Agh, late updating again! I'm genuinely sorry about this, to all my readers. I explain in more detail at the bottom, but for now I'll just get on with the story.

Athrun stared at the script that had just been faxed to him... There was no way... What on earth?

Shortly after he and Cagalli agreed to take roles in Lacus' play, he immediately ran back to his office, only taking a short detour to drop off Cagalli at "The Grey Swan", the restaurant where she worked. Unfortunately they had left in such a rush that he had forgotten to take a copy of the script to look over, and called up Lacus to get her to fax it over. She'd sounded pretty stressed herself, but immediately faxed over a copy of the ridiculously long thing.

And now... he was left in shock. The sounder of a buzzer interrupted his perturbed thoughts.

"Sir? There's a Ms. Cagalli on the line."

"Put her through." He said promptly, flipping through a few more pages of the script with a puzzled look on his face.

"Hey Athrun?" Cagalli's distinct voice rang clearly through the speaker. Picking up the receiver and cradling it on his shoulder, he took her off speakerphone.

"Hey Cagalli. Just going over the script... Have you by any chance... looked at it?"

"Yeah, exactly what I wanted to talk to you about... Um. Does this seem a bit, strange to you?" She asked, trying not to be too blunt.

"Mildly speaking, yes." He frowned. "I'm not sure what confuses me more... the imperial army of zombies or the flying moves that I'm supposed to do..."

There was a long break in conversation, and Cagalli seemed to slowly take in his words… "Wha-. I don't know what part you're looking at, but I've got something about a talking hot dog bun and dancing muffins." Cagalli replied, as sounds of waiters calling out orders and her shuffling through the dense script occupied the background.

"What!" Both of them exclaimed in equal confusion.

"Hold on, I've got another call." Athrun hurriedly switched lines.

"Hey Athrun. Just calling to let you know that all my stuff finally came today. I can't get in touch with Cagalli though..." The speaker started. Athrun smiled at the sound of Kira's familiar voice.

"That's because I'm on the phone with her now. Hold on, we'll make it a conference call." He said, linking the lines. "Hello?"

"Hi."

"Hey. Whoa, hi Kira! How's it going?" Cagalli jabbered cheerfully.

"Good, thanks. What's going on with you guys? You sound kind of stressed."

"Long story short, we have roles in Lacus' play. I'm sure she'll explain to you soon. But we have some... issues with the script." Athrun sighed heavily.

"Oh?"

"Hey, you've read it before, right?" Cagalli asked. "Any idea why I apparently play the role of flying buttered toast?"

Kira remained silent.

"Or... maybe how they plan to have me dodge bullets in midair, like some guy from the Matrix, on stage?"

More silence...

"You don't see that every day..." Cagalli muttered.

"The toast or the Matrix?" Kira asked.

"Both." The actors-to-be responded.

"Hm..." Kira started thoughtfully. Taking a deep breath he sighed, "You guys must have only gotten half of it. I'm pretty sure it was about flying toast zombies that dodge bullets."

Athrun and Cagalli almost dropped their phones, before Kira burst out laughing. "Joking, joking. I think you guys have the wrong scripts... BOTH of you. When I read it, it was nothing like this... Call up Lacus and ask her about them. I have to go now, but make sure you fill me in on why you guys are acting later."

"Sure. Later, Kira." Athrun replied automatically, leaning back into his black, leather business chair and tossing the apparently, wrong script in the trash. Cagalli did similarly with hers, while bidding her brother a quick farewell.

"Shall I dial, or you?" Athrun chuckled in light disbelief of the situation.

"Be my guest." Cagalli responded. "Make it quick though, my break's almost up."

"Well what DO you know about this thing?" Athrun questioned, trying to see if they could put together what they knew for a general idea.

"Um, I play supporting female role. Main is Lacus."

"And I'm supporting male." Athrun added.

"No main male?"

"Not sure."

"All right, give her a call." Cagalli sighed. As soon as she answered, they immediately attacked her with a barrage of questions.

"Lacus, we don't' know what happened but I got a script about flying toast and Athrun got some science fiction show." Cagalli rambled.

Silence...

"You guys are kidding me right?"

"Dead serious." Athrun confirmed, playing with a click-pen that was lying on his desk. Meanwhile, Cagalli twirled the pencil she used for taking orders.

"Athrun, I probably faxed you the wrong one. I'll re-send it. Cagalli, what did you take?"

"The one in your dressing room, like you said." She replied.

