Disclaimer: I do not own Switch, it belongs to Naked Ape.
"Why don't you have a desk?"
The question broke the comfortable silence that filled the Section One office of the Greater Kanto Public Welfare Ministry's Narcotics Control Division. Rookie investigator Eto Kai looked flustered in the face of the sudden attention of almost everyone in the room. The only pair of eyes that weren't focused on the young man remained resolutely shut. Kai cleared his throat awkwardly. "Uh, Kaji?"
His clarification was rewarded with an eyebrow twitch and a noncommittal grunt from his direct superior. After a few moments, Section One Chief Kajiyama Keigo opened one eye to glare at the younger agent, whose stare of innocent curiosity had been practically burning a hole in the side of his head. When Kai showed no sign of letting the subject slide, Kaji sighed and sat up from his reclined position on the couch, where he had been napping. He fixed the rookie with a flat stare of his own, both eyes open now. "I do have a desk. Across from yours." He pointed, indicating the workplace opposite Kai's.
Kai nodded slowly, but seemed unconvinced. "But that's just a regular desk!" He suddenly noticed a certain amount of urgent murmuring among the more veteran agents in the room, a clear warning that he was entering dangerous territory. Kaji looked peeved, but said nothing. Always one to take risks and consequences be damned, Kai pressed on. He glanced nervously at his partner, Hal, but the other rookie simply snorted and went on with his paperwork, muttering about morons. Finding no support there, Kai coughed and continued. "I-I mean, in Section Two, Chief Shinohara has a big desk all her own-" He paused, as Kaji twitched angrily at the mention of the other section chief, before starting up again. "It-it's all s-separate from the others, sort of like Chief Hiki's..." His stuttering petered off at the sight of the now red-faced Kaji, in whose forehead a vein was visibly pulsing. But before the older agent could respond verbally, a cheerful voice cut in.
"Ah, I can explain that actually." Chief Hiki, director of the NCD, smiled as everyone's attentions turned to him. He cocked his head to one side, glasses flashing, as he regarded his employees. "You see," he continued in an amiable tone, "my office is over on the other side of the building, past the Analysis lab." He ignored the surprised stares of Kai and Hal, who had never heard of this so-called office before, and had always assumed that Hiki was supposed to be where he was. The chief laughed. "Sitting all by myself all day, I got lonely. Kaji was so kind as to surrender the use of his desk so that I could spend all my time with you wonderful agents!" He grinned, resting his chin on his hands, completely ignoring the furious glare directed at him by his former partner. Hal snorted again.
"So basically, he kicked you out of your own desk?" he asked Kaji.
Hiki, in an unprecedented show of agility and speed, made it over the desk in question and to the Section Chief in time to prevent the ensuing explosion. His usual contradicting self, he chuckled good-naturedly while wrestling Kaji's arms away from Hal's vicinity. After a few seconds, Kaji relented and stopped trying to pull away. Hiki patted him on the shoulder with one hand, the other still loosely gripping his arm. "Kaji, there's some paperwork I need dropped off to Chief Katsuragi in Intelligence. Could you please go do that?" Finally letting the other man go, he turned back to the desk, lifted a large stack of papers and dropped them into Kaji's arms. Kaji looked momentarily bewildered, still flushed with anger, but after a moment's hesitation – and a rather pointed smile from Hiki – he nodded and left the office.
An awkward silence followed the departure of the Section Chief, eons away from the comfortable one that had been interrupted by Kai only moments before. The members of Section One exchanged glances. Then Hiki cleared his throat, making his way back around his – Kaji's? - desk and sitting down.
"Kai, I think that this has answered your question." Kai blushed, sensing the gentle insinuation that he was the instigator of the whole debocle. He sheepishly stared down at his reports as Hiki's gaze shifted to his surly partner. "And Hal, try to show a little more respect. Kaji is your superior."
Hal, unfazed, snorted yet again. Kai wondered if he noticed how often he did that. Hal opened his mouth to respond, but backed down in the face of Hiki's seemingly friendly, yet strangely threatening smile. Instead he just lit another cigarette and, muttering again, returned to his work.
It was five minutes later when Kaji returned. The entire room seemed to hold its breath as he glared around at them before making a beeline for the couch and promptly falling asleep. They all breathed a sigh of relief. Everything was back to normal, though it was agreed upon that, like Valentine's Day, the question of desk ownership was to be a taboo subject in the Section One office.
AN: This is actually the first drabble I wrote for Switch. It always kinda seems to me like Kaji doesn't have the same level of authority as Shinohara, even though they have the same rank. It's almost more like Kaji is Assistant Chief and Hiki is the Section Chief. Which lead me to speculate whether Hiki just came in one day and stole Kaji's desk, along with most of his decision-making power. It seems like something he'd do...