Author's note: Rightie! Here's the next chappie! I'm glad to say that I think this one is better than the previous one! And let me just show a little appreciation to all my reviewers so far!
To moi: so glad to hear from you every chapter! Yeah, I know, the revelation section was horrid (to read and to write). I haven't quite figured it out yet… but I'm hoping this chapter brings the quality a little higher?
To Seiba Artoria: thanks for the comfort in Chapter 38. I really tot it was bad, although now I think 39 is worst… But really glad to hear from you and I hope you enjoy this chapter as well.
To cheeseries: hello! Glad to know you enjoyed the chapter and you're looking forward to more!
To AAA: I'm so sorry for the delay each time! But I hope the following chapters will be worthwhile :D And Rau's reaction should be coming up in the later chapters, I think…
To littlemsstrawberry: Now, I never thought about Kira stalking Cagalli… and this could really be a good idea, since it sort of matches Kira's dark, brooding, secretive personality. I'm thinking about it, maybe there's a way to put that in… Oh, and this chapter has a little more asucaga, but it's one of the rare times I'm writing about them, so let me know what you think!
To hardcoreGSfan: Lol, glad you liked the "Moron Seiran" title. I couldn't think of any others because the word 'moron' kept coming back to me. But am glad that you're still looking fwd to the rest fo the story, even tho chapter 39 wasn't the best yet. Hope to hear from you again!
To BlackFlame004: Hahaha, Seiran really is a loser. I tried to make him as silly as I could, and I really do agree that he ought to be dumped in the desert. Maybe Shinn and the rest of the team could ditch him, I'm working on that… :)
Now, read on guys, and I hope you enjoy!
Athrun made it to the lift unharrassed, and took it down to the basement car park. He gave a polite nod to the security behind the desk and opened the glass door with a shove of his shoulder. His black convertible was parked some distance away, boxed in on one side by a glossy blue sedan and a compact violet Porsche on the other.
He balanced the cardboard box between his left hip and the side of his car, fishing for the keys in his trouser pocket with a hand. With the cardboard box neatly jammed in the back seat, Athrun got in the front, revved up the engine and pulled out of the lot.
Most of the action took place above ground, where the police cruisers were kept in the open-space car park bordering the building. So the basement car park was quiet in the middle of the day.
He drove up the ramp at the exit of the car park and emerged into the sunlight. Traffic on the streets was dwindling slightly as the lunch hour slipped away. His black convertible eased onto the road and joined the other moving vehicles, passing before the front of the Central Police Headquarters. The cab before him stopped abruptly and Athrun slid his car to a halt behind it. Through the rear window, Athrun could see the back of the passenger's head. It was a woman, and he watched as she leaned forward to speak to the driver, then flung open the passenger door and got out.
And Athrun recognized her immediately.
The cab took off and Athrun slid his car into its place. The woman was already ascending the steps to the heavy glass doors of the building. He wound down the window and leaned across the passenger seat so that he could yell out. "Cagalli? What are you doing here?"
Cagalli Yamato faced round to look at him. The intense expression on her face didn't ease as she turned on her heels and backtracked down to the street again. She slid uninvited into the passenger seat and shut the door, then turned to him with a grim look. The white bandage wrapped around her head had been dislodged, her blonde hair frizzy and tousled. Donned in a frumpy oversized turtleneck sweater and loose-fitting crumpled jeans, Cagalli looked a dreadful sight indeed, and her pale pallor did nothing to assuage the sight.
"You should be in the hospital, Cagalli," Athrun began, "What in the world are you doing here?"
She ignored his question, bright hazel eyes narrowing dangerously. "I want to know why you didn't tell me about Kira."
The coffee was good. It was hot and strong. Just the way he needed it to be. Athrun lifted the mug and took a long sip. The bitter aftertaste lingered upon his tongue and lips.
"Talk."
He swiveled around.
Cagalli was standing in the doorway of his kitchen and his emerald eyes swept a glance over her. Her blond hair was damp from the shower and the dressing on her forehead was limp and wet. She had changed into the new clothes he had bought her on the way up to the house. A perfect fit.
"Talk," she said again.
Athrun nodded towards the bag of garments she had tossed onto his countertop – the awful turtleneck and jeans she had been wearing when he first saw her outside the Central Police Headquarters. "Where did you find those to wear?"
Cagalli gave a shrug. "I 'borrowed' them from a nurse. They were left behind by a patient."
He gestured again at her weeping bandage with his mug. "You shouldn't have washed your hair. I'm quite sure you're supposed to keep the wound dry."
A nonchalant shrug again. "I hate the smell of hospitals. I had to get it out of my hair." Then she shook her head and stared hard at him. "Stop brushing me away, Athrun Zala. I want you to talk and explain yourself."
