Title: Rumors
Fandom:Detective Conan
Pairing:Miwako Sato & Wataru Takagi
Theme:#12 – Hobbies
Rating: T
Summary: Sato and Takagi become the objects of office gossip once more, and they try to figure out why.
Disclaimer:DC is not mine! I owe it all to the great Gosho Aoyama-sama. –bows-

Takagi looked up from his laptop screen as he heard the soft creak and thud of the door opening and closing echo throughout the almost empty, save for another officer hunched over a case file at the farther end of the room, First Division office. "Evening, Sato-san," he greeted her as she made her way towards his desk.

"You done with your report yet, Takagi-kun?" Sato pulled the chair on the desk beside his and took a seat, her legs crossed. " I'm famished."

"I'm just finishing up. I'll be done in around ten minutes, probably." Takagi turned his attention back to the word document he had been working on before she had arrived. For a while only the intermittent tapping of his fingers on the keyboard, which was in stark contrast to the more rhythmic tapping of Sato's fingers on the table's surface, could be heard. "So, how was your day?"

The two had not seen each other since they came in to work that morning, as he was stuck inside the office neck-deep in paperwork while she had been out for most of the day following up on leads for a different case.

Sato swiveled the chair around so that she could face him directly. "It was really weird, actually. I don't know why, but everyone kept on looking at me. Or more specifically, they kept on looking at my hand. I thought it was my imagination at first, but then eventually I caught a few of our co-workers glancing my way before they could look away." She paused as she rested her head on one hand, while the other fiddled with a pen that had been left behind by the desk's owner. "One time, I got fed up and asked what was going on, but no one would answer me. They just stared at me, and they sort of had this sad look in their eyes, like a kid who just lost their balloon or something."

"Now that you mention it, everyone was acting pretty weird around me today too. People seemed to be glaring at me more than usual," Takagi told her, eyes not moving away from the screen.

"Actually, that's not even the strangest part," she continued, her hand stroking her chin thoughtfully as her brows furrowed even deeper. "When I came across Yumi along the hall this morning, she hugged me, and then congratulated me and told me that she was happy for me. Then later on while I was having lunch, I saw Ran-chan and that friend of hers and they both said pretty much the same thing too, minus the hugging of course."

"Wow, that is strange." For the first time since she entered the room, Takagi turned to face her, looking equally if not more confused. "Did you ask them why they were congratulating you, though?"

"I didn't have the chance to. They both walked away giggling before I could even respond. They all seemed really, disturbingly happy though." Sato let out a huge sigh. "It's sort of like that time when Yumi gave me her ring."

Sato's words echoed in Takagi's head as realization slowly dawned on him. His eyes widened and his mouth hung slightly open as clarity hit him like a train. His mind drifted back to a conversation he had earlier that morning. He and Chiba had been talking over coffee by the vending machines in the break room then.

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"So how's your progress coming along?" Chiba asked him as he gathered his change from the vending machine and put it in his pocket.

Takagi took a quick sip of his coffee. "Well let's see, I bought this new house down by the countryside the other day. It's really huge compared to where I live now, though I haven't started buying furniture yet."

"Wow that sounds cool! I want to move out of my cramped apartment too, but I'm usually too tired after work to practice the skills that I need to get a promotion," Chiba told him, frowning. His lips quickly curved into a grin a moment later, however, and it bothered Takagi. "And how about your love life?"

Takagi almost spit out his drink. It did not take long for him to recover, but when he finally did, his face was as red as a tomato, both because of his surprise over Chiba's bluntness and the warmth of his coffee that he could have sworn had just burned his throat. He scratched the back of his head sheepishly as his friend eagerly waited for his answer. "Well, Sato-san and I had been going steady for quite some time now, as you know. We've been flirting a lot, and we've kissed a few times too. By the rate we're going, proposing might actually be an option by tonight!"

Chiba's grin did not waver. "But why wait later when you can do it now?"

"It's not as simple as you think. I have to make sure that she's in the right mood first, among other things." Takagi took another long sip of his coffee. "And besides, we're both at work right now."

"Whatever you say, lover boy." Chiba patted Takagi's shoulder twice, making the coffee on the cups they were holding swirl. "But if you do go through with it tonight, that's a life achievement right there. It took you long enough!"

