More than Words Can Say
Chapter Five: Anxiety
"There it is," Allen said in amazement as the large planet came into view. It was beautiful: a blue and green sphere encircled in wisps of white that hung in the cold depths of space.
"Second Miltia," Shion whispered. "It always looks so wonderful every time I see it."
"We're going to enter the atmosphere in fifteen minutes," Hammer informed them. "The weather is mild and sunny today, so landing shouldn't be a problem."
"That's always nice to hear," Matthews declared, taking a long drag from his cigarette. "Hey, I haven't seen Little Master anywhere lately. chaos, go find where they are."
"Sure," he answered, knowing that wherever Jr. was, MOMO would be there as well. She would have wanted to been notified since she was looking forward to going to Second Miltia.
He left the bridge in search of Little Master and the Realian girl. He walked past the cabins, figuring that neither would be there since MOMO already completed her chores. As the vending machine came into sight, his intuition had picked up something. He looked to his left near the machine and there was someone waiting for him. Her orange hair flowed like a waterfall down the back of her plain white dress, and as always she had worn a small golden cross around her neck. Her hands were clasped behind her, a strange aura glowing around her in the form of a supernatural white light and her vivid blue eyes stared at chaos with an indefinable look of solemnity.
"It's you..." chaos simply acknowledged her. The small girl nodded and pointed with her index finger in the direction of the Elsa's diner.
* * * *
A voice of insatiable madness echoed through the darkness. She ran for the sake of running, not caring which direction was north, south, east, or west. Her feet carried her, where she did not know. The only sounds she heard were the malicious laughter that has haunted her for so long and the rapid beats of her heart.
"Just go away!" She cried, too afraid to even shed tears. "What do you want from me!?"
Without warning, a great explosion of light engulfed her and obliterated the shadows that surrounded her. She shut her eyes tightly to protect them from the blinding luminosity. She suddenly felt her body falling, as if gravity jerked her feet and now sent her plummeting into oblivion.
The light cleared and she opened her eyes slowly to see that she had landed harmlessly on concrete. Everything was enshrouded in a gray mist, rain coming down in the form of fat raindrops and then splashing onto the ground. An unnatural wind blew past her as the sound of thunder rumbled through the gray sky. She looked up at the depressing clouds, the rain splattering against her smooth skin and dripping from the ends of her light pink hair. She walked through the mist, cautious of her every step.
"BURN IN HELL YOU BASTARD!" a male voice furiously called out. Three shots were fired and MOMO could see a few shining points of golden light glittering through the blanket of mist. She came to the conclusion that a battle was ensuing and three bullets had just been discarded from a gun that one of the combatants was using.
"Jr.!!!" She yelled worriedly and ran at full speed toward the struggling. The frigid touch of the curtains of rain or the uncanny howling of the wind did not affect her any longer: she only was aware that Jr. was possibly in danger and that she must get there before he was harmed.
Through the mist she saw his vivid crimson hair and his intense blue eyes. He was firing his antique gun at something that she could not see, cursing and shouting the whole entire time. She was only a few feet away from him and was about to call out his name, but a burst of electrifying green energy flashed through the heavy mist and made contact with Jr.'s chest. His beloved weapon dropped from his hand, his face was wracked with an inexpressible pain, his eyes alive with anguish as his body reared back and started to fall.
"JR.!!!" MOMO cried. She raced to him, cutting through the freezing rain and extending out her right hand to him. He caught it at the last minute, the action causing his injured body to collide with something solid. It was then that MOMO saw that she was on top of a building of some sort: she had to have been, for she could distinguish that below Jr.'s dangling feet were vague lights of various colors shining faintly through more sheets of rolling gray fog.
She fought with all her might to prevent Jr. from dropping to his death, both of her hands tightly clutching his. Although she had put forth all of her strength that her Realian body could muster, Jr. was still heavier than her and the rain caused her hold onto him to be slippery. She could feel his fingers sliding slowly from her fragile ones.
"Jr., hold on!" She shouted over the booming thunder. "Don't let go! Please just don't let go!!!"
She clung to his hands as long as he could, but gradually his hand loosened from her desperate grip, each finger escaping one by one. He stared up at her, his dying eyes losing their brilliant luster. The blood ran from his chest, staining the blue cross emblem on his white shirt. He saw that she was crying and his other limp hand went to reach out to her as to console her. However, he slipped away from her grasp, declining into the mist underneath him. The ends of his long trench coat flew against his body like two broken wings, the wind whistling deafeningly through his red hair as he was swallowed by the devouring mist and never to be seen again.
