The Golden Age: Chaotic Cosmos

by Maderfole

Book 1 of The Golden Age trilogy. Peace is attained, but even worse chaos lurks just below the surface, waiting to consume the entire Seed cosmos in a war to dwarf all previous wars. The beginning of the epic story. FINISHED. Continued in Eden Disaster.

97. Of Mice and Men

"So this is what your house looks like. I hate to say it, but I'm slightly disappointed. I didn't expect it to fit the stereotypical rich kid mold so perfectly." Cagalli commented, hands on her hips as she stood outside the main doors to the Zala estate. And an estate it was... at least ten acres of property, mostly woodlands with a small lake... fenced in with a long half moon drive, the house itself was two stories and looked to have at least ten to fifteen rooms per floor, and this was just what she could see from the front. On Earth it probably would have been the primary house of a major CEO or entertainment star... on the PLANTS, with living space still at a premium in most cases, it was absolutely princely. And it was, for most intents and purposes, totally abandoned. No one lived there, and hadn't for more than a year now.

"Well, technically speaking, it isn't MY house, it's my father's house. MY house is a four room, one bed one bath condo on Maius Two, just off the base limits." Athrun replied, gathering up their bags. "But I didn't think you'd want to live there for two weeks, so we came here."

"Hiding some embarassing secrets at your place? Pictures you don't want me to see? Old girlfriend's phone numbers?" Cagalli teased.

"Wouldn't do me any good to try and hide stuff from you... you'd just find some way to go there anyway." Athrun muttered, looking up at the big house uneasily... ever since he'd moved out and started drifting away from his father... no scratch that, ever since his mother died on the Bloody Valentine... he just didn't feel at home here. "And you're far more likely to find embarassing stuff here, at least if my father kept my room in pristine condition and didn't have it all locked away or burned after he arrested me as a traitor." Which was a mood killing thought if there ever was one. He and his father had parted on much less than friendly terms... who could know what sort of actions his father had taken in the last few weeks before his death at Jachin Due. He'd been only marginally rational after all.

Cagalli seemed to sense the downward turn in his demeanor and she obviously refused to let him dwell and get into what Ysak affectionately called a "deep blue funk". "Well, we won't figure out anything just standing out here gawking at the front facade. Take me inside, show me around, give me the tour. I haven't forgetten that little trip you made us take when we went to Orb to rescue Kisaka... I've been waiting a long time to get you back for that."

"Speaking of... you think you'll be able to withstand a full two weeks without your guardian looking over your shoul..."

"Walk, before I render you unable."

"That voyeurism of yours is going to get us in trou... walking, walking!" Athrun led the way into the house, using the bags under each arm as a shield to prevent Cagalli from getting close enough to pummel him too mercilessly. The grand entranceway was dark. Dust covers had been thrown over most of the furniture. The house was dead silent, but it smelled nice and obviously the maintenance staff had been in periodically because there was no dust covering anything. The carpets were vacuumed, the rugs swept, all the woodwork polished... if it weren't for the slightly harsh chemical scent of the cleaning agents and the utter lack of any noise, it would be impossible to tell that the place was unoccupied. There were a lot of memories to this place... almost all of them good. Athrun smiled in nostalgia.

"Hurry up, damnit! Don't just stand there with that dopey smile on your face!" Cagalli prompted, shattering the daydream. "There will be plenty of time for you to stand around looking into the past... but right now isn't that time, capiche?"

"Yeah. I'd accuse you of having no soul, you slavedriver, but I can't lie that easily or that much without choking on it."

"I'll give you another reason to choke if you don't hurry up! We don't have all day!"

"Yes we do."

"That's not the point! Show me stuff, tell me about the house! All of it, right now!"

"On the ground floor we have several studies, the kitchen, the pantry, the main entrance here, two bathrooms, the dining room, the entertaining room and the exercise room. Upstairs are the master bed and bath, my room, my rest room, four guest rooms, my father's private study, another entertainment room, and several storage spaces. There's also a cellar which has more storage space and is where most of the machinery for the house is kept. The house was built in C.E. 55 to serve as the Atlantic Federation embassy, but they demanded a residence on Aprilius at the last moment, and thus the house went up for auction, with my father ending up the winner... though my family is still paying off the loan and will be for quite some time. Moving on to the outside..." Athrun trailed off, well attuned to the warning signs to look for with Cagalli.

"Why you literal..." When Cagalli started trailing off on her threats, that was a sure sign that physical action was imminent. The only thing that was worse than an incomplete threat was dead silence, dead silence usually meaning she was actually upset. Athrun wasted no time in dropping the bags at the foot of the grand staircase so as not to encumber him. Even as he saw the light dawn in Cagalli's eyes as she realized that he'd been deliberately provoking her, Athrun was already running up the stairs, taking them two at a time. He was almost entirely up before he heard her start running after him. "Athrun!"

"Is someone yelling at me? I can barely hear her, way back there!" Athrun called over his shoulder as he headed for the door to his room. He reached it with plenty of time to spare... Cagalli was just reaching the top stair as he reached out for the doorknob. Then he hit a snag, unfortunately. The door wouldn't open. It was locked. But why would anyone lock a door from the inside if there was no way to open it again...? "Damn it, father, hiding from problems and sweeping them under the rug ISN'T the way to solve them!" He rattled the door, but the lock was as firm as the day it was installed. He was just turning to try and stall Cagalli when she hit him with a flying tackle. He'd lost track of the seconds for a brief time. He was used to getting run into or tackled by Cagalli. It actually happened to him relatively often. She enjoyed it, he knew. Enjoyed running into another human being at full tilt and perhaps ramming them into something. It was an odd little psychoses, but he didn't generally complain... only very rarely did she actually cause damage, and almost never to him.

She slammed him back into the door hard enough to leave a bruise on his shoulderblades, but that wasn't the problem. No, the problem was that the door was merely a door. Just a plain wooden door, with a simple lock and two hinges on the inside edge. It wasn't designed to resist bodies slamming into it. It certainly didn't hold up to the running charge Cagalli put into it... the hinges may have been in slight disrepair because they snapped with twin gunshot bangs and so the door fell inwards with a huge "WHUMP!" of displaced air, with a resigned Athrun holding a surprised Cagalli lying on top of it. The rooms lighting, detecting movement, slowly turned on, revealing what had been Athrun's room until a little after his sixteenth birthday.

"We've been here what... three minutes, tops, and already you've found a way to leave your mark on the place." Athrun said after a few moments. He waited for her to work up a reply. "Why'd it take so long?" He asked, just as she was opening her mouth to apologize.

"Uh... I... ah... hmm..." Cagalli stammered, obviously blindsided by his good humor. "I broke your door." She admitted.

"Indeed you did. Blasted it right off the hinges almost intact." Athrun acknowledged. "If there were anyone else actually living here, they might be upset." He looked around the room, though admittedly it did look slightly odd, since his perspective usually wasn't one of lying on the ground in front of the doorway, especially since the door opened inwards and that was a good way to get hit by it. "As things are... well, except for the door, this room is pristine. I'm sure you'll have a field day."

"Are you sure it's okay that I broke your door?" Cagallisaid quietly, rolling off him so that he could rise as well. She seemed almost bashful... which was again standard Cagalli. Everything was fun and games until someone got hurt or something got broken, and then she'd realize how "immature" she'd been acting... as if it wasn't okay for a seventeen year old to be "immature" at times, and she'd get embarassed about it.

"Who's going to mind? I was thinking of sleeping in the master bedroom anyway... its much nicer. Bigger bed and everything. Really, its fine. Nothing a half hour of physical labor won't fix."

"Master bedroom huh? I knew that was a load of bull!"

"Knew what was a load of bull?" Athrun asked, feeling excluded somehow.

"Dearka swore on everything he ever held sacred that it was one of the greatest dreams of every guy to make love to their girlfriend in their own bed! He assured me that the very first night you'd be sure to ask me to sleep in your old bed." she answered. Athrun started chewing on his lip to hold in the laughter the instant she said "Dearka swore". Though, to be entirely honest, it did appeal, in a twisted sense.

"Dearka likes to make very generalized predictions based off his own personal experiences and outlooks." Athrun replied. "Because he knows it bugs me, and absolutely drives Ysak up the walls. You should know better than to talk to him about romantic matters by now... despite how he makes it sound, what he doesn't know about women and men in love will fill an almanac... all the volumes of an almanac."

"Who the heck else am I supposed to talk to when I want a different perspective on you, when it comes to romance? The officers don't know you very well, the same for Miriallia. Ysak's about as romantically observant as a lump on a log and Katie is entirely too lecherous. Kira... lets not even get into Kira. I suppose I could ask Lacus, but you and she were never really "romantic"... sure you brought her gifts and kissed her cheek, but there wasn't much feeling there and you both knew it! Who does that leave, besides Dearka?"

"When you put it that way, I suppose. Just try and remember to take everything his says with a few grains of salt... nothing would tickle his fancy more than setting up an embarassing misunderstanding between us, maybe even especially a romantic one." Athrun paused a more more moments and then smiled. "Though now that you mention it, my bed IS right there. Oof!" He pulled away from the fist she punched into his side. "Look, its my room, look!"

