Shattered Relations | Aru Shah AU |

X

ARU
"What happened?" Aru asked, appalled, as she opened the door to Mini and Rudy, their faces frozen in shock.

"Bad things," Rudy summarized, as he and Mini stumbled in, neither of them holding groceries, but Mini holding a gun.

"We sent you to get food, what bad things could have happened?" Aiden demanded, crossing his arms, eyeing the gun warily. 

"First off, Leslie Grant appeared to ruin our day, threaten us, and then, a gunman happened to chance upon us," Mini said, all in one breath, before gulping down a glass of water. 

"Hence, the gun," Rudy said, continuing for her. 

Mini gently kept it on the coffee table.

"Explain exactly what happened, spare no detail," Brynne said patiently, but she was wringing her hands, probably in anxiousness. 

And they did. Aru felt her eyebrows skyrocket, but she didn't interrupt them. 

"We'll deal with Leslie later," Aiden said, "she's the least of our problems."

"The most unsettling thing was that he knew my name," Mini said, shuddering. Rudy put a comforting arm around her shoulder. 

"This is way too dangerous to deal with by ourselves," Brynne said, raking her hand through her hair. 

"We have to go the police," Aru said. 

"Maybe they can take the gun and the knife into evidence? And we can tell them what we know?" Aiden asked, sinking into a chair. 

"Well, apparently, 'The word of children won't convince anyone'." Mini sniffed. "That's exactly what that officer--Opal was her name, I think--said." 

"We'll ignore her. They'll have to put us into Witness Protection," Aru said. "we've been threatened on two separate occasions, along with an online death threat," she continued, pointing at Mini's laptop, which sat abandoned on the dining table. 

"We'll be safe," Mini said, as if that was a daydream she'd thought about often. Aru was slightly glad that she wasn't the only one daydreaming that. 

"But... we have to go tomorrow. They always strike when it's dark," Aiden said, now staring at the twilight sky. 

They all nodded, and Aru stared at the gun. It was the same gun that had been pointed at her friends that very night. 

Suddenly, she wanted to throw it into the ocean, never to be seen again, but she couldn't: it was evidence. 

----

The precinct's harsh lights shone down on them. All five of them sat, surrounding Opal's desk, as Mini finished recounting the previous night's events. 

After she finished, Aiden slid the gun and the knife toward her, both of them in Ziploc bags. 

"Before you dust it for fingerprints, you should know that we've all touched each of them at least once," Aiden said. 

Opal tsked, and said, "You should have used gloves while handling what could be evidence,"

Mini scowled, and said, "I'm sorry, while running for our lives, we should have just asked the dude to wait, until we bought medical gloves. Will take note for the next time." 

Aru couldn't help but snort. Opal shot both of them a dark look, before resuming, with, "My fellow detective is the lead officer on this case. He's running a bit late, he has a little bit of an emergency."

Rudy nodded, and leaned back in his seat, twiddling his thumbs. 

Mini took a sip from the cup of water that had been handed to her, as a husky voice, said, apologetically, "Sorry I'm late. I had a medical emergency... my bandage got wet." 

Mini spat out her water in surprise, while, beside her, Aru saw Rudy freeze.

Both of them exchanged horrified looks, and, confused, Aru turned her head, along with the others, and she saw a man with light hair, light blue eyes, and a bandage on his nose slip into his seat opposite Opal. 

He gave them a pleasant, airy smile, but it faded when he saw Mini and Rudy. His eyes were wide. 

So were theirs, and were responding with terrified looks in his direction. 

"Lenguine, these kids are the ones who found Shakhuni's body. They've got evidence and information." 

Opal pointed to the gun and the knife. Lenguine gave both a thin-lipped smile, and he said in a weak voice, "I'll--I'll check it out later, first, let me log it into Evidence." 

Opal nodded, as Mini got up quickly. "Um, I need to go to the bathroom. Where is it?"

Opal pointed down a hallway, and Mini bolted, slamming the bathroom door behind her. 

Aru's lying instincts kicked in. "Mini didn't look so good--she may be sick, she was vomiting in the morning. I have some aspirin here, Brynne and I can go help her." 

Opal nodded vaguely, and returned to paperwork. 

"C'mon," Aru muttered. She and Brynne rushed to the bathroom, not before they heard Rudy give an excuse--about vending machines. Aiden followed him, a questioning look on his face.

Aru pushed open the door, to Mini, who was anxiously washing, and re-washing her hands, her face pale and drawn, her gaze shifty. 

"Mini.." Aru whispered. "What happened?" 

Mini turned around, drops of water dripping from her fingers onto the tiled floor, her voice high and terrified. "Lenguine was the man who attacked Rudy and me last night."  

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a/n: DUN DUN DUNNNNNN. PLOT TWIST

anyway, as impossible as it seems, I am *actually* adhering to the timetable I gave, so, three cheers for me, I guess?

Hope y'all enjoyed this chapter, and have a great day/night!

*looks at homework* *collapses into a puddle of tears* *whispers* help.