[closed to tarted]

[inabas_finest]

Nanako was a good kid. Sweet, earnest. She was self-sufficient, able to take care of herself – hell, probably better at taking care of herself than Ryotaro was at taking care of himself, especially in the wake of his wife's death. All he'd ever been good for around the house was making coffee.

It broke his heart a little, coming home to find her curled up in front of the TV, waiting for him to get home. It was a small town, but police work meant long hours anyway – especially with the extra hours he put in, trying to solve his wife's case.

He'd felt a little torn, hiring a baby sitter. Nanako had always taken care of herself, but his friend from work was right; just because she could take care of herself didn't mean she should have to. Nanako had been fairly shy, but had started to come out of her shell, following his nephew living with them for the better part of a year. He and his friends had been a good influence on her, in the end.

What decided it was the glowing reviews he got from everyone he asked. Of course, it was just a trial run, really, but he was hoping it went well.

It didn't entirely catch him off-guard that his coworkers 'surprised' him by taking him out to drinks that night – he was a detective and it was his birthday. He figured that was more likely than not why they'd pushed the babysitter idea.

Finally, though, a few drinks in him, he made his way home, trying not to make too much noise as he came through the front door, in case Nanako was already asleep. Reaching up, he loosened his tie. It had been a good time, in retrospect, but he was glad to be home.

Comments

[inabas_finest]

For a brief moment, catching sight of Alex, the way she posed herself took him back to when he was a younger man, her age. What he'd have done then, coming home to find her waiting for him. That was probably the beers talking, though, he chided himself. Pretty girl like her, hard to imagine she wouldn't have her pick of the boys her age, all of them wrapped around her finger.

When she brought up Nanako, though, that pulled him out of his own head, and a wry, rueful smile tugged at his lips. "Wish I could say she got that from me. Good kid," he added, the abundance of warmth and fondness towards his daughter apparent in his words. He knew he was rubbish at this, at being a father, but she meant the world to him.

Honestly, he would have been surprised if Nanako had given Alex any trouble, but, still, it was a relief to hear things had gone well, at least on Alex's end. He hoped that Nanako felt as positively about it when they talked about it at breakfast tomorrow. He hoped her shy side hadn't gotten the better of her.

"Thank you. I appreciate this. Is there anything I can get you?" he asked, pulling out his wallet. "Coffee? Fare for the cab home?" He'd have offered to give her a lift, but, well... he had enough to drink that was a bad idea, but was still clear-headed enough to know that was a bad idea. She could walk, small, quiet neighborhood like this, but given the mysterious murders last year, anyone, let alone a girl her age as pretty as her (he was still thinking about that, wasn't he?), might play it safe, even if the murderer had been caught. Either way, it was abundantly clear he hadn't done this sort of thing much, didn't have a protocol for how to interact with a babysitter just yet.

[tarted]

"I'd love some coffee, if you're having one." Alex slid slowly to her feet, letting her skirt ride a few inches higher up -- nothing too overt, not yet, she can tell she's going to have to soft-sell him. The regular who'd hired her had called him 'too decent for his own good.' "I might still have a long night ahead of me."

She smiled prettily at him, smoothing back her artfully disheveled hair and giving him another good angle on the curve of her breasts under the top of her sundress. The obvious awkwardness was cute, honestly, but she wasn't surprised his friends had to resort to getting him laid by stealth. It was always the sincere ones who had trouble just reaching out and taking what they wanted.

"And you look like you want to get off your feet," she added, giving him a subtle up-and-down. "If you don't mind my saying so. Why don't I make the coffee, and you can sit down and relax? I do this all the time when I'm at my dad's place."

That was actually true -- since her parents had split up the year before, she'd gotten used to playing housekeeper on her occasional visits to her dad's apartment. It wasn't as though either of her siblings had the time on their hands, after all, and Alex supposed she was just good at giving people what they wanted.

[inabas_finest]

"Coffee, then." Still, his eyes lingered on Alex a little longer than entirely appropriate for a client and a babysitter. It wasn't like it was the first time he'd seen a girl her age in a skirt that short, but the thought crossed his mind all the same what he wouldn't have given to see girls wear skirts like that when he was her age. Briefly, he wondered why she was wearing a sundress that short on a night she would only be seeing him... No, he chided himself, she might be going to go see her boyfriend after this. This wasn't any way for someone his age to be thinking about a young woman like her. Maybe not old enough to be her father, but a young-ish uncle, certainly.

