‘Come on, Chikuya, lemme try!’

‘Ehhh? But I still haven’t gone! Lemme get my toy first!’

The little girl inserted the two 100 yen coins into the slot, a weeks’ worth of carefully saved allowance. Taking a breath, hoping to get the figurine she wanted, she turned the handle back, letting the coins get in place and then forward. Once. Twice. Three times. The machine made its trademark ‘Gacha-gacha’ noise, as a little plastic capsule dropped out into the little space between the slot and the plastic cover keeping it from falling out.

Opening it, she took it out, peering through it to try and see the identity of the disassembled figurine.

‘Hahhhh! Look, Rani! I got Lunamaria! I’ve been wanting this one!’ She hugged the capsule close to her chest, cheerful. ‘Okay, if you want to try, you can go now,’ she said happily.

‘It took you long enough,’ the little boy scoffed. Nonetheless, he pulled two coins (allowance, yet again) out of his pocket, and moved forwards towards the display of different vending machines. The little girl stepped aside as he went towards the same one .Dropping the two 100 Y coins into the slot, he turned the handle. Out dropped the capsule.

Picking it up, he looked in through the transparent part. ‘Hm…Shin, not bad.’ He shrugged.

‘Oooh, you got Shin? That’s so cool!’ She exclaimed.

The bell in the town hall rang. Once. Twice. Three times.

‘Hanyaaaaan! It’s three already?! Rani, we’d better get back, otherwise our parents will be mad!’ She grabbed his hand, and started rushing through the streets to the apartment building that they lived in, managing to arrive in the courtyard before their respective mothers came back from work.

Out of breath (it was a long run for two seven year olds), they sat there a moment.

‘So…Chikuya, do you want to come over? Or should we go over to yours?’

‘Uhmm…’ she thought for a moment. ‘Can we go to your place? Mommy forgot to give me my keys, so I can’t get in.’ she said, slightly embarrassed.

He shrugged again. ‘Okay then, let’s go.’ Grabbing her hand, he led the way towards it.

---

‘Ooh, ooh, Rani, let’s put our toys together now!’ The girl exclaimed, excited about putting it together finally. ‘How about it?’ They stood in the hallway, right outside the door.

‘Okay...let’s go to my room, that way, they won’t get broken or something when we carry them over.’ They made their way over to the room, walls painted a sky blue. He stationed himself on the swivel chair at his desk, spinning it around so it was facing her, and she sat on the bed, knees dangling over the side.

‘Eh…let’s see, I think you unscrew it…’ she managed to get it open, with the boy doing the same a few seconds later. The sealed plastic bags with different parts fell into their laps. ‘Raaaniiii…can you pass me the scissors?’

‘Just wait a second! After I’m done using them!’

‘Are you done now?’

‘Argh! No, it’s not my fault that it’s hard to cut!’

A few minutes and several ripped shreds of plastic later, the bag was open and the various parts spilled out.

He sighed. ‘That’s what I don’t like about these…the bags are so hard to open.’

‘Can you pass the scissors now?’ They were handed over, and the bags eagerly scissored open. ‘Unyau! This looks kinda complicated…’She commented, looking over the various coloured pieces.

‘Maybe there’s instructions or something in here,’ said the boy, picking up the folded and slightly curled bit of paper that came with it. Unfolding it, he examined it for some sort of direction.

She did the same, and looked on the back. ‘It has what it’s supposed to look like on it…ooh, it looks like there are pairs meant to go together! See, Lunamaria goes with Shin, Kira with Lacus and Athrun and Meyrin! Isn’t it cute?’

‘Um…right. Let’s just put these together.’

---

‘Hanyaaaaan! Rani, don’t they look cool?’ She was almost beside herself with excitement at her first figurine, assembled and currently standing next to the boy’s on his desk. Taking a look at the little paper in hand, she blinked. ‘Rani, I think these are supposed to go hand in hand or something…see?’ She showed the little slip to him, pointing at the two. ‘Should we try?’

He looked to where she was pointing, and blinked. ‘Okay, we might as well…they look kinda weird by themselves too.’ He slid his figure over towards the girl’s. She started moving hers too.

