Dearka hummed to himself feeling Miriallia's naked body lying slightly on top of his. He starts moving his fingers softly in circles on her back. He remembered last night's events and couldn't help but smile as he remembered her every reaction.

"Hmmm?" Miriallia hummed as she started to stir awake. "What time is it?" She asked sleepily.

"Good morning to you too." Dearka said smiling as he watched her roll on her side. He went on his side and propped his head on his hand. He kept his other hand around Miriallia's waist.

"Morning." She uttered softly still dozing in and out of sleep.

"It is 0700 hours." Dearka replied as he nuzzled her neck causing her to shudder. "You okay?"

"Mmmm." Was Miriallia's response as she covered her face with the blankets, hiding her blushing face.

"Hey, what ya' doin'?" He asked as he went under the covers as well.

"Nothing." Miriallia said embarrassed, as Dearka tried to uncover her face. What did I do? I'm not a virgin no more! Do I regret it? No! Dearka was so gentle, which took me by surprise. I don't regret anything of last night, but what if he didn't enjoy it? What if I did something wrong? What if he hated it and is just trying to be nice? Miriallia thought as she buried herself further into the covers.

"You regret it, don't you?" Dearka asked with a sad tone.

"What? No, of course not, do you?" Miriallia asked uncovering her face and looking at Dearka in shock.

"No." He answered softly as he brought them out of the blankets. The fresh air felt good as they continued to look at one another. What's wrong with her? Did I do something wrong? Did she not like it?...No! No way! It's I, Dearka Elsman. Of course she enjoyed it. What if she didn't, though? I took it slow. Why won't she talk to me? She didn't tell me to stop? I would have remembered that, because contrary to popular belief, I would have stopped if she asked me. Dearka thought as he ran his fingers through her hair. "You were beautiful last night Mir."

Miriallia blushed at his words but she couldn't tear her eyes away from him.

"I remember my first time." Dearka said as he turned and lay on his back looking at the ceiling.

"I don't want to hear it." Miriallia said getting mad. Great, now he's going to compare me to the other girls.

"It was horrible." Dearka said simply. "I mean I didn't know what to do and she was the one who was experienced. It turned out that she was using me to get her ex-boyfriend jealous. After we had done it she got back with her previous boyfriend and they would make fun of me. She told them how uncomfortable it was since I didn't know how to do anything. She claimed she had to do all the work and pretend that she was enjoying it."

Miriallia looked at him in horror and saw sadness in his eyes.

"She was the first girl I had a crush on and I truly believed that I loved her. After she did that to me I didn't know what to do except hide. That is until I heard a voice: 'Slut!'" Dearka laughed as he remembered that day. "There stood Yzak, defying anyone who would dare contradict him. Hahaha. I remembering seeing the look of fear in her eyes, even her boyfriend shrank back as if he didn't want to be seen with her. Man, that was Yzak's first day at that school and boy did he make an impression. Everyone was scared of him, but I was grateful. He simply turned and walked away and I followed. We just seemed to hit it off. He was the serious one where I turned into the comic relief. I swore to him that I would never fall for a girl. What I did, however, to many girls and their hearts doesn't make me any better than that girl." Dearka turned to his side and looked at Miriallia. "Last night, I didn't want it to end. All I thought was don't hurt her, be gentle, and show her you care. For me, last night was my first time because it was the first time that I have ever given all of me so freely without holding any of my feelings back. So, please don't shy away from me. Don't ever feel anything but beautiful because that is what you are."

Miriallia looked at him and lunged forward to kiss him. I've come to love you. I come to love you so much. Miriallia thought to herself as he kissed back and deepened the kiss.

"I need to see him it's urgent!" Roared a familiar voice downstairs. Dearka gently pushed Miriallia off of him as he turned his ear to hear the voice again.

"Yzak?" Dearka asked to no one in particular. He got up and headed for the door as Miriallia quickly put on her robe and followed.

"Yzak! What's the matter? You weren't scheduled to be back until next week," Dearka asked running downstairs, skipping some steps in the process followed by Miriallia.

"The team went missing! Missing!" Yzak said as he stood in the lobby, anger and fear in his face.

Dearka froze where he stood. "What do you mean missing?" Miriallia ran toward Yzak and hugged him and kept her arm around him as he spoke.

"I mean they were doing a regular stake out and 'poof' all contact was lost with them and no clues were left behind. I had earlier changed my flight to this week, since we hadn't gotten anything, but then the team goes missing while I'm on my flight back. I knew I should have stayed." Yzak said trying to calm himself down, as he hug Miriallia tighter to his side, grateful that she had entered their lives.

"It's not your fault Yzak." Miriallia said as they entered the study.

"Mir's right, It's not your fault. So, what's the plan? What will be our next move?" Dearka asked as they all sat on the couch. Mrs. Henry entered with a timid Karen who carried a tray with tea, cakes, and fruit.

"Thanks Ollie." Yzak said as Mrs. Henry instructed Karen where to put the tray. "We're waiting for our contacts still on Orb to give us any information that they find, but I don't think we should get our hopes up." Yzak said, as Miriallia poured him some tea while Mrs. Henry and Karen exited the study. "Dearka, Athrun and Nicol were on the team, as well as Rafael. I'm thinking of putting another team together and make our way to Orb, but we have to wait for the clearing from that Cagalli chic before we can go. She claims that I act too rashly, Can you believe it?" Miriallia and Dearka said nothing at that comment. "Gee, thanks!" Yzak mumbled as he took a bite of one of the tea cakes. "We can't do anything until she gives us clearance. Which means that even if we wanted to take a flight down there, it would have to wait till she approves our landing?"

"Shit." Dearka said as he leaned forward and rested his arms on his knees with his head hanging low. Miriallia wrapped her arms comfortingly around his bicep before squeezing it reassuringly. After which she got up and exited the room.

