Disclaimer: I don't own GS/GSD, but I think ASUCAGA is meant to be even if Fukuda thinks they are like, 'comradely love' or something half-crapped like that, yah. So R&R&R please. Spread the news.

Chapter 16

When she had crawled under the warm, colourful quilt in a room Lacus provided for her, she had thought of the evening's events and blushed red enough to know that her face could have been used to control traffic, and she was glad the room was dark and there was a quilt to hide under even when there was no one in the room except her.

She had stayed awake for a few hours at a stretch hearing Lacus speak. It was wonderful how Kira had told her that he didn't need anybody else but Lacus there and then and then he had thrown her the blue haro which beeped and opened to reveal a ring he had wanted to give her on her birthday but couldn't wait.

Of course they didn't really see a need to get married and that kind of thing since they were already like a married couple, but Kira wanted to and Lacus didn't mind either. Of course she wouldn't, thought Cagalli blithely. So they had stayed up late to talk into the night until Lacus had left and Cagalli had been left alone to her thoughts for a long time.

But when Cagalli awoke, it was because she had been trained to wake at six-thirty in the morning to get ready for a meeting with her ministers in ORB, and she couldn't quite kick the habit now and she never had tried to in any case. So she stretched and yawned like a cat and got up, rearranging the spreads in a matter of minutes and taking her face towel and toothbrush, ready to get washed up to start work early.

It didn't occur to her that nobody woke up earlier than her, so when she went down with her documents, she was faced with an empty hall and basically, nobody.

She had put on Lacus's pink pyjamas and the bunny-head slippers and walked to the bathroom, but first bumping into a few corners along the way. Her sense of direction wasn't quite as proficient as Kira's and she actually made a few wrong turns before she got to the bathroom, and charged in, irritated that she had wasted a few minutes wandering around. It wasn't that she couldn't afford to get lost, she just didn't want to get lost. She had a fear of that, si

After she brushed her teeth and changed into something presentable for work, she washed her face and looked into the mirror in front of her, noting that her lips were still a little swollen from the chilli last evening. Then she thought of something else that might have made them swollen and coloured rapidly, then quickly scurried out of the room like a little rat, half to escape from the reflection she saw that made her blush.

Flipping open her cell, she read the messages that had come assigning her tasks, but she had finished most of them and was left with the meagre ones she could finish quickly in a morning if she sat down properly to it. So she grabbed the QUINd and sneaked out to the garden with Kira's coat over her shoulders in case it was cold, she wasn't very familiar with the area's weather.

Cagalli thought it might be a nice change if she could do her work in the garden under an open sky for once and unbothered, but the garage a little distance from to the garden was already bursting with sounds. Peeking in, she saw her brother doggedly typing a programme on his own QUINd with a dozen extension wires peeking out from a drive while Tori chirped at the blue haro that Kira was his property, physically and intellectually, so the haro could go 'toot' itself if it wanted to. He hadn't woken up early either, he had simply stayed awake throughout the whole night to work, and she knew he had no problem with not going without sleep for a few days.

She laughed at the electronic 'beep' when the mechanical bird tried to swear, thinking that Lacus had been quite correct in saying that Athrun would keep his promise to her and break Kira's codes and sensor some unsavoury language Kira had enabled the mechanical toys to say.

She knew both of them were good at tinkering with mechanical things and wished she had their talent too, because she often messed up when she tried to reprogram her QUINd to custom-meet her needs as a user. Perhaps she would ask Kira to help her after that. Then she sighed and looked at her twin, wondering if she should tease him into talking about Lacus and saying some nice things that she would holler back to Lacus later.

Kira, absorbed in his own work, didn't hear anything and continued, so she snuck off and sat at the wooden benches and tables in the garden and proceeded to chew her way through the work assigned for the next two hours.

Then she heard the breakfast bell from inside and slammed the QUINd shut before hurrying inside, where Kira joined her with Tori and the blue haro, till absently speaking in computer codes to Tori who replied something back she didn't quite understand.

"Morning!" a young secretary she recognised as Kira's lab assistant chirped at her.

