Be My Valentine, Anytime

Detailed Summary: Mwu is a poor Math teacher that signed onto the job when drunk. So on February first, when completely bored, the thought of matchmaking again hits him. And when Rau Le Creuset (the PE teacher with the teaching position Mwu wants BADLY) proposes a bet, that Mwu can't successfully matchmake ten students by Valentine, with high stakes, Mwu takes it. Pairings are: Kira/Lacus, Athrun/Cagari, Dearka/Miriallia, Yzak/OC, and Shinn/Stellar

Disclaimer: Sadly I don't own Gundam SEED and never will. Enjoy!

Day 1 – The Bet

The bright, golden mister sun shone down on the magnificent brick building of Elsmere High School, blindingly reflecting off stainless windows and any reflective surface in the courtyard, such as slides, swings, and whatnot.

However, no one really cared about the school!

It was the occupants inside that were the more interesting and attention-drawing. For in the Math class he taught, Mwu La Flaga sat in his lovely swivel chair, head in hand, watching the silent class with amazement, fingers tapping the oak desk. A lot of adjectives could be used to describe him: handsome, for one, intelligent, the other, and above all, bored.

Mwu didn't remember a time when his Math classes in high school were this drained of life and so uneventful. It had always been lively, and something eventful always happened. He chuckled out loud at the time the frog he had placed in the teacher's drawer had leapt out and went down the teacher's shirt.

The students stared at him with wide eyes, regarding him as if he were insane.

Mwu sighed desolately. Why was he a Math teacher again? He wasn't sure. All he knew was he really wanted Le Creuset's job as a PE teacher. PE was much more interesting. As long as something happened to save him from this drowning state of utter boredom. Even if it meant having to be dragged into thousands of malls bye his two nieces, he'd take anything.

One girl looked about to raise her hand, and Mwu sat in anticipation as he watched her hand painfully slowly raise, but go down at the last second.

"Oh for the love of my sanity!" Mwu muttered.

It was February, and two weeks before the grand Valentine Dance! He would have expected lots of noise, excited chatters, smiles, rumors, who to take to the dance, and just overall eventful events! But oh NO! The students seemed completely opposite. They seemed completely dead and walking zombies. Was this normal for Valentines? NO! Valentine was supposed to be happy and lively, and smiley!

The world was supposed to be happy, not dead!

Mwu glanced at the clock. He blanched as he saw that he had another hour to go 'till the glorious bell rang signaling lunch. His thoughts continued to dwell on Valentine. And he remembered the 'good old days' in high school he spent matchmaking during the lovey dovey time. A reminiscent smile crept onto his face. Sadly, even though Mwu liked to believe that those victims of his lived happily ever after in a picket fence house with each other, it was the complete opposite.

In fact, it was quite easy to say he was the worst matchmaker the world had ever seen. Why? He always seemed to pair up people who seemed completely wrong for each other. His fellow teachers wondered if he was either completely blind or oblivious or if there was something wrong with him. Anyway, all of Mwu's 'perfect dates' ended with complete hatred at best, or one of the party seriously injured.

Then it hit him.

Matchmaking!

Why hadn't he thought of that earlier? It would surely help him get through the next two weeks without being admitted into an insane asylum! It was perfect!

So without thinking, the jubilant teacher leapt out of his seat and ran out the door, yelling, "I AM A GENIUS!"

The students simply sat eyes wide and startled before racing out of the classroom before their childish teacher had a change of mind and came running back.

Mwu darted down halls after halls, grinning widely and finally slammed open one of the wooden doors, breathing heavily but nevertheless smiling. "MURRUE!" he yelled, waving his arms around like a madman and obviously very excited. "I'M A GENIUS!"

The science teacher, Murrue Ramius, who had been conducting a demo that had obviously gone very awry at Mwu's sudden burst, now sat, bubbling and burning a hole on the counter.

"Hey cool!" one of the students said, laughing. "It's burning a hole on the countertop!"

Murrue face palmed as Mwu continued running around, arms still waving, jabbering a mile a minute. The young woman simply sighed and ignored her fellow teacher, shooing the students away from the mess.

"Mwu La Flaga, what are you doing here? It's class time and I happen to be teaching!" Murrue began. "What happened to your class?" she arched a brow at Mwu's blank look.

"My class?" Mwu repeated.

"Yes, your grade ten math class," Murrue clarified.

"They're probably long gone by now," Mwu shrugged.

"La Flaga-san!" Murrue warned, eyebrow twitching.

"Ah, Ramius-san! Before you kill me, I just had the most brilliant idea!" Mwu said hastily. "Do your work, kids! And remember, drugs are baaadd!" he said to the chuckling students before dragging the startled science teacher into the hallway.

