So it's been a while since I updated... sorry! Truthfully, I had this done for about a week but I wanted to wait until I finished another chapter, so that I could do a double post. But the next one's taking me quite a while, so I thought I'd just post this up now. The next chapter of my other story, To Pluck an Honest Rose, will as a result, be updated probably in less than a week. As for now...
Onwards!
Athrun sat, composed at his computer and rapidly typing away at his keyboard. It had been a while since Cagalli had started meeting men and dating them, each time coming back with the general "He's okay, but -" reaction. And so she was offered a choice: Keep going and see if the "but" wasn't such a big deal to her, or just drop it and find someone else.
No one had really lasted more that 3 dates, and by that point the agreement to stop was mutual. In general, she didn't really like to keep going, unless the problem was simply something very minor. Athrun warned, that hunting for perfection was going to make the search much more difficult. Cagalli replied that she knew, but for the meantime, it didn't seem like any of these guys were right for her anyways. Her trusty agent would simply tell her, that if she kept rejecting people then it would be harder. Less offers might come for her... nonetheless, she seemed fine with this to. Her response was something along the lines of,
"If the guy doesn't want to date me because I'm selective, then I don't want to date him either!"
Quite on the contrary to what Athrun thought would happen, the requests for meetings were pouring in, and her waiting pool was already quite sizable. Her trusty and slightly protective agent, who would never admit it that he was wrong, of course hid this from her. He had even created an automatic filter according to age, simply due to the incredible amount of men who were older than what Cagalli had requested, but were trying to give it a shot anyways.
In some ways, it was better that he kept this secret from Cagalli, otherwise he had no idea how she'd react to so many elder men popping up and asking for a date. In the meantime, she simply spent a lot of time in Athrun's office, looking through profiles with him. On occasion, they'd even gone out for a coffee or lunch together, as a break from combing through profiles. Sometimes she was only in there for half an hour before she found someone; more often then not, it was a few hours.
Not that Athrun complained of course. He was more than happy to accommodate the eager blond and her energetic aura. Actually the two of them worked well together, and Athrun thought that in general, everything was going smoothly. He was always willing to do whatever he could to help her, and though she rarely asked for help, preferring to be as independent as possible, she was grateful for his generosity. After all, he had never refused a favor, or a request form her... Until:
"This guy sounds nice..." Cagalli mumbled softly, yet aloud.
"Who?" Unsure of whether he was supposed to hear that or not, he looked up anyways.
"There's this weird mark beside his name..." She trailed off.
"That just means there's some special condition for him. It usually ranges anywhere from refusing to go for Italian food, to having to bring his cat." Athrun smirked at Cagalli's obviously stunned reaction. "I'll look it up for you."
Cagalli sat there, unsure of whether or not she wanted to hear this...
"Oh... well that's interesting."
"What is it?"
"He only double dates."
"... What?" She blinked apparently caught between confusion, surprise, and shock, all of which were quite evident on her face.
"He only double dates.. Or he prefers them at least. It's not all that uncommon... Some people just feel uncomfortable being one on one with a stranger, and so they'd rather bring a friend. Just bringing a random friend is never agreed to, and much too weird. So they request a double date instead. This person is bringing a heterosexual female, so then I suppose you'd have to find a guy to bring."
Cagalli paused, as if digesting his words for a moment. " I see..." She started. This might be a problem.
This guy's profile looked great, really interesting, and she could very much understand feeling nervous or a bit uneasy about it. After all, if Lacus hadn't forced her, and Athrun wasn't her "agent" then she probably wouldn't be doing this either. But the issue was finding someone. Kira was with Lacus, so she couldn't force him to do that... And most other guy friends already had their "Happily ever afters" or were with someone. Which effectively left...
Athrun was starting to get that weird feeling, that you experience when you feel like someone is looking at you. Especially when they're looking at you, and waiting for something, or watching you expectingly. She didn't expect him to help with this one did she? Surely not! Such an idea was ridiculous! He'd always been helpful, but even he had his limits!
A bit apprehensive about looking up, he cleared his throat and tried to continue searching on the computer without making eye contact with Cagalli... A natural defensive maneuver.
"Athruuun..." She started.
Athrun began typing faster, and turned his head away from her a bit, for added emphasis. "Uh.. Yes?"
"You're not dating anyone, right?" Again... in a slow and cautious voice, clearly meant to have him get the point so that she wouldn't have to say it directly.
"No, ah.. Currently I am not." He answered, careful only to respond to the direct question, without revealing any extraneous information. Despite her clear attempts to have him ellude what she wanted, he wasn't about to do anything.
