Celestial Being Chronicles - Chapter 140
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Gundam series, nor any of the various series which are used or referenced in my fic, so please point that damned lawsuit cannon at someone else, also, don't read this if you are not of legal age to read such material. The story contains possibly disturbing content and should not be read by close-minded people (i.e., people who are easily offended.) Everything in the story is fictional. I am also not responsible for any actions taken by people who read this story and society's problems. I do, however, own my original character; Hope Yamato.
"What a day!" Hope groused loudly as she literally dropped her cafeteria platter next to Lacus and Cagalli. "Not only did I get next to no sleep last night, but all my classes have been pitifully boring! And the worst part is that I got detention for not paying attention in class! Can I help it if I learned the quadratic equation back when I was six?" She continued whining, even after Lacus raised an eyebrow.
"It's not a PLANT school. I would have thought you'd realize that. The trick is to act interested, even when you are bored out of your mind." Athrun Zala spoke up from where he sat with Meyrin. Hope sighed.
"That's a pretty complex trick." Hope commented. "Could you teach it to me?"
"If you find the work that easy, you can do my homework too." Cagalli suggested to Athrun, causing him to glance at her.
"That wouldn't be right. I could get in trouble for doing something like that." Athrun told her, and Cagalli immediately began to pout. "Besides, eventually you'd have to do some work on your own, and by that time, the teacher would probably have you doing Chaos theory, which you wouldn't be able to comprehend."
Cagalli thought about that for a few moments. "I suppose you're right." With that topic seemingly over, Athrun turned his attention to Hope. "What's this I've been hearing about Shiho? Lacus let something slip about something happening with her last night, but she shut up about it and won't elaborate." Athrun asked.
"Why do you want to know? You're already married to Meyrin, what's with the interest in Shiho?" Hope joked. Athrun brandished his cheap steel cafeteria knife threateningly. Hope held up her hands defensively. "Woah, down goy. Meyrin, control him before he kills me." Hope pleaded.
"You reap what you sow." Meyrin commented philosophically as she took a sip of her soda and turned her eyes away. Hope turned back to Athrun.
"Okay, okay, I'll tell you. Just put the knife down." She replied. Her fear and hesitation were an act. Hope dearly loved gossip, especially when she had something really juicy to tell, like she did.
"Put what knife down? Where you threatening Hope, Athrun?" Mayu asked, sitting down next to her.
"Yes." Athrun answered.
"Oh, okay. Just wondering." Mayu replied. Hope looked wounded.
"Aren't you going to protest?" Hope asked.
"No. I want to hear the story about Shiho too, since I was drunk out of my mind and don't remember anything. You'd better get to telling, or I'll menace you myself." Mayu answered. Hope sighed, faking being put out. Soon, the entire story spilled out and the other two girls were quickly laughing and covering their mouths in shock at the same time.
"She had her shirt off?" Mayu asked in wonder.
"She told them that they were the two most beautiful girls in the world? Shiho did?" Athrun said, as if he didn't believe Hope. By this time Lacus had rejoined the conversation and she backed Hope up, word for word.
"God's own truth." Hope swore.
"And you let her get away with saying that without protesting?" Cagalli asked sweetly. Lacus looked at her as if she had said something really stupid.
"Um...yes. Why should I have protested?" Lacus asked back. Cagalli shared a look of horror with Mayu. Hope and Lacus couldn't tell if it was real or feigned.
"You mean to tell me that neither of you protested and refuted her claim that they were the two most beautiful girls in the world? Despite the fact that both of you are married a group of the most beautiful girls on the planet?" Mayu asked, as if trying to set things straight. Hope had a bad feeling about where this was going. "I think they deserve to be punished for their indiscretion, don't you, Cagalli?"
"Yes, I do. Let us adjourn to elsewhere. We'll eat with some other guys, who will hopefully be more sensitive and with better manners." Cagalli agreed with a predatory gleam in her eye. "God knows I've had enough admiring stares this morning to last me all week." With that the two girls stood up and moved several tables away, where they started a conversation with the people already sitting there.
"Are they serious?" Lacus asked, bewildered.
"Don't ask me. I can't even understand Mayu, much less your girlfriend." Hope answered. She looked around the crowded cafeteria. Hope half-rose and waved her hand. "Hey, Kira! Murrue! Over here!" She called.
Within moments Kira and Murrue had hurried over and sat down, glad to be able to sit next to people they already knew. Lacus noticed that Murrue was clinging quite tightly to Kira's arm. "You should be careful, or he'll lose feeling in his arm." Lacus advised. Murrue blushed and loosened her grip slightly.
