Title: Renaissance
Theme: #16 More than Words
Rating: PG-13 (for nudity in paintings and impliedsexual themes)
Word Count: 1,757
Other Characters/Pairings: Miriallia, Dearka, Yzak, Kira, Lacus, and various OCs; a tiny bit of implied KL
Author's Notes: This was written when I was procrastinating on studying for my AP European History final. Therefore I have way too many references to Renaissance art, since that was something I desperately needed to study. Picked more common paintings though. But this is based off the day we actually reviewed Renaissance art, and based off our evil 4 floor school. Hehehehe it's a bit rambly, and not as Asucaga as one may hope, but its still there. Just hang on for a bit for it
Cagalli groaned as she dragged herself up what had to be five billion steps up to the fourth floor, complaining non-stop under her breath about the evil nature of stairs. Why oh why did she have to go to a high school with four floors instead of like one or two? And why did they have the stupid forum room on the fourth floor rather than the first?
She was gasping by the time she climbed the very last step, her legs burning from the effort, feeling like overcooked noodles as she leaned against the wall for a moment to catch her breath. The teacher for her second block class had left a note on the door of their classroom—which, of course, was on the first floor—telling everyone to report to the fourth floor forum room, though Cagalli had no clue why.
She huffed angrily to herself as she stomped through the packed halls, not really paying attention to whom she was pushing out of the way. She was such an idiot for taking this class. Who in their right mind would ever want to take a class—and a college level AP one at that—on European History? She couldn't remember exactly how Athrun and the others had dragged her into it—though it might have been the fact that she wasn't going to let even Dearka take the class and show her up—but they were going to pay!
With the scowl fixed almost permanently on her face, she stormed into the forum room, flinging the door open behind her as she entered the large, dimly lit room. She was the last of her friends here, not even bothering to smile as she plopped down next to Miriallia, as far from Athrun as she could get. Miriallia smiled at her, recognizing her mood as a bad one, meaning one should get as far away as humanly possible to avoid any serious injuries.
"Bad day?" she asked softly, trying to ignore the stares of their other classmates, who still hadn't gotten used to Cagalli's temper.
"Tell me about it," Cagalli muttered back, dumping her heavy, evil European history book, A History of the Modern World by R. R. Palmer, whom she had been told to love, on the small table in front of her, and stared intently at the screen, ignoring the glances she got from the others.
Athrun was looking quite pleading, but Cagalli ignored him more determinedly than the others. He was why she was in this class! Kira, who sat next to him, was just shaking his head, and Lacus was doing her best not to giggle. But at least she attempted to maintain her composure, as where Yzak looked almost angrier than Cagalli, and Dearka was silently laughing hysterically. She'd kill him too for laughing at her!
Cagalli opened her mouth to snap at Dearka, but she was cut off by the arrival of the two European History teachers, Ms. Rudall and Mr. Prond. Ms Rudall, to all of their surprise, actually looked remotely happy today. Cagalli's stomach sank. Oh great. Now what?
"Since we are currently studying the Renaissance, and because art was such a crucial part of this fantastic movement, today we will focus on the various works of art and architecture from the Renaissance period!" Ms. Rudall announced almost excitedly, a wonder coming from her. The class just groaned, Cagalli joining in heartily.
"And we want to warn you. There will be no…inappropriate actions allowed during today's presentation. Understood?" Mr. Prond continued.
The class only grumbled in return, with Dearka grinning like a madman. The guy was such a loser, Cagalli thought. She wasn't quite sure what Mr. Prond's warning had been about, but it couldn't be worse than climbing up all the stairs. Could it?
The few lights that remained on in the large room were turned out as a large overhead projector was turned on, showing a picture of a large cathedral. Cagalli groaned silently. Boring, she thought to herself, rolling her eyes as she resisted the urge to put her head down and sleep. She yawned as Ms. Rudall droned on and on, dozing off somewhat with her head on her hand. She blinked every few seconds to try to force her to stay awake, but was fighting a losing battle until she heard soft, though nervous, giggles erupt from the entire room. Her head swung up to stare blurrily at the screen as she squinted, and then drew back, blushing, when she finally saw what was on it.
"And this is the famous statue 'David' by Michelangelo," Ms. Rudall was explaining as Cagalli quickly diverted her eyes. That statue was naked! She hadn't thought they could show those kinds of things in school! Her cheeks stained with red, she glanced at the rest of her friends. Miriallia was staring quite persistently at the face of the picture, her cheeks rosy as well. Dearka was smirking, and Yzak was scowling. Lacus looked extremely flustered and unsure of where to look, and Kira and Athrun were blushing as well.
Mr. Prond interrupted Ms. Rudall, glaring at the class, and especially at Dearka, who was infamous for his sarcastic remarks, smart-ass comments, and cocky attitude. "Now, I want you all to be mature adults and handle this with dignity. Many of the statues and paintings, as you can see, contain nudity. So please, let's not make a fuss about it, right Dearka?"
