I've actually already posted this story to Livejournal, but our account was looking pretty dead, so I figured I could put it up here. :) This is from one of my more recent fandoms, and I think It's pretty fun. Enjoy!
-Lunar, although, I prefer to be called Kyo now.
All it took was one look into those glowing, bright eyes and Tieria knew exactly who he was looking at. There was no mistaking it. He didn't want to think of the implications that this discovery brought, so he instead peered at Allelujah, who at least had the decency to look sheepish, and he tried to figure out how this happened, when it happened, and now that he was here, what where they going to do?
"Allelujah." Tieria said simply, bringing two fingers to his forehead and closing his eyes, trying to rub away an impending headache.
"It's not like I could have told you guys, right?" Allelujah put in quickly. "It happened so fast, they told me, the months came and went and he was here."
"Who are you?" The little boy asked softly, peering up at Tieria.
Tieria opened his eyes, and looked down at the young boy. His eyes were still bright, unmarred by the effects of war, and he knew them so well. His hair was a vaguely tamed mop, and appeared to be the same color as Allelujah's. His skin was light, and there were dark patches under his eyes, similar to Allelujah's.
Tieria pondered his response to the boy. Would it be 'I'm the guy that's going to wring your father's neck the next time I see him?' Or 'I'm a Gundam Meister?' Or simply 'I'm Tieria Erde.' He didn't know yet, but the boy was staring at him, eyes still bright and cheerful, but questioning.
"Tell me your name first." Tieria said, bringing himself down to eye level with the boy.
"I'm Alex. Alexavier Neil Haptism Dylandy." He said proudly.
"You're bright for a three year old." Tieria noted, looking Alex up and down.
"I'm almost four!" Alex exclaimed , his expression changing quickly from questioning to annoyance. He looked from Tieria over to Allelujah who nodded, still looking as sheepish as ever. "Yeah, four!"
"Alright, Alex. I'm Tieria. Tieria Erde." Tieria said, sticking his hand out to shake. Alex grabbed three of his fingers and shook, before retreating back to Allelujah, who quickly picked him up and held him close.
"You have… so much explaining to do to the others, Allelujah Haptism, but first you need to explain to me-"
"Lockon?" came Allelujah's startled voice, ending Tieria's huffy rant.
"You know, I'm becoming rather tired of that welcome." Lyle said, a sardonic smile gracing his lips. He stepped into the room and smiled properly at Allelujah, when Alex caught his eye.
"Papa?" Alex exclaimed, climbing down from his perch on Allelujah's lap and running over to Lyle. He began tugging on his pants' leg and raised his arms to be lifted.
Lyle's eyes opened wide as he leaned down to lift the boy instinctively. "And who are you, little man?"
Goddammit, Tieria was going to throttle Neil Dylandy if he ever got his hands around his neck. He began rubbing his temples in an effort to sooth the headache that was now making it's presence known, throbbing away in the back of his head.
"You look just like me, little guy." Lyle said, bouncing the boy in his arms.
Yes. If Tieria ever got his hands on Neil Dylandy again, there would be blood.
"What the hell?"
Tieria looked up to see Setsuna standing at the door, an utterly dumbfounded expression on his face, something that rarely happened, if ever. Looking from Allelujah's sheepish look, to Alex's gleeful face, to Lyle's confused, but amused face, back to Setsuna's questioning gaze at Allelujah, Tieria wished he could get a hold of Neil just once more.
"Ooooh, is that a Haro?" Alex squealed. "Lemme see!"
There was no mistaking it. Alex had to be the son of Neil Dylandy.
~!~ Flashback~!~
There where many times that Tieria noticed something going on between Lockon and Allelujah. Whether it be complex glances at one another during a mission briefing, or Allelujah's finger looped in Lockon's pants' loops, and Allelujah sometimes even answered Lockon's door when someone knocked. There was little hints all the time.
