Categories > Anime/Manga > FAKE > Lacrymae Rerum
Life Is But a Dream
2 reviewsGW/FAKE: It's a fact of life: sometimes, bad things happen to good people. And sometimes, they get another chance... But why does the second time around have to be so much harder? Shonen-ai, tem...
1Exciting
-I-I-I-
In April, when the shadow war began, David had just turned sixteen. Like many his age, for the most part he ignored it. Sometimes he'd see a blurb on the Net, saying this-or-that base had been attacked by the Gundam pilots, and there had been so many casualties, but what did it matter to him? The Gundams rarely struck in America; most militarily strategic targets were located in Europe and the Orient.
Surviving high school seemed far more important. Calculus, crushes on the wrong half of the population, and trying out for the Lincoln High soccer team occupied more of his attention than a supply train being ambushed out in East Germany.
May 19, A.C. 195, that all changed. The rebelling colonists attacked members of the Alliance's leading council, and in response a sect of the government took control of Earth, calling itself the Organization of the Zodiac. For a time he and everyone he knew was glued to the screens, watching anxiously as OZ settled into its newfound power. But except for the nine o'clock curfew and the troops commonly seen on the streets, nothing much seemed to change. Life settled down again into its usual paces. The school year ended, and his aunt and uncle were satisfied enough with his grades to let him be on the team again next year.
There were more attacks on OZ installations during the summer; David worried more about his irritating cousin Virgil's attacks of obnoxiousness. When they were younger he and Gil had gotten along much better, but lately the half-African boy couldn't seem to stand the sight of him. David had taken to simply leaving the room whenever he got that look in his eye, the one that said Gil was about to go off at the mouth.
Summer ended. David's junior year began. No longer nearer the bottom of the totem pole than the top, he gained a bit of confidence and came out to reassuringly accepting family and friends. He confronted Gil then, asking him if his preferences were why the boy suddenly hated him, but his cousin just laughed bitterly and walked out.
A month later Treize Khushrenada was deposed as the head of OZ, and a faction followed him. Again, the world watched with bated breath and pounding hearts for the civil war that was sure to follow. OZ began Operation Nova, saturating Earth with thousands of the newly commissioned remote-operated mobile suits. The curfew changed to ten o'clock as OZ tried to eliminate both the Gundam pilots and the newborn Treize Faction. (1)
Things continued on. Despite the odds against them, the pilots attacked more frequently, sometimes aided and sometimes hindered by Treize's forces. A small percentage of the population began to root for them in the privacy of their hearts and homes, while a larger part began to wonder just which of the three armies were the 'good guys'.
By now David and his peers were concerned with what was going on in the world, but they still had their own little worlds to worry about. For a brief time- a very brief time, actually- he dated a cute sophomore named Zach. Gil simply stopped speaking to him those couple of weeks, but that didn't have much influence in why David broke up with him. Zach just lacked... something, something the teen wasn't even sure of the identity of, but needed nonetheless.
Soccer didn't go too badly for Lincoln High that year. They had a few losses, but their wins far outnumbered them. David played left forward, and scored often enough that the people in the hallways at school would stop and congratulate him after a particularly good game.
It was during their very last game, in the middle of December, that it happened; they hadn't done quite well enough to make it to finals. David was hanging around just past the center line waiting for defense to send the ball up the field. Something distracted him, he wasn't sure what afterwards; a shouting voice, perhaps, or a flicker of motion out of the corner of his eye where nothing was supposed to be moving. Whichever it was, he turned his head to look.
That was when the soccer ball hit his temple, propelled by the full force of a testosterone-filled teenage boy. There was a hard, sudden pain and a flash of bright light, and David Larson hit the ground, unconscious.
It wasn't David Larson who woke up a week later in St. Jude's Hospital.
-I-I-I-
The first thing he was aware of was the muttering. It rose and fell like the tide, sometimes soft, sometimes harsh, but always just below the threshold of understanding. Next came the heaviness of his limbs and the dryness of his mouth, both unpleasant and both superceded a mere moment later by the ache in his head. He tried to groan, then, but nothing must have come out, because the voice didn't change.
Except... yes, it was getting clearer... He strained to make it out. "...gawddammit, you bastard, you had better wake up, or I swear I'll kick your ass from here to L2..."
He wanted to laugh and sigh at the same time. There was only one person he knew who was that obnoxious. "Shut up, Bikky," he managed to croak out, forcing his reluctant jaw to open.
Instantly the muttering stopped, and the room was instead filled with a shocked silence. Puzzled, he cranked his eyelids open, flinching back at first when the light hit his over-sensitive pupils. After a time his vision cleared, revealing Bikky's slack-jawed face staring down at him.
But wait... was it Bikky's face? It was too old, the eyes not quite so large, the cheekbones more pronounced. Part of him whispered /Gil/, but the rest screamed it was the half-black, half-white son of a drug dealer Ryo had rescued and adopted...
Bikky's lips stretched into a grin wide enough it threatened to split his head in two. "It's about time, Dee. Do you have any idea how long I've been waiting for you to remember, you perverted asshole?"
Dee Laytner didn't answer, drowning under the deluge of memories of a life he'd lived and lost. Most of which centered around an oblivious, infuriating, beautiful man he hadn't even realized he still loved.
-I-I-I-
(1) Everything up to this point is canon, at least as far as I can tell based on several GW sites. There's still some accurate stuff after it, but my own inventions start showing up, so beware what you quote elsewhere.
