Plop!

Adachi groaned and swiped at his face.

Plop! Plop!

His eyes fluttered open slowly, a blurry world greeting his ascension into consciousness. As his vision cleared, he saw that the starry sky that was there only a second ago glowed as the overcast reflected the light of the moon onto itself. As he lay on his back, confused, another droplet came from the sky, crashing between his eyes. Remembering where he was, he pulled himself up slowly, holding his arms behind him to hold himself up, and looked to the right, checking to see if he was abandoned or not. To his pleasant surprise, he found her laying on her side with her hands under her head and smiling. More drops began to fall onto his head and legs, pulling him back into the reality of what was happening.

"Sophie," Adachi laughed drowsily, leaning over to shake her. "Hey, we fell asleep. Wake up!"

Sophie grumbled when he shook her, only opening her eyes when a few raindrops smacked her in the eyes. "What time is it…" she grumbled with her eyes half closed.

She was jolted awake, however, when the rain went from slightly drizzle to full downpour in a matter of seconds. Adachi stood up clumsily and pulled Sophie up with him, laughing at the disgruntled look on her face. "Come on," he shouted, taking her wrist and pulling her behind him as they ran through the rain.

After they had gotten up the stairs and headed towards shelter, Sophie's frown had melted into a smile and then a giggle. Falling asleep with a guy next to her only to be woken up by rainfall sounded like something straight out of a romance novel and certainly was not likely to happen in her life, yet here she was getting pulled around by this dorky, lanky detective whose coat waved in the wind and made him look like a superhero.

Adachi finally let go of Sophie's hand when they reached the entrance to a building with a lot of doors which Sophie assumed was his apartment. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his keys, wiping his face of the rain dripping down from his hair on his sleeve. As he fumbled with the door, Sophie watched as a drop of water fell from his bangs onto his cheek, dripping down to his lips. Her temperature rose slightly and her breath caught in her throat when she stared at his lips, tracing his sharp jawline and thin neck with her eyes. She wondered why such an attractive young man, that apparently was very intelligent, wasn't snatched up already.

"Welcome to my mansion," Adachi greeted sarcastically when he finally unlocked the door, gently pushing Sophie into the room. It was hardly a mansion. It was hardly even a home in Sophie's eyes. She wondered how such a complex man could live in such an… empty house. There was no decorations, no personality… "Hey are you okay?"

The words broke Sophie out of her spell. "Huh?"

"You're shivering really badly. You're gonna catch a cold." Adachi removed his outer jacket and threw it towards the doorway of a room a little bit away from where they were standing.

It was like Sophie was just made aware of her involuntary shaking and how cold she really was, causing her to shiver harder. She crossed her arms against her chest and lifted her shoulders. "Maybe if you didn't keep it like a freezer in here… I don't even have heat and my place is warmer than this."

Adachi headed towards his bedroom. "Don't just blame it on me!" he corrected in a raised voice from his room. "You WERE just running around in the rain after all." After finishing scolding Sophie, he approached from his bedroom holding two pieces of folded clothing and offered them to her. "Go take a hot shower and throw your wet clothes out the door and I'll hang them to dry."

A smile grew on Sophie's face as she took the clothing, making the detective smile back. "The pants are too big for me," he blurted, killing the mood.

The smell fell from Sophie's face. "Why are you giving them to ME then?! You think I'll fit?!"

Adachi walked behind Sophie and began pushing her in the direction of the shower room. "Don't worry about it… just hurry up and take your shower already! The early bird catches the worm!"

It was the first time in a long time that Sophie had all the time in the world to take her shower. Normally, she would borrow the shower of the men she would rob, rushing to just quickly freshen up so she wouldn't get caught when they woke up. As the hot water hit her skin, it felt like all of the tension her muscles had been holding for the past few years had dripped down her body and washed down the drain. The hair that she had so intricately wrapped in a side-pony tail before the rain had fallen against her shoulders and warmed her skin.

