category: Gundam SEED
disclaimer: I don't own it.
ELEVEN.
Athrun and Cagalli's relationship fell back together in pieces.
Two weeks in, they went out to eat, just the two of them at a nice restaurant. "I think this is the first time we've ever been out on a proper date and not just a late-night food run," she idly commented as he reached for his wallet. "Good work, Zala."
One month in, Athrun leaned in for a kiss and she didn't turn her head away to offer him her cheek like she always did. Pattern broken, he smiled at her and kissed her again.
Six months in they escaped Kisaka and the cabinet members to go to a secluded national park, and spent their day lying out in the sun in a remote glade. On the way back to the car, he held her hand and she didn't bother hiding it from passersby.
Eight months after the end of the war, Cagalli, in a jam mere hours before an important gala, shyly asked him which of the dresses that the official stylist sent in he liked best on her. He was bewildered and chose the drab brown one, earning him a swift punch in the side and an angry shout that she "was being serious!". She wore the red instead.
Exactly one year in, they attended the ceremonies opening the construction of a new Junius Seven. At three in the morning after the first day of celebrations, Athrun found himself bursting into her hotel room unannounced and blurting to a sleepy-eyed Cagalli that he loved her. Her face went white and she did not answer.
When Cagalli was shot, Athrun barricaded himself in her hospital room and refused to let anyone lead him out until the day she was well enough to come too. When she finally regained consciousness after thirty-six hours of intensive drug therapy, her first words, I'm sorry. I love you too, Athrun, were followed by an uncharacteristic overflow of tears. He forgave her.
Two years, four months, and twelve days in, Athrun proposed to Cagalli in full view of everyone present at Sunday dinner. She said yes amid another wave of abnormal crying, and was extremely relieved to find that the new ring was white gold with a green diamond. She was so very sick of silver and amethyst, of the arguments and the distance and the uncertainty that defined the way they used to be. "I'll wait for you," he spoke into her hair, and she sobbed into his shoulder.
Two years, eight months, and twenty-four days in, Cagalli woke up on a lazy Saturday to a wonderful man sleeping next to her. She lay back down and closed her eyes, and felt Athrun's arm drop heavily across her waist again.
They were happy.
notes: I'd been looking forward to posting this for a while now. I really, really like it. Tell me what you all thought! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it.
NEXT PHASE: Shinn and Lunamaria take a trip to the moon to mourn their dead friend.