Chapter Text
Sugiura sighed as he walked through the streets of Ijincho, his fourth cup of coffee in hand. He was tired. It’d been two months since the Mikoshiba case ended and the subsequent cases that came to Yokohama 99 since had been child’s play in comparison, but that case broke Sugiura just a bit.
He was jumpier now and any noise he heard kept him up waiting for anything to strike. It started after he and Tsukumo got attacked at their agency; any time Sugiura heard a noise, he investigated to ensure no one was waiting to pounce. And then of course, it was seeing Sawa’s body. Sugiura was frozen, didn’t even know what to do. The last time he’d seen a dead body was at the ADDC years prior, but his mind was too focused on staying awake and recording everything for the trial to really take it in. This English teacher that had been a light in many students’ life, snuffed out because she knew a guy. When Sugiura had finally snapped to, he let Kaito and Yagami handle everything and he’d investigate the rest of the apartment.
Sugiura’s sleep had suffered ever since.
At the time, the case was too important for Sugiura to falter, so he kept his energy up despite barely getting four hours of sleep at night, if he was even so lucky; he worked hard to be useful to the investigation, though he was glad once it was all over. Nowadays, the cases he and Tsukumo got were simple enough and Sugiura didn’t know if it was for the better. Sure, it was less complex and didn’t require much of him or his cognitive functions, but there wasn’t a lot keeping him up and ready to get through the day.
He stopped in front of a familiar arcade. Higashi had recently opened another branch of Charles in Ijincho. The original Charles was doing so well since he got ownership, an investor he did business with decided to invest in the man and a second arcade came of it. He was in Ijincho more as a result and Sugiura had to say he felt a little safer knowing he had someone strong so close. Higashi wasn’t the kind of guy to call attention to himself, but Sugiura knew he’d come help him out if he needed something. He was dependable in Sugiura’s eyes.
Sugiura walked into the arcade.
“Is Higashi-san in?” he asked as he made his way to the counter. The clerk stared at Sugiura, but shrugged his shoulders and pointed to the door to the back office. Sugiura smiled and walked to the back, chuckled to himself when he opened the door to find Higashi on the couch, cigarette in hand.
Higashi glanced at Sugiura, gave a slight wave as he put his cigarette out in the ashtray.
“You need a nap or something?” he asked. Lately, if Sugiura didn’t have cases, he’d stop in and ask if he could just sleep in the back for a little bit. He was feeling less and less safe in his own place whenever he heard any kind of noise. At least at Charles, he could be assured that Higashi would have everything under control and Sugiura wasn’t going to get another bat to the head, and no one was going to end up dead.
“Just wanted to visit my new best friend,” Sugiura replied before taking a sip of coffee. If he hadn’t been out and about doing cases and getting coffees, he might’ve considered a nap, but he was wired from all the coffee. It felt uncomfortable to feel so out of control by the jitters of caffeine, but it at least kept him awake enough to get things done. He’d manage.
Sugiura took a seat on the couch across from Higashi. The new arcade came with a bigger office and Sugiura was happy that Higashi could have something positive going for him. He seemed happy at the new place and he was smoking a lot less.
“You’re looking like shit lately, Sugiura,” he commented. Higashi was well aware of Sugiura’s situation; just last week Sugiura thought he heard movement outside of his apartment and he called Higashi for backup to investigate a potential break-in. It was a stray cat, but Higashi questioned Sugiura over feeling like he needed a second person for something that Sugiura could’ve dealt with himself, and the younger man came clean about his situation. “Do you talk to anyone about it?”
“You,” Sugiura said, smiling. He didn’t want to bother Tsukumo with his situation; Tsukumo already had a tough time after his pinky had been broken and Sugiura wanted to be strong for him. “I don’t want to bother Yagami-san. He has so much on his plate.”
