"Well, looks like you aren't in any trouble with those guys," commented Mu La Flaga. "The news report says they're just car thieves that run scams on cars."

Kira sighed as he dialed Cagalli's number on his phone again. Shinn, and Waltfeld were all watching the television while waiting for Deark and Yzak to show up. Athrun on the other hand, was making a call out to Yzak to inform him that Kira was back and alright though without his car.

"Do you need to borrow my car?" asked Mu.

"Naw. I'm meeting Daito in a few minutes and he should be here with my rental," answered Kira. "On the other hand, I hope Cagalli can help me get this back. Maybe I can salvage it or something."

"Kid," started Mu La Flaga. "I can make the impossible possible but this is beyond impossible. You're better off getting a replacement alright."

"Still worth a shot," replied Kira.


Cagalli, Luna, Lacus, Meyrin, and Murrue were all enjoying a home cooked meal with Miriallia and Shiho when Cagalli's phone began playing a familiar tune.

"Hang on a sec. It's Kira," informed Cagalli. "Hey Kira! What are you calling me for? Too scared to face Lacus?"

Everyone stifled a giggle as the voice on the other end tried to correct Cagalli but to no avail.

"Well yeah. Just for your information, Lacus isn't as mad as you probably think but neither you or Athrun are getting off the hook this time," added the Orb princess. Suddenly her eyes widened with shock. "What? Excuse me? What do you mean by the car's on the news? I have no idea what you're even talking about! Are you talking about Lacus' car or my car? Hang on!"

Cagalli ran over to the living room where she turned on the Orb News channel to see the reporter telling the story of a crazy car from the previous night.

"That's right. This chase was straight out of a James Bond movie. From crashing ice cream carts to exploding Alfa Romeos, this Aston Martin V7 Vantage Volante was literally sent off the edge," informed the reporter. "On site we have Carl reporting live on the scene. Take it away."

Cagalli looked at the damaged car in shock. Not only was it completely smashed up but dozens of parts were either missing or damaged beyond repair. All the windows had been shattered, the hood of the car was dented and barely hanging on while all the lights were either smashed out or crushed. The doors and body of the car had numerous scratches and dents while all the mirrors were missing. All four tires were either missing or damaged as two of the tires were bent out of place while one was flat and the last was nowhere to be seen.

"Kira. Who's car is that?"

"Mine!" yelled Kira. "That's my car on the news right there!"

The commotion had attracted the attention of other girls as they entered the living room to see what was going on.

"Cagalli what's going on?" asked Miriallia. "Did Kira actually crash Lacus' car?"

"I hope not," answered Lacus. "But there's no way that's my car on the news. My car is a different model and is white and pink, not black. Still, I don't know why but that car looks extremely familiar."

"Wait a minute! I saw that car yesterday!" exclaimed Shiho.

"Isn't that Kira's car?" asked Luna.

Murrue looked at the picture and report in disbelief.

"What did Kira do to his car?" asked Murrue.

Cagalli listened to Kira and wrote down several notes before addressing the audience.

"He and a friend were chased by car thieves who sent it off a ledge. He's alright but he's got no ride at the moment," informed Cagalli. "Kira. I'm sure we all know that it's beyond repair. Not even Murdoch will lay a hair on it. Besides, do you know just how much paperwork I'm gonna have to go through to get it back?"

"It's customized with gadgets!" complained Kira. "We can't let the police examine it! They might set something off!"

"I know cuz you sent me the approved blueprints last month. Why else am I telling you about the paperwork? Also, here's Lacus. She wants to talk to you," informed Cagalli.

Lacus stood by the doorway, arms crossed and a frown etched on her face. Unlike the usual playful annoyance, this frown held a hint of genuine disappointment. On the other end, Kira gulped, a bead of sweat forming on his forehead.

"Alright, Kira," Lacus said, her voice laced with a dangerous calm. "Care to explain why your car chase made the evening news?"

Kira opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again. He looked around the room, his gaze flitting between the concerned faces of his friends.

"Uh, well…" he stammered, "it all started when Daito and I…"

As Kira launched into a slightly toned-down retelling of the chase, skipping out the part where he was nearly run over by a freightliner truck and numerous near-death experiences, the background audience on both ends erupted in a mixture of laughter and disbelief. Lacus, however, remained unfazed.

"So, let me get this straight," she interrupted, a single eyebrow raised. "You were chased by car thieves, used missiles, and sent your car plummeting off a cliff, all because they wanted... your car?"

Kira sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, something like that."

Lacus sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Alright, Kira. We'll deal with the car situation later. But first, there's the small matter of the house…"

Kira's eyes widened in horror. He had completely forgotten about the kitchen fire. The laughter on Kira's end died down, replaced by a tense silence.

"Oh boy," Kira muttered, bracing himself for another round of punishment.


Minutes after the call had ended, no one bothered to say a word. Finally Shinn gathered the courage to ask Kira what had transpired on the phone.

"Lacus," was all Kira needed to say for everyone to recoil in fear.

"So, what did we win?" asked Athrun sarcastically.

"A 5 hour trip to the hardware store from my pocket and three nights on the burned out couch," answered a shooked up Kira. "And that's only the tip of the iceberg for me. From now on, I'm not allowed anywhere near the kitchen unless a certified responsible cook is right next to me."

"So, I'm off?" asked Athrun.

Kira shook his head. "Both you and Shinn have to help me replace the lost items and while Shinn's getting his pay docked this month, you're gonna have to take and pay for home economic classes with me for the next 3 years. And we're all grounded."

"What? Even us?" asked Mu La Flaga and Andrew Waltfeld simultaneously.

Kira nodded and while Dearka and Yzak laughed, Athrun slumped into his couch completely defeated while Shinn sighed in frustration.

