A/N: A one-shot dedicated to Luna/Rey with a little bit of other characters in it! Heine is ALIVE Anyway… I don't know how this turned out since I'm half-asleep, so constructive criticism would be really great! Read and Review!
Disclaimer: Me no own SEED/Destiny! If I did well then! Lacus and Kira would be married. WITH KIDS! MAUHAHAHA!
Don't Fall In
Started on: May 20, 2005
Finished on: May 21, 2005
Pairings: Rey/Lunamaria
Summary: In a battle against the EA, Luna and Rey are on the deck of Minerva, protecting the ship when an unfortunate shot knocks Lunamaria's Red ZAKU Warrior into the clear ocean water.
-
The spaceship Minerva glided smoothly along the waters of the Pacific Ocean, heading toward the ZAFTian base located in Kaohsiung, China. Miraculously the trouble-attracting ship hadn't suffered any damages, but were still weary of a surprise attack from either ORB or EA. After all they've been ambushed for about what… three or four times already? The bridge was relatively uneventful, the crew doing what they were supposed to do.
Even in the lounge things were pretty uneventful. Heine Westenfluss had given up the attempt to liven up the mood with a card game after the tenth round of Go Fish! The orange-headed FAITH pilot's piercing green eyes raked over Lunamaria Hawke and Rey Za Barrel. The two had their oddities and were extremely different, but they went along rather well…
"Believe me, they're not getting together anytime soon," Athrun whispered. The blue-haired FAITH pilot shrugged as Heine gave him a questioning look. "Shinn told me. I just thought I'd relay the information to you."
"But… they look so good together," Heine sighed. Minerva was a very capable, provided ship… but her humor factor was just… non-existent. At least on the Nazca-Class, there was SOME fun things to do. The soldiers were his friend. But being in FAITH, ugh… it created such an unnecessary barrier! "Hey, speaking of Shinn… where did that bundle of angst disappear to?"
The other emerald-eyed pilot raised his eyebrow. "Bundle of angst…? Uh… I think he's at the infirmary again to visit that EA pilot," he replied, frowning. "He's getting too friendly with her… she's going to die whether she stays here or gets handed over to the High Council; he's just setting himself up for even more grief."
"Athrun, live your life," Heine rolled his eyes. "There's no harm in that. But onto more serious matters: how long do you think the EA's going to leave us alone? They aren't going to be cowering in their holes forever after losing one of their most likely ace pilot."
Athrun had a thoughtful expression on his face. "I honestly can't-"
"Condition Red issued! Condition Red issued! All pilots are to stand by their respective units, ready for launch! I repeat, all pilots are…" Meyrin's voice cut through the bored air, creating tension and anxiety.
"Dammit! Ambushed again!" Heine cried, astounded. "Unbelievable! Doesn't this ship have a detector!"
Athrun sweatdropped. "It never seems to work," he shrugged, starting the run toward the hangar.
Rey and Lunamaria sped by, both running at the same pace, same determined look plastered onto their faces as they ran toward the elevator.
"They're even running at the same pace on the same foot!" Heine gasped. "It must mean they're meant for each other, Athrun!"
"Now, now, Heine…" Athrun said, chuckling as both of them jumped into the elevator. "Lunamaria, Rey, you are to be on deck providing cover for the ship. Is that understood?"
"Yes sir!" both ZAFT elites chorused simultaneously, saluting. Heine gave Athrun an 'I-told-you-so' look, grinning triumphantly. The elevator opened and Athrun quickly slipped into his flight suit and jogged over to Savior. Heine followed Athrun's example and slid into the cockpit of his Gouf Ignited 2000.
"Good luck Rey," Lunamaria said, grayish-purple eyes twinkling as she flashed him a thumbs-up and ran toward her red ZAKU Warrior.
