Partially Awake
Chapter 6: Day

Author's Note: No time, no update? I'm so sorry that it took over two months to get this chapter finished, I can only blame work and other real life destractions for that. Anyway, I am very thankful for the reviews I've received and even if it takes time for me to write this story I will definitely not abandon it. I have a pretty good idea of what I'm going to write and how the story is going to end, it's just a matter of getting everything down on paper. ) Anyway, I hope this chapter isn't too disappointing and that you'll enjoy reading it.

Sunday mornings could be either heaven or hell. It could be heaven like Saturday mornings, when you would wake up warm and well rested and could treat yourself to breakfast on the bed. It could also be hell, especially when you woke up freezing and discovering that your fiancée was still hogging the covers.

With her eyes still closed, Shiho yanked at the covers furiously. But just like last night she gave up after a while, since somehow Yzak could manage to keep a death grip on the covers and be asleep at the same time. For a while she seriously considered kicking him out of the bed but seeing as she still felt somewhat guilty for punching him yesterday she decided to let him off the hook. Her feet touched the cold floor as she slid off the bed, causing her to shudder lightly.

Why is it that mankind can manipulate genes and fly to Jupiter but has still not done something about cold floor in the morning? she thought bitterly and stumbled into the bathroom.

There she turned on the lights and immediately squinted her eyes because of the strong light. Closing the door after her, she turned on the shower and waited for the water to become warm. S filling most of the bathroom, Shiho took a look at herself at the fogged mirror. Her hair was still more wavy rather than straight, which wasn't surprising considering the insane amount of hairspray that had been used yesterday. Sighing, Shiho took off her clothes and dumped them carelessly in the laundry basket, which was surprisingly empty for once. It took a moment or two to connect the dots but then she remembered her mother's surprise visit yesterday and all the maids she had brought with her.

Hot water blasted out of the shower head with full force and felt like a massage against her skin as she stood inside the shower stall and just let the water soak her completely. Washing all the hairspray and mouse off her hair gave her an odd sense of peace and calm, as if she was washing off everything that had gone wrong yesterday. By the time she rinsed the shampoo out of her hair things were starting to feel pretty good again.

But fate intervened again when the doorbell rang, interrupting the calm she had attained. Cursing loudly, Shiho turned off the water and stepped out of the shower stall. She pulled her bathrobe off the hanger and wrapped it around her quickly before leaving the bathroom. When she came out she noticed that Yzak was still fast asleep, completely oblivious of what was going on. Sighing again, Shiho bent down and picked up the dress she had worn last night from the floor. On her way through the living room she tossed it over the back of the couch, telling herself to hang it up later.

Reaching the front door, Shiho looked through the peephole and suddenly wished to go back to bed and hide underneath the covers.

On the other side of the door stood not only Keiko, but Ezaria as well.

Drawing back from the door, Shiho covered her mouth with her hand to hide a gasp. Her heart started to beat in a mad rhythm and she felt like she was only moments away from hyperventilating.

Her mother. Yzak's mother. Two mothers outside her door.

At that moment being ripped apart by two starved lions was preferable. Not that Ezaria and Keiko were that far from it.

Okay, I'll make up an excuse and get them to leave, Shiho thought and took a deep breath.

Clearly in denial about how naïve she was to believe that her plan would actually work, she opened the door.

"Mother, Ezaria... how... um, early," Shiho greeted with a much too hesitant voice. She smiled nervously when both Keiko and Ezaria looked at her attire and seemed rather puzzled by it. "I was taking a shower."

"I can see that," Keiko said in a dry tone.

"Honey, are you feeling better?" Ezaria asked in a much more sweet and motherly tone. "I know a lot happened last night with the party and Yzak..."

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Shiho assured with the biggest fake smile she could muster. Maybe that's why they were there, to make her feel better about Yzak's supposed infidelity. If only she could convince them that she was alright they might leave. "I'm perfectly fine, really. Just... gonna finish my shower, that's all."

