CE 70, December

It was the time of the Festive Season on Heliopolis, and though there was no snow to complement the winter season, Kira really didn't need to snow for what he had planned. School was over for the day, and it was a nice warm sunny day to boot. Sai and Miriallia were talking as they walked home; Tolle had bolted out of the classroom as soon as the bell rang to meet up with Flay.

"Hey, Miriallia!" Kira called out, gaining her attention. She stopped and turned to see where he was. "Hi Kira." She waved, holding her books in hand as Kira caught up. "I hope you're not doing anything tonight from seven o'clock and on." He didn't so much ask as he did state.

Milly suppressed a giggle. "Well so far I don't have anything planned, why do you ask?" Kira grinned. "How would you like to try something that you've probably never tried before?" that had to be the oddest way of putting it, but Miriallia pretended to think for a second. "I guarantee you that you'll like it." Kira finished.

"Okay then, I like the occasional surprise." Milly agreed. "Perfect! I'll meet you at your house at seven, don't be late!" Kira continued on his way, grinning victoriously. Sai was a little surprised that she had so quickly consented to go out with Kira, whether is was supposed to be a date or not.

"What? I'm allowed to have fun you know." She said to counter his bemused expression.

Seven o'clock came much to fast, or perhaps took too long to arrive, depending on your point of view. For Kira, it seemed like time dragged on, he triple-checked everything for his plans, ensuring that everything was set. For Miriallia, time zoomed by faster that a speeding car. It seemed like she had just gotten home from to school to pick out an outfit when she glanced at the clock. The red digital numbers read 6:54.

"Oh my god, it's nearly seven!" Miriallia cried out loud. She shuffled through her closet, looking for something nice to wear. Finally, something caught her eye just as her doorbell rang. "He's here!"

In her current state of blue undergarments and an open green bathrobe, Miriallia was glad that her mother Elice opened the door to let Kira in. She heard their small conversation while she was changing and fixing her hair. "Hello, you must be Mrs. Haw, I'm Kira Yamato."

"Pleased to meet you Kira. Miriallia had mentioned that she made a new friend at school, I presume you are he?"

Kira must have nodded because Mir didn't hear him say anything. "Make yourself at home; Miriallia should be down in a few minutes. Honestly, I don't know what takes her so long; she's been up there since she got back from school."

Kira chuckled and Milly barely held back a blush. "Mother, that's not a very nice thing to say to my friend." She said in an annoyed tone as she started walking down the stairs. Kira immediately stood as Elice spoke. "It's only the truth dear, but you two have fun tonight, okay?"

They both agreed that they would, and then Mir nearly pushed Kira out of her house. "Finally, any longer and I think mom would have started grilling you on your background."

"She seems like a nice lady." Kira shrugged. Miriallia eyed him. "Right." She said slowly. "So where are we going?" she asked, remembering why it had taken her so long to choose an outfit, she had no idea what was in store for her tonight.

"It's still a surprise, but it's only a few blocks away." On the way to where ever Kira was taking her, they chatted about school, parents and what they wanted to do in the future. "I'm not sure what I want to do, I haven't given much thought to the future, and I just live each day as it comes." Kira told her.

"But what about having a family? Wife, kids and all of that?" Miriallia was perplexed; her future was just about the only thing on her mind. "Well I suppose eventually, but right now, I want to enjoy life as I know how to."

It was a fair enough answer, living life as one wanted to was pretty much the best it got. "We're here." He said, motioning to a rather large building. There was a large sign out front that read 'Yoshimitsu Retirement Home'. "An old folks home?" Miriallia asked. Kira held back a smile. "More or less; it caters more specifically to retired people of Japanese descent." He explained, but it still left Miriallia wondering just what he was planning.

"It's also home to the Hi-Genki, a Japanese restaurant. Those living in the building get a free meal each day, and the staff do quite well thanks to the public." He finally revealed his plan after noting her continued confusion. That certainly made more sense to Mir, and she had never really tried Japanese food before, so it was sure to be an experience.

Walking in, the woman serving them immediately recognized Kira. "Kira-kun, so good to see you again!" she exclaimed in accented English. "It's been a while Harumi-san." Kira replied, bowing formally. Harumi led them to a small table and placed two menus on the surface. "Something to drink to start?"

"Ocha, please." Kira said immediately. Miriallia looked at him, and then looked at Harumi. "Do you have green tea? I'd like some of that please."

Kira chuckled a bit as Harumi looked at her a little sympathetically. She walked off to get their drinks, so Kira opened his menu to see what to order. Miriallia, however, decided to question his laughing. "What was that about?"

Looking over the top of his menu, Kira answered. "The Japanese word for tea is ocha, which is what I ordered. I guess you'll be learning a lot tonight then, eh?" Harumi returned with a pot of green tea and two cups. "Ready to order?" she asked, holding a pad of paper and a pen.

