Battle Field: Earth

Chapter Ten: Gabriel-sama

By: Sci-Fi Raptor

Disclaimer: See chapter one.

Nekomi, Japan

Early October 2002

Morisato Residence (around 6:30 PM):

Keiichi was glad that they were finally done shopping. He forgot how enthusiastic Bell got when it came to shopping. Not that he minded being with her; he was just tired.

"Tadaima," the two said when they entered the temple, Keiichi a bit quieter than Bell. Surprisingly, no one answered back.

"I wonder where Urd could be?" Belldandy wondered out loud.

"Probably harassing some poor guy," Keiichi said.

"Probably…" she said, uncomfortable with the fact that it was probably true. "I'll go make dinner," she continued and went to the kitchen.

Keiichi went to the TV room. He was surprised Urd wasn't there, eyeballs glued to the TV. He flipped through the channels, waiting for Belldandy's surreal cooking.

WHAM!

"Tadaima…" Skuld said bitterly, entering the house with a heavy step.

"What happened?" Keiichi said, surprised with her mood. She gave him a look that could kill.

"Stupid guys! Don't ever remember anything!" Skuld said angrily, stomping off to her room. Sigel wasn't there to comfort her, on the account that she and Benpei had been getting 'friendly' on account of Skuld always being out of the house without them. Instead, Belldandy came up to her to try and comfort her.

"Keiichi, can you watch dinner while I try and talk to her?" she said as she followed Skuld.

"Yeah," he said and went into the kitchen.

"What happened?" Belldandy asked when they were in Skuld's room.

"He stood me up! I waited at the park all that time and he still stood me up! Even after we had that talk last night!" she said angrily. Belldandy and Keiichi didn't know that Skuld didn't show up the night before, so she paid that last tidbit little heed.

"That's why you're so worked up? Why didn't you give him a call? He might have been tied up and unable to come."

"I did call, but her never picked up. I'm so mad at him, I don't think I'll ever forgive him!" she said, throwing a pillow at the wall. She started crying suddenly.

There is definitely something bigger going on here. Why is Skuld getting so emotional over something this little? "There, there. It'll be all right. He probably has a logical reason for not meeting you there." She said, trying to calm the child down. After a while, the sobs stopped and Skuld just sat on her bed. "Now be a good sister and be happy. I bet you that he's gonna call you up any minute now and apologize for missing your date."

"Its not a date…" she replied automatically, sniffing.

"Bell!" Keiichi yelled; obviously he wasn't in control of the dinner any longer.

"I'm sorry Skuld, I have to look after the dinner. Now you be a strong little Goddess," she said, patting her on the head.

"Thanks," she said, her mood happy again because of her sister's nature. Belldandy went to the kitchen to help Keiichi out and Skuld started a project. I'll make sure you don't forget, ever again.

(Guest room)

Urd felt like a truck hit her. The last thing she remembered was that she had to wake someone up. She sat up and looked around. She was in the guest room. There was a guy sprawled on the ground like he was drugged by one of her potions.

"Hold up!" she thought out loud and looked back at the person. Oh crap… she thought suddenly. Did I do something weird again? She decided that she would hide the evidence, but Belldandy suddenly came out of nowhere.

"Urd, there you are. Dinner's ready, so you should go wash up."

"Okay," she said, trying to keep her from noticing the possibly dead person lying on the ground.

"What's this? Gabriel-sama is still here? Didn't you wake him up at four like I asked you to?"

"I was supposed to wake him up?" Urd said. Then she remembered that she was supposed to wake someone up. "Oh, damn, I was supposed to wake him up…" she said.

"Urd, why didn't you wake him up?" Belldandy said, a bit angry that the assistant was probably inconvenienced by her laziness.

"I don't know. All I remember is that I was watching 'Deep Blue' and then I wake up next to this guy."

"Urd, please tell me you didn't do anything to the poor boy," Belldandy said, worry in her voice.

"I don't remember doing anything to him, but its weird that I don't remember some things."

"Bell," Keiichi said, popping his head into the room. "What's going on? You've been here for some time. Dinner is getting cold."

"It seems that Urd didn't wake up Gabriel-sama and he's still here," Belldandy said, sighing.

