His and her reasons
Chapter 1: His life
Notes: I'm back with a new Yzak/Shiho story, since I'm not exactly the most diverse person when it comes to writing GS pairings. It's somewhat of an AU, so it disregards the Gundam SEED and Gundam SEED Destiny plotlines. I hope you'll like it despite that and enjoy reading this. Don't hesitate to let me know what you think of this chapter. :)
---
Life was filled with boring things. Watching paint dry, homework, running slowly, meditation, great aunts and a whole bunch of other things that Yzak didn't care enough about to remember. But right now there was nothing on the list of boring things that could top Athrun Zala's babbling.
"Most of the sponsers for the festival are local businesses and aside from representing ourselves we are also representing them. As a part of the student council you must remember that our behavior and manners reflect the entire school…"
Blah blah blah… shut it up, pretty boy.
"Yzak!"
Pulling the pen he had been chewing on out of his mouth, Yzak looked up to see that everyone in the room was staring at him. That included the blue haired young man who was sitting at the end of the table and looking at him sternly. Sighing quietly to himself, Yzak tucked the pen behind his ear.
"Yes?" he drawled lazily.
"As the president of the disciplinary committee it is extremely crucial that you take not of all of this," Athrun went on. "The festival will be the cause of a few incidents, it is your job to make sure that they will no escalate to the point of becoming a problem. Understand?"
Yzak stared at Athrun defiantly.
"Yes," he said and put his feet up on the table.
Bastard.
---
The disciplinary committee was a branch out of the student council. Decisions made by the faculty and the student council were enforced by the disciplinary committee who patroled the corridors and made sure that no one behaved out of fashion or broke any rules. If it was one thing Yzak could appreciate about being the head of the committee it would be his authority to punish almost every student in school. The bad thing was, since that the committee was directly under the student council, that he had to take orders from that idiot Athrun Zala.
This was why every Tuesday morning Yzak had to sit through a meeting that consisted of trying not to die of boredom. It was also why every Thursday noon he trudged to the committee's room in a foul mood and slammed every door he could find on his way there.
Scared first years threw themselves out of the way as he walked through the corridors and even a small group of third years pressed themselves against the wall as Yzak walked down the stairs. He took two steps at the time, hands placed in his pockets to hide the fists he had made. Descending to the ground floor, he rushed past the main corridor and finally reached a wooden door that looked like it had been kicked on many times.
Pulling his jacket off and loosening his tie, Yzak knocked the door out of his way. The door flew open, revealing a small room with walls that had once been bright yellow. It was sparsely decorated, with four chairs, a somewhat damaged table and an old, worn out couch that at some point had been set on fire. A small refridgerator stood in the corner, letting out buzzing noises once in a while. The room only had two very small windows, situated highly on the wall. Yzak tossed his jacket and book bag over the back of a chair and threw himself on the couch.
"GODDAMNIT!"
The door to the room was still swaying back and forth because of the force Yzak had used. He glared angrily at it, as if it was the cause of his anger. It was soon pushed open again, this time by a gentler hand.
"Council meeting again, huh?"
Dearka Elthman walked into the room casually. He hung his jacket and bag over a chair just like Yzak had and sat on the table. He was looking rather windswept, as if he had run all the way to school or stood in front of a fan for ten minutes.
"I HATE THAT GUY!"
Dearka smirked.
"What else is new?"
"That bastard tried to tell me how to do my job!" Yzak yelled, jumping up from the couch.
"Well, technically he's supposed to, being the head of the student council and all…" Dearka murmured but Yzak went on ranting as if he had not heard him. As if ranting was not enough, he turned around and started to kick the door.
"Why do I keep losing to that idiot! There's nothing special about him! Why was he elected as the head of the student council! I have to take my freaking orders from him! GAAHH!"
Dearka just sighed and watched Yzak abuse the door in every possible way, only stopping occasionally to yell in pain or curse. Other students who passed by and saw Yzak's display of anger only lowered their heads and ran as fast as they could. However, there were always those too slow or inexperienced to escape.
"YOU THERE!" Yzak shouted, catching sight of a first year who was unfortunate enough to get spotted. "YES, I MEAN YOU!"
The boy stopped immediately, literally trembling at the sight of Yzak when he entered the corridor. He almost held up his book bag in front of him as a shield.
