English is not my first language. Please bear with grammatical errors.

And for your information, my fic is based on the remastered version (but I watched the original version, too).

Disclaimer: I don't own GS/GSD.

The One with Crawfish

Athrun was checking a robotic program he had just completed on his computer. Satisfied that the program seemed to have no flaws, he looked up from the screen and moved his shoulders.

Besides the sound of rain pattering outside, the room was fairly quiet. His children were engrossed in their favorite ways of spending time as well: his daughter, Kitri, reading an animal encyclopedia; his son, Touka, coloring a book. Kitri was lying on her stomach on the floor next to his couch and slowly moving her legs up and down while Touka was sitting at the table between couches with his back straight.

Athrun looked back at the computer, and shifted his thoughts from the program to the appearance of the robot. He was making a robotic animal for his daughter. A robotic cat to be specific, since she had mentioned she would like to have a pet while seeing photographs of her mother with a cat she had had when a child.

His wife and he first had thought about getting a real cat, but their son didn't seem keen on the idea of having a living animal inside their home. So they had decided to start with a mechanical pet.

The problem he was trying to solve now was what color it should be. He had already decided its eyes to be amber, just like his daughter's, and considered making its body color a similar one: yellow or orange. Kitri seemed to like an idea of having an orange cat. However, it had disturbed him a little that she had said she would probably name the cat Curry, which kind of rhymed with her own name, if she had such a cat.

He didn't think a name of a food was fit for a cat, mechanical or not, but he didn't have the heart to say it to his baby girl. Therefore, he had been wondering how to make the robotic cat look quite different from any food so that Kitri would come up with a more proper name.

It seemed like a good idea to make it a blue cat with amber eyes so that it would have the same coloring as its owner. But then, his daughter might name it Blueberry.

There was a frown on his face as he tackled this problem which had first appeared easy, yet turned out rather hard to solve. He couldn't rely on his wife to help him with this. He strongly suspected she would say that Curry was a good name and that she saw no problem. He didn't think Kira or Lacus would be of help, either. No, he couldn't count on them. He had to deal with this on his own.

His concentration was disrupted as Kitri called out, "Father, what does 'metapho—metamorphosis' mean?" She carefully pronounced the word.

"Did you check the glossary?" he asked back without looking, most of his attention still on the robotic cat. If he made it red, there would be the risk of it being called Raspberry, or worse, Chili. He shouldn't underestimate his daughter.

"Can't you just tell me?"

Athrun raised his eyes and then eyebrows at his pouting daughter. "I told you. You should develop the habit of looking up words you don't know."

"Just this once, please?"

"You said it before. And you'll say it again."

"But it's quicker if you tell me the answer. I can save time!" she insisted, sitting up.

"If you'd checked the glossary from the beginning, I'm sure you would've found the answer by now," he calmly returned.

Her pout became bigger, her cheeks puffed out.

"Now my little lioness looks more like a little frog," he teased, and briefly wondered whether he should make the cat green before quickly discarding the idea for it could result in a cat named Celery.

Kitri stuck her tongue out at her father while Touka looked up from the coloring book as something had caught his interest.

Only three seconds later, Cagalli walked into the room, and Athrun shifted his eyes from his daughter to his wife. "Is everything all right in Scandinavia?" She had gone to take a call from the Scandinavian King.

"Yeah. It was just a personal call. He wanted to talk about private plans for his visit next month. He said, he is looking forward to seeing you," she answered, directing the last part to the children.

Athrun nodded. The king wasn't only the ruler of one of Orb's strongest and closest allies but also a family friend.

Kitri gave a nod as well, smiling at the prospect of seeing the man who treated her like a granddaughter and was always sweet to her, not to mention bringing her lots of presents.

Touka didn't seem to be hearing his mother, busy turning the pages of the coloring book back and forth. Cagalli just let it pass. There was no urgent need for him to hear it.

She walked over to the dumbbells she had left on the floor to continue her workout, but Kitri suddenly interrupted her. "Mother! Do you know what 'metaphosis' is?"

Stopping in the middle of reaching out for the dumbbells, Cagalli replied, "You mean 'metamorphosis'? It means a change."

While the girl smiled a satisfied smile, Athrun gave his wife a disapproving face. "You should've let her find out the meaning herself."

Cagalli shrugged carelessly. "She would look it up if we weren't here. Then, why not tell her when we can?"

After a pause, she shifted her eyes to Kitri and said, "But actually, I'm not sure I got it completely right. There may be some details I missed. So"—she moved to sit next to her daughter—"how about we check the glossary together to make sure?"

"Okay," Kitri said before opening the glossary part of the book.

Athrun raised an eyebrow, which went unnoticed by both his wife and his daughter. But his face softened with affection as he watched the golden head and the blue head touching each other while they looked into the book and read aloud the description of the word together.

It wasn't a special sight, quite ordinary in fact. And yet, this kind of scene—the time he and his family spent together peacefully and happily—still brought him a sense of dreamlike wonder sometimes.

The memories of his younger days, the days of wars, had faded. But they were still a part of him and reminded him of the value of what he had now and strengthened his resolve to protect it with all his might.

His eyes drifted toward his son to find he wasn't coloring anymore. His brow furrowed in concentration, Touka appeared to be in deep thought.

"Is something the matter, Touka?"

