All work and no play
Title: All work and no play
Pairing: Ryo/Tegoshi
Rating: PG-13
Words: 1,980
Summary: The department forces Ryo into counseling for being a good Samaritan off the clock, isn’t bureaucracy hell? AU cop!Ryo
Notes: Look. I know that bananyphophany ’s birthday isn’t until the 20th, but I suck at waiting. And also at not telling. So I’m posting this, her actual birthday fic, early again. Because I have managed to keep it a secret. But not for long. Thanks to beltenebra for helping me find a direction for it.
“Just do it,” Yamashita pleaded, squeezing Ryo’s shoulder hard. “Two months or your job, it’s an easy choice, Ryo.”
Ryo shrugged him off. “It’s bullshit. What I did wasn’t wrong.”
“I know. I know it. But this is all bureaucracy. Just.” He sighed. “Just do it, ok?”
“Whatever.” He took two strides away before looking over his shoulder, eyes soft. “Sorry, Pi. I’ll catch you later, ok?” And then he was off again.
~*~
Tegoshi looked over the file, adjusting his glasses from where they’d slipped down a bit. He’d read it through last night but Nishikido was late and he had nothing better to do. He was just getting to Nishikido’s report of the incident again, handwritten by Nishikido himself, bold letters in a neatish, cramped script, when the secretary paged him.
“Your one o’clock is here.”
“All right. Send him in.”
Nishikido strode in, hands in the pockets of jeans so worn they looked soft to the touch, and Tegoshi stood and introduced himself with a bow.
“I’m Tegoshi Yuya.”
“Nishikido Ryo.” He pulled his hands out of his pockets to bow.
“Pleased to meet you.”
“Same. I’ve seen you before, though. In court. You’re on retainer, right?”
Tegoshi nodded.
“You’re a bit young for this aren’t you?” the man asked, sardonic grin in place, and he trailed the fingertips of one hand over the polished surface of Tegoshi’s desk.
“Please,” Tegoshi started, gesturing to a chair, “have a seat.”
Nishikido really grinned then and sat, relaxing back against the chair, and Tegoshi followed suit, folding his hands over Nishikido’s file before smiling brightly at him.
“I assure you I’m more than qualified for the services I will be providing.”
Nishikido snorted softly. “I’m sure.”
“I have to tell you that I will be recording our sessions. But also that I am required by law to keep our conversations private. So anything you say here will be in the utmost confidence.”
“Yeah, sure,” Nishikido said casually, waving his hand. “So. What’s the point of this? Are you going to cure me?”
Tegoshi sat back. “Do you have something you feel needs to be cured?”
Nishikido laughed at that, deep wrinkles appearing at the corners of his mouth. “Me? No, but apparently someone thinks so. Think you can cure me of my human decency?”
Tegoshi let his lips curve up at the edges. “How do you mean?”
“You’ve read the report,” Nishikido said, eyes falling to the file under Tegoshi’s hands. “Do you think what I did was wrong?”
“Well, I suppose that depends on whose version of the story was true, I suppose.”
Nishikido leaned forward, resting his hands on his knees, and laughed bitterly. “Mine, of course.”
“I believe you.”
Nishikido snapped his eyes up to Tegoshi’s.
“It’s not that the department doesn’t believe you, either - they may. It’s more an issue of covering their, excuse me, asses. I know it doesn’t help, really, but surely you understand that.”
“I just don’t see,” Ryo muttered, “why I have to be suspended for two months and have anti-crazy sessions. Saving a woman’s life sure doesn’t work the way it used to.”
There was a pause. “Tell me about what happened.”
“You read my report.”
“Tell me again…”
Tegoshi watched Nishikido leave, his shoulders slumped in frustration, and frowned. Law was so frustrating, often not protecting the weak and attacking those who tried to uphold it. Nishikido wasn’t a stellar officer, so his superiors said in the file, but he was a good one, reliable. Corrupted officials didn’t want any trouble and that’s what Nishikido had given them. They were counting on his guilty conscience to save them - guilt over causing them trouble? Tegoshi wondered snidely. Because he thought their priorities were skewed. But that was off the record.
~*~
Ryo sucked in a mouthful of noodles, left hand moving toward his beer before he’d even put his chopsticks down.
Yamashita watched him with a small smile. “Keeping your mouth occupied won’t work forever, Ryo.”
Ryo gave him his best “fuck you” face and took a deep drink.
“Well? How’d it go?”
