Genre: Drama/Romance
Rating: T
Notes: My latest GSD fanfic - where I shall totally change parts whereby I actually disliked in its' main series. Therefore, a total Alternate Universe - this story will be.
Pairings: Auel/Lunamaria & Athrun/Meyrin
Chapter 1 - Prologue
Cosmic Era 63 - ten years before the start of the Second War
Lunamaria Hawke huffed as she stomped her way out from the Hospital Main Entrance, she was unhappy to be the one shouldering all the blame of injuring a fellow school-mate of hers. After all, it was not exactly her fault.
How was she to know that the boy bullying her from before would just remain standing while she attempted to swing her fist towards the former. Moreover, how was she to know that her punch was powerful enough to knock a fully healthy 7 years old boy - out cold, rendering the former unconscious.
Turning around the corner, Lunamaria failed to pay her surrounding any attention and ended up walking straight into someone coming around the corner, from the other direction.
"Ouch!" Lunamaria yelped aloud, as she fall back onto the ground.
Irritation at her peak, Lunamaria did not bother to check her surrounding before allowing her anger to get the best of her and started cursing and swearing aloud. No sooner had she finished her cursing, she was finally brought back to the reality by the sounds of someone crying.
/Huh? Crying? ... Wait a minute ... /
Lunamaria's eyes widen significantly upon the sight of the boy sitting opposite from her - probably the boy she had crashed head on into, earlier on.
Lunamaria frowned as she took in the sight of the former's attire and gathered that the boy was probably a resident of the hospital. After all, the attire was a one-piece garb in white, reminding Lunamaria of nothing but the usual and typical hospital patient's gown.
Deciding that she might have been a little too harsh on the boy earlier on, Lunamaria decided to apologize by taking the initiative to make peace with the former.
Approaching the boy, Lunamaria plastered on a big cheerful smile and introduced herself cheerfully.
"Hi, I'm Lunamaria Hawke. Are you a patient here? what's your name? I'm sorry, but I didn't mean to lash out at you - earlier on. Will you forgive me? " Lunamaria pleaded with her most adorable expression, hoping that the boy will stop his crying.
Auel Neider blinked once, and then twice.
Staring up at the red-haired girl whom looked not much older than himself pleading with him to stop his crying. Auel's first impression was to stare blankly at the girl in return. It was not until the girl repeated her words for the second time around, did he finally caught on to the girl's meaning.
/Oh ... so she thought he was crying because of her swearing and cursing/ Auel mused, withholding his urge to smirk outright.
True, he was crying but it had nothing to do with the girl's doings. In fact, he was already crying when the girl rammed into him. Sensing that the girl was awaiting some sort of response from him, he replied numbly.
"It's okay." Hesitating for a moment, he added. "I'm Auel ... Auel Neider"
Following the end of his self-introduction, the girl opposite him going by the name of Lunamaria Hawke, started to smile cheerfully.
The bright and cheerful smile though nearly blinded his sight, causes him to smile back in return.
That was the start of their secret but blooming friendship, and the beginning of a child's innocent love. Although, that was something that they will never know until their fateful reunion - ten years later, during the brewing of the second war.
Ever since that fateful afternoon, Lunamaria would always head out to the park where she had first met Auel - to continue their secret meetings.
Auel, on the other hand, would always snuck out from the laboratory - whenever no one was looking. He would then run all the way over to the park where he had first met up with Lunamaria, they would then meet up and play together.
During those meetings, Auel would always remain silent while Lunamaria told him many stories of her experience in school, both the good and the bad. Occasionally, he would listen while Lunamaria rant and raved on the unfairness and the frustrations that she faced.
There were also times, whereby Lunamaria will share new and interesting things with him. Auel's eyes would always brighten up when Lunamaria bring something new and interesting and show them to him. For Auel, the time being spend in Lunamaria's presence was always his happiest.
After all, he never did have a chance to have fun with the others. Instead, he was always told to train and do drills - his parents' though care about his well-being, had no time for him. They were always looking after the other kids' - therefore, the only time he could truly be happy was when Lunamaria was with him.
Lunamaria had no idea what Auel's background was like - to her, nothing matters. In her eyes, Auel was just another unfortunate kid whom spend all his time living in the hospital - not being able to experience the many good things that took place in one's childhood years. Therefore, Lunamaria only wanted to help Auel create a better memory of his childhood. What she had no idea - was that Auel was in fact, a fellow 'Extended' candidate for the EAF in the near future to come.
Athrun Zala frowned, as his eyes landed upon the figure hurrying towards them and sighed aloud. He had no idea where Lunamaria had went off towards by herself, all morning - but he do know, that whenever Lunamaria had somehow disappeared off by herself. Without warning - he would ended up as the unofficial guardian for the younger redhead - Meyrin Hawke.
Like Kira, his best friend - the younger redhead, had a tendency to break down easily. Especially, when the school bully comes along and said some nasty things about them - theCoordinators, in general.
"Come on, Meyrin ... Just ignore him - and the whole lot of them. They are only saying things like /these/ - because they are envious of our abilities. " Athrun assured the younger redhead, whom was on the brink of tears - after being subjected to yet another bullying session.
"Athrun-san ... " Meyrin sniffed, as she tried to hold back her tears that were threatening to fall.
"Athrun ... I think I just seen Luna ... " Kira Yamato, the brown-haired Coordinator spoke up from behind Athrun.
