Chapter 1.3

He caught her with that question, while she was looking back.

Sitting back down in her seat, she crossed her arms and closed her eyes.

"No."

Without pulling his eyes off the road and with a pallid response, he told her:

"Is that so."

The distance from the pickup spot to the military post was a long drive.

Dark out, the only thing that could be seen was the headlights and the tall streetlights casting weak shadows on surrounding objects.

Everyone was awake in the car, but nobody made any interaction.

Listening to the vast array of songs he uploaded to his miniature music player, Aubrey went from his arms crossed, to looking out the window, and his left hand holding up his chin.

The foster parent was still relatively new to driving with other people present, so he devoted his full attention to the barely-visible roads.

Nothing changed about Momose though.

Still with her arms crossed, silently looking to the roads.

After half an hour had passed, they arrived at the gate of an undersea bridge.

Aubrey was on the twenty second song in his playlist by now.

The three were at the first checkpoint.

The boxy cars wheels came to a halt, with the driver rolling down the window to his side.

Stepping out of a box room with glass on all around, came a man with a helmet and large vest covering his torso.

"Good evening."

With a small smile, the temporary parent greeted him back, then reached into compartment between the two front seats.

Handing them to the armored guard, he quickly ran a scanner over it, before handing it back.

A minute passed at this point.

"Have a good rest of the night, Mister Ikari."

Politely smiling again, Ikari said:

"Thank you, I hope the rest of your shift is uneventful."

Both laughed, then Ikari rolled his window up, and put his access card back in the compartment.

Momose watched the interaction.

She was slightly concerned by how quickly his face dropped back into a blank slate when they resumed their drive.

They arrived at the on-post apartment complex shortly after 23:00.

Ikari pulled into the parking lot out front, into a reserved parking space which was built underneath the four story building.

There was a sign in front of the white-bordered space.

"Reserved for CPT Ikari"

Momose, who had her hands on the dashboard, looked at the sign, then at him, with surprise.

Paying her no mind, however, he unlocked the doors and got out through the driver side door.

Before slamming it, he leaned in to tell her:

"We're here, tell Aubrey to wake up."