Yuugiri: Happy Valentine's Day to all! This story was a request from a fellow Filipina reviewer, and I actually attempted to put in all four couples here, but as Valentine's Day is just around the corner, I did not think I'll be able to finish this if I did. This will NOT be included in the Insatiable Heart, since the timeline of that story is only up until late Fall, but if ever it would be, it would most definitely be like this. Oh, well… Aki! I hope you like it! This is your idea after all! (smile)
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam SEED.
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It had just recently stopped snowing outside, making that night appear even quieter than it usually should. And except for the heater occasionally crackling and humming in the silence, nothing could be heard. It was that certain time when it took four Coordinators to actually devise a strategic plan of action in order to make something this critical work. Yes. It was a matter of life and death, wherein one wrong move could completely throw the whole plan off and risk their very futures.
One wrong move... and that would be it.
Yzak looked around his and Kira's room in the Men's RQ with a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, and could not help but feel misery radiating from the three other Coordinators in it. The stagnant coldness was not helping, either. Athrun was slouched on the couch, his head thrown back at the backrest, eyes staring blankly at the ceiling. Dearka was lying flat on his back on the electric carpet, once in a while producing this weird, squeaky noise coming from his throat, making Yzak want to approach him and smother him with a pillow. He was making him even more edgy than he already is. Kira, on the other hand, had glued himself at the far wall of the room, looking out of the window into the freshly fallen snow on the empty parking lot of their Dorms, not even making the slightest sound that would have proven he hadn't suddenly frozen up in his place, where it looked deathly cold.
It was Valentine's day tomorrow... And the three had cornered him with the hopes of forcing him to join them for their dinner date tomorrow with the girls. They wanted him to ask Kari out for it.
God...
Yzak almost jumped out of his skin when Dearka suddenly bolted up into a sitting position, irritation marring his bronze features illuminated by the orange glow of the heater. "This is impossible! We've been forcing him to join us for two friggin' hours. He won't yield, Athrun."
With this, Athrun raised his tired eyes at the blond boy and sniffed. "Don't tell me you're not even going to take her out to dinner? Or even a gift? Ezaria will have a fit!"
Yzak felt his left eye twitch involuntarily at the mention of his mother's name. Ezaria Jule had fallen in love with Kari. And the last time he had actually talked to her, she threatened him that if he so much as made Kari miserable with his cold behavior, she will come right back down to Earth and give him a piece of her mind. Which Yzak took quite seriously. His mother had a big mind to go around with.
"Aw, come on, Yzak," Kira whined as he pried himself from the wall and sat down next to Athrun with a huff. "Don't you think you owe her that much? Let's all go out to dinner. It would be fun!"
Fun. Yzak scowled at the word. He had seen Kari's idea of fun. And it was most definitely not a romantic dinner. Carnivals and food and throwing up. That was her idea of fun. Or strapping him to some machine that made him want to go crazy. That was her idea of fun. Grunting, the Duel pilot crossed his arms over his chest. "Look, if you want to go out tomorrow, I'm not stopping you. Just don't drag me along with it."
Sighing in frustration, Athrun cocked his head to the left. "Why are you so scared of coming to dinner? It's not like you haven't taken her out in one."
The mere memory of his first date with Kari made him shiver. "I am not afraid."
"Then what?"
Opening his mouth and closing it soon after, he didn't believe they needed to find out that he did want to go out with Kari, but not with them. He wanted to have that night alone with her, because there were so many things he needed to do that an audience was not going to help him do it any easier.
He was finally going to tell Kari that he loved her…
Just then, someone knocked on the door. Dearka hurriedly stood up and went to open it. After sticking his head out for a minute, he poked it back in with a wary expression on his face.
"Yzak. It's Kari."
Holy…
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Kari blinked in surprise when Yzak's head popped out from behind the door of their dorm, somehow looking deathly pale. She had seen Yzak in almost all states, but this one was new. His eyes were darting from side to side, as if he had just murdered someone and had hidden the body in his closet. And for the first time ever, she was actually having a hard time reading him. All she knew was that he was terribly uncomfortable.
Rubbing her hands together to keep warm, she waited for him to say something. When he didn't and just kept on looking everywhere but her, she cleared her throat loudly. "Will you let me in? It's freezing out here in the halls."
Yzak's eyes widened for a second, then finally he recovered, reverting into his icy self again. "Just a minute." His head disappeared back inside and she could hear some muffled noises from behind the door. After a lot of scuttling and a bit of curses obviously coming from Yzak, the door opened again and out filed Dearka, Athrun and Kira, all wearing thick sweaters and parkas and boots as if going out in that thick blanket of snow.
"Hi, Kari," Dearka greeted somewhat suspiciously nice and Athrun nodded at her direction. Kira smiled at her before all three of them hurried down the hall silently. It was the weirdest sight she had ever beheld. They actually looked... giddy...
