Gundam 00: Angel
After a battle in the dessert, Allelujah finds a weak little girl among the ruins of a village, that he can't just leave behind. However, being a Gundam Meister and a parent doesn't mix. As the super-soldier will soon find out. LockonxAllelujah
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Gundam 00 or any thing related to it. This is just fanfiction. Co-creator, sushidei. Enjoy!
Allelujah Haptism had a soft spot for children. It pained him to see a child suffering which is why, when he saw a little girl sitting in the sand, thin and coughing, alone in the hot dessert heat, he had a hard time just looking away.
Seeing her in the sand among the ruins of a destroyed village in-between two dead bodies, that was possibly her parents, looking up to the sky as his gundam few over head.
Her big round innocent magenta colored eyes followed the gundam filled with fear, uncertainty, and pain.
Biting his lower lip, forcing himself to ignore the tug in his heart the site the little girl had created.
'Don't think about it. Don't think about it. You can't help her. It's not your business. She's just going to die.'
"Agh!"
At the lat thought Allelujah yelled out, looking back at the little girl who still had her eyes on his gundam. He couldn't leave her behind.
So he had turned Kyrios around to land it a few feet away from her, to get out of his orange machine, and walk up to the surprised and frightened little girl.
She looked fearful as she saw him approach, still in his black and orange pilot suit, his helmet hiding his face that hid his worried expression. Stopping as his shadow was cast over her and the two dead people at her sides.
The little girl seemed not to even be in the double digits, 8 at the most, and was trembling like a bunny rabbit cornered by a wolf among the bodies of her, or what he presumed to be, parents and others as he saw more blood in the sand and dead bodies of the other villagers started about. Not something anyone would want a child so young to witness.
She had on a simple tan dress, a few spots of blood splattered on her here and there, but no visible injuries and a white head scarf wrapped loosely around her head and neck, only her round tanned face with a small button nose, small lips and magenta eyes were uncovered.
Not missing a beat, Allelujah scooped up the little girl into his arms gently, surprised and concerned by her light weight, she still trembled in his arms as he walked back to his gundam.
"Don't worry. You're going to be alright."
He cooed softly as he sat in the cockpit with the little girl in his lap, before flying back to The Ptolemy.
The girl's eyes were wide with shock, as she spent the entire flight sitting stock-still on his lap, staring blankly out in front of her at the monitors that had gradually changed from the filmier dessert landscape, to the white fluffy clouds in the sky, to dark and starry space along the way.
Allelujah couldn't blame her.
During Celestial Being's last mission, many civilians had been caught in the fray and lost their lives. The fight taken place right over a small middle-eastern city, which had already been decimated by famine and a collapsed economy due to the lack of demand for oil.
The girl had already experienced things that no-one should ever have to… and Allelujah had found her sitting there... alive... malnourished but alive none the less, in the middle of ruins and dead bodies.
Pulling into Ptolemy, the realization hit him.
He had just brought a child back to Celestial Being's headquarters!
Sumeragi might agree with him taking in the little girl to a degree but… Tieria would certainly flat out KILL him.
'Then he just won't find out.'
Allelujah thought to him self as he carefully slipped past the other Gundam Meisters and crew members to his room.
---
He managed to smuggle the little girl back to his room (Which was rather difficult with a rainbow of loud mouth Haro's in the hanger.) he locked his door and set her down on his bed before he went looking in his bag and pulled out some bread rations and a half-full bottle of water.
'It's not much but it should do for now.'
He thought as he offered it to starving girl.
Looking up at him unsurely, but trusting him a little more now that she could see his face. Her tiny hands took the offered items timidly and hesitantly. She looked at the bread ration before bringing it up to her mouth.
She started with small bites, chewing it slowly, but as soon as she swallowed, she was shoveling the bread into her mouth so quickly that Allelujah was beginning to wonder if she was just inhaling it.
Her head scarf had slipped off her head as she was lunging for the food, and Allelujah noted, that her long dark curly hair was very similar to the youngest Meister's, Setsuna's, hair.
With was to be expected, since the boy had also come from a Middle Eastern country.
