by Raye Johnsen
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"Mobile Suit Gundam Seed" is copyright Bandai, Sunrise and associated parties.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Before we begin: this fanfic does NOT contain yaoi. I support the canon heterosexual pairings, and find them interesting to write. If you absolutely MUST have your AsuKira fix, please return to the main Gundam Seed fanfic page immediately; there are lots of AsuKira fics there.
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Chapter One: Old Friends, Old Foes"Right," Cagalli Yula Attha said, pulling the headset free of her short blonde hair. "Rendezvous with the ZAFT escort is in six hours, ETA at Heliopolis is approximately two weeks, and I'm hungry. Is Shiho cooking tonight, or are we finding new and exciting adventures in the cookbook?"
"Shiho's cooking, I think," Kira Yamato said, finishing setting the controls on autopilot and turning in the seat to grin at his sister. "Miriallia bribed her after the banana and chocolate souffle."
"It was nice! And nobody had stomach aches after, either."
Kira laughed. "Nice, yes, but as a main course, Cagalli?"
"Well, everyone wants to eat their dessert more than the main meal..."
Nobody would have guessed that the two were twins, with her burnished-gold hair and golden-brown eyes and his shaggy chestnut-brown mop and deep blue-violet eyes. The fact that they were siblings, however, was unmistakeable, as the rest of their features were identical. As both rose out of their seats and walked out of the small cockpit, their minds were very firmly on the immediate future, which contained food, rather than anything else.
True to form, Miriallia Haw was lurking in the corridor outside the small galley 'Seraphim' boasted, rubbing her left knuckles. "She's making pie," the brown-haired girl reported. "Two of them, with meat and cherry filling."
"Mmm," Cagalli said, and went to duck in - only to back out hastily as Shiho Hahenfuss, pale face stony, long dark brown hair severely tied back and arms crossed, advanced slowly out of the door. Shiho glared at the three lurking outside, announced "Lunch will be ready in ten minutes," and returned to her self-imposed task.
"Last one to the servery sets the table!" Miriallia declared, and took off.
Kira lost, for once.
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"So tell us," Miriallia asked, after all four were sitting down at the small table, "do we have any details of the ZAFT escort?"
"Not very many," Cagalli admitted. "It does worry me, though, that they're sending a combat squadron. Still, they did say that there's a lot of anti-Naturals feeling in the PLANTs and there were legitimate fears we'd be attacked as we pass through PLANT space. But I don't think you or I, Miriallia, should have much contact with them."
"That's wise," said Shiho calmly. "Anti-Natural feeling runs highest in ZAFT, so they probably will be exceptionally rude to you."
"But you used to be in ZAFT, Shiho, and you don't have a problem with Miriallia or Cagalli," Kira pointed out.
"Yes. I used to be," Shiho replied, her voice expressionless.
"So, know anything else about the ZAFT squad?" Miriallia tried again.
"It's the Le Creuset Squadron, and here's a list of their members. Athrun Zala --"
Kira snatched up the printout. "Athrun Zala? I wonder if it's him?"
"Torii!" Kira's robotic bird -- named, imaginatively enough, 'Torii' -- chirped in positive agreement.
"You know him?" Cagalli asked.
"Yeah, we were kids at primary school on the moon together. Then he and his parents moved to a PLANT and my parents and I moved to Heliopolis. We promised to stay friends, but we were eight. I didn't know anything about exchanging addresses back then."
Shiho cocked her head at the two of them. "Hang on. Kira, your family lived on Heliopolis? But Cagalli's never left Earth before this tour."
"That's not quite true," Cagalli said cheerfully. "Kira and I were orphaned when we were a few weeks old, and adopted by different sides of the family - our aunt and her husband took him, our uncle and his wife took me. They told us when we were twelve, and Father and Mother took me to Heliopolis to meet Kira. So this isn't really my first time in the colonies, but it is the first time I've been here more than a few days."
"I'll show the three of you all the sights," Kira promised.
"No, we'll show the two of them all the sights," Miriallia disagreed. "I lived on Heliopolis until I came to Earth to go to University, too."
"Really?"
"Mm-hmm. Of course, so did Tolle."
"Why did you break up with him, anyway?" Cagalli asked. "He seemed very nice to me."
"He was," Miriallia said soberly. "But you know how it goes. You look over at the person who you once thought you'd always share everything with, and you can't understand what they're talking about and you have no desire to try. And you try to explain that to them, and they either don't get it, or when they do get it, they say they feel the same. And then you try to find something to share, but it's either all about him and you don't want to compromise that far, or he says you've picked something he doesn't want to do. And then one day you just say stuff it, I'm sick of trying, and walk away."
"I'm sorry," Kira said.
