THIS I PROMISE

Shuichi Saihara barricaded a yawn inside of his mouth with his fist as the sliding doors into the police station of Precinct 53 parted to allow him entry. He had ended up passing out on his couch, gently tiring his brain into submission with his constant ruminations. Last he had checked, it had been around 2:30AM by the time he finally hopped aboard the Dreamland Express. So when the alarm on his phone began its assault upon the airwaves of Shuichi's apartment at 6AM, he was none too pleased at his fleeting and poultry amount of rest. He had spent at least a solid, straight minute doing nothing but glaring at the offending hunk of technology, as if he could stare it down into shutting up. When this strategy failed, he was forced to finally rise from his grave and get moving.

The station was roughly a 15-minute walk, followed by a 10-minute train ride from his apartment. The early December sky was still darkened, with only tints of blue reflected off the black clouds in the sky, a distant harbinger of the sun's impending arrival. Once the doors had slid closed behind him, Shuichi allowed himself a couple seconds to appreciate escaping the frigid, still winter air. Making his way towards the back, away from the main public foyer, he flashed a key fob in front of a small sensor, whose red light briefly flashed green as it gave an affirmatory beep. Shuichi pulled open the door and stepped through, entering into the corridor that acted as the main thoroughfare through this portion of the station.

The hall was already abuzz with the comings and goings of officers heading to where they need to go and the chatter that hung in the air like the smoking section of a restaurant. Machine gun beeping as phones rang and the shuffling and flipping of papers accented the fuzz of audio, creating an almost relaxing white noise that permeated the entire station. Shuichi headed down the corridor towards the detective's room. Normally he'd stop off at the lunchroom to mix himself a quick cup of tea, but it was on the complete opposite side of where he needed to be heading, and thanks to a 'brief' 20-minute extension on his sleep time this morning, he was already running behind enough as it was. He'd barely had time to even grab an energy bar as he headed out the door for breakfast.

Passing through a second corridor, into the copying room, and past the janitor's closet, Shuichi rounded the corner and was about to head into his destination when he heard the very last voice he ever wanted to hear right at that moment. If he was being completely honest, he would have more so welcomed the distinctive laugh of a certain monochromatic robot at this moment.

"Well, what do we have here?" Shuichi flinched as the voice caught in his ears and his hand, that had been only mere inches away from grabbing the doorknob froze in midair. Sighing deeply, Shuichi turned around to see Honda coming out of the weapons cleaning room. His brown hair, as short as it was, still glistened under the harsh fluorescents, vaguely reminding Shuichi of the rainbow ripples that float upon the surface of oil. Walking along side Honda was another officer. He appeared to be almost, if not exactly, the same age as Honda. Lanky, and with his spiked, blonde hair, he vaguely made Shuichi think of a modern art sculpture made from copper. Honda approached Shuichi with all the swagger and machismo he seemed to be able to muster, with his companion looking as though he were eternally snidely amused by whatever he was seeing.

"Looks like somebody lost their kid. Maybe we should take him to the lost and found. Unless... yo, Shinji, you didn't happen to lose your brat now, did you?" The blonde modern meditation on points and angles snickered as Honda turned towards him.

"You know, I can't say that I have." Shinji breathed out from somewhere in the back of his throat, making his voice sound like water evaporating in a hot skillet.

"Oh, well that's too bad. Hey, do you want us to help you find your mommy, little boy? What does she look like? Do you remember where you last saw her" Honda excreted through a crooked smirk as Shinji snickered through his yellowing teeth.

"Don't you two have something else you could be doing? Like, maybe your jobs?" Shuichi was tired, hungry, sore from sleeping on his couch, and frankly just did not have the energy necessary to be dealing with a couple of grown men acting like 8th grade schoolyard bullies right now.

