"Thanks for inviting me to your house." Athrun said kindly to Kira.
"It's no problem at all. I'm just trying to make a new friend, really." Kira smiled bashfully and rubbed the back of his head. "So, how was your first day at Orb High so far?"
Athrun frowned a bit at the thought of it. He started to look at the scenery as they walked passed it towards Kira's house. His mind drifted off to earlier that afternoon to that girl he saw. He remembered when he had first seen her. He had only taken a glance at her. She didn't seem like anyone special. He figured that since she was staring at him, she would soon be like all the rest of them: a member of his fan club that seemed to travel along with him. However, he knew he was wrong to think that after what had happened at lunch. He was only trying to do what was right when he stopped her from hitting the pavement. As usual, he expected her to just look up at him and start appraising him for his rescue like any other girl would, but what caught him off guard was the fact that she pushed him. She even yelled at him as if he had done something to hurt her. He remembered the feeling he had when it happened: shocked. It really shocked him that there was a girl in the world who could look at him and treat him as if he was just something there, nothing special. It felt…different.
"Athrun?" Kira called out Athrun's name for the second time. He was concerned that something terrible must have happened to him at school. "Did something bad happen? You didn't get detention on the first day did you?"
"What? No." Athrun pulled out of his reverie. "Nothing like that happened, no." He shook his head slowly. "In fact, I met someone today."
"Really, who? Maybe I know 'em." Kira smiled at the fact that Athrun was already starting to meet new people.
"Well, I wouldn't call it a nice meeting. She fell down a hill and I caught her and she…" He shrugged. "She pushed me and yelled at me."
Athrun turned to look at Kira in time to catch his face falter.
"By any chance, did this girl have blonde hair?" Kira asked hesitantly.
"Yeah, why?" Athrun asked slowly. "Do you know her?"
Kira sighed. "Sadly, yes. That girl who pushed you was Cagalli."
"Cagalli." Athrun repeated her name. He wanted to know what it would feel like to hear the name coming out of his mouth. It seemed to have a nice ring to it.
"She's my sister."
Athrun jerked his head in Kira's direction. "Really? You two seem nothing alike."
"I know." Kira sighed again.
"You two look nothing alike also." Athrun stated plainly.
"I know." Kira said deeply. "Strange though, considering she's my twin sister." He shrugged it off. "Sorry you got off to a rough start with her."
Athrun frowned slightly.
Kira patted him on the back in comfort. "Don't worry about it. She's like that to every guy in school. She just doesn't like the attention, I guess. Ah, well we're here."
Athrun nodded his head slightly in understanding. I guess I can relate to that. When Kira announced that they were at his house, Athrun's jaw nearly dropped at what he saw. "Kira, you never said you lived at a mansion."
Kira grinned. "Well, I kind of wanted to leave that part out. Besides, I'm sure this isn't the largest house you ever seen."
"No. It isn't." Of course, Athrun was referring to his own home back in Plants. His house was twice in size, but he hadn't expected to find a house at least half the size here in Orb or to even meet the very person who lived in such a home. "Are your parents rich or something?"
Kira laughed lightly. "I guess you can say that. Let's just say that my father is a very important person, okay?" He gestured for Athrun to follow him inside. A maid bowed her head at them and took their jackets from them to hang. "Er…I guess we can go to my room and start on the project, is that okay?"
"Fine with me." Athrun offhandedly stated for he was busy looking at the structures of the house.
"Excellent." Kira exclaimed as he began ascending the stairs. "Any ideas what to do, by the way?" He called to Athrun.
Athrun's mind began racing. The teacher didn't give them much to follow by on the criteria. He shrugged, though he knew Kira couldn't see him. "I'm not sure. Maybe some kind of illustration of some important event that happened in Orb." He mumbled.
Kira stopped at the landing on the second floor. "You mean like a model?"
