Disclaimer: I don't anything within this story except Hiroku, the story plot, Rayne and Hisoka (there at the end). I will say that this story follows the Gundam Seed storyline and has direct quotes, but I added to them by bringing in an OC, so many of the episodes are word for word but then my character Hiroku comes in. So enjoy…and read and review please!

Chapter 8

"What do you think your doing Dearka! Hurry up and stop that ship now!" Yzak yelled. All five of them were engaged in battle against the infamous Archangel near the territory of Orb.

"I know…" Dearka voiced.

"Well then if you know, do something about it!" Hiroku added. She was positioned high above everyone trying to get a clean shot to the engines so the legged ship would stop and then everyone could take it down. Right as she was about to fire her sniper rifle a huge explosion occurred in Yzak's direction and she couldn't see him anymore. "Yzak!" she screamed.

"I'm fine! Now take them down!" he said in a firm voice.

"You don't have to tell me twice." She smirked looking through the scope of her gun once again.

"Yzak…don't go out to far." Athrun ordered.

"Shut up!" Yzak shouted back. He never follows orders on the battlefield from Athrun.

"Try to aim for the engines. Nicol, flank them on the port side." Athrun ordered again.

"Right!" Nicol voiced.

"Hiroku, go above them and use your sniper rifle." Athrun commanded.

"What do you think I'm doing! Having a picnic up here!" Hiroku yelled.

Right at that moment the Strike came out. Athrun was going to go engage him but Yzak beat him to it.

"Stay back Athrun, I'm gonna get this guy!"

"Yzak don't be reckless!" Athrun yelled.

Hiroku was thinking about how frustrating this was to get a clear shot off because the ship kept moving around. Sit still dammit! As she was thinking there was another huge explosion behind her. She looked around at everyone and saw that it was Yzak again! NO! Just then she saw Yzak plummeting towards the Strike without his goul.

"Yzak! No you idiot! What are doing?" she yelled frantically, but she received no answer. Shooting down the legged ship was the farthest thing from her mind now. She was watching the battle between Yzak and the Strike.

The Strike had jumped up into the air and went head on with Yzak. Yzak had pulled out his beam saber sword. When he swung it at the Strike, the Strike used his own sword and chopped off Yzak's.

"What?" Yzak voiced with wide eyes.

"Yzak!" Hiro gasped.

The Strike then came up behind Yzak and kicked his machine in the back to send him falling into the ocean.

"Yzak No!" Hiro yelled. She was scared. She left her post to dive into the water after him.

Once Hiroku entered the water she saw their submarine picking up Yzak's Gundam and pulling it in, she was soon pulled in too. Once she was able to exit her machine she quickly got out and ran towards the retreating form of Yzak.

"Yzak!" she called.

"Huh?" Yzak said. As he turned around he was tackled to the ground with a hard thud. The person that had tackled him lifted themselves off of him. He was about to protest when he saw the tear struck face of Hiro. He sat up to find out what the meaning was of her tackling him was when she flung herself on to him and cried some.

"You bastard! You had me so scared. Don't ever do that again!" she hugged him ever tighter now. "I couldn't bear losing you." She whispered.

"I'm sorry Hiro…" Now let's get up before we cause a scene."

"Well, well, what do we have here?" Dearka smirked widely as he was walking towards Yzak and Hiro.

"To late…" Hiro seethed as she got off Yzak.

"I knew there something going on between you two! I thought I was seeing things when I saw you two out on the balcony back at Carpentaria…" he was cut off.

"You saw?" Hiro shrieked.

"Oh yes I did! So there is no need to hide it now."

"Why…you…" Yzak was about ready to lunge forward towards Dearka but he was held back by Hiroku. "What do you think your doing!" he glared back at her.

"There's nothing we can do. He saw so we can't lie about it." Hiro reasoned.

"Hmph…fine." Yzak said in a harsh whisper as he turned back to face Dearka with an evil glare.

They all marched off to the locker room to change back into their uniforms. The legged ship had entered Orb so there was nothing they could but wait. The next morning they received an official document from Lord Uzumi of Orb that they legged ship had left and was no longer inside Orb Territory.

"This announcement is nothing but a pile of crap!" Yzak shouted slamming his hands down on the table in the small briefing room aboard the submarine. Hiroku was standing behind him while Nicol and Dearka sat on the couch and Athrun stood in front of Yzak.

"I can't believe their actually telling us that the legged ship has left Orb territory. That's their solution? Their treating us like complete fools. Maybe its because we have a raw commander." Dearka finished mockingly towards Athrun.

