CL knew Auguste missed her, and that was probably the sole reason for him even showing up at Halle's in the first place. After all, he was the type of man who preferred not to see the face of anybody he's done wrong to in the past. It had nothing to do with guilt, she doubted he was even capable of such a thing, but more or less as a cover up. Some like to go back to check if there were any kinks, some do it for a personal reason and like to see the person they did wrong unravel, and some are just sadistic like that. But Auguste did almost everything for professional reasons, and toyed with the rest. Specifically Rod Ross, the high up mafia boss that coincidentally hid Mello for two years. But even a man as professional as Auguste still had personal uh… "feelings", and he missed his companion greatly. Of course, being her caretaker for around five years, the feeling was mutual with both parties.

So when he called asking if she would like to be his accomplice yet again, she, as always, immediately accepted. Only this time he had said it had been for personal reasons. And when Auguste said personal, it almost always meant Rod Ross would be involved. She wondered where their mutual hatred stemmed from, but whenever she asked he always just laughed and said, "Rod is just one of those people who you can't help but mess with."

Personally she found it funny. As much respect as she had to people as high up as Ross in a society such as the Mafia, to be so unraveled by one, singular man. So many subordinates at his disposal, and yet he never accomplished anything when it came to one upping Auguste. Although, what's a mob to a king, right? Of course, Auguste was no king, but sometimes CL felt like he was. He could very well be a king. He was manipulative, powerful, talented, intelligent. But even kings liked to play around once in a while, and Ross was Auguste's favorite playmate. Though more like a mouse to a cat than one toddler to another.

Nevertheless, she accepted, and now she had to inform Mello, who was still on the first couple drafts of his plan to catch Kira. He had given her little details, but that was it. Matt knew much more than she, and although he felt guilty because of it, he figured Mello had his reasons. He wasn't the type to hold onto a grudge for an entire five years, after all.

CL pushed the door leading to Mello's room and informed him of Auguste's proposition. He denied her the second she mentioned his name.

"Well why not?" she inquired, looking more or less impassive, though very clearly annoyed.

"Because… Because I don't trust that guy. I feel like he's using you for his own personal reasons, and when he's done he'll dispose of you when it's most convenient. He's a manipulative guy. You should know that." He replied, as though it was third grade common knowledge.

"Isn't that more or less what you're doing?" she teased, though he definitely took it seriously. He dropped the pencil he was using a few seconds before and paused. She watched his back slowly rise and fall from the doorway, before realizing that what she said actually had some truth to it. Really, it was completely true. She left and went to close the door behind her.

"That's no-" Mello started, but stopped when he heard the click to the door.

…,,,…

Around an hour or so Auguste arrived, apparently he was staying at a local hotel a few miles away from Mello and Matt's apartments, "just in case".

CL had her hand on the handle of the door before feeling a strong grip on her shoulder.

"I'm coming with." Mello said, and CL knew that there was no persuading him otherwise. He was a stubborn man.

"…Okay." She reluctantly agreed, and he followed closely behind as they got into Auguste's pure white Lexus LFA. A very expensive car, but damn was it nice. Mello looked at it skeptically, as though it was stolen. Actually, he looked at almost everything Auguste owned as though it was stolen. But other than the prized pistol he gave CL less than a year earlier the only thing he's stolen and kept was information. Very important information, but that was little more than a hard drive. A hard drive could be replaced, of course, but the information inside it could not. Sometimes he returned them, though, after he had copied the files onto his own computer of course. But at least they were gift wrapped. Seriously.

"You should take your own car, Goldilocks. Just in case we get split up." Auguste informed him with his usual cheery smile. Mello didn't reply, merely gave him a lethal death glare, and even obeyed.

He followed Auguste through downtown LA and out and into a space similar to the old hideout, of which Mello promptly blew up. He pulled up in the parking lot, which was odd. Usually they parked around a block behind, unless the situation would probably need a means of a quicker escape.

Auguste walked a ways in front of them, with Mello's eyes burning holes into his back.

"I'll head in first. CL, tell Mello the plan and you guys can head in after me. You probably won't have very much trouble." He said without pausing and loaded his pistol.

"Uh… Okay…" She said, and watched him enter the building.

"Okay so-" CL began, or, at least, tried to.

"Who's he after anyway." Mello demanded, cutting her off.

"Actually, Rod Ross. Hope there weren't any strong feelings." She muttered. Mello just about doubled over.

"Rod Ross is already dead; he died in the hideout before the Task Force even made it in. Sorry, but he lied to you. I say we leave immediately." He hissed, and took a step forward.

"Then who the hell is he after?!" She exclaimed, though she already knew he wouldn't any greater idea than she would. Quickly she ran into the entrance Auguste took with Mello begrudgingly following.

:

As Auguste stated previously the halls were pretty much wiped out. Men in nice suits laid groaning on the ground, most with their guns still vacant in their back pocket. Auguste having already taken care of them. Now all they had to do was follow the bloody trail of men with bullets in their ankles and they'd reach Auguste eventually. They had been following the same trail for around five minutes. That was impressive, even for Auguste, considering they were sprinting through the corridors. Finally, after a couple stories of steps and a minimal amount of subordinates later the trail came to an end at an important looking door. The stereotypical door which led to the room of a mafia boss. Which was, probably, who Auguste was after. Maybe he hadn't known Ross was dead. But then, if that's true, then how the hell had he come up with this place?

