Kira was doing some history homework, really mind numbing stuff, one afternoon after school. Everyone else was out and about doing their various things. Ysak was at the shooting range with Chanel and Katie and Raine, learning how to shoot better… though Ysak would never admit it. Dearka and Miriallia were off collecting samples for biology class… and enjoying nature and each other while doing so. Lacus and Cagalli had gone off to do girl stuff… hair styling, manicures and other things in preparations for the double date that Kira and Athrun were doing tonight. Dearka had found a Thai restaurant that he had raved about several times and so Athrun and Kira had decided to check it out.

Athrun, meanwhile was taking automotive engineering lessons from Alkire and Vladimir. Several days ago, on one of the crazy whims he was trying to configure into his personality, he had gone off and bought a sleek motorcycle. Kira hadn't been surprised that Athrun had been able to buy the motorcycle, even though it was a top of the line model, since Athrun still had access to his family accounts and their money wasn't being used by anyone but him at the moment. What had surprised Kira was that Athrun had no idea how to ride or maintain his new motorcycle. Vehicles in the PLANTS were computer controlled for safety reasons, and the new motorcycle was most decidedly NOT computer controlled or controllable. It didn't even have any computer chips in it.

So Athrun was taking maintenance lessons from Vladimir, who was a mechanical engineering genius by all accounts and driving lessons from Alkire, who claimed to have flown, driven or piloted just about any vehicle conceivable, short of a Mobile Suit. Kira was still struggling to deal with the idea of Athrun being so adventuresome as to buy a motorcycle in the first place. As long as he had known Athrun, Athrun had been methodical, logical and composed. Ever since the end of the war though, Athrun had been becoming impulsive, adventurous and unpredictable at times. It was like being around Cagalli so much had started to rub off on him.

Kira frowned, trying not to think about Athrun and Cagalli. He knew he was being a stick in the mud older brother by watching them so closely all the time, but he couldn't help it. The idea of having a sister at all was still new to him, much less that she was involved with his best friend. His emotions conflicted, because on one hand he wanted to shelter Cagalli away and keep her safe, while on the other he was wishing his best friend well and good luck. For the moment Kira contented himself with making it extremely difficult for them to get away with any outrageous behavior that might escalate their relationship to a level he didn't want to contemplate.

"Why can't they be like Lacus and me? Or Dearka and Miriallia? Or even Ysak, Chanel and Katie? Why do they have to rush into things? They're going to end up going too far and they'll both regret it." Kira said out loud, putting away his homework in disgust. As long as he had ANYTHING more interesting to think about, he couldn't do that work.

"Hey Kira." James Ramsgoth said, sweeping through the common room casually, like he did six or so times every time he was on watch. James kept one hand near his pistol at all times and swept the room intently with his eyes, even though there was no possible way that anyone could have possibly snuck in. "Stuck doing homework eh? But at least you got a fun night ahead of you."

James completed his sweep and left to walk up the fire escape to his rooftop circuit. As he cast his glance around, James suddenly froze and then dropped to the ground. Two people were driving by slowly in a dark blue car he didn't recognize as normal for the area. At the beginning of the path to the apartment complex the car stopped and the two people, one a man with wild brown hair and a blue greatcoat, the other a woman with straight brown hair and a plain white blouse in blue jeans got out. "Vlad, you there?" James said over his radio.

"Yes James, what is it? I'm in the middle of a delicate process here." Vlad replied.

"The kids expecting any visitors today? A man and a woman, both look like late twenties-early thirties?" James asked. There was a moment's pause as Vlad conferred with Athrun, who was lying next to him underneath the body of the motorcycle as Vlad demonstrated how to put the fuel pump back together. Athrun's bike was a really old antique model that still ran on liquid fuels. Vlad had had to modify it to run off hydrogen fuel cells before Athrun could drive it anywhere.

"That's a negative. No visitors are expected. Repeat, negative, no visitors." Vlad replied. "You want me to come over?" he asked a moment later.

"Nah, I think Victor and I can get it." James replied. Victor was somewhere on the grounds of the apartment complex, relaxing and taking time off in anticipation of taking the night watch later, but he had undoubtedly listened in to the conversation between Vlad and James.

"Okay. See you later." Vlad said and signed off.

"Victor?"

"Ja, James, I heard. I'm moving to get a closer look at them as we speak. Wait one, and I'll get you a better description." Victor said back. Roughly thirty seconds later, as the two people were still moving slowly up the walk, taking their sweet time, Victor radioed James again. "They don't look very threatening. The man is an arm amputee, has lost an eye and walks with the aid of a cane. And of the two, he looks to be the more threat capable. The woman seems slightly… make that more than slightly… out of it. She's not very responsive and probably wouldn't even be moving if the man weren't helping her along. That's the reason they're moving so slowly. He has to help her along, and he's already a cripple."

