Disclaimer: I absolutely own my plot and my original characters (if there are any). Other than those I own nothing.

Stars...

Author's Note...

Not my typical KiraCaga. This one is to cheer my friend hlin, who has been helping me a lot up until now. Hope you will feel better soon and, I know you're not that fond of romantic stuff (and I'm bad writing romance of other couples. Hell, I'm struggling writng romantic KiraCaga, too!), but since your AsuCaga moments are quite rare lately, a little of fluff might help? I'll mail you later!

Stars…

So many…So bright…And so very sad.

When was it? What was the last time that she looked at them? Actually and really looked at them?

A small, unhappy whine, then followed by a wet lick at her chin.

"Don't worry," she said, patting the shivering bundle of fur in her arms soothingly. "They're looking for us right now, I'm sure. They will find us soon."

But her words were empty, and it didn't help any that her voice sounded so bleak and flat.

It's a slim – very slim – chance that they would be found at all tonight, or tomorrow, or later. This part of the island, not only was it remote and far, it was one of those places that normal people wouldn't go to under normal circumstances.

So, why was she here? And with a dirty little puppy, too?

"Stupid Athrun," she muttered and closed her eyes. "Stupid, stupid, stupid…"

Earlier, some hours earlier, she and Athrun Zala, otherwise known as Alex Dino, Representative Athha, Princess Cagalli Yula Athha's bodyguard, had a fight. A stupid fight caused by a stupid cause thought up by a stupid jerk.

She was unpleasantly surprised when, after coming back from a long and tedious meeting, she found one ridiculously pink envelope lay waiting, looking oh-so-innocent, on the table in her office.

An invitation to Yuuna Roma Seyran's birthday party.

It was all she could do not to hurl it to the nearest shredding machine the moment she finished reading. Haumea, just how did she get through the first paragraph without getting sick anyway?

No, she's not going. There's no way in hell that she would go to that…that…moron's party. What was he thinking throwing a party at this time when ORB's still mourning for the loss and having difficulty rebuilding what had been destroyed? All of these he should know well as he was part of the Council. And yet…and yet, he and his family who wouldn't give much at all to where it was needed, to the people who needed, dared to do this and actually invited her…!

She would have ripped the thing to pieces herself if he didn't pluck it from her hands first and read it.

Just why didn't she kick him and get it back when she had the chance?

Another wet lick, and another, and another.

She opened her eyes, and realized with dull surprise that she was crying.

He told her to go.

How could he?

"It's okay," she told the pup but tears kept falling from her eyes. "I'm okay. I really am…"

Soft whining, and the little fluff ball snuggled closer to her, as if trying to comfort her.

She had to go, he said, because this was another obligation that she had to answer to. She couldn't run away, brushing it away like she had done before, forever.

Yes. This was not the first time that Yuuna, and some other families, invited her to some pointless but excessively extravagant parties. She brushed them off most of the time, though sometimes she was made to attend either by Kisaka or Athrun, or both of time joined force.

Out of some twenty times, she went to the Seyran's party only twice. Those times almost killed her…

She tipped her head back to look at the stars again. So many… So bright…And so very lonely.

Maybe she shouldn't have lashed out at him like she did. All he did was only stating the obvious, pointing out facts.

That she was engaged.

That she should attend the party since he's her fiancé.

That she might find him not as bad a person as she thought he was.

"Stupid. Moron. Idiot. Jerk…"

The pup blinked its innocently big and dark eyes at her as the list went on and on.

"How could you… How dare you think that I… to ever think that I…"

"Cagalli…"

She threw the report in her hands at him, papers flying everywhere.

"I hate you."

"…and stupid me for saying that to you. I didn't mean it. I didn't hate you. I don't hate you. I'll never hate you. Athrun…" she couldn't see stars anymore; just as she couldn't these stop tears from falling and falling. "I'm sorry."

Suddenly the pup in her arms barked – yapped more like it maybe. A series of angry short and sharp yaps.

Weakly, tiredly, she turned her head to the direction it barked at. Her vision was impossible at this point and it was far too dark to see anything. There was no moon, no light, nothing…

The yapping faded to soft, happy whining.

One warm hand touched her cold ones, still holding the puppy close.

Another cupped her wet and dirty cheek as gentle lips descended and kissed away her tears.

"I'm sorry. I'm very sorry, Cagalli."

Was it strange that she wanted so badly to bonk his head now?

And of all things that she could say, she said, "Mind my ankle, Athrun. Maybe I broke it when I fell."

Brushing the last of her tears away, he pressed a soft kiss to her temple. "Anyway else that I should mind?"

"My left shoulder got cut. Not deep. The blood stopped long time ago but it's been hurting me like hell. But if you mean overall, I think I'm alive enough."

Though she couldn't see him, she could tell that he was struggling between frowning and laughing.

"I see. Do you mind if I have a look at your ankle?"

She nodded.

"Which is it?"

"Right."

"Right…"

A sharp intake of breath and a protesting yip from the pup.

"You might want to let go of that puppy first, Cagalli."

She put it down and it promptly snuggled against her.

She knew he was very careful, extremely so, as he touched and probed, examining her injured ankle, but it still hurt. It hurt like---

"Cagalli," he called, gently. "Cagalli, I think you did break your ankle."

