A/N: I do not own Gundam SEED or any other factors of the franchise.
I've been juggling the general plot of this story around for a while, I wanted to post it for Valentine 's Day, then tried again for March 15, and now I am finally posting it for May 18.
So now, please go ahead and read, and please review.
Ch 1 One Discovery can change Everything
Birthdays are suppose to be a day of celebration, of having those around you treat you like the most important person they know, where you have that general atmosphere that your existence gave something meaningful to the world.
That's the general idea, but not really the way that one Kira Yamato was feeling at this moment, not in the current way he saw his life.
He was currently sitting on a bench in one of the local parks on one of the PLANT colonies. He had moved here after Lacus had become the chairwoman of the PLANTs so he could be close to her. He had become a ZAFT commander, usually always being at her side.
But their relationship had taken a bad turn; Lacus had spent all her time being very busy with the council and her political role. Kira knew she was working hard to make sure peace was maintained, but eventually she saw it was being far more important than maintaining their relationship. They broke up almost half a year ago; Kira had retired from the military, and was now working as a very successful freelance programmer. But that didn't mean he didn't feel pretty empty every now and then.
He looked around the park, and saw the numerous families that were around, parents playing with their children, just enjoying their lives.
Kira had always had a mental fantasy of what he had wanted to see his future.
He and Lacus would be married by now, have a beautiful child, they would have a nice house in a peaceful neighborhood, maybe a dog for their child to play with, and spend their weekends doing like these other families were, just running around the park, not a care in the world, just being happy.
But that was all it was now, a fantasy.
Despite if even Lacus's career, hadn't gotten in the way, he learned that he and Lacus weren't genetically compatible. As a third generation coordinator, and him being the ultimate coordinator, he had been informed the likelihood of him and Lacus having children was very low.
He knew that adoption could have always been a possibility, but that wasn't really what Kira wanted.
Truth be told, Kira had always had thoughts about his existence ever since he learned he was the Ultimate Coordinator. He had fought in two wars, using his superior abilities to pilot weapons of destruction to try to protect as best as he could. But it still scarred him, he could try to do as much good as he could, but it wasn't enough. He always wanted to leave a mark of some kind, to show himself that he could be something more than a soldier, than some science experiment of his father, then the both praised and feared pilot of the Freedom.
He always thought that maybe being a father would help him with that, seeing a little face of innocence, that still wouldn't know about the truth of the world, about all the fighting in history, a life that he could help guide through life, but most importantly, a little life that would be just like him. Another Ultimate coordinator, one that wasn't created because of some science driven goal, instead one that was created out of love, with him and Lacus there to raise that life right, doing everything they could to make that child's life better each day. To watch them grow up with a life that wasn't anything like the life he had ever since he entered the Strike's cockpit.
But that's all it was now, just a fantasy.
Honestly at this moment he didn't believe he would encounter another girl he loved as much as he did for Lacus.
Now he was here, sitting alone in a park on his birthday, depressed about what he was missing in his life. He had told his friends he just wanted to spend the day to himself, technically it was Cagalli's birthday as well, but like Lacus she was busy with her own political position, and Athrun was busy as well in the ORB military.
"Birdy," came a robotic voice from above him, and Kira looked up to see his small robotic bird flying in the air, coming to land back on his shoulder after Kira had left him to fly off about half an hour earlier.
"What's up birdy?" Kira asked him as he transferred the robot to his palm.
"Birdy, …birdy birdy," the robot chanted.
After years of owning his robotic companion, even though he only ever said one word, Kira could recognize when he was trying to tell him something.
"What's wrong?" asked Kira.
Birdy flew off his hand and glided off towards the wood area of the park, Kira took that to mean his message, sighed, stood up, and followed after him.
It wasn't like he had anything better to do right now.
He head into the woods, mentally thanking himself for wearing boots. While the weather on the PLANTs was artificial, and the fact that it was technically summer down on earth, the local weather service changed the climate to be different every few weeks on certain of the colonies. Right now it was a little bit chilly after a bit of artificial rain showers the previous day, so there was mud everywhere.
Kira continued to follow birdy through what seems like endless trees and bushes till he started to hear the faint sounds of crying, a child's crying.
It was till a couple of more feet further that he ended up finding Birdy, on the ground, right in front of a small little girl with brown hair, wearing a light pink coat and booties, who was crying into her little hands covering her face, sitting at the base of a tree.
'He found a lost child, that's what he was trying to get my attention for I guess,' thought Kira.
He decided to be the good person he was, and continued walking towards the little girl.
The sounds of his footsteps crunching down on the stick and leaves on the ground got the little girls attention, who looked up from her crying to see a stranger right in front of her.
"Hi, are you lost?" asked Kira, giving his most friendly smile.
The little girl just looked at him, unsure if she should say anything, while also being a bit scared of him just because he was a stranger.
Kira seemed to pick up on it, so he tried to start off with something small. He took a handkerchief out of his pocket and slowly handed it to the little girl.
"Here, why don't you wipe away your tears," he said to her.
She just stayed still for a moment, then lightly took it from him, and wiped her eyes.
"I'm guessing you're not supposed to talk to strangers, but I just want to help you. My name is Kira, Kira Yamato. Do you mind telling me your name?" he told her.
The little girl kept wiping her eyes, and then finally replied in a tiny voice, "My name is Kari."
"Hello Kari, it's nice to meet you. Are you lost?" he asked her.
