please see profile for important note!

Morofushi is halfway to headquarters when his handphone rings over the car's bluetooth system. The caller ID pops up on the console display out the corner of his eye, though he already recognises the particular ringtone without looking over.

(Yui-san always gets assigned classical ringtones, though he selects a new piece every now and then.

Kansuke-kun's, on the other hand, is currently set to an airhorn. Morofushi changes it every time Kansuke annoys him.)

(...Kansuke's ringtone changes very frequently, unsurprisingly enough.)

He pulls over at the first available opportunity and answers the call. "Hello?"

"Oh, Morofushi-keibu, good morning," comes the slightly harried voice over the car's speakers. "Sorry to disturb you this early!"

"You're never a bother, Yui-san." More of a surprise, perhaps, given the hour – even considering Kansuke's... occasionally liberal definition of punctuality, Yui would usually already be on the way to work after picking him up by now. Morofushi's fairly certain he knows the reason for this irregularity, though. "Was there something you needed my help with?"

"Can you bring some flu medicine over to Kan-chan's place?" Yui asks, confirming his deduction. "I thought there were still some left in his medicine cabinet, but I just checked and they're not there."

"Knowing Kansuke-kun, he's probably been taking them in an attempt to appear fine." How predictable. Morofushi sighs. "Did he show any signs of being unwell yesterday?"

"Not really – I mean, he was more cranky than usual, but..." Yui trails off instead of stating the criminally obvious: that Kansuke's mood is more votalite than the weather. "We did get caught in the rain on that case a few days ago, though, and he refused to share my umbrella."

"Hardly surprising. I'll get some medicine and bring it over, then," he answers, already pulling up the map app on his phone to check the traffic towards Kansuke's house. (The wonders of smartphones, much as certain others preferred to pretend the past decade of technological development hadn't happened.) "Should I buy something for lunch as well? Since I assume you're also planning to take the day off."

"Ah, yes, that'd be helpful! I still have a bit of groceries left from the weekend, so I can cook dinner if you're coming over in the evening, but I'd rather not leave Kan-chan alone for too long right n– hmm?" Yui pauses to the sound of what is most definitely Kansuke grumbling in the background. "He says to tell you no pasta, or he's going to fight you personally. I don't think that's happening anytime soon, Kan-chan, I'm keeping your crutch until you don't look like you're going to fall over any second."

The last sentence is directed away from Yui's handphone but still perfectly audible, and it's just as well that they're not video calling, since Morofushi's fairly certain that his amusement is plainly visible on his face. "Rest assured, pasta would be rather wasted on the likes of him. Have you informed the chief yet, or should I?"

"No, it's alright, I'm going to call him later. I need to update him on the case anyway." There's the sound of a kettle whistling in the background – they're probably in the living room, then. "Thanks for doing this, Morofushi-keibu."

"You're quite welcome, Yui-san." He pauses deliberately. "Kansuke-kun, on the other hand..."

The kettle stops whistling. "...am I supposed to tell him you said that?"

"By all means, please do. I'll see you in fifteen minutes, then," says Morofushi, and ends the call before the inevitable outburst.

(He still buys pasta – for Yui, at least. She has good enough taste to like it, anyway, even if Kansuke's reaction alone hadn't already been reason enough.

The airhorn will keep for now.)

END

peace reigns in nagano police hq for one (1) day