"Mommy?"
25-year old Flay Allster blinked her eyes as her small daughter Kari had crawled onto her bed and was shaking her awake.
"I'm up, I'm up," she yawned and sat up in her bed.
"You said we could go to the park today," Kari chanted.
"Yes, yes, I did promise, how about you let me get showered first and then we can go," Flay told her.
"Ok, can we have pancakes for breakfast?" she asked.
"Sure, how about you go watch cartoons till I get there," said Flay.
"Ok," said Kari, who went out of the room and down the stairs.
Flay sighed and moved her tired body out of bed, grabbed a towel, and went into her bathroom to turn on the shower. She got in not bothering to wait for the water temperature to change.
As the water rained down over her, Flay took a good look at herself in the slight reflection of her body in the tile wall of the shower.
If it wasn't for her clothing, anyone looking at her would see the lines going down various parts of her right side of her body, where her body had been destroyed and where her original body ended and the cloned right arm and knee had been attached. Then the scar that ran down the front of her chest, as well as the marks of burns that had long since healed.
It was over ten years now, ten years since the rescue team had found her half dead and floating in space among the remains of her shuttle.
She suffered so much pain, her body couldn't move, so many broken bones, her lung punctured, she lost all hearing in her right ear, and her right eye was actually a donor transplant. Her vocal cords had been damaged that took almost a year to heal.
But she was alive, stuck in a hospital bed for months, only to finally recover enough to be told that she was pregnant.
Kira
That was all she could think about, the boy she loved, Kira Yamato.
He was the father of her child, it didn't make sense at first because Flay was sure that it was far too long since Kira disappeared, even more since the last time they had been intimate, that she could be pregnant. But she had never been with anyone else, not was she ever taken advantage of by anyone. She hardly slept when she was held captive by the man in the mask, and more alert then ever when she returned to the EA on the Dominion.
She did the math do when she and Kira were last together, and when she finally gave birth, it had been thirteen months later. Maybe it had something to do with her being a natural and Kira a coordinator, but she didn't care about all that.
She gave birth to a little baby girl, she had Kira's hair color and his eyes, it was definitely his child.
Flay named her Kari, after her father, and spent months nursing her while she recovered herself.
When she was finally discharged, she began a search for Kira. She had no idea what happened to the faction that the Archangel had joined, but she just knew in her heart that Kira had to still be alive again.
It took some time, having to pay certain parties, and calling in some favors from people her father had known, but she found him at last.
But that was as far as she could go, all because of one person.
Lacus Clyne
The same girl that Flay herself had tried to kill almost a year ago, was no involved with Kira. Flay could practically feel the pain from the shuttle explosion mentally surrounding her all over again.
She couldn't blame him for moving on, especially when the person he was moving on from was herself. What guy wouldn't want a chance with someone like Lacus Clyne, the girl was practically an angel. Flay hated to admit it, but she was drop dead beautiful, had the purist soul Flay had ever seen, and never showed an ounce of anger.
A part of her own soul told her that if there was anyone that Kira would want at his side, to even be the perfect mother to his children, Lacus would instantly win that role over Flay herself.
So Flay dropped off the grid, she never told Kira she was still alive, much less that she had his child. She could only see a scenario where everyone would see her as the woman who showed up with Kira's child to force him into some kind of complicated situation, and destroying his happy relationship with Lacus.
Flay used her families fortune, sold off any assets she didn't need, and moved to the PLANTs.
No matter what the future may have held, Flay knew she had to raise her daughter with all love and help she could give her.
Her daughter was a coordinator because of who her father was, so Flay knew she had to be surrounded by others like her, so that she wouldn't grow up feeling like and outcast or out of place. She went to a coordinator preschool, then elementary, playgrounds and children's functions.
As far as Flay could tell, her daughter was growing up quite happy, she loved her neighborhood, her friends, everything about her life. But it was one question her daughter asked one day that made Flay re-experience the memory of the flames of the shuttle explosion.
"Why don't I have a daddy?"
She always kept avoiding the question at first, then she resorted to the biggest mistake she had done in her relationship with Kira, she lied. Or at least she tried not to as much.
She told her daughter that her father was a soldier that was always busy, but she tried to make him out to be a bit of a hero, the gallant knight who was away making sure those he cared about were always safe. Her daughter seemed to accept this, but Flay could tell she was starting to feel like her father was never around because he didn't love her, didn't want to spend time with her. For the last few birthdays, whenever Flay told her daughter to make a wish when blowing her candles out, Flay could hear her silently whispering that her daddy would come home soon.
It tore away at Flay, her own father was never around because he was always working, never having any time for her. Flay feared that she was purposely inflecting the same emotional damage that had been done to herself as a child, and look where it had led her, what choices and views on the world she had made.
She tried once or twice to call Kira by phone, but the first few times the line had been picked up and she heard the voice of a certain pink haired girl on the other end, forcing her to hang up quickly in fear.
Was she a bad mother, how long could she keep this up, what right did she have to lie to her daughter?
"Mommy"
Flay snapped out of her thoughts, quickly finished her shower and put on some black clothing and went to her kitchen.
"Who wants breakfast?" Flay said with a fake cheer.
