I just painted my toes a bright red colour and I can't sleep till they dry. I make such a mess with nail polish. This is one skill which I can't seem to master with time.

This one has nothing to do with nail polish, although technically it has to do with a few shades of red. I've been eating cherries lately. :D

This plot is so incredibly cliche and over-written, I know. But, it's late, it's haunting me and I have nothing better to do with my time right now anyway. Beware my spastic innuendo should you catch all of it. XD

Red, Red

Cagalli did not hate being princess. A lot of people believed that she hated being princess of Orb so much that she's rather be a cockroach. Well, cockroaches were the most resilient living organism on the planet, and they did do whatever they wanted. But cockroaches also ate garbage. That wasn't very appetizing to the blond.

Cagalli did not hate being princess. She, in fact, liked her job. She was responsible for the well being of an entire nation and she considered all its citizens her family. She considered herself fortunate because her first memories were those of orphanages and temporary foster homes. To go from having no family members to having a country full of them would only be possible if she was princess. She liked being responsible for their happiness.

Cagalli did not hate being princess. She disliked parts of the job profile. She did not like dresses and dinner parties. She did not like having to look a certain way and constantly behave herself. She did not like being polite to jerkface politicians with personal agendas. She did not like that she couldn't tell her greedy political adviser to shove his self-centered economic plan up his ass. She did not like piles of paper work which only grew larger in proportion to the effort she put into making it disappear.

Cagalli did not hate being princess; except at times like this.

There was a soft knock on the door. Athrun entered the room after she projected a "come in" loudly. He was the only person who was allowed into her bedroom at - she checked the clock above the fireplace - quarter past midnight. He must've just gotten in from work. He was a teacher at the local police training grounds in addition to being her part-time bodyguard and full-time lover. He must be tired.

"Long day at work honey?" she inquired, half her attention still on the paper before her.

He merely sighed in response, taking a seat on her couch. "Don't get me started. We got a new batch today."

"You mean you got a new batch today." she asked, a comforting laughter laced in her words. Everyone abused her dear, sweet Athrun.

He sprawled out on the couch with his hands behind his head. "Don't get me started." He reiterated.

She smiled at him, putting the signed paper aside and picking up the next one. "Are you staying tonight?" She wished she didn't need to ask questions like this. She wished he would always stay the night with her. But, while he'd visit her everyday after work, he'd only occasionally stay - sometimes because he fell asleep on her couch and other times because she persuaded him to. Yet, she'd ask this question every night.

"Only if you don't get distracted from your work," was the answer tonight, as it was every night when she had paper work to complete. Athrun had been chided a few times by her guardian angels for distracting their beloved princess from her work. She adored her staff for thinking so innocently of her. Athrun speculates she hires only the ones she can fool with her intricate facade.

"I don't get distracted," she picked up the pen and drew her signature where it was needed before picking up the next paper. "You always distract me, baby."

He was disgruntled by the calm in her voice. She knew it although he did not show it on his features. "I'm too tired to distract you today." Upon examining his gorgeous, gorgeous body, Cagalli concluded that he was speakingthe truth. This foiled her plans to shirk her responsibilities in the name of Athrun's sexual appetite. She hated paper work and she loved Athrun. Given the choice, it was obvious which one she'd choose to do.

"That's fine babe," she said, pushing herself out of her chair and walking over to her lover. "You look exhausted. You should rest. Why don't you change and lie down on the bed so you don't fall asleep on the couch. You have a terrible habit of falling off the couch during the night anyway." She brushed his blue hair from his forehead and leaned down to plant a soft kiss on the skin she revealed.

Athrun looked up into her golden eyes, trying to dechipher them. She was being too kind, too sugary for him to let his suspicion slide. He couldn't find anything in them except endless warmth, which would be a red flag were he not this tired. "You're right. I'll take a quick shower and head to bed." He placed a quick kiss on her lips followed by one that lingered longer.

"I'll bring you your clothes." The words caught his attention. Was she actually scheming to take advantage of him when he was this tired? Women were selfish creatures, he decided. Before he could protest she was gently pushing him towards the bathroom. "I bought new soap! Try it out, you'll like the way it smells."

He did like the soap despite its colour. "Did Lacus give you this?" He asked her, hearing her enter the bathroom. He was prepared if she was going to jump him. It wouldn't be the first time.

"Yeah, what gave it away?" She asked placing the clothes on the shelf where the towels hung.

"You don't buy pink things." He responded, illiciting concurring laughter from her. He heard the door close soon after and could not see the blond inside the large washroom through the hazy shower screen door. Maybe she was feeling considerate tonight. Maybe her concern for his exhaustion was greater than her spite of paper work. He made a note to make it up to her another night.

When he exited the bathroom, a towel on his head to absorb remaining water from his hair, he noticed she'd acquired a midnight snack. Cagalli always ate cherries in cherry season. She'd eat them for breakfast, dessert, midnight snacks and anytime she was hungry and did not need to eat the chef's specialized menus.

Before he went to bed, he picked one from her bowl and brought it to his lips. He enjoyed the juicy, red fruit as well, just not as much as his better half. Her eyes watched the fruit, initially because she was a little peeved that he was stealing her cherry. However, she soon became jealous of the small fruit for the attention it was getting from Athrun - for getting to be in his mouth.

