We Met Two Years Ago

by Ben Firebird

The sequel to the story But We Just Meet, many of the pairings will remain the same, like Lacus/Kira and Cagalli/Athrun, but there will of course also be a few new once. This goes on in the Second Bloody Valentine War with quite a few change, like Shinn's sister Mayu still being alive.

98. Chapter 98

Hey guys and girls, I hope you are all doing well. Here is a bit of information before you start reading this chapter. Since I have no characters out in space that can participate in the Battle of Requiem Station Gounod, I will be skipping that battle; instead, this chapter will be going on in the immediate aftermath of that tragedy. I hope you enjoy it.

Chapter 98

Past 3 a.m. in the middle of the night was rarely a time when one would find Dearka Elsman, the Yami pilot, awake; he usually preferred being in his bed at this hour, peacefully sleeping the night away beside Miriallia the precious woman he loved more than anybody else. Then wake up early the next morning. Ok, admittedly, Dearka had always, much to his annoyance, been the type of person who woke around 7 a.m., even on his days off. So if it was actually possible, he would try to go back to sleep again, which, much to his deep dislike, was something he was rarely able to do.

Yet as the sorrowful young man once again watched the Space Colonies Januarius one through four get hit by the Earth Alliance's Requiem super laser, then disastrously crash over into the colonies December seven and eight, killing millions of innocent people in the process, Dearka, of course, realized that sleep was not something he was going to get much of this dark, gloomy night. Reaching up, he rubbed his face a bit, then pushed himself up and crawled somewhat awkwardly out of the Yami gundam's cockpit, ignoring the cracking sounds his body made from sitting in the same position for so long. He wasn't at all certain, but he was relatively sure that he had been cooped up inside his mobile suit for over three hours now.

Actually, the only reason why Dearka was even willing to leave his little hiding spot was because he felt the dire need to pee. Once he got down on the ground, he saw that he was not the only person awake at this late hour; the ship's youngish mechanic, Justin, was presently working hard on top of the Skygrasper of all things.

"You're doing okay there, Justin?" Dearka asked, while approaching the young red-haired boy. Immediately upon seeing Justin look up from his work, it was not hard to tell that he had been crying not that long ago.

"No, nooo I am not ok, Dearka! I don't get it! How the hell could they do something so terrible?! Have they no idea how many people they killed with that disgusting weapon!? How could they even build something like that!?" Justin shouted at the top of his lungs, then hurled his wrench full force down into the floor, a bit annoyed by the fact that, that had not been enough to break damn thing.

Kneeling slowly down, Dearka picked up the old wrench. "I-I don't know Justin; I really don't... Bu-but I think you should go get some sleep before you accidentally injure yourself. You are quite obviously in no condition to be working on anything right now".

Standing up straight on the old aerial support fighter, Justin glared sorely down at the Yami pilot. "I tried that, Dearka Elsman! I tried that for such a long time, but I just end up laying there, twisting and turning for hours on end. I really had hoped that seeing the images of Junius Seven being destroyed, by that nuclear missile, was the worsted thing I was going to see in my life. It did not help that my cousin was on board that colony for a scholarship, and she was a Natural, but that's not something morons like Azrael or Djibril cares about when they do such awful things! It's crap like this; that's the reason why I do not give a rat's ass about the whole Natural and Coordinator bullshit; each and every one of us, are just stupid human beings!" The young mechanic cried out, tears steaming down his face, as the images of his sweet dead cousin's flashed through his mind.

Honestly quite taken aback by those grief-stricken words, Dearka had no idea that Justin had lost somebody on Junius Seven, but he guessed it sort of made sense in a strange way: if this cousin of his was an Orb citizen, and she had gone to Junius Seven to try to learn something, she had of course been killed along with all those other innocent people there. Like Athrun's mother, that was the thing about terrorists: they did not care one bit about how many people they murdered, as long as they furthered their own crazy goals.

"Yeah, I see your point, Justin. It's so-so damn hard to see us humans as intelligent creatures when we do such crap to each other. But the way I see it, buddy, is that all of us here on board the Archangel and the Eternal, for that matter, are all working so hard on making this world a better place for us all, and you cannot do that, Justin, if you suddenly collapse from exhaustion on top of the Skygrasper and fall down and break your arm or leg in the process, so go lie down already, and if you are still having trouble sleeping, then go ask doctor Sara to give you a couple of sleeping pills, this one time. That's an order!" Dearka told the young mechanic, frankly hating having to pull rank at a time like this, but he really did feel like he had no other choice.

Glaring angrily down at him, Justin begrudgingly crawled down from the aerial support fighter, mumbling and cursing the whole time. Once down on the floor, the red-haired boy stood there, wobbling a bit back and forth a few times, clearly struggling to regain his balance in his sleep-deprived state of mind. Finally, once he succeeded in doing that, he glared at Dearka for a few seconds, then swirled around and wobbled towards the exit of the hangar, still swearing angrily under his breath the entire time.

Once the young mechanic was out of sight, Dearka let out a long exhaust sigh. As he glanced back at the Yami, he was sort of tempted to crawl back in there and hide away from the world.

"Oh, damn it all, I should take my own advice and get some sleep. But I don't think I can," Dearka said mostly to himself as he looked away from his powered-down gundam, spotting Kojiro Murdoch sitting and sleeping awkwardly on a metal crate not that far from him. Stepping over to the chief engineer, Dearka saw an ashtray filled to the brim with the remains of three cigars standing beside him, which made abundantly clear that the man had been smoking quite heavily not that long ago.

Knowing from prior experience, that Murdoch would commonly only smoke one of his cigars when he was in a good mood and felt the need to celebrate in some way, but noticing the pained, sorrowful expression on the large man's face even as he slept, Dearka realized that he was just as troubled by the destruction of those Space Colonies, and the deaths of so many innocent people, as the rest of them.

Yet, what most of all caught the Yami pilot's attention, was the half-empty bottle of whiskey laying beside the crate. Kneeling down, Dearka picked up the glass object, staring intensely at the thick, sturdy bottle for a few long seconds, or, to be more specific, at the brown liquor inside of it. Then, finally, with a small curse, Dearka tore off the bottle cap and took a long sip of the liquid inside of it, flinching vigorously at the alcohol flavor.

"Yuck, that tastes like shit! How can he even drink that?" Dearka asked no one specifically, as he took another mouthful of the strong liquor, feeling quite certain, that he would never reach a point where he would actually enjoy this bitter flavor, but he just didn't know what to do right now. So after simply standing there a bit longer, he mumbled a barely coherent good night to the sleeping, snoring Murdoch. Then, with bottle in hand, he turned around and left the hangar.

Having just finished his errand inside the bathroom, Dearka approached the sink, turning on the tiny faucet with the back of his hand, then poured a bit of soap into his hands and started thoroughly washing them, while staring almost trance-like into the mirror, noticing how red and puffy his eyes look. He just looked like such a mess.

"Wow, I look totally adorable right now. I'm sure that if Miriallia saw me like this, she would be all over me," he mumbled sarcastically under his breath, before splashing two handfuls of water up into his face. It helped a bit on the profound exhaustion he felt, but not a lot. Turning off the cold water, Dearka simply stood there for about a minute, staring at his drowsy face, then, with a long-drawn-out sigh, he turned around and left the small bathroom again, picking up his 'borrowed ill-gotten' bottle of whiskey along the way.

Yet as Dearka stood there out in the hallway, he was a bit uncertain about what he was supposed to do now. He considered for a moment heading back to the lonely, quiet hangar and the safety of the Yami's cockpit, but in the end, the thought of hiding away in there the entire night was one he quickly shook away. He needed to do something—something that could distract his mind from the images of those Colonies getting destroyed. If anything, he could always head on down to the mess hall to try to find something sweet to eat, like ice cream, or maybe, if he was lucky, there was still some of that chocolate cake left the chefs had made not too long ago that had been pretty tasty. With that thought in mind, the Yami pilot took another sip of the whiskey, flinching strongly at the bitter taste of the booze. It did not taste any better now than the first three times he had tried it. Truth be told, a part of him was actually sort of tempted to empty the rest of the bottle into the bathroom sink.

However, before Dearka could really make up his mind about what to do with the whiskey, he realized that even in his slow pace, he was already a bit away from the bathroom, and he really didn't feel like turning around and heading back there, so he simply kept on wobbling towards the mess hall, which at this moment seemed miles away.

Finally arriving at his destination, Dearka practically stumbled into the mostly empty mess hall, immediately spotting Murrue and Mu sitting at a table, playing a game of checkers, or, to be more exact, the two seemed to be mostly just absentmindedly staring at the red and white board between them, while occasionally making a move, but it was so obvious to anyone who really knew them, that this was just a somewhat desperate attempt to distract their horrified minds from horrors they had witnessed just four short hours ago.

"Hel-hello you two; heh, guess I'm not the only one up and about," Dearka called out to them as he moved a bit further into the quiet room.