"Ooo sorry! That was for a production by this agricultural firm, in retaliation for the Atkins' diet. They're trying to promote the consumption of wheat products..."

"That explains the toast..." Cagalli mumbled with understanding nod.

"I'll send the right one to Athrun, and he can just copy it and give it to you. Sound okay?" Lacus said in a rushed tone, clearly hurrying.

"Sounds good."

"Okay, thanks again guys. Bye."

"Bye." They both said, as Athrun rose to go stand by his fax machine. A few beeps later, the mechanical contraption was spitting out sheet after sheet of script. Athrun lifted the cover page.

"'Matchmaking'... sounds about right." He commented, taking up the next sheet and reading the summary. Pausing for a moment, a slow smile came over his face. Though it wasn't guaranteed...

This had the potential to be a very interesting performance.

"Okay guys." Lacus announced, pacing back and forth on the stage in front of the newly assembled cast. "First of all, please welcome our two new actors whom I am severely indebted to." She smiled, pointing to Athrun, who was leaning against a fake tree, and Cagalli who was comfortable seated on a prop bench beside him. Nodding modestly, they smiled at the warm welcome they received.

"All right, so let's get down to business. This is the first rehearsal we'll have as the entire new cast, together. Some of you guys were just understudies and may not be familiar with your roles. Athrun and Cagalli don't even KNOW their roles, so we'll just have a summary. Sound okay?" Lacus checked. Murmurs of approval bubbled through, and she smiled happily.

"So the basic plot to the play is that there's this professional matchmaker named Anna, played by myself-" She paused, as cheers rang out from among her peers. Waiting for the hubbub to die down, she continued. "So, Anna's working for an agency. She has a tendency to well, fail. Her saving grace is that she has matched one fantastic couple: Aaron Lethem and Megan Wrens, both of which are wealthy heirs to family fortunes. But all of a sudden, Aaron breaking his engagement to Megan and starting a relationship with his old friend, Shiri."

Athrun smiled a bit… As far as he knew, Aaron was a supporting male and Shiri was a supporting female. So the chances...

"Naturally, Anna's in big trouble now. She needs to make another relationship work by the end of the year, or she'll be out of a job. Stuck, she's determined to find a new relationship for Megan. Unfortunately, Megan's given up on men in general. And so after a bit of trial and error, forceful dating and last ditch attempts, Anna gets a lucky break and Megan falls in love with Anna's brother, Ian. Anna's keeps her job, and Megan and Aaron end up in happy relationships. And that's it. Now the cast..."

Cagalli sat up in interest. Athrun straightened.

"We're going to be replacing two roles, and moving a few around. So I got together with the old cast, and they picked who they thought would be most fitting as a replacement. Got it? Any complaints: Don't come to me." Lacus sighed, fully regretting the names she was about to call. A few people chuckled, thinking she was making a joke. However, staring at the crisply folded new cast list in her hand, Lacus was tempted to crumple it up and pretend it never existed. Then write up a new one... but the old cast had spoken, and clearly said who they wanted to replace them.

"Anna- Still me." She smiled. A communal laugh echoed through the auditorium.

"Ian, Anna's brother will be played by Derek." Several heads turned towards a royal blue eyed, black haired young man sitting in the corner, who waved casually and grinned.

"Aaron will be played by Athrun." Lacus continued, as another round of applause followed.

"And finally... Megan will be played by Cagalli, and Shiri will be played by Meer. So let's get to work!" Lacus finished hurriedly. A final wave of clapping washed through the crowd, as people began to disperse and work on their individual parts.

Athrun seemed stunned for a moment, as did Cagalli. Catching herself, she pretended to be looking for something in her bag, to keep her head down. Lacus regarded them for a moment, before turning guiltily and walking towards the sound booth.

"Sorry guys..." She sighed to herself.

"Hi, Cagalli? I'm Derek." The young man smiled, approaching her and extending a hand. Cagalli looked at it, then looked up at him.

"Nice to meet you. I guess we'll be working together?" She smiled as politely as she could. Somewhere inside her, she felt a bitter loss, for some reason she hadn't figured out yet. Meanwhile, Athrun had targeting his loss dead on, and was staring at a certain other supporting male actor intently.

"Yeah. Do you want to go over the lines?" Derek offered. Cagalli nodded and stood up, following him backstage somewhere. Athrun's eyes followed them, until he felt someone tap his shoulder.

"Ath-Athrun? I just want to say, I'm really looking forward to working with you." Meer beamed, her cheeks as pink as her hair. Athrun smiled lightly.

