Their relationship had always been physical.
It had evolved, much like she had, from torturous touches of one sort to another.
Her back arched as her breath caught in her throat. Neuro hummed in amusement.
At twenty-two years of age, Yako had been on the dating scene for a while. Some relationships worked out pretty well; Higuchi had been great company when she could get him away from his computer, for instance (although married to their work as they were, they hadn't seen enough of each other to take it any further than lunches or dinners). Godai, when they had tried a date on a whim, decided he still thought of her as that teenage girl who had sent him ping-ponging across the room (with the help of a certain demon), and that dating was weird. They were much more suited to their current, professional relationship, which was fine for the both of them.
Various other suitors had come and gone, but they all lacked something. Neuro pulled her away from a couple of dates because of the mysteries he'd smelled on them. Kanae had pulled her out of others.
A sharp pain along her earlobe made her flinch and moan.
This last date had ended when Yako had gone for her drink again, only to realize that it tasted… off. Her sense of taste was second to none, and it took her all of four seconds to realize the man had spiked her drink. In a feat of amazing self-control, she had managed to switch the glasses when he wasn't paying attention and continue through dinner, all while keeping a straight face. By now, the guy was probably coming around in a cell that Todoroki gladly put him up in.
Neuro's habits had rubbed off on her a little.
Yako had stormed into the office twenty minutes ago, anger coming off of her in waves, and had told Neuro about the whole ordeal. He had the decency to remind her that her stomach probably would have handled it quite well. She reminded him that her ability to read people well should have noted her date's behavior right from the beginning.
Neuro apparently didn't like Yako being angry except under very specific circumstances. She found that out last year after a case had ended on a bad note, and the demon's attempts to torture the happiness back into her had ended in an interesting way. He had found a certain corner of the internet while being absurdly curious about an aspect of human life he had no right to be curious about, and had decided that Yako would be a great test subject.
It had started this time with him slamming the couch backwards, flipping her so that she was lying on her back rather than sitting properly. Then his gloved hand was on her knee, and his face was pressing against the side of hers, hot breath tickling her ear as he reminded her that the lowly man in police custody was nothing more than an amoeba in comparison to his top slug.
In something of a strange stray from his typical behavior, Neuro always waited for her to respond in kind. It wasn't exactly that he was asking for permission, because he never asked her for permission to touch her otherwise, ever, but he waited patiently for the moment when her anger would either sputter or spike and she would tangle her fingers in his hair. It was an instinctual reaction, Yako decided early on. Completely thoughtless and in no way controlled by proper brain functions.
Kissing him was always dangerous, because acidic saliva was not something any human wanted to come in contact with, but Neuro seemed to make an effort to protect her from it. His lips were surprisingly soft for a bird demon in a human guise, and tasted vaguely like vinegar. She had pulled his hair to force his head into a more accessible position, and clamped her teeth on his lower lip, causing him to chuckle in amusement.
He would keep her occupied in other ways, though, to free up her mouth, because he more than enjoyed the noises she made.
Neuro liked to torture her this way, teasing her and then abandoning one area for another just before the stimulation reached its peak. It was entirely frustrating, but part of her enjoyed the way he played with her. He knew exactly how to keep her distracted.
Eventually her anger melted away into pleasure, the failed date forgotten under his ministrations.
She could never imagine her demonic boss as someone she could date in the same sense that she dated Higuchi or others. They cared for each other in their own ways, but not in the way humans specifically needed to connect. Their relationship could never be that. But physical it always was, and always would be. Neuro would torture her until he was satisfied. Sometimes until she was satisfied.
He was never intimate; he liked to touch, but with nothing more than his hands, his lips, his teeth. There was no deeper feeling in it. What he did to her was purely for the pleasure it brought him. A different form of torture than she normally received, and one she could enjoy as much as she could hate, but torture nonetheless. She liked to think it was his own way of making her feel better.
This was right for them. Yako couldn't imagine it any other way.
He pulled away, leaving her disheveled and breathless.
"Come back here," she demanded, seizing his hand before it strayed too far from her chest.
"My slave, ordering me around?" he questioned in amusement. His finger traced around her breast once more before falling still, much to her disappointment.
"You're such a tease."
"We have work to do, partner."
They held each other's gaze for a long moment, before she sighed and closed her eyes. Neuro roughly righted the couch, sending her sprawling onto the table, and dusted off his hands with that blank look of amusement plastered across his face.
Yako picked herself up and went to work buttoning her shirt and straightening her skirt. Neuro always left these moments looking as impeccable as ever. She made a note to at least mess up his jacket next time. Maybe she could torture him some.
She moved to stand beside him at his desk, noting the way he salivated at the story on the screen in anticipation. Neuro's love would always be reserved for his stomach. The thought made her giggle softly.
"Thanks, Neuro."
"If you enjoy it too much, I'll have to remedy my methods."
"I'll look forward to it," she noted. "Say, you don't have something we can drop off to my friend at the station, do you?"
"Is he still on your mind?"
"Only the image of him encountering one of the 777," she said with a distant smile.
Neuro laughed, clapping her on the back with a solid hand.
"I'd rather save my energy than waste it on that filth," he replied. No torture for the creep, then. Darn. "Imagine him strung up by his toes over a vat of gasoline with a candle balanced precariously on a piece of wood he must hold with his teeth."
"That might be an amusing image if that wasn't your idea of strengthening my body from head to toe last week," she grumbled dryly.
"A vat of acid, then?"
The faux innocent expression on his face made her sigh in defeat.
"We've got a mystery to go to, right?" she asked, switching subjects back to the reason his torture had been cut short. "Can't have you starving on me."
He beamed, his smile impossibly wide, and gripped her tightly by her head.
"Let us be off, Yako," he announced, and dragged her out the door.
This kind of work is entirely outside of my usual comfort zone. I'm not much for explicit content (and I suppose this barely registers as explicit), but the idea popped up in my head and wouldn't leave me alone today. I'm apparently in a strange mood.
As for Neuro and Yako and their relationship – I ship them, though I feel it's realistic to assume Neuro would never love Yako in the sense that we understand it. I'm not sure this is the direction they would go, and I feel really weird writing these two like this (sorry for misusing your characters, Matsui), but it's a thing.
Hope you enjoyed it.