"Sorry." She apologized to Kira, who just shrugged it off with a noncommittal grunt. Lacus looked at him strangely.
"You're acting withdrawn again. What's the problem?" Lacus asked. Kira blinked at her and seemed to wake up.
"Just having a tough time adapting to school again." Kira explained.
"I'll say! I've never been stared at so much before!" Murrue said indignantly. "It's almost like there was something on my face for all my classes this morning. But there isn't, I just checked! I just don't get it." She complained. "And of course it doesn't help that I only have two classes with Kira, those being Current Events and History, the last two classes of the day."
"As if we didn't already have a more than sufficient grasp of current events." Kira sarcastically added with a brief smile. "I missed you." He whispered to Murrue and gave her a quick peck on the lips.
"I missed you too." Murrue replied and squeezed his hand.
"Wait, where are Lexi, Shinn and Luna?" Hope asked. "I thought that they were all going to be joining us."
"They're here." Kira and Murrue answered in unison, even as Lexi Yamato walked into the crowded room, followed by Shinn Asuka and Lunamaria Hawke, the thrio quickly manuvering to the table where their friends sat and finally setting their cafeteria platters down. Lexi sitting next to Hope and Lacus, whil Shinn and Luna sat by Athrun and Meyrin.
"I could easily teach every single course in this school by myself." The holographic woman sighed, plunging her fork into the mound of three meat lasagna sitting on her plate.
"I think any of us could." Shinn agreed as Lexi lifted the fork to her mouth and took a bite.
"I guess that's true." Lexi nodded after swallowing the food in her mouth. "Where are Cagalli and Mayu?"
"They got pissed off and left a few minutes ago." Hope answered.
"I'll fix that." Kira smirked, utilizing some of his more divine abilities and taking control of both Cagalli and Hope, essentially forcing the two women to return to the table where all of their lovers had gathered.
"Damnit, Kira." Hope growled, regaining control of her body. "What the hell was that for?"
"Is that a toothpick in your pocket, or are you just really poorly endowed?" Asuka Langley Soryu smirked, gesturing to Kira, as she walked up to the table and sat down, with Misato Katsuragi quickly sitting beside her.
"I don't have to put up with these wild allegations!" Kira scowled, grabbing his tray and leaving the table. After setting the tray in the tray return window, he left the cafeteria.
"What's this?" Kira said, holding up a bright orange envelope that had appeared in his private mailbox at the mansion. It was Friday afternoon, and after suffering a full week of school, Kira was looking forward to the weekend. The work was, of course, not hard, but pretending to pay attention in class was starting to get really tedious. Even in Current Events and History, which was usually filled with highly opinionated debate, was starting to get old. If Lacus hadn't been in the same class to calm him down, Kira probably would have utilized some of his more divine abilities to keep himself amused long ago. The teachers had the whole war all wrong. They discussed right and wrong and blame and all the other little things that didn't actually matter in a real war. Were the PLANTs wrong to use GENESIS to destroy the Ptolmaus Base? Just as wrong as the Earth Forces were when they nuked Boaz. Kira groaned, even now fed up with it. Who's fault was the war?
That was a very hotly debated topic. Most of the kids were Naturals, and so they believed that it had been the PLANTs who had started the war by breaking away from their parent countries. Lacus had nearly leapt out of her chair when the kid finished that presentation and Kira had had a hard time calming her down. He didn't feel so happy himself about that. It had obviously been Junius Seven which opened the war, but whether the Naturals or the Coordinators were to blame for it was not something he was prepared to accept as debatable. As he had so painfully learned, there was no right or wrong in war, not really.
Kira looked at the blank orange envelope curiously. It had no name or return address on it, and from its slimness and weight, there couldn't have been more than one or two sheets of paper in it. Kira walked back inside to the common room, where Asuka, Hope, Misato and Lexi were lounging about, sipping glasses of juice and sodas while talking about nothing in particular.
"What's that you got there?" Asuka asked him.
"I don't know. It was just in my mail." Kira responded.
"Well, open it and find out." Hope recommended. Kira opened the letter without difficulty and took out the single folded piece of paper. He read it silently. Hope looked at him. "C'mon, what's it say? It's not something private between you and Murrue, is it?"
