"Dearka," Miriallia called as the blonde shuffled tiredly for the bathroom, "Wait a second!" She glanced once more at the spot Yzak had previously been standing, then back to where her boyfriend was poking his head around the doorframe.
"Wazza matta?" he inquired from around his toothbrush.
The Natural grinned. "Given up on that orange juice already?" she joked.
"It's almost noon now. I thought we should just go out to eat somewhere."
Hands met hips as she threw him a mock glare. "And just who is it that'll be paying for this meal?" Her mouth dropped open as he fixed her with an impish grin before disappearing back into the bathroom without reply. "Hey!" The gurgle of the sink suggested that she'd been ignored.
She crept silently over to the door, readying herself to spring into the small space and startle him while he was brushing his teeth. Her mischievous plan was met, however, by nothing but empty space. The faucet bubbled over unceremoniously, Niagara Falls with no tourists. Where…
Then she felt a pair of strong, muscled arms close around her from behind, and she shrieked in glee.
"Well, well," he murmured low in her ear as he tried to prevent her from reaching him, "Lost your element of surprise, didn't you?"
Miriallia felt an army of pleasant shivers go marching up her back as he spoke. Her heart raced. She'd probably never get used to the way her body reacted every time he made contact. All it took was one subtle, seductive word, one simple touch, and she was lost in his presence. She relaxed into his grip, and he buried his face in her hair.
"I was kidding. You won't have to pay," the ZAFT soldier added after remaining still for a time. "I offered."
His warm hands slid down her sides to settle on her hips, where he began to toy absently with the elastic hem of her pajama bottoms. She leaned her head back when he bent forward to place a steaming kiss on the side of her neck.
"Or," he whispered as he sucked lightly at the tender spot, "We could just stay here."
It was a tempting proposition. She felt weak at the knees already. But there were things they needed to talk about, and she couldn't allow her insatiable lust to take over just yet.
"I'm hungry," she grumbled, and he let her go when she tugged herself free.
His eyes widened comically. "You just ate." Then he burst into laughter. "Why does that not surprise me at all, Mir?"
She watched his glittering violet eyes while he struggled to control his chuckles. He was always so handsome when he laughed.
"I'm a growing person," she insisted, "I need nourishment!" Then she stuck her tongue out for good measure.
He responded to her challenge by stepping forward, closing his lips over her mouth and biting down teasingly. He kissed her deeply, pulling away only after leaving her breathless and craving more.
"You're too damn cute, Haww, do you know that?"
"Which is why you love me."
"And why I can hardly keep my hands off you." He accentuated his statement by tweaking her playfully on the nose.
She left to get dressed, after Dearka promised they'd go some place where they could eat outside. She dressed leisurely, taking time to make sure that everything was perfect. She knew the blonde cared nothing for what she wore on her outer person, but she tried to choose a flattering ensemble nonetheless. Dearka's inattention to clothing and makeup was one of the things she adored about him, and though she knew he'd like her the same no matter what she put on, she decided to try particularly hard anyway. It wasn't everyday that he had the ambition to take her out for lunch.
She opened the door and stepped into the hallway, clad in sandals and her favorite yellow sundress. Dearka was leaning casually against the doorframe, awaiting his princess outside her royal chamber.
He extended his hand and she took it. "You look good," he told her, and she had to struggle to keep a straight face the moment she realized she had genuinely dazzled him.
"You're such a simpleton," she replied, falling into her pretended role of princess with a regal toss of her head. "It's only a sundress, Sir."
"A sundress for a princess," he insisted, twirling her around once before leading her to the apartment door.
Suddenly Miriallia let out a loud guffaw. "Hah, I wonder what Cagalli would do to us if she were here." The image conjured fourth was beyond hysterical. "Considering she's a real princess, I'm sure she wouldn't appreciate us making jokes."
Dearka dropped her hand and shook his fist in the air in an impression of the Orb representative. "I don't act like that! Don't call me a Princess!"
"That imitation was positively terrible."
The blonde pouted. "Do I look like a ravaging tomboy princess to you?" he asked innocently. "I don't know how Athrun stands her."
Her mouth dropped open in horror. "That was terrible!"
"You like me anyway."
"I guess so." The matter was settled.
He took her to an outdoor café, on one side of the park beside a cozy little Spanish-style building. To Miriallia's surprise, the blonde instructed her to order whatever she wanted. He changed his mind and was forced to limit her after her second turkey wrap, third chocolate chip cookie and numerous glasses of milk to wash it down. Other than that, their lunch date went on without a hitch. Dearka seemed his usual, humorous self, right down to the way he commented on their waitress's generous curves.
"We can stop for an ice cream before we head back," he offered, nodding to the café's ruddy-faced proprietor on the way out. He'd had to ask the kindly man to put the cost of their meal on his tab.
"Does the ice cream man keep a running tab on you, too?" Mir mumbled, embarrassed that she hadn't known her boyfriend was broke before she'd gone to town.
The blonde made a cheeky face and set off toward the center of the park. "I think it's safe to say that you'll be paying for the ice cream."
She tried to hide a grin. "Is that so?" She didn't mind at all. In fact, after the way his tab likely skyrocketed due to her greedy stomach, she owed it to him. She watched him walk a bit ahead of her, hands stuffed deep into his pockets, shoulders relaxed, head up as the wind toyed with his rumpled hair. Same old Dearka, all right.
"So, Mr. Elsman," she said once she'd jogged to catch up to him, "Is there a reason for taking me out all of a sudden?"