"Dramatic entrance?" James asked. Victor chuckled.

"You bet. I'll do my sword point thing as soon as they get to the welcome mat. You do the serious shooting if it becomes necessary."

"Roger." James replied, drawing his pistol and tracking the man and woman as they hobbled along. Meanwhile, Victor doubled back and entered the apartment hall from the other side. He raced silently down the hallway and drew his saber as he reached the far end. He stole a glance through the peephole to check the range to the targets.

"I'm in position."

"I'll do the countdown. 5… 4… 3… 2 1/2 … 2… 1… NOW!" James ordered just as the man put his foot on the welcome mat. Victor yanked the door open and his sword licked out, holding steady with nary a quiver with the edge just barely touching the underside of the man's chin. "I've got the woman covered." James radioed, drawing a bead on her head.

"Who are you?" Victor demanded of the man, who didn't look at all perturbed or surprised to have a sword at his throat.

"My name is Andrew Waltfeld." Waltfeld replied. Victor flicked his eyes at the woman, she just stared listlessly off into space.

"Who are you?" he asked her.

"She's Murrue Ramius." Waltfeld answered. Victor glanced back at him and then gave a slight nod.

"What are you doing here?"

"We came to visit Kira Yamato and his friends. We're old comrades of his." Waltfeld informed the lanky man who held a sword to his throat. "May I ask who you are?"

Victor ignored him. "The kids aren't expecting any visitors today."

"Given that I didn't decide to come here until earlier this morning myself, that's not totally surprising." Waltfeld answered lightly. Murrue kept staring off into space, her eyes half closed.

"What's her deal?" Victor asked, indicating Murrue by flicking his eyes.

"She's the reason I decided to drop by. She's in post trauma shock. She lost two men she loved very deeply during the war, one only a few minutes before the war ended. A week ago or so she just fell into this fugue state and we haven't been able to rouse her. I figured maybe if she spent some time with Kira and the others she befriended during the war, she might snap out of it." Waltfeld replied. "Who did you say you were again?" he asked, a bit more forcefully.

Victor ignored him again. "You'll pardon me, but this whole thing seems suspicious. You just decided to drop by, without even calling ahead, so you can snap this woman out of her fugue? You're either the most disorganized man alive, or you're feeding me a line." Victor said in a frozen tone. Waltfeld got tired of talking to this belligerent man. Murrue needed help. With a single quick motion he brought his cane up and slapped away the sword point at his chin and pinned it against the ground in a break-lock maneuver, so that if the swordsman did anything but leave it still, Andrew would snap the blade of the sword like a twig.

"Please tell me your name. I don't like talking to a stranger about personal matters." Waltfeld asked politely. Victor stared in shock. The man had moved like lightning. Victor had barely even begun to react and his sword blade had already been trapped.

"I'm… my name is Victor. My partner has you and the woman covered, so it'd be smart of you to just back down."

Waltfeld sighed. "Look. Why don't you just go ask Kira or Athrun or Cagalli or miss Lacus if they want to meet Andrew Waltfeld and Murrue Ramius. I'm sure that will show you that this is all one big misunderstanding."

"I heard that." James radioed. Victor's earpiece kept only him aware of what was said. "I'll go ask the kid. If he gives a negative answer, I'll blow his other arm off and you take care of the woman. Shut the door behind you so they can't get a look at me."

Victor shut the door behind him. "We're asking them."

Waltfeld nodded. "Thank you. I didn't know Kira and the others had bodyguards. I wouldn't have thought they needed them. Or had the resources to hire them. Unless it was Ledonir who hired you to watch over them."

"You're on a first name basis with Kisaka?" Victor asked in disbelief.

"So you know whom I'm talking about? Did Ledonir hire you to watch over Kira and the others? I wish he had told me that he had put protection around them, I would have called ahead if I had known." Waltfeld replied.

"Kisaka knows we're guarding them, but he didn't hire us. We're doing volunteer work. They've become an extension of our family. We owe them, you might say, and this is how we're paying them back." Victor replied. Still nothing from James.

"Owe them? Don't we all? Without Kira and the others this place would be a barren radioactive waste right now, wouldn't it?" Waltfeld replied, his eye going distant.

"What are you talking about?" Victor asked.

"You're not guarding them because of how they destroyed the GENESIS laser and saved the Earth?" Waltfeld asked, caught off guard for once.

"Hell no, I don't know about any of what you just said. I don't even know Kira or Athrun very well. We're only guarding them because they're Ysak's friends." Victor replied. Waltfeld gaped and then started laughing.