"Pancakes, pancakes," chanted Kari.
"Alright, just settle down," she said, then opened up her cupboards ad looked around, then frowned.
"Sweetie, I'm sorry, I guess I forgot to get the pancake stuff when I went to the store last time," said Flay.
"Boo," pouted Kari.
"How about cereal?" said Flay getting out a box and two bowls.
The two ate in science, before they were on their way. Flay helped her daughter put on her jacket, the artificial rain might come back on soon, so they needed to be ready.
Flay lived with her daughter in a small apartment on one of the PLANTs, under the name Freya Allister.
It was not much of a change, but people didn't give it a second thought when she introduced herself.
She created a fake military service record in the ZAFT database, building it off the record that Rau had created for her when she was his assistant, effectively creating a history for herself.
As for employment, while Flay had more than enough money to live comfortably and raise her daughter, she became a writer, publishing a series of fiction novels.
They were about a world where people ended up being divided by those who had the ability to use a power called mana, and those who were unable to. Flay based it off the conflict that arose from the naturals who went to war because they were originally jealous of their coordinator counterparts who could do things they could not themselves. Her novels focused around a princess who learned she could not use mana, being outcast by her own people, and all the hardships she faced. At first glance one would think this was centered on Flay herself as the inspiration of her character, but in truth Flay was basing it off of Kira.
Her protagonist was female, but Flay wrote her novels around what she recalled Kira's struggle on the archangel, all the conflict that he saw from having to fight his own people, and then those around him seeing him as not trusting-worthy.
Her character was named Kari, as a way to further reference Kira. Truth be told the idea for the novel came to her while she was in the hospital recovering, and when she had her baby, she named her baby the same as well.
Her books took off quite well, they became popular in the PLANTs, and many after reading them said they saw how a natural or coordinator could have possibly felt in the situation.
Then the second war started, the fall of junieus 7, and when the EA targeted them again with nukes, Flay took her daughter and retreated to the moon for a while.
One day she could have sworn that she saw Kira walking in the city, but she figured she was just seeing things. It was probably just another boy with brown hair, hanging out in a music shop with a blue haired boy, a girl wearing a hood, and a younger redhead girl.
After the war ended, Flay moved back to the PLANTs, and eventually things ended up back to normal, and that was where they were now.
"Can we go to the playground mommy?" asked Kari.
"OF course, whatever you want sweetie, you're the birthday girl today," said Flay.
Another birthday gone by, and Kari still wouldn't have her father there to celebrate it with her.
They arrived at the park, and Kari suddenly asked to play hide and seek.
"Ok, but stay close alright," said Flay.
"Ok mommy," said Kari.
So Flay closed her eyes, and counted to twenty, then began to search for her daughter.
"Come out, come out wherever you are," Flay chanted.
Then things got bad very fast, after a while Flay could not find her daughter anywhere, she started to panic.
She could not find her anywhere, she was in a panic, she began running off in every direction searching for her.
After about half an hour, she was running down the middle of the park when she saw a small brown haired girl wearing her daughter's exact clothing, walking next to a man and holding his hand.
"Kari?" she called out.
"Mommy," came her daughter's voice as the girl turned around and ran to her mother.
Flay bent down and hugged her daughter to tight in a 'I am never letting you go again' manner. She started to shed a few tears, she was so happy she was safe.
She could never forgive herself if anything had happened to Kari, she could never face Kira if the only way he found out about his daughter was that something happened to her.
"Young lady, I have been looking everywhere for you," she said.
"I'm sorry, I just wanted to get you a present," she said handing her some roses," said Kari.
"Oh, their beautiful, where did you get them?" asked Flay.
"That nice man bought them for me," said Kari.
Flay made to look up to see this man who had bought the flowers, but her sight was distracted when a familiar green robotic bird flew on top of her shoulder.
"Birdy?" gasped Flay.
She then finally saw the man's face, and she gasped.
"Ki…Kira," she stuttered.
"Flay," he replied.
She didn't know what had happened, why the universe was doing this to her, all of a sudden, but it proved too much for her fragile mind to handle.
Flay then fainted, falling down onto the cement walkway of the park.
"Mommy," came the voice of her daughter in worry as she started to black out.
The last thing she could seem to remember was her daughter' small hand holding onto her left hand, then someone picking her up in their arms. The person carrying her had a familiar feel, a familiar warmth, and a familiar heartbeat.
Ten year gone by, but she could recognize that heartbeat anywhere.
"Is my mommy ok?"
Flay opened her eyes, finding herself being tended to by a paramedic who had her leaning against a tree.
"Ma'am, are you alright," asked the paramedic.
Flay took a look around, then her eyes settled on behind the paramedic, where a familiar brown haired man was holding her daughter in his arms, both waiting for news from the medic, then both slowly turning to smiles at seeing her awake.
Flay found herself overwhelmed at seeing that, she could only picture the image of her daughter being held by her father in her dreams, yet now it was a reality.
But the truth of the reality was, now so many questions would have to be answered and so many truths would have to be told. What would her daughter think of her, what would Kira think of her?
And then, in that moment, Flay did the one thing she hated doing so much,….she lied.
"Yeah, I'm ok," she said.