Finishing the last bit of her morsel and gulping down the last drop from the half full bottle, she looked up expectantly to Allelujah with a kind of begging puppy dog look. Making the Gundam Meister wish he had more to give to the starving child.
"Ah… sorry, I don't have any more," he said, holding his hands out in front of him, a frown coming across her face, looking like a puppy. Making Allelujah feel like he had just kicked a puppy just by looking at her.
"I-i can try and see if I can get some though, if you'd like."
She brighten up at the possibility of more food, looking like an excited puppy, she nodded her head rapidly. Making herself dizzy from her lack of experience in a 0 gravity environment, holding her head as the room seemed to spin.
Allelujah smiled as he gently patted her head before he complied with her wishes.
"Alright, don't hurt your self. I'll go get you something to eat. So stay right there."
He told her as he floated over to the door, but before he could press the 'unlock' button, it had opened for him.
His fellow Gundam Meister, Lockon Stratos was standing at the door, a smile on his face and his little robotic ball of orange of a partner, Haro, flying past Allelujah and into his room.
"Haro! Haro!"
The robotic ball of orange cried out as it landed on the bed beside the little girl Allelujah had stowed away.
"Yo!" Lockon greeted him, waving his right hand.
Before Allelujah's shocked mind could process what was happening; Lockon had dived in for a kiss. Pressing his lips against Allelujah's, pushing then back into his room so that the door locked back up again behind him. An advantage to having a Haro as a partner.
Lockon's arms wrapped around Allelujah's shoulders, steadying him as he guided him along towards the bed.
Once Allelujah's mind kicked in, realizing exactly where this was going, Allelujah reluctantly pushed away the older Meister.
"L-lockon! W-we can't!" He squeaked, glancing rather nervously towards the bed. The girl tilted her head to her right in curiosity, watching Haro flap it's 'ears'. However, the older Meister did not seem to notice the gesture and frowned.
"Allelujah, don't pretend like you've never— what the-?"
Lockon was saying before he looked in the direction of the other Meister's bed, looking directly at the little girl, eyes wide.
"W-what… what is a kid doing here?"
He asked, looking form Allelujah to the little girl whom was timidly reaching a hand out to touch his Haro.
Averting his eyes from the older man, Allelujah mumbled out his answer lowly, that the older man barely caught it.
"I couldn't just leave her."
Lockon sighed, his thumbs rubbing up and down his lover's shoulders. Gently, he pulled him into an embrace, letting his hands rub up and down his back soothingly.
"You're too soft, you know that?" He said into his soft dark hair.
Allelujah scoffed, nuzzling into the wool of Lockon's vest. "Like you're any better."
"Hello! Hello!"
Haro called out to the little girl, as he let her garb him with both her hands, and bring him closer to her face to be examed. She looked confused and curious about the little robot; it was so very cute that Lockon had to smile.
Pulling away from Allelujah, he kneeled down in front of the girl, giving her a friendly smile.
"Hello there princess. I'm Lockon." he said, holding out his hand to the small child.
The girl looked at his hand for a moment, before Haro spoke up.
"Shake! Shake! Lockon won't hurt you! Lockon won't hurt you!"
Haro encouraged her; she slowly took one of her hands away from the robot to touch his bigger hand tentatively with one of her smaller ones. Lockon let his fingers gently wrap around her hand, and gently moved it up and down in a handshake.
Lockon beamed. "You're so cute, you know that princess?" He said, leaning forward to plant a kiss on top of her head. The little girl giggled, sounding like a soft jingle of small bells to their ears.
"What's your name?" Lockon asked, cocking his head to the side. Allelujah, hadn't asked her name yet, so they had no idea what to call her.
The little girl opened her mouth to speak but no sound came out of her mouth, she closed her mouth and looked down at the floor sadly.
"Can't talk? Can't talk?" Haro asked as he floated around to face her.
Lockon frowned at the disability and wondered what could have taken her voice.
"I think she's in shock."
Allelujah said as he sat on his bed, bring the little girl into his lap and rubbing her back soothingly.
"I found her between two dead bodies. I think they were her parents and even if they weren't, she still saw a lot of people die right in front of her."
He said sadly, looking at the little girl in his lap who was holding Haro again.
"It's alright. It's alright."
