Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam SEED.
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The last two weeks of school had been pure torture for Yzak. For one, exams were coming soon, and the professors of Abashiri University had decided to dedicate their existence to making their lives a living hell. Another cause for his misery was the beautiful Phantom sitting on the floor across from him, nose buried in her book of Art of War, while slipping into her mouth a red M and M.
Yzak gritted his teeth impatiently as he flipped the page of his own book noisily, unconsciously trying to catch her attention. It was not working. They had never gotten the chance to talk about anything that happened in the Takano residence because of the upcoming exams, and the mere thought of it made him so frustrated it made him want to tear his hair out.
Because of this fact that she wouldn't find the time to talk to him about it, his thoughts had started to wander at things he had almost completely forgotten about in the past week. One was the constant jealous nagging he had at the pit of his stomach every time he would remember what Kian said about Kari
"You made her fall in love with you. You, a Coordinator… You always make things worse for my family. Why do you always have to show up and take them away from me?"
"She denied everyone in her family just to be with him… and now you are going to do it all over again. Leave her alone! Just fucking leave her alone!"
A constant nagging. It had been nearly a month since that talk with Kari's crazy brother, but every time it would cross his mind, he could not help but feel undeniably uncomfortable at the possibility that Kari may have had a boyfriend before him, however irrational it may seem to be.
Another matter that was bothering him was when Dearka had asked him over a dozen times if he was positively sure Kari did not have an older sister or a close relative. Every time he would say no and press upon the issue why he was asking such a thing, the Buster pilot would simply clam up and tell him it was not that important.
It took all of his self control not to strangle the blonde Coordinator then.
It was as if the mystery surrounding his girlfriend was thickening as the days passed. And it seems like Dearka knew something but was not telling him anything.
"You know," Kari started. "Flip your book any harder and the pages will fall off." She looked over to him with those green orbs of hers and smiled her sweet smile. It didn't fool Yzak one bit. He knew her head was still aching. He would still notice her thumbing her temples unconsciously when she thought he wasn't looking.
And Yzak couldn't take it anymore. "I'm taking you to a doctor today, and you can't say no."
This made his girlfriend's eyes widen, but she recovered in an instant. She always does. "The doctor? For what?"
Yzak stared at her incredulously. "Your head, what else!"
She tilted her head to the right inquiringly. "But I'm fine."
"You're also a freaking liar."
Kari laughed melodiously. "I'm fine, Yzak."
This silenced the Duel pilot. Perhaps it was the way she said his name, as if punctuating the conversation to an end. She had mastered that skill for the past months of them being together．It annoyed the heck out of him, that skill of hers to do that without even trying.
Looking down at his book to avoid staring at her evilly, he decided that with Kari, he was most likely never going to win. He was already starting to feel slightly grumpy when he felt something cool on his forehead. Looking up, his eyes met hers and found that she had inched closer to him without him knowing it, and her forefingers were touching his forehead from under his bangs.
"Now what do you want?" he snarled, face heating up as he looked away from her.
"Thank you for caring," was all she said, before sitting back down on her place on the floor and once again burying her face in her book.
After a few moments of waiting for her to get fully absorbed in her reading, he took the advantage to look at her. Strawberry blonde locks covered her eyes as she constantly flipped through her book as if nothing else ever existed. The loose yellow shirt modestly falling over her worn out jeans. The way she would touch the tip of her nose when she would pause to read more on a certain page. He watched her like a hawk, and he didn't even know why. But watching her was so entertaining to him, and in some occasions educational, even.
Until he finally gets caught.
"Yzak, why are you staring at me again?"
Yzak nearly jumped and once again started getting overly defensive. "None of your damn business… "
She laughed at him again.
Yzak was about to snap at her once more when the door of the dorm room opened and admitted a laughing Miriallia and a very flushed Dearka, who, at the sight of Yzak, grinned naughtily. Both were lugging around heavy-looking backpacks and some hard bound books obviously checked out from the University library.
