Cookie-Dough Ice Cream
Cherry Rain: Another Cagalli/Athrun Seed one-shot! I'm sorry to all you people, but I doubt that I'll be continuing Musings. I wrote it to close the plot at that point, and I don't really feel like continuing it.

Mystique Kitty: She may start working on a proper, long Cagalli/Athrun. But the hitch there is that it might be an AU (alternate universe)

Cherry Rain: Not confirmed, that one. Anyway, on with the show!
Cagalli Yula Attha wanted something. She wanted cookie-dough ice cream, actually. And she wanted it like she had never wanted anything in her life before. "Cooooookie douuuuuuuuugh," she moaned quietly to herself, turning to the cup of coffee sitting beside her laptop, perched precariously on the huge pile of reports that had to be read over, drafted, corrected, sent, approved, and so on.

Three sips of the bitter liquid was enough to make her refocus- she, like her brother Kira, had gained a taste for the dark beverage (though she preferred it without sugar, unlike Kira), and like so many of their overworked colleagues, had realized its sheer restorative power.

But after three paragraphs, she found her mind beginning to stray again, and she quietly banged her head against the cluttered work desk. Wherever she turned there were papers covering the surface. How irritating it was that she couldn't even find a hard surface to bang her head on! Cookie dough ice cream...

She hadn't tasted ice cream very often during the war- after all, what time was there for treats like that? Once she got back to Orb on Earth, she had happily gone on a binge, tasting every available flavour- it was her one indulgence as the leader of Orb, after her father had retired. She had thought she had the rest of her life to savour ice cream. However, the rest of her life seemed increasingly chewed up by work, work and some more work.

Irritated, she kicked the wall and cursed violently when all she got for her efforts was a stubbed toe. Miffed, she turned resolutely back to her work, but was again distracted by the knock on the door. "Come in," she snapped out.

Athrun's head poked in, looking faintly amused, faintly confused. "Did you want something, Cagalli?"

"Cookie dough ice cream!" The words had burst from her before she even knew she was going to say them, and she clapped her hands over her mouth the minute they were out, blushing in embarrassment. Athrun must have heard the bang made when her foot connected with the wall- after all, his office was right next to hers.

"Ice cream?" Athrun asked, still looking impossibly serious- the by-product being that he looked impossibly adorable. "Well, there's that new ice-cream parlour that opened downtown... working hours end soon anyway. Drop the work, Ambassador Attha. Let's go."

"But..." she hesitated, looking at her paper-covered desk.

"Drop it in the incinerator," he suggested, smiling mischievously at her. "Then tell whoever it is that you never got it."

She smirked right back, stretching in her chair. "Since you put it that way..."
"Athrun. You're sure you know the way?" she asked as he drove, looking dubiously around them as the crowds grew thinner and thinner, even though it was work-end hours. It meant that they were going further and further from the city centre...

"Certain, Cagalli," he said with exaggerated patience, raising one eyebrow at her. "Scared I'll abduct you?"

"Yeah, right, Athrun. Do you really think you could?" she laughed.

"Actually, yes. But I wouldn't want such a noisy little captive," he joked, reaching out with his free hand and chucking her chin lightly. She wrinkled her nose, stuck out her tongue rather childishly and sat back. "Trust me, Cagalli. This ice cream parlour serves ice cream like you wouldn't believe."

"Cookie dough?" she asked, a hopeful look coming into her honey coloured eyes as she tilted her head to one side, looking at Athrun with all the innocent cuteness of a puppy. He couldn't help but smile affectionately at her. "Cookie dough."

She settled down, closing her eyes and sighing contentedly at the imminent prospect of cookie-dough-ice-cream-ism.
"We're here," Athrun announced, pulling into the parking lot only to find that Cagalli had already fallen dead asleep, her mouth open slightly, issuing small, slight snores, one bang fluttering as she breathed in and out. Reaching out, he grinned and poked her side. She yelped and sat straight up, entirely awake now. He couldn't help but laugh. "Let's go."

She glared at him, but got out of the car nevertheless, evaluating the place. It seemed old fashioned, a small building not of the steel and glass of the modern world, but just a one-storey brick building that looked to be someone's old house.

She entered the door to a whoosh of cool air from inside, though outside night had already set. Spotting them, a middle-aged woman rushed over, amazingly agile for one of her age. "Athrun! And you've brought a friend too!" she exclaimed, beaming down at Cagalli with all the benevolence of a woman who mothers everything and anything. "Come, sit down."

"That's Marie," Athrun whispered as the two of them trailed after the woman, now purposefully striding towards a table shielded from the public area by a screen. "Sometimes I think she was born to mother people."

When they were both comfortably seated beside each other, Marie turned to them. "The usual, Athrun?" When he nodded, she turned her attention to Cagalli. "And what would you like, Miss...?" she trailed off, raising an eyebrow.

"Cagalli," Athrun quickly supplied. "And she wants cookie dough ice cream. She'll die of withdrawal if she can't get any," he teased.

She leaned over and poked him indignantly in a well-muscled shoulder. "I won't die of withdrawal, idiot!"

