Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed or Gundam Seed Destiny or its characters and names. This is a work of fanfiction, not for profit.
A/N: Cagalli is very much inspired by Lois Lane in this fic, both are favourite characters of mine. I love an AU and a slow burn, that's what this fic is. Reviews and feedback are always welcome. Thank you and I look forward to writing more in this fandom.
All's Fair in Love, War and Journalism
1
He rammed on the accelerator as he sped his way down the still empty streets of the pre-dawn city. The air was frosty outside, the sun had yet to peak over the horizon. He had been called out of bed by his second-in-command to a downtown residency where the latest crime in his city had just been committed.
Athrun turned the bend and put on the brakes, pulling his car up to where a line of police cars had already been parked. Getting out of his car, he was immediately greeted by his youngest detective.
"Captain." A raven haired young man greeted him while handing him a takeaway cup.
"What happened here?" He gratefully took the cup offered, wrapping his hands around it to help keep warm in the cold early morning air.
Briefly, he wondered what spawned his subordinate to be on his best behaviour today. Shinn Asuka was hardly the type to greet him and get him his coffee. Then he remembered that Shinn had asked him for a day off next week to go to his sister's recital, and he had replied with a tentative 'Maybe' just to be difficult after Shinn had questioned his authority one too many times.
"Two bullets, one through the heart, one through the head. It looks like a professional job." Shinn offered as he walked Athrun closer towards the crime scene, just outside a run down apartment complex in the slums of the city.
Athrun took a sip of the brown caffeinated liquid Shinn probably got from a nearby 24 hr drive-through and winced at how bad it tasted. He supposed no decent coffee places were open this late or early in the day. Although any caffeine would do right now as he blinked away the barely 2 hours of sleep he had gotten and gulped down the rest of the hot liquid as he contemplated on whether to give Shinn his day off.
He popped the empty coffee cup into a nearby street bin before he lifted the police tape and stepped through. The forensics team was still working away at the scene and he remained a few metres back while they gathered the evidence.
From where he stood, he could see the 2 bullet holes Shinn was talking about. It was not a pleasant scene to behold. The victim's blood was splattered all across the pavement in front of the apartment building. A frown appeared on Athrun's face as he determined that amongst the blood were also the victim's brain that had obviously been splattered from the exit hole on the other side of the victim's head.
A hand came up to run down the length of his tired face. This was the third victim he had seen executed in such a fashion. One to the chest to incapacitate the target, then a second one to the brain to ensure the job was done. The first victim was 4 months ago, the last one last month. There wasn't any connection he could make between the first two victims but he wondered if this third one could prove to be the link between them.
"Where's Joule?" Athrun turned to his subordinate who was still accompanying him.
Shinn snorted, "Lieutenant Joule's probably terrorising the residents." He replied, unable to keep up his respectful persona for too long.
"Tell him I want to speak to him." Athrun ordered and watched as the black-haired boy scurried off in search of his superior officer.
He turned his attention back to the crime scene in front of him when from the corner of his eye he caught sight of streaks of blonde hair. Immediately he could feel a headache coming on.
"Bloody hell." Athrun cursed under his breath as he made his way across as promptly as possible.
As he approached closer, he could make out the back of a petite blonde figure, holding a notepad in one hand and chatting quite lively with one of his uniformed officers. He didn't need to see the blonde's face to know who it was, and judging from the smitten smile on his officer's face, he didn't need to ask to know that she had charmed her way into the closed off area.
"I thought I said no talking to the press." Athrun barked at the rookie police officer who was too engrossed with the blonde reporter to even notice Athrun approach.
The smile on the officer's face immediately froze when he heard the iciness in Athrun's voice. His face went pale as he saluted Athrun. "C-Captain. I was just umm..." He didn't get to stutter through his explanation when the blonde reporter briskly turned around.
Her amber eyes, as striking and determined as he last remembered stared unflinchingly back at his own emerald ones. A wry smile was on her face as she greeted the police captain. "Nice of you to finally join us Captain Zala."
Athrun held back the urge to roll his eyes. He had no idea how the tenacious reporter got to the crime scene before he did, considering he was notified immediately when the police was called. Then again, he had learnt not to underestimate where the reporter got her sources from. Cagalli Yula always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, or as she would put it, the right place at the right time for the right story.
