With the success of Kogami's new technology came an eery, but welcome calm in Tokyo. The PSB was made scarce for a moment in the public eye and Division One found some time to spend together off the clock, typically sans Mika Shimotsuki, since she generally frowned upon fraternizing with the dogs. One such night found the four Enforcers plus their Inspector lazing in the living room of the Division One suite. Tsubame felt herself relaxing despite the unfamiliar atmosphere of the room. Her friends - I can't believe I have friends - laughed and interacted easily around her, filling the room with a warmth she wasn't quite sure was environmental as she caught the eye of a certain bionic-armed man from across the room over his glass of what could only be straight whiskey. At least he's consistent, she giggled to herself, unable to stifle the heat that flushed across her cheeks. Akane and Ginoza had been chatting quietly in the opposite corner of the room while Sho and Yayoi played some sort of video game on the giant holoscreen against the bay window.
Behind the fierce battle of virtual racecars, the city twinkled below, something Tsubame had come to really like about living in Nona Tower. She was pulled out of her reverie by the dip of the cushion next to her. Ginoza flopped down and tilted his head, following her gaze out the window.
"You're quiet tonight," he observed. She glanced at him, noting the faint stripe across his cheekbones. Shoving him lightly, she had to laugh when he almost spilled his drink, caught entirely off guard.
"You're drunk," she giggled.
"First time in a while," he admitted. "My tolerance is down since I'm not drinking as much, thanks to you." He winked and her heart raced in the way she never thought she'd be able to experience; that way it does when it launches itself up in order to compel one's lips to help it siphon out of one's body and into another. The realization of this sobered her, and she purposefully sat back to gather herself, covering the sudden fear with another playful shove and a mumbled, "big flirt," which seemed to keep him from noticing. They were interrupted by the call of her name from the next couch.
"Maekawa, it's your turn!" Yayoi smiled, the game controller offered between them. She stood to trade places with Tsubame, having lost miserably to Hinakawa, who had an affinity for all video games. Though he was infinitely different from Kagari, sometimes Ginoza let himself be reminded of the spunkier redhead when he watched Hinakawa stick his tongue out at a handheld device, completely engrossed in the game at his fingertips. Yayoi and Tsubame switched places, and the race began anew.
"She's pretty into you," Yayoi teased him quietly, elbow finding purchase lightly on his ribcage.
"It scares her," he replied, sadness lacing his words.
"Not nearly as much as it used to," Yayoi pointed out.
Ginoza sighed, and looked over to where the doe-eyed girl was happily losing to Hinakawa, seemingly content just to be included. "I don't want to mess this up."
"Then don't." She quirked an eyebrow at him, clearly unsure why this concept was so difficult for him to grasp.
He rolled his eyes at her and sipped his whiskey. "How are things between you and Karanomori?"
Now it was Yayoi's turn to sigh. "Better, I suppose. It's not commitment she's afraid of at least."
"Told you." Ginoza snarked. He was met with smirk. Yayoi's voice dropped.
"Her Crime Coefficient is too high for a marriage license right now. We're trying to get it down so that she can go to one of the MWPSB therapists for treatment. It's improving, but progress is slow."
"I didn't realize," Ginoza apologized. He took another swallow of amber liquid, mulling it over. "Shion's the best damn analyst this place has ever had. Until she came along, accessing half of the data we use now was near impossible. I can imagine the stress of watching people she cares about die in the field while she sits in the lab is overwhelming."
Yayoi nodded. "We're exploring that. She's never admitted to it, but I think that's the biggest contributor, especially after the incident with Kamui and Togane. She's not ever fully recovered from that. It must be a perfectly helpless feeling, sitting in her position."
Ginoza nodded, downing the remainder of his drink.
"She's a strong person. And she has you for support. She has all of us really," he gestured subtly to the room. "She'll figure it out."
Akane stood and stretched, checking the time on her wristband.
"I ought to get home. Work tomorrow. I'll see you all in the morning," she smiled. "Don't stay up too late!"
Hinakawa paused the game to wave at the Inspector. Yayoi smiled and raised an open hand in acknowledgement of her departure. Tsubame stood and, after taking a deep breath to steel herself, hugged the Inspector.
"Have a safe ride home, Inspector Tsunemori," Maekawa squeaked before letting her go, not giving Akane time to hug her back. Ginoza and Akane shared an incredulous look before beaming at Tsubame's progress.
"I'll walk you out," Gino offered, standing and placing his glass on the coffee table. Akane nodded and waited for him at the door. They made their way to the elevator at the end of the hall.
"Expecting company, Inspector?" Ginoza asked, emerald eyes piercing through the previous haze of his slight intoxication.
"Haven't had any in weeks," she mumbled, dejected. Ginoza sighed. "Judgemental, much?" Akane rolled her eyes.
