Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed or Gundam Seed Destiny, thank you very much.

Wherever the Wind Goes

Chapter 1

Waking to the sound of chirping birds, Kira Hibiki rubbed his eyes wearily. He shielded his purple eyes from the glaring rays of the sun, before rolling onto his other side and closing his eyes again. However, they were quickly open again as he realized that his bed was empty, except for him. He felt the blankets on the other side; they were cold, as if abandoned for a long time. Getting up and smiling to himself, he yawned.

Looking for a note of some kind, he searched the bedside table on the other side, but there was nothing. Sighing with disappointment, he flopped back onto his bed and looked at the ceiling, wondering where she went.

"She was never good at saying good bye," he murmured, and grabbing the phone from his bedside table, he called a certain pink-haired girl.

Meanwhile, thousands of kilometers away, Athrun Zala was driving to work. He felt exhausted, and had deep circles under his eyes. Resisting the urge to yawn again, he grabbed his coffee and gulped it down. Gazing at the road ahead of him, he thought about work, sleep, work, sleep, work, sleep, work, sleep… it was the same routine every day. He would drive to work at 5:30 AM every single morning, get there at 6:00 AM, work until 8:00 PM, and get home and sleep at 8:30 PM. He rarely had time to eat breakfast, and so his daily meals were cut down from 3 to 2. Sometimes, he would even skip dinner, too exhausted to deal with it.

"Workaholic," his friends said disapprovingly.

He could only disagree. He wasn't addicted to working, most certainly not. What was so addicting about being a boss of a grand corporation? No, he just couldn't find anything else to do. Certainly, his friends invited him out every once and then, but it wasn't like they went out every single day.

Drumming his fingers on the steering wheel, he shrugged these thoughts off his head and got to work. When he arrived, he smiled at his secretary, Meyrin Hawke.

"Good morning, Mr. Zala," she greeted, returning his smile with a sweet smile of her own. "You have a meeting with Mr. Joule at 10:00 AM, a meeting with Mr. Westenfluss at 3:00 PM. Also, Mr. Asuka has asked that you call him as soon as you have free time."

"Thanks, Meyrin. Any idea what Shinn wants with me? If it's about screaming cats again, I'm not going to call him." Taking off his tie, he remembered the last time Shinn had asked him to call.

"Hello? Shinn?"

"Athrun! Oh, thank goodness you called! I'm in trouble, so much trouble!" Raising his eyes at the black-haired man's tone, Athrun replied.

"What's wrong? Did Stellar find you cheating on her or something?" Hearing Shinn splutter and an "ow" from Stellar supposedly whacking him, the blue-haired man laughed to himself.

"NO! Darnit, Athrun, don't give her false ideas! No, it's something even worse than that!"

"Stop wasting my time and tell me what it is then!"

"Y-you know how Stellar has like, goldfish right?"

"She does?"

"Okay, yeah, she does. Anyways, I brought home several kittens because her birthday is tomorrow an—"

"It's her birthday tomorrow? Say happy birthday to her for me, will you?"

"WILL YOU LET ME FINISH?!"

"Fine, fine, please continue."

"Anyways, I woke up this morning and I realized that her fish were gone!"

Shaking his head in disbelief, Athrun had to resist the urge to slam the phone down. "Shinn, I hope for your own good that you did not call me just to tell me that your kittens ate Stellar's fish!"

"No, no, of course not! No, I was planning to go out and buy her new fish, but before I could go, the kittens pulled down my pants!"

"Good for you, Shinn, choosing the kitties that are prematurely active. Now stop cheating on Stellar and go buy her new fish!"

"Athrun! It's not a joke! Every time I tried to leave the house, the kittens wouldn't let me and they would drag my pants down!"

"Shinn, I know you never take my advice, but go neuter them!"

"I know, I kn—wait, no! But they're both guys!"

"Congratulations Shinn, on being bisexual," retorted Athrun sarcastically, rolling his eyes at the ceiling. Meyrin, in the office beside him, had burst out laughing, shaking her head.

"Darnit, Athrun! The point is, that wasn't even the scariest thing!" Shinn's voice had risen in pitch.

"What is then?! You've wasted 5 minutes of my life so far, and if you waste 10 minutes of my life, you're going to find yourself without one!"

"Okay okay! The thing is, they began to scream!"

Dumb-struck, Athrun stared at the phone before answering. "They… screamed?"

"Like a banshee!"

"Dude, Shinn, you have the weirdest pets ever. I haven't forgotten Pocky." Pocky was a talking parrot Shinn had taken home. Pocky wasn't just good at talking, he was also good at imitating disturbing noises he picked up from the master bedroom. Whenever Athrun went over, Pocky had imitated the couple of the house, much to their embarrassment. He had decided not to step into their house again until Pocky had passed away.

"P-Pocky…" sniffed Shinn, making Athrun slap his forehead in disbelief.

"Shinn, please don't tell me you actually enjoyed hearing your PARROT imitate YOU in BED!"

"No! Of course not! BUT ANYWAYS, the kittens were screaming! THEY WERE SCREAMING WHEN THEY WERE PULLING MY PANTS DOWN!"

