Chapter 11

Tennoji drove us to the interrogation room to the see the guy they picked up, but the man was not the king.

"He does resemble the King, but the height and clothes are all wrong. He isn't the king." I said.

"Oh.. Damn. Sorry to drag you down here for nothing." Tennoji said.

"It's ok, no problem." I said and smiled reassuringly at him.

"I'll give you a ride back. Where's your date waiting?" he asked.

"My date?"

"Yeah, where's the dude waiting?"

Oh he must mean Tom.

"It's fine, I told him to go home and besides, I don't really want to see him anyway. I'm still upset about how he acted at the bar. He was such a jerk; I couldn't believe him. He was trying to make things up to me today." I said.

I didn't want to talk to Tennoji about this but I just had to talk to someone about it.

"How about going on a date with me?"

"Huh?" I said not sure if I heard him correctly.

"I mean, I would have to come back to work later, but we could go somewhere for a little while. I promised we could do eat those caramel mackis, right?"

"I already told you, they're drinks. Not food. I swear, you never listen to me." I said firmly.

He chuckled "Come on, let's go."

He grabbed my hand and dragged me back to his car.

Was this really happening? Going on a date with Tennoji? I felt so guilty, I was technically going out with Tom. And Tom was trying hard to make things right with us but he was such an asshole last night. I felt so confused, but what was the harm in hanging out with Tennoji? It's not like anything was going to ever happen between us.

Tennoji brought me to a park near the sea.

"They don't sell your macchiatos, Stone." He said. "So, I got you ice cream instead. Do you want vanilla or chocolate?"

"Chocolate."

"Ok, then. Here, you get vanilla." He said and handed me an ice cream.

"Hey! I said wanted chocolate."

He laughed and started eating his ice cream with a mischievous, childlike look on his face.

"Whoa. This shit is good!" he beamed.

"What a jerk!" I said and poked my tongue out at him.

We sat next to each other on a bench and looked out at the sea.

"I haven't done something like this in forever." He said.

"Why did you bring me to the sea?" I asked.

"Because this is a date. You gotta go to the sea on a date. I haven't been on a date in a long time. Stone, where do you like to go on da-"

He stopped mid-sentence, there was a boy sitting nearby staring intently at his ice cream.

"You want my ice cream?" Tennoji asked him.

"They sold out of chocolate." The boy said.

"Oh yeah… I bought the last one. You want mine?"

"Can I really have it?" the boy asked.

Tennoji smiled and gave the boy his ice cream. The boy happily thanked Tennoji and skipped off.

"Thanks Mister!"

"No problem kid." Tennoji and waved as the boy went away.

"Ok, so you won't give me a chocolate ice cream but you'd give it to a kid?" I asked.

"Yup!" he beamed and gave me a cheeky grin.

"You're really good with good kids." I said and laughed.

"Obviously. I'm good with everyone. Anyway, Stone.. how's your vanilla?" he asked.

"It's really good." I said.

"Don't eat all of it. Gimme some!"

"Only if you say the magic word." I said and held my ice cream away from him.

"But I was the one who bought it."

"And then you gave it to me. So what's the magic word?" I asked.

"Who cares? Gimme!"

We started to fight over my ice cream, I tried to move it away from him as he tried to grab it.

"Get off!" I said and hit his hands away.

He then grabbed hold of it, he laughed triumphantly and took a big bite from it.

"Yesss! I got some! I am the ice cream championnnnn!"

"Hey!" I tried to pull my ice cream free but as we fought, I ended up dropping it on the floor.

"Whoa. What did you do that for?" he demanded.

"Well it's your fault for trying to steal my ice cream."

"Man… you dropped all of it. I guess I'll go buy one more." He said with a heavy sigh.

As he stood up, his phone started to ring.

"Hello? Oh Boss. Ok, I'll head back now." He hung up, he then turned and looked at me. "Sorry."

"It's ok, go. I'll get the train home." I said.

"I'll take you part of the way home." He offered.

"That's ok. I want to sit here like this a little longer." I said.

"You do?"

"Is everything alright?" he asked.

"Yeah, I just don't want to go home yet. I'm fine, seriously go. Kirisawa will be made if you keep him waiting. Go." I said.

"Later." He said and waved as he walked away.

I waved back and watched him till he disappeared.

I sighed and looked out at the ocean, I couldn't keep going like this. I needed to decide, I needed to make a decision. I had feelings for Tennoji, I didn't know what they were but there was something there. But I also had feelings for Tom. I needed to choose and whoever I chose, I needed to stand by my decision and stop leading them both on.

I stayed by the ocean for a little while longer before I headed home. I unlocked my door and stepped in to find that my apartment was filled with lit candles. Tom was sat on the sofa, he was holding a bouquet of roses and he had cooked a meal. There was a bottle of wine on the table as well.

"Hey." I said and closed the door.

"Hey. Did you identify the perp?" he asked.

He stood up and handed me the flowers. I buried my face into the flower and inhaled their sweet scent, roses were my favourite flowers.

