See Summary, Disclaimer, and Warnings in the first chapter.
Beyond The Screen
By: Victorian War
Chapter Three: Complications
"Okay, that's it for today and thank you, everybody!"
A collective groan of relief erupted in the first hangar and Kira found himself joining the chorus. It had been a particularly tiring day, especially for him. The actual shooting had not even begun yet but he was starting to feel the strain of being the main character of such a long story. His past experiences had only been two–, possibly three-hour-long movies. Now he had this scenario that would take a whole year and fifty episodes to play out.
He walked out from the hangar after a glance to his busy father, automatically saying 'thank you' to everyone in his vicinity. Admittedly, it was a new and exciting experience to work in a project as big as this. They practically had an all-star casts and crews, and with them came the equivalent burdens and other less pleasant consequences. Of course it had its share of good things too – and he was not talking about a certain coworker of his. Kira tried not to think of this morning's incident when he had woken up and found Athrun looking down at him. He honestly had thought that it was the continuation of his dream before the other asked if he was all right. That was, of course, when he realized that he had been making suspicious noises in his sleep.
And it had only been their first night sharing a trailer. His face still burned when he remembered the anxious look on his new friend's face, which had quickly changed into pure understanding and an awkward, knowing smile. He had quickly left after an apology, letting Kira stew alone in bubbles of frustration. Had Athrun heard him mentioning his name? Or did he think it was just that kind of dream guys their age had? Both situations were extremely embarrassing, but at least the latter didn't make him want to commit suicide. Much.
Throughout the day, Athrun had not displayed any change of manner toward him. Kira had finally made up his mind that the second option was better and it seemed that his prayer was heard and heeded this time. He could only hope that this obliviousness would continue to flourish in perfect ignorance for the remaining thirty weeks.
"Kira!"
He hadn't even turned around when Cagalli arrived at his side and slung an arm around his shoulder, which was a little awkward because she was evidently shorter than him. She was grinning, her golden eyes shining with enthusiasm that usually only appeared when she was facing a good challenge.
"I watched the whole thing," she said, sounding very impressed. "You did really great in there, Brother. I've never seen Fllay acting like that before and she really put all the blame on you."
"It was just a rehearsal," he murmured, trying to sound modest but returning her grin full-force. It felt good to hear his sister saying something like that.
"Exactly," she nodded and gave him a hard pat on the back before letting him go. "Make sure to impress me more with the real thing. And by the way, Mum is looking for you. Something about refitting, she said."
"Now?" he groaned, sensing that his plan for the rest of the night – a quick shower and then an even quicker climb to his bunk – was inching away.
"When else?"
Kira fought an urge to sigh deeply and resigned himself to his fate as Cagalli dragged him toward the direction of their mother's office. It was quite at the other side of the field, so he spent the better half of the journey listening to his sister rambling about her role and asking for his opinion about it. Her role was, to be honest, his favourite but Kira could barely respond except for a couple of nods until she smacked him lightly over the arm.
"You're really tired, aren't you?" she asked with genuine concern in her voice.
Kira rubbed the sore spot on his upper arm and grumbled, "I've been up since six this morning."
"Why? This isn't your morning-exercise day."
He threw her a pained look. "You don't want to know."
A wicked smile made its way to her face. "Something to do with your divinely attractive trailer-mate?"
"That's your 'boyfriend' you're talking about."
She lifted her eyebrows. "So? I'm not the one who has a bigger-than-life crush on him."
"But you're the one who gets the chance to be his girlfriend-on-screen," he muttered sullenly, secretly thankful that they had arrived at the costume department. He really didn't want to explain the reason of his unusually early start to his twin. It would only add to the amount of her blackmail material.
When they entered, Kira felt his breath caught in his throat. He was vaguely aware that his feet had stopped walking and that Cagalli had bumped into his back with a low hiss, but he simply couldn't tear his eyes from the view oh-so-generously presented in front of him.
Athrun was standing in front of the full-size mirror which entirely covered one side of the room, only wearing a pair of red trousers which he recognized as a part of his ZAFT uniform. The rest of his body was bare for the entire world to see – Kira wanted to believe that it was 'exclusively for him to see', except that he noticed his mother's presence in the room. Still, it didn't stop him from drooling and thanking the higher powers for this magnificent, hopefully-not-once-in-a-lifetime opportunity because now he had this wonderful image stuck in his mind for the next seven months. Which might not be good at all to some parts of his anatomy, but Kira was too busy to care at the moment.
"Close that mouth. You look like an idiot," Cagalli whispered behind his ear and thankfully he had obeyed her just right before the current object of his attention noticed them standing at the threshold. A smile lit up his face, which for some obscure reasons was making Kira's knees feel unnaturally weak.
"I'll go away now," Cagalli told him after giving Athrun a small wave in return, and wandered away with a smile which could only be described as evil. Kira was left alone to deal with this epitome of his every wet dream and a pair of lungs which were on the brink of serious malfunction.
"Come here, Kira."
Right. His mother was still in the room.
Feet as heavy as lead, he managed to cross the extensive miles – or so it felt – between him and her with great effort. He stubbornly refused to look at his secret love-interest but was disappointed all the same when he finally chanced a glance and discovered that Athrun had turned to the other way.