"Shinn, I think you have a case of severe hallucinations."

"I'm not going crazy!"

"Of course you're not. You always were."

"Athrun! Please, do me a favour and take these kittens away!"

"No."

"What?! C'mon, Athrun, aren't we friends?"

"Look, if they were trying to pull down your pants, what the heck are they going to do to me when I'm DRIVING THEM?!"

"… good point. But will you at least go to the pet store, get me some goldfish, and while you're at it, tell the workers there to take these feline horrors bac—DANG IT THAT'S THE 36TH TIME!"

Shaking his head again, Athrun hung up on his friend.

Meyrin laughed, and shook her head. "No, Mr. Asuka says he wanted to invite you out later this week."

"Not to his house, I hope. I heard those dogs were barking mad."

"I don't know the details, so call him when you're free," was the red-head's response, and Athrun nodded and walked into his office. Looking at the clock, he had 4 hours until he had to meet Yzak. 'Guess I'll just finish up this pile of work.'

"Lacus?" queried Kira, leaning on his bedpost.

"Good morning, Kira!" Smiling at the sound of her voice, the brunette looked outside.

"Cagalli left again this morning." There was an awkward silence for a while before Lacus replied.

"Ah, I see. Did she leave a note or anything?"

"Nada. Nothing at all."

"Well, you know she's like that," giggled the pink-haired princess, who was drinking tea on her porch.

"Yeah, I know," sighed Kira, "But that's not why I'm calling."

"Oh."

"I'll wash the bed sheets, okay?"

"… is that an invitation, Kira?"

"An invitation back to where you belong," murmured the brunette, blushing.

"I'll be there in 15 minutes," said Lacus cheerily, already getting up.

"See you, Lacus. I've missed you," whispered the brunette, before hanging up. Blushing as well, Lacus smiled to herself and went to pack her things.

"Athrun, are you okay?" Yzak glared at the navy-haired man in front of him. Unfortunately, he didn't seem to have heard Yzak, as he seemed to be… sleeping. "Athrun. Get up. NOW."

Jumping as though he was shocked with a taser, the other man opened his eyes blearily and shot the silver-haired man an annoyed look.

"Look, Yzak, I'm tired, okay? Cut me some slack."

"Why the heck should I cut you some slack?"

"My business owns yours," snapped Athrun, before going back to sleep. Breathing deeply and hoping to keep his temper in check, Yzak twitched.

"Right. But you're wasting my time here, okay?! I came here to talk about merging with Orb Financial! I hoped this would be short but you're dragging it out!"

"Fine fine, do you just need me to sign something or something?"

"YES!"

Signing the sheet the platinum-haired man shoved at his face, he waved him off. Yzak however, was shaking with anger, but stormed out of the room, leaving Athrun sleeping there. Meyrin came in, and shrugging her shoulders, shook her boss awake.

"Mhhhmfffahh?"

"Mr. Zala, you have a meeting with Mr. Westenfluss in 20 minutes. Don't forget that!"

"Mmk—wait, 20 minutes?!" Athrun got up and gaped at his secretary, who looked shocked at his outburst.

"You were in this room for 4 hours and 40 minutes with Mr. Joule."

"F-four hours and forty minutes?!"

"That's correct."

"UGH!" Athrun ran to the washroom, splashed his face, and ran to get his papers from his office.

This meeting with Heine Westenfluss was NOT going to be fun.

"Neh, neh, Athrun. Don't you have any girls yet?"

"As I was saying, Heine…" Athrun resisted the urge to take his papers and whack the orange-haired man across the head.

"Don't tell me you're still a virgin. Being a 20 year-old virgin is not cool. I mean, Kira lost his when he was 16…"

"HEINE."

"Chill, dude! I'm just saying, you really need a girl in be—"

"If you don't shut up this moment about sex, I swear, I'll kick you out of this office!"

"Okay, okay! But you still need a girl," Heine couldn't avoid the flying binder that went straight for his face.

6 hours later

"Mr. Zala?" Meyrin gawked as she saw her boss hanging off the table, steam coming out from his ears and head.

"Nnnnnnffffgggg. You can go now..." Unsure of what to do, Meyrin just left, hoping her boss would be back to normal soon.

"Stupid… Heine… I'll… kick… his… sorry… ass…" grumbled Athrun, rubbing his forehead and temples. After 6 hours of attempted business talk, he gave into Heine's constant sex talk.

Getting his keys and walking out the door, Athrun slumped in his car seat and looked up at the sky. Stars glittered and twinkled, and the moon was bright in the sky.

"What a beautiful sight," he whispered into the night air.

Looking up, a girl's amber orbs took in the same sight Athrun did, and a smile slowly inched across her face.

Author's Note: I just had to get this story idea out of my head. "OTL Yes, yes, new story. : D

Random inspiration from when I was in America… driving to Grove City… yeah.

Cagalli wasn't really mentioned much here, but she'll have a much bigger impact in the second chapter. : D

Err, I hope this is still clean enough to be rated T LOL.

Until next time! : D Take care, and please read and review!