Work Text:
Maya
“Playing the martyr again I see?” the red-eyed woman wearing her own face tutted “It’s – an interesting tactic for trying not to stir up memories of the Other Side, Maya.”
“Remind me - what got you in trouble there in the first place?” the shadow let out a cruel cackle at her own tasteless joke (frankly, in Maya’s opinion, the worst habit of shadows – she could deal with the emotional manipulation, but the unbearable smugness was another story).
“So brave, so strong, so selfless!”
She paused for effect.
“So what? Didn’t get you very far – boy oh boy, let me know when you decide to spearhead any other bright ideas, sunshine! I wouldn’t wanna miss that mess.” she teased, gripping a mirror image of Maya’s own stuffed rabbit to her chest (a Shadow-Mr. Bunbun? Was that how this worked?) “What’s that you say Mr. Bunbun? That she’s just distancing herself from others to avoid more emotional pain? Why, it’s almost like you’re saying she’s learned absolutely nothing from all this-“
“SHUT UP!” Maya woke in a sweat, tangled in her bedclothes. Her words cut into the silence as she lay on her back, chest heaving as though she’d just been winded.
“A dream,” she muttered to the smiling face of Mr. Bunbun, sitting on the bedside table beside her without a care in the world.
“Just another dream.”
She really needed to sort some things out.
Katsuya
It wasn’t long after that the universe seemed to take matters into its own hands (and by ‘the universe’ I of course mean Maya’s roommate Ulala Serizawa), when she asked Mr. Dependable himself – Katsuya Suou - to repair the storage heater at their place. Maya stubbornly refused to rid herself of the old thing (which was ready to blow any minute) and the redhead knew her friend would try using it while she and Kaoru were abroad working on this latest case. The idea of the apartment going up in flames while Maya slept soundly through it was playing on her mind, she said – and soon the image was firmly wedged in Katsuya’s mind too.
On the one hand, Ms. Amano had suggested cutting ties with the Suou family. For Tatsuya, for the universe, of course, of course – it was all perfectly reasonable. That’s what the detective kept trying to tell himself, though admittedly it did little to ease the dull ache he felt in the pit of his stomach.
On the other hand, the idea of that storage heater setting the apartment ablaze and robbing this world of the talented, kindhearted, beautiful Maya gnawed troublingly at the back of his mind. Surely such an occurrence would go against the noble intent that This Side was created with.
Katsuya sighed, pushing his glasses up absentmindedly. His focus was now completely shot – and in his line of work, if he didn’t sort that out soon he was likely to end up in a similar way himself.
It was this that brought the young detective to the door of Ms. Amano that fateful morning. Three brisk knocks, and the door swung open.
To say Katsuya was totally unprepared for the sight that greeted him was a massive understatement – Ms. Amano in an oversized flannel moon-patterned pyjama shirt and yoga pants, hair dishevelled and Mr. Bunbun tucked under her arm.
“Mnph?” She fixed him with a panda-eyed stare and several slightly-out-of-sync blinks.
It seemed that Ulala did not clear this visit ahead of time with her roommate.
Katsuya felt his entire body flush beet red as he mumbled his apologies to the floorboards. What made him feel most uncomfortable was that despite all this, to him she still looked as ravishing as ever. Perhaps even moreso – it was so rare to see the journalist in anything but her usual state carefully-crafted perfection, this was almost like he’d stumbled across a secret - something illicit, something forbidden (The reader must understand that to a man like Katsuya - ie: more strait-laced than a brand new pair of Chuck Taylors, more vanilla than a crème brulée - the scandal of setting eyes on a lady’s flannel moon jammies was almost too much to bear).
“Ms. Amano – please forgive me, I-“
“Katsuya!” It was Maya’s turn to blush now, hands swiftly and frantically working to straighten out her clothes and hair. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t expecting anyone… I mean, obviously!”
The journalist let out a small, embarrassed laugh. The detective could only mumble something about exploding storage heaters, staring despairingly at his own shoes “I… I should just-“
“It’s nice to see you,” Maya smiled and the rest of Katsuya’s sentence became lodged in his throat. Looking up at her gentle face, whatever sentiment he was trying to express was now lost to time. What was he trying to say again? It wasn’t important.
“It is?” the blush rushing to his cheeks redoubled its efforts, no doubt leaving him red as a tomato “I mean, it’s good to see you too – so good – but I thought, um, I mean –“
“I’ve been meaning to talk to you, actually,” there was that smile again “So this is kind of perfect? My gross comfy PJs not withstanding of course.”
Another nervous little laugh “Maybe, do you wanna come in?”
Katsuya found himself nodding and stepping inside, feeling a bit lightheaded, as Ms. Amano apologized for the mess and cleared him a place to sit.
“I’ll be back in a sec,” she grinned “Let me get into some semi-presentable clothes at least.”
“Take your time, Ms. Amano.”
“Hey, no need for this Ms. Amano stuff. I think after all we’ve been through, you can just call me Maya – we’re friends after all, right?”
“As you wish Ms-um, Maya,” Katsuya’s blush deepened once more, the journalist herself taking on an ever-so-slightly pinkish hue as he gave her the most sheepish of grins “It will take some getting used to. But I like it.”