"Hey."

She looked up from her clipboard and sighed. "I should have guessed. How's the ship?"

"The ship's going to be fine. But that's not what I wanted to talk about."

"No, I didn't think it would be. Fire away."

Erica leaned on the gantry railing, staring up at the ceiling. "So you just happened to find him?"

"I didn't 'happen' to do anything. Kira-kun was the one who found him - he was able to sense him somehow. He took out his mobile suit then called me saying he had something for me to take care of. I didn't understand at first...then I saw him."

"And you took him back to the ship with you?"

Murrue nodded. "What else could I have done? I wasn't going to leave him there.."

"He's been with the Alliance. What if they counted on you picking him up? He could lead them right here."

She frowned. "What are you trying to say?"

"That he could be a spy."

Murrue blinked, stunned, then turned away from her friend to check her clipboard. "I'm going to pretend you didn't say that."

"Are you denying it's a possibility?"

"What do you think?"

"I think you're so happy to have him back that you wouldn't care, which is dangerous."

"You talked to him. Do you think he could be a spy?"

"Honestly? No." Erica sighed. "I just wanted to see what you'd say."

"You were wondering whether I was suspicious of him at all.." She palmed her face. "You sure do have a mean way of getting information.."

"It worked, didn't it? No, I don't think he's a spy. Too dumb."

Murrue whacked the older woman with the clipboard. "Don't you insult him. He's too honest to be a spy - he's not dumb at all."

"If you say so. But you know...the Alliance doesn't have a good track record when it comes to civilians or people getting caught in the crossfire. I'm going to guess he did stuff he wishes he hadn't."

She nodded, closing her eyes briefly. He'd told her that first night, his voice so quiet sometimes she could barely hear him. He hadn't expected her to forgive him, but how could she not have? "He had a crew that they used against him. One foot out of place and they'd suffer for it."

Erica winced. "I figured it'd be something like that. He must be carrying round a truckload of guilt."

"I've been trying to help him with it. None of what happened is his fault - he couldn't have done anything to stop it even if he'd been able to. I don't think he's been able to accept that yet....it took him long enough to accept that I forgave him for it."

"He's lucky to have you."

"I thought I was the lucky one. Whatever he's done or whatever they made him do, they couldn't change who he is inside."

"Or how he feels about you. So what happens now?"

Murrue smiled, gazing out over her ship. "We take things one day at a time. We have a second chance, so we won't waste it."

"As long as he knows how loyal a girl he has. No-one else could ever come close to him, could they?"

She blushed, shaking her head shyly. "I didn't know why - still don't. Maybe I never will."

Her friend ruffled her hair. "Sometimes you're never able to forget someone." She sat on the railing, smile fond. "I met Matt in high school when I was fifteen. We dated for a time and were happy, but he ended up going to college right at the northern end of the country. It was tough, but we managed to call and visit each other whenever we could, and when he graduated he came home.....we've been together ever since. Sometimes when a relationship's meant to be, it's meant to be."

The younger woman rubbed at her nose, still smiling. "You never dated anyone else?"

"Nope. I could have done, but there was no guy that could quite measure up to him. Isn't that how you feel about La Fllaga?"

Murrue nodded. He was the only one I wanted. There were people here, including Commander Bartfeld, who I know were interested, but all I wanted was to see Mwu again. And now...

"He's still an idiot."

She laughed. "He is. But I wouldn't swap him."

She found her idiot on the clifftop landing pad, sitting on a wing of the gold Murasame looking out to sea. With a certain amount of satisfaction she saw that in place of the worried look he'd worn in unguarded moments his expression was content, even happy. That's what I wanted to see. I wanted him to smile, especially here. This is home.. With a grin she tiptoed up behind him in an attempt to surprise him - only to squeal in mixed alarm and delight when he spun around and caught her, lifting her clear off the ground to sit on the plane beside him.

"Were you trying to scare me?"

"No.." she claimed, though knowing he'd see right through her. Mwu chuckled softly and leaned in to kiss her cheek, winding an arm around her waist to let her shuffle closer.

"Yes, you were. But that's okay."

"I could never sneak up on you before...I don't know why I thought I could now."

"No-one ever has been able to. And the better I know a person," he ruffled her hair, "the less chance they have."

"You'd be good at hide and seek, then."

He grinned. "Maybe I would be. We should try it sometime."

"Sounds like fun." Where they'd be able to play or when she had no idea, but the idea was certainly an interesting one. Swinging her legs idly she gazed up at the sky then at the horizon, wondering when the attack would come.

