Please see Part 1 for story notes.
3. With this ring...
It was much later when they had everything loaded into the off-Earth shipping container. Athrun called for the moving transport, and while they waited for it to arrive, Athrun took the two to a neighboring cafe to relax.
It had been a full few weeks of settling affairs, tying up of loose strings, and frenzied packing. Kira and Cagalli had come at the perfect time to help with the last leg of the journey. They would be staying until tomorrow and leave P.L.A.N.T. with him. Lacus had wanted to come as well, but several of the Natural children in the orphanage had caught a violent virus a few days ago, and she had felt that she had to stay.
Athrun looked back at the house. The buyers -- a couple with two small children -- would be by tomorrow afternoon to pick up the keys, so the morning would no doubt be spent scrubbing the place top to bottom. Then all that would be left would be to take his car, with some overnight gear and some of his important personal effects, to the depot. After that, Athrun would be free to begin a new life.
"It's been a crazy time." Cagalli's voice echoed his thoughts.
"It has, hasn't it?" Kira agreed, his expression relaxed and open. It made Athrun regret what he felt he had to ask.
"Kira."
Kira stopped twirling his straw through his iced green tea and looked up.
"Where are you going after this?"
Kira's eyes darkened, turning guarded. "Back to the orphanage."
Athrun sighed. He had thought as much. Athrun didn't like to press, but Kira's continued refusal to go home worried him.
"You have to talk to your parents some time." He glanced at Cagalli, who stared at her iced mocha with firm concentration. "You should hear their side of the story. And not just that, you need to talk with them about everything else that has happened."
Kira fidgeted but did not speak.
Athrun leaned towards him. "You can come to Orb with us tomorrow," he urged. "We can catch up some more. I've missed this together," he admitted, quietly willing Kira to understand. Kira couldn't possibly have true peace again until he had settled all his questions about his past. Athrun, who was just starting to regain his own peace, very much wanted his friend to be able to experience the same.
Kira stared into space for a while. He heaved a sigh and, seeming to come to a decision, smiled at Athrun. "I'll come back in time for your birthday. Promise."
Relief, plus surprised joy that Kira had remembered, swept through him, making him feel light-headed.
"When's your birthday?" Cagalli jumped to ask.
"October 29th," he answered. Less than a week away. "We'll expect you then," he confirmed to Kira.
Kira nodded. "The 29th."
"Or before," Cagalli hastened to add.
Kira hesitated, then nodded again. "Or before," he repeated.
Athrun fell back in his chair. He felt happier than he had in a long time -- since he and Kira were last together as civilians, probably. His move back to P.L.A.N.T. and his father's daily influence had been stifling, even though he hadn't recognized it as such at the time. And after Bloody Valentine... well, it just hadn't been possible to truly relax after that.
He marveled how in some ways things were changing for the better, while in others they were falling back into place just where they should be.
Thinking along these lines prompted him to ask Kira, "How is Lacus lately?"
Kira fingered the chain that he had taken to wearing since the end of the war. Athrun never asked him what was on it, and Kira had never offered.
"She's doing well," Kira answered. "She likes the children, and the ocean." He seemed to hesitate, sliding the chain back and forth between his fingers. "Athrun..."
Athrun regarded him curiously.
"Athrun," Kira started again, "there's something..."
Cagalli looked back and forth between them, for once aware of the charged atmosphere without being prompted. She started to push her chair back, saying, "I'll go see--" but Kira jumped up to pull her back, gripping her arm in a move that was very familiar.
"No, it's okay. Please stay." Cagalli gave Kira's pleading eyes an intense look before settling back in her seat.
Athrun frowned, uneasy.
Kira fidgeted at the chain some more, then, taking hold of it in both hands, he tugged it over his head. "Lacus..." Athrun caught a flash of a silver object before Kira cupped it in one hand. "Lacus gave me this," he said, handing it over to Athrun.
It was a silver band with a simple matte wave design encircling it. Catching his breath in recognition, he tilted the ring to look at the inside. As he had expected, he saw words engraved there: "Zala - Clyne"
The world seemed to freeze around him.
He remembered his father showing him the box with the matching bands.
"Who is she?" he'd asked. Athrun hadn't really cared one way or another. He had no romantic interest yet whom he wanted to speak for. Following the Arranged Marriage Act that his father had helped to push was as much a duty to his country as fighting as a soldier. That he would turn sixteen soon had prepared him for the eventuality that his father would choose a mate for him.
