Discern and Perceive

Chapter One

Enjoy.

Notes: This is an present day AU that keeps the countries of Orb and PLANT but has them both on Earth. There are no Coordinators or Naturals and no Gundams or other mecha. The rating is for sexual content in later chapters and some swearing. The characters are all around mid-twenties and are at the post-university professional stage of their lives.

X-_X-_X

The pub was small, it was a homey place. The walls were a sturdy but old wood, and the dusty table lamps lit the place with a honey colored glow. The bartender had a warm smile, and the smooth chatter of the patrons perpetuated the image of a comfortable atmosphere.

The door opened occasionally, sending a swirl of cold air around the place, and announced the entrance of someone's friend, neighbor, lover, or visitor. However, occasionally, the door opened to announce someone who wasn't part of the town's tight little community, someone who wasn't known or immediately embraced. As a town that made its money on tourism December City was used to unfamiliar faces, but this place, and these people, were all local.

Just such a stranger made to enter the pub. After she struggled with the heavy door and its fight against the harsh outside air, she managed to swing it open, the sudden brightness of the indoors blinding her momentarily. Evening had fallen early outside, the winter season settling into it's darkest portion of year.

Those closest to the door turned to look at the newcomer, wondering if they knew her. When nobody did, some eyes stayed on her, but the young woman didn't notice that at all. The chatter, which had dimmed just in the slightest, returned to its full volume a moment later.

The woman took off heavy woolen gloves, stuffing them in her jacket quickly, and rubbed her hands together once, then twice to circulate the warmth in them again. She glanced quickly around the pub, not recognizing the person she was looking for at first glance. Her warm amber eyes returned to the task at hand when she reached up to remove her matching hat, sighing when she shook out her bright gold hair, the snow already melting from the pub's warmth.

"Wouldn't ever be this cold in Orb," she grumbled under her breath. She shifted under the uncomfortable feel of flaky snow melting into her hair and skin. She stuffed her hat in her other pocket and then sighed, looking around her again. "Where is she?"

X-_X-_X

"Oh come on!" A long, tanned arm snapped a bottle down onto the table, ignoring the loud clink it produced, and the glares of the other patrons from the tables to either side of them.

The bottle wobbled before falling and spinning across the table, upending an another bottle into the lap of a different man, this one silver haired. The man jumped, avoiding a majority of the foaming liquid that spewed towards him, but not quite all of it. "Dearka!" the man barked angrily "You fool!"

The entire table paused, though they were well used to the antics of the two men by now, however the tanned man, Dearka, simply glanced at the silver haired man, grinned at the mess visible in his lap, and continued his earlier point. He seemed pleased with himself.

"You have to have a bachelor party," Dearka's voice was nearly a whine, his violet eyes looked imploring at the brunette he was speaking to. "It's a sacred tradition. Given down through mankind generation by generation."

"Sacred my ass," snarled the silver haired man, he upended the napkin holder when he yanked a fistful of napkins out of it, sopping up his spilled drink.

"Settle down, Yzak," Dearka waved a hand lazily in the air, not even bothering to glance over, he kept his eyes on his quarry "C'mon, Kira."

Yzak fumed at Dearka's attitude and brush off, silently vowing to make the other man's life as miserable as he could the very first chance he got. Maybe when he had something truly agonizing to moan about he wouldn't waste his time on fancy.

Kira muffled a laugh, eyeing the look on Yzak's face, and answered Dearka with a barely straight face. "I'm really content without one," he said sincerely, he wrapped his arm around the shoulders of the pretty pink haired woman sitting next to him in the round booth, "I just want to be married already."

Dearka rolled his eyes, sitting back down "Such a downer, man."

"Leave Kira alone," chided another man. He had dark blue hair, and soft, aristocratic facial features. He had a relaxed smile on his face. "When you finally decide to get married you can have a bachelor party."

"Likely," snorted Dearka, "marriage is for the faint of heart," he glanced at Kira, "no offense."

