disclaimer: standard
Vampires of Cornicupris
7: Orientation Part 1
Athrun and Nicol were the first to arrive at their orientation, which began at the cafeteria. Slowly, others began to arrive. Among others, there was Shinn, then the Hawke sisters, Lunamaria and Meyrin, Lacus, and Yzak and Dearka, the latter being dragged in by the former.
Athrun had been with most of these people through his prep military-style school back at the PLANTs. He, Nicol, Dearka, and Yzak were expected to take a place in politics alongside their parents, and rules had stated that they had to spend much of their education abroad—to get a better grip on the world outside. However, going to Earth was not even an option, and Heliopolis was a small colony—not even the size of one PLANT. So going to Cornicupris had been the most logical choice.
Dearka and Yzak were like brothers, Athrun thought, though they were as different as night and day—their common ground being that they both distasted Naturals and they both took their work seriously (though Dearka had a strange way of showing it). Their scents, however, were quite similar—they both smelled of metal and earth, but in a good way.
"No way, Athrun," Nicol shook his head, disbelieving. He sent waves of pine scent around the air as he did so, most of them in Athrun's general direction. Each person, whether it was Natural or Coordinator, carried a particular scent with them, as unique as a fingerprint. Athrun always liked Nicol's scent, though since that was a piece of information that wasn't shared between two men comfortably, Athrun had kept that to himself.
Blitz, on Nicol's shoulder, asked, "Remember what you said about the computers?"
"I'm sorry I brought that up then," Athrun said, not the least bit resigned. "But he is Natural."
Nicol looked into his friend's determined face. "Well, maybe he's a bit of both."
"But he can't be a half-breed," Aegis said, siding with Athrun. "There aren't any."
"Guys, shush," Blitz said. "I can feel him coming." And as if on cue, the boy entered the cafeteria room. The cuffs on the blazer were rolled up twice, making the kid look smaller than he actually was. His scent, Athrun noticed, not muffled by any blanket and not clouded by lack of sleep, was floral, earthy…like fresh rain on roses. Saliva started building up in Athrun's mouth. Tasty, his mind told him. He shook the thought away. He could deal with his increasingly jumpy hunter instincts later.
More importantly, his thoughts were unprotected by any Coordinator strength. When Athrun focused, he could hear faint whispers coming from his mind. There seemed to be more than one voice, which was strange in itself, but the fact that he couldn't cloud his thoughts so that they were open for any Coordinator to read was proof enough that he was Natural.
Triumphantly, Athrun turned to Nicol. "Well?"
"Well, what?" Nicol asked, confused.
"Do you hear that?"
"Hear what?" Athrun just looked at him, dumbfounded.
"Nicol, if you try listening to his head, you can hear his thoughts." Nicol, looking unconvinced, but wanting to pacify his friend, he concentrated.
"I don't hear anything," Nicol said finally. He looked at Athrun, concerned. "Are you sure that you've taken enough blood? You know what Ms. Gladys says: if you haven't taken enough, your mind becomes more animal than human. Your senses get all out of whack and just drive you to eat."
"I'm sure that it was enough," Athrun said, exasperated. But after this was said, he and Nicol realized that no one in the cafeteria was talking. Looking back at the newcomer, he saw why.
The kid had brought someone with him. A girl in a pink uniform, signaling that she belonged to the Alliance dorms. She wore a silver headband-like structure, which went from temple to temple, on the back of her head, which was part of the uniform of Naturals which ensured that Coordinators who had advanced telepathic abilities—like Athrun and Shinn—wouldn't try to break into their minds. Another silver piece, this one as a strange earring tucked behind the ear, would block their "loud" thoughts from being read by Coordinators in general.
Coordinators wouldn't wear those. They had a pretty bad skin allergy to silver (another side affect of Cruor Appentance). There was absolutely no doubt that that blonde was Natural. And they had come in together. Touching. Forget touching, she was clinging to him. But even more shocking was that both spirit-forms were riding on her shoulder.
