I'm (finally) back! Sorry for the long update, but school has been freakishly hectic and I've hardly enough time to think. Then there's the fact that when I started writing, I was doing something totally different, that I eventually came to hate. Anyways,this chapter isn't quite done by my standards, but I'm uploading it anyways, 'cause I won't have any time to work on it this weekend. I hope you like it.
Disclaimer: You know what this is for, I know what this is for, we all know that I don't own gundam seed anymore than you do, so starting next chapter, don't try to look for this!
Lionel was a good runner, always had been. Countless track and field medals were displayed in all over the house for everyone to see. He spent almost all his free time at the track, practicing, getting better and better. Lionel had always considered it liberating. It was only now, as he ran wildly through the streets of Onogoro, with no fear of the approaching storm did he realize what a lie that was. Track courses and medals weren't freedom, this was.
The number of times Cagalli had slept over at her brother's penthouse at over the years was growing too large to keep count of anymore. It was almost becoming a habit. Almost. After all, this was not and never had been a casual thing. They only did this on important occasions, like the time she had found out she was pregnant with Lionel or the night after her confrontation with Athrun.
"You going to be alright, Cagalli?" asked Kira, bringing her a mug full of warm milk with peppermint –her favorite. They were both in his guestroom, her home away from home. She mumbled shy thanks and nodded slightly. She tried to smile.
"Well, it's not like I'm that surprised," she said with a hint of sarcasm, "he's my kid after all." She took a sip of her beverage, "I honestly thought he'd run off sooner than he did. I mean, I was only 12 when I ran away for the first time," she added nostalgically.
Kira smiled politely and nodded. He wasn't that shocked at this turn of events either. Lionel had been on edge for a while now, with his 18th birthday drawing ever nearer. His manhood is coming, Cagalli would constantly say, though her brother saw differently. In his eyes, his nephew was already an adult. He need's his freedom, Kira told himself, finding it a bit ironic that he had only just realized that. "I think this is going to be good for him," he finally told his sister, feeling much more confident than he actually was.
The blonde woman shook her head, "Kisaka told me they always had to tell Father that one too," she laughed bitterly. Then, abruptly, her tone changed, "and I know that what you're saying is probably true, Kira," she began quietly, "but I'm still scared that something might happen, or that he might not come back," her voice was shaky. The supposedly younger twin (Cagalli was still convinced) sighed. Cagalli was very protective of Lionel, a bit too much for both of their sakes.
"…Or that he might not want to come back," finished Cagalli, sinking down onto the guestroom bed. Perhaps it was selfish, but to her, that last thought was the scariest possibility of them all.
The blonde boy had read somewhere that if you paid no attention to the destination and concentrated only on the journey, you would get to where you needed to be. When he finally stopped running, Lionel found himself in front of Onogoro's most infamous nightclub. The one Yuuna had often tried to close down as well as the one Cagalli had stubbornly insisted stay open. He figured it was some sort of sign.
The club, Vagabond's Den, was notorious for its easy accessibility (they demanded no Ids), shady guests and vicious parties. Where the music is load and the woman scream loader, they said. Taking a deep breath, unsure of what he was about to do, he walked up to the door, and ever so gently forced it open.
The next thing he knew, Lionel was being pushed from one throng of people to another. The music was deafening and the underage kid could only guess if the second part of the saying was quite as true. After a while, he made it to the other side of the place and decided to stay there for a little while. The noise level wasn't quite as load here, which was a nice break. He stood slouching against the wall, watching some half-naked girl dance seductively. This was all very new to him, though it wasn't as if he was complaining. He was actually loving every second of it.
"Kid," said a sudden, scruffy voice from behind him, "you're not supposed to be here." A hand fell on his shoulder. Lionel tried to break free aggressively.
"What do you know?" he demanded.
The figure took a step closer to him and revealed its self to be a man, though that didn't really surprise Lionel. A woman would've made more of a scene. The man smirked, "I know enough about you to render you speechless," he replied.
Now this was creepy. Fearing a rabid stoker, the young man bolted for the crowds, and eventually the door. Back inside, the older man chuckled.
"At least I got him out of here," he muttered.
The house wasn't too small or too big, but just the right size. It sat tucked away in the countryside, a twenty-minute drive from the outskirts of Onogoro. The place was practically a farm it was that secluded.
Shinn still had no idea why he had come back to Orb. Whenever people asked, he would always mumble something about Luna wanting to be closer to Meyrin or that he thought he should be close to Attha to stop her from doing anything stupid. It depended on the person really. Shinn was pretty sure his wife had the answer to it all in her head, but she knew better than to give him a psychiatric portrait of himself. But for Shinn, the reason he had come back was still a mystery.
He still hated everything about the damned country. He would always make sure to be in a foul mood whenever he had to go to Onogoro. Whenever Attha was, well there, in any way possible (newspaper, speculation, television or in person) he never forgot to put in a bad word for her.
Despite all that, Shinn had matured enough to admit that he was happy. Even if he was living in Orb.
That didn't mean he had no pride left though.
"What do you mean my daughter was flirting with Attha's bastard?"
