Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed or Gundam Seed Destiny, or its characters or names.
A/N: Sorry, I know this took really long! Thank you for those reading and reviewing and for your continued support. I hope you enjoy this chapter! :)
The Feud
4
The four boys huddled in the living room, staring down at the piece of paper lying on the coffee table.
"Wow, that is a terrible photo."
"I don't think I've seen a photo of a more convincing pervert."
"Whose underwear is that?"
Athrun audibly gulped at the last question asked by Kira. The other boys turned their attention away from the scandalous poster of Athrun and towards Athrun himself, each with a curious look in their eyes.
Athrun stared certain death, aka his best friend, in the face, held up his hands and took a slow step back.
"Your sister's," he finally said, when he was certain he had backed away out of reaching distance should Kira choose to try to strangle him.
Kira blinked at him a few times then said, "I must've misheard you, because it sounded like you just said that's my sister's underwear you're holding."
Someone (Dearka) let out a loud whistle.
Kira's confused expression began to turn sour.
Athrun contemplated his chances of making out of this alive. Then Yzak, blessed hallelujah Yzak, took a step in front of Kira, effectively shielding Athrun from the wrath of a purple eyed demon.
"I'm sure Zala has a perfectly good explanation of why he had your sister's underwear," Yzak said steadily to Kira, then turned to Athrun with a look that said, you better, Zala.
Athrun gulped again, took what could be the last breath he would ever take in this life, and spluttered out the details of the unfortunate event that had led him to this situation right now, about to be murdered by his best friend, with his housemates looking on as witnesses. When he finished, Athrun bravely looked his best friend in the face only to find Kira had burst out laughing hysterically.
"Oh, is that all?" Kira gave Athrun a slap on the back, but ended up leaning on Athrun for support as he tried to contain his laughing fit. "You should've...told me...earlier. I bet...the expression on...Cagalli's face was p-priceless!" he managed between loud sobs.
"Although...not as priceless as...Z-Zala's right there," Dearka joined in, pointing to the photo of Athrun on the table with his mouth agape, eyes wide in panic, nostrils flared, and a pair of black laced panties in his hand, looking exactly like the panty thief caught in the act that the poster described.
Athrun, momentarily stunned to find himself still alive once again, looked from his best friend, shaking against him from the effort of laughing to his two other friends in the room, who had also simultaneously been consumed with raucous laughter, and frowned. "I don't see how this is funny."
"Are you kidding me? It's the most hilarious thing I've heard all week!" Even Yzak, always serious and righteous Yzark, had turned against him.
Athrun groaned. He had been declared a pervert AND a panty thief by Cagalli. All of campus knew his face now, had been told lies about him, thought the worst of him, and his so-called friends were laughing at his misfortune. Great, just great.
"I'm gonna have to move," Athrun declared solemnly, "and transfer to another college. Start my life over again. Maybe dye my hair." And he needed new friends. Definitely new friends.
"Oh, don't be so dramatic," Yzak said, when the laughter finally died down. "Although, you sure are unlucky."
"You mean lucky," Dearka corrected with a wink.
Next to Athrun, Kira, who had finally calmed down from his shaking suddenly sobered up. He sent Dearka a disapproving glare which caused the blond to take a step behind Yzak, before turning back to his best friend.
Kira plastered a smile on his face as he wrapped one arm around Athrun's shoulder and patted him on the chest with his other hand. "You've managed to piss off my sister twice now. I don't know how you're still alive, but good on you for making it this far!" he said, a little too cheerfully.
Athrun wasn't sure if Kira was trying to comfort him or not. His best friend after all seemed a little too cheery at the thought of his sister taking out her vengeance and possibly murdering Athrun in his sleep.
"Thanks," Athrun replied, "I think."
Shinn Asuka stared bleakly up at the student noticeboard, eyes scanning over the various ads and flyers that had been pasted up in the week since college resumed. To say he had a good start to the new semester was a vast vast overstatement. In fact, Shinn would bet good money that no one has had a worse start to the new term than he did.
(Shinn has yet to meet Athrun Zala.)
He had returned to college to find that somehow all his student records had been lost during the administration record's server migration over the semester break. He had not been enrolled into his classes, no accommodation on campus had been arranged for him, his grades and attendance for his last semester of study were lost, in fact there were no records of his existence at all!
