Chapter Text
"Come with me! If you don't know how to live, I'll seach for that with you. If you're scared, I'll be at your side. If you don't want to run, take me to the places in your drawings! The rest can come later! We're allowed to live... let me prove it!”
“With you...? You say 'come with me'... then 'take me there'... are you stupid or something?”
“Norea...!”
“Tell me later... your real na--”
His skin was aflame. He was burning, inside and out, screaming in agony as permet flooded his body.
She was dead. She was dead. She was dead.
It hurt. It was a raw, searing pain that hurt more than the permet did. Not that the permet wasn't ravaging him. His permet score had been raised so high that he was activating all sorts of controls in the Gundam Lfrith Ur that he didn't know were even a part of the vehicle. But between the pain and the tears, he could hardly tell what even was going on.
It was only a few seconds, but it felt so much longer. It felt like minutes slowly crawled by, cooking him alive in an incinerator, but enough sense returned to him that he thought I have to get away, and he threw himself at the mobile suit's controls. It wobbled unsteadily, then flew out of the broken boundaries of Asticassia School of Technology and went into space.
Enhanced Person Number Five then drifted there, alone. The burning sting of the permet was beginning to subside - slowly - though there would be plenty of new scars all along his body to show for it. That was why he was a whipping boy for the real Elan Ceres, after all.
Not that it mattered to him. Nothing mattered anymore. She was dead. Why hadn't she run away? Why hadn't she listened to him?
...why hadn't he saved her in time? He could have done something different..
A sharp sense of revulsion bubbled up inside of him suddenly. He couldn't tell if it was mental or physical revulsion, but he put a hand over his mouth and retched. Then terror gripped him all over, then, like giant icy fingers. She was dead, but he would be next if he wasn't careful.
But how could he... how could he go on? He hadn't realized, until now, just how much this strange girl he'd just met had endeared herself to him. She had become someone he cared about. Perhaps the only person he cared about. And now she was gone. The tears on his cheeks were sharp on his hot, burned skin. Did he even have any reason to be alive anymore? No one actually liked him, after all. And he didn't blame them, because he wasn't a good person. What was he supposed to do now?
The Lfrith Ur's computer panel in front of Number Five lit up in colors and pinged. He was getting a call... from Nika? Why would she be contacting him? Surely she'd seen what had happened. Sheer curiosity overcame his grief and pain and he reached out to touch the screen.
The message was simple. "I think their calibration equipment was damaged... I think the shot missed. She might be alive."
The Lfrith Thorn was crumpled on the ground, but Five could see it now as he flew back onto school grounds: the shot had just missed the center of the cockpit. It would certainly have damaged the sensitive calibration enough to cause Norea to lose control and crash hard into the ground. But her mobile suit was based on an old Ochs Earth Corporation standard and was a sturdily built machine, so maybe...
He landed nearby and exited the vehicle as fast as possible. He couldn't see Nika anywhere - she must have been in hiding somewhere, but her sense for mechanics was spot on and she must have noticed, as Five did now, that the hit was not quite direct.
“Norea!” he screamed as he ran towards her machine. “Norea!” He climbed atop the rubble, headed towards the cockpit. He turned the handle on the hatch and pulled, hard, then pushed himself inside. “Norea?"
She was strapped into her seat, which was tilted at an odd angle. She looked like she was just hanging there, as though she lacked the strength to move or otherwise try to right herself. But she appeared to be physically intact, at least as far as Five could tell. “Norea?” he asked.
Norea moved. “Urgh...” she groaned. She must have been roughed up. She'd probably hit her head.
Five felt his heart leap. She wasn't dead.
“It's alright... I've got you,” he said, and pushed his way into the cockpit and unbuckled her from the seat. He was determined to carry her to safety himself. It was awkward, because the cockpit was cramped to begin with and now it was mangled as well, but he managed to sort of half-drag and half-carry her out into the open. “Are you alright?” he asked as he did so.
Norea mumbled something that he couldn't quite hear.
Some students had gathered around them. “Get help!” Five barked at them. They did, while Five held Norea. She seemed to be drifting in and out of consciousness, and wasn't really responding to anything. She'd probably had a concussion. But as far as he could tell, it wasn't serious. It all felt unreal. He'd watched her mobile suit get shot down with his own eyes. But she was still with him. She'd been given a second chance, and he felt that because of that, he had, too.
