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 9

When she stepped out of the car, Cagalli saw a ball of pink slam into her line of vision and an equally pink figure jump right at her. Lacus had thrown herself at Cagalli and was hugging her blissfully while the haro she was never seen without bounced everywhere screaming that nobody ever respected a haro these days. She knew almost immediately that Kira had been responsible for its suddenly broadened vocabulary.

The little toy flapped its earpieces indignantly, and she teased it by holding both tight so the toy squealed like a rabbit and stuggled, its rotound structure tossing itself in the air, like a boat in hurried, angry waters.

Lacus was coming forward, dressed in a lovely, flowing sort of muted teal color, and her face was shining and her mouth a primrose of beaming pink. Her cheeks had no color except for the hints of rose and cream, and Cagalli suddenly felt inadequate. She had no reason to be; however, she held her own beauty in a very different way, it nevertheless being on par with Lacus'. But she hadn't realised that- Lacus suspected that she would never.

Cagalli laughed and embraced her dear friend, wanting to reconfirm that Kira had been tampering with the haro, and then she remembered what she had came for. Chewing her lip because she was sure she was going to sound terribly brusque, she paused a little, hanging back. Since when had she been frightened of what she would sound like to others?

Then she thought of Goebbel's frown and the rude finger gesture she had made when he hadn't been there to see it and plunged in bravely.

"Can I stay here for three days? Please?" she pleaded quietly, and brightened immediately when Lacus nodded eagerly and took her hands.

She grabbed her luggage and set off pulling it behind her, feeling the strain in her arms she hadn't expected to feel. Her papers were probably all crumpled in her suitcase, but she'd iron them in secret and on the sly, perhaps later with a little help from Lacus before returning them to the office. For now, that wasn't her main priority.

She swivelled backwards and looked at the roads that led to the house. There was only one two-way road available, and she looked at Lacus, puzzled and meaning to ask if they had had any visitors earlier than her, possible one who drove the black Lamborghini she had just seen zoom by her.

Lacus saw her looking at the road, and hastily led her into the house. Her lips were a little pursed and her steps not quite unhurried.

For Lacus wasn't quite keen to let Cagalli know that Athrun had been there, lest Cagalli make a neat u-turn and disappear back to where she had come from. Now that Cagalli was here, Lacus would sort things out, but that would be tricky if Cagalli was aware what Athrun thought by word of mouth. It was difficult when they were as undecided and tentative as the time when they'd left for Messiah, perhaps even more, because the distance of two years was suddenly looming immense and grey before their eyes.

And every child knew that word of mouth was the worst way to pass information on, and Lacus wasn't a child anyway. Now wasn't the time, she decided, not just yet anyway.

She promprly quickened her pace, and her feet were little pidgeons, fluttering frantically.

But Cagalli saw Lacus looking a little more cheerful and energetic than usual and wondered what it was that bothered her friend, what cause the inexplicable fluster in her blue eyes. Every time Lacus looked incredibly peaceful, there were only two logical explanations. One was obviously attributed to Kira, but the other was when Lacus needed to think but didn't want anyone else to know her thoughts. They both understood this- it was a wall of an inscrutable nature.

Once, Cagalli had seen her leaving Kira's room with the kind of sadness on her face that had gone straight down to her own heart and pierced it like an arrow, drawing a stifled throb of agony to those who would see it.

That had been during the first war when Fllay had died and Kira had realised that it was his fault to a certain degree. Cagalli hadn't wanted to eavesdrop, well, technically, it wasn't really eavesdropping since Lacus was talking only to her haro, but she had heard Lacus quite clearly even through the muffled sobs. She had been shocked to realise Lacus wasn't so clueless about Fllay, Lacus actually knew that Kira saw something in her that reminded her of Fllay, and that had tormented her. But she had never said anything, and Cagalli didn't know how to approach the situation either.

Guiltily dismissing all thoughts from her head, Cagalli strode after Lacus who was quite far ahead of her since she had been dawdling and lost in her thoughts.

As Cagalli entered the terribly gigantic house and the grand dining room, she saw her brother sitting at the table, his egg unpeeled and his toast unbuttered while he intently read through all the papers that were splayed out before him, and found herself entirely losing her senses for the first time in a long while, squealing and launching herself on him from behind, making him yell in surprise and drop his fork below the table. Both of them ducked under the table to retrieve it but ended up colliding into each other and gaining identical bruises on their heads.