"Hey," Honda barked as he gave Shuichi's shoulder a solid shove, forcing Shuichi back a step, "Didn't your parents ever teach you any manners? Mouthing off to your elders, that's no good." The corridor directly behind Honda and Shinji was, of course, the only corridor that seemed to be conspicuously absent of much traffic this morning. Shuichi groaned internally at how ludicrous this entire situation was. He figured the days in 5th grade, dealing with insecure and emotionally stunted bullies coming around, ripping up his maps, and messing up his puzzles would be far behind him at this point. Yet here he was.

"Whatever, I don't have time for this." Shuichi said like the lazy overflow of a clogged sink as he turned to the door and began to spin the handle. Suddenly a hand, shot like a bullet, slammed itself against the door's face, entombing it shut.

"You better make time, Nancy Drew." Honda sneered, becoming vexed at Shuichi's casual dismissal of him, "You think you're better than me, hotshot? Didn't look like it when you were face down in that puddle last night. Unless you just really enjoy the taste of soupy tarmac, gum, and shoes that much." Shuichi reared around, meeting Honda's eyes with his own, their faces mere inches apart. . Ordinarily, he would avoid becoming too excessively confrontational with Honda, particularly when they were actually at the station. He didn't ever see the upside to getting Honda even more riled up than he usually already was. However, rather than calculating and carefully considered logic surging through his mind this morning, all he could feel was vexing irritation stemming from a marked lack of caffeine and food, which led his actions to becoming much less considerate than they might have normally been.

"What do you want Honda? What exactly are you trying to accomplish here? What was your plan when you decided to come over to me? Do you need something? Do I have something you want? Just tell me already, so I can get you out of my face!" Shuichi suddenly felt a cutting pain erupt from the back of his neck, as Honda forcefully grabbed a fistful of Shuichi's shirt collar before slamming him back against the door, sending a sharp eruption of pain exploding from his cervical vertebrae at the base of his neck.

"You're damn right you've got something I want, Sherlock! And if you'd just take the fucking hint already, I could have it by now! So yeah, if you wanna give it to me, then by all means, pick up your shit and walk out the door back to mommy and daddy."

"And if he doesn't want to, then maybe we could try just throwing him out ourselves." Shinji snorted, chipping his two cents into the exchange.

"Or maybe... leaving you 'indisposed' in one of the bathroom stalls would work just as well, huh?" Honda sneered. Before Shuichi could even begin to think of a way to counter the tide of the situation, a light yet strong voice came echoing down the corridor.

"Hey, what are you guys up to over there?" Three sets of eyes snapped in the direction of the voice. From down the hall, a young woman sauntered towards them, roughly 24 years old, and chocolate brown eyes so full of light they could put a certain robotic friend Shuichi once knew to shame. Accompanying them was an equally radiant smile that Shuichi could never remember seeing leave her face.

"Hagemini! Oh, nothing much, you know. Little Shuichi here was just having an issue with his tie, so I thought I'd help him straighten it out. Ain't that right, Shuichi?" Honda gave him a stiff, forced smile that promised no shortage of trouble for him in the future if he didn't play along. Shuichi reined himself in and inhaled a calming breath as Honda fake straightened his tie for him.

"Yeah, that's right. I'm still not used to wearing them quite yet, so I sometimes end up with a really flimsy knot. Especially on days like today, when I didn't even have enough time to eat before getting here. Thanks a lot, Honda." Shuichi forced out between the teeth of his own phony smile.

"Hey, don't mention it, buddy! You ever need anything, just let me know, got it?" Honda emphasied his last words with a thumping smack to his back that sent Shuichi forward a couple steps, which brought him only a couple feet from being face to face with the only female inhabitant of the hallway. Shuichi straightened himself as immediately as he could to give his and her personal space some breathing room, as a faint blush stained his cheeks. The girl held a giggle back behind the dam of her fist, lest it erupt into a geyser of laughter.

"Well, aren't we being helpful today, huh. Maybe if you applied that to your work, those DUIs from last week might have been done already." The woman jabbed with a crooked smirk and a hand on her cocked hip. Honda deflated slightly at being reminded of his bureaucratic responsibilites.