"You're not wrong," he admitted, still half-smiling. "And if it was anything else, I'd take you up on that. But when I'm home, I serve the coffee." There wasn't a trace of unkindness in his words, but at the same time, there was a clear certainty in his words. He wouldn't be budging on this, and Alex might see the faintest hint of the man he was on the job.

"Thank you, though. So, how do you take it?" There was a story behind it, of course. Half a promise, half a habit. In a way, he'd come to find making coffee relaxing, comfortable. But even a little tipsy, talking about a promise he made to his dead wife wasn't a subject he'd touch without being prompted.

[tarted]

"Then I guess your wish is my command," Alex said, giving him another smile -- there was definitely something under that reaction, but she was pretty sure he'd shut down if she started poking at it right away. "I'll have just a little milk in mine. I got so fat this winter and I'm still trying to lose it."

That was a flat-out lie -- she put a lot of effort into keeping her body tight but curvy year-round, and if he was watching the way she thought he was, he'd already know that. But it never hurt to get the subject out there as soon as possible, or to get him to really look.

And as she slipped past him into the kitchen, she was pretty sure he couldn't help but notice the results of all her hard work.

"Can I get the cups down, at least?" she asked, showing him her sweetest wide-eyed look. "I feel so bad letting you do all the work. I'm here to take care of things for you."

[inabas_finest]

"Is that so?" He raised an eyebrow when she fibbed, but despite giving her another quick once over, Ryotaro went back to making the coffee without saying anything more on the subject.

"No harm in that. Mugs are up there, second shelf," he said, pointing the cabinet out to her. Getting the cups down, Alex had her back to him for a moment, but when she turned back to him, it was clear he'd been watching her with startling intensity, his eyes sharp, clear, his expression unreadable. If she wanted to get him to look, well, she'd certainly succeeded. It might have even felt like that piercing gaze was undressing her. His gaze might have felt as palpable as his skin against hers would have felt. "I don't believe you," he said, his voice, his tone and inflection giving nothing away, his police detective showing... until he broke into a friendly grin.

[tarted]

She had to stretch onto her toes to reach the mugs down, giving her a perfect opportunity to bend forward a little and show off the backs of her thighs where her sundress pulled up. She could feel his eyes raking over her, studying her body, and it made her shiver a little and rock on her toes before she turned to meet that look.

Well. More than promising.

"I don't know what you mean," she says, giggling a little and -- why not -- setting the mugs down on the counter by her side so that she could hoist herself up to perch on the edge of it, her bare feet swinging. "What don't you believe? Because I was a little fatass by the time Christmas was over, trust me."

[inabas_finest]

He made no effort to conceal his incredulity, but chuckled quietly all the same, a smirk tugging at the corners of his lips. "That's your story and you're sticking to it, huh?" In the back of his head, a voice wondered what she was up to. What reason did she have to lie to him about something as trivial as that? But the truth was, he was enjoying the back and forth a little too much to pay too much mind to that nagging question.

He crossed the kitchen in a few strides, closing the distance between them. He didn't look at the mugs when he reached for them, no, his eyes never left her. "Didn't say what I didn't believe. You singled that out yourself," he pointed out. "Bad habit to get into, lying to the police."

[tarted]

"Why would I be lying?" Alex purred, preening a little under his close focus. "Unless I was just fishing for compliments, and why would I do something like that?"

Now, with any other client, would be the time she reached out and grabbed his cock -- but his friend had told her not to come on too strong, and for God's sake not to let on that she was being paid for sex. The risk of straight-and-narrow cops, she supposed.

"Maybe you should haul me down to the station and put the cuffs on me," she added: that should do just about as well.

[inabas_finest]

Dojima didn't have the whole picture, but he'd have to have been willfully dense not to know Alex was flirting, that he was only encouraging her. He knew better, of course. Even if she wasn't serious, he shouldn't encourage this kind of behavior. But the truth was, he was enjoying it, too... and it was just flirting, so what was the harm in it?

"Took the words right out of my mouth." With lines like those, she had to have the boys her age eating out of her hand. It didn't cross his mind that she had men twice her age, men his age, eating out of her hands, too.

As for why... well, he hadn't gotten to the bottom of just what was motivating her, not yet, but if you wanted to intrigue a detective, you gave him a mystery to solve, and he'd fallen for it, hook line and sinker.

When she brought up handcuffs, he had to lift a brow, smirking. "You use that line on all the cops?" By now, the coffee was ready, but he didn't move, didn't take his eyes off her.