Title: The Taming of Shiho Hahnenfuss

Author: paws_bells

Beta-ed by: MelissaRose85

Characters/Pairing: Shiho Hahnenfuss and Yzak Joule

Type: Continuous (InComplete)

Genre: Humor/Romance

Word Count: 1572

Rating: T (Contains content not suitable for children)

Disclaimer: Gundam Seed/Gundam Seed Destiny belongs to Morosawa Chiaki and Fukuda Mitsuo.

Summary: Post GSD. When good girls go bad, their bewildered commanders are suddenly left wondering what on earth is going on. One-shot series.

Chapter Summary: Hangovers are the worst. They become even more unbearable when you are suddenly forced to notice more of your pretty subordinate than you are comfortable with.

Created on: 19/06/13

Completed on: 21/06/13

Chapter Last Revised on: 23/06/13

I. Next Time, Just Don't Get Drunk

When Yzak woke up the next morning, he was in agony.

The silver-haired White Coat felt as if he had just emerged from the losing end of a hard space skirmish – without his Mobile Suit. His head was pounding like someone was going at it repetitively with a jackhammer, the back of his eyes felt strained and uncomfortably grainy, the inside of his mouth felt as dry as cotton and tasted just as awful, and his stomach was churning so much that he was surprised he had not lost control of it yet.

Whatever the hell he did last night, he was definitely regretting it now. Even his own raspy breathing sounded like torture to his ears, and he couldn't even muster up the energy to swear at his sorry state of being. In fact, it took immense effort just to peel open his eyelids to take stock of his surroundings, and that quickly proved to be a huge mistake, for thin slivers of light immediately stabbed into his poor eyeballs and transmitted screaming messages of impending doom and immense suffering to his stressed, overtaxed brain. Slamming his eyes shut, he emitted a tortured, extremely undignified whimper and prayed for his death to be quick and merciful.

The quiet treads of approaching footsteps distracted him from his personal hell, and despite his physical discomfort, his well-trained senses prickled with warning.

"Commander Joule, you are finally awake." The familiar feminine voice, thoughtfully pitched low in consideration of his current condition, immediately had him at ease once more.

Hahnenfuss. Subordinate. Ally.

"How are you feeling?"

"Like shit," he managed to growl out, sounding as cantankerous as a bear that had just been rudely woken from hibernation. He had an arm flung over his eyes and looked the very picture of wretched misery. "And where the bloody hell am I?"

"You are in my suite," the Major replied calmly. He jolted inwardly at that, surprised. Her suite? How on earth had he ended up in her suite? Last he remembered, he was with Dearka at the hotel bar, trying to unwind a bit after the long and stressful weekend conference only to be prodded into taking a few shots by the rambunctious blonde- "Officer Elsman was thoughtful enough to drop you at my door early today."

"How early?" he rasped, intending to at least figure out the time they had finally left the bar.

There was a pause.

"You were outside my door at three am today, Commander Joule. It's two in the afternoon now."

Judging by the slight stiltedness of her reply, he could very well surmise that the brunette had been anything but pleased to have to attend to him in the godforsaken hours of the morning. He did not blame her.

"You should have just left me outside then, Hahnenfuss."

He did not see it, but even though obviously exasperated, her lips twitched slightly in recollection of her Commander's bemusing antics a few hours prior. Who could have guessed that the infamous Yzak Joule would be such an entertaining drunk when completely inebriated?

"That was not possible, Commander Joule," she managed to reply neutrally. "You were belting out the ZAFT military anthem at the top of your lungs in the hallway, and as everyone in the immediate vicinity was…affected by your powerful singing voice and staunch patriotism, the hotel management requested my assistance to…moderate your enthusiasm."

And there went his dignity.

Yzak wanted very much to deny his subordinate's report, but the niggling recognition of truth in her words kept his mouth shut. Her brief account explained why the damn anthem lyrics were circling in his head like an incessant plague. Growing mortification was very swiftly chasing away most of his more pressing physical discomforts, and at last, he moved his arm away and lifted his head to squint blearily at the slender brunette standing beside the couch where he spent the night.

Quite predictably, the pretty young woman had her poker face on, though the unusual gleam in her unique amethyst eyes seemed a bit suspicious to him. If she was laughing at him, then at least she was smart enough not to do it right in front of his face. His pride was dented, and combined with his rather unpleasant wakeup call; he was not in a good mood at all.

And Yzak just knew where he intended to direct all that pleasant energy.