Not that anyone besides Tieria noticed that. Maybe Feldt did, but she certainly didn't say anything about it. However, Feldt didn't witness nearly half the things that Tieria did. Most of which happened at night. Tieria saw a few amusing and sometimes strange things when he left his room for a walk. After the first few times, he made an effort to pass both Allelujah's and Lockon's room in hopes of seeing something that would further prove that the two were out of their damned minds.
He once saw Allelujah sneaking down the corridors in nothing more than Lockon's green tee shirt and his boots. Sometimes he saw Lockon sneaking into Allelujah's room. Sometimes it was the other way around.
He once witnessed a strange happening that he filed away in the "Lockon and Allelujah are freaks" folder in his mind. He saw the door to Lockon's room slide open, and Allelujah float out in his pajama bottoms, pulling on his shirt, but having it ripped out of his hands by who Tieria assumed was Lockon.
"No, Lockon," Allelujah whined, trying unsuccessfully to grab his shirt back, "I really need to go!"
"Mmm, you don't, though." came Lockon's voice, lowered to a predatory purr. "You can stay with me tonight."
"I need to be in my room in the morning!"
"You could wake up in my arms in the morning."
"Lockon!"
"I'll bring you breakfast in the morning. In bed." Tieria saw Allelujah waver, and then saw strong arms grab Allelujah's biceps and lift him up, his lips meeting Lockon's in a searing kiss. One arm found it's way around Allelujah's hips as Lockon pulled the younger man back into his room.
The door slid shut with a click.
Tieria recalled staring blankly for a moment, then moving on with his life. He honestly couldn't find himself caring less if Lockon and Allelujah were indeed lovers.
Which apparently they were or Alex Dylandy wouldn't be mistaking Lyle Dylandy for his father.
~!~
"Well. Genetic tests don't lie." Sumeragi said, turning to face Allelujah and Alex. Alex was playing with Haro on the floor while Allelujah looked at Sumeragi sheepishly. She smiled at Allelujah and shook her head.
"Not that there was any doubt there. Alex looks just like him." She went on, bending down to pat Alex fondly. He smiled sweetly at her. "Did Lockon know?"
"No. I didn't even know until the HRL started doing tests on me." a bitter look crossed Allelujah's face as he recalled the awkward and degrading testing. "So they started making sure I had three meals a day and pills to ensure proper growth."
"So they took care of you?"
"On the grounds that I would tell them nothing unless the baby was born safely. And taken care of."
"How exactly did you manage to get them to agree with that?"
Allelujah's lips curled up in a sly smirk and Sumeragi chuckled.
"I simply proved I'm still more than capable of being dangerous."
~!~
"No! Don't shoot!" screamed a doctor as he clawed at Allelujah's arm, desperately trying to dislodge Allelujah's hand from his throat. Allelujah chuckled darkly and pressed the gun in his hand that was positioned at the doctor's forehead harder into his skull.
"I don't think so, doc." He said, squeezing tighter. "You see, you're one of the best doctors around here. Possibly the best, right?"
The doctor nodded as best as he could under the circumstances, and Allelujah went on.
"Right. So if something… fatal were to happen to this skilled doctor, then consequently something just as fatal happened to skilled pilots here… wouldn't that be a shame? I think it would be indeed be a shame. Just a damned shame that a prisoner went on a berserker rage due to the untimely death of an innocent life. What with the doctor gone, and so many skilled pilots gone, what if Celestial Being showed up to collect their captured pilot? That could be the end of the Human Reform League, wouldn't it? Even more so if said pilot was dead. All because some doctor couldn't protect an innocent life. Shame, huh."
Accordingly, all in that same day, Allelujah was moved to a cell that was a little more comfortable and made to exercise at the minimum amount per day, and was fed three times a day and given check ups by the same doctor every two weeks. No one questioned why this was allowed.
