Wow, more people reviewed! Thank you everyone! As usual, I'll continue with my gibberish and stream of thanks at the end, since some people might not want to read that. Heh… (Does anyone actually read that part?...)
Until then, as a huge thanks to all the readers and reviewers, here's to the longest chapter I've written thus far. Ten pages of pure story for your reading pleasure.
Cagalli walked down the street, dressed casually in a t-shirt and pants. Strolling into a cafe she was able to identify Kira rather quickly and called out to him.
Kira looked up. "Hey!"
He waved back, and then launched quickly into an explanation. "Well we don't have a whole lot of time so I'll make this quick. I just handed in my journalism project today, so... My schedule's pretty free. I know it's been a long time since you've arrived here but I've been so busy that I haven't really seen you." He paused and ran his hair with his left hand. "So even though I'm sure you know the city already, I want to have that day with you that I promised about a month ago." Cagalli laughed at her brother's logic.
"Kira, it's no big deal. I mean, as much as I want to spend time with you too, don't sweat it."
Kira grinned. "Well let's see... you came in the spring and now it's summer. So... I'm assuming you haven't been to the beach yet?"
Cagalli blinked. "Huh? Uh well no. But you know I've never been one for the beach..."
Kira shrugged off her feeble protest. "You should go at least once. It'll be fine. Bring someone if you want. I will."
Cagalli paused. "Really? Well there's this one girl... I just met her a week or two ago but she's really nice. Mind if I?..."
"Sure no problem" Kira quipped. "Uh, well I guess I better tell you too. Um, a friend of mine from my Advanced Genetics class. He coops himself up a lot, so I thought it'd be nice to drag him out. Hope you don't mind."
Cagalli shrugged "Of course not. I'd love to meet some of your friends. We'll meet in about an hour?"
Kira smiled "Alright. I'll come by your apartment to pick you up."
Back at her apartment, Cagalli was starting to rethink her earlier decision. Although she did want to spend some time with her brother, there was the issue of…the beach. She shuddered to herself. The beach: where women were expected to be scantily clad, wet, tanning or something to that effect. Not only was she not one to do any of that stuff, but hell, even if for same random once in a millennium occasion, she actually was willing to, she didn't have anything to do that stuff in.
Desperately glancing at the clock, she realized that after digging through her entire closet she had found literally nothing that remotely resembled beach clothes or a swimsuit... and she only had 10 minutes left. The closest she had come was a light green, white and grey horizontally striped tank top, and a towel. And there was no way she was wearing a towel. Hearing the familiar horn of her brother's car, she had no choice. Grabbing the tank top and towel, as well as the other random stuff for the beach she had stuffed into her bag, she ran out her apartment door.
Kira tapped the steering wheel impatiently. Glancing at his friend he gave him a lop-sided smile. "Sorry, I don't know what's keeping her. I'll go check." His friend gave him a light nod back and Kira hopped out of his car.
No sooner had he reached the door, did Cagalli open the door into his face and send him sprawling backwards. Kira put a hand on his forehead and rubbed it gently.
"Oh geez, sorry! Sorry!" Cagalli gave him a hand, after looking down and finding other brother on the ground and apparently, in pain. Kira looked at her and frowned.
"Isn't that exactly what you were wearing an hour ago?" He asked.
"Your point?"
"It's the beach..."
"I'LL CHANGE WHEN I GET THERE!" Cagalli cried, clearly frustrated. Kira guessed, rather accurately, what had happened.
"Didn't think you'd have anything. Well, maybe you can borrow something from your friend."
Cagalli paused. "Yeah, I already called her about that. She said she'd try to find something." Kira nodded and they started walking towards his car, when suddenly Cagalli dropped her bag.
"A-Athrun?..."
Athrun looked up at the sound of his name. "Cagalli?..."
Kira paused. "You guys know each other? Well this makes the introduction really easy." He grinned, grabbing Cagalli dropped bag and tossing it into the back seat. "All right, hop in." He pushed Cagalli lightly in the direction of the car. She stumbled a few steps forward.
"Uh, hey. Didn't know that you were Kira's sister." Athrun smiled giving her a light wave. Cagalli nodded slightly.
"Yeah, we don't really look alike or anything, so it's not the first thing that comes to mind."
"Cagalli, where does your friend live?" Kira asked, as he started the car.
"56 Foxmeadow street." Cagalli answered. Kira paused.
"Huh? Lacus?" Kira raised an eyebrow.
"Wha- You know Lacus!" The words tumbled out of Cagalli's mouth. Kira nodded.
