Disclaimer: I don't own Code Geass or Law and Order: SVU. They are the property of their respective owners.
I'm glad to say that this is the fastest story to reach ten chapters; a personal best. Anyways, new chapters will now be released on Mondays. However, the "Summer" finale is next Monday. Peace and enjoy.
Chapter Ten – Hangover
Detective Cabot has no idea why she had to wake up at 4:30 in the morning, but apparently it was related to Suzaku. She was sleeping peacefully in her apartment when she received a call from a payphone located in Staten Island, she ignored it the first time but after the three more calls, she finally answered – only to find discover that it was Suzaku. Unbeknownst to the detective, Suzaku had an extremely long night which somehow led to him falling asleep in a fast food restaurant.
If it wasn't bad enough that she had to go to work at 6 am that morning, she practically drove an hour and a half from Manhattan to Staten Island to Brooklyn and back to her apartment so she could get ready for work. But as much as she did not want too, she was willing to do it for him. Besides, she couldn't leave him there any longer. But all she knew before she got dressed, was that she had a long day ahead of her.
At about 11:30 the following morning, Suzaku woke up, finding himself back in his apartment after the night he had. He couldn't remember what had happened the night before but somehow, he was home safe. He looked around his apartment, trying to gain any recollection of what happened that night. He turned over to his door and saw a note attached. He opened it up and it read
Suzaku, you called me last night
and told me that you were
in Staten Island. So I picked
you up and drove you home.
You're welcome.
- Alex.
After he finished reading the note, it suddenly started to come back to him. What he could remember was that he was with Euphemia and somehow ended up in her place the rest was far too fuzzy for him to remember but he does remember calling Alex using a payphone and camped out in a fast food restaurant until she arrived. He investigated the door and noticed that it was kicked through, he reached in his pockets and was relieved that his keys and phone were still inside. But that didn't answer why someone kicked open his door.
He sat back down on the couch, with a raging headache. He knew full well that he didn't drink that much that night, or he drank more than he thought. That was a problem that he was dealing with, so in a attempt to cure his hangover, he walked back to his bedroom and back to sleep. Luckily, he doesn't have any classes that day.
Meanwhile, Alex was up all
through out the morning, as she was suddenly woken up hours before she had to work. Caffeine only helped her for a while until she eventually started to crash. But then, she was splashed with ice cold water, which almost made her jump out of her skin – figuratively, that is. The blonde detective, who was now soaking wet, panted heavily; she looked up and discovered that Detective Stabler was the culprit.
"Well, great. You're finally back up." Elliot smirked.
Alex however, was not pleased. In scowled at the detective, "Stabler, you rat bastard. If you do that again, I'll put a bullet through your shoulder."
He smiled and chuckled in response, "Yeah, I'd like to see that."
"Do you want to try me?" she inquired. But they were both stopped by Sergeants Munch and Tutuola, who happened to be nearby.
Munch walked over and pointed out, "Seems to me that you've been exhausted all morning. What's wrong?"
"I woke up at about 4:30 this morning, finding out that Suzaku was in Staten Island, drunk off his ass." she explained, "Long story short, I drove out there and drove him back to Brooklyn and came back home so I can come here. And that's what you need to know."
"Where the hell was he?" Fin chimed in the conversation."
"All I know is he called me through a payphone and I found him in a fast food place. No worries though."
None of this seemed right to them, particularly Elliot who asked her, "Alright, now I don't understand. Why are you going out of your way for a kid you barely know?"
"Elliot, I don't expect you to understand. We may not have met on different terms but all you should know is Suzaku is a good young man, who needs someone in his life that he can trust. He's my friend, and that's all you need to know about us."
"I can understand that. I've never really judged your involvement with him anyways." Fin stated.
"Me neither. He seems like a nice kid, just misguided."
"Well actually, Suzaku has a very good head on his shoulders. The problem is, he doesn't have a mother in his life. Or anyone that he can even call a mother figure. I thought that I could be that influence, whist being a friend as well. It might sound crazy or strange, but that's how it is. Besides, I've never truly criticized any of you for being close to someone."
They thought about it, and she was right. They didn't understand entirely about the nature of her relationship with him, but now seeing it in that perspective makes it slightly more understandable. Alex turned around and once again, was startled when she saw Captain Cragen standing right behind her. Again.
"Captain, how long have you been standing there?" Munch asked him.
"About a few minutes, at best." he replied, "So what is this about Suzaku? Is he doing alright?"
"He's fine, captain. I just had to wake up early to get him from Staten Island."
"Doesn't he live in Brooklyn, as I recall?"
"He does, but he got drunk and fell asleep in a booth at a fast food restaurant."
"Did he ever tell you what happened?" Cragen asked the blonde detective.
"Not quite. Hopefully, the next time I see him, he'll tell me." Alex answered, when he phone started ringing. She answered it, "Hello?"
'Alex, could I talk to you sometime later?' Suzaku asked her.
"Sure. But can't we talk now?"
'I assumed you were busy working, so I asked if you could meet me later this afternoon.'
"That depends if my captain would allow me too." she looked up at Captain Cragen when she told him. He nodded in agreement, allowing her to retract, "Wait, my captain will let me. So I'll see you later.
