Chapter Text
Two weeks had passed since the incident that rendered Yuma couch-bound and injured. While his recovery was near miraculous given the lack of medical equipment and first aid training on the other detective’s parts, the tone of operations around the Nocturnal Detective Agency had shifted permanently.
While Vivia and Halara’s attitudes remained… more or less unchanged, Yuma would often catch them staring at him out of the corners of their eyes… or occasionally, Vivia would direct his gaze just behind Yuma instead of the trainee himself.
The odd changes were more noticeable within Fubuki however. She’d become rather… clingy to say the least. At the end of every morning meeting, she’d insist upon accompanying another detective instead of her standard plan of going off and doing her own thing. Given the fact she’d expressed so much regret for not being there during Yuma’s attack, it made sense why she’d want to keep a better eye on everyone… What didn’t make sense though was her insistence on striving for more independence at the same time. Begging to be allowed to do more things like cooking, chores around the submarine and even trying to get her hands on more complex cases so she can work on her deductive skills… she’d really doubled down on the whole ‘prove she’s not sheltered’ thing.
Yet all of that was almost completely overshadowed by Chief Yakou’s changes in behaviour.
In the strangely wise words of Shinigami, “If you opened the dictionary to ‘Helicopter Parent’ there’d be a tiny picture of Fuzzhead right beside it.” and Yuma couldn’t help but agree. Despite his near total recovery (the only exception being the lingering discolouration of the worst bruises), Yakou would not budge on insisting that Yuma continued to take it easy. It was, unfortunately, difficult to take it easy considering there were only so many interesting books on the bookshelf… and the fact that everyone else was working so hard… and Shinigami’s constant nagging… and- ok, ok the point has been made. It was more then obvious that Yuma simply wasn’t suited for being cooped up all day every day - especially when Kanai Ward’s ultimate secret was waiting just outside the door; waiting to be solved. But… At the same time, it seemed kinder to respect the chief’s wishes… especially after all the trouble the rookie had caused so far.
“Oh yeah, nah, I totally get it.” Desuhiko nodded along, laying across the purple chequered sofa lazily as Yuma vented and paced about the submarine, “Chief’s gone wack.”
Yakou had left on a supply run - insisting on Yuma not coming along - and had instructed Desuhiko to keep an eye on him instead. A horrible choice really, considering the fact that Desuhiko was probably the worst influence the WDO had to offer so it was lucky Yakou caught him on a day he was feeling particularly lazy.
“I get that he’s worried and I’ve caused a bunch of issues and all but I’m going to go totally crazy if I have to sit around here for another whole day!” Yuma exclaimed.
Desuhiko hummed a little, re-adjusting into a more normal sitting position while he thought things over. The answer was more then obvious, really. Just leave! Just go out while the chief’s not around and do some investigating! Simple, right?
But that would be undermining what little authority Yakou already had… Not to mention breaking all that trust both Yuma and Desuhiko were trying to build with him… Sprinkle on top the levels of paranoid insane Yakou was reaching and that’s a complicated conundrum for sure.
What would a cool, awesome, incredible, cool, super, rockstar, cool, amazing, cool person do in this situation? Being responsible is lame as fuck and totally not impressive… Certainly won’t turn any heads just playing it totally by the rules… But isn’t it just as lame to let someone you sort of care about freak out?
Yuma let out an exasperated sigh, sitting down without much care or awareness for what he was doing anymore. Desuhiko meanwhile, was still deep in thought about the correct course of action. Things certainly weren’t easy when it came to Kanai Ward… the right answer was almost never the obvious one…
It was Yuma’s turn to lay down now; kicking his legs up on the sofa and leaning back against the arm rest - trying his hardest to ignore Shinigami’s whining. She’d run out of unique complaints days ago; now stuck in a loop of “I’m BOOOORED” and “Let’s just goooo!” Until something else vaguely interesting happened so tuning her out was becoming almost too easy for the rookie.
What wasn’t easy to turn out though was the distinct sound of someone entering the submarine. The clunking sound of the hatch being opened, the rain outside becoming much louder as the person entering began to descend the narrow metallic steps, them pausing halfway to re-close the hatch and then finally, whoever it was entering the main room. After listening to everyone enter and exit so many times now, Yuma had quickly learnt to identify who it was based purely on the sounds of their steps and the way they paced themselves when interacting with the hatch.
“It’s Halara…” His attention was piqued as soon as he heard the first couple of footsteps on the staircase, “Wonder what they’re doing back so soon…”
Halara entered a few seconds later, scanning the room starting at The Chief’s desk and slowly shifting to the seating area. Immediately, for some reason, their otherwise deadpan expression cringed up.
“Have you both considered that sharing a hotel room multiple nights a week now may be affecting your senses of personal space?” Disgust filled their tone as they folded their arms and raised a condescending eyebrow.
