A/N: I wrote the below one-shot a few months ago as a birthday present for my sister, who is a big M-21/Yuna fan like me and who wanted to know what happened right after "The Reunion" was over. I originally didn't plan to post it online, but I've shared it with a couple of people from FFNET in the meantime, and my sister says she's ok with me posting it now so YAY sis! :)

On other news, I wanted to thank Nelapsi for the awesome fanart she made of "The Reunion". Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! It's really amazing :) ) ) Here's a link to it: thenelapsi . deviantart art / The-Reunion-335914367

For the link to work, you'll need to remove the spaces and add "." "c" "o" "m" "/" after "deviantart". FFNET has some policy against posting website links, so I can't post the link properly. Sorry :(

On to the one-shot (that takes place right after the end of Part III of the story)

After The Reunion

M-21 looked around the apartment, as Yuna slowly closed the front door behind him.

The last time he'd been there, almost 5 years ago, a fight had broken down between the two of them, putting an end to their relationship.

M-21 made an effort to push aside the bitter memories, intent on starting anew. He looked back at Yuna, unable to disguise a shy smile. It was still hard for him to believe that she was back in his life.

Sensing his eyes on her, Yuna quickly averted her gaze from him; convinced her cheeks were turning bright red. "Umm, so... d-do you want something to drink?" She nervously asked, as M-21 slowly started to walk towards her. "I-I have coffee... You used to like coffee... Um do you still like it, 'cause I can mak-?"

She didn't have the chance to finish the sentence though, because as soon as M-21 got close enough to her, he gently placed his palms on her burning cheeks, and making her turn her face to look back at him, he bent down to kiss her on the lips.

Though surprised by his action, Yuna still took a step forward, unable to stop herself; quickly closing the distance between them, and letting her hands travel up his arms, his shoulders, until they connected at the back of his neck.

They didn't stay there long though, because M-21 suddenly tensed up, breaking the kiss; and Yuna's embrace along with it.

Yuna looked up at him wondering if she had done something wrong, while M-21 lifted a hand to cover his mouth, coughing lightly in the hope she wouldn't notice his embarrassment. "Hmm... yeah, coffee would be nice..." He said, avoiding looking at her.

"O-Oh, okay... I-I'll go get it then." She said, slightly baffled by his behavior. As soon as she disappeared behind the kitchen's doorway, M-21 felt like hitting his head against a wall.

What was up with him? Didn't he promise himself that he would come clean with her first? Tell her the whole truth about himself; let her decide if he was worthy of her? What was he doing kissing her all of a sudden then?

Even if she was ok with it now, she might repel him as soon she found out who (...or what) he really was.

Hoping to calm himself down, M-21 moved to the living room, while the sounds of Yuna going about in the kitchen kept reaching his ears.

For a while, he paced back and forth on the carpeted floor, dreading what was to come, until the muscles in his legs seemed to start twitching from nervousness. He didn't remember ever being that nervous, not even when he'd been in life-threatening fights.

He sat down on the sofa taking a deep breath while running a hand through his hair. Where could he start explaining all of it to her? How could he be able to make her realize the Union's existence, the experiments they'd made on him, his werewolf heart?

As his mind was being consumed by dark thoughts, his eyes suddenly fell upon a picture frame propped up on top of the coffee table in front of him. When he eyed the picture displayed in it, his breath caught in his lungs.

A little boy with a playful looking smile was looking back at him from the frame. M-21 immediately recognized his little nose and mouth as being those of Yuna's, but his hair and eyes were light in color, just like M-21's... exactly like M-21's.

Without even realizing it, he stretched his arm and grabbed the frame bringing it closer to him. The picture was dated in the bottom right corner from the previous year, but M-21 had a feeling that no matter how old the child would be, no matter how much his features had changed or would change in the future, he'd be able to recognize him anywhere.

M-21 slowly let his fingers trace the outline of the boy's face in the picture. He looked so perfect. Just like any normal human boy.

The thought made him immediately tense up though... Was he really just like any normal boy? Or had he inherited more than the color of his eyes and hair from his father?

"He's with my parents in Busan." Yuna's voice interrupted his musings. He turned his head to find her leaning against the living room's door frame; a coffee mug in each of her hands.

"Alex usually travels with me, but since my parents hadn't seen him in a few months and he kept saying that he missed them too, I took him to see them this morning... before coming here for the reunion at Principal Lee's house." She said walking towards him and sitting down on the sofa as well.

M-21 took the coffee mug she offered him; his eyes never leaving the picture frame. He felt as if his heartbeats were drumming inside his ears. "...Is he healthy? I mean... d-did you ever notice anything... unusual about him?" He asked, trying not to raise her alarm.

Her following words nearly caused his heart to stop beating though.

"...Are you worried he might be like you?" She asked in a low but calm voice.

"..What..W-What did you just say?" He asked; his voice barely louder than a whisper.

"Alex went through a series of medical tests when he was born. I guess I just wanted to make sure he was alright... Not that I was really certain of what to look for anyway. But he got cleared in every test." She smiled shyly at him. "I guess in the end Alex resembles me most."

M-21 didn't know what to make of her words. He feared just to ask. Though he didn't actually need to; sensing his surprise, Yuna explained herself.