"No." Kira replied absently. "You have been invited to the estate of Rebecca Azrael for her pre-christmas costume party. Costumes may be of any type, though there will be prizes for best costume. The party will take place on this Saturday night at 5:00 pm. Please arrive a few minutes early. Food and drink will be provided. The Party will last until 1:00 am, so come rested. There will be games and other activities. P.S. Our apologies for the late notice, but Ms. Azrael was only recently able to get parental permission to use her estate." Kira read out loud. Everyone else was silent.
"You got invited to a party?" Asuka asked at last.
"Why didn't I get invited?" Hope added.
"Maybe you did. I don't know about you guys, but I haven't checked my mail yet." Lexi answered.
"Who's Rebecca Azrael?" Misato asked. The room went silent again.
"How could you not know?" Lexi asked, unconsciously echoing Murrue's words to Kira on the Eternal. Misato waited patiently. "She's the most popular girl at school. She's the be all and end all of the school social scene. I've yet to meet an unattached guy that doesn't hunger to be her boyfriend. Heck, a lot of the already involved boys would dump their girls in a heartbeat if Rebecca said she would go out with them." Lexi explained, blushing slightly.
"Popular...Social Scene. Now I know why Misato doesn't know who she is." Hope commented. "She doesn't do popular or social scenes." Misato kicked Hope under the table. "Ow! Hey, at least I didn't say you were unattached." Misato kicked her harder this time. "Ahg! My leg!"
"KIIRRAA!" Murrue called, bounding into the room waving a sheet of paper and an orange envelope. She looked at them and noticed that Kira already held exactly what she was holding. "You got one too?" she asked.
"Yes. I didn't know you knew Rebecca." Kira replied.
"I don't. Or I barely do. She doesn't strike me as a very nice person. How does she know you?" Murrue replied.
"I sit next to her in math class." Kira replied. Murrue arced an eyebrow.
"And...?"
"That's it. She's very untalkative. Whenever I try to talk to her, she insults me." Kira replied. Murrue frowned.
"I don't like her." Murrue decided. "I think I'm just going to rip up this invitation. I'll tell Cagalli and Mayu to do the same with theirs."
"Woah, hold on a second there. Mayu got an invitation too?" Hope asked.
"Cagalli as well." Murrue confirmed. Hope jumped out of her seat and raced outside. She was back within a minute, holding two invitation envelopes proudly.
"This one was in your box." Hope said, handing Asuka one of the envelopes.
"How did you get into my mailbox?" Asuka asked suspiciously. Hope just coughed and looked away.
"I think I'm going to go change my code." Misato declared. Lexi went with her to do the same thing.
"This is odd. I've seen her around once or twice, but she never paid me any attention and vice versa." Asuka said, reading his invitation.
"Probably because she sensed that Cagalli would claw her eyes out if she did, and yours if you did." Mayu replied, grinning slightly. "Your girlfriend is scary sometimes. Violent and really pushy. How do you stand it?"
"I just remind myself that she's only acting that way because she's trying to take my mind off my problems. And that despite the fact that she has shot at me multiple times, I'm still alive and whole." Lacus replied, taking a calm sip of her drink.
"Don't rip up your invitation, Lacus." Kira said. "Rebecca is only insulting to me because she thinks I'm hitting on her and doing it very badly." He continued. This, however, was not the right thing to say, as Murrue instantly gripped him by the chin.
"You'd better not be!" She warned him, her voice instantly filled with donimant authority.
"Better not be hitting on her, or better not be doing a bad job of hitting on her?" Cagalli asked snidely. Lacus scowled as she kicked her lover under the table. "Ow...my leg. I need that...to stand."
"Then stop making stupid comments." Lacus growled.
Kira was getting flustered "I'm not! To either! I just try and start a normal conversation. Even just saying anything sets her off. It's almost like she expects me to be hitting on her and is confused when I don't." Kira protested. Murrue stared deeply into his eyes.
"I believe you. But now I really don't like her. Why do you want to keep her invitation?" Murrue asked, sitting down on Kira's lap.
"Maybe if she sees you and me together, she'll figure out that I already have someone I love." Kira broke off to kiss Murrue. "And she'll realize that I'm just trying to talk to her, not make a move. I don't think my math class could get any more tense. Every guy is shooting me jealous glares while I would gladly trade places with them and Rebecca freaks out every time I open my mouth. It's getting really annoying." Kira continued. "Besides, I've never been to a costume party. It sounds like a lot of fun."
"Okay. I suppose it can't hurt to give it a try. And a costume party would be fun. But if she keeps on you afterwards, I'm going to give her a piece of my mind." Murrue replied, as Kira gently combed his fingers through her ankle-length hair.