"Yeah, same here. Want to run over the lines?" He asked. Meer nodded and flipped open her script. "Oh, by the way..." Athrun interjected, "You don't plan to keep looking like Lacus when you have a different role, right? It... Might get confusing." He noted. Meer's cheeks flushed a brilliant red.

"Of course not! I'm washing out the hair dye tonight..." She explained.

"Just checking." Athrun shrugged, eyes returning to the script, not noticing the glances being thrown at him by his cast mate. Meer blinked a few times in his direction, made a mental sigh, and turned her eyes back to the page.

Athrun grabbed his jacket, and swung it over his right shoulder, picking up his briefcase with his left shoulder and heading out. About 2 weeks had passed since he and Cagalli had agreed to take on roles. With the final few weeks before opening night, lately rehearsal had become more intensive and frequent. Today alone, he'd been at practice for about 6 hours and was fully ready to get out of there and do some of the piles of work sitting on his desk. Hearing footsteps rapidly approaching, he turned to find a frantic Cagalli running after him.

"Athrun... Can you... give... me... a ride?" She panted, her hand n her knees and her head hanging low.

"Sure." He shrugged. "Home?"

"No, work. I've got another shift." She explained, walking with a pace so fast that it may as well have been a jog.

"Another shift?... Cagalli you're kidding." He frowned. Another shift... add on the 6 hours of rehearsal... When did this girl have time to breathe?

"Something wrong?"

"Hm? No, not at all." He responded quickly, trying to brush off her suspicion. "Well, at least we have a long weekend coming up, so you can take a little break."

"Um... well, not really." She admitted. "You get time and a half on holidays, so I'm going to be working over the weekend too." (A common practice: If you work on a holiday in a restaurant, you get counted for 1.5 times the hours you worked. So if you worked 1 hour, you'd get 1.5 hours worth of pay)

"Cagalli, are you... in some sort of financial situation?" Athrun asked uneasily, opening the car door for her. The question had been plaguing him for a while, but he simply hadn't had the courage to ask. But lately, especially with the work of the play, he had no idea how her days were adding up to 24 hours.

Cagalli shifted her weight uneasily side to side. "Absolutely fine. I'm all right."

"If... you say so..." Athrun frowned apprehensively.

"I do. I completely insist. How's the company? How's life?" Cagalli asked, quickly changing the subject.

"Play is good I guess. Too bad we don't have many scenes together though... As for the company, I feel like I'm dumping too much work on the people that work below me." He sighed a bit.

"Don't feel guilty about that. I'm sure you're trying your best." Cagalli encouraged weakly. Athrun's eyes flicked over in her direction for a minute, and to his surprise, he found her...

Falling asleep?

"So um... how's life treating you?" He asked courteously.

"Ah, well the play's going well. Derek and I get along surprisingly well. He has a great sense of humor, so we end up just joking around half the time." Cagalli laughed ironically. Athrun smiled a bit, but failed to laugh due to the twinge of disappointment that shot through his chest.

"And work?"

"Ah, well same old same old. Lately there's been this one guy... I don't know him. He comes in a lot though. I mean, a lot. And he always sits at the same table, so I always end up being his waitress. It's kind of like how I met you." She laughed. Again, Athrun felt a tightening shoot through him, but kept up a pressed smile.

"Hey... Cagalli. About what I said before... About the financial thing. I mean, if your having trouble making ends meet, technically I'd be glad to help you out you know?"

She responded with a quiet hum.

"Cagalli?" He took a glance at her. She raised her head slightly. Another hum.

"Cagalli? Are you awake?"

"Yeah, yeah sure... My eyes are... just dry." She murmured, clearly sitting on the horizon between being dreams and reality.

"Cagalli, we're here."

"I'm sure we are..." She muttered softly. Athrun turned off the engine and leaned over her. By that time she had completely fallen onto the side of sleep. He paused a bit, taking in the subtle changes in her face that had happened over the past few weeks.

Her skin seemed more pale, and something about the way her eyes were closed made her eyelids look heavy. Her hair was tousled... Of course it's not like it was every very tidy to begin with. Leaning forward a bit, he began to focus on how peaceful she looked... Like she would never wake again. Sitting back for a second, he considered not waking her up, and simply calling her boss to let him know that she wasn't feeling well.

Then again... if she found out he had done that, she'd pummel him clean through the earth's crust.