The boy turned his face to his father. "No," he said firmly, "Crawfish."

Athrun stared at his son, who was a spitting image of him, for a full minute before managing, "Pardon?"

"She's lioness. So I like crawfish," Touka explained, pointing his finger at his sister who looked up from the encyclopedia.

Athrun moved his confused eyes toward Kitri, and she interpreted, "He wants you to call him Crawfish."

"He...does?" Athrun said unsurely, looking back at his son.

Touka gave a big nod as if there was nothing odd about it.

"But why Crawfish?" Kitri asked. "Can't you pick something cooler? Like...Wolf? Or Bear."

"Crawfishes are cool," Touka argued stubbornly. "They have big claws. Look super strong." He picked up his coloring book and opened the page with a crawfish character from his favorite cartoon. "See? And they're like Father's machine."

"You think the Infinite Justice looks like a crawfish?" Athrun asked incredulously, feeling somewhat offended.

"How come?" Kitri examined the picture with a puzzled face and squinted eyes.

"Ah, I got it!" Cagalli, who had been listening to the conversation with a curious face, exclaimed before Touka responded. "That's because both crawfishes and the Infinite Justice are red, right?"

Touka nodded at his mother, then added, "And they're both shiny."

"Hm, you're right. I've never noticed the similarity," Cagalli said with fascination, ignoring the look her husband was sending her. "You have sharp eyes, Touka."

"Crawfish." Her son corrected her.

"Right. Sorry, Crawfish." Cagalli's face turned thoughtful. "Is it all right if I call you Craw? I think Crawfish is a bit too long."

Touka put on a similar look to his mother's, though with more seriousness, and thought for a while before agreeing, "Yeah, it's okay."

"Good. Then, Craw." Cagalli stretched out her arm to tousle his blue hair with a smile.

Kitri, who had been considering the idea, said with a frown, "But crawfishes and the Infinite Justice don't look alike. And it's still weird he wants to be called crawfish."

"He just likes crawfishes as you like lions." Cagalli tousled Kitri's hair as well. "Besides, I don't think it's so strange he likes them that much. He is your father's son."

Athrun looked at his wife, completely lost. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"You liked crabs. Or at least thought they were funny. Don't you remember?" He gave her a blank face and she elaborated, "The first time we met. You laughed at a crab."

He blinked in understanding and another confusion. "It wasn't really about..." He closed his mouth and shook his head. "Never mind. Yeah, I laughed after I saw a crab."

Athrun turned his face to his son who was looking at his parents with curious green eyes. "I guess your mother is right. Maybe it's not so surprising you like crawfishes enough to use it as your nickname since you are our son."

Touka's face lit up. "You like crawfishes, too?"

"Well..."

"He didn't say that, stupid," Kitri cut in. "He didn't say liking crawfishes isn't weird even. He just said, it's not so surprising."

Athrun threw his daughter a chastising look. "Language." Kitri closed her mouth with a pout.

Frowning, Touka turned to his mother. "But they're cool. Right, Mother?"

"Hmmm..." Cagalli thought for a moment. "To be honest, I like their taste better than their looks."

"Cagalli," Athrun called out with a warning in his voice. He was worried that their son might get hurt or offended by hearing about his favorite creature being eaten.

To Athrun's astonishment, Touka's eyes and voice were full of excitement as he asked his mother, "You eat crawfishes?"

"Sure. It's not exactly common, but not really rare, either. I think some stores in the city sell crawfishes for cooking."

"Wow," Touka uttered in wonderment with big eyes. "Can I eat them for dinner?" He gazed at his mother expectantly.

"Well, not for today's dinner. But I'll get the kitchen staff to order some crawfishes so we can have them in a few weeks, hopefully."

While the mother and the son shared an enthusiastic smile, the father and the daughter exchanged a bewildered look.

"Why on Earth do you want to eat crawfishes?" Kitri asked.

Touka looked at his sister with a puzzled face. "I told you. They're cool. I like them."

"You want to eat them because you like them?"

"Yeah?" he answered, still looking confused.

Their mother tilted her head with a face which was also puzzled. "Is it that hard to understand?" she asked her husband who silently looked back at her for he didn't know what to say.

"You're sooooo weird," Kitri exclaimed, making a face at her brother who gave back a similar face.

Athrun shook his head a little. "Well, he is your mother's son after all."

"You're one to talk," Cagalli shot back.

"I'd come second to you on weirdness even if I tried my hardest."

"Just because you think so, it doesn't mean it's right."

"I don't think I'm the only one who thinks so. In fact, I'm quite sure most people agree with me," he answered confidently.

"It's just because you are better at pretending," she argued.

"Do you realize you are denying you are superior to me in one thing and insisting you are inferior to me in another?" he asked teasingly.

She frowned. "It's the same for you."

"And I completely and gladly admit my inferiority." He smirked.

She narrowed her eyes. "You are such an annoying man."

"I wonder why I should get insulted for letting you be the winner?" he said with feigned innocence, which his wife met with a glare.

At that point, the children had already returned to their own fun after shrugging their small shoulders at their bickering parents. It was such a usual occurrence, nothing special to pay attention to.

The End

A/N: This is a by-product of "Chain of Love." The idea of making Touka's nickname Crawfish came to me while writing that fic, and it grew into this fic.

Thank you for reading. If you have written a review of my other fics, thank you for that, too.