"Perfect, Ezaria and I will wait here until you're done! We figured that the best way to make use of a good Sunday is to go shopping!"

The thought of hiding underneath the covers never sounded more tempting. Especially when Shiho felt like she had the word "Fear" written all over her face upon hearing her mother's plans for the day. As if yesterday was not enough, her mother wanted to go shopping again? But the shopping part was not even the worst part.

"W...wait here?" Shiho stuttered and remembered the still sleeping Yzak in the bedroom. "Why don't you two go downstairs and wait in the limo? I'll be done in a minute and come down as soon as I can."

Keiko raised an eye brow lightly.

"Well, that's just silly," she dismissed. "If you're almost done we'll just wait here and then go downstairs together."

Ignoring Shiho's protest and the fact that Shiho hadn't actually stepped aside, Keiko pushed past her and walked right into the apartment. Ezaria followed, leaving Shiho standing by the door with her mouth half open in shock. As soon as her mind began to function again, she quickly shut the door and hurried after her mother. In the short period of time that Shiho had left her mother out of sight, Keiko had already walked into the living room and to the couch.

It was with pure dread that Shiho watched her mother pick up the dress.

"Goodness!" Keiko exclaimed. "Shiho, after all the trouble I went through trying to find a dress yesterday you just toss it here on the couch like it's a..."

"I'll go and hang it up right away, mother," Shiho cut off and darted in front of her mother had taken the first step towards the bedroom since the closet was located there.

But Keiko just dismissed her attempts to take the dress with a wave of her hand.

"I might as well do it for you. I need to take another look at your closet anyway..."

"Really mother, you don't need to..."

Despite that Shiho actually placed herself in Keiko's way in an attempt to block her, in the end there was nothing she could do about it. Before she knew it she was covering her face with her hand in order to avoid witnessing the scene unfolding before her. In other words, watching Ezaria and Keiko react to finding Yzak sleeping in her bed.

Everything was quiet save for the slow breaths Yzak took in his sleep. When Shiho finally dared to look up she saw the two shocked faces of the two older women. They spotted the sandals Shiho had worn last night lie on the floors as if they had been kicked off in a hurry and remembered the dress just hanging over the back of the couch. There was actually a very logical, not to mention true, explanation to everything but at that point Shiho wondered if the truth would even help.

Taking a deep breath, Shiho's gaze met her mother's.

"We'll wait in the car," Keiko mouthed and put the dress down quickly without the slightest thought of hanging it up.

She and Ezaria quickly hurried out of the bedroom.

"Leave him here and let him sleep in," Ezaria whispered on her way out. "Otherwise he gets a bit cranky."

Before Shiho had the chance to protest, explain the situation or just plain deny things, Ezaria and Keiko were already out of the apartment. They closed the door quietly after themselves, as if not wanting to disturb them. Again, nothing except for Yzak's breathing could be heard. Shiho crossed her arms, doing her best to resist screaming out her frustration and breaking the silence. But then again there were so many other things that were much more fun to break.

This is so NOT the way things are supposed to happen!

Marching into the bedroom, Shiho climbed onto the bed.

"Yzak!" she yelled, grabbing hold of his shoulder to wake him up. "Bastard! Get up! Do you have any idea what..."

Her words vanished into thin air as she felt herself being flipped over on her back. Landing on the mattress with a dull thud coupled with the sudden weight of another on top of her, Shiho felt like the whole world suddenly flipped upside down. It took her a moment or two to recover and when she was finally lucid enough to make any sense of what was happening, the first thing she thought that for being such a heavy sleeper Yzak was very alert.

He was pinning her down with his own body, making her unable to move. Her hands were held above her head and fastened with his left hand while the other pushed at her shoulder to prevent her from attempting to rise from the bed. Shiho couldn't do anything but stare at him. The moment she had touched his shoulder he had suddenly awoken and wrestled her down to his advantage, as if he expected anyone to try to wake him to be an enemy. Either that was the result of the military training he had received or this was what Ezaria meant when she said that he became cranky if he wasn't allowed to sleep in.

