Time for an update…
Kausi- Ray crying? Where?
xxravenwingxx- Yes, evil enough to make someone like her…that's Lucia alright. XD
Hana Tenshi & Lila- As to what's going on with Cagalli…well, she's a bit depressed (actually, stressed would be a better term). She's basically confused, (she is naïve after all) and the teasing and the gloomy atmosphere is making her feel pressured. Hope she gets out of it! XD
Angelren- You made a good point. But the thing is that Yzak does get into Arabella's origins. It's just that it's a bit more subtle (my apologies for not making some of them clearer). The first part of chapter 4, Yzak makes a very interesting comment, in chapter 7 Yzak does seem quite amused, but it's evident that there's a superiority issue there, the sarcasm in chapter 15 when they are stuck together…there are a couple more places, but I'm just pointing out a few. But since you pointed it out, I'll try to make the conflict more obvious. Thank you! XD
Leshyaedawnfire- Yes, Nicol would do something like that…XD. And I'm happy that you understand that characters do need to be tortured a bit. It's not because I dislike them that I do that, but it's because I like them that I do that (I want them to improve). Nice to see someone who understands that. Thanks!
xiaoj- ?…didn't see that one coming…
Zer0 Touma- Like you said, you couldn't really think up a decent flame. You should have waited until you did. Besides, I appreciate constructive criticism, but flames are different stories. So why are you disappointed about the fic again? Oh, that's right. The gift scenes. Has it occurred to you just how long they knew each other? Ok, so the ZAFT boys had been in the same squad…but they haven't always been buddy-buddy with each other (Athrun and Yzak for example). Besides, they recently crash landed in the middle of nowhere, got into trouble for trespassing, etc…gifts are probably not the first things in their minds. Oh, and the fic is "nice-ish", you say? Well, I suppose it's my fault for putting most of the fluff and humor in the beginning, but have you considered what's been going on in their minds? Not so nice and fluffy in there all the time. Besides, consider their ages. Will there seriously not be even a hint of fluff within their actions?
Even disregarding all of that, if you were truly attempting to give constructive criticism, it wouldn't have been too much trouble to say why there seemed to be no thought put in, why the story seems "cheesy", why the story seems "spontaneous", and what could be done to improve. In fact, even addressing one of these would have been satisfactory. But since that wasn't the case, it was a pointless, derogatory flame (redundancy there just in case), a waste of a review, and a waste of time.
Thanks also to King Arthur6687, Eternal Affinity, Dark Devotions, Angel of Dreams, itsumo, Kagome1992, …, destiny gundam, Silverfox190, Absolute-Darkness, emily, Kaori, Dearbz, and to anyone else that reviewed if I happened to accidentally miss them in the list.
Oh, and apologies to everyone else for the review section today. I didn't want to make it so long…but well, it just happened that way. I also hope that I didn't sound too bitter…I guess my patience is starting to wear thin in dealing with such things. (It might have been also because of the frustration with trying to be true to the planned story while taking in suggestions…second pairs of opinions are always good though. XD)
Ok, so apologizing again and again, and finally on to the story…
Ch. 23: Disputes and Citron Tea
"Um…Miriallia? What are you doing?"
"Sh!!!" Miriallia warned.
"Eh?" Dearka remarked, completely clueless.
"I'm spying on them." Miriallia pointed towards Lacus and Kira, who seemed to be just out of earshot.
"Is Cagalli rubbing off on you?" Dearka asked, half jokingly, and half seriously, in fear that his statement might actually be true.
"Don't make fun of Cagalli. Especially when she's not in the best of moods right now." Miriallia reproached them.
"All right, all right." Dearka raised his hand in defeat.
"I'm really worried about her though." Miriallia continued on.
"Don't be too worried. I'm sure she'll get better. At least, as long as Athrun's in the scene." Dearka reassured her.
Miriallia laughed. "I guess so. Those two always seem to work things out."
"Good. No more worrying now." Dearka smiled. "So what were you saying about Lacus and Kira again?"
"Oh." Miriallia came back to the matter at hand. "I can't see them very well from here, but if I get any closer, they'll see me…" Dearka suddenly scooped Miriallia into his arms. "Dearka Elthman! What do you think you're doing?!" Miriallia protested, struggling to get away.
"Stop struggling, or they'll hear you."
"I could care less if they hear me now!" Miriallia yelled.
"I'm just helping you climb this tree."
"???"
