A/N: So, I decided to write this while I was taking my exams since this idea got stuck in my head and wouldn't leave (I'm quite addicted to this game and pairing, I need a life XP). It's my first fanfic, so comments are always appreciated.
Enjoy!
Navel stares out the window while losing himself in his thoughts. Night has settled in and moonlight streams in from the lone window of the room. He looks up at the clock and notices that it is eleven. It has only been a few hours since she got out of surgery, so now he is waiting. She may have beaten Twisted Rosalia, but she still has yet to wake up.
He is glad that she is not dying anymore, but he does wish that she would wake up and tease him about his tie or his worried face. She still wasn't out of the woods yet.
"…Little Guy?"
For a split second, Navel thinks that the voice belongs to Naomi Kimishima, to the one that he is waiting so patiently on. Then, he remembers the harsh thing called reality and realizes that Alyssa is speaking to him.
After having spent two hours sitting at Naomi's bedside, he decided to visit the young girl to make sure that she was alright. He immediately told her that Naomi was okay and the girl had pulled him into a fierce hug, refusing to let go of him until she fell asleep again. She was still exhausted from the injuries she had sustained from the bomb, but Navel was glad that he could cheer her up. He set her back into bed and pulled the covers over her small body. He thought about going back to see Naomi, but he decided to stay instead just in case the girl woke back up again.
He looks at the young girl and sees that she has a smile on her face, "Hey Alyssa."
"Is Naomi awake yet?" She asks. The girl had been begging to see her earlier, but the nurses wouldn't let Alyssa leave the room.
Navel shakes his head, "No, but she will be soon."
The young girl nods, "But at least she's okay!" She slowly sits up and turns to face him.
Navel hesitantly smiles, "Yeah, at least," He did want to believe that, but he wouldn't be reassured until she was awake and alert. His eyes stray back over to the clock and he wonders if she may be up by now, "Should I go check on her?"
Alyssa frowns, "Will you be coming back?" She stares at him with her bright green eyes. The poor girl probably had no one stop by her room today except for him.
He nods, "Of course I will Alyssa."
She grins, "Okay then!"
He gets up and takes a moment to stretch. He has been sitting in that chair for a long time and his muscles feel like they are going to cramp up at any minute. He turns away from the bed and walks to the door, hoping that she is awake so that she could immediately dispel his worries. A small smile forms on his lips. Dr. Kimishima did indeed have him wrapped around her little finger, even when she wasn't awake.
"Little Guy!"
Navel stops moving, his hand on the cold brass doorknob. He turns around to face her bed with concerned eyes. Maybe Alyssa didn't want him to leave just yet, "Yes?"
She slightly tilts her head in curiosity and purses her lips, "Can I ask you a question?"
"Sure," He says, not quite sure about what the girl wants. He walks back over to the chair and sits down.
She smiles and her eyes light up with excitement, "Are you and Naomi getting married?"
He flinches and can feel his face begin to heat up. He imagines that if he were drinking something at this moment, he would have probably done a spit take on accident. Naomi? Married to him? Was that even possible?
"U-Uh, um, no," He stutters, wondering why Alyssa had asked him that, "We haven't even gone out on a date yet." Yet? Naomi would definitely tease him for saying that if she were in the room right now.
She frowns and narrows her eyes in confusion, "Date? What's a date?"
He mentally smacks himself. Why did he say date? The girl was only eight years old; she wouldn't know what a date is. He was going to have a fun time explaining this, "Well, you see," He can feel his blush intensify even more as he says this; "I-It's when you take someone that you love out to dinner or a movie."
She grins and her eyes light up, "Wow! That sounds pretty!" She gasps as if an idea just came to her, "You should take Naomi out on a date!"
He flinches yet again, "Uh, uh, I don't k-know if she would want to go."
"Yeah she would!" Alyssa says enthusiastically, "She talks about you all the time!"
Navel smirks in surprise, "Oh really?" He envies the girl for having a closer relationship with Naomi then he does, but then he realizes how silly it is of him to be jealous of an eight year old. The Delphi agent from two years ago would probably be laughing at his stupidity right about now.