Cagalli allowed herself to be drawn off into an inspection of Athrun's room. In some ways it was a very plain room... simple maroon carpet, with off white walls featuring ocher siding and wallpaper, giving her the impression she was walking in the heart of a volcano. The furniture was mostly wood, either painted white or left unpainted to show the natural light color. There was a single black and blue rolling office chair in front of the computer desk, and an all metal easle with large sheets of graphing paper attached to it next to a medium sized whiteboard. Underneath both of those was a long metal toolbox, while several other storage chests and boxes lined up on the walls nearby looked to hold neatly ordered and organized bins of various electrical and mechanical components. The bed they'd joked about was adjacent to one of the windowless walls, a simple twin bed with clothing drawers built into the space underneath it. The sheets were beige and the outer cover was fire engine red with images of race cars on it in various colors.

"Race cars? How old is that comforter?" Cagalli asked, staring at it as she poked at his compter keyboard.

"About a year and a half younger than me." Athrun admitted. "Go ahead, get it out of your system now. Yes, I was a 16 year old geek who still slept with the race car blanket he had in grade school. Go ahead, before you burst a vein holding it in."

"No, no, I'm not going to laugh. It's cute." Cagalli smiled widely. "Though if I pull it back and find a stuffed animal under there somewhere, then I'm going to be rolling on the ground."

"I never slept with any stuffed animals. I couldn't get to sleep with them in the bed... always gave me bad dreams."

"But you did have stuffed animals, right... thats what you just admitted?"

Athrun sighed and opened the door leading to the walk in closet. "Voila." He gestured at the veritable zoo of various sized plushy animals, ranging in size from barely as big as his hand to bigger than a five year old child. "You now know my deepest, darkest secret."

"You can make light of it, but all it would take is one wrong word from me and both Ysak and Dearka won't leave it alone until you leave them bleeding on the ground. And probably not even then. If they didn't have their inferiorty complexes with regard to you, they'd probably lose fifteen percent of their daily activity right off the mark."

"They don't have inferiority complexes. They just desire to be the best, and are slightly insecure about it when I'm around."

"Which is about a perfect desciption of an inferiority complex. But don't worry, I won't tell them. Believe it or not, I don't like it when people pick on you. People other than me, anyway."

"That's comforting."

"So what are their names?"

"Hmm?"

"Nobody collects that many stuffed animals and doesn't name them."

"Look at that, he didn't even change the drawings I had up. My god, its been forever since I last thought about that design." Athrun nodded at his engineering graph paper.

"Don't change the subject on me!" Cagalli protested, but then her eye caught on what Athrun was indicating and prompted a new line of interrogation. "Though that brings up another good point. You like making things, right Athrun? Working with your hands, putting things together, designing toys, that sort of thing?"

"It's a better hobby than most I can think of." Athrun replied warily.

"Yeah it is. You made Lacus all those annoying Haro's and you made Kira Birdy. Now I just have one question."

"Yeah?"

"What are you going to make for me? And it better not be a prismatic bouncing softball that spouts inappropriate phrases, or a tiny little bird!"

"Well gee, I was just thinking about going with one of those old favorites... guess I might actually have to use my staggering brainpower for once and come up with something creative." Athrun was about to go on when his ears caught a faint sound. A scratching almost. It was very faint, so faint Cagalli obviously couldn't hear it. It was coming from the bathroom. "Hold this conversation a moment."

"What? Why?"

"I hear something." Athrun cautiously made his way over to the bathroom door. He opened it, turned on the light and peered inside. Nothing to see. But he could have sworn he'd heard scartching. He stepped fully into the room and heard the noise again. And then the source of the noise moved into plain view. "AAGGHH!" Cagalli looked up at the shout of surprise tinged with fear, to see Athrun come barreling out of the bathroom to press himself awkwardly up against the far wall of his room.

"What!? What's wrong?"

"A-a-a... a RAT! In the bathroom!" Athrun glared at the doorway leading to the room in question. "I ha..."

"Hate rats, I know. You've already told me about the bad experience you had with a pack of them when you were young." Cagalli sighed and stood up, heading for the bathroom. One of them needed to be the grown up anyway. "But don't you think this is a little ridiculous? You're seventeen going on eighteen... you can't be afraid of rats forever." Cagalli stalked into the bathroom and looked down. She couldn't help herself. She burst out laughing, and she couldn't stop.

"What's so damn funny!? Step on it or kick it or... just get rid of it!" Athrun demanded.

"Step on the rat?" Cagalli asked, crouching down to pick up the terrified creature. She could feel it trembling in the palms of her hands. "Shh, its okay. Don't let that scaredy cat out there frighten you. Nothing's going to hurt you, little guy." Cagalli cooed softly. She cupped her hands over it and stepped out of the bathroom. "That's a little violent don't you think? Rat's have lives too."

"Yes, which they are welcome to keep, as long as they stay away from MINE!" Athrun slowly pushed himself away from the wall. "Nasty things, scuttling through the walls, carrying who knows what sorts of diseases..." He watched Cagalli step over to him suddenly.

"Athrun?" Cagalli held out her hands towards him.

"Yes?"

"This isn't a rat." Cagalli uncupped her hands.

"YEEGH!" Athrun flattened himself against the wall again with a loud "BANG". "You didn't step on it!? Keep it away!"

Cagalli didn't comply, instead stepping closer and holding her hands up towards where Athrun was trying to osmose through the wall. "Athrun, you're frightening it. It's even more scared than you are. Look at it, it's so terrified its shaking." Cagalli nodded her head at the tiny white furred rodent with blue eyes nestled in the palm of her left hand. It was barely as big as her thumb. "It's a mouse, you big baby."

"Mouse, Rat... four legged disease vectoring rodent with a bare tail and nippy teeth... keep it away!" Athrun closed his eyes and turned his head away. He could almost feel the phantom scratches on his arms and face and chest, from when he was five and he got mauled by a feral pack of rats while exploring one of the warehouses of his uncle's company. Mauled might be too strong a term... excessively scratched and nipped was closer to the truth, but he'd been five and it had been dark and he'd been very frightened. He still had bad dreams about rolling around in a small dark space while furry squeaking THINGS took chunks out of his flesh and laughed at him through their beady red eyes.

"All right, I give up. You can kill him now, while he's paralyzed with fear. Good riddance too."

"Uhm, okay... just hand me a book."

"I was talking to the MOUSE, scaredy cat." Cagalli retorted. "I'm not going to let you murder a defenceless mouse who's too scared to even run away."

"Listen, Cagalli... I don't question you when you're frightened by a... by a... uhm..."

"Yeah, that's right, isn't it? Bugs and snakes and rats and all those icky things don't bother me at all, remember? Spider, rat, centipede, slug... it's just a tiny life form, some of them are even good to eat. Leeches and other blood sucking parasites I do try and steer clear of, but that's mainly because they generally do spread diseases. Look at this little guy. Have you ever seen anything as cute and harmless and inoffensive as this tiny white mouse?"

"It has teeth and claws and..."

"Athrun, my skin is FAR softer than yours and it barely even tickles. You could give yourself a worse wound with a papercut than this guy could ever inflict with his chompers. If a mouse lifespan wasn't so short, I'd adopt this little guy as our new pet, but he won't live more than a year more if he doesn't get killed by a cat, rat, some other type of predator, a gutless coordinator five hundred times his size or has some other life ending accident." Cagalli brought her hands up to her face and gently rubbed her cheek against the mouse. "Soft fur... he's real nice, Athrun. I'm going to go put him back in the bathroom, since he probably lives nearby. As soon as you recover your manhood, you can sit down in that chair and start working on a suitable mechanical pet for me. Something small and unobtrusive... last thing I need is a Haro bouncing around in a legislative meeting. I dunno... something kinda like this little mouse, ya know?"

"Recover my manhood?" Athrun muttered, pulling away from the wall as Cagalli walked back into the bathroom, whispering encouraging noises at the mouse. "Ouch. One more reason to hate rats... they make me look like a fool in front of Cagalli..."

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"Hurry up! Aren't you ready yet!?" Cagalli shouted from the bottom of the stairs. "What sort of guy takes longer to get ready than a girl!?"

"Why are you always in so much of a rush?" Athrun called back, running the comb a few more times through his recently dampened hair. "Rush to get to my house, rush to look around inside, rush to unpack, rush to get a robotic pet... which I CAN'T MAKE INSTANTLY... rush to get ready to go out on the town... rush, rush, RUSH!"

"You've had three days! How complex can it be? I thought you were supposed to be a GENIUS with making those things!?"

"I AM a genius when it comes to making robotic pets... how many other flying robotic birds do you see around? None, that's right, because no one else makes them! But I don't make them by snapping together tinker toys! Ones that are custom ordered by someone with no understanding of mechanical or electrical engineering are ESPECIALLY tough to make! It'll be ready before we head back to Lacus's place to meet everyone, I promise, but that's the only time estimate I can promise!" Athrun put away the comb and studied himself in the mirror. Acceptable, especially considering where they were going. "Maybe if you gave me more than a few hours a day to work on it..."

"If you want, you can sleep alone and work on it THEN! Be plenty more time then!"

"Keep laughing, dearheart, we'll see who laughs last." Athrun muttered darkly, heading towards the stairs. He did have to stop for a moment at the top to catch his breath and not because he was tired either. Saying the sight he saw was breathtaking would be quite literally true in this case. He'd gone shopping with Cagalli several times over the past few days, spending countless hours in the stores while she seemingly poured over each and every last single one of the garments contained therein... mainly he stuck around so she wouldn't spend all the money they had at once. Alkire had said that he wouldn't feel right if they had to work for a living during the vacation, but given how fast Cagalli was getting rid of the cash Athrun was starting to consider that he might need to see about a part time job to ensure they had enough for food. To say he hadn't really been paying attention to what she'd bought would be an understatement.

