Title: A Little Too Late

Author: Jusrecht

See Disclaimer and Warnings in the first chapter

Note: I'll add another the pairing that will be included in this story: Athrun/Cagalli and Shinn/Athrun. Yes, go Athrun!

"Why did you ask for his help?"

Athrun looked away from the scenery of ORB's full traffic at nine in the morning to his friend who was sitting rigidly behind the steering wheel. "Are you angry with me?" No respond, and so he said carefully, "Alright, maybe that's not within my authority to take those measures, but I just want to help. Cagalli was clearly not able to do anything without disclosing that news to her men and I thought Yzak would be inclined to lend a hand."

"'Inclined' is not the word," Kira pointed out, his rigidity lessened considerably by a small smile that was tugging the corners of his lips.

"Okay, and neither is 'willing' so we'll settle with 'He would agree to help'," Athrun resolved.

Head still facing forward, Kira glanced apologetically from the corner of his eyes. "You're not taking any offense on that, are you?"

"Of course not or I won't be able to live in the world of full-of-offensiveness-yes-Sir politics."

Kira suppressed a wave of chuckles and gathered his attention back to the problem they were facing right now. They had been informed by a dubious police officer that HoldMe Seaside Motel could be found five minutes driving from the highway. Slowing down his car, he scanned his surrounding, looking hopefully for a sign of their destination and altogether trying to avoid catching a glimpse of anything that remotely bore the slightest resemblance to newspaper. When he found nothing that could possibly rouse his interest, he turned back to Athrun. "Do you suppose this motel has a billboard or something?"

"Not a clue," his friend mumbled, his head bent low on an opened map and a cell phone pressed to his earlobe. "And for some reasons I can't get a hold on Dearka. What the hell is he doing?"

Pulling over his car in front of a video store, Kira suggested, "Maybe I should ask somebody."

A hand grabbed his arm before he could undo his seatbelt. "No, I'll do that," Athrun said firmly, closing the map on his lap. "Do you realize that more than a half of the population will have memorized your face by now? You've made it into the headline today."

"I am so close to forgetting that and now you tell me?" Kira made a face and propped his chin on the steering wheel, mocking a pout. "By all means, my friend– wait. What does that look like to you?"

His friend looked at the direction he was pointing and noted the sign at once. "HoldM– Hot–?" Then he turned back to Kira with a pair of raised eyebrows. "You definitely hit the jackpot. Better to leave your car here, by the way. You don't want it to get involved if things get rough."

Following Athrun out of his car, Kira asked, "You think things may get rough?"

Athrun shot him an exasperated look. "Kira, you are talking about probability. Of course it may get rough. Everything may get rough. We going out for a peaceful, undisturbed breakfast may get rough!"

After crossing the street with quick strides, Kira asked again, more carefully this time – and that still could not diminish the amusement that had painted his voice brightly. "Is there any chance that you are somehow nervous, Athrun?"

"Not in the least, and don't you get funny ideas," his friend barked at him and advanced to the motel's entrance. It was then when the rows of palm trees which were planted lining the pathway gave away a peculiar twitch and a man wearing a blue cap that hid his face leapt out from the plants. A moment later, said man had been pinned down to the hard, cemented floor by Athrun, who declared with a mingling of suppressed impatience and amusement, "It's too early to even think of ambushing me, Vice-Commander."

The man stood up with a groan immediately after Athrun released him and Kira recognized the grinning face of Dearka Elthman. "I see you haven't lost your touch, my lord Representative. And hi to you too, Kira."

"Long time no see, Dearka," Kira nodded at the dark-skinned ZAFT officer. "So this man you were talking about–"

A black, formal-looking car appeared from a corner and stopped in front of his parked car. Cagalli emerged from the car, face wrinkled into a frown, followed by a tall man a moment later from the other side. Even from across the road, Kira could still hear him talking, "– the most minimum measures of protection for the leader of a crucial country–"

"But this is urgent, Kisaka!" Cagalli was also shouting above the whir of the passing vehicles.

"It is within my understanding that this is without a doubt urgent, milady, but this is also outrageous and not to mention, dangerous, for you to–"

Cagalli raised a hand, which stopped his flood of words as they had reached the other side of the road, and turned to the tall man. "I'm not wasting any more word on this, General, and unless you want to notify this madman of my hereabout, I advise you to shut up." After that she set her fierce gaze to the three young men waiting for her. "So, what do we have here?"

