A/N: I ensure you, this will probably be the last of the Kanji/Naoto bonding spree, and I'll get back to the Christmas shopping as soon as I can. Enjoy though!

It took quite a bit of time for Kanji to figure out a good time for them to meet up—after all, Naoto wasn't sure if she wanted to go or not. The plain brought back to many joyous, but painful memories, for the detective prince.

Sitting at her desk that afternoon, Naoto could clearly picture the trees. They were broad, and could hold the weight of almost anyone; well, coming from someone who was as light as a piece of paper, anyways. When all else failed, when nobody listened to her everyday observations, when nobody noticed the little handmade badge or modified watch on the desk or counter, or when she just wanted to get away from anything, possibly everything, the trees would be there.

Within the trees was her secret hideout. A place where Naoto kept her unfinished projects, later to complete them and show them to her family and who, back then, she considered her "friends". But it was more than that. The trees were a place where she could keep to herself; ignore the petty comments made by girls at school; where she could be herself.

That ended.

The medical tape constricted her breathing, causing her to fall to the ground below. Now there was nowhere to go. Hell, she couldn't even be herself any more. There was an image she needed to maintain, and it didn't involve a little tomboyish girl with a knack for technology.

Naoto tapped her ballpoint pen to the corner of her mouth, trying to keep herself together. She felt herself slowly torn apart, only to be neatly sewn back together. This was something she hadn't felt in over a year: insecurity.

But times had changed. Hesitant, Naoto got up and stood in front of the mirror. She undid the buttons on her shirt to reveal the carefully woven tape around her chest.

"Let's try." She told herself.

By the time she got to The Samegawa Floodplain, the sun had just begun to set. Kanji, though slightly annoyed, let his mouth hang open. Already, in less than a week, Naoto had been late. She's sick, isn't she, Kanji worried.

But Naoto was perfectly fine. She walked straight and, somewhat, tall. Her clothes were neat and—wait a second, her shirt was undone. Possibly the most shocking image was her chest. It was raised, rounded, feminine.

Before Kanji could get a full sentence out, Naoto put her middle and index fingers to his lips. "Just…watch." She said, looking at the trees behind them.

Here goes, she encouraged herself. Kanji said nothing, nor even attempted to stutter something incomprehensible. He just watched, because he knew something about this was right, even if Naoto wasn't.

Carefully, Naoto wrapped her arms around the trunk of the highest tree, sleeves rolled past her elbows. She keep her teeth clenched tight, sweating lightly, as she made her way onto the first branch. In her head, Naoto cheered herself on. With each branch, she did the same. It must work, seeing how she'd made it almost halfway up.

That's when it happened. With the slight slip, she found herself hanging from a branch, which was neither too thick nor thin. Breathing stilted, she tried with all her might to pull herself back up. Almost there, she almost lost her grasp, but by inhaling deeply, she ended up on the branch safely. That's when Naoto figured it was a good time to stop.

"Now do you see why I discarded the bandages?" Naoto called out to Kanji, who was standing on the banks. "This was my life, all those years ago. These trees were like my second home!"

There was no answer. Kanji stood, quietly, back turned to Naoto. The brief smile that flashed across her vanished as soon as it came.

"Kanji,"

There was still nothing. The water in front of him flowed mellow past him, into the storm drain. She noticed that that was what Kanji's focus was on: the drain. Curious, Naoto eased her way off the tree.

She tapped Kanji's shoulder. "Kanji, did you not here anything at all?"

Startled, Kanji looked over his shoulder; staring at her with frozen awestruck like she was struck down by lightning. "Oh, sorry," He pulled himself together, "It's just…somethin's been buggin' me, for almost a year now."

He turned his gaze back to the drain. "I-I know it ain't all that bad—right now, it isn't, anyway—but I can't help but think. The little boy who lost that stuffed rabbit must've gone through the same thing as me."

A little boy with a rabbit, Naoto thought, the image clearly visible in her mind. Naoto flashed back a little ways to when she was the detective prince with self-esteem issues. She was walking through the Floodplain, the trees by the banks still calling out to her with no luck, when she noticed Kanji. In his hand was a small stuffed rabbit, about the size of the ones hung on people's cell phones, which he gave to a little boy, around the same age as Detective Dojima's daughter, Nanako.

It had only been a few weeks after she joined the team, and this was the first time she'd seen Kanji be something other than a wannabe tough guy, whose awkward words always perked her up. He was…soft. No further analysis was needed, for anyone who saw him with the little boy would assume the same.

"I saw you." Naoto finally spat out. Kanji turned back to her, with the same frozen expression.

"Saw who?"

"I saw you; at the floodplain with that aforementioned boy with the rabbit."

Naoto then turned towards the drain that had captivated Kanji's interest. "And I presume this is where that rabbit of his went."

Kanji nodded. He told her all about what was going on, not blaming her for being surprised at what she saw.

"Havin', for the first time, given somebody a stuffed animal, or anythin' along those lines, without getting' laughed at, I could hardly believe it was happenin' either. It was just a lucky chance, I guess."

"Did I have the same effect on you today?" Naoto cupped one of her breasts in her palm.

"Pretty much, only, unlike you, I had no idea what you were trying to do."

"Maybe if you'd paid attention," Naoto ran back to the tree, "Let me show you."

After having climbed the tree again, this time without any slip ups, Kanji finally understood. Sure, he had noticed Naoto in gym class, back when he thought she was a boy, struggling to run a full lap, but he just thought she wasn't that physically fit. Never had he, back then, assumed she'd climbed trees for most o her life.

"I used to have a hideout in here." Naoto rubbed the broken bark on the trunk. "I had this chest glued right here, which, looking back, wasn't the best idea."

"Cool," Kanji looked up at the detective, noticing the unusual light in her eyes, rather than the cold metallic glare he'd come to know. "What'd ya do with it?"

The bright shimmer was slowing, filling with tears. "I threw it away, I guess. Somehow though, Grampa got a 'hold of a few of its contents."

"Lemme guess, too feminine,"

"Oh, no, it's nothing like that. They were embarrassing. Seriously, do you really think I'd be taken seriously with a handmade detective badge?"

"No. But, hey, I bet it was cute."

Naoto sighed. "Oh Kanji, my grandfather's brainwashed you, hasn't he?"

Kanji thought back to the little scare he had yesterday. "Maybe,"

Laughing a little inside, Naoto climbed down.

Before long, it was time for them to go home. Neither of them wanted to, really. Kanji was just beginning to realize how laid back and fun Naoto could be at times, and Naoto was happy to have found someone else she could talk to, without being forced to be the girl she never was—not saying any names here.

It was unanimous that they see each other once again. This time it'd be different. Kanji wasn't just hanging out with Naoto to get ideas for Christmas. He was hanging out with her for the fun of it; his enjoyment of her was bittersweet though While he found Naoto wasn't all that stern, the feelings inside were still there, and they wanted to burst through. But she wasn't ready. Maybe on Christmas Eve, Kanji decided.

Naoto didn't have to decide where they'd go tomorrow. It was already decided for her, weeks in advance.

"There's this show touring, and it's coming to Inaba tomorrow. I had bought two tickets, for me and Grampa, but his cold's getting worse, so…"

"You want me to go with ya?" Kanji was rather hesitant. He'd never gone to a live show of any kind.

"Of course, oh, wait; you probably don't know what it is. It's this musical from America called Next to Normal. I've never seen it, but I heard it's amazing. And this could be our only opportunity to see it."

Naoto tapped her foot. "So what do you say?"

Without any other drawbacks, besides the fact he had no idea what he was seeing, Kanji accepted. What harm could an American musical do to him?