Cagalli walked back to the dressing room with her guns all set behind her marvellous dress. She smiled to the bridesmaids when she met them on her way and she kept walking straight on, to Lacus’ dressing room. The door was closed and she wasn’t sure if Lacus had done yet but when she was about to knock it, the door itself had opened slowly because she had pushed it very gently.
“Oh, it’s just Cagalli”, she could hear Lacus’ voice from behind the door even though the opening of the door was still too small for her to take a look at Lacus.
“Lacus, may I come in?” she asked Lacus as she drew herself nearer to the door.
“Sure”, Lacus replied with giggles, “I’ve done with my changing”
She walked inside the changing room while both of her eyes widened in “Lacus…” she said as she gave Lacus a wide smile, complimenting her “…you sure look good in that dress”
“Thank you. I chose this dress myself” she smiled as she walked nearer to Cagalli who was closing the door carefully, trying not to make a lot of sound, “So, what brings you here, Cagalli?”
“Uhm…, nothing in particular actually” she gazed at the whole changing room and then she decided to sit on a chair near the wardrobe. Lacus’ pink Haro was bouncing cheerfully around her while saying “Cagalli! Cagalli! Good afternoon!”
‘I bet Kira has added more vocabularies to this Haro’, she thought while smiling to the tiny round-shaped robot and then she faced Lacus, saying “Can it reply to what people saying to it?”
“Well, it will reply for greetings such as ‘good morning’, ‘good afternoon’, and ‘thank you’. Kira has upgraded the AI so it has become much smarter than four years ago.”, she sat in front of the mirror while taking a look at herself, making sure that she looked good enough to show up in front of her guests that night “However it would only object to my and Kira’s commands. You know, voice-recognition device”
“Oh I see”, she smiled at the pink Haro as she saw it bouncing back to Lacus’ lap. Lacus smiled to it as she caught her Haro right before it landed on her lap and then she faced Cagalli with a small smile on her face.
“Is something wrong, Cagalli?” she asked Cagalli while looked at her eyes directly. She had known that Cagalli had been acting strange since hours ago. She could tell it by looking at her expression and gestures; Lacus was very good when it comes to reading someone’s body language.
“Hmm… Nothing”, Cagalli waved her head as she answered Lacus’ enquiry but the moment she saw Lacus’ eyes directly, she knew that she could avoid Lacus no longer and she had to tell her the truth why she was acting strange starting from the afternoon. Finally, Cagalli let a heavy sigh out and then said to Lacus, “Okay. I know I can’t lie to you yet I tried to lie to you, silly me”
Hearing Cagalli answered in such a manner, Lacus couldn’t help herself not to let a few giggles out from her and then replied Cagalli, saying, “Oh well, of course you can’t lie to me but you can always tell me that you’re keeping it as a secret to yourself”
“Well, I’m not planning to do that, Lacus”, Cagalli smiled to Lacus while thinking about how she could easily understand people’s feelings, “Actually I do want to tell somebody about this but I don’t want to involve anybody into my problems so I decided to keep it to myself only”
“Did you tell Athrun?” Lacus asked her back with curiosity in her face.
“Nope” she shook her head as she saw Lacus’ Haro slipped out from her hand and then it started to bounce pointlessly while rolling on the air.
“Well, did you remember the time when you visit my house two days ago?” Lacus asked Cagalli with a gentle smile on her face.
“Yes of course”
“Well, when you told me about your Orb being convinced to join the Earth Alliance, he seemed rather disappointed… You know, he thought that you shouldn’t keep everything to yourself, Cagalli”, she paused for a while and then continued, “Based on my judgement, I know from his eyes that he wanted you to fully trust him”
Cagalli set a small, sad smile on her face while she let a sigh out from herself, saying “I know, Lacus”. She stood from where she had been sitting minutes ago and then she walked to the direction of the window while staring at what’s happening behind it. The window was facing the other side of the venue; the place where the catering’s employees was gathering to prepare tonight’s dishes. There were a lot of people there and surely there were a lot of stuffs there, beside the main kitchen.
“Athrun had told me that hundreds of times”, Cagalli said as she leaned towards the window with a regretful look on her face. “But there are a lot of reasons why I still keep everything to myself. It’s not that I don’t trust him or that he’s unreliable, in fact I trust him very much but there’s some point when I’m unable to trust anyone…”
“I think you have a good reason for doing it”
“Can you guess it?” Cagalli gave Lacus a meaningful look while she was thinking about how sharp Lacus was when it comes to guessing people’s feelings, “I bet you can give me the right answer, Lacus”
“Let’s see…” she paused for a while to arrange herself the most appropriate order of words and then she answered, “…Well, I’ll keep this short. Basically it’s not easy to open yourself up to someone when you’ve closed it once, is it?”
Hearing Lacus’ answer, Cagalli raised a brow to express her feelings.
“I mean, you’ve closed your heart ever since two years ago and when he’s back into your life, it’s not that easy to open it up again, is it?” Lacus explained it to Cagalli so she could catch the meaning of her words.
“You’re right”, Cagalli answered as she turned to Lacus with a small smile on her face, “Definitely right”
“But it’s not entirely his fault”, Lacus continued, “You have to learn to open yourself up again, Cagalli”
“Thanks”, Cagalli replied with a wider smile than before, “I’m trying to”, and then she caught Lacus’ Haro which was heading towards her.
