A/N: Hi friends! I have been stupid busy at work, so I'm sorry this one is so short, but I'm hoping it can tide you over until I can get a chance to sit down and hash out some more of this story. It's cute, so I hope it makes you smile. ~R3d
It had been a long day in the office. An early morning hue alert at a local coffee shop had Division One filing paperwork by two in the afternoon. Seven people had been elevated above regulation by the incident, so several reports had to be filed before the team could clock out for the weekend. Somehow they'd lucked out and scored two off days in a row for the whole team thanks to Division Three finally filling out their personnel. With all the employee shuffling, Tsubame wasn't sure she'd ever be able to remember everyone's name. She hoped that she'd at least be able to socialize properly with the other Enforcers as she and the rest of the Division One Enforcers retired to their suite for the evening. Tsubame stole a smile to herself as Ginoza reached the apartment door, Hinakawa having sent a message ahead of them. Yayoi winked at Tsubame as the door slid open to the blackened apartment, the automatic function on the lights having been disabled.
"What the Hell?" Ginoza grumbled, stepping inside to reach for the control panel. It was then that the lights flashed on and a group of people jumped out from behind the kitchen island to shout, "surprise!" at the unsuspecting party pooper. Ginoza instinctively moved to shield the woman directly behind him from the assault before straightening himself out. Tsubame could tell by the immediate scowl that Ginoza was not amused in the slightest, so she slipped her hand into his from behind him, earning the tiniest of squeezes from his fingers.
"Happy birthday Ginoza!" Sugo called from across the kitchen, two pilsner glasses gripped in his hands. He crossed the room to offer one to Gino.
"It's not my birthday," Gino grumped, pulling up the calendar on his holoscreen.
"Not exactly," Sugo shrugged, "but Division Two won't have the same days off as Division One for another five weeks, so we figured we might as well capitalize on it," he smiled as he winked to Tsubame.
"You were in on this?" Ginoza accused, shock wiping his face of all other emotion.
"It was only my idea," Tsubame shrugged. "Yayoi and Sho did everything."
He cast a dark glance behind her at the other two guilty-as-sin Enforcers, who only rolled their eyes at his hollow threat.
"C'mon, Gino," came Shion's voice from behind him, "it's been approximately forever and a half since I've seen you wasted, and what better excuse than your birthday?!" She handed him a tiny glass full of a clear liquid. When he hesitated, she sighed. "Don't worry, we convinced Akane to come supervise…"
At that the Inspector shuffled from around the corner to stand next to them.
"I thought you went home?"
"And miss this?" Akane giggled. "No way!"
"Traitor…" he mumbled.
"Stick in the mud," she countered, elbowing him. "It's not like you've got to work tomorrow, and I'll make sure everyone gets back to where they need to go safely. No passing out in the hallway, Sugo!"
"It was one time!" he defended.
"Four times," Ginoza and Shion corrected in unison.
"Clearly you're too sober if you remember that," Sugo laughed, shoving the proffered pilsner toward Ginoza.
"Uh-uh, shot first. Do not chase ale with vodka," Shion insisted.
"You guys are the bad influences SYBIL warns teenagers about in health class." With that, Ginoza took the shot glass from Shion's hand, downed it, and snatched the pilsner.
"That was easier that I expected," Yayoi smiled as she slid past Gino into the room. Hinakawa followed and the door shut firmly behind them. Someone activated the holo-squid and it began flitting around taking drink orders and materializing food on the counter top. The Enforcers began to disperse around the room, a small group of them setting up a holo-card game at the coffee table.
"Would you like a drink, Ms. Maekawa?" the holo chirped, hovering in front of her. Uncertain, she looked to Ginoza.
"Midori Sour," Gino ordered for her. As the drink materialized in front of her, Tsubame took it carefully. "Don't feel pressured to drink if you don't want to," Ginoza warned her. "If you don't like it or don't want to finish it, you can just come give it to me."
She nodded with a shy smile before taking a sip of the electric green cocktail in her hands. The sweetness of it surprised her, and the miniscule burn she felt as it slipped past her tongue was a welcome sensation. She felt a strange heat rise to her cheeks.
"Good?" he smiled.
"Delicious!"
"They're deceptively sweet, so go slow," he laughed. Taking her hand, he allowed himself to relax and take in the room. His friends chatted and bantered with each other everywhere he looked as he pulled Maekawa further into the apartment. He introduced her to the other three Division Two Enforcers who invited them to join in the drinking game they'd begun on the coffee table. Tsubame had never played drinking games.
As the cards were dealt and drinks passed around, it was decided that Tsubame was not very good at said drinking games, and was even worse at remaining upright while losing at them. She slid ungracefully from the arm of the chair she was perched on into Ginoza's lap at a point he'd admit he couldn't remember. It dawned on him that she'd somehow ended up there when she laughed at a joke Sugo made and she spilled a small splash of her drink on the front of his shirt.
