I am SO sorry it has taken so long for me to update! grad school is taking up SO much time this semester. cries
Ah well, thank you all SO much for the comments! i appreciate it!!!!
enjoy!

-Fireun

"I have a case for you two." Tatsumi placed a small stack of papers on Hisoka's desk, then primly crossed his arms. "You will need to look into it starting this afternoon, or as soon as you finish looking over the information we have gathered thus far- whichever happens faster." At an affirmative sound from Hisoka, who was already engrossed in the stack of paper Tatsumi retreated to his office and the endless supply of work there.

"Tsuzuki, come over here and look this over." Hisoka called absently to his partner. He should have taken a hint when he couldn't hear Tsuzuki's usual complaints at being made to work. He should have taken notice of the fact the other man was shielding his emotions. He should have...

...moved to the side.

Tsuzuki, an impish grin on his face, planted a particularly playful kiss on his partners cheek, happy at having caught the younger man unaware.

"Can you at least pretend to be professional?" Hisoka snapped, cold in his embarrassment.

Tsuzuki withdrew, emotionally and physically, and sat himself down beside Hisoka, the model of a perfect employee. When Hisoka got angry he didn't get hot like most people. He went cold. And cold was one emotion that Tsuzuki was not good at handling.

Hisoka grimaced; feeling and feeling Tsuzuki pull away. 'I am horrible to him. I really should start a betting pool on how long he will put up with me. At least this way I can make some money off of my own stupidity.' "I'm sorry. It is early. Haven't had coffee yet. Didn't mean that to come out like it did."

It was a muttered jumble of words, but it was an apology, and Tsuzuki took it gracefully, smiling gently and standing. "I will get you some coffee, and then we can look this over without either of us killing the other."

Nodding his appreciation, Hisoka returned his attention to the case Tatsumi had handed them. It seemed straightforward enough, a simple case of murder, if one could label such a situation as placidly as all that. The oddest part of the case seemed to be that none of the victims seem to have been afraid when they died. There was no expression on the faces of the dead that suggested anything but a pleasant sort of curiosity.

"Wonderful. We get all the weird cases. I blame it on my idiot of a partner."

"Oh? Shall I add it to the list?"

Hisoka felt a blush flaring up, one of those caught-talking-to-myself bits of embarrassment made all the more interesting by a caught-by-the-person-I-was-talking-about bits of discomfort. If he hadn't known Tsuzuki well enough to know he was teasing he would be fumbling for some sort of appropriate apology. He did manage a fairly graceful recovery as he replied with "Oh? You are organized enough to keep them all in a list?" Hah. That wasn't too bad.

"Well, if I list them all out, I know exactly what ones not to get all, how do you usually put it...guilty and gloomy." Tsuzuki slid back into his chair with the boneless grace of a cat, depositing a steaming mug of coffee in front of his partner. "There. Coffee. Next we can have civility."

"As long as you don't expect me to make a habit of it." Hisoka muttered into the mug he snatched into anxious hands. A coffee habit. One of the other fine things he had gained in the past few months. Now it seemed as if nothing really functioned in his head until he had sucked up at least half a pot of the stuff.

His partner distracted, Tsuzuki eyed the case file, biting his lower lip thoughtfully. At least it was a new style of murder, nothing to set of the usual alarms on the Muraki-meter. "Well, 'Soka, I would suggest we start poking about and see what there is to see. Anyway..." He read a few more lines pertaining to the latest in the deaths. "There is an incredible pastry shop about a block from where this one took place. I can get myself some breakfast before all the work starts."

"How can you think like that?!" Hisoka all but choked on his coffee in his amazement.

Tsuzuki's response, while not verbal, was most definitely infantile.