Ryo sighed and stopped his chopsticks halfway up. “It’s called ‘doctor-patient confidentiality,’ jackass.”
“That well?” he asked with a smirk.
“It was fine, okay? Just three more sessions and I’m done and can get back to work.”
“That’s the spirit,” Yamashita muttered around a mouthful of pork.
~*~
“What are you doing with your time off work, Nishikido-san?”
“Taking long walks on the beach at night.”
Tegoshi’s lips twitched. “What beach?”
Nishikido raised an eyebrow at him then sighed. “I was joking. I’ve gone home to visit my family, my nephews and nieces. Gone out with friends. I have been walking but not anywhere in particular. I’m bored.”
He looks sad, Tegoshi wrote in the margins, his emotional response in the sidelines away from his professional analysis. Like he has no idea what to do with his world turned upside down.
~*~
“So. If you were presented with the same situation, what would you do?”
Nishikido looked up at him, searching. “Is this a trick question?”
“No.”
He folded his hands together and stared at them intently for a moment. “The same damn thing, so help me. “ He looked up. “I did the right thing. What? Should I have waited for him to kill her before I broke in?”
Tegoshi registered his quickened breathing and angry eyes, jotted something down, and looked up to see Nishikido watching Tegoshi’s hands.
“I did the right thing,” he said quietly.
You did, Tegoshi thought, but it wasn’t his opinion that counted.
~*~
Ryo followed Jin into a largish pub down the road from his place, Yamashita not far behind. The air was a little smoky, but not bad, and they sat down at a table, picking up the menus. Ryo only took a few seconds to decide and he put his menu down and watched a broad-shouldered, round-faced man at the billiards table make the most beautiful break he’d ever seen and then smile to match it. He tried to figure out if the petite person he was playing with was a girl or a boy - it was hard to tell when he was bent over the table like that - but the way he moved when he walked along the edge looking for his next angle told him it was a guy. He spent a couple minutes ogling him but stopped long enough to place his order.
“What’re you staring at?” Jin asked, peering towards the pool table. “Hot chick?”
“Hot dude?” Yamashita asked.
“Shut up.”
Jin and Yamashita looked at each other. “Definitely hot dude. I don’t see any chicks, do you?” Jin asked.
“Nope. 10 to 1 it’s the short one at the pool table. He doesn’t go in for chubby cheeks.”
Jin nodded. “I’ll put my bet on the tall blonde with the Asahi at the table next to it. Ryo loves him some long legs.”
Ryo studiously ignored them. But he did check out the long-legged blonde and they snickered.
They were halfway through their first beers when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
“Nishikido-san?” a familiar voice said, and he looked up into Tegoshi’s face. He looked different without his glasses. Younger, if that was even possible. “Ah! It is you! May I sit?” he asked, gesturing at one of the free seats before sliding in without waiting for a reply.
Yamashita pursed his lips a moment, obviously trying to place him. “Ah! Tegoshi-san. You work with the department sometimes, right?”
Tegoshi nodded and smiled. “Yep! And you’re… hang on. Don’t tell me. Yama…shita-san? Yes?”
“And this is Akanishi Jin,” Yamashita said.
“Pleased to meet you.”
Just then the round-faced man came up with two beers and a pleasant smile. “Tegoshi?”
Tegoshi tugged his sleeve until he sat down in the seat next to him. “This is my friend, Masuda Takahisa.”
Ryo grunted. “You play a nice game,” he said, jerking his chin toward the billiards table. Ryo thought Masuda smiled like he’d just given him a whole basket of chocolate.
They reintroduced themselves to Masuda and then Tegoshi started chatting with Akanishi about the soccer game last night and Ryo fidgeted nervously, waiting for someone to fit two and two together but no one did. At one point, while Masuda, Yamashita, and Akanishi were discussing the finer points of dark beers, Tegoshi put a hand on his thigh and looked seriously at him.
“Don’t stress,” he said, cocking his head to the side. “This isn’t work,” he added with a smile and wink before joining in the discussion.
Ryo was a little more relaxed, except for the way his thigh was tingling.
What was even more uncomfortable was the way he felt sitting in Tegoshi’s office a week later knowing he’d ogled the other man’s ass and he felt a blush creeping up his cheeks as he waited for Tegoshi to start the conversation.
“I’m sorry. I can tell you’re nervous. Did I cross the line last week?”
“N-no. No. I just…”
“Because I think it’s important to be able to distinguish the difference between work and play.”
“Are you trying to tell me that I need to learn to do that? That I’m in trouble because I couldn’t distinguish the difference between work and play before? Because I was off the clock?”