Marie only smiled. "So, one butterscotch and one cookie dough? Cherries? Toppings?"

"Cherries, with whipped cream," they both said. Glancing at each other, they turned back to Marie and said, "Two," in perfect timing.

She merely smiled a small, secret smile and moved away.

Turning back to Athrun, Cagalli smiled at him. "Thanks for bringing me here. I never knew small places like this still existed."

"Goes to show that Ambassador Attha does not spend enough time relaxing," he said, and his tone became slightly admonitory. "Even Dearka and Yzak took off... they're incommunicado in the Caribbean... though I think they may have had other reasons for leaving for a while..."

She raised her eyebrows. "Want to bet that they'll be all over each other when they come back?"

Athrun smirked back. "And Kira and Lacus are on honeymoon..."

"Therefore, that leaves us overworked people to handle the burden..." she sighed melodramatically.

"It doesn't mean that you should overwork, you know. There are aides for a reason," Athrun said, tracing the dark eyebags around her eyes worriedly. She blushed lightly, self-consciously.

Marie came over then, setting down the ice cream in front of them. "It's on the house, kids. Have fun."

Cagalli picked up one of the cherries and poked it into the whipped cream, making sure it was entirely covered in white foam before popping it into her mouth. Athrun had already bitten it off the stem, and was absent- mindedly toying with the stem while looking at her. It was just difficult not to look, really... the way her lips moved, her tongue flickering out quickly to clean the spot of whipped cream off... her eyes closed as she savoured the taste of it.

As she swallowed, he smirked and touched her arm lightly, then held up the cherry stem, cocking his head to one side in question. She smirked back, understanding what he meant, then put her own cherry stem carefully on her tongue. Seconds later, she stuck it back out, and it was now knotted neatly and tightly. Smirking at her, Athrun knotted his own and placed it beside hers, on a paper napkin.

"They say those who can do that are good kissers," she breathed lightly, smiling at him.

Is she trying to be seductive? If so, she was doing pretty well. "Later, Cagalli. There's one more cherry left..."

"True," she admitted, and picking up her spoon, dug heartily into the ice cream, loading a precarious spoonful and placing it inside her mouth. Soon, Athrun was heartily beginning to wish that she didn't make those little sounds when eating- soft, slow, languorous moaning, with the occasional whimper thrown in.

To shut her up, he proffered his spoon of butterscotch. "Want some?"

She looked slightly surprised, but agreed. "Okay." Taking the spoon, she put it into her mouth, keeping it there while she tasted the new flavour. Athrun swallowed hard as she pulled the spoon out, a small thread of saliva hanging on before it broke... "Not bad," she admitted. "Want some of mine?" she asked, letting it hover in front of his mouth. Before she could react, he had eaten it while she was still holding it- some of his hair brushed her hand as he drew back, and Cagalli shivered in reaction.

They continued eating in silence, until there were the two cherries left. Athrun's smile was mischievous as he picked it up, plucking off the stem and balancing the ripe, round sphere precariously on his fingertip. "Here."

She smirked right back, taking hold of his hand around the wrist and bringing his finger to her mouth, not only swallowing the cherry but the tip of his finger as well, brushing her tongue against it while she guided it further in, then pulled the entire finger out, chewing the cherry contentedly.

"Tease..." he said hoarsely, staring at her. She merely blinked innocently and held out her own cherry in exactly the way he had his.

When he finally broke the contact between his mouth and her finger, her breathing was harsh, tense; her cheeks flushed a brilliant red. "You're not bad yourself, Athrun Zala."

"They say those who can tie the cherry stems are good kissers."

She drew closer to him. "I'd like to find out."

Gently, he sealed his lips to hers, then brushed his tongue against her lips, forcing them to part into a French kiss as he let his hands wander over her lithe, tanned body, into the golden hair as she arched her body into him and cried his name into his mouth, pressing up as close as possible, straddling his lap, her small hands clasping his hair, forcing him to stay down in the kiss.

He pushed her down onto the seat, her shirt riding up a little, and Athrun ran a hand over bare, tanned skin, smooth and taut. Her hands slipped up his shirt, always on the move as she ran nimble fingers over the contours of his stomach and back, feather-light caresses that left him hungry, wanting her, needing her.

Cagalli felt his touch on her lower abdomen, beginning to stray even further downwards even as he migrated from her mouth to her chin to her collarbone, nipping and biting and sending pleasurable little quivers down to her core. But... "Not here, Athrun..." she gasped, arching forward as his hands strayed to her sensitive navel, pressing into it lightly. He nodded, though, and desisted with the actions, letting her sit upright.

"Damn, Cagalli, I really do love you," he rasped, breaking the kiss and staring down at her flushed face.

"I know you do, Athrun... so do I..." she answered, tracing the contours of his face. "We should be going now, though..." gently, she eased herself off his lap. "Let's go home."

He smiled, standing up and smoothening her mussed hair. "Yes. Let's go home and think about continuing this, shall we?"

"You're on."
Cherry Rain: Not bad... short fluffy one-shot...

Mystique Kitty: R&R! For those who want a lemon, leave your email addresses, and we'll send it to you if we write it!