Cagalli grinned, the light bulb flickering brightly in her mind. "Good night darling," her grin disappeared instantly with the sound of his voice. "Don't stay up too late." He instructed, leaning down to kiss her one last time.

"Mm," She moaned into his kiss, holding him in longer than their usual good night kisses. Athrun made cherries taste better. "Night babe."

In a few seconds Athrun's damp hair hit the pillow on the right side of the bed. Though the right side of the bed was closer to Cagalli's desk, and her desk lamp shone dimly in his eyes he still lay there motionless, too drained to mind. Cagalli always slept on the left and he always took the right. Sleeping with the light in his eye was more natural than sleeping on the left side of this bed. It was as though the mattress had moulded to their respective bodies on their favorite sides.

Athrun drifted off to sleep to the sound of Cagalli's cursing. She often cursed out loud and talked to the paper work, discussing with it the stupidity of the drafter. Tonight was a night of "What the hell?" and "Are you serious? How genetic does your stupidity have to be to think of just dumb ideas!?" and "Damn, Mmmm...".

Damn, Mmmm. That was a new one. Athrun opened his eyes slightly. His fatigue was blurring his vision but he didn't care to open them anymore. He could see a blend of yellows and oranges from Cagalli's hair and pajamas. He also saw a splash of red by her lips. Focusing on her face, he recognized the enticing expression on her face - it was one only he'd seen on her face.

"You dark ones are the best," she said to the stalk in her hand, placing it in a bowl she used to collect the pits.

She fished out another rich red cherry from her bowl and bit into it, her lips lingering on the dark flesh of the fruit. Athrun tried not to watch, but couldn't. He tried to turn away, but couldn't. Who ate cherries in bites anyway?

A small drop of juice from the cherry slowly slid down her lip. The actual velocity of the drop was normal judging by it's size and the force gravity exerted on it. But to Athrun it moved in slow motion as he was convincing himself that he was not watching. He realized it was a failed attempt when Cagalli's tongue glided across her bottom lip and the drop disappeared as quickly as it had appeared.

Athrun wondered how tired he had to be to watch his girlfriend eat cherries in the middle of the night.

She continued to curse at and converse with the piles of paper before her. She continued to moan and whimper orgasmically at the cherries. At one point she was holding a half bitten cherry in her right hand and the juice had made it far past her wrist before she realized it. He watched her intently as she licked the trail of juice from her forearm to her fingertips before she picked up the pen to sign the next page. Her fingers were, surprisingly, dyed the same colour as her lips. How did she manage that? He decided that he would watch her eat strawberries one day and see how that goes.

The next one she bit into, she held at her lips. She would always hold a finger to her lips when she was considering something with any amount of seriousness. This time, the cherry conveniently replaced the finger. She brushed the exposed pit of the fruit softly against her lip, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth... This has created a red mess on her lips, making them look as appetizing as the small fruit itself. The fruit began to fall apart because of all of the molesting and a large drop of juice began sliding down her lips, her chin all the way down her neck, until it seemed like there was nothing more left of the poor little drop.

By this time, Athrun was beside Cagalli with his hand on her wrist. He forced her to throw away the remnants of the fruit in her hand and tugged at her sleepily. Cagalli looked up to see him yawning, finding him to be the essence of adorable standing there stubbornly tugging at her hand.

"Come to bed," he said his voice as sleep ridden as his eyes.

"But hun," Cagalli said, gesturing towards all the papers scattered on her desk with her free hand, "I have work to finish."

Athrun would have twitched had he been fully awake. But for now he was in awe of the fact that Cagalli was playing hard to get with stupid, stupid paper work as the other alternative. He knew that if she continued working he would not sleep because she'd barely eaten through a quarter of the bowl. She needed to be pulled away from those cherries now. It was a matter of national emergency - at least to Athrun.

He slid a finger under her chin and lifted it to place a kiss at the end of the juice trail that sat on her neck. He followed the trail from his kiss to her lips with his tongue at a gruelling, slow pace. When he reached her lips, he ran his tongue over her bright red bottom lip at an equally taunting pace his eyes boring into hers firecely.

"Come to bed." This time he spoke a definitive command.

She wrapped his arms around him wordlessly and he pulled her out of her chair. She straddled his waist and locked her feet behind his back, grinning down at him. She loved to be carried by him. In fact, all of the picture the tabloids had of them were pictures of him carrying her, making it impossible to outrun some of the photographers. Cagalli would only smiled and pat him on the back in such situations assuring him it had good training value because he was her super solider. Athrun would never have anything to say to the princess every time she called him hers.

He carried her to the bed and they tumbled into it, Athrun barely holding himself above her. Tomorrow, Athrun might realize that Cagalli had gotten exactly what she wanted. But tonight all that mattered is that he was between her and her unfinished bowl of cherries.

Andhera's Note

Ta da~

I never thought the two of them would grow up to be that innocent anyway. The innocent young ones are always the fastest to catch on to curruption.

You are a lovely person for reading and will be even lovelier if you leave me a review. They make me smile.