"Dearka." Nicol said.

"Their the fools because their cowards!" Hiro sneered clenching her fists.

"That's irrelevant." Athrun stated referring back to Dearka's comment about him. "But unfortunately you can't deny that this is Orb's official response. So you can complain all you like about how their a bunch of lairs, but its not going to change the situation that were in." Athrun finished knowingly.

"SAY WHAT?" Yzak and Hiro shouted at the same time.

"If we forced our way in it would only turn into a diplomatic scandal."

"Hmph…heh…your analysis is impressively rational Athrun…opps…Commander Zala." Yzak finished mockingly with a hand on his hip and of course smirking.

"Hold on there, are you saying we have to accept their word and just leave?" Dearka asked.

"We'll ask Carpentaria to apply some official pressure. But if there is no quick resolution…we'll sneak in." Everyone in the room gasped in surprise. "Does that meet with your approval?" Athrun asked in a mocking tone towards Yzak. Yzak tensed and scowled towards Athrun with a clenched fist. Hiro went up behind Yzak and grabbed his arm.

"Oh…to pinpoint the ships location right?" Nicol asked in relation to Athrun's strategy.

"Yzak…calm down. No use starting something here, later ok?" Hiro softly whispered in Yzak's ear. He instantly relaxed.

"Yes." Athrun answered Nicol. "Because whatever the situation is, our opponent here is a sovereign nation. We can't take any hasty actions against them without evidence of some sort."

"Look we can just force our way in. We know the ships there." Dearka argued.

"This is nothing like Heliopilsis. The size of their forces and I don't have to tell you how advanced their military technology is. Officially their neutral but behind the scenes they are a cause of great concern to us." Athrun reasoned.

"Haha…I'll go along for now but if it were up to me we'd be forcing our way in." Yzak started to walk away with Hiro right behind him. "I can't disagree with the son of Committee Chairman Zala now can I." Dearka gets up to follow them out. "Well sneaking in seems fun too and there's always the possibility that I'll get the chance to see the face of the Strike's pilot." Yzak looked back towards Athrun. Yzak opened the door to walk out, but not before Hiro spoke.

"Usually it's the weak that take the passive route." She frowned towards Athrun. Yzak and Dearka looked at her with shocked expressions. Then all three of them left.

"Someone is doing a lot of insulting." Yzak smirked.

"I'll say." Dearka added.

"I'm only stating the truth." Hiro voiced innocently with a small pout.

"Oh don't give me that!" Yzak glared.

"Hmph…your no fun!"

"Ha…you can say that again! Yzak is…" Dearka was cut short in mid sentence.

"I wouldn't finish that sentence if I were you." Hiroku stated in a cold voice. She then stomped off to her room. Yzak turned to glare at Dearka one more time and then went after Hiroku.

"What? I was just…oh nevermind." Dearka then headed toward his own room.

Hiroku entered her room and plopped herself down on her bed stomach first. She closed her eyes and let sleep take over her. Ever since the night that she and Yzak had kissed she had been able to sleep somewhat better. But not for the whole night still. Sleep didn't last long though because soon there was a knock at her door.

"Don't bother me." She shouted. But her voice was now muffled by the pillow that she had buried her face into.

Hiroku had received no answer from whoever was outside her door so she figured they had gone away. Then her sliding door opened. She turned her head around to see who it was, it was of course Yzak. She turned her head back into the pillow.

"What do you want?" she asked tiredly.

"Oh nothing…just some alone time with you." Yzak stated sitting on the edge of her bed.

"I really need a nap. Can you sit here with me?" Hiro asked still on her stomach closing her eyes.

"Sure." Yzak answered. He got on the other side of her and propped himself up against the back wall. She immediately hugged him around the waist and buried her face into his stomach. He started to run his fingers through her hair.

"It's like déjà vu." She stated tiredly.

"It certainly is. Hey have you been able to sleep better?"

"Sort of."

"Well how lon…" but he was cut short by Hiroku leaning up and kissing him lightly on the lips.

"Can you just shut up so I can sleep."

"Oh…sure…my bad."

They stayed like that for a good two hours. After watching her for about one hour Yzak feel asleep as well. It was about five at night when Dearka waltzed into Hiroku's room without knocking to tell them that Athrun was calling for an emergency meeting about sneaking into Orb. He was greeted with the two sleeping in Hiro's bed.

"My, what do we have here?" Dearka asked with a smirk and crossing his arms.

