Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
A/N: Well, here's another chapter for you kiddies. Sorry it's so late but I can now proudly say that I have finished my first semester at the University of Texas and it was awesome! Lol. Now that I am home for Christmas, it's time for me to get back to this story.
Emilie and Konami sat in Konami's room hanging out a few days later. "What did the progressions lady say when you called her?"
Emilie sighed from her position on Konami's bed. "I have to prepare something to audition with. It's going to be up at the school in January."
"How many girls is it going to be?" Konami looked away from her computer screen.
"Twenty and there are three spots this year. That's three more than last year." Emilie sighed at the odds against her.
"Oh my…Emilie, you have to watch this! Come see this!" Konami started frantically waving her over to the computer screen.
Emilie walked over. "What are you looking at?"
"I'm on that website myvids where you can post your own videos watch this." Konami started the video over. It was a video of some guy with a wig demonstrating the "hair flip" where he showed you how to well…flip your hair. Both girls ended up laughing pretty hard and Konami was imitating the video.
"You just grab you hair and flip it girl, you flip it." Konami said while trying not to laugh. She flipped her hair a couple times and then she did it a little too hard and made her chair fall back onto the floor. This of course made Emilie fall onto the bed gasping for air as she laughed at her best friend sprawled out on the floor who was glaring at her. "You tell anyone and I'll kill you."
Emilie was laughing so hard she couldn't even form a response so Konami took her laughing as a yes. She picked herself off of the ground and she picked up her chair. Emilie eventually stopped laughing long enough to speak. "That was really funny, I'm sorry. You just went over flat on your back."
"Shut up. What does Nicol have to say about all this?" Konami turned off her computer and sat next to Emilie on the bed.
"He told me to go after it. He's being deployed soon. I just hope he just stays long enough for him to come with me to the audition. I-I need him there." Emilie confessed.
Konami looked at her sharply. "What? Did I just hear you right?"
"Yeah…all of a sudden, when I'm with him, I don't want to go and if I'm not then I'm thinking about when we're going to be together again. He's making me go crazy; I'm so head over heels with him." Emilie sighed. "I don't know what to do."
Konami smirked. "I think you're more than just head over heels for him. You looove him!"
Emilie immediately blushed. "I do not! We've only been together since September. I can't- that's not- it's- just…no." she stammered.
Konami laughed at her friend. "You are in so bad and you don't even know it. Just admit it already."
"I am not anywhere thank you very much." The fierce blush on her face was enough to contradict her statement.
Nicol on the other hand was sitting at his piano at the Amalfi estate. His fingers were flying furiously over the keys. There was a melody in his head and he wouldn't quit until he had it down on paper. The Amalfi estate was a place Nicol loved coming but it was bittersweet. They had been there for about a week as his father was on "vacation". His father liked living at the apartment on Aprilius one since it was so close to where the council met but it meant that the estate went empty for the rest of the year unless Nicol or his mother came to visit their actual home. Being on a different PLANT away from Emilie was a little strange. He was so used to having her there in the same city and being able to walk to her house for them just to hang out. It was more than a little strange actually. He felt away from the normal.
"Nicol, you've been attacking that piano since you woke up this morning. Why don't you have some lunch?" his mother came into the extravagant music room that overlooked the lavish gardens.
"What?" Nicol broke away from the music in his head long enough to look at her. Then he looked at the clock and saw that it was past noon. "I guess I should have some lunch shouldn't I?"
"Come on, I made some tuna salad. Your father is out on the lake. You should try to spend some time with him you know? I don't think he even knows about your girlfriend." Romina Amalfi ruffled her son's hair.
"I don't want to tell him about Emilie yet. I know I should but I just don't want to." Nicol shrugged. "I don't want him to become involved and so something to ruin it. He's been brushing around the subject of Lillian lately and I don't want to add any fuel to that fire." Lillian Pearson was from an English family that was well known for being patrons for different artists. They were well off in society and Yuri thought their daughter who was a painter would make a good match with Nicol. He was trying to get Nicol to agree to an engagement to her.
"Well if you tell him about Emilie then maybe he'll stop bothering you about Lillian." Romina sat down on the other side of the table across from Nicol.
"No because then he'll want to get into contact with her parents and look up her ancestry and then try to arrange an engagement. I don't want him to get involved."