"Here early, I see," Miriallia said as she closed the door behind them then took off her shoes. "I thought the group study wasn't until ten."
Yzak watched as Kari looked up to the couple.
"We had nothing better to do so we went straight here. I brought chocolate."
Yzak felt his left cheek twitch involuntarily. It was once again Cagalli's brilliant idea of having a group study for that day. Much to his displeasure, Kari was ecstatic. As she was finally finishing up on her thesis which Yzak had dedicated about two thirds of his free time to help her with, she said she would find it entirely helpful to interview Kira and the rest for more information. Kira said they won't mind, but when he found out that he himself had to be there in their little study date, he nearly ran off to a very far away place before Kari did her magic on him and convince him to come. Of course, it was a losing battle. Kari only had to look at him, and he was gone.
"We got some drinks and a few snacks," Dearka announced as he deposited a brown paper bag on the living room center table. "This looks neat. I've never been to a group study before."
Yzak stared at his friend dryly. He had a feeling it was going to be a very, very long day.
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Dearka watched as Milly busied herself in the kitchen, preparing several glasses and plates for later. In all honesty, he had been looking forward to this group study because it was an opportunity to get to think about something else other than the daily news he received from the PLANTs from his father. One, because the news always made him worry, and two, it made Miriallia upset.
And he hated it when she was upset. He could easily tell when she was. She would try very hard not to meet his eye, and then try extra hard to laugh when he would tell a joke. Although she never admitted it, he knew that she couldn't help but worry. Miriallia was simply… well… Miriallia.
"Do you need any help?" he asked as he walked towards her and rested his hands on her waist. Miriallia instantly leaned against him.
"I'm good." She continued to arrange the glasses around and around the tray. Another sign she was nervously trying to act busy.
Resting his chin on her shoulder, he slinked his arms around her waist. "Do you need to tell me something?" he asked.
She stiffened in his arms instantly, and tried to cover it up with a laugh. "Of course not."
"You aren't yourself at all, you know."
"It's probably the upcoming exams and all." Her hands finally stopped playing with the glasses and she turned to face him. Her eyes, those deep blue, beautiful eyes searched his intently. After a few seconds, she blinked. "What's up?"
Dearka blinked back. "Nothing." He found his mind wandering back to his father's email. He had to shake his head a bit. It annoyed him, every time he would think about it, because he knew it bothered Miriallia that he didn't tell her anything that concerned this issue. But he had a mild feeling that she knew what they were about.
Right then and there, he decided that he will not make Milly suffer much about it today, so he decided to change the subject. He leaned his forehead against hers, startling her. "Dinner in town after this study group thing?"
His girlfriend's eyes widened a bit. He knew why. It was probably the first time he had initiated a date out. She smiled then and nodded, which made Dearka's heart flutter slightly. "I'd love that."
Good. Another reason why he wanted her alone later tonight was he needed to talk to her about Fallon, who, strange as it may sound, seemed to have decided to stay away from him for the last two weeks. Now in normal circumstances, he would be thanking whatever gods he knew and believed in for that wonderful, wonderful fact that finally the little leech decided to finally leave him be. But right now, he was more worried than anything else.
He had seen through the girl's eyes, felt her pain, and in a way, he even thought he understood her. And he was one of the reasons for her pain, even though he had been rationalizing over and over again ever since he found out about her past that he was merely doing his job.
But apart for all the guilt that had washed over him, nothing could possibly have thrown him off the loop more than the fact that Fallon's mother resembled his best friend's girlfriend. Not only once had he asked Yzak if he ever knew if Kari had an older sister, or a cousin or an aunt… He always got the same answer; No. And then Yzak would try to wrestle out of him the reason why he kept on asking him that question. But he could not bring himself to tell him why. One, because he knew that Yzak was bound to overreact for something he was still unsure of, since it had something to do with Kari. And two, because he knew he could most likely be a coincidence, since Kari, he knew was altered and her appearance could simply have been patterned upon the physical features of an existing individual.