"That's not something I thought I'd ever hear. Ysak makes friends with a bunch of special ops Naturals and gets them to guard his friends? He didn't even consider them friends, last time I checked." Waltfeld gasped out.

"You're a Coordinator… aren't you?" Victor said.

"Yep. I thought you knew that already. Please say you've heard of me." Waltfeld replied.

"Nope."

"Maybe my nickname will jog your memory. They used to call me "The Desert Tiger"."

Victor narrowed his eyes. "Your name did sound familiar… but I'm afraid that Andrew Waltfeld is dead, killed months ago."

"Half of me was, yes." Waltfeld replied. "Aisha died too. I really shouldn't have pushed that fight against Kira."

"You fought against him… yet you claim to be a friend?"

"The war was confusing that way. I'm sure you knew that already though."

Victor's earpiece crackled. "It's an all clear. Kira says let them in. They're friends of his."

"What's the news?" Waltfeld asked. Victor narrowed his eyes even more.

"What? How did you know that my companion just contacted me?"

"Oh come on… I am a Coordinator. I heard you draw your sword from five feet away, when you were still behind the door. I can't hear what your friend said, but I can guess from the fact that no gunfire has broken out that he actually did ask Kira and Kira said that we were good people. Can we go in now?" Waltfeld answered.

"I suppose."

-----------------------------------

"Mr. Waltfeld! Ms. Murrue! It's great to see both of you!" Kira said moments later, when the door to the boys side of the complex opened. Kira's greeting trailed off when he saw Murrue. "What happened?"

"Still the same thing." Waltfeld replied, limping over to a chair. Murrue wandered into the room with hesitant steps, almost tripping over a loose piece of carpet but catching herself and moving on as if she didn't even notice. "La Flaga's death still troubles her."

Kira nodded. "I was sad too, when I heard that Mu died. But he died saving Murrue and everyone else on board the Archangel. I think Mu was happy he could do that."

"Hey, I'm not arguing with you kid. She collapsed on duty about a week ago. When she woke up she was like this. She'd been holding her grief in ever since Jachin Due and I guess it just got to be too much for her. I was hoping maybe seeing you and the others would help her get back in touch with herself." Waltfeld said.

"Wait a minute… you knew the Hawk of Endymion?" Victor asked, from his post by the door.

"He was my friend. He was like a mentor to me, for the first part of my time in the war. He and Murrue loved each other." Kira said sadly. "They'd probably be married now if he hadn't died, shielding the bridge of the Archangel from a lohengrin blast using his Mobile Suit during the battle of Jachin Due at the end of the war."

Murrue sat down and tears started trickling from her eyes. "She does that whenever she hears Mu's name." Waltfeld said. "Other than that, she doesn't respond to outside stimuli very often. She hasn't eaten but a few times in the last week. I'd say she's lost the will to live. I don't know how to help her get it back." Waltfeld paused before going on. "But I'll wait until everyone gets together before we keep going down that path. Until then, why don't you fill me in on what you've been doing since we sent you down to Earth? I'm particularly interested in hearing this story about Ysak and your self appointed bodyguards."

Kira busied himself in explaining about how everyone was doing, what he or she was doing and the like. He explained about the burgeoning relationships between him and Lacus, Athrun and Cagalli, Dearka and Miriallia and even about Ysak, Chanel and Katie, which raised Waltfeld's eyebrow. Then Kira got into the more problematic history and related the tale of the party, including how everyone had been hospitalized and how Sai had gone missing and in fact was still missing.

"You guys certainly haven't been taking it as easy as I hoped you would." Waltfeld remarked. "Murrue, Ledonir and I agreed to send you down here because you needed to relax and get away from the fighting and the problems of the day. But now it seems like the fighting and the problems have followed you here to Switzerland. You were barely here five days before twelve people were killed, all of you were hospitalized and Sai was either kidnapped or went AWOL. Now it's been nearly a month since then and Sai's still missing, you're still not sure who tried to kill you, besides the general definition of Blue Cosmos and you've only just started to relax like you were supposed to."

"Sorry sir. I guess things don't always go as planned." Kira said meekly. Waltfeld glared at him.

"Don't give me that. If I didn't know better, I'd probably think you actively sought out trouble, rather than the other way around."

"I'm still concerned about Sai. And about Zacharis. He's still out there." Kira said. Waltfeld shook his head.

"Are you sure you told me right about him? You made it sound like this Zacharis guy was dodging bullets and the like."