"Let's hear it, Mwu, what is this brilliant idea of yours?" Murrue asked, arms crossed and tapping her foot. She regarded her fellow teacher and high-school friend with a demanding gaze.

"Matchmaking!"

At that simple word, Murrue choked on thin air and cars screeched to a halt outside, and a random bird crashed into the window in a splat as the janitor began to complain about the stain it would leave on his beloved windows. Even their high school chums turned teachers all the way across the school seemed to hear the resonating word and freeze in their tracks, trip or crash into something, afraid.

"Murrue? Are you alright? You're choking on thin air!" Mwu said, slapping Murrue on the back.

"Matchmaking?" Murrue croaked out, the horrid images of Mwu's attempts at matchmaking in high school racing through her mind.

"Yes! Wouldn't that be great?" Mwu asked.

Murrue was tempted to scream out profanities and check herself into the nearest asylum, and give Mwu a beating for thinking such a condemned idea, but swallowed it down with difficulty. "Well, Mwu, I…. are you very sure that's all you can do? Can't you make tests or something? Or I don't know, uhh... learn to cook?" she suggested desperately. "Anything else other than matchmaking?"

"…Why?" Mwu asked, frowning.

Murrue licked her lips. She had no clue how to break this to him without breaking his heart. Mwu La Flaga… well, he simply SUCKED at matchmaking!

"I'm not bad or anything am I?"

Again, Murrue wanted to scream YES and hold out signs in bold, red letters, but instead, said, "No, you're good! You're very good!" Such an outright and shameful lie… oh well; honesty wasn't always the best policy!

"Then why not?" Mwu asked.

"Because…" Murrue began. "Because I believe students should fall in love in their own terms?" she suggested lamely. She laughed at the pitiful excuse. After all, she herself had used online dating service, didn't she?

Mwu outright laughed and Murrue sweatdropped and regretted her decision not to pound that 'YES' right onto his blonde head. "HAHAHAHAHH! Oh come on Murrue! Like that'd ever happen!" he gasped out.

"It very well could, Mwu!" Murrue insisted wryly.

"Oh come one, Murrue! Don't spoil the Valentine spirit! It'll be just like the old times again! Remember the 'good old days'?" Mwu asked, putting an arm around the defeated science teacher's shoulders, grinning.

"Yes," Murrue said flatly.

"Then great! Wait 'till I tell rest of the staff!" Mwu said, prancing down the hallway, laughing all the way, leaving poor Murrue rubbing her temples in the hallway.

Oh, this was going to be one Valentine from hell she'd never forget.

Lunch

"WHAT!" the chorus of panicked/outraged voices rang out through the school during lunch time, passing students stopping to rise their eyebrows or add their own two cents in.

In the staff lounge, the teachers of Elsmere High were gathered around a particular maroon sofa where Mwu sat, holding his arms out and backing further into the chair. Their expression was more or less the same. Filled with sheer panic. Murrue sat a little ways away, calmly sipping tea.

"What? Murrue thought it was a good idea!" Mwu exclaimed.

Murrue froze and began to chuckle nervously as the angry glares redirected to her and the horde of teachers was onto her in a second.

"MURRUE! You did what!" Natarle Badgiruel, the girls PE teacher, yelled, dark eyes flaming, and fists clenched. She was truly frightening, with years of military training, and a short temper and one hell of a punch. And her fiery anger was directed at Murrue.

"I, uh, didn't want to hurt his feelings?" Murrue asked meekly.

"We're all going to DIE, DIE!" Azrael Murata, the hazy biology teacher and one hell of an economist, cried, running around like a madman… which wasn't too far from what he actually was. How he got to be a certified teacher, no one knew…

"The world truly is coming to an end," Rau Le Creuset commented calmly, sipping coffee.

"And it amazes me how you can be so calm," Andrew Waltfeld, the Home EC teacher, sighed, shuddering. Nearly all the staff of Elsmere High had gone to high school together, college together, and ended up in the same workplace together. It really gave a new meaning to the words, 'It's a small world'. And nearly all of them had been victims of Mwu's continuous efforts at matchmaking.

"This is going to be one hell of a Valentine, isn't it?" Aisha, the secretary, commented, perching on the arm of a couch.

"Yes, it'll literally be hell!" Natarle steamed, crushing a Styrofoam cup, eyebrow twitching.

The metal works/auto shop teacher, Murdoch chuckled nervously at Natarle's violent show of crushing the cups and shook his head when images of Mwu matchmaking in high school entered his mind.

"Aww… Badgiruel, you're hurting my feelings!" Mwu whined, grinning.

"I don't care! I don't CARE!" Natarle snarled. "Murrue, how could you agree to this! Wasn't the Valentine dance thing enough!"