She was silent.

"I will set it and, you probably know it already but, this is going to hurt."

It hurt like hell already.

He got up and went to look for some necessary things.

The pup continued to whine, as though it knew what's going to happen next.

He came back presently and knelt down again. Then, she heard the sound of something, a cloth maybe, ripping.

She breathed in sharply at the touch of his fingers gently probing the lump.

"On three."

She braced herself.

"One…"

He braced himself.

"Two…"

The pup huddled closer to her, his whining growing louder.

"Three."

In one quick decisive precise movement, he snapped the bone back in place.

And it hurt so much that she swore she had fainted and saw starts for a second. The pain was indescribably intense, so much so that she actually forgot to scream.

He worked quickly, using the long strip of cloth made from his jacket to fasten the somewhat flat branches around her ankle. That done, he was just in time to catch her when she swayed dangerously before falling side-way.

He held her shaking body very close, not forgetting to mind her injured shoulder, while whispering quiet apologies to her ear over and over.

"…fine. I'm fine, Athrun," she managed to rasp out after a moment.

"I'm sorry. I'm very sorry, Cagalli."

She weakly pushed herself from him and, with a trembling hand, wiped her tears away.

She would remember never to rescue a puppy again, if it's anywhere remotely near a cliff.

The pup chose that moment to climb onto her lap and yapped at Athrun.

"You intend to take it back, too?" he asked.

"I don't have any choice," she sighed. "It's the reason I ended up down here after all. But how are we going to get back up there anyway? In fact, how did you know that I was down here?"

He settled down next to her, gently pulling her to his side, mindful of the injury on her shoulder. "After you left… I stayed behind and thought things over. I felt like everything you said I was earlier. Yes, I heard all of them when I came down. Yes, I was stupid, I was a moron, I was an idiot, I was…"

"Right, right, right," she said hastily, impatiently. "So you felt like those, and?"

"Kisaka came into the room and asked me where you were. You weren't back home and Mana was worried, so she called in to check. That's when we started a serious search for you.

"One hour, two hours, three hours passed, and we still couldn't find you anywhere. Kisaka, I'm sure, was more than ready to wring my neck at the end of the second hour. After four hours, I left him to look for you alone. Actually I had no idea at all where else you could go to since it seemed that he had looked everywhere already.

"Then I remembered that you took me here once to see the stars. Nobody really came here, to this part of the island, and nobody knew, either, that this was the best spot to see the sky at night. It's getting darker and, well, it wouldn't hurt to try, so I decided to come and see. Even if I couldn't find you here, I hope that at least I would get to see the stars like I had seen with you before."

"Did you?"

"See the stars. No, unfortunately. Or fortunately, I don't know. There weren't that many stars when I arrived. I walked around until I came to the cliff and…I saw your shoe."

She blinked. "There's one up there?"

"Apparently there was," he said, his voice curiously dry. "And it gave me quite a heart attack, too."

"You didn't think…"

"I did."

"Athrun…"

"Very briefly." He bent down and kissed her forehead. "I'm sorry. I should've known better to assume things like that."

"…Stupid," she mumbled against his shirt, absently scratching the pup's neck.

"I know. You can hit me with that shoe later. So. When I realized that it was extremely unlikely that you would do something like that, I looked around and saw some…signs. All pointed to something a little more possible, though rather unlikely, possibility. You fell off the cliff."

"Trying to rescue this one, yeah. I really don't know why there's a puppy around here…. Were you quite sure that you would find me here?"

"At that time, I was willing to try anything and everything." He buried his face in her hair. "You don't know how relieved, so very relieved, I was when I heard your voice. Stupid, moron, idiot, jerk…"

"And the list goes on. Yes, Athrun, I realize that you have an excellent memory," she said dryly.

He chuckled. "…And you didn't hate me."

"No, I didn't and I don't. But maybe I will."

"I love you."

Suddenly she was as stiff as a board against him.

Athrun pulled away slightly to look at her. It was difficult – very difficult – not to laugh at the expression on her face.

Cagalli stared at him, shocked. Then, she caught that familiar gleam of amusement in his eyes, and she was angry.

"Of all places, of all the times, you chose to tell me that here and now! Athrun, I can't believe you! This is not a way to---"

He gave a quick peck on her mouth, which effectively shut her up.

"Here is perfect. The time is perfect. And you, Cagalli, most important of all, are perfect."

Cagalli opened her mouth, closed it, opened again, then closed again. Now, what could she say to that? Damn him.

"Oh, shut up," she snapped, trying to calm the blush that was practically flaming her cheeks.

Athrun chuckled and softly kissed her temple. "I called Kisaka before I came down, and told him to come check around here. So, before they're here, tell me, the stars…how are they tonight?"

Her blush subsided somewhat, she shifted a little to look up at him. "Have you looked?"

He tipped his head back and looked at the vast sky above them.

Stars…

So many…So bright…And so very quiet.

"How are they?"

"…Beautiful."

She looked up, too.

So very sad…So very lonely…So very quiet…

But would always be there. No matter what.

"You are like those stars sometimes, you know."

He blinked at her, surprised and confused. "Am I?"

She nodded. "You are."

"Why?"

"Just because."

"Athrun."

"Cagalli?"

"I love you, too."