"Y-yes…?"
Yzak studied the boy closely from head to toe.
"Your bag, open it," he ordered.
The boy opened his bag with trembling hands. Once it was open he held it so that Yzak could take a look at its contents. Books, notebooks, pens, rulers… nothing out of the ordinary. Then suddenly his watchful eyes caught sight of something and he reached into the bag to pick it up. The boy looked at Yzak with both fear and curiousity as Yzak held the object up.
"An orange," Yzak said coldly.
"Y-yes," the boy stuttered. "I bring fruit to eat during breaks… I mean, um, I heard it's good to do that, keeps the energy level up…"
"Do you know that there are people who are allergic to citrus fruits?" Yzak cut off, taking a few forward and causing the boy to stumble backwards into a locker. "All they have to do is to smell the scent of an orange to get an allergic reaction! Did you know that?"
"No… s,sir, I had no idea…"
"Well, now you do!" Yzak screamed. "Don't let me see you with an orange ever again, UNDERSTAND?"
"Yes.. please, don't…"
"THEN SCRAM!"
The boy slowly moved away from Yzak, still too paralyzed by fear to move quickly. This only aggravated Yzak more, whose vision turned red upon seeing how pathetic the boy looked.
"The bell has already rung, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU STALLING FOR!"
Raising his arm, Yzak hurled the orange with as much force as he could. The orange flew through the air and struck the boy in the back of his head as he was walking. It bounced and then rolled out of sight, while the boy rushed off as fast as he could. Yzak took another step to see how fast he was going.
"If I smell oranges again, I'LL FIND YOU! You hear me…"
His words fade into nothing as he felt the wind being knocked out of him. Spinning around in a half circle, he stumbled backwards until he pushed against the wall to regain his balance. Once the world had stopped spinning, he stood up properly and his eyes searched frantically for whoever it was who had bumped into him. He did not have to look far though. Just three feet away stood a girl with long brown hair and bangs that cast a shade over face.
As if Athrun Zala and that annoying first year had not been enough.
"Watch where you're going!" Yzak shouted.
No apology, not even a stuttering attempt at it. The girl was looking downwards and just tried to walk around Yzak. His eyes narrowing in anger, Yzak turned around and grabbed the girl's arm as she tried to leave.
"Look at me when I'm talking to you!"
The girl just stood still, not reacting to Yzak at all. Yzak became somewhere between furious and shocked. What nerve!
"Hey! Are you deaf?"
Yzak stepped in front of the girl again and had a whole speech prepared about her lack of manners when the girl suddenly twisted her arm out of his grip. She pulled away from him and for the first time looked up with blazing, violet eyes.
"Had enough fun now?" she asked in a tone full of quiet restraint. "Made you feel like one of the big boys? I guess you have to when you don't really have anything else to show for it."
The girl turned around and walked away quickly from him, neither in fear nor anger. Yzak just stood there and watched her go. All his previous anger had been quickly replaced by the numb sort of shock and felt frozen to the spot. The girl walked away and turned around the corner. She was well out of sight but Yzak still did not move at all. He stood there in the empty corridor, hearing nothing but the beating of his own heart. It took a while for him to realize exactly why his anger had washed away and he felt shock in its place.
During all his time as a member of the disciplinary committee, this was the first time a normal student had dared to speak up against him.
---
Yzak Jule. Seventeen years old and son of Ezaria Jule. A second year at Rousseau Academy and one of its top students. He was liked and respected by some teachers, disliked but still respected by others. The disciplinary committee was only made up by himself and Dearka, but those who assumed that its strength was in numbers were wrong, very wrong. Every day he would patrol the school corridors, invoking fear in almost all the students, even those who were in their third year. Sometimes he would even invoke admiration and respect among those who sought to and wished to become like him.
This was his life.
What made him so feared among his peers was not that he was the head of the committee. It was his commanding presence and neverending will to always correct others. If you stepped a toe out of line, you could always bet that Yzak Jule would be there to see it and make sure that you would never even think about it again, let alone do it. Everyone knew this and knew that it was in their best interest to stay away from Yzak and pretend to be invisible when he was around.