"Then if he's a Coordinator, then why is he letting his spirit-form come into contact with a Natural?" he asked Nicol. Spirit-forms of Coordinators rarely came into physical contact with Naturals—it would be too easy, with the life-force of the Natural so close, for instinct to take over. Truthfully, it was harder on their spirit-forms to be in control then it was for the Coordinators themselves.
"I don't know," answered Nicol. "Maybe he's stronger than he looks."
"Or weaker," Aegis said, but quietly so that only Athrun heard.
Shinn, resting his eyes with his head on the table, awoke at the sudden lack of noise, looked over at everybody's object of interest, and distinctly muttered, "Natural-loving freak." This statement, of course, was heard by the majority of Coordinators and some unlucky Naturals who had to sit at the fringe of Coordinator-Natural territory. Everyone seemed to agree to this, and the noise level rose again.
"Oh, I don't know," Nicol said. "I think it's nice—intermingling and stuff. We should do more of it." Shinn just scowled.
The couple parted, the blonde going over to the Alliance side, the kid going over to the ZAFT side. Nicol waved him over, to Shinn's annoyance.
"Who's the broad?" asked Dearka with a grin. Athrun sighed. Dearka didn't really care if a girl was Natural or Coordinator as long as she was pretty.
"That girl," the kid said, raising an eyebrow up, by smiling at the same time, "is my sister" His command of Ủsré was pretty good, though he spoke with a dialect that was different than any that Athrun heard of, with a slight accent. He had to admit--grudgingly--that this Natural was rather good.
Nicol looked at him, and Athrun knew that the kid's knowledge of the PLANT language was evidence that backed up Nicol's opinion of Kira's Coordinator state.
But the rest of the crowd already seemed to think that the kid was a Coordinator. Some looks were exchanged at this statement, but the atmosphere became less tense. If this kid was a first-generation—which he obviously was because of the Natural state of his sister—then it would make sense that he was more comfortable around Naturals then they were used to being.
"That's Dearka for you," Nicol said, laughing. "I'm Nicol, by the way." The younger boy shifted position to accommodate him. Kira's scent was much closer now, not overriding the others, but merely mingling with them, shifting through them like how the thousands of little whispers coming forth from his mind mingled with the other voices.
Athrun frowned. Usually, at a closer distance, the voices would become more distinct. But they were equally unintelligible when the kid—Kira—was just inches from him as they were when he was across the room. He forced himself to listen what this newcomer had to say.
"I'm Kira. I just transferred here from Heliopolis." Shinn snorted. Athrun knew—though Shinn was a much better telepath then he was and would not appreciate the intrusion into his mind—that Shinn was probably thinking more ("happy") thoughts on Natural-loving earthen Coordinators. Impulse, hanging off the edge of the table, did little more than glance at Kira's spirit-form, who had jumped off his person and was engaging in conversation with Blitz and Buster. Duel was at the sidelines of their little mecha cluster, not really in the conversation but coming to size up yet another rival.
"And this is Athrun," Nicol was saying, gesturing to Athrun on his other side. Kira glanced at him.
"I think we might have met briefly this morning," he said wryly, still smiling. Athrun kept calm as he came up with an excuse.
"Yeah, sorry about that. I didn't think anyone was in the hall when I came out—"
"Naked, probably," Dearka joked. There was a rumble of laughter, even though if another person said it, the same joke would have received rolled eyeballs and grimaces. That was Dearka's special talent, that he was charismatic. If he felt like it, it would be impossible for someone to feel down around him. On the other hand, his counterpart Yzak had a knack for getting people to be serious and focused, and/or intimidated. So they made a pretty good balance.
But suddenly, Athrun's attention was yanked away from the light mood. Another scent had invaded. It was ten times stronger than Kira's, and the boy's rosy smell, and everyone's smell, for that matter, was muffled instantly under the smell of spice and wonder. For someone else had come in, and instantly, his mind told him that this person was simply and utterly delicious.