"And what was Dearka doing when I was-" he waved his hand awkwardly, reluctant to speak of his humiliating actions. "Actually, where is the idiot now?" he demanded to know, expertly hiding his embarrassment behind a mountain of growly bluster, his voice still hoarse from the past night's revelry and overindulgence. Glancing around, he was vaguely grateful that Hahnenfuss was considerate enough to draw shut all the curtains of the room – even in the semi-darkness, his head was already throbbing dully from the visual stimuli.

"Officer Elsman was also not in complete control of his mental facilities, though he was less…vocal in his inebriation. He was already half asleep and I was able to get him settled in his suite very quickly. He stopped by earlier, but decided not to disturb you since you weren't up yet. He's preparing for our departure, and mentioned that he would drop by again later."

Yzak groaned aloud at that. It had completely slipped his mind that they would be going back to Aprilius One today. Judging by his current condition, he was not looking forward to getting on board the return shuttle. Might as well face the music now and get everything out from Hahnenfuss.

Sitting up gingerly on the sofa and lowering his feet to the ground, he displaced the blanket that she must have draped over him and looked quite irked as he spoke next. This was all Dearka's fault. "Right. What else did I do? Just tell me already. At this point in time, I don't give a shit anymore."

Once again, her mouth twitched at the silver-haired male's grumpy annoyance. "Don't worry; your dignity is left pretty much intact. You spent the remainder of your drunken state safely in this suite, Commander, away from curious eyes."

He looked at her with his piercing mica blue eyes.

"Everyone but yours."

The brunette shrugged slightly, giving into his unspoken demand for explanations. "You sang the anthem at least twenty more times, graduated to reciting war poetry, swore a lot when you could not recall a few stanzas, and were also quite eloquent on the subject of salad dressing, amongst other topics, Commander."

Great; so his humiliation was now complete.

She had intended to save his pride by refraining from mentioning the itty bitty details of his late night antics – he should have taken her up on her unspoken offer. If he wasn't feeling so goddamn awful already, he probably would have cared more about his reputation going down the drain.

Both Commander and Major were silent for a while as they contemplated the awkward situation and warily studied each other like potential adversaries. Yzak eventually tired of it though, and at last irritably blurted out, "You are not to speak of this to anyone."

Hahnenfuss just looked at him with her placid, amethyst gaze, hardly intimidated by his growling and bluster.

"My lips are sealed," she deadpanned calmly at last, and once again, he had the niggling suspicion that she was laughing at him behind his back, only he lacked the concrete evidence to prove it. It didn't help matters that this woman was somehow always around to witness all of his unglamorous exploits and less well thought out actions, and it was really no wonder that she was hardly afraid of him, quite unlike the rest of his troops – if she had ever feared him in the first place. Yzak grumbled under his breath, thoroughly disgruntled by the lack of respect he was getting from his subordinate.

"I have taken the liberty of preparing a pot of black tea for you, and some painkillers as well. They should help with the hangover, Commander." She gestured to the coffee table with a slight tilt of her head, and sure enough, there was a tea tray filled with the mentioned items sitting there. So she wasn't as cruel as he had thought, and after popping some pills and helping himself to a mug of the steaming (heavenly) hot tea, he articulated his thought aloud too.

She raised a slender brow at his ungracious mutter.

"You are welcome, Commander," she replied simply, accepting the sentiments lurking behind his brusque comment and discarding everything else, and Yzak scowled. It always irked him that he could never seem to rile up Hahnenfuss, and this time was no exception.

"If there's nothing else, please excuse me. I need to see to our departure."

He dismissed her with a grunt and then watched idly from over the rim of his cup as the impeccably composed brunette left the room in her usual measured, graceful strides. She was dressed in civilian clothes for a change, showing off her rather nice figure, he noticed absently for the very first time, lithe and lissome like a dancer, and she carried herself with a quiet confidence that was strangely eye catching.

Yzak stilled suddenly as he mentally rewound his previous thought.

His eyes widened and he nearly spat out his tea.

What the hell was that, brain?!

::tsuzuku::

Questions That I Would Like To Answer Before You Ask:

So yes, I went off and ploughed my way into another new fandom. Technically though, I have been fascinated by ShiZak for years already, and have only recently decided to contribute to the fandom due to a dismal lack of good fics for this lovely couple. My love for crack and crack pairings knows no bounds, it seems.

This is the first time that I'm writing for the GS/GSD archive though, so apologies are in order if I mess up in one way or another. I haven't watched the anime series in years, and it was a pain in the backside researching/learning all the technical jargon and lingo that came with it. Do consider this fic a Canon AU, and as always, the focus will be geared towards character development and plot than anything else.

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This will likely be a loosely interconnected one shot series, though its status may change to a full on continuous fic if I get serious enough about it.

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Last but not least, thanks for reading!

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Your reviews fuel my passion for writing. So please leave a comment if you like this fic!

-paws