Disclaimer : Like usual, GS and its characters are not mine.

Author's Note : This is AU. Athrun and Fllay's characterizations were of their early GS. I just can't help writing more AU about these babies of mine. They're just too beautiful!

Despite All the Odds, Here We Are

Athrun found himself staring at the girl sitting in front of him at the moment. By Natural's (and possibly Coordinator's) standard, she was sure beautiful. She didn't put on much make-up, which he was inwardly thankful for, and she tied some of her flaming red hair in a half-ponytail bun, letting the rest of it fell around her shoulder. Simple yet elegant hairstyle. Though he had to admit that her rather strange hair color was what struck him the most the first time he saw her set her foot in this fancy restaurant. He had never seen a Natural with such an unnatural color before. If it wasn't from her biography that he read a few days ago, he could have mistaken her for a Coordinator.

Athrun was by no means a racist, but even he acknowledged that there were indeed some basic differences between Natural and Coordinator; ones which Coordinators had been fortunate to get the upper-hand in.

"I apologize for being late, Zala-san. Did you wait here long?" She asked, looking apologetic. She had quite a forced smile on her face, and he wondered if she's as reluctant to be here as he was.

He was still very much against this engagement, but he didn't want to come across as rude, so he gave a tight smile in return. "Not at all, Miss Allster. I got here just 5 minutes earlier." Truth. He was reluctant to come, true, but he didn't want to be a jerk for standing up on someone he hadn't even met.

"Gosh, glad to hear that!" she let out a relief sigh. "Have you made your order yet?" She opened the menu laid in front of her.

"Ah, my apologies. I heard that this is where you frequently spend your evenings, so I was hoping that you could give me recommendation..."

"My, seeing that you had flown all the way from ZAFT, you definitely have to taste this restaurant's secret specialty and I happen to know just the thing!" She might not intend to show it but Athrun's observant eyes caught a glimpse of how her eyes twinkled in delight with the prospect of him trusting her to choose his orders. She raised her hand in a minute and told the waiter her orders without even sparing a glance to the menu options.

After the waiter finished inputting their orders, silence fell over them. Neither side knew what to say, both were afraid in crossing the line. They knew each other from each biography that they received a few weeks ago, yet here they were, still very much stranger to each other.

She was now playing with her hand calmly, but sometimes her hand incidentally touched her engagement ring and she visibly flinched right away. That didn't go unnoticed by Athrun who was subtly observing her all this time.

"Forgive me if I'm wrong, but you're engaged to the Argyle heir, I heard?"

Flay looked up, partly surprised that Athrun was the one who broke the silence. "Ah... yes, the name is Sai Argyle.."she explained while unconsciously looking down on her ring. "We're also friends in university too. It's really a wonder how we both are still close even until now..." she murmured the last part of her sentence, though not in a voice as low as she'd like to think.

Athrun didn't say anything again after that, and Flay found herself feeling embarrassed for giving out such unnecessary little details. "Ah! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to go on and on about myself…"

He leaned back on his seat, eyes still watching over her form. "It's perfectly alright, it's not like we can go from here anytime soon. We might as well keep each other's company with conversations like this."

Feeling a little bit less tense and grateful for his understanding, she gave him bitter smile and determined to change the subject, away from anything about her. She felt uncomfortable talking about herself with a stranger, even though she was sure Athrun had most likely done his research beforehand. "Anyway, enough about me. You yourself are also engaged to Clyne, correct? Isn't she the one who sings?"

"Lacus Clyne, yes, she is." He added. Things went smoothly, he noted. He wasn't exactly comfortable with awkward silence so he would prefer the way things are now, even if all they could talk about was each other's fiancée. For other people it would definitely be awkward, but considering their situation right now, any topic would have been fine.

"Have you two known each other since you're kids?"

Athrun nodded, eyes casting downwards. "We're betrothed since we're small." He found himself stared far into space, like he was going back in time. "Maybe she's the only girl I've known rather closely so far. It's been 8 years, after all..." he muttered, before catching himself and cleared his throat.

