Disclaimer: I do not own Megami Kouhosei nor any of the characters featured there. I just borrow them for my personal recreation and, hopefully, yours.

Notes: This is a series of short/long drabbles and not an ongoing fanfiction per se. There will be 6 or 8 of them, all featuring one or morefamiliar characters. Mainly, they'rea possibletake on the future of the series and not necessarily what I really believe that will happen. Read with an open mind and I hope you enjoy it!

Pairings: A touch of Leena/Garu or Garu/Leena, as you feel like it.

Random stuff: I made some assumptions that may be wrong to canon, such as the time spent at GOA and GIS or Leena's origins, but as far as I know from research on the MK universe, there's still nothing set on stone that opposes to this. If you find anything that says otherwise, let me know.

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Gareas and Leena

Leena Fujimura's mind was wandering.

She was quite blind to the sight of the small garden on the other side of the window, as she was blind to the clear sky and sunlight. Her mind's eye was still trapped on the metallic corridors and the cool hangars of the space stations she had spent her last five years of life in. In her mind she was at GOA, taking care of her partner's Pro-Ing; she was at GIS, rushing through the hallways to meet Eeva Leena -her namesake- coming home after a rough battle.

In Leena's mind there was no room for colony life. She didn't want to think about her future. She didn't want to think about finding a job. She didn't want to settle down and start a family, like her father had suggested. Leena had found that the simple life –as in life without the constant rush and pull of adrenaline- was boring.

Not that she actually wanted to go back. No. She had said her goodbyes, she had cried her tears, she had made her promises. And Leena was relieved for this. No more alarms going off in the middle of the night, calling them all to duty. Duty paid with death and horror and nightmares. Nightmares where your partner, your Pilot, came back hurt and weary, or worse… when he didn't come back at all.

No, Leena Fujimura would learn how to start over, even if it meant do it a few light-years away from everything and everyone –well, not everyone- she loved. She was resolute; yet that didn't keep the faces from her friends from flashing before her eyes now, words resonating sweetly on her ears. Memories to sustain her through her new life.

Leena-san! I will never forget you. Leena-san, Leena-san…>>

You have to take care of him now that Ernest-kun is gone. But don't let him drain you, Leena-sama. >>

Leena! You know I think you're great, and so cute –ow, Phil, I was joking!- anyway, don't disappear now. Keep in touch, ne? >>

You were mother to us all, Leena-san. Be well! >>

What will I do without you, Leena? Who will help me keep them all in line? It'll be chaos. And all that idiot thinks about doing is eating! I swear, one day… But Leena, I wish you didn't have to go. >>

But memories tended to fade in time and Leena did not want to think about the time when Tune or Phil's face would not be clear in her mind's eye as they were now. And Leena was perplexed by the bitter turn of her thoughts. She had never been prone to consider everything twice, to overanalyse things. On this matter she was more like Gareas, impetuous and reckless. Though, of course, her "reckless" decisions hadn't affected people in the same way that Gareas's had. In any case… they had been rightly matched, Leena had always known it.

A flash of brighter green moving on the garden outside, irrupted Leena's ponderings. Not that she cared, she was thinking too much, what with all that free time on her hands…

"Leena!" Came the familiar loud voice calling, confirming her suspicions. The blonde girl shot to her feet and bolted for the door. The room was small and she was there in a blink. She surprised Gareas Elidd by opening the door before he could even raise his fingers to touch to the knob.

"I saw you coming," she smiled at his bemused expression. "I was sitting by the window."

"Right," he offered, thrown off. "Want to take a walk?" And without waiting for an affirmative –or negative-- response, he grabbed her wrist and dragged her across the threshold and down the garden path, only letting go of her when they reached the street.

There they stood for a long moment, suddenly feeling uncharacteristically awkward. Leena stared at him for a moment, taking in how different he looked from what she was accustomed to. It was probably the clothing, she though, the lack of the well-known uniform. He was dressed entirely in black –pants, t-shirt and half-fingered gloves— and that somehow clashed oddly with their relaxed surroundings: the tranquil neighbourhood, full of normal, hard-working people that dressed in pastel tones. Leena herself was wearing a wishy-washy looking attire that she had found, still neatly folded in her bedroom drawers. Her parents hadn't touched a thing.