As she turned to the side, she jumped when met with a searing pain in her arm. She reached around with her hand and cupped the wound on her shoulder that she had completely forgot about. She turned her head to get a better look at the injury now that she was in better lighting and was greeted with five scratches. Sophie grimaced at the scar. Remembering another place she got hit, she crawled her hand up her arm and reached around to her shoulder. Pressing down lightly, she confirmed her suspicions- a brutal bruise.

Sophie closed her eyes and sighed deeply, thankful that for just these few moments, the presence of another human didn't involve having to be afraid or getting hurt. She wished she could have said the same thing about today's incident.

The clicking of Sophie's heels on the cement echoed against the tightness of the surrounding buildings in the alley. Some might have found the sound unsettling, reminiscent of a nightmare where threat is lurking but is nowhere to be seen. To Sophie, however, the sound was empowering. There was no screaming, no flirting, and no life- only her and this beautiful evening. She took a deep breath in to let the cool air fill her lungs.

The calming evening air was pushed out of her violently as a large blunt object smacked into her shoulder from behind. Losing her balance, she fell forward and landed face down on the cement. Pain rushed to her right eye and a soreness grew right where she was hit in the back. As she was about to turn over, a hand with sharp nails grabbed her shoulder and forced her onto her back, ripping her shirt and scratching her skin- another mark she'd get from tonight.

Out of her left eye, she blinked to clear the blurriness as she reached around and held onto her injured arm. Three girls around her age stood above her, one with a baseball bat, looking down at her. "Wh…what do you want from me," Sophie muttered, sitting up just enough to look at them.

"Revenge," the one in the middle said. Her arms sat crossed on her chest and she wore a high school uniform complete with the thigh-highs and way too much makeup for a high schooler. "For fucking my boyfriend."

Sophie scoffed. "Get real, you're like twelve and I didn't sleep with anyone- let anyone anyone's boyfriend."

"B-Bullshit!" The girl with the bat chimed in, nervously. "I s-saw you today! You were with him!"

Sophie leaned her head back onto the ground, cringing as a shooting pain went up to her cheek. "The only idiot I was with today wanted to take me back home and when I told him he was too young he got mad and I left."

"That's not what he told me when I confronted him! He said you coerced him into sleeping with you!"

"You children are so freaking gullible… You believe what a guy that's obviously cheating on you has to say?"

"Take her out," the leader said with authority.

As the girl with the bat lifted it above her head to swing down at Sophie, she swiped her leg underneath her attacker and targeted her ankles, knocking the girl off of her feet and successfully causing her to fall on her butt. The baseball bat rolled towards Sophie.

In a desperate attempt to keep Sophie from getting revenge, the girl leaped forward and reached towards the free bat, but not before Sophie sat up and grabbed it. The three girls froze in fear.

"Leave me the hell alone and if you ever come back to try to hurt me, I won't let you live another day."

Their voices rang in her ears. Sophie knew she was lucky to be alive. The three girls were incredibly cocky and entitled, which meant that they were also reckless, careless, and fearful. Sophie was able to collect the bat in time, capitalizing on their fear and successfully making them run away. Had she not, however, the girls would have been too lost in their fits of rage and egotistical ways that Sophie may have died tonight or worse… been left for her followers to find.

She swiped the tear from her eye, carefully avoiding the cut on her face, and reached down to turn off the shower. Opening the door, a puff of denser steam was released into the air, making it even foggier in the bathroom. She reached down to grab her matching red lacy bra and panty set from the pile on the ground, thankful that it was only a little bit wet.

Once she had those on, she grabbed the shirt Adachi had handed her from the counter and put it on, buttoning it up just enough to leave room to breathe. She rolled the sleeves up properly, as to not cause any wrinkles, and shook to settle all of the bunched up clothing. Despite her thinking that they actually weren't much different in size, Adachi being only slightly taller and thinner than her, she felt like she could drown in his shirt. The bottom of it just extended slightly past her hips and the arms, when not rolled up, went a good three inches past her fingertips.

