Please enjoy my fanfic and review.

September 16, 2047(Mon)
Subject: I am here
From: Mikako Nagamine

Noboru, hi. By the time you get this message, everything that happened will probably be old news, so I won't explain. I don't have much time to anyway. I just want to say some things… First, I'm really glad to have known you and have always cherished our memories. Second, if you don't get anymore messages from me… don't wait… I… want you to continue on with your life. Please, don't be sad. I'm sorry and thank you for everything. Farewell.

Noboru Terao, 27 years old, 1LT of the Medic Team on the U.N. Operations ship, Aerith. He had received that message two years, six months, eleven days, and seven hours ago. Mikako was… a friend, he knew her since childhood and she had joined the U.N. army shortly before high school. But, if she was only just a friend… why did he continually check his messages like a man possessed, after she left so long ago? Why did he push himself so hard to get into the U.N. army too? Why did he request the phone number of his old civilian cell phone transferred to his military issued government specialized phone? He had chosen a specialized ring for this phone, "Through the years" by Tenmon, it reminded him of her. Suddenly, that tune was playing, the phone pleading for him to check his new message. He reluctantly grabbed the phone, it was probably his supervisor with some "good idea" involving more dumb work.

March 27, 2049(Thur)
Subject: I am here
From: Mikako Nagamine

I'm so cold. Please, help. Everyone on the Lysithea is dead and I'm scared. Noboru, find me.

Noboru stared at the message. He blinked, but it was still there. It was impossible, someone was seriouslymessing with him. It was impossible because the message was dated two years after the Tarsian ambush on the Lysytheia. It was impossible because Mikako was... he had helped bury her. Not her body... they never found that among the wreckage of the Lysithea. Like so many others who fought bravely along side her, her Tracer was lost, floating in infinite space.

He screamed as he slammed the phone into the table, shards of plastic puncturing his hand. He got up and went to the bathroom to remove the material and clean the cuts. Trying not to bleed on the carpet, he made his way to the cabinet where he kept the medical supplies. Tightly, he wrapped a bandage around the wounds and took out a bottle of pills. Shaking out two, he popped them in his mouth.

"Here you go." The other person in the room said, offering a glass of water.

The bottle vomited its red, easy to swallow, wax-coated contents on the carpet as Noboru flinched away from the owner of that sweet, haunting voice. There stood Mikako, still only 15, dressed in her pilot's uniform, beautiful. She smiled and put a unnaturally cold hand on his cheek.
"Noboru? I came back... I came back for you. Aren't you glad to see me?"

Norboru jerked awake as he felt the hand on his shoulder. He looked up into the startled face of his assistant.

"Sir, are you alright?" She asked, reaching over to pull off a sheet of paper that was stuck to his face.

Real smooth, Noboru. He thought as he wiped his face with a hand.

"Yeah. What's up Sergeant Nalgi, uh... Serra?" he said, pretending to organize the other papers on his desk.

"Well, sir. I was wondering if you were going to eat..." Damn, what was that thing called…? LUNCH! She shouted out that last word.

"I mean, that is, do you want to go eat it… with me… or maybe I should just go grab something for you?" She started backing out, picking up a bundle off the ground.

"Wait," he said, a little too loudly, he softened his voice, "hold up, let me just grab my stuff and I'll join you"

He grabbed his coat and started walking to the door, but suddenly stopped and marched back toward his desk.

"Where is it, where is it?" He mumbled as he shuffled through the mess of his work area.

"Got it!" He proudly announced holding up his cell phone. He quickly glanced at it, no new messages

He shoved it in his pocket. "Let's go."

When they got to the dining facility, it was packed full of people to the point where the line ran outside.

Serra Nagli mentally smacked herself. Of course this one is stuffed, it IS the main dfac! Why did she drive them to this one? So much for getting a free table… She looked down at the package in her hands.

"Should we go someplace else?" she suggested.
Noboru smiled, "Yea, we could probably go to…" his phone started ringing…

"Hello? What? Really? Now? No, I'm not busy… yeah, give me fifteen minutes"

Serra sagged, "I guess I'll drive you back?"

"Sorry" Noboru grimaced. "I'll need a ride back and you can go eat chow. I'll make it up to you?"

"It's not a big deal… really! I…" Serra stopped mid sentence and they both walked back to the vehicle in silence.

The rest of the day was frantic; Noboru was in meeting after meeting, stopping only to grab a few bites from the package Serra was carrying before. It was a lunch box that she had made.

"Sir, eat this and I'll see you later?" She had smiled and pushed the big bundle into his hands.
It was full of food that he enjoyed; steamed rice, strips of baked chicken, deviled eggs and chilled coleslaw. Noboru put the leftovers in his mini fridge with all the other foods she made for him.

He tried to ignore the idea that she had a 'thing' for him, he was five years older than her and more importantly, he was her boss. The military would have frowned upon such 'conflicts of interest'. Besides, she had plenty of male admirers. She radiated a beauty that made men walk into walls and women smack gawking boyfriends. She had come into the military with an associate's degree in pediatrics and was working on her bachelor's. She had a cute, infectious laugh that stemmed from her sharp humor.

She had once told him about how she got her name; when she was young, she thought it stood for Seraphim, a class of angels. In actuality, while in labor, between murderous threats of "holding Serra's father accountable for her state" and incensed vows of bloody retribution, Serra's mother screamed that Serra's father name her Serra. Only after Serra's mother had revived from delivery, did he realize that it wasn't Serra but Sarah. By then the papers were finalized and Serra's mother cheerfully decided to keep the name.

Nobru's phone rang again and suddenly the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. The dream with the strange message was still in the back of his mind. However, it was just a message from his boss. He had been "volunteered" by Major Sepiroth, his supervisor, to make a presentation for the BIG boss in fifteen minutes.

Noboru raced through his office doorway and stopped at the front desk.

"Serra, I need the casualty log for that last mission, you know… uh…"

"The one with Juliet company. Here you go sir."

"Damn, I also need the slides from the cadet virtual war console gaming simulation"

"Alphabetical or chronological?"

Noboru staggered, not because Serra was on top of things, but because he realized his storage card was buried somewhere on his desk and would be impossible to find.

Serra was already holding up her card with two slender fingers.

Snatching the card with mumbled thanks, Noboru ran to closing elevator doors and down two flights of stairs when his phone rang again.

March 27, 2049(Thur)
Subject: Meeting no-go
From: Algus Styles Sepiroth

Meeting cancelled. I want the files on the game simulation and Juliet casualty log. Drop them off on my desk by the end of the day.

Noboru sighed, he knew that was going to happen. He wondered if it was possible to get in another nap before the next "emergency"; he hadn't been sleeping well at night. As Noboru walked into his office, he heard her before he saw her.

"That's really funny, so she kept the name, Serra?"

"Yup, my father was quite embarassed though"

His heart collided with his mind. Serra was at her desk casually speaking to another female. It would have been easier for Noboru to single-handedly support the weight of the Aerith, like it was a paper plane, than stop the name from slipping out of his mouth.
"Mikako?"