Disclaimer – I do not own Gundam Seed

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Happy Halloween
written by: ohwhatsherface

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Part 2 of 3
Sibling Rivalry

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"Now this is what I call sibling rivalry…" Miriallia grinned and plopped back onto Cagalli's bed, opening a bag of chips and munching down on them.

The blond sat at the head of the bed, leaning against the wall. Lacus was sitting beside her and Shiho was lying on the end of it. After leaving the boys behind to laugh at their fear of slasher maniacs, they all went straight up to Cagalli's room to have a 'girl's night'. She had shown how absolutely livid she was the moment she closed the door, screaming curses about them, especially towards her 'sexist, dumbass, little nitwit of a brother'. Cagalli grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and started writing things on it. "What is Kira scared of…?"

"Cockroaches," Miriallia answered first. "When he used to share a room with Sai up on Heliopolis, their room got infested with cockroaches…" She laughed. "I think that was the first time I saw him cry…"

Lacus giggled. "Yes, I do believe Kira is afraid of most bugs all together," she said. "One time there was a spider at the orphanage, and some of the little girls called Kira to kill it…" She put a hand over her mouth to keep her calm composure. "In the end, I was the one who had to bring it outside since Kira thought they should just 'leave it alone'. I didn't press the matter but I knew that Kira just didn't want to go anywhere near it."

Cagalli nodded madly. "Thank you, thank you, keep it all coming." She scribbled things onto the piece of paper title 'Operation: Boys Are Idiots'. "Kira: scared of bugs."

"Yzak is afraid of the dark…"

There was silence among the four girls. No one even bothered to laugh maniacally, the way they usually did.

"The…"

"…Dark?" Lacus repeated, clearly surprised.

Shiho shook her head up and down with a smirk. "He doesn't let anyone know, but I found out when I shut the lights off on him one day and his office turned pitch black because I was trying to make him go home. He was so mad at me afterwards. I was going to make fun of him but I kept it in. Some people are just…" She couldn't find the right words to describe her fiancé.

"Sacred of the dark?" Cagalli subbed in, adding more to her list. "Okay and Dearka?"

"Dogs."

Gold eyes blinked and she gawked. "Wow, and I thought the dark was one thing…"

"Care to elaborate?"

Miriallia smiled. "I first found out a week or so after Dearka and I became official. I brought him over to my place to meet my parents, and my pet dog that I've had since I was a little girl. He's this giant golden retriever, so when Dearka saw him on my front lawn, running up to me, he panicked." The memory of her first day, coming home with her blond boyfriend in tote made her chuckle. "I never let him live it down… I felt kind of bad, not warning him about my dog. He really looked scared. It's funny, all those times I watched him launch into space to protect the Archangel, he never once looked as afraid as he was when he saw my baby."

"Oh this stuff is just juicy!" Cagalli clapped her hands and read over her list. "Okay so Kira is afraid of insects, Yzak is afraid of the dark, Dearka is afraid of puppies and Athrun…" She scratched her blond head as three pairs of eyes turned to her, expecting Cagalli to be the one to no his fear; she was his girlfriend. "Uh…"

Shiho frowned. "You don't know do you…?"

She grinned guiltily. "No…" Cagalli turned to Lacus. "Do you know by any chance?"

The pink haired girl shook her head in response. "No, I'm afraid I don't."

The blond grunted. "I think I'm a bad girlfriend…"

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"Isn't this kind of rude Kira? This is a bad idea. We're invading their privacy—"

"Oh shut up Athrun," Kira whispered, leaning his head against the door of Cagalli's bedroom.

Athrun glared at the brunette who was trying to eavesdrop on his sister's conversation. "No I will not just shut up, because if we get caught, it's my ass that's on the line because I'm the one who let you all in the house. If she catches us listening, she's going to blame it all on me!"

Dearka poked him. "Quiet, they're talking."

"What is Kira scared of…?"

"Cockroaches. When he used to share a room with Sai up on Heliopolis, their room got infested with cockroaches… I think that was the first time I saw him cry…"

"Yes, I do believe Kira is afraid of most bugs all together. One time there was a spider at the orphanage, and some of the little girls called Kira to kill it… In the end, I was the one who had to bring it outside since Kira thought they should just 'leave it alone'. I didn't press the matter but I knew that Kira just didn't want to go anywhere near it."

Athrun and Dearka both laughed silently as Yzak spoke through chuckles to Kira who was blinking, taking in everything his girlfriend just admitted.

"You're afraid of bugs?!" Yzak whispered with a smirk.

Kira scowled back, ready to make a response but someone else spoke.

"Yzak is afraid of the dark…"

The four boys froze, and Yzak turned redder than Kira was.