Allelujah himself spent a lot of the first months of his pregnancy mourning his late lover, and trying his best to focus on the present. He was torn up inside, emotionally, mentally and now physically with a little life that was growing inside him. Slowly though, Allelujah's thoughts moved from mourning Neil, and focused on to his baby. As he grew, and Allelujah stretched to accommodate him, Allelujah felt himself growing more and more attached to the unborn child. The baby kicked, and Allelujah would poke him back. When the baby was restless and unwilling to stop so that Allelujah could sleep, Allelujah simply sat up and spoke to the baby, telling him the hopes and dreams that he once held close, and how much he loved him. Sometimes Allelujah spoke of Neil, but it was rare. The wound was still too fresh, and Allelujah couldn't speak of him yet without crying himself to sleep with the baby moving around, obvious to his father's pain.
~!~
"He's going to come out of where?" Allelujah asked with a vaguely horrified look on his face.
"Allelujah, has no one explained to you how a man births a child?" The doctor questioned, looking at Allelujah who, as usual, looked uncomfortable with his eight month bump and his legs in stirrups.
Allelujah shook his head in the negative. Of course he knew men were capable of having children- it was a mutation created… in case. That was all the government said when the gene was introduced two hundred and fifty years ago. But no one had ever bothered to tell Allelujah how a man birthed a child once he conceived.
The doctor sighed deeply. He had become fond of Allelujah in the course of eight months, seeing that he wanted nothing more than to live for his son. He had once said that his son was now his only reason to live.
"Allelujah, it's quite simple really. During the course of your pregnancy, a birth canal has opened an inch and a half above your anus. It was there before, of course, but closed because you didn't need to use it. Now it's opened and can be used to deliver the baby. It will close over again once your body notes that the baby is out, and it will look like a lump of scar tissue, before disappearing again. I would prefer if the baby was birthed via cesarean section, but if push came to shove, you would have to birth the baby yourself."
The vaguely horrified look on Allelujah's face was now completely horrified and the doctor couldn't help but chuckle.
"Don't worry. You'll be fine if the c section can't be preformed. Just remember: make sure he stays warm and keeps breathing."
Famous. Last. Words.
It was one week until Allelujah's scheduled cesarean section when intense contractions began to hit. It was the middle of the night and one of the roaming soldiers had just left after checking up on him. He was completely alone and another soldier wouldn't be along to check on him for another hour.
Labor was hitting him fast. The pain was intense, much worse than what he expected, but it was nothing he couldn't handle. Slow, deep breaths became his mantra as he moved himself into a birthing position. Slow, deep breaths as he bit his lip and tore at the sheets below him. Slow, deep breathes as he felt to see how far along he was. Slow, deep breaths as he eased his legs apart and pushed with his contractions.
The slow, deep breaths became short, erratic gasps of air as Allelujah felt his son's head crowning under his fingertips. Short, erratic gasps gave way to long relived sighs and Allelujah brought his hands under his son's arms and eased him the rest of the way out. Long relived sighs became joyful tears as Allelujah patted his son's back in a effort to help the boy breathe. In moments, he was crying along with his newborn, wrapping him up in the clean sheet he had tossed to the side for when the baby came.
He covered himself, and tried to sooth his son, whispering softly to him and cleaning him up. The boy was as the doctor said he would be: small so that Allelujah could carrying him to term, but completely developed. But he was so much more to Allelujah, and he honestly could not stop his tears from falling even when he decided upon a name.
"Alexavier." he whispered to the quieted infant. "My Alexavier."
After he spent a week recovering from the birth, Allelujah was moved to a solitary room for confinement and occasional questioning. He was allowed to see his son during feeding times, both when he ate, when his son needed to. Otherwise else, Allelujah was constantly separated from Alex. Even so, he managed to bond with his son as much as possible, and let him be a child. During the time he was allotted, Allelujah told his son stories about Celestial Being, told him about Setsuna and Tieria and the rest of the crew. But he mostly spoke of Lockon- no, of his father, Neil. He loved watching his son's smile grow when he spoke of his "Papa".
