"We cannot let them!"
"Cagalli, are you sure you're all right? You look deathly pale." Lacus insisted, giving her friend a look.
Cagalli waved her away, frowning at her plate. "I'm fine, Lacus, for the fourth time."
Athrun glanced over at Lacus for a moment, wondering how much she knew.
"Athrun... you look a bit, out of it as well." Kira finally put in, at the silent prodding of Lacus.
His friend looked up, frowning. "I'm fine, just... tired, that's all." he responded, with more calm than Cagalli had been able to manage.
The servants entered behind Lacus and Cagalli, making Lacus turn back to look. They carried heavy silver platters of food, soups, salads, breads and cheeses of many kinds.
"Oh wow, I've never tried half of these things." she mused.
Cagalli ignored them, hardly noting when her soup was put in front of her, it was some kind of green thing, rich and actually quite appealing if she had bothered to look at it.
Kira studied his sister from across the table, the slightest of frowns playing on his face.
What could possibly bother Cagalli so much...?
Sighing he turned away and looked over at Athrun, deciding to make an attempt at being a host. The lessons he had been given in etiquette and social/political mannerisms had been harsh, and he had learned whether by his free will or not.
"How do you two like the climate?" He asked, suddenly realizing how hot it felt inside.
Lacus glanced over at Athrun, chewing quietly on her salad. Athrun sighed and looked up at his friend, wanting to be normal, wanting to forget.
"Uh... I'm not sure, I've been a bit overheated... perhaps it's simply a harsh contrast to space.' he admitted.
The mansion was in the middle of nowhere... it wasn't actually Orb ground, it was earth, the desert where Kira had destroyed the Desert Tiger.
Lacus finally swallowed and allowed herself a poke at Athrun, who blinked at her lightly in surprise, wondering what had made the usually quiet, slightly shy but outgoing girl beside him seem to care free... so happy.
"I like it, space is too cold anyway." she retorted. Athrun shrugged. "I like colder places..." he admitted. Cagalli's eyes flickered to him, then focused on the table once more.
I like cold too, Athrun...
Kira mused this information for a moment, remembering a while ago how Cagalli had faught with their father on the phone, wanting to be sent to some space colony because of the heat...
"But, I thought you liked the desert, Cagalli. You lived on it by choice for a while..." Kira blinked, leaning against the door frame slightly.
Cagalli hung up the phone with a slam, her fist tight.
"What's your point?" she snapped, feeling sulky.
"Well, I thought it was by choice." he admitted.
"It was, but it's a lot different when you're actually out there doing something. Here, it's just hot and boring. The dunes are there out the window, but... I'm not out there too, Kira." she mumbled, her voice getting weaker as her snapping progressed. She walked over to the window, as if to prove her point.
Kira followed, curious. He looked over her shoulder at the rolling sand dunes swirling with dust and wind, the blaze of the sun making the sight hurt the eyes.
"You feel trapped." he murmured. Cagalli sighed and leaned her head against the warm glass, closing her eyes. "Yes... this feels like a golden cage, if you know what I mean."
"Without air conditioners?" He enquired softly, hoping to get her to laugh. He hated it when his sister lost hope, of her temper lost it's flame and she was nothing but a small defenseless girl, with broken dreams.
she smiled weakly, allowing herself a short soft laugh. "Yeah... what a rip off, huh?"
Kira sighed softly and rubbed her back gently, ruffling her dirty blonde hair idly.
"We're here for a while, that's all. Father will have things settled soon."
Cagalli nodded, though she didn't look convinced. She had known father to break promises before.
"Yeah..."
"We were supposed to be gone to a space colony a while ago." Kira admitted. "For my schooling, and simply because Cagalli didn't want to be here anymore. It's too hot she said." He stated, giving Athrun a slight look.
His friend blinked, frowning slightly.
I know you have something going on, why don't you come out and just say it...? Kira begged mentally, staring at him.
Silence stole over the table. Cagalli could feel aprickling on her neck which made her look up to find Lacus staring at her solemnly.
"I'm not feeling too good. I think i"d better go to bed." Cagalli murmured, pushing hersel fup.
"Excuse me." she sighed, nodding at them, avoiding Athrun's gaze.
She turned and left, walking with the beaten grace of those who have a heavy heart.
Lacus sighed, pushing her soup around with her spoon quietly. Athrun rubbed his face, a bit worn.
She had stood seconds after he had decided to leave. his escape route had been taken, leaving him prey to his fiance and his best friend.
"What happened?' Lacus finally asked, turning her beautiful face to him. Athrun nearly winced. Nearly...
"What do you mean?" he asked quietly, swirling his wine round and ruond in his cup.
Kira watched them, feeling a bti out of place.
"Cagallit seemed upset." Lacus persisted, not taking her eyes off his face.