Flay was about to comment on it when he sat upright with sudden urgency in his form. "Now that we're getting to the point, let me make it clear to you about our situation here. If you would let me proceed..." he trailed off, his tone was clearly asking for her permission to continue saying whatever he wanted to say in the first place.

She blinked. "Y—yes, go ahead." Honestly, she was startled with the sudden change of pace and formality in his words that she couldn't find any other words to answer him. What is happening?

"I will be blunt here. I'm very much against this idea of engagement between us for I still fail to see the point of it. We both know that we're engaged with other people since we're small, hence I can't see why they decided to break off each of our previous engagements for something that hasn't happened yet." he paused.

"The situation is tense out there, true, but it's not like the Earth Alliance is in immediate danger as it's a neutral ground. That being said, I do understand why ZAFT wants to seek an ally for the fear of nearing war against Earth Alliance and frankly speaking, the Earth Alliance is quite an ideal choice. You have quite a number of people and facilities to aid us if push comes to shove. Of course, we don't intend to start a war. Having your people as our ally may also help us understand more about Naturals and vice versa, let ORB knows that we mean no harm to Naturals in general. " He stopped, taking in a few breaths and probably giving Flay enough time to process his words. He still held her eyes with his, and when he found no confusion or offensive reaction shown on her face (or maybe just she's doing good job in hiding it), he continued.

"Therefore, as much as I despise the idea of being engaged for the second time after spending the last 14 years of my life being engaged to somebody else, I will go along with both of our fathers' plan as I have faith in them. If you let me, I'll be in your care from now on." He gave her a rather deep bow.

Flay was stunned. She had never seen such a serious guy before, not even Sai was this serious. He would usually go flustered when he was going to say something cheesy or romantic and before he knew it he would make quite a cute view with him stammering his words and his face being as red as a ripe tomato. It's always her who would take the initiative; holding hands, kissing him in the cheek…

Flay pinched herself in the cheek inwardly for thinking about the past at such a very inappropriate time.

Athrun was waiting for her response when he heard strange noises coming from where she sat. He looked up from his bow and found her trying hard to stifle a giggle with both of her hands closed on her mouth.

"I—I'm sorry, Zala-san!"she finally managed to control herself. "I hope you don't think I'm laughing at you, because I'm not. Your formality is quite amusing."

Athrun was about to defend himself and clarified that no, this isn't the time to be amused when he saw Flay leaned forward and gave him a faint smile, not like anything forced he had seen from her so far. "I feel the same way. My engagement with Sai wasn't as long as yours to Clyne-san, but it is still quite a long time. I can see why you're rather upset about the idea of us getting engaged after being engaged to someone else for as long as you could remember, and I'm sorry for being partly the cause of your grief..." she looked down, feeling a bit guilty from knowing that the only Zala heir's quite legendary engagement to the diva had to be broken off and replaced by her of all people.

"No, it's not exactly your fault—"

She didn't let him finish. "I'm not a soldier, that's why I cannot see things from your perspective as well as you are. I'm just an ordinary Natural university girl who knows nothing about war and its complexity. However, seeing that my Dad actually needs my help for the first time with this engagement idea, I couldn't exactly refuse it. Sai is a dear childhood friend of mine, but if I can do something to help preventing the war by breaking off my engagement with him, I would do so in a heartbeat." She looked at Athrun with determined eyes.

She then extended her right hand. "My name is Flay Allster, daughter of the Vice-Foreign Minister of Atlantic Federation's, George Allster. Pleased to meet you." As soon as he extended his right hand, she firmly shook it.

Athrun immediately forgot why he had doubts earlier.

Smiling too, albeit faintly, he gave a slight squeeze on her hand to let her know that he acknowledged her determination and replied, "Likewise."