Yzak bit his tongue before he accidentally agreed with the blonde buffoon.

"None taken," Kira chuckled back, the pink haired woman laughing at his side. They were leaned into each other, like a natural orbit. It was intimate.

"Athrun," Dearka continued, "don't you think you're doing your best man duties a little too well? You don't need to defend the institution of lunacy and lace. You can tell him to get a little wild, it's allowed."

Athrun opened his mouth to retort, but Yzak interjected with a scathing statement before he could.

"Maybe Yamato or someone should simply let it slip to Miriallia how interested you seem to be in wedding plans lately," Yzak sat back, raising his brow in a movement that clearly indicated schadenfreude-like satisfaction. Dearka was shut down categorically.

"Touché," Dearka grumbled, raising his empty glass at the passing waitress to indicate another round for the table.

Athrun turned to Kira, bypassing the table's banter in favor of actual conversation. "You ready?" he asked, smiling kindly at both his longtime friend, and the man's fiancée, a woman he had known practically his entire life.

"Of course," Kira said at once. He didn't have to think about. He hadn't had to think about it for a long time, really.

Lacus smiled, setting the fruity drink in her hands onto the table. "Kira and I have been waiting so long."

Athrun's smile waned somewhat. The couple had faced many obstacles in the path of their relationship. Mainly problems with Lacus' aunt, a woman that had handled Lacus' inheritance ever since her father, Sigel Clyne, had passed, and a problem with Kira, when his own father had fallen ill the previous spring.

Athrun thought a winter wedding suited them though, they'd be newlyweds in spring, fitting for both of the optimists that he sometimes couldn't always understand.

"Milly!" exclaimed Dearka suddenly, his eyes rising to a point above Yzak's head.

Yzak snorted, not looking up at Dearka as he eyed the sticky film that was drying on his portion of the table, "That's right, put the fear of a woman into you."

Dearka shook his head "No, you idiot." He stood up, bumping into the table and sloshing several drinks. He cupped his hands around his mouth "Milly!" he exclaimed loudly, trying to be heard above the cacophony of sound present in the pub.

A few minutes later a brunette found her way to the table. She had a fresh drink in her hand, and an annoyed look on her face, the product of wading through the filled to capacity building. "Dearka," she said by way of greeting, sounding surprised.

Dearka immediately slid over, bumping into Yzak and making room for his girlfriend in the booth. His face no longer wore the lackadaisical look that had been present the rest of the night. He looked more serious. Miriallia sat down gratefully, sighing happily and stretching her back out lazily.

"I thought you couldn't come out tonight?" Dearka asked quickly, his brows knitting together "Didn't you have a chick thing?"

Miriallia rolled her eyes once. "Very articulate of you," she ignored her boyfriend for another moment, greeting the others at the table.

Yzak couldn't help but grin, managing to hide it well, however. The woman his best friend had chosen to date was anything but the simpering sows that Dearka had always seemed to find before. She was stubborn, and had an impregnable self-will.

"I'm meeting a friend here," Miriallia finally turned to Dearka, raising an eyebrow in an almost challenging way, "I didn't realize that this is where you guys would be."

"What friend are you meeting?" Dearka asked nosily, he had inquired earlier as well, but hadn't gotten a response.

"Anyone I know?" asked Lacus interestedly. She would of course, even if it wasn't a smaller town, everyone's circle of friends circulating with everyone else's, Lacus seemed to know a little something about everyone.

"No, actually, at least not unless you know much about foreign affairs." Milly replied. "She's a friend from school, but I don't think you ever met her when you were there, she was in my art classes; we roomed together the year after you and Kira left. I thought I could treat her to a drink and we could catch up. She's staying with me for a while, actually."

Athrun looked at Miriallia interestedly. Milly, Lacus, and Kira had all attended the same university in the pacifist capitol of Orb. Yzak, Dearka, and he had attended a private college at the behest of their parents, but they had all travelled to visit Kira and Lacus, friends of their, and Miriallia after she had come to know Lacus. He wondered if he met her.