His eyes started at the ground, at the shoes... more like very dressy sandals with a real sole and about two inches of heel, but still open toed. Cagalli was wearing no socks, allowing for an unobstructed view as his eyes traveled up... and up and up her legs until they got to the white jean shorts. The very tight, VERY short white jean shorts that left almost nothing to the imagination. There was a lot of skin on display, and he hadn't even gotten above the WAIST yet. There was a black leather belt threaded through the loops of the jean shorts, though he failed to seethe purpose... clothing THAT tight wouldn't need a belt to stay on. Above the waist was more skin, eventually leading to a white sleeveless tube top with a low neckline, a hameya necklace like the one she'd given him so long ago and then her artfully messy hair, a look that had probably taken longer to do than the rest of her dressing put together. Over it all she wore a red leather coat that fell to about midthigh and a red beret at a jaunty angle on her head.

"Well, I was going to ask you what you thought, but given how red your face is, I don't think that'll be necessary." Cagalli said, smirkly widely. "It's quite plain you like what you see."

"You sure you don't wanna get dressed, before we go out?" Athrun replied, his voice somewhat hoarse. "You haven't forgot a pair of pants and a shirt on the bed, have you?"

"You're cute." Cagalli retorted fondly. She looked at him in turn, and felt her own pulse rising a bit. If ever there was a good guy to go for the artless movie star, unaware of his own hotness look, that guy was Athrun. Black dress shoes and slacks with matching belt, with a deep, dark emerald green button down shirt, sleeves rolled back to the elbow and the top button unbuttoned just enough to show his white undershirt... Cagalli frowned. "Get down here, I need to fix you."

"What's wrong?" Athrun asked, suspicious. Cagalli just shook her head and beckoned him down. Warily, slowly, he complied. As soon as he got within easy reach she pounced forward and grabbed him by one shoulder so he couldn't get away. Standing up on tiptoe to reach better, she tousled his neatly combed hair into a much more natural, less "anal rich boy" look.

"Now lose the undershirt, unbutton the top TWO buttons and put these on your head and we'll be ready." Cagalli ordered firmly, handing him a pair of sunglasses with gold rims.

"But..." Athrun put one hand to his head, distressed at nearly ten minutes worth of careful combing, all lost in five seconds.

"You've got a great chest, Athrun, there's no reason to hide it. And trust me, you looked like a mama's boy before I fixed you. We're going to a nightclub that's also a bar and a rave hall... preppy boys get hurt in places like that. I'd pop your collar, but your hair isn't long enough for it to not look forced. Ideally you'd have a tattoo or two on display, but we'll worry about that some other time."

"Since when are you such an expert..." Athrun griped as he complied with her instructions. He felt awkward, but that was preferrable to scrapping the entire evening, which he knew she'd eventually threaten to do.

"Since I turned 14 and started being interested in guys. That's why people GO to nightclubs... to meet interesting people of the opposite sex."

"Well then why are WE going?"

"For the other reason people go to nightclubs... to have FUN being WILD!" Cagalli took him by the hand and started pulling him outside.

"We don't even know if we're going to be able to get in... Dearka only got us in last time because we were in ZAFT and he knew the bouncer." Athrun protested.

"Oh please. Two obviously attractive people as us... they're going to be begging for us to come in and liven the place up. Especially when I pass the bouncer a hundred buck tip... he probably won't let us back out, much less give us trouble getting in. And if they still give us trouble... well just flash your ID. You're ATHRUN ZALA, remember?" Cagalli rolled her eyes as she stressed his name. "Up here, in the PLANTS, in December city... you're going to be like ME, down in Orb. It's going to be GREAT!"

"I'm so glad one of us is happy."

"Don't sulk, or I swear to God I'll find some other attractive guy to dance with all night long. You say you don't get jealous, but I know better. If some other guy were to put his hand "here"... Cagalli placed his palm just over her belly button. "... you'd flip a table."

"I think you're exaggerating a little..."

"What about "here" then?" Cagalli moved his hand to her left buttock. "You think a guy wouldn't wanna get a good grip there, especially if he'd been drinking? This is a bar too, Athrun. These places are shark tanks... if you don't mark your territory you're going to get eaten."

"I am getting so excited about this, can't you tell?"

"I know it'll be hard for you, but you'll just have to let yourself go, Athrun. Be wild, be crazy... no one will care. Half of them won't know you from jesus, the other half won't remember anything the next day. It's gonna be dark and hot and theres going to be laser lights flashing everywhere... the middle of a hectic battle is CALM compared to a rave hall in full swing. People are going to be bumping into you from all sides... girls are going to be trying to dance with you, kiss you, feel you up... guys are gonna be trying to dance with you, kiss you, feel you up... its CRAZY like that. Pretty much everyone is going to be tipsy at the least and a few are likely to be stoned. Just think of it like a dream... it doesn't have to be any more real the next morning than you want it to be."

"So if you wake up tomorrow morning with two strange girls and a strange guy in the bed with us and have no memory of the last night, that's cool?"

"THAT wouldn't be." Cagalli dug her fist into his side.

"Just establishing an upper limit. So go crazy, have fun, don't get offended... but don't get wasted and invite a bunch of strangers back to the house for an orgy. Okay, I think I understand."

"And if I catch you kissing or groping any other girls, I'm going to break your hands."

"But I thought you said..."

"That's them to you. They can paw you all they want... but if you paw them back I'M going to get jealous, and you really don't want that. Besides, why would you need to look elsewhere after I went to so much trouble making myself so tempting?"

"You don't have to go to trouble to do that." Athrun insisted.

"You're sweet. Now program the car so we can stop talking about it and start experiencing it."

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Athrun wasn't quite sure what he'd been expecting the nightclub to look like... he'd been there before but he hadn't formed any lasting impressions of the place back then... but he had to admit, it didn't look like what he'd been expecting. He'd been looking for something like a Las Vegas casino, all glitzy outside with flashing lights and huge TV screens. There was none of that. Just a long square two story building with no windows on the first level and precious few on the second story. It looked to be a warehouse of some sort, or a former one anyway. There were several large roll up loading doors on the long side of the building, but the double doors that led to the club were just plain steel double doors, painted the same off white that the rest of the building was. The car was forced to park several blocks away... nondescript or not, the place was clearly packed.

There was a roped off que extending along the sidewalk in front of the door for a good fifty feet or so, and it was mostly full of people, all dressed... less than conservatively. They ranged in age from a decadeor more older than Athrun to several people he was sure were skipping middle school in order to wait in the line. Everyone was waiting differently... those towards the front of the line were animated, yakking on cell phones or conversing boisterously amongst themselves, while people farther back waited with more indifference, clearly inured to a multi-hour long wait. Cagalli ignored the line and pulled Athrun along behind her as she blitzed straight for the door. Athrun shrugged sheepishly at the incredulous stares the people in line were giving them... you just DIDN'T cut in line for Club Ambrosia, one of the most trendy "underground" clubs in the PLANTS.

"Club's full, you'll have to wait in line like everyone else, miss." The bouncer said, not even getting up from his shaded stool in front of the door. The man was big... perhaps not as big as James or Sergeant-Major Glory, but he could easily have played professional hockey or amateur American football (the PLANTS not being big enough to have their own professional team, and who would play Coordinators anyway?) in his off time. Call it six and a half feet and two hundred plus something large pounds. Bigger than Athrun and Cagalli put together, and from the scars on his knuckles and cheeks, clearly not new to removing people from the club by force. He had soulful green eyes and a shaved head covered with mean looking tattoos that also squirmed down his bulging arms. Little did anyone besides his employers know that he was actually a mid level banking executive who used artful makeup to make himself look the part of a terrfying bouncer for his extra spending money.

"Oh come on... I've got the cover charge right here." Cagalli passed over the fifty dollar entrance fee, with a further one hundred dollar bill folded inside, and gave the man a winsome smile, not accidentally letting her coat fall open slightly to show off what was underneath. Athrun quirked a brow... Cagalli was very practised at this sort of thing. No wonder Kisaka always looked grim when people asked him what it was like being her bodyguard... keeping her respectable must have been an onerous chore.

"Yes you certainly do. And now that you've turned it over, I'll be sure to let you in without a hassle... once you've waited in the line." The bouncer said with a winning smile in return, placing the cover charge in the envelope with the rest and slipping the tip into his pocket nonchalantly. "You're charming, miss, but really... you're nowhere near stacked enough to just charm your way into a place as exclusive as Club Ambrosia. Too thin. Not enough bust, and barely any ass to speak of. You might be the queen of the street in your dirtside town, miss, but you'll need a little more oomph to get by me. Thanks for the tip though." The bouncer put a hand to the comm device he wore in his ear. "Next two, come on in." He waved to the two people at the front of the line.

"Okay, no sweat." Athrun said politely, turning to head to the back of the line. Cagalli didn't turn with him. He looked back. Big sweat. BIG SWEAT. Her face was slightly downcast and her fists were clenched. Her entire posture suggested barely contained rage. He should have known Cagalli wouldn't take such bare faced criticism without a fight... especially after losing a hundred and fifty dollars for nothing. "Let's be mature about this, Cagalli." Athrun whispered urgently

"Too thin... not enough bust... HARDLY ANY ASS!? IS HE BLIND!?" Cagalli hissed back. "Probably wouldn't know pretty if it kicked him in the face! Let's test that! I have diplomatic immunity... what's the worst they can do to me!?"