-o0o-

The rest of the evening passed quite uneventfully. Seeing as Flay was more of an easy-going person than he was, he let her did all the talking. She asked what he usually did during his free time (he answered with hanging out with a bunch of his teammates from academy), if he enjoyed his current occupation (he replied curtly that he just graduated from academy and became a regular soldier for 1 month so he wouldn't exactly know whether he did enjoy it or not), what his hobbies were (he paused for a minute as if he found the question quite hard, before saying that for all its worth, making robots and mechanics are what draw him in), etc. A logical part of him thought that some of her questions were unnecessary as they were already listed on his biography that he's sure she's got her hands on, but nonetheless he appreciated her effort to stay friendly to him.

They were walking down the town center for a while, with Flay pointing out and explaining the history of a few buildings' to him. It was snowy that night, but the place was still as crowded as when it's daylight, albeit looked more ethereal with all the beautiful lamps lit on. Some people he didn't know, who turned out to be people who knew Flay, passed by them with surprised looks on their face; obviously not expecting her with some bluenette stranger.

"Your friends?"

She shook her head. "Well... I wouldn't call them friends, acquaintances perhaps more suitable. We only spoke a few times before."

"I see that you're quite popular. There are quite many of them in the span of 15 minutes." He mused, giving her a side glance. Honestly, that's no surprise. He could see her being a popular person. Her confidence, her friendly nature, all her traits showed everything he knew from the definition of popular. Lacus would be another perfect example, he thought.

She laughed it off while shaking her head. "Not as popular as you, I believe!"

"I'm in the military, Miss Allster. Certainly I'm not popular at all." He shrugged, following her strides that he presumed would lead to her house.

She gave him a rather visible disbelief look, but she just let it be for now without acting on it and they dropped the matter.

-o0o-

A few months later, Fllay found herself sitting in an extravagant restaurant, with Athrun wearing his complete military uniform right across her. The Zalas had been in Heliopolis since a week ago for diplomatic reasons. Patrick Zala, a very well-known biased individual who didn't even try to hide his distaste toward Naturals in general, was very reluctant to go but his beautiful, peace-loving wife Lenore Zala forced him to. He also wore his military uniform, completed with all his badges and ranks. Then there was George Allster, the Vice-Foreign Minister of Atlantic Federation who held little to no belief in the notion of Coordinators and Naturals living side by side happily. He preferred both races to stay where they are now to avoid any unnecessary conflicts.

Yet look where they were now.

Athrun had been nice enough to keep conversing with her father about the development of their ongoing conflict, whether or not they should start getting worried, etc. Surprisingly, Athrun Zala was one of a few Coordinators that George got along decently. Not only was the young Zala was respectful, he never brought up anything about their race differences nor was he ever seen talking bad about Naturals. To George's observation, this bluenette young man had genuinely wanted to keep the peace between Earth Alliance and PLANT. Athrun had visited Heliopolis twice before, and in all meetings during those periods, he had expressed his opinion on how Naturals and Coordinators can and should be able to live in harmony numerous times. The sceptical, unbelieving, and hated looks sent by majority of Earth Alliance and some Blue Cosmos members didn't deter him, not even a bit, and George was quite pleased at that.

Lenore and her mother were as usual, talking about how the engagement and wedding receptions would look like. How many flower arrangements they would order, what types they were, what kind of foods would they serve, would the engagement be held in ZAFT and the wedding reception would be in PLANT or vice versa. Flay had to awkwardly (and embarrasingly) interfere when they touched the subject of the best place for honeymoon. She and Athrun had just made progress as friends for a few weeks, she certainly wouldn't let the honeymoon talk ruined what they currently had now.

Patrick Zala, however, remained silent while eating his meal quietly, clearly not enjoying the current situation. She almost felt bad at him. Nothing was worse than feeling out of place and mingling into a group of people that one hated, no matter how ridiculous their hatred came from.

