The road nestled against the small river was beautiful enough to see in pictures, but driving on it was a completely different experience, and it was one that Shuichi honestly wished he could be having in slightly better weather. There were raindrops hitting the windshield consistently, causing him to have to use the wipers just infrequently enough that he couldn't set them to automatic and call it a day, lest he wanted to fill the car with the sound of screeching as the blade went dry across the glass. He would be the only one bothered by the sound, though, as his passenger was off in her own world, headphones in her ears and her eyes looking out at the river as they drove along it.
How he'd gotten roped into driving one of the most popular classical pianists in the country was rather simple, and it wasn't as if he had any problems with her as a person, but he could have done for someone to at least engage with on the more boring parts of the trip. They'd been at it for several hours, coming up on the last small town before their destination, and he was growing lonely despite having a beautiful woman sitting right next to him. "Wonder if she would be acting like this if anyone else was the one driving her," he asked himself, as he turned the wipers on for another go, noticing this time that the rain was beginning to pick up its pace. "She's not even paying attention to the weather, she's just…doing her own thing right now."
"I can hear you, you know," she replied, and for the first time the whole drive Shuichi could say that he heard Kaede say something in his direction, even if she was still focused on the world outside the window. "It's just a lovely drive through here, and usually I don't get to take it so slowly, so I was enjoying the view and the playback of my concert from last night. Is there a problem with that?"
He hadn't expected to have to actually talk to her about how he felt, and so he shook his head and swallowed down any other thoughts he may have had. She seemed content with his silence, and went to press play on her phone's screen once more when they heard what sounded like a low rumble of thunder off in the distance. "Great, a thunderstorm, exactly what I want to be driving into when we're about to get into the no man's land part of this drive," he grumbled, while Kaede's eyes turned from the window over to him, an expression of curiosity upon her face. "I know that we've both got places to be tomorrow, but I'd rather stop than have to drive through the unknown during a storm."
"If it wasn't for the fact that my rehearsal at the next theater is in the morning, I'd agree with you, but I kinda need to get there tonight to make sure that happens." Miming playing the piano with one hand while she returned to listening to her music, Kaede was pausing her song once again when a second rumble, much louder and closer, filled the air. It was followed by a brilliant strike of lightning seconds later, which made her jump and had Shuichi grabbing the wheel a bit tighter. "O-okay, maybe they'll understand if I miss the first rehearsal if I tell them it was either stop for the night, or die in whatever kind of storm this is. You can totally stop if you'd like."
Under his breath he muttered something about how he hadn't been asking her for her permission, but Shuichi knew that picking a fight with Kaede wasn't the smartest idea he could have in that moment. Until she was with the crew at the next venue she was playing at, she was entirely his problem to take care of, and if they weren't on speaking terms it would make that job a million times more difficult than necessary. She was nice enough, if not a bit unaware of what life was like to not be someone famous and playing sold-out crowds at concert halls around the world as her day job, and from the moment they'd met he'd felt obligated to hold himself to the task he'd been given in protecting her. That moment, of course, had been earlier that day, after he'd been asked to drive her to her next destination because he had his own personal reasons to be headed that way.
Those reasons really weren't "personal" so much as they were work-related, him needing to investigate a crime scene in the next major city over from his home of Kibou that reportedly matched the description to one that they'd been dealing with in town. Being a detective wasn't the life that Shuichi wanted for himself, but it was the one he'd fallen into without any chance of getting out on his own, and with how many of his friends had followed him down in various ways, the choices for ways out were limited at best. "Say, Shuichi, are you going to stick around for my show once we get there?" Kaede asked, her voice less panicked than it had been when she last spoke. "Or are you going to stick to whatever's got you making this drive in the first place and leave me in the dust?"
"No idea, depends on how this investigation goes, I suppose." The truth was, Shuichi had zero intention of watching Kaede's piano concert, not when he'd never heard of her up until a few days before when driving her had been brought up the first time. He wasn't interested in the idea of wasting his time sitting around listening to her play songs from classical libraries he could look up on his own, not when he could be using that same time doing things relevant to his career field. If he could get the investigation over quickly, and get back on the road home within a handful of hours, he'd consider the whole trip successful without any second thought. Going to her show would only hinder his chances of making that happen, but he couldn't tell her that outright without causing problems. "That, and how long it takes for us to get to town in the first place. Look at how hard this rain's coming down."
"Well, don't forget that the offer's on the table," she replied after following his prompting and looking at the heavy raindrops that were now splashing against the windshield, leaving large rings of water in their wake. "And please don't kill both of us driving in this. I can justify getting to rehearsals late, I can't justify never getting there at all." As she sank back down into her seat with her music playing in her ear once more, Shuichi shook his head at how poorly he felt that interaction had gone. Sure, he was just trying to make small talk with her to pass the time, at her insistence, but he still didn't like when he was having to talk to someone who wasn't actually interested in what he had to say.
Unfortunately for him, most of the time he was talking to people who had zero interest or care about his words, because of his specific line of work. He was a detective, whether he had ever wanted to be one or not, and his specialty was handling some of the nastiest, most brutal domestic cases across the country (again, whether he wanted it or not). Usually he was reserved for when the dirt got too deep for the general police to sift through, but sometimes he was called upon for special tasks that he and he alone was entrusted with. Going to investigate a scene in a completely different city wasn't his typical assignment, and that had been compounded when he'd been asked if he could take Kaede with him, to kill two birds with one stone and save everyone else a little time and energy.
He gave a soft sigh, turning up the frequency of the wiper blades as they were needing to work just about as hard as they could to keep his line of vision clear. In such a short amount of time the sky had gone pitch-black, the only light coming from headlights and the bursts of lightning he kept seeing on the horizon, and a picturesque drive had turned to harrowing and dangerous in the blink of an eye. This wasn't an unfamiliar drive for him, as he'd gone to seminars and conferences in towns further down the road than even their destination was, but it was definitely a different experience when he couldn't see the river as the road wound its way alongside it.
When the loudest rumble yet came to their ears, Kaede yanked her headphones out in surprise from how hard her hands jerked her phone, her looking around wildly while Shuichi attempted to keep his calm in the driver's seat. Without thinking about what she was saying, she asked him "Did you hear that thunder?" only to laugh about it seconds later, breathless and slightly terrified. "Of course you did, there's no way you didn't. That was close, don't you think?"
"It was close, but I don't think it was thunder," he said in return, carefully choosing the words he used to verbalize his thought. "If it was, we would've seen lightning too, right? But there wasn't any, it was just that…loud noise, whatever it was."
"Oh geez, you don't think it's something wrong with your car, do you?" Kaede was visibly tensing up, which was not doing Shuichi any favors as he could see her beginning to panic there in his passenger's seat from the corner of his eye. "I already told you, I can justify being late, I can't justify not showing up at all."
