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The small box Kusabi pulled from his jacket was considerably more crumpled than it had been just a few hours ago when Sumio handed it over after his trip to the corner store. It wasn’t their first stakeout together, but it was the first one that had run this long.
Sumio sighed as he picked up his binoculars again to peer out through the gap in the blinds of their tiny rented apartment across the street from the target. Averting his eyes so he didn’t look too closely at the way the cigarette hung between his partners lips as he struggled to get a light from that busted old lighter he insisted still had juice in it every time Sumio told him to just buy a new one.
The building across the way was, huge shocker, completely still. Not even a passing pedestrian with an interesting dog for Sumio to look at for some sort of stimulation. His head ached, but this was what he signed up for when he entered the academy. If he started complaining about how useless this was he’d never hear the end of it from that jackass Morikawa, or anyone else for that matter.
The sudden hand on his shoulder jerked him out of his thoughts. Sumio quickly lowered the lenses and turned to the side, catching the end of a sentence on Kusabi’s lips. It was always harder to lipread when he had a cigarette in his mouth.
“Sorry, what was that?”
Kusabi pulled the cigarette from his lips, holding it in his hand as he squinted at Sumio. “I was asking if you had a light.”
Sumio glanced at Kusabi’s hand, seeing now that the end wasn’t lit.
“So you finally admit that lighter is done for?” He reached into his pockets and started rooting around.
“It’s temperamental. I just don’t feel like waiting around until it decides it wants to catch right now.”
Sumio pulled a lighter from his pocket, one he had been carrying around for weeks now in anticipation of this moment. Kusabi was a bastard no matter what but he was even more of a bastard when he was craving a cigarette.
“Yeah, sure,” Sumio replied as Kusabi snatched the thing from his hand and backed off to his side of the room.
Sumio watched him flick the wheel and light up, taking a deep inhale before blowing smoke off and to the side.
“You can keep it.” he said as Kusabi tried to offer the lighter back, holding out a hand to stop him.
The cigarette was back in Kusabi’s mouth now, but Sumio could pretty much guess what he was saying.
“Just keep it, Tetsu.” He turned back around to the window, cutting off the conversation.
He picked up his binoculars again, sparing a glance to the side to see Kusabi sat back on the dusty sofa, smoking in silence. Good, now he could focus on the endless tedium of surveilling a dead lead without worrying about any interruptions.
That was the worst part of it all. Sumio knew the lead was dead, Kusabi knew the lead was dead. Hell, Kotobuki knew the lead was dead and he still let Nakategawa send them out on this dumbass stakeout that everyone knew would turn up nothing. He could still remember the smug looks on Hachisuka and Morikawa’s faces when the assignments got handed out. Naka had said something about needing to ‘cover all bases’ but really Sumio knew this was some kind of punishment. Let Unit 1 take the good lead and make Unit 2 take the boring, waste of time just because Kusabi said something a little mean and Sumio had the gall to laugh a little.
It was bullshit. Pure bullshit.
Sumio ran his hand through his hair and growled a little in irritation, feeling the vibration in his throat. He couldn’t get hung up on this now. The lead was shit and the evidence that pointed towards it was even worse but nothing would be a bigger fuck you to that miserable bastard than if they actually managed to discover something useful. He had to get a hold of himself and focus on staring into this bland building until he could at least go back to the office without being empty handed.
Movement at his side, Sumio turned his head to see Kusabi standing there peeking out between the slats. His eyes locked again on the now half smoked cigarette hanging from his partner's lips. Kusabi wasn’t speaking.
“Give me one of those.” Sumio said suddenly.
Kusabi turned and looked down at him, pulling the cig from his mouth again. “You don’t smoke.”
“Yeah whatever. I bought you that pack, don’t be so stingy.”
“Whatever.” Kusabi reached into his pocket and retrieved the box, shaking one out and offering it to Sumio.
He placed it in his mouth without much fanfare, holding out his hand. “I need a light, and don’t hand me that piece of garbage you have unless you never want to see it again.”
“Stakeout that bad, huh rookie?” Kusabi made no effort to reach into that pocket Sumio knew he always put his lighter in, or any other pocket for that matter.
“You know why I’m pissed off, Tetsu. Just give me the damn lighter.”
“No need to be so combative. What, you pent up too or something?”
Sumio shot him a look and Kusabi chuckled in response. He knew he was being too easy, but he was too pissed off and stressed out to bother putting up with that particular game for very long.
Feeling a little forgiving, Kusabi finally made a move, ducking down and leaning in a little. He put his half-smoked cig back between his lips as he pressed the smoldering end to the one Sumio still held in his own mouth. The sparks jumped across and ignited the tobacco as Kusabi inhaled to flare up the embers, pulling back once the job was done and exhaling his own smoke.
“Since you’re so worried about lighter fluid.” He explained with a shrug, words Sumio almost missed as he struggled to process the swift movement that had just occurred.
“You were just worried I’d take my functional lighter back.” He replied harshly, watching as Kusabi sauntered back over to the sofa.
Sumio glanced away and took his first inhale of the smoke. It burned his lungs as he expected, but it also burned in his throat on the way down. The taste was awful but familiar enough from how much time he had been spending around Kusabi. He closed his eyes for a moment as he exhaled, feeling a little more relaxed despite himself. He opened them again to peer at Kusabi across the room, just in case.
“If you want another one you’ll have to go buy your own.”
Sumio didn’t even bother arguing with him over that one. Content to shoot a piercing glare at his partner and fully turn back to the job with the cigarette sticking from his lips. He would be lying if he said he didn’t notice where Kusabi’s eyes had fallen when he faced towards the man. But, any comment on that sort of thing would have been more than hypocritical on his part. He inhaled again as he picked up the binoculars, glancing down at the street below.
A woman walked past, alongside a little dog wearing a little raincoat.