Night shifts are the worst.
Ashwin knew this the best. He stifled a yawn behind his hand as he squinted his eyes to keep himself awake. He sighed and sat up straight, turning his focus to the blaring screen of his computer. He stared at it for a moment, sleep taking over his senses again but was interrupted by the sharp ringing of the telephone.
He picked up the phone and shook his head, "Detective Lakshmikanthan."
"We have a 911 emergency call from downtown."
Ashwin sighed and got up, fixing his shirt he grabbed his gun holster and jotted down the location of the place. He sped off to the location, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. He pulled over to the location, spotting a red car parked by the highway. He parked on the opposite side, jogging across to see the situation. He glanced over and found no one. He went around the car and-
"Ah!"
A scream came from the front of the car abd Ashwin jerked. He looked over and saw a woman dressed in a red cocktail dress, black hair open and flying and awkwardly bent over the bonnet of the car.
"Um..Are you okay?"
The woman looked up at him and blinked, "Who are you?"
Ashwin pulled out his badge, "We got an emergency call from here."
The woman widened her eyes and rushed over to him, "Oh my god. Yes."
She took a deep breath abs looked at him intently, "I left my sunroof open accidentally over the night and now there's something in my car, and I'm scared."
Ashwin looked over to the car, "I don't see anyo-"
"It's a squirrel."
Ashwin whirled his around and stared at her like he didn't hear her properly, "I'm sorry it's a what now?"
She whispered in a mortified tone, "A squirrel."
Ashwin stared at her in disbelief. He suppressed a smile, "You want me to get out a squirrel from your car?"
The woman nodded like it was the most normal thing ever to happen at 2am on a Wednesday night. Ashwin looked around the car and said, "You called 911 for this?"
The woman nodded, "Listen. If you don't get that thing out, I'm not leaving for home."
Ashwin sighed, "Okay. Well I need you to open the doors so that I can go in."
She shook her head, "No no. I'm not doing that."
Ashwin looked at her, "Have you considered the possibility that if you opened the door, it might run out?"
She shook her head frightenedly, "Well what if it jumps on me and bites me?"
Ashwin flared his nostrils trying to suppress a giggle coming up his throat, "And that would he really horrible, wouldn't it!"
The woman nodded indignitatly, "Yeah! I don't wanna die on the streets!"
That was it for Ashwin and he burst out laughing. The woman blinked at him and exclaimed,
"Hey! You're supposed to be helping, not laughing!"
His laughter was so contagious however, that even she couldn't fight the smile that came into her face. He looked back at her, the smile on her face suddenly making a pleasant warmth pool on his stomach.
"Okay, okay. Sorry. I'll go through the very open sunroof but you need to open the door through the window. I'll get the little guy and lead him out through the passenger seat. Okay?"
The woman hesitated for a moment and Ashwin said, "Unless you want me to call a bunch of other cops and jam the entire highway."
She sighed, "Fine."
Ashwin hoisted himself up on the window and pushed himself onto the roof and hovered above the sunroof. He called to her, "You ready?"
A meek, "Yes!" came from the other side. He lowered himself into the car and looked around briefly and indeed found a brown squirrel huddled into the corner behind the passenger's seat.
Ashwin grunted as he moved to the squirrel. "Don't be scared." he mumbled, "You should be scared of the lady outside."
"I heard that!"
Ashwin smiled to himself and said, "Okay open the door."
The door swung open and the squirrel rushed out of the door and into the open fields beside the. The woman moved out of the way quickly not before letting out a small yelp.
Ashwin climbed out of the car, exhaling feel as he did. The woman looked him up and down, "Are you okay?"
He huffed, "Yes I'm fine. Squirrels are non lethal you see. Escaped the beast unscathed."
The woman rolled her eyes, "You never know what could give you a bite."
Ashwin raised an eyebrow, "Oh. Of course. That's why they have so many parks which have so many squirrels in them. Definitely wanted to risk a bite."
She glared at him but he could see an underlying smile underneath. She sighed and glanced over to the fields, "Well, thank you."
He smiled and shrugged, "That's what we're here for her. Catch the bad guys and bring out squirrels out of cars."
She looked at him and said, "Well. To make sure you don't have any other squirrel…" she trailed off looking for the right word.
"Injuries," she said and Ashwin laughed out loud at the thought.
"We could go out for coffee,"she finished with an exuberant smile.
Ashwin hummed teasingly, "Hm. I don't know how a coffee could tell you if I had any squirrel injuries."
She shook her head, "Well, I could spill coffee on you and that would require you to take off your clothes and you know…" she trailed off with a teasing smile.
Ashwin laughed, "Okay. Get an iced coffee though. You don't wanna burn me, do you?"
She smiled, "Wouldn't dream of it."
She held out her hand, "Sivaangi."
"Ashwin," he said with a vibrant smile. She let go of her hand and said, "My knight in shining armour."
He laughed and said, "Next time, close your damn sunroof."
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this is so bad and it's so short but i needed to write this to get it out of my system 😭
anyways, thank you so much for 100k reads on my one shots.
i really don't deserve half of it but im so glad people like it and it's the only thing that keeps me going to write. thank you guys so much for the love and support! ive said this before but i may stop writing ffs but ill never stop writing one shots.
drop any ideas you would want for one shots in the future! 🥰
thank you all for reading and leave a comment if you liked it!
love,
sai.