"Shit, sorry!" she giggled, placing her glass on the table carefully next to the cards.
"It's fine, it's fine," he insisted, but she struggled to stand up anyway to retrieve a towel from the linen closet. It was after she'd stepped away that Shion leaned down next to his ear from behind the chair.
"When did doe-eyes get so touchy?" she whispered.
"What?" Ginoza scoffed, glancing up at her. She was hardly able to contain the amusement on her face.
"Don't play dumb," Shion smirked over her glass of wine. "When?"
"When what?" Ginoza asked, confused.
"I can't believe you hooked up with her and didn't tell me!" she whined, just loud enough for Sugo to notice from the next couch.
"You what?" His eyebrows shot up. "Damn, Ginoza, I knew you liked her but I didn't think you'd move that fast on someone so clearly terrified of, well, everything."
"Asshole," Gino grumbled. He sighed and turned back to Shion. "We haven't done anything like that," he assured. "And frankly, it's none of your business anyway. It's complicated. You know where she's coming from," he added, dropping his voice so that only Karanamori could hear him.
"That's the reason I was so surprised, honestly," Shion shrugged. "So you're telling me she has been sitting in your lap, draped all over you, barely able to keep her hands to herself for an hour, and you haven't had se…"
"Here you go!" Tsubame sang as she returned with a towel and a second article folded over her arm. Without hesitating, she perched on the arm of the chair and reached down to grab at his tie.
"Tsubame, what are you...?!"
She slapped at his hands.
"I got your shirt all wet so I brought you a new one," she chided. "Duh."
"You don't have to…"
"It was my fault!" she insisted, silencing him. Though her tone remained playful, he sensed that she actually felt pretty bad for spilling her drink on him. Shion giggled behind him and Sugo arched an eyebrow over Tsubame's shoulder. Taking a breath to steady himself, he placed his hand over hers.
"It's fine. I'll get it. Thank you, Mae."
She beamed at his gratitude.
"That's informal," Shion noted as she walked away. Ginoza did his best to keep from rolling his eyes at her. He pulled off the damp button-down and folded it in his lap. Though he still wore a white tank top, he had to smile to himself when Maekawa dropped her eyes away from him to hand him the clean t-shirt she'd retrieved from their room. Once he was completely dressed again, Tsubame grabbed the dirty button-down from his knees, placed it on the floor next to the chair, and slid drunkenly back into his lap, sideways this time so that her feet hung over the arm of the chair.
"Sorry," she apologized again.
"For what?" he reassured her, settling his robotic arm behind her shoulders. "I was getting hot anyway." He kicked himself for saying it like that as Sugo coughed at him.
Mostly convinced that he was okay, Tsubame smiled up at him.
"Are you having fun?" Ginoza asked. She nodded enthusiastically.
"My hair is suffocating though," she admitted. Her long locks hung heavily over her shoulders in the humidity of the somewhat crowded living room. "Will you braid it?"
"Of course," he laughed. She spun in his lap so that she sat facing forward, and he tugged her hair gently into three sections to braid back away from her face. After he'd tied off the hairstyle, she flopped back into her previous position draped sideways over him.
"Thank you," she smiled, taking his human hand in both of hers. He happened to notice that the Division Two Enforcers had migrated to the kitchen where they were refilling their drinks. With the sudden privacy, he let her press her fingers into the spaces between his. He was surprised when she placed a small kiss over the back of his hand. He let his mind go blank for a few moments as she drew patterns with her thumb in his palm. He didn't initially notice that when she shifted her weight in his lap it was intentionally to get closer to his face. "You smell nice," she sighed into his neck.
"You do too," he admitted, allowing her to rest her head against his shoulder. She pulled herself up so that she was upright next to him, her legs still resting across his lap, her fingers finding their way into his hair. He closed his eyes, enjoying her touch.
Then she pressed her mouth against his, tentatively at first, but with growing insistence. His first thought was erased entirely by his surprise, but his second was to kiss her back, his arms wrapping around her waist and back to pull her closer. His third had something to do with the cheering from the kitchen but he could deal with that later. She caught his bottom lip lightly between her lips in order to swipe the tip of her tongue experimentally across it. Though every inch of him wanted to feel every inch of her, his mind, albeit a bit hazy under the alcohol, dragged him out of the trance he'd begun to lose himself in. She tried to follow him backwards, but he brought his hand to her cheek to stop her, a smile plastered across his face.
"Tsubame, there are people watching," he whispered.
"Hmmm… don't care," she mumbled.
"Yes you do," he chuckled. "You're just drunk."
"What's your point?" She grinned up at him, a sparkle of mischief he'd never seen before alight in her features.
"My point is if you weren't, this wouldn't be happening and I don't want you to regret it tomorrow," he tried to reason.
"Why would I regret making out with you on your birthday? Don't you want me to make out with you on your birthday?" She let her head return to its place on his shoulder, her breath hot against his neck. He shivered.