He had spent the first two days of semester chasing after his professors from last semester in order to prove that he did indeed attend their classes, spent the next two days trying to organise his timetable and enrol into whatever classes were still available, and spent the rest of his time trying to find a place to live, since all on-campus housing had been filled. There wasn't much he could afford off-campus and his search had been fruitless so far. (Shinn had been sleeping in his car the past week.)
And as his luck would have it, it just so happened that when he lost his footing in the cafeteria earlier, partially due to another restless night of sleep, partially because Shinn was still going through that stage in his adolescence where he was awkward in everything he did, he bumped into a girl in front of him, effectively spilling his extra-large caramel-chocolate-double creamed thick shake all over the front of the girl's dress. He had to flee from the cafeteria like his life depended on it (it probably did, considering the scream of fury and outrage the girl let loose upon seeing the wreckage of her previously stain-free and masterfully curated outfit), and spent the entire morning hiding and dodging from the banshee who was sure to skin him alive over some spilt milk.
Shinn sighed as he dropped his head in resignation to his rotten luck and another night in his tiny cramped second hand car, when from the corner of his eye he spotted the word 'house' barely visible and peeking out from underneath a poster about some creep stealing girls' panties. When he lifted the poster of the creep, the word 'house' turned into 'housemate' followed with 'wanted' and suddenly just like that his luck was about to change.
(Although, maybe not for the better.)
The doorbell rang in the boys' house. Dearka opened it, took one look at the boy standing at his doorstep and said, "Whatever cult you're into, I'm not interested in joining."
"Uh, what? I mean no, I'm not in a cult," the kid stammered then held up an advertisement. "Are you still looking for a housemate?"
Dearka's face lit up immediately. "Yes we are." He gave the boy another look over, decided that even if the kid turned out to be a homicidal maniac, he was scrawny enough that Dearka could take him, and said, "when can you move in?"
Athrun ducked out of class as soon as the hour was up, lowering his head the whole time as he made his way off campus grounds. He needed a caffeine fix if he was to stay awake for the next lecture on International Routing Protocols. His favourite coffee joint on campus, was unfortunately on campus.
That was the problem.
Ever since Cagalli's first stint at ruining his reputation, it had become increasingly difficult to remain on campus. As if it wasn't bad enough with the looks of disgust thrown his way as he walked down the corridors, and the whispers of 'pervert' behind his back, but ever since he was proclaimed a panty thief (with photographic evidence to back it up, no less, to his upmost dismay) all the shops on campus had refused to serve him. In fact, just this morning when he walked into his usual cafe, there was his face pasted up on the wall next to the daily specials and the words 'ALL WELCOME HERE, EXCEPT CREEPS'. Athrun, whose face had turned ghostly pale, had abruptly turned on his heels and ran out before anyone got a good look at him.
Athrun gave a deep sigh as he pushed open the door to the first coffee place he found outside college grounds. As he stepped in, no one turned to glare at him or give him sneers. He had almost forgotten what it felt like to not be disliked so thoroughly by the people around him, that an invisible weight felt as if it had been lifted from his shoulders. No one here knew who he was, or cared about who he was. Athrun was able to briefly pretend that his life wasn't practically over at the tender age of twenty.
"A long black to go, please," he ordered when he reached the front of the line.
"Name?"
"Athrun."
"Won't be long, sir," the girl at the counter informed, then actually smiled at him, before passing his order onto the barista behind her.
Athrun smiled back, surprised he could still remember what a smile looked like after the week in hell he had, paid for his order, then stepped to the side to wait for his coffee.
After a few minutes and a few names, he heard someone call out something that vaguely sounded like his name.
"Assrun! ASS-RUN!"
Athrun frowned. Maybe the barista had a lisp. Or maybe the girl at the counter misheard his name when she took his order. Either way, Athrun didn't think much of it as he squeezed his way to the front again.
"That's me," he said as he reached the counter.
The barista holding his coffee lifted her head, and her cap, which had previously concealed half her face revealed two amber glinted eyes of a she-demon glaring back at him.
Athrun watched in stunned silence, as the barista, who turned out to be none other than Cagalli Yamato, lifted the lid to his cup then spat in it.
"Here you go, Ass," she happily chirped, replacing the lid and handing the coffee to him with a smile on her face.
Athrun stared at the offending coffee she had just spat into and decided he had enough. He had been apologetic, he had tried to explain, he had been understanding of her point of view, and despite everything he had not sought a confrontation with her because his mother raised him better than that. But enough was enough. His reputation was in tatters, his peers thought the worst of him, he had practically been driven off campus, and to have to suffer at the hands of her abuse here too? When he was simply trying to get a cup of coffee because no one on campus would serve him?!
