Work Text:
“What?” Fura exclaimed. Sitting on top of a table in one of the empty classrooms, he was staring at his friend wide-eyed. From the look on his face, he was clearly considering the blue-haired teen’s level of sanity.
“We’re going to infiltrate the night club.”
Arima watched his friend huff and scratch his head. They had been discussing their latest target: A female ghoul in her early twenties who frequently visited a certain night club not so far away. It was a good point to start investigating the case but somehow his orange haired partner seemed very frustrated about his plan.
“Yes, I know, we talked about that before. I meant the part about us dressing as girls.” Fura waved his hands around as if what he was saying was something so obvious.
Arima furrowed his brows. He really couldn’t see what all the fuss was about. “Men can’t get in there.”
“That’s because it’s a lesbian bar, Arima.” Fura said incredulously. “You think we can just throw some wigs on and sneak in?”
“I can’t see why not.” Arima was confused again. Fura could be so puzzling sometimes. This was the only way of getting in and picking up some clues on the woman’s true nature. If they got in, it would save them from the trouble of following her around at the risk of getting caught. It would save a lot of time as well. They had a good lead. He couldn’t understand why they shouldn’t pursue it.
Fura made a face. “Well, I’m not doing it.” He crossed his arms, looking stubborn. “Take Minami along.”
“It may be dangerous. We can’t risk taking Minami with us.”
“What? You said we were just going to infiltrate it!”
“Taishi.” Arima frowned. He didn’t want to discuss this with him. He didn’t… want Minami to go along. They were still pursuing Lantern and he had his suspicions about her. If they turned out to be true… He didn’t want her to tag along everywhere they went. It was as difficult for him as it was.
Fura huffed and scratched his head again. He appeared to be in a dilemma. It fascinated Arima sometimes, how different their approaches could be. There was something that was holding his friend back, keeping him from making the decisions that needed to be made. He saw problems in things Arima perceived as normal. Ghoul hunting was different when his friend was with him. It simply didn’t feel the way it did before.
“Fine.” Fura rubbed his eyes. When he looked up, surrender was evident on his face. “I’ll do it. Where are we going to find stuff to wear?”
“I’ve got that covered.”
“What?” Fura exclaimed for the third time that day. “You already went shopping?”
Arima shrugged. He had been certain that Taishi, even if he initially refused, would come around eventually. He had purchased some clothes and make-up for the two of them along with a few books that would assist them in building up their disguise.
“Okay, whatever.” Fura sighed. “Let’s do this.”
---
“You look so pretty, Fura-kun.” Minami giggled as she helped in putting some lip gloss on him. Fura had tried to do it himself and failed miserably.
“How do girls do this?” He grumbled, observing his reflection in the mirror. His lips were painted with light pink lip gloss. Sparkles were evident on his lips when light reflected on them. Frankly, Minami had done a better job that he had. At least, his mouth didn’t look like someone splashed a bucket of red paint on it anymore.
“This shade looks better on you.”
“Thanks, Minami.”
Minami opened her mouth as if wanting to say something but froze, instead, staring over his shoulder towards something he could not see. Her jaw hanged open.
“Minami?” He turned around to see whatever had gotten her gaping like that but the second he did, he found himself in a similar position. His jaw hanging wide open, he stared at the door.
At the entrance, Arima was standing, dressed in a short skirt, stockings and a shirt paired with a form-fitting jacket. Both the skirt and the jacket helped accentuate the normally obscure, natural curves of his slender figure. Arima was small compared to him but he really hadn’t thought his friend could assume such a feminine appearance so easily. Arima looked like a cute high school girl while Fura was sure he himself had a rather horse-ish appearance. The disguise looked so alien on him and he couldn’t get comfortable. Especially now that he had seen that Arima was perfectly capable of pulling the look off.
“Arima-kun! You look great!” Minami exclaimed and smiled.
“Have you done this before?” Fura inquired and narrowed his eyes, suspicion evident in his eyes. Unlike himself, Arima hadn’t required any help from Minami or anyone else. Still, his make-up was almost perfect. Did Arima secretly have crossdressing as a hobby?
“No.” Arima shrugged. “I read it in a book.”
“Hmph.” Fura snorted and crossed his arms. “I think the red lipstick is a bit much.”
