100 Themes Challenge, Theme No. 1

.::Stardust::.

Pairing(s): GordonxJennifer

Genre(s): Romance

Rating: K+

Setting: About forty years after the events of Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness

Description: How romantic is a shooting star? It may just be romantic enough to remind Jennifer why she fell in love with an idiot named Gordon.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plotlines. The challenge belongs to Akikorosella on DA (go to my page for the link), and all characters belong to Nippon Ichi.

"Ahh, Gordon, it's great that we've finally gotten some time alone after all this time," A woman sighed, standing on the deck of a large spaceship. She was older, probably in her early sixties. She gazed wonderingly out the large bay window, watching as they traveled farther and farther away from the Earth. Her daughter Jane had actually been the one to push them to take a fortieth anniversary, claiming that being married to someone you love for that long is something that should be celebrated. To her chagrin, her husband had been less-than-eager to go.

"Well, why don't we have a nice quiet celebration at home? I'm sure your mother would love that," Gordon had said when their daughter had brought up an anniversary trip. The mother-in-question was in the kitchen adjacent to the room where they were, and her heart had sunk at his words. Just another small party, hmm… Jennifer had never been one to complain, but she wished Gordon would mix things up once in awhile. As happy as the last forty years had been for her, she admitted she had grown bored with Gordon's "quiet celebrations".

"Come on, Dad, you always say that," Jane protested, frustration evident in her voice. Unlike her sometimes dense father, she had always been hyper-aware of the feelings of those around her, even as a child. She knew, even though her mother had never openly admitted it, that Jennifer had wanted to take a trip for their next anniversary. "How do you know what Mom wants? Maybe you should ask her for a change!"

"Oh! Umm… Well…" In the kitchen, spreading icing on a cake in preparation for another "quiet celebration", Jennifer couldn't help but smile when Gordon called, "Hey, sweetie? What do you want to do for our anniversary?" She knew Gordon wouldn't ever intentionally hurt her. He probably didn't even think about it when he decided to hold their anniversaries at home.

Jennifer took her time answering, meticulously spreading the rest of the icing over the cake before wiping her hands and going into the living room. Jane stood in the center of the room with her hands on her hips while Gordon sat on the large cream-colored couch beside a discarded book he'd previously been reading. Now he watched her enter the room nervously, his brows knitting together. "Well, we could maybe take a trip to the Netherworld. We haven't been there in awhile, and I'd sure like to see Harlie and Flonne again."

"The Netherworld, sweetie? Wouldn't you rather go somewhere less… I don't know… Dark?" Gordon replied, his frown even more pronounced. He definitely hadn't forgotten the last time their family had decided to visit the Netherworld. Jane had only been about fifteen then, and Gordon hadn't appreciated it at all when Etna's vassal Hanako had decided to take her out for a night on the town. Jennifer had just been glad that Jane had come through unscathed, and while she was able to get Gordon to realize that their daughter had been in no real danger, she still suspected he blamed Etna for anything that could have happened to her.

They had finally compromised and had decided to travel to an alternate netherworld instead, a place called Veldime where demons and humans lived in (relative) peace. Jennifer stared at the Earth, nothing but a small blue dot in the distance now. Jane had seen them off at the space station with her new husband Matthew about forty-five minutes ago. Gordon had not been happy about Jane getting married, either, but that's a story for another time.

"Yes, it is, Jennifer dearest," The older ex-Defender of Earth replied, walking up behind her and wrapping one arm around her waist. "It feels good to be in a spaceship again. After we retired, I wasn't sure whether we would ever get the chance again…" His voice trailed off, and Jennifer turned to look into his saddened face. Retiring from his dream job had not been the first thing on Gordon's to-do list three years prior, but Jennifer had convinced him that it was the right thing to do. They were both getting older, she had told him, and in their age something could easily happen to them. She had said, "What would Jane do without us?" and he had agreed, albeit reluctantly. She had hated to pull the Jane card on him, but she knew he wouldn't have retired if she hadn't done something drastic.

She twisted herself around in his arms until she was facing him, both hands flat on his still-muscular chest. His jet black hair was now completely gray, and there were smile lines on his cheeks and forehead that hadn't been there yesterday, much less forty years ago on their wedding day. They had both aged so much, she thought, her eyes drifting from his face to her hands, which were wrinkled and sagging with the strain of fighting through armies of demons, angels and humans alike over the years. She folded her hands into gentle fists, an action that was almost as natural to her as breathing. The notion that she had killed thousands of living creatures had haunted her for years; only after they were married did Gordon wise up to the fact that fighting bothered her. After he found out, he had taken over many of the Defenders' battles, one time even enlisting the help of Harlie and his vassals before asking Jennifer to enter the brawl. The fact that he had gone to such lengths to keep her from having to fight touched her, and she thanked God every night for blessing her with him.

"You know, Jennifer, you are as beautiful as the day we met," Gordon murmured, interrupting her thoughts and making her look up into his face once again. He smiled and smoothed her blond-white hair back from her forehead. "Actually, you're even more so. I'm such a lucky man to have won you over, Jennifer. To this day I still don't know how I ever accomplished such a feat."

As she looked into his eyes, a shooting star passed by the window. It was very fleeting, but for that split second she could see the stardust reflected in his eyes. His light blue orbs danced with sparks of orange, yellow and white, and she was suddenly taken back to the days of their youth, when Thursday was still in working condition. The robot was welding on the side of their ship, which had been badly damaged during an assault on an enemy world. Jennifer herself was digging into the ship beside him, trying to reconnect a few fuses that had come apart in the attack. She had been working at the fuses for over an hour with little success and was getting frustrated, even going so far as to yell at Thursday when he attempted to help her.

Gordon was a distance away, frying burgers on a portable grill. While he was more than dense in the area of mechanics, he was a pretty good cook. He had noticed that Jennifer was having problems and, after fixing up the burger just how she liked it (extra mustard, no pickles), he'd brought it to her. Crouching down beside her, he patted her on the shoulder and said, in typical Gordon manner, "You can do it, Jennifer. I know you can."

She looked at him, then. The sparks from Thursday's welder were flashing in his irises, and at that moment she realized that for all of his bullheaded, stubborn ways, she loved him. Though she wouldn't admit it until long after they had befriended Laharl, Flonne and Etna, she loved him more than anything else. Looking into his eyes on the ship, many many years later, she noted with little surprise that she still loved him more than anything else in the world, except maybe their daughter. He was hers, forever and always, and nothing would change that.

Pecking him on the nose, she giggled lightly. "You know, Gordon, I think I'm in the mood for a burger."

And there you have it, my first fanfiction since returning from my hiatus. Please tell me what you think, because I need to know if I'm up for another round of .