A/N: Sorry for taking so long, but I'm glad I can write now, well I have lost my hardware and all of my written chapters have gone with the wind, is that enough to explain why? I hope you all enjoy this chapter, and thank you very much for supporting me. And here we go, enjoy it!
Disclaimer: I don't own GS/GSD.
"Athrun…" Lacus mumbled softly in her sleep. Her eyes slightly moved. In her dream, there was Athrun standing in front of her, his hair flying freely in the wind. And the 'her' there was not her, it was someone else. She could see her from the behind, every trace of her shadow. The dawn was behind Athrun, the orange color was everywhere, lighting the place up. She saw Athrun pulling 'her' close to him and whispered something into her ears. Lacus opened her mouth. It was not her; she wanted to shout that out loud to anyone who was posing as her, but no sound came out from her mouth.
"Athrun!" Lacus shouted, throwing back suddenly. Her eyes snapped wide, just to find herself on the bed, with no one around. "A dream?" She spoke to herself, inaudible to anyone else. She couldn't believe that she had just dreamt that, and plus, calling her boss by his first name, she surely had the guts of a lioness. Oh well, right then that wasn't the problem, the problem was, she was going to be late!
CHAPTER 3: ANNOYANCE
Lacus jumped off the comfortable bed and ran to her washroom for a small tower, teeth brushing, face washing, and then changing and finally she was ready to go!
"Good Lord, hope Mr. Zala won't be mad at me for being late on the second day of work…" She grumbled, climbing into her car. In her dream, she could call him whatever she wanted, well, nobody could hear it, could they? But when she was awake, don't expect her to be disregarded to her boss, never, never and ever! Starting the engine, Lacus picked up her cell phone which was ringing continuously and infuriatingly.
"Hello, Lacus Clyne." She spoke; her eyes were still on the road.
"Dear, are you still on your way to work?" a male voice echoed on the other line.
"Yes father, is there anything important? I'm being late." She answered; her voice carried a glimpse of annoyance. Why did her father have to call her when she was definitely going to be scolded by her boss? Yeah, her face had been pretty long since her dream. He was being too close with some girls… Brush that aside! Talk about it later, silly!
"Oh, I see. I'll call you later then. Good bye." Her father replied and cut the line, not letting her say another word. Irritated, she closed the cell and threw it back on the passenger seat. What was with her then? Usually, she was cheerful and in a good mood when a new day started, well, what was her problem? Who knew! She was late, that was all she cared about! Five more minutes…
At PLANTS Corp.
"Well well well, she's being late isn't she?" The blue haired man smiled to himself, glancing at the clock. A creepy smirk crept onto his face.
"Come in!" Athrun called as he heard a knock on the door. Slowly, it opened to reveal a scowling Kira. "Good morning. What's with you today?"
"Nothing, Mr. Zala. This is my report about our leaks in finance, I'm sorry for taking this long but it just couldn't be helped. Now I may turn back to work." Kira scoffed even more, and while speaking in a dangerously low voice, he slammed a folder on Athrun's table, making the chairman jump up in surprise.
"Come on Kira, you are not usual self. Have you forgotten that I'm your best friend? Your way of talking to me is not yours." Seeing that his friend was not in a good mood at all, Athrun tried to lighten up the atmosphere, "And the look on your face! Can you please tell me what have been bothering you?"
"Well thank you very much Chairman Zala, but I'm totally fine. Now if you don't mind, I will return to work." Kira shook his head and answered in a dramatically formal tone, again. Well, Athrun was absolutely cheerful, but not until Kira's annoying arrival made it vanish like it had never been there before. As Kira was walking towards the door, or to be exact, he was only three steps away from it, Athrun left his table and rushed to him. In no time, the blue haired was able to grab the brown haired man's shoulders, spun him around and pushed him back so hard that Kira's back slammed against the wall.
"Answer me Kira, what happened to you? The way you are acting is not usual, and surely you are not alright. Maybe you are sick or something... And I hate it when you are like this." Athrun demanded, or snarled at his best friend.
"Why do you even bother to care Athrun? This is none of your business!" With that Kira shove Athrun's firm grip off his shoulders rudely. Right, he was just about to do so when the door flung open.
"Chairman Zala, I'm terribly sorry for being late, but there was…" Lacus was rushing into the room, voicing out an apology when she saw the two's position. Her jaw remained open for she was too shocked to close it. The two men stayed still, too. There was something in their minds, something that they'd rather commit suicide than to let her think it that way.
