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(No.15 "Gift" in the list 20 fanwork fiction themes.)
The Gift. A ZAFT Academy Story.
Mail call at the ZAFT Academy seldom brought surprises to Dearka. His busy father would occasionally send him vid messages, but actual physical mail was a rarity in his life. And now today he had a mysterious little parcel. He walked down the hallway to the room he shared with Yzak, hefting it in his hand to test its curious lack of weight, puzzling over its likely contents and origin.
Yzak was hunkered down over his terminal, glaring at some sort of wiring diagram on the screen. From what Dearka could see, it looked like a circuit assembly for a mobile suit beam weapon. He knew better than to disturb Yzak's concentration at such moments, unless he wanted a blistering tirade assaulting his ears.
Dearka dropped on to his bed and proceeded to disembowel his package. Under the wrappings was a box, and inside a small flat packet, which revealed two tickets to the upcoming Lacus Clyne concert that had been sold out on the first day. He knew this because he had heard Yzak, who had missed out, bitching about it at great length. Dearka's eyebrows rose and he pursed his lips in surprise: no note or card came with the tickets to indicate who had sent them. Strange. Very.
He looked over at Yzak. Still buried in his diagram. Should he interrupt? No, leave it till later. Dearka slid the tickets under his bed pillow, consigned the packaging to the bin by the desk, and sauntered out.
It was much later that night as he and Yzak were getting ready for bed that he remembered the tickets. The half-formed thought he had entertained that Yzak might have something to do with it was quickly dismissed at the other's astonishment when shown them. And this being Yzak Joule, astonishment quickly converted to suspicion.
"Who the hell would send you tickets like that? Is this some sort of joke? They're probably fakes!"
"Damned if I know, Yzak. I can't remember talking to anybody about Lacus Clyne; besides, I'm not the big fan – you are! You were certainly doing a lot of complaining last week when you tried to get tickets and couldn't. Maybe somebody heard you and decided to....His voice trailed away at the sheer improbability of the very scenario he was trying to describe. Nobody in their right mind in the Academy would give away such hot tickets, particularly not to the almost universally-disliked Yzak. He couldn't say that to Yzak's face, but maybe Yzak knew what he was thinking anyway, as he was giving Dearka a particularly black look at that moment.
Dearka swallowed the lump in his throat and decided on a swift change of subject, or rather a change to a different aspect of the same subject. "So, what do you want to do?"
Yzak frowned. "What do you mean what do
I want to do? They're
your tickets. You can go to the concert, you can sell them, you can stuff them up your arse! Nothing to do with me!" And with that Yzak lay down in his bed and rolled over with his back to Dearka.
Dearka stared at Yzak's back in frustration. "Well, it's not my fault I've got these damn things, Yzak. I don't know why you're getting shitty with me!"
No reply from the other bed. Dearka sighed and gave the command to the lights to go out. Tomorrow would be another hard day at the Academy and they both needed the sleep. Maybe tomorrow would bring some inspiration as to the source of the tickets....
Next day, Dearka's enquiries to the ticket distributors confirmed their genuine status; he didn't learn anything about their origins, but he did discover they were some of the best seats in the house. He also had a quiet word with Rusty Mackenzie, the most chronic practical joker in their dormitory wing, and top of his list of suspects if it was somebody playing the fool. Rusty absolutely denied any knowledge of it, and his response seemed genuine to Dearka.
He duly reported all this to Yzak, who appeared to have got over his huff, and now seemed half-way tempted to take advantage of the opportunity. Of course, there was the matter of applying for an overnight pass from the Academy. The venue for the concert was sufficiently far away that they couldn't possibility get back before curfew on the night of the performance. Dearka undertook to fill in the application form and hand it in at the Academy's office. The clerk at the desk glanced at it, nodded, and said, "Oh, another one, eh? Shouldn't think there'll be a problem."
Dearka's ears pricked up. "Another one? Has somebody else put in for leave for the concert that night? Who is it?"