"He was dodging bullets." James said from the doorway. "I fired a good two hundred rounds from a heavy machine gun at him from thirty feet away and only managed to achieve grazes and one limb hit. I could hit a man sized target with one hundred ninety out of two hundred bullets at ninety feet when I'm dead drunk. It wasn't me, it was him. I don't know how, but he was avoiding my shots."

"It's just so crazy." Waltfeld noted.

"Not arguing with you there." James replied. He flopped down on an empty chair at the far end of the table. "So you're the Desert Tiger. I heard you were dead."

Waltfeld gestured at his scarred eye, empty sleeve and his cane. "I nearly was. My LaGowe blew up around me after Kira stabbed it in the head. If it hadn't been for DaCosta, I'd have perished of my wounds out there in the desert. Aisha died in my arms before the doctors could arrive." He explained.

"I'm very sorry sir." Kira said, casting his eyes down.

Waltfeld shrugged. "It saddens me that Aisha died, but I was the one who continued fighting when you had clearly won. I forced you to choose between letting yourself die and killing me. You chose to live, like any rational person would do. We've been over this before."

"I'm going to call Vladimir and let him know everything is okay. I wouldn't want him and Alkire to come storming in here thinking the worst." Victor said suddenly. He went out into the hall and shut the door.

"Who are you people anyway?" Waltfeld asked James.

"We're probably what you would term a resistance group. We call ourselves TEMPEST. We're fighting to destroy those who would cause war in the first place. Alkire Majesty… which is an assumed name, as you probably guessed, is our leader and main sponsor. He used to be EFSOU (Earth Forces Special Operations Unit) during the war, but when he found out about the plan to nuke the PLANTS rather than solve the energy crisis he quit in disgust. Victor, whose surname is Klein, out there is our demo man, he was trained by the Eurasian Federation Special Forces. I'm heavy weapons. James Ramsgoth is my name. I served in the AFAR (Atlantic Federation Army Rangers). Raine Belaruse is our sniper, she's self-taught. And then there's Vladimir Valkavich, our infiltration expert. His story is complex, but suffice it to say he's from the former Kingdom of Scandinavia and he's worked as a mercenary for most of his life. Switzerland is where we live and stay when we aren't out on missions." James explained.

"I assume you know Colonel Kisaka, judging from Victor's reaction outside." Waltfeld noted.

James nodded. "He taught a class in guerilla warfare a few years before the war that we all attended. It's actually how we all first met. We… don't get along with Kisaka… for personal reasons." At that moment there was a loud rumbling sound from outside. James leaned back in his chair and glanced idly out the window. "I see Vlad and Athrun have fixed his motorcycle."

Kira jumped up out of his chair and hurried outside, anxious to see his friend. Athrun was just taking off his helmet and was stowing it on the handlebars when Kira got outside. Athrun was clad in a recently purchased black leather jacket with fingerless black leather gloves and black jeans. Cagalli found the look irresistible and was usually all over him. Kira was glad she wasn't around right now, actually, because the last thing he needed was to be worrying about keeping them within legal bounds when Mr. Waltfeld and Captain Ramius were visiting. A bright blue Ferrari, Alkire's favorite car, parked behind Athrun and Alkire and Vlad got out.

"We have visitors?" Athrun asked, finally finished with his parking checklist.

"Hello, Mr. Zala." Waltfeld waved from the doorway.

"Commander Waltfeld? What are you doing here?" Athrun asked, taken by surprise.

"It's a long story. It's best it wait until everyone gets back." Kira replied. A funny ringing noise came from Athrun's jacket pocket.

"That's a call for me… hold on." Athrun said, taking out a small cell phone. He listened for a few seconds and then said "Uh huh. See you soon. Love you, bye." He looked at Kira. "That was Cagalli. She and Lacus are done with their trip. They'll be back in about twenty minutes."

"I didn't know you had a cell phone." Kira commented.

"Just bought it a few days ago. So I could keep in touch with Cagalli and the rest of you."

"You certainly are buying lots of things recently. Motorcycle… Jacket… Cell Phone… that's a lot of stuff." Kira told him.

"Just going with the flow, acting on impulse. It's something that Cagalli's been having me do. She thinks it'll help us get closer together." Athrun replied.

"You're too close for my comfort most of the time as it is." Kira muttered.

"Don't you start that again." Athrun warned. "She may be your sister… younger or older, it doesn't really matter… but she's my girlfriend. And she's sixteen, going on seventeen. You can't make decisions for her. Or for me. You don't see me interfering when you want to be alone with Lacus, do you?"

"I'm not trying to do the same thing with Lacus that you are trying to do to Cagalli." Kira protested, blushing slightly.

"I'm not TRYING to do anything like what you think. It just sort of happens that way. I get caught up in the moment. And so does Cagalli."