"Well... I'd like to meet this guy, but I don't have anyone to set up for the double date..."
"That's too bad then." He replied with his head, still down. "I suppose I'll just reject his offer then and-"
"Athrun! I thought you were supposed to be helpful!"
"Hey! Double dating's NOT in my job description!"
Cagalli glared angrily. "You're supposed to be HELPFUL!
"Cagalli, stop being unreasonable!" He argued "Surely you can find someone-"
"There's no one else!"
"Well then reject his offer, because I refuse to get involved in this sort of thing!" Athrun protested firmly.
Two days later at 6pm...
"How did I get myself involved in this sort of thing?" Athrun sighed, finding himself standing in front of a full length mirror and dressed in a business casual manner, which wasn't really much of a departure from what he usually wore.
"Think about it this way Athrun, maybe this way you can help Cagalli find her true love. And besides, you hardly go out enough anyways... It'll be nice." Lacus responded, trying to relieve his evident pain. Cagalli had more or less ordered him to meet her at Lacus' house, so they could head over to the restaurant together.
"Maybe this guy's friend is a nice girl... What's her name?" Kira leaned casually against a dresser, watching Cagalli and Athrun get ready.
"Annabelle, I think? Apparently she's the guy's best friend, but they used to date." Cagali answered. She side-glanced at Athrun and frowned. "Stop fussing about. It's supposed to be casual, and besides you look great."
The azure haired man blinked and gave her a puzzled look. "I've barely even done anything. I was just checking if I had my wallet."
"Oh... Well then you just regularly look that way." She responded without thinking.
"I regularly look great?" Now he was really confused.
Cagalli was turning redder by the second. Declining to answer, she grabbed her bag and stormed out the front door while shouldering it. "We'd better hurry! We're supposed to meet them at the restaurant in half an hour, and we're walking, remember?"
Bewildered, Athrun reached for his jacket, noting how the temperature was supposed to dip quite a bit that night. He thought of grabbing Cagalli a coat, but she was already far down the street and well out of earshot. Nodding briefly at Lacus and Kira, he too, was soon chasing after Cagalli.
Kira nodded back, and Lacus waved, while closing the door to her house, before turning to Kira. "Change of plans?"
"Plans?"
"I think that Cagalli might have started having feelings for someone who's not in Athrun's database..."
After a good minute or two of sprinting, Athrun had caught up to Cagalli, whose face no longer seemed to bear the lovely shade of red it previously had. Falling into stride with her, he found himself observing her expression and general demeanor.
She was definitely dressed casually, and didn't seem to outwardly show much nervousness. Her eyes were focused straight ahead, and her arms swung loosely at her sides, not fiddling with her necklace, or pockets as she often did when anxious. Yet from how frequently she kept blinking, he knew that she must have something on her mind. If he were to venture a guess...
"You've never been on a double date before?" He raised an eyebrow. As if she'd forgotten he was there, Cagalli looked up, startled, and gave him a quick nod.
"Well... Never a double date, much less a blind double date... That seems to make it all the worse." She admitted, letting out a brief ironic laugh.
"Are you nervous that I'm here?" He asked. She looked up at him and studied him fro a moment, before shaking her head.
"No, that's not it. That fact that it's you probably makes it a little better... but I mean. I feel like I'm going to have an audience now or something." she sighed. Athrun smiled sympathetically.
"It's not really different than... Well It's not going to be just like a regular date so I can't say forget that we're here. Why don't you just try not thinking about this as a date, and consider it more of a... hanging out with people. Don't worry about whether or not you're paying enough attention to the guy, because no one expects that much from a first date anyways. Just thinking of it as a get together will help you relax a bit, and then it all kind of just falls into place." He shrugged.
Cagalli smiled, and raised a mischievous eyebrow. "You seem pretty experienced with this kind of stuff. Have you done this before?"
Athrun's eyes widened. "No! Of course not! I told you I don't get involved in this sort of thing... well I haven't before. I'm just saying what I think... to help calm you down."
Cagalli let out a contented sigh. "Well, thank you. I appreciate it."
Athrun and Cagalli arrived at the restaurant slightly later than expected, which Athrun apologized profusely for. Technically they were still early, but it appeared that their dates still were there before them. Annabelle was a polite girl of average height. Apparently she had a love for flowers and dogs, and was a generally pleasant person to be around. Someone who you could earnestly say you were glad to meet.
Jordan was around the same height as Athrun, maybe a tad shorter, also good natured, but not as polite as Annabelle. In fact, he seemed downright casual, which suited Cagalli just fine because if he ended up being too polite she would feel awkward at the very least... It was already somewhat surprising that she could deal with Athrun's formality without smacking him in the head a few times... granted she did smack him on the arm occasionally, but not half as much as one might expect.