Tegoshi sighed and sat back. “No. I was just speaking generally, but do you think that’s a problem?”
Fifteen minutes before time was up, Tegoshi took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes, putting them back on carefully. “This is our last session. How do you feel about going back to work?”
“Can’t wait.”
“Are you worried about this happening again?”
Ryo set his jaw. “No.”
“Let me rephrase: Are you worried that you might be faced with the same situation again? I know you wouldn’t change the way you reacted to this case, but in another case?”
“I would do it again. Even if I lost my job, I’d do it again.”
Tegoshi smiled and stood, reaching his hand out and Ryo stood awkwardly and clasped Tegoshi’s hand, warm and dry against his own.
“Good luck. And,” he lowered his voice, “off the record, I have to say that I feel much better knowing that there are still cops like you, people like you, out there." Then he smiled and let go, leading Ryo to the door and letting him out.
Ryo left, taking the stairs all the way down and stopped outside the tall wooden doors. He took a deep breath and looked around. Free at last, free at last, thank god almighty, I’m free at last, he thought before stepping off. But he also felt a little disappointed.
~*~
“Welcome back!” Yamashita said, clapping him on the back when he entered the station.
“Thanks,” he replied with a grin. “Feels good. Damn, but I was so bored.”
“Workaholic.”
“Lazy ass.”
They beamed at one another.
He fell into the routine easily, promised himself to try not to take even his stupid paperwork for granted ever again. About noon, Yamashita dropped an envelope on his desk.
“Mail call,” he said, flipping through the rest of his pile and wandering off to pass some other things out.
Ryo turned it over in his hands, not recognizing the hand-writing on the beautiful lavender envelope. He slit open the top, properly using his letter opener for a change because the paper was so thick and shiny. Pulling out a heavy, cream-colored sheet, he read the short message as he unfolded it.
Welcome back! I hope you’re feeling less bored now that you have something to do. But if you’re still a little bored, you can take me out for dinner tonight. Learning to distinguish work from play and all that.
(^ ^)V
Tegoshi Yuya
093-7392-6295
Ryo sniffed, pondered a moment then smiled, picking up his cell phone. Surely using a little work time to schedule a little play time would be okay just this once.
Pairing: Ryo/Tegoshi
Rating: PG-13
Words: 1,980
Summary: The department forces Ryo into counseling for being a good Samaritan off the clock, isn’t bureaucracy hell? AU cop!Ryo
Notes: Look. I know that bananyphophany ’s birthday isn’t until the 20th, but I suck at waiting. And also at not telling. So I’m posting this, her actual birthday fic, early again. Because I have managed to keep it a secret. But not for long. Thanks to beltenebra for helping me find a direction for it.
“Just do it,” Yamashita pleaded, squeezing Ryo’s shoulder hard. “Two months or your job, it’s an easy choice, Ryo.”
Ryo shrugged him off. “It’s bullshit. What I did wasn’t wrong.”
“I know. I know it. But this is all bureaucracy. Just.” He sighed. “Just do it, ok?”
“Whatever.” He took two strides away before looking over his shoulder, eyes soft. “Sorry, Pi. I’ll catch you later, ok?” And then he was off again.
~*~
Tegoshi looked over the file, adjusting his glasses from where they’d slipped down a bit. He’d read it through last night but Nishikido was late and he had nothing better to do. He was just getting to Nishikido’s report of the incident again, handwritten by Nishikido himself, bold letters in a neatish, cramped script, when the secretary paged him.
“Your one o’clock is here.”
“All right. Send him in.”
Nishikido strode in, hands in the pockets of jeans so worn they looked soft to the touch, and Tegoshi stood and introduced himself with a bow.
“I’m Tegoshi Yuya.”
“Nishikido Ryo.” He pulled his hands out of his pockets to bow.
“Pleased to meet you.”
“Same. I’ve seen you before, though. In court. You’re on retainer, right?”
Tegoshi nodded.
“You’re a bit young for this aren’t you?” the man asked, sardonic grin in place, and he trailed the fingertips of one hand over the polished surface of Tegoshi’s desk.
“Please,” Tegoshi started, gesturing to a chair, “have a seat.”
Nishikido really grinned then and sat, relaxing back against the chair, and Tegoshi followed suit, folding his hands over Nishikido’s file before smiling brightly at him.
“I assure you I’m more than qualified for the services I will be providing.”
Nishikido snorted softly. “I’m sure.”
