READ THIS before you decide to read the story:
I've been reading Japanese asucaga fanfics and it made me inspired to write this because it contains some of my favourite elements: KuroAthrun and parallel universe, preferably high school or university. So let me just write this: If you think Athrun is a gentleman and get angry if he is portrayed otherwise you might be better off not reading this, he is out of character in this story so be prepared.

The High School Prince

One or Two Fateful Encounters

It was really hot outside, the air seemed to tremble and the crickets high pitched sound were eating its way into the ears leaving the whole head humming. All the lawns had already lost their vivid green colour and had now taken a brownish shade.

Kira Yamato had just bought a drink from a vending machine and was now in a desperate attempt to cool himself pressing it to his forehead. School was just over and he was heading home. As he was walking across the schoolyard he noticed a boy and a girl having an agitated discussion besides the gym building. As he was getting closer he began to hear what it was about.

"How can you do this to me?" The girl stuttered between the sobs.

"Get a grip of yourself and stop act so shamefully. If you want to humiliate yourself then please go ahead just don't drag me into it." The boy said with an icy-cold voice that despite the heat sent shivers down Kira's spine. He knew that boy, in fact it was his best friend.

"But you said you loved me!"

"And you believed me? Well aren't you naïve?" His cold green eyes showed no sign of being moved.

The girl began to cry with new intensity.

"Tears will have no affect on me, it only makes you even uglier. Why should I feel sorry for you? You knew what you were getting yourself into. You knew I have a fiancée."

"But even so…" she said trembling.

"No buts, it's the truth. Now get out of my face or do I have to slap you to get it through to you? I rather not 'cause I don't want to soil my hands."

She looked at him with fear in her eyes, "You're heartless!" and ran away towards the school building.

"Athrun don't you think that was a little bit harsh? Kira walked up to the blue-haired boy.

"Mind you own business."

"But you seriously weren't going to hit her were you?"

"No that would be bothersome I am the student council president after all and I can't jeopardise my position for something as worthless as that. Ahh sometimes I don't know why I bother, as soon as you hook up they want to cling on. It's so bothersome to have to go through this break up scene every time. But I guess it has some merits, it's kind of fun to see them desperate."

"That's evil Athrun."

"They had it coming."

Athrun Zala: second year student, top of the class and president of the student council of the prestigious SEED High School. Engaged to famous singer Lacus Clyne and his father was the head of a large company. Blessed with incredible looks, large deep emerald eyes, thick amazing dark blue hair and fair skinned and slender figure. If you didn't know better you would think that he was a woman but the broadness of his chin and shoulders gave away. All these qualities made him practically an idol at the school, the girls wanted him and the boys wanted to be him, well almost. He had earned himself a bad reputation for being cruel and that was certainly not without merit. But that didn't stop the girls from hitting on him, Kira guessed that they hoped that they could change him or something but that wasn't likely to happen. Athrun knew a lot of people but it was only shallow acquaintances and there were probably many who were envious and jealous and really despised him behind his back, something that Athrun was very much aware of. He showed up a polished façade and didn't let anybody behind it except for Kira. Sometimes Kira wondered why Athrun had picked him as his friend and confidant, he didn't know but he and Athrun had been friends for several years. He had met Athrun's mother before she died in that fire and his personality had definitely taken a turn for the worse after that. But still when it was just the two of them Athrun could show another friendlier side of himself but even that became increasingly rare. And his engagement with Lacus Kline seemed just to be an excuse to dump girls he was getting tired of.

"Aren't you engaged is it right to be with other girls?"

"Oh, that is just something that my father has decided, it has nothing to do with me. When the time comes I will marry her because it seems like a good move to make career-wise. But I don't like to be around her, she makes me feel uneasy."