"The madman," Dearka answered with a grin, accepting Cagalli's sullen glare full-heartedly. "He's staying in room 123 – great number, isn't it? He doesn't know what's waiting for him. And he's been there since yesterday, at least according to the motel manager."

"Usually if there is this kind of condition in TVs, that man is either dead or hiding under of his bed shaking with terror," she muttered under her breath.

"I don't know that you still have time to watch detective series, my lady," Dearka commented again – and ignored her glare again. "You forgot to mention armored with dynamites in case he is compelled to self-detonate, by the way. So who'll go in first?"

"You're the man with the golden gun," Athrun said and promptly stepped aside to open a path.

"Understood, Representative," Dearka sighed and readied his revolver. "Is there going to be any military backup or we have to handle this by ourselves until the end?"

"Yes, there is," Kisaka quickly answered before Cagalli had the chance to open her mouth. He met her glare with calm confidence and continued, "Safety measures, milady, and I strongly recommend you not to step into that motel."

She waved a dismissive hand. "Whatever, but I'm still going in."

"Forgive me for putting it so bluntly, but I will not let you put your feet into that motel at any cost, not even if–"

"Alright, alright! Just go in, you three!" Cagalli relented with a frown and crossed her arms in front of her chest, scowling at the pathway while grumbling, "I'll wait here and see if I can get the manager to chat with me and my insufferable general..."

The three of them went into the motel and Dearka quickly approached the manager, explaining quietly to him. The manager was trying to raise a few arguments but then kept his mouth shut at the sight of his ZAFT's badge and reluctantly showed the way to room 123. On their way, they came across with several guests who hastily moved away from their path.

"Don't brandish your gun, Dearka, you're scaring the guests," Athrun mumbled to his dark-skinned friend. "I will appreciate it very much if you don't help us to get sued because we don't exactly have the permission to do this, you know."

The ZAFT officer sighed and threw a look back across his shoulder. "Actually there is something else that really bothers me right now."

"Which is?" asked Kira who sensed that it was not going to be good.

"When I'm about to barge in, what should I say? Normally 'F-B-I' will sound great but I–"

There was a collective groans impeding the rest of his words. "Just get in," Athrun muttered under his breath.

Dearka hid his grin and stopped in front of a door with the number 123 attached to it. The manager had slipped away while Dearka was once again checking his gun, the other two waiting at each side of the door. The next few seconds were a series of blurred images for Kira. He stormed in, vaguely hearing Dearka shouting 'Put your hands down! We are armed!', looked around warily and found no one. A moment later he realized that he was looking at a body lying in the bed, swathed in red.

Immobile.

A voice, small, holding a trembling note, whispered:

"He's dead."

"Who said that?"

The three young men were waiting in a sunlit room – one of many rooms in ORB's Ministry Building – for Cagalli to finish her official affairs, and two of them were presently looking at Athrun with raised eyebrows. "That he was dead? I bet it was one of us," Dearka pointed out.

"Of course it was one of us. There was nobody else in the room," Athrun shot back impatiently. At the next second, he turned a pair of anxious eyes toward his friends. "Honestly, I just want to know something: Was it me who said that?"

"Listen, Athrun, what is the big deal?" Kira said with a contrastingly patient voice. "The man is not dead and that is what important for us. He was just bathed in blood. Yeah, I know it's a lot of blood and that it's his own blood but he is going to pull through."

"I think I'm having a severe neurosis," his best friend muttered dejectedly.

Kira let out a wearied sigh and placed his hands defensively in front of his chest. "Do you want to know what I think? I think you should return to PLANT for a while."

"Kira–"

"Okay, for a few days then," he cut off before his friend could go on and on with his protest. "Or for a night if you want to. But the fact is, there are matters you cannot handle unless you go back to PLANT."

"Can't say that I don't agree with him, Representative," Dearka contributed from where he stood by the window, his bright eyes slowly averted from the view outside to Athrun's blank gaze. "Things are not going so well there and we gotta admit your position is crucial especially at these times. Oh, and Commander Asuka has been frantically looking for you for the last few days."

The last information seemed to break the ice in Athrun as he whipped his head up to glare at Dearka. "That is entirely irrelevant, Vice-Commander."

"Yes, Sir," the ZAFT officer nodded but his grin was widening.

Still sitting in the middle of the room, Kira stared at both of his friends in turn before finally deciding that he really had no idea what they were discussing about, and asked, "Did I miss something?"

Dearka placed a hand at one corner of his mouth as if to shield it from Athrun's smoldering gaze and whispered conspiratorially, "Shinn asks him out," which took place on the exact moment when Athrun shouted, "Vice-commander Elthman!"

