In each and every godforsaken dorm of their university, there lay a clock on the wall to remind every young adult how time was limited, precious, and relatively insanity-inducing depending on how close your deadline was.
Ai, a young adult in the aforementioned university, found herself performing the nightly ritual all college students across the globe was intimately familiar with.
With her face pressed flat over her half-finished calculus worksheet.
Her hazel eyes, dull and glazed over, looking at a spot in the wall and the res tof her mental capacity basically gone with the wind, she tapped the dull side of her pencil to sound out a rhythm she could only half-remember from a radio station from years gone.
She was taking a break, simply put.
Granted, she had been taking a break for the past half hour because looking at the worksheet tended to push her sanity meter just a few inches lower.
"Ai," the croon came from the other side of the room, where Keiko was doing her own homework – the last of the pile, Ai could see form the corner f her eye – her pencil held in a death grip, "If you don't stop that tapping I'm throwing your goddamn pencil out."
"Please do. Throw out me and this worksheet too, while you're at it," was Ai's elegant reply, half muffled due to her face eating paper.
"You think I have the energy to spare? Please, you're not that special."
Keiko spun on her spinny chair, overshooting the strength needed and ended up facing her desk again. Second time's the charm and Ai found her senpai looking at her with a solemn expression.
Keiko smirked.
Ai grinned.
"How far along are you?" Keiko asked, tapping a single finger on her own desk, where Ai spotted a half-finished essay in English.
"How far along are you?" she volleyed back, finally straightening in her seat.
Keiko laughed outright, "Alright, alright. Want to switch?" she held out her essay.
And here was the moment where Ai threw her scruples out the window and snatched the offered paper, "Yes, please, thank you—"
A simple essay later – which she had spent maybe 10 minutes on compared to Keiko's quarter hour – and a worksheet exchange – which had taken Keiko maybe 10 minutes compared to Ai's quarter hour – Ai stretched, leaning hard back on her chair. This gave her a good view of the clock situated above her desk, ticking as incessantly and annoyingly as the first day she'd come to the university. It was red, made of plastic, and it showed 9:30 PM on its face.
"Wanna go out for dinner, senpai?" Ai asked, turning in her chair to face Keiko.
Keiko zipped up the last of her pencils into her case and hummed, "Sure."
A hop, skip, and motorcycle ride found Ai squinting up at the sign.
"Senpai…?"
"It's a reputable place, Ai, don't worry about it," Keiko assured her, then taking Ai's wrist to pull her inside. The bar. A classy place, yes, but a bar.
Ai had no problem with alcohol and bars but. The drunk people that were basically staples in bars were the aspects Ai was not looking forward to.
Except stepping into the bar proved her wrong. It was a clean, well-lit place with incense lit in the corner, the actual bar being to the right of the entrance, and the rest of the floor dedicated to tables and seating. It almost reminded Ai of a coffee shop. There were a handful of people loitering about – two men with papers strewn about their table, one of them gesturing wildly about as he regaled his companion with…something or another, Ai couldn't make out the words – and a few customers already on their way out.
"Come on," Keiko tugged at her wrist, at which point did Ai belatedly realize she was staring. The brown-haired man turned from his histrionic companion, catching her eye, and gave her a smile and friendly wave. Ai returned the gesture, then let herself be led to wherever Keiko had chosen.
They sat at the bar itself, completely empty, where the waiter came out wearing the usual uniform. Ai hadn't known that bars could serve food, but there you go.
After a quick look at the menu, they rattled off an order for cake ("Ai goddammit—") a light cocktail ("Keiko-senpai NO—") and one large plate of nachos between them.
"What is health," Keiko commented, voice flat, holding up one nacho drenched in cheese to point at Ai's chocolate cake-stuffed face.
Customers came and went as they sat, some business men, one of them a blonde woman in pink who sat at the farthest seat at the bar from them. As the door opened, the same brown-haired man from earlier spotted Ai, giving another wave as he and his companion left. He was young, a little older than Ai though, and the way his hair spiked about his face somehow added to his looks than detracted from it.
Ai waved back cheerily, and watched as they climbed into their car and drove off. She refused to look away until she could see their car disappear into the distance.
Ai turned to see Keiko finish the last of the nachos, "What time is it?"
Ai looked at her phone's time, "Almost 11:30. Shall we go?"
The bar closed at 12:30, information helpfully pasted at the doors, and at the back of the bar for patrons to see. For some reason.
