Title: Crossfire

Author: Jusrecht

Pairings: Kira x Athrun, future Shinn x Cagalli

Warnings: Contains male/male relationship. OOC-ness should be expected too since I don't claim to know how the boys behave in an intimate situation. SPOILERS from both SEED and Destiny go without speaking. They're everywhere, even if I don't explicitly state any. May also contain curse words and some expletives in the later chapters.

Disclaimer: Gundam SEED and Destiny belong to Sunrise. Lots of background information for this fic comes from Gundam Official. Check the great site.

Summary: They are the four corners of a puzzle, four setting stones of the peace. If one disappears, all will shatter and fall. When Athrun disappeared, it meant more than losing a lover for Kira, more than a comrade to Cagalli and Lacus.

A/N: This is a story placed in C.E. 77, approximately four years after the end of Gundam SEED Destiny. The main characters are the four heroes and heroines in SEED – their roles will be divulged later in the story – so it isn't a pure romance story. Anyway, enjoy!

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Chapter One: Kira - Moment

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There were moments in life which could not be replaced.

Kira leant down and pressed his lips on an equally eager pair, relishing the slowing cadence of the chest beneath his rising and falling. A hand climbed to his back and he shuddered when one of the fingers traced a line down his spine, momentarily pausing on places its owner had obviously known to be his weak spots and giving them a light, deliberate press. He caught the hand and set it down on the blanket of midnight blue hair, looking pointedly at his best friend.

"Stop it, Athrun."

"You're the one who needs to stop," the reply came only too readily and Kira had no choice but to smile at the mock-glare the Chairman of PLANT was patently shooting him

This, clearly, was one of those moments.

He sighed and moved away slowly, taking care not to inflict more harm to his partner further than he had done throughout the night. An identical soft sigh escaped Athrun's lips as he settled himself more comfortably in the bed and Kira threw a cover over their bare skin, taking care to whisper on his friend's ear before settling down himself, "I didn't hear you complaining a minute ago."

A low chuckle reverberated in the room and Kira felt himself growing giddy for the umpteenth time that night. Athrun always managed to do that to him. Always. And now the subject in question was giving him a half-lidded look like it was the most natural thing in the world to give at three in the morning.

"Who could complain when you did that?"

Slapping his friend's bare arm lightly, Kira reproached. "Stop flirting with me."

"I'm not," the lazy protest was uttered smoothly. "You just enjoy being flirted with way too much. And why are we having this conversation now?"

"Because you're picking a fight with me," he pointed out, a note of accusation slipping into his voice.

Athrun shrugged, a gesture so simple that it made Kira narrow his eyes purely out of sudden stroke of suspicion. And boy, his intuition seemed never to be wrong nowadays. The supposedly respected Chairman of PLANT stared at him deeply, emerald eyes gleaming under the dim light of his room with intentions he was certain far from innocent, and said with deliberate slowness, "With you, Kira, I rather have my fight on an entirely different stage."

Not to jump his lover for the god-only-knows-how-many-th time in the past three hours was starting to be a difficult issue, but in the end, Kira managed to get hold of his urges and glared at the devil reincarnated ten times over. No one seemed to know this mischievous side of Athrun except him, a fact which made Kira feel pleased and miserable at the same time. Half population of PLANT might faint from shock if they found out how the man they had elected to lead them through war and peace actually behaved in bed.

But he was being unfair. He realized that Athrun took his job very seriously. To know that he had helped to relieve some of the stress his best friend suffered from his work was something he found rather flattering. It was true that his position as a general of ORB also brought him a lot of mental pressure, but the knowledge that his friends were also fighting as hard if not more served as a reminder for him not to run away for the second time. It still pained him to think that once, he had let Athrun and Cagalli to fight their way through a very hostile world alone while he himself isolated himself from the world and its problems.

The world had not changed much, but they had, and for the moment, it was enough. Because they would protect the peace as long as they lived.

The sound of the flicking of fingers brought him back to focus on Athrun's long digits hovering just before his face and a pair of solemn green eyes. His friend fixed him a firm look and said, "Don't think too much."

Shaking his head, Kira smiled and replied with his gentlest voice, "It's nothing. You should go to sleep, by the way. Don't you have another meeting with Cagalli at eight later this morning?"

"Exactly," Athrun sighed and turned to the other side. Taking it as a cue, Kira wrapped his left arm around a slender waist, pulling his friend's body closer. The only problem was, he realized after trying to nuzzle Athrun's neck, was the untidy state of certain midnight blue hair which seemed to try to irritate him in every possible way.

"I should have it cut, I know," the other man's muffled voice sounded apologetic.

"Why haven't you?" he replied, starting to frustrate himself in his attempt to bring the dark blue chaos to order. "One more month and you will look exactly like that Dullindal."

"It isn't that long," Athrun hit his hand flippantly, a subtle remonstration. "Besides, I don't have the time."

"Excuses, excuses. You just want to look pretty for me."

"Kira!"

The effect was instantaneous. Athrun rarely let him down after all. Kira sniggered, staring back insolently at the indignant, rosy-hued face of his lover. "Prove me I'm wrong," he taunted, enjoying the whole situation a little too much.

