Disclaimer: Sunrise

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"Alex!"

With a forced smile, Alex Dino walked up to the main star of today's event. From the first time he saw her today until the reception party, she was breathtaking, more beautiful than usual. Her long hair was braided and styled in an elegant bun that looked like a blooming rose, which became a base for her long, white, see-through veil. A tiara of white and pink diamonds was resting on the crown of her head. She had changed from her white wedding dress into another one, an off-shoulder style, soft baby pink mermaid tail dress that hugged and accented her slim body.

The thing was there was someone else who stood beside her.

"Kira, this is Alex Dino, one of my friends from the marketing department. Alex, this is Kira, my husband," she looked like she would burst out of happiness as she introduced her husband for the first time to Alex.

"Hi, she has been bragging about you since she announced the engagement. Lacus is the princess of our department, you are lucky to have her for the rest of your life," Alex said, stretching his hand, "Please take good care of her."

"You bet I will," the man, Kira, said with a confident smile, while Lacus was slightly blushing at her now-husband's words. Kira, chuckling slightly at his new wife's antics, put a hand behind her, pulling her closer, while the natural act of a newlywed couple just pulled the strings on Alex's heart tighter.

"Lacuuus!" suddenly someone cut their way through Alex and gave Lacus a big bear hug. "Waaaaah, I can't believe you're already married! Why must you leave me this way? My comrades of the still-unmarried-ladies, and now you have left me alone!"

"Miriallia, calm down," Lacus returned the hug. "I won't leave the office yet, so we can still see each other every day," she patted her back comfortingly.

"Oh, you'll still let Lacus work?" Miriallia pulled away a bit to turn to Kira. Stealthy Alex strained his ear, trying to follow the conversation of his other friend from his workplace.

"I don't want her to feel trapped with me; I want her to do whatever she wants," Kira smiled at his wife's friend.

"So considerate to you too, waaaah, please find me a guy like this too, Lacus!" Miriallia went back to hug her newlywed girl-friend again, while Lacus and Kira could only chuckled at her, while Lacus whispered, "You have Tolle, Miri."

Slowly stepping away from the happy couple, Alex watched them from afar. When a waitress offered him a cocktail, he downed it in one go—leaving the waitress astonished—and took another glass, now sipping it slowly.

He didn't mean to stay this long, but he couldn't make himself go away either. The sight of Lacus Yamato—nee Clyne—in beautiful dresses that he had never seen before, still had the same effect on him as usual, even though she was her former self no longer. She's now a wife of another man.

And he regretted it.

Alex regretted all the time he spent worrying about all the-what-ifs. About Lacus not accepting his feelings, about all the time he spent watching her from afar, just admiring her from the shadows. The good thing was, he didn't tell anyone about his feelings for her, though some people—a lot of people to be honest— already assumed something were going on between them.

Well, why wouldn't they? Alex and Lacus were close, as colleagues at least. They were in the same marketing department at a company called Shiranui Corp.. They were in the same team, and even though Lacus was his senior, Alex was, in reality, more competent than her. Lacus realized that too. Anytime she needed any help, she would turn to Alex, pronto; be it for work related or work unrelated, practically almost anything. If Lacus made a mistake at work, Alex would take the boss' wrath for her. She had a problem with a report, he would help her check it, and sometimes he even wrote them for her. She missed her bus; he would take her home with his car. Her laptop broke, he would fix it for her. She was feeling down for some reason, he would try his best to cheer her up. The list could go on and on.

And Alex too, was doing it wholeheartedly. In front of his friend, he insisted that she was just a good friend, since they were in the same team and all for almost three years. Inside, he admitted to himself that he liked her, a lot, since the earlier days he work at Shiranui Corp. And since Lacus had the tendency to lean on him whenever she had a problem, Alex was hoping that it would slowly make her see him as a man, not just a friend.

So imagine his shock when Lacus suddenly sent out invitations of her own wedding, with someone else Alex has never heard of.

Alex was too devastated to ask about the partner, but from what he heard from his other colleagues, the marriage was arranged by their parents, and when they met, they just hit it off, and the rest—like they said—was history.

By the way, he was not the only one who idolized Lacus Clyne. Her beauty, for starters, was well-known among the male workers in the office. She was warm, caring, but sometimes a little bit careless. With her big baby blue eyes, she could make anyone who sees her want to help her. And after that, she never forgot to return their kindness, like baking them cookies, treating them to lunch, helping them with their work—if she could, at least she offered first—and that made her the princess of the marketing department. And just like Alex, they were left with broken hearts at the news of her wedding.

But since Alex was doing a lot more than a colleague would do to her, and since he did have some feelings for Lacus, the news were crushing him even more than it should had they just been casual friends.

Suddenly he felt a hand patting his shoulder. Looking at the movement, he saw his friend, from different department, smiling sympathetically toward him.

"Tolle…"

"Are you sure you want to be here, Alex?" He asked. "We can understand if you leave early. We'll tell her you had a family emergency or something."

"Lacus knew I don't have any close relatives," Alex answered. "She'll be suspicious. And I still had to give a congratulation speech later."