"Don't be. We tried and neither of us did anything wrong. We just grew up, and grew apart. Which is such a cliche but it's true."
As the conversation dirfted further off-topic, Shiho picked up the list of officers. She read it, and if her calm face took on a momentary frown, nobody else noticed it.
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Athrun Zala tugged at his collar again and frowned at the shut door of the shuttle's airlock. This rock band that the Council was having Commander Le Creuset's squad escort was nothing but trouble. Two Naturals and two Coordinators, working and living closely together, just wasn't right. Naturals should stick with Naturals and Coordinators with Coordinators. He'd heard some of their music - Lacus had found some somewhere - and he had to concede that they sounded good. But still, it just... made him uncomfortable.
He glanced a look back at the rest of the squad. Dearka was at parade rest, his face as carefully blank as Athrun's and Commander Le Creuset's. Yzak and Miguel looked impatient and annoyed, obviously not even intending to be polite. Nicol looked eager. Of course, Athrun thought, we're meeting musicians. Even Natural ones.
The airlock slid open, and the small squad moved across into the private shuttle's airlock. Four people were standing there, but Athrun barely noticed the three girls, as he was greated by a shout. "Athrun! Athrun Zala! It is you!"
Athrun blinked, and then, as a highly recogniseable robotic bird soared across the cabin to perch on the other young man's shoulder, made the connections. "Kira? Kira Yamato?"
"Yes! It's so good to see you again! How have you been?"
"Uh... I've been well... um... I should introduce my squad. This is Commander Le Creuset -"
"Charmed," the tall, blond man, his face hidden by a mask, murmured.
"- Nicol Amalfi -"
"It's a pleasure," the boy with green hair grinned.
"- Miguel Aiman, Yzak Joule and Dearka Elsmann."
Miguel, Yzak and Dearka all nodded from their parade rest stances.
Kira grinned at them. "It's a pleasure to meet all of you. This is my sister Cagalli -"
"Pleased to meet you," the young blonde girl said, holding out her hand. Athrun took it and shook it, bemused. "Don't mind Kira, he's been so excited since we read the list of squad members and found your name there."
"No, it's fine," Athrun muttered.
"- this is Miriallia Haw -"
"Hello!" The young woman with butterscotch hair chimed, her blue eyes shining and her fingers twirling a set of drumsticks.
"- And this is Shiho Hahenfuss."
"We've met," the young woman with long dark brown hair and large dark eyes said shortly. "Please excuse me." She turned and left the airlock, at speed.
"Shiho!" The girl introduced as Miriallia called after her. "Please excuse me," she said to the group and, turning, hurried out after her friend.
Cagalli turned amd looked at the squad. "Okay, so what did you guys do to her at the academy?"
"What?" Yzak demanded, matching tone for tone.
Cagalli rolled her eyes. "What happened at the ZAFT Academy? Given it made her quit ZAFT, leave the PLANTs and now avoid you lot."
"Cagalli!" Kira scolded. "They don't have to say anything if they don't want to."
"Fine! I'll go ask Shiho then." And the blond marched out of the airlock.
"I am sorry," Kira apologised. "I really don't know why she did that."
"Miss Hahenfuss was at the ZAFT Academy?" Commander Le Creuset's voice was politely interested.
"Yes, she was a member of ZAFT, but she resigned two years ago. Then she moved to Orb, where she went to university and met the rest of us."
"I didn't think they let Naturals into ZAFT," Yzak mused aloud.
Kira shot him a dark look. "Whoever said Shiho was a Natural?" he replied shortly. "Thank you very much for coming over to greet us. It's good to know who's protecting us. However, I don't want to keep you from your assigned duties, and I'm needed elsewhere too."
"Then we'll take our leave of you," Commander Le Creuset said smoothly, and the entire squad filed out, back to their shuttle. The last Athrun saw of Kira was the frown on his old friend's face as the airlock cycled shut.
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"Well, that went well, I don't think," Athrun groused as he walked past Yzak's seat. "The hell were you thinking, Yzak?"
"Bloody Naturals, why are we having anything to do with them?" Yzak complained. He was not feeling happy. That Hahenfuss girl looked familiar - who was she?
"Because that band is our ticket into Heliopolis and Morganroete, remember?" Dearka chimed in. Damnitall, Yzak hated it when Dearka and Athrun ganged up on him. "Ten days. You can put up with two pretty Natural girls that aren't even on the same ship for ten days, can't you, Yzak?"
"Pretty?" Yzak growled.
"Mmmm, that girl with the big blue eyes... she looked like she might like a uniform," Dearka mused. Yzak entirely missed the teasing twinkle in his eye.
"Feh," Yzak muttered, and returned to thinking about more important matters. Who the hell was Shiho Hahenfuss?