A/N: Part 4
Peace Talks
~oo~
~o~
Only then does his childish hate subside to make way for confusion for her voice neither stutters nor rise. But he hears, he hears because he is a coordinator, the strange brokenness in her voice that clawed at his chest like the claws of an ephemeral beast fighting for its last breath. Was that guilt? Or was it something else entirely?
Pity perhaps?
Whatever it was or had been it ebbed away at his anger almost immediately. For some strange reason, Shinn did not, at that moment in time, feel the need to torment her any further than he'd already tried to. There was a feeling, as if something would break and ultimately come to its end if he were to push the insults further.
He actually felt like stopping his verbal assault… Out of fear?
No… No, no, he's braved countless, life ending battles before, braved the fears, the trauma and the lies that made him into what he is and what he used to be. The ire and probably even the tears of the woman whom he hates is nothing compared to all those, so he comes closer, just enough to stand beside her in front of that small memorial.
There is but a second that he sees her flinch before everything rights itself again. The seagulls over yonder continued to fly and sing songs to the sky as the waves crashed harder against the cliff's side and the resulting burst of water threatened to reach the place where they stood in a silence that others would deem imperceptible to the two of them. But as everything natural that surrounded the two seemed to flow together with practiced ease, Shinn's breathing was strained, and Cagalli shoulders were stiff and tense. Shinn was not without shame as he stood beside her that one cold morning. Yes, he hated her enough to try and cut her down with words alone. But, at that moment, something gnawed and thrashed in his stomach telling him that it may be better to just sop with his childish nonsense lest he wanted things to go from hilariously and painfully awkward, to something beyond the physical brutality of normal and personal conflict.
He's been told of what she was capable of and just how repressed she is.
Maybe that's why his gut was telling him to back down.
It is merely by his sheer impulsive and rude mannerism that he breaks the purposeless quiescence between them in a final attempt to reassert to himself that he was not the awkward one in this conversation… If it can even be called that…
"Is that your way of telling me fuck off?"
~oo~
~o~
Written-Sin: I was busy and forgot to put this up. So this week, it's a double update.