MOMO sat there on the rooftop, trying to figure out what had just happened. In Realian terms the event could be summed up as this: the captain of the Durandal known as Gaignun Kukai, Jr. had been critically injured by a concentrated stream of phenomenal energy, damaging his chest cavity where his heart was located and thus the force was powerful enough to send him off balance off an extremely tall man-made structure and ultimately, due to the fact that his weight was greater than that of the 100-Series who attempted to rescue him, to his death. Although she was composed of machinery, MOMO could not understand anything that she had witnessed. To know what took place was one thing, while trying to comprehend it was another.
The lonely MAKAROV gun rested upon the ground where Jr. had involuntarily allowed it to fall from his grip. MOMO picked it up: there were still traces of his body heat that remained on the handle and the trigger where he had held it. She clasped it closely to her chest as she wept, unable to hold back her sobs.
"No..." She whimpered. "He can't-he isn't...Jr...please come back!!!"
She heard footsteps splashing upon the rain-soaked concrete ground. They stopped directly behind her, while at the same time MOMO was too traumatized to care: she only held onto the gun as comfort, pleading that she would see Jr. again.
"Do not worry," a soothing, yet ominous, male voice told her. MOMO lifted her head up against the rain and saw a figure above her. His stature was short and thin and hidden by the darkness, like that of someone her age. Another lightning bolt danced wildly across the sky and reflected clearly in the eyes of the stranger: they were so much like Jr.'s, yet so much more different than his. They were child-like: keen with a sense of unquenched curiosity. But there was something bizarre about them. There was a hunger in those grim eyes, a craving for something, whether tangible or not, that the stranger had not yet satisfied.
He bent down on his knees and placed his cold hands upon her small shoulders. "You should not shed your tears for someone as wicked as he."
She could no longer see his eyes in the fettering darkness. "Wicked? Jr...Jr. wasn't wicked."
His hand touched her cheek, the feel of it both familiar and alien to her. "I shall care for you now. I swear that I will never let anyone defile you as he did..."
MOMO woke, freeing herself of the chains of another horrible dream. She saw that a slightly snoring Jr. was beside her with his arm comfortably around her and that she had been sleeping in the warmth of his trench coat. MOMO reached out her hand to touch his youthful face and her fingers ran through the messy ruby tufts of his hair to make sure that he was real, that he was breathing. She placed a hand upon the spot that she had seen the jet of energy go right through him: she could feel his heart beating normally. Her fears still not appeased, she gave his cheek a pinch-a very hard one.
"OWWWW!!!" Jr. yelped. His eyes were wide open, traces of grogginess and aggravation to them. He immediately put a hand on his face to rub the ache of where MOMO had pinched him. "What'd you do that for!?"
"Jr...are you really all right?" MOMO asked, holding her breath anxiously for his answer.
"I was until you pinched me!" He snapped back, still rubbing his cheek.
Crystalline tears formed in MOMO's round eyes as she threw her arms around a baffled Jr. "Oh Jr., you're okay!" She cried out joyfully. "I was so scared!"
Jr.'s irritation faded after hearing MOMO's choked sobs and feeling her tears soaking through his shirt. He hugged her as well, guilt slowly building in him for yelling at her. "Hey, everything's fine. You don't need to cry." Jr.'s fingers traced the soft curve of her cheek.
MOMO gazed at him with those adorable eyes of hers: gleaming orbs of amber that shone only the innocence and benevolence of her nature. "I'm sorry...it's just that..." MOMO did not continue on. She did not want to know what she had just dreamt now. No, he COULD NOT know. There was no way that she could bring herself to burden Jr. by telling him about theses frightening images. Besides, how could she explain something that she herself did not completely understand?
Jr. was waiting for her to continue. "It's just that what? MOMO, what happened-"
"MOMO!!!" The normally collected voice of chaos yelled out as the doors breached open from him. He saw the couple in a booth near him and he ran towards the Realian girl with shaking breaths.
"What are you doing here?" There was a tone of bitterness to Jr.'s voice.
chaos quickly regained his composure. "MOMO, the Captain said that we were going to enter Second Miltia's atmosphere in a little while," he informed her comfortingly as she left her seat with Jr.'s long trench coat still around her shoulders. By looking at her tear-stained face, chaos understood that she just had another nightmare as she did this morning. "There isn't any need to cry. I'm still going to get you an ice cream cone when we get there like I promised you."
