[Thread] Everything is banal and jejune.

[lazyish]

Who: Shikamaru, Light, Adachi; OPEN to cops.
Where: The Terra police station, break room.
When: Noon on Saturday.
Summary: Lunchtime with the guys, just another day.
Rating: G?
Other: One of these is not like the other.

Comments

[cabbagecop]

"Hey, Shikamaru!" As he did every day, Adachi headed over to the other's table with a grin on his face, brown paper lunch bag in hand. "Heh, working hard as usual today? Bet you're going to get promoted before I do, at this rate!"

With a laugh he slid into his usual seat, unpacking his lunch - a can of coke and what appeared to be nearly half of a head of cabbage sandwiched in between slices of bread. "So, how've things been? How's the chief doing?" He started to unwrap the cellophane on the cabbage-thing, which was presumably a sandwich of some kind.

[vigilancy]

Light followed not far behind Adachi into the break room, suppressing the impulse to roll his eyes at the sound of the other detective's voice. If he would just not talk at least some of the time ... Light deviated from the path to the table, heading instead toward the microwave on the other side of the room.

File neatly tucked under his arm, Light popped the lid off his container of soup, placed it in the microwave, and punched the buttons for the appropriate length of time. He watched the plastic container circle round and round inside the microwave, concentrating on the noise from the machine in an attempt to drown out Adachi's noisy rambling.

[lazyish]

"Oh yeah, real hard," Shikamaru replied sarcastically. "But I don't think they promote interns." He straightened his posture a bit, having been half-slumped out of the uncomfortable folding chair he was occupying. He took a bite of his sandwich and raised one eyebrow at the other's meal but didn't comment on it. Blandest food ever, but Tohru just freaking loved cabbage.

"Dad's in a bad mood lately, watch out," he replied with a shrug. "Maybe it's just me. But I'm doing okay. My ribs are really healing up fast." Or... completely, but he couldn't exactly tell people his sensei had healed broken bones with his bare hands.

Light stalked in and Shikamaru glanced over. He didn't seem to be in the best of moods either, but Shikamaru greeted him anyway, "Hey, Light."

[cabbagecop]

"They should! It'd help to have you working with me, y'know? Might get your dad's wrath off me, especially if he's in a bad mood." Adachi laughed and took a bite of the sandwich with obvious gusto, leaving a slight smear of peanut butter on his lip.

"It's good to hear about your ribs! Don't want anything lasting happening to the star intern." Another chuckle. "I think your dad would kill us all if anything lasting happened to you, after all."

Shikamaru's greeting drew Adachi's attention over, and he waved excitedly over at Light. "Hey, partner! Good to see you!"

[vigilancy]

Light quickly fixed a calm, pleasant expression on his face and turned toward the table to acknowledge the greetings from his coworkers. After so many years, this action was reflex - he didn't even have to think about it, the movement was simply executed, automatic. He gave them both a small, friendly wave in return, then turned back to the microwave as the beep sounded to signal the end of the cook cycle.

Heated soup in hand, Light deftly maneuvered his way over to the table and took a seat. It would be rude to ignore them, after all. "Hey there - Shikamaru, Adachi." Light carefully placed the soup down on the table in front of him, and slid the file to the side. "How are you both doing today?"

[lazyish]

"Maybe you'll still be around here when I'm done with school," Shikamaru reassured Adachi. Er... On second thought, was that reassurance? "Heh... Though you're probably hoping to land somewhere in Elysium by then, right? Sucks to be stuck in this district. But that explains my dad's moods, doesn't it?"

That was a funny thing to say about his ribs. Shikamaru glanced up from picking something out of his tuna. "Why would he kill you guys? It's not like you did it, right?" Hell, he'd gone so easy on Yosuke. No, actually, he'd saved Yosuke's life regardless of everything. Even if these guys never knew... "You'd just miss me picking up your slack."

Maybe Light wasn't as moody as he'd thought. He was looking more cheerful when he joined them, and Shikamaru gave him a half-smirk in return that made him look remarkably like his father. "Surviving," he replied without enthusiasm.

[cabbagecop]

"Hey, Terra's not so bad! At least it's not the Abyss or anything. I've heard stories..." Adachi shuddered a little and took another drink off of his coke, which thankfully washed the peanut butter off of his lip. "But I can understand why the chief'd be upset."

"And I need you picking up my slack. That and who else would I talk to at lunch?" He was practically pouting now. "The three of us need to stick together, after all!"

With the mention of three, Adachi turned to look at Light. "My eyebrows still aren't growing back..."

[vigilancy]

"Well, surviving is the first step, right?" Light calmly stirred a spoon into his soup and flipped open the file on the table - it was an older case, one he'd been working on before his unfortunate side trip to the hospital, still unsolved. "It's a good place to start, anyway."

