Fix

Author: pratz

Disclaimer: would you believe if I said they're mine? Nope.

Notes: ah... gotta love Coldplay more and more. Takes place on eps.35-36. Written while listening to X & Y album (Fix You gotta be an Athrun-Cagalli image song!). No proof-reading, so mistakes are rightfully mine. In the end, enjoy.

p.s.: since (in my opinion) GS Destiny follows the previous Gundam UC saga's plotline, does anyone think there'll be Athrun's Counter Attack? lol Love it when Athrun goes Bright Noah mode and presents Shinn a good, much satisfying punch!

Lights will guide you home

And ignite your bones

And I will try to fix you

Coldplay; Fix You

Clenching his fist tightly to merely remind him that he was still alive, that he was able to escape the dreadful encounter of the Chairman he once had believed in, Athrun swallowed the suddenly present lump back to his empty stomach. Through the window (1), he saw Kira lay on pristine white sheet, sleeping, band-aid still plastered on a corner of his mouth. It was when the chocolate-haired teen unconsciously raised his bandaged hand from beneath the blanket that guilt hit Athrun with full speed.

Of all things that Athrun Zala hated, one of them was when his friends got hurt.

And he hated it even more when he was the one who ignited the pain.

"Off the way, Athrun."

Behind him was Kira's twin sister, the rightful head of Orb, the woman who still wore his ring with full trust despite his complicated wrongdoings, Cagalli Yula Athha.

"Off, Athrun." Repeated with tint of annoyance.

He blinked before noticing the tray of food on her hands. "A-ah."

He stepped aside to give her a way to enter Kira's quarter. Deciding that he should just stay where he was, Athrun stood by the doorway mutely. Cagalli checked his sleeping brother for a while then, with a soft sigh, placed the tray on the night table beside Kira's bed.

Athrun staggered back when she trotted her way to him.

"Come."

He knew the tone well as if there was no day he was separated from her side. It was the tone she used to emphasize that she would get anything she wanted—leaving not even a miniscule gap to argue back, and definitely not desiring an objection as an answer.

Half-stomping, she dragged him to the dining room. Athrun winced as she made him sit on a chair, watching her white Orb uniform-covered back quietly while she was busying herself by getting some food.

"Eat," she pushed the tray in his direction, not realizing that the fork was still in her possession. "I know you haven't eaten anything since you came."

"Are you mad at me?"

Cagalli bit her lower lip—cute, Athrun thought in amusement and reprimanded himself for thinking that way at a time like this, contemplating her next move, and then took a seat next to his right. Clamping both hands as if she was praying, she muttered lowly in her breath before answering, "That's not the problem here."

He grimaced. Okay, so she was angry and irritated, and he had no doubt that he was responsible for it.

"It's not right," Cagalli added in a quiet codicil, her tone implying tenderness he had almost thrown away carelessly without his realizing it.

"What's not right?"

"You," she dabbed at his chest with her point finger, purposely putting enough force beneath her fingertip. "It's not right," she repeated in gentler tone, yet still firm and a little sad in its awakening. "You shouldn't be thinking on your own."

"Eh?"

"Athrun." His name on her lips; soft, affectionately fond, and simply caring. "It's not your fault."

There. Always so straightforward that it struck him in amaze she was. When Lacus was good with words and honest in her feeling, Cagalli was adorably bold, though it might be considered harsh some times, and equally sincere. If she could not put things altogether, she would speak up. If he had done things wrong, she would tell him about it.

"Partially still my fault," he sauntered back stubbornly. "I let my own feelings overwhelm myself."

Getting told the story by Miriallia, he had almost choked, feeling suffocated with terrible imagination of how Cagalli had managed to reach for Kira before his utterly destroyed Freedom sank there deep in the cold sea. A minute late and perhaps he could not see even a single piece of his best friend anymore.

'I can't imagine... It feels like she's going to pick up a dead body.'

He had trembled at Miriallia's painfully precise words, angry at himself and feeling sick at the same time.

"You're underestimating Kira. There's no way a brat like that could best my brother. He'd survived worse than this."

He knew Cagalli always knew him best, in ways he might be unable to understand ever, and it always left him to wonder how. Like now. Maybe if there was an Athrun Zala studies, she would get a PhD in no time. He also knew, with a pang in his heart, that her words meant to ease, to comfort, and he was happy to know it, but his mind would not allow an easy escape like that. He was a soldier—though not a good one of that maybe, and a soldier had to calculate every possible event that might occur.

"Shinn is not that bad, Cagalli. He's jus sel—" he frowned, looking unpleased with the words on his tongue, yet thrilled in sheer realization at the same time. That was it. Selfish. That was why Shinn and he were usually at each other's throat—because they were selfish; Shinn with his furious desire of avenge, and him with his brutal urgency of peace.

"I told you. You're not supposed to be left alone to think. Once you're left all alone, you start blaming yourself for all that happens."

It really ran in the blood, he realized. Definitely Kira's sister. While his best friend had said that together they would seek for the answer of why they had to fight, here the self-claimed elder sibling of those two restated the same thing.

She was irritated not—only—because of her brother's recent state but mostly because he had forgotten the most important thing.

Not to be alone.

"Cagalli, I—"

His word was cut short successfully by a piece of sausage shoved into his gaping mouth. Startling and half-gagged—thanks to his reflex, he backed away a little, eyes wide open in question.

"That's for being such an idiot." Cagalli leaned closer, brows furrowed, golden eyes all so serious, yet her nose only an inch from his.

For making me worry.

Athrun chewed slowly, tasting the quite delicious meat on his tongue and tasting the joy of getting the humourless underlying meaning in his consciousness.

He had returned to the right place, he guessed.

Quirking a smile, he reached out for her hand that still held the fork, his thumb grazing the back of her palm. The cool touch of the ring on her finger felt so pleasant, so right. "Please don't get tired to remind me in case I'm being an idiot again." I'm back.

And she smiled, too, finally. "Who else is going to do it?" Welcome back.

Silence—except for the sound of fork met plate.

"Love you."

"I know," she forked another piece of sausage and brought it up to his mouth. "Love you, too."

(1) I don't remember watching the quarters in Archangel have windows which face the corridor, but please correct me if I miss it.