Allelujah woke to the soft warmth of Marie snuggling against his chest, face buried against his neck as she breathed in the slow, steady rhythm of the peacefully sleeping. He froze and then relaxed with a small smile playing at the side of his lips, shifting slightly so that the blanket settled over her exposed shoulder. His priority taken cared of, he turned his head to glance out the window.
When the last mission against the Innovators and A-Laws had finished, the Ptolemy had limped her way to the twisted metal wreckages to miraculously rescue all her pilots. He had woken up to the curved glass of a medical stabilizer again – except that this time, it was not Soma Peiris that glared at him with unrecognizing eyes, but the tender concern of Marie as she prop him into a sitting position. When he had tried to stand, needing to see that they had succeeded, a disembodied voice had suddenly crackled out of the speakers, making him fall back in astonishment. Tieria had probed into the stabilizer and used the speaker to acidly inform him that he was in no condition to be out and walking and that according to the life-scan readings, the other pilots were in no condition to be visiting and chatting either.
It took a while for him to realize that Tieria wasn't there. The Innovade Meister patiently explained to him what had happened and that while his consciousness remained as a digital record within VEDA, his body was decidedly…lacking. Poor Marie looked like she was going to die of laughter when he paled and stammered out his sympathies for Tieria loosing his body. The other Meister had only sniffed, the familiar sound oddly comforting and left to confront yet another pilot attempting to escape from a medical stabilizer. Privately, Allelujah suspected it was Lockon. He had the sneaking hunch that Setsuna would simply override whatever proctols that Tieria tried to set on the machines.
He wandered into the bridge later that night, having finally convinced the computerized Tieria to release him. Marie helped guide him along as he limped his way with a growing appreciation for the benefits of zero gravity with every step. He released the breath that he hadn't known he had been holding when the double carbon-titanium doors had opened to reveal everyone inside. They had greeted him, welcomed him back home with hugs and tears and strong hands placed firmly on his shoulders. And he felt so guilty when he had opened his mouth, knowing that he was going to spoil the mood, until Sumeragi had winked and hushed him, pressing a small wallet into both his and Marie's hand.
They had ridden a solar elevator down to earth only a week after the battle. Tieria was exceedingly helpful with smoothing out the official processes and made the both of them memorize a string of code that could program any electronic device to link to VEDA's GN network. He reluctantly accepted, knowing that the peace they had could be broken so easily and the sacrifices they had made be nullified in a single foolish instant. Setsuna had wished them luck and promised to visit them sometime, and Lockon quietly pulled him to the side and told him to treasure every moment with Marie. When they had finally arrived to the beautiful white house perched on cliffs overlooking the sea, he had broken down and simply cried in Marie's arms and she had scolded him for smiling so childishly even though her own eyes had glistened a rich amber gold in the sunset.
They settled in and cautiously opened up to their neighbors, who had gathered to welcome the assumed newly-weds. Marie had blushed furiously when she realized what they had thought and Allelujah took the chance to take out the engagement ring that Saji had helped him pick out months ago. From what he could gather, the resulting kiss was still the subject of intense discussion within the community. He sighed fondly as his eyes drifted over to the calendar, where the date was underlined in bright red marker. One month left. And then after that, they would truly be a family.
"Still thinking about it?"
He turned over to meet Marie's sleepy but teasing grin. "Of course. You wouldn't want me to forget about it would you?"
"Never." She promised fiercely and reached up to gently kiss him on his lips. "I love you. And you have exactly 45 minutes left to get to work."
"Mm. Why do people want to send deliveries on Mondays?"
She offered him no sympathy. "If I remember correctly, you wanted the job, so do the job."
"I liked you better when you kissed me." He complained, but got out of bed anyway. He went into the bathroom and freshened up, putting on his suit and strolling out to the kitchen where the smell of pancakes teased his nose. Marie was already dressed in jeans and a loose T-shirt, sipping orange juice as she casually flipped the pancakes while reading the morning paper. Her lovely white hair was twisted into a messy bun and Allelujah couldn't resist tucking in a few strands of silky hair behind her ear.
"Last one." She proclaimed, stacking the final pancake on the dish with a flourish. "I think we still have some of that strawberry syrup from the farmer's market in the refrigerator."
"Not anymore." He wryly commented as he shook out the last few sticky sweet drops from the bottle. "I'll pick up something from the grocery store today. Is there anything else we need?"
"Wheat flour. And maybe some grapefruit. Do you want green beans tonight?"
"Didn't we have that on Friday?"
"They're good for you. But I suppose we could also have some roasted yams."
"Carotene. Yum."
Marie wiped her hands on the towel and neatly swiped the empty bottle. It made a mundane clank as it bounced into the plastic trash can. "Ten minutes."
"I'm done, I'm done." He neatly finished his last pancake, licking the remains of the sweet syrup off of his lips. The dishes joined the pan in the sink and he quickly patted his pockets checking for his keys and wallet. "I should be back before six. See you!"
"Bye." She said with a fond roll of her eyes as the muffled sound of the garage door opening combined with the rumbling purr of Allelujah's motorcycle. She listened under the noise faded to a low rumble in the distance before busying herself with washing the dishes. The water splashed around the sink, wetting the newspaper still on the counter under it was a dark jumble of words in a splotchy corner.
When she threw away the soggy paper, Marie never noticed the small log on the police records about a potential terrorist bombing threat.