Character: Dearka Elsman, Athrun Zala

Pairings: None

Time frame: post GS ep 40

Change

His arms folded, Dearka floats through the weightlessness and thinks that at the very least the clothes are comfortable.

It is a thought that crosses his mind randomly, subconsciously comparing them to the stiff red coats. But well, uncomfortable or not, those uniforms at least have carried meaning. The elite. Soldiers. ZAFT's pride. Someone who follows orders and fights for the homeland. Now he wears the same thing the next natural and mechanic does.

Dearka still fights for the homeland, like before, but it doesn't ease the wrong feeling of having become a traitor to ZAFT.

Spelled out, Dearka almost can't believe he is using those words to describe himself. Hell, his father is sitting on the Supreme Council. And Dearka, after having been so motivated and never having thought twice about the war all of a sudden finds himself on the very ship he has hunted for a good few months, sworn to bring down, fighting along the very pilot Yzark has sworn to kill.

It is such a turnabout of things that Dearka has trouble warping his head around it.

Next to him, the door suddenly slides open and a familiar figure enters the observation deck, coming to a stop near the glass and just watching space outside. Dearka raises an eyebrow, though at what he isn't exactly sure; that Athrun is alone for once, that he hasn't noticed Dearka yet, or at him in general.

Athrun alone, huh...Well there are a few things...

"So. Best friends with Strike's pilot, are you?" Dearka asks bluntly into space.

Athrun jumps absolutely startled, whirling around and finally sees Dearka floating against the wall. "Dearka," he acknowledges and then answers only slightly more emotional, "yes."

Dearka has to give him props for admitting to it and all (traitorous, treasonous, conflicted, loyalty, duty) Dearka has implied in his question. Athrun may be a right idiot, but at the very least he is honest about it.

Granted, it hasn't exactly occurred to anyone to come straight out and ask Athrun if he may coincidentally know the pilot of the machine that they have been trying to bring down with dogged persistence since it first activated, but Athrun has at the very least never denied it and doesn't start sugar coating his actions (or lack thereof) now.

"Must have been really conflicting in Orb when Yzark was all geared up for uncovering Kira's face," he comments casually and though Athrun says nothing, his jaw locks and his silence more telling than words ever can be. "Come to think of it," Dearka continues, "that robot bird he has looks awfully familiar, too."

Athrun's expression hardens even more, becomes even more distant. It is like taken from the time when he has been in charge of the team that hunts his best friend down.

Dearka pushes away from the wall. "No wonder you were convinced the Archangel was still in Orb."

Suddenly, Athrun looks more weary than anything. A lot may have changed, their questionable companionship is not part of it. "What is your point?" His voice has an edge to it, though Dearka has expected that considering what he has been digging around in deliberately.

Dearka still isn't sure what can't believe more. That (spineless, weak) Athrun is capable of (trying to) killing his friend or that he and that friend in question swipe the fact and everything else in-between under the rug just like that.

But when Dearka cuts into the real issue with a harsh, "Nicol," he immediately notices how Athrun stiffens harder than a board and before he even make any conscious decision at all, Dearka swallows the rest of the words he has had lined up since he first began this talk. ("Died for nothing, didn't he?")

It is perhaps the most surprising move yet, deserting included, and shocking even himself.

(Or perhaps not: "Tolle isn't here! And yet this- this creep-")

Reluctantly, but by far not as much as he should, he changes track to a more innocent statement. "Nicol would be here with us."

Athrun sighs, empty. "Yeah."

Honestly, Dearka has no idea just how one attempt on his life by a (cute) Natural has managed to completely screw him over. He is actually watching for other people's feelings now...