Yay! Reviews!
SeraphimEclipse- It's okay...as long as you're still reading. XD Oh, and the estimate for the length, I put it up in my author bio. It should be there somewhere.
Lomiothiel-YzaknNicol fangirl- Yes, the Dearka Miriallia scene was short, but I purposely cut it off a bit abrupt so that I could address it in this chapter. And Nicol? Of course! Have to put him in somewhere! Lol...
Angel of Dreams- Yes, it's hard...thanks for caring about me! XD And if Yzak asks? My question is will he ever get the chance to ask? Lol...
DarkFusion- Thank you! Such a nice compliment...lol. And Andy? Hm...I'll need to think about that...the problem though is that I'm not exactly sure about what he does after the war. Need to do some research...
Thanks also to King Arthur6687, (the smiling happy face), Prayer Reverie, nifer-inc, cherri-chan, mal, Annie, M.S Arashi Sumeragi, and Miss Akira. (Everyone, rite?)
Yes, yes, everyone wants to know about the pajama incident. It will be somewhere in the chapter. Well then, let's get going!
CH. 16: So Close
"Hey, Arabella...um...Caga...I mean, Nora said..." Kira stammered.
"No, that's not the way to do it!" Cagalli reproached him. "You really are a bad liar, aren't you Kira?"
"Well..." Kira scratched his head, embarrassed.
"Okay, let's try it one more time." Cagalli sighed exasperated. The group had locked themselves in the dining room, practicing. Of course, Kira and Lacus already had a plan. But that had been the easy part. The hard part was to make a believable lie for Arabella to fall for. With Kira and his pathetic lying skills, things weren't looking so bright.
"I don't think we have much time left." Lacus remarked. "Let's just try with what we have already."
"Fine, fine, but don't blame me if your plan doesn't work." Cagalli pouted.
"I'm sure they'll manage." Elise smiled. "By the way, we never reviewed what went on yesterday."
"Well, we didn't find much." Lacus confessed. "But we came across the words 'Shantela Neutrality Treaty'. Does that mean anything?"
"Well, I know Bella signed it for sure." Elise pondered. "It had something to do with the war, but I have no idea about the details. It's definitely a lead though." Elise told reassuringly.
"Well, I'm glad that we're useful somewhat."
"Don't worry about it. With the way things are hidden here, it's surprising that you even found that." Elise encouraged.
"Well, I'm glad that we have a start." Cagalli commented. "And as for our plan, well, you all know how it turned out."
"I guess it was a success, although little expense in Athrun's part of course." Elise snickered.
"By the way, what was that about your pajamas?" Kira asked.
"Nothing, nothing..." Athrun suddenly became very defensive.
"Oh," Dearka laughed, "Athrun wore a..." The next second, his mouth was completely covered by Athrun's hands.
"You tell them, and I'll let them know about what you always went to bed with..." Athrun whispered threateningly.
"Oh, right..." Dearka sweat-dropped nervously. "Never mind everyone, I don't really know..."
"Well, I doubt it's really important anyways...oh and, it's off time for me today right...well then, I'll see you guys around later!" With that, Athrun rushed out the door.
"Athrun Zala, you get back here!" Cagalli ran after him. Everyone else naturally sweat-dropped."
"Hi Kira, what are you doing all by yourself?" Arabella asked curiously.
"Well...um...Cagalli is up to mischief as usual, dragging Athrun along with her, Dearka and Milly disappeared, and um...I've been looking for Lacus." Kira went on, trying to sound casual.
"Oh, want me to help look for her?" Arabella offered.
"No, that's fine." Kira declined. Now came the hard part. "Um...Nora...asked me to tell you that the garden's going to be rearranged soon, and she wanted you to go see and make some suggestions to her later..." He managed to spit it out.
"Oh." Arabella remarked, confused. "Why all of the sudden? I thought we usually don't bother with that until spring. And where's Nora right now?"
