Chapter 3- Switcheroo
"So, your name is Athrun Zala, and you say you are not from around here. You have lost some of your memory, but you say you know you're not a wizard, warlock, witch," a small gigle, "or a dragon," even more laughter. The blond girl led Athrun up the many gray steps, chatting and giggling like they were old friends. Athrun blushed slightly at how foolish he must've sounded, saying he wasn't a dragon. That was quite obvious.
"Well..." Athrun couldn't think of anything else to say on that subject. "You still haven't told me your name." He noticed a slight gleam in her eyes as she wrapped her arms around one of Athrun's.
"I'll tell you that later. First, we need to get you into something more..." she paused, looking up and down at Athrun's thin boxers and white T-shirt. "Umm...warm. Yes, you need something warmer."
"But isn't it near summer?"
"It isn't summer yet, and it can get very cold around here, even in summer." She smiled again, and Athrun sighed.
He'd thought the whole thing over in his head many times on his way to the castle. Even if she refused to say her name, this person was Cagalli. She had to be. She had blond hair and she was a princess! The only thing he couldn't get over was that her skin was slightly darker than it should be and her eyes were the wrong color. "This isn't an exact plain parallel to my normal world, so it would make sense she's a little different."
"Did you say something?"
"Oh, no. Just thinking aloud."
"Well, we're here; the grand castle of Berminea. Where the king, princess, and prince all three reside, where the military keeps the peace, and where the main trade routes are established." She sounded like she'd recited that many times. Athrun walked along side her as they went through the maze of a castle. "I can get you something in here, but first you have to go see the king."
It soon became clear that if Athrun hadn't have had the princess as a guide, he would definately have gotten lost. Around every corner there were more and more hallways and doors that led to who knows where. He was amazed at two things: one, how beautiful something made of rock could be; the tapestries and rugs on the walls made excellent decoration, but the echo of the long, wide hallways made of nothing but solid rock- that was extrodinary; and two, how much it reminded him of a bigger version of the old ZAFT ships. He had often gotten lost in the many hallways of the ships, and he still did sometimes. They only seemed to want to make them bigger. But either way, the castle was magnificent.
They stopped at two large wooden doors. Athrun looked over at his blond-haired friend, but she didn't seem to notice. She pushed open the doors, and walked down the red carpet that led to a golden throne. There sat the king, of course. He looked extremely old, gnarled and wrinkled like a tree. But he also had an air about him that said "I rule this kingdom, andno I ain't too old!" Beside him was the person Athrun was looking for.
The prince. His old friend. Kira. He had brown hair and was handsome as ever, but his eyes also seemed to be the wrong color. Athrun didn't care.
"Cagalli!" The king said. She blushed and looked away. "You've been out to the markets three times this week! What if another sorcerer showed up like last time? What if we'd had to risk losing Dearka or Yzak again? You should be ashamed of yourself!"
"I'm sorry..." She trailed off weakly. After a moment, she seemed to get a look in her eyes that most definately did not resemble Cagalli. "But you don't understand! I don't care about those two idiots, andI like it in the marketplace! It's the only place I can--" Athrun looked over at Kira, who was giving Cagalli a VERY stern look. "I can...can be away from my duties." Kira sighed, and she looked relieved herself. "It gets boring welcoming lords and ladies all day long."
"Still, young lady, they are your duties and you must attend to them."
"Yes sir, your majesty." She curtsied deeply and turned, but quickly remembered why she was there in the first place. "Sir, this is Athrun Zala." Athrun opened his mouth, but she beat him to it. "He is a lord from a foreign country from far far off to the East. He was attacked by three hordes of Gnulls and a Dragon, too," the king raised an eyebrow at that, "and he had to borrow clothes from his cousin, who has a very weird fashion sense, as you can see." She waved her hand up and down alongside Athrun, who was just as bewildered as Kira and the king. She could've told him the truth, and that would've been just fine, but nooo, she had to go off and start lying.
"Well, if he is a lord in need of a place to stay, I suppose he could stay here. Unfortunetly because of the war against the Dragon and our neighbor country of Zlam, we're using all of our rooms to house soldiers. There is no place for him to stay."
"That won't be a problem." Cagalli grinned. "I will stay with my brother and he can have my room."
"Nonsense! The room of a young princess?! I won't have it."
"Oh, but really, sir, I don't mind." Cagalli gave her cutest look yet.
