category: Gundam SEED
disclaimer: I don't own it.
FORTY-EIGHT.
Kira and Cagalli always argued about which of them was older. Cagalli didn't like to be behind in anything, but Kira refused to hand away his authority on some whim, so they quarreled constantly. Eventually they came to the agreement that they must have been born precisely at the same time, and it worked.
x
In the middle of a Sunday dinner, Dearka came to a sudden conclusion about what was always bothering Yzak.
"Sexual frustration!" he snapped his fingers brightly. "I'm a genius! Yzak, all you need is the touch of a woman!"
Everyone at the table began to laugh before catching sight of Yzak's face. He had initially gone sheet-white, then colored to a bright red, and was on his way to turning a deep purple.
"Idiot!" he choked out as Dearka stood up and tapped his fork loudly against his glass. "Sit down, you dimwit!"
"Sorry to interrupt your meals," Dearka addressed the entire restaurant loudly. Most of the other eaters watched him curiously. "I am making a concerned request on the behalf of my dear friend here." He leaned down and slapped Yzak on the back amiably. "If anyone would be interested in taking this fine specimen out on a date, he is available on evenings, all week." At the myriad of bemused glances around the room, he lowered his voice in a mock whisper. "He just really needs to get laid."
"Stop it!" Yzak shouted, pulling forcefully at his hair in aggravation. "Sit down!"
x
Shinn's apology to Cagalli was not made with much fanfare. It happened during an uneventful dinner when they happened to end up sitting next to each other at the table. Cagalli passed him a courteous hello when she first took her seat, and he mumbled a response to his shoes that she did not hear.
Later in the evening, Shinn accidentally tipped over his glass of water while reaching for an extra fork. Cagalli lifted her arm away reflexively, but Shinn quickly grabbed hold of it in midair.
He looked her straight in the eyes, tightening his fingers around her forearm meaningfully. "Sorry."
She released a slow breath, and gently pried out of his grasp. "It's all right," she pronounced carefully. In a quieter voice, "I don't blame you."
Someone passed Cagalli a stack of paper towels, and she handed half to Shinn. "Let's clean up the spill together."
x
Athrun knew he had never been good with women. It wasn't anything he could help so he found ways to dart around the issue. One day he wondered if he was allowed to just write cards instead of face people to talk properly.
TO MIRIALLIA HAW: Sorry for assuming you were still with Dearka that first time we met again during the second war. Oh, and I regret killing your previous boyfriend. I didn't mean to, really. I hope it's okay.
TO MEYRIN HAWKE: Thanks for letting me use you as a human crutch around the Archangel while I was recovering. Cagalli said you liked me then. If that was true, sorry for manipulating your feelings like that. I truly didn't realize it.
TO LACUS CLYNE: Apparently things between us weren't meant to be. Honestly, what else did you want me to do? I brought you flowers, and made you Haros, listened to you drone about your singing and your hope, and didn't even try to make a move on you even though we were engaged since the beginning of time. Well, enjoy yourself with my best friend anyway.
TO MURRUE RAMIUS: I don't really have anything to apologize to you for, but I figured I might as well throw you in for good measure. Er, thanks for being such a proficient captain?
Athrun decided the idea was much better in his head.
x
While the girls crowded around Murrue to admire her ring ("Finally, it's official!") Mu was being congratulated vigorously.
"I'll have to keep her away from you, Kira," Mu commented offhandedly as the waitress wrote down everyone's usual orders.
Kira looked at him confusedly. "What do you mean?"
"I hear you have some experience stealing away fiancées," Mu explained cheerfully.
Kira's thoughts flashed to Sai and to Athrun and to Yuna, and he laughed genuinely. "I guess you're right."
x
Shinn hated the new soldier aboard his ship – a self-righteous pansy named Clive Norwich who always did things by the book and had the most irritating voice. Norwich had been a captain of a smaller, recently-decommissioned ship (probably had to have his father pull dozens of strings to get that position, Shinn thought darkly), and had been situated on the Faraday until his proper reassignment.
A month into his stay, Norwich failed to keep in the condescension for Shinn he had been trying to hide for weeks.
"Commander Asuka," he said while the ranking officers were having a meeting on the bridge. "I really think you should button up your collar." At Shinn's murderous glare he attempted to backtrack. "Out of respect to our nation and her military, I mean."
"Button up my collar? Like you?" Shinn countered. He could count on two hands the number of times he had actually bothered doing so after being promoted. "No, I don't think so. Maybe you should try leaving yours open," he suggested scathingly. "Perhaps then the stick that's lodged so firmly inside of you will come loose, and you might actually get a girlfriend."
Norwich gaped at him and couldn't say anything for the rest of the briefing. After two days, he was promptly transferred off the Faraday. Shinn still didn't fix his collar.
x
Mu and Murrue entered into the café with a ring of bells.
"I'm glad you could come," Lacus said graciously as the perfunctory round of greetings was through.
"This idea of weekly Sunday dinners sounded interesting," Mu shrugged. "And I'd be lying if I said I wasn't interested in how everyone's been doing since the war ended."
"Yes, how have you been?" Cagalli faltered, unsure of how to address him. He'd been Major La Flaga, then Colonel Roanoke, then Colonel La Flaga last of all. What was he now?