The clerk fished around in the tray where he had placed the form, and dug out another of the same kind. "Athrun Zala."
Dearka felt stunned and more than a little suspicious at the coincidence. Was this some sort of plot against Yzak after all? He decided to run Athrun to earth and find out if he knew anything about the mystery gift.
Fortunately, he found Athrun quite easily; alone and studying in his room. Dearka tapped at the partially open door. Athrun Zala looked up. Was that a brief flash of guilty surprise on his usually calm face, or was Dearka imagining things?
"Ah, Athrun. Can I talk to you for a minute?"
"Sure, Dearka. What's on your mind?"
Dearka explained about the tickets, watching Athrun carefully for reactions. Sure enough, there was a faint flush of embarrassment in his usually well-controlled face.
"So I want to know if you know anything about these tickets?" said Dearka looking him straight in the eye.
Athrun ran a hand through his shaggy blue hair, looking strangely sheepish. "Yeah, as it happens, I know about the tickets. They're perfectly genuine tickets, Dearka. It's not some kind of trick, if that is what you're thinking!"
"But why the hell send Lacus Clyne concert tickets to me?"
"I didn't say I sent them. In fact, Lacus sent them. They're for Yzak, really, as he's such a big fan, but I thought it might cause less fuss if your name went on the package, and she agreed to have that done. I guess it didn't work."
Dearka was totally bewildered. Athrun Zala knew Lacus Clyne? Was on first name terms with her? And for some mysterious reason they were sending tickets to Yzak, who everybody knew resented Athrun Zala's very shadow?
"Uh, sorry, Athrun, I'm still not tracking with this. Would you mind giving me a bit more background detail?"
Now Athrun looked really embarrassed. In fact absolutely blushing. "Well, the official announcement's not till next week, but I guess it won't hurt to tell you now. Please don't spread it around, though. Lacus Clyne and I just got engaged. I told her how popular she was among the cadets here at the Academy. I happened to mention that one was a real nut about her singing and had a temper tantrum all over the place, when he couldn't get tickets to her latest live performance...."
Dearka pushed his astonishment at the identity of Athrun's fiancée to the back of his mind for later consideration. He concentrated on the central issue under discussion. They both knew who Athrun had been talking about. No doubt it had seemed an amusing anecdote to share with his fiancée. Only it looked as if it had maybe backfired on Athrun...
Dearka nodded to him. "So," he said, fighting to keep the grin off his face, "she was so impressed by her ardent fan here at the Academy that she insisted on sending him a couple of first class tickets, eh? And I suppose you were worried that you might get landed with the embarrassing job of handing them to him, and explaining. Am I right?"
Athrun looked a bit twitchy. "Something like that. You know Yzak doesn't get on with me..."
Dearka chuckled. "Masterly understatement, Athrun! The question is, do I tell Yzak before or after the concert about Ms Clyne's generosity, and how it came about? He'll want to thank her, and he might be a bit put out if he doesn't learn the truth till afterwards!"
Athrun Zala was above all a strategist, and not easily cowed. He suddenly smiled ominously. "I think afterwards would be best, don't you? I'm going to it myself, and I don't want a scene." He looked Dearka straight in the eye and drawled, "And I don't think you will either, will you? How do you think Yzak will react when he knows you were in on it?"
"Wh-a-a-at? Zala, you'd tell him that?"
"No, but it's a likely assumption for him to make, and would be very hard for you to disprove. And Yzak will be really grouchy. I don't think that would be very comfortable for you at the concert, now would it?"
Dearka looked down at the seated Athrun Zala. "You are a bastard, Zala! All right, I'll tell him after we get back from the concert. He'll probably rip my ears off, though!" Dearka made to exit, and as he was leaving, flung back over his shoulder, "And by the way, congratulations on the engagement!"
He at least had the satisfaction of seeing Zala blush bright red at his words.
