Characters: Kira Yamato, Cagalli Yula Attha

Pairings: heavily implied CagallixAthrun

Time frame: GSD post ep 14

Friends and Siblings

"Cagalli?" Kira knocks on the door to her cabin and when he gets no reply he decides to take the initiative and enters uninvited.

She is there, sitting in her bunk, but Kira's initiate reaction of relief that Cagalli has not disappeared as she is so fond of doing fades away when he gets a closer look.

She is staring across at the other bed where the wedding dress is held up by a simple hanger ill-befitting the dress' fine and complex design. Kira only passes the article with a confirming glance before he completely focuses on his sister. She is lost in thought, her hands folded in her lap and turning the ring that fits her surprisingly well.

(Or maybe Kira is biased...)

"Cagalli?"

Almost reluctantly, Cagalli breaks eye contact with the white monstrosity to acknowledge him with a glance before she promptly goes back to staring, though this time her eyes are narrowed.

Kira hesitates, wondering at who or what that glare is directed and if it is wise to be cautious before deciding it doesn't matter and sitting down next to her. Like this, he notices, there is almost nothing else to look at but the dress.

"Do you think he is going to be angry?" Her voice is even, a contrast to what Kira can read on the side of her face but even then he still manages to hear underlying emotion.

Kira leans back, putting his hands on the bed and letting his gaze drift at the bunk above. It is better than looking at the prison robes that have almost tied Cagalli to something that would have broken her and him.

"I hope so," confines Kira. "Better angry than hurt. And this will hurt him." He catches how Cagalli balls her hands to fists, but continues nonetheless. "Hopefully he hasn't seen you dressed like that for someone else." Her shoulders tense and though Kira can't see her face, he knows the guilt he would see there.

"Rescuing you was the least thing I could do, really." He climbs a bit further into her bed and rests his back against the wall. Now, he can only see her back and it is her choice if she wants to face him. "Athrun hasn't been there to protest. I have done it on his and my behalf. As his friend. As a brother." More regretful, he adds, "Hopefully the first thing he knows about your wedding is how I didn't let you."

Cagalli is still and silent for a while, before she repeats, quietly and dangerously. "'Let'?" She turns around, crossing her legs on her covers where they bump against his, not even bothering to pull her shoes off. Her eyebrows are lowered, defiant and daring him to repeat.

Despite her anger, Kira smiles a bit, going for a lighter tone and way of argument. "Isn't family usually asked at marriages if they support the union? I have a right to protest if I don't like who you decide to marry."

"That doesn't actually give you a free pass to kidnap the bride!" His sister snaps. "Right in the middle of the damn thing!"

Apparently she is still quite angry about that, and though Kira understands that aspect of his sister's character, he feels no remorse. He can tell too, that though she is truly upset, there is a spark of dark satisfaction at the mess her wedding has become. Kira feels a stab of sadness at how once upon a time, that would have been all she felt. Straight forward, honest and no conflicting emotions, but that Cagalli has been buried under the responsibility of an entire state.

"After I got your letter, we had two days to plan," he tells her,"and there might have been other ways, but going with Freedom involved the least people, was the least dangerous, the exit was the smoothest and it had the added benefit of you not being able to run awa - Ouch!"

"Don't you dare get ideas to do that again!"

This reaction is much more like the old Cagalli already and Kira smiles, but is serious when he says, "I hope I won't have to. So long as you don't decide to do something stupid as marry the wrong person again."

"You don't have a say in who I marry!" She draws herself up as indignantly as she can within the confines of a bunk, eyes flashing, and though they are both aware of the ridiculousness of her lecturing him when they are crowded into her bed, there is no trace of a lighter mood. "If I do it for Orb, then that's my decision, got it? You think I'd jump for joy if it needs to be done? You think I'd do it if I didn't have to? I won't be foolish again, but if I do try to marry for political reasons again Don't. You. Dare. Interfere." She stresses, jabbing her finger in Kira's face.