"You may not be trying to… but it's certainly happening anyway. Within the first minute one or the other of you loses their shirt and sometime in the next three minutes you're both half naked. I just don't want either of you to do something in the passion of the moment that you'll regret later." Kira argued. Athrun glared at him, hands on hips. He leaned close.

"What makes you think either of us'd regret it?" he whispered. "Don't you mean you don't want either of us to do something in the passion of the moment that'd make you uncomfortable? That's what I think you mean."

"We should stop arguing." Kira said forcefully, half turning away.

"Why? Because you're losing?" Athrun asked scornfully.

"No. Because I'm starting to feel like I want to punch you. And I know we'll both regret what happens if I do that." Kira answered.

"Fine. But listen to me, Kira. I want you to think about this real hard. Is making yourself feel comfortable worth the pain you're making Cagalli and I go through? Is it really fair for you to make such an important decision for us ahead of time without even consulting us on how we feel? By the end of the night, I want you to tell me what you've come up with for an answer. Please." Athrun told Kira with more than a hint of anger. He then walked up the sidewalk to greet Waltfeld.

"If you keep going at this rate, you're going to drive your friend off." Alkire noted laconically, walking up behind Kira. Kira glared at him. "You don't have to listen to me, kid. But if you keep trying to control what Athrun does… you're going to lose your friendship with him. I know, I've lost some good friends the very same way."

"But I don't want him and Cagalli to… to… to…" Kira stammered, unable to get the word out.

"Become intimate? Dude, if there was ever a choice that WAS NOT yours, that would be it." Alkire said. "I mean, hypothetically speaking here, how would you feel if Athrun kept you and Lacus from expressing true love in that fashion… just because he was uncomfortable with the idea of you having sex with his former fiancé?" Kira didn't say anything. Alkire sighed. "Okay, let's try this then. Would you be doing the same things if Dearka and Miriallia were trying to have sex? Miriallia is your friend of long standing. You certainly have at least as strong a relationship with her as you do with Cagalli. So would you try and stop them, too?"

"No. It's not the same."

"It is the same. Cagalli may be your sister, but she's also her own person. Tell me I'm wrong, if you can. You wouldn't have reacted like this at all if Cagalli had never revealed to you that you were siblings. Am I wrong?"

Kira paused a long moment. "No. You're not wrong. But she IS my sister. That makes it different."

Alkire sighed heavily again. "Okay then… plan C. If you really feel so strongly about all this… get into a fight. Provoke him. Duke it out. Beat each other bloody. Rant and scream at each other. I guarantee you'll feel better afterwards. Part of the problem is you're holding back most of your feelings and thoughts. Get them out into the open so they can be addressed, instead of letting them fester. Doesn't matter who wins, as long as you get your feelings across. Fists can sometimes communicate much more meaningfully than words."

Kira stared at him. "That seems awfully illogical."

"Who said logic had anything to do with this? Love is about the most illogical thing out there. Look how its making you feel. Look how it's making Athrun and Cagalli act. None of this is rational. It's all a gut instinct thing. You trying to impose logic and rationality on it is what's causing the problem." Alkire said. "Anyway, you don't have to listen to me. In fact, a normal teenager wouldn't. Just know that you're the one at fault here, really."

Kira said nothing.

Alkire sighed again. He tossed Kira a key ring. "You can use my car for tonight. It's a sure bet that Athrun and Cagalli are going to ride his bike. I couldn't let you take a taxi to the restaurant. Just… don't crash. That car is worth more than you'd believe."

"But I don't know how to drive." Kira protested.

"It's a physical activity that requires good reflexes and rational thinking. You're a Coordinator, you'll do fine. It's only the emotional stuff Coordinators have issues with." Alkire replied, walking up the sidewalk to the apartment. Kira was left at the street, staring at his back, mouth hanging slightly open.

--------------------------------------------------

"I think I found one of those whatchamacallits!" Dearka announced, from his position at the bank of the stream.

"A frog?" Miriallia asked, from her post a few feet away, where she was examining the moss on the rocks by the stream's edge.

Dearka stuck his tongue out at her. "No, not a frog. If it was a frog, I'd have said "I think I found a FROG", not "I think I found a whatchamacallit"."

"Oh, I'm sorry for not noting the semantic differences in your descriptive terms. Whatchamacallit is pretty general." Miriallia replied, mock annoyed.

"It's got a hard shell, two claws, antennae and lots of legs. Begins with a "C", but I can't think of the word. That help?" Dearka shot back.

"Crayfish. It's a crustacean, related to a lobster. We need to either draw one or take a picture of one for the assignment due on Friday… two days from now." Mir identified.