Smiling at the boy, she greeted him as well, and then slipped into a seat which wasn't occupied by all the other PLANT ambassadors. Then she saw Athrun slip into the seat beside her and blushed furiously when he greeted her good morning, then because it would have been rude not to say anything while there was such happy conversation everywhere along the table, she said, "What do you want to do after breakfast?"

He chewed thoughtfully and swallowed, thinking 'kiss you silly', but calmly answered, "Discuss the military bilateral exercise ETERNITY has been informed to organise with the Supreme Commander of ORB's military. PLANT has hereby requested to bring forward to two months from now."

She had been busily shovelling her omelette into her mouth, but dropped her fork, leaving her knife in the other hand, and stared at him stupidly.

"What?' she cried, alarmed to say the very least.

"I didn't know that the exercise was going to be carried out so early!" she continued rapidly, thinking that Amagi, chief-in-charge of the exercise she had approved of a month ago, was not telling her information. She'd check back with him.

And he looked at her with insucrtable eyes and said evenly, "I was only informed by PLANT's Supreme Council's secretary at four in the morning that they wanted me to organise a meeting with ORB's Chairman while I was here in EA's territory. They want me to represent them to ask for permission for the ten-year exercise to be carried out earlier than expected. Of course, I need your permission first."

She stared and sputtered, "The plans have already been completed in advance, y-yes, and the troops in ORB are ready for the bilateral military-cooperation with ZAFT, so if I were to give the permission, Amagi would just give the green light, but..." and she trailed off and lifted her eyes away from his while her lips trembled and she suddenly looked pained.

"You know what speeding up the bilateral military co-operation would mean, don't you?" he said, already knowing that she had already personally finished the plans and made the relevant checks on ORB, ready to have the exercise PLANT wanted ZAFT to train in ORB at anytime at all.

She looked at him silently with wide eyes and shook her head, although she was already thinking wild thoughts with a sneaking suspicion that he was going to drop a bomb on her, and she was quite right when she heard what he had to say once he spoke again.

"Two months from now I'll be living in ORB as ETERNITY's chairman to supervise and train the ZAFT and ORB troops for the next ten years, that is, if nothing happens and I'm not recalled to PLANT. And if nothing goes wrong and the exercise proves successful in ten years' time, PLANT will request that the exercise is made long-term and I'll be working for PLANT but permanently stationed in ORB."

Cagalli dropped her knife with a clatter although the rest didn't notice because they were chattering a way too happily.

"Nooo, noooo, nooooooooo" she moaned, running her hands through her hair. He looked at her and wanted to say,"let me do that for you," but he kept his mouth shut.

"Yes," he stated calmly, picking up her knife and stuffing it back into her hand before returning his attention to the half-finished food.

When she had recovered from the shock sufficiently, she whispered, "And what if I chose not to accede to PLANT's request?"

He looked directly at her, coolly cut his grapefruit into half with his butter knife and said evenly, "Then I'll come to join you in ORB five months later as the original plan stated instead of two."

"Noooooooooo…" she groaned, shaking her head as if to convince herself he was lying.

"Yes," he said firmly, "Be it two months or five months or a decade later, I'll still come for you."

Cagalli looked down at her plate, lost in her thoughts amidst all the chatter and conversation around them, and when she looked up again, Athrun could see that she was terribly troubled and her eyes were pained shards of amber.

Then she cursed under her breath, stood up, and swiftly excused herself, and nobody heard her anyway, so she zoomed out of one of the exits.

Throwing down his napkin, Athrun excused himself too, which nobody heard too, and then he ran after her too.

Apparently, nobody listened much to others at the noisy breakfast table,which was a good thing anyhow.

She had disappeared by the time he ran outside, and he looked around but she wasn't anywhere. He knew she couldn't be any further than the area they were in now, and feeling terribly like a stalker, he crept over to Kira's garage-cum-lab where he thought Cagalli might and shot in.

The place was spick-and-span in spite of the truly frightening number of wires, computers and machines, because Kira had always made it his personal policy to be neat. Then he looked around the large room and gave up because he couldn't see her anywhere. So he left and passed by some thick bushes where he heard a scuffling noise and thought it might be the cat they had failed to punish the other day. Then he saw a pair of shoes sticking out very conspicuously like a sore thumb even though the thicket was successfully hiding Cagalli. So she had forgotten to hide her feet too.

