Chapter Text
“Look at his eyes”
Officer Kanae makes a lilted hum at his fellow coworker. The paved road is wet from the rain that evening, reflecting the neon lights of the city, and the air, humid but cool at night. The small puddle splashes under his feet as he steps closer to have a look at the person they had just apprehended. The fluorescent light in front of the convenience store alleyway casts a rimlight over the person’s back.
From where he stands, he can only see the significantly hunched back of the latent criminal, his head hanging low with his black hood covering the side of his face. Kanae blinks with a hum under his breath, putting another foot forward and tilts his head lower to get a better look.
A field officer, another one of his coworkers, is crouching in front of the, according to the report, teenager, as she tells him his basic rights. “You’re not under arrest, okay?” she assures the teen, Kanae glances at the cuffs around his wrists behind his back as he sits on the ground with multiple officers watching his every move. He doubts it is convincing to the kid. Though Kanae does notice the lack of panic in the boy’s behaviour.
“Do you understand?” her voice is as clear and loud as always, serious no matter how low a suspect’s Crime Coefficient is. This question is what helps Kanae finally see the boy’s face as he raises his chin. Long messy white hair encasing a deathly pale complexion, he appears like a ghost. As the officer continues to interact with the teenage boy, Kanae finally sees them, the boy’s eyes.
His coworker beside him must have noticed his expression. With a somewhat bewildered tone, “It’s weird, isn’t it? The colour”.
Their station was alarmed right when Kanae was about to finally eat his dinner of a single choco pie. It was a bummer but work is work and in the metropolitan prefecture that is Tokyo, his job is especially important. For some reason, the criminal latency in big cities is always higher and latent criminals don’t wait to become actual criminals. Kanae’s job entails that he responds to every report with the utmost urgency. Which is why not only lower ranked officers are here but the whole team, at the appreciative hour of 3 a.m. to catch one child, basically.
It’s true that the teenager’s eye colour is out of the norm. The boy blinks, as if in slow motion, before his eyes open back to an intriguing red. Rubies, that is the first word that comes to Kanae’s mind when he sees them. Deep red gems on top of pale white skin, he looks otherworldly.
So, towards his coworker’s question, Kanae replies, “No”. The boy suddenly flicks his gaze towards Kanae, as if knowing they are talking about him even with the distance between them.
“They’re beautiful”, he remarks without much thought while staring straight into the red orbs resembling gems. Though they are dim and seem lifeless, they are interesting all the same. Before his coworker can claim that he’s spouting weird stuff again, the two quickly join to escort the boy into the back of their police car once his coworker is done asking for the teen’s basic information.
For the course of the following months, Kanae finds himself visiting the boy at the rehabilitation center multiple times. At first, he was just another latent criminal his team had apprehended. Usually, Kanae’s job ends there. However, once he caught wind that the boy was still there even after five months entering six, Kanae couldn’t help his curiousity and decided to visit.
It was out of pure curiousity to find out why Kuzuha, the name written outside of the door to his rehabilitation room, is not getting better. Instead, his Crime Coefficient climbs steadily higher despite reports by the staff wrote that he bore no personality issues. Always quietly receiving his therapy sessions, sitting in his room playing the video game he put in his request form to pass the time without disturbing anyone else. An utterly compliant and docile manner, somewhat unexpected coming from an 18 year old boy.
“Kanae!” Kuzuha’s voice is audibly delighted whenever Kanae comes to visit him lately. Gone is the gloomy teen who wouldn’t even look anyone in the eyes. Now, the boy is excitedly greeting him, dropping everything he was doing to stand by the officer with a wide smile.
Kanae smiles easily. The recurring sight in front of him is similar to that of a big husky wagging its tail happy at seeing its owner. Kuzuha’s height has always towered over Kanae despite their age gap but the boy still has a young look on his face and his current behaviour certainly serves as proof that he is undoubtedly younger.
“Good evening, Kuzuha-san. How’s your day? I told you to call me with honorifics, didn’t I?” Kanae chuckles fondly as Kuzuha pulls his arm towards the metal table at the other end of his white bed against white sound proofed walls. The boy giggles, “Kanae-san, come here”. His laptop is already turned on with a familiar sight displayed on the screen.