After staring aimlessly for a few seconds, Yzak blinked and his eyes widened in surprise like he had just seen her for the first time that day.

"Shiho?"

"Wow, it's the morning after and you still remember my name!" Shiho exclaimed in a false surprised tone. "I was that good, huh?"

Yzak looked even more surprised and confused for a while, then it was replaced by a scowl as if he was still too sleepy to try to figure out what she was talking about.

"What am I..." he started.

"...doing here?" Shiho finished for him. "Apparently you fell asleep last night when I went looking for the salve. It took like... what? Three seconds? Guess someone isn't used to staying up that late."

Yzak's eyes narrowed in anger and she could see how his anger rose as he gritted his teeth. Not to mention that his grip on her wrist tightened to the point where it was almost painful. Shiho responded by digging her nails into his hand as hard as she could, but considering she kept her nails short it made little difference and Yzak showed no signs of even feeling anything.

"What the hell is your problem?" he hissed like she was the one with the attitude.

"Do you have any idea what just happened!" Shiho retorted. "Our mothers came in here and saw you asleep here in my bed! They think you slept here!"

His skin tone turning completely white and feeling how his body became rigid, Shiho could at least be happy that Yzak was looking just as devestated as she felt. Still, part of her felt some anger towards him for sleeping through the whole ordeal with their mothers while she had been the one to witness it and not to mention that she would be the one to face them later on. It just wasn't fair, then again her plan failing wasn't exactly fair either.

If there was a God he had a very bad sense of humor.

"Mo... our... why..." Yzak stuttered incoherently, all colors still drained from his face. "...what?"

"Let's put it like this... from the conclusions they came to they're now pretty much sure that we've made up."

Yzak's face turned from white to deep red and he quickly pulled away from Shiho, who sat up again. While she massaged her wrists, Yzak displayed his knowledge of a surprising amount of foul words, even for him.

"Well, I feel the same way," Shiho snorted and got up from the bed. She pulled out some clothes out of her closet and spoke as she went into the bathroom. "They're waiting for me, not sure where they're taking me. The spare keys are in the drawer, wait at least fifteen minutes after I leave before you go... to make sure that they don't see you."

Yzak frowned.

"Is that really necessary?"

"Would you rather leave now and let them catch you?"

There was a short moment of realization and a look of utter horror came across Yzak's face.

"Point taken."

"Remind me that in the future I should just ignore the doorbell and never open the front door again. Our plan blew up in our faces... as again. We need to talk."

Shiho emerged from the bathroom, dressed in a pair of jeans and a grey V-neck sweater. Her long hair was put up in a ponytail, which Yzak noted was rather unusual for her. She reached out her hand and handed Yzak a tissue. After taking it hesitantly, Yzak saw that there were smudgy numbers written on it by lipstick.

"That's my number, call me in a few hours," Shiho said in a voice that told Yzak that he had no other choice. "We need to talk."

Turning around, she picked up her bag and her keys before disappearing out of sight. A few moments later Yzak heard the front door open and being closed. Taking a deep breath, Yzak collapsed on the bed as if he had been drained of all his strength. Glancing at the alarm clock beside the bed, he saw that it was only 10:30 a.m. He had been awake for less than ten minutes and already those ten minutes had felt like hell.

It made him wonder what the rest of the day would be like.

That, and how Sunday mornings could start out so bad.

I will not run and scream. I will not run and scream. I will not...

"Shiho dear, what do you think about this one?"

Opening her eyes, Shiho faced Ezaria who was holding up a long wedding dress before her. It was not that bad, except that the sleeves would make anyone look like they had two bloated, giant marshmellows for arms.

Please let me run and scream.

"It's... um.." Shiho focused her eyes on the dress in order to avoid looking at Ezaria's hopeful face.

"It's lovely Ezaria, but I think that it will be a little too warm?" Keiko said, appearing out of nowhere with a long, folded veil hanging over her arm. "It's a summer wedding afterall."