MOMO managed a smile, her bottom lip shaking from trying to control her crying. "Th-thank you." The Realian then collected the pink bits that remained of the wrapping paper and the red ribbon that had once bound it around the gift Jr. had given her. She took the book as well, carefully handling it like a precious treasure.
"You should get to the bridge. Everyone else is there," chaos said, and MOMO nodded and hurried off, her feathery hair bobbing from her head as she went.
Jr. was once again crestfallen for having his time with MOMO cut so shortly. What ate at his insides even more was the fact that she was crying just now, and he did not know what had caused her to do so.
"Jr.," he heard chaos speak. The redhead attempted to keep his feelings of dislike for the tan-skinned young man from showing.
"What is it?"
"You should go after her," the seriousness that chaos implicated in his statement both surprised and bothered Jr. "I think she would want someone to be with her right now."
Jr. stared back at chaos, bewilderment churning in the depths of his sky blue eyes, but he put on his black trench coat that was laying on the booth and left after MOMO to catch up with her. chaos heard the doors close after him, a positive sign that he was now alone. His eyes searched the diner as he stood completely still. He strained his ears to try and catch any sound, any noise in the diner. The air was quiet and calm but chaos was not at ease.
"She would never be wrong," he said critically. "Both she and I sensed someone here..."
He stood there for a few more minutes and gave up his effort. He left the diner and there was silence once again except for the amused chuckles of a figure from the shadows.
* * * *
"Shion, nice to see you again!" A man enthusiastically welcomed Shion as she and the rest of the group approached her home. Long strands of his raven hair fell down the sides of his face and past his broad shoulders, but they did not conceal his eyes, both perplexing and friendly. "I see that you brought company with you this time."
Shion nodded and stepped aside to introduce the party. "Yes, these are all my friends. These four men are the crew of the Elsa," after she presented them, Captain Matthews signaled Tony, Hammer, and chaos to greet their host. "This is Gaignun, Jr., he's the captain of the Durandal and helps direct the Kukai Foundation," Jr. nodded promptly upon being acknowledged. "This is MOMO," the pink-haired girl smiled shyly, "and this is Allen, who is a fellow worker from Vector."
Jin shook hands with everyone and kindly escorted them into his house. Jr. was overcome with the desire to cough heavily after he entered the living room. "Is there something burning in here?"
The elder Uzuki panicked and rushed into his kitchen. "Oh no, lunch!"
Shion shook her head and ran after him. "I told you that you're supposed to watch the stove while you cook, not read those silly books at the same time!" She turned back to her friends and smiled embarrassedly at them. "I'm sorry guys, but I have to help Jin before he burns the house down. Make yourselves at home. It'll be a while until lunch is ready." With that, she disappeared after her brother.
Captain Matthews, Tony, and Hammer sighed contentedly as they dropped onto the cozy couches that were arranged tidily in the spacious living room. MOMO sank into the comfort of a large chair and Allen stood in the center of the room, carefully examining the house as the smoke from the kitchen gradually cleared.
"Man, Chief's brother doesn't clean very much," Allen commented after seeing the state that the living room was in. The coffee table was littered with old books, the furniture needed to be dusted badly, and some of the pillows were just thrown around the couches in a worthless attempt to organize them. Jr. now noticed some of the aged books on the table and in interest, picked one of them up and began reading it while sitting on of the left arm of the chair that MOMO was resting on.
"It's pretty cozy, I'd say," Tony said while stretching his arms and letting out a loud yawn. Hammer had obviously agreed since he was napping soundly next to him.
"Geez, I'm starving," Matthews remarked, holding his stomach with his hand. The others concurred, the grumbling of empty stomachs sounding in the room.
MOMO looked to her left where Jr. was absorbed into the yellow-tinted pages of the book he read eagerly in his hands. Boredom settled into the little Realian's mind, so she left her cushioned seat and headed towards the smoke- filled kitchen.
She coughed a bit when entering, where she found a frustrated Shion holding a large tin plate in her hands in which a burning roast was settled, the flames rising rapidly from the nearly black piece of meat. Shion carefully placed the ruined meal upon the circular table beside her with her hands, which were protected by oven mitts. "Jin, put it out already!"