"Oh come on, you barely just got promoted a month ago. You know the ways that desk work slowly kills you from the inside out. Have a heart!"

"You think I don't still have paperwork that needs getting done? I've gotten even more since making sergeant. So if there's someone you wanna bitch at about red tape, sorry to tell you that it ain't going to be me."

"I've got an idea! How's about we just do the 'old interception'? We'll file it under 'out', and then just say it got lost in the tubes of the internet. Not like the old men up top are gonna know anything to be able to argue with that." Honda bargained.

"How's I about I file you under 'shut up and go get it done by the end of the day or else I'll be writing you up'?"

"Jesus Christ, are you for real, woman?"

"I don't know. You want to find out, Honda?" She challenged, giving Honda a grin that simply embodied the phrase 'checkmate'. Honda's shoulders sagged as he exhaled any hope he might have been clinging to that his flimsy ploy might have actually worked.

"Fine. I'll get right on it." Honda trudged off towards the squad room, seeming as if the weight of the universe had just been hefted upon him.

"Good choice. And you, Okajima, shouldn't you be helping him out with that?"

"Uuuuhhhmmm..." Came Shinji's intelligent response before he wordlessly chased after Honda down the corridor. Shuichi released a breath and felt as if a sack of sand had just been lifted from his shoulders. He turned to the young woman, who was still amusedly watching the two officers limp away with their ears drooping, and gave a bow.

"I'm really sorry for causing a bit of a ruckus here, sergeant. I promise not to let it happen again." The woman turned back to him with a look of slight surprise, which quickly shifted to amusement as a chuckle flew from her smiling lips.

"You're apologizing for a crooked tie? If I expected an apology for everything worse than that, I'd end up a crabby, old hag before I even turned thirty."

"Right. Sorry about that." Shuichi blushed and rubbed the back of his neck, as if trying to massage the awkwardness he felt out of him.

"By the way, didn't I tell you you could call me 'Maya' when we're alone?" She inquired, pushing a small lock of her short, oak colored hair behind her ear. Shuichi felt the blush reach back towards his ears at the intimate reminder.

"Well, I mean, yeah. But that was back when you were just a regular officer. I figured, now that you're a sergeant, it was only to be expected."

"Well, thank you for being so respectful. But really, it's okay. Just as long as no one else is around," Maya's cheeks flushed with a tiny hint of color as she locked her hands behind her back. "Okay?"

Shuichi wished he could retreat into his coat like a turtle. Whenever he spoke to Maya, she always had a knack for pushing the right combination of his buttons to make him clam up. "Um... well, if you say so... Maya." He said, nearly forcing out her name. Maya gave him a sunrise of a smile before walking around him to the door that Shuichi had so desperately wanted to just walk through a few minutes ago.

"Well, come on then, detective. We've got a new batch of fun, fun, fun pencil pushing that needs to get done after that Kuzuryu guy showed up on our doorstep. Also, seems like neighboring prefectures have had reports coming out of them about cases almost identical to ours. At least this case has a twist that will hopefully keep it interesting," She grabbed the handle, but paused before turning it, "By the way, you said you didn't eat anything this morning. Muesli and earl grey, right?"

Shuichi regarded her stunned. "Uh, yes, but... how did you know?"

Maya chuckled and winked, "You're a creature of habit, Shuichi. My dog could remember what you like for breakfast." She stepped through the door, leaving Shuichi to feel very flustered, slightly violated, a tad bit warm.

The air was frosty and the night was dark and overcast. A gentle mist had been left over from the rain that hung in the air, drifting as slowly as the growth of hair, like slumbering ghosts. Shuichi exerted a large cloud of steam as he made his way home. The events of the day weighing each of steps down. If Maya hadn't been where she was, when she was, Shuichi wasn't sure what might have happened. He tugged at the collar of his shirt poking out from beneath his coat, feeling the fabric slightly stretched and loose, and grimaced. Within the span of twenty-four hours, Honda had gone from never laying a finger on Shuichi, to assaulting him twice, and once while inside the station, no less. He found this worrisome. Who knows how much farther Honda may escalate things, and how quickly. Shuichi briefly thought of bringing it up with Hosoda, but...

