Respect between Enemies – The BetanWerecat
Gundam Seed: "Descending Sword" and after. OCs with appearances by canon characters. The actions of Kira, Athrun, and the others have far reaching effects. Rated T for language and off screen activity. (Reviews are welcomed but not required. This is written only for my own enjoyment. Flaming me will still get you ignored.)
No, I am not dead. Yes I do intend to finish the story. It is not my fault that Kayla and Adrian decided to take off on the honeymoon without inviting the author along. Took them forever to come back too. In the mean time, I have been working on something else that would at least TALK to me. So, since my attention is now divided, updates may not be quick but they should happen at something considerably less than about six month intervals.
This covers the wedding and the departure from the Double Hawk Ranch.
The other story, a SEED/WING crossover, will not see any publication until it is AT LEAST two thirds completed. I'm not putting readers or myself through this again!
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed.
"Voril, why did you bring those? They're only going to be ruined." Yuri asked quietly as the four of them sat in the back of the badly sprung truck that was speeding them as quickly as the deteriorating road allowed towards someplace called Ely.
He just turned the carefully wrapped flowers in his hands. "I don't know. It just seemed to be important to keep them."
"Don't harass him, Yuri." Kayla smiled as she snuggled against Adrian, who in his turn was propped up against several grain sacks. "It was sweet. And I think his bringing them along is sweet too."
Adrian leaned forward and kissed her cheek. That was all it took, they were completely wrapped up in each other. Yuri just grinned at him and all Voril could do was smile back. They'd been like this since the end of the wedding dance. If it wasn't so perfect, it would be giving him a sugar high just watching them.
As it was, it made a good distraction from the physical discomforts of their immediate situation. The truck they were hiding in was an elderly vehicle to start with. The bad springs and worse roads helped nothing. But they were loaded in the back with the grain bags for seats and those were proving to be harder and a lot colder than he'd anticipated.
The trip was supposed to take six hours. They'd only been on the road an hour so far. The next five were looking more and more dismal by the second.
He decided he'd rather think about happier things than how cold his hands were getting. There was nothing they could do about the temperature other than survive it. They were properly bundled up and well wrapped but the truth was they were starting to climb into the mountains. The chill of the plains where the Grayhawk ranch sat was nothing like the ice of the high country. All the extra covers had gone to Kayla even though she had Adrian sharing warmth with her. In a choice between a pregnant Natural girl and a Coordinator boy who was nothing more than acutely uncomfortable, it was fairly obvious who the blanket was going to and neither of them begrudged them to her.
He tucked the bundle of flowers inside his jacket and huddled against Yuri. There was no point in being any colder than one had to after all. Lubbek had no objections to sharing warmth either. He couldn't be any more comfortable than Voril truth be told.
"Sweet, eh?" Yuri laughed softly.
"I do not understand how girls think." Voril grumbled. "It isn't like I was trying or anything. They came straight at me! What was I supposed to do, duck?"
"I don't know. This is the first Natural wedding I've ever been to. I've no idea what half those rituals were for. And since they were from at least two different religions, I doubt anyone who wasn't a Grayhawk did understand it all."
"It was quite the show though, you have to grant that."
"Oh, yeah, it sure was!" Yuri nodded. "Did you know they plan to ship all that stuff up to us later? That those were gifts?"
Voril stared at him. "You have to be joking! That was a small fortune they piled on us!"
"Not a joke. Charlie himself told me so." Yuri told him solemnly.
Voril sat back in shock. Gifts? He couldn't believe it. Not that much! One of the pieces maybe but all of it? He teased the instant picture of the wedding party out of his pocket and stared at it. Just how much had they given them?
"Nothing you do not deserve." Kit Fox announced.
Voril's eyes snapped up to find the Spirit coiled comfortable on a particularly large sack.
There was a happy, fox grin on the other's face. "Think about the wedding. You will be happier and warmer for remembering a good thing."
He smiled like an idiot. Oh, yeah, the wedding had been a very good thing. His hand drifted to touch the flowers again. They'd come from there. He let his mind flow back only a few short hours.