"Hold on a moment." The bouncer said, after admitting the two he'd called forward. He pointed one meaty hand at Athrun. "You look kinda familiar. Have I seen you before somewhere?"

Depends how often you watched the news these past few years. Athrun thought mildly, really much more concerned with keeping Cagalli from trying to tear the man's face off... he remembered her little scene in Orb when Cervantes had denounced Athrun. "Might have. I've been here once before, a few years ago."

"Yeah... yeah! I remember now. You're friends with that Elsman prick, right?"

"Uhm... yes. Kinda sorta?" Athrun wasn't expecting this to end well.

"Nevermind what I said earlier then. Anyone who's Dearka's friend is a friend of mine too. Bastard still owes me for the last time I slipped him in, but he's an all right guy... I never would have got this job if he hadn't intro'd me. I'm going to twist his arm till he cries like a girl and coughs up my tip next time I see him, but I won't hold that against you two. Especially in light of the tip your rather forward girlfriend gave me. Piece of advice, girl... you can't bribe your way into places like Club Ambroisa... they pay me extra to NOT accept bribes. You don't wanna wait in line, buy a membership... if you can afford to drop a hundred for a tip, you can sure as hell afford a membership."

"Thanks." Cagalli said icily, clearly far from forgiving the man for his rather too blunt assessment of her physical charms.

"You're welcome sweetheart. And if it's any consolation..." The man said as he opened the door for them. "... while you might be subpar in the looks department, your man is damned hot."

"SUBP..." Athrun dragged Cagalli inside before she could fully explode. He could clearly hear the man chuckling as he shut the door... clearly torquing up girls who tried to charm their way into the Club was a major part of his at work fun. "I'LL KILL THAT SANCTIMONIOUS SON OF A..."

"We're inside... thats what matters, right? He was just doing it to get a reaction out of you."Athrun said soothingly.

"I'll show him a reaction he won't forget for a LONG time!" Cagalli blustered, but she didn't make any try for the door... being inside was slowly defusing her, despite her outrage. Speaking of... there wasn't much to "inside". Just a small, bare concrete room with a staircase leading dowards in the middle. It was cold, a good twenty to thirty degree drop from the balmy outside. It was quiet too, except for a barely perceptible vibration in the ground that grew stronger the more they descended the stairs. The stairs finally ended after they descended a good two stories into the ground, in another small concrete room. There were two more bouncers down here, and a woman sitting behind a counter with the sign "Clothing Check" overhead.

"No coats allowed. We need to search you for contraband as well. Club Ambrosia is a clean operation... we find drugs, you're out, no questions asked. We find weapons and the MP's will be here inside five minutes." One of the new set of bouncers stepped forward. Cagalli sighed but didn't argue, exchanging her cout and hat with the lady behind the dest for a small slip of pink paper. The bouncer stepped up to Athrun and waved a small paddle over him quickly. The device beeped and flashed a green light. "You're clean." The man walked over to Cagalli and repeated the procedure with similar results. "She's clean too. Welcome to Club Ambrosia." The second bounced unlocked another set of double doors and gestured for them to head on in. For a moment Athrun couldn't... he'd finally discovered the source of the vibration... namely the astoundingly loud and deeply bass music that was now assaulting him full force through the open doors. He couldn't see anything, due to black curtains hanging acros the inside of the doorway, but the music was practically lifting him up with physical force and pushing him away.

Cagalli grabbed him by the wrist again, mistaking his hesitation for renewed reluctance, and half pulled him through the doorway. He passed through the black curtains and just barely heard the doors shut behind him... more from the slight rush of air than from any actual noise. Cagalli had been right... it was dark. There didn't seem to be any normal lighting in the entire place... what few ceiling illuminators were lit all shone with dull, dim red or blue or purple hues. Amazingly enough, they were actually on a raised platform, not the ground floor, with bare metal staircases leading down to a wide dance floor or up to a sort of combination lounge/bar/viewing balcony. There was a stage at the far end of the dance floor, crowded with speakers and amps and other assorted musical paraphenelia. but no actual band or DJ. More speakers were scattered everywhere throughout the interior, spaced so that no matter where you were you still had a surround sound experience.

"... here... break..." Cagalli commented with a smile next to him. He could barely even make out what she was saying, even though she was right next to him.

"What!?" He asked, trying not to shout. She ignored him. Or rather, he realized, she couldn't hear him. He prodded her side... enjoying the feel of it guiltily... to get her attention. "WHAT'D YOU SAY!?" He yelled.

"I SAID, I'M GLAD WE GOT HERE DURING A BREAK IN THE MUSIC!" Cagalli shouted back.

"THIS IS A BREAK!? WE HAVE TO YELL TO BE HEARD!"

"BUT WE CAN BE HEARD!"

That logic scared him into just shaking his head and looking around again. The place was swamped. Overflowing. He'd never seen so many people crowded into a building before. He'd heard of places so crowded that there was "standing room only" but this was the first time he actually saw what that meant. He realized that it was hot... it couldn't help but be, with so many human bodies all cramped together. He could feel air conditioning at work, could feel air currents keeping things at least marginally fresh and clean smelling, but it did little to stop the sweat from breaking out on his brow and across his chest. Suddenly Cagalli's clothing... or relative lack of it... made more sense. A full length dress would be hell after an hour in this environment, assuming it didn't just get ripped to shreds in the press of bodies. The music died away, but the noise level dropped only slightly... he became aware of the constant roar of hundreds of conversations all being held at once, all being screamed over the music, even when it wasn't playing.

"GOING TO GET SOME DRINKS! COME WITH ME!" Cagalli shouted. She didn't wait for him to reply, slipping her hand ruthlessly into the front of his waistband and snatching hold of his belt. He jerked away from the sudden touch, especially given the location... she'd nearly grabbed a big hunk of a very personal item, not just his pants. From the wicked smile on her face, that hadn't been an accident either. "DON'T WANT YOU WANDERING OFF AND GETTING LOST! YOU GRAB HOLD TOO... DOUBLE INTERLOCK!"

Grab hold WHERE!? Athrun thought wildly, staring gravely at Cagalli's shorts. Spandex would have been looser. There was no way he could grab hold of her belt without... Aha... so thats how you wanna play it, is it? Very well, I'll bite. You won't shock me that easily, dear. Athrun snagged her belt and tried very hard not to think about the play of the back of his fingers on the soft skin of her butt. "Dirty minded party girl." He commented under his breath, smiling at her. With some trouble she led the way unerringly towards the bar area. It was like she'd been the one who'd been there before, not him... though to be honest given how overwhelmed he was right now he didn't blame himself for not remembering much back then... he must have been totally lost. After much shoving and edging and bumping into people... almost all of them much more lightly clad than himself... almost indecently so in several cases, Cagalli managed to secure them a space at the bar.

A space was all it was... maybe three feet wide, for the both of them. They were practically smushed together by the people on either side, who barely paid them any mind at all. The bar area was brightly lit in neon blue and purple, making all the drinks look monochrome. By the time he'd finished taking in the visual scene of the bar, Cagalli had already ordered and received two drinks... tall glasses of blue tinted liquid. But perhaps that was just the light. He sipped his cautiously, almost spilling when the person next to him jostled him. He turned to accost them, but then realized that the person had likely been jostled in turn, and so forth and so on for several iterations. No point in getting mad... he was going to get bumped a lot tonight. He sipped the drink. Cool, refreshing, fruity in taste... blueberry, grape, raspberry and a few more exotic he couldn't pick out. And a hell of a lot of alchohol. Vodka, given the almost imperceptable taste... he'd smelled his father drink it a few times. He gave Cagalli a significant look over the rim of the glass.

She toasted him with her own drink, which was identical to his, and sipped deeply. I didn't come here to get twisted on fruity mixed drinks, Athrun. It's just a happy side effect. All part of the experience. And you'd better drink yours too, or else. Cagalli sipped again, pointing with her free hand at his glass and then balling her fist in front of her face. Kisaka will kill me if he finds out that I went to a rave and got smashed. Good. I've had it up to here with choking responsibility... I need to do something crazy before I snap, and this is less destructive than most. And picking on Athrun is going to be so fun tonight.

One drink can't hurt. And the car is automated, so it will get us home even if I am a little tipsy. And nevermind the physical threat, Cagalli will never let Dearka and Katie and Ysak hear the end of things if I let her get drunk and stay sober. Probably start telling them that I use alchohol to take advantage of her... and from them it'd get on to Kira, who wouldn't be able to tell it was a joke... and then... yeah, safer to get tipsy alongside her. Athrun decided to send her a message by tossing back the entire rest of his drink in one go. It burned his throat a little, but it was actually surprisingly smooth as it went down. Not a bad drink. You won't get me embarassed by forcing me to touch your ass, and you won't get me to hesitate over a silly little drink... what's next then? Bring it on. Athrun immediately regretted that thought as Cagalli drained her drink as well, then promptly turned and yelled something at the bartender nearest her, waving a hand and slapping a pair of high denomination bills on the bartop.