"He doesn't let anyone know, but I found out when I shut the lights off on him one day and his office turned pitch black because I was trying to make him go home. He was so mad at me afterwards. I was going to make fun of him but I kept it in. Some people are just…"

"Sacred of the dark? Okay and Dearka?"

Outside, Dearka panicked. After the way Kira and Yzak were humiliated, he didn't want to be added to this list.

"Dogs."

Another moment of silence overcame the boys.

"I first found out a week or so after Dearka and I became official. I brought him over to my place to meet my parents, and my pet dog that I've had since I was a little girl. He's this giant golden retriever, so when Dearka saw him on my front lawn, running up to me, he panicked. I never let him live it down… I felt kind of bad, not warning him about my dog. He really looked scared. It's funny, all those times I watched him launch into space to protect the Archangel, he never once looked as afraid as he was when he saw my baby."

Kira, Yzak and Dearka all glared at Athrun who was leaning on the wall, laughing at all of them, waiting for his turn to be humiliated.

"Okay so Kira is afraid of insects, Yzak is afraid of the dark, Dearka is afraid of puppies and Athrun… Uh…"

"You don't know do you…?"

"No…"

Athrun couldn't help bur feel a tinge bit hurt.

"I think I'm a bad girlfriend…" they heard Cagalli admit guiltily. "But it's not my fault!" She laughed a bit. "Usually I'm the one who's piss-in-your-pants scared and he helps me… I've never seen him genuinely afraid of something before so screw off!"

And the hurt went away immediately.

The three other guys rolled their eyes.

"Pansy."

"Loser."

"Wimp."

"Wimp?" Athrun repeated with a very smug expression. "I'm not the one who's scared of little puppies."

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The boys sat together the next morning in the Attha dining room munching on some breakfast, waiting for their girlfriends to get ready and join them if they were still at the house; Cagalli and Shiho had gone down to her office. Kira lowered his voice as he spoke between bites of his omelet. "Okay so here's the plan that I devised yesterday." There was a mischievous glint in the seventeen-year-old boy's lavender eyes. "This morning, I kind of, sort of, went to Cagalli's office—around five actually—"

"Wow, you're really dedicated to this," Athrun cut in. "You wouldn't wake up for anything…"

Kira chuckled. "Yeah, I know. Anyways, I left this bloody looking note there that makes it look like she has some stalker."

"That does make sense," Yzak mused. "She is famous to the whole universe so I wouldn't be surprised is she really has one."

"What was in the letter?" Dearka asked.

The brunette shrugged. "I can't remember. Creepy stuff like I'm watching you, I know what you were doing last night, blah, blah, blah and then everything is written in red. Then I ended it with something like on Halloween night, I'm going to kill you…" He smiled brightly and ate some more of his food. "Then tomorrow, one of us is going to scare the crap out of her in the middle of the night."

"What about the other girls Kira?" Athrun asked.

He snorted back. "They're all going to be too scared about Cagalli's situation. The prank works for all of them, don't worry."

Yzak chuckled. "You're a horrible brother, Yamato."

"I know…"

"Did those girls really think they'd be able to scare us?" Dearka wondered, stroking his chin thoughtfully.

Athrun shrugged. "Whatever, let's just do this prank…" He felt somewhat bad since the main victim was his girlfriend, but he had to admit, the situation was pretty amusing. Had it been anyone else, he knew he would have jumped straight for the opportunity of playing a prank on them.

Kira chewed some toast. "I can't believe Cagalli thought she could actually pull a prank on me." He chuckled. "Athrun, remember all those times when we were kids—"

"I'd rather not."

He sighed contentedly. "That just proves how great of a prankster I am. I used to do all sorts of things to you, the teachers and all the other students when we lived on Copernicus all because my parents were down on Earth…"

"What do you think she'll do when you admit that her getting afraid of some stalker was just a prank?" Yzak inquired.

Dearka nodded. "Yeah, Cagalli's not the only one who's going to be miffed that they got themselves scared for no reason."

"We'll think about it when the time comes." Kira wiped his face clean with a napkin. "Until then, let's just wait for Cagalli to come running home scared." He stood up from the table and noticed that all the other boys were finished eating and were just waiting for him to be done as well. "Actually, I changed my mind. Why don't we pay her a bit of a visit at the office?" Each boy left the breakfast table donning a smug expression.

When the dining room was empty, the door leading there from the kitchen opened up, revealing a shocked pink haired girl.

Fighting off a very un-characteristic growl, Lacus took a deep breath.

"I have to tell the girls!"