"My father is probably with Chairman Clyne right now." Dearka said staring at where she left. "We need to get them back. How long have they been missing."

"Close to 48 hours. Dearka, remember the briefing? Chairman Clyne said that some of the bodies come up a few months after the abduction and there have been no leads as to where the bodies are before then. If only I can scour the place myself Dearka, maybe I can see something that was missed or overlooked. If the Orb Princess," Yzak said, not hiding his venom for Cagalli, "doesn't hurry with a permission slip for us Coordinators, we may be waiting for months before we can go down there and investigate and by then it might be too late.." Yzak said worried.

"How about your mom?" Dearka said as he ran a hand through his blond locks.

"She's been on the phone ever since we got the news about two hours ago. I was on my way home when I got the news. I…you…we just…" Yzak said unable to keep his cool and anger at a minimum. He was worried just as much as Dearka. Sure, he thought that Athrun was hot-headed sometimes, but he wouldn't wish this on him, not even on Nicol, Although Nicole seemed out of place in the army, he still didn't want him to be captured by an unknown enemy.

"I know Yzak." Dearka said softly, but did not show any more emotion. "You guys have been down there since our meeting, which was two months ago, but if they were just abducted than that means that they were onto something big."

"Or it could have been other people. Chairman Clyne said that people have been going missing on Orb for two years now, both Naturals and Coordinators alike. It could be anyone who doesn't want to see peace within the two or those who still have grudges, there are too many holes in this case. We had stake outs on a variety of places and none of them provided any information. Even the place where other victims were abducted didn't have anything suspicious." Yzak said looking around the study. "Wow, it looks good." Yzak said trying to get his mind off the halted mission. The dark wood walls now had built in shelf's that matched the wood and the shelves were filled with books. "If I didn't know any better I would say that you were intelligent."

"I read! Most of these books are ones Miriallia wants to read. She's got pretty good taste. I started reading some of her books and they weren't half bad or boring. It's nice because this room was meant to be mine and the one across the hall hers but now they are for both of us." Dearka said as he picked up the book Miriallia had started reading two days ago, 'The Poisonwood Bible.'

"That's a good one." Yzak said nonchalantly, Dearka looked at him with surprise. "What? I had to read that for school, don't look so stupefied, it's really not becoming." Dearka laughed as Yzak gave a smirk continuing to look around the room and noticing that the lobby area where he had stormed into had also been redecorated. "The house looks a lot better, no offense." Yzak said with a slight chuckle. "It feels nicer in here, for some strange reason." Dearka raised an eyebrow at Yzak's comment. Yzak was not known for compliments and he definitely wouldn't share his feelings. "I'm spending way too much time with you and Mir." Yzak said in his defense.

"Mir has been really excited about changing the inside. Lacus and Meyrin helped her with some of the projects. She's got pretty good taste, huh?" Dearka smiled. "Of course she does, she married me." Dearka said raising his head high.

"Don't you mean she was forced to marry you." Dearka looked at Yzak deflated but smiled. "Plus, I think anything is better than the decorator your parents hired." Yzak commented.

"Yeah, I think they did that on purpose." Dearka replied.

"Cagalli has granted you permission onto Orb to help with the investigation." Mir said as she ran into the room. The men looked at her dumbfounded as she sat next to Dearka. "Cagalli is one of my closest friends, due to her obligations she was unable to attend our wedding." Miriallia said as she looks down, but holds the tears. "I told her the situation and how two of 'our' friends went missing. She will allow you to take a team, but she needs you to understand that she is in charge." Yzak scoffed, but both he and Dearka were grateful. "Yzak, please try and get along with Cagalli for Athrun and Nicol's sake. I don't want anything to happen to anyone. She said that you can go when you have a team assembled." Miriallia said with worry painted on her face. "Find them quickly."

"Well, hurry up and get ready Dearka."

"Uh, yes sir, gee, no you're not difficult." Dearka joked as he got up evading the pillow that Yzak threw at him.

"The sooner we go, the sooner we solve what happened and save the day." Yzak said finding his vigor once again, as Miriallia hugged him again and ran up to where Dearka was.

Dearka was in a white tank top and was buckling his belt when Mir entered the room. He looked up and quickly walked towards her and pulled her toward him kissing her as she got closer. She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck and he hugged her close to his body. The kiss was desperate, pleading, and seeking for more satisfaction. They embrace each other even tighter, giving themselves to the moment of having to be parted when they just became one.

"Yzak's waiting for me." Dearka said after a while trying to catch his breath.

"I'll be waiting, don't make me wait too long." Miriallia said with tears as she pulled him down to kiss him. "That's an order."

"I understand." He said giving her a salute, she mimicked an Orb salute in return.

"Dearka, let's go!" Yzak yelled from downstairs. "Mom got a team set up, they're waiting at the base."

"Leave it to Yzak to ruin this moment." Dearka said with a laugh as he looked at Miriallia and kissed her again. They headed downstairs and Miriallia lunged toward Yzak.

"Be safe." She said as she looked at both of them.

"We will, Miriallia." Yzak said.

"Please come back." Miriallia said giving Dearka one last embrace.

"You, be safe." Dearka said. "If you need anything..."

"Don't worry, Dearka, I'll be fine." She said keeping her composure and not faltering. She watched as they got in the car, Mrs. Henry and the rest of the help came out and watched as they drove off. Miriallia started running after them waving. "Be Safe. Please Come Back! Oh, god, let them come back." She cried as she slumped to the ground. She felt two arms help her up and looked to see Mrs. Henry with tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Every time they go away I worry." Mrs. Henry said as they embraced one another watching the dust settle on the pavement from where they drove. "Come on, I'll make you some tea."