Athrun took a deep breath, gathered the rising storm of fury inside of him, opened his mouth and said, "I'd like to speak to your manager, please."
Athrun didn't consider himself to be a vengeful or cruel person who delighted in other's misery (although he was beginning to suspect that perhaps his best friend was), but he couldn't help but feel a certain satisfaction when he saw Cagalli being called to the back of the store by the manager to be reprimanded. And when he heard the muffled shouts coming from the backroom, the satisfaction turned into a petty glee.
The female employee who had initially taken his order apologised profusely to him, telling him that the barista was only new here and was in no way representative of the way they treat their customers. She offered to make him another coffee on the house to which Athrun gladly accepted. Meanwhile the shouts escalated behind them until it culminated with a "You can't fire me! I quit!" followed by a ruffled sound of fabric hitting the floor in what must have been a dramatic display of Cagalli throwing her apron down in all her fury. And Athrun sipped his coffee in delight as he exited the cafe.
His elevated mood was only temporary however. As soon as he rounded the corner of the coffee shop, he bumped into the feisty blonde who had just finished slamming the door closed to the store's back entrance on her way out.
They collided into each other in a tangle of limbs.
Athrun fell on his back. Cagalli fell on top of him. And for a long moment both of them laid there without moving.
He was vaguely aware of the position of his hands, wrapped firmly around Cagalli's waist in a subconscious, last minute attempt to steady Cagalli before she fell. A lot of good that did, she fell on top of him anyways and Athrun suddenly became more acutely aware of the soft warm press of her body against his. How much smaller she actually was, compared to the larger than life persona she exuded. A traitorous part of him thought, this was quite nice.
When Cagalli stirred, Athrun's senses returned to him and immediately dropped his hands, letting go of Cagalli. Cagalli lifted her head off Athrun's chest where it had been resting. Dazed, her eyes lost its hard edge as she stared into his as if trying to puzzle something out. He saw the exact moment of recognition on her face, signalled by the fire returning to her glare.
Cagalli righted herself, not caring in the least that her elbow dug into his ribcage or that her knee pressed unnerving close to his nether regions as she pushed herself off him.
"Watch where you're going!" she said, never mind it was her who crashed into him and knocked him into the ground.
Athrun groaned and got up. He was not exactly thrilled to have bumped into Cagalli either despite what traitorous thoughts might have momentarily flashed across his mind.
"Thanks a lot, pervert. You just got me fired!" Cagalli was quick to accuse.
"I thought you quit," he quipped back.
He received a growl in response.
Cagalli bent down to pick up her scattered belongings, when she straightened again she pointed an accusatory finger against his chest. "This is all your fault, Zala."
"My fault?!" he cried in disbelief. "You SPAT into my coffee!"
Speaking of which, the coffee he had been happily sipping had spilt between the two of them, staining his blue shirt a dark colour and making Cagalli's white blouse brown and at the same time translucent. He could just make out the hint of a white laced bra underneath, as Cagalli stood in front of him hyperventilating with anger. Athrun did his best to avoid his eyes.
"I wouldn't have spat into your coffee, if you weren't such a creep and stole my lingerie!"
"I did NOT steal your underwear!" Athrun said exasperatedly and tried to explain, "The wind blew your laundry across the fence, and it landed on me, that's all!" As he said it aloud, he realised how pathetic of an excuse that sounded.
Cagalli raised one sceptical eyebrow at him, clearly thinking exactly that. "Oh yeah? That doesn't explain why I caught you sniffing it."
Athrun opened his mouth to protest but couldn't. In a flash of horror, Athrun recalled that yes, yes he did in fact smell the piece of black lace which turned out to be his best friend's sister's underwear. But…BUT he didn't know what it was at the time! His vision had been obscured by his hair and he thought he smelt a faint scent and unconsciously sniffed it some more to discern what it was! Yet how could he possibly explain any of that to Cagalli without it coming across as an excuse and incriminating himself some more? As it was, he was having a hard time justifying to himself why he sniffed it in the first place. Instead, Athrun remained silent which Cagalli was sure to take as a sign of his guilt.
"You know what, Zala? You're right," Cagalli said all of a sudden, causing Athrun to be at a total loss for words. Never in a million years would he think that Cagalli would agree with him on anything. In fact, he was pretty sure she was just the type of person who would disagree with him even if she agreed with him. When Cagalli spoke again, her voice was a solemn calm. "You reap what you sow. I got fired from my job, you get called out for the creep you are," she said and walked off.