Mu smiled openly at them and wound his arm tightly around the back of Murrue's chair. "Just Mu now."
x
"I told Athrun when he came to see me at the beginning of the war that I hoped the Minerva would play a role similar to that of the Archangel in the previous war."
Talia pursed her lips, silently studying the chairman's vague smile and piercing eyes, then looked outside at the roads of Diocuia. You don't want that, Gilbert, she thought. The Archangel was a traitor ship that sided with the renegade Three Ship Alliance. They took the most valued commanders and the top aces from both sides and behaved of their own volition, causing a fair amount of damage to the PLANTs.
"High expectations," she commented simply and said no more.
Much, much later, after Athrun defected and after the broadcast of the two Lacus Clynes and after the chairman revealed his ulterior motives, Talia wondered if that conversation so very long ago was giving her permission to follow in the shoes of Murrue Ramius and Andrew Waltfeld and lead her soldiers in a different direction. She passed over the thought quickly, even if it never strayed far from the forefront of her mind. She doubted her commanders and she doubted her country, but she was not a deserter.
x
Andy became a beloved mentor to the child of Mu and Murrue, who was happy and eager and affectionately called him 'uncle'. Andy taught him to swim and sail and climb, and when he was older, how to assemble a gun with a blindfold on and six different ways to win against a coordinator in hand-to-hand combat.
"I want to be just like the Desert Tiger!" the boy said enthusiastically, carefully examining the medals and ribbons hidden in the bottom drawer of Andy's dresser.
Andy only ruffled his hair tenderly in response. I wouldn't let you, he said to himself. He didn't think anyone would ever want to be a scarred, lonely soldier who had lost his very will to fight.
x
Shinn used to compare his abilities to those of others obsessively. He gloated for weeks about destroying the Freedom, but then became confused when Athrun beat him soundly, twice. None of the ends tied together because he was supposed to be the fastest, the greatest, the most powerful and suddenly he wasn't.
After the war he didn't dwell on it any longer. For all he knew, even that Colonel La Flaga who used to pilot the Akatsuki could beat him. In the end, it didn't matter, any of it.
That wasn't true strength, he realized.
x
The days passed. One foot in front of the other: hour after hour, month after month, year after year. There are gaps in the pattern, breaks in the monotony. They are few and very far in between, but they are there. A strong cup of coffee. The breezes off the sea. Damp grass, warm sun, rough sand – still points in the turning worlds of their lives.
One foot in front of the other endlessly.
x
Kira ran the white fabric carefully through his fingers. "Nice dress," he murmured, and both he and Cagalli were reminded strongly of a similar occasion many years previous when she was also getting married.
"Yes, isn't it?" Cagalli said tremulously through a wave of unbidden tears.
"There's time, still," Kira offered. "We escaped from your wedding once and we can do it again."
She laughed, and Kira felt better instantly. "Freedom's not close at hand, though."
Kira shrugged. "I can have a car here in less than two minutes, if you want."
Cagalli wiped away the dampness from her face. "I don't, though." She exhaled bracingly and leaned into the back of her chair. "I'm just a little scared."
"Of change?"
"Yes."
Kira crouched down to be at eye-level with her. "Why?"
"Things fall apart often, after marriage." Cagalli fiddled with the engagement ring on her finger before taking it off and placing it carefully into a satin-lined box. She would be getting a new ring very soon. "It's been so nice these past years and I can't help but feel as if those happy days are going to end once today is over."
"Your feelings for each other won't be different just because of this step in a new direction," Kira told her, pulling her closer into a tight embrace. "I'm sure of it."
Cagalli smiled into his shoulder. "I suppose you're right." After they pulled apart, she elbowed his side teasingly. "So, when are you and Lacus finally going to set the date?"
x
They faced each other in the empty hallway, at a silent standstill where neither said anything.
"I want to do this," Shinn spoke up at last. "For real."
"We've tried." Lunamaria answered sharply. "Or at least, I have. And the pieces never fit together."
"They will," he protested, taking a step toward her. She took one backwards in the other direction.
"Four years, Shinn. On and off, hot and cold. I can't do it anymore." Lunamaria looked away from him, distressed. "It's too much, even for me."
"Not for me." There was sudden steel in Shinn's voice. "Luna, I know we can make this work if we both try our best at the same time." Noticing her shoulders dropping slightly, he pushed further. "One chance. You can't run from this."
She stood wordlessly, felt her breathing even out and took in Shinn's pleading face and troubled eyes. "One chance," she told him shortly, ignoring his outstretched hand, and then he was left alone in the middle of a hallway that remained empty.
x
Lacus did not submit her name for re-election after serving as chairwoman for six years. Cyril Nikos took her position, and she stepped down to the post of mediator. After eight months of continued peace and prosperity, she resigned from the public service for good and returned to Orb.
Kira opened the door of their new house, an open bungalow with wide windows and the comforting sound of waves from outside.
"We're home." Lacus grasped his hand loosely, and they stepped inside together.
notes: This is basically snippets of scenes that have darted around in my mind for the nearly three months that I have been writing SPTW. I filed away the basic prompts for this chapter in a document with my other plot bunnies, and each time I read over them I got more and more excited to write them in full.
Here they are, at last! I hope you all enjoyed them, as always. If anyone was wondering, this is the longest chapter in the complete story. Let me know what you thought of the update.
NEXT PHASE: They're back to the beginning again, and there isn't anything left to do about it.