She craned her neck further and saw them all run for it the moment they had turned the hall. She turned back when Yzak snorted loudly. "Are you coming in or do I have to carry you?"
Smiling serenely she wiped her wet boots on the welcome mat and took them off right before she entered the warm and very dark living room illuminated only by the electric heater. The carpet was warm under her feet as she settled on the couch, Yzak following close behind her.
Yzak watched as Kari settled herself, looking really small in her fuzzy white sweater and windbreaker, and rubbing her gloved hands together to try to get the blood running back to her fingers. "What are you doing here at this time of night? You didn't even call ahead."
She just smiled more and raised her hands up to his. "Can you pull off my gloves for me?"
As usual, no answer for his questions. Kneeling in front of her, he took her small hands in his and slowly pulled one glove after the other, tossing them carelessly beside her on the couch. When he had finally stripped her icy cold hands of the material, she suddenly reached forward and cupped his cheeks with her hands, making him gasp from her freezing palms and fingers. He however did not pull away. What else was new? He could never get himself to pull away from her...
She giggled a little as she stared down at him with those deep green eyes. "You're so warm... Come sit beside me. I need to give you something."
And with that, Yzak felt his blood run cold. Give him something? Staggering to his feet, he tried to act all calm, as if he didn't care. Collapsing on the couch beside her, she immediately dug in her front pocket and produced a small, plain envelope. Shyly handing it to him, she nodded. "This is for you. Happy Valentines Day, Yzak."
His mind reeling, he took the envelope gingerly, as if afraid it would suddenly explode in his face. This was most certainly unexpected. He wished he did not let Dearka and the rest leave. Maybe they would be able to decipher this strange turn of event when the girl gives the guy an early gift...
He eyed the envelope warily. "What the heck is this?" he asked.
Kari smiled once again, but did not answer his question. Instead, she wove her arm through his, rested her head on his chest and slipped one still cold hand through his jacket sleeve to play with the tiny hairs on his arm. "You're welcome, Yzak."
Yzak blushed at what she just did, with her hand inside the arm of his long sleeved jacket, continuing her habit of picking at his arm hairs. Now he was afraid to move that arm she was playing with, as he did not want her to stop. Kind of at a loss for words, he then struggled to open the envelope with only one hand. The task required all his Coordinator skills to open it without ripping it apart, but after a few antagonizing minutes of finger-coordination, he finally extracted a simple, handmade piece of scented cardboard with one tiny rose petal pressed and sewn on the bottom left part of it. Simple yet strangely alluring – like Kari herself – the small, loopy writing in violet ink was what made him pause.
It wasn't a long message, but it took him a while before he could digest those words.
I love you, Yzak.
-Kari
And that was it.
"Do you like it? I just thought that it wouldn't make any difference if I gave it to you now instead of tomorrow." She said as she buried her nose on his shirt, inhaling once again his scent. He hated it when she did that, simply because he loved the feel of it so much that he was starting to get pretty attached to it.
Fingering the small card between his fingers, he looked down at her, watching her pull away from him only to bury her face in his chest again quite contentedly.
Resting his warm cheeks on the top of her head, he snorted. "I hate it as much as I hate you."
She laughed happily. "I'm glad, then."
Groaning inwardly it somehow made him feel worse that having received something that she had obviously made herself, he was starting to feel utterly helpless. He can't simply buy something, right after she gave him something this priceless... right?
Suddenly, he was not having such a good premonition on tomorrow.
"Have dinner with me tomorrow night."
"Sure, Yzak."
Oh, God...
She stayed for a few hours before he finally walked her home. After that, Yzak rushed to back to his dorm, barely feeling the cold wind stinging his cheeks. When he got back, Kira was still not home and so he took the advantage in raiding the Freedom pilot's room in search for anything decent he could write on. Digging in carelessly in Kira's annoyingly neat drawer, he produced a piece of lavender cardboard about the size of a typical coupon bond paper. He did not try to decipher why on earth Kira had one of those around, but he rushed out of there in a jiffy and worked like a madman with the limited resources he had with him at the moment.
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Of course, Valentine's Day came too early for Yzak. Kira was not making it any better for him at all, what with him looking so friggin' happy dressed in semi-formal attire and carrying under his arm what looked like a heart-shaped box of something. Chocolates probably. He wished he could have gotten her some chocolates too. But he did not want to look like he was trying too hard. Yzak tried hard not bare his teeth at him when he patted him on the shoulder and asked him if he was sure he wouldn't want to change his mind.
"It'll be fun, Yzak."
Fun?
"I have plans, Yamato. Now get lost."
