I don't own GS/GSD

R&R please.

Chapter 6

The fight wasn't like those that they had in the past. Those in the past were petty little ones she could forget easily, those were akin to spice, just little dashes of it here and there and a bit of squabbling that seemed a bit childish when Cagalli recalled it. The first time that they fought was the first time they met, that had been grim and bitter, she had been prepared to kill him, but at the last minute, she had gotten cold feet and thrown the gun she had jsut fired into the air. He had leapt at her with his knife, ready to slash her throat if necessary, but they had merely ended up in a compromising state of entangled limbs as Athrun galred at her and shouted agnrily and almost disbelievingly, "Do you want to die?"

The ssecond time they fought was after the war, when she had been about seventeen and waiting for the law to state her legal to join the governent of ORB. He had been Alex Dino then, but she always called him Athrun, she did't know why she couldn't conform to his identity or rather, his need for a new one.And strangely, that had been the cause of the second argument. He had told her in private and quite sharply, that he wanted her to call him Alex and not Athrun, but she had protested fiercely and shot at him, "Alex Dino doesn't exist!"

He had looked with cold eyes at nobody else but her, and she hadn't realised that his need for the new identity was a scar she had not seen and had unwittingly reopened. He had apologised later, or to be exact, she had tried to stammer and apology but he had simply looked at her, bent and hugged her. She couldnt' hear anything, the rush in her ears was louder than any waterfall she had witnessed, but she somehow heard him say siomething and make out a muffled arrangement of words.

"Let me stay like this, don't tell me to go now.." He had said softly from the back of her head, holding her close.

And she had let him.

An evening ago, he had came back and put his briefcase by the door. She might have noticed it wasn't like him, Athrun was a very neat, precise person, he never left things lying about, and so Cagalli might have noticed that something was wrong. But she didn't.

And he hadn't taken off his coat or let her either, he had looked at her grimly while she stared at him, wondeirng why he was being so strange.

"We need to sit down and discuss something." He stated baldly, and he had led her to the chair and towered over her, and she saw that he was in some sort of inner turmoil, his green eyes were badly troubled and his lips were twisted in an unbecoming frown more suited for someone else, not Athrun Zala.

And he paced a little, he was prone to doing that while he thought, and then with some difficulty, he looked at her and told her, "They're releasing Jun Thornier on parole in three days' time." He proceeded to lay a hand on the wall although it was more forceful in gesture rather than the action itself.

Cagalli stared at him, eyes widened in slight dismay, and she stammered, "G-good behaviour?"

"That's right," he continued cryptically, "He will be released soon, and I want you to stay away from him. You need tighter seurity, I don't want the lunatic charging in here and trying to kill you just because he held some strange grudge against things that showed coordinators and naturals could get along well."

She was silent, struck by some sort of innate fear. Jun Thornier had tried to assasinate her, and she would have died. But this, it was-

"Ridiculous," Cagalli declared sharply, "I'll do no such thing as that."

His expression, wary and concerned, became a little frantic and his eyes grew colder, and she shivered a little because he looked like he was another person altogether. 'That's the way he looks when he kills someone,' she thought fearfully, and then she was immediately guilty of the horrid thoughts she had even harboured about Athrun.

"You will do as I say," he countered boldly, his voice sharp too, perhaps sharper than hers, "And get some better security or I'll quit my job and be a bodyguard for you."

"Don't be anal," she cursed angrily, "You're the head of an international peacekeeping organisaiont for Pete's sake! You don't do things like that to threaten me, Athrun! I don't stand for things like that, and you should know it!"

The next thing she knew, he had crossed the room in a few strides and was pinning her to the chair, his breath ragged like a worn cloth and his face contorted in pain, and he hissed, "Whatever it is, I want you to up the security."

Cagalli knew it made sense to, it wouldn't cost so much, her life was more valuable anyway, and she knew he was doing this out of concern, Jun Thornier, as far as they were concerned, was out of control, a complete maniac if there ever was one. But she didn't want to frighten herself and Athrun by carrying some bodyguards all over the place and making it obvious she was afraid, because doing that would finalise the fact that she actually was. And Cagfalli was a headstrong, stubborn person, she never wanted to be afraid or worse, let others know that she was either.

"No," she cried, struggling a little but to no avail, his hands were gripping her shoulders too tightly for any compromise, and she said this with a little pique and mostly frustration, "I won't, and nothing you say will make me!"

"Nothing I say," he repeated mutely, and hsi grip on her arms slackened bit by bit, and she found herself able to open her eyes and slowly look at him. And she might have regretted saying what she had because there was hurt in his eyes and his face was pale, but a second later, the hurt had spun into decisiveness and his lips crashed upon hers while she struggled and tried to shout for him to stop but was only successful in creating a few spluttering sounds. His grip was tighter than ever on her shoulders, then they moved down to her wrists as he pinned her against the chair she sat in, and she flailed and twisted urgently and violently but she was still inevitably trapped in the seat. He paused to let both of them breathe, and she half-screamed, half-sobbed, "Why'd you do that?"

He looked at her with an inscrutable expression now, and when he had gripped her wrists to stop her from struggling, he had pressed down hard, and there were slight bruises there where his fingers had been. She was flushed, her neck and jawline and lips were flushed from his actions, but her eyes were frustrated and filled with misery.

