Disclaimer: As you all know, I don't own GS/GSD, and Truth is at its end.R&R&R
Chapter 28
"I'm so sorry for not trusting you!" Rainie was sobbing while Vino tried comforting her by patting her back and making her hiccup.They were like puppies, always playing together and yapping at each other, but then Athrun had heard from Lacus that Vino had lost some of his naiveness and playfulness, but that was natural since he was older. But Rainie seemed to make him a juvenile again, she would leap on him from behind and he would do backflips to amuse her and then she'd challenge him to a duel and god-knows-what happened after that. But after Cagalli had gone into the state she was in, Rainie had been distraught.
"It's alright, I mean, you don't have to worry about it," he told her for the ten-thousandth time. He wanted to strangle both of them so they'd get out of his way and stopped apologising. Kira kept smirking and Athrun wanted to murder him too.
When he had gotten back to Cagalli's estate, the bodyguards had assembled in a line and were bowing over and over again; pleading for forgiveness for not believing that eh was innocent. Athrun had only managed to keep them quiet by reassuring them that he really didn't mind, although Rainie was a little extreme, which was what she naturally was anyway. Vino had been waiting there too to se him return and thankfully had distracted Rainie long enough for Athrun to slip into the gates of the estate and charge through the doors and up the winding stairs to her drawing room where he knew she would probably be sitting in front of the television listening to the statement he had just issued.
Kira and Lacus had followed him there too, but they both halted as he placed hand on the door handle, akin to time they had allowed him to go in to see Cagalli alone, and he turned to smile at them, grateful for their support. Then he inhaled and exhaled deeply, then opened the door to go in.
As he shut the door behind him, he heard her voice say, "I knew you'd come."
Turning to her, he saw her dressed in soft pyjamas sitting on an armchair and facing the television even though her eyes were closed. The light of the screen was casting soft shadows on her face and they flickered as she turned slowly to face him, her face showing her conflict of emotions. But something in her face showed a feeling almost akin to hope, and he felt a need to take her into his arms and be selfish and never let go.
He ventured towards her in the dimly-lit room; he supposed she had told Rainie to use minimum lighting since it wouldn't really matter anyway. He walked to the switches and flipped on the brightest lighting so he could see as clearly as possible. Her head was turned in his direction and it moved upwards to face his even though she couldn't see he was looking directly down at her. She could sense his being so well that it surprise him, and he reached down and pulled her upwards so that she stood, her hands on his shoulders because she was a little shaky in standing.
Then he kissed her forehead while holding her possesively and she struggled to get free but he simply threw her against the wall behind her and pressed her there while she resisted and managed to make out the words, "Let me go," which was quite a feat in itself since he was still kissing her and she could barely speak since her lips were no longer in that mode to function.
"No," Athrun muttered, and then he gripped tightly onto her arm and she cried out in shock.He supposed she would be startled since she couldn't see, but he didn't speak and continued untilshe began to stop resisting wildly and thrashing madly about. Eventually, she had wrapped her arms around him to regain her balance and he knew it was time.
"Step towards me," he commanded, and she scowled, although she didn't know how adorable she looked and muttered irratatedly, "Just because the whole world's your biggest fan again doesn't mean you can order me around, Chairman."
But she still stepped towards him when he guided her slightly, and he pulled her tighter to him and stroked her face.
"I heard why you refused to go for the operation," he commented in a low voice, and she flinched a little and said, "I don't need it."
He didn't bother arguing with her, he knew all about its risks and what it could do if it went wrong. So he pressed her closer to him and held his silence.
Cagalli's hands were now sliding slowly across his chest and she turned up her face to his and said softly, "What is it?"
He looked at her and asked, "Do you trust me?"
She wanted to turn her head away but a hand from her waist flew to her head so she was still facing him even though she couldn't see him. Again, she was thrust into conflict, and if she chose to say no, he might turn and leave because she would be lying through her teeth to him. And the truth was that she trusted him more than she trusted herself at times, and then she knew she would always be subject to his will.
"Yes," she replied quietly, and in the darkness she was shrouded in, she saw hope.