"Miss Yula," he greeted back forcing an unconvincing smile on his face, "don't you have some beauty sleep to catch up on?" He asked then added wryly, "It's beginning to show on your face."
Cagalli offered him a scowl which satisfied Athrun slightly. Although he would never admit it, Cagalli Yula was not the type of woman who needed the beauty sleep. She was already naturally beautiful. Not in the drop dead gorgeous, wars have been fought over her beauty kind of way. Her beauty was more subtle, ever growing, the kind that makes you want to look harder, stare longer, and the more you see, the more appreciative and enigmatic her beauty becomes.
Athrun mentally shook himself free from his thoughts, and noticed that this time Cagalli probably did need some more sleep. Judging from the dark circles that enclosed her eyes, she probably didn't get any more sleep than he did.
"If you'll follow me Miss Yula." Athrun said as his arm came around to touch her lightly on her back as he made a motion to escort her away from the crime scene.
The rookie officer had taken the opportunity to make himself disappear in the moments Athrun was caught up with staring at the golden haired journalist, and he made a mental note to reprimand the young officer later, he wasn't getting away that easily. Cagalli protested quite stubbornly as predicted and Athrun found his arm and hand now pressed quite firmly against the small of her back in an effort to push her along to the other side of the tape.
"I have a right to be here. Freedom of the press." The blonde woman challenged, her clear yet husky voice growing steadily louder each step they took.
"You have a right to observe from the sidelines and not disrupt the investigation." Athrun replied back then with a final push she was relinquished onto the sidewalk on the other side of the street.
Athrun turned away and eyed two nearby officers who immediately sensed what the captain wanted and moved to stand protectively in front of the closed off area, barricading against Cagalli who had immediately tried to follow Athrun back through.
He could hear her huffing and puffing behind him and the mental image of her fuming face brought a satisfied smirk on his face. It didn't last long though as Athrun knew from past experience that it wouldn't take long till she snuck through again.
He felt the throbbing against his skull pound harder.
Cagalli narrowed her eyes as she watched the police captain stroll off to disappear amidst the other officers and scurrying forensics team. Her eyes trailed back down at the notes she had taken and the very limited although somewhat enlightening pieces of information she was able to scavenge off the rookie officer earlier.
"Third victim killed this way." She mused to herself. Serial killer or professional for hire? Unfortunately the two lumps of beef Athrun had placed in front of the crime scene to keep her out were not going to let her find out.
She grinned despite this. She supposed it was time for her do some sneaking around.
Quietly Cagalli slipped away from the crime scene and started surveying the area. Eventually making her way through some deserted back-end alleyways, her heart leapt in jubilation when she found it led to the back of the building.
Looking up, she could make out from the dim lighting a fire escape route that led down from the balconies and windows of the apartment complex. And just a couple of metres above the ground from where she was, was the steel ladder that led up to those balconies.
The reporter stuffed her notepad and pen into the pockets of her coat and stretched her legs. There was a reason why she preferred wearing sneakers and pants on the job as opposed to the heels and pencil skirts her peers seemed fond of. Backing up several metres she mentally calculated how many steps she needed then took off in a sprint and leapt up. Her hands grabbed onto the end of the ladder, and sensing that she had a strong enough grip, she pulled herself upwards.
Those gym training sessions were paying off, she mused to herself as she pulled herself up without too much difficulty. She's always been an active person, her job required her to be so, but it wasn't until that long ago, when she was dangling from a building after being pushed by a disgruntled public servant after she threatened to expose him for dipping into public funds, that she realised she needed better upper body strength. She took solace in knowing that at least Athrun had put the man behind bars for embezzling funds and attempted murder.
As she steadied herself onto the first balcony and peered down at the length she had just climbed, a satisfied smile crinkled her features reaching her eyes. She wondered which floor the victim had come from. Judging from the position the body was lying in, she surmised that he was probably just leaving the building when he was brutally gunned down. Either he was a resident here, or he was visiting someone here.
Distorted voices from above caught her attention. She recognised one of the voices even if she couldn't quite make out the words. There was only one person who could come off so angry and disgruntled even through muffled brick walls. And that gave her the answer to her question, the victim must have come from the third floor. Her amber eyes glinted in the dark, reflecting the moonlight as she resumed her climb and stealthily made her way up to where the voices were.