Lips pursed, Light began to concentrate on reading through his notes again. Even on breaks, Light liked to keep busy with his work. In situations such as this, being preoccupied with work gave him the added bonus of being able to more or less ignore his partner. Adachi's mention of his eyebrows broke Light's concentration, though, and he glanced up from his notes to the other detective with a friendly, polite smile.

"Well, these things do take time, after all." Light gave Adachi a small, pleasant laugh, opposite of his actual inner monologue: Idiot. What kind of idiot opens an unmarked package without taking proper precautions? Lucky you didn't lose more than your eyebrows. "Say, how's your new countertop coming along?"

[lazyish]

Shikamaru snickered quietly. Oh no, he wasn't laughing at Tohru, really. The guy was just funny in a helpless way, a little like Yosuke when he was stuck on a problem in class or something. He just needed someone around to nudge him in the right direction. Yeah... He probably would be screwed once Shikamaru stopped working here. How had he survived while Shikamaru was on medical leave?

"It takes around six weeks," Shikamaru assured Tohru. How did he even know that? Had Deidara mentioned it? Well he left out the part about how if his eyebrows weren't back by then, they'd never come back. "You could always ask Yaha for makeup tips to fake them," he joked.

He glanced over to Light's papers, trying not to be too nosy about it but he was always interested in what the detectives were working on. He was thinking he wanted to go into homicide himself, someday.

[cabbagecop]

"The countertop's going great! I'll invite you guys over to see when it's done, okay? We can have a proper dinner!" Adachi's bright grin returned again as he glanced over at Shikamaru. "And I guess I don't have to worry too much right now, then. Still, I think I'll do without the makeup."

He leaned over to peer over Light's shoulders at the papers, pressing close to the other so he could see better. "So what's our case this time? Anything interesting?" The grin widened a little. "Just ask me if you need any help, partner!"

[lazyish]

Shikamaru seriously hoped Tohru didn't mean that. The part about inviting him over for dinner. He glanced down at Tohru's cabbage-y lunch and fought the urge to shudder. Cabbage wasn't bad, just... moderation was needed. A concept Tohru seriously didn't get.

He sent another glance in Light's direction. Tohru was bugging him, right? It was hard to concentrate on work with someone loud always talking at you. That was why he never did his homework as a kid, heh. Yeah. Change of topic, steer Tohru away from the big kid stuff.

"Yeah," he sighed, a little loudly to distract away from Light. "You definitely don't wanna ask Yaha for anything. He'd take it as a proposal for marriage."

[cabbagecop]

"Hey, Yaha's not bad at all!" Adachi leaned back away from Light, turning to face Shikamaru instead. After all, Light seemed to mostly be ignoring him, which was more than normal. "She's really sweet. I've been cooking some food for her dog, hahaha!"

He paused to take another drink off his soda and another bite from the sandwich, clearly enjoying the taste.

[lazyish]

Oh man. Was Tohru being polite in an address someone by their chosen gender way or did he seriously not know? How long had he been working here? But this was Tohru, so... Argh, but he hated being the one to tell people. Half the time it meant turning someone's crush into someone's gay crush. Nobody liked that.

At least Light was here, so Shikamaru wouldn't get punched in the jaw. "Uh," he started awkwardly. "You know... You know Yaha's a guy, right?"

[cabbagecop]

Blink. Blink. Blink again. For a good five seconds that was all Adachi seemed to be able to manage, his hand still holding the sandwich in midair. The inner layer of cabbage slowly started to slide out, but he didn't seem to notice, just staring at Shikamaru and blinking rapidly.

Finally, though, he managed a weak chuckle of laughter. "Hahaha! Good joke, Shikamaru, but really, don't kid around with a man's heart like that! Like any man could look as good as Yaha does, really." He managed to put his sandwich back into place.

[lazyish]

Shikamaru was watching that cabbage. He couldn't really bear to see the heartbreak on Tohru's face. Oh god, Yaha had probably been the only "girl" to show interest in Tohru since high school. Or... ever. Maybe he should have kept his mouth shut. But this was Yaha they were talking about. Keeping silent meant something horrible was bound to happen sooner or later.

"I-It's not a joke," Shikamaru uttered with a visible wince. "Yaha's a guy. As in... male. Like, a cross-dresser? But definitely a guy." Don't ask how I know that for sure.

[cabbagecop]

"But... she... he... it looks so good!" Adachi protested loudly. "And isn't dressing in drag at work against some rule or another?!" It was clear in his expression that some dream or another had just died a particularly painful death. "And he... she... it likes me! Oh god..."

He buried his face in his hands, sighing heavily. "Oh god, I'm going to have to cancel the dinner plans, that's for sure... oh god..."