Work Text:
“You’re still here?” The voice intruding on her thoughts sounded surprised and a little concerned.
Akane looked up from the display she’d been blindly staring at for the last ten minutes. The office lights had turned off some time ago, so while she couldn’t see much past the glow of her display, she knew that Ginoza was there. She twisted her expression into a wry smile.
“I just had to finish up a few things.”
“Workaholic,” he accused, stepping into the display’s glow with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face.
“You’re the one person I don’t want telling me that,” she responded automatically.
The scowl melted away into a soft smile for a brief moment. The exchange had settled into the realm of easy familiarity ages ago. “I’ll help. What do you still need to do?”
She shook her head. “It’s nothing that can’t wait until tomorrow, I just…”
I just need to finish putting this information together, she thought. It had seemed straightforward enough; she had asked Karanomori to give her as much information as she could about the Psycho-Pass recovery of the people they’d brought in over the last six months. She just had to turn it into something she could use.
She had thought she would know what she was looking for when she saw it but fitting together the pieces of information had taken more of her concentration than she’d expected, and she’d followed a few trains of thought so far down the tracks she’d gotten lost. By the time she realized that she’d been lost in thought for so long, she’d forgotten where she’d left off and had to start the whole process over again. Every time she came to a new decision, a new variable in her mental equation, she couldn’t move forward.
“Take a break,” Ginoza said with an air of finality. It was as close to giving her an order as she’d heard from him since he’d become an Enforcer.
“Eh?”
“You need a break,” he said, a little more gently, though she could hear the admonishment in his tone. “Spinning your wheels here right now isn’t going to do you or the rest of us any good tomorrow.”
She flinched. He was right. She slumped forward slightly, knowing that she had lost the argument probably before it had even begun.
“Even if I go home now, I won’t sleep knowing I haven’t figured this out,” she said.
Ginoza let out a defeated sigh. “Then at least get out of this dark room for a bit.”
“Maybe…”
“No smoking,” Ginoza growled, following her thoughts far too well. “You need fresh air. If you don’t want to go home yet then at least go take a walk on the treadmill. I was just on my way back to get Dime; I could go with you, if you don’t mind a detour.”
It took her mind a few seconds to connect the logic. Treadmills were on the training floor. Dime was Ginoza’s dog. Ginoza was going to take his dog for a walk on the treadmills. Because he couldn’t take him anywhere else.
She looked up at him and opened her mouth to reply, but nothing came out for a few more seconds.
“If you don’t want to, just say so.” His gaze slipped away from hers; she knew it was a self-conscious habit of his.
“No, it’s not—“ She cut off her words and started again. “I don’t mind a detour, but… would Dime rather go for a walk outside? If I’m with you, it wouldn’t be a problem.”
His gaze returned to hers, and his expression softened. “I think he’d like that.”
The detour was hardly that. Ginoza’s rooms weren’t really out of the way, seeing as they were in the same building.
Dime sat, ears perked in attention, tail wagging, obviously happy to see Ginoza. He waited patiently while the little paddock door was unlatched and Ginoza hooked the leash to his collar.
“Okay,” he said to Dime. “Let’s go.”
Dime obediently went to stand at Ginoza’s side and padded alongside him as they headed towards the door. Akane bent down and held out her hand for Dime to sniff, then scritched behind his ears.
“Ready?” Ginoza asked her. She nodded.
Akane could see Dime realize something was different when the elevator took them down to the ground floor instead of the training floor. He looked between Ginoza and Akane, cocking his head in a way that looked like he was asking a question. Akane put a hand to her mouth to stifle the laughter that bubbled up. Even Ginoza smiled a little before exiting the elevator, Dime automatically trotting forward, as well.
Akane joined them, walking more or less even with Ginoza with Dime in between them.
The night air was warm. A slight breeze kept it from feeling stifling, but didn’t cut through Akane’s suit jacket enough for her to wish for another layer. The sun had gone down not long ago; being early summer, the days were always longer than she thought. They set off across the Public Safety Bureau’s courtyard. Akane let Ginoza lead; though she was familiar enough with the area, he had a better idea of how far they needed to go.
Now that she had a more immediate purpose—walking with Ginoza and Dime—her brain seemed to kick into gear. Logic came easier, thoughts cleared, and she took a deep breath in what felt like the first time in hours.
“Relaxed a bit now?” Ginoza asked, glancing over at her.
