Characters: Murrue Ramius, Mu La Flaga, Kira Yamato

Pairings: Slight MurruexMu

Time frame: post GS ep 39

former Superior Officers

"So apparently that is the kid's friend? And the pilot of the Aegis of all things?"

Murrue takes the offered cup of coffee, her hand brushing against the offering one. "Looks like it." She sips the brewage. The heat burns down her throat. "It does explain a great many things. Unfortunately." The coffee is swirling in the cup as she lets her eyes rest on it. She sighs, something she has been doing often lately. "I feel like the devil, all things considered."

"A beautiful devil." Mu counters, teasing, and succeeding in making her blush, but quickly he too sobers. "I see where you are coming from, though. I mean, in the beginning we almost blackmailed him into the Strike."

He leans against her desk as he has been fond of doing since they have gained gravity, but now he isn't tilting his head to see her and speaks to the wall, much like she has been speaking to her coffee. "Since when do you think the kid has known his friend was in the Aegis? I'm guessing sometime before he returned the Pink Princess. Since he was very specific to whom he was going to hand her over."

Come to think of it, he has been, hasn't he, Murrue remembers. Kira has demanded the pilot of the Aegis, not the machine, or even the Commander. The pilot.

"I'm thinking," she muses, and her fingers tighten around her hot cup as she goes through her memories, "probably since the very beginning." She pauses. "I don't remember it very clearly, but in the raid on the Morgenröte factory, there was only one surviving red coat. He almost got me. I always thought he just didn't have enough time as the building was collapsing around us, but looking back..."

Leaning on her elbows, Murrue actively works against slumping into her chair as the weight of yet another fact drops onto her shoulders. "Kira stood right next to me."

"...That'd do it," Mu says. She sees him run a hand through his hair. "What a full blown disaster. And we adults had no idea. It's really a slap in the face. What have we been doing?" He pauses, but Murrue doesn't have a reply to that and eventually, he continues. His thoughts run along the same guilt paved path as her own anyway. "I don't guess Kira actually talked about this to anyone?"

He proceeds to answer his own question, sounding frustrated. "As the lone coordinator on an Earth Forces ship saying he was best friends with the enemy pilot? That wouldn't have gone over well. To top it off, that guy is Patrick Zala's son? It's like the Pink Princess all over again, only worse." He too, sighs.

Murrue agrees wordlessly and thinks she'd get a headache at the very notion of the situation they have found themselves in if she were still military, and is suddenly absurdly grateful – which makes her feel guilty all over again- for not having known before. Had she know, in fact, she would have been honor-bound to...well, order uncomfortable things.

"What are we gonna do, Miss Captain?"

"...There is not really anything for us to do." They are only civilians now and don't have any authority over Kira or his friend. But even if she had, Murrue feels far too humbled and guilt-ridden to actually think of doing anything. Her fingers become white around her hot cup and though it burns, she doesn't let go. She looks at the side of Mu's head. "After what has already happened, it is not our place. They will have to decide by themselves."

Mu makes an agreeing noise in the back of his throat before he chucks his drink down. Then he turns to her and grins, mood changing. "They seem to have a good handle on that, though, by now. So I don't think it's going to do us any good if we start breaking our heads over issues that are mostly already done with. How about instead you and I take a walk around the ship?"

Against her will, she feels a smile tugging at her lips even as she tries for a scolding expression.