Another thing that was bothering him with Kari and Fallon's mother's appearance was that Fallon seemed to not react to Kari at all. He wondered why that was, if Kari did resemble her mother. Perhaps he saw wrong? But he couldn't possibly be…
Miriallia pulled away from him, looking a lot happier than earlier. "Where shall we eat?"
Dearla snapped back to reality and smiled. "Would you like some ramen for later? It's been really cold lately."
She giggled, and he felt slightly pleased to make her happy. "Ramen sounds nice."
"Good. It's a date then." He gave her a loving squeeze and looked up when he heard Yzak snarled loudly from the living room.
"I don't like M and M's, dammit!"
Dearka frowned slightly at the direction where Yzak's protests were coming. This Kari mystery was getting to him… He needed to find out the answers to this.
For Yzak's sake…
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Kira stared down at the thin silver ring he held between his thumb and forefinger and found himself smiling. He was sitting on the bottom steps of the University library, polishing the ring Lacus had given him way back up in space, waiting for his girlfriend who was returning an overdue book back inside. He could not help but grin down at the lopsided reflection of his face on the piece of jewelry he seemed to value more than anything he owned all together. When he heard the door of the library open, he hurriedly slipped it on the ring finger of his left hand and stood up immediately to greet the pink haired songstress.
"All settled?"
She nodded enthusiastically. "Yes. Shall we go?"
Kira nodded as they started walking around the University Gym towards the small, squat building where they hadn't been to for almost a week now. The gang had planned a group study in an hour, but they had planned to visit the orphanage before meeting up with the rest. Mrs. Lao had been telling them that Eiko had been throwing tantrums every night for the past three days because "Big Brother Kira" and "Princess Lacus" hadn't been dropping off to visit them to tell them a story as much as before.
However guilty he was at that fact, things for the past two days after all the fiddling with the MemS had been more than stressful for all of them, what with examinations coming up. Everyone in school seemed to be in a hurry in submitting late projects and the teachers had been demanding more from them that Kira had barely gotten by with his advanced Computer Engineering class. Athrun was no exception. Lacus, too.
Come to think of it, Lacus had been on her hands and knees with due projects for Modern Art and Cagalli had been so tied up with her Political Science subjects that this was probably the first time in a while since they all got to send time together. Milly had been preoccupied with her Photography class and Yzak and Kari both with Art of War. Dearka… well, Dearka didn't look like he was having any problems with his subjects. But that was easily compensated with the fact that he still looked extremely disturbed for some weird reason he didn't tell anyone.
"I wonder how everyone is in the orphanage… I hope Eiko isn't too upset." Lacus swung her arms loosely as she looked up into the morning sky. The sun was shining brightly that day, yet the wind was blowing cold from the mountains. The weather bothered Lacus little. She was actually the only one not complaining about the rapid weather change.
Kira reached out and grabbed her swinging hand, making her look over to him with a shy grin. "I'm sure she is looking forward to seeing you," he said.
Lacus stuck out her tongue. "Or you. The child adores you to the point of marrying you!"
Kira blinked absentmindedly then shrugged. "I'd rather marry you," he blurted out, surprising himself, and making Lacus stare at him in awe. "I mean… well… you know…"
Lacus was not about to let it go. She peered up at him while they continued to walk "You have always struck me as the family man, Mr. Yamato."
He felt his face heat up at the direction of the conversation. Ever since the war, parents have been setting up their children for arranged marriages, be they Coordinator or Natural, for some reason Kira never really got to understand. He had known people his age betrothed to another: Athrun, Lacus, Sai… Fllay.
But never in his life did he think his parents had planned anything like that with him. Or at least as far as he knew. He scratched his head as Lacus continued to smile up at him. His eyes widened at the realization that she was serious. "I have always struck you as a family man?"