The moment Kira left, Yzak threw on his jacket, looked in the mirror and frowned. It did not look right. Perhaps the brown one would be better. It took him about a few coat changes before he finally settled on the first coat he tried on. Grumbling to himself for acting really stupid, he made his way out of their dorm (right after spraying himself with cologne. Kari loved his cologne…) and went on his way to the women's dorm.
He decided to pass through the park along the way, where it was freshly cleared of snow, his heart hammering against his chest a mile a minute. It was a wonder how he suddenly felt all nervous at the mere thought of finally admitting to Kari how he felt after all this time they were together. Patting his coat pocket just to make sure the small card was still there, he hastened his steps and was about to make a run for it to finally get the night over with when his heightened eyesight spotted something sparkling in the white snow somewhere under the nearby tree. He looked left, then right, making sure no one was looking, then hurried to the object, banding over to see what it was.
Yzak's eyes widened at his discovery. It was a shiny green, naturally polished rock that came in the shape of a leaf. Huffing a bit, his breath freezing in front of his face, he slipped it in his coat pocket along with the pathetic card he made, then made his way to pick up Kari. She was waiting at the bottom of the steps of the Women's RQ when he arrived, wearing a black coat and a red knit scarf around her neck. Her lips broke into a small smile at the sight of him, making her breath fog up against her face.
"You should have waited inside," Yzak said gruffly, approaching her. She immediately stood on tiptoe and planted a feathery kiss on his cold nose, making him blush and look away in a hurry.
"I always make you wait, so I thought that it would be fair to wait for you for a change." She took her position at his right, clinging to his arm tightly as she shivered a bit. "Happy Valentine's Day, Yzak."
"Yeah, whatever. I hope you're hungry."
"Where are we going?"
"Definitely not in a gay bar."
This made her laugh, and Yzak secretly congratulated himself for cracking a joke. "Just this place where they serve good Ramen. Nothing grand. I don't have any money."
She leaned in on him closer, resting her head on his shoulder as she always did when they walked. "Ramen sounds lovely. I love ramen… "
"Yeah, well you love everything. So long as you can eat it." And it was true. It was a miracle she could stay so skinny…
She laughed. "I love you, but I don't think you would taste good."
Yzak felt his face would burst into flames. He hated it and loved it at the same time when she would say something so romantic, because he knew he could not say anything romantic in return. Trying to mask his discomfort, he dug in his pocket and produced his gifts. He stared at the card and stone doubtfully, having second thoughts of giving it to her at all.
"What is that you have there?"
Too late…
Yzak thrust the card in his face. "For you," he grumbled.
She stopped walking at the sight of it, somehow a bit surprised that he was giving her something at all. "Oh! A gift?" she asked.
Yzak felt slightly annoyed and embarrassed that she looked so surprised. Did she really think of him as that insensitive not to give her anything for this occasion? He roughly grabbed her wrist and shoved the things into her gloved hand. "Dammit, just take it."
She looked so happy as they resumed their walk, her arms once again slipping through his. "May I read it now?"
"NO!" Yzak yelled, startling her a bit. Feeling stupid, he cleared his throat and lowered his voice a bit. "No. Not while I'm still here. Read it when you're alone and when I'm not around."
"Why?"
"Just because, okay?" he said irritably.
She giggled a bit then kept the card inside her pocket then fingered the green stone gently. "How lovely. It looks like a leaf."
Yzak frowned. "Yeah, well. You can do whatever you want with it. I just picked it up so you can throw it away or whatever."
She shook her head slowly, then disengaged herself from his arm fiddling with her red scarf meticulously. All the while Yzak watched her and was a bit pleased when she pulled one red strand from her knitted scarf and tied it to the small tip of the leaf-shaped stone, making a sort of amulet out of it. After finally stringing it securely, she wore it around her neck with a satisfied grin. "I love it. I've always wanted a necklace. Thank you." She cuddled closer to him again.
It felt good, her appreciation of his simple gift. But the night was far from over. He still needed to tell her… Oh, God…
The Ramen House was fairly crowded but luckily, for the first time something finally went this way, they found a cozy little table for two at the very corner of the room, right next to the old-fashioned fire place. Yzak had to admit, it was really… well… romantic, what with Kari sitting right across from him, looking absolutely beautiful to him, her crude necklace hanging loosely around her neck. She was wearing a smile in her slightly dry lips and the only colors on her face were the pink spots on her cheeks.
"This is a nice place. I love it here." Kari reached over to Yzak and placed her cold hands over his warm ones. She had always wondered if Coordinators were always naturally warm… "Thank you for bringing me here."
She watched as he turned away, murmuring an incoherent 'you're welcome' under his breath. It was a wonder how much he'd been unnaturally uncomfortable around her. She did not care. He was still looking so adorably cute to her. He must be feeling really weird for him about the Heart's day celebration. Smiling to herself, she dug into her pocket and produced a small box of chocolates she herself made last night. Shyly, she placed it on the table and pushed it towards him. "This is for you."
