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7th November, 6:23 p.m.
It wasn’t really a special day. The sky was as grey as ever, the smell of wine filled the prosecutor’s office, the bats were sleeping undisturbed and oh, the Professor case had been solved barely three days before.
“If all you’re planning on doing today is brood, prosecutor Asogi, I highly encourage you to do so far away from my office.”
That meant that Kazuma now had to actually put up with van Zieks again, and this time being able to speak and with full knowledge of their entire history. And possibly in an amicable way.
“Me? Brood? I wouldn’t dream to steal your specialty, Lord van Zieks.”
The main issue was that neither of them was a particularly friendly individual.
Barok van Zieks put down the document he’d just finished penning – which was infuriating on its own, because really, who still did that in the year of the lord 2025 – and slightly turned his head in his direction. He looked at him dead in the eyes.
“You’ve been standing behind me for approximately seven minutes, staring outside the window and sighing rather pathetically at every aircraft that flies by.”
Kazuma didn’t know why he even bothered picking fights with other lawyers at that point. He tried to come up with some kind of witty remark, because he was definitely not pathetic, how very dare you, but unfortunately there was more than enough evidence to prove the opposite.
He sighed again.
“Ryunosuke’s layover was two hours ago. And he didn’t even answer my texts.”
“I don’t believe I ever asked,” Van Zieks grimaced. It was clear from his incredibly uncomfortable face that he didn’t want anything to do with this. Unfortunately for him, he was also the single person Kazuma was acquainted with in the entire country and, technically, he owed him at least three months’ worth of talking.
“He left me on read,” Kazuma continued, not caring. He wondered whether van Zieks even knew what that meant; the man had to have read his mind, because he glared at him even more. He huffed. “He never leaves me on read!”
“…”
The other man poured himself his fifth glass of wine of the hour. Kazuma was about to say something about his potential future liver failure, but van Zieks downed it all before he could even form a sentence.
“Have you perhaps, by any chance, considered that Mr Naruhodo might very well be occupied at the moment?”
“It’s been two hours,” Kazuma repeated emphatically, and then a terrible revelation dawned upon him. “God, you’re right. Maybe I am pathetic.”
“Glad we agree,” van Zieks concluded. “Now, will you please start doing your job or must I hire a new apprentice?”
It was the start of a new era for them. An incredibly annoying one.
(His sister texted him half an hour later. For some reason she didn’t bother divulging, she had tossed Ryunosuke while he was checking his messages and his phone ended up breaking. Which made for an absolutely hilarious mental image, until Kazuma realised how dramatic he’d been acting and how his partner was probably freaking out about the accident.
So, obviously, Kazuma started moping again as van Zieks cursed the day he took him under his wing.)
-
27th July, 2:23 p.m.
“I think he’s punishing me.”
“I think yer an idiot, Kaz.”
It had been a slow affair, but Gina and him grew closer as the months went by. No apologies were given and she never hid the fact that she would’ve much rather dealt with Ryunosuke than with him, but they were on good enough terms. Sometimes they would even hang out together along with Dr Gorey. It was a weird group to say the least, but it worked. Kind of.
“I agree with her,” Maria intervened. “If Mr Naruhodo was truly punishing you, you would be on my operating table already.”
They were at Gregson’s favourite fish and chips spot, technically celebrating yet another criminal put behind bars thanks to their group effort. Kazuma had noticed Gina eating there alone ever since that case; he joined her once, not saying a word, just a nod of courtesy. After a week of routine, Gina berated him for showing his face there, but didn’t send him away; another week of silence, and they eventually started talking.
“Wot are ya on about, Maria? ’Oddo ain’t gonna kill Kaz,” Gina shook her head, used to the coroner’s antics by now. “Probably,” she added, munching on a chip.
Maria tilted her head. “He should,” she stated, blinking. “He has a sword. Quite a sharp one at that, even without its tip. It might not be ideal, but it should still slice you up nicely.”
Gina snorted. Some friends he had.
