Disclaimer's note- I do not own Gundam Seed.

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Chapter 2

"So, how do I look?"

"You look, um, convincing," Kira said thoughtfully, examining his sister's disguise. She was dressed like a normal civilian; it was even easier to disguise her because of the fact that she rarely if ever wore jewelry. Cagalli found this new attire rather enjoyable, since it was more casual and loose fitting than the expensive clothes that she normally wore. Stellar was also in the room, dressed in a similar way but not completely the same, as the colors were different. The plan was to get the two out through a separate exit, the guards had already been let in on the plan and they would know who was going in and out. After being wished good luck and a fun day by Kira, the two girls made their way to where a few guards were standing, who nodded to them and quickly escorted them to the door they would take as to not draw suspicion.

"You two be safe, now," a green eyed boy with chin length blue hair who was her age said to them.

"Relax, Athrun, we'll be fine," Cagalli smiled. Athrun Zala was one of her brother's best friends and she got along with him quite well too. His father, Patrick Zala, was a member of the king's council, meaning that Athrun was free to visit the palace at his leisure. "Okay, we'll take it from here," she said, "Thanks again, Miguel."

"No problem, your highness," the blonde haired guard replied with a nod, "We'll see you later." The two girls returned the nod and quickly went through the door, which was shut by the guards. The door led out into the garden, which Cagalli had spent many days of her childhood playing amongst the plants. Along the way, the two met four more people her age. The first was a silver haired boy with steel blue eyes by the name of Yzak Joule. He had a proud and somewhat arrogant personality but was trustworthy and a promising soldier. Another, a brown eyed boy with curly green hair, was Nicol Amalfi. Unlike Yzak, he was quiet by nature but had a talent for music, also possessing unquestionable loyalty. The third was a blonde haired, tanned skin boy named Dearka Elsman. Rash and egotistical, the teen was also a promising soldier but preferred to spend his time goofing off. All three of them also had parents in the council and were good friends with Athrun, although Yzak's relationship with him was more of a rivalry. They also weren't the same age as he was, Yzak and Dearka both being seventeen while Nicol was only fifteen. The fourth was the only female amongst them, Miriallia Haww. With blue eyes and short, brown hair, she was another of Cagalli's attendants and was her age as well as gifted with an amazing photographic memory, which sometimes proved both useful and annoying.

"Oh! Good morning, Cagalli!" Miriallia said to her, "I guess you're leaving for town?"

"Yeah," she nodded, "Well, we'll see you later, I'm really excited!"

"Have fun!" Nicol called out as they went through the gate that barred the garden off from the rest of the world. After going through another courtyard, the two finally managed to find a road that would lead them to the market place. It only took them a few minutes to reach it and when they had reached it, Cagalli was fascinated by the sight almost immediately. Everywhere that the turned, they saw a people moving around and endless stalls and shops selling and trading various items. One particular stand seemed to be quite popular amongst the people and when the two girls went to take a closer look, they saw that the owner was selling some sort of material.

"Excuse me, but could you tell us what this is?" Stellar asked a nearby customer politely.

"You don't know? Why, it's silk, my friend!" the shopper said with a smile, "This guy's having a sale today and everyone's eager to get their hands on some of the stuff." Stellar nodded her thanks and the two went off again. Now, it just so happened that a certain two boys were in the market that same day to check some stuff out, having really nothing better to do. The red eyed one was busy looking through a nearby stand while the other one who had onyx eyes was looking through the crowd to see if anything caught his interest, accompanied by his fairy partner. And something did. As he looked towards the silk stand, he noticed two girls about his age and found one of them, Cagalli to be more specific, to be startlingly attractive. Without looking away, he reached behind him and tapped his friend on the shoulder.

"Hey, Shinn, come look at this."

"What is it, Ryo?" the red eyed boy asked before Ryo pointed in the direction of the girls. When he looked, he too found one of them rather good looking, although it was the other one, Stellar, which he had his sights on. "Whoa, where are they from?"

"Dunno, they don't look like they're from around here." It was about then that the two girls noticed a young street urchin looking longingly at a stand that was selling red, rather delicious looking apples. The two boys noticed this too and watched, wondering what would happen. Then, Cagalli, feeling sympathy for the urchin, reached out and took a rather large apple before handing it to the little boy, alarming Ryo and Shinn.

"Is she nuts?"

"She must be, otherwise she'd have to have a lot of guts to steal from Bart's stand," Ryo said as the two started towards the two girls. At that moment, however, trouble started, as the said owner had noticed what had just occurred.