Turning around in her seat, Murrue was just about to greet him. When she took in the sight of him, he frankly looked like someone who had been in a bar fight or been run over by a large truck and was now in the process of healing again, yet what mostly stood out to Murrue about his current appearance was the bottle of whiskey in his left hand. Having known and lived together with Dearka Elsman for over two years now, Murrue knew that while he occasionally liked to drink a cold beer or two, when Andrew and he were watching some sort of sporting event on TV like Formel 1 racing or American football, he never touched the heavy stuff, since he could not hold his liquor all that well.

Standing up from her seat, Murrue moved towards him, sincerely worried about his well-being. "Dearka, what's wrong?" She gently asked him. Reaching out, she pulled the whiskey bottle out of his hands, which he let her do without much resistance. Quickly placing the bottle on a nearby table, Murrue again looked back at him, seeing the intense sorrow in his purple eyes.

Even in his grief-stricken, half-broken state, Dearka, of course, realized that she was about to ask what was wrong again. Slowly shaking his head back and further a couple of times, he got ready to tell her that nothing was wrong, that he was all right, and that she should not worry about him so much, but before he could do any of that, he saw the look in Murrue's brown eyes harden considerably, which for an instant, made him feel like a small, ill-behaved child who had been caught lying to his parents.

"Dearka, tell me what's going on. There is no need to bottle it all up. We are family here, and we are supposed to help each other during difficult times," she told him in an almost motherly tone of voice.

Those kind words, combined with the caring look in Murrue's eyes, were the straw that finally broke the camel's back. He sobbed loudly as a huge amount of tears started steaming rapidly down his face, and with Murrue wrapping her arms around him to try to console him, Dearka pressed his face into her shoulder, crying loudly and painfully.

"Yo-you know... th-that colony December eight... my-my old man had moved there, af-after being arrested and forced to step down from his-his position on the Supreme Council after the last war... I took a look at the casualties report not that long ago... He is gone, Murrue, the dumb idiot is dead... God...! I hate that guy s-so much...! He always criticized every damn thing I did, from my grades in school, to me joining the up with the ZAFT military, so why the hell am-am I so sad about that stupid bastard being gone?!" Dearka sobbed, clinging on to Murrue, crying out his immense sorrow from losing his father, his last living relative.

Murrue kept on gently stroking Dearka's back and rubbing his hair as he cried against her shoulder. "I do not know, Dearka, perhaps deep inside there was a small part of you that was hoping that one day you and your father could make amends, that a day would come where the two of you could sit down together and talk, to at least try to repair your father-son relationship. That the two of you could at least have a somewhat friendly relationship together".

Damn it, that made sense. Goddamn it all, why did Murrue's words have to make so much sense to him. "Ah damn it! Damn it all! Damn you, Tad Elsman! Why couldn't you have stayed alive through this crap, so I could have talked with him just one last time... damn you father you-you stupid idiot!".

Bearing witness to his young comrade and friend crying his eyes, heart and soul out from the loss of his old man was truly awful. Mu, genuinely sorry for Dearka, wondering just how many good folks around the world and especially out on the PLANTs were right now grieving from losing their loved ones; it was probably even more than the death toll, which was outright insane when considering that over a million were dead from Djibril firing that crazy new weapon of his at the PLANTs. How was it even possible to build something like that into the moon itself? It had to have taken years to construct.

In all of his time as Neo Roanoke, this Requiem weapon had never been a project he hadn't heard anything about, despite how big this weapon seemed to be, so it had to have been something that had been a top secret in the Alliance military, or maybe just to him, which sort of made sense. Mu, of course, realized that even after getting run through Logos' brainwashing device. That his old memories had a slim chance of returning. Stella had proved that when she remembered Shinn back in Berlin, even in the heat of the battle. And Mu knew that, as Mu La Flaga, he would never have accepted the use of a weapon that destructive; he would have protested its use until he was blue in the face and his voice was gone. Considering that, that was likely the reason why Djibril had never told him anything about this Requiem super weapon. Even after messing up his memories the way he had, that evil son of a bitch still hadn't trusted him.

'Ahh, to hell with you, Djibril, you creepy bastard! If I ever get my hands on you, I'll wring your goddamn neck,' Mu mentally promised the Logos leader, snickering darkly in mild amusement at the thought of the insane amount of people who likely wanted to do that, or something even worse to Djibril, like slowly and painfully breaking every last bone in his body, then kicking his face in to the point where it would be impossible for anyone to even recognize him. Yet just as Mu started wondering what exactly it felt like to be the most wanted criminal in existence, he was pulled out of his dark, gloomy thoughts by another loud, grief-stricken sob from Dearka.

Squeezing his eyes tightly shut for a brief moment before slowly raising his saddening blue gaze, Mu watched Dearka cry long, deeply and painfully into Murrue's shoulder, frowning a bit at the sight. The blond man felt like he should say something, anything, that could help his young friend feel better, but what the heck could he even say? Telling Dearka that Djibril was definitely going to get his comeuppance for his murderous crimes and actions seemed like such a pointless, totally meaningless thing to do; it was not like such words would miraculously make the grieving boy feel any better.

So after considering a half dozen other things he could say that he in the end decided were totally idiotic, Mu slowly reached out, placing a hand on Dearka's shoulder, stroking it tenderly and giving it a light comforting squeeze, which only served to make a couple of long, uncontrollable sobs run through Dearka's broken, sad form, but despite that, Mu did not move the hand; he wanted so desperately to help console his weeping young friend.

Literally, like she was able to sense that exact thought, Murrue turned her gaze towards Mu, looking straight into his blue eyes. "Could you please go wake up, Miriallia? She will be so much better at consoling Dearka and helping him get through this than either one of us could ever be," the always-kind Murrue requested ever so softly, doing a pure job of hiding the fact that she was just about ready to completely break down and start crying too. Seeing one of her precious family members in such a broken, beaten-down state was heartbreaking to her.

If only... IF ONLY, they had been able to stop Djibril when he was still hiding like a pathetic coward here in Orb. If only they had gone through with Kazuma's suggestion to actually assassinate the Logos leader when they had the chance. If only that colossal bastard piloting the Legend gundam had not interfered when Dearka had been about to intercept and take out Djibril's fleeing shuttle; if that fool had not done that, Djibril would be dead and gone now, and so many millions of people would not have lost their lives so needlessly. Frowning a bit at that thought, it was stuff such as that that made it so abundantly clear to Murrue that there was so much more to ZAFT's goal than just hunting down Djibril and putting an end to that man as quickly as possible. Gilbert Durandal had something a lot more twisted up his sleeve. Murrue wondered a bit if Captain Gladys suspected any of that, or if she was just blindly following her lover's orders without questioning them at all. If that truly was the case, it was no big wonder why Talia Gladys, for far from the first time, reminded her so incredibly much of Natarle Badgiruel. Both of those women were stuck, trapped in a dark place where they were forced to do something that they each knew, deep inside, was wrong and horrible, but they just felt like they had no other choice to make.

Of course, knowing that pained Murrue immensely. 'I really do hope we can avoid having to take down the Minerva the same way we took down the Dominion, specifically for Meyrin's sake. While she might not say it out loud, I know for a fact that girl still has some people on board that ship she cares deeply about, especially her older sister. I do not want to be the one responsible for putting her through the same sort of pain that Dearka is experiencing right now,' the Archangel Captain thought bitterly, with a couple of sorrowful tears descending ever so slowly down her cheeks.

The immense pain and sheer amount of anguish Mu noticed plastered on Murrue's face just made him feel so useless; he wanted so badly to reach out and take a hold on her hand, pulling her into a gentle embrace while softly reassuring her over and over again that things were going to be all right and that they were all going to get through this together. But, Mu knew that before he could do anything to help the woman he loved through her sorrow, he had to help out Dearka first. With that realization in mind, he gave the young man's shoulder one last comforting squeeze before he pulled his hand away, then turned around, hastily stepping over to one of the black leather couches down there, where Miriallia was sleeping with Mayu securely wrapped in her gentle arms.

To be completely honest, both girls looked so incredibly adorable and cute sleeping beside one another like this; if it had been under any other circumstances, and he had been a ten-year-old girl, he would probably be squealing with delight at the mere sight of them. Letting out a long breath, Mu honestly felt quite a bit guilty about disturbing the two's well-deserved rest, but it was then that he heard another loud grief-stricken sob from Dearka, it really did seem like he was never going to run out of tears.

So after brushing a bit of long blond hair away from his discouraged blue eyes, Mu reached down, lightly shaking Miriallia's shoulder, being extra careful not to disturb Mayu in the process, the way he figured their little troublemaker, might as well keep on sleeping for as long as she possibly could.

"Heeello, Miriallia, please wake up; someone's here that is in need of your help".

Hearing that kind, familiar voice softly calling out to her, Miriallia ever so slowly opened her heavy eyes, blinking rapidly a few times as she glanced drowsily up at Mu La Flaga.

"Wh...? Mu? Wha... what's going on? Are we under attack?" The sleepy girl tiredly asked, sounding dangerously close to drifting right back to sleep again. She could not even remember the last time she felt this fatigued and worn out.

Immediately realizing that if she got even half the chance, it would not be overly difficult for the completely exhausted Miriallia Haw to fall asleep again, but even upon reaching that realization, Mu was not entirely sure how to best handle this situation. If he were to raise his voice, he would definitely disturb the still sleeping Mayu, but seeing Miriallia ocean blue eyes fall slowly back shut, he again shook the girl's shoulder, as he kept on talking softly to her.

