"I see," Athrun sighed. "What time do you think she'll be back?"
"I'm afraid the weather might delay her, Commander Zala," the secretary explained. "I will let her majesty know as soon as she arrives, rest assured."
He rushed back to the palace and marched straight to Cagalli's private office, only to find himself thoroughly disappointed that she wasn't in. That is, of course, if her secretary wasn't under orders to bar him entry again. No, it didn't seem like she was. Besides, none of the state cars were parked outside.
He gave his thanks to the secretary and picked up his luggage. He wanted to see her so badly he headed to the palace without dropping off his luggage back at his flat. He tried to keep his chin up despite the setback but he psyched himself up on the lead up to this moment that it was rather anticlimactic to be turned away due to ill timing and bad weather.
He dragged his feet back to his car. He turned the heater on and sat there a while. He was a bundle of nerves.
Dark grey skies welcomed him back to Orb this time. The rain had been relentless all morning, beating at his windshield, his wipers working overtime. So much for a triumphant return, he sighed. Several months ago, when he first came back, the weather had been peachy and his expectations were sky high. How foolish he had been then, he pondered.
He shook his head. This time around, even if things got bad, even the sunshine and rainbows disappear, he would be committed to staying by her side. Whatever obstacle was thrown his way he would give it his best shot.
He looked at himself in the rearview mirror. He had waited for her all this time. A little more waiting wasn't going to break him.
xxx xxx xxx
Cagalli looked at the calendar on her secretary's desk. Athrun wouldn't be back for another three days, she sighed. She was overflowing with things to tell him.
Her secretary entered the room, shocked to find her there.
"Your Majesty! I'm so sorry, I just got up to go to the restroom."
"It's alright, Ophelia. I just practically got here," she assured her. "What's on the docket for the afternoon?"
"I'm afraid most of your meetings had to be rescheduled because of the storm," the secretary handed her a folder she retrieved from the drawer.
"Thank you," Cagalli replied as she began to study the papers she was handed. "I'll be in my room."
As she was leaving, Ophelia abruptly called her back.
"Oh, that's right, Commander Zala was just here looking for you ma'am!"
Cagalli's eyes widened. "What? When?"
"Just now ma'am. Just before I left for the restroom in fact. I told him to try again later—"
Cagalli tossed the folder back to Ophelia as she ran to the nearest window. She couldn't tell if Athrun's car was still parked outside. The rain made it difficult to tell.
"I have to go," she said. And then more urgently she repeated: "I have to go!"
She hurried down the stairs, skipping several steps at a time. She let go of her bag somewhere along the way and handed her tablet to a maid who happened to be passing by. She stopped for nothing. She needed to hurry.
By the time she reached the ground floor, she was sprinting. Enough time had been wasted the past couple of months. They had danced around their feelings and true selves for too long. She needed to see him now.
As she ran, thoughts grabbed on her, threatening to hold her back. Would he be angry at her? Did he come to tell her goodbye one last time? No, such questions were pointless. She refused to get stuck in a mental quicksand. The only thing that mattered now was to find him and let him know once and for all what she truly felt. She needed to tell him everything, and she needed to tell him now. Once the words were out of her lips, then she would ask him what he felt. If heartbreak awaited her, at least it wouldn't find her having done nothing about it. She wanted to try. It was worth everything she got. Athrun deserved as much.
"Ma'am!" One of the guards exclaimed as he realized Cagalli was headed outside in the worsening rain, without an umbrella and unaided. "Ma'am, just a moment. Please allow—"
"Do not follow me," she commanded without as much as a backward glance. "I'm only going out to the courtyard."
"But ma'am! The rain!"
If the guard said more, she heard none of it. The moment she stepped outside; the pouring rain drowned everything else. She removed her shoes and tossed it. She could run faster outside barefoot.
Please be there, please be there, she begged out loud in between breaths.
Following the brick path through the hedges, she scanned the area for anyone who might be outside. Not a single soul was there. As expected, she lamented. Not in this rain, of course.
She shivered. It was cold. She didn't have her coat on. Running and breaking out into a sweat kept the cold at bay. But now that the adrenaline was fading, the chill crept up on her.
The absurdity of her rushing outside so impulsively in inclement weather was starting to sink in. But she didn't know when he could meet him again. Her schedule wasn't particularly forgiving, and he had his own duties. If she missed him now she would be beat herself up for it for the coming days.
God, how stupid, she thought.
As she was about to give up and head back inside she felt the rain pause. Looking up, a black umbrella was held above her.
"Cagalli?"
An unmistakable voice called from behind.
Her salvation.
"Athrun!" she exclaimed as she turned. Their eyes met and she was instantly reduced to a pile of nerves. His emerald eyes had that effect on her and she was past fighting the pull of it now.
"I was in my car and saw you running out," he explained. "Did something happen? Are you alright?"
"Athrun," she repeated, this time with all the summoned resolution that brought her out here in the first place. It was all or nothing.
"Where are your bodyguards? What are you doing—"
"No wait, please." She cut him off. She was bursting with everything she wanted to say. "I have something—a lot of things to say."
Surprise was written all over his face, caught off guard by her initiative.
"I know I've put you through hell. And I know—god, I know I have been so unfair to you," she bit her lip, reminding herself now was not the time to cry.
"I could list you all the reasons I thought I could justify turning my back away from you. But I was never able to succeed in doing that," she swallowed. "Because that was never what I wanted."
"I know you know I love you—or maybe you don't. I haven't been the best at showing that since, well—" she continued, stumbling on her words. A million thoughts raced through her mind wanting to be expressed but her mouth couldn't quite keep up. "What I'm saying is I love you and I need you to know that."
