When The Storm Begins || Heikazu

When The Storm Begins

When Heizou heard that the Alcor was seen in the vicinity of the port of Ritou, he had a sincere desire not to appear at the Station at all. No one would probably be surprised anyway, Heizou almost never came to work when he should. Unfortunately, on that day he had a few reports to catch up with, without which Owada would've torn his head off. Well, not literally, but he wasn't in the mood to hear his complaining. So he suppressed that deep desire to wait at the city gate for a certain wandering samurai and headed for the Station.

As usual, he was greeted by Uesugi, who was just leaving for a patrol. Heizou couldn't remember the last time he entered the building and not bump into him, as if Uesugi had some kind of radar and was always there when the young detective was exceptionally about to check in. He decided not to pay attention to the looks his co-workers gave him, just sat down at his desk and got down to what he hated most in the world - paperwork.

He was focused for solid fifteen minutes before his thoughts started to wander away from the Station, not even thinking about his latest case. His mind revolved around Ritou, where a wandering samurai was probably on his way to Inazuma City. They hadn't seen each other in nearly five months, the last time Kazuha helped Heizou solve a case. It was a simple kidnapping, and he could perfectly handle it alone, but he couldn't resist the want to spend a few more hours with Kaedehara before the samurai had to head back to port to sail to Liyue.

If someone asked Heizou what he thought of Kaedehara, he would answer without hesitation that Kazuha is the type of guy you can rely on. That his senses and sensitivity to the language of nature help in the investigations. In his mind, he would dwell on how intriguing his poetic soul is, how his voice is always so soft and calming, and of course how Heizou always can't wait to catch Kazuha in the city, to get him to a restaurant and listen to new travel stories. Not to mention that he was unfairly handsome. The public will never hear about these things from his mouth, but he has long since admitted to himself that he was down for Kazuha. Very badly.

It's not like Heizou fell in love quickly. He was rather the type of man who liked to have fun from time to time, but his infatuations quickly passed. He always tried to treat the other side with respect, but he wasn't a fan of long-term relationships. In his personal opinion it was better not to get too attached - feelings disturb the sobriety of the mind. And then he met Kazuha. Heizou knew this feeling, when someone interested him, made an impression. In most cases, such situations ended as a casual hook-up, gave him some excitement and were momentarily fun. However, with Kaedehara, the situation quickly became more complicated.

The more they worked together, the more Heizou wanted to spend time with Kazuha outside of just formal discussions and investigations. As the months passed, he started eagerly awaiting the samurai's return to Inazuma every time he was away for longer than a month or so. Not once did he invite him to the Tenryou Commission though, preferring to arrest him somewhere in the city for fun, and then quickly solve the case and spend the rest of the time listening to stories from across the ocean over food and a light drink. It was their ritual, friends always had these, right? They knew each other well enough to consider each other friends, so to speak, that was the official, public status of their relationship.

But that didn't stop Heizou from wondering if, for example, one day he got Kazuha drunk so that the next day he wouldn't remember what happened and tried to kiss him, would the world end? Or maybe Kazuha's lips would turn out to be as soft as the rest of him? Of course, this will never happen, Heizou had the basic resources of morality. But no one was limiting his imagination, so at times he let himself get carried away a little (or more than a little), and then he would wake up from his daydream only to realize that there were unfinished reports in front of him, and for the last hour he had been fantasizing instead of working, and now he would have to stay in the Station even longer than he intended.