Shinichi didn't see much of his wife those days–not since the cruise ship came under lockdown in Yokohama. While he was thankful that Shiho had put her days of personally leading quarantines behind her, it seemed a desk job was no less stressful in a time of potential pandemic. Shiho was gone in the mornings before he awakened, and she came back well after dark, laptop tucked in a bag and half open through dinner and into the night, running scenarios of disease transmission and crunching on molecular dynamics simulations with every spare CPU cycle. When she wasn't on the phone with her colleagues, Shiho ranted about the bureaucracy of the Health Ministry. "Damn fools," she'd said. She'd said her piece about them years before, arguing that the country needed an independent disease control body like the CDC in the States. SARS hadn't been that long ago. The new virus was a close cousin. But what did the politicians do? They cut funding. They kept control of the response in the hands of politicians, not experts. Her anger wouldn't accomplish anything, of course. She just needed to vent.

Shinichi felt a bit helpless in that situation. A detective could only do so much. Maybe he could help trace the movements of someone evading quarantine, but in the end, unless he thought he could go to Wuhan and find the infected pig that had started it all, there was no place for him in this crisis. All he could do was have dinner ready by the time she got home, make sure they had an ample supply of coffee, and put a blanket over her when she nodded off in her chair. She was so tired, every day, though she would never admit it.

With her laptop still running simulations one night, Shiho dozed in her desk chair. It was already midnight, and she would need to get to bed and sleep properly to be 100% for the next day—and the next crisis. Shinichi placed a kiss upon her cheek—a gesture he hoped would be just enough to rouse her without making her too awake.

"Don't go kissing sleeping women," she said drowsily as she rubbed her eyes. "That's sexual harassment."

"I should stop then?" he asked.

"You should ask permission."

"I see; I see." He offered her a hand and helped her out of the chair. The rest of the simulations would have to wait until morning. "May I, Dr. Miyano?"

She never would've liked how disheveled she looked, but at the time, there were more important things on her mind. Though she was weary, she smiled slyly.

"How can I say no to that?"

For Valentine's Day 2020 Kiss Challenge – "Cheek"