A/N:Well, I finally got the fifth chapter of Shuffle done... I have too much damn homework! I'd rather burn it! -Kinda like what Athrun's gonna do in this chapter... only it's not gonna be homework! lol
Thanks to AthrunXCagalli4ever, dark.retreat and Kitten Of Destruction for reviewing!
CHAPTER V Plagues, Gossip and
Competitions
9:30 at the Jule Mansion…
Yzak had gotten back on his feet but he still had an extremely high fever.
"Yzak, you should be resting," Nicol advised.
"I can't… Mother will be home soon and I can't let her know I'm sick. She'll get all upset and call a doctor over here to look after me until I'm better," he protested.
"No matter how hard you try, you're not going to be able to hide it. I mean, it's not hard to miss," Dearka said. Yzak continued to pace the room. "And you're still really pale," Nicol added while Allaya continued to sleep in his arms. "I don't care… I'll convince her I'm not sick. You guys should get home before she comes back…" Yzak told them. "But what if you pass out again?" Dearka asked. "I doubt I'll pass out AGAIN," he answered. "Okay, but if Allaya starts crying again you're on your own," Nicol said, gently handing him the sleeping girl.
At the Zala Mansion…
"Hey, Athrun. Have you read this one?" Kira asked as he looked over one of the love notes.
"Which one?" Athrun asked, peering over Kira's shoulder at the note. "Oh, that one… yikes…"
" 'Athrun! Please screw me!' " Kira read out loud. He looked at Athrun and just started laughing at the top of his lungs. "Shut up!" He shouted. "Why? It's so funny!" Kira laughed. "She had problems, okay!" He argued. "It's still funny!" He continued to laugh.
Athrun was trembling with anger. "Get out…"
Kira finally stopped. "What-?"
"GET OUT, NOW!" He screamed. "Okay, okay!" Kira cried running out of the room, down the stairs and out the door. Athrun frowned. "Stupid Kira…"
With that, he grabbed a set of matches off his desk, lit one and threw it into the bin. The flame disintegrated every single last note and then burned out.
"HA!" Athrun laughed, "NO MORE STUPID LOVE NOTES!"
Back at the Jule Mansion…
Dearka and Nicol had just left and as they did, Ezaria arrived home.
"Yzak! I'm home! –And why did a boy and a girl just walk out of the house?" Ezaria called as she closed the door behind her.
"Just hang on, Mother!" He shouted to her before quickly walking to Allaya's room, putting her down in her crib, then running to the stairs. "All right… time to think of a lie…" Yzak thought while beginning to walk down the stairs. –He walked because his legs were getting weak and starting to shake.
"Yzak! You look terrible! –You're deathly pale!" Ezaria cried once she'd caught sight of him. Yzak, who half way down the stairs, was about to reply when he felt his head get light. He stopped and gripped the railing. "Yzak? Are you all right?" She asked, even more worried. He opened his mouth to say something but all that came out was a little groan.
She walked closer to him and just when she reached the bottom of the stairs, his eyes rolled back and he fell. With her 'Super-Awesome-Coordinator-Reflexes' and strength, she managed to catch him. "Oh no! This is terrible!" She cried, holding him close, "Coordinators don't get sick like this!"
And… yeah… Using her 'Super-Awesome-Coordinator-Strength' she carried Yzak up to his room and laid him down in bed. Sighing with worry, she went downstairs, grabbed the phone and called the 'Special-Only-Rich-People-Can-Afford-Doctor'.
"Hello? Doctor Hahnenfuss? I need you right away. My son seems to be extremely ill…" Ezaria said quickly. (Yes, Shiho's father is a doctor- well, he is now anyway…) "All right," he answered, "I'll be there by 10:30 the latest."
At the Clyne Mansion, 10:00…
"Okay, girls. This gossip session is about…" Lacus drew a topic from a hat "Crushes!" She read. "I love this topic. The order will go Fllay, me, Miriallia, Shiho and then Cagalli."
"Why that order?" Miriallia asked. Lacus shrugged. "I don't know, but everyone's okay with it, right?"
"Yeah," Miriallia said. "Sure," Shiho said. "Okay," Fllay said. "Whatever…" Cagalli said.
"All right, you know the rules. The one speaking tells us one or more crushes- totally honest, then we either agree or disagree- also totally honest," Lacus explained. "Okay, go ahead, Fllay."