The barkeep made the bills disappear with alacrity, replacing them within a minute with another pair of the blue drinks, as well as a small plastic card he gave Cagalli. She drained her second drink only a little slower than she'd done the first and Athrun forced himself to do the same. Two... two drinks... two is fine. I can handle two no problem. Before Cagalli could buy a third round, the music started up again. Athrun was forced to admit, she'd been right. They had come in during a lull. He almost lost his balance when the song... some trance-technoish mix he could barely even pick out from the bass thump and drum beat that seemed to start pumping his heart for him. Seconds after the music started up, the smoke and laser light show kicked in, followed by the strobes. Laughing, Cagalli pulled him away from the bar and back into the press, pulling him by the arm this time, her little joke of earlier forgotten for the moment.

Athrun never did manage to form a clear impression of the dance floor. It was everything Cagalli had warned him it would be, and more besides. It was like a dream... it was more like a dream than his dreams actually. At least them he had some control over, even if it was unconscious. On the dance floor he was just a mote of consciousness cast mostly adrift on a sea of sensation, helpless to do much besides go with the flow. For the first song he was stiff, mostly just letting himself get pushed to and fro by the people around him, while Cagalli clung to him and taunted him by behaving as bad or worse than any wild college party girl in the crowd... he could feel the blush on his face and was glad for the smoke and indistinct lightning. It was a damn good thing Kira couldn't see this... despite his protests about having "grown up", there were still some sides of Cagalli Athrun felt it was safer for Kira not to know about.

"So what did you do at the Nightclub" Kira would ask. "Oh, you know... had a drink or two, listened to the music, danced a few times. It was fun, you should try it sometime." Athrun would reply, knowing full well Kira never would. Even true... assuming... holy... uh... WOW... uhm... hmm... hold on... I'll get back to that line of thought LATER! Athrun felt his jaw drop at the show Cagalli was putting on for him. And it was definitely a show... though quite where she'd learned to... writhe... like that was beyond him. It has to be the alchohol. It has to be. That is... that is... damn... that's HOT! Athrun felt himself freeze up as Cagalli suddenly moved up to him and pressed herself against him, like a cat rubbing up against its favorite scratching post. She can't be acting like this in public... its... its... indecen... WHAT THE HELL AM I SAYING? LOOK AROUND, NUMBSKULL! NOBODY CARES... HELL, ITS RESTRAINED BY SOME STANDARDS... still fully clothed, after all.

"YOU'RE STARTING TO GET IT!" Cagalli yelled in his ear. Shortly before she licked it, drawing her tongue down the side of his neck and down onto his chest. He had to fight to keep her hands on the public parts of him... plainly she'd lost what little sense of self control she normally possessed... there must have bee more alchohol in those drinks than he'd suspected. But damn him, he was enjoying it nonetheless. Enough that it was entirely impossible to hide, given their physical proximity. The smirk she gave him nearly dropped him to the floor. "Say what you want... I know what you really think." Is what her smile said to him. He felt his own mind fuzzing a bit as the alchohol hit him too... those drinks WERE stronger than he'd thought.

About halfway through the second song, some metallish-techno being sung in a foriegn language... something romance... french maybe, or german... Athrun realized he was dancing as well. Maybe not the wild, leaping around moshing some people were doing, but he was into it. In some ways, being surrounded by people he felt more able to go a little crazy than he would have even if he'd been entirely by himself... there was always the chance someone would walk in on you when you were alone, while in the middle of a crowd of hundreds his own parents could bump into him and not recognize him. Cagalli was pushed up against him by the press of the crowd, but this time he pushed back, enjoying the mindless feel of skin on skin, enjoying the laughter he could see on her face even if he couldn't hear it, enjoying just being able to share a carefree moment with no world shattering consequences with someone he loved. Maybe that was the real attraction of the nightclub... the illusion of time passing without consequence, of being able to live without worry that it granted you while you were inside.

So what if Kira would slap me for feeling up his sister in the middle of a crowd... Cagalli probably would too, if we were outside. But the key thing is, we're not outside. Outside is regular life, with social conventions and laws and worries and memories... in here there's just emotionally soaked living in the moment, enjoying yourself for enjoyment's sake for a while. I think that's what Cagalli's trying to point out to me... that everyone needs a place without consequence to let out the sides of them that they keep under tight control most of the time. Well, not always tight control in her case, but she's definitely not THIS forward outside the bedroom, and sometimes not even then! Even slightly drunk and overwhelmed by the visual and auditory sensations of the club, Athrun couldn't help but keep thinking analytically. That side of him he could almost never turn off.

The next song started, and they were both surprised to hear a familiar voice. It was a techno-remix of one of Lacus's songs. Which one they couldn't make out, her voice being so loud as to prevent comprehension, not to mention speeded up and even played backwards once. The crowd ebbed a moment and then pressed them together harder than ever. Secure in her moderately drunk... those two drinks had contained the equivalent of six shots of Vodka, which was quite a bit more than her infrequent glass of wine with dinner... sense of invincibility, Cagalli slipped her hands below the waistband of Athrun's slacks. She felt him jerk at the unexpected touch, which only caused her to smile more. She had no doubt that he was panicking, in that constantly calculating head of his, thinking about how indecent it was to be getting off from being touched by a drunk girl who was his wife, while listening to a song sung by his former fiancee, in a public dance hall. Athrun's sense of propriety was one of the best ways to poke fun at him... he was getting much better, but he was still a prim and proper kind of guy at heart.

Athrun always says that what he loves most about me is my confrontational and stubborn nature... well, I like his strong sense of morality and ambition. He tries to hide it, but he's just not satisfied with what he's got, ever. He always wants more, better, longer... he can never be too happy with success for long. I'll never lack for motivation with him around. And his morality... that's my safety net. The idea of Athrun doing something purely for personal gain is ludicrous... even if he was working a normal job he'd be doing something that helps other people. And as for right now, even if I get completely smashed, to the point where I have no idea what I'm doing or what's going on, he'll never take advantage of me. He'd stop me if I started doing something too crazy, like strip dancing or inviting home strangers. And so I get to be selfish, by partying without worry and he gets to be selfish, because he enjoys worrying about me because then he doesn't have to worry about himself. Two pluses, and we're both not worrying about ourselves, which is the whole point.

Cagalli let the crowd motion pull her and Athrun apart again, just as he started looking like he was going to have to start physically restraining himself from doing something untoward... either pushing her away, which was the most likely... or leaping upon her and taking her right then and there, which was extremely unlikely, but he did do very crazy things from time to time. However, she hadn't been teasing him nearly enough for that... Athrun only did extremely crazy and unplanned things under life or death pressure, or the relative peaceful equivalent. Seeing just how far she could push him before he had to hit the panic button and resort to physical means of keeping himself off her was a form of teasing she enjoyed immensely. Of course, she usually ended up rendering his physical solution moot shortly afterwards, but it was the small victories you always savored the most. She chose not to dwell on the few times when Athrun had turned the strategy around on her, since she had much less success in controlling herself... indeed, she was pretty sure Athrun counted it as a victory when she DIDN'T stop herself from throwing herself onto him and loving him half to death.

Cagalli blinked a few times when she next got pushed up against Athrun. I must be drunker than I thought. He looks taller and thinner than just a moment ago. And Athrun would never wear his hair in a ponytail, would he? But the eyes and the hair and the skin and the face... they all look the same. Eh... think later, fun now... Cagalli put her hands on Athrun's chest and slowly began working them downward. She felt a hand on her shoulder, but she shrugged it off. That had hardly been the only hand on her for a while now, and the shoulder was actually a very restrained place to be grabbed. If she was the type of girl to take offense easily... scratch that, if she was the type of girl who took offense easily when she didn't set herself up for it... she'd probably be steaming mad right now. She chose to be complimented instead. After all, everyone else was a Coordinator and while Athrun was adamant in saying that merely being a Coordinator didn't make you beautiful... everyone knew that was bullshit. Coordinators were pretty, end of story. Being pawed at by them meant they thought she was worth pawing at, so she took that as a compliment. And imagined that Athrun could split himself dozens of times and was surrounding her. Whatever it took to cope peacefully.

Athrun reached around and began caressing her in return, hands sneaking up the front of her shirt and down the back of her shorts, something he hadn't done yet. The alchohol was clearly doing its job... she'd have to remember to get more soon. His tolerance was going to be higher than hers... he weighed more and he was a Coordinator. On average a Coordinator metabolized alchohol about twenty percent faster than a Natural of equivalent size. Modern medical science had all but cured the effects of alchoholism, but even without that most Coordinators could drink like a fish if they chose with little long term harmful effects. The hand fell on her shoulder again, grabbing harder this time. It was almost painful, like whoever it was was angry about something. She tried to shrug them off again, but there was no success this time. Finally she left off teasing Athrun and looked over her shoulder. Into Athrun's eyes. Cagalli blinked a few times... she'd have to start drinking water now, she was already seeing things. Athrun was on either side of her, front and back. A very dirty thought flashed through her mind and she had to take some time stifling it, but fortunately neither Athrun moved away.

At length she came to the conclusion, somewhat startling, that Athrun hadn't managed to split into two, and hadn't been cloned. He just had a taller, thinner, ponytailed look-a-like. Whom Cagalli had been feeling up, and had been enjoying being felt up by in return. All her jokes to Athrun earlier aside, Cagalli was well aware of the "hands off my girl" mentality of most young men her and Athrun's age. Especially since they were both supposed to be married. The odd fondle or ass-grab in the darkness of a dance floor... that could be overlooked. Engaging in drunken foreplay with a stranger... that was going to push Athrun's buttons the wrong way, and she was well aware of what could result if you pushed too many of Athrun's buttons the wrong way. She jerked away from the stranger, who was looking at her bemusedly, obviously surprised at her sudden reversal in stance.