“Hey Lacus, is it just my feeling or this Haro suddenly become friendly with me?” she asked Lacus while the Haro was spinning on her palm.
“No, Kira has tampered with its AI so it can be friendly with you now”, Lacus chuckled as she saw her Haro dancing on Cagalli’s palm. Lacus’ Haro which was named ‘Pink-chan’ used to be unfriendly with Cagalli but when Kira started to tamper with it, its AI gradually improved and now Pink-chan could speak a lot of words, not just pointless ramblings like it did in years ago.
“Oh, I see” Cagalli replied as she watched Pink-chan floating back to Lacus.
“Come here, Pink-chan”, Lacus said as it floated steadily to her direction, “So Cagalli, are you feeling better now?”
“Yeah, a bit”, she smiled a little.
“You’re not nervous, are you?” Lacus joked as she captured Pink-chan, “I’m the one who is getting married here, not you”
“Well I’m not nervous, Lacus”, she smiled weakly, trying to express her mixed up emotions, “It’s just… Well actually I have a feeling that something isn’t going on the way they should be now”
“Hmm? Mind telling me what is it all about?”
“Oh, actually… This is something that doesn’t concern you and I don’t want to drag you into serious problems so…”, Cagalli shook her head weakly with a faint smile on her face, “…uhm… Sort of”
“So that’s the reason why you’ve been hiding your guns behind your dress, right?” Lacus quickly figured about what Cagalli had been concerning of since she entered Lacus’ dressing room.
Startled with Lacus’ guessing, Cagalli quickly replied with surprise on her voice, “How did you figure that?” She knew Lacus’ ability in reading people’s body language and expression; actually that was the reason why she was loved by the whole PLANT and Orb citizen. However she never expected her to be able to know what she was hiding at that time.
“Because I saw you carrying a small briefcase that has Orb’s military emblem on it”, Lacus calmly answered Cagalli’s enquiry, “Besides, I’ve realized from the way you walk that you’re carrying something behind your dress”
“Hell yeah you’re right Lacus”, she replied in frustration, so frustrated that she spoke rashly, quite ignoring the fact that she was a Princess.
“I like it when I hear you speaking that way, It suits you a lot”, Lacus smirked as she stated her opinion to Cagalli. She knew that Cagalli used to be a fighter at the Desert Dawn Resistance Group and living with a bunch of men had made her used to their way of speaking somehow, they influenced her a lot too.
“I’ll take that as a compliment”, she replied between her chuckles.
“Well actually your intuitions are right, Cagalli”, Lacus stood from her chair and then releasing her Haro that she had been holding inside her hands for the last few minutes, “Right, Pink-chan?”
The pink-round-shaped robot did a nod-look-like action while it flew away from Lacus’ hands.
“Cagalli, have told you about my special plan in my wedding?”
“No, you haven’t”, she shook her head with bewildered looks on her face, “What is that?”
“I’m going to use Torii and Pink-chan to carry our wedding ring”, Lacus smiled meaningfully as she stepped closer to Cagalli, “Kira has modified their AI so I’m sure they’ll be able to do it”
“Really? Well, I personally think that your plan is kinda cute but…”
“Kira is doing the final maintenance on Torii and Pink-chan at the moment”, Lacus said while eyeing her so intensely that it made Cagalli wonder what was going on at the moment.
“Wait a sec”, Cagalli suddenly spoke with curiosity in her eye, “So that means…”
“…you’re right”, Lacus’ eyes, which usually were warm and loving, now turned colder and colder as the time elapsed, “It’s not my Pink-chan. That’s why it’s very friendly to you”
“So if it’s not Pink-chan…” Cagalli tried to think while she examined the Pink Haro, “…something is wrong here…”
“Indeed, Cagalli”, Lacus smiled satisfactory and then she continued, “Cagalli?”
“Yes?”
“Please shoot it”
“What?”
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“Kira, you told me to come with you just to take these-“, he paused for a while, and then continued, “-guns?”
“Don’t complain”, Kira answered as he pulled his drawer to get a few ammunitions from it, “My intuitions told me to do so”
“Then tell your feelings to be realistic”, Athrun gazed confusedly at his friend’s attitude, “You’re beginning to be paranoid like Cagalli…”
“I’m not paranoid…” Kira replied quickly as he was still busy taking care of his gun and ammunition, but then he realized something, “…wait a minute. Can you repeat what have you said before?”
“I said, you’re beginning to be paranoid like Cagalli-“
“Is something up with her?”, Kira asked while he unconsciously dropped some stuffs on the ground, and then he quickly collected them.
“I think so, she has pointed her gun to me twice, and she easily startled…”
“Then something must be really wrong”, Kira returned to his drawer, and then he opened the other drawer. Inside it was a few handguns, and ammunition.
“I think people are right when they say that twins have some connections with each other”, he smiled satisfyingly and then threw a gun at Athrun, which he perfectly caught with both of his hands.
“Take that, Athrun”
“Huh?”, Athrun was dazed by Kira’s sudden action, but he decided to take the gun and keep it with him, “Fine, I’ll take this”
“Hide it behind your suit. I’ll take one too”, Kira slipped a handgun behind his suit, and then he took a glimpse at his watch, and he said, “Come on. We have to be fast otherwise we will be late”
Author’s Note: Hehe. A new beginning ;)
Mina-san, thanks for reading and reviewing my fic :D
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