Ok, here it is, chapter 5!!!! Sorry for the delay (again), but this one's a bit longer than the others, enjoy!

Words in Italics are flashbacks unless it's noted otherwise.

"…And so then she gets mad and calls him a jackass. Now, your uncle had no idea what to do, so he just stutters. Meanwhile, me and Aisha are laughing our heads off…"

Lionel laughed along with the ex-Desert Tiger as he listened to old stories of his mother during the first war. He had heard the story of the dress many times before, but from his mother's point of view. The way Andy told it transformed the tale into something completely different.

"Your mom sure was a firecracker back then," he mused out load, "I'm surprised you didn't inherit her temper," he paused as a wicked grin worked it's way onto his face, "I'm kind of relieved too."

The blonde boy laughed heartily with the man. He had spent the night at the older man's flat after he had forced him out of Vagabond's Den. The older man had been very good to him; letting the teenager take over his bed and making him breakfast. When Lionel explained to him what he was doing on the streets, Andy didn't pry for details like he had expected him too. Instead he just shook his head and mumbled

something along the lines of: "It's about time…"

Cagalli hated the sound of her phone's ring tone. Mainly because it wasn't a ring tone, but the high-pitched voice of her gossipy secretary, Linda (or was it Laura?) telling her that so and so was on the phone, and that she should say this or that. As if that little brat knew anything about politics! So she was pleasantly surprised that Saturday mourning when all Linda-or-Laura had to say was: "Representative, call for you."

The blonde woman picked it up without response, concentrating all her efforts on blocking the overly curious secretary out of her conversation.

"Representative Attha, what do you want?" she snapped into the receiver. She turned her eyes to look at the phone screen to see Andrew Waltfeld staring back at her.

"You're in a foal mood, Princess," he told her, tauntingly, "what's eating you?" He had a wry grin on his face and was making no effort to hide it. Heck, Cagalli was certain she'd be able to hear that grin even without looking at the screen.

"What do you want?" she barked again, she really wasn't in the mood for this. Andrew, on the other hand (line) seemed to be having the time of his life.

"Chill, Princess, chill," he said, acting like an arrogant teenager. "So, how's your husband?" Cagalli didn't respond, she never said anything when people asked her about her husband, unless it was the press of course. "Not answering?" continued the ex-Desert Tiger, clearly amused, "well, whatever, how's your son? Lioney, was it?"

"His name is Lionel!" cried Cagalli into the receiver; she hated it when people messed around with names, especially Lionel's.

The older man laughed.

"Ok, ok, Lionel," he said, waving his arms around melodramatically, "so how's Lionel?"

Cagalli stopped breathing for a second.

"Missing, perhaps?" inquired Andy, in his usual, unbelievably aggravating way that let you know that he already knew the answer to the question he was asking. Normally, if the blonde woman wasn't in over-protective parent mode, she would have denied everything, just for the sake of pride. But it just happened that Cagalli was in over-protective parent mode, so instead of making a scene, she just nodded.

"How did you know?" she asked in complete wonder. "Did Kira tell you?"

The older man shook his head playfully confusing Cagalli like Hell.

"I know cause he's with me."

Cagalli was shocked beyond words.

"What kind of a sick joke is this, Waltfeld?" she snapped once she had (somewhat) regained her composure.

The older man laughed, making Cagalli's temper rise to new levels, which only made him laugh more. One had to wonder if the man got kicks out of watching the Orb representative's face turn fire engine red…

"It's not a joke," he but in, "I wouldn't kid about these sort of things, you should know that by now, princess." Well, fine, there actually was no need to wonder if the notorious Andrew Waltfeld enjoyed this. The blatant truth was that he did. "I mean, is this the face of someone who lie to you…"

"-It's ok, Waltfeld, I believe you!" puffed Cagalli into the phone, caving in. There were some matters where stubbornness could only make thing worse. "So, Lionel's really with you?" she asked, quietly and slowly, not wanting her newfound hope to be dashed.

