The New Seeds
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Gundam Seed or Gundam Seed Destiny series and their characters. If I did, then I would be the happiest girl in the world.
Author's Note: Well this next chapie is more about Kira and Athrun...and of course the twins are in it...It's a bit funny, and a bit serious too...And to be honest, I don't feel really confident about this next chap. Cause i think I really lost my mojo writing...But i would like to thank my GSR family for supporting me...thanks guys...thanks...
ooOoo
Chapter 3: Signs of Rebellion
10 months later...
Athrun walked up in the hall in the Terminal briskly, leading his way to the Commander's Office. He walked passed a few cadets, in which the cadets gave way and saluted, Athrun nodded in respond to their formal sign of respect. Even if he's not wearing his uniform, Athrun is still known in Orb as a high ranking officer. He stopped by the door, and started to straighten his black jacket, he ran a hand through his blue windswept hair before pushing a button on the intercom.
"This is Athrun Zala, sir."
"The door is open." Kira's calm voice issued from the intercom beside the door. "I'm in the office, Athrun."
Athrun opened the door and went inside, his booted feet silent as he walked down the hall to Kira's office. With small clicks, the door locks automatically engaged behind him. The door to Kira's office was unexpectedly closed. Athrun paused for a moment, and then opened it without knocking.
Kira was behind his desk, computer on, scanning through files on his desk. He gave his best friend one of his rare, warm smiles. "Watch where you step." he advised. "Munchkins on deck."
Automatically Athrun looked down, checking out the floor, but he didn't see either of the twins.
"Where?" Athrun asked.
Kira leaned back in his chair a little, looking around for his offspring. Spotting them, he said, "Under the desk. When they heard me let you in, they hid." Kira chuckled.
Athrun raised his eyebrows. To his knowledge, the ten-month-old twins weren't in a habit of hiding from anyone or anything. He looked more carefully and saw four plump, dimpled baby hands peeping from under the cover of Kira's desk.
"They aren't very good at it, " Athrun observed. "I can see their hands."
"Give them a break, Athrun, they're new at this stuff. They've only started it doing this week. They're playing Attack." Kira tried to threaten his friend.
"Attack?" fighting the urge to laugh, Athrun said, "What am I supposed to do?"
"Just stand there. They'll burst from the cover as fast as they can crawl and grab you by the ankles."
"Any biting involved?" Athrun was starting to feel nervous.
"Not yet." Kira grinned at him.
"Okay. What are they going to do with me once they have me captured?"
"They haven't gotten to that part yet. For now, they just pull themselves up and stand there giggling." Kira scratched his head. "Maybe they'll sit on your feet to hold you down, but for the most part they like standing too much to settle for the sitting." Kira laughed quietly.
The attack erupted. Even with Kira's warning, Athrun was a little surprised. They were remarkably quiet, for babies. He had to admire their precision; they launched themselves from under the desk at a rapid crawl, plump little legs pumping, and with little triumphant crows attached themselves to his ankles. Dimpled hands clutched his pants. The one on the left plopped down on his foot for a second, then thought better of the tactic and twisted around to begin hauling himself to an upright position. Baby arms wrapped around his knees, and the two little conquerors squealed with delight, their bubbling chuckles eliciting laughter from both men.
"Cool." Athrun said admiringly. "Predator babies." He tossed the file onto Kira's desk and leaned down to scoop the little warriors into his arms, settling each diapered bottom on a forearm. Rie and Souichirou grinned at him, six tiny white baby teeth shining in each of the twins dimpled face, and immediately they began patting his face with their fat little hands, pulling his ears, delving into his jacket's pockets. It was like being attacked by two squirming, remarkably heavy marshmallows.
"Good God, Kira." Athrun said in astonishment. "They weigh a ton." He hadn't expected them to have grown so much in the two months since he had seen them.
"Yeah, well, Lacus wants the twins to be...uhmmm..."healthy"." Kira told his friend.
"Really? Where is Lacus anyway?" Athrun asked.
"We had a shoe crisis. Don't ask." Kira grumbled behind his desk.
"How do you have a shoe crisis?" Athrun asked, unable to resist. He sat down in a big, comfortable chair across from Kira's desk, settling the twins more comfortably in his lap. They lost interest in pulling his ears and began babbling to each other, reaching out, entwining their arms and legs as if they sought the closeness they had known while forming in their mother's womb. Athrun unconsciously stroked them, enjoying the softness of their skin, the feel of squirming babies in his arms.
I wish I'll have kids like these two...Athrun smiled.
Kira laced his hands behind his head, allowing his body to relax. "You know how Lacus loves her shiny, white, patent leather Sunday shoes. Then you make the severe tactical error of letting the twins watch The Wizard of Oz." Kira's mouth twitched and his purple eyes glittered with amusement. "The twins dyed Lacus' shoes red." he added.
"What did they use to dye them?" Athrun gave a laugh.
"Lipstick, what else?" Kira sighed.
"You couldn't just wipe it off?" Athrun was still laughing, while the twins had discovered his belt buckle and zipper. Athrun moved the busy little hands that were trying to undress him. They began squirming to get down, and he leaned over to set them on the floor.
"Close the door, " Kira instructed. "...or they'll escape."
Leaning back, Athrun stretched out his arm and closed the door, just in time. The two diaper-clad escape artists had almost reached it. Deprived of freedom, they plopped down on their padded bottoms and considered the situation, then launched themselves in crawling patrol of the perimeters of the room.
"I could have wiped it off... " Kira continued. "...if I had known about it. Unfortunately, Lacus cleaned the shoes herself. She put them in the dishwasher."
