Disclaimer: I own nothing of Gundam Seed and Gundam Seed Destiny, which can be a blessing, because if you did, then you'd have legions of ASUCAGA fans waiting to kill you if you didn't get ASUCAGA sorted out.

Chapter 6

As Athrun approached the area where Cagalli was pacing at, he heard voices, urgent and hiding a note of anger and desperation with a hint of hatred.

For a second, he wondered if it was only the sobs of the winds in the autumn night, childish and hateful. The chilly air was wrapping around his face like a scarf, cold and ungracious. And he licked his lips, imagining that he had only just woken up from a deep sleep, his voice rusted and rough with disuse.

The roses were frosted and ice peach with the temperatures, their petals were crystallized from within. Their heads would fall and be stepped on, they'd protest with a vehement crunch, but they would have to wait for their renewal in spring.

Sensing a need to remain unseen for the meantime, he darted swiftly into a nearby rosebush and sincerely hoped nobody would spot him. His ears pricked up as he listened to the arguing voices, one unmistakably Cagalli's.

"It's just a nosebleed! Nothing's going to be wrong even if I have to vomit right there! Whose problem would it be anyway if I stained the cloth a little? At the end of the dinner, that cloth would have been cleaned anyway! I promise you, the worst I've done never reached its height with a bloodstain or two on the cl-"

A male voice intercepted gravely, "Not that. The reporters will doubt if your health is perfect and may write stories that are dire to your reputation, Chairman Atha. Besides, I highly doubt nosebleed pictures look flattering on newspapers. You have only the fact that your dress is black tonight that you can thank and be grateful for."

Cagalli, suddenly controlled and as meek as a mouse, was muttering, "Alright, I understand, I'll speak to the reporters later and try to gain a foot hold of the situation. I can probably get them not to publish the pictures if I speak to them, since I can't let them have anything to pick on, can I?"

Athrun strained his ears intently and heard a thudding sound like someone had patted Cagalli on the back, and wondered who would have so much influence as to have curbed the infamous temper and arguing matches Cagalli was prone to.

The crunch of the ground, icy and irritated, became faint.

A wave of curiosity and slight doubt poured through him, and he waited for the footsteps to go past the bush he was hidden in, peering at the man who had just spoken to Cagalli.

He was only slightly shorter than Athrun with neat, closely cropped black hair and horn-rimmed glasses, and quite handsome in a strange, unconventional manner. Perhaps it was his frown, or perhaps the slight flare of stiff disappointment in his eyes, or perhaps both combined that creased his brow slightly. He was decked in a dapper grey suit and black silk tie, and Athrun suddenly recognized him as Cagalli's subordinate who had opened the door for her as she had slipped unnoticed into the gardens.

Shaking his head slightly, Athrun made his decision. And he slipped out of the bushes and silently approached Cagalli who had resumed her rather controlled and subdued pacing. The earth did not crunch, the grass was still growing there, and he was a shadow again.

"Cagalli," he called softly. She drew around sharply, and his breath caught as he watched her head snap to him and her eyes morph from the dull amber to an alarmed look, and then eventually, to the same, dull, guarded one he detested seeing. Her posture was stiff and perfect.

She had frozen like a deer caught in headlights for a split-second before turning away and asking quietly, "What is it, Chairman Zala?"

He could not see her expression while her back was turned towards him, and closed the distance between them in a mere four strides.

He caught up to her and grasped her elbow firmly, and suddenly, all her bodyguards had swarmed around them like angry hornets ready for the kill. Athrun tensed up, ready to fight if need be as his basic instincts were honed to do, but his grip on her elbow still remained firm. She did not struggle. And that was sufficient.

Simultaneously, Cagalli drew a deep breath in, calmly issuing instructions almost as if she had been born to do it her whole life. Well, if he thought about it carefully, she was.

"Leave us until I call for you to come." she said coldly and bitingly, averting her eyes from his in a parody of the dinner he had just gotten away from. Her instructions were like the law, he supposed, and the bodyguards retreated to an area that was surely out of sight and earshot.

"What is it, Chairman?" she asked, impersonal and mild, yet again, surprising him with her apparent coolness. Her breath was white in the air, but she ignored it as if to deny the slight sting of the cold. Already, her cheeks were blooming, making her even more alluring.

He snapped his eyes from the bodyguards' retreating backs to her levelled gaze, and felt a sense of uncertainty course through his entire being. Her eyes were so emotionless, like chasms that made him feel he knew nothing about her, and he was forced to let go of her elbow although she made no outward resistance where his grip was concerned.

