The token Christmas fic, because it had to be done. And because I can.
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Luna sighed from her position underneath the mistletoe. Shinn wasn't here... she hadn't seen him all day in fact. She frowned. Damnit, he was never there when you needed him to be! She'd seen him at the yearly Christmas breakfast (which really was no surprise, it was free and decent food) but after that he had disappeared. She stood, about to leave in order to sulk... or look for Shinn... or ooh, maybe Athrun would slink under a mistletoe somewhere Luna smiled dreamily at the opportunity. And he had been with Shinn last, too. Maybe he knew where he was. Luna smirked, two birds with one stone!
As if on cue, Athrun turned a corner into her vision. Luna strolled down the hall to where Athrun was, so she wouldn't seem as though she was waiting there for him to come by. "Ah! Athrun! I was looking for you!" she said.
Athrun looked at her and smiled, "Hi, Lunamaria." He was completely unaware that the two were approaching a mistletoe... Luna cackled evilly inside her mind.
She smiled back with a bit of a giggle, "Just 'Luna' is fine." Athrun looked at her before he nodded slowly.
"Okay. Why were you looking for me?" he asked her.
"Well, I saw you with Shinn earlier, but I haven't seen him since. I thought you might know where he was..." Luna said, theatrically twirling her fingers nervously and looking down.
Athrun frowned as he thought, "Hmm... I haven't seen him after that, myself. Maybe," he shrugged, "he's planning something Christmas-y for someone."
Luna frowned, as well. So he didn't know where Shinn was... and what was with that almost smug tone of his voice? She shook her head, Oh well, might as well carry out the second half of her plan. Athrun was still ahead of her though, she quickened her pace to catch up with him. She cursed, he was almost under it by now. "Oh, uh... that sounds like Shinn," she said, trying to stall him.
Athrun slowed down a bit, directly under the mistletoe. He turned back to her and nodded, Luna smiled triumphantly as she came closer to him. "Yeah," the blue-haired boy started, "Well, I have to get g--oof!"
Meyrin looked up at him from her position on the floor with wide eyes, "Athrun! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to run into you like that!" she said apologetically.
Athrun smiled at her, "It's okay..." he helped her up and watched as she brushed herself off.
Meyrin grew red as she realized where she was standing. Athrun did too, slowly. He looked up and saw the Christmas-themed plant. Luna stood wide-eyed and open-mouthed. That was supposed to be her! Not Meyrin! Heeerrrr!
Athrun looked down at Meyrin, a smiled slowly coming to his face as she blushed. "Well, I guess that we can't disobey tradition..." he said and started to leaned forward. Luna gasped in time with her sister, the former from horror, the latter from surprise.
Elsewhere, Shinn cursed to himself. That Zala bastard! He shouldn't have even believed him when he said all he wanted was to make peace over eggnog. Taking advantage of the holiday cheer to get past his defenses! How.. how..! Shinn growled again, struggling futilely while trying to ignore the fact that he was jingling. As much as he'd like to yell out and get someone to save him, he'd rather save himself the humiliation of someone seeing him... like this... He bit his lip before allowing himself one, very loud, very angry shout.
"ATHRUN ZALA, I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!"
Unfortunately (or was it fortunately?), nothing more than a faint rumbling noise was noticed by anyone, much less the target of his current hatred. Who was, at the moment...
"A-Athrun!" Meyrin stuttered, turning redder by the second as Athrun closed in. His lips brushed hers for the barest second before he pulled away. It was enough for Meyrin, though. She shook like a leaf as Athrun gave her a disarming smile.
"Merry Christmas, Meyrin," he said, somehow managing to exhibit a sparkly, bubbly, flower-tinted aura to Meyrin. He turned and walk down the hallway, very pleased with himself. Meyrin felt her legs give out under her and touched her lips with a trembling hand.
"A...ath..run..." she said, finding herself blushing hotter. She quickly got up and ran past a stunned and horrified Luna, most likely going somewhere to squee or re-evaluate her feelings or something like that.