Next, she grabbed the bottoms. As she held them out, she realized why Adachi said they were too big for him. The waist itself was large enough to fit both of them. Was this a prank or just a gift from someone that wasn't paying attention? Regardless of the answer, she looked into the mirror and decided the long shirt covered enough of her. Besides, what was the point of her being shy around him?

Sophie exited the bathroom and walked to door of his bedroom. At the foot of his bed, Adachi sat wore only a pair of white boxers with pink dots and a gray hoodie, shivering gently. She blushed and looked down to the floor, feeling like butterflies were rushing to her stomach, and cleared her throat to get his attention. When he glanced up at her, she peeped, "I'm out now if you want to warm up too…"

Adachi's eyes wandered her outfit. The red underwear peeked out from the top and the bottom of the shirt, putting her breasts on display. Since the shirt was so thin, the red material showed through the fabric a bit as well. There she stood, in his bedroom doorway, half-naked and blushing with the gentlest smile on her face.

He slowly got up and walked towards her, stopping right in front of her between the doorway so the space between them was very tight. When he looked down at her, she looked up at him. The two stood in silence.

Adachi reached his hand out and touched her facial wound. He cleared his throat, "when I'm in the shower, why don't you grab some ice from the freezer and put it on your eye so some of the swelling goes down and the bruise goes away faster."

"I didn't know you were a doctor," Sophie said sheepishly.

Adachi put his hand behind his head and scratched through his hair. "It's just basic police stuff… in the city you can get into a lot of fights and I've had my fair share of black eyes."

Silence erupted between the two again.

Sophie, with a groan and scratch in her throat, muttered, "You should probably go shower."

Adachi lowered his hands and smiled, stepping a bit to the right to clear the doorway before turning around. "Yeah, you're right huh."

Adachi walked into the room, now wearing a towel wrapped around his waist and dragging another through his hair. "Hey you know I can sleep on the floor tonight if you wanna sl-" he stopped midsentence when he saw Sophie fast asleep on the floor with his fluffiest blanket nestled up all the way to her chin. He sighed. "I try to be cute and chivalrous and I'm met with resistance," he whispered to himself.

"You can be late to work one day, right Tohru-kun?" The stunned look on Adachi's face when he walked into the kitchen and saw Sophie at his stove surrounded with food, actual hot cooked food, brought a smile to her face. He stood in the doorway with his shirt half unbuttoned and half tucked into his pants that were unbuttoned, complimented with his belt hanging open. His hair, although not normally in place anyway, looked extra ridiculous, like he had never brushed it in his life. One of his brows were raised while the other pinched his eye half closed and his mouth hung open. Sophie remained quiet, holding the spatula in her hand and leaning on the counter near the stove with a smirk on her face. He knew she turned his alarm off.

Not changing his expression, he glanced at all of the food laid out. Pancakes, eggs, toast, orange juice… how the fuck did she know he liked orange juice? "Where did you get all this," he finally croaked out.

She smiled and wiggled seductively. Whatever she was doing, it was working. "Well I woke up and saw that you apparently don't eat since there was literally no food here. So I got dressed and walked to Junes for some groceries! I took the key in your pants so I could let myself back in."

"So you got dressed… came back… and got… undressed…" Adachi carefully chose his words.

Sophie looked down at her outfit that she wore last night: or rather, just one of Adachi's work shirts over her underwear. "Hmm?" She pretended like she had no idea what he was talking about. "Oh…" She scoffed. "This old thing?"

"Unbelievable," he muttered in awe, failing to hide the arousal creeping into his voice.

She turned back to the stove. "Come come now, you can eat and then you can take me back home and then you can go to work or call in sick or whatever you do. I made an American-style breakfast just like my pappa used to make."

"You really admire him don't you? I mean I know he can be obnoxious and bossy, but you respect him."

