Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Seed Series.

Chapter 2

She dipped her hand into the water to test its temperature before slowly, dipping herself in the tub of warm water. The steam from the warm water filled the entire space of the bathroom and she sank deeper into the tub. A warm relaxing bath was a crucial necessity, especially after she had been stranded out in the middle nothingness with her new house just under own feet. Although, she admitted that it was her fault for moving in without proper preparations.

Her thoughts were disturbed by a faint squeaky sound before a loud bang following soon after.

'What's that?'. She straightened her body and stared at the bathroom's door.

Wrapping herself in a bathrobe, she tiptoed out of the bathroom and looked around in her temporary room. Everything was like before she went to bath, except that, there was a bundle of woolen clothes, neatly placed on her bed and a steamy cup of coffee on the small table that was just beside her bed.

And aside from her, there was no one else there. He probably rushed out after he dropped these things here.

She never thought that this man, or what she'd like to call him as Yzak, was the opposite side of hostility and disrespect. Earlier, he had given her an earful of free lecture on how stupid she was for moving here in the middle of the worst winter ever. Plus, despite that they just met, he graced her with his second points that with her gender as woman, it was the worst idea ever to move into this town. And he said that it was due to the fact that the wild wolf's population here was tenth times than the Vesalius Town's dwellers. He even showed her his shotgun that he claimed had shot dead three wolfs yesterday.

And with his vicious vocabulary, who could have thought that he would place a set of comfortable clothes for her and a cup of hot coffee to keep her inside warm?

Maybe there was more of him rather than a pretty face and foul-mouth person.

She gingerly descended the stairs as she heard him slamming his front door. Yzak was standing straight with his back facing her and she couldn't help but smiled a little when she saw him shaking his head to remove the snow on his head. However, her smile faded when their eyes met. He didn't look amused as much as her.

He tossed his snowy headwear to the side and hastily removed his brown boots.

"Thank you for these…" she tugged her dark green woolen shirt, "...and the coffee too"

He scoffed indignantly before passing by her, going to the kitchen.

She felt a bit rejected, "It's not nice to ignore your guest"

"Just because I let you stay tonight, doesn't mean you can act chummy with me". He said as he poured black coffee into his mug. He didn't even look at her.

Lacus frowned a bit before quickly putting a small smile on her face. One of the things that she hated was being treated like a wall! Nevertheless, she still owed him a 'thanks'. After all, he shielded her from the snowstorm for tonight. Well, it wasn't like she had any other choice anyway. The next nearest neighbor was probably miles away from here.

"I'm not acting chummy. I'm thanking you". She uttered the word tranquilly. She didn't permit his coldness affecting her. Indeed, she felt a bit disappointed on his unfriendly manner because he was the only neighbor that was the nearest to her and she would like to get some help from him to dig out those snow that burying her house. However, she tried to think positive and tried to put herself in his shoes. This guy probably had a bad social skills and he probably wasn't really fond of girls. Yes, that was probably the reason he acted so cold to her. She was sure that deep inside, he was a good man. After all, he took her in, gave her comfortable clothing and a warm coffee. Wasn't that generous?

He leisurely sipped his coffee, "I don't need your thanks. I helped you not because I want your gratitude, woman"

"And it still rude for me not to say thanks to you. Do you expect me to behave like an ungrateful person and just go to sleep without a care?"

His icy gaze almost seemed like he was trying to murder her through his eyes and Lacus flinched a bit, feeling a bit threatened. However, she still maintained a smile on her face, facading her own discomfort of his stare.

"And I'll be very glad if you call me Lacus"

"Fine. Your gratitude is accepted. Whatever pleases you!" he scoffed again before muttering under his breath, "…dumb city girl"

Lacus put a plate of cookies, four cups and a jug of coffee on the tray before slowly walking towards her house. Her footsteps marks were left on the whitish snow as she slowly reaching her destination. Her house was slowly getting visible thanks to Yzak and his friends, who had been working since morning digging out the snow and she was really grateful to them, but specially, to Yzak. Who would have thoughts that yesterday, while she was taking her warm bath, he went to her house and covered her furniture with large vinyl cover? Had it not for him, her furniture probably got damage more than now. And yesterday, she couldn't thinking straight and just went off to the nearest house she seen for shelter.

However, he had clamped her mouth shut when she was about to say thanks to him. And because of that, she felt like she owed him. To make her felt more in debt to him, he had shooed her to his house to make a hot coffee instead of letting her digging out the snow with him. When she kept on insisting that she wanted to help, he had threatened her with his shovel in his hand.