“I have to tell you that I will be recording our sessions. But also that I am required by law to keep our conversations private. So anything you say here will be in the utmost confidence.”
“Yeah, sure,” Nishikido said casually, waving his hand. “So. What’s the point of this? Are you going to cure me?”
Tegoshi sat back. “Do you have something you feel needs to be cured?”
Nishikido laughed at that, deep wrinkles appearing at the corners of his mouth. “Me? No, but apparently someone thinks so. Think you can cure me of my human decency?”
Tegoshi let his lips curve up at the edges. “How do you mean?”
“You’ve read the report,” Nishikido said, eyes falling to the file under Tegoshi’s hands. “Do you think what I did was wrong?”
“Well, I suppose that depends on whose version of the story was true, I suppose.”
Nishikido leaned forward, resting his hands on his knees, and laughed bitterly. “Mine, of course.”
“I believe you.”
Nishikido snapped his eyes up to Tegoshi’s.
“It’s not that the department doesn’t believe you, either - they may. It’s more an issue of covering their, excuse me, asses. I know it doesn’t help, really, but surely you understand that.”
“I just don’t see,” Ryo muttered, “why I have to be suspended for two months and have anti-crazy sessions. Saving a woman’s life sure doesn’t work the way it used to.”
There was a pause. “Tell me about what happened.”
“You read my report.”
“Tell me again…”
Tegoshi watched Nishikido leave, his shoulders slumped in frustration, and frowned. Law was so frustrating, often not protecting the weak and attacking those who tried to uphold it. Nishikido wasn’t a stellar officer, so his superiors said in the file, but he was a good one, reliable. Corrupted officials didn’t want any trouble and that’s what Nishikido had given them. They were counting on his guilty conscience to save them - guilt over causing them trouble? Tegoshi wondered snidely. Because he thought their priorities were skewed. But that was off the record.
~*~
Ryo sucked in a mouthful of noodles, left hand moving toward his beer before he’d even put his chopsticks down.
Yamashita watched him with a small smile. “Keeping your mouth occupied won’t work forever, Ryo.”
Ryo gave him his best “fuck you” face and took a deep drink.
“Well? How’d it go?”
Ryo sighed and stopped his chopsticks halfway up. “It’s called ‘doctor-patient confidentiality,’ jackass.”
“That well?” he asked with a smirk.
“It was fine, okay? Just three more sessions and I’m done and can get back to work.”
“That’s the spirit,” Yamashita muttered around a mouthful of pork.
~*~
“What are you doing with your time off work, Nishikido-san?”
“Taking long walks on the beach at night.”
Tegoshi’s lips twitched. “What beach?”
Nishikido raised an eyebrow at him then sighed. “I was joking. I’ve gone home to visit my family, my nephews and nieces. Gone out with friends. I have been walking but not anywhere in particular. I’m bored.”
He looks sad, Tegoshi wrote in the margins, his emotional response in the sidelines away from his professional analysis. Like he has no idea what to do with his world turned upside down.
~*~
“So. If you were presented with the same situation, what would you do?”
Nishikido looked up at him, searching. “Is this a trick question?”
“No.”
He folded his hands together and stared at them intently for a moment. “The same damn thing, so help me. “ He looked up. “I did the right thing. What? Should I have waited for him to kill her before I broke in?”
Tegoshi registered his quickened breathing and angry eyes, jotted something down, and looked up to see Nishikido watching Tegoshi’s hands.
“I did the right thing,” he said quietly.
You did, Tegoshi thought, but it wasn’t his opinion that counted.
~*~
Ryo followed Jin into a largish pub down the road from his place, Yamashita not far behind. The air was a little smoky, but not bad, and they sat down at a table, picking up the menus. Ryo only took a few seconds to decide and he put his menu down and watched a broad-shouldered, round-faced man at the billiards table make the most beautiful break he’d ever seen and then smile to match it. He tried to figure out if the petite person he was playing with was a girl or a boy - it was hard to tell when he was bent over the table like that - but the way he moved when he walked along the edge looking for his next angle told him it was a guy. He spent a couple minutes ogling him but stopped long enough to place his order.
“What’re you staring at?” Jin asked, peering towards the pool table. “Hot chick?”
“Hot dude?” Yamashita asked.
“Shut up.”
Jin and Yamashita looked at each other. “Definitely hot dude. I don’t see any chicks, do you?” Jin asked.
“Nope. 10 to 1 it’s the short one at the pool table. He doesn’t go in for chubby cheeks.”
