Journey to Insanity and Romance p 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Full Metal Panic! Wish I did though.

Phone Call and Greetings

Three hours later, Kaname wakes up and sees herself still pressed into Sousuke's body. She then smiles softly as she brushes her fingertips along his cheek over to his scar. She frowns as she thinks about all that he had been through as a child growing up, orphaned at such a young age. Let alone having his face damaged by those that took him in.

Feeling the need to go to the bathroom, she gently gets up and goes there. When she's seated, she starts weeping bitterly for his lost childhood. As her tears taper off, she thinks about all that they had been through together. From exploding shoe lockers, crazed teachers intent on ruining things and general mayhem every day to falling in love with each other.

When she gets done, she cleans the tears from her face, exits the bathroom and sees Sousuke still asleep. Lightly giggling, Kaname sees a phone and decides to call her Father's house. She punches in the access code for the phone and the phone number for her Father's house.

She then hears a voice she heard just the day before.

"Chidori Residence, this is Shunya."

"Hi Daddy."

"Kaname. How are you, pumpkin?"

"I'm doing fine, Daddy. I'm bringing a friend with me. We just realized our feelings for each other. And yes, it's a boy."

Shunya chuckles as he says, "Well, I figured it would happen sooner or later. I would have preferred you wait until you had gotten my permission. Or at least until you had gone through college. But, girls will find a way to spark something along with boys. What's he like?"

"He's like nothing you've come across before, that's for sure. He's very unique, but he's also nice and protective of me. You might actually say he's a force of nature. He actually makes me feel safe when he's nearby. And, it took us a while for us to realize our feelings for each other."

"What's his name, Kaname?"

"Sagara. Sousuke Sagara."

"I look forward to meeting him. Just how good is he to you?"

Kaname chuckles as she says, "I'll tell you when we arrive, Daddy. Sousuke's on a vacation with me."

"Very well, Kaname. When can we expect you to arrive?"

Kaname checks with the pilot and replies, "We should be arriving in ten more hours, Daddy. It's a private flight, so we'll be arriving on the tarmac."

"Very well, then. Ayame and I will meet you both on the tarmac, if not inside the terminal."

She hangs up the phone, smiles at the thought of Shunya meeting her boyfriend and hopes that he'll at least approve of Sousuke's style of dress and mannerisms. She can't help but giggle at the thoughts of his first impressions regarding Sousuke when they meet.

"How'd you get that scar, young man?"

"It was done by an Afghani rebel leader when I was a boy, Mr. Chidori. Kaname, get down!" Sousuke then throws a fragmentation grenade at an approaching mugger on the tarmac, running right at them with murder in his eyes.

Shunya shudders after the grenade detonates, causing the mugger to go to pieces. "Sousuke, Kaname, is there something you wish to tell me?"

"It's not a problem, Mr. Chidori. I'm a soldier assigned to protect Kaname and also in love with her."

"A soldier? You're so young, Sousuke."

"That's affirmative. I'm also very good at it."

Kaname laughs softly as she comes out of the reverie and looks over at Sousuke. To her delight, he's still asleep.

She then goes back to his seat, curls back against him and falls back asleep, this time angling herself so Sousuke can look down her blouse when he awakens. For extra measure, she undoes the buttons at the top. She then kisses his scarred cheek before she fully nods off into sleep, starting to dream very pleasant dreams about life with Sousuke.

Six hours later, Sousuke opens his eyes and blushes when he realizes he's looking down Kaname's blouse. He turns his eyes toward her face and sees a smug smile on her lips. Realizing that she had done it on purpose, Sousuke chances another look and his blush intensifies.

Snapping himself out of the trance, he says, "I've got to do something to relieve the pressure within me. First, I better get you back into your seat, Kaname."

Gingerly, he lifts up from his seat, Kaname still on his lap, and carries her over to her seat. As he places her down, he can feel her hand gripping his bicep as she moans. Smiling lightly, Sousuke runs his fingers through her long blue hair and gives her a kiss on her forehead. Seeing her smile softly, he smiles even wider as he gently steps away from his girlfriend's seat. He then proceeds to do some exercises to burn off some nervous energy.

Three hours later, Kaname wakes up in her original seat and blushes. Marveling at how quietly and softly Sousuke placed her back into her seat, she smiles warmly. She then looks around and sees Sousuke doing a weapon inventory. She smiles as she watches him check every detail and name the weapon by name.

She redoes her blouse's buttons, gets up, goes behind him and says, "Good morning, Sousuke."

"Good evening, Kaname." Confused, Kaname blinks before she slaps her forehead. They had crossed the international dateline during the flight. Sousuke then chuckles and says, "I know. It almost feels like going back in time. Doesn't it, Kaname?"

Kaname nods and replies, "I'll say it does. In any case, I called ahead to New York. Daddy'll be waiting for us on the tarmac, unless you want him to meet us inside the terminal."

