Author's note: I do not own Detective Conan or its characters.

I Will Survive

There were days when Miwako wished she wasn't female. Valentine's Day was one of them. It was always miserable. There was just too much fuss and expectation about the events of the day. And it didn't help that she was considered one of the most attractive members of the force. Miwako truthfully hadn't been interested in romance when she took this job, and that hadn't changed much. The only person she was really interested in perhaps investigating avenues of a romantic nature with was her partner, Wataru Takagi, and she was also aware that fact hadn't made him popular.

It wasn't like she advertised her attraction to him, but it was hard to keep her attraction to herself when she was surrounded by trained observers. Miwako knew that they gave Takagi a hard time about it, but he bore it with good grace. Of course, it made things like giving him Valentine's Day chocolate more difficult. However, Miwako had learned a number of lessons over the years on how to survive the day, and she wasn't about to let a bunch of idiot males keep her from doing her job.

She was armed with store bought giri chocolate to start with. There was enough so that if she had to give a piece to every single male officer in the station if she had too. Miwako did have a slightly larger piece of giri chocolate for the Inspector. Coming into work wasn't really an option. The one time she had stayed home on Valentine's Day, she had hordes of co-workers dropping by her home to 'check on her' and give her chocolate. When she went home today, she wanted peace and quiet.

The other problem was how to deliver Takagi's chocolate to him. Miwako didn't want it to either get destroyed or for Takagi to end up suffering because of it. One of these days she was going to have to do something about the way the guys treated her partner. If she and Takagi ever started really dating, the poor man might not survive his coworkers' response. What it came down to though was she was going to have to be sneaky about delivering his chocolate to him.

It was a very nice piece of chocolate if she did say so herself. Miwako hadn't made it herself. She tended to be rather disastrous in the kitchen. No, she had bought the chocolate, but it was bittersweet dark chocolate which she knew Takagi liked. She had even been able to find a piece that had been shaped like a police officer's shield. The trick was going to be delivering it to him in a way that was unobtrusive to the office, but still a way that he would know who it was from. There wasn't really any point in giving chocolate to someone you liked if they didn't know who it was from in her opinion.

Miwako managed to get to her desk only ten minutes behind schedule. She has practically been ambushed the moment she walked in the door of the station. In fact, she thought that she had already given out at least half of the chocolate she had brought with her. Takagi was already at his desk. He glanced up at her briefly as she took her seat, indicating the steaming cup of coffee with a nod of his head. Miwako offered him a grateful smile and sipped the hot liquid. Takagi knew just how she took her coffee. It had been sweet of him to get her a cup.

It proved to be a pretty normal day save for the fact that she kept getting interrupted every five minutes or so. It was almost a relief when she and Takagi got called out on a case. It wasn't anything major or complex, but it did keep them out of the office for several hours. Miwako enjoyed the breathing space, and it was clear that Takagi also was not that eager to return to the office. Once they had made an arrest and gotten things wrapped up, the partners decided that lunch really was in order.

They stopped at a little ramen place on their way back to the station. They didn't go there often (it was a little out of the way if you were coming from the police station), but the food was quite good. It was probably the most privacy she was going to get with Takagi today. So she pulled the little square box out of her purse. The packaging was simple, a white box with a gold ribbon, but at least it was presentable. With a faint blush, she handed him the box.

"Happy Valentine's Day, Takagi."

He took the box with trembling hands and looked at her for permission to open it. Miwako nodded. Takagi carefully opened the box, and when he saw the chocolate, he beamed at her. Then to her utter surprise, he leaned in and kissed her cheek.

"Thank you, Miwako-san."

She smiled. This was definitely worth putting up with the rest of the day for.