Gomen, people, I wasn't able to update… damn the USB, the file was deleted. I was ripping my head off, but finally, I got the courage to do Chapter two…again. I'm so lucky to keep a back-up copy.

Review and Respect, please…

And, oh, I'm single. SINGLE. I'm a thirteen-year-old girl. And I do

ENJOY!!!!

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The Plot Thickens

Cagalli sighed as she knocked on the big mahogany door that was her father's office. She took a deep breath.

"Open." A very familiar voice boomed. She shivered slightly.

She pushed the door open and walked in. "Father." She managed to breathe out. Her father sat behind a very majestic mahogany table. This was Ulen Hibiki, the man behind all the success of Akatsuki Insurance. And unfortunately, this no-nonsense man was also her father.

"I was expecting the report almost forty-eight hours ago. How do you expect me to segregate all pay slips if you are late in the report? Use your brain, dear daughter. The brain."

She silently gritted her teeth. She might trash and rant about, but she was helpless in the presence of this man who was somewhat a root of her DNA. And who wouldn't? This wasn't supposed to be a father. She knew that. What kind of father can bear the thought of his daughter in rehab? And to think that this father was the one that actually sent her to rehab.

The man stared at her and said gravely, "Your Dearka Elsman called."

She looked at her father, wide-eyed. Since when did her father interfere in her relationships? Okay, she admit, her relationships were more on the bad side, and truthfully, very, very messy, too.

"So?" she spat at her so-called father. "Why do you care?"

"He's asking you to marry him." Ulen said. "And I can't let you marry a twice-rehabbed guy like you were."

"Dearka is a decent guy." She whispered gravely. "Even if he came from rehab, he had pulled his life up from the rocks."

"I know. That's why his Orca Enterprises is one of the most successful businesses in the world." Ulen said. "But that doesn't literally erase the past he's had in rehab. And you, too. You are in trouble."

She looked up. "What?"

"The rehab center called."

She knew it.

"You're not planning to admit me, are you?" she asked coldly. She's feeling it, deep in her heart. The betrayal of a loved one.

Ulen laughed. "cagalli, Cagalli, Cagalli." He chanted. "You ask yourself. The rehab doctors are saying that they had made a mistake and you are currently- fortunately, they added- in the good, balanced side of your illness."

She looked suspiciously at her father. She had an illness? No, she felt fine, thank you. "what?"

"Let's just say that you have Britney Spears's disorder…" Ulen's voice trailed off. "They want you to be admitted again."

She thought hard. She never wanted to know what that meant, but one time when she was in rehab, she heard about the nurses gossiping about the fallen star's illness. Which was… bipolar disorder.

"No way!" she cried out. "I'm not going to return to rehab!!"

Her father set his lips in a tight line. "I knew you'd say that. I had reserved an option for you to survive on."

She looked at him. "W-What condition?"

He sneered. He pointed at the open door where the man she just bumped into before she came to the Executive Office stood. She trembled inside, but no, she wasn't going to let her father know it. She's tough. She's strong.

"What condition, Father?"

"Marry him."

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Annabelle Restaurant, 7:45 p.m.

"So… you're fifteen, huh?"

"And you are nineteen." She replied to his question as sharply as she could.

He smiled slightly and picked on his steak. "Well… I am nineteen."

"And a seminary kick-out." She added, taunting him. This guy was a rock. He wouldn't move. He is a mystery.

"Yup." He admitted coolly.

"Ha. Goody two-shoes." She whispered. "Men from seminaries are so good that they already have haloes on their heads."

"Are you not afraid of me?"

"why should I? Why should I be afraid of a man like you who literally spent all his years in a boring seminary for priest-wannabes?"

He sneered. "I never wanted to be a priest. My mother wanted me to… willed me to."

"So?"

"So I was forced to go to seminary."

"And why did they kick you out?"

He leaned back on his chair and looked deep in her golden eyes. "You need not ask, cause I'm going to tell you this, anyway."

"Oh, really?"

"There's much time, Cagalli." He whispered. "You're going to be mine."

She shivered at his voice, so husky and sweet. "I-I'm not afraid."

"Aren't you?" he leaned closer to her now.

"No." she whispered inaudibly before he leaned in much more closer, touching her lips with his.

It was sweet and soft, it wasn't what she had done to Dearka or to Genesis or to Rey or to anybody in the world, but it sent her needed electricity that would stimulate her heart to beat faster.

But when she was starting to recover her lost consciousness of the real world and to regain her desire in slapping the man her father wanted her to marry so she won't be admitted into rehab again, his lips began to do his job in claiming her as his. It turned from the light childlike one she had wanted him to continue from to a very possessive one. He filled in her mouth with his tongue and began to brand her as her own in that way.

Cagalli Yula Attha wanted to French-kiss every now and then, but this instance, in the presence of old-timers that were shaking their heads at them, was very embarrassing that it sent the involuntary rush of blood to her cheeks.

She regained the strength that seemed to melt when their lips first touched and pushed him hard, the hardest she could manage. He seemed to give in to her force and looked up on her already-red face from embarrassment and gave her a half-smile.

She seemed to give in again to his smile, but- hell, no! This was a guy she never knew before, and he was the same man going to take her freedom away from her.

She took her wallet out and pulled out some hundred- Orb-dollar bills and spat, "My share of dinner."

She turned around and made her exit of Annabelle Restaurant.

Damn you… Athrun Zala…

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He looked at the dollar bills on the mantel piece and laughed silently.

She's sweet…

Okay. That chapter was finished. Yay.

Goodluck to me!!! Our exams are coming up… so maybe I won't be able to update until June…

Gomen, people.. review…