Fllay looked around for the waitress who was in charge of winery, before she gave him signal to come over when she spotted one. The waiter leaned forward, and after she spoke a few words to him, he disappeared for a while before reappearing not too long after. With a bow, he politely handed her a bottle of one of their wine collections. With nervous smile, she cleared her throat and leaned a bit forward, unintentionally gaining the table's attention to her. "Would you mind a glass of wine, Mr. Zala?"

The table fell silent right away. Athrun warily glanced to his father, waiting for the man's reaction. Patrick, perhaps realizing that everyone's attention was on him, decided to choose for the safest answer and simply nodded his head with a single mutter, "…Yes, please."

Flay almost bit her lip in relief. She then poured the decent amount of the wine into the glass before putting back the bottle.

From across the table, Flay's eyes met Athrun's slight worried (and relief) gaze. She could see the questioning glance on his gaze but she figured he would ask her later when he's not in the presence of his father. As if to answer his unsaid question, she smiled reassuringly to him.

-o0o-

"… That was quite a bold move, asking my father like that." Athrun said in low voice, seeing that his father was only a few paces ahead. He was waiting for Flay to put her coat on by the doorway. The rest of his family and hers had started walking out of the room, with Lenore and her mother still talking about some ladies' topics he couldn't bring himself to care.

"Really? It went well though, that's what matters right?" she flashed him a quick smile before she looked down to button up her coat's button.

Athrun smile. "Thankfully it did."

When she'd finished, Athrun started walking off before opening the door and holding it out for her. Flay muttered 'thanks', shivering a bit when the cold gust of wind strike her.

They saw his family's car waiting ahead, with Patrick and George being in rather deep conversation right by the car, possibly discussing about the next council meeting held in PLANT in a few months. Athrun could see his father's creasing eyebrows getting more visible by seconds, signalling his impatience in getting this night over with. It was as if merely standing here any longer would literally make the proud man exploded.

A feminine voice broke him out of his thoughts. "Next time, it will be me visiting you in PLANT.." He turned his head to her, wondering where she was going with it.

"Apparently, yes." He answered, still keeping his gaze on the girl. After a while, he continued. "Is there something wrong?" At his question, she was intentionally averting her eyes, and it made him creased his eyebrows. He didn't want to seem like he cared that much, because he didn't, so he just waited for her to elaborate. Flay, being a talkative as she was, of course didn't disappoint.

"It's just that… I never visit PLANT…" She trailed off. Plucking back a few strands of her red-hair to the back of her ear, she kept her eyes to the ground they're walking on. "I don't know, I'm just… Will I stand out that much?"

Then it hit him. She's being worried for her safety. Of course, she had to. Deep down, Athrun suspected that Naturals in general must have felt fear whenever they're facing Coordinators due to the ugly prejudice against his people and vice versa. Never mind one Coordinator, Flay would be amongst thousands and millions of them. He was probably one of very few Coordinators that she knew, the only one perhaps, so it made sense that she hadn't fully trusted Coordinators yet. For all he knew, to her, Athrun was the only exception.

"No, you won't." He assured her.

She looked at him with unsure in her eyes. "How can you be so sure?"

Your flaming red hair, as unnatural as it is, and genetically physical beauty that not many Naturals possess, he thought. But there's no way he would let her hear it for he had no idea how she would take it. Was it a compliment or an insult to her race? Or maybe it was both?

"..I just know. You'll see," he patted her right shoulder in reassuring manner in reflex, as if she's one of his buddies. She stopped in her track and looked at the hand that was now still on her right shoulder curiously, making Athrun remembered his place and quickly took back his hand before trying to put it on his coat's pocket. "My apologies, I was –"

"It's fine." She touched his arm lightly, stopping Athrun's attempt in putting his right hand to his pocket. "I take it we're friends now!" She laughed with that sing-sang tune, and he could see that she was blushing a bit. She turned around quickly after that, changing subject to what they had been up to the past few months. He vaguely wondered if he was blushing too. If only she would look back, she'd know the answer.