"No, no, we are 'fortunately' not under attack, Mir, which really is a damn shame if you ask me, since I could really use a little something to take my anger and frustration out on, since neither Djibril nor the Chairman is nearby to beat up. No, the reason why I woke you up, Miriallia, is because your boyfriend could use your help and support right now," Mu explained to her, nodding a single time in the direction of Dearka.

Even though she understood the importance of those words, it still took a few long seconds for Miriallia's overall drowsy, confused mind to truly comprehend them, yet once she did, her head immediately rose from the somewhat awkward position it had been resting in the last few hours, her neck feeling slightly sore. Seeing her boyfriend, the dear man she loved standing by the entrance to the mess hall, weeping and crying long and deeply into Murrue's shoulder, the girl instantly felt an intense amount of worry race through her. Miriallia had to hastily remind herself not to rush things because Mayu was still sleeping in her arms, so after making sure that the child was still sound asleep, she took a hold on one of Mayu's arms, gently putting it aside. Then, after a bit of careful maneuvering around on her part, she was finally able to get up from the couch without disturbing her sleeping sister.

Standing there for a few seconds, Miriallia stretched a bit and slowly rolled her head back and forth a few times in a hasty attempt to get rid of some of the soreness. Unfortunately, much to her mild annoyance, she did not have overly much luck with that, so in the end, she decided to just ignore it. She had something more important to take care of right now, so with a quick, grateful nod to Mu for waking her up, she stepped over to Murrue and Dearka.

"Dearka," the worried girlfriend softly called out to him.

Sobbing intensely into Murrue's shoulder one more time, Dearka finally pulled his saddening head away. Turning, he looked straight into Miriallia's worried blue eyes. For no more than a second, he then reached up, using the sleeve of his shirt to wipe away some of the tears on his heartbroken face.

"Miri-Miriallia... I-I..." that was all he managed to get out in his broken-down state.

Moving in, Miriallia wrapped her arms around him, holding him tightly in a deep embrace that was filled with as much comfort and support as she could possibly give him.

"Dearka, what happened?" The girl asked as he cried against her, holding onto her so tightly that it actually hurt a bit. It was like he was afraid that if he were to loosen his grip on her for even an instant, she would vanish right into thin air, never to be seen again.

Squeezing his purple eyes shut, Dearka forced out a scarcely incoherent reply. "Mir... It's my old man he-he... is-is...".

While she was barely able to comprehend his loud, sobbing words, they were still all the young woman needed to understand precisely what had happened. While Miriallia only had limited knowledge about the issues Dearka had with his father, Tad Elsman, from Dearka telling her about them a long time ago when they had been discussing their families after visiting her sweet mother and father, who Dearka got along with pretty well. She understood that the two Elsmans, had their fair share of difficulty getting along, that they had argued a great deal when Dearka had still been living at home, and at the first change he got, Dearka had immediately left his childhood home to live elsewhere, but even with all those problems they had with each other, Miriallia understood that there was still a small part of Dearka that had hoped that one day the two could fix their crappy relationship and have at least a somewhat normal father-son relationship with one another, but with Tad Elsman killed along with so many other people by this Requiem super weapon, there was no way that was going to happen now.

Almost on the verge of breaking down too, Miriallia sniffled a bit as she felt her own tears slide slowly down her face. "I'm... I'm so-so sorry, Dearka. I-I know that you were hoping to make things better between you two, that you-you... Ohhh Dearka!" She cried out, clinging tightly on to him as she wept softly into his chest, crying out her own immense sorrow over the man she loved, losing his father in such a cruel merciless way.

Placing his hands on her shoulders, Dearka gently pushed Miriallia back a just a bit, looking down into her sorrowful ocean blue eyes, which were brimming with even more unshed tears.

"Miriallia, you-you... Ohh Miriallia thank you...thank you...I'm so glad that you are here with me... I could not handle this alone..." Dearka said back, as the two again fell back into each other's arms, crying and seeking all the comfort they could get from each other.

Miriallia and Dearka, kept on simply standing there, tightly holding and embracing one another for a good, long while, neither one of the usually cheerful couple saying or doing anything; all they needed right now was the warm feeling and sensation of being held by the person they loved most of all in this world.

Quietly observing the two of them from her position on the couch. While Mayu Ramius ordinarily loves watching the happy couples in their family being affectionate, this time around it pained her immensely; they both looked so sad. The clever child really hated that she had to disturb them at a time like this, but she was facing a bit of a dilemma that she simply could not ignore, so while cursing loudly in her mind, she pushed herself up from her otherwise comfortable position.

With slow, silent steps, Mayu made her way in their direction. Once she was about to pass them, she stopped for a moment, then, after just a bit of hesitation, she hastily moved in from the side, wrapping her arms tightly around the two. Embracing them both strongly and deeply for a few long, precious seconds.

"Mir, Dearka, I love you both so-so much, so if either of you ever needs to talk, I'll listen. I might not be all that good at giving advice. But if you ever need a friendly ear, I'm here," she determinedly told them.

Pulling his right hand away from Miriallia's back, Dearka slowly reached down, gently patting and caressing Mayu's short brown hair. "Thank you so much, sweetie; you have no idea how much Miriallia and I appreciate that".

"Yeah, thanks, Mayu; what would we do without you, sweetie?" Miriallia said, following Dearka's example by tenderly stroking the top of Mayu's small head.

Nodding ever so briefly against the two. "You are welcome. Now, if you will excuse me, I have a little something I need to take care of," the child said, before quickly pulling away again, then kept on heading towards the exit.

Wondering just where exactly her daughter was heading off too, Murrue hastily called out after her. "Hold on a sec, Mayu, sweetheart! Just where are you going?"

Turning, Mayu looked back at her mom, fidgeting a bit back and forth in place, which made it obvious what precisely the issue was. "Umm, I'm heading to the bathroom, mom. I drank a lot of water and soda before going to sleep. I'll see you in your room in a bit, mom, since I refuse to sleep in my own bed tonight."

With that said, the girl hurriedly left the room before anybody else had a chance to say anything else to her, which would result in her having to stay there longer than what was absolutely necessary.

Of course, understanding perfectly well why her sweet girl, why her kind-hearted daughter did not want to be alone on a night such as this, truth be told, Murrue did not want to be alone either. With that thought in mind, she slowly moved her brown gaze away from the door and looked over at Mu, who, judging from his far expression, was completely lost in his own thoughts. Reaching out, she placed a hand on his arm, which immediately made him jump slightly in surprise, spinning around to look at her.

Honestly, finding his reaction just now a tiny bit amusing, Murrue let out a soft chuckle. "Ahem, I know, we were right in the middle of a game of checkers. I hope it's ok; we put that on hold for now. Now, I better hurry up and get to my room. Mayu might not say it out loud, but I know for a fact that she is pretty sad about what happened to those Colonies and the deaths of all those people. But... but you see, I do not want to leave you alone at a time like this, Mu. So if you want, there is an old mattress hidden away in the storage room; you can bring that to my room to sleep on," she embarrassingly told him.

Considering that offer for a brief moment, Mu glanced around the mostly empty mess hall. Until his blue gaze found its way to one of the tables down there, he wondered if perhaps it might be for the best if he stayed put where he presently was. With the massive amount of crazy thoughts running rampage through his mind about wanting to tear that evil son of a bitch, Djibril limb from limb, wondering what sort of response ZAFT was going to make in the end, and if the world was ever going to recover from this insane ordeal, along with how incredibly sorry he genuinely felt towards Dearka. Mu felt relatively certain that he would not be able to get overly much sleep tonight. If he stayed there, he could calmly play a few games of solitaire, then try to get some rest on one of the couches down there without disturbing anybody.

But on the other hand, the whole prospect of being alone this night, filled him with an unbelievable amount of dread. The Hawk of Endymion did not want to sit around all by himself, getting continuously hunted by those terrible images of those Colonies getting hit by that green beam from the Requiem, and his own dark, nagging thoughts. Mu too wanted to be with somebody, even if it meant that he was forced to sleep on an old mattress on the floor.

"While I am not sure that an old mattress will make the most comfortable of beds, Murrue. I'll go take a look in the storage room for that old, moldy mattress. I'll see you in your room in a bit, Murrue," the Akatsuki pilot told her with a hint of a smirk on his face, as he spun around and began heading for the exit of the mess hall, with Murrue hurriedly calling out after him.

"Ahh, come on, Mu La Flaga, you are making it sound like that mattress is all moldy and barely keeping together. I'll have you know that it is perfectly fine. It used to be a mattress from Kira and Lacus' room, before their room was fully renovated, and they got that double bed of theirs put in. And as far as I know, the two had not been married long before they started sleeping in the same bed together, so that mattress is practically brand new, so I guarantee you, that it will make an okay bed for a single night."

"I'll take your word for it, Murrue Ramius" he immediately answered with a quick thumbs up before leaving the room.

It was then that Miriallia after giving Dearka one last gentle squeeze, slowly broke their deep, tender embrace. "Speaking of beds, we better go get you in ours, Dearka," she softly told him.