“But you’ll bother me,” Higashi looked Sugiura in the eye. Sugiura’s eyes widened; he realized that yeah, maybe it was rude to just expect Higashi to drop what he was doing to comfort the man. Higashi sighed. “I don’t mind, but I don’t know if I’m good enough to help with whatever’s bothering you.”
Sugiura took another sip of coffee. Higashi listened to Sugiura and didn’t judge him over how he was reacting over everything that had happened during the Mikoshiba case, and that was good enough for the detective. He knew ultimately, he’d need to get to the bottom of the problem.
“You’re always good enough, Higashi-san,” Sugiura smiled. Higashi always came through for everyone and never really complained. He had in the past, but considering he was putting his neck on the line by even interacting with Yagami, he was allowed a complaint here or there.
“Well, you know, I’m not a therapist, so I can’t make your problems just go away,” Higashi said. He avoided compliments phenomenally, and it was an odd skill that Sugiura had to admit he’d never quite seen but was a little impressed over. “But thanks.”
The office door opened.
“Aniki, it’s getting pretty busy up here,” the clerk waited in the doorway. Higashi looked at him, then at Sugiura.
“You can stay back here, but I gotta work,” Higashi said. He got up, stood in front of Sugiura for a moment, just looking down at him. Sugiura waited for Higashi to do something, but the man just shook his head and left the room.
He always got awkward at a certain point when Sugiura visited. Higashi always seemed so confident and sure of himself, so Sugiura made a point to visit when he could. He knew it was fucked up that he enjoyed torturing Higashi, but his awkwardness was endearing and it never came around much.
They were small, priceless moments that sometimes kept Sugiura going.
Sugiura didn’t know when he fell asleep, but he woke up under a blanket. He looked over, saw Higashi across from him on his phone. Sugiura looked around, noticed it was dark out. He sat up and stared at Higashi.
“What time is it?” Sugiura asked. Higashi looked up from his phone and cleared his throat.
“Almost eleven,” he said. He put his phone away and leaned forward. “I thought of waking you up and seeing if you wanted to get dinner, but I thought it would be better if you actually got a normal amount of sleep for once.”
“Don’t you close at nine?” Sugiura asked. He’d grown so accustomed to being up that having slept as soundly as he did felt weird. The last thing he remembered was telling himself if he laid down, the jitters might stop. He supposed he wasn’t wrong. He felt safe at Charles, and it was likely why he could get any sleep at all when he was over.
“Yeah,” Higashi said. “But, you know, I can stick around and let you get some sleep. It’s not like I haven’t sat around in the back office in Kamurocho for too much of my life.”
“Thank you, Higashi-san,” Sugiura smiled. He knew that Higashi always tried to be accommodating; he didn’t complain the first time Sugiura told him no smoking in his van, and he always stopped smoking when the younger man was around. “Is the offer for dinner still good?”
“I already ate,” Higashi shrugged his shoulders. Sugiura scanned the table for his coffee. It’d be cold by now, but it would fill his stomach at least. “I threw out your coffee. You’re gonna die if you keep drinking so much, you know.”
“I’m not even thirty, I think it’ll be okay,” Sugiura said. He knew Higashi was just looking out for him. Sugiura was slowly increasing how much coffee he drank, and hydration was coming up short. It’s not because Sugiura meant to stop drinking water, but he focused too much on his work and he just didn’t take the time to hydrate.
“You already have trouble sleeping, and you’re adding more caffeine to the mix every day. I saw you shaking, Sugiura,” Higashi sounded so serious. Sugiura couldn’t brush him off as easily as he did everyone else because Higashi didn’t take anything lying down. He’d lost too much already, Sugiura knew Higashi wasn’t going to let things go.
“I’m fine,” Sugiura smiled. Higashi’s eyes narrowed and Sugiura knew he was being difficult. He didn’t want to be, but he also didn’t want Higashi worrying. Truthfully, Sugiura tried to keep everything to himself because he felt like everyone he knew had too much shit going on and he didn’t want to be one more problem for them.