Sure enough, the two of them were currently standing next to a tall tree. Dearka chuckled, as Miriallia looked away in embarrassment. "Well, you could have at least warned me before…" She stammered.
"I guess I couldn't help myself." Dearka smirked. "So, shall we?" He asked, offering his hand.
"Well…alright…" Miriallia replied, still a bit flustered. "But I'm warning you, if you try anything funny…"
"I won't, I won't…" Dearka sighed in defeat. "You should know by now that I'm quite capable of being a gentleman."
Miriallia rolled her eyes, but proceeded to allow Dearka to help her up the tree.
"All right, let's see what's going on." Dearka remarked, as he sat down on a branch, right next to Miriallia.
Sure enough, Kira and Lacus were sitting across from each other, with a round table in the middle. "More tea, Kira?" Lacus asked, holding a cute flower teapot.
"Um…sure." Kira answered.
"Tea?" Miriallia and Dearka stated in unison up in the tree. Luckily, neither of the two below heard them.
"I was originally going to get green tea, but one of the maids recommended this one." Lacus explained. "It's called citron tea. I never tried it myself either, but…"
"I like it." Kira managed to crack a smile.
"Oh, that's good." Lacus smiled happily. "I was worried that you wouldn't…"
"It's a bit sour and bitter, just like anything with citrus. Yet there's an unmistakable sweetness present." Kira sighed. "Just like so many people…"
"Bitter-sweet. All those memories are bitter-sweet." Lacus replied. "But maybe just like this tea, the sweetness might one day dispel all the bitterness…"
A loud thumps was heard, causing the two to turn around. "Stupid Dearka, why did you have to fool around…" Miriallia reproached, rubbing her hurt head.
"Um…Miriallia…" Dearka pointed behind her, right at Kira and Lacus, who stared at them, bewildered.
"I'm not done with you…oh…um…hi you two…" Miriallia stammered nervously. Seeing Kira and Lacus.
Lacus smiled. "Would you two care to join us?"
Athrun walked towards Cagalli's room. It had been three days since that incident. Of course, there had been no trace of Lucia since then, and even Ray seemed to have decided to stay away for a while lest Cagalli starts getting riled up again. Personally Athrun had nothing against Ray in terms of personality. Yet he couldn't trust him completely. His behavior seemed…well…odd sometimes. But of course, compared to Lucia, the guy was a saint.
"Cagalli, are you inside?" He gently knocked at the door.
"I think she went outside."
"Oh, hi Arabella." Athrun greeted her, as she passed by him.
"Nice day to you too." She replied back. "By the way, have you seen Nora?"
"No, sorry."
"That's fine." She replied. Pausing for a few moments, she continued. "Is Cagalli feeling better?"
"Yea, she is." He lied. There was no point in worrying others unnecessarily.
Arabella gave him a disbelieving look, but chose not to say anything more on the subject. "Well, if you see her…"
"Hey, what are you two talking about?" Arabella and Athrun turned around to see Cagalli looking at them in amusement.
"Oh, there you are Cagalli. Athrun here was looking for you." Arabella explained. "By the way, have you seen Nora anywhere?"
"Nope." Cagalli replied with a huge smile. "But I'll tell you if I see her."
"Um…okay. Thanks!" With that Arabella went on her way.
Athrun watched the exchange between those too. Cagalli seemed cheerful. Too cheerful. She was faking it.
"Cagalli, could you tell me what's on your mind?" Athrun practically begged, once Arabella was out of sight. "I don't want you to be like this…"
"I'm thinking Mr. Zala. I'll tell you when I'm good and ready." Then she suddenly turned back into her happy mode. "I saw the others doing something outside. Let's go check it out!"
Athrun followed along, nodding. He didn't tell Cagalli, but to him, the current situation was remotely frightening.
He was bored beyond belief.
Yzak continued his usual routine pacing around the corridors, a habit he acquired starting three days ago. Why did Arabella have to shut herself in her room again? Preparing for a Senate meeting huh? Well, the senators can go to…
Wait, why did he even bother with this? He didn't need her! There were so many things he could do without…He stopped, trying to think of something he could do. Um…yea…there were so many things he could do…
"Ouch."
Yzak came back to reality, and found that he bumped into Elise. "Watch where you're going!" He yelled, perhaps a bit too harshly. To his surprise, Elise didn't bother to retort back.
"Oh…uh…hi Yzak…uh, what are you doing here?" She stammered nervously.