"Oh… I… I'm sorry; I didn't know that you are having… Err… business. I will come back later, please excuse me for my rudeness, Chairman." She bowed her head blankly and stepped back, closing the door. Her eyes remained wide. "I've never known that they are…"
"Now Kira, this is great, just great. What are we going to do?" Letting go of the brunette, Athrun heaved a miserable sigh. Then, remembered something, he glared at Kira: "Don't you dare to recommend that we announce to the world that we are both gays…"
"Isn't it obvious? You are one, but not me…" Upon hearing Athrun's panicked tone; Kira smirked evilly and mockingly, although he was racking his brain to think of a solution, too. And the woman! It was her, again! His guts jumped up and down in his stomach.
"Say that once again and you will be preparing for you own funeral, best friend." With that, the offended man threw his hands up and then slapped at his face. He groaned again. Why did it have to be him but not Kira? The two had the same feminine figures, the same cute looks and long hair, but still, they didn't say that Kira was a gay, but it was him! Life… How unfair…
"Oh well, there's nothing we can do about it, now can we? She will certainly go around and tell everybody about it. All we can do now is to sit and prepare money to buy back all the newspapers that will have articles about our sex…" Kira chuckled again, nonchalantly, despite Athrun's bullet-shaped eyes and his gloomy face. That was amusing, wasn't that? Since elementary, Athrun had been prettier than any girl in the school. And, once in a while, he had played the role of Juliet in the play "Romeo and Juliet" at the school festival. Boy, more beautiful than ever when he was in Juliet's costume…
"But we can't just stay still to let her ruin our reputation, or have you forgotten that our reputation is related to the company's, huh?" Athrun was practically tearing his hair off, swearing under his breath. Upon seeing that, Kira couldn't help but spit out a poorly concealed laughter.
"Yeah, I'll go back and think about it. Call her in now, Athrun, and have a talk with her. I know you can offer her something that will keep her mouth shut." The brown haired man's sneering words and tone didn't do the situation any better, instead…
"Get the crap out of here, now!"
Well, amazing! Getting the oh-so calm and cool Athrun Zala yell at the top of his lungs was really something, at least for human beings.
"Yup, good luck, beautiful." With the last good bye, Kira dangled his feet to the door and walked out, without any pang of guilt. Yes yes yes, he had had enough for the day. First lost his cell even though he had put it neatly on the bookshelf; then there was his car, which was towed away by a truck for parking in the none-parking zone. He didn't do anything to deserve that, did he? He just wanted to park there for a few minutes while going in to get something for dinner, Cagalli ordered him to do so, for they would have dinner together, again. And what was she doing at that time? Oh, very funny, sleeping peacefully in her warm blanket at home… And then… Oh damn, don't talk about it, Fllay was arriving…Kira sighed again. It was not his day, certainly. He knew Athrun really cared for him, but he didn't have to mood to joke… Anyway, there would be a customer waiting for him in his room by then, he'd better hurry up. Hope the day would end soon… About the woman… Lacus to be exact, he would think about that later… They still had time…
"Chairman?" The pink haired secretary stepped into the room reservedly. She looked around. There was the chairman sitting at the table. But what was he doing? Banging his head against the table?
"Chairman Zala, what are you doing?" Lacus screamed in horror and hurried to the blue haired man. "Chairman Zala, please stop that, you are hurting yourself!"
"Ouch…" Looking up, Athrun whimpered. His forehead was throbbing, as a result for his banging process. "I'm perfectly fine. Please sit down and we will have a small talk."
"Err… Yes sir…" The helpless secretary hesitantly sat down on the chair Athrun was pointing to her, but she still looked worried. Was it because of her that he did so?
"Chairman Zala, what do you want to talk about?" She asked softly, her hearting was beating fast. It was the first time that she talked to him face to face, and the first time that they were that close. Not really, but closer than any time before it. Never mind…
"About earlier incident. Look, Miss Clyne, it was not what you see. Mr. Yamato and I had some disagreement, and I couldn't control myself that I accidentally knocked him on the wall, that's all. Please don't have the wrong idea about us." Emerald looked deep into crystal; Athrun's voice was shaking terribly, enough to tell that he was at the verge of throwing himself at her feet begging her.
"S… Sure… I will never tell anyone about it…" Lacus blushed slightly, adverting her gaze. At the back of her mind, it was yelling: "He looked into my eyes; he looked into my eyes…"
"Yes… I mean… No! That's right, don't tell anyone about it, but please don't see us as gays either! I certainly am not! It was just an accident!" Athrun sighed in great exasperation, nearly slamming his fists against the table. He had lost his intelligence to twist the words, thus talking turkey.
"I understand." Lacus giggled at the respectable man's annoyance. "He's cute looking like that…Oh God no, what am I thinking about? Stop it right now, silly Lacus Clyne, if he discovered this, I'd lose my job. Father will laugh at me…"
"Good, thank you very much and now you may write down an explanation for me why you were late this morning." They sly man nodded and signaled for her to go to her table, while the giddy one just stared at him. Shock, hatred, amazement and surprise were read in her eyes.
"Sir?"