"Well," Adachi began. "I guess I admire hard work. And that man… I don't think there's a lazy bone in his body."

"He didn't seem too mad that you called in today at least. Maybe you looked like you were getting sick?" The two stopped in front of an abandoned, partially demolished parking structure.

"Eh," Adachi began, "I think I'll probably go back anyway and say that I started feeling better. Try to get stuff done so I don't have so much to do. There's so much paperwork that it's disappointing."

Sophie smiled. "At least you got a nice breakfast to keep you energized for the day."

He put his hand behind his head and looked up to the sky, blushing as he remembered his delicious breakfast with a cute girl. "I still can't believe you did that… thanks, though."

Sophie nodded. "You're welcome. Thank you for letting me stay the night so I didn't have to walk home in that rain."

"What are friends for, right?"

A smile grew on Sophie's face. Friends. Is that what that meant? After a few seconds of silence, she cleared her throat. "Well um… I ought to get going… and you should probably go to work. Thank you for the ride home."

"Hey no problem at all! Hopefully one of the desk worker's shifts is over by now so I don't have to listen to his obnoxious voice while I'm working. I'll talk to you soon probably, alright?"

"Mhm." Sophie nodded. Right before Adachi turned around to head towards his car, Sophie lifted herself upwards on her tiptoes and gave him a kiss on the cheek. When her feet returned back to solid ground, she turned around and headed for what looked like an entry way.

As she walked into the room, she smirked and bit her lip. She realized she probably shouldn't have done that, as it made her more confused. He was cute. His voice was cute, his stance was cute… his personality was unique: almost like it was hand-crafted by himself to give the perfect mix of mystery and average male. He was kind. He had a stable life, even if it wasn't glamourous. It had been a long time since Sophie had felt butterflies in her stomach near someone, and never this strong.

But ultimately, she was much different than him. She could not follow a schedule or plan ahead. She could not afford to be nice. The only time she used a different personality was to commit a crime in order to survive. And while his life was stable, she couldn't ever count on doing anything "the next day" because of having to move from city to city. It was useless to fall in love.

"Soph! Oh my Gawd! Are you okay?! What happened to your eye!? I'm so sorry it's all my fault you left and I'll never bring up anything you don't want to talk about again I was so worried when you didn't show up last night!" Aimi, the broken record, ran up to Sophie and recited a long, jumbled apology filled with concern and false promises.

"Aimi, it's fine I just want to be alone for a bit please… I didn't get much sleep."

Aimi glared past Sophie's shoulder. "And what do YOU want?"

Sophie froze.

"Hey um… you left this in my car." Adachi held up a purple credit card with two fingers. "I thought it was probably important and I should get it back to you sooner rather than later."

Aimi grinned, taking a glance at Sophie who was staring the strange man in the eyes like he was going to explode any second. This was him. This was the guy.

"Th-thank you," Sophie said quietly. Aimi knew now. And Sophie knew she would never hear the end of it. Adachi approached her and she took the card from him, nodding.

"Hey sure. I'll catch you later! I'm leaving for real this time." And off he scurried back to his car.

He followed her. He followed her inside. If someone was watching Sophie, now they knew who to go after to hurt her. Now he knew the trash hole he lived in. Now Sophie could feel Aimi's eyes piercing her soul.

"…You're seriously fucking a cop. You must want to get caught."

"I'm not-" Sophie stuttered, beginning to panic. "We're not… he's just a friend! Stop being so nosy!"

"You're putting all of us at risk here! You shouldn't have brought him. Boyfriend or no." All of the energy and perkiness that Sophie found annoying left Aimi's eyes and was replaced with fear and anger.

Sophie rolled her eyes and stormed off towards her bed. "You know, it's funny because just a couple of days ago you couldn't stop squealing at me and now that you have met a FRIEND it's suddenly not okay. Those cops have more important things to worry about right now and I'm not going to be bossed around by you."