"If you have to go, you have to go then, I suppose. Just be safe, alright? And try not to cause any trouble for Hosoda or the upper-brass, you hear me, boy!"

His uncle's words would always ring in the back of his mind whenever the thought came bubbling to the surface, like the distant evening knell of a church bell signaling dusk. Shuichi needed to figure out a way to deal with this on his own, until it was absolutely necessary to let Hosoda know. It just didn't sit right with him to go running to him like a child getting picked on on the playground. With an affirmative humph, Shuichi raised his musing eyes up from the pavement as he pressed on.

The green man illuminated a sharp emerald as Shuichi trekked across the last crosswalk before he would be back at his apartment. As he approached the corner though, something caught his eye. Something that stood out from the dull, gray gloom of the night. Shuichi approached the 'No Parking' sign that stood beside it's comrade, the traffic light, and took it in his fingers.

A crimson thread of yarn, tied in a little bow around the sign's pole, its dangling ends fluttering in the icy breeze that was beginning to pick up.

It was there, seeming innocuous enough. To anyone else, it might seem like just another eccentricity of city life. "Artists" going around, decorating "their" city to better suit themselves give them an inflated sense of validation. But Shuichi knew better. And as he gently caressed the thread between his thumb and index finger, as smile slowly grew upon his face.

He pulled back his coat cuff to check his watch. 9:47PM. It would take him only about 5 minutes to get to where he needed to go. Not wanting to waste any time, Shuichi continued on towards home, pulling the thread from the pole and placing it gingerly into his inside coat pocket.

Shuichi ascended upwards in the elevator of his apartment building. Rising up past the 2nd floor, the 3rd, then the 4th, which was normally where he would be getting off. Up and up, until he came to a floating stop at the 9th floor. The doors parted and Shuichi headed down the hallway, passing door after door on his right side. Finally reaching the end of the hall, he swung left and proceeded through a lone access door, bringing him into an industrial looking stairwell, the floors and walls a clay colored concrete, and black, red, and white pipes accented the way upwards. Shuichi climbed the first flight of stairs, then at the top of the second flight, was a door reading, "Roof Access". Pushing through the door, Shuichi came out onto the flat and expansive roof of the complex.

The ledges were all blocked by an eight foot tall fence that surrounded the entirety of the roof space. While there were a couple of tables with chairs and string lights that would illuminate the roof if need be, tenants seldom came up during the winter, if ever. Shuichi's community was not exactly known as 'party central'. Though, despite her age, Shuichi often found it amusing to imagine Ms Yasashi coming up to tell some rambunctious partiers to keep the noise down. The door thudded close behind him with a heavy clack and Shuichi was left alone, cut off from the rest of the building. Only the lone bulb next to the door, the gibbous moon and the faint, far off glow of the city's heart keeping the roof from total blackness.

Shuichi walked past the tables and chairs towards the far side of the roof and gazed out through the bars of the fence. The building was situated on an elevated plane, just outside the heart of the city, where all the hustle and bustle was no doubt continuing on as if it were ten in the morning, rather than the evening. The serenity of the relative quiet of his neighborhood, the pervasive breeze that was always present, and the soft glow of the city and its twinkling lights always had a soothing affect on Shuichi's nerves. Though, he never really came up that often. Only for special occasions, like tonight. He absentmindedly pulled out his pack of smokes and placed one in his lips before flipping the lid of his lighter and igniting the end of his cigarette. Snapping the lid back shut, he took a deep drag before exhaling both smoke and steam, momentarily obscuring him and his view from sight.