"Yeah!" Alyssa pauses for a moment and grins, "Promise me that you'll ask Naomi on a date?"
"Uh, well," He stammers, utterly unraveled by her question, "I'm not so sure if-"
"Please, please, please, please!" She quickly says, her pleading eyes widened and staring at him.
He sighs in exasperation. He already knew that if he tried to ask Naomi out that he would get shot down in five seconds. There was no way that she would go out with him, much less marry him. Yet, Navel just couldn't say no to those adorable green eyes, "Alright, I'll ask her out. I promise."
"Yay!" She cheers, clapping her hands together in glee.
He smiles and can't help but laugh. Making that promise with Alyssa had boosted his confidence in the strangest way possible. He isn't so worried about Naomi not waking up anymore since he knows that she is a strong woman, she would get through this. He also is going to follow through on Alyssa's promise. Once Naomi wakes up, he will ask her out to dinner once and for all.
It couldn't be too hard, right?
Four months later…
"Hey Little Guy."
Navel immediately wakes up at the sound of Naomi's voice and sits back up in his seat, "Uh, Yes?"
"Are you worn out already?" She teases, softly chuckling into the microphone.
He rubs his tired eyes and stifles a yawn. The case they had been working on was starting to reach its conclusion, but the evidence seemed to pile up after Naomi went to the crime scene. Navel remembers it being almost midnight when he started analyzing everything that she had given him, only pausing to get more coffee for himself. Luckily, he had finished analyzing everything before falling asleep at his desk. Was it morning already? He looks up at the clock and sees that it is eight thirty; he didn't even go home last night. He clears his throat, "No! I'm fine," He quickly says. He is hesitant to tell her that he spent all night analyzing everything. She would probably chide him for overworking.
"Little Guy," She pauses as if she were trying to piece something together, "Did you spend most of the night analyzing the evidence for this case?"
He flinches. How did she know that? Then, he remembers that he sent her the results once he was finished. How smart of him, "Um…yes?"
She sighs, "You should have gone home. You could have analyzed everything this morning," She pauses and Navel can picture her shaking her head, "Well, what's done is done. Can you analyze one more thing for me? It could be the key to solving this case."
"Sure Dr. Kimishima. Just send it my way," She sends him a picture of a partial print from the crime scene. Navel knows that he can't just identify it offhand, but if he sent it in to the lab, they may be able to get a hit from the database, "I'll have it sent in to the lab and hope that they can match it to our suspect. I'll send you the results once they're finished."
"Good," She says, "Oh, and do listen the next time I send you evidence and tell you not to analyze it until the next day."
Before Navel can reply, Naomi abruptly cuts off the feed, probably to go piece together more evidence. Without wasting another moment, he sends the print to the lab and the waiting game begins.
He does start to think about Naomi, but that train of thought leads to another tangent that doesn't involve sleeping. He remembers the promise he made to Alyssa four months ago, the promise that he would finally ask Naomi out on a date. A date that consisted of a dinner with only the two of them together, not because of a case, but because they just wanted to be in the company of one another.
Of course, he is still too afraid to ask her out and he can only daydream about it. He was going to ask her at the hospital, but he backed out at the last minute. He felt that it was too soon of him to ask her out. She did almost die after all. He waited while she spent a month recovering, but he still couldn't work up the courage to ask her. Now, four months have passed and he still couldn't find the right time, or the words, to tell her how he felt.
He isn't quite sure when he started to feel this way. It most certainly was not when he was with Delphi. He was too busy obsessing over an immoral idea to even bother to actually love anyone. She was a tool to him back then, a puppet that Delphi could control for their devious means. Sure, he slipped in the occasional comment now and then about her (How could he ever forget about that night on the mountain pass?), but he didn't love her. Somewhere along the way, he grew fond of her, even though he thought that he would never meet her again.
A beeping noise from his computer interrupts his thoughts and he notices a message from the lab about the fingerprint analysis. He opens up the chat window to see that they didn't send him any results; the lab is currently backed up and it would take them a little more time to run the print. Naomi would have to wait before he could send her the results.
Suddenly, Navel smirks as an idea comes to him.
