Gundam SEED Fan Fiction ❯ Bright Eyes ❯ Bright Eyes ( Chapter 1 )

He Said, She Said

Walking into the girls' dorms of the Academy was like stepping into a whole different world, a segregated world where the pretty girls hung out with the other pretty girls, the nerds with the nerds, and so on. If you didn't fall into one of those areas you were virtually on your own. And for a new girl, even after almost a month, it was hardest of all. And poor Aisha was all of those.

She was cute, one could say, with freckles across the bridge of her nose, glasses, and long navy hair pulled into two pigtails, but she was hardly "pretty" by most standards. She was relatively normal in height, but she wasn't skinny. Her hips, bust, and stomach seemed to all match up with only the slightest curves to show that she was really a girl. She was of average intelligence, and didn't really fit in anywhere.

For a girl that had only been at the Academy for training only a few weeks before, it was often times just stressful enough to make her cry herself to sleep twice a week. She was picked on by instructors, made fun of by the other girls, and was laughed at by the boys when she tried to do something to the fullest and ended up failing.

Too be a girl of only 15 years and too go through that was just enough to send anyone off to commit suicide, or at least ponder the thought. And one would have been lying if they had thought she hadn't considered that as an option for a way out of her misery.

But things were about to change.

It was on a lovely Tuesday morning when she noticed a tall brown haired man randomly walking around the facility with a few of the higher ups and instructors. She blinked at first, wondering who he was, even though one could easily tell just by the green uniform he wore that he was a soldier as well. A soldier much higher up than her, being a cadet and all, but still a soldier. Just like she hoped to be. She watched him for the short amount of time that she saw him at that moment. He carried himself proudly, but in a relaxed manner. His hair was a bit on the wild side, but still enough to give him a rather dignified appearance. Then there was his goofy grin and laugh, enough to light up a dark room as well as make Aisha blush. She didn't know who the guy was, but he had certainly caught her eye.

Watching him these few minutes, though, had caused her to lose track of time before she was yelled at to hurry up to where her activities would be for the day. But still in mind was the man she had seen. She silently smiled to herself, thinking of how cool he was and resolved to try her hardest to make herself just as cool as he was now. Then maybe she would be the one to get his attention.

As the day went on she found out his name and found herself smiling and writing it over and over like some boy-obsessed girl. Andorew Waldfeld. A strong name for a man with a strong appearance, much different than her name. Aisha, with no last name. She was just Aisha. For a brief moment though, she put her elbow on the desk and her chin in her hand, and shutting her eyes just thought to herself what it would be like to have a guy like him as a boyfriend or more. And in that moment for some reason she had gone stir crazy and thought of her name with his last. She had to admit, though, Aisha Waldfeld did have a nice ring to it.

But all of that came crashing down when the notebook, that she had found herself writing in, was snatched up by Ezaria Jule. She reached for the book as fast as she could, but not fast enough to keep it away from the tall woman's prying eyes. Aisha watched painfully as the older woman looked over the paper and then burst out laughing.

Aisha cringed at the sound. She could tell that Ezaria was mocking her, laughing at her, just like she always had. And it was when the silver haired woman stopped laughing that Aisha wanted to curl up in a corner and cry.

"You're pathetic!" Ezaria's cold and cruel tone actually made Aisha cringe again. "First of all…only morons are this desperate. I would have thought higher of you, Aisha, but now…not only do you not belong here, but you're more of a pathetic loser than I thought you were!"

Aisha didn't say anything. She just looked down as if she were going to cry.

"Give it up, sweetheart. Unless you change real fast…you'll never have a chance with top guys like that." Ezaria just smirked as she turned to leave, flipping her hair over her shoulder in a snobbish manner as she left.

As the room emptied of students, the navy haired girl just sat there, her eyes welling with tears that she refused to let spill over, until she stood and headed towards one of the training fields. The field itself was empty, but the field wasn't what she was interested in.

She stepped over to the gun wrack where, to one side, was a set of knives, one of which she grabbed before walking over to sit on one of the many wooden benches. It was only then, as she looked down at her reflection in the blade, that she truly felt helpless and worthless. She had never been a negative person in her head, she had always thought things would somehow get better, but as she sat there she began contemplating the one thing that had always been the farthest from her mind.

