Gundam Seed Destiny Fan Fiction / Gundam SEED Fan Fiction ❯ Play of the Fates ❯ IV: The One With The Sparks ( Chapter 4 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: PaolaAdara 
Anime/Manga: Gundam Seed Destiny Fan Fiction / Gundam SEED Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 06.09.2007 | Updated On: 06.09.2007 | Pages: 3 | Words: 5.2K | Visits: 428 | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: Gundam Seed Destiny Fan Fiction / Gundam SEED Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 06.09.2007 | Updated On: 06.09.2007 | Pages: 3 | Words: 5.2K | Visits: 428 | Status: Work In Progress
Title: Play of the Fates (4 of ?)
Author: Paola
Disclaimer: Play of the Fates is based on characters and situations that belong to Sotsu Agency, Bandai Studios, and TV Asashi (and other production affiliates that have the right of ownership). No money is being made, and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Considerations: Similarities to other stories/events/passages are purely coincidental unless otherwise cited, and beliefs and points of view found in the story do not necessarily reflect those of the author’s.
The idea to make the chapter titles begin with “The One…” is from the TV show, F.R.I.E.N.D.S
This may, in all possible intent, be differently written compared to any of the author's previous literary ventures.
Rating: Rated M for language and adult situations. You have been warned.
Play of the Fates
Chapter Four
Cagalli found herself being ushered towards a quaint, open-air, patio-type café at the back of Genesis Motors at half-past nine. Athrun’s secretary had called her secretary that their meeting was moved because he had a sudden important conference to attend at lunch, which would have thrown her own schedule off if she actually had a full timetable. Of all the days I could have a great amount of free time, it had to be today. She cursed her rotten luck.
Sighing and resisting the urge to childishly stomp her foot, she walked over an empty table and ordered a drink once a waiter walked up to her. And when she had her breakfast mimosa in hand, she took a sip and immediately felt a little better. Detachedly, she wondered why there was always alcohol present whenever she would meet him, but it was nine-thirty in the morning and she was a in a place she didn’t want to be in, so she figured a little morning cocktail wouldn’t hurt. Besides, no one gets drunk over mimosa.
“Have my secretary file this for me. I’d like to run over this again later.”
Cagalli looked up at the sound of the familiar voice and saw Athrun talking to a younger man whom she decided was a messenger. She disinterestedly watched him from where she was seated, cursorily taking notice of how he carried himself, all confident in the manner he spoke, gestured, and returned the brief greetings of the other people who passed him by. She briefly noted how he seemed comfortable in the way he moved, and, although she didn’t particularly like him, she admitted he looked good in the forest green turtleneck he had on under his black sports jacket, along with the wool pants he was sporting.
Taking another sip of her mimosa, she averted her gaze, squinting behind her sunglasses when the early morning sunlight glinted off a steel tray one of the waiters was carrying. Athrun was one of the few men she wouldn’t mind seeing if they hadn’t met the way they did, and for some unnamed reason, he slightly made her want to get back to the dating market in the hopes of encountering another heaven-sent face – he was a good looking man, she would give him that. Technically, she was currently unattached, but because she tended to wave away members of the opposite sex who showed the littlest interest in her lately, she might as well have come up with an imaginary boyfriend that prevented her from dating other men.
“Yes, sir.” The messenger waited for Athrun to finish signing whatever needed to be signed before walking away.
When she heard the messenger wishing Athrun a good day, she returned her attention to them but immediately looked another way when she noticed him striding over her table. She hated being caught looking, even when she knew inside her that she wasn’t keenly interested in what she was looking at.
“Good morning,” he greeted upon pulling out a chair for himself.
“Good morning,” she greeted back, allowing herself to smile since it was a beautiful morning despite her wishing she were somewhere else.
“Breakfast?” he asked, but before she could reply, a waitress was already waiting on them. “I’ll have the eggs benedict and a cup of coffee. Black.” He turned towards Cagalli. “Anything you want?”
Cagalli handed the waitress her empty flute of mimosa after skimming through the menu. “Sausage, and eggs, and blueberry scones.”
“How would you like your eggs, ma’am?” the waitress asked, jotting down her order.
“Poached. And I’ll have another glass of mimosa.”
When the waitress disappeared to fetch their orders, Athrun openly chuckled at her, causing her to raise an eyebrow at him. “Anything distinctly funny?”
He shook his head. “It’s too early to be drinking.”
“It’s orange juice.”
“With champagne.”
“When do you expect anyone to drink breakfast mimosas? During dinner?”
“You don’t have to sound so hostile,” he sounded amused.
Cagalli glared at him, though she indifferently wondered if he could see it behind the dark lenses of her YSL metal frames. “I wasn’t being hostile!” She quickly bit her lower lip after that, afraid that she might spout off something ruder if she didn’t try to stop herself. “Anyway, about my transaction–”
“It’s too early for that, too,” he cut her off.
“No, it’s not. You were doing business when you came here.”
“I wasn’t. I was bossing my people around.” He let a lazy smile play on his lips.
A dash of red siphoned through her cheeks, either from some inexplicable embarrassment or something else being triggered by that smile. “I have a very busy schedule, you know. It would help some if we start business now.”
Their preferred beverages arrived, and Athrun hooked a finger around the ear of his coffee cup. “Have you? Your secretary assured mine that you have a pretty open page today.” He took a careful sip of the hot liquid without taking his eyes off her.
“What does she know?” she hurriedly covered. “You know, Athrun,” she began again, using his given name caustically, “some of us have better things to do and couldn’t just be stuck here waiting for the likes of you take up our time.”
