Part 1 - Tallinn
"I ordered you a coffee, and some marzipan to try. This place is famous for it,".
"Oh, right. Thank you,".
Athrun was seeing a lot of the world on his secondment to Terminal.
It was true that over the course of the two wars he had traversed great swathes of the Earth's surface, but that was in constant, frenetic movement - from ZAFT base to ZAFT base, battlefield to battlefield.
(His two years on the Orb archipelago was the exception, of course).
Intelligence work by its nature required spending time in one location, surveying streetscapes and countrysides, being across the customs and rhythms of the local population, paying attention to the small, unique details of a city, village, region.
In other words, learning enough about a place so that it was possible to pick out what wasn't quite right, what was out of place, what could give early warning of a simmering conflict about to explode, or take them a step closer to the menacing, skulking remnants of Blue Cosmos.
On Athrun and Meyrin's first mission, Athrun met with a Terminal contact at a café in Tallinn to receive a dossier on an expected mediation between the Eurasian leadership and rebel leaders from the unsettled southern regions.
The city was picturesque and thriving on this warm day, which belied the fragile state of the Eurasian Federation. Athrun never failed to be amazed by how conflict ravaged places hustled to survive, how economies still tried to flourish, how people still sought pleasure and joy - scanning his eyes across the square it was clear tourists were even still visiting the city.
And it wasn't just visitors responsible for the lively atmosphere, the streets and squares were busy with locals too, dressed in colourful clothing and floral headpieces, playing music and dancing.
"Midsummer celebrations," the contact explained seeing Athrun's curious expression.
After finishing his coffee and politely stomaching one of the sweets, Athrun walked back through the narrow cobblestone streets against the flow of people, at one point having to step into a gift store to let a procession of musicians pass. He then returned to the outskirts of the city where they had set up a temporary base in a nondescript apartment building.
Meyrin was waiting for him with more freshly brewed coffee. Her hands shook in jittery excitement as she handed his cup to him, and a couple of drops of hot liquid plopped onto Athrun's lap. "Sorry," Athrun said automatically, and for the briefest of seconds Meyrin shot what he could have sworn was an icy stare at him, before she apologised herself and ran to get him a towel.
Athrun then gave Meyrin a run-down of his meeting, and they discussed arrangements for the next fortnight. Or, more accurately, Athrun outlined his views on strategy for the mission, and Meyrin nodded enthusiastically in response, making scribbly notes to herself on her tablet.
He paused in the middle of speaking at one point - Athrun was the senior officer and had the final decision-making authority and responsibilities which came along with that - but this was a different environment to the standard army, and a command-and-control approach didn't feel right.
But, given they had each effectively grown up in the military, adjustments would be required on both sides. He sighed as Meyrin looked up at him with bright eyes, pen poised waiting for him to go on. They would just have to feel their way through it.
"What is that?" Meyrin asked, pointing at a colourful, rectangular picture of the Tallinn town hall square poking out of an inside pocket in his trench coat.
"Oh," Athrun said, shifting in his seat. "It's a postcard. From one of the tourist shops. People on Earth send them to family and friends back home as a memento of their travels,".
"Huh, isn't that old fashioned? Why not send pictures electronically? Look at what I took today for Luna!" Meyrin pulled out her personal tablet, enthusiastically flicking through about 100 photos of the same square she took earlier in the day when shopping for supplies in the city.
Athrun couldn't help but hum in agreement.
OOO
He didn't do anything with the postcard at first.
By the end of the fortnight, they had successfully tapped and observed the (failed) mediation and gathered some useful ancillary intelligence while the key players were in the city.
They held a short, virtual de-brief meeting with Cagalli before sending through their more detailed report. Athrun and Meyrin were in a secure communications room in the Orb consulate in Tallinn; Cagalli in her government building office joined by Sai and Miriallia, two of the few, trusted individuals in the Orb administration with knowledge of their secondment to Terminal.
