[Gundam SEED: Athrun X Kira] A Lifetime

Time really is a strange thing. If we had met again a year ago, I would have held him tight. If it had been a month ago, I would have demanded to know why he was helping Naturals and taking their side against me. But now, I don't want to do anything or say anything. His gaze has changed. I think if I reached out and touched his face, even the feeling beneath my fingertips might be different. But I just stand there, frozen, my fingers cold.

The one who finally ran over and pulled us into an embrace was Cagali. "You two idiots," she said. What a perfect scolding. We were such idiots that it took a third person hugging us hard for our foreheads to finally touch, our first skin-to-skin contact in three years. Had all those years of friendship just vanished into the wind? Not a single tear was shed. The one choking back tears was Cagali, who didn't even understand a fraction of what lay between us.

The people watching seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. Some of them, like Cagali, had red-rimmed eyes. What a moving scene: ten years of ties, three years apart, a month of hostility, and a moment to make up. Blue skies and white clouds, sunshine everywhere, a peaceful and beautiful world. No one realized they had put the lengths of time in the wrong order.

It took one minute to meet him, I loved him for thirteen whole years, and it will take me the rest of my life to forget him.

I close my eyes. All I can hear is Cagali crying, Tori calling out, and the wind blowing all around the world.