Help arrived shortly and Norea was taken away to the school's infirmary. Five stayed by her side as long as he could, following her there, but eventually he was shooed away. He wasn't allowed in the examination rooms with the nurses, which was just as well, because the place was far too busy for any bystanders. Multiple students needed care after the rampage. Some of them because of Norea's own actions, no doubt.
Five sat in a chair in a waiting area. A few nurses asked why he was there and if he needed any help - his skin was red and raw, as though he'd been deeply sunburned. But he shook his head. He was used to permet pain. He could deal with that. He was just there because he was terrified of losing Norea again, and he did not want to think about dealing with that. He'd already thought he'd lost her earlier.
A door nearby opened. A chunky but roughly human sized robot, with wheels under a wide base and a Haro unit atop it, rolled into the room. It stopped in front of him, its LED eyes blinking.
“Hello!” it said in a high pitched voice, although, as always, it came out sounding like “haro”. “I am a designated medical assistant bot. I have arrived to inform you of the status of Norea du Noc. Her condition is currently stable. She suffered from a concussion and some moderate injuries. It is the advice of the medical team that she must remain under infirmary supervision for some time.”
“When can I see her?” Five asked. Hearing that she wasn't doing badly was heartening, but he felt useless sitting outside in the waiting room.
“It is the advice of the medical team that Norea du Noc does not have visitors at this time,” said Haro, its eyes blinking. “Please be advised that Norea du Noc is also currently under investigation by the board of Asticassia School of Technology for causing property damage resulting in numerous student casualties,” it added then, as though to add insult to injury.
“Right,” Five muttered. There was that little detail. He wondered if anyone had died in the incident. Probably. It was a lot of damage, and not just from Norea and the Lfrith Thorn. Even if Norea got out of this alive, which it looked like she would - she wouldn't be free and clear.
“Do you have any more questions for me?” Haro asked.
“Do you know when I can see her?” said Five.
Haro was silent for a moment as though it was relaying the question elsewhere. Then it spoke up. “I do not have access to that information at this time. I advise you to speak to the nurses yourself. Do you have any more questions for me?”
“No, that's fine,” said Five.
The robot turned and rolled back into the room.
Five sighed and slumped in the chair. What was he even doing? He hardly even knew Norea. They'd talked a few times. She'd tried to stab him a few times. The usual for a fellow Gundam pilot, he thought wryly. But something about her intrigued him, and he'd thought he'd been making progress in chipping away at those hard bindings that kept her soul contorted in agony.
But he actually cared about her.
Come with me!
Yeah. He'd actually said that. And worse, he hadn't just said it, he actually meant it. Something about Norea made him want to prove to her that life was worth living - regardless of what he had to do to show her that.
He really couldn't believe he was doing this.
Five was actually allowed to see her a few days later.
The Haro robot led him into the infirmary, where Norea was lying in bed, hooked up to a variety of tubes and monitors. She was staring at the ceiling, but she looked over and blinked at Five when he walked in. “Why are you here?” she asked him.
“What do you mean, why am I here? I was worried about you! I thought you'd died!” Five spat back. Something occurred to him, then, and he said, “Didn't the nurses tell you that someone had been wanting to see you?”
“No,” said Norea matter-of-factly.
“Ugh,” said Five. “Well, I have been. I've been waiting to see you for the last few days.”
“Why?” Norea asked again. “Why do you keep trying to stop me from doing what I want?”
“Because I don't think you actually know what you want,” said Five.
“Fuck you,” said Norea.
Then they were quiet, and Five thought it was probably a good thing that Norea was weak and in bed and not able to stab him at the moment. He felt he did have to say something, though, so he admitted, “Look. I'm really glad you're alive.”
“You shouldn't be. No one should be. I'm nothing like Sophie,” said Norea. She looked up at the ceiling. “I wish I'd died.”
“No you don't,” said Five.
“I really fucking hate you, do you know that?” Norea said. It probably would have come out even harsher than it already did, but she clearly didn't have the energy to put a lot of emotion into it.
