Disclaimer: No, I've given up thinking I own Gundam Seed.

a/n: Well, instead of spending my last days here moping around, I'll take a second shot at adding chapters to this fic. It won't make up for the two-year hiatus, I know, but still, better than not doing anything with it, right?

"…that the next chosen Representative… must first be proven worthy of leadership over the homeland by way of an eleven-year exile from childhood… until his coming of age."

- Excerpt from section 7, paragraph 1 of the revised Orb constitution

Chapter 4 Transformations

Intense.

It was the only word that could aptly describe the way his eyes pierced a fraction of the sky above, as he sat on the sand, letting the water soak his feet.

The years of Kira Yula Attha's life seemed to crawl by unbearably slowly as he counted off the days. But what good would counting do? It did nothing to ease the loneliness in his heart. The fact still remained: He had eleven long years to spend away from his country, and more importantly, his family.

He was not permitted to witness his mother's funeral; a single letter from his father, one that consisted of barely five sentences, informed him of what had come to pass.

A single tear rolled down his cheeks at the thought of his mother's death. Of course, he had meant every word he had told his twin sister, that heaven was a much better alternative to a hospital. But when it did happen, he could not bring himself to be glad. No, he wanted for nothing more than to see his mother, alive and well, when he came back to Orb; she made him hold on and look forward to that moment.

The fact that Cagalli had not once written a letter to him did much to extinguish all hope he had left inside him. Did she not even wonder why Kira had gone without a word? Was she not concerned for her twin brother? Did she even love him at all?

"Kira! Come on! Lunch time!"

The boy, with a quick swipe of his hand, wiped away the tear on his cheek before he stood and turned around. "I'll catch up a bit later, Fllay."

Fllay, the girl who had called him, rested her hands on her knees, breathing hard. In between her panting, she said, "I came… all this way… do you know how far this place is to the house? And now… you tell me you're gonna 'catch up a bit later'? I… don't think so."

"Alright," Kira answered, trying hard to conceal the smile on his lips. "I'll come and eat lunch. But only because you went through the trouble of looking for me."

Fllay beamed at him. "Great! Glad to see you're not putting up a fight."

The girl, it seemed, was the only person – other than Reverend Malchio – who Kira said more than one or two words to.

The boy named Michal, Kira's first friend in the orphanage, was fortunate to have been adopted by a wealthy family from a faraway country that happened to be on vacation in the beach town where the orphans lived. After the event, the brown-haired boy resolved to be a loner, so he would not have to experience being abandoned a third time.

Yet, this girl Fllay did not seem to get the message, as she had been trying to make a friend out of the boy ever since Michal left. She usually was the first (often the only one) to volunteer when the blind pastor asked someone to look for Kira at the beach when it was time for lunch.

The thirteen year-old boy laughed at the remark. "Do I really come across like that?"

"Like what?"

"The kind of person who'd always try to put up a fight."

Fllay looked thoughtful for a moment as she searched for the right words in her mind. "Well, yes. But that's only 'cause you went through what you did. No one blames you for it."

Kira could not help but gape at her. He had not told anyone but Michal of his true identity; everyone in the orphanage only knew him as Kira without a surname.

"How… How do you–"

"Reverend Malchio often gathers everybody by the fireplace at night, while you're out on the beach," Fllay explained. "He tells us how he's seen your father go through the exact same thing you did, and how much it hurts to be away from a family that he knew he had. Being an orphan, it hurts not having all the answers as to who one's parents were, what family one could have had. But turns out you have it much worse, if you know all the answers, because you end up yearning for your family even more."

The boy took a deep breath. Looking away from Fllay's grey eyes, he muttered, "I thought we were going to have lunch now. No need to rub in what I already know."

The redhead bit on her lower lip. "Sorry," she said in a low voice.

A familiar feeling, guilt, chose this time to, figuratively, start chewing on Kira's insides.

He willed himself to grin as he broke into a run, looked over his shoulder and shouted, "Last one inside does the dishes!"

Fllay, unable to resist the challenge, bolted after the Orb prince. "And that is so not gonna be me!"

Barely a year had passed since Athrun Zala had confirmed to Cagalli what she had never wanted to believe the first time the thought crossed her mind.