"Coffee break!", she called out to Yzak and his friends. They instantly turned to look at her and everyone except Yzak had a smile on their faces.

"Thank you Miss Lacus". The youngest of the four; Nicol Amalfi, took the cup that she handed to him and carefully sipped the hot black coffee. A smile graced his baby face and her inside warmed up looking at his smiles. She heard that Nicol was a kindergarten teacher and a part time pianist. Previously, when she mentioned that she used to be a singer, he was so eager for her to visit his kindergarten and sing for the kids there. And therefore, she made a promise to him to drop by at his kindergarten soon. But first, she needed a map of this place or else, she would end up in nowhere.

She poured the coffee into another cup and handed it to the tall blond in front of her whose gaze was everywhere but her. Her blue eyes carefully observed this tall guy. In this snowy town, his features were really striking. His skin had the colour of gingerbread and his hair had the colour of ripe lemons. Nonetheless, her hand was getting tired from holding out his coffee while he was looking at somewhere far. He flinched when the one with navy blue hair nudged his arm.

Lacus smiled when the tall blond reached for his cup.

"So, I heard that you came from ORB. You must be in shocked after realizing that this town is nothing else other than excessive snow and wolves". His voice was so deep and his amethyst eyes peered at her. Like Yzak on her their first meeting, this man seemed a bit inimical. Maybe it was due to his tiredness or maybe... it was just her.

"Dearka". The navy blue haired man frowned at him. And by his tone, she knew that it was some kind of subtle warning. Her late father always used that tone when she did something that displeased him.

"I like snow" she replied calmly while her eyes darting towards the silver head that was still digging out the snow. She wondered why he was still there. Why didn't he come to get some coffee? Wasn't he tired already? Should she call him?

"Don't worry about him. His mouth is garbage but I assure you he's a nice person inside" Dearka added more after seeing her attention went to Yzak, "Anyway, welcome to our town Miss Lacus. My small bar is just 5 kilometers from here and if you needed anything, just ring me". Dearka flashed a small smile before putting his cup on the tray and then resumed his earlier task.

"Athrun here is a mechanic. You should keep his number in your phone Miss Lacus, he can repair almost everything" Nicol chuckled amusedly before continuing, "…well, except broken hearts"

She chuckled when Athrun gave Nicol a disapproved glance.

"I shall do that" she said it in between her chuckles and Nicol looked satisfied.

A small dot of snow fell onto her nose and she heard the sound of Yzak grumbling from where she stood. It seemed that the snow started to fall again and it would be a problem if they didn't finish their diggings.

"YAH! ZALA! NICOL! GET YOUR ASSESS HERE NOW!"

The house was finally accessible to her and Yzak's friends had helped her transferred the furniture into the house before returning to their own houses. They continually apologized to her for not being able to properly help her arrange the furniture as the snowstorm was impending. Of course after hearing that another snowstorm was imminent, she was scared to be left alone but nothing could be done. They also had their own families to take care of and she didn't have the heart to ask them to stay.

She observed the inner structure of her new house. The wall was half red woods, half bricks and the ceiling was so high. It was such a nice house, but why the previous owner left this to her with low price? Was it because of the wolves? Or was it because of the abundant of snow?

The air in the room was so chilly that she had to continuously rub her own arms.

Perhaps, she should light up the stove? She didn't have any woods to be burned in the fireplace anyway.

'Okay where's the kitchen?'

She ran in and out of the rooms hastily that she tripped her own foot on the slippery marble floor. Her face planted on the floor first when she fell down and she let out a very unfeminine yowl due to the indescribable pain in her nose.

"That's what I call, epic House-Warming Ceremony"

She turned her head towards the door and saw Yzak standing by the door while clapping his hands. His face looked so amused and his snickers echoed in the room.

"I think my nose is broken". She whimpered silently and his snickers died instantly.

After four quick strides towards her, he sat in front of her and pried her hand from her small nose.

"Let me see that" he sounded strict but there was no doubt that he was concern about her. What have gotten into him?

Nonetheless, she let him inspect the damage on her nose and suddenly, seeing him in this close proximity made some heat crept into her cheeks.

The snow that was falling down outside never had any sounds but somehow, she could hear pummeling sounds faintly.

After a moment, a realization dawned upon her and she unconsciously bit her bottom lip. Of course she had been hearing this repetitive 'Ba-dump Ba-dump' sound. It came from inside her!