While reaching up to pluck his cigarette from his mouth, Shuichi glanced at his watch. 9:55PM. Shuichi crossed his arms and hugged the elbow of his cigarette hand with his free one. The cold was just barely creeping in through the fabric of his coat. No, what was really getting to Shuichi was the anticipation. It had been a really long time since he'd seen her. In fact, this was the longest time away she's ever been. Shuichi reckoned it had to be over two months now. Despite it being rather macabre, he had actually felt a tiny twinge of happiness upon inspecting the body of that yakuza liaison.

All the telltale signs of her work were all over that crime scene. Completely invisible and undetectable to anyone but Shuichi. Honestly, he wasn't entirely sure why he was feeling nervous at all. Sure, it had been two months since they last saw each other, but it wasn't as if it were years or that they'd separated on bad terms.

Perhaps it wasn't nervousness then.

Perhaps it was something else that was stirring the stew of Shuichi's heart and mind. He knew he felt happy, that much should be obvious. And excited. Also obvious. But he's been happy and excited about lots of things in his life and he had never quite felt this way about them before.

Although... in the back of his mind, Shuichi thinks that there was in fact a time when he felt this. When he felt something akin to this mystery ingredient in his soul-stew before.

A flash of flaxen hair, violet eyes, and a smile as delicate and warm as a setting sun flew past the window of Shuichi's mind. He brought his right hand to his left and gently thumbed the top of it. He closed his eyes and allowed himself a moment. His cheeks pulling his lips upwards, he could not contain the smile. A smile full of such bittersweet reminiscence.

And then, the soft tapping of shoes on concrete, approaching closer. They must have only been a few meters behind him from the sounds of it.

Silently, they had entered through the roof's door.

Silently, they approached nearly undetectable until the very last moment.

If they wanted to, those footsteps could have remained silent all the way up to his back. At that point, they could have done anything they wanted to do with him. That's how they worked.

But they wouldn't do anything to him. They never would. And so when the footsteps went silent, Shuichi turned around to greet them and their owner.

"Hey Maki Roll."

There she was. With hair like twin falls of dark chestnut and eyes of ruby that could hold within them all the hellfire of Hades, or run a man's blood cold. Her twin pigtails fluttered in the breeze, as if she were some comic book super hero. Her black leather jacket came down just above her waist, concealing her black sweatshirt atop her black pants. Black gloved hands also poked out from her sleeves and black running shoes from her pant legs. She was as black as the night around her, only her icy cold flaming eyes would give her away.

Maki scoffed through her nose as she approached Shuichi. Coming right up to him, she looked up and narrowed her eyes. Anybody else might have felt incredibly intimidated and uncomfortable, but Shuichi just kept smiling back at her. Then, she swiftly plucked the cigarette from his mouth before dropping it to the ground and stomping out its life.

"You know I hate it when you smoke." She said as she turned away from Shuichi. He chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Yeah, sorry. It's just become a bit of a habit I guess."

"Yeah, and that's the entire problem. Do you want to die? Because those things will certainly do the job." Shuichi couldn't keep his smile from growing bigger at the casual utterance of her old catchphrase. It had felt closer to half a year since he last saw her, rather than two months. He was soaking in her entire being with every fiber of his own. After escaping from the Academy, along with Himiko, the three of them had been resolute in keeping in touch and remaining friends. Himiko's path took her onto the road, where after gaining the recognition of the International Magicians Society, she had set out on tour to showcase her act(magic) to people across the country, fulfilling her dream of bringing smiles to the faces of millions of people, and her promise to always live facing forward.

Shuichi, having kept all the promises he had made to his friends up to that point, was not about to stop. He wanted to give her the life that had been taken from her, a life where she didn't have to be the Ultimate Assassin, where she could just be Maki Harukawa. A life where the two of them could continue smiling together.

"Why do you always make such gross faces?" Shuichi snapped from his reverie at Maki questioning him, hand on her hip.

"Sorry, just thinking about things. How have you been Maki? It feels like forever since we last saw each other.

"It's only been about two months, don't be dramatic."