Yzak had awakened from the sliding door opening and now glared at Dearka. Hiro was still asleep, or so they thought. Dearka was about to say something else when he heard the click of a gun.

"Get your ass outta here Elsman, cause I'm not hesitant to shoot if you don't." Hiro growled against Yzak's stomach with her eyes still closed. Yzak looked down at her with his head titled towards her face with a raised eyebrow. He looked back up at Dearka with a frown. Dearka was a little shocked from her little speech so he took his leave. Hiroku started to get up.

"Not exactly the way I wanted to wake up. But beggars can't be choosers now can they." She voiced playfully.

"This should make up for it." Yzak stated sitting up on to his knees to face her. He grabbed her by the waist and pulled her into him.

"Well its off to a good start." She giggled. She wrapped her arms around his neck.

Yzak placed his right hand on her neck under her ear. He always seemed to do that now when he kissed her. He leaned in slowly and kissed her lightly. Hiroku put her right hand at the back of his neck and massaged it. Ever so slowly Yzak eased her onto her back on the bed, while still kissing her. Once his body weight was on top of her and added more pressure on her mouth. They kissed like that for about ten more minutes until Hiro pulled away slowly.

"I think I could get use to waking up like that." She said looking into Yzak's eyes. Then she remembered about the meeting. "We have a meeting to get to." She whispered placing a hand on his chest. Yzak scowled in disapproval. She leaned up and kissed him one more time and then she playfully pushed him off of her. "Come on let's go." She grabbed his hand and headed out of her room back to the briefing room.

Hiroku and Yzak entered the briefing room after everyone else. All eyes were glued on them when they entered.

"WHAT?" the two questioned in unison.

"The lovebirds finally decided to show." Dearka stated.

"Oh Dearka…" Hiro walked her way over to stand in front of the tan coordinator. "You think your so funny don't you?" she asked sweetly.

"Oh he's gonna get it now." Yzak whispered to himself with a smirk.

"Well yea I do some…"

SLAP

Dearka's head was still turned from being slapped. His cheek was rapidly turning red. Athrun and Nicol stood stunned at what happened and Yzak, well, he was laughing slightly.

"I think that should tell you that I don't like your smart ass attitude towards me and Yzak." She said walking back over to Yzak.

"Uh…well then…let's get to work." Athrun suggested still stunned.

"Yes let's." Hiroku stated cheerfully, back to her normal self, when of course she wasn't pissed off, which was actually most of the time…all thanks to Dearka.

"Well I have contacted someone in Orb who is willing to get us into the city. So tomorrow morning very very early we are going to swim to the main Island and then split up to search the city and meet at the harbor." Athrun said.

"How early are we talking?" Hiroku asked with a raised eyebrow.

"The man that I met said to meet him at the shore around sunrise. And its about an hour swim from where our sub it positioned. So we need to leave here at zero five hundred hours." Athrun stated knowingly.

"That's not bad at all." Nicol smiled.

"I really hope you know what your doing Athrun." Hiro said more to herself than anyone else.

They all talked about a few more credentials before making an early retirement to their rooms. Yzak was walking Hiroku to hers.

"Hey Yzak?"

"Yea little missy?"

"Can you stay with me please? I have a feeling I won't be getting much sleep tonight."

"Why is that?"

"Because Orb was the last place my dad was headed before his shuttle was blown up…" small tears were forming in the corners of her eyes as she entered her room. Before she could go collapse on her bed and cry her eyes out she was pulled around by the wrist and into a strong, warm, and protective embrace. She embraced Yzak back and cried a little harder. They stood like that for a little while until Yzak picked her up and laid her down on her bed. He then got in next to her and let her hugged him around the waist like she always did. Throughout the night Yzak watched her sleep and winced slightly whenever she would suddenly tighten her grip around him. He assumed that she was having a bad dream so he would whisper into her ear to let her know that everything was ok, that he was here, and his hand would rub up and down her back. She would instantly relax.

I can't believe how many bad dreams she has? I wish I could make all those nightmares go away. Maybe there is a way…? Don't even go there. What! You know what I mean. Ugh fine…at least I know that I can help in some way. It feels good to know that she takes comfort in me for when she is scared. Aww ain't that sweet. Go away already. yawn I guess I better to get sleep too, we have long day tomorrow. Zala better know what he's doing or else I'm gonna beat the shit outta him.

There u go! Now please proceed to the button on the bottom right of the screen and enjoy viewing of the next chapter! Hehe