“I know, I know,” said Five. "Look. I think no matter how much you hate me, you're going to need my help."
“What are you talking about? I don't need any help. I don't need you or anyone,” said Norea.
“Oh? Well, I happen to know that Asticassia's board wants to discipline you for what you've done. Partly because of you, they're going to have to pay lots of money to fix damaged buildings. And on top of that, a lot of people were hurt or killed. It's going to cost them a lot of money and it's going to look very bad. You're probably going to wind up in a correctional facility.”
Norea scowled as she thought on this. "Fucking Spacians. I wish I'd killed all of them," she said finally.
Five ignored her remark. “But I think I can lessen your sentence. Suletta Mercury and Earth House need help with something serious. I was talking to them about it just the other day while I was waiting to see you. They've pledged their help to both of us if I help them. I happen to have a lot of skills they could use. And I wouldn't want them to be without my delightful company anyway.”
“And how does that help me, exactly?”
“They can help get you back to Earth as soon as possible. You'll probably be under some form of house arrest, but you won't be in prison, and you won't be in space. Isn't Earth where you want to go back to, anyway?”
Norea was quiet. “I don't know,” she said finally. “I don't know what I'm supposed to do now. Sophie is gone... I don't have anything left.”
“So at least let me help you for now,” Five pressed. “Let me help you long enough that you don't end up in some space prison for years. Then you can decide what to do after that.”
Norea thought about it for a while, then sighed. “Alright. Fine. Why do you want to help me so much, anyway? What's in it for you?”
How was he supposed to admit that he just liked spending time with her? How was he supposed to admit that he'd somehow found himself invested in her happiness? But ultimately, he couldn't really deny it. “I was serious when I asked you to come with me,” he said. “I want to experience things with you, and show you that we can give our lives our own meaning. I... like you. Couldn't you tell? Come on.” He looked away, embarrassed.
“Were you always such a simp?”
“Excuse me?” Five blurted out.
Norea smirked. “If you can help me get back to Earth, then I can pretend to be friends for now. Don't let it get to your head. Because I still hate you.”
He really loved how strongly she felt about him.
Five didn't actually see her again for a few weeks after that. Partially it was because the nurses told him it wasn't a good idea, but mostly it was because he was busy. He went and helped Suletta Mercury on the condition that he not pilot any Gundams, but he was a significant part of that fight and as such, Miorine - who was in the process of disbanding Benerit Group and restructuring Asticassia's ownership - was able to put in words with the right people and suggest that she be deported to Earth for house arrest as well as psychiatric evaluation and treatment. Miorine was dedicated to repairing the divide between Earthians and Spacians as much as possible, and keeping Earthian children out of prison when more appropriate sentences were available was largely seen as a good PR move. All in all, it went better than Five expected.
When Five finally returned to Asticassia to tell Norea about it, she'd already been released from the infirmary's care and now had her own place on living quarters. It was a special area, with some extra security, reserved for students who were under extra scrutiny by the board - Nika had her own place in that section, too. When Five arrived, Norea was sitting on her couch sketching in her notebook, and she didn't look up when he walked in the door.
“Hey, you should draw me one of these days,” Five quipped.
“I don't draw garbage,” she shot back, still without looking up from her notebook.
“H... hey!” Five put on a mock hurt face. Norea didn't look at it. So he went over and sat down next to her on the couch, and craned his neck to look at her notebook. Norea pulled it away. Five moved to inch closer to her, but Norea whirled on him with her pencil, so he immediately backed away, his hands up, as though she were a hissing feral cat. “Okay, okay,” he said. “I just thought your art is good, that's all,” he added, which was genuine.
“What do you know about art?” Norea spat at him.
“I mean... I used to draw a bit, when I was a kid. We didn't have a whole lot of money on the mining colony where we lived, and crayons and paper are cheap toys, considering everything. I wasn't good at it, and it was a long time ago, but...” he trailed off.
"Huh. They didn't wipe your memory?" Norea asked.
"You know, they usually do with us Enhanced Persons," Five said. "They did with the guy before me. And probably all the guys before him. But they needed me fast, so they told me they didn't have time to wipe my memory." He shrugged. Norea looked at him oddly. Five couldn't pin his finger on her expression, and she didn't seem like she wanted to say anything else, so eventually he said, “Anyway, I actually have a reason for coming to see you.”
