A/N: Hey everyone! Chapter 21! Summer vacation is almost here so I can update faster! :D
I got another review that supported the AsuMey pairing. :| (The reviewer said that Athrun should leave Cagalli :O and that he should make out with Meyrin… like that will happen!) It drives me off the wall! Rawr. If it's not obvious enough, this is an AsuCaga fic okay? Spare me your flames if it's only about that.
Well anyway, I tried to squeeze in all the requests from the reviews last chapter but forgive me if some characters you requested still didn't show up this chapter! I'll try to put your requested scenes and/or characters in the succeeding chapters. :)
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed/Destiny
Chapter 21: Knight in Shining Red Armor
-o0o-
"Good morning to you Cagalli-chan!" The old man, who was the owner of the building, greeted Cagalli. It was early in the morning and it seemed like the old man was just passing by to see how everything was doing. He was in his seventies but still was healthy as ever.
"Oyaji! [1] Good morning to you too!" Cagalli enthusiastically greeted him as he had been always nice to her. But she was in wonder at the same time. She thought that Oyaji already agreed to Suoh Tamaki's offer to buy the whole building. What was he still doing here? Scratch that. What were the other tenants doing here? Their shops were still open and still doing businesses.
"I heard what happened to you the other day." The old man went near her and looked at her with relief washing over his face when he saw that the large bulge of Cagalli's stomach was still there. "It's good to know that you're alright."
"Thank you Oyaji." Cagalli smiled at him but still didn't enter the staff entrance of her shop. "I have a question though."
"What is it Cagalli-chan?" Oyaji was starting to walk away, but turned back to her when she called out.
"When will Suoh Tamaki renovate the building? I wasn't able to tell him what my final decision was because, you know…" She paused before continuing. Even when she got the time to rest at Athrun's place, she still hasn't come to a decision on whether to accept or not, but she was inclining to the thought of relocating already, since it was clear to her that she was out of options already. She was only hesitating; purely because of she was just too sentimental about the pastry shop being her first one.
"Oh that rich blonde prince?" Cagalli wanted to laugh at what the old man described him but remained quiet. "He won't be renovating the building anymore." The old man grinned at her, much to Cagalli's glee.
"Really?" Cagalli couldn't hide the feeling of exuberance she was feeling. There she was, all set and ready to give away her first shop, but then here was the old man, saying that Suoh Tamaki may have changed his mind about having his eye on the building.
"Yes really." Oyaji nodded. He knew how hard it was for Cagalli to give away her shop, but now she won't be worrying about doing that any longer.
"That's good to hear then." Cagalli was happy that she didn't have to give the shop away. But still she was curious. "Why did he change his mind about buying the whole building anyway?" She knew she shouldn't be asking that already, but she just wanted to know why.
"Some other guy bought the building from me." The old man chuckled, which made Cagalli's jaw drop. If some other guy bought the building, then he would be renovating it in no time. But before Cagalli could answer him, Oyaji continued. "He said if I sell the building to him, he'd give all the tenants here three months free of rent and forty percent decrease of rent on the succeeding months. Soon enough, all of the tenants wanted to take on his offer. I know you would also like that so I agreed to his proposal."
"Oh…" Cagalli could only say that. That guy must be so freaking generous and rich.
"I even remembered him threatening the rich blonde prince." Oyaji murmured to himself while fingering his mustache all the while. "He was saying 'back off this building' in a scary tone." He chuckled again. "Then that guy must be the richer blue-headed prince. I'm a happy man! I can retire and go travel the world now!"
Before Cagalli could answer him, Oyaji spoke again. "Well, I have to go now. Bye Cagalli-chan!"
"Bye Oyaji." She waved and walked to her shop.
Just wait a damn second.
True enough she stopped in her tracks and realized something.
Did Oyaji just say richer blue-headed prince?
And did he not say that the richer blue-headed prince threatened the rich blonde prince?
She turned to ask him again, but alas the old man was out of sight already. Drat even during his seventies, Oyaji certainly moves like he's still in his thirties.
But she was absolutely sure that it was Athrun.
Athrun was that richer blue-headed prince that Oyaji was talking about, she was certain of that. Well because he was undeniably rich and then she was the only blue-headed person that she knew of, except Leonore.