Rey Za Barrel simply nodded, although his pale blue eyes held an extra twinkle in them as the blonde pilot climbed into his white Blaze ZAKU Phantom. He immediately opened communication with his fellow pilots. Lunamaria's face flashed on and Athrun and Heine's followed respectively. Shinn's glum face flashed on last.
"I've received information that Minerva will be engaging the team that stole the three units, along with three other carriers and two escorts. ORB will also be joining the battle," Athrun paused, and a look of pain flashed through his eyes. "It is also most likely Archangel will be present. Lunamaria, Rey, your orders are to stay on deck."
"Understood," Lunamaria and Rey declared, synchronized.
"Shinn, you will be engaging the Chaos and if needed, the Abyss, and Heine and I will deal with the fleet and the… Archangel," Athrun finished.
"Understood," Shinn answered, voice full of regret and anger.
"Good luck to you all," Heine declaimed dramatically, hand to his forehead…err… helmet.
"Impulse, Savior, please launch. Emergency personnel stand by. Airtight shutters…" let's skip that…
"Shinn Asuka, Core Splendor, launching!"
"Athrun Zala, Savior, launching!"
"Heine's Gouf Ignited 2000 ready for launch. Lunamaria's ZAKU Warrior, Rey's Blaze ZAKU Phantom, clear for launch," Meyrin announced.
The one, two, three launch sign flashed on and Heine waited with anticipation for his turn to launch.
"Lunamaria Hawke, Zaku, going out!" with that Lunamaria jumped on deck, immediately blindly shooting at the ocean water, hoping to hit the Abyss.
"Rey Za Barrel, Zaku, launching!" Rey also jumped on-deck, aiding Lunamaria with shooting at the water.
"Heine Westenfluss, Gouf, and here I go!" Heine declared, stepping on the accelerator. His orange MS flew over to join Athrun's red unit. "Look Athrun, they're even working together! They should be a couple!"
"I never said they shouldn't be…" Athrun trailed off. "I just said they weren't ever going to get together,"
"Whatever," Heine shrugged, shooting at a random Windam the challenged the mighty power of his MS.
Back on the deck, Lunamaria narrowly avoided getting knocked off, courtesy to Abyss and a random Windam. "AIIEEE!" she screamed as her MS fell flat on its red rear. "Dammit!" she cursed, shooting the Windam down. "First you ambush us and you make fun of me…"
Rey's face flashed on. "Don't fall into the ocean, Lunamaria! If you do, I won't save you." He warned, face completely serious.
"You're so mean," Lunamaria said, shooting at the Windams in the sky. Her shot hit one dead on and she congratulated herself on her excellent hand-eye coordination so far. Now if she could only keep this up…
Rey cursed as his shot missed the evasive Gundam. It wasn't fair that the damn Abyss Gundam was equipped so that it could freaking battle underwater! How was he supposed to shoot it down!
"Rey, I'll take on the Abyss!" Shinn declared.
Rey shook his head. "Your orders were to take on the Chaos. Lunamaria and I will handle the Abyss," he answered but immediately frowned. Lunamaria and I? Where had that come from?
Shinn seemed uncertain. "If you say so…" he switched off the communication.
Rey continued to try valiantly to shoot down Abyss, his frustration growing with each shot he missed, which was well… a lot.
"Rey, here's an additional order for you: capture the Abyss and its pilot. Since the other Extended won't be lasting much longer, it'd be helpful and beneficial to us if Abyss' pilot could also be handed over," Talia ordered, increasing Rey's growing level of irritation and thinning his patience even more.
"Understood, captain," he ground out. As he began shooting furiously at the water, he kept a guarded look out for Lunamaria out of the corner of his eye. When any Windam approached her from behind he shot it down, saving her from harm. Her MS turned toward the direction of the enemy, and Rey took his eyes away for less than a second to avoid getting shot before he returned to watching Lunamaria. Only there was no Lunamaria to watch. There was only empty space.
