Inside Your Mind

69 - Shinsou

Sometimes we talk all night long, we don't shut up

Kaori was knocking back drinks like there was no tomorrow. The truth was - who knew whether there'd be a tomorrow? All she knew was that she was in a shady bar with her favourite professor who she was absolutely crushing on and the press conference that they had been at earlier was being aired.

It had sucked getting torn apart live and in person, but seeing the whole thing again on TV? For some reason that sucked even more. But it was what they were airing right now and everyone was watching it. Everyone.

She was just hoping that the people in the bar wouldn't recognize them. Or if they did, that they wouldn't go and grill them about whatever they had said out there. Kaori was ready to completely crash right now. There were three things she wanted: more drinks, sleep and Aizawa.

Getting out of those stupid tights had been on her list as well, but she had done that already, right after the press conference was over. She was on her way out with Aizawa and while they had been waiting for the train she had taken off her shoes and peeled herself out of the tights.

She had been so sick of them that she didn't even care if anyone was staring. She threw them in the nearest trash bin, once they were off. There were a few people staring at her, but she was fed up with the world at that moment.

Even Aizawa had given her a funny look - brows quirked, a tiny smirk on his face ("What?" "Nothing. You've been dying to get out of those, haven't you?" "You noticed?" "You weren't exactly subtle about it.").

The way he had put his hand on the small of her back, so he wouldn't lose her in the train during rush hour was almost too much for her. This whole thing just didn't feel like a student - professor thing anymore. At this point they had been through too much together. Getting beaten to a pulp together, hunting down a serial killer, being in another terrorist attack, a horrible press conference...

It was almost like Kaori was meant to sit around in dingy bars with Aizawa for the rest of her life, drinking her troubles away, at least until the next morning. And she wouldn't even complain if that was the case.

She looked over at him, tie loosened up and the first button of his dress shirt unbuttoned now, his long, rough fingers tapping on a bottle of beer, staring off into the distance. His combed back hair looked more tousled now. He had tied some of it back into some sort of half-bun and it made him look even sexier than at the press conference. And he had already been a total snack back then.

When he walked in in that suit and with his hair combed back and a clean shave her breath had hitched. She was pretty sure, everyone had heard that, especially Natsuo, because he had given her a funny look. But then again, Natsuo had almost fainted just a few minutes earlier, so maybe that was what the funny look was about and she was just being paranoid, as usual.

She didn't think that he could ever look better, but here he was. God, when did this whole thing go from thinking her professor was kinda hot to constantly thirsting over him? Maybe she did need a rebound guy, as Uehara always said. (But Uehara had no idea that the guy she was rebounding from was Aizawa.)

But whatever - it might not matter anymore in a day or two. It seemed that Aizawa was very convinced he'd get fired from the university for this. And then - well, maybe a month or two after, maybe they could...

Who was she even kidding? Sure, he had said that during the training camp, but it was probably only to get her off his back, right? The only time something had ever happened between them was when they were both drunk. And right now they were well on the way to that point again.