"Lacus Clyne."
"The singing idol?" This did surprise him. He'd bought her first album after hearing Nicol mention her. She had a nice voice and was quite famous. He didn't think he would mind being her husband. But he didn't see what his father would have seen in her as a match.
"And Chairman Clyne's only daughter."
Ah. He should have known his father would not be frivolous in his choice.
"Excuse me, father. I didn't make the connection."
His father acknowledged his apology with a nod. "You'll have to be very focussed in the next few months, Athrun. I'm going to have to ask a lot of you."
"I won't let you down, father."
"I know." His father had smiled, looking proud of him. "We'll be meeting with Clyne and his daughter tomorrow morning to sign the papers."
His father had deemed the Clynes -- and Athrun himself -- worthy in the beginning. Yet in the end, he had been the one to condemn them all as the worst of traitors. The bitter memory burned him to the bone, just like the wound on his right shoulder had.
Looking back, it was amazing that he had missed how blinded his father had become. Perhaps it was because he had been blinded himself. His mother's death had driven them both to frightening ends.
He had lost a dear friend and had very nearly killed another one. And his father had died an ignoble and a pointless death.
"Athrun?"
"Athrun, say something."
He became aware of Kira and Cagalli calling him.
"Athrun, I'm sorry..." Kira's voice sounded miserable.
Athrun closed his fist tightly around the innocuous-seeming object, unable to speak.
"I'll ask Lacus to take it back," Kira said. "I... I didn't realize when she gave it to me that it was from you. I wouldn't have taken it if I had known."
"What?" Athrun came back to himself, confused. Kira was staring at him, looking... guilty?
It was only then that Athrun realized that Kira must have misread his expression entirely.
"No," he said hastily, "that's not what..." He found it hard to explain without the feelings overwhelming him. "She wanted you to have this. It's nothing to do with me." He handed the ring back. Kira took it but continued to hold it out over the table, as if still unsure. The chain spilled through his fingers in taunting, flashing streams.
"Athrun."
"Look, I don't care about that. Take it."
"It was only because she thought I might die--"
"Damn it, Kira, take it!" In a sudden burst of fury, Athrun seized Kira's hand and shoved it toward him.
The looks of shock on both his friends' faces shamed him.
"I didn't give it to her," he tried to explain more calmly. Controlling the maelstrom inside him, he managed to add, "My father bought it. He was the one who arranged everything." He closed his eyes, briefly escaping the dawning understanding -- and sympathy -- in their eyes. "Everything that ever mattered."
Kira's eyes were soft as he stared at the ring in his hand, running his thumb over the edge. As much as Athrun liked to tease him about being oblivious, Kira had a strong natural empathy for people. There was no way that he didn't understand what Athrun meant. Finally, meeting Athrun's eyes, Kira slipped the chain back over his head.
"I'll take good care of it," he said. "It'll hold nothing but Lacus and my memories from now on."
Athrun nodded, grateful.
Truth be told, he was touched that Lacus had taken the ring with her when she escaped from P.L.A.N.T. He would almost have expected her to have thrown the trinket away, after what his father had done.
He recognized that although he felt true friendship with her, there had never been any great passion between them. They would have been a fine match, all told; she had always supported his spirit and he, well, he supposed he would have taken care of her the best he could. However, that was no longer all they wanted, and they both knew it.
"Lacus and I were-- are good friends," he said. He tried to form his next thoughts into words that would convey his consent, as well as asking his question without being embarassingly overt about it. "I would be... honored to have her be my sister."
He wondered if this were too opaque for Kira, who had a generally straightforward mind, despite a penchant for thinking too much. Indeed, he looked utterly confused. Just as Athrun was working himself up to saying it in plainer terms, though, Kira's face cleared in understanding. He glanced at Cagalli, who still seemed unenlightened. "I would like that too," he replied.
Cagalli frowned, obviously annoyed at being out of the know. "What are you two talking about?"
Athrun supposed it wasn't very nice, but he couldn't help smiling. And then when Kira started laughing, he had to follow suit.
"I'm not talking to you jerks anymore." Cagalli crossed her arms and sat back in a huff. Tolliy, who had stayed on her shoulder throughout the earlier uproar, took off at the motion. The little robot bird circled overhead, scolding the three of them -- as Kira and Athrun laughed and Cagalli fumed -- with soft cries of torii torii.
(to be concluded...)