Athrun didn’t take the bait. “Say, those are very nice sunglasses,” he digressed, his tone implying that she take them off.
“I know. And I plan to have them on this whole morning,” she replied, gritting her teeth at his apparent attempt to shift their conversation. “I don’t like looking directly at you.” She inwardly berated herself. That was low. What she planned, really, was to get out of this supposed business meeting with her dignity intact, and that meant being the adult in their conversations. With a cheap shot like that, she was sure she wasn’t looking very professional right now.
Athrun only grinned at her. “Don’t be rude, Cagalli.”
“I’m not being rude. You’re just insignificant,” she flippantly countered.
He gazed at her with half-lidded eyes. “Am I?”
Cagalli had to look away. She hated how he could make his simplest answer sound like it meant something else. She busied herself with cutting her sausages into manageable pieces, inclined to shut her mouth and wait for him to talk.
She was halfway through her scones and still Athrun remained silent, seemingly fine with keeping a pregnant silence between them. She stole a glance from the corner of her eye to see if, by chance, he was getting ready to say something, only to notice him perfectly comfortable with keeping his thoughts to himself. She gritted her teeth. She hated tension-filled silences like this one. More so when it appeared as though she was the only one who could feel it.
She had to say something to dispel the quiet that reigned. Anything would do…
“Since we’re being awkward and all–” she cut herself off, getting annoyed at the slow smile that was forming across his lips, quite telling her that his quiet was a game. “What are you smiling at me for?”
“You’re amusing, Ms. Athha. I didn’t think we were being awkward at all.”
Cagalli inwardly snarled. She snatched the sunglasses off her nose and proceeded to glare at him for all she was worth. She only realized her mistake when he settled back in his seat, followed her movement, and gazed back at her face. This was what he was trying to make her do just a little while ago, and she fell for it.
Again, that indolent smile. A tiny tingle went down her spine, and she knew she was blushing at the unexpected reaction.
“But go on.”
She was eternally grateful that he didn’t call her on it. How could this man in front of her make her blush just like that? It was incomprehensible, and she ought to put a stop to it. Right now, if the Fates would be so kind as to be on her side.
Cagalli cleared her throat. “About…” she faltered. She bit her lip hard, futilely trying to halt the red tint that was creeping up her cheeks. “About that one night,” she tried again, “I was hoping we can forget about it.”
“What night?”
“Let’s not play ignorant here.”
“What night?”
Cagalli didn’t think he could forget that fateful night. It was the source of all her current embarrassment, and she was certain she had been the one too drunk that time and that he had been sober. He couldn’t have forgotten, so why was he playing with her?
For the umpteenth time that morning, she glared at him, but he didn’t appear mischievous, just a little confused, and that made her suddenly uncertain about him remembering that night she was talking about.
Athrun took a sip of his coffee and patiently waited to be answered.
Cagalli didn’t know what to think then. He honestly seemed like he didn’t know what she was referring to. Maybe he really didn’t recognize her. Maybe she was reading his actions the wrong way. Maybe she was just being paranoid. And for all these confused feelings he evoked from her, one thing was clear: she was highly offended that he could actually forget her. She knew she wasn’t the prettiest girl in Orb, she knew that she might not be his best lay, and she acknowledged that she had actually wanted him to never think back on that night, but no girl wanted to be forgotten.
Cagalli blew air through gritted teeth, then affected indifference as she waved a dismissive hand. “Never mind. I must be mistaking you for someone else…”
Athrun shook his head. “Unlikely. I never get mistaken for someone else.”
Cagalli gave an unlady-like snort. “There’s a first for everything.” She checked her watch. She had to be back in her office in thirty minutes, and she was scandalized to note that she hadn’t gotten what she’d come here for. Her schedule was, indeed, quite open, but that was for the afternoon. She had a meeting to prepare for and attend in half an hour, and he didn’t seem to care that he was wasting her time.
“It’s impolite to be checking your watch while you’re in a meeting with someone,” he smoothly veered off-topic.
Cagalli’s eyes widened. “I can’t believe you said that!” She instantly bit her lip when she realized how loud her voice had been. “This isn’t a meeting, excuse me. I wanted to transact business, but you wanted to waste my time. And now I have to leave, and I haven’t accomplished anything!” She finished her mimosa and stuffed her sunglasses back on the bridge of her nose.
“I planned for an appointment over lunch, but I have a conference to attend then. And I’m sorry that you were misinformed, but I didn’t schedule this meeting to talk business. I merely wanted someone to accompany me for breakfast.”
“What?” Cagalli felt like knocking that cocky grin off his face with a splash of very cold water, but he was already standing up, and she wasn’t planning on being towered over.
“You’ve been great company, Ms. Athha.”
Oh, the jerk! Common decency prevented her from lunging at him and pulling at his hair. “Fuck you, Zala,” but common decency didn’t stop her from cursing him under her breath.
Cagalli was a little startled when Athrun stepped closer to her and ducked his head to whisper in her ear. It didn’t take more than a second for her to get infuriated at his audacity, but she didn’t want to cause a scene so she kept herself from shoving him away. What he whispered, however, made her want to throw caution to the wind and strangle him silly.
“That can be arranged.”
Of course, she would want to strangle him until his ancestors flinched in their graves after she recovered from the onslaught of redness that stole across her face. He’d heard, and he was using her words against her. Damn him.