Sniffling and forcing back another intense sob, Dearka swallowed a bit of saliva. Damn, his entire mouth and throat felt so immensely hoarse and dry. He was definitely in need of a cold drink of water, before doing anything else. Painfully, clearing his parched throat, he looked straight at his sweet, kindhearted girlfriend.

"Heh, you know, Mir honey, the way you phrased that whole getting me in bed thing sounded pretty seductive and naaaughty. But as much as I hate to break it to you, dear, I don't really think I'm in the mood," he said with a hint of a sad jokey grin on his face.

Normally, such a quippy, stupid remark from him would usually have resulted in Miriallia blushing severely, lightly slapping his arm, and calling him an idiot or moron. This time around, she settled for shaking her head a bit and rolling her eyes a single time, while mumbling a bit incoherently under her breath. She then reached out and took a hold of his arm, leading him with slow steps out of the mess hall, with Murrue and Mu following closely behind them.

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At the exact same time in the Athha mansion, Athrun was spending time by himself in the mansion's large, well-equipped game room, thrusting the cue stick strongly forward. He hit all fifteen balls, making them fly out all over the orange cloth pool table. He had never understood precisely why Cagalli had chosen this color for the table; it just looked so unnatural and outright weird, but he had never bothered asking her about it.

Frowning ever so slightly in mild annoyance when he saw how the balls had landed, getting them all in, in precise order by number, was going to be a bit of a challenge, but it was one that the blue-haired man, was happy to undertake. Moving with slow steps around the expensive custom-made pool table, Athrun took careful aim at the white ball. He then thrust the cue stick forward, hitting the ball, thereby making it fly hard into the number one ball, that was sent flying into the left middle hole.

Quite pleased with that resulted, Athrun quietly and thoroughly studied the pool table, considering precisely what his next moved should be. With the number two ball laying just by the upper left corner hole, blocked by the number eight and eleven balls, he knew this was going to be quite a bit more difficult. Finally, after about a minute, he came up with a usable strategy. Quickly switching hands, Athrun carefully took aim, firing. He skillfully knocked away the eight and eleven balls, while the second ball hit its intended target.

Chuckling ever so slightly over that, Athrun was about to continue when his mind flashed back to the newest broadcast he had seen not that long ago. The images of those collapsed, totally wrecked Colonies. Just would not leave his mind; they kept on continuously hunting him.

"Emm...damn, what the heck am I doing? Can't I find some better way to keep my mind distracted? Then to play pool all by myself in the middle of the night... I-I could be spending time with my pregnant fiancée. I could be working on the Justice, preparing it for whatever bullshit is going to happen next, or I could actually be sleeping. But no, instead of doing any of that, I am down here shooting pool..." The blue-haired man growled out through his teeth, snapping the cue stick in two, then spinning around and hurling both parts off in two random directions; thankfully, he did not break anything else with that one violent action.

Following that, Athrun simply stood there, staring absentmindedly at the ugly orange-cloth pool table. The third ball was lying right by one of the corner holes. Reaching out, he gave it a light tap, thereby making it fall into the hole. After doing that, he let out a deep sigh, then slowly turned and went over to grab another cue stick, figuring that since it would likely be impossible for him to focus on anything else, he might as well keep on doing this.

Approaching the pool table again, Athrun spun the mostly black cue stick around a few times in a familiar manner, imagining himself in the Infinite Justice using the combined beam sabers to cut Djibril's escaping shuttle in two, mere moments after it had taken off from that secret hanger that the Seirans had used to hide that shuttle of theirs.

"Damn it... If only I had been closer to that area when it took off. Then I could have taken it out..." he growled under his breath, his mind going over how he had been fighting so vigorously against Shinn in the Destiny at that point. Finally, Athrun stopped spinning the cue stick around like he would the Justice beam sabers; he then hurriedly took aim at the white ball, firing accurately and with full force. He watched in mild satisfaction as the fourth ball fell into a corner hole.

Letting out a deep breath that made his uncombed blue hair fly around a bit, Athrun took a single step to the side, then fired again, making the six ball bounce around the sides a few times, before it fell ever so neatly into the left middle hole. Quickly locating the seven ball, he frowned a bit. This one was likewise laying in such an annoying, awkward way near a corner hole that it would take quite a bit of skill to get that into that hole without accidentally knocking in the nine ball in the process.

Frowning a bit in annoyance and frustration, Athrun tightly squeezed the cue stick between his fingers, immensely tempted to break it like the last cue stick he had used. The sole reason he didn't was because he had mentally promised his dear Cagalli, that he would not break any more of the stuff; if he did, he would likely never hear the end of it. Squeezing his eyes shut, Athrun breathed in deeply, then breathed out again, trying his best to get the sheer amount of anger he felt over Djibril's murderous actions under control. If he had to take out his rage out on something, he could always go hit the boxing bag down in the gym, but the thing about that was that he had never really cared overly much about boxing; that was more Cagalli's hobby; she at times seemed to greatly enjoy hitting and beating on things.

To be completely honest, there was a part of Athrun that sort of kinda missed seeing Cagalli do that, since she would commonly wear a pair of small tight black shorts and a tiny red t-shirt that left her cute little belly and belly button exposed, but the young man begrudgingly realized that Cagalli most likely would not be capable of doing something like that again, until the twins were born, but he guessed that gave him something to look forward too.

'Cagalli...Asagi...Kenji... I'll keep you three, along with everybody on the Archangel, safe, even if it Goddamn means, that I have to fight the entire ZAFT army and Logos all on my own' Athrun determinedly thought, as he once again spun the cue stick around like he would with the Justice's combined beam sabers, clearly seeing the images of the Legend gundam's dark gray silhouette appearing directly in front of him, ready to fight.

"Damn you, Rey...Durandal...Djibril...all three of you can go straight to hell... The three of you really are the ones to blame for all this suffering we are all going through..." Athrun said in a lower whisper, wondering just how many millions of people around the world, were in distressed because of their wicked, despicable actions.

Properly taking a hold on the cue stick again, Athrun was just about to take the next shot, when a quiet but familiar voice suddenly called out to him.

"Well, apparently it was not necessary for me to search through the entire mansion for you; I should have expected to find you down here, Athrun" Cagalli softly informed him, stepping further into the playroom, kneeling down to pick up the upper part of the cue stick Athrun had in his immense anger and frustration wrecked not that long ago, looking it over for a few seconds before simply dropping the broken object on the floor again with a light sound, honestly not caring one bit if Athrun had broken every single cue stick he could get his hands on.

Quietly standing there, breathing deeply in and out a half-dozen times, in an almost meditating-like manner, Athrun finally stood up straight from his bent-over position against the pool table. Turning slowly, he looked straight at his fiancée. She was dressed in a light blue nightgown that did little to hide the pregnancy. It was apparent that the dress was one she had purchased before getting pregnant; she seemed to be shivering a bit, which was not all that surprising considering that she was barefooted, and as Athrun looked back up at Cagalli's face, he saw the obvious signs that she had been crying not that long.

Lightly biting his lower lips, Athrun needed a couple of seconds to come up with something to say that, in his mind, did not sound totally idiotic and insensitive at this moment in time. There was, after all, no need to ask why precisely she had been weeping and crying her eyes out; it was most assuredly the same reason why everyone else was crying right now.

"Um, perhaps it might be a downright stupid question to ask, Cagalli. But why exactly is it so obvious that I would be down here?".

Stepping a bit further into the large playroom, Cagalli ignored the feeling of the cold wooden floor underneath her bare, sensitive feet. "It's because, Athrun honey, ever since the two of us started living here together, I noticed that whenever you have something on your mind that's bothering you, and you need some peace and quiet to think, you have this tendency to end up down here playing pool by yourself; it's like messing around with the pool table helps you relax and sort through your thoughts in some weird way".

Brushing a bit of blue hair away from his eyes, Athrun simply stood there silently, considering Cagalli's words; they made a certain amount of sense in a way. "Heh, I never actually noticed that I did that, Cagalli. But yeah, you are right; it's peaceful down here most times, which permits me time to think without anyone disturbing me, unless you or Merna needs my help with something. But if I have to be completely honest with you, Cagalli, I really do think we should try to utilize this room more. Perhaps once all of this mayhem and chaos of the war is over, we should try to invite everyone for a game day, eat some good food, then spend the whole day down here playing pool, darts, air hockey and sing karaoke" he softly told his fiancée, having such an easy time imagining their entire family doing that together, Athrun was sure that Mayu would be thrilled.

"Hmm, that does sound like a ton of fun, Athrun, Just as long as you of all people do not use the karaoke machine, let's leave that to Kira, Miriallia and most especially Lacus, people who can actually sing. I cannot afford to replace all the windows in this house if you start singing, Athrun," Cagalli told him with a small, teasing grin.

Rolling his eyes at that a single time at that remark. "Oh great, even more wisecracks about my tone deafness. I wish I could deny and say it wasn't that bad, but who am I kidding?" Athrun said somewhat bitterly, before he hurriedly took the next shot, sending the seven pool ball, bouncing around vigorously a few times against the sides before it fell ever so neatly into one of the corner holes.