"Yeah. She's just been my journalism partner for the past 2 months." Kira added. Athrun grinned as well.
"Well it's a small world after all. Lacus is a family friend of mine. I've known her ever since we were kids."
Cagalli leaned back into her chair. "Yeah... small world." She looked at Kira "And, even easier introductions."
Lacus hopped down the stairs of her apartment and blinked. "Huh? Kira? Athrun? What on earth?"
"It's a long story, so we'll skip the introductions and speed to the beach." Cagalli sighed, opening the door for Lacus. Lacus shrugged.
"Nice to see you guys." She smiled. Kira and Athrun nodded at her. They began making light conversation on how they had met each other, (Cagalli took the liberty of excluding her blunder on Athrun's age) and soon found themselves at the beach
Kira and Athrun went to set up the stuff while Lacus and Cagalli went to the change rooms to see what they could do about Cagalli. Lacus dug into her bag and pulled out a bathing suit, then handed it to Cagalli. "We're roughly the same size. It should fit." She smiled. Cagalli stared at the abomination as if it had sprouted radioactive mushrooms.
"Lacus... That's a two piece..." She mumbled. Lacus tilted her head.
"Yeah... so?"
"I don't wear that kind of stuff. I may as well wear underwear." Cagalli frowned. Lacus smiled again.
"Well what did you bring?... A tank top... hmm. Okay here." Digging into her bag, Lacus produced something that resembled a skirt. "They're shorts, but there's just this piece of cloth wrapped around, so it looks like a wrap. It's kind of short… it won't cover your knees, but better then nothing right?" Cagalli looked at them hesitantly, then disappeared into a changing room.
"How do they fit?" Lacus asked curiously after the shuffling from behind the curtain seemed to have subsided.
"Well, like you said. They're better then nothing..." Cagalli mumbled. "All right, no laughing."
"Of course not." Lacus encouraged. "Now let's see you." Cagalli stepped out and Lacus nodded approvingly.
"Yeah, that definitely works. So let's head back."
Kira and Athrun were carrying the last bits of beach paraphernalia that they had brought over to where they had set up. Specifically, Athrun was carrying two textbooks and Kira was carrying a volleyball.
"Athrun... It's the beach." Kira noted, with an amused expression. Athrun kept a forward gaze.
"Yeah, but I've got work. I don't know why I let you talk me into this in the first place. I'm so busy with-" He was interrupted by the sound of Cagalli's voice calling out to them.
"Hey, you guys hungry!"
Athrun turned in her direction and dropped one of his books. Cagalli's outfit seemed to accentuate her natural figure, the tank top falling loosely off her shoulders and just the top of the wrap clinging to her waist. The light material tumbled down her lower body and swayed into the wind. Kira stepped forward.
"Geez Lacus. You got her into a dress? Our mother would love you." He joked. Cagalli punched his arm.
"Get real. They're shorts with cloth wrapped around them." She explained.
"Ah, no miracles today huh?" Kira shrugged. Lacus laughed lightly. Cagalli looked at Athrun and grinned.
"And you tell ME not to drop books?" she teased. Flustered, Athrun picked up the scattered textbooks.
"It's the skirt… shorts… I wasn't expecting. Um… yeah. You look good."
Cagalli blushed slightly and wrapped her arms around herself self-consciously, then turned to Kira "Anyway, want to go get some food? What do you guys want?" She asked Athrun and Lacus.
"Just something to drink" Lacus shrugged. Athrun nodded, adding an ice cream to his order. Kira and Cagalli went to go buy the stuff, leaving Athrun and Lacus at the blanket.
After they were a considerable distance away, Kira began shooting glances back, as if checking on Athrun and Lacus. Cagalli rolled her eyes. "If you're worried about Lacus, just say so." Kira blushed.
"It's not like that. I just didn't know they knew each other..."
"Yeah well neither did I." Cagalli cut him off sharply.
"Eh? Hey, Cagalli do you have a thing for-?"
"No, I'm just saying." She insisted. Kira raised an eyebrow. Admitting defeat Cagalli continued. "All right, all right. At first maybe, I thought he was sort of good-looking. MAYBE... just... a little. But I know him more now and so it's just like... he's a friend. It was just weird, that's all. And the fact that I'm willing to tell you about this proves it!" she explained. Kira nodded.
"Well I'm not complaining. He's a great guy, A little nutty..." He trailed off.
"Huh? Why?" Cagalli was puzzled.
Kira stared at her in disbelief. "You don't know?"
Cagalli shook her head. Kira raised an eyebrow slightly in confusion. "Weird, I'd think since you've known each other for so long he would have told you himself. Or that you would have just heard by word of mouth."