"I'm sorry, I just don't want you to get hurt." Ginoza peeked over at Akane, who'd initiated a staring contest with the floor.
"I know." Akane smiled to herself. "I also know he's probably asked you to look out for me, as if you weren't doing that already," she scoffed. Their eyes met. "I'm fine, Gino. Honestly, I get more stressed out watching you and the rest of the Enforcers struggling with your demons than I get dealing with my own. Being able to see the four of you smiling and enjoying yourselves makes me the happiest I've been in a while." The elevator indicated that they'd reached the lobby. Akane stepped out and blocked Ginoza's path to go with her. "There's a girl upstairs who makes you happy and who needs you just as much as you need her. Go home Ginoza. Kami knows you haven't been there in decades."
A confused expression settled into his features as the elevator closed.
He returned to find that Sho and Tsubame had finished their game and the two of them sat quietly enjoying the other's company scrolling through pages on the internet on their holoscreens. When Sho noticed Ginoza walk through the door, he smiled and dismissed himself, retreating to his room. Yayoi was nowhere to be seen.
"You alright?" Tsubame asked, noticing the scowl on his face.
"Just something Inspector Tsunemori said. It's nothing. Are you ready to turn in?" Ginoza nodded in the direction of the hallway to their bedroom. Huh, I guess it is our room rather than mine anymore. Tsubame smiled and nodded. Gino lead the way down the hall, Akane's words ringing in his mind. Go home? I'm already home. I live here. The door slid open and he smiled to himself. They'd pulled out a box of Masaoka's belongings and finally sorted through some of them, something Gino had been avoiding for years. They'd found a photograph of Dime from when he was a puppy that was now framed and hanging on the wall. She'd comforted him when he mentioned Dime's passing. As she pushed past him into the room and made her way to the bed, he adored the way she tucked her hair behind her ear to keep it out of her way when she bent to pick up a stack of books that he'd stashed away from Kogami's room before it was emptied out and stored as evidence.
He removed his shoes and selected more comfortable clothing from his costuming device. Maekawa chose her usual oversized t-shirt and pajama pants and pulled herself up onto the bed, crossing her legs to sit turned towards him, smiling.
"I've been wondering all day," she began, "why'd you name your dog Dime?"
Ginoza laughed and took a detour across the room to grab a box from the top shelf of a bookcase.
"I collect coins," he explained, coming to sit next to her. It did not escape him that she didn't seem bothered by his proximity to her on her own side of the bed. He placed the box in front of her and removed the lid, revealing a mound of unsorted coins from different countries. "These are some I've not archived just yet. I have been putting it off, actually. When I moved from my old apartment to Isolation, I had to downsize my collection a bit, so I was sad, in a way, whenever I'd see how few I was able to keep."
"These are incredible, Gino!" She thumbed the surface of one of them reverently, holding it close to read the letters embossed across its face. His heart lurched at the genuine interest on her face. Most people thought his hobby was boring. It was nice that someone could appreciate it as much as he did. He hadn't had anyone to help him sort his coins since before his mother passed away.
"Have you ever collected anything?" Ginoza asked, noting how careful she was to place each coin back in the box rather than just drop them into it.
"Sort of," she nodded. "I was really into ornithology when I was younger. That's why I'd liked biology class so much in high school…" She took a moment to shake a memory from her mind before continuing. "Birds are just so interesting, and have always fascinated mankind. They're symbols of freedom and peace and omens of death and famine… I had ebooks and stuffed animals… My father actually built us a small canary hutch in our livingroom. I'd trained them to respond to commands through their ankle bands. It's way easier to do now than it was when humans started training birds to carry messages and do tricks since we can better indicate locations through the vibrations in the ankle bands, but I just loved that I'd been able to teach them. And they were always so proud when they got it right! They'd puff their little feathers out and strut around with their prize… normally shredded paper to nest with…" She got a far off look in her eyes before returning to herself. "Oh! Sorry, I was rambling."
"No, I was enjoying it, don't apologize," he smiled. "You can talk about birds all you want. I don't actually know much about them."
"R-really?" Her eyes widened.
"Really," he nodded. "Come here." He scooted so that his back was against the headboard and indicated for her to sit next to him. She hesitated, an idea crossing her mind.
"Hold still for a second," she instructed. He sat motionless as she tossed a pillow onto him and crawled into his lap to turn around and rest her back against his chest. "I-is that okay?"
"Definitely," he said breathlessly. As he overcame the initial shock of her sitting so close to him, he found himself completely entranced by the sleek brown strands of hair that tickled his face. It reminded him of how he would sit behind his mother and braid her hair for her before she would take him to school in the mornings.
Go home Ginoza.