"I believe you'll be paying for that now?" the burly owner said to the two girls, not knowing that one of them was really the princess while the street urchin turned and fled with his meal.

"Um…pay?" Cagalli asked, feeling somewhat confused.

"No one steals from my stand!" the owner declared and grabbed onto Cagalli's arm, preventing her from moving away.

"Okay, okay! I get it!" the princess said irritably, "If you'll just let me go back to the palace, I'll-" She stopped short, already having said too much but the owner didn't seem to notice. By now, a large crowd had gathered to see what was happening and Ryo, Hali, and Shinn were making their way through, having already formulated a plan.

"Do you know what the penalty for stealing is?" Bart asked as he forcefully set Cagalli's arm onto the counter before drawing a sword and all who were present knew what was about to happen. Cagalli squeezed her eyes shut and looked away, waiting for the blade to fall and severe her forearm from the elbow. All of a sudden, someone had grabbed the sword hand and she heard a voice speaking.

"Oh, thank you so much, kind sir!" the stranger said and the princess of Orb opened her eyes to see that the speaker was actually a boy about her age with black hair and eyes of a similar color. He was accompanied by a shorter boy of the same age with the same colored hair but with eerie red eyes as well as a pinkish orb of light that she recognized as a fairy. "There you are, we've been looking all over for the two of you!" the speaker continued as the two boys moved forward and Cagalli's arm was freed before the onyx eyed boy started to move her away from the now confused owner while Stellar was being led by the red eyed boy.

"What are you doing?" Cagalli whispered, surprised and slightly irritated by the sudden turn of events, although she also felt something stir inside of her.

"Just trust me, okay? We'll get you out of this," her savior who she didn't know was Ryo assured her quietly.

"You…know these girls?" Bart asked the two boys.

"Huh? Oh, um, yes! Yes, we do!" Ryo laughed, before pointing to Cagalli and adding, "This one's my father's….brother's….uncle's…." The list went on and on before he finally stopped with, "…cousin…twice removed. The other one's her friend."

"She said something about knowing the king."

"She did? Oh, well, I'm terribly sorry about that, you'll have to excuse her," Ryo said, continuing to act, "She's got a couple of screws loose in there, so, uh, this…this happens a lot. Yeah. I mean, she thinks that my fairy partner's the king!" Cagalli, having finally caught on, though further annoyed by being called crazy, decided to play along and bowed her head to the fairy, who was currently busy examining her fingernails.

"Oh, wise, exalted king," she spoke, trying hard not to smile, "How may I serve you?"

"Huh? What are you talking about? I'm not the king," Hali said with a startled tone.

"She doesn't know that!" Ryo whispered to her, talking from the corner of his mouth, "Come on, play along here, will ya?"

"Uh, oh, right, gotcha!" the fairy laughed sheepishly before clearing her throat and saying in her best impression of the king, despite not knowing what he sounded like "Um, yes, good morning to you, loyal subject! All is well, you may proceed." This comical act drew quite a bit of snickers from the crowd; they had never seen anything like this before.

"Well, I'm really sorry for all the trouble, so…" Ryo smiled as he reached behind his back and grabbed another apple before tossing it to the now flabbergasted owner, "…here's your apple back! Um, enjoy and, uh, have a nice day! Come on, cousin, it's time to go see the doctor."

"Why, hello, doctor, how are you today?" Cagalli asked with a somewhat dazed expression on her face to a horse that was standing nearby as Ryo led her away.

"No, no, not that one," he told her, still keeping up the act, "Let's go, your majesty." The last comment was directed towards Hali, who immediately flew after them as they left. They kept this up for a few more minutes until they had reached a fairly deserted part of the market and Ryo and Shinn steered the two girls into an alleyway.

"Thanks for the help," Cagalli said, sighing with relief, "Oh, and you can let go now."

"Sorry," Ryo replied, letting go of her shoulders, "Well, that was…interesting. You two aren't from around here, are you?"

"Actually…"

"No," Stellar answered before Cagalli could give anything away, "We're a few minutes away from here."

"Oh? Then you should live somewhere near us," Shinn said, "We live in the village not far from here."

"Well, we live in a different village."

"Really? Odd, I don't remember there being another village," Ryo stated, "Shinn, do you know anything about this?"

"No, I'm just as clueless as you are."

"Well, anyway, I guess that doesn't matter," Ryo said before adding, "Oh! I'm sorry; in the heat of everything, we never really introduced ourselves. My name's Ryo Mouri and that's my fairy partner Hali." There was silence before Ryo glanced over to Shinn and sharply nudged him in the ribs with his elbow.

