A/N: Don't own GS/GSD. This is based on a short scene in episode one of Destiny and inspired from seeing Athrun paired with five different girls (not at once). Plus, seeing how Shinn has been paired with Cagalli before, I thought, why not the other way around for Athrun and Stellar?

And so spawned this "just-for-fun-do-not-take-too-seriously" very short oneshot.

I understand that Athrun and Stellar did have contact with each other in a battle, but I have not included that part. Also, it seems I mistook whatever she was holding as the sheath for a blade, so just assume she already has it for this story.

A special thanks goes to Caorann fridh Bronach, my beta reader.

For only a few fleeting moments, the temporary pondering of feelings occurred once, just once, and the feeling was doomed to never reoccur again, lost in the heat of battle, tension, anxiety. These feelings were not romantic or even of hatred, but rather of mystery, of wonder and curiosity, perhaps even suspicion. These feelings drifted like plucked petals that vanished towards the sky. These feelings, instant and sudden, disappeared as quickly as they had come only to find themselves rooted in the hands of others. In those few seconds, without warning, a pair of inquisitive purple orbs found the young man shrouded in mystery behind a pair of sunglasses. In return, green pools of uncertainty behind those sunglasses became intrigued with the young woman with a blade in her hand.

Two near-transparent figures emerged out of nothingness, mirror reflections of Stellar Loussier and Athrun Zala, and they took tentative steps towards each other, like two cats: one with a stance and aura of maturity and experience, the other of innocence, like a kitten, but with an underlying shadow. Time had slowed drastically, it seemed, and black crystal seemed to erupt out of nowhere, encasing the two beings, trapping them, with only one clear crystal at the top, shedding light. The air gave off a feeling of interrogation. Veiled slightly by darkness, the two peered at each other with a keen intensity. Neither moved, not daring to wholly reveal themselves.

Stellar could only see the lightness of Athrun's skin, the green shirt, a little bit of his hair, and those infamous pair of sunglasses. Everything else seemed to merge with the night and she shivered, uncomfortable with the fact that she could not see his eyes. She briefly wondered if she wanted to…and then decided she'd like to. Auel and Sting, her two companions, were the only boys she had seen or saw often. Others had been in her lost memories or in the faces of those she had killed. But this one did not give off a sense of vulnerability – and she couldn't see his eyes to know for sure – but his profile and the nearly expressionless line of his mouth seemed to quietly tell her that he was not weak, physically. She held a blade in her hand that had issued a challenge, and his stance and posture held the experience of a veteran. If she were to aim, if she dared to take another step forward and maybe attack, out of curiosity, he would most likely defend himself with agile reflexes. She wanted to attack, but then deemed it unwise. Perhaps he had a weapon hidden within that she could not clearly see. And now was not the time. In those moments, she was intrigued, not battle-hungry.

Instead, Stellar allowed her eyes to drink in his entire appearance again. He was tall like Sting, had wavier hair than Auel's, yet shorter than Neo's, her masked idol. His clothing seemed dull compared to her brightly-colored dress and the attire of her comrades, but it seemed to match the personality she imagined within his eyes hidden by the mask. He looked like a quiet person, a serious kind of guy. There was too much silence and she didn't like being suffocated by silence. Silence reminded her of…death. Perhaps she should reconsider venturing further to see his eyes. Curiosity apparently killed the cat, after all.

At the same time, in those evanescent moments, Athrun watched her from behind his dark glasses, glad that she could not see the doors to his soul. Her gaze was like a mountain: immovable, unshakable, not leaving him for a second and that made him rather edgy. Despite his own curiosity about her in general, his eyes kept straying towards that object in her hand that looked like a small sheath for a…blade. The grip was a far cry from tight. The grip was nearly alarmingly casual, as though she wielded a blade every day, a disturbing thought. And just what was she doing playing around with a possible weapon in broad daylight in a very public place? He narrowed his eyes.

Still, he brought his eyes to hers, studying her. They were purple, bright on the outside with an inner darkness – the innocence with a shadow. Assassin flickered for a split second in his mind, sprinting across the floors of his brain, but the word was soon forgotten, as something else aroused his spirit of inquiry. Her…beauty. Athrun knew without a doubt that the feminine Lacus had the gentle, ethereal beauty of an angel, and that the tomboy Cagalli had the beauty of a fiery warrior princess. However, this girl had the beauty of playful mermaid glimmering in the sun's rays under the sea like an untouchable enigma. But that weapon…he wondered vaguely about what would happen were he to dash forward and snatch that weapon from her hand, but in the end decided not to, for he was far away from her in reality, distanced by their mutual unfamiliarity with each other. At the end of the fleeting moments, they would both come crashing back into the present existence of the PLANTS.

Time inched forward, ready to take them back to their missions. But for one instant Stellar reached out with her other hand, empty of any weapon and hesitated. And he, Athrun, inhaled sharply with anticipation, trying to sense hostility, but found none. Confident upon an impulse, Stellar touched the side of his cheek with her dainty fingers, reveling in the mystery, and Athrun strangely reveled in the softness of her touch.

"Who are you?" he whispered hoarsely, his voice returning from a dungeon for it seemed like he had not spoken for an eternity.

Her fingers lingering next to the sunglasses, wanting to remove them and see his eyes, she replied, "S--"

The black crystals collapsed, exploded, and smooth but sharp pieces flew into disarray, like the many lights of destruction seen in space battles. Athrun disappeared. Stellar disappeared. The stage had been set, but the curtain had fallen too soon.

Stellar blinked, realizing she had been pulled into reality once more by Sting. "Stellar…hey, Stellar," Sting said, waving his hand in front of her face with a stern expression. "Come on."

Oh, yes, their mission. Stellar complied and left the area with her companions, unaware that she was en route to a fateful meeting with Shinn Asuka and later on, the Earth Alliance forces, people and places that would eradicate her mind of any traces of the stranger in sunglasses.

From afar, stepping into a turbolift, Athrun looked away, concentrating once more on his duty as a bodyguard for Cagalli Yula Athha, mind back on matters that would forevermore require his attention, and he had all but forgotten about the stranger with a blade in her hand.

And the enchanting moments of observation vanished, leaving the beautiful trance lost in what could have been.