Chemical Equilibrium Chapter 3: Apologies, a gundam seed fanfic

.::. Chemical Equilibrium .::.

Chapter 3: Apologies

Cagalli wasn't thinking straight. This was the perfect opportunity for her to escape Kaito's grasp, but instead she just peered over his shoulder. It was too dark, she couldn't make out what was going on.

Lacus didn't just knock him out, did she?

She shook her head. There was no way Lacus would knock anyone out. She wasn't even sure if the girl was capable of it.

"W-who are you?" Cagalli heard Lacus stutter.

There was someone else there? She felt Kaito completely release her and turn around.

"Hey, Rio. What's going on?" he called.

This was Cagalli's chance. She quickly dropped down and kicked Kaito behind the knee causing him to completely cave, almost falling on top of her. But she was quick to move to the side allowing him to hit the blacktop. She then quickly jumped to her feet and ran over to her friend.

"Lacus, are you all right?" Cagalli called as she caught up to the girl. As soon as she saw Lacus she noticed someone lying on the floor. Recognizing it as the other boy, a look of confusion appeared on her face. Before she could ask anything or Lacus could explain, Cagalli found herself pinned up against another car. Upon impact she closed her eyes, unaware of what was going on.

"What the-" Cagalli started before she was cut off.

"You're with them too?" demanded the male voice.

Cagalli opened her eyes to see she was staring into a pair of angry, blue eyes.

"No, Rey! Let go of her. She's my friend," Lacus said tugging on his arm.

"Ah? My apologies," he said releasing the blonde girl.

"Who do you think you are?" Kaito yelled as he approached the three, but stopped in his tracks when he saw his friend lying on the ground.

"It would be best if you and your friend left," Lacus suggested looking at the boy on the ground.

"Miss Lacus," Rey started.

"I'm sure they have already learned their lesson," Lacus said looking up at the boy.

"All right," he said as he turned his attention to Kaito. "Didn't you hear her? Get out of here before I change my mind."

"I'm not afraid of you," Kaito said glaring at Rey, but when Rey took a step forward Kaito backed away. "Whatever," he muttered as he went over to his friend and nudged him. Rio was brought back to consciousness, but very unaware of the present situation. "Come on, let's go," Kaito said helping Rio up. He helped Rio into the passenger seat and walked over to the driver's side. Before entering he looked over at the group of three and scowled before getting in and driving off.

After the lights of the car had disappeared Cagalli turned her attention back to Lacus and the blonde who had apparently saved her.

"Cagalli, this is Rey," Lacus introduced. "I guess you can consider him my body guard."

"Um, nice to meet you," Cagalli said not really sure how she was supposed to respond after what had just happened.

"I'm glad I was able to make it here on time. What were you thinking, Miss Lacus? It's quarter till," Rey scolded.

It was evident that he was beyond angry, but he didn't once raise his voice. Cagalli could see why he would be chosen as a body guard.

"Yes, I apologize. I hadn't kept track of the time and before I was aware, it was already this late," Lacus admitted quietly.

Cagalli felt bad. Today may have been the first time Lacus went out and had some real fun, but it was all ending in a disaster.

"It's not her fault. I was the one who brought her here," Cagalli said avoiding eye contact with Rey.

"Cagalli, I was the one who insisted that we come," Lacus argued.

"Regardless, you are both safe now," Rey said. "Your father has not yet returned, but he is sure to be upset when he learns of this."

"Oh, Rey! Please don't tell him," Lacus pleaded.

Rey sighed and turned to Cagalli.

"I hope you don't mind, but I will be taking Miss Lacus back home," he said.

"Of course not," Cagalli said shaking her head.

"Cagalli, would you like to be dropped off as well? We can pick up your car later," Lacus asked.

She was worried about leaving Cagalli alone, but she knew she wouldn't be allowed to return home with her friend. She was silently hoping Cagalli would accept the offer.

"No, it's all right. I'll be fine. Thanks, though," Cagalli assured. "But I had better be going. Kira's probably going to kill me," she joked, but deep down she was serious.

"All right," Lacus said forcing a smile. "How about we get together tomorrow and work on the project?"

"Sure thing," Cagalli said as she turned to walk towards her car.

"I look forward to it," Lacus said waving as Rey escorted her to the car.

As Cagalli approached her car she realized that they hadn't even gone to the grocery store.