'Great. Bye, Alex.'
"Goodbye." greeted the detective, ending the phone call. The three detectives gave her neutral but interested looks.
Elliot wrapped his arms together and said, "So what, does he want to kiss your ass again?"
In response, Alex glared and replied, all while grabbing her stuff, "Shut up, Stabler."
She walked out of the squad room, irritated. Elliot didn't know what exactly he did wrong; but judging from the expressions given by his colleagues, it was obvious that he was being a jerk. Munch and Fin walked away and back to work, while Cragen stood where he was, looking around out of boredom.
Since their captain was still around, Elliot asked him, "What did I do wrong?"
"Elliot, stop bullying Alex." Cragen told him, "I don't understand her relationship with him, but I know that he's a good kid. And if Alex sees that, maybe you should too. I see it, Munch and Fin sees it, what does that say about you?"
He shrugged in response and answered, "I don't know. I guess I probably won't be able to understand her friendship with him."
"Exactly. But you can at least respect their friendship."
His captain's words were wise and made sense; thinking about it, he didn't really want to be an ass about her friendship with Suzaku, probably because he's been unable to understand why she would engage in any type of relationship with someone like him. What mostly attributed in his disdain about him was when he was previously a suspect, but later turned out to be innocent. That suspicion alone made it difficult for him to trust Suzaku with the likes of Alex.
Nevertheless, like Cragen said, it's better to respect it rather than judge. Something like that.
It was nearly 4pm that afternoon, when Suzaku sat alone in a coffee shop waiting for Alex to arrive. He was troubled in some certain ways, and it seemed as though Alex was the only person that he could talk too. The problem was, he was doubtful that she was willing to even listen to his problems, considering that she woke her up so early that morning to pick him up. Somewhere in his head, he assumed that she was likely not very fond of him right now.
He messed around with his phone, whist his slice of cheesecake was getting cold and his cup of orange juice got warm. He sighed when he saw that it was almost 4:30, guessing that she was not coming after all; so he got out of his chair and was prepared to take his food and drink with him.
But to his surprise, he saw Alex walk in which gave him a sign of relief. He sat back down as Alex walked to the table and greeted, "Hey, Suzaku."
"Hello, Alex." Suzaku replied, with apathy in his voice.
"What's wrong?"
He sighed once again and said, "You probably aren't in the mood to hear it."
"What makes you think that?" she inquired; but Suzaku responded with a simple shrug. Alex looked over to the counter and saw a bunch of desserts, so she told him, "Wait a second, I'm going to go order something and I'll be back."
"You don't have too. You can have this cheesecake instead."
"Alright. Lucky for me, I was in the mood for cheesecake." she smiled and with no hesitation, started digging in to the cheesecake, "So again, why are you so down?"
"I don't know. It's complicated."
"Is it because of this morning?" she asked, while putting another bite of cheesecake in her mouth, "If it is, don't worry about it. I'm not mad at you. If anything, I'm exhausted but not mad. Besides, you should know that I'd never leave you there so I had to pick you up, and I'm more than willing to do so because we're friends."
"That's very kind of you, Alex." Suzaku replied, cheering up a little, "But that's not what I'm upset about."
Alex was intrigued about what he may be talking about; so she asked with concern, "What are you upset about? Tell me."
"Well yesterday, Euphie came to the school library and dragged me to a bar. I didn't want too, but all I can remember is that I was sipping these drinks and suddenly I lost control. Next thing I knew I saw her on top of me. I don't know how I ended up in Staten Island, but all I do know that I didn't drink that much."
"Is it possible that you forgot how much you drank that night? Because judging from what I'm hearing, is when you lost control as you mentioned, you may have also lost your memory of that night. At least that's what I believe."
"Do you think that she spiked all those drinks?" he exclaimed.
"Most likely."
Now it was all settling in; he knew that something was incredibly off that night so he knew that she tried to do something to him. He sighed again, this time with defeat, and told Alex, "Thank you. Now it all makes sense. But answer me this."
"Sure what is it?" she replied.
"What should I do, in regards to what to do with my ex-girlfriends?"
"Personally, I can't tell you what to do." Alex explained, "But my advice, I'd try to find a way to deal with it. In the most mature way possible."
"I suppose you're right."
Later that day, somewhere in Manhattan, Kallen sat alone in a bar, also waiting for someone to arrive. Ever since the events that occurred months ago, she has been feeling depressed, alone and regretful about what had happened. It has been three months exactly when Suzaku dumped her, after something that was entirely her fault. Nobody can really give her any sympathy, especially after she was unfaithful. And she was paying for it.
Another person in a pool of self-pity, was Lelouch, who came in the bar searching for her. Like her, he has also dealt with the aftermath; he was Suzaku's best friend just as Kallen was his girlfriend. He spotted Kallen from a distance and walked over. He sat next to her and sighed deeply.
He greeted the red head, "Good evening, Kallen."
Looking over to her right side, she greeted, "Hello."