Carefully and cautiously, Cagalli peeked through the window of the hallway of the third floor. Seeing the coast was clear, she lifted the window open and climbed through.
"What do you mean you didn't hear anything!" A loud voice rang out in the corridors as soon as she stepped in.
She winced at the ringing in her ears. Judging from the way the voice echoed, she deduced that Lieutenant Joule was probably around the bend, and mentally noted to herself not to head in that direction.
"You're telling me that 2 gunshots, right beneath your feet, and you slept through it?!" The voice continued indignantly.
She did briefly contemplate if she should eavesdrop on the conversation in case something of importance came up, however judging from what she's heard, the conversation seemed quite one-sided.
Lieutenant Joule's interviewing techniques usually consisted of him either scaring the crap out of the witness or suspect that they ended up spilling everything to him, or pissing them off so much that they would refuse to tell him anything. It was more like an interrogation than an interview really. This was contrasted to Captain Zala's more calm and rational approach. They really were the good cop bad cop duo of Heliopolis' police force as Cagalli had once pointed out to the begrudging two men.
Moving on in the opposite direction of Yzak's heated questioning, Cagalli decided to do some interviewing of her own and knocked on the last door in the hallway.
It didn't take too long for the door to creak open, as everyone in the building were probably woken by Yzak's explosive voice, if the gunshots didn't first wake them.
A black mop of hair peered out to the hallway. The man behind the door pushed a pair of glasses up his nose as his eyes focused on the young blonde woman in front of him.
"I've already told that screaming police officer all I know."
"My apologies." Cagalli said as she put on her most professional manners. "But I'm not with the police. My name is Cagalli Yula, I'm from-"
She didn't get to finish her introduction when a dawn of recognition crossed the man's face.
"You're that reporter from The Orb! No comment."
"And my reputation precedes me." Cagalli muttered to herself as she felt the wind blow back her bangs from the swift motion of the door closing on her face.
Cagalli took a deep breath and sighed. Not unlike Yzak who usually received one of two reactions when he interviewed subjects, Cagalli also received one of two reactions. They would hear the word reporter and immediately be suspicious of her, or willingly spill everything they knew in hopes that she would quote them in her articles.
She was not too surprised that the man had recognised her. After all she made all the headlines, for all the wrong reasons, when she was pushed out of a window. Kisaka had been quick to remind her that a reporter reported the news, they weren't supposed to be the news. Although most of her lament for that incident was due to the fact that Yuna Roma Seiran had gotten the byline on the front page for her almost fall instead of her story on corruption in the public sector. It wasn't like she had actually fallen to her death or anything. That would have made a different story. Cagalli had the foresight to tip off the police about the corruption and embezzlement before she confronted the man and luckily they had gotten there in the nick of time for Athrun to pull her up just as her fingers were about to slip from the window sill she was so desperately hanging onto.
What made it worse was that she couldn't report on the incident herself, as Kisaka also reminded her that she was too close to the story, literally the story itself, for her to remain objective when reporting. So the story had gone to Yuna instead, who flaunted the front page article in her face for the next two weeks, and she had given him the story on a silver platter.
That little incident had made Cagalli Yula a household name for all of two days, the day it was reported, and the day of the court ruling sentencing her attacker to 35 years in prison. She wondered what kind of strings Athrun pulled to get her attacker sentenced for that many years. After all she had seen murderers sentenced for much much less, although she supposed an attempted murder conviction coupled with government corruption earned him the additional years.
Aside from that, Around The Orb was also the most circulated newspaper in all of Orb and her articles with her name on it quite often landed on the front page for public consumption.
Cagalli decided to try her luck at the next door and knocked, waiting patiently for a response.
An elderly woman opened the door this time and her gentle features reminded her of another older woman she knew who lived across the hallway from her. Cagalli smiled genuinely as she greeted the woman.
"Sorry to disturb you, my name is Cagalli Yula from Around The Orb, I was wondering if I could ask you some questions about what's happened here?" She asked politely while showing the woman her press badge.