Athrun could only shrug in response, something he didn't do very often.
"i haven't an y more information than you." he replied.
Kira couldn't help but cock an eyebrow thoughtfully, mentally examining his tone of voice, posture adn eye movements.
Liar.
Lacus, though slow withs oem things, wasn't slow in this topic.
"Oh really." she stated, her tone sarcastic, new wit came to life in her eyes. Athrun had seen that look before and could only sigh.
"I think I too will retire for the night. I will see you in the morning."
Lacus and Kira could only watch as he walked out of the room, still carrying his wine glass.
That alone wasn't a good sign. As soon as he was out of the room Lacus slumped in her seat, scoffing softly, the gentle breath making her pink hair move softly.
"This isn't good. Something must have made the uncomfortable." she mumbled.
Kira watched her, quietly, slightly amused by her ways of showing frustration.
Finally, he replied with a short nod. His nearly always hesistant voice quiet and thoughtful.
"Yeah... perhaps Cagalli felt awkward because you two are engaged." he pointed out, the actual words making his head feel a bit like a migrane was coming on.
Lacus watched him through her bangs, catching the miniature tone of dislike. She said nothing though, deciding it better to kee silent on that topic.
"... but, that's what i'm trying to get out of." she murmured, almost weakly.
Kira nodded. "but neighter of them know that. I still think you should tell them. he sighed, looking away.
Lacus lowered her gaze, her voice quiet. "But the'd ask why."
He turned to look back at her, blinking. "Why 'do' you want out of the engagement, Lacus?"
The young girl shrunk into herself slightly, looking away. "...well, I just... uh... she blinked slowly, rubnbing her fingers along the table top.
Kira followed the small movement,a nbit curious by her reaction ot the seemingly simple question.
"... I guess... perhaps i don't love him." she finally managed.
He studied her face, unwilling to believe taht was the reason. There was something else that was bothering her and she was refusing to actually admit it.
"Oh." he rpelied isntead. Lacus nodded, urnning a hand through her hair in silence, eyes averted from him.
Kira watched her for a while, thens tood. "come on, let's go the the parlor. Something tells me you're not hungry."
She could only nod and follow, surprised at him noticing her sudden lack of appetite.
He led her to the back of the room where two double doors made of red oak stood, Kira took the handles in his hands and stopped, wondering briefly what she would do if he actually asked her...
"Were you in love with him?" he asked suddenly, his back to her as he pushed the doors open to let her in.
Lacus froze, watching his back, a hand put ot her lips in light suprise at the suddeness of his voice.
"I...well...I think..." she stuttered a moment, remembring his soft touch and gentle voice.
Sighing she shook her head.
At the sigh, Kira turned to look at her.
"No. I nevr loved him. Only as a very dear friend." she whispered.
They held each other's steady gaze for along moment. Finally Kira nodded and stepped out of the way to let her into the parlor.
It sort of signified the end of the conversation. She resisted the urge to heave a great sigh of relief, and stepped into the room to look around.
The room was circular, with a high roof and a glass skylight right in the middle. A wall fo glass stared out into the dunes to her right.
The opposing wall was covered from top to bottom in heavy oak shelves stuffed with books.
The left was a small space with ahuge white canvas and several boxes of painting equipment. littered around it. Brushes and bottles of paint could be seen peeking out of the black containers.
In the middle was a small living room. A circular black coach, love seat and armchair made it up.
The fire place, though uneccesary was in the middle of the shelve wall, where a square of brick had been cleared.
"Who paints?" Lacus enquired softly, her eys focused on the canvas.
Kira turned to look at it, smiling to himself. "Cagalli does. She mainly paints abstact and they're actually quite good." he admitted.
"Though, she would disagree."
Lacus smiled to herself and nodded. "I'm not surprised, to be honest."
"Would you like to see some of her picures?" Kira asked, turning to look at her hesitatnly.
She nodded. "yes. I'd love to."
He turned away quickly, feeling a bit embarrassed and unsure of why.
"The house is actually decorated by several of them." he managed after recollecting his thoughts.
He led her out the side door, past the canvas into the hall that led to Athrun's room.
"The one in the lobby is hers." he muttered, leading her down the hall and stairs to the entrance.
On the wall seperating the staircase from the doors leading into the parlor dinning room was a canvas about the size of piano. The background color was like a blue sunrise, leading into lighter hues from the bottom up. On top of that were swirls and flowers, designs that made no sense and yet looked like they had been mathematically designed.
Lacus let out a soft breath.
"Oh wow." she sighed.
kira watche dher, rather than the painting, his eyes soft and thoughtful.
Lacus felt his gaze and hesitantly turned to look at him, her expression very much like his.