Jin drew near the flames with a red fire extinguisher and smothered the fire with a blast of cold, bubbly substance that shot out onto the meat. In a few seconds the fire had died and all that was left was a rather large piece of now inedible meat.
"Guess I shouldn't read my novel while cooking lunch, huh?" He sheepishly stated.
Shion's hands were on her hips as she glared at her older brother. "You know better than that! How many times must I tell you that you always have to pay attention when you're in the kitchen!?"
"Do you need any help, Shion?" MOMO timidly interrupted the quarreling siblings.
Shion sighed and smiled at the little girl. "No, I don't want you to burn yourself. That plate is pretty hot. We're going to go out to the city to eat lunch. Why don't you tell the others to get ready?"
MOMO remembered that a certain silver-haired person was missing from the living room. "Have you seen chaos?"
"No, because I was too busy preventing us from being killed by my careless brother's cooking," Shion hissed, throwing another dangerous glance to Jin.
"Uh, do you mean the boy in the blue and orange clothes? You should check in the backyard," Jin suggested while putting back the fire extinguisher.
"Thank you." MOMO left the two Uzuki siblings to clean up the mess by opening the backdoor that led from the kitchen and into Jin's courtyard.
* * * *
The noon sun was shining brilliantly in the center of a clear blue sky. A spring breeze wafted through the tree branches, all wrapped in bright green leaves, and whispered playfully through his hair, which was so silver that each strand looked like glossy slivers of the moon. His deep emerald eyes looked out to the wide ocean in front of him, the sun rays reflecting off the surface of the water, but even its light could not penetrate the bottomlessness of the dark depths. Sea gulls screeched in the air like drifting paper planes and the salty crisp smell of the ocean filled his senses. Still, he was far too troubled to be enthralled in the beauty of the scenery around him.
"Someone was on the Elsa. I do not know why the ship's security sensors did not detect anything, but I sensed someone. We both did."
He remembered the ginger-haired girl with the piercing blue eyes, pointing in the direction of the diner. "She knew there was someone hiding there. She was warning me." chaos picked up a lonely pebble from the grass and thrust it into the water as hard as it could. He watched as skipped across the glassy surface and finally sank to the bottom, the ripples it caused spreading out in multiple rings. "It's been too calm since Proto Merkabah. I fear that there will be hardships in the near future. If that is the case, then neither of them might be safe..."
He was too overwhelmed by his thoughts that he did not realize that MOMO had just come out into the courtyard from Jin's kitchen to look for him. Once she discovered him standing near an ancient tree watching the ocean from the cliff that jutted out of the landscape, she ran to him. "chaos!"
He heard his name being called and looked toward MOMO, the white flaps of her sailor dress slightly moving as she ran. "We have to go. Shion said that we're all going out to eat lunch."
chaos simply nodded as a gesture that he understood. MOMO took note of his melancholy expression. "What's wrong?"
"It's nothing," he answered, trying to conceal his fears.
MOMO's yellow eyes, full of concern, searched his face. "You know, for someone who is always helping everyone else your eyes sure look sad."
chaos, a bit startled by MOMO's statement, smiled. "You sound like an adult."
MOMO's feet shuffled among the grass. "It's just that you look so gloomy sometimes. You're always willing to lend a hand to others, but you never let anyone else do the same for you. And that's why I worry about you sometimes."
She fell silent, perhaps waiting for chaos to respond. He just gaped at her in slight astonishment. Although she was a Realian, MOMO was full of surprises. She did not act as any other, but what was so amazing about her was that she actually cared about people and was very honest as a real child would have been. Not wanting her to bothered by him any longer, chaos shook his head.
"You shouldn't worry about me, I'm fine. Now we should go. Knowing the Captain's appetite he's probably gnawing away at the couch by now."
MOMO giggled as she and chaos headed towards to the kitchen. He looked over his shoulder to take one more look at the ocean, his mysterious eyes feasting on the breathtaking but mystifying waters.
SPECIAL NOTE: Okay, now things are going to start rolling here. As I promise, I will have more MOMO/Jr. interactions in the future. Sorry for not updating in a LONG time, I just got finished with finals. I shall be writing more often now. Thank you for all your wonderful reviews (you all know who you are!). I'm glad you loved Chapter 4! But this story is still bound to have plenty of surprises, so be ready! ^_^
Chapter Five: Anxiety
"There it is," Allen said in amazement as the large planet came into view. It was beautiful: a blue and green sphere encircled in wisps of white that hung in the cold depths of space.