Trying not to laugh and remaining in stealth mode, he knelt in his suit and peeked under the tall, dense thicket and saw a pair of amber eyes staring back at him, and he stared at her, then laughed eventually and grabbed her hand and hauled her out into the sunlight.

"Arrgh!" she cried, frustrated, and then ran over to the swings suspended by strong wires Kira had recycled as swing-ropes, promptly sitting down on it and kicking herself off.

Not knowing quite what to say next, he got onto one too and swung his weight forward.

"Why does it have to be like that?" she angrily yelled.

"What?" he asked calmly, bracing himself for a temper tantrum of hers. With any luck, she would calm down very soon which was typical of her temper.

"You and PLANT!" she cried while swinging furiously and refusing to look at him.

"What's wrong with me going over to be in ORB anyway?" he said, puzzled.

"I spent two years of my life trying to forget you, and then you have to appear, but I can take that because I have the rest of my life to try and forget you after seeing you for like, three stupid days, but if you come over for ten years and longer, then how am I supposed to forget you?" she cried in a rush, her expression miserable enough to break another person's heart other than his own.

"Don't forget then," he replied evenly, still swinging even though she had stopped.

She made a painful, mewling sound that made him think of a soldier he had strangled once when he had no more bullets left and his knife had been taken away. But when he heard her, he wanted to pull her into his arms and lock her there forever so she had no choice but to stay.

"Then how can I go on?" she asked him weakly.

He stopped his swing by placing his feet on the ground, skidding to a halt, and looked at her. Her hands were griping the swing's wires fiercely and she was hiding her eyes from him again with her long fringe that hid half her face when she looked down.

"Don't you understand?" he asked gently, "You can't, but neither can I."

She looked up at him, still griping the wires, prepared to fight and said very fiercely, "Why not?"

He didn't answer but just looked at her silently. She had asked him as if to challenge his claim, why they couldn't survive without each other.

But she knew why they both couldn't go on by trying to forget each other, and kept silent even as he said, "You know why, don't you?"

And he echoed her thoughts by whispering, "Because forgetting each other is quite impossible."

Cagalli averted her eyes from his intense green ones and said quietly, "I didn't know you thought so too."

He stared ahead and said very softly, "I was wrong not to do anything about it these two years just to prove that I could forget too. I failed. I'm sorry that I even tried."

Then he kicked himself off again and swung as high as he could possible go and when he was finally tired of the swing, he sprung into a flawless arc and leapt off in a perfect crouch while the swing was in midair. Then he offered a hand to her and she took it with her own small own, saying in a tiny voice he had to strain to hear, "Do you remember when I was on board the Archangel just before everyone left ORB for Messiah?"

He nodded, wondering which track she was heading on, and she continued shakily, "I smiled at Mwu because I knew that was what he needed to regain confidence to live on the Archangel without most of his memories. Then I hugged Murrue because that would tell her that I needed her to be safe and I knew nobody except me could give her the confidence she needed to be a captain and look at Mwu with the same eyes as she had once done.

I hugged Kira because that was the best way to tell him to come back safely, and I hugged Lacus because she cared for everyone but nobody cared for her enough, and when I got to you, I didn't know what to give you, because I thought I had nothing left which would be valuable to give to you."

Athrun closed his eyes, blinking back the prickling of tears, and when he opened his eyes, confident that he would not lose his composure, she had crumbled and was already sobbing that she wanted to be with him but had nothing to give him in exchange.

He swiftly pulled her into his arms, stroked her beautiful head softly and waited while she sobbed her heart out and basically ruined his suit, and then said quietly, "I embraced you first. Remember that for as long as you live."

Author's notes:

I couldn't resist blaring to all those who have read this that this is one of my favourite chapters. Which meant that I listened to ENDLESS STORY for about five hours on repeat mode. And I'm still not sick of it totally yet, I can get to the bridge which I think is about the best part and I absolutely adore and then when it's over, I just switch. It's true, so be afraid, be very afraid.

People have been asking if ASUCAGA is going to be, and all I can say is, I'm not Fukuda. I don't start things and leave them in a mess very often. And rememeber that Truth still needs your support!