Chapter 8: Fleeting Happiness

"You want us to WHAT?" Carrus exclaimed.

"Take the next eighteen hours off. I'd say it's been a while since the two of you had some time off, correct? So, the two of you will have until tomorrow morning when you leave to do what you want." Athrun chuckled slightly. "In short, I'm ordering you two to go on a date."

"Are you serious?" Carrus' reaction made Mayu giggle, as she blushed slightly. "Shouldn't we do something with the departure?"

"You have a large crew who can take care of the preparations. Get some R & R, both of you, especially Carrus, will need it."

"Thank you Athrun!" Mayu smiled.


Kayos flew out of the cockpit of the Gale strike, leering at the engineers who made their way to his machine. "YOU TOUCH THAT AND YOU DIE!" he yelled at the man. "IT'S MY GUNDAM I'LL TAKE CARE OF IT!" Soaring into the corridors of the ship, he seethed past everyone who passed him, stopping when Weiss appeared in front of him.

"Where's Twi?" Weiss asked, knowing that he didn't return before him.

"I thought you would re-deploy so I figured you would know…" Kayos answered.

"I wasn't cleared, apparently we weren't allowed to re deploy in the first place, not our mission and all that crap." Weiss mumbled.

"Tell them we put a hole in Celestial Being, that was our mission and we accomplished it." Kayos growled.

"Sorry boss, I'm not one for chain of command" Weiss commented.

"Fine then wait for Raven And get news about Twi, if he's dead I may just end up killing someone in their sleep" Kayos told Weiss harshly, his day wasn't ending well. Suddenly, shouts of confusion were heard from the main hangar, and Kayos and Weiss flew back to investigate, when the pair saw a devastated GNX land, the frame was practically wrecked, its limbs were shot off, and yet, Raven flew out the cockpit.

Weiss' was shocked, seeing Raven emerge in such a unit. "Hoooooolllyy shit, what happened to you?" Weiss asked, rubbing his hands along the ZAFT unit.

Raven sighed, grabbing a bottle of water and squirting it into his face. "Noir got ripped to shreds, barely ejected in time." Raven began to laugh, making Kayos uneasy. "Either way... I'm not flying for a while..."

"Lame, alright, but what about Twi. Did he die?" Weiss asked, actually showing an emotion for the first time to a fellow crew mate, he was worried, everyone was. Twi being an extended meant he wasn't common.

Raven chuckled slightly, amused at Weiss' concerns. "He's fine... Setsuna F Seiei is too soft to kill him... But so is that kid... Carrus…"

"So it was the Freedom that got you huh?" Kayos asked.

Weiss turned to Kayos, eager to spread the news as Kayos approached. "Sir, Twi's alright. From what Raven has said he…"

"I heard!" Kayos snapped. "Go back to the room, and from here on out, I'm NOT going to be as easy on you" Kayos waited for Weiss to leave before he slammed his fist into the GNX Raven appeared in. "IM going to kill all those Orb and ZAFT fuckers if they harmed Twi! God damn it I swore id never call him this but HES LIKE MY DAMN SON!" Kayos agonizingly groaned. "Someone should call command tell them I want a meeting, I WANT TWI BACK!" He yelled.

"Shut up will you?" Raven growled, making Kayos glare at him. "Don't beat yourself up. I should've figured out that Setsuna was on board... and the Freedom's more dangerous than I thought. That DEFINITELY ain't a nuclear reactor powering it... Something else is there…"

"It's my fault he's a Prisoner…" Kayos groaned.

"Not this time." Raven answered, remembering the feelings he felt fighting Carrus, his Quantum brainwaves connected with Carrus, but the feeling was erratic, confusing. "I'd say that we all got too arrogant. Before, it was a matter of fighting the Freedom... now, if my custom Noir was destroyed, I'm gonna need something else, and that GN drive up there is the key..."

