Okay.. last chapter.. I admit, it was crap. Bawl! You guys are just so nice that you accepted it. I was having writer's block there… and thought… Cagalli has gone nuts. But in defense to her being nuts over a kiss, I once had a friend who bawled like crazy when she kissed her crush when she was drunk. She thought it was horrible, just horrible that she bawled for it for weeks. So we're glad Cagalli is somewhat reserved about it, trying not to hint anything to Athrun that she knows what happened that night.. But enough about that… It's Athrun's turn.

Thank you for all those who reviewed, read, alerted and made this their fave story.

Shout-outs section!:

Risingsundynasty Ooh. That will be the wonderful part. Athrun remembering… Here's the update.

Hades.Throne.Heiress: Yes, sometimes we should all try doing that.. barefoot marathon. Must be hell for the soles. Haha. I heart Lacus when she's being all motherly and cupidly evil.

Cagalliyulaathha: Yes, just a kiss.. but sometimes though, a kiss may mean something more to other people. Thanks for the review! ;

3fi-pina3: Yeah… I made Cagalli act like sh in the last chapter… but we all have reasons… haha. I could kill myself. Thank you for the support! I promise this one (I hope) won't be crap.

Aishiteru to itte kure: Yeah… But he won't be so blur anymore in this chapter. Cagalli will do more than freak out.

Nywey, I hope you enjoy this. Were like a few chapters away from the finale… hahaha. And then it's 'dilemme's' turn. (My other fic) I have exercised my brain to death so it would revert back to the 'sane' disposition.

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The art of Love – chapter 25

Recap:

She turned her head towards Athrun, avoiding his piercing eyes and focusing on his watch instead. "Anyway, you can just pull some clothes from Kira's closet. And you can use his room too... anything Kira owns here, you can use."

"So it's 'grab and abuse Kira's belongings today' with me?" Athrun chuckled.

Cagalli chuckled back but decided it best not to look at him when he chuckles like that, she might have other unwanted flashbacks, and this time, she won't know what to say to Athrun if she freak's out again.

"Being stressed-out is overrated anyway." She mumbled.

On the other hand, Athrun observed the young lady. Of course it's not that he bought her excuse awhile ago. There really is something wrong and he could see that with the way she is acting after the 'freak out and run away' incident.

She acted embarrassed and mortified. What was she thinking back then? He can't help but think it had something to do with him. Because she's avoiding his gaze, still acting like her old self but avoiding his look.

What is it?

He scratched his head as he changed into Kira's shirt. He swore, he will find out about it.

Only he doesn't have any idea what it will do to him when he does.

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It's just a kiss

A week after the skating incident, (which Athrun dutifully tried to forget since it won't help him anyway, and Cagalli banging her head to forget since it kills her) everything is back to normal.

Well at least a bit of it.

The emerald eyed young man typed on his laptop furiously. He had a lot of speech to make and other schedules to re-do since his dear old friend Kira and Lacus decided to tell everyone in the world that they are finally getting married next spring.

And now, they are having a press conference, photo shoots, and all stuff that makes them the front page and highlight of the news.

And him, well he's tied up with work thanks to the two lovebirds. But it was good enough, since he had to stop thinking too much of irrelevant stuff... like Cagalli for example. Not that she is irrelevant, only for now... in his work.

Cagalli's exhibit is a month away, she finally called up Shiho for it and her paintings are all good to go, framed and all. And it's making him squirm in excitement since Cagalli hadn't even let him peek at the canvasses.

Speaking of the blonde haired young woman, he hadn't seen her nor had time to hang out with her after the skating incident and sleep over days ago.

He raised an eyebrow, questioning himself. He wasn't that busy… he knows she is… but there was something, was she avoiding her?

Then he remembered two days ago when he asked her to go have lunch with him, she wasn't doing anything that day and when he asked, she suddenly had something to do and dragged her friend, Milly with her.

Athrun grumbled. "What the heck, what am I frustrating about? Geez…" He typed again and slammed his laptop shut. "Screw this!" He stood up and went towards the door, slamming it close after he had gone out of his office.

All the staff outside squirmed and hid, it was unusual for them to see Athrun Zala so furious and troubled like this. Why, even if they had hectic schedules and killer deadlines, he was the one who is always calm. What could make him act like that?

"Told you… One way or another pressure will penetrate those calm features of his." One staff whispered.

"Must be the Clyne and Yamato engagement… they after all passed all the job to him." The other staff answered back.

