AUTHOR: Aww... It's been a bit since I've updated... And it's mostly cuz there was a Take Your Kids to Work Day in the middle of last week, and the teachers were a bit... uhhg, on it when they have to get a week's worth of work into four days, and the Remembrance Day assembly that made the periods that day was a bit shorter, was also a problem. But it's over now :)

Also, I give my thanks to revenantangel94, PhantomGirl and Minatsuki for reviewing in chapter three, and a special thanks to cagalliyulathha for not only reviewing but also recommended it to others :)

DISCLAIMER: This story is a work of FAN-fiction. By any means, the author of this story is merely a fan, and does not (partially or wholly) own Gundam Seed (Destiny), or characters that have existed in the series. I only own the story plotline of THIS fan fiction. Any resemblance of actual events, stories, locales, news, persons (living or dead) are merely coincidental.

Imaginary Christmas

By: Hades.Throne.Heiress

In the previous chapter:

From a slight angle, Athrun could see that the young lady's lips were purplish-blue… a very unhealthy colour when it isn't a Halloween lipstick. He walked up to the lady; shadowing her in his silhouette, "Miss…" he tried to get her attention.

The lady seated simply ignored him; either that or she was too caught up in 'fixing' her skirt.

-Warmth-

"Um, Miss?" Athrun voiced, tapping the young lady on her shoulder.

'Huh?' The blonde's head jerked upwards, snapping towards the direction of the tap in surprise. She stared. And stared… She had actually heard someone speaking to "Miss," but she didn't acknowledge that it was her, this man was talking to. But who's to blame her? Everyone has called her Princess or Highness or something that addresses her as royalty –save for her friends and family, that is- she didn't know that "Miss" now applied to her.

Athrun stared back at the girl gawking at him with the most awkward silence between the two of them. Then his eyes traveled downwards from her unique coloured eyes to her equally, if not more unique coloured lips. Her now naturally blue lips from the dreaded wintry air, he knew they were natural when he saw how dried ad chapped they were – lip balm or lipstick should have at least the slightest bit of moisturizer in it to keep the consumer from getting chapped lips.

"Uhh… sorry to startle you, Miss…" Athrun said again as the chilly looking girl perked up again, giving him her now undivided attention once more, "I was just wondering if you needed any help," he finished feeling slightly sheepish.

It was just like the first time Athrun got her attention, she stared, nonstop… Was it something amusing he said? The way he had just walked up to her and asked if she need assistance? The way he dressed…? Or did she not understand what he said?

The blonde, Cagalli, in fact understood what the blue haired man in front of her had said; and yes, she most definitely needed help, now, just deciding where to start explaining her situation… She was taken away from the skating rink at home… wherever 'home' is now… She just got pulled into this random circular thing which spat her out here – an equally random park in the freezing cold weather. She's cold and hungry and in a friggin' skating dress! Her competition was in three days and she should be practicing and would be, if she wasn't somehow pulled away from the recreation wing of the palace. She's now dead tired and the one thing currently putting her in a life threatening crisis-

"Miss… do you, er, understand what I'm saying?" The kind man standing by the bench she sat on asked another question, looking rather flustered, after all, how will she understand anything he's askingif she didn't understand the language to begin with? His sentence, however, had cut her off her thoughts.

Again, she blinked and stared, few moments later, when she finally registered the question, she hastily nodded.

Athrun saw the rapid movement often referred as a positive reply, then asked her again, "Then do you need to be somewhere? Like, the community center or something? I can direct you…" His nice offer made the girl look quizzically again.

'Community center? What on Orb is that?' Cagalli's head tilted slightly and was about to open her mouth to ask, until her realization set in once again to where her thought had originally been. Her current life threatening crisis is that she cannot speak – she could make sound effect noises, like that groan from when she fell, or that hiss when she touched the forming bruise, but no words could be uttered… at all.

Remembering that, Cagalli's opened mouth shut again, and was gesturing to the man that she cannot talk by using her numb hand and pointed to her throat, shaking her head, indicating 'no.'

Athrun, not quite understanding the hand signal, thought that she was trying to say that she didn't want to go to the community center, oddly enough just using bodily signs instead of telling him that. "Not the community center? Do you want to tell me your destination then? I don't think it's a good idea for you to stay out here too long."

Cagalli sighed silently and shook her head tiredly and got up from the bench that was starting to feel warm. She picked up a stick nearby and went to the sand surrounding the swings set. As she was about to start writing, but the figure of her bending over started to teeter, Athrun, who was by her side took notice of her odd behavior and saw that she was squinting to focus on her surrounding. And he knew what would happen next.

