Chapter 18

He had received a confirmation from PLANT's secretary that his stay would be extended to fit the interview PLANT had decided was necessary for the ETERNITY chairman to explain himself properly. There were already conspiracy theories going on that he had tried to kill the ORB chairman on the night when they had allegedly been alone on the beach, and PLANT felt a need to quell the rumours once and for all. Athrun knew he had their complete trust, but they needed him to have the trust of the whole world too.

It would be a wise decision not to reveal more than to a certain degree at that stage, although he wanted to kiss her on national television and tell the rest to back off. But PLANT's Supreme Council would kill him and she would dig himout and kill him again. She just wasn't ready to make a decision, and as painful as it felt, Athrun just had to accept that.

In the next five days, he was plied with arrangements he had to work out while he remained in the embassy house EA had provided him, and Athrun knew that Cagalli was still in the midst of recuperating in the hospital but doggedly doing her tasks manually with a pencil and paper to work out the various issues. She had a calculator he had given her next to her and used it very well, especially since she was doing complicated sums in the billions with a pencil and paper and only one arm.

He was aware that she had been given a special drug that would make her arm's broken bones heal faster than the five weeks it was estimated it to take, so she would be up and running in a week, although her arm would be numb and pretty much useless for the next two weeks. As far as he could see, the drug wasn't keeping from working like a cow while in the hospital where she was showered with flowers from people she scarcely knew everyday. Although he had been tempted to get her some, Athrun didn't bother sending flowers. He knew she wasn't particularly fond of them anyway, although she did appreciate the goodwill and care the people showered on her.

And she knew about the scandal that was building up and going to erupt, of course. Even if she was going to lie there all day, she knew what was going on outside the room she had been confined in.There were blatant rumours that he had arranged the assassination but when that had failed, he had allegedly gotten the hit man to step down, but the hit man had gone ahead and he had been forced to step in himself after he had gotten cold feet. Nonsense like that, but she understood some of their suspicions when she had thought of the situation from their perspectives. How else would he have appeared so promptly on the scene to stop the hit man from killing the ORB Chairman?

Another theory Rainie, the seventeen year old bodyguard had told her of while they ate lunch together (Cagalli's orders), was that the ETERNITY chairman had arranged for a hit man to come in but had gotten cold feet at the last minute and silenced the hit man just in time before he revealed too much on national television.

And then PLANT had requested for the ORB chairman and the ETERNITY chairman to appear on an exclusive interview on National Television to e things sorted out once and for all. He wasn't quite keen to make an appearance to the whole world, and would have been happy to refuse immediately, but PLANT had ordered him to do so. More importantly,Cagalli had agreed and he had to for her sake.

So he had been ordered put on his official maroon suit and appear with ORB's Chairman on an internationall-viewed interview, and now, Athrun flipped on his black jacket in the dressing room he was sitting in now, combed his hair properly and got himself ready for the interview by EA primetime. Athrun stepped out of the room as his secretary called out to him to powder his face. He snorted and ignored her, pushing his way out of her room and moving to Cagalli's dressing room where her bodyguards were standing at attention.

When they saw him coming towards them, some stiffened, swayed by the conspiracy theories flying everywhere, but most of them brightened up, rushed forward and shook his hand, pumping it so vigorously he felt slightly faint. The youngest, (Rainie, was it?) squealed and thumped his back so hard, he knew why she had been chosen as a bodyguard even at such a tender age- seventeen.

They allowed him to go in eventually, and he sighed in relief, since his hand felt like it was going to drop off. The seventeen year old bodyguard led him in herself, and he noticed that she had the kind of dark hair and alert eyes that reminded him a little of Shiho, although she was obviously not anything like the calm,collected test-pilot Yzak was obssessed with. She excitedly told him to turn left into the next door, before turning around and trotting away like a puppy and disappearing through the door they had just walked in from.

He paused at the door and heard Cagalli rehearsing her lines in different ways and a long sigh, and then he knocked and when she answered clearly, "Come in," he marched right in without a second thought.

Cagalli was sitting in front of the vanity and looking down in her lap, searching for something in a bag again and she didn't see who it was that had come in.

Without looking up, she said clearly over her shoulder, "Could you pass me the water next to you, Goebbels?"

He took the water and silently crossed over and stood behind her.

She looked up to reach for the water with her right hand and saw him in the mirror, startled at who she saw and then she relaxed and smiled at his reflection and commented with a touch of approval in her voice, "You look spiffy."

"Thanks," he said evenly, "You too."

Then he realised that girls didn't like their attire being called spiffy, maybe words like, 'pretty' or 'nice' should have been used, but she didn't seem to really care anyway.