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"Hey, if it isn't Athrun Zala." Shiho declared. Yzak grumbled and stood up to greet his friend. "Hey."

"Hey.. so how's everything here?" Athrun asked, scanning the halls of the gallery. "Everything's fine." Yzak sat back down and read his newspaper. "Shiho's been pestering me about all this. Apparently, your girlfriend had finished her work… but you know that already." The silver haired guy grumbled.

Athrun spat back at him a: She's not my girlfriend, and yeah.. I know.

"If you're looking for Cagalli, she went out with Miriallia, Dearka and Nick." Shiho smiled at him, carrying with her a couple of decoration samples.

"She was here? So you know Milly and Nick already." Athrun helped her carry the stuff towards a nearby table. "Yeah. Nice bunch of people I must say." Shiho smiled again, tapping Yzak on the head as she passed by him. The silver haired man growled but she ignored him anyway.

"Zala-san." A soft voice came. Athrun turned around to find Meyrin.

"Oh. Hi Meyrin. Please, just call me Athrun." He raised a hand in greeting. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh… I work here. Assistant curator of the place." Meyrin chirped and handed Shiho a clipboard. "I had finished my course with Mr. Edwards already… he's abroad right now… and he asked me to document Cagalli's exhibit for him to grade even if he's not here."

"Oh.. I see…" Athrun sighed.

"If you're looking for Cagalli, she and the others went out to get something to eat… if you want; you can wait for her here." Meyrin signaled for him to sit, but Athrun declined.

"No, it's okay.. I really must be going now… I'll see you guys then." Athrun waved and showed his way out the door.

Meyrin frowned. "He's not acting like himself." Shiho looked at her. "How do you think he should act then?"

"Wait for Cagalli." was the only thing that came out from the red haired young woman.

"Don't bother your brain cells with him, he's always weird." Yzak came, without looking at the two woman in front of him. "So are you dear." Shiho teased, Yzak grumbled.

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Cagalli sighed, Milly's right, it was just a freakin' drunken kiss. Why won't she get over it? Plus, she just did the wisest thing she could do the whole week, in a sarcastic kind of way.

Avoid him.

Miriallia and Dearka had to laugh at Nick, he had been counting how many times Cagalli had sighed that day and the young man just declared a booming 'THIRTY', and then Cagalli snapped back.

"What thirty?" She inquired. Nick snickered. "You just sighed for the 30th time today.. isn't that nice?"

Cagalli pouted, "Not funny Nick. I just have a lot in mind."

"Like what? What can occupy your mind that much? It's not as if you have a lot of things to do…" Miriallia sneered. Cagalli avoided her gaze, she doesn't want to look at her sly sneer or she'll be trapped at what she will do next.

But since Miriallia and Nick share the sadistic blood in them, not to mention the ability to twist somebody into their bidding, they still had Cagalli in the palm of their hands, whether or not she avoids their gaze.

"Alright… tell us the one thing that you had to do that is making you spaced out. If it's reasonable, we'll let you go… but if not, you do what we would tell you to do." Miriallia came.

Cagallli knew she should have ignored them, she knew at the very back of her head she should have not uttered a word in protest, but that was all that she knew… Next thing she knew, she's reasoning with them.

"Of course I do it's.. it's…"

Dearka snickered. This is getting good. Who would have thought that hanging around with these three especially Miriallia would be so much fun? And for once, he didn't try to be the one to be funny.

Cagalli paled; great… there really was nothing... Well not exactly nothing… but she can't say that it was Athrun. She tried making up things. Taking out trash? Drawing—is actually overrated, what? What?

"Well Cagalli?" Nick raised an annoying eyebrow.

Nothing. She opened her mouth and closed it again, making her look like a goldfish gasping for air after it's bowl crashed mercilessly on the floor.

"So I was spacing out. No big, you don't have to make such a fuss about it." Cagalli growled.

The three laughed hard. "You lose. Now you have to do what we want you to do." Dearka grinned.

"What?" Cagalli turned her head to glare at them.

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"No way. What kind of dare is this? You guys are just making fun of me." Cagalli stood in front of her brother's and Athrun's building.

"Come on, it's not like were asking you to grope and kiss him." Miriallia cooed, giving emphasis on the word: kiss.

Cagalli immediately turned red. "What the heck. Give me that!" She yelled and violently grabbed a choco pop box from Nick's hand.

"All you have to do is ask him to share it with you." Nick smiled. Cagalli wanted to choke him to death, but she calmed down. "That's it? Che, easy…" She coughed.