"You can't blame me. We kind of started on the wrong foot, remember? Our personalities clashed, for one. And you've seen yourself how long it took us to get past the good friends stage. Everything I said or did seemed to be wrong most of the time."

"And yet here you are about to propose to her, against all odds."

Takagi smiled. "Yeah, I still can't believe how good everything's been going-" He stopped mid-sentence as a styrofoam cup landed behind him with a soft thud. "….so far."

Neither said a word as they stared at the cup for a long time, as though they were expecting it to move and walk away at any second. It was the ringing of the bell that signaled the start of their 8-to-5 shift that brought them back to their senses.

"Well, I'll go on ahead. There's a mountain-load of papers waiting for me back at my desk." Takagi crumpled his now empty cup and threw it in a nearby bin. "See you around, yeah?"

Chiba nodded. "Good luck! You can do it, Takagi."

As Takagi spun on his heel and walked away, he peeked behind both of the vending machines hoping to find whoever it was that dropped the cup, but there was nobody there. As he still had a long day ahead of him, he decided to shrug it off as one of the mysteries of life that he would never know the answer to and let it go.

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Hours later, however, everything made perfect sense to him. It was a no-brainer that the cup had to come from somewhere, or rather, from someone, and he knew exactly who that someone was. He sighed as an image of a long-haired, female traffic enforcer popped into his mind.

"I think I know what's going on," Takagi finally said.

Sato looked at him expectantly as she waited for him to go on, but he did not say anything more. Instead, he turned back to his laptop and started clicking away, much to her annoyance. "So are you going to tell me or what?" The suspense was killing her, and her still grumbling stomach did not put her at the best of moods.

"No, even better. I'm going to show you." Takagi moved his laptop so that both of them could see it and gestured towards the screen, where an aerial view of a virtual neighborhood could be seen. The pointer was hovering above one of the houses, and a pop-up window showed pictures of what she assumed were its occupants as well as other icons and numbers that she did not understand as easily.

Sato pointed at one of the occupants. "Hey, that person looks strangely familiar."

Takagi laughed. "That's because it's you." He pointed to the man beside her virtual self. "And this is me."

Sato moved her chair forward as she examined their on-screen counterparts more closely, then scowled. "I don't recall you having muscular arms." She raised a questioning eyebrow as she compared Takagi's real and virtual selves.

"I-it's the default body type for men," he lied, and she seemed to believe him, much to his relief. "Anyway, we live together in this apartment building right here. Chiba and Yumi live in separate rooms on the floor below, while Inspector Megure and his wife live in that bungalow across the street. Shiratori-kun used to live in that bachelor pad over there, but he's moved to that slightly bigger house right beside it after Kobayashi-san decided to move in with him," he then explained, in the same matter-of-fact tone he would talk about the details of a case with. He was pleasantly surprised to see that she did not seem to be bothered at all by his virtual life. Or if she was, she did not show it.

Takagi clicked on the house, and a loading screen appeared. After a minute or so, the loading screen was replaced by a more close-up view of the place. Sato watched curiously as he used the cursor to move around the house and to command his virtual self to do all sorts of things. The Takagi sim had been watching some sort of action show on the TV when a thought bubble showing Takagi and a heart suddenly appeared above a blonde woman's head as she was passing by him.

"What was that?" Sato's tone had dropped dangerously low.

Takagi laughed nervously. "Yeah, the game does that sometimes. It's nothing, really."

"If you say so." Sato was clearly not convinced this time around. She watched quietly as the sims moved about until the Takagi and Sato on the screen sat down on the dining room table and started eating the take-out that had just arrived. It reminded her about how hungry she was, and, a split second later, how her question remained unanswered. "Okay, this game is really interesting and everything, but I still don't get what it has to do with everyone acting all weird today."

"Oh that." Takagi smiled apologetically. "Yumi must have overheard my conversation with Chiba this morning. We were talking about the game, you see, but she must have taken it out of context and started telling everyone about it."

Sato sunk back on her chair and stretched her legs. "What about the game, exactly?"

"About how I was going to propose…." Takagi trailed off as he realized just in time what he was about to say meant.

Sato stared at him, which only made him even more nervous. "Propose?"