"Oh, right! Um, I'm Shinn Asuka, Ryo and I are good friends."

"My name's Stellar Loussier," Stellar smiled, "It's nice to meet you." At this point, Ryo noticed that Shinn was blushing somewhat heavily and staring at Stellar. Stellar seemed to notice this too and she looked down at the ground, although it was clear that she too was somewhat flushed in the cheeks.

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"I-I'm…Cagalli," the second girl said after a short delay, "Cagalli Yula."

"Cagalli…Yula?" Shinn asked, frowning, "You wouldn't happen to have a connection with Cagalli Yula Atha, the king's daughter?"

"Huh? Um, no! No, none at all!" Cagalli replied with a laugh, "Though I do get that comment a lot."

"Is there something you're not telling us?"

"Are you implying that I'm hiding something?" Cagalli asked dangerously, giving Shinn a look of pure venom, startling both boys.

"That's some temper she's got there," I thought, slightly amused and feeling somewhat sorry for Shinn to have to be on the receiving end of the death glare.

"No! Not all!" Shinn stammered, backing away slowly, "It's just….ugh, never mind."

"I thought so," the amber eyed blonde huffed, crossing her arms.

"You know, you're not like most girls that I know," I told her, although I was a bit cautious.

"Are-are you hitting on me!" Cagalli gaped, sounding surprised and somewhat angry at the same time, though I could see a blush coming on.

"Of course not! Where the hell did you get that idea!" I replied, cocking an eyebrow in surprise, "All I'm saying that I've never seen a girl who can make Shinn back down like that!"

"What do you mean?" Stellar asked politely, cocking her head to the side slightly in confusion.

"Even if he doesn't look like it, Shinn's a really tough guy," I said, pointing to him, "But a second ago, he was practically cowering under your friend's glare! That's no small thing, mind you!"

"What! I was not cowering!"

"Ah, give it a rest, Asuka, we all saw it," I grinned, prodding his forehead with my finger, "You looked just about ready to wet yourself back there."

"Bastard! I dare you to say that again!" Shinn growled and his red eyes narrowed considerably before taking a swing at my face. I just stepped back and let his momentum carry him to the ground, watching as he fell face first onto the cobble stones in amusement. Greatly frustrated, he got back up and attacked again, this time missing by a foot and crashing into Stellar, causing both of them to fall onto the ground.

"Stellar!" Cagalli cried and the two of us went to help them up, only to see when they sat up that both of them were blushing considerably. "Stellar? What happened, are you alright?" Stellar's face only became redder and it didn't take a genius to figure out that Shinn had apparently accidentally groped Stellar when they had fallen.

"I'm really sorry," Shinn mumbled, his face resembling an overgrown tomato from his embarrassment, "I didn't mean for that to happen…"

"It's alright," Stellar said almost breathlessly, "It was just an accident, no harm done."

"What do you mean 'no harm done'!" Cagalli asked, looking rather angry as she rounded on poor Shinn, "You just violated her personal space, you pervert!"

"Hey now, don't go hating Shinn just because he's clumsy sometimes," I said, sticking up for my friend, "He's a good guy at heart; really, he'd never do something like that on purpose. Besides, we're all kind of at fault here."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it was my fault for provoking him," I began thoughtfully, "And it's also kind of Stellar's fault for standing in that spot. Then again, you did scare him quite a bit, which tempted me to provoke him and it was also his fault for not remembering that the two of you were still here." This went on for a few minutes before I finally stopped to find that the others were quite confused. I was just about to say something else before Cagalli interrupted me.

"Hold on, so you're saying that it's my fault that this happened?"

"No, I was going to so say that it's just about time for lunch and ask if the two of you wanted to go get something to eat with me and Shinn."

"You mean…as in a date?" Cagalli asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No! Not as in a date! We've only known each other for, what, twenty minutes for crying out loud!" I replied exasperatedly, "I meant that it might be fun if we all went somewhere to get some lunch and then go hang out somewhere; you know, to get to know each other better. A dark alleyway isn't exactly the most fun place to socialize, you know."

"Good point," Cagalli said, "So, where are we going?"

"Well, I know of this little place where…"

"Um, Cagalli, don't you think we should be going now?" Stellar suddenly asked, looking a bit nervous, "After all, we did say we'd be back by lunch."

"Ah, don't worry, Stellar," the tomboyish blonde replied, "I'm sure our parents won't mind."

"But…"

"Fine, you know what? Why don't we just go on home and tell them that we'll be eating out today and then just come back here?"