He shrugged and continued, "Well, he pushes himself way too much. Taking as many classes as possible and the hardest ones at that. A perfectionist and an overachiever. I mean, he's built a reputation as an excellent student, and so maybe he does want to own up to that. After all, he's receiving quite a scholarship right now, and so he'd feel guilty if he didn't do something ridiculously impossible. Like he wouldn't deserve it..."
Kira paused, frowning as he seemed to think about it more and more. Cagalli listened intently, not really surprised. After all, this did sound like something Athrun would do. But it was still hard to hear... Her brother continued on, slightly eager to tell her what's been happening.
"But it's really serious sometimes. He's worked himself sick before, and I don't mean once or twice. It's practically common. He doesn't really get out much either. I mean for fun. He's socially active in the sense that he does stuff for school, as the university's student representative to international conferences or stuff like that. But that's not fun; it's just like more work. Yeah, that's basically it." He finished up.
Cagalli frowned. "I never knew any of that. Geez... he is a good guy though. So that's why he's taking so many sciences." Kira nodded.
"Yeah, the university is well known for the science and engineering department, so it's only natural that he'd bury himself with those." Cagalli nodded, and remained silent the rest of the way. Still submerged in her thoughts, she couldn't help but let her mind wander. Why didn't he tell her? And why would he do stuff like that anyways? Maybe he needed someone to knock some sense into him…Approaching the stand, she ceased her restless thoughts and they ordered their food.
"The fries'll take a little longer." The cashier explained.
"All right," Kira gathered up the food that was ready. "I'll head back with this stuff in case either of them are thirsty. Think you can carry the rest?" Kira asked, steady the tray of food.
"Sure." Cagalli said, waving off his concern. "It's just my order, and Athrun's drink." Kira nodded and started heading back.
When Kira arrived back at the blanket, he found Athrun and Lacus sitting idly and chatting: Athrun with an open book on his lap, and a pen in his hand, Lacus braiding her hair. Taking her drink from Kira, she graciously thanked him.
"Where's Cagalli?" Athrun asked, not looking up from his book.
"Waiting for the rest of her order." Kira explained, sitting down facing them. They continued their random conversation, until Athrun suddenly closed his book.
"It's been 20 minutes. I don't care if she ordered a deep fried fully-grown adult humpback whale, it wouldn't take this long. I'm going to check up on her." He spoke nonchalantly, his voice un-betraying the worry he felt. Placing his book down, he headed off in the direction of the stand.
Kira and Lacus looked at each other.
"Do you think he's overreacting?" Kira questioned.
"Not really." Lacus responded. Kira rose slowly and held out his hand. Lacus took and and pulled herself up. They began walking to the same rhythm, they feet sinking into the hot, dry sand. "It has been a long time." Lacus continued.
Kira shook his head lightly. "No, I mean, do you think he's overreacting... in terms of being Athrun. I've rarely seen him this... motivated, if that's the right word."
Lacus smiled. "Yeah, I think there might be something there..."
Athrun jogged towards the stand worriedly. Something was wrong. Cagalli was nowhere in sight. Soon he had gone all the way up to the stand and there was still no sign of her. He rushed over to the cashier and asked about her.
"That blond girl? Yeah, cute huh? I tried asking for her number, and-." Athrun interrupted his story with a deadly glare. The cashier swallowed hard. "She left a while ago, I'd say at least 15 minutes. Our fries don't take that long, man..." He frowned. Athrun looked down, his eyes deep in thought. What could have happened to her?
At that moment, Kira rushed over to the stand. "Athrun! Any sign of her?" Athrun shook his head. They stood there, contemplating what to do next, when caught Lacus' faint voice drifting in the wind, as she waved them over. They ran at full speed until they had caught up with her.
"What have you found out?" Athrun asked urgently.
"She's at the lifeguard station. They took her to a nurse."
"Who's 'they'?"
"The guys that knocked her out."
"WHAT!" Kira and Athrun both blurted out. Lacus kept running.
"Yeah I asked around. Apparently she was on her way back when she got hit in the head with a volleyball. She then fell back and was knocked out." Lacus explained, clearly distressed. Kira winced.
"That's gotta hurt." They rushed into the station and asked where she was, and were then led into the nurse's office. They found her lying down on a couch, sleeping peacefully with an ice pack on the back of her head as a pillow.
"You'll have to sign some forms" The nurse explained, "since we obviously can have her do it. Are you a family member?" She asked. Kira nodded and looked anxiously at Cagalli.