Ai stood, stretching, Keiko downed the last dredges of her cocktail, then turned towards the door.
To be stopped by an employee, "Excuse me?"
Ai turned, Keiko paused, and they both saw the man on the elderly side coming out from the back of the bar, one wrinkly finger pointing at the blonde woman on the far stool.
"Can you please take your friend with you? We need to close early today."
Oh boy.
Ai exchanged looks with Keiko. The woman had several empty glasses in front of her, laying down face-first in her arms, blonde hair strewn about from their pigtails.
Ai scratched at her cheek.
Well then.
She approached the blonde, putting a hand gently on her pink-clad shoulder, "Excuse me?"
Bleary, glazed-over eyes looked at her, "…Wha…?"
Oh boy.
"We need to go outside," Ai replied, voice softening. She knew enough to lower her voice, loud noises tended to irritate and cause pain for anyone inebriated, "The bar is closing."
Now, Ai wasn't entirely sure, but she was fairly certain that the blonde muttered out something like "what kind of bar closes before midnight?" and finally stood.
Tried to, anyway. Ai had to scramble towards the blonde to steady her when she almost stumbled to the floor. Keiko appeared to help, and with one cock of her head, Ai looked towards the owner who was slowly growing irate.
She gave the man a friendly wave, then helped heave the blonde outside.
They had her sit down on one of the benches outside, underneath a streetlight colored gold. Ai looked up to see the skies clear, stars twinkling in distant lands, the threat of rain thankfully just as far, for now.
Keiko sat beside the blonde, "Do you want us to call you an uber?"
The blonde shook her head, "Can't…don't have the money…'sides…car…"
Ai blinked, looking around the street. True enough, there was a single car parked along the roads, an old model Ai still wasn't familiar with because she still preferred motorcycles.
The blonde shakily fumbled along her pockets for her keys, presumably, face flushed under the light of the streetlight. Keiko put a stop to that immediately, hand laid on the other woman's wrist, "Oh no, you're not driving when you're like that."
Ai crouched down to level with the blonde, "It's okay, we can cover the cost for you."
The blonde stared at her, eyes wide, her shoulder level.
Then they began to shake.
Ai winced, hands flailing, "What did I say…?"
Keiko gave her a flat, amused stare, but merely kept her silence, placing a single hand on the blonde's shoulder. She hissed between her teeth, eyes shiny, but Ai felt as though she was more…physically sucking in her emotions, rather than the crying spell she expected.
It looked….painful.
"Thank you," was the soft reply, not nearly as slurred.
Then, her eyes closed and she fell against Keiko's shoulder.
"…"
"…"
Well, then.
Damn.
"Nee-chan," Higura clapped his hands, bringing Ai's attention down to the child. She crouched down to bring herself level to her charge, absently adjusting his cap to fit over his eyes instead of covering them, "When will you be back?"
Oh boy. Ai wasn't quite sure how to handle this, but she decided to just give the boy something she never had as a child (not that she could remember much of that anyway, but still) and gave him the truth, "Just a few days!" she assured, hands coming to rest on his tiny little shoulders, "Not too long, don't worry!"
The wetness in his eyes were blinked away, small fingers rubbing at them, "That's what Tsu-san said last time but he never came back…"
Ah yes, the elusive Tsu-san, the previous caretaker who had made so many mistakes that Ai had to correct each and every one for each and every day that she came to work. She splayed her fingers out, hoping it would make her seem more sincere, "I swear. Nee-chan just needs some time to study, y'know? I'll be right back. Pinky promise? I've never broken a pinky promise before, right?"
Higura stared at her offered ahnd, then slowly held out his own. His pinky was barely half of Ai's and she gently wrapped her finger around his, "…Promise?"
"Promise," she assured, then pet his hair.
He gave her a wobbly smile, and as Ai turned to leave, he gave her a small little wave that had Ai smiling for the rest of the way back to her university.
…Dorms, her university dorms, because she forgot her bag that morning and had to swing back to grab it before going to class. Oh, sure, she could just forgo taking notes entirely, but that seemed a little too sloppy to her.
Putting the key in, Ai wondered if the blonde from last night was still there. She didn't seem very…well. Physically or mentally. When Ai ahd woken up, she went to check on their unexpected guest, and found her so dead to the world that even poking her in the face didn't work.
