"This is unbelievable."
Ginoza was trying impressively hard not to be pleased with the turn of events. No, he should not be pleased about their plane being delayed. About them getting put up in a shady American motel. In the same room. With one queen sized bed. No, he was definitely not pleased about this.
Or, at least, Tsunemori could never know he was pleased about it.
They were done with a week of intensive conferences on criminology, which the MWPSB had paid for, in New York City, far away from Tokyo. As the two lead inspectors in the criminal investigation department, the Ministry of Welfare had decided it would be good for them to get some alternative training.
It had been a good week, but both Tsunemori and Ginoza were tired and ready to get back to their apartments in Tokyo.
Unfortunately, shortly after they had arrived to the airport, they were informed that their flight had been delayed due to inclement weather. The airline wasted no time agreeing to put them up in the nearest motel, guarantee their seats on the next day's flight, and shuttling them there.
When they checked into the hotel, however, there was a hitch in the plan. All week, Ginoza and Tsunemori had been sleeping in adjacent but separate rooms. In separate, twin-sized beds.
No such arrangement stood before them now.
"Uh, Ginoza-san, what are we going to do?"
He was tired. He was irritated. He just wanted to lay down and go to sleep. That was surely why he didn't feel compelled to resolve the situation.
"Tsunemori," he sighed. "I don't know if I can deal with anything else today."
The brown-haired inspector dropped her bag on the floor and sat down on the bed.
"Neither do I, Ginoza-san. We won't even be here long. Let's just make the best of it!"
And there she went again, with the optimism and the light-heartedness. Ginoza never took himself for a sunshine-lover, but here he was: hopelessly entranced by this silly detective, who was as warm as tea and sweet as sugar.
Tsunemori hung her suit jacket on the back of a chair and pulled some clothes out of her bag. Ginoza watched her, yearning to reach out, put a hand on her back, pull her close. He was a long, lanky ball of confusion, annoyance, and excitement all at the same time.
"Ginoza-san? If you don't start to relax you'll never get any sleep." She looked him straight in the eye.
"Of c-course," he stammered, embarrassed that she had caught one of his (far too frequent) lingering glances. She walked to the bathroom to change.
Ginoza's heart rate was rapidly accelerating, and his thoughts were racing past each other. Get ahold of yourself, Gino. You need to think this through. Are you going to offer to sleep on the floor? Put a wall of pillows between Tsunemori and yourself? WHAT IN GOD'S NAME ARE YOU GOING TO -
"You still have your jacket on, silly."
The inspector had changed into a loose-fitting t-shirt and some sweatpants. All told, she was dressed very modestly and comfortably. Like that mattered. She was still beautiful, wrapped up in wisdom and joy.
Before he knew what was happening, Tsunemori had walked around behind him, and was tugging his jacket down by the sleeves. A blush tinged Ginoza's cheeks. He tilted back his head to look at her, hoping she would miss the rosy color on his face.
"Tsunemori, you don't need to -"
"Tonight, can you just call me Akane? Please? Gino?" She smiled at him tentatively.
Ginoza was sure his blush was deepening. With everything in him, he tried to will the embarrassment away.
Deep breaths, he thought to himself.
"Sure, Tsun, uh, Akane," a fleeting thought went through him that her given name rolled off his tongue so smoothly and easily. He never wanted to let it go.
He couldn't say when these feelings had first fluttered up inside him. When Tsunemori started as a rookie detective, he had been worried about her. She was too naive, she thought she could save everyone, and that kind of thinking was dangerous. That kind of thinking got people killed. People he loved got themselves killed thinking that way.
Dad got himself killed thinking that way.
But the more they worked together, the more he saw that it wasn't naivety or obliviousness. She simply believed in her ability to be a detective, that her work could save people, could make Tokyo a better place. It was rubbing off on him. He wondered if he had ever believed that, before her.
Her sincerity was infectious. Both her smiles and her tears were unmistakably real. There was nothing but truth in Tsunemori Akane. And somewhere along the line, Ginoza realized that he wanted her sincerity and genuineness for his very own. He wanted to bottle up her laughter, carry it in his pocket, take it out and listen to it on bad nights, when the ghosts didn't let him sleep. He wanted to be with her for every tear, never taking away the feelings, because they were hers to feel, but to wipe each one away.