He blinked in surprise at the box in front of him. "What is this? You already gave me a gift yesterday."
"It's a tradition here in Japan that the girl will give the boy she likes some chocolates on Valentine's Day. Didn't you know that?"
He shook his head. "I didn't." Slipping his hands away from hers and fingering the box of chocolates. He looked at it then at her. "I'm going to taste it."
"Go right ahead. I hope you like it."
He flipped over the lid of the box and plucked a square piece of chocolate, popped it in his mouth and chewed thoughtfully. It was quite flattering that he actually volunteered to taste it. Yzak never liked sweets.
"They're good."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Not too sweet. I like it."
Kari raised her eyebrows slightly. He was such a transparent person when he was lying. He never liked chocolates, but was being strangely polite today. "I'm glad you do."
He closed the box and shoved it aside nervously, reached out and slipped his hands right back under hers. "Kari?"
She leaned forward a bit, making the makeshift amulet dangle a bit, somehow anticipating he was going to say something sooner or later. "Yes?"
"I – argh!" he screamed and bolted to his feet, startling Kari and making her push back against the table. Kari soon found out what was wrong. There, on the table, was a toppled over bottle of soy sauce, causing salty black liquid pouring over the surface and right onto Yzak's left pant leg. "Dammit!" he cursed, grabbing a handful of paper towels on the center of the table. A few people had turned to look at them and a waiter hurried to their side to clean up the mess that Yzak made.
"Are you okay?" Kari asked as she moved to stand but Yzak brushed her away and started to leave.
"Just sit down. I'll go clean up the friggin' stain in the friggin' friggin' … " his curses faded as he turned the corner to the washroom.
Kari apologized to the waiter and was left alone in their table with nothing to do but wait for Yzak to come back. Sighing, she took advantage of the time to read the card Yzak gave her.
She had to fight to keep a straight face at the sight of it. It was a small plain purple cardboard with messy handwriting scraggly looping across it in crooked rows. In fact, it didn't look like a card. It was more like a letter masquerading as a card. Obviously Yzak's handwriting. He had told her even his mother loved to make fun of his penmanship.
The card went like this:
You,
I hope you appreciate what I've gone though
Writing this for you and all.
I had to steal Kira's girly stationery since I didn't have any of it.
(lots of erasures)
Well, it's friggin' Valentines Day, which is I think a stupid holiday
Where people just use it to get other people to act all mushy and stuff
And to trap consumers with their grossly sweet lovey-dovey merchandise.
(even more erasures)
Well… I just want to tell you that… (lots and lots of erasures)
(a small hole where Yzak erased too hard)
I hate you for giving me an excuse to celebrate such a lame holiday.
I hope you're happy that I'm miserable!
Yzak.
(tons and tons of erasures)
PS: I love you…Now keep this card and never show it to my face ever again or I will
Rip it to shreds.
Kari laughed out loud but stopped quickly when she looked up and saw Yzak's scowling face looking down at her with silent fury, the black stain on his pant leg vaguely visible at all. He hissed as he quickly snapped the card out of her hand and slammed it on the table.
"I told you not to read it while I'm still here!"
Kari calmly tilted her head to the right. "Yes you did. I read it while you weren't here." She serenely took back the card from him and slipped it in her pocket before Yzak suddenly remembered his P.S. in his letter-slash-card-slash-scratch paper. "Now I am done reading it."
Yzak collapsed on his chair and narrowed his eyes at her. "I hate you so much. I don't think I can say it enough…"
She smiled sweetly. "I know you do, Yzak." She leaned forward and planted a gentle kiss on his warm lips, then patted the pocket where she had kept the card. "And I love you, too."
He scowled even more.
"You're right, Yzak. Valentine's day is such a stupid holiday, but now that you're here, it sort of makes a lot of sense." She smiled and was quite pleased to see him blush at her remark.
"Yeah, whatever… " was all that he said, then reached over and cupped her hands in his. Shyly, he turned away and mumbled a feint, "I love you."
Kari leaned forward. "What?"
Yzak narrowed his eyes at her. "Don't make me say it again."
Kari couldn't help but laugh.
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Yuugiri: Hello! Aki! I don't know if this is what you had in mind, but I tried my best! Thank you for the idea! Happy Valentine's Day to you and to those who bothered to read this! If you have any ideas you want me to write about, please do e-mail me!
Oh! By the way, I have started a website where I have actually posted some of my doodles. I have a few fan art there and some scenes from the Insatiable Heart as well. If you are curious about it, you may check my profile, click on the homepage and go to the gallery. They're there as well as some OC's such as Kari and Kian. It is still under heavy construction so please pardon my work! I have yet to improve…
Anyway, happy heart's day!