Class was starting soon, though, so Keiko had resorted to just putting a glass of water on the coffee table and Ai had written a note to let the woman know she could just walk out whenever she was awake.
The door opened with a small creak, revealing a room bathed in afternoon sunlight filtering through the blinds of the windows. Ai's gaze immediately swung to the couch, and found the blanket and pillow neatly tucked to the edge. Crossing the room let Ai see the empty glass, and her note left on top of the blanket and pillow instead of on the coffee table.
The room was neat, nothing was missing that she could notice. Guess she left in the morning, maybe a little after Ai and Keiko had gone to class. Ai sat at the couch, looking around. The quiet was almost relaxing, a peace she almost never stopped to relish. Maybe she could go hiking sometime? Or just going around the forest near the town to wander around a bit.
She shuddered to think what would happen if she went through another burnout breakdown.
The note, folded neatly, called to Ai's attention after she took her bag from her room. Picking it up, Ai flipped it over to see her own familiar scrawl. On the side of the note, however, was a new script she was unfamiliar with.
It said: "Thank you."
Ai smiled.
"Shirogane," the chief called, voice the exact kind of cheerful that sent chills down her spine, "I'm glad to see you arrive so early."
"…Yes, sir," she answered, because she didn't really know what else to answer to that.
The chief hummed, the jovial smile lines on his face deepening as he scribbled something down on the paper on his desk. Their meeting was swiftly closing down to a finish, having already gone through the formalities that morning. Granted, she was hungover and probably smelled a bit from wearing the same clothes overnight, but she had been cool and calm and most likely everything she had failed to do before her transfer.
The chief gave her cubicle number, her partner's name, and then ushered her out his door. His green tie was the last thing she saw before the door closed.
"There you are," and there he was, too, the person she had been hoping she wouldn't see.
Not that there was anything wrong with her brother, or working together in the same precinct as her brother, but.
Well.
"Yuichi," she greeted, tipping her cap at him. He smiled kindly down at her, and shame burned at her from the pit of her stomach. He couldn't know. Not about last night, or her last case. No, no.
"It's been some time, Miho," and there it was, her name. 'Protected' and she…didn't like it, not for herself, not when she was supposed to be the one who did the goddamn protecting. That was the entire point of her training, and yet…
"Sorry, but I can't talk right now," she murmured, tipping her cap low over her eyes, "I need to go meet my new partner."
"Ah," her brother replied, almost nostalgic, "I see. I'll meet with you later, then."
And he gave her one last pat on the shoulder before leaving. She turned, seeing him stride towards the entrance in easy grace. She could see a young man with wavy, silver hair at a squad car waving him over by the side of the street.
She'd been envious, once.
Stepping into the academy after he had gone felt like she was stepping into shoes that had never been for her, like trying to live up to an image she was never supposed to get. Every action compared to, every thought almost correlated to his shadow.
Miho turned, fingers on her cap, absently wondering if this was going to be like the academy all over again.
Seven, eight, nine. Maybe twenty two steps before she reached her destination. Her partner was Hibiki, he was a man who made Miho very grateful she liked reading as much as she did or else she'd never be able to understand him, and was very obviously a veteran officer from sheer age alone.
She wasn't sure how to take that.
He was an amiable enough man, if a little silent and cryptic, and when her break came, Miho decided to stroll out before her headache decided to take out half her braincells. Scanning the street, at the buildings across from her, she spotted a nursery, an ice cream parlor, and finally a pharmacy a little ways down the road.
And yes, the squad car coming up the road.
She stifled a sigh.
Sure enough, her brother came out, his partner at the wheel and peering up at her curiously. She refused to meet his eyes, instead fixing her gaze at the pharmacy.
"Go on ahead," she could hear Yuichi tell his partner, and as the squad car drove away, she could feel her brother coming to a stop beside her.
"…So," he started, "Something went wrong, then?"
She grimaced. Sometimes she disliked how astute Yuichi could be.
"Nothing too big," a non-lie, was the way. Minimize everything. Miho crossed the street, and judging by the light footsteps beside her, her brother followed along. A peek at him revealed his gaze wasn't on her, but on the nursery just behind them.
Then, he looked at her.
She winced.
"I won't pry," he said, placing his hands in his pockets, "But if you want to talk about it, I'm willing to listen."
She flinched like he'd just hit her.
Miho looked down, at the sidewalk, at the cracks under her feet, at the dust gathering on her boots.