"I brought you something Kira thought would stem the bleeding, "he managed somehow, as he slipped the pill into her gloved hand. He had an overwhelming need to hold her warm, ungloved hand in his, but the glove was a barrier. But unexpectedly, she slipped off a glove and stretched out a palm to take the pill and cotton wad with a nod that expressed her thanks.

Athrun stared, surprised that she had taken off her glove so suddenly, and she caught his eye and whispered, "They were ruined with my blood anyway."

Miserably, she held out the gloves towards him in the dim light of the gardens, and he could see clearly that the fine white satin would never be as white as it had originally been.

Unable to hold back all his questions any longer, Athrun held his gaze towards her, aware that the intensity was the direct opposite from the empty gaze she was directing at him, although he was still thankful she was at least looking at him.

"Why are you so changed, Cagalli?" he demanded harshly, half-expecting to hear her hiss that it was none of his sodding business.

Instead, she didn't, but flinched so slightly he would have hardly noticed it if they weren't in such close proximity.

"I had to, because it was for the best," she replied, again mildly, as she straightened the gauzy shawl around her. He blinked, hardly believing that the girl who could spit fire if provoked and who had lived life with such zest and self-assured character would ever give a reply the stranger in front of him as now giving.

"Why are you speaking like that, Cagalli?" he cried, honestly losing control for the first time that evening. Frustration roared in his body, and his shoulders were tense with an unexpected disappointment.

She turned away, her back towards him, hiding her expression, and replied in the same emotionless tone, although a slight haughtiness had entered, "How else should I reply? You haven't changed the way I have had to because you were perfect for the role of ETERNITY's chairman from the start, whereas I had to change to fit in and carry out the duties of ORB."

She made as if to walk away and that was when he sprang into action.

Athrun gripped her elbow for the second time that evening and spun her around to face him, hoping secretly that she would have had some expression of distaste or anger or defiance in her eyes, but was disappointed to see they were as empty as ever.

The life and feistiness in her seemed to have been drained out by forces and agents unknown to him, and it was becoming clearer and clearer every moment that she was carefully layered and concealed behind walls he had not known were so thick when he had tried to make a breakthrough.

Not knowing what to do, he pulled her towards him and crushed her in a hug, covering her bare shoulders as her shawl slipped to the ground. She would have either pushed back and fought against him furiously or hugged him back with all her might in the past, but she was like a rag doll now, emotionless and practised as she calmly uttered, like a silent scream of rage, silent only because of her immense control, "Let go, Chairman. If you will, let go. I should not be forced into requesting for help, you are as aware as I that that wouldn't be beneficial for either of us, especially in an event like this and the media like bloodhounds everywhere. You know the consequences."

He chose to ignore what she had probably been taught to say and didn't comply with her instructions, but instead hugged her tighter to him in the need to find something solid and real to rid himself from feeling lost.

"I can't accept the way you are now."

Hi voice was a murmur, husky in its warmth, surprising both of them, and she startled him when she showed something other than an emotionless mask for the first time in that evening by shoving him away and choking out, "You couldn't accept me in any way!"

She turned sharply on her heel and fled into the deeper abysses of the rose gardens, but Athrun gave chase.

Cagalli was fast, that he had to give her credit for, especially since she was used to running in the soft, shifting sands in deserts when she had been a Resistance fighter. Her heels were only making her slower now, he realised, as she tripped over a tree root and stumbled, but still kept her balance and ran through the hedges and overhanging branches in near darkness.

She was barely visible in the darkness and her black dress, but her blonde hair, like a faint light at the end of the inky harbor in the night, was a dead giveaway. The slight teasing of the light that entered through trees and the lanterns hung here and there made the diamonds take the appearance of stars reflected on the black sea, and he panted, straining to catch up, straining to catch her.

He was chasing her faster than he had ever trailed an enemy before, and his heart was beating painfully as he gave a final spurt of speed and caught her hand, pulling her back to his side. He silently applauded the fact that she could run in her high heels and thanked fate for giving her those shoes so he could catch up with her so quickly.

She was panting quietly, not trying to run or pull away, but her face was turned away form him, almost as if seeing him pained her. Perhaps it did.

Realising they were both panting in the effort of running, he noticed a small stone bench at the side, covered almost completely by surrounding rose bushes, and led her to it.

