Partially Awake
Chapter 2: Disarray


Author's Note: I've been on a writing roll lately, I hope this sticks for a while. I'm becoming very fond of this fanfic and I hope that it will turn out as well as I have plenned.

A huge, megabig thank you to everyone who has reviewed. I can't tell you guys how much it means to be to know that someone is reading this and enjoying it, especially since it's Yzak/Shiho and I was counting on getting a total of five reviews by the time I finished this fanfic because I didn't think know that many people like this pairing. Again, thanks to everyone who has read this and I hope that you'll enjoy this chapter as well!

Stretching her arms out, Shiho could hardly contain the yawn escaping from her mouth as she entered her quarters. Light automatically filled the room as she entered and the door was shut quickly behind her, closing her off from the rest of the ship.

"Finally..." she whispered to herself as she slowly sat down on her bed. She reached down to pull the zipper on her boots down.

It had been a long day. The Voltaire had been scheduled for launch early in the morning and for her it had meant getting up at the crack of dawn because Yzak being so punctual was likely to order the ship to take off even if its only pilot had not made it on board yet. Shortly after boarding the ship Shiho had been cornered by a few rookies who, despite her threats, would not stop asking about her and Yzak.

You'd think that they'd have more important things to do than to talk about us, Shiho thought as she pulled her boots off and carelessly placed them before the small closet.

After that the gossiping had spread like a plague and there was not a single person on the ship who wasn't talking. Thankfully Shiho had found refuge in the hangar where she worked tirelessly on the OS of her ZAKU, ignoring every annoying comment made by the tech crew even though most of them were related to Yzak and his mother rather than her. Not until Yzak's voice screeched through the speakers did the real fits of laughter occur and Shiho had almost felt relieved when Yzak had called her to his office because it gave her an excuse to get away from everyone. Not that going to Yzak had given her the peace and quiet she wanted, but that was pretty much to be expected given that it was Yzak she had gone too.

Now, fourteen hours later after what pretty much was non-stop working, she was finally alone in her quarters. Tossing her red ZAFT uniform over the back of the chair, she pulled on a tank top and a pair of pajama bottoms before falling exhausted to the bed with her back first. Almost buried under a sufficient amount of blankets, a voice in her head told her that she should really hang her uniform up as she usually did so that it would not be wrinkly in the morning. But the warmth of her bed was too luring and she promptly ignored that thought.

"Lights off."

Everything turned black.

It was Yzak's fault really. His order had the entire crew working like animals and since the more everyone else did the more she had to do. But again, it was Yzak and his burst of anger was expected. Shiho shifted slightly, half burying her face in the pillow when her thoughts wandered to Yzak and their current situation.

Engagement.

Marriage.

Shiho shuddered and was fairly sure that it was not because of cold.

She remembered waking up last Monday because of the phone ringing. Half an hour later she had been on her way to her parents' house for brunch. They had, over her mother's burnt toast, weak tea and awful attempts at pancakes, informed her that as of this moment she was engaged to none other than her own commander Yzak Jule.

Chaos was the only word Shiho could find to describe the current situation. A crew that could hardly contain their laughter when she was nearby, Yzak as a fiancée...

She shifted again and lied on her back, staring at the ceiling. At least she would have if it had not been for the fact that the lights were off.

The last problem was the one she needed to deal with. The talk and the jokes she could handle, the engagement itself was a completely different issue. Her own parents had barely listened to her protests when they had told her about it and judging from what Shiho knew about Yzak's mother she guessed that Ezaria Jule was probably blissfully oblivious of what her son really thought. Getting her parents and Ezaria to call of the engagement might prove difficult and require something extreme.

I can do this, Shiho thought and shifted once again, this time she lying on her left side. I can handle this. I'll just... convince my mother that Yzak is really a transsexual natural who likes to table dance. Or not.

As she lied there with open eyes and her mind thinking fully how she was going to get out of the situation, she suddenly noticed how annoying the ventilation system going above her room was and how noisy the rookies were when they passed the hallway on their way to their own quarters.

And what do I tell his mom? Sorry, don't want to marry your son, please don't claw my eyes out. No, I am not currently seeing someone else but that does not mean that I want to get married and bear your son's hellspawn, I mean, children. And no, the constant fear in my eyes have nothing to do with the fact that you are a person who have people around you twenty-four hours each day whose sole purpose of being here is to restrain you if you become aggressive and that I am wearing a bullet proof vest just to be safe.

She sighed and turned again to lie on her back.

This is stupid. This is really stupid. Chaos is an understatement.