"I know, but still." Shuichi smiled. Sighing, Maki walked up to the fence next to Shuichi and leaned back against the cold bars, only two three inch bars separating her from falling backward ten stories.

"I've been fine, I guess. As well as I ever can be. I've been... busy." Maki turned her downcast eyes away from Shuichi.

"Yeah, I noticed. That Kuzuryu liaison last night. That had your fingerprints all over it. Not literally, of course, but you know what I mean. Word around the station is that similar cases have been reported in nearby prefectures. That's all been you?" Shuichi knew that Maki was the Ultimate in assassination, but surely her organization wouldn't spread one of its assassins, let alone one of their best, too thin would they?

"Yeah, there's been rumblings within the HSS. It seems like something pretty big might be beginning to boil."

"Oh joy, job security. Do you have any idea what it could be?" Shuichi inquired to his night clad friend.

"Not really. The jobs they're sending me on are numerous and really spread out, but there's nothing unusual about the targets themselves. If you took out all the internal whispering, the widespread locations, and the quantity of the jobs, it would all be business as usual." Shuichi put his hand up to his chin.

"Hmm, large quantities of targets spread out across different prefectures..."

"I suppose it is a bit unusual that all the targets have been yakuza." Maki interjected.

"What?"

"It's nothing out of the ordinary for yakuza to have hits put out on each other. In fact, they're what's known around the HSS as one of the 'big three', which constitute yakuza, politicians, and NPA agents. But to have more than two targets in a row be cut from the same cloth is not normal."

Shuichi's brow furrowed and he covered his mouth with his hand as he began to think more intensely. "So all yakuza... how many have there been?"

"That Kuzuryu goon makes four. The other three were in Kanagawa, Chiba, and Saitama. He was my last job from this batch they sent me on. The traveling, reconnaissance, the actual job, and then abscondence have really been wearing me out." Maki looked up from the ground and gazed out past the fence on the far side of the roof, into the dark abyss of night that lay out toward the countryside, grasping her elbows.

"Shuichi... I know you've been working hard. And I know you've been doing a lot to help me. You've become much more dependable than you used to be," Maki chuckled. Shuichi pouted slightly at the backhanded compliment. Why did everyone always have to say that? I was the one who did the most during the investigations and trials! "But I don't think you'll be able to do anything about this one. Whatever is going on with the higher-ups at the HSS, it feels way too big for any one detective to be able to handle on their own."

Shuichi understood what she meant. It made sense. After all, he was only one man. Hell, barely a man. If Maki's organization really was gearing up for some big operation, even if he had the entire station behind him, what would he be able to do? They have no authority in any of the other prefectures. How was he supposed to even go about trying to investigate? And even if he was able to get authorization, the amount of time and red tape he would need to get through just to look into one prefecture's case, let alone three, made his head spin. His only source of information was Maki, who was on the inside. But to have her try and start digging where she wasn't supposed to be could put her in jeopardy. From what Maki had told him, the Holy Salvation Society did not exactly sound like a congregation of den mothers. Provoking them or making them suspicious of her, especially given Maki's delicate situation between them and her orphanage, didn't seem like the wisest move. Any way you looked at it, all the cards seemed stacked against this lone gumshoe.

And yet, Shuichi couldn't keep a smile from creeping across his face.

Turning upwards, the young detective gazed up at the stars. Unfortunately, the light pollution allowed only for the brightest and strongest to pierce through the soft veil that enveloped the city. They were so far away, so few, and so faint.

But they were there.

And even if they no longer were, even if across all those thousands of millions of light years away, the stars they saw were no more, to them, they were still here. Still shining down upon them, and still guiding their way. "It'll be alright, Maki."

Maki turned to Shuichi with a questioning glare. Seeing him staring up into the sky though, she too looked up to gaze into the vast expanse of the universe, the stars twinkling, dancing.