Haro chirped, as he bobbed up and down, flapping his 'ears'.
Lockon nodded, bringing his right hand to ruffle her hair slightly, just because it looked and felt a lot like Setsuna's.
"For the time being. Why don't we just call you Hariyah?" he asked, a smirk plastered on his lips.
"Is that alright?"
The little girl looked at him for a second with shock before nodding her head slowly, so as not to repeat her first mistake.
"Huriyah? Did you just make that up?"
Allelujah asked the older Meister questionably.
Lockon chuckled as he turned towards the other man and shook his head. "No. It's Arabic. It means angel. She's so cute and innocent looking, just like a little angel."
"I didn't know you knew Arabic."
Allelujah said, surprised by the Irish man.
Lockon chuckled and shook his head. "I don't. I only know Irish and English. Setsuna's been teaching me some in his free time."
Allelujah smiled as he spoke.
"Oh? That's a good name. I like it."
"Huriyah! Huriyah!"
Haro chirped, happily bouncing around them.
Lockon stood up and leaded down to press a soft kiss to Allelujah's lips.
"We'll make this work."
He said as the little girl slipped out of Allelujah's lap and floated to catch Haro.
"Ha ha! You caught me! You caught me!"
Haro chirped, as Huriyah caught him with both her hands, making her giggle sweetly again and both men smile tenderly.
"I promise."
Lockon whispered into Alleujah's ear as they watched the two play tag around the room.
---
The girl had kept to herself, mostly, much to the relief of the two meisters. She stayed in Allelujah's room with Lockon's Haro, who had become her first friend and playmate.
Both were bringing her food in regular intervals, which the crew never outwardly questioned, thankfully.
Her health was improving, although she still didn't talk, she was smiling and becoming much more social with the two men and the Haro's, which came into the room quite often to keep her company and play.
Bath time was not difficult, since they had their own bathrooms'. Lockon had gone down to Earth and gotten her several changes of clothes for her; some in her favorite color, which they had learned was Orange. Which Allelujah found amusing as both his suit and gundam were both orange.
Also, Lockon had discovered that she also seemed to have a love of drawing. After seeing a pair of childishly drawn angel wings on the back of his Haro and other markings on several others that had made their way into her hands. Luckily he saw them before anyone else had a chance to see the child's handy work before he could clean them off. He had begun to bring her paper and colored pencils to keep her from drawing with the PERMENT makers Allelujah had in his room, on the Haro's.
Now her numerous childish drawings decorated his and Allelujah's bedroom, taped up lovingly by Haro as she finished each one. All of them seeming to be just scribbles or circles, that were supposed to be them and the Haro's.
Allelujah was just beginning to think it would all work out after a few weeks of hiding her from the crew, with a bit of work to keep the Haro's from blabbing or showing her 'art work' to the rest of the crew. Thankful that at least one of them would always be with her when the other was out on a mission.
That is, of course, until Tieria came into his room looking for some of the mysteriously, missing Haros.
Upon opening the door to Allelujah's room, the man's scarlet eyes widened in shock upon first seeing childish drawings plastered on nearly every inch of the room and then his eyes caught site of Huriyah.
The young girl was dressed in a white skirt shorts, and orange tank top. Lying comfortably on Allelujah's bed, Lockon's orange Haro, a green Haro and a pink Haro around her on the bed, watching her draw something that tried to look like people. He blinked rapidly, hoping that this was just a simple illusion, something brought on by stress and fatigue.
The little girl just continued to draw, not bothering to hide or turn around, fully focusing on her drawing happily.
Taking off his glasses to rub his eyes of any thing that could possibly make him hallucinate like this. After placing his glasses back on his face and opening his eyes, he found that the girl was no illusion.
Fuming he clenched his fist and teeth before doing what any normal man would do: shout as loudly as he could, so that wherever Allelujah was…
He was bound to hear him.
"ALLELUJAH HAPTISM!"
---
Allelujah worriedly made his way to the meeting room from the hanger. He had been summoned for an urgent matter and he had a pretty good idea what it was about. Tieria had very good set of lunges; his voice had reached him all the way to the hanger form his room.
