HYD AU. A new story which for once, I actually bothered planning what to write. Walking Right out of My Life is on hold while I get rid of the writer's block. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: All legal terms used are NOT accurate.

Hardball

"Murder 2 charges. If you cut the deal now, it'll be an M2. Not so serious M for manslaughter. How about that?"

"My client still has to go to jail? That's unacceptable."

"Try telling the judge whether it's acceptable for your client to stick a knife into an innocent girl." The steely voice came across the table.

"I'll take it!" The cry of desperation came from the accused who sat across the prosecutor, as he glanced wildly at his defense attorney. "I did not commit murder! I... I... I was rash." The defense attorney rolled his eyes.

"4 years, M2 charges. Final offer."

"Deal." The prosecutor said immediately and got up to leave the room. The defense attorney looked at his client and shook his head.

"Makino Tsukushi sure knows how to drive a hard bargain."

Makino Tsukushi strode down the familiar hallways of the public prosecutor's office, her face stoic but her heart feeling considerably lighter. She was more than glad to get that idiot of a son of a businessman behind bars. The stupid boy had stabbed his ex-girlfriend in a fit of anger after she had refused to get back together with him and his defense attorney who was considerably wily had bargained hard with her.

Well, at least she managed to put him behind bars. If there was one thing she hated, it was rich people trying to evade the legal system and she, Makino Tsukushi was here to put a stop to that.

Polite applause could be heard behind and she turned around to face... UGH. Why was HE EVEN HERE?

"I see you managed to nail that brat. His father won't be too happy about that I assure you." She rolled her eyes.

"Well, his father won't be too happy with YOU that's for sure." She smirked. "After all, the DA you sent was way too lousy to deal with me. Didn't you warn him about me?"

He chuckled softly and took his hand out from the pocket of his crisp, tailor-made Armani suit. He patted her cheek and she felt an instance of a familiar blush overcoming her. she bit her lip to maintain her composure. He was all too aware of her reaction and smiled even wider.

"I couldn't tell him anything. My experience with the great Makino Tsukushi is simply different from anyone else's. We do have a history together, don't we?" He tilted her chin up, forcing her to look into his eyes. "Isn't that true, Ma-ki-no?"

A second's pause and he dropped his hand.

"Ja, Makino." She stood there in shock for a minute as she watched him leave, and then recoiled in horror upon realising the entire office had been watching the little drama unfold.

"BAKA HANAZAWA RUI!!!!!" She screamed as the gossipy interns in the office scrambled for safety.

"Ne Tsukushi, you shouldn't be too angry. It's bad for your health!" Yuki chided as they dined at an Italian restaurant that evening. It was rare that Yuki had time for dinner since her job as an air stewardess took her places nearly every other day.

Makino crunched angrily on her salad, shoving the chicken meat into her mouth. "He always does that!! So what if we did go out before? That was donkey years ago!!!" She stabbed the offending chicken piece.

"Mou Tsukushi. Don't eat with your mouth full!" Yuki frowned. "Well, you did like him a lot in college then, didn't you?"

"We.. we! We were just going out for a whike!!" Makino sputtered angrily. She pursed her lips. Gah, she hated thinking of those years in university. The story was simple. She had enrolled in Etikou University on a scholarship to read law and met Hanazawa Rui who was in the same course. The two did not hit it off at first after she spilt coffee on his shirt in the canteen, and it did not help Makino had an extreme ideological bias against very rich kids, of which Hanazawa Rui was one.

Long story cut short. Classic case of warring heads finding that no one could fit them except the other and romance bloomed. But it ended almost as miraculously as it started when both graduated. Makino was bent on working in the prosecutor's office while Rui tried desperately to convince her to join him at his father's law firm. They ended the relationship on a sour note, both angry and sullen that the other could not see his or her point of view.

Makino put down her fork. There was still a dull, familiar ache whenever she met Rui as much as she tried to deny it. "Anyway, not that I care. He's with someone else already." She continued eating, her voice having lost much of the anger previously and replaced with a tinge of loss. Yuki looked at her friend and put her hand over Makino's.

"It's alright. Hanazawa Rui's made a big loss not being with you, and choosing Todou Shizuka."