Kira had a hard time believing that someone could not be happy about having Lacus Kline as a fiancée. He had only met her once but she had put a lasting impression on him. First of all she was beautiful, if there was someone who could match Athrun in beauty it was her with her long pink hair and strikingly blue eyes. Her personality was totally different, she seemed so nice and friendly to everyone, and to Kira it seemed, he didn't know because he had only met her once, that it was honest. Unlike Athrun who would only put up an act of being friendly if he saw any benefits in it.

"So what are you doing now?" Athrun asked as he was getting tired of the subject.

"I don't know, I guess I'm heading home."

"Ah" Athrun looked a little disappointed.

"Do you want tag a long? My mother should be home as usual but…"

"That's alright. Let's go then I'm dying in this heat."

Kira's house wasn't particularly far from school but when they reached it they were almost soaking with sweat It was a normal house, perhaps a little bit larger than average. With a neat little garden (Kira's mother's hobby was gardening) and a stone padded path running to the front door. Kira open the door, "Mum, I'm home!" A much awaited coolness came towards them and they entered and Kira closed the door blocking the heat behind them.

"Ahh, thank God for air-condition."

"Oh, is Athrun here too?" Kira's mother came into the hallway to greet them.

"Yeah, brought him with me, it's OK right?"

"Good day Mrs. Yamato."

"Hello Athrun, how is school, not too much trouble?"

"No, I think I'm able to manage somehow."

"I know you are an excellent student. Thank you for always taking care of my own hopeless son." She said and sighed and looked affectionately at Kira.

"Mum!" Kira whined.

"Not at all, it's really my pleasure." Athrun answered politely.

"How's your father by the way, I guess he is very busy?"

"He is very busy but other than that he is all well."

As they sat in the kitchen and drank ice-tea together with his mother Kira didn't say much but listened to his mother's and Athrun's conversation. He never could get over how Athrun could change from one situation to another. And he didn't feel all too good about seeing Athrun pretend to be nice and interested in what his mom had to say. So he got up from his chair, "We're going up to my room now mom." He really couldn't stand it any more.

"Eh, but it's OK for me to stay here." Athrun said. Was he surprised? No, not possible. Kira shook his head mentally.

"I understand you want to be alone, just call if you need anything." His mom smiled.

"Ok, let's go Athrun."

"Thanks for the drink, Mrs. Yamato."

"You're welcome."

Athrun hurried after Kira who already had walked up half the stairs.

"What was that about?" Athrun asked as they entered Kira's room and closed the door.

"Isn't that my line? Maybe it's ok when it's the teachers, but when you pretend to be nice to my mom it really bugs me. You can understand that can't you?"

"You really don't think much of me do you?" Athrun laughed a little.

"It's not that, but when it comes to my mom it's different."

"I know. Believe it or not I wasn't faking, you're really lucky to have such a nice mom." This time Athrun looked serious and if Kira hadn't known better a little sad.

"Anyway I'm so tired of all the girls in school, everyone bore me to bits."

X x X

It had rained constantly for several days now, school was over and Kira watched out the window and wondered how he was going to get home. It was pouring down and he had forgotten his umbrella.

"Hey, have you forgotten your umbrella? Do you wanna to share mine?"

Kira turned around and saw a face he didn't recognized. The person had to be a girl because she was wearing the girl's school uniform which included a skirt. It was hard to say what it was but there was something in her attitude that made her seem more like a boy than a girl. But when looking closely she really had cute face, blonde hair that went to the shoulders and amazingly straightforward amber coloured eyes, she definitely looked like a girl but…

"What are you staring at? Is there something funny about how I look or somethin'?"

"Eh no, I'm sorry I didn't mean to stare."

"Not that it matters anyway. So do you want to share umbrella?"

"Eh…" It certainly was pouring down, but he wasn't so keen on sharing an umbrella with a strange girl he didn't know, and who knew if they lived in the same direction anyway. And furthermore her umbrella was a little… embarrassing. He didn't considered himself vain but he thought he rather be caught dead than walking under that umbrella. It was pink with fluffy white clouds and had large red letters that spelled "No, we're not just sharing an umbrella".