"One crayfish, coming up. C'mere, you little bastard. OUCH!" Dearka cried. He waved his hand about, a six inch long crayfish attached by its claws to his forefinger. "Get it off me! Get it off me!"

Mir rolled her eyes. Sometimes guys were so helpless. She walked over to where Dearka was grappling with his miniscule assailant. With a dexterous movement, she pulled open the claws and took the crayfish into her own hands. It immediately froze, trying to pretend it was dead. "How did you do that?" Dearka asked from his position lying on the ground.

"Do what?" she asked, crouching down next to him.

"Make it so passive? It was murdering me a few seconds ago, but in your hands it's as tame as a puppy."

Mir rolled her eyes again. Because she did so, she was unprepared for Dearka suddenly throwing his arms around her waist. With a yelp she dropped the crayfish, which wasted no time in scuttling back into the stream. Dearka pulled her down on top of him and smiled radiantly at her. "Does your amazing power work on other animals besides crustaceans?" he asked expectantly. Mir cupped his face with her hands.

"Let me see." She said. Dearka moved his hands to more strategic locations. Mir took one hand away from his face and moved his right hand up, back above her waistline. "I guess it takes some time to take effect." She murmured. His hand started to inch its way down again. "I do have a sterner method to employ if the subject proves resistant to the passivity technique." She informed him. His hand stopped moving.

"You take all the fun out of it." he mock complained.

"The crayfish is escaping." She noted.

"Let him. I'm not going to touch the thing with a ten foot pole until I get some gloves on." Dearka decided.

"We should really be working on our biology homework."

"We should." He agreed, but did not release her. "Do you mind if I consider you biology homework?"

"Only if you try to skip ahead to chapter fourteen."

Dearka blushed. Chapter 14 was the reproductive cycle and human anatomy. "That's still a few months in the future. We might not even get that far. You know how school is. Always more ambitious than practical."

"I don't mind ambition." Mir replied, resting her head on his chest. They both remained silent for a while, just enjoying the moment.

"I don't even know if it would work anyway. I'm a second generation Coordinator." Dearka said, with a hint of bitterness.

"What do you mean?" Mir asked.

"I'm the child of two Coordinators whose parents were Naturals. The higher the generation of a Coordinator is, the less likely they are to have children. Third generation Coordinators are pretty rare. Fourth generation Coordinators are even scarcer. There were only a couple 4th Gens in all of ZAFT." Dearka explained.

"Why?" Mir asked.

"Nobody knows. As you can imagine, it's a major problem that the PLANTS are doing everything possible to address. Maybe in the process of refining a person's genes to make them a Coordinator, they edit out some of the compatibility with other genes that results in children after sex." Dearka answered. "And then, even if they do have children, those children's genes are successively more selective in what or who they choose to be compatible with."

"That's horrible… does that mean you might not be able to… have…" the word caught in her throat.

"The plumbing works just fine." Dearka insisted, turning crimson. "It's just that I might be sterile, or effectively so."

"Doesn't that bother you?" she asked.

"A hell of a lot. Especially recently. I've been afraid of bringing it up. I didn't know how you would react. This doesn't… change anything… does it?" Dearka asked morosely. Mir held him closer.

"Never. I could never do that to you. Don't even think it." she said, tears trickling from her eyes.

"I'm sorry Mir. I should never have doubted you for a moment." Dearka answered, tears coming to his eyes too. "Thank you Mir. You're the best."

"We're still going to wait though." She reminded him. He nodded as best he could in his current position.

"Of course."

"Dearka?"

"Yes?"

"Does… Athrun…"

"Yep. Same problem. Ysak too. And Lacus, for that matter. It affects girls just as often as guys. Kira's okay though, because he's a 1st Gen. Though since he's with Lacus, it doesn't matter if he's okay in that manner." Dearka told her.

"That's so sad." Mir commented. "Have they brought it up yet?"

"Beats me. Likely not though. It is… pretty personal. If they have, they certainly haven't told me about it."

"So… one way or another… there's a chance that none of our friends will be able to have children in their current relationships?" Mir asked hesitantly.

"That's the situation in a nutshell." Dearka said, holding her tightly.

"I'm going to talk with Cagalli and Lacus. This is something we all need to have out in the open." Mir decided. "You talk with Ysak. I don't know Chanel or Katie well enough to bring this sort of subject up with them."

"You want me to ask Ysak to publicly suggest he might be sterile? In front of BOTH his girlfriends and all his friends? Are you trying to have me get killed?" Dearka protested.

"I still don't see how they can both be his girlfriends. I'd get frightfully jealous, sharing a man like that." Mir switched topics. Dearka sighed.