Stupid chemistry project... she thought

During her drive back home Cagalli had a lot of time to think. How did Rey know where they were? When did he get there? No one even noticed him until he knocked that guy out. What was Kira going to say when he saw her come back so late? She knew he was definitely not asleep. How did Lacus know she liked Athrun? Wait, she didn't like Athrun. Why did Lacus think Cagalli liked Athrun? What about Miriallia? Cagalli hoped she had gotten home all right. As she pulled into her drive way she decided it would be best to call Miriallia and check up on her. When she pulled out her cell phone she was surprised to see that it had been on 'silent' mode and was even more shocked to see that she had… 18 missed calls?

"Oh man…" she said aloud, just imagining who had called her that many times.

Kira

Oh look, Miriallia

Kira

Athrun?

Kira

"I'm so in for it," she said aloud as she opened the door of her car. "How could I have forgotten to turn my phone back on? Maybe I'll just hold off on calling Miriallia back. Let's see if I can just survive tonight," she said to herself as she approached the front door. "Here goes," and with that she opened the door.

Just as she had expected all the lights were on. And lo and behold, there was Kira sitting on the couch in the family room, tapping his fingers on the arm of the couch. Had he even noticed her or was he too involved in his rage? Cagalli had no idea what she was supposed to do. Walk over to him and say "hey, how's it going!" or sneak up stairs without him noticing, or maybe make a run for her room and lock the door, or just go back outside and sit on the porch till morning? She weighed all the different possibilities, but before she had a chance to pick on Kira spoke up.

"You're late," he said coolly.

"Ah, y-yeah. Sorry about that. I hadn't realized it was that late," Cagalli said trying to sound as calm as possible.

"I called you… a couple of times," he added.

"A couple!" Cagalli realized her sudden outburst and shut her mouth completely with one hand and tried to think of something to say to cover it up. "Er- yeah, I was so stupid. I forgot to turn it back on full volume when we went to the mall," she added quickly.

"Mall? I thought you were supposed to be working on your chemistry project?" Kira said as he tilted his head towards his sister.

Oh crap…

"Ah, y-yeah. Well we were starting on it, but then we realized we didn't have all the items necessary so we had to pick some stuff up," It was easier for her to tell her brother the truth.

"And you had to go to the mall?" he asked.

"Y-yes," she lied.

"What's your project on?" Kira asked sensing his sister's uneasiness.

"Ok, well we actually had to go to the grocery store, but the mall was on the way so we decided to just stop over for a while to look at some stuff, but then we met Miriallia and she wanted to show us her favorite, really girly, by the way, store so we followed her and then we tried on a bunch of clothes, which I didn't like because they were so girly, but Lacus bought me this dress anyway saying it would be her birthday present for me so I couldn't reject it, and then by the time we were done it was already eight o'clock and we realized we were all hungry so we headed over to the food court and had dinner, but we got so caught up in talking that it was eleven when we check the clock. And then we came home," Cagalli took in a deep breath. She had no idea she could have summarized her entire day in one ridiculously long run on sentence.

Obviously Kira was surprised as well, as he just stared at his sister not sure of what to say.

"You bought a dress?" He said trying hard to hide his smile.

"Sh-shut up," Cagalli yelled.

Of all the things she said he just had to pick the part about the dress.

"Did you end up getting what you needed from the grocery store?" Kira asked suddenly aware of why he was talking to his sister again.

"N-no," she admitted.

"Why not?"

"Well, I'm sure it was closed by then," Cagalli said.

It was easy for her to say that as it wasn't a complete lie. The reason she came home was because she had thought it was closed, and there was no point in driving that extra mile or so. Also, the whole parking lot incident was fresh on her mind, though there was no way she was going to tell her brother about it.

"You look like you have something else to say," Kira said, oblivious to the fact that he was knew her exact thoughts. He could always tell what was going on in Cagalli's head if he looked at her eyes.

"Nah," Cagalli said, aware and irritated that he could read her like an open book.

"Well, it's late. So I'm going to bed. Don't be late like this again… It really had me worried," Kira admitted as he stood up.

Cagalli felt terrible. She knew her brother was being fussy and annoying because he loved her. Although they were officially still living with their parents, it seemed they were never home. There was always some 'business trip' their mom and dad had to attend. They were gone for weeks at a time usually. As a result, the two siblings looked out for each other, which meant Kira usually took on the role of the big brother.

"I'm sorry," Cagalli said quietly.

"It's fine," Kira said as he walked past Cagalli to the staircase.

"It's not," she said causing him to stop at the foot of the stairs. "I made you worry unnecessarily. I won't do that again," she added turning around and making eye contact with him for the first time that night.

Kira looked at his sister before smiling and nodding. He then turned and ascended the stairs up to his room.

Archerygurl:

Kira and Cagalli = my favorite siblings
I always think of Kira as being the big brother even though in Gundam Seed Cagalli says there's no way she's the younger one.

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