Then the stranger caught sight of Athrun standing behind her, pretty much at the same time as Athrun finally managed to get a clear look at him in return. There was no sudden start of shock either way... just faint surprise and tenative recognition. On Athrun's part because he realized the look-a-like was a distant cousion of his... on his cousin's part because he was so drunk and high a stampede of pink elephants probably wouldn't have shocked him much. The song ended and Cagalli wasted no time in grabbing Athrun's arms, draping them around her and back up into him so there could be no misunderstanding of their relationship. She could feel her face turning red as she thought furiously, trying to figure some way to explain and possibly defuse the situation. Being drunk was suddenly a handicap. Then Athrun took matters into his own hands, setting one arm firmly around her waist, he gestured with the other, motioning for his cousin to follow. His cousin shook his head and instead gestured for Athrun and Cagalli to follow him. He headed away towards one of the alcoves edging the dance floor. Glancing at each other, Cagalli and Athrun slowly followed.

"So... yeah, wassup, cuz?" Athrun's cousin slid the folding shutter shut across the entrance to the small room. It didn't block out the noise from the dance floor,but it did cut it down to the level they could talk without having to resort to sign language. Somewhere along the few score feet from the middle of the floor to the alcove Athrun's cousin had managed to snag a small gang of three girls and four more guys, who wasted no time in sitting down on the couches lining the edges of the room. Athrun's cousin draped himself down into one of the four armchairs in the middle of the room by the small coffee table, pulling one of the other three up close by and beckoning one of the girls, who was tall and thin with cream pale skin, bright violet hair and deep red eyes, over to sit with him. Actually in his lap as things turned out. Athun and Cagalli took the remaining two chairs, sitting side by side. Athrun's cousin slipped his arm around his girl's waist and toyed with slipping his fingers down her shorts, seemingly unaware of his audience. His girlfriend replied by kissing and mumbling nothing-words into his ear as she snuggled close. It made Cagalli more than a little uneasy, especially since she knew she acted like that sometimes... now she saw what Kira saw.

"You're... Arnold? Donald?" Athrun asked his cousin, trying to place the face, whom he hadn't seen in almost a decade. "Something -old or -ald..."

"Yeah, I'm Arnold. Arnold Zala, or Arnie as my parents call me... AZ to my friends, "Hazy" to my group here. Cause they say "hay, Z", yeah?" Athrun's cousin replied dreamily. Cagalli could see that there was more than word semantics to the nickname... she didn't hang out with the "rough" crowd much anymore, but she knew when someone was high or drunk... both in this case. "You'd be Ath... ACHOO... Athrun, right?" Arnold sneezed violently in the middle of his sentence, but didn't bother to wipe his nose with anything other than his hands. Cagalli suddenly felt the need to wash herself thoroughly... those hands had been... "The real deal, Athrun Zala too, unless I'm seeing things. And I haven't had enough fun to see things yet."

"I didn't recognize you. It's been years since the last Zala family reunion. And you had blond hair then." Athrun replied, keeping his face neutral. He'd heard his father admonishing his brothers for the way they let their kids run wild on several occasions when he was younger, but he'd never paid it much mind. The other Zala's lived on September city, and they didn't come around much, especially once his father started getting heavily into politics.

"Still do, cuz, still do. But with these eyes and this face... man all it takes is a little dye job and I'm a dead ringer for you. Or near enough most can't tell. Gotta thank you man... you being such a famous hero type has made my life heaven." Arnold petted the head of his girlfriend and kissed her for a few moments, while his other hand continued its fondling. Cagalli had to look away, embarassed. She could tell what his hand was doing, the other girl was wearing tight shorts as well and it wasn't the sort of thing you should do in public. Or even in semi-private. But the girl didn't seem to mind at all... maybe because she was drunk and stoned too.

"How so?" Athrun asked tightly, obviously offended by the too public display of affection, if there even was any affection besides physical lust. It was one thing, when he and Cagalli played around a bit, teasing Kira or Lacus with kissing and light touching... but what "Hazy" was doing was grounds for arrest under "carnal knowledge of a minor". The legal age for sex in the PLANTS was still eighteen after all. Okay, so maybe that was a law only like 5 percent of anyone followed, but at least most tried to be less obvious about it!

"Do ya have any idea how many girls wanna fuck Athrun Zala, the war hero? Cuz, man, you gotta get out more. You're a celebrity man... a sex icon in our generation. Guys can you believe dis shit? He don't even know he's got a fuckin cult of hot girls worshippin him... J-Fuckin-Christ man!" Arnold replied. "Thousands of hotties jerking off to pictures of him every night an' he don' even know it... fucking bastard...!"

"So you pretend to be me in order to fool girls into having sex with you?" Athrun asked, very slowly and calmly, though Cagalli could see his fists clenching.

"Hell yeah man! A dream come true all around, cuz! You ain't around to fuckin protest or do the deeds yourself, so someone had to step in and relieve da pressure! Don' take much to fool girls round these parts... got da hair, got da eyes, got da face and the 'nitials... all I got's ta do is sign da checks "AZ" and have it get cleared and my cred's SET, bitch! They practically FORCE me to fuck em! Two at a time even! And that's not even getting into the gifts!"

"Gifts!?" Athrun gritted out, clearly extremely less than pleased at this blatant identity theft. "You con gifts out of these girls!?"

"Fuck man, cuz, they won't take no for a fuckin answer man. They insist! Gotta give the big AZ, war hero and sex god, a memento or two, ya know. I can't turn em down... some of dese girls, man, they got fragile ego, cuz. Turn em down and they go kills themself... I can't live with shit like that man... I gotta cons... consie... I care, cuz, I care bout dem!"

"What sort of gifts?" Cagalli asked, hoping to let Athrun cool off some, though she couldn't see any safe topic to talk about. In a lot of ways this was kind of like what Cervantes did to her in Switzerland... taking her name and picture and using it for his own ends, though obviously Arnold "Hazy" Zala here had less ambitious if no less disgusting goals.

"All sorts, all sorts. Money, food, clothes for me, clothes from them, pictures, movies, toys, alchohol, drugs... you name it, I can find a girl to give it to me eventually. I got so much shit at my place I don know what to do wit it all."

"So you live off these girls then?" Cagalli asked again, contemptously.

"Beats waiting tables, bitch, don' it?"

"You're a damn Coordinator though!" Cagalli protested.

"So fuckin what!? Look around, bitch... ever-bodies a fuckin Coordinator! So what, do that mean I gotta go to school and learn shit I don' give a fuck about just cause I can? Just cause I'm smart and shit? Why the fuck should I do that if I can make ten grand a month fucking bitches who don't know better, getting high and dead-ass drunk every night and sleeping all day? I'm living the fucking life right now... why would I want to go to school and take time out of dis shit? What can school get me I don' get here, huh? It won' buy me drinks, or give me Waft or Spiffy, or fuck me to sleep every night... why da fuck should I go to school? Doesn't do shit for me."

"Don't you give a damn about your own future? Join ZAFT and be a real hero yoursef, instead of leeching off Athrun!" Cagalli shouted. "ZAFT needs people... the PLANTS NEED PEOPLE. How can you be so selfish! Don't you care about what's happening on Earth?"

"Who the fuck cares about Earth?" One of the guys relaxing on one of the wall couches called. He was holding a piece of what looked like cardboard up to his nose,while they watched he ripped the top layer off and inhaled violently through his nostrils. He coughed and jerked several times. "Dat's some damn good Waft ya got us, Hazy. Fuck man, it's a wild ride!"

"Only da best for my pals, Roddy. Only da best." Arnold replied. "Roddy's right doh... who da fuck cares about Earth anyway? We don live there! Fuck the Naturals, man... fuck em hard! They wanna live by demselves, fucking cut dem off like a tumor man! S'what da council's gonna do anyway. Gonna fuck them. Fuck them so hard they won't know up from down. Hell, cuz, won't even need you in a month or two... ain't gonna be shit to fight. Too bad too... if you AZ don't fight and get famous on TV, then me AZ don't get laid as often. Bad shit all round, ya?"

"How do you know what the council's going to do? Somehow I don't get the feeling they send you email updates." Athrun asked, staring at his cousin like he was something he'd found on his shoe.

"Ah man, dat's right though! But I done had me a few flings with some Lacus impersonaters. Ya know, the crazy bitches who think they can ease through life by dressin up an' pretending to be a superstar, taking money and gifts from guys wit more dick dan brains, ya?" Arnold replied, totally unaware of the irony of his mocking statement. "Well, one o'dem does some work as a steno... steogra... she writes shit down for the council sessions, or at least the real important ones that they don wanna risk the electronic recorders for. She don told me... after I fuck her silly of course..." Arnold smirked. "... about da council making a meet about dis big operation where dey going to fuck the Earth till they don know up from down. Gonna use some big sparky bombs and fuck them into da fuckin stone age, cuz. Gonna big a big light show too, gonna turn da "blue and pure world" into a fuckin "rainbow and FUCKED world, hell yeha!"

"Did she say when?" Athrun asked, intently. Arnold shurgged, clearly uncaring about the potential value of the info he had.