"Yes, we'll have a medium chagai, the assorted norimaki plate and tempura please." Harumi nodded and took their menus. "So what did you order then?" Miriallia asked, resting her chin on her hands.

"Chagai is rice boiled in green tea and fish, usually salted salmon. Norimaki is sushi and sashimi wrapped in nori, and tempura is deep-fried seafood and vegetables." Kira explained easily. He was right, Milly was learning a lot already, and they had only been here for ten minutes. "And this nori stuff, what's that?" her curiosity was getting the best of her; he was showing her something new and interesting.

"Seaweed." Was his one word reply. "So what are your plans for this Festive Season?" Kira asked, changing the topic. He enjoyed listening to her talk.

"Good question, I'd like to know as well. My parents told me to keep my calendar open. Usually they tell me straight off if we're doing anything. Last year we stayed here and had our friends over for a nice party, but this year I really don't know. What are your plans?"

Kira's smile faltered for a second. "I don't really have any. My parents are away and I haven't a clue as to when they're coming home, so I usually just deal with things day to day."

Their food arrived, Harumi setting the chagai bowl down first, and then the plates of tempura and norimaki. "Here you are, enjoy!" Harumi left them again. Kira pulled the wooden ohashis out of the paper and split them apart easily. He crossed them and then started moving them up and down as if he was sharpening a knife. Miriallia looked at him with and odd look. "It's to get rid of any slivers."

She looked at her own pair, and broke them apart, and looking at Kira, tried to use him as a reference as to how to hold them. It was evident she had never used chopsticks before, so Kira got behind her and demonstrated the proper technique. "You use your middle finger to keep them apart, keep your thumb over top of them to keep them in place. It's a little easier if you hold them lower to the points." He instructed, holding her hand in his as he showed her.

After several tries, she started to get the hang of using them and had mastered it enough to pick up norimaki off the serving plate and put it onto hers. She tried everything cautiously, asking from time to time what was in a particular piece of norimaki or tempura. Kira would usually have to swallow a mouthful of something before answering, and he was more than happy to take anything she didn't like because he seemed to like it all.

They finished their meal; Miriallia scraped her bowl relentlessly to get all of the thick rice out. Kira took an easier approach, pouring some tea into his ochaowan and stirring it briefly before drinking it. Harumi came back around to clear the empty dishes and placed two small cups of ice cream on the table. Kira looked at his green one and immediately offered to swap it with Milly's vanilla cup.

"You don't like mint flavored?" she asked, deciding whether or not to accept the trade. "It's not mint, its green tea ice cream." So there was something that Kira didn't enjoy. "I find it too sweet for my tastes." Milly tried a cautious spoonful of his ice cream and found that she liked it.

Kira settled the tab when it arrived, refusing any money from Miriallia. "It's my treat after all." He justified. It was a warm evening as they walked leisurely back to Miriallia's house, both still feeling full. "I guess it's a good thing we walked, if I sat down again I don't think I'd be able to stand up." Miriallia commented.

"Good food, I know. I'm about as stuffed as turkey on Thanksgiving." Kira replied, rubbing his full stomach. Mir chuckled. "That's just a little disgusting. Do you come with the hand as well?" Kira burst out laughing. "That's really disgusting."

All too soon they arrived at her front door. "Thanks for the wonderful experiences Kira." She said sincerely. "It was my pleasure. Anytime you want to go back just let me know. I think Harumi-san liked you." Miriallia unlocked her door, and then turned back to Kira. "Goodnight" she said, then kissed him on his cheek and turned inside before he could see her blush.

Kira smiled lopsidedly, and sticking his hands in his pockets, started whistling a tune as he walked home. The weekend passed with little incident, Kira headed for the patch of plains he had found the morning after the Masquerade Ball, hoping to further explore it. Monday popped up a little sooner that he liked, but such things couldn't be helped. He arrived at school and found Sai, Tolle and Kuzzey all chatting and sitting at a table playing cards before classes started.

He slid in the empty chair beside Tolle. "Morning fellas. So where's Milly? She's usually here by now." Sai and Kuzzey had a sour look on their faces as they threw their cards down and dug into their pockets. Tolle on the other hand was smiling as the other two tossed some money towards him. "Kira my man, you just bought me lunch, thanks." He said happily, counting the cash.

"Do I even want to know?" Kira asked. Tolle put the money away. "Of course you do. Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dumb over there thought the first thing out of your mouth would be about Miriallia. I figured you'd be polite enough to say hello first. We put cash down and I won."

"So … where is she?" he pressed. Kuzzey picked up his cards and put down a pair of sevens. "Her family went down to Orb to celebrate the Festive Season. I guess it was a spur of the moment thing for them; Tolle got a call this morning from her." Sai looked threw his cards and picked out an eight. "Diamonds. She doesn't know how long she'll be down there or what her family has planned. Good thing the homework gets lighter at this time of year, she won't miss much."