“Get this!” Kuzuha plops onto the edge of the bed and his fingers instinctively rest on specific keys like second nature while his other hand clicks away on his mouse. He opens the in-game map and selects a bookmarked spot, quickly teleporting his game character there. He turns to the officer with a bright smile, “I found out how to get into the cave to achieve that secret side quest!”. Kanae sits beside him to watch the boy explain step-by-step to him.
It was Kanae who told him about the secret achievement, complaining about how hard it is to find it. When he wanted the boy to open up to him, he brought up the fact that he also played the same game as he does. The officer’s gaze softens the more he watches Kuzuha talking animatedly. He props his elbow on the table and leans on the heel of his palm, “Did you lose sleep because of this?”. Kuzuha’s body seems to lean away slightly, scratching his chin sheepishly, “Ah, did the doctors tell you that?”.
Kanae nods, “You lost sleep because you wanted to help me clear the quest?”. He watches as the red eyes peek at him before blinking away. Then, a shy nod, “Un”. The officer chuckles in amusement, raising his other hand to feather-lightly touch the patient’s face, caressing just under the red eyes, “Look, you got eyebags from it…”.
The touch sends shivers down the boy’s spine, Kuzuha leans away only slightly, looking at Kanae in the eyes, “They are here even from before”. He seems serious for a second as he grabs Kanae’s hand, though he pouts next as he directs the hand back onto the officer’s lap and looks away. His attention is back on the game, continuing as if the officer isn’t sitting beside him but Kanae knows it must have been awkward for him that he is sitting this close. It’s cute, really. Kanae loves watching Kuzuha’s boyish reactions.
“I have something to tell you,” he finally says after a while of just watching the patient play his game. Kuzuha is too focused on fighting the enemies to properly pay attention. The sound of consecutive clicking fills the room along with its in-game sound effects, “What?”, he asks offhandedly.
“Do you want to get out of here?”
Even without a verbal response from the boy, Kanae knows he heard him with the way he suddenly clicks his mouse a little too hard, his hand jerking and his cursor stopping for a moment before moving again. The officer lets him finish his fight first before he explains further.
Kuzuha slowly turns towards Kanae once he finishes his fight, his leg bouncing under the table as he shrugs, muttering “There’s no difference either way”. The officer knows better than to trigger his stress and clouding his Hue, so he gently lays his hand on top of the pale hands with considerably long nails on the keyboard.
“Kuzuha-san, it seems that your Crime Coefficient gets higher the longer you stay here. The doctors are skeptical about raising the dosage of your medicine so I came here to ask you…” Kanae trails his words while the other listens quietly, though his body is loud at telling how anxious he is. The hand under Kanae’s palm fidgets and the leg has not stopped bouncing while other parts of his body are rigid.
“Will you come with me and join the force?”
The reaction is instant. Eyes widening as the teenager snaps his head towards the officer, “What?”.
Kanae remains calm, his voice gentle, “You know, the doctors here are legally obliged to keep you here until your Crime Coefficient index stops exceeding 100 but at this rate you might stay here for much longer than you think. It’s going to be half a year soon, aren’t you bored?”.
A few minutes pass in silence until, “Here doesn’t feel any different than at my house…”.
Upon further investigation, it was found that Kuzuha was a normal high schooler until the day he graduated. That was when sightings of him anywhere outside got lesser and lesser for the past year until recently when his Psycho-Pass was measured and notified to be 150. It was amazing how he was able to lay low with that numeric index but it wasn't hard to understand. A lot of shut-ins get stressed going out after a long while.
But they are supposed to get better at the rehabilitation center, Kanae thinks to himself.
“If you join the Public Safety Bureau, your life won’t be the same as before,” it is clear from the way the boy spoke about his life that he doesn’t like it. “I promise,” Kanae doesn’t know exactly why Kuzuha withdrew from society but with no one checking in on him, his parents deceased and his brothers estranged, it must have been lonely. The teenager in front of him is still only a child, he is too young to feel alone.
Kuzuha fidgets again but this time his leg stops moving. His eyes are trained on the laptop screen as he asks, “Will you be there?”.
The question doesn’t surprise Kanae at all because he has seen the way Kuzuha acts when he is around. It wouldn’t be too far off to assume the boy sees him as a big brother figure. The officer smiles reassuringly and squeezes the boy’s hand, “I’m getting promoted to become an inspector soon. Become an Enforcer under me when that time comes”.
