Athrun was sitting in the cafeteria of the Archangel, lost to his own thoughts. They were back in space after leaving the burning ORB behind, something that pained him not only for Cagalli's sake. But he and Kira were finally on the same side again, and for now, there was no fighting. He should be glad, right? But somehow, Athrun didn't feel like rejoicing; too many needless fights were still ahead of them, even if silence was surrounding them now.

"Torī?"

He looked up when he heard the familiar sound and saw the green, mechanical bird flying through the door towards him. He held up his hand for it to land on it, and so it did. His emerald eyes locked on the bird and a tiny smile tugged at his lips. It tilted its head towards him, flipping its wings once. His attention was drawn towards the doorway though when he heard someone entering.

"Ah? Oh, it's you. Athrun-kun, was it?"

Murrue Ramius smiled softly at him as she made her way over to where he sat. Athrun nodded once.

"Captain...Ramius?"

"That's right. May I?"

Athrun nodded again, keeping his eyes steady as the older woman sat down in front of him. They simply studied each other for a moment, Murrue with a gentle smile on her lips that looked surprisingly natural on her and Athrun carefully keeping his face void of any emotion. He didn't know what to expect from her; from what little he had heard and seen so far, she seemed to be a genuinely kind person, but one could never be too sure.

"Torī?"

He saw her amber eyes shifting to the robotic bird in his hand, and suddenly a certain amount of... unwistfulness? appeared in her gaze.

"That's Kira-kun's, right?"

"Yes..."

They lapsed into silence again, both just gazing at Torī, who in turn looked back to Murrue curiously.

"I wonder where he got it from. I've never seen anything like it..."

She trailed off, her eyes locked onto the young man in front of him. Athrun felt something heavy, yet unfamiliar settle in his chest.

"That's because I made it for him...", he replied softly.

He felt Murrue's gentle eyes on him and held her gaze, not wavering at all. She smiled again.

"Is that so? Yeah, I think Kira-kun has mentioned you before. You've known each other since you were small, right?"

"Yes..."

Athrun briefly wondered if he should say any more. The woman in front of him didn't seem any less kind than before, and she looked genuinely interested in him and his relation to Kira. He had only been on this ship for a short amount of time, but he could already feel himself wanting to trust her. He wasn't quite sure where that desire came from, but he couldn't help but think that the smile on her face looked so much like the one his mother had used to give him, back then, when everything had still been good. Straightening up somewhat, Athrun nodded again, resolve flowing through him.

"Yes, we met when we were four or so, on the moon. We went to the same Prep School. We were both kind of loners, but we... somehow, we just clicked, and pretty soon we were the best of friends. Nearly unseparable. Heh, I probably spent more time at his house than my own."

Athrun couldn't keep a smile from forming on his face as the memories flooded his mind. He lowered his hand and Torī jumped off his palm, onto the table. Entwining his fingers, he allowed himself to dwell on the happiness of pictures long since past, at least for a moment. Murrue watched him quietly, waiting for him to continue. She could almost feel it herself, even if she could see some remorse in the young boy's face as well.

"We got separated when we were 13. My... father was worried, and since my mother's research project was finished, he wanted us to move to PLANT. And so we did... I gave Torī to him on the day we left." Something clenched in his throat, but he ignored it and continued, "I actually thought, or was telling myself, that Kira and his family would come to PLANT as well. That this would only be a temporary goodbye. But the years passed, and I thought he had forgotten about me... I was really surprised when I saw him again, and when I heard that he still had Torī..."

The young male tightly gripped his hands and took a deep breath, as if he was trying to calm himself. A barrage of emotions threatened to overwhelm him, all caused by one single person that almost meant the world to him. New memories, recent memories started flashing through his mind now, and everything felt, once again, simply unreal. He snapped out of his stupor when Murrue started to speak.

"That sounds like a wonderful friendship. I can only imagine how hard it must have been for you two to fight each other... I'm sorry. It was us who made Kira fight in the first place. Even if we were desperate, there's no excuse for making a civilian do the things we had him do, especially since he is still such a young boy..." She looked away, as if she was ashamed of herself. She probably was.

"I'm sorry."

Moments passed in wich Athrun simply observed her, taking in her posture that radiated with guilt. For a split second he wanted to blame her for everything- for making Kira fight, for making Kira kill Nicol, for making himself kill that boy -Tolle, was it?- in return, for... but he found that he couldn't. His new captain gave him a feeling he hadn't felt since the last time he had seen his late mother. Warmth and understanding surrounded her, and Athrun knew that she was sincere in her words. Finally, he shook his head.

"What's done is done, there's no use in mulling over it now. All we can do now is to end this war as soon as possible, so this madness will finally be over, and both Naturals and Coordinators can live in peace."

She looked up at him again and he held her gaze. He could only guess what was going through her mind, but he had no doubt that her determination was any less than her warmth; if it were, the Archangel would have been sunk long, long ago. Seconds passed until a smile spread across her face, and Athrun found himself smiling back.

"I guess you're right."

She stood up again and offered her hand. Without hesitation, Athrun raised to his feet as well and accepted it. Shaking hands once, they let go of each other again.

"Let's both do our best, hm?"

He nodded in agreement and as if on cue, Torī leaped into the air to settle down on his shoulder. He looked at it fondly, so many memories were connected with this small, robotic bird. His masterpiece.

"Athrun? Are you here?"

Both Murrue and the requested male shifted their gazes to the door, and seconds later Kira emerged from the corridor. He saw the two them standing there and tilted his head in question.

"Am I interrupting something?"

"No, it's fine", Athrun shook his head and looked at his old friend curiously, "Is there something you need?"

"Actually, there is. I checked out the Justice and noticed that there was something different about the thrusters, making it more agile than the Freedom. I was wondering if you knew what it was and if it was possible to do the same adjustments on the Freedom?"

Kira looked at his old friend in confusion when Athrun suddenly sighed in... exasperation?

"Kira, don't tell me you still suck at Micro Units?"

The brownhaired male blinked in surprise.

"Uhm, what does that have to do with-"

"It's the same principle! Alright, alright, I'll explain it to you..."

Kira seemed to shrink under his friend's scolding tone and couldn't help but grin sheepishly. Ahtrun scratched the back of his head before sighing once more and making his way over to where his brownhaired friend stood. The older boy grabbed the other's arm and started to drag him away, but not without receiving a light knock on his head first.

"Really, after everything that has happened I thought you had at least some understanding of it by now. What you mean follows the same rules that allow Torī to fly, and to some extent to simply move, even if it's in a much bigger scale."

"Haha, well..."

"Don't 'haha' me!"

Murrue couldn't help but chuckle to herself after the two young boys had left her, their voices slowly disappearing as they went to the hangar. If what Athrun had told her earlier was true (and she believed so), then there had to be very deep bond between those two young men. She hadn't seen Kira like that at all over the past months, and it was such a nice thing to see... Even if it made her feel even more regretful. She was glad however, that they were still able to let loose a bit, even if it was just for a short amount of time. Smiling, she too left the cafeteria to return to the bridge and back to her duties.

& here's another. Thanks to all readers & reviewers!