“Oh, you're not just here to piss me off?”
“Shockingly, no. Miorine Rembran and Earth House have figured out a way to get you to Earth. There's some money involved, but they're taking care of that, too. You'll probably just have to do some paperwork. So, you can go ahead and thank me for keeping you out of prison. And you're welcome.”
“Thanks,” said Norea tersely. “So I guess that's it for you, then?”
“Huh?”
“You're done helping me. Go off and do whatever. Bye.”
“Did you miss the part where I asked you to come with me? Because if you did, I'll ask you again. Come with me.”
“Where?”
“To Earth. You're going anyway, so let's go together.”
Norea let out a long sigh. “You know, you assumed I'd want to be back on Earth. But there's nowhere in this universe worth going to anymore. Earth is dying. I'd rather be on Earth than a fucking Spacian prison, I guess, but what am I supposed to do there?”
“Let's go together and we can find something to do. Two heads are better than one, right?” He was being very earnest now, peering deeply into Norea's green eyes and willing her to see what he could see. She stared back into his eyes, and suddenly-- for some reason he couldn't quite explain-- he could tell that something had clicked.
She looked away right then. “I'll think about it,” she said.
That was a lot better than what Five was expecting, and he took it.
He visited her again the next day, though he wasn't expecting to actually be let in. He'd just been passing by the student residences and had thought he'd check in on a whim. Norea opened the door to him. “Well, if it isn't my favorite Spacian bastard,” she said as he walked in, and even though he knew it was sarcastic, he couldn't help but be excited at the word "favorite". Norea was seated at her desk, typing something into a tablet.
She didn't seem particularly interested in saying anything at the moment, so Five went and sat on the couch. It wasn't until after he sat on the couch that he noticed Norea's open sketchbook on a side table next to him. He glanced at it.
The entire page was filled with the visage of Elan Ceres-- or, judging by the earrings, himself.
There were two full bodied sketches of him, one where he was standing up, and one where he was sitting, but mostly it was closeups of his head from various angles.
While they were all unmistakably him, he noticed that none of them were quite the same. In one, he had shorter hair. In another, his face seemed a bit longer. And in another, he had rounder eyes.
His eyes scanned their way down the page, his cheeks increasingly feeling warmer. Had she really devoted an entire page to him? But why did none of the portraits look quite right? Was he just that hard to draw?
Then Five got to the bottom of the page. There was scribbled text there, not a drawing. The handwriting was kind of messy, so he had to stare at it for a moment before he was able to make out the words "Fucking Spacian bastard. What did you look like before?"
Ah.
He was still processing this when Norea turned to look at him from her spot at her desk. “They're making me fill out a bunch of applications and stuff so I can get to Earth. I was wondering if maybe you—” she paused. Her eyes narrowed. "Did you fucking look at my notebook?"
"No, of course not," Five lied in his most charming voice.
"You're blushing," Norea said without hesitation.
Five was not expecting that as a retort. "That's the permet scars," he replied with what he hoped was enough confidence to convince her.
She kept glaring at him for a few moments, and he wondered if she was going to grab the closest pencil and try to stab him again. It was well past due for her to do that.
But then she sat up from her desk, went over to her notebook and picked it up, and then sat on the couch next to Five. "Which one looks the most like you? From before, I mean," she said.
Five's head was spinning. Why wasn't she trying to kill him? Why was she being nice to him? But her question seemed to be genuine, so he answered with a shrug. "I don't know. The one with the dark hair, I guess."
"You had dark hair?"
"Well, darker than it is now, I mean. And a bit shorter. And my face probably wasn't as pretty as it is now. Elan Ceres is a very pretty man. But I guess that was a good trade-off for me, because now I'm very pretty too." He realized suddenly that he was rambling. Probably because he was still flustered from discovering that Norea was drawing him.
"Hmm," said Norea. "I'm sorry that happened to you," she added after a few moments.
Five shrugged. "I mean, I did get a very pretty face out of it." He said it in an obnoxious way because otherwise he'd end up thinking about it too much, and that would just make him angry. That had happened before.
