The A Team by Aspirator.
They were the best criminal investigation team in the US, though they were quite the odd mix. There was only eight of them, and eight was all they needed. Or that's what they thought. Enter Mikan Sakura, and now you have a humor, drama, mystery, and emotions hanging on a thin thread.
The Introduction.
This chapter is just setting up the scene for the story.
If you would like to skip the background information, wait for/go to the next chapter.
They had just finished a case.
The team met their boss in the conference room in which they had been briefed of that very same case. With a smile, their boss congratulated them on the case, taking all evidence and such to be handed off to the attorneys. Their boss - Narumi was his name - was a strange one. He was too cheerful, too optimistic, too soft to be in this business. They all wondered how he got there in the first place.
First to arrive on their floor was Hotaru Imai, the tech, who headed straight to her office. The term "tech" is a broad label when it concerns one like Hotaru Imai. She was more than just good at technology; she built them, she fixes them, she reinvents them. She's also one of their best interrogators in the team. If the team's investigation was somehow blocked by "red tape" (complications due to bureaucracy) Hotaru Imai was the one to go to. She was quick, efficient, and knew how to get her way.
Second came Natsume Hyuuga - but he was hardly second. At a glance, he was the leader. He was the field agent. He was the one breaking down doors, the one issuing orders on the field, the one chasing suspects. He was the other best interrogator on the team.
When the elevator dinged again, a more cheerful group graced the apartment.
The most cheerful, the team would say, was Koko Yome. He was the "mindreader". He was the one standing behind the mirrored/glass window when they were interrogating a witness. He was the one who would be the most accurate in guessing the killer's mindset. He was the easy-talking type, always prepared with a smile on his face. That was why he was the best to go for clue-finding and interviews.
Kitsuneme and Mochu were agents, and partners. These two are the ones backing up Koko whenever he'd go out in the field. Kitsuneme was a highly trained policeman, though a free-spirited character. (He only persevered through military school and other training with the thought that someday he'd be better than batman, superman, and spiderman combined.) Mochu was ex-air force, and highly knowledgeable in gangs, drug cartels, and networks of that sort.
Anna and Nonoko were the lab scientists. They were inseparable and excelled at what they did. When other teams needed an extensive forensic science section, the two of them was sufficient for this team. They were bred from the best, became the best and some more.
Yuu worked in the same department as Anna and Nonoko, equipped with an impressive medical background, but was a bit different. He was the thinker, while Natsume was the planner. Always with a cleanly pressed collared shirt and glasses, Yuu was suited for every part of their team, save for action of course. Most of the time he helped out Anna and Nonoko in the lab. Sometimes he'd be planning with Natsume. Other times, Koko would think aloud to him. Maybe he'd be around as Hotaru worked on a new model. He was the one who found loopholes in plans, the one who thought of anything unthought of, and the one the rest of the team went to for help.
They knew each other's strengths and weaknesses. They knew each had their respective specialties. That is why they were all equals. Other teams may have needed to occupy a whole building with respective teams of each specialty; the A Team only needed eight. Or that's what they thought.
Any other team would have been lucky to even get half a floor to themselves, but they were the best and they expected the best. Their floor was mostly open. One side of the floor was occupied by their lab, equipped with the most modern instruments- and better, for Imai had tweaked them all. A built-in kitchen was installed in one corner of the lab, requested by Anna for the late evenings and early mornings. The lab was divided from the rest of the floor by a glass wall, and a glass door. Though it may seem frail, Mochu, Kitsuneme, and Koko (the Three Musketeers, they called themselves) would throw themselves at it periodically. At one freak accident, they found out all the glass on their floor was bulletproof. Of course, they thought, only the best.
Laughing, Kitsuneme had been kicked out of that very same bulletproof glass door, leaving an amused Anna and teased Nonoko behind.
Taking up one side of the rest of floor was Imai's office/lab. This was the only closed off part of the floor. It was divided by a brushed metal wall, and a barely perceptible metal door, requiring a drawing of a pattern for entrance. It was always simple - a circle or a triangle and a circle - and different every time Hotaru entered. After two years of working together, the rest of the team, except for Yuu, still didn't know how Hotaru's lab looked like; perhaps a glance through her mail slot but no more. Yes, Hotaru had a mail slot right next to her door, and sometimes, when her team members wanted to deliver something a little bigger, the crisp rectangular hole would magically transform into a bigger square. The Three Musketeers were always fascinated by this; it was like watching Transformers in 4D.