Deciding against his better judgment, he tapped her on the shoulder... No response. He shook her lightly... still nothing. Letting out an exasperated sigh, he got out of his side and walked over to her door. Unfortunately, he hadn't counted on her flopping out of the car the moment he opened the door. Quickly dropping onto his knees to catch her, he felt his face heat up due to their close proximity.

Cagalli frowned a bit... One minute she was peacefully sleeping... and then she'd started falling... and now she was pressed against some strange warn, unknown... thing.

Granted it didn't feel too bad at all, but all that moving around was getting to her. Opening a lazy eye she looked up to see...

"ATHRUN! HOLY- OW!" She cried aloud, trying to stand up immediately and hitting her head against the top of the car.

"Are you okay?" He jumped forward, clearly worried but also slightly amused at her childish reaction.

"I'm... fine. Are we here?" She asked, gathering her stuff.

"Yeah, I've been trying to wake you up for about 15 minutes now." He chuckled, helping her out of the car. She smiled, a bit embarrassed, but very grateful.

"Thanks." She smiled. He got back into the car, and watched her retreating figure enter the restaurant. Leaning car into his chair he closed his eyes and let out a surrendering sigh.

"My lord... I've really fallen for her..."

Cagalli strolled out of the restaurant, waving goodbye to her fellow workers and heading home. The late night air was crisp and cold, but home wasn't too far, so she could still walk. Turning the corner she jumped at the sight of Athrun, leaning casually against a brick wall with his hands in his jacket pockets, his hair blending in with the darkness of the night. He turned to her and grinned.

"Thought I'd walk you home, this late at night. We can cut through the park." He explained, pointing to his left. She appeared startled, then nodded and resumed walking.

"Thanks... It's a bit out of your way, isn't it?"

"A bit... but I was up anyways, so I thought I may as well." he shrugged. "How was work?"

"Decent." she shrugged.

"Cagalli... Can we speak seriously for a moment?" He sighed, seating her down on a park bench. "Kira's been calling me every day, paranoid over why you can never seem to take a phone call. And also..." He paused for a moment. Cagalli seemed to be... cringing. "The new term has already started right? So why aren't you taking any classes?"

Cagalli shrugged. "I figured I could work another-"

"Another semester? Be serious here." He frowned. "Tell me what's going on."

"There's nothing to say." She replied stubbornly.

"Cagalli!" Athrun spoke sharply. "This isn't funny anymore. You're the one that used to lecture me on working myself too hard. Now look at what you're doing! I just don't understand-"

"Well join the club!" She exclaimed. Athrun froze, clearly startled by her outburst. "I don't understand it either. I was always able to be independent before! I never had any problems! Now I move over here, and it feels like no matter how hard I work, I'm not moving anywhere. Nothing's working! I can't pay my own tuition, and I'm not going to ask Kira to carry my weight. Then with the play... I just have no idea what to do anymore! I'm running as fast as I can, but not getting anywhere!" She took a deep breath, clearly exhausted.

Athrun remained silent, as he tried to digest the torrent of words she had just thrown at him. She couldn't pay the tuition…? When did this happen…? For how long now…? He sighed, and shook his head. Asking himself questions wasn't going to do a thing. Looking over at her to see if she was all right, he finally spoke.

"We can help you, you know. If you'd only told us what was going on... and not hidden everything single tiny thing...I just don't know why you didn't tell someone."

"Because you have better things to do with your time, and I don't need to be babied..." She insisted, biting her bottom lip bitterly. For a moment neither of them moved. She stared at the ground, idly fiddling with he hands. The cold bit through her thin jacket, and she shivered a bit. Suddenly she heard him get up.

She kept her gaze steady, staring hard at the ground. Her eyes even narrowed a bit.

He was leaving...

Because she didn't need help. Not from anyone.

Her eyes shifted their gaze momentarily, and she looked at the side. Not lifting her head, she tried to look down the path... but was unable to see anything.

Lifting her head, oh so gradually, and sneaking another peek, she could see nothing. Not even the remains of his shadow walking away…

"Of course not."

Startled, her head snapped forward, where in the darkness she could barely make out his face, as he gently kneeled before her. The dim light from behind her was reflected off his eyes, showing their depth, pulling her in.

"I know that you're strong. If I left you here right now, I have no doubt that you'd be fine in a few days."

Cagalli was tempted to look away again. The wind blew through the branches of a near by tree, brushing away the shadow it cast over half of his face. In the sudden light, Athrun smiled.

"But having me here helps, doesn't it?"