"Oh, come on!" she said and grabbed his arm and started dragging him out of the school building.

"H- hey, wait a minute!" Kira helplessly objected.

"Why? If I'd wait for you to make up your mind I'd be waiting all day. So I made up your mind for you."

Kira resigned with a deep sigh, how pushy this girl was.

"By the way I'm Cagalli, what's your name?" The girl apparently named Cagalli said, and flashed a surprisingly sweet smile at him. Kira found himself getting confused and felt his cheeks getting hot. She had a really cute smile.

"Hey, you don't have a fever or something?" she felt his forehead with the back of her hand, "Your face looks all red, you know."

Cagalli's sudden intimate movement chocked him a little, "Eh, I'm all right, I tell you" he moved away from her. This definitely didn't help getting away the blushing.

Cagalli looked a little suspiciously at him, "If you say so…"

"Yes I say so, anyway I'm Kira."

"Nice to meet you Kira!" She smiled with her whole face.

"Uh, Yeah." Kira lamely responded. "I haven't seen you before, what year are you in?"

"Second."

"Really? Me too. What class?"

"Hmm, I think it was 2-b. I've just transferred here, so I haven't been at any lessons yet."

"Ehhh, that's the same class as me." Kira exclaimed.

"You're kidding? That's great!"

Kira was a little embarrassed by her excitement, she had just met him didn't know anything about him. He wasn't sure he could fulfil the expectations, but none the less it was hard not to smile when he looked at her. He thought that he was happy too, with this girl in the same class surely things would not be so boring anymore.

"But I have to ask what's with this umbrella, it doesn't seem like you at all." He didn't know why he suddenly made such a comment, the truth was that he didn't know her, but at the same time he felt totally comfortable with her.

"Well, excuse me. It was raining and I didn't have an umbrella and this was the only they had left in the store. I wouldn't have picked it if I had a choice." Cagalli put on a sour face.

Somehow Kira could understand why it had been the only one left. "Sorry I didn't mean to offend you." He didn't want to make her dislike him.

"None taken. It can't be helped, it is a pretty awful umbrella." She laughed.

"Yeah, it really is the worst I've seen." Kira laughed too.

Suddenly he realized that they had been walking for some time now and he hadn't thought about in which direction, but this was his street. "That is my house over there, do you live nearby?"

"Yeah, I live in an apartment two blocks away."

This was a lucky coincidence, now he didn't have to worry about how to get home.

They stopped in front of Kira's house. "This is it. Thanks." Kira said.

"You're welcome. I guess I'll see you in class tomorrow."

"Yeah, see you tomorrow."

"Bye!" Cagalli waved her hand a little and turned around and started walking away. Kira stood and watched her for a little while until he noticed it was still raining and he was getting wet.

X x X

"Hello class today we have a new student," class 2-b's homeroom teacher Murrue Ramius began the day's first lesson. Beside her was a cute blonde girl with fearless eyes and confident smile. "So Cagalli why don't you introduce yourself to the class."

"Yes Ms Ramius." Cagalli faced the group of curious faces, "Hello, My name is Cagalli Yula I'm looking forward to get to know everyone." She noticed Kira and waved at him. Kira was a little surprised but gave a little faint smile and hesitantly put up his hand to greet her. This wasn't unnoticed by the rest of the class, especially the girls. Not only Athrun but Kira Yamato was quite popular throughout the school too, Kira was good looking, best friends with Athrun and generally friendly to everybody. Many girls had a crush on him, though he seemed mostly bothered by the attention. He had actually dated a girl named Frey a while in first grade but that had ended and he hadn't been dating anyone since. But there was not much that he did in school that went unnoticed, there were already rumours that he had gone home with some unknown girl with blonde hair yesterday.

"Is that all?" Murrue asked Cagalli.