Yzak's face was a masterpiece of discontent. Although many would say his face always looked grumpy (and they would be right), they had not seen Yzak truly on a short string. Yzak's scowl turned deeper as he spotted the poster on the student noticeboards and promptly tore it down. Despite having laughed at Athrun's misfortune earlier, Yzak wasn't laughing now. He had thought that this would have all blown over by now, but things looked like they were only going to get worse. He had seen Athrun dash out of class earlier and hurry out of campus like a shamed criminal and it bothered him that his friend had to hide when he had done nothing wrong.
So when Yzak saw the blonde culprit behind it all standing by the water station, he decided that if Athrun wasn't going to confront Cagalli Yamato, he would.
"HEY, YOU! YES YOU!" he said when the blonde looked at him startled and confused. Yzak marched right up to her and towered over her. "HOW DARE YOU TREAT INNOCENT PEOPLE LIKE THIS?!" He wagged the piece of paper he had ripped from the noticeboard in her face. "SHAME ON YOU! SMEARING PEOPLE'S NAMES LIKE THAT! DRAGGING THEM THROUGH THE MUD! YOU'RE THE ONE THAT SHOULD BE ASHAMED! IF YOU'RE A DECENT HUMAN BEING YOU WOULD TAKE BACK ALL THE FILTH AND LIES YOU'VE TOLD, AND APOLOGISE RIGHT AWAY!"
He expected a retaliation, a verbal assault back like he had seen her do with Athrun, but instead Cagalli Yamato stood frozen, eyes enlarged, almost like she was frightened of him. Then he saw her lower lip wobble.
"Ah," Yzak backed away slowly, "right. Just think about what I said."
When Athrun returned to class for his next lecture, Yzak sidled next to him and said, "I don't think Cagalli Yamato will give you any more trouble."
Perplexed, Athrun was about to ask his friend what exactly he meant by that, when their professor walked in and the lecture theatre turned silent. He quickly forgot about it as what Yzak said was ludicrous anyways. He was pretty sure Cagalli had two middle names, one was Trouble with a capital T, and the other was NEVER CONCEDE DEFEAT in all caps.
Cagalli NEVER CONCEDE DEFEAT Yamato was not in a good mood when she stomped back into the house two hours earlier than she had planned, all thanks to a blue haired creep her brother liked to hang out with. Granted, part of it was her own fault, and as she had told Zala earlier she accepted the consequences of her actions but it didn't mean that she couldn't still be mad about it.
The galls of Zala! To think he could just waltz up to her workplace and expect her to serve him after what he did. How did he even find out where she worked? Did that traitor brother of hers tell him?
Speaking of Kira, Cagalli couldn't believe that this was the same brother who pushed a boy over in fourth grade for pulling on her hair. Athrun Zala's crimes were far worse and her brother seemed content to stand by him.
Cagalli stalked right to the kitchen, opened the fridge and took out a six pack of beer.
By the time Miriallia came home from her shift at the supermarket, she was already on her fourth bottle.
Her friend raised a curious eyebrow at her, upon spotting the empty bottles. "Are we celebrating or are we sulking?"
"I got fired from my job."
"You got fired on your first day?"
"Yeah, but it was worth it."
"Cagalli!" Miriallia reprimanded. "That's your third job this month! Need I remind you, you need an income to pay rent, and you know, to survive?"
Cagalli didn't need to be reminded, she was fully aware that she needed a job in order to support herself, and that she was quickly running out of places to work at.
Miriallia shook her head then sighed in resignation. She grabbed a bottle of beer for herself and sat down at the table. "What did you do this time?"
At the question, a small smile rose up on Cagalli's face. "I spat in Zala's coffee."
There was split second of silence before Miriallia clinked her bottle against Cagalli's and said, "You go sister!"
"I told you it was worth it." The smile was bright on Cagalli's face now as she and Miriallia toasted to the small revenge on Athrun Zala.
They heard the clunk of heels on the floorboards, and a few seconds later Flay stormed into the kitchen looking like a complete mess. Which, in the two years Cagalli had known Flay, was unheard of. Flay never looked anything less than perfect.
"What happened?" both Cagalli and Miriallia asked at the same time.
The red head took a deep breath and gritted out very slowly, "Some sulky goth kid. In the cafeteria. Spilled a concoction of STICKY. DISGUSTING. POOP coloured sludge ALL over me." She indicated to her brown soiled dress that Cagalli recalled was a vibrant pink just this morning. "If I. EVER. See that kind again. I will kick his SHINY. LITTLE. ASS. To the moon."