"You're such an ass," Norea said, although the way she said it seemed to imply that she thought she, too, was an ass, and recognized another one when she saw them. That's what Five hoped he was hearing in her voice, anyway. "We didn't have to do... that... in the Dawn of Fold," Norea added. "So Sophie and I always looked like this."
She'd always looked beautiful, then? Five had to stop himself from blurting that out. She'd definitely stab him.
But Norea, now that she'd brought up Sophie, wrapped her arms around her knees and looked down. "Sophie was so... she was so..." she trailed off.
They were both quiet for a moment. "I'm sorry," Five said finally.
Norea sighed. "I shouldn't be so afraid of dying," she said.
"Why not?" said Five. "It's only human to be scared of death, right? And anyway, I, for one, don't intend on dying. I'm getting out of this place alive. Why don't you?"
“I'm only getting out alive because I'm a coward,“ said Norea.
"So is that what Sophie would want, then?" Five said. "Do you think Sophie would want you to die?"
Norea bristled, and Five suddenly realized he'd made a grave mistake.
"What do you know about Sophie," Norea growled in a low voice. Then, raising it, she said again, "What do you know about Sophie? How can you possibly know anything about her?"
"I'm sorry," Five said quickly.
Before he could say anything else, Norea launched herself at him, attacking him ferociously with her fists while he parried her with his arms. “Fuck you! Fuck you! You don't know anything about Sophie! You don't know anything about either of us, fucking Spacian bastard!” she screamed in his face. “Fuck you! You're not her! And you'll never fucking be her! I hate you. Why don't you just fucking die already!”
Then, almost as soon as she'd began her rampage, it was over. She slammed her fists into Five's chest one final time and then began sobbing. "Just die already... everything I care about dies... so why don't you just die too so I can get it over with..." then her voice trailed off into tears.
Since Five no longer had to defend himself from her blows, he did what he probably thought he should do (although he could not believe he was doing it) and wrapped his arms around her. He did it a bit awkwardly and loosely, at first, because he wasn't sure if Norea would want to either escape or retaliate. But she kept crying into him, so he relaxed and held her. He didn't say anything. Mostly because he had no idea what to say or even do in this situation. Was this even happening? How was this even real? How had the cute girl who had just been attacking him ended up in his arms like this?
He supposed he shouldn't question it.
So he said nothing, and let her cry. She cried for several minutes, soaking Five's uniform in tears, which he found deeply endearing. Finally Norea's cries gave way to sniffling, and after a bit of this she seemed to realize suddenly that she was in Five's arms, and she suddenly pushed him away and leaned back. Five let go of her quickly but reluctantly. "Are you okay?" he asked, because he felt like he should say something.
Norea sniffed and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. She looked away. "I had a question about some of those forms," she said finally, clearly desperate to get things back on track although her voice was cracking as she did so. "I'll send them to you. Do you know if I have a time limit on it?"
"I don't think so, but I'm assuming the sooner you get it all taken care of, the sooner you can leave," said Five.
Norea sniffled again. "Okay." She went back over to her desk and ignored Five after that, so when he got the popup on his electronic tablet that she'd sent him a message and some files, he left her room.
He didn't see her for a few days after that. He did help her through some of the tricky forms, because he was one of the people helping to make arrangements so it was easier for him to fill some of it out. Then he sent it back to her and she replied with a terse “Thanks” and nothing else. But he didn't hear from her after that.
Until he got a message from Nika. “Can you come check on Norea with me? She won't come out of her room.”
He arrived shortly after. Nika was waiting just outside her own room, which was not far from Norea's. “I noticed I hadn't seen her in a few days, so I knocked on her door, and she told me to go away. So I know she's in there, but... I just feel so bad,” she said. “I know she's not having an easy time, but... well, you two seemed to understand each other when we were in hiding, so I thought...”
“I mean... I can try, but she hates me,” said Five.
“She doesn't hate you. She'd have killed you in your sleep by now if she did,” said Nika. Then she sighed. “Look. You have to understand... she and Sophie... they weren't just friends. They were... together. Romantically.”
“I kind of figured as much,“ said Five.
“I think anyone would take it pretty hard, you know?” said Nika. “Anyway, that's why she's the way she is right now.”