Jin nodded. “I’ll put my bet on the tall blonde with the Asahi at the table next to it. Ryo loves him some long legs.”
Ryo studiously ignored them. But he did check out the long-legged blonde and they snickered.
They were halfway through their first beers when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
“Nishikido-san?” a familiar voice said, and he looked up into Tegoshi’s face. He looked different without his glasses. Younger, if that was even possible. “Ah! It is you! May I sit?” he asked, gesturing at one of the free seats before sliding in without waiting for a reply.
Yamashita pursed his lips a moment, obviously trying to place him. “Ah! Tegoshi-san. You work with the department sometimes, right?”
Tegoshi nodded and smiled. “Yep! And you’re… hang on. Don’t tell me. Yama…shita-san? Yes?”
“And this is Akanishi Jin,” Yamashita said.
“Pleased to meet you.”
Just then the round-faced man came up with two beers and a pleasant smile. “Tegoshi?”
Tegoshi tugged his sleeve until he sat down in the seat next to him. “This is my friend, Masuda Takahisa.”
Ryo grunted. “You play a nice game,” he said, jerking his chin toward the billiards table. Ryo thought Masuda smiled like he’d just given him a whole basket of chocolate.
They reintroduced themselves to Masuda and then Tegoshi started chatting with Akanishi about the soccer game last night and Ryo fidgeted nervously, waiting for someone to fit two and two together but no one did. At one point, while Masuda, Yamashita, and Akanishi were discussing the finer points of dark beers, Tegoshi put a hand on his thigh and looked seriously at him.
“Don’t stress,” he said, cocking his head to the side. “This isn’t work,” he added with a smile and wink before joining in the discussion.
Ryo was a little more relaxed, except for the way his thigh was tingling.
What was even more uncomfortable was the way he felt sitting in Tegoshi’s office a week later knowing he’d ogled the other man’s ass and he felt a blush creeping up his cheeks as he waited for Tegoshi to start the conversation.
“I’m sorry. I can tell you’re nervous. Did I cross the line last week?”
“N-no. No. I just…”
“Because I think it’s important to be able to distinguish the difference between work and play.”
“Are you trying to tell me that I need to learn to do that? That I’m in trouble because I couldn’t distinguish the difference between work and play before? Because I was off the clock?”
Tegoshi sighed and sat back. “No. I was just speaking generally, but do you think that’s a problem?”
Fifteen minutes before time was up, Tegoshi took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes, putting them back on carefully. “This is our last session. How do you feel about going back to work?”
“Can’t wait.”
“Are you worried about this happening again?”
Ryo set his jaw. “No.”
“Let me rephrase: Are you worried that you might be faced with the same situation again? I know you wouldn’t change the way you reacted to this case, but in another case?”
“I would do it again. Even if I lost my job, I’d do it again.”
Tegoshi smiled and stood, reaching his hand out and Ryo stood awkwardly and clasped Tegoshi’s hand, warm and dry against his own.
“Good luck. And,” he lowered his voice, “off the record, I have to say that I feel much better knowing that there are still cops like you, people like you, out there." Then he smiled and let go, leading Ryo to the door and letting him out.
Ryo left, taking the stairs all the way down and stopped outside the tall wooden doors. He took a deep breath and looked around. Free at last, free at last, thank god almighty, I’m free at last, he thought before stepping off. But he also felt a little disappointed.
~*~
“Welcome back!” Yamashita said, clapping him on the back when he entered the station.
“Thanks,” he replied with a grin. “Feels good. Damn, but I was so bored.”
“Workaholic.”
“Lazy ass.”
They beamed at one another.
He fell into the routine easily, promised himself to try not to take even his stupid paperwork for granted ever again. About noon, Yamashita dropped an envelope on his desk.
“Mail call,” he said, flipping through the rest of his pile and wandering off to pass some other things out.
Ryo turned it over in his hands, not recognizing the hand-writing on the beautiful lavender envelope. He slit open the top, properly using his letter opener for a change because the paper was so thick and shiny. Pulling out a heavy, cream-colored sheet, he read the short message as he unfolded it.
Welcome back! I hope you’re feeling less bored now that you have something to do. But if you’re still a little bored, you can take me out for dinner tonight. Learning to distinguish work from play and all that.
(^ ^)V
Tegoshi Yuya
093-7392-6295
Ryo sniffed, pondered a moment then smiled, picking up his cell phone. Surely using a little work time to schedule a little play time would be okay just this once.