"You have a tendency to watch me, Kira Yamato." she murmured, her voice serious.
Kira blushed and turned away quickly, rubbing his neck. "Oh... I'm sorry." he started.
She sighed softly and touched his face, turning him to look at her.
"I never said it was a bad thing..."
Kira looked back down at her, his eyes focusing on her face. Slight fear clawed at him for a moment. She was so close!
God... i can't do that to him... athrun...
Gently he took her hands and shook his head, his eyes softening. "No...Lacus. Wait." he murmured.
She looked up at him, silent for a moment, before nodding, knowing he didn't anything like what seemed to want to reap her mind at that moment.
"All right..."
He kissed her hand softly and stepped back, bowing to her slightly in respect. "I'll see you tomorrow." he murmured. She nodded, her hands playing with her hair nervously. "All right."
Kira nodded to her again and started up the stairs, his hands clenched at his sides to keep them from shaking too much.
It had taken and enourmous amount of self control to step away from her and to leave her there...
He walked quietly down the hall and stopped at Cagalli's room, frowning at the door. It was open, she had forgotten to close it... That wasn't right, she never forgot to close her door. It was her private world in there.
He pushed it open lightly, letting a thin strip of light pour into the room.
"Cagalli...? Cagalli are you in here?'
There was a soft step and his blonde sister peeked out of the balcony, past the softly moving curtains of the glass doors.
"Kira..? What are you doing here?' she asked, frowning slightly.
Her brother blinked at her slightly. "I was... actually going to bed, but the door was open and I, well, you never leave it open..." he started, trying to explain.
cagalli sighed and waved a hand. "Forget it, i must have been day dreaming or something." she retorted, retreating into the balcony.
Kira stood at the door silently, wondering whether to leave or not.
Sighing he stepped into her disaster zone, stepping over the piles of clothes, books, pens and papers that seemed to make a second carpet.
"Cagalli... you've been acting a bit strange of late. Are you sure you're all right?" he asked, giving a small jump into the balcony, which was, surprisingly cleared out.
She was leaning against the railing, her back to him. "Of course I'm fine." she retorted.
It was a defensive sort of reply. He sighed. No she wasn't.
"...it's not Athrun, is it?" he muttered, forcing himself to say the words he was dreading slightly.
cagalli stiffered, her shoulders hunching into herself.
"What makes you think that?' she snapped.
Her brother sighed. "He wasn't feeling too well either and left." he replied. "it's just too obvious."
He stepped up beside her, studying her face. She was wincing visibly. "It's nothing. Anything that could have been I've made sure doesn't happen. He's engaged, starting with that and he's ZAFT, i'm Orb, no way... jsut... no way." her voice died out suddenly, and she looked away.
Kira sighed. This wasn;t good...
"I don't know if they'll be engaged for much longer, Cagalli. Lacus... she's not.. comfortable with it." he muttered. Cagalli looked over at him sharply. "You're not displeased by this are you?" she asked, or stated, rather.
Kira blinked at her. "What..?"
"You and Lacus." She said, plain and simple. He blinked again... then froze. "What about it?"
"Its just obvious, that's all." she sighed, looking away again.
Kira frowned slightly, surprised. he had never known that it had even been a thing until a couple minutes ago.
"Cagalli... really think about it though. I don't think Athrun would have missed soemthing like that if you think it's so obvious. That means he knows." he pointed out, then started out the door, too weirded out to want to be in there anymore.
Cagalli didn't say anything, didn't even watch him leave. She sighed again and buried her face in her arms.
It was almost like Lacus and Kira were planning this.
They were probably worried now, because Athrun and she had cut things off, leaving Lacus still engaged.
She could almost picture them, planning. "We can't let them break off like that!"
"We cannot let them!"
The Orb princess sighed deeply and sunk to the ground, staring out at the rolling dark dunes.
Don't let us... don't.
Please don't hate me, Athrun... Don't Hate Me.
Note: There is the next chappie. I hope you guys like it. It took me forever to finish it. 12 hours. 12!
Lacus and Kira are a lot harder to write, they've never spent much time with each otehr alone so it makes me guess at their responses to things.
But anyway, please review.
To Goddess Rune: I know I'm a bit speedy at the moment. shoving it all into action, and I've been hitting myself over the head for it for a while. It's mainly because I have no time to write, but I took your comment into consideration and tried to slow it down.
And yes, I did exchange the eye color... and changed it at one point to blue, if you can find it. I like playing with eye color, don;t mind it.
To Akira Asakura: At the moment I'm just writing, putting into words things that come to mind at that very moment. i have no plot and no idea where this is going. When she turned away I was equally surprised as you... I asked the same question and truth be told, I still dunno. Sorry, it'll probably answer itself. It might have up in the current chapter, depending on it if it's true.