Work Text:
Rise stumbled into her old bedroom above Marukyu to find it unchanged from the way she’d left it months ago. Okay, maybe not completely unchanged—her grandmother had cleaned up the clothes she’d left scattered across her floor and tidied the minefield of cosmetics that lived on her desk—but it was still home. She dropped her many bags onto the floor by the door, shrugged out of her winter coat, and drifted toward her bed, fully intending to sleep now and unpack later. It had been a hell of a day between recording in the morning, interviewing in the afternoon, and flying into town in the evening, and she was expected to meet up with the old Investigation Team in the morning for their annual Christmas Eve celebration. She didn’t even bother to kick off her shoes before flopping onto her mattress, pulling a blanket over herself and snuggling in for as much rest as she could get.
And then her phone rang.
Rise’s pillow swallowed her mighty groan. She rolled over and dug in her pocket for the stupid device, hoping it was an unknown number so she could just decline the call without a hint of remorse.
But it wasn’t an unknown number.
It was Naoto Shirogane.
That was odd. Had Naoto ever called Rise on her cell phone before? Certainly not if it wasn’t about something important. Which meant this had to be important, but what could be so pressing at this ungodly hour of the night?
Rise answered it without another instant of hesitation, unease stirring in her gut. “Hello, Naoto? What’s up? Are you okay?”
“Rise,” Naoto’s answer came on a sigh of relief. “Thank God.”
And in just those three little words, Rise read her like a book. Naoto was stressed, anxious, maybe even scared. Her voice sounded brittle, like it was about to crack and release a flood of emotion from behind its usual dam. Rise sat up, suddenly alert. “Naoto, what’s wrong?”
The dam broke. “I-I-I was trying to take advantage of the light nighttime traffic to shave some time off my trip back to Inaba for our annual social event, but something went wrong with my vehicle and there’s smoke coming out of the engine and I tried to—”
“Smoke?” Rise cried in alarm. “Naoto, get away from there!”
“I am!” The detective sounded like she was close to tears. “But it’s f-freezing and nobody has been answering my calls and the towing service can’t get anyone to my location for another two hours and I fear I might soon risk immolation just to keep my fingers from falling off.”
Rise shook her head, sliding off her bed with a newfound energy. “Please no immolation.” She pinned the phone to her ear with her shoulder and began collecting her purse and coat from where she’d dropped them on the floor. “Where are you? I’ll be there as soon as I can.” The tired weight of her eyelids and the soreness in her weary muscles were shoved to the back of her mind. All that mattered right now was helping her friend.
“I-I’m not really sure,” Naoto said miserably, “This part of the countryside all looks the same to me, and it’s so dark, and there’s nobody else around—”
“Your phone, Naoto,” Rise reminded gently. “Just check your GPS.”
“O-oh.” Rise’s heart squeezed. The detective must have truly been in a state if she’d forgotten something so basic. “Um…” Naoto’s voice grew slightly more distant for a moment. Then it came back, even more strained than before. “I’m still forty-five minutes from Inaba, Rise. I don’t want to make you drive all that way in the middle of the night. I-I’m sorry I called. I’ll just—”
“Be quiet,” Rise interrupted, already halfway out the door. “I’m coming to get you and there’s nothing you can do about it. Send me your location.”
“If you insist,” Naoto mumbled, voice dimming once again as she obeyed.
“Will you be okay until then?” Rise questioned. “You have your coat? Gloves? Food?”
“I-I have my coat,” the detective said sheepishly.
Rise sighed and turned on her heel to head back into the house. She snagged a warm blanket from the couch and a fistful of snacks from the kitchen before retracing her steps. “For someone so responsible, you’re really terrible at taking care of yourself.” She locked the door hastily behind her and hustled to her car double-time, where she tossed everything into the passenger seat just as haphazardly as she’d dropped her luggage.
“It’s not n-normally an issue,” Naoto defended through chattering teeth.
Rise’s worry escalated as she shoved her key into the ignition and brought her car to life. “Are you going to be all right until I get there?” Her own breath was turning to vapor already, and she wasn’t even outside. “I’ll be very upset if I drive all that way just to find a Naoto-sicle on the side of the road.”
Naoto trembled out a laugh. “I-I’ll do my best to keep that fate at bay. But, um, I would appreciate it if you hurried.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice.” Rise was already tearing out of her tiny driveway and through the shopping district at twenty over the speed limit, and she only flew faster as civilization dwindled and the roads turned wide and empty. Naoto hadn’t been joking when she said this part of the country all looked the same. Along the Samegawa, the land was like a recurring nightmare, all hilly and dreary gray, each mile indistinguishable from the last. Rise intended to pass it by as fast as humanly possible. She hated to think of Naoto waiting for her alone in that dark, cold dreamscape.