Athrun nodded his head. "Yeah, a model of the land and buildings and people." He continued to follow Kira down the hall. He looked from left to right at the numerous rooms they kept passing by. "Though, it really depends on what we choose the model to be about."
"How about the peace treaty?" Kira suggested as he stopped in front of a door.
Athrun paused to look inside the room just as Kira opened the door. The room seemed pretty simple for it to be in a mansion. It was spacious and contained many neutral colors. Athrun slowly walked in after Kira and placed his books on a desk. He looked at the desk curiously. It was stacked with papers, but when he looked closer at it, it didn't seemed to be schoolwork papers.
"Athrun?" Kira spoke up from beside his bed. "Do you agree to do the peace treaty?"
"Oh, sure. That should give us plenty to do." He nodded off as he stepped away from the desk. "We can use a lot of symbolism in the model."
"It'll also give us plenty to write about." Kira sighed. "Ms. Talia was over exaggerating a bit when she called me her best student. History gives me a bit of a headache." He began rubbing at his temple.
"Well, we have plenty of time to do this project. After all, it's not due until near the end of the school year, so no need to stress about it." Athrun said lamely while studying Kira. He grabbed a chair that was next to the desk and sat on it.
"You say that now. You do realize that not only do we need to figure out what to do and what it will be about, which we already done, but we still need to write about the technique behind the creation, the different qualities it possesses that best represents the event we chosen, not to mention that we also need to write a twenty page report on the event." Kira sighed again. This time he fell backwards onto his bed.
Athrun sat in silence for a while. It really was a lot they had to do. However, he felt that it wasn't impossible to do it. He watched as Kira lay down on his bed letting out a sigh of frustration. He smirked. "Well, I guess we should get started on it now then."
Kira threw a pillow at him.
"Tell me again why you're leaving us so soon?" Sasha pouted as she cornered Cagalli in the corner of the clothing store.
"Sorry you guys, but Kira really wants me to get home early to meet this new friend of his." Cagalli said nervously. She knew her friends weren't really going to try and do anything to her, but sometimes they did scare her…a little.
"Well then, can we come?" Sasha pleaded.
"No way!" Cagalli exclaimed. "You only want to come so you can drool over my brother. Gross!"
Leeli and Krystal laughed in the background. They usually always stood to the side observing Cagalli and Sasha together. They often said they were better to watch than stand-up comedians.
"Come on Sasha, just let her go." Krystal tried to reason. "She did made a promise to her brother."
"She also made a promise to spend the day with us." Leeli added airily.
"You're not helping." Krystal retorted.
"You're both not helping." Cagalli concluded. "Look, I would have loved to hang out with you guys for the rest of the night, but my brother had to pick today to invite someone over to the house. Now I must go and be the house greeter."
Sasha giggled. "Well, don't fret. He just want to show you off to all the guys, you know."
Cagalli rolled her eyes. "That's what I'm afraid of. I'm tired of him always trying to hook me up with someone."
"Are you kidding?" Krystal said exasperatedly. "I would love to have a brother to introduce me to guys." She smirked at her mischievously. "Hmm, what if you had already met this guy?"
"What are you talking about Krystal?" Cagalli sighed.
"That blue-haired hunk." She said dreamily. "Your brother said he was new to the school, right? Well, who else could be more new than him?"
Cagalli went slightly pale. Was it him? She didn't dare to think it. She had completely humiliated him and now he would have the chance to do the same to her in her own home. How could Kira do this to me? She wondered. She looked up to her friends who were all still looking at her.
"Er…well, I guess it's possible, but we'll just have to wait and see." She shrugged. "Look, it was nice hanging with you guys today, but now I got to go." She bolted out of the store and ran to get home.
"I don't think I can look at another book today." Kira said while slumping on the counter in the kitchen. "Soda?"
"Sure." Athrun reached out for a can and opened it. "So, aside from our research on the Peace Treaty between the three major powers what will our model be like?"