CL approached the door and cautiously pushed it open, pistol ready. Of course, Mello had brought his own handgun, so he had his out too.

"Well, well, well… if it isn't Goldilocks and… Goldilocks?" A man with dark, short, spiked up hair, dark sunglasses, and a nice suit spoke to them from his spot in a comfortable looking leather chair. There were only two guys left, both holding up automatic machine guns and pointing them at the three of them. Auguste stood a ways away from the man sitting down, with a gun in his right hand like the rest of them.

"What took you so long? I might be dead if you hadn't shown up any later." He mused, still smiling.

"Oh its no use, Auguste. You were done for anyway. Hey, by the way, Leatherface? I hope you don't mind that we stole your method," The man in the chair sneered, and Auguste tensed tenfold. It finally dawned on Auguste, and he felt stupid for not recognizing it sooner. Abruptly, he turned to face CL.

"CL, leave. Leave now. Don't come back. No matter what happens, don't come back here." His face was full of worry and discontent. He turned his head sharply at the man in the suit and his finger moved began to itch on the trigger.

"Go!" He shouted, and Mello grabbed CL's wrist and ran through the hallways. Suddenly he was reminded of a certain incident years ago in a certain asylum, but this was no time to reminisce. CL could still hear the man's voice, which she had come to despise in a very short five seconds.

"Oh don't worry, Auguste. We still have things to discuss here." She couldn't hear his reply. The door to the stairway had already closed. They continued running, even out of the entrance. They even managed to get all the way to his Mello's car. He unlocked it and managed to open the driver's door before a large bang, all too familiar, all too close to home, erupted throughout the lot. He froze completely and looked up. CL was the same way, but she still remembered one important thing, on instinct. Auguste.

"Auguste!" She shouted, running towards the lighted building. Mello regained his senses, like someone pressing the play button on a remote, and ran towards her.

He managed to catch up, and quickly draped his arm firmly around her stomach. She struggled in his grip, calling out her companion's name, before giving up and slumping down onto the ground. Mello slumped down with her, still keeping a firm grip.

CL felt as thought the entire world had ended. They had entered the apocalypse. She couldn't really tell who was dying anymore. Might as well be both. She felt the strong and familiar grip of Mello grasped tightly around her, pulling her up. Begrudgingly she stood, and let him lead her towards his car. He put her in the backseat of his car and ran to the driver's side. The car backed out and squealed away, back to Mello's apartment.

The ride was silent, which was expected. Mello didn't really think at all except on driving. Every once in a while he'd check his mirror to look at CL, who sat there silently with her head in her hands. He, quite frankly, couldn't stand that look, which made him even angrier. By the time he pulled up to his apartment he was already at the boiling point. He sat there for a long time, head on the steering wheel, going through and re-thinking a mixed jumble of things. CL stayed in the car too, for about two minutes since he'd pulled up. Eventually she opened the door and weakly stood up, before practically limping to the door. This jammed Mello out of his reverie, and he quickly followed suit.

Okay, he thought. Get it together. Help CL first, that's the top priority. But… how? She seemed to be the type who wanted to be left alone when it came to things like these. He knew that's what he would have wanted… probably. This could prove more difficult than he originally expected.

He entered his/her room and saw her sitting on the edge of the bed, the exact same way as she was in the car, only her trench coat was off. He was kind of surprised, to be completely honest, to see that she was wearing his shirt, the shirt he had given her that day after the first ex-

Damn.

He opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out. He didn't have to.

"I'm fine. You can leave me alone now." She said from her spot on the bed. He had never heard her sound so… sober. As though she knew when the end of the world was coming, and it wasn't too far away. It was horrifying really.

He didn't say anything, but instead walked over to her and sat down next to her, taking off his red jacket and draping it around her shoulders. Her breathing slowed and she looked up from her hands. Her eyes finally became visible, a melting pot of emotions. She looked up at him with surprise. He gazed at her through half lidded eyes and brought his right hand up to cup her cheek. He inched forward and pressed his lips against her's, and she remained mandatory. He deepened their kiss, pressing against her more firmly, and she leaned back onto the bed, on top of his jacket. Her hands gripped his shirt like they were her life force, and his hand went to her hair, gently pulling it out of the band's grasp and putting it instead on his own wrist.

The feeling of her fingers across his skin felt like liquid fire, and he felt like he could continue doing this forever, which, usually, was the time which he knew he should stop.

His hands grabbed hers and reluctantly pried them off of him, and broke the kiss. She looked up at him with understanding eyes and let her hands fall to her sides. His head moved to the side of her head and he whispered in her ear, hot breath hitting the juncture between her neck and shoulder.

"Get some sleep." He mumbled, and kissed her forcedly again before getting off onto his knees and sliding off the bed, and shut the door behind him. It was then that it hit him what had just occurred, and he collapsed on the couch, and crashed.

…,,,…

I just really really really felt the need to get this chapter out here so I reeeeaaaally hope it doesn't suck.