They sat there for a while without saying anything, both trying to catch their breath, and as he glanced at Cagalli, he noticed her eyes were glimmering suspiciously. He then called her name in a bid to get a response from her, and when she answered in a voice laced with almost undetectable annoyance, "What?", he realised it was hoarse and muffled like she was trying hard not to cry.

Athrun then knew it had been too much for one night, and gently reached to her hair and rearranged some strands that had come loose, reshuffling the pins such that both were on one side of her head which he preferred. Then for no reason at all, his breath caught and tangled itself as he laid a hand very gently on her cheek and forced her to look at him.

She gazed up at him and he saw that Cagalli's eyes were a little red but filled with uncertainty which he welcomed as a change from the empty twin abysses her eyes had been. She suddenly lifted her arms, precarious and hesitant and they found their way, slowly, around the circumference of his back, and he bear-hugged her, drawing her to him so the distance between their bodies was the breath of a feather's tip, and his breath caught and tangled up like yarn.

Her hair was caught around her face, sweet-smelling, golden hay spun from her scalp, and her cheeks pink, not with the cold, but with something very different. He could not see, his eyes were closed, he was remembering something, fighting to hold something in his mind the way his arms did now.

Some distant part of him was rejoicing as his mind went into the blank mode again. But it was a peaceful blankness that gave him calm he hadn't felt for a long time.

But as fate would have it, an experimental click broke the peace nearby, picked up only by his acute senses of hearing that were no doubt thanks to gene-manipulation. His brain instantly registered that some cameramen had trailed them to get pictures of them. Athrun knew his brain had shifted into another mode altogether, the kind which was prepared to activate his hands into hands that could whirl cameras and smash them if need be.

Athrun was sure the cameramen were definitely closing in somewhere, although he wasn't sure if they had gotten the pictures of both of them hugging. In any case, having to explain why they were both alone and away from her bodyguards' protection would be a hassle, but a sudden rustle diverted both their attention to the bushes behind them.

Unconsciously, he snapped his gaze up just in time to see a lightning whir of brown dart in between Cagalli and him, as a pair of legs swung over the stone bench, effectively separating Cagalli and him. For a moment, he was dazed.

Then Athrun realised with a start that it was Kira who was miraculously seated in between both of them with his arms around both of them and smiling at the cameras that had suddenly surrounded them. He was suddenly aware of how cunning Kira could be and smiled gratefully at his best friend who was becoming more lovable everyday.

As the cue hit in, both of them relaxed into Kira's stance and smiled for the camera while Lacus glided in right on cue. She had arranged herself specifically next to Athrun, avoiding being next to Cagalli so the camaraderie, regardless of the obvious fact that Kira was linked to Lacus, would be well spread.

The arrangement would not look suspicious as long as the males were in between the females, lest the tabloids make a blow-up of the picture and encouraged stories to fly everywhere which was common when it concerned people as well known as the politicians of their time. Being in the spotlight since she was twelve had made Lacus a true master of the media, and she was already smiling at the cameras in a flattering angle.

As soon as the cameras had each gotten a good photograph of them, Lacus raised her voice effectively over the cacophony of clicks and calmly announced that it was a glorious reunion of four good friends. Of course she didn't say anything else.

There was applause again from the cameramen and they ended up taking photos that would surely appear in the newspapers for the next few weeks.

While the cameras were clicking, Athrun, feeling remarkably at ease with the world, glanced at Cagalli who was taking a photo with her brother at the request of a reporter. She was busy along with her brother, not suspecting Athrun was watching her silently. But her practised smile had appeared to be intact as she doled out practised answers and gave bland yet politically correct statements that Athrun would have never dreamt she would give, even if it was a matter of life and death.

He realized, with a jolt of electricity that coursed through him that she hadn't smiled for him that whole evening.

A lone viol was playing in the distance, mournful and joyful in the same phrase. The voice was singing high and clear over the crisp air, of a world beyond his reach, taunting and inviting him to reach for what was before him. Its voice died away in the wind.

And he smiled.

Turning away, he flipped open a cell phone and instructed his secretary to reschedule everything in order for a three days extension in Berlin.

He was very aware, thanks to Kira, that the Chairman Atha's schedule consisted of three more days here for visiting the Earth Alliance and speaking to the people which comprised mainly of Naturals before returning to ORB, and as he cut off his still violently protesting secretary, he made a decision at that very instant.

He was going to get Cagalli to change back for him.