The elderly woman squinted her eyes, not having the ease of her reading glasses on. When she could make out her ID, a smile beamed across the grey haired lady's face.
"Oh, a reporter." She greeted warmly. "I recognise your name. Why I must read your articles all the time in The Orb."
Cagalli's smile brightened as she remembered that there was a third reaction to hearing her name and profession, albeit a very very rare one. It was that of appreciation for her work.
"Your article on the disgraceful conditions at the local orphanage really opened my eyes."
"Thank you." Cagalli said kindly then frowned. Although her article had incited an investigation into helping improve conditions at the orphanage, it had been stuck in bureaucracy ever since and scarcely progressed. "Unfortunately not much has changed."
"You made an old ignorant fool like me a little less ignorant, and perhaps that little donation I put in after reading your article will help just a little." The older woman encouraged.
"Thank you." Cagalli thanked again, feeling grateful for her words. She knew when she first took on her profession that it was going to be a hard battle. She was fighting with words after all, not fists or swords. But Cagalli knew that words shaped the world. Slowly but surely. History books were written with words, and the media was a powerful tool to sway public opinion. Although sometimes she wondered if she could be changing the world in a more productive way, if she had become a politician like her father wanted her to, or joined the resistance when she was in Northern Africa.
"What questions did you want to ask me dear?" The woman prompted drawing Cagalli out of her thoughts. She took out her notepad from within her coat's pockets.
"Did you know the victim?"
"Not very well." The lady replied earnestly. "I see him around of course, he lives just down the hall, but he keeps to himself. I don't think he's a bad child though." She was quick to add, not wanting to give Cagalli the wrong impression of the recently deceased, despite barely knowing him at all.
"Were you awake when the shooting happened?"
"Oh no, I sleep very early, this body needs all the rest it can get."
"Then I won't take up too much of your time." She quickly assured, feeling guilty for keeping the older woman from rest. "Do you know what his name was? Has he ever introduced himself to you?"
"I'm afraid not, very private that boy," she paused for a second as a memory jumped up at her, "actually I do recall his name being Clotho. He doesn't get many visitors but a young lad started visiting him a couple of weeks ago, he was here just yesterday too, and I remember the visitor called him Clotho."
Cagalli's ears perked up at the mention of the visitor, "Can you describe what the visitor looked like?"
The elderly woman took a moment to recall what she remembered. "He was a very handsome young man." She stated after a while. "Brown ruffled hair, in that kind of messy manner that's quite trendy with the youths today. A slim build, average height for a boy his age."
"And how old do you think he was?"
"Looks around the same age as you, I'd imagine."
"Did Clotho ever call the visitor by his name?"
"Not that I heard."
Cagalli nodded as she jotted down the information she had gathered.
"Is there anything else that you might be able to tell me? Something out of the ordinary? Weird behaviours maybe?"
"He did look a bit tense these past few days, always looking over his shoulder but I figured that it was probably because the rent was due and he was keeping a look out for the landlord. Most people here are just trying to get by the best they could."
Cagalli thanked the elderly lady sensing there was nothing more that she could tell her. She reached into her breast pocket and handed the woman her business card.
"If you remember anything else, please give me a call, Mrs?"
"Rose. Just Rose." The elderly woman replied with gentle affection.
Cagalli smiled in response. "Rose," she addressed the elder lady, "feel free to call me if you ever need anything."
"Thank you dear, I'll keep that in mind. And you keep out of trouble young lady." She gave Cagalli a wink before closing the door.
Cagalli stepped away from Rose's apartment and tucked her notepad back into her pockets. That was when she realised the hallway was suddenly quiet, too quiet. She could no longer make out Yzak's heated shouts from the other side, instead her ears picked up the sound of footsteps coming closer towards her.
Oh shit.
She was only able to mentally vocalise those words before a second later Lieutenant Yzak Joule rounded the bend followed closely by two others she recognised as Dearka Elsman and Shinn Asuka.
Yzak's steps stopped when he caught sight of Cagalli down the length of the corridor.
"What is that woman doing here?!" He exploded immediately, clear anger was displayed in his crystal blue eyes, distorting his otherwise handsome face.
Dearka on the other hand lit up immediately upon recognising the reporter. "Oh hey, it's the captain's girlfriend!" He gleefully greeted.
