"Growing Closer"
Disclaimer: Cyborg 009 the series, as well as its characters, do not belong to me. What does belong to me are the poems used in this story, the idea of the story, and my character 0015 a.k.a. Kat Clawz. Kayla Owens/0016 belongs to my friend SweetStar17, who gave me permission to use her character for this story.
So enjoy, people!
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"Table for four, please."
The maitre d' gave a short bow and showed the guests the way to their table. He couldn't help but look back at the guests and note that they didn't seem to be quite normal, particularly the silver-haired, steely-eyed man with what looked like a metallic hand. Odd…
The woman beside this man, however, looked a lot more normal in appearance. She was quite gorgeous, actually, with shoulder-length brown hair and glistening hazel eyes. 'They must be lovers,' the maitre d' thought. 'Lucky guy.'
He then turned his attention and noticed the oddest-looking couple of a middle-aged bald man beside a young long-haired brunette girl with turquoise blue eyes. 'They don't look like a couple at all,' the maitre d' thought. 'They look more like father and daughter. Yeah, that must be it.'
"Here is your table, and your menus are ready," the maitre d' said to the group as they sat in their seats. "Would any of you like a drink?"
"No drinks for me," the silver-haired Albert said. The hazel-eyed woman beside him, Kayla, shook her head in confirmation.
"Just a glass of water for me, please," the bald man, G.B., said politely. The maitre d' nodded and turned to the other girl. "And you, madam?"
"Do you serve milk?" the girl, Kat, asked curiously. Noticing the man's awkward expression, she added, "I need more calcium in my system." The maitre d' nodded in understanding and left the group alone.
"It was nice of you to bring us here for dinner, and on a special time as Valentine's Day," G.B. said to Albert with a smile.
"No problem," Albert replied, smiling back. "It's been awhile since I've taken Kayla out to eat, then I thought about you guys."
"This is very sweet of you, Albert," Kayla said to her lover with a deep blush of her cheeks. The arsenal cyborg rubbed the back of his head and blushed also. The cat cyborg quietly giggled as she saw this. "Aw, he's bashful," Kat commented aloud. "Anyways, this place is cool!"
A few minutes later, a different man, the waiter for their table, came up and placed each of the drinks in front of them. His eyes came to rest on Kayla, but then noticed Albert right besides her giving the waiter a raised eyebrow. Then the waiter looked at Kat and smiled. He turned to G.B. and gave a polite bow.
"Is this your daughter, sir? She's a cutie!"
G.B. quickly raised his hand to his mouth to cover a cough after the question. While Kat was giggling right beside him, the Britain calmly answered, "No, she's not my daughter."
"Oh, terribly sorry," the waiter quickly apologized. "Is she your niece?" A shake of the head from the transforming cyborg. "Your godchild?" Another shake of the head. "Family friend?" Yet another shake of the head. "Well then, what is the relation?"
G.B. and Kat turned to face each other with smiles on their faces, then they turned to face the waiter. "We're lovers!"
The entire room became silent; the heads of other dining guests immediately turned to face them. Even the waiter's expression became that of uncertainty. Seconds pass, then a rising of quiet murmurs fill the room. Even though the whispers were inaudible across the room to the normal person, Kayla and Kat's acute hearing from their cyborg abilities picked up the words "tramp" and "desperate pervert."
Hearing this made Kat flush with embarrassment, and for a moment she started to doubt her relationship with G.B. 'Now that I think about it,' she thought to herself, 'what do we have in common? What if we aren't meant to be?' With tears rolling down her cheeks, she stood up and bolted out of the restaurant.
"Kat! Kat!!" Kayla, Albert, and G.B. stood up and called after the cat cyborg, but they saw that she was long gone. Kayla and Albert ran out to catch up with their friend. G.B. glared angrily at the waiter and the diners in the room, causing them to cringe nervously, before he followed his friends out of the restaurant.
"What happened in there? Why did she run?" Albert asked the other two. Kayla looked at him with a troubled expression before answering. "Al…I heard them calling her names, and she must have heard them also. It may have something to do with their age difference."
Hearing this, G.B. bowed his head shamefully. "So this is my fault? Maybe it was a bad idea to-"
"Don't start talking like that!" Albert exclaimed, not necessarily with anger but with a sharp firmness, which startled the Britain. The German cyborg let out a soft sigh before continuing. "Look, it's not your fault. It's not Kat's fault either. Nobody is at fault, okay? People just can't apprehend that love isn't defined by age, but by how much you love each other."
"Obviously you two loved each other enough to not care about the age difference, and I admire that about you and Kat," Kayla added with an assuring smile. G.B. took in their words and smiled at them for their advice. "Thank you, guys. We better go find Kat and help her out."
Albert nodded and turned to the direction that the cat cyborg supposedly ran. "She might have transformed into a full cat to run quicker, so we better catch up as soon as possible. Kayla, why don't you turn into your fox form and try to find her. G.B., you could try to find her from above, so turn into a bird of some kind. I'll catch up to you both later by foot." The other two nodded and proceeded as planned.
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Exhausted from the long run from town to the shore of a beach, Kat finally stopped and sat on the cool wet sand by the water. Still in her cat form, more tears kept coming down in droplets onto the already wet sand. She didn't know what to do anymore. She couldn't go back and be judged again, but what else was there to do? Love didn't come to her so easily. The only reason it did come to her was because she was rescued from the control of Black Ghost. She didn't want to relive that time…
She looked up at the sky and noticed the flock of seagulls that were hovering right above her head. One in particular was actually watching her eye-to-eye, which slightly made her nervous. It was until the seagull dived towards her that she realized that this was G.B. in disguise. Turning back to her human form, Kat ran towards the spot where he would land and transform back.
"G.B.?! What are you doing here?"
Back as a human, the transformer cyborg took the hands of his cat cyborg lover and held them gently. "Kat, don't let those people get to you. They have no idea what love really means, what it's really like to feel the connection like we do."
Her eyes were locked on his, and she felt her tears drying into nothing. "G.B….I…"
"Kat…What I feel for you is neither a simple likeness nor even a little attraction; this feeling I have for you goes beyond what any normal person could comprehend. This feeling goes beyond the planet, and even goes beyond the entire universe; my love for you is as vast as this very ocean that reaches the very end of the world. I hope you understand that this love I feel for you can never be defined simply by words, but by what you feel in your heart. I love you more than you can imagine, and that's all that matters."
"G.B…." Kat's eyes watered, but not from sadness or embarrassment; rather, she was very happy by her lover's words. She embraced him tightly and stood there with him on the beach shore.
Farther away, Kayla and Albert watched the two lovers with smiles on their faces. The fox cyborg, now in her normal form, faced Albert and gave her lover a kiss on the lips.
"Somehow I knew they would work it out," Kayla said after the kiss. Albert nodded and gave a kiss back to Kayla. "You seem to know a lot about love, don't you?" With a chuckle, he took Kayla's arm in his and stood beside her as they both admired the sunset in front of them.
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The End