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"Princess Cagalli,

I have been watching you my dear. I know everything about you. I know your daily schedule. I know what you are wearing right now. I know what you wore last night. I know what you did last night. I know you are quite scared of masked men with knives. I want you to know that on the night of all Hallows Eve, I will find you and make your worst fear come true. Until then, enjoy what little life you have left.

-No one in particular,"

A loud, terrified shriek was heard, ringing through the walls of Parliament Building in Orb.

Cagalli glanced down at the white paper a second time since she found it taped to her door and reread the message written in red, blotchy letters. "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh…" Her hand that was holding the note clenched into a fist, crushing the letter from Cagalli's stalker. Not wanting to be alone after finding something like she just did, the Princess screamed for the person who came with her to the office. "SHIHO!"

The brunette looked up from her spot on Cagalli's couch. "What?"

"Read it!" she bellowed, throwing the crumpled up paper to the ZAFT soldier. "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh…" The blond girl paced her room nervously. She picked up her cell phone. "Okay, I am so calling Athrun! Where the hell is my bodyguard when I freaking need him?!"

Shiho's lavender eyes skimmed over the first line of messy, crimson handwriting. Honestly, whoever wrote this letter did not have the word legibility in their vocabulary. When she got to the part that told the letter's main message, her eyes began opening more and more. "That's… creepy…" She saw Cagalli looking through her phone, trying to find her bodyguard's number; she was having some trouble getting it for some reason. He wasn't there with her at the moment because she had given Athrun the week off since Yzak and Dearka were around and she wanted him to have fun. Shiho shivered as she looked over the note again. "But aren't you used to this kind of stuff, Cagalli? You are famous. Lot's of people want to kill you."

The famed, Princess of Orb's eyes widened. "Holy shit your right…" She pressed a button on her intercom, talking to her secretary. "Someone call Mr. Dino and tell him if he doesn't get his but down to my office right now, I will use my last pathetic days on Earth torturing him mercilessly!"

Her secretary's voice sounded unsure. "…but Miss Attha, he is on vacation. Last week you told us no one is to disturb him at all—"

Cagalli's cell phone began ringing and the pair looked at the silver contraption. "Hold on a minute," Cagalli said to her secretary as she flipped open the phone, nervous that the person might be her stalker, laughing at her and about to tell her how he was going to chop her up—she shook her head and put the contraption to her ear. "…Hello?"

"Cagalli! Oh thank god, you won't believe the news I'm about to tell you!"

"It's Lacus," the blond whispered to Shiho, who was looking at her with concern. The brunette nodded and examined the note some more. "What's up?"

"Did you by any chance receive a note this morning, written in red from a 'stalker'?"

Golden eyes narrowed at the paper in Shiho's hands. "…yes…"

The girl on the other line let out a sigh. "Okay, don't let it scare you Cagalli… It's a prank—"

"What?"

"Your brother, and the other boys—Athrun included—overheard us the other night discussing their fears," Lacus explained, "and how to use them against them, so they decided to prank you back with a fake stalker."

"WHAT?"

Lacus ignored her outburst and continued on with her explanation. "Their plan was for you to get super scared by the note, and have us all freaked out as well, and then on Halloween, one of them—most likely Kira—is going to dress up as some sort of slasher maniac from the movie, and try to scare the heck out of you!"

"WHAT?!"

"Uh huh," Lacus confirmed, sounding quite pissed off, herself. "They just left your house. They're going to come by the office…" She paused. "What are you going to do?"

Shiho looked at Cagalli curiously when the blond girl's lips quirked up into smirk. Her voice was now calm and collected as she spoke to the girl on the other line. "I'm going to play along for now. I'll explain our new plan when Shiho and I get back to the house. Until then, you and Miriallia go down to the guest room Kira's staying in and look around. Try and see if he wrote any of his plan's down. Bye, Lacus."

Cagalli's office phone rang before she was able to tell Shiho what was going on. "Miss Attha, Mr. Dino is here, but no one called him. He has three guests with him. Would you like me to send them up?"

She directed her fingers for her eyes and began to poke them. "Just go along with what I saw for now," Cagalli whispered low enough for only Shiho to hear, as her golden orbs began to water up. "And keep the note on the desk for now, like I'." Shiho placed the crumpled paper on Cagalli's desk. Cagalli pressed something down on her phone. "Yes, please send Mr. Dino and his guests up to my office." The brown haired girl walked over to Cagalli, who was sitting on her desk chair, making herself cry. Shiho was asking for some answers. Cagalli scowled in response. "Those idiots think they can prank me. I don't think so. They planted that stupid stalker note!"

Shiho gasped. "What?!"

The blond nodded. "Yep, and now they're coming to see if their prank is working."

The lavender eyed girl growled. "I am going to beat the living crap—"

"No!" Cagalli interrupted. "We're going to play along and turn the prank against them."