“While I do appreciate fawning over Karuma,” he said, perhaps too proudly for the conversation at hand, “I’d rather not be ‘sliced up’, thank you very much.”
Maria went back to stabbing the fish with a stick as Gina booed him off. “Boring.”
“Yeah, tell ‘im, Maria!”
Inspector Lestrade tried to high five the other girl, but she was met with a confused gaze. Maria bumped her hand with her stabbed fish, and Kazuma suddenly understood how van Zieks must’ve felt every time he had to deal with his melodrama.
“Anyway,” Kazuma spoke again, glaring in the girls’ direction. “Why am I an idiot, Gina? …And not your full list of reasons, just the ones relevant to this case,” he quickly added as Gina deflated.
“Well, for one, cos yer ‘ere askin’ me instead of ‘im,” she started, still munching on her food with oh so much grace and poise. “And most of all, ‘Oddo ain’t the punishin’ type. Y’know?”
Kazuma did very much know, sure. “Why else would he show me his wedding outfit right out of the blue then?!” he lamented, before unlocking his phone for the thirtieth time to peek at the pictures that Ryunosuke had sent him during the trial. What do you think?, he’d texted. With a whole ass heart emoji to boot.
Gina rolled her eyes in a ‘we’ve been over this already’ way. “Cos yer ‘is best friend-”
“Partner,” Maria interrupted without batting a single eyelash. Kazuma couldn’t tell whether she was mocking him or just parroting the way he always corrected her. Either way, he hated it right now.
“Yeah, that. Course ‘e wants yer opinion, duh!”
Well, what opinion could he even give? ‘You look handsome’? ‘Wish that were me’?
Kazuma peeked at the picture for the thirty-first time and groaned at his stupidly whipped self.
“I didn’t even know he was engaged,” he sulked. “Why didn’t I know that?”
With a shrug, Gina grabbed one of his chips. “Dunno. I did. Maybe yer just an awful friend.”
“Y-You knew?! Then who is he…” he tried asking, but Gina immediately put a hand over his mouth.
“Nuh-uh, Soggy boy!” she exclaimed, exchanging a look with Maria. What else did they know that he didn’t?!
“Ask him yourself, Asogi.”
Kazuma decided that day that he really, really hated his friends.
-
27th July, 3:54 p.m.
Kazuma did not hide in the court parking lot to videochat with Ryunosuke. He did not run from van Zieks’ questioning nor did he lock himself in his car just to Skype with his friend. He simply had an important meeting to attend to that required no further people involved. Yeah.
It took only a few seconds for Ryunosuke to pick up. “Kazuma! This is so sudden. It’s been a while since we last had one of these!”
It had, true enough. Kazuma felt himself smile at the sole sight of his partner’s face on his phone. “Hey.”
“Oh!” Ryunosuke exclaimed, remembering something. “How did your trial go?”
Ah yes, the trial. The trial he was supposed to file paperwork for in that very moment, the one he left all evidence of on van Zieks’ desk for him to put away. That trial.
Kazuma had already forgotten the names of the witnesses. “A swift conviction,” he replied.
“Congratulations! You really are blooming as a prosecutor, aren’t you.”
Damn Ryunosuke and his beautiful smile and beautiful soul. Maybe that’s why he was marrying someone else. Kazuma could never be worthy of all that.
“I saw the picture you sent me,” he said instead.
Ryunosuke mouthed an ‘oh’ and looked at him expectantly.
“You’re handsome, Ryunosuke,” Kazuma breathed, and boy did he mean it with every cell in his body. “The montsuki really suits you.”
Ryunosuke visibly blushed. “I-I’m so glad you like it! I wasn’t sure what to go with at first, actually,” he admitted. “I thought, well, Professor Mikotoba would probably know best, and that’s what he suggested.”
Kazuma hummed. It made sense to ask Professor Mikotoba, although he wondered why Ryunosuke hadn’t just asked his own parents. Maybe he was more stylish?