It was not that Cagalli had anything against homosexuals, since she had never felt such, anyhow. The feeling of uneasiness came from the thought of having to get used to the fact that Athrun was just… well, different.

And on a day she would not forget any time soon, she was to find out that she would become different, as well.

"So, what do you think of Cyrus Khang?" fourteen year-old Athrun asked his best friend eagerly one morning, as they both walked to their school.

Although their families had various types of automobiles at their disposal, the two friends found it much more enjoyable to travel on foot, since it made for more interesting conversations.

Cagalli gave Athrun a dirty look. "Oh, please. That guy is a loser, Zala."

"No, he isn't!" the boy protested. "He just happens to be smart, nice, and… er, smart."

"Uh-huh. Right. Same thing you said about Rob Salem, about three weeks ago."

"Hey, you could at least try boosting my morale by agreeing with some of the things I say."

"Well, I can't help but think all the guys in our school are jerks," Cagalli replied, with an obvious air of nonchalance.

"So you think I'm a jerk?"

A smirk appeared on her face. "I said all guys in school are jerks. You're a girl now, aren't you? You're not included!"

Before Athrun had a chance to retort, Cagalli made a dash northward.

The boy sighed. Other than his best friend, no one else knew of his deep, dark secret, for fear of not only societal rejection, but also – and most especially – for fear of what his father would do should he be able to find out.

"Shut up, will you?" Athrun said loudly, laughing as he ran after the blonde girl.

A few minutes later, two exhausted teenagers arrived, puffing and panting, at the St. Gabriel Middle School's main hallway.

"Looks like I beat you again," Athrun said smugly to a flushed Cagalli.

"And I thought making small, happy talk would distract you. Geez."

The blue-haired teen's self-satisfied smile suddenly faded as he looked past Cagalli. "Well, you might need to make small, not-so-happy talk now. There's Lacus Clyne at twelve o' clock."

Cagalli rolled her eyes. She and Athrun had known Lacus since they had first started school. Athrun's family, in particular, had quite the connection with the Clynes, with Patrick Zala and Lacus's father Siegel Clyne being business partners. That being the case, the three often got together and enjoyed each other's company.

Until Lacus had decided to turn into, using Cagalli's own words, "an insanely spoiled brat" during fourth grade, that is, and started to compete with the blonde in almost every area possible, including the "smart-mouth department", as Athrun had put it once.

"Don't talk to her," Cagalli said under her breath. "Don't even look at her, and she won't come."

Unfortunately, she was proven otherwise, for the blue-eyed teenager with long pink tresses chose that moment to anger the former.

"Hello, Athrun," Lacus said, in that sweet, innocent voice that made Cagalli want to throw up. "How are you?"

"Uh… Fine, great," he answered uncertainly. "You?"

Lacus fingered the golden clip on her hair. "As much as I want to say I'm fine, I just can't bring myself to lie. I'm afraid your friend here just ruined my morning," she said with a derisive look (that she still managed to make seemingly innocent) at Cagalli's direction.

The blonde clenched her fists. "Oh, I could ruin more than your morning, Lacus. Why don't I try your face?"

"Always the aggressive one, are we, Cagalli?" Lacus said, unfazed by the remark. "Well, Athrun, it was nice talking to you. I'll take my leave now, or risk having more than my morning ruined." She started to walk away, but paused. "Oh, and just a warning: If you get too close, she might like you, and you do not want that."

Athrun gave her a small smile. "Well, if you must know, Lacus, assuming Cagalli did like me, I wouldn't mind at all. Now, if, say, you end up liking me, I would not want that, not at all."

Lacus's eyes narrowed. "You are so going to pay for that, Athrun Zala," she snapped, breaking to a trot and walking past him.

"I thought she'd never leave," Athrun said, letting out a relieved sigh. He looked at his best friend.

Something was not quite right with her. She was not praising Athrun for winning the argument of the day with Lacus Clyne, nor was she uttering a string of profanities and planning deadly scenarios for Lacus Clyne. Instead she just stood, open-mouthed, and… Was that a blush Athrun was seeing?

