Kon'nichiwa!

I just found out that it was Shinn's birthday a few days ago. Since he is one of my favourite character, I wanted to write something for him, but... didn't because I had no idea. So, I guess i will just have to dedicate this for him. Maybe I will write something later on, anyways.

To everyone who read/review: Thankyou!

Pinksia- It is not Luna/Athrun. They are friends, or at most one-side AL

Kageharu Kaco- That "half-princess" will be explained later...

Also... I am not sure what "Look a gift horse in the mouth" actually means. At all. No clue. Er... can you tell me?

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Cagalli awoke at seven, the required time for soldiers. Opening the fridge, and she saw that is was empty. Oh, right. There wasn't anything in it to begin with.

Trying to ignore her growling stomach, she dressed in the usual: red. This was the third day she'd done the same in a row. Since first being introduced to this room the day before yesterday, she had continuously forgotten to get something so she could eat breakfast.

But that's okay. She made it up with an extra meal. In between lunch and dinner, she picked a snack.

Cagalli hurried out of the room, heading for Simulation Room 96. Today, they were supposed to practice maneuvers that they spent the whole day going over the day before. She got the feeling that how well she did would determine whether or not she got to fight with the rest of her team.

She really wanted to do well. In fact, she had practiced yesterday night, after being dismissed at 9:30. She hoped she was prepared.

Cagalli opened the door to find Lunamaria and Rey. Checking the clock on the wall, she saw that she was early by a few minutes.

She crossed the room and sat on the bench beside Luna. "Good morning."

"Same to you." Luna smiled.

Cagalli looked around. "So, where is Shinn?"

The other girl laughed. "Oh, he's never early. He good at fighting, but is also good at sleeping. As a matter of fact, I think he's going to yelled at for being late."

Cagalli was surprised. "Oh, is it a common occurrence?"

"Yeah. I think deep down, he and Athrun agree with each other, but even so, they never turn down a chance to argue."

"I'm glad at your perspective, Miss Hawke."

Cagalli blinked at his timely appearance. "...Good morning."

Miss Hawke's head snapped up. "Oh. Uh, hey, Athrun." Her cheeks filled with embarrassment. "I, uh, didn't see you there."

"Obviously." He seemed stern. At the exact moment, much to Lunamaria's relief, Shinn burst in.

Atrun seemed to forget all about the two girls as he faced the black-haired boy. "Shinn, on time as always."

Glancing at the wall clock through his unruly hair, he protested. "Eh, I'm only three minutes late."

"Three minutes too many." He turned to face the other, on-time reds. "So, let's go. I think we'll start with the MS." He waved a hand at the machines lining a side wall. "Pick one, and go."

Cagalli slid into the seat of the one second from the left, Luna on one side and Shinn on the other. Luna mouthed a 'good luck', just as the program began.

Taking a deep breath, Cagalli placed her hands on the controls and faced the monitor.

"Start!"

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Cagalli worried her lower lip as she waited for the computer to spew out the results. Looking back, she might've missed some of the enemy suits. And there was that one where she had –

"Okay. I have the scores." Shinn quickly scanned down the page. "Hn." He passed the page around to Rey who passed it to who he knew as Jikyuu.

Upon touching the page, Cagalli found herself unable to glance casually at the small black letters. How will I compare? I am a natural!

Luna poked her arm, and she looked up. The magenta hair girl smiled. "Don't worry. Look."

Asuka Shinn – 96

Burrel za Rey – 95

Hawke Lunamaria – 95

Kakimidasu Jikyuu – 97

Cagalli looked up dazed. I've never did so well at Orb… maybe practice DOES make perfect.

Lunamaria smiled, looking at the scores herself. "No wonder Shinn looked so mad; he hates people beating him in the MS. Which is probably why he hates Athrun."

"A-ah…" The page was easily plucked out of her loose grip. The amber- eye girl looked up. "Commander?"

He looked at the page, most interested in the last entry on the page. Kakimidasu. Very suitable. 'Confusing' indeed. Her score isn't bad, either. He smiled, meeting amber eyes. "Well, I guess this cinches it. You are now the proud owner of a mobile suit. I'll show it to you after."

Cagalli blink and slowly, it sank in. I made it… now, I can finish it. Once and for all! She smiled back. "Thank you."

Commander Zala addressed his entire team. "Let's continue.

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"Well, let's go."

Cagalli looked up. "Go? Go where?"

"To see your unit." Athrun replied, confused. Didn't he already tell her that?