The way his eyebrows furrowed and the way his blue eyes focusing on her nose was so euphoric in her eyes. And the way his fingers carefully trailing her nose were giving her butterflies inside. It was unsettling for her that she felt like a stalker as she observed his features without him noticing it. Wasn't it rude to stare? But then, she never had any chance to properly study his face before because he had vehemently warned her not to stare and she just nodded at him because more than anything, she wanted to have a peaceful relationship with her neighbor.

"It's not broken, wimp", his eyes were still on her nose before slowly, their blue eyes locked on each other. And each seconds felt like eternity. Their eyes seemed to be knitted together by an invisible thread, each unable to look away

She swallowed the nonexistent lump in her throat.

He unknowingly bit his lips.

The snow was still continuously falling down outside.

"I…uh… the stove. I need to find it"

"You need some woods, I'll go get it"

Both spoke and scrambled away. They didn't even know from who they were actually trying to escape from.

Vesalius Town wasn't really bad in her book. Even though the snowstorm here was harsher than any other place in the planet, she heard that the spring that would come after winter was worth to wait. However, she didn't come here just to wait for spring.

She came here for a change of atmosphere. Without any doubt, her job as a singer in Archangel's Choir group packed lots of money for her but then, it was getting stressful and she lost her own life's goal. She thought, a change of atmosphere would give her some kind of new motivation in her life. She would start from the scratch here, as soon as possible. And hopefully, there was no snowstorm tomorrow.

She put a tray of food on the table and sat down on the cold couch not too far from Yzak. Her eyes then, slowly trailed to him. He was looking at the fireplace silently. The room was dark since there was an electricity failure happening in town but the woods that were burning in the fireplace gave enough lights and heat for both of them. Their shadows were embedded on the other side of the wall.

Thankfully, the crackling sound that came from the fireplace echoed in the room and she didn't have to say something to break the silence between them. She had much to say to him but most of the time, she felt tongue-tied.

Tonight, he was here to accompany her and again, she felt indebted.

"You shouldn't move here", he voiced out monotonedly. There was a reflection of fire in his blue eyes as his gaze maintained on the fireplace.

"Am I… unwelcome here?" she brought her legs closer to her body. To be honest, she was beginning to feel sick at the same speech.

"It's dangerous for women"

"Yes. I already heard that million times. From you, Dearka and Athrun", she sipped her own coffee. It was already two days for her at this new town but the people here were so unwelcoming.

He reached for the cookies on the tray and looked at her challengingly, "It's not too late to pack and get out from here"

She returned his gaze with her own and although it was not a defying gaze, it was never a yielding gaze either, "I never back out once I've decided something"

"Tomorrow, you'll see why this town lack of women" he said as he leaned onto the couch. He fished out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and lit it up.

"The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do" she feigned a smile and tried to appear resolute in his eyes. She knew that she looked weak on the outside but inside, she was still a stubborn child that wanted to defy what she had been told 'No' to.

"Just don't come to me later and crying". A puff of smoke emitted from his cigarette and it dispersed in the air.

"I'll come to you with my cookies"

Their eyes met again and this time, Yzak instantly tore his gaze from her. He tried to focus his attention on his cigarette rather than her.

"My father said my cookies is the best in the world"

"Whatever"

"Especially my chocolate chips cookies"

"Whatever"

"You'll like it"

"Whatever"

"Then, you'll end up begging for me to bake for you everyday"

"Whatever"

"And I'll always glad to bake for you"

"Whatever"

She chuckled at each of his "Whatever". He probably didn't have anything good to retort at her words.

They fell in silence again and Lacus gathered her thick blanket around her body and stared at the fireplace.

"If you come with your cookies, I'll chase you away with axe" he finally replied and she was surprised when the next thing she heard was his merry laughs.

It was then when she remembered what her late father told her, 'Once in a while, you'll meet someone iridescent and nothing else can compare'

Was he iridescent enough?

Her eyes discreetly observed him again. His shoulders were moving as he tried to suppress his laughs.

She smiled widely, 'U-huh... Maybe..'

A/N:

1- Thank you for your supports on this story! Thank you reviewers!

2- I was supposed to upload this a week ago, but the internet connection here sucks...sorry. And by the way, I didn't check for the grammars at all. Sorry if the errors are too much.

3- So, I was wondering, does Yzak here too OOC? I know he like to yell and stuffs, but I never seen he yells or appears too rude at girls in the series? And besides, I never ever thought that writing in Lacus POV is hard! LOL... and by the way, I was half inspired by "Snowflower/ Yuki no Hana" song . Here's the link if you guys want to check it out. (Youtube)/watch?v=BDmP7cU3lGg