Milly answered her friends' typical question with her next statement, "I don't think any of you ever met her, actually," she said thoughtfully. "I didn't meet you guys until junior year, and she studied abroad for a while before coming back to school. Remember I had that room to myself for the first semester?"

"I remember that room. Sure we didn't meet her senior year?" Dearka asked. He had spent a lot of time at Miriallia's school her senior year. It was about the time that Yzak started to mention how smitten he was.

Miriallia shook her head "She had some family issues—she took classes over that summer to finish up early. We've kept in touch a bit over the years, not as well as we used to. It'll be really nice to catch up with her. She was a really great friend. We haven't had the time to talk much over the last few years. It's always one thing or another getting in the way."

Dearka nodded, losing interest in the subject, he supposed he'd meet Miriallia's friend when she got here at any rate. Though it bothered him a bit that he wasn't already familiar with this little part of Miriallia's life.

"So," Miriallia grinned, her tone deepening in innuendo "Discussing Lacus' bachelorette party?"

Athrun laughed aloud, watching as both Kira and Lacus began to turn a light shade of pink.

"Ha," Dearka laughed to his girlfriend, "Lacus isn't getting a bachelorette party until Kira gets a bachelor party."

"Kira doesn't want one!" Miriallia fought back, her words mock haughty, "Which doesn't mean Lacus might not want one."

"I don't!" Lacus hurried to protest, pink throughout her face, she gripped Kira's hand to stave off some of her embarrassment.

The waitress arrived, unloading a round of drinks on the table; Lacus declined a refill on her own cocktail. Yzak raised his bottle, pointing it at Dearka. "No idiocy with this one, thank you."

Miriallia turned her head questioningly to Dearka, but he just shook his head in quiet amusement, he'd relate it to her later.

The topic of the wedding was put to rest and the group reclined a bit, relaxed. It seemed the more their days passed by the fewer nights they had where they could all get together as one. The upcoming winter holidays and Kira's own wedding were proving to be their best excuses in quite some time.

The door to the pub opened a moment later, sending a chill across the room. Athrun pulled his shirt collar higher. It was going to be positively arctic when they made their way from the pub later. None of them turned to look towards the door, it had been opening and closing with the flow of customers all evening, and they weren't expecting anyone else.

Well, Miriallia was.

Dearka was whispering his weekend plans for he and Miriallia into her ear a few minutes later, when Miriallia's eyes wandered toward the bar briefly. She shot into a standing position so fast she nearly clipped Dearka's chin with her shoulder.

The rest of the table stared at her, taken aback by the sudden movement.

When Miriallia started waving an arm in the air, as if to get someone's attention Athrun murmured, "Must be the friend she was waiting for." Kira nodded beside him.

"Cagalli!" Miriallia shouted, in the same fashion as Dearka had earlier. She tried again.

Kira furrowed his brows. The name was familiar, and there was an alarming sense that he was supposed to know exactly why it was familiar. The only one that noticed his mental predicament was Athrun, seated beside him. He looked at Kira curiously, but Kira didn't speak. His drink was clutched in his hand, halfway to his lips.

Miriallia moved from the table, sifting out through the crowd to go fetch whoever she had been trying to reach. The only people that didn't watch her hunt were Kira and Yzak.

After a few tough seconds of fighting through the crowd they saw Miriallia stop by the bar and touch a blonde by the shoulder. The girl turned around, and the next second she and Miriallia embraced. Even by December City standards the blonde girl was bundled up excessively. She was obviously used to a warmer climate.

They exchanged words for a few minutes, and then Miriallia tugged on her arm, and they started to make their way back towards the booth. The blonde began to unbutton her coat. She turned back after a second, grabbing her drink off the bar and smiling at the bartender, who was also the bar owner. She rejoined Miriallia.

Athrun thought, as he watched her stumble through the crowd after Miriallia, that she was horribly…unrefined and clumsy. Athrun smiled, it was appealing in an odd way.