"Of COURSE we got too arrogant! I totally agree! I just wish I was there, I could've saved Twi…" Kayos groaned, sitting on the floor, his head in his hands. "Raven...What are they going to do to him?" His eyes were obviously watering but he was holding the tears back.

"Why, want revenge? Then don't be afraid to show that spirit later." Kayos was shocked, he never expected Raven to be the one comforting him. "I need you at the top of your game, and with any luck, we could score more of those GN drives, on intact mobile suits too. Look, I want to get back at the Yamato kid, but now isn't the time." Raven flew off, leaving Kayos alone. As Raven flew through space, he smiled, pulling a small disc from his pocket. "After all, I need more power if I want to beat the Yamato kid, and the PLANTS are where I need to go if I want to get that power I need. Right… Shadow?"


"I can't believe THIS is a mission…" Carrus sighed, feeling the itch of his civilian clothes.

"I'm GLAD we got this mission!" Mayu giggled, as she walked down the pier with Carrus at her side. The street was littered with shops, restaurants and other similar places. Orb was truly unaffected by the events of the world, despite the rising tensions, it always remained as calm as it could until war was on Onogoro Island's doorstep.

"Mayu, we really should be leaving. Especially since we still have no idea what happened to Lotte and Kat."

"But we can't leave until the ship's ready!" Mayu smiled, trying to get Carrus to relax.

"Then we need to HELP it get ready."

"But Athrun said he'd shoot you off the Mass Driver if you did!"

"But that's…" Carrus stopped, knowing he was going to lose this argument. "Tch, fine. FINE. I see how it is…"

"Good!" Mayu giggled. "Now! In between the two of us, we're freaking rich because we never got a chance to spend anything, so, what do you wanna do?"

"…I don't know…"

"Wanna make out?" Mayu smiled, tapping Carrus' nose.

"Not now…"

"Wanna make out… in bed?" Mayu laughed, making Carrus cringe and sweat nervously as Mayu wrapped herself around him.

"What? Seriously?"

"Gosh… RELAX!" Mayu giggled. "You're so uptight! Come on, let's get something to eat!" Mayu held Carrus' hand, walking him to a Thai restaurant on the waterfront.

"Mayu! Wait a moment!" Carrus yelped, while being dragged along, until he suddenly stopped, when something in his head made him look behind him. He swore he felt someone following him.

"Carrus, come on!"

"Huh? Oh right…"


Mayu smiled while she ate her dessert, her taste buds craved more sweetness as she stuck her spoon in her mouth. "I officially LOVE deep fried ice cream!" Mayu giggled as she chomped down. "It's like putting two of the best and most unlikely things ever, and it works. NOM!"

Carrus hinted a slight smile at her while she ate again and again. He didn't feel much like anything sweet to finish his meal. He couldn't help but shake the feeling that someone was watching him and Mayu. He watched all around him, trying to understand the nature of his uneasiness. "So… Lawrence said you were worried about me?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Mayu smiled, as she took another bite. "You sounded really down in our phone call."

"…Sorry…"

"NO! APOLOGY!" Mayu sung, quoting one of her favourite classic rock bands. She giggled a little at her reference to Bon Jovi. "Seriously though, there's no need. After all… mister Yamato did appear out of the blue…"

"It's not that he appeared that bothers me, it's that he shot at us for no reason…" Carrus lost himself in thought, often contemplating just how it came to him nearly shooting his own father.

"I think he just wanted to see you." Carrus looked up, confused at Mayu's answer. "Maybe he thought that you wouldn't pay attention to him if he simply passed you by… after all. You ARE a doofus!" Mayu began to chuckle, knocking Carrus on the head lightly.

Carrus began to smile, paying the bill, standing up, and suddenly wrapped his arms around Mayu. "YOU'RE the doofus!" He laughed.

"Help!" Mayu laughed as they left the building. "Not fair! Not fair!" She giggled constantly as the pair wandered out, and a pair of shadows followed them as they wandered down the streets, while they playfully cuddled with each other. Mayu's eyes widened suddenly, when she spotted something in the window of a dress shop, making her squeal loudly. "Carrus! I'm going in! I'll be back!"