Tolle frowned as he picked up a card from the deck and then smiled again. "Pick up two Kuzzey, thanks for that one Sai. Anyways, she said she couldn't call you because she forgot to get your number, assuming you have one."

Kuzzey picked up his two cards and then laid down three more cards. "You're a brave man Sai. That'll be eight for you." Unfortunately the bell rang, interrupting Sai's downfall. Tolle's first class was only a few doors down from Kira's so they walked together. "So she really asked for my number?" Kira asked, making sure of what he heard.

"Not in so many words, she actually just said that she forgot to ask you for your number. I'm assuming that means she wanted me to get it for her. So, what's your number?" Tolle explained it. Kira looked sheepish. "I don't have a phone." Tolle simply shook his head. "Doesn't that figure? After class I'm taking you to get a phone." Kira wasn't particularly looking forward to getting a phone; he had a nasty habit of modifying technology to suit his exact needs.

His computer at home no longer had a warranty, he voided it when he added in a secondary cooling system to compensate for over clocking the front BIOS. His laptop was also modified; it now incorporated a non-standard Ethernet card capable of receiving satellite transmissions.

Kira feared what he would do to a phone; it probably wouldn't be the same when he got done with it. "I don't think that would be a wise idea Tolle, I have … problems with technology." He admitted. Tolle laughed. "Yet here you are enrolled in a technical college. Maybe you should be in landscaping instead?"

"Oh shut up." He grumbled.

Despite his wishes against getting a phone, Tolle literally dragged Kira to get one. It wasn't fancy by anyone's standards, just a basic cellphone. The clerk had it activated and assigned it a unique set numbers for the last four. Kira chose 5472, each number corresponding to a letter in his name, according to his phone's keypad. It wasn't for ego's sake, but for memory. "Just dial my name." he told Tolle after grudgingly paying for the phone.

Tolle agreed that it was an easy thing to remember and handed him a piece of paper with Milly's number. "Give her a call Kira, she'll be happy." He told him before leaving. Kira sat on top of his bed, looking back and forth from the phone to the number. Finally he gathered the courage and dialed her number.

It rang five times before he heard a voice. "Hi!" Kira immediately responded. "Miriallia, it's Kira-" but then the voice continued, obviously belonging to Mir. "Gotcha! You're talking to my voicemail service. I can't answer the phone right now, but leave me a message and I'll get back to you."

Kira felt fortunate that there was no one around to hear him talking to an answering service like that. "Hi Miriallia, its Kira. Nice trick, I'll think of something good for payback. Just calling to say hi, hope you're enjoying your time in Orb. Call me back, 994-5472, later." And then he hung up, feeling a lot better.

It wasn't until the next day that she managed to call back, but Kira was in school by then. After classes were over, he checked his messages. "Hi Kira, thanks so much for calling. I'm sorry I missed your call, my parents insisted on enjoying a quiet night in a park with me. It was a little boring, but it's very beautiful in Orb. I still don't know when I'll be coming back, but you'll be the first to know. Call me!"

He immediately dialed her number, but most unfortunately her voicemail picked up immediately again. Waiting until he heard the tone, he was proud that he didn't fall into her trap a second time. "Phone tag, you're it! I got your message, nice to hear from you. I hope you enjoy your time in Orb, there's not much going on in Heliopolis, except Tolle invited everyone over to his house in a few days for a get-together. Call me back."

Maybe he'd keep his phone on tomorrow during classes on silent, and if she called then he'd make the excuse to have to go to the washroom. It didn't quite as nicely as he had hoped; she called during his gym period, so his phone was in his pants stuffed in his locker. "Damn, what timing." He muttered.

They continued to leave messages for each other, both of them managing to miss picking up by minutes or hours. The night of Tolle's party arrived, and Kira showed up on time for once. Flay was already there, but Kira was the first out of Sai and Kuzzey, something to be proud of. "Kira, welcome! You know Flay already, right?"

"Sort of." Kira said, sitting down in one of the comfy chairs. "Well you two can get acquainted while I get you a drink." He said. Kira shrugged, might as well start from the beginning. "I'm Kira Yamato." He extended his hand.

Flay shook it gently. "Flay Alster." She introduced. Kira smiled. "So how long have you and Tolle been dating? Seems like quite a while now." Flay picked up her drink and took a sip. "It's not as long as you might think, only two months as of yesterday." Kira nodded, not too shabby in his books.

"We've known each other for years though, went to the same junior and senior schools." Tolle added, coming back with two drinks in his hand. He handed one to Kira, who gratefully accepted. Before he managed to sit down, the doorbell rang, and it was Sai and Kuzzey. "And the Three Stooges assemble at last." Kira said playfully to Flay.