A long silence followed as the three of them looked at each other in various degrees of sentiment. It was Kira who ultimately broke the silence with a tentative question. "Are you joking?"

"No, he's not," Athrun replied abruptly, still looking daggers at Dearka.

"He's not joking or Shinn is not asking you out?"

"Shinn is not asking me out!" the PLANT Representative retorted at the top of his voice and rose to his full height, glaring at every one in the room. "Hey, is this really the time to discuss my utterly nonexistent relationship? I thought we were supposed to focus on that dying madman!"

Fortunately, his voice was quickly overwhelmed by the sound of the door being slammed open from the other side and Cagalli walked in, followed by a woman in immaculate grey suit. Her voice no less piercing than that of Athrun when she snapped, "But I thought he was still in Bahamas! In all honesty, I would rather deal with the Ambassador of India than meet this Secretary of Energy of mine!"

The woman next to her frowned. "My Lady, you cannot candidly make that kind of statement–"

"Okay, so please help me and scratch that out," Cagalli turned to face her, obviously trying to gather what was left of her patience. "Is there anything else, Dora? Anything urgent that demands for my instant attention and without that my country will be blown to pieces? Because I'm not going to handle anything less than that at the moment."

"Yes, the meeting with the Secretary of Energy is at one o'clock, My Lady. Thank you for your attention," the woman nodded and swiftly retreated to the door.

"The only person in the world beside Kisaka who can have a tight grip on her," Kira explained at Athrun's quizzical look, motioning to the closed door as Cagalli protested right at the same moment, "But that's only twenty minutes from now!"

Eventually aware that there was nothing she would gain by shouting to a door, she directed her glare to the remaining inhabitants of the room. "Were you, by any chance, talking about me and my secretary?"

"No, we're talking about Athrun who is asked out by Shinn," Kira answered quickly and realized a second later what he had said when Athrun cast him a dark look from across the table.

"Shinn," she repeated before the comprehension seemed to dawn on her along with something roughly in the weight of a container of hammers onto her head. "That Shinn Asuka?"

"The one and only," Dearka supplied with an impossibly wide grin.

Cagalli fixed a skeptical look on Athrun. "Is this a joke?"

"That is a joke and isn't your purpose here is to inquire about that man?" the blue-haired Coordinator raised his voice above whoever else's that might be inclined to continue the Shinn-asking-him-out discussion. "If I recall it right, you only have fifteen minutes left before your meeting with the respectable Secretary of Energy begin."

With a suppressed smile, Cagalli nodded in acknowledgment. "I agree. So how is our mysterious man?"

Kira leant back into his seat and sighed. "Still critical, which means there isn't any progress yet. There is a third party and we regrettably are one step behind."

"Nothing but luck now then," she said determinedly, as if challenging the goddess of luck herself. "I've ordered an investigation into this matter. I explained that this man was trying to blackmail me with the fact that–" she stopped and so did her eyes, which stayed on Kira for a moment before her voice picking up again, "with the fact that Kira and I were in relationship, which obviously could be a scandal."

"That's good," Kira mumbled with a tense voice and knew nothing else to say. Luckily, Dearka saved him from leaving an uncomfortable silence behind after his words.

"Yeah, because I really have to go back to PLANT before my boss filed a complaint against me."

"Thank you for your help, Dearka," Cagalli smiled at the ZAFT officer. "And please also give my gratitude to Commander Jule for all his times and efforts he has graciously put into this matter."

"His ego is really big enough, Ma'am, so if you don't mind I'll just comfortably skip that part."

"I'll leave that to your wise judgment, Vice-Commander," she answered with an even warmer smile, and then addressed the rest of her guests with a quieter voice, "Thanks for coming, everybody. I guess we can only cross our fingers for the time being and hope the doctors are able to save him. I just have to know who it is that wants me to abrogate the gun law."

"We'll pray, Cagalli," Athrun pressed a comforting hand upon her shoulder.

She beamed at him. Not a wide and truthful one he wished to see, but it was a start anyway. "Thanks. Sorry that I have to leave now. Please keep me updated if you get more information, guys," she said and walked to the door, where she paused for a moment before passing the threshold and looked back with a twinkle in her eyes, "And Athrun, I do think you should go to that date."

"Really, Cagalli, I don't think that is–"

She let a chuckle drowned the rest of his words as the door shut closed behind her.

– To be continued –

End Notes: Just one thing. Review please XD