And that was it. Cagalli slumped forward. Startled, Athrun leaned in to catch her if she fell. Grabbing onto her shoulders, he looked at her with concern. A streetlight cast light around her. Unable to see her face, he was only able to make out her faintly glowing outline, until she fell into him a bit more. Her breathing was normal though.

"You... caught me." She noted tiredly. Athrun smiled softly.

"Athrun?..."

"Yes?"

"Take me home." She murmured, pausing after each word. He let go of her to stand up and she shivered from the sudden loss of warmth. Noticing this, Athrun quickly gathered her in his arms again, then shrugged off his coat and placed it over her shoulders.

"Let's get you home to sleep."

Athrun gently opened her bedroom door, feeling around the wall for the light switch. Finding it, he flicked it on, and light instantly flooded the room. Cagalli seemed to squint a little, her eyes only half open. Leading her to the bed, Athrun lay her down, then quickly ran back to turn off the light. She repositioned herself a bit, and from this new angle he could make out her face from the light seeping in through the hallway.

Her eyes were closed, dried tears caught in-between her eyelids. Dark lines were gradually fading under her eyes but still visible, with her mouth curved in the form of a light smile that looked like it wanted to be wider, but just didn't have the energy.

"I won't ask you to always be here. I'm not that stupid." She sighed, shifting a bit, turning to the side to face him and tucking her right hand under her. "You're the head of a company... I'm... just a waitress..."

Athrun raised an eyebrow. Just a-? What on earth was she babbling about?

"But could you please ... be here when I wake up?" She finished.

Shaken out of his confused thoughts, he blinked in surprise, happy that the lights were out and she couldn't see the colorful reaction his face took to her request. Smiling gradually, he nodded and paused for a moment, wondering where to sleep... not on her bed of course. Lord knows what Kira would do to him if he found out...

Standing up, he walked towards the door. His hand has just fallen onto the doorknob when Cagalli spoke up again.

"Where are you going?..."

"Just the couch."

"So then... you'll stay the night?"

Athrun's face softened, and he looked at her resting figure carefully.

"Of course."

Stepping out of her room, he gently began to pull it shut. Pausing for a moment, he stopped, then released his hand gently, leaving it slightly open.

Just a crack.

Well then! It appears Athrun's finally admitted his feelings, but what did Cagalli's outburst mean? Now that she's told him the truth, what will he do? And finally, 'just a waitress'? Did she really mean it?

Next Chapter:What could go wrong at just another day of work, for Cagalli?

Honestly now, this was a bit of a jigsaw chapter. A few parts had been written for later chapters and pasted into here, a few parts were moved out and pushed back. If the sequencing confused you at all, write any questions or comments in a review and I swear to get back to you. With new reply system, I'm hoping that, time permitting, I'll actually be able to reply to all the reviewers.

Firstly, I have to make a general apology about now inconsistent the updating has been for me lately. Personally, I'd really love to keep my solid weekly update, but lately I've been studying until about 4am, and at that time I'm really just too tired to write coherently. (I've tried it before, and ended up taking twice as much time trying to edit it). I have a late class on Friday though, so Thursday night I'm usually able to sit down and actually write. I hope that clears up any confusion.

This is one of the longer chapters I've written. I plan to have this run in tune with the actual date. So when the play opens at a few days before Christmas, I'll post that chapter the week of Christmas. It's a bit trickier than what I had planned though, since there's still so much to cover. So either my chapters will get longer, or I'll start posting more frequently. I'm not 100 sure yet, so I'll just wait and see how the next few are paced.

Finally! Thank you to my reviewers of the last chapter. This never really occurred to me until someone pointed it out: If you DON'T want your name to appear in the list of reviewers, please say so in your review. Otherwise, I automatically include all names.

ichigo kagura, SasukeLuver678, lil kagome 13, Kintora, Eternally Asuka, cagalli12, Athrun-n-Cagalli, animeluver461, cottongreentea, mehmehbaaaa, daisukechibi, rain angst, animemistress419, imuzuok, KiraFreedom, IYGU, Cagalli Yula Athha Fangirl, The Angels' Princess, ANONYMOUS, morningglory, koali alolao, astrocosmos, Maryam Khanoom, MXC - the show- rocks my socks, gseedlover, XxbuffyxX, kura52, purple1, XCrossMyHeartX, Craze Izumi

Thank you to everyone who's given their support to this story. I'm very flattered and if possible, even more grateful.

Periodic-Prose