AN: Hey guys, sorry about the skips here and there! Meant to get this posted before I left town over the weekend for New Year's! Even talked with vhenan about it but :\ I got distracted

Bluephoenixflame98 – would you believe me if I said this was actually not supposed to be anywhere near this sweet and cute but I love it anyway xD

Bunny.W.K – We're so glad to hear that this was nice and relaxing for you after that stressful week! Discord was hilarious and fun the other day, gotta drag you back down with us some more haha

LovelyPolkaDots – Sorry about the confusion with the whole dialogue and massage thing! I was partially asleep when I was finishing the last of that chapter, so I didn't notice the actions I had put alongside the dialogue!

As for her abilities, now that many demon species have either died out, spread around, or gone into hiding and with her output of excess energy in a few years-time for a war, having to just 'put it away' so to speak, with hardly any training, would be very difficult so she has to be creative in how to 'release' that energy.


Important - This chapter is in Joseph's perspective! Just a little insight!

Timeline - 2 months and 3 weeks


VI.

By the time they got back to the precinct, the storm overhead has lightened enough for a few rays of sunlight to dabble the ground. From beside him, Sebastian is already pulling out his cigarettes to smoke a quick one as before the hit the doors.

Joseph, himself, just tries not to dwell on how his clothes stick to him from the humidity.

He holds open the door for Sebastian, waiting for him put out his cigarette, and they both end up nearly running right into a drenched Officer Monroe. He's shaking out his jacket, grunting and bitching under his breath about stupid teenagers and Joseph laughs. It gets him a punch and a half-assed threat that he shakes off.

Sebastian starts beating at his own jacket and it's only the fact that Joseph was relegated to the car for forgetting his that saved him from getting soaked.

All his thoughts the last two days had been caught up wondering if everything was going well for Kagome now that she had started her internship. Just sixteen more hours and she'd be able to sleep at home.

Maybe he'd make her something from Japan. The closest they'd had so far was takeout and eating out at some restaurants in Krimson's own 'Little Tokyo'. She had to be getting pretty homesick by now, what with how much her tendency to wander had gotten worse. Some of the market owners might have some of the things he would need and, while it wouldn't be extravagant or complicated, he still knew enough to make something simple. He could probably even get one of her favorite dishes cooked up.

Sebastian slaps him on the shoulder and they both wave off Monroe while he heads over to where the front desk is. Even from here, it's pretty easy to see the group of people standing around waiting to any available Officer. They head over to the stairs, the din of conversation muffling for the few seconds it takes them to get to the second floor.

It's crowded as usual, detectives either standing around or hustling off to deal with whatever case they've been assigned. A few of them glance up briefly before going back to case files they have lying open on their desks or splayed on their propped-up legs. Some of the more alert ones either give a dip of their head or a small wave as they moved down to Sebastian's office.

He pops a brow at a disheveled teen when they flip him off from where they are cuffed next to one of the desks. Officer Perkins throws a little smirk at him from behind the kid, a case file in hand.

Sebastian grabs him by the shoulder to push him along once he starts lagging behind, so he just rolls his eyes and picks up his pace. The door to Sebastian's office is propped open, a box of case files sitting on his desk and Sebastian gives a pointed look at Joseph's desk where two more boxes are sitting.

Joseph stacks them on top of each other before heading in after Sebastian, door closing behind them with a quiet click.

"So much for a quiet rest of the shift, right? Here I was, gonna grill you about that 'roommate' of yours." The inflection wasn't lost on him and he gave Sebastian a pointed look before he dropped the boxes onto the desk.

"You make it sound like there's something going on. She's an old family friend and she needed somewhere to stay so she could do her internship or, um, residency." While Sebastian went to start up a pot from his personal coffee machine, he grabbed the extra rolling chair that was kept in the corner for when they had big, joint cases. Which, from the looks of it, was exactly what was going to be happening for the next while.

"Kagome called me on my personal cell and explained as best she could how she needed to know your schedule so she could prank you. Do I wanna know what that's about? Cuz most appropriate pranks don't need a set schedule. They're spur of the moment and spontaneous. Lily tries out little pranks on me all the time." Sebastian grabbed the closest box to him and started pulling files out and Joseph doubted Sebastian even noticed the way he messed with the little bead bracelet Lily had given to him.

He just laughed a little, fond and quiet, as he grabbed the top file and flipped it open.

There was a pause.

He could see Sebastian from his peripheral, staring down at the file he was holding like he was. "You don't think all these case files are missing persons, do you?"

From outside the office, the click of keyboards, drawers being closed, and muffled conversation followed them as they sat down. "How long do you think this will take?"

"Just in case, if you had plans with Kagome, I'd suggest you call right now to let her know."

Joseph just hummed quietly, pulling out his phone so he can leave her a quick text that she'd hopefully see. Nothing too long, just that he wouldn't be able to pick her up like he wanted to before pocketing it again. The sensation of being watched raised the hairs on the back of his neck and chanced a look at Sebastian to see the considering look he was getting. "What?"

"We should all figure out a day when we can get together and finally meet."

He narrows his eyes, "A little sudden, don't you think?"

Sebastian shrugs, flipping a page over while maintaining eye contact, "Not at all. What do you say?"

Knowing that he would just be pestered by Myra, or worse, subjected to Lily's simpering pout, he just sighed and gave in when he still had a choice. "I'll talk to her about it."

End


As always, let us know if you see any errors so we can fix this. I did go over this a few times but I'm sure I still missed something some where. It's so easy to do.

Mmmm, also thinking about posting another chapter by Saturday, what do you guys think?