Voril stood where he'd been more or less planted by a striking, silver haired, bronze eyed old man introduced as Maria Spotted Horse's older brother Matthew. Somewhat trained by now, the Coordinator had this one pegged as yet another shaman in seconds. And given how friendly he and that scary old Yellow Dog were, not one you should be taking stupid chances with either.
He'd been grabbed twenty minutes earlier and hauled into a side room where his uniform had been brushed down until there wasn't a hint of crease or lint on it. Then old Charlie had come in and plopped a box down, telling this Matt Spotted Horse the contents were his to wear. Out of that box had come an amazing set of inlaid silverwork. His attempts at protest had fallen on deaf ears.
So he'd ended up wearing a necklace made of a double row of running foxes all put together from small pieces of onyx, mother of pearl, turquoise and coral and set in heavy silver. It supported a fox mask almost the size of his fist done in the same style as a centerpiece. There was a wide leather belt around his waist and hanging down the front of his tunic, heavily carved, that supported ten oval conchos with more of the inlaid foxes bounding along against vivid mountain backdrops. A pair of matching bracelets with fox masks that were almost identical to the front piece of the necklace rode over the cuffs of his uniform jacket and a fox head ring with turquoise eyes was set on his right hand. And a very oddly beautiful piece that seemed to be made of miniature fur tails hanging from bead strings was braided into his hair.
He'd been allowed to see the finished work and he'd just stood almost stunned in front of the mirror. Not only did the jewelry actually go with the uniform in an amazing way, the whole had somehow given him an appearance of dignity and maturity he knew he didn't actually have yet. It was almost as though he was getting a glimpse of his own future. Kit Fox assured him it was his present he saw but this time he couldn't believe the Spirit at all.
Yuri'd stood beside him, decked out in similar regalia but his were all white birds, the inlay either mother of pearl or white opal. Other than the fire in the opal, there was no other color of any kind but silver and white in his set. Laid over the dark gray of a ZAFT aide's uniform, it glittered like frost. The white feathers on their bead strings now braided into his dark hair only emphasized an odd sense of experience and deep wisdom the jewelry seemed to bring out in his friend.
The Bronze Spider stood opposite him. She was in full dress uniform herself, the three neat rows of ribbons intimidating to anyone who could read them and understand just what kind of genuine war hero they were looking at. She obviously hadn't bothered with any of the minor stuff. And she too, wore stunningly beautiful antique jewelry over her uniform. It had the same effect on hers it seemed to have on his uniform and Yuri's. You saw past the surface now to the steel below, and to the innate keen judgment too. This was an officer any soldier would be lucky to have for a commander.
Alys was Second for the Spider. She was dressed in a brightly colored skirt and blouse heavily embroidered and beaded with equally heavily decorated leather shoes on her feet. Her usually wildly free hair was firmly secured in two heavy braids that had bright beaded clasps on the ends. Those had enough long bead fringes that you just knew she was going to be hours getting it untangled from her hair. Her jewelry didn't look as old but the effect was somehow similar. You saw the bright fire of the girl and the strong woman she was rapidly becoming. He also had an odd impression of a very upright, solid, sand colored cat with spotted fur sitting beside her, one with very large ears with long, dark tufts on the ends. It blinked at him and faded from view.
As Doug and Richard Grayhawk put the last of the fur rugs on the chairs, the guests began to come in. The outfit Alys was wearing had been a warning he realized as her mother turned up in a very similar skirt and blouse. Janet Grayhawk's jewelry was even more impressive than what the Spider was wearing. Howard was no where to be seen at the moment but there was a chair reserved for him beside his wife. The military portion of the family was mostly in full dress uniform, without the elaborate jewelry for those not part of the ceremony.
Todd however was dressed up almost like his twin. He wore dark pants with heavy embroidery at the hem and running almost to the knee on the outside seam under an even more spectacularly embroidered shirt. He too sported a necklace, belt, bracelets and even a long beaded string with a gold coin on the end in his hair. From the look his mother gave him, that last wasn't supposed to be part of the outfit.
