Title: Unacceptable
Summary: Saitou's obnoxious and Tokio's resigned.
Word Count: 539
A/N: Tokio & Saitou's first official meeting. Poor Tokio….
She noticed him her first day in the luncheonette, when he strolled in as if he owned the place and leaned against the counter with all the grace of a man utterly at peace with his place in the grand scheme of things.
It was an attitude that made her stand up a little straighter and give him a second, longer look.
Almost immediately, she decided he was far too tall, and there's an insolence about his face that sort of grates on her nerves, but even though she's decided he's not acceptable and crossed him off the list doesn't mean she can't admire.
When she comes in the second day, he's already there, and she hears his voice for the first time.
And blushes.
It's a completely irrational response, but it's also an uncontrollable one, and she tries to ignore it as best she can when she steps up to the counter and bobs her head in greeting to Shiori.
"Tokio-san!" Shiori greets, looking happy to see her.
"Shiori-san," she replies, smiling; the too-tall policeman the proprietress was talking to is now watching her, and Tokio's face is flaming.
But her mother raised her to be polite, so she looks up at him and smiles.
"Hello," she greets.
He cocks his head and eyes her, then nods in acknowledgment, and she tries to hide her disappointment that he didn't say anything in return.
Damn….
"What'll it be today?" Shiori asks, and Tokio looks up at the menu thoughtfully, then turns to the policeman.
"Do you eat here often?" she asks.
He nods again—she wonders if he knows she's dying to hear his voice and he's purposely not speaking just to frustrate her, because he's got that kind of face—and she smiles widely.
"What do you recommend…" She glances at his uniform. "…Lieutenant?"
He's surprised and impressed that she figured out his rank on her own without prompting—she sees it before he covers it up.
"The soba's good," he says finally.
Gods, what a voice.
"Saitou-san!" Shiori snaps, then sighs. "Don't mind him—he refuses to eat anything other than soba."
Tokio smiles, a little dazed and arbitrarily picks something off the menu, and Shiori goes off to get her order to the cook.
"So it's Tokio-san, is it?" the too-tall policeman asks, in a sort of conversational way.
"Yes. Takagi Tokio. And it's Saitou-san, is it?"
He nods, and she has the oddest feeling he's found her out—maybe the little not-quite-sigh she couldn't quite keep in tipped him off.
"Shouldn't you be at school?" he asks lightly, and there's a sardonic note to his tone now, and damn him it just makes him sound so…oh gods….
She sends him a frosty look—even if he does have a great voice, it's an obnoxious question and he's doing it on purpose, what's more.
"I graduated from college, I'll have you know," she says with dignity.
"Child prodigy, Chiisai?"
It takes her a moment to realize what he's called her, but it's more than enough time to reach a conclusive decision:
Lieutenant Saitou is a big arrogant jerk.
Tokio twitches a little.
And wonders why, with her abominable luck with men, she didn't see this coming.