Was it love?
Ginoza couldn't say. He certainly didn't have much experience in the matter. All he knew is that he needed her, and he wanted to be needed by her. He had said some things early on that he regretted, and he hoped that she didn't harbor bad feelings against him. She didn't seem like the kind of person to hold grudges.
Over the last few months, in fact, things had started to change between them. Little gestures gradually built themselves into the routines of the detectives. A cup of coffee made exactly the right way, a potted plant on the corner of a desk, a weekly walk after Friday-afternoon paperwork.
They had gotten to know each other so well, worked with each other seamlessly, bringing out the best in themselves and in their team. Ginoza couldn't help but think that maybe new was going on.
"Oh, Gino, it looks like the flight tomorrow doesn't even leave until the afternoon!" his colleague's voice pulled Ginoza back into reality. Somehow he was sitting on the bed, his jacket hung over Tsunemori's on the chair. He started loosening his tie.
"They told us that at the airport, Akane."
Deep breaths, he reminded himself.
"At any rate, hopefully we can get some real sleep and be rested. Don't we have to be at work on Monday?"
"Yeah, the chief sent us an email about the overload of cases they've had since we left. Kougami has been taking the lead, and of course he's a brilliant detective," as Tsunemori mentioned his best friend's aptitude, Ginoza felt a twinge of jealousy move through his chest. "But he just doesn't have the tact to help the team work as a unit."
Once his tie was off, Ginoza stood up, grabbed his own nightclothes and moved towards the bathroom to change.
"Well," he said as he walked away from her. "No one else but you has that ability."
He closed the door behind him, but heard the tingle of laughter he so desperately wanted to keep forever.
"Gino, I for one would be lost without you," her muffled voice came through the door.
Ginoza felt his breath hitch, and was glad he was hidden behind the safety of the bathroom door. It was little comments like that, little brushes of their arms or hands against one another, that were driving him crazy.
He wanted to tell her how absolutely lost he was before her. How he had more faith in people now than ever in his life. How he felt that his work was worthwhile, and that he could do it forever as long as she was beside him.
But he was a coward.
When he came back into the room, Akane sat on the bed, halfway covered by blankets, absentmindedly checking flight information on her phone. Her back rested comfortably against the headboard.
Ginoza suddenly remembered his horrifying dilemma. Should he sleep on the floor?
"Ah - Tsunemori!" She rolled her eyes and glared at him. "I mean, Akane, would it be better if I, you know, slept on the floor? It would be much more professionally appropriate, since we are colleagues and all -"
"Gino," the inspector spoke with a soft sternness that reminded Ginoza of a flowing river. She was respectful, but unstoppable. Once she made up her mind about something, there was no deterring her.
"You need to relax. As far as anybody knows, we are being put up in a hotel by a respectable airline for the evening due a delay in our flight. That's all. Nothing unprofessional."
"B-but..."
"No buts. Come sit down."
Ginoza took an apprehensive breath, walked to the bed, and laid down on top of the comforter.
Tsunemori put her phone down a little too emphatically, threw her hands up in the air, and, with a laugh, said, "You are being ridiculous. How on earth are you going to sleep like that?"
A bunch of embarrassing banter and a little bit of teasing later, Ginoza laid beneath the blankets with his partner, facing the wall, still trying to breathe deeply and stay calm. He had turned the lights off and mumbled goodnight before practically burying his head beneath the soft hotel pillows.
As he faced away from her, Ginoza heard her say, "Gino," very softly.
"Hmm?" he mumbled.
"Can you turn around?"
He rolled over on his other side, working hard to stay as close to the edge as possible. It was dark, but he could make out her large brown eyes. Each one looked like they housed an ocean. An ocean of possibilities and potential.
She smiled with the quiet radiance of a spring sunrise.
"This is better," she said simply.
"What is?" he asked, unsure.
"I can see you."