"Can't a person walk around if he feels like it?" Yzak snidely remarked, although a bit suspicious at Elise's reaction, or rather the lack of it.
"Um…I guess…yea, sure! Yea, got to go!" With that, Elise escaped as if her life depended on it.
Yzak looked after her incredulously. What was going on with her? Is she hiding something? But what? Women were weird…
"Forget it." He decided. Slowly, he walked outside. Maybe the fresh air would do him so good. After a couple minutes, he found Kira, Dearka, Lacus and Miriallia having what seemed like a tea party. Okay, so fresh air might not be the best option right now…
"Hey Yzak!" Dearka spotted him, before he could sneak back inside.
"Oh, hello there." Lacus also greeted him. "Would you like to join us? We would love the company, especially the boys here, who don't seem to be as excited as we are."
"Uh…that's alright." Yzak replied, backing away slowly. "I have other things to do…"
"Well, if you're not going to be here, I suppose it would be alright for me to tell them the story about your hair…" Dearka smirked, practically waving the blackmail material in front of Yzak. Grumbling, Yzak sat down, as Lacus poured him a cup of tea.
"Okay, they should be somewhere around here…" Both Cagalli and Athrun stood wide-mouth, shocked at the sight in front of them. The sight of Yzak holding a cup daintily, and contently sipping tea seemed…well…just wrong.
"Could you pass me some biscuits Lacus?" Yzak asked. Cagalli and Athrun blinked again. "You two could stop looking at me like that." Yzak glared, seeing the two of them.
"Well Yzak, we never thought you've…" Cagalli stammered.
"I don't know about the rest of you, but my mother taught me good manners." Yzak retorted, and then continued to sip his tea.
"Mama's boy." Dearka snickered.
"Shut it."
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. For a minute there, they all thought Yzak had gone a bit psychotic.
"Now, now Yzak. You wouldn't want the others to know, do you?" Dearka teased.
"What are you…oh, I see." Athrun smirked. "So that's what you're blackmailing him with. I knew the behavior was strange…I almost questioned his sanity there."
"Come, join us!" The other two girls suddenly asked, forcing Cagalli to sit next to them.
"Um…I'm going to go now…" Athrun stammered nervously, trying to figure out a way to get away.
"Tea." The girls gave him evil glares. Athrun was forced to prop down next to a chuckling Yzak.
"Zala, if the rest of us have to go through this, you're going to have to suffer as well." He stated in an undertone. Athrun grimaced, wondering what he got himself into.
Lacus suddenly clapped her hands. "All right, now it's story time!"
Elise breathed a sigh of relief as she shut the door behind her. Once she made sure that the door was locked, she took out the documents she had hidden before, and started analyzing them. She hadn't really had many chances to look at them, for fear of Arabella walking in on her, and also because of the errands her grandmother sent her to do. Now Arabella was busy preparing for the meeting, and her grandmother let her off for the rest of the day. Perfect timing.
Sighing, she took out the first treaty. She had read the first few paragraphs a couple times, but couldn't really find anything important. Maybe the second one might help her out.
"In light of the recent disputes in dealing with noticeable discrepancy within this state's policy…"
Elise stopped. She read it again. Something was missing. She read the first one again.
"In light of the recent disputes in dealing with a noticeable discrepancy within this state's policy…"
Elise breathed a sigh of relief. Only an "a" was missing from the second one. "It's probably just a typo. I really need to get a hold on myself." With that, she proceeded to read the second one. A couple paragraphs down she stopped again.
"To end further unnecessary disagreements, and to evade any other forms of descending actions between the parties…"
"Wait, did that even make sense?" Elise flipped backed to the first one.
"To end further unnecessary disagreements, and to evade any other forms of condescending actions between the parties…"
Another typo perhaps? But this was an official document. A copy, yes, but the original was an official one. Was this purposely done? "Is this…some code?" She circled the missing parts, and proceeded to find if there were any others.
"I take it that all of you are having fun."
"Oh, hi Arabella!" The girls greeted her cheerfully, while the guys just acknowledged her with a nod. They were too strained from their ordeal.
"Are you done now? If you are, you can join us." Lacus offered.
"Oh, I'm done." Arabella started to explain. "But now I have to go inside for the actual meeting. Most of the senators are already inside, and I was just looking for Nora. But I suppose I shouldn't be keeping them waiting for long."
Lacus and Cagalli nodded in unison. "We understand." Cagalli stated. "Having to deal with annoying representatives can be quite a headache."