"Second Miltia," Shion whispered. "It always looks so wonderful every time I see it."
"We're going to enter the atmosphere in fifteen minutes," Hammer informed them. "The weather is mild and sunny today, so landing shouldn't be a problem."
"That's always nice to hear," Matthews declared, taking a long drag from his cigarette. "Hey, I haven't seen Little Master anywhere lately. chaos, go find where they are."
"Sure," he answered, knowing that wherever Jr. was, MOMO would be there as well. She would have wanted to been notified since she was looking forward to going to Second Miltia.
He left the bridge in search of Little Master and the Realian girl. He walked past the cabins, figuring that neither would be there since MOMO already completed her chores. As the vending machine came into sight, his intuition had picked up something. He looked to his left near the machine and there was someone waiting for him. Her orange hair flowed like a waterfall down the back of her plain white dress, and as always she had worn a small golden cross around her neck. Her hands were clasped behind her, a strange aura glowing around her in the form of a supernatural white light and her vivid blue eyes stared at chaos with an indefinable look of solemnity.
"It's you..." chaos simply acknowledged her. The small girl nodded and pointed with her index finger in the direction of the Elsa's diner.
* * * *
A voice of insatiable madness echoed through the darkness. She ran for the sake of running, not caring which direction was north, south, east, or west. Her feet carried her, where she did not know. The only sounds she heard were the malicious laughter that has haunted her for so long and the rapid beats of her heart.
"Just go away!" She cried, too afraid to even shed tears. "What do you want from me!?"
Without warning, a great explosion of light engulfed her and obliterated the shadows that surrounded her. She shut her eyes tightly to protect them from the blinding luminosity. She suddenly felt her body falling, as if gravity jerked her feet and now sent her plummeting into oblivion.
The light cleared and she opened her eyes slowly to see that she had landed harmlessly on concrete. Everything was enshrouded in a gray mist, rain coming down in the form of fat raindrops and then splashing onto the ground. An unnatural wind blew past her as the sound of thunder rumbled through the gray sky. She looked up at the depressing clouds, the rain splattering against her smooth skin and dripping from the ends of her light pink hair. She walked through the mist, cautious of her every step.
"BURN IN HELL YOU BASTARD!" a male voice furiously called out. Three shots were fired and MOMO could see a few shining points of golden light glittering through the blanket of mist. She came to the conclusion that a battle was ensuing and three bullets had just been discarded from a gun that one of the combatants was using.
"Jr.!!!" She yelled worriedly and ran at full speed toward the struggling. The frigid touch of the curtains of rain or the uncanny howling of the wind did not affect her any longer: she only was aware that Jr. was possibly in danger and that she must get there before he was harmed.
Through the mist she saw his vivid crimson hair and his intense blue eyes. He was firing his antique gun at something that she could not see, cursing and shouting the whole entire time. She was only a few feet away from him and was about to call out his name, but a burst of electrifying green energy flashed through the heavy mist and made contact with Jr.'s chest. His beloved weapon dropped from his hand, his face was wracked with an inexpressible pain, his eyes alive with anguish as his body reared back and started to fall.
"JR.!!!" MOMO cried. She raced to him, cutting through the freezing rain and extending out her right hand to him. He caught it at the last minute, the action causing his injured body to collide with something solid. It was then that MOMO saw that she was on top of a building of some sort: she had to have been, for she could distinguish that below Jr.'s dangling feet were vague lights of various colors shining faintly through more sheets of rolling gray fog.
She fought with all her might to prevent Jr. from dropping to his death, both of her hands tightly clutching his. Although she had put forth all of her strength that her Realian body could muster, Jr. was still heavier than her and the rain caused her hold onto him to be slippery. She could feel his fingers sliding slowly from her fragile ones.
"Jr., hold on!" She shouted over the booming thunder. "Don't let go! Please just don't let go!!!"
She clung to his hands as long as he could, but gradually his hand loosened from her desperate grip, each finger escaping one by one. He stared up at her, his dying eyes losing their brilliant luster. The blood ran from his chest, staining the blue cross emblem on his white shirt. He saw that she was crying and his other limp hand went to reach out to her as to console her. However, he slipped away from her grasp, declining into the mist underneath him. The ends of his long trench coat flew against his body like two broken wings, the wind whistling deafeningly through his red hair as he was swallowed by the devouring mist and never to be seen again.