“Whatever you say,” Higashi got up, Sugiura doing the same. He folded his blanket quickly and placed it on the couch. Higashi locked up as Sugiura waited outside, though he wondered if he’d messed up having a nice goodbye. Higashi sounded so done with Sugiura, though he could’ve just been tired in general.
But it was probably Sugiura, at least the detective felt like it was the case.
Higashi put down the shutter for Charles and turned to Sugiura.
“Going home?” Higashi asked.
“Probably. I feel a little better with some sleep in me, so I guess it’ll be nice to lay in bed and stare at the ceiling with a little more brain power,” Sugiura laughed. Higashi just stared at him. It probably wasn’t as funny to him as it was to Sugiura.
“Ever thought of staying at the agency?” Higashi asked. “Maybe you’d feel better somewhere else. You sleep okay at Charles.”
Truthfully, Sugiura felt worse being at Yokohama 99 at night. The couches were too small for his height and he felt like if he saw the office so late at night, it’d remind him too much of how he’d failed to keep Tsukumo safe. He’d probably get less sleep.
“I’m pretty big for our couches,” Sugiura stated. He didn’t want to tell Higashi the real reason; he felt bad enough that he’d confided in the man in the first place. He hated to be a real bother to anyone; it reminded him too much of being a useless teenager that stayed at home all day accomplishing nothing and helping no one.
“Well, I’ll walk you home, at least,” Higashi insisted. Sugiura knew that Higashi knew something was up. Sugiura felt like Higashi’s kindness was wasted on him; Sugiura could never accept that people just liked him and wanted his safety and happiness. It’s not that Sugiura suspected the worst of the people around him, but he couldn’t really see himself as someone really worth caring about, so he worked hard to earn his place.
The walk to Sugiura’s apartment was quiet. Sugiura didn’t know what to talk about and Higashi kept a careful eye out in case any street punks decided to hassle them. Unfortunately for Sugiura, he had the look of some young host that didn’t know any better, and the punks of Ijincho assumed he was ripe for the picking when it came to fights. Unfortunately for those punks, Sugiura could handle his own and ran circles around them in fights.
Higashi stuck around Sugiura until they got to his door.
“Thank you, Higashi-san,” Sugiura said.
“It’s no problem,” Higashi replied. He shrugged his shoulders. “You don’t need to thank me. I just notice that you get in a lot of fights sometimes, figured it could help to have some extra muscle.”
“Well, it means a lot. You let me use the back office to sleep, and you always listen to me whine about what’s bothering me,” Sugiura babbled. He could go on and on heaping praise onto Higashi, but he was sure the other man would eventually tell him to cool it. “You also stop smoking every time I come around, and it means a lot.”
“Well, it’s just a nice thing to do,” Higashi said. There he was again, downplaying his actions. Yes, it was a nice thing to do, but it didn’t mean Higashi had to do it. “Anyway, have a good night, Sugiura.”
“You too. Get back safe, Higashi-san,” Sugiura smiled before unlocking his door. He went inside, turned on the light and looked around. Everything looked like it was where he left it. He breathed out, didn’t realize he’d even been holding his breath. He took off his shoes and went to his room, scanned for anything out of the ordinary, but everything was okay.
“You’re being a freak, Fumiya,” Sugiura muttered to himself. It had been so long since the Mikoshiba case and he reminded himself that no one was after him anymore. It never helped, but he figured one day, it’d stick in his brain and he’d settle down.
He wondered if this was how Yagami felt every single day.
Despite his sleep at Charles, he still felt exhausted. He laid in his bed, threw some blankets on top of him. For years now he could never get warm enough, and it was one of the unfortunate factors to his lack of sleep; he just never felt comfortable. Before, he could at least get six hours on most nights, though even that never truly felt like enough.
He closed his eyes, tried to shift to at least be comfortable even if he didn’t sleep. He had to hope at the least, he could get in some good rest in his own bed.
At this point, even that would be a blessing.