Forget the Bad Blood Between Us Both

Chapter 11
Watching the Water

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Once the decision was made, things seemed to accelerate. Athrun left Kira to rest some more and wandered around the island. That would invite more questions, perhaps, if Kira made it out of bed before they left. The Gundams that had, surprisingly quickly considering their history, become a plaything for the children.

It was both endearing and sad, watching them crawl all over the bits of the Aegis – and where was the Strike? He'd seen it and it should, aside from the cockpit at least, have been whole and in far better condition than the Aegis.

Perhaps that was why. Orb might have come searching. Certainly, they knew about the orphanage in the area and it was possible either the Archangel or Commander Le Creuset had called to their softer spot. They sprouted those sentiments, anyway. That they wouldn't take any side in the war, would accept Natural and Coordinator alike – but then they went and built the Gundams in Heliopolis and started the recent chain of events. He couldn't trust them anymore. Before though, he'd entertained the notion. Before Junius Seven fell and it became an impossibility. Back when they'd just separated from each other. Back when they'd thought the dissent in the Plants would fade and Kira and his parents would move back…

But for a first generation Coordinator with Natural parents, perhaps Orb was the better choice at the time. For its ideals, anyway. If they hadn't so blatantly betrayed them… But it was a place he could never have gone, with the way the Plants were at the time and it had only gotten worse since. If Kira's parents hadn't been Naturals, or if his father didn't run the defence committee and wasn't a part of the Plant Supreme Council… But they were all what ifs that nothing could be done about now. Just like his mother being on Junius Seven at the time of the nuclear attack, or Kira being in Heliopolis during the ZAFT invasion…

The last one was the one he was doing something about. If it was at all feasible. Or possible. Commander Le Creuset knew Kira's name because Athrun had told him himself, but who else knew? Nicol probably did, with Athrun's habit of saying his friend's name aloud when he thought he was alone and Nicol's radar for finding him when he was alone…

Nicol…

He banished that thought from his head. He avenged Nicol. He destroyed the Strike and Kira wouldn't be piloting a mobile suit again. In fact, for all intents and purposes, the Kira that had allied himself with the Earth Alliance was dead. This was the Kira he'd said goodbye to when they were thirteen, when they'd both thought they'd meet up again but until now they never did.

Would this really work? It was easy to say so now, in this sequestered orphanage where children could quickly forget a killing machine when it turned into a playground filled with toys for them. They climbed on the bits of the Aegis as though it hadn't killed and tried to kill and eventually self-destructed in a simultaneous suicide-kill attempt.

Which reminded him: how the hell did Kira survive that? Self-destruction would only injure someone else by proxy but he'd loaded the dice in his favour. Made damn sure because he'd been almost out of power and there'd been no other way… And evidentially, it wasn't a power issue. The Aegis had been blown to bits and thrown him to the shore. It had that much in it. And he'd torn the cockpit open to make sure it was Kira and not just his machine that took the blast. His machine still had enough power for phase shift armour, after all. So how the hell…

But there was nothing to tell him now. The Strike was gone, and so was Kira's memories. And wasn't that a good thing? Didn't it give them both a second chance…

But that wasn't true either. It got Kira a second chance, yes, assuming ZAFT didn't realise who he was and blow him to bits. But the only thing it did for him was wash away the stain of having killed his best friend in what was essentially cold blood.

He shook his head. The seagulls squawked over the sea, as though there hadn't been a battle in their territory just a few days before. He'd chosen to forgive this Kira, the Kira without his memories and hoping Athrun would one day come to Orb and they'd be friends again. He'd chosen to forgive him and try again… but what was the chances of it working out like that?

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Kira slept some more, and the next time he woke up, he was alone. And he was relieved to be alone. Not that he minded those kids coming to peak at him – and even play with him a bit but he was too tired still. Why was he so tired?

But that wasn't what was bothering him. It was Athrun. And Orb. And Junius Seven. And the war. The war had been creeping closer to Heliopolis. He knew that. He remembered that. But how he'd suddenly wound up on the Marshall Islands in Orb – and in an Orb who was siding with the Earth Alliance in this war and condemning all the Coordinators who'd trickled over there to avoid the divide?

Mum… Dad… But in a world that was split into two fractions, first generation Coordinators would eventually wind up split from their parents, wouldn't they? Could he talk to them? Perhaps the Reverend had a phone.

And, suddenly, he ached to hear his parents' voices.

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The Reverend did have a phone, and he was happy to offer it as well. But the children turned out to be curious about his parents and crowded into his bed and so the call wasn't as personal as he'd originally expected to be.

