Chapter 67: Autonomous Regulation
"Hey, Lacus, are you going back to PLANT tomorrow?" Cagalli looked surprised at her, and then looked at Ade. Her eyes wandered back and forth between the two of them, "It's so sudden, I'm not even prepared."
"Even if I am in PLANT, we can still contact each other. You can continue to discuss your problems with Mr. Kira with me." Lacus smiled and pointed to the food on the table, "But this is probably the last time you'll be able to eat my cooking."
"It's so hard to make a friend." Cagalli lowered her head bitterly, then glared at Ade angrily, "Dr. Lingus, did you just agree to that? Do you not care even if Lacus goes back? Is it possible that you are such a person?"
"I-" Ade couldn't help but avoid Cagalli's burning gaze, "I respect her choice."
"If it was Kira, he would never do such a thing!" Cagalli excitedly stood up at once, then found her own outburst and sat back down awkwardly, "Anyway, I can't accept this. Dr. Lingus, men should take the initiative at such times. You are obviously so good, Lacus must not want to separate from you. Isn't that right, Lacus?"
Lacus looked at Ade, smiled in a complicated way, and did not answer.
Lacus arranged her schedule quickly after making the decision to return to PLANT, so quickly that Ade didn't even have time to think. Although Ade tried to keep a normal mind these days, he couldn't help but suffer inwardly whenever he saw Lacus still being as gentle as before towards him. Not only malice, but he is just as sensitive to good intentions.
Today is the day before Lacus goes back, she asked Cagalli to come to the house for dinner, and Kira could not come because he had to work overtime. That's right, overtime. Mr. Kira Yamato has been named Anaheim's top employee for the quarter because of his hard work and easy-going attitude toward his colleagues.
When the young couple ran away from Orb Union, they didn't bring anything valuable, and their bank funds were frozen by the black-hearted capitalist groups, and would have had to live on the loving subsidies of the lunar government. But Cagalli refused the monthly subsistence allowance from the lunar government, and lived on Kira's salary. She is now counting on him to get the Best Employee Annual Award at the end of the year, and use it to pay the down payment.
During dinner, Cagalli was not in a good mood, but that was because she really took Lacus as a friend, and no one blamed her. After the meal, Ade went to wash dishes and cleared the table, Cagalli and Lacus continued to talk.
"Don't you want me to go? I'm free at that time." Cagalli's face looked torn.
"Thank you, but you don't have to go. We can still chat online at any time. Besides," Lacus glanced in the direction of the kitchen, "I want to be alone with Ade at the last moment. You can understand that, right?"
"You …" Cagalli sighed, "Kira seemed to have figured something out after talking to Dr. Lingus and became nice to me again. I'm an idiot and I can't figure out why, but I'm still grateful to the doctor. I was a bit impulsive just now, I didn't mean to blame him, I just think it's not good for you guys to be like this. There's no need to separate."
"Ade understands, and he doesn't blame you." Lacus sincerely held Cagalli's hand, "Please don't blame him. We all have our difficulties."
Cagalli stared at her for a while and couldn't help but sigh again. She had been sighing tonight.
A short time later, Kira, who was returning home from work, arrived at Ade's house and picked Cagalli up, leaving only the two in the house. The two sat side by side on the sofa in silence, and Lacus rested her head on his shoulder, and he didn't say anything.
"At the end of the year, you need to do something to make sure that Mr. Kira is rated as the best employee of the year. The bonus should also be higher. They don't have much savings, make sure they can afford the down payment." Lacus said in a very flat tone, "Wait until they buy a house, they will have a sense of belonging to the moon. After that, they won't want to leave anymore."
"… I know."
"But you and Cagalli don't get too close, and don't invite her to the house as I did. You are more attractive than you think, and this relationship is very important to Mr. Kira, don't give him a sense of crisis." The young girl continued, "You just have to treat Mr. Kira like a normal person, the ordinary attitude is the biggest recognition of his worldview. He will develop a strong sense of gratitude for you as time goes by, so you just need to keep the status and don't do anything else."
"… I will."