"No, it wasn't him. You did all this for me?" I asked.

"Yeah, like I said, I don't want to lose you. I love you Freya."

He placed both of his hands on my waist and pulled me towards me and planted a soft kiss on my lips.

When we broke apart, I looked around my apartment. This was so romantic; I had only ever seen scenes like this in movies. He really was trying to make things up to me. I looked up at him, he looked serious and remorseful.

"So, you're here for a month?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"And then what happens after that?" I asked.

"I'll be going back to Iraq for 6 months." He said.

I sighed and looked at the floor. Why should I stay with him and get my hopes up if he was just going to leave in the end? I didn't want a long distance relationship like my mother and father. Their relationship was terrible and my father was never around and when he was, he was always such a jerk.

Tom caressed my cheek with his hand and lifted my chin up.

"I know you don't want to end up like your parents but give me a chance. I can make you the happiest woman in the world. Just give me the month, at the end if you still want to end things then that's fine. Just give me the month."

He had such a passionate look in his eyes, how could I deny him when he looked at me like that?

I grabbed the back of his head and pulled him in for a kiss. I dropped the flowers and wrapped my arms around me as the kiss intensity grew. He lifted me up off the ground, turned around and put me down on the sofa. We then started to remove our clothes and before we knew it, we were making love on my sofa.

The next day, I was back at work. Tom came with me on my normal morning run and then gave me a lift to work.

I was at the hotel today, the atmosphere was intense.

"I need you guys to concentrate and search." Kirisawa ordered. "Every room, every hallway. Don't miss anything. The summit it tomorrow."

The day of the summit was almost here, we didn't have long till the attack. We were all at the hotel searching for explosives.

"Stone, what's up with the entrance to the main hall?" Tennoji asked.

"I finished checking it." I said.

"How about the room searches and the ID checks for the people on the upper floor?" he asked.

"All done. I didn't find anything out of the ordinary." I said.

The other MPD units had joined 2nd unit to help search for the bomb. Everyone was working together, rolling up carpets, checking food.

"No slacking until we've found the bomb and caught the terrorists." Kirisawa said. "Check out anything that looks even slightly suspicious. Search every nook and cranny!"

He sure was good at giving motivational speeches.

"Nook and cranny.." Tennoji and then he looked around the hall.

It looked like he had an idea.

"Stone."

"Yeah?"

"See that air vent over there? That counts as a nook or cranny or whatever, right?"

"Oh definitely. It's clearly a cranny." I said.

"These guys tied their bomb to a cat at that embassy. They're definitely creative when it comes to bomb placement." He said.

We exchanged a look before we hurried to the hotel's service room.

"I can't see a thing." He said.

"I can make out the part close to us." I said.

I used my flashlight to illuminate the ventilation duct. It lit up the part of the vent closest to me, but the interior was pitch black.

"What should we do? Do you have a bigger light?" I asked.

"We won't be able to see what's beyond that curve, even with a bright light." He said.

"So what do we do?" I asked.

"We've got crawl into the vent."

"What? No way!"

"If we crawl in, we should be able to check out the entire network of vent. Stone, you go first."

"Me? No. You go first."

"You're smaller than me. You'll be able to fit in places I can't. What's wrong? Scared? I thought you were in army." He said and flashed me a teasing grin.

"I'm not scared of anything, it's just.."

I looked down at my outfit. I was wearing new clothes and now they were going to get ruined by crawling through a horrible, dirty vent. Plus, I was wearing a skirt today. I usually wore trousers but they were all dirty. If Tennoji was crawling behind me.

"What's the deal?" he asked. "If you gotta problem, just say."

"Ok, but can you wait a minute? I want to change clothes."

"We don't have time for that. Geez. What're your worried about this random stuff for?"

He then glanced down at me and suddenly a look of realization crossed his face.

"You think I- As if I care about looking up your skirt. This is serious, we're at work."

"Ok. Fine, I'll crawl in first." I said.

"And if I did happen to see something, it would only be on accident." He said.

I turned and glared at him.

"I'm joking. C'mon, let's go."

I walked over to the vent, I grabbed hold and pulled myself up and into the vent.

"Ugh. This is so gross and it smells." I said as I started to crawl.

This brought back horrible memories of my basic training.

"It looks like there could be something in here." He said.

"There's so much dust. My clothes are going to get dirty." I grumbled.

"What'd you wear a skirt for anyway?" he asked.

"All of my trousers are dirty, I forgot to do my laundry yesterday." I said.

"Oh." He gasped.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I felt something back there." He said.

"Where?"

"About two feet behind me. Shine the light back here."

The vent was narrow and there wasn't a lot of room to move, but somehow I managed to shine the light behind me. The sweat on Tennoji's forehead glistened in the light.

"Shine it over here. Oh, it's just the joint where two pipes meet. Sorry, we can keep going."

"Ok. This is horrible, this is worse than crawling through mud." I said.