But how was he able to know about the buyout anyway?
-o0o-
"Cagalli!" A pair of arms enclosed the blonde as she entered the shop. "I'm so glad that you're alright! I hurriedly got a flight back here in Orb when I heard about what happened to you!"
"Shiho!" Cagalli returned her friend's hug. She was amazed that her friend even got the flight back home just to see how she was doing.
"Who even had the nerve to do that to do?" Shiho curled her fists into a ball. "Who's that bitch? I'll give her a piece of my mind and my fist!"
"No need to do that Shiho!" Miriallia interrupted the two of them and also gave Shiho a hug. "I swear it's not even worth your time."
"You're right and – are my eyes fooling me or what?" Shiho was supposed to give Miriallia a reply but noticed what Cagalli was wearing. She was in a dress. A freaking dress for crying out loud! For Cagalli and Shiho, it was a horrid piece of contraption that both of them dreaded to wear, but there Cagalli was, looking comfortable and flimsy in one.
"Holy cow Cagalli!" Shiho covered her mouth in shock. "You're wearing a dress!"
"It's not like that Shiho!" Cagalli tried to deny it. "It's not like I like wearing these kinds of stuff!"
"Oh please!" Miriallia rolled her eyes. "She likes wearing those 'kinds of stuff', if you'd ask me and the staff, she's wearing dresses every single day! And I'm not even joking you know. There was even a day that she wore a pink dress with flower prints. There was another day that she wore a lacey dress!" Miriallia joked. But it was true, her best friend was wearing dresses frequently, well it was partly because Lacus did the liberty of buying for her every time that she got.
"Is that true Cagalli?" Shiho asked her; she still wasn't convinced that her friend was wearing dresses, with flower prints of all prints! "You're such a traitor!"
"But Shiho! It's not my fault! Lacus always takes me to go shopping with her!" Cagalli tried to explain to her friend.
"Oh now you're shopping!" Shiho was more astounded than ever. "Tell me, what did that Athrun do to you? You're so girly now!"
"Athrun isn't doing anything to me!"
"You want to know another trivia Shiho?" Miriallia asked her, and when she nodded Miriallia continued to talk. "Cagalli's living with Athrun now! You could say that the two of them are being more lovey-dovey than ever!"
"If I know, you too are on your way making a twin for your baby." Shiho joked, which caused Miriallia to laugh so hard and Cagalli's face to blush beet red.
"Wait, speaking of Athrun…" Cagalli started to say.
-o0o-
Another busy day at work yet again, Athrun sighed to himself. He just arrived and he instantly felt how busy he would be today. After all, he didn't go to work for a few days to make sure that Cagalli was already fine. Simply thinking of the piles of documents that he needed to look through in his office makes him unmotivated to go to work.
"Lunamaria, I'm transferring you to Yzak's office." Athrun sat down his desk and opened his laptop.
"What? Why are you transferring me there?" Lunamaria hadn't seen Athrun for a few days and now that she finally saw him, here he was, transferring her to another department.
"He needs an assistant there. I think you're fit for the job." He said in a nonchalant tone while he started to type. But really, he just wanted Lunamaria out of his view. After what happened to Cagalli days ago, he was sure that he didn't want to see Lunamaria. If she could have tried to stop her sister, instead of just standing there and watching her, then Cagalli would have been able to avoid that kind of situation. The mere sight of her irritates him to a great extent.
"But why can't he just hire a new one?" Lunamaria tried to protest. She didn't want to be transferred to Yzak's office. That guy would sometimes explode at even some of the trivial matters.
"I told you, I think you're fit to be his assistant." He answered her without even bothering to look at her.
"What about you? You won't have an assistant." She tried to convince him to not transfer her to Yzak's office. First off, she didn't want to be away from Athrun because it was the only time that she had to spent with him and secondly, because she was scared of Yzak and his hotheadedness.
"I'll hire a new one then." He told her. "I think you better hurry up to Yzak's office. You know that he throws a fit when people are tardy."
