Part 5

Previously-

"How true." Ryo laughed, and in his smiling profile, Cagalli marveled at his likeness to Ahmed. It was that same jovial grin, that identical sparkle in the eye – it was all so familiar to her. With a soft gasp, she looked at him silently, lost in a reverie.

"Erm… Princess, are you alright?" Ryo finally asked, noticing that Cagalli had spaced out.

"Oh. Yes. I'm sorry, I was… you just… remind me of someone." She said at last.

"I…See…" Ryo arched his eyebrows, leaving an unasked question as to the regards of the identity of the person hanging the air.

Cagalli chose not to answer. She nodded and glanced out of the window. They drove the rest of the way to the ball in silence.

As the car drove up to the Royal Orb Hotel, a singularly exclusive (and expensive) place where the ball was being held, Cagalli felt a short burst of nervousness. She knew Kira and Lacus were going to be there, but more importantly, so were Meyrin and… Athrun. She had avoided them when they were together, because she felt so alienated from them that it was unbearable. They always seemed to have something to say to each other, but when Cagalli was near, Meyrin always seemed to keep silent while Athrun tried his best to make the conversation between the three work.

Well, you know what they say: three's a crowd. Cagalli thought bitterly.

As she entered the hotel and walked through the lavishly designed halls that led the ballroom, she wondered why ZAFT had decided to hold their annual party at Orb. It probably had something to do with Lacus, seeing as she was one of the organizers, and she had decided that this ball would be a perfect opportunity for Cagalli to get to know more people from ZAFT and improve relations between ZAFT and Orb, which wasn't a bad idea actually.

Casting her thoughts back, Cagalli now recalled that it had been Lacus who had more or less bullied her into going for this ball. Though Lacus looked sweet and harmless enough, there were times where she could be very persuasive.

Cagalli waited as the tall golden doors were opened, and a man stepped forward and announced her name to the rest of the guests. There must have been at least a hundred of them; all dressed exquisitely, champagne glasses in hand. She walked down the steps leading to the ballroom carefully, fearing that she might trip and embarrass herself. Damn these shoes, she cursed inwardly. Whoever made up that rule that women had to wear heels to these stupid functions should be shot…

"Cagalli!" A melodious voice interjected her thoughts as a girl with flowing pink hair skipped towards her happily. She hugged Cagalli, and then stepped back.

"I'm so glad you're here! You look beautiful in that dress." Lacus said, her face radiating with happiness. If it had been anyone else, those words would have sounded hypocritical and fake. But for Lacus, it was different. Lacus was never one to say things she didn't mean, and anything she said came straight from her heart.

A man with brown hair joined Lacus, and he too gave Cagalli a hug.

"Cagalli! Whoa, you look like…"

"Yes, little brother?" Cagalli asked, her voice deceptively sweet, "I look?"

"Well, haha… never mind!" Kira voiced nervously.

"No, no, go ahead – finish your sentence."

"Er, well, I was going to say, you… er… look like… er… you're having fun!" Kira said uncomfortably, noticing that Cagalli was glaring at him with a look so venomous it could burn a hole through a sheet of metal. He had, of course, been planning to say that she looked like a girl, but had caught himself in time, recalling the numerous times where he had been suffered her wrath after making that comment. It was a reflex thing, like when someone throws something at you, you catch it or duck – similarly, when he saw Cagalli in a dress, he just had to blurt out that he had once again noticed that his sister was in fact, a girl.

"Really?" Cagalli asked suspiciously.

"Really!" Kira nodded with much conviction. He then looked up next to Cagalli, and suddenly his eyes were clouded in confusion. Cagalli followed his vision, and then saw –

Oh. Ryo. She had forgotten about him - again. Guiltily, she motioned towards him and then toward Kira and Lacus.

"So, er, have you met my new bodyguard? This is Ryo. The chief-inspector thought it would be good for me to have someone following me around all the time because of… those attacks."

Kira and Lacus shook hands with the guard, and then made polite conversation with him, leaving Cagalli bored. Her eyes wandered around the ballroom, the orchestra had started and there were some couples waltzing on the dance floor. Great, dancing, my favourite, she thought dryly. She was about to look away when her eyes caught hold of something- in fact, the last thing she wanted to see.

It was Athrun and Meyrin, and they were dancing.

Cagalli froze and watched as the two of them waltzed round the dance floor. Meyrin looked as pretty as usual, perhaps even more so in the cream dress she wore, and (Cagalli noted enviously) her shoes did not seem to be hampering her in moving as gracefully as she did at all.

But it was Athrun who caught her breath – Athrun in a well-tailored suit, who looked like the perfect gentleman, but whose eyes were far more exciting. Her eyes were glued to him, and for a moment she was oblivious with everything that was happening around her.

Lacus tapped her on the shoulder gently. Cagalli broke out of her trance and stared at her in confusion.

"Cagalli, would you like to get a drink?" She asked kindly.

"Erm…sure…" Tearing herself away from the floor, she made her way towards a waiter who was holding a tray of beverages. Her mind was whirring, reeling, and throbbing with pain. She tried to reason herself once again – after all, it was a ball, and dancing, well, dancing was something that everyone did with everyone else. Right? Right. So why was she still feeling so upset that Athrun had been dancing with Meyrin? Why did it bother her so much? It wasn't as if she owned Athrun, he had a right to dance with anyone he wanted to.

