Good Night, Athrun

Author: pratz

Disclaimer: Sunrise and Bandai, of course...

Warning: childish Athrun—if I can put it that way and escape alive... Fluff and OOC-bordered.

Notes: takes place after Athrun returns to Minerva with Meirin. Anyway, stupid migraine is killing me... Can I have another head so I can write more for A Coconut Thrown by a Monkey? The third chapter’s too long for my taste, so I think to divide it into two parts. Nyah, don’t mind me... Constructive feedbacks would definitely be a good medicine. To the story now, hoi!

He was positive she loved him. And she would always love him; he also knew that.

But he was never sure just how much.

Akatsuki was a perfect distraction from his disturbed mind. He found himself admiring the gallantry and beauty of the mobile suit, admitting to himself that it was one of the best suits he had ever known so far; the most perfect machine for the rightful representative of Orb.

“There you are.”

And all of sudden, she was standing there, watching him—after looking for him, he silently hoped.

“Cagalli.”

Quietly she took a seat beside him. “Is something wrong?”

Always so straightforward and honest his Cagalli was. “...Just tired, I think.”

Leaning back to the cold wall behind them, she huffed a small puff of breath into the air. “You think? Now I believe something’s really wrong here.” Her head slouched down to his good shoulder, and somehow he had a feeling that she remembered not to make his injuries worsen.

Instead of answering—mostly because he could not think of any answer yet, he reached to hold her hand in his gently, fingering the ring he had given previously.

“’I made her pilot this mobile suit, and I could only watch her fight while I was being a useless one here.’

Abruptly he turned to face her. “How—”

“They’re all written on your face, silly,” she flicked her finger against the tip of his nose.

Mortified, he turned around again, this time to hide his face from her. “...You know me too well.”

She hummed pleasantly, seemed uncaring about his comment. “Being a pilot is definitely an arduously tough job. How could you and Kira do it constantly?”

Because it’s the only thing we could do, he had thought about giving it as an answer, but he knew better than to upset her further. She had had enough things to tend. So he set up with: “We’re soldier; that’s our duty.”

“But you hurt more than Kira.”

“I have sensitive skin.”

“Do you expect me to laugh at that?” she mocked dryly, a punch landing on his side. “Really, Athrun, you do need to rejuvenate yourself.”

“Spare me, then.”

Beneath his hand, she turned her palm up, her fingers now slipping through his. With her rubbing the back of his palm with ease, he could feel the tension between them gradually fade away.

“Cold?”

“Not really,” he answered but did nothing to stop her from buttoning his jacket up to his neck. It was a quite difficult task to do with only a hand, but she managed it well. “Thank you.” He did not deserve this, not at all.

“Sleepy,” she mumbled incoherently against his arm—he wondered whether she had come to take a nap with him. “Oh, and Athrun?”

“Hm?”

“Don’t think too high about yourself.” Beneath her eyelashes, her eyes sparkled a little, her mouth forming a small, tacky smile. “I don’t fight only for you. You’re my number two, you know.”

It felt like a harsh smack reassuring his thought.

“My number one... is Orb.”

Though he was used to her being straightforward and honest as she was; he could not help grimacing at the mental slap she had just delivered. Indeed.

“Yo, Athrun.”

He glared at his best friend as the said boy watched him and his sister with him unable to move since the slumbering Cagalli used his shoulder as her personal pillow.

“You do know that I don’t want you to have two broken arms, don’t you?”

“If that so, why don’t you help me and take her to her room?” Kira’s smile was annoying, and the arm Cagalli had self-claimed already felt numb from prevented blood circulation.

Still smiling, the brown-haired boy soundlessly took his twin sister into his arms—so careful that it almost made Athrun, an only child who never had experienced such sibling love, grimace. Watching Cagalli snuggle closer to Kira’s chests with her arms around his neck, Athrun’s mind wandered back to the few first days of their getting along together. He grunted quietly at the mental images of his best friend and Cagalli hugging each other after her father’s death, her teary face and his best friend’s attempt to soothe her. He knew that it was not the place to get... irked—he would try to find another more suitable word later—because of Kira’s brotherly affection, but he could not help it.