“Yeah,” said Five. He looked down. “Well... I'll try,” he said.
He approached Norea's door and knocked. “Norea?”
“Go away,” Norea said.
“Norea...”
“I said go away. I don't want to talk to you anymore.”
“What?”
“And I'm not going with you or whatever that stupid thing you want to do is. Don't you fucking get it?”
“Get what?”
“You're so fucking stupid,” Norea screamed through the door. “We are both going to fucking die. So why does any of this even matter?”
“We don't have to die!” Five shouted back. “That's what I've been trying to tell you.”
“Well, someone has to fight for us, because no one else will!” Norea exclaimed.
“Do you even know what you're fighting for? And don't say it's because you want to kill Spacians. Listen. None of us needs to fight. Let the adults and the big companies and the terrorists and everybody fight each other. Let them all kill each other off. Who cares about them? We don't need them.”
“You don't understand anything. But of course you don't. Spacians don't have fucking hearts. So go away.”
Five sighed and looked down. Right. How could he have believed for a second that anyone would ever care about him? Of course she wanted nothing to do with him. She never had. “You're right,” he said after a moment. “I'm just a heartless Spacian bastard. How could I forget?” He turned and left.
Nika caught him on his way out of the area. “Well? How did it go?”
“I don't think she wants to talk to me anymore,” said Five, slowing down but not stopping his walk. “So I'm... not going to bother her anymore.”
Nika sighed. “Thank you for trying anyway,” she said.
Five said nothing but continued walking back to his place, leaving Nika behind. There was a pit in his stomach that he didn't like. Maybe he shouldn't try getting attached to people. He was acting childish anyway, thinking he deserved to have a friend. Yeah, he shouldn't have even tried. And he wouldn't try anymore, he decided. Friends were overrated anyway.
His tablet buzzed in his pocket and he pulled it out. There was a single word from Norea. “Sorry."
Five spun around and went right back.
He walked briskly up to Norea's flat and knocked at the door. "Norea! Will you let me in this time?"
For a few long seconds, there was no reply. Then he heard a click coming from the door handle. It had unlocked. He turned the knob and entered.
Norea was sitting on the bed, with her arms around her knees. Her eyes were red from so much crying, and her tablet was next to her.
“Are you okay?” Five asked. It was kind of a stupid question, because obviously she wasn't, but he couldn't think of anything else to say.
Norea said nothing. She looked over at Five, though, her eyes sharp under her dark eyelashes.
“Can I come sit with you?” Five asked then. Mostly because he didn't want to find out that the answer was no when it was too late and he had a pencil jammed in his neck.
Norea nodded. It was a small nod, but it was there, and Five walked over and sat next to her on her bed. Now what?
It was, surprisingly, Norea who first talked. “I don't want to... leave Sophie behind,” she said quietly, still holding her legs. “She died here... if I just... if I just leave her here...” she couldn't finish the thought. Tears filled her eyes, suddenly, and she shoved her face into her knees.
Five didn't know what to say. Was he supposed to hold her again? He didn't know if that was a good idea or not. He did, however, gently put his hand on her back. Norea said nothing, so he kept it there. "I don't think Sophie would have wanted you to stay in space forever," he said matter-of-factly after a moment.
Norea sniffled. "I know," she said. "But that doesn't make me feel any better."
"Well maybe you'll feel better on Earth. You can always try it," said Five.
Norea didn't reply at first. Then she said quietly, “You know, when I saw you in the Lfrith Ur... I thought... just for a second... that you were Sophie.”
“Yeah,” said Five. “But... I know I'm not Sophie. I'm sorry I'm not her.”
Norea turned and looked back at Five. “You really came to get me, though.”
“Yeah, I did,” said Five. He shrugged. “I don't know if I was thinking when I did it.”
“Idiot,” said Norea.
“I try,” said Five.
They were quiet for a moment. Then Norea straightened herself up so she was no longer wrapped around her knees, and Five's hand fell from her back. “You... really... want to come with me?” she said, turning to face him.
“If you'll have me.”
“And you're really just going to follow me?”
“Well, let's start with that, at least. You'll probably be limited to one city at first, but after that... maybe we can try visiting all the places you drew. I don't really have anything else in mind, and that sounds like a good place to begin.”