"Yes I think so"

"Well then please take a seat so we can begin the lesson." Murrue pointed at a vacant seat by the windows. Sadly it wasn't near Kira instead it was between two girls, one redheaded girl and one with light brown hair. The first was looking at her and smirking a little for some unknown reason and the other just looked at her with simple interest. Cagalli got that the feeling that the redhead was dying to tell her something.

When the lesson was over the redheaded girl who sat in front of Cagalli turn around, "I'm Flay Alster and the girl behind you Miriallia Haww" Frey said still smirking.

"Hi, it's ok to call me Miri." Mirallia gave a Cagalli a friendly smile.

"Hi, I'm Cagalli."

"So, Cagalli how do you know Kira?" Flay asked.

"Kira? Well I don't exactly know him I just walked home with him from school yesterday…"

"That was you? I knew it, a strange unknown blonde girl they said."

"What?" Cagalli was confused.

"You see Kira is quite poplar among many girls, so there are lots of rumours about him." Mirallia explained.

"Yeah there is no way that nobody wouldn't have noticed that."

"So? He had forgotten his umbrella and I just offered him to share mine. That's what anyone would have done."

"Correction, not anyone would have done that. Cagalli you better be careful if you don't want to feel the wrath of Kira's crazy fan girls." Flay contradicted her.

"Flay is right, you better be careful, who knows what they might do." Miriallia agreed.

"Eee? That's stupid, like I care what they think."

"Sooo, there isn't anything between you two?" Flay asked.

"What? No! He seems like a nice guy but I honestly don't even know him yet."

"If you say so…"

"Yeah I say so."

The three looked over at Kira who looked a little surprised again.

Flay giggled a little, "He's looking at you."

"Just a coincidence."

"Hmm…" Miriallia and Flay said in unison.

After that the lessons went on pretty fast and by lunch Cagalli still hadn't had an opportunity to talk to Kira. But she liked Flay and Miri even if they, especially Flay, seemed to be a bit nosey.

"So what are you doing for lunch? We have obento with us so we'll eat in the classroom." Miriallia asked.

"I don't have anything with me so I thought I'd buy a sandwich or something in the cafeteria."

"Come back here so we can have lunch together."

"Yeah, I'll do that." Cagalli said and left the classroom in search of food.

"They're really nice, this was a good idea after all." Cagalli thought as she walked down the corridor. She wasn't really paying attention and suddenly she noticed that there were surprisingly few people around.

"If this is the way to the cafeteria shouldn't there be more people around?"

In fact there was no one around, "Maybe I made a wrong turn somewhere." She stopped by door that said "Student Council". Maybe there could be someone in there that could help her? She was just about to open the door when it came flying into her face. Surprised she lost her balance and fell on the floor. She landed right on her back, she was sort of panicking because she couldn't breathe for a moment and she felt a dull pain in her spine. Confused she looked up and right in the face of the person who had opened the door. And right in a pair of strikingly emerald eyes that would have been beautiful if it weren't for the insolent look in them. The person who was wearing the boys' school uniform was, there was no better word for it, beautiful. Especially the thick dark blue hair and those green eyes. Or rather would have been beautiful if it weren't for that he? was smirking at her. She felt anger rising, why wasn't he helping her instead of standing there sniggering at her? She would do anything to wipe that smirk off his face.

"What are you looking at! Why are you just standing there? And what's so freakin' funny?" She screamed at him.

If anything his smile became wider. This guy was trouble she could sense it, if she was smart she would just get the hell out of there. But she was too pissed and anyway it wasn't her style to back off from anything. There was something else there too, something much more vexing. As much as she didn't want to admit it but she found herself oddly fascinated by this jerk.

"White huh." He finally spoke, still looking very pleased with himself.

"Eh?"

"You wear white panties." He shifted his eyes and she remembered she was still lying on the floor. Her skirt had gone up a little and she noticed what he was staring at.

"What the f…!" she hurriedly straitened her skirt and put her legs together. "What are you looking at you pervert!"