Cagalli's lips contorted into a thin line but before she could open her mouth and dispute Dearka's baseless claims, Yzak did it for her.
"That woman is NOT Zala's GIRLFRIEND." The lieutenant spewed out enunciating the word girlfriend as if it was poison on his tongue. "I refuse to believe that even Zala has such bad taste in women!"
Cagalli who had been on the verge of agreeing with Yzak, suddenly paused. "And what exactly is wrong with me?" She spewed right back.
"Let's see," Yzak began as he started counting off his fingers, "you're nosy, stubborn, brash, reckless, argumentative, persistent, uncompromising, you're absolutely insufferable!"
To the side Dearka and Shinn snickered to themselves, wondering if their lieutenant realised he just closely described himself.
"I'll have you know those are some of my best qualities!" Cagalli barked back.
"And you dress like a man!"
"What do you care what I wear?!"
Sensing that the heated conversation was verging on the dangerous, Dearka decided to jump in. Reaching an arm over Yzak's shoulder, "Don't be so harsh on her Yzak." Dearka interrupted. "She has helped us out in the past, remember that robbery case? The Orb circulated the suspect's image and we managed to catch the guy thanks to the appeal to the citizens Miss Yula wrote."
Yzak promptly removed Dearka's arm and glared at his long time comrade. "I don't care what she's done for us in the past, she is not interrupting this investigation." He gritted through his teeth then made a beeline for Cagalli. His hand tightly clamped down on Cagalli's wrist dragging the reporter towards the flight of stairs.
"Hey! Let go of me!" She protested as she struggled to free herself from Yzak's grip. However Yzak was not the type of person to kindly escort anyone off the premises like Athrun had done earlier. He was quite happy to use force if necessary.
He had managed to drag a protesting Cagalli to the bottom of the stairs and almost out of the building when they ran into the blue-haired captain at the entrance.
Athrun stared dumbfounded at the sight of his lieutenant yanking a headache-inducing blonde behind him and narrowed his eyes swiftly.
"What the hell is going on here?" Athrun asked, his voice dangerously low signalling his sour mood.
"I found Lieutenant Joule." Shinn piped up in the background, following behind with Dearka.
Athrun let out a deep breath and rubbed his temples. He could pretty much guess what had happened without anyone telling him. "Yzak, let go of Miss Yula."
Cagalli huffed with indignation as she pulled her hand out of Yzak's grip when the lieutenant's fingers slackened at his captain's words.
Athrun's eyes then landed on Shinn. "Asuka, would you kindly escort Miss Yula home?"
Shinn looked up in surprise. "You want me to drive her home?!" He cried outlandishly. "I'm not her babysitter or chauffeur!" He protested and then stopped when the captain took a step towards him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Take Miss Yula home Shinn and you can have your day off." He told him. The tight grip Athrun had on his shoulder told Shinn that his captain was not up for an argument.
Grudgingly, Shinn started walking towards the entrance, taking a glance toward Cagalli.
"Are you coming?" He barked, irritation filling the entirety of his voice.
The feisty blonde ignored him and glared at Athrun who was now in front of her. "I don't need an escort home. I'm perfectly capable of finding my own way home, and I'll go home when I'm ready to go home." She challenged unflinchingly at the police captain.
Athrun's eyes did not waver against hers. "Don't push your luck today Cagalli." He told her sternly then turned on his heels and motioned Yzak and Dearka to follow him.
Cagalli heaved a great sigh, and realising she had lost the argument, relented and joined Shinn.
"Just so you know, I hate reporters." Shinn vehemently stated as he marched towards his dark camry, with Cagalli following behind him.
"Gee, what gave that away."
"Where do you live?" He asked as he pulled out of the narrow street they were on.
"Not far from here actually. Turn onto the next road." She pointed up ahead to the left.
Shinn furrowed his eyebrows. He had assumed that the reporter would live somewhere closer to the central. He did not expect her to live downtown in the slimiest part of the city.
Sensing Shinn's train of thoughts Cagalli offered a reply. "How else did you think I made it to the crime scene before Captain Zala, if I didn't live nearby?"
Agreeing with the logic, Shinn nodded.
"You know, you and I are not that different." Cagalli pointed out which earned a scorn on Shinn's face.