A few corridors away Yzak was having problems sleeping as well and for the past hour he had tried everything from counting sheep to threatening himself to eat Dearka's cooking if he did not fall asleep. As expected, none of those methods actually worked and after another half hour of tossing and turning he pushed the blankets aside, got up and walked over to his desk. Not bothering to turn on any lights except for his desk lamp, he turned on the computer and logged on to the communications program.

As soon as he was logged in a large pop up covering half the screen appeared. The pop up itself was simple, but Yzak knew from experience that the red text with the words "Important" meant that this was an order from his superiors, if not directly from the ZAFT Supreme Council. He clicked on "Open" and watched as the lines of text appeared before him on the screen, not that there were that many lines.

But the more Yzak read the more his eyes widened in pure shock and he ended up staring at the screen with a mixture of confusion and denial.

"You've got to be kidding me..."

He stared at the words over and over again, wondering if the darkness in his room had somehow made his eyes distort the words on the screen to the ones he was reading. But no matter how much he hoped, sense and logic told him that the words he had just read came directly from his superiors and there was no real reason to doubt that they were valid. As the full meaning of the words began to sink in Yzak frowned, turned off the computer immediately and walked back to his bed.

There he lay down again and drowned a scream full of rage in his pillow.

"Slept well?"

Shiho took a momentary pause and looked up from the small monitor and saw Dearka floating about just outside the open cockpit of her ZAKU. She smiled weakly upon seeing him and then returned to typing fervently at the keyboard.

"Not really," she answered. "Guess it's just after being used to sleeping at home. I mean, when was the last time we got a five day leave?"

"Christmas break at the academy I guess?" Dearka joked. "We talk about five days leave as if it was five months... with all the work we get you'd think that we're still at war."

Finishing the last of her calibrations, Shiho pushed the keyboard away from her with a contented "Finally!". She stretched out her arms, hearing a slight crack in her tense shoulders but then again it was no surprise since she had been working for hours. The lack of sleep had made her get up earlier than she was required to and she had spent every waking moment since then in the cockpit calibrating the thrusters on her ZAKU. It had been a slow process but at least now she was done.

"Going to rejoin the living now?" Dearka teased.

"I'm dying for some coffee," Shiho smiled.

Dearka chuckled lightly.

"Nice pun."

Anxious to get out, Shiho pushed herself out of the cockpit. But she was a little too eager and accidentally used too much force to push herself out. The lack of gravity became more apparent than ever when she lost control over her own movement and was slowly drifting away from the ZAKU with nothing to hold onto. For a moment she felt a slight sense of panic as she was floating freely in the middle of the hangar, then someone suddenly grasped her hand and pulled her back in. Looking over her shoulder she saw that it was Dearka, who guided her back towards the ZAKU.

"Thanks," she said, grabbing onto the door of the cockpit to make sure that she wouldn't float away again.

"Anytime," Dearka winked. "You know how I love to help out pretty ladies."

This time it was Shiho's turn to chuckle.

"How insulting to reuse that line on me, what do you think I am?" she asked jokingly. "A rookie fresh out of the academy and who's having her first week here?

"Should have known, you're never much for getting compliments."

"And you're never much for knowing when to stop with flattering women."

"You know, there's a girl in Orb who'd agree that statement..."

"DEARKA! SHIHO!"

Although she were floating at least a few dozen feet above the floor, Shiho somehow managed to jump as she was startled by the sudden yell of her name. A quick glance at Dearka told her that he pretty much had the same reaction and when she looked down she saw Yzak stand in one of many doorways that led out of the hangar. With light from the corridor behind him casting a shadow over him Shiho couldn't see his face well but if anything she recognized the angry frown that had more or less become his trademark.

"Assemble in the tactical room immediately!" Yzak shouted from where he stood.

Shiho had barely had the time to raise her hand to salute him before he was gone. Surprised by Yzak's sudden and quick leave, she looked at Dearka for an explanation but the latter seemed just as surprised as she was.

"What's his problem today?" Shiho asked quietly.

Though used to Yzak's temper and the way he tended to take it out on other people, she found it a little strange that he had left so quickly, especially when all three of them were heading to the same place. Usually he would wait for them to join him and in the mean time he would attempt to break the world record of scaring as many crew members as possible by simple glaring or, if required, more yelling.

"No idea," Dearka said with a shrug. He pushed against the ZAKU and slowly started to move downwards. "Did you say something to him?"

Shiho remembered yesterday's conversation and considering that it had ended without bruises, death threats or damaged ears she decided that it went pretty well. After agreeing to it Yzak was just as determined as she was to break off the engagement and considering his conviction she found it strange that he was angry again like he had been yesterday before their talk. While his sudden anger rose a bit of curiosity, it was not difficult to brush it off and not think too much about it. It was Yzak after all, her high strung commander who had too much work to do and whose middle name was temperamental.