Because of this common fact Yzak could not, if his life had depended on it, figure out why the girl had talked back to him earlier that morning. He spent most of maths looking out the window and during biology he pretended to study the dissected squid with deep concentration. The memory of the girl talking back at him was stuck in his mind and no matter how much he thought about it he could not understand. She had been perfectly calm when she spoke, in fact he got the distinct impression that she had not been scared at all which added to the whole mystery.
"Damn it!"
He punched the door open and entered the committee room. Instead of just throwing his bag over the bag of a chair, he spun and flung it full force at the wall. Luckily the wall took no damage from the bag, which bounced off lightly and landed on the floor with a dull "thump". Shortly afterwards Dearka followed him inside the room and sighed upon seeing Yzak aggravated beyond the point of reason for the second time that day.
"Still upset about Zala?" Dearka asked and sat down on the couch lazily. "With the way you're obsessed with him…"
"I'm not obsessed!" Yzak shrieked. "I just can't figure it out! It's driving me crazy!"
Dearka looked at him curiously.
"What are you talking about?"
Before Yzak even could think about where to begin or how to explain the strange thing, the door swung open for the third time. Standing in the doorway was Nichol Amarfi, a mild mannered first year. Yzak only knew him because he hung around Athrun Zala, which was reason enough to hate anyone.
"What do you want?" he snapped.
Nichol nearly backed away upon seeing Yzak, but in the end he stayed and smiled rather nervously.
"Ah… Athrun told me to come here…" he began.
"WHAT THE HELL DOES HE WANT!" Yzak hollered, grabbing Nichol by his collar and almost lifting him off his feet.
"There's been an incident in the cafeteria!" Nichol blurted out rapidly. "A new transfer student started a fight!"
"Hmpf." Yzak let go of Nichol and let him drop to the ground. "Fine, just bring him in here and let us take care of it."
He pulled out a chair, sat down and put his feet up on the table. God, he wished he had coffee, a drink, a cigarette… anything to soothe his nerves. This day was prooving to be too much. As he was in the middle trying to remember what he had learned at that anger management class, he noticed that Nichol was still standing there in the doorway.
"What?"
"Um… she's on her way here already," Nichol told and pulled out something from his bag. "I was just sent here to give you her file. Good luck!"
In the blink of an eye Nichol had thrown a paper folder on the table and managed to run out of sight. Yzak rolled his eyes at the boy, then reached for the folder. He opened it and felt his heart skip in shock.
---
Tuesday were always the worst part of the week. Worse than Mondays, because no matter how tiring Mondays were it was always the first day of school after weekend, which meant that one at least had had a bit of time to rest. It was worse than Wednesdays because on Wednesdays his classes did not start until 9 a.m. It was far worse than Thursdays, because Thursdays was the day before Friday and Fridays spoke for itself.
There was always the student council meeting on Tuesday mornings. As if that was not enough to drive Yzak crazy, here was this girl he had never seen before who had the audacity to not only talk back to him but also ignore what he had said completely.
Because of this, Yzak felt a strange sense of satisfaction upon having the same girl sitting by the table in the disciplinary committee room, with her arms crossed and him standing before her. She had come just a few minutes ago, escorted by a few students who had been there at the cafeteria to break up the fight. The room was empty save from Yzak and the girl, Dearka had left shortly after Nichol saying something about needing to speak to the photography club. What he had really meant was that he was going to try to hit on Miriallia Haww but Yzak had not figured that out until he had left and by that time it was too late to attempt to kill him. Now he was left alone with this girl and the folder Nichol had given to him earlier.
"Shiho Hahnenfuss," he read outloud from the folder. "Year two, former student at the Moliére Elementary School, transferred from Europa Academy at December One, as of… today? Guess you're one of those people who couldn't wait to cause trouble."
The girl glanced up quickly, but once she met Yzak's eyes she turned her eyes away.
"Guess you're one of those who are quick to label others," she muttered. "Are you done yet? Shouldn't you be getting a teacher to do the real job?"
His eye twitching involuntarily, Yzak stepped closer to the table and brought both his hands down in a loud slam that made the whole table shake. Even Shiho shook slightly although she regained her composure quickly.
"This is the real job, Hahnenfuss," Yzak snarled. "Here at Rousseau we believe in discipline and behavior. The faculty have complete faith in that we as students will be able to solve all our differences on our own, even when it comes to new, trouble making, transfer students."