"I believe it's all gonna be just fine. It may seem impossible for us to be able to do anything to change the course these circumstances seem to be heading down... but that's okay. Even if it's impossible, all we've got to do is make it so, right?" Shuichi turned his head to give Maki a reassuring and foolishly confident smile, one that he had no real right to be wearing, but he did nonetheless.

Maki knew that what he was saying sounded foolish. She knew there was no reason to believe that whatever storm clouds were on the horizon wouldn't capsize them into the sea. She knew that, if she were to keep her wits about her, her head would spin at the sheer doltishness of what Shuichi, a detective, who are supposed to be one of the most logical breed of people on the planet, was spouting off.

But she couldn't help but feel it. It's reassurance, it's comfort, it's bittersweet familiarity. Gazing at that smile, though it was dwarfed in comparison to the raw enormity and idiotic brightness of the original, Maki couldn't help but feel the tiniest twinge of hope spark inside her chest.

Slowly, her cat-like lips turned into one of her genuine smiles. The ones that only a few people in the entire world have ever seen.

Chuckling, she shut her eyes and turned away from Shuichi's grin, "You really are an idiot, aren't you? Just like him... But, at this point, I shouldn't expect anything less, should I?" Shuichi let out a giggle that he could not stop from bubbling up from within his gut.

Maki pushed herself from the bars and zipped up her jacket, facing the door that led to the stairs. "I think I should be heading out now." Shuichi's smile dropped as he stared at her back.

"What? You're leaving already?"

"The cold is starting to get to me, and I've never really been the biggest fan of winter to begin with," Shuichi's mind suddenly started to scramble. This is the first time they've seen each other in such a long while. He had hoped that when they did meet again, they'd at least be able to spend more than 10 minutes talking about nothing but business. Sitting on the grass, talking about nothing and yet everything for hours. Being able to just be Shuichi and Maki, not a detective or an assassin. "I'll see you later, Shuichi."

"Wait!"

Before she could even take more than one step, she stopped in her tracks and looked back at the prussian haired boy. "Um... I mean..ahh...you want to come inside? I could make some tea to warm you up... you know, if you'd like." Maki blinked a couple times out of sheer surprise for the invitation and a faint peach coloring dusted Shuichi's cheeks. This was the first time he'd ever invited a girl to his home. Bizarrely enough, all the times they had met before, he had never thought of inviting her inside.

Why haven't I ever thought to before? She's my friend, it's not weird to invite your friends over to your house... right? Even if they're not the same gender, that's still something friends do... right? Yeah. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it is. Definitely, definitely is. Quite. Indeed... yeah. Well... knowing Maki though, she'll probably just say-...

"Sure. I don't mind if you don't."

What!?

"Oh! I mean uh, oh, okay. Yeah, right! Sure. Okay! Let's um... let's go then, right? Downstairs! Inside!... To my apartment!" Shuichi's tongue flopped all over without any set plan of what it wanted to say, so it ended up just causing him to word vomit all over the place. The peach on his cheeks slowly turned darker as he ceased trying to speak and could only let out small, sporadic chuckles that came up like hiccups. Maki raised an eyebrow before turning on her heel and headed for the door.

"Weirdo."

A/N: Holy crap, sorry this one took a while. I've been working literal non-stop overtime for the past month, and I'll probably be continuing to do so until the second week of January. I'll still try to write during that time though. Hopefully I'll be able to get the next chapter out in a more timely fashion.

Also yaaaay, Maki Roll finally showed up! While I was writing, I thought about ending this chapter right when Shuichi turns to say hi to her, and then turn their whole conversation into another chapter that I'd put out like, the next day. But I didn't really write enough to justify a whole other chapter, and I had promised that she would actually BE here in this chapter. So instead of one regular sized chapter and a super tiny chapter, you get one massive chapter.

I've also found I have no real passion for righting police dramas. More likely than not, I'm probably gonna try to keep the story out of the station as often as possible. Anyhoo, please tell me what you guys honestly think. Your kind words encourage me to keep going and any critiques will help me get better.