"Mebbe man, don' know. I was riding a grade AZ Waft upper at da time, mixed with getting sloshed on three fifths of good ole JD whiskey! Damn, dat was a TRIP!" Arnold shook his head fondly. "I don' know why yer so serious, AZ. Half of everbody I know don' give a fuck about da war... da other half don' know a fuck about da war. Why shou we? Oh sur, deres some flag wavers and miltardy types, but dey got dere own club and dey AREN'T da in clubs. Fuck man, cuz, you're acting like you can actually do a fuckin thing to stop the war. Like you tink you can make a difference. Stupid man, stupid. Just have some fun man. Let da fucking adults take care of it... all their fuckin fault anyway. They got things in hand man... just go out an' fuckin party man. It's what we're fucking supposed to do!" Arnold shrugged and continued to "play" with his girlfriend. His eye fell on Cagalli after a moment.

"Doh I gotta say... I never thought I'd see you hanging out wit a ditzy bimbo like dis one. Fuck man, she ain't even cute! She got good hands, I give you, but da rest of her... shit, cuz, pure shit. Parent's musta skimped on the genecoding... or else dey were just fuckin UGLY! Breasts like apples and only a middling ass... and dat hair... GD man, GD... you fin her in da sewer? Must have a mighty tight snat..." Arnold never got to finish his statement, because Athrun's side kick threw him out of his chair and into the wall behind.

Athrun straightened his shirt fastidiously as Arnold slid down the wall into a heap, coughing blood and tooth fragments onto the ground. His gang barely stirred, all too drunk or high to see the worth in avenging their friend's injury. "I can take having my own name used like an ass wipe, but nobody messes with Cagalli while I'm around. If you can't say something nice, then don't say a damn word at all. I would lecture you, but you're so fucked up in the head right now you probably can't even remember your own parents names, much less anything I say. I will mention one thing though... maybe I can't stop the war all by myself... but at least I'm trying. The odds are against me... but you're not even in the odds, you stupid bastard. Go on, keep pretending to be someone special, keep living like vermin and never attain anything worthwhile... better that someone like you never does make a mark at all." Athrun turned away from his cousin.

"Gotta be da fucking big man. Gotta go out an make waves. Da' was right. You are jus' like your fuckin daddy. Can't be happy wit' shit. Gotta change shit. Gotta "make a mark". Go on yerself, fuckin cuz. Have a fuckin ball making a fuckin difference. Ain't you dat's gotta really live wit da results anyway... nah, you just move on ta da next fight, fucker. You fighting for us, mebbe. Well fuck you, I never asked you to. I don' care about you cuz, other dan you make my life easy. Keep fighting... making your marks, shit. But damn few our age really give a flyin fuck what you do, cuz. Oh, dey care while its on TV, but next day... fuck you, cuz. Fuck you."

"I need some fresh air. Shall we go get some?" Athrun asked Cagalli lightly, ignoring his cousin.

"Ya, dat's right. Go fuckin leave! Git, cuz! Go fuck your fuckin whore somewhere else! Makes me sick, having her aro... eep." Arnold cut off in mid threat. Athrun had crossed the room in a blur, and was now face to face with his cousin, eye to eye even. Both eyes were washed out, though Arnold was stoned while Athrun was in a SEED rage.

"That's my wife you're talking about, Arnold. The only more sure way to get me to pummel you into a hospital is if you start slandering my mother. I married a Natural, that's right. And I love her very much... more than you've ever loved anyone. Maybe more than you even can love anyone, who knows. But lets get one thing absolutely clear between us... I don't care what you do to me, though I detest the very idea of being impersonated by a slime like you. But if you so much as think about messing with Cagalli, either directly or indirectly, I will personally destroy you so badly that not even your drugs will be able to give you the illusion that you're still a man, in any sense of the word. Do you understand me? I don't enjoy beating helpless people... but you're getting real close to forcing me not to care, "cuz"." Athrun stood up again. "Now, about that fresh air?"

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"Are you okay, Athrun?" Cagalli asked, after they had left the club and returned to the car. She'd detoured to he bar on the way out and cashed in her little "gift card" for a take home case of the stuff she and Athrun had been drinking. Though the chance encounter with Athrun's cousin had put a strong damper on things, Cagalli refused to let it ruin the night. If they couldn't loosen up, get drunk and have a blast at the Club, they'd just have to do it somewhere else, like at home. "He was drunk and stoned and just unpleasant... you don't need to worry too much about what he sai..."

Athrun interrupted her by holding up one hand as he programmed route directions into the car's comptuer controls. "He was all those things, but maybe precisely because he was, I think I do need to worry about what he said." Athrun finished his typing and got into the car... though Cagalli was happy to see that he had gotten into the back seat and not the front. Clearly the upsetting meeting hadn't totally ruined Athrun's night either. She got into the back seat as well and leaned up against him. "It's a perspective I hadn't really considered before... what my "peers on the street" think of things. I hadn't realized how apathetic people were. I thought almost everyone was as politically active as the people we've been around. But that's really not the case is it?"

"Tens of millions of people... maybe even hundreds of millions of people DO care!" Cagalli insisted.

"Yes... and hundreds of millions more are neutral, with the remainder somehow uninformed or actively uninterested. Don't get me wrong... I know that what I do makes a difference, that the goal we're all working towards is both right and necessary. The conversation made me want to succeed more than anything else, actually. So I can prove to all the apathetic people out there, waiting for the "adults" to "fix things" that one person CAN make a difference. Groups are made of individuals after all. Maybe my successes will inspire someone teetering on the edge of being like Arnold there into instead being more like me. I wanna show people what the difference is in being Athrun Zala versus pretending to be Athrun Zala. Thousands of people can sign "AZ"... but only a few can make it mean something."

"And its AZA anyway." Cagalli reminded him as the car pulled out onto the street. The radio turned on and tuned to a station specializing in the new rage, Excavation rock, featuring all genres of music "re-invented" from records of more than a century ago. A song came on called "Over and Over" by a band called Three Day's Grace. It was romantic, and as she listened to the words Cagalli could definitely indentify with the lyrics.

"That it is, but I don't think he would have got that. And bad enough that he's making those girls think I sleep around... do we really want him making people think I also cheat on my wife?"

"No one who knows me could ever think you'd cheat on your wife, Athrun." Cagalli snuggled up to him as the car, which was a convertible like most PLANT vehicles, extruded the side windows and top that would turn it into a regular car, in case of a scheduled rain along the road. The sky looked clear however, which led her to believe there was some other motive. "You aren't that brave." She thought for a few moments. "Really though, we could have a word with Alkire and Raine... I'm sure they could "fix" your cousin."

"If anyone is going to hospitalize a member of my family, it'll be me. Besides, I don't really give a damn what he does or says... anyone who values his opinion isn't someone I feel the need to listen to. Eventually he's going to sleep with the wrong person or get caught using drugs and they'll DNA scan him and the jig will be up. I could sue him for slander, but I prefer to think about what all those girls are going to do to him... he won't have a very comfortable life." Athrun smiled as the car windows tinted themselves to the point of opacity, turning the inside into a near cave except for dim light coming in from the windshield. "Our night's not over though, so lets get back into the swing of things shall we? Where were we on the dance floor again?"

"Well, I dunno... I'd hate to pat down another imposter again... you Coordinators haven't been paying me many compliments tonight." And that's no joke... geez its almost like they want me to feel inadequate about my body! Not every girl has big breasts and a huge ass! And I'm not thin, I just control what I eat and stay healthy. And there's nothing wrong with my hair! And... damn it, they ARE getting to me!

"What can I say... just being a Coordinator doesn't mean you can't be blind, I guess." Athrun fiddled at her waist for a moment and removed the black leather belt. "Amazing... they DO stay on without a belt. I'd been wondering about that ever since I first saw them. Those can't be comfortable, tight as they are."

"I can take them off?"

"I bet you can't." Athrun leaned to the side, adjusting his position to pull her down on top of him. He kissed the tip of her nose lightly and gathered her hands with his. "Shame on you for feeding me alchohol... you know its a dis-inhibitor."

"And shame on you for being such a wonderful guy... you know its also a dis-inhibitor." Cagalli whispered back. The song changed to "Making a Memory" by Plain White T's. There was a long pause. "Damn you, don't just leave me hanging. And you'd better fix the car first, I'd hate to get home in the middle of something important. It was hard enough getting into these standing up... it would be hell in a car."

"The car won't be heading home for at least an hour. And you just gave me enough of an image to..."

"Shut up already!"

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"So is it ready yet?" Cagalli continued to pester him. They still had a few days left before they were due to meet up with Lacus and Kira and everyone else, and Cagalli was anxiously awaiting the completetion of the project she'd comissioned from Athrun on the first day. They hadn't done anything too exciting since their half night at the Nightclub, though they hadn't exactly just moped around the house either. Neither were usually the stay around the house types. No, they went waterskiing and sailing and played pickup games of soccer and doubles tennis at the sports complexes, or else went out to eat at various resteraunts, though they never did hit the famous Norman's Grill. Cagalli spent money like it was water being distrubuted in a desert, but Athrun managed to save aside enough to ensure they would have food and even emergency travel if they needed it. His wardrobe expanded sixfold, mostly with clothes he'd never even seen before Cagalli shoved them into the closet. She insisted he wear multiple sets of clothing per day, so she could see how he looked. When he pointed out that she could have just asked him to model while she was buying them at the store, she pushed him around until he did what she said.

"Well, no thanks to your badgering, yes, it is." Athrun stood in the doorway to his workshop, which was also his old room. They stayed in the master bedroom, but Athrun worked in his old room so as to keep the details of his project secret from her. He still used the master bathroom while working though... the mouse was still living in his bathroom. Cagalli went in to check it every so often to make sure Athrun hadn't killed it, despite a sworn promise not to harm it on his part. Every time she did so he had to roll up all his plans and hide the item itself, though that wasn't too hard given its size. "And the mouse still lives. It hurts that you don't trust me not to attack it. I only lay awake on two nights plotting its death. That's pretty good I think."