The rest of the family, a couple neighbors and a very few others Howard and Janet felt trustworthy were just as done up. The light reflecting off all the polished silver was actually getting a bit hard on the eyes by the time Matt Spotted Horse led the last guest in. The tiny, ancient woman was a figure out of another century. Her outfit looked to be made completely of very soft white leather and was decorated to the point where Voril wondered how she could stand up under the weight of all those beads. A pair of what looked like small tails framed her face, white like her hair, as was the perfectly plain headband that held it out of her eyes. She walked with the aid of a single plain white stick; her steps slow but stately as she moved to a seat in front in that would normally be reserved for the groom's mother. Matthew Spotted Horse took the seat the groom's father would have had if he'd been present.
He heard a soft hiss come from his right. Without turning his head, he let his eyes look toward the Reverend Jerome. The man was standing stiff as a stuffed doll, his false smile looking even more plastered on than it had been earlier. Whoever she was, he sure wasn't happy to see her.
Voril found himself wondering if the minister had brought his brightly decorated vestments intending to stand out at this wedding or to just hold his own in the crowd. He pretty clearly had known what to expect from the family as far as full dress went but he'd just as clearly been rather shocked when he'd seen the two ZAFT pilots in not only their own uniforms but overlaid with the amazing jewelry as well. Nor had he missed how little the man had approved of what he was seeing either. It was probably a good thing that Janet and Howard intended to hold him at the ranch a couple of days. This guy struck him as the kind who'd go straight to Blue Cosmos if he thought he could get away with it.
Reverend Jerome's eyes suddenly widened and his face went perfectly blank. At the same moment he heard a tiny grunt of surprise from Yuri. As his eyes swept around, he noted a look of startled approval on General Grayhawk's face. Then he was looking back toward the open arch that led into the living room.
Adrian Ito stood just inside that arch. If he'd thought the jewelry had made a difference in how he or Yuri looked, that paled next to what the combination of ZAFT red and the arts of the silversmith had done for his Captain. He was still clearly quite young yet, but it was a man and a leader of his kind who stood there now.
This Adrian understood and knowingly accepted the responsibilities of his leadership. There was courage here but no recklessness. Youthful he might be, but he nevertheless had more than enough experience to make him a canny judge of a battlefield. There would be no lives wasted by this commander. He was a protector, a defender, not an aggressor. He understood he had more, much more to learn. But he knew enough to make the hard decisions and was strong enough to live with whatever came of them. For the first time, Voril really understood why old Charlie called Adrian "Eagle's Heart".
The Captain bowed slightly to his soon-to-be father-in-law and walked quietly up to join them. He saluted the Spider, who returned it briskly, a very small smile on her face. He offered Alys a formal bow, and she rather surprised Voril by knowing the correct way to return that bow using the etiquette of the Plants. Adrian followed that by startling everyone in the room when he offered a slow, ceremonial bow to the Reverend Jerome as well. The man did not respond but then, no one expected such courtesy from him. And in honesty, that gesture hadn't actually been made to the man after all. It had been an acknowledgement of his office and the God he represented, however poorly one might think he did so.
Someone struck a drum softly. It was a big one, with a deep tone that vibrated into the core of your bones even as lightly as it sounded now. All of them turned toward it. Voril never saw it. His jaw tried to fall off as he stared at the bride who was standing in the archway beside her father. He didn't really notice Howard Grayhawk's full dress rig-out until after the wedding was over. His attention was far too arrested by Kayla.
He'd never seen this kind of full dress Alliance uniform before, he had no idea they came like this. But the incandescent colors brought out the intensity of the green of her eyes and made her jet hair shimmer. The jewelry was as good a compliment to her uniform as Adrian's was to his. None of which he honestly saw for the entire ceremony.