"She's fine" the nurse reassured. "Just a light bump. Don't let her work herself too hard for a while and she'll be up and at it in no time."
"Kira you can go ahead and fill out the forms with Lacus. I can stay with her." Athrun urged. Kira took a final look and Cagalli, then reluctantly left to take care of the paperwork.
Athrun knelt down on the floor beside Cagalli's resting head. "Hey." he spoke softly. He had no idea why he was talking to her even though she was unconscious, but then again maybe it was because she couldn't hear him, that he dared say these things. "I was so surprised to see you today. And happy. You're kind of different. I like that." He was about to continue when he saw her eyelids flutter and she opened her eyes slowly.
"A-Athrun?..." she asked, still squinting from the sudden light pouring into her bright eyes. All she could really see was blue hair, but then again, who else had blue hair?
"Yeah it's me." He smiled and nodded, gently moving the ice pack on her head. She groaned and tried to sit up, but he held her down with his other arm. "Nurse said to take it easy." She nodded feebly.
"Aw man, I must look awful. I would have clobbered those guys, but then the drink hit me too, so I tripped. Dammit…Tell me the truth. Did that damn volleyball give me a black eye?" She asked. He laughed and shook his head.
"You look fine." He couldn't help but smile until he was totally grinning. She raised an eyebrow.
"I want to talk to you about something" She started, once more trying to sit up and he once more tried to keep her down. "Agh, dammit Athrun just let me sit up!" She cried in frustration. He lifted his arm off her obediently and took a seat beside her on the couch to keep her steady.
"Athrun," She continued. I want to know why you didn't tell me. About your position in the university, all the stuff you're involved in, or why you're taking so many classes. And why don't you take better care of yourself! For the love of- there are people that care about you, and don't want to see you sick!" She began ranting, and Athrun was completely taken aback. He had no idea she even knew. "Kira must have told her..." he figured.
Athrun had intended to wait for Cagalli to take a breath before launching into his explanation. But she must have had the lung capacity of an opera singer or something, because quite honestly she didn't stop rambling about how worried she was for a good 5 minutes. Very touched, but slightly exasperated, he listened for a slight break in the torrent of words and began talking immediately. "Well... first of all, the latter question. I know. I don't like to be sick either but sometimes I just need to finish stuff. There's a lot of-"
"Pressure on you, I know! Kira told me! But no amount of pressure is worth risking your health over!" She blurted out. He became aware of how tightly she was grasping his arm. His face softened, touched by her concern. Looking at her he still couldn't help but shrug slightly though.
"I can handle it."
She sighed in frustration. "We'll work on that." He looked at her and smiled meekly.
"Sorry."
"It's fine." She looked away. "If you won't do it, then I guess I'll watch out for you." Athrun blinked, opened his mouth as if to speak, but couldn't think of anything. Closing it, he took a deep breath.
"Thank you. Very much. Now as for the first question, it's a long answer." Cagalli looked at him frustrated.
"I'm not going anywhere. So start talking."
He smiled. "All right, for starters, I'm not a naturally direct person. I don't open up to many people and I keep to myself. Some people admire me I guess, but it's just how I am. If a girl approaches me, I kind of get embarrassed. I mean, I've never really had time for that sort of thing. If it's just those regular normal girls I won't care at all. But when I'm actually opening up to a girl, or when a girl's being forward with me, I feel embarrassed. Basically I'm bad at dealing with forward girls, and being forward... especially with girls."
"But with you, it's different. I don't really get flustered." He paused, noting the seething glare she was shooting him. "Not to suggest you're not a girl!" he quickly added, holding his hands up defensively. He breathed a sigh of relief as her face returned to its normal proportions. Taking in some air, he continued.
"I think it's the idea that you didn't know who I was. That way, I just knew for sure that you were being normal with me, and that you weren't acting a certain way because of my reputation. You would have had to be acting based on the person you knew, not the person you had heard about. I think that's one reason."
"The second is...I don't really know." Athrun smiled and looked away. Cagalli fell silent and waited for him to continue, sensing he had more to say. He turned and look at her, then opening his mouth slowly he sighed.
"But somehow when I'm with you, I just seem to forget that stuff. I forget about what I'm supposed to be doing, and just do what I feel like." He gave her an honest look and smiled. "The first day I met you, when I showed you your class, I really shouldn't have interrupted the professor. And I was even late for class myself." Cagalli was speechless.
"Uh... well, sorry about that then." She mumbled. Athrun laughed.