Athrun spoke up as well, "I will swear on my honor as a lord that I will stay only long enough to get back on my feet," Athrun wanted to burst into laughter right then and there. "Your majesty," he added, almost as a hint of mokery, but not so much that the king could tell.
"Very well. Kira? Are these terms all right with you?"
"Huh? Oh, yes. Very well. Whatever she likes."
"Good, but if I catch you with my little princess, I'll--"
Cagalli giggled loudly. "He won't, your majesty." She looked over at Athrun as if she were going to anyway just to spite him. "May I show him to his room?"
"Of course."
Icy, cold, blue eyes pierced into the chocolate brown ones as Yzak slowly pressed his sword blade to Nicol's cheek. He winced, and forced himself to stop whimpering as a trickle of blood trailed down his neck. Dearka was no where in sight.
"For the last time, worm," Yzak's icy voice growled, "Who is he and what does he want?"
Nicol got the courage to find out something himself. "You don't usually care about the rules and whether or not someone comes into our kingdom." Nicol's eyes were squinted shut, waiting for the next hit or bruise he would recieve. I did not come so soon.
"He was wearing foreign clothing and he didn't seem like any normal human. My guess is he is a sorcerer after the princess. Possibly an accomplice of the last one." He rolled his eyes at that. "If so, then he shouldn't be a problem, but unless if I can find out who he is," Yzak gritted his teeth and let his breath whisper against Nicol's ear, "then I can't do a thing about him. And that's where you come in."
Nicol shivered. He didn't like being interrogated, especially byYzak,and he didn't like being chained to the wall of a prison cell. He didn't like Yzak at all, but then again-there were a lot of things in life people didn't like. He would just have to get over it. So Yzak wanted to know who he was? "Heh..." He risked a small laugh. That was too bad. He didn't know who the guy was, much less what he wanted. A sharp pain shot through his left jaw and the taste of blood soon followed. He slitted open his eyes and looked at Yzak, who was staring at the back of his hand.
"Don't laugh. Laughing like that makes you sound like you know something I don't. Well? Do you, or am I going to have to hurt you some more? Hmm?"
"I know...his name is," Nicol paused. He thought back to when Athrun had hugged him, and how happy he'd been. He didn't know why, but he didn't want to rat out Athrun. The blue-haired guy had been a friend. Friends were something Nicol didn't have too many of.
"Well?"
Silence passed for a long time, and when Yzak was satisfied that Nicol wasn't going to talk, he continued the harsh hits he had been inflicting for so long. Nicol could only hope that Athrun could get out of this mess without his help.
"That was a nice lie you came up with back there," Athrun said, sitting on the king size, canopy bed. The princess's room was very large, with lots of papers and files on a desk with an ink bottle and a feather on it. Other than the rack with the many other dresses she owned and the desk and bed, there wasn't any other furniture in the room.
"Well, you know... I didn't want you to leave." She blushed.
"You didn't have to lie. I don't think I'll be leaving anytime soon," The blond girl didn't notice the sarcasm in Athrun's voice.
"Um, Athrun?"
"What?" They both just stared at one another for a while, violet eyes meeting jade green. Time passed by at the rate of a sloth, and eventually Athrun caught the unsaid hint. He stood up and stepped closer to Cagalli. She shyed away at first, but Athrun tilted her head up, forcing her eyes to stay on his.
"I--I've never kissed anybody before..." She sounded shy and innocent. And young; almost like a little girl who'd been pecked on the cheek by the mean little schoolboy.
"It's okay if you don't want to. I'll stop right hereand we can pretend this never happened."
"N-no, I want you t-to." She sounded so cute when she stuttered. Athrun couldn't help noticing, though, how much she contrasted to his Cagalli back in his world. She was acting like someone else, but it was like he couldn't remember who. Not Cagalli, though. Cagalli would be blurting out nonsense.Athrun leaned down and feathered her lips lightly with a kiss.
It was a completely weird feeling. Athrun knew he loved Cagalli, but hadn't the angel woman said that this was what he truly wanted? And wasn't what he truly wanted isto be able to love Kira, even if only for a while? If all this is the truth, then why is he kissing Cagalli instead of Kira?!
The answer came soon enough. Cagalli seemed to become a bit panicked when Athrun ran his fingers up through her hair, and it didn't take him very long to figure out why. Once his fingers had slid a ways up, he realized that the blond hair was falling away. Slowly, it all slipped off.
