Remnants in smouldered ashes

Chapter 15

"Is it alright, leaving him alone like that?"

Akane didn't flinch as she watched the surveillance camera footage on screen.

Karanomori smirked as she took a drag from her cigarette.

"Akane-chan, if you wanted to just watch him, wouldn't it be better if you just dropped by and visited him?"

The senior inspector blushed.

"Sorry," she said, "Am I hindering you on your work, Shion-san?"

"Not at all," the analyst casually replied. "Although might I mention a little something regarding what happened a little earlier on."

Akane felt her face warming up to her forehead.

Ah. That.

"Shion-san," she began. "That... I..."

"Don't worry," Karanomori winked, "I won't tell a soul. I'm more than certain that there's not much to see here or there for that matter."

Akane opened her mouth to thank her but the analyst then quickly added;

"But in exchange, now I'm not one who's against fraternizing between co-workers, but I'd like to ask: what are you going to do now that the two of you have reached some form of compromise?"

Akane smiled, understanding that the analyst was taking the extra measure of using subtle words, implying her new-found relationship between Akane and Ginoza.

"I'll be honest," the inspector confessed, "I never thought that I'd be in this situation. Neither one of us have. I don't know what's going to happen to us from this point onwards. I don't even know if what we have is even accepted in the current society we are living in. But even so, I don't believe that it's wrong at all."

Karanomori gave her a satisfied look.

"...Am I wrong for thinking like that?" Akane said hesitantly.

"You're asking me that after what you just said earlier?" the analyst playfully smiled. "If you are still uncertain, you could always talk to me. I even willing to think that even Saiga might give his take on it."

"Saiga-san, huh," Akane mused at the thought, "he would the first one to see through it even without telling him."

"There's no doubt about it," Karanomori laughed.

                          

Ginoza lay there on his bed, thinking back on what had just happened a few hours earlier.

The fact that not only did he find out that she loved him, and that she had kissed him and that she was in his arms gave him enough reason to lay awake instead of resting for the rest of the day.

The thought of it alone made him feel like an adolescent running high on raw emotions. The last time he felt this way was something he couldn't even remember.

Never thought this would really get to me, he sighed, trying to calm himself as he reflected on it.

It was a question of what happens next. Although he admitted that he hadn't felt so much joy in a long time from knowing that his feelings were reciprocated, he couldn't deny the doubt that was etched in his mind.

"What happens if they found out?" or "What kind of future would this relationship bring them?" These questions hovered over his head all the more each time the thought appears.

And then, he remembered the sight of her tears. And his desire of wanting to hold her close to him; in wanting to comfort her and become her support in many ways he could think of.