“You think so?” Arima observed his reflection in the mirror. He was wearing a blue wig close to his natural shade. It was straight, slightly choppy at the ends with long layers. He was wearing black mascara on his eyelashes and his eyebrows were slightly filled in, giving them a well-kept appearance. Only his glasses were the same.
Frankly, Fura could have mistaken him for someone else if Arima hadn’t been wearing his usual stoic expression.
“But Fura-kun, it’s a night club! Everyone wants to draw attention to themselves. Now that I think… We could have gone for something a bit more exciting…”
Fura waved his hands in protest. “I think you’ve gone for exciting enough already.” Minami had insisted on blue eyeliner, claiming that it would compliment the orange of his wig. She had also tried a red lipstick close to Arima’s but it had looked so ridiculous on his thin lips he had nearly screamed when he had laid his eyes on his reflection. Consequently, she had settled for a light pink instead.
“If you are ready, let’s go. It’s time we leave.”
“Yeah, right.” Fura got up to his feet. He was thankful that he had at least managed to avoid the high heels. He knew he would look absolutely ridiculous in them. His feet were too big to look decent in a pair of heels anyway- if they were to find shoes his size in the first place that is. “Thanks, Minami.”
“No problem.” She smiled.
They got out of his apartment and said goodbye to Minami. This had been the easy part.
The tough part was just starting.
---
“So…” Fura cleared his throat. “Do you do this often?”
“No. This is the first time.”
“Okay…” Fura mumbled sounding a bit frustrated. Taishi was often annoyed by his brief answers. He knew that his friend was just trying to make small talk. He had complained that Arima was blocking their conversation with his short answers. It was one of their many differences. Silence seemed to bother Taishi while it was perfectly fine for Arima. Silence was peaceful. It was good for thinking and concentrating on important stuff. He didn’t get why his friend wanted to talk about trivial stuff instead of the mission so badly.
“Are you comfortable in that outfit?” Fura tried again. He was eyeing the street worriedly. Arima decided that Fura was just trying to ease his nervousness with chit chat. For his partner’s sake, he could play along.
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Are you going to be able to fight in it if it comes to that?”
“It doesn’t restrict my mobility. I have enough fighting expertise to overcome the limitations of a skirt. Besides, it’s more comfortable than it looks. I picked it carefully.” He shrugged.
“Umm, okay. That’s good.” Fura mumbled. “It suits you.”
They both froze at his statement. Arima turned to look at his friend who was blushing.
“Erm, I mean…”
“Here.”
“Huh?”
“The club. We’ve arrived.” Arima stopped walking and pointed at a neon sign hanging above the entrance of a building. It was a little worn out and dirtied, no longer glowing as bright as one would expect it to. The door beneath it was also a slightly rusty and had an appearance indicating it had been there for quite some time. Nevertheless, the club had a guard standing at the door.
They walked up to the guard who eyed them suspiciously. Fura hesitated.
“Uh…”
Arima, on the other hand, moved straight for the door, ignoring the guard completely. The bald man, extended his muscly arm and blocked his way. Wordlessly, he stared at Arima who quietly raised his head to stare back. Tense moments passed as Fura watched. Clearly having decided that he couldn’t take it anymore, he finally spoke up.
“M-may we-” He stopped abruptly, most likely having realized that his voice could give them away. The man raised an eyebrow at him and eyed him up and down. Arima interfered instead.
“Is there a problem?” He said and raised an eyebrow back. He smirked, corner of his mouth lifting slightly at the man. A teasing half-smile… Fura was staring at him with his jaw hanging open. Arima spoke in a low, sultry voice that had his friend gaping at him wide-eyed. He defiantly stared at the man who didn’t even budge. The guard had to be at least 2 meters tall, his suit looking tight around his heavily muscled body. Arima could easily take him out if he wanted to but he didn’t want to risk getting caught. Marude wouldn’t appreciate him hurting a civilian even if it was for a mission. He had strictly warned him about minding the safety of civilians. They had to be his first priority even if it was a difficult thing to get accustomed to… He would get into to serious trouble if he ignored the rules. Also, he didn’t like being constantly reprimanded by Marude. He was doing that too often already.
