Disclaimer : I do not own the characters even though Athrun Zala is my crush. Oh well, Cagalli suits him more.

Warning : TYPOS!

Chapter One : Girl Code

Girl Code.

You should not, I repeat, have a relationship with your bestfriend's ex. That is the most monstrous thing a girl can do to her friend. It is totally unacceptable that anyone, I mean girls, who broke the rules deserved to be banished to the deepest layer of hell.

I mean, you have been spending days or even months with your other girl friends observing the relationship development between the said bestfriend and her ex. When he first courting her, she will come to you and the girls and let you guys have a say : yay or nay. Nay means direct rejection due to numerous reasons that a girl's brain can think about (etc : douchebag, conflicting personalities, or possibly the bestfriend is just a rebound candidate). Yay means you tell the bestfriend to wear her best dress, go meet the boy, and say a three letter word : Yes.

In this case, Cagalli Hibiki being you, the bestfriend as Lacus Clyne and THE Athrun Zala as the ex.

Before Athrun Zala become Lacus Clyne's ex and boyfriend, Cagalli thought that he matched the pinkette perfectly. They are both really rich, born to the perfect politician fathers with great reputation, and have a visual that could rival Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively. Heck, even their names matches and had a nice ring to it. Athrun Zala and Lacus Clyne.

More importantly, Athrun Zala is never a douchebag. No matter how many girls confessed to him, he would turn them down nicely. He respected his teachers, helpful to his friends, nice to girls no matter how they look like. To sum it up, he's a perfect gentleman.

Yes, even the tomboyish Cagalli approve of him. So she and the girls spied on the couple during their first date, before finally deciding that he's the perfect prince charming to the princess.

He made an effort to get close to Lacus's girl friends. He, the boy soccer captain, helped Cagalli, the girls soccer captain whenever the soccer coach got all cranky. He listened to Shiho's suggestions and complaints regarding the student bodies. Heck, he even helped Miriallia to get together with one of his friend from his old school, Dearka Elsman, because the girls (Lacus, specifically) asked him to set them up when they notice her crush on him when student-exchange programme happen,.

All was well for a first few months. They were the most envied couple among seniors. But though they went to the prom together (their dance looked like a fairytale rip-off) and crowned the prom king and queen, the two decided it was over between them, being friends were a better option than a couple.

Cagalli and her girl friends were shocked at first when Lacus announced her break up during their last sleepover at Miriallia's house. Miriallia gasped, Shiho raised her eyebrows, but Cagalli's reaction was the most dramatic of all. Break-up between Lacus Clyne and Athrun Zala should not happen, they are like the most perfect couple ever existed! Lacus simply shrugged it off.

Before long, university happens. Miriallia and Shiho, as well as her boyfriend Dearka, and Athrun's other friends who join the student exchange programme, Nicol Amalfi and Yzak Joule, were all accepted to Heliopolis University. Lacus decided to study in PLANT, her (and Athrun's) birthplace so she can be closer to her father. Cagalli, unfortunately, got thrown to ORB along with Athrun instead of Heliopolis.

Though she was still hostile with Athrun, she had accepted it when he offered to give her a lift to ORB. Thinking that it was normal for Athrun Zala to be helpful and all, she accepted his helping hand. He showed up at her house where the girls were all crying and made all sorts of promise to catch up when she come back. Throwing a guilty look towards Lacus, the pinkette gave her radiant smile and a hug.

The journey took three days. It would be faster if they took a flight instead, but Cagalli thoroughly enjoyed the sceneries lay before her eyes. They talked about many things, partly because she was afraid that he would be sleepy due to the long duration driving. She eyed with jealousy over his new jeep and driving license as her parents did not allow her to get any. He chuckled over her reactions.

They stopped only for lunch and looking for a motel. Cagalli was fairly surprised, she had thought that motels were not up to his standard. With one room left, they shared the room and she insisted he took the bed while she slept on the couch. After much disagreement, he sighed and retreat to the bed as she grinned victoriously.

When Cagalli woke up, she was surprised that she found herself on the bed with Athrun nowhere in sight. He bought pastry for her. They ate in silence.

Their journey continued. It was awkward at first, until he cracked a very lame joke. The two spend the day singing their heart out loud to Bee Gees and Elvis Presley and The Beatles, all those old stuff. By the time they sung Hotel California, it was already sunset. The night, thankfully, they managed to get two rooms instead.

They reached the city at two in the evening, and their campus half an hour later. Cagalli bid him goodbye just to find that he would be living next door. Well, at least she knew someone at that foreign place.

He helped a lot, like friends helping each other. They had a few same classes, and since he's a really brilliant student and all, her grade unexpectedly improved. It was not long that they started studying together every Saturday with Athrun as Cagalli's tutor, having lunch whenever both were available, hanging out at her apartment with movies and pizza deliveries. It was a really good time.

She even learned that Athrun and her twin brother, Kira were the best of friends during middle school at Lunar Prep School. They even shared a room together. When she asked why he choose to study at a normal public high school instead of the prestigious Lunar Prep School unlike Kira, he merely shrugged and said he wanted to experience some adventure living by himself.

But it was not until one night that she walked alone to a nearby convenience store, craving for some chocolate ice cream. It was midnight, and Cagalli, wanting to go back as soon as possible, unwittingly choose a short cut instead. It was all ok at first, until she realized that she had been followed. Cagalli fasten her steps, almost running but apparently the guy was faster. Her ice cream fell, and he pinned her to the walk. Cagalli struggled for a while but her energy was draining. The girl was trembling. She closed her eyes and sobbed.

Before the guy managed to steal her first kiss, his grip loosened. Opening her eyes, the mugger got thrown to the opposite wall instead, with someone with a navy blue hair mercilessly punching that bastard with all his might. He kept on punching until Cagalli, still trembling and crying, begged him to stop.

"Athrun stop! You are killing him!"

"Let him die!" he said through a gritted teeth.

"Please,"

Cagalli hugged him from behind, begging softly. Sighed, Athrun threw the unconscious guy to the ground, called the police and forcibly drag Cagalli by her arm to his apartment.

"What the hell do you… never mind," he sighed again upon looking at her dishevelled self. Her shirt was almost ripped to the half, her eyes were red. Athrun pulled her into his arm, hugging Cagalli, whispering comforting words to her ears.

When Cagalli woke up, she had been sleeping on Athrun's bed, with him hugging her tightly and she snuggling at his neck. She blushed.

Cagalli's heart was almost burst like she was riding through roller-coaster.

'No, it couldn't be,' she thought.

She spent months denying the unexplainable feelings. Whenever Athrun was around, she blushed, stuttered, unable to make eye contact. She started to make excuses to skip their lunch, getting herself busy with extracurricular classes when Saturday came and going out to watch movies at the mall, alone or with her classmates.

But the feelings would only grow, especially when the girls started to flirt with Athrun. She looked at them as if she wanted to kill them.

It wasn't until now, a year after Lacus and Athrun's break up, that she could no longer lie to herself, that she had just broke one essential code of a Girl Code.

Falling in love with her bestfriend's ex, Athrun Zala, hard.