“I’ll set up a meeting next time,” he breezily uttered, once again away at a safe distance. He signed the bill the waiter presented him, then he was walking away.
o-o
Cagalli fumed in the cab she was taking to her father’s company. The jerk was playing games with her! All that time he knew what she’d been talking about, and he pretended he couldn’t understand where she was getting at. She almost believed him, and that was acutely stupid on her part because the last time they met, his actions intimated that he hadn’t forgotten. Of course, she could have just imagined all this – that Athrun had hinted at how they really met to other people to tease her – but to almost fall for the oldest trick in the book was out of character. She was incensed. She was indignant. She was experiencing a plethora of feelings akin to resentment. She was inwardly cursing with colorful profanities that she would have been ashamed of if she were actually delivering them out loud. And with much chagrin, she wondered why she had allowed him to leave unscathed. She didn’t have to physically get back at him, but she should have done something to regain a bit of her dignity.
Cagalli distractedly viewed the passing scenery as she blew air through clenched teeth. She had never met a more frustrating man than him, and that was saying a lot since they had only met a handful of times since that night – thrice, to be exact. She wasn’t prone to hating anyone in just a span of three meetings. She was pretty fair in giving people chances to change her first impression of them, if she could say so herself. But Athrun – he was just someone that could occupy her mind and easily boil her blood. Maybe she was born to hate him, but considering how they had spent their first night of getting acquainted, maybe she was born to sleep with him first then hate him for the rest of her life.
Grimacing at her dry humor, she clenched her hand, and only relaxed when she felt the piercing pressure of her fingernails against her palm. Maybe she was overreacting, but she could only think up one solution to get out of this mess. She’d always been the kid who faced her fears no matter the trouble she would get herself into later on, and if she knew herself well – and she did – that kid grew up but didn’t lose even half of her foolhardy courage. She might regret what she was about to do in the very near future, especially since she’d be late for her meeting, but once she set her mind on doing something, she almost always made sure to have it accomplished, the consequences be damned.
“Excuse me?” she kindly interrupted the taxi driver after inhaling a cleansing breath, partly to gain a little perspective, and partly to understand that talking to the cab driver with her displeasure towards the recent event in the forefront of her mind wasn’t such a good idea. She had dragged enough innocent people into her mess back when she was still very young, and they were enough to last her a lifetime. “Can you take me back to where I flagged you?”
The cab driver looked at her weirdly through the rearview mirror, which wasn’t misplaced since they had gone a long way from where she had hailed the cab. Then he shrugged, hitting the lever to signal that he was making a turn. “‘S’your jacks, lady.”
Cagalli chose to ignore the look he had sent her. “Yes, I know. Thank you.”
It was time to clear things a little bit.
o-o
Athrun ran a hand through his dark locks. That had been an interesting breakfast. More so than what he’d have had he decided to invite Lacus and Kira instead, he was certain. That Cagalli sure was something. She was just so darn expressive that if he’d run a show and only had her as the sole guest speaker everyday, people would have still raved about it. And if she had convinced herself that she was pretty adept at reining in her obvious outward reactions, then she’d make one hell of a liar.
Shuffling a few documents on his desk and preparing for a conference that he’d hold in less than two hours, he shook his head. He did admit to himself that he was attracted to her. She was cute in all accounts, not too mention that he’d gotten more than an innocent look of her. But the different thing was, he highly enjoyed pushing her buttons and teasing her senses whereas he hardly kidded around in his past relationships. Sure, he’d had his share of playfulness, but… He shook his head again, unable to find the right words to finish his current train of thought.
His intercom buzzed just as he sank into the soft leather of his high-backed swivel chair. It was without interest when he leant forward to press the receive button. “Yes?”
“Mr. Zala,” the voice of his secretary floated silkily over the line. “The CEOs of the other Genesis Motors companies are at the lobby.”
Athrun’s brow furrowed. “They’re early,” he stated, much to confirm what his secretary said and just as much to imply a question about why they were so.
“Yes, sir, but they’re flight was moved to an earlier time, and they are asking if you could hold the meeting now before they settle in their hotel.”
If he had things going on at this moment, the presence of the chief executive officers would have caused a lot of trouble – they were important people, and he couldn’t just brush them off that easily – but as his case was, he wasn’t doing anything.
“Tell the receptionist to send them up. Is the conference room available?”
“The one we first intended to use is still being occupied by Mr. Cramer and his staff.”
“Any room available?” Athrun opened a drawer to retrieve his flash drive.
“The conference room down the hall.”
“That’s the war room,” he stated. He didn’t like the idea of holding the meeting in the war room, not because it was inadequately equipped, but because he didn’t particularly hold a high regard for that room. It was where they usually debated about car designs, engine manufacturers, and everything else that almost always turned into heated arguments whenever he was down on Earth to oversee the Genesis Motors in Orb. And, more often than not, the war room wasn’t the tidiest area in the building.
His secretary remained silent, obviously not understanding what he meant.
“Never mind. I’ll hold it here in my office.” He cursorily surveyed his office and affirmed that it was big enough to house five more people. It was a good thing he wouldn’t be meeting with all of the eleven people representing the other eleven companies at the PLANTs.
He cut off the communication before he even heard his secretary’s reply. Standing up, he grabbed the remote for the projector off his desk and began to walk towards the equipment in his office to prepare for the meeting.
Not long after, there was a knock on his door, then the head of his secretary poked in to inform him that his party was here. He nodded and his secretary opened the heavy wood wider to let the five executives through.