"Headache is an understatement." Arabella smiled. "But well, I got to go now, so have fun."
"Hey, let's go follow her." Cagalli suggested once Arabella was out of earshot.
"Wouldn't we be stepping out of line a bit too much this time?" Kira suggested.
"That's not going to stop Cagalli." Athrun murmured. Cagalli heard it, but didn't bother to reply. Athrun became more disturbed. This was very unlike her…
"Fine, whatever. Let's go." Yzak stated plainly, and proceeded to walk inside, to the surprise of everyone.
"He's probably annoyed with all the hesitation." Athrun stated in an undertone.
"Naw. He just wanted to get away from the tea occasion as soon as possible." Dearka smirked.
"Exactly on time, princess." One of the senators remarked.
"Yes of course." Arabella put on a smile.
"I suppose you like to keep things coordinated." Another senator murmured, yet stated it loud enough for most to hear.
"In one sense." Arabella replied, keeping her composure. "And you naturally want to proceed, of course?"
"Of course."
"Personally, it's quite admirable of the princess to act in such a way." The first senator butted in. "If we wait for everything to happen naturally, nothing will ever progress."
"Now, now, gentlemen, we shouldn't get into disputes over such trivialities." Arabella stopped the exchange before things got out of hand. "Instead, are there any specific issues that needs to be talked about?"
"Obviously, or we wouldn't have called a meeting." Another of them snickered. "But of course, you naturally forgot."
"I was stating a rhetorical question." Arabella replied curtly. "But I suppose trying to keep things too coordinated degrades one's ability to catch such subtlety and deviations."
"Perhaps princess." Another senator started. "But we have a lot to discuss. Starting with those visitors of yours…"
"They're talking about us!" Cagalli commented.
"It seems so."
"By the way Zala, were they saying what I thought they were saying?" Yzak asked Athrun.
"Yes, I think so." He replied.
"Huh? The rest of them asked, not comprehending fully.
"Hm." Yzak turned his back on them, annoyed by their ignorance, and continued to listen to what was going on inside.
"We'll explain later. Now, let's just listen." Athrun told them.
"Why sirs, I didn't think any of you would be interested in my personal matters." Arabella continued.
"I suppose it's not really our place to question." The second senator stated. "But I really doubt if it's to the nation's best interest to have such…well…such people…"
"Are you trying to imply something senator?" Another addressed him coldly.
"Why, nothing at all." He replied sarcastically.
"Truthfully, I didn't see any problems with it." The other senator continued in response to the sarcasm. "But of course, some people seemed to have different opinions. I for one would rather discuss about Senator Yutare's current situation…"
"Well, in response to the first issue, I think most of you are forgetting that a representative of Orb is also staying as my private guest. So if the issue is the type of people that are present, I suggest you keep that in mind." Arabella smiled. "Besides, the war is over, is it not? Such distinctions should not matter so much anymore."
"Yes, well…"
"And in dealing with the second issue that was about to be mentioned…" Arabella continued. "I find no error in my mother's previous decision in keeping Senator Yutare under house arrest, so there isn't much to discuss about that."
"But your highness, it's been such a long time…"
"You are forgetting sir, that there was a reason why he was put under house arrest. A good reason." Her eyes flashed dangerously, daring anyone to challenge that statement. No one dared. "Besides, the senator has not done anything to redeem himself." Arabella smiled, looking contently at the faces staring back at her. "I suppose that will put an end to the disputes dealing with those issues?"
"Yes…well…"
"What are you doing here?" The group jumped, seeing that they were caught.
"Oh…um…we were suppose to meet Elise here." They stated hastily.
Nora eyed them suspiciously, but didn't bother to interrogate them. "Elise is probably in her room. You should go look for her there."
"Oh…uh…thank you Nora!" The group hastily walked away, while they still had the chance.
End of chapter…
All I can say is…ugh…(bangs head on table)…people are going to be angry with me for this chapter…(sigh)
By the way, if you didn't quite understand the part of the meeting, especially the first part, look at the words carefully.
And those of you that love to bash Lucia, don't worry, you'll get to see her again. XD
Oh, and I have a livejournal page just dedicated to writing now. I'll probably have other writing stuff on it to, but mainly it's going to be about this fic (at least until it's finished XD). So please come visit and say hi! XD (link is on author profile)
Next chapter…well…how am I going to say this…things aren't exactly getting better…XD