"This is Cagalli!" Miriallia announced happily as she arrived at the table.

Cagalli nodded, somewhat uneasily, at the group gathered around the table. Miriallia had said that they would be by themselves Cagalli's first night in the new town. She was surprised when Miriallia had told her that her boyfriend and the couple's other friends were there as well.

"That's an unusual name," Kira said, somewhat breathlessly. He smiled, trying to be polite; he knew it didn't reach his eyes.

Cagalli nodded and Milly grinned and said, "She's got an unusual name from start to finish."

Cagalli smiled indulgently at Miriallia "Sorry," she said in a friendly tone, "I should introduce myself properly. My name's Cagalli Yula Athha."

Kira felt his heart stop and his brain pause as well, before it started again, painfully, at double time. Athrun eyed his friend worriedly.

"This is Dearka Elsman," Miriallia continued. Even with all their banter and grumbling, Miriallia was eager to introduce Dearka to Cagalli. The two women hadn't kept in the best of touch, but they had been true friends in the time they had together, and Miriallia had told Cagalli a little bit about Dearka over the years.

"Bet you've heard all about me," Dearka smirked, giving Cagalli a two finger salute as a greeting.

"No, not at all actually," Cagalli quipped back, grinning fiercely. She wasn't the sort to be put back on her heels or charmed.

Miriallia laughed outright at the expression on Dearka's face, continuing on. "Yzak Joule," he nodded once, "Athrun Zala."

"Nice to meet you," Athrun said. Cagalli smiled back.

"Kira Yamato," Miriallia continued, Cagalli knew that she also named the pink haired woman on the end but Cagalli didn't hear her. All she heard was that name. Kira Yamato. Kira Yamato.

Cagalli turned suddenly, wrenching herself away from the table and swearing under her breath. Miriallia let out a startled huff and immediately asked her what was wrong. Both Dearka and Athrun rose from the table, stunned and concerned at the sudden movement.

Yzak let his eyes focus on something else entirely though. Kira was looking at Cagalli with an expression that Yzak had never seen on the other man's face, even when he was at his lowest. He seemed lost, distraught, and very much confused.

Cagalli dropped her drink, spinning so that her back was facing the table. People around her turned and stared at her, but the only ones she was trying to hide from were the ones she had just been introduced to. She cursed her bad luck, already angry at herself for getting in to this situation.

"No!" she thought fiercely to herself, clenching at her coat in anxiety.

"Cagalli," Miriallia said softly, putting a hand on her shoulder. Cagalli started, looking over her shoulder into Miriallia's face.

"Er, Cagalli?" the pink haired woman, whose name she hadn't caught, stood and approached her from the other side. The women formed an odd semi-circle, their backs to the rest of the table. "Are you alright?"

"Sorry," said Cagalli suddenly, turning around and laughing awkwardly. "Dropped my glass and it startled me."

The people surrounding them had turned back to their own business, some of them still eyeing the group occasionally.

"You didn't actually drop your glass until you turned away, reacting to something," Yzak pointed out suspiciously, with cold logic. He crossed his arms and leaned back, wondering just who Miriallia had brought to meet them. His mind jumped around quickly, analyzing the possibilities with the limited information he had at hand.

Cagalli stared at him a moment, frowning. Finally she looked a Miriallia, and then turned to look at Kira Yamato.

"I know your name," she said simply, her voice rough.

Kira slid from the booth, rising to stand next to Lacus. "I know your name, too, and I don't think it's a coincidence."

"You do?" Cagalli asked, goosebumps rising on her arms in a way that had nothing to do with the cold. She felt water well up in her eyes, but she fought back the emotion. She was unprepared for this, here, in the town that Miriallia invited her to relax in. She wasn't supposed to have to deal with this sort of thing while she was here. She was here for peace. Cagalli didn't know if she could take one more unexpected thing happening to her just yet, not with everything that she had left behind in Orb.

