Disclaimer: The usual. I do not own any right to Gundam Seed or the characters therein. Obviously, if I did, Kira and Athrun would have been a couple. Support the great original work from Sunrise. The following is purely an act of my own literary mind drawing from the story and characters Sunrise portrays.

Kira Yamato shot up in a foreign world. Surrounded by soft, plush virgin white sheets, his chest thundered. Squeezing his eyes tight, ragged breaths scraped past his teeth.

"Kira!"

Kira cringed, his fists balling tighter in the whiteness, knuckles turning the same. Though his eyes opened, a dam of water blurred his world. His lean and hard toned body was weak with wracking shakes beneath the white bandages. White. Everything was white. But Kira only saw red.

Lacus Clyne's eyes saddened. Even the briefest happiness from the boy waking was gone. She sighed inwardly. Just looking at the broken boy was enough to constrict her chest. Mr. Pink plopped into her lap, her fingers mindlessly petting its cool metal head.

When Kira's eyes finally drifted to hers, the iron bars binding her chest tightened further. Gone was the spark she saw in them. The beautiful amethysts that shone with intelligence and unrestrained passion. Dark and rich, now drained hollow. They wavered a dull empty lavender behind a wall of tears.

"Athrun."

Forcing a thin smile, she threw her arms around Kira. Mr. Pink bounced off back to his brothers and sisters. "You can cry, Kira. It's okay to cry."

"But, I said . . . I'd . . . never . . cry again." Even as the words choked out, the levies broke and he buried his face in the enveloping pink hair blocking out the world. Quakes continued to tear apart his frame.

"Athrun." A sudden explosion filled his mind. He saw the Aegis. He saw Athrun. Just before the world shattered, he saw him. Their eyes locked. Those beautiful green eyes among the flames.

Kira choked, his eyes screwing shut again. Bitter tears poured down his cheeks, soaking the bandages.

"Athrun!"

"Kira!"

Shaking his head, Kira tried to clear his thoughts. There, among the blackness of an empty universe, they came together. Damn, the confines of that flight suit. It surrounded him in a claustrophobia-inducing embrace. But more than that, his chest tightened while his fingers danced over the Strike's controls. There among the empty blackness was Athrun. The Aegis. Its blood red frame hurtled forward, plasma burning from open compartments. It trailed behind, a sickly trail in the vacuum.

His enemy.

"Kira!"

Jarred, he drove the thrusters forward, sending him head first toward his enemy. His friend. Why? He blinked, tears forming dancing spheres in his helmet. Though he drove the thrusters further, the tears, splashing against his face.

The two mobile suit frames collided, throwing Kira forward in his seat, only to be stopped by the biting embrace of the three-point harness digging into his shoulders and waist. Jerking the arms of the Strike, Kira fought to gain leverage against the Aegis. Spiraling in the nothingness, automatic thrusters continually ignited, adjusting and syncing their paths. Every time one drew away enough to strike, the other would adjust their distance. It was in this silent dance that Kira spun through space with his best friend.

His friends. The Archangel. He felt the world slide away. His heart seemed to still, breaths growing cool. In the screens he saw nothing. He saw everything. No thought crossed his glacial mind as his hands darted like snakes set upon a kill. The beam sword ripped through the phase-shift armor of the Aegis, shearing the outer layers of its hide in a single slice.

Somehow, he could hear Athrun, when he growled like a wolf in the night. The shining pointed end of his shield cleaved off the Strike's arm.

But the other drew the Armur Schneider knife at its waist and drove it into the red gundam's chest. Kira felt nothing as he dragged the semi-truck sized dagger down and exposed the Aegis' cockpit to the emptiness of space.

Thrusters ignited, and the Aegis' now free hand crumpled with a short strong-armed jab into the Strike's sternum. Kira's screens exploded, the walls collapsing in toward him. At the edges of the bowl, Kira glanced at the leaking atmosphere.

Then it all stopped. In a split second, the ferocious battle ceased, the two giant gundams entwined, circling small in the vast nothingness. Kira grunted, jerking his controls. Nothing responded. But then, his helmeted head clacked against the sidewall of his cockpit with an explosion along one of the gundams, which sent the two hurtling, dead in space. Kira's vision flashed.

All went black.

Athrun groaned, flicking the release near his belly and welcomed the weightlessness. Finally, they had stopped. He shook his head rapidly, fighting to clear it. No luck. Grumbling, his hand wrapped the grip of his standard ZAFT issued pistol. Shimmying through the gaping wound opening his cockpit to the world outside, Athrun gripped a ragged edge of metal and steadied himself.

It was all dark. Squinting, he could barely make out a far wall. Sighing, he nodded to himself. They had crashed into an abandoned colony fragment. He knew the failure of the O2-lines had exploded with the plasma, sending them on a one-way trip at bone-jarring speed into the debris belt. Letting out another breath, he allowed a small smirk. Even with all the shit humans had left floating around Earth on their quest to live among the stars, Athrun couldn't believe his luck. It had to be a one in a hundred thousand chance that they'd actually hit something in that belt.

If not, they would've enjoyed a flash roast in the Earth's atmosphere. Without the phase-shift armor, and even with it, in the state the two gundams were in, they would never have made it to the ground. And to crash into a colony fragment. With any hope, there were emergency sections sealed and ready to hold atmosphere.

But - Athrun shook his head again - that would have to wait. Gripping the gun tighter, he kicked off from the Aegis, a beeline to the Strike through the empty air ten meters off the floor. Grabbing a handle outside the Strike's cockpit, Athrun righted himself. The pistol at the ready, he tried his best to calm his racing heart as he leaned in slowly to peek through one of the cracks the Aegis' fist had caused.