"You took your earring off," he remarked, trying to sound casual and barely concealing the dejected tone in his voice.

"Ah," she touched her hand to her ear, suddenly very aware of his gaze upon her, "Okaasan said it looked weird. I'll put it back on—"

He turned and started walking down street. "That's alright. We're no longer Pilot and Repairer, no need to wear similar items."

"You're still wearing yours. I shouldn't have—"

"It was mine first. Yours was just the copy I gave you."

"Garu! Will you stop interrupting me? You're right, I don't need to justify my actions to you now, but it'd be nice if you let me speak in full sentences." Leena's eyes were focused entirely on his, but he seemed to be looking straight past her.

Gareas's mouth pressed into a tight smile. "Speak then, but don't get touchy, Leena. It doesn't suit you."

Leena rolled her eyes and reassumed walking. "I see, it's one of your jerky days, ne?" she asked.

A low grunt was Garu's only reply as he matched pace with her. "It's this goddamned colony," he said, in the harshest voice he could summon. "Where everyone takes their goddamn lives for granted. No one gives a shit about what's happening out there, but oh do they bless us when we show up to save their sorry lives and their sorrier colonies."

Gareas spent a few more minutes pouring out his not-so-bottled-up gallons of bile on her ears, but she only listened to it half-heartedly.

"I did tell you how this would be like, Garu," she said quietly, cutting him mid-phrase. "You know we were encouraged to forget how life was before we went up to GOA, because it wouldn't mesh well with the life style up there and now we're forced to have it all back, in a rush. Yes, I know everyone wants us to settle down now and accept life like it is here, but as I told you before you decided to come here: you wouldn't like to live here."

She knew she was very literally feeding him with the dreaded 'I told you so' line and that his reaction would probably be violent and insensitive, but she was past caring. Leena had never pleaded to have him come with her, but Garu had been at a loss for what to do. His plans for the future had never gone past his becoming a Pilot, like so many other young kids, young Candidates. They wanted to fulfil a dream, Pilot a Goddess, save Zion, be a good Repairer, do their duty… but what happened when the dream was over? Leena knew she was about to find out.

"You don't have to stay here, Garu," she continued, softly, when he remained silent, looking down at his hands. "I know you could never live here." Leena looked around at the modest houses and neat gardens and genteel people. With a pang of something akin to real pain, she noticed that she wouldn't fit in either, but she had to try. There was nowhere else to go.

"I still have blood in my hands, Leena," he said suddenly, lifting his eyes to meet hers. "His blood."

Leena felt suddenly cold as if an icy wind had come to break the man-made summer. She needn't ask who Gareas was talking about and her heart nearly stopped at the sound of his dead voice, contrasting harshly with the flicker of vibrant electricity of his eyes.

"I can't live anywhere until the blood is washed away. And I've been waiting, hoping, it would go away on its own, but it won't." He took at step closer to her and her body leaned –gravitationally it seemed- to rest between his arms. Gareas bowed his head and spoke into her hair. "I have to do it on my own. I'm sorry."

Leena closed her eyes, locking away the tears and buried her face on his neck. She spared only a moment to wonder at the fact that Gareas had uttered an apology, probably for the first time in his life and then she tried to lose herself in the comforting feeling that was Garu's body encircling her own. The icy cold was still there and Leena knew that Gareas would not stay with her to make it go away. But she didn't begrudge him that.

"I know," she murmured against his skin and he relaxed against her, as if he had been waiting for her approval, for her to show her confidence in him like she always had. For a moment, Leena Fujimura allowed herself to be selfish and clung to him, holding him tighter and offered him a choice. "But if you ever come back, Garu," she told him, sternly, "don't expect me to be waiting for you."

He moved his hands up her back and into her hair, pulling it aside from where his head rested to plant a warm kiss on her neck. "I won't."

Leena didn't ask him whether he meant never to come back or not to have any expectations at his return. She just stood there, holding him and allowing herself to be held.

Pilot and Repairer. Both stood there for a long time, silently speaking their goodbyes.

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Comments, criticism and flames welcome. :)