"My boyfriend is a pilot."
- Lynn Minmay, Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love?
"You wanna get nuts? Come on, let's get nuts."
- Michael Keaton, Batman
Athrun was running the risk of being swallowed alive by a 5-foot-3 cotton candy swirl with ruby lipstick. The Songstress of the Stars had her man pinned to the wall of the flight hangar as she delivered a relentless assault of hugs and kisses. Totally at her mercy, Athrun just leaned back and enjoyed the fun ride.
The world was mostly at peace, and the heroes had found a way to maintain that peace using a little redundancy. Kira could stay in retirement in his beach paradise with his Lacus out of public view, while Athrun had his more sultry Lacus in space, where everything just seemed to naturally grow bigger without the restraints of gravity weighing it down.
Athrun felt his shoulders press against the metal wall panels as Meer playfully stood on her toes and curled her fingers against his chest. They explored around his neck and caught hold of the zipper to his pilot suit, tugging lightly as she leaned further into him and increased the ferocity of her kisses.
"Jeez, Meer. It's just a training exercise. They're not sending me into the end of the world," Athrun chuckled. He lowered his voice under the sound of flaring and whistling jet turbines so no one could hear him call her by her real name.
She managed to get the zipper down a couple inches and was brushing her painted nails over the thin undershirt covering his collar bone. Her thick cherry-scented hair tickled his chin and tangled around his mouth, making him imagine her as an anxious pink ferret trying to climb into his pilot suit so she could be his scarf.
Meer was a product. The invention of a technological Pygmalion. A false idol designed and surgically built to stir the morale of millions. Athrun had accepted that. He was also fully aware every aspect of her, every inch of her being, had been specifically tuned to entice him. And all things considered, he couldn't deny it worked.
But Athrun hadn't fallen in the love with the woman Meer pretended to be. He loved the real woman behind the cosmetic button nose, the artificially flush lips, and the chemically altered brunette hair that now always grew bright pink. His heart belonged to the woman he saw whenever he gazed deep in her eyes. The woman who had sacrificed every shred of her own identity so she could live out an impossible dream and help humanity for the better.
He respected her for who she chose to be and how well she used her talents. She played the parts of the Chairman's daughter and the famous pop singer even better than Athrun played the part of the ace pilot, and neither of them would have been able to get this far without the other's companionship and inspiration. They went together like a Knight and a Queen piece on the same side of a chess board, even when there wasn't someone trying to manipulate them into that relationship.
Meer's only drawback was her knack for being gullible. Her manufactured identity began as part of a much grander and more sinister lie. A lie meant to undermine the very foundations of society, while Meer just thought she was part of a fun impersonation gig. But that was history long past. The threat was gone. She was free from the shackles of those who only wished to use her as a strategic tool. She still played the part she'd been cast for, but now she did all her own directing.
The lie was still being used, but there was nothing inherently dangerous about the lie anymore. Athrun and his allies had simply taken the lie that was already put in place by someone else, and turned it into an innocent white lie so it worked for the entire world.
It was a lie Meer particularly loved to live out. Everyone thought she was Lacus, heiress of the late Sigel Clyne. Nobody questioned otherwise, and nobody ever paid any attention to the other Lacus running a humble orphanage on Earth. Meer got to make her idol's life safer and more peaceful, but she also got to be her idol. Lacus lived a quiet, anonymous life after escaping the horrors of war, while Meer worked alongside Athrun to prevent further wars.
Yolan walked past the wall twirling a wrench behind his head. He abruptly paused mid-step when he noticed Athrun and Meer out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head, glimpsed at how the couple was propped together, and flinched in surprise when he realized he was intruding on something intimate. They both stared back at him unblinking.
"Sorry, folks! My bad!"
He quickly threw his fingers up in a peace sign and continued walking to his next maintenance assignment. Most everyone in ZAFT was happy to see how affectionate Lacus and Athrun had become, but nobody wanted to be the jerk who snooped on them. The most respected couple in the colonies deserved their privacy.
"Just come back in one piece, okay?" Meer asked Athrun with an impatient little purr.
"I'll be lucky if I can even get inside the R-Saviour without you glued to me," he answered jokingly. His gloved palm brushed the back of her shoulders.