"I hope Luna doesn't mind covering my expenses this month," commented the young pilot.

Yzak looked at Kira with incredulous awe and disbelief.

"That was pretty light in comparison to what I had to go through."

"Really?" asked Kira.

Yzak nodded and proceeded to go into an extremely long and exaggerated tirade over the last time he burned down Shiho's house while cooking.

"And not only did I switch houses with her, but I also had to watch an hour of anime with a 1/10 rating! Can you believe that?"

"Uhh…Yeah totally believable," commented Andrew Waltfeld. "If you want to spin us a tale, maybe leave out the terrible anime and random car crashes in the kitchen. I never even heard of a 1/10 rating on an anime before."

"Okay," admitted Yzak. "Maybe the car crashes weren't real but the anime certainly was."

Mu La Flaga face palmed before joining the other boys on the couch.

"Okay now for the big question: What did she have to say about the car?" addressed Mu La Flaga.

"She understood and if you ask me, I think she was just thankful that it wasn't her car," answered Kira. "She also wants me to help her trade in her old car for a sports bike to attract less attention while driving around in the PLANTs."

"We're talking about Cagalli. Did she say yes or no?" corrected the Hawk of Endymion.

"Oh right," realized Kira. "Well, the two of us agreed to tell the news and all the witnesses that the chase was really a scene being filmed for a movie but I'm not getting my car back. It's going to the scrapyard cuz no amount of time or effort is going to ever get it running again. She is going to compensate me by getting me a new car."

"Compensate?" asked Dearka. "Shouldn't the insurance be the one doing that?"

Kira shook his head. "Not this time. Turns out, Cagalli was pretending to be me and scammed those guys out of their tow truck after they tried to scam her and 50 other people in that area. When asked for her name, she gave them mine and as it turns out, at the time, she was renting out an identical car. In other words, my twin sister indirectly caused my car's destruction."

This got almost everyone to facepalm or sigh. Even Athrun himself wanted to hide in a hole.

"Typical Cagalli. That wasn't the first time she's pulled off something like that. In fact, she once told some scam callers that she was me and threatened to have their whole gang arrested if they didn't stop calling her number," revealed Athrun. "The next day, I was greeted by a group of angry thugs who were ready to tear me limb to limb for that threat. They all got arrested of course but I had to keep my left arm in a sling for 3 months after that."

Even Mu facepalmed upon hearing this.

"Is this why half of our police force paid our base a visit on the premise of a 'drug lord takedown' last week?"

Athrun nodded. "Yep and as far as I'm concerned, that was the last of them. Now what are we going to do now that all of us guys here can't cook and girls are up in space for the next 4-5 weeks? Takeout everyday is too expensive."

Everyone looked around in stunned silence as if God had decided to send them the answer to their current predicament and prayers. Finally, Kira looked at Dearka who didn't seem to be bothered by the gravity of the situation and spoke up.

"Hey Dearka, you used to date Miriallia right?" asked Kira.

"Yeah but we broke up a long time ago. Let's just say that our occupations make our schedules very incompatible so after 5 months we decided to end it albeit, it could've gone out a bit better," answered Dearka.

"She dumped you?" asked Athrun.

"Yeah," answered Dearka. "That's the official version. I got dumped though we're still good friends and occasionally, we talk over the phone."

"As exciting as it is to hear more about your failed date," said Kira. "I'm more interested in who did the kitchen work. Tolle, Kuzzey, Sai, and I sometimes slept over at her house and whenever she went into the kitchen, we regretted everything. So did Miriallia ever try her hand in the kitchen back during your…relationship phase?"

Dearka's eyes widened for a split second before a sly smile spread across his face. "Actually, Kira," he began, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "Let's just say I figured out her, uh, limitations early on. From the first night she tried making pasta, I learned that takeout was our best friend and took over all kitchen duties for the rest of the time."

"Wait, so you mean…" stammered Athrun, "...Dearka can cook?"

Dearka shrugged nonchalantly. "Hey, someone had to keep us from food poisoning."

The revelation sparked a frenzy. Mu La Flaga, ever the pragmatist, was the first to voice the collective thought.

"Dearka, you can cook?" he boomed. "Why didn't you say anything? We could've ended this conversation 15 minutes ago!"

Once everyone had calmed down, Shinn, ever the practical one, voiced the question everyone was thinking.

"So, Dearka," he began sheepishly, "since you were the resident chef back then, any chance you'd be willing to share some of your cooking wisdom?"

Dearka raised an eyebrow, a playful smirk gracing his lips. The look said, "Took you long enough."

"Actually," he said, glancing around the room, "I wouldn't mind offering a few cooking lessons. But only on one condition."

The others leaned in, eager to hear his terms.

"We're not doing it at any of our houses."

"Alright. That doesn't sound bad," declared Waltfeld.

Suddenly the doorbell rang and Kira ran over to the door.

"I got it."

Upon opening it, he was greeted by a sight that left him frozen with shock and awe. His jaw dropped and the rest of his body remained paralyzed for the next few seconds as he tried to process the sight in front of him.

"Daito! What the hell happened to your car?" asked Kira. "Wait, scratch that you've got two loaded up on that truck. What the hell happened to your cars?"

Standing in front of Mu La Flaga's home was a BMW Z3 and a large semi-trailer truck carrying a heavily damaged Aston Martin DBS V12 and the two halves of a BMW Z8.

Kira's newtype gunpla building friend got out of the intact Z3 and shrugged his shoulders.

"Apparently, the other half of the group thought I was pretty popular last night and wanted to give me a go," joked Daito. "They missed me and ended up on the cliffs and with a truck driver."

Kira facepalmed.

"What exactly happened back there?"