Carrus chuckled. He knew there was no stopping Mayu at this point. "Go on, I'll catch up in a moment."

"Okay!" Mayu squeaked, running inside the store to look at a long flowing green and yellow dress that seemed to flow down the mannequin in sat on. Carrus chuckled to himself as he turned away, walking down the street.

Carrus looked in a window, confirming the same two figures that he saw at the restaurant. Turning into an alley, he turned to the side, waited for the two strangers to pass, when he grabbed both of them by the neck, slamming them against the wall. "All right! Got you two…" Carrus stopped, when he realised that he held Brandon and Lawrence in his grasp, making him sweat anxiously.

"Hello to you too…" Lawrence growled, while Brandon said little to Carrus.

"WAH! I'm sorry!" Carrus squeaked, letting the pair go. "What are you two doing anyway?"

"Athrun wanted to make sure you were ACTUALLY relaxing…" Brandon answered without so much as a smile.

"After all, you were set on helping us at the ship, but you need a break. After all, Kira Yamato's appearance did shock everyone, especially you."

"Yeah… I know…" Carrus sighed. "But don't you think given the state of everything going on, I should do all I can to help with the war effort?"

"No, I don't think so." Lawrence answered. "It's important to take a break, especially since you don't know when the next time you'll get such an opportunity to have fun, and if you don't, you may just get too tired from the same job over and over again, and you'll end up becoming more trouble than help."

"Well…" Carrus thought for a moment, making Brandon roll his eyes. "I suppose that makes sense…"

"So, you go back to her." Brandon grumbled. "After all, she's waiting for you…"

"Okay… will do!" Carrus chuckled, as he ran back to Mayu's side, as Lawrence looked at Brandon with a smug look on his face.

"'Go back to her'?"

"Shut up…" Brandon moaned.


Mayu skipped along with her new dress in a stylish paper bag, latched onto Carrus' arm as they approached their barracks. "Talk about a fun evening…" she giggled.

"Yup…" Carrus smiled, looking longingly at Mayu, who looked at him, a little confused.

"What's with you?"

"Hm?" Carrus said, snapping out of his trance. "Oh… I'm just admiring you…"

Mayu smiled slightly, her face lit up nearly as red as her hair. "Well thank you… although my face is prettier than my boobs, silly!"

"Huh?" Carrus yelped, realising he was gazing at her chest. The pair stopped outside Mayu's front door, when Mayu opened her door with a giggle.

"Busted!" Mayu smiled. "So…"

"So…?" Carrus looked at her, puzzled. The pair stood still for a number of moments, not sure of what to do next, when Mayu held Carrus' hand and kissed him on the cheek. "Mayu…" Carrus whispered, as he lowered his gaze, kissing Mayu on her neck lightly.

"We… could go inside…" Mayu smiled, as she pulled Carrus inside and pulled the door closed, kissing Carrus on his chest.

"Wait…" Carrus stopped, pulling back. "We…"

"Oh… oh god…" Mayu gasped, thinking she had done something wrong. "I'm so stupid! Sorry!"

"For what?" Carrus smiled. "I can't help it that I'm so attracted to you! It's not you it's… us not having… you know…"

"Not having what?" Mayu sadly moaned, falling on her bed.

"You know… err…" Carrus stopped, trying to get his words together. "Protection…"

"Oh! Condoms!" Mayu laughed, making Carrus cringe at the word, when she stood up, reached for her bag, and rooted through it, pulling out a small box.

"What? I was talking about…"

"So you DON'T want to…" Mayu blushed, realising she had made a mistake. "Not again…" She looked down, only to have Carrus grab her chin and kiss her longingly.

"I am SO regretting this later…" Carrus whispered, embracing Mayu tightly, as the pair fell onto Mayu's bed.

(Ending: Life Goes On, Mika Arisaka)