Disclaimer : I don't own Gundam Seed Series. Grammatical errors aren't intended.

This is supposed to be Athrun's Birthday fic, but if you don't see anything that relates to birthday... then, I apologize for that.

A red haired male cupid ran around the park in search for his colleague, Marco and after taking a gulp of water, he continued to search until he spotted a yellow dot amidst the greenery garden.

"Oi!" he yelled from a far. The blond woke up groggily from his nap and looked at his comrade who was getting nearer to him.

"Yes?" he answered half-heartedly.

"Miss Aphie summoned you. You need to clock in. New couple today" the redhead explained while trying to get a good, steady breath after all those running as Marco stood up lazily and sighed a bit. And then, he muttered something about Miss Aphie, being a crazy old bitch before walking away from his colleague.

His redhead colleague raised an eyebrow towards him. "You should be glad that we work under that so called crazy old bitch rather than under grumpy, good for nothing Mr. Hades!" he shouted from behind as Marco already ten foot away from him, "And don't forget to return what you borrowed from me, you lazy ass!"

Marco arrived at his boss' mansion pretty late and earned a disapproval look from his boss' secretary. Not that he cared anyway...

He knelt down before his boss and put on an innocent face.

"Their time has come. Today is the day when they start to feel for each other", the beautiful, brown haired lady announced before tossing a scroll to Marco. He skilfully caught the scroll and unrolled it to read the particulars of the destined couple.

"Athrun Zala and Cagalli Yula Athha" Marco mumbled the particulars on the scroll before looking at his boss, Miss Aphie or popularly known as Aphrodite; Goddess of Love.

"Any problem?" Aphrodite asked as Marco looked at her with a puzzled expression on his face.

He took another glance at the couple's data before looking back at Aphrodite. "They don't fit. Are you sure about this?"

"Marco dear, my job is to make sure that wheel of fate continued rolling while your job is to tie the gawdamn red string to the couple's fingers, not to question whether they fit or not. And remember our divine policy..." Aphrodite propped her chin in the palm of her right hand and looked at him idly.

"Humans are created in pairs and we are here to ensure that the pair will have a good love life, produced the children...and bla bla bla" Marco uttered the divine policy that cupids have to uphold and embrace in their hearts. And of course, with additional bla bla bla at the end because the said policy was so damn long.

Aphrodite rolled her eyes at Marco but then, she cooled herself because she loved being pretty 24 hours and 'rolling eyes' was not pretty. By the way, who said being a deity was an easy job? Especially, when you have lots of lazy and unmotivated employees like Marco. Sometimes, she did consider sending her unmotivated employees to motivation camp ran by Hades. Her employees really took advantage of her kindness and because of that, she had enough.

After giving another skeptical look at his boss, Marco put the scroll in his bag pack along with a strand of Red String of Fate before flying down to the earth.

Athrun walked alone while rubbing his swollen cheek. His father just slapped him hard today, on his birthday.

For a 9 years old kid like him, he felt like wanting to kill himself because in his opinion, his dad didn't love him anymore. And because he didn't really look in front while walking, he bumped into someone and fell on his butt.

"Ah… sorry kiddo"

He heard a male voice talking to him and felt his hair being ruffled.

"You're cute you know. You'll be surprised in the future when you see flocks of women worship you. However, you'll meet your other half soon, how lucky"

His emerald eyes looked up to scan this guy who seemed enjoyed blabbering nonsense by himself. Athrun stood up and patted his pants before muttering apology for bumping into him.

"Wait!"

Athrun who was already walking passed him, turned back. What did this guy want? Couldn't he see that he wanted to be alone right now?

"Yes sir?" he tried to sound normal even though he was in a terrible mood.

"My name is Marco. But I don't think you'll find it significant to remember it anyway..." he smiled before taking Athrun's right hand and tied a red string around his little finger. It was a long red string, but he couldn't really see the end of it.

"You might want to go to the park" Marco levelled his eyes with Athrun and as if enchanted by his words, Athrun felt like he needed to go to where Marco had said.

Marco said good bye to him and Athrun walked to the direction of the park. Weirdly, when he looked at his little finger, there was no red string on his little finger anymore.

"Ah… shoot…"

A blonde little girl furrowed her eyebrows as her eagle shaped kite, got stuck on top of the tree. She ran to the tree and then looked up, wondering if she could just jerk the string to pull down the kite or climb the tree to pick her kite. Wait, she couldn't climb the tree, Kira didn't teach that to her yet.

After considering a few solutions in her head, she kicked the tree's trunk in hope that the kite would fall down, torn free.

"Hey! Cut it out will ya!"

The girl stopped kicking and looked around to find the source of the voice.

"Up here!"

She looked up and her golden amber eyes met his emerald eyes or rather, a pair of swollen emerald eyes. He looked like he just cried.

"What are you doing up there?"

"Mind your own business!" Athrun barked at her.

"Crying aren't you?" the girl looked concern.

"Shut up…" he wiped his eyes and diverted his attention to the park because he didn't like the way she looked at him.

Athrun Zala wasn't really familiar with this petite blonde because she always sat on her own in the class. No one really bothered to get to know her and no one even dared to go near her. He heard some said that she came from a bad family, mafia family or something along the line.

