loving you. I've watched one of the loves of my life die. I've watched him be consumed by hatred and anger, depression and rage. I've seen his death and watched his life. If anything, all I want is a normal life again for you, me and this whole planet." Another sip of the still cold liquor passed through Nina's lips. "You never failed me, Kou. You only showed me why I grew to love you in the first place. And...And maybe this all is showing me why I still love you."
For a long moment, neither person spoke. Then, in a slow and solemn motion he stood up and pushed his chair back. Without a word or a look at Nina, Kou walked to the counter and pulled some money out of his pocket. He laid some bills in front of Sam's register and looked at Nina. She looked back at him and without saying a word she walked to his side. Together they walked out of the door as silently as was their usual custom. Sam merely looked at the still half full pitcher of alcohol and smiled a knowing smile.
***
"Kou?" Nina asked as they sat on a hillside just outside the base. The night's panoramic sky seemed to stretch endlessly in front of them as they sat next to one another. A soft wind swept by them and rustled the grasses as they sat.
"Yes, Nina?"
"Why did you bring me here?"
"I...I've always wanted to bring you here, Nina. I saw this site once on one of my first walkthroughs of the base and the surrounding area. I..." Kou said softly, his voice catching slightly in his throat, "I wanted to take you somewhere where I could kiss you again. I..."
"Kou, stop."
"Wha..." Nina's lips, gently touching his and pressing closer, cut off Kou's words. He responded immediately, closing his arms around the woman he loved with a tightness that only distance could generate. As the shooting stars in the sky soared by their heads, Kou Uraki and Nina Purpleton resumed their love affair. As Nina drew closer to his body and they moved closer to the ground, Kou could only think one thought: 'It truly is a wonderful world, after all..."