His eyes shot wide. Kira was slumped over in his seat, arms floating like a marionette on hidden wires. Only the restraining belt kept the unconscious boy there.

A chill shot up Athrun's spine, "Kira!" The boy didn't so much as twitch. Cursing, Athrun jammed his fist into the emergency release. Nothing. Stealing another look through the crack, Athrun's eyes started to burn. Please. Please, don't be dead. He banged helplessly on the ruined cockpit shell. Whipping his head back and forth, Athrun clenched his teeth. Please.

Gripping the jagged lip of the ragged scar, Athrun growled, pulling with all the strength his muscles would lend. He glanced at the gun still tight in his fist. With dispassionate eyes, he threw it into the empty air. Bringing both his hands back, he latched onto the handle. Fitting the heels of his flight suit boots into the opening, Athrun begged his body to give just a little bit more. What was the point of being a coordinator if his strength couldn't even get him to his friend?

Finally, the metal budged. Athrun dismissed the silent move. He was accustomed now to the silence no atmosphere provided. No sound outside of his maddening breaths which boomed a cacophony inside his helmet. The metal surged open a little more. It was enough. Athrun squeezed into the opening. Please be alive, Kira.

Freeing Kira from the harness, Athrun tugged him into his chest. Wrapping his arms around his best friend, he squeezed. He couldn't feel any sign of life. If there were breaths, they were too shallow to be seen through the suit. If there was a pulse, it lay weak beneath the fabric. No, Athrun squeezed harder, trying his best to pour his life into his friend. Not if. Athrun was sure the breaths were there, the pulse beating. Kira's heart would not allow him to fail. Damn, sentimental crybaby, but he was strong. Stronger than Athrun knew he could ever be. Athrun's heart burned strangely.

Tugging the lifeless Kira behind him, he squeezed back through to the open room. Taking a breath, Athrun tried to still the painful electricity building like clamps at his temples.

Air. That was first. As long as both cockpits were ruptured, the only air they had was the minimal back-up attached to their backs. Athrun scanned the dark room. Not even he noticed his hand gently caressing his best friend's side. Stay with me, Kira. Once he could find an emergency room, he could take Kira's helmet and suit off and tend to him. His mind didn't let him think of the or. Or, if he couldn't find a safe room, it wouldn't have mattered if Kira was savable or not, they were both dead.

Athrun threw his back again into sliding open an unresponsive mechanized door at the far wall of the room. Pulling Kira with him into the endless dark, Athrun searched desperately for signs that would lead his way. Absently, he thought of his mother. Back on Bloody Valentine. Had she survived the nuclear warheads of those damn naturals? Had she been trapped very much like this, in a world without electricity, without even the ability to breath freely?

But, finally, he ran into the end of the corridor. A red arrow pointed to the right, the words 'Escape Shelter' shaking Athrun free of any wandering thoughts. He smiled, pulling Kira in tight to his chest.

Sealing the shelter's bulkhead, Athrun scanned the blank screens along the adjacent wall. He closed his eyes, hoping beyond hope. His finger tapped the screen and it sparked to life. A fierce grin curved his lips. As his fingers danced over the technology, the lights sputtered. Then, the sweet sound of a high-pitched whine. He could hear! That meant the atmosphere pumps were at least filling the room with something. To his dismay, the screen was mostly unresponsive, meaning he couldn't tell what exactly was being pumped into the small shelter.

Ten minutes later, when the whine ceased, Athrun ran his tongue along his teeth. His hand stroked Kira's arm through the flight suit, while he waited. Tapping a knuckle on the wall, he at least got the reassurance of a soft thump reaching his ears. And there was no sound that could mean a break to vacuum.

"Well, here goes." Athrun slowly unclasped the releases of his helmet and shoved it free over his head. His midnight blue hair freed, glistening in the wavering lights. Well, his head didn't explode, that meant they were pressurized. He chuckled inwardly to himself - what a reassuring thought. Then he drew his lips apart and fought his brain to take a breath. Oxygen. A heavy sigh escaped his parted lips.

"Okay!" He smiled wider. "Your turn, Kira." He brought the helmet free, his fingers darting to Kira's carotid artery. Nothing. Athrun cringed, but quickly unzipped his suit, fishing his arm free. The now uncovered fingers shot back to his best friend's neck. And he let himself a shaky sigh of relief. It was small, but it was there.

Retrieving Kira's helmet from where it had floated away, he set the visor under Kira's nose. It fogged. Throwing the helmet away, Athrun's arms wrapped around the brunette's neck. His face only a few centimeters from Kira's he smiled thanking every bit of goodness in the world.

His eyelids drifted closed. The centimeters separating them vanished. Athrun met Kira's soft red lips, connecting them in the empty world. His eyes parted, slightly unsure of what he had just done. He hadn't thought. But it didn't matter. His heart pounded liquid fire through his veins. He brought their lips together again.

Kira's bandaged body, continued to shake uncontrollably. It was like his body was being ripped apart from within, a torn soul. Lacus stroked his arm. Tears continued to flow. The memories of his life with the single most important person to him only brought debilitating pain. The bright overwhelming explosion in his mind engulfed Athrun.

A/N: I've been writing for a while now and happened across this forum due to a friend's advice. I've found many stories here that are fantastic, and felt it may be fun to try my hand at fanfiction. This is my first fanfiction. Let me know what you think.

-Oblivion