After a few pleasantries, they ploughed through the documents and issues needed to be discussed, one of which, and was given high importance, was the sellout of the Nazca Corporation. If they could stomp their competition and get their hands on the corporation, they could expect a rise in their stocks and an increase in their output. It would upset their loss four years back when there had been a breach in their company and caused some inside information trading that hurt their business.
Athrun was in the middle of discussing a certain aspect of the sellout when his door banged open.
One of the things he hated was being disturbed while he was in a meeting, especially if it were because of something he didn’t consider very important at the moment. And at the moment, the most important thing he was busying himself with was talking business with his colleagues.
He took a calming breath and turned to face the door to tell off his secretary for intruding upon his discussion when the least expected person appeared in his line of sight. His secretary was standing by the door, speechless and a little red in the face, while Cagalli paused to cast a perfunctory glance at his company before settling her marigold orbs on him.
He performed a quick mental calculation and found it safer to address his secretary first before the blonde standing imperiously by the doorway, “Has there been a conference room vacated just now?”
His secretary appeared startled. “Uh, yes, sir. Just a little while ago, Mr. Cramer had wrapped up his meeting.”
“Very well,” he answered in a deceptively calm voice. He turned to address his party. “Excuse me for a moment, and I’m sorry for the interruption.” The five other officers recovered from the situation and got up to follow his secretary to another room, thankfully not asking questions. Then he was left alone with Cagalli when the door finally closed.
Although he found the blonde extremely interesting, she wasn’t endearing herself to him right now. And even if she had come marching in his office in her own volition, he wasn’t very happy about it.
“I don’t appreciate your disruption of my conference, Ms. Athha,” he said in a clipped tone. He didn’t want to lose his calm, but he was meeting with people who played important roles in the company so he couldn’t quite keep the vexed pitch from his voice now that they were alone. She, however, surprised him with her answer.
o-o
Cagalli had had to argue extensively with his secretary – whom she thought was a complete slattern – before she was able to work her way into his office. And even when he appeared to be in the middle of a meeting, she couldn’t quite care at the moment. She needed to make him understand that she wasn’t going to play his game, and her indignation couldn’t wait. It was very smart of him to tell his colleagues to leave the room because she didn’t think she’d be stopped from making a scene.
Obviously, he wasn’t thinking very high of her this minute, what with his tone of voice, but if he thought he could get off with reprimanding her like so, he was mistaken.
“Get off your high horse, you asshole!” She was pleased when Athrun’s face registered shock, and if she didn’t have a shred of courtesy left anymore, she would have vilified him in a way that would even shame the devil in comparison.
“You don’t have the right to–”
“Don’t tell me I don’t have the right to barge in here!” she cut him off, deciding that if her conscience didn’t allow her to revile him, she might as well shout at him. She stalked towards him, and, without thinking, poked him hard on the chest. “You listen here, Zala. I don’t appreciate how you think you can just talk to me like how you did a while ago! You don’t have the right to pretend like you didn’t know what I was talking about! Something happened between us, all right, and I don’t like how you’re making light of everything! I have a business to transact with you, so I don’t need you insinuating all those innuendos! Do you hear me? So stop it!”
“Cagalli–”
Cagalli paced a little before rounding on him again, once more cutting him off, “Don’t ‘Cagalli’ me! I’ve had it with your behavior! If you think there are sexual sparks bouncing off the walls when we’re facing each other, then you have another thing coming! Stop hinting at…at…” she faltered, making the mistake of pausing in her tirade while she was still trying to bruise him with her poking.
He alarmed her when he caught her finger and backed her towards the wall just beside the white slide, especially when he pinned her arm over her head. “Hinting at what?”
She made to push her off him, but he apprehended her free arm and brought it behind her back. He pressed against her, trapping her between him and the wall and leaving both of them in an awkward position that didn’t seem to be bothering him. It was with unbridled horrification that she realized how their condition effectively eradicated the words that were forming in her mouth.
“Hinting at what, Ms. Athha?” he asked again, voice annoyingly smooth, like silk against her skin. Gone was the anger from his visage, replaced by something else she couldn’t quite read.
The lights hadn’t been turned on since her abrupt entrance and the projector was still running, casting a play of lights on his face. He was so close that she was having a hard time thinking. She opened her mouth to tell him off, but only air came out.
“I can’t hear you,” he whispered, his breath ghosting over her lips as he came closer.
Cagalli’s thoughts zoomed inside her head with a painful celerity, making it very difficult for her to grasp a single train to help her in her situation. Her heart was pounding so loud that she wondered if he could hear it, and just as she thought things couldn’t get worse, Athrun inclined his head, bringing their lips to almost a touching distance. Now she was more afraid to make any sudden movements because she might end up being in a lip-lock with him – a situation she didn’t fancy to find herself in for she didn’t know what would happen then.
She gulped, and when he talked, his lips brushed against the side of her mouth in the most feathery of touches. Every nerve ending in her body was going haywire, tingling with anticipation of something she didn’t think she wanted. And if he kissed her right then and there, she wouldn’t know how to tell herself not to return it.
“Just so you know, I wasn’t keenly aware of the sparks that you were talking about because you hadn’t appeared very interested, but now that you’ve mentioned it, I couldn’t help but think that there really is something crackling between us.” She felt the grin on his lips more than she saw it. “And I don’t think I’d believe you even if you deny it. Not now.” He inclined his head further.
Cagalli involuntarily shivered when he pressed a lingering kiss on the juncture between her neck and shoulder. He released her then, fluidly pulling back, like a feline awakening from sleep, and she was very thankful that the lights were dim because she could feel just how red she was. But even as she inwardly breathed a sigh of relief, her insides were screaming about the sudden loss of contact.