It was the first time they had done this sort of thing, so it was inevitably a little awkward. At least Athrun thought so, but Cagalli seemed happy with how the mission went – even if the key take out was that Eurasia was even more unstable than anyone had previously understood.
While Cagalli and Sai discussed the diplomatic implications of their report, Athrun allowed himself a moment to look more closely at Cagalli. It was nice to be able to see her. She looked pretty, her golden eyes brilliant even in the muted lighting of her office, even with the tell-tale signs of working relentlessly day and night, even as she animatedly gesticulated at him….
"Athrun, are you listening!?". He snapped back to attention.
Their next assignment was delivered immediately – to move to another region in Eurasia with links to the latest Blue Cosmos leader, and to support the newly formed COMPS with any relevant intelligence to help pre-empt the terrorist organisation's next movements.
There would be no rest period back to Orb. Cagalli, her voice apologetic, told them to take a day off in Tallinn before leaving.
Meyrin was thrilled. She left early in the morning to visit the outdoor markets. Once she returned in the afternoon, shopping bags in both hands, Athrun listlessly took his turn. Without any idea of what he wanted to do, he returned to the square from the first day in Tallinn. It was post-midsummer now, the street gutters full of decaying petals, but the mood was still festive with the long days of summer.
He walked the streets of the old town late until dusk. The postcard was still inside his trench-coat. On impulse, under the light of a lamppost, he pulled it out and wrote an address on the back – he wasn't actually sure if the address was still in use, whether it would find its way to her.
But he slotted it into a postbox anyway, then continued walking.
OOO
It was several weeks before the postcard arrived at its destination. Only a few postal routes remained active in the Cosmic Era, having been surpassed by other forms of instantaneous communication, and so hard-copy mail travelled slowly.
Cagalli rushed into the small dining room adjacent to her bedroom, halfway through doing up her suit-coat buttons, desperate for a cup of tea and breakfast – the sun had yet to rise, but those were the hours she had to keep if she wanted to eat before her workday began.
What looked like a colourful photograph with rather crumpled edges sat on a silver tray on the breakfast table. "What's this?" she asked aloud, puzzled.
"It came in yesterday," one of the estate staff explained.
It was a postcard of a quaint Eurasian old town, with nothing written on the back except for the proxy postal address used by the Attha family, an address known to very few trusted individuals. She didn't immediately recognise the location, but the handwriting setting out the address was familiar.
A few days later…
"I take it this is from you?" Cagalli held the postcard up to the screen with a flourish.
At the end of the next post-mission de-brief, Cagalli had matter-of-factually requested a quick private conversation with Athrun. He noted how she pointedly ignored the exchange of curious looks between the others as they made themselves scarce. Athrun was rather curious too.
Athrun blinked, titled his head. "Hmm, I forgot about that," he said.
Cagalli quirked an eyebrow at him. She still had no idea what to make of it. "…is there some sort of code on it?" she held the postcard up to the light as if invisible words would appear.
Athrun laughed. "No, nothing like that!".
"Then what?".
"Tallinn is very scenic,". His eyes were soft through the screen. "I just wanted to share it with you,".
Cagalli went still, then smiled shyly. "Oh. Thanks,".
After they said their goodbyes, she leaned the postcard against a lamp on her desk, next to a picture of her younger self and father.
OOO
On their next mission, he bought a postcard of a long, narrow snow-capped mountain range with rolling green hills in the foreground.
He waited until they were in their next location before posting it this time; just to put some distance in between his whereabouts.
Cagalli returned home after a long day of Cabinet meetings a few weeks later to another blank postcard on a silver tray. She laughed, then added it to the other postcard on her desk.
A/N: And so what was meant to be a short, gimmicky one-shot spiraled...number of chapters/parts TBD.
Timing is between Destiny (post COMPS establishment) and Freedom - I didn't really want to touch this period given how many things clearly happened off-screen, and which the likely OVA might shine light on, but my brain hasn't been able to stop thinking and coming up with (delusional) ideas about it, so here we are... :)