Yup yup, that's right. Another multi-chapter, by moi.
He likes... water sports, meeting new people and long walks in the park."
"No."
"This one's... I don't know how to pronounce this profession."
"Nope."
"This one's... I can't pronounce this name."
"Definitely not."
"What was wrong with the first one?"
"His profile sounded was too scripted." Cagalli tossed the idea. "And I can't spend a night with someone who's name I can't pronounce."
"Well... maybe it'll be a topic of conversation."
"Great! Even better, I can spend half the time LEARNING his name."
Lacus sighed and swiveled in the grey chair to face her disgruntled friend, who was flumped onto her bed, facing the ceiling, mindlessly flipping through a magazine.
"Cagalli, you're not helping."
"I know that, Lacus." She replied plainly, eyes still scanning the magazine pages.
"I thought you were serious about this!" Her friend protested.
"I am." She shrugged, still not sitting up, or looking at the desperate woman seated before her.
"Doesn't seem like it to me..." Lacus taunted in a sing-song voice.
Sighing, Cagalli swung her legs off the bed and strolled over to the computer, turning it off.
"First of all, I'll FIND someone. Secondly, I'm NOT going to do it online." She responded firmly. Suddenly she was regretting the decision she'd made a week ago, to make an effort to "find someone".
That's right. She, Cagalli Yula Athha, was going to try to find someone. Forget letting love find you, she was going to take initiative! Not that she felt lonely or anything horribly needy such as that.
In fact, she had no idea when it had happened.
Perhaps when her brother started dating her best friend, she felt out of the loop?
No, she was genuinely happy for them. They looked adorable together.
When she had showed up for a company reception, without an escort when everyone else had one?
No... All the escorts seemed pretty superficial anyways. Nothing to envy on that account.
How about when all her relatives, except the ones that were too young to speak, had commented on how she was "slipping past that eligible age, dear...", at the recent family reunion.
Ah yes... that was probably it. In her mind, she tried to reason it out as some sort of sick effort to increase the size of their already-too-large-for-her-tastes extended family. At the same time, she felt this burning urge to, put bluntly, shut them up. All of them.
Hence she swallowed half her pride for the sake of, shutting up relatives? We'll just call it a type of revenge... and told Lacus that she thought it was time, she entered the dating market, or whatever they called it. Lacus was thrilled: It was about time in her opinion. And of course, it would just be terribly fun to watch.
Back to reality, the silky, pale haired girl was tapping her lip with her finger thoughtfully for a moment. "Well, there is one..."
"Who've you got in mind?" Cagalli asked, emerging out of her reflection hopefully.
"Athrun."
"... Isn't he your ex-boyfriend?" The blond raised a confused eyebrow. "You really want to just throw him at me?"
"No, not ex-boyfriend. Just a childhood friend. And I don't mean date HIM, I mean get him to recommend someone." Lacus shrugged.
"And he could help because?..." Cagalli rolled her hand in a motion, as if to prompt Lacus to follow up the thought with an explanation.
"Because, that's what he does for a living?" Lacus' smile widened gradually, while she shrugged with her left hand and began to laugh. Reaching over to her cordless phone, she nimbly lifted it out of the base and hit the third number on her speed dial.
Athrun sat at his office, mildly amused at his current situation. Imagine him, a top student all his life, had obtained his bachelor's in just 2 years, and another 2 year pre-mature business school graduate, of course none of this accounted for the countless grades he had skipped as a child, choosing... this, matchmaking, as a living?
Slightly unbelievable, yes?
Or not. After all, it seemed that it was a profitable business. Not everyone would always need say, insurance, or furniture. So why sell that?
But relationships? Ah, people always seemed to be looking for those.
As for the criticism, he mainly shrugged it off. When old friends joked that "You're so pretty, you'll just make all your female clients fall in love with you, and turn the male ones gay." and parents had protested that "So many years of high education! For this!"
Well... they all shut their mouths when they saw how much money he was making.
There was a bit of an art to it. You had to weight emotions, preferences and of course, business, to be successful.
As for any other reasons he had, well they were his own.
Now when he had chosen this career, never had he imagined he'd be of use to anyone he personally knew. Everyone he was familiar with, seemed content in being single, or perfectly capable of finding love on their own.
