As consciousness returned to her, Tsubame became mildly aware of a familiar and soothing smell that warmed her; enveloping her senses entirely. In her dreamlike state, she mused that it smelled a lot like a lost memory, forgotten to her in her bliss. The fresh cotton of a recently laundered comforter honeyed by a mix of the faint woody aroma of old leather and the sweet tinge of spiced rum… Where on earth had she smelled that before? A deeper breath revived her and her eyes blinked open. When she didn't immediately recognize the room, she began to panic. A whimpering from a corner of the room drew her attention and she shot up out of the foreign bed, careful not to wake whatever it was that was guarding her from the floor.

"G-Ginoza?" she whispered, covering her mouth. There was no doubt that she was in his room. An open bottle of gold liquor sat guiltily on his nightstand in front of several picture frames that had been knocked face-first into the wood, apparently to conceal their contents. A worn out, brown leather jacket clung to the coat rack near the door. There was no doubt in her mind that it was Masaoka's, considering the percentage of it that was stained with what appeared to be blood. She tried not to think about it. In her haste to find something else to look at, she grabbed the nearest picture frame. To her surprise it contained an actual printed photograph of a young and smiling Masaoka with an even younger Ginoza sitting atop his shoulders. She brushed her fingers gently across the glass and smiled, astounded that the reserved, secretive Ginoza she knew now had once been able to bare his happiness so easily. A quiet cry from the floor interrupted her reverie. Leaving the frame on the bed, she slipped out from under the covers and knelt quietly beside him to observe his face.

Ginoza's brow furrowed in his sleep, pain etched deeply into his features. His breath quickened and he tossed under the knit blanket he'd covered himself with. Her heart ripped in two as she watched him struggle to fight against the demons that assailed him in his nightmare. Tears rolled unhindered down his face and he whispered heartbreakingly into his blanket, "dad?" It crushed her, her face soaked in her own tears now. She reached out and tenderly brushed his tangled hair from his face, gently waking him.

"It's just a dream," she soothed. His bleary eyes fought to focus on her. "It's me, Tsubame. You were having a nightmare. Everything is alright, Ginoza. It's okay."

He panted, desperate to catch the breath that had been knocked from him by his own dreams. His hand found its way to the much softer one placed on his cheek, and squeezed it lightly. He hadn't felt so exposed since the day his father died; like the tendrils of a snapped electric line flailing on the ground. Still shaking, he carefully sat up and propped himself on his robotic arm and covered his face with his hand, hers still trapped against his cheek.

"Sorry, I was having a bad dream," he apologized. For what, Tsubame couldn't fathom.

"Why are you sorry? It's not like you can control it. I know I can't. Are you alright?"

He peeked at her through his fingers and smiled weakly.

"I am now."

A flash of color spread across her cheeks and she looked away, his gaze so heavy with gratitude she couldn't hold it.

"Shall I make us something to eat?" he offered.

"S-sure," she stuttered, looking back up at him. He noticed but didn't mention it. Her impediment hadn't surfaced at all in weeks; in the conversations between the two of them, it had been even longer. But something was different now. Despite the hitch in her voice, she didn't shrink away from him, even though he still held her hand. Her even gaze filled his heart to the brim. Cautiously, he grasped her hand and moved it the small distance to his lips and closed his eyes as he placed the tiniest of kisses against the center of her palm.

Tsubame's stomach flipped and the spark that formed in her palm traveled unnervingly up her arm. Part of her wanted to slap him, but most of her was filled with an urge she'd never before experienced; to be closer to him. In a moment of uncontainable curiosity, she found herself suddenly wrapped in the blanket as well, leaning into him, her hand held steadfast against his lips. He watched her carefully for any sign that she might change her mind or bolt away from him. She delicately wiggled her hand free of his and gingerly brushed his lips with her thumb before placing her hand comfortably in her own lap.

"Tsubame, I… I don't really know how to say this. I've never felt this attached to anyone. Not since before my father was demoted. And even so, this is… different. I was able to distance myself from him… I have no desire to do that with you. Just the thought of it makes me uncomfortable." He examined her face for any sign of alarm. Spotting none, he decided to continue. "You've become more dear to me than I ever imagined anyone could be. Whether I'm awake or asleep, I feel a constant need to be close to you. Your smile lifts my heart, and your tears dash it to pieces. And maybe it's stupid, and impossible, and maybe I don't deserve it, but I want something permanent for once in my life."

She began a rigorous and detailed study of her hands, completely taken aback. "And you think that something is… me?"

"If you'll have me."

Tsubame's annoyance flared suddenly, and she whipped her head up. "You do realize this kind of stuff scares the shit out of me, right?"

"That's why this is completely up to you." He met her gaze levelly, patiently.

She made an exasperated noise and got to her feet, pacing frantically, avoiding those eyes. "The last man I rejected stabbed me! And you're asking me to… to…" she gesticulated wildly, unable to convey her thoughts with words.