"Yes, you're right," Ezaria agreed, looking at the dress with much less enthusiasm. "I saw a wonderful strapless dress back there, I'll go get it!"

Much to Shiho's relief Ezaria immediately disappeared with the horrible dress, with Kevin following her closely. Taking a deep breath, Shiho plopped down at the nearest chair, picking up the first thing she could grab from a stack of magazines. She flipped through the pages and wrinkled her nose when all she saw were images of different bride dresses. Quickly putting the magazine back, she found herself very annoyed at the fact that there was nothing else to read in a bridal shop.

In the corner of her eye she saw her mother look at her somewhat strangely before sitting down in the chair next to her.

"You're in a bad mood today," Keiko pointed out bluntly.

"I don't really get what I am doing here," Shiho answered, crossing her arms. "I'm picking a dress for a wedding to a guy who cheated on me."

She prayed that the sour tone she used would convince her mother of how much of a bad idea this whole thing was. It didn't.

"Oh. for heaven's sake!" Keiko rolled her eyes. "Must you be so sensitive? Yzak didn't actually cheat on you! He just happened to have kept that woman's phone number and..."

"Call her once a month?" Shiho snapped, seemingly very upset but inwards she was surprised at how easy it was to get into this charade. "Mom, how would you react if dad had kept contact with a girlfriend he had before you two got married?"

"Nonsense! Your father would never do such thing! I don't really understand why you are so upset now, you seemed to have forgiven Yzak quite easily from what we saw this morning."

Shiho felt blood rushing to her cheeks and mentally scolded herself for being embarrased about something that hadn't actually happened. Her reaction was noticed by Keiko, who wasted no time before putting on a smug look on her face.

"It wasn't what you think..." Shiho began, looking at her hands.

"Oh shush, we all know it was," Keiko cut off and dismissed the truth with a wave of her hand.

Before Shiho had the change to say anything else, Ezaria reappeared in front of them carrying yet another bridal dress.

"What do you think?" she asked, her face glowing with happiness and enthusiasm. "Isn't it just lovely? Oh, how I would love to be in your shoes again, just one week before the wedding!"

Shiho forced a smile to her lips.

Yeah... great. Just great.

It was two hours later, although it felt like much more, that Shiho saw the light of the day as she exited the bridal shop. The warm light of the sun and the slow summer breeze were welcome after having to look at dress after dress and then finally having her measurements taken. There had been a lot of fuss about the dress and in the end it was all unnecessary, because Keiko and Ezaria had ordered a special designed one instead. From the sketches she had been shown Shiho couldn't notice a thing about it that made it different from all the other dresses she had seen that day. Ezaria and Keiko, however, had clearly seen something she hadn't.

"What wonderful lace! And the embroidery will look absolutely marvellous!"

"We couldn't have found a better designer! I can't wait to see the dress when it's finished!"

Yeah... then why don't you get married instead? Shiho thought with a sour look on her face, trailing behind her mother and future mother-in-law as they walked down the street.

In the corner of her eye she saw Kevin the bodyguard looking strangely at her, suspicion burning through his large sunglasses and making Shiho shiver. She had the distinct feeling that he was trying to assess whether this newcomer to the Jule family would jeopardize Ezaria's security or not. All the confidence that came from being a ZAFT elite soldier instantly disappeared and Shiho began to walk with her hands in her pockets and a lowered gaze.

"Ah, here we are!"

Shiho looked up. Her mother had stopped in front of a store with a small sign made of dark wood. She joined her mother's side to look at what sort of store it was. Through the window she could see numerous flowers and greens, arranged in all sorts of ways in different vases and fastened in bouquets. Upon taking a closer look, she noticed the lack of customers.

"Mom, it's Sunday, I think it's closed," she pointed out while trying her best not to show her yawn.

"Silly girl, of course it's closed," Keiko said and rolled her eyes. "I called the store owner and got him to open it just for us."