"…I failed a lot of cases," she said, walking forward. One foot in front of the other. One foot in front of the other. She looked at her boots, at the shine of her shoes, at the laces tied to perfection because she couldn't bear to look at his face, "Transferred me here because they thought that the city would suit my skillset better."
A pebble, a rock, an empty plastic cup. A newspaper, a coupon, a single coin. More and more distance between them and the station.
And Yuichi still wasn't saying anything.
"And I wasn't really surprised, it was a long time coming anyway," she said, even as she began to pick at the threads of her gloves, "I could hear a lot of them gossip with each other about how I'd be let go. But I guess the chief took pity on me. And now I'm here."
She stopped in front of the pharmacy, in front of the large display window. Her reflection stared back at her, with bags heavy under her eyes. Her brother, staring at her with a solemn eye. She almost hated it, how she couldn't tell what he was feeling.
But she could never hold that against him.
She smiled, grit her teeth, bared it at her reflection, "So I did something stupid and went out to get drunk last night, at some bar I found around downtown. I didn't know where I was. I wasn't sure how to get back to my apartment from there."
And finally, a reaction. His eye widened, head swinging to look at her, but Miho refused to look at him even then.
"But," her expression softened, as she caught sight of a brilliant red box in the storefront, "I guess something good came out of it anyway."
Those girls, whoever they were, they'd been the ones who found her and let her stay overnight at their dorm, even thought she was nothing but a drunk stranger at that point.
It had been a long, long time since Miho had gotten to experience that kind of kindness.
"Two girls saved me," she said, finally, and turned to face her brother. His face was caught in an expression between relief, horror and worry, "Let me stay the night at their dormitory."
He opened his mouth, closed it. Miho looked up and bore her gaze straight into his. She had made her decision, she could take the consequences. Even if the disappointment in her brother's gaze would make her stomach churn into itself, she'd take it.
"So, that's what happened."
The wind blew through the streets.
And Yuichi placed a single, gloved hand over her head.
"I'm just glad you're safe," he said, instead, his voice still warm, enough to make Miho's eyes screw shut because goddamn her brother.
"If you're disappointed, you could just say so."
"I'm not. Even though you haven't told me everything, I can tell that it had been building up for a long time. I'm just glad that when you…broke down, someone came by to help you."
Breath in, breath out.
And this was why Miho had only been envious, once, why she would never blame her misfortune on her only family.
She grinned up at him, wryly, refusing to acknowledge how her eyes must have looked, "We better go in, or else the pharmacists are gonna ask us to leave."
He smiled.
After that hop-skip trip to get herself some painkillers – "Get these, they work better on hangovers," he said, at which point Miho had smirked and asked, "How would you know that?" which Yuichi had refused to answer – Miho found herself nibbling on a popsicle from the ice cream parlor, sitting beside a bench just in front of the nursery.
She could spot her brother casting little glances at the nursery, and after several instances of this, and several levels of her curiosity spiking up, she asked, "What is it?"
"Hmm?"
"The nursery," she clarified, "What is it? You've been giving it looks for a little while now."
His lone eye widened a bit, then he shook his head, "I'm just checking on it. A friend of mine works there and I haven't seen her today. She's never missed a day of work, so…"
"You got worried?" Miho supplied, at which point her brother nodded.
"Of course you would," she smiled warmly, "What's she like?"
"My friend?"
"Yeah, tell me about her."
"She's…" he trailed off, and Miho's head cocked to the side, trying to place the expression softening her brother's features as he tugged at his cap. God, they really did have similar ticks, "..She's one of those people you can just tell are good."
"High praise," she commented, smiling, brows raising, "I'd like to meet her sometime."
"I'll introduce you," Yuichi replied, voice warm, "I'm sure you'll be great friends."
The knock at 7 PM wasn't expected. Ai didn't usually have guests over, and Keiko hadn't told her anything about visitors. It was Saturday, too, so non-students were lurking around the campus all the time.
Keiko, currently passed out on the floor after returning from a particularly grueling session at her part-time job, also couldn't tell her about any changed plans. Ai stepped over her, casually, trying to see if her shirt had any visible stains and decided that it wasn't worth it.
Checking that the chain was firmly in place, she unlocked the door.
"Hello," she was greeted with a warm voice and the crinkle of a gift basket, "My name is Miho. I wanted to thank you for the other night."