True to his profile, Jordan did share Cagalli's taste for spicy foods. Athrun, though a fan of unique flavors, didn't mind spicy foods, but certainly wasn't on a conquest to burn his tongue off. As for Annabelle, she settled with a much tamer plate for dinner.
"So, you guys are pretty close right?" Athrun asked, trying to open up the conversation to everyone, instead of the two person to person conversations that had been taking place thus far.
"Yes, we dated seriously for a while, but sort of ended up... perhaps not drifting, but finding that we were seeing each other in a different way. And now we're just very close friends." Annabelle explained.
"That's nice" Cagalli commented. "Its rare to see relationships end so smoothly these days..."
"Well it wasn't so easy at first to tell the truth... Actually it was kind of hard for each other at first, but it's been almost a year since we broke up, so I suppose you can't see much more than friendship anymore." Jordan explained, peppering a piece of broccoli furiously. Catching Cagalli's neutral expression while watching him do that, he looked up and grinned a bit. "Sorry if I seem like a nut..." he started
Cagalli blinked quickly, then shook her head and laughed. "It's not that, really! I was just wondering when you would be done with the pepper, so I could use it."
Athrun stole a brief glance at the two of them, out of the corner of his eye. Neither he, nor Annabelle were the type to talk with food in their mouths, so conversation was going rather slowly.
Cagalli seemed to be getting along very well with this guy. They had similar personalities, interests, and attitudes. Athrun smiled, thinking that if this really was the guy for her, then going on this double date thing might have been worth it after all.
Ha... If this guy were the one. But wait... he didn't know anything about this guy. What if Jordan seemed all right, but inside had some sort of weird twist to him? Otherwise, why would he break up with Annabelle, who was in his opinion, a perfectly reaonable girl? Imcompatible personalities?...
No, there was nothing wrong with Jordan. He was... well he probably had his flaws, but they were nothing so bad as to make him seem like a bad person.
And that bugged him... Just a little bit. Athrun thought about it seriously. His job was to find Cagalli someone, right? And even though Jordan was a nice guy, what if he wasn't the One person for cagalli, that Athrun intended to find for her. After all, she was special. Much more interesting, and amusing and pleasant to be with than his other clients... There really could only be a handful of people that Athrun would consider suitable for Cagalli.
A nudge to his ribs interrupted his thoughts. Looking to his right, he noticed Cagalli was pointing to Annabelle, while still carry on a conversation with Jordan. Looking ahead, he realized that his "date" had already finished her meal, and was sitting politely in front of him, napkin folded on the table, and hands in her lap. She looked... bored.
"Ahh... sorry, I'm not the most entertaining companion." Athrun immediately said, feeling genuinely embarrassed. Even if he had simply been dragged into this by Cagalli, he would still feel horrible if Annabelle became bored out of her mind. She had come here seriously hoping that he would be a nice guy. Perhaps she was actually searching for someone...
Wait... was he? Despite his career, Athrun hadn't really put serious thought or effort into dating much himself... In any case, this was a date, and regardless of why he was here, he felt obligated to not have Annabelle feel like she was wasting her time.
Annabelle looked up, and smiled at his previous comment to her. 'It's fine, I was just thinking in my head. for a moment."
"Oh, about what" Athurn asked, somewhat curious.
"Ah, about random things I suppose. I'm not much of a conversationist either, until I get to know a person better."
"That's fine. More people are like that than you might think."
Cagalli continued her lively conversation with Jordan. He was an interesting guy, definately better than other guys she had dated as far as she could tell. He was also remarkably easy to talk to. So far, this date was going smoothly. And true to Athruns word, she didn't feel like she had an audience at all. He wasn't watching her, or sitting there, observing her every word and move. He was holding his own conversation with Annabelle.
After all, this was a date for him too, right? Was this how he is on dates?
Suddenly Cagalli felt a pang of curiosity go through her, as she snuck a glance at him. Both he and Annabelle looked incredibly proper, both sitting straight, and conversing about some book apparently. A picture perfect couple. She seemed very polite, somewhat similar to Athrun. Athrun was carrying the conversation well.
Suddenly, her mind began to wander a bit. Athrun was a nice guy, perfectly decent and... admittedly a little good looking. Her conscience tried to get her to confess, that he was a bit more than that, but for the time being it wasn't important.
The issue was with all these nice qualities, why didn't he have a girlfriend? Why didn't he date? It's not like he couldn't get one, right?