After laughing bitterly and looking away from Athrun, Cagalli looked down. The person Athrun had thought was Cagalli now had short brown hair. It all made sense, now. The different color eyes, the unfemanine qualities- now she looked almost exactly like--
"Kira. Yes, I know, I look just like my brother now."She sighed heavily and sounded like shewanted to cry."He really has blond hair, like I had just now. Or should I say she? She's the sister and I'm the brother, I guess. We switched places as soon as we knew what we were doing when we were very young. I knew I would be a prince one day, and she a princess, but somehow that justdidn't seem right. She'd always been the boyish one and I'd..." His cheeks flushed deeply. "I'd never really been big on the whole noble prince protecting his country thing. And she was, so we switched."
If Athrun's eyes could get wider, they did. "You--you're--but I... you... Kira?"
"Mm'hm. I figured I could trust you. I feel like I know you... But that's silly. And so am I for ever wanting to switch places with my sister..." Athrun slowly tilted his head sideways and looked at Kira. He was very embarrassed. Athrun could tell by the way he tried to burn a hole in the floor and how red his cheeks were. And the fact that he'd just tricked Athrun into kissing him. To Kira's suprise, Athrun encircled his arms around him, whispering things like "You don't know how much I've missed you," and "You don't have to be embarrassed, it's just me..." Kira had no clue what he was talking about, but he didn't care. Athrun's chest was a warm thing to snuggle up to, and it made him very happy to know that this guy didn't care that he was also a guy.
Suddenly, in the middle of their warm moment, the candles in the room went out. The torches from the hallway was the only provided light source, and they didn't last long as the door slowly shut. A flame appeared above a dark skinned hand, and illuminated the face of Dearka. He had no torch, and the flame was suspended in midair.
"Heh, I never expected to find you in the royal castle, much less snuggling up to the princess. But wait-" He mad a mock expression of suprise, "This isn't our princess... Either my eyes are playing tricks, or this is prince Kira! Or maybe..." He grinned as he got Athrun's expression to change from curiosity to anger. "Maybe it really is the princess, and I just need to keep my mouth shut."
"That would be nice," Athrun mumbled.
"No can do, fugitive. I'm taking you to the axeman tomorrow morning, and I think I'll just tell the king about the little heist I've stumbled upon just now. How do you like that?"
It was Athrun's turn to grin. "That would be no way to treat a lord, Dearka." Kira beamed up at Athrun. He looked so much like a hero cornering the villan for the final defeat.
Dearka didn't know if he was more confused about how he knew his name, or if he should believe he's a lord.
"My name is Athrun Zala, and I come from a far far land off to the East," He smiled down at Kira, and Kira smiled at Dearka not nearly as sweetly. "I've been attacked by three hordes of Gnulls, and a Dragon, too," He took a step toward Dearka, and Dearka a step back, "And I've had to borrow clothes from my cousin, who has a very weird fashion sense. If you decide to pester me further, then I might just have your head chopped off."
Two seconds, and Dearka was gone. Kira clapped at Athrun's brave performance, and Athrun took a bow. Kira curtsied again, and blew a kiss at him. Athrun hadn't felt better in years. He could get used to this life...
"Yzak!"
Yzak turned to see Dearka out of breath and leaning against the door frame leading down to the prison cells. Nicol had just passed out from exaustion, and Yzak was putting his sword away. "What is it? Did you find him?"
"Oh, I found him. I found a lot of things."
Yzak smiled and patted his old friend on the shoulder. "Good. Come, you can tell me all about it over a cup of tea. I want to hear everything you found out about this person."
"I don't think he's--"
"Hush. Just walk with me quietly till we reach my room. I need to think in peace." Dearka obeyed this command and followed Yzak in silence.
a/n-- (is restraining from laughter) Oh man... It is so much fun to make Yzak act like that, all old-English like and what not. Whew, boy! I didn't know making the Zaft bishies act so stupid could be this entertaining. I still hope this is somewhat interesting... I've got a few more ideas for this, but if it's a sinking ship, then I'll just end it soon and put this fic out of its misery. Thethree reviewers I have seem to like it okay... Thanks, by the way! I really needed those, even just to write this chapter! (bows) They are much appreciated! I'll try to update soon, but I can't promise anything because of school. My schedule for the second semester is already out of whack, and it'll probably have me busy for the next few days. Nikki, for your question/request...Sure! I'll put Dearka/Yzak in it. Why not?