Kira took his time to answer, as he was busy sipping from his can. He shrugged. "I figure we might as well do a model of either the building where the treaty was signed or the location where they first introduced the treaty to the public. Your pick."
Athrun nodded. "I'll go with the latter." He looked to the rear of the kitchen and noticed a door that leads to the outside. He figured that it was the backyard, but it was hard to tell what was out there because the landscape was blocked from view. "It's getting late." He said.
Kira looked down at his watch. "Where is she?"
"Who?" Athrun asked.
"Cagalli, remember? I asked her to show up early so she can meet you."
Athrun looked away. He was hoping not to run into his sister at their house. He still hadn't fully gotten over what had happened earlier that day. "Uh, I don't know Kira. Your sister made it absolutely clear that she doesn't like me."
"None sense. It was just an accident. She'll like you. Trust me." Kira said beaming.
Athrun raised an eyebrow at him. There was something about that smile that was a bit too eerie.
"Kira!" The sound of a door being slammed shut indicated that Cagalli had finally arrived. "Kira, I'm home!" She called again.
"In here!" Kira answered. He could hear her footsteps lead into the kitchen.
"I'm so sorry I'm late. The girls wanted to hang out on the far side of time and…YOU!" Cagalli had just walked into the kitchen and stood with a shocked expression on her face at the entrance.
"Yes, him." Kira said while placing his hand on Athrun's shoulder. "Cagalli, this is Athrun. I think you two have met before. He's the guy you pushed over at lunch today." He grinned at her.
Cagalli stared at Athrun opened mouth. Somehow she knew, but she just couldn't fully come to the fact that it was actually him that Kira had mentioned earlier. Note to self: Kill Krystal.
"Hello." Athrun said sheepishly without looking at Cagalli.
Cagalli didn't respond. She had finally closed her mouth, but she was staring at Athrun as if she was trying to study his every move.
"Cagalli, it's rude to stare at people. Not to mention it's rude not to show a bit of hospitality." Kira said trying to urge her to say something to Athrun.
Cagalli rolled her eyes at Kira and walked forward towards Athrun. She stuck her hand out as a greeting. "Cagalli. Kira's sister, though I'm sure he already explained all you needed to know."
Athrun looked down at the hand and took it in his. At first contact he felt a jolt of emotions course through his body. He quickly released her hand. "Yeah, he did." He said quietly. He looked up into her eyes and quickly became lost in them. They were golden and fierce. Just one look in them was able to captivate him.
Cagalli felt a bit uneasy under his gaze. She looked over to Kira and glared at him. "I won't fall for your trick this time." She told him.
"For the last time, it has nothing to do with that." Kira said while rolling his eyes.
Cagalli did the same in response and looked back to Athrun. She sneered at him and walked out of the kitchen. "Whatever. I have homework to do."
"Well, that went well." Kira said. He looked over to Athrun and noticed he was staring off at the staircase. "Is something wrong? You know, you seem to blank out a lot of times."
"Uh, what? Sorry." Athrun said after regaining his reverie. "What was that all about, by the way?"
"Er…" Kira looked at him shyly as he took his seat at the table and began drinking from his can again. "Nothing. Something about introducing her to people she doesn't want to be introduced to." He shrugged.
Athrun glared at him. "I told you it wasn't a good idea to introduce us."
Kira smiled at him meekly and continued with his soda. "It's late."
"And I need to get home." Athrun finished.
"No need." Kira said. "Stay here. It's the least I can do."
Athrun hesitated for a moment. "I don't know, Kira." His eyes trailed up the stairs that Cagalli had went up a moment ago.
"It's best if you stay the night. It's not safe to wonder out there on your own at this time of night." Kira said patting him on the back.
Athrun nodded in defeat. "Fine. I'll stay."
A/N: Okay, end of chapter 3. And I just remembered something. Someone left me a review that said I was moving the plot along too slowly, well sorry, I won't make it go any faster. If I did, then I would just screw up the story. Not that I still won't probably. But, heh...
Please R&R