She nodded.
They walked in companionable silence for a few minutes. Akane wasn’t lost in her own thoughts so much as she was finally able to sift through them. She thought that she would have a much easier time tackling the data that had stumped her earlier when she came back to it.
She glanced over at Ginoza. He would probably scold her if she tried to go back and work more that evening. But it would still be there in the morning, and her brain would be fresh and rested.
She was glad that he’d gotten her out of the office.
Ginoza’s gaze met hers again, and she glanced away.
“What?” he asked. She could hear his amusement at catching her staring at him.
A small flare of heat rose in her cheeks; she hoped it was dark enough that he wouldn’t notice. “Nothing.”
“I should thank you,” he said after another moment.
“Why?” She chanced another look at him, expecting to find his gaze still on her but found him watching the path ahead of them instead.
“Because it’s a treat for Dime to go outside, now. He’s not as energetic as he was in his younger days, but it’s still good to give him this kind of excitement now and then.”
And not many Inspectors would go so far as to go on a walk with their Enforcers unless they had to. The thought came unbidden. By now, she knew that her attitude towards the Enforcers was unusual. She trusted them, her Hounds.
She looked down at Dime, trotting easily between the two of them. He matched Ginoza’s pace perfectly, careful not to get ahead or lag behind. He seemed perfectly happy to stay at his owner’s side. He trusted Ginoza, and she knew how much Ginoza cared for Dime. There was a part of her that was frustrated that even something so simple as taking Dime for a walk outside had become so difficult for Ginoza. She wondered if Dime felt trapped, too, always having to be indoors or on a leash.
Looking around, there were only a few distant figures back by the PSB tower; there was no one nearby.
“There’s no one here but us, and Dime’s well-trained… can’t you let him off his leash to run around for a bit?” she asked.
“No.”
“Why? Are you afraid he’ll run away?”
Ginoza shook his head. “He wouldn’t run away.”
“Then, why?”
“Because no matter how trained a dog is, there’s always the chance that something could happen.” His words were measured and calm, stating the facts as he knew them. It was an answer that was very typical of him. He continued, “It could be that something surprises him, or maybe he gets hurt. Or something hurts him, another dog that’s not as trained, or a kid who doesn’t know what they’re doing. When something like that happens, instinct takes over.”
Akane thought she saw what he meant. For all her own training, it was sometimes hard to keep herself calm in the field, to make herself do what needed to be done when her mind was telling her to run. For a dog… “He might bite? Or bolt?”
Ginoza nodded, a serious expression on his face. “If I don’t have Dime on his leash, I can’t take control when the situation gets out of hand. I can’t stop him from doing something wrong, and I can’t help get him out of danger, either.” He looked over at her. “The leash is for control, but it’s also for safety—not just the safety of others, but Dime’s own safety.”
“I see.” She thought about this for a moment. “Is it the same for Enforcers, then?”
“Yes.” Hardly a breath of hesitation from him. Of course he’d thought this through.
Following the line of logic she’d started, she continued, “The Inspectors hold the leash, not just to keep the Enforcers in line, but…”
“…to keep them from harm, too. Yes.” There was more warmth in his tone than she expected to hear, but whatever it was quickly cooled as he slowed his steps and looked at her with a grim expression. “You remember what happened in the Helmet Riots. Keeping us on a leash is as much for our sake as it is for the people of society.”
She stopped a step after he did, but didn’t turn to face him. Instead, she forced that wry smile back onto her face and glanced at Dime. “Still… I wish that just for a day or two, I could let you off your leash.”
“Careful, Inspector.” The admonishment was gentle, but sharp nonetheless.
Though she personally didn’t really fear Sybil’s judgement for a comment like that, she could see why Ginoza would worry. It wasn’t the sort of thing that Inspectors were supposed to say, regardless of how well they liked and trusted their Enforcers. “Sorry.”
There was a long moment of silence between them, filled with the white noise of the city winding down for the night. Ginoza spoke first.
“I appreciate the sentiment, but…” He gave her a small smile. “I know I don’t have to worry so long as you’re the one holding my leash.” Then he turned and took a few steps back the way they had come. “Let’s go back. Dime will be tired by the time we get there.”
Akane fell into step with them once more, her mind still turning over the conversation. She was glad that Ginoza didn’t mind that she held the leash he was being kept on. She understood why it was necessary.
Still, she wished that she didn’t have to hold it at all.