Notes: *spills DR3 feels on the floor* oops
So this is going to be a collection of side stories set in the same universe as my Kuzuhina story "Waiting for Rainbows." You don't have to read "Rainbows" to understand what's going on here... but I'd like it if you did, ehehe. :3 (If you have no plans to read it, the basic premise of the AU is "everyone is boring.")
Anything I write in the universe that doesn't have anything to do with Kuzuhina or the main plot will be thrown over here, and there will be various different ships. Also there's no update schedule for this. Basically I'm just gonna do what I feel like when I feel like it!
So start this off with a fluffy Munasaka-ish oneshot, shall we? No DR3 spoilers.
I don't usually like writing in the second person OR in present tense, but this thing refused to be written any other way!
Thanks to CSakuraS for betaing~!
On the Streets of Kibougaoka
The First Whiff of Burning Incense
You first notice him in spring, about a week into the new term.
There are several things that stand out about him, but what really catches your eye as you watch through the koban's glass façade is his gait. He walks with purpose, strong and confident, which is something you don't often see in the academic types—and being a block from such a prestigious university, you see a lot of dweeby smart kids.
This guy isn't a dweeb, though. He sort of looks like one, with his silver hair neatly cropped and his nose stuck in a book, but there's an aura about him that seems to demand respect.
Also he somehow manages to pull off wearing a white suit without looking like a complete douche, so there's that.
He's probably around your age, so he's too old to be one of the freshmen—a graduate student, then? Maybe a faculty member. Either way, he passes by the koban going to and from the train station on a regular schedule, and once you figure out what that schedule is you find yourself looking for him every day.
You try to learn more about him just going by what you can see—his interactions with students that flag him down, the colors of his neckties, the café logo on his daily cup of coffee. You don't even realize you want to know what kind of books he reads until the one day when he's holding a book without a generic paper bookstore cover and your heart seems to leap in your chest. (It's a collection of Soseki works, the sort of stuff you hated reading in high school. Maybe you'll give it another try.)
By the time summer comes around, you realize you're kind of falling in love with the guy. You feel pretty stupid for falling in love with someone you've never even talked to; you had never really thought about talking to him, enthralled as you were with discovering all the little things about him on your own. Now it's too mortifying to consider even introducing yourself to him, because your stomach does little flips at the thought and you're pretty sure you'd throw up all over his Italian leather shoes. You have a reputation to uphold as the tough and intimidating cop so that's not a risk that you can take.
For probably the first time ever, you're glad that Ishimaru is as bad at picking up normal social cues as he is. You spend too much time either looking at the silver-haired man or thinking about looking at him, and you're not exactly thrilled at the idea of your junior officer figuring out what's going on. But he probably won't figure it out; he's too busy trying to stop the students from running to and from the train station. (You keep telling him not to do that. This is a street on the edge of a college campus, not a goddamn school hallway.)
During summer vacation, traffic at the college slows considerably, enough that you can spend part of the day paging through Kokoro. You don't understand it much better than when you were a teenager, but somehow it's quickly becoming your favorite book. (You don't think you've ever had a favorite book before.) Of course, you make sure to watch vigilantly whenever he walks by—despite the break from classes, he still shows up at the university nearly every day.
(Your breath catches a little when you see him in short sleeves.)
And then, one day near the end of the summer holidays, he passes by the koban and you notice something notably different. Hell, of course you noticed; you'd have to be blind not to.
There's a woman at his side.
She's pretty, with long chestnut brown hair and a bright, cheerful smile. She's obviously very close with the man, clinging to his arm and chattering away, but you're not really looking at her. You're looking at him, of course.
He's smiling with a fondness that you've never seen in him before.
In that moment, you know. There's no room for you in there. There never has been from the very start.
If you're perfectly honest, you probably knew the whole time.
And that's the end of your story. It was short, it was uneventful, and in the end, nothing really changed.
...
...Oh, like hell.
You never really did know when to give up, after all.
So it's autumn when you're standing outside relishing the cool evening breeze, a welcome respite after the too-long heat of summer, when he passes by the koban as always. You ignore the fluttering in your stomach and, as casually as you can, you say the first words you've ever spoken to him.
"Good work today."
He stops, glances up from his book, and nods. "Same to you," he says, and his voice sounds like honey and magic and other poetic shit you were never good at. "Nice weather today, isn't it?"
"Yeah." You don't feel like it's physically possible for you to manage any more words than that, but you have him here, and he's talking to you, so before he takes your silence as his cue to leave you decide to push your limits. "I'm Juzo Sakakura, by the way. I'm the senior officer at this koban."
He closes his book and looks at you directly, and you notice for the first time that his eyes are periwinkle blue. You'd never been close enough to see their color before. (You can't imagine how you had ever been satisfied with watching from afar.)
He gives a polite smile and holds out his hand. "I'm Kyosuke Munakata, and I teach business and economics at the university. It's nice to meet you, Sakakura."
After the briefest hesitation, you grab his hand to shake; the touch has your nerves on fire, but you don't let go until he does.
He bids you goodnight then, and you watch as he disappears into the train station.
You're still not sure if there's room for you, but you're pretty damn certain that it's too early to give up.
And that's the beginning of your story.