A short man wearing a white shirt with his sleeves rolled up opened the door for them.

"Mrs Hahnenfuss, Mrs Jule, welcome," he greeted with a smile.

"Good morning Geoffrey, how have you been?" Keiko asked politely.

"Wonderful, ma'am. Please come in!"

Shiho rolled her eyes. Her mother and Ezaria headed inside first, followed closely by Kevin. Shiho was about to enter as well when she heard the familiar ringing of her cell phone. Digging through her purse, she found her cell phone quickly and flipped the cover open.

"Hello?"

"There. I called."

After all she had been through, getting to hear Yzak's cranky voice like receiving a gift from the above.

"Great, you're taking me out for coffee," Shiho decided. She looked at the sign above the store. "I'm at Elanor's Flowers, pick me up here as soon as you can."

She could hear Yzak's frustrated sigh.

"Why can't you just say whatever you have to say on the phone?" he questioned. "I don't want to face my mother, or yours, right now after what they saw this morning. And where the hell is Elanor's Flowers anyway?"

Not unexpectedly Yzak's voice was starting to sound less like it had been godsent. Closing her eyes, Shiho took a deep breath. Inhaling fresh air was supposed to have a soothing effect and at the moment she felt like she needed a strong dose to keep herself from throwing the cell phone on the ground and stomping on it.

"One, you did not just spend two hours trying on every dress in the bridal shop only to have them going for a special designed on that you'll have to try on when it's done!" Shiho hissed. "Second, do you really think I wanted to face them this morning, much less pick out what flowers they want for the wedding? And third... use the goddamn phone book!"

With that she hung up and dropped her phone back into the purse. Taking another deep breath and bracing herself for at least another hour of wedding arrangements, she turned around and headed into the shop. A small bell rung as she opened the door, alerting everyone of her presence. Strangely enough they only cast a quick glance before going back to Geoffrey explaining the artistic process behind every wedding flower arrangement he had been involved in. Relieved, Shiho stuck her hands in her pockets and pretended to admire a bouquet of pink roses while glancing at her watch occasionally.

"And this is what I had planned for the war memorial... it's only a few days left so things are pretty hectic but rest assured that I will work just as much on your daughter's wedding..."

Geoffrey babbled on.

Five minutes passed without anything changing. Then ten minutes and after that fifteen.

Sometime, while Ezaria stood admiring a grand flower arrangement, Keiko approached Shiho.

"Phone call?" she said curiously.

"Yes," Shiho answered briefly.

"From Yzak?"

"Yes."

"Good," Keiko smiled, genuinely pleased. "See, I knew you would work things out. Remember that one mistake does not define a man. Marriage is all about comprimises and learning to love and accept each other. Forgiving and forgetting."

Shiho opened her mouth to answer but could not come up with anything to say if her life depended on it. Her own mother was standing right in front of her and telling that it was okay for her fiancé to cheat on her. Not that Yzak actually had and Shiho could really care less, but hearing those words made her pulse quicken in anger.

"Mother, I..."

Before she could say anything the bell rang again, signalling another person entering the store. Looking over her shoulder, Shiho saw that it was Yzak, who looked slightly awkward as he came in with a somewhat lowered gaze.

"Ah, Yzak!" Ezaria exclaimed, walking over to her son and giving him two airy kisses on the cheek. "You are up now? How is your face? Is it still hurting..."

"Yes mother, I'm fine," Yzak replied affectionate, yet stopped his mother from touching the sore mark on his face. "I just came here to pick up Shiho for some coffee."

He looked straight at her but she turned her eyes away, her cheeks flushed red.

"Well, we can manage things here, right?" Ezaria asked and turned to Keiko who nodded in agreement. "Unless you want to stay here and look around a bit more, Shiho?"

"No, I have full confidence that you will pick something much better than I ever can," Shiho said with a forced smile, delibarately walking past her mother and only lookng at Ezaria as she spoke. Avoiding her mother's watchful eyes, she hooked her arm with Yzak's.