"Well, good for you." Shiho did something between an eyeroll and a forced smile. She stood up. "Give me my punishment, what will it be? Detention? Cleaning duty?"
Yzak promptly walked over to her. Hands grasping her shoulders, he pushed her down roughly back on the chair again. When he pushed her back, she stared back at him with wide eyes and a half open mouth. Suddenly she was not looking so calm anymore and a shiver ran down Yzak's spine.
"You're going to tell me why you started that fight," Yzak growled. "I have a list of fourty-five people who witnessed you throwing a bowl of Caesar salad at Alexander Carrows. Now why did you do it?"
As she breathed, her body heaved up and down beneath his hands.
"It's Tuesday," she whispered after a while. "Tuesdays are always boring. Thought that I'd liven up the school if I…"
"What sort of idiot do you take me for?" Yzak hissed.
"The kind of idiot you act like," she retorted quickly.
Yzak pushed Shiho away from him as he let go, nearly causing the chair to tip over and fall with her still sitting on it. Returning to his original spot on the other side of the table, he tore a paper sheet from his notepad and started to scribble fervently on it.
"I will speak to your teacher and suggest that you should receive a week's cleaning duty as punishment," he said and took a quick look at the folder before he continued. "You're in class… 2A."
"Yes."
"Then Mr Ghani is the teacher in charge," Yzak went on and finished his writing. He put down the pen carelessly and crossed his arms as he looked at Shiho. "Now get the hell out of here."
Without looking at him, Shiho got up and left the room as quickly as she could. She did not say a word or even slam the door on her way out.
A cool gust of wind blew through the open window and Yzak took a deep breath while enjoying the sudden silence. Soothing, calm, silence. No one bothering him. But the moment of enjoyment did not last long and only seconds later there was a strange feeling of uneasiness in his heart. He kept getting the distinct feeling that something was wrong. He had missed something, something that prevented him from seeing the whole picture.
Opening his eyes, he reached for the first thing he caught sight on.
Shiho Hahnenfuss.
After staring at the cover with the name printed on it, Yzak opened the folder again. The first page was the one he had just written himself, he flipped past that one and went onto the second page. It was a simple chart with all the basic information that every student had, with names, birth dates, previous schools and grades. He traced the columns of the chart with his finger and stopped at the list of previous schools.
Europa Academy. December One.
He knew well enough what kind of school Europa was. It was one specializing in social studies and science and probably the most exclusive and prestigious school in all of the PLANTs. Though Rousseau was not far behind and had a good reputation of its one, one would without a doubt choose Europa over it.
Entrance exams: 295/320It was the score for the high school entrance exam she had taken almost a year and a half ago. A score way above average and anyone who scored over 280 points was considered an extremely talented students who would have practically no problems getting into their high school of choice.
Something was not right with her, it was definitely not right. By looking at the file Yzak already knew what sort of person she was. Being a former student at Europa would have meant that not only did she do well enough on the exams to get in, but she would also have passed the interviews with the teachers before being accepted. Europa did not just take anyone with a high score, it was selective in its students and made sure to get the right ones through a series of interviews. If she had passed all of those, then why had she transferred?
He sat there with his chin resting against his hands, quietly speculating. The fight in the cafeteria could have indicated violent tendencies but he doubted that anyone with those would get into Europa, let alone stay there for a year and a half without having anyone notice. Was there some other way she could have been forced out of there? But then again, would someone who had been kicked out of a school try to ruin her second chance by starting a fight on the first day?
What the hell is she doing here at Rousseau? Yzak asked himself, leaning back in the chair.
He looked at the file again and at the personal information column.
Class: 2A.
The same class as him.
---
The next few days he found himself watching her closely, stealing glances when no one was watching. He would be staring at her when he was supposed to solve math problems and while others read their textbooks in complete silence he was completely occupied with studying her. Sometimes teachers would ask him afterwards about his sudden lack of attention and encourage him to not space out.
Not that he was the only one not paying attention. By watching Shiho Yzak noticed how she often appeared to be somewhere else in her mind. Her seat was right next to the window and sometimes she'd spend half the lesson staring out at nothing in particular. It did not take long before he started to wonder what she was seeing and what thoughts circled in her mind every time she looked out the window. Was she dreaming that she was back at Europa?