Luna just approached the mistletoe at a sluggish pace, totally dejected. "...that... was my kiss..." she said quietly. Damn her sister. Everyone said that Luna was the better half but they were wrong! Meyrin got all the guys with her perfect shy, insecure behavior... damn her!
Rey passed by, casting her a strange look as he walked under the mistletoe with a bit of added quickness and stealth. Luckily, she seemed to be so out of it that he managed to avoid a Christmas smooch. Rey sighed in relief, before he gave her another look. He shrugged, well, whatever was wrong with her, she'd be over it in a few days.
He approached his room and frowned. There seemed to be a fair amount of dissatisfied grumbling and... was that jingling? He immediately recognized the voice as Shinn's and cautiously pressed on the console, mentally preparing himself for whatever was waiting behind the door.
But nothing could have adequately prepared him for the sight of Shinn wrestling against his bonds of... red and green ribbons? Not to mention the fact that he was chained to Rey's bed (by a rather pretty red and green chain), in his boxers, with one of those cheap stick-on green bows in his hair. "That fucker knows his knots," Shinn growled. He was in the middle of trying to pull his arms apart in vain when he suddenly became aware of someone looking at him. He slowly looked up at Rey, who was almost frozen with an expression that was part shocked, part stunned, and part 'What the hell?'
"Uh... Hi there, Rey." Shinn said, before grimacing and struggling valiantly. "...could you close that...?" he requested, still fuming. Rey just nodded and closed the door, finally noticing where the jingling was coming from: a red reindeer collar adorned with at least ten bells. "Stupid bastard... when I get done with him there won't be anything left!" Shinn mumbled out in anger as he pulled at the ribbon with his teeth. There was also a... tag on the collar? "Do you think that I can get some help over here?" Shinn asked agitatedly as Rey just continued to stare at him. He was flushing slightly because of it, but he ignored it with full force.
Rey was knocked out of his pseudo-trance and he nodded quickly, "...sure." and started to help Shinn.
Luna leaned against the doorway, still in a depressed state of disillusion. "...that is so... not fair..." she murmured, as if her dream had just been shattered into a million pieces, then torched and the ashes cast into the sea. She suddenly heard the swishing of a uniform and snapped out of it in order to stand in attention. "Chairman Dullindal!" she saluted.
Gil looked at her with a smile, "..would you like to move from there?" he said. Luna frowned, obviously confused.
'Would you like to'? that was an odd way of phrasing a question. Luna just tilted her head a bit, "But.. uh, there's enough room for you to get through, isn't there?"
Gil just chuckled, adding to Luna's confusion, "Seems as though someone forgot where they were standing," he commented and it dawned on Luna that she was still under the mistletoe. He walked by her and leaned over to kiss her on the lips. It was nothing like the chaste one that Athrun has given Meyrin. Gil pulled away to admire the somewhat flushed, definitely disturbed, almost pleased, and very shocked look on her face.
"I... I..." Luna stuttered, incredulous at being kissed by the Chairman.
Gil smiled at her, with the look of a cat who is about to devour a poor fish out of water. "I could perform an encore presentation if you prefer..?" he prompted after she just continued to stand there.
Luna froze at the thought and saluted quickly, "THANKYOUBUTNOTHANKSIAPPRECIATETHEGESTUREBUTIREALLYMUSTBEGOINGSOMEWHERE!" she said before running off.
Meanwhile, Rey continued to undo the ribbon binding Shinn's wrists. He was close enough now where he could read what the tag said.
Have A Merry Christmas, Rey. -- Athrun Zala
Shinn frowned as Rey stopped helping and looked down at him. Shinn really did not like that look. "Uhm... Rey..?" he ventured, fearfully. When Rey just smiled at him, he knew something was horribly, horribly wrong.
In the hall, Luna had nearly ran into Arthur, who gazed after her with bemusement. "What was her problem?" he asked after saluted Gil.
The Chairman just smiled, as he realized how close the man was, "Would you like to find out?" he purred.