She giggled at that. "I see you as a good father, at least that's for sure. The way you deal with kids, and how you can always put them in order." She nodded in emphasis and stared straight ahead, a small smile playing on her lips. "I bet you would be a good father."
Nothing could have embarrassed him more than that. He almost tripped on his own feet. "Lacus!"
"What? You should take that as a compliment."
He did not know how to take that, really. Given that Lacus thinks of him as a promising father, he did not know how to ask her what he thought of him as –
"Of course that would mean you would be a great husband," Lacus suddenly exclaimed, gesturing at him with her free hand while squeezing his fingers.
Kira blushed even more and was about to open his mouth to protest until they turned the corner to the orphanage and spotted a familiar looking girl he believed he hadn't seen much of for the last couple of weeks.
There, sitting on the orphanage's front doorstep, was none other than Fallon Bryaritt, her chin resting on her knees, legs pulled close to her chest and hands playing with something she quickly hid inside her pocket the moment she saw them. Her huge green eyes widened even more when she saw them approach.
Lacus, as usual, greeted her with a smile. "Hello there. It's been a while since we've seen you. How are you?"
Kira, on the other hand, did not say anything. Personally, he didn't like the girl, but neither did he hate her. But apart from everything she had caused Dearka and Miriallia, and perhaps even Cagalli since his sister was the one who took her here, he did not feel anything about her. She was merely… there.
Fallon looked away with a humph. "It's none of your business. Leave me alone."
Kira, as calm and as passive as he might be though, did not like it that this girl was talking to Lacus in such a manner. He frowned. "Can't you be a bit ruder?"
Fallon blinked and looked over to him, green eyes meeting lavender ones, and with that, she instantly flushed in anger. There was something in her eyes– Kira could not put his finger into it – that flashed the moment it landed on his face. "I can be, especially to you." She stood up and nearly knocked Kira over had he not moved away from her fast enough. Her eyes... those eyes… blazed as she narrowed them at Kira. However small Fallon was compared to the Freedom pilot, he could not believe someone could contain such hate towards another.
But the next thing that came out of her mouth made his blood run cold.
"You should have done everything in your power to save Heliopolis," she hissed, and Kira saw her clench her fist inside her pocket, obviously tightening her grip on whatever she had hidden there. And with that, she shoved Kira and bolted away, but not after shouting over her shoulder a loud, "Next time, if you decide to play the hero, make sure you will win."
Lacus gasped and Kira saw the horror and worry in her face at what Fallon said. And at that moment, he knew what she was thinking. Shaking his head ruefully, trying to shove down the melancholic feelings away, he brushed a finger across her cheek. He opened his mouth to say something, but the wind was knocked out of him when something very small and very fast burst out of the door of the orphanage and instantly barreled down to tackle him around the waist.
"Eiko!" he cried loudly as he recovered quickly and picked the brown-haired girl under her arms and twirled her around twice, making her giggle happily.
"Big brother Kira is finally here to see me!" Eiko exclaimed when Kira finally put her down and patted her on the head. Eiko turned to the songstress next. "And princess Lacus too! Both of you are here!"
Uncertainly, Lacus' concerned blue eyes wandered away from Kira and smiled down at Eiko lovingly as she took the child into her arms. "I've missed you."
"Not as much as I've missed you, Princess Lacus!" she said and hugged Princess Lacus tightly. "Are you married yet?" Kira laughed. Eiko looked up at him. "Big brother Kira, you're getting taller!"
Kira laughed even more. "Am I really?" With a swift move, he once again picked up Eiko and sat her on his shoulder. "But Eiko is taller than me now!"
Eiko squealed happily as her tiny hands instantly grabbed handfuls of his brown, over grown hair. "Yay!"
Kira ignored the look on Lacus' face that showed how worried she still was about what Fallon said earlier. Moving forward and barely noticing Eiko pulling painfully at his scalp, he kissed his beautiful girlfriend's cheek, making the child go, "Uuuuuy!"
"I love you," Kira whispered in Lacus' ear before pulling away. "Don't worry."