"LUNAMARIA!" Rey cried. It was then he realized Abyss was nowhere to be seen. Frantically, he flew over to where Lunamaria was previously, only to find the faint outline of her ZAKU in the water, slowly sinking.
Crap, he thought. She has no marine combat equipment on right now! There's no way she can move underwater let alone fight off Abyss with a weapon that doesn't work!
Rey swiftly did a sweep of the area. Thankfully, Abyss was preoccupied with shooting down Impulse and every other Gundam in sight, and hadn't taken notice of Lunamaria's unit. But knowing Lunamaria, she'd try and fight underwater anyway and that'd make Abyss notice her, and then…
"Meyrin, send out the bazooka and equip my ZAKU with underwater combat equipments," Rey ordered, eyes trained on Lunamaria's ZAKU. Dammit… Luna, don't do anything stupid, he pleaded silently. At least, not until I'm there…
"Why?" Meyrin asked.
WHY CAN'T YOU DO SOMETHING WHEN I ASK YOU TO! DO YOU WANT LUNA TO DIE! Rey wanted to scream. "Because I'm taking Abyss on head to head," he answered.
"But the Windams-"Meyrin began.
"MEYRIN! SHUT UP! THE WINDAMS ARE PREOCCUPIED WITH IMPULSE. JUST SEND OUT THE DAMN BAZOOKA AND CHANGE MY EQUIPMENT!" Rey shouted, taking a deep breath. This was totally uncharacteristic of him! What was going on? Lunamaria could handle herself… right? RIGHT!
"OK!" Meyrin said, half-frightened. "Come in then so we can change your equipments…"
Rey waited impatiently as his equipment was being changed. Shaking his head, he sighed. He was so worried about Luna… why? She wasn't an ace for nothing and even though her weapon didn't work and her movements were extremely restricted, surely she could handle herself… at least hopefully…
Because you like her, the voice we call 'Sensibility' taunted Rey mockingly. You like Lunamaria Hawke.
No, I do not, Rey retorted.
You like it when she smiles at you. You love it when she makes you laugh and she laughs with you; the way her eyes twinkle… or what about that cute habit of hers? The way she twirls her hair when she's concentrating on something? Sensibility reasoned.
Go away, Rey scowled. The lack of sleep was getting to him… damn Shinn and his continuous typing during the night. Who knows what he could be doing?
"Rey Za Barrel's ZAKU unit is clear for launch!" Meyrin declaimed.
"Rey Za Barrel, ZAKU, launching!" Rey declared, ZAKU diving headfirst into the water.
-
Lunamaria shot at the Windam that had been bothering her for the last ten minutes. It was just refusing to go down! The stupid, smug, girlish pink-scarlet, damn, cursed… GAH! She had been able to shot down ALL Windams around it except that particular one. Why wouldn't it go down? Did it hate her? Well, obviously… She fired another shot that missed. Cursing she returned to shooting at Abyss, casting a glance at Rey's ZAKU. He seemed totally concentrated on bringing Abyss down. She sighed. She'd always hoped he'd look at her like that… with unwavering attention… she admitted she had feelings for the platinum blonde pilot. He made her heart beat faster and made her feel special. And right now, he made her feel as if she was falling underwater. Which in reality, she actually was.
"Eh? AIIIEEEEE!" Luna screamed as the back of her ZAKU connected with the azure water. Her back slammed into the seat, and she winced. That would leave a nice bruise now, wouldn't it? Look at what you do to me Rey… you made me fall in! She cursed. There was no way she could swim back up, since her thrusters wouldn't work… she couldn't even signal Rey that she was here; her beam rifle wouldn't work! Well… she COULD always try, but…
Lunamaria racked for possible solutions: she could contact the Minerva but what was the point? Impulse was busy with Chaos, Savior wasn't made for aquatic combat and Athrun was most likely busy with the fleet and Heine had the same problem. Rey was obviously busy with Abyss and that girly Windam probably, and he had said he wouldn't save her if she fell in… Of course, she could radio the Abyss pilot and kindly and nicely ask him to carry her onto the deck of the Minerva… but you know, there was that really, really small fact that the Abyss was piloted an enemy who'd most likely shoot her down before she could even get one word out.