Her confusion cleared. "Oh, right!" She ran out of the room and looked to long corridors stretching out on either side. She turned back, expression sheepish. "Er… which way?"

Stifling a laugh with effort, he waved her over to the left. Only after walking several paces did he realize that she had not followed him. Athrun turned back and saw her disgruntled look. "What?"

"You're laughing at me aren't you?"

The commander tried even harder to cover his smile. "Er… why would you think that?" Okay… now she looks mad. Trying to change the subject, he asked vaguely commented: "You know, the weathers been very nice these few days."

Cagalli's expression turned from annoyed to disbelieving. "We are on the PLANTs. The weather here is stimulated. You do know that, right?"

"Uh… yeah…" Why he had to say that particular sentence… he blamed it on his brain.

Fifteen minutes later of endless turns, doors and fast walking brought them to a pair of double doors of steel. Athun quickly entered his password into the blinking keypad on the left side.

Cagalli entered first, awed by the huge machines lined up in neat rows on either side. "Gundam…" The word left her almost instinctively.

He led her another set of huge doors. "In here, please." Cagalli snapped out of her daze and quickly caught up. They passed through to a seemingly endless corridor lined with the metal fighters on both sides. The pneumatic doors closed behind them automatically with a soft hiss. A solitary bulb flickered to life above them.

The new soldier looked around the shadowed room. These units were somewhat different from the ones outside. Whilst those had the appearance of mere statues, the ones in this silent place seemed more… sinister. Each one was dusty, dark grey and was tightly bound to place by locks at their shins, feet buried into the ground.

Cagalli shivered. She couldn't truthfully say that she like this place very much. She followed the echoing footsteps rather reluctantly. Farther they walked, the light fading gradually until it became a solid black. The blonde hugged herself; she couldn't help being afraid.

Much to her relief, another lightbulb must've been installed somewhere ahead, because the dark gave way to faint light. Now she could see Athrun's figure in front of her and somehow felt a tiny bit less scared.

He began to veer of course occasionally to check the serial numbers stamped at the floor before each MS. Cagalli was glad, it gave her a moment to catch up. Finally he stopped completely at one just past the second light.

He looked up. "Ah… here it is. ZGMF-X230A Fury." He smiled slightly at the girl beside him. "All yours for the taking." He bent down with the lock and several minutes later, it rose out of the ground. "Would you like to see inside?"

Without answer, Cagalli clambered up and rested in the seat. Her interest in the machine distracted her from the general gloom of the, for lack of a better word, storage room. Turning on the screen in front of her, she used waiting for it to complete the opening graphics. After training on stimulation machines, sometimes secretly, for years, she could recite exactly how it looked. She was much more interested in what was inside the computer.

Athrun had only given one other person a new suit and that would be Lunamaria. The blue-eyed girl had immediately tried out the different controls and had activated the phase-shift. So it surprised him that this new girl did nothing of that sort. Instead, he heard soft, but swift, clicks on the keyboard. Curiously, he went up and saw that she was adding to and changing the OS of the machine.

Balancing on the lower metal piece of the entrance, he waited for her to finish. Long moments passed and finally she looked up. Cagalli was surprised to see the guy right in front of her. She had been concentrating so hard on the commands she'd been typing in that she didn't even notice him. And the fact that he got above-average marks on "Stealth and Concealment" class didn't help.

"Hey." She left it at that.

"Hi to you, too. Now, we need to move this to the other room." Bracing himself against the hard metal, he was taken by surprise at how smoothly she could maneuver the multi-ton object.

Now this was her preferred way of travel. Whereas it took what seemed like years to get to Fury, it only took a small fraction to get out, most likely because one step of the gundam equaled about fifty human steps.

Following Athrun's directions, she finally turned off the machine at an empty spot in the big, halogen-lighted room. As both of them descended, she looked at the grey figure there. No matter how creepy it looked on that storage room, it seemed to look like just another statue here. Cagalli shrugged off the mystery of it and turned to the man beside her.

As she looked at his face, she felt a smile stretching across her face. "Eh, thanks, Zala." She patted his forearm lightly and headed briskly toward the exit.

He felt stunned, frozen to place. When that finally wore off, Athrun looked at her retreating figure already halfway to the door. She had smiled at him. She had addressed him without the word "commander." And she had touched his arm.

His heart wouldn't stop racing.

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Thanks for reading,
Jisushika-chan

September 4, 2006