"I wanted to remind you that I'm your husband," he said softly. And she wrenched a hand from his grip, not even noticing that her wrist was a bit bruised and she delivered a stinging, hurtful slap right across his face, and when she looked at him again, there was an ugly welt on his cheek that would form in no time.

"Don't do that again," she sobbed, and she pushed herself up and out of the chair and ran up the stairs to the drawing room, airy and large, and then she bolted the door, back to the wood, and she slid down slowly and painfully, trying hard not to cry. That night, she slept there, alone, cold and tired from the experience of their first quarrel, and hence, she wasn't aware that footsteps had approached the door mroe than once in the night but had gotten no further than the bolted door.

So that was their first fight. She didn't regret having taken her stand about the issue, she regretted not being able to communicate her reasons for that particular stand to Athrun.

The next morning when she awoke, she ached all over fromt he sleeping in the drawing room. She was hurting, physcially and inwardly, the floor was cold but so was she without even a blanket or him to hold her. But she got up anyway and somehow pushed herself to work. He had left earlier, as per usaul, a fight wouldn't stop Athrun Zala from doing his duty.She frowned slightly and proceeded as per usual to do likewise, if he could do it, she'd show him that she wasn't any less capable than him either.

At the end of the day, she had left for home, feeling more than slightly apprehensive about seeing Athrun later, wondering who would crack first, her or him. 'Not me,' she promised herself stubbornly, 'Not me.'

So she went home and did her daily chores as usual, then she fell asleep on a couch while idly typing a letter to Lacus to check her progress with the preganancy. Lacus was in the second trimester now, her pregnancy was showing even more clearly and Lacus had been prone to bouts of insomnia or weariness and Kira had been beside himself in worry, although the doctors had assured him that it was perfectly normal.

She had been typing, but then she got stuck on wondering if she ought to ask Lacus about how her brother and her would sort out their quarrels and little spats, and unwittingly, Cagalli had drifted off to sleep in her weariness and internal pain. She slept for an hour, not knowing that he had came home to find her curled up on the couch, sleeping fitfully with something painfully fragile about her. He had knelt on the floor and kissed her on her forehead, a chaste, gently kiss, and she hadn't woken up and he hadn't had the heart to wake her up either. So he went about all his things asnd prepared dinner, and she finally woke up, roused by the aroma wafting through the house.

"Welcome home," she offered sleepily, saying what she did by force of habit, sitting up and rubbing her eyes sleepily with one hand. It seemed to him that she had forgotten about the quarrel, the bruises on her wrists had died down so much they were barely there, and he saw the glint on her finger and smiled softly at her.

"I'm back," he told her softly, moving to her and taking her by the hand so she could stand with ease, "And dinner's ready."

She looked at him blearily, still a captive of sleep's hold, and she moved unsteadily to the table, and sat ungracefully in a chair while he moved more languidly to another opposite her and sat down, obviously less awkwardly than her. it was funny how the rest of the world semeed to fade away into a blur of nothing, leaving only him across her and her across him. And there were only two of them, only two of them. The table was meant for at least thirty, and there they were seating in the middle of the long table, surrounded by an expanse of empty table space and chairs that nobody sat in. So they were like an island, isolated but formed of two.

"How was work?" she offered a bit awkwardly, unsure of whether he would still try to make her upp the security, which she would certainly refuse to do and then that'd start a whole repeat of yesterday's scuffle.

"Fine," he said a bit tensely. He wouldn't tell her that he had spoken to Kisaka and Amagi and made them swear they would bring in more security, in fact, they were rather willing to do it, quite obliging really. It seemed to all of them that Cagalli was only foolhardy if she didn't upp the security, but the problem was that Cagalli wasn't the most receptive to change amongst all the people that they knew of. And the problem was that Athrun needed her too much to let her get hurt. He might have told her now, during dinner, that work today had consisted of extra time spent on checking up Jun Thornier and confirming that he actually had been well-behaved during his stay in the pirson's asylum. And Athrun ahd bene frustrated to find out that no amount of lobbying would change the rights Thornier had to his parole in two days time. So that left only Cagalli to deal with, and only was an understatement, because dealing with Cagalli Yula Atha was equivalent to delaing with a mule. Worst still, she was his wife and not just the key political figure in ORB. It didn't matter much that she was anyway, Cagalli was just Cagalli to him. But Athrun hadn't been as possesive over anything until he had met her. And because of that, he would still try and cross the lines she had already stubbornly set and made clear.

She raised a cynical eyebrow at him, a gesture she had learnt from Athrun herself, she knew work wouldn't simply consist of 'fine', perhaps more profanities and a few more to be sure, but then Athrun was Athrun, he never said more than what was necessary.

"Look," she began unsurely, "You know yesterday, I didn't mean to be so harsh on you and all that, I won't apologise for my stand that I don't need more security, but it was wrong for me to not tell y-,"

"That's alright," he interrupted swiftly, his heart thumping at an incredible pace, "I'm guilty of that too."

So she had cracked first. That was his hold on her, she was always drawn to his will because she needed him so desperately. He had cracked a spilt-second after her, perhaps because of the same reason. But underneath the now calm exterior, she would always remember the first quarrel they had, and she would never change her stand either. She didn't want to do as he said, she was too headstrong for all that. And he knew she didn't want to, but in secret, he was arranging it already. But nothing was out in the open, and as long as that was fine, then it would be alright. So dinner was quite an enjoyable affair after that.

And subsequently, that night wasn't a cold night for either of them, and she awoke alone as per usual and missed him more than ever.