She hated all of it. She hated how she looked, how people treated her, how she was always left out of everything. And somewhere in the back of her mind she had always known that she hated it all and maybe wasn't as positive a person as she had always thought. She realized she had been looking for a way out for a long time. She needed out of the endless nightmare called life, and she didn't care how it happened.

But when she went to raise the blade it almost seemed as if some angel was watching over her.

A voice cried out, a concerned and confused voice of a man that when she looked up, proved to be the source of all her problems. Only one word came to her mouth when she saw the messy brown hair and slightly tanned skin, "…Andorew."

The man hurried over to her and blinked down at the girl who held the knife, "What are you doing over here all alone?" He seemed kind of clueless, but that was alright, he had stopped her, and that's what mattered. When he saw the girl holding the knife in her hands, though, the wheels in his head began to turn before he smiled.

Aisha was forced to look down the hide her blush. Seeing that same warm smile that could light up a room directed at her made her feel unworthy of the attention she was being given.

"Knives are pretty dangerous you know." He stated matter-of-factly. He reached over and took the knife from her, lightly brushing his hand against hers in the process, "You don't want to mess up and cut yourself. That'd be bad, especially for someone who has so much potential and drive."

She looked up at him, blue eyes blinking. How did he know all this about her? What was he talking about? Potential? Drive? All her instructors told her was how much she screwed up and that she would never be the soldier they wanted her to be.

All Andorew did, though, was smiled and nodd, tossing the knife and catching it again by the handle. "You've got a lot of spunk. I don't think I've ever seen someone try as hard as you do. It's like…you're driving yourself to the very limits to try and succeed."

Aisha just looked up at him. She had so many things she wanted to say and ask at that moment, but no words could form in her mouth.

"What's your name?" He just smiled again.

"A…Aisha." She couldn't keep her blush down much longer as her face began to turn a pretty shade of pink.

"Aisha, huh?" He grinned to himself and then leaned towards her. The poor girl looked like she was about to panic. She thought he was going to kiss her, but all he did was smile again. "You've got pretty eyes, Aisha. Very bright eyes."

"Th…thank you…" She forced a smile, she was surprised that he wasn't laughing at her. She was certain her face was bright red by then.

He just sat back, though, stretching a bit. "You like coffee?" When all he got was a shake of her head he frowned and shook his head, "That's alright. I was just wondering. Anyway…I have to book." He stood and with a grin turned to walk. Aisha blinked thought when he stopped and turned to face her. "Let's meet again in the future, alright? That way I can see those pretty eyes again!"

All she could do was nod as she watched him turn and jog off.

After that day she had resolved to change herself. Even if she had never had the drive before, she had it now. She had a goal now. She was going to finish her training and see him again, and that was that.

~ Several Years Later ~

"Commander?"

The brown haired man looked up from his spot at his desk, playing with his new coffee maker. "Yes? What can I help you with?"

"Sir, the new recruits are here." The Soldier saluted to him properly as he had been taught back at the Academy.

Andy nodded and stood, leaving his coffee maker sit as he headed out into the hot desert sun to see these new recruits. He stepped up to the lot of them, all standing in a line at attention, and that made him grin. But something caught his own attention from the corner of his eyes.

Out of all the soldiers there in their casual desert attire, there was one woman, and he walked over to her. She looked strangely familiar. Navy hair with two orange streaks framing her innocent face, her tall, slender, and beautiful body adorned in some odd blue jump suit. But what caught his attention most were her bright blue eyes. And after he stood there in wonder for a while he just grinned.

"Well…hello, bright eyes."

She smiled after a moment. She almost wanted to throw her arms around him and hug him. "Hello, Commander Waldfeld."

He grinned and actually leaned in to whisper something to her, "Just Andy, please…" then there was a long pause before he continued with a single word that made the woman's heart leap. "…Aisha."

That was the point when it didn't matter anymore as she threw her arms around him. All her hard work had paid off. The one person she truly wanted to notice her, and that she wanted to see, remembered her and it made her want to cry. What surprised her the most though, was when she felt his arms wrap back around her in a hug.

All he could do was smile and hug her as he whispered softly into her ear, "I knew you could do it…I knew you were special, bright eyes."

The End

…Or is it?