"I don't think he will. I think he'll just want to meet her. Well, it's whatever you want to do honey. She's your girlfriend but I would like to meet her. You have been dating her for a while."
Nicol nodded. He wouldn't mind his mother meeting Emilie but he wanted to keep her from his father for as long as possible. Athrun and Yzak were already engaged and he didn't want to be the next one. Athrun got along with lacus but his residual feelings for Konami were still there. Yzak didn't even know who his fiancée was. His mother was keeping all information from him until he turned twenty one. Nicol finished and went back to his piano. The music was still in his head and he had to get it out.
Emilie was glad to see him when he came back. "It's been awhile stranger. You sure you know who I am?" she joked as he walked into her room when he got back.
"Hmm…I don't know. You look familiar but I'm not sure." He said smirking and hugged her tightly.
"How was your vacation?" she asked as she hugged him tightly. "I missed you."
"I missed you too. It was mostly me and my mom. My dad was either on the lake fishing or he was holed up in his office taking conference calls. What did you do while I was gone?"
"Nothing really. Just went to school and practiced for nutcracker. What did you do then if your dad was so busy?" Emilie finally let go of him and sat on her bed.
"I wrote some music." Nicol sat next to her and she rested her head on his shoulder. She was about to say something else but he kissed her instead.
She raised her eyebrow after they parted. "Are you going to let me talk now?"
"Maybe." He said laughing innocently.
"Anyway, the director apparently doesn't like your replacement as much as you. He keeps yelling at the poor girl and she really is trying her best." Emilie stood and walked over to her bathroom. She ran a brush through her long hair then pulled it back into a ponytail. "Let's go walk around. I've been inside all day. I'm going stir crazy."
"I doubt it's that bad. I think you have a tendency to over exaggerate sometimes." Nicol said but he stood and they walked out of the room.
"I do not over exaggerate. I just make sure I get the point across."
"Whatever. Let's go get Konami and what's his name and we can go play soccer." Nicol suggested as they walked out of the house.
"She's not home and his name is Garth. Why do you not like him so much?" Emilie asked him curiously. Garth had been introduced to them earlier as the new guy Konami was talking to so she could get over Athrun. He was more of a rebound guy than a serious mention.
"He just acts like an ass and I don't like the way he talks to her." Nicol really didn't like Garth. He was just the self righteous person that could rub him the wrong way.
"Well, we've seen them fight and she defends herself pretty well. I just think you don't like him because it's not Athrun." Emilie poked his shoulder. The truth was though that she didn't like him much either. He was a horrible person but he was there for the moment. All they could do was wait for Konami to come to her senses and dump Garth on the streets.
"It shouldn't matter that she defends herself pretty well though. If he treats her horribly then she shouldn't be with him in the first place. Don't you think?" Nicol argued.
"I know but I've also known her longer than you and trust me when I say that he isn't sticking around much longer. He'll probably be gone by the time she comes back from visiting her mom. Actually, she comes back today so maybe it'll be over by the time we get back." Then something immediately popped into Emilie's head. She spun around and faced him. "Who is Lillian Pearson?"
Nicol furrowed his eyebrows. "How do you know that name?"
Emilie suddenly realized that he hadn't heard being away for an entire week. "She offered to be my patron the other day. It was really random. All of a sudden this big limo pulls up in front of the house and she's like "I would be honored if you danced under my name" and blah blah blah then she says "Oh by the way, you're dating my fiancé." Right before she left. So when were you planning on telling me this?"
Nicol was furious. "I can't believe the nerve of them! I can't believe they would meddle in this! He knows how much I hate him thinking he can just do whatever he wants with my life." he started pacing back and forth trying to calm down enough to explain what was probably going on.
"Would you mind explaining to me then?" Emilie said in a small calm voice.
Nicol immediately looked at her. "I'm sorry Em. I didn't mean to get like that."
"It's okay. Just an explanation please if you can." She smiled gently at him.
"Lillian Pearson is the daughter of Lore Pearson. Their family is well known for being patrons and my father has been trying to get me to agree to an engagement to Lillian for the past year now. I've never wanted to be engaged to her and he just doesn't understand that. I guess he just went ahead and told them I had agreed." He explained to her.
"Does he know about me?" Emilie was a little scared to ask the question. She didn't want his father not to like her or have anything against her being with Nicol because her family wasn't well known in social circles.