Hence, when Lacus called his cell phone on that sunny Saturday afternoon, he couldn't help but ask her to repeat the question.
"I need you to do some matchmaking for me."
"You what?"
"I need you to do some matchmaking for me... for a friend."
Ah... that made more sense.
Since she was Lacus' friend, of course decided to handle this case personally instead of delegating the responsibility to one of the people that worked for him...
And now here he was. Sitting in his office, and waiting for this mystery girl to show up at his door.
Cagalli stopped in front of the address that had been scrawled onto neatly folded piece of pink stationary. Typical Lacus.
The building was... larger than she had expected. Truly, she had vehemently protested when Lacus first told her she was sending her to a professional agency, and only calmed down... slightly after it was explained that this Athrun guy, himself, would be handling the case. The taste of swallowing the other half of her pride was still terribly bitter though.
Uneasily, she inched open the door. She couldn't help but feel embarrassed that she was doing this. Even though Lacus had offered to come for moral support, Cagalli had firmly turned down the idea, deciding that would just make it worse. Suddenly, she found herself regretting that decision greatly.
"Hello, can I help you?" A modest-looking secretary asked the moment Cagalli has fully stepped into the entrance.
"Uh..yes. I'm... Cagalli Yula Athha?" She started slowly. This felt weird. REALLY weird.
Especially when the secretary started beaming, and nodded her head furiously. "Of course! Mr. Zala's special new client! Please go right in! Just up the stairs to the second floor, and straight down the hall!"
Saying that Cagalli was mildly frightened by the woman's enthusiasm would be an understatement. Eyes wide, and smile much forced, Cagalli nodded and rushed up the stairs as quickly as possible, desperately trying to hide her face, as if afraid to be recognized by any living creature. Finally reaching the second floor, she tried to steady her nerves and even peered into some of the other offices, where other people seemed to be talking to, presumably, the agents who were supposed to help them...
Finally reaching the door, she placed her hand on the doorknob. Suddenly she stopped herself.
This was silly. Wasn't it?
It was all very silly of her... to go this far.
There was no reason for her to do this, logically speaking.
Who care what those stupid relatives thought? She was still perfectly young!
…But Lacus had already made the appointment. And… okay maybe she hadn't been on a date for a good…number… of years.
Taking a deep breath she opened the door.
"You're either a VERY slow walker, or much too nervous."
Cagalli blinked. Huh?
Seated in front of her was a midnight-blue haired, man, with a slight grin on his face, lounging in his chair, looking much too relaxed. The office was much bigger than the other ones... so then this had to be...
"Athrun... Zala?" She tested the name cautiously.
"Absolutely. I saw you outside on the sidewalk, and recognized you from Lacus' description. For a second there, I thought you might have gotten lost..." He chuckled. Cagalli frowned, unconsciously slamming the door shut in her annoyance.
"Well excuse me, if your office is on the SECOND floor, and your receptionist seems to be too cheerful for anyone's good!" She glared sharply.
"You sure you're not just nervous?" Athrun replied smoothly. A blonde eyebrow visibly twitched. His grin spread further. What a character... "Please have a seat. We'll get your profile set up today."
Cagalli blinked. "Profile?..." She repeated uncertainly, slowly easing herself into the chair in front of the desk.
Athrun nodded, already beginning to furiously type away. "I just need some basic information about you, and we'll fill out a profile. Then according to your interests, we search for people with similar interests in the system. If we think it'll be a good match, we show your profiles to each other. If both of you are okay with it, then we set you guys up on a nice date somewhere."
Sliding a few pages towards her, he handed her a pen. "Just start with filling those out. The profile can be updated at anytime, so if you started liking tennis, but then eventually liked badminton more, we can change that."
"Does the system only have this company's clients?" Cagalli asked curiously. Athrun turned to her and nodded. "Well that, isn't that a pretty limited amount of people?"
He laughed a bit at this. "Well over half of the city's single people are in this system... Trust me, it's pretty extensive. And if we fail to find anyone for you at all, then you're free to try to do your own searching too." Suddenly, he turned to her. "Do you have a photo?"
"A... photo?"
"Yes, a photo. Of yourself. To upload into the system." He explained, gesturing towards the screen. "The rule is that if you want to see other people's pictures, you have to provide your own. It's only fair."