"Is this about what happened to that blonde that other day?" So she finally realized that. "I'm sorry about not doing anything about Meyrin but this shouldn't be the basis of making me transfer to the other department." She wasn't that stupid, of course Athrun was mad at her, but still. He shouldn't be getting rid of her if it was only for that unattractive blonde girl.
"This is the third time that I'll be telling you this. Listen carefully because I don't like repeating myself." Athrun finally turned to look at his stubborn assistant, which would soon be Yzak's, and spoke. "It's nothing personal." He lied; of course it was something personal. "I told you that you're fit to be his assistant. I'm not demoting you or any like that, your salary won't decrease I assure you that." He was getting impatient already, if Lunamaria still refused to leave; he swore that he would call security to drag her out of his office.
But to his surprise, Lunamaria started to walk out of the office, looking defeated. He was also relieved that she wasn't that hard to convince. It was really something personal but his work would be affected if he kept on talking to Lunamaria like nothing happened. If Lunamaria had put an effort to stop Meyrin into slapping and pushing Cagalli, then maybe now he would even be promoting her and giving her a raise.
Minutes later, when he resumed typing in his laptop, someone entered his office again. If it was Lunamaria being stubborn and all, then he would really call the guards to drag her to Yzak's office.
But no it was Dearka; he was casually leaning by Athrun's door with his arms crossed.
"What are you doing here Elsman? Shouldn't you be working?"
"I was…" Dearka chuckled. "Until I saw Lunamaria carrying boxes of her things around the hallways…" He paused before continuing. "What did you do to her? Did you fire her?"
"I transferred her to Yzak's office." He replied before Dearka could continue saying nonsensical things.
"And why is that?" Dearka had a feeling that the reason why Athrun did that was because of what happened days before but still asked him anyway.
"Because Yzak might need an assistant."
"Might need? So you didn't bother checking if he really needed one?" Dearka raised an eyebrow on him.
"Nope. But I'm sure he'll need one soon enough."
"Are you sure it's just about Yzak needing an assistant or is it because of something else?" He gave Athrun a knowing look. "You know, maybe because of what happened to Cagalli the other day…"
"Fine. I can't stand seeing her here around my office, so I transferred her to the opposite side of the building." He admitted.
"Wow, you really like Cagalli don't you?" Dearka said to him. "To be so affected by the things happening to her…"
"Maybe."
"I think it's not a 'maybe', but a 'yes'." Dearka whispered to himself as he walked away from Athrun's office and went back to his office to work.
But what he didn't know was that Athrun heard him perfectly.
-o0o-
"Hello there Cagalli!" Dearka entered her shop along with Yzak.
"Hi." Yzak also greeted Cagalli, but it was with a lesser enthusiasm that Dearka's voice had.
"Greet her in a more happy tone you twit!" Dearka slapped Yzak's back.
"I AM GREETING HER WITH A HAPPY TONE YOU DUMBASS!" Yzak fumed, he was in a bad mood the whole morning because of what Zala had done and Dearka was making it worse.
"Right. Like that's a happy tone." Dearka pointed out.
When Yzak noticed that all the people in the shop were giving him a peculiar look, his face flushed out of embarrassment. "Hello Cagalli." His voice was tons of times gentler now.
"Dearka! Yzak! Welcome!" Cagalli greeted them but she was looking past the both of them. She waited for another person to come inside, a certain blue-headed prince to be exact.
Dearka immediately sensed that Cagalli was looking at the door. "Athrun's not with us. He's back at the office"
And he wasn't that naïve to notice the disappointment in Cagalli's eyes when he said that.
"I see…"
"But don't worry; the meeting will probably be over soon!" Dearka added, hoping that it would make Cagalli feel better if he said that. "He can still take you home later."
"You're really an idiot." Yzak said to him. "I don't know if you're really comforting her or just making fun of her. Of course the meeting will be over in time for Athrun to fetch her!"
"Hey! There's no need to pour out all your rage on me!" Dearka defended himself. Yzak was really in a bad mood and there was still no sign of his head cooling off. Why oh why did Athrun have to transfer Lunamaria into Yzak's office, of all people?
"It is my fault that I'm so infuriated with my new air-headed assistant?"