Honestly, kind of astonished and amazed by how easy, Athrun had made that seem, Cagalli moved a bit closer to him. "Well, at least nobody can deny how impressive your skills at pool are. Ain't Kira and Murrue pretty much the only ones who can really challenge you in that game?".

"That they are, especially Murrue, it's like she is able to fully predict how everything on the table is going to move. And Kira's aim when he takes a shot is just so insanely good. I do sort of wonder if that's an aftereffect of him fighting the way he does in the Freedom, disabling mobile suits left, right, and center. There seriously ain't no denying how good a shot Kira is when he is in a mobile suit; maybe that somehow transfers to when he plays pool," Athrun said in a deep, thoughtful tone, as he thoroughly considered that.

"That'sss quite an interesting theory, Athrun, but I am not entirely certain that it actually works like that considering how downright terrible Kira is at darts; that's more Dearka's game. I think the reason why Kira is getting so much better at pool, is simply because you and he play it so frequently whenever he and Lacus drops by for a visit. It's like how it is with most things; you need training to get better at it." Cagalli thoughtfully stated, thinking about how bad she had been at piloting the Duel Rouge gundam in the beginning. It had only been thanks to a lot of training and helpful advice from Kira and Athrun that she had gotten so good at it; if she hadn't gotten pregnant, she would definitely have kicked a lot more ass in this war, than she had.

Truth be told, there were quite a few people who, in Cagalli's mind, deserved a good, thorough beating from her, particularly the Chairman along with his three disgusting little lapdogs, Rey Za Burrel, Shinn Asuka, and, um, she guessed, Nicol Amalfi. The soon-to-be mother really wasn't certain how precisely she felt about Nicol these days; parts of her hoped that Athrun was right about the old Nicol still being in there somewhere, but even if the old Nicol were to return, he was definitely in for a slap or two, especially after crushing those M1 pilots to death. Hell, perhaps she might even give him the same sort of greeting she had given Yuna, when she had last seen him, feeling just a hint of a wicked little smirk run across her face when she thought about how much Yuna had screamed and howled in immense pain when she had kneed him in that certain area.

Despite the bit of bewilderment Athrun genuinely felt over why precisely Cagalli was smirking in such a way, yet upon hearing what could only be described as a mad scientist like chuckles leaving her, the blue-haired young man, quickly decided that he could live without knowing what wicked evil thoughts were presently racing through her mind. Instead, he focused more on what Cagalli had just said to him about training.

"You are absolutely right, Cagalli. Even though one might be naturally gifted with certain unique abilities and skills, it never hurts to put in a bit of practice to improve those skills. Just look at how good Kira has gotten at piloting a mobile suit, from when he first got inside the Strike," Athrun thoughtfully stated, as his mind flashed ever so briefly over how neatly and skillfully Kira had dismantled the Saviour gundam at the naval battle at Crete.

"Heh, you are one to talk, Athrun, when considering how much your own skills have improved in leaps and bounds, from when you first 'acquired' and got inside the Aegis," Cagalli told him, fidgeting around just a bit in an attempt to keep her feet from feeling so cold.

Frowning a bit, at that. "Yeah, well, thanks, I guess, truth be told, and I know I speak for Kira here as well. I really wish it wasn't necessary for us to be so proficient at using those war machines. With you being pregnant, my sweet precious Cagalli, there are so many other things I would rather be doing these days than trying to stop a want-a-be dictator and his crazy followers. I would so much rather spend my time preparing for our wedding or making preparations for when the twins are born," Athrun told her with a tired sigh that could be heard far and wide.

"...Thos-thoseee sounds like some pretty great things for us to be doing right now... So umm how-how are you feeling, Athrun...?" Cagalli asked with a faraway look in her amber-colored eyes as she watched the man she loved so dearly, quickly bent over the orange cloth pool table, hastily taking the next shot, completely missing the shot this time around before he once again stood up straight, looking straight at her with a hard pissed-off look in his green eyes.

"Like crap, Cagalli, I feel mentally and physically ill over what happened to those Colonies; actually, before I got here, I spent a good long while in the bathroom throwing up nonstop... It's just like with Junius Seven's destruction; thiiis will NEVER be forgotten, not that I am surprised that it actually happened. With the Chairman having so thoroughly exploited Logos and Djibril through this entire war, it's no big wonder that a group of terrorists would retaliate in such a twisted way," Athrun growled out in anger and frustration, again struggling to keep himself from breaking the cue stick.

Squeezing her amber-colored eyes tightly shut for a brief moment, as the pregnant Cagalli heard those words echo through her mind over and over again, damn it-God damn it- they made so much sense to her. Why the hell did Durandal expect that he could keep on provoking and so thoroughly using Logos to carry out his crazy scheme, without them at least doing something to try to get even with him, if only their payback had not resulted in the deaths of so many innocent, men, women and children. Strongly biting her lower lips a single time, Cagalli finally, ever so slowly, opened her eyes again, simply choosing to ignore the light taste of blood in her mouth.

"Athrun I...? Umm, d-do you regret coming back here? Do you regret not staying with ZAFT and fighting to put an end to Logos and Djibril?".

Absentmindedly, Athrun shook his head back and forth a few times. "No, Cagalli, I do not regret coming back here at all; Orb is my home; the Archangel is my home; being with you, Kira, and everyone else is where my home is, Cagalli. This is where I rightfully belong. Truth be, what I do regret in this war, is joining up with ZAFT in the first place and not gunning down Rey at Gibraltar, when I was given the chance to do so. If I had actually gone through with that, the stupid son of a bitch, would not have been here to prevent Dearka from reaching and taking out Djibril's shuttle. But-but, if I actually killed Rey at that point, I don't think I could have convinced Meyrin to go with me, which could have resulted in her death, and I did not want her to die; she is such a nice person; she saved my life at Gibraltar. I have actually been wanting to talk with you about having Meyrin be the Godmother of our children, along with Lacus and Kira, of course," Athrun told her in the most reasonable tone he could manage under the circumstances.

Considering that idea only for a moment, Cagalli nodded ever so slowly a few times. "I'm fine with having Meyrin be the Godmother Athrun, it's a good first step in showing her how grateful we are for everything she has done for us, for you. I just wish I... we could come up with something else to repay her; I cannot help but think she deserves so much more".

"Hm, the only thing I can really come up with, Cagalli honey, is reuniting her with her big sister, but I have no freaking idea how the hell we are supposed to do that. Lunamaria can be a pretty stubborn person. I know Kira offered her to take her to the Archangel, after he tore the Impulse to bits and he snatched the Core Splendor in mid-flight. But she stubbornly refused to listen to him, apparently she refused to believe that Meyrin really was alive on board the Archangel" Athrun said with a frown, wondering if it would have been different if he had been the one to talk with the older Hawke sister.

Athrun was instantly pulled out of those thoughts by a bit of displeased cursing from Cagalli. "Mmm, damn it, Luna, you stubborn girl, don't you get, your little sister misses you... I don't get why the hell you won't leave ZAFT even after seeing all the twisted things they do... I really do Goddamn hope our daughter does not become anywhere near as stubborn as that... Damn it... Damn it... Damn it all...".

Knowing how incredibly unwise it was to interrupt Cagalli when she was on a roll like this, Athrun simply let his pissed-off fiancée curse until she was satisfied, honestly, sort of astonished and impressed by how colorful it was getting, especially when she suddenly in the middle of a sentence switched over and started cursing in a whole other language, which took Athrun a couple of seconds to recognize as Spanish, a language which he would often forget Cagalli actually knew quite well, since she so very rarely used it, unless she was in a bad mood and wanted to curse out somebody. Yet before she had a chance to finish her little cheerful speech, she was abruptly interrupted by a loud, rumbling sound from her stomach.

Feeling the hint of an amused smirk run across his face, Athrun released his whole on the cue stick, simply letting the long wooden object fall to the floor with a bit of loud noise, seriously not caring one bit if Merna or one of the other staff members had to pick up after him at a time such as this. Reaching slowly out, Athrun took a gentle hold on Cagalli's left hand, giving it a light affectionate squeeze, while gently running his thumb over the engagement ring. It was such a sincere comforting feeling knowing that it was there, knowing that once this awful nightmarish war was brought to an end one way or another, the two of them were finally going to get married, settle down and raise their kids together.

"Hungry?" Athrun softly asked her, as he kept on gently stroking her soft little hand.

Nodding vigorously a few times. "I am always hungry these days, and the few rare times I am not, I feel like throwing up, or beating the crap out of some stupid dunderhead that grinds my gears, by yammering on nonstop for hours on end. I tell you, Athrun, being pregnant with twins is no piece of cake," Cagalli grumbled sourly.

Softly smiling at her. "I get that, Cagalli. I really do wish that there were so much more I could do to help you through this, sweetie. For now, let's head on down to the kitchen; I'll cook you whatever food you want, be it pancakes, waffles, or anything else you can come up with." Athrun ever so gently reassured her, feeling momentarily worried that he might be the one who was getting on Cagalli's nerves by yammering on way too much, as she had so mildly put it, but considering how little time they had been able to spend together this last week, with her being so incredibly busy getting everything back in order after ZAFT's attack, Athrun quickly shook that idea out of his tired head. If he had to make an educated guess, he would say that it was likely one of the other Orb politicians, who was pissing her off to such a degree, and if not any of them, then probably Dearka; he was on occasion known to do that.