"Well, then you can say your long lost family from your mother or father found you. I still can't believe you accepted when she asked you to give a wedding speech as her closest friend," he shook his head in disbelief.

"I'll have to tell her the full story later if I do that," Alex sighed. "And It's okay, Tolle. I just want to see her happy. I'm honored that she chose me to be the one to deliver the wedding speech as her closest friend. It's not like I have a feeling for her or—"

"Cut that bull, everyone in the marketing department knew you see her with love-struck eyes every day, and how dead your eyes were since the day you received the news. You don't have to torture yourself. Even if you join the after party later, they will still be there. Can you imagine them sneaking out the after party to—"

"Okay, stop right there." Alex shut his blue eyes. Whether he wanted it or not, his mind automatically imagined the scene Tolle had just described.

"You need to forget her, man. Here," Tolle pulled a piece of paper and put it inside Alex's red suit breast pocket.

"What's that?" He asked. He didn't pull it out. If he didn't need it in the end, he would just throw it out.

"Just give it a try later," Tolle winked and patted his bro's back, and went back to the party.

Alex was woken up by a series of pounding sounds.

Blinking his eyes slowly, he could not only hear but also felt the pounding.

Oh, it was inside his head, he thought, as the pounding became more intense.

Groaning loudly, he ran his fingers through his dark raven locks, massaging his scalp frantically, trying to ease the pounding away. At the same time, he could feel the stiffness on his neck, and followed by extreme soreness.

Trying to sit up straight, he realized he didn't make it to bed, and instead was asleep at his couch, sprawled on his stomach. No wonder he felt like hell. And he was still wearing the attire he wore to Lacus wedding party, aside from the red blazer suit and the white necktie.

Dragging himself to the kitchen while still half asleep plus the hangover, he tried to fetch some water. With that he downed the aspirin he grabbed on the way to the kitchen, and leaned back on the kitchen table, and thought about what happened yesterday. Usually, he could hold his liquor and would still be okay the next day, but today seemed different. He rarely got hangovers, but now it felt like someone had bludgeoned his head on repeat, and hard.

Also, he couldn't really remember what had happened.

And why was he asleep on his couch?

Gulping down the rest of his water, he tried to remember yesterday's event. After the reception, he saw Lacus and her new husband—just thinking about it made his chest twinges—left the party with the designated wedding car. Remembering feeling devastated after that, he went to the after party with Tolle and the rest of his friends from Shiranui, and enjoyed the banquet. Since the alcohol was a free-flow for two hours straight, and with the despair that the love of his life was now someone else's wife, plus his colleagues 'encouraging' words to drink and forget about his broken heart, Alex had drunk more alcohol than the usual amount he would drink in two hours. It didn't stop there, though; his friends— who thought that they haven't celebrated enough, gone to another place for another drinking party. Being under the alcohol influence, and in an attempt to forget about Lacus, Alex joined them and of course, drank some more.

To which he palmed his head in frustration and regret. How could he be so stupid for falling into alcohol lure and drink his pain away?

And that was only the flow of the event. He was wondering if he said or did something stupid at the party, or worse…

He walked to the sink to take another drink, proving that he had too much alcohol in his body. Patting his body, he checked all his pockets, looking for his phone; maybe he could find something that could indicate whatever he had done yesterday at the party. After nil result, he went back to the couch to check there. He found what he was looking for there, at the floor beside his couch. Looked like he dropped it. Now, when his head wasn't as aching as before, he could see a few cans of beer and a bottle of wine which he kept in his fridge from time to time. He gave himself an inner facepalm again. With this, it was no surprise if he got a hangover. Alex wondered if his liver could still survive with all the liquor he consumed in less than 24 hours.

Just when he leaned down to reach for the phone, he could hear the same pounding sound he heard before he woke up. Weird, the aspirin should have worked now; he could barely feel the headache.

Another pounding. Now when he was more focused, he could find the source was not his head, but from his front door.

Who would be looking for him at—he checked the time on his phone—seven in the morning? That's pretty early for a Sunday.

With glass in one hand and phone on the other hand, he walked to the door. Checking his phone, Alex found the last app he opened before he had fallen asleep, and he halted for a second with his brow raised.

A… dating app?

He would never use, even download it in the first place, Alex thought. When did he do that?

Still fumbling with the apps he didn't remember he had used, and unconsciously sipping from his glass, Alex opened the door, which was still being knocked rather loudly.

When he opened it, he saw a blonde haired woman standing in front of him, wearing a light brown coat, with a large bag on her hand.

The next thing he noticed were her bright, golden eyes which met his blue ones, and then her other hand which was hanging in the air, looking ready to knock again.

Immediately as she saw him, she smiled brightly. Seeing the confused looks on Alex's face, she introduced herself.

"Hi, my name's Cagalli. Thank you for agreeing to marry me; I'll be in your care from now on."

Water sprouts from Alex's mouth uncontrollably.

First, we wont be seeing Athrun for a while (Alex is not in character list so I put Athrun here). Second, I'm sorry but can't promise a happily ever after ending with this one, so you might want to reconsider reading this story.

See you next time,

Cheers