MOMO sat there on the rooftop, trying to figure out what had just happened. In Realian terms the event could be summed up as this: the captain of the Durandal known as Gaignun Kukai, Jr. had been critically injured by a concentrated stream of phenomenal energy, damaging his chest cavity where his heart was located and thus the force was powerful enough to send him off balance off an extremely tall man-made structure and ultimately, due to the fact that his weight was greater than that of the 100-Series who attempted to rescue him, to his death. Although she was composed of machinery, MOMO could not understand anything that she had witnessed. To know what took place was one thing, while trying to comprehend it was another.
The lonely MAKAROV gun rested upon the ground where Jr. had involuntarily allowed it to fall from his grip. MOMO picked it up: there were still traces of his body heat that remained on the handle and the trigger where he had held it. She clasped it closely to her chest as she wept, unable to hold back her sobs.
"No..." She whimpered. "He can't-he isn't...Jr...please come back!!!"
She heard footsteps splashing upon the rain-soaked concrete ground. They stopped directly behind her, while at the same time MOMO was too traumatized to care: she only held onto the gun as comfort, pleading that she would see Jr. again.
"Do not worry," a soothing, yet ominous, male voice told her. MOMO lifted her head up against the rain and saw a figure above her. His stature was short and thin and hidden by the darkness, like that of someone her age. Another lightning bolt danced wildly across the sky and reflected clearly in the eyes of the stranger: they were so much like Jr.'s, yet so much more different than his. They were child-like: keen with a sense of unquenched curiosity. But there was something bizarre about them. There was a hunger in those grim eyes, a craving for something, whether tangible or not, that the stranger had not yet satisfied.
He bent down on his knees and placed his cold hands upon her small shoulders. "You should not shed your tears for someone as wicked as he."
She could no longer see his eyes in the fettering darkness. "Wicked? Jr...Jr. wasn't wicked."
His hand touched her cheek, the feel of it both familiar and alien to her. "I shall care for you now. I swear that I will never let anyone defile you as he did..."
MOMO woke, freeing herself of the chains of another horrible dream. She saw that a slightly snoring Jr. was beside her with his arm comfortably around her and that she had been sleeping in the warmth of his trench coat. MOMO reached out her hand to touch his youthful face and her fingers ran through the messy ruby tufts of his hair to make sure that he was real, that he was breathing. She placed a hand upon the spot that she had seen the jet of energy go right through him: she could feel his heart beating normally. Her fears still not appeased, she gave his cheek a pinch-a very hard one.
"OWWWW!!!" Jr. yelped. His eyes were wide open, traces of grogginess and aggravation to them. He immediately put a hand on his face to rub the ache of where MOMO had pinched him. "What'd you do that for!?"
"Jr...are you really all right?" MOMO asked, holding her breath anxiously for his answer.
"I was until you pinched me!" He snapped back, still rubbing his cheek.
Crystalline tears formed in MOMO's round eyes as she threw her arms around a baffled Jr. "Oh Jr., you're okay!" She cried out joyfully. "I was so scared!"
Jr.'s irritation faded after hearing MOMO's choked sobs and feeling her tears soaking through his shirt. He hugged her as well, guilt slowly building in him for yelling at her. "Hey, everything's fine. You don't need to cry." Jr.'s fingers traced the soft curve of her cheek.
MOMO gazed at him with those adorable eyes of hers: gleaming orbs of amber that shone only the innocence and benevolence of her nature. "I'm sorry...it's just that..." MOMO did not continue on. She did not want to know what she had just dreamt now. No, he COULD NOT know. There was no way that she could bring herself to burden Jr. by telling him about theses frightening images. Besides, how could she explain something that she herself did not completely understand?
Jr. was waiting for her to continue. "It's just that what? MOMO, what happened-"
"MOMO!!!" The normally collected voice of chaos yelled out as the doors breached open from him. He saw the couple in a booth near him and he ran towards the Realian girl with shaking breaths.
"What are you doing here?" There was a tone of bitterness to Jr.'s voice.
chaos quickly regained his composure. "MOMO, the Captain said that we were going to enter Second Miltia's atmosphere in a little while," he informed her comfortingly as she left her seat with Jr.'s long trench coat still around her shoulders. By looking at her tear-stained face, chaos understood that she just had another nightmare as she did this morning. "There isn't any need to cry. I'm still going to get you an ice cream cone when we get there like I promised you."