"Whatever. Let's eat." And that effectively ended any more talk on Hanazawa Rui for the evening.

Rui took a swig of his Merlot, his eyes sullen. His dining companion noticed and put her fork down.

"Mon cheri, what's wrong? You haven't eaten much." He smiled slightly.

"It's nothing. How's the veal?"

"Not too good. I think they changed the chef recently." She looked ruefully at him and smiled afterwards. "Rui. My father called the other day."

"MM Hmm."

"He asked when we're getting married." Rui almost spat out his wine. He looked at Shizuka, who did not seem to be joking.

"What?"

"We've been together for nearly 2 years, Rui. Surely you aren't considering someone else?" Shizuka asked, her eyes flashing darkly. Rui bit his lip.

"Well, I believe I..." His handphone rang at that moment and Rui breathed a sigh of relief while Shizuka looked visibly annoyed. "Hang on. Hello? Yes, Tsukasa?" His eyebrows furrowed. "Ok, I'll be right there. Where are you? Ok, give me 10 minutes." He put down his phone.

"What's happened?" Shizuka asked, her annoyance gone and replaced with a concerned look.

"Tsukasa's got into a bit of trouble. It's nothing."

"Are you sure i can't help? I'm a lawyer after all." Rui got up to leave, signalling for the check. He buttoned his coat and kissed Shizuka on the forehead.

"Shizuka, you may be the head of legal counsel for Japan's largest bank but this is nothing like what you've ever seen. I'll call you." And with that, he left. Shizuka let out a sigh.

"What the hell happened?!" Akira shouted as he burst into Rui's office.

"Akira, stop yelling. You're hurting my head." A bitter voice called out from a slumped figure on Rui's office's couch.

"Tsukasa!!! Are you alright? RUi! What happened!"

"Chill Akira. You're giving me a headache too." Rui rolled his eyes. "Tsukasa got into a little scuffle at a bar, and punched someone. Person's bringing charges of battery against Tsukasa."

"He provoked me first."

"Shut up! You always get into trouble. Where's Jiro?"

"He hung up when I mentioned Tsukasa's name. He wasn't too happy the last time round when we called him back from his almost-done engagement." Akira grimaced at the thought. It was an almost standing joke that Soujiro always had his engagement parties ruined by Tsukasa. The first time he was about to be engaged to a model, Tsukasa's hit and run accident had the F4 scrambling to Africa and his almost fiance left him for the photographer. The second time happened when Tsukasa stole someone's Ferrari in a drunken fit in Taiwan and was nearly bashed up the taiwanese mob. Soujiro was in the middle of the party when the call came and of course he left his nearly-there fiance whose father flew into a rage and forbade Soujiro from coming near his daughter. The third and last time was when Soujiro switched off his handphone to avoid hearing from Tsukasa's ill luck and just as he was about to put the engagement rock on his soon-to-be fiancee who was a family friend's daughter (and a bloody rich one at that), his bodyguard's handphone rang and Akira demanded in a threatening way to get Soujiro's ass to the Tokyo Hospital where Tsukasa was lying (not dying as Akira had exaggerated over the phone) from acute food poisoning contracted in Bangkok.

Despite being one of the richest men in Japan, Soujiro could not get engaged even though he had hordes of women dying to be his bride. Ill luck indeed.

"Anyway, he'll come here soon enough. I'll spam his phone with text messages. Now, who will be prosecuting the case? Can't we just bribe the guy off or something?"

"Well, we could but there's a problem."

"What problem?" Rui looked at Akira and let out a sigh.

"Makino Tsukushi witnessed the incident and she will definitely not let the guy drop charges. I got this idiot out of jail on bail."

"Oh shit. She's prosecuting? Rui you ass. Why did you dump her last time?" Akira slapped his forehead exasperatedly.

"Hello. It's Tsukasa's fault that this happened. Not my fault. And I didn't dump her. It was mutual." Rui stated monotonously.

"So what now?" Akira looked at Tsukasa who was slumped and barely conscious on the couch.

"We face Makino Tsukushi first thing in the morning."

"Morning? Damn it."

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