Speaking of which, she could spot Abyss dead ahead, its back turned to her, completely busy with what was going on above water. She could SO get him! Raising the beam rifle with a determined expression, she raised it to take aim. There was no way she could miss when the Gundam was dead ahead of her! Albeit it was quite a distance away but still! Carefully taking aim, Lunamaria pulled the trigger, laughing triumphantly. "That'll teach you to mess with me and Rey!" she cried.
To her utter surprise, the shot simply made an odd sound before going off in the completely wrong direction.
"Eh!" Lunamaria face-faulted. Thankfully the Abyss was still preoccupied. She accelerated full blast and the ZAKU moved painfully slowly, inching toward the Abyss slower than a snail would crawl across a two centimeter piece of glass. "Come on…" Lunamaria said, gritting her teeth and eyebrow twitching. "Move… faster!"
After what seemed like an eternity she finally came within what she hoped was the shooting distance. Again she was dead behind Abyss and she raised her beam rifle once more, praying that it would actually bother to hit the target this time. "Come on…" she whispered. She pulled the trigger and the same thing happened. The damn thing simply sputtered, went off in the wrong direction and died before it even when quarter of a way toward Abyss.
"I hate you beam rifle," Lunamaria glared at the inanimate object before accelerating once more.
-
"There!" Lunamaria cried triumphantly, floating about two feet away from Abyss. How the pilot didn't notice, Lunamaria would never know… or care… She aimed the rifle for the fifth time. She couldn't. Miss. NOW. Not when she was right behind him! "Take this!" she cried, pulling the trigger. The shot sputtered and it did go pretty far this time, the only glitch was that it didn't hit the target. In fact in went pretty far away from it, but still managed to alert Abyss. Which sucked since her ZAKU had the speed of some matter slower than a snail. Her breath caught in her throat as Abyss rounded on her, chest cannon firing up. Oh… she couldn't die now… not when she still had a life to live! Lunamaria squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for death to greet her. Memories were speeding through her head and her life spun by in her mind, and she gripped the controls.
I don't want to die!
"LUNAMARIA!"
Lunamaria's head snapped up and she was met with the blurred green beam speeding toward her. Her heart stopped beating and her eyes widened considerably. The beam was speeding toward her closer and closer… she could practically hear the Abyss' pilot laughing as he imagined her go boom!
"AAIIIEEEEEE!" Lunamaria screamed as she felt her ZAKU being pushed violently to the side just before the beam had a time to make contact with her unit and obliterate it. Breathing heavily and shakily she looked up. "W-w-what…?"
Her purple violet gaze met with Rey's white ZAKU, badly damaged from knocking her out of the way.
"REY!" Lunamaria cried, hurriedly opening communication. Oh Abyss was going to pay! "REY! Rey are you alright? You stupid, stupid moron!"
"Luna…maria?" Rey coughed.
Thankfully he didn't seem injured at all. So maybe Abyss wouldn't pay as much, but he was STILL gong to pay! "Rey are you alright? You idiot, why did you do that!" she demanded, eyes teary. "You could've gotten badly injured or even worse gotten killed…"
"Who knows? Maybe I could've…" Rey chuckled.
"REY ZA BARREL! Don't you DARE say that!" Lunamaria exclaimed heatedly. "Don't you DARE die on me!"
"I won't," Rey answered before slipping into La-La Land.
"Rey!" Lunamaria yelled. "REY!"
What was she going to do? Abyss still hadn't taken its attention off of them and Rey's unit was obviously rendered useless and even though there was nothing wrong with her MS, it was proven that she was pretty much useless right now…
"I am not going to let one of my friends die," Lunamaria said, determined. "Especially Rey!"