"Hmm…" Fllay thought. "I really like Kira Yamato. He gets good grades; he's cute and kind of innocent…"
"Yeah, he is cute…" Miriallia agreed. "Somewhat innocent, too…" Lacus thought aloud. "I didn't know him that well, but he seemed nice…" Shiho added. "My brother? He's a moron! And an idiot, too! One day he's smart, one day he's dumb! –Yeah, the last two years were lucky; he was smart on the exam days, but in grade nine he failed! How can you like something so stupid! Our mother can't even stand him!" Cagalli said loudly. "Okay…" Fllay said slowly. "-Is that all, Fllay?" Lacus asked. She nodded. "Then it's my turn! I like Kira too!" Lacus chirped cheerfully.
"You know what, I think you two would make a cute couple." Miriallia smiled. "Yeah," all the other girls agreed- except for Fllay. "I think you'd really be able to fix up my brother," Cagalli laughed. "Thank you," Lacus giggled. "Okay, it's your turn Miriallia."
"Fine. But you have to promise not to laugh," she said. "We promise," Shiho said. "All right… here it is…" Miriallia took a deep breath. "I think Dearka's hot."
"Dearka?" Fllay asked. "Yeah… he's pretty hot…"
"And funny, too," Lacus added. "Definitely. He turns me on," Shiho said, a bit out of character. "Totally. His hair looks like it'd be fun to stroke," Cagalli said smirking. "You should talk to him."
"Yeah, I think he likes you too," Lacus said. "You guys are right! I'm going to ask him out when school starts up again," Miriallia said confidently.
"Ew, no. That's weird," Fllay said quickly. "You have to wait until he asks you out. It's like law. Girl law."
"You're an idiot, Fllay! There's nothing wrong with that!" Cagalli hissed. "But if you agree, Miriallia, you can just talk to him and drop hints."
"Oh, yeah right! You don't know the first thing about dating, Cagalli! You can't even get a guy for yourself!" Fllay shouted back.
With that, Cagalli suddenly lashed out and slapped her. "Shut up, bitch!" (I'm sorry about how bad that sounds. Really! I didn't know what else to call her!)
Everyone was silent. Fllay just looked like she was about to cry. "You're so mean, Cagalli!" She cried, getting up and running out of the room in tears. Lacus sighed. "I better go make sure she's all right…"
At the Jule Mansion…
The doorbell rang and Ezaria was quick to answer the door. There stood Doctor Hahnenfuss. (God, that sounds stupid…)
"Thank you for coming on such short notice," she said inviting him in.
"Don't thank me, it's my job," he joked, "where is he?"
"Just follow me," Ezaria said, beginning to walk up the stairs. Doctor Hahnenfuss followed.
"He just passed out," Ezaria explained as they entered Yzak's room. "I have no idea why. Usually Coordinators don't succumb to little illnesses. Their immune systems are too strong, correct?" She asked as he leaned over Yzak and took the unconscious boy's temperature. "Yes… this is very odd…" Doctor Hahnenfuss removed the thermometer from his mouth and checked. "104. That's extremely high… I have a feeling this is the beginning of the plague that only effects Coordinators…"
"Oh no… it's not fatal, is it?" Ezaria asked nervously. He sighed. "It's fatal sixty percent of the time…"
She gasped. "Isn't there anything that can help him!"
"Nothing but bed rest… there's nothing I can do. The virus lives for eight days and on the eighth day, depending on the fever, it'll take or spare. If the fever is 104 on the last day, chances are it's the take. In the middle of the night the fever will continue to rise until the body can't take the heat anymore. –Then again, if the fever's below 104, chances are it's the spare and the fever will drop," he explained. "I wish you and your son nothing but the best."
11:00 at the Clyne Mansion…
Fllay had locked herself in the bathroom and refused to come out. It took Lacus a whole fifteen minutes to talk her out.
"We're back everyone," Lacus said as cheerfully as possible as she walked into the room with Fllay close behind. "Let's continue the crush gossip." She sat down at the head of the circle of girls and so did Fllay.
"Where were we? Oh, yes. Miriallia, do you have any other crushes you wish to talk about?" Lacus asked.
"No, I'm good," She answered with a smile. "Then it's your turn, Shiho. You may not have had any crushes on any boys in our school. But you must remember one hot guy," Lacus said.
"Oh, yeah. I think she does," Cagalli thought, smirking.
"Well… I do actually… you might not know him but… his name is… Yzak Jule…" Shiho said shyly.
"Oh no! You can't like Yzak!" Fllay burst out. "Oh, so you do know him…" Shiho said lamely. "And why do you think I shouldn't like him?"
"For one, he's got a terrible personality, an anger-management problem, silver hair and a huge scar across his face!" Fllay listed. "What's wrong with the silver hair?" Shiho asked, "I really like it."