Even when the bell rang and signalled the end of the physics lesson and the school day, he still did not move at all. Others immediately jumped up from their seats, gathered their things and left the classroom as quickly as possible. Yzak watched Shiho get up and pick up her books, neither slowly nor quickly.
"Oi, Yzak!"
Yzak turned around just in time to dodge Dearka attempting to slap him on the back of his head.
"What are you still sitting around here for?" he asked, having already packed up all of his things. "Let's go."
Opening his bag and carelessly stuffing all of his books and notes inside, Yzak looked up quickly towards Shiho's seat. She was gone.
He shot a death glare at Dearka because of that but Dearka, who was since long used to Yzak looking angry all the time, walked on without the slightest idea. They left the classroom and though Dearka was whistling playfully at first, he suddenly stopped upon catching sight of a brown haired girl walking down the hallway.
"M-Miriallia!"
The girl turned around and looked at Dearka. He walked over to her and Yzak could not resist rolling his eyes at Dearka's stupid grin and how he nearly stumbled over his own feet. How pathetic one became when infatuated with a girl, even Dearka who was usually so levelheaded.
"Hi," Miriallia greeted hesitantly as if she was not sure whether she wanted to talk to Dearka or not.
"H-hey," Dearka stuttered and smiled goofily. "How are you doing?"
"Fine, I guess. You?"
"Well, I… um…"
Yzak rolled his eyes again and turned around to leave. If Dearka wanted to make a fool out of himself for a girl he would have to do it alone.
"It's good that you're taking your cleaning duty so seriously but it's Friday today. Just clean the floor and you can go home after that."
"Yes, sir."
Yzak looked up upon hearing those two voices. Mr Ghani, his teacher, was standing at the end of the corridor with Shiho. She held a mop in her hands and next to her was a cart with cleaning products and a bucket of water. As Mr Ghani headed back into the teacher's lounge, Shiho pushed the cart forwards. She caught Yzak's eyes as she looked up briefly but went back into the classroom without a word.
For some reason, Yzak followed.
The classroom was completely empty, save for them. As Mr Ghani had said, it was Friday which meant that the only thing on people's heads was getting out of the school building as soon as possible. But Shiho did not seem to be in a hurry. Instead she took her time, starting with slowly picking up pencils and erasers that people had left. After that she opened the windows to let some air into the room and wet a washing cloth to clean the blackboard. She paid no attention to Yzak as she did all those things and it was like she did not even notice that he was there. Somehow, the thought of that made him feel small and insignificant.
"Hey," he called out, practically forcing her to acknowledge his presence. "What the hell are you doing?"
Shiho looked at him blankly.
"I'm cleaning."
Yzak rolled his eyes.
"Mr Ghani just told you to do the floor, why are you doing all the other stuff do?" he clarified.
Shiho shrugged and went on cleaning the blackboard without answering him. Yzak dropped his book bag on the floor and sat on the teacher's desk, planting his feet up on the teacher's chair. He did not do it to spite her but at least he got a reaction. Shiho turned her attention away from the blackboard and frowned.
"Shouldn't you know better than to do that?" she questioned. "Being in the disciplinary committee and all?"
"You're lecturing me on rules when you can't even follow them yourself," Yzak retorted. "Seriously, it's Friday. Why are you still here cleaning?"
"Because it's the punishment I got and I'm going to stay here until I've done what I'm supposed to," Shiho muttered, wiping the chalk off the blackboard quickly and then throwing the rag onto the cleaning cart quickly. "Can you just let me do that?"
Yzak shrugged.
"Do what you like."
He did not move from the desk, choosing to stay instead of leaving her alone. He still had not gotten what he had come from and it was not in Yzak's nature to give up that easily. For a few seconds Shiho looked at him in silence but once she realized that he was not going anywhere she just turned her back on him and concentrated on her tasks instead. His eyes followed her as she moved around the classroom, first putting up all the chairs and then when she returned to get the mop. Neither of them said anything though sometimes she'd look over her shoulder to see if he was still there. If he happened to catch her eyes, Yzak would look away.
Ten minutes later no one had still said a word. Shiho took her time cleaning and Yzak started to feel irritated each time he looked towards the clock and saw that only a few seconds had passed since he looked last time. Leaving the classroom and the whole thing behind him was tempting but something inside him refused to leave.