"I have to do something in my office." Cagalli ignored the fight that they were having and excused herself from Dearka and Yzak. She wanted to talk to Athrun for hours now. She thought that Athrun would be coming today so she patiently waited. But now that he didn't, Cagalli decided that she would just give him a call.
As she entered the staffroom, Miriallia and Shiho's voices were overpowering the whole room.
"I want to help you guys today!" Shiho insisted. "But I won't wear that hideous thing!"
"Well you can't help if you're not going to wear this!" Miriallia held onto the outfit that she was forcing Shiho to wear. It was the uniform of the waitresses. It was a cute light blue dress that Miriallia designed for them. But what scared Shiho the most was the frills on the hem on the dress.
"But can't I just help with what I'm wearing right now?" Shiho was wearing a loose polo and jeans, which Miriallia thought was too boyish of her.
"Absolutely not! You have to wear this dress! Isn't that right Cagalli?" Miriallia asked Cagalli.
"Yes! Let's make Cagalli decide!" Shiho felt confident that Cagalli would defend her and say that Miriallia shouldn't force her to wear a dress.
"Uhh. Yeah." Cagalli didn't hear what their question was, but she answered anyway, right now, she needed to talk to Athrun. She wanted to know if the blue-headed prince that Oyaji was talking about was him and if it was him, she wanted to know why he did that. "Wait a minute you guys, I just have to make a call." She entered her office, ignoring the whining sounds of Shiho and the laughter of Miriallia outside.
At first she dialed Athrun's phone, but he wasn't answering.
"Why isn't that idiot answering his phone?" Cagalli gave up calling when he didn't answer her call for the fourth time.
Then she remembered that Athrun gave the number to his office just this morning.
She punched the number and waited for a sound from the other line.
He better answer this.
To her surprise there was no automated voice that greeted her: "Welcome to ZAFT…" or even classical music in the background as she waited for someone to answer. The sex machine gave her the telephone line to his office.
"Hello. You have reached Athrun Zala's line. How may I help you?" A girl's voice answered which disappointed Cagalli a bit. Why wasn't he the one answering his line? Why was a girl answering for him? And why was she feeling jealous?
Hell to the no! She wasn't feeling jealous! She wasn't!
"Hello?" The voice from the other line spoke again.
"Uhm hello, I'd like to speak to Athrun Zala." Cagalli answered her.
"Oh, I'm sorry, President Zala's currently in a board meeting." The girl answered her. "May I ask who this is so I can advise him that you called?"
Cagalli didn't like being rude, but she did something that she deemed impolite.
She hung up the phone on the girl that answered her.
First thing was that she was too shy to even tell the girl who she was. Because to reach Athrun's line meant that the person calling on the other line was an important client or someone like the sort.
And second of all…
The girl called Athrun the 'president'.
President meant that… he was the head of a freaking top corporation!
Athrun Zala… is the president of ZAFT? He's the president of a prominent company, ZAFT fragrances?
Just what the hell? Why didn't he tell her that? It was no wonder he was so damn rich!
She knew that Athrun had a high position in the company, but she didn't know that he was the president! And she refused to believe it.
-o0o-
Shiho was feeling like her two best friends ganged up on her.
She really wanted to help the shop because she wanted to know what it was like working with both of her best friends but Miriallia told her that it was under one condition; she should wear the uniform of the waitresses.
And she thought that Cagalli would side with her, but no, she also thought that she should wear this scary thing! Maybe Athrun Zala was really girlifying [2] her friend up! She still couldn't believe that her friend was wearing dresses everyday!
But there she was, wearing the uniform anyway and serving the table Miriallia's new boyfriend.
"Hi. May I take your order?" Shiho tried to act sweet like the other waitresses but ended up looking like she was going to beat up Mirialla's new boyfriend and the other guy.
"Are you a new girl?" Dearka realized that it wasn't the usual girls that served them when they came here.
"Nope. Just helping around here. I'm Shiho, Cagalli and Miriallia's best friend." She reached out her hand for him to shake.
"Oh hi." Dearka shook her hand. "This one here is Yzak." He elbowed his friend that was beside him, who was still clearly in a bad mood.
"Yo." Yzak shrugged at her.
Shiho got a good look at the guy beside Miriallia's boyfriend, and all she could say was, she found him weird. Well, she found his hair color weird to be precise.