He took in a sharp breath, holding it for a few moments before exhaling through his nose, trying to maintain his composure as he ran through all the possibilities of what they could have heard. "If it was the car, it wouldn't have sounded so distant. I think we might've just missed seeing the lightning, because it wouldn't make any sense for it to be anything else." Feeling satisfied with that answer, he glanced towards her for a split-second and found her pouting, putting on a fine display of wanting to use her beauty as a tool to get him to do what she wanted. There was a moment's hesitation as he grappled with the idea of falling for it, but he couldn't risk her being right and there being something wrong with the vehicle he'd borrowed from work to get her to her destination. "When we get into the next town I'll pull over and check, there's bound to be somewhere covered where I can look and not be out in the rain. Then we can stop for the night."
That appeased her, as the pout disappeared and was replaced with a helpful, if not somewhat smug, smile. "Let me look it up, I bet there's somewhere right off the road in town that we can stop at, for both things. I can't wait to stretch my legs, I know I'm used to sitting at the piano for hours but car trips just feel different." She laughed, but he wasn't able to bring himself to do the same, as he was focused solely on the road once again. They were so close to being able to be done with driving in the rain for the night that he was growing anxious for something being wrong with the car that would stop them before they were ready, and Shuichi was not exactly the best at warding off the problematic thoughts when things started getting tough.
Kaede's search brought up that there was a gas station just across the next bridge they were coming up to, which found itself located in the middle of the small town. It was a lovely bridge for someone to park on top of and watch the river flowing gently beneath it, but in the storm it would be slick and hard to drive on, something that Shuichi cursed silently about. He'd been hoping that she'd say it was on the side of the river they were already on, so that he wouldn't have to worry about making that crossing—except, as they came up into the town and saw nothing but flashing lights ahead on the road, he was greeted with the fact that his wish had come true after all.
While he could have turned the hidden lights on his own car on to get closer, he drove up to the last intersection before the bridge, where the direction he needed to go was blocked off by several officers, standing in reflective vests waving wands trying to redirect traffic even though it was pouring rain. "Uh, Shuichi?" Kaede said, timidity in her voice as she raised a hand to point past the officers, into the deep darkness. "Isn't there supposed to be, you know, a bridge there?"
He blinked a couple times, trying to mentally process what it was she'd asked him, before it hit that she was correct and that the bridge in the center of town, the focal point that brought visitors to the streets for beautiful sights, seemed to be missing. "I'll go see what's going on," he told her, turning down where he was being directed and parking the first chance he got, throwing on his jacket marking him as a member of a police force and opening the door. The sound of the rain hitting not just the car but the ground around them immediately began echoing in his ears, and he considered finding a different way to solve the mystery, but he was a detective. Solving things was part of his day job, he wasn't going to resort to the internet to answer questions. "You stay right here, I'll be back in a second."
"In all that dark clothing? I think not!" Unbuckling herself so that she could get her decorative sweater off from around her shoulders, Kaede handed the flimsy, bright pink fabric over to him despite his concerned look. "It's so dark out there that you'd just blend right in if you didn't have this with you. I'll wait here like you asked, but I don't want you dying to see what's happening."
"Er, thank you for the concern," he said as he gingerly grabbed the sweater, feeling that it had no weight to it and that it wouldn't be helpful in the slightest if it was supposed to be used to block out the rain. Unsure of what else he should say, he got out of the car and closed the door, looking at Kaede inside and noticing that she had already gone back to listening to her music, her headphones back where they'd spent most of their trip so far.
Being physically out in the rain felt like an entirely different world than driving in it had been, but Shuichi wasn't going to turn back without answers, no matter how bone-chillingly wet he got. He splashed through giant puddles as he ran towards where the police blockade was, his legs up to the knees soaked from the first one he'd stepped in with no sign of relief. As he made his approach, one of the officers standing there noticed that someone was coming towards them and turned to stand guard, one hand on his light wand and the other reaching for something on his belt. "Please, believe me when I say when I'm a detective," Shuichi called out, raising his hands defensively in case a gun was drawn. "I'm just curious about what's going on right now. Shouldn't there be a bridge behind you?"
The officer's position did not move, even as he demanded that Shuichi pull out his identification to prove he was as he claimed. He did it without even faltering slightly, not wanting to meet a grisly end when he still had a job to do, and once he was within reach of the officer he held the badge out so that it could be viewed. With a nod to accept the identification as legitimate, the officer explained, "How you didn't hear the collapse is a miracle, Detective Saihara. It was about loud enough to raise the dead. River got higher than it's ever been and knocked out a support beam, and the rest is history."
"The bridge…collapsed?" Shuichi repeated, a crushing feeling coming over him, pushing onto his shoulders even as he worked to get his badge back into his wallet and into his pocket. "Shouldn't it have been checked to make sure that couldn't happen?" All he could think about was the booming noise he and Kaede had heard on their drive, and how that must have been the sound the officer spoke of. Of course there hadn't been lightning, not when the source was a bridge giving out, not thunder.
"I mean, certainly, but when they're checkin' for that they aren't checkin' in a spot that shouldn't get touched outside of a hundred-year-flood. They always prettied up the top of the bridge, but never bothered to update what was keepin' it standing." The officer shrugged, before giving Shuichi a long, slow once-over. "Where're you tryin' to get to, since I assume you're headed somewhere if you're out in this mess."
Rather than explain that the place he needed to go was on the other side of the bridge and down the road another hour or so, Shuichi brushed off the question with a single shake of the head. "Doesn't matter, I just wanted to see what was going on for myself. You be safe and have a good night, okay?" The officer thanked him for his kindness, but being polite was the thing farthest from Shuichi's mind as he turned back towards the car. Explaining what he'd just learned to Kaede was not going to go over well, not when she so badly insisted on being present for as much as she could before her next performance, and he took the time to think about how he'd word the news as he ran back to the car.
As a stroke of luck, he didn't have to do much explaining once he was back in his seat, the cold, wet feeling of his clothing becoming suffocating in the warm air inside the car. "I just got a call from my manager saying that the bridge is out here in town, is that true?" His silence gave her the answer she was dreading, even though he remained quiet only because he wasn't sure he wanted to say anything at all. "We've got to go back and go a different way, I can't miss all of my rehearsals! Come on, tell me that you know some back road to get us there, please? Oh, pretty please, just go and say it!"
"I'm sure I can think of something," he admitted after several tense seconds in which she was vibrating quickly enough that it was rocking the car (although the wind that had begun picking up in the storm may have helped her in that endeavor slightly). "But we're stopping for the night here anyway, so let's check out the hotels here on this side of town and see if anyone's got anywhere we can stay. I'm not driving in this any longer than I need to, it's brutal out there."