After a few more moments of silent tension, the man retracted his arm and allowed them passage. Despite the nervous glances from his friend, Arima wasted no time to walk up to the door and get in. The heavy door opened easily against his unusually strong arms and he slid in without issue. He heard Fura squeal and follow quickly behind him, making it inside before the door closed and left him alone with the imposing man.
“A-Arima… How did you…?”His friend eyed him nervously and scratched his orange wig. He seemed surprised again. Arima thought how weird his friend could be sometimes. There was nothing to be so shocked about. He was undercover for a mission. He had prepared well for it. It was a part of becoming a good investigator. Sure, Fura wasn’t used to this kind of stuff but still… They had known each other for quite some time now and one would think that he would have gotten accustomed to it by now.
“He didn’t really have a solid reason to suspect us. He was just being careful as it is expected of a man in his position. He had a little doubt so he tested us.” He shrugged. “You could have given us away with your nervousness. You need to learn to stay cool-headed.”
“Wha- Nevermind.” Fura shook his head, annoyed. “I mean how did you do your voice like that? Seriously Arima, your quirkiness knows no boundries.” He rolled his eyes.
“I had practiced beforehand. I can’t leave anything up to luck.” Being careful was especially important when Taishi was with him. He couldn’t risk getting him injured. Having Fura alongside him during missions had made everything different. When he was alone, Marude always scolded him for being reckless, for risking too much. He had said he could die someday…
He couldn’t risk his friend like that.
He turned his face towards the crowd dancing. It was like another world in here. Once he was out of the Garden, he had been astonished by the bright city lights, busy streets, people laughing and running around… Everything was so colorful and lively. It had made his head spin. The outer world was even bigger than he had imagined. The excitement that ran through his veins and made his bones tremble when he had first laid his eyes upon Tokyo… The shops, the traffic, the nightlife… Everything was so alive. He had barely been able to contain himself and somehow managed not to run among the busy crowds, touch the stony ground, run his fingers on the cool surface of the cars and press his palms against the clear glass windows of the brightly lit stores. He had wanted to feel everything.
Being outside was so new yet so good, he could have had a sensory overload from all the new feelings storming inside of him after many dull years of under-stimulation.
Now, inside the nightclub, he could feel those feelings taking over him again. It was so different than anything he had ever seen. It was so vivid. The photos he had seen and the information he had read could never prepare him for such a scene. The music was banging loudly and colorful lights were spinning and reflecting around. He felt dizzy at the sight of so many people dancing and jumping around together. Their bodies moved against each other, their skin touching only slightly before separating again. The crowd moved in different motions but in the same rhythm.
“Arima.” Fura shook his shoulder, trying to get his attention. His voice was muffled by the loud music. He was shouting. “We have a job to do.”
Arima stared at him for a moment before snapping out of his daze. “Oh, yes, right.” He mumbled and looked around. Their target had to be around somewhere.
He turned back. “Ta- Where are you?”
Fura had vanished.
Now closer to the center of the dance floor, the crowd around him was constantly moving. The dim, changing lights made it difficult to see people’s faces. Only figures and shadows were visible. He looked around and called out but with all the sounds he could barely hear his own voice. Taishi must have been dragged away by the crowd, he thought. This was a great inconvenience. How was he going to find the target when he couldn’t even keep track of his partner?
He tried to move around, lightly pushing people away to make passage. There really were only women inside. He tried to look for a bright orange head. He assumed that such color would be easier to spot than darker shades. As he was searching, he tripped over something and fell forward. He couldn’t find anything to hold to stop his fall and ended up bumping into someone standing right before him. Quite embarrassingly he had crashed right into the person’s chest. They were just so tall. He looked up to see a woman even taller than Fura. She was wearing heels which made her appear even bigger.
“S-sorry…” He mumbled as his eyes made contact with the woman’s. The woman just smirked and luckily didn’t say anything. He was grateful that she had simply found the situation to be comical.
Aura-san had once warned him about staring at people. He had a tendency to space out while people were talking at him and at those occurrences he didn’t really realize where his eyes fell. According to Aura-san, it made female investigators uncomfortable that he was staring at their chests. It had sounded odd at first but now that he was paying attention he could see that it really was the case. There weren’t a lot of female instructors in the Sunlit Garden and the mothers didn’t really mind what the kids were doing. He tried to be more careful now.
