Akatsuki always asks about his father. About what he was like, what he did for a living. About where he was now, why he wasn't with us.

Kudelia and I tell him half lies. That Mikazuki, his father, was a soldier in Tekkadan, that he fought to protect us, to change the lives of the people living on Mars. That he gave his life to protect us from those who wanted to hurt us, so we could live our lives in peace.

We tell him these lies so he'll know what Mika did for him before he was born, but not that Gjallarhorn, the group that works with the Mars Union, killed his father, killed his mothers' friends putting down the group that helped change the system into what it is today.

After all, Rustal wouldn't want the son of the leader of the Mars Union asking people why his father had to die. It wouldn't be good for him to be answering questions about why a "terrorist" had to die.

Some of the former members of Tekkadan visit us sometimes. Yamagi often comes by to talk about the old days. Dante and Chad, and some of the other guys from the orphanage often bring some of the kids up with them, so Akatsuki doesn't get lonely when we can't visit the orphanage. He's made friends with some of them, some of the others he's not so keen on, but he tries to be nice to them all.

Last night, the news were showing a report on the celebrations of the anniversary of Tekkadan's final defeat, and the start of the reforms. They were doing a special guest interview of some of the survivors of the battle. When I heard Gaelio Balduin and that woman, Julietta Juris, talking about their battle against them again, I wanted nothing more than to turn the TV off and go to bed.

But then Julietta said something that caught my attention.

"They had no place to belong to other than the battlefield. That was how they were."

'No place other than the battlefield'? For the first time in a long while, I was furious. If she had seen what the former members of Tekkadan were doing now, she would believe otherwise. I turned the TV off and went to bed. Akatsuki had been put to bed earlier and Kudelia was away due to the anniversary again, so there was no point staying up any later.

But as I lay there, trying to sleep, I began to wonder if she might have had a point. Mikazuki saved me, and he saved the others, that much was true. But he only ever seemed to be happy if he was with me and Kudelia, or if he was fighting. If he wasn't eating or doing something on Orga's orders, he was usually training with Akihiro or testing the Barbatos with Nadi. He barely even slept. I'd lost count of the amount of times I'd found him passed out in Barbatos, or asleep a corner somewhere, and one of the guys had to help me drag him to a bed because he'd wake up and try to go back to whatever it was he was doing.

And the others... Ride had not spoken to any of us ever since someone had shot Mr Nobliss. Some of the younger members of Tekkadan had refused to try to settle into a peaceful life, and had left us, looking for someone who could help them take revenge against Gjallarhorn, or who would let them fight.

Maybe we couldn't live normal lives after all?

I'd pushed the thought out of my mind, and went to sleep.

Sleeping was... Odd. Sometimes, I'd dream of being back in the brothel, and wake up screaming and sweating, usually making Akatsuki or Kudelia wake up as well. Other times, I'd dream of Mika, of that night... I'd wake up after those dreams crying because I missed him, missed him so much...

That night was one of those nights. I'd woken up crying, and spent who knows how long trying to stop. When I'd finally stopped, I heard the bedroom door creak open, and saw Akatsuki peeking in at me.

I tried to tell him that it was okay, tried to tell him it was nothing... He simply climbed on the bed and hugged me, and didn't say anything for a while as he hugged me.

Eventually, he let go, and he asked me something.

"Can I have chocolate for breakfast?"

I laughed, and said maybe, we'll have to see what cereal there is.

Watching him eat the cereal, I felt the sadness I felt this morning slowly fade away. Mika wasn't around, yes, but his last gift to me was one I'd always treasure. I knew he was watching over us with Orga, and Biscuit, and Shino and Akihiro, helping us all along with our lives.

Julietta said that we had no other place to live but on the battlefield. But the child sat in front on me, shoveling as much cereal into his mouth as he could while trying to talk about how he dreamt he was riding in a Graze in space was proof that she was wrong. We had a place that we belonged to. We belonged in our family.

And we still do now.

...

Author's Note: Sorry if this doesn't make sense/is all over the place/is bad/is OOC, I'm writing this at 12am and working off what I remember from the show and what's on the wikia. But I wanted to write a short fic from Atra's perspective after the end, so here you go. I hope you enjoyed it and be sure to check out my other stories!