"Well, I'm just the messenger." Kira tried to make his shrug seem as natural as possible. "And as for Nora, Elise dragged her out to go shopping with her at the last minute." The last part came easy, because it was true. Elise managed to get her grandmother "out of the way" so that they could initiate the plan. Arabella looked at Kira closely. Although she didn't quite believe him, she doubted that Kira would lie...
"Alright then, I'll just go now. Would you like to come with me?" She suggested.
"No, I'm fine." Kira managed to breath a sigh of relief as Arabella went on her way. He didn't blow it this time.
"Athrun Zala, you better come out here right now!" Cagalli stomped across the corridors, her temper evident, causing everyone within range to cringe. "If you think you could hide from me, you got another thing coming!"
Cagalli poked her head into every room, trying to see if he hid in there. "He has to be here somewhere..." She sighed, exasperated.
Little did she know, Athrun had run to his room and hid himself in the closet. Now he just sat there, making sure not to make too much noise. He was so embarrassed. Not only because of the pajama of course, but also because of the situation he just got himself into. The once legendary pilot of ZAFT hiding in a closet because of some girl? Good thing Yzak wasn't here to witness this. Athrun couldn't help but smirk when Yzak's name came up. Oh, he would have his share of torture as well...
"Found you!" Cagalli screamed as she opened the closet door wide, shocking Athrun, and causing him to roll out of there, hitting his head on a bedpost.
"Ouch..." Athrun rubbed his head.
"Oh my...Athrun, are you all right?" Cagalli asked, momentarily forgetting her anger. "Here, let me take a look at it." She approached him, and then gently parted his hair to get a better view. In the meantime, Athrun blushed madly, seeing that Cagalli stood so close... "I think it's okay." Cagalli remarked as she began to step away, satisfying, or rather, disappointing Athrun. "Why did you have to run away like that?" Cagalli reproached, remembering why she chased him around. "I mean, it can't be that embarrassing..." Cagalli stopped, noticing something at the corner of the closet. "Is that...is that..." Cagalli burst out laughing, much to Athrun's embarrassment. In the darkest corner of the closet, there laid a set of blue pajamas, covered all over with cute little yellow duckies.
"Hm...the red roses could go here, the white ones could go in the other section..." Arabella contemplated, as she walked through the huge garden.
"Now where in the world could that thing be..." Arabella paused and looked up when she heard the voice.
"Yzak, what are you doing? I've never seen you walk out here before."
"I'm only out here because Yamato's girlfriend seems to have lost one of her hairpins." He answered, exasperated. "I would have told her to go find it herself, but she looked so pathetic that I said I'll help look for it."
"That's not a nice thing to say about Lacus!" She scolded. "Must you always criticize everyone?"
"Why not?" Yzak smirked.
"Because no one's perfect. I'm sure you make a lot of mistakes yourself." Arabella retorted back.
"So?"
Arabella sighed. "It's nice talking to you, but sometimes you're so frustrating."
"That's the whole point."
Arabella rolled her eyes, and started walking away. Yzak followed. "Where are you going?" Not that he really cared of course.
"I need to check out the fountain area." Arabella replied.
"There's a fountain here?"
"Yes. In fact, you might find Lacus's hairpin there. She seemed to go there often."
"Fine. But I'm only going with you so that I could find the thing and go about my own business." He grudgingly replied.
"Suit yourself."
"Miriallia, we need to talk."
Miriallia dropped the book she held. She knew it would eventually come to this, but she never wanted to admit it...The whole time she and Dearka stayed alone in the library, she kept her nose in the books, afraid that something like this would happen...
"So..." Dearka stammered nervously, "what do you think of me..."
She hid her face with the book again, not wanting him to see her expression. What could she say that will not let her betray herself and Tolle, and not hurt Dearka at the same time? Was it possible? She didn't want to hurt anyone, but she didn't have very many options.
"Because...well...you already know how I think about you..." Dearka finished.
