A/N: One person can make all the difference. This is yet another drabble gone astray so I have posted it as a one-shot. As usual, the characters of Gundam Seed and Gundam Seed Destiny do not belong to me but to their esteemed creator. ENJOY!
Perceptions
Opening his letterbox, Athrun Zala sighed at the numerous pink envelopes, frilly-wrapped chocolates and wild declarations of love that spilled forth, pooling at his feet. Without giving them a second glance, he took them all, every bit of pink and red, and threw them all away. After all, they were all gifts of strangers, girls he never knew, most he had never even met.
Because she would never give him anything.
And, he loved her for it.
It was Valentine's Day, a day of red love and pink passion for many. Yet, it remained a day of crimson death, painted in the blood of anguish for Athrun. It was the day of the Bloody Valentine, the day of death for Lenore Zala. On the anniversary of such tragedy, it was hard for Athrun to feel love when he only remembered the loss of a loved one, it was hard to feel passion when he was numb to everything except the pain of losing his protector, his comforter, his parent, his mother. On such a day, he would spend his time at her grave, mourning her loss, alone in his grief.
Because she would never be there.
She would never be there as he greeted the day, a day of grieving and hurt. She would never be there as he stopped by the florist, buying a bouquet of roses, sprinkled with baby-breaths, inadequate gifts to the woman who was larger than life, a woman who had been his everything because without her, he would be nothing. She would never be there as he stood in the graveyard, whispering sweet nothings of his life to a silent stone, declaring his love to an empty grave. She would never be there.
And, he loved her for it.
Because Lacus Clyne had been there when Athrun had cried in his soul-wrenching despair of losing an existence in his life that seemed undefeatable by death, his mother, who seemed to defy everything in her love for him. Because Lacus had been there as he had grown from a naïve child into a man cynically crafted for war. Lacus had been there.
And, she knew.
She knew never to give him gifts – Athrun had no need for tangible proof of an intangible loss, a loss that was already unbearable without the need for cruel parodies of the symbols of love.
She knew never to be with him – Athrun had no need for distractions on the day when his undivided attention should be on the most important woman in his life, because she had given him both love and life.
She knew.
And, he loved her for it.
So, Lacus was surprised when Athrun turned up on her doorstep one Valentine's Day, with a bouquet of roses in his hand, a streak of crimson passion on his cheeks and a smile of love on his lips.
Athrun would take her out, to experience and enjoy the day as young lovers would, his gift to her – because Lacus had filled a day of loss with life, had turned his numbed affections into a fiery loving passion.
Athrun would not abandon her on this day of loving celebration, spending time with her by her side. She was not a distraction but a woman of equal importance – because where his mother had given him love and life, it was Lacus that gave him the reason to love his life.
Valentine's Day was a day of tragedy but with Lacus, because of Lacus, it had become a day of joy.
And, he loved her for it.