"You're the one driving, I guess you make the rules." Huffing as she properly removed her headphones to listen to the rain falling around them, Kaede didn't say another word to Shuichi until they had pulled up in front of the first hotel they'd seen coming into town, a quaint little chain location that seemed rather busy. He parked the car in the closest spot he could to the lobby door and looked at her with a frown, prompting her to say, "Is there something on my face? What's that look for?"
He opened his mouth to say something, then shook it from his mind without ever bringing it to light. "Nothing, I'm going to go in and get rooms for both of us, you just stay here until I'm back." His hand was on the door handle when she jolted forward in her seat, grabbing her own handle and pushing her door open before he had the chance to open his own. "Excuse me, didn't I just say you stay here?"'
"You did, but my legs are cramping really bad and I just need to get up and walk. There's no harm in me going in with you, I'll get wet but it's just water." Truer words were never spoken, although as they walked to the door in silence Kaede seemed to regret her choice to come with a little more each step. By the time they got inside they were both drenched (even though Shuichi hadn't quite dried in the first place), and once the automatic doors had closed behind them they saw that the man behind the front desk was staring slack-jawed at the pair, a finger pointing specifically at her. "Hello? Why are you pointing at me?"
"You're Kaede Akamatsu, the pianist, aren't you?" he asked, his voice high-pitched and making him sound like he was a teenage boy, not the man he physically presented as. When she nodded excitedly, happy to be recognized, he bounced a bit where he stood, before slamming something into his computer. "Ah, you're just in time, we're about booked due to the bridge collapse and people being stranded but I can get you a room, easy peasy."
"You hear that," she whispered to Shuichi with a smile, "he says he can get us a room, and it's because he recognizes me."
"Notice he said a singular room, meaning you're sharing space with a stranger even longer than you already were," Shuichi shot back, in an even quieter whisper than Kaede's had been. "Bet you're thrilled with that, huh?"
Before she had a chance to come up with her own response, the man at the desk clasped his hands excitedly, before waving for the two to come closer. "Okay, so all we have left is a single room, double bed, nothing fancy for the famous woman but a room's a room, right?"
"Ooh, double bed, that's exactly what we—"
"Excuse us one moment." Understanding that it was completely likely that Kaede hadn't been present when a hotel room was being booked for a long time, if ever, Shuichi would have looked past her ignorance on the matter if it weren't for one pressing issue that had showed up. He motioned for her to come aside with him, which she did without thinking twice about it, and while the man at the desk watched them he leaned in closer to Kaede than he'd thought he'd be getting that night and asked her, "You know that means one bed, correct? As in, we will be sharing a bed?"
While he pulled back Kaede's face contorted in several ways as she worked through the information her detective companion had just bestowed upon her. First she squished her eyes closed, her cheeks rising up to keep them tightly shut, then she slowly opened them and glanced around, checking to see if she was still in the same world she'd been in when she'd closed them. Her cheeks puffed out and she started to give a low whine, getting louder as she looked at Shuichi and saw him staring blankly back at her. "You mean to tell me the kid recognized me and he's still going to make me share a bed with a stranger?"
"I'm sure he's doing all he can. Look, I'm not thrilled with the idea either but if we're staying here, we're having to take what he's got." It was tough being the sensible one in a situation, but it was a role that Shuichi was all-too-familiar with as he played it frequently with the people he worked with. Playing it with Kaede was no different than with them, and so he tried his best to maintain seriousness and calmness while she was freaking out. "I'd rather not have to share a bed with you either, but at least it would be for one night only."
"That's true, but…" Kaede took in several deep breaths, trying to calm herself down to match emotions with who she was speaking with, but before she'd really gotten any calmer than she currently was she was running back to the desk where the man was waiting for them to accept the room or not. "Listen to me, do you have anywhere else we can stay? That guy I'm with, he's just the detective that's taking me to my next show, he's not my boyfriend or anything, I can't risk being caught sharing a bed with him!"
"Sorry Miss Akamatsu, but all I've got is that one double room. We're the only hotel on this side of the bridge, and since you can't exactly cross it right now it's either stay here, or get back on the road until you get to the next town down the highway." The man shrugged, jiggling his mouse to keep the potential booking open. "I can give you two minutes before I offer this room to the next person who asks for it, if you want to talk to him."
She nodded, and turned to go back to Shuichi but saw that he'd come back to her side once again without a sound, giving her a bit of a fright when he was suddenly there. "I heard what you said, and I'm not risking my life or hers to go find another hotel to stay in," Shuichi said, his voice beginning to raise in pitch as nerves began taking over his mind. He hadn't expected to be faced with the possibility of sharing a bed with a strange woman that day, not when he'd had a reservation made for him in a hotel room at his intended destination. "Do you have any rolling beds, or maybe a couch that can be moved into the room? I'm even fine with sleeping on the floor."
"We're dry on all of that, sorry to say. If you want, I can maybe scrounge up an extra pillow or two, but that would be it." He may have looked apologetic as he spoke, but every word the man was saying did not feel like it had genuine intentions with it. "This bridge collapse is a bit of a nightmare for so many, you're lucky that we still had a single room open, even if it isn't what you're looking for."
"No, I get it, I really do. This is just…difficult to take in." On one hand, Shuichi knew that if he took it slow and carefully, he could make the drive back down the highway and get to another town where they could possibly find somewhere better to stay. On the other, there was zero guarantee that the next town would have lodging either, and it was preferred that they didn't have to risk their lives in the storm to get anywhere. "I suppose we can make it work if we need to."
"Um, yeah, I suppose we can," Kaede agreed, surprise in her voice as she spoke. "I'm gonna go call my manager to let her know what's going on. You handle paying for this however you're gonna do it, Shuichi." She gave him an awkward pat on the shoulder before she walked away, leaving Shuichi standing face-to-face with the man at the counter, whose eyes were following Kaede's every step.
"How lucky to be her personal driver tonight of all nights," the man remarked, before holding out his hand and presenting the total for staying at the hotel for the night. "I don't know what I'd do in your situation, sharing a bed with a pretty lady is one thing, but sharing a bed with Kaede Akamatsu is another, I'm sure."
Grumbling under his breath as he handed his work-assigned card over, Shuichi replied, "You'd think that, but you haven't been stuck in a car with her in all of this." He knew for a fact that the man heard what he said, and based on how their conversation ended right there, the only exchange following being saying where their room was and how to get there, he could tell that he'd offended him somehow. Once he had the key to their room and his card back in his wallet, Shuichi found a seat on a bench right by the counter to wait for Kaede to come back, just in case she cared.
While he was sitting there, he couldn't help but start thinking about how this relatively simple task had gone complete haywire so close into being finished in the first place. He had places he needed to be the next day, just like Kaede did, and he felt that what he was going to be late to was a tad more important than what she was going to be missing. There was always time for more practicing the piano; there were only so many hours that a fluid crime situation could be investigated before it changed. This was a crime spree that multiple forces had been working on for months, and they were starting to make progress on solving things, but if he couldn't get there to look at the scene before something happened to it, it was completely possible that their investigation would meet its untimely end.