Searching her face, Kira feels his own easiness fade completely, his smile dropping as he looks past her postured finger into her eyes. "I can't promise that. Not at all." He takes her hand and pulls it down, closing it into a fist. "Athrun has fallen in love with you without any say on his part. He is not ever going to love someone else. It's not what he is like." He doesn't look at her when he says this, but instead at the ring that can't accidentally slip of her finger now. He continues in a whisper, "Don't break his heart, Cagalli." And even softer, "I'm not sure I could forgive you."

He senses her still and when he looks up to meet her eyes, she turns her head away. "Isn't this supposed to be the other way around?" Her voice is also soft, a mix between frustration, anger and helplessness on her face. "Aren't brothers supposed to warn their sisters' boyfriends away?"

"How do you know I haven't?" Kira asks, his abrupt change in tone startling her and her golden eyes flash to his, because sometimes, Cagalli needs to be shocked out of her stubbornness."Or why do you think I need to?" It is one reason why Kira does not soften his words or his observations."It isn't he who has tried to get married without even telling you. Whatever else Athrun might do, he loves you too much to purposefully hurt you."

Cagalli reels back as if he has slapped her. Even her head snaps back, her eyes widen and an expression that can only be described at pain fills her face before fury quickly takes over. "I didn't want to! Who would - that guy? I hated the whole idea! How much do you think I dreaded that - that thing?!" She yells and points with one hand at the same thing she has been staring at before Kira has come inside even as she aggressively crawls into his space with eyes spitting fire. "I wouldn't hurt Athrun!" The last, she insists almost desperately but also furiously. As if she has to convince herself.

Kira studies her, unmoved by her outburst, because he, too, is angry. Despite it all and because of it. Their faces are only a few hands apart, eyes locked in a battle of wills.

"...No, I suppose you wouldn't. But it was difficult to tell, you see. Because you still agreed to marry someone else." And Kira will watch that she will not forget that she has given her consent knowing full well that it would hurt Athrun.

"I- I had to." Cagalli repeats mostly on sheer stubbornness, refusing to acknowledge the despairing tone in her own voice. Kira notes how wrong it is that his sister does not burst into an angry rant that might even take a turn towards the violent. There are tears in her eyes and Kira also notes how he has made her cry for the second time in as many days. "For Orb."

A tear rolls down her cheek and seeps into the material of the blanket. It is twisted in her fists. Furiously, she swipes at her eyes, crawls away from him and hits her head into her pillow. Once upon a time she would have hit him.

Kira's eyes soften. "Maybe so. But it is fine for me to think of what is best for you instead of Orb." He tugs at her clothes until she grumpily and glaring deigns to glance at him, making Kira smile. "If you don't want to marry, even if you or the world think you have to, then that is all what matters to me. It's a promise."

Cagalli harrumphes and manages to swipe an awkward kick at him as she presses her head back into the pillow. Quickly, her hands find together and she traces the ring on her left, mumbling something into her pillow.

Kira's smile widens and they stay like that for a while, a bit more at peace than before; she with her head buried away from the world and him with one of her legs uncomfortably sprawled over his crossed ones, having nothing to look at but her wedding dress.

Eventually, he frowns at it. "That dress was a shock too. I would have rather expected you to punch them in the face than wear it."

"I was tempted," Cagalli admits half to her pillow. She turns her head a bit and Kira can see the small grin steal over her face, before she notices him watching and switches to a glare. "You are tempting me an awful lot too."

Kira puts her leg off his and climbs out of the bed as a preemptive measure. Unlike her, he has shoes to slip into and one he finished tying them he gives a grin to her back. "A sign you are feeling better, I hope."

Rolling over onto her back, Cagalli stretches, her eyes closed in a fain expression of pleasure. "You know," she pronounces slowly, making alarm bells ring in Kira's head, "I think I do. And do you know what else my newly invited-to-be-expressed violent urges tell me to do?" She gives Kira an evil looking smirk and he cautiously retreats a bit further even as he is glad that his sister is well enough to make chills run down his spine again.

Cagalli thumbs at the dress, dark and gleefully. "Burn that."