PAPER x CRANES IIIf
Digression
Gakuto drummed his fingers on the mahogany desk, other hand propping up his head. The files sat neatly sorted on his desk. He pushed back up his thick-rimmed glasses with the hand he was leaning on and continued to trail after the black characters on the page of the novel. The only noise in the office was coming from the other employees of the department typing away or unlocking file cabinets, the shuffle of paper constant. Informations was dull work, but there was so much that they regularly had to recruit field agents to work there.
Most people who wanted to work at KARD thought only of the thrill of running around with a gun in shady alleyways. He laughed at their stupidity, watching many of them work simply as paper runners in the office, although he too had once had stupid dreams of that once too. He had much bigger dreams to focus on right now though, and in order to fulfil them, he had to patiently wait.
The man swept his purple bangs out of his face. The sky had long turned black, but the wall clock only read 6.30 pm. That's what winter did to the world. He stood up and stretched, yawning. He reached for his black blazer and pulled it on over his white dress shirt, fixing his tie over the buttons. The other employees took little notice of him, all of them ready to follow his example in the next couple half hours. Gakuto grabbed his keys from his desk drawer and locked them up. He pushed his chair in and packed his novel away into his computer bag. Lifting it on his shoulder, he looked at the head of department. "Clocking out, Suzuki-san," he said, lifting his hand in a good by salute. The elderly man nodded but didn't show any more interest than the other workers. With that, Gakuto made his way to the elevators and pressed the down button.
The mechanical whirring smoothed to silence as the elevator coasted to a stop. Kaitou looked up at the lighted dial. 16th floor, Informations. He just needed him to not have left the office yet, but he doubted that Gakuto would leave so early. The sheets of metal parted to reveal to him the very man he was interested in seeing. Gakuto looked at him in mild surprise. "I suppose you need to get off here, sir," the other man said, stepping aside and inclining his head to the older one. Kaitou narrowed his blue eyes at him.
"Actually, I'm just going down," he said coolly, stepping aside from the door to allow Gakuto to walk past him and into the elevator. The purple haired man slipped right past him and went to lean on the opposite wall.
Silence followed for the next few floors, the elevator announcing unwanted stops, one of them reaching for the close door button. Every few seconds, Kaitou glanced up at Gakuto who kept checking his watch. Every time he looked down to pull his sleeve back, Kaitou could feel something in his body jump at the beautiful, pale skin that peeked at him between brown leather and black cloth.
"Since when did you start working Informations?" Kaitou asked casually as they coasted on, uninterrupted for the next ten floors. Gakuto played as if he didn't hear the question, but the other man didn't want it to be dropped so easily. "Gaku, when did you-"
"I've been in Informations for almost 18 months now," he answered the blue-haired man without looking up at him.
"Then that would mean that your field licence was terminated after one month of your consent-"
"I know."
Gakuto looked at him and smiled as the elevator stopped on the ground floor. He pushed past Kaitou to get across the atrium to get to the glass doors. Kaitou reached out for him and pulled the purple haired man back into the elevator. Gakuto looked back at him, disinterested.
"To what do I owe your unexpected advances, Shion?" he asked dully, looking through overcast blue eyes.
Kaitou looked at him, his expression pained. If Gakuto knew what had happened, then how does that explain...
"What exactly are you doing?" he asked him, stepping out of the elevator after him. Gakuto looked at him blankly.
"If you could elaborate-" he began to say, looking at Kaitou, but the older man just pulled him across the atrium and through the glass doors.
x x x
Kaitou pulled Gakuto briskly behind him through the parking garage, weaving in and out of the parked cars. He finally came to his parking spot and took out his keys. Gakuto stood there, purple hair falling all over his face as the older man unlocked the door.
Kaitou shoved Gakuto into the passenger seat of his car and walked to the driver's side door. He pulled it open roughly and sat down on the leather seat. Gakuto looked at the older man in semi-amusement. "You know, I could have just gotten out if I really had wanted to," Gakuto said, stroking the door handle with slender fingers.
"The car or this life?" Kaitou asked him, looking over at the other male. Gakuto didn't turn to look at him, just kept looking at the stitching in the door's face.
"Both maybe," he finally replied.
"What are you really doing?" Kaitou asked him pleadingly. The purple haired man looked at him as if really seeing him for the first time.
"I'm not even too sure myself..."
Kaitou sighed and leaned his forehead on the steering wheel. He looked at his hand on his thigh and clenched his fingers.
"You're working for someone on the outside, aren't you?"
"...Perhaps."
"And you're not going to tell me, are you?"
"...Of course not."
"...Do you know how dang-"
Gakuto lifted a hand to his face and laughed, hiding his pale lipped smile.
"You think KARD is so dangerous..."
"Because we are!" Kaitou reached over for Gakuto's shoulder. "You could die, Gakuto!" He grabbed the man's other shoulder so that they would be facing each other. "I have to do something, Gaku!"
Kaitou let go of him, a thousand thoughts racing through his head at the same time. He knew who it was, and he had agreed to do the job, but still...
"Don't worry, I'm not the one working for Chess, if that's what you're worried about," Gakuto said, reaching for the door handle. Kaitou looked up at him, relieved and yet more concerned than before.
"Then who-"
Gakuto leaned over and pulled Kaitou in by the back of his head. The older man turned to him in surprise and found himself staring into brilliant blue eyes. Pale lips ran from Kaitou's own to the man's ear.
"I don't like working with other people, Shion."
Gakuto pulled away and smiled, running his hands through Kaitou's choppy blue hair, then getting up and out of the car. "Ciao, Monsieur," he said, winking and waving before disappearing amid the sea of parked cars.