There was something that did not add up in his mind. This dutiful girl who insisted on staying behind to do more than what Mr Ghani had told her to do, was the same girl who had spoken up against him and then started a fight in the cafeteria. Something was not quite right and Yzak did not know what annoyed him most, that he could not figure it out or that he could not just forget about it. This was certainly not the first time he had to handle students who had started fights and definitely would not be the last. Why was she so different?
"I didn't think Europa academy had much tolerance for people who start fights," Yzak suddenly said. "Or is that why you here now?"
Shiho jumped slightly upon hearing him speak, he had startled her. But that seemed forgotten when she turned around to face him because there was a hint of anger in her expression.
"I really don't want to talk about that, especially not with you," she replied coldly.
"Too bad, as the head of the disciplinary committee you're under my watch. You step out of line and you end up on my 'to do'-list."
When Shiho stared at him with wide eyes, Yzak just stared back thinking that it was some kind of battle of wills. For a few seconds he was sure of winning it, then he noticed that Shiho was looking at him with shock and disbelief. It occurred to him then that this was not a staring contest at all. About the same time he realized what his words had sounded like.
Last time Yzak had blushed, really blushed, was in 9th grade when Lacus Clyne had given him a hug on the last day of school. However, now he found his cheeks reddening ten times as fast as they had back then, accompanied by his heart pounding rapidly.
He quickly jumped off the desk and grabbed his book bag.
"I… I didn't mean it like that!" he snapped defensively, refusing to look at Shiho as he bolted towards the door.
"Wait!"
Despite wanting to run out of there and disappear into some random hole where no one would ever find him, Yzak automatically stopped at the door when he heard her call out. He carefully stepped back and turned his head just a little to look at her.
She was still standing there with the mop in her hands, but had not actually done any cleaning since Yzak had spoken to her. There was a restrained smile on her lips, as if she found the whole thing funny but was trying hard not to laugh at him.
Yeah, very funny indeed.
"What is it?" he muttered, eager to get out of there before she'd start laughing completely.
"This disciplinary committee…" she started. "Why are you in it? Why do you care at all if someone gets into trouble?"
The question caught him off guard but Yzak found himself answering it quickly.
"I don't care if anyone else gets in trouble. Usually I don't even care about knowing why people end up being sent to us. But this is my turf, no one is going to mess things up while I'm around. It might not be the most noble reason, but I'd rather do something than just stand around and watch people cause trouble. It's as simple as that."
He became aware of Shiho staring at him again, perhaps because he had launched into half of a long monologue. His cheeks began to burn again and the knowledge of having said too much to someone he did not know was making every second spent in this room unbearable. Frowning and his hand tightening his grip on his bookbag, he quickly left the room without saying another word.
---
When Tuesday morning came again, Yzak reluctantly went into the student council room and slammed the door after him as the meeting started. Around 10 p.m. he was first to leave the room, hands stuck in his pockets and feeling as if his head was about to explode. Hearing Athrun Zala's voice in his head over and over was what contributed most to the latter.
Negotiate with the soccer team to make them behave in proper conduct, Yzak thought. Like I actually need to negotiate with anyone.
On his way back to the committee room he stopped by the vending machine and dropped a few coins into the slot. Coffee first, deal with idiots later.
Dearka showed up by his side shortly after Yzak had picked up the coffee cup.
"So what assignment did they land on us today?" Dearka asked, having read the expression on Yzak's face and been able to differentiate between his normally cranky friend and his cranky friend with an assignment.
"Negotiate with the captain of the soccer team," Yzak muttered, walking down the corridor. "Make sure that what happened last year won't happen again."
Dearka followed him.
"You mean that fight last year?"
Yzak nodded and drank a mouthful of the coffee. He nearly spit it out but controlled his reflex just in time and forced himself to swallow it. A cold shiver ran down his back even though the coffee was still hot. The coffee tasted like metal, not surprising considering where it came from. Still, Yzak forced himself to take another sip of the coffee. Good or not, he needed the caffeine to get through this Tuesday.
After a few minutes of walking he and Dearka arrived at the soccer field. The whole team was already out there, right in the middle of practise. Watching the team members missing the ball because they were half asleep made Yzak wonder if Tuesday mornings were as bad for them as they were for him. But just a little.
"Hey!"
