The first time he put on his Orb military uniform, he smiled into the mirror. It looks like Cagalli's, he thought. In a childish way, he liked the connection between them. Smiles had been coming easily to Athrun these days.
At the decoration ceremony, when she pinned the admiralty stripes on his lapel, he could see her eyes moisten and her fingers linger almost imperceptibly on his chest. "Orb thank you for your services, Admiral."
And it was then that he was reminded. Cagalli no longer exists, it is just Orb now.
Upon her return and reinstatement as the Head Representative, she arranged for a series of private meetings with the senior staff. She knew there was only one person she had any interest in meeting. But one had to keep up appearances, to others and oneself.
The night before the meeting found her restlessly envisioning countless versions of their re-encounter.
In spite of her better judgment, Cagalli had first been heartened when she heard he decided to remain at Orb. Officially, she would say that there is no man that she could trust more with the protection of her country. But if she was to be truthful, she knew that she missed having him by her side.
She just wanted to see his face and hear his voice, as simple as that.
"Admiral Zala, it is good to see you." She greeted him from behind her desk with a smile that struck the perfect pitch between cool detachment and polite interest. He noted with a slight dismay that she addressed him so, so unlike the old her that always blew his cover by calling him Athrun. She gestured for them to be seated across the tea table.
"How are you finding Orb so far? Is it hard to adjust coming back from space?", she asked airily she filled both of their teacups.
His eyes narrowed. She had asked him something similar back when he landed in Orb after the first war, but the words failed to evoke any remembrance in him. That impulsive girl was no more, instead the Cagalli before him reminded Athrun of his father,
"Not at all, I had lived in Orb for two years before the war, as you may recall." The slight emphasis on the last words gave a hint of his displeasure.
"Ah, my apologies." Her smile faltered for an instant before shifting her gaze out the window and resuming quietly, "I don't know how I could have forgotten that. 'Before the war' seemed a lifetime ago."
They had both pushed each other away in the name of duty. But it was not like they had to, for Kira and Lacus stayed together through it all. If so many things came before love, it couldn't have been very important then after all.
Where do you go from there?