It was only then that both Yuma and Desuhiko realised Yuma was lying across Desuhiko’s lap - dangerously close to snuggling.
Shinigami burst out in hysterics as Desuhiko spat out a jumble of different syllables and screeches as he more-or-less shoved Yuma onto the floor out of sheer embarrassment. Yuma, meanwhile, simply froze up like a deer in headlights and let himself hit the ground face first (at least the floor hid how red his face suddenly became).
“Jeez Master, ya’ seriously didn’t notice?! Kya-hahah! You’d be married with a mortgage and 3 house cats before ya’ even noticed you’re being flirted with, huh?” Shinigami giggled, floating in circles around Yuma’s head as if she were that cartoon bird that circles concussed character’s heads.
“H-Halara- H-Hi- Sorry!” Yuma scrambled onto his feet and faced them, trying his best to be polite despite being completely unable to make eye contact with them just yet.
They half rolled their eyes and shook their head a little, a heavy sigh of general apathy emphasising just how annoyed they were. They waited a moment or two before speaking again - most likely waiting to see if someone else would speak first. Once they were sure the floor was once again theirs, they took a lollipop from out of their inner coat pocket and unwrapped it.
“Listen, Yuma. I have a meeting with a potential client in about an hour.” Halara walked over to the chief’s desk and lazily tossed the wrapper into the bin, “Would you be willing to accompany me for the sake of keeping notes on the interaction?”
That was… genuinely surprising.
Halara? Asking for help?! It was completely inconceivable! Halara never needed help! Hell, they probably wouldn’t even admit to needing help even if they were in some life threatening situation where help was absolutely necessary for their own survival!
Yuma, Desuhiko and even Shinigami were at a complete loss for words and it showed. Eyes wide, mouths slightly agape - Halara almost let a smile slip out at the sight of it. They knew what they were doing.
“What’s so strange about that? It’s normal for a trainee to shadow qualified professionals to further their learning and gain some experience.” They knew full well why it was strange but even the ever-serious, callus and brooding Halara Nightmare wasn’t beyond messing with people from time to time.
“I- well I-” It took Yuma a second to gather his thoughts, only to immediately be overwhelmed with excitement, “Yes! Alright! I’d love to help!”
Joy and enthusiasm exploded from him like a flash bang; smiling with genuine excitement for the first time in weeks. Finally doing some actual detective work?! Heck Yeah!!!
He immediately ran over to the coat rack, grabbing his signature cloak and hat - ignorant to the fact that he did so with such force that the rack almost fell over onto him. He’d got as far as putting his hat on before he turned his attention back to Desuhiko and Halara for just a moment.
And then he remembered why he wasn’t already outside investigating in the first place…
“Wait- but the Chief wouldn’t be happy about that… He really doesn’t want me getting in trouble again…” His smile faded, shoulders slumping back down as he couldn’t help but let the guilt of all the cases he’d solved so far weigh back down on him.
Setting aside all the lives of culprits Shinigami had reaped, every case left a lot of destruction in its wake; dead master detectives, no priest for the residents of Kanai Ward to turn to, the peacekeepers becoming more and more intense with every case Yuma interfered with… not to mention the resistance and the bombs… for goodness sake, even the flooding of Marunomon District could partially be blamed on him - even if it was to a small extent. Chances were Yakou wouldn’t be able to cope if Yuma got into yet another mess - whether it was related to Kanai Ward’s Ultimate Secret or otherwise.
“Don’t worry about that,” Halara replied, walking over to Yuma and adjusting his hat a little so it sat properly on his head, “I spoke to him on my way over here. He’s perfectly fine with it.”
“Really?!”
“Aww heck yeah! Nice goin’ Halara!” Desuhiko cheered, “You always know what ta’ say ta’ convince that borin’ ol’ boomer!”
“Yes, That’s correct.” Halara’s usual air of elegant confidence helped to sweep the gloomy energy from the room, “That’s because I’m always correct.”
“Tch- Narcissist.” Desuhiko’s spark of energy was cut short as he grumbled out the insult, “Whatever, I think I’ll stick around here today anyways. Yesterday took a lot outta me so I’m gunna rest up.” He reached into his hoodie pocket and pulled out his iconic electric guitar neck first. It seemed his backpack wasn’t the only thing he owned with seemingly impossible storage capacity.
“You weren’t invited anyways.” Halara replied dismissively, popping the lollipop into their mouth and heading back to the entrance.
“U-um- See you later!” Yuma smiled, waving goodbye to Desuhiko as a dusting of pink toned his cheeks for just a moment.
“Have fun!” Desuhiko shot him a double finger snap to finger gun combo, adding in a wink for good measure. Yuma noticed neither, however, as the rookie was already out the door.
“YOU TOO!” He called out, just before closing the hatch behind himself.