"Well, since you are offering Athrun, I want fried eggs, bacon, and maybe a few pieces of well-made toast," the girl immediately stated, practically drooling at the thought.

Chuckling just a bit at that. "So breakfast, essentially?" Athrun asked in mild amusement.

Again, Cagalli nodded vigorously. "Yeah, pretty much. I especially want the bacon, Athrun, so you better make plenty of that".

"I will, Cagalli, I will," he softly promised her, as the two of them, hand in hand, left the playroom, heading with quiet steps towards the mansion's large kitchen.

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At the exact same time, back on board the Archangel. Lacus was slowly getting dressed in a silky light red pajamas, stepping out of the hot spring changing room. The young, pink-haired woman had spent over two hours in the hot, steamy water, trying to make sense of the immense horrors and cruelty she had witnessed not that long ago. How? How could anyone bring themselves to kill millions of innocent people, without giving it a second thought? It truly was no big wonder why the Chairman was having such an incredibly easy time, riling up the rest of the world to fight Djibril and Logos.

Despite still firmly believing that Chairman Durandal was the true evil in all of this, with him so carelessly manipulating and lying to the entire world's population, Lacus felt absolutely sure that whatever punishment, that was in store for Djibril, it was one that was very well deserved.

"What an evil, despicable person this Djibril is. I'm sort of glad that my father was not around to witness this; it would have broken his heart to see the death of so many innocent people." Lacus mumbled to herself in a low whisper, remembering how discouraged and sad he had been when Junius Seven had been destroyed. Back then, she had caught him crying a few times when he thought he was alone.

"Mom, you are looking after dad, ain't you?" Lacus ever so softly asked her mother's spirit, sincerely hoping that her mom and dad were together at a time such as this and would support one another.

Slowly turning a corner, Lacus immediately spotted, Kazama leaning against a window frame, staring out at the distant stars, and the bright full moon, while messing around with a ruby cube with his left hand. The ace Murasame pilot obviously had a great deal on his mind, as he kept on absentmindedly playing around with the piece of toy without paying much attention to it. Stepping a bit closer towards him, Lacus next saw Meyrin sitting a bit further away, drawing vigorously on a large piece of paper.

"Are you two okay?" Lacus asked them in a combination of a mother and sister-like tone.

Glancing briefly away from the outside view, "Yeah, I am just all dandy and hunky-dory, Miss Lacus," Kazuma answered somewhat sarcastically, clearly not in any kind of mood to talk, but a single glance was enough for Lacus to tell that he was sincerely grateful for her concern, before he went back to looking out of the window.

Meyrin on the other hand, looked slowly up from her drawing and up at her. "I've... I've been better, Lacus. I miss my big sister so much right now. Not only that, but I simply cannot help but worry about what sort of silliness she gets up to at a time such as this. Knowing how reckless she tends to be at times, I'm so worried that she is going to do something stupid that's going to get her killed. You should see some of the crazy stunts she pulled in her old ZAKU Warrior before that one got totally wrecked. I haven't really seen her fight much in the Impulse, but I frankly doubt her fighting style has changed all that much from her now piloting a machine like that; it might very well be quite the opposite," the younger Hawke sister explained, her eyes brimming with unshed tears.

Feeling genuinely sorry for the girl, Lacus slowly kneeled down, caringly wrapping her arms around the distressed Meyrin, embracing and holding her tightly. Which was a gesture the red-haired girl immediately returned, clinging tightly onto the songstress, weeping long and deeply into Lacus' shoulder, and taking all the comfort and support she could get from the feeling of the older girl, gently stroking her long red hair and rubbing her back. It sort of reminded Meyrin a bit of how Lunamaria would console her in their childhood when she felt sad about something.

With the intense sobs running continuously through Meyrin's sorrowful body, Lacus kept on gently rocking her back and forth, as she kept stroking the crying redhead's back. "Shhh, there-there, just let it all out, Meyrin, just let it out..." the pink-haired woman said, still using that mother-sister-like tone of voice as before. Even though she herself was so very close to breaking down too, the only reason why she didn't was because she wanted to be together with Kira, the man she loved, when it happened.

Immediately upon hearing those words, Meyrin sniffled and sobbed even louder than before, feeling so very much like she would never run out of tears. The younger Hawke sister was so intensely worried and scared that if Lunamaria were hurt in some way or, even worse, killed trying to get even with that worthless bastard Djibril, would she EVER hear about it? How in the world could she? When she was SO far away. It was not like it was actually possible for Captain Gladys or Arthur Trine no matter how caring and kind they were, to call up the Archangel to inform her that something bad had happened to her sweet older sister.

That thought, combined with the thought of what had happened to those six Colonies when they had been hit by that crazy weapon of Logos, was instantly enough to increase Meyrin's already intense stream of tears even further, as she clung even more tightly and deeply onto Lacus, her caring, kind-hearted friend and idol.

"Ouch, easy there, Meyrin; that hurts a bit." Lacus suddenly gasped out in light pain, honestly a bit taken aback to discover that their, small, slender Meyrin, had this much strength in her, but perhaps that was a resulted of the broken down stated the redhead was presently, distressed panicky people, did on occasion seem to possess a lot more strength than normal.

Immediately letting out a loud panicky gasp upon recognizing her actions, Meyrin hastily pulled away from the older girl, sniffling a bit as she backed away, her back hitting the wall, and with even more tears running slowly down her sad face, she looked sadly up at Lacus.

"I am so... so sorry, Miss Lacus; I did not mean to hurt you...".

Reaching out, Lacus patted Meyrin's head, gently rubbing her uncombed red hair. "Please stop crying, Meyrin; it's fine, no harm done. But I've got to admit I am sort of surprised, by how strong you seem to be. With your baggy night clothes, it's sort of hard to tell".

With how incredibly rough and sore her entire throat felt from crying so much, Meyrin coughed loudly a few times before a light chuckled left her red lips, then after taking a soothing ship from the opened bottle of water standing next to her, she smiled a bit awkwardly at Lacus.

"Heh, well, I do exercise regularly; even though the Archangel's exercise room isn't nearly as well-equipped as the Minerva's, there was a lot more exercise stuff on that ship, but the hot spring and the better food more than makes up for it. It's kind of bizarre in away. One of the reasons why I started exercising in the first place, was because I was jealous of how much slimmer and fit, Luna seemed to be. I wanted as thin a waist as hers, so I could fit into her skirt. Now that seems like such a stupid, silly thing to worry about," the girl said through a sad laugh.

Standing up straight again, Lacus stretched her back a bit. "I think that's something most girls occasionally concern themselves with. But one single glance at you, makes it perfectly clear that it's not necessary for you to do Meyrin, you are plenty slender and fit already".

"I totally agree here; you look great, Meyrin" Kazuma chimed in from his position against the window frame, as he looked between the two girls.

Blushing severely at both of their words, Meyrin stuttered incoherently for a bit, then quickly glanced down at her drawing. The young red-haired woman was not at all used to getting praised for her appearance, especially by a man; it was a new, fresh, but not totally unwelcome experience.

"Umm... Thanks, you two..." she mumbled under her breath, still keeping her gaze firmly looked on the drawing.

Following her embarrassed blue gaze, Lacus could not help but chuckle ever so softly at the image. It neatly had the text, The dumbass of the Minerva, written near the top of the large piece of paper; beneath that, it had quite a few characters, each one of them with very small bodies, but immensely huge and weird-looking heads. Yet what really caught Lacus' attention, was that most of them had devil horns, especially the ones that had the names Shinn and Rey written by them, and as Lacus' gaze went over the filled-in page, she soon found Nicol's all-too-familiar face near the bottom left corner; he likewise had devil horns, but for some reason he looked just a bit more twisted and evil, and his small body was apparently holding a gun from the looks of things, which was aiming at what appeared to be Athrun, who was one of the few that did not have any horns.

"Hm, so that's how you see them all?" Lacus softly asked, tilting her head back and forth a few times as she studied the page, taking special notice of the one individual that was drawn to be at least somewhat normal; she was in a large, pretty white dress with a bit of black here and there, had a pair of long angel wings, plus a bright, shining halo to top things off. The figure seemed very sweet and innocent. If Lacus had to make an educated guess, that was likely supposed to be Lunamaria.

Letting out a long-drawn-out sigh, Meyrin glanced back up from the neat drawing, smiling slightly, before her face again turned serious. "Pretty much, I was actually trying to make up my mind about how to best draw Captain Gladys; I still have some respect for her, but umm... well, you know, it's sort of hard to describe, how the heck I am supposed to feel about a person, who is so willingly supporting someone as evil, twisted, and wicked, as Chairman Durandal. I reeeeally don't get what she sees in that man, since she is his lover... It's just sooo gross if you ask me. She is definitely an attractive woman, so in my humble opinion, she could do SO much better, than a disgusting creep like him. She might as well be dating an evil blood sucking vampire, I honestly think that would be far less disturbing".