"Very well," Ezaria smiled. "Do you two have any special place you'd like to go to?"

Yzak and Shiho looked at each other, none of them answering. Ezaria clamped her hands together like a cheerful little girl.

"Great! I know this perfect place for you..."

"Well, at least this didn't turn out so bad..."

"Remind me to thank your mother."

"Mmm."

"Hand me that one will you?"

"Mmm."

"Yzak! I want to try it to!"

Reaching over almost the entire table, Shiho managed to scoop up a small piece of butter cake with royal icing onto her spoon. She fell back onto the chair, bringing the spoon to her mouth and taking a few seconds to taste the cake.

"No... too sweet."

Yzak pulled the plate protectively closer to him, as if he was afraid that Shiho was going to pull the same stunt again despite her disapproval of the cake.

"Stop stealing my cake if you don't like it!" he snapped.

"Yzak, we're supposed taste every cake!" Shiho retorted. "Not just stick to one like it's your baby blanket!"

Glaring at Shiho, Yzak put the plate down.

"Fine."

They both looked over the table, which was full of small plates with different sorts of small cakes. They had been rather worried when Ezaria had suggested that they should go to a certain address but she had sent them to a confectioner's shop. Twenty different sample cakes had been prepared there and were simply waiting to be eaten. As much as Shiho resented the whole situation, she had to admit that this was by far the best thing that had happened that day.

"So your mother thinks it's okay?" Yzak asked, reaching for the banana walnut cake with vanilla butter cream. "My so called infidelity?"

"Perfectly alright to her," Shiho murmured with a slight shrug. "I should have known it wouldn't have worked on her."

Yzak noticed something different about her tone. In those few words she had spoken he detected a certain somberness, one that he was curious about but he did not felt like pushing the issue. Instead he pushed the plate with the banana walnut cake towards her and she scooped up a bite of it. He watched her close her eyes, truly enjoying the flavors of the cake.

"Hm... this one is good."

"So what do we do now?" Yzak questioned. "This plan isn't working either."

Shiho opened her eyes.

"Don't worry, I got another one."

Yzak stared at her blankly as she picked up her cell phone. She dialled a number he didn't recognize and waited eagerly for the other person to pick up so that he could find out who it was. After a few long ringtones, he heard a voice at the other end.

"Hello mother," Shiho greeted with a clearly exaggerated, happy voice. "I just wanted to call and tell you that Yzak and I won't be joining you and father for dinner tonight. ... We got plans. ... Nope, they can't be cancelled! Oh, almost forgot, we won't be able to make it tomorrow either. ... We got plans. Mother, please don't get so upset. I really get what you were saying earlier, about compromising. Well, I think it's time we start to compromise a little more. Yzak and I just need a little more time together. I have to go now, bye bye!"

She hung up the phone quickly and pressed a few more buttons before putting the cell phone back in her bag. Once she was done, she turned to Yzak who was looking at her with an utterly confused look on his face.

"Turn off the sound on your cell," she ordered.

"Why?" Yzak asked suspiciously.

"Any moment my mother is going to start calling me back because she doesn't believe that this discussion is over," Shiho explained. "And since I switched onto silent mode and won't answer her calls, she'll ask your mother to start calling you excessively."

Understanding her point, Yzak turned off his phone immediately.

"Do you even know what you're doing? You're just pissing our parents off by ditching them."

"Well, aren't we such bad influences on each other? Ignoring our parents just for the sake of spending time alone. Imagine the uproar now, what on earth will they do if we get married?"

"Have a fit and kill us both?" Yzak suggested in a dry tone.

"Or decide that we might just be too good together than they want us to." Shiho pulled another cake towards her, looking very smug. "The rest of today and tomorrow is parent free... and the more we convince them we're out on our own and couldn't care less about them, the more they'll hate this arrangement."

Before Yzak knew it she had pushed a spoon with a piece of chocolate cake into his mouth.

He stared at her blankly.

She smiled.

"...piece of cake."