Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

This fic is set several years after the end of GSD.


"Well?" asks Athrun, arms open, ring in the palm of his hand. All these years and he still doesn't know how to give a girl a ring. "What's your answer?"

Cagalli looks him over. She had imagined that he would be tired and ragged after such a long and brutal electoral campaign, but the new Chairman of the PLANTs is bouncing with energy. His eyes shine with an idealism that she thought was lost to him. The world is open to him and he is ready to accept the world.

"No," she says, though it isn't easy –refusing Athrun never is.

Athrun's eyes widen in disbelief and she can see him figuring out a rebuttal to her answer in his head. He thinks he can do anything right now. That if he smiles, winks and jokes at the appropriate times he will be able to win everybody over. It's what he's seen Lacus do for years now –it's what he's seen Cagalli do for years now. He underestimates how hard the task ahead of him really is –every politician does when they first begin their term in office. (How strange it is that for once, she is the one who knows more than him).

"But why, Cagalli?" he asks, unsure of how to proceed. How does he take a simple no and turn it into a valid reason for her to say yes? She has given him nothing to work with, no words to distort –it is an effective strategy she has picked up over the years.

"You've just been elected Chairman of the PLANTs, Athrun," she says, "and I'm still head representative of Orb. I can be your ally, I can be your friend, but I can't be your wife."

In that instant, she hates herself. She despises herself for being so cautious and cynical, for pushing aside the man she loves so much in the name of politics. In that instant, even Athrun has become a compromise in the name of Orb.

"Is that it?" asks Athrun, "that hardly matters! We can still be Athrun and Cagalli when we're alone –even if we are Chairman Zala and Representative Attha to the world. Don't you see? We can do this."

He is so confident that all will work out beautifully, that the sick little game that is politics will not destroy their union before it has already begun, that history won't repeat itself.

"No," she says again, "we can't. Trust me when I say that politicians shouldn't marry politicians" – she pauses, "I know this from experience."

Athrun's face clouds over and Cagalli knows she's made her point.