Considering the girl's words for about a minute and what exactly her response should be, Lacus nodded slowly. "You know what they say, Meyrin, love can be blind; perhaps at some point in the far distant past, he had some good qualities in him, even though that is actually pretty hard to believe now considering everything that man has done. I think the whole assassination attempt on me, has soured my opinion on him for good," Lacus said with a bit of a frown, feeling a freezing cold shiver run through her body when she thought about how dangerously close she had come to getting gunned down by that weirdo crawling around inside their ventilation system of all places. Again, the young lady shivered a bit; she needed to hurry up already and get to hers and Kira's room, to feel his gentle, yet strong arms wrapped securely around her, holding her close and providing her with the caring support only he could give her through these difficult times, but she sort of figured that leaving right in the middle of her conversation with Meyrin, would be kind of rude, and insensitive.

"Mmm, that's perfectly understandable, Lacus. I understand so well why you, Kira, and everyone else here on the Archangel dislike and hates the Chairman as much as you do; he is such an awful person. Heh, I am pretty much in the same boat now," Meyrin said, picking up a tiny eraser beside her and using it to hastily get rid of a small mistake she had made on the drawing.

"Speaking of that assassination attempt, I've heard a few whispers about it here and there, and I have seen the sad remains of your house, but what exactly happened back then?" Kazuma asked, tearing his gaze away from the Big Dipper, looking straight at Lacus.

Frowning ever so slightly at the Murasame pilot's question, Lacus started intensely down at the metal floor for a few long seconds, then finally let out a deep sigh.

"I really hate talking about it so damn much, but I guess the two of you deserves to know, so I'll give you the short version," Lacus said, sincerely wishing that Kira was there right now; it would be so much easier to talk about these things with him around. She wondered just what precisely her sweet, precious husband was doing right now. Still wondering about that, Lacus quickly but somewhat absentmindedly went over everything that happened during the attack on their house. How those ZAFT soldiers had tried to kill them all, and had even used ASSH type mobile suits, in an attempt to get to them, until Kira had stopped them with the old Freedom gundam.

"Damn, that's some messed up shit right there, especially when one takes into consideration that Mayu was present. What sort of mess-up freaks would try to kill a child?" Kazuma growled angrily upon hearing the end of Lacus' not-so-cheerful tale, doing nothing at all to hide the fact that he had his fair share of issues with people harming kids in any way. The little ones, were in Kazuma's opinion, the ones they needed to protect most of all during difficult times such as these.

"I honestly think messed up shit is quite an understatement, Kazuma; it's totally creepy and sickening," Meyrin added in a sightly distressed tone, part of her honestly wondering just what it hell it was that had possessed her and Lunamaria to join up with the ZAFT military in the first place; it had without a doubt been Lunamaria's 'bright' idea, and while it was true that Meyrin had resisted a bit in the beginning, she had still gone along with her excited older sister. Yet if she had the knowledge back then, that she did now, she would definitely have resisted and complained a great deal more about becoming a part of the ZAFT military. She would have screamed, yelled and pestered her sister nonstop, until she had changed her stubborn mind about becoming a mobile suit pilot. Meyrin seriously didn't get why the two of them hadn't instead opened that small bakery they had dreamed and talked about in their childhood.

One single glance at each of their frowning faces was all it took for Lacus to instantly tell, what was going through both Meyrin's and Kazuma's minds.

"Please calm down, you two. I do understand your anger and your frustration over what happened, and I share it in some regard, but there is no need for either of you to concern yourselves with what happened to our house at this point; despite how close it undeniably was, we all got out of there without anyone getting killed or harmed, and that's what's important," Lacus gently reassured the two of them.

Closing his eyes, Kazuma breathed deeply in and out a few times, before mumbling a few sulking curses under his breath. "Tch... Fine, fine, guess the whole assassination attempt on you, Miss Lacus, combined with the destruction of your home is just another thing to add to the increasingly long list of crap we need to make Durandal pay for. Hm, I wonder, where do we keep that list? If we were to lose it, I doubt any of us would be able to remember all the bullshit that man has pulled. Hell, maybe I should take a peek in my good old Murasame to see if I happen to leave the list down there, but on the other hand, it has to be so damn long now, that it might not even fit in my mobile suit's cockpit," the young man said with a hint of humor in his voice, but also some lingering resentment and bitterness over ZAFT's actions.

Each one of the young women let out a light chuckle at the Murasame pilot's not-too-funny joke. "Well, you know, Kazuma, if you need any help finding that list of your're's, I will be willing to help you search for it later," Meyrin softly offered, moving around a bit against the bulkhead in an attempt to get into a more comfortable position.

Glancing over at the redhead, Kazuma sent her a sweet, tender look along with a gentle smile. "Heh, sounds like a pretty good time to me, Meyrin. I very much appreciate your assistance in this endeavor. The two of us racing around all over the Archangel, being all silly and weird, searching for a list that does not exist, really does sound like a great first date; truth be, I had worse first dates," the man said, his mind briefly flashing back to his very first date with Asumi, where he had accidentally during dinner spilled a glass of white wine over her pretty black dress. She had not been overly impressed by that move; it was actually sort of amazing that she had agreed to go out with him a second time. Rapidly shaking his head a bit to force all thoughts of his ex-girlfriend out of his mind, Kazuma again turned his attention towards Meyrin to see her reaction. The young woman had a deep, thoughtful look in her bright blue eyes.

"Hm, well, I was sort of hoping that the very first date I ever went on, was a bit more romantic, Kazuma Tokai. The second one better involve a good meal, a few live candles, or a movie theater," Meyrin Hawke stated with a serious expression on her face, wondering what in the world had possessed her to pull a stunt like this. Normally, she would be way too shy and embarrassed to do something like this out of the blue; it was just that after losing out on her chances with Athrun, she did not want to lose out again by pulling the breaks and hesitating too much, and Kazuma was such a nice guy; she had quickly realized that after just hanging out with him the last few days.

"Umm, I was, to be honest, only kidding about the date thing, Meyrin. But I-I emm, if you want, once this pointless war is over, and we do not have to fight anymore, do you-you want to go out to dinner with me? I-I, really do enjoy hanging out with you, Meyrin, and I do sort of have a weakness for the redheads," the ace Murasame pilot admitted to her, his cheeks turning more and more red. He was clearly a lot more confident and brave when it came to doing battle in a mobile suit, than when asking a cute, beautiful girl out on a date.

Honestly finding Kazuma's overall shy awkward reaction to the two of them suddenly making plans for a date, totally cute and adorable, Meyrin used her left hand in a somewhat feeble attempt to hide her light amused chuckles, then while using her right hand to flirtatiously brush a bit of her long red hair behind her ear, a move she was sort of hoping would get Kazuma's attention, Meyrin smiled sweetly up at the kind Murasame pilot.

"Hm, I definitely can get behind the idea of a nice quiet dinner with just the two of us alone together; I'll look forward to it, Kazuma," she told him with a pleasant smiled as she went back to focusing on her drawing.

Silently, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck, Kazuma really wasn't sure what to say at this point. 'What happened? I've got a date. I suddenly got a date with Meyrin Hawke, how the heck did that happen? Hmm, do I even have any clothes to wear for such an occasion? I better go buy some new fashionable threads, before the two of us go out, and-and I need to get some flowers for her too, probably roses! And what about a box of chocolates? Is that something I need to bring too?' The slightly panicky man mentally asked himself.

Glancing back and forth between the squirming, red-faced Meyrin and Kazuma was almost enough to make Lacus squeal loudly in pure joy and delight. They both looked so incredibly cute, all embarrassed like this. The pink-haired woman was so unbelievable happy she had been presented there to witness them so awkwardly making plans for their very first date together. Lacus was almost tempted to make the offer that Kira and her could join them on the date, thereby turning it into a double date, but after considering that only for a moment, she mentally decided that they deserved to have their first date to themselves.

But upon noticing how Meyrin and Kazuma were barely able to look at each other, Lacus felt an intensely longing to be together with her sweet Kira, the man she loved, to be held in his strong protective arms, which always made her feel so safe and secure, like nothing in this crazy world of theirs could ever hurt her, so with a light clearing of her throat, she called out to the squirming paid before her.

"I'll talk with the two of you later. Don't stay up too late now, I am sure that whatever await us in the upcoming days is something that requisites that we are all plenty well rested" Lacus told the two of them, and as they each called out goodnight to her, Lacus continued onward towards hers and Kira's room.

Immediately upon arriving at her destination, the young married woman hurried, got the door open, and stepped inside, where she was in for quite the horrific surprise. Kira was sitting in a somewhat weird position at the table, messing around with one of her many Haros, and as she stepped a bit further into the room, Lacus discovered to her shock and horror that he had completely disassembled three of her dear Haros and randomly put them back together again.

"KIIIRA! For Pete's sake, what the heck do you think you are doing to my poor sweet HAROS?!" Lacus cried out like a concerned mother, who had just discovered that her child had been in a terrible car accident, and was now on the way to the hospital.

Snapping out of the immense trance-like haze, he had been so completely lost and immersed in, Kira, somewhat absentmindedly, slowly turned the swiveling chair around, looking with slight bewilderment up into Lacus' glaring, totally pissed-off eyes.