Cagalli had been assigned a dark, professional looking navy blue dress with sleeves that came to her elbows and the hemline of the skirt went down to her knees. It had a slight military edge which served as an unspoken reminder of who she was, and obviously she had approved of it, which made it questionable how feminine she would really look in it, but she still looked stunning with some make-up and simple silver earrings.

He wasn't too keen on the fact that the neckline wasn't up to her throat like he had hoped, but he realised he was just being a jealous prig. Even goody-two-shoes people like Lacus didn't wear necklines that high.

With some satisfaction, he spotted the black string around her neck even though the shell was probably hidden in the folds of the dress.

He then glanced at her freshly brushed hair with its pretty leaf-shaped clips and commented, "Your hair's pretty well done, considering that you have only one working arm."

She saw him looking at her reflection and laughed.

"No," she said cheerfully, "I enlisted the help of Rainie. She's been helping me to do my hair ever since I came to office and Mana retired."

"Rain-ie, was it?" he said, trying to remember her name that Cagalli had mentioned.

"Yes, she's young but very talented where it comes to defence and attacks and the whole works, oh, but hairdressing too. These clips are hers; she brought the whole collection along. I didn't approve of the flashy ones she wanted to use, so she just gave up and chose some at random" Cagalli said, absently reaching up to feel the clips in her hair, but carefully so that she wouldn't mess up the hair.

"Oh," was all he could say.

"Are you ready for the interview?" she asked abruptly, swallowing a few different pills and some water.

"As ready as I'll ever be," he said dryly while she snorted, then he asked, "How's the arm anyway?"

Cagalli chuckled and lifted it up slowly, as if it didn't quite belong to her even though it was attached.

"Rainie had to stuff it the sleeve for me, but I think it's making progress although I can't feel anything in there."

Then Rainie knocked and bounced in, not quite unlike a haro, and she put some flowers on Cagalli's table, chirping, "The news station sent this to both of you. Chairman Zala, I was asked to pass this to you, I hope you like daffodils!"

And she proceeded to present the most ridiculous bunch of yellow flowers he had ever seen to him, and then she beamed and scurried off. He immediately placed the flowers down on her already crowded table and said hastily, "You can have these."

Cagalli was chuckling and standing up, placing her weight on one side where her good arm could support her, offering to him, "Let's go to the waiting room shall we? And I can loan you Rainie if you like."

He waved away the offer she had made in jest, then came and stood next to her after he had opened the door for her. As she walked past him, he noted that they were almost the same height now, because she was wearing heels that he would hate to get stepped on. The heels were probably some kind of weapon, he reflected, the four-inch kind so steep you could use as a knife or stake to mash someone's toes into the ground as a bloody pulp and then scoop it as mashed potato for a snack.

As the bodyguards directed them into the waiting room, the host for the night, a popular regular at the news broadcast hurried past them and grinned, adjusting his tie. He would grill them tonight that they were pretty sure of. The host was known for his traps and tricky questions when he dealt with interviews, and Athrun knew he had to watch for both their backs. PLANT had warned him to anyway, and he had to comply didn't he?

"Good luck for later!" he cried as he moved to his dressing room quickly to get ready.

"We're going to need it," Athrun thought dully as he sat down on a comfortable looking chair while Cagalli's bodyguards closed the door and waited outside for the signal to come.

They remained in silence, although Cagalli repeatedly mouthed something over and over again, probably her prepared responses for the night's interview. He was sure Kira and Lacus were curled up at home eating popcorn and watching them as entertainment for the night. Athrun felt ridiculous about the whole issue, but he was well aware that if they didn't get it right that night, the matter would always be simmering below the surface.

So he stood up calmly when the signal came, helped her up, and they proceeded to enter the stage where bright stage lights made them flinch a little, while thousands in the audience stood up and applauded wildly.

The host was cordially inviting to sit down, and they both took their seats on the same sofa, unconsciously sitting next to each other even though there was a separate couch at the other end of the stage, quite similar to the one the host was seated in now.

A collective murmur ran through the audience at their proximity, but he ignored it and smiled genially at the camera with Cagalli. He could imagine Kira spitting out his popcorn and gasping for air as he laughed his head off with Lacus, and quickly had to control his facial muscles to prevent the scowl he felt from appearing.

"So Chairman Atha," the host was saying, business-like.

"Please call me Cagalli," she was saying quickly, and the audience immediately warmed up. It was a smart move indeed. He was sure Goebbels hadn't taught her that though. Being personal with others was something that came naturally to her.

"We are here tonight to discuss the cause of your arm injury, and while we are at it, have you recovered well?" the host was saying winsomely.

"Yes," she was saying warmly, "but if Athrun here hadn't been around to protect me, I might not even have had the chance to recover, and for that I'm thankful to him."

The murmurs were going on again, she had called him by his first name, and the obvious familiarity she showed while using it made the audience shift a little.