Ginoza appeared at her side so suddenly she almost screamed. She hadn't even seen him stand. He took one of her shaking hands in his steady ones and guided her to a seat on the bed next to him. "Tsubame," his voice was insistent. "Look at me." She did. "Breathe…"

She allowed him to dictate her breathing until she was calm. His eyes were like pools of still water into which the torrent inside her flowed. When she was able to take in her surroundings, she noticed Ginoza was still holding her hand.

"I need some time to think," she said slowly, gazing at the link between them. "I'll see you in a bit, I need to shower." Ginoza allowed her to pull her hand away as she stood to leave, a pit in his stomach. I just ruined everything.

"Um… Ginoza?" Tsubame had stopped, one foot out the door. "Do you think… would it be okay if I spent the night in here again tonight? I haven't slept that well in years."

His breath hitched. "Of course you can," he responded bewilderedly.

The shy smile she gave him before quietly shutting the door behind herself sent Ginoza's heart soaring. He was positively cheerful, humming to himself as he got ready for the morning shift. Thirty minutes later, he walked into the kitchenette to prepare the meal he'd promised.

Nothing could bring him down that day. Even Mika's attempt to prod his past back into his healing wounds couldn't bother him. Not while she was in any measureable proximity. He caught her peeking at him shyly a few times before he noticed that his stomach was full of the butterflies he'd heard so much about in his grade school days. He wondered if hers was too. Akane's voice interrupted his blissful ponderings.

"Maekawa do you think you could go get Kunizuka?" Ginoza hadn't even noticed her absence, which somewhat unsettled him. That wasn't like him at all.

"I don't think she's in the apartment," Tsubame reported. A knot tightened in her chest.

"Of course not. She's only late like this when Kuranamori turns off their alarm. They're probably sleeping," Mika grumbled, clearly annoyed. "I don't know why that's allowed at HQ. This is supposed to be a workplace."

Akane's brow furrowed and the most accusatory gleam that Ginoza had ever seen entered her eyes.

"Well where do you suggest they go? It's not like they can get an apartment off Ministry grounds. They aren't even allowed to leave the Tower."

Mika's cheeks colored as she realized with Akane defending Yayoi and Shion, she was the only person in the room with such an opinion. Despite the better judgement Ginoza thought she should've gained by then, she tried to defend herself.

"Enforcers shouldn't be allowed to carry on such relations at all." Even Sho looked up from his screen at that.

"Care to explain?" Ginoza wasn't able to mask the scoff that preceded his question. Oh this should be grand.

"Enforcers are latent criminals; animals that, without psychological intervention, would degenerate into actual criminals. Sort of like dogs… When you pick out an animal with certain bad characteristics and breed it with a dog of similar bad characteristics, you end up with a pack of…"

"Bad dogs," Hinakawa finished, crossing his arms.

"Thank Kami one of you is logical," she mumbled, turning back to the report she had been typing.

"Only if you ignore the glaring genetic fallacy in your logical argument," Sho rebuked, raising an eyebrow.

"All of you calm down. This isn't a work appropriate conversation topic," Akane warned. "Everyone get back to what you were working on." She shot a sharp look at her fellow Inspector before resuming her conversation with Tsubame. "Would you please go get Yayoi from the Analysis Lab?"

"I suppose I could," Tsubame nodded, standing to leave.

"I certainly hope they're properly clothed when you arrive," Mika mumbled. Terror drew all of the color from Tsubame's face.

"Maybe I should go with her," Ginoza offered.

"I need you to finish your report," Akane corrected. "Tsubame's is already finished, and the Chief wants a detailed recount of your foot pursuit from yesterday."

"Of course she does," he sighed. He spun in his chair back to his desk, discreetly brushing Tsubame's hand to try to calm her.

"I… I'll be right back then."

The walk to the Analysis Lab was painfully short for Tsubame. She found herself hoping that she would somehow run into someone she would vaguely recognize and be able to chat with to give Shion and Yayoi more time to dress in the event that they weren't. Unfortunately, her options were limited to the Division One team members as she found herself to be the furthest thing from socially diverse. She reached the lab and paused before knocking to take a breath, only to be greeted by the sound of arguing voices from the other side of the door.

"I just don't understand the harm in applying. Why are you so upset by that? Do you just not want to? Are you really that afraid of commitment, Shion?" Tsubame had barely heard enough of Yayoi's voice to know that that was hers. She waited for Shion's reply but found it was too muffled to make out, or perhaps just too soft in contrast to possibly the closest Kunizuka ever actually got to shouting. A short, "I'm late, I suppose we can talk later," quickly ended their conversation and the door slid open. Tsubame had just enough time to slip silently around the corner away from the direction she knew Yayoi would need to turn. She waited a few seconds before making for the elevator herself, making sure to listen for the metal door to clang shut. To her surprise, Kuranamori stood watching after her lover in the hallway.

"Hmm..?" The busty blonde turned around to face Tsubame and placed her fingers to one temple. "Great. How much did you hear, Pup?"

"N-none of it if that's how you'd pref-fer," she sputtered.

Shion waved a defeated hand in the air.

"Don't worry about it, Sweetheart. It's nothing really."

