Chapter Text
Taking a deep breath. August Richter, a fine man, puts his hand on his partner’s shoulder.
“I don’t think you should rush in there without a plan, Leslie.” A worried expression scrunched on his face. “You don’t know what you’re doing.”
“Oh, pssh,” Richter’s partner, Leslie, waved him off and rolled his eyes. “Don’t be such a worrywart, August. I’ll be fine. This is just like the other cases I solved.”
“Yeah, with my help.” Richter glares. “Seriously, Leslie, I don’t want you making such brash decisions!”
“Shouting isn’t going to help, Rich,” Leslie shook his head. Glancing sideways, Leslie could see the displeasure and worry written all over his partner’s face. His hands clenched his dress pants and teeth biting his bottom lip. His brown eyes trained on the dashboard of the car and his foot tapping against the floor gently. Richter always did this when he was anxious and angry. Leslie found it cute when he did this and often teased him for it. Richter would get embarrassed and beg him to stop. Of course, he didn’t and it was amusing.
But not this time. Leslie could genuinely tell that Richter was worried. He would admit, that he would make some indecisive decisions and the consequences would hit him hard like a truck. But it was all worth it in the end. He would catch the bad guy and justice would be served. Leslie would feel good after solving a case but it was because of Richter that he would get close to the target. Leslie was the boss and Richter was the detective. Without Richter, Leslie doesn’t think he’d make it on his own.
“Besides, look.” Leslie gestures outside of the car and points at a suspicious-looking guy who just left the side of a building. “There goes our suspect.” It was night so Richter had a hard time seeing the suspicious guy. He had on a hat and a coat that was too large for his slender frame. “I will show you that I don’t make brash decisions.”
“Yeah but, hey! Leslie!” Richter’s eyes widened as he saw his boss getting out of the car and shouting at the guy. Reaching for his hand, he misses by a hair as the door slams shut.
“Leslie!” Richter quickly gets out of the car and chases after his boss, shouting for him to wait. He knew this was going to happen. He knew Leslie would do this. Going off without saying a word and getting hurt during the process. “Boss! Hey!”
Huffing, Richter chases them down an alleyway, the moonlight barely reaching them. Richter couldn’t see all that well in the dark. Leslie doesn’t trust him driving and he doesn’t blame him.
Just up ahead, Richter can see Leslie cornering the man at a dead end of the alleyway. He can hear shouting being exchanged between the two men and Richter caught up with his boss, huffing for air as he hasn’t run that fast in a while.
“Boss…” Richter manages to wheeze out. “You…”
“Yep,” Leslie smirks as he glances at his partner. “Told you I can do this without making brash decisions.”
“...” Richter doesn’t say anything to that. It’s not like he couldn’t as he was still gasping for air.
“Now,” With a confident smirk, Leslie turns to the criminal, eyes gleaming with excitement. “John Baker. You’re under arrest for selling illegal substances.” Taking a step forward, Leslie can be seen pulling out handcuffs from his pockets. “You have the right to remain silent.” He takes another step and Richter watches with curious and tired eyes.
“Anything you say can and will be used against you in court. Yada yada, blah, blah whatever.”
“I ain’t goin’ nowhere.” John Baker sneers as he presses his back against the brick wall. His scowl deepened when his eyes caught Richter staring at him. “And I’ll make sure of that…” And with a chuckle, John Baker suddenly pulls out a knife from his deep pockets, aiming it straight at Leslie.
Richter’s eyes widened at the scene as he gasped in shock, his arms and legs immediately trembling. The scene unfolding in front of his slender eyes made him react quickly to whatever his body was doing. He didn’t know what he was doing.
“Leslie!” That was the only word he managed to say. His heart thumps and his ears ring as he extends his arm, reaching for anything, anybody to touch.
He can vaguely hear Leslie grunt in pain, his body crashing onto Richter’s. Leslie’s back crashed onto Richter’s chest, causing them to collide and crash to the ground.
Both men hiss in pain and Richter immediately tries to stand, seeing John Baker running past them and chuckling. He reaches out to try and knock him down but stops when he sees something drip in the corner of his eyes.
He may not see all that much in the dark but this was something he wished he couldn’t see at all. He wanted to scream, wanted to cry, wanted to have some type of freak out but he couldn’t. Richter felt like he couldn’t scream or at least he didn’t think he was.
Blood…
There was blood.
The knife was deep into Leslie’s left hand.
There was blood dripping on the ground.
From Leslie’s left hand.
“I…I…” Richter stutters as he frantically looks all around.
“Oops…” Leslie chuckles as he holds his stabbed hand close to his chest. “I…” He also seemed to be at a loss for words as he stared dumbly at his hand. “I did…something bad?” It sounded more like a question than a statement as he slowly looked at Richter, his eyes wide. “Rich?”