In her distracted state, and given her affinity for heels, the next thing that happened almost didn't surprise her.

There was a crash, a couple of screams, and then Cagalli found herself sprawled next to the unfortunate waiter. Cagalli wanted to hit herself – how the hell did she trip over her own FEET anyway? The colour on her cheeks matched the deep red stain on the carpeted floor where the wine had seeped in. Surprisingly, her dress remained unharmed. Her shoes, however, were a different story… the heel of one shoe had broken off, and the other shoe's buckle looked badly twisted.

By now, there was a small crowd forming around her. Ryo had magically appeared at her side and was helping her to her feet.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

"Ye-yeah…" She muttered as she stood up, embarrassed at the amount of attention she was attracting.

"Oh…dear…" Cagalli heard Lacus say, as she made her way through the crowd. She surveyed the mess, nodded towards a few waiters who were now rushing toward the disaster zone with numerous rags and vacuums, and then walked toward Cagalli.

"Cagalli, are you okay? Oh… your shoes! This will never do, and the party's only just started! Well, come now, take this key and go to room 232. There are some shoes that'll fit you, I think, you wear the same size as me, don't you?" Lacus was steering her away from the crowd, and Cagalli felt a rush of gratitude towards her friend.

"Thanks Lacus." She said as she hobbled her way out of the grand golden doors.

"I'd go with you, but some of the arrangements need to be tended to urgently. You'll be safe with Ryo anyway." Lacus replied smilingly as she walked back into the ballroom.

"Huh?" Cagalli looked next to her, and once again, Ryo had teleported to her side. She gave a small start, not knowing that he had been there at all.

"He-Hey! I… uh… didn't see you there." Cagalli said apologetically. Ryo's face remained impassive as he gave a brief nod. The two of them made their way to Lacus' room, with Cagalli shooting Ryo puzzling looks and wondering how her bodyguard managed to move so quickly every step of the way.

"Was Cagalli hurt?" Athrun asked, half concerned and half amused when he found out what had happened. He had been on the other side of the room, and unable to see what the commotion was about.

"Nah, she's fine. Lacus sent Cagalli up to her room to get a new pair of shoes. It's lucky that they have the same shoe size, or Cagalli might have had to go home." Kira said thoughtfully, "Although… knowing Cagalli, I don't think she would have minded that too much."

Cagalli let herself into Lacus' hotel room, and then promptly plopped herself into the nearest chair she could find, and then kicked off the broken shoes off her sore feet. Ryo had immediately checked the room, contented himself that there was no one hiding inside, and then went to guard the door.

Raising her eyebrow, Cagalli looked skeptically at the guard.

"Do you have to be this paranoid?"

"It's for your safety, Your Highness." He answered.

"Uh. Erm. Right."

She walked around the room barefoot, relishing the feeling of the cool marble floor against her skin. She tapped her chin and tried to remember where Lacus would usually keep her spare shoes.

Suddenly, she felt Ryo tense up.

"Yes?" She asked.

"Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"That noise."

"Er…no…"

"Stay in here, Princess, I'm going out to investigate."

And with that, Ryo walked briskly out of the room, closing the door behind him.

Shaking her head, Cagalli continued her search.

"Cagalli sure is… taking a long time." Athrun commented to Meyrin as both of them sipped on their champagnes.

"Where did she go?"

"Kira said she went up to Lacus' room to change her shoes."

"Oh."

"Yeah… do you think I'm being… overly anxious? I mean, it's been half an hour and she's not back yet. Cagalli usually doesn't take that long to change shoes."

"Maybe she can't find one she likes?"

"Erm… that's… highly unlikely."

Athrun frowned, and then placing his empty wine glass on a table, he made up his mind.

"Meyrin, would you mind if –"

"Ah… no… go ahead."

"Thanks." Athrun smiled warmly at her, and after giving her hand a quick squeeze, he rushed out of the ballroom to look for Cagalli.

Cagalli sat on the couch, reading one of the random magazines that Lacus had left on the coffee table. After flipping through a few articles, she decided that magazines were a waste of money. Who the hell needed to know what lipstick colour was "in"? Or if jeans should be flared or straight? Utter nonsense, she thought.

She sighed again, bored and restless. Where was Ryo? It had been half an hour, and he still hadn't returned. Something wasn't right. Ignoring his words to stay in the room, she decided to go out and look for him.

But as her hands touched the doorknob, she realized that she couldn't.

Literally.

The door was jammed.

Staring at the door in disbelief, Cagalli tried again. Still, it remained firmly shut. She tried fitting the key into the lock, but still the damned thing refused to open. She started to panic, desperately and futilely twisting the doorknob repeatedly.

Cagalli Yula Attha, there is ABSOLUTELY NO REASON why you should be panicking. I mean, it's just a jammed door! What's the big deal? At the most, you'll get bored. That's all! Calm down, you are overreacting. Yup. That's right.

And that was just when she spotted the acrid black smoke filtering into the room from the gap in between the door and the floor.

A/N: aha. I suck at naming hotels! ): Ah well.

THANKS TO ALL WHO REVIEWED. THIS CHAPTER IS FOR ALL OF YOU LOVELY PEOPLE! (: