The Story of How Ryotaro Dojima Found Himself Coming Home with a Pink Laptop
Shuffling through papers was a pain, and so after huffing and puffing about not finding the right file and inwardly cursing an inept junior detective, Ryotaro hopped into the car with his seven year old daughter, Nanako, and drove off to Junes.
Nanako was delighted to be going out with her daddy. She sat at the passenger seat, controlling the radio (though that was pointless, as the trip to Junes and back doesn't go for that long) and singing along to familiar songs. When an old song came on, Nanako hushed down, and Dojima begun muttering along, with the young girl watching him in fascination.
When they reached the Junes carpark, Nanako jumped out of the car excitedly. "Come on, daddy!"
With a chuckle, he caught up to her. "I gotcha, I gotcha," he patted her head with reassurance. "Relax."
"We're getting a computer! I'm so excited, daddy! We can finally talk to big bro again!"
"We do talk to him," he replied, entering the cool, air-conditioned shop. "Over the phone."
Nanako grabbed hold of his hand when she noticed the large crowd. "But we can see him again?" she offered, "My friends said they can talk to their aunties and see them on video."
Getting a laptop might've been long overdue, but can you really blame him for putting it off? Nanako doesn't need to use a computer that much (if at all, really); she doesn't even have her pen license yet. But getting a laptop might be good for them both. She had been raving about video-chatting, and he had realised papers are hard to find, even when filed away properly.
Plus, he had to save a bit. Detectives don't get paid much. Small-town detectives really don't get paid any more. So saving the money to get a decent laptop took a little while. Thankfully, his work was willing to shoulder some of the expenses, to reward him for his efforts involving the serial murder case.
Shaking his head to clear it of thoughts that hung around like dark storm clouds, he allowed himself to be partly pulled along by Nanako. They entered the electronics department and his daughter immediately scanned the environment.
That's right, thought Dojima, Yu's friends work here. He began to scan around the room for them, too, but no luck. Shrugging his shoulders, he turned to his daughter. "Why don't we have a little look around for something good?"
She turned back to him and, with mature eyes, asked, "How much can we spare?"
He was slightly proud of how much he'd saved. "Around $1500."
She nodded, as if accepting a challenge, and began to make her way down an aisle of laptops. Thankfully, the electronics section wasn't as crowded as the rest of the shopping center, so Dojima allowed Nanako to walk freely along. The girl might have been able to go grocery shopping on her own before, but things changed when he almost lost her and he realised just how much he valued Nanako. She was showing signs of maturity and wisdom beyond her years, and though it was hard to catch up after a couple of years of running away, Dojima was doing his best to be the father Nanako deserved. He decided he wanted her to be an innocent child just a little longer.
His eyes gazed over the laptops, all lined up and on, ready for him to try. He reached over a slim one close to him and began testing it (testing how and testing for what he didn't know, but he just wanted to get a feel for the sleek looking thing). It was unsatisfactory (he swore the price tag had nothing to do with it), and he moved on.
He heard a familiar voice greet him. "Dojima-san!" Yosuke Hanamura smiled as he walked towards him, wearing his Junes uniform. "How are you?"
That's one friend spotted, thought Dojima, as he nodded in greeting towards his nephew's best friend. "Been doing well, how's study going?"
Yosuke's hand found the back of his neck. "Oh, you know," he chuckled, getting slightly embarrassed. "Well." He quickly recovered, avoiding Dojima's eyes in favour of looking over the laptops. "Laptop shopping?"
Before Dojima could answer, he was interrupted by Nanako who quickly walked towards them. Yosuke's smile grew wider. "Nanako-chan! How have you been?"
"I'm 100% better!" she said proudly, "Daddy and I are laptop shopping!"
"Would you like some help choosing?" Yosuke offered. "I have some time to spare!"
Dojima shook his head. "I don't want to trouble you," he said, "but thank you for the offer."
"No, please, let me help," Yosuke said. "Laptops can be tricky, and it'd be best to get one to suit your needs instead of getting one that has a couple of perks but is totally unsuitable." He began the spiel he had heard from the salesmen time and time again, gesturing towards the laptops around them.
Dojima looked around. He didn't know much about technology, and picking something really was kind of overwhelming. At work, he didn't have to worry, since they had to work with laptops provided by the head honchos. And if the boy was offering to help, why not?
"So, what are you guys after?" Yosuke asked, glancing at both Dojima and Nanako.
"I want something with a camera!" Nanako offered, "I want to talk to big bro."
"You're in luck, Nanako-chan! Most laptops have cameras now, so you'll have a lot to choose from! How about you, Dojima-san? What would you like?"
He shrugged. "I don't know," he admitted. "Something I could use to work? Anything $1500 or less would be fantastic."
Yosuke nodded to himself before turning to look behind him. "Let's see," he muttered. "Would you like to play games on your laptop?" he asked, to which Dojima replied with "Not really". He weaved through a couple of laptops and they trailed behind him. He paused again. "Would you like your laptop to be a heavy entertainment thing? You know, movies, and TV shows, etc.?"
"We have a DVD player," he answered plainly, wondering why in the world he would want something that would have more features to distract him than to work with him. "I think we're good on the entertainment thing."
"Gotcha," said Yosuke. He clapped his hands together and began to ask his third question but was interrupted by a loud, familiar voice.
"Nana-chan!" Teddie shrieked, running towards them. He was still wearing the orange grocer's apron tightly around him when he bounded in front of the three of them. "And Pops! It's so good to see you!" The excitable teenager greeted him just as enthusiastically as he had greeted Nanako, and Dojima was slightly torn on what to feel about being called "Pops."
I'm not that old, am I? He asked himself, smiling as Teddie bent down to Nanako's eye level. "Hello, Teddie."
"Hello, Teddie!" Nanako greeted back, "I haven't seen you in a while!"
He made a show of fanning himself and wiping non-existent sweat from his forehead. "Oh, Nana-chan, they're working Teddie to the core here at Junes! Teddie is often bear-y tired! But I promise I will visit next week!"
"Teddie, don't you have work downstairs?" Yosuke asked, slightly miffed that his cool sounding salesman spiel was being interrupted by the blonde boy, "what are you doing up here?"
He looked up at Yosuke and paused, as if thinking. He looked down on himself with a light frown and noted the apron with a surprised glance. "Oh, no!" he said, "I forgot to take my apron off! I'm meant to clock in up here to cover for Suri at the counter."
Yosuke sighed. "Suri didn't turn up again?" When Teddie shook his head, Yosuke's eyes shuttered as he sucked a breath in through his teeth. "Okay," he said, expelling breath. "Don't worry about it, Ted. Go put your apron back downstairs, tell them I'm just here. I'll wait for you to get back up, I'll talk to Himiko about staying back a little longer."
Teddie nodded, and after a brief, "I'll be right back!", vanished.
Dojima turned back to the stressed looking Yosuke and said, "If they need you down there, Nanako and I can manage up here."
The brunette shook his head and with a well-meaning smile, said, "Don't worry about it, Dojima-san. I needed a break from some of the people downstairs anyway. Plus!" he clapped his hands together and rubbed them, turning his attention back to Nanako. "I promised Nanako-chan here that we'd find a laptop that'd be good for talking to Yu."
The senior detective couldn't help but be reminded of his nephew. Yu really had made some good friends while he stayed at Inaba. He was grateful to find that the group of teenagers were more than happy to keep Nanako company when they see her out, even without his nephew around. He was afraid that they only allowed her to hang around them as a favour to Yu, but he could see now that they were all enamoured with the seven-year old.
"Shall we carry on?" he asked, leading them towards another row of laptops. "These laptops have lots of memory, can run a couple of games without any problems, and they're also pretty fast." He made a gesture down the row of sleek black and slate coloured laptops. Dojima quickly looked over the price tags.
"Uh, Hanamura-kun," he pointed at the price tags, "These are all over $1500."
Nanako, who had gotten slightly keen about the laptop she was playing with, immediately stepped away from it. Yosuke waved them off. "Don't worry about that," he said. "I can pull some strings. You won't have to pay a penny over $1500, Dojima-san, I assure you."
He found himself frowning in confusion. "But Hanamura-kun…"
"Really, it's fine!" Yosuke insisted. He flicked the price tag of the laptop closest to him. "It's easy, don't worry. You guys are practically family, and I'm sure Yu would do the same thing!"
He couldn't help but feel slightly warm at the boy's sentiment. He had Yu and Nanako to thank. His daughter stood beside him, trying to decide on which laptop she preferred, before pointing on the cheapest one down the row, sitting proudly at $1700. Turning to her father, he nodded. "Sure," he said. Large memory, fast, and has a webcam. That fulfilled all the criteria. Well, almost. "We'll take that one."
Teddie came bounding back, puffed. "Teddie," he exhaled deeply before straightening up and puffing out his chest. "Teddie reporting!"
"Have you clocked in?" Yosuke asked, looking incredulously at the shadow-turned-bear-turned-human. He merely shook his head in reply. "Alrighty," he patted Teddie's shoulder solidly, rotating him to look at the laptop Nanako had chosen. "I have to go back downstairs, but I need to put my code in for their discount, so I need you to grab the laptop from the back. I'll clock you in."
"You're sending me to the back again?" Teddie looked somewhat terrified of running back and forth once more. "You are bear-y, bear-y cruel."
Yosuke had pulled a pen and a strip of paper out of the large pocket at the front of his apron. Scribbling down the product code, he handed the paper over to Teddie who merely gave the three of them a salute (which Yosuke begrudgingly returned, and Nanako returned in good humour) before briskly walking towards the direction of, what Dojima assumed, the warehouse.
"Come follow me," he said, tilting his head towards the closest register, manned by a slightly bored looking middle aged woman. "Himiko," he greeted the woman who smiled back, though her expression was borne more from relief than actual delight in just seeing Yosuke. "You can go home now; sorry about making you wait."
She pointed to the phone in confusion, her brows burrowing. "But," she started, "they called me and said they'd sent Teddie to replace Suri?"
"He's here," Yosuke assured her, pulling the hip-high gate open and walking into the register space. "I just asked him to grab the laptop for these fine customers here."
"Alright," Himiko merely shrugged, before throwing a smile at Dojima and Nanako, "Time for me to leave. See you, Hanamura-kun."
Yosuke waved back. "Yes," he said, "see you later, Himiko-san."
Nanako watched as Yosuke punched Teddie's clock-in details into the register with fascination. Swiftly, Yosuke pulled an ID card from his pocket and swiped it through, before keying in more numbers. Pocketing the card again, he turned to the Dojimas. "All that's left now is to get the laptop here and to scan it!"
As if on cue, Teddie arrived with a box. "I'm here!" he said, carefully placing the laptop box on the counter. He handed Yosuke back the strip of paper, and the brunette grabbed it and scanned the numbers on the box's face. "It's the thing!" Teddie said, "I asked someone else to get it for me!"
Yosuke nodded. "Alright." He reached for the scanner and ran it over the bar code. Nanako watched intensely as he quickly typed on the keyboard. "And…" he muttered to himself, "here we go."
Teddie immediately took to the register and said, "That comes to $1445, Pops!" He bent down to get a bag, and was halted by Yosuke.
"Dude, the laptop came in a box," he said, deadpan. "Our plastic bags aren't that big. They can't hold laptops."
"I just wanted to be cautious!" Teddie said in defence.
"Thank you for the concern, Teddie," Nanako thanked. Dojima held the money out for Teddie to take, thanking both Teddy and Yosuke. Both flushed in embarrassment.
Yosuke was slightly quiet. "It's really nothing, Dojima-san," he glanced over at Teddie. "Really."
"Yeah!" The blonde pulled the receipt out from the printer underneath the computer to hand over to Dojima along with his change. "Enjoy your new computer!"
Nanako was grinning from ear to ear. "Thank you!" She looked expectantly at her father, who carefully lifted the box off the counter. "We'll see you sometime soon!"
The manager's son already stepped out of the register's box at the point, facing the direction of the department from which he ran. "Yes, of course, Nanako-chan! The others are missing you too! We'll see about next week, if it's okay?"
"It's no problem," Dojima said. He trusted these kids.
"Alright!" Teddie cheered. "Next week, Nana-chan!" he waved, as the Dojimas and Yosuke began to make their way out. "See you soon!" He yelled across the near empty electronics section of Junes, before turning back to the computer in front of him.
The Dojimas parted ways with Yosuke when they made it towards the food courts, with the brunette waving goodbye and promising to visit Nanako the next week. They made their way back to the car, and after checking his phone for the time, Ryotaro was surprised to find they weren't in there for as long as he had expected.
They slipped into the vehicle and started it up, with the older on the two handing the box for Nanako to hold. He scanned through the receipt and shook his head.
Hanamura had included extended warranty, and didn't even charge for it.
When they got home, the seven year old hastily strolled over to the kotatsu, looking expectantly at her father.
Slowly and deliberately slowly, playfully ignoring his daughter's irritated noises, he began to open the box and started taking the contents out. Charger. Cords. Instruction manual.
Finally, they got to the fifteen inch rectangle and he carefully pulled it out of the box and placed it on the surface of the kotatsu. It was so thin, and light, covered in a light wrap. He carefully slipped his hand into the wrapper and held the laptop firmly, before sliding it out slowly.
It was pink.
"It's pink!" Nanako exclaimed, her expression just as shocked as her father's.
"It's definitely the laptop we looked at," Dojima said, scanning over the laptop after opening the lid up. "It's just… pink."
Nanako giggled. "Maybe Teddie picked the colour." Turning serious, she turned to her father. "Are we going to go back and ask for a replacement?"
He didn't want to inconvenience anyone, and Nanako was already in love with the laptop… Plus, it wasn't going to go out anyway – it was staying here, locked away when not in use to avoid Nanako getting addicted to games online and to stop her from joining any social networking sites which are all the rage nowadays, at home.
With a chuckle, he turned it on and plugged the charger in. "No, no," he patted the spot next to him. "Come sit next to me, let's set this up."
Author's Note: I hope I didn't mess up too badly. This story is also on my AO3 profile, as well as on my writing blog.