“O-Oh…”
—----------------
It was all a blur but Richter somehow managed to find his voice and rushed Leslie to the nearest hospital, trying to contain his emotions.
Leslie sat in the passenger seat, eyes wide and mouth trembling. No tears were in sight but his eyes looked watery.
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Richter doesn’t remember waiting in the hospital room for his boss. He doesn’t remember much of that night at all.
He remembers a doctor coming up to him though. He remembers them sitting him down in a chair and telling him the news.
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“He’s going have to get stitches…”
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Relief flooded Richter’s body as he sighed in relief.
“Oh thank the heavens!”
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“But…”
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*One week ago*
“Richter, have you seen those reports? I could’ve sworn…”
“They’re on your desk, sir.”
Making haste, Leslie shuffles over to his desk and grins madly as he holds them up. “Ah! Found them!” He sings as he opens the files and begins reading them silently. Richter couldn’t help but smile fondly at his boss.
“He’s such a handful. Can’t help it though.”
Richter walks out of his boss’s office and sits at his desk, picking out one of the many files he had to read. He’s been reading files all day. It was tiring and he could never seem to get used to it, no matter how many years he’s been serving as a detective. It was time-consuming and boring as no one else seemed to be doing the paperwork. Not that he was complaining, but Richter sometimes wished for a little action to happen and he was there to help instead of being in the background.
But with the uproar of people illegally drinking alcohol and selling it, he couldn’t help but feel excited as he was finally doing something he was decent at. He wants to help all that he can but it seems like his boss was holding him back a bit.
After marking the last word in the file, Richter sighs tiredly and places it on the right side of his desk, reaching for another to read and mark through.
But as he reached for one, a huge thumping sound made him jump in fright. He can see a huge stack of files being placed on his desk and Richter groans in annoyance, looking up to see who did it.
“Lucy,” He groans tiredly. “You placed them on all of the files I marked! Now I have to sort them out again!” He glares at the woman standing over his desk.
“My apologies,” Lucy had a smug expression on her face as she flipped her hair. “I couldn’t tell which was which considering all of the files you do.”
Richter bit his tongue as she walked away, her heels clicking against the old floorboard. God, did he dislike that woman. She always acted like she owned the place just because Leslie hired her for her good intelligence. You usually don’t see women working in some old police station full of men. Not that Richter has an opinion on women, he doesn’t see how good they are when doing work. He thinks it’s unfair for them to stay at home and cook and clean all day. He thinks they should have the same opportunity for getting work experience just as men do but he’ll never say that out loud. If he did, he’d be shamed by not only his coworkers but society as well.
Fuming, Richter takes a file from on top of the pile and begins skimming through the article, growing bored. The words seemed to be mashing together and he was honestly getting pretty dizzy. His eyes then caught sight of something huge. Something big in that one article.
Standing up, Richter goes to his boss’s office, knocking a bit frantically.
“Come in,”
Walking in, Richter leaves the door crack and holds up the file with wide eyes.
“I-I think I found him!”
His statement was left in the air for a moment.
“Who?”
“Boss!” Richter glares at his boss. “This is serious.” His thin eyes watch Leslie as he puts his feet off of the desk and sits up from his chair. He puts down the file he was reading and raises an eyebrow, swiping away his bangs.
“Fine, fine. What have you found, Rich?”
The nickname made Richter smile a bit as he showed the file to his boss. “I think I finally have a lead on who is the one responsible for the spillage in 1905.”
“Oh?” Leslie raised his eyebrows. “‘05?”
“Yes.” Richter nods his head vigorously. “There are two suspects. John Baker and Howard Bayfield. Since we already apprehended Bayfield, it’s only a matter of time before we interview him and figure out where Baker is.”
“But wait, wait,” Leslie stops Richter from talking and gestures towards the file. “What does the spillage have to do with anything you’re talking about right now?” He raises an eyebrow and tilts his head.
“I’m getting to that.” He clears his throat.
“See, Baker was born in 1881. There is not much about his childhood or parents. It only says that his mother was a school teacher and his father worked in the factories. They were poor but lived by his father's paychecks. That was, until 1899 when his father unexpectedly died of false accusations. Police shot his father to death and his mother died soon after from heartbreak.” Richter pauses to take a short breath before continuing to read the file about John Baker.
“Not much is said about what John did when both of his parents died but it does say that he is responsible for robberies in 1901 and 1902. He would get in trouble but nothing major until 1905. He was formally arrested for spilling alcohol in the drinking water. He was put in jail for some time before he escaped. Nothing else.” Looking up, Richter could see Leslie staring deeply into his eyes, his fingers drumming on his desk and his foot tapping against the floor.
“So,” Richter clears his throat. “Nothing else is said about him until there were some eyewitnesses about a man that is selling illegal alcohol.”