That was okay. He had nothing to hide. Except the fact that he wasn't a hundred percent. They'd be worried if they knew that.

The phone rang. And rang. A new fear seized him. Had something happened to them?

Then the tone was replaced by his mother's voice. 'Yamato residence, Caridad speaking.'

Warmth rushed through him. 'Mum?'

There was a pause. A heartbeat. 'Kira!' She babbled his name over and over and he heard his father's voice in the background as well, repeating his name as well.

Had they feared he'd been lost in Heliopolis?

'I'm okay,' he assured. A white lie, but he would be.

'You're…' His mother was crying, he realised. She was crying. He hoped it was out of relief… Even if he didn't want to have worried her in the first place.

'I'm okay,' he repeated.

'He said you were…dead.' She whispered the last word, as though it was a taboo.

'I'm fine,' he said again. 'I wasn't in Heliopolis when it went down. Or I was evacuated. I'm not really sure,' he admitted. 'Are you and Dad okay?'

'Of course we are,' she said. 'Things are pretty quiet here… except, well, the Archangel.'

'Archangel?' Kira repeated, before deciding he didn't really care. 'Do you know what happened to my friends? Tolle and Miri and…'

'They're fine,' she said. 'I saw them and their parents a few days ago. But Kira, shouldn't you –'

He cut her off. Relief flooded him and that was all he needed to hear. 'Mum,' he said. 'I met Athrun again. You remember him?'

'Of course I do.' He could hear the smile in her voice now. She'd been very close to Athrun's mother, just as he'd been very close to Athrun. And a soft smile spread over his own lips – before the next thought stripped it away.

'In Junius Seven… Athrun's mother died.'

'Lenore…' She stifled another sob. 'And I didn't even know.'

'Athrun's here right now,' Kira explained, 'but he's going back to the Plants soon. He joined the war.'

His mother was suddenly silent. Not a sob. Barely even her breathing through the handset. The children on the other hand were suddenly sad. He patted as many heads as he could reach with his vacant hand and they looked up to him with their watering eyes.

He soldiered on. 'He says Orb sided with the Naturals. That they built something… Mobile Suits in Heliopolis. That's why it was attacked. And that Orb isn't neutral anymore. Not safe for Coordinators.'

'There may come a time…' said his mother, finally, before changing tracks. 'We came to Orb because we believed in its ideals, that we thought they'd accept Naturals and Coordinators alike and our family could stay together. We never dreamed…'

'It would turn out like this?' Kira guessed.

'Yes,' Caridad admitted. 'Kira…'

'Athrun thinks it would be safer for me at the Plants.' The words tumbled over themselves. He wasn't sure he wanted to go, even though he'd said yes in the Mument. But he didn't want Athrun slipping through his fingers again. And yet… He didn't want to leave his parents either. Or wind up entrenched in the war.

'Will you join ZAFT?' she asked.

'No,' he said immediately. 'I want to stay as far away from the war as possible.'

She laughed, though it sounded watery. 'The Plants is, ironically, the furthest from the war at this point. Earth's been pretty crazy…' Her voice trailed off again. 'Maybe, it is a good idea. If it keeps you out of the war.'

There was something in her voice. Some odd inflexion and Kira wondered if he'd missed something. Something Athrun and the Reverend hadn't been able to tell him. 'Mum…' he began.

'Stay safe, Kira,' she whispered. 'Whatever choice you make, we're okay with it, as long as you stay safe.'

'What did I – ' Kira began. The way his mother was speaking, it sounded like she'd picked up on what he hadn't said, and was implying…

'Hush,' she said softly. Her voice was trembling though. She was afraid. 'Just trust yourself. Do what you think is right… And stay safe. Promise?'

'I promise, Mum.' His eyes were watering. He could imagine her with equally watering eyes, standing with the phone and his father with a hand on her shoulder, supporting her.

And then it was his voice on the phone. 'Stay safe, Kira.' He echoed his wife. 'Whatever you do, stay safe.'

Normally, he would have laughed at their concern… But the idea of a war so close terrified him somehow and all he could do was agree and promise he would.

'We love you,' his parents said together.

And then he was listening to the dial tone. And he cried because he could call them as much as he wanted from the Plants, but he might never see them face to face again, if this war continued on.

Orb was supposed to be an Eden: a place where Naturals and Coordinators could co-exist like the humans they all were, in the end. But even his parents didn't ask him to come back home to them. Plants was the only place he could go.

The kids piled onto him, until the Reverend appeared some minutes later and scolded them for bolstering his injuries.

He'd barely felt them. Their weight had been too comfortable… but how long before the war reached these children on their secluded island as well?