"Let's meet him inside the terminal, Kaname. Out on the tarmac is a surefire way of being ambushed, no matter where one goes." Kaname nods in agreement with his assessment and proceeds to call home on the phone again. This time, Ayame answers the phone.

"Kaname, how are you, sis?"

"I'm doing fine, shorty. Tell Daddy we'll meet you guys inside the terminal. We'll be landing in about one hour, so that'll give you plenty of time to get to the airport to greet us."

"Okay, Kaname. Oh, are you really traveling with a boy that is not like anyone we've ever come across? That he's a force of nature? That sounds so romantic."

"Ayame! He's definitely something else altogether. And a force of nature to boot."

Ayame giggles and says, "I can hardly wait to meet him. What's his name?"

"Sousuke Sagara." Right then and there, Kaname wishes she can tell Ayame all about Mithril, her being 'Whispered' along with Sousuke being her bodyguard and new boyfriend.

Ayame chuckles and says, "He sounds like a really sweet and cool guy."

Kaname giggles and replies, "He is, in his own unique way. I better get ready. See you later, shorty." Laughing, Kaname ends the call and asks, "Need any help, Sousuke?"

Sousuke replies, "Negative, I've got it under control. Weapons inventory is complete. Just gotta slide a dagger into my sleeve here, my Glock into the back of my pants and we'll be good to go."

"Sousuke, what about Customs?"

"Mithril has it covered, Kaname. It is not a problem." Kaname can only smile at that as the plane starts it's landing. No matter how many times she hears him say it, it makes her feel reassured about what's going to happen.

Forty-five minutes later, the plane reaches the Airport's airspace and starts it's landing. Kaname takes Sousuke's hand into hers and caresses it softly, just like after Sousuke apologized to her on the sub. Sousuke looks over at her and gives her a crinkly smile, indicating he's nervous about meeting her family. Kaname gives him a quick peck to assure him that nothing will change how she feels about him.

Once the plane touches down, an airport shuttle rolls up to greet the plane. A local Mithril Operative is behind the wheel and he proceeds to drive the two teens to the terminal once they had reached the shuttle. He then accompanies them into the terminal and contacts the asset for Mithril within the Customs office. Once Sousuke shows the asset his Identification of Branch Division, they are shown through to the walkway.

As they walk along, they hear a young girl call out, "Kaname! Over here!"

Kaname grins, looks over at Sousuke and gets a nod in reply from him. Kaname kisses him and runs ahead while Sousuke keeps carrying his bags on his shoulders and pulling Kaname's roller bag with only minor difficulty.

He then sees the scene ahead of him. When he hears her say, "Hello, Ayame. Good to see you again, shorty", he can only smile and shake his head. He reaches the gathering and sees an imposing gentleman, guessing that this is Kaname's Father, Shunya.

Shunya says, "Welcome home, pumpkin. And this must be Sousuke Sagara."

Before Sousuke can reply, he hears a woman scream from behind him. He turns back and sees a young hoodlum running his way with a handbag in his hand. Snarling, he brings his dagger out of his sleeve and throws it at the punk, embedding it into his leg. The punk then falls down screaming in pain.

Sousuke then walks toward the punk, saying, "Retrieval in fifteen seconds." Upon reaching the punk, he grabs up the woman's handbag and hands it to her when she had caught up to the scene.

He then removes his dagger from the punk's leg and cleans the blade. He looks down on the punk and says, "Get a job, punk." He walks away as Airport Security comes running up after he secures his dagger.

As Sousuke makes his way back to the Chidoris, he sees that Shunya's mouth is wide open while Ayame's eyes are wide open. As he gets closer, he can see that Kaname is smiling proudly at him.

Ayame recovers from the shock enough to say, "That was so cool, Sousuke. How did you learn to do that?"

Sousuke looks at Kaname and replies, "The school of survival, Ayame Chidori. The school of survival." Kaname nods her approval and gives Sousuke a soft kiss on his cheek.

"Later, it'll be deeper. That'll have to hold you for now, Sousuke."

"Affirmative."

Shunya recovers the use of his mouth and, as calmly as possible, says, "We should discuss your skills when we get to the car, Sousuke."

Sousuke nods and replies, "I was figuring you'd be curious as to my skills. I'm sure that Kaname told you something about me."

"Well, it's not quite the way I pictured it, but it'll have to do. At least you didn't use a fragmentation grenade in here, Sousuke." Kaname grins proudly at Sousuke after having said that, knowing a frag grenade would create massive amounts of damage and chaos.

"A fragmentation grenade?" At that, Shunya faints dead away.

Kaname sighs and says, "Looks like we'll have to give him the full briefing after all, Sousuke."

"Affirmative."

With that, Sousuke secures a People Mover, loads Shunya and the luggage on there. He then has the driver follow Ayame out to the loading zone. Once there, he has Kaname get in along with Ayame while he loads the luggage. When he gets done, he and the driver for the people mover hoist Shunya into the car.

He then gets in and says, "Drive. Chidori house." The limo driver nods and pulls away from the curb.