A shadow scaled up the building, shrouded by the lack of light of the new moon. Unknown to him, a gun nozzle trailed his movements. On the other side, another figure quietly approached the front of the room.

"Bogey approaching your position" whispered a voice over radio transmission to another figure hiding behind the darkness of the corridor. "10 seconds to contact" said the same voice, as he kept his vision through the scope of his rifle.

Meanwhile, the figure in cover remained motionless as footsteps went by him. He aimed at the passerby from behind as it started to pull out an object. At the same time, the sniper positioned his finger at the trigger of the gun as the target of his scope reached into a backpack while being suspended in mid air by a rope in front of the balcony of the room. He switched his crosshairs on the object being pulled out, magnified on it, before finally retracting his finger from the trigger and saying, "Abort, Athrun"

Unfortunately for him, the figure in hiding had already tranquilized the target and realized that the objects held were only a bunch of love letters intended to the occupants of the room. The person outside was also only leaving a stuffed animal meant for present. Kira fell back onto his bed and sighed. A few moments later, the blue-haired boy entered, dropped his gun, and collapsed on his own bed. Both then let out a loud breath at the same time.

"That's 21 false alarms in a row now" said Kira with his eyes still closed. His friend just mumbled on the covers in agreement.

"This one's good. He managed to disable the front door security for a few seconds. What did you do to that...one…inside?" asked Kira, slowly drifting into sleep.

"Hell with him. Rot there…" replied Athrun, angry at being so worn out, and suddenly fell into a dreamless world.

2 months had passed since the start of the school year. Things had been quiet and smooth until the past 3 weeks, when Clyne performed a song titled 'In this Silent Night' as part of the music class activity she and Kira are in. Ever since then, her mad fans, especially males, had attempted to sneak letters, presents, or other gifts onto her balcony or her doorstep. They could not do it clearly during the day because of the presence of Athha, who strictly defended her best friend from the males, even though some of the gifts are intended for her.

Furthermore, that concert ended in a disaster as 6 college juniors with raging hormones suddenly stormed the stage and attempted to grab the pink-haired songstress. Kira, who is playing as the violin accompaniment but hated being in the spotlight, and Athrun, who hated being in the dark and with huge crowds, got so agitated at the action that if it weren't for the disciplinary staff making the move first, Kira would have smashed his violin through the heads of the perverts and Athrun would have massacred them with the assault rifles previously stored in the area.

To make matters worse, most, if not all, of the teachers of their classes started giving loads of homeworks and projects which are more difficult than expected considering their grade level, as well as other social activities. Although both boys, who are elite coordinators who had graduated college at the age of 14, could easily cope with the tasks, the addition to their already lack of sleep is wearing their patience and concentration thin.

To top it all off, Athha had been trying to get close to Athrun, while Clyne secretly on Kira. Then, despite the school's non-bias policy of racism, conflict still ensued between Coordinators and Naturals. Those placed more pressure on the boys. Fortunately, since Kira found out that Flay had been engaged to Sai a year back, they now see less of each other, although Sai and the Clyne's admires are still scorning him behind his back. On the other hand, Athrun started to feel himself slowing splitting into two between Clyne and Attha, who as time passes seemed to be gentler and more feminine towards him, especially starting from the moment when she sprained her right ankle during their 5th day Track and Field class and Athrun gave her first aid bandaging.

Imminent Threat

"What's wrong, Kira? You seemed rather down these days" asked Tolle, Kira's new friend he met in the Computer Literacy class. Kira just shook his head and smiled at him without saying anything as both, later joined by Tolle's girlfriend, Milliaria, left the computer lab at the end of the period.

"Kira" called a female voice behind him as he reached into his locker to get the cooking text book for the next class.

He turned his head to see a pink ball launching itself onto his face, which he managed to catch with his right hand. Upon letting the hand down, he expected to see the owner.

"I don't really understand that lesson earlier on, would you teach me?" she asked shyly. Kira, being tired himself, wanted to decline but a request by someone like that is hard to refuse. She sprung up the moment Kira agreed, and the two proceeded to the kitchen.

This is the only class Kira hated. He is the only boy there and he could not cook! Most cooking tasks assigned by the teacher, Ms. Ramius, ended up in either a chunk of charcoal or an alien blob. Fortunately, the headmistress grades students based on their effort and not the success of it, so Kira's scores are not that bad, while Lacus' still the best chef in the whole class. This class was also the only time he's seen flustered, a behavior which some girls, including her, seemed to like.

Everyone continued working on their next task which is cooking a sweet-and-sour dish. Things had been going as normal as usual until Kira noticed a puff of gas unusually coming out of the pipe behind the dead stove in front Lacus, with her trying to ignite the flame.

"Stop. Watch out!" Kira shouted, dashing towards her, and throwing her to a safe spot at the same time the spark created an explosion which sent him and several cooking utensils flying and slamming onto the opposite wall which is 12 ft away and on which hung other utensils. All the girls started to scream and ran out of the kitchen just as the fire alarm went off. Kira heard two distinct female voices calling him before he blacked out.