"It's not my birthday," he corrected, poking the tip of her nose, "and of course I do," he assured her, trying to quiet the pounding in his chest. "But only if you want to."
"Well good then," she breathed before pressing her lips into his neck, causing his breath to catch. She began exploring his skin carefully, nuzzling insistently against him. His shoulder bounced under her chin as he laughed.
"You sound sleepy," he suggested.
"No I'm not," she yawned.
"Sure you aren't." He debated letting her fall asleep in the chair and just carrying her to bed, but figured he'd never want to get up with her curled up in his lap, so he lifted her chin to make half-lidded eye contact with her. "Let's get you to bed."
She scowled in protest, but didn't have the strength to keep him seated, though she did try.
"I think we're going to turn in," Ginoza called to Akane who was busy dealing a game for the others at the counter. It was then that he realized that Yayoi and Shion had disappeared. Tsubame leaned heavily against him as he moved her toward the hallway. One of the Enforcers at the high-top passed a glass of water to him. "Thank you for hanging out with me on my almost-birthday," he smiled, addressing the rest of them. Hinakawa smiled and waved across the counter to him. Sugo winked at him, eliciting an unhindered eyeroll. He helped Tsubame down the hall. Halfway there she began tugging at her shirt.
"Tsubame you aren't in the room yet," he laughed, grabbing her hands. She took the opportunity to lean up to peck him on the cheek.
"You're cute when you're flustered," she observed, holding herself up in the doorway.
"Come on," he sighed, still smiling. The door closed and she stepped forward to hold onto him.
"Can we kiss some more?" she almost begged.
"Just a little," he promised. "You really should get some rest." He walked her over to her side of the bed and sat her down, placing the glass of water on her bedside table. She pulled him back over to her and placed her hands on his hips. A thoughtful expression crossed her face before she tucked the tips of her fingers under the hem of his shirt, making him jump.
"Ticklish," he explained breathlessly.
"S-sorry."
At her stutter, his brow furrowed with concern.
"Are you okay?" His voice was gentle.
The conflict in her features made his heart hurt.
"I just… I w-want to… But…"
He dropped to his knees in front of her.
"Hey, it's alright. You don't have to do anything for me. I've had a lot of fun with you already." He smiled up at her but she looked away.
"I was having fun too, which is why I didn't want to stop, but…"
"But nothing," he stopped her. "Whatever you want is fine by me. Promise."
She met his eyes.
"Why don't we get some rest and talk about this in the morning?"
Disappointment, but also relief, weighed her shoulders down. He stood, kissing the top of her head before returning to his side of the bed, stepping out of his slacks and grabbing his gym shorts from the floor. When he took his place in the bed and rolled over he didn't expect for his hand to find skin instead of pillowcase. Tsubame lay facing him in the spot where she normally set her barrier.
"I'm cold," she whimpered, the apparent sobriety from moments before lost to the alcohol still metabolizing in her body.
"Roll over," he sighed, a small smile coming back to his features. When she did, he fit himself gently into the contours of her body, tucking his robotic arm under his pillow as his human hand came to rest carefully on her hip. "Okay?"
In response she cuddled back into him, pulling his arm further over her torso so that she could hug it to her chest. It occurred to him that before the mechanical arm, sleeping like this would probably cut off circulation to his left hand. He breathed in her scent, pressing his lips to her hair.
"Sugo and Karanamori thought we were sleeping together," Tsubame observed.
"They did," Gino confirmed.
"You told them we aren't?"
"I told them it was none of their business, and that even if we do, they won't be getting a postcard about it. It wouldn't concern anyone other than you and me." He tugged her closer to emphasize his point.
"So it doesn't bother you?"
"What? That my friends are jackasses?" he chuckled, earning a giggle from her.
"No, that we haven't… That I… That I can't…"
"Tsubame," he stopped her, closing his eyes. "I could spend the rest of my life right here, just like this, fully clothed and celibate, and be the happiest man alive. Don't get me wrong, I would love that too, but only on terms you can agree with. I don't want it to be just for me. It needs to be for both of us. Even if you're never ready, I will still love you."
She stiffened under his arm.
"You… what?"
It finally dawned on him what he'd just done, but he couldn't retract a statement so true. It wasn't hard. It wasn't forced. It felt as natural as breathing. Of course he loved this woman. She made him smile when he thought he'd never smile again. Her scent intoxicated him in a way he couldn't possibly obtain from alcohol. He got so lost in her voice that he hoped he'd never be found again. She'd stopped the nightmares and replaced them with dreams so vivid, they were more real than the blood stains on his father's jacket; more real than the Spinel smoke on Akane's breath. He had somehow survived the last few years of torment only to find that until now he'd forgotten how to live. And now that she'd reminded him, he was never going back without her.
"I love you," he repeated. "More than anyone I've ever known."