"Chairman Zala," the host was addressing him, "How did you plan to help Miss Cagalli in so quick a time?"

At tricky question he had known was going to crop up. If he slipped, the whole world would pounce on him, and the cordial atmosphere had suddenly became a tense one. He wasn't quite as popular with the audience as Cagalli, well, he'd have to fix that.

"Please, call me Athrun," he replied evenly, "On the day the assassination was attempted, I had sent Ms Atha to the ORB embassy house as a personal favour, since she wanted to collect some documents. I had then gone to the nearby town centre where I watched with the rest how the assassination had almost taken place."

He paused, not giving too much information so the curiosity would be aroused, and secretly glanced at her fro the corner of his eye and saw her staring evenly ahead.

The host was exclaiming, "Mr Zala, you sent her personally to the house she was staying at temporarily?"

"That's correct," he answered, "and then I waited in the town square that was only a few metres away while she collected her documents."

"Why, you must have been close enough to her to get to the embassy house so quickly then!" the host was slyly saying.

Another trick. "Yes," Athrun said charmingly, "because the house was close enough and I sped to get there. Hence, I'm admittedly guilty of speeding."

And he smiled at the audience and heard them roaring in laughter, feeling a wave of relief sweep over him, because now he had them on his side.

"So you drove there in a few minutes as you said, and then you had your own gun?" the host was questioning.

"That's correct. I carry my own gun with me that is authorised by PLANT's Supreme Council that gives license to specified members of PLANT's council to carry weapons for self-defence since I have no bodyguards of my own."

"And you have proven you don't need them!" the host couldn't help bursting out excitedly, then he remembered he was supposedly playing the villain's role of hard knocks and interrogation, then coughed and said seriously, "What were you thinking when you rushed to Miss Atha's office?"

He stared ahead at the winking cameras and said carefully, his expression guarded, "I knew I could do something about the situation there and then in the town square. I had seen Junius Seven blown from its orbit on National television in the town square in PLANT when I was thirteen, so I couldn't stand there and see another person I cared about die in front of everyone."

A gasp was heard in its entirety from the audience. There. He had said it and used his trump card- status as a war hero.

The host was saying apologetically, " I'm sorry sir, I didn't' mean to,' and he cut off the man simply, "Don't worry about it."

He didn't need their sympathy. He just needed this to get over and done with as soon as possible.

The host was turning back to Cagalli and asking her, "Did you know Mr Zala here, in his words, 'cared about' you?"

She was prepared for that too, she smiled at the camera briefly then turned back to the host and answered, "Of course. He and I are friends, and if I were in position and about to see a dear friend die, I wouldn't stand there watching helplessly while knowing I could do something about it, would I?"

Cagalli had thrown the question back at the host and he was answering quickly, ' I certainly wouldn't, Miss Atha."

"Hence, I gather that Mr Zala and Miss Atha were on such good terms that you were at the beach late at night?"

Athrun chose to answer the question and fielded it, using charm he had learnt would lighten the tenseness that was shooting through the room again.

"Late at night doesn't constitute of seven pm after dinner, does it?" he said slyly.

The audience was laughing again, and Cagalli had joined in too, saying over the din, "I asked him to take me to the beach to pick a seashell for a little entertainment of my own.

And she reached for the black string and pulled out the shell he had tied around her neck, although she didn't say that of course, and the audience was nodding in understanding as the shell glinted in the light and the camera zoomed in on it.

Athrun imagined that Kira had gone into the kitchen to fetch more popcorn by now.

"Did you plan to stab the man, Mr Zala?"

"Yes. The gun I brought in was a decoy, which I had tried to use as a trick. Obviously it worked. I had considered throwing the knife at him since the range was accurate enough for me, but I was afraid he might react fast enough to use Cagalli as a human shield and she would get injured by my knife if I threw it. If I leapt at him, I would have enough time to react and change the direction the knife was coming in if if he reacted at all."

The audience was gasping as one now, and some even stood up and shouted, "Brilliant! Good for you!"

He had told the truth and that kept the situation together. Had he lied and said it was on the spur of the moment, he would not be sure they would support him.

Then there was some laughter at the spontaneity even though the subject had been grim, and the atmosphere was less tense.

He had known the trap would be set. They wanted to egg him into seeming like a dangerous person to have around. But by explaining his course of actions, the audience would be on his side, and then the host would have to retreat a bit.

"So exactly what happened that day, Miss Atha?" the host was asking curiously.

"When Jun Thornier burst into my office as I was collecting some documents, he had already used my secretary as his first hostage after moving past all the security in the house, and he forced my guards to surrender their weapons after he had gotten me as a hostage. It was the speed at which he charged in unannounced that caught me off guards, and when I was held there, he was suffocating me, and in that state, I couldn't think very clearly," Cagalli explained briefly.

