Characters: Lacus Clyne, Andrew Waldfelt

Pairings: KiraxLacus

Time frame: post Angel Down

Distance

"Lacus, we have the outcome of Angel Down."

For a moment, the world seems to stop.

When the inevitable ticking of time catches up, her breath escapes her in one swift blow. Her hand is shaking as she enables her side of the communication, everything else fleeing her mind.

Andrew-san's face appears on her screen, set in stone and serious from his place on the Eternal's bridge. Despite that even one syllable yet to leave his mouth, to Lacus he looks like nothing so much as the bringer of bad news and her heart already twists dangerously (painfully, cracking, falling) before she internally but firmly berates herself.

(Her bad feeling has no basis, none at all but her own fear.)

(She is desperate and she is clinging, but she can't help it, for the light of her life is bound to a death machine and the strongest protector of people who have been deemed to die-)

"The Archangel has been severely damaged, but managed to escape," Andrew-san says and on the screen, her supporter's face becomes utterly somber. "Kira is alive."

The steel walls Lacus has build around her heart collapse, unneeded, the shaking of her hands turns from fear to relief and then to nothingness when her mind catches on to the wording. 'Alive', not 'fine', she thinks and her anxiety swells anew. "What happened," she demands and is relieved when her voice sounds far more steady than she feels.

Andrew-san grimaces, the scar on his face giving him all the more dark intensity. "As you know, Angel Down was an order to destroy, but they weren't stratified with letting the normal ZAFT forces try. Smart of them, unfortunately. They send the Minerva in." His expression is grim and Lacus' heart skips a beat as her expression shows a growing wave of renewed and utter horror.

"Athrun-?"

But Andrew-san shakes his head quickly, not even needing her to voice the question before denying it. "It wasn't high on our informants' priority list before - don't worry, I set them straight - , but in the battle at Crete between Orb, the Minerva and the Archangel, the Freedom disabled the Saviour beyond repair, skillfully at that."

Lacus presses her palms with all her strength to her desk to stop their shaking. Her fingers whiten to match her face.

"Athrun wasn't involved in Angel Down," confirms the tan man firmly, his voice a welcome focus in face of the horrible knowledge that Kira and Athrun have fought, again.

Kira, she thinks and achingly wishes for him to be by her side, to hear his voice, to take his hand. He has fought Athrun. Again. How must he be feeling? She can't comfort him, she isn't even with him. How has it come to that point, again? Kira. Athrun. Angel Down."What has happened during the operation then?"

"Kira is alive," Andrew-san repeats and, full of dread, Lacus steels herself against further bad news. Against the true, horrible bad news, as if Athrun and Kira fighting isn't already terrible enough.

Andrew-san takes a deep breath, then rushes through the report, delivering it all in one blow. "But the Freedom was shot down. It is beyond repair, was shot down by the ZGMF-X56S Impulse, the core mobile suit of the Minerva. Kira is tied up in the infirmary, but there is no lasting nor any life threatening injury. The estimate is that he'll be back on his feet in two weeks, latest. Concussion, bruises, some cracked ribs and his left shoulder has been dislocated, as well as burns and he has a fever at the moment, but nothing too severe."

Even one scratch is one too much. Shock has set in somewhere along the line with how calmly she manages to express her thanks and cut the connection.

Instead of the Eternal's bridge, her research on Gilbert Durandal glows in front of her. On its own, her hand shuts the terminal completely down, without even saving her hard work. Right now, she doesn't want to see that man's face, doesn't even want to know his name. If she looks at him now, she will hate him without reason, without end.

Kira.

Her chest is starting to feel hot and her eyes are stinging painfully as she raises from her seat and moves over to her bed, working the tie out of her hair.

KirakiraKiraFreedomdown-hurt-

Lacus hasn't slept with her hair untied since she has come to space.

Kira.

It has been such an attentive, sweet gesture that him brushing her hair for her has become a welcome routine for the two of them, even if she could have done it better by herself.

Now she has it untied and it floats disorganized around her as she curls up and hugs Haro, despair closing in.

Kira won't be there to brush her hair, but Lacus lets force of habit deceive her.

Right now she needs the comfort that he will, that one day he will again. That it is going to be alright, that he is alive, that he is going to be fine, that she can see him again, that he will hold her hand again, that she will see his soft smile again. That-

Haro is silent in her darkened quarters as she sobs.