"Actually, only my mom knows about you. I don't want to tell him about you because then he's going to want to know every single little detail and get into your life. I don't want that to happen. My mom is really excited to meet you sometime soon though."
"As many times as I have been over to your house, your mother is never there. It's always me and you on the couch watching TV. Geez we're boring." She laughed lightly. "I know you want to protect me but he's going to find out about me sooner or later and it'll be better if it comes from you."
"This is why I keep you around." Nicol joked and hugged her. "Did the lady from progressions say anything else?"
"Nothing much. Just that my audition was in January but you already know that. Are you going to be able to be there?" she asked hopefully.
"I hope that I can be. I don't know when we're going to deploy exactly so I'm not going to make any promises. I know that you really want me to be there and I really want to be there too." He brushed away a stray piece of her hair.
Emilie nodded. "I know. It's what you get when your boyfriend is in the military."
He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her into his chest. They stood there together for awhile then she pulled away from him. "What do you say we stop being depressed and head back to my house to see if the cookies my mom was making are done yet?"
"I'm not about to say no. Your mom's cookies are about the best things I've ever tasted." Nicol smiled and took her hand leading her back to her house. "I think I may like them better than you." He teased her.
Emilie punched his arm but laughed. "Hey! Jerk." He smiled at her then put his arm around her shoulders as they walked.
As they stepped on Emilie's porch about to go into her house, Garth burst from Konami's house yelling and screaming.
"Do you really think that you can just dump me? I'm everything to you!" he yelled.
Konami followed him out also yelling. "You mean as much to me as this speck of dust!"
"You're going to be crawling back to me by tonight, I bet you!"
"Like hell I am! You take your lame ass self off of my property and out of my life!" Konami started walking over to where Emilie and Nicol were standing on the porch.
Garth took some giant steps to catch up to her and grabbed her arm. He pulled her close to him. "Don't you walk away from me, I own you!" he shouted in her face.
"You don't own a single thing on me! Let go!" Konami tried to struggle but his grip was too strong.
"Don't think you can talk back to me!" he yelled and slapped her bringing Konami down to the ground.
She scrambled up and was about to hit him when something sailed past her and tackled Garth to the ground. It was Nicol and they were both going at it. Emilie rushed over to Konami and pulled her away.
"Are you okay?" Emilie asked her.
"I'm fine! Call the police or something! Go!" Konami pushed Emilie toward the house. Konami looked helplessly to where Nicol and Garth were fighting on the ground. Nicol was overpowering Garth but Garth was so much bigger than Nicol that he would use his weight to gain an advantage. It was difficult to see who was on top. "Guys! Stop it! Stop!" she yelled out uselessly. Emilie ran out of her house with a big pot in her hands. She looked frantic. Konami looked at her incredulously. "I thought I told you to call the police! What are you doing with a pot?"
"I told Emma to and I'm not going to let my boyfriend be pummeled by your ex!" Emilie shouted at her and charged at Garth and Nicol. They were standing, circling each other testing the boundaries to see who would pounce first again. Emilie made that decision when she lunged at Garth and jumped on his back. She repeatedly hit him the pot as he tried to grab her and throw her off. He eventually did and she landed sprawled out with the pot still in her hands. He charged at her so she did the only thing she could think of and threw the pot straight at him. It connected with his head. He stumbled a little before his eyes rolled back and he fell to the ground.
"Oh my god!" she screamed. "I killed him!"
Emilie's parents had run out at that point along with her sister and some of the other neighbors.
"What is going on here?" Emilie's father demanded as he walked over to the teens.
Nicol rushed over to Emilie. "Are you okay?" Emilie was in a state of shock though.
Emilie's mother checked on Konami whose lip was bleeding and her cheek was swelled up. Nicol looked no better. Actually, he looked worse but not worse than Garth. The police arrived and tried to sort out the whole situation.
"So what went on here?" the policeman asked the four teens about an hour later. The ambulance had been called to check on all of them. Garth was only knocked unconscious and woke up with a major headache and battle wounds from the fight. Nicol had a giant bandage above his eyebrow and a black eye. Emilie had bruises on her arms and torso where Garth had grabbed her and thrown her to the ground. Konami was holding an ice pack to her cheek and her lip was no longer bleeding. They were sitting in a line on Emilie's porch steps with a policeman standing behind Garth ready to intervene if anything happened.