Kira Yamato. She said to herself. Here, in the PLANTs?

"What's going on?" asked Athrun, his arm was leveraged on the table as if he were about to make a move to rise as well.

"I'm pretty sure," Kira said, his purple eyes turning to look at his friend's, his voice uncertain "That this is my sister."

"What?" several voices demanded at once, shocked.

"My brother," Cagalli muttered. She looked lost. She couldn't feel any of her usual determination.

Dearka sat back against the booth, hard, looking from Kira to Cagalli. "Well, welcome to December City I guess."

X-_X-_X

Ulen and Via Hibiki rushed to the hospital on a rainy night, lit vaguely by half a moon that couldn't push its way fully past the cloud cover. Their tires pushed the limits of the slick streets, but they stayed steady on their goal.

They arrived at the hospital, they went through registration, and then the labor began and the pain increased. Via never let go of her husband's hand, and even when she was sedated to maintain a stable blood pressure, her hand remained in his.

He stayed by her bed all throughout the pregnancy, they were alone with the nurses and the doctor, neither one having any living family. They had only each other. While Via was in pain Ulen only thought of the love that he had for her, and that he had for the twins her body was struggling to give birth to.

"Isn't there anything you can do for her?" Ulen had demanded of the doctor. Each pain of her's felt like it was his; he didn't think he could stand to see her struggle the way she was. It was so uncommon seeing pain on the face of such a strong woman.

He had been told many times that there was nothing more they could do for the pain, they told him it was the natural pain that every birth mother experienced. They told him everything was normal. They told him that she was okay.

Ulen didn't believe it, especially when he saw the blood.

The medical personnel had been fighting Via's blood pressure, and attempting to maintain her heart rate. Ulen watched all their eyes darken when Via began to bleed from her placenta.

The doctor was the best in Orb, that's why they had him. However Ulen was a scientist and even he knew that there were some things that medicine couldn't cure. There were some things that he was useless to prevent. There were some things that they were useless to stop.

He watched his wife slowly pass into a place that he wasn't allowed to follow her to.

The nurses hurried to do the doctor's bidding, avoiding looking into the sobbing husband's eyes. Still, Ulen didn't release her hand. Her wedding ring dug painfully into his skin. He didn't think he could let go. He stood motionless at the head of her bed for as long as he could.

The doctor had shouted for him to be removed, that they needed to prep a surgical operating room and that the doctor thought he could still save the babies. Ulen didn't hear his words though, and eventually, when they removed him forcibly from Via, they had to sedate him just to separate him from his grief.

When he woke up he had two perfectly healthy babies. A boy and a girl. His wife was gone, but his children lived. They tried to comfort him, tried to show him that there was still quite a lot worth living for.

He had chosen to leave the hospital, leaving two babies in the nursery. It was hard but he had known his wife; he had been familiar with her light and her passion. The two children that weren't much of anything yet were strangers to him. He was alone.

Later, after the hospital had been unable to reach Ulen, and the children had been declared abandoned an officer phoned the attending physician. Ulen, it seemed, had taken his own life, and had gone to join his wife.

The children were put up for adoption, the boy with his mother's caring eyes, and the girl with her father's warm ones.

They were adopted by separate families, raised by separate families, and lived as separate families.

There was only one time when they came close to contact. The girl learned of her adoption, and had attempted to find her twin. The only response she and her family had received was an order of restraint. They were not to contact the boy's family.

However the damage had been done.

They knew each other's names.

They knew each other.

X-_X-_X

Most recent edit: May 2016

There is no way I should be starting another story right now, however this cam unbidden and out of the blue today. I have a million other projects to work on, ones that I've actually planned for, and this is naturally what happens to me! Lol

I do hope that any that read enjoyed reading. I hope to hear from you. If anything was confusing, many things will be explained in future chapters, however don't be afraid to drop me a line.

Disclaimer: I own no part of the characters or related items.

Thanks!

-AnimeSiren