"That's pretty sad I think. That you would even need to plot to kill something like that cute little mouse... yeah, sad."

"Do you want this pet or not? Making fun of me isn't making me feel very giving."

"But making fun of you brightens my day so much!" Cagalli through her arms around him and began rocking them back and forth.

"You can't cutsey-coddle it out of me either." Athrun said sternly.

"Not for roughly six minutes and forty seconds anyway. After that, we're in uncharted territory." Cagalli retorted. "You're not the only one who can do research, dear. I know your limits." She smiled wider. "I'll reduce you to a snivelling ball of jelly if I have to, but you can just go the easy way and show me what you made. Then I can laugh delightedly, kiss you firmly and go back to reading my book."

"I see why you appointed me your diplomatic ambassador." Athrun snorted. "Very well... enjoy this little fella." Athrun brought his hands out from around his back and opened his hands. Cagalli started for a moment, surprised that Athrun wasn't cowering in terror. Then she realized that the object only LOOKED like a mouse. And even then, only at first glance or from a distance. She started chuckling and shook her head.

"Cured you of rodent-phobia have I?"

"No, I still hate rats and mice. But this just looks like one... its merely distasteful. But I just couldn't get the damn thing out of my head. And if I'm lucky, birdie will really start acting like a hawk and that will solve my problem neatly." Athrun tipped his hands slightly, forcing the mouse-robot to run onto Cagalli's cupped palm. The pet sniffed her hand several times and turned around before crouching down in an "at rest" pose. Cagalli touched it with a finger and her eyebrow rose. She petted it a few more times to be sure.

"It's soft. And slightly warm." She commented. She held it up in front of her face and stared at it closely. "You really went all out on this guy didn't you? I can't see any seams at all. If it weren't for the lack of a mouth and nostrils, and the green LED eyes, I don't think I could tell this from a real mouse."

"It's about forty percent bigger than my nemesis in the bathroom there... I could have made it lifesize, but the risk of losing it or crushing it underfoot by accident would be much higher then, and I don't wanna spend hours and hours constantly repairing it for you. The fur is a synthetic material that is water proof and fire resistant, it is also self cleaning to an extent. He can run or climb about as fast as a regular mouse, which is actually faster than you'd think. However, I didn't want him running all over the place, getting into things and potentially giving me a heart attack every few days, so I programmed him to be a heat seeker. As in, he likes to be warm, his favorite temperatures being in the ranges of human body temp. The heat generated by his processor, which I loaded with almost a gigabyte of action commands based on the behavior of mice mixed with some from cats and dogs as well, accounts for why he feels warm. He "sees" in the infared spectrum and has roughly human level hearing. He makes mouse sounds too, and he can purr, just because I wanted him too. He'll purr and vibrate a little, whenever he's happy, i.e. when he's warm and near you."

"You keep saying he, like he's not just a robot." Cagalli pointed out with a smug smile. "He's not delicate is he?"

"As long as you don't stamp on him with your full weight he should be fine. He doesn't break easily, but that doesn't mean you can play catch with him or throw him into walls. He's got a weak a-grav module that slows his falling speed but doesn't allow him to jump or anything. He also can't swim worth a damn, though he's watertight down to about sixty feet, and could conceivably walk around on the bottom of a body of water. I also programmed him to seek you out if he ever gets seperated from you for more than a few minutes without you turning him off. The sniffing thing he did was him recognizing you by the DNA in your sweat. Its a crude sensor, very short ranged, but it should help keep him from getting lost. He's not the most active of pets unless you tell him to play... he likes just sitting and watching things, preferably in a warm place like a pocket or sitting on your neck or the top of your head. Once you give him a name, he'll respond to voice commands, like a dog. Come, Stay, Play, Speak, Roll Over, etc. Or you can tell him to go "Passive" in which he'll do what he wants until you tell him to go "Active" again. Before you give an order you have to say his name or it won't work."

"You haven't named him?" Cagalli asked, smiling fondly at the creature... robot, she had to remind herself.

"I thought it best that you should. I'm glad you like him." Athrun smiled. Cagalli felt a stirring when she looked at him. She'd been expecting something cool... but this was WAY above and beyond the call of duty. This was a masterpiece, as good or better than a normal pet. And in a form that Athrun really didn't like much. He'd built the damn thing and he was still flinching away from it slightly. God, how many guys would do something like make a pet they were AFRAID of for their girlfriend... wife... whatever!? Not many. And that smile never failed to turn her on... the slightly unconfident, entirely unforced nature of it... yeah, could you say "sexy"? The mouse-robot perked up and climbed off her hand and up her arm. It's "claws" didn't even penetrate her skin, she could barely feel the tickle of its presene once it moved onto her shirt. It bumped its nose against the side of her neck and sat there for a moment, nestling along her collarbone and rubbing softly against the side of her neck. God, it was adorable. It purred and the vibration made her flinch slightly. She put up a hand to catch it, but it rode out the sudden shift with ease.

"Squeak, Squeak." The mouse chirped. It sounded just like a real mouse. "I should name you squeaker, but thats just too trite and cutsy even for me." Cagalli said. She tried to think of a good name, but it was hard with Athrun standing there smiling at her, sending her thoughts in entirely different directions. The mouse perked up again and suddenly started climbing down her shirt. She grabbed for it, but missed it as it disappeared down the front side of her shirts. "What's it doing!?" Cagalli had to fight involuntary chuckles... it tickled something fierce. The could both hear muffled squeaks from inside her shirt as the mouse continued to head downwards.

"Well, it's programmed to seek out the point of greatest heat. That's usually your heart area, or your head." Athrun replied, puzzled.

"Athrun! Do you have ANY idea where the hottest spot on my body CURRENTLY is!?" Cagalli pointed out, fighting the tickle giggles. Athrun watched the mouse work its way down across Cagalli's belly and he started to blush.

"Oh! Ah! Uhm... I see the problem. Well, you can tell him to stop, but you have to give him a name first. Just say "I name you:" and then the name. Then you can tell him to "Come" and he'll head back to your shoulder or hand."

"Athrun! He's... he's climbing down my pants! The fur... it tickles so much! I ca... can't think! How... how... THE HELL...!?" Cagalli trailed off as the mouse reached the warmest detected spot and began to purr. And vibrate. "ATHRUN! You made a PERVERTED MOUSE!"

"He's not a pervert. He's just following his programming. It's not his fault you had a hot flash." Athrun was looking away, hiding the furious blush on his face.

"GET HIM OFF! I CAN'T THINK LIKE THIS!" Cagalli doubled over, crying tickle tears.

"But..."

"DON'T GET SQUEAMISH ON ME, YOU BASTARD! YOU NEED TO FIX THIS! YOU'VE TOUCHED THERE BEFORE!"

"But..." Athrun was red as a beet. "What I do when I'm making love to you and what I can do cold are entirely different, I'm afraid."

"YOU'RE ENJOYING THIS, AREN'T YOU, PERVERT!? WAIT TILL I TELL KIRA YOU MADE ME A VIBRATOR MOUSE AND WATCHED WHILE IT MOLESTED ME! HE'LL KILL YOU!"

"The new Kira? The one with the insatiable sex drive and aggression issues? He'll probably laugh. And maybe ask me to make one for Lacus too." Athrun joked.

"YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY!? IF I COULD STAND UP STRAIGHT I'D KICK YOU!"

"Maybe you should just let things play out. I'll drag you into my room, shut the door and come back in fifteen minutes okay? Then you can name him and we can both go on with our days. Once he has a name we won't ever have this problem again... you can just tell him to "Sleep" and he'll turn off for eight hours or until you wake him up."

"THAT'S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN! IT'S BEEN YEARS SINCE I HAD TO USE A VIB..." Cagalli trailed off and her face went even redder than his. "You didn't hear that! Athrun, damn it, help me! If you don't I will..." Cagalli blanked... she couldn't think of threats under this sort of stimulus.

"Okay, okay... before I wind up murdered in our bed, I'll help you. Just lie still. There you go. Now just spread your legs a little... DAMN IT CAGALLI, THIS ISN'T EASY FOR ME EITHER, SO SPARE ME THE DIRTY LOOKS! Okay... just hold still." Athrun swallowed. This was not what he'd intended... she was never going to let him hear the end of it... and god help him if Dearka and Ysak and Katie found out. Or Kisaka. Or Kira, despite Athrun's joke. "Have you thought of a name yet, by the way?"

"I got a few for YOU!"

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Athor Note: Personally I don't feel I did as well with Athrun and Cagalli as I did with the two chapters before it. Oh, its not bad, and I managed to hit several of the points both reviewers suggested and I wanted... but I don't feel like I really accomplished the same breadth of feeling. As in I don't know in what way, besides small details, this romance differs from the stuff I wrote at the beginning of the story. I hope the A x C fans can forgive me this effort as I ran out of space before I could really put in some "SNAP", some deep looks at the inner Cagalli and Athrun. Though the bits with the mouse do get me chuckling. Forgive me, die hard Athrun fans, but I had to give him a flaw or phobia, and rats are as good as anything, plus I'd mentioned it before. Well in any case, on to Dearka and Miriallia, then my OC's and then the groups. Thanks as always for the reviews.