“You’re perfect,” he repeated; then he took a deep breath, resolute. “Listen, I have to tell you something. But please, let me finish before saying anything.”
Ryunosuke blinked. “Um, sure. What is it?”
“I know it’s presumptuous of me to say this, but… I thought we had something,” he started. “I know I’ve made mistakes – many of them, in fact, and I’d understand if you didn’t consider me your partner anymore.”
Kazuma felt his heart skipping a beat, because there wouldn’t be anything that could hurt him more than that, but he’d understand – he’d done enough to warrant that, really. “I just wish you could feel comfortable enough with me to tell me you’re getting married at all.”
Ryunosuke looked immensely confused.
“What I mean to say is – can I still work on it? Could you give me more time to be better and be worthy of being your best friend again?”
Well, at least it was one huge weight off his shoulders. Whatever Ryunosuke would say, at least he’d have his answer.
“Kazuma, what the hell are you talking about?”
That was not an answer.
“What are you talking about?”
They stared at each other for long enough that Kazuma thought that the court wi-fi had decided to die on him at the worst time ever. He was about to drop the videochat and call again when he heard Ryunosuke take the deepest breath conceivable to mankind.
“I didn’t think I’d have to tell you about it,” he stated. “Because you are the one that proposed to me.”
What? “What?”
“When I left London?” Ryunosuke prompted, looking more and more exasperated by the second. “When we did that thing with the swords?”
“…Promising to duel the next time we’d see each other?”
“Isn’t that Kazuma-speak for marriage?”
“No???” …Maybe?
“You called me partner again.”
“Yeah, just like I always did before!”
Ryunosuke closed his eyes and took another very, very, very deep breath. “You entrusted me with your soul.”
“I did, but-”
“Do you entrust people with your soul platonically, Kazuma?!”
Well, no.
“I literally said I’d keep it always by my side?”
Kazuma wasn’t sure about the whole proposal thing, but yeah, that was pretty non-platonic of him. He did mean for it to sound that way after all.
They stared at each other once more until the silence was broken by a call from van Zieks (which was, of course, promptly ignored).
…Actually. That gave Kazuma an idea.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have-”
He hung up the videochat, texted a quick “brb” to Ryunosuke – which was followed by several texts consisting only of interrogation points and a singular “kazuma what the fuck” – and left his car.
-
27th July, 4:20 p.m.
“I’m not doing this, Asogi.”
Barok van Zieks glanced at him and then at the phone he’d thrusted in his hands. There was absolutely no way he was going to be roped into his shenanigans again.
“Remember when three weeks ago you called me Genshin?”
Goddamn Asogi and that godforsaken blackmailing stupid tongue of his. Barok sighed and opened the Skype app; Naruhodo answered immediately and promptly jumped at seeing his face.
“L-Lord van Zieks? Why are you…”
“No. Shut up.” He changed the camera to the external one and started recording his apprentice.
“Naruhodo Ryunosuke!” he called, reaching for something in his back pocket. It was Genshin Asogi’s ring. A touching move, perhaps; definitely symbolic, since it was more than likely not in Naruhodo’s taste. However…
“That’s still evidence, prosecutor. You can’t-”
Asogi shot him a murderous look.
“As I was saying…” he continued, trying to look slightly less murderous at least for the poor soul that was about to have a mental breakdown on screen. Asogi dropped on one knee. “Will you marry me, for real?”
Barok’s senses were assaulted by a series of screeches and he decided that he had absolutely had enough. As Naruhodo started saying yes, he shoved the phone back into Asogi’s hands and sighed.
The office was going to become even more obnoxious from that moment onwards.
-
“Wait. Did you know too, van Zieks?!”
“…Pray forgive me for partaking in fooling you alongside Inspector Lestrade, prosecutor Asogi. It was simply too entertaining to pass on and an exemplary punishment for your wallowing on the job.”
“…I loathe you.”
“My deepest condolences to your betrothed for his poor taste in men.”