Author's Note: This is the last of what had already been written. Future chapters will be posted as they're completed.
In April, when the shadow war began, David had just turned sixteen. Like many his age, for the most part he ignored it. Sometimes he'd see a blurb on the Net, saying this-or-that base had been attacked by the Gundam pilots, and there had been so many casualties, but what did it matter to him? The Gundams rarely struck in America; most militarily strategic targets were located in Europe and the Orient.
Surviving high school seemed far more important. Calculus, crushes on the wrong half of the population, and trying out for the Lincoln High soccer team occupied more of his attention than a supply train being ambushed out in East Germany.
May 19, A.C. 195, that all changed. The rebelling colonists attacked members of the Alliance's leading council, and in response a sect of the government took control of Earth, calling itself the Organization of the Zodiac. For a time he and everyone he knew was glued to the screens, watching anxiously as OZ settled into its newfound power. But except for the nine o'clock curfew and the troops commonly seen on the streets, nothing much seemed to change. Life settled down again into its usual paces. The school year ended, and his aunt and uncle were satisfied enough with his grades to let him be on the team again next year.
There were more attacks on OZ installations during the summer; David worried more about his irritating cousin Virgil's attacks of obnoxiousness. When they were younger he and Gil had gotten along much better, but lately the half-African boy couldn't seem to stand the sight of him. David had taken to simply leaving the room whenever he got that look in his eye, the one that said Gil was about to go off at the mouth.
Summer ended. David's junior year began. No longer nearer the bottom of the totem pole than the top, he gained a bit of confidence and came out to reassuringly accepting family and friends. He confronted Gil then, asking him if his preferences were why the boy suddenly hated him, but his cousin just laughed bitterly and walked out.
A month later Treize Khushrenada was deposed as the head of OZ, and a faction followed him. Again, the world watched with bated breath and pounding hearts for the civil war that was sure to follow. OZ began Operation Nova, saturating Earth with thousands of the newly commissioned remote-operated mobile suits. The curfew changed to ten o'clock as OZ tried to eliminate both the Gundam pilots and the newborn Treize Faction. (1)
Things continued on. Despite the odds against them, the pilots attacked more frequently, sometimes aided and sometimes hindered by Treize's forces. A small percentage of the population began to root for them in the privacy of their hearts and homes, while a larger part began to wonder just which of the three armies were the 'good guys'.
By now David and his peers were concerned with what was going on in the world, but they still had their own little worlds to worry about. For a brief time- a very brief time, actually- he dated a cute sophomore named Zach. Gil simply stopped speaking to him those couple of weeks, but that didn't have much influence in why David broke up with him. Zach just lacked... something, something the teen wasn't even sure of the identity of, but needed nonetheless.
Soccer didn't go too badly for Lincoln High that year. They had a few losses, but their wins far outnumbered them. David played left forward, and scored often enough that the people in the hallways at school would stop and congratulate him after a particularly good game.
It was during their very last game, in the middle of December, that it happened; they hadn't done quite well enough to make it to finals. David was hanging around just past the center line waiting for defense to send the ball up the field. Something distracted him, he wasn't sure what afterwards; a shouting voice, perhaps, or a flicker of motion out of the corner of his eye where nothing was supposed to be moving. Whichever it was, he turned his head to look.
That was when the soccer ball hit his temple, propelled by the full force of a testosterone-filled teenage boy. There was a hard, sudden pain and a flash of bright light, and David Larson hit the ground, unconscious.
It wasn't David Larson who woke up a week later in St. Jude's Hospital.
-I-I-I-
The first thing he was aware of was the muttering. It rose and fell like the tide, sometimes soft, sometimes harsh, but always just below the threshold of understanding. Next came the heaviness of his limbs and the dryness of his mouth, both unpleasant and both superceded a mere moment later by the ache in his head. He tried to groan, then, but nothing must have come out, because the voice didn't change.
Except... yes, it was getting clearer... He strained to make it out. "...gawddammit, you bastard, you had better wake up, or I swear I'll kick your ass from here to L2..."
He wanted to laugh and sigh at the same time. There was only one person he knew who was that obnoxious. "Shut up, Bikky," he managed to croak out, forcing his reluctant jaw to open.
Instantly the muttering stopped, and the room was instead filled with a shocked silence. Puzzled, he cranked his eyelids open, flinching back at first when the light hit his over-sensitive pupils. After a time his vision cleared, revealing Bikky's slack-jawed face staring down at him.
But wait... was it Bikky's face? It was too old, the eyes not quite so large, the cheekbones more pronounced. Part of him whispered /Gil/, but the rest screamed it was the half-black, half-white son of a drug dealer Ryo had rescued and adopted...
Bikky's lips stretched into a grin wide enough it threatened to split his head in two. "It's about time, Dee. Do you have any idea how long I've been waiting for you to remember, you perverted asshole?"
Dee Laytner didn't answer, drowning under the deluge of memories of a life he'd lived and lost. Most of which centered around an oblivious, infuriating, beautiful man he hadn't even realized he still loved.
-I-I-I-
(1) Everything up to this point is canon, at least as far as I can tell based on several GW sites. There's still some accurate stuff after it, but my own inventions start showing up, so beware what you quote elsewhere.
Author's Note: This is the last of what had already been written. Future chapters will be posted as they're completed.
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