"They're on their way?"

"As soon as the call comes, Archangel will launch."

He nodded. "Will anyone else?"

"More than likely. Amagi-san's already said his Murasame team will be going out, and since the Seirans are sympathetic to the Alliance they'll probably order everything to be launched."

"The Seirans? They're in charge?"

Murrue blinked. "You know them?"

"The younger of them, yeah. He was on my ship for a while when we fought ZAFT. Pompous, self-absorbed little twerp."

She quirked a smile, shaking her head. "They bullied the others into signing a treaty with the Alliance, and the younger of them even tried to marry Cagalli-san. They're more interested in power than anything else."

"So that's why you took the missie with you - she wouldn't have been safe."

"That's right. If the wedding had gone ahead, Cagalli-san would probably have disappeared, from public life if not altogether."

"Poor kid. She must have worked her ass off since her dad died.."

"She did. We tried to help her, but we were limited as to how much we could do and stay safe ourselves. With part of the council's sympathies toward the Alliance, if they found out who and where we were.."

"Yeah." He smiled, pecking a kiss to her hair. "Still keeping your crew safe."

She pinked slightly but smiled back.

"Captain Ramius!"

Hearing the panicked voice they both looked up as a junior officer ran across the landing pad toward them. Seeing how close they were sitting the junior flushed and stared at his feet. "S-sorry to disturb you, ma'am. But they said to come tell you the radar's picked up a ZAFT fleet about twenty kilometres from Onogoro."

"I see. Thank you." Taking Mwu's hand she hopped off the Murasame's wing, glancing up at him with a small smile. "Are you going, then?"

"Yeah." He patted the borrowed helmet. "The Director said she'd sort me out with a pilot suit, but for now this'll do. I'll be out there keeping an eye on you."

Murrue huffed. "Keep an eye on yourself. Never mind me."

He grinned, leaning down to catch her lips in a kiss. "I'll see you soon."

"Be careful." Standing on her tiptoes she whispered in his ear. "Love you." He nodded at the words, confident grin becoming affectionate smile. He didn't need to say the words back - she knew how he felt.

Please keep yourself safe..

She was worried, that much was clear. Not for herself, but for her ship, her crew...and him. She'd once admitted before Jachin Due that she'd put herself and Archangel in harm's way to protect him if he was in danger, which had both elated and scared the hell out of him at the same time. To love and be loved that much was something he'd never known before - he was still getting used to it. Everything I did for her, no matter what happened to me as a result....it was all worth it, and I'd do it again if it meant she'd be safe. Donning the helmet he hopped in the cockpit of the Murasame, looking up as Archangel sailed upwards from the underground dock, the white form against the sunlight forcing him to shield his eyes. With a smile he focused on the bridge, knowing she'd be looking back at him.

"No heroics, okay? We promised each other." Though promises, while not being broken could be bent - he wasn't going to sit back and let her be hurt just because she might be a bit mad at him. Whistling softly he closed the cockpit hatch and activated the mobile suit, strapping himself in before taking off to arc into the sky after his ship. One ship and a handful of mobile suits against an entire fleet, possibly, but they had more to lose than ZAFT had to gain. Giving up's not my style, and it certainly isn't hers. Let's see how many of them we can get...

The battle went just as he expected it to. Most of ZAFT's pilots fought like kids - which, depressingly, they probably were. I doubt many of 'em are older than the Shinn kid....pilots just keep getting younger... Sending the Murasame into a roll to avoid fire from the ground he picked off another couple of those Zaku suits, all the while keeping an eye on Archangel. So far Minerva hadn't shown up but it was sure to be out here - so many enemy suits didn't just appear from nowhere. Shaking his head in annoyance Mwu pulled on the stick to loop around....then had to shield his eyes as a brilliant flash of gold almost blinded him. "The hell?"

It was a mobile suit, and an exotic-looking one at that. Built along the same lines as Strike - obviously Orb made - but a bright gold from head to foot. He'd never seen anything like it before. It was fighting rather clumsily against a flashy ZAFT suit, the pilot of which clearly had the advantage, and as he watched, the gold suit attempted to fire a rifle at it's opponent, only for the flashy suit to effortlessly slice it's arm off at the elbow with a boomerang-type thing, the arm and the rifle dropping to the sea below. Nice suit, inexperienced pilot. If they carry on this way they're going to get themselves killed. Kicking the engines to maximum he flew right for the flashy suit, hoping to distract it enough for the gold one to get away.....but he wouldn't be needed. A moment before he reached them the flashy suit threw another boomerang - only for it to be destroyed before it reached it's target. "Huh?"