She hated herself.
“I told you that I’d set us up a meeting again. I’ll see you then.” He was out the door before she could register his apparent dismissal.
It took a moment before she could regain her bearings, and when she did, she became more infuriated at him than she was before striding inside the sanctum of his office.
x-x-x-x-x
Author: Paola
Disclaimer: Play of the Fates is based on characters and situations that belong to Sotsu Agency, Bandai Studios, and TV Asashi (and other production affiliates that have the right of ownership). No money is being made, and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Considerations: Similarities to other stories/events/passages are purely coincidental unless otherwise cited, and beliefs and points of view found in the story do not necessarily reflect those of the author’s.
The idea to make the chapter titles begin with “The One…” is from the TV show, F.R.I.E.N.D.S
This may, in all possible intent, be differently written compared to any of the author's previous literary ventures.
Rating: Rated M for language and adult situations. You have been warned.
Play of the Fates
Chapter Four
Cagalli found herself being ushered towards a quaint, open-air, patio-type café at the back of Genesis Motors at half-past nine. Athrun’s secretary had called her secretary that their meeting was moved because he had a sudden important conference to attend at lunch, which would have thrown her own schedule off if she actually had a full timetable. Of all the days I could have a great amount of free time, it had to be today. She cursed her rotten luck.
Sighing and resisting the urge to childishly stomp her foot, she walked over an empty table and ordered a drink once a waiter walked up to her. And when she had her breakfast mimosa in hand, she took a sip and immediately felt a little better. Detachedly, she wondered why there was always alcohol present whenever she would meet him, but it was nine-thirty in the morning and she was a in a place she didn’t want to be in, so she figured a little morning cocktail wouldn’t hurt. Besides, no one gets drunk over mimosa.
“Have my secretary file this for me. I’d like to run over this again later.”
Cagalli looked up at the sound of the familiar voice and saw Athrun talking to a younger man whom she decided was a messenger. She disinterestedly watched him from where she was seated, cursorily taking notice of how he carried himself, all confident in the manner he spoke, gestured, and returned the brief greetings of the other people who passed him by. She briefly noted how he seemed comfortable in the way he moved, and, although she didn’t particularly like him, she admitted he looked good in the forest green turtleneck he had on under his black sports jacket, along with the wool pants he was sporting.
Taking another sip of her mimosa, she averted her gaze, squinting behind her sunglasses when the early morning sunlight glinted off a steel tray one of the waiters was carrying. Athrun was one of the few men she wouldn’t mind seeing if they hadn’t met the way they did, and for some unnamed reason, he slightly made her want to get back to the dating market in the hopes of encountering another heaven-sent face – he was a good looking man, she would give him that. Technically, she was currently unattached, but because she tended to wave away members of the opposite sex who showed the littlest interest in her lately, she might as well have come up with an imaginary boyfriend that prevented her from dating other men.
“Yes, sir.” The messenger waited for Athrun to finish signing whatever needed to be signed before walking away.
When she heard the messenger wishing Athrun a good day, she returned her attention to them but immediately looked another way when she noticed him striding over her table. She hated being caught looking, even when she knew inside her that she wasn’t keenly interested in what she was looking at.
“Good morning,” he greeted upon pulling out a chair for himself.
“Good morning,” she greeted back, allowing herself to smile since it was a beautiful morning despite her wishing she were somewhere else.
“Breakfast?” he asked, but before she could reply, a waitress was already waiting on them. “I’ll have the eggs benedict and a cup of coffee. Black.” He turned towards Cagalli. “Anything you want?”
Cagalli handed the waitress her empty flute of mimosa after skimming through the menu. “Sausage, and eggs, and blueberry scones.”
“How would you like your eggs, ma’am?” the waitress asked, jotting down her order.
“Poached. And I’ll have another glass of mimosa.”
When the waitress disappeared to fetch their orders, Athrun openly chuckled at her, causing her to raise an eyebrow at him. “Anything distinctly funny?”
He shook his head. “It’s too early to be drinking.”
“It’s orange juice.”
“With champagne.”
“When do you expect anyone to drink breakfast mimosas? During dinner?”
“You don’t have to sound so hostile,” he sounded amused.
Cagalli glared at him, though she indifferently wondered if he could see it behind the dark lenses of her YSL metal frames. “I wasn’t being hostile!” She quickly bit her lower lip after that, afraid that she might spout off something ruder if she didn’t try to stop herself. “Anyway, about my transaction–”
“It’s too early for that, too,” he cut her off.
“No, it’s not. You were doing business when you came here.”
“I wasn’t. I was bossing my people around.” He let a lazy smile play on his lips.
A dash of red siphoned through her cheeks, either from some inexplicable embarrassment or something else being triggered by that smile. “I have a very busy schedule, you know. It would help some if we start business now.”
Their preferred beverages arrived, and Athrun hooked a finger around the ear of his coffee cup. “Have you? Your secretary assured mine that you have a pretty open page today.” He took a careful sip of the hot liquid without taking his eyes off her.
“What does she know?” she hurriedly covered. “You know, Athrun,” she began again, using his given name caustically, “some of us have better things to do and couldn’t just be stuck here waiting for the likes of you take up our time.”
Athrun didn’t take the bait. “Say, those are very nice sunglasses,” he digressed, his tone implying that she take them off.