The small exchange of words were merely followed by a mark of silence. They knew that their meeting was bittersweet, considering the circumstances. He took a minute of his time to order a beer – only a beer, he didn't drink when he's depressed or upset. After what was approximately six minutes with no words exchanged, Lelouch finally opened up and stated:
"We really screwed the pooch this time. Didn't we?"
"Yeah. I never felt so stupid." Kallen nodded.
"I don't want to pass the buck, but why didn't you tell me that you two were together? Was it that you were embarrassed to be be with him?"
"It's not like that. I just-" she tried to explain, but gave up on her sentence and said, "Screw it, I just didn't want too. Not because I was embarrassed to be around him."
"Good to know." he nodded, then pointed out, "Well it seemed that Suzaku has been giving us the cold finger. He hasn't answered any of our calls, texts, anything."
Right before he could continue, Kallen interrupted him, "I haven't called him at all."
"How come?"
"Why should he talk to a cheater like me?" she scoffed, "Besides, he's better off."
"Are you saying that, or do you mean it?" Lelouch asked her; she didn't respond. But at any rate, he stated, "I don't want to pity myself. I didn't know. But it's not like he'll buy it. For all I know, he still might be mad at me, so I'll just keep my distance. Besides, it is the least of my problems right now."
"What do you mean?"
"Nothing. Don't bother yourself."
For the next few hours or so, they would spend the night drinking. At some point, Lelouch went home after having one or two beers; Kallen however, remained their for the remainder of the night. She would rather spend the night drinking, instead of going home like what Lelouch did.
Meanwhile, after leaving the coffee shop, Suzaku and Alex stuck around for a while longer, spending most of their time in Central Park reading. As it was getting late, Alex offered to take Suzaku home. But before they could leave, Suzaku's phone started ringing.
He answered it, "Hello?"
Chills ran though his skin when he heard that it was Kallen; she replied, 'Suzaku... is that you?'
He balled up his hand into a fist and said, "Yes. Yes it is."
'Well, could you take me home? I'm too drunk to drive home.'
"Why not take a taxi?"
'Suzaku, please? I can't go alone.' she pleaded. As much as he didn't want too, he reluctantly agreed, "Sure. Where are you?"
Walking from Central Park to a bar just nearby, Suzaku went to go pick up his drunk ex-girlfriend. Although he was previously expected to be driven home, he told Alex to go home instead. Alex showed a bit of concern, as she was unaware of who it was he was speaking too; but she knew that meddling in his business wouldn't help him any.
He walked into the bar, searching for Kallen. Annoyed as he was, he also had to deal with drunk morons bumping into him and/or trying to pick a fight with him. He would soon find Kallen at the bar, knocked out cold. He sighed as he walked over to her and tried to wake her up.
"Kallen... wake up!" he yelled at a passed out Kallen, shaking her in an attempt to wake her.
She slowly woke up, to see that Suzaku actually came for her. She got up out of the stool and was wobbly when she was back on her feet. She greeted him, "What's up, Suzaku? You actually came for me."
"Yeah, I'll take you home." he said, hardly any emotion in his tone. She walked over to him, but considering how drunk she was, Kallen fell but right into his arms. He was not expecting this, not by a long shot. He asked the drunk red head, "Where are your keys?"
She reached in her pocket and tossed them at him. He assisted her out of the bar, and out to her car. From there, he drove her home. She lived not too far from the bar but he knew that he couldn't let her walk home drunk at night, or worse – allow her to drive home drunk.
As he drove her home, he thought of all the times she had blown him off during the time that they dated and started to wonder, How long has she been really cheating on me? All these questions that he wanted to ask her, but she probably was unable to answer him. All and all, he just wanted to know. Still, it was hard for him to believe her.
He drove in to the parking lot of her apartment building, and woke her up right as he was getting out of the car. He shook her frantically, until she eventually woke up and exited her car upon her own power; however, he still assisted her inside. Since he had her inside, the most gentleman thing to do was to lead her to her door – and her apartment was far up.
Suzaku opened the door and let go of her, telling her, "Alright, I took you home. Good night."
He walked out the door until suddenly, Kallen grabbed his wrist, stopping him from leaving. Despite how inebriated she was, she had a commanding grip on him and as hard as he tried to break free, she pulled him into her chest. Kallen held him for as long as she could.
"Please don't go. I want to spend the night with you." she whispered. Suzaku continued to struggle against her grip, but she let him go – only to grab his face and kiss him. He tried to back away, but his hands would travel up and down her back. It was much too late.
She wrapped her arms around him, effectively lifting herself off the ground. He didn't want for this to happen, in fact he was hoping that it wouldn't happen; but to his surprise, his emotions and own desires would overcome his control. He straddled her, carrying her around the room, with their lips still together. As cold as the apartment was, they were both sweating.
In the heat of the moment, Suzaku pinned her back against the wall, with one of her legs around him. Within ever second, piece by piece, their clothes were on the ground. Next thing he knew, they were in her bedroom, panting heavily and stared at each other for as long as they could.
He reached down to her neck and she whispered, "I don't want this to end."
Already too caught in this euphoria, he whispered back, "Yeah. Me neither."
That night was filled with heat, awkwardness and mostly passion that couldn't really be described. And he enjoyed every second of it.
End of Chapter Ten