"How easy cagalli?" Dearka teased. "Shut your trap!" She pointed to the tanned young man.

"oohh.. feisty isn't she?" Dearka looked at Miriallia who just shook her head and grinned.

"now go.. we'll be waiting for you at the diner." Miriallia shoved her in.

Cagalli swore her friends will be the death of her.

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Athrun sipped on to his coffee and slouched back on his chair. There wasn't much to do but work anyway. He then heard a knock from the door. "Come in." He casually voiced out.

The door slowly opened to reveal a flustered and a bit mad Cagalli, holding a box of choco pop. She was mumbling something that sounded like curses but Athrun shrugged it off.

'Cagalli." He name slipped out of his mouth softly. Cagalli turned to look at him. "Oh hey."

"What are you doing here?" He approached her and handed her a seat. "Uhm.. nothing. Just thought I would drop by and stuff… since we haven't seen each other for the past week…" She sat down, calming herself since she was still all mad and wanted to kill someone awhile ago.

"Oh right… I thought you were avoiding me." Athrun honestly answered. "Eh? Why would I do that? I was just busy… sorry." Cagalli bit her lip. Sorry my ass.. I was really avoiding him.

"Anyway, I got this choco pops… so wanna share?" She nervously handed the box to Athrun, who smiled and nodded.

After a few minutes, there was intense silence… the choco pops haven't been eaten much and Athrun felt quite uncomfortable by the said quietness. He looked at Cagalli and noticed the she was fidgeting in her seat and kinda looked like she's spacing out.

There it is, in front of him… proof that there was definitely something wrong.

"Hey, are you okay? Is something bothering you?" He gently asked.

Cagalli snapped back to reality. She was close to killing three people in her mind awhile ago.

"What? No! Of course not! Nothing's wrong with me! Everything's fine! Why would you say that?!" Cagalli retorted as soon as his words came registering in her mind. Ookay, so much for not looking like you're hiding something. But she swore, if Athrun continues, she's gonna pummel him anyway—at least she thought she would.

"There, see? There really is something wrong. You denied it in 5 kinds of 'NO's'. Out with it Cagalli. I knew there was something wrong starting from you screaming and running off at the rink." Athrun cornered her.

BAD. This is definitely BAD.

And does he have to point out that freakin' thing I did in the skating rink? Cagalli frowned.

It was horrible enough that looking at his eyes made her squirm and blush, but him cornering her? She thought she could die—or kill someone, but still it will end up with someone dying.

Ever since she remembered that kissing incident, she had indecent images ramming her head. She had got to stop this!

"Nothing is wrong! You're the one who has a loose screw up in your head!" Cagalli slapped him with a pillow adorning the said couch she's on. Athrun yelped and held on to his nose.

"OW-HEY! I do not! If loosing a screw in the head means me asking you a perfectly normal question, then I don't know what 'running off and screaming for no apparent reason' is called!" Athrun bit back. This time, Cagalli flushed from head to foot.

"You're a jerk!" She yelled again, grabbing a box of choco pops and smashing it on his face—again. Athrun winced. "Not the choco pops!"

Cagalli gasped. "Oh my—see what you made me do!" She quickly salvaged those that didn't get on the floor or get crushed. "It's not my fault! You're the one who kept on throwing things on my face!" Athrun grumbled and helped too.

The staff outside were all too shocked to hear screaming inside their boss' office. One minute it was quiet, and the next they were hearing yells that sounded almost like bloody murder. They tried assessing if no one has died yet. Apparently from the two voices still audible, no one hasn't—yet.

"You're the one who keeps on pestering me!" Cagalli still flushing picked up the chocolate pops violently. "Okay. Then pester this!" Athrun pinned her down, placing three choco pops in her mouth.

"Athrun you idiot!" Cagalli yelled and tried to fight back. "Ha! See what it feels to be helpless!" Athrun chuckled. Cagalli was about to explode with embarrassment. Perverted Images, the images! Oh God!

"What?! You pervert!"

Athrun then stopped chuckling and noticed their positions. "what?! I'm not a pervert! I was just.." He quickly got off on top of the girl, and it was his turn to blush.

"Freak." Cagalli avoided his gaze.

"hey." He started back.

Cagalli this time looked back at him and looked him in the eye saying: "Let's just clean this mess up."

Athrun nodded and they started their silent cleaning. He began stealing glances at the flushed blonde haired young woman, his gaze then going down towards he pink full lips. He began imagining how warm and soft they were when he kissed them—wait a minute? I haven't even—

And then it came, the all too convenient flashback.