The older man nodded.

"Kid's in the next room, eavesdropping," he informed with a smile. Cagalli was almost certain that she could hear her son cursing in the background. "You wanna talk to him?"

"Please," said Cagalli anxiously. Andrew asked her to wait a minute. (What's in Italics is what's happening on the other line when Andy isn't speaking directly into the phone.)

"Kid!" he called, "your Mom wants to talk to you! Do you…?"

"No!" spat Lionel, "Not now, not yet…"

"He doesn't want to," said the older man after a pause, "sorry," he added sincerely.

"No, it's ok," replied the boy's mother, disappointed. She bit her lip and lowered her eyes, trying her best not to cry. Lionel was safe; that was the important thing. Or at least, that was what Cagalli kept telling herself. It would have been nice though, if he had picked up the phone and talked to her.

Andy hated seeing the girl he used to patronize so much like this. When Cagalli was angry, she was in her essence and no real harm could come from it, save for a few black eyes. But when the younger woman was sad and teary-eyed like this well, for lack of a better term, Andrew found her pathetic. He made a mental note to himself; he'd have to tell Lionel about this.

"So, Princess," he began again, his tone not quite so cocky, "there's another reason I called you up this fine Saturday afternoon." Cagalli groaned. She gave him the get-on-with-it look, and he did just that. "Your son's not that good at keeping secrets," he said, sounding all-business, "he told me about what happened between you two."

Cagalli's eyes flashed.

"Can't say that I'm surprised though," he added, leaving Cagalli to wonder what he was surprised about. "Anyways, the kid wants to get to know his old man, by any means possible, or at least that's what I deduced, so I thought why not let him meet the guy you, well you know, made that kid with." The blonde woman rolled her eyes in spite of everything. "So, yeah, I was thinking I could show him what his dad used to that made you so…giddy, shall we say," Cagalli gave him an odd look, what exactly was he going on about? "You know," continued the Ex-Desert Tiger, "piloting mobile suits…"

The Orb representative's reaction was immediate.

"NO!" she barked, "no! No! No! I will not have my son in a killing machine, do you hear me?" Cagalli was wearing her politician face; the one she used when she was in meetings concerning life or death matters.

Fortunately for him, Andy had accompanied Lacus Clyne to quite a few political events back in the day, and knew better than to let the princess's scary face make him back away.

"I don't see what's your problem with this, Cagalli. You piloted one, no two, of those killing machines yourself, did you not?" He asked her this in complete seriousness, not willing to let her get away with denying something like this.

"I did, but that happened in times of war!" she exclaimed, "the world has been at peace for close to 20 years now! There's no need for Lionel to know how to pilot one of those these days!"

"Maybe not these days, but what about when you and your brother are old and decrepit and completely unable to pilot your suits and some new and improved Blue Cosmos group attacks Orb? (Because we all know that's when they're gonna come), who's going to be your war hero then? Certainly not that husband of yours..."

Cagalli glared at the speaker.

"NO!" she boomed.

Andy sighed. It was time to take out the big guns. The man wasn't particularly fond of any kind of big guns, but when it was time to use them, it was time to use them.

"You don't want me telling him too much about his real Dad, do you Princess?" he asked, his voice becoming low and snakelike. "You'd much rather he knows nothing about Zala, wouldn't you."

The blonde woman gulped; he was right. If she could have it her way, Lionel would not know anything of his real father.

"What are you trying to say?" she asked in a tone that matched his. Andy sighed.

"I hate to do this to ya, Princess, but we're going to have to strike a bargain. You let me and the kid fool around with some mobile suits and I won't say another word about his father." Andrew watched Cagalli as she thought about his proposition. She was carefully weighing her options –something he had taught her to do. "So," he asked, "deal?"

Cagalli hesitated.

"Deal," she said.

Kira seemed relieved. No, not relieved. Kira seemed to be much more than relieved, but at the moment Meyrin couldn't think of a better word, so she just left it at that.