Kuzuha’s eyes avert back and forth between his laptop screen and Kanae before letting his lips curl up into a small smile that assures the officer of a promise, “...Okay”.
■■■
The click and clack of dress shoes resound throughout the hallway, bouncing off the sturdy walls with the rustling of blazer sleeves as Kanae strides along the way with Chief Inspector Higuchi. He listens to her attentively as she talks about his new responsibility and perks up when she suddenly lets out a heavy sigh.
“I’m sure you know this boy, Kanae-san,” she shakes her head with an exaggerated tired expression that he finds funny. Of course he knows who she is talking about. The troublemaker Enforcer that keeps having his Inspector in-charge replaced is a topic of rave that he has heard in passing multiple times. Each time, he hears the Inspectors themselves putting the request to change units to escape the Enforcer, whose Crime Coefficient exceeds 300. There was even a rumour that he caused the death of his handler but Kanae doubts it’s real as all officers would have been notified of it and there was no way the Enforcer would be able to roam free anymore after that.
As luck would have it, as the newly promoted Inspector of Unit One of the Ministry of Welfare Public Safety Bureau's Criminal Investigation Department, Kanae is the new replacement inspector hired to take care of the troublesome Enforcer. As they arrive at the glass door with a plate indicating the division, Chief Higuchi turns to face him with a smile that seems forced and pats him heavily on the shoulder. Ah… Kanae smiles back but lacks the adequate sincerity.
“Good luck,” she sends her well wishes before pushing him through the door and into the supposedly lion’s den.
Except, the first person he sees is a familiar face with an impossibly hard-to-forget set of red eyes.
Kanae’s eyes are blown wide as he is immediately tackled by Kuzuha, who shouts his name upon the exact moment he lands his eyes on the new inspector. The boy pulls his head back, Kanae belatedly realizes he was pulled into a bear hug, and his red eyes twinkle, a wide grin on his teeth displaying canines that are significantly longer than a normal human’s.
“Kanae, I’ve been waiting for you!!”
The officer cannot believe his eyes, he chuckles. The boy he befriended last year seems to have grown much taller than they last met. “Kuzuha-san, it’s been a while”, Inspector Kanae takes a step back to quietly split the hug but the Enforcer’s arms around his waist tug at him once more that makes the other let out a surprised noise, startled when his torso bumps against the other’s.
“A while?? It’s been a year! You promised me we would be together once I join—”
“Kuzuha, shoo! Leave him! Back off. Bad dog, bad dog,” Kanae watches as another officer in the room peels the Enforcer off of him by the collar with a sigh. Kuzuha makes a strangled noise of complaint while stumbling back.
The inspector offers Kanae a handshake once he sat the Enforcer back down at his desk, “Welcome to Unit One Kanae-san, I’m Ibrahim, an inspector like you. I was anticipating your arrival. Babysitting two troublemakers is slowly driving me insane,” he laughs.
“Kanae, rookie inspector,” he takes the hand and shakes firmly, “I’ll be in your care”. His livid eyes avert throughout the spacious office space filled with cubicles each with its own computer. There are two empty cubicles, he assumes one is for him to fill in. His eyes land on three other people in the office. He nods at them, “Nice to meet everyone. I am rookie inspector Kanae, I’ll be in your care”.
“Welcome to Unit One, Kanae-san! I’m an Enforcer, you can call me Lauren~ My handler is Ibu,” a person in similar black suits with red hair striking against the minimalist office salutes him with a loud and raspy voice. A woman with long pink hair tied into a straight ponytail behind her back greets him as well, introducing herself as Yuika and the Enforcer under her watch, Touya.
Kanae offers them a polite smile when he hears noise suddenly coming from the door and turns around to find a tall blue haired man in a white coat, relatively easy to guess that he is a doctor but there is soot on his face and his coat is torn at some places suspiciously. Rather than a doctor, Kanae thinks he looks more like a mad scientist.
The man has a comical grin on his face as he fixes his crooked glasses, “Am i late?! I hope not haha! Nice to meet you Kanae-san! I’m—”.
Alarms blare throughout the office out of a sudden that Kanae snaps his head upwards. Ibrahim calmly informs him as he grabs his jacket, “Duty calls, inspector. Let’s go, everyone”.