‘Oooh, there we go! Done!’ She stepped back, admiring her work. Turning towards the boy, she asked, ‘Rani, do you want to keep these two? They can stay on your bookshelf.’

‘Eh? Okay then, are you sure it’s okay with you though?’

‘Yup! They just look so cute here! Eheh!’

He picked up the two, moving them towards the bookshelf, and adjusting them to their previous position, holding hands.

They were suddenly distracted by their respective mothers’ calls.

‘Rani! Chikuya! We’re home!’

She turned to him. ‘Oooh…it looks like I have to go…see you tomorrow!’ She smiled happily, waving, before going off towards the doorway and her mother.

He always thought it would stay like this, like those two figurines…together for eternity.

---

But it hadn’t been that way. They had both gotten drafted for the war with the neighbouring country.

He had been placed in an offensive division, and she was delegated to work in the communication Ops. They kept in touch regularly, as she was the one relaying commands from the higher-ups to his division.

But that had all changed one day.

---

‘Okay...Division twelve, listen up! Your mission today is to protect the Yutakuyo area from impending attack. Have you got that?’

‘Yup.’

‘Yeah.’

‘Affirmative.’

She grinned. ‘Address me as Ensign, will you? I’m higher up in rank than you are.’

He rolled his eyes, grinning as well. ‘C’mon, Chikuya! We all know you don’t like formal stuff.’

‘Even as that may be, you still can’t deny that I’m your superior. Now, good luck. Don’t get killed, you know it’s hard to train new soldiers.’ She waved, smiling reassuringly.

They never thought that the whole Ops base would be destroyed that day. It was never in any of their minds.

---

‘Rani! The Ops base is on fire!’

‘What?! You’re kidding me, right? He looked behind him, manipulating the tail cameras accordingly. ‘Holy crap, it is on fire!’ He radioed the command center, flagging it as urgent. She picked up.

‘Yes? What is it?’

‘Chikuya, what’s going on over there?’

‘Uhmm…one sec, lemme check.’ Brief pause. ‘The enemy went totally against what we predicted and bombed the Ops. Higher-ups never expected it; they thought that the defence would scare them away.’

‘Can we come over and help?’ It must have been on speakerphone, for a superior was suddenly yelling into the speaker.

‘No! Stick to your positions! The ground defence can handle it; now stick to your spots!’ The connection was cut off, whether on purpose or by an accident, he would never know.

---

The enemy never attacked Yutakuyo. Almost nobody survived the Ops bombing, only the higher-ups made it out. Everyone from Lieutenant-rank down died. The estimated casualty count was over 200.

---

He’d refused to attend the military-sponsored mass funeral for those who died, preferring to stay away from their empty condolences, and mourn in private. The war had ended only a week after Chikuya’s death, with a truce drawn between the two sides.

It was a complete waste of life.

The ones in charge never realized it, that it was a bittersweet end. They had never had anyone precious to them die uselessly, with their lives thrown away unwillingly, needlessly, by someone else.

None of them ever had a chance.

And he would mourn in secret for them all.

---

Far away, in a sky-blue room, with its occupant long grown up and gone, two figurines were on the bookshelf, gathering dust.

One, a girl, knocked down; yet still looking towards the one she loved.

And the other, a boy, forever reaching his hand out in vain for her.

At least in his dreams, he can return to the time they spent together.

Das Ende

---

Um…wow. I wrote this on the airplane from Tokyo to Toronto, because I had nothing to do. Eheh…anyways, I hoped you liked this. No, I don’t own Gundam Seed DESTINY; I just borrowed the characters’ names for the figurines.

Just in case you got confused, Rani is the boy. Chikuya is the girl. They lived in the same apartment building, and no, they aren’t related. Their mothers work at the same workplace, that’s all. They were childhood friends since age five. This is a slightly different world than ours, with more advanced weapons technology.

I have no idea really where the plot came from. I think it got inspired from my Shin figurine that I got from a vending machine, and I didn’t get the Lunamaria one. Eheh…

I never knew I could write something this grim. Oo

Review please?

NOTES: Disclaimer: I don’t own G-seed Destiny; I just borrowed names of characters. This is not fan fiction. Rating: T, for that one word Rani says during the second last italicized area. XD