"Hey, what's with the long face?" Kaede asked, making him jump back a little as he looked to see her smiling down at him. "Yeah, I'm talking to you, now tell me why you look so sad. It's almost like you got told your dad's dying or something."
"That wouldn't make me sad so much as it would be a relief," he answered, before realizing how harsh that sounded to someone who wasn't familiar with his particular family situation and how he'd lived with his uncle for most of his life because his parents were always too busy for him. "Er, I mean, I look so sad because we were really thinking that doing this was going to solve the mystery that we've been fighting for so long, but all it's done is lead us to this hotel where we're going to be sharing a room without really knowing each other. It's a lot to take in at once, and I'm not the best at working through how I feel."
She watched him as he pulled his hat down slightly over his eyes, blocking her from being able to see too much more of his emotions, but she wasn't going to continue letting him close himself off from her and from the world. "Listen here, Shuichi, I know that this is the worst possible thing that could've happened to us, but let's look at the positives! We aren't dead, the bridge fell before we got to it so that's fantastic because it didn't hurt us, and now we get to get to know each other a bit better than we would have otherwise!" She grabbed his shoulder and smiled at him, and there was something about her tone, or how she was looking down at him, that took him by surprise.
His immediate reaction was to start blushing, his face lighting up like a brilliant sunrise, and she had to refrain from laughing at how childish his behavior was. "I know you're right, and it'll be nice knowing that we didn't die together, but I don't want to be here. I want to get to the hotel I arranged to stay in, in the bed meant for me and only me, and sleep there."
"Then that's your thing and you can sleep on the floor tonight." Her hand on his shoulder closed into a fist, and she banged it against him a few times before pulling it away. "So what decision are you making, Shuichi? Be positive, or be negative? Totally up to you."
"That's a lot to just put on me at once," he replied, giving her ultimatum some thought before heaving a sigh, "but the man already said there's no extra blankets and I'm not going to sleep on a bare floor. Let's go find this room so I can bring our things into it." She nodded in acceptance of his choice and backed away to give him the space necessary to stand up, and once he was to his feet they went to find the closest set of stairs to the lobby, which was a much shorter walk than finding the elevator up would have been, and more efficient as their room was on the next floor. They found their room at the end of the hallway, the last room before the other set of stairs that would take them down to roughly right where Shuichi had parked the car in the first place.
It was the little conveniences that mattered right then, when the whole situation was a major inconvenience to them both, and when they opened the door and Kaede went into the room first (as it was polite for a lady to do so), the part about some things going in their favor went right out the window. "He wasn't joking when he said there was only one bed, but I wasn't expecting something so…small," she admitted, holding her arms out to roughly estimate how big across the bed was. "I'm not exactly the calmest sleeper, sometimes I'll thrash around and this might get ugly. Sorry about that, Shuichi."
Already having come to terms with the fact that he was going to be labeled some famous musician's illicit lover if the fact that they were rooming together came out, Shuichi didn't seem bothered at all by her revelation. "No matter, if I get to the crime scene tomorrow with a black eye, I'll just say something hit me in the car and leave you out of it entirely." He was also looking at the relatively tiny size of the bed, equating it with the one he had back in his apartment at home, and of the many times he'd had someone else sleeping in the bed with him—which were few and far between, but had happened on long nights filled with work—he couldn't recall there ever being a time where he'd actively wanted the person sleeping next to him to be there.
What, then, was making the fact that he was sharing that same size of bed with Kaede any different? It was a question he asked himself not out of curiosity but rather dread, as he knew that this was going to look bad on her if it ever became public, and he'd never hear the end of it with some of his coworkers. "Why do you look so sad again?" Kaede's voice questioned from across the room, where she'd taken a seat in the desk chair that went with the room's only other piece of furniture, the desk nestled in the corner. "You're not missing a hot date tonight, are you?"
"As if anyone would be interested in that kind of emotional baggage," he answered, once again realizing too late that he was dumping a lot of his own problems on a stranger that didn't actually care a thing about him. "No, I was just thinking about how similar to my apartment this room is. You're the only thing that's really different between here and there, as strange as that may seem."
"Doesn't seem strange at all. It's been so long since I've been able to sleep at my house that I kind of can't even compare this place to it. I know it's way bigger, and my bed is super huge and looks way more comfy, but I…don't really remember much else off the top of my head." Spinning herself around in the chair a couple times, Kaede's eyes landed on the television that was attached to the wall, and from there she began to look for a remote to control it with. "I'm going to check the weather, see how bad this storm is," she told him, "so you can totally take this time to go get our things. I'll still be here, I promise."
Holding his tongue until he'd left the room without being able to say another word to her, the second Shuichi was halfway down the stairs next to the room he let out, "If only you wouldn't still be there when I get back," before immediately regretting the bitterness. He was being irrational and stupid about how he felt in this situation, they were making the best of the horrible circumstances they'd fallen into and if it meant sharing a bed with her like he'd shared a bed with so many others, it wasn't the end of the world. She'd said it best before when she'd said they weren't dead or injured, they weren't on the bridge when it collapsed, and they were going to be able to get to know each other and become less of strangers than they currently were. "I don't do well with meeting new people," he muttered, trying so hard to think about those positives that Kaede had handed him on a silver platter but feeling like all he'd done was knock the tray onto the floor. "Especially not entitled musicians who don't understand how the world works."
When he got to the bottom of the stairs and was able to look out at the rainy parking lot, spotting his car across the way and dreading running out to get things from it, he considered turning around and going back without making any sort of attempt, but pushed that aside when he remembered how uncomfortable sitting in the car had been for both of them. He was half-dressed in his work uniform, his black shirt tucked into his pants like he always had it, and she'd been in a dress that nearly skimmed the ground. Certainly sleeping in their underwear was not an option, nor was staying in what they were wearing, so the least he could do was grab things for them to change into.
He made sure that his keys were in his hand as he opened the door, charging out into the steadily-falling rain that had only gotten heavier in the time they'd been indoors. Every step he took caused a large splash that was not helping any bit of him stay dry, the parking lot more like a giant puddle than anything else, and by the time he'd gotten to the trunk of the car and was pulling out everything he could carry he was soaked again from head to toe. Deciding that the first course of action when he got back up to the room would be to take a warm shower, Shuichi filled his arms with just about everything the car had to offer before closing the trunk, locking the car again, and running back to the door.
All of Kaede's belongings dwarfed his in both number and size, as his one bag fit easily on his back while everything he'd grabbed of hers filled his arms and made it harder to see in an already-difficult situation, but he was able to get back inside without dropping anything into the water. The top bags were all damp from the rain but he figured they'd be able to dry out in the room, and back up the stairs he went, finding the door to their room cracked open slightly when he got there. "Why did you prop it open?" he asked as he pushed his way inside, finding that the deadbolt was activated so that it couldn't properly lock, and Kaede didn't turn to answer his question.