The vent was so small; I could barely move. The melt vent scrapped up my knees, elbows and forearms.

"What is your deal? I've never heard an ex-soldier complain so much."

"I left the army to avoid doing stuff like this." I said.

We thoroughly searched the vent, but we didn't find anything that looks like a bomb. We searched the vents on every floor, by the time we made our way up to the roof it was the middle of the night.

"Stone, do you see anything in that vent?" he asked.

"Nope, nothing."

"There's nothing in this one either. So that means the whole ventilation system is clear. Where the hell did these guys plant the bomb?"

"Who knows." I said with a shrug.

I was covered in dirt, my hair was a mess and all of my makeup was smudged. I probably looked like a tramp.

"I can't imagine how they're gonna get past all of the security tomorrow." He said.

We both looked down from the rooftop, the world below us looked lively and bright. Security lights and lights for the tomorrow's summit shone brightly. The roof felt quiet and peaceful in comparison and the lights of the city looked so beautiful.

"Your clothes got all dirty. That sucks, your skirt was cute." He said.

"You're a mess too. You've got soot in your hair." I said.

"Let's wash off over there." He said.

We used a tap on the roof to clean off our hands and faces. I started to wipe my hands off with my handkerchief. Tennoji then stuck his hand out to me.

"What?"

"Dry me off to." He said. "Oh, you.."

"Huh?"

He was looking at my face, he then reached out and touched my cheek with his hand.

"Hey. What are you doing?"

"Relax. Don't move for a sec. You've got soot on you."

He gently wiped soot from my face.

"This must be hard for you."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"If you hadn't come to 2nd unit, you wouldn't have to do weird stuff like this. But I guess you're use to it, being in the army an' all." He said.

His hand was still moving, his long smooth fingers caressed my cheek.

"I bet you never thought you'd be crawling through ventilation systems."

"No I didn't. I liked my work in the community safety unit. Things were tough sometimes but nothing like this. It was the complete opposite to the army." I said.

"I bet. Getting transferred to the 2nd unit must've been a stroke of bad luck."

He was caressing my cheek as if he was handling something very precious. There couldn't possibility still be soot on my face.

"Over time every day, getting called in on your days off. You probably don't have any time to hang out with your friends."

"I don't, like today." I said.

"Today? What were you gonna do today?"

"I was just going to go out with some friends, they were visiting today from Kyoto. They were only going to be down for one day. We were meant to go out for dinner and drinks." I said.

"What? Why didn't you say so earlier? I coulda asked somebody from another unit to help me."

"It's ok, this is more important. They understand anyway."

"It's midnight now. You think you're friends are still out drinking? You could meet up with them if you leave now."

"Not like this I can't. And I received a text, they headed back to their hotel. It had been a while since everyone had gotten together. It sounded like that had lots of fun." I said.

"Is that another reason why you wore a skirt today?"

"Well yeah, I was going to meet up with them the minute I finished work. My friends all work in offices, I'm only cop plus I was in the army. I wanted to wear something pretty for once." I said.

"Was that guy going to be there?" he asked.

"You mean Tom?"

"Did you want to wear something pretty because you were going to see him?" he asked.

"What do you care what I wear? It's none of your business." I said.

"Stone, are you seriously saying that to me?" he said.

He was looking at me with his sweet eye look. I couldn't look at him and turned away.

"Hey." He said and put his hand on my shoulder.

I didn't answer him so he turned me around and looked me in the eye.

"I gotta say, I'm kinda glad you didn't meet up with him." He said. "I didn't want you to hang out with him."

My heart started to race, not this again! I had to do something.

"Besides, you know being with me is more fun than some reunion with your friends. I want you stay with me tonight."

"You're joking, right?" I asked.

"Nah, I'm 100% for real. Are you?"

He was looking at me so seriously. He didn't look like his normal, playful self.

"Why are you asking me that?"

"Why? You know why."

"Tennoji, I'm with Tom." I said hesitantly but his expression didn't change.

"Ditch him, I'm better then him anyway."

"You don't know anything about him." I said.

"I know he's not right for you." He said.

He came closer to me and I automatically take a step back. He took hold of my arm and pulled me closer to him.

"hey-oh.."

He held me in a tight embrace, I could feel the pulse of his beating heart.

"Stone.." he whispered in my ear.

His warm breath tickled my skin.

"Wait.."

"I can't wait anymore." He said.

"But…"

"Sorry. I have to."

He brought his face close to mine and pressed his lips against my own. His lips seal over mine, I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him even closer. He was so passionate, he kissed me greedily, hungrily. He adjusted the angle of his kiss to explore my mouth deeper.

"Stone.." he whispered with his lips still on mine.

"Mmmm.."

"I don't want to share you. I want you to be mine. Only mine. Forget about that other guy. I'll make you forget all about him." He said.

He then started kissing me again but more intensely. We pulled apart for a moment only to come together once more, each of us still hungry for the other's kiss. Standing on the roof, bathed in enchanting moonlight, we kissed each other insatiably, again and again.