She and Dearka arrived at the tactical room soon enough, making sure to salute perfectly after they entered. Yzak stood with his back against him, studying something on a large monitor and did not acknowledge their presence at first. Shiho exchanged a look with Dearka, mentally repeating the question she had asked earlier but Dearka looked none the wiser. Finally, Yzak turned to them and with a simple nod he told them to be at ease.

"We have received new orders," he informed coldly. "We are to head to L4 and monitor this colony."

An image appeared on the monitor behind Yzak, showing nothing but dark space, save for the small tiny, glowing stars in the distance. It took Shiho a few moments and for her to squint her eyes to see that there was actually a small space colony on the image. The image had been taken from such a long distance that it was difficult to make out the colony in it.

"Monitor?" Dearka repeated. "Exactly what are we supposed to be on the lookout for?"

Yzak pointed to a document lying on the table before them. Shiho peered forward and read the words written on it.

"Smugglers?" she said, looking at Yzak with a puzzled expression on her face. "They're sending us out in the middle of nowhere to look for smugglers?"

"Glad to see that you're maintaining your reading skills, Hahnenfuss," Yzak retorted harshly. "Those are our orders, you have been informed and may now leave."

Yzak's last words seemed to linger even after they had been spoken, because Shiho stared at Yzak in a mixture of confusion and hurt while Yzak just stared back looking just as cold as he had been before. A few seconds passed without neither of them saying anything and Dearka just stood there looking back and forth between them and was just as clueless as Shiho about what was going on.

Finally, Shiho raised her hand, saluted and then turned around.

As the door shut behind her Yzak just turned around to face the monitor instead. Dearka remained where he had been standing all alone, watching Shiho leave at first and then turning his eyes to Yzak. The latter seemed fully occupied with attempting to turn off the monitor, though Dearka guessed that it was just an excuse to not talk.

"What's up with you today?" Dearka asked, genuinely concerned.

"Are you trying to embarrass me more, Dearka?" Yzak questioned without looking at him.

Sighing, Dearka ran his hand through his ruffled hair.

"What have I done now?"

"Isn't it enough that the entire crew is laughing at my expense because of my mother's decision?" Yzak muttered, clearly annoyed. "Do you have to go and hit on the girl I'm engaged to?"

"It's just Shiho," Dearka said automatically, raising an eyebrow slightly. "That's why you're upset? Because you saw us in the hangar together?"

"I'm not!" Yzak snapped in response.

As he was still trying to turn off the monitor, Yzak proved that at the moment he was just as bad with technology as he was with lying. This caused Dearka to sigh again and cross the small distance between him and Yzak. Reaching out his hand to the control panel, he pressed a simple round button and the monitor went blank.

"You've seen us in the hangar a million times," Dearka went on, watching Yzak's face form a less than happy grimace. "You've been with us in the hangar a dozen times. And this is Shiho we're talking about, Shiho 'I-don't-like-the-ZAFT-miniskirt' Hahnenfuss. Even if I was trying to hit on her, and thank God that will never happen, do you really think she would let me?"

The scowl on Yzak's face slowly faded away to be replaced with a less intense glare, making Yzak look much less angry than he usually did. After a while even the glare disappeared, leaving only slightly narrowed eyes as Yzak pulled out a folded piece of paper from his pocket and handed it over to Dearka.

"I'm not in love with her," he confessed truthfully. "I just don't like people having yet another excuse to laugh at me."

"Okay," Dearka answered, knowing that he shouldn't push the subject further. Instead he unfolded the piece of paper and read it. "What the hell is this? They're telling us to monitor the colony for two days and then just go back to Aprilius right away?"

"And four weeks leave," Yzak finished. "I am to report to the Council about our current mission and receive orders for a new one but that's it."

"Four weeks leave!" Dearka repeated. "Last time we had to threaten them with mutiny just to get five days! What the hell was the Council smoking when they issued this?"

"More like my mother's connections," Yzak replied, eyes narrowing again. "This is what she sent to me."

He pulled out a second piece of paper from his pocket and showed it to Dearka. The moment Dearka laid his eyes on it he had to remember all that his long friendship with Yzak meant to him in order to not burst into heartilly laughter. Still, the corners of his mouth twitched and every fiber of his being was begging to laugh.

The note, a draft of a wedding invitation, read:

"You are cordially invited to the wedding of
Yzak Jule & Shiho Hahnenfuss"

The date on the invitation was July 12th, in exactly two and a half weeks.