-o0o-

Flay Allster looked around the neighborhood that she was in, trying to pinpoint the exact location of a certain family's house. She was sure that she got the right way for she had always been proud of her fabulous direction sense, but somehow along the way she doubted herself and chose another turn which was completely opposite to the one she originally thought as the correct direction. The Zalas had been kind enough to offer her a ride when she got to the airport but she declined.

It was unnecessary, she said. She had learnt of many things about PLANTs from internet, she had also made sure to spend a few hours a day learning about which place was in which area. Surely that made her quite familiar with PLANT's geographic locations already?

That being said, the true reason why Flay declined the Zalas' offer was because she wanted to check out the shopping area. From the blogs she had been reading, they'd got plenty of new fashionable items that were not available anywhere in Earth. Flay wondered if one of them would be good on her for she'd been dying to make some purchases. Magazines always made those items looked sparkly and desirable.

She wasn't exactly keen on letting Athrun's family knew how she loved shopping though, well at least not yet.

At time like this did Flay curse the fact that her cellphone wasn't charged at all, blame her for forgetting to plug in the wire. If only she wasn't that careless, she could have found the Zala's house by using one of those map applications.

Finally giving up, she started to look around for people around her whom she could ask for direction. Seeing a middle-aged woman standing near a fountain, she decided to ask her.

"The Zalas? Why, it was quite far from here if you're walking. You should have turned right in the previous two intersections." The woman answered.

Flay was thanking her profusely when the middle-aged woman inquired her more about how the young girl didn't possibly know about the Zala's residence.

"Oh, I'm sorry. It's just that… this is the first time I'm in PLANT." Flay answered earnestly.

Hearing Flay's reply, the woman's face changed instantly. "Don't tell me you are a Natural?"

"Yes."

"What are you going to do to the Zala's?! I can't believe I just told a Natural the direction to their home! A Natural!" she pointed finger to Flay, before covering her face. "Oh God, if anything horrible happens to them I'll go to hell!"

"No, no, I'm here for official diplomatic matters!" Flay explained right away, trying to calm the woman. Well as much diplomatic as political engagement could be, anyway. She inwardly cringed.

"Speak no more, I'll haul you to the police right now and you can spit your lies to the officers!"

With her hand grabbing one of Flay's, the woman punched a few buttons on her cellphone so quick Flay knew things were about to get messy. "Officer, I found a suspicious Natural wandering around here, looking for the Zala's residence! Come quick!" the woman practically screamed to her phone.

Her scream had attracted the people around her, some of them already made circle around Flay and the furious woman. The men were while spreading out, effectively forming some kind of human gate around Flay.

"Wait, I'm not suspicious at all! If you could just make a call to the Zala's, you'd know that—"

"Make no move until the officer arrives, Natural!" one of the people shouted.

That one shout was clearly what it took to make the situation worse, as if it's an open invitation for the rest of the crowds to start panicking.

"She could be carrying a bomb right now!" a woman's cry was heard.

"Poor the Zala's, thankfully we got her first!"

It's no use. The crowds were obviously not going to listen to what she had to say. She worriedly gulped, trying to calm her nerves as best as she could. Her heartbeat was beating so loud that even with all the panicked and worried screams around her, she could only hear it.

'It's okay, it's okay. Athrun will definitely come and explain it to them.' She repeated the words over and over again like a incantation.

And to think that all she wanted was an early shopping…

Author's Note : There you go. It's not a secret that writing stories about Athrun and Fllay is definitely my guilty pleasure. I love these 2 characters so much, they're honestly the only thing that kept me watching the series. Especially Flay. It's amazing how much I enjoy watching her changed; from a sweet popular university girl to a manipulative girl because of war, then searching for redemption… she's perfect.

And have I emphasized the part where she's actually a freaking university girl (possibly in the engineering too since it's not shown otherwise) ? The only university girls I knew in the series were Mirialia and her, but if I'm wrong please do kindly correct me.

Anyhow, please give Review and don't forget to hit the Fav button if you like the story! Any feedback and suggestion is very appreciated!