"Propose…propose..." He fumbled in his mind for a decent reply, or any reply for that matter, but his brain along with the rest of his organs seemed to have shut down. She was still looking at him with those piercing blue eyes of hers, and if she did not stop any time soon, he felt like he might spontaneously combust at any moment. Just when he thought it could not get any worse, Sato bent forward, reached out both arms, and shook him by the shoulders.

"Spit it out, Takagi-kun!"

"Propose that our sims move to this new house that I recently bought," he blurted out without really thinking. Her grip loosened a little, which was more than a good sign. He was still not completely off the hook yet, however, as his explanation so far was obviously lacking. "Yeah, that's it. It's a really lovely place, and it has a pool too! Way better than this apartment that we're renting right now." He tried his best to smile, hoping that the fear and denial and whatever other emotion he had in his eyes would not betray him.

Sato only stared at him with an expression he could not really discern, which worried him even more. Then, after what seemed like an eternity and a half, she finally released him and slumped back on her chair, much to his relief.

"Well that explains a lot." Neither said a word for a while. Sato, realizing that she was still holding the pen, put it back where she had found it on the desk. "Why did they make such a big deal about it though? They could have just told me about it, I mean, it's just a game geez."

Takagi laughed. "There are people who take video games very seriously."

Sato shook her head. "I will never get people and video games."

The two turned to the screen once more, where the game window was still open. They were overcame with horror, evident in their slacked jaws and wide eyes, as their minds registered what was going on. Their virtual counterparts were in the bedroom. The two sims had just pulled away from a rather steamy kiss, and were then getting under the covers. The rest of their foray had been left to their imaginations, though, as Takagi exited the game in record time, but they both knew very well that the damage had been done. Luckily for him, Sato had taken it upon herself to control the situation before the tension got too palpable than it already was. She cleared her throat in an attempt to compose herself. "So are you done with your report?"

"Ye-yeah, actually I am. I just need to print it out." Like her, Takagi too was still clearly shaken. He knew he needed to be alone for a while if he wanted to regain his composure any time soon. "You can go on ahead if you like. Meet you at the main entrance?"

"Actually, my virtual self just gave me an idea. Is it okay if we go straight to your place instead?" At first she did not understand why Takagi looked like he was on the verge of cardiac arrest again, but after thinking about what she had just said, she, too, had pretty much the same scandalized expression. "To eat dinner, of course! I don't really feel like eating out tonight. We can order take-out just like our sims did."

"Y-yes, of course."

The two shared nervous laughter in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"It's a date, then," Sato then said as she stood up and walked away as fast as she could, but not too fast that it could give away how embarrassed she was as well.

As the door closed with a thud, Takagi found himself alone in the office once more. He had been talking to himself about what a close call it had been for quite some time before the unmistakable sound of a folder hitting wood reminded him that he was, in fact, not as alone as he thought he was. Even though he knew he was going to regret it, he slowly turned towards the row of desks opposite his, where the other occupant of the room was, true enough, throwing daggers at him behind the stack of papers and folders on his own desk. "Hey, how's it going?" Takagi made the mistake of asking him, to which the guy replied with a grunt before going back to the case file he had been reading.

Takagi turned back to his own desk and sighed. His colleague appeared to have gone back to work, but he could still feel his angry gaze on the back of his head. He prayed to all things holy for his printer, which seemed to be mocking him by being exceptionally slow, to do its job faster.

As he waited, something told him that his life insurance needed upgrading again, and soon, at that. The sinking feeling in his stomach all but disappeared, however, when he picked up his phone and read the message Sato had just sent him, telling him to hurry up. It reminded him of the reason why he had been able to put up with all the taunting, the gossiping, and the seemingly serious but hopefully not death threats from his co-workers for so long – it was because of her.

As promised, here is another update fresh from my MS Word oven. This is probably my quickest time in between updates since I've started this challenge back in '08. Yes, apparently it has been almost six years since I first posted this welp how time flies. Anyway, this fic idea came to me while I was in the shower, strangely enough. I started thinking about how I missed playing The Sims for some reason, and soon enough, this plot idea came to me begging to be written. I actually made Sato and Takagi sims a long, long time ago, but that's another story hehe. Also, hooray for magic number 25! *throws confetti around*

Review por favor? I would very much love to hear your thoughts, as always. =))

Arrivederci and 'til next update!