Cagalli had not heard much after Athrun's comment about Cagalli taking a fancy towards him. It had not once occurred to her to think of her best friend in that light. Of course, she was well aware of how sought after Athrun was with the ladies, and that he'd turned every single one down because, in truth, he did not want romantic relationships with the opposite sex. Still, she wondered why she had never thought of him that way, not even once, in the eight years that they had spent together.

"This is all Lacus Clyne's fault," she mumbled.

"What was that?"

"Um… I didn't say anything," Cagalli said quickly, the red tinge on her cheeks becoming even more noticeable than it already was. "Oh, hey, great job a while ago, it was so kick-ass," she added, hoping to steer the conversation into a safer area.

"It's no problem," Athrun answered, glad that Cagalli was returning to her old, normal self again. "As your substitute brother, I have to protect you at all costs."

"Except for the 'substitute brother' bit, you sound like my bodyguard," the blonde said teasingly. The smirk on her face turned into a smile as she told him, "But I'm glad you haven't gotten tired of protecting me from Lacus Clyne."

"I wouldn't get tired of protecting you from anyone," the boy said firmly. "Now come on, I know you need a hug or two."

Cagalli hesitated. We do this all the time, remember? It doesn't mean anything other than a best friend hug, she convinced herself.

It doesn't mean anything.

She reached out and embraced her best friend, holding him as close as possible. She felt a fluttering feeling in her stomach at the contact.

"Woah, looks like you really do need the hug," Athrun said with a laugh.

"That's pretty much how much I wanna hug Kira again," Cagalli muttered, looking up at Athrun. It was partly true, as she did miss her brother and still felt guilty about not writing him a single letter, but it was partly false also, for a reason she did not really understand.

The hallway suddenly became noisier than usual as a crowd of third-graders decided to play a game of indoor tag.

"Well, that's–"

Before Athrun could say another word, a collision with one of the tag-playing children caused him to stumble forward. Fortunately, his quick reflexes enabled him to plant both palms on the wall to stop him from falling on his best friend.

Unfortunately, he had not counted on having his lips brushing against Cagalli's in the process.

For a moment, time seemed to stop in its tracks. Cagalli felt the softness of the lips that had made contact with hers for the first time. She felt as though her knees were about to give way…

And then, time started back up once again, just as unexpectedly as it had frozen. The boy removed himself from his awkward position and stood up straight, nervously rubbing his palm on the back of his neck.

"Cagalli, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it, it was a total accident," Athrun stammered, afraid of his best friend's reaction.

But she gave him only the same open-mouthed look he had seen after Lacus had walked away from them earlier.

Oh no.

"Cagalli? Are you okay?"

The blonde blinked her amber eyes repeatedly, as if waking up from a daydream. "Uh, yeah, yeah, sure I am," she answered distractedly, trying her hardest to hide the excess color on her cheeks. "It's alright, Athrun, I know you wouldn't actually do that on purpose anyway. So… um… Let's just forget about this, okay?"

Whew, he thought, relieved that Cagalli did not use the aggressive approach on him and instead calmly told him to forget that he had kissed his best friend.

It was his turn to gape at Cagalli. "Wait. You're not mad? I mean, not that I think you would be, but… You're not mad?" he repeated, evidently surprised at this new development.

"No. Just… surprised, that's all," she answered.

"Yeah, it is pretty surprising, huh? I got my first kiss from a girl," Athrun said in a low voice, but not failing to sound like the concept of him kissing Cagalli was absolutely unheard of.

"Uh-huh," she said, feeling the heat rise to her face yet again.

My best friend just kissed me.

No, I just kissed my best friend.

I'd give anything to do it again.

And that was the day Cagalli Yula Attha would not forget any time soon ­– the day she started to feel something different for her "substitute brother", Athrun Zala.

a/n: Okay, I take back what I said last time, this is longer than my usual. Well, hope you guys like it. Hope it doesn't seem too rushed. Tell me what you think about Fllay and Lacus, too. Personality switching, much? But I love Lacus too much to make her evil, so she'll mellow down a bit and be back to her old, lovable self soon. Very soon. :D

Oh, yeah, to answer steshin's review, I'm too lazy to type up my non-fanfiction stories. LOL. But I will try, though. Watch your e-mail!