Lacus, startled at his gesture, recovered quickly and nodded, although Kira could still see the slight tingle of worry in her eyes as she touched the side of his face affectionately.
Satisfied that at least she was smiling, he started to march up the orphanage where he could hear the other children making a loud racket at the knowledge that cool, tall big brother Kira had finally dropped by to visit and probably tell them a story.
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Cagalli looked over to Athrun who appeared by her elbow in the crowded side walk leading up to the Tento Area. The justice pilot was not looking at her, but she knew what he was thinking. You're overreacting again, Cagalli…
Bur she swore she was him… She could not make a mistake about something so serious.
"It was Kian, Athrun. It was Kian."
Of course, Athrun did not believe her. He was that kind of person who would not believe anything unless he saw it himself. He nodded anyway. "Kian is in Higashimokoto, Cagalli. He isn't here. And I don't think he would be coming back here anytime soon." He sounded pretty much as he had sounded half an hour ago. Athrun hated being late, which they already were for the group study.
Cagalli frowned. She knew Athrun was right, but still…
She had seen the boy when they had exited the Bakery after grabbing a dozen or so cupcakes for the group study in the boy's dorms. The red hair gave him away. Cagalli was sure it was Kian, Kari's crazy brother, sitting in the backseat of a taxi waiting for traffic to move. She saw him for a mere second, but the moment those green, fluid eyes landed on her amber ones, the taxi rolled off and rounded the curb where she practically ran to catch up.
But the moment she got to the road where the taxi disappeared, Kian was no where to be found.
I'm sure it's Kian. I can't make a mistake about that.
She felt hands grip her shoulders and she let them lead her up the road to the dorms. "Cagalli, let's go. We are late for nearly an hour now. They are already waiting for us." She was still slightly distracted when they finally got there, and discovered that they were the last ones to arrive.
Lacus greeted her with a hug. "You are late. I thought you weren't showing up."
Dearka popped up beside her and stole the brown paper bag full of cupcakes from her hand. "Finally something to eat. Everyone has pretty much closed their books waiting for you guys to show up."
Cagalli eyed him suspiciously. Right now, she hated Dearka. He was the only one who was not having a hard time with his subject. "And I suppose you are happy to see me because of the food."
Dearka smiled toothily. "Nonsense! I'm equally happy to see you too." He did not look like it, though. He dashed off to the kitchen where Miriallia was coming out of.
Athrun wandered from her side and Cagalli followed him with her eyes. She was slightly pleased to see her boyfriend sit on the floor in front of Kira and Yzak who were busy reading their own books. She did not believe Kira and Athrun ever got the chance to talk about whatever happened two weeks ago. But nonetheless, she found it entirely satisfying that they were in good terms.
The princess of Orb felt Lacus give her a slight nudge. "You look like you have a lot of things in your mind right now."
Cagalli looked back at her, opened her mouth to say something but instantly closed it again. She did not want to make Lacus think she was overreacting too. Kian can't possibly be in Abashiri. She shook her head. "Political Science saturating my brain, that's all." Her eyes met Kari's from across the room and she blinked when the mysterious girl smiled at her. Those eyes. So much like Kian's.
That guy she saw… can't possibly be him…
Can he?
She didn't know, but she was going to find out about it today. She bowed her head politely and Kari bowed back.
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Miriallia listened to the silent flipping of pages as she took a bite out of her second cupcake that hour. After Cagalli and Athrun had finally arrived an hour late, all eight of them had arranged themselves on the carpeted floor in a circle, a bowl of M and M's in the middle along with their books and notes and laptops.
What Miriallia liked about group studies, is that you were always so motivated to learn because everyone around you shared your same desire to absorb as much of their textbooks for the big examinations this coming week.
Everything was actually going real well… until Cagalli's crazy streak hit her again after getting a drink from the kitchen and refilling the bowl of M and M's. She came back with something that made her and Lacus gasp in horror.