ENTER FLASHBACK

"Athrun, you have such nice beautiful eyes you know that? And I love that about you." She purred. Athrun smiled back at her. "You know another thing? That's not the only thing I love." She inched her face close to him, their lips almost brushing.

"What?" Athrun did the same.

"I really, really love you." Cagalli sighed and Athrun closed their gap. She felt his lips brush up against her. Soon after, he felt his tongue exploring her mouth. It gave her a rather tingling sensation.

Athrun moaned against her lips. Murmuring an 'I love you' in his ragged breath. They kissed each other like there's no tomorrow, their hands caressing each other's back and neck.

They broke apart, panting.

"Hey Athrun…" Cagalli smiled. "Goodnight." She slurred as she fell back on the couch and fast asleep.

Athrun looked at her in drooped eyes, he two fell back sound asleep. They were too drunk to even move and kiss each other anymore.

EXIT FLASHBACK

"Oh my Go—" He blurted out, his emerald eyes wide.

"What? Got something stuck up your nose?" Cagalli growled and turned to look at him.

"Cagalli… you and I…" He flushed and lost his balance, sitting down on the floor with a 'thud' he kissed her that night, it wasn't a dream, it wasn't imagination, he really had his lips locked with hers… and he told her:

'I love you'

"What? What the hell is that expression?" Cagalli stuttered, somehow, she doesn't think she likes this.

"We kissed. Oh my Go—We kissed!" Athrun held on to his chest, a smile trying to creep up his face. "Is that it? Is that the reason you've been avoiding me?"

Athrun asked. He felt happy, and at the same time sad… Did Cagalli not like it that's why she's avoiding him?

"You remember?!" Cagalli pointed to him with her mouth stuck open.

Athrun flushed even harder and so did Cagalli. "Cagalli, we just kissed!" He blurted again but was welcomed with a kick on the face.

"Alright already! I know! Stop yelling darn it!" Cagalli growled. Athrun held on to his nose again.

"Look… its look I'm sorry it happened… It was embarrassing enough as it is…" Cagalli sighed and sat down in front of him.

No, No… it's not… It's actually okay. Athrun wanted to say that but was discouraged at the thought of cagalli not liking it. "Uh…" was all that came from his mouth.

"I'm sorry I put you in that awkward situation Athrun… I really am… How silly of me to trouble you" Cagalli continued.

"No Cagalli it's—" He was cut off at what Cagalli said next.

"To make up for it, I suggest we forget it ever happened. It was after all just a kiss." Cagalli finished and forced a smile.

What? Athrun couldn't believe it. Here he is in euphoria that Cagalli and he actually kissed… but now she's telling him to forget about it? That it was just a kiss? It wasn't just a kiss…

But then again, maybe Cagalli doesn't think of her the way he thinks about her.

Athrun frowned and forced a smile after. "Yeah." was all he said. He can't trouble her also with the fact that he loves her more than a friend if she doesn't feel the same.

He stood up and reached for her hand to pull her up. They stood there looking at each other for a minute when Athrun spoke, his hands holding on to Cagalli's shoulders.

"It was just a kiss. No big." He sadly said as he gently leaned forward to press his lips against hers one more time and perhaps the last… At least, he thought to himself, he did it when he was conscious.

Cagalli stiffened, but relaxed after.

Athrun let go of her after a 5 second kiss. He smiled at her and said: "Must be the side effect."

Cagalli smiled and nodded. Then she bid goodbye and told him she had to leave.

Athrun stood there for awhile as he watched her retreating back. It was as if she was so close yet so far again… but this time, this time, it hurt like hell. He gently sat himself down as he felt himself shiver and almost, just almost cry.

Cagalli got out of the building and rode a bus towards the diner. And for once, she felt lost, lost in a place she thought she knew so well. Lost in her world she thought she had memorized. And she almost, just almost broke down inside the bus.

The new kiss had triggered something else, something she knew she should have had before she denied him. "What have I done?" She sobbed silently.

Why did she deny? Why did she have to be so stupid?

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It was a sad ending. But at least I'm back… I emphasized the pain they both felt here. Haha. At earlier chapters, the both of them were brave enough to tell themselves: 'I will tell her how I feel even if she/he doesn't give it back…' but the reality of it all is that it hurts like hell to know personally that the person you like doesn't feel the same way. Haha! Sadist, I'm a sadist! And cagalli? She's hurting because she just denied Athrun Zala. And she doesn't think she could bring everything back so.. the confessing plan of hers are thrown down the trash.