"Cagalli," Athrun's eyes widened at the unabashed confession.
The rain loudly pounding on the umbrella, the grumbling thunder, the trees swaying with the wind—it all receded into nothingness. They were the only two people in the universe in that very moment.
"I could keep telling you how my position wouldn't allow it, and how my country might never forgive me, and all of the stupid things you know I wouldn't let myself care about in the first place if I were being honest."
"I love Orb because it is my home. I treasure it because my father treasured it. I want to keep working for it and see it change for the better."
She caught his face flinch, breaking their eye contact. He worried where this was going for a split second, and she recognized that. It pained her to see the doubt she caused in him.
She reached out to his free hand, curled into a fist on his side.
"But I love you too," her voice gave way to the burden of a love long repressed.
She watched the worry melt from his face. There was relief, and then, hiding behind that, shame. Did he think she was going to reject him again? Did that make him feel bad?
It wasn't the first time she witnessed his complications.
She made a new promise to herself just then. She would do her best to make sure he never had to doubt himself again.
"Look at me," she told him.
His hand opened to intertwine with hers.
"You deserve someone who is ready for you," she continued. "And I just wasn't. I'm not proud of that."
Her eyes were beginning to water now.
"But if you will still have me, as I am now, I want you to know I'm ready. I choose to be ready now," she concluded.
He let go of the umbrella and pulled her into his arms desperately, burying his face in her neck.
"Thank you for you," he mustered. He had no words beyond that yet. He was consumed by love for her there was nothing else to do but give into it entirely. She held onto him just as tightly, letting him know she wouldn't be going anywhere anymore without him.
They were both soaked now but in each other's arms, they were both warm. Two halves made whole.
On the same page at last. The knots have come undone to reveal a single thread. From their first meeting as enemies, to their first kiss as the world caved. From the misguided parting, to the misunderstandings. The thread always led them right back to each other.
The rain petered to a drizzle and then to a stop. They stayed there, locked in embrace, until the grey skies parted, giving way to gentle sunshine at last.
xxx xxx xxx
Six months later.
It was late in the evening when Cagalli got back home to her private quarters. In her bedroom, she plopped on an ottoman and switched the television on.
"I just think it's quite romantic," one of the trio of teenage girls in school uniform answered while her two friends nodded along. "They met during the war as enemies and fell in love. That's like some Romeo and Juliet shit."
"Oh my god, they need to turn it into a book or a movie!" Another girl squealed.
On the same street, another man stopped by to give his opinion: "My wife said he thinks he's too good for the Queen," a man wearing a golf cap chuckled. "I couldn't care less though! She seems really happy with him. I hope they get married!"
A skateboarder chewing gum rather loudly was enthused by the reporter's question was up next: "Bro, it's like, so symbolic, y'know? Natural and Coordinator? Dude, just let them marry!" He answered before flamboyantly skating away.
"There has been a surge in support for the Queen and Commander Zala ever since they have come out publicly with their relationship." The reporter summarized as a montage of blurry photos taken from a great distance flashed on the television. "After months of the steady leaking of paparazzi photos, it seems the couple has decided to embrace their newfound popularity."
"The palace announced last week that the pair who have known each other for years intend to wed."
A clip of Cagalli at the most recent Earth Alliance Summit played. "The historic Nuclear Eradication Act signed at the Hague" was written at the bar at the bottom of the screen.
"While the government itself has the power to veto this decision, it seems the growing support for the couple has caused somewhat of a dilemma for the opposition. Back to you, Carter."
The news anchor zoomed back into the screen as he gathered the papers in front of him.
"Thank you for the report, Amalie. Quite a dilemma indeed—one that the rest of the country seems to hope will end with a happily ever after. Up next—"
"I must admit it's quite the genius move," Athrun said as he joined her in the room. He came through the main entrance, with footmen holding the door open for him. There was no longer any need to use back doors.
"I told you leaking those paparazzi photos would work," Cagalli puffed her chest out, enthused by the report. "There is strength in numbers. Even the cabinet will have to give in at some point. I'm just playing their game."
He planted a kiss on her forehead and took off her blazer for her. "You're becoming quite the politician."
She grinned at him. "What if they actually made a film about us. Wouldn't that be hilarious."
Athrun grimaced at the thought, while getting out of his uniform. "I'm not sure I would watch it."
"No way! Why not?"
"Well, to begin with, I'm not sure I would appreciate some actor pretending to be me."
"They'll have to cast a hunk," she flirted, eyes twinkling. "With a jawline that can cut glass."
Athrun, caught off guard, nearly tripped on his way to the bathroom.
"Would you watch a film about us?"
"No, not really," she answered following him into the bathroom to brush her teeth with him. "I'm sure they'll get details of our first meeting wrong anyway, like how you were ogling at my chest the entire time"
"I was not!" He protested, blushing like a teenager. That earned him a big laugh from her.
She slipped into her dressing gown. She thought about how natural it felt to save him one side of the bed, to know which side he preferred.
"Are you staying tonight?" She asked even though she already knew the answer.
"I've got nowhere else to be," he smiled as he got in the covers with her.
Fin.
Hello!
If you've made it to the end, I just want to express my gratitude for reading all 48k words of this little project of mine! It's honestly baffling to think that you've given that much time to read my work. This story had been sitting in my hard drive for years now. To be quite honest, I never thought I would put out the whole thing because it never felt good enough, but with the new SEED movie coming out, it felt like a proper occasion to post it. So I just want to say thank you so much for reading my utterly indulgent and amateur attempt at rounding out Athrun and Cagalli's journey! I hope you enjoyed it. Please let me know what you think if you have the time!
Until next time!
xo