She slowly nodded her head, "my mommy brought me to the park for my birthday, but I wanted to get her a gift and I got lost."
"You wanted to get a gift for your mommy on your own birthday, that's cute," he said with a friendly laugh, "what were you trying to get her?"
"A red flower, she likes red flowers," she said.
"Oh, you mean a rose," Kira said. He recalled that there were a patch of rose bushes near a pond close by to where they were, he guessed the little girl had been looking for that area.
"But I couldn't find her again, and I lost the flower," she said.
"Well, how about I help you find her," said Kira, extending his hand to her.
The little girl slowly took it, and Kira helped her up. They slowly made their way out of the woods, with birdy following after them. Kira started to look around for park security, so he could try to report a lost child, but like the expression goes, there's never one around when you need one.
He did end up spotting a flower stand, and decided to try doing something nice.
Taking Kari by the hand, they both approached the stand with Kira addressing the teenage girl in charge.
"Excuse me, by any chance do you have any roses for this little girl?" he asked.
"Oh of course, one second," she said, then went behind the cart and pulled out a small bouquet of roses.
Kira happily paid the girl for the flowers, who made a small comment as he left.
"Have a good day sir, I hope your daughter enjoys the flowers.
Kira chuckled, but didn't bother to correct the girl.
He went back over to Kari and gave the flowers to her, "here, now you have a lot of red flowers to give your mom," he told her.
Kari let her small mouth drop in amazement of the large collection of flowers, and then smiled and said, "Thank you so much mister Kira."
"You're welcome," said Kira, then took her hand again as they continued to walk again.
"So today's your birthday, today's mine as well," said Kira.
"Really? How old are you mister Kira?" asked Kari.
"Well I'm twenty five today, how about you?" he asked her.
Kari looked at her hand, and started counting off fingers, which Kira found cute. She then replied, "I'm nine."
"Wow, so your almost ten. But I bet your really smart for your age, aren't you?" he asked.
"I'm in fifth grade," she said.
"Guess I was right," he said.
"My mommy said I'm smart like my daddy," she told him.
"Oh really, what does your daddy do?" he asked.
"I don't know," said Kari.
"Why not?" asked Kira.
"Because he never around. I never see him, my mommy always gets water in her eyes when I ask about him, then starts hugging me really tight," she said.
Kira took his basic reasoning skills and took Kari's words to translate into her father not being around because either her parents were divorced or he was deceased. Taking her age into account, she was born sometime after the end of the first bloody valentine war, so her father must have been a solider who lost his life in battle.
"I'm sorry to hear, you seem like a really nice kid, your daddy would be proud to have a daughter like you," he told her.
"My mommy says I look a lot like my daddy, he left me this necklace," she said, referring to a small heart shaped necklace around her neck. Kira got a quick look at it, it seemed kind of familiar, though it was a little gold colored necklace that seemed to have some black marks on it, as if it had been burned at one point.
"It seems like he really would have loved you," said Kira.
"My mommy says he loves us both, I make my birthday cake wish every year that daddy will come home, so mommy can be happy and I can see her smile again," said Kari.
Kira was starting to feel a bit guilty, this little girl had never met her father, yet she was wishing that he could return home to her and her mother. She was destined to have a great disappointment in the future; he really wished he could do something to make it so that she wouldn't have to experience that.
"Mr. Kira, are you ok?" asked Kari.
"Oh, yeah, sorry I just got distracted. So, we should probably start looking for your mommy. What does she look like?"
She's tall, and really pretty," Kari said, as if that was enough of a description.
"Ok, but what else can you tell me about her. Like what color is her hair?" asked Kira.
"It's red, just like these flowers," said Kari.
"Red hair?" asked Kira, suddenly a familiar image started to come across his mind, when an even familiar voice came from behind him.
"Kari!" came a woman's voice.
"Mommy!" said Kari as she let go of Kira's hand and ran behind him. Kari hugged her mother who bent down to hug her little girl, she had spent the last hour or so looking around for her in worry, now finally found her walking in hand with some man she could only see from behind.
"Young lady, I have been looking everywhere for you," she said in a panic voice.
"I'm sorry, I just wanted to get you a present," she said, handing her mother the small bouquet of roses.
"Oh, their beautiful, where did you get these?" her mother said.
"That nice man bought them for me," said Kari, pointing to Kira.
He had not turned around yet, that voice had parlayed him in confusion. Birdy however, had also recognized the voice, and flew off Kira's shoulder and landed on the shoulder of Kari's mother, who became shocked when she recognized the robotic bird.
"Birdy?" she said in shock.
"She knows Birdy? It can't be," thought Kira. He finally started to turn around, and Kari's mother in full view, she herself gasped when she saw Kira's face.
"Ki…Kira?" she stuttered.
Kira couldn't move, just stood there staring at Kari and her mother, a person he was sure was dead, heck he had seen her die in front of her eyes. Then he took another good look at Kari.
'My mommy says I look a lot like my daddy'
Kari had brown hair and her eyes, Kira had never taken notice but they were the same shade of violet as his own. Ever her name, Kari, he realized if rearranged, spelled Kira.
Then finally, he took another look at her mother, holding the roses Kari had given her, with birdy on her shoulder, and realized he wasn't imagining things.
"Flay"
A/N: Really more rather just a small birthday snippet for Kira's birthday, reuniting him with his first love. The question is, what kind of reunion would it be?
I'd like to have at least five good reviews to help continue the story after this chapter.