"I don't understand either. It's like they're two halves of the same person. They think slightly differently from each other… Katie is more like Cagalli, while Chanel is more like Lacus… but they dress the same, talk the same and look the same. I still don't know their story, beyond that they were supposed to have "suffered very much" in the war. They don't act traumatized, in my opinion." Dearka responded.

"Like most guys, you really are blind sometimes." Mir said. Dearka made a rumble of protest. "Its easy to see how traumatized they are. Normal, happy girls don't learn jujitsu throws and pistol marksmanship with the same glee as they reserve for picking out cute dresses and eating ice cream. Nor do well-adjusted girls with happy backgrounds cling to the people in their life like limpets; as if afraid the person will be ripped from them at any moment. They also have next to no concept of how nudity makes people uncomfortable, which suggests to me that they were denied clothing for quite some time during their formative years. Their casual attitude towards sexual activity… they don't even blush when they walk in on Athrun and Cagalli when they get going… or blink when the word "sex" comes up, suggests things I don't want to think about." Mir lectured him.

"You know, when you explain it like that, you make a lot of sense. You are completely right." Dearka said, his tone full of amazement.

"Of course I'm right. I'm a girl. I would have thought you'd have figured that much out at least."

"That you're a girl? I most definitely have." Dearka replied, rolling over so that he was on top. He made sure not to rest his weight on her and leaned down to kiss her fully on the lips. Mir's eyes half closed. She moved her hands to more strategic locations. Dearka's eyes widened. "Someone's skipping ahead a few chapters."

"Shut up and kiss me." she ordered. By the time they parted, it was almost dark.

"I think we missed our ride. Ysak told us to meet him at the base of the hill… let's see… four hours ago. Where did the time go?" Dearka commented.

"I don't know about where time goes, but I do know where something went." Mir replied archly.

"What? What are you talking about, I didn't do anything…" Dearka trailed off. Sometime during the last five hours or so, they had managed to kick both of their backpacks into the stream without noticing. That they didn't notice wasn't surprising, since Dearka probably wouldn't have noticed Rau Le Crueset come back to life nearby with a marching band in attendance. Every last bit of their paper… notebooks, assignments, notes… everything was a sodden mass of paper pulp now. Their expensive Biology books were totally ruined. "Damn." Dearka said. A few months ago he'd have said something a lot more poignant, but his time with Mir had weaned him off that kind of language. He fished the bags out of the stream and watched as the paper slopped out onto the ground.

"We're screwed." Mir decided. "I had all my school stuff in that backpack. I'll never be able to get everything back in two days. And there are a lot of big tests coming up in the next few days. I'm going to fail them all, because I can't study now." She said, her voice starting to get hysterical.

"Then let's just drop out. It's not like we need to go to school. Its just part of our cover." Dearka said. Mir looked at him like he was insane. "What?"

"How would we support ourselves if we don't get an education? We wouldn't get very good jobs."

"I've already graduated from school in the PLANTS, which has a lot higher standards than this school does. And I've actually got a five-year pension from my military service. It's only a few hundred dollars a month, but it's enough to keep us alive for a while until I can get a job. I'm a Coordinator… if I can find someone who won't judge me because of that, there's lots of stuff I could do for a living. Anything from construction to advanced electrical engineering. Then we'd be sitting pretty." Dearka retorted.

"You know what?"

"What?"

"I'm liking how we're talking about "we" and "us"."

"So that means you agree?"

"Mmm… yes, I do." Mir replied.

"Now I just got to get you to say that under different circumstances." Dearka said, surprising himself as well as Miriallia.

"My, but we're bold today." She commented. Dearka coughed.

"Yeah… I don't know what came over me. Sorry."

"Don't apologize. You'll get your wish, probably. Just give me some more time. It's only been a few weeks. Ask me again on my birthday. It's only a month and a half from now."

"Deal. Shall we go? I'm feeling like a night on the town to celebrate our newly unburdened existence." Dearka said. Miriallia nodded. They stood up, dragging their backpacks along with them. Much to their mutual surprise, Ysak was still waiting for them at the bottom of the hill. He had a stormier than usual expression on his face. "Yeah… sorry about being late. We were…" Dearka began.

"I know what you were doing. Don't lie to me." Ysak snapped.

"You're touchy today." Miriallia observed. Ysak glowered at her while Chanel and Katie giggled.

"Only because the three of us out shot him consistently all day long. We eventually degenerated into a betting game. If we could put more rounds into a head sized target at one hundred feet than he could, using ten shots, then he had to give us each a kiss. If he got more rounds in than we did, we had to leave him alone for thirty minutes later tonight. The final score was kisses: thirty… time alone: zero minutes." Katie volunteered.