“I know. And I plan to have them on this whole morning,” she replied, gritting her teeth at his apparent attempt to shift their conversation. “I don’t like looking directly at you.” She inwardly berated herself. That was low. What she planned, really, was to get out of this supposed business meeting with her dignity intact, and that meant being the adult in their conversations. With a cheap shot like that, she was sure she wasn’t looking very professional right now.
Athrun only grinned at her. “Don’t be rude, Cagalli.”
“I’m not being rude. You’re just insignificant,” she flippantly countered.
He gazed at her with half-lidded eyes. “Am I?”
Cagalli had to look away. She hated how he could make his simplest answer sound like it meant something else. She busied herself with cutting her sausages into manageable pieces, inclined to shut her mouth and wait for him to talk.
She was halfway through her scones and still Athrun remained silent, seemingly fine with keeping a pregnant silence between them. She stole a glance from the corner of her eye to see if, by chance, he was getting ready to say something, only to notice him perfectly comfortable with keeping his thoughts to himself. She gritted her teeth. She hated tension-filled silences like this one. More so when it appeared as though she was the only one who could feel it.
She had to say something to dispel the quiet that reigned. Anything would do…
“Since we’re being awkward and all–” she cut herself off, getting annoyed at the slow smile that was forming across his lips, quite telling her that his quiet was a game. “What are you smiling at me for?”
“You’re amusing, Ms. Athha. I didn’t think we were being awkward at all.”
Cagalli inwardly snarled. She snatched the sunglasses off her nose and proceeded to glare at him for all she was worth. She only realized her mistake when he settled back in his seat, followed her movement, and gazed back at her face. This was what he was trying to make her do just a little while ago, and she fell for it.
Again, that indolent smile. A tiny tingle went down her spine, and she knew she was blushing at the unexpected reaction.
“But go on.”
She was eternally grateful that he didn’t call her on it. How could this man in front of her make her blush just like that? It was incomprehensible, and she ought to put a stop to it. Right now, if the Fates would be so kind as to be on her side.
Cagalli cleared her throat. “About…” she faltered. She bit her lip hard, futilely trying to halt the red tint that was creeping up her cheeks. “About that one night,” she tried again, “I was hoping we can forget about it.”
“What night?”
“Let’s not play ignorant here.”
“What night?”
Cagalli didn’t think he could forget that fateful night. It was the source of all her current embarrassment, and she was certain she had been the one too drunk that time and that he had been sober. He couldn’t have forgotten, so why was he playing with her?
For the umpteenth time that morning, she glared at him, but he didn’t appear mischievous, just a little confused, and that made her suddenly uncertain about him remembering that night she was talking about.
Athrun took a sip of his coffee and patiently waited to be answered.
Cagalli didn’t know what to think then. He honestly seemed like he didn’t know what she was referring to. Maybe he really didn’t recognize her. Maybe she was reading his actions the wrong way. Maybe she was just being paranoid. And for all these confused feelings he evoked from her, one thing was clear: she was highly offended that he could actually forget her. She knew she wasn’t the prettiest girl in Orb, she knew that she might not be his best lay, and she acknowledged that she had actually wanted him to never think back on that night, but no girl wanted to be forgotten.
Cagalli blew air through gritted teeth, then affected indifference as she waved a dismissive hand. “Never mind. I must be mistaking you for someone else…”
Athrun shook his head. “Unlikely. I never get mistaken for someone else.”
Cagalli gave an unlady-like snort. “There’s a first for everything.” She checked her watch. She had to be back in her office in thirty minutes, and she was scandalized to note that she hadn’t gotten what she’d come here for. Her schedule was, indeed, quite open, but that was for the afternoon. She had a meeting to prepare for and attend in half an hour, and he didn’t seem to care that he was wasting her time.
“It’s impolite to be checking your watch while you’re in a meeting with someone,” he smoothly veered off-topic.
Cagalli’s eyes widened. “I can’t believe you said that!” She instantly bit her lip when she realized how loud her voice had been. “This isn’t a meeting, excuse me. I wanted to transact business, but you wanted to waste my time. And now I have to leave, and I haven’t accomplished anything!” She finished her mimosa and stuffed her sunglasses back on the bridge of her nose.
“I planned for an appointment over lunch, but I have a conference to attend then. And I’m sorry that you were misinformed, but I didn’t schedule this meeting to talk business. I merely wanted someone to accompany me for breakfast.”
“What?” Cagalli felt like knocking that cocky grin off his face with a splash of very cold water, but he was already standing up, and she wasn’t planning on being towered over.
“You’ve been great company, Ms. Athha.”
Oh, the jerk! Common decency prevented her from lunging at him and pulling at his hair. “Fuck you, Zala,” but common decency didn’t stop her from cursing him under her breath.
Cagalli was a little startled when Athrun stepped closer to her and ducked his head to whisper in her ear. It didn’t take more than a second for her to get infuriated at his audacity, but she didn’t want to cause a scene so she kept herself from shoving him away. What he whispered, however, made her want to throw caution to the wind and strangle him silly.
“That can be arranged.”
Of course, she would want to strangle him until his ancestors flinched in their graves after she recovered from the onslaught of redness that stole across her face. He’d heard, and he was using her words against her. Damn him.