"Well, I suppose so…"

"Great!" Cagalli smiled before turning to Shinn and I and saying, "Do us a favor, will you? Wait for us by the silk stand and then we'll go when we get back." Shinn and I nodded and she smiled as we left the alleyway. As we passed people on the way, some of them smiled and commented on the show that we had put on earlier today. When we finally parted ways, I could have sworn that the two looked back at us before disappearing. As soon as they were gone, I turned to Shinn and noticed that he was blushing again.

"I bet they felt good, huh, Shinn?"

"Shut up."

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"Where are Cagalli and Stellar? Weren't they supposed to be back by now?" the queen asked Kira as they sat at the table.

"I dunno, I guess they're having some trouble finding their way through the crowd."

"Don't be ridiculous, son, all they would have to do is look up and they'd see the palace," his father, the king, Uzumi Nara Atha replied, "Dear, are you sure that it was a good idea to let our daughter run around like this?"

"Don't worry, Stellar's with her, remember?" the queen smiled, "I'm sure that she'll keep Cagalli in line."

"Besides, she will need to know her way around when she gets married, won't she?" another person asked politely. The speaker was a girl Kira's age and in fact, a very good friend of his. She was Lacus Clyne, her father being Siegel Clyne, a member of his father's council. With long pink hair and blue eyes, Lacus was a person who was difficult to dislike for her kind ways. She treated everyone with respect and her cheerful personality was matched by a wonderful singing talent. Seated at the table also was Athrun Zala, Dearka Elsman, Yzak Joule, and Nicol Amalfi. Since their parents were members of the council, they all usually had their meals in the palace with their families at the grand dining table, which was large enough to accommodate more than twenty people. On the occasions of parties or balls, however, the table could be extended to seat even more people. It was about then that a guard arrived with a rather strange message.

"Pardon me, your majesty. The princess and her attendant wanted me to tell you that they will not be joining you for lunch today."

"What? Why not?" Kira asked, feeling a bit alarmed.

"They apparently found somewhere to 'eat out' for today."

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"Um, Ryo? What are these?"

"What do you mean 'what are these'?" I asked, cocking an eyebrow, "They're Kebabs, haven't you even eaten one before?"

"Um….no," she replied slowly and Shinn nearly fell out of his chair in shock while I just stared at her and blinked a few times.

"You've….never eaten a Kebab before?" Shinn asked as he straightened himself, looking bewildered.

"…No…I've never heard of them either…"

"….What kind of life have you been living?"

"Just what are you saying?" Cagalli asked, narrowing her eyes again.

"Well, whether you know this or not, Cagalli," I said, sensing her temper rising, "Kebabs are rather popular dishes around here. Now, I don't mean any offence when I say that I have no idea of what you've been eating your whole life but we do find it rather strange that you've never eaten, much less seen, a Kebab before."

"…So…?"

"So I'm guessing that you really aren't from around here, are you?"

"I told you, Stellar and I…"

"I know," I replied, "But still, you should at least know what a Kebab is; I mean, come on, the only people who've probably never eaten a Kebab before are probably in the Royal Family or something." I noticed that the two girls were looking a bit uncomfortable after I had said that and so I asked them what was wrong.

"It's…it's nothing, really."

"Well, if you insist," I shrugged, "Now, are you going to eat your Kebab or not? Shinn and I paid for this stuff, you know, you can at least try it." Stellar glanced at the food in front of her once before picking it up and taking a small nibble. The rest of us watched her for a bit until she smiled and looked up.

"It's good, what's it made of?"

"Dunno," Shinn replied, "The people who run this place keep the recipe a secret so that they won't have competition; this is the only place in the whole market that sells these things." Meanwhile, Cagalli was looking at her own Kebab and after a second or too, put it to her mouth and took a bite. Her expression quickly changed from doubtful to quite satisfied and I couldn't help but feel amused as she finished the rest of it with relish.

"I guess you like them, then," I smiled as she swallowed the last of it.

"Sure do," she said, sighing contently, "Never tasted anything like it before."

"That's because-"

"You know what I mean!" Cagalli laughed and I smiled too, I knew exactly what she meant. It was strange, we had just met and I seemed to have already taken a liking in her, though the same was clearly apparent with Shinn and Stellar from the way that he blushed whenever she smiled at him. I glanced at Cagalli again and then at the other two and she got the message, smiling again. I suppressed a chuckle and then the two of us burst out laughing when Shinn's face turned a shade of red that I didn't believe possible when Stellar actually took his hand. It was the start of a new friendship.