"No, no. I like it. It's good to forget sometimes." He insisted. Giving her a loose hug he smiled. "It's a good thing." Cagalli blushed again, squirming slightly in her nervousness. They separated and Cagalli looked away. After 5 minutes she suddenly spoke.
"Oh yeah. I forgot. Sorry about your drink too. I probably spilled it when I fell..." She explained sheepishly. He blinked then broke into a wide grin.
"That, was the least of my concerns." He laughed, raising his hand to hold the ice-pack in place for her.
Outside Kira and Lacus were filling out release forms. "It's nothing serious, It's nothing serious..." Kira muttered under his breath. Lacus smiled at him and put a hand on his shoulder.
"You say it, but you're still worried. It's fine. You saw her."
"Yeah, but I can't imagine what could have happened. I'm supposed to be her brother, and look out for her! Instead I left her alone so she could get knocked out and-" he halted his babbling abruptly, as Lacus put her hand on top of his shaking one, and gently made him put the pen down. Then picking it up, she continued filling out the forms.
"I know that you're concerned. You have every right to be. However, as of right now, she's fine, and letting her see you this way will only make her more nervous. Right?" She spoke softly. Then turning her head to face him, she handed him the form. "There. All done."
Kira stared at her for a while, then taking the form, he handed it to the nurse. Slowly he turned towards here. "How is it possible?... That someone like her exists?..." Taking her hand in his, he smiled gently. "Thank you...I guess we'll be heading back now." She looked at his hand, then looked up at him, and nodded.
Driving back, Kira stopped at a red light and turned around. He looked at Cagalli, who seemed to be nodding off. Suddenly, she slumped to the left and onto Athrun's shoulder. Startled, Athrun jerked his gaze from the window and looked at her, shaking her shoulder gently. Letting out an amusing sigh, he let her head rest there and turned to look out the window again with a slight smile on his face.
To Kira's left, on the passenger front side sat Lacus. She had long since fallen asleep, and her legs were propped up on the seat towards him. Her elbow rested against the open window as the wind picked up her and carried it, just before letting it fall onto her back. Kira smiled. "Maybe... soon. We'll see."
So that's it… Now they all know each other and for the first time ever, have interacted as a group! What do you think? Like it? Hate it? Too OOC?
A huge thank you to all the readers! I can't begin to express how happy I am that people are enjoying this fic! Especially thank you to the reviewers: I love hearing from you guys! So to: animemistress419, asga, Satu-chan, stuntsheep, derally, mariad, koyou, HimeHikari, Kura52, xxlilvietgurlxx, Myouseiseed, RoGuE-WhItE-DrAgOn and SEEDSummoner. Thank you so much for sharing your opinions.
Quite honestly, when I first wrote this chapter, I almost completely wiped it out and started over. I really wasn't too happy with how it came out; It sounded much better when it was still just in my head. Didn't sound as clichéd, or rushed.
Also, sorry about the lack of suspense. I'm guessing that in the first section, it wasn't too difficult to guess who their "friends" were huh?
Also, sorry to any Athrun&Cagalli fans who thought they were already set in stone. Heh, I'm going to milk their relationship for all it's worth. (Joking! Joking! Sort of… XP) Fear not, in the end they will be together. It's just that they aren't the type to rush into a relationship, so I'm building a friendship right now.
For the Athrun fans and those were wondering about him: This chapter was for you guys. I know I said I'd remove them from social and political status, but Athrun's someone who would end up in the spotlight no matter what he did. He seems like that type of person. Intelligent but humble, good-natured, polite, etc. I guess in the series, you can attribute that to his upbringing, but I personally think that a part of him is just naturally like that. A guy that tries to take on too much, because he tries to convince himself that he can take it.
I've noticed that a lot of fics have songs stuck in them. In fact, it's been suggested to me that I try this… but really? To tell the honest to goodness truth I don't really like it very much. It seems to make the story too choppy, having to stop and read a line from a song every few lines, no matter how much the song fits. Also, my chapters are a bit too long to fit any song into them.
But for anyone who may so some odd reason be wondering what I do listen to, I posted up the song that I listened to while writing this on my profile. (Yes singular. I only listen to one song on repeat when I write, another one for editing, and a final one for when I'm uploading and doing final touchups. If I switch half-way I lose my train of thought. It's just this weird thing of mine…) To tell the truth, it really does seem to describe Athrun and Cagalli's relationship pretty well. Heh…
Okay, so until next week, please review! Tell me your thoughts and I guess that's it for now! I'll try to update a little earlier next week. I've got about half of the next chapter written. (It's actually probably going to be monstrously long… Might be easily twice as long as anything else I've written thus far.) So look forward to that!