His heart beat rapidly agents his rib cage and his stomach was truing in circles as he came to the door of the meeting room. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he pressed the button to the room and the door slid open. Only the other Meisters and Sumeragi were present in the room.
His gaze moving to Lockon further into the room as he had arms crossed over his chest, a glare directed at their fellow Meister, Tieria Erde, whom glared right back. After a quick glance down at Lockon's legs, Allelujah could see why.
Huriyah was hiding behind him, grasping his pant leg, the small girl looking genuinely frightened with the strange new people, more Tieria then Sumeragi or Setsuna.
The man must have scared the poor girl badly with his yelling and the glare that he sent her way briefly before she ducked behind Lockon with a small sound.
Tieria seemed to be the only one openly hostile to the child as Setsuna, looked at her with indifference, and Sumeragi seemed to be lost in thought as her arms were crossed over her chest, looking down at the floor in concentration before he entered the room, she looked up at him with a frown.
"I-" Allelujah began, but stopped, letting out a tired sigh.
"It was irresponsible, I know. I'm very sorry for the brashness of my actions, but I couldn't simply leave her there!"
He pleaded, looking at Sumeragi for understanding. As a woman she would certainly understand his feelings as he looked at Huriyah's pleading magenta eyes as she peeked at him from behind Lockon's pants.
Tieria's glare shifted from Huriyah to Allelujah. "This is not something you can simply be sorry for, Haptism! Look at what you've done! God only knows what kind of secrets she has discovered!"
He yelled, scaring Huriyah even more as she ducked back out of view behind Lockon.
Moving forward a bit, with a threatening expression on his face Lockon glared at the paranoid purple haired Meister.
"You're just being over paranoid, Tieria. She's only 8 years old and she hasn't even been out of Allelujah's room until today."
He responded back, Huriyah peeking out from behind him again, looking between all the people in the room, obviously confused. Her gaze lingering on Setsuna a bit longer as said gundam meister locked eyes with her.
"What could she possibly have uncovered, nevertheless understand?"
Lockon argued with Tieria, putting a negative spin on Allelujah's good deed.
"How do you know she hasn't been out?!" Tieria spat out, glaring down at her.
Huriyah looked up at him, and to her he looked like a demon from hell as the light reflected off his glasses hiding his eyes, his short purple hair floating around him as he scowled down at her. She looked about ready to cry.
"For all we know she could be a Federation spy!" Tieria yelled, the first sign of tears building in Huriyah's eyes, getting ready to spill.
Allelujah, looked down worriedly at her. Knowing that they couldn't keep her, but both Lockon and himself wanted her.
"That's enough!" Sumeragi yelled with authority, silencing the two men's argument as she saw they were upsetting the little girl to the point of tears.
She turned to the unreasonable Meister first, frowning at his harsh accusation.
"Tieria! She really is just a little girl. There's no evidence that says otherwise."
She told the purple haired Meister, as she looked at the little girl sadly, looking back at her with a cute puppy dog look.
Allelujah and Lockon, felt a bit relived that Sumeragi was more understanding of the situation, but then she turned on them. With her face full of regret as she closed her eyes trying to block out the image of the little girl's pleading eyes.
"But still, she cannot stay on this ship. Her life is in constant danger here, and we cannot have a child here for time and efficiency purposes." The woman sighed, rubbing her fingers into her eyes before looking up at the distort Meister.
"Allelujah, I know what you mean. I would have trouble just looking away from a situation like that myself but..."
Sumeragi grew weak as she looked at the little girl. Who seemed to have no idea what was being said. One of the reasons that the little girl couldn't be a spy; she didn't seem to speak or know much English, and much of their data was in English.
"There're many more children out there just like her. We can't just simply take them in; now can we?"
Allelujah shook his head, tears threatening to spill over from his eyes. Clenching his fists, and biting his lower lip.
"She'll have to go back. I've contacted an orphanage, and they're willing to take her in. She is expected to be there tomorrow morning."
Allelujah nodded, and it felt like his heart was splitting in two. Lockon frowned as he pulled the clueless little girl up into his arms, holding her close.
---
That night, Lockon came into Allelujah's room with an extra blanket and a pillow. Haro was already there and upset about Sumeragi's decision.
