Inside Your Mind

35 - Shinsou

Now if I keep my eyes closed he feels just like you

Kaori Shinsou woke up early in the morning in an unfamiliar bed. All she knew was that she hadn't been sleeping well (or long) at all. She looked to her side and swore when she saw who was next to her. What a fucking deja vu.

She grabbed her phone from the bedside table, careful not to make any movements that might wake him up and checked the time. 4:48 in the morning. Way too early to go to class, but way too late to head back home for some sleep. Maybe the best course of action would be to head back, shower, get all her stuff for university and study or something. Since she had been procrastinating that for so long.

But first of all she needed to check something. She pulled up the calendar on her phone and quietly sighed with relief. Only another few days until her period, so chances were she definitely wasn't pregnant. Kaori was on birth control and everything, but the few times she actually did hook up with guys, she was still extremely paranoid about getting pregnant against all the odds.

Moving as quietly as possible she got out from under the covers and gathered up her clothes that were dispersed all over the floor. She had to make a quick getaway without waking him up. And she knew that it would get difficult, because Tensei Iida was a very light sleeper. And if he woke up he'd want to talk and all that shit and Kaori just wasn't here for it. Not right now.

"Shinsou? What are you doing here?"

Kaori turned around, a surprised look on her face, as she heard the familiar voice of Tensei Iida.

"Oh, hey... uhm, I'm just out with my friend from university. What are you doing here is the real question?" Kaori asked. Out of everyone she hadn't expected Iida to be here. He wasn't exactly the kind of person to go out partying.

"I got a week's leave of absence from work after the whole Stain thing, even though I'm not written sick anymore. So I figured, maybe it was about time I got back out there and all. You know." he replied. Kaori nodded.

"I see. How's your leg doing?" she wanted to know. Iida gave her a slightly pained smile and shrugged.

"Well, I'm alive, but I don't think I'll be able to do any work out in the field anymore. I suppose they'll be locking me away in some office to take care of the paperwork." he answered. Kaori gulped. She knew that Iida had loved being on patrol and getting involved in police work. This had to be a hard blow for him.

"Shit. I'm sorry, Iida."

"Tensei."

"What?"

"You can call me by my first name. It's not like we're at work or something. And I hear you're leaving the Hosu department, too." he said. Kaori gave him a guilty look. With all the stuff that had been going on lately she hadn't even managed to call him about it and talk to him personally.

"Yeah. I was planning to head in one of these days and tell you, but I guess things have been a little crazy the last couple of weeks. But hey, it's not like I'm completely out of the world. I'll still come by for all the really tough cases." she tried joking, but she could only manage a tired smile.

She felt really guilty about this. Iida... Tensei was a good guy and he had been great as her boss and he really deserved to be told this personally. Shit, she hadn't even managed to find time to visit him in the hospital, because she was too caught up with her paperwork on the Stain case, Tsukauchi's offer, exams and whatever that whole thing with Aizawa was. Still... why did she have to be like this?