When she finished, Cagalli pushed the last remaining bottle in Flay's direction. Flay reached for it and plopped herself down next to the other girls.
"Hell hath no fury than a woman who had her outfit ruined." Miriallia raised a toast and the girls all drank to it.
Another clunk on the floorboards indicated that Stellar was home. When the other blonde entered the kitchen, all three girls could sense that something was not right. Stellar, who was usually in high spirits was noticeably glum and quiet as she joined the girls at the table.
"Stellar?" Cagalli inquired.
Miriallia got up from the table and got out a glass, pouring some lemonade in before placing it in front of Stellar. Stellar took a sip, taking her time to collect her thoughts.
"One of the boys from next door, came up to me during break today," she finally divulged.
"Which one?"
"The one that's always grumpy. He started yelling at me in the middle of the courtyard."
"What did he say to you?"
"I'm not sure. I couldn't understand what he was saying, but he called me a liar and said I should be ashamed of myself. Then he demanded that I apologise to him."
"Why would he do that?"
"I don't know. I don't know what I've done to offend him."
Stellar sniffed.
Cagalli slammed her empty bottle on the table in anger.
Flay put an arm around Stellar.
"I can't believe he did that!"
"Those boys next door have some answering to do!"
Just as Miriallia finished her last word, they heard a loud engine noise outside. All four girls got up from their seats and peered outside the kitchen window. They saw a crummy old car pull to a stop outside the boys' house. The engine sputtered for a few seconds before dying down and a boy got out. A second later, Dearka walked out to greet him.
"That's him!" Flay suddenly exclaimed next to them.
"Who? Elsman?"
"The one with the hair in his eyes."
"The scrawny emo one?"
"The one who owns the shiny little ass I'm gonna kick."
"Hey, it looks like he's moving in next door."
The girls watched in curious interest as Dearka helped the new boy carry a box of belongings out of his car.
"What the hell," Cagalli muttered upon seeing the two boys walk into the sharehouse. Then the wheels started turning in her head. Zala shows up at her work, his housemate verbally abuses Stellar at college, and now, it turns out the guy who ruined Flay's dress is a part of their gang?
Cagalli, Miriallia, Flay and Stellar turned to each other, all beginning to suspect the same thing: this was no mere coincidence.
"If the boys think they can get away with this," Flay began.
Cagalli's eyes narrowed just as Athrun Zala appeared into view, walking up the street.
"They've got another thing coming," Cagalli announced.
Athrun got to his front door and stopped. He patted his pockets, then his bag, then checked again and couldn't find his keys. Just his luck! He probably dropped it when Cagalli collided into him earlier in the day. Athrun pressed the doorbell, hoping Dearka was home to let him in, and not spending his free time at the pub or down at the supermarket hassling Miriallia Hawwe like he usually did.
When the door finally opened, a stranger greeted him from his own home.
"Hello," Athrun said hesitantly. He had to double check that he was in fact at his own house.
"Hello," the boy greeted back.
There was a stilted silence in which the boy narrowed his eyes at Athrun, then a second later asked, "Do I know you?"
Athrun was pretty sure that was supposed to be his question. "I don't think so?" Then he spotted Dearka walking past the corridor in the background and pushed himself inside.
"Elsman!" Athrun called out, "Uhh, who's the kid?"
"Oh!" Dearka doubled back and placed an arm around the boy's shoulder. "Athrun Zala meet our new housemate, Shinn Asuka."
"We have a new housemate?" Athrun asked confused.
"We sure do. He moved in today."
"I can see that. Does Yzak know we have a new housemate?"
"He sure doesn't," Dearka replied.
Athrun didn't comment. He honestly didn't mind. A new housemate will help keep down the rent. Yzak was the one who liked to interview any potential housemates about 20 times before he gave his approval (which explained why they've had a spare room for so long, by the time any potential housemates have reached the third interview they've already decided that they don't want to live with Yzak anyways).
The boys were about to move to the lounge room when the doorbell rang again. Athrun turned back to open the door. There was no one there, instead a red envelope was stuck to the door.
His name, Zala, was written on the front in a black marker. Curious and a little cautious, Athrun pulled it off and opened it.
If Athrun didn't think his life could get any worse than it already was, then he was horribly mistaken, because inside the envelope was a note which read:
You and your friends have gone too far this time.
THIS IS WAR.