MOMO managed a smile, her bottom lip shaking from trying to control her crying. "Th-thank you." The Realian then collected the pink bits that remained of the wrapping paper and the red ribbon that had once bound it around the gift Jr. had given her. She took the book as well, carefully handling it like a precious treasure.
"You should get to the bridge. Everyone else is there," chaos said, and MOMO nodded and hurried off, her feathery hair bobbing from her head as she went.
Jr. was once again crestfallen for having his time with MOMO cut so shortly. What ate at his insides even more was the fact that she was crying just now, and he did not know what had caused her to do so.
"Jr.," he heard chaos speak. The redhead attempted to keep his feelings of dislike for the tan-skinned young man from showing.
"What is it?"
"You should go after her," the seriousness that chaos implicated in his statement both surprised and bothered Jr. "I think she would want someone to be with her right now."
Jr. stared back at chaos, bewilderment churning in the depths of his sky blue eyes, but he put on his black trench coat that was laying on the booth and left after MOMO to catch up with her. chaos heard the doors close after him, a positive sign that he was now alone. His eyes searched the diner as he stood completely still. He strained his ears to try and catch any sound, any noise in the diner. The air was quiet and calm but chaos was not at ease.
"She would never be wrong," he said critically. "Both she and I sensed someone here..."
He stood there for a few more minutes and gave up his effort. He left the diner and there was silence once again except for the amused chuckles of a figure from the shadows.
* * * *
"Shion, nice to see you again!" A man enthusiastically welcomed Shion as she and the rest of the group approached her home. Long strands of his raven hair fell down the sides of his face and past his broad shoulders, but they did not conceal his eyes, both perplexing and friendly. "I see that you brought company with you this time."
Shion nodded and stepped aside to introduce the party. "Yes, these are all my friends. These four men are the crew of the Elsa," after she presented them, Captain Matthews signaled Tony, Hammer, and chaos to greet their host. "This is Gaignun, Jr., he's the captain of the Durandal and helps direct the Kukai Foundation," Jr. nodded promptly upon being acknowledged. "This is MOMO," the pink-haired girl smiled shyly, "and this is Allen, who is a fellow worker from Vector."
Jin shook hands with everyone and kindly escorted them into his house. Jr. was overcome with the desire to cough heavily after he entered the living room. "Is there something burning in here?"
The elder Uzuki panicked and rushed into his kitchen. "Oh no, lunch!"
Shion shook her head and ran after him. "I told you that you're supposed to watch the stove while you cook, not read those silly books at the same time!" She turned back to her friends and smiled embarrassedly at them. "I'm sorry guys, but I have to help Jin before he burns the house down. Make yourselves at home. It'll be a while until lunch is ready." With that, she disappeared after her brother.
Captain Matthews, Tony, and Hammer sighed contentedly as they dropped onto the cozy couches that were arranged tidily in the spacious living room. MOMO sank into the comfort of a large chair and Allen stood in the center of the room, carefully examining the house as the smoke from the kitchen gradually cleared.
"Man, Chief's brother doesn't clean very much," Allen commented after seeing the state that the living room was in. The coffee table was littered with old books, the furniture needed to be dusted badly, and some of the pillows were just thrown around the couches in a worthless attempt to organize them. Jr. now noticed some of the aged books on the table and in interest, picked one of them up and began reading it while sitting on of the left arm of the chair that MOMO was resting on.
"It's pretty cozy, I'd say," Tony said while stretching his arms and letting out a loud yawn. Hammer had obviously agreed since he was napping soundly next to him.
"Geez, I'm starving," Matthews remarked, holding his stomach with his hand. The others concurred, the grumbling of empty stomachs sounding in the room.
MOMO looked to her left where Jr. was absorbed into the yellow-tinted pages of the book he read eagerly in his hands. Boredom settled into the little Realian's mind, so she left her cushioned seat and headed towards the smoke- filled kitchen.
She coughed a bit when entering, where she found a frustrated Shion holding a large tin plate in her hands in which a burning roast was settled, the flames rising rapidly from the nearly black piece of meat. Shion carefully placed the ruined meal upon the circular table beside her with her hands, which were protected by oven mitts. "Jin, put it out already!"