“So”
Kanae turns to his side to Kuzuha skipping beside him as the members of Division One head to their paddy wagon. “You’re mine now,” the Enforcer smirks, his white hair bouncing with each skip which Kanae can only acknowledge the childishness to himself while replying professionally, “Your handler, yes”.
As he beelines straight for the police car, Kuzuha instead has to ride another vehicle, a tank-like truck that will also bring along their weapons, the Dominators. The Enforcer stands outside of the vehicle, refusing to get in, staring towards Kanae without the similar sense of emergency like everyone else.
“What are you doing, Kuzuha-san?” Kanae has to raise his voice to bridge the distance and echo of the basement, “Get in the truck”.
It seems as if the Enforcer would obey him but what he does is only placing one foot on the back of the truck and nothing else. Kanae is beginning to see why his past handlers did what they did.
“Hurry the fuck up, motherfucker!” Lauren barks from inside yet it doesn’t faze him.
Nothing fazes the peculiar red eyed boy. His chest heaves up and he exclaims at the top of his lungs, “I’ve missed you, Kanae. You know?”.
“What is he doing? He’s wasting our time,” Yuika grumbles, sliding lower against the leather seat in frustration beside Kanae, crossing her arms with a huff.
Kuzuha’s red eyes are on Kanae, so the latter knows he is talking to him. It’s intriguing to think about. The boy he and his previous team apprehended was so frail and antisocial. He only showed his cute personality once Kanae got closer to him but the same boy right now is different. He wonders what happened.
Inspector Kanae sighs as he lowers the car window, “Yes, I missed you too, Kuzuha-san”. The Enforcer visibly beams. Kanae can’t help but smile as well, seeing Kuzuha’s current personality as an improvement from the depressed boy from the rehabilitation center, “Now be a good boy and get in the truck, okay?”.
“Yes, sir!” the childish boy salutes and marches into the back of the tank, allowing the vehicles to finally move.
Ibrahim merely chuckles in his front passenger seat, “He already listens to you well”. “He’s childish,” Kanae comments.
“No, no. Before this, it was like Ibrahim-san had to tame a wild dog, Kanae-san,” Shinna shivers beside him, “You haven’t seen him on field yet”.
Kanae offers an apologetic smile, “It can’t be that bad”.
The self-driving car stops in front of a Chinese restaurant after a 15-minute drive. Kanae notices the glare from the owner when they exit the car. From lip reading, finds out that he dislikes how the police cars park in front of his restaurant. The owner glances around restlessly at the people gathered behind the police line whispering amongst themselves with permanent frowns and accusatory fingers. The man clicks his tongue and points at the officer taking his statement angrily, taking it out on her.
The weapons tank stops right behind their police car and lowers a heavy squarish container. It lands on land gently and blows smoke out as the lid cracks open with a bluish glow. Yuika beckons the new inspector closer, shoving her hand inside and drops a gun into Kanae’s hands, “Your own Dominator, inspector”. Kanae receives it with a slight huff, not expecting its heaviness, “Thank you”.
“You guys received training for it right?” she asks offhandedly with a light tone, busy picking up her own weapon and Kanae nods. He picks the gun up in one hand and turns it side to side. The grip of the firearm moves and adjusts to the comfort of his hand size only minisculely, he would've missed it if he didn't pay attention. His eyes glow a bright blue as a voice comes out of the Dominator identifying his identity as an authenticated holder by the Sibyl System. “Set to default, inactive mode,” the robotic female voice then fades out.
Right behind the container, two of the Enforcers hop off the back of the truck, stretching their handcuffed wrists above their heads. Rushing to the Dominator container, “Come to me baby…” Lauren rubs his palms against each other as he licks his lips towards the remaining firearms in the box.
Kanae keeps his Dominator in its holster and peeks his head into the truck, “Kuzuha-san?” calling for the Enforcer under his care who still hasn’t gotten off the vehicle. The boy perks up when his name is called, excitedly jumping out to the ground and shoving his handcuffed wrists towards his handler, eager to get out of them and serve him. Kanae touches the cuffs and they come off easily upon his identification.
“Lauren, come here,” Inspector Ibrahim also sets his Enforcer free followed by the sounds of Touya’s cuffs also being taken off by his handler.