Upon the door sliding open he saw that the little girl was asleep in her orange and green poke-a-doted pajamas, with his Haro still in her little hands.
Allelujah lying on his side, brushing the little girl's hair as she slept peacefully next to him, he looked up as the older meister came in.
"I'm sleeping in here tonight." Lockon said, putting his bundle on the bed on the other side of the little girl, careful not to disturb her sleep.
Allelujah nodded, looking at the young girl who was peacefully dreaming in his soft bed.
"I didn't think it would end like this..." he mumbled, brushing a strand of brown hair from her face. It would be the last time he would see her sleeping so peacefully in his arms.
Lockon grit his teeth frustratingly, as he looked at the sleeping angel. "It's not going to end like this. I promised, remember? This is going to be OK."
He said as he lay down in the bed with them, wrapping an arm around the young girl who unconsciously wiggled in-between them, holding the inactive Haro tighter in her sleep.
Lockon pressed a kiss to Huriyah's forehead lovingly before kissing Allelujah on his lips and draping an arm over the two people most important to him.
"I swear to you," he whispered, breaking away from the kiss.
"They're not going to take her away from us."
He said, thinking of a way to keep their little angel before falling asleep.
---
A few hours later, Allelujah had woken up to an empty bed. His heart stopped for a moment and a feeing of dread washed over him. Panicking, he jumped out of bed and opened the door to his room, shouting a breathlessly for his lover.
"Lockon!"
He shouted threw the empty hall, grabbing onto the bar to carry him down the zero gravity hallway and to the main area to at least see Huriyah on last time. He sighed in audible relief when he saw Lockon and Huriyah, the Irish man holding the girl on his hip.
"There you are!" Allelujah exclaimed happily. Floating towards the two of them.
"I was worried that you had already taken her…"
Lockon smiled triumphedly towards the meister. "No, I haven't. and I'm not going to, either."
Allelujah's eyes widened at his words.
"What do you mean? Sumeragi ordered us to take her to the orphanage on earth!"
The taller meister shook his head, readjusting the child on his hip.
"I convinced Setsuna that it would be better if she was here with us then at some orphanage. It wasn't that hard since she was giving him her puppy dog look."
Lockon smiled at the memory of the youngest meister bending to the will of an 8 year old.
"So then we talked to Sumeragi and convinced her to let Huriyah stay with us. We've worked out a plan including security and all that. So, she's staying here with us. Although, I don't think Tieria's very happy about it and I don't know about the rest of the crew."
He finished explain, chucking as they had out numbered the paranoid meister, 3 to 1, or 13 to 1 counting the Haro's, Sumeragi silently happy to have the little girl stay as well.
Allelujah's eyes grew wide, and he broke into a grin, laughing out of sheer happiness.
"This…this is! I don't even--! This is wonderful!"
Lockon laughed as well, pulling the girl closer to him. "She's talking now, you know."
"What?! Really?!"
Allelujah asked, both surprised and happy.
Lockon nodded and looked down at Huriyah.
"Say Daddy!" he cooed to her.
A soft pink blush colored her chubby tan cheeks, trying to hide her face in the wool of Lockon's vest.
"Oh, come on, say it! Say it for Daidí!"
He prompted her excitingly. They had been waiting weeks to hear her voice and after a moment, she mumbled a quiet 'Daddy', her voice sounding strange muffled against the wool.
It was enough as Allelujah beamed with happiness as the progress.
"That's amazing!" He said, patting her gently on the back, looking up at Lockon with a smile still on his face.
"I assume that Daidí is Irish?"
Lockon nodded as he looked down at his 'daughter' happily, her magenta eyes looking up at him cutely.
"Yeah. It means Daddy."
"So... we're her parents now?"
Allelujah asked making the other man roll his eyes.
"Well of course. We've been raising her for a little over a month now. Besides, she's our commitment now, so we have to be the ones to watch out for her."
Allelujah smiled, reaching up and taking Huriyah's small hand in his.
She smiled back, a blush still painted on her cheeks as she spoke again.
"Daddy."
Her voice sounding like wind shines to his ears. Making them both feel happiness and pride that every parent feels when their child first speaks.
"I'd like that."
Allelujah whispered to her, making her smile grow.