And why the hell the ancient saying of ‘when you get a best friend, you get the world, and when you get a beloved, you get the universe’ reared its head now?

Shaking his head a little, he scowled more, still following Kira to Cagalli’s quarter.

Kira tucked Cagalli in her bed and covered her with the blanket. His sister mumbled some unclear words onto his uniform, not letting go of his neck yet, so he had to pry himself off her arms. Ah, Cagalli and her antics. He bent down and kissed her forehead softly. “Sleep well, sis.”

Athrun, leaning on the still open door, watched the fluffy show from a good angle. Very good, even. Sometimes he wondered what it would feel if only he had a sibling. Now he realized with a strange pang in his heart that he was really, really irked.

“Sometimes I get jealous of you, you know.”

Amused, Kira straightened himself and turned to face his best friend. “And why is that?”

Athrun rolled his eyes as if mocking the other boy. “Please. As if you don’t really know.”

Stifling his laughter, Kira tried his best not to tease Athrun more. People said that when jealousy kicked in, one could be irrational and unreasonable. Yet, he had been Athrun’s friend long enough to know that his best friend was not really feeling jealous now. He was just... being childish—if that word could be applied to Athrun, anyway. “You’re kidding.”

“Humour me.”

Kira stepped forward, one step, two steps, until he got his arm brushed against Athrun’s. “Don’t be stupid. She chose you, and that’s all that matters.”

A small sigh was breathed through Athrun’s lips, unconsciously showing his defeat. “...She told me I’m her number two.”

“Huh?”

“You heard me.”

Kira patted his unhurt back softly, half pushing his best friend forward to get in to his sister’s quarter. “Go there. You need to rest, too.”

“Heh.”

“And I’m serious about not being stupid, Athrun,” Kira’s gentle smile turned into a wicked one, knowing that Athrun would be able to decipher the meaning behind his words. Ah, being a good, protective brother was so much fun. His sister surely owed him this time—a big one. Yes, so much fun it was to see his best friend blush and half stutter to respond back.

“I thought you’re playing a perfect brother here. You want to get me killed or what? I’m not doing anything like that to your sister!” The ex-ZAFT pilot cursed and cursed, even considering slamming the door in front of the other boy’s face. Who had ever seen this surprising pervert side of his best friend? Hell, he surely had not until now.

“You’re her number two, right? If it so, then I’m very glad. Just think. Really, really think about it.” Still smiling innocently, Kira closed the door.

The childish part of him wanted to scowl again, but another part, which was more mature, warned him that he already had enough scowl today. So instead of following the urge to act not so wisely, he sat down on the edge of her bed, watching her sleeping face closely.

He slipped some of her hair behind her ear. She wrinkled her nose and eyebrows, trying to bat his fingers in no avail and mumbling something that sounded so close to his own name. Well, that actually sounded like his name, he dared to bet.

It was when understanding dawned in his mind.

She did not mumble Orb, or anyone else’s name; it was his name on her lips.

His name.

Sliding beside her underneath the blanket, a soft, small smile seeped in to his lips, soothing away his previous down feeling.

Kira was right—again. It was not such an ugly feeling he drowned in ever since he had known her. It was pleasant and comfortable—her loving him in her own way. Kira was her much loved brother, Lacus was her trusted ally and friend and Akatsuki was her top concern nowadays, but they were not her number two. She did not come to them to have a nap together or to just merely converse about trivial things, and she did not claim any of them as her personal pillow. If he were so stupid to realize that he was Cagalli’s number two, she would gladly be there to remind him of that—in one and another way.

As he circled an arm around her slender waist, another small, unconscious mumble escaped her lips again, and this time he heard it right.

“Good night, Athrun.”

Cagalli’s number two was her most loved person, right?

Riiiight.

“I guess it’s not too bad to be number two, then...”