"Your EA uniform has been readjusted," his mother told him as she pulled out a blue jacket from a nearby rack. "This is the hassle of working with young people. They haven't stopped growing."
Accepting the complaint without protest – it was true anyway – he changed his T-shirt with an EA standard issue one and slipped on the blue jacket, all the while aware that Athrun already had his eyes on him again. Kira knew how his body looked and was, as a matter of fact, proud of it and therefore didn't mind the staring. He only wished it had a deeper meaning, but it was probably just curiosity.
His mother motioned for him to stand in front of her once he was done, her sharp eyes quickly scanning over her handiwork. Kira caught a glance of himself in the mirror and frowned.
"The ZAFT uniform is cooler, Mum."
"Because ZAFT is indeed cooler, son of mine," she replied almost offhandedly, her brow drawn in concentration.
"You're ZAFT-biased," he murmured, getting himself a chuckle from Athrun. "As the Chief Designer, you should be impartial, not making one side look much better than the other."
This still didn't appeal to much of her interest, her attention clearly elsewhere even as she said, "I have so many handsome boys to work with in ZAFT. In EA, I only have you and that isn't much of an encouragement, is it?"
"What is that supposed to mean?" he asked, feigning hurt.
"That means you are handsome, sweetheart, but the problem is I have spent practically every minute of my life admiring your handsomeness since you were born. I need a little variety. How is it now?" She turned him around and took a few steps backward.
"Still a little tight around the arms."
"I forgot you've been working out," she sighed and reached for the tape measure around her neck. "Oh well. While you're here, why don't you retry your other wardrobe too? I still can make the necessary changes if there's something wrong with them."
Kira dutifully set to the task, half-listening to his mother working on Athrun and sometimes stealing sidelong looks when he thought that it was safe enough. He often thought that this guy or that guy was good-looking, but Athrun, he silently decided, was on an entirely different level. A firm but lean body, deep, beautiful green eyes which made him shudder when they caught him looking, skin so milky pale that he probably could run his tongue on it and taste vanilla, and not to mention, sinfully long, long legs.
One thing for sure, this picture would supply enough dream material for his future nights. He could already spot one, in which he would claim those delicious-looking lips, push the firm body against the mattress, and his hand would wander across taut muscles, lower and lower, milking every moan, whimper, plea…
Kira resisted an urge to bang his head on some nearby wall. His mother was there! And it was a good thing that she was! Kira very much doubted that jumping his undoubtedly male costar would really help in their filmmaking process. He tried to conjure a less desirable image in his mind and was relieved – or almost threw up, depending on how one saw the situation – when Mr. Wahlgren in a drag did the trick.
Determined to keep his mind away from those indecent, drool-inducing thoughts, he focused his attention on the rest of his wardrobe. He was in the middle of trying on his street clothes – which thanks to his mother's odd fashion sense involved a choker somehow – when he heard her sighing softly.
"Perfect," she said, satisfaction and admiration radiating from her voice. "I know I make beautiful costumes, but it's you, my boy, that makes it look splendid."
Kira whipped his head around so quickly, choker already forgotten, and immediately, wholeheartedly agreed. Red was a very eye-catching colour, particularly when combined with black, but in this case he really had no difficulty on deciding which was more eye-catching, the colour or the wearer. Athrun looked so stunningly handsome that he couldn't even begin to describe how he felt standing there looking at him. The design itself was already impressive, starting from the long, military-style coat to the white boots that tightly wrapped his legs, but his mother was right. Athrun was that last touch to perfection.
"Excuse me, Mrs. Yamato?"
The soft-spoken interruption pulled Kira out of his contemplative moment of admiration. Lacus Clyne was standing at the door leading to an adjacent room, wearing a turquoise-coloured dress and looking so beautiful that he couldn't help but to gape – again, only on a different subject.
"Well, I know I'm good, but this is just too overwhelming," he heard his mother speak, sounding awed and amused at the same time. She beckoned for the songstress to join them, her eyes evaluating every line and curve. "At first I was afraid that this one wouldn't work on you, but it's obviously the wrong idea. You look definitely fabulous. Don't you agree, Kira?"
Absolutely. If only he could work his jaw and put a voice into that word.
On second inspection, the dress had a really strange design, what with those separate sleeves and collar, but somehow Lacus managed to make it look exquisite. Athrun, he couldn't help but to notice, seemed to share his opinion as he approached her and took her hand in his, the other kept neatly behind his back.
"My beautiful fiancée," he greeted and kissed the top of her fingers, looking every bit the perfect gentleman in his full ZAFT regalia.
She smiled, an affectionate little smile that seemed almost teasing. "Too bad I won't be yours for long."
Athrun feigned a deep, disappointed sigh. "I have no choice but to bow to the power of the script," he said and threw a smile at Kira who, at that point, was having a very complicated feeling about the scene he had just witnessed. They looked incredibly good together, like a match made by heaven itself. He hated to admit it, but they probably were.
He smiled tightly at Athrun, ignoring the faint, painful tug in his chest, and turned around to deal with his choker.
End Chapter Three
Really sorry for the lateness. I'll try not to make the next update too long. Thank you for reading and please review.
