He was on the phone to Mitsuru when Chie came in, two coffees in hand and a conversation already starting on her lips. Their prefecture was fairly rural and their force a modest size. Out of the few other officers she seemed to have chosen him as her gossiping partner.
"- I can't believe he's being such a coward, it makes my blood boil," She handed him one cup, a little forcefully, the coffee looking decidedly more milky and black. "When will he manage to find the guts to just stand up and say how he truly feels, it's just so-"
"It sounds like you're busy," Mitsuru's cool voice on the other end was amused. Despite their rather important exchange of notes on another dusty Ergo Research experiment, she was all too ready to cut the call short.
"-I just don't get what it is with guys, are their egos actually that enormous that they have trouble accepting anything or-"
Chie hadn't even stopped long enough to look at him to see the handset glued between the side of his face and angled shoulder.
"Satonaka-san has a point you know. It really isn't healthy to keep feelings bottled up. Not for ANY reason."
Akihiko's mouth opened to reply but he was unable to produce any sound. His eyes were pinned on Chie and Mitsuru had claimed his ear. He had no idea what either of them were talking about, but the overwhelming sense of dread was enough to make his blood run cold.
"Ah, is that Mitsuru-san? Say hi for me!" She beamed, leaning over the desk as though to get closer to the receiver.
"Forget your report Akihiko, Aigis will handle the rest."
"-But," he felt cornered.
"I'd much rather you spent your time attending to your subordinates for now," Mitsuru finished, her tone smiling. Without so much as a goodbye, the line went dead.
Chie was still grinning from ear to ear, her paper cup resting on her lap between both hands. Whatever it was that'd had her so fired up a second ago was all but forgotten. She was waiting patiently for him to divulge any new information about the shadow world they shared in.
Akihiko was worried that whatever had been shared between the two women and passed completely over his head was far more dangerous than anything within his report.
"I think break time is over..."