That it was a wrong challenge to put forth was something he realized a moment later when Athrun deftly climbed atop of him, in those emerald eyes a definite predatory gleam, and whispered huskily, "If you allow me."

Bad, every alarm in Kira's head went off at once. The situation was very bad indeed. Not to mention it was three in the morning, possibly four.

"On second thought," he quickly said, setting his hands at both sides of his friend's face to prevent further advance, "I'd rather have you go to sleep. I don't want Cagalli to throw another temper tantrum at me for molesting you too much or something like that."

"Coward," Athrun muttered reproachfully but obediently moved away.

Kira chuckled but said nothing to contradict the accusation. He only smiled when a pair of arms drew him close and tucked his head under an all-too-familiar chin. Athrun Zala, his first love and also true love apparently. There were things he would gladly do for the other man, but one couldn't afford to be so selfish during these times, most certainly not him. Sighing softly, he snuggled deeper and mumbled, "I'm happy you're here. How long has it been? A year?"

"Eight months and seven days."

Kira felt a pang of realization stabbing his heart. Only eight months. Eight months that felt like centuries. He knew that Athrun could not come down to ORB often and his own military duties had prevented him from going to PLANT himself. There were phone calls, of course, and brief glimpses from television broadcasts, but they were different. Although he had convinced himself that this was the only way they could protect the peace, the fact remained that he and Athrun were separated by so many miles that it was virtually impossible to put a number on it. He had never doubted Athrun, but...

He bit his lips. There were too many buts that it would never end. Besides, it was nothing compared to another havoc and bloodshed which might take place if they weren't there to carry out their jobs.

Four corners of a puzzle, four main pillars of a building, four setting stones of peace - Mwu-san had called them those. Kira had simply smiled back then, fully aware of the responsibilities which came with the titles but saying nothing.

Still.

"Too long," he heard himself murmuring. "And the next time I'll be able to meet you again is?"

He felt the body under his arms stiffened and quickly tightened his hold in a reassuring fashion, inwardly cursing himself for implying something which wasn't even his lover's fault. "Sorry," he mumbled, "I didn't mean anything by that."

"It's okay," Athrun's voice was calm as he ran his fingers through Kira's short brown locks.

It was alright. They still had this moment.

Kira was thinking about tomorrow's schedule when a loud buzzing sound shook him back to reality. He felt Athrun jolt at his side and realized that the sound must be the effect of vibration of his cell phone on the nightstand next to their bed. He heard his friend releasing an annoyed groan and had to suppress one of his own. It was...what? Four in the morning? It might be broad daylight now at PLANT but he was under the impression that anyone who couldn't take something as important as time difference into account wasn't to be allowed to work for the chairman.

"You may want to turn off the vidcom first," he advised when Athrun reached for the troublesome mobile, and at the bewildered look appearing on his friend's face, added with as much seriousness as he could muster in the face of the topic he was about to bring up, "I'm not sure you want anyone to see how you look after being molested."

A pillow hit him squarely in the face and Kira stifled a laugh when Athrun's smooth voice answered to the line, if a little uncomfortable it sounded. It wasn't the first time Athrun received a call in such an unearthly hour - in his presence, that was, which was saying something since they only met each other thrice a year at most - and usually his lover's mood afterward would significantly deteriorate. Kira closed his eyes, his mind sorting through methods which he might be able to apply to soften his bedmate's mood.

"When?"

The strained timbre in that one word made his eyes flung open at once and in the darkness, he could see Athrun's face twisted in alarming concentration, the edge of their white-blue blanket clenched in one fist. Kira frowned, countless of possibilities scurrying past his mind, most of them far from pleasant, and decided that to listen was better than taking wild conjectures.

"All right, I will return to PLANT as soon as I can," a tired, final note was audible in Athrun's voice. "Report immediately if there is something else I need to know." A pause. "No, correct that. Whether there is anything new or not, I expect a report every one hour."

There was a long, dead silence suspending in the air after the connection had been terminated. Kira waited, quietly watching his friend's stony face and the newly-formed lines creasing its sides, barely visible in the darkness, until troubled green eyes turned to him. Anger, confusion, weariness. Whatever it was, he knew it wasn't good.

"Something happened in PLANT," Athrun began slowly as if he was having a difficulty finding the right words. "Three members of the Supreme Council were killed. Found murdered at their homes, I mean. They were discovered just this morning."

A sudden, horrific sensation shot through Kira. "Not–!"

"No," Athrun quickly shook his head, "not Lacus. I said members of the Supreme Council. But still..."

Still. Kira felt the word came pressing down his chest. It was the same sensation he had felt when he had, once more, climbed into Freedom's cockpit four years ago. And from the look in Athrun's face, he knew that his friend felt it too.

The brewing of another war.

Athrun inhaled a deep, unsteady breath and said, a blank repetition of his earlier promise, "I have to return. As soon as possible."

A wooden nod. "I know."

The moment had ended, the spell broken.

Kira only hoped their moment of peace hadn't.

End Chapter One

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Notes: Athrun hasn't disappeared, I know, but he will very soon. Stay tuned for the second chapter. Reviews, constructive criticisms, suggestions, all will be accepted gratefully except for flames. Thanks for reading!