I should mention that I am not exactly sure how old they all are... but I am making Kira be 18 (thus the rest would be older too). Everything else in the plot stays the same, more or less; they are just older.
Kinomoto Hikaru has no resemblance to any other anime. She is my own creation.
"Kira!!! Oh, Kira!" Kira slowly opened his eyes and sat up, looking around him. He looked a little confused. Rubbing his eyes to rid himself of the sleepiness, he looked around him, trying to see who was calling to him. The person laughed. "Kira, right here!" Kira looked over and felt his heart clench as his eyes focused and he recognized who it was. It was a girl with short crimson-colored hair and was wearing a sailor-fuku uniform. She was smiling down at Kira and was laughing a little.
"Hi--Hikaru...?" The girl named Hikaru smiled and giggled again. She nodded her head.
"Kira!"
Yamato Kira awoke with a start on board the ArchAngel. He jumped slightly when he was hit. His friend Sai had thrown something at him and it had ricocheted off his shoulder.
"Wah?" Kira said, looking around himself. "Where-- where am I?"
"Where do you think?" Flay scourned, looking at Kira. "We're on the ArchAngel." Kira then felt a little stupid.
"What's with you?" Tolle asked, also looking at Kira. He looked a little concerned. So did Sai. Kira felt his cheeks slightly redden and he bowed his head.
"No-- nothing." He replied.
"Well it better be nothing." Flay said decidedly. She then let out a 'hmph' and turned away from them all, leaving the room. It was common knowledge by then that Flay had a crush on Kira. ((A/N: I'm kinda improvising. I don't think she does... but work with me)). Kira felt a small smile descend his lips.
"No," He said quietly. "It was nothing." Yet as the rest of his friends dispersed and Kira made his way to follow them, his mind travelled back to the dream he had been having. It felt so real. He did not want it to go away. "Hikaru." He said silently as he left the room.
Meanwhile... On the ZAFT ship...
"Athrun!" Rau Le yelled. Zala Athrun came onto the bridge of the ZAFT ship.
"Yes?"
"There is something on the radar that I want you to see." Athrun was confused, but nonetheless made his way to the radar to look. He saw a small object that could have been a minature mobile suit or an escape pod. It made no sense or matter to Athrun, so he looked up at Rau Le, a little confused.
"What is it?"
"That is an escape pod." Rau Le replied. "The real question is, Zala Athrun, what is the pod doing out here?" Athrun remained silent. He was not sure if the question was retoricle, but either way he had no answer to it. Nevertheless, Rau Le answered his own question. "It is not really important how it got out here. What is important is the markings on the side of the pod." Athrun was still confused so Rau Le turned to the man operating the monitor and ordered him to magnify the image. When it was done, Athrun once again looked at the pod. He gasped and his eyes widened in shock. A smile with a hint of cruelty crossed the lips of the ZAFT would-be leader. "You recognize the image, don't you?" It took Athrun several minutes to respond, but he finally did.
"Yes sir." He replied with a single curt nod.
"Then you can guess who would be aboard the pod?"
"I... I can guess." Athrun replied slowly. He then looked up at Rau Le and demanded, "Tell me! Where did this pod come from? Where did you get it?" Rau Le chuckled.
"Relax, Athrun. I told you, it is of no consequence. But what is in the pod is undoubtedly who you suspect." Athrun was a stricken with shock. This seemed to greatly please Rau Le. "We can use this person to our full advantage. We can make the Earth Forces suffer for what they have done. I want you to go out there and get this pod, Athrun. Bring the person inside back here unharmed."
"Why me?"
"Because I believe you know her?" He asked coilingly. Athrun felt his chest tighten. "You grew up together with her and your Earth Forces friend Yamato, is that not right?" Rau Le took Athrun's silence to be the truth and he smiled in success. "With anyone else, she might not come so quietly. Bring her here; and you shall receive your reward." Athrun could not object so, silently, he left the room and prepared to go to his mobile suit, Aegis.
As Athrun walked down the long corridor to the launching pad, he thought to himself, /Please be safe. Please let them not have done anything to you. Be safe... Hikaru.
Back on the ArchAngel...
"Okay, Kira," Sai said, stopping him with Tolle before they reached the bridge for their shifts. Kira was caught off guard.
"Huh?"
"We both know something definately was on your mind." Sai said.
"Yeah." Tolle agreed. "I mean, you usually do not space out like that. It was kinda creepy."
"Cree...py...?"
"Yeah." Tolle replied, nodding his head. "You wouldn't even respond when we called your name."
"I did." Kira insisted.
"Only after Sai threw something at you." Tolle said. "Now c'mon; what is it?" Kira sighed heavily, lowered his eyes and lifted his hand to his hair to brush his fingers through it.
"Nothing."
"That might have worked with the girls, but we're not gonna buy it." Sai said. "We know something was bothering you."
"It's seriously nothing." Kira said again. "I suddenly just thought about someone I grew up with. Someone I loved very much."
Sai and Tolle were confused. "Why would you think about that now, all of a sudden?" Sai inquired.
"Today's her birthday." Kira replied. And without another word, he turned his back and continued to move to the bridge.
With Athrun, back on ZAFT, after the "rescue" of the pod....
Athrun was with several other members of the ZAFT Alliance Forces when the escape pod was loaded onboard the ZAFT ship. He was pushing his way through to the front but he continued to get pushed back. Finally, after the pod was opened, he forcefully made his way to the front to get to her. "Hey!" Some of the men cried as they were shoved aside and floated slowly away because of the non-existant gravity. They glared at Athrun, but he ignored them. When the pod door was open, out fell a girl. She was about Athrun's age. She had shoulder blade-length crimson-colored hair and she was dressed in a sailor fuku uniform. She fell to the ground in what appeared to be slow-motion. Athrun caught her just before her head was to make contact with the hard floor of the launching area. His eyes were wide and his heart was pounding; in nervousness, excitement and worry. She was older, taller and more mature-looking than he remembered, but the girl was definately Hikaru.
Gently shaking her, he tried to get her to wake up. "Hikaru." But his voice soon got more panicky and an octave higher as she did not awake. "Hikaru? Hikaru!"