"Just what the hell are you looking at?" Yzak noticed Shiho's eyes boring on him and it was irritating him.
"I'm looking at your hair." Dearka's jaw dropped the moment Shiho said that. Yzak didn't like it when people were paying attention to his hair. But Shiho didn't notice the shocked expression on Dearka's face so she kept on talking. "Is that really your hair's natural color or did you dye that?" Dearka swallowed hard, this girl should stop asking questions about Yzak's hair or he was going to explode, yet again.
"What are you trying to insinuate here?" Yzak was now glaring at the girl. How dare she ask him if he dyed his hair.
"Well, if you dyed your hair, then you must be an avid Lady Gaga [3] fan." Shiho stated.
Dearka thought he heard some strings snap. That may be the strings of Yzak's patience. Oh no.
"Of course my hair is natural woman! Why would I do a stupid thing like dying my hair?" Yzak snapped at her. "And besides, it's none of your damn business anyway!"
It was the first time that anyone shouted at her like that, not even her parents so it made her a bit furious.
"Oh I see, I just had to point that that I find your hair weird, plus your hairstyle." Shiho continued on, while trying to regain her composure.
"Why you b-" Yzak started to stand up but then Dearka stopped him from doing so.
"Dude chill!" Dearka pulled him down. Yzak will never find himself a girlfriend if he's so impatient with girls.
"What is with women today? They're being so freaking annoying!" Yzak huffed as he sat back down.
"If you ask me, you're the one being so annoying, with your hair and all!" Shiho turned her back on him and walked straight back to the staff room.
"Did that woman just-"
"Chill dude." Dearka tried to calm his hot-headed friend.
-o0o-
"Hey Miriallia!" Dearka called out to her. Cagalli, Miriallia and Shiho were outside the shop waiting for their ride. Because Shiho filed a leave, she would be staying at Miriallia's place in the meantime.
"Dearka you're here already!" Miriallia ran to give her boyfriend a hug. "Where's Athrun?"
"Oh, about that…" He turned to Cagalli. "I'll be taking you home tonight. Athrun still has a lot to do back in the office."
"Really?" Cagalli was getting really worried now. Did he miss that much of work when he stayed back home to accompany her?
"Don't worry. He'll be done soon." Dearka comforted her. "He just didn't like it if you'd wait for him alone so he asked me to take you home instead."
"Alright then." Cagalli was disappointed yet again.
"Don't worry!" Dearka assured her. "Just tell me the directions and I'll drive you safely back home!"
"Well it's a good thing your Lady Gaga friend isn't here." Shiho said to him as they got inside the car.
"Lady Gaga friend?" Both Miriallia and Cagalli looked at each other with bewilderment. Who was she talking about?
"She means Yzak." Dearka laughed at what Shiho called him. "The two of them were in a heated conversation a while ago."
"About what?" Miriallia asked him.
"About his hair!" Shiho answered her! "His hair is just so weird! I can't explain it!"
"You're so mean Shiho!" Miriallia laughed at her friend.
"Hey! Don't you all think the same way?" She asked all of her companions inside the car, but all of them shook their heads no.
"Oh by the way…" Cagalli felt the need to switch the topic back to Athrun. "I didn't know that Athrun was the president of ZAFT fragrances."
"What?" Dearka and Miriallia said at the same time.
"The president? So he's the CEO? Or is that just the same?" Shiho was confused with the business terms. "But all I can say is, wow. Your husband is really something…" Shiho whistled. Cagalli hit the jackpot! She was living with a rich CEO!
"He's not my husband!" Cagalli blushed when she heard Shiho say the 'h' word.
"Didn't you know?" Dearka asked her; unable to believe that Cagalli didn't know that he was the president.
"No…" Her voice trailed off. "I just thought he was an high executive officer…"
"Are you serious?" Miriallia laughed at her. "Even I know that he's that president of ZAFT! I can't believe that you didn't know!"
"Wh-what?" Cagalli stuttered. "How did you know that?"
"Well, simply because the 'Z' of ZAFT stands for Zala. Right?" She turned to Dearka and he nodded.