The host was nodding eagerly, so she continued, well aware that some in the audience had their hands near their mouth in shock.

"Then he pulled me in front of the transmitter the office had for the leaders to give speeches, but thankfully Athrun stepped right in to save me form the sticky situation."

The host was asking now, "What was running through your mind when you saw the chairman there?"

She glanced at Athrun and saw that he was listening intently although his face was inscrutable, and answered, "I was glad to see him, although I was quite sure that I was going to die then. When I saw him put down his gun as Thornier instructed, I never expected him to still get me out of the pinch."

The audience was cheering and applauding, on their feet now, and Athrun smiled a genuine smile at them before fielding the next question.

"Miss Atha, you are affectionately known, along with Miss Lacus Clyne, as a princess of peace, although you are thought to be the less lady-like one, even though you manage to appear like a princess at all events we've seen you at. What do you think of this popular opinion?"

She chortled and answered, "It was true that I was preparing to take the gun out of my drawer in self-defence, and when he held me hostage, I had thought of the next few steps I could possible carry out to throw him off. I suppose that wouldn't be what you consider princess-like, would it? I have to say I wouldn't, but in the end, I had my knight in shining armour, didn't I?"

The audience was applauding instantly; delighted at her apparent warmth and ability to poke fun at herself, and Athrun knew they loved her for it.

"And you say that you both are good friends, but the populace wants to know, how really close are both of you?" the host said conspiratorially while the audience immediately quietened down and listened to the juicy news.

He had a few options now. He could do the unthinkable and shout that he was ready to eat his Infinite Justice Gundam for her if she wanted him to, or he could use the phrase 'we're just friends' that had been reused a million times already. Nobody would believe him of course, not with such a clichéd response.

Or he could also tell them that he was ready to kidnap her and carry her on his back to PLANT across deep space if he couldn't wait two months to go to ORB to see her again, or he could also say that the question was irrelevant for the night.

He could choose to say that he was ready to do anything if it could force her to say she would be with him, or he could reply that the interviewer was obviously crossing a dangerous boundary just to scare the git a little. Or he could kiss her in front of the millions who were watching and have her slap him in front of the same millions, which he didn't mind as long as he got a good kiss out of it, or he could change the topic as smoothly as possible until the audience realised it only an hour later.

So he looked at the host and said, "As close as I would possibly like."

It was a suitably vague answer and the host immediately recognised it as a warning and changed the topic quickly.

"So you used to be a former redcoat, Mr Zala?" he was saying respectfully.

"Yes. I joined ZAFT seven years ago when I was thirteen," he said dispassionately, not caring to elaborate. Let them do the Google search if they wanted to, he wasn't about to start telling his life story to strangers.

"So you said that day that the average soldier could use both a knife and gun, didn't you?' the host continued energetically, quite forgetting that he was supposed to be tough-talking and not a fan boy of ETERNITY's chairman.

"Yes, although I didn't quite really think of saying that, it was more like a flippant comment that day," Athrun answered quite truthfully.

"Dude, it became one of the best quotes of the century!" shouted someone in the audience, and the rest started cheering and quoting what he had said that day, although he really couldn't remember what it was.

"Ms.Atha, do you remember what he said?" the host was shouting over the din.

"No," she said slowly, "because I had fainted by then, I think."

At the back of his mind, he was wondering whether it was some kind of trick question, because the night's grilling questions had suddenly become opportunities to glorify himself and Cagalli.

The audience was shouting that they'd refresh her memory if she'd like them to, and she actually had to get up and shake the hands of those in the front row that were holding out their hands eagerly.

"Could you demonstrate some moves for us, please? We could get a whole new perspective of self-defence from someone such as yourself, and the stage is big enough for you to show us something!" the host beamed.

He then stood up and led the audience to their feet where they chanted loudly while clapping, "Do it! Do it! Do it!"

Athrun was stumped. The night of the grilling interview which had so many questions designed to trap them and put them in a spot had morphed very suddenly to a comedy. He could see Kira rolling around with mirth and throwing popcorn all over the carpet in front of the television. He vaguely wondered what Lacus would say.

"Go on, give us something more to worship you, Chairman Zala!" someone shouted in the audience.

He snorted on national television and looked at Cagalli who was laughing openly, probably at him. Joy.

The host as asking her if she could ask one of her bodyguards who were standing at the side to participate too, and she was smiling at the host in such a way that his breath away was taken away when the smile wasn't even directed at him.

'Rainie!" she called above the audience's applause, "Do us a favour there!"

Author's note:

Alright, Merry Christmas people. Give me the nicest present ever, a review for every chapter you've read so far!

For those who have bothered reading so far, I once said to my friends that I didn't care about the reviews since this was supposed to be a joke anyway, but damn, I'm actually starting to care!

Therefore, R&R&R people,thank you!