She toppled. Cagalli felt a movement of air as the sanded ground was rushing up to meet her, the playground equipment were all starting to slant horizontally – or was – until a firm grip fixed itself onto her forearm. The owner of the grasp held her so that her head wouldn't crash into the sand, but was still too slow to catch her before her legs gave away and went limp. She then looked like an oversized rag doll being held by the arm.

Athrun quickly stepped closer to the limp and frigid girl, lifting her back to the bench to keep from setting her onto the damp and cold sand. "Miss, are you okay?" He asked, just moments before the smarter – yet slower - part of his mind kicked in, 'No duh she's fine. People just randomly go collapsing on the floor on a regular basis…'

Smacking his head while using his other hand to support the blonde girl who's eyes looked like they were about to fall under the sandman's spell, he asked again, "Is there someone I can call to bring you home? Or maybe you can tell me where you live so I could bring you home…" Realizing that she hasn't ever spoken to him ever since he made an appearance is her life, asking her questions now would likely do little to no good.

Cagalli, feeling nothing but exhaustion from the long day she's been through, could barely help herself to rest her eyes leaning against this concerned man, who was comfortably warm compared to her icy cold skin.

With her closed eyes, she felt that his body heat suddenly vanished as he let her go. Moments later, his warmth consumed her whole body with the long jacket he was just sporting; Cagalli then decided that she liked the way this man smelled. It was starting to lull her into the sleep she was lacking for the past few days.

Hades.Throne.Heiress

"Franklin, prepare a guest room and open the gates for me as soon as I come in," Athrun ordered authoritatively over the phone, "oh, and crank up the heat in the guest room. Thanks." He was still about five minutes from his house… five speeding minutes.

"Ummm…" Franklin uttered, rather confused with the sudden call and speed his young master was speaking with. "So guest room and heat, right?"

"Yes, thank you Franklin," Athrun bid goodbye to his butler that answered the phone. He looked over to the passenger's seat and saw the blonde girl's lips were slowly turning back to a normal colour. At the moment that the girl had curled into him with closed eyes, he didn't have many options of what he could do with her. He could've brought her to the hospital, but he didn't know her at all, nor did he think that she had any identification with her; it might be more troublesome that just bringing her home and wait for her to get better. But of course he also had the option of leaving her at the park, but that would've been inhumane of him to do so. Especially cruel to be abandoning a defenseless, ill looking girl at a park with the November weather while she didn't even have proper clothing on.

Hades.Throne.Heiress

As requested, the gates to the Zala manor was already wide opened by the time Athrun could see his house. He turned off the engine in the driveway as close to the main door as possible. The young master of the mansion then proceeded to the passenger's side of the car and released the blonde's seatbelt, but before he tried to carry her into the house, he honked the horn, in hopes that Franklin would open the door without him ringing the door. He could definitely wait, but he wasn't sure that it was such a good idea for the girl to be exposed to anymore of Mother Nature's weather mood swing as of now.

Athrun walked up the short pebble trail leading to the now opened front door with Franklin looking at him bewildered. His young master was carrying an unknown girl in his jacket, her legs all for anyone to see with skated adorned on her feet – and most of all, the lady wasn't Miss Meyrin. By that, he meant, what would Miss Meyrin think if she happens to find out about this?

Athrun rushed to the door with his large strides, meeting Franklin and two of the four maids working in their household there, all of them wearing one of two faces, shock and bewilderment, or confused. He tried to take off his shoes in a way they would soon be ruined, but was interrupted by his mother's call.

"Athrun, you're back? Franklin said you cal-" Lenore stopped abruptly as soon as she fully came into view of the foyer, seeing his son holding a young lady in an attire she should've changed out of considering the weather.

Athrun immediately acknowledged the shock and confusion printed clearly on his mother's features, but dismissed it in moments. "Mother, could you take a look at her, please, I'm afraid that she'll get hypothermia." Naming the other reason he didn't list earlier, his mother used to be a nurse, making her the great mother she was in taking care of other people; it would make little difference in coming home and going to the emergency room, with the exception of having to wait in line for hours in the ER since there are always people who would line up even if they only had a cough – the reason behind it? There were free health care services.

"Alright, dear," Lenore agreed, deciding that she'll ask questions later. "Bring her upstairs first; I'll be there in a moment." The mistress of the house went back to the kitchen to set her apron down, on the way telling one of the maids currently in the kitchen to make some hot soup in case the girl woke up any time soon.

AUTHOR: Thank you for reading everyone :) Hope you enjoyed the chapter, Athrun's "making a move" on Cagalli! Anyone want to guess how Meyrin's reacting to the "cheating boyfriend" of hers? LOL, please leave a comment.

Post Date: Nov. 11th '07

Remembrance Day - Lest we forget those who gave up their yesterday for our today.