Hey. I'm actually on hiatus, but I wanted to upload this one-shot I wrote once for the "Tsunemori Apprecation Week" here too.
(I got the idea for the AU here: a - jaggedpulse . tumblr / post / 111371380792 / more - au - ideas - that - the - internet - doesnt - need - part)
I hope you enjoy the story! :)
Cellmate
Probably it had been a mistake to befriend Sasayama Mitsuru.
While driving through the ridiculously filled streets in snail´s pace, this exact thought crossed her mind like it already did several times in the past.
The sky beyond the car windows hung in a light blue colour as clear as the purest of crystals over the city and the long rows of cars. The trees on both sides of the road were wearing green crowns of various nuances and the bright sun fell down the earth graciously, kissing every leaf, every stone, window and tip of the noses with lucid light. And even if the windows of her car were tightly shut, she could still hear the cheerful singing of the birds outside.
It was like the world was laughing at her.
Today was the first free day she had in a while, the weather was simply perfect and she had to spend it, getting her trouble-making friend out of jail. Of all things, Tsunemori Akane was indeed not amused.
She had brought herself some new books last weekend and had already decided to finally start reading through them by yesterday. The sky had already been picturesque, when she had made herself comfortable on her gigantic couch with an incredibly soft pillow in the shape of a starfish in her back, her copy of Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and a can of hot tea. Akane had just flipped the book open and started reading the very first page of the actual story ‒ Chapter One: Story of the Door, "Mr Utterson the lawyer was a man of rugged countenance that was never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassment in discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary and yet somehow loveable." ‒ when her mobile phone rang.
If Sasayama had become only a bit like Utterson the lawyer ‒ dusty and dreary ‒ in the past thirty-one years of his life, he would have never called her from a jail, so she could get him out of there, because he had had to grab the buttock of no one than the president´s wife and then, of everybody´s sake, started fighting with her bodyguards. He could be lucky that the president and his wife had decided to let him be released on bail.
Akane had to admit, that she had actually thought about not going to the police station and free him.
After the longest ride of her entire life, or at least it seemed like that, she finally arrived at the police station. She got out of her car and locked it, before she walked slowly towards the front door of the police station. However, right before she opened the door and stepped in, she stopped for a moment and sighed.
The walls of the police station were of an oyster white colour and the floor covered with grey beige tiles. On the ceiling hung a simple, somewhat sad-looking lamp which only gave away a dim light. Opposite from the front door was a reception, on the left side several plastic chair were lined and on the right side you could find a double door made of acrylic glass, which looked like it hadn´t been washed since the beginning of the century. Akane walked straight towards the reception but to her misfortune, nobody was there. Sighing again, she waited, the clock, which hung on the wall over the double door, ticked quite loudly.
After what seemed like a little eternity, the front door opened and she turned to see who was coming inside the police station. It was a man, some years older than her, with messy black hair, grey eyes, wearing a black jacket and dark blue jeans and an annoyed look on his face. In his left hand he held a motorcycle helmet. Akane blinked a few times to his direction, hoping that this man was one of the officers of the police station, but was disappointed, when the man discarded his helmet onto one of the plastic chairs and placed himself behind her. They formed a little row, she turned away from him, examining the neat reception, and the only sound which was filling the station was the ticking of the clock.
A few more minutes passed until the door behind the reception was opened and an officer with his hands full of papers stepped out of it.
"Good day," he said, put the papers away and sat down on a way more comfortable-looking chair than the plastic ones. He blinked at Akane.
"How can I help you, young lady?"
She took a deep breath. "I´m here to pay the bail for a friend of mine and get him out of jail," she told him, feeling a bit embarrassed that she had to admit to know Sasayama.
The police officer nodded. "Very well. What´s the name of your friend?"
"Sasayama Mitsuru."
Akane could see from the corner of an eye that the man behind her flinched at her words. She turned towards him.
"You´re here for Sasayama Mitsuru? The Sasayama Mitsuru who grabs buttocks of women without thinking and now was put into jail for it?" the man with the messy hair asked her.
She felt heat running up her cheeks and nodded. The man sighed. "Then we are already two."
The officer had told them the way to the cells and now they were walking through the double door and towards them. Every single one was empty. Except one.
"Akane!" Sasayama yelled when he saw her walking towards the cell. He stood up and grabbed the bars. His face was full of bruises and patches. There were even a few bumps. "I´m so glad that you´ve come!"
There he was. Her ever trouble-making friend.
She sighed. Today a great deal of sighs were unleashed. "Hello, Sasayama."
"You look even more beautiful than ever, Akane, has anybody told you this already?"
She shook her head tiredly. "No, Sasayama."
"But everybody has most likely thought it."
Kogami, who had dropped back because he had examined some kind of poster on one of the walls in the corridor which led to the cells, appeared next to Akane.
"Hey, Kogami! Don´t you also think that Akane here just looks great today?" Sasayama immediately asked. Due to the lovely weather outside, which she simply couldn´t enjoy because of a certain person being trapped in a cell, Akane wore some lose yellow blouse, a black skirt and simple black shoes. Nothing special. Sasayama was just being ridiculous again.
To her surprise, however, she found the man apparently named Kogami examining her, the way she had examined him earlier.