Dearka smirked again, trying to look innocent. "Right Mr. Prond," he responded politely, sticking out his tongue and rolling his eyes as soon as the teacher's back was turned.
"Anyways," Ms. Rudall continued, "back to 'David.' It was sculpted from 1501 to 1504, and portrays a scene of David from the Bible. Notice the s-curve of his body, which was a feature of Renaissance art. Instead of the unnatural straightness of medieval art, this pose is much more natural, and portrays the new confidence in human power and beauty that came into existence at the time. The nudity itself portrays the rebellion against the extreme religion attitude of the pre-Renaissance times. This shows more than words ever could the revival of real, expressive art, as opposed to the previous art which portrayed humans as week and needing God to save them all. And notice how much detail was put into all parts, even certain parts of his anatomy that normally would be have been shown, and were certainly not accepted before these times. It is truly fascinating."
Cagalli tried to follow along with what her teacher was saying, but her eyes kept drifting slowly down no matter how much she repeated 'Look at the face! Look at the face!' to herself. Thought it made her wonder what Athrun…'No! No! Mind out of the gutters! Out of the gutters! Bad Cagalli! Baaaaad Cagalli!' she scolded herself quickly, turning even redder even though no one but herself knew what she was thinking. No, she couldn't let her mind go there. They were just dating, not…doing other things…
"Next we have 'The Birth of Venus' by Botticelli," Ms. Rudall began again, changing the slide and snapping Cagalli from her thoughts. She looked carefully at this painting, wincing away from the blatant nudity of the main subject, a woman this time. These Renaissance people really needed a new hobby or something. Cagalli rolled her eyes at Dearka who, being the pervert he was, seemed quite interested. Athrun and Kira, on the other hand, looked like a pair of lobsters that had blue and brown wigs tossed on. But even though Cagalli was embarrassed, she still managed a smile as Ms. Rudall launched on a lecture about the rise of paganism. Maybe AP Euro wouldn't be quite as boring as she'd thought.
Cagalli stretched as the bell rang, thankful that this class was over. A few people hadn't been able to keep from giggling throughout the rest of the presentation and had been sent to the office, and many of the slides had made them all blush. And they had to memorize all of these paintings too, for the test tomorrow. She glanced at her almost blank study guide, cursing herself for not writing anything down. That had been stupid. But she could steal answers from the others at lunch, as long as they had written stuff down too.
"So, what did you all think of that?" Dearka drawled, as followed Miriallia and Cagalli out of the forum room, joining them in a little cluster on the side of the hall, where they were soon joined by the others.
"It was…interesting…" Miriallia replied uncertainly, blushing a bit. "Educational, but…interesting."
Dearka laughed. "You people are all so ashamed. I thought it was quite educational in more ways than just Renaissance history."
"Pervert," Miriallia replied, hitting him lightly on the head with her biology book.
He rubbed his head, still managing a smirk. "Hey, I can't help it if I have hormones."
Miriallia just rolled her eyes, looking at Cagalli for backup.
"Why don't we just go to lunch?" Cagalli asked sharply. "You all know how busy first lunch gets if you don't go right away." Food always could distract guys. It was a sure bet.
Yzak set off without a word, leaving Dearka to chase after him after flashing one of his most charming grins back. Miriallia just shook her head as Lacus giggled.
"Kira and I have math, so we'll see you later!" she said with a sweet smile, gently dragging Kira away as she began to chat quietly with him. That left Cagalli, Athrun, and Miriallia.
"I think you should be following your own advice," Athrun teased gently. "Don't you think?"
Cagalli sighed. She wasn't really still mad at him for making her take the AP class. She probably would've taken it anyways, but it was just that she balked when others wanted her to. Just that rebellion spirit, she supposed. "Fine then," she replied with a smile as she started off, surprised when Palmer suddenly disappeared from her arms. She looked to see Athrun standing there holding it with a grin. "I had it! I'm not some delicate lady who needs others to hold her things!" she snapped defensively.
Athrun shrugged. "Hey, I was just thinking that I could help you out. Show you how much I appreciate you."
Cagalli blinked, blushing lightly. Athrun rarely stated those kinds of things in public, so she was touched. "Thank you," she said softly with a smile.
Still have a lot to go, so I promise I'll work on it, since my final is today in like 30 minutes and after I'll have very little excuse to procrastinate. And for reviewers:
Ace of 7Spades: hehe thanks. And I did make this longer, so I hope you're happy. I usually write a bit longer than 100 words, but I wanted to get something, anything up, but this kind of makes up for it. And I prefer the English names because I cant watch the bitTorrent so I've never really heard the Japanese names, and plus I don't speak any Japanese (or very little, rather)
And thank you to Asga, Djablesse, MissKT, farhancharizard, prettynutter, sworDieXeQtion, Skweeshy, bLiTzRyUu, and C-town Chica for reviewing all of my various stories so far! I really appreciate it!
xxravenwingxx