While he was setting things down, he heard snippets of the weather report she'd found, the very thing that had her attention glued to it. The reporter on screen sounded frantic, and Shuichi recognized them to be from the local news he listened to every night, a familiar voice in such a strange situation; the franticness became apparent when she started explaining what was happening in the areas north and west of the city of Kibou, which was roughly where they were at the moment. "An unprecedented storm of the century, if not the millennium, has taken hold and some towns and cities will wake up to find everything they love under meters of water, with the rain not letting up for several days. People are stranded out there, due to bridge collapses and road wash-outs, and if you don't need to be out, please stay home!"
"It's not that bad out there," Shuichi remarked, going through his bag to find a pair of lounge pants to change into once he finished his shower. "A bit of rain, but by morning it'll be fine to drive in it. We'll get to the city tomorrow afternoon and it'll be like none of this ever happened to us."
He thought he was being realistic, but as Kaede turned around slowly in the desk chair, a solemn expression upon her face, he began rethinking that concept. "She said it right before you came inside, residents in this town are effectively stuck right where they are. When we heard that loud noise, it wasn't the bridge, Shuichi."
"Wasn't the bridge? What was it then, thunder after all?"
"It was the road washing out a few kilometers from where we were. If we'd turned around we wouldn't have been able to make it home." There was a grave seriousness to Kaede's voice, and adding in her expression only made it more impossible to question the validity of what she said. "We're stuck here until either they fix the road, they fix the bridge, or they transport us out some other way, and they can't do any of that until the storm stops, and they have no idea how long it's going to be raining for."
Shuichi's mouth opened and he looked past Kaede to see the television screen, which was showing pictures of destruction and flooding from another nearby town along the river, and the sight of the water coming up over those picturesque banks made him snap his jaw shut immediately. She was telling him the truth, they weren't getting to where they needed to go and there was nothing he could do about it. There was nothing she could do about it either, despite her reliance on her fame to get other things taken care for her. They were trapped there in that hotel and the area surrounding it (although how much there was to do outside of the building, he didn't know, he'd never stopped on that side of town before), and all they could do was wait for something to go in their favor.
Finally, after what felt like several tense minutes of him going over all of this information mentally, he had his pants and a dry shirt in hand and headed to the small bathroom their room had. "I'm taking a shower, please don't walk in on me," he said, but Kaede had gotten engrossed in watching the news and weather again and didn't hear him. The second he'd closed the door to the bathroom he sniffled, feeling an unwanted bout of emotion coming over him, but he swallowed down his sobs and got his phone out of his pocket, a half-broken flip phone that had been assigned to him from work. Without needing to look at anything on the cracked screen he pressed and held a single button, waited for it to beep, and then held the phone to his ear.
It rang and rang, and then went to the voicemail of his office, the person who should have been in charge of the phones for the day either having left work early or having gotten called out somewhere else. There was no point in leaving a message if they weren't there to get it, so he hung up, set the phone down, and turned the water on for his shower. If he was lucky, he'd come out to the message that everything was a huge practical joke and that he'd be able to get to the city tomorrow as he'd hope. And if he wasn't lucky…well, he knew what his fate would be in that instance, and there wasn't a single good thing he could think of that could possibly come from that.
Typically there was at least one detective around the station at all times, usually Shuichi because he was the one that was effectively in charge of that location, but sometimes it was his uncle stepping in to help his nephew out, and other times it was Kyoko Kirigiri from the head office making sure that things were still running smoothly. That particular day, and the weekend to follow it, was planned to be different than usual, starting with the fact that for four whole days there wouldn't be any detectives that could be called on to handle investigating any potential crimes. There would, however, be the special task force that worked at that station who could do some arresting, some scouting, and some minor patrolling if necessary, but even then their involvement would be limited because the station's receptionist was gone for the weekend as well, and as he and the two normal detectives that worked there (not including the elder Saihara) were the only ones who had keys to the holding cell in the building.
Looking at her reflection in the picture frame that held an image of the employees at the station that hung behind the front desk, Maki rolled her eyes when she heard what she knew to be someone knocking something over in the back office. "You break anything, you explain to Shuichi and Kyoko why we're suddenly over budget because we're replacing valuables," she called to the person responsible for the noise, who chuckled ominously in return. "I'm being serious, Kokichi. Knock it off."
"He never listens when you're being serious," the third member of their tiny task force said in response not to Kokichi's laughter, but to Maki's words. "It's kind of a pain having to listen to you when I'm not the one doing anything wrong."
"No one ever said you had to listen to me right now, Himiko, so there's that," Maki replied, turning her head to look backwards over her shoulder at the tiny woman she was speaking to, who yawned in return. "Go find something else to do if I'm annoying you that much, I don't have the patience to deal with you both. As the person currently in charge of the station I—"
"Who said you were in charge?" Coming out of the office with a few books in his arms, Kokichi had a toothy grin upon his face that didn't budge even when Maki shot him a deadly glare. "Oh, right, forgot that you think you're special just because you're actually friends with certain people. Or should I say bed-buddies with one of them, eh, Maki Roll?"
"Don't you ever call me that," she sneered, lunging at him with a balled fist but never taking a swing while he cackled at her, "and none of that's even true. Shuichi told me that he had to put the responsible person in charge while he's gone taking care of his investigation, and clearly he wasn't talking about either of you." A pause while she glanced at Himiko, who was once again mid-yawn. "No offense to you, of course, but all the offense to the rat who's going through our boss' office looking for things to nick."
Kokichi's grin opened up into a smug, thrilled smile as he replied, "No, Maki, I'm not trying to steal anything of his, I'm trying to see what kind of cool stuff he's got hidden in there! So far, I've found books on blood splatter and on legal documents, but that's all lame compared to what I know he's got to have. Don't you think there's got to be some really cool shit in there, like maybe a gun or a book on how to get away with killing someone?"
"That's stupid, Shuichi would never have anything like that in his office. He tries to follow the law all of the time, unlike…" Maki trailed off as she looked to Himiko again, easily the purest person she'd ever met in her life, before her eyes wandered to Kokichi and his dumb face. "Unlike the two of us. But even though I've done some things that I shouldn't have, I'm still more responsible here than you are."
"Fair point, at least you won't prank call people for the thrill." Shrugging, Kokichi walked to the bench where Himiko had taken a seat and sat down next to her, handing off one of the books to her. "Here, let's read up and see if maybe we can get promoted to something higher than Maki when everyone gets back. I'd lo-o-ove to see her face when she realizes she can't boss us around anymore."