The silver, bob-haired boy threw a flurry of punches at the blond girl, forcing her to the edge of the arena line. However, her nimble body allowed her to slip behind the bigger-sized male and gain time to recover herself.

"Dearka!" shouted the boy, prompting another tanned-skinned blond boy to unfairly gang up on the girl. One of the two instructors of martial arts class, Ms. Natarle Badgiruel was about to stop the spar when Flaga, the other instructor, stopped her.

Dearka was about to strike her from behind when at the nick of time, Athrun jumped in, blocked the punch and swung his leg to the side of his opponent, sending him sprawling across the sparring mat.

"Athrun…" said Cagalli when she realized what had happened.

"Ouch…Yzak, you called me to my doom" remarked Dearka, who stood back up while rubbing his left cheek, which is riddled with mat marks.

Athrun and Cagalli stood back-to-back in response to the pincer by Yzak and Dearka.

"You know, ganging up on a girl is what you call cowardly" taunted Athrun, to which all the other students responded in 'hoooo's and 'haaa's.

"Shut up, bastard! Don't tell what I can't do" replied the angered Yzak while charging recklessly at Athrun.

On the other side, Dearka followed his cue and charged at Cagalli. Athrun, who was still irritated and tired at the time, effortlessly evaded a hook punch before slamming his fist into the cave of Yzak's ribs, producing several cracking noise and knocking out the victim.

Following the thud of Yzak's body hitting the mat, the whole gym was silent. All wide eyes were on Athrun, who at the time staring at Dearka to see whether he would dare attack Cagalli. Although he knew that the aggression wasn't necessary, those two senior bullies need to be taught a lesson sometime. He and Kira looked over practically every student's records, and the worst was the two's. They should have been expelled last year, but they were merited by their above average academic scores and their participation as well as representation of the school in various activities.

This time, Flaga stepped in to stop the fight. He quickly swung the limp body of Yzak over his shoulder and rushed out of the gym. Meanwhile, Natarle was about to give Athrun and Dearka both a lecture and a detention when suddenly the fire alarm rang. All the students were evacuated out of the gym, which is next to the main high school building. Cagalli continued staring at, and blushed when, Athrun grabbed her and led her out.

"A song? What song? Listen…I recognize it. It sounded so familiar. That scent too…who is it?"

Violet eyes opened slowly, suddenly squinting from the direct ray of the moon. He soon adjusted his vision to the dark atmosphere, noticing that he's in a hospital room of some sort. Pain can still be felt on his back. His nose and ears still caught the scent and the song. He moved his eyes to the source and found a pink-hair resting her head on the side of his bed with his right palm as her pillow while facing him with her eyes closed and humming 'In this Silent Night'. The moon's light made her fair skin glow as like an angel.

For the first since he met her, he realized how pretty she was, and how at peace he felt whenever she's around. He continued staring at her and tried to pet her hair with his other hand, but hesitated midway. His, as well as Athrun's, career prevents such involvements to last; the reasons being that it will hinder their optimal performance, the jobs will send them to far away places including space colonies, and they could die at any time. Besides, how would she act when she found about the truth? Nevertheless, he continued staring at her until her lullaby placed him to sleep. Athrun watched at the two through the hospital's room camera, his heart feeling as if it was thrown at 100 miles per hour.

Kira awoke at the chirping of the birds outside, with Athrun on the chair next to his bed, looking at him and the bandages all over his body and forehead. "It's been 2 days. How are you feeling?" he asked, smiling at his friend.

"Not to bad. Sorry, should have been able to avoid it" Kira replied, "I'm causing too much trouble now"

"Don't worry about it. Just concentrate on getting well" Athrun stopped for a moment, "but it's good to know you're alive, partner"

Kira smiled back at him before realizing something. After Athrun assured that the camera has been disabled, he asked "Where are the guns?"

"Fortunately, they slid under the rubble of twisted metal. I recovered them" replied Athrun, to which Kira let out a sigh of relief. Neither of them knew a red-haired girl was eavesdropping on them through the slightly open door of the room.

"So what are you going to do with her now?" the blue-hair asked.

"Continue what we have been doing. Protect the targets until further orders from Andy" answered the other, "don't worry, Athrun. I won't try anything that would make Clyne come closer than where she's at presently. I'm sure you would do the same to Athha, right? I don't want us to hurt any of them, whether directly or not"

The red-haired girl rushed from the door, covering her mouth with her hands with tears rolling down her cheek. She entered into the stall of the female bathroom, curled herself on the toilet seat and started to sob while remembering the times 3 years ago. Then, she mumbled, "coordinator, you betrayed my father…I hate you"

A/N: To assure my fellow K/L fans, I won't make Flay and Kira a couple. That was my whole point from the first. Thanks a bunch! Hope to see more reviews.