"How exactly are we similar in any way?" The raven haired detective demanded. Shinn peeled his eyes away from the road for a second to look at the blonde reporter in the passenger seat. Cagalli sat there, eyes gazing into the distance with a pensive expression on her face.
"For starters, we both seek the truth." She countered, her voice was deep and assured as if she had given it quite a lot of thought. "We both want justice for the people of this world. We both serve the public." She continued. "And we both want to find who's responsible for the shooting tonight."
Shinn found himself staring at the reporter again, having been caught unaware by her words. He wasn't quite sure if journalists served the public, in his experience, they mostly served themselves. But they did seek the truth. However dark, twisted or dangerous the truth was, Cagalli Yula always chased after it, fiercely and fearlessly. He supposed there was some kind of admirable quality to it. To her.
"Pull-up just here." Cagalli prompted.
"What? Here?" Shinn asked confused as he pulled up to the curb as instructed. He surveyed the area, it hardly looked like a place to live, with its numerous back-end alleyways. Before he could question the blonde any further, Cagalli had already gotten out of the car and dashed down one of the dark alleyways, leaving Shinn in utter confusion.
He stared after her fleeting back, for a few seconds stunned, before the realisation hit him at what she had done.
"God damnit!" Shinn cursed aloud and hit his head against the steering wheel as he finally realised that the alleyway the reporter had just disappeared into, was in the direction of the building they had just come from, two streets down.
Cagalli Yula had tricked him.
"I hate reporters!" Shinn iterated to himself as he put the car in drive mode again and sped back to the building in hopes of finding the reporter before his captain caught wind of his embarrassing blunder.
Cagalli navigated her way through the twists and turns of the narrow alleys before finally coming across the familiar sight of the building. She felt a little guilty for tricking the young detective like that, but consoled herself that she was teaching him a valuable life lesson. Never trust a reporter. As she approached the back of the building once more, she could hear two people talking, their voices travelling through the air gaps of a backdoor.
Her lips curled up into a mischievous smile as she cautiously approached the door and pressed her ear against the wooden surface.
Athrun stared down at the tablet his second-in-command had handed him of the victim and scrolled through the profile.
"Any links with the other murder cases?" He questioned.
"None that stood out." Yzak replied. "Although Clotho Buer, and Orga Sabnak's parents worked in the science fields, different areas of science and never with the same employer from what we could see. They're also deceased."
Athrun nodded, his eyes still wandering over the information sent over from headquarters.
"Your best guess?"
"Gang-related."
"I agree. All three men were gunned down in execution styled killings. Get Dearka to do a search of similar shootings in other cities." Athrun requested as he handed the tablet back to Yzak. "I want to know if this is contained in Heliopolis or if we're looking for a gang with intercity, interstate or god forbid international influence."
He was about to go over the initial forensics findings with Yzak when an audible shuffle from the door behind him caught his attention. Green eyes narrowed suspiciously. It was then he noticed through the window that Shinn's car was parked outside again. He knew where Cagalli lived and it would have taken much longer to drive her there and back.
"Have Elsman also look into what the maximum sentence for trespassing is." Athrun continued on, putting a finger to his lips at Yzak's confused expression as he quietly shifted towards the door.
The lieutenant quickly caught on, "I'd say it'd be about 5 years in prison." He lied knowing full well that most trespassing charges ended with a fine and a slap on the wrist.
"What about eavesdropping on confidential information?" Athrun mused. At that second, his fingers gripped the doorhandle and yanked it open.
As the door swung aside, he caught sight of blonde hair bellowing wildly as the reporter tried to make a run for it. But Cagalli had caught on to him knowing too late and Athrun reached out and grabbed an arm to stop her from escaping.
Swiftly, Athrun manoeuvred Cagalli's arm behind her back and took out a handcuff from within his jacket. Within moments she heard the clang of her wrists being clasped in metal.
"What? Hey!" Cagalli's eyes widened in shock as she struggled against her binds. "Handcuffs?!" She cried in outrage. "You handcuffed me?!" She repeated, still not quite believing what Athrun Zala had done.
"I warned you not to push your luck." Athrun chided quite dangerously to her. Then proceeded to push her through the building to the front entrance.
