A/N: I wrote a first chapter of a thing for Gundam 00's 10th Anniversary! Completely unbetaed, so all mistakes are my own. The title is from the AnimeLyrics translation of Tomorrow (Marina and the orphans' song).

Also, if you generally need warnings for fics, I'd check out the end note. This fic is intended to be more on the light side, even when it hits angst territory (because it's Gundam, this will happen), but there's one place this chapter where something a bit darker than intended slipped in. That said, have fun and please forgive me my self-indulgence (though to be fair all of my Gundam fic is self-indulgent especially since I wrote half of it when no one was reading Gundam fic at all).

If losing things is for picking them back up

When Ian got to the hangar, the four Gundam Meisters were clustered around Kyrios's GN Drive, even as it leaked GN particles into the hangar from a meters-long gash that was glowing faintly pink at the edges.

"What are you doing?" Ian demanded, incredulous.

Tieria, the furthest from the machine and thus the nearest to him, whirled, started. "It seems the HRL has developed a new weapon. We were merely attempting to learn more about it from inspecting the damage it left behind."

"Without protective clothing?" Ian asked.

Lockon, who had been crouched beside the suit, poking the damage, stood. "You said GN particles were safe," he said, with a note of accusation to his tone.

"No, I said it was safe to use them as fuel in your machines, and near settled areas," Ian corrected. "I'd tell you the same thing about gasoline, or nuclear power. But standing next to an engine that's leaking either of those things?"

Lockon's smile dropped off.

Ian massaged his temples. "Especially when there's damage from a weapon we don't know anything about involved. Whatever the HRL came up could be harmful, or it could be safe on its own but dangerous when it mixes with GN particles."

Allelujah swallowed. "So we messed up."

"Yeah, you did," Ian said. "Just…hit the decontamination showers and then go back to your quarters. And maybe try not to die on your way there?"

Lockon grinned. "Always do!"

"Idiot," Tieria muttered.

Ian waved them off, then headed for where he kept the protective clothing and tried to shove his worry to the back of his head. They'd probably be fine.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Neil didn't know where he was, and it was starting to scare him.

Nothing about this place was familiar, not the steel walls, not the fluorescent lights mounted on the ceiling above him, and definitely not the window that showed nothing but an expanse of bright, glittering stars.

He'd woken up in the bed, in clothes too big for him—a dorky-looking vest, jeans, and a green t-shirt, along with soft leather gloves. He liked the gloves, but they were too big for him, and he couldn't get them to stay on his hands. And the fact remained that none of these clothes were his. He didn't quite remember what he'd gone to sleep in, but he didn't own clothes this huge—why would he?

He didn't like the thought of someone changing him into different clothes while he was sleeping. It meant that someone had seen him naked. Maybe there was a good reason for them to do it, or maybe they had just wanted to see him with no clothes on, and if that was the case, he was in a lot of danger right now. This could be the kind of thing his parents had warned him about, before he was allowed to wander around the neighborhood alone as a kid.

He wasn't a kid anymore, though. He was 15, and practically an adult, and his mom and dad weren't around to keep him safe. If someone was planning to hurt him, he could stop them, or at least try.

This didn't look like a place to keep a kidnapped teenager, though. There were a few scattered articles of clothing on the floor, and some pictures on the wall. One of them had a person in it that looked kind of like his one cousin, if he was a little thinner and if he'd started cutting his hair like Lyle and Neil did.

Weird.

Maybe his aunt and uncle had sent him to a different relative without telling him? That sounded a little too much like a Charles Dickens novel to be real. But what was the alternative? His kidnapper just happened to have a picture of some random dude who really looked like him and also had pretty much the same haircut?

He wanted to wake up and find out this was all a dream and he was actually in his bed at his aunt and uncle's house. Well, no, he wanted to wake up at home, and find out that the bombing and everything afterward was a dream, but he always wanted that, and it wasn't going to happen, so he had to grow up and figure this situation out.

Someone had taken him here, maybe a relative, maybe a creep, maybe someone who was both, and if he didn't want to be here, he needed to find a way to get away from them. Fighting them outright wasn't an option. His uncle kept saying he'd come into his height soon, but for now, he wasn't that tall for a Dylandy. If he was going to be up against a full-sized adult, he was going to need something to use as a weapon.

There was a big black bag with a zipper along the side leaning against the far wall that kind of looked like it might have sports equipment inside. That seemed as good a place to start looking as any.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

It wasn't that unusual for Neil to show up a few minutes late for mission briefings, Ian reflected. He just wasn't that careful about time. Allelujah was usually better, but he did occasionally get absentminded. Setsuna, despite Tieria's complaints about his carelessness, was unerringly scrupulous about meetings—if he was late, it was because he'd just gotten off of another mission and was tired enough to sleep through the alarms he'd set to wake himself up. As for Tieria himself, Ian wondered sometimes if he was capable of being late.

So the fact that not a single one of them had shown up for the briefing was worrying. Especially since they'd been poking at a broken GN Drive a few hours ago.

"We should go check on them," Feldt said, glancing up from whatever programming work she was doing on the upper part of the bridge.

