Work Text:
Beep Beep Beep Beep Bee—
Chuuya hits the snooze button, letting out a groan, “Why doesn’t the sun fall faster and rise slower?” He closes his eyes for a few more minutes, allowing time for him to properly wake up.
…
Beep Beep Beep B—
Until his alarm goes off again. He yells a “Shut up!” and turns off his alarm, throwing his clock. The ginger throws his blanket off of him, already getting a migraine from the previously incessant noise of the alarm clock. With the noise now off, he decides to take a look at the time and what day it was. 8:06(so early…) and Monday, April 29th, which means work… He groaned internally and didn’t think too much about the date, instead opting to start his morning routine for work.
It's been quite a few months since he joined the Armed Detective Agency, and so far he’s been most of the brawn and little of the brains to take down some of the ability users, or the stronger criminals, they’ve gone after, and doing most of the paperwork(Ugh…), meaning he’s been busy.
That combined with Yosano and Ranpo(Ugh again…), the sibling duo, keeping him company, it’s never been, for lack of a better word, boring. But it wasn't just those two, along with Fukuzawa sometimes, that he had interacted with in these months. He’d also met Katai, who is the most anti-social person he’s met in his life, and a recently recruited intern a little older than him, Haruno, who helps the president with scheduling his day, or doing errands, and she was recruited about a week or so ago.
Chuuya buttons up his shirt as he thinks about how Murase was doing. Since the older man had brought Chuuya to the agency, he had stopped to see him only a few times, either to check in on him or to help him with a case, or just to help him in general. Whenever the man spots him on the street, or getting groceries, he always asks if he needs a lift, or any help carrying anything. One time he had even offered to pay for the detective’s groceries, and sure, he might not be getting paid much, but he wasn’t on that tight of a budget.
The young adult walks to the bathroom, grabbing his brush. His hair had been getting longer recently, so he decided to bring it to the side, leaving it to lay there. He likes his hair like this with its length being as it is, but his short ponytail will always look the best on him, in his opinion.
“Another day of paperwork, yay…” Chuuya walks out of the bathroom, heading to put on his shoes. Once he finished tying them, he stands and grabs his keys. He checks the time once more, 8:57, and decides he could make some tea before heading to the office.
He fills his kettle with water and sets it on the heating stove. While waiting for the water to boil, Chuuya leaned on the counter next to the stove, texting with Yosano about what to expect when he gets to the agency. She texts him that it was nothing out of the ordinary, maybe a simple case or two with Ranpo, but only paperwork otherwise. The redhead sighs, reading the response, as he sees steam out of the corner of his eye.
Chuuya grabs a cup, with a lid, and pours the boiling water into it, allowing the steam to relax his face. He catches himself drifting off and recenters his focus to finishing his tea. Grabbing a tea bag, Chuuya puts it into the water, letting the leaves' flavor seep into the tasteless water.
He checks the time for the final time, 9:04, and decides it’s late enough to finally head into work. He grabs his keys, inserting them into the door, and locking it. Once he hears a click, the blue-eyed man pulls them out and shoves the key into his pocket, walking towards the stairs.
_____________________
Arriving at the agency, Chuuya hears the two sibling-like adults before he sees them, “Why should I do that when I have you and Chuuya?” The first voice he hears, he recognizes as Ranpo’s, “Oh, come on, you need to go out, even if it’s just to get candy” Jeez, she sounds fed up… He assumes the other voice was Yosano. Even after an hour of preparation, Chuuya was still not ready to open the door, but did so, reluctantly.
“Good morning,”
The doctor whips her head towards him, smiling, “Oh, Good morning, Chuuya, how’re you?” He smiles back, “Okay, I just wish I didn’t have to wake up so early.” Ranpo nods, agreeing with the short man. Yosano looks at the two of them, shaking her head in disappointment, “One of the only things you two will agree on outside of cases, and it's how early you get up.”
The duo ignores her, opting to go over a case instead.
The two bicker and argue over the culprit for a while before coming to an agreement, explaining why they chose the suspect they did. Ranpo ends up with a better argument and Chuuya hands the case over to Haruno after they finish it, “Haruno, take this to the president, tell him the culprit is his brother.” She grabs the file from him, “Got it! Also, the president has another case for you and Ranpo. It’s a big one, and you’ll probably need to go to the scene of it.” She tosses a different file to the desk Ranpo and Chuuya were at.
The former turns his head away, “No, it’s a boring one,” What the detective says actually means: I don’t wanna go, solve it yourself. Meaning the ginger will have to go to the scene, alone. Ugh.
“Fine, I’ll go do it by myself, but you owe me,” He grabs the file, looking through it.
…………
Name: Shiori Miyake
Sex: Male
Age: 43
Birth date: [XXXX] / 4 / 18
Height: 170 cm
Weight: 54 kg
Previous Crimes: 1 count of assault, 2 counts of attempted sexual assault
Place Of Death: In an alley near [XXXXXXXXXXXXXX], Naka Ward, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan
Time Of Death: [XXXX] / 4 / 28, 6:00pm – 7:00pm JST
Suspect(s) / Person(s) Of Interest: Sana Miyake, Ritsu Miyake, Nagi Shinoda
Notes: Miyake was going somewhere where he had not told anyone when he went into an alley around 5:43pm JST. He was previously at a bar before he went into the alley. No one had been around during that time to have witnessed the murder take place, but the bartender had stated that Miyake hadn’t paid his tab and said he would be back soon. The bartender that was mentioned earlier was the person who discovered the body.