"What the hell do you think you're doing Athrun?" Cagalli gritted through her teeth, seething madly as Athrun paraded her outside like a convicted criminal.
"You're hardly in a position to be demanding anything Miss Yula." He replied rather coolly, although she didn't miss the way her name clipped at the end of the sentence.
He stopped her in front of a flashing police car and lowered her head, pushing her into the back seat like she was some common thug.
Cagalli could feel her face burn. Feeling humiliated as Athrun had marched her across the short distance between the building and the police car. His entire homicide unit had probably just witnessed her walk of shame.
She cursed out loud. She should have known. Athrun always seemed to possess a 6th sense around her, one aimed at detecting her presence. She didn't know how he did it, but he always seemed to know when she was around. She could never get away with spying on him for too long.
"Where the hell is Asuka?" She heard Athrun mutter outside the car. "Forget it I'll take her home myself." Athrun gasped in exasperation as he relented that the only way to get Cagalli away from the crime scene was to take her home himself.
Her boiling anger dropped slightly as she realised that Athrun never planned to press charges on her. He was taking her home instead of to the police station. Still she glared sharp needles at the man as he climbed into the driver's seat in front.
Athrun peered at her through his rearview mirror. Cagalli was literally red, with anger or humiliation, he wasn't quite sure. But it reminded him of the first time he saw her blush. It was also the first time she had ever worn a dress in front of him, and he had made a comment that it strangely suited her, which had caused her cheeks to flush from first embarrassment, and then indignation as she demanded why he thought that it was strange.
Athrun shifted his eyes away from the glares she was giving him through the mirror and pulled the car onto the road, driving down a familiar route he knew of to her apartment closer to the city hub.
"Is this really necessary?" Athrun heard her comment after what seemed like a millennia of silence from her.
He peered through the mirror and saw her motioning behind her to the handcuffs behind her back.
"I've found every precaution is necessary when it concerns you."
He received an agitated grunt as a response to his response and watched with wary amusement as she fumbled around in the back seat, still struggling with the metal cuffs.
When he pulled up to the curb of her apartment 20 minutes later, she had given up struggling and sat quietly in the back seat as she watched Athrun get out of the car and open the backseat door.
He leaned in, his form hunching over hers and she could feel him breathe out a tired sigh. His breath softly blowed against the exposed skin of her neck, as his fingers daftly unlocked her binds. She found herself heating up again, although this time not from anger but from his proximity. She rubbed at her wrists sourly as they were set free before accepting the hand Athrun offered her as he helped her out of the car.
As they stood in front of each other, Athrun could sense a silent tension in the air. Probably sprouted on by the fact they were both feeling a little guilty over their actions, but not enough to apologise for it.
"Good night Miss Yula." Athrun was first to break the silence.
Cagalli seemed to have accepted it. "Good morning Captain Zala." She replied in response and leaped up the stone steps to her apartment building.
As she made her way to the second floor where she lived, she could see Athrun driving away from the window.
"Late night rendezvous with your boyfriend?" A voice called out to her as she was searching for the keys to her apartment.
"I don't have a boyfriend Mrs M." Cagalli clarified, recognising the voice. She turned around and challenged the unconvinced look her neighbour was giving her.
"You don't expect me to believe that do you? I've seen that young gentleman escort you home several times before." Mana said as she winked.
"He was just giving me a lift." Cagalli promptly explained. "We're not going out." Then deciding to change the subject she asked, "What are you doing out so late anyways Mrs M.?"
Mana indicated to the chubby furball in her arms. "Scruffles escaped through the window again, I had to go look for him."
The cat purred in her arms as the older woman stroked it lovingly.
Cagalli stared down at the cat in question. Sensing her attention on it, the cat's eyes glared up at her and hissed. She frowned. While she got along well with its owner, Scruffles had never liked Cagalli ever since that time she accidentally stepped on its tail as she was exiting her apartment. It strangely reminded Cagalli of Yzak, what with its hissing and gleaming white coat of fur.
Mana made a motion to head back into her apartment, as Cagalli pulled out her keys.
"My dear, I may not be young anymore, but no man drives a lady home so late at night if he didn't like her."
Before Cagalli could rebut that she was no lady, Mana had disappeared behind her door.