Down from the sky came an unfamiliar (and ridiculously over-the-top) mobile suit, all blue, black and white with gold joints. It shot through the air straight toward the flashy suit, the gold one making an oddly reluctant retreat. This close, the suit became recognisable. "Freedom?"

"Mwu-san, please take Cagalli somewhere safe!" Kira's voice crackled over the intercom. "Get her to the mainland so she can take command!"

"But Kira.." the missie's voice broke in. She's in that gold suit? What did they let her come out and fight for?

"But nothing!" Kira replied shortly. "You can't fight like that. Go with Mwu-san." He fought off an attack from the ZAFT suit. "Go on!"

Again reluctantly, the missie backed off, heading for the mainland escorted by Mwu and another group of Murasames. "You okay?"

"He doesn't think I can fight." She sounded bitter and unhappy, which was understandable.

"He knows you can fight. But what you have to do right now is more important. Go down there and kick Seiran's ass."

"Really?" She sounded a little more cheerful at that idea and he laughed.

"I'd say he's earned it, wouldn't you? Go on now, go with these guys and I'll head back to Archangel."

"Thank you, Commander."

(Authoress hits fastforward button because she Fails Immensely at battle scenes D:)

The missiles were heading right for them. Well-aimed shots from the CIWS had taken out six of them with two remaining, but before she could give the order to destroy the others they suddenly detonated harmlessly in mid-air, the gold Murasame flying past a second later. His laughter echoed over the intercom, smiling face appearing on the viewer. "Sorry. Was that showing off?"

"You know it was," she replied, biting her lip to keep from smiling. "But thank you anyway." She'd caught glimpses of him every so often, the distinctive fighter weaving it's way through the battle dodging enemy fire and picking off suits with almost cavalier abandon. The more he pilots, the more he becomes like his old self. I can't decide whether that's a good or bad thing...

Mwu chuckled. "No problem. Good to see I can still make the impossible possible."

This time she really did smile. "Don't go getting ahead of yourself."

"Spoilsport." Sending the Murasame into a brief barrel roll he soared ahead toward Minerva, leaving her there shaking her head. Idiot.

"Captain!" Murdoch's voice took her by surprise, she glancing down at the small viewer on her chair arm. "Will you say something to that ZAFT kid? He insists on going out there!"

"Athrun-kun? But he can't! He's.."

"Murrue-san," Lacus-san's soft voice broke in, and she turned to see the young woman standing beside Miriallia-san, "this is something Athrun needs to do for himself. Please let him go."

She sighed. "Alright.." Not an order she wanted to give. Athrun-kun might very well want to do this, to prove himself in some way, but he was also still quite badly injured - even a Coordinator didn't heal from such wounds so quickly. "Miriallia-san, please have sickbay on alert for when he comes back."

"Ma'am."

"Why is everyone so reckless?"

"Because they're guys?"

"Probably." Setting back in her chair she directed her gaze at Minerva. "Let's see if we can make them remember us."

"And stop the Commander from doing something dumb?"

"I don't think that's possible."

And a short while later she was proved correct. The Murasame circled Archangel before heading right for the ZAFT ship, firing right at a set of gun turrets and peeling off when they exploded. Murrue couldn't see his expression but she felt sure it was a satisfied smirk - or at least it would be until Minerva fired back, hitting the fighter's wing and causing it to trail smoke.

"Murasame's been hit." Chandra reported unnecessarily, tone one of expectation rather than alarm. She nodded, looking up at the viewer when his face appeared, cocky grin now more rueful.

"On my way back.."

"Go ahead. I'll instruct Murdoch to prepare for an emergency landing."

"Are you mad at me?"

"Just land before they hit you again." His face fell but he nodded, the viewer going blank as the Murasame headed back to the ship. Harsh of her perhaps, but she had told him to be careful. His showing off was exactly what she'd been afraid of when he'd asked to fight. He wants to prove he's still as good a pilot as he was, but he doesn't need to take so many risks...

But then again, he was Mwu.

The sunset was as beautiful as he'd been told to expect. Leaning on the railing he gazed out to sea, smiling slightly as a small group of battered Murasames flew past. The battle had been tough on everyone - ZAFT hadn't given up easily and even now probably weren't far away - but everyone had fought their hardest. They weren't fighting because they're shielding Djibril, they were fighting to protect their country. I wonder if the ZAFT guys were able to tell?