“I’ll set up a meeting next time,” he breezily uttered, once again away at a safe distance. He signed the bill the waiter presented him, then he was walking away.
o-o
Cagalli fumed in the cab she was taking to her father’s company. The jerk was playing games with her! All that time he knew what she’d been talking about, and he pretended he couldn’t understand where she was getting at. She almost believed him, and that was acutely stupid on her part because the last time they met, his actions intimated that he hadn’t forgotten. Of course, she could have just imagined all this – that Athrun had hinted at how they really met to other people to tease her – but to almost fall for the oldest trick in the book was out of character. She was incensed. She was indignant. She was experiencing a plethora of feelings akin to resentment. She was inwardly cursing with colorful profanities that she would have been ashamed of if she were actually delivering them out loud. And with much chagrin, she wondered why she had allowed him to leave unscathed. She didn’t have to physically get back at him, but she should have done something to regain a bit of her dignity.
Cagalli distractedly viewed the passing scenery as she blew air through clenched teeth. She had never met a more frustrating man than him, and that was saying a lot since they had only met a handful of times since that night – thrice, to be exact. She wasn’t prone to hating anyone in just a span of three meetings. She was pretty fair in giving people chances to change her first impression of them, if she could say so herself. But Athrun – he was just someone that could occupy her mind and easily boil her blood. Maybe she was born to hate him, but considering how they had spent their first night of getting acquainted, maybe she was born to sleep with him first then hate him for the rest of her life.
Grimacing at her dry humor, she clenched her hand, and only relaxed when she felt the piercing pressure of her fingernails against her palm. Maybe she was overreacting, but she could only think up one solution to get out of this mess. She’d always been the kid who faced her fears no matter the trouble she would get herself into later on, and if she knew herself well – and she did – that kid grew up but didn’t lose even half of her foolhardy courage. She might regret what she was about to do in the very near future, especially since she’d be late for her meeting, but once she set her mind on doing something, she almost always made sure to have it accomplished, the consequences be damned.
“Excuse me?” she kindly interrupted the taxi driver after inhaling a cleansing breath, partly to gain a little perspective, and partly to understand that talking to the cab driver with her displeasure towards the recent event in the forefront of her mind wasn’t such a good idea. She had dragged enough innocent people into her mess back when she was still very young, and they were enough to last her a lifetime. “Can you take me back to where I flagged you?”
The cab driver looked at her weirdly through the rearview mirror, which wasn’t misplaced since they had gone a long way from where she had hailed the cab. Then he shrugged, hitting the lever to signal that he was making a turn. “‘S’your jacks, lady.”
Cagalli chose to ignore the look he had sent her. “Yes, I know. Thank you.”
It was time to clear things a little bit.
o-o
Athrun ran a hand through his dark locks. That had been an interesting breakfast. More so than what he’d have had he decided to invite Lacus and Kira instead, he was certain. That Cagalli sure was something. She was just so darn expressive that if he’d run a show and only had her as the sole guest speaker everyday, people would have still raved about it. And if she had convinced herself that she was pretty adept at reining in her obvious outward reactions, then she’d make one hell of a liar.
Shuffling a few documents on his desk and preparing for a conference that he’d hold in less than two hours, he shook his head. He did admit to himself that he was attracted to her. She was cute in all accounts, not too mention that he’d gotten more than an innocent look of her. But the different thing was, he highly enjoyed pushing her buttons and teasing her senses whereas he hardly kidded around in his past relationships. Sure, he’d had his share of playfulness, but… He shook his head again, unable to find the right words to finish his current train of thought.
His intercom buzzed just as he sank into the soft leather of his high-backed swivel chair. It was without interest when he leant forward to press the receive button. “Yes?”
“Mr. Zala,” the voice of his secretary floated silkily over the line. “The CEOs of the other Genesis Motors companies are at the lobby.”
Athrun’s brow furrowed. “They’re early,” he stated, much to confirm what his secretary said and just as much to imply a question about why they were so.
“Yes, sir, but they’re flight was moved to an earlier time, and they are asking if you could hold the meeting now before they settle in their hotel.”
If he had things going on at this moment, the presence of the chief executive officers would have caused a lot of trouble – they were important people, and he couldn’t just brush them off that easily – but as his case was, he wasn’t doing anything.
“Tell the receptionist to send them up. Is the conference room available?”
“The one we first intended to use is still being occupied by Mr. Cramer and his staff.”
“Any room available?” Athrun opened a drawer to retrieve his flash drive.
“The conference room down the hall.”
“That’s the war room,” he stated. He didn’t like the idea of holding the meeting in the war room, not because it was inadequately equipped, but because he didn’t particularly hold a high regard for that room. It was where they usually debated about car designs, engine manufacturers, and everything else that almost always turned into heated arguments whenever he was down on Earth to oversee the Genesis Motors in Orb. And, more often than not, the war room wasn’t the tidiest area in the building.
His secretary remained silent, obviously not understanding what he meant.
“Never mind. I’ll hold it here in my office.” He cursorily surveyed his office and affirmed that it was big enough to house five more people. It was a good thing he wouldn’t be meeting with all of the eleven people representing the other eleven companies at the PLANTs.
He cut off the communication before he even heard his secretary’s reply. Standing up, he grabbed the remote for the projector off his desk and began to walk towards the equipment in his office to prepare for the meeting.
Not long after, there was a knock on his door, then the head of his secretary poked in to inform him that his party was here. He nodded and his secretary opened the heavy wood wider to let the five executives through.
After a few pleasantries, they ploughed through the documents and issues needed to be discussed, one of which, and was given high importance, was the sellout of the Nazca Corporation. If they could stomp their competition and get their hands on the corporation, they could expect a rise in their stocks and an increase in their output. It would upset their loss four years back when there had been a breach in their company and caused some inside information trading that hurt their business.
Athrun was in the middle of discussing a certain aspect of the sellout when his door banged open.
