Digging Up
Summary: Shoutaro gets bullied by Akiko to fix up a clutter of documents piling up in the Narumi Agency's file cabinet, much to his dismay. As he leafs through the stacks of paper, he finds a particular page that originated from his typewritten journal he had wrote about his partner, Philip.
Shoutaro was leaning back on his office chair, feet propped up on the desk as he slumbered. Granted, it was a slow day for them. It wasn't as though he'd miss anything if he slept for a few hours.
Philip was similarly doing was he pleased. Making better use of the downtime, he was doing research into phone accessories after hearing Akiko raving about the latest one she had gotten for her phone. "So that's why they're so popular..." he said after doing the extensive research.
It was early in the afternoon when a hard slipper came slamming down on the forehead of the detective, subsequently waking him.
"Itte!" Shoutaro cried, jolting awake and sat up, adjusting his position and retrieved the Fedora that had fallen to the ground while he slept. "What was that for, huh?!" he complained.
"Why don't you make yourself useful and clean up with me?" Akiko remarked.
Affixing the hat atop his head, Shoutaro stretched his arms over his head. "Not part of my job description." Again, a merciless blow to the back of his head. "Itte!"
"I don't care if it's not part of your job description!" Akiko reasoned put, pointing at him with her deadly slipper. "Have you forgotten who's the manager here?" she challenged.
Rubbing the back of his head, Shoutaro averted his gaze. "I don't recall that you being a manager had anything to do with ordering me around."
"Of course it does!" Akiko reprimanded. "If you don't help keeping this place clean, I can evict you guys!" she retaliated.
"We already agreed you won't, didn't we?" Shoutaro mumbled.
"It's YOUR mess I need you to clean up Shoutaro," Akiko insisted, pointing over to the overflowing file cabinet. "Can't you at least be a little bit more organized?" she reasoned out.
Shoutaro stared Akiko down for a while before promptly huffing and stuffing his hands in his pockets. "Ahhh mou," he complained but nevertheless headed off towards the file cabinet.
"Shoutaro got outdone," Philip considered with a chuckle.
"Not a word Philip!" Shoutaro barked before he pulled open the file cabinet with a bit of difficulty. And so he set off to work.
Akiko disappeared for a few minutes before coming back and set down a rather large box, startling the Kamen Rider duo.
Philip, curious as ever, walked up to it with a thoughtful expression. "What's this box for?"
"For any trash Shoutarou-kun wants to get rid of. He's taking it out once it's full though!" Akiko explained as she seemed to be dolling herself up.
Shoutarou, who already started sorting out some of the files from his overstuffed cabinet, noticed what the chief was doing. "And what do you think you're doing? I thought you were going to fix the place up?!" he accused.
"I have a date with Ryuu-kun~" Akiko replied, again causing the duo to stare at her. "Just get it done!" she said dismissively, throwing a swing with the slipper at Shoutarou one last time before she stormed off.
"Shoutarou, are you alright?" Philip asked in concern as he walked up to this partner to examine the damage.
The detective rubbed the back of his head in pain before glaring towards the door. "That Akiko... Making me work so she can go out and flirt..." he muttered in complaint.
"Don't take it so bad, we might end up uncovering something interesting from all this mess~" Philip supplied, moving to leaf through the short pile that his partner had set aside. "I could help if you like."
"Sure, that'd be a great help. The sooner this gets organized, the less angry she'd get when she gets back," Shoutarou considered.
"So I take it we're throwing out anything unrelated to your case documentations?" Philip asked, already tossing some random caricatures they accumulated from Santa-chan dated a months, the paper already starting to age.
Shoutarou nodded in affirmation before he dived back into the pile. Together, the pair was able to quickly fill up the box with a lot of junk mail, some mail that wasn't even meant for the agency, and copies of bills that Akiko would otherwise not want to see but already paid for.
Reaching close to the bottom of a particular file, Shoutarou took notice of a stray paper as he pulled it out. At first he assumed that it was a missing page from his case documentation, but it wasn't. It was much more important than that.
It was a page off a journal he typed after he and Philip achieved CycloneJokerXtreme.
Ever since I gained the ability to transform into W with Philip, I always thought it was because I had this affinity with him, and that it would never change no matter what obstacle got in our way. Up until now, we've been fighting together and playing to each other's strengths. I didn't think for a second that I would almost lose that privilege of fighting for the both of us.
But now our partnership has evolved, thanks to Akiko. She really is the Boss' daughter. In the time it took me to accept that I could no longer become W, she reminded Philip of what being a Kamen Rider, no, what being Kamen Rider W meant. And together, we opened the stage to an evolved form where Philip and I can fight alongside each other, using the Extreme Memory.
Despite having access to the world's database like Philip in that form, I'm still left with a lot of unanswered questions. But I don't think I mind very much. Philip's mystery is a personal case I want to solve. After all, I'd never admit it, but I also think that he's the best and only partner for me. Not just as W, but maybe for much more than that. I couldn't figure out when exactly, but I think I'm in love. With Philip.
But he'll never know. Not yet, anyway.
"You look like you're reading something interesting Shoutarou," Philip chimed in with a curious, chipper tone. "What is it?"
Shoutarou held the paper to his chest in alarm as he blushed and averted his gaze. "What? This? No, it's nothing important!" he staggered.
"Your face is turning red. Is it embarrassing?" Philip observed, trying to reach out for it.
Shoutarou got to his feet and stayed clear of Philip while the younger moved after him. "Don't worry about it, it's nothing!" he argued.
"If it's nothing then you can show it to me right?"
'Philip can't know. Not yet.' Shoutarou repeated in his mind as a chase ensued between the pair, leaving the rest of the work undone.