"I don´t think it´s my duty to judge such a thing," the man apparently named Kogami said. "Also, I think there are quite more important things to speak of right now." He glared at Sasayama who raised his hands.
"Woah, don´t look at me like that, Kogami."
"How should I look at you then?"
"Normally!"
"Should I remind you that you got in jail, for probably the most stupid reason anybody can think of?"
"Hey, still no reason to glare at me like I´m some criminal!"
"Should I remind you that you are, in fact, in jail?"
Now it was Sasayama´s turn to glare at Kogami. Akane cleared her throat.
"By the way... why have you called the two of us and not only one? Or even your sister?" she wanted to know.
He blinked at her. "You wanted me to call Mari? Sorry, but the tender heart of my little sister wouldn´t take it well, if she found out about me getting into jail. So I hope it´s okay for you to keep this little incident for yourselves, okay?"
"And why we two?"
Sasayama gave her a crooked, a bit uneasy smile. "To be honest... I didn´t think that Kogami would actually show up, so I called you afterwards. Just to be sure that anybody would come and rescue me and my sister wouldn´t have to panic, when I wouldn´t come home before it gets late. Also... it´s quite nice for the two of you that you both are here. I mean, you could divide the bail and one didn´t have to shoulder the whole sum. And now, guys, get the officer and let me out of this musty cell, okay?"
Akane and Kogami exchanged a quick look and he turned back towards Sasayama.
"Who said that we´ve payed the bail?"
Suddenly Sasayama became a bit pale. "You didn´t already? Puh, then hurry up and pay it, so we all can get home and have a happy rest-day."
They exchanged another look.
"Hey, why are you looking at each other all the time?"
Kogami grinned at her and she had to admit that it was quite a beautiful grin. "I think we weren´t introduced properly, were we? Name´s Kogami Shinya."
Akane returned his gesture and smiled at him. "Tsunemori Akane."
Sasayama looked from him to her and the other way round. "Guys?"
"Quite a lovely day, don´t you think, Tsunemori-san?" Kogami said.
She nodded. "Of course I do. The sky hasn´t been so bright like today lately."
"Did you have any plans for today, Tsunemori-san?" Kogami asked her, his eyes shining mischievously.
"I brought some books last week and wanted to start with one, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, today," she told him, already getting fond of him for setting this up.
"Even if Robert Louis Stevenson´s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is indeed a nice read, don´t you think that there is a better activity for such a lovely day?"
Akane´s eyes widened. "You´ve read it?"
Kogami grinned. "'Mr Utterson the lawyer was a man of rugged countenance that was never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassment in discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary and yet somehow loveable.' The very first sentence if I´m right."
Yes, she indeed already grew fond of him. "You are, Kogami-san. It´s the only sentence I could read before I got an interrupting phone call."
"Guys," Sasayama shouted. "Guys, okay, you had enough fun. Now go and free me already."
"You should finish it, the book is quite good," Kogami said casually. "And now, how about me taking you out to some restaurant? I know a place with a nice terrace area. I assume you haven´t eaten yet?"
She shook her head. "I spent quite a lot of hours in a traffic jam today, so I couldn´t already eat anything for lunch."
He nodded knowingly. "I was also trapped in it for awfully many hours. It´s not nice being stuck in a traffic jam with a motorcycle. So... do you want to go with me to eat something?"
"I would love to," she said, smiling.
"Not. Funny. Guys," Sasayama grumbled. "Not. Funny."
"And then, after lunch, how about taking a walk in some park? I know a beautiful one with a great lake with dozens of fishes and ducks swimming in it."
"That sounds fantastic."
"Then it´s sealed. Let´s go, Tsunemori-san," Kogami said, turning around and starting to walk back the path they had come from. Akane quickly followed him.
"I know that I stole some hours of your lives, but this isn´t even slightly funny!" Sasayama cried from his cell. "And now drop your silly joke and get me out of here!"
All the way up to the double door, Sasayama yelled something after them.
"When we will come back?" Akane asked Kogami, when they had walked through the glass door, letting Sasayama´s cursing and yelling behind them.
"When we are done eating, have taken the longest walk in the history of walks and fed at least two loaves of bread to the ducks," he told her and she blinked at him.
"You actually meant this?"
He looked down at her. "Of course I did. I think you earn it as much as I do, after all the trouble Sasayama has caused us."
Akane sighed. "Sometimes I wonder why I did befriend Sasayama in the first place."
"I can only agree with you. And hopefully, he will learn his lecture after staying in jail a bit longer." Kogami shrugged. "Or at least for more than five minutes."
In the entrance hall of the police station, Kogami picked up his helmet from the chair, brushing off some fluff.
"Did you have any plans for today, Kogami-san?" Akane asked him all of sudden.
He craned his head to her. "Actually, I wanted to read The Picture of Dorian Gray today which I brought last week. But like you, I could only read as far as the first sentence. 'The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the open door... '"
"'... the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn,'" Akane finished the reciting with a smile on her face.
"I read The Picture of Dorian Gray a couple of weeks ago. I can´t believe that we had similar plans for today."
He grinned down at her. "Me too. But at least we know, that we won´t fall into some kind of awkward silence while we´re eating and feeding the ducks."
Chatting, Akane and Kogami left the police station and the last thing the puzzled police officer heard was Akane´s chuckling.