Athrun threw back his head with a shout of laughter. "Now, why would Lacus do such a thing?"
"Don't ask at me. I tried to understand how the female minds works. But it was a really weird territory to step into." Kira sighed.
"I gather Lacus has taken Murrue shopping now, hasn't she?"
"Exactly." Kira glanced over to check on his roaming offspring. As if they had been waiting for his parental notice, first Rie, and then Souichi plopped down on their butts and gave brief warning cries, all the while watching their father expectantly.
"Feeding time. " Kira said, swiveling his chair around so he could fetch two bottles from a small cooler behind his desk. He handed one to Athrun. "Grab a kid."
"You're prepared, as always." Athrun commented as he went over to the twins and leaned down to lift one in his arms. It was Souichirou.
"I have to be prepared. Murrue weaned them last month, and they don't take kindly to having to wait for dinner."
Souichi's round grey eyes were fiercely focused on the bottle in Athrun's hand.
"Why did she wean them so early?" Athrun asked as he resumed his seat and settled the baby in the crook of his left arm.
"You'll see." Kira grinned, settling Rie on his lap.
As soon as Athrun brought the bottle within reach of Souichi's fat little hands the baby made a grab for it, guiding it to his rapacious, open mouth. He clamped down ferociously on the nipple. Evidently deciding to let his uncle hold the bottle, he nevertheless made certain the situation was stabilized by clutching Athrun's wrist with both hands, and wrapping both chubby legs around Athrun's forearm. Then he began to growl as he sucked, pausing only to swallow.
An identical growling noise came from Kira's lap. Athrun looked over to see his best friend's arm captured in the same manner as the two little savages held on to their meals.
Milk bubbled around Souichi's rosebud mouth, and Athrun blinked as six tiny white teeth gnawed on the plastic nipple.
"Hell, no wonder Murrue weaned you little guys!" Athrun said in surprise.
Souichi didn't pause in his gnawing, sucking and growling, but he did flick an absurdly glance at his uncle before returning his full attention to filling his little belly.
Kira was laughing softly, and he lifted Rie enough that he could nuzzle one of her chubby legs so determinedly wrapped around his arm. Rie paused to scowl at the interruption, then changed his mind and instead favored his father with a dimpled, milky smile. The next second the smile was gone and she attacked the bottle again.
"By the way, Cagalli is pregnant." Athrun informed his best friend.
Kira's head jerked up, and a wide grin lit his tanned face. His sister had been married nine whole months with his best friend Athrun.
"When is it due?" Kira asked excitedly.
"By the end of June, I guess." Athrun answered briefly, he looked at the twins. "You two will soon have a cousin, make sure to be nice, okay?"
Kira chuckled. Other than the fact that his sister was a tomboyish princess is married to his clueless best friend, he didn't expect that they would do it so fast.
Kira saw the folder that Athrun tossed earlier and nodded toward the file on his desk. "Are you going to tell me about it?" Kira tried to shift the conversation to a more serious matter.
Athrun knew that Kira was asking about more than the contents of the file. He was asking why it hadn't been transmitted by computer, instead of Athrun personally bringing a hard copy. He was also asking why he hadn't been notified of Athrun's change in itinerary, why his best friend hadn't made a simple phone call to let him know he was coming.
"I didn't want to risk even a hint of this leaking out." Athrun said in his serious tone.
"We have security problems?" Kira's eyebrows rose.
"Nothing that I know of." Athrun said. "It's what I don't know about that worries me. But, like I said, no one else can hear even a whisper of this. It's between us."
"Now you've made me curious." Kira's cool soft purple eyes gleamed with interest.
"There have been a number of attacks back up in the PLANTs." Athrun paused for a brief moment. "Apparently, it's been happening near the Chairwoman's Residence." he continued.
Lacus...
Kira didn't straighten from his relaxed position, but his expression hardened.
"Valen Hauer." Athrun told Kira the name.
"I know the name." Kira said. "Valen Hauer has been in our number one target list for years, but the terrorist was as elusive as he was vicious."
They had yet to find any way to get close to him, any vulnerability they could exploit or bait that they could use to lure him into a trap. There was a record of a marriage in London some three years ago, but Hauer's wife, formerly Marinela Vickery, had disappeared, and no trace of her had ever been found. Athrun, along with everyone else, had assumed the woman died soon after the marriage, either by Hauer's hand or by his enemies'.
"He's the one responsible for the supposedly robbery of Lacus' package last month, when she visited back to PLANTs." Athrun told his friend.
"You think it was a setup?" Kira didn't miss the 'supposedly' in Athrun's statement. He remembered how frightened Lacus was, when she informed her husband about the incident.
"I think it was a damn good opportunity for Hauer. Lacus had the new top secret aerospace documents with her." Athrun answered back.
"Did you leave any fingerprints?" Kira asked.
"Nothing that will lead back to us. I went to through a couple of relays, then hacked into their system and accessed the files."
"Good." the commander nodded.
Souichi finished his bottle; his ferocious grip on it slackened, and his head lolled against Athrun's arm as he briefly struggled against sleep. Automatically Athrun lifted the baby to his shoulder and began patting his back.
"Did you have anything in your mind, Kira?"
"I need to stay close to Lacus from now on." Kira took the bottle from Rie's slackened grip and gently lifting the sleeping baby over his shoulder.
"I agree. She needs you, Kira."
"I know...I know Athrun." Kira said.
I won't let anything happen to my family...Neither to Lacus, nor to the twins...I won't let them...I swear...
End of chapter 3