Covering part of Imai's wall, to the left of her door, were floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. Occupying one shelf of the middle bookshelf was a Keurig, a stack of coffee cups, creamer and sweeteners. To the left of the machine were neatly organized K-cups for the Keurig, which is always fully stocked, for the team never wanted to handle Koko or Natsume without caffeine ever again. To the right of Imai's office door stood file cabinets, also floor to ceiling.
Where the file cabinets ended, a small gap to its right revealed a wooden door. That was where Mochu had emerged from, joining part of his team in the middle with a relieved sigh. Though it wasn't labeled (for nothing in their floor was labeled), they all knew it was the bathroom. Their bathroom, like the rest of the floor, was simplistic, modern, and clean.
The rest of the floor was laid out simply. Yuu had an office of his own, on the other side of the room from Hotaru, but with mostly glass walls - one wall was covered with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves - and a glass door. The glass was useful to Yuu. Equipped with a dry-erase marker, he could use the whole wall to brainstorm. (Though cleaning it was a bit tedious, but Yuu didn't mind.) Sometimes The Three Musketeers liked to "express their creativity" on his door, for Yuu was the only one who allowed it - as long as it didn't touch the rest of Yuu's notes - with a roll of his eyes.
Next to Yuu's office was an open space with four desks. They were for the rest of the agents; each equipped with the most modern computer.
The open space in the middle was where they usually gathered. A wheeling whiteboard stood in the middle, facing a conference table, oddly matched with suede sofa-chairs. Not far to the left was a wheeling flat screen TV.
As if getting their own floor wasn't special enough, they were also granted privacy. The building had two types of elevators located strategically around the building. One was for outsiders, with access to only certain floors. The other was for agents and cleared personnel. There was only one elevator and one security-code protected button in the building that led to their floor.
It was in the privacy of their own floor that they celebrated the way they usually did after they finished a case.
Anna had baked a cake. Nonoko helped her decorate it, usually a joke pertaining to the case.
The Three Musketeers had rolled the TV to replace the white board. They watched whatever game they could catch - this time, it was basketball.
A pack of six beers sat on the table, three had been taken by the Three Musketeers, one had been taken by Natsume, who retreated to his desk soon afterwards.
Yuu obviously didn't drink beer. He did join their little party in the middle though.
A minute into halftime Anna came out with the cake. Nonoko following with some store-bought donuts.
Koko whooped, Mochu wolf-whistled at the cake - earning a few roll of the eyes - and Kitsuneme cheered. Yuu laughed.
Setting the sweets down, the two women helped themselves to a seat, each grabbing one of the last two bottles of beer.
The six joked, laughed, and talked well into the night.
Hotaru would be in her office, only coming out at exactly midnight, to bid them goodbye. It was at her cue that the six in the middle would wrap up and leave soon after, each bidding Natsume goodbye too.
He would always reply with a simple wave. No one knew when Natsume left.
They wouldn't call it a tradition, it was just how they were.
The next morning, when they came in for work , they were expecting to get a case that's got the police puzzled, as usual. But when they all reported to Narumi's conference room, they were pleasantly surprised.
All staring curiously at the newcomer already seated beside Narumi, Hotaru heard Mochu comment to Kitsuneme, "damn," he dragged out the word as his eyes moved up and down, "she could probably take me higher than any plane I've flown!"
Anna belched, Nonoko made a disgusted face. But it was Yuu who spoke authoritatively, "One dollar in the douchebag jar when we get back."
As they were taking a seat, Anna tapped the table, "I motion for two!"
"I second!" Nonoko supported.
Not wanting to be left out of the excitement, Koko cut in, "I motion for three quarters. It was just a hormonal comment!" He explained to two appalled faces.
Yuu, rarely unmoved, stated, "one dollar, and that's final."
Hotaru smiled in approval at Yuu while Natsume smirked at Mochu's somber face.
Sitting innocently on one of the bookshelves in the A Team's deserted floor was a glass jar. On it, in black permanent marker, was a messy scrawl that read, "Douchebag Jar". It was half full with dollars and coins.
The Douchebag Jar is accredited to New Girl (TV Series).