The days passed quickly, for everyone. For Sai and Vanai, they were spent in blissful and intimate happiness. Every day they swam and explored and played around the various Hawaiian Islands, having dinner at a different five star restaurant every day. Every night they spent together, in each others arms, re-consummating their vows of devotion. Sometimes under the stars, sometimes in a jungle bower, but most of the time in Vanai's bed at her father's Hawaiian estate. Asmodeus dutifully collected data on their every activity, so that soon there were gigabytes of video, picture and text data available on Vanai and Sai's every move, from sunup to sunup.
Cervantes spent several hours each day talking with Sai, either in person, or, more often, over the teleconference system installed in the common room of the estate. Cervantes always made sure to be on his best behavior and never mentioned any Blue Cosmos business while Sai was around. They quickly developed a genuine sense of respect for each other and by the end of the first week, Cervantes hired Sai as a mid level manager at his Hawaiian technology station. Sai worked hard and did well, applying some of the things he had seen on the Eternal and Kusanagi to the existing Earth Forces technology. Meanwhile, Sai was also unwittingly contributing everything he knew to Asmodeus's case file against Ysak.
Back in Switzerland, Kira, Athrun, Dearka and Ysak had mostly recovered from their wounds, though Dearka still was out of breath after doing running and Ysak still walked awkwardly at times. Lacus, Cagalli and Miriallia had been going to counseling to deal with the recurring nightmares they had all been having about Zacharis. For once, Kira and Athrun had been able to offer advice to the girls, rather than the other way around, since they knew all about recurring nightmares. Chanel and Katie had bounced back as hale and hearty as ever, and spent as much time as possible with Ysak. Ysak had changed. He was still gruff, arrogant and grouchy, but he no longer glared so often or berated Dearka and Athrun for their relationship choices. He also didn't run away from or send Chanel and Katie away from him, though he was very, very careful to limit public displays of affection to arm holding or handholding. What he did in private nobody knew, though Chanel and Katie were known to giggle and trade LOOKS whenever someone wondered.
Athrun and Cagalli were quickly back to their old activities, wowing their friends with their insatiable desire for each other. Kira had started watching them like a hawk… a fiercely protective, Ultimate Coordinator hawk but a hawk nonetheless, which put a crimp on their more outrageous behavior and caused a few shouting matches between Athrun and Kira, mostly about who had initiated what with whom. Dearka and Miriallia continued at their slow and safe pace, learning as much about each other as possible. They learned that each had a love of nature and so spent long walks in the countryside, though they avoided forests, having had too recent a bad experience in one to be comfortable.
Kira and Lacus, on the other hand, went through several stressful periods, with first one, then the other getting seriously depressed and moody. However, their relationship slowly got back on track, like a gyroscope that is tipped on one side, only to wobble until it regains its balance. They had several fights, but nothing irrecoverable was said and they managed to work through them, being both extremely patient and gentle people at heart.
Of course, everyone was worried very greatly about Sai, but Kisaka, along with Raine's and Alkire's help had managed to find out that Sai had left on a plane with a Ms. Vanai Zunnichi before the police had arrived at her estate. Their destination was unknown but Sai was assumed to be alive, since his body hadn't turned up anywhere in the world. Kisaka kept working on it as long as possible, before he was called back to Orb in his duties as Regent. After he left, Alkire and his TEMPEST crew worked on the problem instead. They also provided security around the apartment complex where everyone lived. At all times, either Vladimir or James was on duty, watching for suspicious or dangerous activity. This had actually sparked a few confrontations, like when Vladimir had come upon Athrun and Cagalli hidden under a bush, having escaped Kira's notice for the moment. All of the Coordinators were nervous around Vladimir, even though they could see he really was a gentle and kind person at heart. It just wasn't possible for them to let go of their unease though, especially not after they had seen his kill counters.
Vladimir had killed, with his own two hands, often by strangling, seventy three ZAFT soldiers, two hundred and eighty four civilian Coordinators of both sexes and five hundred and ninety seven Coordinator children under age 12 of both sexes. Single handedly, he had wiped out almost one thousand Coordinators, most of them too young to defend themselves. It felt odd to the Coordinators to actually meet THE bogeyman of modern mythos. The man that actually had come in the night to steal children, though whether they had been bad or good was immaterial. None of them ever fell asleep easily when Vladimir was on night watch until eventually he only took day watches, noting their unease.
Vladimir was also disturbing in that both his arms were false, all the way up to the shoulder. They weren't the flesh-like prosthetics most people had, which just simulated the appearance of a limb, but had no functionality, except for the most basic of movements. No, Vladimir's limbs were new, experimental models, acquired from some lab that no one would talk about. They had wires that connected directly to his nervous system, with a computer chip that could translate nerve signals into computer commands. Each was flat black in color and looked like nothing more than a bulky skeletal arm, with rough edged fingers for gripping traction. They didn't feel pain or get tired and could lift four times what a normal human could. They could also grip tight enough to shatter stone. Vladimir wore long sleeved shirts and heavy gloves most of the time, to keep from frightening other people. He also spent as much of his time as possible alone in his basement, only coming out for meals and duty watches. It was discovered that he prayed for the souls of his victims all day long, devoting a small shrine to each and every one as he begged continuously for forgiveness he knew he did not deserve.
In short, it was a period of discovery, love and anticipation. However, like all such good times, it could never last for long enough.