"Ohh, hey there, Lacus, I did not hear you come in," he dazedly told her.

Instantly, those words of greeting served to make the already intense vein on Lacus' forehead grow even deeper and more severe, as she hastily reached down and roughly snatched Mr Green out of his hands before he had a chance to do anything so cruel and mean to her little guy, holding the tiny robot tightly and protectively to her chest.

"Don't you hey Lacus me here, Mr Yamatoooo! Now, please tell me what possessed you to do that to my Haros? This has better not be some weird scientific experiment you are doing with them; they look so creepy like this, I can't even tell who is who of them anymore, you idiot," Lacus told him in a tone that made it abundantly clear, that she expected a damn good explanation for this horrific scene.

Of course, recognizing that he had really stepped on Lacus' small but still sensitive toes here, Kira slowly let his far-away purple gaze wander over the mishmash of Haros. It was only now, at that exact moment, that Kira realized how awful they appeared to be and what precisely he had been occupying his time with for the last couple of hours.

"I... Umm, I'm so... so sorry, Lacus; I don't know what came over me. It was just after seeing those PLANTs getting destroyed by that crazy super weapon of Logos', an-and realizing how many innocent people lost their lives in that attack. I've... I did not know what to do with myself; I felt so lost and empty... Then, as I was sitting here, struggling to come up with something to distract my mind, Mr. Pink suddenly turned on Mr. Orange, which I started playing and messing around with, and before I knew it, I had taken him apart. Mr. Yellow and Mr. Blue followed soon after... To be honest, Lacus did not even realize, how I had put the three of them so randomly back together again. I am so, SO Lacus honey, I hope you will forgive me," Kira said, feeling genuinely sorry for his stupid, completely mindless actions, wondering just how the heck he could do something this messed up, to his wife's precious possessions, without even realizing what he had actually been doing.

Lacus' face soften considerably as she listened silently to each of Kira's words, she understood so very well, the reason for his deep distress and intense sadness, she shared those feelings, they were so painfully familiar to her right now.

"Ohh, you idiot. What am I going to do with you, you silly bonehead? Of course, I'll forgive you, Kira. But only if you promise me to put those guys probably back together when you wake up tomorrow. I do not at all like this whole Frankenstein appearance of mishmash parts. Like I said, they look so creepy like this that I can't even tell who is who of them. By the way, you mentioned, Mr. Pink; where is he? You did not disassemble him either, did you?" Lacus asked with a light hint of menace in her voice, worried that Kira might have done something crazy to her favorite Haro too.

Knowing that he was not completely out of the woods yet and that he was still very much in hot water with his wife. Kira swallowed nervously, as he slowly shook his head back and forth a few times, raising his hand to point in a certain direction.

"No, no, I did not touch Mr. Pink, Lacus. He is right over there on your nightstand, playing and having fun with Birdy. I think even with my mind so damn confused and sad over what happened to those six Colonies, I still understood that doing anything stupid to Mr. Pink, would be a pretty foolish idea on my part," Kira explained, wondering for a long moment, that if they, if he and the other had been out in space. Would they have been able to stop Djibril the remaining Logos members on the moon, from firing that Requiem weapon of theirs, and thereby save those Colonies and all those innocent people.

Genuinely pleased to see that her precious Mr. Pink was perfectly alright playing happily with Birdy, Lacus again focused her full attention on the sweet nincompoop, who was her husband. Instantly taking notice of his immensely pained expression, which was all the pink-haired girl needed to immediately tell what deep sorrowful thoughts were presently running through Kira's sadden mind, stepping slowly over, Lacus ever so gently wrapped his arms around her sitting husband, embracing and holding him tightly, to give him as much comfort and support she could muster, a gesture which Kira did not hesitate to return, clinging so tightly onto her that it actually hurt just a bit, not that Lacus minded, especially when she heard the deep sobs leaving him, which was enough to send Lacus over the edge too. Soon they were both crying out their immense sorrow over the millions of people killed, not that long ago.

Their loud weeping and intense, almost painful sobs were all that could be heard throughout the room for a good long while, as the normally happy married couple cried out their immense sorrow and distress, holding one another so tightly, like they were each afraid that if they loosen their grip for even a second, the other would disappear into thin air. Yet just as another sob ran through Lacus' body, she suddenly felt something brush against her bare feet and lower left leg, almost making her scream out in slight surprise and fright, thinking for just the briefest of moments, that it might actually have been a mouse that had snuck on board the Archangel at some point, yet as she glanced downwards, she saw her Pinky dear laying there, rolling slowly back and forth, back and forth.

"Lacus, Lacus, Kira, Kira, sad, no sad, alright, hello," the tiny pink robot called out, actually succeeding in sounding both sad and worried about them, even though such deep, complicated feelings were not programmed into him. At the same time, Birdy flapped around a bit in the middle of the room before landing gently on Kira's left shoulder, where it cried out its own name a couple of times.

"Heh, I guess the little ones are quite worried about us," Lacus said with a sad smile, as she, without breaking hers and Kira's tender embrace, reached down towards Mr. Pink, who jumped ever so neatly into her hand, raising him. Lacus looked straight into his tiny black eyes, which were staring right back at her once again, calling out first her name, then Kira's. Afterward, he went on to continuously yelled out the word hello over and over again, until Lacus finally told him to be quiet.

Nodding slowly in agreement, Kira reached up so Birdy could jump onto his hand. "Yeah, it does seem that way, Lacus sweetheart; it's-it's good that we got them... haa... our little companions, along with each other at a time like this. I do not think I could handle th-this nightmare without you being here with me, L...Lacus" the young husband said through a small sob, taking in the comforting scent of her fresh, newly washed hair.

Cautiously releasing her hold on her dear Mr. Pink, Lacus let him drop back down to the floor, where he, of course, immediately started bouncing happily and playfully around the place, again loudly calling out to the two, yet as he was doing that, Lacus tightened her grip around Kira, holding him tenderly to her chest, as Birdy took flight once more, taking a quick trip around the room before landing on the bed frame, where it tilted its head back and forth a few times in a curious manner, as it stared up at its owners.

"Birdy! Birdy!" The robotic bird cried out. Smiling ever so softly at the endearing sounds Birdy was making, Lacus kept on gently stroking and rubbing her husband's back.

"Of course, I'm here, Kira; I will, will always be here to support you, like you support me, my love," Lacus softly told him in a caring tone. Moving her hand up, she ran her fingers tenderly through his short, slightly spiky hair, loving, enjoying the feeling of it between her fingers. In some way, it served as a reminder that he was there with her, that she was not all alone at a time like this. Bending down, she placed a long, loving kiss at the top of his head. About to stand up straight once more, Lacus felt Kira gently grab her hand, entangling their fingers together, he brought it up to his lips, placing a light, affectionate kiss on her palm.

"Mm, ever since the two of us got married, Lacus, I always believed that being there to support one another, through both the good times and the difficult times, is one of the most important things in a loving marriage like ours. I will always, always be here for you to lean on whenever you need me, Lacus, my precious sweet wife," Kira said, lightly stroking her soft palm and kissing it deeply again.

Feeling another sob run through her, Lacus placed another kiss on the top of her spouse's head, again tenderly touching and stroking his hair.

"Ohh, Kira, my precious beloved Kira..." the young wife sobbed, tightening her already impressive grip on him. Lacus wanted so desperately to be as close as possible to him, to just melt completely into his strong protective arms, where she knew she would be safest of all, that nothing would ever hurt her when she was being held by the man she loved.

The loving married couple, kept on tightly embracing and holding one another for an unspecified long time, where the only sounds that could be heard throughout the room were their heavy, sad breathing, along with a few more intense heart-aching sobs, followed shortly by Mr. Pink and Birdy occasionally making a bit of noise as they moved around, which was something Lacus and Kira chose to simply ignore; they were content staying put right where they were.

Finally, they both reached the point where they were out of tears; they had none left to shed, but even that was not enough to make them break apart their consoling embrace. It was only when Lacus reached the point, when she felt her back starting to feel kinda sore from staying in that leaned over position for such a long time, that she reluctantly pulled away from him, standing up straight where she rubbed and stretched her back a bit. Afterward, she reached out and took a gentle hold on Kira's hand.

"Come, Kira, dear, let's go lie down and see if we can't get a bit of sleep. I think we could both really use it. I have this feeling we are going to need a lot of energy tomorrow for whatever is going to happen next," she softly told him, then pulled him gently up from the chair, guiding him slowly to their bed, where they laid down beside each other.

Staring silently, but deeply into each other's red bloodshot eyes for a few long moments, Lacus snuggled up into Kira's strong arms, who held her tightly, and protectively to his chest, while placing a few tender kisses at the top of her head.

"I love you, Lacus; I love you-you so much."

"I love you too, Kira".

Nothing else was said that night; nothing else needed to be said. The two just stayed put right where they were, neither one of them moving from their location. At one point, even with the bright annoying lights in their room still on, and as it started to lighten outside, the two managed to drift off into a far from restful sleep, their hearts still aching from the horrors and atrocities they had witnessed throughout this war.

To be continued.