Allelujah also loved to look at his son. He looked so much like Neil that Allelujah just wanted to hold the boy and never let go. Alex had the same deep green hair that Allelujah let grow out, sparkling blue eyes that were untainted by war, and a charming smile that had the female soldiers cooing over him whenever the higher ups weren't looking.
Allelujah had no idea what was happening to Alexander when the boy wasn't in his sights. He hoped that he was being treated correctly, and he assumed he was being treated well as Alex spoke his first word…
At eight months of age.
Months turned to years as Alex grew, tottling into Allelujah's arms uneasily as he took his first steps, learned to hold things by himself, learning to speak in simple sentences and recognize simple words.
~!~
If it was one thing Allelujah wonders when he is alone and muzzled, it's what would happen if Celestial Being found him again? Would they rescue him? Would they allow him to keep Alex, even though his work demands that his child would be in constant danger, and his parent would be pulled from him routinely as well?
Mere days after seeing Marie again for the first time in years, Allelujah jolts up from a light slumber as his door is blown apart. He looks in time to see Setsuna rush in and hand him a map of where he is supposed to be and at what time.
His brain is a jumbled mess as he demands another bomb from Setsuna and takes off in search of what he understands is Alex's nursery. He grabs the first soldier he finds and demands that he is told where Alex is being kept. Once the information is given, he promptly knocks out the soldier out and takes off.
He yells for Alex to move away from the door, and quickly blows it open. Alex runs for him and Allelujah gathers the boy in his arms, then runs to his designated position.
Once there, he waits, holding Alex to his chest securely. A click is heard and he turns around to come face to face with Marie, who still refuses that Marie is her name. She cocks her gun once again, just as his new Gundam breaks through the walls of the compound.
Allelujah was stuck. On one hand, there was Marie, the woman he wants to remember him more than anything. On the other hand, there is Celestial Being, the eradication of war and…
"Daddy!" comes Alex's frightened scream, breaking Allelujah from his conflicting thoughts. He makes his decision quickly and climbs into Arios with Alex on his lap, taking one last look at Marie and vowing to return for her.
~!~
As simple as Allelujah's life was in the compound, he wasn't there anymore, and now had to deal with the fact that Neil had a twin he never spoke of, not to mention that Alex had taken quite a liking to his Uncle Lyle. Which was Lyle's official name according to Alex.
It had been a week since his rescue from the compound, and Allelujah and Alex were adjusting well to life on the Ptolemaios 2. For Allelujah it was mostly readjusting, but for Alex, it was an entirely different world for him. Being that the Gundam Meisters were the first to see him, he liked them the most. He hated being cooed at and coddled, but he didn't mind being picked up by his uncle, and he didn't mind watching Tieria as he worked. Tieria had even taken to explaining what he was doing to Alex, who smiled and nodded. Alex also liked to follow Setsuna around quietly, and observe what he was doing. Setsuna didn't appear to mind, and patted Alex's head to show he acknowledged that the boy was there. The Meisters adjusted to having a child around well, and showed him affection when they could, noting the extreme likeness to his late father.
Alex's adjustment aside, Allelujah was having his own problems adjusting when the mirror image of his late lover was constantly around, reminding him of what he could never have and hold again.
Lyle was like Neil, sure. He was respectful, but Lyle was unrefined. He was kind, but Lyle was rough around the edges. Neil kept things real, and he was blunt. However, Lyle seemed to be keeping secrets and keeping the rest of the team in the dark. As much as Allelujah didn't like that, he still felt himself being drawn to the older Meister in a similar way he was drawn to his brother. With Neil he had an emotional connection he gained from being in close quarters and learning about each other, and falling in love.
But with Lyle… it felt sexual. Lyle had an aura of danger that surrounded him. He was the unknown Gundam Meister. Allelujah wanted to figure him out and understand him. And to get in his pants, but that could be due to the fact that he looked like his brother and Allelujah hadn't slept with anyone in over five years.
Lyle was complex, but Allelujah wanted simplicity, a luxury that he could no long afford. Not when he had Alex. He had to be strong for his son. He just couldn't give into Lyle in the ways that he wanted to. And that was just putting aside his love for Neil, and the fact that this was Neil's twin. Things with Lyle would never be simple.