A long pause followed. Miriallia was tense, trying to figure out what to say, and how to say it. In truth, she didn't really understand just exactly what she felt. She really did love Tolle at one time. But Dearka...there was definitely something there too. Caught in between the middle. She couldn't let go, but she couldn't stay. Slowly, she started to speak.
"To tell you the truth Dearka, I don't know. I don't know what I'm feeling right now. Everything's so confusing. I did start to let go, I really did...but...right now, I just want to be by myself for awhile. Tolle...it was just so tragic. I need time to be alone, to strengthen myself..."
"Miriallia, look at me." When she didn't, he gently grabbed her chin and faced her towards him. "I understand." He reassured her, although he did look a bit disappointed. "I never expected you to change so easily. If I thought that you're so fickle, I wouldn't have liked you in the first place." He paused. "I...I just want you to know that I'll be waiting..." He wiped the single tear falling from Miriallia's eye, and then backed away to his own little corner, leaving her to ponder on her own.
"Admit it Yzak, it is impressive."
The two started to approach the fountain, staring at the two magnificent angels staring at each other at the very top of it. "I don't really change anything here." Arabella told Yzak. "It's perfect the way it is."
"Why?" Yzak asked.
"Well, you might think that the reason's too sentimental..." She started to blush. "But this is the place where my father proposed to my mother. By keeping it exactly the way it was before, I remember just how happy we all used to be..."
"What happened to them?" Yzak suddenly asked.
"It's...it's a long story." She suddenly became defensive. "Oh, look. There's Lacus's hairpin." She pointed, changing the subject in the process. Sure enough, it laid at the edge of the fountain, very innocently. "Let's go get it!" Arabella ran, followed right behind by Yzak. "Here it...whoa..."
Arabella, at the very edge of the fountain, slipped, and fell into the water, dragging Yzak, who instinctively tried to support her, with her. Both emerged a couple seconds later, soaking wet. "It's...cough...a good thing...cough...that it's not too deep...cough...because I can't swim..." She remarked, shivering. Yzak nodded his head, trying to put on a smirk, although he was freezing himself.
"Well then, it was a good thing that I was here..." He stopped, seeing just how close her face was underneath him. He started to lower his face slowly...
"Princess!" The two moved away from each other suddenly, and in a matter of seconds, Nora showed up right around the corner. "Princess, I've been looking all over for you..." She paused, seeing how drenched the two of them were. "What happened?"
"Well, I accidentally slipped, and Yzak tried to catch me, but instead I dragged him into the fountain with me." Arabella explained, trying not to blush.
"Oh, I see." Nora replied, although there were glints in her eyes. "I needed to talk to you about the upcoming ball..."
"Oh, all right." Arabella replied. "I'll go with you." She turned around to face Yzak, at the same time trying not to seem too embarrassed. "I'll...um...I'll see you later." With that, she left, leaving Yzak, who was still in a bit of a haze.
"That was so close." Lacus pouted, while coming out of their hiding place in between some shrubs. Kira nodded his head in agreement.
"At least it's getting somewhere."
"I guess so. It's just that it was so close...and what about all that hard work you did waxing the marble floor?"
Hahaha.....did you really think they were going to kiss in this chapter? Lol...that's not going to happen for a LONG time...lol
And of course, my usual, "how was the chapter?" question pops in again...lol.
Oh, and sorry for the late update...really really busy...too much reading...ugh...but I'll try to update at least once per week.
Next up is Miriallia and Dearka's plan, but will they be able to complete it well with what's going on between them? And of course, it's Lacus and Kira's free day, so what will they do? And what will Athrun and Cagalli stumble upon in their research?
Oh, and the short summary for Butterfly should be up by now in my author bio. Should I write that one in the future? Of course, I'm not going to start anything new until I finish this one (this one is enough work as it is...lol) but I want to know for future references.
And of course, thank you for reading! )