"I'm not a pervert, I was just stating the facts." He put on an innocent face and if she didn't know better she would have been fooled by that look but he was a pervert alright.

"Stating the facts my ass, normally you wouldn't say that, normally you would apologize and help me get up instead."

"But I didn't do anything? I just opened the door and there you were lying on the floor flashing your panties."

He was definitely lying, he had to have noticed that he had swung the door at her causing her to fall. She couldn't believe this jerk. She made an effort to rise when she suddenly saw a hand stretching out before her. "What's he doing now, isn't it a little late for this?" she thought and slapped his hand away.

"I don't need your help to get up." She said angrily.

"Having trouble to make up our mind haven't we? You were just criticizing me for not helping you up, now you don't want it?

"You got that right." Cagalli rose to her feet, brushed her skirt and were just about to leave without saying another word when he spoke again.

"Didn't you have business with the student counsel?"

"No!" She started walking away, she had to get out of there. This bastard was stirring up her emotions too much. She didn't get far though, a hand grabbed her wrist and stopped her. She turned around and looked right in an amused face. Grrr, pissed off, pissed off, pissed off! "Release me now!"

"Only if you promise not to run away."

"Wha… You son-of-bitch."

"Why thank you, but I'm not letting go until you promise to behave."

Her head started spinning, what should she do? He didn't seem to be the least intimidated by her, normally he should be running away. But instead he was laughing at her. And now he had a firm grip of her wrist and she couldn't do anything about it. She made a deep sigh, she had to give this one up. But it wasn't over, she would get revenge later, she would make sure of that.

"So?" He asked.

"OK, I won't go anywhere. Will you release me?"

His smile widened, he had victory written all over his face, "What's the magic word?"

"Please…" She started boiling again. The humiliation made her face all red.

"That's a good girl." He said with satisfaction and released her hand. "So what do you want with the student council?"

"I don't want anything with the student council." She muttered grumpily.

"Then why are you here?"

"I was going to the cafeteria but I guess I took the wrong turn somewhere. There was no one around and I saw the sign so I thought I'd try to ask someone… But that was obviously a mistake" She glared at him.

"Hahahahahaha"

"What's so funny with that asshole?"

"Hehehe, so you got lost? That is funny." He dried his eyes from tears. "That reminds me," he was still chuckling, "I don't remember seeing you before. Are you a new student?"

"I've just transferred."

"Hmm, in the middle of the term, that's rare. So what's your name?"

"Shouldn't you be telling your own name before asking somebody else's?"

"Hehehe, please forgive me. My name is Athrun Zala, second year student and president of the student council. And you?"

"…Cagalli Yula." Crap, how could he be the president? This was getting better and better.

"Alright Yula, I'll take you to the cafeteria."

"What? I never asked for that. Just tell me the way. I think a rather go hungry than be seen with a bastard like you."

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, now Yula, I think you'd be better off revising you manner of speaking. I could make your life, let's say… difficult if you don't."

"…" Cagalli just stared into the floor.

"As long as you understand. OK, let's go to the Cafeteria."

"Hey Cagalli what took you so long?" Flay asked when Cagalli came back to the classroom.

"Eh, nothing, I got a little lost that's all." She answered a little weakly.

"You look a little pale, did something happen?" Miriallia asked with a concerned look on her face.

"No, I'm fine. I'm just a little hungry."

"Well you better hurry up eating that before the lunch break is over." Flay remarked.

Cagalli didn't pay much attention to the lessons that afternoon. This was just great, everything was going fine until she met that Zala bastard. And what's worse she couldn't stop thinking about him. No, she wouldn't let Zala ruin this, she had already made new friends and she didn't want go back and hear him say "I told you so."

"The only thing I have to do is to avoid Athrun Zala and everything will be fine."

"Sigh..." It seems that I have made many spelling mistakes, thanks to everyone who has pointed them out. I hope I have fixed them now but it is hard to find every single one. I try to get the names right but the spelling is so messed up, it is much easier to write them in katakana.