"If it was just Lockon, I'd say you were overreacting, but you're right," Ms. Sumeragi agreed. "We'll have to go get them. Ian, why don't you go get Lockon, and I'll go see what's keeping Tieria." She glanced around the bridge. "Feldt, go check on Allelujah. And Lasse, if you aren't doing anything else, could you get Setsuna?"

"They were poking at a broken GN Drive earlier," Ian said. "They could be sick."

"Well, if we need to, we can call Dr. Moreno," Ms. Sumeragi replied. "Let's not panic until we're sure something's wrong."

Ian nodded and headed off of the bridge. He heard Chris shout, "Mission start!" as they left, but thought it was probably best to just ignore her.

Seriously, kids. He still wasn't sure why there were so many on the crew.

Since Ian's last interaction with Lockon had involved telling him to go to his room, he decided to check there first. It wasn't far from the bridge, anyway, so it was an easy place to start looking.

He rapped gently on the door, expecting to hear an annoyed grumble or maybe the sound of Lockon crossing the room to open the door. Instead, there was a high-pitched yelp that didn't sound like Lockon, followed by scuffling noises.

Ian had seen Lockon flirt with half of the crew, so his first thought was one that didn't really flatter the man. Then, reality set in. Lockon flirted, yes, but he also took the mission seriously. He might well have had one night-stands since they began armed interventions, but not aboard Ptolemy and certainly not during a mission briefing.

"Hey, Lockon, what's going on in there?" Ian asked, knocking again.

"Don't come in!" shouted a voice that was definitely not Lockon. It was too high, and too young-sounding; Ian would guess whoever it belonged to was closer to Setsuna's age.

This was just getting bizarre.

"Who are you?" Ian asked.

"I don't have to answer that!" the kid—Ian was calling the person a kid until evidence to the contrary presented itself—replied. "And don't come in!"

Yeah, Ian had no idea what was going on. Good thing he was the one who programmed everyone's security passcodes.

He unlocked the door and it slid open to reveal a teenager, definitely younger than Setsuna, brandishing Lockon's sniper rifle case like some kind of club.

"Okay, kid, why don't you just put that down," Ian said, stepping back, hands spread out in front of him.

"I told you not to come in and you came in anyway!" the kid practically screeched. "How do I know you're not gonna hurt me if I put it down?"

He was practically vibrating with tension. The green t-shirt he was wearing was halfway off of his shoulder, and his jeans were rolled up in to thick cuffs around his ankles, and something about all of this was familiar.

And then Ian looked, really looked, at the kid's face, at narrowed green eyes shaded by messy chestnut-brown bangs. He swore.

The kid—Lockon—fumbled the case, nearly dropping it and ending up with it held to his chest instead of raised in threat.

"What, you never heard that word before?" Ian asked, smirking.

"No, I'm not a little kid," Lockon sneered. "But you looked surprised, really actually surprised. I thought you were the one who brought me here."

"Who brought you—" Ian broke off. "Okay, what do you remember?"

The kid blinked. "I dunno. I mean, I was at my aunt and uncle's, like—well, not like normal, but like it is now, and then I woke up in weird clothes here."

"So you don't remember anything?" Ian pressed.

"What am I supposed to remember?" Lockon asked.

"How you got here," Ian said. "Because you aren't supposed to be here, at all, and I'd like to get you back home."

If he woke up in Lockon's clothes, it's probably our Lockon, just…regressed in age, somehow? But how would I even explain that to him? And…does this mean—

There was a scream, and then a loud burst of yelling in a language Ian didn't speak. That answered that question.

"I promise, I didn't kidnap you and I'm not trying to hurt you," Ian said to Lockon. "You're around my kid's age, actually. But I've gotta go, uh, deal with that, before I answer any more questions. You can stay here or come with, it's your choice."

"I'm coming," Lockon said, and there was something to the tilt of his jaw that was familiar. Ian could see his adult self in it.

"Okay," Ian said. "You might want to stay behind me, though. I'm not sure what's happening; it might not be safe."

Lockon inched forward, still clutching the rifle case like a security object.

"And leave that here!" he added. "You stay away from guns until you're old enough to get a license."

The kid actually pouted, but dutifully tucked the case back into his room before following Ian.

"I'm Ian," he said, holding out a hand to the kid. "You don't have to tell me your name. In fact it's probably better if you don't. But you can call me Ian."

"Why shouldn't I tell you my name?" Lockon asked, suspicious again, completely ignoring his hand. "I thought you weren't a kidnapper."

"I'm not, I just—" Ian shook his head. "Ehhh, do what you want, but we should really go make sure my co-worker is safe."

"My name's Neil," Lockon said, very deliberately shoving his hands into his pockets. Ian just barely caught a glimpse of some kind of discoloration on his hands. Guess he's self-conscious. Explains why the full-sized version wears gloves.

"Okay, Neil, stick close to me now, just in case," Ian said, heading down the hallway toward where he really, really hoped he wouldn't find an even smaller version of Setsuna.

A/N: Warning for: A child thinking he's in peril, up to and including thinking that he's been kidnapped by an adult who changed his clothing while he was asleep and is possibly a pervert

This is going to be updated pretty sporadically, since I have a long ongoing fic for the DCMK fandom that takes precedence. That said, I'm definitely planning to finish this, because, well, this situation has a lot of fun potential. Can't guarantee you an update date but it'll happen!