The longing gaze she cast back down the hallway indicated otherwise.

"Are you okay, Karanomori?" Tsubame moved to step between her and the pathway to the elevators. The woman before her was normally so relaxed and confident. Shion's uncertainty derailed Tsubame. She had no idea how to approach it.

"Truthfully, I don't know anymore," she sighed. "Actually, do you have a moment?"

Tsubame nodded, forgetting about having to return to the office at all. Her curiosity and her concern for Shion got the better of her as she followed the analyst into the lab. Everything was in it's usual place except for the fact that the door to Shion's room, which Tsubame had never noticed before, was still open. The pacing woman didn't even seem to realize, or perhaps care, that her place that was normally so hidden was wide open. When she settled herself in her swivel chair and folded her hands anxiously in her lap, Tsubame recognized an emotion she wasn't certain Shion was capable of written across her face; fear.

"Yayoi wants to get married."

Shocked at the apparent ease with which Karanomori admitted this to her, Tsubame could do nothing but wait for her to continue. Shion sighed before going on.

"I know what you're thinking and you're wrong. I would love to marry Yayoi, it's just… my Crime Coefficient…" She reached over and pressed a button on her keyboard, bringing up her homescreen. A widget blinked open and loaded, revealing a warning about an increase in her number as well as a clouding of her hue. The three digits that flashed across the screen were alarming even to Tsubame whose coefficient had peaked at 450 while she'd been in confinement. Shion's stone face said it all. She couldn't marry Yayoi. Not like this.

"There's an application for functioning latent criminals to do these kinds of things… Normally one applicant is clear, or at least, not a latent criminal. With both of us in our current positions, there's just no way they'd approve it." Karanomori shrugged and closed out of the widget.

"But that isn't what's bothering you, is it?"

Shion raised an eyebrow at the woman in front of her, smirked, and closed her eyes.

"At this level I would certainly be sent for reassessment. SYBIL might decide to send me to therapy, or perhaps back into confinement. The few criminals I've seen be apprehended with this high of a coefficient triggered Eliminator mode on the Dominator. They'd probably put me down." The colloquialism sounded even colder in Shion's voice than it would have otherwise.

"How are you hiding this from the PSB now?" If she was found to be hiding such a thing, surely she'd be dealt with more severely.

"I have my methods," she assured Tsubame.

"So what will you do?"

"Honey, if I had the answer to that, do you think I'd be having this conversation with you? I was honestly hoping it would make more sense if I talked about it out loud. I just… I can't tell Yayoi. She's a pessimist. It would just cloud her hue as well."

Tsubame looked down at her hands.

"So you're just going to let her think that you don't want to marry her?"

Karanomori slumped in her seat, no answer coming to mind. She finally shrugged, clearly baffled by her own predicament.

"You can't tell her," Shion insisted as Tsubame stood to leave.

"No," she agreed, "but you can."

"You've been hanging out with Gino too much," Shion laughed. "You sounded just like him. How's that going, by the way?"

The brunette's blush was all the answer that was necessary.

"He's pretty fond of you. And I can't really say that for sure about anyone else. I've known the man a long time. He doesn't let people in. Ever. You must be pretty special."

The idea that she could be "special" to Ginoza simultaneously set her heart aflutter and tied her stomach in knots. She'd never felt that important before. Wordlessly, she entered the hallway, the door to the lab sliding closed behind her. Her mind battled with itself over this revelation. It was nice to mean something to someone. It was also terrifying. She felt as though she'd just met Ginoza, and like she'd known him her entire life all at the same time. The Division One office was quiet when Tsubame returned. Yayoi had taken her place at her computer screen.

"Did you get lost?" Mika grumbled.

"I stopped in the restroom. By the time I made it to the lab, Yayoi had already passed me. Sorry, Inspector."

Though Shimotsuki and Tsunemori seemed to accept that answer, Ginoza cleared his throat from the seat next to her. Her instant messenger popped up on the sidebar of her computer screen.

You have a tell, too.

She smiled, but quickly closed the messenger, glancing discreetly across the office at him. A voice Maekawa had never heard before rang through on the office intercom asking for Ginoza to report to an unspecified office. When Ginoza stood to leave he smiled at Tsubame, but cast a somewhat anxious glance at Akane, who nodded for him to go. Once he'd left, Tsubame rolled her chair between Yayoi and Sho's to whisper her question.

"Who was that?"

"Chief Kasei." Sho's voice was even, but the corners of his mouth turned down slightly as the name escaped him

"It's probably about his report. He finished it in a hurry. He submitted it right as I walked in." Yayoi's tone seemed immensely uninterested. Her eyes were sad. Clearly her mind was elsewhere.

"Do you think it's bad?" The thought of the Chief somehow accusing Ginoza of deserting weighed heavily on her.

"Ginoza has a strange relationship with Chief Kasei. She's always tried to mold him into what she needed him to be. Perhaps she just wants to speak with him about something else." Yayoi's insightful suggestion surprised the other two. She had known Ginoza the longest of anybody who worked in Division One. It brought Tsubame's mind to ease. Surely it was just that.