Non-challenge: A Policeman's Tale (Day 49)
Title: A Policeman's Tale (Day 49)
Author: ytak
Word count: 1007
Rating (chapter): K+ (PG)
Rating (whole story): T (PG-13)
Comments: This chapter didn't come as easy as the last one but it wasn't too bad to write. 11 more chapters (or days if you will) until the end.
Other chapters can be read through here or here.
Day 49
The clock read 4:39 am. Takagi groaned and closed his eyes again. Only two minutes had passed since the last time he looked at the clock. The last half hour had been spent tossing and turning after he had a hard time getting to sleep.
A sigh escaped. He muttered to himself, “It's too early to get up and its too late to even think of going out.” He suppressed the urge to look at the clock. Again. He knew that less than a minute had probably passed thought it felt like a lot longer. He wished he could stop his thoughts from plaguing him.
He wanted to sleep. The whispers of thoughts and concerns did not allow to sleep well. Every time he closed his eyes, his mind would replay and twist what had happened the day before into something more strange and illogical.
With a frustrated noise, he climbed out of bed and walked to the kitchen, not bothering to turn on the lights. He grabbed a glass and filled it with milk before shoving it into the microwave for a few seconds. While it heated up, he rummaged around in the small pantry for some honey. Takagi wanted to sigh when he saw that the chunks in the jar that indicated the honey was all crystallized. He did not want to try heating it up because the last (and first) time he did, it created a mess and burning his hand.
He eyed the jar speculatively, “Hmmm, didn't I hear that it's still good even like this?” A moment later, he grabbed a spoon. The microwave beeped and he took out the mug, taking care not to burn his hands on the mug.
The crystallized honey was easier to scoop out of the jar than he thought it would be. It's kind of like digging up wet sand, he thought. He dropped it into the milk and stirred for a bit before taking a sip. He shrugged, It tastes all right.
He sat down at the table. There were a couple of piles on it. Though he could not read them in the dark, he knew each pile contained aspects of the case he was working on with Sato. The case was not as urgent as other cases he worked on but there was something about it that made him think about it constantly.
The previous afternoon crossed his mind. Remarkably, the dreams had not related to the impromptu meeting with MEgure, instead, focusing on the details of the case and all the little things that made the case seem off.
The meeting with Megure the afternoon before was something Takagi was trying not to think too hard about. Sometimes, he found it hard to predict the inspector. The man had a great number of cases and experiences under his belt and occasionally would do something that only made sense if a person considered his past. Taking what he knew into account, Takagi still did not correctly anticipate just the reaction that Megure had.
That led Takagi to wonder what happened that actually had Megure agree with their assessment of the situation and actually offer to put the evidence in a secure hiding place. Afterward, Takagi could tell that Sato was just as befuddled as Takagi was regarding the whole thing.
“I thought it would take more to get him to come around,” she observed.
Takagi frowned as they headed down to processing for the evidence they were not holding back (which he still did not like doing), “It's almost as if he knows something we don't know...,” he trailed off.
He had exchanged a look with Sato. Neither of them said anything.
Lightly shaking his head to clear his mind, Takagi gulped down the warmed and sweetened milk. Resolutely, he resolved to go back to bed and not cave into the urge to turn on the light and look through the files or think about the case in any form until he had to be up for work.
When he thought about it later, he was surprised that he actually did go back to bed without taking any time to look through the files. They seemed to have an almost magnetic pull on him when he was in the room.
Instead, Takagi thought about the soft bed waiting for him and he thought about drifting off to sleep. A yawn caught him unawares as he walked back the the bed.
Looks like the milk is doing it's job, he thought. The dark form of the bed looked very inviting and he took the invitation and climbed back into bed.
The next thing Takagi knew was that he was going to destroy his alarm clock. If he could reach it. The incessant beeping cut through the warm blanket of sleep. Sticking his hand out from under the warm sheets, he felt along the dresser, hitting it, trying to find the alarm clock. Groaning, he opened his eyes. Of course, he was hitting too far to the right. Groggily, he turned of the incessant beeping and rolled back over and closed his eyes.
Abruptly, he sat straight up. “I'm going to fall back asleep if I don't get up now,” he muttered to himself, dragging himself out of bed and to the bathroom for a quick shower to wake up.
Stepping straight into the tiny shower, he yelped as the cold water hit him. Shivering, he suppressed the instinct to leap out of there and forced himself to endure the temperatures as the water warmed up.
Eventually, Takagi staggered out of the bathroom and to the kitchen, where he grabbed a quick breakfast with enough sugar to make his teeth ache to give him some instant energy. Absently, he dug around in the refrigerator for some leftovers. Two containers passed the sniff test and he put them on the kitchen table with the files to take to work. Feeling the sugar rush come on, he moved back to his bedroom and dressed for the day.