He was still searching for his friend when he spotted a bright orange amidst a sea of darker heads. He hurried towards there to find his friend happily dancing with a group of pretty girls.
“Heheh Arima!” Fura giggled when he spotted him approaching. He was holding a glass of colorful drink. He waved, inviting him to join them. Arima shook his head but Fura caught his arm before he could leave and pulled him forward.
“Heeey, let’s have some fun while we’re at it, hmm?” He spun Arima around and giggled again. “It can’t always be work.” He offered him a sip from his drink but Arima declined. He wasn’t sure what to do when faced with a situation like this.
Fura sulked. “Come on. We came all the way here. Let’s make the best of it! How often an opportunity like this presents itself?”
Arima figured he was right. He wasn’t sure how much longer he would be allowed to remain here with Fura. He wished he could just stay. Stay at school, stay with Taishi, with Minami… Was it really so bad wanting to be normal? Wanting to be like other kids? Going to school, hanging out, being happy?
He didn’t want to go back to CCG where he would be surrounded with seniors.
He wanted to be here. In this moment.
He wanted to be with his friends.
He closed his eyes and smiled, letting the music take over him. For once, he could feel himself letting go, living in the present, every cell in his body coming to life...
Just for this moment, he was happy.
---
“It’s not that bad actually,” Fura mused as they were walking down the road, fresh out of the club. “The skirt, I mean. It’s airy.” He swayed his hips a little and chuckled.
“It suits you.”
Fura blushed at the sudden compliment. Arima didn’t give them often. He especially hadn’t expected to get any in this field.
“Not really.” Fura blabbered. “It’s not really my style…”
“You look handsome either way.”
Fura’s jaw dropped at those words and he blushed a deeper shade of red under the dim glow of the street lights. Arima had shrugged but for the first time Fura could see his friend actually looking a little embarrassed. Arima looked away, scratching his arm, trying to look smaller. A light blush was visible on his cheeks. The blue locks framing his face swayed in the cool night breeze.
“Oh, umm, thanks…” Fura cleared his throat. “So,uhm, you wanna do it again sometime?”
“Hmm?” Arima was surprised at the suggestion. “I thought you didn’t want to do this in the first place.”
“Yeah but it was actually fun.” Fura grinned. They had stayed there till past midnight. Fura was still a bit tipsy from the drink but he could see that his friend wasn’t nearly as uncomfortable at the idea as before. They had laughed a lot and it had been genuinely fun.
In fact, it was the most fun thing he had ever done. More than ghoul hunting. More than anything…
Being with his friend.
He chuckled. “Okay.” His eyes met with Taishi’s, which softened at the sight of him laughing so lightheartedly. For once, he looked carefree.
Their mission long forgotten, the two teenagers laughed as they continued walking under pale moonlight, counting and giggling at the phone numbers filling their pockets and the few lipstick stains marking Fura’s cheeks. Arima couldn’t remember another time he felt so truly happy, so completely alive.
---
“And then we-Arima-san, are you listening?” Haise asked.
“Hmm?” Arima looked up from the file he had been reading, unable to hide his amused expression. He pressed his lips together to keep himself from letting out a laugh.
“What’s so funny?” Haise stared at the file, looking puzzled. He pouted when he couldn’t figure out why Arima was smiling like that. His expression made Arima want to laugh all the more. Wordlessly, he held up the file so Haise was able to read its name.
Recognizing the case his mentor was observing, Haise blushed furiously. “A-Arima-san…” He blabbered.
“I wanted to see how the case was progressing so Ui kindly provided me with the file.”
“W-well, did you…”
Arima allowed himself to laugh this time. It was always entertaining to see his protégé in this flushed state. It never ceased to amuse him. “It’s okay, Haise. It’s just that you are very creative, that’s all.” He chuckled and got up from his chair. He walked up to the window, leaving a very confused Haise behind.
Staring out of the building, a memory from many years ago playing before his eyes, he watched the green area underneath. Trees swayed softly in the gardens of the Main Office. Their leaves, moving softly like the strands of blue hair in the cool night air. Underneath the tallest tree, a man was sitting on a bench. A cigarette in his hand, a nostalgic smile on his lips…
Taishi.