Meer unwrapped herself from his neck and took a step backwards. She lightly growled "Hrrm" through pouting lips as her hands curled into rock solid fists at her sides. She was most prominently known throughout the PLANT colonies for the two lively protuberances filling the front of her blouse, but she wasn't afraid to fire her other cannons every once in a while.
Her silver FAITH-styled wedding ring sparkled on her balled left fist.
"Okay, okay." Athrun rolled his eyes as he raised his palms in playful surrender. "I'll be extra careful for you this time, Your Highness."
"Thank you for your cooperation, Captain." Meer smirked back. She let her open hands hang at her sides as her anger instantly vanished.
"So, dinner at Heine's tonight?" Athrun asked as he straightened his posture against the wall and re-adjusted his collar.
"Practicing with the band." Meer shook her head. "I wanted to do a little anniversary get together, but you know how he is when he's trying to work out some new chords." She chirped lightly through her lips as she shrugged. Some of her quirky verbal tics could double as vocal exercises. "How about we go out to the Ramius Grill? I hear their Crab Special is to die for."
"Probably make your arms fall off, at least," Athrun nodded in agreement. He was close friends with the owner and the lead chef.
The tall and lean pilot scratched the dark blue hair off of his forehead as he sighed. Nothing was more relaxing to him than just looking down and admiring his wife when everything else was quiet. She had the physical presence of a make-believe mermaid given human form, and it wasn't even her body he found the most attractive.
Athrun saw billions of stars when he was flying outside of the atmosphere, but none of them were ever as beautiful as the tiny stars he saw in her eyes. The stars that only twinkled for him.
Meer subtly shifted her weight and performed a small, casual twirl on the toes of one foot. When she completed the rotation and faced him again, she was tilting her head suggestively and crossing her arms behind her back.
"You know, Athrun. I'm going to have to replace all of my concert dresses pretty soon because of you."
She was three months pregnant, by the way.
"It'll be a good look for you." Athrun narrowed his eyes and smirked. "A little extra bulk is how I've always been able to tell you're my Lacus."
Meer buried her blushing face into his flight suit as she snorted through her nose and giggled.
Author's note: I was thinking about Kagemusha the other day. And the movie Dave. But mostly Kagemusha.
Author's note 2: I don't care about Athrun. I ESPECIALLY don't give a crap about Destiny-era Athrun. God damn. I'm just so happy for Meer right now.
Author's note 3: The writing process for this story was basically: Organize all the HTML copies of my fanfics on my hard drive and make sure I have the latest edits of each one. Open up the Ceres Celestial Legend fanfic I wrote a couple years ago called "Yuuhi Cooks a Casserole," only because it's the alphabetically the last story on the list and I was curious. Notice it opens with the same Batman quote I put at the beginning of the Muv-Luv Teito Moyu fanfic I wrote the other day (I had a feeling that wasn't the first time I used that quote). Edit the quote out of the Ceres story because it's just silly there and it works waaay better in the context of the Muv-Luv story. Save and re-upload the Ceres story. "Hmm, is there anything else I can do with this concept?" Start writing this fanfic. Add a different Batman quote at the beginning for variety (but it still probably doesn't work nearly as well as the Batman quote I put in the Muv-Luv fanfic).
Author's note 4: You might think it's a stretch, but even the Gundam SEED chibi specials make fun of Meer for being a sci-fi Little Mermaid.
Author's note 5: R-Saviour is an abbreviation for "Revised Saviour," very much in the same vein as "Zeta Plus" and "Delta Kai." I was calling it the I-Saviour for "Improved Saviour" when I was writing this, but then I found out the I-Saviour already exists as a G-Saviour thing. Ew.
Author's note 6: Heine is voiced by T. M. Revolution. The guy who does the theme songs.
Author's note 7: Some people might be critical that the point of this story is supposed to be "Ha ha giving up your sense of individual self and becoming a plastic surgery monster to attract your man is COOL and FUN ladies! Go do that!" But that's not really what I was trying to say. I see this situation more like "A terrible thing was done to you by someone who only wanted to exploit you and the damage can't be undone, but we're going to put our own positive spin on it."
Author's note 8: Maybe I should have called this Perfect Pink.