Norea looked at him, and Five looked back. Somehow they always managed to end up looking in each others' eyes. Five could see the permet scars lining her cheeks, and he wondered if she could see his.
"I'll think about it. For real, this time," she said finally. "And I'll give you a real answer."
Five took it.
“Earth, huh,” said Nika. Once Norea had stabilized, Five had left and gave Nika a brief update. He had developed a strange sort of friendship with her since they'd all been cooped up together. Nika, after all, knew Five's secret as an Enhanced Person and she knew how badly he wanted to escape his fate. And she seemed well aware of Five's feelings towards Norea, and was willing to help in that area, too.
“Yep, Earth,” said Five. “Would you believe I've never been?”
“I mean... yes, I would believe that,” said Nika.
Five sighed. Apparently his little joke hadn't been as funny as he thought it was. “Well... anyway... I was hoping to go with Norea. Maybe can show me all the places she used to draw. Or we can do other stuff, I don't know."
"You know she's probably going to be confined to one city for a while, right?" Nika asked. "She's in trouble, after all."
"Well yes, but you know... after."
Nika looked at her and made a half-grin. "You really like her, huh? Like... like her."
"I mean... maybe?" Five still wasn't sure on his own feelings. He'd never felt like this about anyone before. How could he, when he'd been spending his entire life running away and desperately trying to stay alive? How could he develop feelings for anyone when he'd hurt so many people to get his way, and always had to be willing to do so again? Developing feelings like that was dangerous. It was risky. "Like... I think I like her? I don't know why I'd be acting this crazy otherwise."
"I think... you can help each other," said Nika then. Her half-smile became a full smile. "I'd like to go back to Earth too someday. Though it probably won't be for a few years. Maybe we can all meet up sometime?"
A few years seemed like such a long time away, but perhaps it was time to finally start thinking that way. Maybe now he could take a breath and think about the future. "Maybe," he agreed.
Five didn't see Norea for a few days. He thought it was best to let her be for now. He knew, now, that she would contact him electronically if she wanted him for something.
She did, finally, send him a terse message. "I got the paperwork all approved." it read.
"You're going to Earth?" Five messaged her back.
"Yes."
She wasn't much for words, was she? "Can I stop by?" he messaged.
"Sure," came the reply.
So he stopped by her place as soon as he could. She seemed to be in a better state than she'd been in the last time he saw her. She was sitting on the couch when he opened her door. "Hey," he said. "Um... congratulations."
"Thanks." Norea's tone seemed neutral. But that was better than angry or upset.
"So um... when are you going?" Five went over and sat next to her on the couch. "Do you know?"
"They told me I can leave whenever I want. So hopefully soon. I was looking up travel options earlier. I might be able to leave next week."
"Ahh..." so it really was final, and it sounded like she was planning on leaving without him. He couldn't let it all end like this, right? He opened his mouth to ask, once again, if she wanted a travel companion. He didn't think she'd accept, but he had to do it. He couldn't not.
But Norea spoke before he could say anything. “I never thought I'd be showing a Spacian around Earth,” she said matter-of-factly, as though it was an obvious conclusion.
“Huh?” Five looked at her sharply, wondering if she was implying what she seemed to be implying.
“Hey,” said Norea. "I want you to come to Earth with me, but you have to answer something for me first. You've been keeping something from me.”
Five braced himself. What was she talking about? Hadn't he been open with her? “What?” he asked tentatively.
Then Norea smirked, suddenly. “Spacian bastard. You still haven't told me your real name.”
Five's first impulse was to relax. She was just playing with him. But he also felt his voice catch in his throat. He imagined it was the reaction he probably would have had if he hadn't watched Norea's mobile suit be blasted out of the sky the moment she'd asked him the first time.
Something about the question was so... intimate. She wanted to know something about him that he hadn't told anyone else since he stopped being himself and instead became Elan Ceres.
But had he ever truly become Elan Ceres? Had he really stopped being himself?
He glanced around; the door was shut. For some reason he felt that something this personal had to be said in private. But they were alone, so he leaned down so he was close to her ear and whispered his name.
Norea smiled at him.