It was only then that he noticed the flush in her cheeks. She was embarrassed, but it was a shameless kind of embarrassment. It was just like her.
"Gino, I have something I want you to know -"
And right there, right then, Ginoza Nobuchika decided that he had had just about enough of his own cowardice.
"Wait," he interrupted her. Her eyes widened in surprise. He sat halfway up.
He cleared his throat awkwardly, threw caution to the wind, and started talking.
"It's been wonderful to work with you, I mean I know I was an ass at first, but you're an inspiration to me, you bring out the best in the team and in me too, you give me hope, I can't believe that you noticed that I like potted plants, you are the kindest person I've ever met, and you have pretty eyes and I love the way you... I love the... I love you."
He squeezed his eyes shut tightly. The words had all tumbled out like rushing wind and he had meant to tell her a little bit but he certainly hadn't meant to use the 'l' word and, god, Gino, what were you thinking, you stupid -
All of a sudden he felt a warm presence pushing itself up against him.
"Gino," Tsunemori was trying to wriggle in between Ginoza's crossed arms. "Let me in!"
"Akane? What are you doing?" Eyes still tightly shut, Ginoza hunched in on himself as close as possible. Even now, he was afraid of opening himself up to her.
"Trying to get you to hug me, obviously. Oh, for the love of heaven!" She sat up, roughly uncrossed his arms, pushed him flat on the bed, and laid her head on his chest. She certainly was a strong little woman.
No amount of deep breathing was going to calm Ginoza down now. He slowly began to accept the situation, that perhaps she wanted him too, that he should enjoy this for as long as it might last.
Awkwardly, he decided it was in his best interest to find something to do with his arms, which were laying limp at his sides. With something like resignation, he wrapped his long arms around her, letting one hand rest on her back, and bringing one up to her head. He slid his fingers through her short brown hair, and discovered it to be as soft as he had always imagined it.
"Gino?" Akane ventured his name. His heart was pounding so hard in his chest that he could barely hear her, but he must have made some move to indicate that he had heard, because she continued.
"You were so hard on me when I started at the Ministry of Welfare, and sometimes it was a little much, but I could tell that you only wanted to protect me."
She was right. All of the reprimands and scoldings had been responses to fear: fear that she would endanger herself. Even early on he knew how valuable she was. How irreplaceable she was. To the unit, he had told himself. But it turned out she was irreplaceable to him, to Ginoza Nobuchika.
For the first time since his abrupt and overboard confession, he forced full sentences out of his throat. "I was awful, though. You should have transferred to another division, away from me and my horrible coping mechanisms."
Tsunemori shook her head against his chest. "I never thought about that for a second. Gino, please don't be angry, but Karanomori-san showed me your file."
"Oh," so she knew about Dad, then.
"It made me understand why you were so tough on me. It made me feel, well, like you really cared."
And I do, he thought. He started to fidget nervously with her hair.
"I'm not good at protecting people," Ginoza said slowly. "I am selfish and the only reason they let me do my job is because I'm good at bureaucracy. Ever since Dad..." his voice trailed off momentarily.
"Ever since that happened to Dad, I've been terrified of the field. Not for myself, so much as for the rest of the team, and for, well, you." There it was. All out in the open.
The small woman sighed. "Gino, I don't know the future. I won't make you any promises. But I do feel protected by you." She snuggled in close to him. "You are good at keeping people safe. You make me feel safe."
She pulled herself up to her forearms, and looked him at him with tenderness. Ginoza was breathless, seeing her up so close, close enough that if he pulled her head in a few inches, their lips might meet.
Before she could say anything else, he did just that. He pushed her head gently towards him, and their lips met in a simple, slow yet chaste kiss. He could feel his pulse in his ears. When they broke apart, Akane reached one of her hands up to cup his cheek.
"Ginoza Nobuchika, I love you too."
For the first time since they entered the room and Ginoza's heart started beating uncontrollably, he smiled. He wanted to memorize this moment, keep it stored in his heart forever.
She tugged at his face, and their lips met again.
It was, as he had said when they first walked in, unbelievable.