"Yup. Athrun's father, Patrick Zala was the main stockholder during his time. Now Athrun's doing a good job in handling the business and even making ZAFT the number one company in the fragrance industry. Me and Yzak are his underlings. He's our boss, but he's not that bossy. "
Cagalli was really shocked at the revelation. Athrun was the president of ZAFT. She was living with a freaking CEO and she didn't even know of it!
-o0o-
"That should be enough for the day." Athrun Zala said to himself when he finished reading the last of the documents. He closed his laptop shut and proceeded to go home.
The office was so quiet and empty without the people around, except the security guard doing his rounds. He looked at his watch and realized that it was a few minutes passed eleven o clock. No wonder he felt like he was walking in an abandoned hospital. It was already that late.
When he got to his car, he felt someone creeping behind him. He immediately alerted himself, in case it was a burglar or some sort.
Then he felt the shadow behind him tapping his shoulder.
"Athrun?"
He swore it scared the living hell out of him.
He turned to look at who it was, it was Meyrin. It was getting really creepy that she was always waiting for him to finish work.
"What are you doing here in this late hour for Pete's sake?" He asked her as he was still trying to regain his composure.
"I'm sorry if I surprised you." She apologized.
"That doesn't answer my question." He snapped at her while opening the door of his car.
"I waited for you to finish work." She shyly said to him.
"Why?"
"I wanted to know what happened to that blonde girl." Meyrin said to him. She may be a bitch but when she saw blood coming out of the girl, she felt so scared at what might have happened to her. But she wasn't sorry that she called the blonde a bitch and flirt because she really was.
"Oh that reminds me." Athrun closed his door first and walked near her. "Because of what you did to Cagalli, I'm filing a restraining order."
"A what?" Meyrin waited for him to finish work and she expected him to be mad at her, to shout at her but she didn't expect this. But maybe she just heard it wrong. There was no way that Athrun would do that to her.
"You heard me. I'm filing a restraining order so stay away from Cagalli and my baby." His voice became frightening. Meyrin took a step back because the look in his emerald eyes was really menacing. That was the scariest look that she ever saw from him. "I swear if you do something to aggravate Cagalli and our baby, I won't hesitate to press charges against you."
-o0o-
"You're still awake." Athrun opened the lights to the bedroom to find Cagalli sitting at the edge of the bed.
"Of course I am." Cagalli was at ease that Athrun was finally home. She was starting to worry as it got later.
"What's the matter?" Athrun sat down with her and cupped her face. "You're not feeling well? Do you want to eat something?" He asked her, she was craving all sorts of food these days.
"No. I don't want anything." She held his hand that was cupping her cheek. It was so warm. "I just wanted to ask you something."
"What is it?" He smiled at her gently.
"Why?"
"Why what?" He looked at her with confusion all over his face.
"Why did you buy the whole building?"
"What building?"
"Don't play stupid with me. I know what you did." Cagalli was starting to get mad. "So why did you buy the whole building?"
Athrun thought that Cagalli wouldn't find out about him buying the building, but then he guessed that the old man told her about it.
The morning that Cagalli moved in to his house, he asked Miriallia to look after her for a few hours because he told them that he had some business to take care of. What the both of them didn't know was that he went to the building where Cagalli's pastry shop was. Surprisingly, Suoh Tamaki was there, talking to the owner of the building.
"Athrun Zala of ZAFT!" Suoh enthusiastically greeted him. "What brings you here? Do you visit this place often?"
Athrun wanted to punch him but refrained himself from doing so. He didn't like to act friendly with Suoh Tamaki so went straight to the point already. "I came here to buy this building."
Suoh's eyes widened in surprise but then he laughed. "But you see Athrun, I came here first."
"Oh really? Then how much are you offering the old man?" Athrun furrowed his brow in him.
"That doesn't matter-"
"I'll double the price that you're willing to pay him just so I can get this building."
"What?" Suoh was still trying to figure out what was going on.
"Scratch that, I'll triple the price of what you're willing to pay him."
Suoh Tamaki let out a smug laugh. "What about the tenants then? I've negotiated with all of them and they are convinced to relocate to a new place."
"All of them? I don't think so." Athrun went to the old man. "Hello. I'm Athrun Zala, and I want to buy this building of yours."