Yzak looked to his left to see the captain of the soccer team, Felix Sorensen, jogging towards them, drenched in sweat from head to toe. Both Yzak and Dearka instinctively took a long step backwards as Felix approached them. The latter didn't seem to take offense though, if he even noticed it in between swallowing half a bottle of water.
"Nice to see you guys out here for once," Felix said, emptying the other half of the bottle of his head and proceeding to splash it all over the place like a dog. "Thinking about joining?"
"You wish," Yzak retorted. "We're here to make sure you guys don't pull the same stunt as you did last year."
Despite towering over them with at least five inches, Felix seemed to shrink when he heard what Yzak had said.
"Now listen, last year wasn't exactly my fault…" he began uncertainly.
"You're the captain of the team and the entire soccer club," Yzak reminded sharply. "It's your job to make sure your teammates behave. And as far as I can remember I think soccer was more trying to kick the ball into the goal than body slamming the other team's mascot."
"But you know how it is!" Felix pleaded. "Georgie is such a great mascot and always brings snacks and stuff for all of us at practise… her brother is on the team and when he heard the other team making fun of her costume he just couldn't help himself! We really care about each other in the team and for them to make fun of Georgie, well, we…"
"Your mascot is freaking chicken, literally!" Yzak cut off. "You can't tell me that it was the first time someone made fun of that!"
When Felix looked like he had no idea what Yzak was talking about, Yzak just sighed and finished the rest of his coffee. God, it was awful.
"Whatever, just keep your team in check this year," Yzak went on. "If I hear you do anything out of line I'll arrange for the entire team to wash the fencing team's equipment for three months. If you guys think your stuff stinks, then you'll be in for a surprise."
Not looking but knowing that what he had said had terrified Felix, Yzak turned around and left. He threw the coffee cup over his shoulder and it fell perfectly into a trash can. Dearka followed and the two of them went back inside the school building.
Sticking his hands into his pockets, Yzak seriously thought about assigning punishments to everyone participating in the school festival before it even started. The festival was the only time of the school year that students could plan on their own and needless to say it was the only time of the school year that was considered fun. But with fun came a whole lot of general mayhem and as usual he was going to be the one held responsible if something went wrong.
"Hey," Dearka said as they reached the corridor leading back to the committee room. "I gotta tell you something."
Though he would rather die and go to hell twice before admitting it, it was times like these that Yzak was grateful to have Dearka in the disciplinary committee. As much work as the student festival was, at least he did not have to deal with it alone.
"I've joined the school newspaper!"
Two people working together was always better than one person working alone and… wait, stop, rewind.
"What!" Yzak exclaimed in disbelief, stopping right in the middle of the corridor.
"I've joined the school newspaper," Dearka repeated, smiling as if this was his only chance to do so. "Milly told me that they had a spot open so I said I'd join!"
Yzak just stared at him, still doubting that he had heard him right. The fact that he had heard him right was confirmed by Dearka looking like he had just won the lottery. As the information sank in, Yzak could only do what he did best.
Speak. Loudly.
"Why the HELL did you do that for!" Yzak yelled so suddenly that a girl walking by jumped and dropped her books. "Right before the SCHOOL FESITVAL!"
"Relax, I'm not quitting entirely," Dearka assured. He put his hands up in front of him, either to urge Yzak to calm down or to shield himself in case Yzak would decide to physically attack him. "I just have to do some work at the newspaper once in a while. They even gave me my own advice column: Dear Dearka!"
Yzak was truly torn and conflicted. He did not know whether to be upset with his friends for joining the newspaper at a time like this or to feel sad because "Dear Dearka" was the best name that the creative minds at this school could come up with. In the end he decided to be neither and just grumpy instead. Frowning deeply and putting on a sour look to let Dearka know that he was definitely not happy, he resumed walking towards the committee room.
"You owe me for this," he muttered. "You so owe me."
"I guess I'll just call it even for that time I didn't tell the principal who really kicked down the door to the chemistry lab," Dearka said with a grin.
Yzak glared at Dearka intensely but somehow managed to just push the door open rather than kick it, despite that today was yet another awful Tuesday. He was about to bring up something to remind Dearka that he owed him, but could not come up with something. Instead he looked up and saw that there was already someone else in the room.