Cagalli had called a few minutes ago, and from the look on Kira's face, the red head had guessed that they had found Lionel, or at least some sort of sign to show that he was safe and sound. He and his sister were still chatting to each other, but Meyrin wasn't listening. It was rude to eavesdrop.

Instead, she was fiddling around with the GPS system on her cell phone (it's CE what? I'm pretty sure they have those), trying to figure out where they were. The two of them had searched all over the place for the missing blonde boy after being told to get off that bus. After a while they had come to the conclusion that Lionel wasn't in the factory district and that was about when Cagalli called. Meyrin's portable phone beeped, telling her that they were on the corner of Scray Street and Woodward Avenue. It also told that there were two busses nearby; the route 43 and the route 198 busses were both a block or so away.

"The 198 would take us right downtown," said Kira suddenly, looking over her shoulder. Meyrin couldn't help but notice how close he was to her. She could almost feel his rough front against her delicate back.

"Uh, yeah," she said, blushing. "Are you going to take it?" They had both stopped calling each other by their names a while ago. Mr. Kira and Miss Meyrin just didn't feel right but dropping the formalities was something the two of them were just not ready for yet.

Kira nodded, "I'll assume you're taking the 43 back home, right?"

"Don't assume," said Meyrin, "all you'll end up doing is making an ass out of you and me." For some weird reason, she was feeling a lot bolder than usual, and, dare she say it, a lot more flirtatious too. Kira gave her a questioning look, making her blush and turn back into her normal not-at-all-bold-or-flirtatious self. "Sorry, forget I ever said that," she said quickly, "and, yes, I am taking the 43." Meyrin sighed. Why did she still end up sounding like an overly hormonal teenager when she was perfectly capable of acting like an adult?

"Oh, I see," said Kira nodding, "well I guess I'll be off then."

He sounded disappointed. The red head didn't want to be thinking this, but she couldn't help it: for a second there, Kira had really seemed upset.

"Oh, ok, I'd better get going too," she told him, reluctantly.

The two of them just stood there, fidgeting, wanting to leave, but not wanting to.

"Here, take this," said Kira finally, placing a small, rectangular piece of cardboard into the palm of her right hand. "You're a nice person, I don't want to lose track of you again." He was acting like a schoolboy, which made Meyrin feel a bit less embarrassed of her own feelings.

"Right," she responded after a semi-awkward silence. "Me neither," she added. She looked at what Kira had given her and gasped.

"I'll be seeing you then, Miss Meyrin!" said Kira, running off to catch 198 bus. The younger woman waved goodbye and looked back down at what the man had given her.

Kira

(518)-672-6632

Lionel looked up at the golden machine, Akatsuki, one of his mother's prized possessions, and then looked at Andy.

"Are you sure we should be touching this?" he asked skeptically. "Mom's nearly killed a couple of guys who got to close to this thing last year."

The older man chuckled.

"Did she really?" he pondered out load. "Don't worry about it kid," he told Lionel, "if the firecracker explodes, I'll be there to cool it. You just work on functioning that machine." He helped Lionel get into the cockpit and made his way to the control room. "Let's see what you got kid!" he said over the intercom.

Cagalli made an appearance about fifteen minutes after they began, claiming that she was inspecting the facilities. Of course, those who knew her well immediately recognized the lie, but they went along with it, not wanting to get on the bad side of an extremely moody Cagalli Yula Attha. She had hovered outside the control room door before entering, and even once she was in there, she was very uncertain in her movements. However, she regained her strength and confidence the minute she was greeted by the ex-Desert Tiger.

"Hey there, Princess!" he said, "I see you've come to check up on that son of yours!"

"No," she replied coolly, "I just happened to be in the vicinity, that's all," her voice began to waver as she finished her sentence. The man shrugged.

"Well, you might as well come have a looksie at how the kid's doing down there," he told her, pointing to large glass window that separated the control room from the practice room. "He's not amazing, but he's holding up pretty well for a novice. You look tired," he said, "must've been a long night last night."