Her thoughts snapped out of focus when the waiter broguht their check. Dinner seemed to have just flown by... Jordan stood up and smiled, asked her if she was up for another date sometime, not necessarily a double. Cagali smiled, responding that she was definately up for it. Meanwhile, out of the corner of her eye, she caught Athrun shaking hands politely with Annabelle. She mentally rolled her eyes. Always such the gentleman...
Athrun and Caglli now proceeded to walk back in the direction of their houses. They were simply chatting lightly, following the conversation in whatever direction it seemed to be going in. Casually strolling beside each other, they failed to notice how quickly time had passed.
It wasn't quite like their respective conversations in the restaurant, where questions were centered on getting to know the other person more, but of comfortable banter between two people, who seemed to know each other much better than they realized.
Athrun silently decided to walk Cagalli home, before dropping by Lacus' house to pick up his car, and Cagalli didn't seem to mind or complain. Feeling the night breeze come by, he glanced down at her.
"You're shivering" He commented, glancing at her shoulders.
"No I'm not." She answered quickly
"Yes, you are. Do you need my jacket?"
"No." Another quick answer
A few minutes of silent walking passed, before...
"Lend me your jacket." She turned to him and extended her arm, as if demanding it.
"I thought you said you didn't need it." A lopsided and teasing grin.
"I don't think need it, but I'd feel more comfortable with it." A shrug.
His jacket was then passed to her, and she quickly donned it with a quick thanks, before continuing to walk back. Upon returning to her apartment, she shrugged it off her shoulders and handed it back. Saying a brief sentences of appreciation, for both the jacket and the night, it occured to her that they hadn't even touched the subject of the date at all on the way back.
Pushing the thought behind her, Cagalli told him that she'd stop by his office the day after the next, and after a quck hug, disappeared into the building.
The rest of Athrun's journey home was... calm and more silent than the first part of the day had been. He was somewhat glad, because this gave him some time to reflect.
In some ways it felt like he'd done a whole dinner of thinking, but he still felt like there was a lot more to think about. He wasn't so sure anymore, about what he was doing with Cagalli.
This dinner had raised questions. Currenly, she wasn't his only client but she felt like the most important one... More and more he found himself pushing back other appointments to meet with her, and having her requests take priority. He was also darn sure that if it had been anyone else there was no way he would have gone on a double date with them.
Though he shouldn't play favorites, he really did feel particularily attached to her. Part of him thought it was because she was Lacus' friend or her ebullient personality. A tiny voice inside him whispered that he was in denial.
In any case, at times like these, he couldn't help but remember that she was just a client, and the moment she found someone, she'd stop having to come to his office and he wouldn't see her so much. In fact, he might not see her at all.
And for some reason, the idea of that irked him... a lot.
Returning home, he took his jacket and hung it in the hall closet. Before completely walking away from it, he paused for a moment, still facing away from it...
"You don't think you need it... But you feel more comfortable with it." A melancholy smile crept up onto his face. "Funny how that works."
So then! After a night of dating and discovery, what lies ahead for these two. And what of Lacus' hunch? Next Chapter: Systematic Stalling... Because if you can't decide, just push it back!
This chapter didn't really have a lot of dialogue, but was a bit heavier in character insight and interaction. It's actually a bit of a relief to have this here, so I can finally start moving in the direction I intended too... Since it's 3 chapters in and I JUST started with that I wanted, my original plan of 6 chapters might be modified... I'll see how I decide to split the chapters.
I am definitely rushing to get these chapters finished now, because soon college's going to start and I won't really have time. I do have a handful of people pressuring me to finish these up, so I'll try my best everyone! But you know, I don't want to rush and write badly... Ahh maybe I'm just lazy.
Thank you to all my dear reviewers! Sorry to keep you waiting!
Kagally, Lems, Eternally Asuka, lil kagome 14, X-19A Infinite Justice, Dreams of Eternity, Tetsuni, Kintora, PINKSISA, animemistress419, XxbuffyxX, The Jackle, Belle , Panda, aNg3l-Of-LoV3-AnD-h4t3, stuntsheep , ovp, Swt. Harmony, gseedlover, DiRTy-LaRrY, Vigorian-Asakura, asucags, thousandbirds, CaptKuchiki, Garowyn, daisukiasu'n'caga, Cari-Akira, ANONYMOUS-gsd, asga, 3fi-pina3, Princess Ashes, RoGuE-WhItE-DrAgOn, The Angels' Princess, -boos-, Maryam Khanoom, Kitty-Kat90013820, xfangirl obsessionx, Kazumi Kairi or Kairi-chan, jackie-88-ac
Such lovely comments never fail to brighten my day!
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