"Till this day, I haven't fully realized why you never told us the truth about yourselves… Well, none of us have actually, although I guess with time we understood that our safety depended on it. You guys were just trying to protect the four of us, but still…"

"Yuna… what do you mean? W-What are you talking about?"

She looked him straight in the eyes, blushing slightly. "I'm talking about Regis, Seira and Rai being Nobles, and Principal Lee… or Frankenstein… that's his real name isn't it?... having some sort of binding contract with Rai…" She paused, biting her lower lip. "and about Tao and Takeo being enhanced humans… just like you."

M-21 felt like someone had just dumped a bucket of cold water on his head. "H-How do you know all this? It's not possible."

Yuna shook her head at his disbelief. "We remembered."

"What?"

His confusion made her chuckle. "I guess Regis' powers to erase memories still needed some fine tuning back then. The truth is that a few months after he erased our memories of the DA-5 kidnapping, we slowly started getting them back… At first we all thought our minds were playing tricks on us; that we had been watching way too many scary movies, but then Ikhan happened to share his strange visions with Shinwoo and they were a perfect match. It didn't take them long to speak to me and Suyi, seeing as we were also part of the same visions, and that's how we figured out that our visions weren't visions at all,… they were memories."

"Why didn't you ever tell-"

"Because we were afraid to." She said quietly, watching her coffee swirl inside the mug. "If any of you found out we'd regained our memories back, most likely you'd try to erase them again, and we didn't want that… So the four of us ended up making a pact with each other. We would never tell anyone what we had remembered, and from that day onwards we'd keep an eye out for anything happening around us that we thought was strange… Which dealing with you guys on a daily basis, didn't exactly amount to just a few strange things..."

M-21 listened to her finish, feeling his heart in a tight squeeze. Strangely enough, he didn't know whether to feel relieved or apprehensive. "All this time you've known the truth…"

Yuna shook her head again. "Not at first. We only had our memories of the kidnapping to go by, after all. But then Ikhan started doing some research. We all helped out of course. Soon we found out more stuff about the Nobles, although most were folktales,... but it was not like we needed any more proof of their existence. We talked to them every day… so Ikhan eventually turned our research in the direction of the DA-5. Getting information on them was more difficult than we thought, but Ikhan ended up figuring a way to hack into Tao's computer and managed to pull out everything available on the Union." She said, her voice trembling a bit.

She stayed silent for a while then, seeming to debate with her inner-self. "…H-He was also able to pull out the files Tao had gathered on the M-series experiment project."

M-21 froze; his coffee mug nearly dropping to the floor.

She knew…

His biggest fear had become a reality. She knew everything about him. The experiments, the missions, the inhuman heart...

Unable to say a word in his defense, he sat there just staring at her, trying hard to take a mental picture of her with his mind, so he could take it away with him when she finally repelled him.

Yuna remained quiet for what felt like hours to M-21, staring at her coffee, but instead of yelling at him to leave her, the opposite happened… she started crying.

Long, silent tears started to run down her cheeks, until she couldn't take it anymore and leaned her face against his shoulder, gripping his shirt with both her hands.

"Every time I remember what that Dr. Crombel did to you..." She said between sobs, gripping his shirt tighter. "You could have died so many times…"

Her reaction puzzled M-21. He looked at her, unable to move a muscle. "…D-Don't you mind what has been done to me?... Doesn't it bother you that my heart isn't human?" He asked in a low voice.

Yuna shook her head in response, as fresh tears rolled down her cheek. "I was already in love with you when we found out the truth, but I don't think it would have changed anything even if I wasn't…I would have fallen in love with you either way." She paused, wiping the tears away with the back of her hands. "I thought about telling you I knew everything so many times… But I was afraid you'd leave me if you thought I was in danger… I never thought you'd actually disappear without a warning." She added; her voice shaking. "I was so scared when I found out I was going to have Alex… I even thought about asking Principal Lee, I mean,… Frankenstein for help, but at that time I didn't know that the Union had already been defeated and I was afraid that Alex would be made a target too, so I kept his existence hidden from everyone… Though when you disappeared I figured you didn't want me in your life… and that you might not care about Alex at all."

M-21 felt a knot form in his throat. His eyes darted to the floor in shame of what he'd done to her. "I thought I was no good for you." He said as he remembered the moment when he took his ill decision. "I always thought you deserved someone better than me: a normal human, with no ties to the Union or anything that could put you in danger… I figured the distance would make you forget me. But if I'd known you were pregnant… Yuna, I would have never lef-"

She silenced him by gently placing a finger on his lips. "Just promise me you'll never leave me again." She said leaning his way.

"…Never again." He said before sealing his promise with a kiss.

/-/-/-/

M-21 stayed awake that night long after Yuna had fallen asleep curled up against his side like a content kitten. He supposed it was childish of him, but he couldn't help fearing that if he went to sleep, that day would somehow end up being erased from his mind, taking the memories of Yuna and Alex along with it.

So he kept himself awake as long as he was able to, loving the feel of her skin against his again after so long, while embracing her small frame in his strong arms.

Before he finally surrendered to peaceful dreams for the first time in a long while, M-21 made a vow to stay true to the promise he'd made to Yuna that night, for as long as his heart would beat.