The next week went by rather smoothly for investigator Suzuya Juuzou. He kept his distance from Amon, and he didn't argue all that much with Kiniko. However, Juuzou figured the lack of arguing was due to the fact that they had done little to no work. There was no leads on the two mens' assignment: locating an Aogiri base.
Thinking about Sen made the office a lot less boring. They would call each other every night for about an hour before they went to sleep. It would fill Juuzou with this strange, warm fuzzy feeling that was unfamiliar to him. They would have light conversations about the days events, and deep conversations about how they felt. Suzuya noticed that no matter how much he pried, he got nothing more out of Sen having to do with her family.
Juuzou was sitting on a park bench, waiting for Sen to show up. He fiddled with his suspenders and kicked his feet in the snow.
"Hey!" Sen said, sitting down next to him. She handed him a donut. "I got you this."
"Thanks!"
The two talked for awhile about all sorts of things.
"Aren't you excited for Christmas?" Sen squealed.
"Not really," Juuzou answered honestly.
"What? Why not?"
"I don't really do anything for it."
Sen was quiet for a couple seconds. "We could do something."
"Like what?"
"Whatever you want," she smiled. "But we couldn't go to my apartment, because my step father is going to be there."
"I thought-."
"He doesn't speak," Sen said, cutting Juuzou off. "And he prefers to be left alone."
"Oh," Juuzou said. "Well, we could go over to my place."
"We could bake christmas cookies!" Sen said, clapping her hands together.
Juuzou's face brightened. He loved Christmas cookies. "That sounds good!"
"And that way I can give you your gift!"
"You got me something?" Suzuya asked, shocked. Nobody had ever gotten him a Christmas gift before.
"Yeah," Sen smiled. "I saw something and I thought of you, and Christmas is coming up, so I thought why not."
"Thanks," he blushed.
The two stayed in the park until the snow started coming down.
"Well, I have to go!" Sen said, getting up.
Juuzou stood up. "Bye," he said.
And he hugged her. He was shocked by his own sudden display of confidence.
After she left, Juuzou went to the store.
"What should I get her for Christmas?" he wondered out loud. He had never bought a Christmas present for anyone before.
After a fair amount of looking, Suzuya opted to buy a couple notebooks, some nice pens, and a type of coffee that he knew she loved. When he was walking to the checkout lane, he realized he would also need wrapping paper. He bought a plain red roll and purchased the other things and went home.
Back at his apartment, he laid out what he needed on the floor. He put out the scissors, wrapping paper, and the gifts.
It was then he realized two things: He had no tape, and no idea how to wrap a gift.
He cut a giant piece of paper from the roll and placed the items in the middle. He then began folding the best he could. When it was done, it looked like a lumpy pillowcase.
Having no tape, Suzuya decided to stitch the pieces of wrapping paper together. With a needle and his red thread, he worked well on into the night trying to get everything to hold together.
When he was finished, he ate some cake he had in the fridge for a very late dinner, and then decided since he was already up late, he might as well make her card that night as well. He sat down in his chair and grabbed his clipboard and piece of paper and his crayons.
He then proceeded to sit there trying to think of what to write or draw. He racked his brain of what Sen would like a picture of. Finally, he decided to draw a picture of Sen and him when they first met, sitting on the bench at the zoo, watching the giraffes.
It took Juuzou two hours to complete his drawing, but he was satisfied with it. He wrote 'Merry Christmas' on the bottom in green and red block letters.
Weary eyed, he glanced at the clock. It read 1:05 A.M. Without bothering to change, the young investigator collapsed in his bed and fell asleep.