As she cranked the heat up to max and set her cruise control at ninety miles an hour, Rise turned her attention back to the phone at her ear. “Naoto? Are you still there?”
She could clearly hear the detective’s teeth chattering over the phone. “I don’t really have anywhere else to go.”
“Talk to me. So I know you’re not turning into a Naoto-sicle. How have you been?”
“Well enough, until now.”
“Any exciting cases?”
“Just a few missing persons reports. Usually f-false alarms. Rebellious teenagers and such.”
“Hey, you were one of those yourself not too long ago.”
“I don’t know if ‘rebellious’ would be the word I’d use,” Naoto sounded indignant.
“If you say so.” Rise smiled to herself in the dark. “Anyway, I guess false alarms are better than serial murder cases.”
“No argument there. One was enough to last me a lifetime.”
“I know.”
For a moment, all was silent besides the drone of tires on pavement and the blast of warm air through the vents. Memories flooded into the pause, not all of them good. Rise readjusted her hands on the steering wheel and tried not to think of mirrors and strip clubs.
She shook herself out of her funk before it could drag her down too far. Aware that the mood had dipped, she tried to stoke it back to life. “Anyway, what else is up? Any handsome new studs in your life?”
“What?” Naoto nearly choked. “N-no!”
Rise clicked her tongue in mock disappointment. “Not yet, you mean.”
There was a pause, and Rise could picture Naoto, flushed, floundering for an answer. She bit her lip to hold in a laugh. When the detective finally found her voice, it was to say stiffly, “I have no need of any handsome studs now or ever, thank you very much.”
“How about beautiful idols?” Rise pressed, toeing the line between humor and candor. It wasn’t a flirt as long as she could pass it off as a joke.
Or that’s what she told herself.
“I think one of those is enough to last me a lifetime, too,” Naoto returned wryly, and it was Rise’s turn to flush.
She cleared her throat and moved on before either of them could read too far into things. “Um, so, how is your grandfather?”
They passed the thirty minutes that it took Rise to make the forty-five-minute trip like that, talking as comfortably as if it had only been hours and not months since they’d last seen each other. It felt like a breath of fresh air to Rise, who had spent far too much time in front of cameras and behind masks since then. Halfway through the drive, she turned the heat down, no longer needing it to feel warm. She’d forgotten the effect the young detective could have on her.
Not that she would ever bring it up of her own free will. Their lives were far too disparate for a spontaneous confession to cause anything but trouble. She could still enjoy the feeling for what it was worth, though. It had been working well enough since that fateful summer so long ago.
“Oh!” Naoto’s cry broke Rise from her comfortable haze. “I think I see you!”
Rise had been keeping an eye on her GPS as she went, watching the distance between their dots on the map narrow, but her heart still leaped at the thought of seeing Naoto face to face, finally.
“At least, I really hope that’s you.” Naoto sounded young and small and vulnerable, and Rise had to swallow down a sudden lump in her throat.
“It’s me. I’m here,” she assured. Her pulse started to speed up as Naoto’s flashing hazard lights grew closer and closer and she was finally able to make out a lone dark shape standing on the roadside. If Naoto had sounded small, she looked even more so. “I’m going to hang up now, okay?” she said as she slowed and steered her car toward the shoulder where the detective stood.
“Okay.” Was it her imagination, or did Naoto sound nervous too? “Thank you, Rise.”
“Of course.”
Rise pulled her car to a sliding stop in the gravel behind Naoto’s dark blue sedan. It was barely visible in the dark, but she could indeed see smoke catching the glow of the moonlight as it streamed from beneath the hood. Rise made a sympathetic noise—she couldn’t do anything to help the poor car, but she could help the lonely little detective who was usually behind its wheel.
She barely remembered to grab the blanket from the passenger seat before hopping out into the night. Her feet carried her toward Naoto at a jog, hardly feeling the sting of the cold on her cheeks as joy warmed her from within.
Before she knew it, she was within her friend’s orbit, and the two of them collided in a hug. Rise wrapped the blanket snugly around Naoto’s shoulders before following it with her arms, while the detective squeezed her firmly around the waist. Rise might have been surprised, normally, by the show of physical contact from the normally prickly detective, except right now their circumstances were anything but normal. Naoto was cold and scared and alone, her usual cool facade dissipated like the vapor of their breaths in the air.
“I’m so glad you’re here,” the shorter girl breathed into Rise’s chest.