Then she heard him stoop down slightly and felt his lips on hers. She didn't pull away this time, and she couldn't either.He wouldn't have let her, and she didn't want to either.
Then he pulled away with some regret that she could somehow sense and he kissed her eyelids, one at a time. She was suddenly fearful and tried to struggle and break away, but he was holding her close and saying, "You said you trusted me."
She felt his lips on her again and then suddenly, his fingers which had been on her waist and on her cheek were placed above her eye sockets and on her cheekbones and she realised, horrified, what he was about to do. The doctors had tried it,but Cagalli had remembered the light and their efforts had been futile.
She would have pulled away and tried to run, and he was kissing her while she struggled and kicked and tried to scratch him to get away, but his second fingers and his thumbs, firmly planted on her cheekbones and the region above her eye sockets started stretching her eyelids open. She screamed in fear and a little pain as her eyelids, used to being shut for so long, were forced open, but she couldn't scream because he was kissing her again.
Athrun saw her exposed eye whites as her eyelids were successfully opened and he wasn't frightened or horrified but broke the kiss like he had planned to and said urgently, "Look at me.do it, Cagalli!"
And then the eye whites were rolling back down and up confusedly as she tried to follow his instructions and try to look for him. She couldn't see him in the darkness she had already been used to.
In her head, she was seeing familiar and strangely comfortable pitch darkness and searching in her memory of hat he looked like and then she remembered his face and the warmth he held in it as he hugged her on the Archangel before leaving for Messiah.
And she remembered the way he had smiled when she had told him that she couldn't be anything but herself when she was with him.
Something in her stirred and she was encapsulating all his features and she thought she saw something green in the darkness flickering for a second as her eyes rolled back and forth.
And suddenly he was seeing her amber eyes, filled with some fear and apprehension peering back at him and tears welling up and rushing out without her meaning to cry as she regained her sight. And then light flooded into her eyes again and she was glad he had switched on all the lights when he came into the room.
Then he was laughing while she wept uncontrollably and allowed him to crush her in a bear hug while her pyjamas became effectively rumpled to a mess. Her eyes were still not accustomed to the light and they blinked, but he simply hugged her more and kissed her over and over again.
By the time Kira and Lacus came back into the room to see both of them, Cagalli was sitting on his lap and saying bashfully to Lacus and her twin, "Umm, he came in fixed my eyes, so uh..."
And Athrun shut her up neatly by simply kissing her in front of Kira and Lacus while they oggled and Cagalli screeched and tried to get away so she would be spared the embarrassment. But she was overall, unsucessful.
And Lacus lost her calm and unruffled composure and was actually screaming in excitement as Kira rushed over with her and was enveloping all of them into a tight embrace and cheering as had never done before.
When they all broke for air, Cagalli looked at Athrun and mouthed, "thank you" because she could feel tightness in her nose and there was a lump in her throat. But he didn't say anything, and he just held her closer to him,and she realised with a rush of joy, that he wouldn't let go so soon.She wanted to stay like that forever.
He turned to look at her, a smile which was a little sly on his handsome face and said bluntly, "You have to give me something in return."
Something about the way he was looking towards her frightened her a bit, although she tried to remain calm and thought of the nearest, most logical guess of what she could do to repay him.
Subsequently, Cagalli looked at him and bit her lip because she couldn't figure out which track he was headed on and said, "Umm, dinner, my treat?"
"That's not enough!" Kira cried indignantly by the side,but then Lacus shushed him and they peered excitedly like they were watching some movie of some sort. Damn them,Cagalli thought furiously as Athrun began to smile more obviously.
And he finally laughed and pulled her closer, then fumbled in his pocket the way he had done two years ago and produced a silver ring with a ruby encased by the silver and slipped it on her finger. The familiarity of the cool metal turning warm because of the contact with her skin made her remember the way he had kissed her before he had left for PLANT. They had been fools then. She wanted to take it off to tell him that he may have been making a mistake, but he smiled again and enunciated clearly, "I don't need dinner on you. I just want-,"
"Two dinners on me?" she said weakly for lack of better options.
"No," he said softly, looking straight into her startled eyes, "Your hand in marriage."