Athrun gave a sigh as he replaced the mug on the counter. She sure was persistent. If he hadn't threatened to drive her back to the hospital, she would have hauled him out of the car and demanded an explanation right outside the Police Headquarters. She had only kept her mouth shut and let him stop by the department store, take her back to his home (since she absolutely refused to return to her own home), simply because she wanted answers. And now that she had done everything he asked, it was his turn to reciprocate.
"Alright," he said, stepping around her and heading in the direction of his bedroom. "But you need to change the dressing, so we'll talk in here."
He could feel her eyes burning holes into his back as he led her into his bedroom and gestured for her to take a seat on the bed. "Talk. Now," she demanded as she sank down on the edge of his mattress, glaring at him crossing the room into the adjoining bathroom.
"What do you want to know?" Athrun asked. He retrieved the first-aid kit from behind the mirror and stepped back into the room.
"I saw the news when I was in the hospital. The man you're looking for – his name is Kira," Cagalli said. There was an accusatory tone in her voice, as if she was blaming him for failing to tell her that fact.
Athrun knew where the conversation was heading, and honestly, he was hoping that it wouldn't go there. The name 'Kira' was sensitive to all of them – Lacus, Cagalli, himself – because after all, they had all grown up together. But it was a touchier topic for Cagalli, and he was praying that he could save her the agony of finding out.
"It's not the Kira we know," he said gently. He set the first-aid kit on the bed beside Cagalli and sank down on one knee so that he could access the soaked bandage.
"How do you know it's not him?" The same accusatory tone, coupled with an intense stare.
Athrun reached behind Cagalli's head. He spoke as he unraveled the dressing. "There are lots of other people with the name 'Kira'," he said, his voice soft as he tried to reason with her, "Besides his name is 'Kira Hibiki', not 'Kira Yamato'."
The last part, he didn't really believe it himself…
"He's got purple eyes," Cagalli argued, "I saw them myself, Athrun. I told you I recognized those eyes."
The bandage came away and revealed the gash on her brow. It was weeping slightly, but otherwise looked uninfected. Drowsing a cotton ball with antiseptic, he began to gently clean her wound. "But it doesn't make sense, Cagalli," he reasoned. "How is it that Kira disappeared so long ago, then turns up all of a sudden as a criminal, kidnaps Lacus and knocks you unconscious? There are too many question marks, too many uncertainties. We need to know more before we can conclude."
"But it's definitely not a coincidence," blurted out Cagalli, "You're the one who always says coincidences don't happen so frequently. Besides, this is too much of a coincidence."
"It's just not plausible, Cagalli," Athrun replied. He tossed the stained cotton ball aside and unrolled a clean bandage. "I admit I've thought of such a possibility, but how can you expect me to believe something so absurd?" He wrapped the bandage around her head, ensuring that the wound was sufficiently covered and protected, his fingers gentle and soothing against her brow.
"I'm not asking you to believe it, Athrun," Cagalli said softly. A hand reached up and took his wrist, stilling his hands. Athrun glanced down and met her eyes for the first time since she had gotten into his car. It was the tears glistening in her hazel brown eyes that froze him, for it had been years since he had seen her lose her stoic front. The cool ice-princess façade had slipped in some years after Kira's disappearance. Perhaps it was a protection of some sort, and Cagalli only lowered her barriers around friends. Still, there was always a thin sheet of ice that she had in place, as if etched permanently into her by loss and trauma. But, for the first time in years, Athrun watched as that sheet of ice melted away and the Cagalli he had known from many years ago began to show herself again.
"You don't have to believe it, Athrun," she repeated softly, helplessly, "Just don't discredit it. As long as it isn't proven, there's still a chance, and all we need is one chance."
It was by chance that Meyrin stumbled upon the conversation at the front desk.
She had been walked through the massive glass doors in the entrance of the Central Police Headquarters, balancing a cardboard tray with four Styrofoam cups in one hand and weighed down by a box of doughnuts in the other.
She attempted a glance at her watch.
5:40p.m.
Despite her attempts to hurry, she had still taken half an hour. Thirty minutes wasted, while the rest of the team stayed holed up in the conference room, doing what was really important. Damn… She knew what her chief would say to that. Athrun always said a lot could happen in thirty minutes – a murder could take place in five, the body disposed off in fifteen and the evidence eradicated in the remaining ten. And as law enforcement, you could get a team set up in fifteen and on the scene in ten, with five minutes to spare. You would catch him in the act of removing the evidence. No way could he weasel out of it. A hundred percent guilty. Case closed, wrapped tight and sealed.
That would be a thirty minutes better spent, rather than standing in line at the café.
And it was all Moron Seiran's fault.