He raised an eyebrow at her mischievously. "Do I need a reason, or are you trying to make me feel guilty about something?" They'd reached the ice cream cart. Without waiting for an answer, he stepped up to the vendor and ordered Mir a chocolate cone with gummy bears, and a strawberry for himself. Miriallia shook her head at his predictability. The Coordinator did always have a special liking for all things strawberry.
She took her treat when he handed it to her, but barely had she finished her first bite when he grabbed her wrist.
"Stop," he ordered, raising her hand to his mouth. He licked the edges of her cone and gave the Natural girl a naughty stare. "If you don't lick the sides first, it'll drip."
Miriallia snatched the ice cream back and hid her blush behind another big bite, savoring the chewy gummy bears as they resumed walking. She was hardly halfway into her chocolate dessert when she was bumped from behind. The scoop of ice cream went sailing from the top of her cone to land with an unappetizing squelch on the hot sidewalk, where the gummy bears oozed about in the swiftly melting chocolate. The Natural gaped at her lost dessert.
"I-I'm so sorry," gasped a nervous looking woman as she hurried past, trampling the fallen scoop of ice cream in her haste to move on. "I…"
"HEY!" The loud call echoed from somewhere off to their right, and Miriallia watched as the woman panicked.
"I'm really very sorry," she apologized again, bowing quickly and taking off.
"What the…" Dearka swore and glared after the retreating figure in shock. He made as if to go after her, but he stepped into the path of three men already in her pursuit and they were forced to maneuver around him.
One of them shoved the blonde aside. "Move it."
Dearka's eyebrow twitched, and Mir knew the Buster pilot was on his last thread of patience. "Now just a minute," he called, seizing the collar of the man who had hit him. He pressed his strawberry cone into his girlfriend's possession with his free hand. "Hold that."
Miriallia took the cone without arguement, wondering if she should step in. She studied Dearka's face. He wasn't in the mood to start trouble, but neither would he allow the three hasty men to walk away without an apology. She watched while the one in Dearka's grasp fixed his captor with an ugly sneer.
"You'll stop wasting my time if you know what's good for you," he threatened, motioning simultaneously for the other two men to go on ahead. They took off at a sprint in the direction of the woman.
"And why's that?" Dearka demanded, ignoring the departure of the twin lackeys. "I don't want trouble, but I think you owe us an apology. And I think you should leave that woman alone." Then he released his quarry.
The man straightened his collar and snickered. "She was nothing but a filthy whore with manipulated genes. If you're smart you'll stay out of it. Unless," his voice lowered dangerously, "You're one of those disgusting Coordinators as well."
Miriallia's eyes widened as the newsflash she'd heard that morning raced to the foreground of her memory. Blue Cosmos. Ice cream forgotten, she took the blonde by the sleeve and spoke so only he could hear.
"Dearka, leave it alone."
He responded only with a low growl, but took a step back when he noted the urgent look on her face. The stranger spat and left them, but only after treating them both to another cruel sneer.
The blonde mobile suit pilot looked offended, but the biting sarcasm in his voice proved he was not the least bit intimidated. "Why are the stupid Naturals always the ones who want to start a fight?"
Miriallia went quiet. "Are you forgetting that I'm also one of them?"
"Ah, well…" Dearka massaged the back of his neck with anxiety. "You see, I didn't…"
Her face lit up, and she punched him playfully in the shoulder. "Just kidding." Her lips quirked up in the corners as he sagged in relief. "But really, Dearka, you should be careful what you say. They could have been Blue Cosmos."
He looked at her as if she'd suddenly sprouted a second set of ears. "Blue Cosmos? Here?"
"I saw it on the news this morning. Who knows what they're up to these days."
Dearka's brow darkened, and he narrowed his violet eyes to peer into the distance where the three men had disappeared. "Sometimes I think what we did in that war was all for nothing," he grumbled.
"Cheer up," the former CIC advised, handing him back his half-melted cone. "Let's go back to the apartment and see what Yzak is doing."
"Yzak?" The Buster pilot's face brightened at the suggestion. "I thought you two hated each other."
She gulped and let out a nervous laugh. "What makes you think that?"
"I heard the conversation you two had this morning, nice and loud in my kitchen."
Miriallia Haww cursed herself in every language she knew before she could consider scraping up the gall to answer. What a fool she must have sounded to him.
"You don't have to explain anything," he told her, no doubt noticing the way in which she began to fidget with the hem of her sundress in alarm. "But I promise you, he's really not a bad guy. He just takes some getting used to. Besides," she looked up and he met her gaze with a cool smile, "I really want the two of you to get along."
Miriallia stammered something of a reply, but in truth, she didn't know what to say. She'd proposed the same thing to the silver-haired ZAFT soldier earlier, but it had ended up sounding ridiculous to both parties. Of course, there might still be a chance to learn to understand his blazing temper and stinging comments, but…
"He and I have been through a lot together," the blonde continued, giving her hand a squeeze as they rounded the corner and moved into view of the apartment complex. "So you'll try, right? You'll try to tolerate him?"
His smile was so warm, and his trust in her lifted her spirits significantly. If Dearka believed in her, she could certainly believe in herself. She knew the incident from last night still bothered her, but she brushed it from her mind. Their day out had convinced her there was nothing left to fear.
"I'll work on it," she promised him.
A/N: Ugh, this chapter was hard. I have a hard time understanding the way Dearka and Miriallia work. I guess I just can't grasp their relationship that well. I hope everything seemed accurate! One day I'll be as good at writing them as PaolaAdara, damn it!