Konami looked at everyone and no one seemed to start talking so she did. "I was going out with Garth over there and I broke up with him today. When I did, he stormed out of my house and was yelling at me. I was yelling at him as well. I walked away from him towards Nicol and Emilie. They were standing here on her porch. As I walked away from him, he grabbed my arm and yelled again. I yelled back at him then he slapped me."
Nicol started talking then. "That's when I tackled him and we started fighting."
"I checked on Konami and she told me to call the police. I told my sister to and I grabbed a pot from the kitchen. I was scared that he was going to seriously injure Nicol so I jumped on him and started attacking him with it." Emilie joined in the talk finally.
"She almost killed me with that pot!" Garth exclaimed.
"Well you almost killed me when you threw me down onto the ground!" Emilie shot back at him.
"Well maybe you shouldn't have hit me with that pot!"
"Well then you shouldn't have hit Nicol!"
"He shouldn't have tackled me!"
"You shouldn't have hit Konami!"
"Hey!" the policeman said sharply as the two were about to get into a yelling match. He looked at all of them. "So basically, he hit her and you decided to come to her defense but then you decided to come to his defense?" he asked pointing at all four of them. They nodded in unison and he sighed. "Miss Shimura, what actions would you like to take?"
"This would be really embarrassing to bring in front of the court so all I want is a restraining order against him. I don't want him anywhere near me or my friends." Konami answered him.
"That can be done. We will need to take you down to the station to get everything figured out."
"What about me? I was assaulted here!" Garth cried out.
"You hit a woman and by hitting Amalfi here, it would be considered assault against military personnel." The policeman looked smug.
Garth on the other hand looked confused. "What are you talking about? Chicken boy here isn't military personnel."
The policeman looked at Nicol. "Do you want to tell him or should I?"
Nicol turned to Garth and pulled out his shiny silver dog tags from under his shirt. "I'm a red elite."
The look on Garth's face was priceless. "Do you still want to take action now?" the policeman asked him. Garth just shook his head. "Chavez, escort him home." The policeman sitting behind Garth placed his hand on his shoulder and he pulled him up. He led him away to the police car.
The policeman who had been questioning them led Konami away and left Nicol and Emilie sitting on the steps. Now they had to deal with her parents.
"Now what is going on here?" Emilie's mother asked. "All of a sudden it's all of you going crazy throwing my good pots everywhere."
"Was that boy seriously attacking Konami?" Emilie's father asked.
"Yes sir." Nicol and Emilie answered together.
"And did the two of you honestly come to her rescue and you just didn't want to beat up on some boy?"
"Yes, wait no. wait…yes." Emilie answered. "I got confused there for a minute."
"What are we going to do with you two?" Emilie's mother half laughed and sighed. "Well come in the house Nicol and let's get something on that eye. I don't want to send you home looking like that."
Nicol laughed and followed Emilie's mother inside. Emilie went upstairs to clean up and change. She noticed the bruises on her and couldn't help but to be shaken up at it all. The thing that scared her the most was when Nicol and Garth were fighting and there was blood flying everywhere. She headed downstairs to see Nicol sitting at her kitchen island with a steak resting on his face and his knuckles resting in a bowl of water.
"Getting pampered huh?" she teased him and sat in the chair next to him.
"Hardly, I smell like meat and my hands are a little sore." He said muffled.
"Well that's what you get when you want to play hero." Emilie said lightly but there was a more serious undertone to it.
Nicol removed the steak from his face and looked at Emilie. There was a very serious look in his eyes. "I wasn't about to let him hit her like that." He stood and gathered Emilie into his arms. "Don't you ever do that again. You have no idea how much you scared me when on him and then when he threw you to the ground and he started towards you."
Emilie nodded. "Don't worry, I'm not about to jump on someone's back with a pot anytime soon." She sniffed a little then said, "Nicol, no offense but you really do smell like meat."
He had to laugh at her. "At least I didn't try to defend myself with a kitchen pot."
She rolled her eyes. "It was the first thing I grabbed and I wasn't exactly in a calm state of mind."
He grabbed her hand and they shared a look. She reached up and kissed him lightly. They both knew it hadn't been an easy day.
"Oh, so how did that policeman know you're in ZAFT?" Emilie asked.
Nicol laughed. "It's a long story. You see…"
A/N: hey guys. well I figured the way to start the new year was to update so go on and review! )