Meyrin's eyes perked up upon the sound of her elder sister's name, and immediately looked towards the front gate where her elder sister was just stepping through.
"Onee-chan! " Meyrin greeted, smiling brightly as the elder redhead headed towards them.
"Aa ... Meyrin ..." Lunamaria greeted, but frowned upon the sight of her younger sister's reddening eyes.
Turning accusing eyes towards Athrun Zala, the elder redhead gritted out in frustration. "Athrun Zala - an explanation now! "
"... " Athrun Zala stared back dumbly, before shrugging it off - altogether. That causes the elder redhead to glare at him, which in turn - resulted in Meyrin's intervenation.
"Onee-chan, its' fine ... I'm fine ... Just that the school bully came by a while ago ... Its' not Athrun-san's fault ... "
Turning incredulous eyes upon the two boys, Lunamaria spoke up.
"And the two of you just stood aside and let them say what they deemed it fit to be saying? Despite the fact that - they were targetting at us, the Coordinators - in General!"
"..." Athrun Zala frowned, before responding.
"Well ... what else do you suggest that we do? Haven't you forget your previous experience when you attempted to bash one of them up? "
Lunamaria huffed and glared, but said nothing more for she was at a loss of speech.
Soon, the time comes for the Zala family to depart officially for the PLANTs. That year, was the year - Cosmic Era 65; whereby the relationship between the Coordinators and Naturals were getting more and more strained. Therefore, the Zala family decided to leave for the PLANTs - and the same to go for the Hawke's family.
The day before their departure, Athrun met up with his best friend - Kira Yamato, and handed the former a fare-well gift. An eletronic bird named - 'Torii', which Athrun had made himself.
Likewise, Lunamaria did the same for Auel. Unlike Athrun, Lunamaria had taken great efforts at learning to sewn from her family bulter. Although, it was not anything fanciful but it was meaningful to Lunamaria - for it was the first time she had tried making anything herself from scratch.
It was a handkerchief - a simple design handkerchief with the initials of Auel and herself being sewn on the one of the four corners of the handkerchief.
The handkerchief was meant for Auel to keep it as a memory keepsake, but Auel had treated the handkerchief as a treasure. In fact, he had nearly killed a fellow 'Extended' candidate - when the other boy attempted to steal that handkerchief from him. Ever since then, no one dared to touch that particular handkerchief of Auel.
Even years later, when Auel had his memory completely modified for the clause of the upcoming war - he still kept that handkerchief with him at all times, despite not knowing its' origin and its' meaning to him.
Yet, Auel could never really had the heart to throw the handkerchief away - somewhere deep buried within his heart, a nagging feeling was constantly reminding him that the handkerchief was very important to him. Thus, he kept the handkerchief - despite the fact, that he no longer remember anything about it.
Six months after the departure of the Zala and the Hawkes', the 'Yamatos' headed for the neutral colony - Heliopolis, instead of going to the PLANTs. At the same time, the Chairman of the PLANTs' Siegel Clyne, announced the engagement between Athrun Zala and Lacus Clyne, the PLANTs' pop idol.
The news was hardly surprising, after all, the two of them looked compatible enough to many. Meyrin smiled, bitterly as she watched the live broadcast of the ceremony from the television set of her family lounge.
Athrun Zala - her dream man, from the first time she laid her eyes upon him - she knew that she was smitten. From that moment on, her heart beats solely for the blue-haired Coordinator - but she kept her feelings hidden, unseen. Even now, as she watched the engagement ceremony between Athrun Zala and Lacus Clyne took place - Meyrin kept her emotions hidden.
Moreover, she do not have the time to dwell on such things any longer than necessary. For she had a feeling that something drastical was about to happen soon.
True to her premonition, Cosmic Era 70 - it was a year of tragical events. First, there was the Junius 7 - Bloody Valentine Tragedy, that resulted in the spark off of the war. Then, it was soon followed by the news of her father's sickness - due to the shock of losing her mother in the 'Bloody Valentine' event - itself.
Following which, Athrun Zala and several other boys their age - joined the Military, preparing for the war.
Due to her father's sickness, both Meyrin and her elder sister - Lunamaria barely had time for themselves, for they were required to juggle their schooling and the tending to their sick father, all the time. Thankfully, their mother had left behind a significant sum of money from her insurance to keep the family livehood going on. If not, Lunamaria might have to stop her study and head out to look for a job - in order to support the family.
Casting aside that matter, Meyrin had to take up the role of doing housework - in the absence of her mother. By immensing herself in such chores, she hardly had time to think about other matters that had nothing to do with her studies, and her family. That was perhaps why, she hardly had the time to go into shock when the Clyne family was being declared traitors - followed by the news of Athrun Zala's betrayal of the PLANTs, and the ZAFT.
It was not until the end of the war, and after the peace treaty was signed - did Meyrin and Lunamaria finally had a chance to sit down and think about their future endeavours. For their father had passes on peacefully, upon the same time which the final battle was brought to an end.
Meyrin knew Athrun Zala was there for her father's cremation ceremony, but she was too busy to keep an eye out for the former. Before she knew it, both Lacus Clyne and Athrun Zala had left the PLANTs - for somewhere else. Yet, no one knew exactly where those two had went off to and life simply just goes on from there onwards.
After much discussion with her elder sister, Lunamaria - Meyrin decided to follow her elder sister's example by enlisting into the Military.
to be continued
Date started: 30/12/07
Date completed: 30/12/07
Date edited: 03/02/08