He could deliver the results to her in person and ask her out then. After all, according to what she said earlier, this may the final piece in solving the case. She would be glad for his help and glad that the case was over; it would be the perfect time to ask. It would be like killing two birds with one stone. Plus, he would finally know if she really did like him or not.
He leans back in his chair with a giddy smile on his face. He was going to get the results and then ask the women he loves out on a date. His eyes close as he falls asleep again with hopeful thoughts of success running through his mind. All he had to do was have some patience.
After about an hour of napping, the results finally came in. Luckily, the lab was able to find a match to the victim's father. It really didn't come as much of a surprise to Navel since the father had made many threats to the victim and they had fought once before. This was their final piece; they had the murder weapon, the testimonies were all accounted for, and now the fingerprint tied everything together. All that was left to do was to close the case and fulfill Alyssa's promise. He immediately grabs the results and leaves the FBI building to head to Naomi's office. It doesn't take him very long to get there and luckily he is able to remain calm as he walks down the hallway.
Navel stops at the door of Naomi's office, the results in hand, and raises his other hand to knock. Before his bare knuckles can even meet the door though, he freezes. What if Naomi wasn't in her office? She could be in the examination room. Maybe he should have checked there first. He shakes his head. No, she was most likely sitting at her desk, waiting for him to send the results.
He looks down at what he is wearing to make sure that his tie is in place. He checked his appearance before he left, but now he is becoming nervous. What if she rejects him, laughs at him, scowls at him? What if…
The door opens and Naomi is suddenly standing in front of him. She is surprised to see him there and arches an eyebrow, deep blue eyes meeting his icy ones, "Little Guy? What a surprise. What are you doing here?" She asks, curiosity lacing her sultry voice.
He snaps to attention and answers back with a charming smile, "I thought I would stop by and hand you the results personally," He gives her the file before continuing on, "The partial print is a match to the victim's father. Hopefully this will be enough to get an arrest warrant."
She curtly nods, "It should be since I just discovered a strand of hair on the necklace that I found at the scene. As long as that matches, we should have enough evidence to convict him of murder."
"Alright, I'll have it sent in to the lab when I get back," Navel says before clearing his throat, "Um, can I ask you something before I leave?"
"I suppose since you did come all the way over here to personally deliver the results, but do be quick about it Little Guy." She waves him into her office and shuts the door behind him. She turns to face him and her eyes bore into his, "Well?"
Navel tries to ask her, but no words come out of his mouth. Her gaze makes him nervous and he can't seem to think straight. What is it about this woman that always seems to make him unravel? Well, he couldn't back down now. He did make a promise after all, "Um, w-would you like to," His voice seems to lower as he mumbles, "…have dinner with me?"
Navel is sure that Naomi didn't hear that last bit, but then she softly chuckles. His mind immediately begins to panic. Did she hear him? Did he say the wrong thing? Is she laughing at his incompetence?
Her chuckling dies down and Navel thinks that he can actually see a hint of a smile on Dr. Kimishima's face, "It took you long enough Little Guy. Alyssa thought that you would never follow through on her promise."
He can feel his cheeks becoming hot. She knew! How did she know?
Before Navel can say anything, Naomi slowly but confidently walks up to him, her heels clicking upon the floor. She is standing close to him now, her eyes looking up into his with a devious glint hidden inside of them. She grabs at his tie and leans in to whisper in his ear, "I'm free tomorrow night at seven. Make sure you wear a tie too," She pulls away, but starts to lean back in again. Her lips reach closer to his and Navel is ready to close the distance between them. He has been waiting a long time for this and now it is finally happening, right before his own eyes. This has to be a dream, this couldn't be…
Suddenly, she leans up and lightly kisses him on the nose.
Navel tries to say something, but he is at a loss for words. Why didn't she kiss his lips? He couldn't really argue though, she did at least kiss him. Damn she is such a tease.
She lets go of his tie and turns around to walk towards the door, "See you later Little Guy," She says as she opens the door and walks out of her office, leaving him to stand there awkwardly and blush.
As his mind slowly begins to process what just happened, he realizes something. By fulfilling a simple promise, he could now die a happy man.
A very happy man.