No other notes of importance.
…………
“Well, that’s vague.” Chuuya mutters, closing the file and standing, “I’ll probably be out of the office for the rest of the day, good luck without me.” Yosano waves, filing out paperwork. Ranpo shouts “Good luck!” while munching on some chips.
The door closes with a click, and soon there was much more noise in the office now that Chuuya was gone. Yosano runs to the closet, flinging the door open and grabbing ribbons. Ranpo sits as he was before the ginger left.
“Come on, Ranpo, we have to get everything ready before he gets back!”
“Fine,” He stands and walks over to the closet, grabbing a banner, zip ties and balloons, and setting the balloons on his desk while he sets up the banner.
A few minutes later the door opens and the workers in the cafe walk in.
_____________________
Chuuya was on his way back to the agency after he finished the case. It had been a long one, as Haruno said. The culprit had turned out to be a random ability user the man had attempted to sexually assault.
Apparently the woman, Jane Austen, hadn’t even known she had an ability, And said ability was named pride and prejudice, and allowed her victims to inflict the same injuries she has or had.
She had claimed it was an act of self-defence, and since she was richer as well as a tourist, and was let off easy. Well, as easy as it could get for committing manslaughter.
“I’m almost done with the day, then I can go home and relax…” The redhead muttered to himself as he walked into the cafe, almost waving out of habit until realizing that no one was there.
Weird.
He brushes it off as he climbs the stairs, with his legs wobbling every few steps. I’m so tired, but I have to fill out a report for this since I went to the scene. Chuuya stumbles onto the platform at the top of the stairs, standing there for a minute to prepare himself for the annoying yet endearing noise that was the agency members. Once he recollects himself, he opens the door, only to be greeted by an explosion of confetti, and a plethora of overlapping voices, some of which he recognizes to be the cafe workers.
“Surprise!"
“Happy birt–”
Yosano was cut off when Chuuya tried to throw a punch at her. Thankfully, the doctor ducked in time so the punch didn’t land, “Geez, you didn’t have to try to punch me!” The 17 year old retracts his fist, “Then stop releasing those damn party poppers in my face!” He can’t count how many times she’s done that since he passed his exam.
“Chuuya’s right, Doc,” Ranpo grabs the confetti off the floor and tosses it up again, “One of these days it might blow off his face.” Ranpo waves his fingers near his face, imitating an explosion. Chuuya gives him a flat look and glares, knowing that won’t actually happen, “You’re joking… I know you are,” Ranpo giggles, “Bazinga.” Chuuya looks around the room, taking in the dog-themed decorations.
There was a giant banner with a Golden Retriever puppy saying ‘Happy Birthday!’ in big bubble letters. To the left of the banner was a small table with different drink dishes, ranging from soda to water to juice.
To the right of that was a table filled to the brim with cookies, chips, and a cake. The cake itself was green and white, with a dog and a boy on top, and the two had 17 candles surrounding them. It’s The Boy and The Puppy! Chuuya’s eyes softened, and he gravitated toward the cake, eager to get a slice of the musical themed cake.
“Wait! Before you get to the cake, you have to open presents!” Haruno lifts a small wrapped present in front of him, effectively blocking his line of sight to the cake.
Wait… How did they even know it was my birthday!? Chuuya pauses for a moment and then proceeds to whip his head towards Ranpo, “You did this, didn’t you?” He points a finger at the ravenette.
The man in question holds his hands up, “No, I didn’t say anything, like I promised, it was the president that brought it up and let us plan.” The president steps up with a drink in his hands and a party hat hastily attached to his head, “It was my idea. Ranpo kept his promise and his mouth shut, but I thought we could do this since it is your birthday, and you only get to be 17 once.”
Chuuya looks at the man with a slight cringe on his face, he is such a parent, and then changes his look to that of something similar to adoration, smiling the whole time. The ginger bows thankfully and grabs Haruno’s present, preparing to open it, seemingly in a gentle manner. And instead, proceeding to open it like an animal.
“The last birthday present I got was a gag gift, so I hope this one is better.”
_____________________
It was around 9 o’clock when the party was starting to shut down, but Chuuya wasn’t even in the office. Ranpo walks up the stairs to the roof, and opens the door when he gets there.
“You know the first birthday I celebrated I had a moldy cupcake and a match as a cake,”
Chuuya was leaning against the railing looking onto the rest of Yokohama, “I was turning 15 and it was one of the three I’ve celebrated, including this one.”
Ranpo leans next to him, taking in the sight of Yokohama's moonlight, “I wouldn't be satisfied with just a moldy cupcake, but I have a feeling you were pretty happy…” Chuuya laughs, “Yeah, I think it was the happiest moment when I was still on the streets.”
The two sat in silence for the next few minutes, with the only noises being heard was the wind and the fizzing of a soda in Ranpo’s hand. Eventually the two sat down and looked at the few stars in the sky.
In the distance, Chuuya heard Yosano yelling for them to help clean, causing him to let out a sigh. Ranpo must have also heard her, because he let out a giggle.
Chuuya went to look over at him but was hit in the face with a bag of chips, most likely from the pile of snacks next to the older man. Instead of questioning it, Chuuya opens the bag and snacks on them, keeping the peaceful silence between them.
“Was ours the best one?”
“The best one yet.”