"Mae, would you mind if I braided your hair?"
"You know how?" she asked, surprised.
"My mother taught me. She had long dark hair like yours." He could feel his anxiety building as she considered his request. He hoped he hadn't scared her away.
"I wouldn't mind," Tsubame said finally. "That might be kind of nice, actually."
Gino released the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding and carefully carded his human fingers through her hair.
"I've not tried this with the robotic hand," he admitted, worried.
"I'm not particularly tender-headed," she assured him. "Here." She flopped away from him over his leg and reached out of sight over the edge of the bed to where she'd set a bag of things he'd not asked her about since she began sleeping in his room. When she returned, she produced a hairbrush and handed it to him.
"So what is your favorite kind of bird?" he reminded her as he began the process of untangling her hair.
"Right!" she remembered excitedly, pulling up her holoscreen to search for images as she chatted. She loved parrots the most, particularly lovebirds. They were small and energetic and even the females were colorful. Holographic birds hopped around on her screen in front of them as Ginoza set the brush down to carefully divide three sections of hair at her crown, opting for a French braid since she had so much hair, in order to make it less heavy at the end.
Tsubame shivered a bit as Ginoza lifted the hair on top of her head, his light and attentive touches causing her muscles to relax but her heart to race. When she ran out of facts about lovebirds, he asked her another question.
"What are some ways to categorize birds?"
She told him about flightless and flighted birds, birds of prey, poultry, and gamebirds, the information flooding back into her mind. When he started asking about common myths about certain types of birds, she couldn't help but giggle at his ignorance.
"Wait, so ostriches don't bury their heads in sand?"
"How would they breathe?" she chuckled.
"Fair point. But owls can definitely turn their heads all the way around, right?"
"Almost. They'd break their necks and collapse their tracheas if they went in a complete circle. They aren't robots with a swivel joint neck." She quickly pulled up a photograph of a spectacled owl.
"This is my favorite owl. I just think their faces look really expressive. Owls are symbols of wisdom, but they actually have really tiny brains. Most of their skull is occupied by their eyes." She clicked on a picture of an owl skull.
"That's reasonable considering how large its eyes are," he nodded, finishing the braid in her hair. "Do you have a hair tie?"
She offered him her wrist and he slipped the black elastic over her hand. The braid reached all the way to the small of her back.
"Thank you, Gino," she smiled over her shoulder.
He rooted himself in place, the overwhelming desire to kiss her flooding his senses.
"Nobuchika," he corrected. "You can call me Nobuchika if you want, when we're alone like this…" He blushed. "I… erm… What I mean is…"
Her eyes glittered under the significance of this. None of the other Enforcers used Ginoza's first name. The only time she'd heard someone other than him say it at all was when Shion was being antagonistic toward him in defense of her own partner. She was able to find her voice as he floundered awkwardly under her gaze.
"Breathe," she giggled. "I think I know what you mean." She shifted so that she sat sideways between his legs, her braid brushing across his forearm, making him shiver. She turned and brought her hand to his face. It was trembling, but she appeared to have made up her mind. Despite the angle, Tsubame was able to crane her neck up to face him. Closing her eyes, determination set into her features, she trailed her hand from his cheek to the back of his head and gently pulled him toward her, their lips meeting softly.
The knot of tension in his chest caging his heart and restricting his lungs was suddenly pulled loose. The feeling of her lips pressed gently into his turned his muscles to puddy; even his eyelids refused to open against the immense desire to remain relaxed. When she pulled away his system rebooted and he peeked down at her, a smile playing across his face. Her hand retreated to rest a bit more politely on his chest. She was surprised to feel his heartbeat pounding along at a pace that rivaled hers.
"Sorry," she started. He shook his head.
"There's nothing to be sorry for. I had hoped you would want to try that at some point." He grinned sheepishly.
"Was it okay?" she asked, face reddening.
"Better than," he assured her, lifting his hand to her face. "If you ever want to do it again, you are more than welcome."
This made her relax and she leaned her head into his hand.
"I think it's time for bed," she yawned, pulling herself out of his lap. He would be lying if he said he wasn't just the slightest bit disappointed that she didn't seem as intrigued by exploring this new aspect of their relationship as he was, but he was sure there would be time yet to do that. He scooted so that there was room for her pillow barrier to be set between them. Once it was in place she leaned over it and pecked him on the cheek. "I don't know what I did to deserve someone who understands me the way you do, but I hope it didn't involve signing my soul over to some demon promising wishes while I was in the throes of a panic attack in an isolation ward."
"I promise I am not and know nothing about any soul-hustling demons granting wishes, but I'm glad your wish was me." He winked up at her, earning a pillow to the face. A muffled, "goodnight," made her laugh, shaking the bed.
"Goodnight, Nobuchika."