"Yes what's wrong?" The chairman held his head up and his oh-so charming smile plastered on his full lips again, as if nothing had happened. Seeing that, she knew she could do nothing about it, therefore shook her head furiously and stomped to her seat.
"Interesting…"
"Argh! That old-fashioned man is so irritating!" Staffs walking by the Finance Office got startled and quickly backed away from the door where the growl had emitted from.
"Hmm?" The voice's owner turned to his secretary with an obvious scowl on his face.
"Well, mind telling me your opinion about the meeting you have just had?" Despite the death glares, the daring woman continued, not seeming to flinch a bit. Usually, she was the one who sent the glares to him, not the opposite, thus had more experience. Her boss, her twin little brother, she knew too well. He could never harm her, even a strand of her hair. It had always been her, who beat him up into a pulp and no more, not him who could scare the hell out of her.
"Don't talk about it; it just makes me want to rip his head off more…" The Head of finance grunted in his throat like a lion. His words were only audible for himself to hear; even the blonde couldn't make head or tail of them.
"I see that you are pretty tired now. Besides, it's already lunch time, why don't we go to the cafeteria to have something? Your best friend, Chairman Zala maybe will be there, too." Grinning toothily, the secretary pulled her boss up from the table and turned off the lights.
"And this is when I don't want to see him the most…"
Meanwhile, at Chairman's room…
"Do you want to join me for lunch, Miss Clyne? It'll be my treat." The man looked at his secretary and drummed his fingers on the wall.
"Pardon me? Did you just say that I could join you for lunch?" The pink haired and pink cheeked woman tilted her head up and widened her eyes in surprise. Butterflies were flying crazily in her stomach, however hard she tried to push away the romantic feelings for her boss.
"Yes indeed. So that means you accept my offer?" He smiled his beautiful smile, therefore taking another beat of her heart.
"Y… Yes… That's my pleasure, Chairman." She stuttered, standing up from her seat, almost knocking her chair over. Her cheeked flushed even more. She had heard that the man waiting for her at the door was famous for his infamous fan club, but she couldn't help feeling awkward towards him. Was she falling for him already? How about her 'fiancé'? Complicated, too complicated for her… She didn't want to betray the boy she had been looking for all her life, but she didn't know what to do then, either.
"Are you coming, Miss Clyne?" The man's calling voice woke her up. Oh well, what must be must be, it was still too early to go to any conclusion.
"Spaghetti is out of order; can you please choose another one?" The cook told Kira, his voice was shaking badly, seeing large veins on the man's forehead.
"…" The mentioned one was speechless. His breath became heavier for he was trying his best to take a grasp of himself from strangling the cook to death. It was not his day from the beginning, mind you.
"We will have some sandwiches then." His secretary quickly ordered again and push the steaming brunette away. She was starting to feel nervous. There had to be someone to calm him down, quick! A girl for example…
"Ara, looks like we are too late, there's no table left…" A sing-song voice echoed, but then she stopped immediately when she heard someone swearing loudly.
"Ara?" She turned around just to find a pissed brunette sitting with a blonde. Her heart immediately jumped up. She didn't know why, it just made her uncomfortable.
"Hey Kira!" The man next to her greeted, waving his hands casually.
"What?" Grunting, the brown haired man turned around with dark aura emitting from his ears. Seeing that, the two new arrivers sweat dropped.
"Err… Can we sit with you? There's no table left for us."
"Get lost… No! I mean… Yes, please do!" Kira muttered incoherently, but then changed at once as he saw the pink haired lady following his annoying best friend. His cheeks suddenly flushed for no reasons. Although he didn't know if she was really Athrun's fan girl or not, or did she have any special relationship with the blue haired man, he still felt relieved when seeing her. Her smile really lit him up.
"Heh heh, thanks…" The devilish man eyed him with slightly narrowed eyes. Something had just popped into his head.
"Shut up Athrun Zala!" Sensing that his friend was up to something nasty, Kira snarled with a dangerously low tone in front of the pink haired lady's shocked eyes. Never in her life had she expected any worker to dare to yell at the chairman of his/her corp. and call him by his full name without being punished. Oh that's right, he was the one in the Chairman's room that morning, wasn't he? Strange… Really strange…
Kira didn't seem to notice her saucer eyes, for he was closing his eyes, drawing in a deep breath and turned to the songstress, forcing out an apologetic smile:
"Sorry for being rude, we are having some kinds of problems…Ack!" But his words were interrupted by a violent pull.
"Looks like you have something for her already, dear friend…"
"One more time and dig your own hole…"
"Oh well, we are going to have a small game, Kira, dearest Kira Yamato…"
To be continued.
A/N: So how was that everybody? I hope it was not that bad… After all, I have given up writing for a pretty long period of time, so… Well, please review and tell me your opinions, thanks a lot.