Instead of returning the bowl of Kari's chocolates in their circle, she gently placed a half empty ketchup bottle on its side and sat back down on her place in the circle.
Yzak looked up from his book and hissed violently. Kira almost gagged. Athrun went pale. Kari blinked at the bottle curiously. Dearka nearly jumped out of the circle and Miriallia found Lacus nervously looking at her.
Yzak, as usual, was the first to violently react. "What the freaking heck are you up to now, Attha?"
Miriallia felt her blood run cold. She knew exactly what Cagalli was up to. She wanted to play that horrid game of…. Oh, dear…
Spin the Bottle.
She had demanded to play that game with them before. It was not a good game.
"My brain is fried. Let's take a break from all of this studying and take a few minutes and a few spins with the ketchup bottle of truth," Cagalli coaxed good-naturedly.
Athrun moved to stand.
"Siddown, Athrun, "Cagalli snapped at him.
Athrun shrugged and went back sitting in his place.
Miriallia gasped at her tone. If she didn't know any better, she'd think Cagalli had something in mind.
Miriallia uncomfortably lowered her book to the ground and tilted her head to the right. "What's wrong, Cagalli?"
"It's not everyday we get to be together like this. It would be fun to play a few round of truth or dare, don't you think so?"
Silence. It was obvious no one wanted to play.
Miriallia did not really know what Cagalli was up to, but this was just too out of the blue, even for Cagalli. She watched the princess look around the circle, her eyes momentarily darting back to Kari a few times before moving on.
Miriallia leaned forward and was about to tell her that they would be better off playing something else - as it seemed Kira, Dearka and Athrun were looking pretty sick as it is, and Yzak looked like he was going to explode – when someone suddenly knocked on their door.
Looking over her shoulder to the door, everyone but Cagalli moved to get it, as if looking for a good enough excuse to get out of that circle. Miriallia, who was nearest to the door, got to it first.
The sight that beheld her when she opened the door made her heart flutter to her throat. She could not believe at the degree of happiness she felt then, and was supposed to speak out but was immediately drowned with Kira, Lacus and Cagalli crowding behind her.
"Murrue!" Kira cried happily as he forced the door open wildy.
And there was no mistaking it. There, standing tall and elegant, in an a-line dress and her considerably longer brown hair tied back in a loose ponytail, was none other than the former captain of the legged ship Archangel, Murrue Ramius.
She looked startled to see them. "Wow… You are all… here!"
Miriallia wanted to throw her arms around the woman who had put her feelings into perspective, but the moment had to be spoiled when Cagalli suddenly blurted out, "Perfect! Murrue, we were just getting ready for this fun game. Join us!"
"Eh?" Murrue looked at the princess, confused.
Everyone groaned in agony.
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Yuugiri: Ohhh dear, it has been a while! But as some of you may have already known, Yuugiri has been trying desperately to adjust to her new working environment for the past month, as well as her new means of writing updates. It is entirely annoying, really. One would not have thought having the apostrophe in the upper case of the number 7 key would make things twice as hard to type…
But anyways, here is the update. Nothing much happened, except for me trying to desperately tie knots in the plot because I have been rewriting my outline for the TIH story. Originally I was planning to write up to 50 chapters, but as I am presently shifting gears in my life, I cannot promise as much time and dedication in writing Fanfics, but I do not want to disappoint my wonderful readers, and so I am now aiming for maybe 40-45 chapters instead so as to finish the story early and not simply end up abandoning the story altogether.
Please bear with me. This is a very critical time in my life right now.
LOL but in the meantime, Yuugiri has a little treat for you all. Because she has been entirely busy for the past weeks of her move to Japan, someone else has been kind enough to answer the reviews for me. Yes! It is none other than YZAK JULE who answered your reviews! If you are curious to see what he had to say about your comments, please just go to my profile and click on the link to my Live journal account.
Disclaimer: Yzak Jules views do not resemble Yuugiri's AT ALL…!