"Twin bruises only work for twins," Lacus wisecracked. Cagalli snorted and Kira laughed quite sincerely, and his violet eyes were turned on Cagalli. He knew Lacus had a tendedency for those kind of weird jokes most deemed as warm as the tuna nobody had touched for a month. Of course, not many knew that the sophisticated songstress who was an icon of class and timeless beauty liked that sort of thing.

He patted Cagalli's back warmly, but not without a slight trace of awkwardness. It was always like that, but that clumsiness was charming in its sincerity.

The other PLANT ambassadors who were residing temporarily in the other segments of the large embassy house and were due to return to PLANT after the end of last night's event were all chuckling and pointing to the fiasco at the breakfast table.

Tired from last night's event, they had all woken up after hearing sounds of laughter echoing from the dining hall. Amongst them was a young red-haired girl, the talented hacker and computer analyst directly under the ZAFT ambassador who had failed to answer Cagalli's question the night before.

Meyrin looked longingly at the warmth unfolding before her and laughed too as she realised that things might turn out for the better in the long run. She caught Lacus' eye and smiled at the mediator who had recommended her to the PLANT embassy so she could resettle and find new work after resigning and leaving from Chairman Zala's service.

Cagalli eagerly settled herself down at the table and was helping herself to the food that Kira had neglected for his papers. Haro was cursing at an ambassador who had almost stepped on it, and Cagalli heard the sudden high-pitched sounds it was issuing, recognizing it as dolphin language that she had heard when she was aboard the Archangel when it had entered Earth's orbit and became a ship in the sea.

Then she stopped abruptly, for she had seen a flash of brilliant red hair as the ambassadors, bored of the noise, left the room for more sleep before their flight back to PLANT. Red hair like spilled blood.

She might have known Meyrin anywhere.

Cagalli got up, throwing down her napkin and fork and standing up so quickly her chair overbalanced and fell, its crash muted by the carpet that was laid on the floor. There was a monumental pause of chaos.

Ignoring Kira's stunned "Hey!" she hurried after the ambassadors and trailed the red that appeared in the crowd of colours. She hurtled forward, stretched out a hand and managed to hold onto a pale hand whose owner stopped while the other ambassadors left.

"It's been a long time, Meyrin," she found herself saying to the girl.

"Too long if you ask me," Meyrin responded easily.

And then they were embracing each other fiercely and Cagalli was hugging another person she hadn't seen for nearly two years. She hadn't hugged quite so many people for quite some time, but emotions were running high in a place where old friends and lovers congregated, and she was caught up in everything where the only thing that seemed to be real was the fragments of the past they were holding so stubbornly onto, beating against the tide of the current and the present in the crisp, golden autumn of the year.

And the eggs were steaming and the bacon protesting with their red streaks, that they would be wasted in their succulent heat and tantalizing steams. Yet, they pressed on.

Breakfast lay forgotten as Kira and Lacus approached, both of them holding hands comfortably without a sign of novelty that often peppered fresh couples in their eyes or slight embarrassment.

Kira looked at the young girl who had been naïve but rooted in her trust of her elder sister and the same girl who had saved Athrun and proved herself to be a steadfast friend even in the grey areas war often forced people into. Meyrin had changed her hairstyle a little with a single ponytail instead of the former two that added a little maturity to her youthful face, and was dressed in a simple work shirt and skirt with ZAFT emblems, direct indications as to which ambassador she was working under.

"I didn't know you were staying in this house, Meyrin! How could you not tell me?" Lacus demanded, as Meyrin grinned at her, quietly taking note of the almost invisible wink Lacus threw at her.

And Kira saw the silent exchange and smiled at the girl who had once risked her life and future when she was only sixteen, all to save his best friend. Had she known what her life would have been like?

Meyrin Hawke had been painfully shy in front of Lacus once. Now, they were almost sisters, smiling and holding each other, afraid to let go.

"It was a last minute decision to stay here, because the hotel the subordinates of the ambassadors were placed at was suddenly filled," explained Meyrin, offering a hand to Kira who shook it firmly.

"And of course we didn't see you at yesterday's event," concluded Lacus, nodding knowingly.

"I'm sorry to trouble you and have to put up here, although I'll be leaving in a few hours time with the other ambassadors and their subordinates," Meyrin said simply, proving she had somehow retained her youthfulness and innocence.