“Holy shit, you’re finally out of cuffs while on field, Kussan,” Lauren remarks interestingly, Kanae hums without asking outright. “He would run off like a dog seeing a squirrel when Ibrahim did that once,” Yuika helpfully supplies.
Kanae tilts his head at his Enforcer and the latter quickly clasps his hands together against his chest with widened puppy eyes and a silent promise of being good to which his handler accepts with a sigh.
“Dogs can be useful too, right Kuzuha-san?”
Kuzuha nods feverishly and Touya swears the dude is so close to panting with his tongue out from how happy he is to be perceived by the new inspector.
The three inspectors approach the officer guarding the yellow tape with their Enforcers right behind them and showcase their badges. The officer salutes them before raising the line and letting them in.
A young looking officer jogs up to them as soon as they enter the crime scene and salutes, “Sir, we have secured the perimeter and all the workers of the restaurant. I’ve taken the liberty to interview everyone, sir. The raw ingredients they ordered were dropped off behind the restaurant as scheduled at 7 a.m this morning. While moving them inside at around 8.25 a.m, one of the workers found a weird bag different from the ones they usually get. Upon inspecting its contents, they found the remains of a newborn. All the workers said they don’t know anything about the baby”.
With his nasally voice, Inspector Ibrahim thanks the young cop for his help even though they usually only handle suspect apprehensions. Kanae snaps the rubber gloves they are handed with and wastes no time stepping inside, going ahead to do a quick sweep.
He goes from the front where plastic tables and chairs are arranged neatly across the floor to the kitchen at the back. He crouches down and opens the cupboards in front of him, watching a cockroach run out when he moves a stack of pots.
“Kanae”
“Kanae-san”
“Kanae-san”
“Yes, Kuzuha-san?”
“What are you doing?”
“A mandatory sweep”
“Are you searching for instant ramen to cook?”
Kanae blinks a few times, feeling incredulous at Kuzuha’s question but he answers earnestly, “No, I’m doing a sweep of the place in case the other officers missed a clue”.
He hears an elongated “oh” from Kuzuha and chuckles to himself, shaking his head and keeps his hands moving for any clues.
There is an unexpected squeak of leather shoes coming from behind him as he closes the cupboard door. The inspector tilts his head upwards to see the same young cop looking down at him, “Our team has already made a full sweep of the place, sir”. Kuzuha can be seen raising an eyebrow at the officer, clearly annoyed at him for disturbing his handler’s job. Kanae only curls a small upturn of his lips at the officer before standing up to leave and continue his work without another word. The cop moves to follow but is intercepted by Kuzuha who stands tall over the officer and growls, “Let us do our jobs, shithead” effectively scaring the poor guy away.
“Thank you, Kuzuha-san,” Kanae pats on the side of Kuzuha’s head once and can’t help but find the boy’s immediate positive reaction amusing.
They receive a record of the culprit’s movement after leaving the baby for dead once they go back to the station. There wasn’t much to go by at the crime scene itself unless the hairs and fibers collected on the boxes of ingredients come back showing helpful results. However, that would take a full day of processing first.
The same overbearing officer who looked down on Kanae was adamant on arresting the owner on the basis of acting too agitated and snapping at the cops but the claim is dismissed by Division One as their profiling training tells them that the owner was simply anxious about his business going bankrupt. If anything, the CCTV footage showed him arriving at the restaurant that day.
And well, they pretty much have the actual culprit on tape. Only, the problem is that the woman disappeared after getting caught on only one camera, with her back turned. Even more suspiciously, the cymatic scanner only detected her fluctuating coefficient level but not her identity. It is weird to say the least. No one in Japan can escape the scanners.
No one should be.
■■■
“It’s been a month and we can finally properly welcome Kanae-san into the team,” Yuika raises her glass of whiskey, the dim orange light reflecting against its rim. Lauren and Touya are at the snooker table while the others nurse their own drinks.
Kanae smiles as he swirls his glass, staring at it in his hand before closing his eyes with a soft exhale. They had just closed his very first case as an inspector. Hence, they are kind of having a small celebration for it.
The Enforcers are still latent criminals despite serving for the public’s safety, so they live within the confinements of the bureau’s building and are forbidden to go out without their accompanying handler. The size of the building is due to this reason. All sorts of amenities have been prepared for the Enforcers such as a cafeteria, a gym, a swimming pool and the mini bar for each division like this room.