Jin drew near the flames with a red fire extinguisher and smothered the fire with a blast of cold, bubbly substance that shot out onto the meat. In a few seconds the fire had died and all that was left was a rather large piece of now inedible meat.
"Guess I shouldn't read my novel while cooking lunch, huh?" He sheepishly stated.
Shion's hands were on her hips as she glared at her older brother. "You know better than that! How many times must I tell you that you always have to pay attention when you're in the kitchen!?"
"Do you need any help, Shion?" MOMO timidly interrupted the quarreling siblings.
Shion sighed and smiled at the little girl. "No, I don't want you to burn yourself. That plate is pretty hot. We're going to go out to the city to eat lunch. Why don't you tell the others to get ready?"
MOMO remembered that a certain silver-haired person was missing from the living room. "Have you seen chaos?"
"No, because I was too busy preventing us from being killed by my careless brother's cooking," Shion hissed, throwing another dangerous glance to Jin.
"Uh, do you mean the boy in the blue and orange clothes? You should check in the backyard," Jin suggested while putting back the fire extinguisher.
"Thank you." MOMO left the two Uzuki siblings to clean up the mess by opening the backdoor that led from the kitchen and into Jin's courtyard.
* * * *
The noon sun was shining brilliantly in the center of a clear blue sky. A spring breeze wafted through the tree branches, all wrapped in bright green leaves, and whispered playfully through his hair, which was so silver that each strand looked like glossy slivers of the moon. His deep emerald eyes looked out to the wide ocean in front of him, the sun rays reflecting off the surface of the water, but even its light could not penetrate the bottomlessness of the dark depths. Sea gulls screeched in the air like drifting paper planes and the salty crisp smell of the ocean filled his senses. Still, he was far too troubled to be enthralled in the beauty of the scenery around him.
"Someone was on the Elsa. I do not know why the ship's security sensors did not detect anything, but I sensed someone. We both did."
He remembered the ginger-haired girl with the piercing blue eyes, pointing in the direction of the diner. "She knew there was someone hiding there. She was warning me." chaos picked up a lonely pebble from the grass and thrust it into the water as hard as it could. He watched as skipped across the glassy surface and finally sank to the bottom, the ripples it caused spreading out in multiple rings. "It's been too calm since Proto Merkabah. I fear that there will be hardships in the near future. If that is the case, then neither of them might be safe..."
He was too overwhelmed by his thoughts that he did not realize that MOMO had just come out into the courtyard from Jin's kitchen to look for him. Once she discovered him standing near an ancient tree watching the ocean from the cliff that jutted out of the landscape, she ran to him. "chaos!"
He heard his name being called and looked toward MOMO, the white flaps of her sailor dress slightly moving as she ran. "We have to go. Shion said that we're all going out to eat lunch."
chaos simply nodded as a gesture that he understood. MOMO took note of his melancholy expression. "What's wrong?"
"It's nothing," he answered, trying to conceal his fears.
MOMO's yellow eyes, full of concern, searched his face. "You know, for someone who is always helping everyone else your eyes sure look sad."
chaos, a bit startled by MOMO's statement, smiled. "You sound like an adult."
MOMO's feet shuffled among the grass. "It's just that you look so gloomy sometimes. You're always willing to lend a hand to others, but you never let anyone else do the same for you. And that's why I worry about you sometimes."
She fell silent, perhaps waiting for chaos to respond. He just gaped at her in slight astonishment. Although she was a Realian, MOMO was full of surprises. She did not act as any other, but what was so amazing about her was that she actually cared about people and was very honest as a real child would have been. Not wanting her to bothered by him any longer, chaos shook his head.
"You shouldn't worry about me, I'm fine. Now we should go. Knowing the Captain's appetite he's probably gnawing away at the couch by now."
MOMO giggled as she and chaos headed towards to the kitchen. He looked over his shoulder to take one more look at the ocean, his mysterious eyes feasting on the breathtaking but mystifying waters.
SPECIAL NOTE: Okay, now things are going to start rolling here. As I promise, I will have more MOMO/Jr. interactions in the future. Sorry for not updating in a LONG time, I just got finished with finals. I shall be writing more often now. Thank you for all your wonderful reviews (you all know who you are!). I'm glad you loved Chapter 4! But this story is still bound to have plenty of surprises, so be ready! ^_^