Shaking her head in annoyance at how immature Kokichi was, Maki went back to looking at her reflection in the picture frame, before taking a seat in the low chair that was behind the front desk. It made sense that it was so low to the ground, seeing as their receptionist was quite tall, but for someone as short as her it made reaching the things on the desk a bit harder than they needed to be. She looked at the small collection of knick-knacks and garbage that had been collected, pictures of stars and planets lining the sides of the computer used to research crimes and locations, and she could feel something building up inside her as she saw a picture of the receptionist and his grandparents tucked next to the phone. "Damn it, why do you have to be gone this weekend too?" she grumbled, flipping the picture down so that she didn't have to look at it again. "Leaving me with these two when I could be stuck dealing with your stupid ass instead, I'll never forgive you for this."
In her focus on removing that distraction, she hadn't even noticed that Kokichi had gotten bored of looking through his books and had set them down next to Himiko, stood up, and come to stand right in front of the desk. Her rude awakening came when he frantically began slamming his hand down on the bell that visitors used to get someone's attention, and the jolt from hearing that loud ring the first time was almost enough to get her to jump to her feet and strangle the person responsible. "Are you missing your work boyfriend?" he teasingly asked when he caught sight of her angered eyes pointed towards him. "Ooh, you know what? I bet he doesn't miss you at all. Someone tall, dark, and handsome like him? I bet he's got ladies all over him right now."
"One, I don't have a work boyfriend, and two, sounds like you're describing Shuichi more than you're describing…ugh, never mind, don't make me say that." Maki so badly wanted to attack Kokichi in that moment, much like so many other moments before it, but she knew that retaliating against him would only land her in hot water with everyone else. "And three, we both know that the person you're talking about is probably fast asleep at home, not out getting swarmed by ladies who think he's hot before they realize how dumb he is."
"Aw, sounds like someone's getting a little flustered just talking about their big ol' crush, huh, Maki?" Kokichi tapped his fingertips together quickly, cackling as he did, and his behavior did not do any favors to appease her murderous desires. "What a shame that you're incapable of love, and that no one would be stupid enough to try dating you."
"That's it, I'm not putting up with this. As your superior—"
Kokichi cut off her attempted threat with the loudest cackle he'd had yet. "Superior what? Pain in my ass? You've got no real power over me, only Shumai and Kyoko do and you don't see either of them here. You're stuck with me exactly as I am, deal with it."
"—disgusting, you're calling him a nickname now." Getting up from behind the desk, Maki decided that she was simply going to be done with dealing with Kokichi's nonsense and headed towards Shuichi's office, which she knew had been ransacked and needed to be straightened up. When she heard footsteps trailing behind her she turned around, shaking a fist in Kokichi's direction to get him to stop. "Leave me alone for five damn minutes, will you?" she demanded, not ceasing her shaking until he'd backed off, promising he'd give her exactly that much time, and she could believe him when she didn't hear him resume following her. Stepping into the office when the man who usually was there was gone for the weekend was a bit strange, especially since his usual stand-in was also gone, but Maki knew that she was allowed to be there, and definitely had more right to be there than the person who'd been digging around did.
Immediately she could tell that Kokichi had been looking for things that weren't the books he'd removed from the room, as it wasn't just the bookshelf that was in complete disarray. It was almost nightmare-ish how much damage had been inflicted on the normally clean office in such a short amount of time, but as Maki began putting things back where she remembered them being she realized that perhaps the mess hadn't been all Kokichi's doing in the first place. There were a large number of files related to the big case that Shuichi was currently working on scattered on his desk, and she knew that Kokichi had zero interest in helping solve that matter, so he wouldn't have been pulling those out for any reason. The files on the criminal organization that he used to work for, however, were obviously out because he was checking in on them, and seeing the files on DICE made her wish that she could pull out files on her own background and check on what those people were up to.
Every day she was able to come into work as a specialized member of the police, without actually having been through the academy or any of the training that other officers were expected to go through, was a bit of a blessing in Maki's mind. Having been raised and trained as an assassin for the longest time, it was nothing short of a miracle that she had been able to slip into a different line of work that relied on some of the same skills without the stigma or the active criminal behavior. She excelled in sneaking into places and getting stealth information on people they were investigating without being caught, and if needed she was capable of subduing anyone that got a bit rowdy, and that was what had made Shuichi put in the effort to have her on his team.
Kokichi and Himiko had their own merits as well, but neither of them had the actual, legitimate background in the criminal underbelly of Kibou that Maki had, and that was why she was seen as the "leader" of their little task force. Sure, Kokichi had his involvement with DICE but they'd been responsible for petty crimes at their worst, and he was better for being obnoxious and getting people to admit to things out of annoyance than anything else. On the other hand, Himiko's one talent was her babyface and the fact that anyone she was sent to talk to could be tricked into falling for her innocence—or her pseudo-magic tricks that she was able to use to restrain people if needed. Maki could recall several instances where she'd walked into a scene with Himiko locking someone in a box under the guise of a magic trick, completely harmless yet entirely helpful.
"Maki! It's been five minutes, I'm coming in now!" Kokichi called out, snapping Maki out of her thoughts and making her realize she hadn't cleaned much of anything in the time she'd been daydreaming about her qualifications over the other two. She couldn't even fact-check to see if Kokichi was telling the truth about how long she'd been in there, but there was no stopping him even if he was lying. "Geez, what a mess in here! I can't believe you'd do this to Shumai's office when he's not around, what's he going to think once he's back?"
"He's going to think you're annoying because you've given him that nickname," she replied without any consideration to holding her tongue or toning down the harshness. "I don't know how he can stand having you around when you like clinging to him like a dog, I'd get tired of it in a heartbeat."
"How unfortunate that you don't have a heart then, huh?" Cackling when he saw that Maki was once again shooting him with her dagger-eyes, Kokichi put a finger to his cheek and smiled as big as he could. "I'm just playing with you, Maki Roll! I know you've got a heart in there, and I know who it beats for!"
She exhaled a long, deep breath to keep herself from losing her mind over how circular these conversations were getting with Kokichi. "I've told you before and I am not telling you again, you do not have permission to call me that name. It's not your name for me, you don't get to say it."
"Aw, and that's because it makes your cold, dead heart actually beat, I know." His voice intentionally grating as he spoke in a sing-song, it took every ounce of strength Maki had to not slam Kokichi into the wall for his behavior. "I guess I'll stop calling you it, have to save some of its energy for the person who normally uses it. I'll come up with a better name for you anyway, just you wait!"
"Do it and I'll kill you," she deadpanned, watching as he turned on his toes and ran out of the office laughing to himself, most likely to annoy Himiko like he tended to do. While she could have chased him down and given him orders to do something productive for once, she couldn't be bothered to actually care what he did as long as it wasn't anything to do with her, and so she went back to reorganizing Shuichi's office to undo the damage Kokichi had previously done to it. While she was in there, being careful not to touch anything related to his active case, she found herself finding an awful lot of pictures of their little team, which she didn't know existed, and the sight of all of them made her cringe.
