A/N: Credit to animesuki (dot) com for some facts on GSD: In PLANT, marriage is regulated based on people's genes. The regulation seems pretty heavy, and people are often not able to marry for love, which is causing the birth rate to fall. It's because of those regulations that Talia left Gilbert.

Thanks to the anon reviewer who pointed out the mistake in the last line.

Drabble 26: Yzak Jule, the man who lives by the book, and being grateful about it for once.

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By the book

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The day he received the gene matchmaker result from the lab, he wasn't very surprised to see it.

G-X13854 - Shiho Hahnenfuss.

Under the code, was the latest photo attached, her three sizes, her physical data, her medical history, her military achievements record, her family tree that lined up until the beginning of her great grandparents that were ambassadors of some country back at Earth.

The only girl the law allowed him to marry was practically under his command for the last two years. He's been watching Hahnenfuss for more than two, though, with the judging eyes of a commander, not of a man. Now, the circumstances made him seize a different point of view. Shiho wasn't a feminine girl, though she has grown her brown hair long, her body was lean instead of curvy, and her face wasn't unutterably beautiful. None of the Coordinators were hideous looking, but she wasn't a girl you'd look at twice if you encountered her at the streets.

"What do you think of it?"

His subordinate looked at the test result with only half of her attention, and shrugged. "I don't see it as any problem."

Yzak eyed her with his full attention though, and found her ignorance disturbing. "You do realize," He said, tone ascending to the point where he'd begin to shriek, "That the only chance of us to ever marry in PLANT is with each other?"

Shiho nodded her head instead of answering with 'Yes sir', as Yzak had told her this was a private matter, not a subject where deaths and military salutes was concerned. It concerned lives, though, their fates in the future. "I understand the Species Preservation Act enough," Shiho said, "Sir. As it was what hindered the birth rates of third generations for the last decade. I've...received my result years before I entered the academy."

The commander could only start drumming his fingers at the revelation, and folded his arms in front of him. Clearly, Shiho had knew who he was for years, and inspected him enough. "Do you have a lover?" Yzak suspected none, as in his inspection, Shiho didn't look like one to commit to an undying, passionate love only to have it severed by law. She has followed him with fierce loyalty for two straight years, and never seen any man beside her, though she was more privy about her personal matters.

Shiho's shook of head confirmed his suspicion, and Yzak let out a relieved sigh inwardly, finding out that there were some things that the labs didn't cover in the database. "But there is," Shiho suddenly enunciated, looking at him straight in the eyes. "A man I've highly thought of for the last couple of years."

At the very moment, Yzak felt as if he was under a huge magnifying glass in a very hot summer day. The girl stared at him, not blinking, and for the very first time in his life, he was grateful that he lived by the book.