The old man scratched his head in confusion. "But the young man here…" He looked at Suoh Tamaki.
"I have been told that not all the tenants here wanted to give away their space. So I'm proposing another offer, I'll triple the amount of what he will pay you for this building. I assure you that the building will not be renovated. I'll also decrease the rent that the tenants have to pay."
"You must be crazy." Suoh Tamaki laughed at him. "Just what do you think you're doing?"
"I'm telling you to find your own play place." Athrun glared at him. "This one is mine."
"What are you going to do if I don't want to?" It seemed like Suoh didn't want to give up.
"Simple. I'll withdraw all the investments I put in Suoh Group of Companies. I also will talk to the other big companies just so they won't invest in your company. Let's see how you'll deal with that."
"You won't do that. Won't you?" Suoh swallowed hard, Athrun Zala was dead serious about this building.
"I will if you don't back off. You don't know what I'm capable of doing."
After that heated encounter, Suoh Tamaki gave up the building and it became Athrun's. But Cagalli didn't know that yet.
"I did it for you."
"For me?" Cagalli couldn't believe what she was hearing. Athrun was doing that for her? "But why? Why are you doing all of these? I don't understand why!" She couldn't grasp the reason why Athrun would go to the extent of buying the building just so her pastry shop wouldn't get relocate. She stood up and went near the window. Athrun was crazy…
"Why are you wasting your money for something trivial like that? I could handle it on my own!" Cagalli felt bad that Athrun had to do this for her. She was pacing around the room because she couldn't handle what Athrun was saying to her.
"I can't believe you Athrun!" She still didn't think that she deserved that. "Why did you do that?"
"I'm doing this, because I don't anything to aggravate you! And I'm doing it not because someone told me too! It was my own decision to do that and I'm not regretting it! Do you understand that?" Athrun got a hold of her shoulders; he held her chin and gently pulled it just so she would face him. "When you were sent to the hospital because you were bleeding from stress, I felt so bad that I couldn't protect you and our baby! I felt so bad about it! I didn't know what I would do if the something bad happened to our baby."
Cagalli was rendered speechless after hearing Athrun say that. He was doing this to protect her and the baby? It was uncalled for but she felt some weird sensation when she heard that, the type of sensation that she always felt when she was still with Shinn.
"Cagalli, as long as I'm here, I'll do anything in my power to make sure that nothing bad happens to you ever again. I swear I'll protect you."
Those words that Athrun said to her were like the words that Kira told to her when he awoke from comatose.
"Cagalli! Cheer up! Daddy and mommy won't be happy in heaven if you keep on crying." Kira comforted her sister that was crying in his bedside. He knew he had to be strong because he was the older brother. "I'm still here. I won't let anything like that happen to us! I swear I'll protect you!"
"Athrun…" She didn't even notice that hot tears were already flowing down her cheeks. "Thank you. That means a lot."
"Cagalli." He couldn't find the words to say to comfort her so he just enclosed his arms around her and ran his hand through her hair. Cagalli also wrapped his arms around him. She didn't know why, but she felt so safe with him. He was like her soft place to fall on.
"Princesses need knights don't they?" His question was answered by Cagalli's head nodding yes.
The feeling of Cagalli being so secured in his arms and the feeling of him wanting to hold her made him convinced about what Dearka had asked him a while ago. Dearka may think that he didn't hear it but he did. He liked Cagalli. He was sure of that. Well maybe even more than that.
From that moment on, he swore that he would be the knight of Double P.
Red knight to be exact, because his car was red and it was his armor.
-o0o-
Done with Chapter 21! Sorry if it's late! I was trying to post this saturday evening but there kept telling me that there was an error. What did you think of the chapter? Your feedback is very much appreciated!
Again I'll try to put your requests in the next chapter. So it's RnRoR (Read and Review and/or Request!)
Hihi.
See you guys in the next chapter!
Additional Notes:
[1] Oyaji – old man. Haha. I couldn't think of what name I should give him.
[2] I can't think of a more appropriate word other than girlifying. =)) It's not really a word, so I'm inventing it! Yaaay!
[3] Lady Gaga, the singer of Poker Face, Lovegame etc, I do not own her.