"Huh… where am I?" Gabriel said, choosing that moment to wake up. He looked outside and saw that it wasn't as bright as it should have been. I must have woken up a bit late. He thought and checked his watch. "Holy -," he all but screamed. "I'm really late! She's gonna freak!"

"What's going on in here," Skuld said, finally unable to stand all the commotion coming from the guest room.

"Um… Skuld, meet out former teacher's assistant Gabriel-sama," Keiichi said, thinking of nothing better to do then introducing the two. "Gabriel-sama, meet Belldandy and Urd's little sister Skuld."

"Gab?" Skuld said, taken by surprise that he was at her home.

"Gab?" Keiichi and Urd said in unison. "You mean… this is… him?" Keiichi said.

"Skuld? You live here?" Gab said in surprise. No wonder those streets seemed familiar! I dropped off Skuld here the other night.

"Yeah. But how did you end up here?" she asked.

"I finished my last class with these two," he started answering, referring to Keiichi and Belldandy. "And they asked me if I wanted to have lunch to mark my last day with them."

"Oh," she said, relieved that he wasn't just some menial worker at the university. I knew he was too smart for something like that. Then she remembered how he forgot and noticed that he was in a futon. "You stood me up and you have the nerve to be sleeping at my house?" she suddenly said, angrily.

"Yes… I mean no," he said, tripping. "Argh. See this is what happened. After the lunch, I was offered to stay here and rest before I went to the park to meet you, but your oldest sister seems to have forgotten to wake me up."

"So its your fault!" Skuld said, ready to attack. "You try to screw up everything I have going for me!"

"Well, I don't think that's what really happened…" Gabriel said, but no one listened.

"I didn't try to screw you over! I just happened to have fallen asleep next to him. I don't even remember how I even got over here."

"What? Did you do something weird to him?!" Skuld said, in a maternal tone. She went up next to him and said, "Did she do anything bad to you? Are you alright?" she said like an over protective mother to her child.

She seems way too attached and overprotective of this guy. Urd thought. They just met a couple of weeks ago and she's suddenly acting like they've been married for years! She looked at Belldandy and saw that she was thinking along those lines. She looked at Gab and saw something that bothered her a little. He looked smug, as if he had just won an argument. All the while Skuld yelled at Urd about 'harassing people too much.'"

I know you're up to something… Urd thought. And sooner or later I'll find out what.

(Later that night)

Being that everyone had finally met Gab, Belldandy quickly scraped together some things and made an informal party to celebrate. After the fun and festivities were over, Gabriel said that he had to get going. Naturally, Skuld tried to get him to stay longer and Urd brooded over how attached she was to him after so little time.

"Why do you have to leave so early, anyway?" Keiichi asked him just as he left, since it wasn't even eleven yet.

He replied, "I have to get up early, I start teaching my own class tomorrow."

"You're teaching your own class now?" Keiichi repeated, impressed by what this youngster had managed to pull of.

"Yeah. Professor Kukata and I are in the final stages of finishing an improvement to a type of jet technology and we needed a lab to be dedicated to it. The university wouldn't let us have it all to ourselves if we didn't have someone teaching there, so that's how I landed my job."

"Really?" Belldandy said, a smile on her face. "Isn't that great? I wish you well on your endeavors."

"Thank you," Gabriel replied.

"How long will you be working on it before you're done?" Keiichi asked, suddenly realizing that he never said he was a permanent employee.

"My contract is indefinite for now," he started and Skuld made a soft sigh of relief. Smiling, he continued, "I'll be working there until I retire or die."

For some reason, the way he ended that last sentence upset Skuld. Why would he say die?

"Wow, it's already twelve! I really gotta get going. It's been really nice meeting you all. Good night," he said and trotted to his bicycle. He tried to turn it on, but it stalled. "I'll get going any second now…" he said, causing everyone else to sweat drop. He messed around with it and ended up giving it a kick. And it started working. "I thought that only happened with the American's vehicles…" he said as he got on. "I guess Japan's standards are getting lower."

"That does happen only to American vehicles," Keiichi said, giving Skuld a look.

"What? It wasn't me," she giggled, her fingers crossed behind her back.

Gab honked twice and burned rubber down the road.