Title: Normal
Rating: K+
Warnings: Unbeta-ed, some OOC-ness
Genre: General, Angst/Humour
Main Character(s): Rey, Mwu, mention of Murrue
Ship(s): Mention of MwuxMurr
Summary: Rey does a little weeding in the backyard and some thinking. One shot.
Disclaimer: Kidou Senshi Gundam Seed, Kidou Senshi Gundam Seed Destiny, characters and places are copyright to Hajime Yate, Yoshiyuki Tomino, Sotsu Agency and Sunrise.
Author's Notes: This turned out with a sort of angst-ridden humour than I intended.

He had been here few months now. While Luna had returned immediately to a resemblance of normal life by enrolling herself into a local university and Shinn was still trying to find his place with his many odd jobs, he was counted as the luckier of the three. He didn't have to work, per say, but he could have. Maybe try to live a life that was as close to normal was, except he grew up not exactly normal and he had no idea what normalcy was. Being normal meant not having a trigger-reflex, being normal meant not knowing how to pilot a gundam or to tune it up to the best, being normal meant never having firing a gun once in your life, being normal meant having a real proper family with siblings and pets, not living in a house with two military officers and knowing exactly what they were talking about at the dinner table.

His life had been far from normal from the day he had been created, moulded into the perfection he was supposed to be, except he wasn't perfect, he had a flaw. That flaw could very well one day end his life today or tomorrow or maybe next year. He didn't know when, only his life was short as it is, and while the scientists were working day and night to try and prolong his life, he knew it was futile. Maybe it was the pessimist in him talking. Still, he kept the little thing called hope up, trying not to let his guardians down and living as normal as possible, doing all the normal mundane things like chores or viciously hacking away at the overgrown hedges and yanking the weeds from the garden beds when Murrue got too busy to do it or Mwu forgot to trim the hedges.

So, here he was, in the warm afternoon with the sun beating down his back, as he ripped the weeds up with the same precision that he used to gun down an enemy mobile suit, except he had never tried to yank off the enemy mobile suit's head or arms or legs. Perhaps he should have tried it last time. Yanking up those crawlers gave him an immense amount of satisfaction which he couldn't quite explain. It wasn't until someone came from behind him and he and whirled around, the small, spade in hand as if he was going to use it to clobber whoever it had been, that he realized he had slipped into the past again.

The spade was pointed right at a bemused La Fllaga's nose, the man standing an easygoing countenance, despite nearly being batter by the thing. It was another thing that made him wonder if he would actually live a normal life once more. Maybe he should have enroll in some learning institute, except he wasn't sure if he should be in high school or college, seeing as he didn't really know how old he was. Or maybe he should just get one of those jobs, sitting behind the cashier and looking bored all day.

"Easy," said Mwu, holding two hands up in a placating gesture.

Rey blinked at him. "Sorry."

He returned back to attacking the weeds, very much aware of how close Mwu was standiing behind him because it was sending those little tingles down his spine, telling him of another person who had the sixth sense was near him. It was one of those Newtype abilities. Surprisingly, Kira Yamato also had that sixth sense as well but then, he was the Ultimate Coordinator, after all and Rey was just another clone, a failed attempt at trying to recreate the Ultimate Coordinator like Dr Hibiki had done eighteen years ago. Thinking about it made his chest hurt and his eyes blurry, it made his head pound with that familiar voice he now hated.

"I think that Murrue would much rather have her daffodils intact."

The voice broke into his inner turmoil, like the sun coming out after a storm, parting away the dark clouds. He sucked in a breath, realizing he had practically decapitated the flowers with the spade. He made a small annoyed sound, throwing the spade to one side, not watching as it landed right into the roses; someone was going to get all scratched up looking for it later. Instead, he curled his hands into tight fists on his lap, staring at the earth before him, free of the weeds. He wondered if he will ever be really free from that man, Gilbert Dullindal, who had haunted him and refused to leave even when Rey was trying to move on. Does one ever move on from the past?

He'd seen Shinn struggling to find his place in this new world, trying to live a normal life and yet, unable to let go of the past and what he is. He'd seen Lunamaria, despite her insisting she was fine and doing things like the civilians do like going to school, she still had that haunted expression in her eyes. In the worse days, he'd seen how she had lapse into silence when the subject about the war was brought up or she was to a write a report on it. He wondered how Athrun Zala, Kira Yamato and the others live through it day by day, able to even leave it all behind or so it seem. Maybe they never do, the past was always going to be there, no matter how far you run from it. It was like the shadow under your feet. He certainly felt that way.

"Rey?"

He was glad he didn't have the stupid spade in hand or else he would have slammed it into Mwu's head when the hand unexpectedly touched his shoulder. He jumped a little, then his shoulders drooped slightly as he finally turned to the man who had been a sort of father figure to him now. He was a much nicer person than Gilbert ever was, much more honest, kinder, more truthful. The eyes were blue, not amber. Gilbert had no scar on his face.

"How do you do it?" he asked instead, staring ahead at the sparkling sea. The wind smelled of salt and seawater. "Living like this, day in, day out, trying to be normal. How do you do it? Not even thinking about the past constantly and wondering if things will stay that way."

"I don't," said Mwu easily, crouching down next to him. "I do think about the past, what ifs and what could haves but I don't dwell on it. It drags you down, makes you doubt a lot of things. I look to the future. It gets easier as time goes by. Sounds cliche, I know but it really does."

"So, all I have to do is to keep doing what I'm doing everyday and it gets better?" He arched a fine, sandy brow at the older man.

"I'd recommend not killing off Murrue's flowers first," said Mwu, chuckling. "But, yeah. It does, sort of." The smile died away to be replaced with seriousness. "I don't want to thrust you into the world or a job or school right away. It takes time. You need time, to adjust. So, if I pitch you straight into a job, a non-military one, you'd probably feel off balance like your friend does. He should enlist into ORB's military, by the way. He'd make a damn good pilot. Cagalli-san could use someone with his skills."

"He's being mule-headed," Rey found himself saying. "Luna is trying too hard."

"And you?"

"Weeding." He held up the weeds. "And killing flowers, it seems."

Mwu laughed, ruffled his already tousled hair from the wind, getting up to stand. "Don't think too much about the past or him. He's no longer behind you."

Rey mulled over the words he said for a moment before he started on the attack on the weeds once more.

He was certainly adapting well into the normal life, he concluded.

Owari.