Rise rested her cheek against Naoto’s signature hat and closed her eyes contentedly. “Yeah.” She let herself enjoy the moment for all of five seconds before snapping back to business. “Okay, now let’s get you warmed up. No Naoto-sicles will be forming on my watch.”
Naoto laughed shakily and didn’t resist as Rise pulled her by the hand toward her much warmer, much healthier car. When they reached it, Rise opened the rear door and motioned the detective inside. Naoto bundled in, blanket and all, and collapsed gladly onto the tan leather.
She started to protest as Rise climbed in after her. ““Wait, shouldn’t we—”
The idol shushed her and closed the door. “You said the towing company would be here in two hours,” she reminded as she busied herself tucking the corners of the blanket around the other girl. “We should be here to meet them.”
Concerned eyes narrowed at her from within the blanket burrito. “Rise, it’s the middle of the night. I won’t make you—”
“I want to,” Rise assured. “Plus, we’re already here. What’s another hour?”
“And a half.”
“I’m sure we can find something to do.”
Naoto was startled into silence.
Rise explained quickly, “Like—like eat this random pile of snacks I grabbed on the way out.” She lunged over the passenger seat to grab a fistful of the food in question. Upon closer examination, it was just a bunch of pretzels and gross-looking tofu chips, but Naoto reached for a bag anyway.
“Thank you.” The words were half-muffled as she immediately started stuffing her face with suspicious white flakes.
Rise tried not to stare. Had the detective’s manners magically evaporated since they’d last seen each other, or was she really that hungry? “Naoto,” she ventured, “how long were you out here before you called me?”
The crunching paused. “Um…a while.”
“Ugh! Why? You know I’m always here if you need me.”
“I—I know. I just…didn’t want to bother you. Everyone else I called seemed too busy to answer, so I figured you would be too.”
Rise sighed. “I’m never too busy to help my friends.” She knew that if she thought about it too long she would start to see the holes in that statement, so she moved on quickly. “Are you feeling any better?”
“Yes, thank you.” Naoto finished the last handful of tofu chips and folded the empty bag into her coat pocket. In the following silence, Rise could feel the detective’s sharp blue eyes on her. She tried not to squirm. “Aren’t you cold too?” was what the smaller girl finally said.
Rise honestly hadn’t really noticed until now, but a chill had crept beneath her coat. “Um, yeah. A little.”
Naoto cleared her throat. “Did you want to, um…share?” She lifted the corner of her blanket in invitation.
Rise felt her ears begin to burn. “Um,” she hesitated, just because her first instinct was to squeal ohmygod yes! and she didn’t want to scare Naoto away that quickly, until her brain could manage coherent thought. “Sure. Yeah.”
Naoto raised the blanket higher so Rise could duck under it with her, and the warmth she found there was immediate. After a moment of shifting and shuffling in search of a comfortable position, they ended up like this: Rise’s back against the door, her legs stretched out across the seat, Naoto curled up between them with her head against Rise’s chest. The blanket covered most of them this way, and its warmth plus Rise’s fierce blush made for a very effective ward against the chill air.
“Is this okay?” she checked, aware that this was closer than they’d ever been and Naoto was rarely partial to physical contact.
But, “Yes,” the detective responded on a comfortable sigh, tucking her hands around Rise’s waist. “If you agree.”
“Yes.” Rise couldn’t help but smile. This wasn’t the most ideal of situations, vehicular crisis and midnight stranding and all, but if it meant she got to reconnect with her friend—maybe more—she’d do it again in a heartbeat.
That felt like too much to say right now, though, so Rise held her peace for once. Instead, she reached up and gently tugged off Naoto’s blue cap, and when the detective didn’t protest, she laid it aside and replaced it with her fingers. Naoto’s hair was sleek and soft as she brushed it away from the girl’s brow. It wasn’t quite long enough to stay tucked behind her ear, so Rise settled for combing it into order, enjoying the innocent intimacy of the moment,
Eventually, Naoto lifted her head. Rise could barely make out her face in the dim light of the dashboard display, but her eyes were lovely as ever.
“I think I’ve finally warmed back up,” she murmured.
Rise forced her hands to still. “Does that mean you want me to stop?”
The cutest little groan left the detective’s throat, and she returned her head to its place on Rise’s chest. Taking that as a no, Rise happily buried her fingers in smooth hair again. It was a long moment before Naoto spoke up a second time. “Thank you for coming to get me. Truly. I don’t know what I would have done.”
“We’ve been over this,” Rise said softly. “You’d be a Naoto-sicle.”
Naoto chuckled, her breath misting across the idol’s neck. “This is a much nicer fate.”
Rise smiled and let herself blush. “Yeah. It is.”
…