Meyrin had been reluctant to leave the conference room. Athrun had never requested her to run his errands or get his coffee in the midst of a conference. He had never caused her to miss team meetings and Meyrin wasn't planning on starting, even though a meeting headed by Yuna Roma Seiran had to be fruitless. But Moron Seiran had shown his displeasure by picking up the phone and ringing the HR department.
She got out of the office before the call could get through.
Damn Seiran! He was a downright asshole.
She had jogged to the nearby café as fast as she could in her heels, then back to HQ again as fast as she could without spilling the hot coffee down the front of her satin blouse. A uniformed officer opened the glass doors for her, a sympathetic smile on his face. She returned it with a resigned grin, nodding her thanks, before crossing the lobby in wide strides, her kitten heels clicking against the marble flooring. The lobby was as busy as usual - clerks and secretaries carrying bundles of files, police officers marching past with their eyes on their clipboards, detectives in suits rushing purposefully from one meeting to another. People had gotten used to finding their way around without glancing up or bumping into one another. Meyrin became simply one of the many bodies hurrying to and fro across the lobby.
It was when she breezed past the front desk that she heard something to make her break her stride.
There was a woman at the front desk, leaning over the counter top and speaking anxiously to the officer on duty. Amidst the hum-drum, Meyrin caught only snippets of their conversation but what made her stop, was the mention of the name Kira Hibiki.
No way…
She spun around to face the front desk and retraced her steps quickly, narrowly missing a pair of cops who had their heads buried deep in conversation.
"Excuse me, pardon me," she said as she came up behind the woman at the front desk. The woman turned. Now that Meyrin was closer, she caught a better glimpse of the woman. Her features were drawn tight with worry, eyebrows furrowed. Soft grey eyes were watching her with curiosity and a little apprehension, as if she felt that the interruption would hinder what she had come to get done.
Meyrin forced an easy smile. "Excuse me," she said again, "are you looking for someone? Maybe I can help. Is this in response to the news broadcasted this afternoon?"
The woman hesitated. She tugged a lock of scarlet red hair behind her ear, then nodded uneasily.
"Kira Hibiki?"
The woman nodded again, this time with more certainty, and some anxiety.
"Okay," Meyrin said, already making up her mind. Priority #1 was to get this woman away from HQ. "Let me take you to the detective-in-charge," she urged.
The woman glanced at the officer behind the desk. "I was talking to this officer over here. He told me a Detective Seiran is in charge. Do you know where he is? Can you really arrange for us to meet? It's urgent."
Meyrin shot a hard glare at the officer behind the desk. He was on his feet, left hand poised with the phone receiver and right index finger hovering over the dial pad, a look of bemusement on his face.
"Yeah well," Meyrin smiled, "I'm his personal secretary. I can get you to him much faster than the average desk jockey." She strode up to the front desk, dumped both the cardboard tray and the box of doughnuts on the table, then leaned over the counter, took the phone receiver out of the officer's hand and replaced it in its cradle. Turning to face the woman, Meyrin beckoned towards her. "This way," she said, heading for the heavy glass doors of the Central Police Headquarters.
The woman hung back, confused. "The lifts are here-," she started, but Meyrin interrupted her smoothly and reassuringly. "Chief isn't in his office. He's out sniffing down a clue. I'll take you to him. This way." Convinced, the stranger fell in behind her and both women headed for the exit.
"Since when did-"
Meyrin raised a quick finger to signal for the woman to wait for her, then quickly returned to the front desk. The officer on duty was staring at her in puzzlement, and Meyrin fixed a reassuring grin on her face. "You know what you should do," she smiled sweetly, sliding both the box of doughnuts and the tray of coffee towards the officer. "It's obvious which side you should be standing on." She winked.
A grin broke out on the officer's face as he laid a possessive hand on the box. "Right," he laughed, "this woman never entered HQ. I never saw her and I never heard her mention any name. My lips are sealed."
Meyrin's smile widened.
"So," the officer drawled out. "Send my regards to Detective Zala when you see him later, and of course, I'll save the chocolate doughnut for you," He grinned and raised a hand which Meyrin gladly slapped with her own. A high-five, meaning 'secret safe with me'.
Author's note: So… what do you think? I know, it may not be the best, but at least, I hope it's better than the previous? Whew, finally, we got a little more Asucaga action, but this is one of the few rare times that I'm writing a relationship between Athrun and Cagalli, so I'm a little hesitant about the dynamics. And I wanted to break down Cagalli's barriers here, just to show a little bit more of her, since she's been pretty much absent since the beginning of the story. And I always felt the Cagalli in GS and GSD was like an ice-princess, but she has this vulnerable side to her whenever she's facing Athrun… Hmm… I think I need to reflect a little bit more on this Asucaga relationship… Anyways, do drop me a review and let me know what you think. It'll be extra helpful at this stage because I need all the help I can get if I want to get this Asucaga thing going… So review, review, review!