"As for Athrun, I do not recommend you recruit him. Although he is a very good pilot, his character is too weak. And his awkward relationship with Mr. Kira and Mr. Shinn will also affect the harmony of the small group around you." The young girl shifted a bit, trying to get her head to rest more comfortably, "You can return him to Miss Karn for something useful, he is Uncle Zala's son after all. Before returning him back, you can instill some new ideas in him, as you did to Shinn. It might work someday."
"… What I did to Shinn was education, not brainwashing."
"But the effect is even better than brainwashing." The young girl raised her eyebrows and looked at him, smiling gently, "And, I made some easy to preserve foods and put them in the refrigerator. Heat them up and you can eat them. Although the taste may not be fresh, at least, it's better than ordering take-out."
"… okay."
"Even if you order take-out, order them from some high-end restaurants. You don't need to save money." The young girl's voice reveals dissatisfaction, "Do not always order pizza, it's not even better than the nutrient solution. Ade, you will be malnourished if you continue to eat like that."
"… hmm."
"That's all I can think of for now, I'll email you what I can think of later. Well, it's not like I'll never see you again. I have to get up early tomorrow, both of us need to have an early rest." The young girl fondly left his shoulders, stood up, suddenly lowered herself, and gave him a light kiss on his lips, and then revealed a sly smile, "In fact, I have been looking for various reasons to kiss you, Ade, did you found it?"
Before he answered, the young girl had turned around and walked towards the bathroom. He could not see the expression on the young girl's face, nor could he see the expression on his own face.
All night, he did not sleep well, and when he got up in the morning, he felt drowsy in the head. The atmosphere this morning was slightly depressing, and although Lacus tried to look bright and cheerful, it had little effect.
After breakfast, while he was habitually cleaning up the dishes, Lacus had already finished packing. Instead of letting Uraki drive today, he planned to drive her to the port himself. After they finished picking up, the two fell into silence in the living room for a while longer.
"It's about time, shall we go?" The young girl broke the awkwardness by taking the initiative to pick up her luggage and head for the door, with him following in step.
Lacus dragged the suitcase to the entrance door unhurriedly, stretched out her slender left hand to unscrew the door. Artificial sunlight squeezed in through the doorway and spread into the room. Then she froze in place, dumbfounded, and looked back at her right arm being held by another hand much larger than hers.
"Don't play the woman around now, Ade." She bowed her head sideways to him, and her pretty pink hair hung down, covering her expression, "Don't do that. It's not your style."
"It might be very dangerous to go back. Haman-"
"Don't use the same reason you've already used." The young girl quickly interrupted him, "Ade, you love to talk logic, don't you? Don't say these meaningless words, it's going to be too late to catch the spaceship."
"I haven't figured out your awakened ability, and you have not cooperated with me to do enough sampling. I will be very uncomfortable if I don't find it out."
"That's a strange reason too, isn't it?" The young girl replied in a low voice, "Ade, you must understand what is most important to me and to the moon right now, don't you?"
"But with you gone, there will be no one to cook for me. I don't want to order take-out or drink the nutrient solution."
"Ade, are you a child?" The young girl let out a soft laugh, "Don't be spoiled. It's not even a reason."
He looked at the girl's face through the gap between her hair, and a wave of feeling, he didn't know whether it was courage or impulse, rushed to his heart, and he clutched this unknown feeling and stuffed it into his chest, struggling to say the last words.
"The agreement is invalid. I renege. I want you to stay."
The young girl shuddered as if she had been struck by electricity, then looked up at him. He finally saw the expression on the young girl's face, it was a big, bright, sun-like dazzling smile.
"You deserve to be a NewType." The young girl said something meaningless in a somewhat relieved and somewhat proud tone, and flew into his arms. The impact of the seemingly small body was so great that he was pushed backward until he leaned against the wall of the living room to keep his balance.
The young girl bit him hard on the mouth, then tenderly licked the wound she had inflicted, and finally blocked his mouth, claiming the thing she hadn't even had the courage to ask for before. This time, there was no one to read the seconds, and both of them were a little short of oxygen before they let go of each other. From the girl's pupils, he saw a burning fire and the burning himself.
The young girl opened her lips to make a silent gesture, and the word burned off his last hesitation.
"This seems to be the living room again?" This was the last thought before he lost his mind.