The blonde woman just nodded and the two of them watched the Akatsuki perform. Andy had been to kind in his critique of Lionel's skills: the boy was a horrible pilot. Cagalli felt selfishly relieved that he didn't have either Kira or Athrun's flare for it. Suddenly, a thought struck her; she looked to the ex-Desert Tiger.

"If…if his father passes by…" she began timidly, "if his father were to, by some unforeseen turn of events, pass by here, don't tell him that's Lionel piloting the Akatsuki, please?"

The older man gave her an odd look.

"I thought his father was in the PLANTS," he said very flatly, not bothering to lower his voice. The blonde woman glared at him viciously.

"You know exactly what I mean," she snapped, "don't play dumb."

"You're the one who's playing dumb," replied Andy, quickly and coolly. It took all those years of princess courses and all the years Cagalli had worked as a politician to stop her from killing him on the spot.

Instead, she took in a deep breath and said: "I really must get going now, perhaps I'll see you later," and stormed out.

"Oh, no you don't," said Andy, catching and cornering the woman in the hallway. "We need to talk."

The Orb representative gave him a questioning look and then glared at him.

"What the fuck do you want?" she demanded.

"Why don't you just tell your kid the goddamn truth already?" the man shot back. "He deserves to know!" During the time he had spent with Lionel, Andy had grown fond of the kid, and with each passing minute, he found it harder and harder to hide the truth from him. It didn't help that honesty was one of the values he held highest.

"It's for the better!" snapped Cagalli. She couldn't help notice how old that line was stating to become. "You talk about the truth as if it alone could solve all problems! But that's not how it works and you know it! The truth hurts! Heck, it can even kill! Do you think I like waking up next to that man every mourning? Do you think I'm happy with how my life turned out just because it's the truth?"

The drive to Morgenroete had been a nice one. Andy and Lionel had listened to rock music (Lionel's favorite) while the ex-ZAFT soldier told him more tales of his mother and uncle's exploits. The blonde boy was still laughing about the last one when the older man's tone changed.

"Kid," he said, "you realize your mom's gonna be there, right?" Lionel nodded dumbly. Truth be told, he hadn't. "It'd be nice if you go and talk to her –at least say hi."

"Uh…okay," he said after a moment of hesitation. Not all sure weather he actually would talk to his mother or not.

He and Andy were riding back to the older man's place in the guy's vintage automobile, as he called it, or, as Lionel thought of it, just anther old car. Unlike earlier, when the machine had been filled with noise, the car was silent. Both men were in quiet, pensive states.

It turned out that Lionel didn't talk to his mom. She had only been there for a minute or so and he really didn't want to talk to her anyways. His mind was fucked up enough as it was; he didn't want her to do anymore damage.

Andy, on the other hand, was thinking of his confrontation with Cagalli and how it had gone down. He hadn't only done it for Lionel; he had done it for Athrun too. Out of those four (Kira, Lacus, Cagalli, Athrun), the blue haired coordinator was the one he knew least, but he still cared for him like he did the others. The old man sighed; he had really underestimated that girl and her feelings.

It was Monday. Lionel and Andy had spent all of Sunday getting the blonde boy ready for school. Neither of them had really mentioned Saturday. The retired soldier had offered the younger man a ride to school, which he had readily accepted, not too sure how to get there from where he was.

Now they were at the front gate and Andy was mumbling something about how he wouldn't be coming to him pick up that afternoon. Lionel was a bit surprised, but not really. Adults could be cool when they wanted to be, but after a while they'd start acting responsible again.

He was leaving the car when his manners caught up with him.

"Uh, thanks for everything, Saturday was really great," he began, embarrassed, "oh, and you're not 'the-guy-who-forced-me-into-a-dress'," he added, "you're the-stupid-goof-who-puts-yogurt-sauce-on-his-kabobs."

Andy laughed heartily.

Not all was lost.

I've already got tons of ideas for the next chapter! Review!