With a furious battle cry she grabbed Rey's sinking bazooka and charged toward Abyss who obviously hadn't expected the turtle-like ZAKU to move with such speed. Don't underestimate an angry Lunamaria Hawke, pal… Lunamaria thought victoriously. You're good as dead!
-
Auel Neider turned around as he felt something suspiciously similar to a beam rifle shot gone wrong whiz by him. And true enough, a red ZAKU Warrior floated right behind him, rifle aimed. He blinked. How the hell could he not have noticed that! Well no matter, the measly MS was going down anyway.
"Hahahaha… you think that'll bring me down?" Auel laughed as he fired Abyss' chest cannon. "Sucker!"
He was still gleefully laughing at the thought of the red ZAKU blowing up courtesy to him that he didn't notice a white Blaze ZAKU Phantom knock the red one out of the way, taking the hit instead.
"Huh?"
The bluenette blinked. He seemed to be doing that a lot this battle. Blinking, I mean. It was then he realized the white unit was the same one that had tried to shoot him down earlier. "Well, well, well… two birds are better than just one, isn't it!" he chuckled, his trademark psychotic grin on his face. "I'll take you BOTH down if it's what you want!"
He expected to just simply charge over and blow them both up after he finished his laughing fit. What Auel didn't expect however was for Lunamaria's unit to move with one hell of a speed and shoot at him with a newly acquired bazooka. He promptly got hit by the first shot and cursed loudly, changing to his MA mode.
-
"KYAH!" Lunamaria fired another shot, hell bent on getting out alive. "You dare mess with me!"
Her shots missed as Abyss zigzagged around and Lunamaria tried hitting the water in front of him in hopes that the pilot would swim straight into her shot. Hey, he didn't notice her until she was like, two feet behind him right? There were chances!
Unfortunately, her prayers were squashed as Abyss continued to avoid her shots and her ZAKU was beginning to run low on power, increasing her panicking state. Rey was underwater with her. Had it been only her she probably would have given up a long time ago, but Rey was with her, unconscious. She could not –would not- let him die. She would get him alive, even if it meant she had to die. Rey had saved her life, and she was going to save his! And nothing, not even a Gundam specializing in aquatic combat, would stop her!
"You're not taking me down!" Lunamaria fired another shot and thankfully it connected and managed to slow Abyss down considerably. Now one more shot and she could render it paralyzed! Please… let this shot hit the damn thing! If not for me then for the sake of saving Rey! Lunamaria pleaded silently as she blindly aimed the bazooka, eyes closed. Please, please, please…
She pulled the trigger and the shot cut through the water swiftly as Lunamaria continued to pray silently. She cracked her eye open and gasped in delight and relief. Her shot had thankfully connected with Abyss' thrusters, rendering it completely still. Now how was she supposed to get out of the situation? Her Zaku couldn't possibly support the weight of two MS, and as paralyzed as Abyss was it could still shoot her down… unless the pilot decided to be nice of course… but fat chance of that happening so…
She gulped nervously and radioed the Minerva. "Captain, I request assistance in carrying mine and Rey's units out of the water. Rey's unit is badly damaged, but Rey seems to be fine, just unconscious-"
"You call that fine?" Talia Gladys deadpanned, raising an eyebrow.
Lunamaria blushed. "I mean there doesn't seem to be any physical damage-"she was cut off as Rey's face flashed on.
"I'm fine now, Lunamaria," he said curtly.
"Well the Impulse, Savior and Gouf Ignited are on their way in. Since the battle is over and we're all going to live to see another day, I'll send Impulse out," Talia declared.
"And… another thing… the Abyss is," Lunamaria paused. How should she put this? Armed but paralyzed? Or that she'd managed to shoot it down but it was still capable of shooting them all? "Well, I've sort of managed to shoot it down…"
"Lunamaria, you don't 'sort of' shoot a MS down. You either shoot t down or you don't," Talia stated. "Is the pilot dead? Or not?"