(About two thousand seven hundred words are omitted here)
Ade lay panting heavily on the floor of his kitchen as another figure rested helplessly on top of him. Her pretty pink hair was stained with sweat, the tips of which were stuck together.
"By the way, the plots in that novel were definitely written by yourself and not copied from the Internet, wasn'tit?" Then he suddenly thought of something inexplicable, "I just thought several scenes just now looked familiar, it could be that you are recreating the contents of your own novel?"
"I wrote it with our names, and I replaced the names after writing." Lacus gently pressed her head against his chin, "What? Disillusioned with me?"
"How could it be?" He stretched out his hand and caressed the girl's smooth back, "Your character has become more vivid, in other words, more charming."
Lacus laughed happily and did not say anything. Such exertion was huge even to the Coordinator. The two of them enjoyed the rare quiet moment, and only their breathing could be heard in the room.
"… you know, actually I don't need to go back to PLANT in such a hurry." The young girl drew circles on his chest with her index finger, breaking the quiet, "I did it on purpose, hinting at you in every way possible, deliberately forcing you to take a stand. If I won, I will push you down and do this."
He wrapped the young girl's hair around his fingers and played with it, without answering.
"I am such a cold-hearted woman, so Ade, you should not have your heart burdened, I will be the bad guy till the end." Lacus propped herself up and looked down at him, her long hair falling down from the sides to her face, "Just leave everything to me. You're just a silly kid who got tricked by a bad woman, I'll--"
He suddenly held the young girl's cheeks, blocking her channel of speech. The young girl let out a whimper of protest, but not a moment later gave up the struggle and started to ask for more. But the position was not very comfortable, and the pair had to let go of each other after a short while.
"I know exactly what I've done, don't be the bad guy all by yourself just to comfort me." He laid back down and stretched out his arms to encircle the young girl's soft body with force, "It doesn't matter if it was impulsive anymore, I will be responsible for my actions."
The young girl let out a long, long breath, her taut body finally relaxed, and leaned into his arms.
"Then you go explain to Her Majesty Diana. I have promised her." The young girl said in a spoiled tone. "I don't know what to say to her, not feeling well?"
"I'll explain, no problem." He replied with a smile. "Yes, you're not feeling well. There's nothing wrong with that."
"By the way, there is one more important thing, very, very important." The young girl braced herself again and seriously locked eyes with him, "Ade, I like you."
"… Well, you just said that." He felt his heart warming up as if it was filled with something invisible.
The young girl relaxed on top of him again, and the two of them snuggled quietly, the heat emanating from their bodies after strenuous exercise and the warmth of the room made it not feel cold at all.
After a few moments, he finally remembered something very important, "Did we leave the door open?"
The two of them scrambled up. Lacus went straight into the bathroom, and after a mess, Ade finally found his clothes under the dining room table and his pants on the sofa next to the TV. He lumped the clothes over his body and walked quickly to the foyer to find the luggage standing quietly by the door, which was fortunately closed.
"Lucky." He lamented and carried the luggage back to the living room, picking up the dresses and underwear that Lacus had thrown around.
Walking to the bathroom door, he heard the sound of water already ringing inside. He shouted to the inside, "The front door is closed, it's fine."
"That's good, I was scared to death." The young girl pulled open a crack of the bathroom door, revealing her head and half of her shoulders, and winked at Ade, "You'll catch a cold after lying on the floor for so long, hurry up and come take a shower."
…
"Cagalli, why are you back so early?" Kira looked at Cagalli who had returned home so early in surprise, and noticed that she still had the gift in her hand, "Didn't you send the gift? It took you a long time to choose last night."
"No, she probably doesn't need it anymore." Cagalli turned around and pretended to put things away so that Kira wouldn't see her expression, "Kira, how do you think Lacus and Dr. Lingus usually get along? They must be different from us."
Kira thought carefully for a while and gave a serious answer, "Although Dr. Lingus sometimes says some strange things, he is generally a very reliable and gentle person, and the same as Miss Lacus. They should treat each other like guests? Didn't Miss Lacus say that the last time we visited her?"
"Yeah, that's what I always thought too." Cagalli blushed and muttered to herself in a low voice that Kira couldn't hear, "You can't judge a man by his appearance. …"