"Silver! That's an unnatural hair colour! HELLO!" Fllay argued. "Well, he's a Coordinator, not a natural," Shiho threw back. "Even worse," Fllay hissed. "It's not his fault he's a Coordinator. And you can't assume he's a bad person because he has a scar across his face. Once again, he can't control that," Shiho continued. "But he can control his anger and yet he doesn't," Fllay smirked triumphantly. "I mean, the guy smashed our principal's head into the floor three or four times."
"That sounds just like Yzak…" Shiho thought. "Well, as you can see, overall, Yzak is a bad guy. Really, Shiho, you're such a good girl- so proper. That's the exact opposite of Yzak. This is obviously a case of 'good girl falls for dangerous boy'… Why on earth do you like him?" Fllay asked. "Well, I just know he has a sensitive side and I want to see it. I've decided I'm going to try everything I can to break through to him, considering everyone else has apparently given up on him," Shiho explained, "I tried everything I could for the short time that I went to your school to get to know him. It didn't work out very well… After the first few months of following him around I really got on his nerves… I think he didn't miss me one bit when I moved away… but- I do remember however- him openly letting me be around him and Dearka for the first few weeks of school. So I can't help but think he had some feelings for me. –And that is why I love Yzak."
All the girls just stared at her.
"You're cr-" Cagalli began to say but Miriallia quickly slammed her hand over her mouth without even taking her eyes off of Shiho. So Fllay decided to go ahead and finish it for her: "You're crazy."
Shiho sighed deeply. "Okay… I'm done…"
"Umm… I guess it's your turn, Cagalli…" Lacus finally said. "This should be good…" Fllay thought evilly. "Gotta think of a fast lie…" Cagalli thought nervously. So she said the first name that came to mind: "I really like Athrun Zala…"
"Oh, yeah, he's good looking," Miriallia said. "He has a good personality, too…" Shiho added half-heartedly. "Athrun's so kind," Lacus agreed. "Hn…" muttered Fllay. Cagalli rolled her eyes. "God, I hate Athrun… he's such a nerd…"
"Pardon?" Lacus asked. "Umm… oops… did I say that out loud-?" Cagalli asked sheepishly. Fllay took this as her opportunity to be, well… a bitch… "Yes," she answered. "So you lied to us. Who do you really like, Cagalli?"
She sighed. She was going to have to tell the truth. "Well… I kind of have a bit of a crush on…" she stopped there. Shiho liked him too… what would she think? What would she say?
"Come on, finish it!" Miriallia pleaded. "Please?" Lacus asked. "Just tell us, Cagalli! We won't care!" Shiho encouraged. "What are you, ashamed?" Fllay asked nastily. Cagalli glared and just shouted out as if to prove she wasn't ashamed at all: "IT'S YZAK!"
Once again, there was silence. Quickly, she added, "It's just a crush- I mean, I don't love the guy, you're right, he is heartless…"
"We never said that," Miriallia pointed out. "But it's still true."
They all nodded- except for Shiho. She just looked so sad.
There was a minute of silence, which was thankfully broken by Lacus. "I have an idea: How about we all try to get a kiss from our crushes? –And that'll mean a little competition for a few of us."
"Sure. That sounds okay," Fllay said. "You bet," Miriallia said smirking. "Whatever…" Cagalli muttered. Shiho didn't say a word.
There was more silence, which was broken by Miriallia this time. "Hm. I bet Dearka's a good kisser."
They all burst out laughing. Yet again, excluding Shiho. It just seemed like her entire night had been ruined by the crush gossip.
"Well, this has been fun, girls. But I think it's time for bed. After all, it's almost midnight," Lacus said.
At the Zala Mansion…
Athrun had made sure to get the pile of burned love notes into the garbage pail in the garage. (The garage because things don't smell as bad out there.)
After disposing of the burned love notes, he attacked both his room and the garage with air-freshener, to rid them of that charred-paper-smell. (Oh, it's nasty.)
"Stupid love notes… stupid Kira… I should've just killed him when I-" Athrun stopped in the middle of his scary, psychotic sentence to stare at last year's Yearbook, open on his desk. It caught his attention because it was open to the High Scores page. But what caught his attention about that page was the picture of Cagalli. And what caught his attention about that picture of Cagalli was the sneaking thought that she looked "so very hot" in Athrun's mind.
"NO-DAMN-WAY!" He shouted, slamming the yearbook closed. He exhaled deeply and his bedroom door suddenly opened. It was his father.
"Umm… Athrun… why does the garage smell like air-freshener?" He asked. Athrun frowned non-convincingly. "Uh… I don't know…"
A/N:Hmm... Who wants me to kill off Yzak? Say what you what but I'll do what I like!
Next update shouldn't be toolong.Thanks!
!WiSpY!wAs!HeRe!