Everyone headed here right after all work was done to unwind. Everyone, well, except for Kanae’s own Enforcer.
The first thing he asked was about Kuzuha once he finally arrived at the office bar after getting himself lost in the huge building for half an hour. Ibrahim told him, “We don’t bother asking him to join us anymore, Kanae-san”. “Yeah, he absolutely hates alcohol”, Lauren added, a cigarette between his lips, while leaning against the wall while polishing his cue stick. “And people,” Touya quipped on the table as he aimed for a yellow ball.
It’s understandable, Kanae thinks to himself. Kuzuha just entered adulthood and he knows new alcohol drinkers don’t like the taste or smell of it till the day they get used to it and he knew for a fact that the boy used to be a shut-in. He sort of feels bad for joining the team late. There were a lot of things he had to settle in order to get the promotion, but at least he’s fulfilling the promise he made a year ago now. It is amusing to think about Kuzuha possibly making the decision as soon as he was offered to join the team as an Enforcer, so eager to be with Kanae even more. For some reasons unknown to him.
His coworkers are chatting at leisure with each other, joined by the Division analyst whom now Kanae knows is called Leos, while he is caught up in his thoughts. The first case they had solved that they are celebrating for is not the one of the abandoned newborn baby, it is the next case they received of a 5 year old boy kidnapped from his own yard. They worked fast into tracking down the potential suspects and found a family member to be suspicious. The boy was thankfully found within the first 72 hours, unharmed but hungry which is a better condition than most kidnapping cases.
Other than that, Kanae’s division handled multiple on-site arrests within the month. They barely had any time to take a breather. Though only one arrest was a weaponless latent criminal and Kanae had to shoot Non-Lethal Paralyzer bullets more than he can count, his thoughts are still with his first ever case. As if symbolic, his very first case is still unsolved. Kanae can’t calm down unless he gets to the bottom of it.
Feeling a little tipsy, Kanae stands up from his stool, the others perking up and watching him as he shuffles towards the door. “Need us to call a cab?” Touya asks, to which the inspector tells him “It’s fine”.
Kanae holds onto the door frame and looks behind his shoulder, trying to keep his head raised with difficulty, “Can I know where the living quarters are?”.
The dimly lit corridor of the Encorcers’ living quarters is long and the doors to each room remind Kanae of the heavy metal doors in prison with the small window to peer inside. The number to Kuzuha’s room is 07, Lauren informed him, so he tries his best to count the rooms with his dizzy head. In the short moment when his head clears, he realizes he can just look at number plates above the doors without having to use his brain. He slumps against the door when he finally reaches 07, knocking a few times more than necessary. He waits for a minute before adding another series of knocks.
The door swings open mid-knock with an obviously annoyed Kuzuha, “For the last time, I don’t fucking smoke, Lauren—”. The Enforcer gasps under his breath upon realization at seeing the person in front of him, “Kanae”.
The inspector laughs through his nose, smiling in slight delirium when Kuzuha’s face comes into view. The boy is really handsome, his face structured well, a pair of nicely shaped eyebrows, charming lips and long lashes around his enchanting red eyes. His hair sticks out messily but it only serves to make the boy look hot, the faint orange light from inside the room casting rimlight behind him.
Kanae’s hand reaches for those eyes without him controlling it, tucking the hair which covers them away, the hitch of Kuzuha’s breath at the touch going unnoticed. He wonders why everyone around him only finds the pair of eyes unnerving. Is it simply because of their oddity? Humans find anything outside of their expectation daunting although on closer inspection they can be the most beautiful thing a normal human can lay their sight upon.
“What are you doing here? I thought you already went home?” the boy asks, in a voice too soft and gentle, clearly surprised seeing his handler past working hours. He seems to squirm under the inspector’s touch and it makes the latter happy that there’s still the shyness from the boy he met at the rehabilitation center, familiarity making him feel warm inside. Cute.
“Everyone gathered at the bar for my welcome party except for you,” the Enforcer’s expression falls when he hears that. Kanae asks, partly sulking, “Why didn’t you come?”. Enforcers and their handlers have a sort of partnership between them and he is jealous to see the other partners joint by the hip, the Enforcers going everywhere their Inspectors go but Kuzuha isn’t there to celebrate Kanae.
