Pairing: Athrun/Lacus
Prompt: Lacus/Athrun happy marriage
"Everyone knows that Coordinators age more gracefully than Naturals, Chairman Clyne," the reporter says, shoving a microphone in Lacus's face. "But you and General Zala look half your age sometimes! What's your secret?"
It's a standard question, easy patter for a pair of retired heroes, a chance for Lacus to give the standard nod of honor to lost friends. Athrun admires the grace with which she takes the cue.
"It's not us," Lacus says, smiling. She doesn't look a day over forty--not half her real age, then, but a good quarter of a century less. "It's thanks to what's in here." She clasps a hand to her heart. "Kira and Cagalli will always be young, and they will never leave my heart. Is it any wonder I look so young?"
It is the same old line, the same false smile to cover up the cracks in her heart that have been there. It is only when she lets the smile drop that Athrun realizes, with a jolt, that it was not a fake. It was real. And he realizes more besides: it didn't just become real tonight. It's been real for years now. Sometime over the last decade, the cracks finally sealed up and Lacus could speak of their lost halves and smile without heartbreak.
He slips out of the reception early. There is a part of him that is reeling too much to deal with other people now, it's true. But another part of him wants to relish the experience of seeing Lacus in a truly new light. It has happened only twice before: once when he pointed a gun at her in the concert hall and she stood without flinching, and once, ten years later on the anniversary of Kira and Cagalli's deaths, when she took off his clothes.
The first time, he realized that he had to decide what he was fighting for. The second time, he realized that he had to decide why he should keep on living. This time, it's simpler: he realizes, finally, that he loves her.
He is too busy thinking of her to hear her approaching from behind; he only emerges from his reverie when he feels her hand on his shoulder. "You know," she says, still smiling, "I'm getting tired of lying like that in those speeches." She taps her heart to remind him which speech.
He blinks at her. "You're not lying. I know you," he says plainly. "You do have Kira and Cagalli in your heart."
She cants her head to one side, watching him with eyes that are both much younger and much older than either of them. "Only half of them." And she reaches out to lay her hand on his heart.
He starts to blink back tears, but he's smiling instead, and it's for real.