Cagalli frowned... She didn't want to say that she was superficial, and that looks mattered a lot. If a person was really terrific, then appearance didn't matter! But she was still curious... Just because they didn't matter, doesn't mean it wouldn't hurt.
Besides, if she didn't put one up, people might think she was too self-conscious about her own looks. Which she wasn't. At all.
At least, not so that anyone knew it.
"I'll bring a picture next time." She finally gave in. Athrun looked up.
"You don't have a picture with you?"
"Nope."
"Okay then, we'll just go take one." He grinned, standing up and heading out the door. Cagalli sat there for a moment, even after he had dashed out of the room. What... on earth?
Finally getting up and poking around the hall, she found him inside a room, where he seemed to be poking around... a camera?
"Um, what are you doing?" She raised an eyebrow. This guy... was really something.
"Getting ready to take your picture." He looked up from behind the camera for a second, to answer her question. Then quickly darting behind it again, and lifting it off the tripod, all she heard was:
"Smile."
"Huh?" One click and she was blinded by a flash of light. "Hey you! I wasn't ready! You can't just-!"
Flash.
"Hey, stop that! I'm getting blind-!"
Flash.
"Are you even listening to me! I-"
Flash.
Athrun looked up. "I'm only taking one more picture, so you better smile for this one." he teased.
"Wha- You can't just-"
Flash.
Cagalli groped for a chair blindly with her hands. Eyes squinting, she was wondering how to go about suing this guy for blinding her with successive camera flashes, when she heard a tsk.
"What? Not content with temporary loss of sight! Want to go for permanent!" She spat angrily.
"No… I caught you blinking on the last one. Okay, one more. Now smile for this, okay?"
As he was speaking, she could hear his voice drawing closer to her. Slowly, she opened her eyes.
Good thing she was sitting, otherwise she was have fallen back in surprise to see a camera that close to her face.
"You're... insane." She gaped incredulously. Gently, he lowered the camera and broke into a calm and sympathetic smile.
"Sorry, I'm rushing things, I know. I don't mean to make you feel uncomfortable, but I just wanted to get as much done as possible today. That way, we can get started sooner." He apologized. "Now, smile please."
Cagalli blinked, and slowly... gradually... broke into a slight smile, that spread into her amber eyes, and eventually revealed a vibrant smile.
Flash.
"There." Athrun grinning, heading over to the computer to upload the photo. "That wasn't so bad was it?"
Cagalli sighed and nodded. "No, I guess not. Just... for future reference. No popping out like that, or rushing. I'd rather take things slowly, to make sure everything's okay before moving on. Maybe I'm just too cautious, but better safe than sorry."
The young man turned to her and grinned. "You do realize that what you just said is definitely going into your profile?"
A mixture of emotions, which ranged from sheer embarrassment to homicidal urges flooded her, trapping all words both protests and threats in her throat. Stuttering, while turning red from the pent up frustration, she heard another click.
Flash.
"This might go in the profile too." Athrun smiled to himself, quickly thrusting his hand up in the air and keeping the camera out of reach, of the woman who had just sprang to her feet and was frantically trying to retrieve that blasted contraption, that currently held several, doubtlessly embarrassing pictures of her.
"I'm going to kill you if you show that photo to ANYONE-"
"Ms. Athha?"
"What?" She snapped angrily, looking incredibly murderous. Athrun gulped. Really he had just said that to get her to stop. Now that he had her attention, he had no idea what to do with it. But there was one thing that was bothering him...
"You're stepping on my foot."
Cagalli looked down, then back at him, fully realizing how close they were. She quickly sprung away, as if he'd been on fire or something, then turned to grab her bag.
Awkward silence prevailed.
"Are... we done yet?" She broke the thick atmosphere.
"I guess so." He shrugged, shifting his weight from side to side. The next thing he knew, she was out the door and running. Slowly making his way back to the office, camera in hand, he made a mental note to revise the schedule he'd made up.
This girl was going to take a LOT longer than he had planned.
And yet somehow... he was looking forward to every minute of it.
This was... probably the most spontaneous idea for a fic that I've ever had, and I was truly, a bit hesitant about actually writing this out. But, I'll give a shot, and if I end up at a dead end, no harm done.
What do you guys think?
Thanks for reading,
Periodic-Prose