"Murdoch said you were up here.." Her voice held none of the anger he'd expected, and when he glanced back over his shoulder he saw that she was smiling. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Didn't know if you'd be mad at me."

"I was at first." she admitted, crossing to his side. "You took a real risk."

"No more than usual."

"I know. That's why I was mad. I was hoping you wouldn't. I guess...it was selfish of me."

"Why was it?"

"Because you're you. How can I be mad at you for acting like yourself?"

"Not even if I deserve it?"

Murrue shook her head with another smile. "Not even then. I can try to be, but it never works."

"Oh?"

"Don't take advantage of it. It doesn't mean you can go ahead and be as reckless as you want."

"Just be more careful, right?"

"Right." She leaned against him with a small sigh, closing her eyes when he reached up to stroke her hair. "I'm glad that's over."

"For now, anyway. Was Djibril really in that shuttle, do you think?"

"Erica says it was the Seirans' private shuttle, so it's very likely he was. I'm glad he's gone."

"Yeah.."

Twilight was setting in, the fiery ball of the sun slowly disappearing over the horizon, and little by little stars started to appear, mirrored by lights on the main island and Onogoro. "It's pretty."

"Isn't it?" Moving to sit on the railing she pointed over to a patch of relative darkness on the main island lit only by globe-shaped white lamps. "That's the park. It's one of my favourite places. It has flower gardens, a lake, a cafe - perfect on a hot day." Her face was alight with a smile as she described it, and Mwu found himself smiling too.

"What else is there?"

"You can't see it from here, but in the middle of the city is a shop that sells the best ice-cream I ever tasted. And not far away from it - you can see the neon lights from here - is a cinema."

"Sounds nice. What about where you lived? Can we see it from here?"

She hesitated, then nodded, pointing back at Onogoro. Not far from the glittering edifice of Morgenroete, atop a cliff, was the rubble of what had clearly once been a very large house. Not exactly what he'd expected.

"Murrue, what happened?"

"Nothing." she replied not very convincingly.

He raised an eyebrow.

"ZAFT attacked," she murmured finally. "Well, we think it was - we don't actually have proof, but who else would try and kill Lacus-san?" She smiled a little at his probably stunned expression. "Yes. Bartfeld-san overheard two of them. They attacked in the middle of the night, but they weren't very quiet about it. I woke up when they broke a window."

"So the kid and the princess lived with you and Tiger?"

"Not at first. Lacus-san and Kira-kun had lived on one of the smaller islands with Malchio-sama - he's a priest - and a group of orphaned children he was taking care of. But when Junius Seven fell their house was washed away. So they came to live with us. How ZAFT knew Lacus-san was with us I don't know, but they came to kill her that night." Leaning against his shoulder again she sighed. "We fought them off okay, and when they came back in mobile suits Kira-kun went out in Freedom."

"No-one was hurt?"

"No, no-one was hurt. We were able to get to a bunker under the house, so no-one was inside when it was destroyed." She gave a little shrug. "Could have been worse."

"You could have been killed."

This time it was Murrue's turn to raise an eyebrow. "Thank you for pointing that out."

"And that's not what I meant."

"I know. You were just worried." She pecked a kiss to his cheek. "Thank you for that, too."

Mwu placed an arm around her shoulder. "Any time. Was the house nice?"

She nodded. "It was bigger than I'd have liked, but it was beautiful inside."

"We could rebuild it after the war.."

"No, that's okay. I'd like to live somewhere a bit less.....ostentatious."

"Somewhere we can live together?"

"Of course." She poked him in the midriff. "Who else would I live with?"

He grinned. "Tiger?"

"If you're going to say things like that, maybe I should," she replied huffily, half-turning away from him and pretending to scowl when he laughed. "Then the joke would be on you, wouldn't it?"

"Would it really?" he asked mildly, reaching out to brush fingertips against the back of her neck. Murrue murmured softly, cheeks flushing pale pink and he smiled, catching her around the waist to bring her closer. "So you'd prefer to live with Tiger than with me?"

"I.."

"Would you?"

"No," she grumbled. "And you know it, you pest."

"Does that mean I win?"

"Don't you always?"

He chuckled and hugged her tighter. Living with her sounded like great fun, as well as a great adventure. And maybe he wouldn't always win, but he had to take his victories where he could, right?

"Let's go try that bath again."

( Randomness? Maybe, but it's fun. Kinder bars, yo.

please read and review! )