She snickered. "So does that mean Tolle would be Curly?" Kira laughed. "Probably, but I don't know which is Moe or Larry. One of life's great mysteries I suppose." He managed to say before they all came over to sit down. Over the next hour a few of his parent's guests arrived, making the house a little more crowded.

Finally Tolle's mother called for everyone's attention. "I just want to wish everyone a beautiful Festive Season, and on behalf of the Koenig family, I hope you all have a good time!" there was an applause for her, partly due to her being the hostess of the gathering. Flay pulled Tolle into a long and passionate kiss, prompting Kira to start a conversation.

"So, Kuzzey, Sai, what are your plans for the future?" As the hours passed on, Kira reflected that it was a bad question he had asked. Kuzzey had answered with his dreams of being a race car driver, short, simple and to the point. Sai on the other hand had started talking about nearly everything in his life up to this point that could have influenced his decision to become, of all things, a CEO.

Fortunately his phone rang just as Sai was going to recount his childhood. Excusing himself, he answered the call. "Hello?"

CE 71, January 25th

Kira sat on a park bench, his laptop on the low table, thinking about his old childhood friend, Athrun Zala. On his laptop screen were two things, a coding program open and currently compiling his latest program that Professor Kato wanted, and the other was news feed from Orb, concerning Kaioshiung.

"Kira?" Tolle asked, leaning in close to his daydreaming friend. Kira jumped in surprise, fumbling around. Miriallia appeared from behind Tolle as Kira was trying to recover. "So I leave for a month and this is the welcoming I get?" she demanded, feigning anger, pursing her lips and crossing her arms.

Just when he thought he had recovered from Tolle's sudden appearance, he jumped in his seat again, waving his hands like mad, trying to come up with an explanation. Milly laughed at his attempts and caught his hands in hers. "I'm kidding Kira, only kidding. It's good to see you again."

Unfortunately his rapidly beating heart didn't slow any as she held his hands. "When did you get back?" he finally managed to ask. "Just this morning, Tolle and his parents picked me up from the port." Tolle smiled triumphantly, and then looked at Kira again. "Oh, Kira, Sai called me to say that Professor Kato has more work for you to do. He tried to call you, but no one was answering."

Kira checked his phone and saw that Tolle was correct; he had missed a grand total of 14 calls since he had sat down in the park to work. "More work? I haven't even finished the stuff he gave me yesterday." He complained, pointing to his laptop, still compiling. Mir leaned closer to the screen. "Hey, is this a live feed? Turn up the volume Kira." She asked, pointing to the images on the screen.

"The situation has become increasingly desperate for the Earth Alliance forces as ZAFT pushed them out of the Kaioshiung spaceport and took control of the base's mass driver. Residents have been evacuating for weeks now, but some have foolishly tried to defend their homes-"

"Hey, isn't Kaioshiung near Orb?" Tolle wondered. Kira was more worried about the date of the feed. "This was from last week only. It must have been going on while you were still on Earth Milly." Kira noted.

Her face visibly paled. "Hey, don't worry, there's no way that Orb would be dragged into the war." Tolle tried to sound sincere, but failed. Kira shut the screen off on his laptop. "I'd better go see what the Professor wants me to do." He resigned himself to a lot more work and not enough time to do it all.

"We'll go with you; I haven't seen the rest of our friends for a while now." Mir said, playfully nudging Kira. They talked about her experiences on Earth as they walked to the commuting station, and found Flay and a few of her friends chatting already. "Flay!" Tolle called out, waving to his happy girlfriend.

She rushed to meet him, kissing him for a brief moment and then turning to Miriallia. "Welcome back, I hope Tolle wasn't too much of an idiot this morning." She greeted her friend. Milly smiled. "He was fine, but I could have taken him if he did."

Tolle let out an indignant cry, but Flay hugged him. "We all know its true Tolley." A car arrived, and Flay's three friends jumped in. "Come on Flay, we've got shopping to do!" Flay gave Tolle a parting peck on the lips and jumped in the car. Tolle watched as it left, missing the other car that pulled up.

"Ahem." A voice said from behind them. Three adults were standing behind them, all dressed in business suits. "If you aren't going to use this one, may we take it?" the woman asked. Tolle stepped out of their way. "Go right ahead."

A third car pulled up as the second disappeared out of sight. Kira jumped in. "Come on, I don't want to keep Professor Kato waiting any longer, he'll probably have even more stuff by the time we get there." Tolle and Milly got in, and they set off for Kato's lab, near the factory block.

None of them knew about the two ZAFT ships waiting just outside the borders of Heliopolis airspace, nor did they know of the secret G-Weapon project that was ongoing inside the factory block. Kira certainly didn't know that wondering about Athrun Zala could hold very dangerous consequences.

There's the second chapter. Please, Review when you're done reading. Good, bad, or ugly.

Prayer