At first he thought that he was just imagining it, but his phase with imaginary friends had only lasted about two days when he was four. But what he saw was Shiho standing in the room, examining the buzzing refridgerator as if trying to figure out why it wouldn't stop buzzing. She turned around as she noticed that she was being stared at but frankly Yzak could not help it. Even Dearka looked surprised to see her in there. No one ever came into the committee room willingly, not unless you were Yzak, Dearka or trying to be a juvenile delinquent. Even student council members tended to stay in the corridor or by the door if they had something to say. So what the hell was she doing in here?
"They told me that you guys are usually in here so I figured that I'd wait until you came back," Shiho said casually.
"Okay," Yzak answered almost dumbly, thinking that it did not explain at all why she had come in the first place. Had she been sent here because of another fight?
"Here."
Shiho reached over and handed Yzak a piece of paper. He accepted it and took a quick look at it. It was a document with her full name, birthdate, adress, student ID and all the other basic information that he didn't give a damn about.
"What's this?"
"My application. I want to join the disciplinary committee."
Yzak blinked, his mind trying to make sense of what she had just said. Just one week ago she had been sitting here after having started a fight and refused to tell Yzak anything. Now she wanted to join and help out? It did not make any sense.
Dearka, however, seemed to have no problem at all accepting her. He had already stepped forward to shake Shiho's hand and tell her that she could not have joined them at a better time. Yzak glared at him.
If that he thinks he's getting away with quitting on me because she wants to join, then he's wrong.
"You can't just join like that," Yzak said after taking another look at the document. "You have to get approval from a teacher and the student council…"
"Oh, the signatures are on the other side."
Looking at the other side of the document, he found two signatures scribbled at the bottom. Sure enough, there was a signature from Mr Ghani and…
Bastard.
…Athrun Zala of the student council.
"Looks good enough for me," Dearka approved, having peered over Yzak's shoulder and taken a look at the signatures.
Shiho smiled at him.
"My class starts in five minutes so I have to go," she said, picking up her book bag from the floor. "I'll see you guys later."
While Yzak kept staring at the signatures, Dearka waved goodbye as Shiho left the room. Once she was gone, he took the opportunity to slap Yzak on his back.
"Guess you'll be doing just fine without my help," he grinned.
Ignoring him, Yzak turned around and rushed to get out of the room and back into the corridor. He looked around to see if she was still there and caught sight of her just as she was about to disappear into the crowd.
"Shiho!"
Shiho turned around, looking mildly surprised to see him coming after her. He pushed past others to get to her, nearly trampling over a short first year in the process. When he did get to her, the first thing he did was hold her application up right in front of her face.
"What's this?" he asked bluntly. "Why do you want to join the committee?"
Shiho looked back and forth between the application and him, not answering at first. Yzak did not take his eyes off her the entire time, noticing how suddenly she seemed so uncertain of what to say and most of all uncertain of herself. It was as if she was still trying to figure out the answer to the question he had asked.
"I guess… I owe it to you for being a convincing speaker," she replied after a while. "There was no disciplinary committee at my old school, I didn't know what it was when I came here. But after what you said about being in it… how could I not join?"
The answer was sufficient enough, yet Yzak did not doubt for a second that there was more to it than what she had said. Still, for some reason he felt that it was enough for know. She smiled at him, he was not sure why, before leaving him to go to class again. He watched her slowly walk away from him, his mind suddenly full of questions to which he wanted an answer.
What had she meant by that? Why had she found him so convincing? What did she want? Who was she?
"Hey!" he called out, not really knowing he did until afterwards.
Once again, Shiho stopped, turned around and looked at him. Yzak swallowed.
"Are you still not going to tell me why you started that fight?"
Their eyes met for what appeared to be an eternity. Then something changed, Shiho smiled again but this time he could see it reaching her eyes.
"Maybe. Someday."
With that short answer she turned away from him and walked away again. This time Yzak let her but he kept watching her until she had gone to the other end of the corridor and there were too many other students blocking his view. Even then he did not move and several people walking by noticed how he looked a little dazed and that his mouth was slightly open.
But he paid no attention to them. Even when Shiho was long gone, he kept staring forwards, lost in his own thoughts. No questions answered, he did not know more about her than he did last week after sending her off with cleaning duty as punishment. But for some reason, it did not matter much.
After all, he had time to find out.