"It could be entertaining," Nicol Amarfi, the Music teacher, mused, finger tapping his chin, coffee mug in the other hand.

Natarle stared at him as if he were mad. "Are you insane!"

"See? Even Nicol agrees with me! Good for you, Nicol!" Mwu said happily.

"I suppose as long as we aren't involved in those schemes of his, I don't really see anything wrong with it," Aisha said hesitantly.

"Ah… Aisha agrees! Andy, what do you say?" Mwu asked, gleeful.

"If she's in, let's hear it, La Flaga," Andy chuckled, shrugging.

"Murdoch? Le Creuset? Murata? Badgiruel?" Mwu asked. "What do you all say?"

Murdoch shrugged, and Badgiruel continued to utter profanities but nodded. Azrael, done having his mental breakdown fit, agreed, and Le Creuset, smirked.

"What's the point, Mwu? You suck anyway, right?" Rau shrugged, continuing to sip his finely made coffee.

"Hey! That's not true!" Mwu exclaimed. He looked to the other teachers.

Nicol had suddenly found conversing with Azrael about cars very amusing, while Murrue inspected the patterns on the wallpaper as if it were the most interesting thing in the world. Andy and Murdoch went into deep discussion about trees, and Aisha and Badgiruel each found inspecting the cleanness of the sinks extremely important and life-threatening.

"You're supposed to contradict his statement!" Mwu said sweatdropping.

A chorus of weak comments came about, accompanied by weak nervous chuckles.

"So I screwed up once or twice," Mwu shrugged.

"Are you willing to bet on that, La Flaga?" Le Creuset asked eyebrow arched.

"But I can redeem myself with this Valentine!" Mwu insisted.

At that, Natarle burst into uncontrollable fits of laughter.

"Is that a challenge?" Rau demanded, eyes twinkling and cracking his knuckles.

"Oh you bet, Rau! And I will win!" Mwu laughed.

Andy chuckled. "This will be very entertaining!" he commented.

"I bet that you can't, Mwu!" Rau sneered. "You probably can't even matchmake even when we give you the very obvious people who needs help!"

"I so could, Le Creuset! You're underestimating me only because I'm a crummy Math teacher!" Mwu said accusingly.

"Then why on Earth did you sign on for it?" Murrue asked.

"I was drunk! How was I supposed to know the bright, neon pink contract wasn't the PE one?" Mwu rolled his eyes.

"And you call yourself a teacher…" Aisha sighed.

"Right…" Murdoch shook his head. "I gotta agree with Rau on this one,"

"Oh come on! I trusted you people!" Mwu cried.

"You still can," Nicol said, shrugging.

"Just back out of this challenge and we won't hurt you," Natarle agreed.

"Murrue?" Mwu asked.

"Well, I… uh…" Murrue diverted her gaze to the ceiling, faking a cough.

"You have no faith in me! I bet that I can matchmake properly!" Mwu declared confidently.

"It's a bet," Rau smirked and sat down on a cough, while Mwu sat across from him, coffee table in between, with the teachers gathering around. "Here are the full instructions: I'll give you two weeks, while you have to successfully matchmake five couples that will be at the Valentine Dance."

"How the heck do you if I'm gonna be successful?" Mwu asked.

"I was getting to that," Rau answered. "You pick the students and tell us, and we'll decide! It'll be very obvious if you're successful or not, Mwu. If I win, you give me your precious Ferrari 360 Spider,"

Mwu's jaw dropped open. "Not my car! Do you have any idea how long I've worked for it!" he demanded. "What do I get if I win that's worth losing my precious car!"

"He does have a point," Murrue stated.

"And if you win, La Flaga, you get my job," Rau finished, smirking. He knew how much the energetic teacher hated his job at the moment. The Math class was too boring for an individual like Mwu la Flaga. And as much as Rau loved his job, he really didn't have too much faith in Mwu's ability to matchmake…

"You're on, Le Creuset!" Mwu said.

A chorus of gasps came from the teachers.

"You can ask for help if you want. However, only from Azrael and Murrue. You'll probably need it," Rau chuckled. "You can't cheat, Mwu or you automatically lose!"

"You want me to ask help from Murata?" Mwu demanded eyebrow twitching, hands on knees.

Rau paused. "Well, I suppose that's making it too hard for you. Other teachers can drop clues, but you have to figure them out yourself. You can also ask for help from students, should you ever find that necessary. I suppose that's fairer," he said slowly.

"Very," Mwu nodded. "Shall we shake hands? You planned this, didn't you?"

"It's only proper," Rau said. "Well yes, your car is very nice, you know."

Mwu and Rau shook hands, same thought going through their minds: You're going down.