One of the things he hated was being disturbed while he was in a meeting, especially if it were because of something he didn’t consider very important at the moment. And at the moment, the most important thing he was busying himself with was talking business with his colleagues.
He took a calming breath and turned to face the door to tell off his secretary for intruding upon his discussion when the least expected person appeared in his line of sight. His secretary was standing by the door, speechless and a little red in the face, while Cagalli paused to cast a perfunctory glance at his company before settling her marigold orbs on him.
He performed a quick mental calculation and found it safer to address his secretary first before the blonde standing imperiously by the doorway, “Has there been a conference room vacated just now?”
His secretary appeared startled. “Uh, yes, sir. Just a little while ago, Mr. Cramer had wrapped up his meeting.”
“Very well,” he answered in a deceptively calm voice. He turned to address his party. “Excuse me for a moment, and I’m sorry for the interruption.” The five other officers recovered from the situation and got up to follow his secretary to another room, thankfully not asking questions. Then he was left alone with Cagalli when the door finally closed.
Although he found the blonde extremely interesting, she wasn’t endearing herself to him right now. And even if she had come marching in his office in her own volition, he wasn’t very happy about it.
“I don’t appreciate your disruption of my conference, Ms. Athha,” he said in a clipped tone. He didn’t want to lose his calm, but he was meeting with people who played important roles in the company so he couldn’t quite keep the vexed pitch from his voice now that they were alone. She, however, surprised him with her answer.
o-o
Cagalli had had to argue extensively with his secretary – whom she thought was a complete slattern – before she was able to work her way into his office. And even when he appeared to be in the middle of a meeting, she couldn’t quite care at the moment. She needed to make him understand that she wasn’t going to play his game, and her indignation couldn’t wait. It was very smart of him to tell his colleagues to leave the room because she didn’t think she’d be stopped from making a scene.
Obviously, he wasn’t thinking very high of her this minute, what with his tone of voice, but if he thought he could get off with reprimanding her like so, he was mistaken.
“Get off your high horse, you asshole!” She was pleased when Athrun’s face registered shock, and if she didn’t have a shred of courtesy left anymore, she would have vilified him in a way that would even shame the devil in comparison.
“You don’t have the right to–”
“Don’t tell me I don’t have the right to barge in here!” she cut him off, deciding that if her conscience didn’t allow her to revile him, she might as well shout at him. She stalked towards him, and, without thinking, poked him hard on the chest. “You listen here, Zala. I don’t appreciate how you think you can just talk to me like how you did a while ago! You don’t have the right to pretend like you didn’t know what I was talking about! Something happened between us, all right, and I don’t like how you’re making light of everything! I have a business to transact with you, so I don’t need you insinuating all those innuendos! Do you hear me? So stop it!”
“Cagalli–”
Cagalli paced a little before rounding on him again, once more cutting him off, “Don’t ‘Cagalli’ me! I’ve had it with your behavior! If you think there are sexual sparks bouncing off the walls when we’re facing each other, then you have another thing coming! Stop hinting at…at…” she faltered, making the mistake of pausing in her tirade while she was still trying to bruise him with her poking.
He alarmed her when he caught her finger and backed her towards the wall just beside the white slide, especially when he pinned her arm over her head. “Hinting at what?”
She made to push her off him, but he apprehended her free arm and brought it behind her back. He pressed against her, trapping her between him and the wall and leaving both of them in an awkward position that didn’t seem to be bothering him. It was with unbridled horrification that she realized how their condition effectively eradicated the words that were forming in her mouth.
“Hinting at what, Ms. Athha?” he asked again, voice annoyingly smooth, like silk against her skin. Gone was the anger from his visage, replaced by something else she couldn’t quite read.
The lights hadn’t been turned on since her abrupt entrance and the projector was still running, casting a play of lights on his face. He was so close that she was having a hard time thinking. She opened her mouth to tell him off, but only air came out.
“I can’t hear you,” he whispered, his breath ghosting over her lips as he came closer.
Cagalli’s thoughts zoomed inside her head with a painful celerity, making it very difficult for her to grasp a single train to help her in her situation. Her heart was pounding so loud that she wondered if he could hear it, and just as she thought things couldn’t get worse, Athrun inclined his head, bringing their lips to almost a touching distance. Now she was more afraid to make any sudden movements because she might end up being in a lip-lock with him – a situation she didn’t fancy to find herself in for she didn’t know what would happen then.
She gulped, and when he talked, his lips brushed against the side of her mouth in the most feathery of touches. Every nerve ending in her body was going haywire, tingling with anticipation of something she didn’t think she wanted. And if he kissed her right then and there, she wouldn’t know how to tell herself not to return it.
“Just so you know, I wasn’t keenly aware of the sparks that you were talking about because you hadn’t appeared very interested, but now that you’ve mentioned it, I couldn’t help but think that there really is something crackling between us.” She felt the grin on his lips more than she saw it. “And I don’t think I’d believe you even if you deny it. Not now.” He inclined his head further.
Cagalli involuntarily shivered when he pressed a lingering kiss on the juncture between her neck and shoulder. He released her then, fluidly pulling back, like a feline awakening from sleep, and she was very thankful that the lights were dim because she could feel just how red she was. But even as she inwardly breathed a sigh of relief, her insides were screaming about the sudden loss of contact.
She hated herself.
“I told you that I’d set us up a meeting again. I’ll see you then.” He was out the door before she could register his apparent dismissal.
It took a moment before she could regain her bearings, and when she did, she became more infuriated at him than she was before striding inside the sanctum of his office.
x-x-x-x-x