"How?"

"You'll see."

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"Hold on a sec, guys." Dearka paused in front of the door to the Chief Representative's office. "The guilt of making Cagalli be scared shitless is eating at me… Okay it's gone."

"I'm going to die…" Athrun whispered to himself. "I'm going to die. Cagalli is going to find a way to blame all of this on me, and I'm going to die. I'm a war hero and I'm going to die at the hands of a scrawny, ditzy, little blond. I'm going to die…"

Kira groaned. "Shut up Athrun!"

"You're not going to die, so get over it already," Yzak exclaimed, gripping the doorknob. "Watch, I'm going to open it, and she's going to run up to you and hug you because she's—" The fair haired boy took a moment to chuckle. "—scared." Laughing, Yzak pushed the door.

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"Why are you standing by the door?" Shiho asked. "Most distraught people hide or something when they think they've got some psycho after them, not stand right in front of the place where the psycho maniac is going to come from."

Cagalli shook her head. "Can't, I just wouldn't be me if I don't jump Athrun the second he's in my office." Cagalli raised her arms and stretched them. "I'm gonna give him the most painful glomp for even agreeing to help my brother with this," she whispered furiously. "I mean for god sakes, he's my boyfriend!"

"And your brother's best friend," the brunette pointed out. Cagalli sniffled as tears fell from her eyed more easily now. "They're right outside," she told Cagalli from her spot beside the girl, 'consoling' her. "Get ready to jump."

"I'm always ready."

The blond smirked. The wooden door sprung open and the person right in front was Yzak. He moved to the side and Athrun was first to go into the office. Biting her lip to keep from giggling, Cagalli ran forward and pushed Athrun to the floor. She buried her face in his chest as she 'cried', not quite caring about the other people in the room who were staring at her.

"Oh Athrun, I'm so scared!"

Awkwardly, Athrun patted her on the back, wincing at the bruise he knew was forming on the back of his head. Damn that was one hell of a glomp.

Kira stepped forward and helped Cagalli, who was crying hysterically, stand up on her feet. "What's wrong Cagalli?" Kira asked with brotherly affection.

Shiho fought the urge to gawk.

Damn those twins sure knew how to lie to each other…

"Oh Kira!" Cagalli cried, wrapping her arms around her brother, forgetting about her boyfriend. "Someone left a note in my office, and they said they're going to kill me!"

Playing along, Shiho took a grab at Yzak's arm. Biting her lip to appear nervous, with shaky hands, she passed the note Cagalli found that morning over to Yzak. "W—we found this in the office…" Much to Cagalli's amazement, Shiho made her eyes turn glassy. "Yzak I'm s—scared…" Cagalli pushed away from her brother and went to Athrun for the sake of being overly dramatic and began to whimper pitifully. Shiho followed suit on Yzak.

With the two girls looking away, the four boys grinned smugly. The girls were scared.

Their plan was working.

With their faces hidden, Shiho and Cagalli were also smirking. The boys believed they were afraid.

Their plan was working.

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"So let me get this straight," Lacus started off. "It's a prank in a prank…"

"…in a prank," Miriallia concluded with a confused look on her face. "Okay I get it… But how is this prank going to work them?"

"For now, we just play along and act scared about everything," Cagalli said.

It was about seven in the evening and everyone had just finished eating their dinner. Kira had claimed that he wanted to bring Yzak and Dearka shopping, most likely to get some costume to wear the next night and a fake knife. Athrun had gone along too since all the other guys were going. Being the great liar she was, Cagalli made a giant outburst about not wanting to be alone. Thankfully, they just told her not to worry and proceeded to leave. The four girls were now sitting in Cagalli's backyard, by the pool. Lacus was painting her toenails, Cagalli was scribbling things in a notebook and Shiho and Miriallia were simply relaxing, watching the sunset.

"Tomorrow night, after they 'prank' me and think that everything is over, one of us is going to go at me with a knife and stuff like that. I'm either going to 'die' or 'disappear'—haven't decided yet—and then whoever is going to play the slasher out of the four of us gets to go after all the boys." Her lips were tugged into a bright smile. "Oh I just can't wait for tomorrow night."

"Who's going to be the slasher maniac?" Shiho asked.

The blond girl pursed her lips in thought. "Hm…"

"I'll do it," Lacus volunteered, looking up from her pink nail polish. "If I'm missing, Kira will get even more freaked out."

Cagalli smirked. She lifted her arms and crossed them behind her neck, laying back on the chaise lounge with a content expression.

"I like the way you think Miss Clyne."

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End of Part 2

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Part 3 of 3: October 31, 2006 (HALLOWEEN!) XD