The Messenger

By: Xenos Kadmia

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam SEED, Gundam SEED Destiny, or any of the characters mentioned here.

A/N: Hmm…not as much reviews as the last time, but thanks to those loyal reviewers. I think if I don't ask for them, more people seem to review. Strange.

Dead Meat

How nice, Dearka thought. ORB looked so peaceful, bird twittering in the park, children playing tag, all ye and sundry basking in the sun. What ever sundry meant. Perhaps it was a severe kind of sunburn.

In reality, he thought, someone somewhere was getting bird doo doo all over his head while running to a meeting, which he knew, from experience, could not be good.

Well, what could he do? This was planet Earth, and some things don't change. Birds poo and gravity does its job.

Dearka was strolling along what he thought was a surreal portrait in 3D, when he saw his two best buddies in the whole entire universe.

Cagalli Yula Attha, and Athrun Zala.

He waved at them. It was ironically funny how he couldn't see the look on their faces that said "You shouldn't be waving, you idiot, because you're about to get bust up real bad."

"Dearka. Elsman," Cagalli said.

"Cagalli. Yula. Attha. How. Is. It. Going?" Dearka replied, chuckling. He obviously thought he was being funny.

"This is how it's going."

Then she punched him square in the nose.

He tripped backwards because of the force of the blow and his unawareness. He stepped back and regained his balance.

All of a sudden, when there were stars in his face, and blood rushing to his nose, life didn't seem so unreal anymore.

You could say he was blown out of the fairy tale world real quick.

"Wuzzat for?" he said, holding his nose, which he thought was broken, if not, then severely bruised.

"For giving me the wrong message."

"What message?"

"The letter I gave you," Athrun said, speaking for the first time in this chapter, "you read it wrong."

"It's not my fault your handwriting resembles that of a spasmodic person," Dearka said.

"Well, you could have gone over the letter and asked me what it said before you left, instead of flirting with me."

Dearka blinked.

"That sounded wrong. You need to stop womanizing, Athrun," he said.

"That's not the point!"

"Oh yeah? Not the point? You're telling me that's not the point and the point is that you have sucky handwriting, your girlfriend is cross-eyed, and I'm just the middle guy here, you're missing the point that you could have E-MAILED her in Times New Roman font, size 274, double-spaced, instead of making me have to deal with this kind of crap from incompetent subordinates!!"

Athrun and Cagalli just stood there, totally wowed at Dearka's sudden outburst of eloquent speech and common sense.

At that time, they must've thought that hell was freezing over because Dearka was making sense.

"Gosh, you know what Dearka, I think that was actually a good idea," Athrun said.

"See, that's what happens when people don't listen to me. When they don't, things start going terribly wrong, even when it's not my fault."

"Well, that's because things tend to go wrong whenever you're around," Cagalli said.

"That's true. But they go wrong, but in a way that it goes wrong, but it's still not that bad, and eventually it turns out right. That's what I am, you know, an irresistible lucky charm that works in mysterious ways."

Athrun chuckled.

"You know what, Dearka? Just shut up and let's all get coffee," he said.

"Alright!" Dearka said, punching the air and forgetting his nose was broken, "drinks on me!"

"That's great, then," Cagalli said, smiling.

"But I don't got anymore cash on me. Can I borrow some money, Athrun? I know you're loaded from all the clubs you work at," Dearka said.

Athrun sighed. There were moments when Dearka was actually serious, but those moments came fast. Then they were gone again.

"Alright, drinks on me, then," he conceded, then they all walked off in the direction of a café where Cagalli had a special discount because she was the leader of Orb.

But then again, where else in Orb does she not have a discount?

Later that night, when Dearka had gone back to his hotel, full of caffeine (from all the coffee), sugar (from all the cakes he ate with the coffee) and high-ness (from the effects of both), Cagalli and Athrun walked home together in the chilly night, pressing their bodies close for the body heat.

They took the long way.

"So that letter was your fault," Cagalli said, smiling.

"Yes. Dearka was getting so worked up over it, too," Athrun said, grinning when he remembered the look on his friend's face when he had his little outburst.

"Well, at least there was effort," Cagalli said.

"Yeah, well, too bad though, it didn't work out as I hoped it would."

"That's fine. It's the thought that counts."

"What did you do with my flowers?" Athrun asked.

"Err….I was mad, so I burned them," Cagalli replied hesitantly.

"Well, so much for the thought."

"Hey! You would have been mad too," Cagalli replied defensively.

She gave Athrun a playful shove and for a moment, they forgot about their little misunderstanding.

"I love you, Cagalli. If I ever have to send a letter saying I'll ever have to break up with you, shoot me."

"Lacus said something like that. She said she'll be on you like a ninja in three seconds flat."

"Ohh…" Athrun said contemplatively, "That explains the outfit."

"Yup," she said, then she kissed Athrun on the cheek, "just pray that I won't go to that extent."

"I'll try," he said.

They were outside the door of the Attha mansion, where Cagalli invited Athrun to stay for the night.

No, not in that sense, you little nasties.

In front of the door, Athrun held Cagalli's arms, then brought her closer to him. He held her tightly, as if trying to compensate for the lost time. As if to hold her for all eternity.

Cagalli got tense. She got so immersed in her work sometimes, that she forgot what it was like to be in Athrun's arms, to inhale his scent, to feel him close to her. It was a good feeling.

Athrun leaned in closer, weaving his arms around to her back, where they rested in the curve of her waist.

Their lips met, and they closed their eyes in pure ecstasy. The night ended well, and these two star-crossed lovers were together again.

That's it! The end. They all ended up happy. Writing this story was nice while it lasted. I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did.

Xenos Kadmia