Gundam SEED Fan Fiction ❯ Equal In Life ❯ The Deal ( Chapter 4 )

So how did everyone like the cliffy from the last chapter? =)

And…lol…it turns out that I forgot to do the disclaimer for the last three chapters…so I'll just do it now…I don't own Gundam SEED, no matter how much I want to…lol

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Chapter 4: The Deal

"It was an accident Arabella, I swear!" Cagalli protested as the guards led the group to who knows where. Athrun tried his best to calm Cagalli down, to no avail. Kira and Lacus both stared at the floor, quietly following. Miriallia had on a pale face, and following her walked Dearka who didn't seem too fazed by the incident. Yzak slightly trailed behind, with a clear scowl on his face. Arabella just led the way without a word.

"We didn't mean any harm, just curious. If we knew we weren't allowed to go in, we wouldn't have…" Cagalli stopped, as she looked around her surroundings. She half expected to find herself in a cold, dark prison cell, but instead found herself in a richly decorated common room with a nice cozy fireplace.

"Sit." The group obeyed silently. Arabella turned around and dismissed the guards. Then she in turn sat down and stared at them. "Didn't know that you weren't allowed? I remember specifically telling you not to go to the first floor of the east wing."

"We didn't know it was the east wing." Athrun started to explain. "We got lost…"

"If you didn't mean to cause trouble, why did you bother to disable such a complicated lock system?" Arabella retorted back.

"Well…"

"The lock was already disabled. Besides, I doubt security systems designed by Naturals would be hard for Coordinators to crack." Yzak answered with a smirk, ignoring all the "you're not helping the situation" looks he received from the rest of the group. Luckily, Arabella looked amused.

"I assure you, this particular system would have been hard to break, even for Coordinators."

"And how would a Natural know that?"

Arabella smiled. "Who said I was a Natural?"

"You're a Coordinator?!" Yzak was at a loss of words, and the rest of the group continued to stare at Arabella. Arabella's smile grew wider. "I never said I was."

"Arabella, we're a little confused." Lacus said, while taking a glance back at Kira who looked equally befuddled. "If you're not a Natural, then you're a Coordinator right? And vice versa…"

"You're forgetting the third option. But that's besides the point." She dismissed the subject. "What's more important is the current situation." Her smile turned into a slight frown. "If none of you disabled the lock, then who did? I'll have to find out."

"Um…excuse the interruption Arabella, but does this mean we're off the hook?" Cagalli asked nervously.

Arabella's eyes narrowed slowly. "Not quite."

"But…"

Arabella let out a sigh. "Even if the whole situation was an accident, I can't just let it slide. I'm sure you saw things that you weren't suppose to. So…"

The group feared the worst. "…you'll have to stay here with me until this whole thing's solved."

"Huh?" Cagalli blinked. "That's it?"

"And promise not to say anything about anything you saw." Arabella continued, easing up a little. "Why, would you prefer to stay in one of the prison cells? I could certainly arrange that…"

"No, no. This is fine." Cagalli frantically shook her arms as she sweat-dropped.

"Thank you for letting us go easily." Lacus said gratefully. "I'm sure we caused more trouble than necessary."

Arabella merely shrugged. "Well, I didn't think any of it was intentional. Besides," she added as an afterthought. "it's been a while since I had a chance to talk with…well, people my age…" For a moment, her eyes looked sorrowful, but the emotion disappeared as soon as she stood up. "So, anything else before you go back your rooms?"

"Actually…" Cagalli replied with a slight grin.

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"I can't believe your girlfriend, Zala." Yzak and Dearka remarked in unison. The rest of the group sweat-dropped as they watched Cagalli happily walking along with a huge water jug.

"What? I'm thirsty." Cagalli pouted while glaring at the two ZAFT pilots. "I'm not the only one impulsive by the way."

"She does have a point." Miriallia commented, glaring at Dearka. "If I remember correctly, you're the one that woke everyone else up."

Dearka shrugged. "Well, we could all go back to sleep now. And Miriallia," he suddenly put on an evil grin. "If you have a hard time falling asleep again, I'll just…"

"Pervert!" Miriallia yelled furiously as she stalked into her room. Dearka didn't say anything else, but his grin grew wider as he went into his own room.

"Well, I got my water and I'm happy, so I'm going to go to sleep now." Cagalli announced as she walked in and closed the door. She was followed by Athrun, who wished everyone good night before he shut the door to his room. Yzak gave an "I'm surrounded by idiots" look before he went off. Soon, it was just Lacus and Kira who still stood in the corridor.

"Looks like Cagalli got us into another mess." Kira smirked.

"But then she wouldn't be Cagalli otherwise." Lacus smirked back. But then her face turned into one of worry. "Are you alright Kira? You were injured already, and now you're deprived of sleep…"

"Don't worry about it." Kira assured her. "You should be more worried about yourself."

"But…" Lacus protested as Kira led her to her room.

"Good night."

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"So how's everyone this morning?" Arabella asked cheerfully, as she welcomed them into the dining room for breakfast. "Oh, and sorry for being a bit cranky before. I just wasn't in a good mood after being woken up at 3 AM in the morning finding out that someone broke into the restricted area."

"It's fine." Kira answered, piling pancakes onto his plate while glancing quickly at Cagalli, Yzak, and Dearka. "We're pretty used to it."

"And what do you mean by that?" Cagalli gave a death glare to Kira while reaching out for the syrup.

"…"

The rest of breakfast went on silently, with the exception of utensils clashing and such, until Arabella broke the silence. "Would you guys like to go out into the city?"

"Sure, that would be great!" Cagalli exclaimed. "But I thought we weren't allowed to. And what about the snowstorm?"

"You'll be safe within the city boundaries." She answered. Then she hesitantly added, "Well, if you'll give me your word that you won't try to escape, I see no reason why not."

"Of course." They all replied in unison.

"So…where are we going to go?"

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All right, ending it there! =)

Okay, this is chapter was the initial setup for…(drum rolls):

The next four chapters will be dedicated to our four couples, Athrun/Cagalli, Kira/Lacus, Dearka/Milly, and Yzak/Arabella. (As in each couple will get a whole chapter to themselves) Initially, I had the chapters set up chronologically in my own way, but then I thought, "hey, why don't I let the readers decide?" So basically, the couple with the most requests from the readers will most likely appear first. Oh, and personally I prefer to put the Yzak/Arabella chapter last (because of the way I set it up initially) but I could change it a little, so don't worry about it.

So tell me which pairing you think should be up first, and oh, what you thought about this chapter. That would be great. Thanks! =)