"He's… not," Lunamaria answered. "But I'm pretty sure he can still shoot us if need be."
"Impulse will take care of that," Talia shrugged. "I'll also send out Savior just in case. Arthur!"
"Rey… you're OK, right?" Lunamaria asked worriedly. "I really thought you'd die on me!"
"No, not yet," Rey said, and the magenta-haired girl couldn't discern the emotion in Rey's voice. What was it?
"Jeez… you two sure get yourselves in one hell of a trouble," Shinn complained through the radio as he dived into the water in front of them. "What the hell am I supposed to do with that thing!"
"Shoot it, Shinn. It's simple," Rey answered indifferently. "Although you shouldn't kill the pilot."
Irritation was clear in Shinn's voice. "WHAT!" he yelled. "Underwater? How do I do that? Either I aim wrong and he gets sliced in half or I slice the cockpit open and he drowns! And if I try to drag him out of the water he shoots me! So it's really his life or mine!"
"What a difficult decision, Shinn!" Lunamaria said sarcastically. "You managed to retrieve Gaia's pilot!"
"That was pure dumb luck and on land!" Shinn shouted. "This is underwater!"
"Think of something! You aren't an ace because of pure dumb luck!" Lunamaria exclaimed. "Demand him to surrender or something! If you're lucky he won't try to shoot you."
"Lunamaria's right, Shinn," Rey stated plainly. "Now get us out of the water. We don't wish to be here when you or him get blown up."
"How very nice of you," Shinn said acidly, grabbing the ZAKU's arms and throwing both of them to Savior and Gouf before diving back underwater to take care of Abyss.
"You'd think the EA has the heart enough to stick around to save their ally," Lunamaria muttered. "What cowards."
"You're just that kind of person, Lunamaria," Rey said.
The female pilot blushed. "R-r-right! Whatever," she said, looking away as she landed in the hangar. She jumped out of her ZAKU and ran toward Rey's ZAKU, worry evident. She barely took notice of Impulse returning with Abyss and people congratulating her on sort of shooting it down.
"Rey!" she cried as the blonde pilot staggered out.
"I'm alright," Rey declared. "Just need some rest."
"Still… you're going to the infirmary," Lunamaria declared, supporting him as she dragged him toward the general direction of the infirmary. "You idiot… what were you thinking! Diving into the water like that… don't you ever think?"
Rey remained silent as Lunamaria led him into the elevator and out into the hallway.
"Do you know what I –err I mean the rest of us would feel like if we lost you?" Lunamaria demanded, blushing beet red. Nice going, Luna… just broadcast it why don't you! She thought, beating herself up mentally. "Just why did you do it!"
"You fell in," Rey said simply, looking straight ahead, clear blue eyes unreadable.
"But… but…" Lunamaria trailed off. But a moment later she smiled slyly. "I thought you weren't going to save me,"
Rey smiled gently bringing Luna's face closer to his. "Well I lied," he answered before he did something totally uncharacteristic of him: He kissed Lunamaria Hawke. Her lips tasted like strawberry… well better than any damn strawberry would, but still!
Luna's eyes widened before she melted into the kiss, heart beating wildly. This was more than she'd ever dreamed of her first kiss. This was everything she wanted and more… she wrapped her arms around Rey's neck and his arms snaked around her waist.
When the lack of oxygen became apparent, both of them pulled away.
"Don't fall in next time," Rey warned playfully, looking into Luna's twinkling violet eyes. "I might not be tempted to save you."
Luna grinned. "We'll see about that, Rey Za Barrel," she said giddily.
A/N: Hahahah... can you TELL I SO favor Auel? (cackles) Anyway... I'm so tired. I'll sleep now. And expect and update on Be My Valentine as soon as I get up! Ja ne! Read and Review! (falls alseep)