"It shouldn't have been possible. I'm a Coordinator. I have better reflexes, better eyesight and I'm military trained." Ysak complained.

"The military just teaches you to shoot straight. It doesn't teach you how to shoot well." Raine put in, from her seat on the hood of her electric town car.

"Don't talk to me." Ysak retorted.

"He's upset because Raine put a bullet through a hole he already shot in a target from two hundred feet away three times in a row, with one hand tied behind her back." Chanel explained.

"Ysak-y's also upset because he's been sitting here for four hours unable to do more than hold hands with us because Raine is here, when he had a lot more planned for when we got back to your place." Katie added with a wide smile. Ysak turned a brownish red color.

"Sh-shut up!" he hissed. "I wasn't going to do anything of the sort!"

"Ysak-y has us do this one thing where he lies down on the bed and…" Chanel began. Ysak gave an incoherent cry and jumped on her, covering her mouth with both hands.

"Damn you, shut up when I say shut up! That's not information you should say out loud!" he scolded her. Miriallia trod lightly on Dearka's foot.

"Don't you have something to suggest to Ysak?" she asked sweetly.

"Now?" Dearka whined. "He's pissed off now, though."

"He always is, in one way or another." She reminded him. Ysak glared at them both.

"What's she talking about, Dearka?"

"Um… well… you see… I sort of brought up the whole… Coordinator thing." Dearka hedged.

"What Coordinator thing?" Ysak asked.

"The little… possible downside… to being a second or later generation Coordinator in a lasting relationship." Dearka said, wishing that Ysak wouldn't make him go into more detail.

"What's he hinting at?" Katie asked.

"It sounds serious." Chanel decided. Ysak, meanwhile, had gone pale.

"It's none of your business." He told them flatly.

"Actually, if what Dearka told me is true, it's seriously their business." Miriallia contradicted. "You can have this two ways. You can explain it to them, or I can. I won't be as tactful as you would be." She warned him. Ysak glared daggers at Dearka.

"Thanks a bunch." He said sourly.

"I'm… I'm sorry. But it is an important issue. Miriallia is going to talk with Cagalli and Lacus about it too. Its better we deal with this now, rather than have it be a surprise to someone later." Dearka apologized.

"Ysak-y?" Katie asked.

"What do they mean?" Chanel added. Ysak sighed and slowly, painfully explained the same thing Dearka had a few hours ago. At the end of his explanation, both girls had covered their mouths with their hands in consternation and Raine had a sour look on her face as well.

"You mean you might be impotent?" Katie gasped.

"Sterile, not impotent. It's very different." Ysak said stiffly.

"Yeah… one means unable to have children. The other means unable to "perform"." Dearka said informatively.

"Mir was right. This was important." Chanel said quietly.

"I'm sorry. But it was very private." Ysak told them.

"None of us like to think about it. It's too depressing." Dearka offered in support.

"Don't worry, Ysak-y. I still love you, even if you can't have children with me." Katie said abruptly.

"Me too." Chanel added.

"Who says I want to have children with either of you?" Ysak demanded. He glanced at Raine and turned the deepest shade of red yet. "Why are we talking about this with your bigger sister and guardian present?" he hissed. The girls looked at Raine, who smiled at them and nodded.

"Would you prefer it was Uncle Vladimir?" Katie asked.

"Raine's our sister. She'll support us in any decision we make. Especially in matters of love." Chanel continued.

"Of course, she'll still castrate you if our decision turns out to have been wrong because of your actions, but that's life." Katie added sweetly.

"And that's a whole lot better than what Uncle Vladimir would do to you." Chanel said, trumping her sister.

"Why do you two always have to threaten me like this?" Ysak complained. "Don't you trust me?" The girls were instantly contrite.

"We're sorry, Ysak. Please forgive us." They chorused, looking very ashamed of themselves. "We hurt your feelings again, without thinking."

"Ah… er… uhm." Ysak said. He couldn't hold up his façade though. "It's okay. I know it's hard for you two. I know you went through some tough things. I forgive you. Both of you." He pulled them both close, hugging each with one arm and planting a tender kiss on each forehead. "As for my little problem, well, it won't be an issue for a while yet. But I was very complimented when you both said you would love me anyway, no matter the eventual outcome."

Dearka whistled tunelessly and looked away, anywhere but at Ysak displaying public affection. He knew that if he stared, Ysak would only get grouchier. "They're so cute." Miriallia whispered to him. Dearka didn't respond, for fear Ysak would hear him and become wrathful.

"We should probably get going." Raine said. "I caught something about there being visitors at your place on the radio a few hours ago."

"Yeah… let's go."