They were a rag-tag bunch through and through, and it didn't matter how many times she was told that they were all there for a reason, because she would constantly doubt how effective any of them really were at their jobs. Shuichi was a decent enough detective, even though his cases were always rather simple and straightforward, and Maki liked when Kyoko was actively working with them because that was when she was able to help with restraining murderers and put her assassin training to good use. Kokichi and Himiko did their own thing most of the time, which didn't bother her any as long as they weren't sabotaging what she was doing. And then there was their receptionist, who only had his job because Shuichi knew that they needed someone to sit up front and take calls, and because he wasn't going to leave a friend out to dry.
Seeing that stupid face smiling in every picture made her put them away as fast as she could, because while Maki could handle a lot of things, dealing with the fact that she was kinda-sorta attracted to someone she worked with was not one of them. "Hey, Kokichi just ordered a pizza using the work phone," Himiko said in her dull monotone voice, breaking Maki's concentration from frantically removing pictures from her sight. "I'm pretty sure we've been told not to do that, so you should go talk to him about it."
Maki knew without a single doubt that Kokichi was acting the way he was simply to get some sort of reaction out of her, and she knew that if she took the bait she'd only cause more problems for herself. "That's good for him, he can pay for it himself because that's none of my business. Go tell him I said that, he'll get a kick out of it."
"I don't think I want to tell him that." Blinking slowly as she looked around the office, Himiko eventually decided to properly come inside and sat down in Shuichi's chair, putting her arms on top of the files on his desk and laying her head down on them. "This is all so silly that we're here, can I please go home so I can nap? We aren't even doing any work today, and I have things happening tonight."
"You, having things going on? Like what?" It was hard for Maki to feign any interest in whatever Himiko had to say, but at least she could pretend better with her than she could with Kokichi. "Is it going to a magic show? Putting on a magic show? What could there possibly be that you have to do?"
"Stuff and things," Himiko replied, her tone not changing even slightly. "I'm going to a demonstration of some aikido stuff because Tenko asked me to, and I don't know what else is going to happen after that. So I want to take a nap before I go."
"You'll be able to nap during the demonstration, don't worry." Maki wasn't super familiar with what, exactly, that sort of thing would entail, but she did know that if it was anything to do with the loud, brash, and aggressive Tenko and her love of martial arts, it was going to be boring because she always toned down her behavior when she was doing something for a crowd. "Right now you can stay here and help me keep Kokichi's hands out of places they don't need to be."
Giving a small, defeated sigh, Himiko lifted her head off of her arms and looked straight at Maki, boredom apparent across her face. "I guess I can do that, it's probably better than napping is anyway."
"Probably, sure." Already over the conversation and wishing she could have let her leave for the day, Maki returned to her attempt at cleaning the office, but grew tired of it minutes later when she figured that she was just doing work Shuichi had put off in the first place. It didn't seem possible that Kokichi had done so much damage in the short amount of time he'd been loose in there, and so she decided that she was finished with the task no matter what. Without giving any warning she left the office to go look around the rest of the small station, taking a mental inventory of what was done, what needed work, and what there was that she could set Kokichi to do in order to keep him out of trouble.
Her tallying took her to the holding cell in the building, which was used only when they were bringing criminals in for investigation before they were properly arrested or released, depending on what the findings were. She'd spent enough time in similar cells to know that she hated the confinement and that she would rather never step inside one again, but it looked like it hadn't been cleaned in weeks, despite that being a weekly expectation. It was a perfect job to shove into Kokichi's hands, and so once she'd finished getting a feel for everything that needed to happen at the station she went to go find him, locating him lounging around on the floor in the main room.
"What's going on?" he asked her when he saw that she was hovering above him, looking cross as she usually did. "Someone break in and impale themselves on some glass? Why else would you be wearing such a nasty expression?"
"It's just my face," she reminded him, motioning for him to get to his feet. When he followed through with the demand she immediately grabbed him by the shoulders, pulling him much closer to her than she'd ever really wanted him to be. "I need you to go into the cell and clean it out, since it'll make you work and get you out of my hair for a little while. Do it, or I'm calling Shuichi and telling him what you did to his office."
"But Maki, I didn't do a-a-anything!" His protesting was whiny and falling on deaf ears, and after she'd repeated her demand again he pulled himself out of her grasp, kicking his feet and stomping on the floor much like a child, before knocking off the whole act when he saw that she was not wavering on her stance. "Whatever, I guess I can get it done. It's only a little bit of cleaning, how hard can it be?"
Apparently it was very hard, as Maki had just settled in at the front desk with the computer booting up in front of her when she heard Kokichi scream out in what sounded like terror. The sound was enough to get her to jump to her feet, confused about what was happening but worried that something had gone wrong, and as she went to find where he'd found trouble she saw Himiko's half-lidded eyes peering around the doorway to Shuichi's office, her having fallen asleep in there despite being told she couldn't take a nap. They exchanged a worried, yet not too concerned glance before Maki continued on her way, coming to the cell with the door wide open and the bed that was inside flipped over. "Damn it Kokichi, how'd you manage this one?" she grumbled to herself, noticing that she couldn't see him anywhere and expecting to find him crushed under the weight of the bed.
It wasn't until she was inside the cell that she heard his cackling coming from back outside, but by the time it had registered that he wasn't smashed under the bed like she'd assumed he had slid the door closed, and they both heard it latch with a loud, solid click. "Oh, I didn't know you went in there," he lied, trying his hardest to restrain himself from laughing too much. "I thought you didn't care that I dropped the bed, oops."
"Why did that make you think you needed to close the door?" she snapped back, ignoring the toppled metal frame and barely-a-mattress that sat on top of it to go check the door, which was unable to be opened from her side. "You're an asshole, thinking you can just lock me in here like this. Open it, now."
"With what key?"
"With what…oh." It hadn't even occurred to Maki that none of them there currently had a key to the cell, because none of them were supposed to be closing the door in the first place. Shuichi had a copy of the key, as did Kyoko due to her position of overseer of the station, and the only other person who had one was their receptionist, whose possession of one was constantly questioned and criticized. "Kokichi, if this is your stupid way of forcing me to beg for him to help me, you're wrong."
Tilting his head to one side and putting a finger to his chin, Kokichi began wearing a look of complete surprise at what he'd just been accused of. "I don't get it, who do you think I'm going to make you beg for help from? Shuichi's gone for the weekend and I wouldn't ever ask Kyoko for anything, so…right! You're talking about Kaito, aren't you?" The glare she put on at him would have been enough to murder him on the spot if she were on his side of the cell's door, and that was the breaking point for his laughter. "Wow, you must really think I care about your dumb crush on him if you think I'd try that kind of thing! But seriously, he doesn't have a key anymore, you can't ask him for help."