“Do you know where?”
“I do not.” Richter shook his head and closed the file. “The eyewitnesses came in not too long ago and gave some other detectives the description of the face that matches John’s face from when he was in jail in ‘05.”
“Hmm…” Leslie hums deeply. “Seems pretty interesting…and you put this together yourself?”
“I did,” Richter confirms with a tired sigh. “Lucy and Hank were supposed to help me sort through but of course, they slack off.” He rolls his eyes and Leslie chuckles.
“You’re cute when you’re mad.”
“I’m not mad,” Richter states with a bored expression. “And you can’t say stuff like that in the open. Your door is open.”
“So then I’ll close it,” Leslie smirks as he gets up from his seat and walks over to his door, closing and locking it. There, Leslie took the opportunity to grab Richter’s wrist and kiss it softly. “Better?” He pushes his short hair away from his face and Richter blushes, shaking his head.
“No. We’re still at work.”
“Aw. But the door is shut.”
—------------
“You know, I just don’t get it.”
Walking out of the interrogation room, Leslie frowned as he leaned on Richter’s desk, his arms crossed over his chest and eyes trained on the ground.
“Get what, boss?” Richter looked up from his work and raised an eyebrow. Visibly, you can dark circles underneath his eyes, and his hair is a bit disheveled. Nothing out of the ordinary to see Richter looking like he had gotten zero sleep. Leslie tries not to comment on Richter’s health but it’s getting concerning when he does it so often.
“Bayfield. Told me that Baker wasn’t responsible for the spillage but told me something completely different the next minute.”
“Maybe he’s a compulsive liar,” Richter shrugs.
“Maybe, maybe not.” Leslie hums. “Negotiating with him was like talking to a rock; pointless.”
“I don’t know what to tell you, boss. I’ve been up all night looking for a solution where Baker might be hiding. He needs to be arrested before he causes something else to happen.” Richter frowns as he yawns loudly. Leslie smiles at him and ruffles his already messy blonde hair.
“You work too hard, you know that Rich?”
“You assigned me this case so I will do everything I can to bring light into the d…d-” Richter was cut off by another yawn and Leslie shook his head.
“You need to go home and sleep, Rich.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not.”
“Not yet. I’m so close to solving this case. I just need a couple of more days.” Richter insisted. Leslie disagreed silently.
“My office. Now.” He eyed Richter and got up from leaning on his desk, walking towards his office and hearing Richter follow him. Once they were inside, Leslie closed and locked the door, sighing.
“You need to be more considerate of your health, Rich.” He starts by saying as he sits down in his chair. He puts his feet on his desk and stares at his partner.
“Oh yeah? Says the one who has doughnut crumbs all over his shirt.”
Leslie quickly looks at his shirt and brushes the crumbs off mumbling how he should consider eating at home instead of eating while driving. “Rich, this isn’t about me, this is about you. When I assigned you this case-”
“With every case you assign me, I make sure I solve it without any complications.”
“Yes, but at what cost?”
Richter rolls his eyes in irritation. “Losing a couple of hours of sleep isn’t bad, Leslie. I can always sleep all day on my day off.”
“Rich…” Leslie sighs as he pinches his nose bridge, not having the strength to argue with Richter. It was pointless since he was so confident about his work. “Look…if you don’t start thinking of your health, I just might have to reassign this to someone else.” A bluff. Of course, Leslie was just bluffing.
“What?!” Richter’s eyes widened. “You can’t do that!”
“Oh but I can,” Leslie pouts his lips. “Remember who I am. I’m your boss and you’re my subordinate. Who’s clearly above you? Me.”
“....” Richter goes quiet, his eyes trained on the ground.
“Fine.”
Leslie smiles and puts his feet down that was on his desk. “Attaboy!” He stands up and walks over to the blonde, ruffling his hair more than ever. “You can go right back to work once you’re well-rested and full of energy! I can’t have my Rich lookin’ like crap.”
“Whatever.” Richter hides his smile by leaning his head on Leslie’s shoulder. His arms wrapped around his waist and he inhaled deeply, smelling Leslie’s fresh cologne.
Leslie grins and repeats the same action. “See you soon, Rich.”
“Yeah,” Richter mumbles, his eyes suddenly growing heavy. “You too, Les,”
Pulling away first, Leslie gazed into Richter’s brown eyes, noticing how big his bags were. He could only smile as he tilted his head and planted his lips on Richter’s lips. Richter kisses back and pulls away a second later, his cheeks growing red.
“You know how much I care about you?” Leslie whispers.
“More than I can ever imagine?” Richter whispers.
“Yep.”
Tiredly, Richter pulls away from his boss, smiling and walking back towards the door. “See ya.”
Leslie waves. “Get home safe.”
“You know I always do.”
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