Cagalli stared at her with a bit of what seemed a little like dismay. Perhaps Meyrin would leave with Athrun too, perhaps he'd come for her and bring her away.

Then they'd be gone and she wouldn't have to see them and feel the pain stabbing though the numbness she had already grown accustomed to.

She prayed silently, for serenity and composure she had always longed for, the same composure Athrun always seemed to have and the same composure Meyrin had now obtained, perhaps by being with him. She didn't want to weep like she had once, stuffing her fist in her mouth to keep silent while the tears streamed down her cheeks, not ever again, feeling those gasping sobs tear through her. She didn't want to.

Her silent inner conflict might have showed on her face, because she was aware her brow was furrowing into a slight frown.

This was immediately picked up by Lacus who announced that she and Kira had to attend to some urgent business and would be back for lunch with both of them, gliding out of the room with Kira and Cagalli's luggage in tow this time, hence leaving a bemused Meyrin and a suddenly shy Cagalli standing face to face.

Then Meyrin was boldly taking her hand in her own and leading her out to the windows where a breeze was blowing and making the sheer curtains flap in accordance to the wind. Her hair was like strips of a fiery cloth, whipping in the wind, truly beautiful.

And the girl turned to her, smiled very gently and said almost cheerfully, "Did you receive it back?

Cagalli, puzzled, stared at her. She was suddenly aware that her heart was beating very fast, tattoing its rhythm into her chest.

"What do you mean, Meyrin?" she enquired, not quite prepared for the answer that hit her next.

"The ring you passed to me two years ago, I gave it back to Athrun a month after the final battle at Messiah and resigned from his service. Did you not receive it from him?"

"No, I didn't," Cagalli said slowly, "because I haven't seen him for almost two years until last night, and he didn't make any effort to arrange to see me either."

And that was when the hurt started kicking in and her head started throbbing like mad. She fought to keep calm and was enraged. How dare she feel so affected by something that she ought to have been emotionless and neutral over?

Her emotions must have been clearly readable on her face, try as she did to keep it unreadable, and Meyrin was silent for quite some time before she finally spoke.

"I left Chairman Zala because I realised after a month or so, that he would never love me the way he loved you."

She paused for a while and Cagalli was suddenly feeling awkward, but thankfully, Meyrin continued although her voice trembled a little.

"I think, maybe, just maybe, he never even loved me actually." Her voice was smiling. It grew wistful with that tranquility, and Cagalli was afraid to hear the next words.

"On my part, it was that sort of school-girl infatuation that had meant the world to me at that time when he had knocked on my door when I was fifteen, with a rifle in his hands and desperately fighting for a chance to escape. The ring never belonged to me, I only safe-kept it for you during the time you were caught up in your country's immediate problems, but it never belonged to me, the way he never belonged to me too. I hope you understand that."

And Meyrin sighed, looked suddenly like a different person, but then smiled secretively, like a child that was hiding a treasure from the world around her.

Before she could reach out to stop her, Meyrin had already gently folded her fingers securely around the ring that lay in her palm, then looked at Cagalli with a hint of very pure, guiless sadness in her wide eyes before she turned away.

And then she was gone, leaving a confused Cagalli in her wake.

So the ring had been with Athrun.

Lacus was glancing at her. "Are you- alright?"

"Yes," Cagalli said, her eyes not seeing anything. She sat back and took her knife, trying to scoop her eggs up with it, producing a few comical moments before she realised what she had been doing. The buttery omlette lay despondently on her snowy plate, and Lacus looked wistful.

Meyrin, grown-up, independent, no longer in need of someone like Athrun. Was Cagalli to rejoice?

She looked at her hand, it was bare. Once, a ring and glittered on it, its stone red and violent in its beauty, red glints that shifted gracefully and blinded when she had held it above her face and stared at it. And then she had given it away. Did he still have the haumea?

"Meyrin," Cagalli said.

She had spoken aloud, and her voice was quiet and like the murmur of a stream, unsure and slightly lost. Her eyes were a hazy golden, their amber blinded by thoughts and emotions. And her fingers were curled, clenched even, around the perimeter of white table cloth, her lips murmuring silently, muted and somehow strange to the eyes.

Lacus pretended not to hear. Kira merely drank some water.

Nobody spoke for a long time to come.