“What?? They didn’t tell me it’s for you! Those motherfu— they drink for every little case! I swear I was so close to reporting their alcoholism to the higher ups,” the franticness in Kuzuha’s voice cheers Kanae up more than he expected, falling against the other’s sturdy chest, laughing.
The corridor is quiet as the other Enforcers are still at the bar playing. It’s so silent that Kanae can hear his every breath intake and the rustle of their clothes rubbing against each other. Kuzuha explains for good measure, “If I knew it’s for you, I would’ve joined. Of course I would”.
Kanae hums, pushing himself off the comfortable chest, “Why do you say that?”
“Because it’s you,” Kuzuha stares at him in the eyes as he speaks and Kanae has to physically stop himself from looking away lest he loses in the staring game. He decides to use a tactic, “I heard you made a huge fuss over getting this room number”. When the boy freezes and averts his gaze away, Kanae can’t help his amusement, “Can you tell me why, Kuzuha-san?”.
Kuzuha grumbles even though he doesn’t say anything after that. He pulls the inspector inside and closes the door behind them. There is no regulation prohibiting an inspector to be inside an Enforcer’s room since according to law, they are practically treated like criminals despite some of them, including Kuzuha, having done no crime except for having a higher Crime Coefficient. So, they don’t have the privilege of privacy. The Inspectors are, however, prohibited to fraternize with the Enforcers in their watch.
So, with the best of his judgement, Inspector Kanae whines in protest. He wriggles his arm out of the boy’s grip, complaining with a petulant tone that “I shouldn’t be in here”.
“You’re the one who came here,” Kuzuha states a matter-of-factly and Kanae huffs.
The Enforcer suddenly puts hands on his waist, guiding him to the single bed tucked against the corner of the room and sits his handler down on the mattress. The bed itself sends implications in his head but Kanae isn’t worried, plops onto his back right in the middle of the bed and looks at Kuzuha behind hooded eyelids. His arm stretches out towards the boy to point at him, he says through a lopsided smirk, “What can a kid like you do?”.
Kuzuha merely props a knee on the edge of the bed and stares at him but the red eyes gaze at him closely and send shivers down Kanae’s spine. The Enforcer drops onto both hands to cage his handler. The latter gasps when his body bounces with the sudden weight on the mattress, feeling like a prey for the first time in his life.
“I’m not a kid anymore, you know?” Kuzuha whispers.
Both of their chests heave up and down with each breath intake, so close to touch each time they inhale the air between them but separate again when they exhale. Kuzuha begins to chase Kanae’s pace, bending his elbows lower and getting closer. Closer, he tilts his head and flutters his eyes closed.
Kanae blinks, watching the face come closer and closer, chapped lips puckering obviously aiming for his lips. So, he blows a puff of air at the Enforcer’s face.
“What the f—” the alcoholic breath blows him away, literally. Kuzuha scrambles away and accidentally falls off the bed, exclaiming, “Your breath stinks!”. He falls into a coughing fit, rubbing his nose, trying to rub away the smell, “Eughhhh”.
From the floor, all he can see is the tuft of Kanae’s hair. Nonchalantly, the inspector raises a hand and tells him, “I’m taking your bed tonight”. Then, proceeds to drop his head back onto the pillow, disappearing from Kuzuha’s line of sight. When the Enforcer quickly gets back on his feet, he finds his handler truly fast asleep, breathing through his small mouth with soft snores.
Kuzuha watches him sleep for a good while before tousling the back of his head, groaning out loud. Kanae is undeterred by the noise, to Kuzuha’s annoyance, sleeping peacefully even on the hard mattress of the Enforcers’ quarters.
The owner of said room plops himself down on the leather couch on the other side of the room and stares at the person’s sleeping form. The man is so defenseless yet he trusts him, a latent criminal who can’t seem to lower his Crime Coefficient. Kuzuha is basically earning himself a permanent spot in the crime investigation unit whether he wants it or not, throwing away any chance of living normally as long as the Sibyl System labels him a danger to society.
Kuzuha leans against the backrest, eyelids becoming heavier by the second, Kanae’s silhouette reduced to a blurry sight. Unlike the sleepless nights that are almost routine in his life, for the first time in a long while, Kuzuha is finally able to have a good night’s sleep.