~!~
"You're avoiding me." Lyle said one day, having cornered Allelujah in the living quarters.
"You're following me." Allelujah replied, tensing.
"Allelujah, Neil is dead. He's gone. And I'm not him."
Allelujah sighed deeply. "Thanks for the reminder, but I know that he's gone. And I'm more than aware that you're not him."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Lyle asked, looking slightly offended.
"It means that I know you're not him. I know him. You're nice like he is, but you're… different. Rough. Not Neil. I didn't mean anything but what I said."
"Well he obviously didn't tell you everything about himself, did he?" Lyle said, motioning toward himself. Allelujah felt himself bristle at the low comment, but he didn't bother with a reply.
"Why do you run from me like I'm a ghost?" Lyle went on.
"I'm not. I just have enough to do to keep me busy."
"Maybe you do. But I would like to get to know my nephew's mama."
Allelujah's shackles rose higher and he whirled around to face Lyle. "I am not a woman. I'm Alex's father."
Lyle held his hands up innocently, not liking the look in Allelujah's eyes. "I was just kidding. No need to get your underwear in a knot."
"That's your idea of a joke?" Allelujah asked, stepping toward Lyle, planning to dodge him and escape from the room.
Lyle shrugged. "Not really. It's just that you're so uptight and-"
"Uptight?" Allelujah hissed, shooting the man a look. How was it that Lyle could get under his skin so well and so easily?
"Yes, uptight!" Lyle went on, obviously just goading Allelujah on. "Look at you, getting all upset because I called you a mama and uptight."
Allelujah took a calming breath. "At least I don't think people are avoiding me when they aren't. And I show people some respect when they don't want to be bothered!"
"Only because you're too afraid to get attached to someone else because you think they're going to up and disappear on you."
"That's a lie!"
"It's not." Lyle said coolly. "You were my brother's lover, and my nephew's father, but you don't want me anywhere near you."
"That's not true, I just…"
Lyle grabbed Allelujah by his arm, and pulled him close.
"I can't… I can't lose anyone again." Allelujah admitted, seeing that he wasn't going to escape for the time being. "I can't do it, I just can't do it, I can't handle it again…"
"You don't have to." Lyle interrupted, leaning close, brushing his lips over Allelujah's. "Just hold on… And learn to let go when you need to."
Allelujah's head started to spin when Lyle's lips met his own. The two brother's were different indeed; Lyle's lips were uncertain, but eager and wanting. He tasted of spice and Allelujah found himself craving this different taste, this addictive flavor the moment that Lyle's tongue tentatively touched his own. Allelujah's cheeks flared up, the heat rising from his belly to his neck and face. It warmed him from the inside out and he could feel his control slipping away. Just the taste of this man made him weak kneed and wanting. All Allelujah wanted to do at that moment was let Lyle take control.
One of Lyle's hands found its way around Allelujah's waist, the other tangled in Allelujah's long locks. Allelujah did the same, his arms wrapping comfortably around Lyle's neck as their kiss became more heated, and Allelujah craved more.
More. One of the few coherent thought's that ran through Lyle's mind as Allelujah moaned softly. But the newfound bliss was interrupted when Allelujah pulled his lips away from Lyle's and rested his head on his chest.
There was a sense of intimacy between them now, as if this single kiss allowed Allelujah to face one of the things in his life that was going wrong. He had found a connection of sorts with Lyle, though it was a little more than unwanted on his side of things. Now that he was separated from Lyle's addictive lips, his thoughts re organized themselves.
"I can't do this." Allelujah whispered.
"You can." Lyle cut in, wanting to continue their previous activities.
"I can't!" Lyle looked at Allelujah questioningly so he elaborated. "… Neil. He's gone. But I… I haven't let go. Before I can hold on to something else. I just…"
"Need to let go?"
"Yeah. Let me go, Lyle."