"What happened to his key?" Half the time Maki had no idea if Kokichi was telling her the truth or if he was choosing to lie to her face, and this instance was no exception. "We all know that there are three keys, and he's got the third one. So if he doesn't have it, where did it go?"
"That's the thing, he doesn't have it because I took it." His finger still pressed to his chin, even though he was laughing off and on like a lunatic, Kokichi was trying to put on the most innocent look he could muster given the situation. "I went to him yesterday before he left and asked him for it, since he's gone for the weekend too and we might have needed it while he wasn't here. Poor Kaito, he's so stupid that he took that as the truth and handed it right over to me without a second thought, and now I've got you locked in there and it's all his fault. Pretty sneaky, right?"
As much as Maki wanted to believe that the truth was at least a little different from what Kokichi was telling her, she had no reason to doubt any aspect of it. "No, you moron, it's not sneaky at all! Now get the key you borrowed and let me out of here!"
"Yeah, you see, I took the key from Kaito so that no one could have it. I don't know where it is, I took it and lost it and now you're in there until when Shumai gets back, and do we really know when that's going to be?" The smug expression that took over his innocent one was more punch-worthy than any other face Kokichi had ever worn, but there was nothing Maki could do about it. The cell door was locked, and it was such a secure lock that would require replacing the entire door to have a locksmith pop it open, and so she was effectively stuck in there until someone with a key could let her out. He seemed to think it was the most hilarious thing in the world, but she wasn't laughing and she was never going to find anything funny about what he'd done.
"The second I get out of here, I'm breaking your kneecaps and then making you beg for mercy before I kill you outright," she calmly, coldly said, before a wave of panic and desire to get out came over her. Without thinking about the consequences to her actions she tried kicking her way through the door, which only resulted in what felt like the metal snapping her ankle on the spot, bending it out of shape when her foot had barely hit the door. Her scream rivaled the one that Kokichi had given when he'd lured her to the cell in the first place, but where his was all in the name of a prank, hers was out of the pain she now felt coming from the foot she'd tried to use to aid in her escape.
"What's going on over here?" Himiko asked, having been summoned by the sound of her friend screaming like she was being murdered. On one side of the cell door Kokichi was grinning, proud of the havoc he'd caused, while on the other Maki was balancing on one foot, her hurt one hanging off the ground a little to keep weight off of it, while she grimaced and tried to bear the pain. "I don't think Maki's supposed to be inside the cell. Should we call Kaito to ask him to let her out?"
"Don't bother, Kokichi lost his key," Maki explained through gritted teeth, denying Kokichi the chance to brag further about his ingenious plan to ruin their weekend there at the station. "So until Shuichi or Kyoko walk back into this building, I'm not getting out."
Himiko nodded at the way the explanation was given to her, trying her best not to look at Kokichi and prompt him to talk to her. "I could always use my magic to help," she said to the dismay of both of the others, who knew that Himiko's magic was not real, never had been real, and never would be real. "Or I can ask Tenko to come by, she could beat the door down. Maybe Angie too, she's good at praying for things to work out and then they do."
"No thanks, to any of that." Wincing at how much pain she felt due to her own actions, Maki leaned against the door a bit more, lifting her foot completely off of the ground. "Look, I know you want to help, but all of those options run the risk of Kokichi doing more stupid shit to make more of a mess, or there's the chance that something breaks the door so that it can't open, and I'd rather not have that happen."
"If the door breaks, we can just get a new one." It was immediately after she'd spoken that Himiko seemed to remember why that was not an option, and the pained, unamused look Maki had given her only helped matters. "Right, this door costs a lot of money so that it can't be broken open. We don't want to make people spend that money to fix it."
Bouncing where he stood, finding every second of the dilemma he'd caused completely amusing even if he knew his days being able-bodied where certainly numbered, Kokichi had an idea that he couldn't resist sharing. "I've got it, why don't we just push all the blame for this on Kaito, since he's the moron who decided to give me his key in the first place? That way, he gets fired, we all live happily ever after, everyone wins! Well, except for him, but it's not like anyone cares about him, huh?"
Rather than acknowledge that suggestion with any sort of response, Maki decided that her time would be better spent setting up the cell so that she had some place to sleep and spend her time while she waited to be let out. "Himiko, go get something for me to eat, so that I've got food later," she ordered, a command that Himiko accepted with a nod, while Kokichi did as he did best and mocked every word. "I'm going to make the best of this, which isn't going to be easy but I'll do it. I've slept in worse conditions before, this is nothing."
"Yeah, you've slept in real jail cells before! With paper-thin mattresses and no one around to talk to you!" Kokichi was keeping up with his obnoxious behavior, but Maki couldn't let it get to her more than it already had. What, was she going to punch the door next and cause herself even more pain? Every step she was taking was like stepping on needles, and she was forcing herself to move quickly to give herself somewhere to sit. While she worked, Kokichi kept calling in comments about her being trapped, or about whose fault it was that she couldn't get out, and she got awfully good at tuning him out.
The only time she went back over to the door was when Himiko opened the sliding grate from the outside to shove food in, a couple bags of chips and a few bottles of water. "I'll get you more when I go home tonight," she promised, bowing her head as if she'd shamed herself for not being able to grab more. "You shouldn't have to starve just because of a bully like Kokichi."'
"W-why would you call me a bully? I didn't do anything wrong here!" Feigning a cry, Kokichi waited until he had all eyes on him before he burst out laughing. "That's totally a lie, I know what I did but it's still not bullying. It would've been you in there instead, Himiko, if you'd gone in first. Unfortunately for Maki, you're too lazy to do anything without being forced, so she's the one who got locked up."
"You can't just go and start blaming me for this now!" Himiko slammed the grate shut, causing the metallic sound to echo through the building, but nowhere quite as bad as inside the cell, where Maki had to cover her ears and miss the rest of the conversation between the two. It wasn't that she really care what kind of argument Himiko was going to make for her innocence, because she knew that she'd done nothing wrong and that Kokichi was just looking to lessen the blame on himself. What she did care about was knowing what the two of them were going to be getting up to now that she couldn't take her role of being temporarily in charge as seriously as it needed to be, but it didn't seem like that was a current topic of conversation or interest.
Eventually Kokichi got tired of being a pain in the neck and told them both that he was going to leave for the night, and when he decided he was done that was when Himiko chose to go home and take her long-awaited nap. That did mean that Maki was left alone at the station with nothing to do except sit in the cell and think about the many things she had on her mind, but she was used to the loneliness and could handle it. The thing she couldn't handle came late in the evening, at about the time she'd been expecting to go home for herself, when the phone up at the front desk started ringing—and there was no one there to answer it, even though she was physically present.
All she could hope was that Shuichi wasn't trying to call because something had gone wrong, and that her current situation would be enough to explain to him why his call went unanswered, but there was only so much hoping was going to do for her.
A/N: oh hey it's NaNo fic time! I sure do love callbacks to older fics of mine~