It was the person he stared at. He recognized her. This was the one the name Soaring Hawk Woman belonged to. Three words jumped into his mind; courage, honor, and integrity. There were others in there too, but those three dominated the figure he could not take his eyes off of. When this one gave her heart, it would be for all time. And she had.
Then Adrian moved. His left hand rose, held out to her. She crossed the floor with a grace the watching Coordinator had never associated with any Natural before to take that hand in her right.
Then they were together. As they were always going to be from now on. He didn't think even death would part them now. They turned to the angry minister before them, and made him look so small and insignificant next to the pair of them.
Voril didn't really remember the actual wedding. He was somehow lost in the beat of the drum and the overwhelming aura of the guests most of the others couldn't see. They came in many shapes and had a disconcerting tendency to change them while he was watching. It was the four who didn't change though that rocked him to the core of his being.
They were so clearly Grayhawks, no one could miss the family's looks. They all wore Alliance uniforms. The eldest was a navel Commander with the tabs of a mobile armor pilot on his collar. A Lt. Commander, also a mobile armor pilot, stood beside him. A pair of Lieutenants flanked them. The other man wore the engineer's cogwheel and compass on his collar while the woman had a pin he didn't recognize. But Voril Joule knew who they had to be.
If anyone had asked him beforehand, he would have told them he would expect the lost Grayhawk siblings to reject even the suggestion of their sister and a ZAFT soldier getting married. But it wasn't rejection he was seeing. They were wary but they did not hate. They just observed in silence. Then, between one blink and the next, they were gone.
That was when Voril realized the wedding itself was over. He found himself standing at Yuri's side, watching as the now lawfully married pair stepped back from the rest of the wedding party as Howard began to introduce Adrian to the very ancient lady in the white leather and beadwork dress. He missed her name, he was too busy watching the impossibly huge wolf that seemed to be with her as it stalked around Ito, sniffing carefully. He was relieved, almost enough to have his knees give out on him, when the wolf settled beside the old lady and gave Ito a very amused canine grin that his Captain didn't see at all.
That was the end of his coherent memories of the day. There was an amazing feast in the dining room, he did remember that although he could never say who he sat with or what was said. There was some kind of ceremony afterwards with the ancient lady who he finally learned was Howard Grayhawk's grandmother and some hundred and twelve years old. And when they all gathered at the foot of the stairs as Kayla and Adrian retreated out of sight, he was the silly fool who had her bouquet land in his hands.
The look he got from Alys when he caught the flowers just about scared him witless. Nor did he understand it. He didn't understand why everyone snickered when he hastily offered them to her either. It was quite clear to him that she'd been intending to catch them herself. And he really didn't want to keep them if she was going to be giving him such completely incomprehensible glares for it. Having her turn red and run away just left him utterly flummoxed. He was never going to understand women.
He sighed quietly, realizing Yuri had managed to drop off to sleep while he'd been wandering through recent memory. His friend's weight had settled against his left side, not uncomfortably so but it was going to restrict movement. However, they would be unlucky indeed if they needed to move for a good while yet.
Voril did slid his free hand out of the blankets to tug both his duffel and Yuri's tighter against their feet. The bags were also gifts, sturdy woven wool saddle blanket style work that had been made into a piece of luggage instead of gracing the back of a horse. They were filled with more gifts since none of the family would let them leave the house with anything that could be traced to the Plants.
Less than half the clothing was actually new but it was all in excellent condition and they'd tried everything on to be sure it all fit. They also had new toiletries, all local Earth brands that wouldn't catch a second look if the bags were searched. It had been the Spider's planning that provided this bounty. It seemed she'd done this for other, much more innocent Coordinators before.
So now they were headed for someplace called Ely in the state of Nevada. It was going to take them a good long while to get there and they'd be changing rides more than once. But the people she'd put them in touch with seemed both confident and very familiar with what they were doing. They assured them it would be possible to catch a flight to Vancouver from Ely. And even in the Plants everyone knew the former Canadian areas were much less hostile to Coordinators than the American ones. He settled back against Yuri's sleeping body and tried to catch some rest himself. They still had a long way to go.