Ah, Shinn! He was such an overprotective father.
"Don't say that!" stammered both Lunamaria and Meyrin at the same time.
The male rolled his eyes and groaned.
"Give it up you two," he barked. "It's time to stop living in fantasy land, we all know he's Athrun's kid."
Silence descended upon the room. Meyrin bit her lip. She and Athrun had broken up a long time ago, when he had decided to go into politics, but it was her first break-up and hard to revisit.
"Who's Athrun?" asked Mayu suddenly. The three adults jumped, she hadn't been in the kitchen with them a minute ago. Noticing their inquisitive looks she explained: "I went to get a glass of water and I heard Dad screaming," said the brunette girl with a shrug, "so I came to see what was going on. Who's Athrun?" she asked again.
Boy she was persistent, just like her mother.
"He's nobody!" squeaked her aunt quickly, only to be contradicted by her mother.
"Stop that Mey," she snapped, "Athrun's not nobody, Mayu's old enough to know." Luna turned to her daughter, her magenta hair moving along with her ever-turning head. "It's a bit of a long story, why don't you sit down, sweetie," she said, pointing to a chair and ignoring her husband's eye rolling.
"Athrun Zala is an old friend of ours," she began, ignoring Shinn's antics, "who we all met during the second war, when we were on the Minerva. He…"
"He fucked Attha and got her pregnant," cut in Mayu's father, not interested in listening to Luna's sunny-side-up story about Athrun, or Meyrin's over-easy one either. "That's what you wanted to know, right?" he asked his daughter, who nodded hesitantly. He shot his wife and sister-in-law a boastful victory glance and smirked.
"So, he's Attha's real Dad?" questioned Mayu, as if trying to place the pieces of a puzzle together.
"Yes," said Meyrin eventually.
"Oh," was all the young girl could say.
"Why are you following me?" Lionel demanded of the obviously older man –the same one who had been bugging him in the club earlier. He shrugged, a smile cracking on his wrinkly face.
"You could say it's my duty," he let out cheerfully. "Your mom would probably kill me if I caught you in a place like that and let you go." The two of them were walking through the streets of Onogoro without much purpose. "I'm already on her black list," he added. The blonde boy raised an eyebrow.
"What did you do, discourage feminists?" he asked sarcastically.
The older man laughed heatedly.
"No, I know better than that," he replied with a grin. "Of course, I didn't then," he added nostalgically. Lionel gave him a quizzical look.
"Just who are you?" he asked, realizing that he sounded extremely daft and slow. He couldn't help it though, there was just something about this guy…
"Andrew Waltfeld," replied the man, interrupting Lionel's thoughts, "but you probably know me as the 'the-guy-who-forced-me-into-a-dress'."
Cagalli walked into her office the next morning with bags under her eyes. Her expression was unreadable and she was not in the mood for any funny business. She had hardly slept the night before and was extremely cranky. It didn't help that she was worried as hell about her son. Sighing angrily, she opened her office door.
"It's nice to finally see you Cagalli," said Yuuna reproachfully as she walked in. He was sitting in her chair his large elbows symmetrically perched on her desk, his chin resting on his knuckles. Quietly, Cagalli closed the door, blocking off the rest of the world from their qualms. She watched her husband's eyes narrow. "Where were you last night?" he barked. The blonde woman rolled her eyes.
"Kira's," she replied curtly, "I spend the night there from time to time, you know that."
Yuuna shook his head slightly. He had grown fatter since their marriage, and bald. Whatever physical charm he might have had when they were engaged was gone and never coming back. The head representative of Orb was still unsure weather to grieve the loss or not.
"And where is my heir?" demanded he husband. That was what he always called Lionel, his heir. It disturbed his wife. He liked to watch her squirm. Trying to ignore it, Cagalli shook her head, flinching.
"It's a funny story…" she began, shrugging, trying to keep her cool. "You remember when we were young and I used to run away all the time?" she continued, as if talking to girlfriends about meeting an old acquaintance in the street, "well it turns out our soon takes after me." She sounded somewhat distant as she finished. The room became quiet.
"Are you telling me what I think you're telling me?" asked Yuuna finally, in that tone of voice that suggested his wife was playing with fire.
"That Lionel ran off on us for the very first time?" she asked sarcastically, "yeah pretty much." Whoever the woman talking was, it wasn't Cagalli. Cagalli was hiding somewhere in the back of her mind just waiting for it all to be over. She was always like this with Yuuna, hiding and unwilling to show her emotions.
Furiously, he got up from her desk and came to her, knocking a few picture frames off her desk as he did so. Cagalli couldn't help but think the he looked like an angry ape at that moment.
"How could you let this happen?" he demanded, grabbing a hold of her shoulders and shaking them violently. "Why did you let him get away?" he demanded, as if Lionel were his hostage. Letting out his signature frustrated-girly-scream, he pushed Cagalli away and left the office. "I'm going to file a missing person's report!" he huffed.
His wife paid no attention. She and Kira had already made certain that Yuuna would be unable to do so. Sure it was hard, but deep down Cagalli knew Lionel had to do this. She was a mother after all.
I know it's short, review please!