"My kite stuck up there. Can you help me get it?" she raised her index finger up and then he looked at her. He was perplexed.

"Kite? Whoa… so ancient" his face began to lighten up a bit. No one played kite nowadays.

"So what if I like ancient thing? Kira bought that for me", she said as he started to look for her kite. Then, he didn't realize that while he was trying to get her kite, he commented a lot on how she was always by her own and she should find someone to be her friend and not just blabbering nonsense about her imaginary friend, Kira.

"Nonsense, Kira is—" she retorted but then stunned when he suddenly jumped down, right in front of her with a kite in his hand. She frowned when she looked at her ripped kite.

"It's already torn, you know" he gave the kite to her and she slowly took it. The boy felt something aching in him when she bit her lips to stop herself from crying. He was amazed that she successfully held herself from crying and currently, she was smiling although it was a sad smile. So, what would that make him? He was a boy, but cried easily.

"Thanks though" she said solemnly as she traced the ripped part of kite while wondering if she could do anything to fix it. It's her precious kite, given by Kira.

Athrun was stunned when the girl suddenly put a palm on his cheek and traced his dried tears with her thumb. The girl's face looked puzzled.

"Is it hurt?" she asked diffidently.

"Huh?"

"Your left cheek is swollen and you were crying. Who bullied you?" she retrieved her hand slowly and Athrun took his time to scan her features. He never really aware that her eyes were so big and her irises were deep orange like amber flecked with gold. Really, how many times did he ever try to look at her properly before? Probably, never.

"Actually…" he took a breath. It seemed okay to tell her about what happened earlier. It wasn't like she would tell others about this since the only thing that accompanied her around was her own shadow. "My father kinda mad at me. We're going to move out to PLANT the day after tomorrow but I don't want to go. I even tore his documents that I found in his room. So I guess, I deserved this"

She nodded silently while he locked his gaze to the ground. The sudden silence in between them was killing him. She probably was waiting for him to say anything, he thought.

"Here" Athrun put in her palm some candies and she immediately looked at him. She rarely got to eat candies. In fact, her father banned her from any sorts of sweets.

"Look, today is my birthday. I got plenty of that in my house"

Her father definitely going to be mad at her but since he looked eager for her to taste it, she unwrapped one of the candy's wrapper and put it in her mouth. She felt guilty for disobeying her father's order but in front of Athrun's enthusiastic face, she smiled. "It's yummy. Thanks Athrun"

Athrun was flushed in red when he heard his first name came out from the girl's mouth because he wasn't really familiar with her, yet it felt just right when she said his name.

"Yo.. your welco—me" he stuttered.

Face flushed? – check.

Heart pounded in the speed of light? – check.

Something in stomach made an acrobatic jump? – check

Looked like an idiot? – check.

"By the way, Happy Birthday" she smiled a bit before digging out something from her pocket. "Here this is for you. I hope it'll bring luck to you"

Athrun's eyes widened as he saw what she just put in his palm. "This is rare!" he exclaimed as he examined the four leaves clover. "Where did you found it?"

"Somewhere near the bushes there" she pointed her index finger to the far end of the park.

"But you know, this clover could only give luck to the one who found it. Here, take it back" his face was crestfallen as he returned the clover to her.

The girl rolled her fist tightly, so that Athrun couldn't force her to accept back the clover. "Then stick with me before you leave for PLANT" she suggested randomly.

"Pardon me?" Maybe he heard it wrong? This 'petite blonde girl who he realized a minute ago actually pretty cute, interesting and likes to play ancient kite' wanted him to stick around with her? Really? Really!?

"Maybe you'll get to share some of my luck. Who knows?" her perfect row of white teeth displayed when she grinned ear to ear.

He smiled dopily, "Sure, I like your idea". Yeah, why not spending his last day in this town with this bizarre girl. It would be fun.

Both of them fell in awkward silence once more before Athrun spoke again, "I'm sorry that I forgot your first name, Cagi is it?"

"Cagalli"

"Cagalli" Athrun mimicked her. She got a pretty name, he thought.

"See you tomorrow" Cagalli started to jog away from him and from a far, she waved at him. And he returned her wave before walking away from the park.

Cagalli stopped waving and stared at her hand for a while. It was a bit vague since it was late in the noon and the orange light of sunset was blinding her, but she swore that she saw a red string around her little finger that trailed towards Athrun.

The red string was already gone when she took a close look on her hand again.

A/N:

- The red string of fate, also referred to as the red thread of destiny, red thread of fate, is a belief originating from Chinese legend and is also used in Japanese legend. The two people connected by the red thread are destined lovers, regardless of time, place, or circumstances. This magical cord may stretch or tangle, but never break.

- Hades, Marco and Aphie are there because... I just wanted to use them. By the way, just to clear up, Marco went to Cagalli first and he only showed himself to Athrun.

- Then another thing is, this fic is supposed to be a complimentary fic for Songstress Boy but what the heck, I think it's better this way, a oneshot of its own. By the way, I'll update the rest on early November (or maybe mid-November). I still have other college stuffs pending and I'm just posting this for Athrun's birthday.

~Happy Birthday to the Red Knight!